Think of a wonderful thought

Nami reapplied her lipstick, turning her head this way and that in the bathroom mirror. Outside, the airport's usual security diatribe was going on and she could hear the hustle and bustle of people. She checked her watch. 3:45. Well a little late but Sanji wouldn't mind. She leaned back and sighed. There was no hope for it. Long flights always made it look like she'd gotten run over by a bus. Normally she wouldn't care. Sanji had seen her look worse and didn't seem to care what she looked like—unless she decided to throw on a t-shirt over her bikini top. Horrors. But that was a boy thing and she'd gotten used to it. This wasn't for Sanji but…someone she didn't know.

She lifted the glass orchid out of its box and stared at it a moment. Lucci had said to wear it on vacation. She didn't doubt he knew where she was going. She went the same two places every year. But the fact that her 'contact' was here and she didn't know them unnerved her a bit. She hadn't dealt with the underground in ages it seemed and she was out of practice. Already she was starting to sweat a little. But sweat or not—she'd committed to this. With a resolute air, she fixed the comb part of the barrette in place, the light sliding off the glass, though too harshly to pick up on any of the subtle hues. Well it wasn't supposed to be pretty she guessed, just noticeable.

Nami lifted her head, grabbed her little carry on bag and walked purposefully from the bathroom. She had on her good coat, white with faux winter fox fur trim, a black pencil skirt with a little frill at the bottom to turn it from straight lined business to 'having fun' but still with a no nonsense edge, and black peeptoe sling backs with a tasteful spangle of crystal work on the strap— all free because Vivi looved her and she loooved Vivi and if she was a lesbian she'd marry her in the most gorgeous dress in all creation and carry Vivi over any damn threshold the woman wanted. Alas she was (mostly) straight and Vivi was (mostly) straight and had married Koza sometime before everything had gone to hell so c'est la vie and thank you for the shoes.

She knew some men were staring as she powered by, some women, too. But Nami would save her wink for the one who mattered, namely the lanky blond man with the yellow and black scarf who already had all her bags loaded up in on the trolley like the good boy he was. He spotted her and his face lit as he swelled up like a bullfrog.

"NA—"

She put a finger to her lips and winked at him.

"—mii-swaaaan," he said in deflating tones as she drew closer, seeming to melt at the knees despite the fact that she'd seen him dent a steel wall.

"You look amazing, Nami-swan," he said in a gusty sigh, his hips twitching from side to side. Nami smiled. She'd forgotten what Sanji could do to her.

"Thank you, Sanji."

"So elegant."

"Thank you."

"Debonair."

"Thanks."

"Fantastique!"

"Sanji…" Wow. She'd really forgotten.

"A shining star!"

"Sanji—" People were starting to stare now as he was getting louder. Damnit. Every time.

"MY HEART BELONGS TO—"

"CAN WE GET TO THE CAR ALREADY?!"

"Right away, mademoiselle!" he said, grin so wide his eye was closed. He began to push the trolley toward the exit, moving so lightly he seemed to be dancing as he giggled to himself. People watched him go. Nami rested a hand against her forehead. Why. Why were they all freaks? She sighed and, patted down her hair and continued her way outside where Sanji was gleefully loading her things onto the back of the catering van. It read 'Baratie' in fading blue letters and underneath was an annoyed fish with a braided mustache and an annoyed duck with a single curly brow. No one understood their mascots, so Zeff had told her once, but Usopp had created it so there it stayed, confusing Seattle for the better part of a decade.

She realized belatedly that she was supposed to be looking for a contact, and tried to clandestinely peer around, not wanting to arouse Sanji's curiosity. No one seemed to be looking for her. They would have undoubtedly spotted her during that spectacle if they had been. Oh well. Somewhere else she supposed. Sanji trotted around to the passenger side door and pulled it open, elegantly lifting some roses off the seat as he did so that a shower of red and white petals sprayed from it.

