Work Text:
"So the person who has killed the most people wins?" Zoro asked.
"That's right." Robin clarified with one of her unreadable smiles. "The game ends when everyone is either dead or has obtained the note with their own name on it. And remember…", here she looked at Luffy, who was nodding along enthusiastically, "you have to be sneaky about it. Otherwise, the other person might guess that you have their name and will be extra careful to not accept anything from you. Does everyone understand so far?" Everyone around her nodded.
"So…let me test this…" Nami put both hands together and with one of her most dazzling smiles, one of the ones that Zoro could only scoff at, she turned to Sanji on her right. "Sanji, dearest, would you do me a favour and take my purse to the clothes rack? I must have forgotten to put it there with my coat." Here she pouted, holding her purse out to him and batting her long eyelashes at him. On Nami's other side Zoro facepalmed, for he and everyone else in the room could already see the disaster in the making. And there, the Cook already fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
"Of course, Nami-Swan~!♡♡" He practically swooned in front of her and carefully took the purse out of her hands. How did he even manage to say that out loud? Zoro wondered to himself. He could practically hear and see the hearts flowing out of the curly-browed idiot on the floor. Beside him, with a wicked smile on her face, Nami turned back to Robin and asked, "Like that, right?" The raven-haired woman responded, "Correct. It seems we have the first casualty of the night. Sanji, please hand the note with your victim's name over to our dear Nami." In the background, Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp were practically on the floor with laughter. Only now it seemed to occur to Sanji just what he had done. The hearts in his eyes dimmed a tiny bit.
"Ahhhh. Well…" he just said in a very flat voice. Zoro sighed. "You're such an idiot, you know that, right?" he said in an exasperated yet fond voice. The blonde turned to him and, seemingly finding his fighting spirit again, answered, "I'd gladly die for any of our lovely ladies, you know that. And since dear Robin cannot participate due to making the match-ups, it is only right that Nami should win! I regret nothing!" Zoro merely answered, "If thinking that is what helps you sleep at night, be my guest. I, for one, am going to win this thing."
In the background, Luffy and the others were still laughing, while simultaneously spreading crumbs of potato chips and cookies on the floor. His dad was going to kill him. To be fair, it was Mihawk's own fault for letting them host their New Year's party at his huge mansion while he was dragged bar-hopping by Shanks to drink the night away. He really should have known better, but what was done was done and, Zoro mused, this was definitely a problem for Future-Zoro. He for one would gladly enjoy their rowdy and chaotic celebration of the new year, and worry about any consequences later.
***
It's the doorbell that interrupted Jinbei's and Nami's passionate discussion about the quite frankly very concerning influences of climate change on the local environment, and what it might mean for their whale population in the future. At the ring that echoed loudly through the enormous old mansion Zoro called his home, Nami's entire face visibly lit up, and with a cry of "Vivi!", she ran towards the main entrance. She at least had the decency to call an apologetic "Sorry, Jinbei!" over her shoulder, but Jinbei only shook his head and smiled. He had to laugh when he saw Luffy barreling right into the redhead with his own cry of "Pizza!!" only to be then chewed out by Nami, as they tried to detangle all their limbs and get off the floor.
Sanji meanwhile smartly sidestepped the duo to open the door to actually let in their second to last arriving companion. He knew that Law would not join them till much later, as the surgeon was still on shift in the ER for another few hours but would try to make it in time for midnight.
In the meantime, the delicious greasy smell of pizza slowly filled the air, effectively ending the argument taking place as Luffy was no longer listening. Vivi and Sanji both entered the living room, the copious amounts of pizza cartons split between the two. With a cheery "Hi, everyone!" and a bright smile, Vivi greeted everyone and graciously unloaded her pizza cartons into the waiting arms of the nearly salivating Luffy. "Thank you, Luffy. However…" and here Vivi looked up and met Robin's gaze across the room, "I think this means that you just died."
Everyone gasped and stared at her and Jinbei couldn't help but laugh at the look of pure shock and betrayal on Luffy's face. "But…how?! You weren't even here earlier!" he cried in protest. "Ah, but Robin was kind enough to shoot me a text message explaining the game and also relaying my first victim to me, which happens to be you. Sorry, Luffy, the opportunity was just too good", she apologized sheepishly. Luffy just grinned, "Oh well, I didn't really want to kill any of you guys anyways. And I got pizza out of it!" To Jinbei's ears, nothing had ever sounded so on-brand for the Strawhat-wearing madman he somehow called his friend.
