WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!!! THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ CHAPTERS 435 AND ABOVE SHOULD NOT READ THIS FIC! ...unless you want to know what happens next in the manga. I advise you read the manga first. :) SPOILERS!!
Title: Friends
The night was windy and cold when Nami burst out of the cabin door onto the soft grassy lawn on deck. She shivered from the stinging frigidness of the air, but ignored it as she strided up to the head of the sloop and plunked her arms firmly on the rail, then dropped her head heavily onto them and let out a long, frustrated breath.
She couldn't sleep. It was 2am in the morning and her body refused to rest. She glared fiercely at the log post straped securely to her wrist. The next island they were going to was Merman Island. She drummed her fingers nervously on the sturdy wood as her heart beat sped as fast as memories flashed in her head. The truth was, when the old mermaid told them the next island was going to be underwater and filled with mer-people no less, she felt like closing her eyes and hiding under her blanket and never coming out, not even for treasure...well, maybe only if the treasure amounted to five hundred million berries and above.
She shook her head sadly and clenched her fist. Yes, she would look forward to the riches behind the 'moving skeletons', as Luffy dubbed the ghosts pirates, but what lay after that...The navigator ran a shaking hand through her hair. She wasn't sure whether she could handle another Arlong episode. She shivered again, this time was not because of the cold.
"Nami?" An upside down straw hat obstructed her view. " What are you still doing up?"
Nami jumped back in surprise, letting out a small scream as her frayed nerves acted up. A pair of curious eyes with a tinge of concern stared at his navigator.
"Luffy!! What are--Don't do that again!" She gasped as she pressed a hand to her chest, willing her heart to slow down. Luffy cocked his head as his arms decended from the rigging above her to grip the railing. He swiftly retracted his body and landed on his feet with a thump. Facing away from her, he was silent.
"L-Luffy? Are you ok?" Nami took a hesitant step towards his unmoving figure.
"Yeah!" He turned to her with a big grin and swirling eyes. "Ha ha! I just spent too much time upside down, that's all!"
Nami rolled her eyes. "Idiot."
Luffy shook the dizziness away and smiled reassuringly at Nami. She raised an eyebrow and wrapped her arms around herself. She had suddenly felt the iciness in the air after all thoughts of mer-people and Arlong flew out of her brain, courtesy of the straw hat captain.
"Nami?"
"Yeah?"
"You cold?"
Without waiting for her response, he flung a thick fur coat over her shoulders.
"Ah-Wait! What about you?" Nami eyed the huge coat. She felt very warm with the furry ariticle draped around her, but old instincts were kicking in and she didn't want people to worry about her anymore. Wanted to be strong again. Never wanted to be a burden.
Luffy smiled sadly when he caught the look on her face which he never thought he would see again. Acting on impulse, he tugged her to his side and drapped half the coat over himself and grinned. Nami's eyes widened as her side pressed up against his, her head tucked snugly into his shoulder. Apparently, the coat wasn't as big as she thought it was.
"Luffy? What are you doing?" Nami didn't dare look up, lest her mouth connected with something other than his chin due to their close proximity. However, he didn't see any problem and looked down at her bright orange hair.
"Now both of us are warm!" Nami could hear the innocent smile in that sentence. Well, as long as the embrace was harmless, she had might as well enjoy the warmth and comfort that seemed to always emit unconciously from her captain. She knew she needed it desperately and allowed herself this pleasure. Looking down at her, he seemed to know what she needed and tightened his arm around her. Minutes passed as they leaned against the railing, looking at the vast ocean in companionable silence. Although Nami enjoyed her captain's presence, the lingering knowledge of where they were going next haunted her mind. She frowned and started figiting again.
"You do know that I'm not going to let anything happen to you, right?" He suddenly broke the silence. It was more of a statement than a question. His solid tone lifted the heaviness from her heart as it slowed down to a much more acceptable pace. She closed her eyes and squeezed him once, letting him know she heared him.
