Sol Invictus
Chapter Ten: Peasemeal
"Behold! This artistic masterpiece! Yes, our flag has been finished by yours truly - OW!"
Luffy kicked him in the shin. "That's your symbol! Stuuupid!"
"Ow, ow, ow, ow... You didn't have to hit me!"
"Bleeeh," she told him, sticking her tongue out and pulling down the skin under her eye.
Usopp pulled down the skin under both eyes and stuck his tongue out even more. "Bleeeeh!"
"Stop that you idiots," Nami called from the side, her eyes rolling. "Usopp, just finish the actual flag. And Luffy, stop distracting him."
"Yes ma'am," the two youngest crew mates mumbled in unison, suitably chastised. One shuffled forward with a paintbrush in hand and the other went to find a Zoro to mope on.
Zoro grunted as something landed heavily on his torso. "What the - "
He cracked an eye open to see his captain sprawled bodily across his lap, peering up at him with her pink lower lip extended in a childish pout. He had a brief thought as to how that lip would feel rolled between his teeth but it was swiftly banished.
"Nami won't let me play with Usopp," she whined.
He would have responded, except that her buoyant energy seemed somehow less today, and there were smudges of shadow under her long lashes, and her eyelids were drooping the slightest bit, which was more than they ever did; she always seemed to want to take everything in, all at once, so to see her eyes as anything less than impossibly wide was strange.
"Luffy, did you sleep last night?"
"I didn't," she responded promptly.
Zoro sighed and shifted his shoulders against the wall behind him, tugging her higher against his chest. Their legs tangled together and her body splayed directly on top of his as she obediently followed the direction of large hands. Brown eyes watched him curiously.
"Comfortable?"
"Yeah."
"Then sleep."
She blinked at him.
And then a smile crawled across her cheeks, slow and surprised. "Okay."
Zoro closed his eyes and listened to the crashing of the waves, the soft breaths against his arm, basking in the warmth of the sun and of his captain. Arms wrapped around his chest, it only took a couple minutes for Luffy to fall asleep to the steady cadence of his heartbeat under her ear.
"Luffy, Usopp's finished the flag. Do you want to see…"
Nami stopped, held in place by the unexpectedly endearing sight. Luffy hadn't entered their new room at all last night and Nami had worried a little that the girl was running on fumes. But it seemed Zoro had taken care of that problem.
His entire body was folded around Luffy, his arms slung snugly around her waist and her head tucked under his chin. The captain's expression was insouciance exemplified, all of her muscles lax and her mouth gaping open the slightest bit. She looked like she was having a nice dream.
Isn't that uncomfortable? she wondered, picking out the awkward angle that Zoro's shoulders were slumped against hard wood. It probably was, though you would never be able to tell from his placid expression.
Nami rolled her eyes. With feet silent from years of thieving, she retreated into the bunks below, returning a few moments later with full arms. Nimble fingers worked the soft pillow under Zoro's broad shoulders, and she spread a light blanket over the two of them, making sure she wasn't accidentally suffocating Luffy. She sat back to admire her work for a second.
"Thanks," Zoro grunted drowsily, his eyes still closed.
Nami sniffed disdainfully and immediately stood up. "Whatever."
"Whether she's a girl or boy, does it matter? Even the biggest and toughest of fellows can't always be called men if they're lacking in heart, and that's something our little Luffy definitely has in spades."
"... Will this hat suffice? It's my favourite, you know."
"Then it's a promise. Grow strong, sail these seas, become the greatest pirate there is, and when you are able to return this hat to me, I'll give you a proper answer. I'll be waiting, Luffy!"
"Stop! That ship over there! Please help! We need a doctor!"
Luffy felt herself being dragged back into awareness. It was a slow, thick process, like swimming in molasses.
"What is it," someone rumbled beneath her.
"It's a boat," another, higher voice replied from somewhere above her head. "I can see... two guys... one of them is down! Oi, Nami, can you get a rope over here?"
