So… this was supposed to be a piece for Valentine's Day… but I got SUPER BUSY! So my wifey KimuraMinami suggested I try and get it out on March 14th instead, because March 14th is White Day in Japan. So here is at least Part 1, I hope to have Part 2 up sometime soon if my schedule permits it.
This story is supposed to take place sometime between the Punk Hazard and Dressrosa… (If the anime can put in a stupid mini filler arc, so can I ;-p)
…and I still don't own One Piece.
…
…
…
Part 1: He's…
It was a brisk February day on a new island in the New World, but to Nami it felt like a heat-wave compared to the extreme cold of the icy-half of Punk Hazard that the Mugiwara Pirates had just left only a couple of days before. She walked down the brick-paved road, with a sway in her hips, trying to act as casual as possible, but her mood was anything but casual. Nami was angry. Not just a little angry, but ready to explode and bring lightening down on the whole damn island angry… but she couldn't bring herself to do that, after all, it wasn't the island or its peoples' fault that she was angry, she was angry simply because of what day today was; St. Valentine's Day.
Nami hated this day. In-fact, hate was too weak of a word; she loathed it. She could never understand what was supposed to be so damn special about it. The day itself seemed to have this strange power/curse over people, even if for only one day, making everyone want to express any and all of their romantic feelings in such an open and disgusting way. Hell… even most of her crew seemed to be under this day's influence:
The moment they docked and realized what day it was, Usopp immediately decided that he wanted to spend the entire day holed up in his workshop writing love letters to Kaya back home. Brook had also quickly fell under the St. Valentine's Day Curse, as Nami decided it had to be a curse, and the ship's musician felt inspired to compose several new love ballads. Nami was at least a little happy to see that not everyone fell under the curse, as Luffy and Chopper didn't really understand what was so special about the day either, but none the less were very interested to listen intently to all of Brook's new songs. The Mugiwara crew's four guests weren't causing too much of a commotion over the day, as even though Momonosuke showed some interest in the festivities around him, both him and his father Kin'emon tried to put on the tough-guy samurai act for everyone, while Law offered to keep guard over Caesar Clown.
Nami's biggest shock of the day so far though was Robin; despite Robin having historical knowledge on the subject and telling everyone that St. Valentine was actually a man that had been beaten to death with clubs and beheaded for his refusal to denounce his faith, and that was why he had been given the title of Saint… and that it had absolutely nothing to do with romance… confirming Nami's suspicion that the celebrations of this day were complete bullshit… and giving Nami just one more reason of many to hate this day… but despite Robin knowing all this, she too had succumb to the curse by allowing Franky to try and serenade her with poetry and then leaving with the cyborg to go on a private night out on the town together. But the final straw that broke the reindeer's back that day for Nami was Sanji's behavior; Sanji, being the devoted servant of women everywhere, decided that it was his duty on this day of romance to personally console as many of the lonely women of the island that he could, an act that Nami titled Sanji's St. Valentine's Day Massacre…
Fed up with the crew's antics, Nami decided it was best to distance herself from the ship for a little while, but while walking through town she would only be met with more displays of open romantic gestures between couples, and several would-be suitors trying to get her attention, only to give the would-be suitors the cold shoulder, because they were wasting their time. Nami had no intentions of giving any love sick fool the time of day, especially not on this damned cursed day. In Nami's opinion all these people were damned baka. Going on and on about love like it was such an easy thing, but Nami's opinion was that love wasn't easy, and not something she had any interest in anyway, she was too busy for it: she had her dream to accomplish, and a map of the entire world wasn't going to draw itself, so distractions like love and romance were something she had every intention of avoiding. At this point in her life there were only two things besides her dream that she felt were worthy of her love, and those two things were money and mikans.
But that's not to say that she couldn't afford some small distractions, in-fact a few small distractions was exactly what she needed right now to keep her from going completely insane; a little bit of booze, maybe a nice competitive card game with plenty of victims to swindle money out of, just some good wholesome fun, after all, all work and no play would drive anyone insane. So in search of these distractions Nami found herself wandering a more run-down part of the island, looking for the worst crappy-hole-in-the-wall bar she could find; where the booze would be cheap, the clientele would be shady, and with a little luck, she would find the only one of her nakama that she felt understood her feelings about this stupid day… a certain grumpy swordsman that never showed any interest in love either, unless you counted his love for his dream, his swords, and booze.
Sure, she and Zoro didn't always see eye to eye, and sometimes he could be a real baka, especially with his sense of direction, but she truly felt that if there was ever someone else on the ship that truly understood her, it was him. She had felt that way for a while now; from the moment that he had jumped into the pool at Arlong Park, with his hands and feet bound, risking his own life, all in order to call her out on her bullshit. He had seen through her and her lies about not caring about anything but herself, and he had known that she had begun to care about the time she spent in that little motley crew of Luffy's. That despite her words… despite betraying them… Zoro had known she cared about them, she cared about him, and he was willing to stake his life on it to make her prove it.
As Nami approached just the type of bar she had been searching for, she continued to think about Zoro, and how he understood her, and she him. As she reached her hand out towards the door of the bar, she knew Zoro would hate this damn day as much as her, because he knew all this bullshit romance stuff was a distraction too. A distraction that would get in the way of his dream. Just like her, his dream was too important to let distractions get in the way, because his dream was based off a promise he had made to someone special in his life. So as Nami walked into that bar, she knew that there was zero chance that she would find Zoro, sitting near the bar, with a scantily-clad red-head sitting across his lap running her fingers through his green hair… but that is exactly what Nami found.
