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Perona wasn't afraid of the storm. Really, she wasn't.
But today had been a shitty day, and that suffocating feeling hadn't left her since the morning. And now, as she tried to sleep to get at least a little rest after hours of feeling like garbage, there was a damn storm out of nowhere. She couldn't take it anymore. She tossed and turned in her pink sheets, the black curtains surrounding her bed making her feel suffocated.
Perona took a deep breath as another rumble echoed through the house, a flash of light briefly illuminating the entire room. If she was honest with herself, she missed her old room and the ridiculously large castle she had grown up in. Sure, it had been a cold, depressing, gloomy place, but it was everything the pink-haired girl loved.
Italy, on the other hand, was a warm, crowded, lively, bustling country. The sun was too hot, the streets too noisy, and the teenagers and children wore their backpacks too low for reasons Perona couldn't understand. Their new home was a typical large Italian villa, big enough to house an army. Perona could list dozens of reasons why she didn't like this place, but the most obvious ones were the welcoming and warm nature of the house, which made her want to die.
She wasn't sure if those factors came from the house itself, though.
Perona had been living with her new 'family' for two months now, and to be honest, she couldn't remember the last time she had been in such a joyful and loving environment. She didn't know what the hell was wrong with these people who managed to laugh at all sorts of situations and seemed to live without any negativity in their lives.
The most disturbing part of the whole story was that Perona could have sworn that Crocodile had adopted his family, but after a while, she began to wonder if it wasn't the other way around. The man was nothing like the others; she rarely saw him smile or have fun. At first, she even doubted his feelings for her father.
But time had taught her to decipher the older man's silent and discreet affections.
Sure, Crocodile wasn't a man of words or physical touch, but his actions spoke for themselves, and against her will, Perona's heart had made a small place for him. If you paid attention, you could see how often he offered to drive Perona to school when he wasn't buried in paperwork, or how often he came home from work with small gifts for the children, like toys or snacks, and never forgot a bouquet of flowers for his lover.
Perona couldn't say that she was, or ever would be, used to the idea that her father had actually fallen in love with someone. The possibility had seemed so remote all these years that she hadn't even really thought about it. Nothing could have prepared her for the shock she received the day the two men appeared hand in hand in front of her and Zoro and announced their relationship.
Perona wasn't necessarily fond of moving, going to a foreign school where she didn't know anyone but Ace and Sabo, or learning a new language and changing her whole routine. But every time she saw the way Mihawk looked at the other man, the tiny smile on old man Garp's lips as Zoro and Luffy sat on his lap to listen to their bedtime story, the sudden softness in Crocodile's eyes as she told him about her day after school, the antics of Ace and Sabo always followed by a lesson from Mihawk, hands on hips, scolding the two boys who stared at their feet in defeat, Perona thought it might be worth it.
Another rumble made the pink-haired girl shiver. Perona sat up in her bed; it was clear that she couldn't sleep under these circumstances. She mentally ran through her options, not many of them leading to anything significant. She sighed and covered her face with her hands, ashamed of what she was about to do.
She made her way to the stairs, her light footsteps echoing in the silent corridor as she left her room. Taking the stairs two at a time, she reached the third floor. Standing in front of a certain door, the young girl took one last look around before slipping quietly inside.
The room wasn't as dark as Perona had expected. On the contrary, the bedside lamp was on, casting a dim light over the decor. Perona approached the bed slowly, almost laughing out loud at the sight that greeted her. The large bed was completely occupied in every way; Garp took up most of the space, sprawled out in the middle of the mattress with his limbs spread wide, Ace and Sabo slept in bizarre positions next to each other on his left side, while the right side was occupied by Luffy, who had one leg draped over the older man, his tiny arms wrapped around Zoro, who was holding the youngest close.
Perona covered her mouth with her hand, barely able to contain her amusement at the ridiculousness of the situation. She exhaled, unable to keep a small smile of affection from appearing on her face despite her disappointment. There was no room left on the bed for the little girl. With one last look, she decided to leave the room and accept her fate. The storm sang in the sky as if mocking her situation, making her even more frustrated as she descended the stairs.
Perona was preparing to walk down the long corridor, decorated with the shadows of trees passing through the windows and reflected by the flashes of lightning when a sudden noise to her right stopped her in her tracks. Perona turned almost with a start towards the source of the sound, her eyes widening and her mouth half open.
A dark figure appeared at the foot of the stairs, stopping at the sight of the little girl. "Perona? What are you doing here?"
A breath of relief escaped the girl's lips as her posture visibly relaxed. However, as her brain registered the question, she straightened and clasped her hands in front of her, embarrassment preventing her from giving a proper answer.
Crocodile, approaching the little girl, asked in a soft voice that made Perona wonder if she was dreaming. "Couldn't sleep, huh?"
She nodded.
The older man's lips lifted slightly, his hand reaching out to Perona, who could only blink. "Come, let's sleep, shall we?" Swallowing, and after a second of hesitation, Perona's small hand found itself between thick and rough fingers, leading her to the bedroom to her left.
Lying between the arms of her parents and surrounded by a sense of security she had never experienced before, Perona thought that maybe she didn't hate her new family as much as she had thought.