Nami had him take off his shirt since the bandage was partly under its fabric. She held out his arm, gently, and softly removed the blood-stained bandage. Having a new roll of a similar bandage fabric and tape ready. She gasped, as she reached the gash in his shoulder, though most of it was on his shoulder blade. Luffy looked away, regretting not wearing a sleeved shirt. The sleeves rubbed against the bandage, and it irritated him, but seeing her shocked and worried expression, somehow irritated him even more.
"They aren't that bad, I've had worse," he said, still not looking at her.
Nami had only to glance at the scar on his torso to agree, "Yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of this one, What if it scars!"
"And?" Luffy said turning his head to face her, the scar under his eye becoming more noticeable by the minute, "So it scars, a scar isn't gonna hurt me."
"Did you do something stupid?" Nami asked, frustrated at his laid back attitude.
"No, I didn't." Luffy replied, "though Zoro thinks it was." he thought aloud.
"Well, what did you do?" Nami asked, as she grabbed some hydrogen peroxide to clean out the cut.
"I-" he stopped, and sucked in his lips.
Nami hadn't been looking at his face, "well?"
"I don't know…" he said, and she heard him trying to whistle.
"You really are an honest guy, aren't you?" Nami said, as she held a damp, soft, washcloth. She began to dap around on his arm, cleaning up the blood around the gash. Once the blood was gone, she could clearly see the cut. It looked like it had been neatly stitched together. She had to admit, the bandage wrapping looked professional as well. But now the strings that held the tissues of skin together were snapped, and the wound was now open. She sighed, and gently tapped a hydrogen peroxide soaked gauze to the wound.
"Ah!" Luffy exclaimed, bringing his arm away from her, and nearly falling backwards into the bathtub, "What is that? It hurts!"
"I'm cleaning the wound, Luffy." Nami replied, irritated by his reaction, "Did you do this with the doctor that patched you up, as well?"
"Well, Chopper is a lot more gentle about it," Luffy pouted, returning his arm to its previous position, so she could apply the peroxide.
After she had cleaned it, she sighed, "I don't have any medical string, but I do know how to stitch a wound, wait here," she said, and got up, "I'm gonna get my sewing kit."
"Fine." Luffy pouted, as she left him alone in her bathroom. It wasn't long after she left, he heard her footsteps above him.
Nami was desperately looking for her sewing kit, her rush made it more difficult to find. She had thought she put it in the cartography room, but she actually had it in her bedroom. After she found the kit, realization dawned on her, that Luffy and her were the only people in her large house. He was currently in her bathroom below her, and weakened, due to the wounds on his arms. She shuttered, before the thought could cross her mind, she was just going to take care of his wounds, and then he'd leave. She heard a loud thud, before she reached the stairs. What was that?
"Luffy?" She asked lightly hurrying down the stairs, "are you okay?"
She entered the bathroom, and found him lying backwards, with his head in the bathtub, he was still 'sitting' on the edge of the tub, but he was now partly in the bathtub, sleeping. She sighed, annoyed, because she couldn't stitch him up if she couldn't see the wound or reach it.
"Luffy, are you alright?" She asked, and gently shook him. He didn't wake up. "Luffy!" she yelled, his eyes fluttered open, and he stared absently at the ceiling.
"I want to sleep." he muttered, before Nami pulled on his less injured arm, sitting him up.
"You can sleep after I stitch and bandage you up." she said, threading her needle.
"Really?" he yawned.
"Why are you so tired, anyway?"
"I came straight back here, for the cookies, remember?" he said, drowsily.
"Oh."
His head began to nod off when she was less than halfway done with the cut, she bonked him on the head so that he'd stay awake. He yawned as he opened his eyes, muttering that he was tired, and wanted to sleep. His hat still lay in the tub, and Nami kept eyeing it a few times, trying to see if it was the one that she remembered wearing for a short period of time, though it meant so much to her. When she finally finished, and he had nodded off three more times, she grabbed the bandages, to wrap him up with.
"Do I need those, Nami?" he asked, drowsy.
