HAPPY 2019 EVERYONE!
Wooo I'm late. Again.
It's cool though because I have a couple of chapters done.
ENJOY!
Sixième étage
Chapter 24
"Oh my goodness! Perona~!" Nami exclaimed as she stepped out from behind her dressing folding screen. "I think I want to be buried in this when I die!" Nami was wrapped in a milk white fit and flare dress with straps that purposefully fell from her shoulders. The mikan-haired woman stepped forward dramatically with her leg displayed through the slit in the full skirt of flowing pleated fabric.
"I bet it would still look splendid on you alive, at your wedding," Robin replied when she came from behind her own folding screen. The architect's gown was silk and draped her form perfectly with its shining folds and near appearance to negligee that pooled around her feet on the floor.
"Pfft! Yeah right. Me, married," Nami scoffed as she twirled at her reflection in a floor length mirror.
"Ah right, Nami. You and Luffy have been together for a long time," Perona pointed out. "I see what you mean..."
"No fair!" Monica exclaimed when she clumsily joined the other women in the center of the room. "Why do they get the sexy dresses and I look like a cloud!" Monica was referring to the tulle ball gown that she was wearing, accented with crystal beading along the sweetheart neckline and matching belt.
"But it's so divine on you, Moni-chan!" Robin gasped and clapped her hands.
Perona rolled her eyes at her sister's complaint and went over to her to pin some of her curled strands back into their original bun. "What took you so long?"
"The fucking ruffles!" Monica answered and tossed the skirt of the dress sending said ruffles floating around her. "I hate ruffles…"
"Horororo! I know," her sister replied with a smirk and stepped away from her just before Monica tried to lunge for her, but was inhibited by the dress' components.
"Fucking corset! Fucking ruffles!" Monica grumbled.
"Calm down. It's not like you guys are keeping these," Perona said. "Well, unless you really want yours, Nami."
"Really?!" The woman exclaimed with a starry look in her eyes as her fingers compulsively ran along the geometric beading on the bodice of her dress.
Perona nodded, "You'll each have to model a few of them, so you can pick one to take home with you. Now, jewelry! I was up all night making these pieces with the jewels you guys brought from Gohar."
"I'm in heaven~!" Nami sighed with a dreamy look in her eyes when she saw the jewelry that Perona created.
"So you say now," Monica muttered as she managed to make it to one of the staged couches on the photoset and threw herself onto it. "This is how I will be posing until someone gets me out of this dress."
"It's so nice to see that you are enthused about your sister's work," Robin commented to her friend with a knowing smile. She crossed her arms to summon her extra limbs around Monica to set her into a more fashionable lounging pose for the occasion. "Perona, you might want to take the pictures quickly before Moni-chan falls over."
- - - LATER THAT EVENING - - -
"You know, it's been really quiet all day," Monica commented as she, Perona, Robin, and Nami made their way towards the dining room for dinner following their day spent in the photoshoot and then spa as Perona promised.
"You're right," Nami sighed. "That can't be good…"
"Why not?" Perona asked.
"It might mean that the boys have yet to come back from their hike," Robin answered.
The feline of the group yawned lazily. "If there's one thing you guys have taught me during this trip, it's to not worry about those idiots. Worst case scenario, I'll go out to look for them tomorrow."
"I wonder if they'll be anything left to find," Perona started with a hint of morbidity.
"Please don't say things like that," Nami pleaded. "We still need to get back to The Continent."
"Finally, we're on the same page about going back home," Monica said. The women reached the dining room that was noticeably dark. "Why are the lights off?" Monica wondered as she ran her hand along the wall and found the light switch.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" various voices exclaimed when the room was illuminated.
"AAHH!" Monica screeched in fear as she jumped back from the room. The others erupted in laughter at her reaction.
"Shishishi! What happened to your feline instincts, Moni-chan?!" Luffy guffawed at the woman.
"And your damn haki?! You should've known we were here!" Zoro roared as he doubled over onto the decorated table with laughter.
"I'll show you 'feline instincts' when I claw out your eyes, Confetti Face and Conehead!" Monica angrily retorted at the men. Zoro leaned back from where he placed his head on the table to reveal that confetti was stuck to his face, while Luffy donned two party hats next to each other on his head as though he had a pair horns.
Perona wrapped her arms around her seething sister and rubbed her face against hers. "Chill Moni, its our birthday party!"
"Oh right! It was yesterday!" Monica realized. "This trip sucked so badly that I forgot our birthday!"
"You obviously need a drink," Nami offered to her friend who gladly took the glass and chugged it.
"Did you guys really do all of this?" Monica asked as she took a seat in one of the chairs that had balloons tied to it.
