CUDDLING
"God, what made you think you can hold your liquor?" Reiju said as she supported the drunk off his ass Luffy.
"I c-coouldd drink a lot moore beforee…" Luffy slurred as he wobbled around not liking his current state one bit. He had thought he could hold as much liquor as Leo could, so had started downing bottle after bottle in quick succession. And this was the result where he lost all control of his body and his mind was buzzing.
"Before what?" Reiju asked giggling.
"Beeforee I died…" Luffy slurred before promptly keeling over and slumped down face first on the floor.
"Died?" Reiju stood there confused. "The hell does that mean?"
"I diied…" Luffy mumbled before shaking his head and correcting himself, "Noooo…I didn't dieeee…Leoo died…"
Seeing how he seemed to have no filter on his mouth at the moment, Reiju decided to take advantage of this. She made him sit up and asked "Luffy, who's Leo?"
"Leoo? My brothaa from anotha mothaa! He is alsoo mee! Shishishishi…"
'What?' "Leo is you?"
Luffy nodded while giggling, "He's mee! And alsoo not mee~ Hahaha…"
'What the hell is he saying? Are Leo and him the same person or not? Split personality? Or is he speaking metaphorically?' Reiju was utterly confused, so decided to change the line of questioning. "When exactly did you meet Leo?"
Luffy lost his grinning face and deflated, "Whhen I wass enslaaved…deathhh pit…"
"You said Leo's from Nashville and New York, right? Where is that?"
Luffy smiled wide and with a flourish sang "New~ York~ Concreetee jungle wheree dreeamss are maa~de off…theeressnothing yoou caantt dooo~…Let's heear it foor…Neew Yoor, New Yor..New Yoorrkk…" he fell onto Reiju while singing Empire State of Mind and put his arms around her. He nuzzled into her stomach mumbling 'comfyy~' and fell asleep hugging her.
Reiju just sighed not getting anywhere with her questioning. 'Was that a song he was singing?' She looked down at Luffy who had wrapped his hands around her and tried to separate him but he grumbled tightening his hold on her. She just shrugged and went back to her room with Luffy hanging off of her like a limpet.
—
Luffy felt someone pulling his cheek trying to wake him up, but he felt a severe headache splitting his head. "5 more minutes Serena…" he mumbled and nuzzled into what he thought was Serena's neck but instantly felt a hard smack on his head making him wake up with a start and he realized just whose neck he was nuzzling against.
He sat up hastily, but that was a bad decision as he felt a sharp stinging inside his head and he barely managed to figure out where he was. "Never gonna drink again…" he mumbled as he realized he was in Reiju's room on her bed with her right next to him.
She was half naked wearing just a shirt and a thong, but that was how she usually dressed, so that wasn't saying much. He looked down at himself and sighed in relief when he found that he was still fully clothed before looking at the annoyed look on Reiju's face.
"What did I do?" he asked looking at her and trying to remember what had happened the previous night. He only remembered drinking and he was pretty sure they were at the bar near the pool. Did they shift to Reiju's room at some point?
"Well for one, you were up in my neck" Reiju grumbled.
"Sorry…thought you were someone else…"
"Yeah Serena right? Isn't that your brother's girlfriend? Why would you think you were sleeping with her?" she asked suspiciously.
"Umm…why am I in bed with you?" Luffy deflected the question with another question.
"Why else? You wouldn't let go of me"
"What?"
"You just hugged me and fell asleep. You wouldn't let me go no matter what so I just brought you back here…"
"Reiju that's bullshit. You could have easily ripped me off of you if you wanted. You wanted to sleep with me didn't you? Did you do something to me last night?" he smirked pretending to check inside his shirt.
"Deflecting questions huh?" Reiju said unperturbed, "Two can play at that game. Now, tell me why you thought you were sleeping with your brother's girlfriend?"
Luffy sighed massaging his head to get rid of the headache, "I slept with her sometimes…"
"You slept with your brother's girlfriend?!" Reiju asked shocked.
"Just cuddling!" Luffy instantly lied knowing this would take a very weird turn if left alone, "I like to cuddle a lot when I sleep, and she liked to cuddle too. So, we cuddled. That's it"
"Oh…well I can't deny that you are an amazing cuddle buddy…"
"…What?"
"Oh you don't know?" Reiju said with a tilt of her head, "The way you cuddled and hugged me…I don't know, it just feels nice I guess. I slept very well last night" And she really did. The way he just hugged her and pulled her head into his chest made her feel all tingly inside. He had even started slowly caressing her hair while running his fingers through her scalp that sent all sorts of tingles throughout her body which she had never experienced before. She didn't love him in any way romantically, and just thought of him as her first and precious friend and even though their current position seemed borderline romantic and sexual, she didn't care.