'It's like a broadway production,' said the sardonic Usopp part of her brain that had no business being there. 'Watch out, here comes the musical number'.

Nami gave herself a mental shake, she was going to have her fill of Usopp and more by the time this vacation was finished. She pushed that from her mind, too, and took the roses before seating herself in the van. It smelled like warm cupcakes with a faint overlay of tobacco and Nami took a deep appreciative sniff while Sanji ducked out of sight around the back of the van.

She was home.

All that was missing was Luffy popping up behind the seats, mouth full of cupcakes and asking her something, spraying crumbs everywhere while Sanji bellowed at him to stop eating shit and sit down! Sometimes Usopp would be there, too. Once they had crammed everyone in the back of the van and went for a two day trip to Las Vegas, sending Zeff into a righteous fury about not only had they hijacked the van, but had somehow coated the floor with glitter. There was still some left here and there, catching the light.

Sanji was at the driver's side door and Nami looked back out the windshield at the dirty snow that lined the sidewalk.

"Do you mind?" he asked, holding up his cigarette pack. Nami shook her head and he lit one with a match, his head bent, hair falling forward and the light catching and glossing it for just a second. In that moment, she always thought, he was the hottest guy in the world. She looked away again as he shook out the match and put the old van into drive, cursing the tires squealed a bit before the van lunked forward.

She looked from the dirty snow to the roses in her lap, still shedding petals, over the floor, a single red petal lying next to the black of Sanji's pant leg. She wondered how many old dried rose petals they'd find in this van years later. Strange how pieces of the past stayed around. Strange how the present faded bit by bit. A petal here, a cigarette there, everything living and dying at once.

"Nami?" Sanji said, warm, concerned. Nami shook her head.

"Just thinking." She yawned behind her hand. "It's been a long flight."

"Yeah I bet. Shitty planes."

She couldn't tell if he believed her or not, but as it was Sanji, it didn't matter. He was like that with his weird spazzy love and deep seated idiotic chivalry. He was like that even to men, though his tough exterior wouldn't let him show it. If it wasn't there, he wouldn't have fought her so hard about her decision. They'd started to argue it on the waning days of vacation, when everyone was gloomy and grumpy and looking forward to a life away from painful memories. It had been bitter and hard and for a while she'd really hated him and convinced he'd really hated her. The argument continued in long e-mails, back and forth for weeks. Months. They'd stop. Make up. And then start again. Escalating until Nami had nearly cracked Spandam's coffee cup over his head from all the stress of it.

And then one day, in the middle of the July heat, she'd found Sanji standing outside her apartment building, red eyed and smoking like a chimney. She'd thought the worst had happened and—in a way it had.

'He's not—gaining much weight,' Sanji had told her in a hoarse voice. In fact he'd been losing it, drip by drip. As if his body was slowly giving up on its own no matter what anyone had to say about it. He was already starving to death and there was nothing anyone could do. He'd stayed there for the whole month. And then they'd made out. And then they'd made love. And then he'd cried on her shoulder because it wasn't enough and would never be.

In the end, before he'd left on the second of August, he'd agreed. After Christmas they would do it. And then he'd left. And then she went back to her apartment, her bed still smelling of soft cologne and tobacco and cried herself sick. He wasn't even dead yet and they were jumping the gun. What idiots they all were.

"Usopp and Chopper are coming tomorrow," Sanji said. Nami looked up and realized she must have been out of it a long time judging by how far they were.

"Oh?" She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, snagging it on a weird edge and realizing it was the orchid. She took it out absently. "Have you told him?" she asked, running her thumb over its surface.

"Tried. Couldn't. Not over the phone." He took another drag of his cigarette, not looking at her. "Aah but don't worry. I'll try when he gets here."

"I'll tell him if he won't listen."

Sanji did look at her then, surprised, and then a line of tension appeared in his forehead.

"You don't have to."

"I have to." Who else could? Only three people could ever get to Usopp when he was in a state and he would be. "I want to."

