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. 8 - It's Warm... O.O~0.0~o.o
"Damn it, Luffy!" She exclaimed as she yanked him back. "Maybe I should take care of the hunting from now on!" She was seriously frustrated and her headache had yet to go away. She had woken up this morning with her stomach rumbling nonstop. Luffy, trying to do something right, went to try and catch something, but he always came back empty-handed. It would seem that every time he tried to catch something, he would do his loud exclamation of finding something, thus, chasing it off. And the end result? No food.
"I'm sorry, Nami, I-" Luffy tried to console her, but she just burst into tears.
"Fuck!" She yelled to the world. "I'm going to starve and it's all because of you!" She screamed, stomping and crying out into the forest surrounding the cave. They were going the opposite way today.
Luffy hung his head in shame. A frown was on his face as he trudged through the snow. His shoulders were slumped and his eyes were watery. He was hungry, too...In fact, he was trying to catch something good to eat, but every time he tried, it would run away before he could. The animals were too smart...
Nami was at her breaking point. She could go for a nice hot bath and some good food. She missed Sanji's cooking and Ussop's stupid-ass stories. She missed hers and Robin's talks and Brooke's stupid dead jokes. She missed hearing Sanji and Zoro fighting. She missed Sunny. She wanted to go back home. She wanted to be with all of her friends. She wanted to get off this island and onto the sea again. She wanted to make some maps. She wanted...
Nami stopped. She felt a little hot for some reason. Nami turned to look at Luffy. "Ne, Luffy?" She asked, suddenly changing moods.
Luffy could have sworn she was angry. Wasn't she mad about what happened just an hour ago? Maybe she got over it? "Huh?"
"Does it feel a little hot to you?"
Now that she mentions it, he did feel like he was sweating a little. Looking around, he noticed that there was some green sprouting up from the snow beneath their feet. "Nami, look!" He said excitedly.
Nami looked at what he was looking and frowned a bit. "You think the there's a volcano around here?" Nami asked.
"Maybe!" He said excitedly, "Let's go find it!"
Nami was going to decline, but in the end she just nodded, not sure why she had agreed. The two of them trudged through the snow once more. That is, until the ground started shifting upward. "Great," Nami commented, "now we're going uphill?"
Luffy saw that she was beginning to lag a bit, seeing as how she was now a bit of a ways behind him. He slowed down to let her catch up a bit, but when she reached his side, he quickly picked her up and slung her onto his back. Almost automatically, she clung to him. "You didn't have to..." Nami started, but he simply brushed it off. With a slight blush, Nami rested her chin on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thank you..." She mumbled, staring ahead at the scenery in front of him.
The snow was beginning to fall again. She didn't feel any change in temperature, so she figured they were fine for a while. So long as it didn't suddenly start hailing or pounding them with heavy snow balls, she was good to go on. She closed her eyes and her arms loosened around his neck. Eventually, she was fast asleep and Luffy was leaning a little forward to keep her on his back. He gripped her thighs a bit tighter, adjusting her every so often to keep her from falling.
When Nami opened her eyes next, it was REALLY warm. So warm, she was actually SWEATING. "Luffy...it's too hot." Nami mumbled into his ear as she tried to wake herself up.
Luffy nodded. He himself was sweating buckets. He let her down gently before looking at the area around him. "The snow's melting," Luffy commented. Nami looked around as well and noticed that the snow fell still, but was gradually turning into rain as they walked through the snow.
Nami wasn't paying attention and tripped over something hidden in the snow. She tumbled forward through some bushes and went rolling for a second before coming to a stop. "Nami!" She hard Luffy call, crashing coming from behind her.
"Wow," Nami said as she took a look around. The snow had completely melted the second it hit the ground where she was at. She could feel the ground - it was nice and warm. She could hear rustling behind her - Luffy got stuck. Nami looked beyond her area and discovered exactly why the ground was so warm. Beyond the little area she had fallen in, there were hot springs all over the place! It was as if there were giant puddles of steaming water everywhere! Nami quickly stood up and brushed herself off. "Luffy, hurry up and come look!"
"Nami!" Luffy exclaimed, getting his sleeve unhooked from the tree that hadn't wanted him to pass. He came barreling down the miniature hill that Nami had taken and came to a stop next to her. "You okay?" He asked when he reached her. Then he noticed she was staring at the area in front of them. "Whoah!" He exclaimed, "That's awesome!"
