Chapter 03
Ding-dong sounded the bell of Nojiko´s house. She opened the door and her jaw dropped.
"How's my favorite sister doing?" Nami cheerfully greeted her.
"Nami!" She said truly surprised and hugged her as she came closer "What are you doing here?"
"I came to meet my niece!" She smiled at her.
"Well, you come 2 years late" Nojiko said raising an eyebrow and not believing her younger sister.
"Details!" she entered the house and the two of them moved to the kitchen.
They sat at the table and the blue haired poured her some tea "Really, what are you doing here?"
"Where is Bellmere-chan?" She sipped the tea.
She is with her father at her grandma´s house. What are you doing here?" she insisted.
Nami sighed defeated from arguing with her sister: "I happened to have some business near by."
"Really, at the same time you decided to visit your niece" she commented to prove she wasn´t interested in meeting Bellmere.
The red head didn´t answer and drank her tea.
"What happened to your arm?" Nojiko continued the interrogation.
"I fell" She said quickly.
The older girl inhaled deeply "Ok, now you are going to tell me what the hell you are doing here after 5 years"
Nami sighed again. "I was passing by and bumped into something… precious for me and some other pirates, and you know ..."
The blue haired thought about it "You robbed some pirates… the thing I don´t know, by your injuries, is if they caught you or not yet" Nojiko wondered aloud.
"They almost did but I ran away, actually, rolled away from a cliff… they were close but I got rid of them" she commented.
"They followed you here?" she asked a little worried.
"Do you think I would try to find protection from wild pirates with you?" Nami asked her with irony.
"Of course not, I know you are not stupid" She drank her tea and thought about it: of course she wouldn´t seek for her help to get rid of some pirates that were clearly over her level, she thought."OH NO!"
"What?" Nami asked.
"You went to Zoro for protection!" Nojiko said in panic.
"Oh yeah, I bumped into him, but they never came so I must have lost them" She commented lightly.
"Oh my god you saw Zoro!" She covered her mouth.
Nami nodded.
"And Kuina?" she pointed at her.
"No, no, no, just him!" she answered fast.
"What are you doing here, Nami?" she asked suspiciously.
"I already told you! I was hiding from some pirates, It was raining like hell, I was injured, he helped me, that´s all" she finished her tea.
"And?" She asked putting her chin on her fists.
"Nothing… that was all" she looked away.
"Oh come on! You haven´t seen each other in five years and you didn´t talk about it!" She said a little indignant.
"Mmno , there wasn´t much to talk" she shrugged
"You are unbelievable Nami!" She sighed "But you know, I love you, so I'm just going to play dumb and enjoy that you are here.".
"Thanks!"
The lovely fraternal moment was interrupted by another Ding-dong. Nojiko broke the embrace and went to open the door.
At that point she kind of expected to find Zoro at the other side but she was a little surprised by his angry stance.
"I know she is here!" He moved inside her house not waiting for her answer.
Nojiko followed him "Zoro! What the hell!"
The green haired entered the kitchen and found the navigator staring surprised at him.
"YOU" he pointed at her.
She didn´t move. He looked mad, his face expression was hard and his eyes seemed to be on fire. "HOW COULD YOU!"
He walked closer to her. "I OPENED THE DOOR OF MY HOUSE TO YOU, I NEVER ASKED YOU ANYTHING"
He was really close, she had to tilt her head to look at his face "I HEALED YOU, LET YOU SLEEP IN MY BED, I DIDN´T WANT ANYTHING IN RETURN"
Nojiko stared at him a little worried; she had never seen him like this. Something deep down inside her knew he was not going to hurt Nami but from the outside it clearly looked different.
"YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE I DIDN´T HATE YOU, I CARED FOR YOU, I THOUGHT YOU WERE A LITTLE SCARED GIRL WITH TOO MUCH ON HER BACK FIVE YEARS , ONE DAY YOU APPEAR AT MY DOOR AND YOU TALK TO ME LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY THE LAST TIME YOU SAW ME. AND THEN AGAIN, I CARED FOR YOU, SO WHY NOT HELPING YOU AFTER ALL THIS TIME!" His voice sounded raspy and throaty.
