Category: Romantic Fluff
Characters: Sanji, Nami
Requested By: Anonymous (Tumblr)
"That's it! Once we save Vivi's country, I'm gonna tell Nami how I really feel! For real, no holding back!"
Sanji had proudly proclaimed that, and yet here he was, two days after the conclusion of the Albastan civil war/Baroque Works fiasco and still as deep in the friendzone as ever. He had tried to tell himself that Ace leaving wouldn't deter him from following through on his promise to finally confess his feelings to their smart, savvy, sexy navigator; however, every time he thought about approaching the girl, he stomach would twist up tight into pretzel knots. Whenever he did finally work up the courage to confess, Nami was surrounded by everybody and their mother, and there was no way in hell that she would take him seriously at all in that kind of setting. Groaning at his own indecision, he ran a hand over his scratched-up, bandaged face and gazed forlornly up at the stone ceiling of the castle room above. It was nighttime, and the moonlight filtering in through the curtained window did little to illuminate the dark hue of the hewn rock. A perfectly gloomy setting for a perfectly gloomy man.
I can't sleep like this, he thought indignantly. Slowly, muscles keening in protest, he pushed himself from the bed up into a sitting position. His body hadn't throbbed and ached like this since he had been caught in the avalanche on Drum Island and fractured his spine. He carefully turned his body this way and that and stretched his arms slightly above his head in an effort to alleviate some of the tautness in his muscle fibers, but it only dimmed the pain down to a moderate level. Annoying, but he would survive. He tossed the cotton sheets from his body and turned on the bed to hop down, feet slipping into some very comfy slippers that Vivi's staff had provided him. Dressed in only a pair of loose plaid-patterned pajama pants and a muscle tee, the insomnious, lovesick cook took to wandering the castle halls like a ghost chained to the physical plane by his lingering regrets.
Moonlight streamed in through the tall, skinny glass-paned windows, turning the crimson red of the hallway carpet to something reminiscent of coral. The gray stones around them, unlike those in Sanji's room though they were the same material, soaked up the white rays to glow a soft bright timber. This castle was just intent on making him depressed, apparently. He should've brought his cigarettes, but he had already turned the corner to head towards the grand staircase, so there wasn't much point in that. The red carpet washed over the ornate, mahogany-lined stairwell like a cherry-red waterfall, ending in a semicircular puddle at the base. The castle's entryway was lonely and empty, save for a pair of vigilant guards stationed at either side of the massive castle door. Sanji's eyebrow quirked as he noticed the sliver of white light slicing through the center of the looming wood; the door was cracked. His slippers slapped sloppily against the plush carpet as he tottered down the stairs and approached the guards.
"Is someone outside?"
"Oh, another one of the Straw Hats. The redhead girl- your navigator, I believe- asked to step out for a breath of fresh air in the courtyard garden, so we kept the door open so we could keep an eye on her. There are still plenty of bitter citizens and Baroque Works goons lingering around, so we would hate for something to happen to her," the guard to his left reported. Sanji dipped his head respectfully to him in thanks before slipping through the small gap in the door to walk outside. His heart rate had jumped into an exponential upward slope; was this the chance he had been so desperately waiting for?Already, the cowardice was beginning to leak into his veins, rapidly washing away the adrenaline. He clenched the fabric of his tee into his fingers with gritted teeth. No way you're backing down this time, Sanji. Do it!
The desert night was a beautiful one. The air was cool but not overbearingly so, a comfortable temperature range supplemented by a refreshingly chill breeze. The night sky was unobstructed by clouds, not even one small, puffy wisp, allowing the full brilliance of the Milky Way to emblazon the dark sky like diamonds studded into black velvet. The moon was shining with such intensity that it was ringed with luminescence, and she poured all her force into bathing the world below her with glowing white water. The castle garden was brilliantly illuminated; the white stones of the walkway and balustrades shone like they were constructed of moonstone itself. The green of the grass blades and bush and tree leaves took on a dark emerald sheen, their waxy surfaces reflecting the light just like smooth gems of jade would. The flowers were all painted pastel, white and blue and yellow and pink all transformed by the moonlight's touch. It was not this sentimental sight that stole Sanji's breath from his lungs, however.
There she was, seated on the stone of a rounded flowerbed, back to him and face upturned to the stars above. Her tangerine hair blazed atop her head in a tiny messy bun that resembled a candle's flickering flame to his eyes. Her tanned skin looked like coffee with cream in the moonlight. The simple yellow nightgown that snugly hugged her body in its bodice to only flare out in draping waves over her legs made her seem like a contemplative goddess or angel in his undeserving mortal eyes. Seeing her, so ethereal and otherworldly, sent that jolting spark of fear through his body once more. He gulped loudly, shuffling back against the entryway to retreat back into the castle.
Some deity was looking out for him that night, because Nami heard him, and glanced over her shoulder to stare at him with those brown eyes that made Sanji nearly melt into a puddle every single time they were cast onto him.
