Hey guys! Here's chapter 5, hope you guys like it! Thanks for reading, for the reviews and follows, and special thanks to Lionel Orlando, Ramenfox825 and Escha for the reviews!

There's something wrong.

I've noticed that the moment when I woke up and didn't see a certain person beside me, snoring, drooling into my clothes. I've looked to every side, trying to find any sign that Luffy-ya were around, doing crazy things, or eating his so much loved piece of meat, but he was nowhere to be seen, and that was definitely weird.

Where could he be now?

Not knowing that made me worry, since something could have happened to him. He was so careless, that I worried that he might have done something that he shouldn't and had fallen into the sea, but when I turned to look at it, I couldn't see any sign that it had happened, and I've felt somewhat relieved. But things were still weird.

It was weird not having Luffy-ya around me, it was weird not listening to him talking nonstop, it was weird not seeing him doing silly things, it was weird being alone, not having his company, when I've grown so accustomed to have it.

Even more weird than all that, was the way I was feeling about his absence. It just didn't feel right... it felt like there was something missing. I've never had felt something like this before, I've never missed someone like that, not even my crew, not even Bepo, and that scared me a bit. It felt like I was too much accustomed, or even too much dependant, of his presence, and this wasn't good.

Soon I would join with my crew again, and even if we were in an alliance, someday we would have to go separate ways, and I wouldn't have him always around like now, so I had to get used to not having him around.

I had to, but I knew it was going to be hard doing so, when I was already missing him just because he was away from me for a few hours.

Once I've left with my crew, it wouldn't be so easy to end with this longing that I was feeling, because he wouldn't just pop in front of me, like he had now, looking at me with kind eyes, smiling as if he was so happy just in seeing me, and I wouldn't feel the irresistible urge to smile at him that I was feeling now, while feeling my heart beating madly on my chest, and I wouldn't feel this happiness that I was feeling now, just in looking at his face.

Yeah, not having him around would be hard, and I didn't wanted to think about that now.

"Hey Torao!" He waved at me, giving the same bright smile that I was so used to see on his face, and I couldn't help but smile back at him. His smiles were really contagious.

"Hello, Luffy-ya." I've greeted him politely, the smile on my face widening a little, and I could see something weird happening then. When I've smiled at him, Luffy-ya just turned his gaze from me, looking a little embarrassed, and I could see that his cheeks were a slight shade of red.

Could it be that... he was blushing? Because I smiled at him?

I kept looking at him, a bit surprised, and that seemed to make him even more embarrassed then before, he wasting no time in sitting beside me, as if he was trying to cover his embarrassment.

He stayed in silence for a few moments, and when I've looked at him from the corner of my eye, he seemed to be thinking deeply about something, and that was really weird, that wasn't like him, so there was obviously something wrong happening, something really unusual. I've noticed that, but I didn't say anything, just staying quiet as I've waited for him to break the silence.

"Hey Torao... can I ask you something?" He asked me, and at that moment I could see that there really was something wrong there. Luffy-ya had never asked for permission to make questions, he just asked things without caring what they were, and I started to wonder what in the world would make that change.

"Sure, ask away." I've said, giving him permission for him to ask whatever he wanted, but not so sure that I should. I had no idea of what he wanted to ask, it felt like it couldn't be something good, with him asking permission to make questions, but I was curious enough to know what it was to hear what he wanted to ask me.

"Well... Torao, did you ever loved someone?" He asked, a little hesitating, and I couldn't help but feel surprised. I know that he was really curious about anything and everything, but this was something that I didn't expect him to be curious about, this was something that I didn't expect him to ask me.

It was weird, and I didn't really want to answer him. I didn't want to think about it, since that brought back painful memories to my mind, memories that I wanted to forget. Memories of I've lost so much that I've loved. But since they were already on my mind, I decided to answer his question.

"I've loved my family, and I also loved Cora-san." i've answered, simply and short, not putting details into it, and I could see him immediately shake his head, obviously not satisfied with my answer.

"No, not that kind of love... I mean the romantic type of love." He added, and I almost choked without even be eating or drinking anything. Where in the world was that coming from? Why he was asking something like that? It was weird, because I haven't even thought that he knew what romantic love was, but there he was now, asking if there was someone that I loved, and that made me fall deep in thoughts.

I knew what the romantic type of love, like he was saying, was. I had notions of it, even thought I've never felt something like that for anyone. I've never really had interest in anyone, I didn't know if it was because anyone ever caught my eyes, or because I was way too focused on carrying on Cora-san's will to think in this kind of stuff.

