Hey back again, yea. XD This chapter was such a huge pain to write but I got through it, mainly intact. I really hate writers block. Luffy was probably the biggest challenge this time around since his attitude during this chapter and the next is basically going to be the standard for the rest of the story. I wanted him to be a little matured but still able to be seen as Luffy. (I leave it up to ya'll to tell me how that worked out) Obviously the death of his brother opened his eyes to see that the world isn't all fun and games so he isn't going to be as happy-go-lucky as he once was. I really wanted to introduce Nami to Hancock this chapter but in the end thought it would fit better into the next chapter so ya'll have to wait. A note on that though, I have no love for Hancock. I find her to be a spoiled brat, conceited, and selfish and thus will be portrayed as such in my story. Sorry to you Hancock fans out there. Anyhow enough rambling from the author.
Disclaimer: I have no money please don't sue
"talking"
'thinking'
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Chapter 3
The Navigator's Decision
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It was late afternoon by the time Nami woke up again, the orange haired girl could tell by the sunlight slanting in through the window. Blinking once, twice, she slowly sat up in her bed. "What happened? How did I get back to the house?" Nami asked herself as she placed a hand against her head. "Was that just a dream? It was so real." She looked around the bedroom for any indication of what had happened. The room itself was pretty small and bare only having the bed, a small desk, and her maps rolled up neatly in the corner. Suddenly the low murmur of voices caught her attention coming from the other room. One she easily recognized as Nojiko. The other made Nami's breath catch in her throat as she swallowed a surprised cry. 'That was just a dream, right?' Hurriedly pushing the covers back Nami stood up and made her way over to the door stopping to listen quietly to the conversation going on outside.
"So Luffy, are you sure that's what you want to do?" Nojiko asked setting down her tea and looking up at the young man. "From the rumors I've heard it's going to be very difficult."
The black haired pirate nodded. "Yep, that's what I decided. I don't care how dangerous it is. I need Nami to come with me though. She's my nakama."
Nojiko smiled across the table to the younger teen, he had definitely changed from the scrawny seventeen year old kid that she had last seen. Luffy was sitting across from her at the table and hadn't moved since bringing Nami back. The tall woman with the long black hair had been sent back to her crew by the younger man so that the others on her ship would know what was going on. At first Nojiko wasn't sure if she would go, the woman seemed to be adamant about staying by Luffy's side. With only a few words from him though she blushed and tittered away in something like a daze. The lavender haired tangerine farmer was silently thankful for that, the arrogant woman had been grinding on Nojiko's last nerve. She started to ask Luffy something else but never got the chance as someone new entered the conversation.
"So I guess I was wrong after all, it wasn't a dream." Nami suddenly spoke up leaning against her door. Neither Luffy or Nojiko had seen her come out. She was glaring in Luffy's direction with her arms crossed. "You're pretty loud for a dead person."
Looking between a frowning Luffy and a glaring Nami, Nojiko suddenly felt the need to be somewhere else. These two had a lot of talking to do and she thought it best to leave them to it. "Well then it looks like you two have some things to talk about, so I'll just be out in the orchard." With that the older woman slipped away from the table and out the door with a sigh of relief. You could cut the tension in that room with a knife.
Luffy continued to look Nami over, he didn't even notice Nojiko's departure. Seeing the orange haired beauty again made his heart pick up speed. There was something different about her and it wasn't just her looks. Though she did look different than before. Around her wrist Nami wore the gold bracelet from her sister but of course the familiar log pose was gone. The navigator had on a short pair of blue jean shorts and a pink and black tank top. The young man blushed lightly as his eyes moved upward, Nami had definitely filled out in some very obvious aspects, her tight clothes showed that off nicely. She had also grown her hair out, the orange tresses reaching down past her shoulders now. Her hair had a slight wave to it and although Luffy didn't say anything out loud, he liked it.
