Guess who managed to finish the chapter?! (*insert victorious, slightly manic laugh here*) You guessed right, it's the great me! Brownie points for everyone!
And thanks for the comments and favs/follows. Always appreciated. Seriously.
Anyway, I hope that you'll like it! It's clearly a filler, but you won't say no to a bit of crew fluff, right?
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, so anything that you see in this fic and that you can recognise as belonging to One Piece is not mine. If I did own it, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction. Duh.
Part One - Dive|rgence
SEVEN
What is fear?
Is it when I scream your name, but my voice can't come out and you can't hear me?
Is it when you need me, but I am not enough?
(nottherepowerlessuseless)
Is it when I back off and my shoulders don't meet yours?
Is it the day looming in my dreams where your mouth will not smile when your eyes meet mine?
I think that Fear is a lot
like Love
(and loving you is terrifying)
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"To a new nakama and a new ship… Kanpai!"
Five mugs of beer clink against each other, the amber liquid inside it sloshing slightly over the cusps. For the third time.
Elynna, sitting on a barrel to make sure that she won't put any pressure on her still-healing calf, raises impressed eyebrows as she watches both Zoro and Nami chug down the content of their mugs like it's water.
For the third time.
"And then you complain about the boys being monsters…" She shakes her head in mock-disappointment at the other girl, who grins cockily.
"Being a monster and having a few talents isn't the same thing! You know I was talking about how they fight…" Her eyes narrow shrewdly suddenly, and Elynna would bet money on what is going to come out of her mouth if she was the type to do so. "Besides, aren't you the one who's been pretending? Don't think I didn't see you pull your stunts against that hypnotist and the cat guys."
Called it.
"Don't call them that, it's an insult to all the cats in the world."
"I totally agree, they're more on the creepy side of the spectrum, but don't think you can change the subject that easily."
"Yeah, Ann! You were so cool, I told you we'd make a good team! Where did you learn that?!"
The smaller girl squirms in her seat, staring at the beer in her mug, ocean blue hair curtaining her face as she purses her lips in hesitation, unsure of how much she can say. If she slips up again and speaks of something that doesn't exist in this world, it could end up being hard to excuse away, even with her story of a closed-off island.
"I must admit that even me, the Great Usopp, who was born with innate genius when it comes to all fighting techniques, was impressed by your movements! I'm curious to hear which brave fellow warrior you learned from…"
She snorts in amusement at that and looks up, only to find herself stuck between her Captain's puppy eyes and the navigator's devious, expectant grin.
"Come on, Ann! Where did you learn to fight?" The former presses, never one to be patient.
"... I didn't." She eventually sighs.
"Liar." The three others chorus.
(The word sails like an arrow and pierces straight through the curtains of shadows in her mind that hide all the things that she does not, cannot tell them.
Everything you do and think is put into you by someone else.
The pain you are put through is decided by someone else.
I don't know if any of us are real.
I think I'm starting to love you guys like I've managed to love only a few people. Maybe a bit too much.
She wants to wince, but orders herself to get it together, because they won't be laughing like this if the same word comes out of their mouth intentionally targeting these shadows.)
"I don't think she's lying." Zoro steps in as he pours himself another drink -he's switching to sake now.
"Uh?" Luffy reacts very intelligently.
"What?" Usopp tries after him.
"Why?" Nami corrects with a roll of her eyes.
"Did you guys train to do this? 'Cause it's impressive."
"Shut up, Elynna. You were saying, Zoro?" The redhead directs a slap at the girl's plump arm, and Elynna makes a show of almost falling out of her seat, expression remaining disturbingly unflappable.
Usopp literally jumps to her rescue, falls face first on the deck when she ends up not actually falling, and immediately begins a tale of how he once saved a pirate Captain from certain death, and was offered a pure gold slingshot in gratitude -some thirty years ago.
(She wonders if this is supposed to be a sign that he's on his way to get drunk. She's pretty sure he could get his dates wrong even when sober.)
Luffy giggles, cheeks red and looking fairly tipsy already.
"I don't think she had any training, at least in hand-to-hand fighting. I've never seen any fighting style where you don't twist your body to add more power to your blow, and Elynna only moved her leg."
Said girl blinks, humming pensively.
"Ah, that's true." She eventually says. "In dancing there are moves that are static, and the goal is more to shift the rest of your body only as much as you need to to keep your balance -if at all."
"... Dancing?" Luffy crosses his arms, eyebrows twisting like he's rummaging in his brain but can't find anything.
It's not that her Captain is a very trustworthy indicator, but she's hoping really hard that dancing exists in this world right now.
"Now that you say it… I remember that I went to see a show on a neighbouring island once, and there were dancers who moved like that." Usopp remembers suddenly, Nami nodding pensively along.
Thank God-and-everything-that-is-holy.
She feels like kissing him right now.
But since he already may or may not have a thing with the heiress he saved just a few days ago (and because it would definitely freak him out), she refrains.
"Yeah. I took a few dancing classes, and my cousin is an acrobat in a circus, so he taught me a few tricks." She explains further with a shrug.
"Ohhhhh! A dancer! That's so great, now we just have to find a musician and we'll have great parties!" The Straw Hats' Captain claps excitedly in his hands, and his crewmates can't really tell if he's wobbling because he's already half-drunk, or if he's trying to dance to illustrate his words.
Either way, he looks about to faceplant on the deck, so his First Mate tugs at his sleeveless shirt until he comes to lean against the barrel she's sitting on (except he ends up flopping onto her, which, admittedly she was kind of expecting and hoping for, since she's too much of a coward to reach out herself).
She thinks the job title looks a lot more pretty than the reality, in which she's basically trying to save her Captain from death via his brain's stupid ideas, or to salvage his dignity because he seems to be one of those 'I'm a lightweight but everything is fiiiiiine because I like drinking and I don't care what I do when I'm shitfaced since I don't really do smarter things when I'm not' type of people.
Usopp gets brownie points for having the sense to switch to fruit juice once he starts to feel a bit light-headed.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Unbeknownst to her, Benn Beckman stops to sneeze halfway across the world.
He casually -force of habit and all that- punches a drunk Shanks away under the roaring laughter of the Red Hair Pirates, whose Captain apparently thought that his First Mate just sneezed out more wine and wanted to take a refill, since they depleted their stock an hour ago -again.
And then he prays for the new, unsuspecting First Mate who he's sure just realised the plight they are now facing.
Poor kid. Rest in peace.
Or better yet, buy a Visual Den Den Mushi to record the plig- Captain's bouts of dumb thinking, so that you always have a reason to vent your anger on your Captain -and good blackmail material.
Pirates will be pirates after all.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
"Still, I didn't peg you for a dancer." Nami goes on as she swiftly finishes Usopp's leftover beer -without his permission.
"Because I'm fat?" Elynna's lips twitch as the red-haired girl starts choking on the liquid at her bluntness. The sharpshooter is quick to come and helpfully hit her between her shoulder blades -maybe a bit harder than necessary in retaliation to the theft but he's drunk so it's hard to tell.
