~Chapter Fifty~

He stretched his arm out and snagged her around her waist and hauled her up to the top of the pile with him. He was pale, exhausted, hungry, fatigued and bleeding from his head and his gut and a million other cuts on his body. His clothing was torn to shreds, barely held together anymore, but none of that mattered. Everything else paled in comparison as he pulled her up to him and tugged her close, hugging her in a fierce, desperate need to hold onto her and never let go.

He'd never been more angry and scared in his entire life; this was right up there, if not equivalent; to how he felt in the moments preceding Ace's death. His whole body trembled violently, but he held her fast, memorizing the way she fit right against him, her soft curves molded right to his hard angles. She was warm and breathing and smelled like tangerines and money.


"Wife?!" Zoro exclaimed with a shocked expression, and Tikka rolled her eyes, having pried the story out of Nami already.

"It's a tribal marriage, but I say it counts," Tikka said in a wise voice, nodding her head. A grin broke out over her face and she turned to Zoro and threw herself in his arms. "It's so adorable!" She cried out dramatically, and Zoro caught her with a roll of his eyes. Grumbling about over-dramatic hellions, he hoisted Tikka up and pulled her legs around his waist, grabbing the back of her head and hauling her in for a giant kiss.

In truth, while he'd never really been worried, seeing Tikka in any kind of fight where he was preoccupied set his nerves on edge, and the spectacle with Luffy and Nami just pushed him over the edge. He needed some lovin' from his little hell cat.

Tikka was happy to oblige, grinning and kissing him back, before pulling away and framing his face with her hands. "We should go check on the others to make sure everything is going smoothly,"

Zoro heaved a sigh, dropped her back down to the ground, and shouted over to Luffy and Nami, "We're gonna check on the others! Meet back at the Sunny."

With that, the pair headed towards the Village, Tikka leading the way as Zoro tried initially to head north, which lead to a forest.


Nami watched them go with a wave, then turned her attention back to Luffy. Her whole body was shaking from relief and happiness as she wrapped her arms around Luffy's neck and hugged him tightly. "Luffy…" she murmured, her own voice hoarse and somewhat trembly.

Pulling back quickly, she lightly smacked him on the chest, her expression fierce. "Luffy, don't ever scare me like that again!" Tears were falling down her cheeks. She'd thought he was a goner; as it is, he looked dead on his feet. Her eyes spied to twinkle of the key in his hand, and quickly took it from him to get the dreaded collar off of her as fast as possible, then tossed it into the rubble.

Reaching down, she ripped off a long strip of cloth from her shirt, leaving her stomach exposed, and wrapped it around his torso to try and stem the bleeding coming from the wound over his hip.

Once finished, she turned her face back up to him, and cupped his face with her hands, gazing up into his gray eyes, and her expression for serious, and soft, for a moment. She opened her mouth, hesitating, then straightened her shoulders with resolve. "Luffy...I...I love you." Her cheeks burned with embarrassment and as soon as she words were out, she worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Saying she needed him and saying the L word were two separate things, and her heart was in her throat… Coupled with the fact that her heart was breaking for all of the injuries on his body, she was just a mess.


The only thing keeping him on his feet was the fact that he was holding onto her, using her as an anchor when the whole world was swaying and he was seeing doubles and triples. He was dimly aware that Zoro and Tikka left them, saying that they were going to check on the others and everything around him, including Nami's voice as she smacked his chest and scolded him, was moving very, very slowly.

He'd had a lot of training with Silvers on his Gear forms and Haki… didn't mean that he'd mastered them by any means and having used them so extensively at the same time, he was mildly impressed with himself for standing, let alone digging his way out of the rubble.

But just these few minutes to hold onto her had been totally, totally worth it.

He mumbled something to her, maybe along the lines of "I'm fine" when she ripped a strip of her shirt off and wrapped it around his hip to try and stem the blood. It was completely useless; within seconds, the material was bled through. He probably ought to see Chopper…

He swayed a little and steadied himself, his fingers digging into her hips until his world balanced out for a brief period, enough for him to hear her say those words;

"Luffy, I… I love you."

He flickered his eyes up to hers and stared for a moment, as if he wasn't sure that he heard her correctly, but the redness in her face and the way she worried her bottom lip with her teeth told him he had, indeed, interpreted her correctly. He should have been shocked, surprised even, or perhaps titillated or excited. His heart should've lodged its way into his throat and his stomach should have flipped over. She should have turned him into a bundle of nerves like she always did when she did something like that, that shook him to the core.

Instead, he felt satisfied, like that was the blessing for his victory and… had he had the energy to investigate it, he would know that he unconditionally felt the same way, and not in the same sense of how he loved the rest of his nakama, but more like she completed him.

But all he did was reach out a shaking hand and comb his fingers through her copper hair and manage a grin for her, "That's good…" he replied, his voice hoarse and thready, "Me too…" his expression changed rapidly as the world spun, whatever color there was in his cheeks faded instantly. His adrenaline rush crashed, "I'm going… down…" he warned her only a second before his knees buckled and he hit the rubble hard, catching himself on his hands before that too, became too much effort and he collapsed, still miraculously conscious, his face tilted to the side as he lay on his belly.

"Just… gimme a minute…" he assured her with a weak wave of his hand. His eyes focused on one spot until the world stopped spinning and settled. So long as he didn't move, he was good. He was in too much pain at this point to really be bothered by any of it in particular.

