Before we get down to the juicy bits, let me just give a shout-out to for contributing his awesome ideas to help the development of this story. If you guys have any Devil Fruit ideas, story line progress, characters y'all wanna suggest to me, go ahead! I'll reply to your PM when I have the time :)

Now, shoo! Read the chapter!

Chapter 4: Navigator, secured!

"Cat Burglar" Nami wondered if this was indeed retribution for all the crimes she had committed over the years, however petty they were. She had robbed, tricked and conned countless people from different islands – mainly men, since they were especially susceptible to her womanly charms and more likely to fall prey to her schemes. With a simple wink, a sway of her hips or a chaste kiss to the cheek, she would have them at her mercy, willing to offer her anything at just a snap of her fingers.

She had exploited her talent ruthlessly, milking her victims for everything that they were worth. However, she made it a point to only steal from pirates. She understood that it wasn't any better as she was still committing a crime, but at least she was stealing from people who were equally undeserving of such riches, having had obtained most of it through illegal means. It was nothing personal, really, she just needed the money to free her hometown from the clutches of Arlong, the cold-blooded – literally and figuratively – merman that ruled with an iron-clad fist and crushed all manners of resistance swiftly and without a single shred of mercy.

It had taken close to eight years, but she almost had enough. One more successful heist and she would have been done, able to buy the freedom of her and her fellow townsfolk. They would have finally been able to live without constant fear for their lives.

And of course, this had to happen when she was so close to the finish line.

Gripping onto the sides of the stolen boat for her dear life, Nami let loose a scream when the monstrous Sea King broke the surface of the water with a deafening roar that left her disoriented, partially deaf and scared out of her fucking wits. The waves its emergence caused tossed her around violently, threatening to completely capsize the boat. Large droplets of sea water rained down on her from the outward explosion, drenching her almost completely.

I'm going to die, Nami thought dazedly, staring at the rampaging Sea King mere metres away as its scaly, snake-like head swivelled slowly to land on her. I'm actually going to die before I regain my freedom. All that saving up for absolutely nothing. She felt numb, resigned to her miserable fate of being a Sea King's snack.

Still, that didn't stop her from making one last measly attempt at saving her own life. "Mr. Sea King!" she called out to the monster, waving her hands in the air as if it will make her appeal more convincing. "I'm thin and full of bones. I guarantee you won't like my taste. How about you let me go this one time? Pleeeeeease." She added on a seductive wink as well as a shimmy of her hip for good measure, though it probably just looked like a body spasm with how much she was trembling.

A second passed as the Sea King regarded her blankly, blinking several times as if in confusion.

Nami held her breath, her hand over her pounding heart.

Then the giant predator narrowed its eyes, opened its mouth, revealing an impressive row of razor sharp teeth each the size of a house and sprung towards her with another loud roar.

At least I tried. There was an ear-piercing shriek resounding in the air, and idly she recognized it as her own as she brought both hands up to cover her eyes, unwilling to watch as the jaws closed around her with a snap, and the daylight to be extinguished as she travelled down the monster's gullet –

But nothing she anticipated came.

Instead, there was a sound of solid contact, followed by a deep, guttural wailing and another splash of cold, frigid water that left her sputtering. Her eyes shot open, and she realized that it was quiet – too quiet. Where had the Sea King gone?

A quick glance around her surroundings ascertained her initial suspicion that the Sea King had disappeared, and with the immediate danger out of the picture for now, she took deep, steady breaths to calm herself down. Her pulse was still beating way too fast for her liking with adrenaline skirting through her veins from the near death experience. "Okay, Nami, you've been given a second chance to live, so you're going to make an effort to be a better person. . ."

Nami gradually became aware of her hair standing on ends, as if there were lots of static charges in the air. Frowning, she turned her upper body to check the back of the boat only to find the deep blue sea as far as she could see, as well as clear skies. Huh. It doesn't look like it's going to rain either.