"Well, I just like eating, and I have a pretty big appetite -for a normal human being." She throws a pointed glance at Luffy for added -and unnecessary- emphasis. "And I don't have the physiology to be able to eat that much without putting on any weight. If I had gotten around to taking part in competitions, maybe someone would have tried to make me fit the norm more, but I didn't and no one in my family really cares about my weight as long as it doesn't affect my health, so…"
Her shrug is self-explanatory.
Well, it also helps that she likes to wear ample clothes whether it's winter or summer, and she's not fat enough that people would get whiplash when she walks down the street.
She does get a few comments at school -being among the best of the class and somewhat of a lone wolf doesn't really help her case, but it never goes too far considering that she knows most students of her middle and highschool from elementary, and the majority of them have learned that while she doesn't make a lot of efforts to interact with others, she's easy enough to get along with, even if only in a superficial way.
There are kids who are much more fun to bully than the girl who just makes a face of blank incredulity when insulted like that because she's so unused to it.
One of her grandmothers likes to make comments too, but as far as Elynna is concerned it remains tame enough, and she only sees her twice or thrice a year, so she just sits through these conversations until her parents come back or the rant is finished, humming vaguely here and there while her mind hops from song to song.
(When she stands in front of the mirror, though, it takes a while before she can see something else than flaws and ugliness, takes a while before the tired, resigned voice in her head stops listing everything she should do to try and hidehidehide
and she remembers instead what she knows about societal norms and the power of images and changing beauty models.
In the end, she's always lazy enough, uncaring enough, food-loving enough to not put herself through any self-dieting.)
Zoro slams his newly-emptied mug on the rail of the ship again, satisfied with her explanation. He was curious about that even before she took care of the hypnotist, since he carried her on his back twice and felt a surprising amount of muscles shift under the flesh of her thighs in his grip.
… Not that he thinks about it a lot.
(And no, he doesn't have a thing for muscles either.)
"I'm gonna take more sake!" Nami clamors as she clambers to her feet, barely staggering despite the rocking of the ship -and the amount of alcohol in her blood.
"You can have my drink if you want."
"Uh? Don't tell me you didn't drink anything since the beginning, Elynna!" The heavy drinker looks completely puzzled at the idea as she directs a bewildered stare at the still-full mug.
"I don't like the taste of alcohol, it makes me a bit sick."
She feels even more sick when she remembers all those books and movies in which one or several characters somehow think that it's a good idea to get supremely drunk, which usually leads to them doing something supremely embarassing, and to her dying of second-hand humiliation.
(Something about the absolute lack of control on what she shows of herself to others makes her recoil from the pages and the screen,
mortification burning her cheeks like ghostly tears pressing salt into imagined wounds
horror punching her throat crushed and making her twisted stomach turn on itself in a wretched dance.)
"Uh. Well. Makes more for me, I guess. I didn't need another reason to love you, but thanks anyway!" And, smiling broadly, she snatches the mug from the nurse's hand and knocks it back all in one go.
Elynna watches her walk to the kitchen, claiming that she still needs more sake to 'bring the big idiot down a few pegs, since he seems to think he can beat me at drinking!'.
The small idiot being the boy with the straw hat currently half-lying over his First Mate and babbling drowsily to a disbelieving Usopp about the beasts he wrestled with as a kid (obviously, Usopp tries to outdo him in extravagance and obviously, Luffy believes him -but still won't relinquish his position of Captain).
She rubs a stray tear away and blinks back its sisters, relieved that there isn't enough light on the deck and too much alcohol in the others' blood for anyone to witness her slip-up.
(No one ever told her the words 'I love you'.
She knows that she has people who do love her. Dearly, even. But being told that she is loved isn't the same thing -it's an answering claim that fuels something she was the only one to pour faith in until then.
No one in her family, and neither of her two friends, has the habit of saying these words.
She wishes they do.
She wishes she does too, so that, whether they still have her real body or whether they were left with nothing, they would at least have these three words placed carefully in their heart by her voice.
But they don't.
And she doesn't either.
It makes her heartbeat echo hollowly in the empty, sunken pit of her chest
and she wishes that Nami isn't just teasing, knowing that at the same time she is selfishly wishing for the pretty girl to hurt if she ever leaves.)
"Still up for that training you asked me for?"
The swordsman isn't really looking at her, instead throwing suspicious glances at their new storyteller, who apparently had the time to become tipsy enough to think that it's a great idea to try and steal Zoro's katanas to illustrate one of his tales.
(Evidently, it didn't go over well for him, as shown by the lump protuding from his forehead, big enough to weigh his head down. Or maybe he's just feeling sleepy. Or he's trying to mimic some kind of strange animal.)
"I sure am."
She's not in that much of a hurry to die that she would pass up the opportunity. Besides, being able to kick ass is cool, even if she doesn't end up needing to.
...
(Who is she kidding, she definitely will need to.)
"Well, it's good that you already have some of the basic skills. Will make some things easier. Although I'll probably have to beat some habits out of you."
She eyes the aggressive show of teeth in his smirk distrustfully -though it does look sexy.
Well, shit.
He's going to get his revenge for all her teasing, and he's going to be sadistic about this, isn't he?
Not that she didn't expect it, but she kind of maybe slightly hoped he wouldn't be as bitchy in his grudges as she is (the thing about being a pessimist with a good memory is that even if she can acknowledge to herself that people have changed, their worst moments will still be more or less superposed over her eyes every time she looks at them).
"Alright Zoro, I hope you're ready to lose!"
His gaze gleams in challenge as it moves away from her and to their other female crewmate who is marching towards him, with what is probably half of the ship's reserve of alcohol in hand.
Elynna sighs, eyes bouncing between the two of them.
Oh boy, this is going to become a regular thing, isn't it?
"Elynna, you're the referee."
She sighs again as a notepad and a pen are thrusted into her hand.
"I wanna fight too!" Their Captain informs them enthusiastically.
And without waiting for a response, or an explanation on how sorry Captain, but I think you've kind of already lost that fight, he throws himself towards Usopp, who has absolutely nothing to do with this and is still going on about how he found a hidden city of gold miles under the sea, thanks to a diving suit he built himself when he was six.
"Unfortunately, the map on which I put the location was stolen by that filthy traitor, but-"
He cuts himself off in a scream as Luffy sails past him and goes crashing against a wall.
There's a moment of silence.
The rubber boy flops back down on the deck.
And snores.
Nami closes her mouth just in time for the alcohol in it to not flow out embarassingly.
Zoro's palm meets his forehead with loud exasperation.
"Who dared to launch a rocket at the Great Captain Usopp?! Men, make sure to catch the culprit! I shall stuff him in a canon and light the wick myself!"
The rocket snores amiably.
Elynna almost falls off her barrel for real this time, cheeks flushed with the warmth of laughter.
Nami snorts, and downs another drink with a pretty, vicious grin towards Zoro, who retaliates by slamming his own empty bottle on the ground between them.
Elynna dutifully writes down their new score.
"By the way, Usopp-kun…" The navigator purrs, mouth curling inquisitively under light brown eyes that twinkle like a cat zeroing in on the defenseless canary. "I hope you kissed your girlfriend goodbye."
(Elynna kind of wants to kiss her, half to spare Usopp what is going to be a very embarassing moment, and half because damn, she looks good like this.)
"My… what?"