He was silent for a moment, then nodded, pressing out his cigarette and resting both hands on the wheel. They arrived at Empire Suites about twenty minutes later. A hotel owned by marry me please god Vivi which meant rooms were free and they got the best ones. Sanji continued to be Sanji,loading up her trolley, refusing the help of the shitty bellboy because he was the one who was going to help Nami with her luggage and not anyone else. Though he'd tipped the guy anyway like a moron.

Once inside the room, he pulled her luggage off the trolley, arranging it just how she liked it before standing beside it, one hand wrapped around the gold pole. Nami was tempted to grab him by the collar and drag him in like a fly to her queen spider. Set him on the bed. Have her wicked way. But that wasn't fair to him and it wasn't fair to her. It wasn't love. It wasn't really attraction. She didn't know what it was, but knew it wasn't real enough to do that kind of thing

"Will you come by the Baratie tonight?"

"No I think I'll eat here."

"Going to visit Luffy?"

"Maybe tomorrow."

Silence. Tension. Two strangers not quite sure what to say to one another.

"I'll call you," Nami said, because she couldn't stand it. She wasn't sure what she would say when she called him but just saying she would seemed to be enough.

"I'll wait for it with all my heart," he said, pressing a hand to his chest and managing to sound smooth somehow. And then just before he left he delivered the killing blow. "Welcome home, Nami-swan."
And then he shut the door before she could retaliate. Jackass. She flopped on the bed for a moment, staring at the orange and gold canopy. Then she kicked off her shoes and decided to have a shower, enjoying Franky Family sixteen setting showerhead protoype A, which she knew because it said so on a plaque right underneath it—a plaque Vivi had commissioned of all things. And underneath it, someone had scratched in a crude fashion. Setting 17. Marked but do not attempt. Moron.

Once out of the shower she pulled on her PJs, missing Minky already. She tried Franky's phone but he evidently busy because it was turned off. It was too soon to call Sanji and everyone else—she wasn't sure if she wanted to speak to. So she listlessly played Angry Birds, watched some Dateline, Spandam called once, twice, five times until she'd wanted to claw her own face off, wrap the phone in it an flush them both down the toilet. But she settled for shoving it between the mattresses. By 8 o'clock, something was gnawing at her belly that wasn't quite hunger.

She closed her eyes, then got up and crammed her feet into her tennis shoes, grabbed her bag lady du jour coat and went out the door. There were no buses that ran out to the Sunshine Residence this late at night so she paid the exorbitant taxi fare, cursing the meter inwardly the whole way there.

Maple was the receptionist tonight and smiled at Nami when she came in through the doors.

"Thought I'd see you 'bout this time," she said, as she said every year, sliding over the sign-in clipboard with soft brown fingers. "He's been getting on well."

"I'm glad," Nami said as she said every year. Signing her name with a flourish.

"And tell that young man of yours to stop flirting with me," Maple said with a grin, continuing the ritual. "I'm a happily married woman."

"I'm sure he'll be heart broken," Nami said, smiling, then glancing at the time. Two hours left for visitation. She gave Maple a hopeful expression.

"You know this job runs me off my feet. I get so tired I can hardly remember whose comin' or goin'. Don't you take advantage of that and stay 'til ten, now, understand?"

"Of course not. I would never," Nami said, deciding to give Maple a good Christmas present. Something pretty but tasteful. She made her way to Luffy's room, pushing aside the growing trepidation as she went. Reminding herself what she was really here for right now. Not to worry about what would happen or what the others would think or say or do or the inevitable end— but enjoying his company just like she always had this time of year.

She traced the colorful name on his door before pushing it open the whole way into a room filled with memory. And Luffy, lying on the bed just as he'd been. Well taken care of but vacant. Nami closed the door behind her and took her time, looking at the pictures on the wall. Remembering what she'd forgotten. What she couldn't forget. What she'd never forget. Then she decided to stop treating this like a wake and grabbed a lollipop from the bedside table.