She decided to just let it happen and he didn't seem perverted either, so she didn't mind and soon fell asleep while enjoying his soft caresses. When she woke up in the morning, she felt immensely rested and felt really great. She had giggled seeing his sleepy face and started pulling his cheeks playfully…And then he said another woman's name and she reflexively smacked him getting annoyed.
"I-I see…" Luffy muttered. Leo and Serena did like to cuddle a lot so maybe his body was just doing whatever Leo did when he cuddled?
As he was speculating his newfound love for cuddling, Reiju finally asked about his comments "Hey Luffy, last night you said you could hold your liquor well before you died?…what does that mean?"
Luffy froze cursing himself and let out a sigh. He knew he couldn't lie in front of her so just dodged the question "Long story. Will tell you some other time…"
Reiju pursed her lips obviously dissatisfied with the response and just stared at him until he caved. Luffy gave another sigh "Listen, it's a story that's insane alright. You won't believe it"
"That's a roundabout way of saying you don't trust me" Reiju said with a bit of hurt leaking into her voice.
"It's not about trust. It's like if your daughter came up to you and told you she has an invisible friend, you obviously won't believe her right? But does that mean you don't trust your daughter? No, right? It's the same here. I'll claim something insane and without proof, you'll just think I'm a mental patient in need of help. So I'll tell you when I can prove it to you"
Reiju seemed taken aback by his perfect logic. "Wow...well, okay then…"
"And I do trust you. What makes you think I don't?"
"I don't know" Reiju pouted slightly, "It's just my nature I guess. I have been an assassin and in the middle of monsters my entire life…You just seem too good to be true…"
"Hmm yeah, I guess so…Well, I just have to whisk you away from here and show you a good life filled with people like me then"
"…You can say cheesy lines like that with no hesitation huh? You should have had a lot of experience saying things like that to other girls…"
"Not really, but I didn't mean it in a romantic way. I meant I'll make you join my crew and my crew will be filled with amazing people that you can trust implicitly"
"Oh…"
"Yeah, sorry if you're expecting a Prince on a white horse coming to claim your love. I'm not interested in relationships"
"Who the fuck wants that?! I wasn't thinking anything remotely like that!"
"Sure sure"
"I really wasn't! Stop making up stuff!"
"Sure sure"
"Gggrraahhh!"
"Shishishishi"
—
And that was just the start. There was another drinking party they had a couple weeks later where Luffy ended up drunk again and glomped onto Reiju and she had enjoyed another cuddle session with him. Apparently, his drunk self liked to cuddle.
After that, it kinda became normal for them to wake up next to each other in bed whenever they got drunk. Reiju didn't seem to mind and even liked it, so Luffy was happy for that. Besides, the two sparred a lot so there was already a lot of skin ship between the two and cuddling wasn't that different. By the time the three months had passed, the two had gotten so close that they cuddled together every night for the last two weeks of their time together.
And it wasn't the least bit sexual as Reiju almost treated him like a teddy bear and her hugging him was akin to crushing him to death. The first few times he hadn't noticed cause he was drunk, but when he was sober he realized that if he wasn't made of rubber, all his bones would have broken because of her crushing hugs. He had his cuffs on one time and he felt his bones creaking and breaking before he had to hastily remove them because she hugged so tight.
She also liked to move a lot in her sleep and so he would end up in weird, uncomfortable positions when he woke up in the mornings with his face buried under her, or his arms being stretched around her, and so on. Either way, the two ended up cuddling a lot during their last couple of weeks together without it ever becoming weird between them.
Luffy was aware that they had developed this weird relationship where they teased and flirted around a lot, but it was all playful and it worked for them.
THE RUMOR
Luffy had no respect for any royal norms or etiquette. Reiju had learned of that the first day she had met him itself and he had only gotten more comfortable around her the more they spent time together. He would talk to her casually and had even shortened her name to Rei after a while.
Reiju obviously didn't mind and even liked being treated as an equal but the other servants and maids on the ship were a problem. They would obviously see him being so disrespectful towards her and start gossiping which was a problem Reiju had to solve. She didn't want to tell him to stop either and so, she tried to reduce the number of people who would enter her castle and kept Luffy out of their way when they came in for cleaning and other household things.
It was suspicious of course as Reiju had suddenly stopped many people from nearing her castle but she couldn't do anything about that. One day though, a maid was in her room tidying up the place when Luffy walked in casually.
He had just been through an intense training session and after taking a shower, he had come to her room to spend time with her. He just jumped on her bed like always even when she was on it not minding the presence of the maid. This was normal for them as they would end up drinking on bed sometimes and even read stuff together and play games, so he acted the same.
