Chapter Text
Overstimulation is something Sanji feels pretty much constantly.
The strong scents all around the Baratie, all different moods, different characters. The food, the drinks, people all around. The unnecessary attention all around. On the bad days, it was also about irritated skin and ruined mood mixed with a need of love that he unfortunately never had that made him feel so pissed that other cooks avoided to even meet his eyes.
Serves them right, these bastards.
He was in the middle of making another meal for an arrogant couple from the table 12, when Zeff came by just to piss him off. “You’re doing it wrong, little eggplant,” he huffed, when Sanji felt his scent behind his back.
Sanji smashed the potato harder.
He just wanted to get back to his nest. Is it too much to ask for?
“Oi Sanji! A client from table 5 asks for you. Didn’t like your food probably,” Carne says with a smirk way too wide, and just when Sanji felt his heart sink, Petty smacks Carne’s head to add: “He’s fucking with you, the client loved your soup seasoning too much, go check on him.”
Sanji swears under his breath, throwing a used towel on the counter, before stomping off to the restaurant dining hall. He felt pairs of eyes landing on him when he came out of the kitchen, and he proceeded to walk as calmly as possible to the table under number 5, which was right beside the window. The sunset light was hitting yellow curtains beautifully, and goddammit are those two alphas.
Shit. He was hoping on a couple. Or at least someone retired. But these were clearly two young, unmated alphas with aggressive smells and they were bickering.
Of course they were.
While walking up to them, Sanji could hear something about the black haired one being an idiot, but unfortunately or not the restaurant is not that big and Sanji reached them in a short time.
Not really sure how to behave, he stands before the table awkwardly, then clears his throat. “May I help you with something?”, he asks, and the two heads snap to him instantly.
The moss-like headed guy just stared at him for a second, and seemed to be going to say something, but his buddy interrupted him with a loud sound that Sanji can only identify as a sign to run.
“Woah! You’re the cook?” The black haired one asked, leaning forward. His eyes were wide like he was a forth-grader finding a very cool beetle in the backyard.
“Yeah, uh-”
“Awesome! Listen, this soup is awesome, alright? I rarely eat anything except meat” – wait what? Nothing except meat, what is he, a bear? - “...without complaints but this is so awesome I have none! I want another one! No, two! You can bring seven at once!” – excuse him, SEVEN? - “...And also this salad is sick, I never knew salads can be so creative! I thought they were just cucumbers and tomatoes and something.” – what the hell - “Also, can you bring a pizza? Like, the spiciest you guys have. It wasn’t enough in the end. And also this-” The guy got smacked in his head, interrupting this soup of words. “Ow! That hurt, Zoro!”, the black haired one whined, and his friend – Zoro? – leaned back with a sigh. He looked at Sanji.
“Sorry for that, I know he’s unbearable. He just really liked the food,” He said bluntly, side-eyeing his friend. “Right, Luffy?” oh, so his name was Luffy, okay-
“Right! It was awesome. And also you’re very pretty.”
That gotten him another smack. Luffy let out a mad growl, which got Sanji an instinctive shivering, and Zoro hissed, hitting his head for the third time. “Get some manners, you idiot!” He turned to Sanji, who clearly was uncomfortable by now. “Sorry. We’re sorry- are we sorry, Luffy?” he glared at his friend, and Luffy, surprisingly, lowered his head.
“M. Right. Sorry.” he was almost pouty, and Sanji almost thought it was cute. In a second, Luffy perked up again, looking up at him. “But seriously, you look awesome! Like a candy or something, I don’t know,” he mumbled the last part, but his face was way too excited for an alpha out of his teenage years. Was he kept in a basement his whole life?
Sanji doesn’t know how to deal with this type of attention. He got it all the time, sure, but those were jerks. He could tell them to fuck off.
This guy doesn’t look like a jerk. Which feels honestly really foreign.
Sanji’s almost sure he’s blushing, and his hand uncontrollably flies up to his face. To fix his hair? Or cover the part of the face. Seconds pass by and this is getting embarrassing. He doesn’t want to run off but he also kinda does, and his whole nature screams danger, because random alpha clients are not someone to trust.
Seconds keep to pass by. “um, thank you?” sounded way too awkward, and Sanji kind of wants to hide in a locker.
He feels a sudden smell of tangerines, and thank god. Thank god.
