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“Hey, Nami.”
Luffy looked at her curiously. She raised an eyebrow before lowering her newspaper. It was early afternoon and they were in the dining room. The Strawhats had just finished lunch before dispersing to their various occupations. Luffy remained seated at the table, right across from her. It was unusual. Normally, he would go fishing with Usopp on sunny days like these.
“What?” She asked.
She grabbed the steaming cup of coffee in front of her before bringing it to her lips. She could hear Sanji washing dishes in the background. Luffy made a strange face. Almost as if he was thinking really hard about something but couldn’t figure it out. His nose was scrunched up and his brows were furrowed. He pursed his lips, before holding his chin with his hand, visibly in deep thought.
She sighed. He was probably just bored. They had been sailing for two weeks without stopping. Luckily for them, the New World had been surprisingly tolerant of their presence, allowing them to rest without major trouble.
She put her cup back down.
“What is your name?”
“What?”
Luffy peered into her eyes. She searched his face for clues, but there were none.
“What is your name?” He repeated.
“My name?” She hesitated, confused. “What are you talking about, Luffy?”
She laughed nervously. Was he having a stroke? Maybe she should ask Chopper to check. Luffy didn’t reply. Instead, he kept looking at her with all the seriousness his expression could tolerate. He was waiting for her.
“Luffy, are you okay?”
She extended her hand across the table, and pressed her palm to his forehead.
“Are you sick? Do you have a fever?”
The rubber man shook his head, letting his hat fall to his back. She let her hand fall back to her side.
“I am okay. I just want to know your name!” He exclaimed.
“You know my name, idiot!” She replied, getting increasingly irritated. “It’s Nami!”
The captain pouted.
“I know that!”
He crossed his arms over his chest.
“I mean your other name!”
Nami sighed once more.
“What other name?” She asked.
She really had no idea where this was going.
“Your other name! Like me.” He said.
He pressed his palm to his chest, as if pointing to himself.
“My name is Luffy. My other name is Monkey D.!”
Nami felt herself deflate.
“You mean my last name?”
“Yes!” He exclaimed. “Geez, Nami. You’re so stupid sometimes.”
Immediately, she jumped from her chair, eyes glaring at him and fist raised in the air. She smacked him in the head.
“Don’t call me stupid, you idiot! How was I supposed to know you meant last name?!”
He raised his hands to cover his head.
“Okay! Okay! Sorry!”
The navigator went back to her hair, not without sending him one last death stare. She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Why do you ask, anyway?”
He pouted, seemingly not convinced.
“Because I don’t know yours.” He asked. “Everybody has one.”
“Most people on this crew don’t have a last name, Luffy.” She replied.
She picked up her newspaper again, intending on cutting this conversation short, but the captain had other plans.
“They do. I have one. Zoro has one. Sanji, Robin and Chopper, too.”
He used his hand to count, while looking up at the ceiling.
“Yes, but Jinbe, Ussop, Brook and Franky don’t.”
Luffy shook his head once more.
“They do!” He said, while giving her a smile. “I asked them before! They just don’t use it!”
She was surprised she didn’t know this information. His smile widened in anticipation. She opened her mouth to answer, before closing it, the words dying on her tongue. At the same time, Sanji pulled up the chair next to Luffy.
“What are you talking about?” He asked while sitting down.
He turned his head toward his captain.
“I hope you’re not bothering my Nami-swan, you rubber idiot!”
Luffy grinned at him.
“I asked her what her last name was!” He said, all excited.
Sanji raised an eyebrow before turning his gaze toward the navigator.
“I have to say, Nami-swan.” He remarked while bringing a cigarette to his lips. “I am curious myself.”
Nami looked at both her captain and the chef with wide eyes. Her teeth sank into her lower lip. She fidgeted nervously on her seat.
“I, ugh, don’t have one.” She muttered.
Luffy immediately frowned.
“Why?”
“I just don’t have one.” She sighed.
“Everybody has one!” Luffy pressed.
Sanji took a long drag of smoke.
“Actually, no, Luffy. Many people don’t have last names.”
He turned toward the redhead with heart eyes.
“It doesn’t make you any less perfect my Nami-swan!” He chanted.
Nami didn’t reply. Instead, she let herself focus on the paper in her hands. Luffy fell surprisingly quiet. But the calm only lasted minutes before he grinned from ear to ear.
“Can I choose you one?” He asked.
He fidgeted on his chair, like an overexcited puppy. Nami gaped at him like he just told her he had grabbed the moon.
“You mean… Choose my last name?”
“Yeah!”
Sanji smacked him on the back of his head.
“That’s not how it works!”
The captain puffed out his cheeks.
“Why? I can do whatever I want!”
He looked at Nami before giving her one of his signature grins.
“You can be Nami Tangerine! Or wait, wait, Nami Weather! Or Nami Navigator!”
Nami facepalmed.
“That’s not how last names work, Luffy…”
Sanji sighed. Talking with Luffy was pointless.
“Why?” He whined again.
She took a deep breath. She felt an urge to hit him, but restrained herself. He wasn’t doing anything bad. Yet.
“Because last names usually refer to your origins. The family you belong to.” She explained.
She abandoned the prospects of finishing her paper, so she folded it neatly before setting it next to her forgotten cup of coffee.
“For example, you belong to the Monkey D. family. That’s why you’re Monkey D. Luffy. Sanji, too. He’s Vinsmoke Sanji because he comes from the Vinsmoke line.”
