Summary: Devil Fruit debates and some sexy fun in the aftermath of the fighting...

  Quick Note: Merry Christmas of 2024 (a bit early!) everyone! This story didn't actually win the patron poll for once. But, as an extra holiday gift, I did an update on it anyway for Patrons. Since that update ran away on me a bit and ended up being a full 12.5k words, I decided to go ahead and release the previous batch of chapters out of early access, same as I would in a more normal month. Enjoy!

  Lemon Warning! This chapter contains both a Lime and Lemon. Both are clearly marked at their start and end points so that you can skip them if that's not your thing!

  Chapter 48: Complications

  The death of Enel and his priests was, Luffy reminded himself, a good thing. Sadly, he was beginning to realize that he'd focused so much on the obvious enemy that he'd gotten a bit near-sighted and failed to truly anticipate the problems caused by the sudden power vacuum. Only a day had gone by, in which Luffy and the crew had thankfully been able to rgely recover, before those problems began in earnest. It was then that a little detail Luffy hadn't really known, even if he'd sort of suspected it, came to call.

  The Shandians and Skypieans weren't on good terms with each other.

  At all.

  Worse, Overcompensating Bazooka Man was a meathead that didn't know how to do anything but attack. Double worse, Luffy and Crew had killed pretty much the entire previous military of the Skypieans when they'd wiped out the enforcers. The White Berets and a half dozen surviving enforcers were pretty much it. Gan Fall had finally made an appearance, leading those bare handful of ex-enforcers, but if Luffy and the others hadn't been there the attack led by Bullheaded Overcompensating Man would have devastated Skypiea. As it was, the Shandians had attempted to seized Upper Yard and killed quite a few innocent Skypieans who had merely been going about regur duties harvesting Dials.

  Another crew might not have cared, simply removing the big bad and moving on.

  Luffy's crew, fortunately for the locals and unfortunately for their ability to just move on, included Nojiko, Kaya, Vivi, and Hina. All four of whom wouldn't have been okay with just exiting stage left and leaving the locals to their local problems. Particurly as what seemed to set the attack off was Luffy, after he'd recovered, heading up to the top of Giant Jack and ringing the Golden Bell. The Shandians apparently took him doing so as some sort of taunt, and the attack had been the result.

  All of which meant that Luffy's crew were stuck in the middle of a 400-year-old conflict. Gan Fall, thankfully, had wanted peace even before Enel had arrived and fucked everything up. He had some measure of goodwill with the Shandians left over from his own attempts at making that peace. After Luffy's crew beat the snot out of them, temporarily ying cim to Upper Yard as a neutral party and keeping both sides out, Gan Fall had managed to go over Bullshit Wiper Man's head and begin some negotiations with the Shandian elders. Vivi had then gotten involved, not just representing the crew, but by presenting the Kingdom of Abasta as a potentially interested neutral party.

  Unfortunately, negotiations took time. Meaning they were stuck in Skypiea for a while. Possibly as long as a couple of weeks, depending on how things went. Fortunately, there were a lot of things to do on Skypiea, particurly with the crew currently 'in control' of Upper Yard. Luffy had killed another day with Robin, this one with the woman ending up truly ecstatic as they found the poneglyph he'd been fairly sure would be here. It hadn't been what she'd wanted, containing the details of another weapon, initially causing a negative reaction from her.

  Her slight turn toward depression had seen a major swing for the better as he reminded her of Lili's journal and the theory that each poneglyph on the Grand Line needed to be added to the others in order to get what Robin was looking for. Combined with discovering a hint, written in the same ancient script as the poneglyph itself, that seemed to indicate the previous Pirate King had been here doing the same thing, and Robin was remarkably happier. They'd made a rubbing of the entire poneglyph, just in case, securing it in Luffy's inventory where there was no chance it could be stolen by someone who might want the information on Poseidon it contained.

  That bit of progress toward Robin's goal, combined with a chance to check out the rest of the ruins, had left her in quite a positive mood. Though Luffy found, to his own mix of delight and chagrin, that cheerful Robin was a tease. He was, at least, very gd that she was an equal-opportunity tease and had leveled just as much of her teasing at Nami and Vivi as at him. Though, curiously, he didn't see her making more than a token effort with any other members of the crew. There was a time or two that she pyed along with Sanji, and more than once where she seemed to catch herself before doing the same sort of thing with Hina, but she left everyone else rgely alone. Well, except for Chopper. But that was an entirely different sort of teasing. One where she seemed to enjoy his reactions to her somewhat morbid sense of humor.

