Love Is Blind | ZoLu

24

"Luffy!!"

"What's going on!? Is Luffy okay?"

"He locked himself in his room and won't answer any of us."

Outside of Luffy's bedroom were Zoro and Franky who managed to gather the attention of the other Straw Hats which were nearby at the time.

What started as a silent yet persistent knocking from the worried Swordsman, ended in a collision of loud fists banging against a wooden, walnut oak door from the rest of the crewmates, desperate to find out how Luffy was doing.

"Give him space!"

It wasn't until Sanji shouted out these words out of respect for the younger man, that the knocking finally stopped.

Oppose to making noise, the Straw Hats were now aligned behind the door with their ears pressed against it in a discrete manner, in hopes of getting to hear what their Captain might be doing.

Behind the closed, dark oak door, remained a hesitant young man with his hands compressing either end of his head to block out the sounds from the outside that had been causing him distress.

Each fist that had violently pounded against the door was now the reason that Luffy wished he would have ended up deaf and not blind, due to the amount of ringing that was left in his ears after the noise came to an immediate stop.

His brunette strands of hair were draped over his bloodshot eyes that had been overbrimming with tears which travelled down to his trembling hands.

In his beating heart was a dagger that was taking pride in stabbing through his chest while telling the Captain he was too weak to speak of the truth to anyone.

Even his own friends who he fully trusted in and had grown unintentionally dependent upon in his moments of despair, could never find out about the Captain's secret.

It appeared that the only option Luffy had left was to keep this unexplained phenomenon he was hagridden by to himself because of the perplexity of this delicate situation.

If this story was ever told by him to anyone in his pirate group, he feared the judgement he could possibly face afterwards and the endless questions that were sure to follow.

Such fears lead Luffy to feel insecure about his choice of words, limiting him in what to say to others when being in their presence over how indifferent he was to them.

To not let these thoughts get to him, the boy stood up, startled by the sudden change in the rhythm of his heartbeat.

His body was beginning to change; physically and mentally. But these changes were unnoticeable to the blind boy who was unable to see them, even from a logical point of view.

Mentally, he could feel a difference in his body. But without physically seeing them, to him, they were nothing but mere fragments in his mind to keep the young man under constant fear.

Such signs to him were left ignored by choice. Despite there being more physical health changes in him than mental, Luffy believed it was unnecessary to be worried about things that his crewmates, especially Chopper, would overlook.

To not become a nuisance for anyone— or so he stated— the boy picked his straw hat from the floor and stood back up again, disregarding the fact that there was something wrong with him.

He then used his hands as a guide to find his dresser. There, he began to open each drawer, eagerly seeking something he was motivated in using.

Seconds after rummaging through each drawer, he successfully found what he was searching for.

Out came a small, charcoal colored, square shaped device with a tiny screen and a single button that was located where Luffy had his thumb against.

After obtaining his desired item, the boy took an uneven, deep breath in, and took a second to relax himself before walking into his closet that he managed to find when memorizing the layout of his bedroom for a second time.

Letting himself inside of the closet, he was thankful about how wastefully spacious it happened to be, leaving him a perfect amount of space to crawl and sit inside of.

Perhaps even fit most of his body into, considering that it was extensive enough for Luffy to lie down within.

But for the time being, he was hunched over, hugging his knees with the mysterious small device in his right hand.

Everything had grown quiet for him, and all that the Captain could hear was the sound of his own slow breathing, moments prior to when he pushed down on the button.

An automatic voice startled him at first, saying: "At the tone, please record your voice message." Followed by an unpredictable beeping noise that gave Luffy the signal to begin recording.

"Well, there's no turning back now." He thought before parting his lips to speak.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will become the future King of Pirates... And the Captain who will never be able to see again."

~~~