"Yes, idiot." she replied, as she placed it against his back, below his shoulder blade, as she tried her hardest not to think of the fact that she was touching his toned, soft, body. It took her a little longer than it should have because of that fact, since Luffy nodding off had barely any effect in this matter. After she finished, and hadn't realized the boy was sleeping, she let go of him, and he fell. Though instead of falling backwards into the bathtub, he fell forwards, on top of her. She blushed slightly, and then noticed his abandoned hat again, as it rested in the base of the bathtub. She knew she shouldn't 'borrow' it, but she couldn't help it. She just wanted to tell if it was the same one. However, he was on top of her at the moment, and that proved as a hindrance in getting his precious treasure.
Nami held onto the sleeping manchild, and stood up with struggle. She dragged him outside of the bathroom, surprised he hadn't woken up, and rested him onto the nearest couch. She was slightly uncomfortable having a man in her house, but she made her way back to the bathroom, and lightly picked up the hat out of the bathtub. She looked at the rim of the hat, and made her way to look into the mirror, she glanced at the hat, and then at herself a few times. She hesitantly held the hat over her head, not knowing if she should do this for sure or not. Carefully, and slowly, she brought the hat down onto her head. She was still a little disappointed, it felt more like any other hat.
She sighed, and pulled the hat off her head, making sure that none of her hairs had gotten stuck in the straw. She looked down at the hat, and back at herself. If this was the same hat she had worn two years ago, then maybe it would have to be given to her from the boy of two years ago. She sighed, there was a possibility it was Luffy, but the guy at the ice cream shop reminded her so much of him… unless. She looked up at herself in the mirror with wide eyes. She dashed out of the bathroom, to try and find a sleek black pair of sunglasses.
On not finding the sunglasses she wanted, she settled for her orange frame ones, and made her way down the stairs, the hat in one hand, and the sunglasses in the other. She tiptoed over to the sleeping person on her couch, carefully holding the sunglasses, and the hat. She was going to figure out his secret, what his job was. Before she put the glasses on him, she thought about that rumor, that faint one, that may or may not be true. The captain being a member of the Monkey D family. One of the most dangerous and powerful families in the world. If that were true, then Luffy would be Monkey D. Luffy. It sounded like it would fit, she assumed. There was Monkey D. Garp, a four star general, who'd reached his rank, rather quickly, in all branches of the military, and now he was the mayor of Sabaody. Then there was a revolutionary, who was revealed to be Monkey D. Garp's son, Monkey D. Dragon, back during that great war that took place at the marine headquarters, two years ago. Lastly, there was Dragon's son, Garp's grandson, who had gone missing after that war, some people even reported the boy dead. There were reports that General Aikanu had burned his chest, as he had been 'escaping.' By the help of a former ambassador Jinbei.
Burned. Nami thought to herself, and looked down, Luffy was still missing his shirt, and she could very clearly see the giant x-shaped burn scar across his breasts. Hesitantly, she just might be solving many mysteries, and the great one about Luffy, her neighbor, she brought herself down to her knees, holding the sunglasses in one hand. She hesitantly held them over his face. She had the straw hat in one hand, and the glasses were shaking in her other. If her hand keeps shaking, then she might end up poking him in the eye.
He yawned, and she froze, he shifted his position, and curled into the couch. His face no longer readily available for her. She sighed, and grabbed at his shoulder, thankful that it wasn't the one that she just patched up, and tried pulling him back to face her, as gently as she could. She probably shouldn't be doing this, she surmised, but she needed answers, and he was keeping them from her. Luckily, she was able to get his body back to laying flat on his back, though his face was still facing the other direction.
Nami gently grabbed his cheeks and turned his head to face her, he had a gentle smile on his face, and she froze, not sure if she wanted to know the answers to his secrets anymore. But, then again, it would answer her questions about him, the ones she had sworn that she would know. However, she realized, if he was a vigilante, it wasn't like they got paid to do it, so how did he get such a big flat? Such a nice car? Such nice furniture, even if there wasn't much. How was it that he had enough money for all that meat in his fridge. She knew steak wasn't cheap, especially the juicy steaks he had stored up in his fridge. He also seemed to have big ties to so many big named people, like Roronoa Zoro, Shakky, and even Raleigh, who had been quite a big deal in his prime, but no one even knows if he's alive, though there have been no reports of him being dead.