  Another day of their enforced free time had been spent gathering up the gold that Enel had been turning into components for the Ark Maxim. That ship, in and of itself, was something they were unsure what to do with. It actually could run on Dials…sort of. The Dials appeared to be closer to backups than primary systems, something to let Enel rest rather than having to constantly power the ship. Ultimately, without Enel's Devil Fruit, the ship wasn't overly practical. At the same time, the temptation of a ship that could fly was incredible. Leaving them at something of an impasse…particurly when Luffy revealed that he had 'found' the Goro Goro no Mi.

  In reality, of course, he'd purchased it back from the System. It was just too powerful of a Fruit to leave running lose where an enemy could potentially get at the massive powerup it represented. It was thus that another crew meeting was called on the third day of the 'negotiations.' The Goro Goro no Mi sat on the table between the crew, as they all discussed it. Finally, after not a little back and forth, it was Kuina who put the situation into words.

  "We are running low on people to use Devil Fruits. Zoro and I will not. Sanji says there is only one mystery fruit he refuses to discuss that he'll ever take. Luffy, Nami, Nojiko, Kaya, Hina, Robin, Vivi, and Chopper…you all already have Devil Fruits. That really only leaves Usopp. Technically, the Goro Goro no Mi is actually a pretty good Devil Fruit for him, as it provides all the usual Logia advantages, plus pin-point range attacks. But there are literally only four of us left who can rescue Devil Fruit users if any of you go overboard. Luffy, you can actually swim at the level of mastery you're at, but you'd struggle with someone else's weight, I think?"

  Luffy reluctantly nodded.

  "Yeah. If it was, say, Chopper? I could rescue him. The others would all be dicey if I couldn't do it quick, though. The water still weakens me, even if it doesn't totally disable me. Nojiko?"

  Nojiko shook her head.

  "I've gotten to the point that I can at least tread water. I could probably get myself out of trouble if there were nd nearby. But not on the open sea. No way I could rescue anyone else, either. Not even Chopper."

  Luffy nodded, accepting the point and sighing.

  "So we've got another seriously powerful Fruit in our hands, but we're already pushing the safe limits of how high a percentage of our crew has Devil Fruits. Usopp, you haven't said if you're even interested yet. Are you?"

  Usopp stared at the fruit, brow furrowed.

  "I…sort of am? Kuina was right that it's not a bad fit for me, and it would be a big boost so I could keep up. But I agree about us having too many Fruit users, I've been worried about it since Kaya ate hers."

  That got nods, snorts, and a gentle pat from Kaya to Usopp's knee. All of them knew by now that his devotion to her was the real deal, and it figured that not being able to rescue her specifically, if she took a dive into the ocean, was what was holding him back. Luffy frowned, sighed, and offered his own suggestion.

  "I say we store it for now. No one can get at it if I stick it in my pocket dimension, and the situation will change. More of us will eventually get decent mastery of our Fruits, for one thing. For another, we might well recruit more people that don't have them. We're now at a number of crew that can safely handle the Discovery, but I wouldn't say no to having a few more hands aboard either. I did build her for a crew of sixteen to twenty, even if twelve is more than enough to handle her most of the time."

  The comment almost immediately got nods all around. Even Usopp, on the fence as he was, quickly agreed. More time to think about it was perfectly fine with him. Storing the Goro Goro no Mi away, Luffy spoke up again before anyone could drift off.

  "I have two additional points I'd like to bring up while we're all here. One is in retion to that recruiting. A Dial Engineer is absolutely someone I'd love to have aboard. So all of you should keep your ears to the ground about one that might fit in with our crew. Someone who's looking to see the Blue Sea world, perhaps."

  Everyone nodded at that, easily understanding his point.

  "Second, I want to put forward the idea that we investigate more Sky Isnds while we're up here. I've talked to the Skypieans and there's at least one other Isnd here in Paradise that's safe to visit. Birka, where Enel came from, was destroyed by him. Another, Merveille, is currently home someone whose name I recognize, and I very much don't want to antagonize him by poking his isnd. But there's one more almost straight east of us, which will take us along the Grand Line anyway. It will even make it harder for the World Government to figure out where we are, by the time we descend."

