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It was the end of the battle…and the beginning of the party. Even though Luffy hated being called a hero, he could never turn down the chance for a party and food so his crew stayed by him, enjoying the festivities of the festival to its fullest. Yamato was not too far behind them, having tagged along for until they left Wano. Luffy was so happy and satisfied with his results.
However, he did feel like something was missing. Torao wasn’t by him and he felt…wrong. So, Luffy told his crew and the Wano citizens doting on him that he’d be back soon and he went to search for his fellow captain.
Luffy climbed onto a building and after looking around very closely - and using some of his observation haki - his eyes caught on to the white and black-spotted hat that Torao always sported.
Immediately, Luffy flung himself from the building, aiming to land next to Torao. He laughed as he glided through the air. Torao’s crew member called Penguin pointed in the air at Luffy, having noticed him. Torao turned around in a panic only to get hit by a flying Luffy.
Luffy caught his footing just in front of Torao but he still hit Torao’s chin with his head in the process. That must’ve hurt! “Damn it Straw Hat!” Torao cursed him, holding his chin. “Ah, sorry Torao!” He chuckled, putting his hands on his hips and looking behind Torao at his crew. Some of them waved at Luffy and others glared. Luffy grinned at the sight of them but his grin wavered when he noticed they all were carrying boxes and going towards the Polar Tang docked nearby. He wanted to spend time with Torao!
Torao scowled and then turned around to walk with his crew members only to see them walking towards the Polar Tang, saluting at him. “Have fun captain!” Shachi said, causing the others to laugh. “Dammit you guys! I’ll be there in a moment.” He mumbled the end of his sentence and turned around to Luffy. “What do you want, Straw Hat?” His gaze was uninterested and honestly annoyed but Luffy chose to ignore that, smiling wide.
Luffy knew they were enemies now. He’s known since Torao’s said so and he accepted it without any issues. But if Luffy were to be honest, he still wanted to spend more moments with Torao. With his Torao. So, he took Torao’s hand gently into his own and his smile grew soft. He almost laughed when he saw Torao’s eyes flicker between emotions and his posture grew tense. However, he didn’t dare laugh, wanting this moment to stay tender just to convince Torao to come with him.
“I know we’re enemies. I’m not going to stop you from going.” He started, almost surprised at the gentleness of his own voice. “But come and enjoy the festival with me for a bit, okay? Let’s be friends for a little bit longer.” Torao opened his mouth but his throat only let out a small, weak sound. Luffy tilted his head.
“Fine.” Torao said after a bit, using his free hand to pull his hat down and cover his eyes. Luffy brightened right away, gripping tighter onto Torao’s hand and dragging him with him. “WOOO! Torao is gonna come with me to the party!” He announced, walking as he continued to hold Torao’s hand. They walked in silence for a bit longer.
“Straw Hat. You can let go of my hand now.” Torao spoke, trying to let go. Luffy looked over at him. “There’s a lot of people here! Torao might get lost.” He beamed. When Luffy looked into Torao’s eyes, he could see that Torao didn’t believe him. Luffy didn’t even believe his own excuse, he knew that he just wanted to hold Torao’s hand in his own hand once before he left.
Even though Law didn’t believe him, he just sighed and squeezed Luffy’s hand, walking next to him. “Alright.” Was his simple answer. Luffy first took Torao over to one of the food stalls. The person there marveled at the two ‘heroes’ and said their food was on the house, smiling wide and thanking them both for “Saving our nation!”. Luffy was gonna object…before he saw the food.
“Listen. We aren’t some heroes-” Torao began, staring into the stall owner’s eyes to intimidate him but was interrupted by Luffy pulling Torao towards the right, not letting go of Law’s hand to check out the food cooking in the back. “Ow! Straw Hat, don’t pull!” Torao hissed, holding onto his hurt shoulder but still not letting go of Luffy’s hand. The stall owner chuckled softly at the scene and Luffy raised his eyebrow at Torao.
“What would you like?” The stall owner asked excitedly, pulling up his sleeves ready to get them anything. Luffy looked away from Torao and stepped forward to slap his hand on the counter confidently. “I want all of the meat skewers you have!” He declared. The stall owner let out a loud laugh, ignoring the fact that he’d be losing all of his money this way.
“And you, sir?” He locked eyes with Torao. Torao was about to speak but Luffy spoke first. “Do you have any onigiri here?” He asked and the stall owner shook his head. “Afraid not, but the stall far over there-” He pointed towards the direction. “-makes incredible onigiri!”
