You were at that sweet spot of sleep where you were awake enough to get a vague feel of what was going on around you without being totally alert. It was the spot where you could just drift back to sleep without a care in the world. And to top it all off, you were pretty warm.

On the flip side of things, you were slowly becoming aware of a sore kink in your neck and a throbbing headache that was becoming a growing issue. Not to mention there was this rumble under your head that would start and stop randomly. It was beginning to annoy you. When it happened again, you let out a groan and conveniently enough, it stopped. With it gone, you could pass back about again.

Or so you thought.

Right when you were almost out, it happened again and you let out another groan in response, this time a little louder, pulling you from that wonderful, floaty rest.

"I think you woke her up-yoi."

"I wasn't even that loud."

"Sure you weren't."

"Shush." You grumbled, twisting your head away from the noise and further into the surface you rested against.

"See? You woke her up-yoi." The voice you were beginning to recognize as Marco said.

"Didn't you want her awake anyway, why the fuss?" A different voice adding with a sleepy lilt. This one came from a heavy weight on your legs.

"Well yeah, but I was hoping to move her away from you two first."

When you opened your eyes, you noticed Marco crouched in front of you with a scowl on his face. The expression quickly morphed into a smile as he met your eyes.

"Morning (Y/n)." There was a steaming cup of coffee in his hands, which he offered to you. "How're you feeling-yoi?"

"Sore." You mumbled as you straighted yourself out.

Things were starting to make sense when you noticed you were leaning against a chest just a moment ago. When you looked up, you saw a yawning Thatch. You two fell asleep sitting together and at some point you must have slumped into him.

"Nice to meet you sore, I'm–"

"Can it with the dad jokes." Ace cut him off from his spot in your lap. He had an arm wrapped around your waist and his eyes still closed, like he was holding on to sleep the same way you had tried moments ago.

Sleeping next to Thatch was fine. Having Ace cuddled up like this was not. He was your friend and this was a little too cozy for that kind of relationship.

"You're going to have to get off." You pushed him away until his face hit the deck and he let out a grunt of surprise.

With the weight now off of you, you accepted the coffee from Marco and sipped at it tentatively. It was hot but not scalding and strong enough that the flavor alone woke you up the rest of the way.

Ace huffed at your feet but made no move to get up. He handled hangovers terribly, which made no sense with how often he was up for drinking.

"What'd you want me for?" You finally asked Marco, realizing he needed something.

"Well..." He frowned. "I noticed something that I wanted to ask you about. What happened to your shoulder?"

You glanced over to see his jacked had slipped down your arm enough for a bit of scar tissue to come into view.

"Oh, that's from when I left."

"From the big fight?"

"Yeah. Izo shot me a couple times."

"Shit, that's right." Ace suddenly sat up. "How'd you get the bullets out by yourself?"

"I didn't."

All three of them just stared at you.

"So you're saying you had to deal with them all that time and never got them out?" Thatch reiterated.

"That sums it up."

"You should've said something." Marco pushed the sleeve down the rest of the way to get a better look at the scar. "Where else did you get shot-yoi?"

"Um, around my hip I think."

"That's gotta be aggravating you."

"It gets a little sore sometimes but that's it."

Marco scratched his chin thoughtfully. The past couple days have been busy and his normal scruff was getting to be longer than how he usually had it.

"I can take the bullets out and clean you up, even fix the scarring up while I'm at it."

"I'm not that worried about it, it's fine how it is."

"Is not-yoi."

This quickly turned into a stand off you weren't sure you could win. It felt like it'd be a hassle to open the scars up to dig out bullets and you didn't want to be more of a handful than you've already been for everyone. But Marco has always been more stubborn than you and when he got so insistent, you found it hard to stand your ground. Ace and Thatch got to their feet awkwardly and scooted away to give you two some space as you stared each other down. You figured they'd stay out of it but it turned out it was you against all of them.

"Hey Izo!" Ace called to his friend who promptly came over.

"What's going on over here?" He asked with a chipper attitude. He was in a good mood and you could only assume he hadn't drank enough to be hung over like the vast majority of the crew. Izo was one of the few that wouldn't drink past his limits.

You felt yourself waiver as he came over. Izo didn't know that you had scarred and you didn't want him to feel guilty. But Ace was going to butt in and play the guilt card to make you agree with Marco. The men of this ship were all too smart for their own good.

"(Y/n) won't let Marco fix her up." Thatch met your glare with a grin.

