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[redforce]

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SHANKS

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[money]

i think if we agree to do something that was originally your idea, and you back out publicly without talking to me first, im allowed to be angry for as long as i want
i didn’t stay mad at luffy. disappointing me isn’t a habit for luffy
it is for sanji. it hurt worse because he knows me better.
so maybe he should walk away, maybe he’d be happier then

( the quiet part: because regardless of whatever sanji says, he clearly isn’t happy with her. she clearly isn’t enough.

obviously, neither was buggy. )

[redforce]

( you sound like him, he doesn't say, because that's not what nami needs to hear, now or ever, probably. but there's an echo of an accusation in the words she sends, the phantom sting of a hand slapping his palm. )

I don't think you really believe that.

( that sanji would be happier. shanks certainly isn't any happier — is, in fact, wildly more miserable — without buggy in his life, even if he thought it was for the best at the time. even if he thought it was a temporary, necessary separation. and then temporary became five years, ten, twenty, and for what? some noble idea of sacrifice? all shanks has now is the ever-present ache of grief and the ghost of something he let go too soon. )

You're allowed your anger, Nami.
And you're allowed to withhold forgiveness, if you choose.
But how long can you really live without him?
Take it from foolish, lovesick old man who shouldn't have given up as easily as he did.
Some people are simply designed to challenge you.
Would you still want whatever it is you have if getting there was too easy?

( if the path to what you want seems too easy, you're on the wrong path ... or so he's always said. )

[money]

( okay, so they're definitely not talking about koby, who is far too earnest to ever own the title lovesick from anyone. the only other person she knows from shanks' past is buggy, who she and luffy had their own choice words about in the past few weeks — namely he's hot and oh no. so it is maybe not such a hideous thing to hear from shanks at the current moment, imagining a much younger shanks pining over a much different version of buggy. nami wouldn't have understood that feeling before joining the straw hats: what it's like to keep a candle lit, what it's like to sit at the bow of a ship and earnestly await land. she never pined before this thing while zoro and sanji. and now

she can't imagine never doing it again. she says the quiet part out loud. )

if the path you're on seems too easy, you're on the wrong path

( only to her, it's a quote from luffy. she's not saying yes or no, you'd have to pin her down and force truth serum in her mouth first. but, sure — maybe it's yes. maybe sanji is worth a little heartache. )

it's not too late for you either, you know
you're not that old
i mean, you're not bed bound or something. you've still got both feet. they can move you in the right direction.

[redforce]

( he can't help but smile a little to himself, seeing the way his own advice has been passed on from luffy to his crew. nice to know that luffy was listening, sometimes. it's the next messages that give him pause, the smile fading into something more pensive. )

Careful, you're almost starting to sound like me.

( but he mulls those words over for a moment — they can move you in the right direction — and despite how easy it would be to shoot back something pessimistic, to say something like it's not that easy ... maybe it is that easy. and maybe isn't such an awful thing to hope. )

I'm not sure I know what the right direction is anymore, but
I suppose you've a point.