"Your girlfriend. You know, lots of money, gave us this ship, pointed a gun at the butler?"
"My what?!" Usopp repeats, voice distinctly more high-pitched and the entirety of his skin from forehead to shoulders distinctly redder and wait, is that steam coming out of his ears?
"I think you broke him." The nurse points out helpfully.
"Nah, he won't escape me that easily. Come on, Usopp-kun, give us details."
"Kaya isn't my girlfriend!"
He should've made her believe he was broken, Elynna thinks as she throws him a glance of pity, and turns around like the coward she is to keep her tally of Zoro's drinks, the swordsman not caring a bit about the conversation or his crewmate dying of self-combustion, and instead using Nami's distracted state to take the lead.
"Ohhhh, so you've skipped straight to the no-honorifics stage?"
A strangled scream that sounds disturbingly like a pig being led to slaughter reaches her ears.
Luffy snores again.
It doesn't sound particularly sympathetic.
She's going to have to play the bleeding heart of this crew, isn't she?
Not that it really bothers her in this particular instance. She likes others' feelings being pried into when they clearly don't feel like it about as much as she likes it when it's her feelings, which is not at all.
"Give Usopp-san a rest, Nami-san. It's not like you won't have the time to interrogate him later."
This is also an attempt to see if the redhead intends to ditch them soon or keep sailing with them, and she doesn't react.
Elynna isn't sure if it's because she intends to stay, because she's a good actress, or because she's drunk, so all in all it's a pretty useless attempt.
"Fine… I'll just ask you instead." The navigator retaliates mischievously, swiveling in her seat to face her.
The First Mate throws a long-suffering glance at the sharpshooter that says clearly you better remember that sacrifice, Usopp-san.
His return glance screams that having the Great Usopp in your debt is the best protection, the best gift you could ever hope for, young lady!
She rolls her eyes, and turns back to Nami.
"Apparently I'm dating Zoro." She drawls casually.
The swordsmans spits out his drink.
She points her pen at him.
"Am I supposed to dock a point or what?"
Nami crows approvingly at the suggestion.
"Wait, what do you mean 'apparently'?"
Elynna tells her about their encounter with the three pirates that she previously stole from, and at the end of it the tangerine-haired girl is positively cackling.
"I can't believe you used me to cheat on your boyfriend!" She dramatically wipes a fake tear from her cheek.
"I mean, it's not really cheating if I told him we were gonna fuck to his fa-"
The rest of her sentence fades into an indignant squawk as a very annoyed Zoro smacks her face against his chest to keep her from talking any more, rubbing brutally at her hair.
When she finally emerges from his attack, her hair is a total mess, and she blows a strand out of her eyes with an air of deep-seated annoyance directed at the green-haired man, who shrugs unapologetically as Nami laughs and casually adds a point to her name on the notepad while no one is looking.
"Don't go around distracting me when I'm in the middle of a match."
Instead of grumbling back something bitchy, Elynna loops her arms around his neck and leans her head back against his chest. It's almost romantic, if not for the mocking smirk stretching across her face in a way that shows way too many teeth.
"Y' know, babe, if you really want to make up with angry sex, I'm not against it, but I already told you that I don't like doing it in pub-"
"What the hell, woman!"
He scowls, blushing furiously, and throws her away from him like she's poisoning his personal space.
She lands right on her Captain, and Usopp suddenly lunges at her, catching her injured leg just in time before it hits the deck.
He exchanges another glance with the dark-haired girl.
Is that enough to repay my debt?
Fine, you sly little shit. I will remember that you only help people for your own benefit.
Usopp's mouth drops open in self-righteous outrage.
"I'm breaking up with you. Toxic relationship and all that." She informs from her position without paying any attention to Usopp's reaction.
"Good." Zoro retorts, obviously very satisfied with himself.
"And I'm docking you another point for violence against the referee."
"I'm never agreeing to you being the referee again." The swordsman glares darkly at his adversary who is modifying the score accordingly.
"Ah and, Nami-san?"
"Yeah?"
"While you're at it, take off two or three points for yourself too, since you tried to cheat earlier."
Nami pouts, and Zoro smirks savagely.
"Ann! Are you dead?!" A suddenly awake Luffy screams as he sits up to discover his First Mate lying across his knees.
"I know that poking your fingers in my eyes is a surefire way to check, but it kind of hurts, Captain."
(In the back of her mind, the question echoes differently, hollow and cold like a lost, ghostly child.
Her mind was put in this body.
This body's colours feel-
wrong.
But the shape is too familiar. Too much like her old body.
What happened to her other body? Is it… gone? Does that mean that she doesn't exist anymore in that world? That she can't go back?
She thinks that she should probably be terrified at the idea of not existing. That maybe her mind should burn, or her blood should freeze, or her lungs should crumble.
She knows.
But she can't… can't quite manage it. Can't quite remember where she's supposed to go to feel.
Maybe because the emptiness is always there, prowling around the borders of her self inside her, ebbing and flowing, eating and eating and eating at her, and then regurgitating her to devour her all over again -and she wonders what will happen if she ever fades entirely into its jaws.
Not suffocating.
Just… there.
Tempting, sometimes.
Maybe because the emptiness makes her wonder if she even knows what it means to exist, what it feels like.
Most days, the quickest answer her brain can come up with is that pain is the best way to be sure that she's alive, but she has too much fear in her to test that theory, and enough memories of others' love to not need to.)
There's a flick against her forehead.
It's harder than usual.
"Don't call me that!"
She gazes up at her Captain in confusion, the longer strands of his black hair tickling her nose as he leans over her further.
She scrunches her nose in distate.
Damn it, that bastard.
His hair is disgustingly soft.
(She's such a goner. How is she supposed to keep a minimum of distance with this?)
She should probably focus on the matter at hand, though.
"What are you talking about?"
"Why don't you call me by my name?"
"But… I thought you liked being called 'Captain'. I call the others by their name."
He scowls fiercely, anger sparking in his eyes, and he flicks her forehead again, like he can slap away all the dumb thoughts in her head that make her do stupid things. The others are silent around the both of them, and even though she can't see any of them, she knows that none of them are intoxicated enough to not notice Luffy's shift in mood.
"You're not Coby, so don't talk like him! Why do you look at us like strangers when we're nakama? I don't want to be a stranger to you!"
And her mind goes ah.
She forgot three things.
Outside of her circle of close people, she's polite to a fault, even uses polite phrases with those her age or younger than her sometimes. Unless she's clearly told that a person intends to stick around, she barely speaks half the things she thinks, because she knows it can seem offensive or out-of-line. But these guys behave with her like she's a crewmate who will stay with them for a long, long time (she just might, if she doesn't exist anymore there). And it makes her forget herself and the rules she obeys to (they're worth nothing in the world of pirates), makes her behave with them with the same familiarity, using honorifics the only way she found to try and maintain a bit of distance.
That's what she wants to do, so that maybe she would hurt them less if she leaves, but she forgot that the way she dismisses and represses her emotions (even if she knows what they are)… Well, it's not the way they do things (maybe Nami does that -she's a good liar after all, but Elynna isn't blind to the point that she cannot see the difference between the smile the navigator threw at them when they met and the smile she gives them now). She might hurt them less if she ends up leaving, but in the meantime what little distance she's creating gives them only anger and incomprehension and hurt.
