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Nami’s eyes shot open and she took a gasping, painful breath. Her lungs ached and as she turned over she felt broken ribs shift. The sharp pounding in her head as she moved also didn’t go unnoticed. The dust in the air coated her throat and mouth and she gagged on the taste, but she willed herself not to throw up. As she struggled to remember what happened, she heard a shout.
“Nami!!”
She sighed, relieved. “I’m here, Usopp!”
Nami looked up to see the building that had come down above her. She was in a very tight space, the rubble surrounding her balancing precariously. The air felt thin and every breath she took felt like her lungs were getting less and less full. There was a small opening where she saw the sniper carefully traversing the crumbled structure. She did her best to stick her face through and take a deep breath.
“What the hell happened here?” Usopp called out. “Are you crushed? Oh god if I have to see you smushed I think I’ll throw up.”
Nami looked down at herself and felt particularly not smushed. She brought her hand up to her head and felt a gash, bleeding sluggishly. She hissed and lifted her shirt slightly. Dark bruising around her ribs, but nothing she hasn’t dealt with before. She’d probably gotten worse being tossed around by Luffy. She exhaled shakily, relieved that nothing was sticking out of her.
“I’m okay!” She called through the gap in the rubble. “Just help me out of here!”
“I’m… coming,” the hesitation in Usopp’s voice was enough for Nami to know he was not happy about the situation. “You don’t think it’s gonna collapse anymore, right? I kind of am not in the mood for broken bones today.”
“I think it’s fine,” Nami said, letting her chin rest on the stone. She suddenly felt very tired. “It only fell in the first place because Sanji-kun kicked that bomb guy into the… oh, shit!”
Nami whipped around. She had been bleary about what happened when she woke up, but it was all coming back to her as she realized why her wounds weren’t that bad.
She was by the opening this whole time, and the sun that crept through didn’t reach the farthest part of the tiny cavern the crumbled building created. She inched towards the shadowy area. Nami couldn’t see a thing, but she started to hear a terrible wheezing noise. Sanji’s breathing sounded terrible, and Nami immediately knew he had damaged his lungs.
“Sanji-kun,” she rasped. “Are you okay? I didn’t see you.”
When she didn’t get a response other than the slow, labored breathing, she crawled closer, wincing as the uneven ground scraped her knees. She had to duck down even further and the tight enclosure, and could barely even sit up straight. Nami reached out and sucked in a breath as she felt hair. She moved her hands lower to find Sanji’s cheeks and patted them lightly.
“Sanji-kun, wake up. We have to get out of here, this whole place seems rickety.” She tapped his face just a bit harder, and only got a soft groan. Nami couldn’t see the extent of the damage, and Sanji obviously wasn’t waking up any time soon. She inched back to the opening.
“Usopp, what are you doing?” She called out, nervous as the rocks shifted above her. “Sanji-kun is in here too. Do you have a lamp or something? Get over here!”
“I’m coming as fast as I can! Do you want me to be crushed to death or something! Is Sanji okay?” Nami watched as Usopp walked very slowly, analyzing each step he took, looking above him and to each side, before he moved an inch. She sighed.
“Just hurry up! Sanji-kun needs help! What are you doing?”
As Nami watched Usopp hop around, she felt guilt surging in her gut. Sanji had gotten hurt protecting her again. She didn’t even need protection, she thought to herself. She would’ve been fine if Sanji wasn’t so damn set on throwing himself in front of her constantly, even if she could have figured it out herself. They were fighting some bizarre crew of scientists, Luffy hated how they looked at people as experiments, test subjects, and challenged them, as always. Something about setting free whatever mutants they had created in a lab. Nami wasn’t certain what her captain had been yelling about, but she would always fight to set anyone free from captivity. She knew how it felt.
As soon as she had put an electric end to a madman who thought Chopper would be a perfect subject to test a new drug on, she dashed off to see if she could help out her other crew members. She had seen Sanji fighting a man with a backpack full of homemade explosions, each more powerful than the last. Nami had gone to assist in the fight, but the man immediately turned his attention to her. Although she whipped out her climatact, and could have countered the bombs thrown at her with little repercussions, Sanji used himself as a human shield, and, with the little strength he had left, kicked the man into a nearby structure, causing all the bombs to go off and the building to tumble.
She was furious with Sanji in that moment. He knew she could take care of herself, that she was strong, yet he still did idiotic things like this. Nami shook as she tried to press her anger down, thinking about what her mangled crew mate had done to himself, and how it felt like this was all her fault.
Nami was startled out of her thought spiral by Usopp’s boots landing right in front of the opening. She peered up and saw him grinning.
“Captain Usopp at your service! Here,” he stuck his hand into the whole, presenting a spherical, glass object.
“What is this?”
“Usopp’s Fantastic Fallen Building Hole Orb Light! Good thing I’ve been in a situation like this before,” he rambled. “I was trapped under rubble for three weeks! All I had to drink was the water that dripped into my mouth, and then finally I-,”
“Did you just make that name up?” Nami cut him off.