"I goddit," Luffy mumbled. She yawned and threw her right arm over the railing of the Going Merry without looking, sweeping her arm wildly back and forth, her fingers skimming along the surface of the water until they hit something hard. She absently traced along the hull of the smaller boat and ignored the cry of alarm when she grabbed the first humanoid shape her hand came across, recalling her limb back to the ship with elasticity loosened to prevent smacking Zoro across the face with a flying body.
"YOSAKU!"
"I have the rope. Here Usopp, toss it to the other guy. Luffy, let me take a look at this one."
"Guh 'head," she replied, as the limp body she was holding on to rolled over the railing and dropped onto the deck. Luffy let go of him and her arm returned to her side with a snap. "Ah~" she yawned again and burrowed further into the warm mass under her.
"Oi captain, I think it's about time to wake up," Zoro said, sounding rather amused.
"Nooo," she groaned, curling into her first mate. "You can't make me."
"You'll miss dinner," Usopp suggested.
Luffy jackknifed into a sitting position, her eyes flying open. The blanket fluttered to the ground behind her and Zoro's arms fell to the side. "I'm up! I'm up!"
"Luffy, now that you're awake, go squeeze me some limes and bring it here."
"Ah, sheesh. And I was having such a nice dream, too." Luffy bounced to her feet and went to go do Nami's bidding, stretching herself this way and that as she walked.
Luffy returned to the deck amidst shouts of, "Z-Zoro-aniki!"
"Johnny, huh... so I was right, it was you guys. Why's Yosaku in this state?"
"I don't know!" Johnny replied, voice filled with panic. "He just collapsed all of a sudden yesterday! All of his old wounds started bleeding, and some of his teeth have fallen out, and he's really, really pale!"
"He has scurvy," Nami told them, her voice dripping with the sentiment of 'I'm surrounded by idiots'. "If the symptoms only began yesterday, then he just needs vitamin C and a few days of rest. He'll be fine."
'Yesterday'? Not 'two days ago'?
But then Luffy recalled that they had left Syrup Village perhaps a day earlier than she had originally expected, so perhaps that was right.
"Nami, I have the juice!"
"Good, give it here."
Luffy trotted over to her navigator, bent over the prone man on the deck, and handed over the mug of lime juice. She watched with wide eyes as Nami forcefully poured the liquid down his throat, ignoring her poor victi- patient's sputtering.
Usopp sidled over beside her and whispered, "Er... Nami's... Nami's pretty scary, isn't she?"
"Uhn, uhn," Luffy said back, nodding her head emphatically but still unable to tear her eyes away from the scene of tortur- treatment before her. Johnny, too, looked as if he wanted to say something to protest the handling of his buddy but was otherwise too scared to actually do anything about it.
In the end, it was Zoro who voiced their worries. "Oi. Keep doing that and he'll actually die, you sea witch."
Nami stopped her medicating to snap back at Zoro, and everyone else involved breathed sighs of relief. "What did you say, Little Lost Swordsman-san?!"
"Ahhh?" A blood vessel swelled on Zoro's temple. Sparks flew as the two leaned forward and glared at each other.
"Guh- whazhappening?" A new voice slurred. "Was I drowning?" It was like watching the build up to a trainwreck when Yosaku suddenly sat up... and face planted directly into Nami's breasts. "Hunh? Whahs dis?"
A pleasant smile and a dark shadow simultaneously stole across the navigator's face. "Ara," she said, not moving at all. "You're awake, are you?"
"Uh- yesh? But whahs..." A tanned hand reached up and confusedly groped Nami. Everyone froze as the shadow morphed into an angry, spiraling cloud of murky purple, billowing from her head. Blood vessels visibly popped along her exposed skin.
"Luffy," Usopp hissed urgently. "Luffy, can you see that?"
"Yup," she told him, slowly shuffling away from the time bomb beside her. Her face stretched into an amused grimace as Nami exploded.
