Chapter Text
1. bed
Nami blinked up wearily at Luffy. It was the dead of night, and he was at her bedside.
“I can’t sleep,” he said, like it was her problem.
He could’ve been pouting, but it was too dark to tell. She shushed him. “Where’s Zoro?” It wasn’t his turn on the night watch. Luffy bunked with him when he didn’t want to sleep alone.
“Zoro’s too far away,” he said, quieter but whinier, more high–pitched. If Luffy wasn’t pouting before, he was now. “He doesn’t want to sleep!” She shushed him again.
The crow’s nest, then. No doubt busy with all of his weights. That meathead.
Nami glanced over at Robin. She was facing away from them, and still fast asleep… at least, she appeared to be.
“Fine,” Nami whispered, turning back to Luffy. She moved her blanket. “Stay on my side of the bed, alright?”
2. entwinement
The Straw Hats know their captain gives the best hugs. Luffy’s body temperature always runs warm, even on the coldest days, and his devil fruit power means that he can always wrap his arms perfectly around you, and then some.
The Straw Hats also know to end their captain’s hugs sooner rather than later, or he’ll never let go. It was easier said than done, however. That’s why, when Nami sees Zoro and Luffy in the same position she saw them in hours ago and snickers, all Zoro can do is grumble out a half–hearted, “Oh, shut it, witch.”
3. baritone
Zoro had an attractive voice, deep and rumbly. Luffy loved resting his head on Zoro’s chest and feeling it move when he talked. Though Zoro would never admit it, Luffy knew the swordsman loved it when he got clingy with him. It was a win–win situation for both of them.
Nami’s teasing did funny things to Zoro’s voice. It lowered in pitch when he sulked and raised when he complained. It was so cute. Zoro was rarely angry with him, but Luffy suspected that he’d be furious if Luffy ever told him that—even though it was the truth!
Sanji struck up a conversation with Zoro, and it became a fight almost instantaneously. Zoro’s chest shook with the effort it took to yell at their cook. Luffy couldn’t hold it in anymore—he burst out laughing. It felt funny! Zoro and Sanji dragged him into the fight soon afterwards.
4. sharing
Luffy is not a jealous lover. At least, not in the traditional sense. He doesn’t mind when Nami flirts with other guys, because it makes her happy (to rob them blind afterwards). Nami rarely uses her flirtatious tone on him or Zoro. When she does, it usually means that she’s mad at them, and they’re about to be in a lot of trouble.
Luffy is not a jealous lover. However, if he wants Nami’s attention, and she’s busy with literally anything else, he’ll interrupt whatever she’s doing to get it. Sometimes it works out for him: if Nami’s in a good mood, she’ll laugh it off and kiss him silly like he wants her to. Too bad it often doesn’t: if he makes her mad, she’ll never let him hear the end of it.
(Either way, he still gets her full attention.)
5. haggler
Haggling was an art, Zoro thought, and Nami had mastered it.
The sheer audacity she had to talk like that to the old lady running the antique booth at this marketplace astounded him. The lady, on her part, seemed to welcome the challenge. She and Nami both told him to stay out of it, young man/Zoro when he tried to step in.
He glanced over at Luffy, who was eating a meat skewer and not paying attention. Luffy was watching the crowds of people walking past them instead. He noticed Zoro looking at him, and held his skewer up. “Want some?” Zoro accepted.
Finally, Nami sealed the deal. “It was a pleasure doing business with you! Do come again!” the lady said, and it sounded like she meant it. Nami thanked her, accepted her bagged purchases, and… didn’t hand them off to him, for once. Huh.
Nami smiled when she noticed his outstretched arm. “Aw, Zoro! So you can be a gentleman sometimes!” He blushed, and she laughed.
She held his hand instead.
6. absently
It was sunny without a cloud in the sky, hot but not scorching, and pleasantly windy. Nami usually worked on important things in the library, but today she and her reading glasses and a stack of papers and notebooks were out on the lawn. Sitting across from her, napping, was Zoro. Luffy bounded over to them.
