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“And now, for the tangerine juice and zest,” Nami mutters, reaching for the freshly prepared fruit from her own trees, dumping the already measured out portions into the saucepan of bubbling chocolate.
“Mmmm, that smells so good, just how I remember it,” she hums happily, the scent snatching her back to childhood in her mother's kitchen, when Bell Mere would round up the girls to make her famous chocolates. Of course, they hadn't had it often, money had been a little too tight, and certain ingredients had been a little too expensive, and then in the hellish years that'd followed, Nami had forgotten those memories, forgotten the chocolates along with the time or luxury of worrying about any of it anyway. It hadn't even really occurred to her to attempt recreating it until today; after all, she hadn't had anyone to make them for, and then when she had, she still hadn't had the time--Luffy kept her pretty well tied up navigating the Grand Line.
However, today, she has people she'd like to give them to, and for once, she's got the time. Not that it'd taken her long to recall and write out the recipe; despite not having made them in well over ten years, it'd been ingrained in her memory. Two batches are already cooled and stacked prettily on a plate, and a third batch is nearly done setting in cute little heart and orange shaped molds.
She hopes the crew likes them.
More to the point, she hopes one member of the crew in particular likes them. Of course, he likes everything, so she shouldn’t worry too much about that.
She does anyway.
She reaches over for a chocolate heart and pops it into her mouth. “Oh my god,” she moans softly around the confection, her eyes fluttering closed. “So good. Damn, I did good!”
“You did good on what? Hey, Nami,” an all too familiar voice calls out from the entrance, followed by the rapid footsteps and the usual noisy chaos of the ship’s captain as he bounds into the kitchen.
“Oh god, no,” Nami sort of whimpers under her breath with dread. Luffy in the kitchen is rarely a good thing in any event, but most especially not when one is actually using it. “What are you doing here?”
“Hungry,” he grunts, beelining for the fridge, clearly in hopes that she hadn’t remembered to lock it up.
Which, goddammit, she hadn’t. “Luffy, no,” she snaps out sharp as he yanks the door open, pointing her wooden spoon at him threateningly, “get out of the fridge. Actually, out of the kitchen. You have no business here.”
“Do too,” he snots back from within the fridge, practically having crawled onto one of the shelves. His head pops up and he throws her a look over his shoulder. “I was looking for you.” He immediately brightens with curiosity the instant his dark eyes fasten on the chocolate dripping off the end of her spoon. “What’s that?”
“Not yours,” she informs him with a grin, turning back to stirring the chocolate. That he's the main reason she'd made them is entirely beside the point, and not one he needs to know anyway.
“Mmm-hm,” he hums absently, sidling right up next to her. “Didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m making tangerine salted chocolates for the crew.” She thoughtfully moves the silicone molds, still full of candies she has yet to pop out, to her other side, away from her greedy captain’s pilfering hands.
“Tangerine salted chocolate?” He frowns, leaning over her shoulder, peering into the bowl. “Looks good, I want some.”
He’s close enough now that she catches his scent, a pleasant smell of salt, sun, and clean laundry. Today was shower day, she muses appreciatively, also noting that his hair is still wet, clumping in thick, gleaming spikes. The urge to touch feels like a sharp stab to the gut, she knows how thick and soft his hair is, how heavy it feels sliding through her fingers. She wants to feel it again, tug on it, and she wants to scratch his scalp and watch him lean into it, she wants to hear those hot as hell little noises he makes when he likes how something feels too.
“I’m making them for Valentine’s Day,” she stresses with a pointed glance, “meaning you can’t have any right now. But yes, you’ll get some of them.”
“They smell delicious,” he declares, resting his chin on her shoulder, humming low in obvious pleasure at the scent of the chocolates. Nami shivers, goosebumps zipping up her arms at his voice so close to her ear, at the feel of it thrumming in his throat against her skin.
She bites her lip and shoves her thoughts back to the candy. Wouldn’t do to think too much about him like that, not with him standing right there. For all that Luffy can be a complete dumbass, he can also be frighteningly perceptive; with the way her luck runs, he’ll catch it the first time she slips.
“Smells sweet. Orangey.” He tilts her a look, his chin pressing into her shoulder. “Kinda like you.”
“Oh yeah?” She teases him, deliberately putting a playful lilt to her tone to hide the way his casually given comment had slapped her nerves and jittered her pulse rate. “So, I’m delicious and sweet, you say?”
