Chapter 2
Behind the shadows
The cold was expensive, so Nami loved the heat, she never had to spend a lot of money on accommodation and clothing when the weather was warm. Although on the first day on Dawn's island she began to question her own tastes.
The heat had never been overwhelming when she traveled alone to and fro mapping islands and robbing pirates, but Luffy's arms were warm and he was a very clingy person. Nami found that type of approach strange and uncomfortable, but she couldn't blame him, the boy spoke more with gestures than words and those touches and grabs seemed to come from him naturally.
That recent friendship that she had accepted without knowing the reason and she now attributed to the idea of using Luffy to map the island faster, seemed quite strange to her. The first day he clung to her while they went from here to there and he showed her the places of interest in his town, which had turned out to be: the nest of a bird that had just laid eggs, the mayor's house, who kicked them out shouting as soon as he saw that Luffy broke one of the flower pots at the entrance door and Makino's bar, a very nice woman who had looked at the wounds on her eye with a sad face and had offered her a glass of juice while Luffy finished the store's milk stock.
Nami nervously caressed for a while the sad coins that were rolling around in the inside pocket of her skirt, barely touching each other. But Makino invited them both with a motherly gesture at Luffy's order to write their bill to his treasury account.
That night they said goodbye to each other before dinner time, after spent the afternoon exploring the coast. Luffy drawn pictures of fish, strange mermaids, and tangerines when Nami told him she liked them. To make up for the time lost with Luffy, she forced herself to stay awake until dawn drawing two or three coves in the surrounding area that, due to the boy's games and laughter, had been left blank on the map.
The second day was not more fruitful. Nami got up with her bones aching from the hardness of the branch in which she had made shelter and her face swollen due to the cold of the night, which passed quickly to transform into oppressive heat.
Her poorly healed fingers had swollen so much that it was difficult for Nami to hold the pen, although she forced herself to do so to continue drawing.
Luffy arrived with her name curling on his tongue and a smile full of the promise of more games and laughter. Nami began to feel overwhelmed at midday when she saw the few lines she had written on an almost blank page.
Arlong's teeth mixed with mid-day stomach pain, her nerves made her hungry and with the few coins she had Nami could only afford one meal a day. She liked to eat at night, when she knew that no one would judge her half-eaten jar of lentils or the long bites of the tiny legumes with which she tested the slow and capricious healing of her loose teeth.
"Nami, Nami, Nami, Nami…"
Luffy's voice made her tighten the pencil she held between her fingers as they looked at the cape the boy had taken her to. The blades of the windmills turned nearby, but far enough away that the echo of her name only met her.
"Nami, Nami, Na…"
Luffy shut up abruptly when the girl confronted him. Her skin was burning and her ears were ringing because she was very angry that he interrupted her like that while she was working.
"What?" Nami barely raised her voice, but the tone was enough to keep Luffy silent for more than two seconds.
"You're not hungry? You don't eat anything since you woke up and my belly has already started to shake."
The fury calmed in an instant. It seemed strange to Nami that someone was talking to her about her habits. It was true that when she was in Cocoyashi, Nojiko used to scold her when she skipped meals or lost weight, but she spent so little time at home lately that her sister could barely tell her off. The truth was that Nami didn't bring enough money with her and she didn't know how long she was going to stay on Dawn Island, so she needed to save up. She couldn't spend more than she would get from that profitless trip. There were no pirates there to assault.
"I'm not hungry, if you want, you can go to eat and let me work in peace."
Luffy's mouth twisted, sulking. Reluctantly, he clung to Nami's arm and looked at her with pleading eyes.
"Yesterday you didn't come with me to eat and friends eat together. Also, Ace is waiting for me, we were supposed to have lunch with Makino."
Nami narrowed her head to convey in a glance all the exasperation she was unable to express in words.
"Luffy, we barely know each other. I'm not going to eat with the people who know you and who met to eat with you, not with me."
He grumbled under his breath, still hanging on her arm. A tingling sensation was beginning to spread through her limbs due to the strange weight she was supporting, and she wondered if Luffy would ever get tired of touching her, or if he would feel disgusted when Nami began to sweat.
