After dinner on the Sunny and everyone was finally winding down for bed, he insisted that you join him in his room tonight.

"I feel more comfortable in there with you!" He sneered playfully with a twinge of sincerity, grinning widely when you finally agreed to sleep in his room.

You didn’t understand. Before, he was perfectly fine sleeping by himself. In fact, you’d probably reach and say he preferred it that way. Free of most disturbances.

That may have been the reason on the surface, but you didn’t know why he actually wanted you in there.

It was for your own good.

He didn’t know what was going on inside your head, but all he knew was that he wanted to help you through it.

For the past few weeks or so, he’s noticed that you seemed a lot more tenser than usual, even more so at night.

Luffy would walk past your room to go to the bathroom and hear whimpering, even hard sobs at times coming from your room at night.

His concern grew more and more by the day. What was going on? And why didn’t you tell anyone?

Luffy knew pain. He knew suffering. He had countless nightmares before about several times of his life. He had his crew to open up to, if need be.

But you didn’t talk to anyone. You didn’t want to burden anyone with what you were dealing with.

Why were you doing this??

Why were you acting like you had nobody?!

To his own surprise, your refusal to talk about your nightmares made him a little angrier than he initially thought it would. It made him upset that out of all people, you thought you couldn’t talk to him?!

Luffy was baffled. A bit offended, even. The two of you were like two peas in a pod — inseparable from the start of his journey to become King of The Pirates. It didn’t matter what happened. You were always there.

Since the Going Merry burned down. When Kuma separated the crew. At Skypiea, during the fight with Enel.

He didn’t even consider you a friend anymore. Instead, Luffy considered you family. Someone he could confide in and trust — someone he could talk to about.. well. Anything and everything.

Luffy's room was just about everything you’d expect. His pillows and blankets were thrown askew from the night before. It’s not like he made his bed. "What was the point if you’re just gonna sleep in it again?"

Stars packed in clusters of light and the illumination of the moon painted the sky, along with beautiful colors of blacks and blues. The moonlight shone through the window of him room, highlighting the two of you sleeping side by side.

You had the suspicion that he was a slob whenever he slept, even in his own room. And this couldn’t be any more true. He laid flat on his back carelessly, snoring loudly as bubbles fluctuated in his nose and mouth. One arm hung off the bed, touching the floor, the other lazily slung around your body on the other side of the bed.

Unfortunately, even with him around, the nightly terrors didn’t let up.

This vision was even more gruesome than the others, probably amplifying now that you were with someone during this nightmare. You started shaking, tears beading up in your eyes.

Luffy felt the vibrations of your trembling against his hand, waking him with a bit of a start. His face softened as he saw the source of the shaking.

He wanted to catch you. He wanted to confront you about this.

Slowly, he wrapped his other arm around you, tightening his grip as he pulled you closer to him, sharing his body heat.

"Mmh.. Why are you…shaking..?" He asked woozily, holding you in hopes that the nightmare would stop at his presence.

Even as you instinctively kicked against his arms, looking for some kind of comfort, he was still there. Holding you.

And knowing Luffy, he wasn’t going anywhere.

"Hey.. hey, relax.." he muttered, feeling your trembling get even worse. If he knew it was this bad, he wouldn’t have let you sleep alone in the first place. Besides, your company wasn’t all that bad.

His hand moved to brush a few stray hairs out of your face, loosening his grip just enough to give you the space you needed.

"Shh.. it’s alright.. c'mere."