-x-

a world no one else has ever seen

easier

-x-

Luffy wakes up in the dark and rolls over restlessly, hungry and tired, and feeling like his head is sinking deep into churning water. He makes a face at the painful tug at his insides, pushes a hand between his body and the mattress to grope along his stomach where the tugging hurts the worst and finds that there are bandages in the way.

He can't really help the whine that escapes when he exhales, trying to remember what happened. A fight with some marines, and then he fell overboard. It hurts a lot. But mostly he's starving and feels wobbly on the inside like he had a funny dream. Maybe he did. His hands are shaking. Luffy blinks open his eyes, adjusting, and spots a round fuzzy outline that must be Chopper, snoozing in the rolly chair beside his bed. He's in the infirmary, then, and not their cabin.

He wondered why the bed wasn't swinging.

A noise in the doorway makes Luffy lift his head and prop up on his elbows. Nami's orange hair stands out sharply in the darkness as she tiptoes over to him, combing it back from her face.

"What are you in here moaning for?" she huffs quietly, "You're going to wake everyone up!"

"My bad," Luffy mumbles.

Chopper must have given him something that makes him sleepy and it hasn't totally worn off yet, because it's hard to focus on Nami's face, even when she leans down close to him and pulls the blanket up to look at his bandages. She flicks on the little light beside the bed and Luffy blinks into it, dazed, before he covers his eyes with both hands and drops his face back into the pillow.

Okay, fine. He whines.

"Hungry…."

"Of course you are," Nami says dismissively, glancing at Chopper, who shifts his face out the light and murmurs in his sleep, "Sanji made stew for you."

Luffy hums at that, and his stomach rumbles. He wants stew.

Sanji's stew is the best.

Awareness expanding at the prospect of food, Luffy notices a quiet roar in the background, dull and constant; the sound of rain hitting the deck, pounding into the ocean. There was a cyclone earlier. That's what the fuss was all about. He wonders how long he's been sleeping, anyway.

Nami pokes him in the side.

Luffy swallows back a moan of discomfort, reaching down to knock her hands away and circle his arms around his stomach. He turns his face out of the pillow, eyes squeezed shut.

"Why don't I feel so great…"

"Probably a number of reasons. The huge hole in your stomach? The sedative, on top of all the seawater you swallowed, falling in like an idiot." Nami props a hand on her hip and rests the other gently on his back, rubbing between his shoulders. Her hand is warm on his cold skin, and Luffy sighs. "Want to come sit in here and eat? I'll warm the soup up free of charge, but it'll cost to bring it to you."

"Okay."

"Okay you're getting up, or okay I'm charging you?"

"Getting up."

"Okay." Nami laughs softly, withdraws her hand. She moves toward the door and looks meaningfully over her shoulder. "Don't step on anyone."

Chopper is asleep in his chair, but the others (except for Brook and Sanji) are all asleep in the galley. Robin is on the sofa, curled against the armrest. Usopp and Franky are on the mattress in the middle of the floor, and Zoro is snoring with his head resting on the table, his hand wrapped around the neck of a bottle between his knees. Nami cuts on one of the dimmer lights above the stove so she can see what she's doing without disturbing everyone, while Luffy climbs over his sleeping friends and then into the chair beside Zoro.

He puts his head down on the table, grinning. Zoro goes right on sleeping.

The smell of stew fills the galley once it starts warming up. Luffy's stomach grumbles as if it has a nose of its own and his mouth starts watering. He sits upright, scuffs his feet against the floor, and tries not to whine while he waits. Nami pulls down the biggest bowl that they have and ladles it full, bringing it to the table. Luffy doesn't realize how cold he is until the steam wafts up into his face and he picks the bowl up in both his hands. He breathes in deep, puts his whole face in it just to enjoy the smell, and then he drains it in one big gulp that sends warmth gushing through him all the way to his toes.

He sets the bowl down empty, humming appreciatively, licking his lips. Nami gives him an unimpressed look, but she's smiling when she goes back to the stove and just brings the entire pot of stew to the table.

"I should have known better," she says, handing Luffy the ladle and taking the seat across from him.

