DISCLAIMER: One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Notes on the setting, for those who want details beyond what's provided in the fic itself: Post-timeskip, on the Sunny, AU where Hancock gave up the throne of Amazon Lily and her Warlord title to join the Strawhats.

~ Treasured Chest ~

Luffy wandered into the kitchen while Sanji was just about to start preparing the day's lunch. The cook was immediately on guard, but was surprised to find that his notoriously bottomless-stomached captain's goal was not food.

Luffy was frowning as he addressed the cook in an unusually serious tone. "Sanji... is touching boobs fun?"

"What? Yes," Sanji replied. "And more importantly, why are you asking me this right now?" He wasn't going to bother trying to ask why the rubber man hadn't been able to figure out on his own that touching boobs would be an enjoyable experience. Luffy had never shown much interest in anything to do with sex before.

Ignoring Sanji's question, he went on to ask, "Is it fun for the girl, too?"

"Yes, unless you're extremely terrible at it, it should be fun for everyone involved. Why are you asking me about this stuff all of a sudden?"

"Oh..." Luffy said slowly. "So, what do you do when a girl is mad at you for not wanting to touch her boobs?"

The cook just stared at his captain for several long moments as his brain struggled to understand the scenario that had just been presented to him.

"I have no idea," Sanji finally answered, "because I have never had that problem. In fact, I don't know a single other man alive who would ever have that problem."

"Hmm... well, if you don't know what I should do to get Hancock to stop being mad at me, then I guess I should ask Nami or Robin, since they're girls."

Luffy started to leave the kitchen, but was stopped when Sanji moved in front of the door to block him.

No way in hell was he letting Luffy go ask Nami or Robin that kind of question! How dare he even think of talking to them about... groping boobs?!

"Wait," Sanji said. "I can give you advice if you tell me what happened, and how she reacted. Have you talked to her since then?"

"She's been avoiding me since it happened... that's how I know she's still mad at me."

"Well, how long has it been since this happened?"

"A few hours."

It had only been a few hours since the incident, and he was so worried about Hancock still being upset over it that he'd come to Sanji seeking advice? Perhaps Luffy wasn't entirely hopeless when it came to romance, after all.

"So, what exactly happened, anyway?" the cook inquired.

After being yelled at by Nami for not bathing often enough, Luffy gathered up some clean clothes and a towel and headed to the bathroom - not realizing that someone else was already in there.

Hancock avoided bathing with the other women, since after joining the Strawhat crew a short time ago, she still did not feel close enough to the rest of the crew to be comfortable revealing her shameful past as a slave to them.

When the bathroom door opened, she instinctively crossed her arms over her chest. Her back was to the wall, so her scar was already effectively hidden from anyone who might happen to walk in on her.

"Why are you being shy?" Luffy asked, at the sight of her defensive posture. "I've seen you naked before."

Blushing, Hancock lowered her arms, revealing her breasts to him.

"Do you... want to touch them?" she offered, with only the slightest hesitation.

"Why would I want to do that?" Luffy asked, nonplussed.

Hancock's eyes narrowed into a glare. She stood up abruptly and stepped out of the tub, then grabbed her bathrobe and wrapped it around herself. She stormed out the room - still dripping wet - and slammed the door behind her.

While he took his own bath, Luffy brooded over her reaction, but he couldn't figure out why she'd gotten so angry.

He tried to ask her about it later, when he passed her in the hallway, but she just glared at him again as she kept walking. He knew he'd done things to annoy her before, but she had never stayed mad at him this long after the initial offense before!

Sanji was still having a hard time believing how stupid his captain had been. It was obvious to everyone else on the crew that Hancock was madly in love with Luffy. The captain himself was the only one who didn't seem to see it. Sometimes Sanji wondered whether she wasn't being direct enough about her feelings, and other times he wondered if she was and Luffy was just too dense to understand what she was trying to tell him. Right now he was starting to believe that it must be the latter.

He sighed heavily.

"You might not have meant anything by what you said about having seen her naked before, but she probably thought that you were flirting with her, so it hurt her feelings-" For a moment Sanji struggled to find a way to explain this that Luffy would actually understand. "-like, extra bad, when you rejected her offer. Furthermore, you didn't immediately go after her and try to resolve the issue. You waited until later and tried to casually bring it up. Of course she's angry."

"Hmm... I think I understand now. But I still don't know what to do to make her stop being mad at me."

Sanji sighed again.

"Try apologizing."

"OK, I'll try that!" Luffy replied, brightening up.

"Do it in private," the cook added, not trusting the idiot to do so without explicitly being told. Then he stepped away from the door, finally allowing his captain to exit the kitchen.

Finding somewhere on the ship where the two of them could be alone posed somewhat of a problem, since even though the crew was rather small, most of them had a tendency toward either nosiness or horrifically bad timing. The location problem was solved by Sanji, who explained (in discreet terms) what was going on to Nami and Robin, and the two of them agreed to stay out of the women's quarters so that Luffy and Hancock could have a chance to make up in private.

Once they were finally alone, Luffy got straight to the point.

"Hancock, are you still mad at me?"

And she wanted to be, truly she did, but it was so hard to stay mad at him when he looked up at her with those sad puppy eyes. (And she didn't even like puppies!) Besides, she had figured out earlier - after she'd had time to calm down and think about it - that he had been honestly confused when he'd asked her that question.

"I'm not... angry," she admitted, somewhat reluctantly. Instead of explaining her feelings on the matter, as she so desperately wished to do, she bit her lip and turned away. Judging by her own reaction to this morning's misunderstanding, she was fairly certain she wouldn't be able to handle an actual rejection.

While he was relieved that she wasn't mad at him, Luffy did not like the look of pain which she was trying to hide from him. And the thought that he was the one whose actions had put that expression on her face... Something constricted inside his chest.

She was still turned away from him, refusing to so much as glance in his direction. Luffy came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Hancock, I'm sorry about what happened earlier! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings!"

She'd tensed up when he first touched her, but relaxed into the embrace after hearing his apology.

As an afterthought, he added, "And if you still want me to touch your boobs, I am so totally up for it!"

"You don't have to if you don't want to," she protested.

"But I want to now!"

"W-well, if you really want to..."

"Ooh, squishy~"

~end~