Alright so I lied to you when I said this was a 2-part fic. It's not anymore. That being said, I guess its a 3-part fic now? Either way, this is not the end. And I hope you enjoy it!

Liar

Part 2

"Long night?"

Nami's heart leapt into her throat and she nearly choked on it as she entered the bedroom. She hadn't thought about Robin being awake yet.

"Oh, Robin! Er, I…" Nami fumbled her words as she shut the bedroom door behind her. Robin was combing out her hair in front of the vanity mirror they shared.

"Helping a certain sniper keep watch?" Robin smiled at the navigator through the mirror.

Nami rubbed her face and shuffled over to her bed, throwing herself down onto it face-first. "Please don't tell anyone," she said into her pillow.

"Oh, so something did happen."

Nami groaned as she flipped over onto her back, looking over at the archaeologist. "If I … If I tell you something, can you keep it a secret?"

Robin's soft laughter floated across the room to Nami's ears. "I think I've been keeping a pretty big secret for the both of you this past week, wouldn't you say?"

And then the memory of Usopp shooting a man in the head returned to Nami's memory and she paled. "I actually forgot all about that."

And again, Robin was laughing. She got up and walked over to her own bed, which was right next to Nami's. Sitting down on the mattress, she folded her hands in her lap, looking pleased. "I really am glad to hear that. I worried about the both of you. Well, to be entirely honest… knowing your history with Arlong, I surmised that you might be able to handle seeing something like that a little better than him."

"How do you know about Arlong?" Nami asked, sitting up. She caught sight of herself in the mirror across the room and frowned, trying to smooth her hair back into place.

"Our cook has a tendency to lose himself in his adoration for you, as you well know. Your sister apparently informed him of your past when they were at your village. It would seem the story moved him. He has the deepest respect for you for it. I believe it safe to say that he admires you for much more than your beauty."

Nami's stomach twisted around into a knot.

"I kissed Usopp," she blurted, grabbing her pillow and hugging it to her.

Robin raised her eyebrows, chuckling a little. "Oh?"

Nami nodded and rocked backwards, falling back onto her mattress, pulling the pillow over her face for a moment. And then she threw it across the room. "It was awful!"

Robin couldn't help it - she tried to keep from laughing, but it was too much. "Perhaps he could be better with a bit of practice," she said after she calmed down a little.

Nami shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut tight. "No. No, I mean… It was wonderful. I didn't mean to! And then I did and it was so great, and I've never… Well, I didn't expect anything like that! And he surprised me - I didn't think I'd like it so much! And now I don't know what to do! And what about the rest of the crew! What would Sanji do if he ever found out!"

Robin stood and relocated to Nami's bed, sitting next to her. She gave Nami a gentle smile, sitting back. "Whatever will you do?"

"I don't know! Tell me what to do!" Nami rubbed her temples, fighting a headache that was forming.

Robin hummed and pulled her legs onto the bed, crossing them. She'd never been in this position before. In fact, she'd never had a female friend. Well. She'd hardly ever had friends at all her entire life. And now she found herself feeling like an older sister that should be giving her younger sibling comforting advice. While Robin liked to think of herself as a relatively smooth talker, she wasn't sure how to proceed. This was new to her. She took a deep breath.

"Sometimes, I think it's easy to feel alone in the world. I used to believe there wouldn't be anyone that would ever truly understand how it felt to be targeted by such an impossible enemy…" she paused, choosing her words. "The World Government… is a force that cannot be opposed. And what was more, the World Government is the main force in this world people look to in order to feel safe and protected. To most people, they're seen as the power of justice, not oppression. And so, to be an enemy of such an organization made me feel incredibly isolated.

"So you could imagine my surprise," she said, looking at the far wall, "when I discovered there was someone who knew what a cruel, unfair, nightmarish enemy the World Government could be. To know someone else exists in this world that's had their life devastated by the very people we're taught to trust and believe in… our world leaders… Well. I didn't feel so alone anymore. And it felt very nice."

Nami blinked at Robin, looking a bit confused. Upon noticing her expression, Robin explained herself.

"Franky. Franky's life was destroyed by the World Government."

Nami's mouth fell open. She immediately began wondering what else she never knew about her own crew's past.

"He told me," Robin said, examining her fingernails. "He told me after everything was over. We… talked extensively on the topic. And I cannot begin to describe the feeling of knowing that there's someone else in this world who's felt the exact same things I've felt."

"I had no idea," Nami said quietly, looking over at Robin.

"I think you and Usopp have more in common than you may have previously believed."

"What?" The navigator sat up and scooted a bit closer, wanting to know what Robin knew. What other secrets was this woman hiding?

"For example," Robin continued, and she moved her gaze to Nami, "I believe you and Usopp were close to the same age when your mothers were taken from you."

