Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Ed, I need you to remember this is a library as well as my study, not just your detective room. So if this is going to be the norm, we’re gonna have issues,” Nami says slowly, gesturing to my half of the room and the red string strung about the place with disdain. 

I frown at her as I finish tacking a string from the word Alabasta to my shitty drawing of Sphynica. “What do you mean? If you duck under enough shit you can get at the books easily.” 

That’s a bit of a lie, but does it matter?

Nami sighs and gestures to the thick curtain that draws across the room in the middle. “Fine. As long as you don’t spill… that over into my half of the room, we won’t have a problem.”

I give her a big smile and dance through the literal web of red string to press a kiss to her face. “Nami, you’re a gem.”

She frowns good-naturedly. “I know that.”

“My loves! I prepared some snacks if you want to join us in the aquarium bar!” Sanji calls, poking his head through the door. 

We both follow him out and down into said room and I pause to stare at the shark Luffy must have put in the tank. “I’m a big fan of this addition. Just thought I would make that known,” I announce, draping myself over the back of Luffy’s chair as Sanji hands me a plate of some kind of chocolatey pie. 

“I know, right? Sharks are awesome. Except for the fact he ate all the other fish,” Luffy says with a smile I can’t help but kiss him on the head for. 

“Usopp, say she’s kidding!” Sanji suddenly bursts out. I turn to the other half of the table where another conversation is being had. “Tell me you didn’t!”

“What did Usopp do this time?” I ask. 

“I was just telling them about Longnose’s attempt to convince me on the train,” Robin responds with a smile. 

“Ah. The marriage ploy,” I muse sagely. Robin snickers and nods. “Well to be fair, if we paid taxes I would marry Luffy for tax benefits.”

“Marriage has benefits?” Luffy asks, a little confusedly. 

I shrug. “I mean, legally yes, but those don’t really apply to us.” 

“Marriage is about more than that!” Sanji cries. “It’s about irrevocably tying yourself to a person you love for the rest of your life! With the promise to stay loyal and true, and to take care of each other for the rest of your lives!” No one really bats an eye at his dramatic outburst.

“That sounds fun! Ed, let’s get married!” Luffy proclaims. 

“Fucken sure, sweetheart. It’s not like we basically weren’t already. Plus I don’t have any plans right now,” I agree without hesitation.

Sanji squawks. “NO THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT—”

“This feels like a very rushed idea,” Zoro deadpans.

“That’s super romantic, bros!” Franky sniffs, dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief. 

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Robin snickers. 

“Called it. It’s not lying if it’s eventually true,” Usopp says smugly. 

“I’ve always wanted to plan a wedding…” Nami mumbles thoughtfully. 

“WHY ARE YOU ALL ACTING LIKE THIS IS A GOOD IDEA?!” Sanji screeches. 

————

So we start planning a wedding. This has got to be one of, if not the, weirdest things I’ve ever done in my life. Also the one with the quickest turnaround, seeing as we’re suddenly living in a world where Nami of all people is demanding it take place at sunset.

Like Zoro said, very rushed.

“Why is this happening? How did we get here?” Sanji moans despairingly. 

“It’s Usopp’s fault,” I blame. “Stop moping and listen to the groom about catering.”

“The cake needs to be at least as big as I am. Or bigger. Yeah, bigger is better,” Luffy demands. “And it needs to be made out of meat.” 

Sanji sends me a pleading look I ignore. 

“If we’re going by hierarchy, since both the Captain and First Mate will be otherwise occupied, I believe the responsibility of officiating falls on the swordsman's shoulders,” Robin mentions.

“It what,” Zoro says flatly. 

“That’s true, he’s the only one with the actual authority to do it,” Nami agrees. “So we have an officiant. What else do we need?”

“When did I agree to this?” Zoro asks no one, since no one deigns to respond.

“I want Chopper to be the ring bearer,” I pipe up. 

Chopper blinks at me. “What? I get an important job? Yes!”

“Oh! Rings!” Nami gasps, smacking herself on the forehead. “Where are we gonna get rings?!”

“I’ll make rings. Don’t even worry about it, lil buddies,” Franky announces proudly. 

“Oh thank god,” Nami mutters. “I would feel awful if we ended up with something dumb like a jumpring.”

“Nami, seeing as you're handling everything and you are so oh so important to me, would you please be my maid of honour?” I ask. Nami bursts into tears. “Oh Jesus — I’m sorry!”

“No! Thank you! I would be honoured!” she sniffs, hastily wiping her face. “I’ll be the best damn maid of honour the sea has ever seen! Luffy, you gotta pick a best man. And you can’t pick Zoro because he’s officiating.”

