* 10 *
"Sanji~ I'm hungry!" Luffy calls as he swings through the open lounge door.
He skids to a halt.
Nami's bent over a notepad at the table, chewing the end of her pencil, but the lounge is otherwise vacant. "Sanji-kun's not here, Luffy," Nami says around her pencil, not lifting her gaze from whatever she's staring so intently at.
"Well where'd he go?" He pads over to the kitchen. A large bowl of straaaaaawberries from Long Ring Long Land sits on the counter, a handful already sliced on the cutting board. The air is thick with the sugary smell.
"That's weird," he says, as his fingers reach for one long juicy fruit. "Sanji never leaves food half-prepared." He looks around the room again, quickly, and then with more care, just in case - he can't have gone far, if he's left food out.
"I think Chopper pulled him away," Nami says.
Too busy fending off the doctor to catch him red-handed, then. Luffy pops the strawberry into his mouth and hums as the sweet juice coats his tongue.
He risks a peek over his shoulder at Nami.
Her lips purse in that small pout he associates with disapproval - he almost ducks his head, but catches himself. She's not pouting at him, but at whatever she's written in her notepad. As he watches, her frown deepens and she takes her eraser to the paper with a ferocity that will tear the pages if she keeps at it.
She sets the eraser aside and starts writing again, and she's so fixated on the paper, she doesn't brush aside her short ginger hair as it slides from behind her ear.
Maybe she's completely forgotten he's there, because she doesn't even twitch when he reaches for another strawberry.
He holds the fruit between his teeth and enjoys the sugary wash of juice as he moves it from one cheek to the other. She's immersed in her work, so he digs the picture dial out of his pocket, brings it up just over his shoulder, twisting one-handed, slowly, quietly - she may be distracted, but hell has no fury like Nami's -
Still, she has the tiniest little furrow between her eyebrows as her hand moves across the paper, and her tongue catches his eye, protruding small and pink from the corner of her mouth as she concentrates.
He bites down on the fruit in his mouth and presses the button. It clicks and he whips it out of view as Nami glances up at him.
He sucks the berry into his mouth and flashes her a red-stained grin.
"Sanji-kun's going to have your neck," she says. She's none the wiser, though, and Luffy grins a little broader as she bows her head back to her work.
He swallows and grabs another strawberry. "What're you writing?"
"Nothing, nothing." She makes a shooing motion, like she'd rather he leave. He pouts, but then blinks as he watches her - now that he's really paying attention, he sees she isn't writing.
Her hand movements are too broad for writing, and her pencil sketches all over the page.
"What're you drawing?" He leaps across the small kitchen space to the bench opposite her and she cries out and covers her notepad with her arms as the table rocks.
"Luffy! You'll knock the table over!"
"What're you drawing? Let me see!" He grabs for the notepad but she whisks it away, so he gets a handful of her arm instead.
"No, it's just a doodle," she says, jerking her arm out of his grasp.
She rises from her seat and turns to go - like Luffy will let her get away that easily! He flings one arm out and traps her in rubbery coils.
"Luffy!" she squeals, "Let me go!"
"Let me see~ then!" He lets the recoil of his arm rocket him over to her, but he underestimates his momentum. Nami stumbles under his weight and shouts as she topples over. They land with a thump in a tangle of limbs on Robin's empty pallet and Luffy's hat flies clear off his head.
The notepad is free though, and he reaches for it with his vacant hand. Nami pulls it away and wriggles in his elastic embrace.
"Luffy, it's not even done! Quit it, would you," she yells in his ear.
He laughs and squeezes her a little tighter. "Lemme see~!" He outreaches her easily, stretching the distance to seize the notepad. He pulls but she yanks back, growling at him like an angry cat.
The coveted page wrinkles under his hold and Nami cries, "You're going to rip it!"
Her shoe smacks his shin and he grits his teeth. "Ow, stop kicking me."
"Then let me go!"
"Lemme see first~!"
"No!"
Nami thrashes and he's so surprised that he doesn't react in time when she rolls them over and yanks the notepad from his hand. Her weight is pressing the picture dial into his hip and the corner is jabbing him in the worst way, but as he squirms to shift the damn thing away Nami gasps.
She freezes and her whole face flushes red as the strawberries.
Well if she's going to make it so easy - he stretches for the notepad again, clasps the wrinkled drawing -
"Luffy!" she shrieks and his ear is still ringing when she brings her knee up and -
"Oooooh," he groans, and she pulls free of his weakened clutch with the rending of tearing paper. "Na… mi…. why…"
She hurries from the lounge, her glowing face swimming in his vision, or is it his vision drowning, because he can't swim, so he must be drowning and where's Zoro when he needs him.
He curls in on himself and brings the torn drawing up to his face.
His own doodled face greets him, smudged with wrinkles, fingerprints, and eraser marks but grinning, gloved fists raised and afro gleaming victorious over all.
Luffy laughs, a small, breathy chuckle, and even if he is on the floor still moaning to himself, he allows the small flower of triumph that blooms in his chest.