Simple

Author's Note: I do think Oda's very smart in not supporting an official pairing, though I like Luffy/Nami personally. He doesn't have to worry about pleasing a particular pairing in the fanbase and that's a good thing in my opinion, and I tried to writing this without too much pairing bias, and I tried to keep it like Luffy would honestly think if he did think about romance.

Summary: Luffy keeps his life simple, go on an adventure, become to King of the Pirates, eat lots and lots of meat. But sometimes he does think of what it would be like to be more serious.

Most people view Monkey D. Luffy as a simple-minded idiot. Sure he acts stupid and doesn't have Nami's cunning or head knowledge, or Zoro's immense sword skills, he can't cook like Sanji or be a doctor like Chopper, he doesn't have Usopp's aiming skills or know a thing about archeology, but he does know one thing.

He knows that you should never give up on your dreams and that you have to fight for them. You have to protect your friends no matter what happens.

He knows that rumors fly all over the place about the Strawhats. Rumors that he's in love with Robin or Nami. The romantic mushy sort of love that Sanji gushed about when he wasn't cooking. It was the kind of love that made Boa Hancock think every nice thing he said a marriage proposal or a love declaration, he knew from the beginning that she had fallen for him, he wondered if it was just because he was the first nice man she'd ever met.

He loved all his friends and that was the truth. But people thought he was too stupid to know the difference between platonic and romantic relationships. The crew called him stupid all the time, but they know that Luffy knew that there were many ways someone could love other people, but everyone was so hung up on the idea of the Strawhat crew having romances that it was starting to creep into the gossip papers.

Luffy sometimes wondered if his relationship with Nami or Robin could ever be the romantic sort. He'd probably mess it up if he tried. Romance was Sanji's expertise, he knew all sorts of girl-related stuff that didn't make any sense to him.

Besides the fact that he was no good at romance there was a dark side to such a relationshiop between crewmates. If it became known that he had a lover, Marines and pirates from all over the world would come after them, to use the person he loved against him, and if he should die they would try to kill them. He knew about Ace's mother Portgas D. Rouge and how she had to go into hiding just because she'd been pregnant with Ace. He had also heard that the Marines killed all the pregnant women, that was so cruel and evil, those women hadn't done anything wrong they were just pregnant. It was horrible things like that made him dislike the World Government, they always tried to stamp out the opposition to their definition of "good", no wonder Sabo had tried so hard to abandon his old life. It was what Robin called it eugenics or some big fancy word like that.

Starting a family sounded nice, but it would be too dangerous now, besides, the sea was a very indiscriminant place, it was no place for a little kid, he knew why Shanks had always told him he couldn't go until he was older.

Besides, Luffy knew he was nowhere near ready to tackle the terrifying unknown thing called romance, the lure of the sea overshadowed that, and he loved all his friends too much to be selfish and say, "I'm going to be with Robin, or Nami, or Vivi or Hancock as my girlfriend!" His goal to become King of the Pirates was the most important of his dreams. He knew Sanji was in love with both of them, in his own weird way, it still made his brain hurt trying to figure that out.

Besides, he'd seen how badly he'd freaked out at Nami's "wedding", what would happen if he started a romantic relationship with her? He really didn't want to be on the wrong end of Sanji's angry tirades.

How would Nami or Robin feel if he formed romantic attachments to either of htem, and he was caught and executed for being a pirate? Ace had struggled all his life to vindicate his own existence because he was Gol D. Roger's son. He wouldn't want any kid that he'd have feeling like Ace did. But still, the thought of a wife and family did sound nice, but he had a lot to do with his life before that happened.

Zoro was way too serious to think about those things so he would never have to worry about him going nuts over any sort of relationship he had with either girls if he ever decided to have one at all.

Chopper didn't quite understand everything about human relationships, but if a fight broke out over one of the girls he wouldn't like it either, just the thought of trying to explain everything gave Luffy a massive headache.

Brook would be happy with whatever happened, he was very laid back like he was. Luffy knew that he would happy no matter what happened.

Ussop didn't nearly show as much interest in girls as the others, but he showed more interest than Luffy did. They'd all fainted at the sight of Nami's "Happiness Punch" he'd mainly done it out of surprise. It wasn't normal for girls to show guys their breasts.

Not that Nami wasn't pretty, even he knew she was a beautiful person in every way, he just didn't make a big deal out of it, many made a big deal about how good looking she was, but he didn't need to.

