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Luffy opened his eyes. Everything was dark, he couldn’t see anything in the pitch black that surrounded him. He was lying on his back on a hard surface, covered by a silky sheet. He tried to move, and found that he was trapped. There were walls right to the side of him, and above him. Like he had been put in a little box.
He screamed for help, but no one answered. Luffy grit his teeth. They felt strange in his mouth, but he didn’t have time to think about that right now. He needed to get out. He needed to free himself.
He needed to feed.
Luffy was starving in a way he had never experienced before. He knew hunger, but this was different. This was an overwhelming need for.., something. Luffy wasn’t sure what, but he would know when he found it.
But first, he needed to get out of here.
He ripped the silky fabric covering the roof above him, finding solid wood behind it. He didn’t have enough space to kick it, so he hit it with his bare fists, clawing at it until the wood broke. His momentary triumph turned into dismay as a flood of dirt hit him in the face.
Strangely he didn’t cough or have trouble breathing, so Luffy kept clawing at the wood, making the opening bigger as more loose dirt poured into the box. He didn’t understand why he had been buried, but it could wait until he had had something to eat.
Swimming up through loose dirt took far longer than Luffy would have wanted it to, but eventually he breached the surface and was finally able to see his surroundings. It was a bright night despite only being a half moon, and Luffy was in a cemetery. As he climbed up on the ground, he saw the headstone he had been buried by.
Monkey D. Luffy
Loyal Friend, Beloved Brother
Luffy blinked. Was he dead? He didn’t feel dead. If he was dead, he wouldn’t be so hungry .
He staggered to his feet, looking around. He couldn’t see anyone around in the graveyard. It made sense, he supposed. It was definitely late at night. He started walking down the path while brushing some dirt off his clothes. He wasn’t sure why, but he was in a suit of all things. When did he last wear a suit? Had he ever worn a suit?
The gates to the graveyard were closed, but the stone fence wasn’t high and Luffy easily climbed over it. His hands hurt a little as he moved. He had cut them up pretty badly when getting out of the box. Or coffin, he supposed.
The streets were empty as far as he could see. He wasn’t sure where he was in the city, so he picked a random direction and started walking. After a while, he heard voices, and started smelling food. He wasn’t sure what the smell was, but it was rich and fresh and smelled amazing.
Luffy hurried along until he saw two women walking down the street, chatting quietly to each other. They had bags in their hands, but Luffy couldn’t see what was smelling so good.
“Hey,” he said out loud, visibly startling them both. “Where’s the food? I’m starving.”
They looked scared, and the food smell changed slightly, becoming even more enticing. What was that smell?
“We don’t have any food,” one of the women said nervously. “There’s a bar that way.”
She pointed down the way they had come. Luffy frowned.
“But you have food. I can smell it,” he said, and they started backing away from him. The food was getting away. “Hey. Come back here!”
They started running, and Luffy took off after them. He was faster, tackling one of them to the ground. She scraped her knees on the pavement, sending a tendril of blood down her leg.
Oh.
Oh.
She was the food.
The food was saying something, pleading, begging, but Luffy barely heard it. He bit down into her neck, feeling rich blood in his mouth, warming him, feeding him. Satiating his hunger.
It only lasted for a blissful second before he was yanked backwards, away from the food. He landed on the ground, some ways away. Luffy snarled. He wasn’t done eating.
A tall, slim man stood between him and the food. Luffy frowned. He wasn’t food.
“You’ll be okay,” the man told the food. “Run, get somewhere safe. I’ll handle this.”
The food got up and started running, and Luffy made an attempt to follow, but the man tackled him to the ground again.
“What are you doing, attacking people in the open like that?” the man asked.
Luffy snared at him. The food was getting away.
“You’re completely out of it, huh?” the man muttered. “Are you new?”
Luffy moved after the food again, but the man tackled him.
“Stop trying to hunt,” the man said. “I have blood, if you want to come with me.”
Luffy stilled, frowning at him.
“You’re not food.”
“Good to know you can talk,” the man said. “And no, I’m not. But I have food. Follow me.”
The man grabbed his arm, and started pulling him down the street. Luffy followed. The food was long gone by now, anyway. A few times during their walk he could smell other food, but the man kept dragging him along.
Eventually, they reached an apartment building, and the man took him up to the third floor and into a spacious apartment. Luffy frowned. He couldn’t smell food.