Looking into her eyes Luffy realized that they were different than before their year apart. There was obvious confusion swirling around in her chocolaty brown orbs but beyond that he couldn't see the light anymore. One of the things he had always loved about his navigator was the fiery spark in her eyes, whether it was over money or her tangerines or in a fight, Nami always had that spark. It was all but gone now and the brown of her eyes looked dull without it. Had he been the one to cause that light to go out?
Both Luffy and Nami stayed silent for a while, neither knowing what to say to the other. Of course that never stopped Luffy for long. "I'm glad your okay Nami, you were asleep for awhile." He grinned toothily at her.
The orange haired young woman had to fight the urge to knock his teeth down his throat. 'Okay? Okay! How could he think I would be okay when a guy I thought was dead for a year suddenly shows up apparently alive and healthy as ever?' Nami grit her teeth and gave the young man a dark look. 'How could he think we could just pick up again right where we left off?' There were so many thoughts fumbling around in her head Nami didn't notice that she had been staring silently at him for awhile. Luffy's wide grin slowly faded into a smaller smile as she continued to silently stare at him.
He looked almost exactly the same as she remembered him. He still wore his usual sandals with a pair of baggy black shorts and his red vest. The vest was unbuttoned allowing Nami to see the toned muscles of Luffy's abs and chest which caused the girl to blush a light pink color before hastily moving her eyes upward, though that view wasn't much better either. His short scruffy black hair was left to blow in the breeze from an opened window, his treasured straw hat hung down his back from the string around his neck. Also hanging around his neck was what Nami recognized as the hat band from Ace's cowboy hat. The smiling face and frowning face decoration rested just below Luffy's collarbone. The orange haired young woman couldn't help the sad frown that graced her lips at the reminder of Luffy's older brother.
Staring up at his face Nami noticed that Luffy had lost the childish, innocent, look he always used to wear around the crew and instead his features had become more defined. Nami's blush darkened as her gaze traveled over his chiseled jaw line up to his coal black eyes that were staring back at her with an intense steady look. Even behind his small smile he no longer had the blissful carefree gaze she was used to seeing in his eyes, now there was a far too familiar look of responsibility and a great weight staring back at her behind those dark depths. The gaze Luffy had locked onto her made a chill run down Nami's back from the familiarity. It was a look she had seen on her own face countless times when she was working for Arlong. Looking up at him Nami could see that the young man before her was no longer ignorant of the world around him. He could no longer go on depending on his good luck alone with that 'consequences-be-damned' attitude of his. For some reason, she couldn't quite grasp why, Nami felt sad at the loss of the boy-captain from so long ago.
Realizing that he was waiting for her to say something Nami looked down, tearing her gaze away from her formally missing captain. She became somewhat nervous as his intense look never wavered from her and the sudden onslaught of emotion from seeing Luffy again caused the navigator's carefully controlled feelings to loosen, which scared her. So being nervous and scared Nami automatically became angry. "It's good to see you alive Luffy." She said in an icy tone. "Now leave."
Luffy frowned deeply at the navigator, her face was still turned away from him. "I can't do that yet, I came to find you, I-"
"You found me. Congratulations. You can leave now." She said, brushing past his shoulder obviously done talking with him. She got halfway to the door before the younger pirate stopped her.
"I know your mad at me and I probably deserve it. I'm sorry. I didn't think anybody would be hurt this way." Luffy turned to face her, his eyes silently asking for her to face him. He saw her body stiffen at his words but she didn't turn.
"You actually think a 'sorry' is gonna cut it? You left us Luffy." Nami's voice was softer than before. In fact she didn't sound all that mad anymore, now it was just sad. "You left us twisting in the wind. None of us knew where you were, if you planned on coming back, or if you were even alive. All we had to go on were Marine news reports and the wild rumors that started spreading after the war. Which both sounded pretty unbelievable." Nami shrugged, still looking forward. "You said you didn't want us to be hurt, Luffy, how do you think it felt when we heard you were dead?"