"Budge over," she said, shifting Luffy to the side so she could kick off her shoes and slip beside his quiet warmth. She stuck the lollipop in her mouth, shifted the pillow so that they could share it and turned on the TV. Christmas special, Christmas special, Christmas special.

"If I have to see It's A Wonderful Life again, I'll scream," she told him, settling finally on the Disney Channel even if there was nothing on there she'd wanted to watch. Certain people on the other hand… It was just commercials now, though, but she decided she'd watch whatever was on—so long a is wasn't A freaking Wonderful freaking Life. Or Die Hard. Why was that considered a Christmas movie?
Nami sighed and shifted Luffy's hand over her shoulder, absently feeling the soft pads of his fingers where they'd been rough and calloused before. She turned her head to look at him. His familiar profile, smaller now. Looking more like a kid then he had even when she first met him despite the height difference. She pulled the lollipop out of her mouth, sucking the excess spit off it.

"This is root beer," she told him. "Want to taste?"

Which, of course he did. He was Luffy after all. She carefully pried his mouth open and rolled the candy on his tongue. It didn't so much as twitch. His breath didn't change. His eyelids didn't flicker. His finger didn't twitch in a sudden feeble burst toward life. The show was on now, some cartoon, chattering mindlessly behind her and she was fine until the music started and sent a wave of feeling through her brain.

Oh no.

'Think of a wonderful thought. Any merry little thought. Think of Christmas, think of snow, think of sleighbells off you go like reindeer in the sky. You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!' They chorused happily. Peter freaking Pan. Nami sighed and pulled the lollipop out of Luffy's mouth, shifting back to watch beside him, tempted to change the channel, but she wouldn't because she'd promised. Even if it had been a quiet promise. Man, though, what she wouldn't give for some of that pixie dust.

It was a beatuiful day, don't let it get away

It's been a little under 48 hours and Nami has changed her opinion about her new companions about as many times. At first she had been convinced that Zoro was the ringleader of this operation, leading two otherwise innocent kids into a felony. But who wouldn't make that mistake. To anyone with just the time to take a look, he seems like the kind of man who would be in charge of any situation. To anyone who had spent any amount of time with him however… And then, she'd thought that they were just a ragtag group of runaways, tailing along behind Zoro like remoras with a shark—but that's wrong, too. At least in Luffy's case.

Nami wraps her arms around her knees and shifts her weight on the creaky bed, trying to avoid the spring that's been poking her in the butt for most of the night and watches Luffy. Usopp's age, apparently, and a shock to all, he looks just like a kid right now; his hair, mussed from sleep, looking kind of like a dandelion in a windstorm. He's watching Saturday Morning Cartoons for God's sake, holding a paper bowl of sugared cereal between his there are weird little tells about him, too. His arms look thin and pathetic, covered with band aids as they are but—sometimes when he moves, she can see the sleek play of muscle under the skin. And strange intensity aside, he's too confident to just be a runaway, too self-possessed, as if he belongs in this half world of—what, driving around and having adventures with what amounts to complete strangers? She doesn't get it.

"Oh no! Get up Optimus! Don't let that guy beat you!" Luffy says, clenching his hands into fists.

"I'm telling you, he's going to be alright," Usopp says as he picks a comb through his hair which keeps trying to escape in a wiry cloud.

"Oi, stop spoiling it!" Luffy growls at him, seeming honestly put off by it. Usopp shifts subtly out of reach and sighs.

"I'm not spoiling. I'm jut saying. It's a cartoon. They don't kill people in cartoons."

"They shot Bambi's mom," Luffy says accusingly.

"Oh, well Disney." Usopp flips a hand. "Anyway, in reality she's still alive."

"What? No way."

"Yes way. See she's actually part deer, part terminator. It's based off a true story," Usopp says with a sage nod. "I met her once."

"Wha-a-at? You seriously did?! That's so cool!"

