One Piece: Grand Endeavours

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Not Cute

Luffy
When I wake up I am cold. My fingers and toes are numb and I reach for my duvet, huffing when I realised I kicked it off and it is now on the ground. I sigh and roll out of bed, wondering why it is so cold. I put on a red hoodie to be warmer and head outside to where Kuro is sat near the railing, sipping at tea, shivering slightly.
"Morning Kuro!" I say. He visibly jumps so I realise he was probably lost in his thoughts which he tends to do a lot. "If you're cold why are you outside?" I glance at the railing that he is leaning against that has a thin layer of frost over it. No wonder he is shivering!
"The fresh air can clear my head," he murmurs. "Especially after a bed dream."
"Yeah but you are cold," I point out. "How long have you been out here?"
"Couple of hours," he murmurs. Right. We're heading in so he doesn't get ill.

We head into the kitchen and I make him a fresh tea.
"Luffy...you don't have to do that," Kuro says to me, still shivering slightly.
"I don't mind!" I say, cheerfully. Then frown. "Kuro, even if you were trying to clear your head why would you spend hours in the cold if you are shivering? You could get ill!"
"Zoned out," he murmurs. "Not my smartest moment." I put the tea in front of him. "Thanks Luffy."
"No problem!" I say, sitting by him. "Hey, if things are ever that bad with nightmares you could always come and talk to me."
"Usually they're just bad, not really really bad," he murmurs. "And when they are I couldn't go talk to you because you'd be asleep."
"I don't care," I say. "If things are that bad then come talk to me regardless. I won't mind." I wonder, after saying that, why I am so protective of this kind of thing and am pushing him to be more open. He gives me a doubtful look. "I'm serious, Kuro. Okay?"
"Okay," he agrees with a small smile.

Breakfast time comes and as usual Kuro doesn't eat which is typical but I wish he would given he needs energy. He still looks cold though so I wonder why he doesn't wear a coat or something. That would be logical and Kuro clearly loves logic given he is a genius. Nova is working on sewing something and glances at Kuro.
"If you're cold I could make you a hoodie. The hoodie you're wearing is really thin so probably isn't warm" he offers. Oh, he's wearing a black hoodie instead of his usual jacket. Only just realised. "Ooh cat ears would be cool!"
"I'm good," Kuro says carrying on sipping at the tea.
"Why not? It would be cute! Cat hoodies are always cute!" Nova argues. Kuro huffs.
"I don't do cute," he says matter of factly. "Never have, never will."

Well...I find myself disagreeing with him. Okay, he usually hides it with the mask, smart outfits and ability to stay calm and near emotionless but now? Yeah, he is definitely cute. The wide framed glasses are lopsided and he looks sleepy but not drained as he often does. When he rubs his eyes sleepily the glasses go slightly more askew. His hands are lost in the baggy, tattered hoodie so when he moves his hand the excessive sleeve hits him in the face which leaves him looking slightly confused. His nose scrunches up slightly but he seems too tired to figure out why he is confused which is pretty cute. His hair isn't as neat as usual, instead some falls into his face, the rest sticking up as he peeks out from behind his fringe. He wasn't kidding when he said his hair was naturally messy but I think it suits him like this, it makes his emotionless mask harder to maintain somehow. I am so lost in my thoughts that when he sneezes it makes me jump despite being a rather quiet, delicate, sneeze. Yup, definitely cute.

Wait, why am I seeing him as cute? Is it linked to why I am so protective of him and why I like spending so much time to him and why I am so insistent he opens up to me and like that it is me more? Do I like him? Actually that does make sense. I've never liked anyone before so I didn't notice but yeah, definitely! Is that good or bad? I'm going to assume good because it is a positive emotion.

It may be a good emotion but I am so glad I didn't say any of that aloud. For one I don't know if Kuro would like me. Two, I know how reserved Kuro is and saying that in front of everyone would be bad and probably would be bad. I decide to make a fairer point that wouldn't make him feel bad.
"What about when you were little?" I ask. "You must have been cute then."
"Nope," he says. "I was an aggravating brat."
"Well I don't believe that," I say with a grin. He shrugs but I take that as an argument I won.

