Worm Piece (Worm/One Piece)

Chapter Twenty-Three

"This one is cute," Nami said as she pulled a shirt off the rack. It was a fairly simple orange t-shirt with some lace along the bottom and a smiling face on the front.

Zoro shook his head. "That's too vibrant for her. She's a winter palette. Try something in a more subdued tone, maybe something like this." He reached to one of the other racks and pulled out a full shirt, this one in a pale blue that had the silhouette of a butterfly on it. Turning, he pressed it against Taylor's chest. "See?"

"Oh, I do," Nami agreed.

Taylor, for her part, was wondering what the hell was going on.

The morning after their fight with Buggy's crew and the subsequent town-wide party was supposed to be a relaxed affair where she could focus on healing and sleeping off the previous day's excitement. A passing comment to Nami that she needed some clothes had ruined all of those plans.

How, exactly, Zoro had managed to tag along was beyond her. Somehow the swordsman was leading the whole outfit making affair because for some reason she couldn't figure out, he had a great eye for fashion.

"Add it to the pile!" Nami declared as she tossed the shirt into a small basket that was nearly full already. Most of the clothes within were more functional than not. Tough cotton shirts that would endure work on a ship, cargo pants and shorts to stay cool. All rather functional and practical. She approved.

Still...

When she turned back to the others it was to find Zoro eyeing her carefully. "What are you looking at?" he asked.

"Me? Nothing," her bugs buzzed.

He snorted as leaned over to see deeper into the store where a mannequin was standing, covered in a black summer dress with white trim along its edges. It had a sailor-style collar and pleated skirts that stopped just below the knees, the kind of dress even someone like her could feel nice in. "Really?" he asked.

She wanted to be insulted, but having Zoro of all people question her was making her more flustered than she should have been. She was allowed to like pretty things, he shouldn't judge her for it! Especially not after showing off so much fashion sense.

The summer dress was bringing back old memories too, of time spent with Lisa being used as a doll by the smug girl who knew all the buttons to press to make Taylor feel self-conscious in all the right ways.

"I don't know," Nami said. "I think she can make it work."

"It is in her colour range. And it'll show off her legs," Zoro muttered.

Taylor felt her cheeks warming up. The last thing she needed was for Zoro to start talking about her legs, even if it was rather complimentary. She had an ant bite her to snap her out of the strangeness. "Could you not talk about my legs?" she asked.

"It'll make her, you know, look bigger," Nami added with a gesture at her chest. She caught Taylor glaring and shrugged. "Hey, don't worry. We've all been there. You'll grow eventually."

"I'm nineteen," Taylor growled.

"Ah."

"Doesn't matter," Zoro said as he walked past and towards the dress. "Breasts are a waste anyway."

Taylor choked. She swore that if her arm wasn't in a cast she would have clobbered the idiot.

"It'll make for a good shore leave outfit," Nami said as she gestured a salesperson over. Ten minutes later Taylor was still mortified but she had a pretty summer dress stuffed in the bags Zoro was carrying for her.

Their next stop was to a store that sold nothing but jackets. Zoro picked up a deep green trench coat and the pair of them shoved a heavy raincoat at Taylor, one that dropped down to mid-calf and that was big enough to serve as a winter jacket in a pinch.

Their last stop was one Taylor insisted on making. She had had an idea ever since Nami had mentioned milinerie the day before. If she was going to be part of Luffy's crew. Which she wasn't. Then it would serve her well to have some sort of identifying mark.

The little hat store didn't have a large stock, but she found what she was looking for almost right away. A wide-brimmed hat made of straw and dyed the same deep shade of black as her new coat and dress. It would protect her hair from the sun and could hide a few hundred bugs if she was clever about it.

Zoro purchased his own hat, a large round thing made of straw, more of a dome than proper headgear, but it did make him look like an ancient samurai. The roguish look suited him, she found.

"So, Nami," Taylor asked as they moved back towards the bar that they had been staying at. "Where are you going next?"

"Ah, I thought I might follow you guys to the next island along. As far as I can tell your group is pretty aimless and I could use the protection until I make it back home."

Taylor nodded, the sensation strange with such a large hat on. "That's fair," her swarm buzzed. "I think we would enjoy having you along. I don't look forward to getting lost at sea again."

"It'll be fun!" Nami said.

Taylor paused at that. She had been having fun. Like her first days with the Undersiders all over again. She wondered if it would end the same way.

***

I decided to go full on 'why not both' meme with the clothing options. The summer dress+trench coat option looks really cool but is impractical on a ship. The opposite is true for the cargo pants and T-shirt options. So a ship-board outfit and a shore-leave outfit!

And so one more island is done! An evil captain is defeated and a new friend is made! Onwards!

The next chapter will be a travel chapter. I think that since we had the opportunity to learn a new skill last time, this time you can choose ONE PHYSICALITY and ONE SKILL to level up. On our way out from the next island the vote will return to the way it was the last time, and from then on it will continue to rotate.




[] Physical:
-Write in...
[] Skill:
-Write in...