“What a rude accusation! I was getting to it! Just squeeze the Orb and it’ll light up,” Usopp mumbled, as he tried to lower himself through the opening.
Nami squished it, suprised at how rubbery the glass-like object turned out to be, and the small cavern was illuminated with a full yellow glow. “Whoa, Usopp, this is insane. I’m impressed!”
“It’s no biggie, I’ve made much larger-,” the bragging was cut off as Usopp fully fit through the hole and gasped. “Shit, Sanji!”
Nami whipped around and clapped her hand to her mouth. There was so much blood, why couldn’t she smell it? She almost gagged again, and couldn’t tear her eyes away from the cook’s prone form. Usopp crawled over and hovered his hands above Sanji’s torso.
“This can’t be real,” he said softly, taking in the extent of the damage. One of Sanji’s legs, up to the knee, was pinned under a huge chuck of building, and closer to his thigh she saw a flash of white. The bone, she thought. It was obviously broken, and a piercing thought suddenly ran through Nami. She continued to stare. The left side of his chest and stomach was also sporting huge, deep gashes, and his blue shirt was nearly completely soaked red. One of the wounds was far deeper than the others, and it was most likely what was causing him to have difficulty breathing. Nami looked at his pale face, blood bubbling at the corners of his lips, pain decorating his features. The lack of oxygen in the cavern was making her light-headed and her vision began to spin. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes.
“What… should we do..?” Nami looked at Usopp, who looked almost paler than Sanji. “We have to move this r-rock,” she started, furious with herself when she heard a small shake in her voice.
“No way,” Usopp said quickly. “We can’t move it, this whole place will come down on all of us. I don’t think we could budge it together anyway, it’s huge. We need Luffy. Or Zoro. Or Chopper when he’s big.”
“Do you know where anyone is?”
“I think Zoro beat that lady with the bubbling sword things,” Usopp started. “I might know where he is? I can go find him! He could… I don’t know, cut hi- cut the rock?”
Nami winced. She knew what Usopp was going to say. Cut his leg. If Sanji lost his leg because of her, Nami would never be able to show her face again. Usopp had to hurry. He scurried back through the small opening and left Nami alone with Sanji’s uneven breathing. The air was so thick she was sure they’d run out of oxygen soon. Nami knew she could try to climb out and wait for Usopp to come back, but she couldn’t leave the cook alone like this. She reached down and pushed sweaty hair back off of his face. The small touch made him gasp and his eyes fluttered ever so slightly.
“Sanji-kun?” Nami got back onto her knees and leaned over the cook’s prone form. “Wake up, Sanji-kun!” And, unable to ignore a request from Nami, he opened his eyes a slit. A moan left his throat and she saw him slide his hand over to his torn side. Nami grabbed his arm before he was able to touch the wound. “It’s okay,” she said quickly, feeling much better that he was conscious, “Usopp is getting help! Zoro is gonna get you out of here.”
Sanji stared up at her through squinted eyes. His breathing quickened and he made another small noise. “Ma- mari- d’nt need… h’lp…” he slurred. “Mar- Zo- Zo…r’s hr’e..?”
Nami tried to decipher what Sanji was saying, she could barely understand him. She didn’t respond immediately and he instantly started talking again. “Hurts… a l’ttle… d’nt, d’nt feel good,” he continued. Nami’s heart clenched.
“I’m sorry, Sanji-kun, I know. It’ll be ok, they’ll be back soon. Then we can go back to Merry and Chopper’ll fix you up and everything will be fine.” Nami’s relief that he was awake quickly dwindled. Even after particular brutal fights, bleeding from head to toe, Sanji rarely admitted that he was in pain. He was usually cohesive and was able to push through until Chopper had to sedate him to get him to rest. This was not normal, and fear coursed through her. “Just try and stay awake, okay? Zoro and Usopp will be here soon.”
“Z’ro…” his eyelids fluttered and Nami gripped his face.
“Yes, him. And he’ll probably be super annoying and rude so you’ll have to tell him to shut up, okay? Just stay awake until then.”
“W’nt to… wanna see… him,” Sanji mumbled, his excessive talking causing him to wheeze even more. “Z’ro…” He turned his head slowly towards Nami and she cringed as she saw more blood leak from his mouth. She knew Sanji must really be delirious because the cook she know wouldn’t want to see Zoro, unless he had something to rub in the swordsman’s face.
The only times she ever saw them coexist peacefully was when she’d be changing watch with one of them in the dead of night. Sanji would get up as well to make coffee for her, and Zoro would often be lurking in the galley these times. He never acknowledged Nami, and Sanji didn’t acknowledge Zoro. She didn’t know if they talked or if Zoro got something to eat after she left, and she never gave it much thought. She thought it strange that Sanji would be asking for his rival at a time like this, and wondered what was talked about in those late night galley meetings.
