Chapter Text
Ho bisogno di te perché sei bella e poi
Ho bisogno di tutte quelle cose che mi fai
“Three days?”
“Three days.”
“Why not today? Or tomorrow?”
“They talked about bureaucratic times” Nami huffs, her arms crossed against her busty chest. She walks in front of him, swinging her generous hips barely covered by denim shorts with each step she takes.
Luffy swallows, trying not to focus on that precise part of her body: they're on the street, and the last thing he wants is to find himself with an embarrassing erection that he can't silence in any way, or at least not right away. It's all because of that stupid deal he made with Nami… no sex until the ceremony. It seemed easy on the surface, but now he can't stop thinking about it. Why did he accept?
What a fool.
“Bureauwhat?” he asks her, hoping this will help him temporarily forget what it's like to make love to her.
“Bureaucracy, Luffy. It’s what makes documents legal.”
“And do we really need it that much?”
“Yes” Nami spins around, her arms are now behind her back and she looks at him smiling as she walks backwards. “I really want everything to be done right. Don’t you want that?”
“I’m fine with anything! I'm fine even if we get married in front of a monkey” he exclaims, and his sentence makes her laugh.
Fuck, he loves her laugh.
Nami stops, waiting for Luffy to take the last, short steps that separate them before placing her hands on his muscular chest, barely covered by the red shirt that he always keeps unbuttoned. Luffy squeezes them, and then stays looking at the beautiful face of his fiancée, the way she smiles, happy and excited, her eyes fixed on their fingers that touch and barely intertwine. She raises her face, still shocked by the fact that her boyfriend has grown so much taller than her over the past year, so much so that she can no longer reach him despite wearing high heels. He is more than one meter and eighty tall…
“Do you think about it? In three days… we'll be married,” she murmurs with pink cheeks.
“Shishishi, that’s true! But I would have married you today too.”
“Me too, but we have to wait.” With frowning lips, Nami traces an invisible line on the skin of his sternum, looking at him sideways. “Do you know what I can't wait for?” Luffy shakes his head. “A kiss.”
Nami can't wait, and Luffy enjoys teasing her as he lowers himself to her face and brushes the tip of her nose with a light kiss that makes her huff with more impatience. He laughs, tilting his head. He looks at her bright eyes, her flushed cheeks, her pouty lips at his pranks. When this vision makes him impatient too, he closes the insignificant distance between their faces and kisses her. Nami throws her arms around his neck, savoring the sweet taste of honey that still lingers on his lips after she ate all those sweets from the pastry shop, shivering slightly when Luffy takes her by the waist and lifts her to reach the same height as him.
They are in the middle of the street, in the small square of the town that houses the town hall, and they are kissing with great enthusiasm while passers-by observe them between shock and amusement. And Nami and Luffy don't seem to notice, closed in their bubble: the noises become muffled, the rest of the world disappears. There's just the two of them, their breaths mixing and marking the slow rhythm of the kiss. Nami pulls his hair and knocks the straw hat down his back.
Luffy pulls away from her lips, eyes closed, and begins to fill her face with kisses. Nami laughs, and struggles as she tries to avoid his assault. He puts her back on the ground, laughing, but doesn't let her go until he's given her a last, short kiss on the mouth.
“Luffy! They're all looking at us" she mumbles, suddenly shy.
“What do you care? Pretend they aren't there."
“But that’s not the case!”
“Hey, you asked me to kiss you here…”
“Oh, so it’s all my fault? Luffy!” Nami acts shocked, but laughs, circling him and jumping onto his back to cling to him. Luffy supports her, his hands resting in the crease of her knees to keep her from falling. She steals his hat and puts it on her head, kissing his cheek. “Let’s go, my Captain.”
“At your orders!” he plays along, continuing his journey along the road. It doesn't take much effort and Nami is light as a feather, and then she likes to feel her so close to his body. It's only a problem because it might reawaken that erection there – yes, sex has become a real obsession for Luffy lately – but as long as he's walking he can handle it.
