Whew, first One Piece story!
Disclaimer: If piggies had wings they would take flight, if sluggies had spines they would stand upright. If I owned Odo's golden One Piece, well I don't so... stop bugging me, sheesh!
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"Ah, just what I needed in the morning...thank you, Sanji!" Nami smiled at him over the rim of her cup. Sanji grinned back.
"You are too welcome, Miss Nami! Oh, how I love to see such a beautiful smile grace the face of the lovely Miss Nami!" He twirled around in the air, balancing the tray of drinks precariously on his slim fingertips.
'How does he do that?' Nami wondered to herself as she ignored him and looked in her drawer for her compass.
"Looking for this, Miss Nami?!" Sanji held the compass out to her, still grinning. He looked a tiny bit creepy.
"Ah, yes, thank you," Nami arched her brows and took the tool, grimacing as their fingers touched each other...just a little bit. "Um, and could you bring me a doughnut? I'm..."
Nami had barely finished her sentence when she noticed Sanji was out the door. She cringed. The Going Merry's new chef had a thing for her, she was sure of it. And she was also sure she didn't want to have a relationship with that guy.
Nami blew eraser shavings off her newly sketched map, and proceeded to drag the pencil on the paper, straight against a ruler. She hadn't finished 6 inches of the new line when Sanji burst through the door, carrying a tray laden with doughnuts, coffee, and one giant sugar jar. He froze at attention next to her desk, and quickly set the tray down...on top of her map. He then placed a plate to the right of her elbow, filled a cup with coffee and spooned two sugars into it, and offered it to her. When she didn't take it, he set it down beside what she assumed must be her doughnut plate. He then grabbed a plate for himself, with a cup of black coffee, put three doughnuts on the plate, and looked around for a spare chair.
He found one, a dusty, pink one in the corner, and placed it in front of his plate, directly opposite her seat. Then he plonked himself down in the chair, clasped his hands together, and rested his chin on them. He now stared directly into her eyes.
During all this, Nami only sat bewildered in her desk chair. She could see now his intent was to share breakfast with her, which she didn't really want to do. Sanji had only joined the crew about, oh, thirteen hours ago, and Nami could already see he was going to be a perpetual nuisance to her.
"Sanji, I don't..." Nami began, but, of course, Sanji began speaking at exactly the same moment as her.
"Do you mind if..." Sanji and Nami both stopped speaking at the same time, waited a little bit, then spoke again...at exactly the same time.
"You go ahead!" Nami burst out as soon as this had happened the third time. She really wanted to finish this map before Luffy, Zoro and Usopp woke up. How early was it, anyway?
"Oh, no, Miss Nami. Ladies first, I insist," Sanji grinned at her again. The grin was creepy, Nami decided. Best to get him out of here as soon as possible, let him speak first.
"No really, I don't mind. Please, finish what you were about to say." Nami moved her coffee cup from the near center of her map. Argh! The cup left a ring stain! Noooooo!
"Whatever you wish, Miss Nami. Can I smoke in here?" Nami glared at him, though not for the reason he thought.
"You smoke?" Nami tried to control her temper, but the coffee stain! Aaaaah!
"If it is a problem, I will quit immediately, Miss Nami."
"No, it's not that, I just... can't have breakfast with you right now, I'm sorry, I have to finish this map and IT'S GOT A COFFEE STAIN ON IT YOU BIG LUMMOX! GET OUTTA HERE!!! AAAAAAAH, MY MAP IS RUINED!!!"
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Zoro woke up to the sound of smashing glassware.
"Ugh, what time izzit? Too early for Marines..." He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "Well, ought to see what's breaking the dishes up in here..."
Zoro groggily sat up on his futon and lazily looked around for his swords. "Ah, c'mere youze guys," he slurred through his pounding headache. "Time to go fight crime and whatever..." His arms reached out to grab his swords, but they missed. "Stoppit, running away..." Zoro snorted. "Youze guys aren't cowards, are ya? Let's go!"
Reaching out once again, he stretched too far and fell on Usopp, who opened his eyes when his body realised it wasn't taking in enough oxygen.
"WAAAAH! The great captain Usopp is under attack! Zoro! Luffy! Save your captain!" Usopp screeched, struggling to take in air.
Zoro felt a rock punch him in the back. (It was only Luffy's fist, but he couldn't tell at the time.) He swung up and around, off of Usopp, and began blindly slicing through the air without his swords. His fist connected with something hard, and he staggered back and fell, on his futon once again. Suddenly the wind was knocked out of him, and he was asleep.
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"Hey, it was Zoro. I wonder why he was trying to attack you, Usopp." Luffy whipped his arm back into place, and began searching for his clothes. It must have been hot last night, because his vest and shorts were in the corner of the cabin. They were very wrinkly.
