The Straw Hat crew stood admiring their cargo hold in the early afternoon. After escaping the most recent island, they had made off with oodles of loot from the marines they had caught off guard: chests of gold and jewels, artifacts and old tomes, even some antique weapons that were less useful and more decorative now, but still incredibly valuable none the less. On top of it all, they had twelve huge barrels of quality, aged rum. Nami still had beri signs dancing in her eyes, even though they had been sailing for a day and a half away from the island. This was the first chance they all had to survey the wondrous amount of goodies they had acquired.
"We're rich!" she screeched once again, causing Usopp, Franky, and Zoro to cringe. "Rich, rich, rich!" She did a little dance in the hold spinning various members of the crew around in turn.
"We ought to celebrate!" Luffy exclaimed with glee. "Let's have a party! Right here on the ship!"
Franky cocked an eyebrow; he knew how Straw Hat parties went, and he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to subject the Sunny to that, but his protests were silenced before he could even start by the captain's enthusiasm. "Yup! Absolutely! Sanji, make some meat! We're gonna party tonight!" More smiles and laughs began to break out in the crew once again, and Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp began to haul supplies up to the deck for Luffy's party. Sanji set up a grill just outside the galley, roasting up ribs, chicken, steak, burgers, and whatever else the captain requested. The rest of the crew started in on the ample supply of rum, save for Chopper and Franky.
Soon the food was ready, the drinks were flowing freely, and laughter and mirth filled every corner of the ship. "Let's play a game!" Usopp exclaimed a little tipsily as the evening sky began to streak in reds, purples, and blues across the sky.
"Tag!" Luffy burst out, earning intentional ignorance from several other members of his crew.
"No, no, something not so stupid and childish," Nami shot back, taking a few more gulps of her cup of rum. "I have an idea… Franky, go get a table we can set up on the deck here."
Luffy, Usopp, and the rest looked at her curiously. "We're partying, and if we're going to play a game, we're going to play a drinking game," she said smugly. "We're gonna play Tippy Cup."
Sanji, Zoro, and Robin smiled, but there were several blank looks on other crew members' faces, prompting Nami to explain the game. "It's a relay race, really. There's two teams, and each time lines up on each side of the table. And we've gotta have a ref, too. Everyone's got a cup of rum in front of them on the table. When the ref says go, the first person, usually the team's captain, chugs their cup of rum, then sets it on the edge of the table and has to flip it over so it lands upside down. If it doesn't, you have to try again until you get it. Once you land your cup, the next member of your team can start on their rum and flipping their cup, and so on, until the last person on your team. Whichever team finishes first wins that round. The winning team rotates the last person to the first person, and the first team to get their captain all the way through wins the game. What do you all think?"
"I think it sounds wonderful, Nami-swan!" Sanji cooed with enthusiasm. Luffy and Usopp nodded in agreement alongside him, and Robin grinned with approval as well.
"Could be fun. What's in it for the winning team?" Zoro asked, intrigued by the direction this was heading in.
"Hmm… well, since you all owe me ungodly amounts of money, I suppose the winners could have a reduction in interest rate," Nami thought out loud, but was only met with skepticism from the others. "Alright, I'll cut it by half, happy now?" This earned a grin from several of the others, especially Zoro.
"I'm up for this. Don't think too many of you can stand against me when it comes to drinking," Zoro said smugly. But Nami met his toothy grin with her own challenge.
"You may be able to drink more, but money's on the line here now, and no one beats me when it comes to a bet," she answered. "So Zoro and I will be captains. Let's keep it simple, three on three? Who all wants to play?" Heads all around nodded in acceptance of the proposal, and Robin, Sanji, Usopp, and Luffy all raised their hands. "Franky, Brook, you guys don't want to play?"
"No, if you're all getting hammered, someone's got to take care of the ship," Franky answered. "It'll be fun watching you guys get tanked."
"I agree with Franky, I imagine I'll laugh so hard I can't breathe!" Brook said. "Although, I don't have any lungs!" Groans sounded from the majority of the crew in response to another of his incessant skull jokes.
Nami shook her head, then turned back to Zoro. "Shall we flip for who gets to pick first?"
Zoro pulled a coin out of his pocket and flipped it up. "Call it."
"Heads."
He looked at the coin in his palm. Heads. "All right, sea witch, you pick first."
"Don't you talk to Nami-swan that way!" Sanji jumped in for her defense, but was completely ignored by both captains of the soon to begin drinking game.
"I'll take Robin," Nami decided immediately.
"Then I'll take Luffy."
"For the third person on my team, I'll go with… Usopp," she said slowly, an inexplicable grin crossing her face.
"And I'll take… Sanji," Zoro grimaced at the remaining player.
"Aww! I want to be with my beautiful Nami-swan!"
"Stuff it, shitty cook."
"You'll just have to tolerate it, Sanji-kun," Nami batted her eyes in his direction, effectively silencing any further protests.
Robin looked thoughtful for a moment. "So if they win, you'll cut their debt in half, but what do we get if we win?"
