Sweets Romance - First Quarto - Pudding
All the standard disclaimers apply. One Piece is owned by (g)Oda-sensei, and I am a mere fan girl gleaning crumbs of his genius. I make no profit off this work. Note that this is set post Whole Cake Island but is written Pre Whole Cake Island (if that makes any sense), so if there's any incongruities (like new crew members missing, powers missing, Sanji actually not coming back (please no)), that's why. Enjoy!
Pudding: a flan-like cold custard dessert. In Japan, it's considered a comfort dessert.
Robin noticed first. She always did.
She did spend the most time with Nami, so had a front row seat for all the little things. Like how Nami had started tensing up when she felt Sanji approaching. Or how "Nami-swannn" always made her look up, if only for a second. Or how often Nami got sunburn these days. But only on her cheeks. Even when she was inside.
Robin also noticed the things that didn't happen. Nami didn't meet Sanji's eyes any more. She didn't charge him an exorbitant amount of interest any more, nor did she try to hit on him now that she knew he came from a rich family. At every port they stopped at, she didn't try to manipulate him to stay behind if they had treasure on board. She even always managed to get someone else to give him the money for supplies.
She'd made Robin do it a few times, but after Sanji's pathetic look the third time, Robin had made it her business to avoid being around when they docked. Those two were old enough to work out their own issues.
Ufufu. She couldn't wait.
Brook noticed when he and Sanji made their weekly attempt to peek on Nami-san. It wasn't like they regularly scheduled peeping sessions, but about once a week, there was the rare time when Luffy was full, everyone was quiet, and the seas were calm enough to let Nami take a bath.
Brook just found himself strolling down the hallway towards the bathroom. Sanji was already there, cigarette in mouth, leaning oh-so-casually against the wall. Brook raised an eyebrow (or he would, if he'd had an eyebrow). What was Sanji-kun doing, just standing there? Was he guarding the door? Was he just listening to Nami-san shower or just breathing in the citrus and honey scented mist? Now why would he do that?
Sanji spotted Brook and put a lascivious smile on. Putting a finger to his lips, he motion for Brook to take a spot on the other side of the door. Brook saw him raise three fingers, and got ready...
3... 2... 1...
Success! Brook was through the door, and there was Nami-san... There was Nami-san...
Nami-san was fully dressed?
"SANJI-KUN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Nami yelled. She was armed with her sorcery climatact, extended the length of the room. Her cheeks were bright pink, and there was a slight tremble in her lip.
Brook only had a couple of seconds to wonder why only Sanji was lying in a crumpled heap beside the door, already knocked out. Could Nami-san have realized that Sanji was behind the door and had been waiting for him?
Then Nami realized the skeletal musician was also in the room, shrieked, and brained him with another sweep of her sorcery climatact (or at least she would have, if he'd had a brain).
Franky noticed when Sanji approached Robin with a cup of coffee and a dessert. She'd been in her usual spot near the helm, with her book in both hands, and an empty cup beside her third hand for a full twenty minutes. That was super strange on its own - Sanji was nearly psychic about anything that had to do with the girls and food and drink - but the cook was, for once, late, and he didn't even do the noodle thing that was so damn distracting.
Franky surreptitiously pushed his nose down and styled his hair into a satellite dish. Not subtle, he knew, but he didn't think his crew would realize that it actually worked as a listening device. He hoped the cook wasn't sick. Then they'd have to eat Luffy's cooking, and that would be super bad.
"Robin-chan, here you are. Sorry for the delay," A flustered Sanji set the food and drink down, spilling a drop, "Oh, damn it."
"It's okay, Sanji-kun," Robin smiled, wiping the coffee up with her finger and licking the drop off. Normally that would have sent the pervert into all kinds of spasms, but today, Sanji didn't react.
Robin spooned some of the sugar into the cup, then looked for the milk. "Sanji-kun, are we out of milk?"
Sanji flushed, "Ah! Sorry Robin-chan! I'll get it right away!"
"It's okay," Robin took her first sip, then made a small grimace of surprise, "Is this... salt?"