Nami groans softly and rests her forehead on her knees. What has her life become all of a sudden? Two days ago she was the youngest in the group of dangerous adults, trying not to get killed. Now she felt like the oldest in a group of what seemed like equally dangerous idiots and she should probably feel more worried about this than she actually does. Especially since she's the lone girl in a group of guys but—

Somehow…it's alright?

This part is not alright, however, Nami thinks as she opens her eyes and looks at the ragged edges of her short skirt she's been wearing for those same crazy 48 hours. Because, wouldn't you know it? Just when you think you have it all, some idiot burns down all your clothes and all your money. She tries to dredge up some anger at him for this but it's way too damn early. Anyway, it's like Nojiko used to say. Don't get angry. Hit them over the head with a stick when they least expect it. Though in this case, hitting them over the head means taking charge of the group and herding them in the direction which will get her her ten grand back.

And she isn't going to get it looking like this. Bruises aside. She looks like a mess and they will treat her like one. So, really, there's only one thing to do. Nami stretches and swings her feet out of bed, pretending she really didn't just see a roach scuttle into the deeper shadows. It's okay she tells herself. Move on. Though she does allow herself a little shudder before pushing herself to her feet. They were going shopping! Only—she doesn't want to go out like this if she can help it.

She glances at the two trash bags at the end of the boys' bed. There are clothes in them, supposedly. A funky, musty, rarely washed boy smell from Luffy's bag because of course there is but Usopp's seem relatively newish and have yet acquired the odor that is starting to pick its way under her skin. There are Zoro's clothes, too, of course, in a suitcase in a closet— but that's entirely more intimate than she wants to get with the green headed lug.

"Usopp I'm going to borrow some clothes," Nami says, kneeling beside the bag and rifling through it. He blinks at her owlishly, the ragged ends of his story trailing off before finally saying.

"Uh…okay. Why are we going somewhere?"

"Are we going to fight?" Luffy says, perking up and nearly spilling his cereal.

"Not yet. And it might not be for a little while," she says. At least not until she can get her bearings on the whole thing. Luffy looks momentarily disappointed but then shrugs it away and grins.

"Okay."

"And comb your hair," Nami says. "You look like you just escaped from the zoo."

"I'm a monkey!" Luffy says, scratching under his arms. "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!"

"Hey monkey you're gonna spill your cereal if you're not careful," Usopp says. Nami lets them at it, picks out larger shirt and a pair of overalls since that's all the longnosed boy seems to have and makes her way to the bathroom. Zoro's still in there, just finishing shaving now, not even dressed. Honestly. Even Nojiko gets out of the bathroom faster than he does.

Nami puts a hand on her hip and tries to route him out of the bathroom with a stare, catching his eyes in the mirror. He looks at her, then looks away and even slows down. She narrows her eyes.

"Are you planning to be out sometime next Christmas?" Nami says.

"I'll be done when I'm done," Zoro says. "You can wait." He rinses off his face and then, even slower, picks up a toothbrush. It's not about the bathroom, Nami knows, but about dominance. About seeing who was strong enough to get their own way.

"I can wait but I'm not going to," Nami says. Then, trying to be a little more reasonable about it all: "You can brush your teeth out there, can't you?"

"I can but I won't," he says with the lazy air of someone whose convinced he's winning. Clearly he hasn't met her.

"I have to go," she says, trying another tack.

"You can hold it." He points the toothbrush at her. "As long as I'm wearing this towel, the bathroom is mine."

The battle lines had been drawn. Right. Nami sighs as if defeated and moves in past him anyway, putting down the toilet seat and lid to set the clothes on top of it. Then with a sudden movement, she snatches the towel from Zoro's waist, grinning as he chokes.

"Damnit! What the hell is wrong with you? Give me back my—"

"Out!" she says, cracking a rat tail at his ass without even looking at him (much).

"At least give me my pa—"

She chucks the pants at him, getting him right in the face, then giving him a bodily shove out the door before closing it. Luffy breaks into sunny laughter that she's sure can be heard through at least a few of the paper thin walls around here.

