Unworthy (One Piece x Reader) AU

3-Warmth

"This is our home... Even though it's pretty rundown. Honestly, glad it's still standing." Coby spoke after finally arriving at his and Helmeppo's living shelter after many twists and turns through the city and out through the forest.

"Mine is probably six foot under but, with water." You slightly joked, trying to make them feel better about the situation of their poor house that was covered in scraps of rusted metal no one should dare touch.

It wasn't the awfully built house, the leaning and towering pile in the junkyard, nor the long trek it took to get there but something was odd about the situation. Those who are sheltered and cursed typically don't live with another, unless perhaps they were siblings or something of the sorts. Helmeppo was what made it weird. He in fact was not cursed, which could be told from even the quickest of glances. He bore no scary aura that glowed of death nor did he fear much in the way a cursed would, not to say he wasn't scared of a lot because he undoubtably was with an example being the dark forested area to their house. Helmeppo was no Unworthy or Mistake, simply as the cursed spoke or the gifted themselves, he was a Worthy. One who was not deemed to be the exact opposite nor did he oppose the way he and his others lived.

"It's kind of run down but at least we can say we had a pretty girl over."

"Helmeppo!" Coby slightly lashed out at his friend, afraid his words would somehow offend you.

"What? It's the truth and you know it."

You couldn't help smile a little with their antics, in which Coby sighed in content as you weren't upset seeing as he worries a lot. Though it surprised you a little that his curse didn't act up over the worrying seeing as fear could easily be confused or almost indistinguishable from worry itself.

The curses must be more detailed and specific then you thought.

"Anyways excuse him... He's just that way." Coby sighed in thought of his friend as he showed you inside the literal rustic house, though only on the outside was it. "Wow, no leaks this time. Our repair skills did pay off."

"It really did, didn't it?"

You assume the two worked hard to repair the rugged building with the many scraps of tin that were occasionally nailed around.

"I'm sorry it's... Well it's just a disaster, plain awful." Coby apologized for the junky house.

"No... It's amazing." You responded in awe as the two's faces grew with surprise. To any normal person that lived within societies' boundaries, the house was an eyesore. To you it was so much more. They had a couch, one with many torn holes and a tattered quilt laid over top to look presentable. Their floor was wooden and not as cold as the concrete you grew accustomed to, which it even had a rug and doormat is descent condition. They had a few tables with some sort of decorative piece, and even more decorations that hung on the walls. The place looked more like a secret hideout of sorts then a place to live.

"Your place must really suck if your standards are this low."

"Helmeppo, stop! You're being rude!" Coby interrupted his blond friend, as he made another iffy comment.

"It's kind of bad. Gets flooded and has nothing in it. I live..." You paused, reflecting blurry and shadowy memories. "Well... I probably live for curiosity, for the future." Eyes, they glazed over with a look of clouded and ever trying to escape determination. Mouth, your mouth, smiled a solemn smile at the coldness of before and the warm rays now seeping its way through.

The two boys stood, noticing that something seemed a bit different about you, as if you had big goals not yet discovered, as if you could change something big and on a grand scale. Coby understood it more then the blond yet, the other caught onto something. This something didn't go unnoticed or better put, glanced over. They'd remember this. They'd try to bring that something out.

"We don't really have another bed." Coby shyly and embarrassingly admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "You're more then welcome to sleep on the sofa."

"That's quite fine with me. It looks cozy." You piped with pure happiness, seeing as the sleeping conditions before were a lot worse and this, this seemed like an absolute paradise.

"Here. All that I could find. It's time for me to sleep, you two, stay up or whatever just don't bother me." Helmeppo plopped down two thin blankets into his pink haired friend's arms, continuing to walk into what appeared to be their shared bedroom.

"Oh thanks. Oh and pick up your clothes. It's gross."

Helmeppo just grunted, likely refusing vigorously in his head yet deciding it best to do it.

"Thank you again Coby. I'll be gone soon, don't worry." You honestly didn't want to leave, this place, it felt warm. A sense of living, a sense of warmth that felt inviting and nostalgic. A feeling that you noticed was happiness inside you. A feeling that soon lead to knees dropping onto the floor from pain and agony.