Can Life Get Any Worse?

Disclaimer: Still, I do not own One Piece. Oda does, and boy does he do a good job with it!

A/N- Just a note. Another thanks to all my fans, plus, I edited chapter 1 a bit. Just the beginning, but it does affect the story kind of. And it explains how Luffy and Nami first met… But the rest of their pasts plus everyone else's well be secret until I write them… Well enjoy chapter 8!

Chapter 8: A Travel in the Miracle Forest

Only a few sounds could be heard in the Forest of Miracles. Birds chirping, a distant river running, and the footsteps of two young teens.

"Hey, look! There's a blue one! And a red one over there…" Luffy grinned widely as he stared at the many birds in the high trees.

"Luffy! I know you're bored, but I can't concentrate on mapping out the area at this rate. I want to do it before the sun sets entirely, ok?" Nami sighed as she pulled out her pencil again, trying to draw the lines perfectly.

Luffy jumped towards Nami, looking curiously over her shoulder. "But I'm bored!" Luffy whined.

Nami sighed. "How about we sit down for a little while?" Nami collapsed onto a stump, setting her paper and pencil down for a moment.

"Um, sure. Ok!" Luffy smiled as he sat down on the ground, legs crossed.

Nami's hand went to her forehead. Wow, I wonder why I still feel dizzy. It's probably just a Caribbean headache or something…

"Nami?"

"Huh?" Nami's face looked up to see a concerned Luffy. This made her cheeks turn a slight red.

"Are you sick or something?" Luffy asked as he put a hand on Nami's forehead, not realizing that Nami's cheeks just turned a deeper shade of red.

What Nami was planning to do was calmly remove Luffy's hand and reassure him. Or the other one was slapping him hard and yell at him. Her mind went too fast, and she chose one without second thought.

"Luffy!" Nami's hand went flying across his face.

"Ouch!" Luffy rubbed the sore spot on his cheek, now forgetting about Nami's feverish state and thinking about his pained cheek.

"I'm fine, ok?" Nami managed a weak grin. The truth was; she wasn't. She knew that she was sick, but she didn't imagine it to be very bad. Too bad for her though.

"Can we go now?" Luffy asked as he jumped up.

"What? Oh sure…" Nami slowly got up, taking her non finished map and her pencil.

And so the two were walking again, Luffy soon becoming bored, once more.

"Wow, it sure does become dark fast around here!" Luffy examined.

"Yeah, maybe because it's already about 6 pm! And I didn't even get to finish my map!" Nami grunted in frustration as she tried to mark places accurately in the dark.

"C'mon Nami. It's not that bad! Maybe we should set up camp, or try to at least. And…I'm hungry!" Luffy looked at Nami with innocent, pleading eyes.

"All right! There's no hope in mapping out the area now anyway." Nami gave a long sigh.

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"Mmmm, meat!" Luffy took a large bite of the drumstick of meat. "Wanks awain Nami for lettin' me pack," Luffy gulped down the large piece of meat as he continued speaking, "some meat! It's real good!"

"Yeah, I know. Just please, don't talk with your mouth full! Don't you learn manners from your parents?" Nami questioned as she herself took a bite of a cereal bar.

"Parents? My parents are dead." Luffy didn't seem to mind when he spoke it. Many people usually didn't like to talk about it.

"O-oh. I'm sorry Luffy…" Nami said quietly. It began to make her think of her own parents. She did wonder who they were. All she knew that they were probably killed in that war and Bellemere had saved her along with Nojiko.

"It's ok!" Luffy gave a large grin as he pulled out the bone from his mouth. "I still got my brother and uncle!"

Nami managed a nod. Wow. He's more like me than I thought… She smiled in her head at the thought.

"Aw man! There's no more meat!" Luffy stated as he looked through the bag, tossing everything out.

"Luffy!" Nami quickly grabbed the tossed clothing. "I put it in there for a reason you know! And look, my clothes are all dirty now!" She gave a long sigh.