Nami's eyes widened. "… What did you say?"

"He told me when he was outside drawing once. He was sketching a picture of a woman with a long nose, and I asked if it was his mother. He said it was supposed to be, but he didn't remember her face very well. Apparently he never had any photographs of her."

"His mother's dead?"

"She died when he was very young." Robin looked away from Nami, twisting her fingers around each other. "You know, I also suffered the ordeal of having my mother taken from me when I was young. In fact, I'm not sure that anyone in this crew had the fortune of having a long relationship with their mother. Perhaps that's why we all turned out to be such surly pirates?"

Nami's mind was working in overdrive now. It'd never really occurred to her. She realized how much she didn't know about her crew. Her family. It wasn't something they talked about. The past was in the past. There were bits and pieces she knew about. Chopper's story had been revealed to them by that doctor woman. But everyone else… well, it didn't occur to Nami that there were good reasons as to why the crew never spoke up about their histories.

Nami knew Usopp's father was a pirate. Usopp had bragged about his father being a great pirate and a warrior of the sea a couple times, and she'd been there when Luffy revealed to Usopp that he knew his father from when he was a child. But if his mother had passed away when Usopp was so young, what was his father doing sailing the seas? Who had raised Usopp?

"I had no idea. God, Robin, I feel so stupid. I feel like… like I'm not a very good friend."

Robin reached out and put a hand on Nami's arm. "Don't think that. Instead, think of how nice it feels to be in the presence of people who've felt the same feelings you felt when you were at your loneliest."

Nami considered Robin's words.

"I'm not very experienced in caring for other people…" Robin said slowly, "but after everything we've been through, I think it's better to let yourself love someone… than to try to keep yourself from doing so. Even if the end result is unclear at the time."

Robin stood then and began to head for the door. But before she left, she turned and smiled again at Nami. "I'm sorry if that wasn't quite the answer you were looking for. I'm afraid I can't be of much help. I apologize."

Nami shook her head. "No. No, I'm glad you said what you did."

Robin nodded, turning the doorknob.

"Wait!"

The archaeologist paused and looked over her shoulder at the navigator.

"Are you in love with Franky?"

Robin slowly grinned at the redhead. Then she turned and left the room.

Nami smiled to herself, crawling over to lay on Robin's bed since she'd thrown her own pillow across the room.

She laid there for another two hours, unable to fall back asleep now that she had so much to think about. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when she heard Sanji calling everyone for breakfast. She frowned to herself, thinking that in the event the crew found out about what'd happened between her and Usopp, she feared Sanji's reaction the most. After all, his confessions of love were so numerous that they all ran together in her head now.

Fixing her hair in the mirror and pulling on a clean dress, she gathered herself and went to face the day.

The crew was all together, already stuffing their faces - nobody except maybe Robin had the manners to wait until they were all gathered to start eating, and in the end, it didn't really matter when protecting one's food from the captain was a very real factor in every meal.

"Nami-swan!" Sanji danced over as soon as she approached the table. "You look particularly radiant this morning!" He hurried to present her with his latest offering. Upon sitting, she noticed Usopp hadn't made his way down yet. "I've prepared Crab Cake Eggs Benedict for your refined palate. Please enjoy it, I poured my soul and my love for you into every moment of preparation!"

She looked at the food in front of her, the aroma beckoning her. She grinned up at Sanji. "It looks incredible as always. I'm sure I'll love it."

As she was speaking, she heard the door open. When Sanji received her approval of his cooking, he wiggled away, elated, shouting that nothing in the world could make him happier. Keeping her head down a bit, she tried not to be too obvious in watching Usopp's arrival to the table. He looked hung-over as shit. He might've actually still been drunk, by the look of him. But he grinned at seeing all the food, sliding into his seat. Everyone was still busy eating. Nobody hardly even noticed him. And luckily, it didn't look like anyone noticed Nami watching him either.

"Oi, Usopp," Sanji said, eating slowly as he always did. Nami's eyes snapped back to the Eggs Benedict in front of her. The cook continued, "the clock in the boys' room was involved in a mysterious accident last night that probably has something to do with our captain."

Luffy was looking anywhere other than Sanji, chewing his slab of meat noisily.

"Anyway, do you think you can fix it? It'd be nice to have a working clock in there, and we won't be at another town for another few days, according to our sweet Nami-swan."

"Oh, sure," Usopp said around a mouthful of bacon, stabbing a sausage link with his fork.

"Couldn't you fix it, Franky?" Luffy asked, spewing food from his overstuffed mouth.

"You know, I'm the most super shipwright you'll ever meet in all your years of sailing. I built this glorious ship that we live on now! But I never really learned how clocks work. I'm sure I could fix it with no problems, but it'd probably be easier for Longnose-bro over there."

