Soliloquy of the Broken Soul

Black Beards and Small Hands

They had been on the island for a few hours now, and visited most of the market stalls.

Thatch had long since finished his grocery shopping and they took a small detour to bring all the food back to the ship so it wouldn't spoil and they didn't have to haul it around.

It was just after 12, and for lunch, they'd all decided a taste of what the Island was known for would be a good idea.

So, Thatch took them all to what he claimed to be the best restaurant, and they chowed down on freshly made bread and homemade jams and jelly's.

Luffy liked this lunch. While they all had sandwiches as well, (peanut butter jelly, banana jelly, chocolate hazelnut spread with strawberry jam) Luffy stuck to the jams and bread.

He enjoyed it, and he was eating, so everyone encouraged him.

By the end of the meal, around 12:30, the boy was a sticky mess of pure yum.

Ace and Sabo helped clean up Luffy, and then Marco led them to a secluded park he remembered visiting last time.

It was quiet and serene, not many people around except for a few passerby's out for a stroll.

The Commanders' agreed this would be a good place for the kids to detox for a bit. It was obvious none of them liked crowds, and they were all still nervous around new people.

Luffy practically dived behind Ace and Sabo whenever he deemed someone too close for comfort.

This made the three Commanders' discreetly shift into a triangle like position around the boys, and it was like they could feel the waves of relief washing over Luffy, (and maybe even the others) or perhaps it was their haki?

So, after all the activities, they decided a mental break was in order. Everything was going well, and they didn't want to ruin it by simply overwhelming the poor kids. This was their first public appearance in years, after all.

Marco, Thatch, and Haruta were all sitting on a wood bench playing cards, while Ace, Luffy, and Sabo tumbled around playfully in the grass; stopping every now and again to "Oooo and Ahhhh" at a beetle or other bug.

They'd quickly found that if you wanted to see Luffy's 'happy meter' sky rocket, all it took was a moth.

He simply followed one around for five minutes, even getting it to land on him for a bit, and he sat quietly and hummed to the moth while Ace and Sabo kept up the lion play, watching Luffy from their peripheral.

Of course, eventually, the moth flew away and Luffy waved it off and immediately tackled Ace, who let him.

Ace and Sabo were gentle with Luffy, and made sure he knew it was fun and games. So they all just tumbled around in the grass and watched clouds and over all, had a good time.

Marco had won three games of cards and kept getting rematched. Currently, Haruta and Thatch were bickering about strategy and who should go first. It was Go Fish. What kind of strategy could they possibly come up with?

Marco chuckled to himself, before stilling immediately, hand hovering in the air, ready to be lit. Thatch and Haruta stilled as well, hands hovering over blades and looking around skeptically.

Haki.

Strong haki.

And... Familiar too?

Either way, it was dark and immense. Nothing like any of the average villagers would have.

Marco let out a small wave of observation haki and located multiple people just on the other side of the trees from where the boys were.