Chapter 4: Anticipation

"I couldn't have at least been given a picture of the guy?" Nami complained, leaning over the railing of the ship taking her to North Blue.

"Does it matter?" Hatchan asked with a shrug. "Whether he's ugly or handsome, we'll still get Germa 66's help with securing our territory. Isn't that the point?"

Nami glared at the ignorant fish-man. "And how would you feel about being forced into marriage to some ugly fish-girl, huh?"

Hatchan winced. "I guess I wouldn't like it. But the marriage isn't really the point, right? It's to help out the Arlong Pirates. It's an honor, Nami. And you'll be a princess! Won't that be cool? Bet you never thought that would happen. It's pretty crazy to think that you were born in such a poor village, yet will become the princess of a country with one of the most powerful militaries the world, don't you think?"

The worst part of Hatchan's words was that he was entirely sincere. He was either too stupid or too naïve to understand that Nami only served Arlong because she was forced to and that she wouldn't consider it an honor to marry a stranger to help out Arlong and his crew. And she didn't find the phrase 'one of the most powerful militaries in the world' terribly comforting. It most likely meant they were people with power who thought that meant they could push around whoever they wanted, just like Arlong's crew.

Still, if she had to marry this guy, it would at least be nice to know what he looked like. How terrible would it be if she saw some nice-looking man and thought he was the one, only to discover it was the ugly idiot standing next to him? Well, there was only two more weeks of traveling, and then she would find out. She couldn't figure out if two weeks of waiting was way too long or way too short. One the one hand, she wanted to get this thing over with. On the other, she never wanted it to happen.

~.~

"Please hold still, Prince," the seamstress requested, barely speaking above a whisper. "I want to make sure I get the measurements right. King Judge wants your wedding garments to be perfect and they must be ready soon."

Sanji rolled his eyes at the seamstress's timidity. He didn't like that in a woman. His father felt all women should be subject to men, but Sanji wasn't interested in dolls. He wanted someone real who would challenge and intrigue him. Soft words and demure looks simply didn't do it for him.

He hoped his future wife wasn't like that. He might have to take up a feisty mistress on the side if she was, but something like that could endanger the alliance and his father would be furious. Sanji sighted, knowing that no matter what situation he'd been thrown into, he'd have to bear it.

And he'd somehow lost the picture of his fiancé that he'd been given. He wasn't sure where it had gone, but he'd only looked at it a few times and his memory of the woman, Nami, he reminded himself, he needed to start thinking of her as Nami. It wouldn't look good for him to forget the name of his future wife when he spoke to her. His memory of her looks was already hazy and he was sure he'd only imagined that she was so beautiful. Yonji had probably talked up her looks to mock Sanji. Pirates weren't beautiful. They were ugly, unkempt rogues who did whatever they could to get by. Nami was probably average at best.

He sighed. Was average better than nothing? Probably not, but he supposed it was better than ugly, so he should at least be grateful for that.

~.~

Yonji stood on his balcony, nearly salivating at the picture he held in his hands. The wedding hadn't happened yet. It was still a few weeks away. They couldn't even start making Nami's dress until she arrived and the seamstresses took her measurements.

The sudden image of Nami in nothing but undergarments while the seamstresses measured her flashed through his mind. He bet she looked perfect like that. The picture showed that she was toned. He pushed the thought away and focused on what he'd been scheming before. Since the wedding hadn't happened, yet, it wasn't a done deal.

It may be rare that their father changed his mind, but it happened. If Yonji somehow pleased his father more than Sanji before the wedding, maybe Judge would change out the groom. Or if Nami really hated Sanji and wanted someone else. Her word should carry some power, right? So long as a marriage happened, the alliance would be set. The wedding was the important part, not which prince she married. Besides, it wasn't like Sanji wanted to marry her anyway. Yonji would just be doing them all a favor.

~.~

"Should be one more week now," Niji said.

"What should be one more week?" Ichiji asked, looking up from the book he was reading.

"One more week until she gets here. The navigator, I mean."

Ichiji rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "Are you still going on about that? The only good thing about her arriving is the maps we'll get. There's no other reason to be excited. She'll marry Sanji and then we'll probably only see her at dinner. It's not like much will really change."

Niji shrugged. "We don't know that. None of us have ever been married before. And, like you said, we don't know anything about her other than that she's an incredible navigator." He barely stopped himself from adding and that she was beautiful. He wished he could see her picture again, but she would be there in the flesh soon. To marry Sanji. Every time he thought of how nice it would be to see her, the thought was ruined by remembering that she was marrying Sanji. Such a pity and a waste. What did his little brother even know about women?

"Anyway, my point is that we don't know how involved she'll be in what we're doing. She can't exactly make maps just sitting in the castle, now can she? She's never been to North Blue before. She'll probably have to travel at least somewhat on campaigns with us to draw maps."

Niji almost sniggered at the horrified like on his older brother's face. "Does the thought of a woman on campaign terrify you that much?"

Ichiji scowled and jerked his book up to cover his face. "I just don't want some idiot to get in the way. If she puts herself in danger we'll have to save her. We don't need anything dragging us down when Father wants us to move forward our conquering time table. He thinks with this woman's help we'll have our full kingdom back within three years. We're going to have to work harder than ever."

Niji wondered if he was imaging the blush on his brother's cheeks. Probably. What could the stoic Ichiji possibly be thinking about regarding a woman traveling with them on campaign that would make him blush?

~.~

Reiju sighed as she threw another paper onto the floor. Her bed looked like she'd gotten a new comforter made out of newspaper. She'd demanded that every news article that could be found regarding the Arlong Pirates be brought to her. Her father thought she wanted to understand the weaknesses and strengths of their new allies better and she let him believe that.

What she really wanted was to figure out what kind of woman this Nami was, but she could find nothing about her other than her wanted poster with a bounty of 70 million berries. It was small compared to some of the other members of Alrong's crew, and Reiju hoped the fact that there was so little mention of Nami in the papers was a good sign, that it meant she wasn't a bloodthirsty pirate.

Of course, regardless, she was a pirate, but maybe there was such a thing as nice pirates? Reiju shook her head at her ridiculous thoughts. She knew she was being ridiculous, hoping that Sanji would be marrying some nice woman who would help turn him into a better man. Turn him more into who he used to be. He had mercy and kindness, unlike their brothers. Those traits may have been dulled through Judge's brutal training, but they were there.

Reiju had been praying for years for something to bring back that side of her brother. No matter how ridiculous it was, she hoped that this arranged marriage, that this navigator, would be what Sanji needed. Was it so wrong for her to want just one member of her family not to be the villain their father had raised them all to be?