Robin was pensive, a slim hand curled to her chin as almond-shaped eyes moved from one article of clothing to the other.

She was flanked on both sides by Zoro and Sanji, whose own disbelieving gazes were fixed on the large array of colored vests spread over the dining room table. Sitting obediently across from them were three out of their four captains, slurping noisily from their large glasses of banana berry smoothies the Straw Hat chef had quickly whipped up to tame their insatiable hunger.

Said cook now tisked disapprovingly, lifting a familiar bright orange vest and regarding it with a critical eye before placing the vest back down with a sigh. "You'd think he'd switch up his style every now and then."

Zoro, for his part, only grunted. Even dead, he would never be caught agreeing with the cook, but he couldn't deny that he felt something akin to exasperation as he surveyed the choices laid out in front of them. His eyebrow twitched.

There had to be at least twenty of the same vests on this table, Robin having skillfully arranged them by the colors of the rainbow. They had minor differences, of course - a longer flared sleeve on a red dress shirt, for one, while another garment was adorned with gold rimmed buttons - but overall, the vests stayed true to an original, unassumingly simple design.

Not unlike their captain, Zoro thought dryly.

His one good eye glanced at the Luffys from across the table, currently in the process of tearing through the batch of pork buns the cook had set aside in case the smoothies weren't enough (they obviously weren't), before switching his gaze back down to their dark-haired archeologist.

"So, what? We just pick a color for each?"

"Mm," Robin answered distractedly. "It will make it easier for us to tell them apart by their appearance, rather than to seek out their behaviors."

"As expected from our Robin-chwan~!" the cook predictably swooned, clasped hands raised to one cheek as his body wiggled not unlike an eel beside the woman. "Intelligence, coupled with such indescribable beauty can only be called perfection~"

Zoro fought the urge to roll his eyes. Although he had thought of about a million better ways to spend his day than having to deal with the insufferable love cook and babysitting his three captains, this was the unfortunate hand he'd been dealt with (albeit forcibly) and he (eventually...grudgingly) resigned himself to it.

But this little activity the dark-haired woman had conjured up as a way to pass the time was where he had to draw the line. His captain wasn't a kid, and the last time he checked, didn't have fiery red hair, magnetic powers, and a dangerous temper that indicated he was one. Luffy could at least pick his own clothes, for Kami's sake.

"How about just letting them decide?" Zoro suggested, ignoring the love-cook for the time being.

Robin looked up at him, eyebrows raised like the idea had never occurred to her.

"Oi." Zoro sweatdropped. "This may be a weird situation but you can't forget that Luffy's still a man. He can decide things for himself." A pause. "Most of the time."

"Ehhh?" Sanji was quick to mumble. "So the marimo can say things that make sense. Who knew?"

"Eh? What was that shit-cook?"

Robin giggled and Sanji went back to swooning, pausing the two's oncoming fight.

"I can assure you it's not that, Zoro," she reassured the swordsman, before turning to the Luffys in front of them, still gorging on the pork buns. "I do acknowledge Luffy as a man. He's our captain, after all."

It's at that moment that one of the Luffys choked on a whole pork bun and the other two immediately held their throats in panic before urgently slapping the choking Luffy on his back. Zoro and Sanji watched their struggle with half-lidded eyes, unimpressed.

"But I've always known Nami to be the one to pick out Luffy's clothes," Robin continued, also unfazed by the commotion. "She'd do so after reminding him to bathe at least once a week, I think. Luffy can be forgetful at times, and shows disinterest in things that aren't part of a man's romance, so naturally I just assumed..."

"'Forgetful' is putting it lightly, Robin-chwan," Sanji murmured as he moved towards the kitchen sink, deciding that it wouldn't do for his lovely lady to see three corpses in front of her before she even had her dinner.

Robin smiled gently up towards the First Mate. "But your idea bears interest, Zoro. I wonder if having them choose will give us insight into just how far their feelings dictate their choices."

Zoro shrugged, not really understanding all her talk about visions and dictatorships and the like, but satisfied that his point was gotten across. "As long as you get it."

Sanji walked back to the group, a full glass of water in his hand that was quickly whisked away by a rubber hand. The choking Luffy guzzled the glass of water down hurriedly, teary-eyed and blue in the face.