Usopp shrugged, apparently more interested in his meal than who was more competent in the art of clock repair.

Nami regarded Sanji for a moment. She'd noticed that Sanji and Usopp had a relatively good brotherly-type bond. Sanji never hesitated to ask Usopp for favors like that. He'd never asked Franky to fix anything. Nami wondered if it was Sanji's way of reminding Usopp that he was useful on that ship.

The meal ended and the crew drifted to different parts of the ship to engage in their own daily plans. Usopp hadn't even looked at Nami for the entire duration of the meal. Of course, she didn't mind. In fact, she was glad. She could admit that she enjoyed the events that'd transpired in the crow's nest hours earlier. But you couldn't pay her to admit that aloud to the rest of the crew.

The day wore on. Nami spent most of it in the observation room, as she usually did. But she couldn't focus on making any maps. She couldn't focus on anything other than that God damned scrawny sniper. After finding out that Usopp wasn't always such a bumbling cowering idiot, combined with Robin's revelation about his mother, Nami's brain could only go in circles over it all.

The sun was setting when she looked out the windows of the circular room, spotting Franky tooling around with Luffy on the upper deck at the front of the boat. She chewed on her thumbnail, watching as the cyborg was showing Luffy how to actually steer the ship. This was a good opportunity.

She made her way down to the lawn deck and slipped unnoticed through the hatch that led to the Solder Dock System. As she walked through it, she remembered the image of Usopp, covered in another man's blood, rinsing himself off in Channel 3. She chewed on the inside of her lip, thinking that Usopp was probably reminded of it every day, being that he spent so much time in the Usopp Factory where the incident had taken place.

She wandered towards that room, walking softly down the stairs. She stood in the doorway of the large area he shared with Franky. And there he was in the corner at a desk, the clock that'd been in the boys' room spread out in several pieces across it. His eyes were narrowed, focused on the job at hand, spinning a screwdriver around in his fingers.

She knocked on the wall a couple times, announcing her entrance.

He looked up and grinned upon seeing her. "Ah, Nami! Fancy seeing you all the way down here." He smirked. "I knew you wouldn't be able to keep away after last night."

Nami rolled her eyes and turned right around, heading back up the stairs.

"Wait!"

She heard the sound of a chair being knocked over. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Usopp standing in the middle of the room, screwdriver still in hand. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I was joking. Please stay. I'm glad you came down here."

Nami remained where she was on the stairs, looking like she was contemplating her options. But in the end, when he asked like that… Well, she couldn't say no. Which wasn't a good thing.

She walked down the stairs and past him, over to where he was working on the clock. He followed her and picked up the chair he'd knocked over.

"This looks like a mess," she said, nodding at the inner pieces of the clock that littered Usopp's desk.

"Actually, I found the problem. I just have to put it back together now. The outside of the clock won't look the same, but I can salvage the face and make it tick again. It'll work until we can get a new one at the next town."

She leaned against the edge of the desk, resting her weight on it. He sat at his chair, picking up one of the gears and working it back into place.

"You're not bad at fixing things," she said idly, watching him. He shrugged. "You did a good job at holding the Merry together for as long as you did." He looked up at her.

"It's really weird to hear you being so nice to me," Usopp said, smiling a little. She ignored his comment.

"Who taught you to fix things?"

"Oh. Er, I taught myself, I guess."

His answer wasn't surprising to Nami, now that she knew more about him and his past. The difference between Franky and Usopp's abilities made sense when one realized that Franky had professional teaching whereas Usopp had primarily learned through trial and error.

Usopp didn't have a choice when it came to learning how to fix things around the house. He'd first faced that reality when he was still very young. During a storm, the roof had started leaking. Usopp had put down a pot to catch the water and thought little of it. But later, when the water was overflowing from the pot onto the floor, he'd realized nobody was going to fix it for him. So that was how he learned to patch a roof at age 6.

When he was a couple years older, around age 8, another sea storm had rolled in. Storms were a regular part of living on a small island in the middle of the ocean. On this particular occasion, the wind had blown the door to Usopp's house right off its hinges. Yelling in surprise, he'd tried to pick up the door and shove it back into place, but the wind was nearly blowing him off his feet, and the rain was stinging his face and arms, and he realized that even if he somehow managed to get the door back into place, the frame was broken, so it wouldn't hold anyway.