“Patience,” the man said, and went into the kitchen. Luffy followed him, looking around. The man took a plastic bag out of the fridge and poured the contents into a mug. Luffy’s nostrils flared.
Food.
It wasn’t fresh food, but Luffy didn’t care. He reached for the mug, and the man handed it over while rolling his eyes.
“It tastes better heated up, but have it your way.”
Luffy emptied the cup in seconds, then looked back up at the man. “Are there more?”
“You can have more if you take a shower,” the man said. Luffy wanted to protest, but was pushed in the direction of the bathroom. “I’ll get you something to wear. Go.”
Luffy felt a little calmer now. He was still hungry, but not that ravenous need for food he’d felt before.
Luffy got undressed and into the shower, washing away the dirt that still clung to his hair and skin. He had been standing under the water for a few minutes before he realised how strange it all was.
He had been buried alive. He drank blood. He blindly attacked a woman and saw her as food.
When he got out of the shower, he wrapped a towel around himself, then headed out the door. The man had left him a t-shirt and some sweatpants outside the door, but Luffy ignored them for now, instead going looking for the man himself. He was in the kitchen, drinking a red liquid from a novelty mug. It smelled amazing, and Luffy felt his mind cloud over with the smell of blood and the need to feed.
The man gave him a look, then sighed. “Fine. Here,” he said, handing over the half-full mug. Luffy drank it all before he even realised what he was doing.
He lowered the empty mug and licked his lips, then looked at the man again. “Am I a vampire?”
The man raised his eyebrows. “Yes,” he said. “You really are new, huh?”
“I think so? I just climbed out of my own grave,” Luffy said. “Are you a vampire?”
“Yes,” he said, holding out a hand. “Trafalgar Law.”
“Monkey D. Luffy,” Luffy said, taking his hand. Luffy frowned. “How are you warm if you’re dead?”
“I just drank blood. As did you,” the man, Tra- Torf- Torao said. “Do you remember how you got turned?”
“No, I- wait,” Luffy frowned. He did remember. He had been heading home from Sanji’s restaurant when he heard a scream, and had found a man attacking someone. He had stepped in to rescue them, but the man had been stronger than Luffy expected, and then-
He couldn’t quite remember.
“I fought someone,” Luffy said. “I think I lost. But I put up a good fight.”
Torao tilted his head to the side. “To turn someone into a vampire, they have to drink your blood, and you have to drink theirs,” he said. “It rarely happens accidentally. I assumed your Sire had abandoned you.”
“What’s a Sire?” Luffy asked.
“The vampire who turned you. They are supposed to help you through the change,” Torao said. “So you don’t attack innocent people on the streets from uncontrollable bloodlust.” He paused. “Unless the Sire is into that, I suppose.”
Luffy thought about it. “I don’t think I drank their blood. Unless it happened after I passed out,” he said. “Oh wait! I bit him!”
Torao gave him a look of disbelief. “You bit him?”
“Yeah. We were fighting and he was winning, so I bit him,” Luffy said. “I guess it didn’t work.”
“Apparently not,” Torao said. “So what are you planning to do now?”
“Hmm,” Luffy thought about it. “Do you have a phone? I should call my brothers and friends and let them know I’m alive.”
“Luffy, was it?” Torao said. “You’re not alive.”
“Yeah, but close enough, right?”
“Your friends and brothers are going to look like food when you see them,” Torao said, and Luffy froze.
“But they are my friends. I wouldn’t eat them!”
“You would. You might even be more inclined to, because they are your friends,” Torao said. “These are the kinds of things your Sire is supposed to help with.”
“Could you help me?” Luffy asked.
“I am helping you, or haven’t you noticed?” Torao said dryly. “But I’m not your Sire. There is a whole bond there that we don’t share.”
“So what?” Luffy said. “I don’t want to eat my friends. Help me.”
Torao looked at him in silence for a while, then sighed. “Having a Sire would help you calm down, but it would still be a long process. It could be months until you can meet your friends face to face without wanting to eat them,” he said. “And I’m busy. You wouldn't be allowed to leave the apartment. You would be alone a lot. And if you hurt any of my friends, even by accident, I’ll put you back in the ground.”
“Deal,” Luffy said.
“Not so fast. You don’t even know what I’m offering,” Torao said. “I could adopt you, for a time. To make you calmer and safer to be around. But!” He gave Luffy an intense look. “It will give me power over you.”