Lost in thought, she barely missed the rapid pickup of breathing from Sanji. She looked down, her hand still on his forehead, and saw his eyes had closed again.
“Shit,” she whispered desperately. “Wake up, Sanji-kun. Wake up now, I’m telling you. Sa-,”
“Move.” Nami was yanked backwards by a strong arm around her bicep. Zoro looked ridiculously huge in the tiny cavern, and his face was shadowed.
“Oh, Zoro thank God! You have to cut that rock down,” she explained, gesturing to the large piece of rubble hindering their cook. “We need to get him to Chopper, now.” Sanji’s breathing was impossibly fast and sweat dripped from his forehead in rivulets. Zoro stared at him for a moment before reaching out brushing Sanji’s cheek with the back of his hand. The cook whined slightly but didn’t wake. Zoro sharply turned and looked back at Nami.
“Get out of here, this place will collapse,” he grumbled.
“What about Sanji? He’s already in really bad shape, you can’t-,”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to him, witch. Get out now.” Zoro didn’t so much as look back at her, his gaze fixed back on Sanji’s pained face. She scrambled backwards, arm wrapped around her ribs, and pushed herself through the opening. Usopp’s hands greeted her as he pulled her the rest of the way out. She took a deep breath of cleaner air and leaned heavily on the sniper. Usopp opened his mouth to say something, but almost immediately there was a rumbling coming from the rubble. Pieces began to shift and where they were standing was growing unsteady. Usopp yelped and started dashing away.
“Hey,” Nami yelled. “Put me on your back! I can’t run like this!”
Usopp begrudgingly did as told, and they dashed to safety. The building shifted and crumbled even more than before, if that was possible. For a moment, Nami feared that they were both swallowed up.
“You don’t think they…” Usopp trailed off, watching the dust that rose from the new pile of stone.
As soon as Nami was about to reassure the sniper that their swordsman would never let that happen, a sword carved through a huge chunk of building and out walked a filthy, soot covered Zoro, and draped across his back a blood soaked cook. Nami made a point not to look at his mutilated leg, as she knew this time she might really throw up.
Zoro stopped in front of them and slowly lowered the cook down. His eyes were closed and he looked unbelievably pale. Nami vaguely wondered where he kept all the blood he was losing in that skinny body.
“Gotta stop the bleeding,” Zoro mumbled, ripping off his own shirt and pressing it to Sanji’s side.
“He’s definitely gonna get an infection now with you putting that filthy shirt on an open wound,” Nami huffed.
“Oh, my God. Please tell me we don’t have to set his leg,” Usopp gagged.
“Both of you shut up,” Zoro growled. Nami was shocked to see the care he put into wrapped Sanji’s chest and torso, how tenderly he lifted him and lowered him back down. She looked at Zoro’s face; his frown lines were deep and his eyes would not leave the cook’s face. Slowly, he brought a hand up and touched a small scratch on Sanji’s face, and his features twitched. Sanji made a pained gasp and cracked his eyes open, and Zoro’s features relaxed slightly.
“Cook?” He asked, his voice losing its gruffness nearly completely. If Nami knew better, she would have even said he was speaking softly. “You with us? Hey,” he cupped Sanji’s cheek, and the cook pressed into the touch.
“Zo… ha, hr’ts…” he panted. “Are,.. you.. ‘kay?”
“Stupid fucking idiot,” Zoro said, leaning closer. “Of course I’m fine. Stupid cook, why are you always trying to get yourself killed?”
Nami watched this display with her mouth slightly ajar. Zoro’s deep rumbling voice spoke so quietly she could barely hear it. The way his hand gripped the cook’s face made her heart ache, and images of a certain blue haired princess stirred within her- it all clicked into place.
“Oh,” she breathed out. “OH.” She whipped around and looked at Usopp with wide eyes and a feral grin, but he didn’t return the enthusiasm.
“Um… guys? We should probably, you know, get him to Chopper,” Usopp said, shifting from foot to foot. “I don’t know why we’re just… standing around.”
“N’mi… san… okay.?” Nami quickly bent down next to Sanji’s head.
“I’m okay, thanks to you,” she said quietly. She suddenly felt Zoro’s gaze on her, and didn’t quite enjoy it. “We’re gonna go home now and we’ll all be just fine.”
Sanji smiled at her, blood stained teeth revealed for just a moment, before his eyes grew unfocused. His body was trembling, going into shock, and a cough forced more blood from his mouth. Zoro scooped him up without another word and started to jog back to Merry.
“Zoro, wait! You gotta go left,” Usopp said anxiously. “You people, I swear…”
Nami slowly climbed onto Usopp’s back and they followed suit. She felt herself starting to grow tired again, the adrenaline finally wearing off, and before she fell asleep on her friend’s back, she made a mental note to ask Zoro just how long he had been in love.