They'd won. Alabasta was safe. Luffy had defeated Crocodile, Vivi's voice had been heard by her people, and the entire exhausted Straw Hat crew had collapsed in an alleyway for a good hour or more. Now that half of the Straw Hats had awoken, Chopper, foolishly ignoring his own wounds, was busy tending to those of the pirates still unconscious: Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro.
Nami, seeing her reindeer friend struggling to drag all three rather heavy pirates towards the palace, limped over.
"Need some help?" Nami asked.
"Oh, Nami. Er, yes, if you could take one of them, that'd be very helpful. But wait, I should bandage those feet of yours, at least-"
Nami waved her hand dismissively. "I'm fine. We have to get these three somewhere safe to rest soon. That's the important thing." She squatted down and pulled Zoro's muscled arm around her shoulder, finding that she did not mind the blood that would surely stain her clothes. "I'll take Zoro. He's the heaviest, right? Can you manage with Sanji and Luffy, or do you need Usopp to help you?"
"Hey, what exactly are you volunteering me for?" Usopp asked reproachfully from behind his bandages.
"No, it's fine. I can manage these two." Chopper assured Nami as he tossed Luffy's limp body over his shoulder and picked Sanji up carefully, cautious of the cook's many broken ribs.
Nami nodded, then shouted to Usopp. "Okay, long-nose, shut up and follow me. We're going to the Palace."
"Well, fine." Usopp grumbled, walking stiffly, using the entire range of motion that his bandages and injuries allowed in order to even move.
As Nami began to drag Zoro after Chopper, realizing that the swordsman was a lot heavier than she'd expected, he began to cough and seemed to wake up, if only slightly.
"What's going on?" Zoro asked groggily. "Where'm I goin'?"
"Don't worry." Nami assured him, gritting her teeth at the pain that shot up both of her legs with every second she remained standing. "We're headed for the Palace. We've gotta recuperate for a bit. This fight was a nasty one. Now go back to sleep, you're just going to hurt yourself more if you try to move."
"Nami?" With hazy eyes, Zoro looked into Nami's somewhat flustered and pained face. "What are...?"
"Shut up." Nami scolded, straining to drag him along. "You'll make your wounds reopen."
"And what about you?" He asked, his gaze dropping to look at Nami's bleeding knees and feet.
"I'm fine." she insisted.
"I wonder about that." Zoro muttered to himself, his brow knitted with concern. "You look like you're getting a fever." His eyes drooped again.
Nami's flushed face deepened in colour when she heard that. If she was honest with herself for once, she would have to admit that the pink shade her face was currently was due to nothing more and nothing less than Zoro's proximity to her.
"Shut up." she said again, feeling flustered, but Zoro was already snoring.