Nami´s mouth only opened to bit her lower lip.
"BUT I WAS WRONG! YOU ARE AN IRRESPONSIBLE SELFISH BITCH AND YOU CLEARLY WERE 5 YEARS AGO!"
Nami gulped.
"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PLAY WITH ME ANYMORE NAMI. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PLAY WITH US. I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, DON´T EVEN DARE TO COME CLOSE TO KUINA EVER AGAIN OR I SWEAR WE´LL RUN AWAY AND HIDE AND YOU WILL NEVER, EVER HEAR FROM US AGAIN!"
Nami could feel her eyes start to water but she tried to suppress it.
He turned around "WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO YOU TO TREAT ME LIKE THIS. FUCK NAMI! YOU DRAG A FUCKING PIRATE INTO KUINA´S ROOM FOR A STUPID TREASURE AND YOU DON´T EVEN WARN ME."
At that moment Nojiko worried look turned into a disapproving glance that was shot to her sister.
"Sorry Nojiko," he mumbled on his way out.
"It´s ok" she understood.
He was about to go when he turned around He was about to leave when he turned around: "I ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU WERE SCARED, BUT I WAS WRONG - YOU DON´T CARE, YOU DON'T GIVE A SHIT. YOU WERE CLEAR ABOUT IT FIVE YEARS AGO: YOU DON´T WANT US IN YOUR LIFE, AT LEAST KEEP YOUR FUCKING WORD!" He slammed the door.
As soon as the door was closed Nami broke into tears. Nojiko wanted to reprimand her sister but she looked so vulnerable she just hugged her. The red head dug her face on her neck and continued crying.
"I never wanted for any of this to happen" She sobbed.
"I know, I know" Nojiko patted her head
Ooo
Zoro was still angry but somehow getting it out of his chest helped him to calm down. He was lucky to find one of Kuina´s friends' mother going to the school, so he followed her. Somehow in his angry state he found the way to Nojiko´s house in minutes but now that he was calmer the island turned into a maze again.
He got to the school on time, just when all the kids were leaving. Kuina greeted him surprised.
"You are on time!"
"Yeah, let´s go" he said
"Yeah! Let´s go!" She jumped.
They started walking and the little girl interrupted him. "Daddy we have to go to the village"
"We´ll go tomorrow"
"But you said we´ll buy the knife today!" she complained.
"We have to go home!" he ordered.
She sniffed.
"Kuina" He called her
The little girl started sobbing "You promised" she cried softly.
He kneeled down "Don´t cry"
She rubbed her eyes while crying "You lied to me, you promised"
He sighed "I didn´t lie, something happened, we can´t go to the village now"
"What happened?" She sobbed.
He scratched the back of his head "Something…with the thing… I had to fix… It broke"
"You are lying again" she sniffed.
"I´m not lying," he assured her.
"Then what thing broke?" she stopped crying.
He carried her in his arms "Ok let's go buy that knife"
She ran her arms around his neck "Yey! And eat ice cream"
He walked "Weren´t you crying just yet?"
"I got better with the good news" she said.
"Were you trying to manipulate me with your crying?" he stopped.
"What does manipulate means?" she asked naively.
He sighed he was a little sensitive "Nothing, I´m sorry. Let´s get that knife" he kissed her head.
oooo
"If you could lend me some clothes I´ll get the hell out of here in 5 minutes" Nami said at her sister. She felt something in a mix of anger and sadness.
"Calm down! You are not going anywhere with those injuries" Nojiko stopped her and pushed her down to sit at the table again.
"It´s nothing, I don´t want to be here" She looked away.
"Oh come one! You have to meet Bellmere. Go upstairs, take a relaxing bath, just spend the night.. For me" The blue haired begged her.
"I want to die" she collapsed on the table crying again.
Nojiko caressed her hair. "He is just a little angry, but it´ll go away, you should have warned him. That´s all, he´ll forgive you, he has forgiven you for worse things!"
"Really, why are you trying to cheer me up?" Nami peeked at her from between her arms.
"I love you Nami but he was right. You should have warned him! What if the pirate entered when Kuina was in the room?"
