Category: Romantic Fluff

Characters: Zoro, Nami

Requested By: deliathedork (Tumblr)

Alternatum to A Straw Hat Birthday Party

Nami like to wet her pants as she ascended the steps leading down to the crew's bedrooms only to be bombarded by the entirety of the crew screaming "Happy birthday!" at the absolute top of their lungs. Her hand flew to her heart as it momentarily froze from fear and her mouth flew open into a startled shriek. Her other hand grasped the railing of the stairway so she wouldn't fall for her body automatically jerking backwards. After the initial shock, she exhaled deeply and looked at them in a mixture of appreciation and annoyance.

"Er… Thanks, you guys?" Nami had to admit that she was a little perplexed. Her birthday was over a month ago, in July, since they had decided to wait two years exactly to reunite on Saobody Archipelago. They had just ascended from the Fishman Kingdom and were cruising around for their next adventure. Nami really had no idea why the crew had decided to celebrate Nami's birthday only, when they had all had birthdays over the course of their separation, and when they had found the time to plan out the act either. Actually, you know what, they're probably just looking for an excuse to party, she thought dryly. Well, a party, regardless of its kind, was something Nami could get behind. She hopped up the remainder of the steps to beam brightly at all of them. "This certainly was a surprise, everyone!"

"Shishishishi! It was Sanji's idea!" Luffy snickered while pointing at the blonde cook. Of course it was. Sanji was whirling around in a circle asking her if she liked her surprise in a loud, trilling screech. His eyes may have well been replaced with beating cartoon hearts with how much he was pandering for her affections. Amused, Nami decided to cater to him a little; she walked over and caught up under his chin, freezing him in his tracks.

"Why, yes, Sanji. I love it." That's all it took for him to grab at his heart and faint into a lovestruck stupor on the spot. Nami giggled at how easily the cook swooned.

"Wow, Nami, that's not fair, taking advantage of him like that," came a sarcastic drone from over her shoulder. She turned her head to see Zoro smirking sardonically at her; he must have poured a good bit of alcohol into his system to be in such a good mood, because normally he would've gone straight into a rant about how idiotic he was. Nami jutted out her hip and placed a hand on it while she dismissively waved the other.

"What~? I'm only telling the truth," she cooed with a saucy wink at the swordsman. Zoro was fun to flirt with since he didn't fluster, only grew incredibly amused. Truth be told, Nami was aiming for the day that she could finally make a blush appear on that rigid, stone-cold face of his; that would mean that she had won the unspoken and possibly one-sided game. One-sided or not, she had been spitting her game at him for the entirety that they had been in contact with each other, just about, and it was almost infuriating at how easily he brushed it off. Sure enough, he only snorted in slight laughter and took another swig from his jar of sake. She puffed out her cheeks at him indignantly. Dammit, it's my birthday! Just one blush! That's all I ask! At this point, it was confusing of whether it was from the challenge or actually romantic investment, but to Nami, that really didn't matter. She just had to win, dammit! Mark her words, before this day was over, she was gonna make Zoro putty in her pretty little hands…

She gasped as the green-haired swordsman, now suddenly right in front of her, poked her in the forehead. "Hey!"

"Yo, were you paying attention? You wanna party or not?" Nami pouted as she rubbed the small red mark that had appeared on her forehead. She begrudgingly watched as he strode away, drinking to his heart's content, while she began hatching nasty flirtatious schemes in her mind. She was going to make him putty, yes, indeed…

Nami had no earthly idea where they got the piñata- yet, there it was, a little colorful paper-mâché donkey swaying gently in the breeze rolling from the sea. Luffy was hooting and hollering at her to bust it open so they could instantly claim the candy prize inside, and Nami didn't really have the desire to argue that she didn't carry the upper body strength to blast the damned thing open in one swing. Nonetheless, she draped the blindfold over her eyes and allowed Robin to spin her around ten times. As the woman released her shoulders, Nami immediately staggered like a hopeless drunk; who knew that spinning around blindfolded was so disorienting? She clutched the little plastic bat tightly in her hands as she wobbled uncertainly towards the direction she thought the piñata was, stopping after a few paces. She then unsteadily hefted the bat over her shoulder before giving it one good, powerful swing. With a resound crack! the bat connected with the strung-up cardboard-and-paper animal, but Nami could tell that she was nowhere close to splitting it open. She paused to pull the blindfold up off her eyes and smirked with a small degree of satisfaction at the small buckle in the piñata's side. Wow! I actually put a dent in the thing!

Usopp, Chopper, and Robin all took their swing at the creature- all Devil Fruit abilities limited, of course, to even the playing field and to keep the fun from ending too soon. By the time Zoro picked up the small bat to take his swing, the poor like donkey didn't look much like one anymore, all crumpled and squished up. Nami knew the moment that Zoro hauled the bat over his shoulder that it was over with; with a loud roar, he swung with all his might and instantly disemboweled the poor thing. Everyone in the vicinity cheered and dove for the candy, but they had been reduced to the mindset of feral animals. None of them had any consideration at all for the fact that it was Nami's birthday, and even with some pilfering, Nami only had managed to grab a small handful of sweets (naturally, Chopper and Luffy had absconded with the lot of it). Nami wasn't a child, but like hell if she wasn't going to be salty about the fact that she was significantly deprived of loot from her own piñata.

"Darn it," she muttered as she disgracefully chewed on a small strip of stretchy taffy. Luffy and Chopper were so sugar-coma'd already that they were completely immune to her stink-eye. With a sigh, she tore off the wrapper of another piece of candy. "Better than nothing, I guess…" she grumbled under her breath. She cried out as a whole pile of candy was suddenly dumped into her lap. She glanced up, expecting to see Sanji begging for her good graces, but was floored to find that Zoro had deposited a large portion of his candy cache on her. "Z-Zoro?"

