AN: Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. Between my job, the end-of-the-year holidays and a super fun bout with the flu (that I am still getting over), I've been a little busy. I hope you enjoy the chapter below.

.: Veritas :.
part five (instinct)

He had no idea why she suddenly kissed him, but he knew he liked it. Her lips tasted like vanilla, creamy, sweet and deliciously warm. And the way she was pressed up against him, soft and inviting, her presence so familiar and yet somehow not. Everything about her seemed to make his nerves hum and his skin tingle. The sensation was wholly new and exciting in a way he didn't know was possible.

When the surprise wore off and the kiss continued, the urge to touch, feel and explore began to nag at the back of his mind. Suddenly Luffy wanted to know what it felt like to run his hands up her sides, along her shoulders, down to the small of her back... to touch the softness, the warmth, the closeness...

And the taste...

He gently held her lower lip between his teeth and ran his tongue along its edge wondering what she tasted like normally, when she didn't just finish eating ice cream. Maybe the tangerines that she loved so much? Or something else? Something uniquely Nami?

She shifted against him, her breasts pressed more firmly against his chest as she leaned into him. They parted for barely a second, just long enough to breathe and she sighed. It was a soft sound of contentment and pleasure that made his body thrum with want. The encouragement was primal and instinct took over at once. He pressed her more tightly against him as their kiss resumed, intent on learning more of her, as much as he could while standing next to a tiny park on an island he forgot the name of when he suddenly felt the first flutters of danger. It was a familiar yet tumultuous aura that lapped against them, derailing this new adventure far too soon. Luffy grew tense an instant before a sudden boom caused Nami to jump. Then Sanji's voice cut through the silence, severing their connection completely.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO NAMI-SAN?!"

He looked toward his cook and grinned, feeling somewhat giddy from the kiss as Nami, lips swollen and cheeks flushed, pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. Sanji was across the street in seconds, his eyes narrowed in anger.

"Explain this!" he hissed. "Now!"

"Sanji-kun," Nami said, forcing a smile as she looked at him. "Nothing happened."

The muscles in his jaw twitched. "Nothing?" he asked, voice hard. "Nothing? I'm not blind. He kissed you!"

Luffy's grin grew even wider as he happily corrected his chef. "She kissed me."

"You shitty bastard," he said, giving Luffy a dark glare. "Don't fucking lie!"

There was a stiffness to the way Sanji stood over him, a simmering anger that made Luffy wonder at him. Why would he lie? He'd never lied to his nakama before. Nami had kissed him. As far as Luffy was concerned, if Nami wanted to kiss him, she could. Anytime. As often as she wanted. He'd certainly enjoyed it and he was pretty certain she liked it, too. He already planned on kissing her again, though now would obviously be a bad time. Later though, when they were back on board the Sunny and Sanji was busy making dinner and would be far less likely to interrupt, maybe then...

"Sanji-kun, I can explain. It's nothing to get upset over," Nami said and Luffy peered at her curiously. Of course there was nothing to get upset over, but what was there to explain? And why did she sound apologetic?

"Well?" Sanji asked, voice cold and hard. Luffy didn't particularly like the angry way he was looking at Nami as he spoke, but he knew she could handle him.

Clearing her throat, she said, "There was a Vice Admiral with her unit, I kissed him..."

Brows drawn together, Luffy wondered what the Vice Admiral in the cafe had to do with anything when Sanji asked, "You kissed him?"

"I did."

Sanji paused, his expression tight as his gaze moved from Nami to Luffy and back again. Then he gave the captain one last look of disgust before taking a step backward. Luffy expected him to say something more, to take Nami's words and grudgingly accept them, but there was nothing.

In silence, Luffy watched Nami gaze after Sanji as he walked away, uncertainty clouding her features as he once again wondered why him seeing them kiss was such a big deal. He knew that Sanji never liked it when Nami or Robin paid any of the other Straw Hats extra attention, but he was always quick to get over it. Luffy thought his jealousy was comical, but now he wasn't sure what to think of it.

Granted, Luffy knew that he wouldn't especially like it if he saw Nami kissing Sanji, but that was different. A lot different. Nami was his navigator, his nakama... his... what? He wasn't sure. Girlfriend, or something? Wasn't that what Rayleigh asked him once?

Well, whatever.

Nami was his far more than she was Sanji's. And even though he didn't really understand what the big deal was, he knew he didn't like the worried expression on her face. The urge to distract her, to make her smile and laugh urged him to try to pull her from her thoughts and lighten the mood.

"He broke the carts," he said, grinning wide.

She gave him a questioning look and he pointed at the broken mess in the middle of the street and snickered. Her countenance darkened at the sight of the damaged crates and she rubbed her forehead. He recognized the gesture as one of annoyance borne out of worry.

