Dixxy Mouri's LiveJournal

Raindrops

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:28:09 GMT

A Nami-fic for everyone's favorite navigator's.

Title: Raindrops
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Pairings: Sanji x Nami (or maybe Nami x Sanji?)
Summary: It's Nami's birthday and she's upset that her birthday plans have been ruined by the rain. Sanji says he still has something in store for her, and something neither of them expected happens.

This one KIND OF takes place in the Angel of Death Fruit time line - a few months after the final story in the series, actually - but can be read independently of the series and contains no spoilers for Lifeline or End of the Line. It also doesn't have to take place in it if you don't want it to :)

Based on something kittychan1986 said in an MSN chat. Also the high amount of cheese might be some kind of reaction to "Caught" and Sanji's surprise is a result of watching too much of a certain TV show.

Raindrops
By Dixxy Mouri

It’s raining . . . I hate it!

It had started off as a relatively quiet land leave – she and Sanji were going to resupply the ship and he was going to take her out for a picnic lunch and shoe shopping, a task none of the other male Straw Hats would ever agree to do even if threatened, never mind volunteer for as the cook had done. But, then again, they were just her friends, Sanji was her boyfriend, and it was her birthday.

But on their way into town from where they’d docked the ship, it started to rain. Downpour. Deluge. Soak. Get things wet. It was as if someone had simply dropped the entire ocean into a giant colander over the island and just let it drain. It was one of the worst rains Nami had ever seen unaccompanied by wind and waves, and having traveled for so long on the Grand Line that was some feat. This required the two of them to take refuge in a nearby barn, where it was smelly and kind of dirty and filled with animals, but it was dry.

That is how the two of them ended up sitting side by side naked in the hay loft, waiting for the rain to pass, their knees curled to their chests and their bodies shivering as their clothing hung from the rafters. Sanji was particularly cranky because his cigarettes and matchbook were soaked through as well. Nami was just glad they were in a relationship – otherwise Sanji seeing her naked would have been a big deal.

Somewhere down below, a pig was squealing.

“I should pick up some hams when we get into town,” Sanji said.

Nami nodded. “You make a good ham.”

“Thanks.”

They sat in silence again, their eyes on the world outside the barn, waiting for the end of the rain and watching for signs of farmers or Marines coming to investigate the hayloft or seek shelter as they had. Then again, there were a lot of farms and barns on the island. It was an autumn island and was extremely green, making it perfect for lots of agriculture to prosper.

She felt Sanji creeping closer to her, settling behind her and pulling her back towards him – his chest was cold and when he looked down at her, water from his hair dripped into her face. “Warmer?” he asked.

“I thought you were cranky.”

“But being with you makes up for my cigarettes, Nami-chan.” He moved his hand to her hip.

“Not right now – I can’t get in the mood when it smells like a barn in here.”

“I wasn’t thinking about THAT,” said Sanji. He grinned. “Though since you asked, maybe later?”

Nami sighed. “I’m cold, wet, and cranky, Sanji-kun – I’m really not in the mood.”

Sanji lay down beside her, coaxing her to do the same. Begrudgingly, she did and let him pull her into his arms. “What’s wrong, Nami-chan?” He stroked the side of her face and she relaxed into his arms. She was still wet and cranky and disappointed with how her day was going, but at least someone cared about her day.

“This wasn’t how I planned our afternoon,” she said. “I wanted us to have a nice lunch somewhere and go shopping and do the resupplying and now this happened. We never get to have time to ourselves on the ship and when we do you get to do the Walk of Shame in the morning with the peanut gallery choir hooting and hollering over it and we never get to do anything special. We can’t even count on Robin not walking in on us the morning after anymore, what with the last several times.”

They both cringed at the memory.

Sanji was the first to compose himself. “Well, I have to admit it, Nami-chan – I was planning on getting you naked today but I didn’t think it would happen quite like this,” Sanji confessed playfully. Nami frowned at him, elbowing him in the gut. “Aw, I was only half-joking.”

“And I only half-elbowed you,” she said with a sigh. “I love you Sanji-kun but I’m really pissed right now. Today was supposed to be better than this.” She rolled around to face her lover with a pout. “It was supposed to be romantic and relaxing and . . . now this. This isn’t romantic. This is . . . I don’t know what this is but I wanted things to go better.”

Sanji started to kiss her neck. “You don’t find the danger of getting caught exciting?”

“No. I’d rather not. I’d be too worried about getting caught to enjoy it. I don’t find that sexy.”

The cook sighed. “Well, we’re here now, we’re alone.”

“The animals are here.”

“I don’t care about the animals – like they care. But if you’re not in the mood, then that’s fine. Let’s just . . . enjoy each other’s company for a little bit.” Sanji kissed her cheek and pulled her back into his arms. “We’ll have plenty of other opportunities to be alone together, on and off the ship. I promise. I’ll find time for us to be alone together.”

“I wish my birthday date had gone better.”

Sanji kissed the top of her head. “I’m sure things will improve.”

“How so?”

Sanji kissed the back of her head. “I’ve got a surprise for you back on the ship.”

Nami closed her eyes. “A surprise? What kind of surprise?”

“You’ll see.”

Nami didn’t feel like pressing the matter further. “Okay.”

The rain poured on.

~

Nami sighed contentedly in the bubbles of the bath, letting the smell of lilac and vanilla ease the tension in her muscles. After another couple of hours, the rain had let up and they’d been able to get dressed, get to town, and restock the supplies. Sanji still bought her dinner, but it wasn’t the nice sit down in a restaurant they’d been hoping for – it was sandwiches on the way back to ship.

Sanji insisted she take a bath when they got back, even if it was just to calm her nerves. She’d readily complied, although frowned when Sanji insisted he get her a dry change of clothing. Nami agreed to this, but only if he brought himself a dry change of clothing for after the bath as well. “If you’re going to surprise me with something special tonight, let’s not smell like a barn,” she’d said as she pulled off her t-shirt. When he returned, the two lathered each other up, had a brief splashing war, and then cuddled with for a few minutes.

After wrapping a towel around his waist, Sanji had insisted Nami stay and enjoy the soak for a little longer – he said he needed to check on her surprise and make sure it was ready before she saw it. Feeling much better than she had earlier that evening, Nami nodded and playfully shooed him out of the bathroom.

She started to feel her skin wrinkle, so she stood up and pulled the drain on the tub. She rinsed the bubbles off her skin and pulled on the dress, panties, and bra Sanji had brought her to change into, stuffing her dirty clothing into a bag. Nami took a seat on the edge of the tub and began pulling her shoes on, then sighed sadly.

It was late, which meant it was time for bed, and time to share her room with Robin in awkward silence.

It wasn’t to say that Nami and Robin were having a big fight or anything – the navigator didn’t hate the archaeologist and she didn’t think the reverse was true, but their old arrangement of having their respective boyfriends spend the night in their room when the other had watch duty was . . . falling apart.

Essentially, the two couples were getting closer and closer and the weeks turned into months, and it was becoming harder and harder to send the cook and shipwright out of the girls’ room in the morning for their Walk of Shame back to the men’s quarters. Adding to the problem was the temptation for a little good morning sex, which had resulted in Robin catching Nami and Sanji in a number of compromising positions and Nami seeing just how “creative” Robin could be with her Devil Fruit ability in the bedroom.

This had resulted in a series of awkward silences, a decrease in what had previously been cheerful, sisterly conversation, and perhaps even a little resentment. It was also straining Robin’s friendship with Sanji (as the archaeologist was now terrified to go to the kitchen unless it was meal time) and Nami’s friendship with Franky (resulting in fumbling conversation every time the navigator needed to know something special about the ship as she tried to suppress images of him getting felt up by no less than twelve arms).

Nami stepped out of the bathroom to find Sanji waiting for her, dressed in his usual shirt and pants but a new tie and shirt, leaning against the wall opposite the bathroom. “Hello my little tangerine princess,” he said, pulling her into his arms and kissing her forehead. Nami rolled her eyes and sighed a smile, letting him do whatever it was he was doing. “Are you ready for your surprise?”

“Sure Sanji-kun. Whatever.”

Sanji held up a blindfold. “Put this on.”

Nami was unimpressed. “If your surprise is ‘kinky sex’ we’re waiting for YOUR birthday.”

Sanji glared and gritted his teeth. “The surprise is not ‘kinky sex’!” he said irritably. Then he took a deep breath. “If you wanted to do that in addition TO the surprise, though, I won’t turn down the offer.” He winked at her.

Nami rolled her eyes, put on the blindfold, and held out her hand. “Okay Sanji-kun.”

“I’m going to be more romantic than that,” he said, getting behind her a scooping her up in his arms. Nami let out a slight yelp, but put her arms around his neck and let him carry her to wherever it is he was going. “I have to admit – I had other ulterior motives to getting you off the ship today,” he confessed.

Nami frowned. “Why?”

“Because the surprise was going to take a long time to set up and we needed you off the ship.”

“Sanji-kun . . .” she complained. “What did you do?”

Sanji didn’t say anything, which was frustrating Nami a little bit. She whimpered, resting her head against his shoulder. What was he up to? Sanji might have not been the smartest man on the crew (although, she realized, he was probably smarter than MOST of the men on the crew, including and especially their captain) but he was pretty creative when he wanted to be.

