Chapter 02
Nami opened her eyes. She was lying on a comfortable bed wearing dry clothes; well actually she was wearing a huge cotton t-shirt and her underwear. The door of the room opened and Zoro entered holding a cup of tea and several medical supplies.
"You are awake" He commented.
She moved to be in a sitting position. "Ouch!" Her whole body ached.
"You are heavily injured, what happened?" He sat on a little bench next to her and handed her the tea.
"I fell" She accepted it and took a sip.
He rolled his eyes not buying her story
"You really are a gentleman, but my underwear is wet, I´m freezing" she said looking at the wet circles on her t-shirt, product of her wet bra. "Do you have another t-shirt and some briefs?"
He sighed, opened his drawers, took out some fresh boxers and handed them to her. The redhead pulled down her panties and replaced them with his underwear. Meanwhile, he turned around to search for another t-shirt.
"You are fatter" She joked and stretched the waist of his boxers; they barely clung to her slim waist.
He turned around to give her the t-shirt and found her top naked, removing her bra.
He blushed deeply and looked away quickly.
She extended her hand to get it "Oh come on! Don't be such a baby".
He snorted and turned around to give her some privacy.
"Ready" she said.
When he turned around he found her naked again "Nami!" he complained and blushed.
She put on the t-shirt laughing "Your face is priceless"
He exhaled deeply. "Half of your body is scarred, bruised and burnt. Let me check it" He sat again next to her.
"I fell from a cliff" She said taking another sip of the tea.
He rolled his eyes. He didn´t know exactly why; if it was because he didn´t buy her story or if he believed her but wondered how she could be so careless to fall from a cliff.
She turned so he could examine her body. He pulled the t-shirt up a little and took his time to check her wounds. Most of them were scratches that didn´t seemed serious, the ones that worried him were one huge burn mark around her elbow and another similar near her hips. She must have fallen with her right side because her left one was perfect. He couldn´t help but to let his eyes wander around her body, yep she was perfect. He kicked himself mentally for letting his thoughts run that way.
She closed her eyes when she felt his raspy hand over her skin. The touch was warm and careful. His hand felt huge, she remembered it to be big, but this time it felt different. Zoro looked different from the last time she saw him, she could say he was bigger physically, but the real description that shocked her would be mature, he looked more experienced and wise.
He got a jar and took out some ointment with his fingers. "It´s going to sting a little" he ran his fingers softly over each one of her injuries.
She bit her lip and even though she didn´t say anything, her body flinched every now and then.
"So, how have you been?" He asked as if he had last seen her yesterday.
She shot a little laugh surprised by his tone and question "Very good, how about you?" he was so cool, he had always been.
"Oh, great!" He took special attention to her elbow. "I´ll use some for the burn here." He applied some more medicine on her.
"Ok" she said softly.
When he was done with that, he used some bandages to cover the injury.
"You are good at this" she commented.
"Well I had a few minor incidents when I was younger, I learned from that" he moved his face to inspect her abdomen.
She giggled "You spent a lot of budget in bandages, now that I think about it I never charged you for that"
He cleaned the wound with a wet cloth "You always went easy on me" he said ironically.
She giggled again. "Ouch!" she complained.
"You have a spike" He said and tried to remove it with his hands earning another set of Ouchs from the navigator.
"Are you going to kiss it better?" She asked seductively as she noticed his lips reaching her hips.
"No" he said and picked the spike with his teeth.
"Booo" she said disappointed.
He removed the spike and poured some alcohol on her wound.
"That must have been the most anti-hygienic medical move I´ve seen in my life" she whispered.
"You are welcome" he told her while he bandaged her.
Her gaze wandered to a picture frame that had a photo of Zoro holding Kuina. "Wow! She's really grown" she said softly almost to herself.
He moved his sight to what she was looking at. "That was last summer, she is even bigger. You should see her now!"
At the moment he said those last words he regretted them.
"I probably shouldn´t" She mumbled.
"Yeah, turn around" He ordered her.
She did it. He lifted her shirt up enough to not expose her breast and examined her front injuries. She was ok there, just a few scars. He applied the healing ointment precisely over her injured ribs.
She stared at his face like in trance. He looked like the same Zoro she knew, but he wasn´t. She hissed in pain and her hand jumped to squish his arm.
"Sorry" he said and continued.
She took her time on removing her hand. His arm was so hard, pure muscle, she remembered he was muscular, she'd just forgotten how it felt.
Her eyes turned to his pajamas and the cute frog drawing. He was a father now, not a wild and adventurous pirate. He had a daughter, there was no more "him", now it was them. "How are… you?" she sounded somehow sad. This time the ´you´ meant something different.