Luffy stood in silence just staring at Nami's turned back. He had no answer for that, he never expected his nakama would believe the Marine's story, but he supposed with no way to deny it they were left with little choice. Luffy knew this wouldn't be easy from the start and Nami's words convinced him even more of this. But, before he could say anything to her, Luffy looked up to see the door swing shut. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration and sagged into one of the kitchen chairs. Obviously his disappearing act had caused more trouble for his crew than he thought it would.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Nami could hear the ocean breaking against the shore from where she sat in the dirt and leaned back against a broken down old wall. Her blue jean shorts were getting dirty from the dust covering the ground but she didn't really care. Her eyes narrowed and then clenched shut as her hand ran over the fabric of her shirt and stopped just above her heart. 'Why now? Why does he show himself now? Everything was just starting to get better.' She was lying to herself of course but there was no way she would admit even to Nojiko that she was far from over Luffy's death…or now supposed death. The young orange haired woman shook her head to get rid of those thoughts and opened her eyes to look around the empty space surrounding her. There was nothing here but a large flat concrete slab that was cracked and broken in some places and a few torn down stone walls. What remained of the formerly intimidating Arlong Park.
"How did I wind up back here anyway?" Nami frowned to herself in confusion. She hadn't really been paying any attention to her surroundings when she left Luffy back at the house. Her feelings were becoming too much to handle, when she had seen him again after waking up the first thing she had wanted to do was run up and hug him, but that feeling quickly shifted to anger and confusion. The fact that she had wanted to hug the moron first above everything else also unnerved her. The only thing she could think to do was get away from him. So after leaving the house she started walking and didn't stop until she found that her feet had led her here of all places. She hadn't returned to this place since Luffy had brought it down and set her free.
After all this time why had Luffy shown up again? This seemed to be a constant thought now that Nami had calmed down. She had a few guesses and if she were completely honest with herself, she wanted to be right. There was no way she would admit it though. A warm breeze came in from the ocean and blew Nami's hair into her eyes, she absently tucked the wayward strands behind her ear and looked out over the water. 'It's going to rain soon, tonight at the earliest.' The girl sighed. After the Grand Line's insane weather patterns predicting any other weather was almost boring in comparison. Suddenly footsteps coming from behind alerted the navigator to someone else's presence.
"Nami, there you are. I've been looking all over for you." Nojiko walked up the rarely used path and stopped at her younger sister's shoulder. "What are you doing here? Weren't you talking to Luffy?" The older woman asked eyeing the surroundings in curiosity. This wasn't really her favorite spot on the island either.
The younger girl sighed but didn't look up. "I was but…"
"But, you got mad and walked out, hm?" Sighing again Nami nodded, her sister really did know her too well. Nojiko kneeled down next to Nami and looked over out of the corner of her eye. "I guess I can't blame you, hell, I was pretty ticked off when I saw him too. But," the lavender haired woman looked thoughtful for a moment as she stared ahead, "he had a good reason for tricking you like that." Nojiko let a small smile show on her lips as she looked down at her sister. Nami wasn't looking at her but over at the spot where the large building had once stood, her eyes looked a million miles away. "I can still remember that day, you know." The older woman chuckled lightly at the memory and Nami didn't have to ask what day she was talking about. "You were so angry at those guys for coming after you but that clueless kid didn't care how mad you got. He wanted his… what was the word he used again?"
"Nakama." Nami supplied quietly knowing full well that Nojiko knew what Luffy had said. "He called me his nakama, even after all the trouble I put him through." She was quiet for awhile, seeming to think about it. Luffy had taken her back, no questions asked, when she had stolen Merry and ran back to Arlong. 'Luffy's always been like that but this is a different situation. Back then I had Cocoyashi to think about.' Nami sighed and glanced over at her big sister in curiosity. 'Nojiko did say he had a good reason and I suppose it wouldn't hurt to hear him out.' Nami silently admitted.
