A Black Heart Does Not Always Stay Black

Accommodation

Thatch attracted attention by staying in the kitchen all throughout dinner, even eating his food in there instead of going to the table. The commanders were worried about his distracted look and lethargic motions. Marco was chosen and offered to go see what was wrong. Luffy watched Thatch in the kitchen with sad eyes while Ace and Sabo looked on, Ace seeming a little cold and not talking.

None of the commanders asked what was wrong with the boys, thinking it may be something about Luffy that they didn't want and weren't going to share.

"Thatch, what's wrong? You stayed in the kitchen all through dinner, haven't even looked over at us," Marco said in a concerned voice. Thatch sighed, and started doing the dishes. Marco knew Thatch cooked when stressed, and cleaned when upset. He was cleaning, so he was upset. Marco waited at the counter patiently for him to speak, knowing he would.

"I didn't want to be seen in front of the brothers," Thatch finally admitted. Marco was taken aback, clearly not expecting that. Had the boys been mean and hurt Thatch's feelings? But, Marco couldn't see them trying to be intentionally mean to Thatch, one of Luffy's favorites.

"Why not?" Marco asked in a quiet voice, not wanting anyone to overhear in case it would make one of the brothers look bad. "Did one of them say something?" Thatch chuckled, but it wasn't an amused one.

"Ace sure did. But, it wasn't to be cruel. He gave a little speech of an outburst while we were working with the stocking. He told us to stop blaming ourselves for Teach. That we weren't to blame, and that if Luffy was trying to move on, then we should, too. 'Try to be brave like Luffy'. We were all shocked by it and then the three left the room," Thatch explained. Marco's eyes widened, and Thatch gave him a knowing look.

Marco had never compared themselves to Luffy. Luffy was the one who was almost murdered, but he was also the only one who was trying to move on from the experience. He was an eight year old, but was able to move forward more than any of the adults on the ship. The phoenix could see why Thatch didn't want to be near them. He knew Ace's words and sentiment were true, but was unable to move on and so didn't want to face them.

"We do need to move on. It won't be easy, but Ace is right. We have to try. All of us," Marco said softly, mostly to himself but also Thatch. For the first time since it all went down, Marco allowed himself to feel the pain that he'd been holding back. The only way to move forward was to accept, and he had to let it out to move past it.

A choke of a sob broke through, and Thatch hugged Marco as both of them shed tears. Their brother never loved them in the first place. All those days of fun, bonding, were fake. They were one-sided. They'd all been so hurt by what Teach had done, but not many had accepted it fully, including Marco and Thatch.

"We can do it, Marco," Thatch cried. "We can be a beacon, we just have to move on, and accept what he's done and that he's dead." Marco nodded against Thatch's shoulder. It felt really good to let it all out, even if it was feeling pain and despair. After a good time of them both shedding tears, they both felt uplifted afterwards.

By the end of the day, when the three boys were asleep in their room, the message had been spread around the ship. Be brave and try to move on.

Ace had unknowingly helped almost every single pirate on the ship, including the captain, who had been feeling the most guilt. There was nothing he could do now to atone to his mistake, but all he could do was try to move on. Put this ugly and upsetting event in the past, where it needed to go for his family to be healthy again.

Like Marco, much of the ship had been festering, but putting up appearances that they moved on and were fine. Though Whitebeard knew his sons well, they had been good pretenders. There had been a mutual misunderstanding between captain and crew. Whitebeard looked like he'd moved on, so his sons tried to copy it. The captain saw his children had taken it better than he had, and he tried to emulate their behavior as well. They had to face their emotions and accept them before overcoming them.