Special

"Oi, Nami, just tell me what I did wrong!" Luffy commanded before she slammed her bedroom door in his face.

Stuffing his hands into his pockets and pouting, he shuffled to the nearest railing on the side of the boat and slumped against it. Luffy was confused. And not his normal, seemingly permanent state of confusion. He was confused as to what he did to make his navigator furious enough to stop speaking to him. That was not her preferred method of punishment. Usually, she would scream at his idiotic behavior, hit him enough to stop said behavior, and then things would return to normal. This time, however, was totally different. He hadn't done anything obviously stupid (to himself at least). Nami hadn't loudly pointed out what he had done and demand for him to fix/stop it. She just calmly ignored him, and that was the worst part. He did everything he could think of to gain her attention. He complained about the heat, asked to stop at every restaurant that they passed, poked her in the cheeks, and, having become so desperate for some sort of answer, had even asked her for money. Any of these things, which would have set her off hours ago, had completely bounced off of her cold exterior.

The day had started regularly enough. The crew had reached a new island, which required four day for the log pose to readjust to the next island. The Straw Hats had been low on supplies, so Luffy decided to be in charge of restocking. Reluctantly, the crew agreed. Sanji had given him a list of food ("Don't screw up my stuff, shithead."), Chopper a list of medicinal ingredients ("Can you read those big words on the bottles?"), and Ussop a list of general supplies ("Don't buy pepper instead of gunpowder, like last time!"). Excited to be on a "new adventure", he had grabbed his two closest crew mates, Nami and Robin (much to the list givers' relief), and set off for town. They grabbed a hearty breakfast at a small café, and then proceeded to pick up the supplies. That had gone as expected. The two women purchased the necessary items while Luffy ran about, poking and prodding things. Things had continued as usual, until the grocery store. Nami had stomped off while they were checking out, and refused to talk to him on the way back to the ship.

"Thinking hard, Captain?"

Startled from his thoughts, he turned to see Robin, smirking at him knowingly.

His rubbery skin stretching to make his pout even more goofy and pronounced, he replied, "I'm trying to figure out what I did to piss Nami off so much."

"I think that it should be rather obvious," she stated.

"Oh!" exclaimed the captain, slapping a fist into his palm. "I bet it's because I ate so much at breakfast! She always gets mad when I eat that much! But she didn't seem too mad when we left…"

"I don't believe that was it," Robin said, smirk growing slightly. "Think back to the grocery store. Didn't something…memorable happen there?"

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, the rubber man tried to recall the events at the store.

***

"MEEEEEAT!" screamed Luffy as he exploded through the front door of the small grocery shop. He looked around excitedly. Spotting the counter, he yelled at the lady behind it. "Oi, lady! Where's the meat at?"

The blonde wiped a few curly hairs from her face and put a perky smile on her face. She pointed to an aisle against the wall farthest from the door. "It's right over there, cutie."

"Thanks!" the captain shouted before rocketing towards the aisle.

"Argh. Where did that idiot go now?" asked an exasperated Nami as she pushed herself through the remains of the demolished door. Robin soon followed.

"I'm sure I could guess," she replied. The ladies glanced at one another knowingly. Nami shook her head while Robin turned towards the cashier.

"May I ask where your meat section is?" she inquired.

"Of course," the blonde answered, an amused look on her face. "It's right over there."

As Robin set off to find her captain, Nami looked at the door that didn't survive 'Hurricane Luffy' and sighed. It seemed like she was always the one to clean up after the hyper rubber man.

"Sorry about the door," she said to the blonde behind the counter. "We can pay for it if you want." 'Please say no! Please say no!' was what was going through her head.

"Oh, don't worry about it," the girl replied, much to the navigator's relief. "We get rowdy pirates in town a lot, so the city council set up a fund to pay for any damages that they might have caused."

"How did you know we were pirates?"