Reiju also didn't think anything was wrong with the scene and had even moved a little to make space for him until she saw the absolutely shocked and stunned look on the maid's face. It finally hit her that Luffy, her slave, had just jumped in bed with her and she didn't seem to mind one bit. If she protested and pretended to get angry now, it would obviously look more suspicious.
So she did the only thing that came to her mind. She casually sat up and started unbuttoning the shirt she was wearing while looking at Luffy, who only became confused at her behavior. He didn't even know that he was causing her problems by being so casual with her, so he was about to ask what she was doing but kept his mouth shut when her eyes seemed to be telling him to keep quite.
She removed her shirt and was now only in her bra, and she was only wearing a thong as usual, so she was almost naked. She then pushed Luffy onto his back while she got on top of him straddling him and started removing his shirt slowly and sensually. Luffy finally caught on to what she was doing when she kept secretly glancing at the maid in the room from the corner of her eyes, and so played along too as he put his arms around her waist.
Reiju ran her fingers on his upper body while moaning sultrily and acted like she was about to kiss him by dipping down but just when she almost reached his lips, she suddenly stopped and turned towards the maid, who was frozen on the spot looking at them with wide eyes.
Reiju raised an eyebrow at her and said "Get out" making her flinch and come back to her senses. She bowed down muttering apologies and quickly left the room closing the door behind her and only then did Reiju let out a sigh of relief. Her brothers brought in a lot of prostitutes, so this wasn't anything new, but what was new to them was her bringing in someone like that as she had never done that before. 'Guess rumors of me also bringing in prostitutes will spread among the servants now…' she sighed.
"I hope we're not gonna fuck to keep up appearances?" Luffy asked bringing her out of her thoughts and she looked down at the smirking face of the boy she was straddling. 'No hint of a blush even now?' she wondered. She thought he would get flustered at least now, but he only looked at her with amusement.
She had tried so many times to make him flustered by bringing up sensual topics like sex positions and fetishes but he just talked about it casually too. She had made a ton of innuendos hoping to make him falter just a bit but all he did was smirk in amusement or laugh.
She so wanted to get some type of reaction from him…so she resumed softly and sensually running her fingers on his upper body while bending forward and getting close to his face. She held his gaze for a couple of moments breathing hard pretending like she was turned on and bent down further so that her mouth was close to his ears. "Do you really not feel anything?" she whispered sultrily while still sensually massaging his body.
"Nope"
"Really?" Reiju breathed kissing his ears. She then slowly left a trail of soft and wet kisses on his neck while moaning just the right amount to turn anyone on. "Even now?" she sultrily whispered again.
"Nop-" she heard him begin to say but smirked triumphantly when she felt something harden below her.
"Hehehe…so you do feel lustful towards me…" she breathed right in his ear again making him shift slightly under her.
She slowly raised her body back up with glee thinking he would show a blushing and flustered face at least now…but all she saw was a neutral blank look on Luffy's face.
Luffy just sighed, "Even I have my limits you know… You sultrily breath in my ear and come on this strongly?…of course my body's gonna react…"
Reiju didn't let his lack of a blush get to her as she had at least managed to get some reaction from him. She just giggled still not getting off of him and continued to run her fingers all over his upper body and neck. She bent down to get close to his ears again and breathed "Let's see how long it takes you to blush…" while slightly licking his ears before sitting up again.
Luffy just stared at her for a moment knowing she was trying to tease him, and he didn't want to lose. He stared up at the teasing smirk on her face and slowly brought his hand up to her cheeks. He softly caressed her cheek while she allowed it to happen as she was amused and curious to see what he would do.
Luffy tucked a strand of hair falling over her eyes behind her ear and caressed her cheeks gently while staring directly into her eyes. "You're incredibly beautiful Reiju…" he whispered and gave the right pauses and stresses to get his point across, "Not just physically as it's obvious you're insanely hot, but also your personality…your attitude, your weird quirks, your perseverance, your genuine smile, your genuine laugh, your incredible kindness…everything about you is so so incredibly attractive…I love that I know you, the real you…and it's not enough to say this once, so I'll say it again. You're incredibly, mind-blowingly, magnificently, spectacularly, scintillatingly, dazzlingly, and every word that means insanely amazingly, beautiful…"
Reiju was absolutely caught off guard and as his words reached her ears, her cheeks burned with a deep shade of red, which only kept getting redder and redder as he went on, and by the end, her entire face was burning hot. It wasn't like she wasn't praised before. She had been proposed to and there was no shortage of poems praising her beauty, but they all were superficial or just plain infatuation or from someone who was trying to get her family's power or just trying to get in her pants.