"Nami?" she heard, and she looked down, Luffy was staring at her, with tired eyes.
"Yes?" she answered, quickly, as if she hadn't been trying to uncover his secrets. Besides, hadn't one of his friends say that he'll tell her if they become close enough friends.
"Why are you grabbing my face?" he asked, "Did I do something wrong?"
Nami blushed, and let go of his cheeks, "No, I was just going to give you back your hat," she said, and held up the hat.
Luffy sat up on the couch, "Thanks, Nami! Sorry if I fell asleep on you."
"No, it's no big deal, Luffy." Nami paused, as he grabbed the hat from her, and placed it with care back on his own head, "hey, Luffy," she began.
"Hmm?"
"What was the promise you made with that hat?"
"Oh, I promised someone I'd become a great person, better than he was, or is…" he said, "He was awesome, really!" Luffy sighed, and looked up at the ceiling, "he gave me the hat to take care of until I fulfilled the promise, then I'll give it back to him."
"But you are a great person, Luffy," Nami said, getting up from the floor and sitting beside him.
"I don't know," Luffy sighed, he rested his head against the back of the couch, "I'm not better than him, yet."
"I see." Nami glanced at him, she was on the left side, the side with both the scar, and the bandage she wrapped up. "How'd you get that scar?"
"What scar?" Luffy asked, turning his head to look at her.
"Both of them, honestly, but for now," Nami replied, "the one on your face."
"Oh," he giggled, "proof of courage."
"Proof of courage?"
"Yeah, it plays in with the hat, I guess, he shrugged his shoulders." he got up from the couch, "Well, I really had better get going, do you know where my phone is?"
"No, you didn't bring it in with you."
"Oh," he said, and made his way to the front door, "Well, night, Nami!" he said, and opened the door, his hat fell off his head, and rested on his back, the string elegantly keeping it from falling off completely.
"Good night, Luffy," she replied, then as he disappeared into the night, she shook her head and sighed, there was no way Luffy was the boy who saved her, nor was he a Monkey. Garp's grandson was reported dead, and had been missing for two years, there would be reports of seeing this 'dead man walking' by now. The boy who saved her didn't have a giant x-shaped burn scar on his chest, for one, though she never really got a good look at him, and he didn't really bog her down with questions. Deep down though, Nami wanted Luffy and that kid to be the same person. But if Luffy was that person, he would have told her, right? He had said he didn't know her name when they first met, but the kid who saved her knew her name, Nojiko wouldn't hide it from them. Then there was Nojiko, who had come once for a visit, soon after she met Luffy, she had left her two gold bangles in the spare room's nightstand. She had seen Luffy running around, like a child, in his yard, with Usopp. He even had the straw hat strung to his back, there was no way Nojiko wouldn't have recognized him, she was very perceptive, or he would have recognized her, at least. Nami might not have been close enough to meet him face to face, with the exception of him putting his hat on her, from behind, and her seeing his back as he walked in front of her, yelling that of course he'd save her, she did look a little different. She was not fully developed then, even though she was twenty, and her hair was shorter. Nojiko kept her hair the same length as it had been, liking hair that wouldn't get in her way when she was dealing with the oranges. Luffy had looked over at them as they ate on the back porch and waved at them, he even ran up to greet them, with a huge smile evident on his face. He even introduced himself to Nojiko.
The next morning would have been the same as any other had Nami not gotten another text from his ex, the jerk, even if she never responded to them, nor read them, the notification itself had a tendency to darken her mood. After she ate breakfast, she made her way to the downstairs bathroom, to take a shower, there she found, resting on the floor, sloppily, Luffy's tank top. There were faint blood stains against the fabric of the left shoulder. She decided she'd go ahead and wash it before giving it back to him. On top of all of her suspicions, it wouldn't even make sense for the nice, childlike, idiotic man of a neighbor to be the badass captain she had seen at the ice cream shop in district one. Besides, when Sanji said that got in a fight about food, Luffy agreed, and the boy sucks at lying, so that would mean Luffy must be really passionate about food, in order to have such a gash in his shoulder. On top of that, he had gone to a doctor, if he were a vigilante, there would be no doubt they'd ask him about how he got such a wound, the boy couldn't hide anything.