Her brow knitted together as she attempted to discern the source of the discomfort. Nami turned back and found herself staring at a teenaged boy with a red straw hat on his head. For what seemed like the third time that day, a strangled gasp escaped her mouth involuntarily and her hand instinctively went to her chest, over her heart to ensure that the organ was still working normally. "Who are you?! You weren't here a moment ago!"

The teenager removed his straw hat with one hand and grinned widely. "My name's Luffy! It's very nice to meet you!" He sounded calm and cheerful, which really ruffled Nami's feathers. He couldn't just come and scare the living shit out of her and act as if nothing happened! "You have a very small boat." Stretching his arms and arching his back in a full stretch, Luffy pointed out with disappointment in his tone. "It's almost smaller than ours!"

Nami ignored his rambling – she didn't really care how big her boat was. It wasn't even hers anyway. "How did you get here?"

"Like how any normal person gets to the middle of the sea. By sailing."

"I don't see any boats around here."

"That's because my boat is – " Luffy craned his neck and pointed somewhere in the far horizon " – over. . . I can't see it anymore. The waves must have pushed it even further away." A slight frown. "I hope Coby's okay."

"Coby? Who's – Nevermind." Nami shook her head, sending wet tendrils of her hair swinging around and slapping the side of her cheeks when it returned. "How did you get here if your boat's all the way over there? And what happened to that Sea King? Did you have anything to do with how it just disappeared?"

The teenager was still looking away from her at where he had tagged his boat to be and didn't reply. "Hey Luffy, I'm talking to you!" The redhead huffed in annoyance, not used to being ignored by men. They fawned over her, craved her attention. . . did almost anything as long as she so much as acknowledges their presence. And this fella right here was more interested in a friggin' boat that he couldn't even see anymore?

The mere idea of it was unconceivable to the gorgeous girl who was used to being revered by men.

"Huh?" Luffy spared her a cursory glance. "You were asking me something?"

"Yes," she said with an air of exasperation, "I wanted to know how you got onto this boat. And what happened to the Sea King."

"Oh."

Nami waited patiently as the boy made himself comfortable on the small boat. She took this time to really give him a good once-over – she had been too shell-shocked to really register his appearance just now. He was tall and somewhat lanky, a sure sign of him growing into his post-pubescent body. A mop of dishevelled black hair could be seen under the straw hat, and the unruly strands blew about gently in the breeze. Clad in a black T-shirt with a lightning bolt graphic in the middle and a pair of blue shorts, the lounging boy smiled at her expectantly.

"Well, aren't you going to answer me?"

His face clouded with confusion. "Answer you about what?"

"Were you even listening to what I was saying?!" Her smile was getting more strained by the minute. She didn't want to offend him as he could very possibly be her saviour, but it was increasingly unlikely with each word that left his mouth. He looked to be in his early teenage years, but with the mentality of a toddler. There was no way the Sea King was taken out by him... right?

"Not really." He held up one hand when Nami prepared to barrage him with a string of vulgarities, and surprise rendered her speechless, but only for a second. It was quickly replaced with white-hot anger. Did he just tell her to shut up?! "I'll be right back."

And in the blink of an eye, he was gone. The boat rocked unsteadily from the sudden lack of weight on one side and Nami scampered to the middle to balance it out with a yelp. She was soaked to the bone, confused and above it all, furious beyond belief. Fuming silently, the redhead folded her arms over her translucent top and imagined skinning the raven-haired boy alive when he returned.

If he returned.

What made her think that he was definitely coming back?

Well, in her very short but incredibly frustrating encounter with him, her initial impression of him was that he could be trusted. As ludicrous as it may sound, she was hardly ever wrong about such things. She's a good judge of character – always had been, which was exceptionally helpful in her line of business – and could read people like an open book.

After all, deception was her forte. She could sense it from a mile away, like a dark and cloying aura. It helped her to differentiate between ally and foe, though she rarely got close enough to make friends. It made stealing from others easier – they were all just nameless faces, one of her many victims.

Having a conscience made things exponentially harder, and now that she was so close to her goal...

She couldn't afford any distractions.

