"Pssst... Luffy. Luffyyyyy. Wake up!" A few whispers that led into a smack on the head was enough to startle Luffy awake. He had his arms around Misaki, who was buried in his chest, sound asleep. She was snoring ever so lightly, making Luffy crack a grin. It was the first time he had heard her quiet little snore since before the battle. He rubbed his cheek on her head, slightly overwhelmed by her cuteness.
"Excuse me!" Nami angry whispered. Oh yeah, that's why I'm awake. "It's bedtime, Luffy. It's time for you to get out."
Luffy looked longingly at Misaki. She was so peaceful and happy and most importantly asleep. He didn't want to wake her up. She needed to rest after all.
"Namiiii. I can't move! Misaki is sleeping so soundly. I'll wake her up!" Luffy whispered, hoping Nami would understand.
"Look, I want Misaki to get better more than anyone, but if she wakes up, she will understand I just want to sleep without you snoring away next to us."
Just then, Misaki nestled in deeper into Luffy's embrace. Luffy stretched his head over to Nami so they could make eye contact. His eyes conveyed exactly what he wanted to convey. You are gonna have to drag me out of here. Robin giggled softly as Nami sighed.
"One night." Nami muttered. Luffy grinned, letting his head snap back in place before snuggling down to fall back asleep to Misaki's light little snore.
______________________
The next morning, I woke up blissfully nestled in Luffy's arms. He was still snoring away but held me tightly, as if trying to protect me from the world. I was surprised he was still there. Nami really wasn't a fan of letting the boys stay in the girl's room. But, nonetheless, I was happy. I wished it could be like this every night. I was so warm and tingly and I could have stayed that way forever if it weren't for the fact that I was starving.
To be honest, I was pretty surprised Luffy wasn't already up and pestering me to get up with him. He normally would only sleep for a fraction the amount of time as me. In fact, I couldn't remember a single time where I woke up and he wasn't already awake. I thought back to how he was sleeping in a chair, half on the infirmary bed and wondered if he had been doing that every day. I'm sure sleeping in a soft warm bed was exactly what he needed too.
It definitely gave me pause when it came to waking him up. I felt like he needed as much sleep as I did, but I knew he wouldn't want to miss breakfast either. I asked the empty room if there was anybody there. When I got no answer, I kissed his chest and wriggled in his arms a little so I could stretch up to his neck.
"Luffyyy." I sang as I kissed him on the neck. His snoring ceased for a moment only to fire back up. I kissed his jawline and nibbled on his ear, making him mumble something. I pecked back down his jawline and nuzzled into his neck. Now he was grumbling, not quite awake yet. I nibbled at his collarbone and suddenly felt myself get squeezed tighter into him. My eyes got wide as I realized I gave him morning wood. Oops.
"Just a little longer." Luffy mumbled, pulling me in so tight I couldn't breathe. Nope. Gotta breathe. Now, Luffy. This time, I bit him just hard enough to startle him awake. "Owww, what the Hell?!"
"Morning, sleepyhead." I swooned, acting as if I never bit him in the first place.
A low grunt came from Luffy's throat. God, it was sexy. I kissed him gently at the crook of his neck, making him shudder. "Misaki, behave." He chided. But I didn't want to. I kept kissing and grazing along his collarbone, neck and jawline, making him mutter to himself, cursing under his breath.
I snuck my hand into his hair so I could pull his face down for a kiss. It was far rougher than I intended, Luffy's breath catching as he pulled me into him tightly. His hand reached down and squeezed my butt, making me hitch a leg up on his hip. Our lips crushed together and I started rocking my body into him, letting out a little moan as he flicked his tongue into my mouth.
I squeezed my arms down to his pants, trying to unbutton them before I felt his hands grasp around my wrists. He pulled my hands up to his chest and pulled away.
"I think you need to take more time to heal, Misaki." He said with a soft smile. "And trust me when I say that is the only reason I'm saying no."
I pouted but mostly for show. He had a point. I still had stitches in me that were keeping bullet holes closed. Definitely not something I should work to tear open. Luffy kissed me on the nose and chuckled at me.
"You want breakfast?" I mumbled, making Luffy smile.
"See, this is why you're awesome! I love how well you know me!" Luffy said.