***
Betrayed. BETRAYED! Oh, how much it hurt! Franky's poor heart would never recover from this, he was sure. "Usopp! Bro! How could you!?" he cried out while dramatically clutching his chest and sinking to the floor. "I've trusted you! And this is how you betray me!?" he added for good measure. Above him, Usopp sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and clearly looked guilty. Franky knew he shouldn't have accepted the camera from him, but Usopp had said that he had just yesterday seen a perfectly preserved 1966 Shelby 427 Cobra and had some photos of it. A 1966 Shelby 427 Cobra!! How could Franky have resisted!! The only other car he'd like to get his hands on more than the Cobra was a 1957 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing, which was something Usopp clearly knew, seeing as Franky had posters of both cars hanging in his workshop. How could he betray his trust like this!! Crying, he looked up to Usopp and whined: "Please tell me my death wasn't in vain and you actually did see a Cobra. You didn't lie about that, too, did you?"
Usopp looked even more guilty. "Well, you see…", Usopp stretched the words as long as he could, "this…might have been…a slight exaggeration? But! I did see this nice blue Ford Fiesta if you want to take a look?" he added with a hopeful look. Franky just closed his eyes and laid back down onto the floor. He was mourning. There was only one thing that could possibly cheer him up now and that was… "Karaoke time!! Everyone, get up and let's go!!" shouted the exuberant voice of one Monkey D. Luffy, effectively interrupting his miserable thoughts. Franky sprang to his feet and dramatically pointed at Usopp. "Usopp! I'll get you for this! I'll even dedicate my first song to you!" With this, he sprinted towards Luffy's corner of the room, where he and Brook had been busy setting up their karaoke station using Mihawk's gigantic flatscreen TV. "The first song is mine!" Franky urgently declared, grabbing one of the microphones off of the floor and mounting a nearby chair. After carefully running through the song selection list, he finally spotted the perfect choice. After the first few opening notes, he started to sing, while pointing at Usopp.
"You've got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down you just stood there grinnin'
You've got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that's winnin'"
In front of him, his audience of Luffy, Brook and Chopper were laughing and cheering him on, while Usopp guiltily covered his face. After his song had ended, he cried out in shame, "Okay, okay, I get it! I'm sorry, I'll never betray you like that again!! Please, forgive me!" Franky just laughed and jumped off his improvised stage to embrace the younger man. "Of course! A true manly brotherhood can easily withstand such minor betrayal like this!"
***
Usopp should have seen this coming by a mile, really. What had started as an attempt to teach the strawhatted maniac he called his best friend the choreography to the national anthem - because that's exactly what the Macarena was, if you asked him - predictably ended in chaos. Right now, Luffy was lying on the floor, carefully feeling the back of his head where he had hit the floor, while Chopper was crying frantically above him and trying to shove a cooling pad at him. Meanwhile, Zoro and Sanji were busy laughing instead of actually helping, and Robin just commented something about how lucky Luffy had been to not crack open his skull and die a horrible death. Usopp sighed. Of course Luffy had to climb Mihawk's fancy modern glass table for his ‘solo performance’, and of course the idiot would just happen to slip and fall off said table. Like he said, he should have seen this coming.
"Oi Luffy, you okay?" came Franky's concerned voice from the other side of the room, where he and Brook had interrupted their current round of karaoke to see what was going on. By the time they had walked over, Luffy was already on his feet again and beaming. "That was kinda awesome, wasn't it?!" he remarked laughing. Chopper cried, "You could have a concussion! Luffy, please, lie down again, at least for a bit more, please!" But Luffy just waved him off, "I'm fine, Chopper, really! How about we play some karaoke together next! Then you can see firsthand!" Chopper visibly hesitated in his admonishing, thought for a bit, and admitted shyly, "Actually, karaoke does sound like fun... Okay! Let's go!"
With that, Luffy jumped over to Franky to snatch the microphone out of his hands and ran over to already prepare a song. Brook much more calmly approached Chopper and willingly handed over his own microphone to the young boy with a friendly, "Here you go." Chopper received it with an excited "Thanks!" and was about to run over to Luffy when something suddenly occurred to Usopp. While the entire exchange went down, Robin had been chuckling in the background, a soft fufufufufu that had him fearing the worst.
