One Piece Goda belongs to. Author's notes bottom at.
Chapter Titles The Beatles belongs to.
Chapter Eight
All Things Must Pass
There was a desk in the corner of the bedroom shared by Luffy, Chopper, Zoro and Sanji that was undisturbed to the rest of the crew but Chopper himself. Though they were docked off the island for the rest of the week for the wedding, Chopper remained his duty as the ship's doctor - chemicals and papers and little containers of herbs scattered on the table with his backpack in the corner. The rest knew not to touch anything, especially when they knew the kind of samples Chopper needs to take for a check-up.
The little reindeer doctor retreated to his little workstation after dinner that night, assuming his examination's result was ready. Luffy was still in the living room, testing a certain new invention Franky have came up with - it was like a machine for your eyes, Oculus Rift or whatever it is called - and he sounded like he was having fun, yelling and screaming. Chopper wished he could join them, but he only sighed, and turned back to his tests, writing the results on paper with a quill.
The bedroom door swung open moments later, and Zoro jumped as he noticed Chopper in his human form at the corner. He was all prepared to dive across the room for his swords. "Oh, Chopper, it was you."
"Oh, Zoro." Chopper tidied up the desk quickly and mounted his notations onto one pile - he purposely made his writing unreadable for test results so the details of his patient would be secured. Usopp once snooped through his papers before and while he was quickly convinced that he had inherited a fatal disease, it took Chopper several days to convince Usopp that he is healthy.
"You're working on Robin's?" Zoro inquired uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck.
Chopper nodded, and shifted back to his normal form.
"So... Okay or not okay?"
"Depends on the definition of 'okay'. It's not a very pleasant one." The little reindeer was hoping to break the news to Robin once she's back, but perhaps Zoro would do better in comforting her later. "Zoro, can we talk?"
Robin had only find out Bellemere - Nami's, not the Revolutionaries' - after they had left Koala's place. Robin suggested that they would spend the night there to keep the bride-to-be company, but Koala was pushing through the never mind, I'll be fine and see you tomorrow. Understood when Nami found a tube of lubricant and a pair of black lacy lingerie in her bathroom - oh hot dayum, she thought. The little tale of Bellemere was only learned by Robin on the way home, but Nami refused to talk much about it.
But then, she was also cold throughout their journey home. She wouldn't mind Robin took the position as the maid of honor, after all Robin and Koala were closer friends, much longer than Nami have ever been with the bride. She couldn't help but felt a certain green monster at the back of her brain, though.
"I told you, I'm fine," Nami she said as she hugged herself in her leather jacket, and walked towards their guest house. Robin was a few feet behind her, an arm outstretched to reach her.
"Nami-"
Nami immediately stopped her pace and turned towards her. "Will you quit asking, Robin? I'm fine. I just wanna go to bed."
The two remained quiet as they reached their guest house. It was past midnight, and the area that surrounded Galley-La Company's guest house are rather calm and serene. The only rowdy noises heard came from the direction of the company's workers quarters, because you know, men.
"Yo," Luffy greeted with one hand raised, half of his body tucked behind the bookshelf separating the living room and the kitchen. He was the only one awake in the house, apparently. Loud snores were heard from the men's bedroom, while Zoro and Chopper were asleep on the couch, the little reindeer all snuggled on the swordsman's lap. Nami gave no response to the rubber boy's greeting and proceeded to the bedroom.
Luffy arched his eyebrows curiously, but Robin only shook her head. "Why are you still up, Luffy?"
"Mmm... Nothing..." Luffy gave a questionable put, redirecting his gaze to the ceiling.
"Luffy," Robin crossed her arms in front of her. Phantom hands appeared from behind the rubber captain, took the plate of ice cream cake in his hands and kept the cake back into the fridge with a series of devil fruit hands appearing after. "You know how Sanji feels about midnight snacking, Luffy dear."
Luffy pouted still, this time with his eyes squinted. "But I'm hungry!"
"Is Sanji home already?" She said, as she took off her leather jacket and hooked it on the coat hanger.
Luffy shook his head.
"Hmm, did he get to second base?" She wondered to herself, and later approached the swordsman and the reindeer on the couch.
"Zoro and Chopper was waiting for you," Luffy explained.
"I'll send them off to bed," Robin said, very motherly. "You should go to sleep too, Luffy."
"Hun-ger..."
"Alright, I'll wake Zoro and Chopper up, and then I'll make some supper," the archaeologist offered. "In the meantime, go and wash your face first, Luffy dear. You have ice-cream all over."
Luffy sighed, and went off.
The archaeologist gave a heavy sigh. She had almost forgotten about the pregnancy test result. Seeing that the two waited together for her to come home to give her the news, she doubt it would be an easy one.
She tapped on the sleeping swordsman's shoulder lightly. "Zoro," she called, but the swordsman didn't bulge and inch. "Zoro," she called again, now shaking his shoulder lightly, but he was certainly a heavy sleeper still in deep slumber.
"Oh, who was that swordsman outside the door?"
"Swordsman?" Zoro rose immediately, sending Chopper to fall onto the floor. Upon learning that Robin was in front of him, he realized that it was just a trick. "Ugh, Robin..."
The little reindeer rubbed the back of his head for a second, and then rose to the couch when he saw Robin. "Robin!"
The archaeologist took a seat on an adjacent stool, facing both men. She let out a heavy sigh. "You were meaning to tell me the results of my test?"
Chopper nodded.
She certainly did not like the look on both their faces - unsettled and regret-like. "So...?"
"Robin, I'm sorry."
