Chapter 5
What is the difference between a brother and a beetle?
Nami thought that living life with Ace and Luffy would be easy. It would consist of getting carried away by laughter, fights and nonsense. No worries, no ties, no threats.
Both lived in a tree house, small and in a mess. Dirty clothes were piled up in a corner. A petrified sock hung from one of the kitchen cabinets. A vine began to invade the house little by little from the corner of the door and one of the curtains that separated them from the outside was tied to an aged illustration of three deformed figures nailed to the wall. Still, Nami's heart fluttered, warm, she was sitting, for the first time in years, in a house that felt like a home. Her house, long ago become a place of passage where tension and anxiety nestled in the nooks and crannies.
In Ace and Luffy's house, the sun entered between the poorly studded boards and bathed them in light, the blankets bunched up, witnesses of the closeness with which both slept and the paper poorly attached to the wall with the list of food that they kept in the stash of the small pantry, all of that told her about a happy life. It was a stark contrast to Nami's room in Arlong Park. The corners of her room were full of ghosts, spiders and fear, between neatly folded sheets, the smell of ink, papyrus and old iron.
For the first time in her life, Nami felt jealous of the dirt.
After eating a funny soup but enough to fill her stomach, Ace and Luffy equipped themselves, ready to accompany her to the city, even though she insisted that she could go alone. Nami knew they would be bored with her, but the thought of being accompanied by both of them warmed her fingertips.
As they walked, the afternoon light filtered through the tree branches reflected on the straw strands of Luffy's hat and it seemed to her that it shined on its own as he led the way through the forest. He was a little sun that guided the stray cats as her to the light and warmth.
"Look, Nami, a beetle just like you!"
The girl was so distracted by her own thoughts that the scream made her jump instinctively and she dug her nails into the palms of her hands, because her first reaction to fear was always to silence it with the distraction of pain. She wasn't the only one to be surprised, Ace cursed under his breath long before the pain of the nails digging into the flesh reached his head.
She hid it with a snort as she approached Luffy, Ace at his side. He stopped cautiously behind the brothers, at a safe distance from the colorful bugs that the teenager was studying with adoration.
"I don't like beetles, they have long, serrated noses" said Nami with a wrinkled nose, horrified by the movement of those small, hard legs.
"They're not noses, they're horns."
"They are the same, what does it matter if they are noses or horns?"
Luffy pinched the bug's forked horn and quickly turned in Nami's direction to show it with palpable indignation.
"Horns are cool, noses no. The horns come out of the head and are like this, elongated and…"
The girl jumped back with a scream stuck in her throat and fell back to the ground. Ace, squatting next to Luffy, pinched his brother's cheek and stretched it in a terribly unnatural way.
Nami, growing more and more petrified at the sight, let out a strangled sound.
"What the hell are you doing, idiot? Can't you see you're scaring Nami?"
The teenager whimpered as best he could with his cheek inches away from his chin.
"Wh-wh what...?"
The girl, with eyes exorbitant and her mouth wide open, crawled a couple of steps back, scared.
Luffy's stretched cheek and began to laugh with laughter that left her even more perplexed.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt him. He is a user of a devil fruit, the Gomu-Gomu no Mi."
"A devil fruit?!"
Luffy broke free of his brother's grip and stretched his cheeks himself so she could look at the strange ability from another angle. His teeth stuck out from under the skin in the shape of a smile.
"I ate it by accident, Shanks didn't even notice."
Hearing the name, Nami narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"Never take the blame off a pirate so quickly."
He gritted his teeth and shook his head vigorously.
"Pirates aren't bad! At least, not all."
She was about to contradict him but Ace cut them both off when he made them crouch behind some bushes, aware of a movement that she had not noticed until now, too focused on the discussion with Luffy.
Two adults in shabby clothes appeared from behind the tall bushes just as Nami looked up to assess the possible danger from her hiding place. Below her, Luffy also contemplated the intruders. Ace didn't even move from his spot, so quiet that even his breathing was mixed with the breeze.
"I hate walking around the damn landfill" said the thickest man, who, despite his ragged clothes, kept a good quality handkerchief under his nose, "then I get a cold for two days. My lungs are getting worse and worse. That fire did nothing more than combine the smell of the dead with that of fucking garbage."
