AN: Have some Luffy pov- good luck!

Take Care (of you)

Arlong is several floors below him, curled and cracked on the ground (where he belongs) and Luffy is left kneeling at the edge of the hole, clutching his blood soaked shoulder as it throbs. Gravel is crumbling from the gap in the ceiling and the floor creaks beneath him as he tries to stand, dizzy and shaking. He has to get out of here, he knows from experience that the building is about to collapse; it's not just him that can't stand for very much longer.

Blood and dust and double images. Three stumbled steps toward the hole in the wall before things begin falling to pieces.

He is quickly and irrefutably crushed.

When the world stops shaking there's a slab of wall jammed into his side and his head is being squeezed beneath a bookshelf. It's a little hard to breathe because something heavy is on his chest, and blood is getting in his mouth, dribbling down the side of his face from his forehead.

It's a familiar sensation.

The memories pour in, friendly and familiar, all the times he's been pinned, squashed, crushed, smushed or squeezed and wriggled out to tell the tale. (Not that anyone cared to listen, the bandits usually saw blood and threw bandages at him, Ace always scolded and sometimes helped a little.) He manages a breathy laugh that kind of hurts his chest.

There weren't usually any book shelves involved when he got caught in cave ins and rock slides on Dawn but it's pretty much the same deal, he's rubber so it's not really a problem.

(Though it would be easier if the blood loss wasn't making up seem like down.)

He wriggles an arm free first and braces it against the bookshelf but it starts creaking like it's going to break, and Luffy has to let it back down. Still, his arm is free so he can move more, he stretches his legs until they're thin enough to slide out from beneath the rocks trapping them. With the new leverage and freed legs he forces the wall slab off his stomach.

From there it is all about moving without dropping the weight.

It's kind of like crawling, he takes a step with his feet and then shuffles his hands along to support the new roof, another step, then one with his hands. He shifts the debris out of where he wants to go and into where he was, like those puzzles with sliding pieces that Makino had showed him once. The real problem is finding where 'out' is, was it this way, or that way? Was there one way out or would any way do?

What direction is straight? (He isn't so sure he can do straight right now.)

But he tunnels through anyway, letting the world collapse behind him, until he finds his way to the light.

The last slab falls away and he clambers onto the top of the collapsed building, stooped over for a moment as he breathes fresh air. It takes a second to reacquaint himself with directions. Sky, ground, water, it's all a blur for half a second before comprehending it all makes him a bit dizzy.

But once the world stops spinning a little he can see the people crowded around the walls of Arlong Park and he realizes that they're waiting for him.

Usually people run when things start falling apart but all of the villagers from before, who were watching his fight with Arlong, they are all still there, staring up at him like they're waiting for something.

Could they have been waiting for him to come out? They should have helped hold stuff while he got out. The bandits never helped, but then again, they didn't wait either. (Ace helped.) (Sometimes.)

His eyes wander over the crowd and when he finds Nami he remembers that he wanted to tell her something.

"Nami!" He yells, she's already staring at him, his hat pushed back from her eyes. "You're my nakama!" And she nods (because she knows he's right). The raucous cheer is enveloping and leaves his head ringing in a way he knows it shouldn't (but it stops a minute later so whatever). He's out of the wreckage and now all he's got to do is get down, and that's easy. Or it is so long as he moves slowly. Sometimes he loses track of where the stones he wants to step on are, and sometimes the rocks wobble and move in place so he has to find a different way down.

Back on the ground, things are flat again like they should be. There are still obstacles- people who reach out to him smiling and crying and spilling words he doesn't care enough to listen to. But overall it's easier to move through the crowd then it was down the rocky pile of debris. He sifts through the nameless people, searching for his nakama. There're marines around too, though he doesn't know when they showed up.

He finds them. Nami looks mad and Zoro is drawing his sword so he thinks the marines are being annoying so he helps beat them up (but Sanji gets most of them). Luffy is starting to think that a nap would be a good plan for sooner rather than later.

"Here," something drops onto his head and he turns away from the fight to face Nami. She looks tired but really, really happy, like the last time she found a big bag of treasure (but even more) . "I gave it back."

He reaches up and feels the familiar brim and silky ribbon, grins at her and she smiles back easily.

Then she hits the marine captain in the face and things start happening again.

Everything is great, Nami's back where she belongs (with them) and he thinks that's a doctor talking to (yelling at) Zoro and Usopp is telling a story to some villagers and a pretty girl is talking to Sanji- everyone is in good shape. He's content to watch the islanders spread out to celebrate and to know that his nakama are close by.

Still, he maybe drifts off a little, and he jumps when Nami puts a hand on his unbloodied shoulder.

"You should sit down," She looks a little concerned and Luffy remembers that Nami always gets anxious when he's bleeding. "I've got some bandages."

"Oh. Thanks." He plops down in the dust and Nami sighs, dropping to her knees beside him.

"I'll get the doctor over here when he's done with Zoro but until then…" She fishes a roll of gauze out of her pocket and holds it up "This'll do."

Luffy reaches out a bloodied hand to take them but she snatches her hands back before he can and he glances up at her, confused.

"Oh," He looks down at his hand and then wipes his knuckles off on his pants. "Sorry." Of course she wouldn't want the bandages bloody yet .

"No, no, that's not…" she tries to explain as she swats his hand away. "Luffy, you don't have to bandage it."

The fuzziness in his head insists otherwise and he frowns at her.

"It's bleeding a lot Nami," he tilts his head. "Usually you make me do this stuff even when I don't need it."

"What, no," she says again, exasperation is creeping into her features. "You definitely need to bandage it but why would you-"

"So can I have them?" He reaches forward again.

