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"So, what's your name?"
Mid-afternoon and the wind was at their backs, the seas smooth, and the weather hot. At the far side of the Merry, Luffy was propped up against the figurehead's horns and snoozing. Similarly, at the base, Zoro had sat down cross-legged and his head hung low as he slept the heat away. Gray wasn't convinced it was a particular comfortable way to nap.
"Hm?" A tap-tap-tap sounded off and on from below - Usopp tinkering on some gadget. Gray's hands were equally restless. He missed having an instrument to play with when there wasn't anything else to do.
"Your name," Nami repeated with a grin and a sarcastic eye-roll. "What is it? Really?"
"...Gray." He'd sat down with his back to the forefront of the ship, watching the seabirds and the foaming water in their wake.
"That's what they called you? In the other world?"
"I see." The smile that crept across Gray's face was bittersweet at best. "It's what I call myself. I had a different name on official paperwork, if that's what you're asking about."
"Maybe I am," Nami teased. The day had her feeling frisky. Maybe Gray could tear them all limb from limb without breaking a sweat. Probably he wouldn't. If he liked them - all of them - the less likely that they'd meet that fate. The fact that Gray had knowledge of another world, another planet, had her interest as well. How were the islands drawn on their maps? How did their seas connect? What was its name, the names of their countries? Did sea monsters still swim menacingly in the corners of the world?
"You just want to know what they called me, huh?" Nothing about him, sitting in the sunlight, the sail casting a shadow over his cute freckled face, indicated to Nami the truth of his nature. He fretted with his hands, like he wasn't sure what to do with them.
"I'd like to know about where you lived," she admitted casually. "You said it wasn't all ocean."
"Alright, alright. We got some time to kill, why not? Mind you, I'm gettin' fuzzy on some of the details." He closed his eyes. His hands clasped together in his lap.
"Start with your name," Nami urged.
"Name. Right. Well, the answer you don't want is that my name is Black Thirteen. That was my designation, in the facility." He drew in a deep breath and sighed. "Black sector, Ghoul number thirteen. When I got out, I introduced myself as Thirteen, cuz that's what they called me."
Nami stuck her tongue out. "Lame."
Happily, this made Gray laugh. "Yeah, I suppose. Once I settled down and quit acting like a rabid dog, my new friends started calling me Gray. Said I wasn't a good kid, not yet, but I was getting there. Not black, not white, just gray."
"Kid? How old were you?" His language was precise, Nami had noticed. He used exactly the word he needed.
"I don't know, really. Truth is, I don't know how old I am now. We guessed I came out of the facility around fifteen, sixteen. It was maybe ten years between then and coming here - so...twenty-five? Maybe?" He lifted his hands in a dramatic shrug. "And I've been here fifty years or more, but I haven't aged. Do these years count? I don't feel any different now than I did then."
"Robbin' the cradle with Zoro, huh?" Gray threw his head back and laughed.
"Maybe I am! But have you see him? Can you blame me?" He glanced back at her and winked.
She gave him a secret smile and shook her head. "I prefer girls."
"All the time?" The look in his eye was keen and knowing. Nami rolled her eyes and looked away, still smiling.
"Like ninety percent." Below them, something crashed heavily to the floor and Usopp yelled that he was okay. "You didn't tell me your name yet."
"Didn't I?" Nami gave him a Look, mouth set in a firm line. "Alright, don't look at me like that. The name on my card was Grayson Sinclair."
"Gray, for short."
"Indeed. I believe my friends thought it would be funny to name me like a character from a mystery novel."
She liked him. Despite herself, the pendulous swing between admiration and distrust, the shaking fear that had paralyzed her when he had transformed on Hop Frog - she liked him.
"Luffy said you make maps." In that moment, the warmth vanished; the hackles rose on the back of Nami's neck. Of course a pirate wanted maps. Especially a pirate on the run. "Would you show them to me?"
The picture of casual pride, Nami raised one shoulder and dropped it again. "Sure. Meet me after dinner?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
She hid Coco Village; slipped it between a pair of history books on the shelf while Gray perused their current course. The shower was running in the next room and Sanji was shouting down, stomping on the floor, complaining he wasn't getting enough hot water to wash dishes.