"You idiot. Obviously Zoro was trying to attack me because I have superior weapons. He wanted my secret building plans to build my ultimate super ketchup-powered blasto star rubber-band ring! And he thought he could get them while I was asleep, but no sir! I'll tell you what I did to him, yeah!
Luffy's eyes grew wide as he zippered up his shorts. "What did you do?!"
"I really wasn't asleep, you see! I heard him with my ears, coming closer and closer... he was about to take my plans!"
"And then what happened!?" Luffy exclaimed while he pulled his vest over his head.
"I took my sharp blade knife that I always carry in my sock, and I stabbed him in his black, holey heart!" Usopp jumped up and down on his mattress, pointing at Zoro excitedly. "And now he's dead!" Usopp bounced off his futon and pointed his thumb at himself. "I am the great captain Usopp, destroyer of evil and killer of those who would dare take my plans!"
"Wow! That's awesome!" Luffy slipped his feet into his sandals. "Then what happened!?"
"I...uh...that story is over!" Usopp said, clapping his hands over his head. "It's time for the great captain Usopp to eat a nutritious breakfast, because he is starving!" And with that final note, Usopp tugged on his shoes and left for the mess hall. Luffy was left in the cabin, replaying Usopp's story in his head.
"Wait a minute. Wait for it...wait for it.... AH! Zoro is dead! AH! Usopp!!!! I'm gonna kill you!" Luffy raced out of the cabin, running smack into a certain red-haired navigator, who just so happened to be carrying a mug of hot coffee and several completed maps.
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Zoro was again jolted awake by a blood-curdling scream. He leaped up and promptly hit his head on the ceiling of the cabin, the impact of which knocked him to the floor. He was asleep once more.
In the kitchen, where Sanji was advising Usopp against taking a second helping of the fried kippers, the chef and 'great captain' froze upon hearing the scream. Then Usopp was cowering under the dining table, and Sanji was wielding a rather large butcher knife and dashing out the door, wailing a high-pitched "MISS NAMI!"
On the first deck, directly below the bathing room, Nami was drenched in very hot coffee and nursing third degree burns. She hadn't seen her maps yet. Luffy was staring at a shard of glass that was about two inches deep into his arm. He had sticky hot coffee in his hair, on his vest and on his pants. There were also little bits of glass sticking on and in his skin. He sort of glittered in the morning sun, what with all the little bits of glass stuck all over him.
"Hmm," Luffy mused, looking unconcernedly at the largest piece of glass in his arm. "I'll just pull this out..."
Nami's head snapped up to yell the bejesus out of him, but stopped short when she saw he was about to pull a rather large glass piece out of his basilic vein.
"Luffy! Stop! That's not...!" Nami bit her tongue as Luffy took the thing out of his upper arm.
"What was that, Nami?" Luffy asked before blood started spurting out near his shoulder. "AAAAHHH! What the hell!?" Luffy's eyes bugged out of his head when he saw the thick river of blood flowing down his arm. "Who did this to me?!"
"Luffy, you idiot! What the hell were you thinking!" Nami ran over to him and pressed her hand against his bloody wound. Luffy gasped.
"Nami, what the hell! That hurts! Stop!" He twisted sharply and Nami fell on the deck, which was studded with glassy bits. Then something even more horrible happened.
Sanji had been running down the stairs to the lower deck, carrying the butcher knife, intent on slicing up the thing that was 'hurting' Nami. Unfortunately, he was running too fast and subsequently slipped on the waxy stairs, the cleaver shooting out of his hands. He tried to grab it back, but now it was in free fall, hurtling toward something lying motionless on the lower deck.
Nami felt a sharp sting in the middle of her back, choked, coughed up blood. Everything seemed a little hazy. The floor was glittering, sparkling... and now she was on it, fully pressing her face against the glitter. She heard a faint, "Nami," before the darkness swallowed her sight. She sighed, then was silent.
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Sanji stood outside of Nami's door, dark, unmoving. Luffy was sitting next to Sanji's frame, his features as dark as Sanji's. Zoro was standing on the opposite side of the door, adjacent to Sanji and Luffy. His eyes were narrowed and his hand was on the hilt of his favorite sword. There was a Marine ship approaching.
It was twilight; the sky was shifting between a purple-pink and violet-blue. The waves broke roughly against the hull of the Going Merry, urging it on to the enemy ship. The ship's adorning figurine, a ram's head, sweat-dropped.
Sanji reached slowly into his pocket, withdrew a match. He struck it against the clapboards behind him, raised it to the cigarette situated comfortably between his lips. He flicked the match to the floor, ground the flame out with his heel. He took a long draw on the cigarette, removed it from his teeth and blew a funnel of smoke. Then he leaned again on the side of Nami's cabin, eyes fixed on the horizon.