"But we are friends."
"Since two days ago! I don't know who Ace are. Makino and Ace will probably get angry when they see you arrive with me.
"Why would they get angry for eating with my friend? You're a little weird, Nami."
The boy's strange logic made Nami snort as she broke free of his grasp. The fact that this stranger treated her as if they had known each other all their lives was beginning to make her dizzy. She always walked on tiptoe among people and Luffy stomped on her philosophy.
"You're the weird one!"
He narrowed his eyes and Nami felt heat well up on her cheeks, offended at the obvious doubt on her new friend's face.
"Okay, but we can go to eat now, right? It's no fun playing maps when my tummy hurts."
She snorted.
"I'm not hungry."
Unfortunately for Nami, her stomach betrayed her with a roar so loud that it caused Luffy to laugh loudly.
"Come on, let's go eat, Makino makes delicious food. I'm sure Ace is already mad because I'm not there. He gets mad when I'm late."
Luffy's comment was followed by a shiver to frame what he said as he dragged her by the arm in the direction of the windmills.
Nami knew from the beginning that friendship was not a good idea. She needed Luffy to map the island quickly, so if she was going to waste her time it was better that she put an end to that theater as soon as possible, and as far as she knew, it wasn't helping her, it was only delaying her with her work. She didn't have friends, she didn't want friends, nor did she need them. Nami shouldn't let him continue talking when she saw him up the tree with his hands on her stuffs. She should know he would cause problems to her.
The tiny weight of the coins in her pocket anchored her feet to the ground. Nami´s cheeks grew hot with shame at such a small weight and such a huge appetite.
"I'm not hungry!" her stomach contradicted her again.
Luffy pulled her towards the windmills.
"The belly doesn't speak when it's full."
"Well, mine is very talkative."
He narrowed his eyes at the lie as the two struggled to go in a different direction.
"Why do you want to go hungry?"
"I'm not hungry!"
Another roar interrupted the conversation.
"Liar."
"Pest" Nami, hungry and angry, ended up exploding, overcome by emotions. "Leave me alone, I have to keep working and I'm not hungry! Go to eat with your family, I'll stay."
The anger was growing into her chest in the form of a cloud and the bigger it became the more thunders it would release. Luffy, in front of her, also seemed to grow in size as the seconds passed, motionless, facing each other, determined to remain in his position.
In the end, Nami was the one who had to look away, unable to bear the weight of the reproach in those big eyes. She sat cross-legged on the floor, with the paper on her knees and the pencil trapped between her fingers. Her hair covered her eyes, waiting for that curtain to separate her from the teenager who was watching her tormented, stationed to her right.
"My brother is waiting for me."
She nodded as she drew an excessively straight line over the shape of the cape.
"Okay."
"I'll come back here later."
"Okay."
Silence reigned again for a while.
"Are you going to leave or are you waiting for me to continue?"
Nami forced herself to open her mouth and speak. The lies curled around her tongue like sugar, they had always been her allies.
"We will meet here."
The boy's enthusiasm stung the back of her neck as he jumped and laughed, but Nami wasn't about to back down, not now. One more mistake in her work for Arlong and the consequences would be brutal, she could not afford more confinements, the beatings were bearable, but not the time lost. And Nami knew she had done worse things than lying to a child.
"Well, see you later, I'll bring you something to eat and you can meet Ace. You'll see, he's a little bit grumpy, I'm sure you'll like him very much."
"See you" she confirmed with a smile.
She didn't like sad goodbyes and if the boy was going to forget her soon, she preferred his last memory of her was happy.
Luffy returned the smile with enthusiasm, the excitement for their upcoming reunion reflected in his teeth. By the time he disappeared over the hill, Nami was already on her feet. She walked in the opposite direction without looking back even once.
That summer dream had been entertaining. Being friends with a child and running on the beach while Luffy laughed and Nami, for a few seconds, forgot her problems, was great. But it had been nothing more than that, a stupid, childish summer dream.