Note: Set after Punk Hazard but before Dressrosa.
Also, obviously, I do not own One Piece. *curls up in a corner to sulk*
"Do I hafta?" Luffy whined for the umpteenth time that day.
"You're not doing us any favors by holding back. Just get it over with." The swordsman growled; he might have appeared angry or irritated by an outsider but his crewmates knew him to be eager for the experiment.
The entire Strawhat crew, plus one Heart pirate, was gathered on their grassy deck, forming a semicircle around their captain.
Most were a little shocked at how long Luffy had evaded this moment despite his apparently weak protests. Some were confused as to why he hesitated at all. A few knew exactly why.
"Zoro-ya is right, Strawhat-ya. Doflamingo is also a user of Conqueror Haki, it would be advantageous for us to know who here is... susceptible to its influence." He kept his eyes trained on the ship's captain, no point raising indignancies by singling out suspect crewmembers with his gaze.
"Adantigis? Sustiple?" Luffy struggled with a frown to even duplicate the words' pronunciations, failing that even.
"He means it would be better to know in advance who could fall to Doflamingo's Haki by duplicating it with yours." Robin supplied helpfully, with an amused smile.
"Oh." Luffy grinned reflexively but Robin suspected he would have preferred to keep up the pretense of ignorance, at least a little longer. She chuckled fondly at that. "It's not necessary though, I'm gonna kick 'Mingo's ass myself!" His grin widened at the thought.
"Of course that's Plan A, Luffy, but if what Traffy says is true," Law twitched almost imperceptibly at the familiarity of the nickname, "Doflamingo is extremely cunning. He might try to divide and conquer instead of fighting you outright. Not everyone is as honorable as you." She finished almost irritably.
Brook chuckled good-naturedly at Nami's half-hearted insult; there were worse quirks for a pirate captain to have, after all.
Law quickly cut off Sanji's heartfelt response to Nami's statement, eliciting a glare. "He's not, I believe that would be a likely strategy of his." He fixed Luffy with a penetrating gaze. "Better to find out now than in the middle of battle."
Luffy suppressed a shudder at the implication before lowering his gaze in thought, his namesake shading half his face. Two years of harsh training couldn't completely dispel the shadow Kuma's actions left, after all.
The silence must have lasted a bit too long because Sanji burst out impatiently. "Don't you think we can handle it?" The truth was he was worried about Nami-swan and Robin-chan, but didn't voice that.
He didn't expect Luffy's head to snap up irritably before devolving back into a childish pout, so quick he wondered if he had imagined it.
"That's not it~"
"Then what is it?" Franky asked, apparently this wasn't going to be resolved until they got to the root of the problem. They knew Luffy was stubborn, but they'd been after him for a week, ever since Punk Hazard and every time they seemed to have him convinced he somehow found a way to avoid them time and again. It was instances like these that made him wonder if their captain wasn't smarter than they gave him credit for. If they didn't corner him now to resolve the matter they would soon reach Dressrosa with no progress at all.
A light giggle, a flutter of petals, and multiple arms sprouting from Luffy's back was all the warning they got before the tense silence was unceremoniously broken.
Pinning his arms out of her way with a double set of her own, Robin tickled Luffy mercilessly as he writhed around on the deck's lawn, having fallen from his seat by the mast. Hysterical laughter filled the air, drowning out even the sounds of the sea.
After a beat of startled silence from the crew most couldn't keep straight faces at the spectacle.
Brook, Chopper, and Usopp were the first to follow along in laughter, as they often did anyway when it came to Luffy. The slightly shrill Yohohoho! adding itself to Luffy's laughter.
Nami split into a wide grin after casting a slightly surprised look at Robin, who merely shrugged. She could feel a giggle threatening to overwhelm her but she had to remind herself that this was supposed to be a fairly serious situation.
Sanji smirked at Luffy while taking a pull from his cigarette. "Well, that's what you get, shit-captain." Jealousy coloring his words and making them a little harsher than he intended, not that anyone could hear him over the noise anyway.
Zoro kept his composure the longest but even he couldn't stop a ghost of a smile, accompanied by an exasperated sigh.
Franky scowled in mock-annoyance and muttered something along the lines of, "Oh, you're gentle with him..." before giving in to the infectious laughter and striking a pose.
The only one unaffected by the suddenly cheery atmosphere was the lone Heart pirate. Law rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger in annoyance, as if trying to dispel the ridiculous scene from his memory. Failing that, he settled for scowling impatiently.