“So, now we have three days that we need to try to fill before the wedding,” she tells him, her mouth very close to his ear. “What do you want to do?”
“Oh, I have something on my mind! But you decided that we shouldn't fuck before-" he stops because of the slap Nami gives him.
“Luffy! Look they can hear you!”
"But I wasn't screaming!"
“You're… incredible,” she huffs, causing a slight shiver down his neck. She rests her chin on his shoulder, swinging her feet in her orange sandals. “What are you going to wear?”
“Huh? Why?”
“For the wedding.”
“What I have now is no good?”
Nami holds her breath, indignant. “No, no! You can’t wear these rags-“
“Hey! These aren’t rags!”
“But they’re old! When was the last time you bought a new dress?”
Luffy thinks about it, taking his time to find an answer, and this is more than enough for Nami.
“Well, then we found something to do in these three days!”
“Does it take three days to find new clothes? Nami! I don’t feel like it!”
“C'mon, Luffy! Make me happy!” she presses herself against him, rubbing her smooth cheek against his slightly stubbly one. “I would really like to see you in something…”
“What?”
“Something different.”
Luffy complains loudly, but nods. “Okay. I’ll buy something new.”
“Hurray!” she jumps like a child, which is strange given the position she is in. “Then we can go look for your new clothes right now.”
“Oh, no! If I really have to do it, then I want to choose my clothes myself" he walks faster now, laughing slyly, and thank goodness that Nami can't see him well. “As long as you buy something new, too.”
“Oh,” she murmurs, surprised. “So you don’t want me to help you?”
“I don’t want you to help me, and I don’t want you to see them before the ceremony.” He turns his head, finding his neck completely twisted in front of her face. “And you won't have to show me what you chose.”
“A surprise, then? I love it!” she exclaims, intrigued by the prospect of not knowing what they’ll wear until their wedding day. “I love it, I love it! But it doesn't have to be anything stupid... can you promise me?”
“Nami, I don’t promise you anything.”
“Luffy! I swear if you show up to our wedding in armor I’ll-oh!” she hisses, punching him in the shoulder. “Put me down, hurry up!”
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” he asks, and as soon as he puts her down, Nami grabs his hand and starts running, her long hair flying in the air, dragging him along with her.
They don't go very far. Nami stops in front of a shop window where many jewels are displayed. She breathes quickly from the short run, resting her hands on the glass as she continues to observe the precious objects on display. They're mostly necklaces and rings… lots of rings. Luffy bends down and takes a look at the display case too, pursing his lips: there are many pieces of gold, rubies and diamonds that shine more than usual, and they do so even if the stones are small, minuscule. It's bizarre to see how such small diamonds shine even brighter than the large ones they have often found and stolen over the years.
He turns to look at Nami and sees the sparkle of the precious stones reflected in her eyes, under the straw hat. He shouldn't be surprised: Nami is crazy about this stuff. Gold, pearls, diamonds... money. She loves the berries more than she loves him, Luffy is more than sure of it. But she's Nami, his Nami, and even though she's stingy and greedy, and even a little bit abusive, he loves her unconditionally.
“Do you like them?” he asks her, an affectionate smile easing his lips.
“They’re beautiful,” she admits, her eyes even taking on the shape of a diamond for a millisecond. “You know what I just remembered?”
“No.”
“When I was little, in Cocoyashi, I happened to attend weddings a few times,” she says, turning to him. “They weren't sumptuous weddings, they were simple, but full of love. And all the bride and groom, even the poorest, always had a pair of rings to exchange to seal their vows during the ceremony.”
“Ah, I know this story too!” he exclaims. “I remember Shanks talking about it a lot when I was little: he said that every woman, sooner or later, would want to have a ring on her finger.”
“Was Shanks ever married?” she asks, suddenly curious to know more about the Red-Haired Emperor.
“And what do I know.”
