Unprecedented
By Ryo Hoshi

Nami yawned and settled closer to the warmth beside her. She ached, in a rather nice way, deep inside her belly. She'd never quite expected to ever celebrate recovering from an injury like this...

But then, she'd never expected to have Chopper tell her that she wasn't going to be able to have children. Nami hadn't seriously thought about it before then; it'd been one of those things she'd thought of as happening after she finished her map, and settled down. It'd been a vague dream, to be fufilled later, not anytime soon...but it had been something she'd intended to do one day.

She wasn't quite going to complain. The shrapnel that had torn her up inside could have left her dead, but... Nami hadn't really realized how much she had wanted to be a mother, and adopting wouldn't quite fufill that desire.

Luffy had been there when Chopper told her, and understood. He'd encouraged her, which she hadn't expected...she'd never thought he'd have understood something like that. Their usual, main dreams were all grand ones; something as commonplace and normal as simply having a baby of her own was, among all those dreams, very out of place.

Well, perhaps it wasn't so out of place now.

Her captain had smiled at her and encouraged her -- told her to forget what the doctor had said and try to prove Chopper wrong.

Luffy had spent a lot of time visiting her and just talking while she was still recovering in sickbay. Nami had managed to coax out of him stories about his childhood, bartering tales of her own for each one he shared with her...

Eventually, Nami had decided that she knew whom she wanted to try to have a baby with, and had shyly asked him. He'd blinked a little before asking her one simple question...

"You're not gonna toss 'em off cliffs and send 'em into some dark jungle, are you?"

She laughed. "Of course not, Luffy! Not after trying so hard to have them!"

"Oh ... Can I?"

"No! We might not be able to have more!"

"We'll get lots of practice."

"Luffy...if you're going to do that...you won't be getting that practice with me!"