Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Characters: Luffy and Nami

Requested By: Star_dress03 (Ao3)

"Land! It's laaaaaaaaaand~!"

Upon hearing her captain's excited cheers and laughter drifting up from the figurehead of the ship, Nami dropped the last of the tangerines that she had been plucking from her meticulously-tended citrus trees and strolled over the railing that fenced in the private garden that Franky had constructed on the top level of the ship to peer out at the horizon. Sure enough, there was a rapidly growing smug on the clear blue horizon, marking the divide between the sapphire sea and the comparably lighter, cloudless sky. Luffy was hopping up and down on the lion that marked the front of the Thousand Sunny, and she gasped and leaned over the railing as he suddenly slipped on the lion's smooth mane and went falling off the side. She breathed a sigh of relief as his hand shot up to wrap several times around the figurehead and pull himself back up, and then shook her head. Excitable as always.

By the time that Nami had dropped off the tangerines in the kitchen for Sanji to use in one of his delectable creations and made her way onto the main deck, the rest of the crew had gathered to marvel at the very large island that they were rapidly approaching. Even from the considerable distance, they could tell that it was smothered in greenery, home to a massive forest; this got Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro's blood boiling, because a forest meant beasts to hunt and competition, while the more level-headed of them like herself, Chopper, and Usopp considered the unfavorable outcome of becoming lunch themselves.

After the excitement at Fishman Island (honestly, why would she describe it in such a way, because there was excitement of some sort at every island they went to thanks to their captain's uncanny ability to attract trouble), they were following the log pose to the next stop; apparently it was the forested island that had appeared before them. Judging from its appearance, the island was most likely uninhabited, and there was no telling how long it would be before the log pose adjusted and calculated their course to the next item on the agenda. There was nothing for it, though; Luffy would not stay put, and there would be an expedition to the island and likely some sort of commotion because of it.

"All right, settle down, all of you," Nami cried over the din of the rowdy boys arguing who would bring home dinner and Chopper bleating in the background to Robin about possible medicinal herbs and Brook singing at the top of his lungs. "Someone has to stay on the ship. There's no telling if there's someone else on this island with us, and we can't let the Sunny be vulnerable." They debated it for a minute before Franky and Ussop decided they would stay behind since they had a few cosmetic repairs to make to the Thousand Sunny. Thus, the rest of them piled out of the ship once it was docked and took the smaller boat to the island.

"This is awesome!" Luffy screeched with all the breath in his lungs as soon as his flip-flops hit the crystalline white sand. Nami scowled in displeasure as a few tropical birds burst from the canopy of the forest and went flapping off, startled by his outburst. That meant that any predators in the vicinity would also be alerted to their presence.

"Luffy, quiet down, will you? I was just saying that we don't know who else is here!"

"Lighten up, Nami," Zoro purred in amusement as he strolled in the sand past her, one of his katanas propped against his shoulder and a smirk on his lips. He then looked to his left where the little reindeer was waddling along the beach, his hooves sinking deep into the sand though he was small and light. "C'mon, Chopper, let's go catch dinner!" The reindeer jump-ed as he was addressed and nervously twiddled his front hooves while he looked shyly at the ground.

"Oh… I was going to go looking for medicinal herbs with Robin and Brook," he refused quietly, sweating. Zoro stared at him for a second with his good eye, making Chopper even more nervous, before he shrugged and went tromping up the shore.

"Suit yourself."

"Wait, Zoro, I'm coming too!" Luffy howled and raced after him, holding a hand on his hat to keep it from flying away while he guffawed in glee. Nami exhaled deeply, wondering if she should babysit the two hopeless losers or do the sensible thing and join the herb-hunting party. She felt someone brush up against her shoulder, and she didn't even have to turn her head to know it was Sanji, wiggling about with his hands clasped together while hearts beat in his eyes.

"Nami-swan, look at what I found you~!" he crooned while holding a tropical flower out to her. Normally Nami didn't cater to his voracious flirting, but the flower was beautiful, a white hibiscus with hints of orange within the middle that quite matched the shade of her hair. She smiled serenely and tilted her head, giving him permission, and with a squeal he tucked the flower against her ear before melting into a puddle of lovey-dovey mush. Nami smirked and ran her fingers across the soft petals before continuing up the beach, deciding to tail Luffy and Zoro just in case they got into trouble. "Robin, why don't we all go together? This island is big, so we may get lost easily," she called over to the archaeologist, who was carrying little Chopper across the sand after witnessing his struggle.