Nami snorts. These kinds of answers aren't much help to her. “Anyway, we're getting married in three days and we haven't once thought about rings! We should go inside and-“
“But you have a ring!” he corrects her.
She giggles, shaking her head. “No, I don't have it. It’s a nice way to remind me of his absence, thanks, Luffy. You’re very witty!”
“No, I swear! You have it! I must have put it here somewhere,” he mutters, shoving his hands in his pockets and wriggling like an eel in an attempt to retrieve something. From the front pockets he moves to the back ones, concentrated, with Nami looking at him between skeptic and doubtful. “Aha!” Luffy rejoices, taking his hand out of his pocket and placing it in front of her face. “See? Here it is!”
Nami widens her eyes. She raises her hands to grasp his and bring them closer, and is enchanted and shocked by the jewel that rests in his palm: it is a thin band of white gold on which three rows of small white diamonds have been set. It's simple, like a piece of jewelry, almost anonymous, but it's very bright. She touches it with her fingertip, almost trembling. She imagines how it would look on her finger and shivers with excitement. It’s hers. Luffy said this ring is her. It belongs to her.
“Where did you get it?” she mutters.
“Do you remember all of King Neptune’s treasure that I gave to Big Mom? I kept this to give to you, in case one day, you know…”
They are not just simple diamonds: they are sea diamonds. Even more precious, even more valuable. Even more beautiful.
“And you kept it in your pocket this whole time?”
Nami doesn't believe it: it's been more than a year and a half since they were on Fishman Island for the first time, and she had no idea that Luffy... was already thinking about her? Was he already in love with her a year and a half ago? So why did he wait until he became the Pirate King to confess it to her?
“I was waiting for the right moment,” he admits, uneasily. “I almost gave it to you at Laugh Tale, but then—“
Nami interrupts him with a kiss. She holds his face in her hands, sobbing softly with her lips pressed firmly against Luffy's, who hugs her softly and touches her bare shoulders. Again, they're kissing in the middle of the street and they don't seem to care.
“Thank you,” she whispers, caressing his lips with her breath.
He smiles, happy. “Do you like it?”
“I love it! It’s a beautiful ring, Luffy,” she kisses him again, smiling, and leaves him another before coming back down to earth. “Let’s go in now, though.”
“Why? You don’t need another ring-“
“Not for me, but for you!” she grabs his hand and drags him into the jewelry store.
Luffy looks around, casting scrutinizing glances at the windows of the various shops that are along the street. It's the first time he's been here, he's sure of it. The town on the island of Curano where they have been living for just over a week is small, but they haven’t explored it all yet and so there are still some places that are new to them.
He already knows all the stalls that sell food and all the restaurants, of course. He has already tasted everything and done it with real taste, and he is doing it even now when he is trying to understand which of the many he encounters on the street is a shop that sells clothing for men: in his hands he has a bag full of pretzels that he pops into his mouth as if they were popcorn and leaves a film of salt around his lips. Good thing he's alone, or Nami would scold him in no time for his yokel ways.
Two days have already passed since their pact and they are both looking for the perfect dresses for the wedding... which is tomorrow. Luffy still hasn't found anything he really likes, and he feels like he's in a bit of a mess. He knows that Nami has already found and bought something because the day before she returned to the little house where they live and brought a large, well-wrapped square box into her room. He doesn't know what's inside, but he knows it's for the wedding. He feels like she's trying much harder than him, which is weird because he was the one who came up with this idea.
He absolutely must find something, and quickly.
He crumples the empty bag in his hands, grumbling in disappointment because he has finished his snack and now has to fill his time by eating something else, and the street where he is doesn't seem to have any stalls, candy shops or other food to buy. There are shops selling shoes, bags, skin and hair care products, and… isn't that a pirate shop?
He runs in front of the shop, stopping in front of a mannequin dressed as a Captain, complete with tricorne hat, shoulder pads on the cloak and a sword tucked into his belt. It reminds him a bit of the photos of Gol D. Roger, the mannequin seems to be dressed exactly like him. This mannequin here doesn't have his mustache though. Even the brown boots look like his.
