Written for OP Songfics, inspired by the song 'Night Terror' by Laura Marling

Night Terror

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It was two nights in to their reunion, when she first found him.

Ever since she landed back on the Sunny she had taken some refuge in her mikan trees. It was painful, the raw separation between her nakama, being forced to read from a distance as her Captain and her saviour had his life ripped apart. The mikan were safe, they were home, and they grounded her whilst she readjusted.

So, for another night she lay under their protective shield, watching the stars move above her, feeling the waves crash against the hull, and basking in the feel of being back amongst the crazing torrents of the blue sea rather than the peace of the sky.

But then she heard a noise she had never remembered recognising on her ship. A high, keening sound that roused her from secluded orchard to move down towards the deck.

Luffy was curled around the bench at the mast, new longer shirt tangled around him as he shifted, moaning in some dream. Thinking he was just having another meat related nightmare, the Navigator thought little of it, and crossed the deck to head up to her bunk.

"Ace!"

But that syllable, uttered with such heart wrenching pain even when sleepy, moved the redhead's path direct to her slumbering captain. Up close, she was able to see he eyes scrunched shut in distress, his fists clenching uselessly in the cushion of the bench as he tried to fight the demons in his head. And it hurt, so badly, seeing her captain in such distress.

They had just got back together, and they needed their captain strong enough to rally them against whatever the future brings. Chopper was still very much a child, as was Usopp, and Robin looked like she needed Luffy's strength more than ever. With Sanji and Zoro clearly hiding some secrets in their dark gazes, it fell, as ever, on the rubber boy to shoulder to encourage them. Like a Captain should.

But he had been through so much. She may have been far from grand line but she still got her newspaper, and had routinely scoured the pages for any note of Luffy.

Not that she had to look far, he was headline news. Breaking into Impel Down, taking part of a way at Marine HQ. His brother dying in his arms. She's had her fair share of horrible memories, and she knows they can be difficult to handle. Night terrors can be a cruel enemy.

Watching him, fighting the demons in his mind, she was sharply reminded of her youth so many years ago, struggling with her own inner turmoil.

Damp grass shifted as she slid to her knees; long red hair resting against the bench as she knelt at her captain's side. Bending over him, she let her fingers push the straw hat off his head and ran them through ebony hair. The action reminded her of her sister, who would do the same action when she herself had ran home, angry and upset and terrorised by dreams of her mother in blood and constant torment of the thing that pulled the trigger who now owned her mind and soul.

Near instantly, Luffy's tossing and turning had calmed, and he lay peacefully with the even breathing of a being in peaceful slumber. Protectively, she curled over him further and whispered into his ear.

"Leave him be. We need our Captain...I need my captain. If you want him, you'd have to get through us first."

As soon as her lips moved back from his ear, Luffy smiled in his sleep, nightmares vanished from his dreaming mind. Calmed, Nami rose and headed up to the galley for a midnight snack.

They all needed her Captain; all eight of them. All pirates; the whole damn world needed Luffy. They may not all know it yet, but she did. And no matter what it took, she would make sure that he stayed with them. That the terror wouldn't push him away.

She'd charge every beli it took.

-.-.-