"Double their debt, obviously!" Nami answered.
"But that's not something we can all share, like they are," Robin reasoned, and Usopp nodded in agreement.
"Do you have to decide now? Can't we just start the game?" Luffy said impatiently.
"Well, if that's alright with your team's captain, I suppose we could decide what we win after we drink you three under the table," Nami smirked.
Zoro gritted his teeth, and didn't hesitate a moment before answering. "You're on. We won't have to worry about what they'll win anyway." Nami grinned even more broadly in response.
"We need a referee. Chopper, since you're a little too young to drink, will you ref the game?" The reindeer eagerly nodded, excited to be able to be part of such a grown-up game.
With the teams decided, they all lined up on either side of the table. Franky poured rum into each cup and Chopper stood at the captains' end of the table. All was eerie and silent as each team sized each other up, Zoro opposite Nami, Sanji opposite Robin, and Usopp opposite Luffy.
"Everyone ready?" Chopper's voice called from the end of the table. Six heads nodded sharply around the table. "Alright then, ready, set, go!"
Zoro and Nami each swiped at their cups, both swigging their drinks down quickly and flipping the cups up off the edge of the table; both managed to land their cups upside down neatly on their first try. Sanji and Robin both grabbed theirs next.
Sanji was chugging his rum as quickly as possible but was distracted as Robin gulped hers down. She strategically let a few drops slide from the corner of her mouth and trickle down her neck and down the front of her shirt, catching Sanji's eye as he was trying to flip his cup over. Not only did his cup not land upside down, it didn't even land on the table.
"Idiot cook!"
"Shut up, shitty swordsman!"
As Sanji scrambled for his cup, Robin slid a delicate finger underneath her own cup and flipped it cleanly over. Sanji was finally back to his feet and gathering his composure to flip his cup over. Luckily, he got it on the next try, but Usopp had a lead on Luffy now.
Luffy opened his mouth to the width of a good sized bucket before dumping his whole cup of rum in, earning a protest from Usopp. "That's not fair! Who said you could use your powers?"
"No one said they couldn't," Brook commented snidely. Usopp's dismay was soon tempered as he watched Luffy struggle with actually flipping the cup over off the edge of the table. He only snickered as he quickly and expertly upturned the cup and watched it land perfectly on the table in front of him. Cheers and laughs erupted from the three winners.
"That's one round! And, Robin, you're leading us off now!" Nami squealed with delight.
"At least you're against Usopp this time," Zoro grumbled at Sanji.
"Shut up!"
"Hey, enough! Is everyone ready for the next round?" Chopper interrupted as Franky poured more for everyone. The competitive atmosphere spread across the table once again; Zoro staring Robin down, Sanji glowering at Usopp, and Luffy and Nami smirking at each other. "Ready, set, go!"
Robin couldn't keep up with Zoro downing his rum, and he gained the edge for his team early on, flipping his cup over and once again landing it on the first try. Robin also landed hers on the first try, but Sanji had half his cup down before Usopp even started to drink. Without the distraction of feminine beauty across from him this time, his cup remained relatively in control, although it still took him two tries to get it to land properly. Usopp was able to shorten the lead they had, but not by enough. Luffy repeated his bucket trick and had just enough time to fumble with his cup and get it overturned before Nami could finish her drink and land her cup upright. This time it was the monster trio's turn to cheer in victory.
"Now we're matched up the same again," Robin said, shooting a seductive smile in Sanji's direction as Franky refilled the cups with yet more rum.
"Hold up, Chopper," Zoro said, untying the bandanna from around his arm, and then quickly wrapping it around Sanji's eyes. "You'll have more coordination blind than you will getting distracted, ero-cook."
"Stupid swordsman, I oughta-"
"Are we ready for the third round?" Chopper broke in, cutting Sanji off before the game could be interrupted by a vicious squabble.
"Yes!" both captains answered in determined unison.
"Ready, set, go!"
Sanji would be loath to admit it, but Zoro was right about his coordination. With no distractions from Robin, he swallowed his rum down and was able to flip the cup off the edge of the table on the first try giving them the lead once again. Robin slipped up on flipping her cup this time; it landed on the edge of the table and fell and it took two more tries for her to land it. By the time Usopp started to drink, Luffy was just landing his cup and Zoro finished their team off just as Nami was barely touching her cup.
"Two in a row! Beat that!" Zoro crowed across the table as Sanji and Luffy exchanged high fives. Nami barely glanced with concern in their direction.
Zoro could practically taste victory and only grinned predatorily at Usopp across the table, forgetting that Sanji was now matched against Nami and that Luffy was leading them off against Robin. Chopper looked back and forth between the teams. "Everyone ready for round four?" he paused, then continued after several nods of confirmation. "Ready, set, go!"
