Love Is Blind | ZoLu

9

Luffy's POV:

My hands guided what appeared to be a bowl of soup, towards the toilet bowl, and instantly, I drained the food continents into it, feeling my body shake.

One by one, every last crumb was sacrificed. I felt no guilt for skipping my first meal of the day; I was certain I would feel more hunger during lunch either way.

I did feel sort of bad for wasting the breakfast Sanji cooked. He always puts in a lot of effort in making each of us our favorite dishes... But I couldn't bring myself to eat anything.

When the final bowl had been emptied, I made sure to place the dishes back onto the tray, carrying it towards the table Sanji had placed them on after stacking them on stop of each other.

As I walked back to the bathroom, someone had knocked on my door, twisting at the doorknob. I panicked, rushing to find my way back to the bathroom as soon as possible.

Author's POV:

"Luffy, are you still up? Can I come in?"

Sanji's voice echoed from the other side of the door. Luffy covered his mouth in shame as he flushed the toilet, alarming the blonde man who had took it upon himself to enter his room.

He walked right over to where the sound had come from, knocking against the bathroom door.

"H-huh?"

Luffy acted as though he was unaware that his Chef had made it to his bedroom.

"I just came to see if you had eaten, but are you alright in there?"

Luffy followed the voice that was coming from the bathroom door, responding to it.

"Oh, Sanji! I'm okay."

Sanji slowly walked away and went over to the tray, uncovering it to see nothing but a single piece of lettuce left on one of the plates.

He was more than thrilled with this discovery.

"Wow... Hey, Luffy!" Luffy jolted, nearly hitting his head against the wall he was sitting behind.

"Y-yeah?!" He nervously shouted back.

"You did so well in eating your breakfast. I'm going to make lunch soon, do you feel like eating anything in particular? I'll take any requests you have."

Luffy's hands were soaked by the tears that were resurfacing from his eyes, as he listened to the joy in the doting man's words.

The guilt he felt in that moment was unbearable, but he had to remain strong to not cause a problem for himself.

"Anything is okay with me." He spoke with what little energy and motivation that was left in his voice.

"Got it. I'll be back soon then."

Seconds after Sanji was gone, Luffy broke down in the bathroom.

His stomach knew he made a mistake, but his body told him he did it to please his disrupted mind from any thoughts.

He believed that by eating while still having the vivid images of Ace's spirit from his dream, he wouldn't be able to properly digest anything.

"It's just for a little while. By lunch, I'll be fine."

The boy squinted his eyes, feeling an odd pressure being applied to them as if someone was pushing against his eyelids.

It was such an unusual and uncomfortable feeling that would make any normal human being go crazy.

But because Luffy was a rubber man, the pain wasn't as bad as it could have been.

While carefully walking back to his bedroom, he felt his stomach rumble and squeezed at it with his hands.

Dismissing the signs of hunger his body gave him, the young Captain was about to rest on his bed like before when his door flung wide open.

"Luffy, Brook is going to perform "Bink's Sake", wanna hear him with us?"

Luffy's mouth widened with a smile from the pleasant message his friend conveyed to him.

"Yes, will you... Take me there, Usopp?"

His dearest friend wrapped his arm around Luffy's waist and gently guided him to where Brook usually does his musicals, along with Franky.

The moment Luffy made it to the large gathering, all eyes were on him.

Though he didn't see it, he certainly did feel it when everything, even the music, went deadly silent.

He put on his best expression to face everyone with positivity.

"LUFFY!!" His crewmates gathered all around Luffy, making him the center of attention.

They offered him many of the individual snacks that they were eating, to which their Captain politely declined, much to their surprise.

This behavior of his was very uncommon for any of his friends to expect of him, yet they didn't wish to put pressure on the boy, by any means.

Oppose to doing that, they offered him a seat and there he remained, seated and singing along with everyone else, just like they always do whenever they aren't battling against other pirates or the Marines.

"If everything is the same... Why does everyone feel so different when I can't look them directly in the eyes?"

~~~