"Good idea, Nami," she answered. Eventually Sanji recovered and ran after Zoro, screaming something about how he wouldn't let the "kelp-head" beat him and would "bring home the biggest beast for Nami-swan." Nami and the others continued at a much more leisurely pace, following the obvious trail of broken branches and disturbed forest floor that the rowdy boys left behind. Now that he was free of the swallowing sand, Chopper flitted through the decaying leaves, consulting a small book of medicinal herbs while he inspected the plants growing in the undergrowth. The rest of them assisted, with Nami and Robin actually trying to find things that looked like they would be useful while Brook pointed at pretty much everything and shouted, "Ohohoho, is this it?"

The island was definitely wild, similar to Little Garden, which Nami had contracted a deadly fever. The plants were clustered together; the trees fought one another for light, as the branches above Nami's head were a densely interwoven tapestry of green. The world wasn't just green, though; colorful fruits hung from the branches, and the various discarded pits littered about meant that their ever-hungry captain had sampled them as he tromped along. On the forest floor, the short bushes and ferns utilized other dyes, muted reds and blues, to try and collect the precious light waves the trees above did not use. Here and there, brilliant flowers like the one Nami wore had burst into bloom, attracting butterflies outfitted in similar brilliance. The jungle air was alive with the voices of hundreds of birds, all competing for the spotlight.

However, unlike the home of the giant warriors and massive beasts, this island possessed signs of previous life; as Nami poked through the various bushes, she could see crumbling stone, and through breaks in the towering trees, well-constructed stairways and arches of stone stood the test of time and endured the ever-encroaching presence of trawling ivy and other plants the grew in the cracks. As they delved deeper into the jungle, this became much more apparent, with the trees being replaced in many places with half-fallen temples and the remains of houses.

"It reminds me of the ruins in Skypeia," Robin remarked when she noticed Nami staring at them.

"Yeah, you're right. I wonder where all the people went?" she wondered aloud. Civilizations simply did not vanish, as their adventure to Skypeia had proven; something must have happened to them, but Nami could glean nothing from the silent stone. When they reached what they determined to be the core of the city on the island, pretty much all of the forest was gone, replaced with a concentric collection of stone buildings in various states of disrepair. Robin's interest had been piqued, and she announced her intent to investigate the ruins further. Nami elected to join her, while Chopper and Brooke remained on the outskirts of the jungle to continue hunting for useful medicine. Nami followed the archaeologist into the ruins, listening to her various explanations of architecture and deductions. Just as the others were amazed by her skill of analyzing weather patterns, Nami was equally enthralled by Robin's investigative powers. While Nami just saw rocks, Robin saw people, events, importance.

After an hour or so of trekking around the deserted city, Nami was beginning to feel the strain.

"Robin, I'm going to go sit over there, okay? I'll catch up to you in a minute," she sighed as she meandered over to a set of steps that looked sturdy enough to support her and plopped down.

"All right. I won't go too far," the other woman answered before walking into the maze of ruins with naught more than a dismissive wave. With a deep exhale, Nami leaned back against the small temple's steps, tilted her head back as she tried to ignore the pain in her aching feet. I wonder what trouble those three have gotten into, she thought with a wry smile. Surely, Sanji, Zoro, and Luffy were on the trail of some massive creature or another, all arguing about who was going to bring it home as their prize. As much as they played around, though, they were all reliable, especially Luffy; time and time again, he had saved them and many others. Though he could be a headache sometimes, Nami definitely didn't regret joining him on his journey. After all, it led to moments like this; surrounded by the ghost of the ancient civilization, with the tropical air and the sounds of the forest thick around her, Nami felt at peace. She never would have been able to see something so grand if she was still stuck under Arlong's thumb. Closing her eyes with a contented smile, Nami laid further back against the stone.

With a sickening crack and a shuffling sound, the stone behind her crumbled away and swallowed both her and her alarmed scream.