"That's Strawhat Luffy, right?" At the orange haired girl's nod, she continued. "There's been a lot of talk around town lately. This place has always loved to gossip about pirates. Who's hot, what the bounties are, what are people like Whitebeard up to, who looks like they're about to become a big name pirate, that sort of thing. I've heard his name being tossed around the last few weeks. I've never been a big fan of the pirate gossip, but I tend to hear a lot of it in this store. I kept hearing stories about him. They say he beat up all the big name pirates in East Blue, then when he came to the Grand Line that he invaded Enies Lobby and declared war on the World Government! After I heard all this, I just had to see what he looked like. I went and found his bounty poster. He's a lot cuter in person."

As Nami processed all the things she had just heard, her brain seemed to stick on one thing.

"C-c-cute!? You can't be serious!" she exclaimed. At the blonde's questioning look, she went on. "He's a stupid, self-centered moron!" 'Are you serious?' she said to herself. 'He might be a moron, but he's nowhere near self-centered. He's the most selfless person you've ever met. Why are trying to convince this girl that he's like that?'

"I don't know about all of that," the blonde said, drawing Nami's attention again. "I just said he was cute. He looks kind of young, but I think that scar makes him look sexy."

'What a little whore!' the navigator thought to herself while replying, "If you say so."

The cashier looked at Nami thoughtfully for a bit, and then spoke, "I take it you're not with him then."

"Me?" she stated, acting aghast at the idea. "Of course not." 'But you want to be,' her treacherous mind said.

"How about the black haired lady?"

"Robin? He's a bit too young and way too stupid for her."

"Is that so? That's good," the blonde said, an odd expression on her face.

'I don't think I like where this is going,' the navigator thought.

Luckily for her, at that moment Luffy, arms stacked with meat containers so high that it threatened to touch the ceiling, approached the counter, Robin trailing after him.

"I think I got everything," he stated. Robin, noticing the look that Nami was giving the captain, hid a smirk behind her hands.

"Oh, really," Nami said calmly. "Come here, Luffy." Luffy obligingly walked to her, only to be slapped in the back of the head. He dropped the meat containers, scattering them across the floor.

"Oi, what was that for?" yelled Luffy.

"All you had was meat, idiot!" Nami screamed back at him. "No normal person can live off of meat by itself!"

"I bet I can!" he replied defiantly.

She belted him on the top of the head and said, "I said normal person! You're not one! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" With each "stupid" she hit him viciously on the top of the head. Luffy, with a head full of lumps, crossed his arms and pouted, but didn't say anything more.

"Plus," Nami said, pulling out some bills, "Our belli is drying up. This is all we have left. We can't afford all of this."

"I think I can give you a discount." The pirates looked over at the smiling cashier.

Luffy, who had amazingly recovered from his beating, zoomed to the counter. "Would you really? Then can I get all this meat?"

"Sure," said the blonde. "But I do have one condition."

"What, what?" asked Luffy, jumping up and down excitedly.

"Lean a little closer and I'll tell you." Luffy and the blonde leaned in closer, heads almost touching. All of a sudden, the blonde grabbed the captain's head and pulled, his lips meeting hers in a deep kiss. Luffy's expression turned curiously blank, Robin's eyebrow shot up, and Nami's jaw dropped to the floor.

'What the hell is wrong with this woman!?' the navigator thought furiously. 'She has no right to do this. But that idiot isn't even pulling away. I bet he's enjoying it!"

Abruptly, Nami turned to Robin and handed her the belli. "Take this and finish buying the food. I'm going outside." And with that, she stormed out.

***

"Nope. Nothing memorable," stated the captain.

"Captain, you kissed a woman," replied Robin.

"So? I didn't kiss her."

"Not everyone thinks as…directly as you. Some would say that the act taking place at all, would be more than enough for someone to get jealous."

"So it's a mystery event then?"

Robin sighed and rubbed her temples. Deciding to take pity on her captain instead of encouraging his brain to work more, she said, "Luffy. You kissed another woman in front of our navigator. She's jealous. That's why she won't talk to you."

"But I didn't kiss her!" he repeated loudly. "And she surprised me. I didn't know she was going to do that! Why is Nami jealous anyway?"

