Disclaimer: E. Oda's. I just screw around with his characters.
This chapter was supposed to be placed somewhere in my: "Hard to resist…" fic, but I saw in the raw draft some potential and wrote it as a entirely separated chapter.^o^
If you liked it, please review and drop few lines; it makes me motivated to write more after reading some positive and constructive criticism.^^
Dedication: To amazing crystalbluefox. You were my inspiration. .*hugs*
Nami felt restless.
When Nami felt restless something had to do with the weather.
If it wasn't the weather it was probably the quirk she had as a perfectionist and she felt the sudden need to finish her map of the latest island they visited.
If it wasn't about the map it was probably the thirst or beginning of hunger starting to form in her stomach, but no-, she still had half of the tropic drink Sanji made her half an hour ago and they had a dinner not too long ago, so it wasn't the case.
If it wasn't any from the above it had to do something with the idiot-group and their newest invention to make her life as much loud and crazy as they could manage and her 'trouble senses' were kicking in to prevent any unnecessarily damage to their new ship; Sunny Go.
She didn't know what was making her anxious and absurdly unsettling, but there weren't involved her navigating skills this time and Luffy with Usopp, Chopper, Franky and Brooke were in sight somewhere around the deck.
Brooke was sipping his tea like a real gentlemen he was or tried to appear as, 'cause more true sounded that he was an incurable panty-peeper in disguise of a skeleton.
Franky was trying to compose his new song taking into his heart Luffy's words about 'wearing armor is a man's romance' and striking from time to time obscene poses in his too freaking tight seapanties, screaming 'Au~!'
Usopp was boasting like usual about his amazing bravery when no one but him managed to beat the Ghost Princess and enabling them a clear path to victory and beating the Zombie Master along with thousand of his Zombie Puppets.
Chopper was looking at him with awe and adoration, squealing from time to time in such a cute way in his brain point that she couldn't fight off the small smile creeping on her lips. She wondered fondly how innocent and naïve he remained though they lived through so many extreme and unbelievable adventures.
Luffy was having fun on the swing and stopped only to laugh at some more exaggerated moments in Usopp's story finding it extremely entertaining that someone could boast and lie with so much finesse and skill that it made those who listened smile and laugh at how picturesquely their sharpshooter can tell tales.
Robin was sitting near Nami sipping her drink slowly and reading a book. She was supposed to be on the lookout, but having such a freaking useful devil fruit enabled her to sprout a pair of eyes on the mast and survey the seas around without actually interrupting her reading.
Yay, all year Halloween! Dead body, Cyborg, 7-transformation reindeer, perverted hearts-flowing-endlessly-from-his-eye; cook, masochistic Demon of a Hunter, The Child of Demons, Rubberman, Sogepp, and Thief-cat.
She wondered if there was crazier crew somewhere on the Grand Line than this freaky mix here.
Though considering how many 'interesting' crews probably docked somewhere around on the Schabondy Archipelago she wasn't entirely sure of that.
She frowned and her look turned hawk-like; scouting the surroundings with sharp glances and only waiting for something out-of-place to suddenly jump before her to prove that the unsettling feeling inside of her isn't just her imagination.
~~`*
Grand Line really was a place out of this world. Anything could happen here and everything you believed and put under 'impossible'; it lost their meaning here when you often were faced with the ridiculous 'reality' of those mysterious seas.
Nami knew this from the first moment since her navigating skills turned out to be useless. You can't possibly imagine her irritation and overwhelming feeling; reaching to the very core of her soul and making her desire burn with the need to conquer those seas. Make them attainable and every unknown or forgotten island to become present on her detailed and perfect maps.
Her pride lay at stake and she wasn't the one to back down from a challenge at all. No matter how risky or dangerous. She was fond of this feeling of waiting, preparing and finally acquiring what she'd want to get. She wasn't even 10 years old when she had stolen her first million. Beaten up, bruised and bleeding, but immensely happy that she was closer to reaching the number 1 hundred.
What was danger to her you ask? It was her friend, companion and the daily thing. And she was all alone then since it started to follow her at the every step she made to steal more money from pirates.
