Her Life
AN: I own nothing in this story. This is for KittyBatman so enjoy! Please R&R.
Nami was woken up by a child's laughter. Getting up, her bones ached a bit, not surprising considering she was almost eighty two years old. But her surroundings made her stop.
She was no longer in her home. In fact she had no idea where she was. All she saw was white in every direction. Still, as she took a step forward, there was ground beneath her feet and she could hear the child's laughter in the distance.
Nami went through the events of her day as she pressed onward.
She had fallen asleep after making an addition to one of her newer maps. Ever since the death of her husband she had busied herself with updating her maps. It kept her mind from dwelling on his absence. Before working on her map she had chatted with Belle, her daughter and Vivi, her granddaughter, on the Den Den Mushi.
And now she was here.
Nami didn't know how long she had been walking. Her body ached a bit more as she finally stopped, the child's laughter closer now.
"I'm right behind you," a youthful voice whispered in her ear.
Whirling around, Nami's eyes widened.
She was looking at a seven year old version of herself.
"How...What's going on?"
The child Nami giggled at her confusion.
"You're dead silly!"
"Dead?"
The child nodded.
"Then what are you?"
But the child didn't answer, instead grabbing her wrinkly hand and tugging.
"C'mon, I have to show you my treasure!"
Nami let herself be led by her miniature, the child stopping after only going twenty or so steps. A treasure chest was ahead of the two of them and the child's eyes were gleaming. Opening it, the child looked back at Nami.
"Come and look!"
Nami did as she asked, peering into the chest. It had no bottom that she could see and instead of gold there was an image playing. She remembered the moment well. It was when Usopp first told her he loved her shortly after they left Water 7.
The image stopped after they shared their first kiss and soon started over from Usopp's shaking legs to the confession and finally the kiss.
The child continued to watch the image, a blissful expression lighting up her face.
"Can I watch?"
Nami and the child both turned around. Another Nami was standing in front of them, but this one was eighteen and had a cruel expression on her face.
Immediately the child started shaking her head.
"No..."
"Let me watch you little brat!"
"No!"
The young woman scoffed and turned her attention to Nami.
"I see you're finally here you old bitch."
"What's going on?" Nami asked.
"Didn't you listen when the brat told you? You're dead."
Nami felt something tugging on her hand and looked down. The child was looking up at her with watery eyes.
"Don't listen to her. She's a witch."
"You're always like this! You always want to hide from everything and live in your little fantasy world that long-nosed weakling pulled out of his ass!"
"Usopp...make the witch go away," the child murmured.
"He's not here anymore! He died and left us alone!" the young woman yelled.
The child started sobbing then and buried her face in Nami's side, holding on tightly.
"Why are you like this?" Nami asked, hugging the child as tenderly as she could.
Her doppelganger scoffed at the question.
"Why? You married that coward, became his little housewife, popped out a wimpy brat that was scared of everything, and you called this a life. You could have had whole countries pay tribute to you, you would have wanted for nothing. But I'm not like this only because you settled for a normal life. I'm everything you denied, everything you wanted to steal but refused to at the last moment. And I'm everything that that brat didn't want to deal with. All the fights with the liar, all the stress, all the things that he never knew about."
Nami stopped hugging the child after this explanation and approached the young woman.
"So you're my negative feelings. How did you feel when Usopp died?"
"Betrayed. He promised he'd be with me forever! He left us to-"
"No, he's not gone," the child cut in. She moved closer to the young woman, wiping her eyes a bit.
"Yes he is brat." The child shook her head.
"I'll let you look at my treasure," she said quietly, looking at Nami for reassurance. Nami nodded.
The young woman didn't resist as the child took her over to the chest and when it was opened and she watched the scene endlessly repeating inside, she shook her head.
"Such an idiot. How could he love someone like me? I use people, I steal. Why didn't I reject him?" But even as she said this, Nami spied several tears already trailing down her face as the young woman continued to watch.
"He should be just like me. He should have been angry with the world for taking his mom and angry at his bastard of a father for abandoning him." The child hugged the young woman then, squeezing as tight as she could.
"He is just like us. That's why he cares for us so much."
The young woman finally looked away from the image, closing the chest. Staring down at the child, she picked her up, holding her closer.
"Remember when we first held Belle?" the young woman whispered into the child's ear. The seven year old nodded. "She was so tiny. I couldn't believe it. And he was blubbering like the idiot he usually acted like, making up a story about the angels giving us Belle."