Nami wasn’t sure where she preferred his creativity – in the kitchen or in the bedroom.

“Can I guess?”

“You probably won’t.”

“. . . jewelry?”

“Nope.”

“ . . . a puppy?”

“We have Chopper, what do we need a puppy for?”

“ . . . you’re right, that is close enough.”

“Anymore guesses?”

“Um, cake?”

“No, but there is some wine and chocolate.”

Nami grinned. “Oh, I get it. You’re having the picnic out on the deck. That’s adorable.”

“Nope.”

The navigator whined. They were outside now and, judging by the fact they’d gone up some stairs, they were standing outside the girls’ room. She sighed. “So your big surprise is Robin’s staying out of the room tonight? Sanji-kun . . .” Oh joy, he’d gotten her a self-serving gift. Wasn’t that usually her shtick?

But Sanji seemed to think otherwise. “Oh my pretty little tangerine, you have no idea,” Sanji said. He put his back to the door and opened it, stepped in, then closed the door. He put her down and held his breath, then kissed her cheek. “I . . . really hope you like it. Because if you don’t I’m dead. Happy Birthday, Nami-chan.”

Sanji pulled off the blindfold and Nami gasped.

This was not the bedroom she shared with Robin.

For one, it was about half the size – clearly, someone had put up a wall between the two rooms, and this alone explained why Sanji needed to get her away from the ship for a day – the construction alone would have taken a few hours. But the new wall blended in beautifully with the other three, making it seem as if it had been there all along.

But it wasn’t just a construction job – the room had been arranged . . . perfectly for her. There was a desk near the door with some of her personal supplies, including some of her favorite books between two bookends and a brand new journal and pen sitting there waiting for her. A picture of Bellemere-san, Nojiko, and her younger self sat in a frame on one side of the desk and a picture of herself and Sanji sat on the other – her two favorite photos.

There was still access to the girls’ bathroom from this new bedroom, albeit the room now had additional doors, one of which Nami assumed opened up into what must have been Robin’s new room. Otherwise the bathroom had simply been cleaned and mostly left alone – not a shocker, but still a nice touch.

There was a wardrobe in the corner, with one door left ajar and one drawer open, where all of her clothing and shoes could be found. Still, it looked like it would be a little too big to hold ever her wardrobe, and she had a sneaking suspicion this wasn’t necessarily meant to be her bedroom alone.

Nami looked at the new queen sized bed next to the closet, her eyes scanning over over the soft, cream colored comforter with blue and orange embroidery (another sign that SOMEONE thought he might be sharing this room with her) and the pillows to match. The headboard was the same wood and design style as the desk – simple, but still pretty.

It was an awful lot to take in.

“You guys gave me my own bedroom?” Nami said slowly, finally turning back to Sanji.

“Yeah. Robin picked out everything in the room and Franky did most of the construction, though he got Usopp and Chopper to help out,” he hugged her from behind and whispered into his ear. “And the other idiots helped out a little, too. Well, mostly with the money part of it so it’s kind of from everyone. Your own room.”

Nami looked at the bedspread. “So you’re not moving in here, too?” She pointed at the colors. “The orange is definitely me but you’re the blue. And it’s definitely bigger than my old bed.” Nami frowned at the memory of trying to share her old bunk with Sanji – sure it was “cozy” but it usually took a while before they were both comfortable and every other time Sanji ended up on the floor in the middle of the night. If he spent the night with her in this bed there was plenty of room for both of them.

“Robin picked it out, not me – I guess she just assumed you’d invite me to stay,” he said.

“So that’s why it’s a bigger bed,” Nami said, turning her head and smirking at him.

“I wasn’t exactly thinking that . . . although I know Franky and Robin are moving in together,” Sanji asked. His eyes widened. “Are you asking me to move in?” He lit up at the notion – he looked adorable with that look on his face, but Nami bit her bottom lip as she thought about it. Did she want a roommate? Or just an occasional visitor?

“Hmm,” Nami said, swaying her hips. She kicked off her shoes and flopped backwards onto the middle of the bed. Sanji walked over to the foot, watching her with interest. “I do like the bed. A lot. It’s comfy and big and roomy.” She sat up and sighed, putting her hand on Sanji’s shoulder. She closed her eyes – an idea popped into her head. “I love you, Sanji-kun, but moving in together is a very big step.”

“So it’s a no?”

Nami closed her eyes and shook her head, the idea tinkering around in her head. “I never said that, I’m just . . . well, I want you to answer a question first,” she said. Nami patted the space on the bed next to her. Sanji sat down, taking her hand in confusion. “I need a minute to think.” She leaned her head against Sanji’s shoulder, her mind spinning. She thought everything they’d gone through since he’d first laid eyes on her and immediately started to try and romance her, to all the steps in between leading up to their first kiss, the first time they made love, their first date . . . and now the possibility of living together. If things kept going the way they were . . .

The cook looked at her in concern. “Nami-chan, what are you trying to do?”

Nami looked him in the eyes. They had been through a lot together as friends and as crewmates, and in the past four months or so as lovers. She loved everyone on the ship dearly but loved Sanji differently. She couldn’t listen to her head – she needed to listen to her heart and let her heart say what needed to be said.

“Nami-chan . . . what’s the question?”

“Sanji-kun . . . will you marry me?”

Nami watched Sanji’s jaw drop in surprise as he stared at her in shock. Odd little squeaking noises came out of the back of his throat. Nami looked him over in concern. “Oh! Was I too forward?” she asked. “I know it’s been four months – well, less than that – but we’ve been doing so well together and we were friends for such a long time so it’s not like we haven’t known each other for a while and you did all this for me and, well . . . I thought it would be a good idea to ask.”

Sanji shook his head, regaining his composure. “I just thought you wanted to top tonight or something – I didn’t see it coming, that’s all,” he said. He took her hands and laughed. “I see what you meant with that first question though – I guess I figured when the day came I’d be the one asking you to marry me, that’s all.”

Nami smiled. “So you were planning on asking me anyways?”

Sanji closed his eyes, and nodded. “Yes, I was. It just wasn’t planned for, well, tonight.”

“Are you okay with me asking?”

The cook closed his eyes. “Well, could I still buy you a ring?”

“Sanji-kun, how long have you known me again?”

“Right,” he said, laughing a little nervously.

“I’ll probably get you one, too,” she said.

“You don’t have to do that.”

Nami kissed his cheek. “But I want to.”

Sanji smiled. “So, what was that you wanted to ask me again?”

Nami took a deep breath, looking into his eyes as she squeezed his hands. “Will you marry me?”

They kissed as Sanji gently leaned Nami back onto the bed. “Yes.”

~

Nami decided that celebratory engagement sex was the best sex she and Sanji had ever had. Somehow everything was new and exciting - even though it was far from their first time together, it was their first time as an engaged man and woman, and they were both a little euphoric over the turn their relationship had taken. What a way to christen their new bedroom (THEIR BEDROOM!). It had been romantic (which, the presence of chocolate and wine showed that romance had been planned, but the exact nature of the wooing was a surprise to even the mastermind behind it all), tender, and so right-feeling that Sanji joked they should get engaged every night.

They were going to need to figure out how to handle telling their crewmates the following morning – it would be no surprise that Sanji would be moving out of the men’s quarters, but the decision to get married would be a big one. They were rather young to be making that kind of a commitment, but once the heat of the moment was over and done with they had a serious discussion about how everything would work, decided they were satisfied with it, and then somehow ended up back in the throes of passion.

She was also going to have to write Nojiko and Genzo a letter in the morning – she was overdue anyways and decided it would be cute to add her engagement as a post script. She knew Sanji would have some words for his loved ones as well. That would lead to some interesting letters from home for sure.

Sanji was already asleep, spooning her from behind with his arms wrapped around her waist. She looked back at him and smiled. The novelty hadn’t worn off yet and she still felt excited. She knew that they would both come back from cloud nine in a couple of days and, soon enough, their engagement would only be of particular interest for people who were just finding out for the first time. It wasn’t going to change much aside from their sleeping arrangements and the frequency with which they made love (which Nami guessed was going to increase now that they didn’t need to plan everything around who was taking what watch and when they’d be able to sneak off to an inn somewhere). In the end he was still going to be her Sanji, and she didn’t think she was going to be much different for him either.

What do you think, Bellemere-san? I was wrong, wasn’t I? I’m going to get married someday, Nami sighed, smiling at the image of her mother. The last time she had thought about marriage and her mother had been the night she’d been caught in the bowels of a pirate ship. The smelly, middle aged pirate who was likely old enough to be her father had threatened to kill her until some small of her brain shoved her emotions and fear into a dark corner and offered her virginity in exchange for her life, resulting in a rough, painful, and frightening induction into womanhood. She’d cried when it was over, ashamed of what her mother would think if she knew her daughter had been fucked by a nameless pirate, taking away the only bit of childhood she had left after Arlong had enslaved her and rendering her unwanted by most men for anything more than a quick tumble in the sheets.

Nami hadn’t counted on meeting Sanji. Sanji, the man who had tried to romance her from the moment he first saw her. Sanji, the man whom she figured had a sexual history a mile long but ended up giving his virginity to her even though he knew her history. Sanji, the man who, somehow, someway, had convinced Nami that she could be loved despite everything and in the end became the man she was now promised to marry. The man she would build her life with, maybe raise a family with.

