If there was one thing Nami learned, it was that Luffy was an annoying neighbor. Sure, he disappeared for a short while of time, then came back and was as loud as ever goofing off with his friends. She couldn't recall how many times she yelled down from her balcony, or from the coverage of her orange trees for them to just shut up. But for some reason, she got used to it rather quickly, and so did he, it seemed like. She was beginning to understand how his childlike behavior was really a blessing in disguise.
Here he was, sitting at her island counter, because she told him he couldn't sit on it, waiting for her to finish juicing her oranges. She made the mistake of telling him that she didn't just make cookies with the oranges, and she made other things like juice, cakes, cocktails, muffins, and the like, and now he wanted one of those. He hadn't shut up about it, the entire walk through her orchard and back into her home, so she gave in, and decided to give him some juice, because it was easy.
"What's taking you so long!" Luffy mumbled, and folded his torso over the countertop.
"Just eat an orange while you wait," Nami replied, annoyed with his antics, and rolled an orange from the basket on her counter, beside the sink, to him.
"Thanks, Nami!" he said, and grabbed the orange in his hands. Nami was too busy juicing the orange to notice both of their mistakes, though it was mainly his.
"Bleh," she heard behind her, and spinned around.
"What did you say, Luffy!" she nearly screamed, but then noticed him holding the orange in his hand, staring at it, with his tongue sticking out. There was a large bite out of the side, and Nami wanted to smack her head against the wall because of his idiocy.
"Nami, this tastes gross." he said, and pushed the orange away, "you sure you didn't use something else in the cookies?"
"Luffy," Nami smiled, though her eyebrows twitched, "Did you just bite into the orange, like it was an apple?"
"Yeah," he scratched his chin, "I guess, why?"
"It. Is. An. Orange!" Nami said, giving emphasis to each word.
"And?"
"You don't just bite into an orange, Luffy!" She raised her arms in the air, "You have to peel it first!"
"Peel it?" Luffy tilted his head, "why would you have to peel it?"
Nami sighed, and leaned her hands onto the island, facing him, "Luffy, do you peel the banana peel off a banana before eating it?"
"A banana has a peel!?" Luffy exclaimed, excited, as if he just found out something new in this world.
How the heck was this man in his twenties, Nami thought to herself, he must have lived an extremely sheltered life, from reality! "Yes, they always have." she sighed, "do you peel the peel off of a fruit before you eat it? Like a kiwi?" Nami asked, thinking surely he'd get the peel off of it before eating it.
"Bleh," Luffy shook his head, as if a terrible memory just came to him, "kiwi's are gross! They're all hairy, and itchy, too!" Luffy said, and stuck his tongue out, as if trying to get the kiwi taste, which he didn't have, off his tongue.
"So, you just bite into the fruit?" Nami asked, "you know that some peels are dangerous to consume, right, Luffy?"
"What!" Luffy jumped in his seat, then he relaxed himself, "that's okay, poison doesn't hurt me." He giggled, and rested his chin on his arms as he leaned into the counter.
"It isn't exactly poison, Luffy," Nami began explaining, before she realized what he said, and had to do a double take, "wait, did you say that poison doesn't hurt you?"
Luffy stared back at her, as if he thought she was deaf, "yeah, and?"
"That isn't normal!" Nami exclaimed, "when did you develop an immunity to poison? What kind of poison? Deadly poisons, or just food poisoning?" She knew her sentence didn't make much sense, but this just packed into the mysteries she still didn't know about him.
"Poison." Luffy replied, "like, all of them, I guess?" He tilted his head in confusion.
"But when!"
Luffy's eyes narrowed, and he looked off to the side, "I don't know," he said, sucking his lips in.
"You're a terrible liar." Nami sighed, but she gave up on trying to uncover all of his mysterious secrets, or at least tried to force herself to believe she did.
"The orange is still gross," Luffy replied, holding up the fruit.
"That's because you ate the peel, Luffy," Nami said, and grabbed the fruit from him.
"Hey! Don't take it!" He grabbed it back, "I'm not saying I didn't like it!" He took another bite if the fruit, without bothering to get rid of the peel.
