One Piece Goda belongs to.
Author's Note bottom at.
Chapter Titles The Beatles belongs to.
Chapter Twenty
Ask Me Why
Despite the embarrassment that she had to endure that morning—although Luffy unknowingly made her feel so—she stuck to him like her life depended on him, as they exited Hotel Venezia for a late breakfast. The Captain said he was hungry, and Nami began to feel that she needed breakfast as well, so she got dressed, and they head together to the nearest restaurant.
"I smell meat!" Luffy was swept away by the smell of—what Nami could tell—roasted chicken, and head into the restaurant with a grin on his face. Nami followed behind him, sighing with the most nonchalant face she accidentally mustered. She was feeling disoriented all day, and she tried so much to pay attention to whatever happened around her—like the child in a white dress at the end of the hotel hallway, or the man with no head in the elevator—but none of them piqued Nami's interest, nor curiosity, as if her feelings were nonexistent, intangible, unable to be prodded.
"Oh, Luffy!" A woman in green hair—had Zoro found Ivankov?—waved from a table in the restaurant just as the two stepped in. She was sitting with their archaeologist, who lifted her head off the newspaper to look at her Captain and the Navigator.
Nami instantly recognized her, the green-haired woman who had cupped her cheeks and thanked her for taking care of him. "Isn't that—"
"Oh! Makino-san!" Luffy said cheerfully, waving back and self-invited himself to the table.
Nami adjusted the straw hat on her head and let out another sigh. She gave Robin a quick hug and joined the table. "We've met…"
"At the chapel gardens," Makino replied with a smile. Luffy's hands were already on her food, but she pretended not to notice that. "I'm sorry for not introducing myself properly the first time around. You can call me Makino. I'm…" She turned to Luffy. "What am I, Luffy?"
Luffy shrugged. "You're not my mom, right?"
"No, I'm not."
"I knew it!" Luffy slammed his fist on the table. "Dadan is my real mom!"
"Luffy dear, she's not your real mother either."
"WHAT?" Luffy said, eyeballs nearly popping out of its sockets in surprise. Robin chuckled, while Nami rolled her eyes wondering the stupidity limit of his captain, although she eventually found it amusing.
"I suppose I'm like another guardian to you," Makino said, ruffling Luffy's hair affectionately. "I took care of Luffy and Ace back in Foosha Village. Watched them grow up. Now they're all grown up, and Sabo's about to get married…"
"Sabo," Nami repeated. "Where's Sabo and Koala? We've waited for them at the hotel since last night and they never show up." Events of last night and this morning flashed through her mind and her cheeks turned scarlet. She thought it was best if she pretended to be drunk for her red face, so she turned away and called the waiter. "Waiter! Some wine please!" Some wine for me to wash away the fact that I was in a hotel room with Luffy, for nothing! Wait, that didn't come out right.
"That was what Makino-san and I am here for," Robin said, folding her newspaper and putting it on her side. "Sabo and Koala had gone missing. We've only last seen them last night, and after that, we couldn't reach them on their Den Den Mushi."
"They didn't come back to the hotel, that's for sure," Nami said. "And their wedding is tonight! We really need to find them."
"They could be anywhere on this island," Makino suggested. "Water Seven is huge. There's no way we could cover every inch of the island."
"Makino-san, have you forgotten? The Mayor is our friend. The Franky Family is also very influential," Robin said. "Unless Sabo and Koala had been swallowed by the strong currents of the canal, we don't have to worry much."
Nami nodded, and it send her to great relief.
"Turbines of the dam is pretty strong. They could be shredded into pieces."
"ROBIN!"
Makino chuckled. "Then, let's leave it to The Mayor and Franky Family. The team hired by The Revolutionaries is making the final preparations today. I know it's a small wedding, Sabo wanted it to be sweet and simple, but oh it's going to be so wonderful! You'll find it hard to attend weddings, you know, especially if your friends are pirates and bandits, they hardly believe in ceremonious celebration of love and devotion."