The two of them sat there for awhile longer while Nojiko glanced down at the silent figure beside her. Nami seemed to be debating with herself but then clearly deciding something the younger girl stood up and dusted herself off. Nojiko gave a grin as she watched Nami turn and start back toward the village, hopefully Luffy would be able to pull through for them again.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
After Nami walked out on him Luffy had sat and thought for a while about what it was he was going to do. He couldn't leave Nami behind, he needed her to come sail with him again. Something told him to give Nami some space at the moment so he was now headed through the small village back to the ship.
Luffy passed by the small shops and stalls of Cocoyashi as he made his way down the main street. Most of the stalls were beginning to close up for the day but enough people were out to still gave him weird looks, like before he ignored them. The boy's mind was occupied with trying to figure out a way to convince Nami to come back. His attention was suddenly drawn to an old grey haired woman that was standing outside her small bookshop, she had a broom in her hand, and had obviously just finished sweeping up. Her silver hair was up in a bun and she had a kind face.
The old woman gestured for him to come over and so Luffy walked up to her. "You look tired young man, would you like to come in for some tea?"
The black haired pirate looked at the elderly person carefully. "You aren't angry or gonna try and hit me are you? Not like it hurts but it gets annoying after awhile."
The grey haired shop keeper chuckled lightly at Luffy's cautiousness and waved the young man inside the shop. Once Luffy had followed her through the door he was ushered over to a small corner table where a steaming pot of tea was sitting. Looking around, the first thing the young captain noticed was that there were books everywhere. It wasn't unusual since this was a bookshop but even so Luffy was sure this was an exceptional number of them. They lined and were stacked neatly on several high wooden shelves that stood against the walls of the little shop.
"You're the one that Nami-chan sailed off with some time ago, correct?" The elderly woman asked while pouring two cups of tea for herself and Luffy.
Luffy took his cup and gave a small smile in thanks to the old woman. "Yeah, Nami's my nakama. Right now I think she's mad at me though." He stared curiously into his tea cup for a minute before glancing up at the lady across the table from him. "Hey Obaa-san, this isn't poisoned is it?"
"Good heavens no." The old shopkeeper laughed loudly, the laugh lines around her mouth deepening. After the chuckles died down and as if to prove her point she took a sip from her own cup. "Though certainly you didn't make yourself very many friends after what happened with Nami-chan." Luffy opened his mouth to defend himself but was silenced by the woman's raised hand. "Now that is more than I know nor do I wish to know. What has happened, has happened, and cannot be undone." The woman continued to drink her tea peacefully as Luffy nodded seriously.
The two sat in silence for several long moments drinking from their cups. "You must not be fooled." The grey haired woman said suddenly over the rim of her cup. "I have known Nami-chan since she very small and I know that she still wishes to set sail again, even though I'm sure she has denied it many times."
"I tried asking her before but she wouldn't let me finish." Luffy said, draining the last of his tea. His eyes shifted over to some rice cakes that sat on the serving platter and he grabbed a few, making sure to leave one or two for the grey haired shopkeeper.
The old lady sighed and shook her head as if she knew that would possibly be the outcome. "Of course you must understand that when Nami-chan returned to us she was hurt badly-"
Luffy's frown turned to a scowl. "Yeah, Nojiko told me about that and some Marine bastard coming after her too."
Again the old woman shook her head but this time at Luffy. "While that is true, the hurt I am speaking of goes deeper than just a physical wound. I believe you know this already, young man."
Looking slightly surprised and then thoughtful Luffy silently nodded. "I know. It's my fault she's sad now."
"Nami-chan is a very stubborn and driven girl, as I'm sure you've figured out by now. I have never seen her stop in this way before." The older woman seemed to lose herself in thought for a moment before continuing. "Even when Bellemere, bless her soul, was killed and young Nami-chan was taken by those horrible pirates she was always going forward to achieve something."
Luffy blinked at this new information, for a moment he wondered why his supposed death would cause Nami to stop moving toward her dreams. Nothing that had happened to them before had caused her to even waver on her ambition. So why now and why him?
