"Luffy?" Nami said, eyeing him as she paused in resorted books on the shelves. "What . . . are you doing?"
He looked up from where he sat, an open book in his lap. "I'm reading this!" he said, grinning. "I saw a cool picture, and then I saw 'Roger' somewhere in the words, so I thought maybe it said something cool about the Pirate King!"
Nami narrowed her eyes. "Is that so?" she said skeptically.
"Well, yeah."
She strode over to him, putting aside her books, and pointed to a chunk of the text. "Read that part aloud."
He glanced down and frowned. "But it's long."
"Just do it!"
Luffy sighed and looked down. "'The most famous pirate of them all is perhaps the late Gold Roger, well-known for being the Pirate King, the first pirate to circle the Grand Line, and for owning a rather magnificent mustache. Following his execution, former members of Roger's crew dispersed throughout the world. Some formed their own crews, some were captured and executed by the Government, and the rest have managed to fly under the radar. The Emperor Red-Hair Shanks was once a member of Roger's crew, as well as Dark King Silvers Rayleigh. It was once thought Roger may have had a child, but this theory has long since been disproven."
Luffy frowned at this last part, but shrugged it off. "Wow, this must be kinda old," he said cheerfully. He looked up at Nami. "Why'd you want me to read that?"
Nami was staring at him with a kind of wonder. "You can read!"
"Huh?"
"Hey, guys!" Nami yelled, going over to the ladder. "Get down here! You'll never believe this!"
Robin soon came down, followed closely by Chopper and Usopp.
"Did something happen?" Usopp asked, apprehensive, as Franky and Brook hopped down the ladder, followed by Sanji.
"Luffy can read," Nami announced.
"Really?!" Usopp exclaimed, looking at Luffy, who still had the book open in his lap.
"What's the big deal?" Luffy said. "A lot of people can read."
"Well . . . we've never seen you reading before," Robin pointed out.
"Is he really reading, though, or is he just looking at the pictures?" Sanji said suspiciously, glancing at the photo nestled in the words of the pages.
"Why don't you guys believe me?" Luffy mumbled, pouting.
"Can you read some of that right now?" Franky asked, pointing to the book.
Luffy frowned and read aloud the same paragraph he'd read to Nami.
"See?" he said, looking up when he'd finished.
"You can read! That's amazing!" Chopper exclaimed, staring at Luffy in awe.
"I'm impressed, Luffy-san," Brook remarked.
"What's the big deal?" Luffy repeated.
"We didn't think you could read," Nami said.
Luffy stared around at them as he processed the sentence. When he'd finally done so, and realized the others were nodding, he crossed his arms and scowled.
"Why'd you think I couldn't read?" he said.
The others looked around at each other.
"Well," Franky said. "You're . . . y'know."
"I don't know. What?"
". . . Y'know," Sanji said, gesturing vaguely.
Usopp and Chopper looked away as if embarrassed. Nami and Robin smiled and shrugged.
Though none had clarified, the message seemed to have gotten across to Luffy, who suddenly slammed the book shut, threw it to the bench, and stormed out of the library.
Zoro slid his eye open and watched as Luffy stomped onto the deck like a child throwing a tantrum.
"Hey, Luffy," he called. "What happened?"
Luffy glanced over. "Those guys were being mean," he muttered. "They called me a stupid dummy who doesn't know anything."
Zoro raised an eyebrow.
"Well, they didn't say that exactly," Luffy admitted, crossing his arms. "But they might as well have!"
He stormed away before Zoro could question him further. Zoro sighed and closed his eye again.
"I think we hurt his feelings," Robin murmured.
"Him?" Nami said in surprise.
"It might've been a bit cruel to imply that about his intelligence," Robin said, putting a hand to her chin. "Especially coming from us . . ."
"He's Luffy," Usopp said. "He'll get over it in, like, five minutes."
"I didn't mean to hurt him," Chopper said in surprise. He stared at the ground. "Oh, no . . ."
"He'll be fine, though," Franky said, shrugging and scratching his head.
"I'm sure he'll have forgotten it by suppertime," Brook said calmly.
"Speaking of that, I should go start cooking," Sanji said. He offered an obligatory smile to Nami and Robin before he left the library. The others trickled out one-by-one until only Nami was left. She returned to her task of sorting the books.
"Luffy!" Usopp yelled. Luffy was sitting cross-legged on top of the observatory. "Get down from there, we're gonna play a game!"
"Luffy!" Chopper called.