“Whoa!” Luffy exclaims voicelessly, ecstatic. This is a shop that he finally likes! He reaches out to touch the sword.
“It's fake, I'm already warning you” a middle-aged lady emerges from behind the mannequin, a little stocky and quite fat, but with a kind and beautiful face. “Everyone who comes here wants to know if it’s real. Do I seem like the kind of person who keeps a real sword within everyone's reach?”
“No,” he replies quickly. “I don’t even like swords.”
“Really? Then you’re part of the minority” the lady smiles at him, she seems to have already taken a liking to him. “Do you like these clothes?”
“They're amazing! They remind me of the Pirate King!”
“The old one or the new one?” she asks in addition. “There are two now, I don't know which one you're talking about.”
“The old one,” Luffy sneers. He almost forgot: he’s the new Pirate King the lady asked about! And then he gets gloomy. How could he have forgotten about it already? He doesn't look good if people notice.
“Oh, Roger!” she winks, proudly eyeing the mannequin dressed as a pirate. She lightly dusts his shoulder pad and golden toggles with her hands. “Roger did really great things, it’s a shame he was executed so prematurely. He could have surprised us again.” She sighs. “Well, thank goodness the new King seems to be on the same wavelenght as him.”
“Seriously?” says Luffy, and it seems strange to him that a stranger talks about him with him and with so much confidence as if he wasn't present, right there in front of her. Unless…
She doesn't know that he is the Pirate King. But how!? She didn't recognize him?
“Have you read the newspapers of the last few months? That boy has two square balls! He defeated a World King no one knew existed, took on two of the four Emperors, and overthrew the World Government! He was phenomenal, and he has all my respect just for getting those scum of Celestial Dragon out of our way.”
Luffy smiles, a toothy grin that fills his entire face. He was the one who did all these things, and the lady seems delighted about it. This makes him really, really proud. “Yeah, he looks like a badass!” he exclaims, deciding to keep his identity to himself… for a little while longer. He finds it very funny.
“You used the right word, my dear!” she chuckles. “Are you a fan of pirates too?”
“I am a pirate.” I am the Pirate King.
“Really? I don’t remember ever seeing your bounty—oh, bounties are becoming a real problem for me, you know… old age.”
“But you’re not old! You’re very beautiful.”
“You are very kind, darling,” the lady blushes like a little girl. “Ahem! So, tell me… your current bounty?”
Five billion berries. “Thirty million.”
“Ah, you’re a rookie! But thirty million is not a small amount, well done!" she encourages him. “Here, do you want to take a tour of my little shop? Since you're a pirate, maybe you'll find something you like.”
“That's right!” Luffy begins to scratch his head, pouting his lips. “I really need something new… something elegant, but not too much,” he corrects himself, remembering the clause Nami suggested. “Do you have any clothes like this?”
“Elegant, but not too much? Mh, I should have something, yeah. You're so slim and muscular, I think they'll look very good on you too” the lady precedes him, marching towards the back of the shop. “Is it for a particular occasion?”
“I'm getting married tomorrow-“
“You’re getting married!” she screams, placing a hand over her heart as she looks at him with bulging eyes. It’s like Luffy when he uses Gear Fifth, identical. “So young! And what is she like?”
“She?” Luffy realizes that she is referring to his future bride, Nami. Bride… and from tomorrow, wife. He smiles, happily. “Bellissima.”
He is lying on the roof of the little house, under the sun, his face covered by the good old straw hat. He's been holed up there for two hours because Nami kicked him out of the house in a rude way, even though he didn't do anything wrong: she was starting to get ready for the ceremony and had the sudden need to remind him that it would be better for them not to see each other for a while. She said it's a tradition. Luffy doesn't remember ever hearing such a thing, but he could reply little because she pushed him away from the room they share, sending him straight up the stairs.
