~Talia’s POV~

                I woke with a start and grit my teeth as my entire body throbbed in pain. Perhaps this was why I hadn’t slept much while I was on the run. When I gave myself a chance to slow down and breathe, the pain would settle in from my sore and overworked muscles, my aching joints and weary bones.  Luckily, I recognized my surroundings. I was still in Izo’s room, wrapped in sinfully soft silken sheets.

                After a three minute mental battle with myself about getting out of bed, I attempted to sit up. Nothing happened. My body ignored all the signals my brain was desperately trying to send to it. A sigh escaped me and I took a few deep breaths before giving it another go. It was hopeless; my body was rebelling against me, punishing me for abusing it over the past few weeks. I was a bookworm, not a superstar athlete, yet here I was running all over the Grandline like a lunatic.

                “What are you doing?” A soft voice chuckled somewhere nearby and my cheeks flushed with embarrassment, I hadn’t realized someone was here! Of course someone was here. Every time I was making a fool of myself someone just had to be present to mortify me.

                “I can’t get up.” I whined in response as I tried again to get out of bed.

                “Perhaps you should take it as a sign to stay in bed.” Came their soft reply.

                The voice sounded familiar but I couldn’t quite pinpoint which of the commander’s it belonged to. It wasn’t Izo, it was much too masculine to be Izo and it didn’t belong to the jovial one who was often teasing me. I managed to get my eyes to flit in his direction and felt my heart stutter in my chest, it was Marco! The first division commander and possibly strongest and most lethal of all the Whitebeard Pirates. It didn’t help that he was also one of the ones who was overly wary of me and most likely didn’t believe anything that came out of my mouth.

                I squeaked, despite my best efforts not to react to him, and watched as he raised a perfectly manicured blonde brow in response. “Where’s Onee-… Izo-san?” My face burned as I realized I almost called Izo, onee-san in front of him.

                Marco shrugged, “He had better things to do than babysit.”

                “Don’t you have better things to do?” I couldn’t help myself; I just had to open my big stupid mouth.

                He shot me a scowl and I cowered under the blankets. “Of course I do.”

                He didn’t say anything else after that, and I was too afraid to look in his direction for fear of the murderous glare I’d find myself faced with. Painful, nail biting hair wrenching silence filled the room. Somehow it had gotten so quiet that I was sure he’d be able to hear my heart pounding in my chest. After what felt like an eternity of uncomfortably silence, though was probably more accurately only a few minutes, I chanced a glance in the first division commander’s direction.

                 His electric blue eyes swept over me somewhat coldly and he gave me yet another scowl. “What do you want?” He grumbled as he saw the hopeful look in my eyes.

                “Will you play a game with me?” I smiled brilliantly.

                His eyes widened for a fraction of a second completely flabbergasted by what I’d said. “What?”

                “A game.” I beamed.

                He raised a perfectly manicured brow in response, “What kind of game?”

                I thought for a moment, it couldn’t be something that required moving as my body seemed to think it was paralyzed. A game the children at the orphanage used to love playing crossed my mind, “Two truths and a lie.” I giggled.

                Marco threw me a questioning look obviously unfamiliar with the game.

                “Whoever is it, lists three things about themselves, two of them are true and one is a lie, the object of the game is to find the lie.” I explained simply.

                Marco looked thoughtful for a moment, “Alright.”

                I resisted the urge to giggle childishly and thought long and hard for a moment trying to come up with some really good statements.

                “Well?” Marco sounded bored and slightly irritated.

                “Hold on a minute, I have to think of a good one.” I pouted and thought I saw him smile slightly in my periphery but when I gave him a second look the smile had vanished and was replaced with a thin line.

                Marco waited patiently while I continued plotting my truths and my lie.

                “Got it.” I exclaimed with a grin. “You’ll never guess correctly.”

                The faint smile returned, but once again when I gave him a second look it was gone.

                “ When I was seven my  brother and I got chased out of a convenience store by an old woman with a frying pan for walking backwards through her store and knocking over a candy display…”

                Marco chuckled softly at this.

                “I refuse to eat blue food.”

                He raised an eyebrow in response and threw me a questioning look.

                “When I was twelve, I got my first job at a bookstore, and got fired on my first day.”

                Marco thought for awhile. “The first one seems a bit too detailed to be false. The second one is just crazy enough to be true. I think the third one is false.”

                I giggled at this, “Wrong.”

                “Eh? Which one was the lie?” Marco grumbled.

                “The first one.” I beamed, “I don’t have any siblings.”

                A soft expression took over his handsome face momentarily before he snapped back to his composed indifferent self. “How does one get fired from a bookstore in one day?”

