A Good Guy

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It takes a while for Luffy to calm down enough to hear the frantic chatter of nurses around him.

He's in shock, he hears several say. He needs to be sedated.

But Luffy doesn't want to be sedated. He feels like he's been asleep for an eternity and he wants to be awake. He doesn't think he could go back to sleep if he tried.

When they try to calm him down and put a needle in his neck he fights them off, past self defence classes that he took with Zoro coming in handy. His fist connects with something fleshy and he hears a snap, and then a groan. They keep calling in more people and everyone is shouting and Luffy just doesn't want to sleep.

"Luffy!"

Luffy's head snaps over, locking eyes with Sabo from across the room.

"They're just trying to help you, calm down!"

Luffy snarls, "I don't want to fucking sleep!"

Sabo seems to contemplate that, before saying "Alright, you don't have to sleep."

A few of the nurses look at him incredulously, but Sabo just gives them a serious look, explaining.

"He's not in shock anymore, and the only reason he's fighting you is because you're trying to sedate him. There's no need for you to sedate him anymore."

A few nurses look like they still want to protest, but get ushered out by a doctor.

Luffy lets out a breath in relief, eyes flickering to the doctor in appreciation.

"So can you guys finally tell me what's going on?" Luffy asks. He has an idea, but he wants it to be confirmed before he jumps to conclusions.

The doctor steps forward, eyes scanning the clipboard in his hands as he addressed Luffy.

"A week ago you were a hit by a truck while crossing the street. You suffered from several broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a mild concussion. You've been in a coma since," he answers.

Luffy blinks as he processes the information. His eyes flicker to Ace and Sabo as if seeking confirmation, and they both nod solemnly.

"You're mostly healed, but you're going to have to stay here for a few more days before we release you. If you have any pain in your chest or any loss of memory please contact a nurse immediately," the doctor says, before rushing out the door to another patient.

Luffy looks down at himself. His chest is covered in bandages and they're are tubes in his arms connected to bags hanging around his bed.

He looks back up to his brothers. "So what are you guys doing here?"

Sabo's eyebrow twitches and Ace almost goes to hit Luffy on the back of the head before Sabo holds him back.

"We're you're brothers, you idiot! Of course we'd be here if you got hurt!" Ace shouts.

Sabo sighed, clearly exasperated from dealing with his brother for so long. "Please lower your voice, Ace. Did you forget that Lu has a concussion?"

Luffy giggles, "I missed you guys."

It's been a while since he'd last seen his brothers. Ace was always busy because he was a firefighter, and Luffy usually only got to see him on weekends. Luffy had no clue what Sabo's job was, only that he was overseas most the time and he only came home a few times a year. Of course they texted and called a lot, but seeing them in person made some unknown tension drain from Luffy.

He looks down again, before looking back at his brothers.

"Hey, do you think I'll get a really cool scar? Maybe I could be like Zoro! He said that scars make you more manly, but Sanji said that he just said that to cover for the fact that he got the scar in the first place. Then they started fighting again. They're really funny! Did you know that they're soulmates? It's so weird, they act like they hate each other all the time. Wait, did I tell you guys that I met my soulmate?!"

His brothers blink at the word vomit Luffy just let out.

At the last sentence, Sabo goes very still and Ace looks like he wants to murder someone. Which is really funny, because Luffy thinks Ace has actually murdered someone before.

"No...you didn't," Sabo starts.

Luffy's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"Really? I thought I did. Anyway, he's like, supper cool! He's got these really cool tattoos and he's a doctor! Also, he doesn't hate me! Can you believe it?!" Luffy laughs.

Ace looks like he just swallowed a lemon, while Sabo just looks like he was uncomfortable.

"Luffy..." He starts again, like he was about to tell a kid their pet goldfish died. "... you're soulmark-"

"Shut up!" Luffy cuts him off as soon as the word leaves his mouth, elation at getting to talk to his brothers beginning to simmer out. Who cares about his soulmark? Clearly it was a mistake. Torao is too nice to be tricking him.

Sabo sighs, before trying again. "Lu, I know he might seem like a great guy, but... I've never known someone's soulmark to be wrong, and-"

"Just shut up!" Luffy interrupts again, "you don't know him! Stop acting like you do!"

This time it's Ace that steps forward.

"Lu," Ace growls out, making Luffy flinch in surprise at his tone, "you need to stop being delusional. That guy is bad news. I don't care if he's Mister fucking Rogers, stay away from him."

Luffy lets out a growl of his own. His brothers had always been protective of him, especially since seeing his soulmark. They acted as if Luffy couldn't tell for himself whether a person was bad or not, like he'd leap into a white van if someone so much as mentioned candy.

Luffy admitted that he wasn't the brightest star out there. He knew he wasn't the best at math or science or stuff like that, but he sure as hell wasn't incompetent when dealing with people. Luffy was better at telling whether a person was good or bad than his brothers, they just liked to pretend he wasn't cause they were older.

Just as Luffy's about to respond the door slams open.

Everyone jumps, and Luffy's eyes flash to the door only to gasp in surprise.

Torao stood in the door way, panting and heaving for air.

Luffy had only a second to process this before the second thing registered in his mind. Torao looked like shit.

His hair was matted and unkept, like he hadn't brushed it in days. While he was normally incredibly thin, now he looked almost skeletal, skin stretched tight over his cheekbones and and collarbones. His clothes looked baggier on him now, the collar of it showing some of the tattoos on his chest.

His normal professional appearance was ruined. He looked like a homeless junky in just a pair of jeans and a wrinkled t-shirt.

The bags under his eyes looked terrible. There were dark smudges that looked more like black paint underneath his eyes. They were even worse than before, so unhealthy looking that Luffy could compare him to a walking corpse. His golden eyes looked haunted and empty when Luffy met them, making him unconsciously shiver.

Torao looked like he hadn't slept in years, like he hadn't eaten in weeks.

He looked like hell.

Between gasping breaths for air Torao manages to get out a "Luffy-ya..." Before he collapses on the spot.

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