Chapter Text
Luffy stared off into the ocean, hands digging through the packed grains of sand underneath him. “Come in the water silly! It’s warm!” A shining bright figure called out to him. The sun behind the person glowed bright, yet somehow the figure outshined it. Luffy squinted, focusing on the shape until he recognized who it was.
It was Sanji, in all his radiant glory. He was splashing around in the current that met the beach, sand and sea water in his hair. He was wearing swim trunks decorated in whisks and cupcakes, but Luffy didn’t care about that. Luffy could only see his smile, his gorgeous, outstanding beam. Sanji looked as if he was having the best day of his life and it was for Luffy’s eyes only. He felt a lump form in his throat. He wanted to tell Sanji how beautiful he was at that moment. He wanted to have just an ounce of that joy Sanji had
“Sanji…” he softly called out, hand stretched out to reach for the other boy. Sanji turned to look at him, with the same wide eyed smile as before. The way he turned showed some of his other eye though it was blurry. Like the world was trying to hide it from him. “ Luffy!” he called out, muffled and gargled. Like he was underwater, though Luffy could see him clearly above. “Sanji!”
“Who the hell is Sanji?”
Luffy jolted up from his bed, heaving and sweating bullets. He frantically looked around for the person who dared to interrupt his perfect dream until his eyes landed on his brother, Sabo. Luffy threw his pillow, hitting Sabo square in the face. “Dammit Sabo! What do you want?”
“Well I did come to tell you to wake up for school or you’ll be late…but I’m more interested in finding out who this Sanji girl is.”
“He’s a guy, not a girl.” Luffy huffed, throwing the covers off himself as he got out of bed. Sabo chuckled as he sat on Luffy’s bed. “Sooooo…tell me about him.”
Luffy smiled a bit just thinking about him. He started to change his clothes, rolling thoughts in his head. He didn’t even know where to start. He didn’t even know if he could end it. “Well Sanji…Sanji’s the kindest person I have ever met. He shared his food with me on his first day!” Sabo held a finger to his chin. “Well I know how much you love food. He must be a special guy.l”
Luffy’s smile widened. It had been two months since he met Sanji now and he was definitely special. Sanji always knew what to say to make Luffy smile. He would always share food with him during lunch. He would always play games with him at their club. Sanji was special, more special than any other guy he's ever met.
———
Sanji held a flier out in his hand as he walked next to Luffy. “What’s this Homecoming thing about?” Luffy glanced over at the other, wearing his usual goofy smile. “Oh! Homecoming is kinda like a big party. Some schools have a football game or a dance, sometimes both. Our school just has a dance.” Sanji hummed, looking the sheet of paper over.
The dance was in two weeks, just a month before Christmas. Luffy had never been to Homecoming before. He opted out last year to play games with Zoro at his place. If he remembered correctly, this time last year was when-
“I think I want to ask Nami-swan to come to the dance with me.” Sanji said, completely interrupting Luffy’s train of thought.
“Why?” the shorter one asked, albeit, a bit too bluntly.
“Are you asking me why I would ask the most drop dead gorgeous woman to accompany me to a dance?” Sanji turned to look at Luffy, raising one of his eyebrows like he asked the stupidest question ever. Luffy didn’t look back at Sanji, shifting his eyes to stare straight down the hall. “I”ll make her special chocolates and everything. I know she’ll love it, my beautiful mellorine!” Part of Luffy couldn’t help but laugh. Sanji sounded completely delusional, but it was kind of cute in a way. The other part of him felt that jealousy again, the gnawing at the bottom of his gut that made it impossible to be completely happy.
If Luffy really thought about it, it was kind of silly. Sanji wasn’t his after all, well not completely. Sanji was his friend. Sanji was his classmate, but he wasn’t Luffy’s. So why would it matter that he wanted to ask Nami to the dance? “Well good luck with that Sanji.”
“Ughhh, I wanna go to the dance with Sanji! It should be me!” Luffy whined, body slumped over in his seat and face planted on the table. He was now at home, hanging out with Sabo. ‘Hanging out’ being used loosely since Sabo was currently playing games while Luffy was sulking at the kitchen table.
Sabo moved one of the ears on his headset to the side. “So why don’t you just ask him out to the dance?”
Luffy whined, sounding like a needy dog, “Yeah, but what if Sanji doesn’t like guys? What if I ruin everything?”
“I don’t think it’ll ruin everything if he’s as kind as you say he is.” Luffy didn’t respond to this, opting to sit in silence as he drew circles with his finger on the table. Sabo was right, Sanji was kind and wouldn’t hate Luffy for simply asking him to the dance. He decided it, he would ask Sanji at school the next day.
———
Sanji slid his lunchbox over to Luffy with a smile on his face. “Here, I made extra so you can have the rest.” Luffy's face immediately lit up as he began to dig into the food in front of him. He noticed Sanji often had leftovers. Why was he making so much food anyways? Well it didn’t matter because Luffy was now devouring all of it without much thought. Luffy’s eyes shifted over to see Sanji happily smiling at him while he ate. He quickly looked away, a slight blush dusting his cheeks. It was just a simple smile, so why did it ignite such a big fire in Luffy’s heart?
Now was as good a time as any to ask Sanji if he wanted to go to the dance. Granted, they were at a table with all their friends, so Luffy leaned in close to Sanji, his eyes looking up directly into Sanji’s one visible eye. Sanji instinctively backed up a little, eventually leaning slightly in to meet Luffy in a sort of huddle.
“So…” Luffy started, he tone on the shy side. “About the dance.”
“Oh yeah. I asked Nami, she’s goong with me. Isn’t that exciting!?” Sanji replied, a huge smile plastered on his face.
What did he just say?
“What did you just say?” Luffy asked in disbelief. Not that he didn’t believe someone other than him would want to go to the dance with Sanji. He was gorgeous, beautiful, all the words to describe something that took your breath away. What he didn’t believe was that Nami agreed. Luffy was about 99% sure Nami didn’t like guys. She showed some interest in Usopp, but Usopp wasn’ really a guy. He was kind of just…Usopp.
“Nami and I are going to Homecoming together. You’re coming too right? Do you have a date?” Sanji asked, eyes still locked on Luffy.
“Yeah totally. Its erm…it’s Zoro!” Fuck. Now he was going to have to ask Zoro to Homecoming which he definitely did not want to do. Sanji’s face changed into a scowl. “Ew that ugly mossheaded freak? You have terrible in men Luf.”
Oh if only he knew. Luffy grinned, slightly laughing. “You think?”
“Yeah. He smells, he’s stupid, and he doesn’t know how to dress.”
“Maybe next time I’ll ask Sanji instead.” Luffy watched as Sanji’s cheeks turned pink and he broke eye contact. He still had a slight smile on his face. “Yeah maybe…”
“You talking shit about me, pretty brows?!” Zoro yelled from the other side of the table. Sanji finally left whatever half assed hundle he and Luffy had going on to glare at Zoro. “Yeah and what if I was?”
“Don’t make me jump over this table and beat your ass!”
“Try me!” Sanji growled back. Luffy just laughed. Maybe the dance would be okay, even if he was to go with Zoro and not Sanji. He would still have all friends there.