"Cool, help me up, then." I said, sitting up slowly.
"Oh no. You are staying here. I'll bring you food."
"Hell no! I'm going to the dining hall."
"Misaki, you need to rest."
"I need to move too! I have to rebuild my strength!"
Luffy pursed his lips, then agreed.
This led to the next few days of my own form of physical therapy. Get up, make my way to breakfast, to the deck, rest, back in for lunch, to the aquarium to rest, to the shower to sit like a wimp under the water, then back to dinner. Every day, I would go somewhere a little more difficult to get to. My goal was the crow's nest. I also took on a new, not so fun hobby. Dish duty with Sanji.
Funny enough, I found a lot of peace and good conversation with Sanji while helping him with the dishes. At first, he tried the same old reverse misogynistic "women shouldn't have to lift a finger to do the dishes" crap, but once he realized it was just another way to build my strength, he let it go. And this is where I got to actually bond with Sanji. Talking about my woes and getting some pretty decent advice; with no judgement or teasing either. It was actually rather refreshing. Sanji was the one person I felt I couldn't really connect with, but we finally found our thing.
"Hey Sanji?"
"Hm?"
"Do you guys like... do Christmas?"
"Huh?"
"Like do you do something to celebrate it?"
"You know it's nowhere near Christmas, right? Like it's Late September."
"It is?" I took pause, noting that I had been with the straw hats for more than two or three months now. I realized I hadn't really kept track.
"Yeah. Why are you already thinking about it?"
"Well, normally we would have a thing called thanksgiving and then Christmas would come after that. But there is no Thanksgiving here."
"Yeah, no idea what that is."
"It was dumb. Or at least the reason for it was, cause it was a load of shit." I tried my best to explain the holiday and Sanji laughed.
"Well we eat like that all the time! We may not give thanks though haha."
"Good point." I said, chuckling.
"So you were thinking about Thanksgiving and it made you think of Christmas?"
"Yeah. We would do it up big. Big lights, big trees, singing stupid songs like jinglebells! And everybody would dress up and give everyone presents. The presents were never huge, just something special. And the food was incredible."
I rattled on for a moment about the food, knowing Sanji wouldn't get bored by it. He smiled at me, taking in all of my reminiscence.
"Sounds like you really enjoyed it."
"Yeah, I guess. The lights were always my favorite... and the stupid songs. It was the only time of year I really got to spend with family and friends all in one place." I said, slowing down as I scrubbed a dish.
"That sounds kind of..."
"Sad."
"Yeah."
"It's times like this where I actually feel kind of homesick..."
"I'm sorry..."
"Why are you sorry?"
Sanji looked away, not really sure how to put it. "Well, we don't really think about Christmas like everyone else. It's actually the day after Chopper's birthday. So... we probably will just be sleeping off a banquet to be honest."
"Oh." I said shortly, pursing my lips. "Well, it will be awesome to celebrate chopper's birthday!"
"If you are still here by then."
I looked at Sanji, unsure what to say. He paused, before realizing what he said.
"I mean, you could be home for all we know, you know?! Two months is a long ways away!"
"Yeah." I said, focusing on the dishes again. "So is home though."
"You can talk about it, you know. I'm not going to get weird like the others."
I looked up at him and took a deep breath. I really hadn't spoke about home in a long time. I remembered when I used to talk with Luffy about it, but lately it just felt weird to bring it up. Luffy wasn't really one to look to the past. He really preferred living in the present. I felt like that's what made it so easy to be around him. But it also made it harder to reminisce about the past. God forbid if I said it was a long story, his interest would go out the window. Listening about cool things about the world was different than hearing stories about my past.
"So I could tell you my stories? About my past? And you will listen?"
"Yep." He said, placing another dish on the drying rack.
"And you won't assume that just cause I talk about it that I must want to go home, right?"
"That's right!" He said, smiling.
"Damn, Sanji, I misjudged you!"
"Huh??" Sanji exclaimed, looking at me with jest in his eyes. I laughed at him, apologizing and he waved it off.
So then it began. The wonderful time of reminiscence about my previous life in my own reality. I spoke about my animals, my family, my friends, my woes. There were so many goofy stories that had been building up in my head that just needed to come out. It was nice.