Another Nakama Omakes

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, if I did, the 4-Kids dub would've never existed.

A/N: This one's a little more serious than the last one.

Arlong Park Omake:

Ricky and Nojiko:

-x-

The battle with the Arlong Pirates was over and the people of Commi Island were still celebrating their newfound freedom. After being cleared by Dr. Nako, Ricky celebrated by drinking A LOT! After his talk with Nami in Bellemere's tangerine grove he returned to Cocoyashi and secured some more rum. He sat off to the side and drank his booze while he watched the people continue to celebrate the fall of Arlong and the Fishmen Pirates.

As time went on most of the villagers either passed out or went home so Ricky was left mostly alone as he continued drinking late into the night.

"You might wanna cut back a little," came a voice as Nojiko sat down beside him. Her face was flushed and she looked a little drunk but was one of the few people that were still awake.

"I've recently killed seventeen fishmen," Ricky replied. After all he'd been drinking he still wasn't completely wasted. "To be honest, I don't think I've drank enough."

"Then when you've got a major hangover tomorrow morning, don't say I didn't warn you," Nojiko told him.

"Are you here for a reason?" Ricky asked. "Or are you gonna complain about my drinking habits too?"

"Too?" Nojiko repeated.

"Nami," Ricky explained. "She took me to the grove by your house, complained about my drinking habits, punched me in the shoulder, and then thanked me for helping her. That girl scares me sometimes."

"Do you wanna go for a walk?" Nojiko offered, "I wanted to talk to you."

"Uh… alright," Ricky agreed, he pushed himself up and chugged the rest of rum in his bottle then he and Nojiko walked off towards the shore.

"Seriously, drinking that much isn't healthy," Nojiko insisted.

"I told you, I've recently killed seventeen fishmen," Ricky stated. "That's one of many things I don't want to remember."

"So? It was just Arlong and his men," Nojiko reminded him, "trust me, no one's going to blame you for it. In fact, you're kind of a hero because of it. Arlong and those fishmen were evil."

"Fishmen like Arlong and his men have been through a lot," Ricky replied. "I'll be the first to admit that Arlong was excessively cruel. But he has his reasons. My old pirate crew had close ties with the fishmen from Fishman Island so I know a bit about their history. You see, years ago, pirates in the Grand Line would kidnap fishmen and mermen and would sell them as slaves. Fishmen were treated like nothing more than exotic animals."

"It wasn't until the strongest pirate in the world claimed Fishman Island as his territory that it stopped," Ricky continued. "The discrimination and mistreatment spawned a lot of hatred towards our race. Arlong was an angry fishman that grew up with an immense hatred for humans. If he wasn't a slave himself, he probably knew fishmen that were. What he did to your island was his way of lashing out at our race for what we did to his."

"So his people were treated like slaves, only for him to turn around and do the same to us?" Nojiko reasoned. "Just because his people suffered it doesn't give him the right to make other people his slaves."

"I know," Ricky agreed, "he was just one example of how fishmen reacted to that. His former Captain Jinbei is very honorable and he's nothing like Arlong was. The Government even made him one of the Seven Warlords. Fishmen are all different, just like people, Arlong had his reasons for doing what he did. It didn't make what they did right but that also doesn't make what I did to them right. I don't like killing people. I gave him plenty of chances to back off but then he mauled my shoulder and forced the issue."

They had reached the dock outside of Cocoyashi Village. The Going Merry was anchored nearby. "You still freed the island," Nojiko reminded him. "To the people here you and your crew will always be heroes. You also took bullets for me and you're taking Nami out to sea so she can live her lifelong dream. I owe you a lot."

"No you don't," Ricky told her. "It's just what we do."

"Do you think you could give me a tour of your ship?" Nojiko inquired skillfully changing the subject. Judging from their previous conversation one had to wonder how drunk the two really were. "I'd like to see the vessel my sister's going to be sailing the world in."

"Sure, why not," Ricky agreed. They walked along the dock and boarded the Going Merry. "It's kind of small but when you've only got a crew of six people, you don't really need a huge ship. Luffy's going for a quality over quantity thing so Merry is perfect for us."

Nojiko walked over to a flap in the floor and pulled it opened so she could peer inside. Sniff! She smelled the air and quickly slammed the flap back down, WHAM!

"There's no way Nami agreed to sleep in there," Nojiko said with confidence.

"There's another bedroom that was supposed to be the Captain's Quarters," Ricky explained, "You can probably guess how that turned out." Nojiko smiled as she pictured her sister yelling at four pirates that were all stronger than fishmen until they agreed to let her have her own room. "We've got a galley, four cannons, an anchor room, a storage room, a bathroom, and the two bedrooms. It's small but it suits our needs."

"Would you mind showing me Nami's room?" Nojiko asked, "I just want to see the room she'll undoubtedly be spending a lot of time in."

Ricky shrugged and led Nojiko over to the storage room, then down the steps into the women's quarters. "That's new," Ricky commented when he noticed the bar that had been recently added.

"Mr. Teru probably did it," Nojiko reasoned, "If you don't recognize it then it obviously was added by someone here. He's a carpenter so he probably built it for Nami."

