Chapter 5: Just a Setback

January 31, 801 WG

Nami peered into cabin where they had set up Ann's room, it was part of the space Robin, Nami and Carrot used but had a little privacy wall erected to give Ann her own defined area. Ann was asleep in her bed tucked beneath her pink and frilly comforter. Ann, exhausted from the day's events, had fallen asleep straight away instead of requiring her nightly bedtime story.

And it appeared, Ann wasn't the only one exhausted by the day's events. Nami suppressed a giggle. Luffy was curled up next to her, though his legs lay on the floor, snoring softly. It looked like he had fallen asleep while watching over her.

Nami walked toward the pair on silent feet so as not to disturb them. For the past week, Luffy's sleep had been restless and short. She had sometimes awakened to find him on the deck staring out at the sea when everyone else was snoring away. Usopp had mentioned a few times that he had heard Luffy begging someone to stop before the young man jolted awake.

This sleep was peaceful and she wanted to let him get as much rest as possible. She took the spare blanket and covered him with it so he wouldn't catch cold. His body was weak right now and she was concerned that he could catch some illness in its current state.

Luffy twitched then turned his head, blinking. Damn! thought Nami as Luffy looked at her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you, Luffy," whispered Nami.

Luffy yawned and shook his head. He then turned around and draped his arms over her shoulders, his face buried in her neck. Nami turned red and gasped in a hushed voice so as not to disturb Ann. "Luffy! What are you doing?"

"You smell nice, Nami," he said in a groggy, slurred voice. He sounded drunk, though, there wasn't a trace of alcohol to be found on his breath or clothes.

Nami felt the heat rise in her cheeks. This was not the Luffy she knew. Sleep deprived, starving and probably dehydrated, he was beginning to behave in an unfamiliar manner. Had Pudding's assault awakened desire within him? Something he had no defense against because he had never had to deal with it before? Something his weakened spirit couldn't reign in? Had Grandmother Gwendolyn's treatment accidental broken the shackles of something that needed to be restrained without realizing it?

"Luffy! Stop!" Nami hissed and she began to push on her captain. She wasn't ready to cry for help. If she did and the crew saw Luffy like this, it would shatter their trust in him. Nami resolved to talk things over with Grandmother Gwendolyn tomorrow, but that wouldn't help with the current situation.

Nami felt Luffy's weight increasing as he leaned forward and her knees began to buckle. If she fell to the floor it would be all over, she was sure. She was afraid, but not for herself. She was afraid for her captain and her friends. If Luffy were in his right mind he would be horrified by what he was doing. If the worst happened, Luffy would awaken to a far worse nightmare. It would destroy him to know he had harmed one of his friends. She needed to wake him up now!

"Luffy!" she hissed again with even greater urgency. She adjusted her feet and began moving backward, driven by his weight. It was better than falling but there was only so far to could move. She couldn't get the leverage to strike, though, it wouldn't do anything since he was rubber and she didn't have Armament Haki.

Her back slammed into the wall and Luffy raised his head. He stared at her, eyes unfocused, then bent forward. Pinned, she only had one shot. She let him kiss her. It wasn't rough or forced, but strangely, soft and gentle and full of longing. For a brief moment, she wondered if it might not be a bad thing to let him continue, it was so tender and it awoke a yearning within her own heart.

Nami clenched her fists. No, for Luffy's sake, she could not let him continue. She bit down on his lip with all the force she could muster. When he jerked back, she grabbed his face to keep her mouth over his, muffling his cries of pain so as not to alert the others.

Now Luffy was the one pushing against her, trying to get away. Nami held until he stopped vocalizing, then let go only to grab his mouth with her hand while the other tangled in his shirt to keep him close. He was likely to start yelling if she released him completely. His eyes shone with shock and pain. He was very much awake now and very much confused.

"Keep quiet! You'll wake Ann up," hissed Nami. She felt hot sticky liquid oozing down her palm and tasted blood on her lips. She had broken the skin with her teeth. She would have to treat it before she could let her captain be seen by anyone on the crew.

Luffy saw the blood on her lips and his eyes widened in shock. "I'm not hurt!" Nami answered in a low voice. "It's your blood from when I bit you." She pulled her hand away and saw the palm was completely covered in the red sticky liquid. She had done more damage than she thought. "Stay put so I can get a cloth to treat it," she ordered and headed to the wash bucket.

