Category: Romantic Fluff

Characters: Sanji and Nami

Requested by: farrah87 (Ao3)

Nami lingered in the spacious bathroom after the other girls had left, sitting at a mirror brushing her long, tangerine-orange hair. As she rhythmically drew the brush through the luscious waves, her body moved robotically; in truth, she was not sitting there for the sake of her own vanity. Her heart was troubled, trying to piece itself together after the heartbreak she had experienced when Luffy had attempted to retrieve Sanji from the carriage of the Germa 66. Sighing deeply, she set down the hand brush and looked down at the tiled floor, still covered in bathwater and soap bubbles.

He looked so terrifying, she thought with a shudder as she recalled the expression of pure rage that had distorted the face of the man she held dear to her heart, the man who had so many times before fought alongside her and the rest of the Straw Hat crew, and had sworn his undying love to her time and time again. A wry smile formed on her lips. "Not that he ever means it," she mumbled as she rose from the small stool to begin pulling on her clothes. Though she told herself that, she could not hide the fact that after all this time, he had somehow worked his way into her heart, slipping past what she once thought was an impenetrable wall.

After getting dressed, she exited the bathroom and proceeded down the hallway of the spacious manor-slash-fortress. The meeting with Bege, the formidable pirate who had stolen Sanji right from under them and major figure in Big Mom's crew who was now supposedly allying with them to take the psychotic woman down, was within the next thirty minutes. She walked purposefully down the hall, but as she turned the corner, her steps faltered and her breath caught in her throat. There, standing a few yards away, was the man they had all be fighting so desperately to recover from the clutches of Big Mom.

"Sanji," she breathed, almost reflexively. At the sound of her voice, the blonde-haired man lifted his head to glance over his shoulder. His eyes lit up with childlike happiness when he noticed it was her.

"Nami~" he cried blissfully, but for once Nami stayed where she was, gazing at him with apprehension. Though Luffy had explained the situation fully, there was still some part of her that could not forget the outrage of his expression, the harshness of his words as he savagely beat Luffy right in front of her own eyes. And then there's her, she thought, feeling like a dagger pierced through her heart as the image of the cute, seemingly innocent Pudding flashed into her mind. Though Sanji now know her true intentions, did it matter? He had a weakness for beautiful women, and there was no questioning the girl's appeal- when it came down to it, would he choose her regardless of the danger? Would he freeze? She bit down on her bottom lip as Sanji's expression gradually phased from elated to perplexed. "Nami? What is it?" he asked.

"I told you that I hadn't forgiven you yet, and that I put it on hold for the sake of getting out of here," she told him with more sharpness in her voice than she had intended. Sanji flinched visibly at the harshness of her tone, and he cast his gaze guiltily to the floor. Nami's emotions were now bubbling on the surface, and she could contain them no longer. She balled up her fists as her hands began to shake violently. "You beat Luffy to a bloody mess. He went through hell trying to get you out, you know that?" she snapped at him. "All of us did! And you have the gall to say those things to us?" she cried angrily. As she stood there, quivering, she was astonished to find tears pouring down her cheeks. "I was so afraid, Sanji. I was afraid we would lose you forever… But I was more afraid that you really thought those terrible things about us… Part of me still is…" she whimpered, reaching up to angrily wipe away the tears, but they flowed freely despite her attempts to cease them. Sanji just stared down at the ground, his shoulders hunched with guilt. Nami continued to cry for a few minutes before he worked up the courage to venture closer, stopping right in front of her. Half-angry and half-sad, she just puffed out her cheeks in defiance as he gazed down at her with a complex expression.

"I'm not going to say that I did it the right way," he sighed deeply, avoiding meeting her eyes. "They put me between a rock and a hard place. They threatened the Baratie, and they threatened all of you, and I just couldn't handle the pressure of having all that blood on my hands if I messed up." He looked down at his hands miserably. "They even threatened to blow off my hands if I tried to escape… Everywhere I looked, I was cornered, and I thought that the only way out, the only way to keep everyone safe, was to just go along with it." He closed his eyes as he heaved a deep sigh. "Of course, that was before I knew Pudding was a murderous psychopath."

Nami stiffened at the mention of the girl's name, and she saw the brief smile that formed on Sanji's face as he recalled the beautiful woman.

"What if she wasn't?" she asked quietly, and he raised his eyebrows at her. "Sanji… If Luffy had decided to make the deal with Bege still, and Pudding was innocent in all of this…" She trailed off, her bottom lip beginning to quiver at the fear of what he would say in response to her. "Would you have abandoned us?" she finished with a small whisper. Sanji remained silent for a long time before she felt him gently cup her chin in his hand to lift up her face. Normally, she would shun such actions and cast them aside as playful gestures, but when her eyes met his she became frozen with the intensity of feeling that burned within his eyes.

"Of course I wouldn't," he told her firmly, his eyebrows narrowing as he regarded her intently. "My home is the Thousand Sunny, and my family is the Straw Hats." His expression softened as he smiled down at her, and she shuddered slightly as she felt his hand slide from below her chin to gently rest against her cheek, his fingertips gently brushing her lingering tears away. "And most importantly, the only woman that can ever really have my heart is you, Nami," he purred. Nami's heart skipped a beat. This time, it felt real, like he was truly professing his feelings to her.

"Do you mean that?" she asked him quietly, reflexively leaning into the hand that was caressing her.

"Every word of it," he nodded with a smile. Nami felt the warm feeling of happiness bubbling up inside her as she stared up at him in relief. I had nothing to worry about after all… He's still the Sanji I know and love, she thought as a smile spread over her lips. As she remained absorbed by her flooding emotions, she did not notice that Sanji's face had drawn close until their lips were centimeters apart.

"San-" she began to protest, but could not finish as his lips enclosed her own in a passionate kiss. Nami's chest tightened as her breath was stolen by the heat of their lips moving against hers, and her body tensed up before relaxing as she melted under the intensity of the love she felt radiating from the small action. They lingered there in the hallway for only a few precious moments, but in those seconds Nami felt as if more words passed between the two of them than they had ever shared in all the time they had known one another. She felt loneliness pervade her as he pulled back, and she fought the urge to reach out and pull him in for another. He smirked down at her, pleased with himself, and then promptly turned on his heel, his cape fluttering as he began walking briskly over the tiled floor. Nami was left breathless with her heart pounding and her lips still tingling with the feeling of Sanji's kiss.

"Come on," he laughed back at her. "We wouldn't want to be late to the tea party, now would we?" Nami blinked as reality slowly returned to her, and she stamped her feet angrily before she marched after him.

"Sanji! You hopeless flirt!" she huffed, and his laughter echoed off the stone walls, mingling with the furious clicking of her shoes. Still, even as she seethed with annoyance, her heart still fluttered like she was floating on air.

She knew now that the man before her was indeed the man she had fallen in love with, and that was enough.