Sanji took the half-lit cigarette out of his mouth and after blowing out a plume of smoke, aimed the white blunt towards the Luffy in the middle, the one holding the empty glass and gasping after dislodging the round pastry from his throat.

"Let's start with you, then, shitty rubber-gomu."

"Huh?" Luffy blinked the tears away from his eyes, finally able to breathe properly. The other Luffys behind him took a deep breath.

"Which vest do you want to wear?" Sanji clarified.

Owlish eyes swiftly roamed the table before noticeably brightening upon landing on a vest at the left corner of the table. "I'll pick this one!"

Robin smiled as Happy Luffy picked up the yellow sleeveless top, wasting no time in switching it out with the red one he was wearing.

"It's fitting for you," she complimented. "Bright, like the sun."

"Shishishi!"

The Luffy on the left, who had been silently watching their interaction with a narrowed gaze, scoffed at her comment. "Yeah, right."

Sanji's ears twitched at his tone, narrowed eyes quick to shoot invisible lasers towards the Angry Luffy.

"Oi, shitty captain. Don't think I'll tolerate you being rude to our Robin-chwan. Knock it off unless you all want to be eating salads for the next week."

All three Luffys instantly paled, bowing their heads in sync towards the table. "Gomen, Robin!" they chorused.

"Why are you all sorry?" Zoro grumbled.

"'Cause we all felt sorry," Happy Luffy replied after they lifted their heads. Angry Luffy crossed his arms and looked away childishly.

Robin chuckled. "It's alright."

She nodded towards the Angry Luffy. "Luffy, what color would you like to pick?"

He didn't answer her for a moment, still pouting, but his eyes were shifting over to the bottom right of the table. He jerked his chin to the very last vest, a black long-sleeved shirt, reminiscent of the dress shirt he last wore ages ago.

"I want that one."

Robin had to stop her eyebrows from raising. "The black one?" she clarified.

He nodded sharply before stretching his arm out to grab it. They waited for him to put it on but he only looked back at them expectantly. With a start they realized he was waiting for a comment, like Robin had done with the other Luffy.

"Uh, black-" Sanji started unsurely before deadpanning, "- like the bottomless pits that are your stomachs."

"Perhaps as deep as a black hole?" Robin offered.

"Something cool to do with darkness," Zoro added helpfully.

Luffy, seemingly satisfied with their answers, undressed and shrugged on the black dress shirt, leaving the top two buttons unbuttoned and rolling up the sleeves. The effects were immediate, the change making him look somewhat more charming and well-mannered.

Sanji appraised his new look with a satisfied hum, tapping the excess off his cigarette. "Oh? Not too shabby, sen-"

He stopped mid-sentence as Angry Luffy stuffed a pinky in his nose, quickly shattering the illusion. Zoro sighed once again in resignation and Robin giggled into her hand.

Sanji's swirly eyebrow twitched as he raised the cigarette back to his lips, taking another deep inhale. After a second he pulled it out, breathing out a plume of smoke while aiming the white blunt at the last Luffy, who'd been the quietest and most observant of them all.

"What about you?" he asked. "Thought of a color you'd want to wear?"

Sad Luffy blinked at them, before looking down thoughtfully at his choices. He hesitated, looking back up at them and biting his lip before ultimately choosing the vest in the middle.

"Blue, huh," Sanji murmured.

Robin's eyes softened. "Like how you feel."

Luffy nodded slowly as he changed. "I feel blue," he repeated.

All three sat in front of them, their color-coded vests now a visible indicator of their less apparent differences.

"Well," Zoro started, "they have their colors now. The Luffy that's with Nami should keep the original red one so we can tell them apart just by looking at them."

His job obviously done, the swordsman strolled to the fridge to dig around for a mind-numbing drink. (Were they really out of sake? He could've sworn the cook had a stash of it somewhere...)

"Do you think we'll be able to better predict their actions now, too, Robin-chwan?" Sanji asked, sweeping up the empty glasses and plates left from the carnage.

Robin tilted her head slightly. "I suppose so. If anything, we can assume that Blue-Luffy will react more negatively to a situation, and Yellow-Luffy the opposite, more positive."