Nami cringed, "You just said it was gross."
"Yeah, it doesn't taste like what I thought it would, so it's gross." Luffy replied, gulping down the bite he had taken.
"You're still eating the peel."
"I think it's this thick orange thing that makes it taste gross," Luffy said, poking at the orange.
"Yeah, because you don't eat that." Nami sighed, "you're supposed to peel that part off."
"Eh!" Luffy's eyes went wide, and Nami thought he'd finally understood, "But that's a waste of food, Nami!"
"Fine, eat the peel." Nami waved at him, in dismissal before returning to juicing the orange. "Did you forget everything I said?" She muttered to herself, though she was addressing him.
He had been quiet for a little while, and Nami smiled. It wasn't like him to be quiet, and she liked this sudden peace. It felt like he wasn't even in her house. She grabbed another orange half, and pressed it down into the juicer. Twisting and pressing down as much as possible so that she could get all the juice out. Her hands were hurting, but she loved her oranges so she pushed through it. Wasting an orange was a disgrace, she agreed with Luffy on that, but not eating the peel. She'd use those as mulch, and fertilizer for her orange trees.
"What does that do?" Luffy asked over her right shoulder.
Nami froze, not expecting him there, not expecting the sudden noise. She tilted her head to the left, and looked over at him, "I'm juicing them."
He turned his head to face hers, "Is it fun?"
"Y-yeah," Nami replied, backing her face up just a little more, his nose was only about two inches, not less, away.
"Can I try?" He asked, leaning closer as his eagerness overcame him.
Nami let go of the orange half and the juicer she was securing and took a few steps further to the left, "back up a little," she muttered, before answering him, "Yeah, be my guest." She gestured to the orange half, "just don't waste anything."
"Yeah, yeah, no problem!" Luffy waved her off, before grabbing the orange half and placing it on the point of the juicer as he had seen her do. He pressed it down, and Nami noticed his muscles flex. He twisted it around, as he had observed, "Like this, Nami?" He glanced over at her for approval.
Nami nodded, then noticed a whole lot more juice was coming out when he did it, then when she did. She decided it was kind of strange watching his arms as the juiced her oranges, and decided to change the subject on her mind by asking him a question, "Did you finish the orange?"
"Mhm." He replied, focused.
"Was it badly tasting?" Nami asked.
"Mhm."
"Do you want another?"
"Mhm."
"Is steak gross?" Nami chanced, realizing his responses were the same.
"Mhm." He replied, and Nami giggled, before he lifted his eyes from the orange, "wait, no it's not!" He said, turning to face her, "it's delicious!" She giggled some more, he was like a child. "You tricked me," he pouted, and put the orange down, the peel against the counter, and Nami could see it was practically bone dry, for a fruit, that is.
"Wow!" She said, pushing him slightly out of the way, "you are really good at this!"
He giggled, "thanks!"
"Can you do these?" Nami asked, as she held four more orange halves.
"Sure!" He said, grabbing one of the halves, "it was fun."
"Thanks!" Nami smiled, as she grabbed a pitcher, and the other ingredients to make her mom's famous orange juice. That included a little bit of xylitol, because it was healthier than sugar, and a little bit of vodka. When she was little she had watched her mom make the recipe without the vodka, multiple times, but everytime it was a special occasion, Bellamere would pull out the bottle of vodka, and pour just a little into the mixture. Of course, there was still water in the juice, so it's strength was diluted, somewhat. When Nami had fully measured the combination of the alcohol, and water, Luffy had raised his juice covered hands in the air.
"Okay, I finished them," his hands were sticky with the orange juice, "got any more?" He asked, before he began licking his fingers.
"No, that's enough for two servings." Nami said, and put the cork back on the bottle.
"Ooh!" Luffy's eyes widened as he looked at the bottle, "Zoro never lets me drink that!"
"What?" Nami said, as she placed the bottle carefully back where she found it.
"Zoro puts it in almost all of his drinks, and his beers, but whenever I ask him, he just hands me the cup before he's put it in, saying I'm too young, or that I'm a child." Luffy pouted.