"Eh?" Sanji dipped his pinky into the sugar dish and tasted it, then groaned loudly and put his face in his hands , "I'm so sorry, Robin-chan."
Robin smiled, and surreptitiously used her Flower-Flower fruit powers to draw up a chair for Sanji, "Why don't you sit down and tell me what's bothering you, Sanji-kun?"
Sanji obliged with a less than graceful slump. Oi, Oi, now even Franky was getting worried. The cook may not be particularly good with women, but he was excellent with food and on his feet. What in the world was going on?
"It's Nami-san," He admitted, "She won't talk to me or even look at me. She still eats my food, but she doesn't even manipulate me into doing things any more. Robin-chan, have I done something wrong to make her upset? I would cut off my right hand before I would make Nami-san upset."
Robin picked up the dessert, but didn't eat it (Franky wouldn't have either, given the state of Sanji's mind right now). She looked like she was debating what she could say, "We nearly lost you, Sanji-kun. Nami was the most worried about you, when you went to your wedding without telling her anything. Luffy was originally going to go alone, you know."
"Yeah?" Sanji perked up a little, "Then why is she mad at me now?"
Robin hesitated, then tapped her spoon on the edge of her dessert plate. "She'll tell you if you serve her a few of these."
Sanji's eyes lit up as he looked at the innocent little dessert, "Yes! Thank you God, Buddha, Robin-chan! I have the key to all my answers! I'll get cooking right away!" he gave Robin an enthusiastic hug and ran back to the kitchen.
Robin chuckled to herself, and took a heaping golden spoonful of the treat for herself. She looked like she regretted it after the first bite.
"Neh, Franky?" Franky jumped when a pair of lips grew out of the wheel in front of him. Robin's devil fruit powers were really strange. "I know you were listening. Want some pudding? Sanji-kun topped it with cola and soy sauce instead of caramel."
Usopp noticed when Sanji plopped a plate of pudding in front of him and Luffy.
"Wooah!" Luffy yelled excitedly. It was a gorgeous dessert, twice the size of a normal pudding, and decorated with delicate orange sugar roses and ribbons of orange candy and tiny baby oranges. Honey and caramel syrup had been drizzled on in intricate patterns, creating a lace doily effect.
"Is it okay, Sanji?" Usopp asked. It looked like something Sanji would make for one of the girls, and it seem to be a shame to waste it on Luffy, who would stuff it down super quickly.
"Yeah, yeah, it's only trash," Sanji had turned his back on them and waved his hand over his shoulder, "We might as well give it to the human rubber recycling machine right there."
Trash? Usopp eyed the pudding. Oranges meant that it was probably for Nami, but that couldn't be right. Nami loved all the little treats Sanji made for her, and something as over the top as this would definitely not be trash. Usopp got suspicious. Was it poisoned? Had she done something to it? Were she and Sanji trying to play a joke on him and Luffy?
Being the brave captain Usopp that he was, he decided that he would magnanimously let Luffy try it first.
Luffy, of course, didn't even think about it. He took the spoon and dug a huge bite out the pudding, then crammed it into his mouth. Usopp watched carefully for any signs of grossness or super spiciness. Luffy just grinned through a mouthful of sugar roses and began to vacuum more into his mouth. "SO GOOD!"
"Hey, save some for me, you pig!" Usopp yelled, and hurried to get in on the action.
Chopper, Zoro and Luffy noticed when they were hungry one day and Robin was leaning on the door of the galley, keeping them from getting their dinner.
"Robin," Luffy whined, "Why can't we go in? I'm HUNGRY and I can smell meat!"
"You'll just have to bear it, Luffy-kun," Robin passed around a plate of Onigiri, "Nami-san and Sanji-kun are having an important conversation right now."
"Important conversation?" Chopper asked, taking an onigiri.
"Mhmm. Come on, we can eat on the deck, can't we Franky?" Robin tipped her head at the cyborg.
He nodded, but eyed the onigiri doubtfully. Robin chuckled when she remembered the salted coffee and the cola and soy sauce pudding from a couple days ago, "Don't worry, I made these," she reassured him.