"She manages to hide it well, becoming a thief has taught her that much, but there are a few of us that can still see through her. Slowly but surely it is eating her up inside. Nami-chan is not like any of the people in this village, she is not meant to stay in one place too long, there is no happiness for her here." The woman, having said her piece, watched as the information filtered into Luffy's brain.
Looking very serious the black haired young man thought back on what he had known and what he had learned about his navigator. Suddenly an idea began to form in his mind. A smile spread across the rubber man's face as he stood abruptly. "Thank you Obaa-san, and don't worry, I'll make Nami happy again." With that he dashed out of the book shop and back up the road leading to the tangerine orchard, maybe Nami would be back by now.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Nami slowed her pace when she got near the orchard, there was no reason to give Luffy the idea she was actually interested in hearing him out just yet. Or that she really did want to talk with him again. She just hoped that the rubber man would still be at the house.
The navigator looked up at the near cloudless sky with the warm breeze blowing in from the shore, it was a beautiful afternoon, perfect for catching up with long dead friends. Nami chuckled nervously as that thought crossed her mind.
Stopping a little ways from the house Nami's brow rose. Luffy was there and it seemed he was looking for something, her maybe. The younger pirate had his face pressed against the glass pane of a window looking into the darkened house. She was about to call out to him but on second thought remained quiet and watched.
"Oi Nami, you in there?" Luffy shifted his stance to get a better look in the house. "Your not playing hide and seek are you?" He pulled away from the window and huffed, crossing his arms in annoyance. 'Where is she? I can't convince her that I'm sorry if I can't find her.'
Nami shook her head in exasperation. 'Alright let me amend my earlier thought…the Luffy I knew is still in there somewhere.' The orange haired girl shook her head and walked closer, still not entirely sure what it was she was going to say to him, or he to her. Feeling somewhat nervous Nami jumped slightly when Luffy whirled around after seeing her reflection in the window.
Luffy grinned widely at his navigator. "Ah Nami, you really are here." He moved away from the window and stepped closer to his navigator.
Even though she was still angry at him Luffy's smile was as contagious as ever. It was hard to keep a smile off her face when he was standing there grinning like an idiot but to Nami's credit, she managed to. "Come on Luffy. We need to talk." She turned and motioned him to follow.
"Oi Nami, where are we going?" Luffy finally asked when his navigator led him several rows deep into the fruit trees. She didn't answer right away and just kept walking for a few more rows before stopping. He watched as she finally turned around to face him.
"I thought we could use some privacy," Nami said plainly, "and no one's gonna bother us here." Then a hard glint came to her eyes as she stared at Luffy. "Now I want you to explain just what the hell you were thinking."
Taken aback at the hard edge to Nami's voice Luffy backed up and out of instinct braced himself to be pounded by the navigator like she normally would have. Instead after a few moments with no pain the young man looked up at his waiting nakama. She had her arms crossed in front of her and seemed to be waiting somewhat patiently for him to speak. Becoming serious again Luffy straightened up. "Ah, well, about what I said before. I'm sorry." He started off nervously. It was one thing to play it all out in your head but entirely another when faced with an irritated Nami.
Nami fixed him with a blank stare as she waited to see what he would say. "Yeah I know that, I heard you the first time you said it." Him just apologizing wouldn't get the boy off that easily.
Luffy frowned back at the orange haired navigator seriously. "I didn't deserve to be your captain." He finally just broke down and said it.
A confused frown replaced the irritated look on Nami's face as she stared in disbelief at Luffy. "What are you talking about?"
"Captains are supposed to be able to protect their nakama. I couldn't even stop that bear guy on Sabaody from making everyone disappear." Luffy looked away from her to a nearby tangerine tree. To Nami it almost sounded like he was ashamed of not being able to help them. "I wasn't even strong enough to help my brother when he needed me to. Ace was killed protecting me because I was too weak."
