Chapter Text
Luffy looked around the ball room he saw all kinds of people. They were all wearing fancy masks and dresses or suits. He loved festivals, all the new friends he could made and the adventures he got to know made him excited.
After a few hours of dancing and chattering he noticed a strange man on the side of the room. He wasn’t wearing bright or rather colourful clothes. A black and blue suit with golden accents as well as a white mask with black spots like a snow leopard. He hadn’t danced with anyone the whole evening even though a few ladies had clearly shown interest. The only glimpse of this stranger enjoying himself, he caught when a red-haired and black-haired men talked to him. Seemingly his friends.
Luffy himself could not understand how you could just stand on the side when you could be having fun while making new friends. He himself was wearing a red suit with a black under shirt. Sadly he needed to leave his signature straw hat in his guest room since Nami had lectured him about the fact that everybody would recognise him immediately. So instead he was wearing a red mask with black and golden accents.
After another hour his interest in the unknown man was peaked. He made his way through the crowd and walked up to the stranger.
“Hello, I’m Mo-“he began but quickly stopped himself, remembering that Vivi explained that you don’t tell your name firstly on a masquerade ball. He probably broke the rules already ten times anyway, that wasn’t important now.
The taller black-haired man looked at him a bit surprised as in a way he didn’t expect to be approached by him.
“Hello.” He replied shortly.
“You don’t seem to have much fun.” Luffy stated bluntly.
“You could say so.” He replied shortly without any attempt to keep this conversation going but Luffy wouldn’t let himself be shut down this easily.
“Why? The food is great! And it is so much fun figuring out who is under those masks. I really needed some time to figure out the one with to purple mask was my friend Robin or with the white and yellow mask my friend Sanji. To be honest his smoking habits gave it away in the end.”
“I don’t really like crowded places. It’s unnecessary loud and overwhelming.”
Luffy thought for a second about his words. He didn’t quite understand cause to him it was never like this. Why wouldn’t someone like spending time having fun with other people? He loved to hear laughing, talking and happiness. Suddenly an idea came to his mind.
“Do you like to dance?” he asked with a smile, offering his hand.
The other was a bit taken a back at the sudden offer.
“I think you will find a better partner to dance with.”
“I want to dance with you.” Replied Luffy persistent.
“You’re going to bother me till I dance with you or?”
Luffy only chuckled at the stranger’s response.
“One dance and then you leave me in peace” he sighed.
Luffy quickly grabbed his hand dragging him in the direction of the dance floor.
“Can I lead?” Luffy asked.
“Do what you want.” The unknown man tried to answer indifferently but inside those golden eyes he could see a glimpse of excitement.
They both got into position as the next song began to play a slow waltz. Normally Luffy would find this dance boring and would insist on another dance. This time he appreciated it. This way he could take a closer look at his partner.
He was taller than himself and a bit lanky from his build. On each of his ears he had two small gold earrings which matched his eyes. Luffy had never seen such intriguing eyes. He couldn’t really make out more of his face since the mask covered up everything till his mouth.
He had tattooed hands, and it seemed to go up his arms too. At one point the sleeve of his suit rid up a bit and he could see a white spot on his arm.
Luffy was a bit irritated at it but found it pretty in contrast to his tattoos and bronze skin colour.
Although as his partner realised his sleeve slid up, he immediately tensed and fixed it.
As the song ended Luffy was disappointed for the first time in his life that he needed to end a slow waltz.
What Luffy didn’t miss was that throughout the whole dance his partner had mustered him too.
Just as he wanted to convince him to dance another time with him someone crashed with laughter from behind in him shoving him against the other.
As he turned around as he saw it was his friend Usopp with the two man he saw earlier with his previous dance partner.
“You need to meet these two their jokes are unmatched” Usopp laughed.
Just as Luffy wanted to speak up the red-haired man spoke up.
“You really got the grumpy cat to dance with you, what’s you’re secret?” he said clearly more teasing the man next to him.
“Not funny. Have you two already find accomplices for your shenanigans?”
“Of course!” both answered in unison.
Luffy laughed at their answer while the other was seemingly stressed about what that could imply. The rest of the evening the five of them spend together.
It was already the next morning as Luffy returned to his guest chambers. Only throwing his clothes aside before crashing onto his bed and falling asleep.