Comforting Arms

Chapter Three

Nami shot up, awake. The night sky could be seen out of a window in the corner. Her arms went over her head pulling at her muscles as she yawned. She felt well rested again and even if she was groggy from sleep it didn't escape her attention that she was in Luffy's room. Maybe she just needed a different bed. She wasn't sure what threw her so abruptly out of her dream. She was having a nice one for once. Her stomach growled loudly gurgling to get her attention. Ah she had missed dinner last night; she must've slept right through it.

"Mmmmm Nammmmmi," Luffy whispered.

She froze. Her eyes struggling to make out his shape slumped over a chair that was pulled close to the edge of the bed. Half of his body was on the bed while the lower half of his body rested in the chair. His hand was dangerously close to her face, and when he said her name his fingers seemed to reach out to her.

She waited for him to stir or mumble something else in his sleep but it never came. She smiled softly at her captain.

"I won't make you worry anymore," she promised. Even if he was fast asleep it felt good to say it out loud. She would have Brook sing her to sleep every night if it had to be done, she would drink warm milk, count backwards from 100, sleep outside so that the lapping waves against the ship rocked her to sleep, or whatever else would work. She would do it if she had to.

It was literally impossible to get out of bed without moving him. With half of the bed pressed against the wall she only had one route out of bed and that would be to get past Luffy. She would have crawled past him to get out of his room and to her own but she knew it was pointless for tonight. Everyone would know she had spent the night here. That and he looked so peaceful sleeping; she couldn't bring herself to wake him.

"Meeeaaaattttt," he moaned. His body crawled into bed next to her as she wiggled as far as possible from him. His face tucked into her neck as his arms wrapped around her. She struggled to push him off but even in his sleep induced state he was strong. She wasn't gentle with him either. She huffed, annoyed, trapped against the wall and her captain.

She braced herself to scream. She knew at any second his teeth would try to take a bite out of her, he had just been talking about meat in his sleep, and she had witnessed him attempting to eat his pillow in his sleep once. Only the moment never came. His sturdy strong arms pulled her flush against his board chest and his breath tickled her neck. She felt so comfortable though. This wasn't awkward at all; she fit in his arms in all the right places. Slowly her eyes started to drift back closed.

"Namiiii," Luffy whispered into her skin. She shivered not really know what to expect she whispered back.

"Luffy."

"Don't leave," he mumbled, he held her closer to his chest with an extra squeeze. He grumbled something else unintelligible before snoring loudly.

"I won't," she whispered as her eyes slid closed.

SLAM

It felt as if the ship had been hit by cannon. She rolled out of bed quickly falling to the floor and landing in a crouched position. Luffy was still snoring but his stupid rubber arm had stretched with her fall and was still securely placed around her waist.

"You, shitty Captain."

She refrained from rolling her eyes as she let her legs give out beneath her. She leaned her back against the bed and let her head fall back slightly.

"Sanji," she greeted calmly. The sunlight pouring out through the window told her it was at least an hour past sunrise.

"Nami-san," he said curtly. She cocked an eyebrow. No exaggerated swan on the end of her name? He seemed to notice her confused look even if he wasn't directly looking at her. He was leaned against the smoldering door frame or at least what used to be one as he took a long drag from his smoke.

"Move aside so I can kick some manners into this dumb ass."

"What did he do?" she asked blinking a few times.

Sanji's face was priceless as he stared at her in shock. The blood drained from his face as a white pale look took over, and the cancer on a stick that had been held in his mouth fell from his lips in his shock.

"He climbed into bed with you. I told him over and over again that he couldn't even sleep in the same room as a goddess but he insisted that it was his room so he wanted to stay…"

She would have shrugged but she was desperately trying not to make eye contact with Sanji. For one she was Nami, she didn't blush over stupid things. She had been dangerously ill before and Luffy refused to leave her side, hell the entire crew had, but that was different. She could barely remember that with the fever that blurred her memory. So why was she so embarrassed now? She could follow Luffy's logic. It was his room and Nami was in it. And if she was to think like Luffy they had slept in the same bed before and it wasn't a big deal. Only now Sanji knew it. With Sanji's presence she was forced to realize that Luffy wasn't as innocent as he let on at times, and with that acknowledgement came the fact that sleeping with him was in Sanji's opinion very wrong and immoral. But now she was dangerously close to blushing and blushing meant that this wasn't innocent. Blushing implied so many things and she refused to let anything she said or did incriminate what was going on.

"I asked him to stay," she lied quietly.

If Sanji had been white before now he was a ghost.

"Why?" he half whined half cried. His blonde hair sagging in defeat with his shoulders as his eyes started to water.

"I don't have-"

"Nami? Sanji? What are you guys doing in my room?" Luffy asked sleepily from the bed interrupting whatever answer she could have possibly come up with.

"Why you stupid fuc-"

There seemed to be another explosion as Nami swiftly moved away from the bed. She couldn't help but smile slightly as the two exploded into chase. Luffy defending himself and running about his room wildly while Sanji chased him with vigor that only came when he was 'defending' a woman's honor. She couldn't help but laugh quietly to herself as the scene unfolded before her. Sanji wasn't taking it nearly as bad as she thought he would.