Robin silently surveyed the scene, giving an imperceptible nod of satisfaction. No point keeping such a heavy atmosphere when there was no need for it. Subconsciously though, she would admit it pained her to see her crew in anything other than their trademark sunny mood. After all, she had a fairly good idea behind her captain's motivation and, knowing him, they'd only get what they wanted if they offered something equally… entertaining.
"Oi, Robin." Usopp raised his voice to be heard and wiped away the tears of laughter. "Stop before he wets his pants, ok?" As funny as this was, he still had the guys' laundry duty that week.
One last smile and the additional appendages disappeared, leaving Luffy lying on his back, struggling between breath and residual laughter.
"That was dirty, Robin." Luffy panted, but he was grinning wider than he had all week.
Chuckles were heard throughout as Robin knelt near Luffy's head and looked down at him with an amused and slightly mischievous smile.
"May I offer a trade for our request, captain?"
The formality of the question caught everyone's attention. Robin hadn't used titles in quite awhile. Some of the crew members felt an odd sense of foreboding, what more surprises could Robin have for them today?
Luffy's curiosity was sparked, "What kind of trade?"
Robin kept a studied mask of serene calm at her next words, even she wasn't so sure how this would turn out.
"If you agree to this, then you may have our permission to… decorate any unconscious members, with no negative consequences."
The temperature on deck dropped 10 degrees as soon as that sunk in.
"Decorate how?" Luffy's expression was blank as he peered up at the archeologist, but she could practically feel the excitement at the task rolling off of him.
"Do you recall how the zombies on Thriller Bark left you, Sanji, and Zoro after they took your shadows?"
Sanji and Zoro stared in absolute horror at their captain's look of recognition and subsequent fit of laughter. The others who had also been there to wake them up exchanged similarly dejected faces.
"Robin!" Nami finally found her voice; it was shrill from alarm. She couldn't believe Robin's confidence at not being affected by the Haki, what had she been doing those two years?
Robin looked up at her in mock surprise, eyes wide and innocent (causing a love-ramble from Sanji). "Isn't this an urgent matter? This is the simplest way to convince him."
No one could argue with that; he was positively glowing with anticipation now.
Law was the first to raise objections, of course, but only for himself. "I already know I can withstand Conqueror Haki, so you can leave me out of your targets."
"Traffy!"
"No fair!"
"That's low, Law!"
He was wholly unsympathetic, "This is all for your benefit."
He turned to the rest of the crew as the Weakling Trio jeered at him further.
"Well then? Are you going to agree to this?"
There was a long silence. Not that they doubted themselves (well, not really. Honestly.) but just the thought of giving Luffy free reign was enough to make their blood run cold (those that had blood, anyway).
And let him go unpunished? Sanji wasn't sure he could do that if one of the girls were to faint. Apparently Luffy was of the same mind because he was fixing the cook with a particularly skeptical look, as if expecting the protests. That irked him more than the possibility of finding himself messed with.
The first to signal his willingness was Brook, "As long as no permanent damage is done…" He chuckled lightly and shrugged at his fellow swordsman who had shot him a surprised look at the implication of his falling under the Haki's influence. Luffy nodded seriously at that, everyone knew Brook's afro was off-limits, of course.
One down.
"This should be SUPER interesting!"
Two.
"As a brave warrior of the sea, I have no doubt I'll be fine!" The rest were surprised. His voice only shook a little. "Besides, my 8,000 men will avenge me if I get drawn on!" Really, it was Luffy's abysmal drawing skills that scared him most.
"8,000?! Really, Usopp?!"
"Idiots." Zoro shook his head. "I'm in." He'd been thrown by Robin's proposal, but never had doubts about his decision.
Chopper stared between the two with stars in his eyes. They're so cooool! "Me too!"
Five.
They turned to the two remaining members.
"What do you think, Nami-swan?" Sanji asked pleasantly, he'd go along with whatever decision she made.
She cast a helpless look around at all their faces. Resigned, calm, blank, expectant, excited, amused.
She let out a long, loud breath.
"We're all idiots."
"Only if we avoided this for such a superficial reason." Zoro retorted, starting a fight between himself and the cook.
"Well, Luffy, are you ready?" Robin inquired to her captain, who had been watching with a grin, although slightly faded. It renewed at the question.
Luffy jumped to his feet.
"All right!"
Before anyone could react, or raise last-minute protests, Luffy released a powerful wave of Haki at his willing crew.
Silence fell for a few seconds before the first reacted.
Sanji, Zoro, and Law (Luffy forgot to exclude him) were the only ones completely unaffected, having unconsciously released their own Haki in retaliation. Surprisingly, the Weakling Trio were able to remain conscious, although they were currently struggling into various upright positions. Sanji quickly helped support Nami. After a moment Zoro and Luffy helped the other two; Luffy lifted Chopper onto his shoulders and Zoro dragged Usopp up onto his feet by his arm.