She lived with the knowledge of doing something wrong but for the right cause.
Hard to believe she was just a kid then.
And the one at that who had to work under the pirate who murdered in front of her the only person who she could call per 'mother'.
To salvage even a bit of hope and sanity in this fucked up situation she made a deal with the scariest man she ever saw.
100 million Berri. It was the price she had to pay for freedom of her village and its people.
She believed in their 'promise'. Arlong was a pirate who would rather die than break his promise when it came to money.
But he wouldn't rob himself of the means to rule all of the seas. He wasn't that stupid. And first and foremost he was a pirate. So cheat, kill, rob was like an honor-code for him.
So he did what he knew the best: he cheated. He showed her that no matter how much she will try to break from under his jurisdiction he had the means to make her obey.
More killing the innocents. And in front of her very own eyes at that. To break her completely.
She didn't know what to do anymore. The shackles she had to bear since being 8 years old were becoming too hard and painful to bear… It came at a brief relief that the people from Kokoyashi Village knew the truth about her 'betrayal' and supported her silently.
It was brief because they were willing to die than make her suffer any more years under his power.
She felt hopeless and lost. The next came immeasurable anger.
The hatred overwhelmed her. She wanted to kill him so badly that she let herself find the relief she yearned for in stabbing the chaining her to those pirates tattoo.
The slim but sure and powerful hand that stopped her indicated that she should put her trust and depend on him.
To share her burden with them all.
For the first time in so long, that she even vaguely remembered those feelings, she felt she could go on. Even though serenity, reassure and hope in victory were so far away from reach to her that she thought she had lost them forever.
And they won. New tears had fallen from her eyes. But so different from those helpless before. They were from happiness and feeling real comradeship.
She felt she have friends for the first time in…ever.
She grew so fond of them quickly. Finding their quirks and habits comforting and she could be herself in front of them and there was no need for pretense and deceit.
They acknowledged and depended on her skills. She was as essential part of them as their ship. They wouldn't be Strawhats without even one of them.
So she poured her feelings on them as much as they transferred theirs on her. No words needed. For the other they were ready to go to the depths of hell. And they were sure to come back.
Is it love or devotion, there is no need for useless thoughts; they support and fill where the other can't. Their bond is stronger than any metal could ever harden.
Being the navigator put the lives of her crew on her thin shoulder when at sea. But it wasn't a burden this time. It was a strong taste of freedom and dreams. Yes, she could finally follow the voice of her heart and strive to purchase her ambition.
She often felt protective. Of the ship, which she punctuated with long talk and hard fist on the skulls of her comrades' heads. Of her nakama, which she showed with voiced worry, skepticism and again hard fist. There were countless times she dived to rescue one or two hammers, mostly 'cause they wanted to save the third one from drowning.
And how to not get irritated, frustrated or angry when they gave you more work than you were able to handle?
Thank God they had level-headed Robin onboard and she rescued half of the to-be-drowned-idiots from taking a swim.
She hoped their next-to-be-nakama wouldn't be another hammer. There was a limit to how many times you changed completely soaked outfits to dry ones per day.
But they were only a half way into the Grand Line and having such a hyper and unpredictable mass of excitement as a captain it was highly doubtful that any of her foretelling or following her own intuition would help.
Her woman intuition failed compared to the animal-like instinct of her captain.
Luckily his 'luck' was the most reliable thing she could think about from all of his assets.
So she wasn't alert as in: something-big-and-dangerous-is-gonna-hit-us. It was more of an unusual nature of things feeling that nagged her at the back of her head.
Frustrated she ended sunbathing for the day and decided to walk around to better pinpoint what the hell was wrong with the atmosphere on the ship.
Normal observer wouldn't be able to see anything out of place here, but for a veteran like her to sense 'unsensable' she took too much pride in her natural and sharpened with time intelligence and wits to simply forget about it.
She needed to find the root of her recent worry and the best thing was to search for it methodically using her own body.