Nami went tumbling head-over-heels down a sharp incline, and through her thick tangerine hair and her limbs she could see the light vanish as the stone crumbled down and enclosed the hole she had just made. She landed at the base of the hill roughly on her back, her head smacking against cold, well-packed earth; she lay there for a moment, groaning, before opening her eyes. It didn't do much good, because there was no light to be had.

"Crap," she grumbled and slowly stood up, waving her arms about as she tried to find a wall. Squinting as she tried to glean something from the blackness, she slowly shuffled about, turning in a circle. "Hello? Robin, can you hear me?" Her voice echoed about her, indicating that she had fallen into quite a large cavern. After a few minutes of struggling, her hand met the rough, uneven surface of hewn stone, and she used this to shuffle along in one direction. With her luck, she was going in a huge circle, or the path would lead to a dead-end. "Help! I'm down here!" The only answer she got was her own voice calling back to her. Alone in the dark, Nami began to grow nervous; she had watched the hole she had entered be swallowed up by collapsing stone, so it wasn't like they could find her quickly. She felt like the cavern was absorbing her words, preventing them from reaching the world above. Tears began to sting the corners of her eyes. "Luffy! Hello? I need help! Luffy!" she wailed miserably.

Suddenly, as she turned what she felt to be a corner, light blazed in the distance. Without thinking, Nami rushed toward it, too scared in that moment to wonder what lay within it. The circle of brightness grew rapidly larger as Nami dashed toward it, and then it enveloped her, warm and welcoming.

"… Huh?"

"Huh?" Luffy asked as he looked up from his perch on the carcass of a wild boar, chewing on about his tenth piece of weird fruit that he had found as Robin, who had appeared from the undergrowth, came to deliver them news. "Nami's gone missing?"

"Nooooo! Not my Nami-swan! I'm coming for you, Nami!" Sanji wailed and shot off in the direction that Robin had come from, then zoomed back wheezing, "Where did you say you lost her, Robin?" Luffy slid off the boar and grabbed it by its leg to drag it along behind him as the swordsman, the frantic cook, and himself accompanied the archaeologist back to the last place Nami had been. All they found was a half-collapsed temple.

"She was sitting here. Ten minutes later, I came back and she had vanished," Robin reported. Chopper and Brook had also joined them from their expedition within the forest for medicine, and they all surrounded the building in a semi-circle, puzzled. "I didn't hear any commotion or disturbance. It's like she just disappeared into thin air."

"Maybe the building ate her," Luffy responded, feeling like it was perfectly sensible given the circumstances. Sanji shot up to his side so fast that his hair ruffled and his hat nearly flew off his head.

"You idiot! Buildings don't eat people!" Luffy plugged his ear as Sanji very rudely screeched into it, and made a sour face while looking at the building.

"Hey, what's that?" he asked and pointed to a very odd-looking thing sticking out of the displaced stones. Robin walked up to the stone to pluck a bedraggled hibiscus flower from between two stone bricks.

"Luffy may be right."

"What?" Everybody else screamed in unison.

"Not literally, of course. It looks like the structure isn't the sturdiest, and this temple may have once had an entrance. The bricks could have shifted and Nami fell into the cavern within, and the entrance closed up. Either that or it collapsed on top of her."

"Waaaaah! Don't say that, Robin!" Sanji wailed as tears began to pour down his cheeks, distraught at the idea of the navigator's untimely end. Luffy blinked and stared hard at the crumbling building, then wound his arm up to deliver a savage punch to it. The bricks exploded into the air upon his impact, and while everyone screamed and ran for cover as they rained down, Luffy could feeling his stretchy arm ricocheting through a cavern hidden behind the temple. He yanked his arm back hard, delivering a second blow to the already assaulted structure, and he blew the rest of it to pieces, revealing a rather large entrance into the ground.

"Told ya! It ate her!" he snickered at Sanji while pointing at the hole.

"Are you trying to kill us, you idiot?" he just snapped back, and Luffy's shoulders sagged, not sure why he wasn't grateful to him for solving the problem of Nami's disappearance. Zoro, meanwhile, was crouched at the edge of the hole, listening for an echo after dropping a brick down.