Nami didn't waste any time and quickly ran down toward the enormous "puddles" of water and went to her knees when she got close. So far, her and Luffy had been eating the snow. They weren't about to drink sea water, but it had been the only thing to drink at the moment. Nami cupped her hands in the water - it was so nice and warm...almost hot. She brought it to her lips and took a sip. "Goodness, the water tastes sweet!" She said. It did - it was like a wine almost.
"Really?" Luffy asked and dipped his hands in to taste the water. It was extremely good! Nami smiled at his enthusiasm as he stuck his whole head into the water and began to drink. The interesting thing was, when Nami's hands dried, she didn't feel the least bit sticky. She really wanted that bath...
"Let's take a bath and get our clothes washed at the same time," Nami said, "God knows how long it's been since we've been actually CLEAN." Nami said, taking off her jacket.
"B-B-But Nami!" He exclaimed when he saw her taking off her clothes. Why did she always do that? She always took her clothes off and got dressed in the middle of nowhere! "Aren't you-"
"Nope!" Nami said. "There's enough steam here to cover us up. I can barely see you two feet in front of me."
Luffy blinked. She was right...He could barely make out the color of her hair.
So without further ado, Nami took off her pants and shoes, followed by her shirt and then her underwear. Luffy reluctantly took his clothes off, too. They might as well get started with washing off their clothes. "Nami, won't it take a while for our clothes to dry?"
"Yes, it will. That means we have time to soak and you can play with the water in the area if you want," Nami said with a smile.
Luffy nodded. "Okay," he said hesitantly.
"Plus, the steam and the ground can help warm them up. We can even hang them up over the trees that surround this area if we want, that way they can drip dry."
"Yosh!" Luffy said, his grin back in place. So now, both he and Nami were naked and jumping into the water. Well, Luffy was jumping in the water, Nami calmly walked in, first testing it, before sinking in fully. Nami groaned. "Nami, you okay?" He asked, concerned by her groan.
"Hai," Nami said, her voice almost whispering.
"Are you sure? Maybe the steam is bad for you," he said and came to her side and placed a hand on her forehead.
"Damn it, Luffy, I'm not sick," Nami said. She wasn't really mad, nope, not really. She was more tired and comfortable then anything. Her words, however, fell on deaf ears because he simply continued to feel her forehead for a fever. After a while, he frowned and just removed his hand.
"You don't got a fever..." he muttered but shrugged it all of and stayed where he was.
It took a moment for her to realize that they were insanely close to each other. Just and arm's length away from each other. A blush crept onto her face, going unnoticed but her idiotic captain. Luffy grinned and took both of his hands and began squeezing water between them, squirting it out in a small spit. Before either of them knew it, Luffy was going crazy with just sitting still in the water. So, what do you do when you have water, you're bored, and you had the insane urge to do something? Of course...start a water fight.
Nami and Luffy were at the center of a particularly deep pool of water and were splashing each other senselessly. The water was deep enough to come up to their waists, but that was as far as it went. Neither one of them wanted to risk Luffy drowning in a deeper pool. That is, until Luffy got the upper hand and Nami began to run away. Their laughter was echoing off the rocks and trees, encasing them in a carefree atmosphere. Nami was running through a slippery area of water, and being the idiot that he was, Luffy followed after her.
How could they have known that Luffy would slip?
How could they have known he would slip into a deep pool?
When his laughter suddenly went silent, Nami turned around to see if he was still chasing her. "Luffy?" Nami asked. There was nothing but silence - silence and the sound of steam escaping a few cracks in the rocks. "Luffy, this isn't funny. Where are you?"
She retraced her steps and walked backward. She looked in several of the pools - they all had bubbles coming up from the steam. She wouldn't know if he slipped in any of them. That is, until she saw particularly huge bubbles escaping from beneath the surface of one of the pools. With a gasp, she jumped in and swam through it. It was dark and the water sort of stung her eyes as she tried swimming through. Then, she saw an even darker form, and felt bubbles bubble up past her face. Quickly, she swam deeper and reached forward. Her hand felt something soft - Luffy's hair? Possibly. She reached lower and felt his face, his neck, his chest. She hooked one of her arms under one of his arms and around his chest and began swimming toward the top.
When they breeched the surface, Luffy choked on what air he could get. "Luffy, are you okay?" Nami asked.
Luffy groaned. That's the second time in under a week he had nearly drowned. "I feel...heavy," he muttered.
Nami twisted him around to where he was facing her and hooked his arms around her neck. "Hang on, I'll get us to the rocks," she mumbled. Suddenly, a blush appeared on his cheeks - their bodies were unnaturally close...
"What?" Nami asked when she caught him staring at her.