"Fix her up? What happened?"

"Remember when–"

"Okay! Fine." You grumbled as Marco smiled triumphantly.

"Let's get you to the infirmary then-yoi."

As you got to your feet and followed Marco, Izo gave Thatch and Ace a bewildered look.

"What did I miss?"

"Nothing." They both replied and wandered off, leaving their friend to ponder what had happened.

----

Marco decided to start with your shoulder. He had you sitting up on an exam table with his jacket wrapped around your waist. His back was to you as he snagged the tools he needed to get the job done. You weren't looking forward to it. He'd offered something to dull the pain but you weren't keen on being drugged up either. Putting up with the temporary pain seemed like a better idea to you.

"How long are you planning on keeping from shifting?" Marco asked as he turned around. There was a small tray in his hands with a scalpel and some kind of tongs on it.

"Until things feel normal again I think." You couldn't stay annoyed at him for trying to help. "When I have an easier time regulating my temperature and I'm used to doing things like everyone else I should be good."

"Sounds like a good plan-yoi."

His hands felt around your shoulder, like he was searching for the embedded bullet. When it hit in your wolf form, it felt like it went pretty deep and you didn't doubt that was still the case. But he appeared satisfied, like he'd found exactly where it was, when he picked up the scalpel.

"This is going to hurt some but I'll make it as quick as I can."

You nodded and turned your head away. The blood wouldn't bother you any, but the idea of seeing the knife cut into you made you nauseous. There was the feeling of cold metal against your skin for a split second before it dipped into your flesh and you bit down on your tongue to combat the sudden pain.

"Almost there." He murmured.

After a few more seconds, he reached around you for the tongs, his fingers coated in blood. The other hand was holding a towel to your arm, catching the blood that trickled out.

"It's pretty lodged in there so this is going to take a minute."

The tongs were worse than the scalpel. Not only did it hurt, it felt wrong. He scooted closer, his breath fanning against your skin as he felt around for the bullet.

"There we go-yoi."

It clattered into the tray, bent all the hell from being fired and lodged in your arm. A thin layer of blood coated it's surface but you could still make out the silvery color under that.

"Watch this." Marco encouraged you to turn and look as his hand lit up with pale blue flames.

You had to admit, you were curious about seeing the healing process when he used his abilities. He wrapped his hand around the wound and you couldn't help but gasp. Fire was supposed to burn but his flames gave off a level of warmth similar to a candle. They licked around the wound greedily and it slowly repaired itself, stitching the edges together seamlessly. The scar practically melted away and when he was done, all that was left was a bit of blood. He wiped it away with the towel and it was as good as new. It would be impossible to tell anything had happened there unless you'd seen it yourself.

"That's pretty cool." You prodded at the spot. It was painless and perfect.

"Can't believe the big bad wolf was afraid of doing this." He chuckled. "We're already halfway done."

"I wasn't scared." You pouted.

"Really-yoi? Why were you so adamant against me patching you up then?" He teased.

"I just......didn't want to be more of an inconvenience to you guys than I've already been."

"Inconvenience?" Marco's eyes widened. "(Y/n), you've never been inconvenient."

"So you're telling me going on a two month search for me wasn't a hassle?" You raised an eyebrow at him, not quite believing that.

He pulled up a chair and sat in front of you, just a little below eye level. "Yes you were gone for a long time and yes we worked hard to find you. But it was never an issue of it being nuisance to do so. We were worried about you. As far as we knew, it was only a matter of time until you could no longer be considered human and no one wanted that. Didn't your last crew care about you the same way?"

"No, not that I can remember." You answered sheepishly. It was hard to accept that you weren't really ever a problem in their eyes.

"That makes sense. Don't think too hard about these things. If you're bothering someone, they'll let you know, trust me. In the mean time, if you need something, say something-yoi."

"Okay."

You blushed and fiddled with the end of your tail as he smiled at you. Marco had your back in a way no one else did. He was patient and caring without being overbearing and it made you remember how you thought about wanting to get closer to him if you ever returned to being human. Well, you were able to control your human half now.

"How about we get this done so we can find some space for you in the cabins? Now that you aren't so furry, maybe you'll have an easier time staying indoors."

Just wait till he realized you were already getting antsy from being in the infirmary for this long. Old habits die hard and it was going to take some real effort to get you accustomed to living like a normal person again. You could already tell there was going to be some arguing in the near future but that was okay. It meant they cared about you, as you were beginning to accept.