Nami was woken up by a strange feeling of something suddenly flying away from her embrace.

Languidly, she sat up and breathed in the familiar scent of the sea before trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes as she rested a hand against the grass to support herself.

Grass.

At the break of dawn, the realization hit her hard. She was out on the deck all night with — wait, where the hell was —

"My apology for waking you up, Nami-san."

Her head shot up at the sound, "Uh, morning.. Sanji-kun." she greeted him sheepishly as Sanji lit a cigarette before her eyes followed his line of sight.

Luffy who had his front buried in the door of the men's quarter slowly fell back onto the deck and hit the grass with a loud thud then he flipped over, stirring up a bit before continuing his sleep with soft snores again as if nothing had happened.

"Shitty captain, letting Nami-san sleep outside like this.. " Sanji exasperatedly grumbled as he stormed to the dining room, the fire of rage literally burning around him, " ..holding Nami-swan in front of my eye you rubber bastard!"

Nami sweatdropped as Sanji disappeared from her sight. She grabbed Luffy's hat beside her, stood up and stretched before walking over and placing it on Luffy's head without waking him up. She then went to the girls' quarter to take her new clothes and headed straight to the bathhouse, too hurry to notice Robin's knowing smile. Nami really needed to take a bath to relax her strained muscles. The grassy deck wasn't a good place to sleep at all, especially if you weren't made of rubber in this case.

"Yohohoho, Nami-san." Brook greeted her as he came down from the crow's nest. Last night was his turn to keep watch, "I assume you had a good sleep last night." he chirped.

Despite herself, Nami blushed. Her eyes unconsciously drifted towards Luffy who was still obliviously sleeping but unfortunately, Zoro happened to choose that exact moment to come out for his training session. He paused, eyeing the door then Luffy for a second and instantly threw a suspicious look at her but she ignored him. Nami gave Brook a curt nod and rushed off.

She just needed to take a bath now.

Last night, after she and Luffy had talked for a long while and reached somewhat of a mutual understanding, they sat together on the deck, star gazing and.. stuff, until she'd just fallen asleep at some point.

Nami sighed and closed her eyes leaning her back against the bathtub as she let hot water relax her muscles.

Sure, cuddling — sleeping next to Luffy wasn't a crime. She knew but she'd rather her crew not witness it. Maybe she should thank Sanji later.

After a moment, Nami couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle at her thoughts.

Who in the world would have thought that she of all people would be in this situation, especially with her captain. If anyone had told her two years ago, even a month ago, that Luffy was capable of kissing a girl (because he was a man), she knew she would have laughed at them then made a bet, proved the fact, corrected the fallacy and earned millions.

But as almost always, her raven-haired captain had proved her and everybody else wrong.

Luffy was, like he'd always called everything he didn't quite understand, a real mystery. His sense of logic was far more mysterious than Robin's smile, Zoro's sense of direction or Sanji's eye because rather than complicated, it was so simple and innocent that Nami just didn't — couldn't — wouldn't understand and without realizing it, she'd fallen hard for him — her simple-minded rubber captain.

Boy, she was so in love that in some fleeting moments, she really hated herself for these stupid girly feelings but no matter what, she couldn't deny she was crazy when it came to him — sleeping outside on the deck after they had just entered the range of a winter island was just one from many.

For her, last night was like a dream because she was so happy and he was warm and her lack of sleep did nothing but make her fall asleep even faster before she could tell Luffy or even herself to get back to bed but she did remember. Luffy told her about the Amazon Lily. He told her about the people he'd met, how he was trained by the Dark King and he told her he lo —

Nami's eyes suddenly snapped open.

What had she just thought?

This was Luffy we were talking about. That ridiculous L-word part must have been a dream or a figment of her own imagination, Brook's song playing tricks with her mind before she slept perhaps.

Running a hand through her damp hair, Nami closed her eyes once again then heaved a sigh at herself in slight frustration.

Somehow, she was officially crazy about that idiot now.

Later that night, Nami spotted Luffy when she was about to go upstairs.

He was lying alone on the grass near the railing. His hat was faithfully laid beside him, letting its owner take the full view of the shining stars in the inky night sky above as the wind blew over genially playing with his dark hair. That scene looked so peaceful and perfect that she was helplessly drawn toward him.

Surprisingly, Luffy was awake, a pleasant smile on his face and it considerably grew wider even before her shadow graced his presence. He slowly got up and put his hat back on, sitting crossed legs before he patted the grass beside him, gesturing for Nami to sit down without glancing at her and when she did, he turned to look at her with somewhat of a quizzical expression on his face.