And even though she knows it, somewhere amidst the veils of her mind, she never experienced it in each and every cell. But she knows that danger can build trust, and even though she did nothing (even though she can only do nothing, nothing except lie lie lie), she stayed with them (because her body's fear kept it from obeying her brain's order to run, or because her mind wondered whether death would be a good idea, and didn't give the order to her body), and it's enough for them to extend a measure of trust and care that maybe she never had with anyone else.
This won't work, she realises.
It's all or nothing.
Either she stays, and gives as much of herself as she is capable of.
Or she leaves.
She sighs.
Her decision is already made, after all.
(She's already convinced herself that they're her best bet to find a way home.
And maybe -just maybe, she craves to knows what it would be like to have people she trusts with so much of herself, people she loves so much that she feels it down inside the very marrow of her bones, so deeply that even on the worst days, her mind won't be able to convince her that it's all just words she tells herself and others.
won't be able to convince her that there's something wrong with her, something lacking that should be here but isn't-)
"But I haven't found nicknames for any of you yet…" She eventually says.
It's not like she's going to spill everything she's been thinking and planning to do all of a sudden either.
"… Nicknames?"
Now her Capt- Luffy's frown looks more confused than angry, a shadow of excitement playing around the corners of his mouth.
"Yeah. I like giving nicknames to people I choose to be close with, but it takes me some time to come up with them..." She mumbles, eyes roving where they can to avoid looking at him.
Although she is trying to avoid questions on why she's been using polite speech so far, this is the truth. As silly as it is, she's always felt that nicknames are proof that she managed to really get close to someone (that they accept her, and everything -bad- that she is).
For someone who prides herself on being rational and presenting herself as such, it's more than a bit embarassing to admit.
"You should've just told me that, Ann! You're really dumb, sometimes!" He shouts at her, leaning even closer until he's in her face and all she can see (until she can only be sure that there's no hint of anger on his face anymore, just a wide, laughing mouth and eyes crinkled shut by the amusement at her silliness).
"Back off, Luffy, I bet you're going to bash her in the head or something if you keep getting closer." Nami's voice huffs from above him, and a creamy-skinned hand with long, elegant fingers spanned across the boy's face suddenly pushes his head away from her.
Except the navigator puts all her strength in pushing him backwards, and his neck ends up stretching to allow her to keep pushing.
"Ew, gross." The redhead groans when she sees that, and she immediately lets go, sending Luffy's head crashing into his own knees, since Elynna took the time to roll out of her earlier position and is dusting her clothes, standing next to him.
"Nicknames, Elynna? Didn't know you had it in you. That's cute."
"Thanks, I'm practicing to get better." She retorts dryly, but her cheeks are flushed in embarassment, and Nami giggles.
"I want a cool nickname!" Luffy exclaims as he jumps to his feet, obviously unaffected by the encounter between his forehead and his knees.
"I hope mine will well represent the greatness of the hero I am." Usopp follows up from beside him, striking a pose that is probably meant to be nickname-inspiring.
"Like I care." Elynna returns blankly, deciding that teasing is the best way to definitely distract everyone away from the less attractive directions this conversation can take. "I choose the nickname, and you don't get a say. If I want to name the Cap- Luffy Marshmallow, I will, and no one can stop me."
The rubber boy's face is a mix of dismay, dead fish stare and but I'm the Captain!
Usopp seems suddenly a lot less interested by the prospect of getting a nickname, and Zoro is muttering something from his seat that she can't hear, but considering his tone he might as well be debating with himself the benefits of jumping into the sea and swimming to the next island.
Nami, on the other hand, seems to find the idea hilarious, snickering gleefully at her side.
"Ohhhhhhh. Now that's more like you. You've got a great naming sense by the way."
"I know, it's an innate talent."
"I'm sure it is. So if Luffy is Marshmallow, what's Zoro's nickname?"
"... I'd say Teddy Bear, but I might explore more possibilities."
"Babe, you're perfect. And I think Loverboy would suit Usopp just fine."
"That's evil, but evil is sexy, and since it's you I'll take the idea into consideration."
By now all three men are K.O., and both girls exchange a highfive and a laughing, machiavellic smirk.
"So what's mine? Come on, gimme some good cliché."
"Candy Princess." Elynna offers, batting her eyelashes and entirely straight-faced.
It lasts all of two seconds before her eyes meet Nami's, and they both find themselves breathless with laughter and sprawled on the deck where the boys lay, picking up the pieces of their virility.
"I think we should change the name of the crew. It doesn't really fit anymore."
"You're right, you're right. How about… The Rainbow Pirates? Or the Cuddly Pirates?"
"Nooooooooo…" Luffy's soul moans as it flies away from its body, clearly having decided that it was too heavy and hindering its escape from this fluffy, pink hell.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
She's running, breaths tearing her apart from within, air scrapping her throat raw because it's too pure, too pure for the mistakes she made and the words that she let out of this throat (she'll cut off her own tongue to make sure that she won't hurt anyone again like that, just please- please let everyone live-)
She runs and runs and runs, muscles burning like guilt and punishment and selfish despair, but the path feels longer and longer, and her legs feel like lead, like shackles and duty (it's her fault, she's the one who has to make things right-). Like the weight of lives upon lives upon lives, children and elders and men and women, who are waitingwaitingwaiting, suffering, while she keeps runningrunningrunning, but she's too slow, too weak, too stupid-
and the road keeps getting longer, and the sun is being eclipsed by jagged shadows and the sky-wide wave that is perpetually rushing towards home but never quite reaching it.
Her arm blisters and breaks and ruptures like defeat (you're my little navigator, Nami), and she screams, but she's all alone and no one can hear her-
A gunshot explodes like a sound wave, and Nami springs forward, trying to free herself from whoever is holding her back because they don't understand, she has to- she has to do something, or Bellemere will bleed out (she'll die), but her hands are trembling and everything is trembling and the darkness is pressing into her, entering her mouth and tainting it with the stench of dried blood and failure and shecan'tbreathe-
A door opens, bringing with it the salty, fresh, purifying coolness of the sea.
The black is chased away by the dark blue, velvety cover of the sky, stars twinkling like a thousand lighthouses in that rectangle, throwing light and shadows over the vague features of a chubby girl with sunless skin and hair like the deap ocean and eyes like its very bottom (dark and millenia old, untouched by light or humans and their rules, their destruction, their hopes-).
Oh, Nami realises abruptly, and her lungs stop trying to run away from her.
She's at sea.
She's at sea, with that bunch of weirdos she wishes aren't making it so hard for her to think about leaving them, and Bellemere is already dead but she can still save the others so she's fine.
Her hands shake with tremors again, and she clenches them. She shifts the messy pieces of her face around, until the fists rubbing at her eyes look like they are rubbing at grit rather than tears, until the shuddery sobs still stuck in her throat just sound like a yawn, hoping that there isn't enough light to make all the cold sweat on her body visible.
Because she knows that Elynna pays attention. Because she knows that Luffy's First Mate is much more careful and much less honest than Luffy himself, and she can't really tell what she's thinking or feeling most of the time.
