Everything hurt. That was the first thing Nami noticed. She felt dizzy and had trouble moving. Only then did she realize that everything around her was pitch-black.
The navigator felt how panic started to rise in her chest. Where was she? What had happened? She just couldn't seem to remember… and what was that annoying feeling of somebody poking her arm?
"Oi, woman? You dead or what?" Sounded the voice of non other than the infamous swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates, Roronoa Zoro, in her ears.
~Idiot!~ She thought. ~How dare he sounding so bored and uninterested in my wellbeing when I could very well be on the brink of death!~ The panic she had felt before was suddenly replaced by anger.
Nami's eyes snapped open and she jolted up into a sitting position - and why had she been lying on the ground in the first place? - ready to scold the unsuspecting swordsman for his rude and insensitive behavior when…
"Ouch!" Nami exclaimed and raised a hand to touch her head. It throbbed terribly.
"Welcome back to the land of the living!" Zoro even had the nerve to smirk at her! Nami huffed at the man who sat to her right side but decided that finding out about their current situation was more important than to argue with him. She could still raise his debts later.
She looked around realizing that they were in some kind of cave. Alone. Great.
Raising her head slowly to examine the ceiling of their cavern, Nami noticed a big hole right above her head instead of the anticipated ceiling. She could see the blue sky.
"What the hell?" Was her first reaction as the pain slowly subsided. "Yeah well… the ground collapsed when we fought the guys that wanted to rob you and we fell down here…" Zoro had the courtesy to explain.
"We fell?" Nami blinked as the memory slowly came back to her. Well, that explained why her body hurt all over.
Zoro, who seemed to be perfectly fine, nodded and continued. "I guess the soil was unstable to begin with, so when you electrocuted these guys, the ground wasn't able to absorb your lightning and decomposed or something like that." He shrugged.
"Oh, so this is my fault now?" Nami hissed angrily at him. "If you would have taken care of them faster, then we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!"
"WHAT? Don't you dare blaming this on me now, witch! You said, you didn't need my help and would take care of these scumbags yourself!" Zoro shouted back at her, his brow furrowed as he held her angry stare with his good eye.
Nami paused at his words as the memory came back. It was true.
When they had docked at this island everybody had jumped at the chance to visit the big city after a few weeks of nothing but the sea and little villages that hadn't provided many opportunities for diversion.
Only Zoro had been less than enthusiastic about the idea of visiting the marketplace and the adjoining stores (and restaurants as Luffy had emphasized). Zoro had just been about to take a nap in the cool shade of Nami's tangerine trees when the very same woman had kicked him violently in his side, informing him about his 'luck' to go shopping with her.
Needless to say that he hadn't agreed right away. But Nami had always had her ways of luring him to go along with her plans. No less than two hits on his head with her - surprisingly strong - fist, a threat to enjoy her newly developed skills with the clima tact and a promise to go find a bar after they were done shopping it had taken her to convince him that her idea was indeed brilliant.
But obviously she had overrated her own luck. After dragging him to six stores in a row and loading him with even more bags full of newly purchased clothes, Zoro's patience had snapped when Nami had been about to enter a lingerie store. They had fought but in the end Nami had agreed to let him wait outside the store for her - even though she really had been looking forward to make him uncomfortable by showing off to him - but she obviously hadn't had a choice.
Big mistake, as it would turn out. Nami had taken her sweet time picking out new underwear and saucy nightgowns, not knowing what to make out of the disappointment she had been feeling about Zoro's disinterest in watching her try on lingerie for him. Somehow, his behavior had made her lose her good shopping mood. How dare he dismiss her like that anyway?
Prepared to give him a piece of her mind, she had left the store without buying anything, only to find her dutiful luggage carrier… gone. Nami had thought she really needed to murder somebody. RIGHT. NOW. In the best case that would have been the idiot swordsman who had dared to wander off and get lost while carrying HER clothes.
Nami remembered looking for him, trying to put herself into Zoro's shoes and figure out which way he would have chosen. Because clearly, he wouldn't have taken the straightest path back to the Sunny, hell would rather freeze over before that happened, Nami had been sure about that.
So she had figured taking the opposite direction that was leading out of town onto a hill would be her safest bet. Unfortunately, some street thugs had found her first.