But seeing Luffy's big honest and earnest eyes that bore holes right through her and those honest words that should have seemed cheesy…made her heart flutter. She was completely speechless, more than ever before, as her mind had completely blanked out and only his words were playing on a loop in her mind.
She didn't even realize that Luffy had sat up and she was now sitting on his thighs while their naked upper bodies were pressed against each other. Luffy put his arms around her and pulled her in closer putting her head on his chest, while he slowly caressed her hair. "I think getting kidnapped by slavers and ending up almost dead in that pit was one of the best things that's happened to me…I met so many new people, made a new brother in Leo, learned so much about this world, learned so many other things, went on one of the best adventures that I guarantee no one else has gone on and finally…I met you…" he whispered that last part softly into her ears making her shudder more. He finally separated and pushed her back slightly so that he could see her face…and it was still bright red and her mouth seemed to be quivering trying to form words but was failing spectacularly.
He finally burst out laughing falling on his back as he pointed at her face. "Oh god, I wish I had a camera right now. You should see your face! Hahahaha!"
Reiju finally regained her senses when he started teasing her again and she felt rage boiling up in her "THAT WAS ALL AN ACT?!"
She smacked him once and tried to smack him a second time feeling angry and embarrassed, but Luffy caught her hand and interlocked his fingers with hers before pulling her down towards himself making her fall on her side. She ended up lying next to him and the two were facing each other. Luffy cupped her cheeks with his free hand while looking into her eyes.
"Of course it wasn't, idiot…I meant every word" he said seriously and the blush on her face was back in full force. "But you need to understand that I'm really not interested in a relationship and just having sex with no strings attached will get messy and complicated down the line…so let's not ruin our relationship by having sex and all…"
"W-who the hell asked for sex?!" she tried to scream but only a hiss came out.
"Oh? I never said you did though? I was talking about myself…"
Reiju got even more embarrassed and she just wanted to hide in a hole and die.
Luffy continued with a smirk, "I'm fine with kissing though…I don't think kisses are that special and don't mind doing it with anyone…"
Reiju, who would have usually just smacked him, only became more embarrassed. She was far too lost in her mind to even rebuke him like usual…and Luffy knowing it was too much gave her an out by changing the topic. "Well, all teasing aside…I'm sorry. I didn't even realize I was causing problems for you by being so casual around you. I'll try to be more mindfu-"
"No!" came Reiju's instant response. Finally getting some other topic, she latched onto it to keep her mind occupied and not go into a spiral on thinking about what all he had said, "I'll keep all the others away. You be yourself and treat me the same…"
"Is that really okay?"
"Yeah yeah…I've already done…this, so rumors of me having a sex slave will spread now. My brothers do it a lot so it isn't a big deal"
"Ooh you've never done this before?"
"Not really, no"
"So…you're a virgin?"
Reiju just gave him a flat look "…Did you sleep with your brother's girlfriend?"
"Touché…" Luffy didn't press further knowing some things had to be kept secret.
Reiju giggled and buried her face in his chest again as they lay together. They usually fell asleep next to each other whenever they got drunk, but they had never done so sober. And Reiju definitely didn't want to let him go tonight, so she ended up hugging him closer and getting more comfortable with him.
"Umm…watcha doing?" Luffy asked confused.
"Well, I know your limits now. Only if I come onto you strongly do you react, so just sleeping like this should be fine right?"
"Yeah I don't mind…" Luffy trailed off before he just shrugged and hugged her too. The two got comfortable with each other and just lay there enjoying each other's presences.
"Thank you…for saying all that…" she whispered softly after sometime.
"It's a crime that you haven't heard that all your life. You deserve each and every word…"
Reiju just hummed, her lips widening as she heard his soothing heartbeats… and she soon fell asleep feeling better than she had ever felt before in all 20 years of her life. After that night, it became normal for them to seek out one another to cuddle together at night and the two became much more closer. They also started teasing and flirting more with one another trying to make the other flustered. Luffy never did get flustered but Reiju did sometimes get flustered a lot when he straight up praised her.
Meanwhile, rumors of Reiju having a sex slave also spread among the servants. After that incident, she made damn sure that no one approached her castle unless absolutely necessary, and had told all the servants and maids that Luffy was a bit loose in the head and she was only keeping him around because he was a precious lab specimen whose body reacted differently to poisons. Of course they thought that that was a cover story to keep her sexual escapades a secret, and Reiju let them think that as she really didn't care much. Her brothers and father didn't care about such stuff one bit, so even if they heard it, they would just shrug it off.