His companion, a short, hunched man, gave him an unpleasant look, hidden from his companion by the distance that separated them, but not from the trio that was hiding a couple of meters in front of them.
"The sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can go back to pretending you've never slugged. Do the job right and don't let the brat of Sterry get in the way or you know where you and your precious lungs will end up."
A silence followed the threat and Luffy, beneath it, shifted uncomfortably as the two men got closer and closer to their position. Her skin began to itch with nerves when she felt Ace's hand pulling her from the back. Luffy and Nami, sat behind the trunk of the tree where Ace had hidden them, watched their protector intrigued. The boy did not even return their attention, but dedicated himself to studying, with his hands turned into fists, the two big men who tower over them.
"Do you really think that weakling will achieve anything? To me all this seems like a waste of time."
The short one let out a sharp laugh, so close to them that Nami felt the ups and downs of the voice in her bones.
"Do you prefer to be a mindundi in the kingdom of Goa all your life, Fede? Because I prefer to do the dirty work now and live the rest in cotton wool rather than wait for the celestial dragons to come and kill me one boring day."
The man with the scarf, Fede, snorted and for the first time, Nami got the feeling that he was not as idiotic as he tried to make him out to be.
"It is of little use to you to be a noble in Goa when Mariejoise exists. If they want to kill us they will, or don't you remember the former heir?"
The conversation faded away with the sound of the two men's voices but the tension did not disappear from Nami's body. Alerted by how stiff Ace became after the strange talk.
"They scared the beetles" Luffy whimpered when the sound of the intruders faded and they were alone again.
Nami looked at him with reproach on her face.
"What's the matter with those bugs when you're in danger?"
The boy looked at her with his eyebrows a strand away from meeting on his forehead, sulking at the answer she gave him.
—Nami, you're just like Ace, you're definitely going to get along. Always with those talks of paying attention and stuff.
—I don't know, Luffy, maybe...
Ace, who had long since closed his mouth, absorbed in his thoughts, interjected again into the discussion with an expression that sent alarm bells through Nami's head. Alerted by the danger of those half-closed eyes, of the clenched jaw, of the tight shoulders. He saw her gaze, observant and reticent, and consciously relaxed his body to avoid confrontation with fear. Despite herself, Nami had to admit that the teenager was good at reading her and adapting to her attitude. That was the second time he had made her rectify her mood that day and the fact that it was so easy to combat distrust that was more than polished after years of living with the enemy made her feel weak, exposed to the elements.
"I'm going away for a while," Ace declared before she could finish the train of thoughts and sensations that look, that was capable of unraveling her survival instincts, provoked, "I trust that you will be able to take care of each other. Right, Luffy ?"
The boy did not hesitate to nod, with a finger on his nose and the gaze fixed on what Nami felt was another beetle on the ground. The metal tube with the mapping materials clinked behind her.
"Of course."
She stretched her back and looked at Ace with challenge in her eyes.
"I can take care of myself."
He smiled at her and freckles danced under his eyes.
"I know, but my brother can't."
Luffy's excited scream surprised them a couple of meters to their left.
"Nami, this beetle is as orange as you!" a laugh interrupted him before turning and showing them a bug the size of his hand with a perfect horn to fight to the death for their freedom "Maybe you are from the same family."
The tense atmosphere relaxed with Ace's laugh and Nami's blushing cheeks.
For a moment her gaze traveled between the descending sun, the high wall that separated them from the city, and Luffy's shiny black eyes as he squeezed the beetle between his fingers.
She let out a sigh and, despite the fact that the days on Dawn Island threatened to become eternal, slipped through her fingers with a few hours that became gentle next to Luffy's enthusiasm, a treacherous smile crossed her mouth. The memory of her meal with the brothers, the feeling of a full belly and the sight of dozens of orange beetles slipped into her head in the form of a silent promise.
She was sure that the days on the island were going to last a long time. And the worst thing was that the mere thought made her smile.
When the time to say goodbye came, she would cry, but for a few seconds she had the luxury of thought about a future without goodbyes or long noses.
A world of food, games, laughter and sunshine.