  Luffy's comment got a mix of looks. Some were neutral, others were indifferent, and a few were eager. It was Nami that spoke up first.

  "I'm fine with that. I'd actually like a chance to see if I can chart the White and White White Seas. Given how little known they are, I suspect a proper chart of them is basically a fairy tale. At best. Now that I know they're up here, I'll need to map them just like everything else. Figuring out the best way to do that is something worth doing while we have the chance, even if we don't get to them all now."

  Most of the remaining crew seemed indifferent, though Robin, Hina, and Vivi all looked at least a little relieved. It was Vivi who voiced their combined thoughts, though in what was likely a more complex manner than the other two were thinking of the issue.

  "That's a good idea. The longer we stay out of conflict with the Marines and World Government, the worse the political situation gets for them, as they won't have anything to justify the decration of us as pirates. They are starting to get some nasty kickback from other nations concerned about their own heirs being randomly decred pirates. A little more time and I don't think even the discovery that Robin has joined us will let them out of the noose they strung around their own necks."

  Hina and Vivi looked outright satisfied about that. Robin merely appeared relieved that, for once, the World Government had no idea where she was or how to put pressure on her. For her, Luffy realized, the Sky Isnds might be the first time she's been able to mostly rex since Ohara. He wondered how tempting it must be for her to just…stay up here. Out of reach of the World Government. At least for a while. Well, his own pns meant she'd get a few weeks at least, even if the negotiations here on Skypiea didn't drag on as long as he feared…

  ... ...

  Nami hadn't been at all against an evening walk when Luffy had suggested one. In truth, while they certainly managed to find time to fool around in their shared cabin on a fairly regur basis, time spent alone together beyond that was limited. The Discovery was a big ship for the number of crew aboard her, but even so the common areas were rarely empty unless you happened to have the night watch rotation. Even then, the fact they ran even the night watch in threes meant they weren't alone, nor would it have been safe to get distracted during such a watch. The Grand Line didn't care if it was day or night when it threw crazy at you, after all.

  As such, he and Nami tried to make it a point to get away when they were on isnd stops, if they could. But the st few hadn't been particurly conductive to that habit. They'd managed some alone time on Jaya, at least, but even there the general stay on Jaya had been busy enough that they'd only made a single day of it. One that had been nice, but not anything particurly special. Not that it had needed to be, of course. But Luffy felt like he was failing at his boyfriend duties just a little bit. As such, he'd invited Nami out on this evening stroll for a not-so-evil nefarious plot.

  It was, he felt, high time that he made better use of knowing what Nami's kinks were.

  He remembered being not-a-little surprised by several of them. The sort of surprised that had likely had Nami wondering just why she'd gotten jumped, ridden hard, and put away still soaking wet but too thoroughly exhausted to do much about it. Seriously, some of the stuff in his girlfriend's kink list was naughty, and he hadn't been able to keep himself from daydreaming about some of it. The collection of naughty novels Bell-mère had stashed away, that both of her adoptive daughters had apparently found and gotten into, must have been seriously spicy. Someday, he was really going to have to try and find them himself, given how strong an effect they seemed to have had on both Nojiko and Nami alike. In a world that cked the internet, he was sure there was a market for high-quality erotica!

  Back on point, some of the more interesting bits of Nami's kinks weren't things he could act on right now. There were, however, others that he most certainly could. Two of which he fully intended to act on this evening, as they moved away from the others. Upper Yard was more than big enough to get some space from the crew…and it fit nicely with two of the things that apparently got Nami's motor running extra hot. And the first part of his pn was just ahead. Luffy detoured them off the path slightly, dragging a confused Nami with him through a bit of underbrush.

  -Lime Starts Here-

  "Well, what do you think? Up for a little skinny dipping?"

  Nami had stopped, startled at the sight of the small waterfall feeding a clear pool. A little investigation on Luffy's part had made it clear that the idyllic little scene wasn't actually natural. A culvert had been dug out of where the jutting piece of hill spiked upward, channeling water from runoff created by the mist from two Milky Roads that crossed half a mile from this location. Added to the unnatural smoothness of the base of the shallow pool, it was obvious someone had put some effort into creating the romantic little pool. That, however, must have been decades ago at minimum, possibly more like a century or two, based on the way time had worn away the more obvious signs of it being artificial.