Nami rested her chin on the palm of her hand, and turned to Makino. "I know this is a curious question, but did Dragon-san ever get married?"
At this point Luffy stopped munching on Makino's steak, and actually paid attention. "Have you met my dad?"
"Oh, it was such a long while ago…"
"Tell me more!" He sat with hope in his eyes, and for the first time, Nami saw Luffy not as a friend, nor a that that that, that that, nor an overly impulsive Captain, but as a son eager to listen to more stories of his mighty powerful father. He reminded her of herself, after Belle-mere's death, sitting in Genzo's office with bandaged knuckles, listening to Genzo lecturing her on how good her foster mother was when she was still alive.
She missed Belle-mere.
The sun was scorching hot against her skin, and when she woke up, the first thing she saw was a seagull on her chest, staring at her with those round eyes and a beak that had almost touched her nose. Startled, she shrieked and sat up, and the seagull struggled before it flew away across the only thing that surrounded the two of them.
The sea.
Colour drained from Koala's face as she realized it, Surrounded by everything that was blue and her element, yet unshielded from the bright hot sun. Koala gasped, and heard a groaning sound below her. Her blond fiancé seemed to be enjoying his slumber, despite the scorching hot sun above their heads. From the look of it-and the position of the sun itself, it might be around noon.
The Yagara bull gave a messy neigh as Koala bend over to retrieve some sea water, completely soaking her maroon colored hat before bringing it over Sabo's head, and squeezed it.
A fair amount of water splashed over his face and he jerked up from his sweet slumber. "What the hell!?" He said loudly, and collapsed back into the seat of the Yagara boat. "Koala bear, sea water..."
"Oh my God I'm so sorry!" She quickly wiped off excess sea water from Sabo's as he slowly fall unconscious. Koala panicked, until she heard faint sounds of snoring from him. She pinched both his cheeks and yanked them in frustration. "Don't fall back to sleep!"
"Okay, okay!" Sabo replied with half-lidded eyes and a groggy voice, and although it used to make Koala feel giddy about it, this time she didn't fall for that sexiness. "I'll get up. What do you want?"
"I just realized I needed to pee." It wasn't funny at all, she really needed to pee.
"Then go pee." Sabo replace his top hat onto his head. "Why did you wake me up for it?"
"Well, can you send me to the bathroom?"
Sabo took this as an oddly seductive invitation, and that completely woke him up. He sat up, finally realizing the situation they were in. So the sounds of the ocean and seagulls were only in his dream? Sabo froze at the sight that was void of buildings and ground and soil. "Um, where's the bathroom?"
"On land, which is probably a day away from here!" She pointed towards the island, Water Seven, which looked like a tiny fountain from afar. The Yagara bull neighed again. "This is all your fault! If you hadn't suggested to steal a Yagara boat for a last romantic getaway—"
"You're went along with the idea eventually," Sabo argued. "This isn't one hundred percent my fault!"
"Our wedding is in eight hours and we're stuck in the middle of nowhere," Koala waved her hands frantically as she ranted away. "This is a disaster. I knew last night's idea was going to land us into trouble!"
Sabo sighed, and cupped her cheeks, in an effort to calm her down. "Don't worry, we'll get to land. We'll just have to figure out something."
Koala pouted. "How?"
Sabo patted the Yagara bull's head. "Can you take us back?"
It neighed, shaking its head as a response. Koala crossed her arms on her chest. "Sabo-kun, he barely has the energy. He's hungry. And so do I, mind you."
"I guess we could feed him first," Sabo suggested, and Koala rolled her eyes. She quickly stripped off into her bra and underwear, in which Sabo smirked and whistled, but she stuck her tongue out and dived into the ocean, hoping to catch a fish or two. Or many.
Sabo and the Yagara bull stared at each other. "I know, right? She's hot when she's angry."
Perona didn't particularly enjoy alcohol in any form. She was more of a tea person, and even when living at Kuraigana, her alcohol intakes were often limited to the lightest wine. But living with the company of two sake-loving men, she was used to the strong smell of alcohol. Still, she didn't really like smelling like a drunken man.
