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Nami arched her back and stretched her arms over her head to alleviate the stiffness in her muscles, and a long yawn overtook the features of her tired face. As her hand drifted down to rub her eye, below which hung dark bags, she looked down at her handiwork: a full account of the Straw Hat Pirates’ current financial status. Nami attended to this duty often; the boys were notorious for spending their money frivolously, and it would be a damn shame for them to be known as broke pirates. This was something Nami could not allow. So she was the manager of their finances, and probably the reason they were not currently swimming in debt or the equivalent of pirate hobos.
Nami grimaced as her muscles, sore from being forced to remain in a sitting position for hours on end, continued to whine loudly at her; the accounting was close to finished, so she acquiesced and rose from the wooden chair. She hunched over for a moment, her joints locking as if they had turned to stone, before she was able to straighten out with a series of audible creaks and cracks. If I had sat there much longer, I might have become an old lady! she thought with a frown, then she hobbled out of her navigator’s quarters.
Nami approached the balustrade that overlooked the deck. She curledc her fingers around it and closed her eyes as the salty sea breeze kissed her skin and played with her hair, like little fairies enamored with a princess’ beauty. When they opened, her brown eyes were gazing up at the brilliant blanket of stars above her head; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky tonight, and so they shone down upon her in all their brilliance, turning her tangerine hair a lustrous shade of gold. As she breathed in deeply, the scent of salt and seawater came with the air and filled her with an acute sense of ease. Ease was something that Nami had not had of late, as the Straw Hat pirates had only finished tangling with the murderous Emperor Big Mom less than a day ago.
Nami’s body still bore healing wounds, as did the rest of the crew. Naturally, Luffy had taken the brunt of most of it and was sleeping it off belowdecks, more bandages than anything else. Even now, Nami’s nerves were still on edge; the Emperor undoubtedly would not let the transgression pass. They likely had an army behind them as they headed to Wano, where another Emperor ruled. The sense of calm was soon eclipsed by concern, and she ripped her gaze from the stars and walked to the side of the ship to instead stare at the sea.
The sea had always calmed Nami even in the most stressful of times. When she had been Arlong’s prisoner, even with the weight of her entire village upon her small back, she would cast her eyes to the rolling waves and their rhythm would carry away all her worries. It was no different now. Her entire body relaxed and a smile naturally formed on her lips as her eyes beheld the starlight glittering upon the rolling waves, and her ears were graced by the ever-present melody of sloshing water and creaking wood and fluttering sails. Nami was born to be on the sea, that much was certain; it was like seawater was in her blood, resonating with the waves and aching when she was parted from it for too long. Nami’s eyelashes fluttered as golden light began to spill over the horizon; the sun was rising from its nightly slumber to bring warmth and light to the world. Nami watched as the stars began to blink out one by one and the black sky was dyed with red.
As the sun appeared, Nami found herself thinking that its hue matched that of Sanji’s hair.
“Sanji…”
“You’re up awfully early.”
Nami glanced over her shoulder as she was addressed to find Sanji standing a few feet behind her, which startled her greatly. She blushed with mortification at the thought he had heard her whisper his name. Though he had likely just awoken himself, a lit cigarette was already in his mouth. Smoke swirled about his face, which was cast in an orange glow by the small fire. “Do you always wake up to watch the sunrise?” he asked as he walked over to stand beside her, leaning against the balustrade with one arm hanging over lazily. If he had heard her, he made no comment, and she tried to seem unperturbed as she glanced up at him.
“No. I stayed up late doing the books, and just happened to come out at the right time.”
“You’ve been up all night?!” he exclaimed in shock. “Nami, you can’t do that! It’s bad for a woman’s complexion, you know. Not that anything could ever take away from your beauty~”
Nami puffed out her cheeks and looked back at the ocean, where the golden sunlight spilled like paint through the blue water. Normally she ignored his flirtatiousness, but ever since the incident with Pudding and the rest of the Charlotte family, it irked her. It made her more irritated because she didn’t know why.
“Really, Nami, are you all right?” His sudden question made her forget her silent annoyance, and she looked up at him with quizzical eyes.
