There's something tasty in his mouth and Luffy chews reflexively, swallows it down with an appreciative noise. Some sort of crustacean thing and even if Fishman Island is rather lacking in the realm of what he considers to be proper 'meat,' the crab or lobster or whatever it was he'd just consumed certainly isn't half bad at all. He still feels pretty full, though, and it can't be hunger or the food he's just eaten that had caused him to wake up. And that's when he picks up on the noise located off to his right.
There's a rattling sound, not proper and steady percussion like from a musician and anyway, he can still hear Brook and some of the Ryuugyuu Palace orchestra members jamming together over at the far side of the ball room. This sound is much closer and not consistent, and, now that he's really paying attention he can hear lots more. That's Usopp, that's his sniper, that's making those strained moans. And if he wasn't also picking up on the low rumble of Zoro's breathing at the same time, he'd almost think Usopp was in pain. But those plaintive sounds combined with Zoro actually audibly controlling his breathing and what has to be his scabbards banging together can only mean one thing.
Luffy has to swallow again, fights to make his throat work around the sudden lump in it. It's been two years and he hasn't forgotten, hasn't let the memory fall too far from the back of his mind. There had been Rayleigh and training and a desperate need to get stronger, to become the kind of captain that could lead his crew into the New World and to One Piece and keep them all safe and together. He hadn't found a lot of time to indulge his body, hadn't much felt like it for the first months anyway. And later he'd felt a little guilty to be anything other than utilitarian, quick. But that hadn't meant he hadn't thought about it, hadn't woken up from dreams that left him flushed and lonely and anxious to train all the harder.
(TBC: I'm at work so...it'll have to wait for a bit)
I blame this on you...
There's a rattling sound, not proper and steady percussion like from a musician and anyway, he can still hear Brook and some of the Ryuugyuu Palace orchestra members jamming together over at the far side of the ball room. This sound is much closer and not consistent, and, now that he's really paying attention he can hear lots more. That's Usopp, that's his sniper, that's making those strained moans. And if he wasn't also picking up on the low rumble of Zoro's breathing at the same time, he'd almost think Usopp was in pain. But those plaintive sounds combined with Zoro actually audibly controlling his breathing and what has to be his scabbards banging together can only mean one thing.
Luffy has to swallow again, fights to make his throat work around the sudden lump in it. It's been two years and he hasn't forgotten, hasn't let the memory fall too far from the back of his mind. There had been Rayleigh and training and a desperate need to get stronger, to become the kind of captain that could lead his crew into the New World and to One Piece and keep them all safe and together. He hadn't found a lot of time to indulge his body, hadn't much felt like it for the first months anyway. And later he'd felt a little guilty to be anything other than utilitarian, quick. But that hadn't meant he hadn't thought about it, hadn't woken up from dreams that left him flushed and lonely and anxious to train all the harder.
(TBC: I'm at work so...it'll have to wait for a bit)