"Black-Luffy will probably just be angrier," Zoro added, crouched down in front of the fridge and distastefully examining a bottle of cola. "And Red-"

"Red-Luffy," Sanji cut in, almost growling, his body going rigid as he faced the sink. "That bastard…"

His nose flared, expelling hot air as his mind recalled the damning moment his own captain captured his sweet Nami-swan's lips-

"He'll just act more perverted, that's it!" Flames erupted out of his eyes even as he carefully scrubbed the dishes clean. "That shitty Red-Senchou… How dare he defile Nami-san's lips like that! And who knows what else he's up to after he seduced her to go with him to that beautiful pirate woman's ship?!"

"Perverted?" Having given up on his sake-searching, Zoro came back to the small group, an opened bottle of Franky's cola in hand. "That's rich coming from you, Ero-cook."

"What was that, baka-marimo?!"

Yellow-Luffy burst into laughter, largely entertained, as Blue-Luffy hunched further down in his seat, eyes downcast.

"You're still on that?" said the voice of Black-Luffy, twisting a pinky into his ear, his eyes half-lidded in annoyance. "It was just a kiss, no big deal."

Sanji whirled on him, teeth shark-like. "'No big deal'?!"

"Oi, oi," Zoro sweat-dropped. "Don't rile him up any further."

Robin stifled a giggle.

The blond cook's face twisted into a what looked like a strange mixture of anger and exasperation. "Of course you would think so, you big dolt! You don't even know the first thing about real romance! Did you even take into account how Nami-swan would feel about what you did?!"

Black-Luffy frowned, pausing from his dig for gold.

Sanji pointed an accusing finger at him. "And don't think just because you weren't the one who specifically did it means you're not guilty!"

"What're you-" Black-Luffy began before he was abruptly gripped by his collar, inches away from the heartbroken cook, Sanji having cleared the distance between them in less than half a second.

"Don't act dumb," the cook said in a low voice, eyes shadowed, before raising his head to meet his captain's confused gaze. "You all felt it, didn't you?!"

When Luffy took too long to answer he shook him slightly. "Didn't you?"

Zoro opened his mouth to retort but was stopped when Black-Luffy suddenly smirked. The look was uncharacteristically smug, and Sanji loosened his hold in surprise, blinking.

Robin calmly watched the interaction. Zoro took a swig of cola.

Burning black eyes locked with his cook's now-hesitating blue ones. Black-Luffy cocked his head to one side, his next words holding a tinge of cold arrogance. "Un. It felt good. And you know what else?"

"...?!"

He quickly swiped his tongue over his bottom lip before widening his smirk, fangs glinting, his voice tauntingly low. "She tasted like mikans."

Zoro spit out his drink.

Sanji's breath hitched sharply, his heart audibly stuttering to a stop.

Robin muffled a sound of surprise.

With a small, pitiful squawk, the Strawhats' cook let go of his captain's collar and fell to the ground, all color drained from his face, one hand gripping at his chest as if he'd been shot. "Y-you…bas-...!"

Yellow-Luffy's oblivious chuckles and Zoro's abrasive laugh only deepened his misery.

Nami-swan... he silently mourned, comical tears flowing from his eyes.

"Serves you right, cook!" the First Mate guffawed, almost in tears. "Oi, Luffy! Where'd you learn to do that? You should show this side of you more often!"

Black-Luffy shrugged, adjusting his collar. He shot him a devious grin. "Never felt like it."

"Find anything, Chopper?"

"Ack!" Chopper lifted his head, blue reindeer nose twitching. "This lingering smoke makes it hard to pick up on her scent. Luffy and the others' scents are everywhere, too."

Usopp breathed out a sigh from atop the reindeer, feigning disappointment. "Well, that's to be expected. She did pull off a crafty trick."

The sharpshooter hopped off Chopper's stag form, surveying the area with hands on his hips. The two were in the middle of the clearing Luffy and the mysterious pirate woman had created as they battled through the forest's thick trees and brush. It was like a cyclone had decided to take a break from the Grand Line to rip through just one particular patch of the forest - uprooted tree trunks, broken boulders and crater-like holes littered the area, telling evidence of the two devil-fruit users' intense match.

