Work Text:
It had happened by chance. Seriously.
Nami had sent him to her cabin to find who knows which map, giving him only a few general indications. He remembered hearing her muttering words like "desk", "drawer", "right" and something else, and, once he got there, he could no longer remember if she had said right or left.
So it wasn't all his fault. Besides, he had no intention of peeking, nor did he imagine what he would find was a diary; it looked like a notebook like any other, and the reason why he opened it, was only because he thought the map could be in there.
Stuck between the first pages there was a dry tangerine leaf.
It was a very strange diary. Not that he ever had one, but he had heard of it once, and Luffy knew that diaries are usually full of writings and dates and secrets.
In that diary, however, there were things more than words: the tangerine leaf, a piece of perfumed peel, and then a lot of pinwheel tattoo designs, each slightly different from the other. Maybe that was where Nami had designed it, before reaching the final result.
There was a photo of her as a child with another girl; she was probably her sister but he wasn't that sure because he wasn't good with faces. There were also other photos, all of places that Luffy didn't know. Probably places where she had been before they met, and perhaps even after she became part of his crew, in that short period in which she ran away. He didn't know, and he certainly wouldn't have asked her.
He really wanted to close that notebook, but on the next page he saw drawings of the Going Merry - the figurehead, his figurehead! - and stood there staring at them. They were so beautiful that he had traced their contours with his finger. Luffy didn't understand much about it, but in the features he could see the same dedication that she put into her maps.
And in the end he had actually found a map in there: the whole interior of the Merry, from the hold to the bridge. Luffy felt happy at the thought that their ship would be on the map of the world that Nami was drawing.
Then, on the bottom of the drawer where the diary was, he had found the map that Nami had sent him to look for. Soon she would begin to wonder where he had disappeared, and maybe she would find him there going through her stuff. He wouldn't like getting beaten up.
For the last time he had traced the contours of the figurehead image with his fingers. That was his favorite drawing, he had no doubts. He would have liked an identical one to show everyone.
"Nami," he said then, heading for the bow and handing her the open map. She had looked at him as he traced the outlines with his fingertips, his eyes fixed on the sheet. "Draw something for me."