"Ah, sorry. Did I wake you? There was more wind than I thought, so I ended up closing the door pretty loudly."
It wasn't a gunshot. Just a door.
Her shoulders relax a bit more.
"It's alright. Being a light sleeper is kind of a must to be a navigator."
"True." The pirate hums, and tilts her head on the side, still watching her with these opaque, pensive eyes of hers.
Not scanning her, or analysing her, or twisting a blade in the tiniest cracks or her mask (even though it's molded to her skin by now) to fish out secrets and hidden thoughts.
Just… looking at her.
It's not invasive, as if she will keep everything she sees to herself, as if she won't push unless Nami pulls first.
(It's tempting like the warmth of a cup of hot chocolate and a crackling fireplace in the middle of a snowstorm, like the sound of the slave collar around her throat that keeps away all the tears and the screams and the IhatehimIhatehimIhatehim clinking against the ground.
She finds it even more frightening.)
Nami watches her warily as the other girl steps fully into the room and asks her for permission to open the curtain hiding the window before closing the door, casually explaining that she's not used to full darkness in her room -or the rocking of a boat- and that she doesn't want her first sensation in the morning to be the pain in her toes when she inevitably knocks them into something.
She can't tell if that's the true reason, or if Elynna accurately deduced that she needed at least some light right now (even if the light in her life feels further away and smaller than the stars).
Maybe it's both, even.
Nami decides petulantly that she hates this girl, as she watches her plop down on her own bed, the large, way too big baby blue t-shirt that she bought as an equivalent of a nightgown riding up her thighs and slipping down her shoulder, revealing thick, white flesh that shimmers under the sliver of moonlight filtering through the window.
Her thick, dark curls pool like ink in her collarbone and trace dark rivers on the silver white of her skin. The murky eyes that Nami can swear look dark blue in the sun are black holes entirely focused on her.
She looks monochrome (unreal and inhuman too), and a bit too haunting for Nami's self-imposed girlfriend diet at the moment.
(She can't bring his attention on anyone -it would feel like killing them herself,
and her body shakes like a crumbling mountain when she thinks of putting another life on her shoulders,
But maybe one day, she can go back to that market and flirt back with the girl with skin like sleek ebony and jokes so silly they made Nami laugh even though she was at her lowest point, having failed a loot and feeling like her freedom was swimming away from her with a shark-like smile.
Maybe one day, she can meet again that bounty hunter with princess curls that gleam like the gold who will save all of them and who carries a giant meat cleaver like it's a bunch of balloons, who made love to her for her first time with a body rippling with muscles that could crush her but didn't, who told her ridiculous stories and showered her in compliments and waited until she was completely ready.
In the meantime, she squashes away the part of her brain that protests that Elynna is a pirate, her life is all about danger, and Luffy and Zoro are here to protect her and make her strong.)
"Hey, can I sleep with you?"
Nami chokes.
That little part of her brain screams Yes!
She mentally punches it into oblivion, and falls back into what is becoming horrifyingly usual with this girl to regain her composure: flirting.
"Am I that irresistible that you're going to cheat on your boyfriend again?"
"We just broke up anyway. And I didn't mean sex..." she corrects, and suddenly she flashes her that cheeky, dimpled grin that Nami really wishes she would keep hidden (really). "Though I wouldn't mind."
An embarassed squeal and a fit of giggles fight in Nami's throat, and she ends up choking on both.
"I mean can I just sleep next to you?"
"Why?"
"... 'Cause I like to do that?"
And when Nami looks up, suprised at the sudden hesitation that is offsetting her calm monotone voice and making it so unsure, she finds that Elynna isn't looking at her eyes anymore, but at somewhere around her knees, lips twisted with something dull like recurrent fear.
If she likes it so much, why didn't she ask for it earli-
Oh.
Oh.
She remembers the understanding dawning on Elynna's face like a new sun after Luffy's drunken rant, and suddenly she understands.
All this time the First Mate spent with them, despite the jokes and her careful hands on their wounds and the neutrality of her voice in the midst of their vibrantly clashing opinions, she was- she was being guarded.
The few grins and bouts of laughter… were slip-ups.
But somehow she has apparently decided that they are trustworthy. She's letting down her guard and reaching out to them -to her. Literally.
Still silent, she watches as the smaller girl starts to squirm (the girl who blurts out shamesless sex jokes on a daily basis and jumps in a burning shop for a dog), staring at her own hands, shoulders curling around her heart the longer the silence goes on, cheeks and throat and collarbones so red she seems about to combust (she looks like she wants to).
She doesn't know how far she can reach out, Nami realises.
And then: she's expecting to be rejected. Humiliated maybe, even.
And in that moment, Nami wonders what led her to become so guarded in the first place. Wonders if she'll be like that too, one day.
(if, when she finally buys her freedom, she'll be able to wash off the veneer of fakefakefake melted into her skin over the years -so many years and sometimes she feels so old-)
She also remembers how, when she goes back home (even if it hasn't really felt like home since-), she sometimes sleeps in Nojiko's bed like when they were little, and how these are the only nights where she knows for sure that the nightmares won't come to sink their claws into her.
"Okay." She finds herself saying, and she convinces herself that she's doing it entirely for her peace of mind and not even a little bit for the girl in front of her who looks about to offer to throw herself off the ship right now for her forgiveness.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Sleeping with Elynna isn't the same thing at all as sleeping with her sister.
Nojiko begins the night pressing her back against hers like a silent promise of support, and usually ends up spooning her at some point.
Elynna keeps pressing her cold feet to Nami's legs despite her squeals of protest, until the blanket is twisted around their limbs and she's giggling like the little girl she's hasn't been for a long, long time. And then she finds her nose stuck at the base of Elynna's throat while the pirate wraps an arm around her shoulder and throws a leg over her hips while the other slips between Nami's own legs, somehow wrapping herself around her despite being smaller than Nami.
For the first few minutes she can hardly forget how her collarbones and the top of her cleavage is pressed against the dark-haired girl's own breasts, and she smells like the sea and sun-heated stones instead of orange blossoms.
But eventually, Nami curls one of her arms around Elynna's waist and settles her head on her other arm, letting herself sink into the warmth. It's not a promise to protect her from the whole world, but it feels like someone is running at her side, and it's nice too.
If she feels lips wobbling into a small smile against the crown of her hair, she says nothing, and if Elynna hears her sigh of relief or feels it tickling her skin, she makes no comment.
It's not like Nojiko, but the feeling is similar enough that Nami's last thought, as she drifts into a fitless sleep, is that despite how colourless she looks and how distant she acts (has been acting?), Elynna feels pretty warm.
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
Elynna wakes up with someone's breath fanning her throat, a metallic and vaguely citrus-y scent in her nose, and limbs weaving through hers.
It feels… good.
Warm.
She takes a deeper breath, memories trickling back into her sleepy brain.
She's a pretty light sleeper, so when Nami's sleep became agitated, it didn't take long before it woke her up. Unsure of what to do (trying to subdue her physically sounded more like it would freak her out, and she would probably get hit at some point, which… not cool), she got up and walked out of the cabin, slamming the door close and hoping that the noise would be enough to break the other girl out of whatever bad dream (or memory) she was trapped in.