Luffy sat, cross-legged, hands flat against the floor. The salty sea wind tossed his black hair across his forehead. His upper arm was bandaged crudely with sailing cloth, to be looked at the next time the Straw-Hats made port. His wound had sealed itself up with congealed blood, black and green, and if one were to remove the cloth to look at it, whether or not he was a trained doctor, he most surely would have been sick. The wind whipped about his vest and shorts, making the material ripple. His dark black eyes were staring at the Marine ship. following it as it came closer and closer. His trademark straw hat was not on his head, but currently being 'borrowed' by a certain ginger-haired crew member.
Zoro didn't think Nami was in serious danger of dying. But then, when had he ever had an accurate definition of pain and death, himself? Zoro saw movement out of the corner of his eyes, but didn't have to move his head to know the cook was taking a smoke. Disgusting habit, he thought, while reaching into his pocket for his green and black bandana. He was sure, even though Nami was currently venerable, that Luffy would order the crew to attack the Marine ship. Best to be prepared for that time. Hell, he was ready to go right now! He swiftly tied the bandana around his head and over his eyes. 'Any second now,' Zoro thought to himself, 'Marine mince-meat.'
Usopp, not outside, was sitting on the chair beside Nami's bed. She had insisted he build her one, since he was such a skilled carpenter. She was on her back, the cleaver still in what he guessed to be her most vital vertebrae. Well, of course they hadn't taken it out! She would've died! Instead, they had, very carefully, carried her up and laid her on her stomach on her bed. Well, Zoro and Sanji had. Luffy was then being tended to by Usopp, and anyway, Usopp didn't want to see the...giant....cleaver... in Nami's back.
Sanji had stayed with Nami about 4 hours, and the others could hear him quietly sobbing. They knew she was still alive, but just. They had to get to a doctor quickly. Usopp had estimated that Nami had 3 days before she, um, passed on.
Zoro was in and out of the cabin in about 10 minutes. Usopp hadn't figured him for an emotional type anyway, but Sanji had glared at him all through dinner and still wasn't speaking to him.
Luffy had stayed about 2 hours, then had come out with the most horrifying expression Usopp had ever seen. Then he had plonked himself next to her cabin door and hadn't moved until Sanji pushed him aside a little so he, Sanji, was directly outside her door.
Usopp had volunteered to sit with her last. He didn't know Nami, really. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. It wasn't that he didn't like her, it was just, they were more acquaintances than real friends. They didn't exchange a lot of words aboard the ship, and he hardly saw her during the day. She was always in her study, drawing those maps. She actually was a pretty good navigator and he admired her skills.
Usopp didn't know about the marine ship, coming quietly closer. He was staring at the cleaver, sticking out of her back. He wondered what it felt like, then hurriyngly turned his thoughts away from such a morbid situation. The great captain Usopp! Who would ever put a knife in his back?
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"The marine ship is coming close. Luffy, do you want me to handle it?" the sword in his mouth muffled his words a tiny bit, but Sanji and Luffy could hear him perfectly clearly.
Luffy didn't turn his head towards Zoro to answer him. "Yeah. But, Zoro, if even one Marine makes it on the Going Merry alive, I won't touch him."
Sanji cocked his head at the captain, somewhat bemused. "But if the Marines come over here and we don't attack them, they're going to seize the ship," Sanji's eyes then bugged out of his head, and he started flailing his arms all around. "And if they seize the ship, we'll all be captives! And if we're all captives, Nami won't be able to see a doctor! And if Nami can't see...!"
Zoro bopped Sanji over the head with his fist. "Be quiet, Ero-Cook, the captain knows what he's doing." Sanji shot him a look.
"Ero-cook? Where'd yah get that, Marimo? A children's fairy tale?"
Now Zoro shot Sanji a look. "I said, shut up, Ero-Cook." Sanji narrowed his eyes.
"I'll take care of them all, Luffy. No need to worry. I'll be back before you can say...um... 'ぽおいういえゔぁ'.
"Well, what the hell does that mean?" Sanji asked, not following Zoro's line of logic.
"I'm not quite sure, myself. However, I will slay each and every one of those marines aboard that ship. You have my word." Zoro readied himself to make the flying leap onto the marine ship. It was going to be a wide jump, but he could do it. He knew he could.
Before Zoro made his leap of faith, Luffy said to him, "Aren't you going to ask me why I won't touch them?"
Zoro, prepared to take the jump, replied very simply, "No." And with that, he mounted the ship's railing, crouched down, and sprang like a rocket towards the Marine ship, which was directly across from the Going Merry.
Zoro landed on his feet, and crouched down for the second time in ten seconds, adjusted himself so that any moment he could stand up and start slaughtering people. Oh, correction: Marines.
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In Nami's cabin, where Usopp had been sitting in a chair beside Nami's bedside for (though he did not know it) one hour, she woke up.
And a bomb slammed into the keel of the ship.
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What do you think? Should I continue it?