One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Luffy's Fish Tank ❯ Luffy's Fish Tank ( Chapter 1 )

Luffy's Fish Tank

Luffy grinned, stretching his arms out wide, and taking in the sun as it rose. He could hear Zolo's soft snores as he napped in the grass, and he could see forever in front of himself, watching the sea glow a magnificent silver as the day dawned, a golden sun rising in front of him.

There was yet to be any signs of adventure on the horizon, but the horizon was a beautiful thing to keep his eye on regardless, and so he admired all fronts, leaning against Sunny's lion mane to use it as a backrest. After a while, he heard the others begin to tinker with their early morning activities, and his nose twitched when Sanji began breakfast in the kitchen. With his grin still set in place, he jumped up over the lion's mane, and was in the middle of his jump when the wind bucked abruptly.

His breath caught in his throat as the strong winds blew him down, but he just barely caught himself on the railing. Pulling himself onto the deck, he looked toward starboard, and made a shocked sound of surprise. As much as he'd been on the Grand Line, sudden tempests always caught him unawares.

He ran across the deck, first shaking Zolo awake, and then went running toward the cabin, “All hands on deck! There's a storm!”

The clouds washed over the Thousand Sunny in an instant, drenching Luffy and the crew as they came up, clambering to their posts, and directing their way through the storm. Luffy climbed the mast to sit on top of the enclosed crow's nest, and shaded his eyes from the blinding rain as he watched for unwanted obstacles such as cyclones, whirlpools or tidal waves.

One such monstrous wave rose from out of the briny blue to descend upon them, and he shouted through the roar of the storm, “There's a big wave coming! Hold onto something!”

Anything else he might have said was lost when the wave crashed on top of them, washing Luffy away.

Sinking into the depths below, he saw the glitter of scales to his left, and his head jerked in that direction, his eyes widening when he saw the creature's form. Nami had grown a long, serpentine-like fish tail that glowed silver and gold in the stormy water. He extented a hand out for her, but she only darted in and out of his reach, frustrating the drowning man even more.

“Nami!” He dared to say, letting precious air escape his lungs, but he only heard her laugh in the darkness.

Watching her spiral into the deep, he felt his heart sink with her, and his anchor-like body plummeted like an albatross, floundering to no effect.

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Waking with a start, he jolted upright, panting as he felt his chest - the burn of his lungs no longer bothering him. Luffy relaxed somewhat when he saw that it had just been Chopper falling asleep on his chest again. Smiling a bit, he carefully put him on the spot of the deck that was still warm from his body before he went to go sit on the lion's head.

He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, and knitted his brow at it momentarily before he hid it away in his pocket again, frowning ahead at nothing instead. The Thousand Sunny had left Water 7 several days ago, and he was excited about the prospect of seeing some walking skeletons in the Florian Triangle, but after that was Merman Island.

He crossed his arms, and huffed slightly, twitching a foot in place when he crossed his ankle over his knee. Glancing at Nami, he saw that she was still sunbathing, her lips in an unpleased angle - obviously not happy with their destination. Feeling the picture through his pants, he adjusted his hat to drop over his eyes, trying to find a way to sort through his ponderings, and figure out his navigator. After a few moments, he hopped off the lion's head, and padded over to her.

He was confused when she noticed his presence - her eyes closed and all - but then understood when she said, “You're in my sun.”

Noticing the long shadow he made across her nearly bare form, he stepped to the side, and then she opened her eyes to smile at him. “Nami, are you a mermaid?”

She blinked, and raised her sunglasses to look at him better, “What?”

“Back when I fought Arlong, Sanji said you might be a mermaid since you were with those guys,” he said.

Nami blinked, and then erupted into laughter, “Luffy, that's ridiculous. Mermaids can't walk on land until they're thirty, remember? Kokoro told us that. I'm only eighteen.” She fluffed her hair then, and winked, saying, “Though I wouldn't mind being a mermaid. I bet I would become even more beautiful then.”

“No!”

Eyes widening, she scooted up the lounge chair slightly, “Luffy, what's wrong?” She smiled, and teased again, “Don't you think I'm beautiful?”

“I don't want you to be a mermaid!”

She huffed then, obviously rankled by his attitude, and said, “I'm not turning into a mermaid, you dolt. I'm just saying it would be nice if it made me prettier … and think of all the treasure I could find at the bottom of the sea!”

Luffy crouched beside the lounge chair then, his brow furrowing deeply, and rocking on his feet. Pouting, Nami reached over and ruffled his hair, his hat falling to rest against his back when she pushed it off, and hanging by its string. He said, “If you were a mermaid, I couldn't have anymore adventures with you. What would I do without my navigator? We'd never make it to Merman Island by ourselves, and then I'd never ever meet you.”

“You're pretty lucky,” she said. “I think you'd make it.”

“What if I tried to eat you? You would be a fish.”

“So put me in the fish tank,” she said. “Sanji wouldn't let you eat me anyway. He'd put me in the fish tank so he could stare at me.”

Abruptly, he frowned, and she smiled, obviously pleased that the mentioning of Sanji finally ruffled some jealousy from him. Luffy said, “But you're my dinner.”

Nami laughed, and poked his nose, “In your dreams, rubber boy.”

“Maybe I'll have Franky build me my own fish tank in my room,” he said suddenly, and she blushed.

“What good would that do you? Even if I was a mermaid.”

His grin engulfed his whole face when he said, “Happiness Punch.”

Cheeks pinkening, she said, “Hah! I wouldn't want to stay up in your room then. I'd rather have Sanji stare at me.”

“So you wouldn't want to be a part of my crew?”

“I'd love to be part of the crew,” she said. “I'll bring all the treasure up from the bottom of the sea for you. I can share at least thirty percent of the haul; I'm not that greedy.”

Shaking his head, he leaned in, grasping her chin to make her look into his oddly serious eyes, “I still don't want you to be a mermaid - even if I can't eat you or have you find treasure for me or stay in a fish tank in my room.”

“Why not? I'd find all the lost treasures of the sea and more.”

“I wouldn't be able to follow you.” As her auburn eyes widened, he touched noses, and said, “I couldn't be with you if you were a mermaid.”

“Luffy …”

He smiled, “You know what's funny? I don't think I'd care about sinking. I think I'd try to follow you in, and drown anyway.”

“You big idiot,” she said, and she grasped his shoulders, pulling him over so that he'd be lying on top of her. Luffy propped his chin on her chest, gauging for her reaction, and she only colored lightly, saying, “I'm not going to be a mermaid any time soon.”

Relaxing, he smiled, letting his cheek rest against her breasts, and closed his eyes, deciding that he liked it right there. Her body heated, and he knew it was from a blush. After a moment, he reached into his pocket for the picture he drew of her so long ago when he had been going to Arlong Park with Sanji and Yosaku. Crumpling it into a ball, Luffy tossed it over the railing and into the water.

He grinned to himself when she asked, “What was that?”

“A bad dream.”

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THE END

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Just something I was thinking of while writing A Log Pose to Nami. I decided it fitted in with that world, so you can think of it as a semi-sequel (not the sequel I was talking about at the end of ALPTN). If you're a lazy, awful, terrible person and don't want to read ALPTN, then you can just think of Luffy and Nami as already being a couple in this story.

The real sequel won't be for a while - I'm considering over whether I should wait for the Thriller Bark arc to end or not - so … review, please? Might help me inspiration-wise.

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