One Piece 1. down by the riverside

**down by the riverside**

They're on a Spring island, and the leaves on the trees are fresh and bright, as gaudy as Zoro's hair.

Nami is up early. Her footprints leave dark tracks in the dew. She makes her way down to the river, where the willows trail their branches in the water and brush along the banks. Their trunks knot their roots in the earth, holding steadfast.

She wrote the letter last night.

**-- Belmer, you would want me to be happy, and I am happy, but sometimes I miss you --**

It floats downstream, and the willows shake their leaves over it.

---


	2. that which endures

**that which endures**

In a hundred years, what will they remember?

Perhaps her name will linger in the Marine records, with the bounty tagged onto it, an unwelcome vital (or lethal) statistic. There may be a photo attached; herself as a child, sullen, afraid.

Perhaps not.

There was a time when she would have said that it didn't matter; that the only things which lasted were the relics of history, the dry facts, the ancient stones.

But it seems to her now that friendship also endures; that kindness is passed down and onwards, from person to person in a chain across the years.

---


	3. the phantom of the pirate ship

**the phantom of the pirate ship**

Nami was smirking as she entered the cabin. "Busy night."

Robin blinked. "Oh?"

Nami swung herself into her hammock. "Well, let's see. Sanji's in the galley chopping garlic. Chopper and Usopp have barricaded themselves in the hold. Luffy's clinging to the figurehead and whimpering. And Zoro, while making it quite clear he doesn't believe in the supernatural, has decided to do his nightly exercises in the crow's nest."

"Oh dear." Robin put her book down. "I really shouldn't have told them those ghost stories. I do apologise --"

"Don't apologise!" Nami grinned. "It hasn't been this peaceful in _months_."

---


	4. sun and snow and sea

**sun and snow and sea**

On Drum it's always winter. Dr. Kureha likes that. The cold air is stimulating. It keeps her young and vigorous, as her patients discover when they try to crawl away.

She no longer has her little apprentice trotting round after her. She's kept busy with her work, the new government, everything that people need her for.

Sometimes she just needs a winter morning on her own, with her flask of plum wine keeping her company.

She can see the snow-tossed sea from the castle windows.

Each new morning, she knows that Chopper's out there on the ocean, and she smiles.


	5. AU: Taroticum: The Emperor

**Taroticum: The Emperor**

They were the greatest merchants ever. The captain, inspired by tales of trade and exploration; the navigator, acquired by outsmarting a tribe of fishmen at the dealing-table; the carpenter and inventor whose genius was unrecognised by his island; the ascetic swordmaster whose pursuit of mastery had made him the hero of thousands; the reindeer who had always dreamed of foreign lands; the archaeologist whose collaborations with the Marines had left her with friends across the ocean . . .

. . . if only they didn't keep on ending up in fights and having to kick serious bad guy ass.


	6. AU: Taroticum: The Hermit

**Taroticum: The Hermit**

Eventually they tolerated her at the edge of their gatherings again in the evenings. Sometimes Arlong would beckon her to his side and share his drink with her, indulge her, make much of her.

After a while, she became their mascot again. She was as much a piece of the scenery as the old skulls that decorated the gateway.

Eventually they were even proud of her. "Our Nami," they said. "Our cartographer. The best in the world," they boasted.

Her skin grew dry as her mapping paper, as wrinkled as sharkskin.

But they never, never let her near the water.


	7. sailing the echo down

**sailing the echo down**

Everything sang of swords to him that morning; from the scraping of the cook's knives in the kitchen to the high whistling of the wind in the sails, from the glints of the fading starlight to the brisk slicing coldness of the dawn air.

He began his exercises as he listened to the others on board waking. Their habitual noises were familiar to him now, as customary as the crying of the distant seabirds.

Move. Bend. Stretch. Turn. Rise. Open.

The sun rose over an ocean like steel, and the horizon shone in the distance, fierce as a blade's edge.


	8. let's open the year

**let's open the year**

Spin a dial on the Grand Line, and you point at a seasonal island; spring, summer, autumn, winter.

Zoro favors the winter islands, for the challenge; Luffy likes them for the snow. Sanji will go anywhere, but has a preference for autumn islands and harvests, where he can load the Going Merry with new foodstuffs.

Nami prefers the sea between; what's there to navigate on an island?

Chopper is too shy to discuss it, but he knows winter by now, and would rather see other things.

Robin is still getting used to living without maps. She thinks she likes it.


End file.

One Piece