ZoNa Summer Festival
Theme: Skinny Dipping
Rating: T / PG-13
Word Count: 2,175 words
'I think everyone is finally asleep!' Nami thought, brimming with excitement. Sitting in her plush pink robe in at the vanity in the Women's Quarters, she eyed Robin's slumbering form to make sure that she wouldn't be caught sneaking out. Her plan was rather elaborate and she couldn't risk even one person catching her in the act.
Maneuvering her body to get out of the chair, she tiptoed over to the door the moment she knew she was safe and slipped out like a thief in the night. She couldn't help but smile as she regarded the way that the full moon's beams washed over the different decks of the Sunny.
They were docked.
The water was calm.
It was the best time for her to go for a swim.
Nami rushed down the stairs from the second floor, past the Men's Quarters on the first, and threw open the latch to the Soldier Dock System with all of her might. She acted as if the grass on the lawn deck was hiding a spring system when she leapt down through the opening instead of making use of the ladder. Her landing was a bit heavy due to the height of her fall, but the ocean breeze that greeted her was kind enough to rid her of any lingering worries.
The view from the open channel was so gorgeous. Nami had orchestrated the entire day so that she would be responsible for closing the gate, only to leave it open in the event that she was brave enough to go for a swim in the sea. Nevermind the large bath tub the Sunny had, or the inflatable pool she could have blown up and attached to the ship. When the ocean was calm on such a calm night, she was eager to take advantage of the opportunity for a dip in the waters.
Naked.
Nami dropped her pink robe and immediately looked over her shoulder. "Relax," she told herself, trying to sound confident in order to get ride of any lingering shyness. "After an entire day of planning this, it'd be a shame to turn back now."
She knew she was right, so to silence her nervousness, she just had to throw herself in.
Nami stepped over the ropes that tied her waver to the walls of Channel 1. The leaping motion felt like a countdown: one, two, and then three! She threw her nude body off of the small dock and dove into the freezing cold waters of the ocean gleefully. The chilly temperature couldn't diminish the thrill she was experiencing.
In fact, she braved the lazy tide and paddled her legs behind her. It was rather dark under the crest of the waves, yet the full moon made the surface glow with a welcoming light that encouraged her to swim wherever she liked, knowing that she could emerge for a breath whenever she needed it.
For someone who regularly wore as little as she did, it was still completely freeing to feel the underwater current run over her bare nipples. It grazed her inner thighs softly while she kicked through the still waters and she couldn't help but notice that it tickled. It was a much more sensual experience than she had ever known - especially in comparison to the kiddie pool she enjoyed once with Brook - which made her feel a surge of gratitude towards herself, that she had taken the plunge to do something so crazy.
Nami rolled around weightless before she rose to the surface. Breathing heavily, her hands reflexively flew to her bangs and threw them back. The droplets traveling down her neck and over her breasts caught her attention and she suddenly found them fascinating. There was no colorful fabric concealing her body. It was just her bare skin glistening in the moonlight as she waded in the sea. She loved herself, that was no secret. Nevertheless, nothing could quite compare to sensation of floating bare naked in the ocean, with no one to ogle her or stare at her lewdly while she appreciated herself.
A rather loud splash startled her out of her pleasant daze and the once proudly nude woman hide her breasts with her arms. It didn't take much for her to spot the residual spray of whatever had collided with the surface of the sea: someone had jumped off of the Sunny to join her!
'Please don't be Sanji-kun! Please not Sanji-kun!'
"Ah!" She screamed, startled when a pair of hands grabbed onto her waist from underwater. There were massive and somehow still rough despite being submerged-
'Is that…?'
"What," bellowed an infuriated Roronoa Zoro as he revealed himself by shooting up out of the water like he was some territorial demon planning to kidnap her. "The hell are you doing!? Swimming out here at night?"
Her nakedness was still on her mind, but she also never backed down from taking on a disgruntled Zoro. "I'm fine, you idiot! Who jumps off of a ship like that!?"
"Well I had to make sure you weren't drowning!" He asserted.
"I" - intentional or not, his grip tightened when he mentioned her drowning and her thighs pressed themselves together for some reason she couldn't comprehend - "wasn't drowning! I just went for a swim! Naked, by the way!"
That response stole the wind from his sails instantly. "N-Naked?"
"Yeah! I'm skinny dipping! And you're ruining it by inserting your-"
"Hey! Who's down there!?"
Another person had discovered her not-so-secret swim and Nami was furious. It sounded like it could have been Sanji, but she didn't have the chance to determine whether or not she was correct.
Zoro placed a swift hand on her head and shoved her under the surface. Nami was startled by his rash action, compelling her to claw at him in protest. It didn't matter if he as protecting her from the one person she didn't want to know she was swimming in her birthday suit, she-
When her nails snagged the rim of Zoro's pants, Nami realized that he wasn't taking advantage of the skinny-dipping moment.
