Disclaimer: I do not own one piece of One Piece.

Chapter 3: Scaring

Nami couldn't hide anywhere for longer, not even in her own room. At one time or another she just had to go outside, especially when her stomach growled as loud as that. And surely Sanji would knock at her door soon to call her for breakfast. So, she told herself, why acting all weird and staying in there if she knew she would have to go out sooner or later? Nobody would notice anything if she just went outside and behaved normally. Well, nobody apart from Robin, of course. But she had agreed to not tell anybody, and Nami trusted her.

Get a grip!, Nami scolded herself. Everybody will notice if you tremble and sweat and everything! And then they'll start asking stupid questions, is that what you'd like? So now go and act normal, damn it!

A word and a blow. Nami stood up from where she sat at her desk, still with her maps. It had been no use to try to work, for all she could focus on was that stupid (hot) dream, and every time she made an attempt to draw even the slightest line, her fingers trembled so violently she almost let go of her pen several times. Her whole figure was shaking, but lack of sleep was the only thing that had absolutely nothing to do with it. There were pictures in her head, pictures from the dream, but also pictures in her mind, created by her own phantasy. Pictures of him and her, kissing, pictures of him just being topless, with his chiselled muscular chest …

Oh shut up already!

It made it even worse. The whole time, she had sat there with her face buried in her hands, shaking her head fiercely from time to time. Someone from the outside would have taken her for insane, and she felt like it, too.

She was at the door now, hesitantly touching the brass surface of the knob. It felt smooth and cold in her hand and for the one moment she held it, it was her source of constancy. Then, she turned it, more resolute now, and opened the door. She almost expected seeing her captain in front of the door, waiting for her, but of course this was not the case.

She laughed quietly, slightly embarrassed by her own thoughts. This was weird, he had other things to do than lying in wait for her in front of her door. And how should he even know about it? He didn't even know what it was, not like in the dream where he had seemed to know everything about how to make a female body quiver and shake in endless pleasure …

Not again!

She groaned and shook her head. It was just a dream, and a bad one for certain. It hadn't even been realistic, how should he know all that stuff, why should he want her and why should she give in to him? Even if he did things like that, touch her in hidden places with such delight she hadn't even known about …

"Noooo! Now stop that!", she hissed at herself, clenching her fists. Then she looked around to see if there was any danger in form of a straw hat-wearing black-haired boy, but she could only see Brook who stood at the lower deck, enjoying the morning sun and playing another lovely hymn on his violin.

Relieved, she began walking towards the dining room, carefully watching her surroundings for any change. She heard several voices from the men's quarters, some shouting and some giggling (that was definitely Chopper), and then one loud cry emanated from over there: "SANJIII! BREAKFAAAST!"

She could tell for sure who that was. Before he could come out of the room, she decided to run for her life, and when she finally made it to the dining room, she closed the door in a flash and leaned at it, panting heavily and with her heart pounding like mad.

Just then did she look at the table. Robin and Franky were already sitting there, one of them smiling and the other looking bewildered at her. "Good morning, Nami-san, did you sleep well?"

Nami cast Robin a death glare for that. She knew just too fucking well how her sleep had been, thanks for that.

"Yo, Nami", Franky greeted, then turned to Robin and their conversation again, and she nodded at him, too wasted to say anything.

"Robin-chwaaan, I'm almost finished, what do you want to drink?", a voice whistled out of the kitchen, and Robin looked up again. "Some coffee please, if it's not too much trouble."

"I'd take every trouble in the world just to make you pleased, Robin-chwaaan!", Sanji wooed and looked out of the kitchen. Then he saw Nami, and the hearts in his eyes grew even more. "Nami-swaaan! I hope you've had your beauty rest, but not that you'd need it …"

Nami smiled weakly at the cook as she went to her place at the table and sat down. Certainly breakfast wouldn't be such a thing, she could manage that easily, and as long as Luffy wouldn't choose one of the chairs next to her, she would be perfectly fine. But, just to make sure, she sat down next to Robin. One chance less for her bad luck.

As the door flew open, she should have known what to expect now. Nevertheless, his presence hit her like one of Usopp's five-ton hammers, and she could just stare, frozen in her seat.

"Sanji! Meeeaaat!", he exclaimed, showing his trademark grin. He didn't notice how Nami went stiff all of a sudden, but Robin did. She chuckled slightly at the sight. That was going to be very, very funny.

