Thanks a lot for all the reviews! It's been long since I got this kind of response on the first chapter. And if everyone is confused, then it means I did my job right! I forgot to ask about whether you wanted the fic to be rated M or not (GirugameshPanda is a genius to give an answer without even me asking), but there is no more need for that. Unfortunately for some, the rating will most likely not change. Considering the story, I want to keep it innocent. But it doesn't mean there won't be some 'fun' situations in the plot ;)
The first class of the year was history. Normally, people would cringe at the idea of starting school with such a tough subject. But most of the students in Luffy's classroom were playing close attention to the lesson. Half of the students were listening because the lesson was just so easy to understand, while the other half were only mesmerized by the black-haired woman standing in front of the blackboard.
But of course, a few students were not even trying to pay attention. Leaving aside Luffy and Zoro who were sleeping behind their books, Vivi and Marguerite were talking discreetly about the discussion they had before the class.
"Were those two always…like that? I mean, how could you want to marry someone, but not want to date them? No matter how you think, it's weird," Marguerite whispered.
Vivi sighed for the umpteenth time about this matter. "You don't know half of it. We all tried to figure out, but it ended up making us more confused. The biggest problem is that Luffy-san and Nami-san don't see why this is weird. I can only guess that it's because they grew up so close to each other but…?"
"If they grew up with each other, they might only be acting like brother and sister, no?"
"Do you see brothers and sisters flirting like old married couples?" Vivi asked.
Marguerite shook her head.
"Anyway, it's not something we can meddle with… There was a time we were worried because they might ruin their life if they married with such half-assed feelings. But no matter what we say, it's clear that they really love each other…in some way."
The blonde woman scratched her head. She was a fan of conversations about love like most girls, and she was proud to say that she knows a lot about the matter too. But this relationship was making her doubt her knowledge. In another hand, it also made her very curious about how it ended up like this. She was about to ask another thing when she heard a cough and noticed a black skirt in the corner of her eyes.
"Is my lesson really that boring?" Miss Nico asked with a sweet smile. "You two seemed like you were having a very interesting conversation."
Vivi and Marguerite stiffened at the teacher's voice. "N-No, it's not boring at all! We were just…"
The two of them were trying to come up with an excuse but they couldn't find anything.
"I can understand that it's hard to get into studies right from the start, but if you laze around you will be left behind," Robin said as she walked back to the blackboard.
The two girls sighed in relief and were grateful that the teacher let it slide easily this time.
"Ah~ You're so lovely when you forgive us Robin-chwaan!" Sanji swooned.
"Fufu, thanks. But don't call me by my first name. By the way, I will appreciate it if you woke up the sleeping beauties hiding behind their books."
"Yes, ma'am! Wake up, shitty seaweed and monkey!" Sanji kicked Luffy and Zoro awake, before the two complained and insulted the blonde man for doing that. The situation quickly became a comic relief for the whole class. But Marguerite only blinked as she watched Nami scold Luffy for sleeping in class.
During lunch time, Nami was happily eating with Vivi, Marguerite, Rebecca and Kaya. Kaya was Nami and Vivi's old friend while Rebecca was Marguerite's friend since they entered high school. They all got along fast and decided to spend time together until Luffy intruded the group and slumped down on Nami's table.
"Namiii! Where is my lunchbox?"
A vein popped on the orange-haired woman's head. "I didn't prepare you one, idiot."
"But you said you will prepare me one every day…"
"That was this morning! Don't act as if a day passed since then!" She then calmed down and said, "Just eat at the cafeteria for today."
"I already ate there. But I'm not full."
Nami sighed. "Well, I'm not really hungry so…you can eat my sandwich and the meatballs. Just don't touch the dessert."
Nami handed him her sandwich, which Luffy grabbed with his mouth. The other girls slightly blushed when they saw him take the half-eaten sandwich without a second thought, but they color on their cheeks was gone when he devoured the bread in matter of seconds. He did the same with the meat balls while Nami was slowly savoring her cheesecake.