Just thinking about her current situation got Nami expelling a ragged breath that she didn't know she was holding. Why did her life have to be so complicated?

"You look sad." A familiar voice startled her from her reverie and she straightened, pushing strands of hair away from her face. "Is something the matter?"

Luffy was back again, sitting directly opposite her and so close that their legs were touching. Uncomfortable being in such close proximity to someone she didn't know well yet, Nami slid backwards on her rump till her back hit the other end of the boat. "It's nothing," she mumbled, cheeks heating up for some reason under his curious scrutiny. Nothing you can do to help me, anyway. "Where did you go?"

"Check on Coby and our boat."

"Who's this Coby person?" Nami asked.

His smile lit up his face. "My crew member! He's a great person – he wanted to be a Marine last time but now he's decided to be a pirate like me!"

Nami gaped at him. "You're a pirate?" Then his whole sentence sank in. "You're the captain of your crew?"

"Yep!" Luffy confirmed with another ear-to-ear grin, totally oblivious to her horrified tone. He did that a lot, Nami thought wryly, smile like there was not a single care in the world. She wondered how that would feel. "I'm going to be the next Pirate King!"

Of everything she had expected to hear, that was quite possibly the last. Below "I'm going to save you from Arlong" and just above "you're actually a princess, Nami, here's all the treasures you've ever desired in your life!"

"You're kidding me right?" Even he wasn't that big of an idiot… no?

Luffy cocked his head to the side. "Why would I lie to you?"

"You're serious." He's serious. He was indeed that big of an idiot.

"Of course! With Coby by my side, nothing can stop us!" He looked a little sheepish then. "We might need a bigger boat though. Do you, by any chance – "

He abruptly stopped mid-sentence, a perplexed expression replacing that smile. Name found herself detachedly thinking that he didn't look nearly as good as when he was happy. "What's wrong?" She ventured to ask, mildly wary of the answer she will receive.

Luffy unfolded himself from his sitting position and stood up. "Stay back…" he trailed off and turned to her. "I still don't know your name."

It was at that very moment that a column of water shot into the air next to the boat with a verocity that had Nami back-pedalling instinctively with a short cry. The giant waves the explosion created swept the boat away and there was a brief moment where Nami thought for sure that the boat was about to capsize, but it was like the laws of physics suddenly stopped being applicable to them as they hung motionless almost perpendicular to the sea. The motion that would have pushed them over completely disappeared, leaving her with a disorienting sense of total inertia.

Then it was over, and the boat settled itself once more onto the choppy waves, bobbling merrily as if nothing had happened and it was all just a figment of her imagination.

She could almost believe it too – it was simply too surreal and unnatural. However, the trashing Sea King from before directly in her line of sight discredited that theory entirely.

It looked pissed.

Swallowing audibly, Nami lifted her head to find Luffy standing exactly where he had been before, taking in the scene before him dispassionately like it didn't bother him in the slightest.

Perhaps it didn't; after all, from what she could gather about his abilities, he could dematerialize and teleport at will – he wasn't in danger at all.

She was.

Paling at that revelation, Nami hugged herself tightly. Maybe she had spoken too early. Maybe the Sea Devil didn't favour her that much after all. Who would? She was a conniving and deceitful bitch – she would be better off dead.

But was it really that bad to meet her demise now? She could escape from her troubles, leave all her problems behind. She no longer had to worry about her future or engage with the demons from her past.

It would be truly liberating.

"What's your name?"

Nami was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost missed the quiet question. "Huh?" She looked nervously at the Sea King who was eyeing them like a human would a juicy piece of steak. Even if she wasn't hugely opposed to dying, she was still unnerved. After all, this was her first time.

Not like there'll be a second, but hey. She was allowed to feel skittish.

"You name." The shadow cast by his straw hat concealed Luffy's expression. "I'd like to know your name."

"I don't think this is the time, Luffy. You should get out of here while you still can – "

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Then you're going to die!" Nami shouted, getting up to shake some sense into him roughly. "There's no way out for me, unless you can teleport me out of here too." She paused, cruel hope blossoming in her chest. "Can you?"

