All throughout the entirety of her afternoon classes, Nami was a fidgeting mess. She kept searching for valid reasons to leave Luffy hanging and cancel their study session this afternoon but ultimately came across none. She barely settled into this new town before putting herself in compromising situations... but maybe it wasn't all that bad.
She'd be with Luffy... just the two of them... alone in his room... and-
Stop! What did you get yourself into, Nami?!
She gripped her face in her hands and groaned under her breath upon dismissal of her last class. There was no turning back now.
Nami was set on not letting Luffy distract her though. Sure, it was astonishing making new friends and all, but her dream was her main objective and the most important thing to her right now, apart from her sister. She couldn't let anything get in her way.
She stood triumphantly, the determination of helping out a classmate began coursing through her veins. Yeah... that's all he was. Her classmate... right?
Nami straggled her way back to the West Garden to see Luffy already waiting for her in the clearing, bag in hand.
"Nami!" he waved at her with a fervent smile.
"Hey. How were the rest of your classes. Good?" she asked, reciprocating the smile.
"Yeah! How about you?"
"Pretty good. You ready to go?"
He nodded. "Follow me. My ride's just up ahead." He led her through the garden and down a paved sidewalk towards what seemed to be the parking deck of the campus.
There were designated sections of the deck according to the signs. The left portion situated reglar cars or trucks and the right was strictly for two-wheel drive vehicles. Curiosity seeped into her when they turned right towards a cluster of bikes.
"Uh... Luffy? We're in the section for motorcycles."
He raised his brow quizzically at her, not really understanding what she was getting at. "Yeah, I know." he chuckled.
Her eyes immediately widened and she paled as she walked beside him. "You drive a motorcycle?"
"Sure do! There's mine right over there!" he approached a glossy chrome bike that had red flames splayed over it. Towards the front instead of a headlight, there was what seemed to be a lion's face with a pointy mane around it. Luffy proceeded to pat the lion's mane like a proud father and turned to eye Nami.
"I call it: The Thousand Sunny." he said, literal stars forming in his pupils.
"It's a really cool looking bike, I'll give you that." she eyed it closely, admiring the detailing of the flames and bezels on the dash.
"Isn't it?!" he beamed. "My friend, Franky, he's the one who designed it and built it from scratch. He's super cool, I'll introduce you one day."
She couldn't help but giggle upon hearing the way in which he spoke about pretty much anything. He was rather strange, but there was no denying why everyone was so drawn to him. In the short time she's known him, she's already become aware of his passion for life and how he voiced his excitement, even in the simplest of things. It was a quality that made those around him gravitate towards him. Nami included.
"You definitely know how to drive this thing?"
"Yup!" Luffy swung a leg over the seat, gripping on tightly to each handle bar before settling down on the black leather cushion.
"Just make sure to hold on tight to me."
Nami nodded apprehensively. She copied his movements and swung her leg over the bike, sitting closely behind him. Luffy started the bike, which caused Nami to jolt and she immediately wrapped her arms around his torso.
Feeling her tense up, Luffy turned his head to look at her from over his shoulder. "You got this, Nami. Don't let me go okay? Hold on as tight as you can."
"Okay." she croaked and nodded quickly.
Her heart was about to burst right out of her chest and what left her puzzled was that she was unsure if it was due to fear of falling off Luffy's motorcycle, or the proximity in which she sat behind him. It didn't take long for her to feel the heat radiating off his back and Nami marveled in the sensation.
"Ready?" he shouted over the revving of the motorcycle.
"Ready!" she shouted back, tightening her hold around him.
And with that, they were off.
Shutting her eyes excruciatingly tight, Nami let out a small yelp when she felt them accelerate. She'd never been on a motorcycle before, but she had to admit... it eventually felt pretty freaking awesome. Although her eyes were still clamped shut, she felt invigorated as the thrashing breeze blew throughout the length of her ponytail, making her feel as if she were flying.
"You okay?!" Luffy shouted.
"Y-yeah!" she retorted. Feeling a rush of adrenaline, she decided to peek at her surroundings through half-lidded eyes and immediately, she became fascinated with the world around her. Leaves were fluttering about and the sunset in the distance began to fade. The streetlights glowed dimly against the hues of pinks and blues and eventually the lights swiftly meshed into a straight line due to their speed.
Nami gained sufficient courage to lift her head upwards to observe how they zoomed past the clouds above them and she inhaled the fresh air deeply, releasing a laugh, which made Luffy smile widely to himself.
