7SL Intro (One Piece x Reader)

Seven Stages of Love 

The first part in an nine part series.


    Depression sucked, end of statement. It felt like every bit of happiness and love had died in you and you honestly couldn't tell why. It had been that way for weeks, and even with the hollow look in your eyes and longer than normal sleeping hours, nobody noticed. Not that you wanted them to. You had been hiding your feelings from your friends since the start of this spell and, honestly, you didn't feel a hint of remorse. It was easy to lie to anyone now that you felt nothing at all. You had gotten so good at lying that when that witch cornered you and called you out on it you were shocked. At first you thought that the old hag was some crazy nut pretending to have devil fruit powers to scare you, but when strange lights flowed from her fingers, you thought otherwise. The last thing you remember of that day was the witch hitting you with her magic, and then nothing.

    The crew later said you stumbled onto the Sunny about an hour after you had left. You swayed about a bit like a drunk person before passing out on the deck. Chopper had seen everything and quickly scooped you up and rushed you to the infirmary. Chopper told you long after your predicament that that was the scariest thing that you had ever done to them. Of course the worst part of that predicament for you at the time wasn't passing out or scaring your crew mates. It was seeing what that witch had done to you the next day.

    You woke up to a splitting headache and unbearably achy muscles. Ignoring your pain, you sat up and opened your eyes. The room spun a bit and then, strangely, all of your pain faded away. That unsettled you slightly, but you decided to take what you could get and leave the questions for later. The infirmary had always been a nice room, very cool and relaxing, and you almost wanted to lay back down and just relax. However, you figured it would probably be a good idea to tell Chopper and everyone else that you were alright. You pushed all of the covers down with some difficulty and swung your legs around to dangle off the edge of the bed.

    "When did the beds in here get so big?" You pondered out loud for a while before a realization struck you. "No, when did I get so small?!" You flung yourself out of bed and dashed over to a full body mirror hanging on the wall. There in your reflection stood a six year old version of you in the top half of the outfit you were wearing yesterday. Suddenly, the witch appeared behind you in the mirror. You screamed as loudly as you could before falling on your butt. The woman cackled at you before giving a sympathetic smile. 

    "Why'd you do this to me?" Your voice was small and filled with sorrow and fear. 

    "Your heart had been tainted with pain, so I decided to help heal you. Free of charge of course." You nodded in response the witch, who went on with he explanation. "That sadness had been building up for quite a long time. So, I reversed your age back to the last time you were truly happy. It's quite sad that you went so far back though." The witch genuinely looked sad for you, and for some reason, you didn't mind.

    "How do I get back to normal?" Your fear had subsided and you stood up. The witch seemed happy that you weren't afraid of her anymore and smiled.

    "Simple, learn how to love again!" The witch cackled. Before you could get her to explain what she meant, the door flung open and Chopper and Sanji dashed in. When you looked back at the mirror, the witch was gone. You blinked a few times at the mirror and turned to the boys, who were staring at you in shock.

    "(Y/n)?" Chopper questioned. It was then that the gravity of the situation hit you and you started to cry. You nodded vigorously and sat back down on the floor, sobbing into your arms. You heard footsteps approach and stop next to you. Strong, delicate arms lifted you from the ground and cradled you gently. Sanji had picked you up and you were now crying into his suit jacket.

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    After you had calmed down a bit, you allowed Chopper to examine you while Sanji fetched you some breakfast. Chopper ran every test that he could think of, but all he could come up with was that you were a perfectly healthy six year old. After Sanji returned, Chopper went to gather the rest of the crew for a discussion, and before you could finish your scrambled eggs, everyone was crowded into the infirmary and staring at you. 

    The infirmary was nice, but it wasn't meant to fit eight full grown adults, a reindeer, and a child. It was so cramped that you ended up sitting on Sanji's lap while you finished your breakfast and explained what had happened yesterday. You, of course, neglected to tell them about seeing the witch in the mirror this morning and what she had said. But the information didn't seem useful to anyone but yourself anyway.

    "So, how long do you think she'll be like this?" Nami asked Chopper.

    "I have no idea. I'm not even sure that this is the work of a devil fruit or some kind of magic. The best we can do is wait it out and hope she'll return to normal in time." Chopper sounded extremely confused, and no one could blame him. Decades of studying medicine couldn't have prepared him for this.

    "Hey, wait a minute." You felt Sanji's legs shift under you a bit as he spoke. "Couldn't we just track down the witch that did this to her and make her fix this?" You frowned and shook your head before setting your plate down on the bed and jumping off of Sanji's lap.

    "We wouldn't be able to find her, and even if we did, she wouldn't change me back." You looked down at your now tiny feet and fiddled with your clothes. 

    "She will if I kick her ass." Luffy said matter of factly. He looked pretty confident too until Nami punched him in the back of his head. 

    "Are you nuts! That would only make things worse!" Nami yelled at him. Luffy held his head and groaned. You wondered for a moment if you should feel sorry for him, but he was back to his regular self almost instantly. You giggled at him. Luffy was so easy to read. It was easy to tell that even though he was pissed that someone had messed with one of his nakama, he still thought that this was super cool. You were so focused on laughing at Luffy that you hadn't realized that Nami had continued talking and was now planning what to do next. "The log pose is set and we need to leave as soon as possible. However, I'm pretty sure that (Y/n) doesn't want to run around in over sized t-shirts and dresses forever. Isn't that right, (Y/n)?" You nodded, picking up the fact that Nami was trying to be nice and not talk about you like weren't in the room, which is something that adults do a lot around children. "Right then, Sanji!" Nami looked over to Sanji who was happily awaiting orders from his swan. "We can't have (Y/n) running around town by herself in the state that she's in. So take her clothes shopping and be back in time to make lunch. I want to set sail right after we eat. The rest of us will prepare the ship while we wait."

    "Of course! You can count on me, my dear!" Sanji said excitedly. 

    "Good, hey (Y/n), did you spend any of your allowance yesterday?" Nami asked you and you shook your head 'no'. She smiled. "Good, that should be enough to get you a few outfits." She then addressed the entire crew. "Alright people, let's get to work." Everyone shuffled out of the room one by one, casting glances of encouragement and pity at you.  Eventually, it was just you and Sanji.

    "Okay, all I have to do is learn how to love again?" You thought to yourself as dread built in your stomach. "How hard can that be?"