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"Oi, Nami, check it out!" The navigator looked up from her newspaper to see what Usopp was yelling about this time. He was placing the finishing touches on some contraption with a twist of a screwdriver and his usual flourish of pride.
"It's a radio made from a coconut- it can pick up stations up to 10,000 miles away, with a precision that makes you think you were really there. Luffy, Chopper, come look at this!"
"...a radio?" Nami was impressed - it had been a long time since she had heard the familiar fuzzy noise of airwaves. The sound made her feel a bit nostalgic for those summer nights back on Kokoyashi island, when Bellemere had let Nami and Nojiko stay up later than usual listening to programs on the radio, then they'd fall asleep to the soft jazzy music that seemed to cool the humid air.
"oooohoo... Usopp! It's so cool! Let me play with it!"
"No Luffy, you'll break it!" The sharpshooter's eyes bulged out in horror as he lunged out to protect his creation from the potentially disastrous prodding of their captain. The sounds of shouting and wrestling soon overpowered the noise coming from the radio, and Nami, lost in a happy memory and humming softly to herself, resumed her reading.
*****
Later that night, Nami was having trouble sleeping, so she decided to go up on deck and play around with Usopp's radio and see if she could find any good music. As she fiddled with the dial in the moonlit darkness of the ship's deck, she spotted a dim light coming from the crow's nest in her peripheral vision. Mentally reviewing the night-watch schedule she had devised, she determined that it was Luffy's night on duty.
He was mostly useless as a look out - if he didn't fall asleep in the first half hour, he'd wander off to raid the kitchen or whine about the fact that it was dark and there was nothing cool to see. Nami was sure, then, that he wouldn't mind having a little company, and called up to the crow's nest.
"Luuu-ffy! Are you sleeping up there? Come down!"
"What's up Nami?" hopping down from the crow's nest, the rubbery captain happily bounded over to his navigator. "Can't you sleep?'
"Mmhm.. it's a little stuffy in my cabin tonight, so I thought I'd come out here and listen to some music for a while." She adjusted the tuner on Usopp's contraption slightly until she was able to get good reception on a station playing light, up-beat, jazzy music. Luffy just stood there, head cocked to one side muttering something to himself about "Aah mystery coconut...!"
Captain and navigator stood in silence, leaning over the railing as the soft music floated over the black ocean's gently beating waves. Nami couldn't help thinking that Luffy was being far too quiet for his own good, and she was starting to get antsy just standing there. "Nee, Luffy... why don't we dance?" The request sounded ridiculously contrived after it escaped from her mouth, and the redhead mentally slapped herself. But Luffy just grinned and held out his hand.
"Ok! But you'll have to show me how."
*****
It took a few tries to get Luffy's rubbery arms and legs coordinated in time with Nami's more graceful, experienced movements.
"It reminds me of the first time Doctor tried to teach Nojiko! She could barely go five seconds without tripping," Nami laughed as Luffy managed an especially ungraceful maneuver. By this point, Luffy was mostly ok with the steps, but when it came to the turns, he tended to get Nami quite hopelessly tangled up in his arms - not that she minded. She liked the feeling of his bare skin brushing up against hers, and didn't want their lighthearted fun to stop even though she was running out of breath from laughing and her face was even starting to hurt from smiling.
The current song ended, and the usually reserved navigator allowed herself the pleasure of collapsing lightly against her captain's wiry frame. It was late after all, and the minute her cool cheek touched down on the soft, worn, red fabric, she felt her muscles relax and an involuntary sigh escaped. The next song, a much slower one, came on then, and Nami was surprised to feel Luffy wrap his arms loosely about her waist.
"This kind of dancing is a little easier, right?" His voice was low and tickled right beside her ear as the two began to sway in the music.
Luffy didn't move his mouth away from her ear, and Nami didn't raise her head off his chest, and the two continued moving like waves in time with the music. She didn't even realize she was holding a breath until it forced itself out in the form of a yawn. The swaying instantly stopped, Luffy leaning back to examine his navigator's tired face.
"Nami, you look tired. Go to bed." Nami couldn't argue with this as she stifled another yawn. She turned to shut off the radio, but Luffy still grasped her hand.
"What, Luffy?" Without a word, Luffy lifted her wrist up to his face and planted a very gentlemanly kiss on the back of her hand, before stretching his arms and catapulting himself back up into the crow s nest. If the action hadn't been accompanied by his biggest, goofiest grin, she would have wondered if he had secretly swapped bodies with Sanji. Through her bewilderment, all she could do was warily smile back and slowly wander back to her cabin where all of a sudden the heat was no longer seemed oppressive, but comforting, like a big warm blanket, lulling her to into a fast sleep.