"It goes down pretty far, but it's an incline she could've rolled down and escaped without much harm," he reported while picking at his teeth with his fingernail. Luffy marched up to the hole, quite exciting that something interesting was happening (hunting on this island was pretty boring, he had been dismayed to find, because the animals were all regular-sized), and grinned widely as he peered down into the dark abyss.

"Yo, Nami? You down there?" he hollered, giggling at the sound of his own voice bouncing around the tunnel. His face then went blank as he felt an alarmingly strong presence rocketing up the tunnel towards them, and he only had just enough time to throw himself into a backbend as Nami came exploding out of the tunnel, her fist poised to strike Luffy in the chin in a savage uppercut. She was so exceptionally fast that he actually felt her knuckles brush against him, leaving a minute stinging sensation at the edge of his chin. He flipped backwards, one hand holding his hat while the other slapped against the ground, and vaulted himself a good distance from the navigator while she turned her attention on Zoro.

"Nami, what the hell-?" he growled as he grabbed one of his blades out and used the scabbard to block her Climatact. As they met, wind whirled around them from the force of their respective impacts, buffeting the bewildered Straw Hat crew. Nami said nothing as she pushed against Zoro, her face strangely blank and her strength absurdly abnormal; Zoro was actually sliding backwards in the loamy soil, gritting his teeth as his arms shook with the force of Nami's strength. "What the hell is going on?!"

"Trenta fleur!" Calm and collected as ever, Robin crossed her arms in her familiar stance and hands burst from the ground where Nami was standing; the navigator was too quick, however. She vanished with a shimmer to reappear behind Robin, swinging her Climatact with crushing power at the startled woman. Luffy, who had been standing there watching this entire time, surged forward, Armament Haki coating his hand as he grabbed ahold of the navigator's weapon just as it was going to strike Robin's skull. Robin hopped away, a thin sheen of sweat on her face as she left the fight to her captain. The Climatact shuddered in Luffy's grip as Nami tried to force it free, but he wasn't budging.

"Nami, what are you doing, attacking everybody like this?" he demanded hotly with narrowed eyes. She just stared at him, her normally bright brown eyes glazed over like she was unconscious and her expression hard and emotionless as stone. Without so much as a word, her leg flew up to collide with Luffy's chin, and again he had to throw himself backwards to avoid suffering a severe blow; in the process, he let go of the Climatact, and Nami hopped away from him.

"Nami-swan! Snap out of i- Whoa!" As Sanji tried to beseech her, she directed her attention to him, and he used his Sky Jump to leap out of the way of her Climatact. He hopped lightly into the sky, far above Nami's head where he thought he was out of her reach; however, much to their collective shock, as Nami crouched down the earth buckled beneath her, and then she rocketed upwards, jumping to Sanji's level. All he could do was cross his arms in a block to shield himself as Nami struck him with her Climatact, so hard that a mini-shockwave was generated at the site of impact, and in less than a second he had crashed back down to the earth like a meteor. He reeled in the crater his body had made, woozy and holding his head, then gasped as Nami landed in front of him and held the rod above her head to deliver a finishing blow with that same, lifeless expression. "Nami-!"

"Hold it!" Luffy growled as he wrapped his arms around her Climatact as she swung it down. He planted his feet firmly in the ground against the force, still sliding a few feet but managing to dissipate the massive energy the woman had placed in her swing and allowing Sanji to scramble away. Luffy gritted his teeth as Nami looked over her shoulder at him. Nami wasn't aware of anything she was doing, he knew that much, but with all of them pulling their punches it was going to be hard to stop the destructive force that she had become. He gasped as she dropped the Climatact and suddenly appeared in his face, her fist flying with her. As he whipped his head to avoid it, his black hair swirled and the hat flew off his head in the buffeting gale that followed her blow. I've got no choice! He thought as he unwound his hands from her discarded weapon and jumped back before she could follow-up the attack. He crouched down, stretching the arteries within his body to pump his blood at an incredible rate; steam began pouring from his skin, which was turning a pink hue, and he could feel the oxygen flow in his body maximizing. "Gear Two!"

"Luffy! You're gonna use that?" Chopper squeaked from where he was quickly bandaging Sanji's bleeding head.

