Title: Peace Offerings
Theme: Set 4 #18 Earth
Claim: Zoro x Nami
Words: 4095
Rating: G
Warnings: Spoils a bit to recent canon, but if you've read the rest of it, none of this spoils anything more.
Disclaimer(s): I wish I owned the characters because then I'd be Eiichiro Oda, and I would know what was going to happen next in the story. I don't own them, though.
A/N: Final part of "Zoro Needs a Hobby." It didn't end very shippy at all... Oh well.
Nami realized her first two attempts at finding Zoro a hobby weren't exactly wildly successful, but the third time was a charm, right? She was determined to find something so perfect Zoro would have no choice but to acknowledge that she knew what she was doing. He'd probably even thank her! All right, maybe that was pushing it, but the fact remained that she was determined.
If only she had any more ideas...
She couldn't even observe Zoro for inspiration because he'd become remarkably good at avoiding her whenever possible. The really annoying thing was that he looked guilty about it!
A few weeks ago, she wouldn't have even noticed, but now, having spent quite a bit of time with him, she could see it. She supposed it was something like facial expressions on a cat-they usually didn't change much physically, but somehow one could just tell.
Then, out of the blue, he stole one of her crossword puzzles! She couldn't prove anything, but she was positive it was Zoro. It wasn't just any puzzle, either-he stole the most recent one. She wasn't even sure how he'd done it-his straightforward nature had never led her to consider whether he could be stealthy-but one day the entire page containing the crossword puzzle was just inexplicably gone. She never even had a chance to confront him about it because the next day it had been returned just as mysteriously. The strangest part of all? None of the puzzle was completed.
What was going on here? Had he taken it just to bother her and thought better of it? Had he wanted something to do, didn't want to ask her for it, and then changed his mind? Was she going crazy?
The next day she was fairly certain she'd caught him just after giving something to the mail gull, which was also odd. She'd never seen him sending any letters before now, and she would have passed it off as nothing, if he hadn't turned and given her an odd look before walking away. It was almost like he was afraid she'd find out what he was mailing.
After the mail gull incident, Zoro stopped completely avoiding her. He treated her like he used to before the whole hobby discussion. Nami was rather insulted that he seemed to think he could just pretend nothing had happened and found that she missed the closer companionship they had been developing.
Sure, he'd join in on dinner discussions with the group and act civilly around her, but there were no more inside jokes or ridiculous hypothetical discussions. He was careful to always have at least one other crew mate present in the room when he was around her. It was still perturbing her greatly that she didn't know why.
A few weeks later, the mail gull brought a small package with it. From the shape and weight, she was fairly certain it was a book; she expected to see Robin's name on the label but instead...
"That's mine," Zoro informed her, plucking the package from her grasp and disappearing below deck to the men's quarters.
Zoro had ordered a book? Nami knew he wasn't really stupid, even though she called him that often enough, but hadn't he told her he didn't really enjoy reading as a pastime?
She had just about convinced herself she should investigate when all the pieces finally began to fall into place.
It all started with a package left on her desk. She immediately recognized it as the one that had arrived in the mail for Zoro. It was accompanied by a note and the bag she had given the swordsman with his share of the golf tournament winnings. She looked at the note first.
The gift is in case you don't feel like asking me for help anymore. Subtract the money from my tab.
Even if she hadn't already suspected who had left the unsigned note, the handwriting was just like his fighting-right to the point and with no wasted strokes.
Next, she opened the package, curious to see its contents. It was a crossword dictionary and a pretty nice one, too!
Suspecting that she knew from where the funds for the purchase had been taken, she turned the bag upside down and emptied it onto her desk. Sure enough, part of the total was missing.
On a hunch, she pulled out the paper from which Zoro had stolen the puzzle page. Just as Nami figured, there was an ad for a very familiar crossword dictionary, and the price and shipping cost just happened to match the amount missing from the money bag.
Though she really, really hated to admit it, she was actually a bit pacified by the fact that Zoro hadn't spent any of the money on himself. She thought he'd at least have treated himself to a few drinks or something, but apparently, when he had implied it wasn't about the money, it really wasn't.
So this was some sort of apology? If Zoro thought he could get away without explaining a few things, he could just think again! Nami decided they were going to have a little talk, whether Zoro wanted to or not.
