Dream Turned Into Reality

After they took down Boss C, Luffy found a nearby cave for them to sleep in. The cave surprisingly luxurious.

On the ceiling were beautiful rainbow colored stones that illuminates the cave at night. On the sides were glassy see-through rocks, were you could see a glistening azure liquid flowing through them. The floor was strangely soft and moist. There were multiple colorful flowers growing inside. Some even glowed in the dark.

The entire cave gave off a fairy tale atmosphere.

"It's beautiful."

Hancock looked around the cave and was in awe.

"Really? It looks normal to me."

Luffy on the other hand, wasn't moved by the beautiful sight.

"Luffy, how did you find this place?"

"I didn't. I was sent flying and crashed into here one day."

"I didn't expect to see something like this on this island. Is it safe to sleep here?"

"Yep. The monsters are afraid of this place for some reason."

Hancock picked a blue and gold flower and put at her nose.

"What a sweet fragrance."

Hancock had a soothing smile on her face.

Seeing her smile like that reminded Luffy of something Shanks once said to him.

"Listen, Luffy. A woman is at her most beautiful when she's holding a flower. Well, that's what my captain used to say. Hahaha"

Even though he didn't know why, he felt like he could somewhat understand what he meant.

"Luffy? Is something wrong?"

Hancock worriedly looked at Luffy, when she saw that he was staring in space.

"No, it's nothing."

"Is that so? But this cave sure is beautiful. Hey, can we stay here for the rest of the week?"

"Sure. I don't mind were I sleep."

Hearing that, Hancock smiled brightly and started think about how she can decorate the cave.

While Hancock was busy planning out their new "Love Nest", Luffy saw a pink and blue flower at his feet.

He picked it, smelled it, for some reason tasted it, and ate it whole.

"Sweet."

He picked another one and looked at Hancock.

He watched her as she moved around the cave with sparkling eyes. And then without a second thought, he made his arm stretched and placed the flower in her hair.

".........Huh?"

Hancock stopped and stared blankly at Luffy.

"It looked like you liked the flowers, so I thought maybe you'd want to wear it."

Hancock was still surprised and just continued to stare blankly.

"It looks good on you, Hancock."

Luffy said with a smile.

".....Um....Th-Thank you...."

Hancock faced was dyed red, and she shyly looked away; unable to look Luffy in the eye.

"Anytime."

Luffy continued to eat the flowers, while smiling at her.

"At least warn me before you do something like that...."

Hancock spoke as if whispering.

"B-By the way, Luffy. What are we going to do tomorrow? Your Haki is already pretty strong, so do you want me to spare with you. "

"Hmm.....Ah, I forgot."

Luffy who continued to chew on the flowers, thought about Hancock's suggestion for a bit, then remember something.

"I'm not training tomorrow."

Hancock was surprised when she heard that.

"Not training? Why?"

"Rayleigh says that I'm suppose to take a day off every few weeks to let my Haki recover. He said something about overusing it could slow down my progress. I don't get it, but I'll do it since he said so."

When she heard that, Hancock remember something Elder Nyon said while they were on the ship.

"Listen, Snake Princess. In order to get closer to Luffy you need to spend as much time with him as possible."

"Isn't that why I'm going there in the first place? To spend time with him?"

"No. What I meant was, you need to spend time with him only focusing on you. Try to make him put you first over everything else."

"How can I do something so selfish when he's training?!"

"Calm down. You just need one day."

"One day?"

"Just one day of his undivided attention should be enough to capture his heart."

"....And how am I going to do that?"

"With a date?"

"D-D-Date?!"

"What are you getting flustered for? Weren't you talking about marriage a while ago? That's far more serious. Just find an opportunity to go on a date with him, trust me it will workout."

"Um, Luffy?"

"What?"

Hancock, who recalled Elder Nyon's advice, Luffy called out to Luffy who was still the flowers as if he was addicted to it.

"S-Since you're not training tomorrow, can we go on a d-date?"

Hancock looked away from Luffy after she said that. Her face was completely red, and her trembled a little bit from the fear of rejection.

Even though she knows that Luffy cherishes her, the fear of rejection and abandonment wasn't something easy to get over. Especially since this is the first time she's asked a man out on a date.

But what Hancock failed to realize was-

"What's a date?"

Luffy was an idiot who was ignorant to anything involving romance.

"Eh? Ah, a date is when a man and woman who likes each other goes out to have fun. Or so I've heard."

Even though she was shock to hear his response, Hancock still gave Luffy a somewhat vague explanation.

"Ok, sure. Let's go a date."

"Eh? A-Are you sure?"

"Yeah. If it's just going out its fine. Besides I like you and I love spending time with you."

He said with an innocent smile on his face.

".....Mhm."

Hancock answered with a shy nod.

Isn't Innocence a beautiful thing?

The next day, Hancock woke up in a good mood.

"Hmm~ hm~ Hmm~."

She hummed as picked a bouquet of flowers. Hancock smelled the flowers and rubbed her face in them.

"Huh?"

That's when she noticed something.

"Isn't this the Mood Swing Flower? I didn't know that they grew here."

The Mood Swing Flower was a flower that grew exclusively on Amazon Lily.

It's used to make medicine and skin ointments. However high exposure to it can lead uncontrollable mood changes, hence its name.

"Now that I think about it, was this the flower Luffy put in my hair?"

Hancock recalled Luffy eating a large dose of it, and felt a ominous feeling.

"Luffy! Where are you, Luffy?!"

She shouted towards the forest where she saw Luffy entering earlier.

A few seconds later, she could sense something rushing towards her.

"What is it, Hancock?! Are you hurt?!"

And flustered Luffy popped up in front of her.

He worriedly began examining her as if searching for wounds. When he didn't find any, he sighed in relief and said "thank goodness".

Hancock stared blankly at him for a while, and shook her head to snap herself out of it.

"L-Luffy, when you woke up this morning, did you feel any different."

"No, not at all. "

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as you are beautiful."

"........Eh?"

"When I woke up, I was enlighten to how magnificent the world really is."

Luffy started to move in a dramatic manner.

"I never realized how beautiful the morning sky was. I never realized how lovely the songs that birds sung were. And I failed to realize how breathtaking flowers were. Oh, what a sinful man I've been!"

"........"

Hancock watched Luffy with a dumbfound look on her face. He definitely was affected by the flowers, and to extreme degree at that. While Hancock was thinking that, Luffy sudden grabbed her hands and pull her closer to him.

"But my greatest sin of all, is failing to see the beauty of the goddess who stands before me."

"E-Eh? Eh? Eh?"

Hancock couldn't keep with the sudden turn of events.

"Now, my goddess. Let's embark on our date."