"What was I doing?" asked Luffy in a hushed voice as he sank to the floor. He held a hand beneath his face to catch the blood dripping from his split lip.

"Sleep walking," replied Nami, still whispering. She washed the blood off her face. Luffy wouldn't be able to settle down if she still had it on her while she treated him. Also, if one of the others entered while she worked, she could explain away his injuries as the result of sleep-deprived clumsiness, but if she was bloodied as well it would be impossible to excuse.

"Nami," he said again, turning his gaze toward her, fear making his soft voice think. "What was I doing?" His tone suggested he already knew but didn't want to believe it.

Nami sighed and turned back to Luffy with a pair of towels and the bucket of water. She knelt before him and began dabbing at his lip while he wiped his hands on the second towel. "You weren't trying to hurt me."

"Nami…"

"However, I need to go with you to Grandmother Gwendolyn tomorrow and tell her what happened. She needs to know to work out the tangles," she explained then hurried to add, "but you really weren't trying to hurt me, Luffy. I mean I almost let you continue. That was a really nice kiss you gave me." It was lame and she knew it. It didn't matter it was nice. It didn't matter that she liked it. She knew it and Luffy knew it. Where it mattered most he had been raised right and right now those values were flogging him for his actions.

Luffy turned bright red at Nami's assessment. "I'm sorry," he whispered. Tears of humiliation began to roll down his cheeks. "I… I don't know… I'm sorry!"

"We'll get through this, Luffy." Nami gave his shoulder a squeeze as she put pressure on his broken lip. "We can stay as long as we need to. Okay! It's your dream we're about to complete."

"Why should I become Pirate King? The Pirate King doesn't hurt his friends! The Pirate King—," Luffy was starting to get loud so Nami placed a finger to his lips.

He fell quiet and met her gaze. Her heart twinged in pain at the sight. She had never thought she could see such a broken look in Luffy's eyes. She wondered if this was how he looked when Ace had died before Jinbei had gotten him back on his feet. If he could recover from that he could recover from this. Nami believed that. She had to.

"Luffy, you've been hurt. Badly hurt.," she said while holding his gaze with hers. "It would have been so much easier if you were hurt in body. Chopper would just bandage you up and Sanji would give you lots of food. After a week you would be back to normal and we could continue. Just like before. However, these injuries are to the spirit. They aren't obvious and Chopper and Sanji can't do anything to help relieve the burden. Fate, however, seems to have smiled on us once again. We ended up right where we needed to be to get these particular wounds treated. So we are going to stay put until you are healed. That's all there is to it."

Nami searched his eyes for agreement or at least comprehension. She needed Luffy to understand that his crew was here for him. That she was here for him. So many times he got hurt challenging the worst of the worst so that he could protect them. In exchange his crew had tried their hardest to relieve some of the burden to him. To protect him when he was weak. Luffy had relied on his crew in the past. He needed to do so again.

Even if, this time, the monster was him.

She was certain that was the cause of his fear. He was afraid of the emotions that boiled within him. He was facing feelings he had never faced before and he didn't know how to deal with them. Worse, they were causing him to act in ways that he knew weren't right. He was afraid of what he would do to them if he couldn't maintain control. Yet control was slipping away from him. Yes, Nami needed to speak with Grandmother Gwendolyn even if it meant admitting to Luffy she had figured out what happened. He'd be further humiliated, but she was certain he could overcome it. He had to overcome it! If he couldn't, there was no way he could become Pirate King!

"Luffy, we will get through this and you will become the Pirate King. A king many times greater than Roger! This is just a setback, like Sabaody was. Like Ace was. We overcame that and we'll overcome this. Don't lose faith now!"

Nami pulled the cloth away, the bleeding had stopped. The young man closed his brown eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again he appeared calmer, if more worn than before.

"Nami, thanks. I'm going to go to my bed now." He rose to his feet and started walking toward the door.

"Luffy, you can stay here. I can make a bed near Ann if you want."

Luffy looked back and smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Thanks, but I don't think that would be a good idea. I'll have Sanji make some of that tea we were given this afternoon. I want to tell Granny if it worked or not." He then walked outside.

Nami sighed and looked down at the bloody towels sitting in the water of the bucket. She would have to scrub them to get the stains out before mixing them with the regular laundry. As she started to get to work on them she frowned.