Relieved, Franky took one and started heading for the deck. The others grumbled, preferring the modest feast Sanji usually prepared for dinner, but most followed the Cyborg obediently enough.
Zoro, however, hung behind to take a quick peek through the porthole window into the Galley. That idiot love cook had been worrying him, even though he'd never admit it out loud. Sanji hadn't even responded to the casual insults Zoro had thrown his way, and would only sigh when Zoro asked him whether he had cooked his brain.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" What Zoro saw in the porthole, however, made him fall over laughing. He was rolling on the ground, clutching his stomach laughing. The others turned back to stare. Zoro? Laughing like that?
"I wanna see!" Luffy's head stretched back towards the porthole, but Robin was faster.
"Ocho fleur: Cover!"
"Robiiiiiiiiiiiiiin," Luffy and Chopper pouted as Robin's hands covered up the porthole.
"They need to talk and they need their privacy," She said, gently but firmly, "Now come along, or I'll give Franky all the onigiri. They're all filled with your favourite kinds of meat, Luffy."
"Ah! No fair!"
Sanji noticed when someone threw the pudding at him.
He'd sensed it coming, of course, and was ready to catch it and then yell at whoever had dared to waste his food and interrupt his precious time with Robin-chan. She'd volunteered to use her Flower-Flower fruit power to help him make the onigiri for tomorrow's lunch while he made dinner. He, of course, had eagerly accepted. Time to spend with his precious Robin-chan! And he'd been running a little behind anyways, since preparing all those elaborate puddings for Nami-san had taken a lot of time and care.
He'd just been thinking of Nami-san. Ah, Nami-san, beautiful, lovely goddess - Sanji wished he knew what he'd done to upset her. He'd tried the puddings, but she'd just refused to eat them. Refused to eat them! Nami-san had refused to eat his food! His mind boggled at the thought. But he'd trusted Robin-chan and made one last, heroic effort. It was a beautiful creation, a golden orange pudding shaped like a fairy tale castle. He'd even adorned it with little sugar Straw Hat flags, a sugar ribbon rainbow overhead, and a sugar figurine of Nami the princess in the castle. He was proud of that work, and he'd put all of his heart into it for Nami-san!
So Sanji was not happy that someone had slammed the door open, taken several angry steps in, taken this amazing confection and was throwing it at him. How'd they managed to get it away from Nami...
Then he realized it was Nami throwing it at him. The shock caused him to falter long enough for the flying pudding to hit him straight in the face.
Deathly silence.
Plop.
The sound of most of the pudding sliding off Sanji's face and onto the floor caused Robin to recover her wits. She grabbed the pile of onigiri, and slipped out the door that Nami had stomped in from, and deftly held it shut behind her. Sanji noticed her as she passed through the door. Thank goodness for Robin-chan.
For the first time his life, Sanji wasn't thinking about the food had been wasted.
He was shocked. He'd never seen this kind of temper from Nami before. Nami was heaving, and tears sparkled in her angry brown eyes.
"Nami-san...," Sanji didn't know what to say. Why was Nami crying?
"You're so cruel," Nami whispered. She was standing there, arms around her body in a protective hold and refusing to meet his eyes. The accusation and the stance cut to his heart. Why was she so ready to run away from him?
"Why?" He asked, genuinely bewildered, "What did I do?"
That got Nami's attention, and her ire. Her head snapped up, and her eyes met his in a furious glare. She was so beautiful when she was angry, but all Sanji wanted to do was to wipe away the unshed tears that were making her eyes bright.
"Use your brain, you idiot asshole!" She yelled, "A PUDDING?! A pudding shaped like a CASTLE? It's like you decided to serve me all my worst nightmares on a plate!"
"Worst nightmares?" Sanji asked again, still perplexed. A pudding... a castle... what was it about them that scared Nami so?
In Bege's stomach... could it be?
The Groom will be the third son of the Vinsmoke family, Sanji, and his bride... will be the 36th daughter of the Charlotte Family, Pudding!
"What was your worst nightmare, Nami-san?"