Luffy once again utilized his bucket trick to down the rum, but the several cups of rum were beginning to affect his already clumsy fine motor coordination. Robin had more than plenty of time to finish her cup and flip her cup over as Luffy struggled with five attempts to flip the cup over, much to Zoro's impatience. He attempted to close the gap between himself and Usopp, just starting to chug his cup as Usopp began to flip his cup over. The sniper was feeling the effects of the liquor as well now, and it took three tries to flip it over successfully, but it mattered little as Zoro's frustration caused him to mess up flipping the cup over for the first time in the entire game.
"Booze getting you, Zoro?" Nami smirked in his direction, taking her sweet time starting her drink as he finally landed the cup over. He only glowered in her direction as Sanji grabbed his cup from the table and began to drink it down. Nami paid him no mind as she finished her cup off and set it on the edge of the table. "Goodness, it's getting hot out here, isn't it? Must be all the rum," she said, fanning her face with one hand and loosening the buttons on her shirt exposing a bit more cleavage. Sanji once again fumbled his cup on the ground, and didn't even bother to start retrieving it as Nami flipped her cup over, landing it again on the first try.
"You shitty cook!" Zoro hollered at him, the chef finally pulling his eyes away from his lovely Nami to meet an angry swordsman's gaze. Zoro facepalmed, as much as he wanted to blame Sanji for ruining this round, he couldn't believe he forgot to blindfold him again. Luffy leading them off and Sanji facing off against Nami had really set this round up for failure.
Once again the original match ups were set up. "Guess you've lost your lead now, huh?" Nami grinned smugly at Zoro across from her.
"We'll win this round and end this game, you'll be crying over your lost debt. Cook, get over here so I can blindfold you again," he ordered, grabbing Sanji by the arm and roughly tying the bandanna back around his eyes.
"Dammit, marimo, you don't get to just yank me around however-"
"Shut up and get ready to drink."
"All right!" Chopper interrupted. "Final round! Everyone ready?" No heads nodded this time, but the tension and stillness around the table as each team got ready to drink was affirmation enough. "Ready, set, go!"
It appeared that Luffy was going to get an edge early on by finishing his cup quickly, but his coordination had become so poor at this point that it took him another five attempts to flip his cup over, three of which ended up on the ground. Nami wasted no time this round and gulped her rum down as quickly as possible. It took her three tries to get her cup to land right, the liquor beginning to affect her senses as well. Zoro narrowed the gap considerably, being the only at the table who wasn't being affected by the continued drinking, but Nami's team still had the lead. He watched Sanji intensely as both the chef and Robin drank their cups at an equal pace, but Sanji could feel Zoro's pensive eyes on him as he drank.
"Stop staring, marimo! I'll land the damn cup, so stop-"
Clink.
Robin smiled deviously as her cup landed precisely in the middle of Sanji's sentence, and a brief silence hung in the air before Usopp, Nami, and Robin erupted into cheers. Zoro ground his teeth as he yanked his bandanna back from Sanji, and sparks flew between the two as the three victors continued their celebration. It dawned on Zoro that the reason Nami hadn't chosen Sanji was precisely because of this; she knew that they'd bicker the entire time and that it would get in the way of their victory. This same thought seemed to dawn on Sanji around the same time.
"She set us up," Sanji said. Zoro only closed his eyes and furrowed his brow in frustration. If they had just worked together for once they wouldn't be where they were at now.
"So what do you want as your prize, now that you've won?" Luffy asked, unfazed by losing the drinking game.
"What, indeed?" Robin mused out loud.
The three huddled together and whispered back and forth for a few minutes, trying the monster trio's patience immensely. Finally, they broke and Nami announced their sentence. "Well, seeing as none of you three have any possessions that any of us would want, humiliation will the price of your loss," she grinned triumphantly. "Luffy, Usopp would like to sit in your 'special spot' on the lion's head for the next month, and address him as Captain Usopp when he's sitting there. Sanji, us ladies would like breakfast in bed for the next month, but Zoro will be serving it to us."
Three jaws dropped and Zoro gritted his teeth, wanting to shout refusals and accusations, but they had won fair and square. Chopper, Franky, and Brook burst out laughing; Nami truly had a wonderful mind when exacting victory in any sort of battle. Luffy composed himself first of the three defeated drinkers, and placed a hand on each of the other two's shoulders, mustering up his rare expression of sincerity reserved for times of utmost pride. "Men, there comes a time in our lives when we have to accept a failure. The least we can do is get through this with as much dignity as possible." Zoro and Sanji could only look back at him and nod with solemn acceptance.
Sanji spoke next, his tone of voice more appropriate for a funeral. "When will our punishment start?"
Nami grinned in triumph, fully appreciative of the fact that the men of her crew were always men of their word, even in something as stupid as a game of Tippy Cup. "Tomorrow, of course. Hangover or not, Sanji, Zoro, we'd like bacon, eggs benedict, and fresh squeezed orange juice." The three members of the monster trio only nodded in disgraced silence, earning yet more laughter from the remaining members of the crew. "Oh, it's not so bad! Wipe those depressed frowns of your faces, even if you three have to suffer for the next month, there's still drinking to be done tonight!" she encouraged, brightening up the remainder of the crew and gathering everyone up to continue the party until dawn began to glow on the horizon.