"Thanks a lot Nami!" Luffy grinned at her with his head still on her table.
Nami looked down at him and sighed. She brought her thumb to the corner of his lips, wiping off some sauce with her finger before bringing it to her own mouth. She pulled her thumb out of her mouth with a small smack and shooed Luffy.
"Now go and stop bothering us."
Luffy obediently returned to Zoro and the others, while Nami's friends smiled a little awkwardly as their cheeks were again covered with a tint of red. They didn't expect to see such an innocent public display of affection during lunch as they were ignored by the couple.
"I can't understand," Marguerite muttered with her head on her hand.
Nami blinked when she heard what Marguerite said. "Understand what?"
"How can you two be so lovey-dovey, when you say that you don't want to go out together, and pretend that you're not lovers?"
Rebecca nodded as she agreed with her. But Nami continued to blink.
"Because I love Luffy of course."
Marguerite's head fell heavily on her table. Now she said that she loves him. But if they asked again, the orange-haired woman will probably still say that she doesn't want to go out with Luffy for some reason. How does any of this make sense?!
Vivi and Kaya looked at each other with an expression of understanding for Marguerite. Anyone who met Luffy and Nami wondered the same thing. Rebecca also looked very confused. But they had to get used to it. Though even they -Luffy and Nami's long time friends- didn't get used to their relationship after all these years.
The bell rang to announce the end of the lunch break. The class moved around to prepare for the next lesson.
At the end of the week, once school ended, Luffy and Nami went to the shopping mall to buy the new phone. The young man was low on money so he had to beg his grandfather to give him more on his allowance, plus some tips from his brothers, which is why it took him a few days to have enough to buy a phone.
"Now we can go home right?" Luffy asked to his childhood friend as he was tired.
Nami stuck out her tongue and answered, "Nope. Don't tell me that you forgot? You have to pay back for making me feel lonely during my trip. So now I will have you follow me around, mister."
"Eh~?" Luffy whined.
"Don't whine just for that. I will even have you pay the bills for making me wait almost another week."
Luffy lowered his head in depression before following Nami. Well, rather than him following her around, it was more like she was dragging him all over the place. He wished someone could save him.
Coincidentally, some of Luffy and Nami's friends were shopping in the same mall. Some to buy things that are needed for school, and others to have some fun like Nami.
Rebecca was the first to notice the puzzling couple as she was shopping with Vivi and Marguerite.
"Um, girls… I can see Luffy and Nami walking there," she informed, not finding any other words to describe the situation.
After all, they were walking with their arms hooked and they were shopping together. One would say that they are in a date, but Nami herself said countless times that she doesn't want to go out with Luffy.
"What? Where?!" Marguerite quickly turned around and saw the pair, thinking the same thing as Rebecca.
"Vivi, please tell me that you have an explanation for that."
Vivi only blinked. "They are shopping together. That's all."
Rebecca frowned, "But they clearly look like a couple dating, you know."
"Really? I just see them shopping with their arms linked."
Rebecca and Marguerite looked deadpanned as they stared at the blue-haired woman.
"Vivi, that's what people call dating."
Vivi blinked again, this time with her mouth agape. She looked at the 'couple', then at her friends, before she thought with her hand under her chin.
"Hmm? Now that you say it, you're right. I think I've been with them for so long and this scenery felt so natural that I didn't notice it…?"
An awkward silence followed Vivi's words. They could only hear the sound of people passing by them until Marguerite broke the silence.
"Wait. When you say 'long'…how many years do you mean?"
"Since kindergarten I think… Luffy-san used to spend time very often with Nami-san's family when they went outside. As far as I could remember, they were always together hand-in hand. At some point, it ended up being only the two of them. So whenever they go outside, they are together."
Another silence followed her words and Marguerite rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I think I'm starting to get a few things."
Vivi tilted her head, while Rebecca sighed. She was wondering how to explain it before they heard an unexpected voice.
"I didn't think I would meet my gossip-loving students here."