                “I misunderstood the job description. I thought she was going to pay me to read books…” I giggled, “She stepped out for lunch and when she came back I had a pile of books I’d read surrounding me.”

                Marco looked curious, “You read multiple books while she was away at lunch?”

                My face grew hot at this; I forgot normal people don’t read like I do. “Yeah.” I murmured softly. When I was younger the kids at the orphanage thought I was a freak, I could read so fast, but that wasn’t it. Everything I had ever read was saved within my memory and could be recited at anytime. The adults said I was a child prodigy, but it made it really hard to make friends.

                “How many?” Marco asked.

                “It’s your turn.” I smiled brightly trying to hide my discomfort with where the topic had suddenly turned. People always thought I was weird when it came to my love of reading, though perhaps it was more of an obsession, or an addiction.

                Marco threw me a scowl but said nothing more on the matter. “Why don’t you give it another go, I’m sure I’ll get it right this time.”

                I felt giddy at the challenge, “No way, I’m a pro at this.”

                “We’ll see about that.” Marco smirked, but it seemed off. There was something lingering in his gaze something calculative and then a troubling thought crossed my mind. He wasn’t playing with me just to have fun and fill up the uncomfortable silence between us; he was trying to get information out of me.

                “When I was ten, I got in trouble for fighting at the orphanage and had to wash all the dishes for an entire week.”

                Marco looked a little curious about this one and I realized it was because he was trying to discern if I had a violent nature or not.

                “I’m afraid of needles.”

                He held back a chuckle at this, remembering my display last night.

                “Last year I got an internship at the records department at Marine Headquarters.”

                Marco thought for a moment trying to be careful after his failure last round. “The first one is detailed again, though I don’t think you’d use the same strategy twice so I believe that one is true. I witnessed the second one for myself last night. The third one is the lie.”

                I couldn’t contain my victorious grin nor the slight squeal as I exclaimed, “Wrong!”

                “What?” Marco stared at me incredulously.

                “You’re really bad at this game.” I teased.

                “Eh? Marco’s playing a game?” Thatch’s comforting voice sounded from the door as he pushed it open, without knocking.

                Marco held up his hand to halt his companion from saying anything further, “You worked for the marines?” He asked me incredulously and I watched Thatch tense for a moment.

                My eyes widened as I caught on to their train of thought. They thought I was a spy and was here to infiltrate their ship. “Past tense.” I squeaked as Marco got to his feet and stalked toward me, “I don’t anymore!” His electric blue eyes were burning with fire, “They want me dead!” I shouted stopping him in his tracks.

                Marco ignored me and yanked me out of bed with one rough tug on my wrist before slinging me over his shoulder.

                “Marco?” Thatch called after us worried as the first division commander carried me out of the room.

                “What are you doing?” I panicked as I began to feel lightheaded once the blood started rushing to my head from being upside down.

                Thatch jogged after us to keep up with Marco’s angry strides. “Oi, Marco, she’s still recovering.”

                “Hey! What do you think you brutes are doing to my sweet Talia?!” Izo’s voice snapped angrily nearby and I chanced a glance upward though it was partially skewed due to my current position and spotted a very irate looking cross dresser running after us. “Put her down!”

                Marco ignored Izo and took the stairs two at a time to the main deck and charged determinedly forward. I couldn’t make out much of my surroundings from my current position. My face was pressed into his back and the only thing I could see was his shirt and slight flashes of his sandal clad feet and the deck.

                “Marco! I’m warning you!” Izo snarled and I heard a strange clicking sound.

                I struggled to look up once more to find Izo with two flintlock pistols drawn; the front of his pink kimono hanging a little more loosely around his front revealing his well toned pectoral muscles. “EEP! Don’t shoot!” I panicked.

                “What’s going on here?!” A deep booming voice that shook me to my core roared somewhere in front of Marco.

                I strained to peer around Marco’s side and paled as I spotted Whitebeard glaring at the four of us.

                “She’s lying.” Marco growled and my world began to spin as I was suddenly lifted from his shoulder and dropped on my feet to face Whitebeard once again.

                My knees went weak, whether from fear, weary muscles or the various cuts and bruises littering my legs I couldn’t tell. I felt myself slip to the deck and winced slightly as my left knee collided painfully into the hard wooden surface.

                Izo made a move to run to me, but stopped when Whitebeard raised his hand to halt him. “Oyaji, she needs he-.” He fell silent after receiving a stern look.

                “She’s working for the government.” Marco said coolly and I shivered as I felt the cold angry glares from the other commanders and their subordinates.

                Whitebeard looked thoughtful for a moment, “Leave us.” He waved the others off.

                Marco, Izo and Thatch hesitated.

                “I wish to speak to the girl, alone.” Whitebeard said a little more gruffly.