It was quickly becoming one of the biggest crazes that any marine base had ever seen. It made absolutely no sense, and when first spoken of officers were down right disgusted. But for one reason or another, it grew into an unstoppable force that spread from base to base.
'Shipping' was what the officers called it. Taking two people they thought would work well together in a romantic (and/or sexual) relationship and obsessing over it in the oddest ways possible. Some marines simply talked about it, debated with others on why their pairing made the most sense. Others with some artistic talent chose to draw their people in different scenarios that ranged from innocent to uncomfortably dirty. Then there were the writers who wrote novel length stories depicting the romantic journey their favorite pairing may go through.
It first started with shipping fellow marine officers. It was harmless fun, friends making jokes and starting rumors with each other. When the hobby started to spread though, the officers began to get uncomfortable with the amount of attention they would receive if they were a part of someone's favorite pairing.
So they turned their attention to the next best thing: pirates.
Pirates were much easier to pair up. Rumors of relationships among crews tended to spread across the seas like wildfire and were much harder to prove or disprove. Plus, not knowing the pirates personally left out that uncomfortable feeling officers sometimes got for shipping two very real people together.
Interests and pairings came and went like fads, moving from one pirate crew to another. But one crew seemed to stand out the most.
The Strawhat pirates were very popular among the marines. The crew of nine were a constant in any sort of talk about pairings and shipping. In the beginning, officers primarily speculated on who the two woman of the crew would end up with.
A large majority claimed that the Cat Burglar Nami was already madly in love with her captain, Strawhat Luffy. Others argued that the orange haired girl was better suited for the pirate hunter or the sniper.
Robin, at first, was mostly shipped with Zoro but after someone claimed they shipped her with the crew's shipwright the idea caught on and no one ever looked back.
Of course, there were only so many pairings that the marines could make with just two women on the ship, so eventually they expanded their horizons.
"You ship the Sniper King with Blackleg?"
"Yeah, why not?"
"It doesn't make any sense!"
"No sense? Did you see them at Enis Lobby? Totally made for each other. Besides it makes more sense than pairing Blackleg with the Pirate Hunter."
"Hey! No two people can argue that much with each other. There has to be some sort of underlining sexual tension between them."
"Excuse me gentlemen, I think you're forgetting that Strawhat and the Pirate Hunter are pretty much already in love and devoted to each other. No question about it."
So the arguments went. No one ever being completely right or wrong with their choices. In the end though, everyone pretty much agreed that, romantic or not, the Strawhats definitely loved each other.