#reijunami

Magnolia Stone isn’t the most interesting island Nami and her band of maniacs have come across, but it certainly is a lovely change of pace after the disaster on Egghead. They needed the small pitstop, Nami could concede.

An opportunity to patch up the Sunny,

an opportunity to restock,

an opportunity to let everyone breathe, Lilith and Bonney most of all.

With Broggy and Dory’s eternal pose a comforting lifeline to their homeland, it isn’t as if there was anything holding them back from docking nearby the small island either. The most trouble Nami could anticipate from this detour was Zoro, predictably, getting lost trying to find a local pub.

As such, the last thing Nami could have foreseen was running into a Vinsmoke in a children’s clothing store.

Apparently it was too soon to assume the Straw Hats would be without trouble here.

Despite her nerves, Nami’s eyes narrow at the princess.

“My, my,” her full lips curl into a small smile that barely reach her eyes the same color as her younger brother’s. “I must be losing my touch if I was spotted so easily by one of you Straw Hats.”

“I thought Germa promised they’d never show their face to Sanji-kun ever again,” Nami places her hands on her hip, the fabric of a shirt she thought Bonney would like brushing against it.

A mixture of regret and melancholy stir in that blue eye of hers and while she closes it, Reiju’s smile doesn’t fade. “I haven’t exactly broken that promise, haven’t I?” Eye open once more, she gestures at their surroundings in the store Nami has found herself in. “I don’t see Sanji anywhere in here, do you?”

Nami’s tongue clicks and she crosses her arms, “and you just happen to be shopping for children on a random island our crew happens to be?”

It’s only a moment, “it’s only natural for an elder sister to worry for her brother after an international disaster claims he was holding the world’s greatest scientist hostage with his pirate crew,” her pink company’s voice is low but Nami still flinches, glancing around worriedly around the shop. Thankfully, no one finds their little interaction interesting. “But I promise you, Germa won’t be involving itself in this matter. A promise is a promise.”

Despite wanting to keep her wits about her, it’s almost comical how easily Nami feels herself at ease.

She knows her liars both amicable and malevolent.

Vinsmoke Reiju is no liar, that much Nami can ascertain. With as much relief as she can spare, Nami lowers her hackles. “That doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“Yes, it is pretty strange for me,” Reiju chuckles softly. Nami blinks with a start as she suddenly bows her head with all the regality she’d expect from royalty. “I wanted to express my gratitude for your actions on Whole Cake. I won’t ever be able to properly convey how much it means to me knowing Sanji has people like this in his life.”

That gets the attention of the patrons and staff.

“You- you don’t have to bow!” Nami’s waves her hands frantically, pulling the woman up by the shoulders. “It’s fine, it’s fine! You helped us too!”

There’s a spark of mischief behind those sea blue eyes. It should be more annoying than it is in practice. “I’ll be looking for my brother now,” she turns, her cloak ー a muted gray, a stark contrast to the violet butterfly cake Nami had grown accustomed to seeing in all their previous encounters ー fluttering behind her. “I won’t be approaching him directly, don’t worry. I just want to see him.”

“Wait just a moment, elder sister,” Nami clasps a hand atop Reiju’s shoulder. “I need to finish shopping first. Someone has to make sure no shenanigans ensue.”

“Am I under watch, Miss Navigator?” There’s something about girls with pink hair. Something that makes them look softer than they actually are. The song in her chest is familiar but it isn’t quite the same. Pretty is an understatement, Nami is loathed to admit.

The grin that spreads across Nami’s face is wide, “of course! Trouble follows this crew like our shipwright avoids wearing clothes.”

Reiju warns her something about avoiding the easy routes a non-combatant like Nami will be accustomed to. The navigator waves her concerns off with ease; regret comes later when she is nestled in the arms of a princess jumping from rooftop to rooftop, clutching at her shoulders and shopping bags flying everywhere.

“I did warn you,” Nami shoots Sanji’s sister with a dirty glare as she shakily finds her footing on the rooftop she finds herself on. It’s no use, she sighs as she plops her rear down as if it’s a bench. You’d think I’d be used to this after all this time thanks to Luffy. Apparently she’d never acclimate to the sudden feeling of soaring through the air.

I hope the next time she eats poison, it’s one with a taste she can’t stand, Nami huffs as she recalls the woman’s affinity for it. “Do you see Sanji-kun from up here?”

When there isn’t an immediate answer to her query, Nami glances at the woman curiously. “Reiju?”

“I see him,” she replies quietly.

Following her line of sight, Nami finds the blond in question.

Unsurprisingly, he’s bustling about the marketplace. Wherever they dock, the marketplace is always his first line of business. They can never have too much food when their home is the sea and it comes with as much beauty as it does uncertainty.

Luffy accompanying him could almost be a surprise, all things considered. Their newly-minted relationship and the honeymoon phase that came along with it had yet to end, however. It’s almost uncanny how well-behaved Luffy’s behaving.

Well, almost.