"Look I thought that no one was following me anymore! I didn´t want to tell him because I didn't want to bring him any trouble. I regretted going to him the second I saw him" she complained.
"Then why did you do it? After all this time" It was so hard to get inside Nami´s head but Nojiko was willing to help her and to do that she needed to have all the information.
The red head sighed "I was stupid"
"Nami!" she insisted.
"I´m going to accept that bath offer" She stood up and left the room.
Nojiko stared at her with wide eyes. She knew that Zoro had overreacted and that Nami was a good person, but sometimes she did behave like a selfish bitch.
Oooo
"This one!" Kuina ran through the store to show it to Zoro.
"That´s a piggy bank not a knife!" he crossed his arms over his chest.
"I really need it, the other one is almost full. I´ll have to break it soon," She pleaded.
"You can buy it with your savings, I´m only buying the plastic knife," he said seriously.
"Ok, but could you pay for it now? I´ll return the money when I break the piggy at home," she smiled.
"I will remember that! " He said taking out the money. "Get the knife"
The little girl ran to the back of the store and came back with 2 knives.
"Why two? You are not going to break them" Zoro complained.
Kuina giggled "No! One is to eat and the other one is for cooking!"
"You are going to cook now?" He raised an eyebrow.
"I have to learn but with this I could" She said putting it on the counter so the cashier could see them.
The girl behind the counter giggled at Zoro who looked at her hopeless. "That would be all"
"And a book with recipes" Kuina ordered and then looked at her dad "So I could learn"
Zoro sighed again and the cashier smiled back at him adding the book. "That´ll be 89,90 bellis," she said sweetly.
He gave her the money and the two of them got out of the place. In his left hand Zoro had the bags and Kuina held the other one.
"Daddy, can you lend me a coin? Aunt Nojiko told me you can´t have an empty piggy bank, it´s bad luck" she said while she took it out of the bag.
He searched in his pocket and took a coin "Here"
The little girl put it inside "Let´s eat at a restaurant daddy!" She said with enthusiasm.
He chuckled. He just bought her a knife for cooking and she wanted to eat outside. "ok"
Oooo
Nami got out of the bath. She needed it. She used some healing ointments with her worst injuries, bandaged her arm and hip and went out of the bathroom. It was connected to Nojiko and her husband´s bedroom. She opened her wardrobe and grabbed another pair of jeans and a semi long sleeved shirt that covered her bandages.
"Nami" Said Nojiko behind the door.
"Come in" She answered.
The blue haired girl entered the room "Here" she handed her sister a back pack. "Fill it with any clothes you need"
"Thanks" Nami nodded.
"I´m going to buy something for dinner, do you want anything special?" She asked.
"Whatever you cook will be perfect" The red head smiled.
The blue haired girl got out of the room. Nami waited a few minutes inside it and when she heard the sound of the main door closing she moved to her sister´s drawers and started to search for something.
She revised the room in 5 minutes and didn´t seem to find what she wanted, she moved to Bellemere´s room and repeated her actions, she did the same in several room´s until she stopped at the closet behind the stairs. There she took out a box filled with photo albums; she went through them fast, until she reached one that caught her attention. She stared at it for a couple of seconds, took out one of the pictures and hid it in her pocket. Then she put back the box in the closet and returned to Nojiko´s bedroom.
Oooo
Zoro and Kuina walked down the street. The tall man carried the bags in his left hand and held his daughter´s in the other one. He had a popsicle in his mouth. The green haired girl was holding her´s in her right hand and licked it.
"Tangerine is way better than this one," she commented.
"I´m not trading it," he replied.
"Yakk! I don´t want it! You sucked it! I had to try the pear one so I could tell which one is the best" She said as she licked the popsicle.
"And? So far? Which one is the best?" He asked.
"Tangerine" She concluded "Do you agree?".
He shrugged.
"Nee daddy, we could go visit aunt Nojiko and Bellemere, since we are here" Kuina proposed excitedly.
"NO" He said sharply.
"Why not? It´s on our way home! I´ll guide you" She pulled his hand and tried to run but he didn´t move.
"We are going home! That´s it!" he said serious.
"But!" She complained.
