status complete
background post-thriller bark, pre-sabaody archipelago
notice I'm on the Zoro/Nami bandwagon and it doesn't look like I'm hopping off anytime soon. I love how much the fandom has thrived because of OPLA! Strong World is to blame for this one; Zoro with a waistcoat should be illegal. Plus, I figured I'd try Nami's perspective. It's kind of a flash fic, I didn't give myself much time to think it over, just blurted it out. Hope you enjoy!


foolproof;
only a genius could love a woman like she.


There are a couple of things Nami registers when she regains consciousness.

One, her body aches like crazy. She hasn't felt this sore since the ordeal at Enies Lobby. Her head is pounding and her limbs feel like lead. Clearly, choosing to inhale poison and get caught in the range of an explosion weren't her brightest ideas ever.

Two, she's in the Sunny's sickbay. She lets out a sigh of relief at that. She'd been conscious when Shiki got defeated, so she knows that much, but after the hellish week they'd been through, she doesn't want to make any assumptions. However, the familiar walls of the Sunny's infirmary are as good an indication as any that they are safe.

"Oi, it's about time you woke up."

Three, she has a visitor. Or, more likely, a grumpy chaperone. To be honest, she's a bit surprised he hasn't been kicked out and replaced by Sanji.

"The cook's making you soup," Zoro supplies, as if having read her mind. "To help you get better or whatever."

Nami rolls her eyes at the jab. He never misses an opportunity to discredit Sanji, even though he knows that if it wasn't for his miraculous food, his dumb ass would have never healed after Thriller Bark.

(Which she's still mad about, by the way.)

"Stop reading my mind."

He snorts. "Like hell I'd want to know what's going on in there."

"Your dumb ass couldn't handle that much genius, anyway," she teases, enjoying his eye-roll perhaps a bit too much.

"Genius my ass. Sacrificing yourself to save everyone sounds pretty stupid to me." He gives her a pointed look. "Twice over."

Nami scowls. The day she starts taking advice from Zoro about stupid decisions is the day Luffy will stop being a glutton.

"I'll stop doing it when you do."

He snorts. "Fat chance."

Nami tilts her head to the side, trying to ignore the throbbing. How the hell the two of them ever managed to develop feelings for each other is beyond her. It really is. Although they seem to be on completely opposite sides most of the time, it's scary how alike they are where things like loyalty, stubbornness, and idiocy are concerned.

Self-sacrifice too, apparently.

She's witnessed Zoro selflessly waltzing into battles he had small chance of winning countless times, watched him cling to life with tooth and nail in the aftermath, and felt equal parts grateful and terrified as she did.

She wonders if that's how he felt today.

They both know she'll do it again, just like he will. It's kind of a prerequisite in their little crew, apparently, one that was never imposed but got ingrained in their brains the first time Luffy stood up for each and every one of them. Nami has pondered briefly over the specific brand of insanity that their captain seems to bring out to everyone he befriends, but she doesn't think it'd be very productive to delve further into it. She's not very optimistic about what she will find if she does.

"Were you worried about me, swordsman?" Nami teases.

He should get Chopper to check his eyes if he keeps rolling them like that.

"Nah, I knew you were too stubborn to die."

She isn't buying it for a second. "Hm, your presence here says otherwise. I bet you were dead worried. I bet you even wrestled Sanji for chaperone duty."

"Wasn't much of a wrestle," he brags and Nami laughs.

"I knew it!"

He pushes off the wall, a smirk on his lips. His swords are propped by the door, and it's only when he goes to pick them up that she has the opportunity to notice what he's wearing.

Hell, she didn't survive poisoning and nearly being blown up to suffer a heart attack because stupid Roronoa Zoro looks fucking delicious in a waistcoat.

"You look cute in this suit," she says with a pout, her hand patting the air in an effort to beckon him closer.

Zoro grins and she hates herself for how needy she must look. Then again, she has never had the option to be needy before, before Luffy and Zoro and the Straw Hats, and if there's one thing that holds true in her life now is that she always has a choice, so if she wants to be needy, she is damn straight going to be.

Zoro is oblivious to her internal struggle, she's sure of it, but the way he strides to the bed and leans down to press his mouth against hers is kinda sweet, and it makes Nami sigh in bliss.

God, she loves this stupid oaf too much for her own good.

"You're not contagious or something, right?" he asks when he pulls away, earning himself a thump on the head.

"You're the one who's contagious, asshole!" And then, just to spite him, because, really, that's who they are, "Sanji!"

Zoro flinches, probably mentally cursing Franky for making Sunny's sickbay adjacent to the galley; although there is no doubt that Sanji would have picked up on her call for help even from across the Grand Line.

A second later, the door slams open, and lo and behold, there stands Sanji in all his damsel-saving glory.

"Did you need anything, mellorine?"

She puts on her sweetest smile, but the look she sends Zoro is evil. "Please remove this brute from my chambers."

The smile on Sanji's face is positively sardonic. "With pleasure, Nami-swan."

"I'll make a fillet out of you if you try, cook," Zoro spits back, Wado Ichimonji already drawn. "If anything, the sickbay is my room. I spend more time here than anyone else."

"That's because you keep getting your ass handed to you, mosshead," Sanji supplies helpfully, and Nami knows the fuse is lit.

"Deck. Now."

Zoro stomps out of the sickbay, and Nami winks at Sanji, who pats the spot above his heart in lamentation – he hates that she has chosen Zoro, but he loves her, and he can forgive pretty much anything when it comes to girls.

When the blond leaves, no doubt to follow through with Zoro's challenge, Nami leans back into the pillow.

They're all idiots, and she's an even bigger one for risking her own life to save them. But they're her family, and they would never give up on her – they never have – so it's the least she can do.

She's sure Bell-mère would approve.