I finish my breakfast and I stay inside sitting by Kuro wondering why he doesn't just go inside and trying to figure out how to tell him I like him. I reach over as he stares out at sea without thinking and brush his hair from his eyes, tucking it behind his ears. He gives me a questioning look and I feel heat rush up to my cheeks. I am such an idiot sometimes.
"Sorry," I mumble, feeling awkward and worrying I annoyed him.
"It's fine," he says, smiling slightly. "Just surprised me." Phew. He wasn't annoyed which is always a good sign. "Are you okay? You've gone pretty red."
"I'm fine," I say, blushing even more but not sure why. "It's cold. Cold can make you red." I really hope that lie is true so he doesn't call me out. Thankfully he doesn't so I had a realistic lie. I don't like lying but I am not going to say I am blushing because of him. Not yet at least.

We head outside and since breakfast it has snowed very heavily. Kuro goes from shivering slightly to completely shivering and it is already halfway to the knee deep on me. I grin and kick some of the snow in to a poof. One snowflake lands on Kuro's nose and he sneezes.
"Nope!" he says, dashing off. I blink in confusing for a second then chuckle, heading to the library where he went to.
"Are you okay?" I ask him, still chuckling.
"Too cold..." he complains, huffing. I chuckle and sit by him.
"How did you survive on that cold island then?" I ask, starting to realise how tired I am. Maybe I shouldn't have got Kuro to read the sequel after the first one because he didn't finish until 3:30am and I woke up early. Wait...that means Kuro probably only had like one or two hours sleep!
"With great difficulty," he says, shivering then sneezes again. "I just got over being ill when you-" sneeze, "arrived. I tend to get a few days between it." He sneezes again and yawns. I yawn as well.

I grab the biggest, thickest, fluffiest blanket in the library because it's cold and I'm sleepy.
"Wanna share the blanket?" I offer, hoping he says yes.
"Sure," he agrees, yawning again. I sit by him more with the blanket around us. Kuro looks on the verge of dropping off but I feel like falling asleep t-...

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I come too, yawning and stretch then freeze as I glance down. Kuro is asleep and I nearly elbowed him in the face. So we both fell asleep then? He sniffles slightly in his sleep, curling up more, not responding to the drastic movement change of me waking up. I look at the time and realise I missed dinner and my stomach gurgles slightly but I decide to make do. Not many things are more important than meat but Kuro's adorable sleepingness? Very much so! Plus he is clearly tired from the cold so I am not going to be the jerk that wakes him up.

A couple of hours pass and he wakes up, blinking sleepily up at me.
"Hi!" I exclaim.
"Hi..." he murmurs, sitting up properly and rubbing his eyes. He then sneezes but not as much as before.
"Let's go get food!" I say, very hungry by now.
"You can," he murmurs. "I'm not hungry..." Given he has been asleep nearly all day he needs food.
"Just something light?" I plead. "We can make some soup together!"
"Luffy...you can't cook," he points out. "And I'm...out of it when this i-Wait, what are we talking about again?" Hmm. He's tired and ill so he goes more daydreamy? Normally I would never use that against anyone, let alone Kuro, but if it gets him to eat.
"We're making soup together!" I say with a grin. "C'mon!"

Twenty minutes later and there is a putrid smell escaping the pot, things burnt and clumped together at the bottom of the pan. Sanji comes in, arms crossed, glaring at us.
"What are you two doing?!" he snaps. "This is a waste of food and..." he turns off the heat taking the pan off. "You nearly set the place on fire and ruined this pan! So, what are you doing?!"
"I don't know..." Kuro murmurs. "A disaster?" Sanji looks on the verge of exploding at us, mostly at Kuro for that response, so I decide to take the blame.
"Sanji, Kuro is ill and tired," I point out. "I talked him into it because he needs to eat but he is a bit out of it so it isn't his fault." Kuro, proving my point, sneezes again and is still shivering a lot. Sanji's expression loses some of the harshness but turns on me.
"So you used that against him?" he asks, crossing his arms. Yeah that sounds worse when aloud. "I get why though...You two go sit down, I'll make some soup."

We sit and I decide to ask the pretty obvious question.
"Why aren't you wearing anything warm?" I ask. "If you get cold easily it makes sense..."
"Uh, I don't own anything warm," he says sheepishly. "I only had a bag of stuff when my ship crashed and I really hate clothes shopping." Yeah that makes no sense. We sit in comfortable silence until Sanji comes over with soup and I grin happily, slurping it whilst Kuro takes small spoonfuls. I grin happily, glad I finally understand my latest emotions and why I always want to spend time with Kuro. Where do I go from here though?