  "I already checked. The water's not too deep for us poor Fruit users! Come on, Nami~!"

  Luffy smirked at her, ditching his shirt first, then his pants. He made a show of removing his boxers a moment ter, knowing that Nami thought he had a spectacur ass. He turned and winked as he caught her ft-footed and staring, then he spun and hopped into the water. Nami, still new the water weakness of her Fruit, watched warily, sighing in relief as even the deepest part of the pool where Luffy stopped only came up to his waist. This was fresh water, more like spending time in the baths than the sea, and most Fruit users could manage at least waist heights of such water with only feeling a little weakness. Nami, thankfully, seemed to have higher natural tolerance than most. Possibly because of the spring-creation ability of her fruit.

  Which doesn't mean she wasn't extremely cautious. She stripped down slowly, using Luffy's appreciation of her body to hide her nerves a bit. Luffy was hardly compining as she hovered nude around the water, only slowly and tentatively entering it one foot at a time. She got to her mid-thighs before visibly shuddering as her body started to weaken, and Luffy swooped in before she could hesitate farther. Instead of forcing her to go any deeper, he swept her into his arms and carried her to the waterfall. Given her retively new weakness to water, it was the waterfall and what was behind it that was the real treasure here. They might use this pce to train ter…but ter was ter. Now was now.

  Nami had gasped when he swept her off her feet, clinging to him on instinct. She untensed a few moments ter, giggling at his antics as he danced and twirled with her under the waterfall. Smirking at her mood lightening, he moved on after a minute or so and a bit of taking advantage of her position to let his hands drift to fun pce. Two steps deeper into the 'natural' recess behind the waterfall revealed that the dark nook around one sharp edge of rock was actually an opening in said rock. He lept up on the ledge there and set her down in the entrance to the tunnel.

  "Come on! Let's explore! Hidden passages behind a waterfall are a cssic, you know!"

  Nami looked around, bemused, but followed him willingly enough as he tugged her along. She had no idea where this went, of course…but Luffy did. It was, in fact, the whole point. The water had only been an excuse to get her out of her clothes. Waterborne dates weren't exactly the favored romance of new Devil Fruit users, after all. There were a few small rooms that they passed through, but there was little to see. There were signs of there once having been furniture here, but it had all been removed or broken down over the years. There were no exciting treasure chests, or hidden secrets…but there was another exit. One that opened up onto an entirely different path than the one they'd been on.

  Luffy moved out of the opening confidently, but Nami hesitated and looked back. He could sense the feeling of conflict in her with his empathy. Nami was an exhibitionist. That particur kink had been so unsurprising that he'd likely have pinned it as being the case even without the System to cheat for him. As it was, he'd been feeling a steadily increasing thrill from her as they wandered farther and farther from where they'd left their clothes. Until now, however, they'd been retively concealed. If she kept following him out…

  Luffy, of course, escated.

  Specifically, he waited until she looked backwards again…then spped her firmly on the ass. Nami yelp-moaned, already just aroused enough that the surprise strike, with just the right amount of strength in it, had been as pleasurable as painful. She whipped around to react, only to find him already moving.

  "Catch me if you can~!"

  Caution lost in the combined rush of endorphins and ire, Nami chased after him without a second thought. The chase was on, and Luffy had both a picnic basket and some very nice silk rope in his inventory. Once he had her properly riled up, he could act on his desire to find out just how good his knotwork was for things other than sailing. Then, of course, the food and deserts would be an enjoyable way to recover afterward…

  -Lime Ends Here-

  ... ...

  -Lemon Starts Here-

  Robin had been wandering Upper Yard, idly looking for more ruins, when the circle of warning eyes-and-ears she habitually formed around her had caught an odd noise. Not having found anything particurly interesting so far, and with the sun starting to set, she decided to investigate whatever she'd heard before heading back toward the ship. Moving in the direction she was fairly certain the noise had come from and spreading out her network ahead of her, it only took a minute or two of work to abruptly catch sight of what had caused the noise.

  "Oh my."

  Robin came to a surprised stop as she processed what she was seeing. As she did, she knew that she really ought to dispel her extra eyes and ears and turn around…but she didn't. Already having her powers by the time she went through puberty had made it almost inevitable that Robin had developed a bit of a voyeuristic streak, and the sight she'd stumbled on this time was much too tempting to look away from.