Luffy pauses in his animated description of the food he wants to frown. “Hm… Usopp!”

Usopp has the exact same reaction as Nami did. 

————

Sanji somehow manages to sit down both Luffy and I in the aquarium bar. “I am going to talk you out of this,” he announces self importantly. 

Me and Luffy just stare at him. 

“Nuh uh,” Luffy denies. 

“Nope,” I agree, shaking my head. 

Sanji falters just a little. “You can’t do this,” he begs.

“Why not?” I ask. 

“I don’t see any reason not to,” Luffy nods along. 

“I’m going to stop you,” Sanji says, changing tactics and towering over us like he’s trying to be intimidating. 

Me and Luffy exchange a look. “But why though?” I ask slowly.

His face scrunches up. “You guys aren’t even — marriage is — you’re not even in love or anything!” he bursts out. 

I raise an eyebrow. “We live together,” I point out. 

“We sleep in the same bed,” Luffy adds. 

“I’d follow him to the pits of hell,” I state.

“I’d lead them there.” Luffy declares.

“We kiss like, all the time. Well not really on the mouth. Do you want a mouth kiss in the ceremony?” I ask, turning to Luffy. 

He turns to me and shrugs. “Sure, it could be fun.” 

We both turn back to Sanji, who’s looking paler by the second. “If that’s not love enough for marriage, I’m not really sure what your standard is,” I summarize. 

“I’m not super smart about what marriage entails, but like, aren’t we basically already there?” Luffy says, echoing what I said earlier. “Plus it was you, Sanji, who said this was some loyalty for life thingy so I don’t see the big deal. We’re already doing that.”

Sanji buries his face in his hands and screams, all the way out the door. 

Me and Luffy turn to each other again and shrug.

————

“So do you want to wear a dress?” Nami asks conversationally, already shifting through her section of the wardrobe looking for pieces. 

I shift on my bed and pick at my lip. “I dunno. My mom always wanted for me to have a big white wedding, but it never felt proper, what with all…” I gesture at myself. “I definitely need a long sleeve shirt though.” 

The handprint Sphynica left on my left arm had scarred pretty horrifically despite Chopper’s best efforts, and looking at it still has me in the ‘makes me feel ugly’ mood, and I’m waiting for it to graduate to the ‘wow I’m a hot badass’ mood.

She sends me a look of understanding over her shoulder. “Well your wedding, I cannot believe I’m saying this about who I am saying this about, should be about you and making you feel beautiful. So if you want to dress pretty, you’ll damn well dress pretty. And if covering up that scar makes you feel better, so be it.”

She turns around and presents a calf length white pleated skirt and a pair of white pleated dress pants. 

I blink and continue to chew on my lip. “You don’t think it would be like… a betrayal of my image or whatever?”

She shakes her head fondly. “No, idiot. You’re not dressing for anyone but yourself today. Now I somehow don’t own a single nice white shirt, long sleeves included, so we’d have to go to Sanji, but if you want you can borrow one of his suits and I can try my hand at tailoring it to you if that would make you feel better.”

“I think I’d like to wear the pants,” I say softly. 

“Yeah?” she says gently, a kind smile gracing her face. 

“Yeah,” I repeat back. “Oh but I will require a cape. That’s non negotiable.”

Nami rolls her eyes and throws the pants at me. “I’m sure we can find a suitable tablecloth.”

————

“I cannot possibly fathom why you think this is a good idea,” Zoro says plainly.

“The better question is why isn’t it a good idea,” I shoot back. “You know what our lives are like, doing dumb shit like this and enjoying it are the most important thing for us to hold onto. It’s not like either of us were really going to marry other people anyways, and if we do we can just get this annulled or something.”

“It’s just… more dumb than your usual crap,” he huffs. “I mean I’ll go along with it, but I want you to know this is one of the strangest things we’ve done.”

I flash him a beaming smile. “Isn’t it? I think it’s important to branch out.”

He laughs and shakes his head. “You thought up vows? Nami is apparently off coaching Luffy through his.”

I hum. “I think I can bullshit something appropriately sentimental. Hey, do you think if we sent marriage papers off to Marie Jois they’d file it?”

“I hope you trip down the aisle,” Zoro says kindly, then leaves with my cackles following him.

————

“Ed! We made you a bouquet!” Chopper announces, presenting me with a nice arrangement of paper flowers bundled up with branches from Nami’s tangerine trees. “Nami gave us greenery and everything!”

“That’s sweet, Chopper. Thank you,” I say warmly, inspecting the origami. “Where has Usopp run off to?”

