Author's notes:
New story! Anchored in my mind one night, when I tried to sleep after a very long night with my friends... when all I wanted to do, was drop the lids! But the story just wouldn't leave peacefully so I had to write this!

Not sure, but this could be very slightly OOC... but just very slightly.
Tell me what you think about it!
Thanx go to my sis... you go girl!!!

/()/()/()/()/()/
"Usopp!! Get Nami outta here!!"
Stopping in the middle of loading his sling shot, Usopp turned around to find Sanji kicking one of their opponents into a near wall.

"I don't need to get rescued! Can do that myself!!" Nami yelled across her shoulder.
When she turned back around, she had barely time to duck as a soldier sliced the air, where her head had been only a heartbeat ago, with his sword.

Her answer came in form of her bo, slamming down at the man, who collapsed unconscious on the floor in front of the navigator.

"I'm finished here, we should better get going before they send another unit full of marines!" Sanji told Nami and Usopp, who had made their way to where the cook was currently lighting a new cigarette.

"The others are hopefully already on board of the Going Merry and wait for us."
"Nami's right... uhm... where exactly is the ship??" Usopp asked, scratching his chin and turning once around his own axis, before giving up and staring expectantly at the woman.

"Down this street. When we reach its end, right, until we can see our ship... or hear Luffy yell."
"You are so clever, my Nami-honey!!"
Smiling slightly, she winked at him, making his heart beat faster.

"Then why are we still standing here?!" Usopp started to run off towards the street and disappeared behind a house wall.

Shaking her head, Nami followed him, Sanji closely behind her, covering her six.
But just before he had time to reach the wall, he caught sight of something moving in the corner of his eye.

Too late he realized that it was one of the marines he had kicked into oblivion some moments ago and who was still able to stand upright. The man was swinging a large piece of broken wood into his direction, but there wasn't enough time for Sanji to react.

The timber hit him square across his right thigh, the force of the impact making him lose his footing. He fell backwards and landed ungracefully on his butt.

When he looked up he saw the marine lifting the piece of wood again, obviously intending to deliver the final blow to put the cook out of action and Sanji tried to lift his boot to send the guy flying across the street, when searing pain shot through his leg, making him gasp in surprise and agony.

White dots started dancing through his vision and Sanji closed his eyes for a moment to clear it.
As he opened them again, he was baffled to find his attacker falling over, landing in a heap beside him with a large bump forming at the man's head.

"Sanji! You alright?" Nami was standing in front of him, her weapon still raised as she looked down at him with concerned eyes.

"Yeah, think so." He replied. "Then get up... we've to leave this island! It's swarming with soldiers."

Nodding, Sanji took hold of her offered hand, getting ready to pull himself up.
But as soon as the leg, which had been hit by the cudgel, touched the ground, pain exploded in his thight, spreading throughout his whole right side and ending in his toes.

"Argh, dammit!!" He hissed through gritted teeth, squeezing Nami's hand tightly until his knuckles turned white from the strain.

"Sanji! What's up?"
"My damn leg! That idiot broke it!"

Getting down onto her knees, Nami took a closer look at the thigh.
Shocked she found the trouser partly ripped open, bone tissue shining through the black material and blood dripping out of the thankfully relative small wound.

"Where the heck have ya been!!" Usopp yelled, running back through the street he had vanished in some time ago. "Usopp, help me with Sanji... you take his left and I his right side."

Momentarily bewildered, the long nosed man looked down onto the cook's leg, around which Nami was currently tying her belt, making Sanji gasp in pain. When Usopp saw the wound, he gulped down a lump that was slowly rising in his throat.

Walking over to his two friends, he slung Sanji's arm over his shoulder, pulling him with Nami's help into an upright position.

When the cook's boot touched the ground, the pain exploded again. He supressed the moans that lingered in his throat, threatening to escape his lips, but he couldn't prevent his body from tensing as he took the first insecure step forward, leaning heavily on his crewmates.

Nami felt his muscles tense and flinched at the mere thought of the agony Sanji was currently experiencing, but knew that he would try to hide every weakness as long as she was anywhere near him and especially as long as they were in such a mess.

Slowly, minding Sanji's injury, the three friends made their way through the gloomy, narrow street, trying to walk around the various obstacles, like boxes and garbage cans.

