I am, in fact, in love with you
opla koby x fem reader
Warnings: none, a lil bit of angst and swearing but nothing much really
Word count: 1.683
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<<but I want to join you!>>
<<get back to cleaning, you're a girl you could never stand our workouts!>>
I hear them laugh, their stupid voices echoing in my brain for a moment, then I just scroll them off my shoulders and get back to work, leaving that argument behind me.
I'm used to it, even though Garp choose me like every single one of them I never seem to be enough, just because of what I have between my legs; I can clean for hours under the burning sun but I can also fight, use a gun, cook, shoot with a cannon... I could do every single one of these things and more, if only someone believed in me and gave me the opportunity to do them.
<<y/n!>> I hear a squeaky voice behind me, I turn around to see who was calling me and I could recognize those pink, shiny hair from a mile away. <<You did such a great job... standing with your chin high even when they were trying to push you down, I would pay gold to have at least half of your courage...>>
There he is, my ray of sunshine, the only man on this ship that I don't want to punch in the face. Koby is my only friend, the only one that listens to me when I have something to say, he has been by my side since the beginning of our journey as cadets in the Marine.
<< Thanks Koby... I'm glad that someone still sees me as their peer>>
I smile to him and he scratches the back of his neck, a thing he does often when someone compliments him or is sweet to him in general, it's kind of sad that he is not used to it, due to his past in the Alvida Crew where he was nothing but a slave, but I'm glad that he is following his dream of becoming a marine now, he really is very determinate and intelligent and I think Garp saw that in him too.
We start to unravel the knots on the ropes that are used to manage the sails, and usually he start to do some info dumping about new things that he learned thanks to the books that Garp let him borrow from his personal library, but today he seems strangely quiet.
<<Koby... are you okay? You still haven't mentioned any new island that you would like to visit, and since I've met you it never happened, you always have something new to talk about>>. My tone is playful but with a pinch of worry.
He snaps his head up and awkwardly laughs; <<Oh no it's nothing, I'm just, pft, overthinking some... stuff yeah, but I'm totally fine! Actually I think Hermeppo needed my help with, you know, stuff!>>
He quickly gets up without leaving me the time to say anything, he was speaking so fast that I was confused on how we went from talking about him overthink "stuff" to Hermeppo needing his help with... "stuff".
<<I'll see you at dinner!>> <<but wait- >> I try to get up but he was already walking at speeding pace to the other head of the ship. I sigh, he's never been so strange, well, yes, he can get nervous pretty easily but it looked like he was hiding something from me and I don't see why he should do that.
At dinner my worries only increased, he decided to sit with Hermeppo and other elder marines, I sit alone at the table where we usually gather together and for a fraction of second he takes a quick, guilty, look at me, before going back to his conversation. He is definetly going to explain to me what the hell is happening, wether he likes it or not.
After the most boring dinner I've ever had on this ship I see him heading to his room, I quickly reach him and grab him by his left arm so that he could turn around and face me, he looks at me like a beaten dog.
<<Why are you ignoring me? You've been acting strage since this afternoon>>
<<I'm not ignoring you! And I'm not acting strange!>> He says, in a defensive tone.
<<Oh yes sure, then why didn't you sit with me at dinner? And you didn't even have the decency to tell me "look y/n I'm trying to make new friends, I'll go sit on a different table" so that I wouldn't find myself left out like an idiot! That hurted Koby...>>
I look at him, my eyes were almost starting to fill with tears, I felt betrayed by my only friend and I wasn't ready to be stabbed in the back like this by someone I thought different from the others.
Silence fills the space between us, the only sounds are the waves of the calm sea under us, the plates being cleaned in the kitchen and the chatting of some men smocking on the deck; Koby finally looks at me, the moon light glims into his eyes, a hurt expression painting his face.
<<y/n I'm sorry if I hurted you, I mean it, you're really dear to me and... that's part of the reason for my beaviour...>>
I cross my arms <<c'mon, speak, I'm listening>>
He sighs: <<when I started this journey I was on my own, Luffy, my only friend, wasn't by my side anymore and I knew that if I wanted to see him again I should've work hard>>
Luffy, he mentioned that name often, he told me that he was the pirate that saved him from Alvida and gave him the courage to become a marine.
<<but then I met you! A brilliant and strong young woman that shared my same dream, someone that I looked up to, I wanted to face life like you do and plus you were interested in my discovers so I felt like I could talk about everything with you...>>
At those praises I slighly blush, yeah sometimes he told me how he wanted my determination and everything but I never thought that he saw me as an actual role model.
<< In the last two weeks those feelings increased in me and I wanted to spend every free minute with you, and one day Hermeppo told me something that made my brain spin in confusion...>>
I look at him with a puzzeld expression and I raise an eyebrow as a gesture to tell him to go on.
<<he told me that it looked like I was in love with you... and from that moment I couldn't stop thinking about it, everything about you makes my heart beat as fast as a fired bullet: the way you laugh at my dumb jokes, the way your hair flow when the wind hits your face, the way you smile satisfied as you finish your workout, every little detail that I started noticing from that day made me fall in love with you even more!>>
I was petrified, I never thought about Koby as more than a friend, apart from when we watch the stars together and I can't help but stare at him, or when we're working together on the deck and the sun kiss his pale skin, or when he just spoke with Garp about something and he needs to tell me immediatly...
... ok no the list of times I felt butterflies in my stomach for him was actually pretty long.
I stare at him in embarassing silence
<<I knew this was dumb... God I sounded so stupid that's why I was strange today and then I ignored you at dinner, I wanted to confess to you but couldn't find the courage... typical of me...>>
<<Koby can you just shut up for one second?>>
I say laughing a bit and also taking him by surprise.
<< If you wouldn't always overthink everything you would have noticed that I feel the same for you, you're not just my only friend here but also the only one I can trust and... the only one that makes my life a little less shitty, so yeah, we could say that I like you too, a lot actually>>
I try to laugh the embarassment off and Koby looks at me with the brightest smile I've ever seen, but now it's his turn of surprising me: he throws himself at me and embrace me in a tight hug, his face is buried in the crook of my neck and I can feel his hair tickling me. He gently grabs my face and the feeling of his soft palms makes my cheeks go as red as cherries.
<<well you know this is technically the moment where I ask you to kiss me under the night sky, pretty romantic if you ask me, but obviously only if you want to, there's no rush- >>
I cut him off with a sweet laugh and he joins me
<<I should probably just shut up and kiss you right?>>
<<yeah, you should>>
With a warm smile, he places his lips against mine and in that moment my brain completly shuts off, I place my arms around his neck, my heart is racing and I can feel his too, coordinated with mine, both creating a perfect harmony for our lips to dance to; he is gentle and romantic and I can feel his shy hands moving from my cheeks to my hips, his touch is delicate, like he is almost scared of breaking me.
At one point we both break the kiss to get some air, we look at eachother with heart shaped eyes, just like corny sweethearts. He is the first to break the silence.
<<I hate to say it but I guess Hermeppo was right>>
<<about what?>>
He shakes his head and innocently smirks.
<<I am, in fact, in love with you>>
I simply smile at that sentence, wondering how I got so lucky to find such a pure soul to show me what love really felt like, because yes, I was, in fact, in love with him.
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THE END!!!
[authors note]
Thank you so much for reading this y'all! Hope you liked it as much as I do, Koby is my baby fr he deserves all the love in this world :')
I love writing for the One Piece and One Piece Live Action fandom so excpect many works with Oda's characters.
Sorry for any grammatical errors and rember to stay safe on the internet ;)
xoxo, Ali <3
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