One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Ninety Three [Rewritten]

-Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Three-

"Take care on your way home, old man!" Usopp waved.

"You too! Wherever you may go, I pray for your safe journey" Tonjit smiled.

"That's that—time to head off!" Luffy grinned. "Nami, is the Log ready yet?" he asked.

"Sure is, we're all good to go" Nami nodded.

"Alright, it's about time" Zoro said, pleased to know that we were finally leaving this island behind us.

"Yeah" Sanji agreed.

"So what now?" Usopp curiously asked.

"Yeah, what now?" I echoed in agreement. "Are we finally going to go off and snag ourselves a shipwright?" I questioned.

"Yeah" Luffy nodded. "Just hold on, Merry, we'll find a shipwright to fix you up in no time" he smiled as he gave the ship an assuring pat.

"Yeah!" we cheered in agreement.

-That Night-

"Really? You and Zoro were childhood friends?" Nami asked, surprised. Currently seated in the women's quarters, I had just finished answering most of her questions after being forcibly dragged in here once dinner was finished under the guise of much-needed girl time...which really just meant she wanted alone time to interrogate me.

"Yeah, that's right" I nodded, mindlessly fiddling with the corner of the pillow I held as I carefully thought over my words. "For a while, my brothers and I were living relatively close to Shimotsuki Village" I explained, silently thinking back to that day Zoro and I met. "Our meeting was kind of by...accident? Yeah, I don't think he was expecting anyone to be that far out from the village, but after that, we kind of got to know each other" I continued, recalling how he had been angrily crying over his humiliating loss to Kuina that day when I had stumbled across him. It was such a silly thing to get upset over...then again, with how many times he lost to her back then, I guess it made sense why it frustrated him so much back when we were just mere children.

"I'll admit though...it was just a silly child's crush I had on him back then..." I blushed as I started to recall when those feelings of mine first started to develop. I couldn't really pinpoint exactly when they first popped up, I just knew that one day I realized that my feelings for him felt far different compared to my feelings for my brothers or anyone else I've ever met up to that point in my life...even now, I have yet to find someone that made me feel the exact same way he makes me feel. "Honestly, I thought it would have disappeared by now, but...that day when you all came to the island and I saw him again...it was like a flame was reignited in my heart..." I softly smiled, my blush only getting worse at how cheesy that sounded despite how true it was.

"Talk about love at first sight" Nami whistled. "So you're both finally official now?" she grinned as she eagerly leaned forward.

"Yeah..." I nodded, unable to really look at her as I shyly looked to the floor. It felt rather strange to say that aloud despite it being true...felt strange to finally put a name to what we had going on between us.

"Well, I'm glad!" Nami happily clapped. "Although," she slyly grinned, "I better not hear, let alone catch, you two doing anything naughty on the ship" she playfully teased, wagging her finger in a chastising manner.

"N-Nami!" I choked, face now flushed a blazing red as she burst out laughing before pulling me into a tight hug—pressing the side of my face against her bosom as she joyfully began to sway the both of us from side to side.

"I'm joking! But I'm seriously happy for you two!" she grinned. "It was infuriating watching you two—I thought I was going to go mad over how long you were taking" she chuckled, now holding me at arm's length before suddenly that smile of hers dropped as her eyebrows now knitted together in thought. "Although, I do have one more question for you" she said.