Chapter 25

The newest members of Rouge's crew were the practically identical diving expert Declan and Shiban the fireworks maker, both of whom used spears, stood five foot three, had the same body types, and rushed to say that no, they were not related.

With their blond hair, blue eyes, and faces that could have been mirror images of each other, hardly anyone believed their protests. Most of the assembled group sent them dubious looks, side-eyeing their resemblance and half-heartedly nodding in agreement when they insisted. The two men groaned in unison, which didn't help their case.

(Marshall asked Rouge a little later, and she laughed and told him that no, they really weren't related.)

Once they got used to it, none of Rouge's crew were making a big deal out of it, so neither did his. It probably helped that the way they dressed made telling them apart easy; Declan wore form-fitting black trousers, straw sandals, and a tight black t-shirt under a dark blue Wano-style top that he usually kept shrugged down around his waist, while in contrast Shiban stuck to lighter colors. Pastel yellows and pinks and greens swirling and dancing across his shirt in a fantastic explosion of color, cream-colored pants and soft gray boots topped with a bandanna dyed a sunburst of color.

Rouge called them 'the Twins', and the rest of her crew followed suit, much to the two's chagrin.

There was also a woman lurking on the periphery of the gathering, sticking to the shadows and vanishing the moment she realized someone had spotted her. Pretty much everyone had glimpsed her at least once, but no one said anything. Curious, he poked Rouge and wordlessly pointed towards the woman's current hiding place.

His sister shrugged wryly as she admitted, "I don't really know why she's here - she randomly appeared on the ship one day and kept hanging around, so I'm thinking of inviting her to join the crew." She then added, belatedly. "Her name's Andrea."

"Well, at least you know her name before inviting her to join your crew," he joked, laughing as her face went red and she turned away with a huff.

He could see she was smiling in spite of herself at the reference to the first time they met, uncrossing her arms to return the embrace when he threw an arm over her shoulders, joining in laughing at the memory, the light of the bonfire reflecting off her bracelet and brand new diamond necklace and turning her hair the color of molten gold.

It was almost two in the morning on the second day since they met up and the party was still going strong, cheers and joyful laughter filling the air as the crews mingled. Olivia was talking to Frieda, the pair of doctors exchanging tips for dealing with difficult patients. Wilde was surrounded by various members of Rouge's crew, enthusiastically showing off his powers, cheers rising from the small crowd, Daisy and Jane calling out requests and the thief doing his best to oblige, doing everything from changing the color of the light he made to drawing designs in the air (Marshall said nothing because, you know, training). From the corner of his eye he could see Vertara challenging Wildred to an arm-wrestling contest and was kind of curious about how that would turn out.

Standing up, he dipped down and caught up a nearly-full bottle of alcohol from the sand nearby, throwing his head back and taking a swig before belting out.

"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"

Grinning, he brandished the bottle containing that exact drink and pulled a laughing Rouge to her feet, spinning her around as he sang.

"Drink and the devil have done for the rest,

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"

An unknown amount of time later, Marshall woke up, finding himself sprawled beneath a palm tree to see a mildly guilty-looking Wilde and several members of Rouge's crew with similar expressions standing in front of him, Vertara and the rest just looking amused.

The first words out of his mouth were, "Did Vertara win the contest?"

"That's the first thing he asks?" Daisy asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Captain likes to focus on the important things," Vertara replied.

(As it turns out, his recording dial had been on the entire party so he did eventually find out who won that competition, but only after he dealt with the minor situation of Wilde's lightshow the previous night, fueled to greater heights by Daisy, Lykan, Jane and Stephen's requests, both being seen by a passing Glitterian ship and being the equivalent of a marriage proposal in their culture.

Glitterians as a people were humanoid, just with sparkling hair, eyes, nails, and random patches of scales that glowed in the slightest amount of light and Glitteria's culture as a whole worshipped all things bright and shining, so a proposal via prismatic aurora created by Wilde channeling his Devil Fruit powers through his bracelet? Totally believable.

It took some fast talking, but he managed to convince the Glitterian princess that it was all a misunderstanding and she didn't want to marry Wilde anyway. How he did it was simple; he just made her realize that she was in love with her head guard who, by the way, had been secretly pining after her for years.