Do you approve, Bellemere-san? He loves me, but do you approve? Sanji nuzzled closer to her in his sleep and Nami shifted a little to relax in her arms. I know he was a handful when I first met him. But he loves me. He protects me. I know that you won’t have to worry about me when I’m with him – he won’t even hurt a girl who’s trying to kill him. She muffled a giggle – Sanji made a whining noise in response but didn’t wake up.
Nami heard the sounds of the weather changing outside and turned her body to face the port hole. The deluge from earlier, when she and Sanji had sat there shivering naked in the barn, had returned. She relaxed into her fiancé’s embrace, sighing and smiling as she watched the rain come down, pattering on the wood of the ship.
It’s raining . . . and it’s beautiful.

YAY!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:19:32 GMT

One of my drabbles won in the onepiece_300 community, so this week I get to choose the theme and pick the winner. Huzzah!

Caught - Chapter Two

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:13:55 GMT

Title: Caught With His Pants Down
Chapters: Prologue + 2 Chapters
Rating: R - that's right, you heard me!
Pairings: Slight Franky x Robin, possible hints of Sanji x Nami later on
Summary: Sanji makes his first escape attempt, fails, and eats pancakes.

Caught With His Pants Down
By Dixxy Mouri
Chapter Two

“Put your pants back on.”

Sanji frowned. “But you worked so hard to get me out of them last night.”

Sugarlips glared at him, shoving the gun forward. “Pants.”

“Yes, Sugarlips-chan.”

“Put the damn pants on, pirate.”

Sugarlips tossed him his pants, which Sanji struggled to get into with his hands still bound – he was going to have to solve that problem quickly if he wanted off her boat. Well, they’re rope – I can’t break them but maybe I can find something to cut through them? He finally managed to pull the zipper up and button the fly closed.

Sugarlips placed the gun at the base of his neck. “Move.”

“Where?”

“Bedroom.”

“You’re insatiable.”

The bounty hunter was starting to lose her patience. “I’m tying you to the bar in my closet – I’ll give you food three times a day and one cigarette between meals – I’m not dealing with withdrawal – and let you out for regular bathroom breaks because if you do . . . that . . . in my closet I will be collecting 53, 900,000 berries instead of the 77 million.”

“Huh?” asked Sanji.

“I did the math. That’s seventy percent of your bounty. It’s what they pay for dead pirates.”

Sanji swallowed. “All right, when nature calls you’ll get a call, too.”

Sugarlips had Sanji open the closet door and shove aside several items of clothing. Nami would kill for half of these shirts, Sanji noted to himself. She then produced a pair of handcuffs from her dresser drawer. The cook snickered. “Didn’t we go through that game this morning?”

“Stuff it.” Keeping the gun on him, Sugarlips slipped one cuff through the nylon surrounding Sanji’s wrists and attached the other to the closet bar. “There. That should keep you for the next five days.”

Sanji raised an eyebrow. “Five days?”

“That’s how far we are from the nearest Marine Base,” she said, reaching into the pocket of her shorts for a pack of cigarettes – Sanji looked at them longingly, suddenly craving one. “If we had a bigger boat we could get there in a day or two but this one isn’t terribly fast, I’m sorry to say. So I’m stuck with you for that long.”

Okay, five days. The Thousand Sunny is pretty fast so if the others did figure out what happened they might be able to catch up to her. Nami-san is smart enough to realize she’d head to the nearest Marine Base and she could get the others there easy. But I can’t rely on that – especially if that means the muscle head sees me like this.
Actually . . . Sanji wondered as Sugarlips left to get breakfast, what is everyone else doing now?

~

As the sun rose over the horizon line, there was still no sign of the Straw Hat’s chef returning.

Nami blinked sleepily and worriedly at the boarding plank of the Sunny. She’d had watch duty that night and, unlike a normal shift, everyone had agreed that Sanji was probably the most important thing to keep an eye out for when they realized it was after midnight and he still hadn’t shown up.

He was in fact the only thing to look for – the island was very small, quaint, and quiet and was lacking in the usual oppressive rulers, Marine Base (the nearest one was, at the Sunny’s fastest speed, a day’s sail away), and other pirates. When the Straw Hats made no trouble, the islanders seemed to think leaving them alone was the best thing to do. With really no fear of being attacked by, well, anything, Nami was basically just waiting up for Sanji.

And he still hadn’t come back.

Nami swallowed. Something was wrong. They’d lost track of him at the tavern the night before – no one in the crew had seen him leave but when it was time to go he wasn’t there. The Straw Hats had searched the tavern for a good ten minutes (which, considering there were eight of them searching, was actually pretty thorough) and then checked the streets around the tavern. No sign of Sanji. Thinking he might have returned to the ship early the crew tried there, only to find the ship cook-less.

“Sanji’s pretty strong – he’ll probably be okay for one night,” Luffy had concluded. And the rest of the crew – even Zoro – had to agree. Sanji wasn’t entirely stupid and he was one of their stronger members. He’d be fine, they were sure of it. But just in case, Chopper left a first aid kit with Nami before he went to bed and Usopp offered to be a second pair of eyes.

Nami sighed as she realized the others were starting to wake up. Something was definitely wrong.

~

Sanji stared at the handcuffs Sugarlips had chained him to the closet rack with. She’d closed the door on him so it was hard to see, but he was pretty sure he knew the brand. They weren’t good handcuffs – they didn’t look like they were made of a particularly strong metal – he might be able to get out of them, even without the key.

After all, Sanji was very good with his hands.

Sanji reached up to the cuff attached to the closet rack – that was the biggest problem at the moment. The knot was in a just awkward enough place that he couldn’t get to it with his teeth, otherwise he would have been untied already. He was going to either need to move the knot with something or cut the rope with something. If Sugarlips was indeed a bounty hunter, she might have some kind of sharp weapon lying around, or even just a regular razorblade.

He startling jiggling the cuff. It made a satisfying “click” and fell from the bar, open.

Well, that was way too easy, Sanji thought, letting himself quietly out of the closet. Sugarlips wasn’t in her bedroom, so he was free to look for something sharp. The door was closed, so that might muffle any sounds he made – hopefully she assumed he was standing there like an idiot in the closet, waiting for breakfast or something.

Sanji started opening drawers, trying to find something useful. Mostly he was finding clothing, including a drawer full of panties Brook would have died – again – to riffle through. He bit his lip in frustration. Didn’t she have a sewing drawer or something? Nami had a small sewing kit in her room and he had definitely seen scissors in there.

Finally, Sanji found the sewing kit he was looking for just in time to hear the click of Sugarlips’ matchlock. He stood up straight, turned, and smiled nervously at his captor, who had a very not amused look on her face and a plate of pancakes in the hand not holding a handgun. “Hi, Sugarlips-chan,” he said, trying to pretend he hadn’t just escaped from her closet and was now rifling through her things.

“How the hell did you get out?”

“The handcuffs got loose,” he said.

She put the pancakes down on the dresser and stepped forward, placing the barrel of the gun on his chest. “Oh really? How did they get loose?”

Sanji saw no reason not to be honest with her. They both knew what had happened – lying would make her angry. “I jiggled the cuff and it came undone.”

Sugarlips glared. “Go sit down at the desk – I brought you breakfast.”

Sanji raised an eyebrow as he looked at the pancakes. It was a pretty tall stack. “Why so much?” he asked. “I thought I was your prisoner.” Sugarlips started to herd him to the desk, bringing the plate of pancakes (already drowning in syrup with a fork stabbed in the top) with her. Sanji pulled out the chair with his foot and sat down, letting her put the food in front of him. The cook looked up at her questioningly. “It’s not poisoned, is it?”

Sugarlips rolled her eyes. “No, it’s not. I’ll take the lower prize if I have to, but I would prefer to keep you alive and get the whole pot,” she said. She leaned against the wall, still pointing the gun at him. “And as for the food, consider it a bit of a thank you gift.”

“What are you thanking me for?” Sanji asked, suddenly confused.

“For last night,” she said. “You might be a scummy pirate but you were FANTASTIC in the sack.”

Sanji couldn’t help but beam at her. “You thought I was fantastic!?”

“You were there – I don’t start crying out like that unless I’m enjoying myself.”

If he wasn’t tied up with a gun pointed at his head, Sanji would have started dancing around the room. Instead he just grinned and clumsily started to cut into the stack of pancakes – his stomach was growling at him, and even if it was from someone who was, indirectly, trying to kill him, he didn’t want to starve himself during this ordeal.

He took a bite and closed his eyes, chewing the food carefully and analyzing the taste. “Scratch,” he said. “Definitely not boxed – you used real flour for this – maybe cake flour, since they’re thick but it works. Little bit of vanilla and cinnamon for extra flavor, but not so much it overpowers it. The syrup’s the good stuff, too.” Sanji turned to Sugarlips, grinning. “They’re really good. Mind if I have the recipe?”

“What would you use it for?”

“Making pancakes, what else?”

“What the hell kind of prison cell do you think you’re going to?”

Sanji frowned, looking at the pancakes sadly. Right.

“I am flattered, though – it’s not every day my cooking gets complimented by a cook. Even if it is just a pirate ship’s cook. How the hell did someone so low on the roster get such a high bounty anyways?” she asked, lighting a cigarette.