When they finally reached their destination, Luffy gradually pulled onto a concrete driveway that led to a beautiful modern looking townhome, which she remembered him mentioning was shared between him and his two brothers.
"So? What did you think of your first motorcycle ride?" he snickered, helping her move off the bike.
"It was so cool, Luffy! I loved it! And thanks for not letting me plummet to my death." she laughed, now smoothing down her disheveled tresses.
"You're welcome." he smiled.
The way Luffy's gaze lingered on her, made her shiver. There was this look in his eyes. A look that left her feeling breathless and intrigued all at once.
And she also felt like these feelings were
...unexpected.
In the diminutive amount of time she had lived in this new city so far, Luffy had already given her more thrills than she'd felt in a very long time. And although she was very much enjoying herself, she also felt extremely conflicted. Her entire life, she never made room in her heart for friends or romantic interests.
Going through the loss of her mother was excruciating, so rather than developing deep connections and investing her feelings into new relationships, she'd decided on safeguarding her heart, not even risking having to endure the pain of loss all over again. It was easier to just immerse herself into her studies in hopes of gaining enough knowledge that would ensure she'd reach her dreams, something that was within her control.
But damnit Luffy... he was making everything extremely difficult for her right now.
The pair sauntered inside through the front door and Nami was pleasantly surprised. For a place that was occupied by three men, it was very well kept and splendidly decorated.
"Your home is beautiful, Luffy." she said in awe and her eyes scanned it's surroundings.
"Thanks! But you can actually thank your sister for that. She pretty much helped us decorate this place from top to bottom." he chuckled, leading her to the living room.
"Why am I not surprised?" she laughed.
As they approached the living room, Nami was met by a man with wavy blonde hair and he looked slightly older than Ace. He was sitting on a recliner in the corner of the room, reading what Nami made out to be as "The Rainbow Mist", one of her favorite books.
"Yo! Sabo!"
Sabo sat up in his chair when he noticed they had company. "Welcome home, Luffy. Who do we have here?" he folded a corner of a worn page in his book and shut it, placing it onto the side table next to him.
"Hello, My name is Nami." she smiled, courtly bowing towards him.
"Oh hey! I'm Sabo. You're Nojiko's little sister right?"
"That's me. A pleasure to meet you, Sabo. Also, I must say; you have exquisite taste in books. 'The Rainbow Mist' is one of my favorites."
"No kidding! That seems to be the case for me as well, it's my fifth time reading it."
"Well then you definitely broke my record." Nami chuckled.
Sabo must be the black sheep of the family seeing as how he definitely had more of a "bookworm" vibe to him.
"Now I must say; you're absolutely stunning. I assume you're already in a relationship?"
Nami blinked, her jaw slackening a bit. It took her a moment to register what Sabo had asked but when she finally did, her cheeks reddened. The eloquence in which he just complimented her... definitely took her aback.
Is everyone in this family just flat out attractive?!
"Oh uh, n-no I'm not." she replied, laughing awkwardly.
"Really? That's interesting." he gazed at her, his lips forming a small smile.
"Good talk. Let's go to my room, Nami." Luffy said aloofly then immediately reached down to grab Nami's hand, tugging her out of the living room and up the flight of wooden stairs.
"Let me know if you need any snacks!" shouted Sabo at the receding pair before chuckling mischievously to himself.
"Come on in, Nami." Luffy opened the door to his bedroom and flicked the light switch on, Nami trailing behind him before he closed the door shut.
"Thanks."
She took a moment to examine his bedroom. It was tidy and the air smelled of him. A scent she made out to be reminiscent of the ocean and firewood. It seemed like a typical guys room. There was a decked out gaming desk in the corner next to a bookcase full of manga. His bed was on the adjacent side of the room below his window, and in the center of the room was a coffee table with a few text books and notepads scattered on it.
"I see you've been studying pretty hard already." she chuckled, leisurely making her way over to the coffee table to plop down on the floor.
"In vain, unfortunately. I didn't understand a thing." he said, plopping down right next to her.
"Well that's okay. That's what I'm here for." she grinned at him reassuringly before reaching for his Calculus textbook, setting it atop the coffee table.
"Where are you guys at in the book?"
"Chapter 10: Parametric Functions." he stated comically, displaying the imaginary words in the air as he spread his hands hands apart which caused Nami to giggle.
She flipped the book open and gave it a quick glance. She was in AP Calculus, meaning that Luffy just snagged himself the perfect tutor. She knew the material like the back of her hand. So she explained the lesson plan as best she could, breaking it down in ways Luffy would understand and they went to work. After two hours of explanations and solving practice questions, things seemed to be clicking for him.