“What is going on here, boys?” Nami smoothly walked up to them, leaning on Sanji’s stiff shoulder. He leans into the touch, letting her familiar scent, the safe omega scent, wash over him, and suddenly he’s calm again.
Nami’s smile is evil, and she stares the guys down. “No problems, miss,” Zoro says. “we were just about to go.”
“Yeah, and I also wanted Sanji’s number,” oh right, Sanji had his name on his uniform- wait, what did he just say?
What?
Nami’s frown deepens, and she gets openly defensive, but Luffy’s gaze is way too sincere. He looks up at them, unhinged. Zoro looks at him like he’s an idiot.
“He won’t give you his number, just go home,” Nami says, but Luffy’s frown only deepens. Sanji does not want Nami to get in a conflict with an alpha for him, and he kind of starts to panic. A little.
But Luffy is surprisingly calm. “I mean, its not for you to decide, right?” Luffy said, slightly confused. Then he smiles wide. “But its okay! I will just ask again later.”
“Okay, we’re going,” Zoro got up, took his friend by the collar and tugged him up. He left a handful of cash on the table, a lot more than he should have, and, with a bit of Luffy protesting, pulled him out of the restaurant. Zoro showed them a stiff salute, and so they leave the restaurant.
What a mess.
Nami sighs, patting Sanji’s shoulder, and he finally exhales. He realizes he’s been tense all this time.
“What a creep, this guy,” Nami says, pouting a bit. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about me,” Sanji replied with a small smile. “Took me off guard, that's it. Lets check their bill.”
Nam gives him a bright smile with her glossed lips and they go to the terminal.
It turned out that their bill was huge. But they gave too much money anyway.
Sanji is holding the cash in his hands, staring at it in awe. He’s not poor or anything, but… money like this rarely get into his hands randomly. Zeff doesn’t want his restaurant to be too expansive for people to eat in, so they don’t really have a lot of income for themselves. The restaurant makes just enough for the food to be the best quality and for the stuff to have the minimum of comfortable income, making the prices almost ridiculously low.
That's why being under Zeff’s care Sanji haven’t really experienced times when they didn’t have to plan their monthly spendings ahead. Its okay. That made him financially smart.
Yet, the money in his hands that basically fell on him without warning, the biggest tip he had in his life… its not like he really knows what to do with them. This day is really weird.
Right. This is why after the end of his shift he proceeds straight to the home goods store.
He wanders through the shelves of the cozy little store he likes to go to from time to time. The blankets, cushions, scented candles, some cute stuff – all of that is in stock here, and he likes to go through the shelves even when he doesn’t really have money to buy anything there. Today, though, he has.
Something leads him to the left corner of the store, dedicated to blankets of all different kinds. Fleece blankets are the best, and he notices a couple of really soft-looking ones. He touches the blue one, then the white one, frowning to himself, focused on his analysis.
Blue will do best, right. He feels like it would be better.
With a small huff, he grabs it and wonders off to cushions, grabbing two small, but really elastic ones. His favorite nest cushion got way too weak and flat, so he needs something to replace it.
He spends half of today’s tip, and, satisfied and warm in his heart, walks home.
When he walks to his door, he makes sure to check the mail. Then puts his keys into the lock and unlocks the door, walking in.
The deep, strong scent of his own fills his nostrils, and he exhales deeply. Humming, puts his coat on the tab, gets his shoes off and head straight to the laundry room.
While the freshly bought goods were being washed, he cooked himself a dinner, ate it and had time to even clean the dust in his small bedroom. He pulled out the blanket and the cushions fresh and hot, already dry, thanks to his awesome washing machine, and took it all to his sacred place.
His nest, the only perfect place on Earth according to his very not timid opinion.
He feels the purr picking up even before he lowers himself in there, carefully stepping in, not to disturb the arrangements of the blankets in there. Sanji puffs up the blanket and pushes it into one of the corners in the pile. When he manages to find the best position for it, he huffs with satisfaction and moves on to the pillows. Places them in another corner, so he can have the pillows anywhere his head falls on. Satisfied with his work, he plops down, purring full-on now, and places his heater to boiling. He stares at it as the electricity boils the water inside, and it turns off, before tugging it under his old, worn out favorite blanket along with him, and presses it to his belly. He curls up, blissed.
When he opens his eyes next time its 3am and he seemingly forgot to turn off the lights in the kitchen.
He moans when he understands he has to get up, or the electricity bill later won’t be that kind to him later.
