Work Text:
Nami feels herself laugh for the first time in what might be a decade. She doesn't remember when she'd felt such pure joy that wasn't underlaid with the looming threat of losing her home and everything she loved. But now, she stands here in this small circle and looks around at the way Sanji takes the cigarette from his mouth to keep from choking on it as he laughs. She watches Usopp grip his stomach and bark out a hearty laugh that nearly drowns out the others' like it's a competition. She looks over at Zoro, who's failing at stopping the threatening smile as he shoves a hand against Luffy's shoulder, and Luffy - dear, dear, Luffy - whose smile stretches far beyond anything that even his strange body is capable of. Luffy, who has blood dripping down the side of his face, a bruise stretching over his shoulder dotted with bite marks, scrapes along battered knuckles, and another trail of blood falling from a knee. Luffy, who swats away Zoro's half-hearted shove, crinkles his eyes as he laughs, and then turns to flash his gaze over at Nami with a small wink.
There's a brush of fingers against her shoulder that pulls her focus from him and brings it to the burning sting that she flinches back from. She turns to find Usopp holding his hands up in innocence, eyes wide with the apology before it even comes from his mouth.
"I didn't mean-- I just wanted to ask if you were alright."
Nami holds his gaze for a moment and then looks down at her shoulder where the bandage has been torn just slightly, dried blood set into the edges of it, and just a touch of that horrid blue ink still visible beneath a gash. She slowly cups her palm over it and looks back up at him. "Yeah. I'm good. It's just from years ago."
Usopp nods and then looks down at her hand like he can see through it to the destroyed skin. "I can clean it for you if you want so it doesn't get infected."
"That's alright," she says quickly. "I can do it myself. I have some supplies, I'm sure, or Nojiko might. I can--"
"Nami," Luffy interrupts.
She looks over at his smile, Zoro and Sanji on either side of him watching her.
"Usopp's good with his hands," Luffy says easily. "He can take care of it for you."
Nami opens her mouth to protest, or maybe just tell them that he doesn't need to do it, but then Sanji gestures over to Zoro with the cigarette in his hand. "Fixed his stupid cut, didn't he? And that was one ugly gash."
"Didn't hurt," Zoro adds, shrugging.
"Heard you cried like a bitch," Sanji mumbles.
Zoro's eyes flash with a challenge as he snaps his gaze to him. "You want me to make you cry?"
"I don't cry."
"I don't back down from challenges."
Luffy puts his hands up on either side of him, pressing against both of their chests to keep them from attempting to walk through him to get to the other. "Nami, we're your crew. Let us help."
Nami stares back at Luffy, heart pounding in her chest. "You've already helped me."
"Doesn't mean we have to stop," Usopp says quietly, drawing her attention back to him. "I mean it. This would take me about three minutes to clean up. And, I mean, I'm a pretty decent artist if I do say so myself. If you want, I could draw over this. Make something new out of it to replace it."
"You'd do that?"
"Why not?" he shrugs. "I'm used to saving the day, you know? No skin off my back."
"Oh yeah," Zoro snorts. "You sure saved the day."
"Hey, I took out a whole fishman out near the trees."
"Yeah, Moss, you probably missed it when you were busy napping next to the pool," Sanji says.
Zoro opens his mouth like he's gonna say something back, but Nami catches the way he stops, irritation lowering to a simmer as Luffy's fingers catch around his, nearly out of sight.
"Mhm," Sanji says, mouth curving into a smirk as he tucks the cigarette back in his mouth. "Thought so."
Zoro pulls his gaze from him and stares at Nami. "Would you just let him help? Let all of us help." He says it like he's angry about it, like it's almost an inconvenience for her to not let them.
"We're your crew," Luffy repeats.
Usopp reaches up and gives a gentle flick to the straw hat still set on her head. "You've got the look to prove it, too."
Nami bites down on her lip and nods at Usopp. "Okay. Okay, sure. I'd like that."
"Yeah?" he asks, eyes lighting up with excitement. "Oh man, this is gonna be great. I can clean it up and then I'll draw you something so cool. It's gonna be awesome. Trust me, Nami, you won't regret this--"
"Yeah, you will."
"--I promise. I'll come up with something real good. Don't listen to Zoro--"
"Best advice I've heard all day."
"--I'm already coming up with ideas..." Usopp continues over Sanji's and Zoro's mumbled interjections, but Nami drags her gaze back over to Luffy again, who's watching her with some question in his eyes.
"Thank you," she says to him, quietly enough that the others probably don't even hear it.
Luffy just shrugs. "No need."
Nami reaches up to the hat and finally removes it, holding it out to him.
Luffy's smile grows, eyes widening. "Thanks for keeping it safe for me!"
"Always," she promises.
Luffy sets the hat on his head and then puts his hands up to Zoro's and Sanji's chests again to keep them from attacking each other. "Should we head back to the Merry? There's a lot of us and we should sort out beds."
Nami's smile grows. "Sounds great, Captain."
Luffy scrunches his nose with his laugh and then steps forward to sling an arm around her and lead her away from Arlong Park. The others turn and trail behind them, Usopp insisting to the others that he's not going to draw something stupid or ugly or inappropriate, Sanji reminding him that means he can't draw Zoro's face, and then there's a distinct sound like a sword being drawn, but all of it is starting to sound a bit like home to Nami.