Summary: Luffy and Nami are separated from the ship in the middle of an ice storm. Can Luffy and Nami survive on a supposed uninhabited island before it's too late? Read to find out!
o.o~0.0~O.O Ch. 4 - Frost bite? Hypothermia? O.O~0.0~o.o
Luffy had his hand over his mouth, covering it to keep the air from escaping. He couldn't really move, the water instantly taking all of his strength from him. He knew he was sinking, and he knew that if Nami didn't notice that he fell in after her, then he would drown. He closed his eyes and tried to count to ten - it was so hard trying to concentrate when your energy was slowly leaving your body. His body felt like a ton of rocks had just been placed on it, keeping him still.
Some more air escaped. He could feel the cold now. It was freezing cold water, he knew. He tried not to think about it, he really did, but it was kind of hard to ignore it when you didn't have anything warmer than a long-sleeved shirt and pants. Suddenly, realizing that he was out of air, he began to panic. His arms began flailing, but he didn't move anywhere. He opened his mouth, and the very last of his air escaped. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, his body went still, and he sunk even further into the dark depths of the sea.
Meanwhile, Nami was stuck on a rock, trying to get her jacket free from a rock. Apparently the boat hit an underwater rock that was insanely large. It was weird how no one had noticed it. Who wouldn't be able to see a rock as big as an island beneath the surface of the water? Air bubbles escaped her nose as she pushed to get herself free. She was positive that she was directly in the middle of a water current. If she were to get free, she would immediately get swept up in the current. But if she remained where she was, she would drown. So which was the best way to survive? The current, of course.
Suddenly, she was free, but her jacket was ripped. It wasn't too bad of a tear - it was still wearable, but it was the best she had. No sooner had she realized she was free, she rushed down the current. She flipped and turned, was tossed about, and then she saw a dark figure below. She was rushing by pretty quickly - she couldn't see it. Then, an enormous air bubble floated upward. Realizing it was probably drowning, whatever it was, she quickly dove downward to the best of her ability. She was losing breath pretty quickly - this was bad. But she tried anyway.
She could see it better now. uffy?She pondered, and when she was able to recognize and CONFIRM it was Luffy, she pushed herself to get to him. She frantically swam to him, against the current and down. He was sinking fast. She reached a hand out, air bubbles escaping her mouth as she did so, and grabbed hold of his vest. His eyes were closed, his mouth slightly open. She freezing, she realized as she had a firm hold of him. She rushed upward, but once again, she was caught in the water current, dragging Luffy with her.
She didn't let go.
Nami could feel cold air hitting her face. When did she close her eyes? She didn't remember blacking out. She clenched her fist and noticed that she had something sopping wet clenched between her fingers. She looked down and saw Luffy on the ground. They were both half on the snow-covered shore and half in the water. Nami gasped and quickly pulled him up and out of the water. He was heavy.
Quickly, she laid him on his back, ready to give him CPR. She took a moment to try and wake him, just to see if he would open his eyes, but he wasn't breathing, or even trying to breathe. With tears in her eyes, she began pumping his chest. Five times at a time before leaning over, pinching his nose, and breathing air passed his lips. She was shaking - it was so cold, and the wind wasn't helping. She repeated this four times before she began to sob. She leaned over him, holding him against her now. "Luffy! You have to wake up! Please!"
Suddenly, Luffy's boddy jerked upward and he choked, spatting water onto her, choking. She gasped and put him on his side almost immediately. He continued to choke and cough, spitting water out at random intervals. He was gulping air as greedily as he was when he was yearning for meat. "Oh my God, Luffy! Are you okay?" She touched his cheek, he was shaking.
"Na-Nami," he whispered hoarsely, "you-you saw me...it's cold..."
Nami, with wide eyes, nodded and looked around. She could see a cave near the shore, maybe it'll block off some of the wind. Her breaths were coming short, and she was still freezing. She wouldn't doubt it if her lips had turned purple already. "C-Can you stand?" She stuttered.
Luffy grunted and rolled over, standing, but stumbling until she placed one of his arms around her shoulder. "There's a cave o-over there, if we-we get over there, it m-might get rid of s-s-some of the wi-wind." Her teeth were chattering, he noticed.
