#nonchalant!reader

You don’t see him - don’t see the flash of his toothy grin when his rubbery limbs a stretch to reach you, your eyes wide and focused on the knife flying right to your chest. Only when you hear the pained groan leaving a figure from far away, your hazy eyes filled with panic, landing on the bleeding rubbery arm with the knife wedged deep. The skin bruised and rough, evident with previous careless injuries. Hands you are all too familiar with, wrapping around you protectively, firmly holding yours with certainty, now shaking softly at the pain of the knife wedged throug, crimson dripping down.

With no time to waste, the hand twists, swiftly grabbing you by the collar and yanking you smoothly with a soft thump against a firm, panting chest. Luffy. You look up at him, and he’s grinning ear to ear, blood trickling down his temple, lip cut and bruised, faint bruising all over his toned chest, his skin dirty and rough from terrain and faint traces of blood all over. There’s a flicker of something you can’t name in his eyes the moment he looks down at you, holding back pain or something else, though he seems fine other than the knife wedged in his wrist - still holding you protectively. And oh, his hair, sweaty and messy from fighting, draping over his low sleepy eyes which always watched you with such care and observation, the bloodied state he was in annoyingly adding to his charm.

There’s no time to waste. “Hah, that was a close one, wasn’t it?” Luffy chuckles softly down at you, smiling like always, barely even showing a sign of pain, as if he didn’t have a godamn knife wedged through his arm. Your face scrunches up in slight frustration. He’s always been like this, taking it upon himself to protect each and every one of his crew members. You’d found that part of him endearing if not for how often he got injured from it, but it also confused you when he did. You didn’t want him to protect you as just another crew member, you wished for more. But of course, you’d take that to the grave; that’s right, these feelings could never be acted upon. Why? Because you could tell. Luffy had no interest in romantic endeavours. (Oda had made that clear enough).

That’s why you just couldn’t accept his help sometimes. It made you waver. Each time he smiled at you. Held your hand. Ruffled your hair. You can’t stop the soft warmth fluttering through you, nor the way you soften at a mere touch. You try to be stoic, to act nonchalant, but Luffy has that sort of energy you can’t stay away from. The kind that you can’t run from. But above all, you didn’t want to misinterpret his kindness. He was kind to all, treated all with the same care and fairness. So you were afraid. Didn’t want him to push you away, to view you differently than he did as now. So you only bristle at his action, eyes now narrowing down at the knife through his wrist.

“Dont casually interrupt my fight, Captain.” you insist blandly, inspecting his wrist subtly. Luffy only seems to find your stubbornness amusing. “I don’t need your help.” you add flatly, trying not to show the little squint of your eyes in concern as you watch blood ooze out his wrist.

Luffy only chuckles softly. “Even while you’re hurt like this?”

His eyes crinkle softly as he smiles, and it makes part of you squirm with warmth, the other half only growing frustrated, conflicted with your own feelings, only wanting to maintain this farce of the need for this ‘crew mate’ relationship between you and him that you continue to be stubborn and difficult. His words don’t help one bit. Only reinforcing the idea he’d only ever treat you like another precious crew member of his.“You’re obviously the one who got hurt.” You try to point out his bleeding wrist, growing more concerned for him but it only shows as irritation on your soft features.

Luffy is about to speak before another knife flies your way, and he’s immediately pulling you away to keep you out it’s trajectory with his animalistic reflexes, his rough large hand slipping down to grip your waist softly, pulling your body flush against his, his eyes alert and watching for the enemy. Your body tensed ever so slightly with the contact. He leans down to mumble quietly into your ear, “Just leave this to your pirate king,” only to coil his rubbery arm around your waist securely, stretching it to transport you over to Usopp freaking out in the corner, gnawing at his nails as he watches Zoro and Sanji fight, his eyes widening in alarm watching you fly over to him. And it made you bristle softly, the way his whispered words had affected you so tenderly, calling himself “your pirate king,” only spurred your conflicted feelings, so much so you didn’t even get a chance to protest. “wait-“

“take her back to the Sunny, Ussop! Treat her leg!” Luffy calls back towards you both as Usopp miraculously manages to catch you steadily in his arms, eyes going down to your leg. Its a mess of blood and bone. You didn’t even notice, when your enemy found you at a vulnerable moment, breaking your entire leg. Your adrenaline running high, only focused on the knife hurling towards you. Tears prick your eyes in frustration. Again, you’d allowed him to see you like this, weak and in need of “protection,” and he’d let himself get hurt just to save your pathetic little ass. And as you protest while Usopp flees away from the scene with you over his shoulder, you can only look back at your captain who throws you a cheeky grin, flying off, ripping the knife out of his wrist and gum gum bazooka-ing whoever it was who broke your leg.

And god, you hated it, because his smile was the only thing you could hold onto as your vision blurred, Usopp’s panicked voice huffing as he raced back to the Sunny, your adrenaline wearing off. Pain pricks up your leg as your vision blurs out, watching the dash and stretch of Luffy’s rubber limbs as you slowly drift into darkness, slumping into Usopp tweaking tf out.

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tysm for reading!!!! it’d be a miracle you made it down here 😞. It’d be lovely if anyone can tell me what they did and didn’t like! i want to improve! but please be nice 👉👈