Chapter Text
Vivi had never had much time for love.
Joining the pirate organization trying to cause a civil war in your country at 14 will do that to you.
She never dwelled much on it. It seemed so distant... Something that only existed in fairytales, something that only happened to others. In the middle of a famine, a drought, and an uprising, the last thing on her mind was love.
She knew that, at some point, if, no, she reminded herself every time she faltered, when she managed to save her country, she would have to get married. A part of her was resigned to a politically convenient arranged marriage to strengthen the power of the monarchy, to give her people a new hope, a tomorrow, a change, a child. The thought made her shiver.
The other part of her supposed that, given the option, she would probably marry Koza. He was one of the few, if not the only, man her age she had been close to, at least in the past. He was kind to everybody. He wanted the best for Alabasta. He was handsome (so said Terracotta, whenever his name came up in a conversation). He was nice to her. He would be a good ruler. A good king.
So much changed after meeting the Straw Hat Pirates. It was nice traveling with other people her age. And a girl her age too! It had been so long. So long since the last time she had had people who she could call her friends, not her caretakers nor guardians, not her subjects, not her family —just friends. Equals. People willing to give everything up for her in exchange of nothing (well, 1 billion berry, maybe just 500,000 berry). As she would do for them.
Vivi had never had much time for love.
That’s why she didn’t realize she had started to fall for the navigator of the Straw Hats. Vivi couldn’t pinpoint the exact time it happened. Maybe when Nami held her hand to help her climb the camel. Probably when, overcome with a fever, the navigator tried to push forward towards Alabasta, for Vivi, because she knew how important it was to her. Perhaps a little bit later, after Nami got better, when they started to talk to each other in the dark of the night, bundled under the blankets, in a whisper —fearing that if they talked too loud, whatever bond was forming between them would shatter— and Nami had cried herself to sleep. Possibly even sooner, on Whisky Peak, when Vivi heard the greed in her words, but saw the kindness in her eyes. The refusal to let her kill herself in a wild-goose chase.
But she did not realize at the beginning, no. Neither did Nami. The feelings had started to boil, at a low heat, in their hearts, but it would take long, way too long, for any of them to realize. Not even after meeting the sand pirates. And Rasa. Oh, Rasa. While what she felt for Nami started slow, deep like the mist quietly enveloping a ship in the night, what she had felt for Rasa burned like the sand of the desert and washed her out like the biggest of waves. She didn’t question it, it just felt right. Intense. Like the weight of her guilt. The guilt of abandoning her people, those who had trusted her and her dad. Those she had given her word to. She knew she had to make it right for them. For all of them. For all of Alabasta.
And yet, were it not for the situation they had found themselves in, had it not been such a dire time, had Rasa asked, she would have thought about leaving everything behind and joining the Barbar pirates in sailing across the endless sea of sand and dust.
Vivi had never had much time for love.
But she knew that, had Nami asked (and she had not, because she knew there was no point in asking), she wouldn’t have left with them. Vivi knew she could wait. She would wait —an eternity even— for her to come back.
“Pirates are greedy, you see”, Nami had told her. “We always take what we want”.
And she would come back, because Straw Hats never break their promises.
And she looks at the rain, sitting down on the windowsill of her room. Knowing that, wherever she is, Nami will be seeing the rain at some point too and thinking of Alabasta, of Alubarna. Of her.
Of what could have been.
Of what will be.
Because Vivi had never had much time for love, but Nami wants the best for those she cares about. She is beautiful, and kind, and fun, and smart, and amazing. And she would be a terrible queen.
But she loves Vivi.
And Vivi loves her.