Sanji furrowed his eyebrows. “Cooks are very important on a ship – you should know that if you live on a boat,” he said. He took another bite of the pancakes, chewed, and swallowed. “If you don’t get all the proper nutrition your body needs, you die – even the best doctor in the world can’t help you if he doesn’t have the right things to feed you. My job is to make sure my crewmates don’t drink themselves to death or stuff themselves silly with bacon. Our doctor’s good but I’m the first line of defense against illness.”

Sugarlips grinned, patting him on the head. “Of course you are.”

“I mean it, Sugarlips-chan. Just try going a month without any fruits or vegetables and see how you look and feel after that,” Sanji said. “Your body can’t live like that. You’d end up dead or very, very sick and you’re much too pretty to end up dead this young – how old are you?”

“None of your business.”

“Thirty-six it is!”

“I’m twenty-two you jackass!”

Sanji grinned while Sugarlips fumed. “I’m nineteen. You’ve laid yourself a younger man.”

“I’m not old!”

“Older than me. But we younger men like them older sometimes – experience, you know.”

“Are you calling me a slut?”

“No, but which one of us brought home a criminal?”

“Which one of us went home with a bounty hunter?”

“Touché.”

They sat in silence while Sanji ate. Sugarlips wasn’t a bad cook – they weren’t the best pancakes he’d ever had (the best pancakes he’d ever had were made by a girl he’d dated about a year ago until he found her in bed with, of all men, her COUSIN) but he still wanted to experiment with the recipe. They might be nice with some of Nami-san’s tangerines.

The plate was soon finished. “Stay put,” she ordered. She kept the gun on him as she backed towards her bed, reaching underneath with one hand as she kept her eyes glued on Sanji. She pulled out a small trunk and kicked the lid up, pulling out several more yards of the blue rope his hands were tied with. “I was hoping to keep my desk open for use – well, the chair at least – but since you came out of the closet this will have to do.”

Sanji made a face. “I’m not gay.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Thanks to bronzetigress and kittychan1986 for beta reading this and the previous two parts.

Oh, two more things before I hit the post button - do you guys have any suggestions or requests for what you'd like to see Sanji try in his escape attempts? I have another chapter planned but I want to save it for later and I know how the fic will ultimately end (which will not be Sugarlips falling madly in love with him and deciding to let him go or something like that). This isn't going to be a very LONG fic (say, maximum nine or ten chapters plus an epilogue?) so I won't necessarily use all of the ideas but credit will be given if someone provides a particularly good escapade.

Two, there will be some Nami-stuff posted tomorrow, one of which kinda-sorta takes place in the Angel of Death Fruit time line (but like, sometime after the final story - there will be no spoilers for Lifeline or End of the Line) but can be read independently of it and MAYBE the first of the music thing I posted a few days ago, depending on how quickly I can get it finished up.

Later guys! Comments welcome!

Thick as Thieves Updated!

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:42:50 GMT

Title: Thick as Thieves
Chapters: Prologue + 18 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Many
Link: Dylan
Summary: Dario meets Rachel's cousin Dylan.

Caught - Chapter One

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:26:40 GMT

Title: Caught With His Pants Down
Chapters: Prologue + 1 Chapter
Rating: R - that's right, you heard me!
Pairings: Slight Franky x Robin, possible hints of Sanji x Nami later on
Summary: Sanji wakes up.

Caught With His Pants Down
By Dixxy Mouri
Chapter One

Sanji felt consciousness slowly creeping up on him and he whined in complaint. He still wanted to sleep. The bed he was in was WAY too comfortable – satin sheets, soft mattress, much better than the crappy linen and lumpy mattresses Franky had provided the crew with when he’d built the Sunny. But he’d gotten to spend his night elsewhere, and with a beautiful, naked woman cuddled up next to him. He grinned.

The drought was over.

Oh, and what an end to the drought it had been! He didn’t know her name (that happened sometimes) but she had been pretty interesting. She moved around a lot (instead of simply lying there like a dead fish – Sanji didn’t mind doing all the work but he never turned down help, either) and was pretty good at figuring out what he liked. Her lips tasted like sugar, even after a smoke – they’d shared a cigarette at one point before one final bungle in the jungle. Then they’d cuddled and he fell asleep, tired from a long day and a fun, but exhausting evening.

Still, try as he might, something was wrong. He couldn’t go back to sleep and something felt a little off. Sanji stretched his arms over his head and spread his elbows, surprised to learn that his arms didn’t extend as far as they should have and his hands wouldn’t separate. He groaned. What the hell? He blinked his eyes open, struggling into a sitting position (well, kind of a sitting position – he was sort of on his side) to see his hands were bound tight with powder blue nylon curtain rope attached to the metal headboard of the bed frame. Similarly, he noted his ankles were tied in a similar fashion to the footboard.

“What the fuck?” he mouthed. He struggled against the ropes. Nope, too tight. He examined the knot – it was a pretty secure sailor’s knot, one he’d had to learn pretty quickly after joining Luffy’s crew. And the nylon was pretty sturdy – he wasn’t going anywhere for a while, not until someone untied him. He supposed he could try undoing the knot with his teeth but the position was a bit awkward, even for someone with his flexibility.

Sanji heard humming and saw a brief glimpse of his one night stand from the previous night walk past the slightly open bedroom door. Had she done this? He struggled to turn around, shifting the bed a little with his movements. He heard foot patters stop, then start again, getting louder and closer as he listened.

His partner from last night cautiously walked into the room, eyeing him up and down. She was holding something in one hand (but the view of whatever it was had been obstructed by the footboard). She was wearing a pair of short denim shorts (they made her thighs look fantastic) and a tight forest green t-shirt (that made her chest look even better).“Still tied up?” she asked dumbly.

Sanji laughed nervously. “You know, if you wanted to do the bondage thing I would have appreciated you asking first, sugar lips,” he said. Maybe this was her way of initiating something a little kinky? “Really, I don’t mind it like that. I just like it when I’m told about it first. Part of the fun is watching the other person tie you up.”

The woman laughed, sitting on the desk to the side of the bed – now Sanji saw the shiny metal gun she’d been holding, which she casually pointed at him. Startled, Sanji sat up as best he could, looking to her for an answer. Gun plus bondage without consent didn’t sound like it would end very well. “What the hell are you going to use THAT for?!” Sanji asked.

“I’m afraid this isn’t about sex anymore, Black Leg Sanji.”

“What the – wait, when did I tell you my name?” Sanji asked.

The woman shook her head and held up his bounty poster. “This told me.”

Sanji sighed. “Hey, look, I know that you’re probably nervous about me being a pirate and all but relax – I don’t hurt women. I was brought up better than that.”

“I’m a bounty hunter.”

“Oh, well, in that – YOU’RE A WHAT!?”

“Bounty hunter,” she said. “I hunt wanted men and women for a living.”

Sanji wasn’t sure how to process this revelation. “Uh . . . seriously?”

“Hey, it didn’t start out this way – well, last night didn’t, at least; it’s not how I usually hunt. I honestly had no idea who you were when I brought you back here. I figured it out when I was going through my wanted posters last night while you were asleep, so don’t feel like I tried to trick you or something. I just got lucky,” she said. She laughed. “I made a pun! I’m hilarious!”

Sanji wasn’t sure if he should laugh or start crying. If it had been a male bounty hunter he would have started swearing, kicking, biting, and screaming but this was a beautiful woman – how the hell was he supposed to get out of this? Aside from praying that Luffy and the others inexplicably knew where he was and came to the rescue.

No, then the stupid swordsman would never let him live it down.

Well, Sanji, let’s look at it this way. You can either sit back while she drags you to some Marine Base so they can throw you into Impel Down and/or hang you. Or, you can also try to escape, even if it would interfere with this lovely lady’s next payday. I mean seriously, when is she going to find another catch like you, huh?

Sanji frowned. He had some thinking to do. That, and a request.

“Hey, can I ask you a question, sugar lips?”

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped.

“Well, what do you want me to call you?”

“I don’t need to tell you my name.”

“Then I’m calling you Sugarlips. Can you untie me?”

“Why would I want to do that? And don’t call me Sugarlips.”

“But Sugarlips-chan, I need to use the bathroom.”

~

The bathroom wasn’t too far from her bedroom and Sugarlips had told him to take a shower while he was in there, though she kept his hands tied in front. “You smell. Just remember I’m on the other side of this door with a double barrel matchlock and if you don’t come out with your hands behind your head I will blow your junk off.”

“Didn’t you do that to me last night?”

“Shut up.”

He was tempted to try and knock down a wall to make his escape (which meant the really hard part would be explaining to the others why he was returning so late sans clothing), but after spending most of his years on the sea he could tell the boat was moving – they probably weren’t within eyesight of the island anymore and how would he know what direction to swim in anyways? Besides, with his hands tied swimming would be next to impossible – he might as well eat a Devil Fruit and jump in a lake.

So instead he followed her orders and took a shower. She had a nice one, too. The water felt good, nice and hot, and it did feel nice getting to wash up (although getting his back was a pain – it required some ingenuity with the shower knobs and resulted in a very mangled bar of soap). While at sea he wasn’t able to wash all that often – maybe a shower every two days – because things like shampoo and soap didn't exactly grow on Nami’s tangerine trees.