"Home, now" He ordered.
They walked in silence.
"I´m sorry" Kuina said softly.
"Why?" Zoro asked surprised.
"I don´t know but stop being mad at me" She pouted.
"I´m not mad at you!" he felt as if she was stabbing him right through the heart.
"Yes you are…" She looked down.
He kneeled down to look at her in the eyes "I´m not mad at you"
"Then, why are you acting so weird?" She asked biting her lower lip.
"Because…" He inhaled deeply "I have a headache. I didn´t mean to sound angry. It´s just that it hurts all the time and you know… like when your tummy aches."
"Daddy! You are ill! We should go see a doctor!" She pulled his hand.
"Don´t worry. I´m getting better, just let´s get back home quickly!" He picked her up and carried her on his shoulders.
"Ok! Left!" She guided him.
A few minutes later they were at home. Zoro put the bags in the kitchen.
"Daddy, are you feeling better now?" She asked.
"Yeah! Great!" He smiled at her.
He took the brand new piggy out of the box "You have to pay me for this" he said.
"Not now" She grabbed it.
"You can´t use it if you don´t pay it" Zoro took it from her hands.
"But…Ok I don´t want it" She ran upstairs.
He sighed. "I'll go to get your bath ready"
He moved upstairs and filled the tube for her bath, minutes later she appeared with her hands full of coins.
"Did you break your piggy?" He asked her.
"No and I won´t do it" she said seriously.
"So?" He asked.
"I thought that since I don´t want it you´ll have to sell it back and as it´s used you can´t sell it for the same price. I´ll offer you 8 Bellis for the piggy" she proposed.
"What the Hell! It cost 25!" Zoro jumped.
"Final offer" she said and proceeded to take off her clothes and get into the tub.
That little brat was scamming him. He thought it was the cutest/most horrible thing she had ever done. "Call me when you are done, I´ll get you out"
15 minutes later she called him back. He wrapped her in a towel and led her in her room. "Put on your pajamas, I´ll wait for you downstairs"
A few minutes later the two of them were enjoying their noodles. Kuina did it slowly as she was falling asleep on the table.
"Kuina! "He tried to wake her up.
"I´m tired daddy, I´m not hungry," she said sleepily.
"Come on, you have to eat more than half of the bowl" he ordered.
She yawned and continued eating at her sluggish peace.
When he was done he picked up his plate. "Ok you can go brush your teeth and sleep"
"Thanks daddy" The green haired girl stood up and moved up stairs.
Some minutes later after cleaning the kitchen Zoro went to her room. She had just entered her bed.
He sat next to her "You are so tired even when we didn´t train today"
"Daddy" she called him
"Yep" he brushed her bangs back.
"I looked up 'manipulate' in the dictionary" She confessed.
"Really?" he asked surprised.
"I didn´t meant to trick you when I cried before" she said between yawns.
"I know" He said proud.
"But I did try to manipulate you with the piggy bank" she whispered.
He grinned away from her sight "I know"
"I just don´t want to break my old piggy bank. I know it´s not fair that you sell it to me for 8 bellis," she grabbed his thumb with her whole hand.
He sighed "I know but sometimes you have to think through things before doing them. You shouldn´t have made me buy you a new piggy bank if you couldn´t afford it"
She pouted "I know"
"Ok let´s do this. If you promise me that you are going to think through more before buying things and that you are not going to manipulate me anymore I´ll give you the new piggy, for free" he offered
"I promise daddy!" She hugged him.
He patted her back.
"Even if I trick you with good intentions?" She asked.
He chuckled "You are a good person. I know everything you do is with good intentions. You don´t have to trick me. You tell me your problem, like you just did and I´ll help you to find a way to fix it"
"Ok!" she showed him her thumb
"Now go to sleep" He tucked her in bed.
"Good night daddy" Her sleepy voice was back.
"Good night Kuina" He kissed her forehead.
"Love you" she mumbled.
"I love you too" he said and left her room.
He moved to his bathroom; he needed a relaxing bath after that long day
TBC
THANKS FOR READING, PLEASE REVIEW!
~Karen K.
Special thanks to BlueLion my betareader!