Nami had rolled her eyes when these pathetic idiots had tried to surround her, obviously thinking she would be an easy prey for them. She hadn't been sure if she should be annoyed or thankful for their appearance because no matter where Zoro was hanging about he always miraculously appeared when she was close to danger.
As if on cue, Zoro had suddenly showed up, jumping over the line of attackers with an impressive somersault, two swords already drawn and blocking the attack of all six enemies at once.
"Just how many of you are charging on one girl?" Zoro had asked, his voice dark and menacing.
Nami had felt her heart speed up hearing Zoro use the exact same words he had said when they had first met. Affection had welled up in her chest, thinking that Zoro had used these words on purpose because they meant something when…
"How cowardly of you to gang up on one weak girl. I am a better opponent for you!" Nami had felt her left eye twitch and had balled one hand into a fist. ~What? How dare he call me weak!~
Before she could stop herself, she had raised her fist to let it connect with the green-haired head in front of her. Hard.
"Oi, oi! What the hell, Nami? What was that for?" He had turned around to her and taken a step in her direction, trying to stare her down.
Any other person would probably have backed away from him, scared for their lives but not Nami. She had met his gaze with her own furious stare and had pressed her hands into her hips. She could have sworn Zoro flinched when she had stood up to him. Served him right.
"Hey, sword dude! We saw her first! Get in line and you can have her later!" One of the guys had said, resulting in screams of laughter from his friends.
Nami had noticed how Zoro had narrowed his eye and how he had gripped his swords tighter. She hadn't been sure if it was because of how they had been talking about her or because he finally had been fed up with these guys but her own patience had snapped at that moment.
Just as Zoro had wanted to turn around to neutralize their enemies, Nami had shoved him away to brush past him. "This is my fight! Stay out of it!" She had shouted at Zoro while assembling her clima tact.
Everything had gone downhill from there. She had used her thunderbolt tempo creating an impressive storm cloud to electrify her enemies who hadn't expected such a forceful attack to strike them from above taking them out all at once.
Unfortunately for the navigator and her companion, the ground they had happened to stand on had obviously not been able to withstand the high artificial voltage as it had tried to absorb the strong blow.
Next thing she remembered, Nami had been stumbling and suddenly she had lost her footage, as did Zoro next to her. She had seen him reach for her, trying to wrap himself around her to shield her from crumbling soil and stones but everything had happened so fast that he obviously couldn't protect her entirely when they had finally hit the ground.
~That didn't go so well…~ Nami thought now. Her body ached and her head hurt but she gave Zoro credits for trying.
"So either way, your attack was too powerful or we all were too heavy for the ground to bear. We're just lucky that none of these douchebags ended up down here." Zoro continued, calmer than before.
Nami sighed. He was right but she'd never admit that to him. "Whatever. We're stuck in here and should start to find a way out of this cave." She tried to change the subject.
Then suddenly, something else came to her mind. She looked around before turning back to her companion. "Zoro…" she cooed with an evil smile on her lips, leaning closer to him.
She watched as Zoro frowned and instinctively backed away from her ever so slightly. He sensed trouble.
"Where are my shopping bags?" she asked innocently, raising one eyebrow.
She watched his expression turn from confused to angry before he exclaimed: "What the hell, witch? I was busy trying to save your ass…"
"… that didn't need saving to begin with…"
"… and all you worry about is your stupid shopping bags? How about… 'thank you Zoro for worrying about me and coming to my rescue'." He tried to mimic her way of speaking but failed miserably. Nami would have laughed at his poor imitation but she was too busy keeping the blush at bay that tried to creep its way up her cheeks.
~He worried about me?~ She couldn't believe her ears but she didn't want to deal with this right now. Ignoring her beating heart, she continued. "So you dropped them before you jumped over the attackers so you could draw you swords…" She scoffed at him but it came out softer than she expected.
Zoro just shrugged. And then made the mistake to add: "You didn't need all this crap anyway."
Anger flared in Nami as she stumbled to get to her feet, feeling slightly dizzy from going too fast but before Zoro could duck, he felt her fist hit him on his head. Hard. Again.
"OI!" He complained before he heard Nami's hiss. She stood before him, her face twisted in pain while her right hand clutched at her left upper arm.
"What? What is it, woman?" Nami lifted her hand in front of her face. There was blood smeared all over her fingers and she felt herself begin to panic.
