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He gives the most amazing hugs.
He always has, and as she watches him sit down in front of her, all she can think about is how much she’d really like one right now.
If anyone had told her not so long ago that she’d one day crave the embrace of a damn pirate, she’d have laughed herself completely stupid on the spot.
My, my, how the times have changed, she muses wryly, already instinctively moving toward him.
“Hey, Nami,” Luffy greets warmly in a low rasp, and goosebumps chase themselves in pleasure along her spine. “You left dinner early.”
She hadn’t always liked his sound. Not in the very beginning, after she’d first met him; she’d found him loud and somewhat abrasive to her ears, though his voice had quickly grown on her as she’d grown attached to the boy. Two years since had deepened and thickened his tone with spectacular results, and now, she absolutely loves to hear him talk.
She fantasizes about hearing him in her ear at night, or maybe kissed out along the side of her neck. These fantasies aren’t new; she’d had similar ones before they’d all been separated. It’s just that they’ve been happening even more frequently and vividly since he’d returned.
“I wasn’t very hungry,” she tells him with a shrug and a saucy tilt of her nose to spite all the stupid emotions causing her all kinds of complicated thoughts right this second.
He only stares down at her with those wide, impossible eyes, waiting her out.
“Listen here, captain stringbean,” she snorts out her old nickname for him, “I promise. I’m okay.” She softens her tone with a smile and leans in against his knees.
She’s completely fine, it’s just that now, sometimes, seeing him will snatch the breath out of her lungs and make her chest ache, and tonight, watching him all relaxed, laughing, and enjoying his food and company, alive...
She'd had to leave. Just for a bit, so she could get her shit together and not make a fool of herself.
She's in love with him, of course. Has been for nearly as long as she’s known him, she figures. It hadn’t been so difficult to deal with in the beginning; back then, Luffy had unintentionally made it relatively easy. He’d still been fairly immature, and she’d been able to smile and shake her head at it.
She’d called it a crush back then. A cute, harmless little crush on a friend she cared deeply for.
Crush, love, whatever one wants to call it, it's considerably more difficult to deal with now. She’d missed him terribly, and Luffy had grown up. The time gone had put some width and height on his slim body and sharpened his features, and he’d matured handsomely in confidence and demeanor.
He’s changed so much, and yet…he’s still Luffy. Still the young man she’d fallen so hard for, still so bright and warm as he reaches for her, one hand cupping her cheek, the other curling around the back of her head as he pulls her into a hold. Nami lets him, easily leaning into his body, circling her arms around his waist and flattening her hands along his back. She squeezes him just hard enough to feel so good, but not enough to warrant any real questions.
“Huh. You aren't acting 'okay',” he remarks, his voice rich with humor. His fingers gently slide into her hair, fingertips rubbing her scalp, and she tightens her hold on him a little more as his other hand, wide and warm, splays out over her back.
“Shut it,” she mutters quietly, closing her eyes as she presses closer, lightly scratching her nails over his shirt. She feels tension easing out of her body, and her mind calms to the steady thud of his heart and the even rush of his breath under her ear.
“Minha laranjinha, I’ve missed you,” he laughs softly, drawing her in closer, tighter, and her heart skips, then races.
‘My little orange’, he’d called her in his native language, and it warms her clear to the core to hear it again. Where it’d taken her no time at all to playfully give him a couple of nicknames, it’d taken him far longer to give her this one at all. Even then, he hadn’t really used it frequently, seeming to prefer using her name instead.
She’s missed it, hearing him call her that, and to hear it now, while he’s got her drawn in so snug, with her nose pressed into him...!
He's always managed to hit her like a gunshot straight through the heart, why should now be any different?
“I’ve missed you too, Luffy,” she sighs happily, rubbing her cheek against his smooth, warm-scented skin. “I missed you, too.”
If anyone would try to remind her now that she hated pirates and would never seek one out for a hug, she’d only smile and squeeze her captain a little tighter, because in the arms of the future King of Pirates is exactly where she wants to be.