Just One Taste

Luffy leaned in, and caught the orange.

He stared at it for the longest time before he looked up to see Nami with a frown on her pretty lips.

He blinked.

She glared, and held out a hand.

"Give it," she said.

Bending his head over the orange, he sniffed it with a grin before he raised both hand and head, stretching his arm up to offer the orange to her. There was a pause on her end before she took it with a nod.

"Thank you."

His arm snapped back into place, and he returned to staring out at port. For all he knew, Nami returned to picking her mandarin oranges. She had said she wanted to make something – what he didn't know or really care to take a guess just yet. He knew that she would never let him have it anyway.

It was the one solid rule of what his crew was starting to call Nami's Ship.

Luffy could spend all their money, abandon them to make trouble, and bring said trouble right back to them, but he could never ever have a taste of her sweet mandarin oranges.

It was out of the question, and after the first few weeks of attempting otherwise, he had finally relented to his navigator.

If only to keep himself in tiptop shape should he try to plunder the fridge.

Sanji was scarier than Nami sometimes.

And there was a pirate ship coming their way.

He blinked, and then grinned, standing up to crack his knuckles.

"Should we come to them?" Zoro said, and Luffy shook his head, hoping he would get his exercise for the day – it was boring and almost depressing to think about Nami's Ultimate Rule.

He really did want an orange.

"Let's see what they do first," he said, but realized that he had said it much too late for a pirate from the aforementioned ship raised a sword to the sky with a loud battle cry.

"Shit," Sanji stepped up, and tilted his head to watch the ship approach. "What're the orders, captain?"

"Wait."

Their heads whipped to gape at him, "Why wait!?"

Nami looked out from her orange grove, and said, "Be careful with the ship."

Nodding, Luffy crossed his arms to watch the rapidly approaching galleon, and grinned when they were close enough for him to tell that their ship was easily three times larger than Merry.

From the crow's nest, Usopp said, "O-oi, Luffy! Aren't you going to do something!?"

"Wait," he said, and he tilted his head to pop his neck.

Finally, a shout came from the other ship, "Hand over your treasure, punks, or get pulverized!"

"No," he said.

He heard Nami say, "Hmm, this one has a bruise."

"It's probably from the storm yesterday," Robin said, having been aiding the navigator in picking the delicious oranges.

"I'll make some dressing with it."

"What a nice idea."

The pirate said, "Then prepare to be boarded! Men, to your stations!"

Nami said, "I was thinking of making a salad too."

Several pirates jumped down from the higher deck of the galleon, screaming at the top of their lungs with their swords and guns in hand.

Looking at him, Zoro raised an eyebrow, "Now?"

"Nope. Just wait."

A pirate from the opposing ship had landed in the orange grove, and Nami turned around to glower at him. He hesitated for the barest of seconds, but then said, "Hand over any jewelry, or I'll have to play rough with you pretty things."

"My," said Robin, "it's getting so noisy."

Laughing, the enemy pirate thrust a hand into a tree to rip an orange from its branch, biting off the skin to suck at the juices inside. Nami didn't even have enough time to scowl deeper before Luffy's arm stretched up to grab the back of his head, and slammed it into his knee on the rebound.

Sanji blinked, and looked at the bloody gash before he flicked his cigarette away. After lighting a new stick, he said, "Now?"

"Now."

The girls returned to their activity, but Nami smiled at the captain before doing so.

Whatever happened, if Luffy couldn't have a taste, then there was no way that some stranger could have one.

He was just wiping the bit of sweat off his nose, smiling that he had even begun to sweat at all – it had become difficult to find any pirates worth the sweat in the first place – when a shadow fell on him. He craned his neck back to look straight up at Nami's beaming visage. Revealing a toothy grin, he noticed the plate in her hand, and wondered so very briefly if she was sharing some of the salad with him. Perhaps, she would let him test the dressing for them!

Luffy licked his chops, and realized what the mayor from his village meant when he had said that 'patience was a vice.'

Or was it a virtue? He didn't get to ponder any deeper on the subject for Nami knelt in front of him so that Luffy would not have to crane his neck so awkwardly.

Glancing at the contents of the plate, he was disappointed to find that it was empty – scraped clean of whatever sweet mandarin goodness had been held within – and he lifted his head to look at her.

The smile was liquid for the few seconds before she leaned towards him.

For a split moment, he backed away, unused to the proximity before she gained an unyielding hold of his hair, and yanked. She immediately locked lips, driving her tongue into his gaping mouth before he recognized it for what it was. He began to reciprocate, coiling his tongue about with pure relish. Luffy knew that he was a bit sloppy, but it was his treat, and he would eat it in whatever which way that he so pleased.

Besides, Luffy wasn't sure when he would next taste her mandarin oranges.

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THE END

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Wrote this fic in about ... two or three hours?

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