"It's stocked too," Ricky realized when he noticed the wide assortment of bottles on the shelves of the bar. Ricky walked over to the bar and slipped behind it, "Can I get you a drink?"

Nojiko stood at the other end of the room and stared at him skeptically, "You're a treasure hunter, you're a pirate, you're a demon, and now you're a bartender?"

"I spent a lot of time in my aunt's tavern growing up," Ricky explained, "I bet I can make your favorite drink."

Nojiko walked over to the bar and sat down on one of the stools on the other side of the counter. "You can try," Nojiko challenged him, "but I'm not gonna tell you what it is."

"Sounds like a challenge then," Ricky commented. "Just give me this one hint: do you have your favorite drink often?"

"Sure, whenever Nami comes home after a successful trip," Nojiko answered.

Ricky flashed her a sly grin, "Alright, I've got it." He pulled out a bottle of rum and a bottle of vanilla cola.

"You're dead wrong," Nojiko informed him, "neither of those is in it."

"Actually… this is for me…" Ricky sheepishly admitted. He pulled out a bucket of ice and used the spoon in the bucket to flick some ice cubes up into the air. He grabbed a cup and easily caught all of the ice cubes as they were coming down, Clink! Ca-Link!

Ricky grabbed the bottles and with seemingly practiced ease, he flicked his thumbs and snapped the caps off. He turned the bottles over and poured half of them into the glass until it was full, "I call it a White Pirate," Ricky informed her, "Rum with vanilla cola. I'll start off with this… then I'll get into the hard stuff. But that's mine, let me get yours."

Ricky ducked behind the counter and came back with a cup and flipped ice into it like he'd done with his. Then he went back under and pulled out an unmarked bottle and a bottle of vodka. Nojiko raised an eyebrow at the vodka bottle.

Ricky pulled the top out of the bottle and flipped it into the air. He caught it by the nozzle as it came down and filled about half the cup then quickly tilted it away and put it down. Ricky smiled and lifted the unmarked bottle up into the air about level with his face and then tilted it to the side, allowing the yellowy-orange liquid to pour out and rain down into the glass.

Nojiko's eyes went wide as Ricky poured the juice then put down the bottle and swirled the glass around as he mixed the juice and vodka together. "I'm not exactly sure what you call this, when you mix orange juice with vodka it's called a Screwdriver. But this is vodka and tangerine juice instead." Ricky slid the drink over Nojiko and placed the bottles back where he'd gotten them.

"How'd you know?" asked Nojiko.

"You live beside a tangerine orchard," Ricky pointed out, "and vodka and rum go best with fruity drinks. You said the rum wasn't in it so that cinched it for me. The only question is: how do you afford the vodka? It's usually a lot more expensive than rum."

"The local bartender gives it to me cheap," Nojiko answered. "Everyone knew what Nami was doing for them so they tried to pay her back indirectly by helping her through me."

"Cheers!" Ricky called out as he lifted his glass. Nojiko took hers and knocked it into Ricky's, Klink! With that they tilted their heads back and downed their respective drinks.

The second they both finished Nojiko took her glass and smashed the top of it on the top of the bar, KRESH! Ricky was caught off guard when Nojiko leapt across the bar and knocked him into the shelves behind it. She pointed the broken and sharp end of her glass at Ricky's throat.

"Let's get one thing straight," Nojiko growled at the startled pirate. "You're not the only one who'd kill to ensure Nami's safety. I care about my sister a lot. It's her choice whether or not she goes to sea with you. But if you hurt her I swear to God, I WILL KILL YOU! Got that?"

Ricky quickly nodded.

"Good," Nojiko said as she moved the broken glass away from his neck and placed it back on the bar. "And by the way, thanks for taking those bullets for me." With that Nojiko turned and left the room leaving Ricky leaning back against the shelves behind the bar.

"They're both insane," Ricky muttered to himself. "I can't decide which one is scarier." Nami had 'thanked' him by punching him in his shattered shoulder and then kissed him on both cheeks. Nami's crazy sister had led him to an isolated place where there were no witnesses to hear him scream and issued him a death-threat that she looked quite capable of living up to and then just thanked him as an after-thought. "I'm so glad I never met the woman that raised them. I wouldn't have survived it."

He grabbed the bottle of vodka he'd used before and proceeded to spend the next few hours getting drunk off his ass. He'd eventually be woken up the next morning by Genzo and would find himself at Bellemere's grave with Mohmoo's nose ring around his neck and barely any recollection of what had happened the night before.

-x-

I hope you didn't expect Nojiko to let Nami go off with Ricky without having some words with him first. As you can see, she didn't.

I always thought that of the two, Nojiko would be the more subtle one. When Nami wants something, she takes it she can be subtle but at times she isn't very quiet about it. In Nami's origin flashback when Nami got caught stealing the book Nojiko admitted that she wouldn't have gotten caught. This leads me to believe that Nojiko had the potential to be a better thief but Nami surpassed her with her eight years' worth of field experience. So in this scene I had Nojiko discretely lead Ricky to the Going Merry and down into Nami's room where no one could see or hear them before she issued her death threat which she clearly could have carried out and gotten away with.

'Till Next Time…

Peace!