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Luffy, Nami, Sanji, and Robin had all reached the surface without issues. Their updated scuba suits Franky had made after laughing his ass off at their original barrel ones have worked like a dream to keep them dry and protected from the heavy ocean depths. The large treasure-filled chests dragged onto the deck were worth the day-long adventure on the dark sea floor.
Luffy was happy to remove the suit and finally stretch. Going treasure hunting on the sea floor was always fun, but damn does he feel cramped up whenever he gets back on the Sunny. He squints as the setting sun burns orange on the horizon, the warm light blinding after ten-plus hours of swimming in total darkness with only the blue scuba nipple lights guiding their way.
“Hat,” he barks out, stomach grumbling something fierce as he stretches his body into a noodly mass of limbs. Sanji was already in the kitchen frantically whipping up something heavy and delicious; Robin ate a cookie Brook had sweetly saved for her in two savage bites while Nami was lying face first on the grass and groaning that she was going to die if Sanji didn’t hurry up.
“Get it yourself,” Zoro says, wearing the straw hat on his green head while cleaning his swords at his usual spot on the bench around the main mast. Luffy grumbles and sinks to the grass floor in an exhausted sprawl, watching Usopp and Chopper poke at one of the dripping wet padlocks sealing a chest.
“It looks pretty old, a hundred years is my guess. Not sure if we can sell it like this,” Usopp muses as he fiddles with the salt-crusted padlock. “Oi, Robin! How valuable is this anyway?”
Cookie crumbs around her mouth, Robin says how the chests themselves were most likely tributes sent to the Celestial Dragons that were lost at sea hundreds of years ago.
“The padlock has the Celestial Dragons crest, the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon,” she explains, making Usopp and Chopper rip their hands and hooves away from the padlock with equal yelps of shock, “and the wood is still healthy and whole. Treasure Tree Adam is only used for ships and strongholds; anything else would be solely for aesthetic purposes of gifts for the Celestial Dragons.”
Franky, now fiddling with the padlock himself, grimaces with distaste. “What a waste of good wood.”
“Sell it, but we’re keeping the loot,” Nami groans out from her starved slump on the grass.
Brook dodges Luffy’s weak swipes at him with graceful jumps before reaching the downed navigator and offering the other saved cookie to her. Nami promised him a 50 percent raise with no taxes in pure gratitude, nibbling on the cookie Brook was hand-feeding her with weak little sniffles.
“Brook, you bastard!” Luffy yells out, betrayed and too weak to do anything about it. The skeleton superstar had the nerve to shoot him a peace sign and laugh.
Franky had managed to break all the padlocks without damaging the chests, flipping them all open to show giant jewels, golden cups, diamond crowns, gold and silver bars, and wet bags full of coins and wealthy ores. They were all worth in the millions, and the preserved wooden chests only made their loot even more valuable.
Everyone able to stand without swaying with hunger was crowding the chests with giddy excitement, Zoro jeering at them from his spot about how much they looked like greedy idiots. At the same time, Nami was pissed that she was too hungry to get up and touch the treasure herself.
Luffy just stayed on the grass and watched as some of the bags of coins were thrown his way when Chopper got too excited and kicked his hooves on the gold in a dance.
One spilled open and came out with coins very different from the others he’d seen. Unlike the regular gold coins with the World Government’s sigil and the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon stamped on, they were twinkling silvery-white and looked as smooth as silk. One side had the grinning face of a blazing sun etched in gold while the other side had a dark smiling moon in shiny obsidian.
“Oh!” Robin exclaims, excited as she goes over to look at the coins. “These match what the descriptions on the secret books deep in the Tree of Knowledge said the currency of the Kingdom of D looks like!”
Luffy zones out of her rambling of the Kingdom of D, too mesmerized at how sparkly the coins were in the glow of the setting sun.
“—did their best to destroy all traces of the kingdom. These coins might be the only ones in the world left, one of a kind!”
Nami immediately had berī signs glowing in her eyes. At the same time, Usopp nervously suggested they probably shouldn't carry coins from the World Government’s oldest victims.
Everyone else starts to debate what to do with these priceless coins, but Luffy doesn’t pay them any mind. All he’s thinking about now is Torao’s annoyed blushing face when Luffy caught him excited at getting the first coin of Wano made with the stamp of Momo’s pink dragon.
