[blinks at the kiss, knows what's coming but doesn't want to hear it. Doesn't want to listen to it. It's so much easier not to care. To give into the darkness and to just screw off to anywhere. To not have to worry about kids or Ace or anyone but...]

No it wasn't a mistake. [he blurted it out, feeling it more than he expected and it surprised him.] Caring...for someone is never a mistake.

[because they had cared for Ace, too. Pops had. Despite everything. And all of them had to be worked through. Like Haruta. Like himself, too. He'd all but left the crew that day he'd gone to kill Stede. Only Pops had known. He'd told him as such. Because he wasn't sure he'd be coming back. He wasn't sure he'd be welcomed. He remembered the feeling of it suddenly. Being lonely. Adrift.

He had thought they would leave him to his fate. But Pops had come after him. Saved him. Welcomed him back. Once a son always a son. But... he sighs

He shifts so that he's facing Marco, burying his free hand in Marco's back pockets to keep him close, resting his chin on his head.]

Aye, I can do all you say. I will for you and Ace. Anything. Everything but...I can't care about them. I can't-- I can't be like Pops and love them. I loved our crew. All of them. [and while he liked Logan and wanted to protect Leanne... it was just... He sighed and murmured]

I'm broken somehow.