Luffy had stuffed his fingers in his ears the moment he'd heard Usopp yelling, and refused to budge from where he was.
"Uh, Zoro," Usopp said, looking over to where Zoro napped against the railing, "can you give me a boost?"
Zoro opened his eye and glanced over. "What?"
Usopp gestured to where Luffy was.
"Sure," Zoro said. He picked up Usopp and threw him (screaming) up in the air.
Usopp stuck the landing neatly on top, struck a pose, and then turned to Luffy.
"Luffy," he said, tapping Luffy's shoulder.
"Go 'way," Luffy muttered, looking aside.
Usopp frowned. "Luffy, uh . . . sorry about what we said."
Luffy's fingers remained in his ears. Usopp sighed and jumped down from the crow's nest. Zoro caught him.
"Thanks," Usopp said sheepishly. "He just ignored me . . ."
Chopper transformed and leapt to the top of the crow's nest.
"Luffy?" he said, turning small again. Luffy ignored him as he had with Usopp.
"Luffy, um," Chopper said, looking down, "we're real sorry about what we said . . ."
He looked up, but Luffy was resolutely ignoring him, his words gone unheard.
"Okay," Chopper whispered. He jumped back down into Usopp's arms.
"He didn't wanna listen," he announced just before he began crying.
"Hey, don't cry," Usopp said quickly, hugging Chopper. "He'll be down for dinner, yeah? Then we can all say sorry properly."
"Yeah," Chopper mumbled, wiping his eyes.
Zoro glanced up to where Luffy sat like stone.
Even Robin's and Brook's attempts to talk to and apologize to Luffy had gone ignored. And when dinner came around, Luffy was the only one missing from the table.
"Okay, he's taking this too far," Nami said.
"What did you guys do, anyway?" Zoro asked, leaning back in his chair. "He said something about you all implying he was stupid."
The others glanced around uncomfortably.
"Well," Sanji said awkwardly, "we may have been . . . a bit too surprised at finding out he could read."
"Oh."
"We did try apologizing," Brook said. "But he doesn't seem in the mood to listen . . ."
"So, Zoro," Nami said, "you have to go talk to him."
"Why me?"
"Because you weren't there, so you're the only one he'll listen to. Just get him down here. We aren't starting dinner until he's here."
Zoro hesitated, and then shrugged. "Fine." He stood and left the room.
Luffy glanced over and took his fingers out of his ears when he saw Zoro sit next to him. "Hi."
"Hey," Zoro said. "You know they're sorry for what happened, right?"
Luffy frowned. "It just kinda hurts," he mumbled. "I'm used to that kinda stuff from bad guys, but . . ."
"I can't speak for them," Zoro said. "But if it were me, I'd want to make amends."
Luffy folded his arms. "Then they should tell me themselves they're sorry, or I won't forgive them."
Zoro side-eyed him. "You do realize you were ignoring them on purpose, don't you? How were they supposed to apologize if you wouldn't listen to a word they said?"
Luffy raised his eyebrows. "Oh! Good point."
"C'mon down already," Zoro said, standing and offering a hand. "Dinner's ready anyway."
The others looked up as Zoro led Luffy into the kitchen, Luffy wearing an odd expression, something like a combination of a pout and a scowl. He sat at his place and looked around expectantly.
"Luffy, we're really sorry!" Chopper burst out, eyes watering. "We didn't mean that stuff, we're really sorry—"
"I shouldn't've called everyone down like I did," Nami admitted. "Sorry."
"We're very sorry," Usopp and Sanji said together. Sanji eyed Usopp as if annoyed.
"Apologies, Luffy-san," Brook said with a dip of his head.
"Sorry about . . . yeah," Franky said awkwardly, scratching his head.
"Will you forgive us?" Robin asked, bowing her head respectfully.
Luffy held his pout a moment longer, looking around, before he finally smiled.
"Yeah, of course!" he said cheerfully. He glanced at Zoro. "Thanks for making me come down, I guess!"
"You guess?" Zoro muttered, though he nodded.
"So . . ." Usopp said as Sanji finally served up dinner, "if you don't mind, I mean . . . why don't you read more often?"
Luffy frowned. "Reading's boring! There's almost always something better to do!"
"That's fair," Franky said, grinning.
"Also," Luffy said in an afterthought, "even if someone can't read, it doesn't mean they're not smart, right?"
The others looked down at their plates. Zoro grinned at Luffy.
"Sanji, I want more."
"How did you eat that so quickly?!"