“He was helping, but then Franky dragged him off to help with the rings,” Chopper explains. “I think they’re almost done? Oh, Sanji said he wanted to ask you about drinks.”

I nod and kiss him on my head on my way out. “Sanji?” I call into the kitchen, marveling at the smells permeating the air. 

“Ed, my darling,” Sanji says, sounding both elated and terribly sad. “Did you want your schnapps served at the afterparty? Just for yourself? For the group?”

“Sanji, hun, why are you sad about this?” I ask, exasperated. 

He shrugs. “I mean I’m not like, really sad. Not about you marrying Luffy. It’s mostly because it’s funny,” he pauses. 

I wait for him to continue, and sigh when he doesn’t. “You a little jelly, angel eyes? Not of either of us, just about the whole idea of marriage?” His expression crumples at the edges and he nods silently. “Aw baby, you know you’re gonna get something like this one day, yeah? Probably even better,” I croon, crossing the room to tuck myself into his side. 

He leans his head on mine. “Will I?” he asks miserably. “I’m starting to think I’m not cut out for it.”

“Why would you think that?” I ask gently. 

“I—” he cuts himself off to take a breath. “My… my mom and my — the man who—” He cuts himself off again to bite into his lip and I startle a little that he would voluntarily share something like this. “They didn’t love each other? Not in a normal way. And I don’t want to — I can’t — what if I—” His hands migrate to his hair and start tugging before I pull them down. 

“Sanji,” I say softly. “You are one of the most gentle, kind and loving individuals I have been blessed to meet. You will never, and I mean never, be in a situation like that. And if you even get close, one of us will be around to pull you out.”

He squeezes his eyes shut and nods. “My… my mother was very kind,” he breathes out. “I’d like to be like that.”

I smile wide and squeeze his hands. “You are.”

“The rest of it wasn’t kind,” he whispers. 

I run my fingers over all of the tiny little scars that cover his hands, nics from kitchen knives that betray his passion, and press a kiss into them. “One good memory, one person, or one beautiful place,” I recite. “That’s all you have to love about where you’re from. Nami taught me that.”

He opens glossy eyes and nods. I give him a wider smile. 

“Her name was Sora,” he says hoarsely. 

I blink a couple times. “That’s a wonderful name. Sanji, I have a comic book series I really want you to read.”

He blinks a couple times back. “Sure.” He gently takes his hands back and brushes his fingers under his eyes, despite not shedding any tears. “Why are you consoling me on your wedding day? Stop that. Now about the drinks…”

————

“Uh, Robin?” I say quietly as she brushes my hair away from my face and secures it with pins. I can’t quite make myself meet her eyes through the mirror we’re sat in front of.

“Yes?” she hums, smoothing my bangs back with the utmost care. 

“Would you… That is — Would you please walk me down the aisle?” I mumble, keeping my eyes closed to her reaction. 

Her hands still in my hair for an agonizingly long moment. Then I’m being fiercely hugged from behind as Robin buries her face in my shoulder. I valiantly try not to cry as I feel her shake through a breath. 

“Yes,” she murmurs. “Of course. It would be my pleasure and honour.”

I pretend not to notice her hastily wiping her face as she goes back to fixing my hair into something pleasant. 

————

“Alright Ed, you ready?” Nami asks for the twentieth time. 

I roll my eyes and resist the urge to smack her over the head with my bouquet. “Yes, Nami. Shoo! Make sure everything is good to go so I can walk down this damn aisle!”

She shoots me a nasty glare then backs out of the aquarium bar while sticking her tongue out. 

I roll my eyes at Robin once the door closes. “Why is she being more neurotic about my wedding than I am?”

“She’s taking on twice the nerves because you don’t seem to have any,” she says with a snicker. “Plus this is a pretty quick engagement to marriage turnaround time, she didn’t get to enjoy wedding shopping with you.”

I shrug. “What’s to feel nervous about? And she picked out my outfit anyway. Oooh, did you see that fish? It was bright yellow!” I gasp, pointing into the aquarium. After my talk with Sanji I’ve been thinking about the pet store fish aisle a lot. 

“So you’re ready? And you’re sure? And you’ll have no regrets?” Robin grills. 

I roll my eyes again. “Yes, yes, and yes.”

Nami’s head pokes back through the door. “We’re ready. Don’t trip,” she advises before disappearing again. 

Robin stands and offers me her hand. I take and and she leads me to the door, threading her arm through mine and patting my hand. “You won’t trip,” she says firmly, more an order than anything. 

“You got it, chief.” I salute. As my tone dial starts to play Frank Sinatra’s familiar tune through the voice of my pseudo dad/uncle, Robin opens the door and leads me out. 