He wiggles out of the pile of blankets, tugs his robe on and wobbles out of the room.
Then he hears some weird noises from his damn kitchen and freezes.
He lives alone. He doesn’t have a cat. Or a dog. And he’s certain he didn’t leave anything on the edge of anything for it to fall down later.
What the fuck in the world was that noise.
He doesn’t take anything to defend himself – his punches are actually quite strong – so he just tries to quietly peek in, take a look at his kitchen.
When he walks to the doorway, he already feels a faint smell of an alpha, weirdly familiar to him. And of course, walking in, he sees that guy from today sitting at his couch like its HIS couch. Which is not. Its Sanji’s fucking couch. How was his name again? Luffy? Right, Luffy, what the fuck?
“The fuck are you doing here, you creep?” Sanji hisses out, looking at him. The alpha, who looked tired before, snaps his head up in surprise. “Literally what the hell? Did you break in? I’m calling the fucking police, you jerk, oh my god,” Sanji shouts out, already turning on his way to his coat to search for his abandoned phone.
“Nooooo-no-no-no- wait, its not-” Luffy stumbles up off the couch, running to catch Sanji’s robe. “Don’t call anyone, okay? Its not like a wanted to be here, also,” He whines, lips pouting. He grips Sanji’s shoulders with too much force. Sanji tries to wiggle out, starting to panic.
“Let me fucking GO!” Sanji yells out, ending up giving Luffy a juicy, loud slap on his cheek. Luffy backs off, oofing and holding onto his cheek. Sanji’s panting, closing his robe and catching his breath. “The fuck did you come from anyway?” He mumbles, looking at the man suspiciously. For a moment he has a thought that he hit him too hard.
“Nahh…” Luffy breathes out, leaning back. “Oof. You got a harsh hand, huh?” He mumbles. “Well anyways. I live at the next floor with two of my brothers, actually. We moved in not long ago,” He straightens out and gives Sanji a bright, wide smile. “One of them is kinda pissy, though. He caught me on eating the food prepared for tomorrow out of the fridge, got all pissed off and threw me out.”
Sanji blinks, frowning. He could believe in the coincidence of living with the man in the same house, but… “This still doesn’t explain why the fuck you’re here, you know. Why the hell you went to break in to another apartment? Its a crime!”
Now Luffy looks offended. “Well, its kinda hard, you know! I’m not made of rubber, man, jumping out from the balcony sucks enough! I wouldn’t handle jumping on the street, I would brake somethin’,” he says. Still rubbing his cheek. “Was easier to just slip into the apartment below and sleep on the couch. I wasn’t going to be an intruder or somethin’.”
Sanji’s mouth gapes. “The window??? is your brother out of his mind??” He gasps, looking at him. Luffy shrugs. He exhales. “Well. That’s crazy. Okay, listen, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep anymore. With you here, at least. Can you go apologize or something?”
Luffy picks his nose, which makes Sanji squint, and leans on the wall. “Nah. He’ll cool off till tomorrow. Then he’ll feel bad and cuddle me the whole morning probably.”
Sanji nods, not certain what he really needs to do.
Luffy beams all of a sudden. “Anyway! Its you from the place, right? Sanji,” He says, and the way he pronounces his name makes Sanji shiver. “Told ya we’d meet again.”
“You never told me that,” Sanji answers, dry.
“I did,” Luffy frowns.
“You didn’t.”
“But I did!”
“You did not- wait, this is pointless, gosh,” Sanji breathes out. The existence of a weird stranger alpha whatever in his apartment is disturbing enough. He’s lucky this guy didn’t try to do something to him yet. Alphas are usually so grabby, gross, forceful and make him feel unsafe and there is nothing stopping Luffy from making him feel unsafe and-
He shivers at the thought, then clears his throat. “Okay. Alright. Maybe you want food or something? I could make something for you…” He bites his lip, looking down. The hell he’s saying? Just kick him out.
He looks like a kicked puppy, though, this guy.
“...as a thank you for the tip, yes. I could make something. You said you liked my food?” He already moves to the fridge, looking at the stuff he has there. He remembers having some meat left…
Luffy perks up, following him and plopping on the armchair, tucking his legs under himself. “Yes! Your cooking is fire. I wanted to stay for more, but Zoro didn’t let me,” he whines, leaning back.
Sanji at him with a frown over his back, while closing his fridge with food in his hands. “You kept saying stuff about me, not my food.” He mumbles, walking to the counter to wash the ingredients.