"That was great!"

"Shut up!" Zoro snaps.

"Oh, look, the carpet matches the drapes," Usopp says, giving Nami a mental image she could have done better without.

"I'm going to kill you, Usopp!"

"Put some pants on first, idiot!"

It's like a comedy routine with a one man audience. Nami grins, then catches her bright expression in the mirror and is…kind of shocked by how happy it looks. This is stupid. She needs to reign herself in. After all, she barely knows these guys. She can't let them get under her skin. She won't. She's just here for the money, and maybe a launching-off pad to bigger, better paying, things.

For all that she doesn't know them, Nami reflects, not an hour or so later, she looks damn cute in their clothes, if she does say so herself. Usopp's clothes anyway. The shirt is a little tight across the chest and the legs are a little long, but roll them up and slap her hair in pigtails and she looks like innocent Brenda Lou, off for the county fair. The flipflops she'd brought at the gas station didn't entirely bear that out, but, eh, who was counting?

Anyway, she's done and dressed so that means phase one of operation get my damn money back is completed. Now for phase two. She tugs her pigtails in place and slips out of the bathroom. Luffy is busy being distracted by the outside world, face pressed against the glass, while Zoro, sitting on the narrow cot, gives her a baleful glare. At least Usopp does a double-take and she can see his dark skin go a shade darker. She grins at him and shoves her hands into the pockets.

"What do you think?" she says, swaying a bit.

"Um…great. Full points," Usopp says. He's so lame but so cute. Nami can't help but smile. But enough of that. Down to business.

"How much money do we have, all told?" Nami asks, glancing at Zoro. He glowers at her. She stares evenly back. She can do this all day if she has to—but she's not in the mood. She fists her hands inside the pockets.

"You know this would be a lot easier if you cooperated."

"Screw you."

"Mmm, come on, Zoro," Luffy says, looking away from his nose print. "We promised." Zoro sighs and sits back, regarding her.

"About six hundred."

"Give it," Nami says, holding out a hand.

"What, all of it?!" Zoro snaps and she nods. His teeth clench and she can practically hear the vien in his neck throbbing. But he digs out his wallet anyway and chucks it at her. She catches it easily and counts through the money. It's only about five hundred and thirty. Geeze this guy. Five hundred and thirty is not about six hundred. It's not anywhere close! With estimates like that, they're probably leaking money right and left. The thought leaves her a little lightheaded.

"That's six hundred out of our debt," Zoro says.

"It's five hundred and thirty and this doesn't count toward the debt," Nami says.

"What?" There goes that vein again. "What's it for?"

"Business expenses."

"Listen, you—" Zoro says, surging to his feet. Nami feels her own irritation splinter and crosses the distance to poke him in his big meaty dumptruck shoulder.

"No, you listen. How long have you been circuiting? Two years? Three? And you're still doing the podunk arenas in the middle of nowhere!"

"So what?"

"So I'm not going to wait 'til I'm fifty to get my money!" Insults flair to the tip of her tongue but she holds them back and tries a different tack. "Listen, even office jobs give you a desk."

"So you're going to buy a desk?" Zoro says accusingly and Nami feels something splinter.

"Of course I'm not going to buy a desk! Why the hell would I buy a desk?!"

"You're the one talking about desks not me!"

"I'm talking about business expenses!" Ugh. This is already going to be such a headache. "Look, what is it you want? Money? Fame?"

Zoro looks at her a long moment. She doesn't know what to expect but if he says anything about desks she'll clobber him. Instead he sighs and rubs the back of his neck.

"That doesn't matter. Just stop trying to swindle us."

"I'm not trying to swindle anyone."

He gives her a look that reminds her that he doesn't know her any better than she knows him. Which—well it's not as if she hasn't swindled criminals in the past, but this is different. They're different somehow. But she doesn't want to dwell on that too much.

