He' wasn't really the romantic type, huh?
The flood of tears became stronger and stronger. Desperately her hands buried themselves in her long hair. Her fingertips pressed against her scalp. These damned what-if situations had been going on in her head since the morning, he had left her without a single word. She didn't really want that. She wanted to go on with her life. She wanted to accept the past and focus on her future. But this mass of unresolved questions in her head blocked this minimal wish she still had. In her mind, she screamed out her rage at her own person.
Her right arm reached for the tap and turned off the water. Nami could not get up immediately. Her body had to get the necessary energy again. Sobbing, she wiped these over her cheeks. Her eyes were no longer filled with tears. She pressed her eyelids together. It was finally time to lead a normal bourgeois life again. Finally, to leave the pain behind. Her desperation was only since she knew that she didn't have the necessary strength to do so. She needed all the little strength she had now to protect something much more valuable than her own life.
The former navigator finally got her back on her feet. She took a fresh towel in which she wrapped her elegant body. Silent steps carried her back into the large living room of the small house in which she had spent her childhood. Finally, after her arrival, the young woman checked the furniture. It wasn't any longer the original as she had left this house as a young child. But some elements in this apartment were still the same as in her happy childhood, here in Cocoyasi.
"For you," the words her sister said tore her from her own mind. Nojiko had, as promised, picked out new clothes for her. Besides clean underwear, Nojiko offered her comfortable pyjama pants and a longer t-shirt. The younger woman accepted with a grateful smile.
Nojiko had watched her little sister dressing in her new clothes for only a second. This minimal moment had been enough to discover the small curve on her belly, the usually slim stature of the younger woman. A gentle smile came from the tangerine grower. Her little sister sat down on one of the chairs in a melancholy mood. Her fingers touched the engraving she had made on the table as a little girl. She smiled absent-mindedly.
"This is just so typical. My little sister goes on a big adventure with a bunch of boys and returns pregnant. Something surely wouldn't have happened to me," Nojiko teased her beloved little sister with a soft smile on her lips. Nami's eyes widened and she looked at her adopted sister in shock. Nojiko grabbed the chair that stood opposite Nami. The two sisters were now sitting in front of each other as they had been years before, like that day when Monkey D. Luffy, with his small crew, had come to their tranquil home island to get Nami back as a navigator and most importantly as a precious friend. "Or aren't you?", the blue-haired woman asked in surprise as her sister stared at her wordlessly and in amazement.
Lost in thought, the woman stroked her belly. Her face took on that gorgeous smile again. "Yes," she whimpered and single a tear fell on the old oak table. Suddenly she felt the caring arms of her elder sister on her shoulders. Gently, Nojiko pressed the navigator's back against her upper body. "Did Luffy know he was going to be a father?", said the elder in a kindly voice. With a small movement of her head from left to right and the small word "No" Nami responded to her sister. Then the meaning of the blue-haired woman's words came into her head. She realized this one special word in the question. Her tears stopped. Her eyes widened. "How do you know that Luffy is the father?" Nami muttered. She hadn't even begun to mention that she and her former captain had been in a romantic relationship.
The pregnant woman released herself from the embrace of her sister. Her perplexed look was only waiting for an explanation of the correct assumption. "You're my little sister," Nojiko began. Her voice still sounded so loving and gentle. "Now I know the type of man you like." Giggling noises came from Nami's throat. She held her right hand over her mouth. But before her giggle could turn into an honest laugh, tears of desperation ran down her cheeks again. Her face searched longingly for her sister's shoulder. "Nojiko. I never wanted to be the woman to say such things," Nami explained crying, "But I don't know how I can do everything without Luffy now. I need him."
Nojiko turned her eyes away from her little sister. Ignoring her little sister's growing number of tears. The open living room offered no real possibility for a retreat, so the only rescue was the small kitchen compartment. Angrily she split the fresh oranges. With all her rage she squeezed the juice out of the fruit. She only looked up again when the whimpering of the orange-haired woman slowly faded away. Nami looked at her sister with glassy eyes and reddened cheeks. Her gaze was so helpless and hurt. "Nami!" Nojiko began angrily. "Don't be such a cry-baby! I mean, except for the fact that you were the navigator and girlfriend of the pirate king. You're Bell-mére's daughter, damn it! Didn't her parenting help at all? We're supposed to be strong. Smile! Don't surrender!"
"You're right," murmured Nami, "I'm sorry." She touched the cold ground with her bare feet. Her elbows resting on the wooden tabletop. Her face lay in her cold hands. "If Luffy and Bell-mére saw me like this, she would surely be disappointed. But right now, I feel like screaming, crying, and laughing at the same time. I-" but Nami couldn't talk anymore. Her sister's laughter silenced her. "Nami, you're pregnant," Nojiko offered her little sister a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. With a loving look, her sister looked at her. "A certain emotional flexibility is usually normal." For so long, this wonderful, honest, childish laughter of Nami, which was so admired by everyone in the village, echoed through the small living room.
"But how did you and Luffy get together," gushed Nojiko, first of a thousand questions that come out of her tongue. She hadn't seen or spoken to her little sister since the beginning of her journey. So much time had passed and especially Nami must have seen a lot. "You mean, how did we end up loving each other?", the younger one hacked away. "Well, I don't want to know how you make the baby. It's more the romantic details, I'm interested in," joked the blue-haired girl. "How we make the Baby?" Nami laughed at her sister's choice of words. "Yes. You come back pregnant and unmarried. What would you call that?" Nojiko joined in her sister's giggles. The two adopted sisters' laughter echoed across the room. A laughter that felt like home for both.