"She must've been pretty strong to hold her own against Luffy," Chopper remarked with slight awe as he took in the wreckage.

"It does look that way, doesn't it? " Usopp thumbed his nose, eyes closed confidently. "But I'd say her tricks were what saved her. She might have caught us off guard this one time but even she wouldn't last long against the great might of God-"

"Are you okay, Usopp? Your legs are shaking!"

"I-ignore that!" The long-nose forcibly stopped the trembling in his legs before facing his young companion. "My point is, if it weren't for her weird devil fruit powers, I'm sure Luffy would've defeated her."

"It is a strange power," Chopper agreed. He bowed his head and moved forward, concentrating on finding the unfamiliar scent.

"Nami did say we couldn't fight her like we normally do," Usopp mused out loud, eyebrows furrowed in thought. "But Luffy was doing just fine until the woman used her powers. I'd say our only disadvantage is not knowing how her fruit works."

"Wasn't that what the seastone net was for?" Chopper asked from afar.

"Un," Usopp confirmed. "The plan was just to catch and subdue her. Nami said something about wanting her to reverse... something." He sighed heavily, hanging his head. "But we should've known Luffy wouldn't just go along with that."

"Yeah," Chopper agreed. "Especially after- huh? U-Usopp! I think I found it!"

Usopp straightened, turning to see the Zoan user at the edge of the clearing, his nose facing the forest to their right, where mountaintops could be seen towering above the trees.

"A-are you sure it's hers?" the sharpshooter called.

"Un!" Chopper confirmed, sniffing the air some more. "It's the only one different from the others' scents."

"A-alright then!" Usopp gulped. "Just as I suspected! She must have escaped East of here, towards the mountains. That's probably where her hideout is."

"Yeah!"

"Right!"

"..."

"..."

Chopper tilted his head. "Aren't we going after her now?"

"G-give me a minute!" Usopp stated, trying to calm his trembling legs once more.

After getting his bearings, Usopp ran over to the reindeer, jumping onto his back while unhooking Kuro Kabuto from his strap. As Chopper galloped into the woods, following the woman's scent, Usopp rummaged through his sack to find his Pop Greens.

"Stay alert, Chopper," he advised seriously, pulling on his goggles with a snap. "If we find that woman, it's up to us to let everyone else know."

"Right!"

Kami, had the Shark Submerge always been this small?

She could've sworn the submarine had shrunk in the last two minutes that she's navigated the underwater vessel.

Nami adjusted her grip on the submarine's steering wheel, glancing to the side at her rubbery companion. She was constantly aware that they were the only two in the shared space, the air stuffy and awkward.

Or maybe the awkwardness was just part of her imagination. Luffy didn't seem to mind the smaller space, nonchalantly humming from where he had been directed to sit beside her and not touch anything. So far, he's been obedient, and for some reason, it was making her anxious.

She shook her head, lowering the handle of the periscope and pressing her eyes to its lens to get a good look at the patterns of the deep blue, alert for the telltale swirl of potentially deadly currents. Her ears twitched when he changed the low pitch of his hum to a higher off-key note.

"You sound happy," she noted dryly.

Luffy paused from his humming and from the corner of her eye she could see his face split into a grin. "I guess I am, shishishi! This is fun!"

She stepped away from the periscope to shoot him a wry smile. "If you find this fun, wait until we get our hands on that treasure!"

She could make out the long dark shape of the piratess's ship's hull without the scope now. Getting closer triggered a welcomed switch in her mind. All other matters becoming trivial in the wake of her objective, she settled comfortably into the role of her given epithet.

"Remember, Luffy," Nami murmured as she guided the submarine through some mountain-like rocks and up to the enemy ship's stern. "We stick together. No running off on your own and no shenanigans. Got it?"

"Got it," Luffy repeated seriously as they slowly ascended upwards.

"How many people do you sense on the ship?"

"Twenty-two," he replied.

She gave him a side-long glance. "Guess you were right about it not being completely abandoned."

His only answer was a grin.

"How many are closest to where we are, then, near the back of the ship?"

"Four. I can take them."

"Absolutely not," she immediately shut down.

She sighed, remembering now why having him come with her might not have been the best idea.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Listen to me, Luffy. We don't need to draw any attention to ourselves or the ship."