“I have to take a bath! You can’t look at me!” she screamed at him.
“But I’ve already seen you!” he said, shocked by the door being slammed in his face.
He really doesn't understand all these traditions.
So, with Nami locked in the room getting ready for her big day, he had no choice but to find a place to wait patiently for her to come out. He should have gotten ready too, it was his big day too, after all… but Nami has taken up the only bathroom in the house, the one that connects to the bedroom, and so he has to wait his turn to wash. He has to, or Nami would never speak to him again. She cares a lot about these things, even if he hates bathing.
And he really doesn't want to see her turn into a demon on their wedding day.
He sat on the reddish tiles of the roof and looked at the shape of the clouds for a while, looking for the ones with the strangest and funniest shapes, but he saw that when he's not in the company of his friends it's just boring to the bone. He then lay down, crossed his arms behind his head and began to do something that he never does, or almost never does: he began to think.
Just a few more hours and I'll be a married man. That's what he thought.
Luffy never cared much about marriage, romantic relationships, or feelings… he had been indifferent to it for most of his life, until, as often happens to men who are ignorant of this sphere of life for most of their existence, he met someone who made his heart leap within him and made him all too aware of its presence. Or absence.
Luffy understood that he had started to feel something for his Navigator when they were far away: she was on an island in the sky, even if he didn't know it yet at the time, while he was on Rusukaina, the uninhabited island near Amazon Lily. During that time of separation he had often wondered if Nami was okay, if she had received his message and if she had understood the real reason behind his choice to wait two years before their reunion, and it was not these thoughts that made him aware of his love for her: he thought the same thing of all his companions, and was really very worried about them all. No.
The central thought, the fateful one, had been another.
When Boa Hancock secretly landed on the island, one night when Rayleigh had left him sleeping alone in the clearing where he trained, she woke him up with a sudden and irritating manner, and with her usual nervous giggle, like a silly child, that she had every time the two of them found themselves alone in the same room. She started asking him question after question, she asked him several times if he would marry her sooner or later, and then all she did was touch him fleetingly and pull away as if his skin had given her a shock, and Luffy wished with all his being, irritated, that she would go straight back to where she came from[1].
Why is she acting like a crazy person!?, she thought as she wriggled out of his octopus-like grip. Why does he have to make so much noise! Nami would never do that…
Nami.
It had been this.
Comparing Boa Hancock, the brunette Shichibukay unanimously elected the most beautiful woman in the world, to his lively Navigator with bright orange hair was the first spark that made him jump and gave him a worthy crush.
Why did I compare Nami to Hammock?, was the second thing he thought: the second spark, the second skid.
With Hancock out of the way, sent back to her stupid all-female kingdom by a rotten enraged Rayleigh, Luffy has had nearly two years to fully process the scope of this new revelation: he gutted it, turned it over, twisted it, pulled it apart and put it back together, and when the appointed day came, the day to return to the Thousand Sunny, he knew the answer deep down. He knew it, he guarded it jealously, and a tiny part of him couldn't wait to confess it. But he remained stuck, frightened by a thought, by something he never thought could come to life in his head.
It happened when he saw her again for the first time after those two long years: Nami was already on the ship and was, if possible, even more beautiful than he remembered her. She seemed taller and slimmer, her hair was a fluffy orange cascade down her back and she was fuller, more curvy, in the curves of her body. She had left the cute and easy girl behind and had become a woman, a beautiful woman, and he instead...
Did he really deserve the love of such a beautiful woman?
The blind fear of not being able to even remotely have the possibility of being loved by Nami in the same way he loved her made him desist from confessing what he felt to her. He swallowed his lump in his throat, digested his bitterness, and threw himself completely into resuming his sea voyage to the end of the Grand Line, until he reached Lodestar and then, finally, Laugh Tale.
It was then, after he became the Pirate King and after having ignored so much, buried so much, what he could no longer ignore and keep buried in his heart that he told her.