"Whoops, sorry about that!" Luffy gave another one of his grins.

"Well, now that you took the clothing out, we might as well change into our pajama's," Nami said as she stuffed the other clothing into the bag.

"Ok!" Luffy gave a large smile as he began to pull off his vest, revealing his bare chest.

At first, Nami was too stunned to react. Her cheeks again turned a scarlet red, but soon her senses caught up with her. "Luffy!"

"What?" He said with another innocent look.

"Change behind a tree!" Nami's hands were now covering her eyes, though she couldn't help but peek slightly. I mean it was kind of hard to talk to someone you couldn't see.

Luffy gave a slight frown. "Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Nami could feel her patience wearing thin. She was being calm now, but she was so close to just losing it.

"I just want to know…" Luffy sighed as he got up and walked towards the dense trees, carrying his PJ's with him.

Nami gave a sigh of relief. She quickly grabbed her clothing and changed as fast as she could as well.

This dizziness is really started to get to me… Nami tried to keep her thoughts away from her bad condition. It wasn't that bad, was it?

Nami went back near the fire set up a little while ago as she sat down slowly.

"Nami!" She heard Luffy's voice come from a deeper part of the forest. Reluctant at first, Nami slowly got up, wondering where he could have gotten to know.

"What is it-" Nami stopped short as she saw Luffy sitting at the peak of the forest. But it wasn't that that amazed her. It was the moon. A beautiful full moon high above heads, its reflection on the large sea below them. Luffy pointed his finger towards the moon.

"It's beautiful, right?" Luffy gave a small smile. "My uncle always loved it when it was full."

Nami didn't say anything. She slowly sat down next to Luffy, feeling her dizziness come back to her.

"When I was little, I always loved staring at the moon… I don't know why though…" Luffy continued to stare up at the beauty of the full moon.

Nami managed a smile. She didn't know, but she seemed to enjoy hanging out with him now.

Luffy looked towards Nami, somewhat confused as to why she was being so quiet. "Hey Nami, are you ok? You don't look so good," he stated as he noticed the redness of her cheeks.

"I… I'm fine," Nami said with a weak smile on her face. No, Luffy… I think I'm really sick… Her mind kept on telling her to tell Luffy, but she refused.

Luffy gave her a smile. "Well that's good!" He turned back towards the beautiful sky. A few light gray clouds roamed the sky, but it was mostly tinted with navy, black and deep shades or purple. He carefully removed his hat and set it to his side, making sure it didn't fly away with the wind.

Luffy's hair now blew freely in the wind while Nami stared at it in awe. She had never seen him without his hat, except for when they were seven. It was odd, since back then, Nami thought that they could become great friends. Why did he have to… She caught herself off. No… He didn't change, I did…

Nami sighed. She caught feel a few tears welling up inside her eyes, but she quickly whipped them so Luffy wouldn't see her.

Silence flowed between them from a while. Luffy decided to break it. "Boy, am I tired!" he said as he jumped to his feet. Grinning, he offered a hand to help Nami up.

Nami smiled and grabbed his hand to pull herself up. But just as she stood up, she fell. No, not because of tripping, but because of the fact that she did in fact have a fever and she was now very sick.

Luckily, Luffy acted quickly. He managed to get her before she fell to the ground. He now realized that her breathing was heaving and her cheeks were redder than before. "Nami?"

No answer.

"Nami?" Luffy shook her a bit.

Still no answer.

Luffy frowned and began to carry her back near the fire.

Once there, he carefully set her down. He sat and wondered for a moment. "Hmm… what to do…" he thought out loud.

An idea popped into his head, and soon he was rumuging through the bag. He eventually pulled out what seemed to be a red blanket. No, it was just a pair or two of Luffy's vest, clumped together. He pulled out a pair of his jeans and made it into a pillow, putting under Nami's head carefully. And soon, he put his vests on her as a blanket.

Luffy smiled to himself. "Much better! She should be better in no time!" He then remembered something.