"PERVERT! JUST DIE, YOU IDIOT!"
A fist reared angrily back.
Yosaku's cries of agony echoed in their ears for hours afterward.
"We're the bounty hunting duo! I'm Johnny," he announced, taking his pose. His partner mirrored him, and he tried not to wince sympathetically at the lumps swelling on his face.
"An' 'm Y's'ku."
"Buahahaha!" The strawhatted girl threw back her head and laughed. Loud and unfeminine though it was, it was also enviously carefree. "You- you look ridiculous! Nami got you good! Ahahahaha!"
As Yosaku blubbered through a protest on how he still didn't understand why he had been so wrongfully abused, Johnny began to properly observe the woman whom Zoro-aniki had sworn his allegiance to.
It was strange. It was… very strange.
The last time he had seen Zoro-aniki, the man's opinion towards the fairer sex had been less than respectful, to the point of discomforting him at times. While the man he admired would never do anything as crude as catcalling or forcing himself on a woman, the so-called beast had still firmly believed that women were a weak species as a whole, to be coddled and cloistered by men.
So then… what was this? Zoro-aniki was not only a member of a pirate crew… but under a woman's lead? No, not a woman, even. A girl. A waif of a girl who looked like she would topple over at a gust of wind if it were not for the proud way that she carried herself, the way everything she did carried a wild, untamed sort of undertone that Johnny could identify more overtly in her first mate (and what a strange thought that was, because if the Majū ever chose pirating as a profession, it should have been as a captain rather than as the first mate).
Proud as he himself was, perhaps Aniki had been attracted to her kindred soul? To that straight set of her shoulders, the powerful stride of her walk, the freedom of her smile? But no, he was not such a little man that mere attraction would move him so. Then, what? What would cause such a proud, proud individual to adopt this kind of gaze?
The way he watched her, it almost looked like… no, it definitely looked like…
It looked like devotion.
Hawkeyes was at this Baratie place, was he?
He would have to go see for himself.
Zoro was no fool. The best swordsman? Not yet, not by far. But to miss this chance was unacceptable. On these infinitely large seas, the chance that Zoro would meet Hawkeyes Mihawk twice was too damn low to allow any opportunity to slip through his fingers. It was likely that he was walking to his death for this, but that didn't matter, because he would rather die than hide with his tail between his legs like a coward. Fate would decide for him, would decide whether or not he would be able to continue moving forward, to become stronger and stronger and stronger, to don the title of Greatest Swordsman in The World.
If he died though, would Luffy be sad? Would she cry?
Zoro angled a look at his young captain, laughing and joining in with Usopp's antics, or perhaps it was that Usopp was joining hers. Her brown eyes were bright now, drunk on happiness.
He already knew the answer. Yes. Yes she would.
But did he care? Was that knowledge enough to stay his hand?
No, he decided.
He wouldn't allow himself to think otherwise. There wasn't an 'otherwise'.
Because despite the warmth lingering on his skin, Zoro was certain that he wasn't that attached.
"Luffy, have you decided what to order?"
"It all looks so good… I can't choose!" She grinned brightly at the waiter, standing beside Zoro with a notepad in hand. "So just gimme three of everything on the menu. And some milk."
"Alright, that's a cup of milk, and three of - ..." There was a pause, and his pen bled a blot of ink onto the page as he gave her a blank stare. "P-pardon me?"
Zoro rolled his eyes. "You heard her."
"Three of everything j-just for the four of you?"
"Of course not!" Usopp scoffed. The waiter's shoulders relaxed. "That's only for her. As for me, I'd like to order the grilled pike with wild rice, and orange juice."
"Roasted snapper with orange-scented couscous, and orange juice for me too."
"Junmai sake and nikujaga."
"Don't forget mine, okay?"
Bewildered but not knowing what else to do, the waiter tore off the ruined sheet and jotted down all of their orders on a fresh one, his pen briefly hesitating over the last line before finishing it off. "V-very good. If that's all, I'll just take those…"
"Wait," Luffy said, shaking her head and not letting go of her menu. "I'll probably order more later, so you should leave one."
