Something is… off about Luffy’s face when you first spot him from afar, waiting for you at the airport arrivals on your way back from a trip overseas, and despite your excitement overwhelming you, the moment you jump into his arms and press your cheek against his, you feel it.
Hair, short and bristly, pressing against your cheek.
You pull your head back quickly, and look at him - really take him in - and blink quickly.
“You can grow facial hair?”
Luffy blinks just as quickly, still holding onto you with arms loosely wrapped around your waist, round brown eyes that had just been glowing with affection, now filled with all sorts of confusion.
“What?”
You shift, and although he bends to pick up your bag, tossed haphazardly to the ground to greet him, you take the opportunity to grab at his face, your fingers trailing around his chin.
It’s real, which you almost mutter aloud despite how silly it is to expect an adult man to never grow so much as a 5 o’clock shadow, but you have to admit you’re not used to your smooth-skinned boyfriend’s jaw with… texture.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
The back of your hand is still rubbing against his face, even as he holds your free hand.
“Have you just… always shaved since we’ve been spending time together?”
He shrugs.
“I guess.”
“Am I just this bad of a girlfriend? How many days has it been?”
“No idea.”
Luffy is over this line of questioning, but you’re still keeping pace with him as you walk out, staring at his side profile. It’s not that you don’t like it, but it’s… different, unexpected, jarring really.
“I... I guess I just didn’t know you could.”
He stops, and gives you not quite an annoyed look, but you can tell he’s tired but trying to make light of the situation, because he takes your face and rubs all the stubble his face has grown against your cheek roughly and you gasp.
“Hey!”
“No more questions, okay? I’m a man, too.” With that, he pats your head. “Now how was your trip?” Luffy asks, changing the subject.
He’s a man, too.
Your face warms for a moment, but you quickly keep pace with your often boyish, sweet-faced and very not rugged at all boyfriend, and start to recount your travels, but as he herds you into a taxi and the two of you introduce yourselves to your driver politely before resuming your conversation, you can’t help but add:
“Okay, but seriously what business do you have with a 5 o’clock shadow?”
And Luffy gives you the longest sigh you’ve ever heard from him to date.
cw: hurt/comfort-ish. streamer!luffy au. reader and luffy in established relationship. part of bbq&mcq modern au.
Luffy, who neither checks the members of his chat unless they send a message nor the numbers on his streams, has absolutely no idea you’re watching his stream tonight. But you are, your phone perched on the corner of your coffee table, and earbuds in, while you mop the floor of your apartment. It’s been a while since you slept in your own home instead of his, you realize, and your own place started to develop a fine layer of dust, testament to how close you’ve gotten in the past year or so.
The stream itself is nothing too out of the ordinary, and he’s playing one of the battle royales he rotates between, but you can tell, just by the fewer comments he makes and the staleness of that smile everyone keeps logging back in for, that he’s off-kilter today.
“Why didn’t you dodge, what the hell?” one of his teammates shrieks as Luffy’s screen goes black for the third time in the past ten minutes.
Luffy bites his lip for a moment, but laughs it off.
“Sorry man, got a little distracted right there!”
His voice is still cheerful, as usual, but for a micro-second you can see his eyebrows knit together in slight frustration and once he reverses that, he can’t reverse the tick in his jaw that sets in, no matter how many times he rubs it out subconsciously. There are a couple half-hearted jokes that ensue as his teammates start yelling at him again - he’d normally fight back playfully - and you find yourself pausing, mop in your hand, as you watch him fumble that charisma that makes him so popular.
The pit of your stomach turns gently as you watch. This is your fault.
The argument you had this morning had been unnecessarily explosive, enough so that you’d straight up deserted, finding yourself back into your own apartment, one that you’d essentially moved out of, the moment your morning class ended. The small place was relatively undisturbed, the fridge empty and unmoved bedsheets clean, but it was evident that you hadn’t been here in weeks. It’s not home to you as it once was, the same way Luffy’s stream doesn’t hold the same warm chaos today he generates whenever he’s in a good mood.