The cook cringed at the mention of his family name, but didn’t comment.
“I see.” Luffy said.
She sighed, relieved. He seemed convinced.
“So, what’s your family’s name?”
She deflated once more.
“I am an orphan. I don’t know them.”
“But you have your mom! Bell-, Bell-, uuugh…”
“It’s Bellmère, Luffy.” She growled.
“Yeah! Bellmère! What’s her last name?”
Nami admired her captain’s persistence when it didn’t involve her.
“She was an orphan, too. She didn’t have one.”
Luffy frowned again. He crossed his arms over his chest and sunk in his chair. Sanji crushed the butt of his cigarette on the ashtray nearby.
“Do you need anything, Nami-swan?” He asked before standing up.
She gave him a small smile.
“No, thank you, Sanji.”
The chef politely nodded before walking toward the door. His hand froze on the knob.
“I know! You can take my name!”
“What?!” She screeched.
Her voice came out higher than she wanted it to be. She felt heat rising to her cheeks.
“Yeah!” Luffy chuckled. “Monkey D. Nami! It sounds nice!”
The navigator burned crimson. Sanji, who had been standing next to the door stiff as a stick, snapped out of his stupor and retraced his steps.
“That’s not how it works, you idiot captain!” He roared, letting his foot come down on his head in a loud bang.
He then immediately started twirling around Nami like a hawk.
“If Nami-swan’s taking anyone’s name, it would be mine!” He chanted, completely forgetting about his own hatred for his family.
Luffy, whose head sunk lower than sea level after the assault, stood up and clashed heads with the blonde.
“No!” He protested, smoke coming out of his nose. “Nami’s taking my name!”
The woman in question hit them both in the head.
“I am not taking anybody’s name.” She said, relatively calmly, while the two men moaned on the floor.
When they straightened up, Luffy was disappointed.
“Why?”
“If I take your name, it means two things, Luffy.” She sighed. “Either, your grandpa, or your dad, adopted me. Or we’re mar-”
She stopped. She felt the heat crawling up her neck, while the words danced dangerously on her tongue.
“Or we’re what?” Luffy asked, leaning in from his seat with his elbows planted on the table.
Nami swallowed. What was up with her?! She wasn’t a shy person by any means! But the way, Luffy kept staring at her only made the situation more embarrassing.
“Ma-ma-married.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted every decision that led her to this conversation. She should have just agreed to Nami Tangerine or whatever it was.
“Okay.” He said, as calmly as nobody would have expected from this interaction.
“O-O-Okay, what?!” She stammered.
He shrugged his shoulders.
“Okay, we can do that.”
“Do what?!” Sanji yelled, strong enough to frighten a sleeping sea king.
Luffy smiled. He grabbed his hat from his back and planted it over his head.
“We can get married.”
Nami turned bright red. She felt steam coming out of her skin. Sanji paled, or turned into a stone statue, Luffy wasn’t sure.
“LUFFY!”
The captain tilted his head to the side, confused.
“What? You said that’s how you get my name!”
“You don’t marry someone because they need a last name!”
“Why?”
Nami covered her face with her hands and let out a frustrated cry.
“Because! You marry someone you love!”
“I know what marriage is. I am not stupid!”
She was going to smack him.
“Then we can’t get married!”
Sanji wiggled his toes in his shoe to make sure he could still move. Was he hallucinating?
“Why?” The captain protested. “I love you, and you love me. If we get married, you’ll get my last name!”
Nami opened her mouth.
Before closing it.
She opened it again.
Before closing it once more.
Sanji felt his soul try to escape his body. He got up, the chair scraping loudly against the wood, before exhaling.
“I need some air.”
Without another word, he left the kitchen.
“Why are you guys acting so weird?” Luffy asked with all the innocence of a child three apples tall.
She brought her fingers to her arm and pinched her skin as hard as she could. It hurt. She wasn’t dreaming.
“Luffy.” She said after taking a sharp inhale. “Couples get married. We’re not a couple. We don’t kiss. We don’t hug.”
“Do you want to do that? We can do that.”
With that, he puckered his lips and brought his face closer to hers. She pushed him away with her palm.
“No!” She yelled.
She got up, fists clenched at her sides.
“We’re not doing this! End of the discussion.”
He looked at her like meat day was cancelled.
“But Nami, why?!”
“Because I said so!”
She huffed, before stomping her way to the door. But before she reached the door, she heard her captain protest.
“Monkey D. Nami still sounds cool.”
She stopped while her hand remained on the door handle. For some reason, that annoyed her more than the ridiculous proposal did. Because she knew Luffy. He wasn’t saying it because he understood marriage. He wasn’t saying it because he was trying to make her blush. He was saying it because, in his mind, there was nothing strange about it.
She was Nami.
He was Luffy.
And everyone who belonged with him had a place beside him.
She sighed.
“You’re an idiot.”
Luffy grinned.
“Yeah.”
She shook her head, hiding the small smile tugging at her lips.
“An annoying one.”
“But a cool one?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Don’t push it.”
“So, you don’t like Monkey D. Nami?”
“Absolutely not.”
“What about Nami Tangerine?”
“Worse.”
“Nami Meat?”
“Luffy.”
“Okay, okay!”
Her footsteps echoed as she finally left the room.
Behind her, she could hear him mumbling.
“Still think Monkey D. Nami sounds cool…”