“Mmm-hm,” he nods distractedly, and she splutters, completely unraveling for a moment. He clearly hadn’t meant a thing by it, given the way his attention had already returned to the chocolate. He licks his lips, and she snorts at him.
“What?” He demands, dark eyes snapping back up to hers.
“Nothing,” she giggles softly, waving him off. “Just that you’re literally lead around by your stomach, Captain.”
He stares at her, rolling in his lower lip. Then his eyes widen, his gaze lifting to some point above both their heads. He drags his lip back out of his teeth, clearly in deep thought, and she damn near mewls in want watching him do it, wanting to bite that lower lip herself, it looks full, thick, she wants to nip at it, kiss it, lick it—
“So, at Christmas, you kiss under the mistletoe, right?” He muses, pointing up, as though said greenery was hanging over them presently.
“Uh-huh?” Nami follows his gaze upward, continuing to stir the chocolate, patiently waiting on him to get to where he's going with this.
“Then on Valentine’s Day, you should kiss under chocolates,” he declares with a wide grin, his eyes falling to catch hers, clearly quite proud of his reasoning.
She practically sucks in her teeth at that one. The hell did he mean by that?? Does he want to kiss me?? Oh no way, he isn’t interested, he’s not interested in anyone, not even Hancock, and she’s supposedly the most beautiful woman in the world. Calm down…
She slips into one of her practiced smiles, a safe one, one that hides how she really feels, but still tests the waters. “Well,” she drawls out saucily, “you haven’t yet kissed me under the mistletoe, so—“
“Oh, don’t worry,” he interrupts cheerfully, “I will this year!”
Her spoon clatters in the bowl and her jaw drops, her cheeks firing up and her heart drumming in her chest. Words evaporate as she stares at him in wide-eyed shock, and honestly, it wouldn’t matter anyway, because speech is utterly impossible with the way he’d snatched her goddamn breath clean out of her lungs.
“Awww, you look so surprised,” he sniggers, his large, tip-tilted eyes glittering dark and beautiful through heavy lashes, not a hint of hesitation or uncertainty lining his sharp features. “I like it when you look at me like that. Bet I can surprise you again.” He leans in closer, bumping his nose against hers, his smile so close to her mouth, she swears she can taste the heat off his lips. “Maybe you want me to kiss you now, huh?”
“Luffy, I…oh my god,” she breathes, then claps a hand tightly over her mouth and nods jerkily at him instead.
“Soube, minha laranjinha,” he chuckles, and his smile is so sweet, so wide as he closes the distance between them, reaching up to pull her hand from her mouth, and she has little idea of what he’d just said, only that it’s in his native language, and hearing him speak it to her while lacing his fingers through hers, while his other arm snakes around her from behind—
“Whoah, hey! Luffy, stay out of the chocolates,” she squawks, turning away from him just in time to catch his fingers dart over the plate of sweets, thick fingers snatching one before his hand snaps back.
He only laughs again, and the sound of it, thick, low, soft, yanks her back around to stare at him, an aching warmth gnawing all over her insides. He pulls her hand behind his neck, and she feels movement of his arm behind her, swooping up over them.
“Look!” He commands, still grinning as he gestures up. “See? Not eating it.”
She follows his gaze and her breath hitches in a little gasp.
“Then on Valentine’s Day, you should kiss under chocolates,” he’d said.
Her eyes fly to his, the warmth of his smile curling around her heart and squeezing. His fingers, still laced through hers at the nape of his neck, deftly loosen out her grip, and then he’s reaching for her, his large, roughened hand sliding along her jaw. She leans into his touch, rubbing her nose lips into his palm, just for a second, because he feels so good. And it’s embarrassing, the way she’s reacting, the way she wants more, but he feels too damn good to hide it.
“Nope, not eating it. Not yet,” he teases her, and gods, she loves his voice, she loves the rasp, he could liquify her from the inside out with his voice alone if he wanted to, and she loves how he’s rubbing his thumb over her cheekbone, how the calloused pad of his fingertip gently scratches her skin. “‘Cause on Valentine’s Day,” he continues, no longer teasing despite his tone remaining so light, “I gotta kiss my woman under chocolates, and I can’t do that if I eat it all first, huh?”