"Don't worry, Nami. You are the friend of the future pirate king. You have nakama to share your burdens with. You know that you don't have to hide anything from us anymore, right?" All these were strong truths to her ears and she couldn't find any way of contradiction. Vaguely, she wondered where her usually light hearted captain got this maturity from.
Nevertheless, she felt much better. There were times when she had felt the tremendous pressure of keeping silent and just plainly wanted to scream out the truth then run far, far away where no one could manipulate her anymore. But the concept of being strong didn't include screaming or running, so she just squashed the feeling down and kept silent, knowing she was locking another part of herself up.
"Thank you, Luffy." She squeezed him again and raised her head, little droplets of tears leaking from the corners of her eyes as she smiled wobbly at him. Now, she could run and scream and no one would judge her for it. She was finally free, and it was all because of him. "Thank you."
Heavy footsteps sounded behind the couple, and they turned to find Roronoa Zoro wiping the sleep out of his eyes. His shirt fluttered in the wind as he stretched and yawned widely. Walking up to them, he reached under Luffy's chin and ruffled Nami's orange hair in a brotherly fashion. Catching her bewildered teary eyes with his, he smirked hearteningly. Knowing the swordsman wasn't a man of much words, Nami understood the feelings he had conveyed wordlessly and smiled with gratitude.
"Aye! We're here for you Nami!" The familliar voice of Usopp piped up behind the trio, startling the orange head in Luffy's arms. The couple turned to see the long nosed pirate grinning encouragingly from the edge of the lawn.
"Yes, Miss Navigator, you are not alone anymore." The smooth, comforting voice of Nico Robin had more tears spring up into Nami's eyes. The brunette walked towards them with the blue haired shipwrighter in tow.
"Aa...I don't know what the heck happened, but nakama are nakama! We never leave a man stranded! Uh...woman. Man. Ano...woman too!" Franky the cyborg nodded surely and gave a mighty thumbs up.
"Nami-angel, you will always have my support..."Sanji's bass reached their ears as he lighted his cigarette as he approched the deck. He looked up and glared straight at Luffy. "But why is my Nami-angel in your arms?!"
Luffy took one look at Sanji and promptly tightened his embrace around his navigator. He smirked mischieviously at the cook. Sanji burst into tears and clung onto a very unfortunate Usopp. "I will overlook this once! Once I say!" The cook cried dramatically.
"E-Everyone," Nami gave a very special 100 watt smile. "Thank you so much!" Tears which clung onto her eyelashes started flowing again. After eight long years of neglect, self-sacrifice and pain, she had finally found people, good people who, despite her background of betrayal and lies, believed in her and refused to let her fall again. She fisted her hands into Luffy's vest. Especially this one.
So there they were, at 2:29am in the morning, six crew members of different backgrounds restoring hope in a disheartened crew mate. Full of confidence and determination, Thousand Sunny sailed with an insanely powerful rubber captain, another ridiculously strong swordsman, a sly theif turned navigator, a...Sogeking, the black leg chef, a talking reindeer-man, an archeologist with many many arms and a cola driven cyborg.
...Ghostly or not, those 'moving skeletons' better watch out.
Author's note: I recently read the latest chapters of One piece, and found Nami as an inspiration. She's my favorite character and I hope that we'll see more of her in the next arc. :) And if you please, tell me what you think about this story. It's my first One Piece fic and I was hoping that they weren't Out Of Character. OOC. Hehe...ok, maybe they are, thinking back to the Luffy/Nami scene...but I like that pairing!! I did try to keep it as IC(In Character) as possible. Well, let's see what you think. Thank you for reading! It was a pleasure writing it. :)
PS. Oh! And Chopper is not in this because it's a freakin' 2am in the morning! Insane, I tell you, insane. Ahem. I mean, he's a 15 year old. ;) I couldn't wake up at the slightest noise when I was 15. Much less at 2am!
Nakama: Closely knit friends, partners you could say.