They had arrived at the island late in the night. Being so close to a place known for its storms, Nami said it was probably best to just pull an all-nighter and make it there before sleeping. They could sleep through the morning and explore it around lunch. Luckily they had no issue with any storms, but it did start to snow, as the island was a winter island, which made Chopper squeak with joy. After arriving, each Straw Hat pirate headed off to bed, except Luffy, who had watch duty that night.
He sat on the roof of the crow's nest wrapped in a blanket looking up at the sky. It was starless, or rather it was full of clouds and no stars could be seen, but it was beautiful all the same. Despite his protests, Chopper had forced a parka on him, but now he was kind of glad as he realized it really was cold out here. He shuddered and curled the blanket further around him and rubbed his arms to try to keep them warm. He blew air out his mouth, watching as his breath came out like steam and dematerialized into the air.
"Oohhh!" he did it again, like he'd never noticed it before, "I'm a dragon!" He laughed until a huge gust of wind blew past him and made him shiver and his teeth chatter together. The sound of the flag bellowing in the wind above him distracted him and he hopped up to it. The metal area of the pole the flag was secured to it stung his hand as it stole its warmth. He looked at it curiously and remembered what he had heard Usopp tell him a while ago. That if you stuck your tongue to metal in the winter time your tongue would get stuck. Usopp was usually full of crap, so he thought about it and decided it was okay to test it out and stuck his tongue to the metal ring. It instantly stung, so he yanked it back only to find his tongue just stretched and was, as they said it would be, stuck.
"Uwah! Es 'tuck!" panicked, he kept pulling on it and, as his nature allowed, it kept stretching. The sound of a door opening from below caught his attention. He looked over the side of the crow's nest to see who was up, thinking it was Sanji getting up to make breakfast, but then he remembered they were going to sleep through the morning so technically it would be lunchtime, but it was not Sanji. To his surprise Nami came walking out of the door, dressed in winter attire like she was going on a nature walk and carrying a pair of shoes that looked like roller blades but had knives on the bottom. He was going to yell to her and ask her about them but was cut off as his tongue suddenly retracted and sent him barreling into the mast.
The noise it made startled the orange-haired navigator and she quickly dashed across the deck and leaped off the ship and onto the island. She ran through the snow until she reached the forest and then, after hiding behind a tree, glanced back to see if she was followed. When no one appeared, she sighed and walked further into the forest.
He stood back up and searched for his navigator, "Nwamiii!?" he yelled looking over the roof again, "Hmm, Wherd see goh?" He leaned forward a bit further than he should have and his hands slipped from their hold and his body tumbled over the side of the roof. His tongue stretched as far as it could and before he hit the ground he bounced back upwards only to fall down again, this time his frozen tongue was released and he fell to the deck with a thud, his tongue falling after him.
"Ew," he said as he retracted his tongue back into his mouth, "I really don't taste that good." He stood up and surveyed the area, "Nami?!" he called and when there was no answer he walked to the side of the ship and looked over the railing. Fresh shoeprints started near the ship and then ended near the edge of the forest. He jumped off and landed next to them, looking back at the ship. He'd only be gone for a little bit. He then turned back to the prints and began to follow them into the woods.
"Nami?" he called as he walked alongside the shoeprints, looking around trees, "Geez, it's cold out here!" he said rubbing his arms with his hands. Movement at his right caught his attention. There was an opening in the trees and in it was a small frozen pond. On it he saw the figure of a girl gliding across it, jumping, twirling in the air and landing with such grace he nearly thought she was a ghost. The Moon acted as a spotlight and her hair flowed and glistened from under her hat.
"OOOIII!" he called as he reached the edge of the pond, waving his arms, "How are you doing that? It's awesome!"
The figure stopped abruptly and immediately looked at him.
"Oh, that's right," he said to himself and then looked back up at her and yelled again, "have you seen a girl with orange-hair!?"
The figure twitched and began to back up slowly.
"Ah! Don't go!" he said stepping onto the ice, "I'm not going to-" his legs buckled under him and he fell flat on his face, sliding a few inches forward. He peeled his face off the ice. The figure was giggling at him and covering her mouth slightly, but now that he was also out in the light he could tell who it was.
"Ah! Nami!?" he said trying to stand.
She stopped laughing and turned to hide her face and her blush, "How-how long were you watching me?"
"I just got her-" he tried to say but fell again on his face.
"Agh, you've never been on ice before have you? Here, let me-" her words froze on her lips as she heard a cracking sound beneath her. She looked down and sure enough several large cracks had formed under her, "N-no way. I was sure it was solid."
Luffy looked up at her, seeing the terror in her eyes.
"Lu-" was all she managed to say before the ice shattered underneath her and she splashed down into the frigid waters, her gear and the subzero temperature of the water weighed her down. Her arms flailed about her as she tried to resurface, the cold temperature shocked her body and her heart was racing in trepidation. She was nearly half way down when something dove into the hole she fell through, blocking the light as it got close to her. A person, she thought was probably Zoro, or more likely, Sanji coming in to save her. When the figure grabbed her it did not swim to the surface, but instead it came behind her and pushed on her back with enough force to send her out of the water and onto the ice above. She sprawled across the ice, gasping for air. As her mind came into focus she searched for her savior, but no one was there but her. That's when she looked back to the hole in the ice.
"Luffy!" she yelled noticing his discarded parka, "You idiot!" she said removing her coat and her skates and rushing back over to the hole. "Agh! You're going to owe me so much for doing this!" she yelled as she took a deep breath and dove in. The light shining in from the Moon grew dim as she swam deeper, but luckily the pond wasn't so deep and her eye caught sight of a red piece of cloth and she darted toward it. After wrapping her arms around his chest she pushed off the ground and swam as fast as she could toward the surface. After reaching the surface she gasped for air and quickly grabbed the side of the cracked ice and slowly tried to heave the boy's body out of the water.