  Doubly so as she found both Nami and Luffy quite attractive.

  She hadn't been teasing the two of them just for her own amusement. It had been a while for her, and she'd caught both of them looking. She hadn't really let herself run down the train of thought that fact brought to the back of her mind, but what she was witnessing now certainly brought it front and center forcefully.

  "So firm…"

  The whispered words spilled from Robin's lips as she stared at a nude Luffy manhandling his equally nude lover. A sight made all the more exciting by the fact that Nami was suspended in midair. Luffy had thrown a rope over one of the massive tree limbs of Upper Yard, and secured Nami to a long steel bar hanging from it. The redhead was bound with a quite intriguing looking harness of crisscrossing ropes to hold her in suspension. Her nubile body was contorted into an arc that showed off her flexibility delightfully, bringing her arms and legs both behind her and tying them to both each other and the bar. An extra spacing bar separated her legs by being pced between her knees, and she was face down. The crescent hanging positions left her breasts hanging free, with bands of rope tied both below and above them, along with another set around her waist.

  Idly, even as Robin's hands instinctively started to wander her own body, she noted that the rope work was quite well done. The way it had been tied would prevent too much pressure on any one part of the body, preventing the redhead's bondage from being painful. Not that pain was at all what was on Nami's mind at the moment, given that Luffy had clearly moved on from whatever teasing he might have done to her at first. Instead, he'd produced a solid block of stone to bring his own height up by stepping on. Not-at-all-accidentally, she was sure, his waist ended up at the perfect height for him to slide his body between Nami's legs, the bar at her knees curved up high enough by her arcing position to act as a nice handhold.

  The noise Robin had first heard must have been a particurly loud moan. For Nami was being used like a toy, the swinging rope and handhold-like-bar allowing Luffy to forcefully pull her back onto his cock with firm tugs, all while he thrust firmly forward, drawing moans and mewls from Nami's lips as her breasts swung violently with the motion. The redhead already looked quite frazzled and dazed, a pair of small weights attached to her nipples indicating she'd been the subject of some 'fun' even before Luffy's current use of her body.

  Robin should probably give them their privacy…but she couldn't help herself. Instead of dismissing her eyes and ears, she increased the number of them to give herself multiple points of view, even as her actual body found a smooth tree to lean her weight against. Hands that had been idly toying with her body moved to the snap of her shorts, unfastening them even as another set of hands grew from the tree trunk to embrace her from behind, cupping her breasts and kneading. This was, without a doubt, one of the best aspects of her powers, given how rarely she could find a trustworthy lover.

  Following old familiar paths, one hand slipped under her panties, a low moan of her own slipping out as she teased her by-now-dripping slit. Fumbling just a bit with her free hand to undo her bra, she closed her eyes to better focus on the sight and sounds from her distant copies. One of the arms from the tree moved to brace her upright as a quaver went through her legs, while the other joined her free hand in assaulting her now-uncovered nipples, her shirt having been pulled up over her breasts and her bra discarded on the forest floor.

  She bit her lip as she heard Nami cry out and saw her shudder as a climax ripped through her. For a moment, she feared the show was over…only to release another moan of delight as she realized Luffy hadn't even slowed! Even as Robin raced for her own peak, she couldn't help but let the idea that had initially rushed to the front of her mind flit through her thoughts again.

  Did she dare hope her new Captain and his lover might be up for a threesome? She'd never had a chance, before, and she'd always wanted to try…

  -Lemon Ends Here-

  ... ... ... ... ...

  A/N 1: I know I've commented on this quite a bit in, you know, comments on various sites. But this is the first time I've shown in-universe...Luffy does NOT want to go to Water 7. I'm honestly still surprised how many people just blindly assume he would go there, even knowing about CP-9. I mean, it's not like he's going to give up the Discovery, which means Franky has zero reason to go along either. He can't recruit the one person from the original crew that's there, and he doesn't want the Thousand Sunny. He's, at this point, a Master Shipwright all on his own, and designed his personal ship from scratch just the way he wanted it.

  A/N 2: It's been a while since we had a lemon ;-). This one was a bit unusual, too. But I honestly felt that showing Robin's perspective here was a good way to build up her having an increasing interest in a retionship with them. Right now, she's not really thinking 'Romance.' But she's certainly thinking something~!