A/N: Another short LuNa fic to follow up my first, Scars, posted earlier today. I actually meant this to be a little longer, but not every story needs to be thousands of words long, am I right? I'm not gonna lie, though, I do love those too. As always, I do hope you enjoy this, any and all reviews are dearly appreciated, and stay tuned for more One Piece!—fanfiction.
They've taken to sleeping together. Not always, and not like that, but if one of them has had a bad day, or is wounded somehow, they find refuge in each other's arms. Usually it is he who seeks her out, head in a tailspin over one or another reckless act—"Hindsight is twenty-twenty," she reminds him constantly—but sometimes it is her tears that wet the pillows first.
Tonight it is both. He came to her early in the evening, a close call with Sanji weighing heavily on his shoulders, and he suggested an early bedtime for them both, wrapping her blankets around them and letting him rest his head on her shoulder until he fell asleep. Now it's late, the light of the moon casting a brilliant silver circle on the wall of her quarters. They've shifted into a more common position, her back against his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around her.
She's having a nightmare.
Arlong's howling laugh echoes through her mind, drowning out everything but the fear. She tries to scream, to run, but the air is robbed from her lungs and her feet are glued to the floor. She is trapped in her own mind.
No no, please, she begs as the looming figure of the fishman advances through the mist of her dream. He holds Bellemere in one webbed hand, Nojiko in the other, squeezing cruelly, cackling at their screams, and if Nami thought that could be the worst of it, she couldn't have been more wrong. Luffy is between his teeth. Bleeding, broken, dying, and there is absolutely nothing she can do but beg.
Please! she screams as Arlong laughs, and suddenly it's as if the whole village is in his crushing hands, and the crew of the Merry between his teeth. Then it is their screams that fill her ears, and Nami thinks she will go mad with it.
"Nami!" Luffy is calling out to her from his gruesome perch in the sharkman's maw. His blank, dead eyes stare into hers, smiling at her with teeth painted crimson by his own blood. "Nami!"
No!
"Nami, wake up!"
She shoots upright, gasping raggedly for breath, eyes wide and tearful. "Please," she gasps once more, starting as hands land on her shoulders.
"Shh, Nami, it's me," Luffy murmurs, scooting down on her berth until he can face her and look her in the eye. "It's only me."
"Luffy," she gulps, and then she is sobbing, collapsing into his ready arms and bawling.
He rocks her, draws her close to his chest and rocks her gently as one would a baby, tucking his nose into her hair and breathing reassurances in her ear. His hands never stop moving over her arms, her back, even her legs; his palms sweep down and back up her thighs twice before returning to her shoulders.
There is no sound from them for minutes, save the quiet choking of her tears. When she finally quiets, head resting heavy against his shoulder, Luffy asks gently, "What happened?"
Nami sucks in a noisy breath through her nose and shakily replies, "A-Arlong," before dissolving into tears again.
He holds her tighter, and there is anger in his grip now, she can feel it; a fierce protectiveness for all his crew and for her especially, when it comes to the evil fishman pirate. After all this time, after how far she's come to leave that part of her life behind, that monster still won't leave her alone. Won't let her even sleep in peace. She tries to put it from her mind and nuzzles closer to him.
It happens again. His voice comes to her just at the edge of sleep, filtering through the warm darkness and wrapping around her like another layer of blankets. He'd never said it while she was fully awake, waits until he thinks she's fallen asleep to whisper the words into the hair behind her ears, "Good night, treasure."
This time she surprises him, smiling at his quiet intake of breath as she replies, "Good night, Pirate King."