Chapter 4
A family thing
Nami tried to lock her dreams inside the night, hope didn't hurt once she was asleep. She hated letting herself be carried away by dreams, when she did she used to see her mother's eyes, her smile, she heard praise surrounded by shadows and she spent her days with her head down, thinking about what could have been and never was. Dreaming was a weakness that Nami couldn't allow herself.
Luffy fed on dreams. And such was his hunger for them that Nami forgot to remember that she feared them. Luffy watched the waves and thought about sailing instead of salt. He saw the clouds and dreamed of islands in the sky instead of rain. He saw the sun and talked about fire lizards, instead of heat. He was a boy built on dreams and Nami forgot guys like him were dangerous.
"You don't know what you're talking about. Why would you want to be that kind of monster?"
Luffy blinked and turned his neck in Nami's direction, with that look of his that judged her sanity. The sanity of the person who didn't talk about the Pirate King or impossible dreams about freedom!
"I'm not a monster, Nami!"
"Pirates are always monsters."
Luffy lit up, red as apples at such accusation. Nami, who until then remained lying down, sat up, alert for the threat.
"That's a lie! It's because you don't know Shanks. He is a very good pirate."
Nami observed the boy's tension cautiously, although the threat was low to her, one never knew when the rage would get out of control and the hitting would begin.
"Pirates are never good, they dedicate to loot, rape and kill. That kind of people don't want freedom, but rather slaves to beat. Dreaming of being a pirate and above of all, the King of the Pirates, is for nuts and idiots."
Luffy jumped up from the ground, angry, after eating the last piece of sandwich, with his arms outstretched and his eyes almost completely closed due to anger.
"That's not true! Take it back!"
Nami also stood up, with her arms crossed, tense, waiting for the blow.
"Never."
"When you become a pirate you will see how not everyone is bad!"
She leaned back, beaten by the words.
"I don't want to be a pirate, Luffy. I'll never be!"
He crossed his arms too, defiantly, and that became a battle of glances.
"How are you going to be part of my crew if you're not a pirate, Nami? That can't be."
She snorted, took a step forward and lifted her chin higher. Nojiko always told her that she was too proud and perhaps she was right, considering that instead of hiding, she challenged problems.
"I never said that I want to be one of your crew."
Luffy stuck out his chest, like a turkey, and raised his shoulders to his ears.
"You'll see."
She snorted again.
"Never."
"You're so…"
But Nami never knew what she was, because an arm came out of nowhere grabbed Luffy by the neck and sat him on his knees on the grass with an authority and strength that forced the girl to jump three steps back to get away from the danger.
"Where the hell were you? You haven't come home to sleep. Dadan and the others have been looking like crazy for you ever since I asked them about you. You are idiot? Well, don't answer that. I already know the answer."
The boy who came out of nowhere to tell Luffy off had black hair, was full of freckles, and a strange hat covered his eyes, which were probably dark, because Nami would put her hands in the fire if anyone asked her if he was Luffy's brother. The scolding was born from trust. No one would insult someone like that if they weren't related by blood.
Some kind of sound had to escape her, still frozen by the surprising appearance, because the boy looked up and as he saw her, he blushed up to his eyebrows.
"Go-goo-good afternoon? Meet to please you" the teenager stammered, before turning even redder "I mean, nice meet with you!" He bowed in front of her so that his hat fell to the ground in greeting "Thank you for taking care of my brother!"
Luffy chuckled from the ground, still with his brother's hands on his shoulders.
"You need more classes from Makino, Ace."
The boy hit Luffy on the head with such force that the boy's tears came to his eyes and Nami remembered the chat about love and pain. Apparently he knew what he was talking about.
"Shut up, can't you see that your girlfriend is watching us?"
The teenager made a dissatisfied noise and waved her hands to remove the label.
"At most I'm his friend and I'm still thinking about it" she stated quickly.
Luffy growled at the response.
"She's my navigator, Ace. She knows how to make maps! She's smarter than you."
"I'm not your navigator, idiot!"
Ace smiled with a compassion that sent shivers down Nami's spine. Resigned, he scratched the back of his neck with one hand while with the other he slapped Luffy a couple of times, who was smiling as if the argument wasn't with him.
"Once something gets into his head, it's impossible to change Luffy's mind. I'm sorry…" The phrase was left open, in search of a name.
"Nami, it's a pleasure."
The boy extended his hand to her with a smile full of insecurity.
"I'm Ace, this idiot's brother."
Luffy jumped up, undid the greeting and hung on both of their shoulders with a laugh that deafened Nami, accustomed to solitude, silence and whispered conversations.
"Well, since you know each other, we can go to eat more, I'm starving and then we're going to play maps, right, Nami?"
She, overwhelmed by the closeness and the direction that events were taking, let herself be carried away by Luffy a couple of meters before a thorny nose sawed off her thoughts.
"No, I'm not hungry" The damn belly roared again in betrayal "In reality I was going to the town to ask where is the gate of the wall."
Both brothers looked at each other for a moment, in silent conversation. Ace walked around his brother to stand on Nami's other side, and although she knew for a fact that he was no threat, the girl cringed at the sight of the tall, broad figure of the boy's bare back. He kept his distance, but his eyes studied her carefully, fixed on her numb cheek. Nami lowered her chin, nervous, aware that, despite Ace's slowness, with the gesture, the sound of the belly, and the signs of the blows, he has just connected the dots.
Embarrassed and terrified that someone would break through her facade, Nami untangled herself from Luffy 's arm and took a couple of steps away with excuses painted on her face.
—I'm really sorry, I'm in a hurry. I want to finish the job as soon as possible.
Ace opened his mouth to speak, but Luffy, with his head narrowed and curiosity overflowing, spoke first.
—You hadn't told me you worked for someone, Nami.
The blood drained from her face as she heard it, knowing that she had screwed up completely. Her ribs hurt when she took a breath, desperate for the urgency that invaded her, her instinct talked of flight and her nerves of heading to the sea and never return. But deep inside, that strange red spoke, after years of silence. She wanted, so strongly that it hurt, to stay with them, accompany them to eat, laugh with her mouth full, while they fought among themselves.
"I have to…"
One more step back and the distance would become unbridgeable.
"I recently fell from our treehouse and got a bruise just like yours. I couldn't see for at least a month!"
Ace's voice adapted poorly to the excuse, as if the lie were foreign to his teeth and would go against his tongue, but Nami clung so tightly to the aid that her voice trembled with relief.
"My boat is very small and when the tide is bad the boom hits me hard!"
Luffy looked at his brother and his new friend with obvious confusion, but smiled when Nami approached them again, taking tiny steps, unsure.
"You're coming to eat, then?"
The dance of lies ended with the new invitation. Nami approached again, Arlong's nose a little blurrier in her mind, with the image of the three of them sitting around a table already fixed in her head.
"Well, I imagine the maps can wait, besides, I'm sure you know the city more than me and you can help me."
Luffy, who had not understood anything until then, but who knew the word 'food' better than himself, smiled enthusiastically.
"You'll love it, you'll see, Nami! We still have bear soup from last week at home!"