"Brook…" he started, "…you don't happen to have Chopper's name in the game, do you?" At this, both Chopper and Brook kind of froze, with Chopper slowly turning around to anxiously stare at the older man. "Ahh…" Brook trailed off, "I…rather think I do, actually. I'm sorry, Chopper, I didn't plan this, I promise. I had totally forgotten!" He sheepishly ended with his signature Yohohoho laugh. Chopper meanwhile had started sniffling and growing teary-eyed, and Usopp kind of wished to have kept quiet after all. Chopper sniffled sadly, "It's okay, I didn't want to kill anyone anyways…" Now Usopp really felt bad. In consolation, he stepped forward and put his hands onto Chopper's shoulders. "Hey now, Chopper, cheer up! Don't you know that even the great doctor Alchemy the Astute was once betrayed by his closest friend? And that he fought back using incredible singing talents, that the doctor possessed alongside his medical knowledge…" With that, he pulled Chopper along towards Luffy, who was already waiting for them and waving excitedly.
***
Chopper wasn't scared. No, really, he wasn't. The dark, gloomy cellar of the even larger, gloomier mansion Zoro called his home wasn't scary at all, and he wasn't even a little bit bothered by the thick spider webs hanging from the ceiling. He shuddered. Okay, maybe he was a little scared, but just a little. He didn't really know why he agreed to come down here with the others, anyway. It's not like they needed him for breaking into Mihawk's wine cellar, which Zoro had assured them was both massive and exquisite. Apparently, it was also severely off-limits to anyone who was not Mihawk, but Zoro seemed very unbothered by that aspect. Maybe he knew his dad would forgive him any mistakes out of love. They were a family, after all, Chopper thought. Or, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Nami appeared in his head, he just wants more booze and will worry about consequences tomorrow. In any case, Chopper hadn't really wanted to go down into the cellar, but then Usopp had dared him and Jinbei had promised to be right by his side with his large flashlight. Speaking off, Chopper realised that, while pondering his situation, he had fallen a bit behind and now had to hurry to catch up to the hulking figure of Jinbei.
"You alright there, Chopper?" the other kindly asked him. Chopper blushed a bit, happy that Jinbei would check up on him like that. Not that he'd tell that to the older man. Wouldn't do to appear too easily flattered. "Oh--of course!!" he hurried to reassure Jinbei. And inched a little closer to him nonetheless, for no specific reason at all. Ahead of them, Nami and Zoro had already reached the sealed iron gate that protected what must be hundreds of bottles of probably very expensive alcohol. The gate was shut with a complicated-looking old lock, yet Nami made quick work of it, using a hairpin she pulled out of her artfully styled updo. With a soft click, the door opened and she smugly turned around, "See, I told you I could get us in. You owe me!"
Zoro just grumbled. "Whatever, witch. Just grab something and let's go up again; otherwise, Luffy will have left no food for us. Even the idiot cook can only hinder him so much." Chopper wholeheartedly agreed although he didn't so much care about the food as about getting out of the basement as fast as he possibly could. After loading their arms full with as many bottles as they could comfortably carry, they began their track back upstairs.
Halfway there, Nami suddenly spoke up, "Oh, I think I overestimated myself a bit back there. I think I grabbed one too many bottles. Could one of you maybe help me out a bit?" Here she paused to ponder for a bit. "Jinbei, what about you? You wouldn't mind helping out a lady and carrying just one more bottle, would you?", she asked in her most charming voice. Jinbei chuckled. "Is that so? Well then, I suppose, there wouldn't be any harm in helping you out a bit. And…", with a knowing and indulgent smile, he took the bottle Nami offered him, "…I suppose, you'd be wanting a small slip of paper from me in return?" Nami gasped. "You knew?! And you still took the bottle?" With a small voice, she added, "Now I do feel kind of bad for taking advantage of you like that…" Chopper interrupted them with all the courage he could muster: "P-please, could you guys continue this upstairs? And Nami? We all already knew how nice Jinbei is, why are you surprised?"
At this, Jinbei started laughing and his deep Wahahaha reverberated all around them in the narrow dim hallways. And hearing it, Chopper suddenly felt like the dark, gloomy cellar wasn't quite as dark and gloomy as it had been a moment before.
***
Sometimes Brook wondered how he had ended up right here, sandwiched between Zoro and Usopp, who were engaged in a heated discussion. "This can't possibly count! Anyone can see that this was just an accident!" Usopp exclaimed, getting increasingly winded in the process. Zoro stubbornly insisted, "And I'm telling you, it counts! You very clearly were the one to take something directly from me! And it didn't touch the ground in between, so it does count! Give it up already!" Usopp cried out, "And I'm telling you, it does not! Just because I didn't want to see our precious music source shatter on the floor, doesn't mean I took it from you! I demand a decision by impartial vote!"