"I've just finished my map." she answered his silent question. Luffy nodded his head before looking up at the sky again.

Another cold breeze ran over and Nami drew her knees to her chest, slightly surprised by his unusual silence, asking, "And you?"

"I'm thinking about Ace." Luffy replied quietly. Nami paused, tensing up a bit at his brother's name before her eyes softened.

"I'm sorry." she breathed out, placing her hand on his knee with slight pressure as if trying to remind him that she was still here and he wasn't alone.

He didn't say anything.

Yesterday, Luffy never talked about Impel Down and Nami never asked. If anyone could understand him most, that one would be her. She knew completely how hard it must have been to lose someone you loved before your eyes.

"Your hand is small." Luffy murmured out of nowhere as he slipped his hand under hers, lacing their fingers together and despite the cold air around them, his small gestures sparked a warm glow right from her fingertips through her heart.

"I will protect you Nami." he said sincerely looking into her eyes with a smile that made her heartbeat quicken even faster and she couldn't help but smile back.

"Luffy.. " she began in a whisper, squeezing his hand, "Arigatou."

As she studied his face, Luffy's smile turned into a grin before he lightly tugged at her hand as if gesturing for her to move closer, "Are you cold, Nami?" he asked.

"Yes?" she replied absentmindedly, arching an eyebrow.

"Good." Luffy said before he moved his hand from hers then easily lifted her up onto his lap. Nami tensed but soon, she started to relax in his embrace when he did nothing except wrapping his arms around her torso, her head casually resting on his shoulder as she suddenly recalled that she'd fallen asleep like this the previous night —

The previous night.

'I love you.'

Nami frowned deeply. There was no way Luffy would say such a thing like that — would he?

She twitched then looked up at Luffy who gave her a simple 'hmm' in return and before Nami could even arrange her thoughts, she blurted out, "About last night.. " she paused while Luffy gave her a hesitant nod, "Did you.. what did you say last night?"

Nami silently cursed herself at how lame her question turned out to be.

"I told you about the Maiden Island." he answered matter-of-factly, looking owlishly at her, "I met Margaret.. and Sandersonia and Marigold and Hancock—"

"Not about that." Nami cut him off, fidgeting slightly on his lap. She would never admit it out loud but the thought of the snake princess asking Luffy to marry her annoyed Nami to no end.

Luffy tilted his head to one side, confused but still continued, "Then Rayleigh came to see me and taught me to use haki—"

"No!" she interrupted and mentally slapped herself for her silliness, "Not that part, either.. I mean, never mind I'm going to sleep now." she ended lamely, trying to untangle herself from him but Luffy tightened his arms around her waist not letting her go.

"Let's stay, Nami." he said simply, his eyes never leaving hers.

Nami stopped, eyeing Luffy for a moment before asking hesitantly, "Are we going to sleep here again?"

"Yep!" he replied with his famous toothy grin.

"But everybody will see us." she tried to reason.

"Let'em"

"Luffy, it's cold."

"I'll warm you."

"I'm not made of rubber and I have my comfortable bed waiting for me in my room." she weakly protested despite a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"I want to be with you, Nami." Luffy countered smoothly.

"Ugh, fine!" Nami sighed and slumped down against him once again, her cheeks flushed. Luffy laughed happily and leaned back against the railing as Nami closed her eyes, grimly acknowledging the fact that at this rate, she would never be able to resist him again.

"You're an idiot, Luffy." she murmured against his shirt, "But I love you."

"Love you, too."

"What?!" Nami perked up like his words were electricity that suddenly ran through her body, staring at her captain like she had never properly seen him before, mesmerized.

"You're thinking too much." Luffy said quietly after a moment of staring and she could almost hear him smiling, "I love you, Nami." he simply said, his tone silently screaming at her that she should have already known a simple thing like this by now.

Nami stared, blinked and just stared, letting the realization sink in. Her body stiffened. Her heart skipped a beat.

It wasn't a dream. He actually said he loved her.

Monkey D. Luffy loved Nami.

"Oi, are you ok—"

She pressed her lips against his in a brief kiss, not giving Luffy a chance to finish, "Never been better." Nami answered breathlessly, snuggling up to him. She wouldn't give a damn if the whole world was watching them right now.

"Shishishi," he grinned.

Nami smiled contentedly before closing her eyes, letting the rhythm of Luffy's heartbeat lull her to sleep without forgetting to remind herself to ask Franky if he could build a new quarter for her and Luffy, first thing in the morning. The grassy deck wouldn't do her any good for this matter.

"You're gonna be queen, Nami." Luffy murmured against her hair.

Nami's smile widened, "I know."

And she believed him.