He finished applying the bandages and looked at her face. "We are fine." Her eyes looked so hurt, something made him think, that it wasn´t caused by the sting of the ointment.
He stared at her eyes and she looked back at him, they stood like that for a few seconds. He waited for her to say something. She didn´t dare to talk.
"What are you doing here, Nami?" he asked. The obvious question.
Nami looked down as if her time was up, like Cinderella at 12 o´clock. "I-" but she was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.
"Daddy, I can't sleep!" Kuina said sleepily from outside.
Both of them looked at the door. Zoro stood up "Are you scared?" The sound from the storm must have frightened her.
"No! It´s the noise"
He looked at Nami, she nodded understanding and he moved outside the room, closing the door quickly so she couldn't see he had company. He lifted her up and carried her to her room.
"Can I sleep in your bed?" She pleaded.
"Weren´t you a big girl?" He asked and placed her on the bed.
"I´m not scared, just stay with me until I fall asleep" She held his hand.
"Ok but you know it´s just water, right?" He said as he tucked her in.
"I know" she yawned.
Minutes passed and the girl relaxed. She turned around and put her arms under the pillow.
"Don´t put your arms like that you´ll have those cramps again" He moved her so she slept on her side.
"Ok" she said sleepily.
He waited 5 minutes until her breathing rhythm relaxed and she was fully asleep. He kissed the top of her head. He stood up and moved back to his room.
When he opened the door he found Nami sleeping soundly. He stared at her for a few seconds and sighed. He thought he should probably let her sleep and tomorrow they´d have the talk. He grabbed a blanket, threw it on the floor and lay there.
For a few minutes he stared at the ceiling forgetting he needed to close his eyes in order to sleep. Then he shut them but either way he couldn´t drop into slumber, he blamed the hard floor, but deep down he knew the real reason: He couldn´t believe Nami was right here with him.
The red head´s left arm fell down from the bed and hung there. He stared at it. Yep, Nami was there.
His hand moved and attempted to hold hers but he stopped his impulse. He just compared his hand with hers, hers was so little. Not as tiny as Kuina´s but he could easily hold both of her hands with one of his. Also, her skin was so white compared to his. He started to think about the softness of her skin, of course his hand was calloused and raspy, he was a guy. Girls in general were like that but this one specifically was really soft and warm. His mind wandered off until he realized he was holding her hand.
"Damn" He complained, let go off her hand and turned to the side to sleep and stop staring at it.
Oooo
The morning came and found Zoro with his eye wide opened staring at the ceiling. He couldn´t sleep. He always had sleeping problems when he was alone with her, she was way too distracting, but this time was different. She wasn´t doing anything, she just lay there next to him. It was really close but yet so far away. Her breathing rhythm was soft but every now and then she gave little moans that made the swordsman eyes grew big.
He blamed her for his insomnia, she had come to him out of nowhere, after all that time, after all those things they had experienced together. He spent the whole night wondering what she was doing there. Some time in the night, he sat on the floor and decided to ask her but then her relaxed sleeping expression made him dismiss that idea.
She was much wounded, probably she was in trouble and needed his help. His mind filled with questions and answers: Why him? She could have run and ask Luffy or Sanji … well, maybe she was close by, but what would she be doing around here? … He was in Cocoyashi, it was her homeland in the end and she had any right to be there. But it had been so long, why now? He sighed and looked through the window; the first's rays of sun light appeared. Time to wake up Kuina for school and stop thinking.
He stood up and got dressed quickly. He hesitated on waking Nami up before his daughter but he wanted to talk to her alone. He stared at her for a few minutes until he noticed the time he had spent on doing that and left the room.
Oooo
Nami woke up with the sound of movement and conversation outside the room. She could hear Kuina´s soft steps followed by Zoro´s heavy ones. Next to the night table was a note, it said: "I´m going to leave Kuina at school, I´ll be back in a couple of hours". For a second she wondered why he made his daughter go to school so far away and then she remembered his directions problems.
"Come on, Kuina, breakfast is ready!"
"Daddy can I have some money for the break?" She yelled back
"No! You can have an apple" He said.
"Noo!" she complained.
Nami heard the soft steps of the young girl going down. She stretched, she woke up with her left arm numb, she hated when that happened. She looked at her body; almost her whole right side was covered in bandages. She sighed.
She inhaled the fragrance of Zoro´s clothes. It smelled so masculine, she looked at the t-shirt, it was so big that it was the size of a dress for her, or maybe two, she liked short dresses. She inspected Zoro´s room from the bed. It didn't have much, just the bed, the wardrobe and the night table, everything was neat. She looked again at the picture. Zoro´s smile in it was breathtaking, he sure was happy. She had sensed it the night before. Then her gaze shifted to the little girl in his arms. She bit her lower lip.
