A/N: Aki means "Autumn" as well as "bright" and "sparkle".

"Guys," Luffy whined out to his friends as they sat at their usual table in the cafeteria of the school. "Have you seen Aki? I haven't seen her all day." His lips were set in a pout.

"Now that you mention it," said Usopp, "I haven't seen her since Friday afternoon. She left saying that she had something important to do." A grin resurfaced on Luffy's face as he began to bounce up and down in his seat.

"That means she's getting ready!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Ready?" Questioned Nami. "For what?"

"Oh, yeah. We didn't know you guys last autumn. She's getting ready for it because it's the best season. It's always been Aki's favorite and ever since we were little, we've been doing really cool stuff every year." Most of his friends nodded at the new information while a certain blond chef went on in the background about how he would make an autumn-themed cake for her.

"What kind of cool stuff?" Chopper asked him. Luffy opened his mouth to speak, but another voice answered for him.

"Like apple picking!" Exclaimed an overly cheerful voice. Aki appeared from behind Luffy and took the empty seat beside him (since no one wanted to sit next to someone that would take their food). A huge grin, larger than usual, one that rivaled even their straw hat-wearing friend's, was spread across her face. "We can get so many apples! I always make apple pies and candy apples with them!"

"Yosh!" Shouted Luffy. "Aki makes the best apple pies." He started to drool at the thought of the desert while the girl blushed at the compliment.

"We can also go pumpkin picking. Pumpkin pies are one of the best things ever! And we can carve out Jack-o-lantern's too! Luffy always makes really weird ones," she added and then stuck her tongue out at Luffy.

"I do not," he whined. Aki giggled and turned back to her friends. "Autumn has the best campfire weather too! We can roast marshmallows and get some apple cider." Luffy grinned as he watching his best friend's enthusiasm. It made him feel nice watching her get like this.

"I know this place," she continued, "that sells really good apple cider; I buy it from them every year. And we can also get pumpkin donuts! And pumpkin ice cream! Have you guys ever had pumpkin ice cream? It's amazing! And we just have to go to a corn maze. They're so fun to get lost in. Luffy gets so confused in them. It's so adorable." Luffy's lips form a pout again.

"Aki," he whined out.

"What? It's true," she said, turning to face him with that huge grin on her face. His pout didn't last long at the sight of that—because that grin was contagious. "We also have to go buy Halloween decorations! There's all sorts of really cool and spooky stuff out there. I try to make things as scary as I can each year."

"Don't forget the best part!" Luffy said. Aki started bouncing up and down in her seat at the words. She looked over at Luffy and when their eyes met they shouted the same thing simultaneously.

"Leaf jumping!" The two broke out into laughter.

"I've been watching the leaves for that past week," she stated, a serious look overcoming her face. "Only a few have started to change colors and not by very much. But from the looks of the trees, this is gonna be the best leaf jumping year yet!"

"Really?" Luffy said, his eyes lighting up. "Yahoo! I can't wait." The grin returned to Aki's face.

As the rest of the group watched, none of them could help the smiles on their faces. Yes, Aki was a bright person. It was inevitable after being best friends with Luffy for over a decade. But this was different. This was on a whole other level. Her eyes were brighter and her grin more radiant than usual. Right then, her mood rivaled that of Luffy.

Luffy—well, Luffy was being Luffy; but at the same time, there was something different about his energeticness, his grin, his laugh. Not all of them could put their finger on it, but those who did—it was like his excitement was a reflection of hers; like he was happy because she was so happy.

"So why don't we do something this weekend?" Aki asked all of them. "We've got a lot of things on the checklist and only so much time to get it all done. Are you guys free this weekend?" She received mixed answers—some yes, some unsure; well, most unsure—but Aki kept her fingers crossed that they would all show up because why wouldn't someone want to go apple picking? She would drop whatever she was doing at the opportunity.

With the consensus that they would all let her know if they could or could not go with her that weekend, the group parted, at the sound of the school bell, and headed to their respective classes.

That weekend started off great. Her mother let her stay over at Luffy's albeit after some convincing—"You're not eight anymore. You can't just stay over at a boy's house," her mother had told her. "But it's not just any boy, it's Luffy!" Aki had argued. "That's exactly the problem."

Aki didn't know what she had meant by that though.

She had woken up the following day to the smell of waffles, courtesy of Sabo, and not just any waffles, but apple cinnamon waffles. Suffice it to say, Luffy woke up really quickly that morning.

And on top of all of that, she had managed to steal one of Luffy's sweater. Her excuse simply being "because sweater weather". It was a nonsensical excuse, but Luffy didn't mind it. She did this every year, after all.

