A happy, happy chapter. Kind of. The happy before a mixed-up feeling storm. Also, I totally recommend watching 'If I Stay'. The commercial really didn't do it any justice, but yeah, it's a really good movie, and an even better book.

If there's one thing Luffy hates about his brother's room, it's the clock—tick, tick, ticking right in his ear, but Ace finds it comforting. Says it's like a metronome, and that makes him feel in tune. However, it makes Luffy feel nervous and he leans forward, thin fingers digging into his brother's blanket, knees pressing together.

At least he's not hard anymore.

Ace and Monet stare at him in unison, tag teaming, and Ace even has his arms crossed, like Shanks when the man is scolding him; but Monet is just gazing, curious, and with an earnest sense of concern. And Luffy thinks, not for the first time, that he really, really adores Ace's girlfriend, with a pang of guilt in his chest. He must have been making his family worry.

Monet's hands fold together, the spine of Ace's swivel chair creaking as she shifts. "So, Anchor." She clears her throat, holding out a palm to gesture at Ace, eyebrows cocked. "How may we help you?"

Both Ace and Luffy can't help but to laugh—or, well, a snort in Ace's case. The corners of his lips swerve up, usually cocky smirk in place, and Ace is always like that. Self-assured and confident. Luffy is too, usually, (in a much more light, cheery way) but today, he feels small, so Ace's buoyancy is reassuring. Like his brother is confident, and happy, and loud enough for the both of them.

The laugher dies down, it's last, flickering lights a glimmer in the darkness. The smile is still tugging at Ace's lips, but he licks them and keeps looking at Luffy, eyes a hard coal, concern a molten lava underneath. Monet's hand falls back into her lap, pressed warm between her knees, and only Ace knows that it's an anxious gesture of hers. The silence is pressing in on Luffy's ears, and he misses the music that was reverberating in them. The music that's been replaced by Ace's damn clock and his pounding heart. His voice is trapped in his throat but the quiet is caving in on him. His heart feels like it's going to jump up his throat, upchucked like vomit, and it's ridiculous; why is he so scared? What's wrong?

"I—-" Luffy's voice cracks, hitching on a high note, and it hurts his throat. "I don't know what to do." It doesn't crack again, but it wavers, like the last chord of a piano, tinkering at the end of a piece. "I don't know what to do," he repeats, and the volume of his voice is even weaker than the first time. And god, he hates this! Hates the sniveling and cracks in his surface.

Monet doesn't falter. "About what?"

Luffy bites his lip, teething off a flake of chapped skin. "About," he pauses, "this whole, l-liking someone business." His toes and fingers curl, limbs pulling themselves in closer.

"I knew it!" Ace burst, penetrating the somber atmosphere. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! But Sabo was all like, 'Luffy doesn't really think of people like that, Ace'." Ace does a pretty good job of imitating their blond sibling's voice, Luffy notices. "But I was rig—-"

"Ace, darling, please shut the hell up," Monet says chirpily at the same time Luffy interjects, "I don't think of people that way."

There's a tiny glare in Monet's eyes, directed at his brother from the corner of them (but its playful and affectionate, full of butterflies and warmth), before she looks back at Luffy, eyes a soft, glittering amber. "But you like this person?"

Hesitantly, Luffy nods. He's established this. He likes Law.

"But you're scared?" she guesses, hitting a bull's-eye.

And Luffy stiffens, hit and strung by Monet's arrow. He gulps and again, he nods, adding in a childish mumble, "Because I've never felt like this for anyone before. All warm and fluttery and shit. It's weird. And really stupid."

To Luffy's chagrin, Ace cracks a grin, and even Monet smiles a bit, hidden by her small hand. "But, Luffy," Ace's grin grows a little dopey, peeking a look in Monet's direction, "it isn't a bad thing, right? Just how being asexual isn't either." And Ace's eyes are still lingering towards Monet, drawn in like a magnet. He looks so happy, glowing like the campfires they sing around in summer.

Breath in. Breath out. And Luffy feels like there's been a weight lifted off his shoulders. "Yeah, I suppose it isn't."

[SMS – 12:01 a.m.] lets go get coffee tomorrow

He digs his right big toe into the worn leather of his flip-flop. He crosses his legs underneath his desk, left over right, before sighing in exasperation, blood thrumming beneath his skin. He wants to move, he needs to move.

"All I'm saying is that The Reptilians could totally be real. I mean, it's brilliant! What better way to invade a planet than to take over the government?" Usopp's chest is pressed against the edge of his own desk, and Luffy think it's probably uncomfortable, but the other boy doesn't seem to notice, lost in his excited rambling.

Nami groans, cheek smooshed against her palm. "Usopp, for the last time, our government officials are not aliens." There's a drag in her tone, like this isn't the first they've had this debate. (It isn't.)

Usopp looks almost offended, lips in an exaggerated gasp, before he presses them together, huffing through his nose. Then, he turns his attention to Luffy; apparently deciding to pretend Nami doesn't exist. "Wanna come over after school and play Bioshock with me?"

"Can't," he answers immediately, throwing Usopp a secretive little smile that catches Nami's attention as well. "I have a date."