Luffy shrugs, watching him. “I tend to not keep my mouth shut. If I see someone pretty, I will say that I do,” He says, not a drop of regret in his eyes.
Sanji feels his cheeks heat up, but he doesn’t stop what he’s doing. He just hopes his ears aren’t red. “You really just say whatever comes to your mind, huh? Don’t you ever regret your words?” he asks, trying to tease? Or not? He is not sure.
“Nah,” a pause. “One day said I’d never work in a government like my gramps does, and I still don’t. Today said that you’re pretty and still think so,” He answers, rocking back and force, watching Sanji work. He smiles wide, and Sanji can feel his back being hit with it. Sanji bites his lip, not sure how to answer.
“Stop talking nonsense and bring me a bag of potato from the pantry,” he mutters, throwing the meat onto the cutting board a little bit too hard.
_
Luffy stayed with him until morning and Sanji didn’t sleep that night any more. The man stuck to him like clay and kept chattering about everything at once, which was weirdly charming. In the end, Sanji found out that Luffy’s family is apparently really weird, that he dislikes cherry pies to death and that he has a collection of pretty rocks and seashells he was collecting since age 5.
Cute. Too cute. Disturbingly cute.
When Sanji finally got to kick him out, it was already past sunrise. Sanji was leaning on the doorway, watching Luffy putting on his shoes. He felt a warm tingle in his chest, something familiar and foreign at the same time. Confused, he keeps his frown on.
“See ya later, Sanji,” Luffy smiles wide, before pulling him in tight, strong embrace. Sanji, surprised and flustered, has gone stiff. He even felt Luffy nuzzle his neck a little bit, which is completely improper, but he was standing there, frozen, until Luffy pulled away.
Giving him one last chuckle, Luffy ran out of the door and banged close.
For some reason Sanji feels like he won’t be left alone anymore. This makes him shiver as he locks the door.
-
“How much more times should I tell you that?” Sanji huffs, aggressively closing the fridge. He turns around, and the dress skirt ruffles around his legs. He stares at Zeff with anger. “Quit talking about it! It pisses me off,” He mutters.
“Just sayin’,” Zeff mumbles in response, cutting onions. His shoulders are broad and stiff. “You could have a good husband. Having a partner is important.” Listening to the silence and practically feeling Sanji’s glare on his skin, he sighs. “Not talking about kids and stuff, eggplant. Life just would become much easier, y’know?”
Sanji looks for another while, before proceeding with what he was doing. “I don’t need anyone in my life, friends are enough. If I have good friends, I’ll never need a partner.”
Zeff huffs in response, giving him a shoulder squeeze. “Fine, whatever you say. Geez, kids these days,” he mutters, finishing the dish. "You can't run from past forever, eggplant," Zeff states, frowning, before walking off.
-
“Nah, this is such a classic,” Nami chuckles, packing up. She has a new coat, this time brown, Sanji notices, and she doesn’t look really tired today. Sanji’s glad. “Parents are all like that. Relax.”
“He’s talking about this for several years now, god! I’m exhausted. I don’t want a fucking husband!” Sanji sighs, frustrated. He puts his shoulder bag on and checks if he took everything with him. Phone, keys, the wallet… seems fine, so he wears his coat and heads out with Nami. “I mean, what can they even be good for? Their emotional intelligence is low, they’re lazy, shameless and demand sex without thinking that their partners should get pleasure, too. Why do I even need such a nuisance in my life?”
“There are some good ones, you know,” Nami gives him a look, as they exit through the backdoor. Its cold, and the snow is bright white.
Sanji glares at her, unimpressed. “Your Robin is an exception. Her IQ is abnormally high.”
Nami chuckles in response. “True, but this just means that you can end up with someone like that, right?”
“I really doubt it,” Sanji huffs. “its better to date an omega nowadays, honestly. Sadly, not my cup of tea.”
Nami hums, nodding. “Valid,” she says, as she comes up to her car. “See you later, honey. Take care,” She blows him a kiss, and he does it back. As she rolls off to the road, Sanji pulls out his headphones to brighten up his way home.
-
He’s a strong man, alright? He can carry stuff. His legs are really strong. But his hands? Kind of delicate. Too delicate for 2 grocery bags per hand that cut down on his wrists and fingers and make his skin irritated.
