I do not own anything besides these words and the cover art.

Nami stopped the car and Zoro woke up. "We're finally here? That took forever", Zoro said groggily.

However, as he rubbed her eyes open, he did not recognize where they were. "Witch, why are we at a different burned down building?"

Nami got out of the car and walked up the fence. She sat on the hood of the car and just looked ahead at the darkened spike that rose from the dirty and garbage-laden field. The surrounding area looked deserted, broken old houses and rotten wood sealed the windows and doors. Spray painted graffiti and cracked cement. However, the tower ahead looked like it took a beating from the sky. Broken glass and the disgustingly black char of fire from what seemed like years long forgotten.

Zoro grew impatient at Nami's unwillingness to address him, so he finally got out of the car and walked over to her. He wanted to shout at her but stopped as he looked at her face. The wind wiped up her hair, but her eyes, wet with tears, looked ahead. However, her lips formed a tight and angry line. She gripped her arms and held herself together, so Zoro stood next to her and leaned against the car.

They stood there for what felt like hours as the wind howled around them. Zoro did not know where they were, but he knew they had to be pretty far out. He always knew there were other towns that were left behind due to corrupt politicians and broken infrastructures. East Blue was no different. However, this seemed like a neighborhood that faded into a ghost town. One of many that was left behind because no one of "importance" lived there, so eventually, no one did, except the rats and those who could not afford to leave.

"This was my home. I lived her with my sister, Nojiko and my mom. My mom actually died a couple of blocks away, getting us food because we were being brats who wanted something sweet. She was shot over nothing. Causality of war. Young kids with nothing to lose while men ran drugs and games financed by a government that didn't give two shits about orphans and low-income families. So, gangs were common, and turf wars happened. Everyone tried to protect themselves, and that meant your neighbor would get shot and you'd thank God that you weren't next.

But then...with all that discord...someone would eventually come in and profit from it all. Blood loss and dead kids. It just needed a boss. He came in and organized them. He started buying land and owning people because they couldn't pay their debts. My mom was one of them, but how could she not be? She was a single mother with two adoptive daughters. A former vet that sometimes struggled with horrible nightmares. Me and her shared that…"

Zoro said nothing as Nami spoke. Though people would say Zoro said little, he was a great listener. Even if Zoro did not feel much, his heart grew heavy with every word Nami spoke.

"My sister, Nojiko, the one who made the best lavender honey butter…she died right there." Nami pointed at the building as the tears dripped from her eyes.

"There was a fire, and everyone got out but Nojiko. She wanted to save everyone. That was her trait. She was…a caregiver. Like my mother. She burned to death. And the man that owned this building and all our lives…he made millions. And now, her debt and my mother's debt and everyone's debt is on me. But Zoro...I'm just so tired, it is so heavy. I can't stand up anymore cause the weight is on me as if I've fallen into the deepest part of the ocean and can't see a tiny ray of light."

She heaved and Zoro stood in silence. Regardless of what he wanted to do, he did not touch her. He did not feel like she needed his touch, one that, if he did not get saved himself, could have easily been a gang leader or violent offender. Nami, however, worried he was not listening, or worse, that he did not care. So, she finally turned to Zoro who looked down at her teary face.

"Zoro. That's why I have a fake ID. That's why I need money."

Her voice rose in anger as if she was trying to convince him of her story. It was mostly true, however, she felt sick at the thought that he could not even manage a single emotion at her tale. Was she nothing more than a nuisance to him? Did he really hate her that much that even her tragedy was not a good enough reason for her rejecting whatever he wanted from her? No, Nami did not parade her emotions about and run her tears dry for him to look at her with such disdain.

