A/N: Posted on ao3 under the
Chapter 2: Nami's Explanation (posted under same title by Usopps_fables)
"Well, we should get going before we're found again" Zoro, the prior executioner insisted, turning his head to a large wooded area, located just up ahead. "There's another, smaller village through the woods there. From there on, we can just go our separate ways."
Something about that last part put Nami off, but she was still content with the plan. Though she could barely get a nod in before her eyesight got blurry and her knees became all too weak to carry her weight anymore. With no more pumping adrenaline in her system, her body collapsed on the ground, but not even the injury that came with the fall could be felt.
The sound of her body hitting the dry dirt below alerted the heedful Zoro. Not a minute had passed and already her body was sprawled out on the ground, exhausted beyond belief. "What a troublesome woman" he huffed as he crouched down. He was more surprised with how long she had stayed awake, considering what the two of them had just gone through, not to mention the horrific conditions that prisoners were forced to endure, locked up in a holding cell until their very last living day.
Treating her like a mere sack of potatoes, he threw her over his broad shoulder.
The rough feeling of his muscled shoulder digging into her stomach immediately woke the redhead up. Her peacefully closed eyes opened wide and she could already feel a painful migraine begin to form with the blood that was rushing to her head.
"Hey!" She complained as loud as her dry throat allowed, though everything came out annoyingly hoarse, her angry tone was not misheard. "What are you doing?!"
"What do you mean 'what are you doing?!'" He refuted back, the formed tick on his cheek and temple a clear sign he had lost his temper moments ago "You could barely stand on your feet for five seconds! I'm not wasting anymore daylight waiting here"
"I don't mean that!" she grumbled, straining her voice to get as much volume from her lungs as she could. "I mean why are you holding me like this?!"
"What are you talking about?" Zoro genuinely asked, finding nothing wrong with how he was carrying the squirming redhead.
"Well for one, I feel as if my head is going to burst open with all that blood rushing to it!" if not for the forming migraine, the embarrassing position-which she had no intention of voicing-would be her main concern.
He mumbled some less than kind words, though too slurred and quiet to be understood, it was apparent nothing but vex fueled remarks exited that mouth of his. But it did nothing to perturb Nami, for all the while he fixed her positioning. Her once horribly uncomfortable upside down pose was changed to a much more preferred one; sitting leaned up against his back, his strong arms firmly holding her legs in the back.
"You finally comfortable back there, your highness?"
"It'll do" she huffed through half-lidded eyes, playing up the spoiled girl act, infuriating her green haired companion. "Now let's get going! We're losing daylight here!"
Uttering some threats about dropping her off by the side of the road, he set off in the direction of the woods. The entrance to the forest was lined with tall yet tamed trees, scattered around were the remains of a substantial lumber job.
Not even a minute into the trek, the relaxing atmosphere was already putting the red head to sleep. The air was fresh and easy to breathe in, a treat for the nostrils, unlike the cell she had been held in. There, it was musty, smelly. Wafts of rotting produce and bodily waste roamed the cell quarters like a lost spirit. If not already used to the malodor, any man would gag upon coming into contact with the stench.
Before her tired eyes were nothing but green. Green trees. Green grass. Green…hair. It was as if she had entered a painting she had seen once before, the memory of its image long faded, yet its existence never forgotten. She could feel herself dozing off. Eyes blinking close, hands slipping, head falling. The last thing she could remember before drifting off was the sight of a thick trunk, carved into it, the initials of a couple who had most likely rendezvoused inside of a scratchy heart shape.
Zoro could feel the now sleeping redhead's breathing even on the back of his bare neck. To have his company fall asleep right on top of him irked him to the point where he had thought of taking a nap break himself, but he continued on steadfast, stomping around, confident in where his legs were leading them.
He looked to the azure above where the glaring sun held strong in the sky. There was still plenty of time before nightfall. The woods were just as safe as they were in the daytime, but with no source of light, it would trouble even the most superb of navigators.
Not for a moment did Zoro ponder if where he was bringing himself and his currently sleeping cargo to their set destination…not even when the temperature began to drop, his legs began to feel weaker with each step, and the sky turned a deep amber color, the blazing sun falling at one side while the moon rose on the other.
He could feel his passenger shifting, quiet waking moans left her mouth, followed by a wide yawn.
"Sleep well, princess?" Zoro spat, relinquishing all peeves that had built up throughout his lone journey in the woods.
A tick formed on her forehead, but considering she had just awoken from a peaceful, uninterrupted sleep for the first time in some time, she really was in no mood to snap back how she usually would. "So, did we make it?" she asked, changing the topic to compose herself as he dropped her to the ground, the bitter grass tickling her feet..
The red head looked around, excited to see what kind of village they had happened upon. Was it quaint with a small population? Was it bustling, filled with hard-working inhabitants? But the scene before her silenced her thoughts. To her left were endless rows and columns of trees, and to her right, more trees and vegetation.
"So how far have we gotten? We must be close at this…" her words trailed into silence again as her eyes roamed a large tree-the familiar rough scratches of a heart containing two letters completely winded her.
There was no returning to her once peaceful state.
"Zoro" she called to her (literal) partner in crime as he casually and inattentively gandered at the scenery around him. He immediately flinched at the sight of Nami once he faced her. A horrifying aura had built up around her-so horrifying that the pits of hell seemed like a far more pleasant place to be than with her. He involuntarily flinched back, goosebumps rising on his arms "I can't believe it took you hours just to get back where we started!