Torao looks away with a mulish frown and pink cheeks, holding the first coin of Momo’s Wano in his hand like a priceless gem. “I…like collecting coins.”
It was cute. Torao is cute.
Luffy snaps his teeth like an angry dog at Jinbe’s hands that were reaching to collect the spilled coins, exhaustion gone and replaced with protective anger.
Jinbe leans away with a surprised look, the others all confused at seeing their captain suddenly angry. “Luffy!? What—”
“No!” Luffy growls as he hunches over the bag of coins like a puffed-up cat. “We’re not selling or dumping or whatever with these coins!”
“Why the hell not!?” Sanji snaps, hands full with a big pot of savory soup, annoyed at Luffy growling at them like a damn mutt.
His body coiling around the bags of coins like a dragon, Luffy firmly explains that these one-of-a-kind coins would all belong to Torao and no one else.
“Got a problem with that?” Luffy grunts, ready to throw down if anyone steps up.
Instead of violence, his crew gave each other knowing looks and began to cheer in their own special ways:
Usopp, Brook, Chopper, and Sanji were loudly singing about Luffy and Law kissing in trees while Franky happily wept at what a smooth talker Luffy was turning out to be.
Jinbe and Robin congratulated him for finally taking the next step while Nami pouted at losing the chance to cash millions on the coins alone.
Zoro just gave him a thumbs up.
It took a couple of days for everyone to separate the coins from the rest of the loot, resulting in them having nine bags of priceless ancient coins from the Kingdom of D. The most preserved ones with little to no damage were stashed in a custom display chest Franky made with some spare waterproof rose-colored wood and matte metal hearts decorated all over. A courting gift, Franky called it with a pleased smirk while Sanji was reeling still at how much of a romantic Luffy was actually turning out to be.
It took a while to follow the Vivre card through the crazy New World waters. Still, the Straw Hat pirates eventually caught up with the Heart pirates who were waiting at a small neutral spring island. The whole time sailing towards them was spent with Luffy’s crew all fluttering around him in anticipation.
Usopp and Chopper were still singing love songs with Brook adding the instrumentals, the air constantly filled with their little concert as they serenaded about meat-headed idiots and scary tattooed mobsters.
Jinbe spent the whole time nostalgically musing about how young love truly is beautiful as he guides the Sunny through the waters, never missing the chance to ruffle Luffy’s hair and congratulate him on being a man and following his heart.
Robin and Sanji had been reading romance books together and slyly giving Luffy tips he didn’t understand.
“What the hell do flowers have to do with giving Torao special coins?” Luffy asked as he hung upside down like a bat from the library’s rafters. “Torao hates flowers!”
They both just ooh’d and aah’d with knowing smiles after he said that, much to Luffy’s annoyance.
Nami and Zoro just gave him a smug good luck and a toast with their tankards when they got close to the island. Franky was also no help, hugging Luffy tight enough to make him wheeze, sobbing that he’d make the altar for their wedding and happily help kidnap a priest to bless them if they needed him to.
Weirdos, all of them. Still, Luffy appreciated how eager they were to help him give Torao those cool coins, silly suggestions aside.
All of the Heart pirates can be seen on the island’s dock waving at them with various levels of excitement. The only calm person there wore a familiar spotted hat and a slight glower on his handsome face.
Like a cat seeing a mouse, Luffy rockets off the Sunny towards him with a wide grin. “TORAOOOO!!”
A firm Room! has Luffy splashing in a nearby tiny bird fountain in a panic, shrieking that he’s drowning as he fights the angry birds that were taking a drink.
“You took longer than usual,” Law says stoically to the amused Straw Hats over Luffy’s shouts from the bird fountain. “I don’t appreciate having my time wasted waiting for you like a damn subordinate!”
They’re left bickering as Luffy finally realizes he’s not drowning and is fighting a losing battle with some pissed-off birds. He’s barely waving off the pecking birds when Law Shambles him from the situation and inside the Polar Tang.
“Here,” Luffy hears before a towel is thrown at his face, Law striding quickly past him and further into the halls of the submarine. “Follow me, Straw Hat-ya.”
Luffy shakes the water off him like a dog before lying the towel over his straw hat, happy to finally have some alone time with the taller pirate.
The halls were a winding maze of metal and cold air, low lights at the floors painting the hallways a faint hypnotic blue as they reached the large bedroom doors. Law stands there stiff as a statue before forcing the door open, hunching his shoulders under his feather collard coat as he marches inside the dark room.