Luffy prodded Torao’s side with his elbow. “You hear that, Torao?” He beamed wide. Torao rolled his eyes but a faint bit of a smile crossed his face. “Yeah, I heard.” Luffy turned back to the stall owner. “We’ll just go over there really quickly!” The stall owner nodded and as Luffy was taking off sprinting, Torao in tow, he heard him yell. “The meat will take about a half an hour! Come back then!”
“Can you slow down?” Torao growled, pulling Luffy to a stop using their shared hands. Luffy snapped back like an elastic, looking Torao in the eyes. “Sorry, Torao! I’m just super excited! Look at all of the food!” He insisted, letting go of Torao’s hand for a moment to put his arm around Torao’s shoulder.
Torao huffed. “Mhm? Well, calm down.” He told, looking down at Luffy fondly with a smirk. It made Luffy’s stomach feel like butterflies and Luffy took his arm off from around Torao’s shoulder to connect their hands again.
Going towards the onigiri stall, walking more slowly this time, Luffy kept on swinging their held hands, whistling as they waded through the loud crowd. But suddenly, a girl jumped in front of them, surprising both Law and Luffy and causing them to stop in their tracks.
The person that appeared proceeded to invasively grab Luffy’s other hand and start to shake it violently. “Oh my god, you’re Straw Hat Luffy aren’t you? Nice to meet you, I’m Haruko!” Luffy smiled at the newcomer while Torao glared at her. A weird duo that would usually make someone walk the other way. This oblivious woman was not one of those ‘someones’.
“Oh alright! Hey, Hemoko! Do you know where the onigiri stall is?” He asked. Harakko giggled even at the obvious butchering of her name. “Oh, no I don’t-'' Luffy cut their conversation short, not really caring about talking if she didn't know where Torao’s stall was. “Alright bye!” Luffy concluded, pulling Torao to start walking towards the direction of the stall.
Torao chuckled. “These people are annoying, huh?” Luffy clicked his tongue. “Only the people like that. Most of them just thank me really quickly and walk away.” He stated. Torao hummed. “The people I ran into tried to ask me on a date.” That caused the visceral reaction of Luffy sticking his tongue out in disgust. Luffy didn’t like that people would ask Torao out…he didn’t know why really.
“Gross. You didn’t say yes to any of them, right?” Torao shook his head. “No, of course not. Honestly, I didn’t even know you knew about dating.” He spoke, smiling softly when Luffy cast an annoyed expression at him. “Oh really? I know a lot about love-stuff! Makino told me everything!” Torao was amused. “Yeah? Like what?”
Luffy smiled proudly. “I know about crushes, dating, kissing, girlfriend, boyfriend, AND I know about mares!” Torao raised an eyebrow. “Mares?” Luffy was wondering if Torao didn’t know. “Yeah! The thing that comes after the boyfriend or girlfriend gives the ring to you?”
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.
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“Do you mean marriage? A mare is a girl horse.” Luffy went silent. “Oh yeah.” He remembered, slightly embarrassed when Torao laughed at him. Luffy shook that off quickly though when he spotted the stall. “Torao! The stall!” He pointed, shaking Torao.
“Are you trying to get out of the teasing?” Torao inquired, but Luffy didn’t respond, pulling him towards the stall. He stopped in front of the stall and as soon as the stall owner - a short woman - spotted them both her eyes brightened. “Oh how lovely! Thank you for all you did for our nation!” She smiled wide, not minding Torao’s annoyed expression and Luffy’s distracted self looking at the onigiri, not even registering the thanks.
“Can we have twenty onigiris?” Luffy requested with stars in his eyes. The stall owner perked up. “Wow! The rumors are true! You have an appetite to you. Tanichiru, can you make twenty onigiris for our heroes? They’re free by the way.” Torao didn’t bother to object and neither did Luffy as the food came out nice and lovely. Luffy was excited as he took the box of onigiri, pulled Torao away from the stall, and started to walk back to the meat stall, knowing the food would be done by now.
Torao picked up an onigiri from the box with his free hand and started to eat. Luffy glanced up and found himself captivated by Torao’s face. Even while eating, Torao looked beautiful to Luffy. From his sharp jawline to his strikingly gold-yellow eyes. It was alluring to Luffy. Captivating even. He found himself thinking about why that was.
Torao looked over to the side to see Luffy staring at him. Luffy felt caught and looked away, whistling. Torao either didn’t care or didn’t want to talk about Luffy’s staring and Luffy found himself successful as he looked back to see Torao going back to eating. He decided to watch where he was going instead of Torao since he didn’t want to be caught staring again.