She pulled at his collar and screamed, "I'm not going to apologize to you for whatever you think I owe you. You don't get to hold that over me! No one will ever hold shit over me...because...I'm going to be free. I'm-I am trying to escape my past…because it haunts me. Every. Day. I pretended to be ready for the negative feelings that would come after makeshift pleasures...so...so that I end up escaping from reality. But, shit, Zoro. Do you think you deserve something and I don't? Because I can't give you what you want. I just can't. I don't have it in me. I'm not sorry if you feel cheated but-"

Zoro pulled her hands away from his shirt and gave her a hard stare. She stopped speaking, but her exhales were heavy and loud. The air was so thick and still seemed to be smoke-laden, but it was his stare that made her chest constrict. Zoro looked at her with such determination, and she was not sure if he did it to question to or to convince her that her statements were lies. She had much more to give, but the problem was that he was not the first one on that list. She needed to protect Nojiko first, and for that, Nami was unwilling to feel a moment of happiness that distracted her from her sister's pain.

In the silence, Zoro walked away from her and she feared her plan backfired. Nami feared that she was stuck in a sad, dark place and now the only person who she even walked back to that world for, was going to desert her, too. He rummaged through his workout bag and pulled out a pair of beat up old boxing gloves. He walked back to her and fumbled in them. Nami heard fabric rip and then he pulled out two pictures, one from each glove. He handed the soiled and dog-eared images to Nami who held them with such care, partly due to her confusion. She did not know what the man wanted to say or do, but this was not what she had imagined from him.

"That is Kuina. We actually took that picture a week before she died. She said she hated smiling in pictures because she didn't look tough. I think I tickled her until she peed. Sensei took it, and he gave it to me when I left his house at 16. He said I could always come home, but I promised him I wouldn't return until I kept the promise I made to Kuina…to be the strongest fighter out there. She was my challenge, but I would be lying if I said she was a ghost in my life that stuck with me. Pushed me to be better...but often alone. Then…then I met Luffy. We were 13 in that picture. That stupid goofball. He was…my best friend and my brother. We were…nakama. It's Japanese for friend, but it means more to me than that. I would have died for him, and probably without him...but he...he was worth it. He was open-hearted, excitable, funny and full of wild ambition. No matter what we did...he just made me feel better. He could annoy the hell out of me with his talkative and outgoing nature, but I loved it regardless. We both looked at the world like a challenge waiting to be met, and we shared a desire to just be…free. Life was worth living, and he made me feel that every day."

Zoro cleared his throat and looked out into the horizon, blocked by dirty fences and shambled houses. "And then…he died. No, he was murdered."

Nami listened as his voice grew heavy and wet, and it sounded strange and foreign coming from such a hard and angry face. As if Zoro did not know how to be sad, or worse, he confused sadness with anger too often that he could not cry with a deep grief that would feel freeing, yet he continued with a stern stare.

"He was murdered by a group of cops. Dirty cops who hated how he just…brought light to things and shook up this crappy world for the better. He wasn't a superhero, but he was a threat and so…they murdered him and burned his body. Like he was some kind of criminal. They erased him. It was called a gang crime, teenagers running around with weapons and big dreams. As if some young thugs wanted to murder Luffy for a made up title. But I knew…I knew what they weren't willing to admit and…I shut down. I tried really hard to get back on my path, to keep my promise to Kuina, and to live moment to moment, but it gets hard. It's hard when you knew something so good and then lose it."

Nami stared at the young boy in each picture. One with a missing tooth and entwined with a raven-haired girl on the floor. Young and innocent. Hopeful. Then a little older with lanky arms but a wide smile. Next to a boy with a straw hat and a scar under his left eye. As Nami looked at him, she felt like she wanted to smile, too. Even through a picture, Nami could feel the power Zoro spoke of. Luffy would have been a champion. She wondered if her life would have been different if she met them at a younger age. At 13, she was stealing from homes and collecting debts for Arlong. She could not imagine smiling as hard as they did if they knew who she was.

Zoro watched her look at the images with such precision, and he wondered what she thought of Luffy. He considered that Nami would have been swept up in his attitude because Luffy just brought people together. She would try to resist as much as she could but in the end, she would have been a great addition to their team. Zoro would have loosened up with Luffy because Nami would know what money they had and where they were going. She would have taken care of them...and they would have taken care of her. Yes, he could imagine her with them then. It would have all been Luffy's idea, too.