Luffy follows him in and closes the heavy door with a kick, snickering at the glare Torao shoots him from under his cute hat.
The room was big, bigger than the men’s barracks on the Sunny, and an absolutely cluttered mess. Law takes off his coat and places Kikoku on her stand as Luffy starts to shamelessly snoop around, hopping from one side to the next to get to whatever catches his eye.
He’s playing with a full-sized skeleton model when he notices Torao awkwardly standing there, staring at him with a funny look on his face. “Eh? What’s wrong, Torao?”
Torao says nothing, crossing his bare arms over the thin white tank top that clung to his chest. Luffy raises the skeleton’s arm and points it at the quiet pirate.
“Your siiiilence is kiiiilling me!” Luffy sings out as he pretends to be Brook, making the skeleton model dance. “I’m already dead though, yohohoho!”
He grins when he hears Torao huff a quiet laugh, peeking through the skeleton’s rib cage to see the taller pirate cover a reluctant smile.
“...Long Nose-ya and Racoon-ya were singing about us,” Torao finally answers, his covered smile replaced with a mulish frown. Gold eyes look away from Luffy’s earthy brown, Torao’s voice low with embarrassment and confusion. “Black Stealth-ya was also saying…that you have something for me?”
Luffy perks up and pushes the fake Brook aside. “I do, yeah!”
He hurries over while bringing up the bag he had strapped to his back into his arms, tripping over the organized chaos on the floor as he goes to stand in front of Torao. Luffy beams at him as he brings out the rose-colored chest with matte metal hearts decorating it all over.
“It’s for you!” Luffy says when all Torao does is look at the chest with a confused face. “I found it on the sea floor and knew it was the best gift for Torao.”
Torao sputters and steps back, staring wide-eyed at Luffy with his face red.
“W-What the hell are you talking about!?” Torao croaks, covering his blushing face with his hand.
“Open it,” Luffy says instead, waiting with rare patience until Torao cautiously reaches over with a slow reluctance to open the chest.
The embarrassed blush on his face bloomed into a softened awe, Torao gently touching the silken silvery-white coins glimmering in the low light of his bedroom. To Luffy, the grinning gold and obsidian of the sun and moon on the ancient coins were nothing compared to the glowing grin on Torao’s face.
“These are the coins of the Kingdom of D! Everyone thought they were lost with the lone kingdom’s destruction, but you found them!” Torao gushes as he grabs the chest and brings it closer to examine the coins. His gold eyes were shining as he looked at Luffy, his grin blooming into a delighted laugh. “You actually found them, Straw Hat-ya!
Luffy stares back, completely entranced.
He ends up sitting crisscrossed on the bed as Torao excitedly organizes his new coins to his display shelf, listening quietly to the taller pirate ramble facts about his coin collection and the limited edition Sora, Warrior of the Sea! comics framed on the wall.
Luffy feels warm. He feels so happy seeing the smile on Torao’s handsome face, listening with a wide grin on his own face as he sits quietly on the soft bed. Being the reason Torao was happy made Luffy want to cheer and dance, to reach his arms around the taller pirate and hold him close.
He wants to feel this soft and warm forever. Luffy wants Torao to smile like that because of him, always.
The thought made Luffy go still for a moment, a surprised look on his face at how strongly his heart was beating at the idea of having Torao smile that sweetly because of him. The desire to dance and cheer was stronger than he usually felt, and the desire to hold Torao close was heavy in his gut like the rumbly urge to eat.
Yet Luffy didn’t do any of it, his body still on the bed and his eyes stuck on Torao’s face.
Beautiful. Torao…is beautiful.
I love him , Luffy realizes, a quiet gasp leaving his mouth. I love Torao.
He sits in silence for a moment and another moment before he hums under his breath and softly smiles. A blush paints his cheeks pink as Luffy hides his face under his hat, giggling at the happy butterflies in his stomach.
He wants to scream it to the skies and declare it to the world just as he does with his destiny on the sea.
I am Monkey D. Luffy, I will become the King of the Pirates, and I am in love with Trafalgar Law.
Luffy pushes his hat away from his face and eagerly leans closer to hear more of Torao’s excited rambling, a matching grin beaming on his blushing face just as it was on Torao’s.
“Tell me more! I wanna know everything you like, Torao!”
And he does. He does for years on afterward.