~I do not own the wonderful Straw Hats or the One Piece universe; I'm only borrowing it from the Great Eiichiro Oda.
~I also do not own the amazing image used for this story. It's created by the amazing IamAsami and called (very fitingly) "Look Into My Heart." Thank you, IamAsami for giving me permission to use it for my story! IT'S perfect!~~Without further ado, enjoy!
Hi Everyone! Thank you so much for such a response! I'm so glad so many of you have reviewed, followed, and favorited this story in such a short period of time. It really has made my week ^_^. Because of that, here's another chapter for you. I hope you like it more or at least just as much as the first chapter. Things are starting to heat up-har har. Also, apologies to poor Sanji. LOL. We still have some more chapters to go, so please review and I'll keep writing :3. For those of you whose reviews I didn't respond to personally, thank you so so much for the reviews. Enjoy!
for reference:"sugoi" is the phoentic for the japanese phrase what we all know Luffy says when he sees something he finds 'cool' or 'awesome' like a ridiculously huge fish, etc. I thought about just putting cool, but it doesn't have the same ring to it as when Luffy yells "SUGOIIIIIIIII" in the middle of the anime (especially when everyone else is usually terrified of the giant fish he finds so cool). LOL. Those moments are some of my favorites :D
Chapter II: Lunch
It was early afternoon and the entirety of the Mugiwara crew was out on the lower deck in the grass enjoying the perfect summer climate they were in for the next island they were approaching on the Grand Line.
Enjoyment is relative of course, as Franky was on the roof of the kitchen and galley repairing the head shaped hole Sanji erupted out of earlier in the day because of the "bacon erotica incident," aka Nami's bizarre behavior, as Usopp was helping him hold fresh boards of wood down as he secured them.
"I never knew that bacon could cause a woman to have such a reaction." Usopp pondered as he helped Franky.
Franky nodded his agreement.
"Well, my Nico Robin is always telling me how much she loves my SUPPERR beefcake." Franky winked.
Usopp sweatdropped and muttered "hentai."
Franky looked up from his work nailing the roof.
"Did someone call me?"
Usopp sighed.
Robin, who was seated in the sun in a bathing suit with an umbrella providing shade for her face, was the closest to where Usopp and Franky were working on the roof; she giggled lightly as she overheard their conversation. With Sanji still very much out of commission, perhaps the most noticeable side-effect from the "breakfast-bacon-erotica" incident, Robin had made some iced tea for everyone, herself included.
Robin relaxed happily as she half-read in her chair and half-watched the rest of the crew enjoy the weather. She was, of course, paying particular attention to the Captain and the Navigator, who were, at present, on opposite ends of the deck . . .
Luffy and Brook both had large glasses of said iced-tea beside them as they sat at the railing with their feet dangling in-between the railing poles. They were attempting to fish, but mostly just pointing at the clouds that resembled people they knew and making fun of those people as a result.
"HAH! That cloud looks like Nami-san!" Brook pointed at an hour-glass-shaped cloud.
"SUGOIII! NAMI-CLOUD!" Luffy yelled and proceeded to scare away any fish that were anywhere near their fishing bait in the water.
Brook gestured politely to the cloud.
"Nami-cloud, could you perhaps show me your panties?" Luffy burst into his loud, signature laugh.
To Robin's eye, their Captain seemed to bear no side effects from the incident at breakfast, although, he was also the last to leave the kitchen table this morning too. She smiled as she thought of how well Luffy could hide his reaction, when to Robin's eyes, his was the most powerful out of the entire crew. Her smile grew as she turned to the other side of the deck to observe the rest of the crew, Nami in particular . . .
Zoro was lounging in a corner in the shade of the swing-tree against the railing on the grass of the lower deck and polishing his swords whilst sipping on some sake.
Not a few feet from him, Chopper had Sanji still hooked up to one more blood bag and some saline solution in the complete shade of the swing tree. Nami sat with them in the grass and helped Chopper keep Sanji cool.
Her motives were not entirely altruistic, of course. She had her own goals in mind.
From her position in her lounge chair, Robin had more than an inkling as to what Nami was plotting this time. She couldn't help but chuckle lightly to herself. She only hoped Luffy would still be able to maintain control. Because when he finally loses his cool . . .Robin bit her lip as she thought of the implications. She turned her head and caught Franky's eye up on the roof of the galley. Being the man he was, he was more than familiar with that face on his Robin-so he winked at her. For now, Robin returned to her book.