Nami gasped in shock, that little bit of information had naturally been left out of all Marine reports. The only news the Marines willingly shared about Luffy's brother was the fact that Fire Fist Ace was indeed dead.
Luffy went on either not caring or not registering Nami's surprise. "I knew I couldn't help you guys with your dreams anymore but I didn't want you to feel like you had to wait for me. I wanted you to continue fulfilling your dreams." He ran a hand through his black hair causing the worn straw hat to fall down his back catching itself on the string. "The whole me being dead thing was never my idea. I had passed out after Ace was killed and didn't wake up till two weeks later and even after that I was pretty much out of it for a while. When I came back to my senses again I read in the paper that the Marines believed I was dead."
Nami so far was taking the news in stride, she had really wanted to beat some sense into him when he said he couldn't be their captain, but held it back in favor of letting the boy continue his explanation. The article Luffy had read was probably the same one she and the rest of the crew had read also. It had numbered off the loss of the Marine forces but not the pirates. It had recapped the news of Ace's heritage, that was still unbelievable even to her. Then the article went on to say that Ace had been executed and listed off the major pirates in the war that had fallen. Namely Whitebeard, the fierce giant Oars Jr., along with several others of Whitebeard's crew and Luffy.
Luffy's coal black eyes moved back to Nami trying to get her to understand. "At first I wanted to let you guys know that I was really alive and to explain why I couldn't be your captain anymore. Then old man Rayleigh showed up and I told him I needed to get stronger before I could come back to find you. The old man said he would train me but it would take awhile. He asked me if I really thought my crew was the type to go on with their lives and leave their captain behind if they knew he was alive." Luffy gave a hollow grin. "I knew ya'll wouldn't do that. So the old man told me to let you guys keep believing I was dead, that way you wouldn't have to wait around for me, and also if anyone asked you wouldn't have to get caught up in a lie."
"You disappeared to help us?" The orange haired navigator asked softly. She was still trying to take all this in. "You allowed us to think you were killed by the Marines in order to protect us?" If Luffy had really wanted to he could have easily been able to stop or dodge the punch before it hit, but as fate would have it. "You Dumbass!" Nami's fist connected squarely to the side of the young man's head sending the pirate face first into the dirt underneath one of the fruit trees. "Since when have you ever listened to anything anybody else told you?" Nami marched over and grabbed the young man by the collar hoisting him up to his feet. "Do you know the trouble we all went through because of you?" Luffy just stared at her blankly which only caused Nami to become angrier at his lack of response.
"We waited for you! Even after the news came in the papers." She punched him again and he stood up again, accepting every hit without flinching away.
"The Marines had lied about us before so why was now any different?" This time her hit was weaker and Luffy was able to remain standing.
Luffy was close enough to see tears start to build up in his navigator's beautiful auburn eyes. "Marine ships were searching for us but we stayed there and waited for you, until we couldn't anymore." Her fist landed on his chest, there was barely any force behind it.
Her free hand came up to clutch at his vest. Her fingers twisting the cloth beneath them. By this time Nami was trembling in his arms. Luffy was half supporting her as she leaned into his chest, hardly able to remain standing from the emotional dam break. It had been waiting for a year to do so. "It hurt so much when the news came out, even so, we still hoped you would return. It was only after we had to leave the archipelago to escape the Marine searches that all of us were forced to accept you had to have been dead not to meet up with your nakama. You would never have abandoned us like that otherwise… or so I thought anyway." Nami refused to look up at Luffy as she fought back the angry tears clouding her vision. "Chopper and Ussop were devastated and everyone else just broke apart. Without you there Luffy, we… we weren't the Strawhat pirates anymore." She sniffled trying to stem the flow of tears.
The black haired young captain frowned down at the crying girl on his chest. He opened his mouth to say something but what could he say? "I'm sorry Nami. I never meant to hurt you, I would never do that. I made a promise to the pinwheel guy but I couldn't keep it." Nami glanced up at Luffy through watery eyes. He pushed her back and held her by the shoulders, staring hard into her tearful eyes. "So now I'm gonna make a new promise. You're my navigator Nami, nothing is gonna change that. I'm going to get our nakama back, starting with you. I promise I'm not going to let anyone separate us a second time, I missed you too much for that to happen again."