"Okay Luffy, so we need to turn this into a rectangular equation in terms of 'Y' and 'X'." she said, pointing to a problem inside the text book with her pencil.
He nodded. "So I gotta solve for 'T' right?"
"Right, go ahead and try to work it out in your notebook."
"Okay." he began jotting down the equation.
All the while, Nami peered up at him quickly to catch him biting his bottom lip as he was deep in concentration. She scanned his face, and was curious to find out how he got his scar. She also noticed that his eyelashes were pretty long too.
He really is cute.
"Like this, Nami?"
She immediately darted her eyes back down, not wanting to get caught and shifted a bit closer to him, leaning over to inspect his work.
"Perfect, so you're going to want to add '1' on both sides."
"Ohh okay, hold on." It looked like a light bulb flashed in his head, and he continued to work vigorously. "So 2x plus 2 over 3?" he asked in a hesitant manner.
Nami beamed like a proud mother. "Looks like you're absolutely right."
"Woah! No way! Seriously?"
Nami nodded, grinning from ear to ear.
"Nami, you're amazing! You should teach my class instead of that old fart Vegapunk." he snickered.
She playfully rolled her eyes. "I'm flattered, Luffy, but I'm nothing special. You're just a great student."
Instead of responding, he propped his elbow atop the coffee table and held his chin in his hand, taking a moment to bluntly gaze at her with a small smile on his face.
"What?" she asked amusingly, the corner of her lips tugging into a grin.
He slowly straightened back up, regarding her seriously. "You're pretty special in my opinion."
Her lips parted slightly and her heart began to thump incessantly against her rib cage. Luffy's entire demeanor had changed, and his onyx eyes held an unusual glint that Nami couldn't decipher.
Only when she saw his eyes flicker to her lips was when she snapped out of her daze. She told herself that she wouldn't let Luffy distract her yet here she was, completely captivated by his eyes and curious to find out what his lips tasted like.
Pull yourself together, Nami.
She cleared her throat and turned her attention back to his textbook in attempts to compose herself.
"Why don't you go ahead and work on this one too?"
"M'kay."
Her heart would not stop racing and then she thought... perhaps she was the one letting herself get distracted by nothing. The lack of human interaction was making her delirious and now she was overthinking his intentions. Yeah, that's what it was.
After a minute there was a light knock at the door.
"Come in!" shouted Luffy.
The door creaked open and Sabo popped his head in. "Hey Nami, your sister just dropped Ace off and wanted to know if you'd like a ride back home."
"Oh, sure. I should probably get going anyway." she said, standing up from her spot next to Luffy.
"I'll walk you out, Nami." spat Luffy, getting ready to stand after her.
"No worries, I'll show myself out." she said with small smile causing him to plop back down on the floor. "Good work today. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah. See you tomorrow." he smiled.
Sabo opened the door all the way and stepped aside to let her through.
"Good night, Nami. It was a pleasure meeting you."
"Likewise, Sabo. Good night." she bowed slightly before retreating down the stairs.
Once Sabo heard the front door close shut, he immediately barged inside Luffy's room, taking a seat across from him on the floor.
"Man. You got it bad don't you?"
Luffy's brows furrowed slightly and he began to clean off the coffee table, not really in the mood to be teased. "I dunno what you mean."
"Oh, come on! Don't give me that. You're obviously head over heels for Nami." he smiled roguishly.
"Like I said, I dunno what you mean."
"Oh really? Well then. I guess I'll just take her for myself. I mean, she's smart and beautiful? I'm surprised she isn't already in a relationship."
Luffy's head immediately snapped up in his direction. "What?"
"Yeah. Maybe I'll just text Nojiko and ask her for Nami's number so I can ask her out."
"Sabo!" his face twisted into a pout.
"What? You don't like her, do you?"
"Of course I like her! I just..."
Sabo raised a brow questioningly. "You just?"
"I just... don't think she feels the same way." he said, raking his fingers through his hair frustratingly.
"To be honest with you, I don't think that's the problem."
"What do you mean?" Luffy looked at him, his lips forming into a thin line.
"Before Nami moved here, Nojiko told me how worried she was about her."
"Worried? How so?"
"Well apparently Nami took their mother's death extremely hard. She closed herself off to the idea of friends or just having fun in general and she's been alone ever since. She doesn't want to get hurt again and the easiest way to do that is to push people away is what I suspect."