"Zoro," she says, his name sounding weird on her lips but it gets his attention which is the point.
"Everything I worked for was tied up in that ten grand."

"You've said."

"Just listen," she snaps and miraculously he closes his mouth. "What I'm saying is, I worked for that ten grand. I know how to make money and I know how to make it work for me." She taps the wallet against his chest. "You guys are the ones going to make it happen for me so of course I'm not going to swindle you. I need you to trust me on that."

"What business expenses?" he mutters, shoving his hands into his pockets. She can see him giving in though, bit by bit.

"Right now, clothes chiefly." She holds up a finger as he gives her a sharp look. "This is the only other outfit I own and it isn't even mine," she says. "Besides which, if you want me representing you, I can't look like a bag lady."

He's watching her. She can't read his expression entirely but it seems like he's on the edge of a decision. Whether or not to go along with this. To trust her. His gaze is intense in a different way and she meets it even though she feels a kind of weary irritation knot in her chest. If this is going to be how it's like every time…

"Zoro," Luffy says, no louder than normal but his voice seems to fill the room. Zoro looks back and Nami looks around his shoulder to see Luffy sitting in the window, the light filtering him from behind.

"It's okay," Luffy says. "Money is just money. Don't worry so much."

Money isn't just money. It's never just money. Nami keeps her mouth shut, though, as Zoro sighs, shoulders slumping.

"Yeah, alright," he says, flopping in the chair—and just like that, the tension began to leak out of the room like a slowly deflating balloon. Nami puts a hand on her stomach and looks at Luffy whose head is turned as he looks out the window. Just who is this kid, really?

The strip mall can barely be constituted as is a Dollar General, a Good Will and a tired old laundromat but the rest of the storefronts are empty, the sunlight glancing off of their darkened windows and empty rooms. As if to make up for all this misery, a small dilapidated playground with a hooded slide sits off to one side of the rutted parking lot— that Luffy bolts for the minute he's out of the car.

"Woohoo! Comon'!" he cries, though who he is saying come on to isn't entirely clear. Zoro shrugs and ambles his way to the sagging splintery bench. Nami half expects Usopp to go tearing after them but when she looks at him, he's chewing on his lower lip, glancing at her and then looking away. Does he want—to come with her? She's kind of touched, but then again isn't sure if he wants to come with her for her, or to not have to clown around on a blisteringly hot playground. Either way, she wouldn't mind the company.

"Would you care to be my escort, kind sir?" she asks, fluttering her eyelashes at him. He grins at her, then straightens and bows stiffly, saying in a deep voice.

"I would be honored." And unexpectedly offering his arm like a true gentleman. Nami takes it and together they wend their way through the searing heat into the bastion of cool that is the Good Will.

"You can count on me to find all the best clothes," Usopp says as they come to a long rack in the center of the store. "I'm a Good Will expert."

"Really." Nami says with a slight laugh, pulling out a pair of MC Hammer pants and making a face. Why was this ever a style?

"Oh yeah, me and my mom used to come here all the time."

Nami pauses in the middle of hanging the pants back up. His mom, huh…? Come to think of it he's a lot different than Luffy. Like he really doesn't belong with these guys but got picked up somehow. Usopp looks at her and she pretends to have been looking at the pants before putting them away and thumbing through the selection of jeans. She really shouldn't say anything. It isn't her place and she doesn't want to get any more involved with these guys unless she has to but—

"Hey, listen…" Nami starts. Hesitates, then plows on. "Don't you think your mom is worried about you?"

"She's um…gone…" Usopp says fingering the sleeve of a glittery silver shirt. "A long time ago now..."

"Oh…" She pushes aside another pair of ratty jeans. "Mine, too." Sort of. Kind of. Effectively anyway. She's long since come to accept it. Though Nojiko still struggled which probably makes her a better person. She's not a criminal anyway.

"Sorry to hear that," Usopp says.

"Yeah, you too," Nami says.

