THE DORMITORIES OF students who attended the recent homecoming dance of a certain high school were now occupied by their well-dressed owners. And these well-dressed owners were now mostly in their pyjamas, since the dance had ended a few hours ago.
Of course, some went to after parties and such, but that wasn't the case for the ones living in the dormitories guarded by strict 'landlords' and 'landladies'. And apparently, Luffy's dorm just happened to be owned by a fearful dorm supervisor who was currently checking each floor.
He lived on the third floor along with neighbouring students whose home was super far away from school. The third floor was dim, aside from the emergency lights that were remained switched on by the walls.
This dorm supervisor was actually one of the school's staff. He was dressed in a not-so-much fashion, with only a black and white shirt paired with spotted pants. He had a bulky build but if one would go by and see him, they would think he was a visitor or something.
"Two hours past curfew, not bad." a voice muttered inside one of the shut doors in the third floor.
And no, it wasn't Luffy.
But Luffy was, in fact, in his dorm now wearing a simple set of clothes. He recently had a shower so his ever messy hair was damp and smelled like shampoo.
"Good thing the supervisor was asleep when we snuck in," a different voice added.
There was a rumour going around that since the dorm supervisor looked a lot like the teacher named Bartholomew Kuma, he might be a twin. But witnesses have said that they saw the same person somewhere in the city, which then led to the fact that this Bartholomew Kuma had clones.
Or cyborg clones. Whichever's the case.
Luffy opened the fridge in his dorm. "Don't we have food? I'm starving,"
The other people who were inside the dorm blared at him, "We just had a full course meal!"
"But that was two hours ago!"
"You glutton..." the freckled one facepalmed. "fine. Since we're all in here, as well, you could go order a pizza."
Luffy's eyes sparkled as he closed the refrigerator door, but he inched towards the other guy and pinched his cheek. Hard. "Ace, is that you?"
"Stop touching my face!" he turned to the other one who was simply watching. "Sabo, help me out!"
The dorm was nicely decorated. With three bunk beds on one side, a mini kitchenette filled with just the right amount of everything, a bathroom spacious enough, a large study table equipped with two monitors, and a living room enough for ten people, no one could ask for more. In fact, they also got the place for free since Luffy's father, Monkey D Dragon, was the one who purchased it for him. Or Sabo. Depending on the angle one would look at.
And yet...
"This stupid doesn't even have a nearby fast food!" Luffy frowned.
Sabo leaned back further on the couch. "Here. You seem drowsy."
"Drowsy?" the one who spoke earlier caught a can of ice cold coffee that Sabo tossed to him. "I'm not drowsy."
"Well you act like it, little brother."
Ace, on the other hand, was keeping an eye on the supervisor that was lurking outside their dorm.
It was 12 midnight. The dance ended two hours ago and neither of the three had the urge to sleep. As of the moment, Ace was itching to sneak out somewhere because he remembered the deal he and Isuka shook on. That would make the days after the dance more unbearable.
Meanwhile, Sabo was just chilling on the sofa. There were no programs on the television around midnight so he had no choice but to keep himself awake using the cans of coffee that Ace bought a few days ago.
Luffy dropped himself on the beanbag near the side table where the landline telephone was on. "Pizza, huh..."
As Ace had a glint on his eyes, Sabo immediately stood up. "No, it's already midnight. Who knows what kind of–"
"I can handle myself," Luffy said, swiftly. He was stating a general fact that one should know by now, especially his brother.
"I told you we could use a pizza," Ace chuckled.
Sabo sighed.
The next thing they knew was they were standing in front of a 24/7 fast food chain. Sabo still had a hand on his forehead, all while wearing a black hooded jacket over a white shirt. Ace and Luffy were practically waiting for him to enter, in which he replied with–
"We are so getting in trouble..."
Ace was the one who handled with the sneak out. By staying at tge blind spots of the surveillance cameras, which he hacked into with little help from Sabo, he managed to break the three of them out the dorms. The planning and sneaking out collectively took at most thirty minutes, if it weren't for Luffy tripping on almost every step. Even so, it was a surprise that Luffy obeyed the plan.
But then again...
It wasn't a pizza store. It was a normal fast food chain where burgers and fish and chips could be bought at any time of the day. Upon entering, Sabo immediately headed to one of the seats by the window.
"Happy now?" he turned to Luffy who was staring at the menu above.
Luffy nodded.
Meanwhile, Ace swiftly sat next to Sabo, leaving the empty seat opposing them for Luffy. He leaned back and stretched his legs as he also called out to their younger brother to 'hurry up or the dorm supervisor would catch them'.
