A/N: A short, little one-shot. It's not that great. And I really don't like how I ended it, but mostly, I just wanted to get this idea out of the way because I have way too many in my head.
On a side note, Penelope means dreamweaver.
She met him in all his brilliant glory in Impel Down. He had broken in, had been punching his way down to lower and lower levels of the jail in search of his brother. She had been one of the inmates, locked up in a cell in level 3, with seastone cuffs around her wrists. She had been freed because of him. She had gotten her life back because of him. So there was no way that she was just going to leave without repaying him. She owed him her life. But when she had told him that, he had responded with "I don't want it" followed by a "do whatever you want." And then he ran off. It left her standing there wide-eyed and open-mouthed. She was amazed that someone—anyone could be like that. Between all the people that she had met in her life, she had never once met a person who wouldn't take advantage of her offering her life to them. And yet here was a man who didn't. One who brushed her off and didn't look back. It all just made her want even more to repay him.
It would be too difficult to escape on her own, she knew—because of that warden, Magellan. But she didn't want to escape right away, regardless. The one who had saved her, the straw hat wearing Monkey D. Luffy, was somewhere in Impel Down. She wasn't sure where so she decided to wait it out until he reappeared so that she could help him escape. And so she did. She helped him escape with the other convicts. Then she followed him to Marineford and aided him in trying to save his brother, Portgas D. Ace. In the end, they still couldn't save him though, and the following cries from Luffy were heartbreaking.
She then followed his unconscious self out of Marineford. She had jumped on board the Heart Pirates' submarine just in time and followed him to Amazon Lily. Once things had settled down, she had told him again that her life was his and again, she got the same answer: "I don't want it." This time around, it made her upset because she had nowhere to go. She needed something, someone and he was denying that from her. The next day, after the suggestion of one silver-haired retired pirate, she changed her tactic. She asked the black-haired pirate captain to join his crew. He didn't answer her right away. He walked away from her, not giving her an answer until he came back from Marineford the second time. Then all he told her was to meet him in Sabaody in two years. She knew what that meant so she happily agreed.
And then two years passed. And then she went to Sabaody as she had agreed. And she met the crew whom happily accepted her. And she grew close to them, but to none as close as her captain.
As a devil fruit user who had eaten the dream-dream fruit, Penelope often found herself seeing the dreams of those around her when she slept. It was because of this ability that she had learned that her captain was having nightmares. On one of those few nights where she did try to sleep, she found herself in a nightmare which she knew could only belong to him because it was about Marineford and his now deceased brother.
As soon as she had awoken, she had found herself in the men's quarters, shaking awake a sweating, tossing Luffy. He woke up abruptly, gripping onto the wrists of the hands that had been shaking him awake. The grip was tight and his nails dug deeply into her skin, beginning to draw some blood, but she didn't appear phased at all. Once he had noticed who it was, he had relaxed and let her go. And then she hugged him tightly to comfort him. They stayed in an embrace for a few minutes.
When she had finally let go, she intertwined her fingers with his and pulled him up and out of the room.
"I really shouldn't be in there," she told him. He just blinked at her. It was strange seeing her usually energetic and smiling captain standing there looking exhausted and frowning. She hummed thoughtfully. "I can help you if you want," she told him. He rubbed his eyes.
"Really?" He croaked out. She nodded.
"Give me a minute," she said and headed toward the women's quarters. She came back after a minute with two blankets in her hands. She pulled him over to the mast and wrapped one of the blankets around her before sitting herself in front of the mast and leaning against it. She held out her hand to him with a welcoming smile on her face and pulled him down once he had held onto it.
"I'll make sure you have nothing, but sweet dreams. Promise," she told him as she wrapped the blanket around him and brought down his head onto her lap. She hummed softly as she ran her hands through his hair.
"Thank you, Penny," she heard him say, before her ability kicked in and put him to sleep. She closed her eyes as she worked to keep her promise. She chased away all bad dreams and gave him good ones instead—dreams about new adventures on strange island and about games and banquets with his nakama. A warm feeling settled itself around her heart as she saw her captain smiling in his sleep because it wasn't until now that she felt truly useful to her captain—to the man who had saved her from a life of imprisonment and the man that she had slowly fallen in love with: because of his contagious grin and hearty laugh and caring nature and unrivaled determination; because of everything about him, from his greatest qualities to his tiniest flaws. And she wanted to protect all of that. She wanted to protect her beloved captain however she could and this was one way that possibly only she could.
And so it continued like that. She would wait outside with two blankets for Luffy and once he appeared, he would lay down with her and fall asleep while she made sure that he had only good dreams. Once it became routine, they started spending time talking and joking around with each other before Luffy finally fell asleep. And Penelope cherished every single moment like that; every single moment that she got to spend with her captain like that because those moments felt special—they felt intimate because she knew that they were moments that he only shared with her.
She had noticed that, over time, the amount of nightmares that he would have over a given period of time started to lessen, but still he came out to spend the nights with her. And she was so happy that he continued to do so. She was so happy that he thought their moments together like these so precious that he would willingly choose to spend his nights out on the deck with her rather than in the warmth of comfort of his own bed. It gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, there existed the possibility that her feelings could be returned. But she didn't entertain the thought too much for fear of being disappointed.