The deck of the Sunny has barely been transformed. There’s a runway of lights across the grass acting like our aisle, deck chairs because all the chairs on the ship are bolted down, and a crate draped in a tablecloth set up where the altar would be, but it’s very obvious there was no interior decorator consulted. 

Zoro is standing behind the makeshift altar looking mildly grumpy, and in front of it flanked by Nami and Usopp is Luffy. I’m a little sad about how fast this is going only because I can’t milk the finance title. He’s decked out in his normal shorts, his damn sandals, the straw hat of course, and a white dress shirt borrowed from Sanji, same as mine is.

I don’t trip down the aisle, thank you very much. The red tablecloth cape makes a valiant attempt to kill me, but I manage. Robin guides me down and pauses right before the altar to squeeze my hand and give me the warmest smile I’ve ever seen. Then she lets go and gently pushes me forward. 

“I knew I forgot something, you don’t have a veil!” Nami hisses in my ear. I roll my eyes at her as the song reaches a close and Robin shuts the shell off, cutting off the message.

“It’s already basically a shotgun wedding, minus a pregnancy. Does it really matter?” I ask rhetorically. The sun is setting and casting everything is a soft golden glow, lights are strung around the rigging around us and sway gently in the wind.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to — ok fuck this,” Zoro starts, immediately giving up. Nami whips her head towards him, properly incensed, before he continues. “You know why we’re here. These idiots are a package unit and we’re making it official. I was told you have vows, go at it.”

I roll my eyes again. Franky is crying very loudly from one of the lawn chairs and Robin is patting him on the shoulder. “I’ll go first then,” I say sarcastically. 

“Sure,” Luffy chirps. 

I take a deep breath and look into his eyes. “If either of us had the capacity to fall in love, I’d choose you. In every universe and every lifetime.” I can’t believe I’m getting choked up about this, but I’m fully fighting back tears. “You, Monkey D. Luffy, are it for me. Consequentially and truly. I am yours, honour bound and for taxation purposes, till the universe does us part. Or the government denies our marriage licence but that’s a solvable issue.” 

Luffy gives me a big soft smile that warms me from the inside out. “I’m not as good at words as you,” he starts matter of factly, “so I don’t have a big fancy speech. You’re one of my favourite people on the earth, I wanna be with you always. We’re like uh — what are they called? Soulmates! So we gotta stick together forever, yeah?” 

Yeah I start crying.

Nami jabs Zoro in the side with a hiss and he jerks a little with a scowl. “Oh — right. Chopper, ring time,” he announces.

Me and Luffy both turn as Chopper struts down the aisle, probably trying to look regal or whatever and failing spectacularly with a throw pillow from god knows where strapped to his antlers. 

He comes to a stop in front of us and presents the rings and oh boy — I nearly start crying again. “Franky you fucking—” I choke out, turning the ring over in my hand. They’re both identical gold bands, semi-flat and ribbed like ram horns. 

“You like ‘em? I think I did pretty good for such short notice,” Franky says cheerfully from his seat. 

“You’re a bastard, but a bastard with very good taste,” I sniff, wiping off my face. 

“It'll be kinda like having a little piece of the Merry with us everywhere we go!” Luffy awes, holding the ring right up to his eye. 

Nami elbows Zoro again. “Oh my — knock it off! Ok, exchange rings for whatever,” he grunts. 

“But I want this one,” Luffy says petulantly. 

“Then we switch and I’ll give you that one,” I say simply. 

“Oh. Yeah that works,” Luffy blinks, passing me the ring. 

“Am I supposed to do the I do’s now? Oh wait — any objections? Speak now or forever hold your peace,” Zoro drones. Sanji opens his mouth before Robin sprouts a hand from his shoulder and slaps it shut. “Great. Ed, do you take Luffy to be your husband?”

“I do,” I answer, twisting the ring onto Luffy’s finger. 

“Luffy, do you take Ed to be your… I dunno, spouse or something?” Works for me. 

The sun dips below the water and for a second flares green. I startle, eyes widen as I realize what I just saw. The elusive green flash, the first I’ve ever seen, on the night of my goddamn wedding.

“I do!” Luffy cheers, jamming my ring on just a little too roughly. 

“Congrats. You’re married now. Is this party gonna have booze?” Zoro’s words are lost as Luffy grabs my face and surges forward to kiss me. 

It is, unsurprisingly, kind of terrible. Luffy is sorta an awful kisser, he uses way too much force and our teeth clack off each other, and he doesn’t do much except hold me there. 

Still, it’s lovely. The crew cheers while Franky is just sobbing as loud as he can manage. “Throw the bouquet!” Nami demands. 