Meanwhile, Sanji, who was just waking up from his boobies-induced blood-loss coma, now found himself in heaven. The first thing his eyes met was Nami's face.
"Nami-sschhhwann." He mumbled quietly as he opened his eyes. He felt all the blood rush to his head again as his nostrils flared and he sniffed some 'real lady.'
"Nami! Give Sanji some space for a minute!" Chopper inserted his face between Nami and Sanji's line of sight to try to protect his patient. Nami leaned back and nodded in sudden understanding. Sanji whimpered at the loss of Nami's face from his line of sight.
"Let's rehabilitate him using some less powerful images. Go sit behind us." Nami followed Chopper's direction obediently and went to sit out of Sanji's line of sight behind his head. Chopper pulled out some flash cards and a mirror from his pocket. He put the mirror in the grass for now and sorted through the flash cards.
"Let's see. . .something easy to help staunch more bleeding. Yes! This one!" He mumbled with certainty as his little hooves chose a flash card out of the pile. He turned it and put it in front of Sanji's eyes.
It was a picture of Luffy picking his nose.
"THAT'S NOT A LADY!" Sanji yelled in annoyance from his prone position in the grass.
But, it had the desired effect that Chopper was looking for, as Sanji's face changed from pervs-r-us, which usually indicates another imminent nosebleed, to slight disgruntlement.
"Yes, Sanji! It's not; now, try to calm down and not obsess so much on the image of a lady with this next image." Chopper put the picture of Luffy back in the pile and put the next picture in front of Sanji's face.
It was a stick figure with big eyelashes and boobs (really, just strategically-albeit crappily-placed circles) on it.
"L-l-l-lady?" Sanji's face twitched a bit in an attempt to switch back to pervert mode.
"DEEP BREATHS SANJI! Nice deep breaths!" Chopper put a hoof on Sanji's shoulder consolingly and watched as Sanji was able to subdue his reaction.
"Good job, Sanji! OK, time to pick a harder image this time. . ." Chopper fumbled through the pile. "Where did I put that one?" He leaned over as he searched for it. "AH! This one! OK, Sanji, I want you to close your eyes for me first and take three nice deep breaths before I show you this one. When I say so, open your eyes."
Sanji did as he was told and closed his eyes and started some deep breaths. But, while Sanji was focusing on his inner peace, Chopper dropped the card. Meanwhile, a certain irritated swordsman had sauntered over from his seat nearby.
"YES!" Chopper yelled when he finally managed to pick the card back up. Unfortunately, Sanji mistook that for the signal to open his eyes.
However, to his surprise and dismay, Sanji was not greeted with the face of a female on a flashcard upon opening his eyes, but 360-degrees of Roronoa Zoro as he shoved his face in front of Sanji.
"Hey, shit-swirl-eyebrow. Did you actually train for these past two years? Or did you just bleed all over the place?"
"DEFINITELY NOT A LADY! FUCK-FACE MARIMO!" Sanji roared and attempted to kick Zoro in the head from his still prone position. Zoro twitched, itching to fight. Chopper turned into heavy-point and grabbed them both. The flashcards flew all over the deck.
"That's enough! Sanji is still recovering!" Chopper yelled.
From behind them, Nami, who had witnessed the entire performance, face-palmed repeatedly. Noticing that Chopper wasn't having much success in subduing either Zoro or Sanji, she irritatingly took matters into her own hands and punched Zoro and Sanji thoroughly over the head.
Chopper breathed a sigh of relief and switched back into brain point.
"Damn devil woman!" Zoro muttered as he rubbed the large bump on his head and went back to his seat and his sake, scowling at Nami and Sanji the whole way.
"Thanks, Nami! I'm going to go get some more saline solution. I'll be right back. Watch Sanji for me. O! But, try to talk to him using the mirror so he doesn't look at you." With that Chopper scurried toward his work space.
With his vision swimming once again for the time being because of his new bump, Sanji muttered from his still prone position in the grass.
"Nami-schwwannn!" Sanji cried pathetically. Picking up the mirror, Nami handed it to Sanji.
"Sanji-kun?" He moved to attempt to turn and look at her. She rolled her eyes and placed her palm over both of his eyes. She could feel him tremble with excitement. She winced for a second thinking he might erupt into the bleeds again.
"NAMI-SCHHWANN! Your perfectly graceful palm is over my eyes. Teeheehee." He giggled in glee.
"Sanji-kun?" She called again gently, amazed at her own patience.