“Nami-san,” he said softly, frowning. He slapped his forehead, letting his hand cover his face. How in the world was he going to explain this to Nami? It’s not like they were dating or anything – they certainly weren’t – but he was afraid of what she’d think of him when he tried to explain what had happened.

She’d probably see him the way she saw him now anyways. A dick-driven man whore.

Marimo head would probably laugh at his predicament. Hell, most of the guys would. Usopp would probably make some kind of outrageous claim about how he would have been such a good lover that Sugarlips wouldn’t have even CONSIDERED turning him in (even though Sanji was 99% sure that Usopp was a virgin) and he expected some kind of loud, crying pity from Franky. Brook might make a stupid remark about what color panties she’d been wearing (something Sanji hadn’t noted – he had been too busy trying to get them off when the time came to see them). And Chopper might start checking him for diseases (which Sanji didn’t think would be a problem – he’d worn a condom the whole time). Robin would politely welcome him back and turn back to her book or something.

And Luffy . . .

Sanji smiled at the thought of his captain. Luffy had known that he’d be the Straw Hats' cook from almost first glance. And Luffy had insisted Sanji was already in the crew even after he loudly insisted he wasn’t in it – every single time. Maybe Luffy somehow knew him better than he knew himself, even after only knowing him for a few short moments. He was a good captain – he didn’t look like it but he was great at reading people and that was probably what helped him choose his crew so carefully.

Luffy loved everyone in the crew. It was why he’d tried so hard to rescue Nami and
Robin from their respective demons, why he’d dragged himself, Chopper, and Franky kicking and screaming into the crew, why he took Usopp back with open arms and tears after the sniper left, why he knew he wanted Brook with them before he even knew the skeleton was a musician, the one role he’d so desperately wanted to fill for so long.

Luffy would . . .

Sanji didn’t want to think about what Luffy would do if something really bad happened to one of them. Sure there would probably be a lot of yelling and screaming at first – he’d probably try to kill Sugarlips with his bare hands – but then, then he might just . . . break. Luffy was attached to all of them and wouldn’t have any other swordsman or navigator or sharpshooter or doctor or archaeologist or shipwright or musician on his crew. He wouldn’t have another cook on his crew, either.

And then there was All Blue.

Sanji slid to the bottom of the shower stall. His heart still soared at the idea of the ocean. All those fish, all the meals he could make fresh from the ocean . . . And if something happened to him, no one would be able to tell that shitty old man the sea existed. He rested his chin on his knees and stared ahead as the water continued to beat down on him.

Black Leg Sanji was going to get out of this mess alive, rejoin his crewmates, and find All Blue.

All he had to do was escape from Sugarlips.

Song-based fic time!

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:15:41 GMT

So I want to do more shorts. I was too fickle last time I tried this and ultimately didn't post, but I'm hoping I feel less fickle now!

Basically I'm taking iTunes, setting it to shuffle, and taking out the first ten songs. I am not including songs in foreign languages and I am not including instrumental pieces, but I'll note them if they come up.

1. Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You - Glenn Medeiros
2. I Second That Emotion - The Miracles
3. Hands - Jewel
4. Photograph - Def Leppard

-INSTRUMENTAL PIECE-
Recollection, from the Lunar: Silver Star Story COMPLETE Soundtrack

5. Cooties - Aimee Allen (Hairspray Soundtrack)

-INSTRUMENTAL PIECE-
Having a Wild Time - Kingdom Hearts Soundtrack
-JAPANESE SONG-
Shinning Ray - Janna De Arc (One Piece Ending)
-JAPANESE SONG-
Traces of the Wind - Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (Korin Den)

6. Tiger - Paula Cole
7. Jaded - Aerosmith
8. Heart and Soul - T'Pau
9. Let It Be - Brooke White (American Idol 2008 Season)
10. Somebody Told Me - The Killers

Will write fics and post them as I get to them.

I want to do some of these meme things every so often to generate ideas for shorts.

New Fic! Caught With His Pants Down

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:16:42 GMT

Yeah I'm posting something NEW!

Title: Caught With His Pants Down
Chapters: Prologue
Rating: R - that's right, you heard me!
Pairings: Slight Franky x Robin, possible hints of Sanji x Nami later on
Summary: Sanji meets a woman at a bar.

I am NOT trying to do some kind of sweeping romance between the two focus characters in this prologue. At all. It's not a romance - at least not between the major characters of the prologue. Despite what happens. Trust me on this one.

Caught With His Pants Down
By Dixxy Mouri
Prologue

It should be noted that the man known as Black Leg Sanji (Bounty: 77 million alive, 53 million, 900 thousand dead) is a man of many passions. His primary passions are food and the enigmatic All Blue, but excluding those two his heart sings the loudest for the fairer sex: women. Tall women, short women, red heads, blondes, brunettes, leggy, busty, all sorts of women. He loved to flirt with them, to cook for them, to make them cry out in the intimate pleasures of the night . . . yes, Sanji loved women.
But there was one particular woman that was different. She was sexy and charming like many of the other women whom Sanji had shared a bed with, but this one was unique. She may have been a bit more than he bargained for, and perhaps it was only fair that Sanji was a bit more than she bargained for in return.

Thanks to a mishap involving Luffy and Usopp playing some stupid game in Sanji’s kitchen, the major appliances were temporarily out of order and even though Franky was working as quickly as possible to fix the kitchen, it was going to be a couple of days before the room was usable again and about a week before the swelling on the captain and sniper’s faces ceased.
So they’d gone to a local tavern for dinner after having cold cereal and fruit for breakfast and cold ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. The food was good – but not as good as Sanji’s – and shortly after dinner was served there was music and dancing, which. Nami saw it as an opportunity to pick the pockets of the unsuspecting dancers, while Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper decided to act like the morons they were as they danced off beat and attracted a few sour stares. Franky asked Robin to dance, blushing as the woman offered her hand.
Sanji found himself on the dance floor soon enough, looking for a lady to woo and dance with. For the most part the women already seemed to have dance partners already – their husbands or boyfriends, he guessed. Not a whole lot of single girls, aside from Nami-san, and she wasn’t interested in dancing, though he had asked.
“Not tonight, Sanji-kun,” she had politely declined.
The cook sighed in defeat, feeling like an idiot standing there alone on the dance floor. He was alone without a single girl in sight – as usual. He groaned in frustration as he moved through the dancers, envious of every man there. Half of them were probably going to get laid when they brought their girls home. Best he was going to get was some quality time with a bottle of lotion and a dirty magazine.
How long had it been since he’d gotten laid? Maybe . . . no, he was certain it was the night before he’d met Luffy. Sanji scoffed – that meant it really HAD been a long time. He could still remember the last girl. She’d been the last customer that night at the Baratie and while Patty was busy trying to get her to go (or order a dessert instead of just sitting there doing nothing ) she and Sanji had started to talk and the next thing he knew she was in his cabin, riding him like a horse. She’d stayed for breakfast, left, and then a canon ball crashed through the roof.
He might as well just go back to the table and sit with Zoro and Brook. Maybe Brook would let him tag along on a panty raid excursion (although as much as Sanji liked girls and everything to do with them, he wasn’t as obsessed with panties as Brook was so the idea wasn’t THAT exciting to him). He frowned. Tonight might not be that exciting after all.
Sanji slid his way through the dance floor, looking for someone to dance with. Taken, taken, taken, taken, ugly, taken, taken, lesbians, taken, taken, taken, might be a man, taken, taken, missing an arm, taken, taken, older than dirt, taken. He frowned, getting frustrated. Wasn’t there anyone here he could dance with? The image of the lotion bottle loomed in his mind.
His eyes caught a glimpse of a woman in a corner with a glass of wine – alone. He turned to look at her. Hmm . . . not bad, he thought to himself. She looked to be about a dress size 4 with a double or triple D chest size – maybe an F. She had a full head of deep red hair piled high into a pony tail – much darker than Nami-san’s – and thick, pouty lips painted with shiny ruby gloss. She was wearing a short white tube dress with a thick blue belt around her waist and shiny blue chunky platform heels.
Most importantly, she was alone and didn’t appear to have a glass eye.
Sanji waltzed over to her, making sure his tie was on straight. He briefly checked his hair in a decorative mirror hanging on the wall. He grabbed a carnation from a vase on a nearby, unoccupied table and made sure it was neat. She turned enough to see him approaching her, and he slid into the empty seat across from her, presenting the flower to her. “Excuse me, my princess, but I couldn’t help but notice you were here alone. Would you like some company?”
The girl crossed her legs and propped her chin into the palm of her hand, eying him in curiosity. “Oh? And who would this company be with?” She appeared to be evaluating him as she looked him up and down – possibly picturing him naked. He knew that look. God knew he looked at Nami-san and Robin-chan that way every day (although since the stupid shipwright had started seeing his raven haired flower he’d had to cut back on eying her significantly – he wasn’t one to hit on a taken woman).
It was nice to have the gesture reciprocated.
“Me, your knight in a designer suit,” he said.
“Where’s your shining armor?”
“In the shop.”
The girl took the flower and smelled it. “Carnations? A little cheap.”
“Ah, but this carnation is special,” Sanji said, taking her heads.
“How so?”
“Because you’re the one holding it.”
The girl giggled. “Either I’m a little tipsy or you’re charming.”
“Hmm. Must be the alcohol,” Sanji said with a smirk.
The woman sighed, picking up her wine glass and swirling it around absently. Yeah. She was definitely interested. She batted her eyelashes at him, tapping her pinky nail against the glass as she took a sip. “So, let me guess – are you trying to pick me up, sugar?”
Sanji gripped his knees of his pants, hoping she didn’t sense his defensive action. “Maybe,” he said. “That depends – are you looking to be picked up, princess?” Inwardly he sighed – it was a long shot but it was worth a try – it had worked once before. But it had failed the other seventy-two times he’d tried it.

