You woke up with good muscle pain in more places than expected, but admittedly Doflamingo's bed was more comfortable to wake up in than your own. Sitting up you realize you are alone and wearing a short-sleeved silk nightgown.

Correction, short-sleeved night-shirt.

You look around for pants, underclothes, anything you could add to what you had on before you start wandering around the estate, but you didn't look long before the door to the bedroom opens and the man of the house walks in with a tray of food. A smile grows across your face, and you stretched while staying put in bed.

"Breakfast in bed?"

His smiles reaches his eyes, even if you couldn't see them from behind the shades. "A little cliché maybe, but I figured it would be gentlemanly of me to allow you to relax in bed a bit longer."

A life like this might not be so bad. It's hard to feel restless or antsy if you're having muscle-destroying sex almost every night. There's no way you'd feel like you weren't doing enough, and you're certain there were jobs within the estate or the organization that you could easily do. The trade-off would be a decent chunk of freedom though. It wouldn't be safe to go about your day on your own.

Though, it might already be too late for that. You'd been to the estate enough times for word to have gotten out. People were going to start to talk, and whoever was Donquixote Doflamingo's latest dalliance, could also be his latest weakness. Either from a PR perspective or an underworld one.

You'd almost be tempted to use your birth name, make a big stink about still being alive, drag dear old dad's name through the mud, all for the sole satisfaction of making sure he knew who you were banging.

Doflamingo sets the tray in front of you and sits next to the bed.

"Already ate?" You ask, uncovering a plate and diving in.

He nods, turning half his attention to his phone. "I've done what I could to make sure I could spend today with you, but I still have a few things to handle."

You almost choke on breakfast, and you can feel him side-eyeing you.

"You expected me to have my way with you last night and then abandoned you today?"

You shake your head, "N-no, not like that. I figured you would need to work regardless, and that I'd simply be on my own or something. That's all."

You caught the smile on his face and went back to eating while he did whatever he needed to on his phone. The silence between you wasn't awkward, aside from your own mind randomly realizing that the short, thin, silky night shirt was the only thing you had this morning.

Once he was done on his phone, you turn to him with a cheeky smile. "So, what does the prince of international underworld organizations do on Thursdays?"

He raises an eyebrow, "I don't recall saying I was international."

You hold up a finger, "Your cover-company Smile is, and secondly," you raise a second finger, "Pops told me. It's why I figured you had the clout to look into who I was and wasn't surprised by it. That said, I don't know if you're literally world-wide, or just mostly international."

"Would either or matter?"

You shake your head, "Trouble, I don't even care that you're international."

"Oh, then what do you care about?"

Your face goes red, but you give him a grin, "Pants. Unless you mean to rudely rile me up directly after breakfast, I'd love some proper clothes."

He laughs, the same kind of full laugh like last night, and stands up. He puts his hands on the tray and you expect him to take it. Instead, he pushes it into the bed, pinning your legs under it and leaning down, kissing you. With his hands on the tray, you were in more control than expected, and reach out, pulling him into the kiss for a moment longer before breaking it off.

"Rudely, huh?" He quips, straightening up and taking the tray away.

"Based on empirical evidence, you can control yourself after a kiss." You tease.

The rest of the mid-morning and afternoon went on like that. You took time to text Zoro to ask about his date when Doflamingo had other things to take care of. Zoro was a man of few words, and it was even fewer when it came to texting, but you got five full paragraphs out of him, so you knew things went well even before you read the texts.

Not much of the family was around, but you did run around the garden with Sugar for long enough to wear her out. Violet and Monet both thanked you, since it allowed them to focus on their tasks more than usual.

You even asked Machvise to let you make him and Doffy dinner that evening, and were glad to show off some of your culinary skills. You didn't make anything fancy, just your go-to single pan chicken pasta.

"It pales in comparison to what Sanji or Machvise could do, but it should be good enough for what it's meant to be." You admit, setting the plates in front of them. There wasn't a big family dinner tonight, people had been in and out all day, big gatherings happened once a week as a rule, sometimes more often.

Machvise takes a bite and nods. "It's good," he says thoughtfully taking another bite. "The seasoning is balanced, the chicken's juicy, and the pasta didn't overcook." He starts offering adjustments you could make to it, and you countered a couple times over cost and benefit and wanting to keep it to a single pan. You didn't have a kitchen full of help, and doing dishes sucked.

Doflamingo didn't say anything about it being good or bad, but he did clear his plate, so you took that as a small win. The man was used to a certain level of skill when it came to home cooked food, and you were not a professional chef.