"We should go," she said quietly.

That wasn't the reaction he was hoping for, but he nodded and they began their trek back to where they hid the Mini Merry, neither saying a word. The memory of Sanji's expression just before he walked away filled Luffy's mind and he wondered what the cook thought he saw. Did Sanji think he forced himself on Nami? It was pretty clear that Sanji blamed him for the kiss, as though he had done something to make her kiss him. If he had, Luffy thought, he'd like to know what it was because he'd make sure to do it again. Perhaps it was the ice cream or the nice day or the fun they had been having all afternoon while walking through town together. Luffy was pretty sure that he didn't do anything specific to her to make her kiss him so Sanji really had no reason to be so upset with him.

Whatever it was that Sanji thought, it seemed to be bothering Nami and Luffy didn't like that. Everything up until the moment they were interrupted had been great! He felt pretty good about the whole thing, happy even. An excited energy he'd never felt before was flooding his chest and making him feel like he just won an amazing fight or had the best meal, ever, but Nami had yet to say a word. If anything, she seemed to feel the exact opposite. If it wasn't for her troubled countenance, Luffy would have asked her to kiss him again — or maybe he should just kiss her without asking the way she did to him.

He knew instinctively that would be a mistake. Nami was far more analytical than he was. As far as Luffy was concerned, she spent too much time in her own head worrying about things that didn't need to be worried about. Maybe he just needed to try to distract her again, get her to smile or laugh, and she'd be back to normal and then he could ask her about the kiss. Ask her if they could do it again.

"Wow, he was really mad," he said and Nami glanced at him out of the corners of her eyes. "He's probably going to try to fight me later. It might be fun!"

"I don't think he'll fight you," she said, voice unusually somber.

"Oh?" He asked, studying her expression in open wonder as a new thought struck him. "You don't think he'll refuse to cook meat for me, do you?"

"He might," she said. "At least for a little while."

Luffy gave a frustrated groan and wondered why this was such a big deal. Why was everyone acting so weird? More than that, why did Nami look so upset?

He racked his brain for what felt like forever and found the more he thought about the situation, the weirder Nami seemed to be acting. He still felt pretty good. Confused, yes, but good. Really good. It seemed to him that Nami should probably feel the same. Or at least something similar. Instead, the closer they came to where they hid the Mini Merry, the more her expression seemed to fill with dread.

Tired of the silence and high strangeness, he grabbed her wrist and forced her to stop. She started from the sudden contact and asked, "What are you—?"

"Oi, Nami," he said, leaning toward her so he could peer directly into her eyes. "You okay?"

She blinked at him, her cheeks darkening as he took a half step toward her, his nose almost touching hers.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Feigning annoyance, she scowled as she pushed his face away from hers and said, "Nothing." Then she stepped around him and resumed her pace toward the bay.

Undeterred, Luffy fell into step beside her. Peering at her out of the corners of his eyes, he gave her a moment to explain herself. Or at least explain why she was being so quiet. Or why she didn't seem as excited about their kiss as he was. Or why Sanji was so mad. Or why she mentioned the Vice Admiral earlier. Or why everything about right now seemed so… weird.

Her silence continued and Luffy grunted in annoyance. "I don't get it," he said, finally, and Nami rolled her eyes.

"There's nothing to 'get.' That whole thing back there with Sanji and everything… it was just… unexpected. I'm sorry, okay?"

"Why are you sorry? I can always catch fish and eat that for dinner if he's still mad tonight!"

"That's not…" she paused, sighed. "That's not what I mean."

Luffy's brows scrunched together as he frowned. "You mean the kiss?"

She opened her mouth to explain further but he happily plunged ahead. "No reason to be sorry. He'll get over it." He snickered to himself before turning a wide smile toward her, "He ruined it though. It was real nice!"

Nami slowed to a stop, forcing him to pause. He turned back to look at her and saw that she was studying him with eyes wide and owlish, as though she didn't fully understand what he just said.

"You think we can try again? Maybe while he's cooking dinner or something?" he asked. "That way he'll be too busy to bother us. More fun that way, I think."

The blush that colored her cheeks earlier roared back as her mouth opened and closed soundlessly. Then she gave a brittle laugh. "You… you liked it?"

He tilted his head at her, perplexed by the question. Wasn't it obvious? Duh.

"Well, yeah," he said. "But I don't get what that Vice Admiral has to do with anything."

"Did you see her?" she asked.

"See her? No," he said, scratching at the scar just under his eye as he thought back to that moment. "But I knew she was there."

"You— you knew…?"

"Felt her," he said, grinning. "Observation Haki."

"Oh. Yeah. Right."

"Why does that matter?" he asked.