As it turned out, seventy-four was a lucky number for Sanji.
They’d talked for another half hour before the girl invited him back to her boat for “a drink”, which, as Sanji knew from experience, meant “sexy exciting fun time”. So they’d left the tavern and hurried to the dock, where they boarded her boat (a model designed to house roughly one to two full time passengers comfortably) and, as soon as they were in her cabin and the door was closed they’d started tearing at each other’s clothing.
The girl backed Sanji towards her bed, kissing and gasping as she fumbled with the buttons of his jacket while he loosened his tie. His knees hit the bed and he was on his back, struggling out of his jacket as she pulled the tie up over his head, flicking his ears on the way up. “Slow down, princess, there’s no rush! I’m all yours for the rest of the night!” Sanji said as she crawled on top of him and straddled his waist. He started to unbuckle her belt, eliciting a giggle and a finger running down his chest.
“I’m horny,” she said, diving down to fumble with his shirt buttons. Sanji felt a “mellorine” escape from his lips as her tried to move his hands up her thighs and under her skirt. She sighed, biting on his lower lip. “It’s been a while, baby. I’ve gone months without a decent tumble in the sheets. I’m an independent woman – I can’t stand it!”
Sanji groaned as she undid his belt. “Same – too damn long.” He grabbed her waist and gently flipped her over. She gasped, exaggerating her breathes so her chest heaved up and down under him. “Guess it’s a good thing we found each other, huh?” She squealed with delight, fumbling with the top button of his pants. “Even better that I’ve found a gorgeous little vixen to keep me company.”
“And I’m glad I found myself a young, limber stallion all to myself.”
“Mellor-INE!”

Sometime later, the blond she’d picked up was sleeping soundly on her left, hugging one of her pillows and lying belly down on her sheets. His chest was slowly moving up and down as he breathed, the sheets just barely covering his naked ass. She grinned, walking her fingers up his spine. He shuddered in his sleep, mumbled something, and shifted his shoulders.
She didn’t mind that he was going to spend the night. He’d mentioned he was a cook at some point so maybe she could get him to make her breakfast in the morning – see if he was as good in the kitchen as he was in bed.
After that, dear God she hoped so!
Most of the men she brought home (or who brought her home) would pass out after about five minutes of boring sex that resulted in her frustrated and them drooling on her good pillowcases. Once in a while they would buy her breakfast (especially if they were a little on the small side), oblivious at just how awful they had performed the night before, and she would give them a line about giving then a call if they had a Den Den Mushi or something else that really meant “you sucked leave me alone.” Sure once in a while she found one who was a decent roll in the hay but they were few and far between. She made breakfast for those few souls.
However, this guy was different. He was more than just a “decent roll in the hay”. He was fantastic with his hands – and his tongue – and didn’t pass out until after three rounds with a cigarette break in between two and three. He was gentle but firm. Where the hell he got his stamina from she would never know but if he hadn’t offered to make breakfast he would have gotten a stack of pancakes the size of his head.
Deciding she wasn’t sleepy just yet and realizing she was behind on work, she slipped out of bed and grabbed the nearest article of clothing she could find – it just so happened to be her fling’s silky lavender shirt. She slipped it on and smelled it – it smelled like cigarettes and seafood. She closed her eyes. There was a slight tinge of cologne as well – she dated a guy who wore that brand once.
She put his hands on her hips once she had the darn thing buttoned up and strutted to her desk, stepping over their shoes and a pile of laundry he had thankfully not noticed (although he seemed hormonal enough that she wasn’t sure he’d really care by the time they got to her bedroom). She yawned – she was so behind!
Being a bounty hunter was hard work – it wasn’t like criminals just fell into her lap!
She started to hum to herself as she began to flip through the stack of wanted posters on her desk. She’d been so busy chasing that last one (only to have two idiots from East Blue catch him before her – bastards had linked arms and started yelling “Hurray hurray!” before started to dance in circles) that she hadn’t bothered to look at some of the new posters that came in during the recent weeks.
There were some Emperors and their crew mates on the top of the stack – way out of her league, into the garbage they went. She wasn’t that good yet – no way. Still, it was awfully fun to dream about bringing down Red Haired Shanks or Whitebeard and cashing in that paycheck. She moaned at the thought – that would set her for life! Mostly she was satisfied with bounties around 15 million or less – someone like Shanks or Whitebeard would be worth far more than that but, well, leave it to the more experienced ones.
The man in her bed chuckled about something in his sleep. She turned back and smiled.
The next few entries were current crews of interest. Trafalger Law and his crew of current interest in the area, but way out of her league – as was Scratchman Apoo and his men. She grunted in frustration. Everything was over her head! She couldn’t go after any of the big bounties unless she had more experience! It was a horrible cycle!
Biting her bottom lip, she looked at the next stack – the Straw Hat Pirates. She whimpered – the captain was worth 300 million alone. Into the garbage it went. Roronoa Zoro? Bah. 120 million. Not much better. She crumpled it up – his poster could join his captain’s poster. She fumed when she saw the Demon Child, Nico Robin, had been raised to 80 million. And into the garbage that one went. Next was Black Leg Sanji, 77 million. And into the –
Wait, what?
She did a double take. She raised an eyebrow and scratched her head, crossing her legs. Blond hair . . . just like the guy in her bed, and styled the same way, too. Cigarette . . . he had smoked a couple in-between the sex, and his shirt did smell like cigarettes. Chin stubble . . . it had tickled her when he’d kissed her and done . . . other things. And the eyebrow . . .
She almost fell out of her chair as she stared at the poster in terror.
No way!
She turned her head to the man in her bed. She’d never gotten his name, and she hadn’t given her his. She swallowed, got up, and tip-toed over to the sleeping body. He was still asleep, breathing softly and deeply. He was smiling in his sleep, stilling hugging her pillow. She bent down to look at him. It certainly looked like this man might be Black Leg Sanji . . .
Well . . .
“Sanji?” she asked softly.
The man shifted a little, barely opening his eyes. “Yeah? You need something, sugar lips?”
Her heart froze. So it is him. She leaned down to kiss his forehead. “Nothing. Go back to sleep.”
Black Leg Sanji closed his eyes and sighed, turning over and seemingly going back to sleep right away. She slid to the floor, relieved. If he’d stayed awake too long he might have noticed she’d called him by his name when he’d not once offered it to her before. What did she do next? She wouldn’t get another opportunity like this! 77 million berries lying helpless in her bed . . .
She had to work quickly!

Author’s Notes

I 100% promise this fic will NOT contain Sanji and the bounty hunter in a romantic relationship. This is not going to be the bounty hunter decides she’s suddenly madly in love with Sanji and decides to release him as a token of her affection or something like that.

I have other plans in mind.

Basically, I’m sure you’ve all seen something along the lines of Sanji getting kidnapped where he is promptly manhandled, raped, molested, ect. This is not one of those stories. So, I hope you enjoy this one!

I need to start posting more fics here

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:35:47 GMT

It seems like less and less people are seeing Fanfiction.Net as a viable source of fanfiction anymore, so although I'll still probably post here, I'm probably going to start posting a lot of stuff here as well. We'll see how that works out.

Known about this for a while but it's time to rant!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:42:52 GMT

So I don't know how many people are still reading my livejournal but here it goes:

I am a big One Piece fan, as most of you should know. Although I got into the series because of fansubs, I've since cut back a lot on my fansub consumption. Yes, there has been some, mostly because it was what was available to me in college. But now that I'm out of college I'm basically going to try and go 100% fansub free.

Granted, making this a little harder is how much I like One Piece and the huge gap between where Japan is and where the US is (gap is 350 episodes). Well, Funimation and a number of Japanese companies got together and were all "Simulcast 1 hour after the Japanese airing! Other episodes online, too!"

To this I was basically all "HURRAY! AWESOME! WHOO HOO!"

So Saturday night I'm looking forward to this, only to find on Funi's OP site that their servers were compromised and the episode was released even before the Japanese premier. So far I've hear nothing in regards to Toei's feelings on the matter but we don't know what's going to happen.

The most panicky fans are concerned the license will be removed is Toei is mad enough about this mess. Less panicky fans range from "well, we might loose the simulcast" or "we'll get the simulcast but Funimation is going to be closely monitored". The latter in that last sentence is the best case scenario, but there are still people who are concerned over the worst case scenario.

Then we have idiots who think this is great because apparently fansubs are soooo much better than legal translations.

All right, I'll admit, the fansubs are prettier, they have more translation notes, ect. But the point of fansubs is supposed to be, more or less, generating interest in a show to encourage the show to get licensed. At this point fansubbers are supposed to stop subbing shows (although in the case of longer projects where later episodes are probably not included in contracts they tend to keep going - whether or not this is "right" I'm not going to judge at the moment) and the fans are supposed to go buy them.