"I gotta stop her! Nami would be upset if she hurt any of us!" he argued back. Nami wasn't in control of herself, and whenever Luffy woke her up from whatever spell she was under, she would be devastated to learn she hurt one of them. Nami's sadness was something he never wanted to see again. With a roar, he jumped forward to met Nami head on, and the world trembled as they met in mid-air. Even in his Second Gear, Nami kept up with him well, meeting him blow for blow. Though it was only seconds, the exchanged close to fifty blows with neither overpowering the other. As he somersaulted in the air to escape a jab of hers, landing on the ground with a frustrated hiss, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to subdue her with only his Gear Two. I don't want to use this, but there's no other way! "You guys brace yourself!" he announced loudly before straightening up and concentrating all his willpower into a thunderous force. Conqueror's Haki! An incredible pressure slammed down on the area, and even Zoro and Sanji grunted and fell on their hands and knees at the incredible force Luffy was exerting. Brook and Robin were barely conscious, and poor Chopper slumped down, fainting beside Sanji. Nami wobbled unsteadily, her face rapidly going pale as sweat poured off her body, and her eyes rolled back into her head. As soon as her eyes drifted shut and she fell forward, Luffy ceased the Haki and jumped forward to catch the unconscious woman in his arms. Her head flopped limply against his shoulder, and he could feel her entire body shuddering as she panted heavily. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, expression growing sad. "I'm sorry, Nami… I had no other choice."

Luffy carried the unconscious girl on his back as they descended into the tunnel. Luffy was convinced that whatever had caused her to go berserk was down there, and he wanted to punch it. A lot. Maybe a thousand times or so. Sanji used his lighter as a small light to lead them through the large passageway, and soon they came upon an exit. As they walked through, the ceiling above them opened up to reveal the jungle above, the tangled roots of trees clinging to the gradually crumbling ceiling; water was dripping from them, collecting in a pool at the center of the small cave with continuous plip-plop-plip sounds. The walls around them were not earth, but carved stone like the tumbling buildings above, with very faded etchings of various symbols. In the center of the pool was a statue of a very stylized human being. Various piles of stone were sticking out of the small pool of water, having fallen down from the thinned ceiling above.

"This must have been a place of worship of some sort, connected to the temple above," Robin frowned as she approached the stoned-in pool and looked around with narrowed eyes. "I wonder if Nami fell victim to some sort of curse?"

"C-c-c-curse?" Chopper cried in alarm and clung to Zoro's leg, shivering violently. Robin looked back at him in amusement.

"I'm only joking, Chopper. Relax." He breathed a sigh of relief, but was hesitant to release his grip on Zoro's leg to plod forward. Then, suddenly, with a loud hiss, something sprang at him from the shadows. He screamed loudly and curled up into a shuddering ball, and Zoro wasted no time drawing his sword to strike whatever dared to attack their little doctor. Luffy stared blankly as the limp body of a well-sized snake fell beside the terrified reindeer. Crying, Chopper ran over to Zoro and shimmied up his side to perch on his shoulder, hugging his head as he stared at the dead snake with tears running over his furry face.

"Think this thing coulda done it?" Zoro grunted as he turned the body of the snake over with the tip of his sword. Robin crouched down beside it, hand on her chin as she studied the body of the snake.

"It's definitely some kind of venomous snake, based on the shape of its scales and its coloration. Luffy, check and see if Nami has any snake bites." Luffy did as commanded, glancing over the parts of Nami that were in his direct line of sight.

"Hey, look at this." On Nami's ankle was a pair of perfectly round puncture marks. Chopper, having recovered from his near-death experience, jumped down from Zoro to also inspect the snake.

"Oh! I know this species. I saw it in a textbook about venomous snakes. This is a rare species of domesticated snake used in war. Its venom makes a person extremely hostile, so old civilizations coated arrows and spears with it, making their enemies go crazy and attack friend and foe alike," he explained matter-of-factly. "It has a similar effect of Luffy's Gear Two, increasing blood flow. That's why Nami was so much stronger than normal!"

"So Nami isn't gonna die?" Sanji asked hopefully, close to bawling again.