“How do you mean?”
“If I command something, you will do it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to,” Law said.
Luffy frowned. “I don’t like taking orders.”
“We have that in common. That’s why I’m telling you this.”
“Would it be permanent?”
Torao shook his head. “No. If I was your actual Sire, it would be. But for us, it should only last for a few weeks after the last time you drank my blood.”
Luffy blinked. “I have to drink your blood?”
Torao nodded. “That’s how it works. With the right intent, it will create a bond. And it should help make your transition smoother. Drinking blood I’ve already processed will make it easier for you to digest.”
“So it’s like, birds puking up food for their hatchlings?” Luffy asked, and Torao made a face at him.
“Gross. But not inaccurate, I suppose.”
“Alright. Let’s do this,” Luffy said.
“Wait, just like that?” Torao exclaimed. “Do you realise what you’re risking? I could just order you to keep feeding off me and control you indefinitely!”
“Yeah, but you’re not going to. You’re a good guy, Torao.”
“Trafalgar. Or Law,” Torao corrected him. “And you’ve known me for-” he glanced at the wall. “-about an hour.”
“That’s plenty,” Luffy grinned. “Give me your blood. I’m hungry.”
Torao gave him a weird look, then sighed. He brought his left arm to his own mouth, and cut it open with his teeth. Red blood ran down his arm as he moved it in Luffy’s direction. “Well? Are you going to waste it?”
It was weird, Luffy thought. Torao didn’t smell like food. The blood didn’t really taste like food. And yet, even after just a mouthful, his hunger stilled. He felt… calmer, like Torao had said. Like when he finally found Ace and Sabo after getting lost as a kid. Safe and familiar. Things he really shouldn’t associate with someone he just met.
But Luffy was an excellent judge of character, and Torao was a good person. He was certain of it.
“Stop, that’s enough,” Torao eventually said, pulling his arm back. Luffy immediately let go, then frowned. He had wanted one final lick, but he had let go.
“See what I meant?” Torao asked.
Luffy nodded. “It’s weird. Tell me to do something else.”
Torao raised his eyebrows. “Alright. Stand up.”
Luffy did. He didn’t even think about it, he just did it.
Afterwards, he made a face. “I don’t like it.”
“I warned you,” Torao said. “You have free reign of the apartment, but do not leave. ”
Luffy shivered. He could feel the command in his veins.
“Sorry, but I need you to stay here even if I’m not around,” Torao said. “ Especially if I’m not around. You’re not safe among people yet.”
“I get it,” Luffy said. “I hate it, but I get it.”
“It’ll get better,” Torao said. “I’ve gone through it as well.”
“How long did it take for you?”
“My circumstances were different, but about a year,” Torao said. “Did you kill anyone before I found you?”
Luffy shook his head. “No. I just attacked that one woman,” he said. “Hope she’s okay.”
“She’ll be traumatised, but physically fine,” Torao said. “And that’s good. It means you’ll probably have an easier time than I did.”
“Let’s hope so. I don’t want to wait a whole year,” Luffy said. “Hey, can I at least call them? I can’t eat them through the phone, right?“
“You can if you want to,” Torao said, handing Luffy his phone. “But you told me you crawled out of a grave. That means they buried you, and are still grieving you. Do you understand?”
Luffy thought about it. “I still want to talk to them.”
“Then go ahead.”
Luffy only remembered two numbers by heart: Nami and Zoro. He called Nami first.
“Hello,” her voice came through the phone.
“Hi, Nami, it’s Luffy,” he said. There was a long pause.
“That’s not funny,” Nami said, then hung up. Luffy tried calling back, but it didn’t go through.
“I think she blocked me.”
“She probably thinks you’re some asshole mocking her about her dead friend,” Torao said, and that made sense.
“Shouldn’t she recognise my voice?” Luffy asked.
“There are voice changers. Besides, you have a bit of lisp I assume you didn’t have before,” Torao said. “It’s the teeth, you’ll grow used to them.”
Luffy nodded, then called Zoro.
“Yeah?” Zoro’s voice said.
“Don’t hang up! This is Luffy, I’m a vampire now, and-”
Click. The line was cut off. Luffy stared at the phone. Zoro had never hung up on him like that before.
“It’ll be easier to convince them in person,” Torao said sympathetically.
“Is that what you did? With your friends?” Luffy asked. Zoro hanging up on him hurt .