You shift the mop over to rest on the side of the wall and continue to watch.
Now that you’ve cooled off, you’re not sure why things escalated. He’d been up before you woke up and by the time you shifted in bed, he was already talking to you about yet another trip that would take you on another plane to a new location - all expenses paid of course - to promote something or another for one of his many contacts, but you’d been thinking about exams approaching and tired out from a few too many nights of studying, and just not ready to hear it, and had told him to prepare to go alone.
And of course, as any good boyfriend would ask, he did.
“Why?”
“Because I’m not a Labubu you can just drag around places, I have my own life, Luffy.”
It was harsh, you admit, and it should have ended there, but perhaps the way you turned over away from him was just a little too dismissive, and he quickly retorted,
“You could have just said you were busy.”
You whipped around quickly.
“I am always busy,” you hissed, to which Luffy frowned.
“So am I, but I always try to make sure we spend time together around it, and here you are acting like it’s a drag to be asked to do something fun.”
Still riled up emotionally, you sat up.
“You don’t think you have enough fun?”
Luffy blinked, then his lips pulled into a straight line. He knew what you’re thinking and he didn’t like it, but he waited for you to tear into the core of his person.
“You don’t have enough of playing video games all day and grinning at people, and eating literally whatever junk you want, whenever you want? Not to mention the fucking thrill-seeking?”
You stopped and the words hung in the air. His nose flared, but he didn’t bother to say anything more, instead slowly retreating from bed, far different from the way he dove in once he realized you were awake again. He paused at the edge of the bed for just a moment, watching you, and you can still remember how surprisingly vulnerable suddenly, just you clutching blankets to your chest, a bonnet on your head. Just you thinking about the weight of your own misdirected anger.
“If you hate the way I live so much, why even bother?” he asked.
Your chest swims with discomfort even as you think about it now. You could never hate him - you love his carefree nature, you love the joy he brings, you love it all. It was just…
You opened your mouth for a moment, then closed it with too much to take back to risk speaking again. Luffy sighed and pulled on a jacket, before leaving the room.
He didn’t slam the door, but it felt too loud as it closed anyway.
You left for the day without a word before he came back from his jog.
You take your phone in your hand now and sit down on the couch, scrolling through a harmless looking chat. Momentarily, you feel relief that perhaps only you can tell that Luffy is upset and trying to run this evening stream anyway, and maybe only you can see the tension in the set of his shoulders, but soon you can see it.
A single, cruel message cutting through the sea of neutral to kind commentary, impossible to miss or ignore.
You suck lately. No wonder your girlfriend’s embarrassed to be seen with you.
Luffy, previously trying to share a story about another game he’d played a year back before starting to stream publicly, suddenly freezes mid-sentence.
You feel your own blood run cold. The chat goes quiet for half a second, a shift that is palpable, and then Luffy stops smiling, his previously semi-forced grin turning into something sharp and cold.
“What’d you say?”
The chat starts up again quickly, attempting to drown that one clandestine message out, with messages of support to ignore the one sole hater, but Luffy’s already zeroed in on it and rereading the comment, irritation obvious in every part of his body.
“Embarrassed?”
Luffy leans into the screen just slightly as he repeats it. “What the hell do you know?”
From your end, you swallow hard, your heart pounding in your chest.
“It’s not like you know her.”
He laughs, but it’s tinny and hollow. “You think you can just say that? Like you’re telling me something I can’t see for myself? Like I don’t-”
He stops for a moment, then shakes his head. “You don’t know everything from a few clips. There’s more to her… to us, when the stream goes off, and she gives up a lot to be with me, you know? So don’t…” he trails off for a moment.
Your hand trembles just slightly as you hold onto your phone.
He’s wrong. You’re not giving up anything and gaining everything.
His voice cracks just slightly as he continues.
“You think she’s embarrassed? She... She is too good for me, you know?”