()()()()()()()()()

It was well after dinner the next day before things started to settle down again. The whole fiasco of recent sleeping arrangements called for many jokes from certain crew members to others which led to a blonde and green tornado around the ship for most of the afternoon and well into the night. It was the second day of Luffy having to literally steal food off of everyone's plate because Sanji refused to feed him. It wasn't like he ever abided to his own plate anyways.

"Sanji just give him some damn food already," she snapped as Luffy's rubber fingers wrapped around the wonderful slice of turkey breast she had been about to stab with her fork.

"Not until he has learned his lesson Nami-Swannn~" the cook sang.

"His lesson in what? Getting seduced by Nami?" Usopp chirped.

If looks could kill Usopp would be dead a thousand times over. The room for once was deadly silent.

"I haven't succeeded yet and I don't think I ever will," she finally said letting out a sigh. Robin was the first one to break the ice and actually laugh. Franky nervously chuckled, followed by Brook's inappropriate comment she didn't bother paying attention to. It seemed like the older members of the crew understood at what she was trying to get at. That she was trying to make this acceptable for… well… everyone. She didn't' want to have to sneak around just to get a good night's sleep and the past few days had been miserable enough. She needed them all to understand but they didn't get her point. She just wanted a decent night's sleep and they all thought she was a seductress anyways, why not play that part and get a little rest out of it? This was different for the crew, a bit too mature for their taste. They weren't used to having sexuality being expressed and Nami knew that. She also knew that nothing was ever going to happen between her and her asexual captain. So why not spice things up? They were all thinking it anyways.

It didn't escape her attention that Zoro wasn't part of the boisterous laughter that had filled the room. Even Sanji sighed dejectedly and had a small smile on his lips (along with fat tears rolling down his cheeks).

Well after dinner just as she was about to go to bed for the night she heard a gentle cough.

"Zoro," she acknowledged. He was just under the tree on deck, leaning against it nonchalantly. He had a weight in one hand as he worked out his arm. His good eye was trained on her.

"Witch," he said evenly. She guessed that was as close to affection as they would ever get. She crossed the deck and stood next to him, watching the muscles in his arm move with fascination.

"You never went to talk to him did you?"

"I thought that was all a ruse to get me to shake on your stupid deal," she muttered.

"Well my deal is kind of shot since the whole crew knows now," he growled as if she was missing the obvious. "Besides I did tell you he wanted to talk to you."

"Then why hasn't he approached me?"

Zoro didn't say anything. His eye narrowed at her and his lip twitched with what she was sure was a foul name begging to escape. He refrained though and sighed.

"Just go talk to him," he snapped. He looked like he wanted to say more. His jaw was clenched and she could hear his teeth grinding together. She wanted to wait and see what he could possibly say but she wasn't sure if she wanted to. Just as she was about to turn and leave Zoro grabbed her and pressed a small shell into her hand. It took her a second to realize that it was a Tone Dial.

"No one else," he mumbled as he pushed past her to make his way to his own room.

She stared at it blankly for a moment before she pushed the small button. Luffy's voice was barely above a whisper and she had to press the shell to her ear to hear it.

"The past doesn't matter to me," Luffy said.

"Well you stupid shit captain that is why I know her better than you do," Sanji growled.

"I don't care about that. This is my room and she is in my bed," Luffy growled.

"I –"

"If she wanted comfort from you she would come to you," Luffy said roughly. It was really the first time she had ever heard him speak so sternly to Sanji who was usually the man who could keep him in place when it came to manners.

"Yeah, you stupid Love Cook," Zoro's gruff voice joined. "You've seen how she has been lately. No sleep, weight loss, bags under her eyes, paranoia at odd times in random situations. If she finds comfort with Luffy or in his bed who the hell are you to stop it?"

"Wanna go Moss head?"

"Outside," Luffy said sternly interrupting them. Again she was surprised at the roughness in his voice but almost obediently two pairs of footsteps could be heard marching away, and a door clicking shut. Luffy sighed.

Luffy never sighs. Luffy never interrupts Sanji and Zoro. Her mind couldn't wrap around those two facts and she was practically forced to replay the Dial to reaffirm what she already knew.

There wasn't anything said after that the shell gave a few sharp taps and the sound of a door closing and that was it. The silence of the ship leapt out to her then. She didn't have to defend herself at all. This comfort that she was finding with Luffy, everyone had already accepted it. The awkward feeling she had been burdened with had all been fabricated out of nothing.

"Luffy wants to talk to you," Zoro's voice seemed to echo back to her from when he had first said those words. Since when does Luffy request a private talk with any of his crew? She gulped; maybe she had finally gone too far with her Captain. He was her Captain first and foremost and nothing would ever change that.

She steeled herself as she changed her course and made her way to his room. She hesitated just slightly outside the door before raising her hand and knocking lightly.

"Luffy?"

She really hoped he would be awake.