“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, you know, you were treated pretty roughly by Big Mom and all that,” he frowned, and she looked down when he suddenly took her hands. Her wrists were ringed with bruises from the chains that had held her, and she flushed as he gently traced his thumbs across the ugly, blue-black mosaics. It had been a terrible time, particularly for her mental state; the venomous things that Sanji had said stained her mind like ink. She knew that Sanji had never meant it and was only saying those things to protect both himself and the people he loved, but she could not scrub the mark from the fabric of her mind. It clung stubbornly, glued by one thing: Pudding. Nami knew not why the woman and Sanji’s apparent affections for her bothered her so. Even now, when he had left her behind and committed to staying with the Straw Hats, some part of her was afraid that Sanji had met the love of his life and regretted the decision. Would the day come that it would be too much for him to bear, and he would abandon them of his own volition?
“Hey. Nami.”
“What?” The word betrayed her, laced with acidity, and he stared at her quizzically as the blood rushed to her face. He abandoned whatever he was going to say to her and replaced it with a more pertinent query.
“Are you… mad at me?”
“Yes! No! I don’t know!” she growled and whipped her hands free of him to cross her arms and turn her back. Her tired state left her with less control of her emotions, and they stampeded through her heart and mind, leaving her logic in shambles. The anger passed as quickly as it came, dissolving into acute sadness and guilt. If Sanji loved Pudding, then it was not her place to stand in his way; she wanted him to be happy, after all, and if he was happier wed to the woman than with the Straw Hats, she should respect that. Why, then, did it make her feel so impossibly lonely?
Sanji still stood behind her, probably short-circuiting as he debated what the proper response was, before he timidly reached out to touch her shoulder. Rather than resist, Nami allowed him to turn her around to face him, and he cocked his head to the side as he looked at her in concern.
“Nami, what’s going on?”
Nami didn’t answer because she didn’t know herself; instead, she abandoned herself to her frustration and began to cry. Her heart hurt more than her body ever could. She was so conflicted, trapped in a maelstrom of self-pity and guilt. The incident had been exponentially rougher on Sanji, yet all she could think about was herself.
As her shoulders shook lightly and her bottom lip quivered, Sanji stared at her with wide eyes and a perplexed expression. His hand twitched on her shoulder, then rose and froze mid-way in the air. When it was clear that Nami was not going to slap it away, he gently laid his fingers across her cheek, carrying her flowing tears away with it. Nami felt warmth bloom across her cheek at the simple touch and was overcome by the fierce desire to feel more. Unable to think logically, she grabbed Sanji’s hand and adamantly laid it back across her cheek, and her eyes flickered up to meet his while she struggled to voice the storm in her heart.
“Sanji, I’m afraid.” There, it was in the open. The words hung in the air, suspended by strings, until the silence was slashed by his answer.
“What are you afraid of?”
Big Mom. That you love Pudding. That you’re going to leave us. That everything will fall apart. That you love Pudding. That you meant what you said. That Big Mom will come for us again. That you love Pudding.
So many things Nami was scared of, but that most of all. He had to love her; he had been so willing to marry her and still treated her kindly despite her role in the plot to murder him and was so insistent that she was kind deep down. Part of her knew that that was just how Sanji was and had nothing to do with love or anything of the sort, but the fact that the possibility existed overtook everything, making her illogical and rash. There was an overwhelming fear that eclipsed all that, though.
Nami was afraid that she was in love with Sanji and wasn’t loved in return.
As she just continued to cry in silence, Sanji waited patiently for her answer. Sanji really was so kind. She wanted that kindness to be hers, hers alone, and the thought that Pudding would get it instead of her broke her. Her eyes rocketed around in their sockets, looking at him, then the sky, then the deck, then the sea; it felt like a bubble was inside of her, straining to burst, but it was so large that she could not force it out through her throat. The tears flowed faster down her face as her cheeks turned red with frustration and fear. I can’t… My throat feels like it’s closing up…! I—!
“Nami, you don’t have to be afraid. I’ll protect you, no matter what.”