"You know," Nami muttered, turning away from him and heading for the door.
Sanji was officially fed up. Fed up with her running away from him, fed up with hurting her and not knowing why, and, most of all, fed up with Nami avoiding him all the time. Each avoidance, each slight, each glance away was a slash in the death of a thousand cuts his heart was suffering.
"No, Nami-san, I don't know!" Sanji growled, advancing on her. He could see her struggling to get the door open. Robin must be holding it from the other side. He should really make Robin-chan a really big coffee cake afterwards.
Nami's back stiffened, no doubt from the tone. Sanji, the impeccable gentleman, had never spoken to her like that before. Sanji was past caring. He'd pissed her off for a reason he didn't understand. At least if she got mad at him for being rude, he'd know why to grovel.
"I don't know what I've done, Nami-san, that's upset you so much. I don't know why a pudding shaped like a castle, Nami-san, is your worst nightmare," he growl, each carefully measured step bringing him closer to the stiff line of her back. He wanted to stroke that line, to pet her and make her relaxed and happy again, but he couldn't. So he placed both hands on either side of her head, against the door, to cage her in between his arms.
God, he wanted to touch her.
"I don't know why you won't even look at me anymore, Nami-san," He whispered, his broken heart in his voice. His low tone sent shivers down that rigid, beautiful back. "Please tell me how I can make us right again. Please, just get mad at me and tell me what's wrong. Please just look at me again, Nami-san. Please."
Slowly, she turned.
Nami noticed when she burst out laughing. She couldn't help it, she really couldn't.
There she was, trying desperately to hide the tears running down her face from him, and there he was, begging her to turn around, and when she did...
She couldn't stop laughing. He just looked so ridiculous!
Nami had pretty good aim, and the pudding had hit him straight in the face. While most of it had fallen off, there were still oddly shaped bits stuck all over Sanji's face and hair (it really had been a big pudding). His cigarette had been put out by the dessert, so it hung limply out of his mouth. Some of the sugar flags stuck out at weird angles in his bangs, and there was a sugar ribbon rainbow, perched, implausibly and incongruously jauntily, on his hair. Those pudding accessories and the adorably embarrassed and confused expression on his face made the serious moment dissolve, and Nami dissolve into giggles along with it.
Sanji turned bright crimson to the roots of his blond hair. He sank to his heels, hid his face between his knees and raked a distracted hand through his bangs, only to pull out a couple of half-melted straw hats flags with his hand. He groaned even louder.
"I'm so... ahahaha... so sorry... hehe..., Sanji-kun," Nami choked out between giggles, sitting back against the galley door for support.
Sanji peeked through those sugar covered bangs at her, and gave her a sheepish smile, "I'm glad you're smiling again, Nami-san."
This got her to sober down like nothing else could. Nami looked away again, but Sanji's voice snapped out, steelier if still gentle "Please look at me, Nami-san. I'd gladly smash a hundred puddings into my face if it'd make you laugh, but I think we might be here for a while if I did."
This got another wry smile from the navigator, and she looked at him hesitantly. God, this was so embarrassing, and she must look like such a wreck.
"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Sanji, however, smiled with relief, and slowly, hesitatingly, ran a knuckle down her cheek.
His touch made her shiver. She blushed and looked downwards again, "It is."
"Why, Nami-san? Please tell me why?"
She wanted to refuse. She wanted to bury her head in her knees and not come up again until he left her alone or Robin opened the door and let her escape. She wanted to do anything but respond. But the utter depth of sadness and loneliness in his voice pushed her to respond. She never meant to hurt him.
"Because I'm scared, Sanji," She whispered, "I'm scared you'll leave us again, or push us away like you did out of Bege's Castle-Castle fruit fortress, or go off and marry some beautiful pirate princess called Pudding. I'm scared you'll leave me alone again."
"Oh, Nami," Nami felt herself being pulled in against his strong chest. She could hear his heart beating, fast, like hers, "I'm a big idiot. But I came back, didn't I? I promised I would."
"Yeah, but it scares me that I was so scared of you leaving me. I was more scared than when Robin left us in Water 7." Sanji said nothing, but Nami felt herself instinctively seek comfort by burrowing deeper into his embrace.
