The Sneaky Cat-Burglar Nami

Chapter 10

The next morning, Sanji had called out to the crew that breakfast was ready. Most of them were already seated in the kitchen, except for Luffy and Zoro.

Luffy had woken up a little bit late due to his little heartfelt talk with Zoro the night before.

As Luffy approached the kitchen, he bumped into Zoro who had just come down from the crow's nest.

"YO! ZORO!" Luffy said gleefully "Good morning!"

"Mornin'" Zoro replied, yawning.

"You slept the entire night of your watch again, didn't you?" Luffy teased.

"Shut up!" Zoro retorted.

"Shishishi~" Luffy snickered, reaching out for the knob to open the door leading to the kitchen. But the mosshead samurai stopped him.

"So" Zoro said suddenly, "Are you going to tell her?"

There was a short silence between them.

"Not yet." Luffy replied, "But I've decided, I'm no longer going to hold myself back. I'm going to be more upfront to her about how I feel" he continued, his tone of voice optimistic and resolute, "And when the time is right, I'll tell her"

Luffy's determination was reflected in his eyes, and this didn't go unnoticed by Zoro.

"Good luck, Captain!" Zoro said smugly, as he gave a tap on Luffy's shoulder before entering the kitchen.

As the two of them entered, they were greeted with a loud "GOOD MORNING!" from the crew.

"Good morning!" Responded the two men simultaneously.

Luffy walked towards his usual seat beside Nami.

"Good morning, Nami." He greeted softly, lightly petting Nami's head, a warm and gentle smile on his face.

Nami was a little taken aback by his actions, a light tint of pink on her cheeks, touching the spot on her head where she could still feel the heat of his hand. On top of that, seeing him smile like that at her made her heart flutter, and she was momentarily at a loss for words. But before she could gather herself together to respond, Luffy had already shifted his focus on bossing around their ero-cook.

"OI SANJI! WHERE'S MY FOOD!?"

"Shut up! You shitty captain! Be patient for a minute!" complained Sanji.

Somehow the kitchen turned from peaceful to utter chaos in a matter of seconds upon the arrival of their loudmouthed, gluttonous captain.

Nami watched as Usopp and Chopper were desperately defending their food from being stolen by Luffy. This earned Luffy a drop kick on the head by Sanji for being too greedy and rowdy, muttering under his breath about bastards not being gentlemen in front of the ladies, as he put down Luffy's gigantic plate of food in front of him.

With Luffy comically mumbling an "I'm sorry", a steaming bump visible on his head, Nami let out a hearty laugh, as she whispered, "Good morning, Idiot."

===

Needless to say, Nami was on a high that morning. With a skip in her step, she headed toward the helm of the ship to check on their course. On the way there, she passed by Usopp and Chopper who were laying on the lawn with some books out discussing some new weapon they were collaborating on. She could vaguely make out the words 'biochemical', 'increase potency', 'cortisol', and other bunch of scientific jargon.

Continuing on her way, she then passed by Brook who was cleaning his violin by the staircase going up to the helm.

"Ah, Nami-san," Brook called out, "You seem to be in a pleasant mood today."

"I am" Nami responded enthusiastically.

"Yohohohoho~" laughed Brook, "If that's the case, can you show me your panties?"

"HELL NO!" Nami growled, giving Brook an uppercut before walking away.

Brook merely let out another of his "Yohohohoho~" before returning to his previous task again.

"That guy, he just never learns." Usopp murmured frankly to Chopper, earning a nod from their furry crewmate.

"Jinbei, how are we doing?" Nami asked, as she approached Jinbei on the helm.

"Everything's good, Nami-san." Jinbei replied.

"We should be arriving at the next island soon." Nami stated. "I don't see any anomalies in the weather, so looks like everything's going to be smooth sailing from here. I'll leave the rest to you, Jinbei. I'll be in my map room if you need me."

"Roger that." Jinbei responded.

===

Later in the afternoon, humming blissful tunes to herself, Nami completed the finishing touches on her map of Wano country. She leaned back on her seat, picking up the map from her desk as she admired her work.

"Looks perfect" Nami thought proudly.

Laying the map back down on her desk, she did a quick stretch of her upper body, pulling her arms upward when she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in" Nami responded, twisting her back on her seat to check on her visitor.

The door opened, and in came her Captain, a plate on hand with what looked like a slice of strawberry shortcake.

"Luffy" Nami called out softly.

"Hey Nami" Luffy smiled, closing the door behind him. "Sanji told me to give this to you"

Luffy approached Nami and lay the plate down on her desk.

"Thank you. I'm surprised he actually trusted you with this." Nami joked.

"Well, he did warn me that if I as much as swiped even a bit of frosting from it I won't be having any dessert for the entire month" Luffy tittered, scratching the back of his head.

"I figured" Nami giggled. "You can have it" she offered, pushing the plate towards him.

"Really?" Luffy exclaimed.

"Yup, I'm not that hungry."

"You're not going to tell Sanji?"

"It's our little secret." Nami winked.

"You're not going to charge me for this, are you?" Luffy eyed her suspiciously.

"No, Luffy, I'm not going to charge you" she confirmed with a smile.

"Yahoooo!" Luffy cheered, pulling up a chair beside Nami, scarfing down the slice of cake in an instant.

With a big gulp, he beamed, "Thanks, Nami! You're the best!"

Nami let out another giggle as she noticed a smudge of frosting on the edge of her clumsy Captain's lips.

"Mou~ what do I do with you?" she sighed.

Instinctively, she angled her body closer to Luffy, her face inches away from his as she reached out and touched his cheek.

Caught off-guard, Luffy's breath hitched, staring into Nami's brown eyes as she slowly wiped off the frosting with her thumb.

With the frosting now cleaned off, Nami's eyes shifted their focus to Luffy's black ones, her hand still on his cheek.

For a moment they allowed themselves to get lost in each other's eyes until Nami finally noticed their close proximity.

Surprised, she leaned back and attempted to pull her hand away, but all of a sudden, Luffy grabbed it.

With half-lidded eyes, he slowly brought her hand close to his lips and licked off the frosting from her thumb.

This time, it was Nami who held her breath, her eyes wide as saucers, as she felt the temperature on her face rise.

"AHEM!" a loud cough interrupted.

Nami instantly pulled her hand back and stood up, facing the new arrival.

"Zo-zoro!" She stuttered. "Wha-what are you doing here?"

"Jinbei told me to come get you. He wants to confirm something about our current route." he stated.

"Our route?...Ok-okay, yeah, okay, g-got it. I-I better...I better get going then." she stammered, dashing out of the door.

Zoro stepped to his side to give way to Nami, following her with his gaze until she was out of sight.

Leaning on the door frame, he then turned his attention to Luffy. A mischievous glint in his eyes, the corner of his mouth turned up in a cheeky grin.

Luffy tried to keep his cool, albeit his face flushed, as he cleared his throat, stood up and walked towards the door, avoiding eye contact with Zoro.

"So that's what you meant by no longer holding yourself back." Zoro teased, as Luffy passed by him.

"Shut up!" Luffy retorted.

"Things are definitely about to get even more interesting!" Zoro thought as he followed his Captain down the hallway towards the deck.