Nami giggled, she could understand why, "So have you ever had alcohol?"
"What?" Luffy asked, but then answered himself, "oh, yeah, I've had sake during parties."
"Okay, good." Nami responded, before grabbing the jar of juice Luffy had did for her, and pouring the mixture she had made with the ingredients for the juice. Once it was fully combined, she poured two full glasses.
She made her way with the glasses, with Luffy in tow, to the breakfast table, where the sunset could be clearly seen out the bay windows. She sat the drinks in front of two of the four seats at the round table and sat down at one of them. Luffy took the other seat, and was about to gulp down the delicious looking beverage. "Wait, Luffy!" She said as he grabbed the glass in his hand. He stared at her, with a slight frustrated expression, but let her continue, "you can't just gulp this down like regular orange juice."
"Why?"
Nami mentally hit him across the face, this was a drink her mother would make, it was special to her. Now her mother was ill, and not able to pick the oranges, and too weak to make it, hence why Nojiko had left in the first place. "It's special to me," Nami said, in the simplest terms for the idiot to understand.
"Okay, I'll drink it slowly," Luffy responded, and smiled, "if it's special to you."
Nami felt her heart flutter, but she knew he was just being kind. She nodded, accepting his kindness, and gently grabbed the glass in her hand, before taking a small sip, closing her eyes, to enjoy the flavor. She frowned, she still couldn't get the taste exactly right, sometimes there was too much water, sometimes too much pulp, not enough orange juice, too little sweetner. This time, since Luffy had made so much orange juice, Nami had poured in too much alcohol. She sighed.
"Wow! Nami, this is good!" Luffy exclaimed, happily, looking down at his half empty glass.
That's not slow, she wanted to tell him, but how fast he eats, this was considerably slower than normal for him. Still, the way he talked about Zoro not giving him alcohol made it seem, even at the parties he'd been at, he probably didn't have much. She was a little worried, she had a greater tolerance to the beverage than most people, guys, or girls, and she knew she put too much alcohol in. She frowned, "I messed it up."
"What?" He asked, as he looked down at the drink, "It tastes good, though."
"No, no, no," Nami shook her head, "You got more juice out than I normally do, so I added more of the vodka, but I added too much. It doesn't taste the same."
"But it still tastes good, Nami," Luffy replied and frowned, "I don't care about you messing up, if it tastes good." he tilted the glass to his lips, and drank the rest of the cold liquid.
"Don't you taste the alcohol? It's a little too strong for this type of drink," Nami sighed, "It's supposed to give it just a little bit of a punch, but I'm getting a fist-full."
"I don't know, I've never had it before," Luffy replied, placing the empty glass down.
"How good are you at holding your liquor anyway?" Nami asked, taking a small sip of her own drink.
"I don't know, what's that supposed to mean?" Luffy tilted his head.
"How long does it take for you to actually get drunk, Luffy?"
"I don't know, don't think I've been before," he shrugged, "Can I have some more? That was really good!"
Nami glanced over at the jar, he had gotten more juice out of them, than she had originally thought, "Yeah, enough for one more glass," Nami replied, before taking another sip of her drink.
"Sweet!" Luffy replied, getting to his feet, and taking his glass over to the jar. He sloppily got the orange liquid into the glass, some of it getting onto her marble countertops. She groaned, luckily orange stains are easy to wash off. Luffy happily sat back down with the drink, and drank it 'slowly' because Nami wanted him to.
"Honestly," Nami said, after he finished the glass, "do you know how to drink any slower?"
"Hey!" Luffy stood to his feet, "I did drink slowly, Nami!"
"Yeah, by downing the drink," Nami sighed, she'd been doing a lot of that since she met him.
"You told me to drink it slowly, so I did." Luffy replied, folding his arms, "you don't have to be so mean about it."
"Mean?" Nami twitched her eyebrow, "this is my house, and my drinks, it is a family recipe, so you can hold at least a little respect for it, and drink it slower!"
"But then it takes longer to drink!" Luffy slammed his hands onto the table causing a little bit of Nami's drink to splash over the sides of her cup.