“No. I got kidnapped by my Sire. I was missing, but my friends never buried me,” Torao said. “I didn’t even tell them I was a vampire at first.” He paused. “Not sure leading with that was a good idea.”
“Ugh,” Luffy let himself fall back on the couch. “How can I convince them if I can’t see them? I don’t want them to be sad about me dying anymore.”
“Online accounts, maybe?” Torao suggested. “I still have my old laptop somewhere, I can set it up for you.”
“Can’t I just borrow your current one?”
“Forgive me if I don’t entirely trust you yet,” Torao said, and Luffy supposed that was fair.
Torao dug out a laptop from the closet, and set it up in the “guest room”, as he called it.
“You can stay here for the time being,” he told Luffy. “I need to head to the hospital soon.”
“The hospital? Are you sick?”
“Technically I’m dead,” Torao pointed out. “But no, I work there. I’m a doctor.”
“Ooooh,” Luffy said. “Now it makes sense! I was wondering why you were helping me, but it’s just what you do, isn’t it? Since you’re a doctor!”
“That is a very simplistic way to look at it.”
Luffy grinned. “It’s true though, isn’t it?”
Torao just scowled at him. “You can have one blood bag while I’m gone, do not take more . Understood?”
“Fine,” Luffy pouted.
Torao left not long after, and the apartment was quiet in his absence. Luffy didn’t know if it was the Sire-thing, but he already missed him. Or maybe he just missed the company. Luffy really wasn’t great at being alone. Besides, he liked Torao already.
It took some time to log in to his accounts, and some were unavailable because he didn’t have access to his phone for verification. Still, he managed to send Ace a message.
Luffy: Hi
He waited for a bit. He could see Ace was online, but he wasn’t answering.
Luffy: So, I’m alive
Luffy: Sort of
Luffy: Are you there?
He could see Ace typing a message. He was typing for a long time.
Ace: How did you get that account?
Luffy sighed.
Luffy: I got it when I was 13, cause you and Sabo made fun of me for being chronologically offline
Ace: Chronically
Ace: Is this a joke?
Ace: Because it’s not funny
Luffy: I’m not joking!
Luffy: I’ll prove it!
He pressed the button for a video call. It rang way longer than it usually took for Ace to answer, but eventually Ace’s face appeared on the screen. Luffy frowned. He looked terrible, sunken cheeks and dark circles under his eyes.
“Are you okay? What happened?” Luffy asked.
“Holy shit!” Ace breathed out, staring at the screen in shock. “Holy SHIT! SABO!”
Ace kept staring at him, as Sabo ran up behind him.
“What happened?” he asked worriedly, and Ace just pointed at the screen.
“Hi Sabo, I’m not dead,” Luffy grinned. “Well, not entirely.”
Sabo frowned. “No, I- what is this? Some sort of face changing app?”
“It’s me!” Luffy said. This was getting annoying. “Ask me anything.”
“Why are your eyes pink?” Ace asked.
“What?” Luffy frowned. “My eyes are pink?” He looked at his own face on the screen, and sure enough. His eyes were a bright, almost shining pink. “Huh. They really are. Weird. Oh, but Torao has these really pretty yellow eyes, so maybe it’s a vampire thing.”
“A vampire thing,” Sabo repeated.
“Oh, yeah I was getting to that. Turns out the guy who killed me was a vampire, so now I’m one too,” Luffy said.
“Right,” Ace said slowly, with a hollow voice Luffy didn’t like.
“I know it’s weird. I didn’t know vampires were real either,” Luffy said. “Oh, I know! You can check my grave!”
Both of them went a little pale.
“Okay, say we buy this,” Sabo said. “Where are you right now?”
“At Torao’s place,” Luffy said. “But he told me I can’t leave, so I don’t accidentally eat anyone.”
“I see,” Sabo said. “Who is Torao?”
“Another vampire. He stopped me from eating someone and then fed me blood from a bag,” Luffy said. “He’s a good guy.”
“So he’s not letting you leave?”
“Not yet. He says I’ll be dangerous around humans for a while cause I’m new, but he’s going to help me with that,” Luffy said. “So I can’t meet up with you guys for a while.”
“I see,” Ace said. “That’s..convenient.”
“It’s not. I really want to see you,” Luffy said. “But I don’t want to eat you.”
“Luffy, I think we need to see you,” Sabo said. “All this… it doesn’t seem real. Isn’t there any way you can meet us?”
