In the deafening silence that follows Luffy's words, Elijah notices that the partying has ground to a halt around them.

Zoro and Nami have stopped drinking, Usopp's avid audience has stopped listening to his tall tales, and even Marco has poked his head out of the crow's nest, expression worried.

Luffy doesn't look at any of them, his gaze still glued to the ground, tears overflowing onto his cheeks. Elijah wants to comfort him, to tell him that it wasn't his fault, but he's so out of his depth, and he has no idea what to say to make things better.

He reaches out, to do what, he doesn't know, but before he can find out a pair of arms sprouts from Luffy's shoulders and Elijah startles backwards.

The two hands cup Luffy's cheeks, tilting his face upwards and wiping his tears away with gentle fingers.

Luffy doesn't look at all surprised about the extra appendages, but when they disappear in a flurry of flower petals, his lips quirk into a small smile.

"Sometimes people make promises they can't keep," says a gentle voice from behind them, and Elijah turns to see Nico Robin approaching, her expression gentle.

The meagre smile drops from Luffy's face at her words, but she continues before he can say anything.

"Sometimes, they need a little help from us, to keep from breaking those promises," she tells him, combing her fingers through Luffy's hair.

"They need our help?" asks Luffy, looking up at her in confusion, and she smiles back down at him, her eyes closing.

"That's right," she says, continuing to card her fingers through her captain's hair as he gradually relaxes into her touch. "After all, Ace-san and Whitebeard-san can't truly die as long as we remember them. Isn't that right, captain-san?"

Luffy seems to consider her words, as does the rest of the crew, and after a moment, he nods solemnly. "That's right."

Elijah stares, amazed at how easily she had been able to cheer her captain up, and wonders who it was that had looked at her once upon a time, and thought to call her a devil child.

People are still staring at the two of them, still a bit worried and unsure if it is alright to return to partying.

But then Luffy turns his big bright smile upon them, and it's nearly impossible not to smile back.

The noise gradually picks back up around them, and instead of returning to who knows what she had been doing before, Robin hooks her arm through her captain's and leads him into the fray.

Elijah hangs back at first, not wanting to interrupt the two and still very much caught up in his memories, but before he can get too down in the dumps, Luffy turns his head 180 degrees to look back at him.

Seeing that Elijah hadn't followed them, his lips pull into a small frown before he reaches out and latches onto Elijah's hand, pulling him over with a laugh.

Elijah lets himself be dragged over, and feels a heavy burden lifted off his shoulders as it really hits him that he finally, finally has a captain again.

The next week passes in the blink of an eye as the new Straw Hats integrate slowly into their new crew, and before Jinbe even realizes it, it's the night before they're to set off for Fishman Island.

Truth be told, when he had first set out to reunite with Luffy and the others, he had expected not to return home for quite a long time.

However, in many ways he is quite happy with how events have unfolded – King Neptune's words about wanting to fly the Straw Hats' jolly roger, and the more Jinbe mulls them over, the more he finds himself wanting it as well.

"Jinbe!"

Startling out of his thoughts at the sound of his name, Jinbe turns to see Chopper running up to him with a wide grin on his face.

"Zoro and the others are done, so it's our turn in the bath!" the young doctor chirps excitedly, taking Jinbe's hand and tugging him towards the bathroom.

Jinbe doesn't have the heart to tell him that, as a fishman, he doesn't need to bathe as often and in the same way as humans. Baths, he has learned in his time with the Straw Hat crew, are meant to be a time of bonding and relaxation.

And as soon as he and Chopper arrive at the bathroom with their things, he realizes why he had been put in with this particular group.

Luffy and Marco's clothes have already been strewn across the floor, and Jinbe stoops to pick them up with an exasperated sigh, throwing them into the laundry hamper next to the mirror before disrobing himself.

By the time he and Chopper enter finally enter the bathhouse, Marco is using the showerhead to rinse the shampoo out of Luffy's hair, and Jinbe is relieved they had the good sense to wait until he arrived before entering the bathtub.

Even the Sunny's spacious bathroom seems cramped with the four of them squeezed in there, but it can't be helped. After a prior incident that no one is willing to tell Jinbe about in detail, it had become a steadfast rule in the Straw Hat pirates that devil fruit users must always bathe with at least one non-devil fruit user present to help them in case of emergency.