The swordsman must have really thought things were settled between them because he seemed genuinely surprised to find Nami waiting for him in the crow's nest gym, greeting him with, "We need to have a little chat."
"I should have figured this was coming," he mumbled. At least he had the decency not to pretend he didn't know what she meant. She wasn't entirely sure they were really on the same page, though.
"You can start then," she encouraged.
There was a long pause in which Nami presumed Zoro was choosing his words carefully, but then he said, "I'm not really mad at you." She gave him a skeptical look, one eyebrow raised. "Oh, I was," he clarified, "and I'm still a little annoyed, but I'm mostly mad at me."
"Really?" Interesting... "Why would you be mad at yourself?"
"For being an idiot," he replied bluntly, shrugging casually. He also didn't seem to think that response required any elaboration, but Nami sure did.
"Go on," she encouraged. They stared one another down for a moment before Zoro finally caved with a roll of his eye.
"I was expecting something unreasonable from our... project. I realized we didn't have the same expectations, it was frustrating, and I decided I didn't want to deal with it anymore."
"I'm going to need some more detail." He really was being terribly vague!
"Look, you were trying to do me a favor; I get it, and I appreciate the effort. I never would have tried these things on my own, so thanks for making me think outside my usual box, but I get the feeling you picked both your attempts out of convenience."
"That's not true!" It was a knee-jerk protest.
"No?" Zoro's expression showed he wasn't buying it. "Can you honestly tell me you made those selections because they seemed like something I would enjoy? You expect me to believe other factors didn't have more sway?"
"I did think about you," Nami insisted. "Maybe you weren't always the first thing on my mind, but there were things I didn't pick because I knew they'd be worse."
"I don't really want to argue about it." He sighed and massaged his temples. "What it boils down to in the end is I was enjoying trying new things with someone-with you-because I've honestly had enough of being alone. I never thought about it much before I met Luffy, but now..."
"I know what you mean." She did. It had been the same for her-feeling like she didn't need anyone. Then Luffy had come crashing into her life, and she no longer had any desire for the solitary life of a thief.
"I guess I'd started to realize it before Saobody," Zoro continued, "but it really hit me during those two years away from everyone-I need this crew.
"I got to take a good, close look at Mihawk, and I know it was like looking at what I would have become, left on my own. I still have a lot of respect for the guy, and I'm going to take his title, but I don't want to be him.
"I thought you and I had a nice friendship... thing going, but apparently, I was reading more into it than was really there, so that's on me. It isn't fair for me to expect you to feel a certain way about something if you don't, and you had every right to be getting something out of your time. So, I was an idiot, I overreacted, and it's better if we just let it go before it really blows up in our faces."
Nami was left momentarily stunned by that speech. Zoro was usually a man of relatively few words, but this was bordering on babbling! She quickly ran through what he'd said in her mind, and even though she felt he'd actually done rather a lot of overreacting recently, she was fairly certain she knew which specific time he meant.
"You really are an idiot," she told him. "You should know by now that I don't do anything I don't want to do! I only said I was pretending to have fun because I was angry at you. I didn't think I'd done anything wrong-frankly, I still don't. You know me; money's hard for me to pass up."
"I do know you," Zoro agreed. "After I cooled down and thought about it, I realized you didn't turn down that deal just because of me-you did it for me. That's..." He paused for a moment, jaw clenched and gaze turned away from her. In those seconds of heavy silence, she wished she could see his eye, to catch a glimpse of the emotion there. "It means a lot to me." He looked back up at her, but now his expression was that terribly annoying forced calm he'd used at the golf course. "That's why I... You know."
"Sort of apologized and got me a present?" she suggested.
"Anyway," he changed the subject, his lack of acknowledgement indicating she was right on the money, "I'm not really holding a grudge anymore, and you don't need to worry about it. I think we should just go back to how things were. Sound fair?"
"No," she answered simply. She cut him off before he could protest. "It doesn't sound fair. Don't I get a third strike?"
Zoro's brows pulled together in a puzzled frown. "What?"
"I messed up twice, but I think it's only fair I get one more crack at it."
The swordsman seemed to be briefly considering it, but then he shook his head. "I don't think I want to risk it-look how last time wound up. Remember, it's 'three strikes, you're out,' after all." He smiled ruefully. "We are kind of stuck with each other on this ship." When she still looked like she wanted to argue, he added, "For what it's worth, you didn't completely mess up; I did enjoy it most of the time."