His reply was short and like a knife through her heart. "Not without killing you."

Her shoulders slumped. It really was the end of the road for her.

"Now, can you tell me your name?"

"Why does it matter anyway?!" She burst out, scowling at the raven-haired boy. "I won't be around much longer for you to call me by it!" She took a few deep breaths to collect herself, then sighed. Might as well humour him before her demise, huh? "Oh, fine. It's Nami. There, you happy now?"

A predatory roar permeated the air, and out of the corner of her eye, Nami spotted the Sea King opening its massive maw and lunging towards them. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying for her death to be swift and merciful.

"Nami, huh?" She dimly heard Luffy repeat her name. "I like it."

And little did she know that from then onwards, her whole world was about to turn upside down.

Luffy didn't like how Nami's bottom lip was quivering, how she was cowering in fear. He felt inexplicably protective of her, especially when she was in such a sorrowful state.

Maybe it was because of an incident in the past that left an everlasting impression on him. He was 10 then, and he and Ace were messing around with some of the neighbouring kids.

Having had Ace as his sole playmate and companion for a large chunk of his childhood, along with his gramps as his mentor, it came as little surprise that he had been unable to comprehend the physical limitations of normal kids who hadn't undergone the same training as him. During a game of tag, he had used unnecessary force on one of the girls in the midst of his usual exuberance, injuring her in the process.

Thankfully, it had only been a small scrape, but she still cried her fucking lungs out.

It was the first time he had ever saw and heard a girl cry, but it destroyed him. He swore it'll be the last time. He didn't particularly enjoy the damage control once the tears started flowing freely and his complete lack of experience interacting with the opposite sex left him totally clueless on how to make them feel better.

After all, he never really had a way with words. He was used to letting his actions speak for themselves, which was how he spent most of his time with Ace. Their conversations comprised of little to no words, unless you counted grunts and childish insults. They were more comfortable in expressing their emotions through the little things they did as they took after their grandpa who was a man of few words.

It got better over time, as Luffy found himself opening up more and more to the people around him who had no inhibitions to showing their emotions freely, wearing their hearts on their sleeves proudly.

Narrowing his eyes at the approaching Sea King he had sent sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor just minutes ago, Luffy reached within him and drew on his enormous reserves of energy. This creature had distressed Nami – its fate was already decided. His power was a wild and unrestrained beast that responded eagerly, wanting to be unleashed to wreak havoc and it took him a sizeable effort to keep it at bay, to prevent it from obliterating everything around him in pure, undiluted energy. The vehemence of his emotions caused the beast within him to fluctuate in strength alarmingly, but he tamped it down viciously with the control he had mastered painstakingly over the years. It trashed and snarled, demanding to be released in a physical form.

Only allowing the tiniest bit to leak out and manifest into blue sparks at the tips of his fingers, Luffy lifted one of his hands and pointed his index finger at the rampaging Sea King. It was so close now he could smell the rotten stench of decaying foot down its gaping throat.

He fired off a blast of energy between its eyes.

The small beam of coalesced energy pierced straight through the Sea King. The extreme heat cauterized the entry and exit wound immediately, and the putrid smell of burning flesh hung heavily in the air.

Luffy summoned a gust of wind to ward it off before it reached Nami, not wanting her to be privy of the violence taking place inches away. At the same time, Luffy gathered all the energy the Sea King possessed within his palm by closing it before redirecting it the opposite way with a deft flick of his fingers.

In the span of a second, the Sea King was defeated and sent sailing back through the air soundlessly.

Luffy took a well-deserved moment to survey his handiwork before it disappeared from sight, a mere speck in the distance. "You can open your eyes now, Nami," Luffy said as he gently tapped the shuddering girl's head, "it's all over. It's gone."

Bewildered large brown eyes blinked rapidly up at him, and she took a quick look around to determine if he was speaking the truth. "B-But how? What happened?" She asked shakily and scanned around her one more time as if her eyes had deceived her the first round.