Robin was also beautiful, but he had never recruited his friends because of how they looked, he gathered them together because they were all kindred spirits, searching for their supposedly impossible dreams and the need to belong somewhere special. That was what attaining everything the world had to offer really was.

Franky seemed to like Robin, but after she'd grabbed him by his testicles Luffy was still surprised he hit on her. Not that she ever reacted to anything the guys did. Not even Brook wanting to see her panties, which puzzled him. What was so great about women's panties anyway?

Brook probably wouldn't act like Sanji but Luffy was sure he'd be happy no matter what happened between any of them, as long as he'd get to keep his promise to Laboon.

But his emotions are too complicated, and his friendships are far more important than romance, he'd heard people say that when friendships become romances and it doesn't work out, it complicates the relationship they had before. It wasn't simple and that was why he put it out of his mind.

Walking about the deck of the Thousand Sunny, he let his thoughts wander like they always did. He had changed a lot, it was not apparent to the rest of the world, but his friends knew he was different.

He didn't really understand why the world made such a big fuss about him, he didn't do things upset the World Government because he wanted to get rid of them, although he didn't like them much himself, the overthrowing of the government was something his Dad Monkey D. Dragon wanted to do. He had always done things to protect his friends and that was the only reason he had ever done anything in his life and it was how he would continue to do things for the rest of his life.

The death of Ace had hit him hard, first Sabo, it hadn't been fair at all, they'd both been kids at the time and that Celestial Dragon had just shot him like it wasn't a big deal. He knew his name and whenever he met him, Luffy was going to do way more than hit him in the face.

The loss of his brother had hurt so much because he had done everything he could to save him, only have Ace sacrifice himself to protect him from Akainu. It wasn't like Sabo's where there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. It had ripped open the old wound of helplessness that had crashed over him when his crew had been separated from him by Kuma on Sabaody Archipelago.

He had always relied on his friends and it was something that wasn't going to change. He had always believed that they could accomplish anything as long as they were together and to see them fall one by one and being unable to protect any of them had ripped his heart apart more than any attack from any pirate.

He had become much, much stronger over the years, but he had always drawn strength from his friends just as much as they drew it from him. He didn't have the others talents, but he wouldn't go on any adventures if they weren't going to be a part of them.

Emotional romance made everything too difficult for him at the moment, so he would bury the serious adult things in the back of his brain and save it for when he was ready to act like the older, wiser grown-ups, and for now, he was going to have fun and enjoy himself on the high seas, obtain his dream and find the One Piece. That was all that he needed to be happy, along with his dearest friends.

Women were starting to gush about him in public, but he suspected it was more about his notoriety than his good looks. Not that it particularly mattered to him. He didn't make a big deal about his physical appearance like Sanji did.

"Luffy?" Nami's voice called to him.

"What Nami?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"

"You've been making weird faces for the last five minutes and beating your head into the wall."

"Oh, eh, sorry, I was just—"

"You were just-?" she prompted.

"I was just—"

"Hey Nami-Swan! Lunch is ready!" Sanji cheerfully called.

"Oh yay, food!" Luffy shouted excitedly. "Meat! Meat! Meat!"

"I'm starving!" Chopper chimed in.

"I'll be there in a moment," Robin called, setting down her book.

"Super!" Franky called, "I really could use something to eat."

"You didn't have to wake me, I was having a nice nap!" Zoro grumbled.

"I'm so hungry my stomach shrank, even though I don't have stomach! Yohohohoho!" Brook put down his violin and took his place at the table.

"It's about time we ate!" Usopp was ready to chow down, he'd been helping Franky with some new ideas for weapons for the Sunny and like everyone else, he loved Sanji's cooking.

They all sat down and began to eat.

"Luffy, what were you doing earlier? You tried to tell me but we got interrupted."

"I was thinking," he replied.

Not one word was heard in the room. Nico Robin began to laugh, but no one heard her. All of the Strawhats had simultaneously fainted.

"What's so funny Robin?" Luffy asked confused.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be funny," she replied.

"No one's eating; I guess I'll take all the meat!" Luffy proclaimed excitedly.

"Oh, no you won't!" Nami protested, protecting her lunch, Luffy would eat all the food in the world and he wouldn't care.

Immediately they all began to fight over the food. She was secretly relieved; Luffy had gone back to normal. Just the thought of him actually thinking made her brain hurt.

Everyone liked Luffy as he was, despite all his stupidity, there was one thing they could always count on. Luffy always kept his life simple, and they wouldn't want him any other way.