"Nope!" Chopper quipped with a shake of his head. "Its effects wear off fairly quickly, due to the increase in circulation, and it has no other effects besides the crazed behavior. Nami should be perfectly fine when she wakes up, aside from the other adverse effects from the doping." Sanji sank to the floor in relief. Luffy sighed deeply, not sure he really like this particular adventure. He felt Nami shift on his back, her head bumping against his and her tangerine strands mingling with his own black ones.

"Let's go back to the Sunny, guys."

Nami groaned as she slowly returned to the waking world, tossing her head slowly from side-to-side and stretching out her aching body. She felt the comforting caress of sheets against her skin and the gentle embrace of a mattress underneath her body. I'm back on the Sunny? She thought as she cracked an eye open. Sure enough, the familiar wood pattern of the bowels of the ship greeted her above her head, barely discernable in the small amount of moonlight streaming in through the window. She turned her head to see a desk littered with medical supplies, the bottles glowing silver, and was quite alarmed to realize that she was in the sick bay. Then it all came flooding back to her, the snake flying out of the shadows, its fangs sinking into her skin, the feeling of the venom streaming through her veins as she rapidly descended into unconsciousness… She wasn't sure how Luffy and the others found her, but they must have quickly, otherwise she would be a corpse trapped underground for eternity by now. It must have been a nasty venom, because her body felt like she had been buried under the weight of that temple for hours, plus she had slept the day away. She groaned as she tried to sit up, failing miserably and flopping back down against the bed with a huff.

"Nami? Do you want to sit up?"

At the sound of her captain's voice, Nami's eyes searched for him, and she found him lying on the floor. She hadn't noticed him in the gloom; he was stretched out on the floor, and had had his hat covering his face as he slept. She blushed as she realized that he had been sleeping there because he had likely been very worried about her.

"Yes, please." Luffy languidly sat up on his knees beside the bed and helped her sit up, pushing up the pillows for her so her back wouldn't be resting against the hard bedframe. He then crossed his arms on the edge of the bed, gazing up at her with an oddly unreadable expression. "I'm sorry I worried you all. How did you manage to find me, with the entrance closed up like that?"

"Nami, do you not remember what happened?"

"No," she answered, growing concerned. Had something else happened besides the snakebite? What could it be? Luffy stared at her a moment, as if he were hesitant to answer. When he told her, she realized why the truth was such a heavy burden for him.

"That venom made you go crazy. You attacked all of us. You even gave Sanji a good whack in the head." Nami swallowed as an uncomfortable lump formed in her throat, and her fingers curled into the edge of the comforter as her hands began to tremble slightly.

"I… I did?" He nodded firmly.

"Yeah. I had to use my Conqueror's Haki to knock you out. It was nuts. Even in Second Gear, I couldn't beat you." Nami's bottom lip trembled as her eyes widened in horror. Luffy was a force to be reckoned with at base power, let alone when he went into Gear Mode. If he had been forced to resort to that and Haki, Nami must have been incredibly powerful- and incredibly dangerous. She turned her face away as tears brimmed in the corners of her eyes; because of her carelessness, she had put her crewmates in danger, and worst of all, she had been the very source of that danger.

"Luffy! I'm so sorry! If I had only been more careful-!" she gasped as a sob slipped out of her. She trembled slightly as her emotions took control of her. I can't believe it… How can I face all of them after this? She sat in the bed, silently crying and unable to look her captain in the eyes. Suddenly she felt his hand slide across the top of the comforter to curl around hers, holding it tightly.

"Hey, Nami. Look at me." Though Nami didn't want to, his quiet voice called her like a siren song, and she found herself turning to look at him anyway. She probably looked a hot mess, ugly crying like that, but Luffy didn't care. He never cared about things like that. He never saw people for the outside, always the inside. That's what she loved so much about him, his honesty and his compassion. Even without him saying anything, Nami already felt soothed. "None of us blame you for this, you know. We weren't angry."

"You weren't?"

"Nuh-uh. We were pretty scared y'know. We didn't know what happened to you, and we didn't want to hurt you. Especially not me." Nami sniffed as she used her other hand to wipe the tears from her eyes and cheeks.

"Luffy…" she whispered as her heart swelled with gratitude, and a little bit of something else, too, though she wasn't quite sure what it was. "Thanks." He smiled sweetly at her.

