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“Vivi?” Nami murmured as she cracked the door open. She found the blue-haired girl in the ship’s small study, which was a room only they had ever seemed interested in. As a result, it had turned into the unofficial ‘girl’s room’, which Nami definitely wasn’t complaining about.
“Nami!” the resident princess jolted a bit, straightening up and blinking away the drowsiness from her eyes. She’d bent hunched over a book, cheek resting on her hand, probably close to just passing out. Nami’s lip twisted up into a slight smile as she stepped forward, closing the door behind her.
“Didn’t mean to wake you.” the navigator offered.
“And I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” Vivi quickly shut a few of the other books scattered around her, which she was likely finished with. Eventually, only the heavy tome in front of her remained. She studied the pages, flipping between a few as if trying to make sure she knew where she’d drifted off. “I was just reading up a bit on past diplomatic strategies and…” she sighed, smiling self-effacingly, “well, I’m sure you’d rather talk about something else.”
“Who doesn’t love diplomatic strategy?” Nami stepped towards her, then caught herself, “Uh… There was something…” she glanced back at the door, feeling a prickle of apprehension, “There was something else that I wanted to uh… talk about, though.”
“Well, of course.” Vivi stared up at her with wide, sparkling eyes. Nami had to imagine all princesses had eyes like that, but seeing them in real life was still pretty incredible. “Anything!”
“Anything?” Nami cocked an eyebrow, “Sure. Okay. Right.” she took a quick breath, “It’s… well, I mean, it’s not that big of a deal or anything, it’s just something,” her words slowed, “that occurred to me. I guess it made me… wonder.”
Vivi stared at her, silently begging for elaboration.
“So, you know when we first met? I mean, not when we first first met - in that whale’s stomach - but right before we got to Whiskey Peaks? You and your friend-guy-assassin escaped and jumped off the ship and…” she swallowed, then gestured at Vivi, “when you were still doing your whole ‘Miss Wednesday’ thing.”
The princess smiled bashfully, showing off astonishingly white teeth.
“It feels like such a distant memory now.” Vivi murmured, wistfully.
“Right.” Nami tried to hold onto the string of thought, though the more she talked the more she felt like this was a stupid, stupid question, “So… Do you remember how just before you jumped off the ship, you kind of looked at me and uh… w-winked?” Nami forced a somewhat nervous laugh, “I g-guess I was just wondering… y’know… what that was about?”
Vivi stared at her for a moment, then her eyes narrowed. Suddenly, she seemed to be scanning through her memories, trying to find one in particular. Finally, a look of slight recollection dawned on her face as she sat up a bit straighter.
“Ah! Yes! That!” she sat forward, nodding slowly, “Well… Indeed. Ahem. Yes. Quite. Well, you see…” she smiled, her cheeks warming with a hint of red, “I suppose overtime I had developed this whole sort of… ‘character’ for my identity as Miss Wednesday. Of course, infiltrating an organization like Baroque Works takes a certain… ‘dedication’.” she crossed and uncrossed her legs, “So, of course, I needed to have a believable personality and skill set and…” her head sank into her hand, bashfully, “Oh good lord, I even had a whole backstory planned out that I never got to use.”
Nami giggled, though she still felt a shrill of anxiety in her chest, “Well, feel free to share it now if you want.”
“No, no, please!” Vivi held up her hands, “It’s far too late for that! And besides, it really wasn’t terribly interesting. But… well…” she tugged at her ear, “more to your point, I suppose I had constructed this whole ‘character’ for Miss Wednesday, and so some of her mannerisms were simply… uh…” she gestured vaguely, “‘dramatic flair’, I suppose?”
Nami swallowed, feeling her heart sink a bit, “I… see. Gotcha.” she found herself taking a step forward, anyway, “So, the wink? Just a… calling card, maybe?”
“Well…” Vivi’s eyes widened, a definite glow appearing on her cheeks, “It… well… of course, it was all simply character work, you see, but… well…” she carefully readjusted on the seat a few million times in the span of about three seconds, “It was merely a character trait I had decided on at some point. Really, a silly thing. But… uh… I at some point got this notion in my head that… that perhaps uh… ‘Miss Wednesday’ would… would…” she swallowed, suddenly completely unable to meet Nami’s eyes, “would prefer w… women.”
Nami stared at her.
A laugh sparked on Vivi’s lips as she stared diligently at the wall to her left, “Silly, isn’t it? Not as if I ever had to seduce anyone to get what I needed there. It… well… oh dear. I truly never thought it’d come up, you see? Just a ch-character trait I had decided on to help me flesh out the persona a bit more. That’s all.”
Nami found it difficult to fully piece her thoughts together as she studied their passenger princess, before finally swallowing and pushing ahead. She lit a smile on her lips to try and hide some of the weird feelings in her stomach, hoping it looked more authentic than it felt.
“I see~.” she tried to put a fun edge on her voice, “So… wait. Were you-” she held up a hand, dramatically, “Sorry. Was Miss Wednesday…?”
She let a slight cocking of her eyebrow finish the question.
“Well!” Vivi’s face glowed, “I had determined that you… probably would be Miss Wednesday’s ty-” she cleared her throat to interrupt herself, “And so, it simply felt… ‘right’.”
“As a ‘dramatic flair’?” Nami tried.
“As a dramatic flair.” Vivi nodded quickly, before finally turning to look at Nami, “Quite. So… you needn’t worry.” she waved a hand, “Simply just… character work. That was all.”
Nami felt her heart sink further, “Character work… right. Just ‘Miss Wednesday’.” she couldn’t help the slight sigh that escaped her lips, “Do you ever kind of ‘miss’ being her? Probably not, right?”
“Well,” Vivi fussed with a ring on her finger, “would it sound terrible if I said that I did? Only sometimes, of course.” she fussed more, finally throwing Nami a pleading look, “It was strange, but when I was her I just felt so confident and powerful and-! And-!” she swallowed, “Of course, I’m no different now, really, but when I was Miss Wednesday, I just felt… dangerous!”
“Well,” Nami shrugged, “you were an assassin for Baroque Works. It makes sense.”
Vivi sighed.
“It’s silly.” Vivi admitted, “But, in a way, I do miss her. Miss Wednesday didn’t have to worry about the fate of her kingdom, or whether or not she’d make a good ruler. Miss Wednesday’s life was - in many ways - so much simpler. I suppose I do miss it, somewhat.”
Nami cracked a smile, “Well, she doesn’t need to be entirely gone.”
Vivi looked up at her, “How do you mean?”
“I dunno.” Nami shrugged, “What do you think Miss Wednesday would be doing in this situation? You think your ‘badass assassin’ would have a plan for how to deal with Mr. Zero?”
She saw a light go off in Vivi’s mind, “Well… I suppose she would develop some kind of plan of attack, yes. After all, she knew there was more to being an assassin than just brute force. Planning and resourcefulness was of the utmost importance.”
“See?” Nami took another step forward, a smile still on her lips, “Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to think like an assassin from time-to-time.”
Vivi nodded, before suddenly standing up from her desk, eyes bright, “Perhaps you’re right! Miss Wednesday wouldn’t have let herself get defeated nearly so easily! She always had a plan! She could always come up with something! I just need to think like her!” she paced the length of the (admittedly rather small) room and back again, before hurrying to the nearby bookshelf, “Think, think, think. My people need me…”
“She knows the other members of Baroque Works, doesn’t she?” Nami queried, leaning against the bookshelf near where she was staring, “I bet she’d know how to take care of them.”
“You’re right…” Vivi breathed, “I couldn’t beat any of them in a fair fight, but assassins don’t fight fair, do they?” her eyes flicked to the navigator, “And if I know Mr. Zero’s true identity, that means I can figure out his weakness!”
“Not bad, Miss Wednesday.” Nami smiled, her eyes glittering as she studied the princess, “So? What else would the ruthless assassin do? What else you got?”
“I think…” Vivi pinched her lip, staring directly at the books in front of her, clearly lost in thought, “she would most likely try to kiss you.”
Nami felt her brain quietly eject from her head, “She would what?”
Vivi’s eyes shot wide, then flew to her in a sudden panic, “D-did I-?! I-! I didn’t say that out loud, did I?” the stare from Nami told her the truth, “I did. I did! I-! Well, it was just a random thought! J-just-! I was just thinking about what Miss Wednesday would try to do, of course! Not that I would-! Because I don’t-! N-not that there’s anything wrong with-!” she froze, then turned back to the books, “N-now, as I was saying!”
“So, if Miss Wednesday were here,” Nami giggled despite herself, tracing a hand down Vivi’s arm, “she’d try to kiss me?”
The princess groaned miserably, “It was a-! It was a random, passing thought! What I would do and what Miss Wednesday would do are two very different things, clearly?”
“So? What would you do?” Nami’s hand found Vivi’s, a finger hooking the princess’s pinky.
“I…” Vivi sighed, despondently, “To be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no idea what to do right now.”
“I’m not talking about Baroque Works.” Nami tugged at the other girl’s hand.
“Neither am I.” Vivi squeezed Nami’s finger with her pinky.
“So…?” Nami leaned forward the slightest bit, “Maybe you should ask Miss Wednesday for some advice?”
“I’m afraid she’s telling me to do something rather ridiculous and completely inappropriate.” Vivi stared straight ahead, her chest noticeably rising and falling rather quickly.
“Bu~t…” Nami swung the other girl’s hand back and forth a bit, her voice dropping to a warm whisper, “Do you think she’s wrong?”
