Arguements
It was Nami's turn for watch that night. It was as if fate itself wanted me to pursue this mystery. After our little fall out on the deck earlier, I had come to the conclusion that the straight forward way, my usual way, was not the way to go. My head would be bitten off before I'd even have a chance to speak.
The evening was calm enough to allow some distraction from the night watch and quiet enough to allow a discussion without interruption. To get that discussion started, I decided to use my secret weapon: Sake. If there was anyone in our crew with a weakness for expensive alcohol, it was Nami. Robin too, I guess, but she was usually a much more reluctant drinker than Nami, especially if she was planning to hide something. I armed myself with two of the finest bottles the cook kept in the pantry and headed straight for the deck.
Though I couldn't see her up in the lookout, I made every effort to make her see me. I pounded my boots on the deck, clinked the bottles together loudly and sat in the most visible part of the deck with the sake in plain view. Nami had the eyes of a hawk and the ears of an eagle. She would definitely spot me drinking her expensive sake, as she would put it, and run down to reprimand me. But for once, I was counting on it.
"What are you doing out here?" She said, almost an hour after I had arrived. Her face was sunken, sleepless and surprisingly devoid of anger. She walked over to me wordlessly and leaned on one of the rails nearby.
"Nothing, I couldn't sleep so I decided to drink up here, problem?" I replied.
"You, mister sleep in any weather, you couldn't sleep? "
"It happens."
"I guess it does…"she said quietly. For some reason she lacked all of her usual bite. I did start to wonder whether I should push any further; I was starting to tread into unchartered territory, but I decided to see where the conversation was heading.
I handed her a bottle.
"Here. Since you're here anyway, might as well."
She looked at the bottle then at me. "I'm on watch you know. Unlike you, I actually like to stay awake and make sure we don't get ambushed."
"We both know this isn't enough to knock you down."
"I shouldn't…"
"You should. Here, take it." The conversation went back and forth until she finally took it. Luffy wasn't the only one in the crew with a knack for stubbornness. We drank in silence until Nami set down the bottle and took a long, dramatic breath of night air.
"Are you ok, Nami?" I asked. She didn't answer. I tried again. Still no reply.
The sake was from a restaurant we visited once, the head chef was so happy to get such a 'world class recipe' from the cook that he gave us the choice of their finest ales. In the end Nami was the one to pick the bottles as the stupid love cook being too much a spineless idiot to say no. Knowing her, I thought she'd get the strongest she could find. In fact I'm sure she did, because since we'd left the island no one had touched it. It didn't do much for me, especially since I had purposely left half the bottle full, but Nami had managed to wipe it clean. I wondered if it actually managed to make her drunk.
"Hey, I'm talking to you. Are you drunk or what?"
"Of course not. Who'd get drunk on this." She said. Her words were completely un-slurred. My intention was to get her relaxed, not drunk so the plan was, well, going according to plan.
"This stuff isn't really all that strong," I said "I should've just stuck to the rum, at least it gives you a kick before you go down."
"Exactly. You shouldn't have been touching my things anyway." She replied once again without retort. "I should be charging you right now; those bottles cost a million beli each."
"It doesn't matter."
"…no it doesn't." she said as she came to sit down beside me.
As I said before, Nami was a smart girl. There was no way she would be having this empty conversation with me if she didn't know there was something else going on. Although neither of us had said it the afternoon episode was not forgotten. I guess there were times that even Nami didn't like to beat around the bush. So I dived straight in
"I asked around."
"I know, they came and asked me too."
"And?"
"And nothing. I told you to drop it."
"No, you tell me. I know you're hiding something." I said. I tried to keep my voice even, a shouting match was the last thing I needed. "This isn't gonna be like Arlong park where I had to throw myself overboard to make you talk, is it? Because I'm not doing that again."
"Why are you being like this? Since when do you care?"
She got up suddenly and tried to walk away, but I wasn't having any of it. In any other circumstance, grabbing Nami by the arm like a two year old would be like signing your own death warrant and handing it to the devil himself. But at the time I wasn't thinking nor was I bothered by what her reaction would be. I wanted answers.
"I don't know what your problem is, but you're really starting to piss me off!"
"I'm pissing you off? Let go, how dare you. Who do you think you are." She shouted and dived in to slap me. "I told you to let it go. I don't know what's gotten into you but you'd better stop it now."
In a half second, the fight I had been hoping to avoid had escalated. As I had learned in life, nothing good could come out of an emotion fueled argument. So I let go of her arms, took a step back and spoke again with calm and control.
"Nami, I didn't come here to start a fight. Right now, I don't really care about that island or the villagers or whatever and despite what you might think, I do care about this crew, you included. But I'm not looking for drama. If you really don't want to talk, then fine. You can go and I won't bring this up ever again."
For the first time in a long time, Nami looked like she was close to tears. Had the cook been on deck I would have gotten my ass kicked for sure. But at that moment, it was only me and Nami, alone on the deck, about to open the doorway to the secrets she'd been hiding from us, and herself, for a long time.
Thank you soo much to the reviewers, and I will try to finish this story and all my other unfinished stories this time!