“Nami!”
“Yes, Luffy?” she asked, not looking up.
He pointed at the fruit parfait that Sanji had brought out for her. “Can I have the rest of your dessert?” (It was untouched.)
“Whatever you want, Luffy,” she said. He needed no more encouragement.
Luffy observed Nami as he ate. She was writing lists of figures down, and muttering things under her breath. She still hasn’t looked up.
After he finished eating, he walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. No reaction. He kissed her cheek. She smiled, but kept writing.
“Nami?”
“Yes, Luffy?”
“Can I have a piece of treasure—ow!”
“Nice try, Luffy.”
7. change [OPLA]
Loguetown, the beginning and the end. The Straw Hats had gone their separate ways upon setting anchor: Luffy to see the late pirate king’s execution platform, Zoro to buy new swords, Usopp and Sanji to resupply and stock up on anything they needed to sail the Grand Line. She was at a high–end boutique, trying on clothes.
Nami looked good in everything she wore, and she didn’t need the salesclerk’s incessant praise to know that. She wondered, however, what it would take for Luffy to stop saying that she looked like herself when she asked for his opinion on an outfit. He always meant it as a compliment, and she figured it was in his weird Luffy logic, but it had taken her a while to realize that. As for Zoro, and his claim on the color black… well, she wouldn’t mind seeing him in something like this strappy velvet dress.
After several outfit changes, and to the salesclerk’s chagrin, Nami decided not to buy anything. She didn’t need to. Kaya had given her lots of beautiful clothing as thanks.
8. honorable
Once they had officially left Alabastan waters, Nami approached him. She sat down where he was polishing the Wado Ichimonji.
“You didn’t peep into the women’s bath, Zoro.”
He stopped what he was doing and looked at her. How the hell did she expect him to respond to that?
“Sanji–kun did, obviously,” she continued, and Zoro felt a white–hot bolt of anger flash through him. “Chopper too, and he had no idea what he was getting himself into.”
“Yeah, well. We can’t all be perverts like our resident cook.”
“No, I suppose not.” She shrugged. “That’s too bad. You could’ve seen something incredible, you know.”
Zoro felt his face heat up. He stared at Nami, wide–eyed. Just what was she implying?
“And me?” she said, standing up again. “I could’ve made even more beri. LUFFY!”
“Yeah?”
“It’s time to pay up! You’re the only one who hasn’t yet.”
“Huh?! What’d I do?!”
9. roomful
When they built the Thousand Sunny, Franky and the Galley–La Company shipwrights included a room meant for the captain’s quarters. Luffy refused to sleep in it, though, because he never wanted to be alone. The Straw Hats ended up using the room for storage, and Luffy continued to bunk with everyone else in the men’s quarters.
Two long years and some furniture rearrangement later, Nami found herself in that very room, flanked by Luffy and Zoro. Luffy was clingy as usual, his arms wrapped around and around the other two. Nami often found it annoying during the day. At night, however, with the Grand Line’s unstable (and sometimes ice cold!) weather patterns, she didn’t mind so much.
Zoro had surprised her with how touchy–feely he got when they were alone. In hindsight, she shouldn’t have been; of their crewmates, he tolerated Luffy climbing all over him the most. That night, he slept with an arm around her waist and his face nestled in the crook of her neck.
Nami kissed Zoro’s cheek, then pushed Luffy’s drooling face away from hers before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep again.
10. revel
If he cared to define it, Zoro would call himself an introvert. He’s happy with a drink or three in hand, sitting on the sidelines and watching his crewmates and their allies celebrate the end of every major battle. It wasn’t a bad thing, really. It was a trait that he shared with Robin, one that helped him lower his guard around the woman and start trusting her.
Luffy and Nami were capital E extroverts, and the life of every party with their twin smiles. How could he refuse, when they shone those smiles at him and cajoled him to join the festivities? He couldn’t say that he particularly minded, either, when they slipped away from everyone else to join him in a more secluded area.