'He missed me? Just me, no us or them? That can't be how it sounded, why would he say something like that?' Luffy didn't seem to notice he had singled her out. Nami pulled away from Luffy's hold to wipe away the stray tears from her eyes. "You promise right?" The younger pirate nodded determinedly and she looked up, her tears gone now. "Alright then, you've never broken a promise to me before Luffy, so I'm holding you to this."
Luffy grinned widely. "Don't worry Nami I'm not gonna let you guys go missing this time."
Nami held out her hand much like Luffy had when the two first met, was it that long ago now? The pirate captain was about to bring his hand to meet hers when she suddenly pulled away leaving him to grab at air. "Of course there are two very important conditions." The navigator smirked bringing her extended hand up to rest her chin on her fingers in a thoughtful pose.
Luffy frowned in confusion. He tilted his head to the side like he always did when he was thinking. "Conditions?"
"Yep." Nami kept the smirk on her face as she watched the rubber man nod for her to name her so called conditions. "One, I'm in charge of any treasure we find." This normally would be a no-brainer but Nojiko had said something about Luffy traveling with some woman's crew. So Nami wanted to make that point clear.
"That's easy Nami, I wouldn't want our treasure with anybody else, you'll keep it safe." Luffy chuckled happily, obviously pleased with this condition.
The orange haired girl's smirk then melted into a soft smile. "Condition two," Nami tucked a strand of her longer hair behind her ear as she looked down and decided that she had been mad at him for long enough, "what I'm going to do doesn't change anything. Got it?" Luffy looked very confused with that, which was understandable, but he nodded anyway. Instantly he found himself enveloped in a warm soft place filled with the color orange and smelling of sunshine and tangerines. "God I missed you Luffy."
All too soon for Luffy his navigator pulled away from the tight hug she had given him and stepped back with a light blush staining her cheeks. He was surprised to find that his arms had somehow found their way around Nami's waist, when had he started hugging her in return? Quickly, so as not to be punished, Luffy pulled his hands back to his sides. Blushing like mad he managed to stammer out something, trying not to make it awkward. "Uh, so… so it's a deal?"
Nami chose not to question the fact that Luffy was the color of a tomato because she was sure her face was somewhere near the same shade. She also didn't bring up the fact that when Luffy had hugged her back it felt like an electric shock had gone down her spine. Smiling in nervousness with the red fading from her face Nami held out her hand and this time didn't pull it away when Luffy slapped his across hers in an unsigned agreement. The Strawhats had their navigator back.
=O=O=
And so concludes chapter 3. Finally.
Obaa-san usually means grandma (not in the family sense though) mostly used in terms of a nice old lady you would meet in a store or something~ if my Japanese needs correcting please tell me
There is no reason for ya'll to bring up every little wrong thing with this chapter, be it characterization or something else. Believe me I know already. I have to say I'm really not satisfied with how this chapter turned out but after 4 full rewrites and innumerable false starts I just decided to bite the bullet and move on. I probably could have written and rewritten this for the next year and still not been fully happy with it. (sigh)
Next chapter we see how Nami handles the Kuja pirates and how Hancock handles Nami. Meanwhile poor Luffy is totally oblivious.
Note for both Nami and Luffy's description- Thanks to the great Oda-sama in his wisdom the Strawhats have a whole new look. However since his takes place in 2 years and mine only 1 they're not entirely the same.
*Luffy does not have the scar on his chest, seeing as I don't know where or when he got it from, so for this fic he got it in the missing year Oda supplied us with.
*Nami's hair is longer but definitely not as long as it has become in 2 years time, if I have to say, it probably reaches down to her shoulder blades or upper back. I did include her...ahem... growth in other areas though.