He’s wrong again, and you feel your eyes start to burn. The chat starts to bustle with activity again, floods of messages chiming in on your relationship, people trying to calm him down, to redirect him, others trying to egg it on, but all of them too loud, too nosy, too quick, and Luffy keeps talking, and you hate it.
“I mess up, like you’re seeing me now. And I forget things, and I talk too much, and maybe I don’t say anything useful, but…” he pauses, running his hands through his hair. “Maybe you guys are right, especially after this morning, maybe-”
You’ve heard enough.
That’s not true.
It isn’t the first thing you wanted to say, but it’s the truest, quickest thing you could say. You want it to stop. You don’t want him breaking down in front of everyone, people who could never understand how much you love him and how much he cherishes you.
He doesn’t see it instantly, still with thoughts he’s trying to consolidate in his head, but when he does, you can see the exact moment recognition sets in him.
“... You’re here?” his voice cracks softly.
The chat bursts, feral, but Luffy still stares at the screen as if he can see you, sitting quietly on your couch.
“This is probably so… fuck, you didn’t have to see me like this.”
Your fingers tap again, unsteady and fast.
I wanted to see you.
He exhales slightly, the back of his hand pressing against his mouth.
End the stream, Luffy. Come see me.
Luffy looks back to the screen, pausing. More words still stick in his throat, and he’s blinking back what looks like almost-tears. He nods.
“Yeah.. okay.”
He reaches for the keyboard with a shaky but relieved laugh, that is still more genuine than any other laugh in that stream.
“Gonna end here for tonight, guys. Sorry, gotta go.”
The chat floods quickly with hearts, goodnights and some dissent but the screen goes black. Your phone buzzes immediately.
on my way
You chuckle.
I didn’t even tell you where yet!
You see three dots pop up then disappear, then a laugh react.
cw: fluff. implied racist comment. part of streamer!luffy au.
“I’m sorry.”
The apology isn’t the first one, but it’s quieter, and now that you’re less emotionally heightened, you can hear the tenderness in Luffy’s voice more clearly as he buries his head onto your lap. It’s muffled when he repeats it again, his arms reaching around your midsection, around the arms rested listlessly by your side.
It’s only been a few minutes since you’ve sat here alone, at the edge of your bed, inhaling and exhaling repeatedly to keep yourself from saying something awful in your own defense or crying on camera and ultimately ruining your boyfriend’s reputation. Even from relatively soundproof walls, you could hear how upset he sounded as he defended you from what was most likely a troll, someone who didn’t even believe in their own unkind words, and while you were thankful, the sting of reading a slur tossed out so casually towards you doesn’t abate so easily.
“You’re not the one who said it,” you remind him, more robotically than emphatically.
“Should have shut off the chat before you even saw it,” Luffy replies. “The whole stream even.”
You stare at the wall in front of you, where a calendar you’ve made together with a picture of the both of you smiling holding pumpkin spice lattes from a new pop-up cafe in the city at the time. September. Your eyes slide back to him, and find him still on his knees, looking up at you with those puppy dog eyes of his.
“Stop groveling, Luffy.”
“I’m not.”
His face goes back onto your lap. A moment passes, and then you pass your hands through his hair, scratching his scalp.
Tension breaks.
“I’m starting to think you just like putting your face in my thighs now,” you finally say, a chuckle at your lips. He laughs too, which mirrors yours when he makes a joke of taking a deep inhale of your lap, exaggerated enough with a moan as he exhales.
“Maybe.”
“Stop!” You say laughing, now peeling him off of you and he resists initially, then jerks his head back to grin at you.
“The pull’s magnetic, I can’t help it.”
You roll your eyes, but he bites his lip, a move that is cute enough you’re drawn to meet yours with his. Cupping his face with your hands, you offer him just a peck, and he isn’t greedy - he lets you pull away slowly, his lips still parted just slightly and eyelids lowered, as he watches you. His right hand rests on your cheek caressing softly.