"Na-Nami," he stuttered. He wasn't in any better condition either. "A-Are y-you o-okay?" Okay, so he was stuttering much worse than she was.
"Y-Yeah," Nami replied, "Just cold." She was ready to get to that cave. They both stumbled and staggered their way to the cave. She looked down at her log pose - she supposed this was the island that it had been pointing to, but now the log pose was cracked. She wasn't sure if it would work properly anymore.
Finally, they made it into the cave. Luffy immediately collapsed, shivering and still gasping for air, against the wall of the cave near the opening. Nami went further back to make sure some strange creature wasn't still residing within. "Lu-Luffy, it's warmer ba-back here. C-Come on." Nami looked back, but Luffy was still collapsed against the wall. She walked over and did as best she could, carefully dragging him back.
Nami sighed with relief when she managed to get Luffy near the back. They were both shivering, but she was sure Luffy was much worse off. She grabbed a hold of him and brought him to her and leaned against the wall. Now side by side, she wondered what she should do now. She knew that she should probably build a fire, but what were the chances of finding dry wood out there where all the snow was? She supposed she'd be able to find buried wood somewhere, but she wasn't sure. She would rather not leave Luffy alone. So she decided, she was going to wait for Luffy to get a little better.
Luffy opened his eyes some time in the middle of the night. It was snowing outside. He was freezing. He noticed that he was leaning against something sopping wet. He looked down - he was still soaked. He remembered, sort of, what happened. He had drowned, but he really didn't know what happened after that. He looked up and saw Nami, completely passed out beside her. He had been leaning against her.
What should he do? They were both freezing and he didn't think having blue lips were normal. He felt kind of constricted with his clothes, but he decided to just deal with it. He went outside. "I'll be back, Nami!" He forced out, trying not to stutter. "I-I'm gonna' get some fire wo-wood!" He ran outside into the snow, which probably wasn't the best idea, but Luffy was Luffy, no matter which way you put it.
Sometime later, he came back with a huge pile of logs and set them on the ground near the entrance of the cave. He went back to the back check on Nami. He wasn't sure if Nami was okay or not. She wasn't shaking anymore, but her lips were still blue. He checked to make sure she was still breathing, but she was, so he assumed she was going to be okay and was just cold. So, he made the fire. He knew enough from Sanji on how to make a fire, but he didn't really know how to get it going. So, he did it the old fashioned way. He grabbed a long piece of wood, grabbed a much shorter, thinner piece of wood, and began twisting the "stick" against the surface of the wood. He was determined to get this fire started and he be damned if he let Nami die!
Nami smelled something funny. She didn't like the smell. It smelled like...wet wood. She opened her eyes and looked over at the entrance of the cave when she noticed that Luffy wasn't at her side. He was laughing hysterically by the fire he just created and went ecstatic about the heat. Unfortunately, it was such a tiny fire, it was hardly worth getting warm over. At least they had some light.
Nami groaned - her head felt like she drank a ton of booze a few hours ago and went around banging her head against rocks or something. Luffy seemed to notice she was awake. He immediately ran to her side, helping her sit up straighter. "Nami, you're aw-ake!" She heard the crack in his voice. It was obvious that he was freezing, and he had been out in the snow gathering...wet wood.
"Mm," Nami said, "what are you doing?" She asked, her words slightly slurring.
"I'm ma-making a fire!" He said proudly.
Nami looked down at his hands - they looked blistered and his fingers looked as though they were blue and purple. Almost like he froze his fingers off and was making due. "Idiot," Nami said as she forced herself forward. She was cold, she knew, but she couldn't really feel it anymore. Her body was probably shutting down on her for all she knew. But...she couldn't tell Luffy that.
"Nami," Luffy said, suddenly growing serious, "your l-lips are blue."
Nami almost gasped. Then she looked up at him. He had his fists clenched and his mouth was formed into a tight frown. "Well," Nami said, "your lips aren't any b-better." True, his lips were still slightly blue, leaning more to the purple side now.
"What do we do?" Luffy said, "My fire isn't b-big enough to warm any-anything up..." he frowned and sat down, cross-legged.
"First things first," Nami said with a little cough, "we've gotta get r-rid of our wet clothes."
Luffy's face suddenly turned pink. "H-Huh?"
