Mellorine

Summary: Do you know what 'mellorine' means? Neither does Nami, until two pranksters draw her attention to a certain entry in the dictionary. Pointless little drabble.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, etc.

"Sanji!"

"Coming, Nami-swaaaaaaaan!" the blond cook crooned, noodle-dancing his way up to the orange-haired navigator.

If he'd had eyes for anyone else besides her, he might have noticed the bemused, expectant looks on the other boys' faces. If he hadn't had hearts in his eyes, he might have seen the dangerous look in Nami's eyes, or the impatient tapping of her foot, or that her arms were crossed. But as it was...

"Sanji, that word you're always calling me..."

"Or Robin..." Usopp added.

"Or any woman in sight..." Zoro smirked.

"Yes, well...what is it?"

"Mellorine~~~!" Sanji sang.

"There! He said it!" Usopp pointed at Sanji.

"Yup, that's definitely the pronunciation given in here," Zoro said, consulting a thick book.

"Sanji, did you really mean to say 'mellorine'?"

"Hai, Nami-swan!"

"As in, 'a low-cost alternative to ice cream, made out of animal or vegetable...vegetable...'" Nami found herself unable to produce the last word.

"Indeed, Nami-swan!"

Sanji's frank confession was all that was needed to ignite the navigator's wrath.

"You mean all this while, you've been calling me CHEAP and FAT?"

"I, er..."

Sanji had just enough time to belt out an admiring whoop at the force of his Nami-san's punch before he went plunging into the sea.

"As for you two..." Nami turned on Usopp and Zoro, who were already skulking away. Their eyes went wide as her fists sent them to join Sanji in the water.

Despite the unexpected crossfire, they later agreed that Operation Circle-the-Entry-for-Mellorine-and-Leave-it-on-Nami's-Desk had been a huge success.

Author's Note: I suddenly wondered today, what DOES 'mellorine' mean? And this was what Wikipedia told me :-) According to a thread on the Arlong Park Forums, 'mellorine' might really be 'mero-rin' where 'mero' has to do with falling in love (cf. Hancock's Mero-Mero Fruit), and Oda added the "-rin" to pun with the word "mellorine", the same way most of Zoro's attacks pun with food ("oni-giri" etc). Sanji probably just uses the word to imply sweetness, but anyway. Zoro doesn't seem like the typical prankster, but I thought he might stick around to see Sanji's punishment. Anyway, let me know what you think.