"I get what you're feeling. I'd never forgive myself if I hurt any of my nakama, especially my trusty navigator." The way he singled her out made her heart jump for some reason, and reflexively, she squeezed the hand that was curled around hers. He grinned and laid his head on his arms, giving her that signature little laugh of his. His face then fell a little bit. "Actually… I really did go a little too far, using Conqueror's Haki on you… I didn't want to, but… I knew you would be sad if you hurt one of us. You can forgive me, right, Nami?"

"Of course!" she cried without hesitation. "If you hadn't done that, Luffy, who knows what would have happened? You did what you had to do to stop me," she reassured him. It was funny how she had needed reassuring and he had given it, and so quickly the tables had turned. Luffy, at just those words quite placated, returned to grinning widely.

"Good! Oh! Now that you're awake, you should want medicine, right? Do you want me to wake Chopper up?" he offered as he jerked upright, already slipping away to do so. Though she ought to, Nami grabbed onto his hand, strangely not wanting it to part from hers.

"No. I'm okay. Just… stay with me a little while, okay?" He blinked at her as he stood over her, confusion clear on his expression, then shrugged.

"Okay." With that, he jumped over her to settle into the small space between her and the wall. "That floor is so uncomfortable though, so mind if I sleep here?" Nami's face had become a wildfire, and she just nodded weakly as Luffy did exactly that, snickering to himself as he snuggled under the covers beside her. Feeling his sturdy arm slide between the pillows behind her head to pop out and wrap loosely around her shoulder, she gripped the comforter tightly, wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into. She gulped as she stared down at the patterned fabric. I mean, it's just Luffy. It's not like anything'll happen. There isn't anything between me and Luffy… nothing at all… she told herself, but it really wasn't helping. Nami was already quite aware what was happening to her and she was both exhilarated and scared. She shyly turned to look at him to find his gaze locked on her, and that made her stiffen. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her head as he turned on his side to continue staring at her. "Hey, Nami?"

"Huh?"

"You'll never leave, right?" The abruptness of the question threw Nami for more of a loop than his weird behavior. Maybe… Maybe there is something.

"What? Of course not. Why do you ask?" His gaze dropped down to the sheets as he shyly scratched the side of his head.

"I dunno… With everything that happened today, it just made me really sad to think about you not being around anymore. I mean, I wouldn't like it if anybody left or anything, but with you, it's… different, I guess. It's hard to explain," he muttered. Nami stared at him, then chuckled. No, Luffy wasn't the type to understand what was going on in his head. She smiled as she adjusted the pillows to slip back down into the bed, snuggling up a little closer to him. As he blinked down at her, she leaned up to gently press a kiss to his lips. He just sat there for a second, and then like she expected, he leaned into it, the hand still between the pillows slipping into her tangerine hair to curl the ends around his fingers. Nami smiled happily up at him as she pulled back, and he was smiling too.

"Don't worry, Luffy. I get it."

"I'm glad one of us does." That made her laugh, and with a contented sigh, she wrapped her arms around Luffy's chest and buried her face into it. She felt Luffy's lanky arm slide around her waist to pull her close. She felt his soft breathing in her ear. "So… Does this mean you love me, Nami?"

"Something like that. Is that what you were trying to explain to me?"

"… Something like that. I think. I dunno, I've never had a girlfriend before, am I doing it right?" Nami laughed as she patted his back reassuringly.

"Just be yourself, Luffy, just like always. You don't have to worry about me leaving, not now or ever… I'll be by your side for a long time yet. Just like you're there for me." He let out a small groan, the gears trying to turn in his brain, but he soon gave up with a frustrated grumble. She closed her eyes as his grip tightened around her and he rested his chin on the top of her head.

"Okay… I can do that, I guess. G'night, Nami."

"Goodnight, Luffy."

Nami wasn't sure when or how it happened, but somehow, she had fallen in love with the boisterous, dorky captain of hers- and more remarkably, Luffy had fallen in love with her. She didn't know what that spelled for their future, but held in his embrace as the moonlight washed over them and the waves gently rolled outside, Nami really didn't care. She knew she could rely on Luffy, just like he could rely on her.

Or something like that, anyway.