After the load was done, and folded it neatly, and put it in a black gift bag. She placed some of the leftover cookies, she was surprised he didn't eat, in a goodie bag, and put it on top of the shirt. On her way over to his place, she was grateful to see his car parked in the driveway. However, she noticed someone else's car in the driveway, and she recognized it as the other nice car that pervert drives. She approached the gate separating the two yards, and opened it. As she was crossing the yard, she watched the pervert walk out of Luffy's house.
"Bye Franky!" She heard Luffy exclaim, "Thanks for fixing that up for me, now I can have Merry again!"
"No problem, Luffy-bro, it was SUPER fun to build!" Franky, the pervert, said, striking a pose. The man seemed content, in any weather to walk around in an open shirt, and his speedos. On top of that, he was glad to be called a pervert, or perverted.
She heard Luffy laugh, and say bye again, as the pervert got into his car. The car backed out of the driveway, carefully, and drove off. Nami watched it disappear around the bend before making her way onto Luffy's porch. She knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, it was opened.
"Oh, hey, Nami!" he greeted her. He was wearing a red cardigan, and denim shorts, he had a yellow sash, or belt of sorts on top of the shorts, though it was on top of the belt loops, so it wasn't really holding anything up. The cardigan covered the bandaged shoulder perfectly, though the same couldn't be said about his right forearm. He wasn't wearing a shirt underneath, and left the cardigan open.
Nami hadn't seen him wear a shirt other than a t-shirt or tank top, so it slightly surprised her when he was just wearing a cardigan. "Hi Luffy, I brought you your shirt back," she said, holding up the black gift bag.
"My shirt?" he asked, as he took the bag.
"Yeah, you kind of left it at my place last night," Nami shrugged. "It was stained with some blood from your wound, so I washed it for you."
"Thanks Nami! I didn't even know it was gone!" He laughed.
"You're welcome," she replied, "by the way, who was that?"
"Who? Franky?" he asked.
"Um, yeah," Nami replied, only remembering calling him a pervert, as she refused to associate with him.
"That's Franky, he's the one that built the Sunny!" Luffy smiled, "And!" He was extremely happy now, "Come with me!" he grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the house to the door to the garage, "this is so awesome!"
"Slow down, Luffy!" she replied, trying to stay in step with him.
Luffy stopped at the door, "He made Merry!" he exclaimed, and opened the door, and turned on the light.
"Merry? You mean your old car?" she asked.
"Yeah, but look!"
Nami looked at what he was so excited about. There, in the middle of his garage, among the boxes that were still packed up, was a motorcycle with a metal sheep's head engraved into the front. It was a really nice motorcycle, Nami had to admit. It was pretty, too, even if it had yellow on the sides, and white handles, it was a really pretty creation. "Wow."
"Right!" Luffy said, and jumped to the floor, skipping all the steps down, "It's Mini Merry!" he cheered. "Now it's like I have her again."
"It's beautiful, really," Nami replied, walking down the stairs next to him, "Does Usopp know?"
"Yeah, I had just gotten off the phone with him, before you knocked on the door." Luffy replied, "Do you know how to ride it?"
"What?" Nami asked, glancing from the motorcycle to Luffy.
"Do you know how to ride Mini Merry?"
"Of course I know how to ride a motorcycle, I have one." Nami replied, offended.
"Really?" Luffy grabbed her hands, "That's awesome! Can you take me for a ride?"
"You can't ride it?" she asked.
"No, I can, but Franky said that 'it was best if someone who had the license to ride this super bike' were to ride it." Luffy pouted.
"Oh, so you don't have your motorcycle license." Nami reasoned.
"Yeah, that." Luffy replied, and gripped her hands tighter, "Please can you take me for a ride!"
Nami glanced at the bike, and noticed it was a two seater, "Yes, I can, but you have to wear a helmet!"
"I got one!" Luffy said, letting go of her hands and pulling out a red helmet from one of the boxes that were opened beside the stairs.
"Okay, let me run back to my house and get mine, then." Nami replied, feeling slightly nervous, before she made her way out of his house, hearing 'yippee!' and 'yahoo!' the whole way.