The girl's bedroom door was slightly open when Luffy walked past, and that had invited him to come in. The lights were off, but it could be seen clearly that Nami had already tucked herself into her blanket. Probably had fallen asleep too.
There was this look on her face as he had recognized - a little sad, a little upset. Something clearly had bothered her, from the coldness she had provided them the moment she arrived home minutes ago. Normally, Luffy wouldn't be able to do anything about it at all, except for waiting her recluse to slip away, which would last overnight, probably.
So he did what he would normally do to cheer her up - he took his beloved straw hat off his head, and tucked it under her arms. He hated seeing her all sad and distant. Everyone would much rather an angry and loud Nami - at least while at that, she yells out whatever she's unsatisfied with, and hence everything is fixable or explainable right away.
With nothing else to say, the rubber captain exited the room quickly and closed the door.
One thirty in the morning.
Zoro and Chopper were sitting on the dining table, neither had the intention to go back to bed after breaking the news to Robin. The woman, as promised to Luffy earlier, was preparing a little supper. While she was deep-frying mizu-mizu chicken nuggets bought earlier that day, the other two bonded over warm tea, trying to create some sort of easy, positive environment to cheer the archaeologist up.
In a way, though, it is good news, right?
"...and then they made peace with the villagers! It's really good, because later, we get to reach the rare herbs surrounding their nests and study the for medicine!"
"Good for you guys."
Robin tossed the remaining oil of the first batch of nuggets with an oil-filter paper, and placed them on a clean serving plate. "Here," she placed the plate on the table, "I'm going to fry another batch for Luffy."
Luffy appeared in the kitchen several minutes later, when Robin was done with te second batch. The archaeologist greeted him with a smile before she seated herself next to the rubber captain.
"Luffy, can I ask you something?"
Luffy gave a muffled 'yes' through chewing his food.
"What do you know about Bellemere?"
Luffy stopped, while Zoro turned his head towards Robin, his attention was caught at the mention of Bellemere. "You mean Nami's Bellemere?"
Robin nodded. "All I know is that she was Nami's mother, and that she passed away when Nami was young, and that was all."
"Well," Zoro said, "From what Usopp told us, Bellemere a was actually a former marine. She saved Nami and her sister from a war when they were little, took them in until shit happened. Bellemere was killed in front of Nami's own eyes by stupid Arlong. Shot on the head, that stupid bastard."
"Arlong..." Luffy clenched his fist, but Chopper calmed him down.
"Our captain kicked the shit out of that bastard's face, though. And that's actually how Nami joined our family."
"Arlong... Of the Sun Pirates? Hachi's friend, is of the Sun Pirates?"
"Yeah."
"I'd never thought of it before. Such a small world." Robin rested her chin on the palm of her hand. "Arlong was one of the rescuers of Koala - she survived death with the help of the Sun Pirates."
"Holy shit," Zoro responded.
"Jinbe was a Sun Pirate," Luffy added. "He's good. Hachi was a Sun Pirate too. Turned good too, now."
"I guess Arlong was the only one who had gotten on the bad side of conscience," Robin sighed, as she took a sip of her warm tea. "By the way, is Jinbe invited to the wedding?"
Luffy shrugged, though he would really love to meet the former Warlord again.
"Koala would really love it if Jinbe would be around," Robin added. "Oh, by the way, her maid of honor wouldn't be able to make it, so Nami is going to be the new maid of honor."
"What's maid of honor?" Luffy asked, dull as ever.
"The bridesmaid, Luffy. Kinda like what you are, to Sabo," Zoro explained, which earned a rather curious look from Robin. "What? It was Pinky's idea to play wedding with her stuffed animals, okay! Sure as hell annoying when she kept throwing her negative ghosts at me!"
Robin chuckled. Luffy got up from the table and bowed his head, something he had always done after every meal. "Thank you for the food! I'm going to go to Sabo's place now!"
"Luffy, it's already very late-"
But the rubber captain sprinted across the living room and exited the house before Robin was able to finish. The archaeologist sighed heavily, then turned towards the other two - the little reindeer was already soundly asleep on his chair. "I guess we better put him to bed."
"I'll put him to bed, you clean this up," Zoro offered. He carried Chopper effortlessly, but carefully not to wake him up, and sent him to the boys' bedroom. He tucked Chopper messily into bed, turned off the lights, then returned to the kitchen, where the archaeologist was washing the cups with the help of several devil fruit hands drying them.
"The test results," Zoro said again, while standing beside her and leaning against the counter. "Are you still bothered about the test results?"
Robin shrugged. "I don't know how am I supposed to feel about it, Zoro."
"Happy?"
"Help me take my mind off it?"
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind, his face so close to her cheek. "Take your mind of it."
I forgot that 'All Things Must Pass' was such a beautiful song. Suits this chapter. I'm sorry for the late update, I haven't been writing much due to several commitments. I've written chapter nine and half of chapter ten, so I guess it's fair to upload this nao.
Thank you RosesAndRavens, scatteredPhilosopher, Shiningheart of ThunderClan, murasakiana, skelekc and 1327 for your lovely reviews as always. Thanks for sticking through and thanks for enjoying 'Luffy In The Sky With Diamonds', especially the Iva date, well we'll see more of him later at the wedding! And ah, I didn't realize I made Luffy so, as ThunderClan-chan put it, having good insticnts on keeping a woman happy! That's a win, yes! Imma go treat myself with frozen yogurt and baby biscuits now.
Thanks for the reads, reviews, favourites and follows. Apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur, I love you like I love fried chicken and ramen.
