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A summer island on the Grand Line. One of its milder evenings.
After their captain disappeared in the direction of food, the rest of the Strawhat crew decided to spread about the village themselves. A short chance to unwind before they had to return to the ship. The sun had already set, and Zoro and Nami found themselves at the same bar, with the same notion of throwing back a few drinks. A flight of spirits seemed like a good idea to both of them as they settled in a booth at the outdoor terrace. Sanji likewise made his way to the pub, but with a very different goal in mind.
“Stupid cook,” Zoro spat. “I wish he’d get a grip and realize he has no chance.”
“Maybe he would,” Nami agreed, albeit largely disinterested in discussing their crewmate’s would-be romantic endeavors, “if not for all the girls throwing themselves at your feet everywhere we go.”
Zoro looked at her then. “What are you talking about?”
She matched his gaze. “You’re kidding, right?”
Zoro shrugged but didn’t say anything.
“Haven’t you noticed every island we drop anchor, it seems the women all take one look at you and your buff swordsman physique and drop like flies.”
He raised his eyebrows with humor. “Buff swordsman physique?” he mocked.
“Shut up. You know what I mean.”
He shifted in his seat, angling himself towards his companion. “Actually I don’t,” he said. His tone was laced with mischief, but it occurred to Nami that Zoro might actually not know what she was talking about. “Enlighten me.”
Nami rolled her eyes, but indulged him. “Well for starters, I wasn’t lying about the physique. You’re kinda…” she took a shot of liquor; she’d need it for this. “You’re kinda built.”
His reaction was subtle, urging her to continue with a questioning raise of his eyebrows.
“I mean, c’mon, look at you! There’s not an inch of you that isn’t toned muscle.”
Zoro shrugged as if that much was obvious. “So?”
“So,” she drawled, “apparently girls like that kind of thing. It’s like catnip to them.”
Zoro hummed in response. It was news to him, but he seemed to accept it.
“And they haven’t even seen you without a shirt,” Nami murmured to herself against her glass as she proceeded to take a drink.
Zoro peered at her over his own glass but she was decidedly not looking at him. He nodded to himself, processing this. “So that’s how you see me, huh?”
Nami shrugged with nonchalance. “I’m just calling it as I see it. Not like it makes any difference to me.”
Zoro grinned, looking away from her. “If it gives me an edge over that friggin’ cook, I’ll take it.” He huffed then, grabbing another shot for himself off the flight tray.
“Why are you so threatened by him?” Nami asked; she’d been wondering for a while but now seemed as good a time to ask him as any.
“I’m not.” His reply was maybe a little more stern than he had intended.
“Clearly.” The look she gave told him she knew better. “You really don’t have any reason to be. Sanji, on the other hand…” She nodded her head forward in a gesture toward the inside of the pub where they knew Sanji was somewhere.
Zoro peered at her.
“Seems like it hasn’t occurred to you that you could have any girl you want,” Nami continued. “Why do you think Sanji gets so pissed at you when there are women around?”
Zoro sat back in his chair. He opened his mouth to say something but then decided against it.
“He and I don’t exactly see eye-to-eye,” Zoro responded. “Like in general.”
Nami shrugged. She’d give him that.
“Seems like a waste of time,” he said bitterly. “Chasing the skirt of every woman he sees.“
Nami nodded but her gaze traveled absently. “As someone who’s been on the receiving end of his advances,” she said with a dispassionate tone, “Sanji is…a lot, at times…”
“Putting it lightly.”
“But,” she added, “that’s only because he feels so much. I guess if you have that much love in your heart you have to find an outlet, right?”
Zoro relented with a grumble. It wasn’t that he agreed, per se, but he had no counter argument either so he let it go. Whatever personal beef he had against their cook was his and his alone; he wouldn’t drag Nami into it.
“Right,” Zoro muttered, deadpan. “Congratulations, by the way,” he said sarcastically, “let me know when the wedding is.”
She scoffed at him, rolling her eyes. “Please spare me the jokes,” she waved him off. “I get enough of that from Sanji already.”
Zoro looked satisfied with himself.
“Love,” he muttered to himself like it was bitter in his mouth. “What is it about love that gets idiots like him all worked up?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Nami said. She pressed her lips together. “Not a lot of time for romance when you’re focused on survival all your life.”
“Fair enough,” he conceded.
She watched him as he took another shot.
“Stop looking at me like that," he said dryly.
“Like what?”
“Like if you stare long enough I’ll open up and spill some secret about a lost love or some other dumb crap.”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.” He sighed. “But I think you already know the answer. Not that it matters.”
Nami perked up. “I—I’m sorry…did you just admit that I’m right?”
Zoro rolled his eyes.