There was a long, awkward pause before Zoro made up some excuse that Nami didn't really hear and left. Her eyes drifted over to the bench where she'd been sitting when this all started. She walked over and sat down, pieces of the conversation playing over and over again in her head.
The thing that grated most was when he'd said, "I do know you," and its implied, "but you don't know me."
Then he had the nerve to tell her she didn't get any more chances? Like he would have done any better trying to find something for her! Since when was he the boss of her anyway? Come to think of it, he hadn't, strictly speaking, told her she couldn't try again-he just said he thought it was a bad idea...
Nami grinned. She was going to take that third chance, and she was going to prove she knew him just as well as he thought he knew her!
She had to be very careful this time, since it was sink or swim now. She ran over all of their conversations mentally, everything he'd said and done that might provide her with inspiration.
By the time she heard Sanji calling everyone to dinner, she had a plan.
Nami couldn't put her plan into effect until the next time the Sunny docked at an island. She needed Zoro out of the way, since she was going to have to surprise him. At first, she was worried he might suspect something when she made no arguments against the crew splitting up to explore, but it seemed he was too happy to get away for some alone time to think about it much.
Robin and Franky had been enlisted to assist. Robin was selected because her powers made her as efficient as several helpers, and Franky was providing design input and doing the heavy lifting.
Everything was running smoothly until Zoro unexpectedly showed up back at the ship. Nami had sent Franky to find a key piece of the surprise, so she was the one moving a large, heavy bag when she ran into the swordsman.
"What are you doing here?" she blurted.
"Uh, I live here?" Zoro gave her a puzzled look.
"I meant, what are you doing here right now," she clarified. "I thought you were going for a walk." Zoro never found his way back this fast! It was just her luck...
"There's all kinds of forage on this place," Zoro explained with a shrug, "I thought I'd come back for a bag to gather some while I'm out. Maybe I won't have to listen to the cook whine about wishing he had more fresh produce."
"That's a good idea; you should definitely go do that." She would have made a shooing gesture, if her hands weren't both occupied. She continued to lug her burden toward the gang plank.
"What's in the bag?"
Nami considered lying, but she was fairly sure he'd never guess the why behind it, so she answered honestly. "Dirt from the flower bed."
"Don't we... need it?"
"Not really. Robin hasn't had as much time for gardening recently, so she's consolidating her flowers to a smaller area." It was true. The archaeologist had mentioned her plans to Nami some time ago. They hadn't been sure what to do with the vacant space until Nami's plan.
"You need a hand with that?"
"No, no, I've got it!" Then she saw Franky walking up the gangplank behind Zoro, the item he'd been sent for in his very large hands. "On second thought, why don't you take it?" She foisted the large sack onto Zoro, the top blocking his face from her view and Franky from Zoro's.
"Okay..." Zoro's reply was muffled. "Way to change your mind." She gestured at Franky to hurry, and he managed to slip past with surprising stealth.
"Just dump the soil somewhere, and then you can use the bag! Sanji's going to have to wash the food before he uses it anyway, right?"
"I guess." She spun the swordsman around and gave him a nudge toward the gang plank. He rearranged the bag so he could see and headed off again.
Nami had actually been planning to empty out the soil and fill the bag with its replacement material herself. Oh well, the important thing was the surprise hadn't been spoiled! The sooner she got everything finished the better.
The crew decided to have a barbecue on the beach for dinner that evening. Everyone was helping carry food, chairs, and other items to the area where Luffy and Usopp had gleefully prepared a bonfire.
Nami pulled Zoro aside in the middle of a trip back to the Sunny; she wanted to show him her surprise while it was still light enough and didn't want to wait until the next day.
"Did you need my help with something?" he asked her.
"Not exactly," Nami answered evasively.
"Then what's up?"
"I have a surprise for you." She didn't give him a chance to respond, in case he had the same old objections. "I know you said we should give up on the whole hobby thing, but I wasn't ready to just let it go, and this time I really thought it through! What do you say? Give me one last chance?" She threw in a pleading look for good measure.
Zoro rolled his eye and sighed. "It's not like I can get you to give up now, anyhow..." That was pretty much the Zoro equivalent of "go for it."
"Okay, close your eye, and no peeking."
"Why?" He sounded suspicious.
"It's a surprise, remember? If I accidentally run you into anything, I'll take a little off your debt."