"I sent it away." Luffy answered, purposefully vague. It was partially true, anyway. The last vestiges of his anger faded away when Nami straightened her back and pegged him with a withering stare that had him smiling. Annoyance. He'll take that over sadness anyday.

"How do you just send a Sea King away, Luffy? That's not possible."

"I can be very persuasive when I want to be."

Nami snorted in an unladylike manner. "Yeah right. And reindeer can talk."

Something about that sentence bugged the hell out of Luffy, but he didn't pay much heed to it. All in good time, maybe. "They can?! I didn't know that!"

The pretty redhead just looked at him. "They can't Luffy," she deadpanned.

"But you just said that they could!"

"It's just a saying, not – You know what, forget it." Nami tried to stand up and teetered on unsteady legs. She waved him off when Luffy moved to support her, keeping him at arm's length with the outstretched hand. "I can manage on my own."

She was aware of Luffy's eyes boring into her back when she hunkered down onto her haunches and opened a small wooden compartment in the middle of the boat. Reaching inside with her hand, she fished around to check that all her belongings were still in place, particularly the sack of gold she had pilfered from the last group of pirates. It brought her total tally up to hundred million beli, the agreed sum with Arlong for the freedom of her island.

Once she ensured that everything was in order, she closed the hatch again and faced Luffy. "So." She felt uncharacteristically awkward. "Thanks for saving me. I, uhm, really appreciate it." Wow, way to go, Nami.

The seemingly perpetual smile on his face widened into a grin. "It was no trouble." Apparently not facing the same problem as her, Luffy adjusted his askew straw hat so it sat on his head more comfortably. "Whatcha gonna do now?"

Shielding her eyes from the setting sun, she gazed in the direction of Cocoyashi village. The familiar sensation of despair and longing welled up from deep inside. She had some business to settle. "I'm going home."

"Where's that?"

Nami slanted him a glance, pursing her lips together before she automatically lied to him. Lying was second nature to her. She had been doing it her whole life. However, he had saved her life and her senses told her that he was trustworthy. She owed him that much. Studiously ignoring the voice inside her head telling her that she was undeserving of being even remotely close to someone like him, she said finally, "Cocoyashi village. It's just North-West of here, but quite a distance away."

"Cool! Do you know how to use a compass?" Luffy sounded excited.

"Yes," she answered slowly, trying to figure out his angle for that question but coming up with zilch. "Don't everyone?"

Unsurprisingly, Luffy shook his head. "Not me. Coby doesn't know how to use it too, but he's trying really hard back there."

Something occurred to her. "Then how are you going to become the Pirate King if nobody on board your crew is able to navigate?!"

Luffy laughed heartily. "Things will work out. They always do."

Nami found herself desperately wanting to believe in the boy's words.

"Not always," she whispered to herself, but Luffy must have heard it because he caught her by the side of her shoulders and effortlessly lifted her up entirely before setting her down in front of him, much to her indignant sputtering and struggling.

She clamped her mouth shut when she noticed how serious and still he had become. His gaze settled on her face, and Nami fidgeted slightly, unable to maintain eye contact. When she made to lower her head to escape his probing eyes, his fingers, warm and calloused, cupped her chin and gently urged her to raise her head so that she was looking at him again. Her breath caught in her throat at the intensity in which he was regarding her, and her heart started racing faster. What's going on? She had never felt this way before.

"Join my crew, Nami." His voice was low and silky, a husky whisper that had heat prickling the skin around her neck. "I promise that I'll never let any harm come to you."

Then he was gone, and disappointment thrummed throughout her body at his departure. She shelved it away in her mental catalogue to review at a later date; she wasn't in the right frame of mind right then to do any analysing of her feelings. "I can't Luffy." She wrung her hands, recognizing it as her nervous tic. "I… don't want to get you hurt. You can't help me."

The voice in her head chimed in return, and this time it was a force to be reckoned with. He defeated the Sea King like it was nothing, it reasoned, he could take on Arlong and win. He'll be able to save you.

