Chapter Text
The final week has begun, the final week before Marco can finally return to the Moby, return to his brothers and father. The closer he got to the date, he couldn’t help but sing happily. It didn’t help that everything had finally gotten better for him and his partner! After the fiasco a few days ago, they managed to find enough food to work comfortably and the weather had been nice and balmy. Although, despite not saying it out loud, Marco could see that she was horribly confused at the lack of scarring from the wound she had received that day.
All in all, everything was going very well.
Marco had even managed to start flying again!
Soaring above the small island, Marco couldn’t help but muse how easy it would be to simply leave to find the Moby Dick.
Yet he couldn’t bring himself to.
No, he would wait until he was finally finished growing. Fortunately, he wasn’t that far off but he still had to wait…
Happily flying just over the treetops, Marco looked down in between the trees, searching for his partner. She was supposed to be hunting for food right now but as of recently, she’s been acting strangely.
‘Where could she be?’ pondered the first commander. ‘Perhaps she is back in the cave, yoi,’ turning mid-air, Marco quickly flew to the cave where they were finally able to move into the new cabin a few nights ago.
Upon getting a closer look to the cave, Marco was relieved to see her sitting at the mouth of the cave, watching him from down below. However, the dejected, sad look on her face made Marco pause.
‘Why does she look so sad?’ wondered the commander as he landed gracefully down in front of her, the beating of his wings kicking up some dust in the process. Approaching her, Marco let out a low and soft coo and tilted his head in question. To which, she only smiled sadly before looking down at the meaningless doodles she was drawing in the dirt.
“Ya know Blue, you’ve gotten really good a flying,” she looked back up at him. “Much better than how you used to flop around before,” she giggled at that, Marco gave her an unimpressed look. “But, Maybe it’s time for you to be thinking about leaving the island,” her tone wavered slightly as she swallowed heavily.
‘Ah, so that's what this is about, yoi,’ Marco found himself thinking. ‘Sorry, your not getting rid of me that easily,’ without so much as a sliver of doubt, the phoenix moved towards her.
“Come on, Blue. Don’t make this any harder for me!” she exclaims as she pushes him away gently. “You’re gonna leave eventually,” she whispered softly under her breath, it was then that a few tears rolled down her cheeks. Not having any of this, Marco extended his wings outwards and gently framed her face. Leaning forward, Marco gently presses his forehead against hers, cooing softly all the while.
Surprised by this, she froze up before relaxing and hugging Marco to her. They stayed there like that for a few moments, then when they parted, she smiled at him.
“Thank you, Blue,” then she looked away sheepishly. “I’m sorry for snapping.”
In reply, Marco simply chirped happily, to let her know that it was okay.
“You really are a strange bird, I swear you act like a human sometimes,” she jokes, yet Marco found himself chuckling internally.
‘If only you knew,’ he chuckles.
The rest of the days were spent in relative peace, aside from the few attacks from the tiger, to which Marco was quick to put an end to by simply glaring the tiger into submission. With each day, the Phoenix found himself growing stronger and stronger as he was able to manifest his flames more and more but only for small increments of time.
Until the morning of the final day…
Nesting where he usually did by his partner, Marco woke to the familiar building feeling in his chest that grew hotter and hotter with each moment. Snapping awake, the phoenix looked down at his chest to see a few flickers of his flame before finally it exploded outwards in a brilliant blaze of teal and gold flames.
Woken by the abrupt flash of light, _____ recoiled from him and let out a gasp of surprise as she covered her eyes to prevent herself from being blinded.
Feeling the power radiate throughout his entire body, Marco couldn’t help but coo in relief as he no longer felt weak or vulnerable anymore. Extending his wings outward and upwards, he took a moment to enjoy the renewed power thrumming through every atom of his being. He was brought out of his moment by the sound of a small gasp from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Marco looked back to see his partner staring at him with wide surprised eyes.
“Wow,” she murmured under her breath, the Commander couldn’t help but preen under her admiring gaze. “So, pretty~!”
Smirking to himself, Marco fully turned around to her and was finally able to return to his human form. With a lazy smirk still in place, Marco watched with glee as her eyes went even wider, the reality of what was happening for the past month finally dawning on her.
“Hey,” Marco greeted calmly.
“WHAT?!” she exclaimed. “Wait, the fire, the chest mark, the healing?! WHY DIDN’T I FIGURE IT OUT?!” It was then that she quickly scrambled to her feet, on full guard in the presence of such a powerful pirate. “YOU’RE FUSHICHOU MARCO!! OF THE WHITEBEARD PIRATES!!”
However, Marco couldn’t help but chuckle softly as she had her freakout, completely unphased. “I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out either, yoi.” He took this moment to simply enjoy being in his normal body.
“W-wait! I’m confused! Why were you a tiny birdy?!” she paused in her freak out, her hands gently pulling at her hair at the stress of this revelation.
Simply shifting his weight from one foot to another, he began to calmly explain. “It’s a side effect of my Akuma no mi. After a certain amount of time, I am reborn but for about a month, I am weak and vulnerable,” It was then that he approached her, after seeing her start to relax. “So, thank you for taking such good care of me,” he calmly smiled down at her as he gently took her hands in his own larger ones.