She stayed outside for two or three minutes before coming back in, and the faint light and gust of wind that came in with her seemed to calm Nami down enough.
(She looked almost as white as the body Elynna was dumped in, eyes snapping wildly to the entrance of their room like it was both a threat and the last straws of hope she was clutching to.
For a moment, there was no recognition in Nami's eyes when they landed on her.
It cut Elynna's breath short right through her throat, made her mute with pain and crushed hope and the cold, steely realisation that she's all alone.)
She has no idea how to help with this kind of problem, because she doesn't know anyone in her homeworld who ever faced it, but she managed to make Nami laugh and stop trembling, and she figures that's as much good as she's going to do. The thief has no reason to trust her with what is branding screams inside her nights, and she's not a psychologist.
(doesn't know how far she can push, how far she should push, doesn't know what to do with what's she told-)
Asking to sleep with the navigator was as much for her as for herself. She did it for the first time with her ex-boyfriend. It surprised her, how much she liked having someone else next to her while she slept -even without having sex- when she is so unfamiliar with physical contact in the first place.
(More than that, while she doesn't often have nightmares, she wishes that she had someone to touch and cuddle with, someone to share warmth with on all the nights where the emptiness weighs like lead in her chest, where she can't distract her mind away from it and the tears are like cruel kisses behind her eyelids and her breath is like liquid fire and silent screams, where her chest is hollow and her arms are so empty-)
She thought that Nami might be one of those people for whom hearing another heart beat beside theirs can help, even if they don't want to talk about the twisted shadows created by their own minds.
She doesn't know if it really worked, but at least it didn't make things worse.
She forces herself out of her thoughts, and carefully extracts her limbs from the other girl's and rolls out of bed.
Zoro is already training when she comes out, both hands clenched around a ridiculously huge barbell that he's slashing down repeatedly, another one -similarly huge- trapped between his jaws. Apart from his arms, he's barely budging an inch.
For a few seconds, she allows herself to watch idly as his biceps bulge and rivulets of sweat run down his face and chest. Not too long, though. Looking at someone because they're attractive is okay, but ogling them makes her feel uncomfortable -both for the person and with herself.
"You're late." He somehow manages to convey clearly around the object in his mouth, not looking at her.
"No I'm not." She rolls her eyes.
"Are you telling me you don't want to train?"
"No, you idiot. I'm telling you I'm not training before my injury is fully healed, because it would make it even worse."
He huffs in annoyance, but lets the matter go as she goes on to hop towards the kitchen for her breakfast. Her Capt- Luffy is already there, and already eating meat.
"There are other things you can eat, you know."
"Yeah, but it's the best!" The slightly smaller boy beams at her, the implied suggestion of diversifying his diet clearly sailing way over his head -not that she expected anything else.
She sets about making something for herself, offering to do Usopp's share as well when he joins them.
"Oh, thanks Elyn- Hey! You could at least put on some clothes before coming here!" He cuts himself off, scarlet red splotched like paint on his tanned skin as he averts his eyes from her chubby, white thighs that are barely half-covered by her night shirt.
"I don't see how it's any worse than you." She comments with a pointed glance at his shirtless self. "Now shut up and sit down, or no breakfast."
"Hey, hey, Ann! Could you dance for us today, I wanna see!" The other boy demands loudly, bouncing in his seat from sheer anticipation.
"No."
He deflates like a punctured balloon, whining in disappointment. Considering that Elynna finds it just as cute as his enthusiasm, she's probably a bit of a sadist.
"But whyyyyyy?"
"Because unlike you lot, she has the common sense to not push herself while she's healing, which is probably why she's the one who ends up taking care of everyone's wounds." Nami answers in her place from the doorway.
She's wrapped in a silky, pearl grey dressing gown with swirling, silvery patterns that shimmer in the morning light. It's extravagant, and she pulls it off ridiculously well.
"Nice." Elynna comments, prompting a pleased smile from the redhead.
"Thanks. I stole it."
They both snicker.
"Figured."
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
The Nickname Attribution goes like this:
(One)
Usopp is the first to get his.
(Hint: it's not Loverboy.)
On their first day of sailing, the new crew member demonstrates his artistic skills by salvaging the atrocity Luffy calls their pirate flag (which Elynna maintains is much more suitably terrifying compared to the edited version provided by their new resident painter).
It isn't hard to impress her with drawings, considering how bad she is at it herself, but what she really compliments the heavily blushing Usopp on is how he managed to perfectly replicate their symbol on the mainsail, which is so large that he can hardly see exactly what he's doing.
He has a chance to display the entirety of his skills no later than that afternoon, and Elynna blames it all on Luffy's 'unlucky-but-lucky' curse. Somehow, the Captain decides to try and use the cannon they received along with the ship, and when he shoots the cannonball towards what he thinks is some kind of small island -which he completely misses, it just has to be an island used by another pirate crew as a resting spot.
So of course the other crew is quick to conclude that they're being intentionally attacked (they really aren't) and get to their boat to sail straight towards them.
Nami is just as quick to find a current close to them to give the Going Merry a boost, especially if they're positioned just right to take advantage of the wind they have at the moment.
But the other boat is more modern, and catches up before they reach the perfect spot.
And then a Marine ship shows up out of nowhere on the other side of the Merry, and sails closer to put them in their range, since they have a pirate flag (so recent that the paint still isn't completely dry). So the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates are left to take care of both their attackers while the navigator leads the boat in the right direction.
Luffy and Zoro are so clearly pleased with the situation that Elynna vaguely considers the possibility that it was all planned, before remembering that planning definitely isn't part of their Captain's strong points.
Her and Usopp groan and drag their feet. A lot.
A better boat turns out to be the only point on which the Bear Pirates have the upper hand on them, because when they eventually catch up to them, they fire grappling hooks so that they can run on them to join the Going Merry.
While both boats are still moving.
Zoro and Elynna, who are standing on that side, stare at the hooks hanging on their ship's rail, and exchange a glance. The latter raises both eyebrows in an incredulous expression.
Did they just-
The swordsman scoffs.
Yeah. They did.
And without waiting for her reply, he jumps on the enemy boat (because clearly ropes and hooks are overrated).
Leaving the First Mate to hop along the rail on her uninjured leg and fling the hooks off the rail (and the attackers running on it at the same time). By the time she reaches the last, a few have already made it to the deck, but Nami is there to knock them out from behind, having apparently finished setting the course of the Merry just right.
So Elynna turns around to look at how Luffy and Usopp are doing with the Marines, only to find that the former has looped his arms around one mast and his legs around another, allowing the latter to catch the Marines' cannonballs and launch them back with his body.
"Two! Try two at the same time, Usopp!"
"Okay, Captain! This is but a warm-up to the Great Captain Usopp!"
"I'm the Capt- Ack! I said two, not five! I'm gonna slip!"
"Boys…" Nami groans with a loud facepalm.
Somehow Usopp, while screaming at Luffy who is also screaming, manages to launch back all the heavy spheres so that they each land on the Marine ship.
(-for a moment, Elynna wonders if the bodies of this world can survive this, if she would feel anything if she was in Usopp's position, knowing that she might be killing people that she doesn't see.