In Nami's opinion they were doing quite good.
Nobody appeared to be following them and Usopp and she did a good job, supporting Sanji.

Sanji, on the other hand, felt like he had failed miserably!
Not only that he got injured because he had let his guard down, but also did he need the help of his precious Nami! He was supposed to help her and not the other way round, dammit!

He could already hear Zoro making cracks about his inability to safe his own ass, needing a girl and a scaredy-cat as bodyguards... he was so gonna kick him senseless when he even thought about commenting on the situation!

Hearing Sanji grumble something incoherently beside her, Nami turned her head slightly around, trying to see his face. She feared they were straining the leg to much and that Sanji was trying to conceal the pain...

"You alright?"
"Yeah, just thinking about Zoro's upcoming smart-ass comment..."
Snickering, she was glad that Sanji was already up to thinking such things... Zoro wasn't sure as hell their biggest concern right now!

She knew that they could make it back to the Going Merry within half an hour considering their current tempo... Nami just hoped that nothing happened until then, because she didn't think that Usopp and herself could fend off the marine soldiers 'and' force Sanji to stay in the background at the same time!

"Uh-oh..." Groaning, Nami tried to supress the 'I knew it' that burned a hole into her tongue.
"What's up, Usopp?" She asked, glancing over to him.

"They're at the beginning of the street... don't think they've seen us, yet..."
"What?!"

Turning around, she cursed silently under her breath as she saw the distant figures of their persuers entering the street. She guessed that there were still about four hundred meters between them and the soldiers, but they were going to close up very soon!

She had to think.
"You gotta have to leave me here! You go, get Luffy and Zoro and I'll wait here for ya."

Bad idea, Nami thought when Sanji told them about his 'plan.
"Bad one... You won't be able to fight them off with that leg! You don't seem to have noticed the hole in your trouser and the bones sticking out, huh?"

Sighing, Sanji averted his gaze from the woman beside him, staring stubbornly at the wall to his left.
He really was aware of the fact that he wouldn't stand a chance in a fight against them in his codition... and he also knew that his legs were the only things he could rely on as deadly weapons, but he was not gonna get Usopp and especially Nami into any danger he could prevent!

And if he had to sacrifice himself, so be it!!

"Usopp, help me get Sanji into that house." She pointed to an old, run-down house, with a small window leading inside.
Usopp nodded, taking over Sanji's full weight as Nami had to open the window.

Climbing inside, Nami gave the room a short once-over, glad that it was empty and dusty, having apparently not seen a human being for quite a while.
She then got back and took hold of Sanji's legs, pulling them carefully into the room.

After some moments, Sanji was fully inside, sitting slowly down against the wall, fists clenched as he breathed through the pain.
He heard Usopp follow him suit and Nami close the window but he didn't dare and open his eyes just yet, knowing that he wasn't going to see much more than black and white dots dancing around him.

"Alright... Usopp, run down the parallel street and get to the ship... bring Luffy and Zoro along with ya and hurry up!"
Eyes snapping open, Sanji regarded Nami with a look of pure disbelief.

"What?! You'll stay here with me? I don't think so, Nami!! That's way too dangerous for such a lovely lady... go with Usoppp... I'll be just fine." He tried to smile up at her, but Nami looked right though his facade.

"Whatever... why are you still here, Usopp?"
Nodding, he walked out of the room and after some moments, Nami heard the front door open and close.

"You shouldn't have stayed."
"Yeah, yeah... how are you feeling?"

For a rather long moment, Sanji was silent.
He really didn't know how he felt about Nami's decision to stay behind with him.

On the one hand he was very concerned about her well-being, because as long as she stayed here with him, she was in great danger. He couldn't protect her like he was normally doing and just the thought of her getting hurt, because his legs weren't working the way they were supposed to, made the blood in his vains boil up in anger and frustration.

On the other hand, Sanji was very, very glad.
Nami hadn't left him, not thinking about her own important safety just so that he wasn't alone.

"Why did you stay?" He finally asked, making eye contact with the woman standing by the window, looking out for any form of danger.
"You rather alone?" Nami snapped, turning around to where he was still sitting with his back against the wall.

At hearing her words leave her mouth in such a tone of voice, she immediately felt sorry, sighing as she thought about the way it must have sounded.

