Author's Notes: This little stolen moment takes place during recent chapters. Let's say 806 or 807.
Much love to Tera for heroically betaing this even though she's only somewhere around Chapter 60. Your tolerance and ability to humor my whims are amazing.
Law woke to a splitting pain in his head.
Not because he'd stayed up late to humor his crew's wishes to celebrate their long-awaited reunion last night. Or because—for some reason—he'd given into Strawhat's insistence that they gorge themselves on food. (Thankfully, there hadn't been any bread to avoid.) Or even because he had shared more than a few cups of sake with Zoro.
No, his head hurt like hell because Nami just slammed her arm across his face.
With a grunt, Law pushed the offending limb off him. Shit, she hit hard even in her sleep. He pushed himself up and glanced down. Still fully clothed in his shirt and jeans. That was something at least. He hadn't drunk so much with Zoro to cloud his memories of last night. So why was he in bed with Nami?
Law glanced over and paused when he saw the other body nestled tight behind her, arms and legs stretching around her like an octopus. As strange as the sight was, it was also oddly titillating.
Or maybe that was just because of all the skin exposed by the dress Nami wore.
Nami muttered something, still mostly asleep, and squirmed. The same arm that had hit him in the face flailed for a second before coming to rest on Luffy's head. Law noted sourly that it hadn't struck him at all, not even a little bit. Surely he deserved that more than Law had considering the fact that he was practically gnawing on her bare shoulder.
"Luffy," Nami murmured. Her fingers flexed, running through her captain's hair. She said something else but sleep slurred the syllables enough that Law couldn't make any sense of it.
Strawhat didn't seem to have the same problem. He muttered something back and tightened his hold on her, which Law didn't even think was possible. How was she still asleep? Nami was either going to get crushed to death or suffocate. "Meat," Luffy sighed happily and pressed his face into her breasts.
Law didn't even have time to feel like a voyeur. Nami's eyes snapped open. "What do you think you're doing?" she shouted with no trace of sleep in her voice. Her fist slammed into the side of Luffy's head.
Law winced. At how quickly Strawhat came awake, disoriented and confused. At how the impact actually made him loosen his grip. How could that be? Nami didn't even have haki, as far as Law knew. He took everything back. Nami's unconscious arm across his face was nothing compared to her fist.
The other captain flew off the bed and hit the floor hard. Never one to stay down for long though, Strawhat bounced back up and looked wildly around the bedroom. "Wha—? What's going on? What?"
Nami sat up, pushing her tangled hair back. The pearl headdress slipped out of place, slightly askew. "Nothing," she replied with a sigh. She looked at Law. "Did we wake you?"
Law rubbed his still-stinging cheek. "Not because of that."
"Torao! You're still here!" A wide grin split Luffy's face and damn, no one had any business being that energetic this early in the morning.
Nami seemed to agree with him because she fell back onto the bed, turning on her side. Law pretended not to notice the way the skirt pooled onto the mattress and exposed the sleek curves of her legs or the way her breasts threatened to spill from her dress's bodice. He definitely didn't take note of the fact that the laces running up the sides of her body were loosening and that the knot on her right hip was dangerously close to coming undone.
Definitely not. Not at all.
Nami shut her eyes and drew her legs up, her foot nudging his calf. The contact made Law shift away, but the space he tried to put between them shrank again when she hooked her top leg over his. Why did he even bother?
"Luffy, get up off the floor," Nami murmured, folding her arms beneath her cheek. "My back's cold."
"You're going back to sleep?" Law asked as the other captain climbed back into the bed.
Strawhat shrugged and scratched the scar on his chest. He waved at the dim light coming in through the window. "It's early," he said with a yawn.
"Sleep," Nami hissed, clearly unimpressed with how fast they complied with her wishes.
"Okay." Luffy dropped back onto the mattress and curled up against Nami's back.
Law looked at the captain and his navigator for a long moment, feeling oddly lonely. Which was ridiculous. He'd reunited with his crew after months of separation. Here on this island, they were surrounded by people. Many people.
He had no reason to be lonely.
A tug on his shirt caught his attention. Law peered down at the long-fingered hand grasping the dark fabric. He followed it up, past the bracelets decorating the wrist, along the slender arm, beyond the pearls decorating the shoulder, to a pair of eyes slitted open and studying him. Nami mouthed, "Sleep." Another tug to his shirt, insisting that he lay back down on the bed.
Law gestured vaguely.
"Do you have somewhere else to be?" she whispered.
He thought of his crew. They were probably still asleep after last night's festivities. Everyone was probably still asleep. Strawhat was right. It was early. Who would be up at this hour?
Other than them, of course.
"Then what's the problem?" Nami asked when he remained silent.
Law didn't even know how to answer that question. I'm interrupting or I don't belong here, while true, sounded suspiciously like whining and it wasn't in him to do that.
A loud exhale saved him from having to reply. Unfortunately, it was followed by an arm stretching over Nami and wrapping around him tightly enough to force him down onto the bed. To force him flush against Nami's body. "You're noisy," Luffy complained. "Let's sleep!"
Law snorted at Strawhat calling anyone noisy. He contemplated fighting against the other man's grip but then Nami laid a hand on his face. At her touch, the tension in his body eased, every muscle relaxing.
She traced her fingers over his cheek, where her arm had accidentally hit him not too long ago. "You don't want to?" she murmured. "Really?"
It wasn't that Law didn't want to. It was just that he felt like he was intruding on—whatever this was between Luffy and Nami. He couldn't say any of that, though. Not to her. Definitely not to Strawhat. He wasn't even sure the other captain would understand. "How did I end up here?" he asked instead.
Nami smiled. She glanced sidelong, tilting her head toward the man cuddling against her back. "You already know the answer to that, don't you?"
Law breathed through his nose slowly, evenly. What was he doing here? Not here in the bed with the two of them, fully clothed and prepared to sleep—just sleep—with them, but here. "Do you really just go along with what he wants? All the time?"
"It's easier," she replied. "Besides, it's not like he's ever led us wrong." Her hand tightened on his face and pulled him closer. So close that they were practically sharing the same breath. "You've seen that for yourself, haven't you?"
Yeah. Yeah, he had. The Strawhats left nothing but miracles in their wake. No tears. Only smiles and laughter.
His facial expression must have changed because Nami's smile softened. It wasn't the taunting smile on her wanted poster or the smile she directed toward men whose wills she intended to break. It was genuine and real. The one she shared with Luffy.
"Sleep," she coaxed. "You're tired. I know them. The trip here couldn't have been easy without me navigating."
That was an understatement. "We arrived in one piece," he replied, well aware of the fact that drowsiness made his words low and indistinct.
Nami hummed and closed her eyes. Her hand slid from his face to curl lightly around his neck.
What would it hurt? To listen to her. To sleep for a little bit longer.
Just for a little bit.
Law pressed closer against Nami, testing, waiting to see her reaction. But she didn't push him away or ease back. Instead, she settled down into the bed, into the cradle of Luffy's arms and legs, against the length of Law's body, with a sigh. In the ensuing stillness, Law listened to the sound of her soft breathing, to the unintelligible nonsense of Strawhat's sleepy murmurs, and to the beating of his own heart.
And so, surrounded by that distinct mikan scent wafting from Nami's hair and the strangely comforting warmth radiating from Luffy's coiling arms and legs, Law let sleep—blissful, dreamless sleep—embrace him.