"Hai, Nami-Schwann?" He seemed to be able to handle her palm on his face for now.
"Are you strong enough to hold up this mirror so you can see me behind you?" She held it out to him and positioned it just so he'd be able to see her from her neck up.
"Of course, Nami-Schwann, anything for such a scrumptious lady!" She rolled her eyes one more time and tried to restrain her desire to punch him again. She glanced at the sun's position in the sky. I don't have much time left! Seeing that it was getting closer and closer to when Sanji normally had lunch ready, she knew she had to hurry.
"OK. The mirror is right in front of you. Don't turn around, OK? I'm going to take my hand off of your eyes." He nodded in understanding and she slowly removed her hand. He reached for the mirror.
Once he had the mirror steady and in position, Nami could see herself and about ½ of Sanji's face in the mirror's image from her spot sitting behind his head. She saw the mirror start to fog up with all the heavy breathing Sanji was doing staring at her partial, indirect image. He started to tilt the mirror to get a view of her boobs. Her eyebrow twitched as she reached out to right the mirror and flick him in the back of the head.
"DON'T MOVE the mirror or I'll make Zoro come back over here and pull down his pants and-!" He interrupted her in a panic and immediately put the mirror back in its prior position.
"SORRY NAMI-SCWANN! PLEASE Don't make me look at anything but you right now, ESPECIALLY not dirty marimo-" She put her hand over Sanji's mouth this time as she glanced over at Zoro who was giving her one evil eye-with his one good eye. She turned back to her quarry.
"OK. Sanji-kun! Can you do me a favor?" Seeing that he was back to focusing on her, she removed her hand.
"Anything for you my beauty." He eyed her lovingly in the mirror.
"I want to help you by making lunch for everyone. Can you tell me the best way to barbeque that sea king meat?" Sanji's face lit up. His Nami-Schwann wanted to help him cook when he was ill!? He really had gone to heaven. He proceeded to explain everything in great detail. And Nami proceeded to make careful mental notes and ask questions-batting her eyes and blushing as much as possible for effect.
From her position in her lawn chair still mostly reading and not eavesdropping, Nico Robin's smile expanded as she overheard Nami; sea king meat is Luffy's favorite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Not twenty minutes later, after Nami had finished pumping Sanji for details on cooking the sea king meat, and discovered that he had already prepared some cold side dishes for today's lunch last night, she had a small barbeque grill set up on the lawn of the lower deck and a sort of impromptu picnic spread out for everyone-complete with plates, sides and utensils. She was being very domestic, goddamnit!
Following Sanji's directions she had managed to marinate the meat in a sauce that she knew Luffy had often shown a preference for; something she had also managed to get out of Sanji by feigning interest in his cooking techniques.
Nami sighed in relief, she had just started to cook the meat and the aroma was beginning to fill the air. She knew Luffy would be quick to tune into it. Zoro had already cracked his eye open from his reclining position nearby and seemed to be very interested in what she was cooking himself.
Chopper had moved Sanji inside into one of the cool inner rooms so he could get him out of the hot afternoon sun. Chopper had been asking Nami before if she had been flirting with Sanji while he was inside getting saline solution. He was concerned because "Sanji's temperature had skyrocketed and he had his delirious expression on again."
Nami, of course claimed innocence that she was merely trying to do a nice thing for Sanji by making lunch so that he didn't have to worry about fulfilling his duties for a while so he could rest. The evil smirk she wore for a second indicated otherwise. But, no one had to know about that. She snickered.
She heard movement as the others came over to see what she had set up. The one person she was the most interested in was turning his head and sniffing the air from his former fishing position.
"SANNNJIII I'm HUNNNGRRY!"
Brook and Luffy both stood up while Franky and Usopp jumped down from the roof of the galley. Robin closed her book and also stood up. She went inside to bring out the rest of the iced tea she had made.
Nami turned the first batch of meat on the grill and some fat dripped down causing the flames to flare up. The scent of the cooking sea king meat was now overpowering. From the corner of her eye, she could see Luffy drooling as he made his way over. She had a feeling the glare from the sun was in his eyes so he couldn't exactly tell that she was the one manning the low grill in the deep shade under the swing tree.
"SANNNJJJIIII! WHAT ARE YOU COOKKKING?! SANNNNJJJIIIIII FOOOOODD!" He stumbled over.
"Ehhhh! That smells so good!" Usopp acknowledged as he sat down on the picnic blanket. Franky rubbed his hands together and nodded his head in agreement.