"My hat!" He shoot up and ran back to the peak, but to his horror, it wasn't there! "AHH! WHERE'S MY HAT?" Luffy looked all over, but there were no signs of it. After an hour or so of searching, he had finally decided to give up.

"I guess I'll just look tomorrow…" He said with a defeated tone. Sighing, he made his way back to Nami, who was still sleeping, but not so peacefully.

Luffy sat himself down next to her. I wonder if she'll be ok… and I wonder where my hat is!

"Man, I wish someone was here to help me…" he moaned. He glanced over at the fire, which seemed to be almost gone. That reminded him of how cold it was. His hands quickly went around himself, hugging himself tightly.

"It's cold!" Luffy rubbed his hands along his arms, wishing it would get warmer.

"Lu… ffy…" His head turned abruptly towards Nami. Had she really just called his name?

"Nami?" Luffy rushed over to her side, but she was still asleep.

"Luffy…" She called again, her voice still no louder than a whisper.

Luffy continued to sit next to Nami. He knew that he couldn't really help, but his heart told him to stay close by Nami. That was help enough.

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The sun slowly rose across the horizon. Sunrise was truly beautiful in the Caribbean.

Luffy sat at the same cliff he did last night. He stared out at the peaceful sunrise with two things on his mind. Nami, and his hat.

A slight moan came from where Nami was, and so that was the signal for Luffy to run over to her side. Once he got there, he looked at her face, which was still red. So he didn't know much about medicine, or nothing really, but he could still try to help. That would be ok, right?

"Luffy…" Nami said in a whisper. She had been saying his name all night, along with Kaya, Kuina and Vivi. But what Luffy did wonder was why it was only him and not Sanji for example.

He sighed as he watched Nami, hoping for a miracle that would make her awake. Suddenly, there was a load noise coming from who knows where. Luffy clutched his stomach. Food…

Luffy picked himself up and sat down next to the bag, which was haft empty since Nami was still using his clothing as a bed. Just as he was about to pull something out of the bag, he heard a noise behind him.

"Luffy?" Luffy turned around to see Nami, who was indeed awake.

"Nami!" He jumped up with a large grin and ran over.

Nami couldn't help but smile as she slowly got up, but her strength was still weak, which caused her to fall back down onto the ground.

"Are you ok?" Luffy plumped down next to her, his eyes filled with concern.

"Y-yes…" Nami looked down at Luffy's clothing piled on her. "Luffy, did you put these on me?"

"Yup, sure did! I thought you might be cold, and well we had no blankets…" Luffy glanced back at the bag, then back at her.

Nami smiled, her cheeks turning a darker shade of red. "Thank you…"

"No problem!" Luffy gave his trademark grin once more as he jumped up. "Now, let's have some breakfast!"

Nami smiled and once again tried to get up. Thanks to Luffy's help, she managed to get up and walk over to prepare breakfast.

And so the rest of the day went on pretty smoothly. Nami sometimes needed to rest, but Luffy, being Luffy, didn't want to just sit around and do nothing. And so what better to do that carry her? Nami wasn't too found of the idea, but it was better than nothing.

The Forest of Miracles did serve its meaning, at least to Nami it did. It not only showed her how to get along with an idiot like him, but maybe to see a kind, caring, still simple-minded, naive, stubborn, stupid… Well the bottom point is, Nami found out that Luffy was a kind caring person after all. And who knows, maybe that will really mean something one day… perhaps sooner than she thinks…

A/N- Whew, this chapter took me a while. I just couldn't find inspiration! Well here it is, and I personally didn't enjoy it that much. I was trying to go for something else, but this was the closest it got, so I guess it's ok… Well I have pretty much the rest of the Caribbean trip planned out, but when they got back to school, I don't have that much. Perhaps some suggestions can help me, because I do want this story to continue on! Well have a Happy Thanksgiving! I will try to get a chap up during the weekend, but I got a lot of family and friend plans, so it is tentative. Until next time!