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“Pssst! Whitebeard!” The giant of a man and his oldest son looked down to the child that the violent hopeful new addition to their family had adopted from Wano, Izou tried to get the feral eighteen year old to explain to him how she exactly adopted the child but all they got in return was an attempted bite to the face.
“Yes, little one?” The gentle giant man smiled at the sweet purple haired girl who just smiled bigger at him.
“Can I borrow a cart? I gotta feed Mommy and I need to carry a lot of food to her room!” She looked so earnest that it melted both the pirates' hearts.
“You want to borrow a food cart?” Marco asked with a raised eyebrow, “To give food too…your Captain?”
“Yes! So can I Mr. Bird?!” Marco looked to his father who shrugged.
“I don’t see why not my son.” Whitebeard looked to Otama with a kind smile, “Go tell Thatch I said to let you borrow a cart.”
“Thank you!” They watched as the child ran away from them. The Moby was lively with the child on board.
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The sound of a very full cart being pushed down the hallway caught everyone's attention, some of the pirates stared angrily at the cart full of food. They knew exactly where all that food was going and they couldn’t help but wonder why all that food was going to the perpetually angry girl.
The fourth Commander helped Otama push the cart towards the storage room. Thatch didn’t believe the girl could eat all this but she hasn’t eaten at all these past few weeks so maybe she was hungry enough for it. “Okay kid, I’ll be in the kitchen. Bring the cart back okay?”
“‘Kay! Thank you Satchi!” Otama smiled at him while she waved before knocking on the door when Thatch turned the corner. “Mama! I brought food!”
⸻
Whitebeard laughed to himself as he walked to his room from the deck having been forced by his overly protective oldest son. He was herded out of his chair all because he shivered just a little bit.
Once he got to his door he went to push it open before he felt something smack against his leg, looking down he saw Otama holding onto his leg with tears running down her face, “M-M-Mr. Whitebeard! Mommy needs help!”
His eyes went wide, Ann needed help? What happened? Did one of his crew hurt her? “Where is she?”
“I-In h-her room! Please help her!”
“Go onto the deck and get Marco.” Whitebeard gently moved Otama off of his leg and he went as fast as he could to the storage room the fire user claimed. When he got to the room he wasn’t surprised that the door was opened with the food cart laying just inside the doorway, if someone hurt his would be daughter he would kill them no matter if they were his child or not.
Ann is going to be his daughter and you don’t hurt one of your family.
To his shock he saw the black haired girl was laying on the floor curled up to make herself tiny, her arms wrapped around her stomach. While she seemed to be out cold she had a pained look on her face. What happened?
Ever so gently Whitebeard picked her up in his hand and all but ran towards the infirmary. What was wrong with her? Is she okay? Marco met him in the hallway, a worried look on his face that matched his father. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know my son, she’s not awake.” The father and son duo raced to the infirmary where Bay met them already having a bed ready for Ann. Thatch stood in the room just a bit away from the bed with a crying Otama in his arms.
Worry on everyone’s face.
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Ann sat on the bed with Otama holding onto her tightly crying into her neck, Deuce had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot in anger as was Banshee. Bay, Marco, Thatch and Whitebeard were off to the side trying to keep away from the ‘Talk’ the other two Spade Pirates were giving her.
“You could have died Ann!”
“You were being so stupid!”
“Did you even think?! You’re a D! You have a big appetite. You can’t just skip all those meals!”
Ann looked like a child being scolded, an ashamed look on her face as she stroked her adopted daughter's hair. Whitebeard watched the interaction with just a little hope, maybe this would be the push to get Ann to join their family.