He curses while going up the stairs, and nearly bumps into another man who goes down. The man looks caught off guard, stopping, and Sanji sighs while putting the bags down. He rubs his wrists, leaning down.
“Woah, you okay there?” The playful voice can be heard from up, and Sanji tsks under his breath, looking up.
The alpha before his eyes is really handsome, right.
He’s sure he blushes just slightly, but he straightens up, brushing off the invisible dust from his knees. “Yeah, um… sorry.” he feels awkward enough to burn down to ashes right now.
But the alpha smiles, seeming to be very sweet. “Here, let me help you,” he says, taking the bags in his muscular hands. Sanji wonders how old is he.
“There really is no need,” Sanji mumbles, but his poor hands are talking for themselves. He lets the man take his bags, and he does it way too effortlessly, in Sanji’s opinion. He’s even a little bit jealous.
“I live on the fifth floor, so…” He muffles awkwardly, not really sure what to say. He goes on further up the stairs, and looks over his shoulder to make sure that the alpha follows him. “Name’s Sanji, by the way. We’re neighbors, I suppose? You can come by sometime if you want, I owe you,” he manages to say.
“Ace,” The man flashes a smile, cheerfully following him. “Don’t bother about it, Sanji. I’m happy to help! I live on the sixth,” He adds. “Moved in with two of my childhood friends recently, heh. Hope we’ll get along,” He hums, looking up at Sanji.
Oh. two of his… well, this can’t be a coincidence, huh? But… didn’t Luffy say they were his brothers?
Never mind, its not the right time for questions like this. “You can come by, I cook sometimes,” He says, trying to at least appear friendly. God, he hopes he doesn’t look like a timid one. Ace seems to be such a nice guy.
The alpha flashes him a smile, and this is about the time when they reach Sanji’s apartment, surprisingly quickly. Sanji unlocks it and lets Ace place the bags on the floor of his corridor. He straightens up quickly to look at Sanji with some cheekiness in his smile. “Absolutely. Will not miss the opportunity to visit such a sweetheart,” He murmurs, winking at Sanji. He blows him a kiss and rushes off, waving him goodbye and leaving Sanji standing here, flustered and caught off guard.
Sanji pressed his lips together and decided not to think about it. Yet, he spent the whole evening in his nest, purring so hard his own ears vibrated.
-
“Hey hun, I’m home,” Ace yelled, feeling a strong vanilla scent from the living room. He quickly throws clothes off and rushes into there, and a wide, sincere smile gets onto his face by itself.
Sabo is still in his black suit, in the armchair, with a cup of coffee in his hands. His calm eyes rise at Ace, and Ace feels like the luckiest man on Earth just to get his attention.
He throws himself onto Sabo, pushing his head into Sabo’s stomach. If he could purr, he would absolutely do it right now. He hears a sound of the cup hitting the glass table, and Sabo’s hand ruffles his hair. “I missed you so bad. These assholes are so annoying,” He whines.
“Work is work, huh,” Sabo murmurs, sliding his hand over Ace’s hair. “Just quit. You don’t need to work anyway, I make enough money for you not to risk breaking your back with boxes anyway,” He states, sighing slightly.
Ace squints at the thought. “Nah. I’d rot in there,” he says, hugging Sabo’s waist tighter. Then he gets away, only to lean down a press a simple kiss to Sabo’s lips. “You need me to make the dinner?” he asks with excitement.
Sabo raises one brow, with a hint of smile on his face. “I ordered pizza. No need.”
Ace deflates, sitting down at the carpet to lean against Sabo’s armchair. A pause comes on. “Where the hell is Luffy?” he wonders, unfocused, slightly frowning.
Sabo opens his phone to demonstrate him an app which shows him Luffy’s geolocation. Its somewhere in a random skate park. “Probably somewhere with his friends,” he says, as he puts his phone away. Ace nods, without really registering it. Sabo looks at him for a moment, before exhaling quietly. “Would you mind refilling my coffee? It got cold,” he murmurs.
Ace jumps up like he was hit with a boiling water. “On it!” he yells, as he escapes the room with the cup.
-
Around 10 AM next morning, in his justified day off, while being in a bathing robe because he was in the middle of his skincare routine, Sanji’s door gets violated by three firm knocks.