"No, Luffy, listen!" she pushes his hands away again and holds them, looking him in the eyes. "I mean that you don't have to bandage it, I'll take care of that." She unrolls a length of gauze and gestures at him. "Just, take off your shirt and I'll wrap it."

"But, I can do that. Why should you?" Still, he reaches to unbutton his vest and winces when the movement pulls at the skin around his right shoulder (his skin never wants to stretch like it usually does when he's injured...). Nami sighs and leans forward to unbutton them herself, pushing his hands aside. She goes to slide it off his shoulder but the fabric sticks.

"Sorry about this…" He jerks away as she tries to peel it off.

"Don't do that!" he yelps and she grabs his wrist to keep him from falling over. "It hurts, "

"I know it hurts, but I still have to take the shirt off in order to bandage it!" she snaps back quickly and reaches for his shirt. He leans away again.

"No!"

"Don't be ungrateful, captain." Luffy looks up as Sanji saunters over, cigarette smoking in his fingers. "A beautiful lady is trying to take care of you, it's a great privilege."

"She's doing it wrong!" he whines in return. "It's doesn't hurt like that when I do it!"

"And how do you do it then?" Nami throws up her hands and sits back. "I didn't even know you knew how to bandage yourself- you always make me do it."

"You bandage stupid stuff," he grumbles and then reaches for his shirt, biting his lip hard before finding the hem and yanking it away from his skin.

Nami shrieks and Sanji drops his cigarette with a yell. His shoulder stings but it fades after a moment and he releases his lip, tasting a little bit of fresh blood.

"Why did you do that?" Nami reaches out like she wants to do something but doesn't know what, her face is even more worried than before which Luffy finds a little annoying.

"To get the shirt off."

"Well, that's a stupid way to do it, Captain." Sanji sets his heel gently on Luffy's knee, not a hit but a reprimanding pressure that rests there for a few seconds. "You'll rip off scabs and aggravate the wound."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." Nami grouses. "It's not a bandaid you know, I didn't think enough time had passed to make it really stick but I guess it did… next time we'll use water to loosen it up. Then it shouldn't hurt at all ."

"I'll get some now, Nami-swaaaan!" Sanji bolts upright and turns in a quick circle before bowing to her. "If you wish to take care of our idiot captain then I cannot help but submit to your kind hearted desires! Oi, rubber brain, cooperate."

Luffy watches him walk toward the ruins of Arlong Park before Nami seizes his attention again.

"If this were a final job I'd wash it but I just want to get something on it right now," she is speaking to herself and Luffy sits back on his hands, waiting for her to start wrapping it already. (She's so slow.)

Before he realizes anyone is there Usopp drops down beside him and scooches so close that Luffy is practically sitting on him.

"Hey Luffy, did anyone tell you yet about how I took down one of the officer fishmen?" He starts and Luffy is distracted as he gives Nami his arm to start wrapping.

"No, did you really?"

"Yeah! You wouldn't know because you were still stuck underwater but everyone saw when I took out one of their head fighters, Sanji and Zoro had to team up for the other two but I took mine down all by myself!"

"That's really cool!"

"You bet it is! But it's not even the greatest thing I've done on this island!"

And so Usopp starts talking about the fields of rice that he defended from an army of frogs that wanted to use the paddy fields for their new pond.

"You're such an idiot." Nami says and Usopp quiets. "When you need help you act like it's no big deal, when you really need help you think you have to do it yourself. What is the concept of a crew to you?"

"Friends!" He replies instantly. "Friends who sail with me and go on adventures!"

"And help you," Usopp adds as Nami holds out the end of the roll and frowns first at the few inches remaining bandages and then at the places left uncovered. "A crew is there to support their captain! You don't have to do everything yourself."

He doesn't even notice when Nami finishes wrapping his shoulder until she interrupts them.

"Is there anything else I should look at?"

He thinks for a moment. He's numb enough at this point that he has to remember what parts of the fight probably left an injury and where rather than point where it hurts.

"I can do it later," he decides. "You're gonna make it hurt again."

"No, she won't," Sanji says and appears with a jug of water in one hand and Zoro half hanging off his shoulder. "Look what I found wandering around."

"I wasn't wandering," Zoro protests "The doctor left to get something but he didn't come back... He must have gotten lost…"

Zoro sinks down next to Usopp and slouches down to nap, half leaning into the sniper, Luffy shifts over so there's room.

"I brought you water Nami-swan!" Sanji coos and sets the jug down at her side. "That means it won't hurt this time, stupid." he taps his shoe against Luffy's knee. "And I found more gauze. So just tell us what needs fixing."

"Here, I think," he waves roughly at his left side, the bite Along had gotten in while he was still trying to pull down his leg for the final kick. He doesn't understand why they're all making such a big deal out of this. "But I can do it!"

"You don't get it, Luffy," Usopp laughs softly in his ear. Luffy hadn't realized how much he'd been leaning on him. "You don't have to."

Zoro grunts in agreement. And Sanji gives Nami a handkerchief to use as a washcloth.

"We'll take care of it."

AN: This chapter has probably gone through the most rewrites of all the nearly finished drafts I have right now. Like, chapter 2 had 3 big rewrites (?) but this one had like 3 entirely separate versions and then a second ending and even with all the spot edits some parts just never felt right. Anyway, it's been a long time coming but here it is! The line from the summary is one of the original ideas I had for this collection and it makes me teary to see something I've carried for so long out in the open.

Next chapter is short (original draft of this that I just liked and had the right themes so I kept it in as a bonus) (Told you this one had a lot going on) so it comes quicker! Comments fuel my fingers~