"But-"

"No buts. I know with your Haki you can have them all down in a second but that could also potentially warn others that you're here and again, we don't want that." She took another deep breath, fixing him with a firm stare. "We're going in for the treasure, just the treasure, and then we're out. Can I trust you to do just that, Luffy?"

He nodded once.

"Okay then," she stated. "First things first…"

Nami twisted open the latch above and poked her head out, scanning the area quickly before ducking back in. "Can you get us up to the deck?"

He took a step forward, peering through the hole where the shark fin opened, and nodded again, face set in grim determination. Without warning, he wrapped a rubber arm twice around her waist, bringing her flush to his side as his other arm shot up to grab hold of the taffrail of the purple ship.

"Wait!" she whispered hotly, but the tension in his arm released like a rubber band and they were shot up out of the submarine. She gripped him tightly, comical tears flying out of her eyes as she held in her scream with all her might.

He slung them over the taffrails with a surprising amount of control but their feet landed on the rear deck with a loud thump.

"Luffy," Nami immediately hissed as soon as she was let go. "Stealth, remember? We have to-"

"Did you hear that, Hiro?" a male voice said from a close distance.

Nami froze.

"Yeah, sounds like it came from the back end."

Her wide eyes met Luffy's calm ones, and she cursed him to Mariejois in her head. She held her breath, straining her ears for footsteps.

A long yawn. "Probably one of those dumb sea-cows again."

"Che! There better not be a dent like last time. Captain got mad at us, too, for whatever reason."

She let out a silent breath, then glared at Luffy. He grinned broadly back at her, giving her a thumbs up. She rolled her eyes and started the search.

She decided they'd start with the most obvious place - the Captain's Quarters. Many past solo thieving trips in the East Blue had brought her experience in the matter. Even if the treasure wasn't hidden there, a clue of its whereabouts could usually be found in the room. Even better, in this case, would be a clue about the pirate woman herself.

With a quick glance up towards the crow's nest, she made her way across the aft and scaled up to the quarterdeck, molding into the shadows, Luffy following close behind.

Her back to the wooden door, she peered through the small porthole, skilled hands making quick work of the locked doorknob. She felt herself breathe a little easier once they were both inside the captain's room.

They were greeted with the scent of roses and sage, the room adorned lavishly with maroon drapes and woven tapestry. A large king bed was set to the left of the room, the porthole next to it shining sunlight onto its mauve comforters. Nami's gaze immediately locked onto what looked like a treasure chest sitting at the foot of the bed.

Too easy, was her first thought.

Luffy's gaze fell on it as well, and he nudged her excitedly. "Nami, look."

"I see it," she muttered back, but made no move towards it, her eyes still sweeping across the room before settling on a desk nestled in the shadows on the far right of the room.

It beckoned her, and she glided towards it, silent as a cat.

Just as she was bending down to search for a loose floorboard underneath, a familiar marking on the desk caught her eye. Her eyes narrowed, then widened as she took in the black ink scribbled on top of the paper chart.

Luffy, meanwhile, stood near the door, slightly perplexed as to why his navigator didn't go for the chest in front of the bed. He watched her pause, hazelnut eyes roving intensely over something on the desk before disappearing behind the desk. Trusting her instincts but needing to satiate his own curiosity, he slowly tiptoed to the chest, doing his best to imitate her silent footsteps.

He fiddled a bit with the latch (it didn't have a lock) and held in his giddiness when it clicked open. His excitement was almost instantaneously curbed, however, when his gaze fell on the small folded clothes and stuffed animals inside.

"Ehhh?" he whined quietly. "No fair. You're supposed to keep treasure in a treasure chest."

The image of a unibrowed man with shrub-like green hair and a missing tooth, scrunched into a small brown chest, suddenly flashed in his mind. Luffy grinned at the memory, remembering the adventure from what seemed like ages ago on the island of weird and rare animals.

He reached in to take hold of a pink stuffed rabbit. He looked around for his orange-haired navigator and grinned when he saw her head poke out above the table.

"Nami!" he whisper-yelled, holding the rabbit to his face and waving its arm back and forth.