Nami quashed any emergence of hope before it could take root fully. She wasn't about to risk Luffy's life and find out if he was a match for Arlong. The merman was one of the Pirates with the highest bounty in the East Blue for a reason – he's tyrannically strong.

"I can."

Two words spoken with so much conviction that even Nami wanted to believe it, but she shook her head quickly – partially to dislodge any creeping thoughts to agree and potentially kill her saviour and partially to disagree. "You can't."

"Tell me your problem."

She shook her head again. "You already saved my life once. I won't want to impose any more on you."

Luffy looked as if he wanted to continue arguing, but then he drummed his fingers against his jawline before nodding in agreement. "Fine."

Nami told herself that she wasn't disappointed from the lack of fight he had put up. "Good."

"On one condition." Luffy brazenly grabbed her hand and Nami almost jumped in shock. "You join my crew for the time being. We need someone to show us the way, and if I'm not wrong, your town is on the way to the Reverse Mountain." He waited patiently for her to affirm his words, and Nami nodded mutely, her thoughts seemingly scattered yet focused at the point of contact between them at the same time. "We can go our separate ways at Coconut village."

"Cocoyashi village," Nami corrected him before finding the strength to tug her hand away. It was doing weird things to her brain and she didn't like it.

"That's what I said." Luffy took a step back, all smiles. "So is that a yes?"

She blew out a breath. She didn't need to weigh the pros and cons to know that this was beneficial for both of them. This arrangement meant protection for her from other sneaky pirates looking to make a quick killing, and in turn, she could teach them a thing or two about navigation.

It was a win-win situation. Absolutely perfect.

And frankly, she just didn't have the strength to dispute with him anymore.

Nami flashed him a tired smile back. "It's a yes."

She tried not to read too much into how her heart fluttered when Luffy beamed.

She just had a shitty day, that's all.

Goddamn, this was a bloody long chapter. 4.7k words in total - a new achievement for me. I wrote most of it on my phone too, which is pretty new. Hope you guys enjoyed the interaction between what will probably be the pairing for awhile to come, until the next few girls appear in the story.

So yes, the order of the appearance of Luffy's crew members are going to change. Who do you think is going to be next? Heh.

Moving on to the reviews! Thanks for all the love, guys. I'm glad to see that most of you are enjoying the story or giving me a follow/favourite. Hope y'all continue to enjoy your stay here!

BigBoss0694x: Here's your requested meal, upsized with extra large fries and coke as well! Hope you enjoy this chapter ;)

Devlin Dracul: Yep, that's what you'll have to look forward to! Coby's strength, I mean. I roughly have an idea of how strong I want him to be and his abilities as well as his fighting style, but I might change it up according to how the story flows. You're right though, Shanks is arguably stronger than Garp and probably has a very different method of training, so he'll end up very different than in canon! Besides, his captain is Luffy, that should be more than enough to change him fundamentally heh.

About the Sea Devil, he's definitely going to be the "God" of this story. He'll make a few more appearances, but briefly and only when situations get very, very dire, which won't be soon since Luffy will easily overpower his opponents with sheer power until the later arcs. Thanks for reviewing!

Wacko12: Energy Energy Fruit! There'll be more explanations along the way about his powers and what he's able to do, along with the limitations and weaknesses.

Sarene Mun: This chapter will show you a little bit of how the story will progress in terms of it being M rated! It's just a bit of fluff here and there with escalating sexual tension till they do the deed. Won't be too overboard, I promise you! Makes it too unrealistic, and I'm all about the realism :P Thanks for the encouragement and review! 3

Complicated Days: I really like Coby too, his character development might not be too in-depth but it shows promise! I'm a sucker for these newb to pro sorta story lines, so he's one of my favourite characters in canon one piece!

Rosan Uzumaki: Yes, he has. It's all the same as in canon unless otherwise specified, but the past is all the same! Thanks for the compliment and review :)

Until the next update y'all! Ciao~