"N-Nothing," he stuttered.
Nami shrugged and swam backwards toward one of the banks and hauled them up and out of the water. It was only then that when gravity took hold of them, Luffy's body was pressed firmly against hers and a certain aspect of the male anatomy became very apparent to Nami. With a blush covering her entire face down into her collar bone and then some, she pushed Luffy off of her and tried her best to cover herself. "Pervert," she mumbled.
"I am not!" Luffy said, his blush turning redder and deeper.
He followed after her as she walked back toward the very first spring they came across and sat inside of it. "I doubt our clothes are dry yet," Nami commented, "so let's just sit and relax for a few minutes."
"Ne, Nami?" Luffy asked as he sat across from her on the opposite side of the spring.
"Hm?" Nami asked.
"Why do you think you are closer to me than the others?" He asked. "I've been wondering for a long time. I thought that you would be closer to Robin because you're always with her."
Nami blinked before smiling, "So you were listening," Nami said with a giggle. "Truthfully? I think I'm closer to you than anyone else on the ship. I really do believe that. When I speak with Robin, it's always observational conversation."
"Huh?" He asked with a blink.
Nami laughed, "I mean, when she talks to me she usually talks about things she notices on the ship or about the direction we're headed in or what land marks there are to discover."
"But you guys are together for hours on the deck!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Doesn't mean we do anything," Nami said with a shrug. Beneath the water, she crossed her legs, above the water, she let her elbows rest on the sides of the rocks. "She's always reading about the history of the islands we may or may not visit. She's a true archaeologist."
Nami sighed. "At least when Vivi was here, I'd have a lot to chat about."
"That was fun," Luffy said quietly.
"Luffy," Nami said, "why do you always act like you're not listening but in reality, you really are?"
Luffy shrugged, "I just do. I like having fun, I don't think about consequences or what might happen or not." Luffy looked up, but all you could see was the gray of the steam rising up around them. "I don't want to be like everyone else who always worries."
Nami smiled, "So," Nami said, "in other words, you just want to be carefree." Luffy nodded, but didn't say anything further. "You know," Nami said after a period of silence, "I was just telling Robin that this was going to be a long week. I had no idea what was in store for us."
"Maybe you knew something was going to happen," Luffy commented. Nami shrugged, and once again, the two were in silence. "Nami," Luffy paused, "I'm hungry..."
And for a while, neither one of them spoke. Then, Nami began scrubbing herself down. She might as well TRY to get some of the grime off of her. She really didn't like having to scrub without any soap though. She wondered how they made soap anyway. Maybe she can learn the ingredients and come up with her own kind of soap...maybe some that smells like tangerines! She sighed in contentment before standing and walking over to their clothes. "Ne, Luffy, our clothes are pretty much dry now. I wonder how long we've been here." Nami said to herself.
Luffy shrugged and followed suit. They got dressed and made sure they were (well, mostly Nami) was bundled tight. With a stretch, they made their way out of the clearing and back onto the snow covered area that they had been trekking through. Nami figured it was some time after lunch, maybe even nearing sunset seeing as how the sun looked as though it were slowly going downward. "Maybe we should head back. It's been a while since we ate anything proper. I'll catch us something to eat. You...just go back to the cave. Follow our footsteps in the snow, can you handle that?"
Luffy nodded with a grin. "I'll make a fire!"
"You do that," Nami said with a smile before heading into the woods to see if she could catch something edible. Luffy followed their tracks back to the cave. It would take him a while to get the fire going, but he would do it no matter what! Plus...he knew it would take a while for Nami to catch something, so, he might as well get started.
Oooooo, how was that chapter? I'm trying to get them closer together...am I succeeding? I've got one last idea...okay, half an idea. Here's what I have in mind: I'm thinking about the crew. What are they doing? Why haven't they gotten to them yet? What's taking them so long? Blah blah blah. Etcetera etcetera etcetera. You catch my drift? So that's what the next chapter's gonna be about - the crew. So, if you could care less about the crew, you can skip that chapter. I promise, there won't be anything relating to Luffy and Nami fluffiness in this next chapter.
On another note...any suggestions for the chapter after that? My mind has gone completely blank... This...sucks. And I was thinking hard, too! So far, I've used my ice skating idea, my swimming idea, hell, I used the drowning idea twice now (O.O), gosh...this is going to take some thinking, huh? Is there anything specific that my beautiful (and maybe some handsome) readers want me to write (a.k.a. type) up? Anything at all? I am completely open to suggestions!
But anyway...hope you enjoyed the chapter! Review please!