"Hey Jinbe!" greets Luffy, voice almost lethargic.

Marco looks up, nodding at them in greeting, before turning off the showerhead, and slicking back his own damp, blonde hair.

"Ready to get in the tub, captain?" he asks, and Jinbe can't help but raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"Sure thing, Marco!" the young captain replies cheerily, and Jinbe comes to the amusing realization that they must have come to some kind of agreement about the whole name thing.

Abandoning the little wooden stool, Luffy hops over to the tub to pull back the cover, looking slightly disappointed when he realizes the water isn't hot anymore.

"Maaarrrrcccooooo!" whines the teenager, turning wide, pleading eyes on his crewmate.

"How many times do I have to tell you my flames don't have any heat?" bites out Marco, punctuation the last four words with pokes to Luffy's forehead. "They're just for healing my wounds! Now stop being such a baby and get in the water, captain! It's still pretty warm!"

Luffy does as told, grumbling all the while, and Jinbe turns away from the scene with an amused smile, gratefully accepting human Chopper's offer to wash his back.

Sullenly ignoring Marco's warnings to keep his arms moving so the water doesn't become stagnant and sap all their strength, Luffy turns and hooks his chin over the side of the tub, watching as Chopper helps Jinbe wash his back and shampoo his thick, curly hair.

And then, as the fishman begins helping Chopper brush out all his loose fur and gently shampoo the rest of it, a sudden thought strikes Luffy.

"Hey, Marco?" he says, turning to look at the blond and noticing him absently kicking his legs to stir up the bathwater.

"Yes, captain?" Marco asks, turning those lazy eyes on him.

"Do mythical zoan users have to groom themselves the way other zoan users do?" Luffy asks, resting his arms on the edge of the tub, and then laying his cheek on top of them.

Marco shrugs, not looking too surprised at the mildly invasive question.

"Why wouldn't we?"

Luffy's eyes light up at the answer, and he immediately spins to look at the phoenix, splashing water over the side of the tub.

"CAN I HELP?" he asks, excited.

"No."

The reply is curt.

"But whyyyyyyyyyyyy?" whines Luffy, smacking the water in displeasure and spraying it all in his crewmate's face. "I'm good at grooming, Parvo! I promise!"

"MY NAME IS MARCO, IDIOT CAPTAIN!" Marco yells, smacking Luffy upside the head. "And I don't need you to help me preen! I do well enough on my own!"

"But Chopper always lets me help him!" whines Luffy, pointing in Chopper and Jinbe's direction, both of whom are watching the scene with amusement now.

"Yeah, well, I'm not Chopper," replies Marco huffily. "And I would prefer NOT to have any of my feathers broken tonight. It messes with my flying."

"I promise I won't break any of them though!" Luffy insists, tugging on his arm. "PLEASE, Marco? Please, please, please? Don't be so stingy!"

"Just let him try it once, Marco," Jinbe interrupts, not looking up from where he's flushing the shampoo out of Chopper's fur. "It'll make him happy, and if it gets too painful, you can just get him to stop."

Marco frowns, opening his mouth to protest, but Chopper speaks first.

"Luffy is really good at grooming!" the young reindeer says, smiling up at Marco with wide, adorable eyes. "He's really gentle and he makes sure not to rub my fur the wrong way and it feels really nice and you should let him do it, Marco!"

Looking away and feeling slightly resentful at having been ganged up on, Marco groans and caves to the two sets of puppy eyes, and Jinbe's disapproving stare.

"Fine!" he snaps, standing abruptly to get out, and Luffy follows him with a whoop as Jinbe and Chopper come over to take their turn to soak in the tub.

Walking to stand in the middle of the room, Marco unceremoniously shifts into his phoenix form, making sure to keep his wings folded lest he knock anything over.

Eyes sparkling with excitement, Luffy approaches his friend, taking extra care not to step on his especially long tail feathers or wing feathers on the way.

Walking around him to reach for the soap, Luffy is stopped by an angry trill, and a smack from a large, blue wing.

Startled, the young captain turns to look at Marco in confusion.

"What? What did I do wrong?" he asks, completely baffled, and Jinbe chuckles.