"Oh god, oh god, Zoro. I'm bleeding…. I…" she trailed off when she felt a warm hand palm her elbow to guide her to her knees. Zoro's other hand came to rest on the inside off her upper arm so he could examine the wound. Nami prayed he didn't notice the shiver that ran through her when he touched her.
"Relax, Nami. It's just a scratch from our fall." Nami noticed how he called her by her name and not by one of the nicknames he had for her, maybe to soothe her, maybe he didn't even realize it but the tone of his voice immediately calmed her down.
"It's not deep. I'm not Chopper but if you ask me, I'd say you don't even need stitches."
Nami let go of a breath she didn't even know she was holding. She didn't want to bleed out in this cave with no medical care nearby.
She felt Zoro withdraw his hands and immediately missed them on her. ~God, Nami! What's wrong with you today? ~ She scolded herself mentally as her eyes followed the path of Zoro's hands that… wandered to his bandana?
Suddenly, his hands were back on her arm and incredulously she watched as he carefully wrapped the wound with the dark green piece of fabric that had adorned Zoro's own upper arm only seconds before.
Nami tensed, given the fact that Zoro used his bandana to patch her up and what the possible indication of that could be. She knew that particular piece of cloth was special to him.
Her head was spinning while the echo of her rapid heartbeat resonated in her ears and she held her breath anxiously, fearing that Zoro might hear it, too.
Feeling her stiffen, Zoro stopped focusing on the task at hand to look up into her face and when their eyes met, Nami felt as if time stopped.
She was just wondering if that was really a blush creeping onto Zoro's cheeks or if she was imagining things when Zoro blinked, tying the bandana a little bit too tight around her arm before standing up hastily.
"Guess, you won't die from blood loss now, witch." He said casually, turning his back on her. Nami fumed. There she was thinking they had a moment and then that idiot swordsman went and ruined it. She was just about to hit him again when she had another idea to pay him back.
"Well, thanks for patching me up then." Nami mumbled and took in her surroundings to figure out what to do next. They had ended up in a relatively large cave. It was quite dark except for the patch of ground they had landed on, the afternoon sun illuminating her and Zoro.
Behind her companion, Nami could make out a passage that seemed to be slightly leading downwards. It was the only way out of this room and Nami figured it was their safest bet to get out of the cave. Climbing was beyond question, Nami figured the ceiling was 6, maybe 7 meters above them, and they wouldn't be able to reach the hole anyway.
Nami sighed. The shortest way back to her purchases was no option. Not that she believed she would actually get them back.
"So, what now? How do you suggest we get out of here?" Zoro wanted to know. Nami felt satisfaction flare up within her considering Zoro obviously trusted her skills enough to come up with a plan.
She was just about to tease him for his question when she felt a cold breeze blowing through her hair. Nami shivered slightly to which Zoro raised an eyebrow and asked: "You cold or what?"
"Did you not just feel that cool wind?" Zoro just shrugged. "It came from that passageway. What about it?"
"It smelled like seawater, you idiot!" Nami explained, annoyed that her nakama was slow on the uptake. "If I'm not mistaken, we shouldn't be too far from the exit if the smell is still so strong!"
She watched with amusement as Zoro's expression turned from confused to understanding before it changed into a smirk.
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" He asked before making his way to the passage. He only came a few steps far before he heard Nami clear her throat.
Turning around to look at her he saw her still kneeling in the same spot she was in when he was treating her wound.
"Come on, woman! Let's get going already!" He exclaimed irritated.
"You have to carry me. I can't walk!" With perverse excitement, Nami relished into the pure expression of disbelief on Zoro's face.
"You… what? You can walk just fine!" He shouted, pointing an accusing finger at her. "You didn't seem to have trouble when you were standing to knock me on the head!"
"Well, now I do, so you have to carry me!"
Zoro crossed his arms in front of his chest before hissing: "Over my dead body!"
Inwardly, Nami was delighted. Oh, how she loved messing with her green-haired swordsman.
"Zoro…" she purred, leaning forward on her hands into his direction, ignoring the pinch in her left arm. "NO!"
"Oh come on! You owe me! You lost my bags after all! Or do you want me to tell Sanji-kun afterwards that you preferred acting like a stupid caveman instead of making sure I'm fine?" She nearly laughed out loud at the way his eyebrow twitched as she mentioned the cook.