“What?! I worked hard on that!” Usopp squawks. 

I ignore that and twist around so I can hurl it behind me over my head. 

“OW!” Sanji yelps. When I turn back around he’s on the ground rubbing his nose and holding the bouquet with an expression of pure confusion. “What’s the point of that?!”

“Traditionally whoever catches the bouquet is the person who’ll get married next. Guess that answers your question!” I cackle. Sanji sends me a look of disbelief as he clutches the bouquet closer. 

“That was fun. Can we party now? I want cake!” Luffy proclaims, already jaunting away. 

Just like that, we’re in party mode. I have no idea how Sanji managed to make a full feast and a giant eight tiered cake without Luffy attacking it before the reveal, but I am most definitely not complaining. Someone has poured me out a tall glass of schnapps and then a toast is being demanded of me.

“Fine, fine. Someone stop me before I get drunk tonight, I wanna remember this,” I demand, jumping up onto the table. Both Zoro and Nami choke. “Uh — what do I need to make a speech about? We’re here, you’ve witnessed something stupid, and now we’re gonna use it as an excuse to party!”

Hollers and cheers sound as I jump off the table to wrap an arm around Luffy’s shoulders. “Party! Party! Party!” he chants, pumping his arms. 

“Look!” Chopper suddenly gasps, pointing over the side of the ship. We all turn and watch as the water, deep black as it’s reflecting the night sky, starts to softly glow blue as waves start surging up against the ship and under it. “Those are jellyfish!”

Indeed, there’s hundreds of little bioluminescent jellyfish in the water, pulsing faintly as they bump off our hull and light up the sea far around us.

“Woah,” I breathe out, leaning over the rail to watch. 

It’s like a glowing blue sea of stars, like something right out of a Disney movie. I marvel at the sheer romance of it all — a little disappointed it’s being wasted on the least romantically charged marriage I’ve ever witnessed or been a part of. 

“Guess the Sea approves this union. Nobody can complain now,” Sanji says in awe. 

I throw my drink back and whoop. “Guess we’re partying with the sea too then! Wedding of the century!”

————

“This is nice. That was fun,” Luffy hums, flopping down onto the bench inside the aquarium bar beside me. I tear my eyes away from the single solitary jellyfish Usopp managed to scoop out of the water (and almost fell into the water for) to look at him.

I give him a big smile and go to take another sip of my schnapps before realizing it’s empty. I’m just a little past pleasantly tipsy here at the end of the party, and had retreated to the fish only minutes before he joined me, snuggled up in my tablecloth cape on the bench. 

“You gonna regret this at all?” I ask, spinning my ring around my finger. 

“Is it going to get in the way of my dream?” he asks, leaning his smile into his arm.

“No, I don’t reckon it will,” I chuckle. 

“Then no, not at all. I like the idea of always being connected to you, even if I don’t really get how marriage does that,” he says quietly. “And I’m not gonna get in the way of your dream either, so we have nothing to worry about.”

I hum and lay on my own arm, mirroring his position. “Yeah, but my dream is you.” 

“What do you mean? I thought your dream was to find out what the One Piece is?” he asks, brow furrowing. 

“It is, but I literally can’t do that without you,” I point out.

He frowns. “Sure you could. That would kinda suck for me because it would make you the King of the Pirates but you could still do it—”

“Luffy,” I interrupt gently. “I don’t want to fulfill my dream if it’s not with you. If you’re not at my side I’m not doing it at all.” 

“I don’t want you to give up your dream for me,” he insists. 

I can’t help but laugh. “I’m not. You are my dream. If something happened to you I wouldn’t be on my way to Laugh Tale by myself, I’d be making sure you’re ok. If you died I’d be going to hell to get your rubbery ass back. I don’t have a dream if I don’t have you.”

He scowls at the fish for a second before giving me a determined look. “Fine. If that’s what you want, then me too. I can’t fulfill my dream without you, so don’t you dare go anywhere,” he demands. 

I smile and run a hand through his hair. “Of course, my liege. My husband, my Captain, my King. I’ll be with you every step of the way, with me you’ll never go anywhere blind. I’m like… your eyes. Yeah, Eyes of the Pirate King.”

He chuckles. “I like that. You’re my eyes ‘cause you’re always watching out for me.”

“Of course I am,” I say warmly. “What else could possibly be more fun?”

He laughs and snuggles into my side. I can’t help but think that there’s something truly divine about the way he smiles at me as he starts inspecting the ring around my finger and comparing it to his identical one.

This is not in any way shape or form where I thought my life would lead. The jellyfish bobs past the glass and I have absolutely no complaints.