He opens the door only to be met with a bouquet of really random but pretty flowers shoved in his face, and behind them he could see small locks of black hair peeking out. “Luffy?…” He lets out, unsure, gently moving the bouquet away. Luffy shoved them further harder, which made Sanji to take them. “What in the world is this?” he exhales. He feels his throat tighten, breathing picking up, when he gets nervous without meaning to. Its not the butterfly type of nervousness, though. Its the one that feels like crawling under your skin.
“Flowers,” Luffy states, completely serious. Then smiles confidently. I’m gonna bring you those from now on. You have vases?”
“I mean, yes, but-” he cut himself off, unsure. “for what?”
Luffy looks at him for a moment, then shrugs. “They’re pretty. Thought of you when saw the grannies selling them down the street,” he explained, then smiled wide. “You gonna place them, right?”
Sanji nodded with a small confused frown, keeping the flowers close to himself.
“Where?”
“Probably near the TV?” Sanji says, uncertain.
Luffy nodded, focused. “Water them, okay? The grannie said that they gonna say alive for like 2 weeks if properly taken care of,” He adds.
Sanji nods again, now starting to blush a little. His hands are clinging on the bouquet.
Luffy smiles, wide. “Cool. I’ll come around, okay?”
Sanji nods again, biting one of his lips. Luffy nodded back and sprinted, rushing down the stares.
Sanji closes the door slowly, as slowly as his messed up mind lets him.
-
Sitting at the table with tea way too sweet, glaring at the flowers like he wants them to wither, he wonders, and wonders, silent and all in his thoughts.
Tracing a leaf of one of the flowers with his finger, Sanji sighs, as his head falls down on the table.
He haven’t felt like that for a lot of years.
He squints, as he sighs, remembering the old times. When Zeff just took him in he was only 14, full of dreams and need for love. Innocent and stupid, assumed that love was something you get from just existing. He remembers his first school memories of strong, embarrassing shame, when an alpha he liked asked him out with flowers in public only to shove it into his face and stomp the bouquet down. This was probably the first time he cried not because of his family. Feels so stupid now, years later.
He squints. Its just ridiculous. A long pause passes, when he stares at the table, face down. Then, despite his thoughts, edges of his lips turn up in a small smile.
-
Luffy comes home, and the apartment is open just for him. He opens the door as quiet as possible(for him), closes it, tries to get out of his shoes without a sound. He practiced in his life enough to get rid of his clumsiness when its really-really needed, and right now its one of those occasions.
Yet, when he comes to the kitchen, he stumbles when a blonde turns out leaning on the wall, standing in Luffy’s way. Sabo’s brow is curved beautifully, he wears his Victoria’s Secret pink pajamas and has this look in his eyes that means that Luffy’ll probably get a proper scolding for this.
“Where were you,” Sabo’s voice is slightly hoarse, when he glares him down.
“Eh. M. Outside?” He says, unsure, already trying to slip into Sabo’s hugs to melt his heart. Worked in the childhood, probably will work anytime.
But Sabo became stronger, so he doesn’t let him, and Luffy almost whines like a kicked puppy.
“Its the seventeenth time you’re coming back past sleep-time,” He glares Luffy down. “And we moved here a month ago. A month.”
Luffy grimaces, Sabo’s glare makes him feel guilty. Yet, being as stubborn as he is, he’s quick to shake up, now pouting up at Sabo. He tries to make himself appear tougher than he is, even letting out a small growl. “I’m an adult. I can do whatever!”
Sabo blinks at him, not impressed even a little. His scent is bitter, which makes him appear even more superior than he already is. “An adult? You’re a child. A bratty one,” and before Luffy can growl at him, he stares him down again. “Next time the door will be locked,” he says sternly, giving Luffy a flick on the forehead. A pause. “C’m’ere,” he mutters, opening his arms, exhausted.
Luffy keens, the grumpy attitude fading in a second, when he launches himself onto Sabo, immediately squeezing his waist. His face is pressed into Sabo’s soft chest, and he swears he can feel it rumbling faintly. Sabo’s hands feel familiar on his neck, steady and always calm. He gets a forehead kiss from the older one, so platonical it hurts, before Sabo lets him go. Not before scooping up his face and saying: “I'm not doing it to keep you in place, I just worry about you. I know you’re capable and all, but its a new place with a bunch of weirdos around. Be careful, got it?” And when Luffy nodded, Sabo huffed, finally pushing him to Luffy’s bedroom. “Sleep tight, you bandit,” He says affectionately, before wobbling off to his – and Ace’s – bedroom.