Luffy is still Luffy, dragging Sanji about from stall to stall with Sanji barely able to pay them for their services. Nami snorts, watching the two of them eat some sort of cubed-shaped fruits at the most recent.

Whole Cake Island was a painful affair, the palm of Nami’s right hand burns from the memory of slapping Sanji’s cheek. Buried deep as it may, there’s a part of her that knows she won’t be able to forgive him or Luffy for what unfolded in Big Mom’s domain.

Her throat ragged from pleas unheeded as Sanji’s flaming foot came barreling down on their captain’s head.

The horrid snapping of skin, muscles and sinew as Luffy attempted to tear his arms off. There’s no doubt in her mind that if it weren’t for Jinbei, he would have succeeded. Nami digs her nails into her skin as she hides away the thoughts of the alternate reality she could’ve found herself in.

It was painful, but something beautiful came from it too. And most importantly, Sanji-kun is back. That triumphs over any lingering feelings leftover from their entanglement with the Charlotte family.

“Love always finds a way,” bubblegum pink and lips dyed red from lipstick flashes in Nami’s mind and she’s back in Thriller Bark watching Lola heartily drink in celebration of their victory over the Warlord.

Love hadn’t been at the forefront of Nami’s mind during most of the events she found herself in as a Straw Hat, but looking back love was somehow at the center of everything they did.

Love for their friends,

love for their crew,

love for one another.

A special love.

Lola talked about love as if it were the strongest thing in the planet. Something as saccharine, cotton-candy sweet as it could be gut-wrenching and desperate no matter the kind of love at hand.

Captain Kuro.

Arlong.

Drum Island.

Alabasta.

CP9.

Thriller Bark.

Whole Cake.

Even Bonney and her father found each other after everything, what little of the ‘everything’ Nami knew.

Sanji uses a kerchief to wipe Luffy’s fruit-stained cheeks looking equal parts exasperated and smitten, Luffy looks back at him like he placed the ocean on the earth and all of its inhabitants with it.

Nami’s lips quirk up softly. “It’s nice seeing the two of them so happy after everything.”

“Yes, it is,” Reiju speaks for the first time since her long pause. She shuffles a bit before taking a seat beside the orange-haired navigator beside her. “This is the sort of softness someone like Sanji deserves.”

Nami can’t find herself disagreeing as silence falls between them again. Sanji is someone who loves love just as much as Lola herself, maybe even more so. She wonders if she’ll be able to determine an answer proper whenever she encounters the jovial pirate once again.

Nami glances at the woman beside her, noting the part in her hair. “You look a lot like your brother.”

Reiju finally spares her a glance, “he takes after our mother.”

“It must be the same for you then,” Nami replies petulantly, not entertaining any arguments.

Another pause.

Nami fidgets, the skin of her legs brushing against her shopping bags. “For what it’s worth, maybe one day Sanji-kun’ll reach out to talk to you. He’s kind like that.”

“No,” Reiju murmurs, resting her chin on her knees. The motion makes her look younger than her years as she watches the scene unfolding below. “This is more than enough for me. It’s a little too late for us to play at proper siblings. He has a proper family now and someone he loves, that makes me happy.”

“It’s just a tattoo,” Nojiko grinned, gloved hand showing off the orchard’s first harvest of the season as younger sister gawked at the blue display across her skin. “It’s not a big deal! Besides, now we match, don’t you think?”

Older sisters are silly no matter the family, she supposes. Even in a family like the Vinsmokes and the evil army the reign. It’s the stuff of dreams, the evil army thought to have been an old wives tale to scare kids being real. Then again, Nami never expected to talk any number of royalty in her life.

Nami opens her mouth but halts when she sees the unflappable woman move with a start.

Brown meets brown as Nami notes Luffy’s eyes suddenly on them, Sanji unaware as he seemingly negotiates a price with the vendor. His expression is unreadable for only a moment before the captain beams widely.

Nami’s lips curl instinctively as Luffy ducks away, pulling Sanji behind him to wherever they’ll find themselves next. “I think there’s more of a chance for you than you might think if our captain can smile at you like that. He’s a great judge of character.”

The princess hums thoughtfully but says nothing else.

“You know,” Nami leans back, staring at the blue of the sky for a few heartbeats. It’s playing a familiar song, despite herself. There’s something about the color pink that makes her lose her brain as it floats far above the clouds of common sense and reality. “My mother said once that angels have pink hair.”

“The demons must have them too,” Reiju replies, fluid as honey as she brushes the backside of her hand against her hair.

Nami isn’t able to stop her laughter from spilling over like a babbling brook, “she said that too.”

Giggles slip from Reiju’s person as well, “color me surprised then. Your mother sounds like a smart woman.”

She was.

Nami doesn’t wish to damper the spirits of her temporary company after she’s just raised them. “I’ll be sure to pass on the message.”

Reiju smiles with a nod of satisfaction, “I’ll be heading back to Germa now.” She stands up with ease, reaching out a hand. Nami accepts it gratefully. “Thank you again. I leave my brother in your hands.”

“We’ll take good care of him,” Nami vows as sure as Luffy will be King of the Pirates.