She swallowed hard and rubbed her brow. "I saw her coming toward us," she explained. "And I knew if she saw you she would recognize you and there would be trouble. Running away wasn't an option and I didn't want you to get into fight, so... I— I kissed you to hide you."

His smile fading, Luffy's brows creased in confusion. "You didn't mean to kiss me?"

"I— well, no." She bit her lip nervously, "I mean, I wasn't planning to. With the kids everywhere… I— I guess I panicked."

"But she already knew we were there," he said. "I tried to tell you, but then you kissed me."

"She knew?"

"The Haki," he said as he rubbed the back of his head. Even though he used Haki everyday he still had no idea how to describe it to someone else. At least not in a way that someone who didn't use it would understand. Nami, however, was pretty smart. And Luffy suspected that her ability to sense the weather probably had something to do with Haki, but how, exactly, was a mystery to him. Even so, he trusted that she would get his meaning. She usually did.

"She knew it was us but didn't care. She didn't want to fight, either. Probably for the same reason you didn't want me to fight, too," he said. "But I knew if you saw her you'd get upset, so I thought if we went across the street to the cotton candy stand you'd miss seeing her and wouldn't worry, but I guess not."

She didn't reply. She was staring at him instead, her eyes slowly moving over his face and he wondered what she was thinking. He was confident that she understood that they were completely safe from that Vice Admiral. He'd always protect her. He knew she knew that, but sometimes he couldn't stop her from worrying. Hopefully telling her that they had been safe all along would make her feel better, even if it was kinda disappointing that she didn't really mean to kiss him at all.

"We were okay," he said, grinning. "So you didn't have to kiss me, but it was still nice!"

"It was nice," she murmured.

A thrill of excitement shot up his spine and his smile grew impossibly large, "I knew you liked it, too!"

"I did."

He knew it! He knewitknewitknewit! But still he wondered why, if she liked it, did she seem to feel bad about it, too? That didn't make any sense. Tilting his head at her, he asked, "Then you don't regret it anymore?"

"I never regretted it," she said, her expression sharpening as she studied him. It was a look he knew well — one that usually meant she was on the verge of figuring something out. He had the odd sense that he was the one she was trying to figure out, but that didn't seem right. He was easy! It was everyone else who had the weird quirks and odd ideas.

"Sometimes, Luffy, it's that kind of stuff that can make things... complicated."

Luffy grunted, "Rayleigh thinks that, too. I don't get why. We can do what we want. I thought it was nice. Almost better than meat!"

Nami smirked, "Really? Better than meat?"

"Well, yeah. A different kind of better! It was fun! And Sanji ruined it."

She took a step toward him, her eyes searching his face. "He did, didn't he?"

"Can we do it again?" he asked hopefully. "When Sanji isn't around, maybe?"

She took another step, easily within kissing distance now, but she didn't lean toward him. She didn't move at all. Standing straight and tall, she said, "I don't go around kissing guys for fun, Luffy."

Disappointment formed a tight knot in his belly as bewilderment clouded his expression. Did that mean she didn't want to kiss him again? Or did she mean that she would only kiss him?

He'd never thought about her kissing someone else. He supposed that if he had caught Nami kissing Sanji the way Sanji had caught the two of them, he wouldn't have liked it very much. Luffy wouldn't have been angry, just... sad, maybe.

He wasn't sure.

It didn't feel like anything had really changed between them, yet something was different. Something mysterious and big and exciting. He wanted to explore it and see what kind of adventure it was. It seemed perfectly right and natural that (of course) Nami would be part of it because going on adventures with her was what he wanted to do. With her and all of their nakama.

And then he understood. Before she had a chance to clarify her statement, he knew what she meant. This was an adventure meant for just the two of them.

"I'll only kiss you," she continued as he grinned at her, toothy and wide. "Because it's you and no one else."

"Yeah!" he agreed a second before reaching for her. His arms circled around them both, pulling her flush against his body and he could feel her heart pounding against his chest. Their sudden closeness made her cheeks turn slightly pinkish as her eyes grew wide and he snickered.

"One more, really quick?" he asked.

The corner of her lip quirked upward as she relaxed against him and he took that as yes. He kissed her, mouth slightly open and eyes barely closed as his brain flooded with excitement. It was a different meeting the second time, with him leading and her leaning against him for balance and support, but it was just as nice as the first.

He wondered if every kiss would be different. It would be fun to find out.

~ the end ~

AN: Yep. That's it. I kicked around a couple of ideas for expanding beyond this, but none of them seemed to really pan out into a story worthy of additional chapters. If I get an idea that I can hook into this fic and grow into something fun to write, I may continue. Otherwise, this is done.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Luffy is fun to write. Hopefully I did him justice. :)