"I remember you collapsing on me after you passed out drunk. I couldn't even lift your heavy arse and I had to stay under you until morning," Perona said, floating over her king-size bed. She had a nice suite at Hotel Venezia, with pink coloured sheets and black walls, everything lolita and gothic at the same time. There was a guitar case by the sofa that Zoro was sitting on, and a little Kumashy stuffed bear was lying on a single-seater. "That was the worst thing that had ever happened between you and me."
"I thought you'd at least like it. I think you're gay," Zoro commented, leaning back and rested his legs on the arm of the sofa. He was there to chill—at least that was what he wanted. His head felt as disoriented as his sense of direction, and he needed to escape from the house, at least for a few hours. The parasol was just an excuse for him to come over, but Perona understood him more than he understands himself, so she ordered in several bottles of sake from room service.
"I'm asexual, thank you very much," Perona said. She was still in her cotton-candy pink light gown, and she very much wanted a shower. Rehearsals with her band 'Perona And The Freakabears' for the wedding reception is going to be in two hours. "Now, if you won't tell me what's bothering you, I'm going to shower." She stood on the floor and removed her nightdress—not that Zoro had any reaction to this for as long as she had done this in Kuraigana—and stepped into the bathroom. She didn't close the door, because she had expected Zoro to finally reply after his egoistical hesitation.
She was right.
"Do you mind me asking a question?" She heard him say from outside the bathroom.
"Do you even have to ask that? Since when are you so polite?"
Zoro sighed. "Right, right. Say you have a gorgeous katana. And you like to use it in battle. Every time you slice someone with it, it gives you this exciting feeling, like—"
"—euphoria?"
"Yeah, something like that. What if one day, you lost that katana, I mean it's there, you just couldn't touch it and it won't listen to you. What would you do?"
"Move on. Buy a new katana. You still can slice someone with it."
"But no other katanas can give me that same feeling."
Perona stayed silent, focusing on her shower. The lack of reply made Zoro felt like he had asked a silly question that does not worth asking at all. He shook the thought off her head. Nope. What was I thinking?
The pink haired lolita emerged from the bathroom door with a white towel wrapped around her. Laid out a black and white dress from the closet. She strapped on her choker, looked into the mirror, and brushed her curly long hair. "So we're talking about your feelings being more important, right?"
"Tch. Just forget it."
"Do you want my opinion or not?"
Zoro simply shrugged.
"Look," she said, selecting her earrings from her collection and picked a beautiful ash-coloured pearl. She fixed it to her ear as he looked at Zoro's reflection in the mirror. "You might be a swordsman, or a man, longer. But I've lived with you for two years and I've learned many things about you. I've watched Mihawk beat you to the bone and you still stood up even though you're covered in blood." She stepped out of her towel and put on her dress, lastly fastening the zipper on her back. "You know what that says about you?"
"What?"
"You're not the kind of person who'd give up that easily if you really want something." Perona leaned on her dresser, looking at a very messy Zoro. "Now, do you have anything decent to wear at all to the wedding?"
Hello flowers, Luffy In The Sky With Diamonds is updated after over a year?
I'm not sure if anyone would return to reading this. I've realized I've been away too long and this has been an effort to come back to finish this fanfic, because out of all, and I've said this before, I love LITSWD too much to abandon it. I have once promised that I would return to finish this. I couldn't promise you an immediate return, because that would require me to commit a huge amount of energy and time to this fanfic, the energy and time I don't have enough of and I wish I had. Honestly, I wish I had enough energy and time for everything.
I'm sorry if this wasn't LuNa centric either, but I'm still trying to keep a steady-paced story. I will not rush to the ending. I will make the best out of the story. I will make LITSWD a memorable fanfic for me and my readers, you lovely people. I've returned once in a while to read this fic and figure out a way to save it, and continue it, and sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the lovely reviews you've left here, no kidding. If only you knew.
I hope you'd still return to read this fic. I love you!
xx Fleur