"He doesn't use soap for his preening," the fishman explains. "He has these sweat glands all over his body that secrete a special oil he's supposed to spread across his feathers, to clean them and help make them waterproof so he can fly better."

"Ooohhh," replies Luffy, watching the phoenix curiously as he rolls his eyes in exasperation.

Turning away from the soap, Luffy approaches Marco, reaching out without any hesitation whatsoever to run an exploratory hand through his feathers.

For the most part, Marco stays still, watching his captain with a wary eye.

After a few moments, Luffy's eyes light up in understanding, and his exploratory fingers become more purposeful.

Pinching his thumb and forefinger lightly at the base of one of Marco's feathers, he slowly drags them up the length of the feather, marvelling when his fingers come away slightly greasy.

Marco ruffles his feathers just as Luffy's about to do it again, sitting up straighter, and the young captain looks up, wondering if he's upset his crewmate.

Instead, he gets a happy trill from the phoenix, and a head-butt.

Taking this as a good sign, Luffy smiles and continues what he'd been doing.

Jinbe and Chopper continue to watch them quietly.

After a few moments of watching Luffy work, Marco stretches out one of his wings and begins running his beak through his feathers.

The two work in relative silence for a while, until Luffy gets into a good rhythm, and begins chattering again, filling the air with a story about a sky island of all places.

Marco and Jinbe listen quietly.

Chopper makes excited squeaks every now and then, and occasionally adds in his own two cents.

Marco isn't sure how much of the story he believes.

Luffy's group ends up staying in the bath long after the water should have cooled down, and in the end, Izo is the one sent up to find out what exactly they're up to, and to make sure nothing catastrophic has happened.

Izo's not too worried.

Luffy maybe a total blockhead who could find trouble in his own hammock, but with both Jinbe and Marco there to look after him, he couldn't have gotten up to anything too bad.

Or so he tells himself right up until he reaches the top of the ladder leading to the bathhouse, and hears a loud, angry trill from Marco's phoenix form.

Izo feels his heart speed up, adrenaline immediately filling his bloodstream.

Angry phoenix Marco is never a good sign.

But before Izo can go busting in there to see who DARED to try and attack his home and his crew, he's stopped by Luffy's distinctive, carefree laugh, muffled only slightly by the door between them.

"Come on, Marco, don't be like that! I said I was sorry!"

Izo's brows furrow in confusion, and he stops with his hand on the doorknob.

Marco trills angrily again in reply.

"Hey, it's not like I was trying to break your feather!"

Another angry trill.

"It's Jinbe's fault too! He was the one that was telling the funny story!"

Ten full seconds of Marco vocalizing what would definitely have been some very colourful insults had he been in his human form.

"Yeah, okay, I'll be more careful! Now, stay still, okay? Your long head feathers are really tricky to clean, and I don't think you'd appreciate me breaking another one."

Understanding dawns on Izo, and he steps away, his fingers going to his face in an attempt to hide the smile spreading across his features.

Luffy is preening Marco!

Oh, this is too good to be true.

Izo legitimately cannot remember the last time his big brother had let anyone help preen him, and just the thought is making him feel giddy.

It's an intimate act, a form of bonding, and there is no clearer indicator of Marco's newfound trust in his diminutive captain.

Stepping away from the door without making his presence known, Izo turns and disappears down the ladder and back into the library.

The smile doesn't leave his face the rest of the night.

SkyGem: That's all for now, folks! I hope you enjoyed! Last chapter was kinda depressing . So I thought I'd let you guys off the hook for once and give you some fluff. I hope you enjoyed, and that it wasn't too boring. A lot of people were asking to see more Marco, and I live to serve, so hear you go! I know that for some of you, this chapter may have been straying into grey territory, but I'd just like to remind y'all that there isn't going to be any romance in this fic, so rest assured to anyone who was worried it would be heading that way. I just thought that this would be a cute way to show the trust that is slowly but surely building between Marco and his captain. But yeah, that's all I've got to say for now! Thanks so much for reading and please do leave a review letting me know what you thought, yes? Next chapter is going to be Fishman Island, and the Straw Hats' next new crewmate ;)

P.S. Just wanted to say that I'm also on tumblr, as skygemspeaks, and sometimes I get lonely on there. So feel free to shoot me some asks! And I also track the skygem tag in case anyone was wondering ;)