A family home, which especially the older of the two had missed a lot in recent years. But the navigator's answer destroyed this playful cheerfulness once again. "I really loved him", her hand, which had unconsciously wandered to the white hibiscus in hair when the word "married" was mentioned, now clawed into her trousers. Sorrowfully she lowered her eyes. Her other hand gently stroked her unborn child. "I don't want to talk about it," she muttered, barely audible. A few silent minutes passed and then a salty liquid dripped from her eyes onto the fabric of her clothes. "I know, as far as these boys are concerned, you don't want to keep our promise," Nojiko tried to comfort her with a smile. But unfortunately, for once, this was the wrong way. The tangerine grower couldn't guess what a painful wound her words had opened. "It..." Nami began in a shaky voice, "It's not like back then. I want to keep these guys, especially him, in my memory. But so much has changed. I can't even say how it all happened."
Her sister's eyes widened. She never would have expected those words. Somehow the hope had always been for her that Nami had experienced one of the most romantic love stories. The reaction of her older sister brought Nami back a smile on her lips. Nami could read her eyes like an open book. "What did you expect?" she asked gleefully. "Luffy was never into romance."
It was a starry night on the second half of the Grand line. In the moonlight the Thousand Sunny shimmered lonely on the wide expanse of the sea. "Our crew now counts 5600 members," Nami laughed amusedly at the news, which had been celebrated again for several hours. "5609." the captain corrected her with a broad grin, "Although I actually said no." His navigator's answer was to pull the nineteen-year-old to her side on the deck, which was covered with matt green grass. Because of this unpredictable gesture, the young man found himself perplexed next to his navigator. "Mutiny," cried Luffy cheerfully. The smile that Nami gave him reflected her feelings. The happiness that he had taken another big step closer to his big childhood dream. Luffy, who by now had assumed an upright sitting position, returned her smile with a questioning look. She averted her gaze from him. Her head turned to the sky, leaning against the wooden wall behind her.
His gaze followed her actions. Still at a loss, he looked at her. "At back then we met, I never thought you would get this far," she said calmly and thoughtfully. "Hmm?", he replied asking. Her eyes turned back to her captain. She looked into his, dark eyes. "When I first met you," she now declared, "I didn't think you could become a pirate king." Still in wonder he stared at her. But she now grinned broadly: "Well, now I know that you'll make it." In his face was again his typical big grin. He had turned his eyes away from Nami after all. He reached for the sake bottle and took a sip. But his lips abruptly loosened from the bottle opening. He felt the head of his navigator on his right shoulder. A quick glance told him that she was not sleeping. Afterwards he turned his attention back to the alcoholic drink. Such a close physical contact was a proof of their strong friendship between captain and navigator. Actually, romantic feelings for each other always seemed absurd. But something was different that night. Feelings hidden in their hearts that seemed to be locked began to rebel so slowly. They wanted to be freed. To be called out. Not be treated as if they didn't exist. "We were a partnership of convenience then, weren't we?" laughed the nineteen-year-old. He put his arm around her waist and pressed her closer to him. His fingers tapped her pelvic bones. Their friendship was beginning to change. They both felt it. The touches were different. It wasn't the same anymore. And yet not unlike before. It was nothing special and yet unique. She clung to him more and more. His fingertips guided the movement of her slim body. The other hand put the sake bottle down. His gaze searched longingly for her deer brown eyes. With her foot she stroked his calf gently. Luffy used his free hand to touch her. A racing heart, shivering and a heavy breath were symptoms that both felt now. It could not be denied. Both understood the meaning. Both were ready to give in to their feelings. Maybe the alcohol strengthened this desire, maybe just the deep slumbering longing. Their eyes closed. Their lips approached...
"Hey Luffy! Where are you?" yelled Usopp over the deck, without knowing where he was, "I've made a fireball. Let's blow it up." It was the moment when their undertaking was abandoned. It was only a millimetre that separated her lips. The young navigator was catapulted back to reality by the words of the cannoneer. Her captain, the young man who had the privilege of being so close to her, was now delighted with the news of the cannoneer. His eyes glowed with enthusiasm. It was that childish way he looked at her again. "Go on," she said softly and released herself from her embrace. It was strange. Even though not much time had passed, it was unusual for the black-haired boy not to be the one who destroyed the cosy moments between them. Nami got up. " Anyway, I'm tired," she said. But the young man hadn't even listened to the end of her words. He stormed off as soon as she separated from him. His sake bottle was still lying on the floor. She reached for the drink and with one gulp emptied the bottle. She stumbled into her bedroom.
She heard clearly and distinctly his wonderful laughter, which drowned out every bang of the cannonballs. It put a smile on her lips. But this night also holds a secret. In all these years, he had never told her that he sneaked into her room at almost the early hours of the morning, when the celebrations were nearing their end. The hope had been there to find her still awake, to return to that moment of tender privacy. But his hopes were crushed. The woman, with whom he had almost had one of the most beautiful experiences between man and woman just a few hours earlier, was asleep. His thoughts had been too naive. She had not waited for him longingly. How could he have known that her hopes that he would rather return to her than let the rockets fly had been shattered a few minutes ago. She had been waiting for him too long that night. The disappointment they both experienced that night was only a minor reversal of fate. Whether disappointment or stubbornness, fate cannot be stopped by such small things.