A shiver ran on the back of the three girls at the sweet, familiar voice.
"M-Miss Nico?!"
"Were you talking about Luffy and Nami again?"
"How did you…?" Vivi was about to ask, but Robin answered before.
"You are too obvious. Not only you but your entire class is curious about their relationship. Though I think some of them have a bigger motive than just some curiosity."
Only Vivi knew what she was talking about. It was a fact that Nami was very attractive and Luffy was pretty good-looking. She knew many people who unfortunately fell in love with one of them, and got heart-broken because they couldn't even get between them.
"It's a good thing that we met here. I wanted to ask you a few things. Can we talk about this over a coffee?"
Robin sipped her coffee as she was sitting at a small table with her three female students.
"Actually, I'm also a little troubled by Luffy and Nami. I fear that the students are concentrating less in class because they are often thinking about them, for various reasons."
Vivi, Rebecca and Marguerite looked away as they knew that they are the prime example.
"I overheard some of your conversations and to be honest, I also got interested. What do you think? I think it would be a great idea to have a mature woman helping you about this matter. The sooner it's resolved, the better it is for everyone."
"Right," Rebecca muttered. She just wondered if the teacher was doing it really for her job or just for fun. Well, it didn't matter if she was willing to help.
"So I'd like to learn everything you know about them. That is, if you don't mind."
Vivi nodded as she started explaining everything she knew. When she finished, Robin was thinking with her hand under her chin.
"I see. That's surely a complicated relationship. But you know, some of these relationships can be caused by something very simple or trivial. Did you notice something like that?"
"Actually, we just noticed something earlier," Marguerite told her.
"Could you explain?"
Marguerite told Robin what she and Rebecca had found out when they saw Luffy and Nami, and what they realized by talking to Vivi.
"I see. Because you were used to that scenery since you were child, you didn't find it odd that Luffy and Nami were basically dating even though they claimed that they were only friends."
"Well…yes," Vivi answered, feeling a little stupid now. She consoled herself with the fact that she wasn't the only one who didn't notice it.
Robin's eyes became serious. "Then that changes a lot of things. I believe Nami never hated the idea of going out with Luffy. She just said that she don't want to, right? It might because for them, dating is not different from what they did since they were kids."
The blue-haired woman's eyes widened a little as she didn't consider this possibility. But then she thought about something.
"Then why did she say that they were friends? If they were already kind of going out, they can call themselves lovers. It wouldn't have confused us all these years if they just admitted that. Unless they are really only friends...?"
Rebecca nodded. "I was thinking about that too. But we can leave it aside for now. At least we learned that there is a reason for everything. If we think a little more, we will surely be able to find out. First of all, there wouldn't be any of these problems if Luffy and Nami had common sense about love. So Nami might just call themselves 'friends' because of her lack of common sense."
"Yeah, that's very possible." Marguerite nodded too, before she turned to Vivi. "There is one problem I want to point out though. And that's you."
"Eh? Me?!" Vivi pointed to herself.
"No, not just you. It's you and the entire group of friends who knew Luffy and Nami since they were kids. Just like how Luffy and Nami don't see how their relationship is weird, you all don't notice the small, yet obvious matters that could be a clue to solve this mystery."
"Why do I feel like it's becoming some sort of detective investigation?" Rebecca asked to no one.
"Fufu, this is getting really interesting."
"Miss Nico, are you sure you're not enjoying this a little too much?"
Marguerite smirked. "I must ask you Vivi. How many of you want to understand why their relationship turned out like this?"
Vivi thought a little before she said, "Probably all of us. No one wants this problem to bug us for our entire life after all."
Marguerite smirked wider and proposed, "Then let's have a small meeting next week during lunch break. You will come right, Miss Nico?"
"Of course."
Am I the only one who thinks this fic needs to be labelled as mystery? Just kidding XD
Let's see how much you understood, how much you didn't understood, and how much you can predict the future chapters. That's the fun in mystery-like fics after all. I will try my best to not bring shame on the genre.