Here, we had something that was supposed to eliminate the need to future fansubs in the One Piece fandom - at least in the US and Canada. Instead, someone goes and gets the file from Funi's server and posts it early, causing this shit storm. Now we don't know what's going to happen. Is this going to affect Funimation getting beyond the Skypiea arc? Is this going to loose us the simulcast?

I would like to point out, too, that what is going around is NOT a fansub - I repeat, NOT a fansub. Not that the animators and Japanese voice actors aren't doing what they're doing to keep a roof over their head, because they are, but now we have an additional group of people who worked on this as part of their job - not fansubbers - who worked on it.

No wonder Funi is pissed over this. No wonder Toei is (probably) pissed. And the fans are pretty pissed, too. Because we were finally starting to get awesome in our fandom, and now a big part of it could be taken away.

I really hope this gets resolved with something that fans will be happy with.

Unusual Request

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:40:12 GMT

This was also cross-posted to a few communities, but I'm not sure who of the people on my friends list belong to that community. I do know at least ONE person knows what I'm talking about because she helped me come up with the ideas I have here (and possibly a few I don't remember).

You know how in every fandom there are certain plot lines that just seem to inevitably pop up? Or get done over and over again? I have a little "project" in mind, and I would like a list of these commonly used fic ideas. Things I've come up with on my own are:

- The High School Fic
- The Gender Switch
- The Body Swap
- The Cast Turns into Babies/Children
- The Male Pregnancy
- The Children of Cast/Next Generation

and of course

- Mary Sue Comes to Town

If you have any other suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!

As this is primarily a fic journal. . .

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:10:08 GMT

I will include some fic-related stuff, but it's that time of year again!

FINALS

And that isn't even amongst the worst of problems! There's life crap in there as well, and in many ways this has just been an emotionally trying semester for me and other folks I know. Maybe because it's senior year and some of my classes have been tough, though I did have some classes made of awesome and win. One of the classes primarily focused on pool and billiards, and now I really enjoy playing. Still not exactly good-good at it, but at least I have a better understanding of how to make shots and what went wrong when those shots don't work.

There will be pool-based fics forthcoming.

And now on the fandom front:

One Piece
Although I lack a complete outline for Lifeline, I know where it's headed and I've got a general idea as to how I'm going to get there. I also have a better picture of what the third story is going to look like, which I need a title for. Not something I should be worrying about now.

Additionally, remember that pool thing I mentioned a few paragraphs ago? I want it to be a short multi-part fic (I don't want it to extend beyond four or five parts) and it's tentatively called "Scratch". Part of me wants to be cute and make it eight parts for the first eight balls, although the game being played will most likely be 9-ball because that's my favorite.

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
I'm re-working the storyline for Shattered Hearts and figuring out the politics, landscape (I have a map with islands and mountains and forests and lakes and rivers and cities and other stuff!), and a better understanding of the OCs, both good and bad. The story will be called Lesora: Red Rose Story.

Ronin Warriors
I am confused as to what I should do next. Triple C insists I shouldn't abandon the Senshi, but at some point Ty-chou pointed out that the revisions could be hurting the story (she had different phrasing I don't remember). The other side of the coin is that it's possible I'm just getting sick of writing them. This series has been going on for almost ten years and it hasn't gotten to where I wanted it to go, and now in some ways I feel like I've written myself into a corner with Freedom.

That said, I still like some of the characters, I just think at this point there's not much I can do with them in the Ronin universe (excluding Outlaw) fic wise anymore.

End of Innocence is just a good old fashioned case of writer's block, although the direction for this one is questionable as well.

Chrono Cross
Although I have some ideas for the next story in the main Curtis stories, the main focus is probably going to be on the Thick as Thieves time line from here on out. Essentially, the story structure is going to include four stories: 1 (Thick as Thieves), 2, 2.5, and 3.

Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time
I should probably get on that soon, huh?

I think that's it for now. Later!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:34:28 GMT

Well, I've gotten further in the book and I've found some more things to compare.

1. Borel has more control over his hormones than Camille and/or Alain, both of whom have more control over their hormones than Flic.
2. Although Camille will sing in taverns to get money/clothing, Borel seems to do a lot with chopping wood.
3. The handling of the location of the lover is different.
4. Unlike Scruff, who basically knew what he was doing, Flic screws things up and readily admits he doesn't find himself very clever.
5. Apparently a "Pooka" is a kind of dangerous horse demon. I figured it was something cute and fluffy.

Good news is Borel is no longer an injured party and he's trekking along Faery pretty well now. I've finally encountered towns and characters other than the fairy and the bee.

Mini adventures in this book, however, still occasionally have Borel getting beaten up.

Now, as far as Chelle goes, Borel's learned how to control his dreams, which is how he's gone about courting Chelle and trying to figure out where she is. Normally this involves taking her pretty much anywhere but the tower she's being held in and going on some sort of date.

I haven't been able to read a whole lot of this as of late - classes and other things have been eating a lot of my free time. In particular, I actually spent about four days working almost exclusively towards one paper during any "free time" I had. It wasn't the worst experience I've had writing a paper but it wasn't the best, either.

I do want to get Deadline done, though. It's soooo close!

Once Upon a Summer's Day Vs. Once Upon a Winter's Night

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:47:24 GMT

So I finished off Winter and I've moved onto Summer (the next two season books are a ways off and I can't even buy Dreadful Time until next month anyways), so I've decided to start comparing them.

So far, although Summer is heading towards a definitive pairing between Alain's elder brother, Borel, and a maiden trapped in a tower named Chelle, it definitely doesn't have as much romance as the earlier one did - at least not at this stage of the game. Although were are some sweet scenes, for the most part it's been the Borel show.

Additionally, the sidekicks are different. Camille had Scruff, the flightless sparrow who had the ability to tell when danger was near - he would then hide and start tugging on her hair. Borel actually has two sidekicks - Flic, a sprite, and his companion Buzzer, a bumblebee.

You read that right. A BEE.

Flic and Buzzer are useful, however, because they're providing a more direct route to the final goal than Camille had, but still slightly obscure. Namely, Borel thinks that he needs to go to the estate of one of his father's friends/allies, but after being sent WAY off course and running into his little buddies, they ask him what kinds of plants grew at this estate, since Buzzer may have collected pollen there before. This, I have to admit, is a kind of clever plot device. Flic largely acts as translator and companion, but he also knows a lot about how to use certain plants and has given Borel lots of DIRECT, USEFUL advice as opposed to some of the vague, riddle-like answers given to Camille throughout most of the last book.

Additionally, maybe because Borel is a man, but he's way more willing to let Borel get the stuffing knocked out of him. Camille might have gotten a few scrapes and bruises along the way, but Borel's gotten PUMMELED, and has actually spent part of the book limping around being he got hurt so badly. I think the worst physical thing Camille had to endure was trying to drag a horse out of some mud.

Lastly, the time frame is DRASTICALLY different. Camille had "a year, a day, and a whole moon", in this case a "moon" meaning one cycle of the moon (at first I thought it was one night). Borel has about a moon. So he doesn't have that extra year and day to play with. As such, there isn't a whole lot of "he spent three days here" or "it took his forty-something days to reach this place", which happens a lot in the first book.

So, what's this one about? Borel's been having some strange dreams as of late about a young maiden in a tower surrounded by lots and lots of flying daggers who's asking for his help (for reasons I haven't learned yet, she appears to be blindfolded by shadow). Borel consults his brother, sisters, and Camille for advice and then against his advice decides to take off on his own to go after. . . someone. Minor spoiler from the first book.

Anyways, Borel goes home and we get a small look at life in Winterwood, which seemingly involves Borel's wine guy inadvertently getting his master drunk, Borel takes off and ends up landing in hot water. Long story short he's now prisoner of some trolls who want to eat him, and this is where the prince shows just how different from Camille he is. Camille would almost certainly need to get bailed out in this situation - Borel pretty much takes care of business on his own with some assistance from Flic and Buzzer, although Borel had to rescue them first.

So at this point it's basically the tree of them going after Chelle (he figures out her name shortly before he's in the troll dungeon) and talking about love and such. I really enjoy this one a lot, too, and part of the enjoyment is probably because although I know I've looked at stuff towards the end before (I really stink at not looking at the endings of books), I don't actually know how most of it is solved. Somewhere there's a chess maneuver involved, but this is also mentioned in the acknowledgments and upon a flip through there are some charts that have chess stuff on them.

Going to read more of that book now.

Behind on updates a little tiny bit

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:09:42 GMT

Title: Thick as Thieves
Chapters: Prologue + 15 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Many
Link: Down the Rabbit Hole
Summary: Karsh makes a friend.

Title: Thick as Thieves
Chapters: Prologue + 16 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Many
Link: Girl in Trouble
Summary: Dario has a decision to make.

I appear to have chased people away with Chapter 16 - except for Triple C. I took things in a direction most Chrono Cross fic writer's would traverse. That, or it's the start of school.

Oh well. Makes me wonder if I should pay more attention to that last part of Deadline or go back to Freedom, which, in my mind, is becoming a convoluted mess. I'm seriously considering just saying "fuck it" to Freedom and just picking up after Dark Chocolate, White Diamonds. Or just dropping the entire series.

We'll see what happens.

