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A light breeze travels through the March air, creating a day with favorable weather conditions for the cook of the Straw Hat’s birthday. Although the crew would celebrate tonight with a big dinner banquet, music, and games aboard the Thousand Sunny, Nami has made plans to spend the majority of her husband’s birthday with him in order to enjoy their precious time alone. Since they are docked in a beautiful seaside town, Nami bought the most delicious local fruits and chocolates in addition to preparing them a platter of sandwiches for the two of them to enjoy a perfect picnic lunch on a rooftop overlooking the ocean. To say Sanji is surprised and overjoyed at the immense thought and planning Nami put into surprising him with such a phenomenal picnic lunch for his birthday is an understatement. The cook is simply over the moon to spend such a romantic, intimate moment alone with his wife.
“This is the life. A beautiful view and my gorgeous woman by my side,” Sanji smiles, turning Nami to face him before he begins to pepper her face with kisses once they conclude their picnic lunch. “What more could a man need?” he happily sighs, tugging Nami down by the wrists to lay the navigator flat on her back while he presses his hands into the picnic blanket on either side of his wife, his body covering the entirety of Nami’s form with his shadow.
“That’s why I wanted this birthday to be special for you, Sanji,” Nami states, scooting back a distance before sitting back up where she can see the entirety of Sanji’s face. “Especially since this will be the last of your birthdays we’ll spend with just the two of us,” she whispers, a beaming smile making its way onto the navigator’s red lips.
A small beat of silence passes.
“Well, yes, we’ll always have the crew present to celebrate my birthday with me, but we can keep sneaking off like this for a more private celebration, too, Nami-swan,” Sanji reminds, grasping Nami’s hands in his own and pressing a gentle kiss to the inside of both her palms.
A small laugh shakes Nami’s shoulders with a small smile joining her face to match.
“Sanji, this is the last birthday we’ll spend together as a family of two,” she tries again, her brown eyes locking onto his blue ones, hoping that the cook will understand her message this time around.
“What are you--- Nami?” Sanji inquires, trailing off with a look of confusion on his face.
“I’m pregnant, Sanji,” Nami simply announces, a smile so wide overtaking her lips that Nami feels as if her face is on fire with how much heat flushes to her cheeks at revealing her biggest secret to her husband and the love of her life.
All the color immediately drains from Sanji’s face and he hurriedly stands up, putting some distance between himself and Nami.
“You’re--- You’re---” the blonde cook stutters, his blue eyes blinking randomly as he fidgets his hands.
“Pregnant. With your child, Sanji,” Nami giggles, thinking that Sanji’s brain has simply short-circuited at the thought of her being pregnant and the fact that he would become a father in a few months’ time.
If Sanji’s brain can short-circuit any time Nami touches him in a certain way or when the two of them bathe together before making love, then the navigator definitely could see this news frying his brain as well. After all, it has only been two and a half, nearly three, short months since their marriage in mid-December.
“How--- How did this happen?” Sanji inquires next, his tongue feeling as if it weighs ten thousand pounds or as if it has been cut from his mouth altogether.
He has been struck numb by Nami many times in the past, but nothing has ever stunned him for as long as this particular declaration from the woman he loves more than life itself.
“Well, you have been rather spirited since our honeymoon almost three months ago and you haven’t wanted to use protection since our wedding, so it was only a matter of time,” Nami reminds, thinking back to how frequently Sanji has wanted to take her to bed since their wedding night. “I’m honestly surprised I didn’t fall pregnant sooner,” the navigator says with a small laugh, memories of all of their times together quickly coming to the forefront of her mind, the thoughts of these intimate times turning the tips of her ears a most brilliant shade of crimson.
“I…. I think I need a minute,” Sanji admits, jumping to his feet and backing away from Nami as his shaking hands pull out his golden lighter and a cigarette before he immediately begins smoking to calm his nerves.
“Sanji?” Nami queries, tears beginning to collect in her eyes as she stares up at Sanji from her position on their picnic blanket, the navigator being too shocked by the actions of her husband to even consider moving in this moment.
Sanji shakes his head softly, signaling to the navigator that he needs a moment to collect himself. Nami remains seated on the picnic blanket, the tears threatening to spill from her brown eyes as she looks up at the man she loves, not sure why he is reacting in this manner to the news she has been so incredibly happy to share with him. It had been quite the challenge for the navigator to wait and reveal such a surprise to Sanji on his birthday and not any time sooner after Nami first found out she was carrying Sanji’s child inside of her. However, she decided to wait until the cook’s birthday to make his birthday a day always worth celebrating for two reasons: to celebrate the birth of her favorite man in the entire world and to always rejoice that this is the day she told him he was to be a first-time father. And yet, now Nami is concerned as to why Sanji’s initial reaction is one of pure shock and the need to distance himself from his wife, whom he adores and devotes himself to with every fiber of his being.
A long beat of silence passes as Sanji takes a few drags on his cigarette before throwing it out. The cook then reaches his hands out for Nami, so many differing emotions swimming in his blue eyes. When he is able to speak, the volume of his voice is so low and is thick with emotion and trembles as he struggles to get out the words he intends.
“Nami, love, come here,” Sanji whispers, dragging the navigator to her feet and pulling her into him for a hug, resting his chin on top of her head as he squeezes her body between his strong arms.
