I hate trying to come up with titles...
Title: Masquerade
Theme: Set 4 #22 Angel
Claim: Zoro x Nami
Words: 978
Rating: G
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer(s): I wish I had half of Eiichiro Oda's amazing creativity. The general setting and all recognizable characters belong to him.
The island at which the crew was currently stopped seemed to be some kind of crazy, continuous masquerade ball. It was going to take over twelve hours for the log pose to set, and they'd arrived in the evening, so there was really no reason not to join the party.
In order to avoid standing out, costumes would be required. Given the island's nature, they were available to rent cheaply. Nami had always enjoyed shopping for clothing, so she volunteered to go on the rental run. Zoro was roped into going along to carry everything since he didn't have any supply gathering duties, he was slightly better behaved in public than the captain, and he had no idea what kind of costume he wanted, while most of the others had requests or at least preferences.
Once at the shop, Nami quickly and efficiently collected the costumes specially requested by her crew mates before taking her time to select one for herself. There was an impressive selection, but nothing really piqued her interest until she caught a glimpse of snowy white feathers out of the corner of her eye.
She heard a familiar snort from behind her and looked over her shoulder to find Zoro, arms full of the already selected ensembles.
"Seriously?" he asked. "An angel?"
"Do you have a problem with that?" She glared at him. Not that she'd ever say as much out loud, but it hurt a little that the idea of her even simply dressing as an angel was funny to him. Was she really that bad? "Before you answer," she added with smirk, "remember that I still haven't picked an outfit for you."
"No, no problem!" He looked properly horrified at the prospect of her picking him out something ridiculous in retribution. "I mean, isn't the point of a costume to dress up as something you're not?"
"You're really not helping your case."
"It's just that angels are all goody-goody and perfect and that's..." he trailed off, searching for how he wanted to end that sentence.
"Not me?" She wanted to stay angry, but this was kind of hilarious. It was rare to see the swordsman so flustered. She forced her face to remain in a disapproving frown.
"Boring?" he offered instead. "You're crafty, you take what you want, and you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, and that's all a part of who you are." Surely he realized that didn't sound terribly flattering! "If you didn't have all of that not so perfect stuff, I'm not sure I'd like you as much." That was almost sweet, in an idiotic sort of way.
"How much do you like me?" She asked, expression blank, one eyebrow raised.
Nami could practically hear the gears turning in his head as Zoro processed both what he'd just said and her response. He looked a bit like he would like nothing more than to beat his head against the wall right now.
"I'm just going to go wait by the counter," he mumbled and skulked off toward the checkout.
Nami turned back to the racks of costumes. She was momentarily tempted to pick something mean, but then her gaze settled upon something simply perfect. She snatched up her find and carried it and the angel costume over to where Zoro was waiting. She hooked her right index finger through the hanger hook and let the outfit hang behind her so Zoro couldn't get a good look at it, yet.
"You know what?" She didn't wait for any sort of acknowledgement. "After thinking about it for a bit, you're not completely wrong."
"Huh?" was his intelligent response.
"Costumes are all about getting to pretend to be something you're not." She grinned impishly. "So you and I are going to be sort of a matched set."
"We are?" He looked at her dubiously. What he could see of the costume was red and black--not exactly the usual angelic color scheme.
"Here you go!"
She swung the hanger around to the front. Now that Zoro could get a good look at it, it clearly wasn't another angel outfit. In fact, it was pretty much the opposite. This was confirmed by the costume name printed on the tag: "Demon."
"I thought you agreed costumes were about being what you're not."
"Yep!" Nami grinned at him, clearly enjoying this quite a bit.
"I didn't give the 'demon swordsman' nickname to myself."
"I know," she agreed offhandedly.
"People started calling me that because I'm scary." Zoro's expression was utterly sincere.
"Sure you are." If she didn't know he'd never really hurt her on purpose, it would be seriously pushing her luck, but Nami couldn't resist reaching up to ruffle Zoro's hair. As if the condescending tone weren't bad enough. "You're very scary--to people who don't know you."
She then grabbed the articles from Zoro's arms and turned her focus to the teller. They didn't say anything else to one another, but Zoro was keeping up a steady grumbling rant to himself about how he was scary, and she was just lucky he didn't feel like proving it.
He didn't need to prove anything, really. Nami knew very well what a terrifying force Zoro could be in the midst of a battle, but he wasn't just a ruthless killing machine. Nami was glad there was a lot more to him; if there weren't, she wouldn't like him as much.