Also, many had seen Luffy's battered and exhausted state after he trained intensely sometimes and associated with it him having had intense sex with Reiju and rumors that Reiju was a fierce lover also spread. Reiju and Luffy had had a good laugh when they secretly overheard such topics.
———
They were at the last island they would stop at in South Blue and Luffy would be getting off here. They had both come ashore to the island and Reiju was looking around trying to find any place that Luffy could stay in or any place that could help him go to East Blue.
Luffy put a stop to it though and pulled on her arm making her stop her frantic searching. "Reiju, we only have an hour before you need to leave. Let's just spend it together yeah? I'll figure out where to stay and how to get back home myself later" he said pulling her away from the village towards the beach on the opposite end of the island from where they had docked. Reiju slightly protested but gave in after Luffy didn't let go of her hand as he pulled her along and they soon reached the beach. They both sat under the shade of a tree a bit away from prying eyes as they didn't want anyone from the ship to spot them.
"So, I guess this is it huh" Reiju sighed melancholically.
"Yeah…"
They sat there in silence both not wanting to leave the other but circumstances were pulling them apart. They didn't know what to say and just enjoyed the other's presence for a while.
"Hey, this isn't a goodbye…" Luffy pulled her into a sideways hug and spoke softly, "I'll definitely come for you once I get stronger. I'll be in the newspapers too so you'll know just how strong I'll grow and how much crazy shit I've planned. And don't worry, I'll definitely come get you and then you'll be free for the rest of your life. I'm sorry I'm not strong enough yet, but it's a promise."
Reiju just nodded solemnly leaning into the hug and resting her head on his shoulder. She had had so much fun with him these past three months that she couldn't even imagine a life without him. She slightly teared up thinking about how he wouldn't be around anymore and she would have to go back to a shitty life that didn't have Luffy in it.
"I'll call you from time to time whenever the connection is possible, okay?" Luffy said caressing her head.
"It doesn't work most of the time…"
She had given him a Transponder snail and her number but since the distance between North Blue and East Blue was too great and the Grand Line and Red Line in the middle would hinder any signals from reaching the other side, the snails wouldn't connect most of the time. Only at certain unpredictable times would the connection be made and there wasn't the slightest clue or a time of the day of when it was possible.
'I wish I had a phone…' Luffy sighed.
They just sat there, Reiju tearing up on his shoulder and Luffy softly running his fingers through her hair, listening to the soft waves crashing on the beach. They had already thrown a farewell party the previous night where they had gotten drunk, sang songs and danced to their hearts content. It was a fun night and honestly they were so drunk that it was a blur for the most part for both of them and they had woken up with a massive hangover in the morning next to each other.
Everything that needed to be said was already said and soon, it was time for Reiju to go. She broke from the side hug and got on top of his thighs before giving him a bear hug crushing him in her arms, and Luffy also put his arms around her tightly.
They stayed like that feeling the others warmth for a few minutes before finally separating slightly. "You better come for me…" she whispered into his ears.
"Yeah, I promise" Luffy whispered back with a smile.
They finally separated with a lot of reluctance and they held each other's gaze for a few moments with their foreheads touching. They finally got up sighing when they didn't have any more time and hugged one last time.
"Bye Luffy…" she said sadness laced in her voice as she finally started walking off towards the other side of the island where her ship was. Luffy followed her from a distance and watched as she reached the ship, turned around and waved at him with a sad smile one last time before getting on it. The ship soon left and Luffy sat on the shore watching it leave and disappear into the horizon with a blank look on his face.
"Hey White, I don't know if you're listening or not…but if you are, please get me a phone that can call anyone anywhere in this world…"
He remembered that White had said that he would need some tools to actually interfere in any universe and that it would also take some time. And by the message he had left when his mind broke, where he had said something along the lines of '…if you're hearing this message, then it probably means you survived…', he concluded that White couldn't even observe him currently. He didn't know if White liked or cared enough about him to actually gather the tools and observe him as he was a higher dimensional being who had just saved him on a whim. He owed his life to White but for White, he was the equivalent to a bacteria in the huge massive multiverse, and he didn't know about how those beings lived or if they even experienced life the same way he did. But nevertheless, he took his shot. Unfortunately for him, he was right and it would be a long time before White would even hear this message of his.
Luffy sighed cursing himself for being so weak that he was grasping at straws and expecting help from god like beings instead of strengthening himself. He once again vowed to get stronger so that he wouldn't have to leave anyone like this ever again…
Once he couldn't see the Germa ship anymore, he finally got up dusting the sand off his trousers and went into the village wondering how he could get stronger and also how he could get back to East Blue.