Chapter 3
Empty promises
Nami didn't know how to keep promises, she only knew how to fulfill deals. For her, deals were sacred, but promises could be broken. She was a firm believer in an eye for an eye.
She imagined Luffy would come looking for her after lunch and would leave once he saw she wasn't there. Understanding that promises were nothing but wet paper was also part of growing up. Nami was experienced in the matter of helping children mature. She had already convinced many to abandon useless promises of revenge and dreams of the future around Arlong Park. Promises were overrated.
And yet, that night, when she finished the day's work, her mind kept circling around the idea of a pair of dark eyes filled with excitement. Luffy's laughter haunted her sleep until the early hours of the morning, and the next day she woke up with a back more sore than usual. Though the pain didn't stop her from going out to map again. Around noon, with the sun overhead, three nights of poor sleep, and an untreated beating, she encountered an enormous wall that forced her to sit down and hold back the urge to cry. Until then, she had calculated that she would finish the work within a week, and now she was faced with a damned city.
She hated complicated islands. Arlong insisted on reviewing the hand-drawn streets, so Nami was clear that as soon as she had the map, she would send a couple of fish-men to the island to check the drawing.
Resentful of herself for believing she would only lose a couple of days to that torture, she returned to her small refuge to rest for a while and prepare the necessary materials to trace the streets of the city.
Her stomach began to rumble as the afternoon sun filtered through the tree branches and touched the numerous sketches scattered in the wind, among the green leaves and acorns. So, she reluctantly gathered everything and slid down the trunk to the ground. First, she needed to figure out how to enter the wall, and once inside, she could ponder the cartography method she would use for the streets.
Even though she had a clear direction, her rumbling stomach and the memory of those black eyes narrowing under smiles made her change course, heading toward the windmill village. Along the way, it occurred to her that it might be a good idea to ask there about the entrance to the wall—perhaps someone could tell her more about the city or whatever was hidden behind it.
When she left the grove and saw the windmill blades cutting through the horizon, her stomach churned, and her heart raced. The nerves would kill her, and the worst part was that she couldn't hide the reason for them in any way. Her cheekbone ached as she forced herself to take a deep breath and continue.
Luffy might be there, in the village. If she ran into him, Nami knew she would feel something, and what she feared most was recognizing regret among the mix of emotions. Because she couldn't afford to regret it, she had chosen her path. Nami couldn't look back, and the boy's black eyes made her doubt. Someday, the doubt of "what if" would kill her, and she hoped that day wasn't today.
In the meadow, near the cape where she had promised to wait, the knot of nerves turned into a tangle when she saw the silhouette of a straw hat outlined by the sunlight. Luffy was sitting in the same spot she had fled from the day before. In his lap was a small cloth bag stained with grease, untouched.
The teenager, upon hearing her footsteps, lifted his head and craned his neck in her direction. A smile full of teeth and excitement greeted her, despite the betrayal, the attempted escape, despite knowing that she hadn't behaved well and that the promise was broken.
Luffy smiled, and Nami's black eye throbbed in pain as tears blurred her vision.
"What are you doing here?!"
The shout came out strangled from her mouth, and Luffy responded with a hungry roar and a laugh full of amusement.
"You said we'd meet here, and I thought you'd wait for me, but it's been my turn to wait. Now my belly is as talkative as yours, Nami! We share hunger."
A terrible urge to scream overwhelmed the girl, who, after days of frustration, pain, and exhaustion, finally felt that she had reached the end of her patience. The explosion came violently. Nami threw herself at the boy with such force that it knocked him down into the grass, with the stupid food crushed between them.
"You're an idiot! I didn't want you to wait for me. I left because I didn't want to see you again, Luffy. We're not friends, and we never will be because I've never wanted to be your friend."
The words were accompanied by blows and shakes that the boy accepted without resistance, as if he deserved the beating instead of her.
From Nami, who was a traitor, a snake. Nami, who lived off others' suffering and theft. Nami, who preferred aching bones to crying out of rage in front of Arlong. Nami, who didn't deserve friends, who was horrible, a witch. Nami, who hurt and destroyed anyone who came near her.
The shaking and ridiculous blows she used to release her rage turned into sobs as she continued. Her stomach burned with hunger, her head buzzed from exhaustion, and her heart ached again.
"We're not friends! I lied to you. I'm a bad person. I don't want friends!"
The boy let out a grunt under the continued barrage of weak punches and desperate grips.
"You know, my grandpa always says love hurts, and your punches really hurt a lot," Luffy said between laughs, placing a hand on her shoulder. His black eyes stayed fixed on her, and Nami pulled away, ashamed, with tear-streaked cheeks and a blocked nose. "Even though you lie a bit, your laughter can't tell lies. You like playing with me, which is why I wanted to share my food with you."
The tears mixed with her throat, and when she spoke, Nami felt like she was crying out words.
"I don't love you. I can't love you. Because I don't deserve to have friends."
Luffy moved the crushed food off his lap and placed it between them as if it were a peace offering instead of a rag filled with stains and bread crumbs.
"You're just like me. You can barely see out of one eye, and you haven't complained once, but now you're crying because you know that being alone hurts more than being hurt. So, I know you're lying to me—we are friends. Besides, you may be strange, but even the strangest person in the world deserves friends."
The boy's words blurred her vision as she knelt beside him on the ground.
"Doesn't your stomach rumble after crying? I'm starving."
Luffy waved the food in front of her again, his cheeks sunken and his eyes pleading. Nami's stomach growled, and he didn't wait to uncover a cheese and hard, stale ham sandwich after a day outdoors.
A sob made her lower her gaze, her mouth filling with saliva and her legs going weak.
She was so hungry that her throat burned, and her sides ached. She had forced herself not to think about food so many times that seeing it in the daylight caused her physical pain. Hunger mixed with her wounds, exhaustion, and the fear of giving in to the word "friend." Nami had to lie down on the ground, the sweet warmth of the sun on her temple, under Luffy's watchful gaze, his mouth already full of crumbs.
"I'd like to be like you someday," Nami whispered.
"How?" Luffy's voice faded between bites.
"Free."
Luffy laughed heartily as he offered her a piece of sandwich that Nami accepted under the sweet and calm gaze of the clouds.
"One of my dreams is to be the freest person in the world."
She took a bite of the bread and savored the flavor as she raised her eyebrows to look at him.
"Aren't you afraid that being the freest person in the world means others live beneath your feet?"
Luffy scratched his neck in silence, and before speaking, he broke off another piece of sandwich and handed it to her.
"Well then, once I'm on top, I'll free everyone so they can do what they want." She nodded, satisfied. "What do you want to do, Nami?"
"I want to be a navigator and map the entire world."
Luffy smiled and squared his shoulders with solemnity as he watched the light shimmer in her reddish hair. He swallowed a piece of bread before speaking.
"Then you'll be perfect in my crew."
Nami tilted her head, narrowing her eyes, questioning, unable to speak with her mouth full.
"The crew of the Pirate King, of course, because I, Monkey D. Luffy, am going to be the freest man in the world—the Pirate King."
She swallowed hard, and the bread went down the wrong way. The coughing bent her in half and burned her lungs. If that was his revenge for making him wait without food or water for a day, it was well-crafted. Nami would never have suspected he'd try to kill her while she devoured a cheese sandwich.
I'm correcting the texts a little bit (only the grammar) the important thing remains the same!