Wishfull-star: (ᵔ◡ᵔ)
Luffy tried to ignore the whispers about the day before. His class either stayed away from him, or were concerned and wanted to see if he was okay. They'd last seen him passed out and going to the hospital. Luffy was glad he didn't remember since it seemed it had been bad based on the demeanor of his friends and classmates.
Flampe thought it was entertaining, and would send smirks at Luffy. I had been many months of school and she still disliked him now as much as day one. Oh well, it wasn't his job to help mean people be better.
When he told everyone he forgot about what happened, they seemed skeptical until the teachers confirmed that Luffy's daddy told them he did indeed forget. They didn't understand why he forgot but for Kota pointing out that Luffy hit his head, so maybe it made him forget. The vampire didn't dispute this, since it made more sense than saying a power popped up for the quirkless boy that helped him erase his own memory.
Zoro kept snapping at his classmates to stop bringing it up. "He doesn't remember, what's the point of trying to talk about it?" he demanded in a cranky voice. Sanji had been very bothered by what happened, and he kept giving Luffy worried glances. This annoyed Zoro as well, but he didn't snap as badly at Sanji as he did the others.
"Does he have brain damage? Then he can't go to school if he has brain damage," Flampe said, faking concern. Clearly faking it.
"Many children go to school and have brain disorders. If he did have damage, Luffy could still attend school," Miss Robin said. "There's no reason to try and diagnose him when you know noting relevant and have no experience doing such a thing. It would only caused problems for us," she added, voice kind but words firm. Flampe floundered and then hurried away. Zoro snickered.
Based on everyone's reactions, Luffy was glad he didn't remember. But there was something else that bothered many of the children. Not the majority, but a handful. They saw Luffy drink some of Zoro's blood. Luffy hadn't taken a lot, based on Zoro's own words. Sanji had never known about Luffy snack drinking from Zoro often. They didn't do it when Sanji was over, though, so he'd never seen them and what caused the bond that allowed them to share feelings. Zoro had been very bothered by the day before, but was happy Luffy was happy again. He continued to encourage Luffy to try not to remember.
Luffy was glad Zoro wanted him to be happy, and told him he wasn't trying to remember something bad. Both Zoro and Sanji were happy he was feeling better than he had been for awhile. Not too long, but also not just yesterday.
The day was fun, Luffy was able to write his full name, now. "Charlotte Luffy". And none of the letters were backwards anymore! He couldn't wait to show papa his completed name card. When school was over, Luffy went to wait under the tree, with Zoro and Sanji bickering about something minor. They were friends, but they did argue a lot with one another. Luffy rarely argued with Zoro, though.
When Katakuri came, they both waited for his friends to be picked up before Luffy was being driven to the doctor. He told his papa about his ability to write his full name, and he got a genuine proud smile aimed at him through the rear view mirror. "That's very impressive, LuffY. I'm proud." Luffy giggled. "How was school?"
"Everyone were talking about yesterday but I still don't remember it," he answered honesty. "Zoro is happy I'm better and got mad at them to stop bringing it up and risk making me upset." Katakuri said Zoro was a very good friend. "Yeah! He's the best. And Sanji, too."
When they got to the doctor, both walked inside. They had an appointment, and it didn't take long to be called back. The hall was colorful and had vibrant paintings of birds and fish. Luffy like colorful places, and wanted to paint his room rainbow, but hadn't asked yet. When hey got in the room, Luffy sat on the bed and Katakuri took the big chair in the corner.
A nurse came in to see how he was doing, take his blood pressure and ask if anything had changed since his last check up medication wise, but nothing had changed, and soon she was gone as they waited for his pediatrician to arrive. Luffy dug through his backpack and pulled out his name card to show his papa proudly.
"Wow, it looks so neat. And you don't have any backwards letters," he said happily, a smile on his face. Luffy nodded in agreement. He was proud, too. He couldn't wait to be able to write big paragraphs and seem very cool. When the doctor came in, her name was Gerd and she was tall with long blonde hair.
"Hello, Luffy. It's nice to see you again. I see you've grown an inch taller! And gained five pounds." Luffy smiled, glad to be getting bigger. He wanted to be big like papa was. Big and cool and strong. And kind, of course. Papa was very kind. "Now, your papa told me about what happened. Do you remember our last appointment?"
"No."
"I see. Well, we're gonna do some tests in the big part of the facility to make sure your brain is doing just fine after erasing your memory."
"Is my brain sick?"
"Not necessarily. It's just a precaution, so in case something is wrong, we gEt right on it as soon as possible." Luffy nodded, and got off the bed to follow Gerd into the bigger area of the hospital, not the children's clinic. Katakuri was coming, too, and Luffy didn't see his nervous and apprehensive expression since he was behind him.