He laughs, "Yeah," and dunks his bowl straight into the pot, scooping out the stew. Because he's shown miraculous restraint by not picking up the pot with his bare hands and scalding them (and howling and waking up the others) in the process, Nami doesn't smack him for it. She rests her chin in her hand and lets him eat as much as he wants, until the stew pot is sitting empty in between them.

Luffy sits back in his chair and rubs his stomach, sighing contentedly. It's good to be full, but getting stabbed in the belly always makes it kind of hurt.

"Do you want anything else?" Nami asks.

"Nah, I think I'm good," Luffy says, grinning. He definitely feels better than he did before. He starts poking at the bandages where his side is bulging just a little, turns and counts his friends again. "That stew was really good. Where's Sanji?"

"Watch duty with Brook."

"Oh okay."

Nami reaches across the table without any warning, snags Luffy's rubbery cheek between her fingers and gives him a firm pinch, yanking him forward. Luffy huffs, "Owowowow! Nami! What gives!" and tries to keep his voice down, his hands against the table so she doesn't pull him over it. He wraps his leg around Zoro's to anchor himself. Nami only bears down really hard one last time before she lets him go.

The recoil is enough to knock Luffy back into his seat, to jostle a louder, disgruntled snore out of Zoro.

Luffy grimaces, rubbing his cheek.

"What wuzzat for?"

"For being an idiot," Nami says, frowning, crossing her arms on the table, "and making us worry."

"Oh." Luffy relaxes, glad it isn't something serious, and grins. "Sorry."

"We're used to it." This gruff reply comes from Zoro, his face still squashed against the table, eyes still firmly shut. He shifts around to make his uncomfortable-looking position slightly more comfortable. "She's just giving you a hard time because she feels bad for not getting our asses outta there sooner."

Luffy chuckles gleefully, poking Zoro's face. Nami reaches beneath the table to wrench the liquor bottle out of Zoro's hand, "I think you've had enough," and jabs her heel into his boot. Zoro ignores Nami, grunts at Luffy to knock it off, and the resulting commotion, however quiet they try to be, ends up rousing everyone else in the galley.

"Luffy, some of us are trying to sleep here," Usopp sighs, lifting his head to peer over Franky's hulking shoulder, "Come on, get down here and go back to bed - "

"Wait! I want to check his bandages first!" Chopper says as he wobbles into the galley. He's still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, looking at Luffy with concern. "Luffy, how are you feeling?"

"Okay," Luffy says.

He turns the chair around and lifts his arm out of the way so Chopper can check his pulse and prod his side with his hooves. It doesn't even hurt when he does it, just burns a little where the wound is deepest if he applies a lot of pressure. Luffy dutifully sits still, but sometimes his knee bounces. Chopper touches it lightly to make him stop.

"Any pain? And don't lie!"

"Mhh. A little."

"And you already ate?"

"Yup!"

"Good, then you can take this." Chopper hands him a packet of medicine, and Luffy's face sinks into a pout. "And after that you should get some rest! I'll change your bandages after you've had a bath, first thing in the morning."

"Aw man, I gotta take a bath too?"

"If you don't like it you should stop getting stabbed, boss," Franky says, laughing sleepily.

One of Robin's hands pokes Luffy's arm insistently and offers him a glass of orange juice, and since there's no point in whining about it and he trusts Chopper to make him feel better (the same way he trusts Nami to get them to safety, and Zoro to pull him out of the water, and the others, always, with everything else), Luffy takes the medicine.

He chases the bitter taste out of his mouth. He puts a hand against his bandages. He climbs the crows nest in the pouring rain to show Brook that he's alright and to thank Sanji for the meal. He goes back to the galley, wraps up in a warm towel, and goes to sleep piled in the floor among his friends.

And he rests easier knowing they're all here, and they're safe.

-x-

(A/n) This is It! Thank you guys so much for sticking with me while I finished this! It's a pretty big accomplishment, considering I tend to drop expanded writing projects like hot potatoes...! Thank you for the suggestions and comments and kudos! I really appreciate them all so much!

To everyone that asked about adding one w Jinbei: I may do that later on just to have the 10 final strawhats all together, but it will probably be after the whole cake arc has concluded!

-bobtac