As he uttered those words, the balloon that was Nami’s tension deflated, and she looked up at him with a shocked expression. He was smiling warmly down at her, and his blue eyes were filled with something intense she had never seen. Whatever it was washed over her like a soothing stream and calmed her distress. Suddenly she was able to speak again.
“You won’t leave me?”
“Is that what this is about? Nami, why ever would I leave you?” he asked with a slight chuckle, shaking his head as if it were a ridiculous notion. It seemed like the thought had not crossed his mind, but her anxiety was still not alleviated fully. She pushed her cheek against the hand that was still held there, feeling his palm, soft against her skin, not roughened by fighting.
“Because… you love Pudding…” she mumbled. Sanji’s eyebrows shot up to the roots of his hair, and his blue eyes widened as they met her uncertain brown ones. Nami did not know what he was going to do next, and everything depended on that reaction.
He began laughing.
“Oh, Nami! You sure do have some ridiculous notions in your head!” he snorted. That was not what she had been expecting, and it was her turn to have raised eyebrows and a confused look as he doubled over against the balustrade of the ship, cackling like she had just told him the funniest joke he had ever heard. He still held his hand against her face, and she could feel it shake with every cackle that wracked his body. It took him a minute to settle down into the occasional snicker, and when he looked up at her, he was grinning in amusement, but that something was still in his eyes. “Nami, I am not in love with Pudding, not in the slightest.”
Though it was what she had wanted to hear, Nami suddenly felt extremely embarrassed at how off-base she had been, so much so that she almost wanted it to be true.
“But—! What about all that stuff with her?” she insisted stubbornly. Sanji straightened up with another snicker, and for a moment, her mind was overtaken by how much taller he was than her and how it was oddly nice, the way he was looking down at her.
That’s not the issue here!
“Nami, I just did what I had to do in the moment, okay? I only love one woman and that isn’t Pudding.”
Nami was about to deliver another retort until her mind processed what had exactly come out of his mouth. She looked dumbly up at him when she comprehended the sentence.
“Who, then?”
He gave her a lop-sided smile and pulled his cigarette out of his mouth, tossing it into the waves, which were now all bathed in the glowing sunlight. So were she and Sanji; his hair shone with all the sun’s brilliance, catching the light, and it made his face glow as he scrunched it up in an elated smile.
“You, Nami. For a smart girl, you sure are dense.”
Her mind rang with the simple truth. Sanji loves me. She wasn’t sure, in that moment or all the moments looking back upon it, if it was the dawning sun or that simple utterance that warmed her, but warmed she was. She felt happiness bubble up inside her and spread across every cell in her body, making them sing with a tune she had never felt before. She began crying again, but it wasn’t from sadness or frustration this time, but overwhelming relief and joy. She raised her hands to wipe the tears away, but Sanji caught them, still smiling that brilliant smile.
“It’s okay, Nami. You can cry when you’re happy, you know? Plus, I always thought you looked cute when you cry.”
“You’re a jerk,” she sniffed. Her voice was thick with the force of emotion she was feeling. She puffed out her cheeks defiantly at him.
“You look cute when you do that, too,” he remarked, and her eyes widened as he grabbed her face with a hand, pushing into her cheeks to deflate them and forcefully purse her lips. He laughed as she narrowed her eyes, his name distorted as she tried to complain, and he just continued squishing her cheeks despite her repeated squeaks to stop. Because of his teasing, she was able to calm down a little, her overwhelming tsunami of loving feelings settling into a flow not unlike that of the waves below.
“Better now?” he grinned as he let her face go.
“You really are a jerk,” she sighed and closed her eyes. It turned out that it was just what he had been waiting for, for no sooner than her eyelashes met did he jump forward to kiss her on the mouth.
Nami went stiff as their lips met, having not expected it. She then melted against him as every muscle in her body seemed to turn to jelly. Sanji’s sturdy frame supported her, and his arms wound around her, and her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt as she anchored herself to him. Nami had never kissed anyone before, and under most circumstances, she would have been nervous. But a fog of elation had descended over her mind and prevented her from even thinking of that. All she could think of was the way his lips moved over her own, soft, sensual. She didn’t even mind that she could still smell the cigarette smoke on his mouth; somehow it soothed her. It was the scent that belonged to him and made her feel safe and wanted.