Luffy spoke to Gerd about his name card, and she congratulated him on it. Luffy liked being complimented on it, it felt nice and he felt very proud.
Over the next hour, Luffy took a lot of tests. Brain scans were taken, too. And after awhile of waiting, eating some fruity gummies, he got to see his brain. It looked boring. But the colors were cool! Luffy didn't understand much of it other than he wasn't brain damaged. Yay!
"Even though you have no noticeable brain damage, this doesn't mean there won't be some possible problems. Based on what you've said you don't remember, the past few weeks will be a very confusing time. After all, what you forced yourself to forget was a big incident, not just yesterday. So some things might not make sense to you with missing context," Gerd explained, sitting in her doctor's chair.
"But I'm not sick?"
"Not that we can see. But you don't have to be sick to have some problems. So, be patient with yourself if you can't remember something, or if someone says something and you can't understand," she replied. "Your father says you have two very good friends who will not judgE you, so make sure you spend time with people who are understanding about it. If they're not, well, then try to move on to help yourself."
Luffy nodded, and then after a bit more, they headed home. Luffy went into his play room to draw for a bit before working on his homework.
-x-
Katakuri kept close watch of his child the next few weeks, and nothing was amiss unless it had to do with the "missing time". His class seemed to move on, probably because of how young they were and how it was easy to move on from something when nobody spoke about it anymore. And while Luffy showed no averse behaviors, the father still worried.
He really wished Luffy had said something before he did it. It almost hurt to know he did something so desperate without saying a thing, not a warning or even a hint. He couldn't even tell KatakurI what had happened, so the man had to infer and assume. But Luffy was in a terrible place, he shouldn't take anything personally when he was suffering the way he was.
Over all, Katakuri didn't hate what he'd done, as long as there was no future danger regarding it. And so far, there wasn't. So far, Luffy was just fine, falling back into step with how he was before the hostage situation. He had forgotten it so completely that nothing triggered. The sounds oF explosions or sirens didn't scare him. Not how it had before, that is.
-x-
"Do I gotta wear a tux?" Luffy asked as he and Katakuri were shopping for clothes to wear to Smoothie's wedding. She finally found someone, though she never wished to have children, and her husband was fine with that. Even if they were only in their early thirties, they didn't want kids. Luffy was The only nephew in the family. Katakuri said that was what Smoothie had wanted. "Can I wear a tuxedo shirt?"
"We have to look nice for a wedding. We'll find an outfit that isn't too hot or stiff," Katakuri promised. He already had nice clothes as he wore a suit or at least a button down shirt and nice pants for his work. So he didn't need to go out and buy anything new. But Luffy had no fancy clothes.
He wasn't a pain to shop with, and he was easy to get to try on clothes. They found some nice slacks and a button down shirt with a nice black vest for it. So it wasn't too hot and was easy to move in. the wedding would be very small, as they didn't have much family to invite. Both of them picked out two presents. One was a very nice and fancy fondu set. She liked sweets, so she'd appreciate this.
Then the second was some jewelry that Katakuri knew for a fact she liked. Or at least liked a few years ago. So, they were set for the wedding the next Saturday. It was Thursday but they had Friday off for a holiday. So with their things bought, all that was needed to do was make sure Luffy knew how to behave during the wedding.
He had to stay quiet, and couldn't run around and be noisy. He'd be the only child, so Smoothie had said Luffy could bring along one of his well mannered friends. It caused trouble with him having to pick between Zoro and Sanji. Luffy had talked to Zoro separately, and told him why he was taking Sanji. It had always been clear Luffy and Zoro were closer, and Sanji didn't know why, but Katakuri knew and was able to see that the perceived favoritism hurt the blonde boy.
So, Luffy was taking Sanji, and not Zoro. though after the wedding, Zoro would be coming over to spend the night. Katakuri was proud that Luffy recognized that Sanji might feel inferior, and as a friend, he should take steps to mitigate that. So with their things bought, they went back home and Luffy had a small "photo shoot" done of him in his new clothes, posing with his stuffed animals. Why not?
He talked to Sanji that night, who already had a nice suit. He was going to be bringing some big muffins as a gift, not wanting to just be a tag along. "Getting married is a big deal! I wanna help her celebrate."
Katakuri knew Zoro would not see it like that. He wouldN't have been surprised if Zoro just showed up in a shirt and jeans. But Zoro was not the one going to the wedding, the ever-polite boy Sanji was. Zeff was doing a good job raising him as he was happy and healthy, and was glad to be learning how to cook.
Not to mention that Zeff was teaching Sanji how to control the heat of his hands by drilling into him baking temperatures. They'd practice on his hot hands by comparing it to the oven. Because Sanji's hands could get very hot. It was dangerous, but he always wore the gloves when not training.