"Fine! Have it your way!”, Zoro responded annoyed. From what Brook understood of the situation, this entire debate had started when Usopp stepped in to catch the bluetooth speaker that Zoro had handled previously. The long-nosed mechanical engineering student had apparently swooped in just in time to catch it before it hit the floor when it had slipped from Zoro’s fingers. Now, the two young men enlisted the impartial Robin as the judge, who weighed her head from side to side, considering the situation. In the end, she solemnly said: “I suppose...it does count as a voluntary taking of an object that had previously been in another’s possession. I’m sorry, Usopp, but I’m afraid you just passed away.” This elicited a triumphant “Hah!” from Zoro and an exasperated “Oh, c’mon!” from Usopp.
Brook closed his eyes, tuned out the continued bickering, and leaned his head against the soft couch cushions, humming along to the music playing in the background. Again, he wondered just how had he ended up here, part of this small, yet so loving family. It must have something to do with Luffy’s very own kind of magic, he figured. There was just something about him that made things hurt less, and made life seem just that little bit brighter. And again, it was Luffy who now tore him from his thoughts by forcefully draping himself over Brook from behind the couch and twisting his head in a should-be-impossible, can't-be-comfortable way to look Brook in the eyes. "Hey Brook, Robin and Nami are nearly done with their song, wanna team up and go next?" "Yohohoho, I'd like nothing more", Brook said and, after carefully detangling the young man's limbs from around him, vacated his position on the couch.
***
Nami had been called many names in her life, most of them said in anger after having realised that she wasn't just another pretty but ultimately dumb face they could easily manipulate. In her opinion, it was never really her fault. After all, it wasn't her problem if a guy couldn't handle a strong and independent woman who knew what she wanted. In her experience, if one didn't fight for the things one wanted in this world, no one else would do it for you, either. Well, excluding unpredictable maniacs like Luffy and the rest of her friends, who were either too kind or too stupid or too loyal to know better. But for all the love she felt for her small adoptive family of friends, she still couldn't help the nagging itch, this burning competitive streak in her, that had reared its head as soon as their little murder game had been announced. And honestly, what harm would it do to metaphorically kill one or two of her friends? All's fair in love and war, and this was definitely a war she intended to win. With that determination, she gave Vivi a quick kiss on her cheek and left her girlfriend to her animated conversation with Robin about their university's current chairman of the Poli Sci Faculty, Professor Crocodile, who apparently was facing a trial on the accusation of corruption and embezzlement.
Inconspicuously, she sneaked out of the living room and up the giant swooping marble stairs that dominated the entrance hall of the old mansion. Nami had only met Zoro's adoptive sister once or twice before, but that had been more than enough so that she could easily identify her bedroom now. Because really, who else could occupy the room with the pink door and a giant BABYMETAL poster on it? She quietly opened the door, stepped inside, and lowly whistled through her teeth. It might not be quite her style but Nami still had to admire the other girl's consistency and dedication to her aesthetic. Determinedly, she crossed the entirely pink-tinted bedroom to what must be a clothing drawer. Mentally, she sent a quick "Sorry" to Perona, pulled open the drawer, and quickly snatched the least conspicuous pair of panties she could find. With her loot carefully stashed away in one of her pockets, she made her way to the others again.
She rejoined Vivi for a moment, who excitedly turned around and caught her up to her and Robin's gossip, "Did you know that Robin once had a brief affair with Mister Crocodile years ago, but then left him for Franky?" Nami laughed. "We all knew our Robin had a dark past, didn't we? But excuse me for another moment, still gotta do one small thing." With that, she approached their resident history professor, who by now was standing huddled together with Franky and Brook. Just who she needed. With her goal firmly in mind, she started her hunt. She innocently skipped up to the latter and pulled out her newly acquired pair of underwear. "Say, Brook, got any interest in obtaining this particularly fine exemplar of lady's wear?" She could basically see the itching of the retired musician's fingers. If Nami had to guess, this obsession with ladies' underwear was probably a remnant of the guitarists' younger, wilder days of Rock n' Roll, where he must have been used to getting those thrown on stage after a particularly heated show. Now, Brook just sighed and said, "I know well that this is a clever trap to rob me of my precious life, and yet…yohohoho...I can't resist." With that, he did reach out to take the hot pink lingerie from her hands. Nami grinned victoriously. Success.