Luffy hummed while he finally got to order his food, while Ace did the same, and Sabo remained on his seat. A few minutes passed and their food was on their table, with the two black haired boys almost drooling at it.
Sabo scoffed. "Hurry up so we can get back as–"
"Come on, Sabo." Ace said as he unwrapped his bacon cheeseburger. "It's our first time sneaking out. Think of this as our...celebration for our little brother."
That 'little brother' then looked at Ace with confused eyes. "What?"
Of course the two knew what he did at the dance. He didn't simply 'follow his heart'; he listened to it. And by doing so, he did the last thing his two brothers would think of him do.
"I saw you dip your partner," Ace swiftly replied.
Luffy didn't know what that meant but it troubled him. It troubled him to the point he was almost choking himself on the piece of bread stuck on his throat. Coughing to get it out, the two brothers exchanged glances while they talked telepathically. It wasn't possible, after all, but the way their expressions were similar to each other told other wise.
"I was dancing with her," Luffy stated as he drank from the water bottle. Relief.
"But it wasn't Boa Hancock," Sabo added. "She's your date, right?"
"Yeah. Until she was called to a, I dunno, meeting? With the other Warlords, she said."
Ace hummed. "I see..."
"But couldn't you just wait for her to come back?"
"Yeah, well..." Luffy trailed off as he remembered what happened back then. A certain orange haired girl dressed in an undeniably beautiful gown on the dance floor, seeming to let out her tears any time soon. The sight he had that time was one of those things that he didn't want to see, especially since he made a promise to not take away that girl's smile. Or else.
But he didn't recall that memory of the promise. During the dance, on looking at an obviously unhappy Nami, Luffy was acting on his instinct if not the first thing that came to his mind. And turns out, he was right.
"She asked me to the dance and I said no,"
The two brothers blinked. "Huh?"
"Nami." Luffy replied, crumpling the wrapper of his burger and placing it back on the plastic tray. "She asked me to go with her to the dance but I refused. I was already going with Hancock and I think she got sad."
"...and why were you worried?" Ace, nor Sabo, didn't hear his brother say that word but he knew he was.
"Because she's my friend! I did what I did during the dance to cheer her up,"
"So it's nothing more than an act of pity?" it was Sabo who threw the question this time.
"No! She's my friend, of course I'll cheer her up."
"..."
"..."
But it didn't change the fact that–
"But you kissed her,"
At that, Luffy acted super strange; he averted his gaze to the window and scratched the scar underneath his left eye. It was almost as if – no – he was fidgeting. Luffy was not that dumb not to know what a 'kiss' was, especially when one of his brothers had already done it to a girl, and that brother literally told him about it.
Ace cocked his left eyebrow and leaned forward. "What's wrong?" he had a small yet intimidating smile.
"Nothing," Luffy replied, his lips pouting; a very obvious sign that he was straight up lying.
"You take a different woman to the dance, to cheer her up, yeah?" Sabo grinned. He knew very well that it was because of him that Luffy came to knew what that gesture was.
It was a thing that a man does to a woman who makes his heart aflutter.
In other words, it was reserved for the woman who would make his chest tighten.
"Y-Yeah, well she's my f-friend." the lying Luffy stuttered.
"So if you were to cheer up Robin, would you do what you just did to Nami?"
The raven haired boy sitting across from where they were almost leapt out of his seat. "No! Why would I do that?"
"So Nami's special, then?"
"She's my friend! Of course it's my duty–"
"I feel bad for you, little brother." Ace sighed albeit quietly.
Sabo chuckled. "But remember what I told you about that, Luffy?"
Luffy remembered it well.
"Then does that mean Nami really makes your chest tighten...?"
Luffy, losing the argument with his brothers, turned to meet their gazes. His eyebrows were furrowed, serious about what he was saying. Though he didn't know what it actually was, his instinct told him it would be best to tell his brothers about it. He pursed his lips.
"Yup. She does,"
And with that, Ace let out a relieved breath and thump on the table as he exclaimed happily that–
"Our little brother's in love!" he shook Sabo's shoulder back and forth. But another set of words that came out of Luffy's mouth made them almost bang their heads on the table.
"Love? Isn't it normal to love your friends?"
No. Portgas D Ace and Sabo actually banged their heads on the cold table in front of them. Not to mention that the dorm supervisor would probably be checking the floors for the nth time that instance, and they've been violating the curfew hours yet again.