"You're... special, Sanji. I... I think I love you, and it ... scares me," Her last words were a whispered confession against his chest. She prayed he hadn't heard, but by the way he suddenly grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back so he could look at her face told her he had.
She almost flinched, the look in his eyes was so intense. "Say it again, Nami-san."
"Wh-What?" She stammered, unable to pull her eyes away from his searing blue gaze. His grip on her shoulders wasn't bruising, but it was immovable.
"Say it again." He repeated, searching for something, she didn't know what, in her eyes.
"N-No," She stammered. God, how had she even said it in the first place?
"Nami, please do not take back the words I think I've been waiting my whole, utterly besotted life to hear you say. I've been in love with you since the moment I saw you in the Baratie," His hands shook on her shoulders, but the grip still didn't bruise. She almost wanted to smile at that. Typical, chivalrous Sanji, even in the grip of his emotions.
"Really?" She asked, in a small voice, "You mean it? Even with all the other girls? Even with... Violet?"
Sanji looked like he wanted to bang his head against the galley door. "Nami, I was raised to be kind to women, to appreciate their gentleness and beauty and strength. But Nami, you're not just a woman to me, you're my goddess. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you, including ignoring all other women for the rest of my life, if you'd just love me."
A watery giggle escaped her lips. The thought of Sanji ignoring all other women was just too absurd, and besides, she kind of liked that side of him. If she was being honest, she loved it, like every other facet of his personality that made him the warm, strong, funny, sweet, gentleman he was.
"You don't have to do that, Sanji-kun." Hesitantly, she went up on her knees so they were at the same height, and leaned in to nibble a bit of the pudding off his cheek. His skin was warm under her lips, "I love you anyways."
Sanji stared at her for a long, blank moment, like she'd given him the moon and he didn't know what to do with it, or like she'd hit him on the head with a real thousand ton hammer. It was long enough to make her blush even redder. Jeez, was she going to have to do everything?
She leaned in again, plucking the lip cigarette from his mouth. This time, she was going for his lips, not his cheek. It was just the merest brush of lips, the lightest touch held for longest of eternities, until Sanji realized that yes, all of his dreams were really coming true, and it was really Nami kissing him in the galley, while they were both sitting on the floor in front of the galley door, and he was getting pudding into her hair.
He decided to worry about the pudding later.
Much, much later, Robin came back to the galley to return the plate that had held the onigiri the other Straw Hats had had for dinner. She'd knocked first, because she could hear the giggling through the door, but when she entered, Nami-san was sitting at the counter, and Sanji was busy at the stove, whipping up a late dinner. The galley was sparkling clean, and there wasn't a bit of pudding left anywhere, except...
"Dinner will be ready in a bit, Robin-chan. You can tell the other bastards five minutes," Sanji called from the stove. Robin pretended she couldn't see him surreptitiously wiping his cheek with a towel.
"Alright. Everything okay?" She raised her eye at the younger woman, who blushed, but nodded. Oh good.
"Nami-san?" Robin lifted an eyebrow, then motioned to a dollop of pudding on the young woman's cleavage, "You might want to clean that up first."
IT'S SO FLUFFY I COULD DIE. I had to stop and blush several times, and honestly I stopped worrying about being in character after about half way through. How do you write two characters falling in love from a manga where the creator has absolutely denied any romance during the series? Iunno, man. I hope I did it justice though!
This was written to help me cope with the feels (and vague terrors) I have of WCI (like Oda-sensei entirely sinking the Sanami ship). Sanji had better come back without a bride, guys, or I swear to god I'm going to explode in sad, mopey, fanfiction and inflict a great deal of fictional pain onto Pudding. I also wanted to write it from a "See? An intercrew romance could work without tearing down any other crew members" could work,
And yes, this is the first of four sweets related stories, so look forward to more later (once my cheeks cool down ^^")! Also, fair warning, this may go M (in the oblique references to bed-bouncing way, not the violent way) in the future (depends on how the next chapter turns out).