“I can talk to Torao when he gets back from work. Maybe he would agree to tomorrow after dark.”
***
Torao wasn’t too impressed with the suggestion when he came home half an eternity later.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “Luffy, I explained why this won’t work.”
“But I don’t think they really believe I’m me,” Luffy said. “Ace looked terrible, and I think it’s because I died. I need to fix it!”
“You would probably attack them the moment you saw them,” Torao said.
“What if you ordered me not to?” Luffy suggested.
“Do you want to bet your brothers' lives on our makeshift Sire-bond?” Torao asked, and Luffy flinched at the thought, but he refused to back down.
“What if you came with me?” Luffy said. “You could tie me up or something. Please!”
Torao looked at him for a long while, then sighed.
“This is such a bad idea,” Torao said, and Luffy grinned. He knew Torao would agree. Luffy had been right about him.
“But I want them to see that I’m real,” Luffy said. “You’ll be there, right? To help me?”
“Luffy, do you understand what you're asking here?” Torao said. “The risk you’re asking me to take?”
“It’ll be fine. My brothers and friends aren’t dangerous,” Luffy said. “Or, they are, but not to my other friends.”
“I should just order you to stop talking about this,” Torao sighed. “Alright, but we’re going to take every precaution I can think of. For all our sakes.”
***
Torao took him out to meet his brothers the following night, in the corner of a park a short walk from the apartment. Torao was clearly nervous about it, but Luffy was excited, especially when he saw his brothers already waiting at the meeting place.
“Ace! Sabo!” Luffy was jumping up and down, waving at them as they approached.
“Luffy, stop tugging at the handcuff,” Torao groaned. There was no power behind the words, but Luffy stopped jumping anyway.
The handcuffs were one of several precautions, including a surgical mask with Torao’s blood on it, and a very stern command to not drink from any humans. Torao had specified humans , just in case Luffy needed his blood to calm down.
Sabo and Ace both stood frozen, staring at them.
“Oh my god.”
“Luffy!”
They all started running towards him, and he grinned under the mask. He was so happy to see them, with their smiling faces and pumping veins and-
Torao moved in front of him, between Luffy and the fo- his brothers. “Stay back!” he said. “One at a time, calmly. ”
“You must be Torao,” Ace said. “Why are you cuffed together?”
“For everyone’s safety,” Torao said. “You okay, Luffy?”
“Yeah. Yeah I think so,” Luffy said. “Sorry. For a second there I just…”
“This is why we should have waited,” Torao grumbled. “Alright. New try.”
Luffy moved out from behind Torao, looking at Ace and Sabo. They looked concerned, suspicious and like they were going to cry all at once.
“Hi, Luffy,” Ace said, voice thick. “It’s…it’s really is you, isn’t it?”
“It’s me,” Luffy grinned.
“You’re alive,” Ace said.
“Torao says I’m technically not,” Luffy laughed. “But close enough.”
“Your roots are white,” Sabo said.
“It’s not uncommon,” Torao said. “It’s the trauma of dying. Sometimes it starts growing normally again after a while, sometimes it stays white.”
Ace came closer to him. “Luffy…”
He looked like he was going to hug him, and Luffy opened his arms. He smiled, and Ace took a step forward, and Luffy went to meet him, opening his mouth-
“ Don’t move!”
Luffy froze, realising he had his fangs exposed, and Ace was backing away from him.
“I- I blanked out for a second,” Luffy said. “Did I do something?”
“You went for my neck,” Ace said, frowning at him, then looked at Torao. “You weren’t kidding, huh?”
“Unfortunately not,” Torao said. “He’s not ready to be around humans yet.”
“Guessing that means we can’t take him home,” Sabo frowned.
“No. Best case scenario he would kill you both,” Torao said.
“That’s the best case?” Ace said. “What’s the worst?”
“He turns you and I suddenly have three murderous fledgelings on my hands,” Torao said. “And at that point I will start staking people. My patience is wearing thin as it is.”
Sabo snorted. “Understandable,” he said. “I don’t like having to leave our little brother with a total stranger, though.”
“You can keep in contact online if you’re worried,” Torao said.
“Could you talk to my friends for me?” Luffy asked. “I tried to call but they hung up on me.”
“They probably thought it was a hoax or a cruel joke,” Ace said. “That’s what I thought until now.”