At the end of the day, it was hard to leave. Really hard to leave. Staying the night had been so comfortable that you just kind of wanted to stay. Being around his family was really comfortable too, your place was starting to feel terribly quiet. But you weren't even dating steady as far as you could tell, so asking to move in would be too much even if you were willing to rush forward with abandon.

You were relieved when he saw you off at the manor doors and didn't ride back with you in the limo. Being kissed goodbye in front of the few family members who were around was a little embarrassing, but only because you weren't used to any real public displays of affection. You weren't really used to affection in this situation at all if you were being honest. You'd dated some, but nothing lasted long or got far.

After taking you home, you waved goodbye to Lao. Another perk of being seen off at the estate door was that you had been able to sit up front with Lao. You were becoming more comfortable with sitting up front than sitting in the back. You were sure that given enough time you'd be comfortable crawling between one space and the other. Or at least facilitating conversations between the two spaces without giving it much thought.

When Lao left, something caught your attention, and you noticed a knife in your driveway. It was a decently sized survival knife, but there was nothing else remarkable about it. It was good shape, looked brand new, so after flipping it a few times you took it inside with you. If one of the neighbors asked about a missing knife, you would at least know where it was.

Setting the knife on your coffee table you relax for a little bit, grab a shower, and go to bed. 

The next day was a typical mundane Friday. You worked a Sanji's café in the morning, gossiped about Zoro and Robin, and helped with the morning rush. Sanji's words about them dating were harsh, but his face always betrayed him, and it was obvious he was happy for both of them.

After time at Sanji's café, it was inventory at Robin's. She was humming, almost constantly. Her quiet smile seemed a permanent fixture on her face, and she didn't have a single doom-speckled response to anything you brought up. You would've thought she was a pod person if you didn't know why she was so happy.

Texting with Doflamingo throughout the day was becoming the norm. You didn't say much about anything, but it was just nice to get the little message notifications throughout the day. You kept wanting to see if you could come over at the end of the day, but you'd delete it and write something else. Going over every single day was too greedy. It was hard enough to leave yesterday; you'd be pseudo moved in before you knew what you'd done if you went over too much.

After Robin's you headed over to Eustass' body shop. you didn't have an official shift there today, but you also hadn't been invited back to the estate, and the idea of going back to your place and the emptiness of it wasn't very alluring.

Killer gives a low whistle as you twirl on the stool next to him. "You've got it bad, Mouse."

"Yeah, I guess I do."

There was a clatter and you look over to see Killer had dropped his clip board and Wire was froze, mouth agog, halfway into the reception area and the shop. Killer lifts the welding face mask he seems to wear more than not, and you were reminded how pretty those baby blues of his were.

Killer slides open a small window that is the usual go-between for the reception area and the shop and yells into it.

"Kid! You owe Heat $50!"

"What? Fuckin' why?!" Kid barks back, looking around from whatever he was working on to see you in the reception area with Killer. There was a beat and then realization dawns on him. "Did Mouse actually admit it?"

"Yep."

"The hell, you assholes had a pool going on me?"

"Just a bet between Kid and Heat," Wire admits. "If it makes you feel better, they both agreed you'd fallen for the suit."

You put your face in your hands. "I don't know if that helps, but thanks Wire. Zoro said you guys would be drowning your sorrows, not taking bets."

Kid had joined the rest of you by that point, "Killer probably had a drink." He said with a lop-sided smile. Killer's welding mask was back down, and he clipped Kid over the head with his clipboard. "Ow man, hells."

"Just know you got friends if things don't work out," Killer admits.

You smile, "I appreciate that. I decided to just go for it, so what will be, will be. Ah, speaking of relationships have you all heard who finally had a date?"

"The Florist and the Samurai?" Kid questions, and you nod. "I hadn't heard, but it's about damned time. She's liked him for what, a year now?"

"At least." You agree. "And get this, today she was humming in the shop."

"Humph." Kid grunts. "Might be safe to go in there now."

You tilt your head, and it's Wire who replies. "She kept telling him things like he was gonna lose an arm, or he would look hot with more scars. He didn't like going in there."

You laugh, the idea of Kid avoiding anyone for any reason was funny. You hung out with them and kibitzed for a couple of hours. They weren't as rowdy as Pop's boys, but they were still good for joking around and talking about a whole lot of nothing.

If you'd known how your night was going to go once you got home, you would've gone to Doflamingo's uninvited.