She felt like a fiend and it was oh so easy to embrace that side of her. Instead of clawing at him in contempt, her sneaky hands grabbed at the excess fabric of his pants and tugged without any remorse, similarly to how he pushed her underwater. He was so determined to keep her hidden that he couldn't fight her off as she undressed him. In actuality, she could barely see what she was doing due to the time of night, but that would only make his reaction funnier.
The exact moment he relieved the pressure from her head, Nami surfaced with the speed of a bullet leaving a gun. "What the-"
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" whispered-yelled Zoro.
Confused, Nami hissed, "Why are we whispering!?"
He didn't answer her directly. Instead, he explained himself while scolding her. "I was trying to make sure that blond dumbass didn't see you and you respond by trying to take my pants off!?"
"Because," she hummed her response, smiling wide. "I'm out here skinny dipping and if you're not going to join me, you can just return to the ship."
"Tch, that's stupid." Was his bashful retort. His gritted teeth were on full display, and yet he didn't move at all to fix the way he was dressed.
Nami was more than prepared to interfere with any attempt he made to become decent, however, they were interrupted by a particular chef once again. "Hey, marimo!" shouted a rather cranky-sounding Sanji.
She knew what to expect now: he was going to dunk her under the water again! All Nami saw was his shoulder rise and she knew she wasn't about to go through that one more time. In a desperate attempt to stay above the water - to avoid drowning at the expense of the man who supposedly dove in the ocean to keep her safe - she did the only thing she could think of in then and there.
She threw herself at Zoro and wrapped her arms around his body so that she was both hidden from view and impossible to push underwater.
In doing so, she had unintentionally compressed their entirely naked bodies against one another, feeling absolutely everything on her submerged flesh.
So shocked by her impulsive decision, she was nearly frightened when Zoro barked back with a very emotionally-charged, "What!?"
Oblivious to the turmoil they were experiencing in the sea, Sanji blathered, "Make sure you clean up any water you track on the deck. I better not fall when I get up to make breakfast for the ladies!"
The mention of the chef making food for her urged her to look up at Zoro, who surprisingly was already leering down at her. His expression hooded, she couldn't make out what might have been going on through his mind. Even his tone was empty when he responded, "Fine." There was no way to get a read on what he was feeling about their awkward position.
'Why does it need to be awkward though?' That brave voice inside that had endorsed the reckless decision to jump into the ocean had returned, this time with a different initiative.
She was confident in her own skin.
He had an attractive body that he worked on religiously.
Why should either of them feel any kind of timidness about being pressed up against each other the way that they were?
'Because there's something stirring inside of you that isn't as simple as that.' Warned a secret voice inside of her that she couldn't tell if it was nice of nefarious.
As fearless as she thought she was tonight, she didn't dare touch upon whatever that sentiment could mean.
That didn't mean she wasn't still fascinated by what was happening, though. Nami didn't feel him flinch or recoil when he could have easily pushed her away, which she thought was a positive sign. For the man who had never succumbed to her Happiness Punch, Zoro's stillness was implying to her that he was rather enamored by her in the moment too.
'Maybe there's more behind his promise of staying with you for longer than you thought possible.' This time, both the voices inside of her ganged up on the unsuspecting Nami as they presented her with a rather bold concept.
Zoro had promised that he'd stay by her side when they were out for her birthday, and she had never intended to look into the possibility of something more being behind his words.
However, maybe there was…?
"Grab my pants." Was what he said to shatter the tension between them, blindsiding her with the most outrageous request.
"H-Huh? Uh, sure." Nami could only obey his demand when it seemed so out of the blue. She felt him fidget against her, which caused her cheeks to warm with a very thick blush. She didn't need to do much for him as he wiggled free of the now watered own pair of pants he had been wearing before she decided to take them off. Her hand reached out for them when they floated slowly to the surface.
Once she had them in her grasp, he snatched her up with one arm around her waist and Nami genuinely thought he was embracing her. The moment she believed intimacy was involved in their connection, she found herself panicking. If he was going to suggest that they acknowledge what was between them while they were bare naked, while he held her tightly against his body on such a cool summer night, she didn't know what she'd do…!
Forever going against her expectations, Zoro did not oblige her in the slightest. He spun himself around so that he was facing the Sunny and began to swim towards Channel 1's open door with her fastened to his hip.
Nami, riled up beyond her imagination, pounded her fists into his shoulder. His arm was resting quite comfortably between her breasts and her legs were fastened along his side as she fought the pressure of the speed that he swam at. Whining with obvious deviance, she proclaimed, "You jerk! Let me go!"
"You can't swim out in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night on your own." Zoro stated as if a navigator could possibly be oblivious to that fact.
What infuriated her more so, however, was his emotionless expression, tone, and overall demeanor. How could he be impervious to the… the… intimacy of what they just shared?
She knew he wasn't emotionally intelligent, but his body had to have felt something… right?
"I hate you so much sometimes." She grumbled closely to his ear. The water splashing around their bodies didn't guarantee that he heard her insult, and honestly, she didn't care either way.
If Zoro could ignore what just happened between them, then she was a fool.
She was the idiot, for thinking there might be something between them.
Nami intended to never make that mistake ever again.