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"So, what're you doin' today?" Ace asks Luffy from where he's sitting on the couch, as he slips his shoes on, backpack slung over his shoulder.
"Uhm… going to school." Luffy says. He does this everyday. Ace should probably know this by now.
"It's valentine's day, doofus." Ace throws a pillow at Luffy's face, and he doesn't even bother dodging.
"What time's day?" Luffy furrows his brows.
"That's not---" Ace starts, then stops himself, as if deciding that this really isn't worth the trouble. "You know, when there's pink and red everywhere, and people get chocolates and stuff. The day of love."
That brightens Luffy up immediately. "I get food?"
"You give gifts to someone special to you." Ace corrects.
Okay. That sounds… not as nice. But maybe they can share?
"Why haven't you given me anything?" Luffy pouts.
"Because you're my brother, valentine's day is for a different kind of love." Ace scoffs, his tone indicating that this is something much more obvious than Luffy feels it is, who feels like love is too big to be put into all of these boxes. "You know what, here." His brother says, ruffling inside his bag before finding what he needs.
"Give these to someone you love." He extends a colorful pack of lollipops wrapped in bright pink ribbons with hearts decorating the wrapper to Luffy. "Can't have my brother lookin' like he doesn't pull."
"Okay!" Luffy exclaims, grabbing the candy without a second thought. He'll give them to someone he loves (which is easy, because he loves a lot) and then take the rest. It's a foolproof plan.
"Steal a lotta kisses!" Ace calls right as Luffy runs out of the house.
Luffy finds Zoro during the first recess. He's in Mr. Dracule's classroom, which is where he usually is during these breaks, seeing as he's not allowed to go to the field for recess (because if he does, well… he's not coming back).
The classroom, to Luffy's surprise and delight, is absolutely decorated in pinks, reds, blacks and purples. Streamers hang from the lights, carrying strings of hearts, and ballons cover much of the ceiling, dangling colorful ribbons.
Zoro is hunched over a desk next to Perona, a big pile of red and pink envelopes, ribbons, and boxes that Luffy needs to inspect for possible food, between them on the table.
"Hiiii!" Luffy greets grabbing a chair and sits right next to Zoro, close enough that their shoulders are touching. "Whatcha doin'?"
"I'm being held hostage." Zoro deadpans.
"Don't be dramatic." Perona rolls her eyes. "What's the point of having all this stuff if no one knows about it!" She gushes.
"Yeah. Against my will." He scoffs.
Perona smacks the back of his head.
"I didn't think Mr. Dracule would be into all the pink stuff." Luffy thinks out loud, taking another look at the classroom.
"Oh, it wasn't him." Perona scoffs. "As if that man would hang up a single balloon for the universally celebrated day of love! This is all my doing."
"Waste of plastic, if you ask me."
"Good thing no one asked you then, mosshead!" Persona sticks her tongue out at him.
"What'd you call me?" Zoro whips his head around to growl at the girl, who takes a quick step back.
"This is for you," Luffy extends the green lolipop to Zoro, half to intefere with the cat-fight, and half because he's getting bored. He plants a kiss on the boy's forehead (because it's the biggest empty space on his face), following Ace's advice. "For valentine's day!" He quickly clarifies.
Zoro's disgraced expression quickly melts back into that blank, furrow-browed he usually wears, and the green haired boy only blinks at the gesture.
Perona looks much more excited about this than the actual guy who got the gift. "Awwwwww!" She cooes, her pink updoe swirling right and left as she moves. "Is this your first valentine's?"
"Shut up, it is not." Zoro scoffs, quietly accepting the candy and twirling it between his fingers, his face now concerningly flushed. "I'm just not a show-off like you, I get shit all the time."
"Sure, sure." Perona soothes, patting his head.
"Here, take one of these." Zoro shoves the pile of cards and candies towards Luffy.
Luffy gasps in excitement. "Woah, thanks!" He giggles, grabbing more than one.
"Hey, those are mine!" Perona complains, though she doesn't make a move to take any of them back.
Luffy waves goodbye to the both of them as he leaves the room, chocolates and pretzels in hand.
Nami and Ussop are both sitting outside, on one of the picnic tables by the field that's more dirt and rocks than it is grass.
They also have a big pile of gifts between them, and both of them have looks of concentration on their faces, as if they're working through a hard math problem. They barely even pay him a glace as he takes a seat beside them. Nami is dressed like they're going to prom, wearing a frilly pink dress that matches the ribbons in her hair, and dangly heart earrings to match.
"What do I do with the cards?" Ussop asks her.
"One's from girls go here." Nami taps a stack of cards beside her. "Check for cash or cards in the others. If there's nothing, throw 'em away."
"Ah, okay." Ussop nods.
"Woah, that's all for you?" Luffy's jaw drops as he takes in the amount of wrapped chocolates, flowers, and cards. It's at least twice what Perona had.
"Duh." Nami laughs.
"How'd you get that many people to give you stuff?"
"I'm hot as fuck, Luffy."
Luffy frowns. "That doesn't sound very special."
"Money doesn't have to be special." Nami informs him with an eyeroll. "Trading these gift cards in for cash will easily pay off electricity this month."
"I don't have a gift card, but I did get ya something!" Luffy grins, pulling out the orange… orange flavoured lolipop.
"Aww." Nami's composure breaks as she melts into a genuine, flattered smile as she looks down at the candy. "While it is kind of disheartening to know you don't think my love has a price tag, I'll accept this."
