Birds of Feather

Chapter 36: Birds of a Feather

Teach was buried at sea.

When you returned to the boat the others had already wrapped his body. Marco led the service, speaking on a few memories they all shared together, and in the end admitting that he was grateful that things had resolved this way. Teach had died on his own terms, and none of them had to contend with the weight of his choices on their hands.

Izou and Vista slid him into the waves, and Namur and Islewan pulled him down into the depths. Shanks had poured everyone a drink, saying that Teach had lived and died as he wished, and that was as much as anyone could hope for.

You drank with the others, but something sour lingered on your tongue.

It was late Sunday, nearly Monday when you got home. Marco carried you inside, reassuring you that he was uniquely equipped to deal with long days, and still had energy to spare. He tended to you and himself, getting you both cleaned up and into night clothes.

You fell asleep wrapped in his arms, and dreamt of an empty library. The floors were as you knew them, the shelves were wooden. No spinels of blood lined the wood work, and nothing was out of place, but all the books that had been piled up by teach were easily discernible, their covers glowing softly on the shelves.

Waiting, and ready for you when you were ready for them.

Marco called out from the clinic for the rest of the week, coordinating with another vet from a nearby city so Law wouldn't be forced to cover the entire hospital on his own. He didn't mention Teach's death, just that his girlfriend had been in an accident over the weekend and he was going to look after her.

You wanted to argue with him when he said if he didn't take the time off you wouldn't rest, but you didn't have much room to talk. Especially since you wouldn't be strictly resting as it was.

Monday afternoon you and Marco went to Kid's shop.

The three of you went into a back office that had no windows, and you were pretty sure it was lead-lined at the least. Kid promised that no one outside of that room would hear a word, devil fruit or not, and so you told him.

Everything.

The island you escaped from, your family ties, your devil fruit, what Teach meant to do, how you fought him. When you explained that Teach had his eyes on you before you had gotten involved with Marco his anger cooled some, but the entire story had him on a bit of a rollercoaster.

It felt like you were talking for hours, but by the end of it, things were good between all three of you. Kid promised he'd set his own business on fire before he'd give up your secret, but if you'd been worried about that in the first place you wouldn't have said anything at all.

You coordinated having him or Killer drive your car back to your house for you. With everything that had happened, plus the marathon discussion, you were too worn out to drive safely. It didn't help that you were still healing, but given it hadn't even been forty-eight hours since your fight with Teach it shouldn't have been surprising.

Frustrating, maybe, but not surprising.

Marco didn't have to carry you into the house by the time you got home, but you were grateful when he insisted you sit on the couch and let him take care of dinner. You teased him for spoiling you, and he threatened to show you what it would really be like if he properly spoiled you.

Tuesday Ivankov came to the house around lunch time as promised. You weren't surprised to see she'd brought enough food for you and Marco. You were surprised to see her dressed down, in a way, but she insisted it was so she didn't attract any undue attention.