"I've never had interest in anyone." I've answered, simply, still thinking about it, and Luffy-ya just stayed quiet, as if he was digesting the information.

It really was like that before, I didn't really have interest in anyone, didn't have interest in pursuing relationships. They looked like trouble to me, and they relied too much on touch, and this was something that I didn't really like. Touching. Being touched. But then... then Luffy-ya appeared back into my life, and things had changed in a way that I could only see now.

I've never had interest in anyone, but then an annoying, hyper teen appeared, and things had become to change. At first I only had interest in his strength, something that I could recognize, and that I could use to help to achieve my objectives, it was an interest that had nothing to do with the type of interest that we were talking about now, but that changed.

It changed with every single thing that he had done for me. When he cared about me, when he risked his life to do what I should have done, and when he didn't hold not even a single grudge against me, for putting him into the chaos that I had myself into. When he was there to comfort me, understand me, to dry my tears when I've cried.

Before I could realise, touching and being touched didn't bother me anymore, and being close to a certain someone, something that at first was so annoying, had become something comforting.

Yeah, everything had changed, and only at that moment I've noticed that this interest, this romantic type of love that Luffy-ya were talking about, was probably that weird feeling that I've noticed that I've been feeling for him for a while now.

Maybe I was feeling that for me... maybe...

"... but maybe there is someone that I love now." I admit, not meaning to say that out loud, but already saying, but obviously not saying that he was the target of my affections. I wouldn't say it, not now, when I wasn't even sure of what I was feeling. Not now, when I didn't even know how he felt about me.

"I see..." He said, in an almost inaudible tone, and when I looked at him once again from the corner of my eye, I could see a look of disappointment on his face, and that was weird. It was as if he was expecting another answer from me, but I didn't really know what he wanted to hear, and that confused me.

I thought in asking him what was wrong, but I've decided not to do so, and just stay quiet, turning my thoughts back to what I was thinking before.

Going back into thinking of how much I had no idea about how he felt about me.

I knew that he liked me, this as quite obvious by the way that he treated me, always being so kind and friendly, but I think that didn't really meant nothing special. He treated almost everyone like this, even strangers that he barely meets, considering everyone as his friends, and it was the same thing with me. It was, but then something really had changed.

After Doflamingo's defeat, I could feel that something had changed between us, and I could see it in the way that he was with me now.

In how he had stayed by my side when I was unconscious, in how he looked so worried about me when I told him about my past, in how he was always trying to find ways to make me feel better, staying by my side all the time when he could be just playing with his friends. And that made me feel special, like I was the most special person to him right now, and that only made the feelings that I had for him to grow stronger day after day. That only made me wish to stay by his side, even knowing that one day I would have to leave.

That only made me consider pursuing a relationship with him, now that I knew what probably was those weird feelings that I had for him, but there was a big problem in the way. I didn't know if he felt the same way that I've felt for him, something that I really doubted that he did, or even if he had already someone that he loved. I needed to know that, and I've realised that now was the best to get this information from him, now that we were talking about this subject.

"... what about you, Luffy-ya? Is there someone you love?" I asked him, breaking the silence between us, and he tensed up a bit, as if he was nervous by my question, as if he wasn't expecting me to ask him that. It only made me more curious, and every single moment of silence that came after that only made me more and more anxious.

"Yes... there is someone that I love, someone really special to me." He answered me, after a few moments of hesitation, and I didn't know what to make out of his answer, but I could feel the disappointment growing inside of me.

I was sure that I wasn't that person. I was sure that I wasn't the one that he loved, because if I was, I'm sure that he would just come to me and confess to me like it was nothing. That's just the way that he was, always going to people and telling them how he felt for them without even hesitating, without caring in how would people react.

Maybe he just touched on this weird subject that we were talking now because he thought that I understood love better than he did, and was just searching for advice on how to deal with this person that he loved. That was probably it, and that was really disappointing, it was even somewhat painful, because I think that deep down, I was expecting that he wanted to know more about love because he was feeling it for me.

What a big idiot that I am.

After some moments of silence between us, he suddenly got up from the place where he was sitting beside me, taking me away from my thoughts, and when I looked up to him i could see a little smile on his face, his cheeks a little red, like before when he was blushing, and that surprised me a bit, the same way as it did before.

"... and this person that I love is right beside me right now." He then finished, not looking at me, and started to walk away from me without looking back, and I just stayed sitting there, in the same place, as his words, his confession, started to enter into my mind. And when they did, I could only look at him in disbelief as Luffy-ya disappeared from my view.

I couldn't believe that.

Luffy-ya loves me.