Ameliorate ✦ One Piece

21

Akira was stuffed. Absolutely, wholeheartedly, stuffed. While she'd first questioned Luffy on ordering one of everything, by the end of their meal she had to admit, it was a smart choice. Each dish seemed better than the one she tried before. She made a mental note not to trust the waiters around here when taking recommendations. Although, the drink Sanji had gotten for her, one of which she'd forgotten the name of by now, was a rather delicious one so he must have some taste.

"I can't eat another bite. But it's so good." Usopp spoke up beside her, desperate eyes staring at the piece of food on his fork as he debated suffering through for the sake of its deliciousness. Unlike him and Luffy, Akira had given up on eating a long time ago, now simply enjoying as she sipped on the last bits of the cocktail remaining in her glass.

"Oh man, you said it." Zoro agreed in an exhausted voice as he pulled open another bottle of beer that had been recently brought over to the table at his request.

"I'm not gonna be hungry for a week." Nami commented, slumping down in her seat, head leaning back as she stared up at the ceiling happily.

"Should we order desert?" Luffy's question had Akira's eyes snapping over to him completely stunned and shocked at the horrendous suggestion. It was especially terrible because she knew that if he did... She'd try to eat it.

"I already got mine." Zoro said dismissively, raising his bottle into the air to show it off before bringing it to his lips and taking a drink.

"Oh, that reminds me." Luffy dropped the large piece of bone he'd been munching the meet off of as he focused on the entire group with a smile. "We should do a toast. Come on, grab your glasses." He proclaimed confidently, the group moving in their spots to do as he said before waiting for their captain to give one. "To the best crew sailing on the sea and to our victory!"

His exclamation had Akira laughing in amusement as she pushed her glass forward, clinking it with Luffy and Usopp's before starting to take another sip of the still cool drink. At least, until Nami spoke. "No, I'm sorry." The woman said with a frown on her face, making everyone look at her curiously. "What victory exactly?"

"Against the Marines." Luffy said simply. "Our very first battle and we crushed them."

"I don't know how many naval battles you guys have been a part of," Nami started to rain on the parade, ignoring as Usopp tried to give a severely made up number. "But this was a disaster. We were unprepared, uncoordinated... By all rights, we should be at the bottom of the sea."

"We're not though." Usopp pointed out the obvious. "Luffy saved us."

"And yeah, maybe it could have gone better," Akira agreed with the sentiment, but in her opinion now wasn't the time to hash the details of it all out. "But we'll improve. For now we celebrate the success even if it was mostly luck."

"Are we really going to ignore the elephant in the room right now?" Nami's question had Akira's eyes turning to her with a new glare.

"We've been doing it since we started sailing with you." She said pointedly, reminding her of their conversation back on the Going Merry in an attempt to get her to drop the subject. But it didn't work.

"You didn't think to mention your grandfather was a Marine?" The ginger questioned Luffy directly. "And not just any Marine, a vice-admiral! I mean, I don't know about you three, but I didn't sign up for that."

"You raided a Marine base." Zoro deadpanned; eyes closed as he was clearly bored of this conversation. "Of course, that'll make you a target."

"If I stole the map, no one would have known I was there." Nami tried to boast confidently only for Akira to jump into the conversation again.