But then she remembers that she made pirates fall into the sea not two minutes ago, that some of them might drown or have a terminal encounter with some hungry creature or another.
She feels vague queasiness at the idea that she might have killed someone, but mostly just an empty stretch of nothing, and the thought that it was their lives or hers and that of her… friends -it echoes like a question even in her own mind, that theirs aren't worth less but aren't worth more either.)
She lets out a high-pitched whistle as they eventually escape, looking at both the smoking remains of the Marines' ship and the pirates', whose sails are shredded by Zoro's blade, rendering them unable to follow the Going Merry (the swordsman was really not satisfied with the entertainment they provided him).
"You did a number on them. Do you have the eyes of a hawk or something?"
The word stops him in his preening. Then Nami asks her how to say it in English, and when Elynna muses that Hawk would make for a not-so-bad nickname, Usopp begs her to do that, having apparently been traumatised enough by the Loverboy idea that he had nightmares about the Rainbow Pirates during the night.
She takes pity on him.
(Two)
Zoro is second, and frankly she should make him wait and give it to him last, because he's clearly trying to kill her with the shit he calls training.
As soon as she can walk normally, he tells her to join him on the deck the day after. Very early. Which isn't that much of a problem because she's usually awake around that time, but it doesn't mean that she wants to be up at that time. (Spending a few hours with just herself and her thoughts feels good when she lives 24/7 with a bunch of loud weirdos, thanks.)
He usually makes her start with stretches and strength training. She knows most of the exercises he gives her, and there are only a few that she really has a problem doing, but the problem isn't that.
The problem is how long he expects her to repeat the same exercise.
She's used to a certain amount of effort, and she has a reasonable muscle mass for a girl who was a civilian till not long ago. But even with this body, three or four hours of constantly working out without breaks is hell.
(She tells herself that with her -real?- previous body she would be dead, but it doesn't exactly make anything better.)
Though she has to give it to him, Zoro is actually a pretty good coach. He doesn't taunt her, just inflexibly pushes her to keep going even when she already tried to stop a few times before letting her take a break, even if she hasn't reached the goal he set for her. She knows that it is a long-term goal that she has to reach little by little, and he doesn't expect her to be able to keep up with him on the first day (because yes, he also does his own training while she drags herself through his exercises).
She doesn't comment on anything, because she knows that she has to do this.
(a First Mate can't be that incompetent,
and they wouldn't keep someone so weak on their crew, and she needs them to keep her, maybe not just to go back home-)
She does glare a lot at him though. Especially since after that particular brand of hell, he generously lets her be his partner for what he calls sparring and what she calls moving target practice.
Well, his partner, or Luffy's (who seems to find the Chase and Hit Elynna game very entertaining, and doesn't hold back at all).
She decides to focus first on dodging, because usually by that point she can barely move, let alone close her fingers into a fist and swing her arm with enough force to punch someone, even if she had the opportunity to do it -which she doesn't (also, she can hardly hit someone if they hit her first and she's dead because she isn't able to dodge).
Besides, it's not like hitting someone, especially someone she knows and likes -no matter how much he makes her suffer- is something she's used to. Even though she knows that she needs to learn (hiding and dodging and running away don't win wars), inflicting pain -or trying to- is something that she must force herself to do much harder than dodging it.
One day, by luck or skill she does not know -but she would rather bet on the former, she finds herself in Zoro's range, knows that she can maybe hit his side, prepares herself for it-
And she backs out.
(-remembers the red beneath his hand as he tried to stop the blood flowing from his side, remembers the needle trembling in her hand and the stench-
It was her fault.)
"I knew you were weak, but I didn't know you were a coward." Zoro spits in disappointment as he steps away from her, grey eyes flashing silver like his blades would if they weren't in their sheaths -a small mercy he grants her for her first lessons. "I don't think there's anything I can do about that."
She doesn't think there is either. She's known it for years (has hated herself for years), and she has yet to find the will to do something about it. Being brave sounds terrifying and exhausting and she's already so tired-
She stares at him passively.
He scowls, eyebrows slashing fiercely downwards, teeth gleaming aggressively in the sunlight.
"I can't follow someone who breaks their word. You told me you'd do your best. Why are you just standing there and not saying anything?"
Because how is she supposed to tell him that in her world, the wound that Buggy inflicted on him would barely let him walk and breathe normally, even now? That maybe he would be dead, with all the blood he lost and all the strain he put on himself after that?
She can't.
"What is there to say? You're right when you say I'm weak and a coward. I'm just waiting for you to finish so I can get back to work."
He scowls further.
She sighs.
"Sorry I'm too nice to have no problem hitting my crewmates."
His sigh is as harsh as his voice.
"You better be."
"Can you stop barking like a dog and attack me already? Unless you're trying to provoke me into hitting you."
"Who's provoking who? Don't compare me to a dog!"
She's quick to dodge the first slash as she realises that he's taken off their sheaths (-fucking insane coach-) and vaguely thinks that he kind of does look like a dog with a katana in his mouth-
Uh.
Her mouth slowly stretches into an evil smile as she steps around another blade (she knows he's going easy on her, but still she's somewhat pleased that she's already at nineteen successful dodges).
"What are you smiling like that for?"
"Nothing, Fang."
He frowns at the foreign word.
Her smile widens, and she translates it for him.
"You little-"
"Ow!"
He probably only holds back as much as needs to keep her alive after that.
It's still worth it.
By the end of the morning, she feels like all the water in her body has moved outside of it. And she can't talk. Or breathe without sounding like a pig being throttled. She feels a bit like it, too.
(She's training in another thing too, because everytime he or Luffy do land a hit -often, they force her to keep moving if she doesn't want to receive a series of blows after that.
Unknowingly, they're slowly carving a new instinct in every muscle of this body, the instinct to keep moving no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much pain is radiating just beneath her skin, no matter how much it burns and how much the fire is greedily devouring all the breath she has.
Because moving washes the pain away.
She's never been hit by fists before, but she's had enough hard falls while learning some acrobatics to be pretty certain that she feels every injury like she would in her homeworld rather than like her crewmates do -even the weaker ones.
Except the smaller injuries like bruises barely show up on this body, and the more serious ones fade away much, much faster.
And really, considering that this body and her mind don't come from the same world, it would be logical that her brain would be convinced that she's supposed to feel more pain than the damage her body has actually taken considering its healing rate.
In the case she's right in thinking that moving her body allows her brain to realise that this body is different from the… previous one, she's hoping that it will fade away over time.
Most of all, she's hoping that if she engraves this instinct deep enough, her body will keep moving even in the case of an injury that her mind thinks should kill her.)
(Three)
Nami is the third. She comes to crouch beside Elynna's head one day, while she's trying to catch the breath that begged her goodbye about two hours ago.
"Had a good date with Zoro?"
"I wish I was sweating for an entirely different reason." She rasps, because even without air no one can stop her brain from making weird and absolutely innapropriate jokes.
(not when she has found people who laugh or make disgusted noises or glare or blush or ignore her, but never tell her to stop-)
Nami snickers.
"Yes, well, I don't care why you're sweating, you're not touching the bed before taking a shower." She dismisses, scrunching her nose in a way that is absolutely not cute.
…
(Okay, it is.)