***
Robin was happy. That alone was a notable occasion. Not that she had been very unhappy in recent years, quite the contrary, but she remembered the darker times in her life well enough that she knew to treasure the brighter moments now. Sometimes she still couldn't believe that she was truly fortunate enough to call this crazy, ragtag mix of rascals her family, and be called 'family' by them in return. She was content just observing them all from her spot snuggled into Franky's side on the large sofa. She could hear the vibrations of his deep rumbling voice, as he excitedly talked with Usopp about a new project they had coming up in the workshop. Across from her, she could see Nami and Vivi huddled together, softly conversing with each other. From the noise coming from the rest of Mihawk's large open mansion, she could easily place the rest of the Strawhat crew. Robin had only met Zoro's adoptive father once or twice before, but she could definitely admire his choice in interior design. She particularly approved of the large, swooping chandelier and the classy black brick walls. Maybe she could convince Franky to redecorate their living room at one point, too.
Her musings were interrupted by a distant doorbell ring, followed by a series of clattering, tumbling and the sound of sandalled feet dashing towards the entrance. She could hear Luffy's exuberant scream of "TRAFFY!!" even over the sound of Britney Spears' Toxic that came from the direction of the karaoke station. Robin smiled. It seemed their last guest for the night had arrived. She liked the surgeon; both for their shared taste in the morbid and grotesque, but mainly because he so clearly made Luffy happy. The smile on Luffy's face as he dragged the tired surgeon into the living room was almost blinding, and, although it was harder to see, Robin could also clearly see the tiny smile that Law himself spotted. Good, still in time for midnight, Robin thought.
It was Sanji’s voice that interrupted her thoughts, “And I’m telling you, there is no way I’d ever lose to that moss-haired idiot!” The moss-haired idiot in question replied with increasing volume, “Oh yeah? Well then, bring it on! You’re going down, love cook!” Robin turned to see their two resident hotheads face to face, with Nami and Vivi egging them on. Nami spoke up now, “I’ll be the judge of this drinking competition then. May the best drinker win!” Next to her, Vivi raised a bottle of sake and offered it to Zoro with a friendly, “Here you go.” Zoro didn’t even hesitate to grab it, too busy staring down Sanji. Yet, his concentration was immediately broken by Vivi’s following celebratory cheering. He looked back at her, then down to the bottle in this hand, then back at her. “Argh, damn it! I bet this was your idea”, he said, pointing at a deviously grinning Nami. Watching the ensuing bickering, Robin just smiled serenely. Ahhh, it was truly nice to see her friends engage in a friendly series of familial murder.
***
Usually, Sanji could hold his liquor fairly well. He wasn't a lightweight by any means; the result of spending much of his childhood in France, where one was basically handed a bottle of wine wherever one went out to eat. And yet, no level of alcohol tolerance could have prepared him for the beast that was the green-headed oaf he called his boyfriend. Of course, they had still followed through with their drinking competition, even after Zoro’s tragic murder. If he wasn't quite so plastered himself, he'd actually be a bit worried for the other's liver, because this couldn't be healthy in the long run. Though, to be fair, that would kind of feel like the pot calling the kettle black, he mused. After all, Zoro never commented on his own smoking-related habits, either, so maybe he should cut the other some slack. Additionally, he was willing to forgive Zoro quite a lot of flaws, as long as it meant he could stay nestled against this truly supremely muscled chest, his alcohol-addled brain supplied. All that time the idiot spent in the gym and kendo hall exercising really did have its benefits, Sanji was willing to admit. At the moment, he truly felt warm and content and, simply put, happy. By now, it must be getting close to midnight, he thought sleepily. He could faintly hear Brook and Chopper still going at it at the karaoke station, while Nami and Vivi were busy getting increasingly affectionate on the opposing couch.
A soft mumble from Nami reached his ears, "You know, if kisses were snowflakes, I'd send you a blizzard." Vivi just giggled. "I have an even better one: I'm auditioning for the part of an angel soon, can you tell me what it's like?" Sanji opened his eyes just in time to see their normally so unfazed redhead blush a vibrant shade of red. Zoro stopped absentmindedly petting Sanji's hair and turned to look into his eyes. In a low, mockingly romantic voice he swooned, "Are those space pants? Because… your ass is outta this world." Sanji just softly slapped his chest in response and tch-ed at him. Zoro's emotional capacity for romanticism could really comfortably fit onto a teaspoon but that was okay. Sanji valued other qualities of the other far more, anyway.