Guilt flashed across Luffy's face and he crossed his arms against his chest, sighing deeply. "What should I do, Sabo?"
"You want my honest advice?"
Luffy nodded.
"Keep doing what you're doing. Get her to open up and show her what it means to have friends and feel loved. You'll win her over eventually."
"...I hope you're right."
"Hey kiddo."
"Hey." Nami smiled at her and climbed in, settling in her seat inside the car before they took off.
"How was the study sesh?"
"Fine."
Nojiko furrowed her brows questioningly to herself.
"Just fine?"
"Yup."
Something wasn't right but she didn't want to pry so she decided on not interrogating Nami further.
A few minutes of silence went by and let's just say, Nojiko's maternal instinct took over. It wasn't like Nami to not even utter a word at this point so she gave into her curiosity.
"Nami, are you sure?"
A moment went by with no response and before Nojiko could repeat herself, Nami began.
"Y-yeah... I uh..." her voice broke and without even realizing, tears began to plummet down her cheeks.
Immediately Nojiko whipped her head to see Nami crying and she pulled into the nearest parking lot, shifting the gear to park.
"Nami, what's wrong? Who's ass do I have to kick?"
"N-no one's... Nojiko I..." She said shakily, unable to control her tears. They just kept falling to no avail and she felt a crushing weight against her chest.
"Talk to me, Nami." Nojiko unhooked her seatbelt and turned in her seat, reaching out to hold Nami's face gently in her hands and began wiping away at her tears.
"Nojiko, I- I think I like him."
"Who?" She inquired, making sure she heard Nami correctly.
"...Luffy."
Nojiko's frown flipped, and she couldn't refrain her lips from forming a smile that threatened to leave her face.
"You do?! Why are you saying it like it's a bad thing?"
"B-because... I promised Mom." She chocked out and at this, Nami brought her hands up to her face, trying to silence the sobs that inevitably escaped her.
"Oh, Nami... Come here."
Nojiko shifted towards her and pulled her into her arms, her own tears trailing down one after another. Seeing Nami this way... it completely broke her. Nami was shaking, and wailing uncontrollably. The last time Nojiko saw her little sister break down like this, was the night of their Mother's funeral and she feared it would happen again eventually. All the pent up emotion that her little sister constrained, was now toppling over.
"Shhh." she cooed, rubbing circles along her back. "Take a deep breath."
After Nojiko felt her sobs cease, she gave Nami one final squeeze before pulling away to regard her.
"What do you mean you promised Mom?"
"I promised her I wouldn't let anything get in the way of my dreams and... and I just can't go through more heartbreak."
"Who says love or friendship has to be heartbreaking?" she asked softly.
"Nojiko... Look at what happened to Mom. I can't lose anyone else." she said, too ashamed to meet her gaze.
"Nami, look at me. What's the point of busting your ass to achieve your dreams if you don't have any loved ones to share your dream with?
Nami opened her mouth to speak but Nojiko quickly cut her off.
"And I mean besides me. You know I'll always be here for you but eventually our family is going to grow. I'm going to get married and have children of my own and I won't always be able to dedicate my free time to you. And you know how it felt like to be alone back at home, Nami."
Nami's brows furrowed, pondering over what her sister what saying.
"Nami. If Mom could speak to you right now, I'm certain she'd tell you to start living your life. You deserve to have friends and be loved. You can't let fear hold you back anymore."
She encased her hands over Nami's and soothingly used her thumbs to stroke her knuckles. "Life is about taking risks. What if you miss out on the best experiences in life out of fear, Nami? Yeah, Chasing your dream is important, but so is your happiness. Remember, I'm here for you. Whatever happens, we'll get through it together."
Nami spent the rest of the car ride contemplating what Nojiko had told her. Thoughts were flooding her mind and all she could think about was the direction in which her life would trudge towards if she decided to distance herself. She'd definitely spare herself the heartache, but…
would it be worth it?
Was Nojiko right?
Would Nami be happy as a famous cartographer, but a lonely one at that?
After her Mom had died, she spent all her time and energy into avoiding connections, but maybe she would entertain what Nojiko said... for now... just to see how it goes.
Upon arriving to their flat, Nami indulged in a much needed shower to calm her skittish nerves. Afterwards, she sat at the foot of her bed, drying her hair with her towel when she heard her cell phone ring. Swiftly, she crawled across her bed towards her nightstand and eyed the caller ID.
I don't recognize this number...
"Hello?"
"…Hi, Nami?"
She immediately recognized his voice and a smile began to slowly plaster across her face.
