Chapter Text
The night was clear and cool, the crew had just finished enjoying dinner in the kitchen, leaving no lefts over as usual, bellies full but eagerly expecting dessert.
From the last island from which they had departed two days ago, they had taken a few boxes of the delicious seasonal strawberries. As the fruit was short-lived Sanji had frozen a few but had decided to make chocolate candy out of most of them for dessert tonight.
The cook put the bowls on the table and they jumped right at them as if they had not eaten to bursting just a moment ago. Sanji knew them well though, and he had made two more batches to follow to accompany them with some tea.
Luffy was stretching his arms, grabbing chocolates blindly either from different bowls or his crew mates if they had piled a bunch on their plates, Usopp and Chopper the only ones loudly complaining when that happened.
Nami hadn't planned to compete for the last candy after the last batch shortage, that kind of thing was pointless when Luffy was around, better leave that losing battle to Usopp or one of the other guys. But her quick eye had seen there was only one left in the bowl in front of her while her captain was finishing devouring the ones from a bowl on the other side of the table with both his arms stretched, and being sitting next to him made it a perfectly funny opportunity to let it pass it up. Plus the chocolates were that delicious.
By the time Luffy's full mouth and empty hands finished with the bowl at task, Nami's fingers grabbed the last one before he could, thumb and index finger taking the little chocolate out of the bowl just as his hand was over it.
Years of thieving and pickpocketing never ceased to come in handy, and the smugness that came with getting ahead of someone made her flash a smirk on her face, gloating at a now frustrated Luffy that had realized she had just taken the last one right from under his greedy hand.
“That was the last one!”, he protested, puffing his cheeks.
“Sorry”, she mocked, “Not quick enough, captain” and smirked at him before putting the chocolate in her mouth.
Their friends laughed all around the table, Usopp in particular laughed out loud, clutching his stomach and pointing at him. Too many times of having his rations eaten by Luffy, he seemed to be enjoying her victory almost as if it were his own.
Luffy's puffed-out cheeks grew a bit redder, and Nami found the situation she had put him in more amusing than she thought. When had one of them taken the last piece from just under his fingers? Had that even happened once? Relishing even more in her victory, Nami couldn't help but tease him a bit more.
She had barely had the candy in her mouth so the chocolate coating had not yet melted, and by way of teasing, Nami stuck her tongue out to him, the barely curved tip holding the candy to show off.
All their friends laughed out loud now, but what was supposed to be a joke Luffy saw as an opportunity.
In one swift movement, he leaned forward, covered her mouth with his, stuck his tongue out, pressed it against hers, and with a hard lick sucked the candy right out of her mouth.
Luffy swallowed the chocolate fast as if he didn't want to risk losing it again and, straightening back in his seat, grinned proudly.
The gloating big smile turned slowly into a confused expression though, as he opened his eyes and saw the sudden change in the atmosphere.
There was no more laughing from the rest of his crew, the kitchen had gotten dead quiet as everyone had stopped doing what they were doing and were now staring at him with eyes wide open and their jaws hanging.
Zoro and Franky were letting their drinks spill to the floor, completely forgetting they were about to drink them. Robin and Brook both had their cups of tea frozen midway to their mouths. Usopp's jaw was almost on the floor with his eyes almost all white. Sanji, on top of that, looked utterly mortified, the cloth with which he had been cleaning some dishes falling to the floor and the opened faucet letting the water gush out. Chopper seemed the least shocked of them all, more confused than anything, but the others' reactions quickly rubbing on him.
Luffy blinked a few times but everybody remained unchanged. The only one not appearing dumbstruck was Nami, but that wasn't comforting either. He could not see her face because she was looking down, but her face seemed to be redder, her shoulders were up almost to her ears and she was shaking.
“What?”, tilting his head, Luffy finally asked them.
His words seemed to awaken everyone from their frozen state, but only barely, as they continued to look at him with the same expressions. The same dead silence was interrupted only by the faint clink of cutlery, chairs being adjusted in place and the tap water still running.
“What?”, Luffy insisted, confused and taken aback by this sudden change in the mood and lack of an answer, he pointed at Nami with his finger, “She stole it from–”
The rest of the sentence was obliterated from his mouth as his face was met with the sudden force of her fist that knocked him to the ground.
Whining and rubbing his swollen cheek Luffy yelled back at her, "Nami, what the hell!", but his attitude quickly changed when he looked up and saw her face.
Nami was now standing, her face indeed with a profuse dark red. Her expression that scary type of angry, but it had a different tint to it than other times, with a mix of embarrassment as if he had wronged her somehow. Her lips were quivering and if Luffy didn't know her better he'd think she looked like she was about to cry.
"You...", Nami spat out her words with a trembling voice, fists shaking at her sides. Her crimson eyes piercing, if Luffy had been standing up he would have taken more than a step back. "YOU'RE UNBELIEVABLE!!!", she cried out and walked out of the kitchen in that same furious state without looking back.
Luffy watched her leave and for a few seconds kept staring at the closed door after she had already left.
He stood up and rearranged his fallen chair to sit, “What is her problem-”, but he was knocked down to the ground again, this time by Sanji's kick.
“How dare you assault a lady like that?!”, Sanji kicked him again even though the captain was already down and then shook him a bit, “I’ll hold this against you, Luffy, you hear me?! You’re not eating anything tomorrow!”
The cook then switched to his lovey-dovey attitude, dropping him to the ground, and followed Nami's footsteps, "Nami-swan~, forget what that idiot did, I'll make a batch of chocolates just for you!~"
Usopp looked at Luffy down on the ground, whose eyes were swirling and had a big round bump on his head.
“I- I’m never snatching food from him ever again”, Usopp said and Franky and Zoro nodded their heads with him in agreement.
“Yeah, I’d rather starve”, Zoro added.