School has started up again, and I'm in the last stretch of college. I'm living in an apartment with two of my friends and I've got a mixed class load. I've got two very work intensive and homework intensive classes - can we say 12 novels in one semester?! can we?! - and some very not-so intensive classes. I'm also trying to do more reading - on top of the twelve novels for classes.

Right now I'm in the middle of Once Upon a Winter's Night by Dennis L. McKiernan, which I first read in high school and is probably the last book to really capture my attention that wasn't a graphic novel or assigned for school. I'm re-reading it to get to the second book in the series with a fresher memory of the first story, and then I'll go on to three, four, and five (WHICH IS COMING OUT IN PAPERBACK NEXT MONTH!!!).

What do I think of this book? It's enjoyable. Do I love it? Not sure. Would I recommend it? For fantasy and romance lovers, yes. It's a love story, but it doesn't have a sex scene every three or four pages. It's mostly a fantasy adventure, most notably a fairy tale retelling.

The series this book begins - the Faery series, or the Once Upon series - is a collection of fairy tale retellings. The fairy tale here is "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", which, probably because of Disney, I don't think is as well-known as "Sleeping Beauty" or "Cinderella". I think the second book is supposed to be a variation of "Sleeping Beauty", but I'll figure it out when I read it.

Once Upon a Winter's Night focuses primarily on Camille, the youngest daughter of a poor farmer. One night, during a blizzard, a big white bear appears outside their door with a message from Prince Alain of the Summerwood in Faery, asking for Camille's hand in marriage - in exchange, the prince will make them wealthy. Although her mother and sisters are after the life of luxury the money would provide, Camille ultimately accepts this proposal because the money would help her ailing little brother, Giles. Camille leaves with the bear as her steed and guardian towards the Summerwood.

Once in Summerwood, however, things are somewhat amiss. She never sees Alain during the day, and when she does see him in the evening he's either wearing a mask or in the dark. Although the idea was for her to come to Summerwood to marry him, no wedding can take place yet. Regardless, Camille falls in love with Alain and becomes very close with the other residents of her prince's manor.

Sometime later, Camille visits home, where her family is perplexed by the situation in the Summerwood (and her mother is embarrassed that Camille has been sleeping with Alain before she married him). She suggests that her daughter light a candle in the darkness of Alain's bedroom after he's fallen asleep to see his face, which, shortly after her return to Summerwood, Camille decides to act upon.

Naturally, this is a bad idea. Your first clue should be her terrible use of logic. Your second clue should be that this takes place around pages 150 or 160 of the paperback edition when there's still around 250 pages to go. Lastly, I'm pretty sure the blurb on the back cover talks about this at some length.

So now Camille's got a quest to go on - she has "a year, a day, and a whole moon beyond" (so a little under 400 days) to find "a place east of the sun and west of the moon". She has with her only a flightless sparrow named Scruff and a magic staff from the Lady of the Mere, who only appears in times of great need.

One of the reviews on Amazon openly criticized both Camille and Alain as being "too perfect" - Camille is a beautiful young maiden with a beautiful singing voice who seems to enchant a large number of the male characters in the book. Alain also suffers from a distinct lack of flaws. But it's not a literary piece of fiction, so that isn't the goal here. The goal is to entertain, and the book entertains.

I've got less than 100 pages to go in this one, but alas, I have to read other books for two of my professors, so I probably won't finish tonight or tomorrow night. But probably by the weekend. WHOO-HOO!

Until I journal again!

It's a Thick as Thieves update!

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:38:20 GMT

Title: Thick as Thieves
Chapters: Prologue + 14 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Many
Link: Midnight Walk
Summary: Dario looses something else.

LOTS O UPDATES!

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:28:37 GMT

Title: Deadline (Chapter 20)
Chapters: Prologue + 20chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Sanji/Nami, possible Franky/Robin later
Link: Finally Over
Summary: Only not quite there yet.

AND

Title: Thick as Thieves
Chapters: Prologue + 13 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Many
Link: A Safe Place?
Summary: Norris makes a few hard choices.

Thick as Thieves Updated

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:31:51 GMT

This is not a fic I update often, but for anyone unfamiliar with it, it's a Chrono Cross alternate universe fic based on a previous story I had written called Memories. Thanks to Triple C this fic might be updated more often.

As another warning this is one of the few fandoms I actually include some form of shounen-ai/yaoi, and this chapter does have a focus on one of these pairings.

Title: Thick as Thieves
Chapters: Prologue + 12 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
MAJORLY Alternate Universe!!!!
Link: The Rain
Summary: Things begin to better before they get worse.

Fic babbling

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:57:05 GMT

Herbal supplements are great!

The Good:
-Steadily loosing weight on Weight Watchers
-Have a job
-Been buying new clothing
-HAVE A NEW LAPTOP!!!
--Toshia Satellite
--200 GB harddrive
--3 GB memory
--Intel Duo Processor
--Vista is not as terrible as I've been told
--It was less than $650

The Bad:
-Personal issues - boo
-Cleaning - boo

Hmm. It's nice to see more good things than bad things. Though "personal issues" could be divided up more. . . it's nice to see good things!

Fic wise (which some of you may or may not still care about):

Deadline
The next chapter is just not where I want it yet. Granted, some things still need to be written, but I can't help but feel that in its current form it is falling on its face.

Thick as Thieves
Crystal Cat-Chan's favorite subject on Messenger - she's basically my official idea bouncer for that story. And many others.
Basically, Thick as Thieves is slowly becoming one of the more complicated fanfics I have ever taken on - possibly including the Ronin Senshi stuff. Why? Because it's something of at LEAST a third alternate world. PLUS at some point there will be a story depicting how the absence of Dario, Karsh, and Glenn in the Dragoons and the closing of the port will affect Serge's adventure (you know, that guy who's the ACTUAL star of Chrono Cross?).
Maybe I'll do a short companion story or something.

Freedom
Necessary changes had to be made to some of the planning stages. Conveniently there is at least (in my opinion) one bad-ass moment for Rowen coming up.

A Lunar story!?
Yes. I'm starting work on a revision of one of my old Lunar stories (in this case, a reinventing of "Shattered Hearts"). More on this once I get an outline and a prologue done.

Save One Piece!

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:00:31 GMT

Whoops - meant to post that in a different journal -.-*

While I'm here. . . foot hurts, working on fanfics, summer break. Whoo.

17 credit semesters kick my ass

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:15:05 GMT

Okay, so sometimes it's my fault I'm playing video games when I'm not doing homework. But I definitely need to develop better study habits this semester. Some of my classes have rather large work loads that I am just bad at keeping up with.

Another Deadline Update

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:44:17 GMT

Title: Deadline (Chapter 17)
Chapters: Prologue + 17 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Sanji/Nami, possible Franky/Robin later
Link: The Value of Life
Summary: Luffy gets angry. VERY angry.

Deadline - 16

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:11:08 GMT

Title: Deadline (Chapter 16)
Chapters: Prologue + 16 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Sanji/Nami, possible Franky/Robin later
Link: Racing Against Time
Summary: A dream and a race against time.

Also:

Title: Beneath the Surface (Chapter 4)
Chapters: Prologue + 4 chapters, incomplete
Rating: T for the moment
Pairing: Link/Malon
Link: Chapter Four
Summary: Malon and Navi find Saria in the Sacred Forest Meadow.

So close. . .

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:57:15 GMT

By the end of the day I'll be DONE with finals for the semester, then I got a month off. Which is a good thing. Deadline is within. . . six to seven? . . . chapters of its conclusion and everything else could use some attention (though I did recently update Thick as Thieves as well). Well, Mom'll probably have stuff for me to do around the house over break, but that's okay, I guess.

I need to clean out my room at home - it's getting redone at some point. As long as I have a say in the colors, it's cool.

Okay, I need to go buy stamps. Later.

Back

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:42:19 GMT

Last post, September 11, 2007. Current post, December 13, 2007.

Yeah. . .

Classes are going all right. And this is on average. Some classes are going super - others are kicking my ass, like the one I'm currently waiting for help in.

Fic stuff? I've updated Deadline a chapter or two, and I updated Freedom with THIS:

Ryo and Rowen have entered the continuity - they've met two of the Senshi and have JUST reunited with Sage.

My normal computer might need to go into the shop (it's probably needed to for a while) after finals are over, which means some of my fics might go on hiatus until I get the laptop back. Some fics won't be affected if I a) start them or b) have not started the next part, meaning I could write it on another computer.

So much updating I want to do. . . and so many collegiate finals that are standing in my way.

Fic Progress and Other Things

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 21:43:09 GMT

Well, Deadline has come to a halt while I wait for some beta reading to get back (though I understand my beta reader has just started college), but the next chapter of Freedom might get out soon.

And I think some of my longtime RW readers are going to jump for freakin' joy.

That, and I also went back and edited a detail in CoC in order to make something work a little bit better.

Having some roommate issues. She's a freshman, I'm a junior, but she's actually a lot more acquainted with campus than most freshman because she has a junior boyfriend. When she's in the room it's kinda annoying, because she's not in the room enough for me to really feel comfortable around her AND her boyfriend (especially when they start kissing and stuff - that probably needs to stop if she wants the BF in the room PERIOD). Good news is she might move out at the end of the semester. YAY!

Also, mildly addicted to Gaia Online.