“Oh, uh, no problem,” she quietly replied, seemingly at a loss at this sudden turn of events.
“Now then,” Marco crossed his arms over his chest and smiled down at her. “How can I ever repay you? Hmm, How about I take you away from this place?”
“Take me? Take me where?” She asks.
“To the Moby Dick, of course. I know Pops would love to meet you,” Marco extends his hand towards her. “Unless you want to stay her-”
“No! Please, I don’t want to stay here any longer!” she cut him off. The fact that she now has a way off the island, an island that she thought was gonna be her tomb, made her cry tears of joy. Knowing that they had both seen each other at their most vulnerable, it wasn’t an awkward affair as Marco simply embraced her and whispered calmly in her ear that everything will be alright, something he’s been doing since the beginning.
“It’s alright, you’ll never be alone ever again,” Marco rubbed her back soothingly as she cried into his chest for a few moments. “I promise.”
When she had finally gotten herself together, the first division commander told her to get her things together, because they were gonna leave immediately. Marco wanting to be with his crew as soon as possible and she just straight up didn’t want to be on this island any longer.
Then after everything was ready, the two set off into the sky to find the Moby Dick.
Although, much to everyone’s surprise, it was just leaving one of the closest islands to the one that they were on.
As they approached the ship, they could hear voices coming from it and soon, the entire crew was on the deck, cheering loudly at the sight of their first commander. However, some stopped upon seeing someone on his back.
Landing on the figurehead of the Moby Dick, Marco carefully let her off his back before they were swarmed by the crew in a matter of seconds. While, some gave her a curiously look, most people were focused on the return of their first division commander. Marco didn’t even have a second before a rather disheveled Thatch was barreling through the crowd and tackling the zoan user to the floor, earning a round of laughs from the crew.
Staying back somewhat from the group, she watched the scene unfold as more and more people came forward to welcome the first division commander back.
It was only when Marco reached out to her and lead her across the deck that anyone really paid attention to her, some teased Marco, asking him if she is his new girlfriend, earning a rude gesture from the Phoenix zoan.
She just laughed the entire time.
It was then that she followed Marco into a clearing on the deck and before she knew it, she was standing before the Strongest Man on the Sea, Edward Newgate.
“It’s good to see you back, son,” he welcomed them.
“It’s good to be back, Pops yoi,” returned Marco.
“Who is that behind you, son?” Whitebeard nodded his head towards the young woman who was hiding behind Marco.
“Pops, this is _____, she took care of me during my rebirth,” the first commander pulled her out from behind him, causing her to startle some what. Yet the encouraging smile from Marco calmed her down, cautiously she looked up at the mighty pirate captain before her.
To which Whitebeard merely smiled down at her before letting out a deep rumbling laugh. “Good to meet, _____,” leaning back in his seat, Whitebeard grabbed a hold of a huge barrel with one hand and took a deep swug from the contents. “Now then, Everyone lets throw a party for the return of our First Division Commander!” an roar of cheers erupted from the crew and soon everyone was in motion, getting ready for the impromptu party.
“Is it always like this?” she turned to Marco, to which he only smiled and nodded his head in reply.
Moments later the two of them were fully immersed in a full blown party. As the party went on ____ got to meet all of the commanders and most of the crew came up and offered their thanks for taking care of Marco, one commander with an impressive pompadour actually hounded her for any stories of their brother during his rebirth.
To which, the phoenix zoan always somehow managed to interject and derail the story.
As the party went on, _____ felt herself slowly growing tired and overwhelmed by the stimulation of being around so many new people after years of isolation. So, she politely and quietly extracted herself from the merry making and went to hide around the back of the ship.
After a few moments to herself, she finally noticed that she had company, it was Thatch. Now, looking much better that Marco was home.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked quietly, the cook figured that being around so many people was bound to cause a little bit of shock for her. “I know that it must be alot for you to be around us but if it’s okay I’d like to say thank you,” he trailed off slightly.
The young woman looked over at him curiously. “For what?”
“For looking after my brother and bringing him back to us,” he stated simply.
“Oh,” she blinked at him before looking back out towards the party. “Should we head back?”
Thatch nodded his head in agreement before he moved towards the where the party was currently going on. “Yeah, we should. Plus Pops wants to talk to you,” ____ raised her brow at that as they headed back to the party.
When they walked back to the main deck area, Thatch lead her back to the center of the deck, where she was previously to properly address Whitebeard. With Marco sitting on the arm of his chair, Whitebeard smiled down at her when she looked up at him, pleased that she didn’t cower away from him like before. With Thatch taking his place among the other commanders, Whitebeard finally addressed her once more.
“_____, For taking such good care of Marco, I thank you,” Whitebeard cast a fond look to his first son. “Take my name, bare my mark and,” he stated firmly. “Become my daughter!”
Surprised by this sudden invitation, her eyes widened as she looked up at Whitebeard before looking over at the encouraging smile that Marco was giving her. After a second of quiet, the crowd erupted into eager whoops, urging her to accept the offer.
To which, she happily accepted.
With that, the party went back into full swing, this time in celebration of their new sister.