The young woman looked at Nami then.
"Can things be like that again?"
"I don't know, I've never died before."
The young woman laughed at that and soon enough her body and the child's were becoming transparent. But both were smiling as they vanished completely.
The world changed all around Nami.
What had been white became a shoreline; grains of sand stretching as far as she could see. The ocean carved a rhythm in the sand and she felt the salt water envelop her feet.
And she wasn't alone.
An old man was just four steps away from her, his body bent by age but his dark eyes were as vibrant as ever. His long nose took in the air and he smiled at Nami.
She took a step forward.
Her aches vanished and she took a deep breath. Looking at her body, she saw that she was around forty three years old, her hair starting to go a bit gray. The man was the same age as he stepped forward to meet her, eyes twinkling.
Another step.
This time she was twenty five, body brimming with energy.
Another step.
She was twenty, her hair long. He looked like he did at the bar in Shabondy, muscles rippling and with that pleased smile on his face as he gazed at her.
A leap and she was in his arms.
Their lips met. She was eighteen, he was seventeen, and the only thing that mattered was the moment. Tongues danced together as she gripped his hair; his lanky frame fitting her still growing form perfectly.
Breaking their kiss, Nami's grip tightened around Usopp, fingers trailing along his back to make sure he was real.
"Missed you," was all she could murmur into his shoulder as she embraced him, unable to hold back her tears.
He held her, legs firm, and when she relaxed he looked into her eyes.
"I never left Nami."
She didn't respond, just wanting to hold onto him.
Eventually though, she broke apart.
"So what happens next?"
"Actually I'm kind of lost, to be honest. I could really use a navigator. Do you know a good one?"
Nami smirked at him then.
"Yeah but you better guard your money, I hear she's a notorious thief."
"Is that so?"
Nami nodded and they started to walk along the shoreline, talking about everything and nothing as the time went on.
"NAMI! USOPP!"
The couple glanced around and saw Sunny, looking as strong as ever, Luffy grinning at the two of them. Zoro offered the pair a smirk along with a raise of his rum. Sanji got hearts in his eyes at the sight of Nami. Chopper yelled that this wasn't making him happy. Brooke strummed a few strings on his violin. Robin gave them a knowing grin. Franky was bawling and going on about how super this all was.
And as Nami and Usopp moved up the gangplank, they saw Vivi smiling gently at them, Karoo and Kohza at her side with Ingram warming up his voice.
Shanks and Buggy were there, both drunk as could be. Ace and Sabo were joking around with one another. Boa Hancock was trying to get Luffy's attention but to no avail. Dr. Hiruluk promised he could cure any disease they might still be suffering from while Dr. Kureha rolled her eyes at the quack. Saul was laughing. Coby offered a confident grin while Smoker and Tashigi tried to stop Bon Clay from showing off too much. Laboon roared a happy greeting as he appeared from the ocean.
Iva was there in all of his/her glory.
The Usopp Pirates cheered their captain on and asked him to tell them how he had been.
Kaya hugged Nami as soon as she was on board and whispered thanks for all that she had done for Usopp.
Nojiko chose to pat Usopp on the back roughly and Genzo muttered that he was just lucky he hadn't made Nami cry.
Yasopp was nervous when he looked at his son but Usopp hugged him as tight as he could.
Nami cried as she held onto Bellemere and the former Marine sized up Usopp from a distance.
"He looks okay but I don't know about the nose honey."
Nami laughed and nodded at her mother's observation.
Finally Usopp's knees shook as he looked at his mother and exploded into tears as he hugged her. Banchina smiled and patted her son on the back.
"You've grown so much Usopp."
Once most of his sobs had subsided, Usopp grinned and motioned towards Nami, who was still with Bellemere.
"Did I tell you about the time I married an angel?"
Banchina shook her head and quietly observed Nami, smiling warmly at the woman who was her son's soul-mate.
"She doesn't tease you about your nose, does she dear? Because you should be proud that you have such a distinctive feature."
Usopp laughed and hugged her once more.
The ship sailed on, Nami and Usopp staring out into the ocean while the others mingled and collided all around them.
"What about Belle and Vivi?" Nami asked.
"We'll pick them up when it's their time," Usopp said confidently.
Nami murmured her understanding and squeezed his hand.
"Tell me a story," she whispered.
His voice joined with the wind driving them ever onward and she sighed in contentment.
Death was different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.