"I was scared for a minute there," he finally said after a moment of silence, "I wasn't sure how I was gonna beat him and save you until you did that lightning trick…"


"Me too…" Those two words made her happier than anything in the world. She'd been holding herself together for the most part, but at those words, she lost it. Tears started streaming down her face. As he fell to the ground in exhaustion, she followed him down, sniffling, to kneel next to him.

Her whole body trembled as she finally release all of the fear and tension that she'd been holding in since they'd first started this voyage, many weeks ago. She swallowed hard and shifted until she could pull his head into her lap. She combed her fingers through his hair, drawing in several deep breaths to calm herself.

In truth, she'd thought he was going to die, and in that moment, her whole world had crumbled. Luffy was her captain, and even if no romantic feelings existed between them, her whole world still would have been destroyed by his death. But now she cared about him, deeply, and she hadn't wanted to live without him.

"I'm just glad everything is over…" Nami murmured, her fingers smoothing through his dirty hair. She looked down at him, at the smudges and bruises covering his body. He fought hard for his nakama, never turned his back on them. He was a good captain...and he would be a good husband.

She blushed at the thought. It was just a silly tribal ritual, of course, but it still meant something to her. A sudden wave of exhaustion crashed over her, and she lifted his head so that she could shift around to lie on her side, facing him. Pillowing her cheek on her arm, she reached out and threaded her fingers through his. He was already on the brink of passing out, so she murmured to him, "Sleep, Luffy...the others will come find us...I'm sure that everyone is alright."

With that, they both fell asleep together, laying on a marble slab on top of the rubble that used to be Watcher's mansion. The crew found them there later, carting two little girls, Lori and Moira, on their shoulders. Robin smiled softly to see her captain and her nevigator, hand in hand, fast asleep amid the ruins of battle, and gently set Lori down but didn't release her hand.

"Come on girls, let's get you home to your father, and then when Nami wakes up, you can see her," Robin told them, reaching out to take Moira's hand, then turned towards the village, where Chopper, Usopp, and Sanji were walking from. She paused as they approached, holding the hands of each girl.

"Robin-swan!" Sanji called, shooting ahead of the other two and running right up to Robin with a silly grin on his face. "I'm glad to see you're alright." Sanji's eyes flickered over to the pile of rubble where the captain and navigator were passed out, and Robin saw the approval that he begrudgingly allowed.

Chopper saw the two just as he and Usopp caught up to Sanji, and with a little gasp, the reindeer hurried over to the pair and knelt down. Robin watched him go, then glanced at Sanji and announced in her calm voice, "I'm going to escort these ladies to their father, who lives outside the village...these two are friends of Nami," she added, glancing down at the girls, who were eagerly trying to peer around everyone at the ruckus going on with Luffy and Nami.

"Is Nami going to be alright?" Moira asked, glancing up at Robin.

"She'll be just fine," Robin assured her, then with a smile, lead them away from the mansion.

Franky saw the raven-haired woman with the girls heading off towards their father's house out of the corner of his eye, and broke away from the rest of the group to follow. "I'll accompany you, just in case," he told Robin, his face impassive, then promptly reached down and hauled both little girls up by the scruffs of their shirts, making them squeal in delight, and placed them on his wide shoulders.

Robin chuckled a little and glanced up at Franky's face. It was odd to see him with children, but it became quickly apparent that he was good with them as he engaged in a conversation that quickly grabbed the girls' attentions. Robin strolled along quietly next to him, and marveled once more at the peace that this crew often gave to her. Moments like this, moments that always lead to a great big party whenever Luffy was involved, made her glad that she'd fought tooth and nail to be with them.

Back by the mansion rubble, Chopper knelt down by his nakama, and after a brief assessment, quickly checking both prone forms. Tikka hurried over to stand right behind the little doctor, and made a noise of endearment as she hopped up and down for a moment. "They're holding hands! That's so cute…Zoro, hold my hand!" Tikka quickly shot over to the swordsman, but he glanced down at her with such an expression that she lifting both her hands in surrender and rolled her eyes at him.

"We need to get them back to the ship...Luffy's bleeding really bad, and Nami is a little scuffed up too," Chopper lifted his head, having just applied a temporary bandage to Luffy's stab wound, and Zoro was already there, leaning down and hoisting his captain up and over his shoulder with ease. On a second thought, he paused mid lift, then scooped Nami up as well, over his other shoulder.

"This was quite the adventure...the townsfolk are so happy they're going to throw us a huge party!" Usopp announced, striking a sogeking pose and humming the tune under his breath. Brook shot over to join him, and together, arm in arm, the pair started singing as they followed the rest of their crew back to the ship.

"The idea of a party has my heart racing in excitement!" Brook said, and Usopp shot him a look that meant he knew exactly what was about to be said. "Oh, except I don't have a heart! Yohohoho!" Brook chuckled to himself.

"Let's bring the Sunny around to the dock, now that we've taken care of the baddies," Tikka announced, moving to walk next to Chopper and grinning. A thin trickle of blood had dried at the corner of her mouth, where Rosy had gotten a hit in. A chorus of agreement went up, and as they approached the docks, more and more villagers emerged onto the streets to thank them. Zoro and Chopper split from the group to get the Sunny and treat Nami and Luffy.

A/N:

Oh god, this needs to be done. Almost there, folks. I'm banging them out NOW.

One Piece belongs to Shonen Jump and Eichiiro Oda. We thank them for their genius and giving us characters to torture. The script is ours.

Credits:

Luffy: Jesachi

Nami: Goldensomething

Sub-characters: Combined Effort

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