Sitting on the Rio Poneglyph that contained, carved for centuries and centuries, the history of the world, with next to him the girl who had bewitched his soul and body and who, almost as a sign of destiny, that day was wearing the same colors as him: a red bikini, little blue jeans.
The orange light of the sunset fading into purple made them both the same color, as Luffy took courage and opened his heart, revealing that he had fallen in love with her. He was still afraid, but he tried not to show her how much he truly feared her answer. He was afraid that she might tell him no, that she only saw him as a friend, or only as her Captain, and that…
But Nami, with a small, quick gesture, had silenced the noisy questions in his head. She had hugged him and kissed him, and as soon as their lips touched Luffy knew he had been stupid for waiting so long. He was afraid, and of what? Of knowing that she felt exactly the same? It’s not something to be afraid of, is it? Wasn’t that exactly what he was hoping for? Knowing that Nami wanted him, she longed for him.
She loved him…
“You too?” he asked shyly after she ended the kiss.
Nami looked at him with a new light in her eyes, a light that he imagined was present in his too. “Me too.”
He smiled, half laughing at what had just happened, and then he kissed her and with an impetus that almost made her scream with surprise at his gestures he made her lie down on the hard, cold surface of the giant stone. They almost risked making love for the first time there, on that giant stone, in front of the amused eyes of the whole crew who observed them from afar and who gloated with joy, satisfaction and longed-for liberation, for having waited for that moment for so long.
And while he kissed Nami, in front of the sunset fading into the evening, holding that wonderful creature close to him who reciprocated his feelings, Luffy decided that he wouldn't be satisfied with just this: he would want more, much more. All those things that couples in love do, living together, getting married, having children... he wanted this, and much more. He wanted everything that life could offer him, while he lived.
Just a few more hours and I'll be a married man, he thinks again. Luffy smiles under his straw hat.
He can't wait to be married.
“Luffy? Luffy!”
Nami has to scream and repeat his name several times, huffing in disappointment when she realizes that Luffy is not home. Where could he go? she thinks, a little annoyed. Then she remembers that she sent him away, earlier, when she went upstairs to take a bath and found him lying on the bed, bored, upside down.
She shouldn't be so angry if he did what she asked him to do, right?
She snorts again, pulling the huge towel she wrapped herself in after the shower even tighter around her. “Luffy!” she shouts louder, worried this time. He can't have gone very far, not today. Not on their wedding day. The wedding... damn it, she's about to marry him! Her legs shake as she thinks about it, and her lips tighten in an excited, embarrassed smile. She caresses them, nervously.
With his neck protruding several meters from the roof he is still lying on, Luffy watches her from the window and thinks about how nice it will be to kiss her after he marries her. He hasn't kissed her since the night before. She even took away his kisses, that crazy girl...
“Nami? Can I come back?”
His voice makes her jump and almost lose her grip on the towel. With a shriek, Nami runs out of the room to hide on the small landing, next to the stairs leading downstairs. “Don’t look at me!”
“But it's the second time I've seen you!”
"I don't care!" she laughs at the absurdity of the situation, she realizes it, but now she's in the game, and why stop playing now? “The bathroom is available if you need it. I’ll… finish getting ready downstairs, okay?”
“Okay,” Luffy rushes back into the room, trying to peek at her, but all he sees is a flash of orange running away down the stairs. “Shall I come down when I'm finished?”
“Yes, but let me know first!”
She hears water running through the pipes and this tells her that Luffy has started washing himself. This certainty allows her to go ahead with the preparations without falling into one of his usual traps that he always uses when he wants to spy on her. Sitting at the rickety kitchen table, Nami begins to fix her hair and apply some makeup to her face. She doesn't like wearing makeup that much, and she only does it sometimes, when she feels she needs it or when she wants to be a little more daring.
Today is a day when she can dare, even if she limits herself to using a pencil to accentuate the shape of her eyes and mascara to lengthen her thick lashes. She hates mascara, it always runs down her cheeks... and what if she were to cry? She doesn't want to become a panda.