“I don’t want you to hide.” He pauses as you begin to frown then sighs. “You don’t have to join if you don’t want to, but I promise it won’t happen again.”
You think about how he can’t really promise trolls won’t return but Luffy has a way about him, that much you know.
Your mouth opens then closes.
“I don’t want you to be scared to be with me,” he adds.
There’s a twang in your chest with his plea. He smiles, a bit weaker this time, adjusting so that he’s on one knee not both. You wish he’d sit next to you, but he looks determined to look you in the eye.
“I’m not,” you reply, wetly.
He takes both of your hands, and squeezes them, before he kisses the backs of them.
“Okay.”
He doesn’t press further.
Rising to his feet, he takes yours in his to pull you to your own feet.
“Do you want to get ice cream?” he asks.
“Feeding me ice cream because I can’t handle some mean comments?” you tease.
Luffy gives you a glance, not letting go of your hand as he reaches over for your jacket thrown lazily over the dresser, just in case, given the early autumn chill hesitant to settle in.
“Feeding you ice cream because you’re pretty and I love you,” he replies, pulling you out of the room. “Even when you cry.”
His fingers interlace protectively with yours.
“But I’d rather you not cry.”
You nod, and the door closes shut behind the two of you, perhaps too loud.
Your calendar page flutters then settles, your smiling faces undisturbed.
cw: bbq&mcq (modern) au. fluff but slightly suggestive. healthcare terms.
The quiet in your living room is accented only by the sound of your pen hitting your tablet as you highlight maybe a few too many words, and Luffy’s thumbs tapping on the screen of his phone while testing out a new mobile game.
Luffy’s body rests partially atop you as you sit, his chest flopped across your lap as you work, and you have to admit his back makes a surprisingly good rest for your electronic device. He’s also just as still as he promised, headphones in his ears muting the sounds of his game so that you can focus.
You’re not used to studying without music but somehow the comforting pressure of his weight on yours and the ambient sound of his breathing helps center you, and you find that you want to hear him as he speaks, if he does.
But now you’ve tired out somewhat mentally in the past thirty minutes, your eyes drawing away from your pdf and to random places in the room, then towards his phone on the other end of the sofa. He senses your shift, then pauses.
“Done?” Luffy asks. He doesn’t move yet so as to not knock your tablet out of the way and you wrap an arm protectively around his torso as you lean over so he doesn’t fall, setting it on the table. He’s turned off his headphones and peels himself off of you, tossing his phone aside with much less care. Soon you’re wrapped up in his arms again as he sits besides you grinning.
“Do you know everything now?” he asks, pressing his cheek against yours. You squirm in his hold, despite how much you like it, then shake your head.
“I mean I wish, but I think I’ll die if I have to read about QA or QC or QI or whatever the fuck again…” you sigh, leaning into his warmth. “I don’t even think I’m retaining anything.”
Luffy looks at you for a moment, frowning, then nuzzles you close.
“I think you’ll remember.”
You shake your head but he shakes his head in response to you. Then his eyes grow wide.
“Teach me!”
You pull back then look at him, raising an eyebrow.
“You want to learn about quality assurance in healthcare?” you ask.
He nods emphatically enough that you almost laugh and decide to indulge him instead.
“Okay… sure.”
The two of you resettle on the couch so that your legs are tucked under your knees and he’s crosslegged on your sofa, enthusiastic, despite the fact that it’s the most boring thing about medicine in your opinion.
“So quality control, or QC, is when you make sure to test performance elements so that it’s up to standard before delivery, like-” you pause, and look him in the eyes, soft and attentive. “Like when you have a good meal and you give it a taste before you serve it to others.”
He blinks, then nods quickly.
“To make sure it tastes good.”
“Yes.”
He pauses. “Or like when I make sure my face isn’t all gross before I kiss you.”
Your eyes flutter for a moment, as you ponder, warmth on your cheeks.
“M-maybe.”
He grins, placing a hand on your knee and rubbing it gently before returning it back to his lap, good student as he is.