Instead she focused on enjoying every single moment, every day, and especially every night that she got to spend with the man she loved, watching him grin and jump around, and listening to his stories and desires and laughs. Watching him grow stronger and stronger and get closer and closer to achieving his dream until finally he achieved it—until he finally became the king of the pirates as she and the rest of the crew knew he would.
It wasn't until after all that, after Luffy had returned his straw hat to Shanks, after the Straw Hat pirates and the Red-Haired pirates gathered together in Luffy's hometown to celebrate the achievement of all of their dreams, that Penelope's longtime desire was finally fulfilled. They were in Partys Bar, when:
"Oi. You planning to get married, Luffy?" Asked Yasopp, one of the Red-Haired Pirates.
"Boa Hancock has been proposing to you for a long time now," pointed out Usopp.
"No! I already told her that I'm not going to get married," said Luffy as he continued to munch on some meat.
"How could you reject such a beautiful woman?" wailed Sanji as he wept, hunched over on the floor. Annoyance crept onto Luffy's face for a second.
"I don't like her like that," he simply said.
"So you suuuper don't plan on having any woman in your life?" Asked Franky.
"But you'd get to see all the panties you'd want!" Exclaimed Brook. "And you actually have eyes to see them with! Yohoho!"
"Do you guys know Luffy?" Asked Nami, putting her arm around Luffy. "Can you see this guy with a woman?" She pulled on one side of his cheek as he continued to chew on the chunk of meat on his hand.
"Bucsh I hash von," Luffy said, food in his mouth.
"Swallow your food first so we can understand you!" Shouted Nami, hitting him on the head. Luffy did as he was told before repeating himself.
"I said I have one," he repeated before going back to eating.
"What?!" Shouted every single member of his crew. Those who had been eating or drinking, Penelope was one of those who had been drinking, spit out their food or drink in surprise. Penelope's eyes were wide and she felt her heart drop. She had long ago come to accept, though it pained her, the fact that Luffy would probably end up being with Hancock, because why wouldn't he be with the most beautiful woman in the world? But she hadn't prepared herself for the possibility of him being with a different woman. Depending on who it was, she wasn't sure if her heart would be able to handle it.
"Who?!" Shouted half of the crew. Penelope sighed and had gone back to drinking the alcoholic, but fruity drink that she held in her hand, but she ended up spitting it back out again upon hearing Luffy's answer.
"It's Penny," he said.
"What?" She shouted. Luffy laughed in the background as everyone in the bar turned to look at her, her entire crew with wide eyes. "No. No. Guys, I have no idea what he's talking about!"
"When did this happen?!" Shouted half of the crew, again. Jeez, thought Penelope, these guys were incredibly synchronized.
"During all those nights we spent together!" He said. Penelope's face turned bright red as everyone turned to stare at her again.
"Dammit, Luffy! Don't say it like that! That sounds inappropriate out of context! It's not what you think, guys!" Penelope covered her blushing face with her hands. Luffy just laughed at her
"Aw, there's no need to be shy about it, Penny," Nami said with a smirk, Robin laughing behind her.
"Who would have thought that all this time..." Said Usopp with a nodding Franky and Brook by his side.
"Don't worry," said Zoro, with a smirk, joining in on the teasing. "We totally support it." The others nodded fervently.
"My precious Penny-chwan has been ripped right out from my grasp," wailed Sanji, a depressing aura settling over him—again. Chopper simply looked at everyone in slight confusion as he munched on his cotton candy.
Penelope groaned and hit her head on the table that she was sitting at. 'What the hell is Luffy thinking?' Was all she could think, but she wouldn't get her answer until later that night when she was sitting by the shoreline close enough to the water that her feet got wet every time the tide came in. She heard sandals hitting against the ground behind her, getting louder, but she didn't turn knowing who the sound of those distinctive footsteps belonged to.
"I guess I should have asked first, huh?" Asked Luffy as he plopped down next to her. She turned to look at him, letting her eyes trail across his matured face.
"What?" She questioned.
"For you to be mine," he answered with a grin.
"Luffy," she started, "do you even know what that really means?" Luffy nodded at her.
"I like you a lot, Penny. And I like it when we spend time together. And I wanna keep spending time together for as long as possible."
"You're being serious, huh?" She asked. She paused for a short while after he nodded again. She couldn't help the smile that crawled onto her face. She got up to her knees and tackled him so that he lay on the ground below her.
"I'd love to," she told him, giving him a short kiss on the lips.
Luffy cheered and grinned, pulling Penelope close to him in an embrace. The two of them lay there enjoying the other's warmth until they were suddenly hit by cold water. They looked over to see that the waves reaching further into the shoreline than before. Penelope was the first to stand, extending her arm down toward him.
"We should probably get going," she said. "Wouldn't want two devil fruit users to get caught in the ocean when no one else is around. That's bound to not end well." Luffy laughed as he grabbed onto her hand and let her pull him up. He intertwined his fingers with hers so that she couldn't let go easily and then ran forward, pulling her along behind him. Penelope gladly followed along as she thought about how happy she was that that hope, that hope that maybe, just maybe, there existed the possibility that her feelings could be returned turned out to be very real.