Her eyes twinkled with a telling excitement.

"Luffy~!" she whisper-sung back. "I found- what are you doing?"

A tick suddenly formed on her temple and he could see poofs of air coming from her head. He grimaced.

"Stop fooling around and get over here!"

Pouting, he did just that, placing the rabbit carefully back down in its place before shutting the chest and crawling over to where Nami was crouched. And there, glittering from beneath the floorboards, was a small raised pile of treasure.

"Whooo!" he breathed.

Nami grinned from beside him. "It gets better. Judging from how it was covered-" she jutted her chin out to the circular rug that had covered the find - "this is only the tip of the money mountain."

She pointed at where the floorboards were uneven and jagged, broken by force. "They had to take out some boards in order to make room for the top of their treasure pile."

She covered the pile back up, taking care to place the rug where she had found it originally, and stood up.

"We're in the wrong room," she discerned. "The real treasure room has to be directly below this one."

Luffy stood up, too. "If there's that much treasure, we can probably take a lot of it without anyone noticing, shishishi!"

"Glad we're on the same page, captain," Nami responded cheekily, in good spirits at the thought of a whole room full of treasure just under her nose.

"Let's-" Luffy started, before abruptly stopping, tensing.

"What's wrong?" Nami whispered, senses on high-alert.

"Someone's coming," was the last thing she registered before she was pulled into a tiny closet adjacent to the desk. She felt Luffy gently close the shuttered door behind her, her chest pressed against his own, right before the door to the captain's quarters opened with a slight creak.

"Captain?" came a timid male voice, before tentative footsteps entered the room.

Had someone heard them? Nami was sure their voices were low enough to be undetected.

"Just making sure," the voice suddenly snickered. The footsteps neared them, before stopping just short of the closet, right next to the desk.

She strained her ears. There was a silent pause, a bit of rustling, then, "Don't mind if I do."

It was the jingle of coins knocking into coins that helped Nami, breath held, put the picture together. She almost scoffed.

Stealing from their own captain?

Although not far from what they were contemplating on doing moments before, it didn't sit well with her to witness one's own crew of doing something as underhanded and disloyal as stealing money without the captain's knowledge. Even with how much she crowed about loving her gold, if acquiring it was something that would betray her friends (and even more valuable, their trust in her), she wouldn't even dream of doing it.

A strange wave of pity overcame her for the female captain of the ship.

"What do you know about despair?"

Nami shivered, instinctively huddling herself closer to the warmth in front of her, the woman's voice echoing in her mind accompanied by the invisible chill of her power. With grunts like this in her crew, it was no wonder the pirate woman had been so cynical when she spoke with her.

"All they ever do is lie and betray."

The traitorous jingles stopped, the footsteps soon receding before the door shut with a firm click.

Nami sighed, relaxing into Luffy's hold. "That was close," she whispered.

Luffy didn't say a word and when she tried to move, Nami noted that his body was still tense, his arms tightly wrapped around her waist. When she looked up, she could see his jaw was clenched and a deep scowl marred his face.

So he does get angry, she noted absentmindedly. But, (also notably) unlike previous instances, he didn't act on impulse.

"Luffy?"

He looked down at her, eyes hard. "I don't like him."

She met his gaze firmly, agreeing. "Me neither."

She felt his body relax slowly at her words, dark eyes softening to a more inquisitive look.

Nami was suddenly acutely aware of the very limited space in the closet: the other half was filled to the brim with various boxes and haphazardly arranged furniture, and the outward legs of a large dining chair further caged the two together against the door. Even more damning, however, were her hands, still clinging to the back of Luffy's vest from when she was recalling her encounter with the piratess. She could feel her face slowly heating up, and she blamed it on the stuffy conditions of the tiny room.

She started to move back. "We should probably-"

Luffy's arms tightened around her and her heart skipped a dangerous beat, shooting heat through her chest.

"Nami," he started, taking care to keep his voice low. "Which do you like more: me or money?"

She blinked. E-eh?

"W-what kind of question is that?" she managed to get out. "Are you trying to insult me?"

He frowned. "No... but you always talk about how you only like money and mikans."

Nami sweatdropped.

That was true, she'll give him that (but only to an extent, obviously).