The sun is setting and we have no shelter!" The she-devil ferociously exploded "We're as good as dead if someone catches us! And who knows what's lurking in the dark;a pack of hungry wolves! A hideous monster! Or even worse: spiders!" She shuddered at just the thought of spotting one of those large crawling arachnids.
'SPIDERS?' Zoro couldn't help but stare in shock, pondering how spiders were much more of a fear factor to her than some ungodly behemoth creature from the underworld.
As Nami continued rambling on and on, losing Zoro's concentration along the way, he sat himself on the comforting and spongy surface of the moss that grew at the base of the signed tree trunk, resting his back on the hard bark.
He closed his eyes, expecting her fury to burn out at some point or himself to drift off, either option was fine with him. For a moment, he thought she had finally stopped, before the day's events had rocked him to sleep. He could hear the faint rustling of clothes before hearing her voice again.
"Hey, Zoro," it was mellow and quiet. The most comforting and hushed tone he had heard in a while, not even the roughness in the back of her throat ruined the sweet melody that left her mouth.
In response, he opened his eye to see her sitting on a thick tree stump, big enough to allow her to pull her legs in and hold them close to her.
"...why didn't you kill me back then? I mean, everyone laughed when I said I was framed. How do you know I'm not lying? Even now"
The hand that rested on the sheathes of his long swords rose to point to his one operating eye. "Your eyes"
"My…eyes?" Nami repeated back as she pointed to her own auburn eye.
"A friend of mine told me a while back," the greenhead looked to the sky, stars shone bright, even with dusk still in the process of turning to night as the picture of a tomboyish tween with raven black hair and prideful grey eyes streamed into his mind "'The eyes are the gateway to a person's soul and through them, you can see one's truth"
His words of past left Nami speechless. Enough room for Zoro to ask his own question.
"So, who framed you?"
His question certainly brought her out of her stupor.
A solemn air surrounded Nami as she dropped her head in remembrance. "I'm not sure who did it…though I have an idea of who it may be"
"So? Who do you think did it?"
"The only person who could"
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Zoro felt the slightest hint of guilt rushing to hear a story that must be difficult for her to recall, but he needed to know if he truly could trust this woman. He needed to know if both her eyes and his own weren't deceiving him.
"Well, my mom was a former soldier. High ranking too" At the thought of her late-foster mother, she felt a twinge of sadness, but even more, pride and ease. "That is until she found my sister and I. I was raised thinking she had found us abandoned in any old orphanage, but after some time I came to find out she had discovered us in the middle of an abandoned warzone. Everyone in that town had either escaped or died"
Zoro's once stoic expression turned to one of more earnesty as her tale went on.
"From there, she resigned, brought us to her old hometown, and settled down with what little savings she had. It was peaceful at first, until some people of a dangerous religious group showed up claiming they were 'superior'." A chilly breeze blew through the openings between the trees causing her to rub her arms for warmth. "From the moment they showed up, they were big trouble.
The leader wanted nothing but money, and if they didn't get that, they would go on a rampage, killing whoever refused to cooperate. For years, my village was held hostage by him and his strong officers. No one dared to stand up to him. All but my mom that is. But her strength alone wasn't nearly enough. She was left horribly injured. She tried to revolt a few times after that, but it never worked. Then, one day she suddenly said she had to leave. It was stupid of me, but I just had to know why she left like that. I followed her tracks as best I could and ended up in Nagagutsu. But by the time I reached her, it was too late…" the warm remembrance of the fiery scarlet-haired woman no longer felt cozy, but cold.
Zoro stayed silent as he quelled the anger that rose in him. Misfortune after misfortune. It seemed that's all her life was. There were still questions that lingered in his mind, but supposed he should let it be for the night.
A quiet sniffle came from Nami's direction as she herself tried to hide any qualms that had gotten to her. "I suppose you're exhausted from walking around all day. I'll let you sleep" she excused herself from the now wordless and sentimental conversation and sat next to the stump she occupied, resting her head on the corner where the side and exposed inside met.
"Goodnight, Zoro" Nami hummed.
"Night" he quietly mumbled back.
Some time had passed since the two said their bids for the night. Although sound asleep, Nami couldn't help but shake off the feeling he was still on high alert, paying attention to any slight movement.
As for herself, sleep eluded her completely. Perhaps it's because she had only just woken up from her own peaceful rest. A part of her wished that was the main reason, but she knew that, since retelling her story to Zoro, she couldn't stop seeing that image whenever she closed her eyes.
A cold draft blew into the small shed. Her pale hands shook as her hair blew in the bitter wind. She held her tight in her arms, giving her cold body as much warmth as she could.
Crimson covered her hands and dripped down her unsteady arms as it pooled below the bleeding woman, staining the surface of the wood beneath them.
Using the last of her strength she lifted her head up as best as she could and reached her hand up, causing more cruor to seep from her. She feebly whispered one last message before gently placing her hand on Nami's cheek. Her arm went limp and her hand trailed down, leaving a messy tracing of blood on her cheek as she stared in disbelief.
"I love you, Nami"
"Bellemere!"
A/N: Woww! I finished this chapter a day less than a month!
I hope you enjoyed this one and please R&R! Any support you give is super motivational and I'm so appreciative of the love you gave last chapter!
(P.S. next chapter will be a relaxing one. I'll try to make it as long as I can but with not a lot of drama, I can't promise lengths like these first two)