“Roronoa Zoro, famed bounty hunter of the East Blue, first mate of the Strawhat Pirates…just admitted I’m right about something. Where’s Usopp? I need to borrow his sound dial.”
“I hate you.”
She laughed then.
“How do people even know they’re in love?” he thought aloud. “I don’t think I’d recognize the feeling.”
Nami hummed, taking another draw from her glass.
His eyes flicked to her. “You?”
She shrugged. “I’ve never given it much thought,” she replied, which might have only been a half-truth. “Do you ever wonder what it would take?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like…what someone would have to mean to you in order to…I don’t know, fall for them?”
“I don’t like falling.”
She matched his gaze. “That makes two of us.”
Zoro grinned.
Nami smiled back, reached for a shot and raised it in a toast. “Here’s to…not being in love.”
He snatched the final shot from the flight and inclined it to hers. “I’ll drink to that.”
Nami’s gaze lingered on Zoro just a beat after he downed his liquor. She hastened to follow suit, tossing her head back as he was exhaling with the burn it left on his tongue.
“Round two?” Zoro suggested, standing to retrieve a second flight of shots.
Nami grinned, reclining into her seat. “Now that’s a way to get a girl’s attention.”
Zoro grinned in response before walking away.
Nami watched him leave, her gaze set on his back for the briefest of moments before he pushed through the room to the bar. She allowed herself a breath as she gazed around the room. Sanji was somewhere inside, no doubt wooing (or attempting to woo) whatever lady had struck his fancy.
The drinks couldn’t come fast enough. Couldn’t Zoro hurry up? If he didn’t, Sanji might suddenly reappear with two cocktails in hand and offer her one…she’d turn him down, of course, but the drink she’d happily accept.
Nami stood up. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe she wanted to stretch her legs.
She spotted Zoro at the bar as a woman was approaching him. She couldn’t hear what was said, but Zoro cast an apathetic glance to the side that she happened to catch.
Nami raised her eyebrows in amusement, sticking her tongue in her cheek as if to say I told you so.
Across the room, Zoro frowned. Nami laughed.
A moment later (enough for Zoro to be annoyed), she watched Zoro excuse himself with the tray full of shots they intended to share until he made his way back to Nami at the booth.
“Don’t even say a word,” he warned.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Bullsh—“
She giggled. “Okay, maybe I was. Looks like Sanji isn’t the only Casanova on the crew. What did I tell you?”
“Do not compare me to him.”
Nami laughed. She couldn’t help it.
“I’m serious,” Zoro insisted. When she kept laughing, he found he couldn’t watch her without smiling too. “Nami, I mean it. Cut it out.”
Despite everything, he couldn’t rid himself of the grin as she continued in stitches. He allowed himself to chuckle…it was admittedly a little funny. Or maybe it was just that she found it so funny that tickled him. Zoro shook his head with a breathy laugh.
“Witch.” He rolled his shoulders and picked up a shot. “Shut up and drink.”
As her laughing fit subsided, she did as he said and picked up a shot.
“Last one standing pays the tab,” Zoro teased.
“I hope you have enough beri,” Nami quipped back. “Or maybe the woman at the bar could spot you?” A new wave of giggles threatened to break.
“I doubt that,” Zoro said. “To get away from her I told her my girlfriend was waiting for me to bring our drinks.”
Zoro took his shot then.
Nami held hers in her hand, frozen mid-toss and refused to go any further. She’d been on the verge of laughter a moment prior, now she felt sober all of a sudden. “What?”
Zoro shrugged. “I thought if I told her I had a girlfriend she’d leave me alone. I guess I was right.”
For some reason, Nami couldn’t find the words. Any words, for that matter. Like she was struck mute. Before Zoro could notice, she threw her shot back, wiping at her mouth as she reached for another on impulse.
There was no way she was buzzed already, unless someone had tampered with the drinks. But Zoro seemed fine, so that was out of the question. Why did she feel so warm all of a sudden?
“Nami,” he said as she fanned her neck. “What’s wrong?”
She forced a smile. “Nothing,” she said brightly.
His brows furrowed in concern. “You look flushed, are you sure you’re not—"
“Back off, Zoro,” she snapped. “I’m fine.”
He did, grabbing another shot and sliding one to her. “Then drink up. Unless…you forfeit?”
Her smile turned wicked. “I never forfeit.”
They both downed their second flight with not much to say besides the usual banter. A third round was next, then a fourth, and a fifth. The night ended with them both collapsed and half-falling out of their chairs.
When they eventually woke, somebody would have to pay the tab but neither of them would admit to falling first.
Last one standing, first to fall…at the end of the day it was impossible to tell which was which.