"Come on, Luffy…Help me out a little here!" she said pulling him, but found she did not have enough leverage to get him out of the water. Then she heard footsteps, several of them, and saw a flash of pink as a deer ran through the forest, "Hey! Chopper!" she yelled panting.
He stopped running and looked in her direction, "Guys! They're over here! Quick!" he called running toward the pond and stopping at the edge as the rest of Straw Hats followed behind him.
"NAMI-SWAN!" Sanji called worried as he raced toward her.
"No! Don't walk on the ice! It's too thin for all of you!" her voice shivered a she spoke, "J-just-t…B-Brook! Y-you're the lightest c-come get Luf-f-fy!"
"Yes, Nami-san!" he said sternly as he carefully made his way toward them, grabbing a hold of Luffy, setting him down and reaching to help Nami out. When they both made it to the edge of the ice, Sanji gave Nami his coat and offered to carry her to the Sunny. She denied the later, slipping her spare boots on. Brook handed Luffy off to Chopper who wrapped him in his parka and raced off toward the Sunny, the others following close behind him.
Back at the Sunny, Chopper immediately ran Luffy into the infirmary and pulled Nami in as well. He told her to sit next to the heater and handed her a blanket. She was to tell him if she felt weird or hurt anywhere, on the spot. The seriousness in his tone and face shocked her slightly and she nodded, sitting down. She watched him as he looked over Luffy, after drying him off. After a moment he sighed and looked over at her.
She looked as though she was going to say something but he spoke first, "He's fine, just fainted because of the water and his curse. He'll probably wake up around dinner."
Nami sighed a relieved sigh and snuggled into the blanket some more.
"Hey, Chopper?"
He looked up at her.
"Would it be okay if I went to my room? I'm…kind of tired."
"Are you feeling okay, Nami?" he asked concerned.
"Yeah, just tired, I was up all night."
"Then, yeah, I think you can go. Just let me take your temperature first," he said grabbing a thermometer from his desk.
After he'd taken her temperature, she gave one last glance at Luffy before closing the door and heading to her room.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After dinner, Nami decided to walk back to the infirmary with Chopper. Each of the Straw Hats had already gone to make sure he was alright, so they were the only two there with him.
Chopper hopped off his chair and looked at Nami, who was sitting next to the heater, "Hey, I'm going to go ask Sanji for some hot cocoa - oh!- or would you rather have some warm soup?"
Nami smiled at him, "Hot cocoa sound nice, thank you."
"Okay! I'll be back in a minute. Stay inside and keep warm," he said pointing a hoof at her as he left, shutting the door behind him.
After his footsteps faded away all she could hear was the light buzzing sound of the heater and, of course, Luffy's noisy snoring, which made her feel calm as it meant he was going to be fine. She stood up and walked over to him, sitting down on the bed and looking over his face. His features weren't rugged like Zoro's or Saniji's or Franky's.
She smiled softly, "Two years and you still look more like a kid than a man," she chuckled moving a few strands of hair form his eyes. The covers were thrown all over the place and hardly any of them covered the boy. Her eyes wandered to his exposed stomach. She looked over his abs and over the scar on his chest. Without realizing it she placed a hand on it lightly. Her face was solemn.
"You really are a big idiot," she began, "diving in after me like that, and you can't even swim. Don't you ever remember that you're a hammer? Don't you know you make me worry?" tears were somewhere in her eyes at this point, "What if one time…something happened and I wasn't there and…" she paused, "You're such an idiot….Thank you," she said lightly kissing his forehead.
"Nami?"
She jerked up, nearly falling backwards, but was caught by a strong hand around her arm.
They were face to face now. She jerked away, her face flushed red, "T-thank you…I-I didn't know you were awake," she stuttered out nervously.
"Oh, I heard you talking just now and – Nami?" he took notice of her tears, "Hey! Why are you crying!?"
"Oh! I-I um, it's nothing Luffy, really…um…" she faltered fiddling with her hair.
"Nami," he forced her to look him in the face, "D-don't tell me…" Nami looked at him, hoping he wouldn't catch on, "Did we miss dinner?"
Her jaw dropped, "Ugh! Can't you think of anything besides food!" she yelled bashing him on the head.
"Ow! Geez what was that for!?" he yelped rubbing his new bump. He stopped anything he was going to say when he saw fresh tears spill over her eyelids.
"You…when you jumped in after me I was so happy, but I was…I was worried too…" she choked out looking down at her hands. He grabbed her around the shoulders and pulled her into a hug.
"Nami, I'm sorry, but….listen," he paused, "you can hear it can't you? It means I'm still alive, so you don't have to worry."
She was speechless. Where had this come from? She decided she didn't care and wrapped her own arms around his body and nodded. His body was warm against hers and she felt his strong muscles across his back. After a moment they both pulled back and looked each other.
"Nami…" he began but stopped as she leaned forward. He nearly pulled away but as her lips touched his, he found he did not want to and leaned forward as well.
She pulled back and looked him in the eyes as he looked into hers. He smiled. Her lips had tasted like salad and fruit and sake.
"I did miss dinner, didn't I?"
Shut up. I can write cute shit whenever the hell I want.
I've stuck my tongue to a metal fence before. It does sting and it does suck when it gets stuck. It didn't taste too great either.
Anyway, this is my present to you guys! Merry Christmas! Happy (late) Hanukkah! Happy Kwanza! And that's all I got, so Happy Whatever-the-heck-holiday-you-celebrate and if none, than Happy Tuesday!
LuNa forever!
PEACE.