"You ARE fine, goddammit!" He complained but came over to her anyway to offer her a piggyback ride. She shivered pleasantly when his warm, calloused hands took a firm hold on her naked thighs.
"It's your own fault if your cold, running around in that poor excuse of a skirt." He murmured, obviously misinterpreting her shiver.
Nami ignored his statement to avoid awkward explanations and wrapped her arms around his neck to keep herself from falling down when Zoro stood up.
She extended one arm to point at the passage in front of them. "You have to go this way!"
"I know that! It's the only way out of here!" Zoro grunted, annoyed that Nami pointed out the obvious.
"One never knows when it comes to you. Just wanted to make sure." She grinned and rested her chin on Zoro's left shoulder as he began to move. She smiled when she felt him tense for a split-second.
They followed the path that was slowly but surely leading them downwards into nowhere. After a few meters the light that illuminated the room behind them vanished and everything around them descended into darkness.
Nami couldn't see anything anymore and she feared that they only walked deeper into the cave system, despite her initial assumption that the ocean should be close by. She tightened her arms around Zoro's neck, who, instead of teasing her for her discomfort, squeezed her thighs reassuringly.
Then, another thought crossed her mind. "How come we didn't run into a wall yet? It's pitch-black in here but I still feel like we already took some turns." She wondered more to herself, however Zoro answered: "Observation Haki helps me to follow the path, I don't need my eyes to find my way around."
Silence lay heavy between them but it seemed to speak volumes. "What? What is it, witch? If you have something to say, then out with it!" Zoro shouted exasperated.
"Ooooh it's nothing" Nami chanted. "I was just wondering how you can possess this great ability but still get lost all the time. I get the suspicion that you're doing this on purpose."
"It doesn't work like a road map, you know." He grunted, earning him nothing but a giggle. "I'll drop you, if you don't shut up" he threatened her, making her laugh even harder.
She leaned forward, closer against what she assumed was his ear in the dark and whispered: "I know you won't." He didn't answer to this.
Instead, a comfortable silence settled between them as Zoro carried on to lead them out of the cave and Nami found that she quite liked the fact that neither of them seemed to see need to fill that silence with words. She wondered if her seemingly new-found attraction to Zoro was actually something worth pursuing.
For a while, they just enjoyed being together like that. Well, Nami tried to at least but these warm, calloused hands on her thighs made it hard to concentrate. How they would feel all over her body…
"Do you really mean that?" Zoro's words echoed from the narrow walls that surrounded them, effectively breaking the silence and making Nami swallow hard, desperately trying to figure out if she accidentally spoke her last thought aloud.
"What?" Was her short-cut and, admittedly, not very intelligent answer as she tried franticly to come up with an explanation.
"That you think it's a great ability to use my Haki like that?" He explained obviously unaware of her inner turmoil.
Letting out an anxious breath she didn't know she was holding, Nami took a moment to ponder on his question.
"Well, it is pretty awesome considering how you could use it in battle or in a situation like this." She replied seriously.
For her to obviously praise his skills like that was new and Zoro seemed to feel like that, too, if the way his hands twitched nervously was any indicator.
"It's not that special given we're in the New World and all… it's like everybody here is able to use Haki to some extent…." He trailed off, making Nami frown. Since when was he, Roronoa Zoro, the infamous pirate hunter, modest about his abilities?
She really wanted to come back with a witty remark. Make him squirm and feel uncomfortable because that's what they did all the time… then she remembered the dull throbbing pain in her arm and the way Zoro had bandaged the wound with his bandana ever so gently…
And suddenly she didn't want to disturb the serious moment between them by teasing him. These moments were already rare as it were.
"Doesn't make it any less cool that you can use it, too." Nami was sure that she could almost see him beam at her words as he straightened his back.
And he had any right to be proud, Nami thought. She'd kill to have a skill as awesome and useful as Haki, seriously.
"What are you talking about?"
Oh. Apparently, that thought she HAD spoken aloud. Well… shit.
"Your weather magic is quite some skill, if you ask me. And I have first-hand experience with that." Zoro pointed out. Nami was ready to open her mouth to inform him that, in fact, she wasn't using some kind of weird magic, thank you very much.
But she didn't feel like fighting with him right now. "Thanks…. I guess." She answered somewhat lamely and suddenly the previously comfortable silence felt incredibly awkward. Nami just didn't know how take him complimenting her.
