Disclaimer: One Piece still isn't owned by me.
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"Oh, hey! It's been awhile since we last talked, how are you?" Nami said as soon as she answered the phone, her voice sugary sweet.
It was code of course. It meant that she was in a populated place, and that uttering his name or discussing anything to do with his gang meant that she would be in deep shit.
"Nami, you adorable little thing…" His voice made her shudder in fear. "Do you not realize that I have eyes everywhere?"
"What are you talking about?" She asked in irritation, leaning against the blue painted wall.
"You are currently inside the Nefeltari mansion, am I right?"
The orangette's eyes widened. She was inside the Nefeltari mansion? One of the most elite and prestigous families in the world?
Nami glanced at her surroundings, noticing quite a number of portraits of people lining the walls. She stood up straight, and looked at the wall she had been leaning against; and hanging against the wall was a picture frame of Nefeltari Cobra, smiling with his arm around the waist of a woman with long, blue hair and big, black eyes. In her arms was a baby, who was crying.
"Monkey D. Luffy, Nefeltari Vivi, and Nami...will all be working together in a group."
How could she have missed that detail before? And no wonder Vivi had looked so familiar to her!
"How did you know?" She asked him.
"I have eyes everywhere." He replied mysteriously, to which she scowled and growled.
"So what of it?"
"I hope you weren't planning on betraying me." Arlong said, and she could practically hear his smirk. "That would be very...very...bad."
"I'm not doing anything to betray you." She hissed, lowering her voice in case the others would try to listen in. "I'm just doing a stupid group project for school."
"And it requires you to be there?"
"One of my partners is his daughter!"
"Oh? Well Nami, that gives me an interesting idea. Why don't you and I strike another deal? One that I'm sure you'll like a lot better than our current one." He laughed, a sound that was not pleasing to her ears.
She didn't know whether or not to ask about this new deal. Their current one was for her to make enough money to save her village. Her village, where there were so many innocent people being held against their will. A place that no longer welcomed outsiders.
The place where that special person was born, and where that special person died.
They had to pay in exchange for their lives, until Nami was able to get the money necessary to set them all free. She and Nojiko weren't an exception to that rule; they still had to pay, just a lot less.
But that wasn't everything; to Arlong, Nami was incredibly valuable. She spoke four languages, and could make extremely accurate maps of places where Arlong and his gang could hide out. Her maps had also, on more than one occasion, helped Arlong's crew find and destroy rival gangs.
Nami was incredibly proud of her ability to make such accurate maps, and speak different languages; she was not proud of the fact that she had played a hand in helping Arlong in his cruel deeds.
"You've gone quiet. Very unusual for a feisty woman such as yourself. But know that this deal could very well mean the freedom of your people." Arlong's snide voice cut into her thoughts.
"Really? So what do you propose?" She asked, cursing herself for sounding so wary and afraid.
"Oh, I think it would be better for us to talk in person. Who knows who could be listening in on our conversation~?"
"Fine! I'll be there at five!"
"You will be here at six. Don't get too demanding, Nami." He snarled, causing her to pale in fear. "Goodbye."
And with that, the conversation was over. Nami leaned against the wall once more, trying to figure out what she was going to do.
Everything was fine and not at all complicated until Luffy showed up. It seemed as though the boy just wanted her life to be more of a living hell than it already was. And she still didn't quite understand the little episode she had a few moments ago.
'Get a grip, Nami!' She thought to herself. 'You need to stop being so weak!'
As she was giving herself a pep talk, one of the many doors to the hallway opened and three curious heads popped out.
"Um, Nami? Are you sure you're alright?" Vivi asked, trying, but failing, to catch her eyes. Nami still couldn't believe that the girl came from such a prestigious family.
"Yeah, you sounded really mad at whoever it was you were talking on the phone with!" Luffy loudly said, to which Vivi and Zoro gave him a whack on the head.
"Idiot! You weren't supposed to tell her we were trying to listen!" Zoro yelled, his fangs baring out comically.
"Whoops! Shishishi!"
"Zoro...you just gave us away." Vivi sweatdropped.
Nami sighed. "Listen," She began, catching everyone's attention, "I...I really don't feel at my best right now. I promise that we will get on this project, but right now I need some rest."
"O-Of course!" Vivi nodded. "You can sleep here if you want, we have plenty of guest rooms! Or you can stay in my room, it'll be like a sleepover! And if you start feeling up to it, we could finally get to know each other and become friend-"
"No!" Nami shouted, causing the three to jump in shock. "No I...I want to go home. I'll call my sister and have her pick me up."
"...If that's what you want." Vivi said sadly, making Nami feel guilty. But the orangette knew she couldn't afford friends. They would only make things much more complicated.
"Thank you. Um, could you please show me the way out? I don't know my way arou-"
"Nami!" Luffy's loud voice suddenly interrupted her, causing her to nearly drop her phone. He stared into her eyes, and she found herself frozen to the spot, like earlier. "If there's anything you ever need help with..just come to me. Okay?" He gave her a smile, but it was different from his usual goofy one.
Why is it that the way he looked at and spoke to her made her feel butterflies in her stomach?
She gulped. "T-Thank you." She then looked at Vivi. "So, the front door..?"
"Before you go, I'd like your number. S-So we can call and talk about the project." Vivi said, holding out her phone.
"Alright." Nami bit her lip and took Vivi's phone, typing in her phone number and setting her contact name to 'Nami'.
"There," She gave the phone back to Vivi. "Now-"
"I'll show her the way out." Zoro said. "I wanna have a conversation with Nami, by myself."
"Err- but Zoro, you-"
"Let's go." Zoro grabbed Nami, gently, by the arm and led her away from the others. He led her back into the living room and towards another door. Luffy and Vivi followed after them.
"Bye Nami! Feel better!" Luffy smiled and waved at her, and Nami made sure to avoid his gaze.
"Make sure you get plenty of rest." Vivi added, before the door was shut in their faces.
It was then that Nami found herself in the middle of yet another long hall, with Roronoa Zoro...all on her own.
A/N: I wanted this chapter to reveal some things, but not exactly everything. So I hope that this small revealing of Nami's past helps keep readers motivated to continue reading. I don't want this story to lose it's charm.
That being said, please review! I don't mind all these alerts from you guys following the story, but I would also like a bit of constructive criticism. That would really help me a lot. So please review. And bye! Hehe.