The next few moments were a little bit of a blur for Nami as she was consumed by an uncontrollable rage. She quickly stomped over towards her nakama and his lap-guest. She was so angry, as she aggressively approached the two, that she didn't even notice the unamused look on Zoro's face, as the red-headed woman continued to run her fingers through his hair and whisper things into his ear. Nami did however notice the swordsman's good eye widen a little with surprise as he caught sight of her approaching them, but by that time Nami was practically on top of them already. Nami wasted no time in her enraged state, and quickly grabbed the woman by her hair, yanking her off of Zoro's lap and throwing her to the ground. Zoro stood from his seat, giving the navigator a confused and slightly relieved look, but only got a sharp angry glare from Nami in response. She was mere seconds away from brutally unleashing all of her fury on the swordsman in front of her, but was quickly distracted by a female voice from behind her.
"What the fuck is your problem bitch?!" The red-head angrily questioned Nami after standing to her feet, to meet the navigator eye to eye. "You trying to pick a fight with me or something?"
Nami immediately moved her attention, along with a fiery gaze, onto the female stranger. "What is my problem?" Nami questioned back, with a threatening tone laced in her voice, which caused the other woman to begin to shake slightly in fear. "My problem is that I don't like people touching my things. Especially not some skanky bar whore." Zoro cocked his head to side in confusion. Surely Nami wasn't referring to him as a thing, let alone her thing. He was just about to interject, but the two women weren't done arguing yet.
Every bit of the female stranger's instincts were telling her to just let it go and run away, because this girl with the orange hair in front of her wasn't someone she wanted to mess with. But her pride stopped her from doing so. She didn't want to leave it at that, not after being insulted so foully. "Who died and made a bitch like you his master? And I didn't hear him complaining about my touch. Besides that, I don't see any ring on his finger, if you have claim over him like you say you do, than prove it."
Now Nami was really starting to get pissed; how dare this stranger who knew nothing about her, nor Zoro, challenge her? "I don't have to prove anything to some skanky whore who knows nothing about either of us, and I damn sure don't have to claim my own property..!"
"Oi..!" Zoro complained, not liking the fact that Nami was indeed referring to him as an object, and one that she supposedly owned.
"Shut up Zoro, I'll get to you in a moment!" The navigator snapped at the swordsman, before bringing her attention back towards the red-headed stranger. "Like I said; I don't have to prove anything to you, but I'm feeling generous today, so…" Nami turned back to a still stunned and confused Zoro. Without warning, she stepped into him, quickly reached her left hand to the back of his head, and lifted her right leg up to his hip in order to lock her leg behind him and bring him in as close to her as she could, before aggressively planting her lips onto his.
Zoro completely froze from pure shock because of Nami's actions, a small blush formed on his face, while a slight panic started to sound off in his head; he was used to being able to handle intense situations on the fly… but this was something he never expected to have to deal with. His arms instinctively lifted to hover in the air on each side of her, as he fought with himself whether to push her off of him… or wrap his arms around her and return the kiss…
Though Nami could feel Zoro's surprise through the rigidness of his body, her attention was completely on the red-headed stranger; the navigator continued to glare intensely at the other woman, showing an aggressive possessiveness over the swordsman. Nami could tell from the stranger's face that she had made her point clear, but Nami wasn't quite done yet. As if to add a little insult to the injury of the other woman's pride: Nami lifted her right hand into plain view of the red-head, and raised her middle finger to her, effectively telling her 'Like I said bitch! This one is mine!' without her lips ever parting from Zoro's.
The stranger knew she was defeated, and knew it was time to retreat, but not without some parting words. "Fine, you can have him." She told Nami as she turned to walk away. "I know when and when not to deal with crazy bitches like you, and today ain't the day to deal with your level of craziness. Especially not over some man."
Nami continued to watch the woman walk away, choosing to ignore the woman's words, and instead be satisfied with her own victory. She could feel a smile starting to form on her face as she reveled in her triumph, but she was soon caught off guard by the feeling of Zoro's arms wrap around her, and even more surprised when he began to deepen the kiss. His body was no longer rigid, but he still stood firm as he pulled her in as close as he could, melding their bodies together as one. Nami melted into his embrace, enjoying the feel of his body pressed into hers, and loving the feeling of his mouth connected to her own. She had completely forgotten why she had been kissing him in the first place, or that she was supposed to be mad at him, because she was too lost in her desire for his touch, a desire that she had been holding onto for a long time. His embrace, and his kiss, was giving her a satisfaction unlike anything she had ever felt before, and it was all the more satisfying because she was finally receiving it on this day, St. Valentine's Day…
End Part 1
Author Notes: So like I said up top… there is still more to come, hopefully soon. On a fun note, the entire plot of this story was inspired by the Fanart that I'm using as my cover. The Fanart is called "Mine" by SybLaTortue. You can check out the original (without the heart blocking the middle finger) on DeviantArt.
And for those of you following "Taking in a Stray Cat": I haven't given up on it, I've just been fighting a severe case of writer's block, as well as a severe case of the "I'm-just-so-busy-with-work-I-can't-focus-on-writing-and-might-die-disease". To try and get over my writer's block I decided to take a Fanfiction Hiatus (take away something you love, and you'll just want it that much more kind of thing), and I think it might have helped a little. Writing this piece has been a nice distraction and has really helped, so hopefully I can keep the momentum going and get back to enjoying writing again.
Well… that's all I got for ya right now. Thanks for reading, please review, and Happy White Day!