"Meat for breakfast? Are you crazy?", Sanji answered from the kitchen.

So it went on, and when everyone was there and already sitting at the table, Luffy headed towards one of the only two places left – the one next to Nami.

She saw it coming, but as her reactions weren't all great at that time, dulled by her inner conflict still ongoing, she shrieked and almost threw herself on the chair in question when he intended to pull it out and sit on it. "No! Take the other!", she cried out but couldn't even look at him. Pictures flashed up in her mind again, provoked by his presence so close to her.

Luffy looked utterly confused at his navigator, scratching his head. "What? Why? Is it broken?"

"No! Just take the other!", Nami repeated, clutching the chair almost desperately. When he shrugged and went to the other chair opposite her and Nami sat back, sighing in relief, she saw Robin shaking in suppressed laughter. She shot her another death glare, then focused on her empty plate in silence, ignoring the confused looks of the whole crew.

Sanji came out of the kitchen, balancing four generously filled plates in his arms. Two of them were meant for Nami and Robin, and as he put them in front of them together with some fluted compliments about their beauty, a rubber arm immediately shot out, aiming at Nami's plate.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

It was nothing new. To be perfectly honest, it would rather be new if he didn't try it at least once a meal, but yet, Nami flinched back screaming in horror at his hand directly in front of her as she immediately imagined this hand touching her bare skin, making it burn, completely forgetting about the fact that she sat on a chair. And as one thing led to the next, the chair toppled over – with Nami still seated. She fell to the floor with a loud cracking sound as the chair's backrest broke away by the impact.

Everybody stared wide-eyed at the scene. Sanji was the first to regain his composure; one leap and he was at her side. "Nami? Nami, are you okay?", he asked, deeply worried, and tried to lift her up, but Nami shook her head, a panicked look upon her face.

"I'm fine, please sit back, I'm okay", she tried to assure, but with no effect.

"Chopper! Come over here!", Sanji called, and the little reindeer came running over. Then Sanji slowly stood up and turned to Luffy, blood lust in his eyes. "Luffy you shitty captain, WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?" And with that he leapt at the poor boy that didn't get anything.

"I'll take you to the infirmary, perhaps you have a brain concussion", Chopper said meanwhile, calmly. Even though Nami stood up by herself, he still insisted on her accompanying him, and finally she gave in and went with him, the disbelieving stares of the rest of the crew (except for Sanji and Luffy who were occupied with fighting slash defending) following her as she did so.

In the infirmary, Chopper gave a closer look at her head, with pupillary reflexes and everything that could indicate a brain concussion. Both of them said nothing, with Chopper too busy to talk and Nami not knowing what to say. Of course her silly behaviour was so not normal, everybody had seen that, and soon they would start asking her questions about it. She would do the same if one of her nakama acted as weird as she did at the moment. But she couldn't explain it to them, no, never, simply because it was too embarrassing to ever be told.

She mused about that when an all too familiar figure appeared in the open door of the infirmary room, and she involuntarily held her breath.

He cleared his throat before entering, and Nami jerked back as he stepped closer, ignoring the thermometer in her ear which almost fell to the ground.

Luffy stopped when he saw her looking wide-eyed at him, with her expression so terrified like he had never seen, not even when she faced an especially evil guy.

"Nami, Sanji forced me to apologise …", he began, but Nami just continued staring at him as if he was the most malicious person in the world.

Chopper looked at Luffy, then at Nami who tried to hide behind the chair she had been seated on only seconds ago, then back to Luffy. He frowned at him. "You scare her. You'd better leave off." For Nami was his patient at the moment, and Chopper couldn't tolerate any person scaring off his patients, even if it was his captain.

Luffy looked at him, then at Nami. He was so very confused, but perhaps she could explain things to him. "Nami, I'm sorry for that food thing, I won't do it again if it scares you …"

She shook her head, still wide-eyed, with pictures in her head and a major shiver running down her spine at hearing his voice. "No! Go away! I can't stand this anymore!", she uttered in panic and finally managed to tear her eyes off of him.

If she had continued looking at him, she would have noticed his expression becoming pained and even hurt. She would have seen his body wincing at her careless words. But as she didn't, she just saw his shadow in the doorway disappearing – and sighed in relief.

Author's note: I didn't know how many people actually read and like this story – I was surprised when I checked my mails. So, would it be bold if I asked you to review please …? Just for me to know that you're out there, reading this one …