They ended up sticking their beds together. Sometimes they each sleep on one side. Sometimes their limbs tangle. Sometimes nails and fingers rub patterns into each other's skin as they drowsily talk about random things and cuddle the other into sleep.
If there is one thing constant, it is that Nami hasn't had any nightmare bad enough to wake her up (and Elynna regrets that she cannot do more, regrets how much she loves this).
"Do I look like I have so little hygiene sense?"
The tangerine-haired woman strikes a thoughtful pose, teasing grin hiding behind her pursed lips and eyes laughing.
Elynna tries to slap her leg, but even that turns out to be too much for her limp arm that falls back onto the deck.
She glares at it in betrayal, but it looks more like she's about to fall asleep.
Nami bursts out laughing.
Elynna flops on her stomach with another groan.
"I hate the sun."
"Of course you do. That's why you take about as many naps on the deck as Zoro."
"That's just because he's so cruel that I can barely move and really want to sleep."
"Liar. You did it before we reached Usopp's island too."
"... Fine. I don't hate the sun. But rain is still better."
"Really?" The navigator asks after a moment of surprise as she sits down more properly on the deck.
"Taking a walk in the rain is the best."
"Even when it feels like a slap in the face?"
"Yup."
"Even if it makes you sick the day after?"
She hums affirmatively.
"Snow is cool, too, when there's enough of it that I don't slip on black ice."
There's another moment of silence, and Elynna is about to fall asleep when Nami's voice reaches her ears again, a distant whisper.
"I like tempests."
"... Why?"
"It's beautiful. Reminds me that nature is always the most powerful." She answers dreamily, remembering these days where lightning storms and rolling waves would roar outside of The Room, and she would hear their worried whispers about too much of a risk to go out and let's hope it won't come too close to the island.
(It reminds her that even they are not invincible.)
"... I guess so. Wouldn't go out in the night, though. I'd probably trip on grass and split my head open or something."
Nami guffaws and gets up, superbly ignoring the hand shaking in the air for help.
"Oh, come on..."
"Nope!"
"How can you be so hot and so cruel…" Elynna tries for a whine, but it comes out more like a sigh.
"It comes in a package!"
She raises her head from the heated wood of the deck just enough to glare at the thief's back, and then at the general direction Zoro took once he was done beating her into a pulp.
That explains some things.
Her head slams back into the deck, and she's left trying to decide whether she has the courage to drag herself to the girls' room, or if she's going to stay here and cook under the sun while stewing in her own sweat (the skin of this body is awfully prone to sunburns, as she discovered the hard way).
When Luffy decides that he wants to stop on an island that evening, Nami answers that she already has a planned destination, and the day after, late in the evening, they moor at an island trapped in the middle of meteorological phenomenons that Elynna doesn't understand at all.
What she does understand is that as a result, it's almost always snowing on the island.
In their first morning when she trains -after making sure that there's no risk of slipping, the activity is just enough to keep her body warm once she gets started, while the coldness of the air and the thin drops of ice cool down her skin. Both girls go on a walk in the afternoon, while Luffy and Usopp start some epic snowball fight -featuring equally epic storytelling- and Zoro is taking a nap on the deck with more layers of clothes than usual.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Elynna stops for a moment, pointing her face to the sky and savouring the hundreds of snowklakes stinging coldly against her skin. She's left her coat open, and already she feels her clothes beneath it become wet in some places, sticking to her skin.
"Snow looks good on you."
"I'm blushing." She drawls, opening her eyes to look at the navigator, who wrapped herself in warm clothes, pointed nose pink and cheeks redder than her hair with the cold.
She looks at Nami and thinks about how her mood shift as easily as the weather, thinks about the rains she loves so much and how it comes with or without the sun, in light drizzles that last hours and hours or sheets of water that drum and hammer against the world.
"Maybe I should call you Rain."
Nami tilts her head at the English word, recognising it as one of the first words she asked the First Mate to translate for her.
"Does that mean you love me?"
"Stop fishing for compliments, Rain."
Nami laughs, and snatches Elynna's hand out of the air to drag her along the path.
They come back just in time to watch a snowball sail straight in Zoro's face, and eat snacks while commenting on the rampage he goes on -and the two boys stuck in his way.
(Four)
Luffy is the last.
Did she find his nickname much sooner?
Absolutely.
Did she wait that long just to annoy him?
Hell yes.
He comes bounding in Nami and Elynna's room after dinner one evening, while the latter is attempting to etch into her mind the chapter about how to take care of food poisoning (she thinks it's a miracle she never had to deal with it till now -or maybe the idiots' stomach just became resistant) and the former is pacing around the room -it helps her think- and muttering under her breath, trying to determine what direction to take the Going Merry towards to restock on their supplies.
"Luffy! You could at least knock!"
"Ann!" The rubber boy screams instead, ignoring the gorgeous redhead as he throws himself next to his First Mate, whose lips twitch as she watches Nami clench her fist and take a deep breath. "I want a nickname! Everyone has one but me, and I'm the Captain-"
"Sure, Sea King."
"- and it's so unfair-"
He stops in his babbling.
And then his mouth stretches and stretches and stretches.
"Why did you choose that?" Nami asks curiously.
"Who cares? It's cool!"
"Cause they're strong, and his stomach is probably big enough to eat as much as one. Plus he's gonna be the King of Pirates, so he'll be the strongest in the seas, right?"
"That's. Soooooo. Cooooool!" Luffy repeats, eyes lightning up in joy.
"Yes, yes." Nami interrupts him, tone warring between fondness and annoyance as she nudges his feet with her own. "Now get off. I want to sleep."
"But- I wanna sleep with you!"
"Yeah, no. You see, I like people who are silent when I'm sleeping. Right, Elynna?"
The other girl takes a look at the straw-hatted boy, sees his big, dark, puppy eyes and jutting lip-
… And gives up.
"Sure, you can sleep here."
"You traitor!" Nami hisses, eyes already plotting Revenge.
She yelps as Luffy's arm curls around her waist, and the next moment her face slams against her pillow.
She coughs.
"Luffy! You can't do that! Are you trying to kill me?!"
Her only answer is a snore.
"Oh, fine…"
Elynna's shoulders shake with silent laughter.
"You." Her roommate points a long, thin finger at her face, but her lips are twitching. "Don't think I will forget about you."
"I never got a threat and a confession at the same time before. I kind of like it."
"... Oh my god, I'm sleeping."
〪〪〪〜〜⏆〜〜〭〭〭
So. You got some answers on why Elynna was on the verge of passing out after crashing through the gates of Kaya's mansion and why she freaked out so much over the first Buggy Ball (among other things). Because clearly, I'm pretty sure that would be how I would end up -and it probably isn't the worst case scenario.
The nicknames are horrible. I know. It's one of Elynna's many faults.
Yes, Elynna wants to snog everyone. And yes, it's going to be a regular thing. I can't blame her, I'm in love with everyone in this fucking crew (and a few others).
Also SPOILER, Nami during the whole cake island arc? You know, when she's using the vivre card in the forest? Total gay panic on my part.
As for Bellemere, I just can't call her belle-mère because I'm French and in French it means step-mother and that's just a super weird name to have.
Anyway, see you next chapter, and I wish you all the best!