Not the owner, not making money, not looking for a suit.
-----
20. the road home
Sanji was a day older and, apparently, 1,000,000 berries in debt before Nami would speak to him again.
"The fondest memory I have," he said, taking a stab at conversation the following night after the sun went down and the silence had gone beyond unbearable, "is Baratie's opening day. We knew we were doing something special, that old man and me. Something nobody had ever done before. We were following through on a dream."
There was a silence, filled only by the usual crackling of the fire.
"The fondest memory I have," Nami said finally, her voice sounding thin in the night, "is of the road home."
He didn't prompt her, just watched her carefully and waited for her to go on.
"I would be gone for months at a time," she said, "and sometimes those months could be horrible. Usually they were. I was so grateful to be back, even though I knew I would have to leave again soon. But following that road between Arlong Park and home, it was like none of it had happened. I could pretend that I'd just gone to... the dentist, or piano lessons, or the bookstore, or anywhere, and I was just headed home, and Bellemère would be there making dinner, and Nojiko would be out in the yard tending to the tangerines. She had this ritual of giving particular good pickings a little kiss. I always made fun of her, told her it was some kind of weird obsessive compulsive thing she had--"
Sanji's heart fluttered. Oh, to be a tangerine in that grove! Nami's foster sister was nearly as beautiful as Nami herself.
"--but it was just... something about her that made her special." She paused. "Once I got there, and Bellemère wasn't there, and all I could do was bury whatever treasure I had gathered and take a rest before leaving again, it was never the same. But for that time, on the road home, I could pretend."
Sanji let the story sink into him for a moment. "Oh," he burst out after a moment, "Miss Nami, you're so incredible! So strong! So brave! I've never met anyone as wonderful as you! It fills me with such joy that I could take you away from all of that! Relieve your suffering! Relieve your pain!"
Nami sat back and let Sanji's usual ravings wash over her. Leave it to him to ruin the moment.