The feel of Luffy's lips on hers returned to her conscious thoughts. She licked her lips before she realized what she was doing. There was a lingering sweetness as well as the tang of metal from his blood. She felt frustration and longing rise within her. Thoughts unbidden rose up. The smell of his hair, the feel of his breath on her neck as he commented on her scent. The memory alone was making her grow warm in certain areas. Dang! She had been five seconds away from letting him do whatever he wanted with her.

Nami scrubbed the fabric harder as she blushed in embarrassment. She had wanted him. Was it just the circumstances that made her want to console him or had she wanted him before and these circumstances were the only reason why she refused? More importantly, did he really want her or was this the by-product of having his libido awakened by Pudding and her aphrodisiacs? Could some of the emotions he was struggling to control be sexual desires? He certainly hadn't acted like he had any prior to Pudding. Yes, he would spy on bathing girls, like he did in Alabasta. And sure he reacted when Bon Clay had cloned her then flashed them, but that was such a boy thing. No, this was different. If his sleep-deprived mind was simply losing control over those desires, then would any woman walking in on him have resulted in this very scenario? Robin would have kept calm but Carrot?

She didn't know if Luffy was attracted to her or all women now, and, for Luffy's sake, she'd better figure it out, because next time, she might just encourage his attention and wouldn't that make things all sorts of awkward on the ship?

The whispers were agitated again, but it was different from before. They shifted around him expressing their disapproval. His choice of action bothering them and revealing something about their intentions that Law hadn't realized before.

Law had thought their presence was a sign that he was to become Pirate King. Now it seemed the time when he believed he was the one destined to find the One Piece was over. Despair and desperation now colored his mood. His shook his head trying to clear away the doubts. He needed to focus on protecting what he needed to protect. The dead were dead but the living could still be saved. They had to take priority. If Law wasn't careful he would lose even this window.

Backed into a corner by ties he had long thought lost, he couldn't continue forward without losing what mattered most to him. Perhaps the whispers had been pointing to Straw Hat all along and it was Law who was the ally meant to help him. What did that mean for Law now that things had come to this?

"What do you want me to do?" Law hissed at the whispers. "If I even try to make another alliance…" The whispers became more agitated, dancing around him, their voices more rapid as if trying to shout down his thoughts, but there was nothing he could do differently. This time he had to ignore their urgings and do what he had to do.

Law braced himself for the coming meeting. He would needed to be calm and natural less he arouse suspicion from the wiser crew members. He just needed the fourth coordinates. If they could just give him that, no one would have to be hurt! He wondered at the chances of accomplishing his task without causing harm and his mood grew darker. There was no way he could.

The whispers grew more alarmed… and angry.

"Captain are you sure about this?" Bepo looked at Law trying to read the man when he arrived on the bridge. The past week had seen a decided change in his demeanor. Law had become quiet and withdrawn, spending more time alone than with his crew. It was possible Law was becoming frustrated with not finding any clues about the fourth Road Poneglyph, but it seemed to be more than that to the furry navigator, though he couldn't put his finger on why he thought so.

"Yes, I am," replied Law. "We head over to where Straw Hat-ya is. I'm going to see if he has the fourth set of coordinates we need to find Raftel. And if he does, we are going to take it from him… one way or the other."

"What about Ann?" asked Bepo. The other crew stared at Law, waiting. They had come to care about the small girl that had spent two weeks on their ship after her mother was killed. They couldn't see themselves doing her any harm.

"Don't worry about her. I'll send her someplace safe if a fight breaks out," replied Law after a moment of silence.

"Will we really kill the Straw Hats if they don't give us the coordinates?"

"Only if necessary," replied Law without looking at any of them. "And if we do, we take Ann with us." His words were as cold as his expression and Bepo shivered. "I'm not going to lose now. I will become Pirate King and finish what Cora-san started."

Bepo had heard these words before, spoken with urgency and passion. Now they sounded hollow… as if they had become a lie.

(Notes)

Surprise. Surprise. No one is remotely interested in this one. Well too bad, it's necessary for the rest of the Chronicles. So I'm going to just dump the rest of the chapters up here and forget about it instead of drawing it out to catch the attention of new readers. There isn't really any point.

Makes me nervous for Shadow Storm. There is a lot more intrigue going on in that one. I didn't want it to be a repeat of Fire Storm and I finally figured out how to do that but that makes it less adventure and more intrigue. Since people want action and adventure that will probably make it less interesting.

Oh well.