Chapter 3 A Cold Night

Nami shivered. Brrrrrr! It's getting really cold out! Nami reached behind her to wrap Luffy's arms, which seemed to have fallen off of her, around her again. But to her surprise; nothing was there.

The girl sat up quickly to look behind her. No one was there! Oh no! Nami thought. What if that creature found us and took Luffy!

Nami rushed to get out from behind the waterfall, shouting his name. "Luffy! Luffy!"

When she was out she was relieved to find him and a bit embarrassed as well.

Luffy was in the water, a little ways away from the waterfall, splashing around without a shirt on.

Nami carefully climbed down the rocks that led up to the waterfall until she was down where Luffy was.

"LUFFY!" she screamed at him.

He looked up at her. "What?"

Standing right in front of him made her realize he wasn't wearing a shirt again. She blushed a little and put a hand up to her face so she wasn't staring at his half naked body.

"What are you doing out here!" she asked, peaking at his face through her fingers.

"Why?" he grinned, "Did you miss me?"

Nami groaned a little and tried to cover the fact she was blushing even more now. "What's the matter with you! Do you want to freeze!"

"Actually, I'm not cold at all!"

"Luffy! Do you realize that if you take one wrong step you could sink and drown!" the girl pointed out.

Luffy frowned, "Aw, come on, Nami! The water only comes up to my waist! Besides this is really fun! You should come in!"

She turned from him, "No thanks! I have more sense than that!"

Luffy grabbed hold of her arm, "Aw c'mon, Nami!" He pulled her in. Splash!

Nami stood. She was soaking wet!

"LUFFY! LOOK WHAT YOU DID! I'M SOAKING WET! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST-"

"Ha ha!" he pulled her under.

When Luffy let go she stood up again. She coughed. "LUFFY!" she screamed, wiping her eyes.

He pulled her under again.

She stood. Her wet hair hanging in her face. She spit water out of her mouth calmly, then freaked. "THAT'S IT! WHERE ARE YOU! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Luffy stood and wiped her hair out of her face. He grinned, "I'm right here!"

Nami pushed him over. He fell in a shallower part of the water.

"Ha ha ha ha!" he laughed, sitting up, "Take this!" He splashed her. She splashed back.

Even though she protested the whole thing, Luffy slowly dragged her into it. And something that seemed so stupid turned out to be incredibly fun.

The Straw Hat Crew hurried down the halls of the abandoned church. Not sure of where they were going.

"This way!" Chopper said, pointing while he ran.

Zoro came to the door first and kicked it down. "Give us Luffy and nobody get's hurt!"

An ugly pirate dressed in a sheep costume turned to them. "What is this?" the notorious pirate captain Flaffy said, eyeing the percular crew. "What are you doing here? Don't you know who I am?"

"No," Zoro answered, "and we really don't care. We heard you were holding a pirate captain here, named Luffy and we're here to take him!"

Flaffy stepped forward. "Now see here! You-" the man was never able to finish his sentence. A arm immediately sprouted from his back and began to choke him.

"Give us the chest or die!" Robin ordered.

The pirate captain growled, and kicked a huge chest toward them. They pirates approached it.

"Y-you don't really think they chopped him up and put him in here d-do you?" Usopp stammered.

Zoro sighed. "There's only one way to find out.."

He opened the chest.

The whole pirate crew groaned in discust.

"I think I'm going to be sick!" Sanji said putting a hand over his mouth.

"This isn't Luffy! What did you do with him!" Zoro roared.

"I don't know what you're talking about! I captured a pirate captain named, "Loopy" and chopped him up! I never even met a man named Luffy!"

The whole crew fell over.

"This is all your fault!" Sanji growled at Usopp.

"My fault! How do you figure that!"

"You're the one who said, we should go wherever the wind may take us! Now we're farther away from Luffy than when we started!"

"Knock it off!" Zoro yelled at them, "we're setting sail again and this time we'll go my way!"

The crew started to head out of the room.

"By the way," Zoro started, looking over his shoulder at the weirdo pirate, "you're a horrible pirate." then he left.

When the two pirates had finished their little water war they decided to rest.

The two pirates sat in the shallow water, just staring up at the dark night sky, or what they could see of it. The view wasn't perfect, tree leaves blocked their view alot.

Nami looked at Luffy curiously. A question lingering in her mind. She looked back up. "Luffy.."

"Yeah?"

"There's something I've been wondering..."

"What?"

"Well, if you can't swim, why did you even bother getting in the water?"

He put his hands behind his head, "I dunno. I guess I kind of miss being able to swim and I wanted to see what the water felt like.."

"Don't you bathe?" Nami teased.

Luffy chuckled, "That's not the kind of feeling I meant."