"M-more?!"
Zoro grunted. Dark eyes glared up impatiently at the other man. "Just bring me my sake already."
"Ah… Y-yes, of course sir!" He scampered off and Luffy watched him go with raised brows.
"What was his problem?"
"He's probably never met anyone who eats as much as you," Nami told her. She rested her chin on her palm and gave Luffy a curious look. "Speaking of, do you actually have enough money to pay for all that?"
"Yeah, I do. Why?" Luffy began to tap her fingers against the tabletop to a lively little tune, pulled from her memories of Before.
Poketto no coin, soreto you wanna be my friend? We are, we are, on the cruise!
"It's just, I've never seen you raiding like a normal pirate, or even earning money from anywhere. It's a little hard to believe you're not broke by now, especially since you paid for all our supplies back at Usopp's town."
The thoughtless beat stopped.
Luffy was slow to answer, and when she did speak, it was mumbled and staccato; she was rethinking each reluctant word as she said it. She wasn't even sure what she should be saying, but forced out the words into open air nonetheless.
"My... older brother - brothers and I… the two - three - two of us, we stored a lot of treasure to prepare for when we set off, and we - I... ended up getting a lot more than I - we expected..."
Her hands, splayed flat on the table, spasmed at the reminder of why, exactly she had received so much more than she should have.
("Luffy's our sibling too, she should get a third of the treasure, Ace!")
(A broken, hysterical laugh. "I guess it's just the two of us, huh, Luffy? I wonder if Sabo'll still want us to save his share for him.")
No, Sabo was fine. Sabo had to be fine. There was no use worrying about it. If she started doubting herself, how could Ace possibly feel reassured when they met again?
She pulled her hands away from the table and sat on them, wedging them between her thighs and the cushioned seat. Sharp, hazel eyes caught the movement and self-reproach shot through them for the briefest moment.
Nami swiftly changed the subject, looking just as surprised as Luffy when she said, "I have an older brother too. He nags me a lot, always telling me how unsafe it is, what I'm doing."
"Really?" Luffy leaned in with wide eyes and her brief episode of anxiety fled from her thoughts. "What's his name?"
What was this? Nami had a brother? Not a sister?
"It's Nojiko."
Nojiko... wasn't a woman?
What?
"You have siblings? How many?" Usopp asked, curious about his new crewmates.
Nami stiffened, having forgotten that there were other people at the table. "One," she said shortly, and that conversation was finished before it could be truly begun.
"Table five... grilled pike, roasted snapper, nikujaga," Patty called, reading off the three slips of paper from the sliding order rack. Deeper in the kitchen, one of the chefs who were finished their other orders immediately began working on all three dishes. "And three of…" Confused eyes scanned down the inordinately long slip of paper. "Oi, isn't this… This is everything on the menu! Steve!" he hollered, voice echoing past the swinging kitchen doors. "Steve!" The young waiter appeared before him, sweating nervously. Patty flapped the order in his face. "What is this? Is this your idea of a joke?"
"No, sir! That is a customer's order! Sir! Three of everything on the menu! Sir! And the customer will be ordering more later! Sir!"
"This is an actual order?" Patty tugged at the rope tied around his head, wanting to scratch at it but knowing he shouldn't do such an unsanitary thing. "Just how many people are at this table?"
"Four, sir!"
"Sounds like a hungry bunch," Sanji commented, striding over and handing a dish to the fidgeting Steve. The sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled back along his muscled forearms, his black jacket long ago discarded. Dress was important, but his work was even more so. "Go take that to table thirteen. And Patty, you shitty bastard, leave off the waiters. We just got this batch trained, it'll be a pain to have to do it all over again."
"Of course, sous-chef Sanji..."
"Shut up, you damn chicken head! When I see something ridiculous like this, it's my duty to call out on it!"