"Take it. I'm not that big into sweets," he mumbled as he looked away to the side, occupying himself with his sake. Nami leaned forward with her eyebrows knit together as she inspected his face, because, oh my Lord, he was finally blushing! The faint hint of pink gracing his cheeks was unmistakable. Unbelievable! She hadn't even been trying to pass moves at him, and the damn swordsman was blushing of his own accord? What the hell?! Pouting at her loss, Nami glanced down at her gain. It certainly was a hell of a stash. She picked up a piece of fruity candy and peered up at him through her thick lashes; he was watching her out of the corners of his eyes expectantly. Suddenly, she was the one blushing. Did he notice that I was sad…?

"Thank you, Zoro…" she said as she slowly slid the gummy candy into her mouth. She honestly wasn't quite sure what to thing of the situation. It was an overwhelmingly compassionate and generous gesture, and it wasn't like Zoro was completely incapable of either- it was just that she had never expected them to be directed at her. Her cheeks burned a shade of crimson as he flashed her a smile that was undeniably warm.

"No problem. Can't have Birthday Girl all down in the dumps, can we?" His shoulders jumped with short snort of laughter. So he did notice… She wiggled her shoulders shyly as she looked down at the candy. Had Zoro always been this sweet to her? Sure enough, as she traced her memory, plenty of instances rose to the top of her mind… She reached up a hand to clutch at the area over her heart as it clenched slightly. Could she… Could she really have a thing for Zoro? Is that why she was so desperate for him to acknowledge her flirting attempts? She swallowed thickly at the very real possibility, then again peered up at him through her eyelashes again. He was staring hard at her; she bristled like a wild cat on the defense at his very intense but expressionless gaze. "You've got a funny look on your face."

"Well, of course I do! This is the sweetest thing you've ever done for me!" she cried and gestured down to the pile of candy. A confident grin formed on his face, and Nami immediately knew that he was about to get up to no good. Nami was currently sitting on the steps leading up to the upper deck, while the rest of the crew was scattered about the deck munching on their haul. Zoro was standing right in front of her at the perfect angle to eclipse anything and everything that happened between them. He set the sake bottle down on the ground and crouched down with his arms slung lazily over his knees, but still towered a full head over her height so that she had to crane her neck up slightly to look him in the eye. The way it was glittering in amusement above that smug sneer sent a pleasurable shiver up Nami's spine. How in the hell had she not noticed how smokin' hot Zoro was up until then?! This taffy has got to be laced with something, she thought as she looked down to begin inspecting the empty wrappers, because she had to be tripping on something to consider any romantic attraction towards Zoro.

Or… was she? All the flirting, all the banter, all the moments… Nami couldn't deny it had all been leading up to this. She inhaled sharply as his hand caught the underside of her chin to force her to look at him. Oh, the things that smirk was doing to her. "Z-zoro?"

"I'm sweet?" he snorted in one hundred percent amusement. Nami flushed with one hundred percent mortification. She had no idea how the conversation was about to proceed. All she managed was a meek, unconvincing nod. Her spine stiffened like a steel rod as his thumb brushed against her bottom lip. If she wasn't tripping, Zoro had to be drunk, right? Only Zoro didn't get drunk. Holy shit, this is really happening! Nami didn't know if she was confused or excited. Probably a mixture of both. Would you just kiss me already? She begged silently as she squirmed in his light grip. His mouth twitched in amusement, as if he had heard her.

Then, next thing she knew, his face had descended over hers with blinding speed to enclose her lips in a hungry, sloppy kiss. Nami's nose absorbed the intense stinging bite of the sake as it was all but smeared across her lips by the swordsman's own. Nami got drunk off the fumes alone, or maybe it was the impossibly inebriating pleasure of the heated kiss. Distantly, she wondered if anyone had noticed what was happening; probably not, because Sanji would've wrenched Zoro back to begin beating the hell out of him the instant he saw. Thanks to the way they were situated, Zoro could pour affection on the navigator to his heart's content with the crew being none the wiser. The powerful passion of the kiss elicited a small moan from Nami and she parted her lips slightly, all but begging for Zoro to sweep in and claim her tongue as her own. He obliged her quiet plea, and though she hadn't thought it possible, Nami grew even more drunk. There was something so exhilarating and titillating about the sudden, abrupt release of the apparent sexual tension that had mounted between them. Nami's face chased his as it suddenly broke apart from hers, for a few millimeters. Zoro laughed dryly as he stood up, sweeping his tongue over his lips. "Nah," he laughed while wiping the corner of his mouth. "You're the one who's sweet…" Nami's face lit afire at the very obvious connotation. He wasn't referring to her personality here…

Zoro left Nami short-circuiting on the steps, just like that, with the crew completely unaware as to what had just happened. Nami's heart thumped in her chest as she looked away to hide her uncontrollable blush. That scoundrel, she thought with a scowl as she shoved a piece of candy in her mouth for a distraction- or, maybe, to sweeten her up a little more for a secret rendezvous later…

Author's Note: To the Anon that requested the Nami/Arlong pairing- I am afraid that I am going to have to refuse your request this time! I wish I could message you personally instead of putting this on blast, but that's just how this site works, so don't think I'm doing this out of prejudice or anything! I would just hate to not answer you. As for reasons, I have multiple, but the primary factor is the significant age difference between Nami and Arlong; I generally refuse to write characters that are more than ten years apart. Then, there is the entire canon relationship between the two. Granted, this is all under the assumption that you are requesting this pairing romantically; if not, please be sure to elaborate in your request and I may choose to honor it in that case. Anyway, hopefully you take my denial with no prejudice and feel free to request something else with no hard feelings; I certainly hate refusing requests, but there are just some things I am uncomfortable writing. Hope you understand!