A Black Heart Does Not Always Stay Black

Wishing To Stay

Marco walked through the ship to go to find a very heavy book, finding an encyclopedia in the library and putting the little flowers inside, weighing the book down by sitting a second book on top. The first mate couldn't help but be angry.

How could anyone manipulate a child who was deep down like this, into a killing machine? It was sick. If it was an adult, it was bad enough, but Luffy had been raised to be a weapon up until he was eight years old. It was sickening and Marco wished he could go back in time and make everyone at that place suffer.

He walked straight to the kitchen, where Thatch was washing the containers and utensils at the picnic. He looked up at his best friend and brother. "Thatch, we need to go someplace private," Marco said in a clipped voice. Thatch worried he was in trouble about something, but agreed and followed Marco into the strorage room away from bedrooms or recreational rooms.

"What's wrong, buddy?" the chef asked nervously.

"How the fuck could anyone manipulate Luffy into a killing machine?! How could he think he was so broken? How could a little boy who picked us flowers ever fall into peoples' hands like that?! How could they damage him?! Who would do that?! I want to go back and kill them, torture them for doing that!" he ranted and raved.

Thatch frowned, becoming angry, too.

"When I was at that place, the boss, whatever the fuck-head's name was, told Luffy I was going to hurt his brothers. Caused him genuine distress and anger just to make me upset. Then, he took Ace in and said that, if I didn't call Pops, he'd kill Ace and leave him for me to look at and feel guilty," Marco growled. "It's not just Luffy that's damaged."

Thatch was furious that any child would be treated like that, both Luffy and Ace's stories. "They brainwashed Luffy. He thought they cared about his brothers because he did. They were only there because Luffy would have killed anyone who hurt them. They were like, like, pet brothers!" Marco actually punched the wall, leaving a hole. Thatch was shocked, never, ever seeing Marco like this.

When Teach betrayed, Marco was pissed, but he wasn't like this. Thatch felt almost unsafe in the room with him like this. But, he needed to be calmed down.

"That's why we're here, to help them," he said softly, hoping it would rub off on Marco. It just made him angrier.

"Oh, yeah and we're doing a great job! One murder attempt and our head nurse telling Luffy that, as a psychopath, he couldn't be fixed! We're making things worse! On the surface, we're doing them well, but we keep FUCKING UP!" Marco ranted, flaring up into his blue flames.

Thatch put his hands up. "Marco, calm down. You won't think straight being this angry. Don't destroy more of the room," the chef said, a bit sternly but also softly. "What Teach did was not us, it was a defected 'brother' who would betray us with or without finding Luffy. I can't speak for Whiskey. I really can't, I don't know how she could be so tactless to him."

"Thatch, I want them to stay, but I'm worried we'll just make things worse. I really like all three, but those on our crew have hurt Luffy. And by default, hurt his brothers as well," Marco stressed. He adored them, and wanted to help, but was feeling doubt about their ability to do so. No one had even been in this situation on their ship before.

"And they could choose to stay. They've forgiven us for Teach, and Luffy forgave Whiskey, though I don't think Ace or Sabo have. We gave them a home. He wrecked one of our bedrooms from a nightmare and we gave him another one and are trying to help him overcome his trauma. We're doing the right thing, we've just had two major slip ups," the chef said. He put his hand on Marco's shoulder, grounding him.