Zoro must have felt it, too. "Witch" He said, in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood, fondness and amusement evident in his voice.
"Idiot" she answered him affectionately. "Oi, no need to insult me…" Zoro complained but Nami interrupted him.
"Look, Zoro! I think I can see some light there. This must be the exit!" And really, only a short while later, they stepped outside the cave.
Nami hopped of Zoro's back, ignoring his murmuring about how she could indeed walk just fine and glanced around to see if she could locate their current position. They stood on a small strip of rocky land, a stony beach of only a few meters width before it led into the ocean with a steep cliff in their backs.
"Well isn't this just great!" Nami muttered under her breath as she felt a familiar tingle all over her skin.
"What's wrong now? It looks like over there is a way that leads up the cliff. I'd say this is our way out of here." He pointed to the left to a small path that wormed its way up the stone wall.
"I agree but we should hurry, there's some heavy rain coming soon." Nami explained as Zoro frowned. "Rain? The sky's all clear and…" And just as he was saying these words, he felt the first raindrops as it slowly started to drizzle. Looking up, he could indeed see that the sky was covered by thick clouds.
"And you keep saying you have no skill whatsoever…" He mumbled and turned to the left. Maybe they made it up the cliff and to a safer position before they ended up completely drenched.
"Let's get going then!" Zoro exclaimed but only came a couple of steps far before he noticed that Nami wasn't following. As he turned around to look for her, he spotted her several meters away from him, climbing a big rock close to the cliff.
"Oi, Nami!" He called, "What are you doing? The way is over here. I seriously don't know why everybody insists that I have no sense of direction!"
Nami didn't even flinch at his voice. She stood up on the rock before stretching herself as far up as she could to get to something above her head, just out of her reach. An abandoned bird's nest was sitting on a small ledge.
The navigator of the Straw Hats had detected it while taking in here surroundings, a faint sparkle catching her eye and Nami had smelt treasure.
Extending her arm to grab the object that looked suspiciously like a pearl necklace, the last thing Nami felt was how she lost her footage on the increasingly moist boulder.
A curt shriek escaped her mouth and she squeezed her eyes shut, already expecting to face plant onto the ground but the impact never came and she felt one cheek bump into a muscled chest as strong arms caught her to stop her from falling.
Zoro slowly set her down, an exasperated look on his face. "There's treasure!" Nami tried to justify her actions to which Zoro only lifted an eyebrow before letting out an annoyed sigh.
"You're hopeless, woman!" He muttered but pulled himself up on the rock Nami fell off, only to reach for the necklace with barely any effort. Instead of grabbing it, however, he took hold of the ledge to raise himself some more.
"Look what we got here!" He proclaimed, his voice all but oozing with smugness. Nami suddenly became giddy with anticipation because it couldn't be, could it?
"There's a gap in the stone wall and it looks like something's in there!" Zoro explained since Nami obviously couldn't see that.
The navigator watched Zoro lean up even more, reaching inside the gap only to produce a wooden chest. Taking it under one arm, he jumped down to set the chest safely to the ground but Nami just whipped it out of his hands and yanked the lid open.
"Oh my god!" she breathed, eyes shining with delight as she took in the jewels and gold coins that filled the chest. "It's a treasure and it's all mine!" she chanted happily and hugged the crate. She would take her sweet time counting it's worth later.
Zoro peered over her shoulder to see for himself. "Actually, it belongs to whoever hid it up there." He deadpanned, amused by Nami's antics.
"We are pirates, Zoro! If we find treasure we keep it, duh!" Nami rolled her eyes at her companion because, really, how could he not understand that?
"That's even better than shopping and it more than compensates what I spend on my lost purchases!" Nami called out delighted. "Good for you, I might even refrain from charging you!" She winked at him and closed the chest to shove it into Zoro's arms.
"Oi, oi! Why do I have to carry the chest if it's YOUR treasure?" Zoro complained weakly as Nami started to head for the path Zoro had wanted to take all along.
"Come on, now! We really should get out of here and find the others before this drizzle turns into a full-blown storm! And we still need to find you that bar I promised you!"
When Zoro finally started to tag along, Nami threw him blinding smile. "Now Zoro, there are definitely benefits in having you by my side!" she cooed. "Maybe we should get lost together more often!"