Chapter Text
It took roughly twenty minutes into her first meeting with Monkey D. Luffy for Nami to realize this guy had zero respect for personal space.
She’d been so focused on listening to the subtle clicks of the safe beneath her that she hadn’t noticed at first. But then he moved as he spoke and she felt warm curls brush against her head, a physical manifestation of the sunbeam in his voice. She’d almost jumped, but there was a job to do and she was nothing if not a professional.
But it kept happening. She saw it in the little nudges he’d absently pressed into Zoro’s board stiff frame, the way his hand lingered on Koby’s shoulder as they said goodbye. The dark memory etched in her shoulder took bitter, self-satisfied note- no matter how different he seemed, a pirate would always steal what they wanted.
Nevermind the shy, hopeful smile on Koby’s face as he turned to leave, the way Zoro’s shoulders seemed to loosen fraction by fraction. Some pirates could get what they needed without force. Luffy said he was a different sort of pirate, so that made sense.
And yet, as their too small dingy made its way across the sea, she couldn’t help but notice that Luffy… actually mostly respected her wishes. He was still touchy, of course- he couldn’t seem to help it entirely, as if his enthusiasm was in desperate need of any sort of outlet. But after she dodged him for the second time, he seemed to get the message, his energy instead being devoted to fiddling around the ship.
Which, granted, made it seem like he was determined to sink them all, but that was on her for ending up in this insane situation to begin with.
But then came that wave that caught their dingy unprepared, the sudden force of it nearly enough to capsize them all. And she’d grabbed for a rope, but she’d missed , and her flailing grasp for any other handhold met empty air. What a stupid way to go, so far from home, so close to her goal but a world away, tumbling into the sea with two idiots who couldn’t even tie a sail-
Luffy caught her wrist.
The ship, somehow, steadied.
The three of them stood frozen in uncertainty for a moment. Nami’s heartbeat seemed so loud she could barely hear the gulls overhead, though her focus was more on the sharp gulps of ocean breeze in her mercifully dry lungs. Then came Luffy’s laughter- loud, booming, joining the roar of the waves in acknowledgment of some great joke.
She absently caught the sight of Zoro releasing Luffy’s shirt, his exhale of relief as he clapped the boy on the shoulder. The way his short sentences fell in natural step with Luffy’s tumbling laughter, how the two somehow already had a rhythm.
No, her focus was on her arm, on the memory of his grip- solid and warm.
She found herself thinking, unbidden, of a cold fishman’s hands clamped roughly around her small child wrist. Of how that grip had tightened even though she’d fought to hold herself still on her own, of how her promise that she would stay was still enforced by heavy chains and heavier hands.
Of how Luffy’s touch- not to force her down, but to pull her up- didn’t fit. Not because he didn’t trust her to care for herself, but because he wanted to help. Because he’d tried to keep her safe.
“Nami?” His voice pulled her from her reverie. “You okay?”
Her throat bobbed. She shook her head, forcing out a grumble. “You trying to get us killed, dumbass?” She fixed him with a glare… then, with just a moment of hesitation, reached out to give him the lightest of shoves.
Luffy rolled with the motion easily, eyes flicking quickly to where she’d touched his shoulder. Then he grinned. “You know, ‘us’ is the kind of word you use when you’re on a team!”
Nami gave a long-suffering sigh and went back to checking the sails.
There was no such thing as a different sort of pirate. But maybe for now it wouldn’t be so bad to play along.