Luffy grins and nods, having absolutely no clue what the words that came out of her mouth meant.
"And here's yours." Luffy picks out the yellow lolipop, and hands it to Ussop, who blinks in shock. "I'm not sure if it's lemon or banana or---"
"I get one too?" He asks, accepting the gift.
"Well, duh! You're both special to me." Luffy says, leaning forward to give Nami a kiss on her cheek, then moves to give Ussop a kiss on his nose. "There." He says triumphantly, arms on his hips.
Ussop frowns a little. "Now I feel bad. I didn't get you anything."
Luffy waves him off.
"Hmm, wait. Come 'er." Nami snaps, shoving her hand in the large pocket of Ussop's overalls, recieving an indignant hey from the boy in the process. She pulls out a little half-painted gadget, setting it on top a large heart-shaped lolipop, and hands them both to Luffy with a grin.
"Awesome!" Luffy laughs as he takes them into his arms, then without faltering he asks, "what's the thingy?"
Ussop huffs. "I don't have a finished name for it yet, because it's unfinished," he shoots Nami a look, "but imagine instead of using a straw to spitball, you have a rubber band gun with twice the firepower." He explains proudly.
Luffy's jaw drops as he looks down at the… it's still a thingy. "So cool!" He giggles, holding it closer to his chest.
Ussop preens at the compliment, "yeah, yeah. Take care of it!"
"I will, thanks you two!" Luffy grins, arms a little heavier.
After scouring the hallways during the second break, Luffy finds Sanji in the home ec room.
He's carefully garnishing the fanciest plate of greens Luffy has ever seen, though that pales in comparison to the small dish of sliced meat beside it, along with a few other plates of fruit and heart shaped macarons.
"Woahhhh!" Luffy exclaims, practically jumping on top of the table in anticipation. "When'd you have the time to make all that?"
"I didn't make it here, this masterpiece has been in the making at the restaurant for a few days." Sanji tells him. "I'm only plating it right now, for Nami." He sends Luffy a pointed look.
"What is it?"
Sanji's brows raise a little as he clears his throat, "This is a little arugula pomegranate salad, with a special balsamic dressing I've been working on perfecting for a few weeks now."
"I'd eat anythin' you made me!" Luffy informs him excitedly.
Sanji rolls his eyes. "I know, Luffy. This isn't for you." He reiterates once more.
Luffy only deflates a little.
Sanji looks him over apprehensively, hopefully feeling some kind of guilt for the heartbreak he's causing Luffy. "…I only need half of these anyway." He sighs, using a pair of chopsticks to take a portion of the beautiful, gorgeous, delectable, expertly sliced beef and carefully arrange it into a small glass container. "Be careful with it. I want the container back tomorrow, got it?"
Luffy's face breaks into the world's biggest grin as he nods with vigor, and he grabs the container faster than he's grabbed anything in his life.
He takes Sanji's palm, the one that handed him the food, and plants a kiss on it.
Sanji's face goes through the motions of looking confused, dumbfounded, then horrified, quite quickly.
"Thanks Sanji!" Luffy laughs once the boy's expression smooths back into some semblance of normal, though his brow never uncurls. "Here's your lolipop, too!" He places the blue raspberry lolipop beside the dishes.
Sanji glaces down, taking the candy in his hand curiously. "You're welcome, now get out." He waves him off, smoothing down his apron with none of his usual heat.
"So, who'd you give your gift to?" Ace asks him when they're walking home in the evening.
"Which one?"
"The… candy I gave you, dude. Don't tell me you ate them all."
"I didn't!" Luffy assures him, because even though he was tempted the entire day, he listened to instructions, ugh. He got a whole lot more in return, though, so it's alright. "Well, I gave lime to Zoro, orange too—"
"Wait, you handed them out?" Ace asks, stopping in his tracks.
"You told me to give them to someone special." Luffy tilts his head in confusion. "I have lots of special someone's, so I gave one to each of them!" He explains. It's pretty sound logic.
"You can't do that." Ace says with a frown.
"Why not? It's not like I could pick between them, I love them all." Luffy laughs. That would be so mean.
"And all of these special someone's know about each other?" Ace asks skeptically.
"Well, duh."
Ace thinks about this, humming then shrugs. "Then it's alright, I guess. Whatever makes you happy."
"Oh, I'm so happy, look at what I got!" Luffy brings his backpack to his front, unzipping it to show his brother the contents. The bag is filled to the brim with all his friend's presents, and Luffy is beaming as he presents
"Holy shit. Someone gave you all that?" Ace laughs.
"Many someone's." Luffy corrects, zipping his bag back up.
His brother shakes his head in disbelief. "You know, maybe you've got the right idea."
"What idea?" Luffy asks with a tilt of his head, words muffled by the chocolate covered pretzels he's shoving into his mouth.
"Don't worry about it."
"'Kay." Luffy shrugs, then his brows fly up. "Wait a minute!" He stops in his tracks, again.
"What's up?"
"This…" Luffy bites his lip, looking at the last lolipop in his hand, a cherry-red, before extending his hand to his brother. God, this is hard. "For you. I know you said valentine's day was for a different kind of love, but that's kinda stupid." He informs his brother.
Ace snorts, accepting the lolipop with a swipe. "Are you really throwing what I gave you back in my face?"
"It's a gift! I'm giving!" Luffy pouts.
"Yeah, I guess you are." Ace says, a little quieter.
Luffy grins, satisfied, and picks up the pace.
He's got snacks to get through.