Long story short, the princess and her guard got together. He and Wilde wound up getting knighted and awarded the title of Prismic, the Glitterian equivalent of Marquis, both of them given medals to prove their new rank before the Glitterians departed.

Rouge and her crew stood back, the blonde D grinning like, well, a D as her crew watched in stunned awe as he and his crew waved goodbye to the retreating ship.

"What just happened?" Shamari spoke, completely bewildered as she looked around at her equally baffled crewmates.

Rouge just cackled, saying proudly, "I told you guys he was awesome!"

"Just as you'd expect from Captain's brother," Claus agreed, Jane and Frieda with him nodding sagely.)

(Vertara won her competition with Wildred two out of three.)

"I've been meaning to ask, is that a new coat?" Rouge asked, staring curiously at the new addition to her fellow D's wardrobe.

Marshall smiled, looking down at the dark purple fabric covering his arms and chuckling as he looked back at Rouge and answered, "Yeah, my three decided that since I was the captain I should look the part."

Rouge looked him over from head to toe, taking in the ensemble of white shirt, black pants, black boots, purple sash with his new dagger sheathed at his waist and his white bandana, all capped off by the royal purple coat. After a bit of thought, she nodded. "It fits. Very pirate-like," she added.

That...really wasn't what he was going for, he just wanted an outfit that would stand up to life at sea. After a moment he told her so.

"Too bad, all that's missing is a hat." Was her response.

Unfortunately for him, Olivia heard her, told the other two, and his three idiots took the idea and freaking ran with it.

"What. Is. That?" Marshall asked, eyebrow twitching as he stared at the monstrosity Vertara was trying to give him.

It was big. And yellow. And dear Davy Jones, the sequins. He shuddered, recoiling and hissing as the redhead stretched out to try and put it on him. Off to the side, Kimberly buried her face in her hands, shoulders and tail shaking with laughter. He could hear the muffled shrieks and mentally vowed revenge on the mermaid.

"Come on! Every captain needs a hat!" Wilde laughed, Olivia and Vertara sporting shit-eating grins of their own as he continued to back away.

Eyes narrowed, he stopped mid-motion. That's it, no more mister nice guy! Suddenly covered with a sheen of black, his hands lashed and caught all three by the backs of their shirts. The dreaded hat fell from Vertara's grip in surprise, tumbling to the ground where he happily stepped on it, striding over to a clear spot on the beach and tossing the troublemakers onto it. They hit the ground with an explosion of sand, looking up to see their captain looming over them with an outright vindictive smirk on his face, shivers running down their spines at the expression.

"Since you guys have so much free time, I think it's time for some intensive training." He cracked his knuckles. The three at his feet broke out into cold sweat.

"...meep!"

They tried to run, not that it helped.

Well, Wilde learned Shave, but aside from that? Sheer terror for all three of his crew.

(After the injuries healed, they admitted that they might have gone a bit too far.

"Don't fuck with my brother," was Rouge's sage advice.

As they had seen the whole thing, her crew agreed. Kimberly whimpered, clutching her tail in fear.)

By the time the two crews parted ways, fear of retribution had Kimberly jumping at shadows.

Marshall acted completely normal the entire time the mermaid gradually degenerated into a nervous wreck and then, the morning of their departure, he struck.

The Queen of Spades was a small dot on the horizon when a bombardment of piercing, bloodcurdling shrieks reached their ears.

Cackling so hard he could barely breathe, he was gasping for breath as he turned the Coddiwomple's wheel, taking them in the opposite direction.

On what he would claim was a whim if asked, he keeps all of Rouge's bounty posters and those of her crew from oldest to newest in the bottom drawer of his nightstand with the vague idea of binding the loose pages into a book and giving it to her as a present one day.

Portgas D. 'Queen of Spades' Rouge.

Cumulos 'Whirlwind' Clyde.

'Marksman' Minervon.

'Ferocious' Frieda.

'Calamity' Jane.

Darrow 'Avalanche' Wildred.

Hollybell 'Pixie' Daisy.

Moonshine 'Drunken Wolf' Lykan.

'Whitecap' Kimberly.

'Nightshade' Tabitha.

Laganda 'Deadly Dance' Shamari.

Haroldic 'Hammer' Stephen.

Mirabelle 'Cutting Line' Linda.

'Twin Spears' Declan and Shiban.

And so on.

(He never throws away a single one.)