Hancock sighed, slumping on the railing of her balcony. The tropical air played with the ends of her long raven hair, swishing it against her soft skin like a velvety caress. She was wearing a satiny short-sleeved robe that barely fell to mid-thigh, but she had come to prefer this sort of skimpy attire.

It wasn't much different from the other slinky garments in her wardrobe, but this was worn for different reasons. Usually, her lack of clothing was her odd choice of armor; she wore it to allure the eye, to feel sexy and powerful…it was all part of the façade she kept around herself.

This evening's choice in nightwear was simply because she was still unaccustomed to the way her body reacted in the presence of a certain someone.

The young woman's brilliant blue eyes looked out on the city below her, and the twinkling of the lights in the mild summer night. She had become used to the rapid heartbeats, and the inability to breathe when he was around, the momentary sways of weakness…but it seemed as if her condition was progressing steadily worse. The heat that would usually flush her face was spreading to other parts of her body. He had put his hands on her, called her by name and now she found herself longing for his touch.

Just the mere thought made her shiver and she could feel her cheeks growing red. He had thoroughly cast a spell on her, and now he was claiming her, heart and soul. She had never thought she could ever want a man, not after the hell of a childhood she had been forced to endure. She had been abused until her body and mind had been raped of all sanity and innocence, yet she found herself blushing like a schoolgirl and fidgeting uncomfortably as if she had lost all of that. When she was with him, all of that went away.

Before she could stop herself she was knee-deep in the thoughts that plagued to take over her mind every minute of everyday. He was hardly the type of man she had thought she would fall for…perhaps that was the reason she found him even more appealing. For starters, he was shorter then she was…more then a head shorter. She was supposed it was partially because he was still young, but his height was part of what made him so endearing. He had yet to grow out of his boyish appearance, and though he was cut with lean muscle, still had a wiry and slim build. That short raven hair of his was always tousled and windswept so that he looked like he had constant bedhead, and his charcoal gray eyes were so dark they looked black in most lights. The scar cut along the bottom of his left eyelid was perhaps the most noticeable feature about him if you didn't count the straw hat he always had with him. No, in every aspect he hardly looked like a kid out of his teens, let alone a legendary pirate.

Hancock smiled. When it came to her beloved, looks were deceiving in the deadliest of ways. She too had not seen him as beautiful or stunning when they had first met… he was too scrawny, too loud and obnoxious and too ready to defy her. She had thought him nothing more then a brat, an outsider who threatened to destroy the few precious things she hold dear.

It was only over time and with great humility on her part that she saw through to his core and what it was that drove him. Like all pirates, he dreamed of being the King, of finding the legendary treasure, the One Piece, but before that came his friends and family, and it was not hard to become counted among those people. He had a big heart that could see through all of the ugliness that Hancock had built up around herself to try and conceal her secrets and the open mind to not judge or fault her. Despite all of her beauty, she knew that she was unclean and filthy on the inside and he had shown her that he simply didn't care how sinful her past had been… that wasn't going to change his opinion of her now. He became the first man to ever look at her as if she wasn't a toy or tool to be played with or cast aside at the whim of convenience…he truly saw her as she was, the good and the bad.

It wasn't hard to like him after that, and falling for him had only come too soon. She would follow him anywhere gladly, and she only wanted to know more about him. When he had come to her, needing genuine help to save his brother, she could not refuse him…her heart would not allow it.

He had touched her, doted on her and always, always smiled at her, with that giant flash of his teeth that nearly blinded her. His fingers had been impossibly soft and warm when they had wrapped around hers and she could still feel how strong his embrace was when he had hugged her.

Her fingers squeezed the railing as she trembled. She wanted to know what it felt like to be held by him, to have his body up against hers, and his mouth on hers. It should have been impossible for her to want any contact with a man and yet she couldn't stop herself from thinking this way…she wanted him to possess her, to want her, the same way she wanting him.

She let out a soft breath, turning away from the rail as her legs buckled and she felt herself feeling faint. The images in her head were running wild until she was blindsided with the notion of being skin to skin with him with no one around for miles and the only thing concealing them was the darkening evening. She melted down the side of the metal poles, slumping to her knees on the stone concrete. Never in her life had she ever been so obsessed with one thing, and never had one thing affected her so greatly.

"Luffy…" She whimpered out his name, wishing that he would come for her then and take care of all her problems, but above all, never leave her alone.

The jarring of the room around her had Hancock bolting up out of her seat. The whole space was swaying and outside the cabin she could hear the yelling of the crew. They were not safe yet, not by a long shot. They were all still in grave danger but the situation was more dire than that.

She was sitting hunched over in a chair by the bedside, mostly because her large spacious bed was occupied by the man of her dreams, or rather, what was left of him. He had nearly died countless times in the last few hours but nothing had taken a toll on him like the loss of his brother. He had mentally shut down and his physical strain, which had been holding on by mere shreds, fell to pieces. If he died in his sleep, it would be understandable. It was that mere thought Hancock hadn't been able to stand.

Even staring at him now, nearly bandaged from head to toe, she could feel her eyes watering, the tears threatening to stream down her face. Her resolve caved in and she got up from the chair, climbing in next to him. He was still breathing in slow shallow breaths and she could feel the gentle heat of his body as she curled up next to him. She gathered his broken body in her arms gently, too afraid to cause him pain or wake him if she moved him to much. His head seemed to fall almost naturally against her collarbone, his cheek resting against her breast. She ran her fingers through his silky black hair, massaging against his scalp while the other one worked with the softest caresses against the small of his back.

"You always give me the sweetest of dreams," she whispered against his forehead, her lips skimming across it in a loving kiss. "Hopefully I can make yours a little better."

END

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