She orders herself not to cry even as a joke and pinches her cheeks, giving them a healthy, rosy look without having to resort to that powder that makes her look like a Buggy the Clown lookalike.
She huffs.
Why is she thinking about Buggy?
Nami shakes her head, moving on to fixing her hair. They're still damp from the bath, and using one of her favorite products she begins to define them, comb them with her fingers and squeeze them in her hands to make them more wavy and voluminous. The hair turns into waves, as it always does after swimming in the sea and leaving it to dry in the sun. Luffy loves to play with her locks when they are like this…
She sniffs, trying not to think about Luffy who is probably doing the same thing right now, she means getting ready, not putting on makeup. Knowing him, he won't even dry their hair. She notices that she can no longer hear the water running, and so she has very little time left to finish getting ready.
She pants, suddenly becoming agitated. She drops the towel and hurries into the dress she found in a small vintage shop two days earlier and that reminded her of one of those old actresses she saw in photo novels.
It has a flared skirt and is knee-length, an unusual length for her who is used to wearing shorter dresses, but she couldn't resist when she saw the way this white dress hugs her figure: it fits like a glove, enveloping the curves of her hips and her generous breasts and leaving her back almost completely uncovered, if it weren't for the thin ribbons that cross it and tie at its base. Nami ties them, looking at the small bow that has been created just above her bottom.
“Can I come in?”
Luffy's voice is very close: he is at the foot of the stairs, at the top of the last step and, therefore, still hidden from her sight. He's already ready, wearing his new clothes and his hair still wet, just like Nami thought.
The girl swallows, very nervous, not expecting to feel him so close: he went down the stairs so silently that she didn't even notice. She always tells him that he moves like a cat… a cat for a Cat Burglar.
“You can,” she murmurs, knowing that he can hear her.
The first thing Luffy sees of her is a back covered with long wavy hair; the second, a foot that struggles to fit into a blue sandal. Nami staggers, managing to adjust her shoes and spin around at the same time. She turns around, giggling at her sudden clumsiness, and finds Luffy standing in front of her. They look at each other, their eyes busy studying every little part of their image.
“You look older,” Nami says breathlessly, approaching Luffy who stands stiffly in front of the stairs and looks at her as if he's really seeing her for the first time.
The clothes he wears are not that different from the style he usually wears every day, and the lady in the shop chose them for this very reason. They make it the same, but bigger, more mature. The black knee-length trousers are not frayed jeans, but a more elegant and equally resistant fabric, suitable for a special occasion like this, and the white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows highlights the defined muscles of his arms. Luffy tucked it into his pants as he was told to, keeping it unbuttoned to mid-chest to keep his scar exposed. On the waist, where the shirt and trousers meet, there is a rolled up red band. It's where Luffy's left hand is, tucked under the red silk as if it were bothering him.
But Luffy is just trying to find the right words to say to Nami, and he can't even come up with any in his head. He doesn't know what to say to her, except...
“Bellissima.”
She blushes, lowering her head to focus on her sandaled feet. She lifts her up because Luffy is forcing her to do so, because he wants to look at her face and bask in her expression, which is both embarrassed and happy. He holds his hands under her chin, stroking her jaw with his thumbs. He leans down to press his mouth to her nose, remembering the last stupid promise she managed to extract from him.
No kisses on the lips.
Nami squeezes his forearms tightly, laughing with her eyes closed at the tickling sensation his touch causes her. A sweet, almond-like smell reaches her nose when she breathes: it's the smell of her bubble bath, the one she's been using lately. He washed himself using her own soap.
She opens her eyelids again to meet his eyes.
“You're beautiful too.”
And by the way she continues to run her gaze over his body, Luffy knows she's not lying.
She must remember to go to the lady at the shop to thank her… and to stock up on more clothes.
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[1] Sorry, but I always imagine Hancock like this: 