Her body jumped as he pulled her against him, like he could not get enough of her. Her nerves sparked with electricity as their middles touched, so closely that she could feel his muscles flexing beneath his shirt as he began to kiss her more fervently. With every movement, Nami descended more and more, like she was sinking beneath the waves into an abyss of love and passion. As her hands drifted over his shoulders to tangle into his blonde hair, bringing his head down as she kissed him back with equal intensity, his settled at her waist.
Sanji turned her body to press her against the railing of the ship, one of his knees pushing between her legs as he bent her slightly over the wood. As Nami’s head tilted back, his tongue swept slowly across her bottom lip, begging for entry; she unashamedly complied, and as it entered her mouth to eagerly tangle with her own, she thought she was going to be swept away by the current that he was for sure. The taste of him got her drunk in an instant, and her mind was hazy as she struggled to stay afloat in the sea of their passion. Nami didn’t doubt at all now that his heart belonged to her and her only, and that he felt the same way about her; she knew it all from the way he held her, the way he kissed her, like he never, ever wanted to let her go. Basked in the warmth and light from the rising sun, Nami relished that kiss, that moment, that confession of their love.
When they finally broke apart, the sun had risen fully into the blue sky and they were panting. Their faces each shone with a thin sheen of perspiration. She smiled weakly as his hand swept over her cheek again, this time to tuck a strand of her gold-dusted hair behind her ear. She realized then that she had never voiced her feelings, and even though it was probably unneeded at this point, she wanted to anyway.
“I love you, Sanji.”
That sweet smile appeared on his face again, and instead of replying, he wordlessly pulled her into a hug. Nami sighed deeply as she hugged him back and buried her face into his shoulder.
“Y’know, Nami… I’m afraid too,” she heard him mumble into her hair.
“Of what?” she responded without moving.
He shifted his head to bury it further into her tangerine locks, so far that she felt his lips moving against her scalp.
“I’m afraid… I won’t be able to protect you. There’s no doubt that some serious fighting is going to go down in Wano. I… don’t want to lose you, especially not now.”
Nami smiled into him and hugged him tighter. For Sanji to admit that he was afraid of something admittedly made her happy, because it meant he really was willing to pour out his heart and soul to her.
“Well, I’m not afraid. You’ve never let me down before, Sanji. I believe in you one hundred percent!” she told him confidently. She really wasn’t. Sanji had washed all her fears away, and she knew now that she was safe with him, forever and always. She wanted him to know she felt that way; more than that, she wanted him to know that she was willing to give herself over to him, to rely on him completely, which was the hardest thing for her to ever do. “You can’t lose, because I’m counting on you.”
She felt him smile, and he squeezed her so tightly that she felt her lungs constrict. She didn’t complain, though.
“Yeah. I won’t let you down, Nami.”
“Good, and when you’re done whooping ass, I’ll be waiting for you with open arms! Just leave some for me to kick, okay? I’m not a damsel in distress.”
This time, she lifted her head to smile cheekily at him. He snorted in laughter and lifted his head out of her hair, smiling as brilliantly as the dawning sun. Nami wasn’t able to do the same for him, but she knew that she could support him from the sidelines, to be there for him to return to. She could protect herself well enough too, after all.
“You’re so independent, Nami. That’s what I love about you.”
She grinned up at him at the compliment, and again, he leaned down to kiss her. It was softer than before, but somehow more passionate, like he was taking more care to voice all his unspoken feelings to her rather than it being a desperate display of passion. Nami’s eyes drifted shut again, accepting his love.
Nami had no room for fear anymore when she was being filled up with all those other emotions instead. She had no need for fear anymore, not with the man she loved and who loved her holding her so tightly, and she knew he would never, ever let her go… Smiling into the kiss, Nami looked happily upon the dawn of a new sea, a sea of love that she and Sanji would sail together, out into the sun on the horizon…