"Yeah, so that you can savor the taste!" Nami stated, "Do you really not like the drink, Luffy?"
"No, I liked it a lot!" Luffy smiled.
"Okay, then what's the matter with savoring the taste?"
"Well…" he giggled, "nothing, I guess!" he sat down, satisfied.
Nami rolled her eyes, and focused back on her drink, before picking it up again, and taking another drink out of it. It wasn't until Nami finished her drink that she realized Luffy was acting strange, or rather strange for him. During their conversations he was beginning to laugh at almost anything she said, and it was beginning to drive her up the wall. She asked him something extremely serious, as she thought about Robin, and the accident she had been a victim of, and he just started cackling.
"Luffy!" She yelled, pushing her now empty glass to the side, "It isn't funny, Robin almost got hurt!"
"I know!" Luffy laughed, "But…" his sentence got lost in a fit of laughter.
"This is very serious, Luffy, could you stop laughing for one second?"
Luffy tried to respond, but his laughter overtook him, and he ended up falling out of his chair, "You look so serious, Nami!" he cried, rolling around on the ground, not even trying to contain his giggles.
Nami relaxed into her chair, and was about to take another drink of her juice, when she realized it was gone. She sighed, then glared at the never ending ball of laughter, "Luffy, you're drunk, aren't you?"
"No," Luffy laughed, "What makes you think that?"
"You're being crazy," Nami sighed, "but I guess that makes sense, on why you and no one else really think you get drunk, you're already a ball of laughter anyways, so what's that times ten?" she sighed, and stood to grab their drinks.
"Ball of laughter!" Luffy laughed, "Laughter isn't a ball, Nami, you're so silly!" he fell back onto the floor, weak to his laughing lungs.
"Yeah, yeah, says the ball of laughter." Nami rolled her eyes and made her way to the sink. Great, she thought, I just got my nextdoor neighbor drunk, and he's basically like a child. How am I going to explain this to his friends?
"Hey, Nami?" Luffy said behind her, and for a moment she thought he had stopped laughing, but then she hurt a chuckle, and turned around to see his watery eyes as he held his mouth closed.
"Yes, Luffy?"
"You smell like oranges," Luffy said, before giggling, as his hands released his mouth.
If he hadn't been doubly drunk, Nami would have blushed, but as it were, and he was now laughing after he said it, which made it sound like he was making fun of her, she hit him over the head.
"Ow!" he laughed, "Nami that hurts!"
It was as if the laughter virus was caught by this idiot, because he couldn't stop smiling, nor laughing. Like any emotion but laughter and happiness was void in his heart. His eyes were crying with tears of laughter, and she was getting more irritated by the minute. It wasn't long though, after she had locked herself in the bathroom to free herself from the giggles that imprisoned her ears, that the laughter ceased. Not hearing his contagious laughter anymore, Nami made her way out of the master bathroom, and chanced going downstairs. "Luffy?" she asked.
When she got to the kitchen, she found an extremely tired Luffy, slouching his body over the island counter, "Hi, Nami," he breathed out, as his eyes threatened to close.
"Luffy, are you tired?"
"Yeah, I want to go to bed," he rolled himself over, colliding with the floor, though he didn't react to it, like he was rubber or something.
"Why don't you go back home?"
"Good idea," he said, as he drowsily got himself to a sitting position, "I'll get going, then," he stood up, slowly, and stumbled his way over to the front door, before slamming face-first into the wall beside it, "Nami, you're door disappeared."
"It's beside you," Nami pointed.
"Oh," Luffy replied, and opened it, "Well, bye Nami, see you tomorrow!" he said, before falling down her front steps.
"Luffy!" She said, running over to her open front door.
He was face first in the dirt, though his legs were bent over, and his heels nearly touched the back of his head, his hands were extended further along the ground, ahead of him. He looked like a contortionist. "I'm okay!" he yelled against the dirt, before flinging his legs backwards, and forcing himself to stand up, and walk away, "I'm okay," he said clearly, before turning around and waved good-bye.