~The 2nd Night~
.o0o.
What a difference a week can make. Sometimes weeks roll by like sand on a beach and before you know it years have passed and nothing changes. You get into a rut of living out the same pattern over and over again. All in the name of a goal that never seems to get any closer. Then it all changes. One week and your world can be turned upside down. Everything you knew. Everything you thought you knew. Now lay in pieces at your feet.
For Nami, she could not imagine a better feeling.
A week ago she stood in this very spot on Merry's bow, leaning against the railing contemplating her inevitable betrayal of the people who would soon become her closest friends. She spoke with the man who would save her life. They stood and laughed together as friends, even if just for a moment. Then Nami betrayed him. She lead Luffy and his crew to Baratie to find a cook so they could continue his adventure. Having been reminded once more of the sword hanging over her, and her island's heads when she saw Arlong's bounty poster among Johnny and Yosaku's wanted poster collection, she steeled her resolve. As soon as everyone became distracted with Krieg, Nami made her move. She hijacked the Merry and set sail for Cocoyashi.
Really Nami had full faith that Luffy could beat Krieg. That was a given. She also knew he would come after her, at least to retrieve Merry and be on his way, or at most, to try and seek revenge on her for betraying him. That was also a given. After all, going by his reaction to Captain Kuro attacking his own men, betrayal was not something Luffy took kindly to. What Nami did not expect, however, was Luffy showing up, new cook in tow, and refusing to leave until Arlong's "empire" lay in rubble.
And Nami fought him every step of the way. Doing everything short of outright attacking the rubber man. She had put on her best 'Cold Bitch' persona to try and push him away, but Luffy didn't fall for it for even a second. Hell, from what the others on the crew said Luffy got pissed off at anyone who even suggested that she really was the person she tried to make herself out to be. Nojiko even tried to get them to go away. That maybe if they learned her story that they'd be satisfied and leave. But once again, Luffy showed no interest in any of it, and just walked off.
With a fond sigh Nami leaned on to the railing, like she had a week ago. The full moon shone even brighter than it had before. The ocean, splayed out before her, positively sparkled under its silvery rays as if filled with a renewed vigor. She couldn't help but smile at it. Everything seemed brighter to her now. Now that she was free. Not only free, but with the genuine opportunity to fulfill her dream of mapping the world. All thanks to that rubbery dumbass she now called 'Captain'.
Looking back on the events of the last week really put Luffy into a new light in Nami's eyes. He was more than he let on to be. Or maybe people read him wrong. Who knows? But either way he was an amazing man. In just the scant few days in which Luffy had known her, from meeting in Orange Town to her betrayal at Baratie, he'd judged her character well enough to know something was wrong. And cared enough to do something about it. Then when he arrived at Cocoyashi he showed no interest in anything other than getting her back. He didn't even want to know why Nami was doing any of it.
"Oh. You're awake too."
Nami turned to her captain. He stood at the far end of the deck, apparently having snuck out of the men's bedroom without so much as a peep. His straw hat planted firmly on his head and a dopey expression painted across his face.
"I am. So are you. Again." Nami smiled at Luffy as he approached. It felt great to be able to smile so freely.
Luffy stood beside her, Merry's head once again the only thing between them, "What you thinking 'bout this time?" he asked.
Nami blinked, "What do you mean this time?"
"Well last week you said you were up thinking 'bout stuff. So, maybe you're up thinking 'bout stuff this time." Luffy said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"No, I said I was up because of you're horrid snoring."
It was a blink and you miss it moment but Nami swore Luffy looked at her completely disbelieving a word she said. Then it was gone. He grinned,
"That so? My bad!"
Moments like that made Nami doubt Luffy's intelligence. At least to a degree. The man has clearly never had a day of formal education in his life. To be honest, he'd struggle to poor water out of a boot if the instructions where on the heel. Hell, Nami would be surprised if Luffy could even read the instruction! Actually, now that she thought about it…
"Hey Luffy, can you read?"
That seemed to catch him off guard, "Wait, what?"
"Can you read?" Nami fought to keep the smirk off her face. The man who not two days ago fought a literal monster, dropped a building on both himself and said monster and lived to tell the tale was gawping at her like a slapped fish. Priceless.
"W-why do you wanna know?" Luffy stammered, clearly trying to avoid the question. A moment of weakness.
"You can't, can you?" Nami's lip twitched upward.
"No, I can!" he claimed, waving his hands desperately.
"Then why are so defensive, huh?" Nami's eyes narrowed in mock suspicion.
"Uh, uhhhh." Luffy struggled to find an answer that clearly wasn't there.
"You know it is very important for the captain of a crew be able to read, you know?" She pressed on, smiling like the cat that caught the canary.
"Bu-but I-I" Her captain began sweating. His eyes darting left and right looking for any kind of writing to prove his literacy, but to no avail.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Nami couldn't hold it in any longer. It was just too funny!