“We can arrange another meeting, if Torao can bring you out again,” Sabo said. “Tomorrow?”
“Make that three days, I have work,” Torao said. “And I think he needs some time to rest. Stop pulling.”
Luffy blinked, realising he had been pulling on the cuffs.
“Sorry. This is so weird.”
“It’ll get better,” Torao said. “We should head home before you actually get hungry.”
Ace laughed. “Better get going then, getting eaten was a danger even before, with the way he ate.”
“Do you need anything to keep him fed?” Sabo asked. “We could pay-”
“No,” Torao said. “It’s fine.”
“Should we send clothes over?”
“Bring some the next time we meet up,” Torao said. “Look, I know you don’t trust me, and the feeling is mutual. Taking him to meetings like this is risky enough for me.”
“Is Luffy in danger?” Sabo asked.
“There are people hunting vampires out there. I’ve kept a low profile, but he did attack a woman two days ago before I found him,” Torao said. “As long as there are no other incidents we should be fine, but forgive me if I’m not willing to share my address with strangers.”
“We’re not going to do anything that could put Luffy in danger,” Ace said angrily, but Sabo frowned.
“Luffy, do you trust this guy?”
“Sure,” Luffy said easily. “I told you; Torao is a good guy.”
Ace and Sabo looked at each other, then shrugged.
“That will have to do for now,” Sabo said. “We’ll keep in touch. Thank you for taking care of him.”
They parted shortly after that, with Torao leading him away.
***
Luff couldn’t sleep. He kept tossing and turning for what felt like hours, until he eventually gave up and got up to knock on Torao’s bedroom door. There was no answer, but Luffy opened the door anyway.
“Torao?”
Torao sat up in bed, looking at him drowsily. His hair was messy and standing up in places, and it looked really cute.
“What is it?” Torao yawned.
“I feel weird,” Luffy said. “Can I stay with you?”
Torao frowned and sat up straighter on the bed. “Come here,” he said, gesturing beside him on the bed. “Weird how? Do you feel sick?”
“Not really,” Luffy said, climbing into the bed. “I just keep thinking about Ace and Sabo, and I get sad and hungry, and I feel like I failed somehow by not eating them.”
Torao nodded, like he understood. “It was like that in the beginning for me too. I felt like I had messed up every time I met my friends and didn’t eat them,” he said. “I thought it was because of my Sire, but maybe it’s instinctual.”
“It sucks,” Luffy complained.
“It does,” Torao agreed. “Do you want more blood? It might help.”
He offered his arm, and Luffy took it.
It helped immediately. Luffy felt himself relax the moment the blood hit his tongue. It tasted like reassurance and safety.
“That’s enough,” Torao said, way too soon. “Feel any better?”
“Yeah, loads,” Luffy nodded. “Can I still stay here? I feel better when you’re close by.”
“You realise that’s the Sire-bond, not your true feelings?” Torao said, then sighed. “Which does, unfortunately, go both ways. Stay if you want.”
Luffy grinned and flopped down beside Torao on the bed. “Does that mean you do want I tell you, too?”
“No, it just means I’m sensitive to your feelings,” Torao said. “You can think of it as a parent-child relationship.”
Luffy frowned. “I’ve never really had parents, but you don’t feel like one.”
“It’s obviously not exactly that. Especially since it’s often sexual in nature,” Torao said. “What I’m saying is: I have all the power in the relationship, but I’m meant to use it to take care of and protect you.”
“Your Sire didn’t take care of you, did he?” Luffy asked.
A shadow passed over Torao’s face. “I think he thought he did. Which just makes it worse,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Luffy nodded, and curled up to Torao’s side. “Hey. Do you want to have sex?”
Torao froze, staring at him. “What?”
“You said it’s often sexual, right? Do you want to have sex with me?” Luffy asked.
“Luffy, I just explained how unequal this relationship is,” Torao sighed. “Your feelings aren’t even really your feelings right now.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Luffy said, then grinned. “That wasn’t a ‘no’.”
“ This is a ‘no’,” Toro said sternly. “I’m not going to have sex with you under the Sire-bond.”
“How about after, then?” Luffy asked, and Torao snorted.
“Tell you what, you ask me again after you’re independent, and I’ll consider it.”
“Deal,” Luffy grinned.
He curled up close to Torao, and Torao let him. Luffy smiled to himself. Maybe being dead wouldn’t be so bad, after all.