"Is Zoro okay? That's his second shower this week."
"I told him he tastes better when he's clean," Gray admitted slyly without looking up. Nami rolled her eyes.
"Gross." It hurt her to hide her hometown; it rubbed her wrong, like he would think she was ashamed. He had been nothing but polite, helpful, and kind. He made jokes and played cards badly on purpose. He made himself easy to read, and that scared her.
"Are these meteorology reports? Nami, you're incredible." He shuffled through the papers with an eagerness to his eye that left Nami more than a little cold. Arlong had shown a similar spark when she had first presented him with her hand-drawn maps. Pirates were all the same.
That's not true. It's not fair either. Luffy isn't like that. She took a deep breath and blew it out again. He's different too. If he wasn't, why would he be here with us?
"A talent like yours deserves more than this two-bit operation," Gray went on. "How'd you go so long without getting snapped up by a bigger crew?"
The words stuck in her throat. His eyes were shining like a cat's in the dark. Of course he didn't know. While she had been making maps for Arlong, he'd been slinging drinks and crooning to old sailors. He hadn't been there when the crew, her crew, had busted into Arlong Park to avenge her. Her, and her village. Would Gray have stood with them, teeth gnashing and eyes dark, ready to kick some ass on her behalf?
Her eyes dropped to the collar fastened around his neck. Yes, she thought, and even the voice in her head sounded so small, I think he would have.
"I worked for another pirate crew for a long time," she managed at last. It almost sounded natural. "A fishman, Arlong. Heard of him?"
The change was tiny; a furrowing of his brow, a sharpness to his gaze when he shifted it to her. "Once. When I first took over the bar, a fishman tried to squeeze me for protection money. He said he was with Arlong, and I'd better pay up if I didn't want trouble."
"You wouldn't pay." Nami didn't have to guess. All she had to do was look at Gray and she knew. As though to listen better to his story, she took a seat on the edge of her bed, one leg bent with the knee at her chest.
"I sent him back with twelve bites taken out of his hide." He grinned darkly and she could see it - those teeth, so unassumingly human, tearing through a fishman's tough skin with ease. "Twelve bites and a message. I would save the thirteenth bite for his captain."
"Damn," Nami said quietly. "Didn't hear from him again?"
"Not a word. All for the best - fishmen aren't really to my taste." His nose wrinkled up like a child being shown a plate of steamed spinach. "Twice the work and half as filling."
Nami clasped her hands over her mouth to fight the giggles, but it exploded out of her anyway. It was all too ridiculous. A man who had given Zoro a bottle of whiskey in a bar was in actuality an inhuman monster who fed on human flesh. That same monster had once guarded the Devil Fruit her captain had eaten, had cowed the terror of her youth, and what else? Won a ship in a card game with King Neptune? Reached into the sky with one black wing and pierced the moon? Maybe for their wedding, he'd swim to the bottom of the sea and bring Zoro back a ring made of solid gold and mother-of-pearl, crafted by mermaids.
While Nami laughed, great bellyfuls of guffaws that had her bent over and gasping for air, Gray perused the maps and reports with a small smile on his face, as though he was in on the great joke.
"How d'you guys make so much noise just looking at paper?" Zoro growled from the doorway. He was shirtless, barefoot, a damp towel around his neck. Water beaded down his chest. His appearance just made Nami laugh harder; like thinking about him had summoned the swordsman.
"Hey babe," Gray chirped. "I'll meet you in a bit, k? Go grab a drink."
Zoro lingered for a moment; Nami could practically see the calculations going on in his head. By the time he turned away, she was nearly in tears and losing composure fast.
"Fine. Don't call me babe."
"You got it, cutie pie."
That was the final straw. Nami howled with laughter, and when she fell from her seat, it didn't hurt nearly as bad as it would have if she hadn't seen the frank concern on Gray's face. Before he left, she decided, she would show him Coco Village.
Luffy's right, she thought, breathless and half blind with tears of joy and pain. He is a good guy.