"What 'ridiculous'," Sanji scoffed. "This isn't the largest order we've gotten by half. You shitty cook."
"Who's the shitty cook?! I don't want to hear that from you!" A thick, arched eyebrow twitched in anger. "Why don't you and I take care of it, chicken head? We'll see whose dishes they like better, and I'll show you exactly who the shitty cook here is!"
"Oi, that's a first. You actually can have good ideas, you croissant-faced bastard." Sanji smirked confidently. His hand twitched towards his cigarettes, but he resisted the urge, knowing the smoke might interfere with subtle nuances of flavor. He tilted a sharp chin in challenge. "You're on."
He's fine. He's fine. Father saved him. He's perfectly fine, she reminded herself. No body. So he had to be fine.
But things are different. It was different. Who's to say the result is the same? a little voice in the back of her mind prodded.
But Sabo's my brother, surely he wouldn't really have died, right? Right?
Ace was Luffy's brother, and he still died.
She grit her teeth at the reminder. She still didn't have a solution to that particular issue, since she didn't know if her gamble from three years ago would work. But whatever I have to do, I won't allow that to happen this time, she swore furiously. I won't, I won't, I won't. I don't care what I mess up, that absolutely cannot happen.
The waiter returned to their table with arms laden with plates, considerably more frazzled looking than when he had brought them their drinks. A large bowl of "Baratie style meat and potato stew," was placed in front of Zoro. "Flame grilled pike with rice pilaf," was slid in front of Usopp, and Nami was given her "Roasted snapper with mango salsa and orange-scented couscous." He turned to her and said, "The first of your order will be coming in a few moments. Thank you for your patience."
Luffy banished her dark thoughts, and pushed the lingering curiosity over Nojiko to the side. Eating was a time of joy, not this kind of gloominess. She knew from experience that eating with someone in a bad mood turned everything in your mouth to ash, and she wouldn't do that to her nakama.
So she lifted her fists and cheered when the appetizers began to roll in on trays.
AN
*sneezes*
what's with all this fluff in the air? jeez
So, yup, Zoro fluff. And Nami too. Just cuz. Now that Sanji's here, Sanji fluff will finally be able to come up, which is a relief because I rather love him. :)
You may be confused at the presence of waiters in the Baratie. In canon, Sanji said, "I'm filling in for all our waiters who ran away yesterday."
But they set out early from Usopp's town, therefore Luffy's 'today' is that yesterday. So.
Much more Sanji focus next chapter! :)
This one is also a little on the shorter side, and I apologize. I was agonizing over how to introduce Sanji, and had to force my hands to type, so I feel like everything is stiffer and choppier than I'd prefer.
Peasemeal is a kind of porridge. It's also homophone to 'piecemeal' and 'peace meal'. Make of that what you will.
Nikujaga is literally meat(niku)-potatoes(jaga) in japanese. A hearty stew that goes well with sake.
Reviews
Nyasararu: MUAHAHAHAHA. *ahem* Shhhhh.
Guest: It was only... a week? Um. My updates are mostly weekly? Um.
henhazuneko: It may happen... but if it does, not entirely for humor. I want more Law toooo XD
Juliedoo: Ufufufufu... I can indeed... ;3
Thank you to all my reviewers [Nyasararu, henhazuneko, EVA-Saiyajin, Son of Whitebeard, Kiara97, Guest (x2), Mairposa, Juliedoo], and everyone who favourited and alerted! :)
Important- Please Read
Do you guys prefer shorter chapters and quicker updates, or longer chapters and slower updates? Because doing long chapters (5000 ~ 6000 words) like before will take me longer than it used to. A 3000~ word chapter is much easier to push out (sounds like giving birth, ahahaha), and will take more or less half of the time, depending on what it is I'm having difficulties with.
Just review with a "short, quick" or a "long, slow", if you don't have anything else to say. Please and thank you. :)
This and next chapter will be of the short-quick variety, just so I can try it out.