“Got it. Next?”
You push the thought of his lips on yours to the back of your mind, and move on to the next concept.
“So quality assurance, or QA, is when you try to make sure that you monitor and ensure that everything in an organization is running smoothly, like when Sanji runs his restaurant and makes sure no one is serving shitty dishes to customers, and that orders get to the kitchen in time.”
He ponders this for a moment, then nods. His hands, ever reaching, find their way back onto your leg again, instead running up your thigh, his fingers slipping just below the hem of your shorts.
“Sanji running his restaurant… or me making sure I’m being a good boyfriend and making you happy.”
The warmth is back in your cheeks.
“Luffy, this isn’t about us.”
He grins.
“But it helps me remember,” he then pretends to pout, rubbing his palm gently back and forth on your skin. You consider him pushing him off you, asking him to be serious, but you realize that you’re biting your lip instead.
He’s awful, but he is applying the principles of adult learning pretty competently by coming up with a personally relatable scenario, you have to admit.
“Well, quality improvement refers to efforts to improve quality in a sustainable way.”
“Sounds like me always making sure I ask you how I can make you happy.”
He’s shifted now, hungry, and his hands have abandoned your shorts, now making their way to the space below your shirt. He cups a breast, still contained within an old t-shirt bra, and grins mischievously.
“Am I right?” he asks.
There’s the gentlest of squeezes that accompanies his tease.
“I don’t think you can treat your teacher like this,” you quip, but your voice is starting to adopt the airy overlay Luffy knows means he’s got you pinned if not physically.
“I’m trying to move to the practical part. You know a little bit about that, right?” he says. By now he’s backed you up to the corner of the sofa, and your back is on the way down into the cushions.
“So I’m a QI project now?” you ask, your fingers twisting into his shirt.
His face sinks into the crook of your neck, his lips pressing gently onto the skin.
“Sure, whatever,” he says, muffled.
You nudge him in the side with your ribs, but his body is splayed on you already, and you’d rather wrap your thighs around him.
“Thinking about how I can make you happy right now,” he adds.
You help him slip off your shorts.
“You know, the PDSA cycle in QI involves planning and studying, not just doing and acting,” you remind him. He doesn’t know what you’re talking about, and his head shifts out of the crook of your neck to look at you, your noses practically touching you’re so close.
“PD what?” he repeats.
Your lips meet his in a kiss, then you murmur against his lips after sucking his tongue.
cw: fluff. reader is a med student. part of bbq&mcq modern au.
There’s a pit in your stomach as your preceptor gives you what appears to be a strained but reassuring smile. You’ve never been a starlet when performing under pressure, but usually you can keep calm and collected, if only because your first impulse when under stress is to freeze and think rather than ramble and run.
However today, during your simulated patient encounter, something must have gotten you off your A game, and by the close of your exercise - terminated early because your clinical decision-making veered off course - you can only hold tears in while you accept the feedback you’re being given about why exactly you’ve made more wrong decisions than right ones. By the time you’re done receiving informal input and suggestions, you can feel the rushing of blood in your ears and thank the preceptor profusely before removing your short white coat and wadding it up in your bag and leaving back to your on-campus apartment.
It’s not time to call your mother yet. You’ll freak out on the phone, and she’ll tell you it’s fine and that you can try harder, but you’re ready to pack your things and find another life path. Maybe doctoring is not for you, otherwise it would come easier to you, you figure, and you wouldn’t have spent 30 minutes under observation asking the mock nurse (an actor) for the wrong drugs and missing their repeated attempts to redirect you while the manikin’s vital signs crashed.
Sitting quietly in your apartment, out of clinic attire and in shorts and a t-shirt, you try to recenter yourself to figure out what to do next. You haven’t exactly failed yet - that formal feedback will come in the student portal in the next couple of days. You expect there might be some form of remediation, but what’s the point? Your cheeks burn hot with embarrassment.