"Do you want to fr-freeze to death, or wh-what?" Nami said, her teeth now chattering. "Help me take this thing off." She unzipped her jacket and Luffy helped her take it off and he laid it out to the side for it to try. When he turned back, he saw Nami forcing her eyes closed.
"A-Are you okay?" Luffy asked.
"J-Just trying to block out the cold," she said with frown. She lifted her shirt up, but it was stuck on her arms. Luffy helped her pull it off, which wasn't easy when it was practically glued to her skin.
"Th-Thanks," Nami said and stood.
Luffy decided to go ahead and just do what she said. He supposed she knew more than he did and it was probably best if he just did as he was told. It didn't keep the blush off his face, though. He glanced over at Nami - she was taking off her pants, trying to wiggle her way out of them.
Luffy let his vest fall to the ground with a wet plop. He then took off his shirt, but like Nami, he stuck. He started flailing around and ended up bumping into Nami, and they both went tumbling to the ground, Luffy on Nami and stuck with his long sleeve shirt on his head, covering his view.
Nami gave a bit of a laugh and helped him pull it off the rest of the way. When his head was free, it flew from her hands and off his arms and fell to the ground with another gushing plop. Luffy let a grin spread across his face, despite the fact that he was freezing his butt off. Then, he realized that he had a half naked Nami beneath him and he scrambled to get off of her. "S-Sorry!" He practically screamed with his eyes shut tight.
"D-Don't worry about it," Nami said with a bit of a giggle. She stood back up. "Oh, and leave your underwear on," she said, "it would be best if we had some sort of protection, if you know what I mean."
"Eh?" He asked, not sure what she meant, but she didn't explain and he shrugged. He wiggled out of his pants, much like Nami had just a few minutes earlier. Nami walked over to the entrance of the cave - it was MUCH colder near the front of the cave in the back, but she was going to get Luffy's fire going as best she could. She noticed that the wood pieces he brought in were only damp, not wet enough to not burn or make the fire go out.
She grabbed a piece of wood and threw it into what little fire he had. "Wh-What now?" Luffy stuttered as he sat beside her. This was ridiculous, he thought, he was nervous, and she was just his navigator! His nakama! There's no reason to be nervous or shy around nakama!
Nami looked at him. "Honestly?" Nami said, "I don't know. The only thing we ando is wait for this fire to get going and wait until the snow stops. Kind of weird, the hail must have stopped some time between both of us falling in the water and then washing up on shore."
"A-Ah," Luffy said with a nod. He frowned and looked out at the snow fall.
"You must have been fr-freezing," Nami said, looking at him.
Luffy looked down, "It was cold, but I was okay."
"Liar," Nami said, "you aren't a very good liar, Luffy."
Luffy just looked down. He just placed his hat on his head to cover his eyes. He was still freezing. He was forcing himself not to shake, but it was getting harder and harder. Suddenly, he felt warmth press against his back. He looked over his shoulder and saw the Nami was hugging him from behind. "Y-You're warm, N-Nami."
"Me?" Nami asked, "You-You feel warmer for s-some reason."
Neither one of them said anything after that. Instead, they sat in a comfortable silence, just waiting for the fire to get brighter and bigger. She briefly wondered if either of them had frost bite or were fighting off hypothermia, but in the end, it really didn't matter so long as they kept living.
Okay, I had decided to let this particular chapter go on for a while. I felt like typing rather than listen to my teacher blather about slavery. Lol!
So, how did you like this chapter? I didn't want to go full-out quite yet, but I did do a tad bit of fluffiness in there. I pulled them away quickly to get them back into the seriousness, but yeah. I think it was pretty good.
I might type up another chapter within the next couple of hours, but who knows? Just keep an eye out for it!
Oh, and one more thing, don't get used to me updating every single day! I honestly don't get on the comp every single day. I just got lucky with yesterday and today because of school. Had it not been for that, I wouldn't have updated so soon. I MAY get on sometime in the middle of the week, but like I said, who knows? I usually do get on every Friday and Saturday, well, mostly anyway. On Fridays, I usually just check e-mails, but yeah. Saturdays I've got all day to do whatever. ^_^
What else... what else...darn it...I know I wanted to say something... Oh well, I'll think of it later.
Review, please!