Eventually, they found themselves back at the meat stall. The owner smiled and picked up about four bags full of meat skewers. “Here you go Straw Hat!” He said, heaving the bags over the counter for Luffy to grab a hold of. Sadly, he had to let go of Torao’s hand to do so.
Luffy waved goodbye to the store owner then Torao and him walked away. Torao stretched as he was walking, chewing on another onigiri. Suddenly he hissed when he stretched too much. “Let’s sit down somewhere, Straw Hat. I’m still not fully recovered from the battle.” Luffy shrugged. “Alright!” Torao grabbed Luffy’s arm, Luffy’s hands already full of the bags of meat skewers, already eating them. Then he started to take Luffy away from the crowd.
“Where are we going?” Luffy asked, confused at Torao taking him away from the party and slightly disappointed. “We’re going away from the crowd…I don’t exactly like people.” Luffy rolled his eyes. He could tell that. “Alright then.” He accepted.
They soon found themselves home on a flat rock outside of the town. They both sat down, Luffy consuming his meat skewers (and some onigiri) while Torao ate a couple more onigiri, stopping at his fourth one. Luffy glanced over at Torao to see him looking into the night sky.
Every once and a while he would take a large swig of what Luffy assumed was water out of the bottle he brought.
He looked like he was deep in thought, his eyes glazed over and his leg bouncing anxiously.
Luffy placed his hand on Torao’s bouncing leg. “You alright?” Luffy asked, watching as Torao jumped at the touch. Torao took Luffy’s hand off of his leg and sighed. “Yeah, I’m alright. Just thinking.” He went back to looking at the sky and Luffy scooted closer to him and joined him in watching the sky while eating at the same time.
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“Torao?” “Mhm?” Torao responded, still watching the sky. “It’s cool how you came with me.” Luffy spoke softly. “Yeah.” Torao replied. “I’m glad I did.” Luffy smiled. “I’m happy to hear that.” Torao nodded, sighing and laying himself on the rock.
Luffy eventually finished one bag of meat skewers and opened another. He tossed his forgotten sticks to the side where they would lay beside Torao. He saw Torao pick up a stick and fiddle with it, most likely bored out of his mind. Since Torao was bored, Luffy came up with an idea to make him feel less bored.
“Hey, Torao! Catch!” He said, getting up and throwing a stick at him. Torao caught it and looked confused before he saw Luffy’s hands open. He got up and shook his head fondly as he threw the stick at Luffy. Their game of catch went back and forth, Luffy even diving on the ground when Torao threw it down too far.
Soon Torao used his Devil Fruit, exchanging the stick with a rock. Luffy pretended to glare at Torao before going to look around for their stick to either continue the game or just to show Torao he was good at finding things. He didn’t really know.
Once he found it, he brought it back to Torao who was fully laid down on the rock, his yukata being used as a pillow. Luffy noticed Torao yawning. “Torao, are you tired?” He asked. Torao opened up one of his eyes. “Yep. It’s been a long couple of months, don’t you think?” Luffy nodded solemnly, remembering the flurry of adventures they’ve been on together.
Punk Hazard, Dressrosa, Zou, Wano. Luffy held these events close to his heart even if there were some sad or complicated times either caused by an enemy or just Luffy himself. Those times are times he would never change even if he could.
“I’m glad it’s over.” Torao said, causing Luffy to look at Torao. “The alliance?” Torao laughed. “Oh god no. That was one of my best-worst decisions ever…I mean all of the drama.” Torao opened both of his eyes and looked into the sky again, his face looking reminiscent. “So much has happened since we allied. Getting sappy is not how I like to do things but I appreciate what you’ve done.” He admitted, glancing towards Luffy. Luffy smiled widely. “Yeah! I appreciate you too Torao!” Torao smacked Luffy lightly on his arm. “Yeah? Well we’re enemies now, so remember that!” Torao recalled, smirking.
“Torao, I’m gonna miss you.” Luffy spoke honestly, looking into Torao’s eyes. He saw Torao’s eyes open wide for a moment before he got up into a sitting position with a grunt of effort. He looked away from Luffy but his tone was sincere. “You’ll learn to get over that.” He assured him, sounding nostalgic in a way.
Luffy continued to eat while they went silent.
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That night they got back to the Polar Tang, looking into each other’s eyes and knowing they didn’t want to leave each other. However, they split off anyway, accepting whatever’s to come. If it’s meant to be then they’ll see each other again. Luffy’s sure that Torao had the same mentality as him.
Luffy didn’t know why exactly…
But he wanted to see Torao again.
And then he wanted to kiss Torao.
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.
.
That could wait until later.