Luffy blinked, now completely lost as to what was happening. One minute he was being grilled about being able to read by his navigator, the next, said navigator is holding her stomach laughing like she'd just been told the funniest joke.
It took a minute for Nami to curb her laughing fit. But finally she stood up straight and wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. It had been so long since she'd laughed like that. It was like a breath of fresh air. Luffy was not nearly as amused as she was. He stood, arms folded, pouting with his cheeks puffed. It was kind of adorable.
"It wasn't that funny." he muttered.
Nami took a deep, cleansing breath to steady herself, still grinning, "I know, I know. I just couldn't help myself." she said, "You're just too easy to tease."
Luffy turned his head away, pouting even harder, "I am not, you're just being mean."
The sheer childishness of his statement almost sent Nami back into another fit of giggles. How this man was a pirate captain worth 30 million, she'd never know.
"Just so you know, I can, in fact, read." Luffy said, still not looking at her.
Nami sat back on the railing, "Oh I believed you."
Luffy's pout dropped immediately as his head snapped back to look at her with an almost audible 'boing', "Wait. You did?"
"Not immediately."
Almost as fast the the pout dropped was it back again. The speed at which Luffy could change his expression was straight up comical. Truly fitting for a man with a rubber face.
After a few moments they both relaxed and fell into a companionable silence. What a difference indeed. A week ago Nami was contemplating her betrayal of the man beside her. Now, she'd happily risk her life for him. Before when they talked, she was anxious for the future, the weight of the world was on her shoulders. Now she was riding high on life. She couldn't help but think back to her question from before as well.
"Hey Luffy."
"Hm?"
"Why do you want to be King of the Pirates."
Luffy looked at her, eyebrow raised, "To be free."
Nami cocked her head to the side. A reasonable, if predictable answer. But not the one she was looking for.
"I guessed that. But what made you want to go for it. There are plenty of other ways to go about being free." she said, "Most would say simply being a pirate is enough."
Luffy seemed to mull it over in his head for a second, "That's just it. I don't want 'enough', I want want all of it. I want to laugh the loudest. Eat the most. Fight the hardest. And for no reason because I can. That's how free I wanna be."
He spoke softly, almost reverential at the idea of his dream laid out before him but the underlying steel in his tone spoke to how determined he was to make it happen. It left Nami almost speechless. She was absolutely convinced he could do it. And she'd be the one to guide him to it.
Luffy took off his straw hat and smiled at it. He held it like it was made of spun glass. In the moonlight Nami could see where she stitched up the damage dealt to it at the hands of Buggy.
"Also," Luffy said, "I made a promise. That I would become a great pirate and return this hat to Shanks."
He'd mentioned Shanks before. Nami just assumed he was some kind of father figure to Luffy, like how Bellemere was to her. Clearly, it wasn't so straight forward.
"Do you know where he is?"
"Nope! Not a clue." All of a sudden the somber atmosphere that had settled around them dissipated, "But that's part of the fun right? The adventure!"
Luffy seemed reinvigorated, his sense of adventure sparking up out of nowhere. Now he looked ready to row the Merry himself to the nearest island just to try and satiate it. It nearly gave Nami whiplash.
The rubber captain now relocated himself to his favourite seat atop Merry's head, swaying eagerly side to side, willing an island to appear over the horizon. The thing Luffy probably didn't take into account, Nami realised, was the the ship was anchored so everyone could sleep. A point made slightly frustrating considering the fact Luffy was the one who dropped the damned thing. On her orders no less. His vigor was both contagious and exhausting.
This conversation, Nami felt, gave her a better understanding of how Luffy ticked. Sure on the surface, he was a reckless moron, with no sense of self preservation. And he was. No doubt about that. But there was a lot more going on under the surface than most believed. Zoro must have known, being both First Mate and the longest serving on the crew. Sanji must've caught a glimpse of it, given that last she saw of him at baratie he was dead set on not becoming a "shitty pirate". And if Usopp hadn't seen it, he would soon enough, of that much Nami was sure. And now she had seen it for herself.
She didn't know what possessed her to do it. To have the sheer balls to even attempt it. Maybe it was the new lease of life that had been gifted to her with Arlong's defeat. Maybe it was the relaxed atmosphere that now pervaded the air around them. Or maybe it was that Luffy had given it to her before. Who knows…
Nami reached up to Luffy's head and plucked the straw hat off of it, placing it on her own. The man himself, spun around looking ready to swing a punch. He stopped when Nami smiled up at him, her hand holding the precious hat firmly in place. She winked.
"Then we're just gonna have to make sure it's the best damn adventure ever, huh?"
.o0o.
How was it?
(Note: I made an edit to the previous chapter once I realised I made a mistake with the events in cannon. It's fixed. Also, I hope Nami and Luffy seem too out of character. I'm trying to keep their interaction within the realm of possibility. If Nami seems too… chipper? And too praising of Luffy, my logic is that she's just been freed from her oppressor of eight years. She's going to be a bit praising of the man who is responsible for that.)