Dumbass, you think. Stupid, dumbass, shit idiot, fool -
Your phone suddenly vibrates, and it’s just enough to disrupt your train of thought, even if you don’t want to indulge in any conversation right now as you decide on whether or not you should drop out of a program and swallow nearly a hundred thousand dollars of debt. You reach for it hesitantly and turn it over.
Monkey (❤️⁉️): Test over, right?
You don’t remember telling him anything more than you had a test at some point on Friday, but he sounds so sure.
You pause for a moment, your phone in your hands deciding whether or not to reply just yet. Your face still feels sticky from tears and you’re not sure your voice will sound normal if he tries to call.
But as you ponder, you see he’s typing again.
Monkey (❤️⁉️): reservations at Shine, if you want to come
Immediately, your phone buzzes again.
Monkey (❤️⁉️): please come i don’t want to eat alone
Monkey (❤️⁉️): i don’t want to ask anyone else
Despite yourself, you find yourself laughing. He could very easily find a bunch of people to eat with, considering how many friends he has, and how hard that restaurant is to get into, let alone that it’s on your list of places in the city you’ve always wanted to go, and about an hour away.
If it’s the universe trying to cheer you up, you don’t know if you’ll be that easy.
I’m done but maybe want to stay in tonight? Do a raffle maybe?
Monkey (❤️⁉️): …
You can tell he’s frowning.
Monkey (❤️⁉️): i’ll just carry out for you
A menu appears in your text messages. He doesn’t ask more about the exam and you consider whether or not you should tell him you’re pretty sure you bombed it.
Monkey (❤️⁉️): anything you want. luffy delivery.
Your fridge is empty, but there’s something disgusting to you about being treated well when you’re a dunce. Luffy sends you a selfie, one you know he just took, of himself grinning, and you find yourself smiling too.
Monkey (❤️⁉️): i’m giving you brain (!) food (!) for your big 🧠 !!
Monkey (❤️⁉️): but fr, i know you did well and if not today, then you have next time!
For a moment, you wonder if he knows.
You bite your lower lip for a while, then think, pulling your knees to your chest. It is Friday, and stewing on potential failure won’t help, nor will looking for alternative careers.
I’ll come. What time?
Monkey (❤️⁉️): 😃😃😃😃🤭🤭🤭🤭
Monkey (❤️⁉️): 7 i’ll come get you
That gives you 2 and a half hours, you tell yourself.
Deal.
You might be a fraud for today, but you do have next time, and maybe food from the most anticipated restaurant in town might just be what your brain needs for your next chance.
(modern au) streamer/influencer!luffy x med student!mimi
vibes - a burgeoning influencer with worldwide appeal and an overwhelmed preclinical student who is pleasantly distracted by his silly yet inescapable charm~
a serendipitous trip to the local electronics store to upgrade her pc for the preclinical years results in dates that have very little to do with medicine but are just as nurturing to the soul
... plus a forever partner to play video games with!
love is...
in the strokes of a keyboard and hands laid deferentially on vulnerable skin
in true-to-life anatomic models and fantastical 3d game models
in tests of bravery and written exams
in viral videos and memorized antimicrobials
in red-eye flights and early morning lectures
in good (plentiful) food, in laughter, in a reassuring smile and positive words, goofy or informative
in unrelenting hope and loving care.
dividers by @/cafekitsune!
please take a peek other aus including: @/meowrimo's personal trainer/bodyguard!zoro x apothecary owner!aims, @/wetdeadroses' mechanic!ace x antique store owner!tor, @/kkotda's biker!katakuri x baker!koi and @/theshipsong's occultist!hawkins x programmer!kat
initially i'm not a huge fan of being on stream at ALL and luffy doesn't really force me but there's a whole bit where the first time i join it's because he carries me over his shoulder and plops me in a chair next to him fajdkf;adf (they're like did you kidnap her chief) and i'm wearing a mask and then it becomes a thing where people are excited to figure out what mask i'm wearing that day
