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Valentine’s Day marks the calendar. Affection, wholehearted gifts such as cards and chocolate, reciprocation, and the most preeminent of all—love, fills school halls, streets, and many more sectors, whether in public eye or in private homes.
A slight distance away from both of their homes, Koby and Luffy are sitting next to each other on a bench. Luffy’s red backpack sits on the right of them, not obstructing their views from each other. He’d forgotten to take it home. It’s the afternoon—nearing nighttime, but the sky still carries an opaque orange close to the shade of a peach’s flesh.
Comfortable silence shrouds them for one or two minutes. Luffy kicks his sandal-clad feet without modesty as they sit. There’s small fissures in the wood of the flat edge of the bench that scrape against the back of his legs that are uncovered by his shorts, but he pays it no mind.
Koby scoots just a little closer to Luffy on the bench. He looks at the side angle of Luffy’s face—maybe in a superfluous manner—he watches Luffy examine a small patch on the stone-tiled, serpentine-patterned ground that’s illuminated by the slowly dispersing sunlight.
Luffy then diverts his gaze to Koby.
They both pause.
Luffy smiles slowly, and Koby looks a bit nervous, but he smiles in return. He speaks then, willing the small stammer at the beginning of his words away: “I got you something. It’s small, and It isn’t that much, but—“
“Just show me,” Luffy cuts him off when the worry in Koby’s voice starts getting palpable.
Koby opens his mouth to speak again, but Luffy just looks at him in anticipation—gaze fixated, his feet still kicking but at a slower, less profuse pace underneath the seat of the bench. Koby turns away quickly, then presents a bundle of flowers to him. His grip on them is tight.
Luffy tilts his head slightly, inspecting the flowers. Luffy doesn’t say anything, so Koby tries to read Luffy’s facial expression—trying to find anything that can allude or insinuate what he feels. Luffy’s face doesn’t change, but Koby’s eyebrows furrow slightly as he looks at him. Luffy pretends not to notice.
A wide smile meets Koby’s eyes, and so does the sense of relief. Luffy runs his fingers over the petals of one flower. Just one has a myriad of yellow petals with brown ones at the center that all branch out radially from the stem.
“I like them.” Luffy says, meeting Koby’s gaze. “Reminds me of the sun.” He looks back at the flowers. “Actually—they kinda look like those suns in the corner of a paper, y’know? The ones that everyone used to draw in kindergarten.”
Koby smiles out of both relief and a small sense of accomplishment. “They’re sunflowers.”
Luffy puts the flowers on his lap and then turns around to unzip his backpack. He holds his gaze with Koby for a moment, retaining his smile.
“I also got you flowers.”
Surprise overtakes Koby’s features when Luffy looks away; eyes slightly wider, posture suddenly still. “You..you did?” Clarification.
Luffy digs through his bag, pushing aside books and a packet of silly beetle stickers before he reaches for the surprisingly-intact flowers. Light blue, with only 5 petals on each stem. “These,” Luffy grins, handing them to him.
More frantic nerves;
“You know, you didn’t need to—“
“They look like the ones on your headband that you always wear.” Luffy points out. “You’re wearing it right now! You always wear headbands with flowers on them, so I got you flowers.”
Koby takes the flowers almost tentatively, inspecting them. Mentally, he juxtaposes them with the ones on his headband. Similar petal shapes; round with an acute tip, and similar petal colors. The petals are soft, just like the sunflowers he’d given Luffy.
“They do look similar,” He says slowly, in realization.
Luffy interrupts his thoughts again, “They’re called..” He trails off.
Luffy crosses his arms, trying to coerce the memory back into his mind with a scrunch of his brow, eyes narrowed slightly. “Flax.. flowers.” He nods, confirming the classification. “Yeah—flax flowers! Usopp told me. I think the name is a little weird, but the flowers look nice like the ones on your headband, so I got them!” Another smile.
Koby nods with a smile of his own; small but genuine—grateful. “Thank you. They’re nice.”
But Koby still worries, a small frown then playing on his lips - “We both got each other flowers. Are you sure that you don’t—“
Luffy huffs. “The flowers are fine. I told you that I liked them already.” Luffy jabs at Koby’s head unceremoniously, replacing his expression with one of surprise. “Stop worrying so much.”
Koby exhales slowly. “..Yeah, i’m sorry.”
Luffy then lets out a laugh, leaning back against the headboard of the bench. “You’re silly sometimes.”
Koby pauses, looking at Luffy’s face before looking down at the light-blue flowers he’d received. “I guess that I am,” he acknowledges in a softer tone.
For a minute more, they sit in silence. The sky is darker than before, and the silhouettes from the trees overhead cover sections of the ground from an oblique position. Despite the serenity of their surroundings, Koby finds himself watching Luffy again. Admiring.
Luffy meets his gaze this time.
They look at each other, stillness overtaking Koby’s every breath. Koby wants to hold Luffy’s hand. Luffy does it for him, and swiftly so. “Hey, Koby, let’s get some food.” Luffy suggests, grinning. The sunlight has almost faded, but the sight of Luffy’s grin is just as bright.
Koby watches as Luffy turns to zip up his backpack and slug a strap over his shoulder before he’s ultimately being pulled up and off the bench with him. Koby squeezes Luffy’s hand once—unintentionally, but that only makes Luffy tighten his grip with exhilaration.
“Yeah,” Koby breathes, his cheeks suddenly warm, like he’s under the weather.
“We can—“
“Great, let’s go!”