On the other couch, Vivi had now moved along to offering Nami her open hand and asked in an overly serious voice: "Will you hold this for me?" Nami blushed some more, which should have been physically impossible given her already tomato-red face, nodded and took the offered hand. Vivi raised their clasped hands to her mouth, blew a soft kiss onto them and then announced in a soft but decidedly cheeky voice: "I think that means I win this little game of ours. Both the pick-up lines and the elimination game, I mean." With that, she reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a small slip of paper that clearly had Nami written on it in Robin's pristine handwriting.
Sanji could feel the low vibrations of Zoro starting to laugh deep in his chest. Nami herself was speechless for once. "Oh, my!" came Robin's voice from the love seat, where she was, similar to himself, snuggled against Franky, "I think this means we have a clear winner. Our dear meteorologist might have died just now, but I believe she still has the most murders to her name. Congratulations!" That got everyone else's attention, too, and slowly everyone started piling on and around the sofas, excitedly chatting and reliving the most dramatic moments of the game. Sleepily, Sanji raised his head and mumbled towards Zoro, "I told you she would win. She always does, doesn't she?" Zoro just answered with a soft "Yeah, yeah," and resumed his petting of Sanji's hair. In Sanji's opinion, this truly was the best way to start off the new year - surrounded by his true family, every single one of them well-fed, celebrating, and happy.
***
In general, the only rule of life that Luffy followed was that there were no rules. Or rather, he didn't really care if there were some made by someone else and preferred to just do his own thing. After all, who if not himself should dictate his own life? So, generally speaking, he didn't care much for society's expectations and stuffy old traditions, but even he had to admit that some of them were nice to follow.
He looked around to take in all his friends: Zoro, who had a rather tipsy Sanji draped all over him, and Chopper, who was getting increasingly more excited and exuberant in his conversation with Usopp across from him. It was a bit hard to tell, but Usopp seemed to regale the aspiring doctor with a dramatic rendition of his adventure in the supermarket earlier this week. Luffy only caught scraps of him describing how he had to desperately wrestle "two enormous ex-Mafia men, you know the type, at least two meters each." Chopper's eyes practically sparkled in excitement and Luffy couldn't help but smile when he saw how Usopp's increasingly dramatic hand gestures underlining his story only narrowly avoided socking Jinbei right in the jaw. The man in question was meanwhile serenely engaged in a conversation of his own with Vivi, discussing a new law regarding the stronger regulation of fishing corporations.
To his right, he could hear Sanji sprout more and more sappy lines to Zoro; the kind he'd usually only reserve for the women of the group. Zoro just hummed and petted the blonde's hair in a calming manner. Mind made up, he withdrew his left hand from Law's, who had been gently holding it while answering Robin’s polite questions about today's shift in the hospital. Resolutely, Luffy stood up and once more clambered onto the glass table, this time careful not to slip. He looked back to Law and asked, "How long till midnight?" Law looked at his overly expensive wristwatch. "You've got about 5 more minutes. Why?"
Luffy just grinned and raised his voice so everyone could hear him: "Guys! Listen up for a sec!"
This successfully got everyone's attention. Luffy looked closely at all their beloved faces; his big, beautiful, and crazy family who indulged him so much in everything he did. Looking at them now, it was a wonder his heart didn't simply burst because it couldn't possibly contain all the love he felt for them. He cleared his throat and spoke up, "I've only really got two things to say: First, you guys are the most important thing in the world to me and I love you all so, so much. Like, you have no idea how much. And second…"
Here he was interrupted by loud sniffing noises that suspiciously sounded like Chopper and Franky.
Luffy grinned. "And second…I can't wait to spend another great year with all of you. I have a feeling it's gonna be a really good one. Cause honestly, how can't it be, when I have all of you by my side?" By now, Franky's and Chopper's sniffles had grown into full-blown sobs, with Brook fastly joining them, and Usopp and Nami had to look away to suppress their own tears. Even Robin, Vivi, and Jinbei were growing teary-eyed; and by the time Luffy jumped off the table to pull all of them into a very big, very messy group hug, even Zoro and Sanji couldn't help but become emotional. Law, who had somehow ended up right in the middle of the huge cuddle pile, began counting amidst all the tears, sobs, and sniffles: "Five…four…three…two…one…aaaand…"
With that cue, Luffy gathered as many of his friends and family in his arms as he could and, with as much love as he felt, shouted: "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!"