10.) Jealous
Nami glared at her drink and drummed her fingers on the table. She occasionally glanced around, smiling at jokes and stories, but she would always settle back to looking rather perturbed.
She watched Usopp and Sanji out of the corner of her eye. The chef had one arm over Usopp's shoulders, and the other was slinked around the small waist of a very pretty brunette.
Cigarette dancing between his lips as he spoke, Sanji was apparently doing quite a good job of impressing a number of ladies at this party.
It was the same old scenario. A threat. A battle. A victory. A party.
Normally, Nami quite enjoyed these things, but for some reason, she was being rubbed the wrong way. She turned her head just a bit to get a better view of her shmoozing nakama.
Usopp was embellishing Sanji's heroic tale, Nami could already tell. She didn't know why these women cared so much about such an obvious load of bullshit. Maybe it was the rising celebrity of the crew. They'd been in the newspapers enough times now, anyway.
She looked around at the rest of the townspeople that had gathered in the square with them that night. There were lots of good-looking gentlemen. There was nothing stopping her from getting up and talking to as many of them as she pleased.
But for some reason, she decided to stay where she was, feeling greatly annoyed.
"Aw, c'mon, Sis, don't be jealous. It isn't a pretty look on anyone."
Nami whipped her head around to see the giant cyborg seating himself next to her, a huge bottle of Cola in one hand and an even bigger ice-cream cone in the other. He looked down at her, trying to talk around the cold dessert in his mouth.
"Just let them have their fun. They love you the most."
Nami sputtered and took a long drink. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about."
"You're over here super-looking like a kid that just got punished for something he didn't do, girly." Franky shrugged. "I used to be a real ladies' man on Water 7, you know. I was super popular with the girls. I know the look of a jealous woman."
"Oh shut up, you were the town pervert and everyone hated you."
"Not true! Girls love the bad boy, don't you think?" Franky chuckled and looked over at the laughing cook and the grinning sniper. "Well. Maybe not in your case."
"What!"
"He's not exactly the super-badass type, is he?"
"You're not making any sense, and you sound like an idiot."
"You like Longn-"
"That's ridiculous and insane."
"Whatever you say, Sis," Franky said as he tried to fit a scoop of ice-cream the size of a softball into his mouth all at once. After managing to swallow it, he coughed a bit and said, "Don't tell me you haven't at least thought of it."
"What?!"
"Oh come on, you're always hanging on each other and you get on pretty well. We all live on a ship together and we don't see anyone else for weeks at a time."
"Stop. Stop it, I'm not indulging this. You're just a pervert and not everyone is as disgusting with their daydreams as you are."
A bellowing laugh escaped Franky's chest and he had to put his Cola down. "So why are you over here getting pissed?"
"I'm not!"
Franky pushed his sunglasses up to his hairline - which was all fine with Nami. He looked like a fool with his sunglasses on at nighttime anyway.
"Why don't you just go over there and steal them back?"
"I don't need to - I'm perfectly fine - I don't care if they have fun! Let them be happy with their floozies! Good for them, they're so pathetic and hapless anyway, they might as well take this opportunity. I'm glad for them." Nami sniffed.
Franky snorted.
From the seat next to her, a soft voice spoke, "Nothing wrong with protecting your treasure."
Nami visibly jumped and nearly spilled her drink. Robin smiled over at her and Nami couldn't help but feel unnerved by the woman's weird ability to just appear and disappear out of nowhere.
"Exactly right, Nico Robin!"
The navigator frowned at her lap. "I want them to be happy, I don't want to interrupt."
"Ah, but they love you."
Phantom arms grew out of the back of their seats and gently pushed Nami to her feet. Two more appeared, each one holding a full drink. Robin must've brought over another round for them.
"You don't have to let those girls have all the fun, Nami." The archaeologist put up her signature soft smile, and Nami fumed because she knew that demon woman was smirking behind that mask.
Before the redhead could form a rebuttal, the two drinks that Robin's extra hands were holding out to her were suddenly thrust into Nami's care, and she nearly fumbled all three of them. But she recovered, as Robin knew she would, and that made her all the angrier.
"You- I'm not going to-"
"Oi, Longnose over there is the coward, not you - right?" Franky grinned, but Robin held a straight face, choosing to say nothing.
With a frustrated growl, Nami turned on her heel and marched away.
Franky scooted over a seat, sitting closer to Robin. "I almost feel a little guilty," he said in a low voice, and she grinned in candor now.
"I don't," she replied as the two of them watched Nami approach the group, squeezing in between Usopp and Sanji - those two were always so chummy, especially these days - and the navigator offered up the drinks with a shining smile.
"Yeah, you wouldn't. You super-love this shit."
Robin pulled her legs up and sat on her knees, leaning against the cyborg's gargantuan metal arm. She sipped the wine she'd brought with her, eyes on the navigator. Nami's elation looked genuine as the cook and the sniper were delighted at her arrival, taking the drinks graciously and slipping their drunken arms behind her back, sandwiching her between them.
"Nonsense. I simply enjoy people-watching."
Usopp pointed at Nami, gesticulating wildly and spilling a bit of his drink as he looked like he was telling a gripping tale involving the navigator.
"Yeah. Those three people in particular."
"Oh, come on. Be fair. The rest of the crew is often times just as interesting."
Sanji laughed as Usopp spoke, nodding in agreement to whatever he was saying, pressing a sloppy kiss against the redhead's temple. She hid her grin behind her drink, shoulders shaking with mirth along with her other two crew mates. Her cheeks were rosy and she drank in large, consecutive gulps.
"Yeah, but you see this super love triangle here."
Robin chose to take several drinks at that very moment.
"Well, with cook-bro, it's more like this… weird… love pentagon, isn't it?"
The smooth archaeologist nearly snorted wine out of her nose.
"Maybe just a square. It's hard to tell with him," Robin said quietly, recovering quickly.
Franky threw his head back and cackled, and Robin swirled her wine with a thoughtful smile. When the cyborg found his breath again, he regarded his group of nakama and asked, "What're they saying? I bet you're listening right now."
Sanji, Nami, and Usopp had all failed to notice the disembodied ear that'd grown on the wall next to them.
"Of course I'm not listening to them - eavesdropping is rude, Franky."
Franky scoffed and sipped his Cola noisily from a straw. The shipwright and the archaeologist watched fondly as Usopp must've said something particularly funny - or particularly true, at least - and the trio of pirates crumbled as a unit, their knees all going weak together in their outburst of laughter.