Suddenly the doorknob of Zoro´s room turned a little.
"What are you doing, Kuina? WE HAVE TO GO" yelled Zoro from downstairs.
The little girl stopped at the door of his room "I´ll wash my teeth and go down!" She yelled back.
"You haven´t brushed your teeth yet? Come on!" he complained.
She opened the door of Zoro´s room.
Nami hid under the bed. She looked at the tiny feet walking inside the room and heard her open the drawer of his night table, then the sound of coins. She grinned widely at the sound of the little girl stealing his father´s money. She heard her close the drawer and move out of the room closing the door.
"I´m ready daddy!" She yelled while she ran down the stairs.
"Ok let´s go" He said
"That little thief" Nami sat back on the bed grinning from ear to ear.
Oooo
Zoro lifted the little girl in his arms.
"You are carrying me?" she asked as she accommodated herself to sit on his shoulders.
"Yeah we are really late!" He started walking.
"Not that late! We´ve been later" She commented.
"I have to do some stuff after I leave you at school" he made up.
"What?" She asked.
"Something… fix a thing" he invented.
"Left!" she pointed.
He turned left quickly.
"You should fix the mailbox, we never get any letters" she commented.
He sighed soundly.
"Left again!"
15 minutes later they arrived at the school. He let her on the grass and she waved at him. He waited for her to enter inside and he turned around. He had to return to the house to talk to Nami, quickly before he had to get Kuina back from school. It sounded easy but it wasn´t for the directionally cursed swordsman.
He left the school area and whispered in rhythm: "Hold up your hands!" - he raised his arms.
Oooo
At Zoro´s house Nami had moved to the kitchen. Her expression turned into a big smile when she found a jar of juice and some fruits at the table. She was sure that Zoro had left them there for her.
She sat at the table. Surely becoming a father had made him mature and pay attention to little details as this. She served herself a glass of juice and drank it. She closed her eyes and savored the tangerines. Yep, nothing felt better than the sweet flavor of Cocoyashi´s mikan juice. It tasted like home. Then she opened her eyes and remembered she was at Zoro´s house. She couldn´t help but to feel a little dumb, this wasn´t her home. She sighed.
"What the hell are you doing here Nami?" She whispered.
She grabbed an apple and looked through the window. It was a great place for a house, she would have never thought of it but it was excellent. Right next to the lake, 15 minutes away from the beach, 40 minutes from down town, exactly the quiet kind of place Zoro would like to live. Who would have thought, years ago, that Roronoa Zoro, the pirate hunter, would settle down for family? She certainly wouldn´t have.
The thing that most called her attention in the kitchen was the fridge: it had a few children drawings probably from Zoro´s daughter. She stared at them and gulped. She was quite an artist for a 5 year old girl. Her drawings, though they were quite rustic, were well proportionate. She smiled noticing that Zoro was the protagonist of most of them.
She walked to the living room; it had a couch, some chairs and a few shelves. There were a few pictures here and there, she looked at them. One was Zoro holding a green haired baby, he looked scared. Well actually, he looked serious but Nami could read him, he was scared. There was another with Nojiko holding an older version of the baby. She stared at it and sighed, the last one was with Luffy throwing her in the air both of them were laughing. She smiled.
She finished eating the apple and decided to go change into her clothes. She moved up to Zoro´s room and with effort and pain she put on her tight jeans and a blue tank top. It couldn´t hide the bandages on her arms. She sat again on Zoro´s bed. She closed her eyes and let her body fell down on the mattress. Her hands clung to his sheets and she sniffed them in fetal position.
"I´m happy if you are, too" she whispered with her eyes closed. It sounded more like an affirmation to herself than a sudden expression. She spent a few minutes like that and then she stood up.
She was about to get down the stairs when she took a deep breath, for courage. She turned around and headed for Kuina´s room.
There were 3 doors on the upper floor. One was Zoro´s room, the other was a bathroom and the one left was one with a sign in a star form that had the words "Kuina"
She gulped and opened the door slowly.
It was the typical kid's room: a cute little bed, a colorful rug, a few shelves and a tiny table with a matching chair. She had several books, mostly the coloring kind and toys.
She picked up a little pink piggy bank that was in one of her shelves, she wiggled it, it was pretty full. She put her hand inside her jeans pocket, took a few gold coins and inserted them on the piggy.
