Chapter 2 – Feelings Revealed
"You like him, don't you?"
Vivi instantly blushed. "What! No, that's... that's ridiculous! Where did you get that idea from? I do not like Luffy..."
"Oh, come now," said Nami knowingly. "I'm not stupid, you know."
"I... I..." Vivi struggled to find words. She gave up and sighed with a smile that said, "Okay, you win."
"See?" chuckled Nami. "So... why? What is it that makes him so... great?" (How could a girl like this fall in love with a guy like that?)
"Well... let's see... Here, let's put it this way. Has anyone ever saved your life before?"
Nami thought about it. (Luffy... He's the only one who truly saved my life.) "Yeah..."
"The feeling that gave you, it was great, wasn't it?" "Yeah..." Nami said again, but her mind was elsewhere now...
-Flashback-
Nami falls onto her knees. All of her friends... the entire village... just rushed off to their deaths. A look of shock is frozen on her face. She starts sobbing.
Then she notices the tattoo on her shoulder. The mark of Arlong's crew. Arlong... the person who betrayed her... the person who is about to kill her entire village...
...the monster who killed her mother...
Suddenly, something in her mind snaps. She starts clawing at the tattoo on her shoulder. "Arlong," she hisses angrily. "Arlong..."
She picks up her knife... and in a fit of rage, she starts stabbing her shoulder with the mark of pure evil on it. She stabs herself over and over and over again. The dark red blood flows down her arm, covering her whole arm. She screams Arlong's name over and over as she stabs herself.
She doesn't even feel the pain... The pain in her heart is much worse.
She would have kept stabbing herself in her fit of rage... if someone didn't grab her hand and stop her.
She turns her tear-streaked face to see Luffy. His grasp on her hand is firm. She can't move it. The fit stops and she drops the knife and starts sobbing uncontrollably.
Luffy, calm as ever, just stands and watches, letting her cry.
She stops and glares at Luffy. "What are you still doing here? Didn't I tell you to leave?"
"Yeah. You did."
"So, why are you still here? Get out of here! You have no idea what's going on here! You have nothing to do with this!"
"You're right. I don't."
"Then go away! I don't want you here! Go away, go away!"
She starts throwing dirt at him. "GO AWAY! GO AWAY! Go away! Go away! Go... away... Just... go... away... go..."
She stops and starts crying even harder. Luffy doesn't move an inch. Eventually, she stops crying again and turns to look at him again, silent tears flowing down her face.
"Luffy...
"...Help me."
Wordlessly, Luffy takes off his straw hat and rather roughly places it on Nami's head. She gasps in surprise. He walks away a bit, bends down, and springs back up, shouting to the air,
"DAMN STRAIGHT!"
"Luffy..." Nami whispers.
He walks to the others. "We're going," Luffy says shortly.
"Right," Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji say in unison.
Nami watches them walk away in shock... Just like that, they go off to fight Arlong. To fight for her. They didn't even say anything. Even Usopp didn't have any doubt in his face. They are the most loyal friends she could ever have... her nakama...
(A/N- This is still the flashback.)
Later, as Nami and the villagers watch the battle between Luffy and Arlong, the two of them end up on the top floor of Arlong Park. (They're in... my room.)
Suddenly, they hear Luffy start screaming in a fit of rage.
"HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT? SHE IS NOT SOMETHING YOU USE, SHE IS NOT A TOOL!"
There is silence for a little while. Then suddenly, the walls get smashed. Furniture and papers are flying out of the room. Luffy and Arlong can both be heard yelling in anger.
"Luffy..." Nami whispers as she watches her hundreds of maps afll to the ground. "Thank you."
Then suddenly, Arlong yells something. It sounds like he is attacking Luffy. And then...
"GOMU GOMU NO..." Luffy's foot goes right through the roof, high up into the air.
"AXE!"
The foot comes flying back down. Arlong yells in pain as the foot crushes him. The whole building starts to collapse.
The villagers try to make Nami run. "LUFFY!" she screams. (No.. he can't die...) "LUFFY!"
She starts to cry again. Then suddenly, Luffy pushes a huge rock off the top of the pile of rubble, and he climbs out, scratched, bruised, and bleeding.
"NAMI!" he yells.
She turns to look at him in surprise.
"NAMI! YOU ARE MY NAKAMA!"
Now the tears really start flowing. But this time, they are tears of joy. She smiles through the tears and nods.
(Yes... nakama... companions forever...)
-End flashback-
"Hello? Nami? Are you there?"
Vivi was trying to bring Nami back to reality. She suddenly snapped out of her reverie.
"What? Oh, I'm sorry, Vivi. You were saying?"
"Well, Luffy saved my life. But it's not only that. It's the sheer, fearless determination he shows in anything he's doing. It's how loyal he is to his nakama. It's how he is so willing to protect me, no matter what the cost... like I am the most precious thing in the world to him."
Nami simply nodded. She tried very hard to keep back the tears. One escaped. She quickly turned her face away from Vivi in order to hide it.
"Nami? What's the matter?"
"I... completely understand how you feel, Vivi." (I don't believe this... Everything she loves him for...)
"You see..." (I like him for those reasons. But... now... I think I... I...)
"Luffy... saved my life before, too."
"What?" the princess gasped.
"Yeah... Rememeber how I told you he killed the all-powerful merman Arlong?"
"Yeah..."
"Well... he did that for me." She explained her history. It took a long time. By the end of her story, both girls were wiping tears from their eyes. They noticed this and smiled.
"That's amazing..." Vivi said, awestruck by the story.
"Yeah... but now... I'm afraid I have fallen for him, too... Listening to you has made me realize it..."
They both sat in silenece for a while. Nami studied Vivi. (I wonder what she's thinking now... Is she jealous? I know I am... I don't know why I'm so jealous... Is it because my instinct is telling me Luffy would prefer her over me? Nah, what the fuck am I thinking? He has no idea what's going on here! He's so immature... naïve... innocent...)
The awkward silence was broken by Usopp's urgent voice out on the deck.
"Really huge and dark storm clouds are coming our way! I can see the lightning from here... It's gonna be a vicious one!"
Sanji stepped away from the closed door to the office. (So that's what's going on... Vivi loves Luffy. And now... my sweet Nami-san does, too? What is this world coming to?) It was never like Sanji to eavesdrop, especially on ladies. It was a very rude thing to do. However, he was so worried about Vivi's strange behavior... he had to find out.
Suddenly, he heard Usopp call out the urgent warning about the storm.
"Well," he said to himself. "Time to get busy." He lit up a fresh cigarette, put it in his mouth, and calmly walked out of the kitchen and onto the deck.