"Yeah! Brook and I set the table!" Chopper proudly announced as he motioned to the brightly colored tablecloth and disposable dishes and utensils placed at each seat.
"And me and Zoro did the balloons and streamers!" Luffy excitedly answered and pointed at their handiwork. And man, did the captain and first mate do a good job with their task. The formerly regal dining room was completely transformed into an over decorated party room. The streamers hung both vertically from the room's ceiling in perfect spiraled patterns and like a crisscross web along the ceiling. There were balloons of every color tied in groups on the chairs, sitting as centerpieces on the table, and floating lose on the ceiling and rolling freely on the floor.
"I don't think those balloons should be so close to the lights..." the career party planner stated about the sight with a frown, and then one of the balloons suddenly popped.
"Kanpai!" her friends shouted around her and drank simultaneously.
"Each time one pops, we drink!" Franky explained with a hearty laugh.
"Oi Murasa, I made this for you," Zoro said as he came over to her with his triumphant grin.
"A lot of balloons must have popped already," Monica surmised from the brief observation of her boyfriend's intoxication induced excitement. He nodded, maintaining his grin as some of the confetti from earlier fell from his face, and he placed the paper crown that he cut with intricate designs on Monica's head.
"Oohh! How cute! Where's mine?" Perona cooed.
"You don't get one!" Zoro barked at her.
"Why not?! It's my birthday too!" Perona whined.
"Roni, you're already wearing a crown..." Monica pointed out.
"Ah right!" Perona sighed with relief. "It's because I'm always a princess!"
"A psycho ghost princess," Zoro scoffed under his breath.
*POP*
"Kanpai!"
"I'm not sure if we're gonna make it through the night," Chopper commented after everyone drank.
"That's okay, because dinner is served!" Sanji announced as he entered the room with the castle's attendants each pushing a cart.
"Moni-chan, Perona-swan, I present my gifts to a lovely pair of birthday twins," the chef continued as the still creepy attendants revealed the masterpiece that was to be the evening's meal and placed each person's plate in front of them.
"Everyone's plates have a serving of each of the main courses. Kasimir was such a great help and the castle's kitchen was stocked so well that I had a hard time narrowing the entrees down to just these four~" Sanji enthusiastically continued as he remembered his experience within the castle. "Starting at the top of your plates and moving clockwise, we have: prosciutto stuffed chicken with mushroom sauce, grilled halibut nicoise salad, Kobe steak, and sea scallops with beets, foie gras, and aged balsamic vinegar. As a side, have rice seasoned to compliment the flavors in each entree. Bon Appetit!"
"Wahh~~! This food is amazing Sanji-kun~!" Perona exclaimed with tears streaming down her face after her first bite. "Cook for me forever~!"
"I don't know how, but you manage to outdo yourself every time, Sanji," Monica said, also on the verge of tears as she ate. "Thank you so much~!"
The group of friends got through the birthday celebration as they did any other time that they got together: with a lot of laughter and a lot of booze; and with popping balloons added to the equation that evening.
Before everyone passed out from exhaustion and alcohol poisoning, Franky stood up at the table to get his friends' attention.
"Oye! Oye!" the cyborg started to his nosy nakama. "Mina! Shut up! We still have a couple of things to do for this SUPER amazing birthday party!"
"There's more?" Monica laughed with surprise. "Guys, really, this has already been more than enough."
"Sshh Moni! Just be gracious and accept whatever it is!" Perona whispered to her sister. "What is it?!" Monica rolled her eyes at her twin's tendency towards being obnoxious.
"You will know when we get outside!" Franky answered with a striking pose towards a set of glass double doors that led to an outside terrace. "To the patio, everyone!"
The group, now full of delicious food and alcohol swayed their way towards the terrace that had a view overlooking the threatening forest of Kuraigana Island. What awaited them was a table set with much more modest birthday decorations and a three tiered cake with lit candles in the center.
'"It's a chocolate on chocolate cake with filling between the layers composed of a mix of stone fruits from your native Gohar: peaches, apricots, plums, and mangoes," Sanji explained with pride in his handiwork.
The sisters impulsively hugged Sanji who immediately melted in between the twins and almost missed as the group sang "Happy Birthday" and cut the cake.
"And now for the SUPER FINALE!" Franky announced as a compartment on his right arm opened and he smashed a red button that appeared. The action triggered a deep rumbling that sounded from the dark night landscape of the forest and then multiple high pitched whistles followed by bursts of lights as a fireworks show began.
"This is why you guys went to the forest earlier?" Monica asked with a laugh at the surprise fireworks show. The men of the group nodded in response. "How'd you deal with the animals?"
"Kasimir," Zoro answered with an uncharacteristic shudder that did not go unnoticed by Monica.