All she can manage is a dumb nod of her head, breath still caught, heart thudding in her ears, the world slowing down around her, chocolates forgotten, because hell, she’s in love with him, and he’s calling her his woman, about to kiss her, and she’s wanted this since forever—!
And then he’s doing it, he’s kissing her, his hand sliding back, fingers pushing through her hair, cupping her head, and his lips are warm, chapped, and softer than she’d expected. When his teeth nip at her lower lip, she opens right up for more, and when his tongue sweeps along her upper lip, she’s reaching for him, curling her fingers up into his damp hair, sliding her other arm around his neck, pulling him closer.
It’s a hell of a kiss, and it’s nothing like what she’d imagined.
She’d always imagined he’d sweep in, snatching her up on impulse, blow her over like a hurricane. She’d imagined he’d be clumsier, maybe even a bad kisser; after all, who kisses the first time, and is amazing at it? She’s seen the man devour food, she’d figured he’d kiss with the same gusto.
Instead, he’s deliberate, relentless, and steady in the way moves his mouth against hers, yet she can feel his excitement in the tension of his lips, the way he groans into his kiss, the way he drops his arm and circles it around her, yanking her in close. He kisses with the same enthusiasm as he fights, whole-heartedly, and with the same energy he’d first drawn her in all those months ago, feeling her out, experimenting, taking her cues, figuring out what makes her soften into him a little more, all because she's what he wants.
When he finally pulls back, just enough to touch foreheads and bump noses, his beautiful eyes are soft and heavy-lidded, and up this close, she can see the faint freckles dashed over his nose. He’s just as breathless and flushed as she’s feeling, and she’s decided he’s never been more beautiful to her than he is right this second.
“You just kissed me,” she finally manages, words still feeling a little thick, a little clumsy in her mouth.
“Yup,” he nods a little too excitedly, his nose knocking hers. “And I’m gonna do it again,” he promises, pulling back and popping his pilfered chocolate in his mouth. “After I eat this.”
Nami watches his eyes widen, lighting up excitedly as he chews the sweet, and her pride swells; it doesn’t matter that Luffy will eat anything, he likes her chocolates, a cherished piece of her childhood that she’d recreated from her memories as a gift to him and the others.
“Mmmm-hm, mmmmm…damn, you weren’t kidding earlier, these are amazing.” He smacks his lips appreciatively, his bright eyes peering behind her at on the pile of candy on the plate, intent clear as day.
“Absolutely not,” she chides him, grabbing his attention with a pinch his cheek, pulling, and letting it snap back. “You already stole one, and I’d said you can have more after these are all done.”
“Awww, but I really like ‘em, and I only stole the one so I could kiss you,” he grumbles at her, brows already pinching in a pout as he rubs his cheek.
“Doesn’t matter, you still stole one,” she snips archly, turning away, busying herself with popping the previous batch from the molds and piling them carefully on the plate.
Anything at all to regain her composure—
“Then I’ll just kiss you again, I guess.” He snatches her in close, grinning at her shrieked giggles as he flattens her against the hard line of his body, and then proceeds to kiss her til her toes curl up in her shoes.
When he breaks it off, she can only stare up at him, her head spinning and her heart racing, and he’s giving her the dopiest smile, his eyes crinkled up in the corners, and now he’s reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear, making her feel just a little weak in the knees, damn him anyway.
“Kissing you is fun,” he laughs just over her mouth, and her eyes widen as he pops another chocolate into his mouth, “especially when it’s chocolate kisses.”
“Luffy!” She huffs at him, “stay out of the damn chocolates!” She smacks a fast kiss to his mouth, her face burning, because holy hell, I just kissed him, “in fact, out of the kitchen. You’re just distracting me so you can steal more candy at this point—“
He pokes yet another stolen chocolate in her mouth, then laughs all the way into another kiss, one fast one after another, his large hands cupping her jaw as he licks at her lips, kisses the corner of her mouth.
“Feliz Dia dos Namorados, Nami,” he tells her between kisses, “now come back here, I’m not done kissing you yet.”
And as she leans into her captain, into his hands, his kisses, and soon after, into his arms, and then wrapped around him as he hauls up on the counter, his kisses scorching down the side of her neck, her last batch of chocolates completely forgotten…
She can't help but think he’s right, Valentine’s Day kisses absolutely should happen under tangerine salted chocolates.