"Luffy? Sorry I haven't had a chance to save everyone's number in my phone. Is everything alright?"
"Yeah! I just wanted to make sure you got home okay."
"Yeah, I did. Thank you for asking." she said, her smile growing wider.
"I also wanted to thank you for tutoring me today, you really helped me out."
"Don't thank me just yet, you have 3 days left until your exam so we can cram some more study time in." she giggled softly.
"That would be great!"
"Good. It's settled then."
"Deal." He snickered on the other line. "Uh. Well you're probably busy so I guess I'll let you go."
"Wait, Luffy." she spat.
"Yeah?"
You could pretty much hear the excitement in his voice.
"Uhm..."
What are you even trying to say, Nami?!
"C-can we keep talking?" she asked hesitantly.
Smooth.
Nami couldn't tell but Luffy was smiling like an idiot back at home.
"I'd really like that."
At this point, Nami had enveloped herself under the warmth of her blankets. She held her phone to her ear whilst staring at the ceiling and she was smiling so hard, her cheeks literally ached.
"Say Luffy, how'd you get that scar under your eye?"
He laughed. "Uh… It's actually pretty dumb. I must have been like 7 years old. But my dad has this friend, Shanks, I really looked up to and still do till this day. He works for the FBI and he'd always talk about these gruesome cases he'd take over. Well, I went through this weird stage where I really wanted to run away from home and I begged him to take me with him on missions."
She hummed interestedly. "So what happened?"
"He usually would tease me and tell me I was too much of a crybaby to be an FBI agent, so younger me did the most he could to impress the guy." he laughed softly. "We were all out at a fancy restaurant celebrating this new promotion he got and I saw a sharp knife sitting on the table so I stabbed myself with it just to prove to him I was tough."
Her jaw dropped and she breathily gasped into the phone. "Oh my god, Luffy that's crazy! And I'm sure it was super painful!"
"Tell me about it. There was blood everywhere and needless to say, the fancy dinner was ruined. My dad and Shanks had to rush me to the hospital and I ended up getting stitches. I was lucky I didn't lose my eye."
"So what did Shanks end up telling you?"
"He was livid at first and so was my dad but when I was a little older, he admitted to me that he thought I had grown some balls that night." he cackled. "And well, Shanks has pretty much been my mentor ever since."
She formed a tiny lopsided smile to herself and let out a breathy chuckle. "That's great, Luffy. But don't you dare ever try and pull something like that again, okay?"
Back at home, he placed a hand over his heart and nodded firmly. "You have my word."
"Good. So why did you want to run away from home?"
"Oh, that. Well…" he laughed awkwardly. "My dad has always been a super busy guy and I didn't have a mom so my grandpa basically raised me. Ace and Sabo weren't able to be around when I was a kid so it was pretty weird seeing the other kids in school grow up with a loving family around. My grandpa, uh… he's an interesting guy. He'd usually put me in dangerous situations on purpose so I could 'man up' as he'd like to say."
"What kind of situations?"
"Like this one time, I finally thought he'd come around when he said we'd be going camping? Well it turns out I was totally wrong. He left me there in the Forrest with no food or water for like 3 days so I could learn to survive on my own."
"What??" Nami's eyes widened erratically.
"Yeah." he snickered. "Don't worry, he's way better now. But it was pretty hard dealing with it as a kid. So I thought I was better off going with Shanks."
In that moment, Nami felt guilt churn within her gut. Luffy's childhood was just as bad, if not, probably even worse than hers. She was beyond appreciative that she at least had Nojiko always by her side and they never lacked anything. And she had always been so focused on her own misery, that she failed to see she wasn't alone.
"I'm sorry, Luffy. That doesn't sound like the ideal childhood."
"It's alright, Nami. I am thankful to some extent. I definitely learned how to take care of myself and I know what if feels like to be lonely and misunderstood. And I refuse to let anyone feel that way. Especially you."
Her smile basically threatened to leave her face at this point and she could feel warmth rush to her cheeks. She felt unbelievably giddy and it baffled her... how Luffy could make her smile the way she did and how he made her heart race. He's the only one who's ever elicited these kind of feelings from her.
Minutes of them rambling on about different topics turned into hours, and at some point throughout their conversation, Nami had fallen asleep. She had every intention of bidding Luffy a good night but she couldn't bring herself to do so and neither could he.
He felt drowsiness wash over him, however, before his eyes shut, Luffy placed the call on its speaker phone setting and laid it carefully on his pillow by his ear, deciding that his new favorite sound was her soft melodic breathing.
To be continued.