"Seriously?"
"No, but I promise I'll be very careful."
This earned her another put upon sigh, but Zoro closed his eye. Nami grabbed one of his elbows and guided him up the stairs to the deck above the galley. He frowned slightly, and she wondered if he might actually realize where they were going, but he never asked.
Once they'd reached the deck above the galley, Nami moved Zoro so his back was to the mast and his surprise was directly in front of him.
"All right, you can look now."
Zoro looked, and apart from an almost imperceptible widening of his eye, his face remained impassive. This really wasn't the reaction she'd been hoping for... Nami found herself babbling.
"Okay, I know it kind of looks like a sandbox, but it's supposed to be a rock garden. There's only that one rock right now, but I'm sure Luffy would be happy to find more for you, if you ask. It's just, I remember you mentioning that you thought Mihawk's was nice, and you didn't really have a good place to meditate, and..." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "This was another stupid idea, wasn't it?"
"No," Zoro said, apparently snapping out of whatever daze he'd been in, "it's great! I was just honestly surprised." One corner of his mouth quirked into a small smirk. "You actually listened when I was talking," he muttered. She suspected she wasn't meant to hear that last part.
"Of course I listened! What kind of person do you think I am?"
Zoro apparently decided not to answer that question. Instead, he stepped forward for a closer look.
With Franky's assistance, a little more than half of the flower bed had been expanded slightly and filled with the white sand from the island's beach. A wooden rake lay to one side, and a large flat rock sat at the end nearest Nami's mikan trees.
Zoro gestured to the rock. "So, is that what Franky was carrying when you practically threw that bag of dirt at me?"
"How did you know?" She thought they'd been so sneaky...
"I don't have to actually see somebody to know they're there."
"Anyway, I had him put it in a spot that gets a little bit of sun, but also shade from the mast and the trees; it's big enough to sit on, if you want to meditate up here instead of in the gym. Most of the others guys don't come up here much, unless Sanji's making a delivery or Usopp's working on a project. By the way, Usopp says he can make some other rakes, if you want to try varying the pattern."
Zoro picked up the rake and dragged it through the sand experimentally. The lines were a little shaky; it looked like making patterns in the sand wasn't quite as easy as she'd thought. Zoro was being awfully quiet again.
"I don't come up here all the time either, so you don't have to be here when I am, if you don't want to be." He didn't say anything to that, so Nami decided she would. "I'd like it if we were up here together, though. I really did enjoy spending all that time with you. You've got more of a sense of humor than I gave you credit for, and you're actually a pretty easy person to talk to. I've missed that. I thought you should know."
She started to walk away. It felt good to get that off her chest, but she wished he'd said something back.
"I kind of miss it, too."
Yeah, something like that. Wait... She turned back to face him, an incredulous look on her face.
"What did you say?"
"My favorite parts were the random things. You know, lying to get a discount on the raft, swamp sparrow versus chipping sparrow, imaginary, bossy little girls with scary faces... That kind of thing."
"Oh, really?" She was equal parts intrigued and skeptical.
"I actually imagined talking my way through that last golf hole with you," he continued. "Of course, I was kind of mad at you, so the you in my head was pretty mean, but she made me correct for the wind."
"That just goes to show that even when I'm only imaginary, I'm always right," Nami teased with a smirk.
"I think I like the real you better." There was another long pause. "I don't want to spend every waking minute with you or anything, and I can't guarantee we won't start to drive each other crazy, but I wouldn't mind hanging around with you more again."
Nami grinned, giving her head a slight shake. It was as close to an "I was wrong" as she was ever likely to get from the swordsman.
"I'd like that," she replied sincerely before her expression turned mischievous. "We could start with another crossword puzzle. That dictionary is very nice, but it's awfully hard to tease..."
Zoro snorted, but she could tell he was amused. "I'm sorry, was that supposed to make me want to help you? How are you ever going to improve, if I keep giving you all the answers?"
Her grin widened. "Bet I can figure out more clues faster than you," she taunted in a singsong tone.
"Bring it." Now he was grinning, too.
She was about to go fetch a puzzle and do just that when a drawn out cry of "FOOOOD!" from the beach informed them that dinner was about to be served.
"Raincheck?" she asked.
"Sure," Zoro agreed. The puzzle could wait; they had time, since they were "stuck with each other," as Zoro had phrased it earlier. Neither one minded at all.
