His Fault | Monster Trio

4

Luffy's dry eyelids fluttered wide open as he woke up with a jolt, pressing his hand against his heart that was plagued with an irregular heartbeat.

"It was a dream." He sighed to himself, realizing he was perfectly fine and unharmed. Zoro was sound asleep, right beside him.

Seeing him made the brunette feel safe.

"Sheesh, what a horrible nightmare!" The bed started to creak as the old, wooden planks beneath it shifted around while Luffy got up.

In his empty mind, he had just woken up from a traumatic nightmare that would fade away by the time he would wash his face with cold water in the bathroom.

But as he took the first steps forward towards his destination that was only a few steps away... He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering why his back was aching so much.

Shrugging at the pain he was feeling, the boy didn't want to jump into any conclusions.

Instead, he turned the doorknob against his bathroom door and flicked the light switch on.

Immediately, he noticed something different about himself: The sclera on either side of his eyes was tainted with reddish veins.

His eyelids appeared swollen as well, a potential cause being the amount of dust within the room. Or so, he made himself believe.

He moved his hand towards the faucet, letting the cold water descend onto his palms to splash it against his face in order for him to wake up, properly.

By doing this, the younger also distracted himself from any invasive thoughts that managed to invade his pleasant mind.

"What position did I fall asleep in last night? My back hurts really bad..." He suddenly had the urge to sit for a moment to help cope with the persistent pain he felt in his lower back.

Sliding his shorts down while looking up at the shower curtains in front of him, Luffy allowed his clothing to remain on the floor as he placed his bottom down to sit.

"What the- Why can't I.. Why can't I sit?" He mindlessly spoke to himself, growing breathless, the more strain he put against his body to sit properly.

His head continued to shake in disagreement with what he was feeling, as though he were attempting to hide something from his own self to avoid facing it.

"I'll stand up instead."

The boy placed his hand over the towel holder that was located right beside the tub, searching for stability through it to help him stand back up on his feet.

Doing this made his legs tremble with weakness along with an unknown fear he was slowly submitting to, seeing that something was very wrong with him.

"That's impossible... It- It's impossible!" He repeated to himself, in complete denial of the situation he was currently facing.

He nervously reached for the toilet paper beside the toilet and violently tugged at the end, collecting a large amount in his hands to wipe it up either end of his ankles that were getting stained with a murky substance, running down his legs.

Bringing the paper back up to his face, he gulped, crumbling it in his hands to dump it into the toilet.

After successfully flushing the seemingly endless wads down the pipes, the adult teen was panting heavily, staring down at his pants.

"They're covered in blood. It wasn't a nightmare! It really did happen. He... He actually... Damn it!!" Tears clouded Luffy's puffy eyes that reddened again while he covered either end of his ears, reliving visions of what happened to him last night.

In the distance, he could hear the faint sound of shuffling coming from his bed, similar to the same sound he made before getting up.

His sinuses closed up, giving him severe congestion and a constant pressure against his eyes, the harder he cried in silence.

"So that's why my back hurts so much." He told himself, looking into the mirror to find bruises and finger marks buried deep into his lower waist.

A few doors down, the sound of laughter filled the Sunny, signalling that his crewmates were all awake.

Normally, hearing them would bring Luffy joy and excitement to greet his friends with his energetic voice...

But if he were to try and speak with them now, all they would be listening to are his uncontrollable cries that he was struggling to muffle in the bathroom.

The last thing he recalls doing was being embraced by a pair of arms that ended up getting drenched by the amount of tears he cried.

It was honestly surprising for the young man to know he still had anything left inside of him to cry out.

The only witness who was there to comfort and alleviate his pain was his trustworthy first mate. Though by now, Luffy was beginning to regret being found by Zoro in the first place.

His body crawled with goosebumps, wondering what the Swordsman would ask him and if he would remember to keep his word by not saying anything about what they went through last night.

The sound of his bathroom door opening alerted Luffy.

He perched his head up, growing paranoid to know what Zoro would tell him when they would encounter each other.

Pushing his way into the dark restroom, the muscular male was met with Luffy almost immediately.

His reaction to seeing the Captain wasn't as shocking as Luffy thought it would have been, but the look of fright in his eyes still lingered.

To not worry Luffy, Zoro played it off and approached him with in a calm state of mind, no matter how truly terrified he was on the inside when seeing just how badly beaten the boy was.

His bones were aching, his skin was bleeding, and he had a gut-wrenching look of pain in his swollen eye sockets that made it difficult for the Swordsman to not fall apart when seeing him.

"Did he forget? Maybe he doesn't even know at all. I probably just imagined-" Luffy shut his eyes and remained frozen as he was pulled into an embrace.

Though his first mate was well-known for his blunt and brutally honest attitude towards most people, including his very own crewmates...

He couldn't act tough around the person who always smiles and is never silent unless a true tragedy has occurred.

"I ruined the mattress, didn't I?" The boy asked with a broken smile scattered across his face that was burning with hot tears that streamed down to his neckline.

In return, the Swordsman nodded his head but stayed silent to not worsen the moment they were having.

"Let me stay here long enough to feel warmth again... This coldness is killing me."

~~~