He wasn't reckless, which was a good thing given how dangerous his quirk could be. Zoro never used his, and as far as Katakuri knew, was still aiming to be able to control his shifts. Regardless of whether training it was very painful. Luffy never voiced any pain when Zoro was practicing because he said he didn't want their bond to drag Zoro down.
-x-
"Papa!" Luffy shouted down the hall, sitting up in bed. His hair was a mess, intense bed head still not combed out. But Luffy was distracted by what was going on with his body. He'd never felt anything like this before. It was weird. He grabbed his cheek and tugged. The skin stretched out and then snapped back into place. Cool!
Katakuri opened the door and saw the six year old looking bright. "What's wrong?" he asked, seeing nothing out of place. Luffy grabbed both his cheeks and pulled. They snapped back into place, and his father's face turned alarmed and bothered.
"I'm squishy!" Luffy exclaimed happily. His father seemed stuck. "It's cool! Look, grab, see!" Luffy said and reached his hand out. The man took his hand and Luffy yanked back, his fingers stretching. It tickled and felt funny, but he liked it!
"Luffy, are you feeling sick?" He shook his head. "Does your whole body seem this way?" There was concern deep in his voice, but he was also trying to keep the conversation light. But Luffy wasn't bothered, this seemed fun! He felt spongy and squishy, like a rubber ball. Could he bounce like a ball, too? Luffy said he wasn't sure, he only woke up a few minutes ago. So he got out of bed, but fell down on his face, but bounced a little bit. Like he really was made of rubber. He stood again, and managed to walk this time, but his arms were sagging down. "Can you make it go away?" Katakuri asked.
"No! I like it!" Luffy said. "I wanna keep this one this time!" he added with a firm voice. He wanted to keep this one, even if he had no idea what brought it on. Or if this was one of those times he just suddenly had a quirk but not a quirk. But he'd never had one like this. They'd all been emitters. This was a mutation. His body was changed by the quirk - if it was a quirk.
"Are- are you sure? It looks difficult."
"It's like papa's quirk! Squishy and stretchy. But not eatable," Luffy replied. Katakuri admitted that the rubber texture of his skin and body was similar to the mochi, though Katakuri's body was transformation. He wasn't mochi at all times. "I'll be okay," he said confidently. The father nodded, not having any way to stop Luffy from letting his body be in this way.
All day, Luffy messed around with his rubber body. And he wasn't craving blood, so this ability wasn't taxing him greatly. He loved stretching and pulling his skin. He grabbed onto the side of the couch and ran around it in circles, stretching his arm so it was wrapped around it like rope. It was a bit uncomfortable for Katakuri until he remembered his quirk was very similar, and he couldn't be bothered by someone else doing something so similar.
He didn't tell Luffy he couldn't do this anymore, because it was his body and wasn't hurting him in any way. And he was having a blast with it. So Katakuri didn't say anything about it other than nodding along everytime Luffy cheered about it. Or acting interested and impressed when he showed the man some new sort of thing he found out about the power.
-x-
"Papa, I am a balloon!" Luffy cheered, having somehow inflated his body to be in the form of a ball. Then he let all the air out and deflated, falling on his face. Katakuri was speechless. It had been two days and Luffy continued to experiment with his new body all day and night. He was extremely entertained by this. It made him happy, so his father couldn't be upset. He'd broken a few things, but they were framed photos and he'd apologized and tried to not break anything more. He didn't cry about it like he had once about the TV. Though that had been much more expensive.
"Very interesting," Katakuri said, and it was the truth. "Are you able to focus it in one spot?" he asked, wanting to be involved positively. He wanted Luffy to show him his "new moves" so he could prepare himself on how to help it if went wrong some how. So the boy zoomed outside so he didn't break anything, and attempted to experiment on his body more.
When it didn't work after hours of trying, he was a bit bummed, and thirsty. He drank a blood bottle, and said he wanted to see Zoro today. So the boy came over. The wedding was the next day, with Sanji going to be dropped off and then they'd attend the event. Smoothie was stressed over having it go alright, but with so little guests, Katakuri couldn't really see how anything could go severely wrong.
Zoro could be heard laughing at Luffy's ridiculous looking power. When Luffy pouted and said it was mean, Zoro apologized, saying he was just joking. Of course, Luffy forgave him almost instantly. Then they got to playing tag outside. Katakuri supervised them as they ran about the backyard and then the large front yard.
Their property was gated, so you had to have permission or a key to get through the gates. When Mama's attempts to harm luffy really got to the father's head, he had the gate built and an even more secure system around the whole house installed. Luckily, nothing had happened so far.
When Zoro left, Luffy was tired and went to his room to take a long nap before dinner. Katakuri hoped everything went alright and Luffy and Sanji didn't make a mess at the wedding, or Smoothie would hold a grudge for a long time depending on the reason.
Yup, Luffy is made of rubber.