"Yeah…"

She takes out a skirt, wrinkles her nose at the moth eaten hem, and puts it back. Usopp is still sorting through clothes but Nami can't tell if he's looking for her or just looking. She doesn't know much about him other than he can run fast and is pretty good with a fire extinguisher.

"How did you get hooked up with these guys anyway?" Nami asks, selecting a cute orange top and draping it over her arm.

"I don't really know. I mean they were just passing through and things happened. It's kind of weird."

"What they just stopped by your doorstep and took you?" Nami raises her eyebrows.

"Ah, no I was already um…adventuring." He scratches the side of his nose. By that, she guesses he means, running away. Or maybe running to? New York, Luffy had said. But it would take them months to get there at this rate.

"Think you'll go back?" she asks carefully.

"No… Well…maybe… I mean, I don't know… I was fine until weird man-cage, but now…" He shrugs. There is a moment of silence in which she can very faintly hear Luffy's voice, calling something. How can he have so much energy on such a hot day?

"…You think I should?" Usopp asks.

"Go home? Definitely," Nami says. No matter what had driven him out, she's sure that someone misses him. She's also sure that he's going to get crushed if he stays around here. No matter how cute Luffy can be, he's still mixed up in the circuit. Trouble is going to come out of it sooner or later.

"It's because I'm dead weight, right?" he says and she feels another jolt of wishing she hadn't said that.

"Usopp…"

"Because I'm not. I'm a champion at the slingshot. No really," he says when she opens her mouth. "I have a ribbon and everything. I mean it was sixth grade but I've only gotten better since then. Or I can draw signs or—I dunno— carry bags or something. I used to be a porter for the embassy, you know, and won employee of the year five times in a row."

"Look, it's—"

"I'm not a loser," he says. There is a wounded look in his eyes that stops her from saying anything more. This kid has issues. He has issues and she doesn't want to deal with them. She's not even sure if she can. She has work to do, damnit. Money to get back and build up. A cure to find. She doesn't have time to deal with a no account kid who is older than she is but still seems like he's twelve and needing someone's hand to hold to cross the street.

She tries to build the anger up but it just won't hold and it makes her tired. She can't even think of something cruel to tell him to turn him away. Well she can but—what's the point? If he ran away to prove himself to someone, he's only going to run somewhere else and now that he's been caught once by Foxy, it's going to be dangerous for him out on his own.

She adds a few more clothes to her selection as she tries to figure out what to do with him, to slot him into her plan. She's not even sure how to slot Luffy into her plan since, most of the time, a D ranked fighter is more money than he's worth unless you want to invest to train him up, which she doesn't. She spots a cowboy hat sitting on top of the rack and inexplicably gets an idea.

"Here," she said, putting the hat on Usopp's head and stepping back to assess the effect. "You can be Luffy's MC."

"MC?"

"Yep. You'll announce him at the beginning of his first match. It sounds easy but it's actually a pretty flashy job so you'll have to have a lot of stage presence."

He looks dubious at this and tugs on the brim of the hat. It looks good on him, but not enough. She'll have to build something up for him, too, eventually. Spend money to make money, as they said.

"Is that really important?" he says. She nods.

"So important that I'm willing to give you" 10…5… "two percent of the profit from whatever we make." See Nojiko? She's done her good deed for the day. Usopp still doesn't look as if he believes her but he'd better because she doesn't have it in her to try any harder. He has problems but so does everyone. It will all work out. She's determined it will. No matter what shape she has to pound them into to make them fit, everything will turn out for the best.

The bells above the door jangle and there's a Zoro filling the entrance. He looks around, spots them, and miraculously doesn't get lost on his way to meet up with them. He looks kind of haggard and Nami wonders if something happened.

"Hey, Usopp, you still have that screwdriver right?" Zoro asks.

"Yeah? Why?"

"Luffy got stuck in the slide."

Nami stares at him, waiting for the joke, realizing there isn't one and turns her head to go back to shopping. It'll work out. It will. Somehow.