"T-thanks." Usopp stuttered.
Chopper looked like he'd just been fished out of the sea.
"Well, that was interesting." Although Robin had felt similar Haki during her time with the Revolutionaries, she had a sheen of sweat coating her forehead now.
"Definitely not super." Franky was holding his head and blinking rapidly, he had staggered a bit upon impact. He was mildly surprised that it did actually affect him despite his heavily modified body.
Brook stood stock-still through the event, although he now swayed slightly looking as if he might suddenly fall over. A faint chuckle of Yohohoho! could be heard escaping his slightly parted teeth, though.
"See now, Luffy, that wasn't so bad." Nami waved Sanji away and he reluctantly retreated. This was definitely a worthwhile experiment even more so when none would be suffering Luffy's decorative creativity.
Luffy grinned widely, something seeming to have lifted which had been ever-present over the last week. "Yeah." He laughed loudly and was joined by others.
Sanji announced he would prepare everyone snacks to help them regain energy and headed for the kitchen, Chopper weakly trailing behind to help.
Robin brought up the opinion that it would be a good idea to try and learn fundamental Haki. Sanji, Zoro, and Law had used theirs to shield themselves, after all. This brought Zoro into the discussion, quickly followed by Law, on the training he did. Most of the audience quickly lost much of their enthusiasm as they listened to his stories in vividly bloody detail. Then relief when Law stated that Zoro's master had obviously been exaggerating his treatment to compress mastery into two years. He started explaining how it functioned with the occasional clarification from Zoro or Robin.
Luffy remained silent throughout the conversation, having regained his seat against the main mast, and closed his eyes, an even broader smile on his face.
It wasn't until much later that the crew realized that, despite his initial excitement over Robin's offer, Luffy didn't appear in the least disappointed by the event's outcome. Of course, neither was he surprised.
Robin switched lookout shifts with Zoro that evening, he gave a look that clearly said don't push anything but agreed.
Past midnight she got up, retrieved a book and the pot of coffee Sanji had left for her, and climbed up to the crow's nest.
As soon as she entered she spotted Luffy, lightly dozing with his face pressed against one of the windowpanes, fogging the glass. She smiled in amusement, at least he had been trying to keep watch, and gently shook him awake. He grinned blearily at her in greeting and she offered some of the biscuits she had found alongside the coffee, which he inhaled. Done with that, he jumped to his feet and chirped a goodnight, heading for the door.
"Luffy?"
He skidded to a halt, one foot out the trapdoor, the night breeze swayed the curtains in the room. He half turned, neck twisting impossibly, to give her an inquiring look.
Not for the first time she wondered if this topic was worth breaching. She was fairly confident in the answer; perhaps her training was what compelled her to seek a definite answer if she had the means available.
"Why were you so reluctant to try your Haki on us?"
Confusion and, eloquent as always, "Huh?"
"You avoided us all week trying to get us to give up on the idea. You could have just refused and we would have let it go, but I get the feeling you understood the need to go through with it. So why did you resist at all?"
A slight light of understanding dawned, still overpowered by confusion though. "Ne, Robin, isn't it obvious?" He had the same expression as when he mocked her opinion on bonfires all those years ago. In forests. At night. In enemy territory. Like he was seriously questioning her intelligence.
"Please enlighten me." She responds neutrally.
He turns fully to her then, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side, face scrunched in concentration with finding the words. She decides she must have been wrong, as his face turns red with the effort, if it was this difficult to come up with an answer.
His answer, though, does not disappoint her initial expectation and is decidedly simple.
"That's not what I learned it for."
Before jumping down into the night to join his sleeping family.
*I assume that the incident, which was only actually witnessed by a few, would have been too hilarious to keep to themselves so Robin would have eventually heard about it.
**I'm sure if this actually happened some of the Strawhats would pass out, but for the sake of this story (and I'm too lazy to have Luffy follow through with the 'decorating') they didn't. And, as of this writing, the intricate workings of Haki haven't really been explained all that well so I took it upon myself to speculate that Zoro, Sanji, and Law could use their own Haki to 'shield' themselves.
This story started as one of the 'what if' thoughts I've had while reading One Piece, ever since Luffy came back with control over his Haki, but I also really like sentimental aspects to One Piece fan fiction.
Oh, Kin'emon and Momonosuke were standing on the sidelines somewhere watching, they didn't feel it was their place to interfere in this instance. Yup, that's what happened. I definitely did not forget they were on the ship when I wrote this.
If you enjoyed this, perhaps you'd like to check out my other fics? ;)