He dropped the heavy door in the living room. And he backed up a ways, so that the rain wasn't hitting him, and he sat down on the floor and watched the storm rage on. Angry tears of frustration streamed down his cheeks. If only he were stronger. And smarter. Then he wouldn't have a problem with something as simple as a stupid door. Rain flooded inside, damaging the floors. He frowned. He'd have to go and find someone to show him how to fix all this tomorrow. And he'd have to find a way to pay for it all. But nobody would give him a real job because he was too young and couldn't be of much help to anyone anyway, and the villagers could only afford so much charity. If only he were more useful. Then maybe…

"That's pretty impressive, you know."

The sniper blinked a couple times, snapping himself out of that slew of memories. He gave Nami a proud look.

"Of course it is! I'm very impressive in many aspects of life, as you found out last night."

"Stop it! What if someone hears you talking like that!" She smacked him on the back of the head and stood up, pacing around the workshop.

"I know, I know. But can you blame me? I know I'm outrageously handsome and dashing, but you … you're unreal."

Nami gave him a what-in-the-hell-are-you-talking-about sort of look.

"You're really, really hot, Nami."

She pushed him hard enough that he nearly fell out of his chair. It seemed that, when it was coming from him, she didn't know very well how to take a compliment.

And maybe that was what it was. Usopp wasn't the type to go on and on about a girl's beauty. Nami had seen clear and obvious evidence of his affinity for the gender, but he wasn't ever suggestive towards her or Robin. He didn't normally treat her like most men did. He didn't look or behave like most men she'd known. Rather, he'd always treated her almost like a sister. Was that the appeal here? It sure as hell couldn't be his striking facial features.

"It's not like you're ugly, Usopp," she said quietly, sitting back down on top of the desk and drumming her fingertips on it.

"Oh yeah?" he laughed, reattaching another piece of the clock.

"Yeah!" she said, looking irritated. It's not as if she would fall for some hideous monster-looking creep. Not that she was doing any falling. She just. She had standards!

"My nose is bigger than some guys' dicks," he muttered under his breath, and she fell off the desk upon hearing it. She sat on the floor, holding her sides, laughing so hard. He joined her, and their cackling rang all throughout the workshop.

"That's horrible to think about," she said, rubbing her watering eyes. "Stop being insecure. It's annoying. If I thought you were that awful-looking, I wouldn't have kissed you."

He quieted down. Hearing her say that she actually did it made it all the more real for him. It wasn't just some daydream.

"I just can't believe you haven't kicked my ass yet. I fully expected you to come to your senses and beat me into swearing eternal secrecy."

Nami snorted. "It's as surprising to me as it is to you."

"So what does that mean?"

She sighed. "I don't know yet."

Silence hung between them, neither willing to say more on the topic. It was one thing to blame it on being drunk and sloppy and young. But to add real emotions to the mix was a dangerous area.

"You look better than you did this morning," Nami said from her spot on the floor. "You looked terrible."

"I threw up the breakfast Sanji made almost as soon as I left the galley," he informed her, finishing up on his clock. He held it up for her to see. "Behold my craftsmen skills."

"You know, I really don't need to hear about every time you vomit."

Usopp snorted and set the clock down, turning in his chair to face her, leaning over, his elbows resting on his knees. "Is there something in particular you did want to hear about? This is only the second time you've ever really been down here."

He did have a point. Other than the other day, she'd never had a reason to go down to this level of the ship. And she didn't really know what she was doing down there. She never thought of a plan.

"Why don't you hate your father?" she asked.

"What?" It was Usopp's turn to give her a what-in-the-fucking-hell look.

"He abandoned you."

Usopp looked agitated, but Nami pressed on, "It's one thing to have your family taken from you… But it's another thing entirely to have them choose to leave you behind."

"Why are you asking me this?"

Nami stood up, looking down at him as he sat at his desk. "Because I want to know more about you."

"There's nothing to know. You already know how proud I am of my father. He's a famous pirate now! He sails on Shanks' ship! How could I not be proud of him?"

"Because he abandoned his wife and son to go be a pirate! He left his family, who needed him!"

Usopp rose from his seat, the legs of the chair scraping along the wood floor. He took a step closer to Nami, invading her personal space. "To love someone is to encourage them to fulfill their dreams, not to hold them back! You don't burden the people you love! And it's none of your business anyway!"

Nami was quiet then. She looked at the ground. Usopp backed away from her and picked up the clock he'd fixed. He wound it and set it back down.

"I'd rather be proud of him and strive to be as strong and accomplished as he is… than to hate him."

Nami looked at the clock. It was bent and cracked. But it was ticking again.

"I'm sorry, Usopp. You're right, it's none of my business." She turned and headed for the stairs, feeling stupid for being so invasive. She didn't know what she'd been thinking.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," he said as he stood by his desk. He watched her go, but he didn't make any motion to convince her to stay there. Nami had no response for him as she retreated to the upper decks of the ship. Usopp sat back down in his chair and folded his arms over his desk, burying his face in them.