A collection of 50-word prompted drabbles I wrote for the one_piece Livejournal community. First fic is self-prompted.
Contains spoilers through Chapter 600.
1. Prompt: Sanji/Nami
When you are eleven, stranded, and starving, too empty even to weep for a life wasted on potato scrapings and picture books, how could you know? - one day you will sup at love's table and drink your fill from its cup; such blessings you will be given, golden-haired boy.
xxxxxx
2. Prompt: Singing in the rain
There were intruders on the deck: a man and a woman. Singing.
"Who's there?" quavered Chopper.
A looming shape turned into Franky, wet with rain.
"That was you?"
"Yep," Franky hummed in baritone. "My voice is controllable – like my hair! Mecha!" He ended in soprano.
Overawed, Chopper fainted dead away.
xxxxxx
3. Prompt: Sanji/Nami, a party
"It's a party, Sanji. Relax."
He cooed, "A gentleman always –"
"Can't dance?"
"I'm sorry, Nami sweet?"
"Bet you can't."
Wordlessly, he dipped her backwards, his fingers delicious against her back. And this, she thought as he leaned in with a scent of salt of cigarettes, was more like it.
xxxxxx
4. Prompt: Island of spiders
Once she dreamed: an island frothing with spiders spinning, spinning. She in the middle, caught.
Waking, she remembers the woman who spun such magic on her loom that a goddess grew afraid and cursed her.
Robin thinks this is the separation between men and women, mortals and gods.
Gossamer, clinging.
xxxxxx
5. Prompt: Brook's new wardrobe
When he arrived, finally, he brought it all with him:
Shirts, belts, trousers, crocodile boots, cravats, furs, vests, rings, crushed velvet jackets, neckties, silk handkerchiefs, hats, patent leather everything.
There was barely space to move in the boys' room for all the clothes.
Sanji was furious. Brook refused to share.
xxxxxx
6. Prompt: Hachi and Camie
Despite the aftermath, she remembers it as the perfect day.
Why not? Camie looks at her husband absentmindedly rubbing the scar on his chest, which time and surgery can't erase.
Selective memory is a shield against the sorrow knocking 'round their door. Inside, there's only happiness warm as takoyaki, homemade.
xxxxxx
7. Prompt: Luffy, disguises (i)
Nami remembers Luffy in the hammock, hard-eyed, frowning, a near twin for his dangerous brother.
Now she wonders, as Luffy laughs and passes around that ridiculous mustache for everyone to try on, what he has done with the other face.
And do reunions simply disguise the distance of two years?
xxxxxx
8. Prompt: Luffy, disguises (ii)
"A mustache'd look good with the scar."
"No."
"You could be an afro-mustache skeleton…"
"Yohohohoho! But no."
"Robin – "
"No, thank you."
"But, Nami, you've got a mustache above your lip already, so – "
"What?"
Nobody, Luffy thought sadly as the beating commenced, appreciated the value of a good disguise.
xxxxxx
9. Prompt: Luffy with a lightsaber
"This is all your fault!" Nami yelled. "Why did you make that stupid thing, anyway?"
"Science demands –" Franky started.
"Science my ass!" Nami screamed. Then, to Luffy, "Stop saying 'Whommm'! It goes 'Whommm' already!"
"Whommm!" Luffy called back happily, taking the top off of his fiftieth tree.
Franky grinned.
xxxxxx
10. Prompt: Sanji missed his kitchen
"Do you have an aquarium?"
Ivanov laughed. "I have a fishbowl."
Sanji sighed smoke. "Oh." He paused. "Then could you steal some food behind my back?"
"Vat?"
"Nothing; never mind."
Sanji wandered back to the little kitchen and, just like every day before this, began setting the table for nine.
xxxxxx
11. Prompt: Usopp's new hair (and the sheer mass of it)
"Remember: into the scalp, twice daily," Usopp whispered.
"Will this work?" his secret visitor said tersely.
"Sure!" Usopp replied soothingly. "Look at me – and I'm not even balding! I mean –" he babbled, "It'll be okay. Really, Zoro."
Usopp patted his mane as Zoro retreated, grinning. Some people believed anything.
xxxxxx
Notes:
1. This was originally going to be part of a longer fic idea, but it sounded overwrought after I mapped it all out. In my head it's Sanji/Nami, but really it could be Sanji's relationship with the whole crew.
4. This is my favorite, I think, of the serious entries. Whereas I had to condense the first one to make it effective, this one would be good expanded into a 100-word drabble.
6. Hachi and Camie was the hardest one to write - though I enjoyed the challenge! Not only have I never written these characters before (or, full disclosure, thought much about them past Shabondy Arc), but I felt like there wasn't much to say about them. I work best with conflict and dysfunction, and Hachi and Camie are, happily for them but unfortunately for me, in the healthiest relationship in the series. Damn you, octopus! *shakes fist* Seriously, though, this was another one where I had a good core idea (selective memory is a survival skill for socially marginalized species) but which I couldn't convey fully in 50 words.
9. I love it when Nami flips out. Love it.