"Luffy, I swear to god, if you fall overboard I am not jumping in after you."
Luffy laughs at his long-nosed sniper and swings his feet a little higher. He's just managed to divert Chopper's attention by crossing paths with Robin, who emerged from the lounge moments ago to lean on the balustrade - no more than a few feet from the door but enough to stop the little doctor in his tracks.
"I mean it, Luffy," Usopp says, pausing his hammering to fish more nails from his pouch, for the next plank to patch Merry's side. "You know Zoro's asleep under the mikan trees, right? He won't save you either. Stop that."
"S'not asleep," he mumbles around a pout. "He's training." He can still hear the clank, even from the other end of the ship.
He swings his feet a little too high on purpose, overbalances, but he slides down the gunwale to the deck instead, hanging upside down.
The hammering pauses.
"Hey, Luffy," Usopp calls from the other side of the gunwale.
"Hm?"
Usopp doesn't answer at first.
Luffy waits, and slips the picture dial out, because Chopper has seated Robin at the little table up by the door to the lounge, and she looks tired under the fuzzy mound of blankets, with her eyes drooping, but she still smiles that slow gentle curve of humor when Sanji spins out to deliver a steaming mug to her hands.
Luffy presses the button without really framing the shot, then realizes it'll be upside down like him, which is all right and kind of a neat idea that he stores away for later - well, if he remembers - but he turns the dial over and takes a second shot, as Sanji leans down to say something that makes Robin chuckle.
"Why is six afraid of seven?" Usopp asks, a little too boastful, like it's not what he really wants to say.
Luffy blinks at the odd question. Chopper pops out the door and pats Robin's leg with the heavy tome he carries. The archaeologist crosses her arms, and a pair of extra limbs sprouts from the planking to lift the little reindeer to her lap, despite his vocal protests.
"Why would Chopper be afraid of Robin?" he asks, frowning at the idea, because their doctor is snuggled up in her lap, squirming and blushing from some or other praise. "That's just silly."
"What are you talking about?" Usopp calls. "It's a joke, Luffy! Think about it! Why is six afraid of seven?"
"I dunno," he says, pressing the dial's upside-down button again, because Robin's laughing again, the bright tinkle carrying across the deck, and Chopper's waving his hooves in broad gestures. Maybe they're talking about books.
"C'mon, Luffy, you have to at least try."
The hammering resumes, and Luffy reaches up, grabs the rail, and pulls himself up one-handed to peek over the edge at the precariously perched sniper and his cobbled together repairs.
Usopp's worrying his lip and frowning at the boards, like even he's not sure it's good enough and he's just trying to distract himself. He's always doing that. Luffy raises the dial, and who cares if it's still upside down, he doesn't have time - he presses the button and whips the dial out of sight, just as Usopp looks up with a daring flash of teeth.
"Because seven ate nine!"