"Sanji?" she blinked, and then her curious expression relaxed into one of sympathetic understanding. "Can't sleep either, huh?"
"Aha, yeah, no," he laughed nervously while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. When he looked back to her, she was lightly patting the stone block beside her invitingly. Sanji's back stiffened like a steel rod as his heart bounded into his throat, but his feet knew how to function well enough, because they carried him over to her. With all the grace of a golem clumsily carved of iron, he eased himself onto the stone beside her. His fingers twitched excessively against the meat of his thighs in his body's effort to dissipate the insane amount of nervous energy flooding his system and preventing essential functions, like blinking and breathing.
"Did you have a nightmare or something? You look tense," Nami asked worriedly. He was about to refute the statement but she leaned over to peer into his face, and whatever reply he was going to utter dried up along with the rest of his mouth. He only opened and closed his mouth stupidly at her, the desert heat of his mouth rising across his cheeks in the form of a dust-cloud blush.
"Er… No… I just tweaked one of my wounds, is all, and I'm just waiting for it to settle down," he lied lamely. Nami blinked those pretty eyes of hers, then shrugged and turned back to her stargazing. He breathed an uneven sigh and cursed himself at his pitiful performance. He was the smoothest lady-killer on the Grand Line, for crying out loud; he was capable of acting like the most suave knight under pressure, and here he was bungling it like a tween on his first date. He swept a hair through his tousled blonde likes, streaking it with a thin shimmer of sweat. Come on, Sanji, get yourself together. You've gotten father than all your previous attempts, he reminded himself. It actually did boost his confidence slightly. "Actually, Nami-swan," he began uncertainly, then compulsively cleared his throat. "Th-there's something that's been on my mind."
"What is it?" She looked back at him with a radiantly sweet smile that made his heart clench inside his chest. "You can tell me!" She was so perfectly innocent that Sanji almost felt as if he were about to taint her with his pending admission. He inhaled sharply through his nose and closed his eyes as he breathed out, steeling his jittery nerves. Regardless of how it ended, he had made a vow to confess to her, and he wasn't the type of man to quail on his word. He opened his eyes to stare fixedly at her.
"Nami… I love you."
The words hung in the air like they were suspended on strings, weighty yet unmoving. Nami's expression was alarmingly blank. Unblinking brown eyes fixated on his own, shaking in their sockets as the tension mounted in his body waiting for her response. His stream of consciousness began to fly like a runaway train, wondering if he had made the wrong decision and their friendship would be ruined or even if she would slap him silly. Finally, after what seemed like ten life ages, she released a tremulous breath.
"You… Really mean that, don't you?" Before he could answer, she cupped a hand to her mouth and looked down at her feet, eyes searching the stone desperately for her next words. Sanji swallowed anxiously; he hadn't been sure what he had been expecting, but this was not what he had been hoping for. He immediately moved to get up.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. Of course you wouldn't-"
"No!" she demanded, head whipping around. She grabbed his bicep with both her hands to yank him so hard she could've jerked his shoulder out of socket, and he stumbled gracelessly back against the stone. Confused sputters of her name fell from his mouth, but before he could get the chance to arrange a coherent sentence, Nami grabbed his face roughly to wrench him into a heated, sloppy open-mouthed kiss. It took his already frazzled brain a moment to process the chain of events, but when he did, the shade of his face matched the crimson rugs of the palace behind them. When she pulled back, their lips separated with a slight pop with how tightly they had been pressed together. Sanji's shoulders slouched loosely to mirror the complete slack of his jaw as he gawked stupidly at her. "A-ahem," she cough uneasily as she wiped her lips with her wrist, "There's your answer."
Sanji wasn't sure what he wanted to do- cry tears of joy, do a happy dance, run off and tell Zoro that he had won that stupid bet ages ago that he was gonna win Nami's heart; there were so many possibilities his brain was unable to choose, and so he just continued to sit there with that rosy blush and absolutely moronic smile on his face. "Sanji? Oh, God, did I kill all the neurons you had left?"
"I'm okay!" With a dog-like shake of his entire body, he was finally able to right the sparking electrical pathways in his brain into working order, and his hands flew up to grasp one of hers endearingly. "I'm so relieved, Nami-swan!" he said as he heaved a sigh to dislodge the last of the lingering weight that had been burdening his shoulders for days. Nami gave him a slightly amused, crooked smile as she snorted in laughter. She was so cute it sent his heart into dangerously fast palpitations. "Em, Nami?"
"Yes?"
"Can we do that again? I really don't want our first kiss to be me just being a dumbass…" Nami laughed airily at his request, then gave him a smile that rivaled the shining move above, her eyes scrunched up in unbridled affection and joy. That was invitation enough, so with a pleased smirk, he leaned forward to claim her lips in a sweet, chaste, passionate kiss that he was going to engrave in his memory for the rest of time…