Nami chuckled, "Wasn't falling overboard enough for you?"

"That wasn't the same."

She turned her head, "Hmmm?"

"I mean the kind of feeling you get when you really feel the water. The way you can relax in it and sometimes feel like you belong there." he frowned, "But even when I'm in the water it doesn't feel the same. The Gum Gum Fruit did something else to me and can't feel the water like you do."

He looked at her.

Nami looked at him in admiration. I didn't know Luffy could be so deep..

He looked back up, "Maybe that's what I'm looking for.."

Nami tilted her head curiously. "What?"

Luffy laughed and sat up. "Never mind." he stood and started to walk out of the water, "It's stupid."

He's looking for something? She sat up. I wonder what it is..

Nami quickly stood and grabbed his arm, "Luffy!"

He stopped and stood still.

"I'm sorry I bugged you about it. I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for."

He turned to her. "Nami.."

Her heart began to speed up. He seemed to be getting closer to her. Is he leaning in on me? Her heart sped up even more as he got closer and closer to her face. Soon he was right in front of her face, he stopped there and just looked at her, as if he was thinking about something. Like he was debating whether to kiss her or not.

A twig snapped.

The two turned their head toward the source of the noise.

Luffy started to walk away.

"L-Luffy?"

His face glanced at her over his shoulder. His hair shadowed his face, "Stay here."

He soon disappeared into the forest.

Nami put her hand on her heart. What was that about? She put a hand on her forehead. Could he actually like me? She looked in the direction he had left in. No. That couldn't be. Her hands fell to her sides. Could it?

Another sound of a twig snapping interrupted her thought.

"Luffy? Is t-that you?"

Another twig snapped.

"H-hello?"

A hand rested on her shoulder. Her heart stopped. Her head slowly turned to it. It was a blue webbed hand. She looked up. She gasped. "Arlong!"

Arlong smiled. "Hello, Nami."

"It can't be!" she shrieked pulling away.

It was true! The evil merman that had once enslaved her into making maps, then tricked her was still alive. But how could this be? Luffy had killed Arlong. Didn't he?

He chuckled. "You haven't forgotten me have you?"

"B-but you're dead!"

"I was lucky wasn't I? You should have known that stupid kid couldn't kill your old buddy, Arlong."

She reached for her staff again only to unfortunately remember that it wasn't there.

She took a breath in and got ready to scream his name, "Lu-"

"Be quiet!" Arlong growled covering her mouth. "You wouldn't want any trouble would you?"

She pulled out of his arms, "What do you want?"

He grinned, "You should know that all ready Nami."

She swallowed.

"I know you feel really bad about what that Straw Hat did to me. So I know you want to make me lots of maps to make up for it."

Nami stepped back. Even the thought made her want to barf. "No way! I'm not your slave anymore!"

Arlong grabbed her arm. "You don't have a choice!"

"You can't make me make any of your stupid maps! You don't even have a crew anymore!"

Arlong laughed a little. "Actually I do. I'm sure you met one of my crew mates already. After all, I've been expecting you."

Nami gasped. That snake man!

"He told me he already took a piece out of Straw Hat and I'm sure he wouldn't mind finishing the job." Arlong laughed.

Nami stood still.

"I'm even going to be generous! I'll give you one more day to think it over. Meet me here tomorrow night. If you don't come I'm going to find you and kill you and that stupid kid!"

She shivered.

"Nami!" Arlong heard Luffy shout.

"Remember!" He started to walk away, then stopped "Oh, and don't tell anyone! Or I'll kill him!" he said coldly without looking back. He ran.

Nami growled. Who does he think he is! She clenched her fists. Of course I'm going to tell Luffy! Then we're going to kick his silly ass!

Seconds later Luffy appeared and he was back to his cheerful self.

"You won't believe what I just saw!" he said excited.

"Luffy-"

"Come on!" he urged, grabbing her arm.

Luffy dragged her along until they came out of the woods and onto a small cliff.

"Luffy there's something I have to-"

"Look!" he said pointing to the sky.

Nami did. She gasped. It was meteor shower! Falling bright lights zoomed through the air making a spectacular show before their eyes.

"Wow!" she gasped.

It was absolutely beautiful!

She looked at Luffy who was still watching the show. I can't tell him! I'll risk his life and he's all ready done so much for me.. Tears welled up in her eyes. She turned her head so Luffy wouldn't see them. She wiped them from her eyes, then looked back at him. The huge smile on his face made her smile a little as well. She looked back at the sky. I'll do it for him.

"Isn't this awesome!"

A sad smile shown on her face. A beautiful feeling overwhelmed her and she finally knew what it was.

"Yeah," she answered, "It really is..."