“Are you not happy?” Nami asks, tilting her head upwards to lock eyes with her husband, tears still threatening to escape the confines of her chocolate brown eyes and onto the sleeves of the long-sleeved purple shirt Sanji is currently wearing, much like the one he wore in the early days of joining the Straw Hat crew.
“Darling, I’m scared,” Sanji whispers, collecting Nami in his arms and squeezing her tightly in a hug flush against his chest. “What do I know about being a good father? I--- I’m terrified I’ll end up just like him…You don’t deserve that in the slightest, Nami-swan,” the cook trails off, anguish and pain flooding his voice in that moment.
“Sanji!” Nami raises her voice, grabbing Sanji’s cheeks between her hands and anchoring his face to where he has no choice but to look directly at her. “How can you think you’d ever be like that monster? You are kind, strong, self-sacrificing, and a wonderful husband to me. Why do you think that you’d behave any differently as a father?” she reminds her husband, a strong sense of unyielding devotion and unwavering support as well as love pouring from her lips in earnest as Nami wraps her hands around Sanji’s neck and back, drawing him closer into her soft body.
“Because Judge tried so hard to ruin us, to ruin me, all for taking after my mother and having emotions,” Sanji reminds, swallowing thickly at the mention of the man who gave him half of his existence in this life while also instilling a permanent fear of confined spaces, of being abandoned, and feelings of worthlessness in the young man who wants nothing more than to be a top-class chef who will one day find the All Blue.
“I’m afraid I won’t know what it takes to be a good father, the kind of father our child deserves, Nami, love,” the cook admits, a long, tortured sigh escaping his lips in the process as his hands absentmindedly come to rest on Nami’s hips. “I’d rather die than be a bad father to our baby if it means they’d endure as much trauma as I did. I can’t and won’t be a reflection of my birth father, even if it means I have to die to ensure it,” Sanji vows, tucking his head into the crook of Nami’s neck, inhaling her natural scent of tangerines and day lilies, clinging to her touch and her scent like a lifeline.
“Zeff raised you into a great man,” Nami praises, squeezing Sanji’s hands in her own, tears collecting in her eyes as she holds the man she loves like he’s the only lifeline she has in the vast ocean, notably the Grand Line itself. “And the fact that you’re worried about all this so early into my pregnancy tells me that you’re going to be a wonderful, caring father. I have no doubts that you are the perfect man to be the father of my child, Sanji. I agreed to marry you because I trust you. I trust your strength, your intentions, and most of all, your heart. There’s no one I’d rather go through this journey with,” Nami explains to her husband, a bright smile overtaking her lips as she gazes lovingly at Sanji, adoration for the man he has grown into shining through her actions and in her soft gaze upon his face while one of her hands gently cards through his blond hair.
“There’s no one I’d trust more to be the mother of my child, Nami. Thank you for giving me the most unexpected birthday surprise that most men can only dream of,” Sanji whispers, dropping several kisses to the crown of Nami’s head. “I truly don’t deserve you.”
Sanji quickly drops to his knees in front of Nami, his arm outstretched a moment later, suspended in the air before the woman he loves.
“May I?” he asks, tilting his head in the direction of Nami’s still-flat stomach.
“Of course you may,” Nami agrees, grasping one of Sanji’s larger hands in her own and gently guiding it to rest on her stomach, the tiniest start of a baby bump beginning to form due to some preliminary bloating now that she is nearly eight weeks along in her pregnancy.
“Wow,” Sanji whispers, his voice barely audible as he fans his fingertips out, splaying his hand protectively over Nami’s belly, raising the hem of her signature blue and white T-shirt in the process where the warmth of his hand can transfer to Nami’s smooth skin. “Hard to believe there’s an entire baby in there,” he continues his reverence, his appreciation for Nami’s body growing even more than he ever thought possible as he begins to imagine just how stunningly beautiful she’ll look one day in the near future as the navigator’s belly will continue to grow with her pregnancy to match the growth of their developing baby.
“Not just any baby. Our baby at that,” Nami smiles down at Sanji, placing her hand over the top of Sanji’s.
“We’re having a baby,” Sanji quietly says, kissing Nami soundly on the lips.
“We are,” Nami grins widely, the excitement fully present on her face now that she knows Sanji is completely on board with the entire development.
They hadn’t specifically discussed when they wanted to add children to their little family of two, but Sanji knew that Nami wanted to have her own children to love in the way that Bell-mère had loved her and Nojiko. It may have happened quite a bit quicker than either of them had planned, but now neither of them could imagine it happening any other way.
“We’re having a baby, Nami!” Sanji shouts, scooping Nami up into his arms and spinning her around, the happiest laugh Nami has ever heard coming from his lips as they spin on the rooftop, picnic lunch completely forgotten. “I’m going to be a father!”
“You’ll be an amazing father, my love,” Nami says with all the confidence in the world, her hands coiling around Sanji’s neck as he settles her against him to where Nami’s thighs are wrapped securely around Sanji’s hips while the cook presses their bodies flush together.
“And you’ll be the best mother in the entire world, darling,” Sanji echoes the sentiment, no doubt existing in his mind of this fact.
“Could we keep this a secret between us for the time being? I like the idea of us living in our own private bubble of happiness for a few weeks before I start to show.”
“But of course, Nami, dear. Whatever you’d like.”
“Are you having an enjoyable birthday so far?”
“You sure do have your work cut out for you, darling. It will be hard to ever top this birthday’s unexpected surprise.”