The mood on the ship was no means unpleasant compared to few previous ones she experienced like in Water 7, but still it was freaking weird.
And what was weird here; she was soon going to find out or she'd give hers share of Thriller Bark loot.
Yeah right.
Like that would ever happen.
She observed the usual madness on the Sunny Go; everything the usual, so what felt so out of place?
She couldn't put a finger on it…
The bickering, shouts, screams in and out of tune music; check.
Robin's quiet reading and sips of her drink; check…
Oh…so that's what was missing.
The stupidest and most troublesome duo was gone without a trace.
"Better not be to any no-good." She mumbled with jaw clenched firmly and fists bailed tightly as in the preparation to give righteous judgment. Nami-kind, not the Enel-one. But no less merciful.
With the Green and Blond walking trouble and lost or in the middle of a heated argument somewhere together, at that; she sure as hell wasn't going to pull her punches.
Did she ever?
Her 'fist of love' knows no 'going easy'.
She huffed in determination and started to walk into the direction of the kitchen where she was sure all the chaos was erupting at the moment without her gracious supervision.
When she was close to the door she faltered a little.
The kitchen seemed unusually quiet at this time of a day.
No voices were heard, no movement indicating the start of the food being prepared, no fighting…
She was about to change her destination and look for them in the aquarium room when muffled curse was heard from the locked doors.
'That's it! Stupid idiots are trying or finally succeeded in killing one another.' She thought. Her temper rising and this time without the previous hesitation she grabbed securely at the door handle with intention to open them swiftly.
What she didn't expect to see were rubbery fingers circling around her wrist and preventing her, with sometimes surprising even her strength, from opening the door.
She looked up and threw, at the person behind the sudden interruption, a dirty look promising not only a going up charging rate.
Luffy only smiled at her his most innocent version of his smiles succeeding in disarming her instantly and making her change her look in the one telling 'what?!'.
He put a finger to his lips and still somehow managed to grin; he made a 'hush' gesture and told her with the move of his head to follow him.
Intrigued beyond words she followed him without any protest.
And then he showed her…
~~`*
Well, Grand Line was a pretty bewildering place.
Maybe it's a fault of the climate? Or the substance in the water making this Ghost Sea such a phenomenon around here?
Surely it wasn't a normal thing for the most uncooperative duo to be behaving in less than homicidal ways to one another…
When did it change?
She could swear it wasn't before they rescued Robin…Then maybe something happened between them at Thriller Bark?
If so then it was something big to change the most straight men she saw; or one straight like an arrow love-cook and the other asexual and indifferent like a plant – into full of raging hormones teenagers. Well… She was sure she never saw such… sexy and appealingly looking together men who were basically so different from each other.
She started spouting a deep red blush on her cheeks and she only had a glimpse.
Be damned her vivid imagination. She wouldn't be able to look at them in normal way and without realizing she'd start drooling from too much stimulated brain and finally started squealing or having a major nosebleed while having some naughty inside her mind display of her two hot and male nakama together.
She would be a liar if she told she never thought Zoro or Sanji are good looking. But she just couldn't look at them in sexual way. But it's going to be a challenge not to let her imagination run wild about what the two of them are doing together when suddenly lost from sight.
God…I need to get a hold of myself, especially when they start to fight with each other…
She bit her bottom lip at the thought. It's like a freaking ritual or introduction to sex! Like hell I'm going to watch it calmly!
She was sitting under her Mikan trees feeling like it's her only asylum of calm and peace.
Dammit! Luffy did it on purpose!
She knows she couldn't hide anything from Luffy.
He saw through people like he had some roentgen in his eyes.
She couldn't stop blushing remembering the scene in the kitchen and also playful and naughty glint in Luffy's eyes after he left her alone with her shock and embarrassment.
~`*
30 minutes earlier
Nami was dumbstruck after seeing the scene in the kitchen through the port hole.
Nothing could prepare her for the thing she saw in that moment.
Immediately she flushed from ears to her chest and hiding like she was the one who did something wrong. Next thing she did was to pull Luffy up the stairs; near the orange trees and still blushing hissed or more like whispered "Wha-what the hell was that?! I mean… since when-when they- you know…? And how-" The words were falling from her lips with the speed and grace of Sunny's 'Gaon Hou'.