"I do not think you owe me anything, Nami. I don't need anything from you...like that. But, I won't lie…you are like…nakama to me now, too. We've been through some stuff, and I think we've got some other stuff to get through still. So, I just want you to trust me a bit more because...I trust you to help me keep my promise to Kuina. As ironic as that seems... I mean, what better way to find out if I'm really as strong as I think I am than to challenge everyone considered stronger than me?"

He looked down at her and Nami looked up. Zoro had blinked away the wetness in his eyes. Crying was never in his nature, but Luffy always brought up emotions he thought he set aside. Nami could not help but lean towards him and Zoro accepted her into his side with an arm behind her. He did not go to hold her or attempted to pull her closer. He was completely satisfied with whatever she was willing to give because he knew she could not bear to give more.

Nami wanted him to wrap an arm around her entire being, but as she squeezed her arm, she knew exactly where Arlong left his mark on her body. She did not understand why Zoro still stayed by her side, and somewhere in the doubt of her mind, she feared his connection with the cops, no matter how hateful it may be. She could hear Arlong's voice in her head, and it broke every strong fence she put up. He told her that Zoro would never stay if he knew that Nami was accused of murdering Nojiko. He would not understand how she could watch her mother die and then work for the man who pulled the trigger. He would not want to touch her if he knew who touched her before, where she hid scars and burns, the tattoo that made her an object to someone else. No, Nami knew this was as much as she could give Zoro, and for the time being, it kept him beside her. That would have to do.

Nami handed the pictures back to Zoro as she wiped her face. "Um, we should go. We're really late and Boa is not known for her patience."

Zoro let her warmth leave his side as he took the pictures back and put them in his old, tattered gloves. They were his left and right arms and gave him so much strength, at least in memory. As he looked at Nami, he prayed to no one in particular that he could be strong enough to carry her burdens, as well.

"Boa? I thought Mihawk was training me again."

Nami let out a dry laugh as she got back in the car. "Oh no, champ, he's just the warm-up. The fighter in the family is Boa."

As Zoro got into the car, he pondered aloud, "Wait…Boa? Why have I heard that name before?"

Nami smiled. "Boa Hancock, the Snake Empress. She ran the House of Amazon, the black market's top assassins."

"And you assume I would know assassins because..."

Nami looked him up and down, "I don't know. You seem like the kind of guy who would date one."

Nami got in the car and Zoro followed. He chuckled but continued, "Why do they call her the Snake Empress?"

Nami rolled her eyes as she put the car in reverse, "Because she thinks she's hot shit."

"Oh," Zoro said with a shrug as he buckled his seat belt.

"And she prefers to kill people with snake venom. Then make their bodies disappear by feeding them to her giant reptiles", she said nonchalantly.

"Wait, what?"

Nami giggled at the way Zoro looked at her with confusion. If anything, the moments he shared with her, made her feel sure of her wandering. She saw an end of her journey, and whatever scared her, for a moment, did not seem so infallible. As much as Arlong controlled her thoughts and reflected back things that made her scream, she heard a tiny voice in her heart…that told her she was not talking to herself. Whatever unsatisfied feeling she had, she made it by her own hands. However, wherever she and Zoro went, she knew she could manage a true smile.

Music Inspiration/Theme: Talkin' 2 Myself (Stonebridge Mix)

I was between this song and "Don't Talk" by Vanessa Hudgens, however, I 1) liked the beat of this song...end with a party, know what I mean? 2) the lyrics & 3) Japanese

I try to get different genres and cultures with the music, but low-key, a lot might just be pop/trap.

Anyways, here we go - backstory. Like I said, Luffy is dead. Yes, I know, sad day. #gurrenlagann-ed Haha, still haven't got past ep like 2, cause I was THAT distraught.

But seriously, hopefully, that gives a bit more light into the journey these two have, and again, I hope you are enjoying the read and I'm not bumming you out too much. Low-key think I might need to change this listing to be "Angst" and "Just death, kill me now". LOL

Regardless, next up is Boa's turn to kick Zoro around. Hehe. And Mihawk shows you his special skill...it is NOT drinking tons of wine, p.s. Haha. Again, fight scenes are hard because watching them is fun...writing them is...tedious, so wish me luck.

XoXo shipfiend