Which he should already know, she thought to herself, regarding him with a leveled look. Which means this is about something else.

She inwardly cursed the grunt who had just come in and put her in this stifling situation, and decided it was best to get to the heart of the issue. "Luffy, you know I'd never do anything like what that guy just did to you or the crew, right?"

"I know." He tightened his grip even more.

"I said it before, but money means nothing to me if it means losing my friends."

"I know. I already know all that," he stated, still frowning.

She shook her head. "So then..." Why the sudden question of what I like more?

Or more importantly, she realized, biting her lip, why was she avoiding answering his question?

She quickly averted her gaze, hoping he doesn't feel how hard her heart is galloping against in her chest.

"Which do you like more: meat or me?" she challenged.

He paused, his frown deepening.

"Meat is... meat. And Nami is... Nami..."

Typical Luffy-logic (which for once, she was willing to work with).

"And money is money," she concluded smartly, feeling like she dodged a mighty bullet as she met her captain's eyes again. "See? It has its own category. Money and mikan are separate from people. It doesn't mean I like any of them any less."

"Maybe," he responded tentatively. "But I don't really see it like that."

"Oh?" She tried to sound nonchalant, but her pulse was speeding up again, apprehensive about his next words.

"I don't think I'd ever choose between you and meat... 'cause then that would make you an option," he carefully explained. "Meat is just meat. But you're Nami."

He grinned, closing his eyes merrily.

"There is no option," he said simply. "Just... you."

This time - she was sure of it - her heart stopped a full second rather than skipping a beat. She felt dizzy and struggled to breathe. She swallowed nothing, her mouth having gone dry.

Luffy smiled so innocently, like he hadn't just pierced through her heart with a lightning bolt.

To say she was floored was an understatement - she couldn't even formulate a thought, much less a coherent phrase, her brain having gone completely and entirely blank.

Her senses on overload, squeezed into the closet of an enemy's ship (who they were here to rob, lest she forget due to this little side quest) with a captain who knew not the slightest clue what unfiltered words could do to a woman, not to mention how it's been less than an hour since his irreversible actions on the Sunny, Nami gave up her sanity.

"It's weird," Luffy continued thoughtfully, unaware of his navigator's dark descent. "I know your answer, but I just wanted to hear it from you for some reason. Don't worry about it too much, though. You tend to think too much about stuff."

She was insane. Completely mental.

That was the only reasonable explanation as to why she was suddenly tugging her arms out of his constrictor-like embrace, and almost mechanically reaching to grab hold of his vest, expression shadowed by her bangs.

"Nami?" came Luffy's slightly confused voice.

Crazy. Unhinged. That is what she is now and how she will describe herself in the future if anyone ever dares to ask what prompted her to take her captain along on this stealth operation, where neither he nor she could have predicted what a few dumb, honest words could set into motion. She certainly couldn't have thought it'd be enough to commit the ultimate faux pas. (In her defense, he had already blurred that boundary with his earlier stunt. She simply finished erasing it.)

"You think too much."

Fiercely tugging him down so that they were at eye level, in that moment, Nami didn't think at all.

Her voice was barely a whisper. "Luffy."

He gulped audibly.

"You talk too much."

Then she crashed her lips onto his.

Yup, she vaguely confirmed to herself in the hazy recesses of her consciousness as Luffy quickly caught up with her motions, matching her affection evenly, naturally.

Absolutely, one hundred percent, out of my mind.

(What can I say? LuNa lives rent free in my mind lol.)

To my fellow readers: seeing in the traffic stats how there were still readers after all these years, and how it's my second most reviewed story, prompted me to finish this chapter. It is a gift to you all. I hope you enjoy it and tell me what you think about it!

So please... review, review! I never tire of reading them, and they are what keep me going in times of writer's block. (The fuel to my car, the tinder and kindling to my fire, the rain to my drought, etc.!)

Who would you like to see more of? I've been focusing more on a *certain* Luffy, but the other Luffys will get their shine in time as well. Tell me your fav so far!

+ Some light will be shed about the ~mysterious~ pirate woman and her ability in the next chapter, where we'll catch up with Brook and Franky! Until then...

Ja ne, (hopefully not in another 5 years),

Sunny :)