"I know you act more stupid than you are sometimes. This is one of them. You know perfectly well why Nami is jealous. I suggest you talk to her as soon as you can." With that said, Robin left Luffy to his thoughts.

***

"Stupid Luffy and stupid blondie," muttered Nami, furiously sketching a map. "I can't believe he did that. Stupid captain, always trying to romance random women."

'That's not fair at all,' she said in her mind. 'Luffy's never done that.'

"That doesn't mean I can't be mad about it!" she yelled aloud.

'Yes it does,' a more rational part of her stated. 'He doesn't know how you feel about him. He's not attached to anyone. He very well can chase skirts if he wanted to.'

Nami tried to picture Luffy "chasing skirts", but burst out laughing before the image got too far.

"Why am I so mad anyway?" she mumbled to herself after calming down.

'You know the answer to that too,' her mind said. 'You've felt more than friendly to him ever since the fight with Arlong. You just try to keep those feelings buried so you don't have to bother with them.'

Nami sighed. She was more depressed than she had been in a long time. She picked up her pen and got back to work. A few minutes later, she heard her door open.

"Go away, Sanji. I'm not hungry," she said.

"It's me," stated Luffy softly.

Nami jumped up quickly, knocking her chair over. She spun around and looked at her captain. He was standing just inside her door, hat firmly placed on his head and a serious expression on his face.

She tightened her fists, almost breaking the pen she was still holding. Through gritted teeth, she said, "Get out. I don't want to see you." She turned back around, looking away from him.

"Please, Nami, I just want to talk," the rubber man explained. He took a few more steps into her room.

"Well, I don't. So leave."

"Why are you jealous?"

Nami gasped, the question taking her by surprise. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said nervously.

"That's what Robin said you were mad about."

Robin…why hadn't she guessed? That woman was going to be tortured to a long and painful death. "Look, I don't want to talk about this, ok? Let's just forget it happened."

"I can't. Please just talk to me." He took a few more steps forward until he was directly behind her. Luffy placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to gently coax her to turn around. When she resisted, he sighed and tightened his grip on her shoulders a bit.

"Fine. If you won't talk, I will," he said. "You don't have a reason to be jealous, Nami. She didn't mean anything to me. Not like you. You're special. I can't explain how you make me feel. The best way I can explain it is that I feel happy, nervous, warm, and scared, all at the same time. I think about you every second. When I go to sleep, I think 'I hope Nami sleeps good' and when I wake up I think 'I wonder if Nami is up yet'? I can't get you out of my head. You're the most important person in the world to me. You're special." And, as if to emphasize his point, he gently placed his hat on her head. By this time, she was trembling, hand over her mouth, with tears threatening to fall. She opened her mouth to reply.

"NAAAMI-SWAAAN! ROOOBIN-CHWAAAN!" Sanji yelled from the kitchen. "Lunch is ready! And I have food for you other shitheads too."

The navigator sighed, feeling his hands leave her shoulders. 'Of course,' she thought. 'The one thing I doubt I could ever compete with.' She heard the door close behind her. Sighing again, she quickly wiped her eyes, and turned to join the crew for food, when she stopped dead in her tracks. Luffy was walking towards her from the now closed door, an intense expression on his face. He stopped in front of her and brought his hands to her face. Gently, he rubbed the remaining tears from her eyes with one hand while caressing her check with the other.

"B-but Luffy!" Nami sputtered. "There's food in ther-!"

"That's not important," he said.

And the last coherent thought that she had before his lips crashed into hers was, 'I'm more important than food? To Luffy? Then I'm defiantly special.'

A/N: I apologize for the crappiness of this story. It's sat, half completed, on my hard drive for weeks. I didn't want to upload it, because I don't think it very good, but it kept niggling at the back of my mind. This is also my first attempt at romance (if you can't tell) and considering I'm both a male and very nerdy, I doubt I did the romance in a satisfactory manner. Anyways, reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading.