"Why is your face so red? Was the current too strong?" Luffy looked Nami up and down. "Weird, my control should be pretty good."
"It was... okay."
Nami's mind was a bit blank, answering instinctively.
Actually, that tingling, slightly numbing sensation coming through her fingertip wasn't unpleasant. It felt... kind of nice?
She startled herself with that thought.
Seeing she didn't object, Luffy reached out and lightly touched her forehead with his fingertip, still sparking with faint electricity.
Nami felt her body go rigid instantly.
It wasn't like she and Luffy had never had intimate contact before. They'd hugged. They'd even done those sneaky things that couldn't be discovered by others.
Deep down, Nami had always believed she was definitely the one in the lead!
Even that childhood friend Uta, wasn't her match.
But now, in broad daylight, under the open sky, even though no one was around, the distant laughter of their companions on the beach was faintly audible.
Nami glanced around furtively like a thief, deeply afraid that the scheming woman Robin was secretly observing them from some corner with her ability.
"Feels good?" Luffy still asked with a grin, his eyes clear as if genuinely inquiring about the experimental result.
Her face flushed, Nami forced a calm demeanor and humphed. "It's... acceptable, I guess."
The thought that Luffy might have done similar things with Vivi, or even Robin, brought up an inexplicable sourness and a competitive urge. "Hey, tell me honestly! Is there anything you're hiding from me?" Nami's lips parted slightly, looking adorably nervous. "Don't get the wrong idea! I mean, as the captain... You especially shouldn't keep secrets from us!"
If it was about secrets... There were indeed quite a few!
But those couldn't be told. Seeing Luffy's expression, Nami pressed in aggressively, their faces almost touching. Luffy suddenly shot back a question. "Don't you have secrets?"
Nami was taken aback.
Mainly because... that secret from Drum Island, the one she couldn't bring herself to utter... that couldn't be spoken! She even suspected that Luffy had been awake back then, eyeing him with suspicion.
Otherwise, it was hard to explain why... so fast, so much.
"See, a secret is called a secret precisely because it can't be spoken," Luffy said, sounding perfectly reasonable.
This made Nami even more irritated. Since when did Luffy become so silver-tongued?
So she puffed out her cheeks and just kept staring at Luffy with her beautiful, big eyes.
"You... what's wrong?" Luffy asked.
"I'm... I'm not happy." The corners of Nami's mouth unconsciously turned down.
She even made sure to check that no one was around first. Otherwise, that somewhat coquettish tone...
The rubber man was completely oblivious!
"Why?" Luffy looked her over, puzzled. "I even gave you all the money to manage."
Bringing that up made it worse.
Nami couldn't help but reach out and pinch Luffy's highly elastic cheeks, puffing up angrily. "You dare say that? What's that little bit of money even good for?"
To be honest, Nami had dipped into her own private stash more than once to fill Luffy's bottomless-pit-of-a-stomach!
Money that entered her pocket could still come out... only for Luffy.
Luffy scratched his cheek sheepishly, his rubbery face stretched long by Nami's pull. This wasn't something he could laugh off.
He started seriously thinking about how to repay Nami.
Seeing him like this, Nami asked impatiently, "What are you thinking about? It's not about maid outfits again, is it?"
She still remembered that time in Loguetown, how Luffy had stared wide-eyed at that white lace outfit.
Luffy's gaze fell on Nami. The halter top and hot pants she'd just changed into perfectly outlined her shapely figure, her smooth skin seeming to glow in the sunlight.
He answered honestly. "Not really. I think you look pretty good as you are now."
A faint warmth spread across Nami's face, a small flicker of pride in her heart. At least this guy had some taste.
However, Luffy's next sentence nearly made her explode. "But a maid outfit would be nice too."
"Pervert!" Nami immediately jumped back ten paces, crossing her arms over her chest, looking at Luffy with disdain.
"Speaking of which, you still owe me two conditions."
"One! It's one!"
"Then my condition is that you agree to ten more conditions you can't refuse from me."
"Ahhhh! That's not fair!" The light seemed to vanish from Nami's eyes. "You might as well just say I can't refuse anything you say!"
"Good idea."
"Pervert Captain! Go die!"
Yet amidst this back-and-forth bickering, the expression on Nami's face unconsciously relaxed, and a smile even curled at the corner of her mouth that she herself didn't notice.
"Nami, your face is so red." Luffy pointed it out again.
"Hah? That's because it's too hot! The sun on Sky Island is too strong!" Nami retorted, flustered and angry, fanning herself with her hand, trying to dispel the heat on her face.
To break this awkward, ambiguous atmosphere, and to satisfy that darned curiosity and competitive spirit, Nami took a deep breath and asked in an even quieter voice, "What exactly happened between you and Vivi in Alabasta?"
She'd asked Vivi before, but she'd always dodged the question.
There was definitely a big secret here!
"You really want to know?"
"Of course!"
Luffy thought about it and decided to give her a hint in a more metaphorical, hands-on way.
He suddenly reached out and grasped Nami's wrist.
Nami froze on the spot, looking at him with slightly widened pupils, her mind blank.
"Do you want to try it?"
He looked directly into Nami's eyes, which seemed to speak volumes.
"W-what?"
Nami felt her voice tremble. Her eyes, shimmering with nervousness and some unnamed anticipation, almost seemed to brim with tears.
Luffy found her expression—wanting to know yet pretending to be calm, cheeks flushed, eyes darting—utterly fascinating. The usually sharp, tough, unflappable Nami would become so flustered and lose her composure completely with just a little push.
"Are you ready?" Luffy asked again, tightening his grip slightly on her hand.
"Ready for what?" Nami felt her heart beating so fast it might leap from her chest.
Luffy didn't answer. Instead, he began carefully controlling a weak current, transmitting it through their joined hands to Nami.
"Mmm? Hngh?"
An intense, tingling, slightly numbing sensation instantly spread from her palm throughout her entire body. Nami couldn't suppress a faint moan, instinctively biting her lower lip.
The excessive tension caused her palm to quickly grow damp with sweat. She tried to pull her hand back, but Luffy held on tighter.
"I... I get it now!" Nami said, her face red, trying to end this heart-pounding experiment.
"Get what?"
"Ugh, I don't know!"
***
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