She sat on the little chair grinning and stared at a book that called her attention, it was under the pillow. She opened it up and found a drawing that looked like a ball with a face, one eye closed with a scar and green hair that grew like grass. She smiled. Below the drawing it was written in a clumsy handwriting "Dad". The next page was another ball, this one was smaller. It was smiling and had green hair that cascaded down. It said "me" below. Then there was another ball, smiling with long blue hair and said "Aunt", another with short blonde hair with the title "Uncle". After that there were many drawings of dogs, stars, rainbows, cats, rabbits, frogs, all with their respective names. She flipped the pages and admired the drawings. Then the book was filled with another kind of drawings:: They started with a sentence "I live in…" and she wrote "Cocoyashi" and drew a beach."I like to…" and she put "Draw" and the drawing was a brush. It continued with: "My favorite food is …" "Ice cream", "My birthday is on …" "December 24th"," When I grow up I want to be a …" "Pirate". When she saw that last one, she stopped flipping the pages and stared at the drawing for several seconds; It looked like a wanted poster with a 999.999.999 bellies reward, The pirate was a stick person holding up a sword but the face was one of those balls she drew, only this time the hair was red and a name was written "Dorobo Neko". She gulped; probably she should stop looking at that thing. She put them back below the pillow and stood up.
She decided to leave the room when another picture called her attention: it was Zoro and Kuina again. They looked so happy, he looked so happy; she had never seen him like that. She stood there staring at him.
Oooo
Zoro arrived at his house. He couldn´t believe it; 30 minutes! He always took like 3 hours. It was shameful to confess it but that song Kuina taught him worked.
He hesitated before entering. He couldn´t believe this moment, it had been so long since the last time he saw her. What could she be doing here, he wondered and brushed his hair back. He stopped his hand at the back of his head and wondered what he was doing, was he trying to look good for her? "Baka!" he mumbled.
He opened the door of his house slowly. He could feel his heart beating at double speed inside his chest. He could see the kitchen from his position and noticed the juice jar was half empty. He grinned.
"Nami" He called her softly and moved to the kitchen but she wasn´t there.
He calmly moved to his room. "Nami?" but when he opened the door she wasn´t there. He walked a little faster to his private bathroom "Nami" He asked in a higher tone but he was alone in there. He ran to Kuina´s room and yelled "NAMI!" without success; she wasn´t there either, he checked the other bathroom, moved outside and rechecked the kitchen and living room.
5 minutes later he was back inside his room alone. "Fuck!" He sat on the bed and punched it. She was gone. He cursed like he hadn´t cursed in years, he wanted to go outside and punch a tree down. She had run away, again. She left him, again. How could he be so stupid? How could he fall in her trap, again? How could he treat her so kindly and not ask her anything? How could he trust her?
He noticed a piece of paper peeking behind his pillow. He pulled it and found out it was a note: "Zoro! Thanks for helping me with my injuries, I´m sorry I had to go so quickly but you know it´s for the best. Took a few coins from your drawer, I needed the cash. Nami"
He sighed deeply. She even robbed him. He balled his fist with the paper inside it. He heard somewhere that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If that was true he was a lunatic.
He stood up, took a deep breath and decided to go kick that trees butt.
He opened the door of his room, took a single step and froze. His hand jumped to his katana on his side. "Could she still be here?" He wondered. He heard a soft noise in Kuina´s room. Something was wrong.
He slowly walked towards the door. He opened it and found a huge, muscular, yet, fat man searching through the room. He was doing it carefully and didn´t seem to notice his presence.
"What are you doing in here?" Zoro´s throaty and angry voice asked.
When the guy turned around to face him, he found a blade resting dangerously over his throat. "Roronoa Zoro?" He asked surprised.
"THIS IS MY HOME - WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" His eyes sparkled with fire. He was in his daughter´s room, his daughter slept there.
"I-I-I´M SORRY" The guy freaked out "I´m Hiko from the Shamanic Pirates… I thought… I didn´t want to intrude into your house. I´ve been following a thief that robbed us and her tracks leaded here" he stuttered.
Zoro felt his blood boil inside his veins. He knew who he was following.
"We don´t want to hurt anybody, we won't even hurt her if she returns the pearl" He was clearly scared and seemed to be saying the truth.
"I don´t know what you are talking about and I don´t care. I really want to slit your throat for entering my house" Zoro said.
"Look! I´ll go, I must have followed the wrong tracks. I´m sorry, you´ll never see me again" The guy begged.
Zoro opened the window of Kuina´s room "If I ever see you, or hear about you again, you and your whole shamanic crew are dead" He grabbed the huge guy from the collar of his t-shirt and threw him out of the window.
The guy landed on the ground and hobbled away "Thanks Roronoa-san" he yelled back.
Inside the room Zoro was frozen. His calm and relaxed face had tightened, he frowned. His fists were balled so tight that his knuckles were white. The most different thing on him were his eyes, they looked dark and dull. He was mad, he was furious "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH" He screamed so loud that a few trees blew away.
TBC
THANKS FOR READING, PLEASE REVIEW!
~Karen K.
Special thanks to BlueLion my betareader!