“Well…” Vivi’s eyes turned upward a bit, “Whether the plan works is hardly up to me.”
“And what is the plan?” Nami took a half-step toward the princess, pulling her hand more fully into hers.
“Well,” Vivi thought aloud, words softer and more anxious by the second, “you - being the target of the plan - should hardly be included in its design.”
“Makes sense.” Nami murmured, her attention turning down to their entangled fingers. Vivi’s hand was quite warm, a bit sweaty, and so agonizingly soft Nami wanted to feel it on every inch of her at once. “Well, sometimes you’ve just gotta trust your own abilities, right? A good assassin has to be confident,” she looked back up at Vivi, her eyes hot as embers, “and trust that - whatever trap you lay - your target will fall right into it. Hook, line, and sinker.”
“I su-suppose that-!” Vivi’s hand trembled, Nami giving it a reassuring squeeze, “I suppose that perhaps - seeing as this isn’t a ‘real’ job - we could make a slight addendum and agree that - if my plan fails - we simply forget this ever happened?”
Nami let out a short, hot laugh, “So, you want it to be forgettable? Is that what I’m hearing?”
“Only if it’s bad. Or unpleasant. Or-”
“I’m sure it won’t be.”
“Indeed. Well.”
“Vivi?”
“Y-yes?”
Nami got an idea, “Miss Wednesday?”
Almost before the name could leave her lips, Vivi turned to her with a whirl, found her cheek, and pulled her in. Vivi’s lips were pressed to hers an instant later, the princess’s hand squeezing Nami’s as she took the lead. The navigator giggled as she was pressed back into the bookshelf, at first pleasantly surprised by the other girl’s boldness, then completely captivated by it. She dragged Vivi against her and pulled her in deeper, letting go of her hand to cup her face while the princess’s hands slid down her body. Lips parted, breath danced, hands wandered, and Nami felt her heart nearly hammer out of her chest as she smiled into the kiss. She gripped Vivi’s shirt in fists as she pulled the other girl into her, begging for more warmth and softness and depth and everything! Vivi’s lips squeezed against hers, as if trying to push every thought from Nami’s head.
And they were very nearly succeeding.
Guided almost solely by heat and want and desire, Nami’s hands found Vivi’s face again and cupped it as she tasted the other girl’s soft, warm lips. They were so sweet she could almost scream, tasting every bit as delicious as she expected from a princess. Her teeth found Vivi’s bottom lip and bit it, just firmly enough to hold her in place as she felt momentarily overwhelmed by sheer desire. Her eyes flicked open to stare at Vivi, their gazes locking in a smoldering union. Nami finally, carefully released the other girl’s lip and the kiss stayed parted for just a moment.
Still, there was no need for words.
Nami could see the heat smoldering in Vivi’s eyes plain as day, and she was sure hers looked almost identical.
Vivi shot forward to take her lips again, and-
THACK!
“Ow! Oh, blast!” Vivi pulled away, Nami cringing as pain shot through her front teeth.
Vivi’s had hit them with enough force to chip them, though thankfully they felt intact. Nami wiggled at them as Vivi stepped away, relieved that they felt as firm as ever. Still, the pain was enough to pop her brain out and polish it, before putting it back in her skull. The heat she’d felt, though it was definitely still there, had abated a bit. Now that she was listening for it, she could hear one of the others out on the deck, likely taking a midnight stroll.
“Are you quite alright?” Vivi asked, still doubled over slightly from pain.
Nami dragged her tongue along her teeth, just to feel them, “Yeah.” she nodded, “Y-yeah! Uh… m-more than alright, honestly.” she took a step towards Vivi, who straightened up stiffly, “That was… fun. Right?”
The other girl looked close to panicking, then let a syrupy laugh spill from her lips instead, “It was! I’ve n-never done something like that before! Though…” she rolled her eyes playfully, “I’m sure Miss Wednesday has, quite a few times. I imagined her doing so many absurd things, she-”
“She’s really something, huh?” Nami smirked, once again going for the shorter girl’s hand, “But, honestly, I think I like Nefertari Vivi a lot more. She’s so much nicer.”
“Well! Of course, you-! Uh!” Vivi flustered as Nami took her hand again and squeezed it, “Miss Wednesday and I are very different women, of course, with very… different…” she shuddered as their fingers interlaced, subconsciously squeezing Nami’s hand back, “We’re just very different in many ways, of course. We like different food and different drinks and different musicals and different-”
“Different girls?” Nami tried.
Vivi froze.
For a moment, her mouth just desperately tried to form words, before her eyes flicked down to Nami’s lips, then back up.
“Well…” she swallowed, her words turning into an inviting whisper, “I… I suppose we… we agree on some things.”
With that, she pulled Nami in for another kiss, before carefully dragging her back towards the study’s couch.