"SANNNNJJJIIII! SANJIIIIII!" Luffy was finally approaching the shade line of the tree. Robin arrived and poured some more iced tea for everyone.
"SANNJJ-ehhh-Nami?" Luffy was now officially under the shade of the tree and could plainly see that it was not in fact Sanji creating such wonderful meat smells, but Nami. He stood frozen in place and stared at her cooking the meat and drooling.
"Nami? Do you need any help preparing anything else?" Robin asked at Nami's elbow.
Nami couldn't help but puff up her chest a bit at feeling so organized to have prepared a meal for her nakama, her Captain especially; she understood a little now why Sanji took such great pleasure in the act.
"Actually, you could go tell Chopper that the food is ready and see if Sanji is well enough to eat something? Thank you, Robin!" Nami smiled at her and Robin smiled back as she did as she was asked.
Zoro stood up from his seat against the railing, collected his sake, dusted himself off, and also took his own place on the picnic blanket.
"It really does smell SUPPERRR amazing, Nami-san!" Franky proclaimed.
Nami blushed a little while Robin returned with Chopper whose little blue nose was dancing in the air as he walked toward the picnic.
"WOW, Nami! You made all this?" Chopper said enthusiastically.
"Not bad, devil woman." Zoro gave her his half-smile
"I cannot wait to eat it Nami-san!" Brook agreed.
Nami was more than a little overwhelmed at all the praise. But, she still had yet to have a much of a reaction from Luffy; he was the one she orchestrated this master plan for anyway.
Luffy still stood there frozen and drooling as he watched Nami cook. Nami grumbled quietly to herself and drizzled more sauce over the meat like she was a seasoned pro. The smoke and aromas from the cooking meat wafted into her face and hair.
"Chopper? Should I make a plate for Sanji?" Nami asked over the heat of the grill. Everyone else had already arranged themselves on the picnic blanket in a semi-circle around the grill and had dished out the cold sides onto each of their plates.
"Sanji's sleeping right now, Nami. I can bring him a plate of your food a little later when he wakes up." Chopper answered with a smile.
Nami smiled dangerously. Good! I'd feel even more guilty if Sanji was still out here. It was bad enough that the poor fool thought she was flirting with him and genuinely interested in cooking. Well, she was interested in cooking, but only as far as she wanted to use it to get Luffy's attention. Speaking of Luffy, Nami looked up from her masterpiece on the grill and eyed her nakama.
For once, they all seemed to be waiting patiently for the chef to finish cooking before eating. Zoro grabbed the plate from the vacant space next to him and dished out a large serving of each of the side dishes.
"Luffy?! What the hell are you doing? Sit down." Zoro muttered as he dished out food for his senchou. Luffy finally snapped out of his daze and took the spot Zoro had gestured to between him and Robin. His spot was exactly opposite Nami while she was cooking, so he sat facing her.
Luffy took the plate Zoro had started to prepare for him and instead of digging into what was there with gusto like he usually did, he waited patiently like the others.
Nami just about dropped the meat tongs when she noticed Luffy's behavior. What the hell is he doing?! Is it not good enough for him!? Although . . .the side dishes do contain a lot of vegetables. . .
Finishing up the sizable sea king steaks, Nami asked for everyone's plates.
Starting with Usopp, who sat on her left side she dished out portions. She made sure to put the biggest and nicest cut of meat on Luffy's plate. Unfortunately, Nami was too busy serving Luffy's plate to notice when his eyes popped out of his head and he gulped when she dropped the steak on his plate. Robin and Franky didn't miss a thing. Even Zoro caught it out of his peripherals.
After she served everyone else, she turned off the grill. Robin came walking over with another plate packed with some of the side dishes.
"Here you are, Nami." Nami took the plate Robin had prepared for her and dropped the last piece of sea king meat onto it with a juicy plop.
"Thanks, Robin." Nami stretched her back and got ready to eat in front of the cooking station.
Robin cocked her head.
"Nami, there's plenty of room next to me." Robin shifted and made room between her and Luffy. Nami stood up and made her way over hoping that the heat from the grill would excuse her blush. Robin eyed her with a knowing smile the whole way, however. I knew she would be meddling sooner or later! Nami grumbled to herself.
As Nami squeezed in between Luffy and Robin, everyone else started to dig in. Luffy shifted slightly.
"This is sooooo good, Nami!" Usopp proclaimed. Everyone else moaned in agreement while they chewed.