And then it came time to prepare themselves for their grand adventure of the day—for the apple picking. That's when the great weekend started being not-so-great.

Aki's grin started to fade as each one of her friends found themselves busy and unable to go with her—either they needed to do something for school, or work extra hours, or had a family something.

The grin became a frown.

Aki set her phone aside and cast her gaze out a window where she could see the autumn wind blowing against the leaves on the trees that would fall soon. Her heart started to feel heavy; her body followed. And, all of a sudden, she didn't really want to go apple picking anymore. She just wanted some warm apple cider, a blanket, and a bed.

Meanwhile, Luffy was starting to grow confused because several minutes had passed and he hadn't heard nor seen his best friend. Normally, she would have been screaming about something else that they needed to do or bouncing around, urging him to hurry up so that they could leave already, but for the past ten or so minutes there had been nothing.

Luffy grabbed a sweater from his closet and rushed downstairs to look for Aki. He frowned when he finally found her. She was looking out the window at the passing cars, but through the glass' reflection he could see that she was frowning. The fact that she was frowning made Luffy become very concerned because Aki never frowned during autumn. Everything and anything autumn-related always made her so inexplicably happy.

"Aki," he said, walking up from behind her. She blinked herself out of her daze at the sound of his voice. "Are you okay?" He asked her. Aki plastered a grin on her face as well as she could and turned around to look at the black-haired boy.

"Of course, silly," she told him. "Why wouldn't I be?" Luffy's frown deepened, knowing that she was lying.

"Are the others gonna come?" He proceeded to asked her.

"No," she said softly, tilting her head downwards, but Luffy could still caught sight of the tears that were forming in her eyes.

"Aki," he said, stepping forward and grabbing her shoulders. She looked up at him with glossy eyes. "What's wrong?" He asked her.

"I—," she began to explain. "I love autumn. It's such a nice season and it makes me so happy. And, all I ever want to do is share that happiness. I want to make other people be happy about it too because being happy feels good, but—." Her voice started to crack and a few tears fell from her eyes. "No one cares. And it makes me feel like an idiot. And it makes me so sad. I don't want to go apple picking anymore. What's the point?" Luffy's eyes widened at the words and he pulled into a hug.

"It doesn't matter if they don't come. You still have me!" Aki couldn't see Luffy's face since her own was pressed into his sweater, but she just knew that he was grinning. "We'll just go without them! It'll be like when we were little! I can make Ace and Sabo come too! We can still have lots of fun!" Aki chuckled and managed to move her head so that she could look up at Luffy, her chin resting on his chest.

"Thank you, Luffy," she said with tears still falling from her eyes. Luffy tilted his head as he looked down at Aki and let a confused look overtake his face.

"For what?" He asked.

"For always being there for me." Luffy grinned and laughed at her words.

"Of course!" He shouted. Aki smiled softly and hummed thoughtfully as she pulled herself out of Luffy's hold.

"How about we go apple picking some other time?" She suggested. "We can go get some apple cider right now and some pumpkin donuts too. And then we can come back here and spend the day watching Halloween movies!" She grinned at the thought and Luffy sighed in relief as that brightness that he knew and liked so much came back to her eyes.

"Yosh! That sounds awesome!" Luffy told her.

"Alright," she said with a look of determination. "Let's go! We can make this an adventure!" She laughed as she ran to the door ready to head out into the chilly weather. Luffy gladly followed after.

"Oh, Aki!" Luffy said just as they stepped outside. "Wanna know something?" Aki looked over at him after locking the door. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at the boy.

"What?" She asked.

"Autumn is my favorite season too!" Aki laughed.

"I knew that, silly," she told him.

"Wanna know why?"

"Okay. Why?"

"Because you're always smiling and you always look so happy. And I really like it when you're happy." Aki's eyes widened at his confession and a blush rose on her cheeks.

"Idiot," she said softly as she looked away from him, hoping that he couldn't see her blush.

"You also look really pretty when you're smiling," he added. Aki's blush deepened. Aki opened her mouth to question why he would say such a thing, but before she could utter a sound, he grabbed onto her head and pulled her forward.

"Luffy! You're heading the wrong way!" She shouted at him as he started heading to their right. "Do you even know where you're going?!" Luffy looked at her with an unashamed grin.

"Nope!" He answered without hesitation. Aki sighed as she looked up at him—grinning like an idiot while the wind blew through his hair.

"Come on," she said pulling him in the opposite direction.

"Yosh! Apple cider!" He yelled out. Aki laughed at his enthusiasm. It was really helping to bring her own back. And for that, she thought with a smile, she was incredibly grateful.