Theme: Set 4 #22 Angel
Claim: Zoro x Nami
Words: 978
Rating: G
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer(s): I wish I had half of Eiichiro Oda's amazing creativity. The general setting and all recognizable characters belong to him.
The island at which the crew was currently stopped seemed to be some kind of crazy, continuous masquerade ball. It was going to take over twelve hours for the log pose to set, and they'd arrived in the evening, so there was really no reason not to join the party.
In order to avoid standing out, costumes would be required. Given the island's nature, they were available to rent cheaply. Nami had always enjoyed shopping for clothing, so she volunteered to go on the rental run. Zoro was roped into going along to carry everything since he didn't have any supply gathering duties, he was slightly better behaved in public than the captain, and he had no idea what kind of costume he wanted, while most of the others had requests or at least preferences.
Once at the shop, Nami quickly and efficiently collected the costumes specially requested by her crew mates before taking her time to select one for herself. There was an impressive selection, but nothing really piqued her interest until she caught a glimpse of snowy white feathers out of the corner of her eye.
She heard a familiar snort from behind her and looked over her shoulder to find Zoro, arms full of the already selected ensembles.
"Seriously?" he asked. "An angel?"
"Do you have a problem with that?" She glared at him. Not that she'd ever say as much out loud, but it hurt a little that the idea of her even simply dressing as an angel was funny to him. Was she really that bad? "Before you answer," she added with smirk, "remember that I still haven't picked an outfit for you."
"No, no problem!" He looked properly horrified at the prospect of her picking him out something ridiculous in retribution. "I mean, isn't the point of a costume to dress up as something you're not?"
"You're really not helping your case."
"It's just that angels are all goody-goody and perfect and that's..." he trailed off, searching for how he wanted to end that sentence.
"Not me?" She wanted to stay angry, but this was kind of hilarious. It was rare to see the swordsman so flustered. She forced her face to remain in a disapproving frown.
"Boring?" he offered instead. "You're crafty, you take what you want, and you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, and that's all a part of who you are." Surely he realized that didn't sound terribly flattering! "If you didn't have all of that not so perfect stuff, I'm not sure I'd like you as much." That was almost sweet, in an idiotic sort of way.
"How much do you like me?" She asked, expression blank, one eyebrow raised.
Nami could practically hear the gears turning in his head as Zoro processed both what he'd just said and her response. He looked a bit like he would like nothing more than to beat his head against the wall right now.
"I'm just going to go wait by the counter," he mumbled and skulked off toward the checkout.
Nami turned back to the racks of costumes. She was momentarily tempted to pick something mean, but then her gaze settled upon something simply perfect. She snatched up her find and carried it and the angel costume over to where Zoro was waiting. She hooked her right index finger through the hanger hook and let the outfit hang behind her so Zoro couldn't get a good look at it, yet.
"You know what?" She didn't wait for any sort of acknowledgement. "After thinking about it for a bit, you're not completely wrong."
"Huh?" was his intelligent response.
"Costumes are all about getting to pretend to be something you're not." She grinned impishly. "So you and I are going to be sort of a matched set."
"We are?" He looked at her dubiously. What he could see of the costume was red and black--not exactly the usual angelic color scheme.
"Here you go!"
She swung the hanger around to the front. Now that Zoro could get a good look at it, it clearly wasn't another angel outfit. In fact, it was pretty much the opposite. This was confirmed by the costume name printed on the tag: "Demon."
"I thought you agreed costumes were about being what you're not."
"Yep!" Nami grinned at him, clearly enjoying this quite a bit.
"I didn't give the 'demon swordsman' nickname to myself."
"I know," she agreed offhandedly.
"People started calling me that because I'm scary." Zoro's expression was utterly sincere.
"Sure you are." If she didn't know he'd never really hurt her on purpose, it would be seriously pushing her luck, but Nami couldn't resist reaching up to ruffle Zoro's hair. As if the condescending tone weren't bad enough. "You're very scary--to people who don't know you."
She then grabbed the articles from Zoro's arms and turned her focus to the teller. They didn't say anything else to one another, but Zoro was keeping up a steady grumbling rant to himself about how he was scary, and she was just lucky he didn't feel like proving it.
He didn't need to prove anything, really. Nami knew very well what a terrifying force Zoro could be in the midst of a battle, but he wasn't just a ruthless killing machine. Nami was glad there was a lot more to him; if there weren't, she wouldn't like him as much.