Nami turned her head slightly to her left to eye Luffy. He had yet to take a single bite from his plate. His signature straw hat sat low over his face, hiding his eyes. He merely sat there, unmoving, holding his plate as though he were a statue. Nami frowned and took a small bite of her own serving.
"Ehh! It is good!" She muttered proud of herself. She saw several other nods of agreement from around the circle of her nakama.
After she had swallowed her first bite. She almost jumped when saw Luffy pick up his fork-his hands were shaking. IS he angry?! You've gotta be kidding me!
He sliced through the very tender meat agonizingly slowly, cutting a large chunk off of his sizable steak. He stabbed the bite with fierceness that almost made Nami jump again. He froze again with the piece of sea king meat skewered on his fork and as its juices dripped slowly onto his plate.
"Nami." His voice was low and raspy. She blinked at him and blushed. Her heart felt like someone had pulled a string taut right through it.
The silence hung for a moment and she wasn't sure if he would say anything else. It grew around the semicircle of the Straw-Hat Crew until everyone was watching their exchange.
"Thank you." He broke the silence and Nami felt her heart swell to the brim.
She watched as he slowly brought the piece of sea king meat on his fork to his mouth. He opened his lips slowly; the meat making contact with his lower lip first as he slid it inside. A drop of the flavor-rich juice dripped down his lip as he took a bite and chewed slowly, more slowly than anyone had ever seen Luffy chew before. Once he swallowed, his long tongue came out and he slowly licked his bottom lip to capture the drop.
Nami felt rolling fire moving across her senses-down her spine, up her arms, to her ears, to her toes, and collect low in her belly. She was sure that her face must be crimson now.
She trained her eyes back on her plate-unsure that she was capable of continuing to watch Luffy eat without imploding into a pile of goo onto the picnic blanket. There's no way he knew what he was doing there right?
"Oi, Nami, I think he likes it." Franky said quietly from the other side of Robin. He smirked at her. Robin giggled and from the other side of Luffy, Zoro wore a grin. Nami was about as red as a lobster at this point.
Usopp, Chopper, and Brook shrugged, oblivious, and went back to their conversation about Usopp defeating a man-eating hamster.
Luffy continued to eat at his slow pace and everyone else went back their food, Nami included. She didn't dare look in Luffy's direction again until he finished eating. After a few minutes, Nami joined into the conversation with the others, asking pointed questions about this man-eating-hamster.
Despite how slowly he was eating, Luffy still managed to finish eating first-probably because he wasn't participating in any of the conversations going on. His plate thoroughly clean, he stood up, his hat still low on his head.
"Senchou-san? Are you alright?" Robin asked with concern as everyone stopped their conversations for the moment.
Nami flinched and turned her head to look at him. He was standing facing her, not a foot from her. It would be so easy to reach out and touch him. Her blush was back when she saw how he was staring at her with the same intensity from this morning.
He broke the stare as he started to turn away, but as he was turning, he removed his straw hat from his head and placed it gently onto Nami's head. She trembled at the brief contact from his hand through the hat.
"I'll be in the bath." He announced as he walked away slowly and up to the bathhouse. She was momentarily dumbfounded by his behavior and literally wrought speechless.
Zoro chuckled to her left in the now vacant spot Luffy once occupied.
"I bet it'll be a cold bath. . ." he snickered. Robin and Franky both chuckled.
Nami, unable to process much of anything right now completely missed Zoro's reference. He said thank you, and gave me his hat, but he didn't want my leftovers, and he ate it so slowly. Does that mean he liked it or he hated it?
Clearly incapable of any logical or rational thought anymore, Nami started to clean up with everyone else's help.
Upstairs in the bathhouse, Luffy had stripped down and was breathing heavily as he turned on the cold water. His skin was on fire and he was trembling with need. His hyper-aware senses (especially now that he was an apt user of all three kinds of Haki) were flooded with stimulus.
He had managed to remove himself from the most powerful one, Nami herself, but the overwhelming smell of the rich aroma of sea king meat was intermingled and burned into his nostrils with Nami's own sweet scent. She downright reeked of the meat as she had been standing in its smoke while she was cooking.
That alone would have normally been enough to send Luffy over the edge. But, that coupled with his usual magnetic attraction to her and, most importantly, the fact that she had cooked for him and Luffy would need a few hours to find release and right himself.
He decided on thing, however, he was not holding back anymore come dinnertime.
~~~~So what did you think? Review please ~HUGS, ClumsyPink