Luffy to her more awkwardness answered cheerfully not fazed by the display inside the dinning room "What's wrong Nami? Can't you feel it?"
"Feel what!?" She snapped coping lastly with her astonishment and regaining her fiery attitude.
"Love is in the air!" Said in sing-song voice and gleefully Luffy.
"What?!" Amazed Nami didn't even bother to lower her voice feeling her frustration rising.
"I can fell it! Shishishi!" Grinned with his eyes closed Luffy while placing his hand on top of the hat on his head.
"What's kind of sick love is making them almost kill each other while fighting and the next second they can't take their hands off of each other too engrossed in hot making out session?!" She half-screamed her aggravation at Luffy because of this still surreal for her mind to cope circumstances.
"Don't you know the more Sanji yells at someone the more it shows how much he cares about the person? And since the beginning there was no one he shouted more at than Zoro himself. It was so obvious that almost embarrassing at first." Laughed Luffy and grinned mischievously.
"Why I didn't see it coming…? And how the hell could it happened under my nose without me realizing…?!" Asked more to herself bewildered Nami but still Luffy felt the need to answer.
"Hm…maybe you were to busy yelling at me?" He asked with his deceptively innocently looking eyes and put his most treasured possession on Nami's own head in some reassuring manner.
He flashed her once again a unique a la Luffy smile and run down to the deck to continue playing with Usopp and Chopper.
Nami slide to her feet and sit there stunned and speechless.
Finally Luffy's words and gesture sank with all clarity that made her spout a lovely deep-red blush on her face, not sparing her ears.
"Oh." She only felt she could form coherently at the moment; still blushing. But her treacherous mind flashed her suddenly the erotic scene with her two nakama pawning at each other with animal-like want and hearing a long half-moan from behind the door answered her with all clarity what the hell Zoro is doing with Sanji behind the closed door.
Abrupt memory brought her back to reality somewhat and she transferred her all feelings to plotting how could she make profit from this situation and make them owe her for all the embarrassing moments she went through.
She would think about it later when she got a hold of her senses a little bit more…And it wouldn't hurt to try to remember more of the details…For blackmail material…she licked her lips…of course.
~`*
She couldn't wait to get her revenge or more like stress relieve on the idiotic duo that put her under unnecessarily, in her opinion, stress and ordeal of steel nerves and preservation she'd have to be put under from now on.
She was walking back to her place near Robin when she saw cook and sword-boy finally out and starting the fight over some bullshit once again.
She sighed deeply and sat in her chair drinking the rest of her drink till the end in just few gulps.
Some things didn't change.
And that thought calmed her at last.
Hearing Luffy's laughter in the background and quiet movement of pages being flipped form time to time left her feeling drowsy but ridiculously happy.
She wouldn't exchange or want to be on another ship but this one with her dear and fucking out of their minds but still the closest (people/animals/skeletons/rubermen/devil legs/god souls/devil children/cyborgs?XD) nakama she was blessed to have.
They completed and filled the voids and empty spaces she had.
Essential and unbreakable bond was what linked them. And no matter the flow of the unforgiving time it'll never change…
She sighed happily and closed her eyes, laying comfortably and enjoying her moments of peace.
She flushed a little remembering Luffy's words but grunted in annoyance at the needless distraction.
"Something's the matter, Nami-chan?" Asked Robin casually, without looking up from her book and with all-too-knowing smirk playing on her lips.
"Yeah, some shit in the air!" Muttered moodily Nami and huffing rearranged her position this time laying on her front with the intention to get some nice tan at least for the whole days' worth of worries.
Robin laughed her, not so rare anymore, open laugh "Fu fu fu. Hm..certainly."
Then she winked, helping Nami with unwrapping the top of her swimming suit on her back using her additional limbs; making Nami thank her sleepily and feeling jealous of Robin's devil fruit powers; ideal for spying secretly and finding out weaknesses.