"You're still creeped out by him?" the mauve-haired birthday twin asked with a knowing smirk.
"How are you not creeped out by him?"
Monica just replied with a hearty laugh that was exaggerated by her elevated mood. She realized that this had become a familiar feeling for her during recent years. This feeling of unbridled happiness. And when the fireworks show ended with an arrangement that illuminated the sky with the words "HAPPY BIRTHDAY", Monica suddenly felt very emotional.
'I've got to stop drinking so much,' she thought as she attributed her sudden desire to weep joyfully to her present intoxication. But she stood up at the table anyway, just as Franky did earlier, to get her friends' attention.
"I just wanted to say, that I hate all of you for dragging me on this trip," Monica started and everyone laughed in response. "But more importantly, I am grateful for you guys in ways that I could have never imagined. We haven't been alive for that long, but I would have never guessed that everything I experienced so far in my life, including nearly dying multiple times, would lead to meeting some of the most amazing people in this otherwise crappy world. So, thank you, for everything, especially your friendship." When she finished, the waterworks started for everyone present. Except for Zoro, he'd never let anyone see him shed a tear. Instead, he got up and walked over to Monica, wrapped his arms around her, and affectionately pressed his forehead to hers.
- - - A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER, BACK ON THE SHIP - - -
The day following the birthday celebration, the group packed their things back onto the ship for the continuation of their adventure. Perona took charge of the gifts from Kidd that were gathered during the scavenger hunt on a separate ship with some of the island's attendants.
"It's been so long since I've been home!" Nami stretched happily on her lounging chair on deck as she soaked up the sun. Monica and Robin were nearby engaging in the same behavior.
"I'm also excited to visit the Conomi Islands. The tangerines you've always had for us are an agricultural feat," Robin replied.
"Oh yeah, you did say that you're from Cocoyashi Village," Monica remembered. "Sounds like the perfect place to truly relax!"
"I promise, it will be," Nami responded. "And we'll get to spend some time with my sister, Nojiko!"
Suddenly, Luffy made his presence known from the opposite side of the deck. "Hey! Nami!"
"What Luffy?!" she called back to him.
"I have to tell you something!"
Nami sighed. She'll be teaching this guy stuff like this forever. "You don't have to make an announcement, just say it."
Luffy excitedly launched himself across the ship and landed next to Nami. "Nami, you are the best navigator in the world. And I should know because you've gotten us through every sea and ocean and crazy situation we got into," Luffy stated with unwavering determination.
"That you got us into," Nami corrected him as she eyed him suspiciously. 'Where is this going?'
"But it made the adventure even more fun!" Everyone else groaned with dismay at his response. "And I want to keep going on adventures with all of you, because we're nakama," they all then gasped with fear at the thought of their present lives being abandoned for one of unimaginable danger again. "But more specifically, I want to go on adventures… forever… for the rest of our lives … with my navigator." Nami's mouth fell agape as she heard the sincerity in Luffy's voice and she began to realize where this "announcement" was going.
Luffy got on both knees next to Nami's lawn chair and pulled out a small box from his shorts pocket and offered it to her with his determined look in his eyes. "Nami, be my wife!"
The onlooking friends released a simultaneous exasperated sigh at Luffy's delivery.
"Guess we couldn't expect the idiot to do it perfectly," Sanji muttered at his captain's uncouth proposal. All of that rehearsing on Kuraigana Island… wasted...
"It is how he got all of us to join him in the first place," Franky pointed out.
"I'll never forget the crap I went through for my agreement to this life sentence," Zoro added as his gaze fell onto Monica's form who was visibly using her magazine to hide the fact that she was giggling at the scene.
Nami also laughed at her boyfriend's stereotypical behavior before answering, "Yes! Of course!"
Luffy's trademark smile appeared on his face as he opened the small box to reveal an engagement ring that was perfect for his navigator: a giant pear shaped diamond with a matching halo, set on a band full of even more diamonds.
"I love it!" she wept with excitement as Luffy slid the jewelry on the third finger of her left hand, just like Sanji explained. "I love you!" Nami added before leaping from her chair and tackling Luffy to the floor of the deck with an enthusiastic kiss.
"SUPER!" the familiar cry sounded across the ship along with sirens and shouts of excitement and congratulations from the rest of the group.
When Luffy was able to free himself from Nami's affectionate reaction, he commanded, "BRING OUT THE MEAT!"
"Aye aye you lucky bastard!" Sanji responded with glee at his friends' happiness. He was always on the side of love, especially when it worked in favor of the ones he cared about.
And thus, Luffy and Nami's engagement party began.
I hope you guys enjoyed this!
It's wedding time! My hope is to get through it because weddings are difficult for me to write.
See you next time!