Work Text:
It’s quiet on the Thousand Sunny, despite all their silly, childish boys being up and on the deck. Nami supposes it’s the way Luffy’s looking at the stars, calm and thoughtful, that’s brought this lull to their deck. It’s the reason they’re all on the deck, waiting for their captain to return to his blinding smile from his spot on Sunny’s mane.
Two years of training has changed them all, but Luffy’s change is subtle in a way that’s shocking. He’s calmer at night, loving smiles and soft words. He takes more time to just sit around and enjoy his crew’s company, in a way that makes their heart ache. He proclaims his love almost every day: tight hugs, warm laughter, soft eyes, hand holding, compliments, and sheer and utter confidence in them. It’s almost enough to make their hearts explode. In love, for their captain’s love has only grown from his darkest hour, his eyes bright and smile wide just for them. In guilt, for not being there for him, their captain, their brother, their sun.
Nami knows from the way Zoro’s not really sleeping, from Sanji softly chatting with Chopper about nutrition, from the way Robin hasn’t made any progress in her book, Usopp and Franky’s lackluster improvement ideas, and the way Brook watches their captain with a look . Nami knows they all want to make a move, to ask their captain to open up about the war that took his brother, to ask what’s on his mind when that far away look crosses his mind.
Her captain is an open book to them, and as many times as he’s saved them, it’s only fair they save him. Ace’s name shouldn’t be a taboo, not when he would hate that.
So Nami moves. Motion stops on the deck, as does the idle chatter, but the navigator isn’t surprised. She knows these people like the back of her hand, as she knows her captain.
She wraps her arms around her captain’s shoulders, chin resting on his head, hands clasped at his chest. She can’t help the smile that appears on her face when Luffy leans to rest his head against her chest, eyes closed now.
Nami won’t speak until her captain does, nerves building up, restless until Luffy reaches to hold on of her hands.
His voice is soft, almost unheard with the light breeze, “Is something wrong, Nami?”
Gods, she loved this man to end of the earth, so in the end she doesn’t ask the question she wanted to. She doesn’t think her heart can take it. “What do you think of us?”
The rustling on the deck tells her that the others knew exactly what she wanted to ask, but when no one speaks she knows they’re not mad. After all, they didn’t have the will to ask yet either.
“You’ve all gotten so strong in the two years.” Luffy breaks their embrace, turning around, but grabs Nami’s hands before he speaks. A smile full of love and pride lights up his face, “I’m proud to be your captain, to have all your dreams entrusted to me is an honor.”
Nami blinks once, twice, before a small smile is on her face, “You can’t just say something like that with no warning, Captain.”
Luffy shrugs, jumping next to Nami on the deck. He looks at his crew with an odd look on his face before turning back to his navigator. “Maybe, but that wasn’t the question you wanted to ask anyway, was it?”
Sometimes Nami forgets that Luffy’s specialty is understanding people, that he knows them just as well as he knows them. She freezes momentarily, weighing her options, before sighing. “Well, you got me, Lu. It wasn’t”
Luffy bounces on his heels for a moment, glancing between Nami, Sanji, Robin, Usopp, and Zoro. He gives them an expectant look but says nothing.
Usopp is the courageous one in this story it seems, when he smiles and says the words that just won’t come out of Nami’s mouth. “What were you thinkin’ about Captain? You’re gonna put Sanji out of business if you come up with a way to break into the kitchen again.”
There’s a soft kick from Sanji, and a laugh from Luffy. His body language is fond, eyes bright, and their captain grins from ear to ear. “I promised Sanji that I would stop breaking in and ask more. I was thinking about my past, my brothers, the war.”
The air feels chilly despite how warm this part of the sea is, and Nami’s grateful Luffy keeps talking.
“The war was so hard, and I was devastated that Ace died. I still am, if I’m honest.” Luffy, strong, beautiful, kind, Luffy grasps at his scar with feather touches. “Ace promised me he wouldn’t die, and he’s never broken a promise before. “He wasn’t in those cuffs, Gramps all but let us escape, we were so close. I was so close to saving him, all the help I’d gotten, all the lives lost would’ve died knowing Ace was living. Living for me, for them, for the old man, Whitebeard. But dumb, angry, protective Ace couldn’t leave the man insulting the old man, no matter what I said, or his crewmates said. My legs were shaking so bad I couldn’t move. Not after Impel Down, the battles to get to Ace, or the battles to take him back to the ship. Ace died protecting me, and that hurt. Jinbe and Law saved me, in my weakest moment, and helped me remember that not all I loved was lost. I still had you. You all saved me in my darkest time, in my worst shape, and all I wanted to do was reunite. But Rayleigh had other plans, one’s I couldn’t ignore. Here we are two years later, stronger. I see that you’re strong enough to save yourselves, to save each other, to save me, and I’m glad. Because I won’t lose another family member like that again.”
Luffy’s crying at the end of it, but that’s okay because they are too. They saved their captain as he saved them, and while some things can never be the same, nothing is different.
After all, they have each other’s backs until the end.