He hadn't done anything wrong... and she wasn't angry with him.
No, she was very angry with herself!

Thinking back to the events of the morning, she couldn't prevent the feeling of pure guilt rise within the pit of her stomache.
It had been, after all, her fault that the marine had attacked them in the first place.

The strawhat pirates had dropped the anchor in the harbor of this island early that morning, Sanji and Usopp having intended to get new supplies in the nearest town. Nami had voiced her wish to accompany them, hoping to be able to nick some well-filled purses, about which Sanji had been more than happy.

Unfortunately, one of the locals she had tried to rob had turned out to be a marine in civvies and soon a whole unit of soldiers was after them.

So it was all her fault... she was the reason for their flight; she was the reason for their lack of food,
about which Luffy would complain quite soon; she was the reason why Sanji was lying here, injured and...

"Not your fault, Nami. We've always had the luck of running into the worst messes, right?!" He was grinning up at her, with his newly lit cigarette burning in the darkness of the house.
"You're probably right, but I'm still sorry."

"Don't be... the most important thing is that you get outta here." Sanji told her with a sincer voice, looking directly into her dark eyes.

Which made her feel even worse.
He was always thinking about her safety. Never about his own and was always willing to sacrifice anything as long as she was alright.

She had to admit that Sanji's openly showed affection and love made her always feel good... if not great! She had never felt so loved and precious ever since Bellemere had died and slowly and with much help of her friends, she had been able to live on and overcome the trauma.

She owed them all a great deal and had come to love them all like brothers... but with Sanji, it was something else... Nami knew that she wasn't exactly showing her feelings towards him, nor did she thank him often enough for what he was always doing for her, but there had been something right from the start that made her heart skip a beat as soon as she only smelt the scent of his cigarette brand...

She just wouldn't admit it openly... not towards him and not to herself.

"So when we get back on board, what do you want to eat?"
Sanji's voice brought Nami out of her reverie, a frown appearing on her face as she looked down at the blond man. He was obviously trying to take her mind off the depressing topic of their current situation.

"Well, I guess I'll fix something simple... well, simple for your conditions. How 'bout pancakes and soup?" Nami said, leaning against the wall beside Sanji.

The cook looked up bewildered, noticing the faintest ghost of a smile on her lips as she waitd for his reaction.
"Nami... "

"Stop 'Nami-ing' me... no matter what you say, this is partly my fault, so I'm gonna make up for it somehow and at least fix dinner tonight... if Luffy or anybody else complains, they'll all be sorry."
Shaking his head, Sanji grinned to himself. "Don't think, Luffy will ever complain about anything related to food, as long as there is enough and it's gulp-able."

Opening her mouth, Nami was about to comment, when they heard the noise of somebody running outside on the street where they had been minutes ago.
The two friends didn't dare move an inch, both straining their ears to catch something from outside.

"Lieutenant! We didn't find them anywhere in the streets!" One man said.
"Then go and search the houses, dammit! They have to be anywhere here and they won't leave this island!!" The second man yelled angrily.

Gasping, Nami's eyes went wide at hearing the order.
The marines were going to look inside any house near the place where they had had the fight... it was only a matter of time until they got inside this one!

"Go."
Surprised, Nami turned towards Sanji.
He was puffing silently at his cigarette, blowing out a mouthful of grey smoke.

He ment it.
Nami knew that he would rather stay here unprotected than risk her life... but she wouldn't let him this time!

Walking up to him, she knelt down by his side, eyes casted downwards as she thought about what she was going to do next.
This time, she wouldn't let him risk anything for her... she was greatly indebted in him and it was time to pay some of his respect and love back! As she had already said, she was going to make up for the endless times he had given her anything... no matter how!!

Bewildered, Sanji watched Nami look up from the grey floor, directly into his eyes.
He knew in an instant that she was up to something when she gave him a obviously forced smile.
"Nami... ?"

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, when she suddenly covered the small space between them,
her head only inches away from his. Sanji wanted to do something... anything, as the uneasiness about her strange behaviour grew with every second that passed, when she finally closed the gap between their mouths, her lips ascending upon his.

Shocked was not even covering it, when Sanji felt the first slight contact of their lips and he was too perplexed to even think about reacting to her actions!
For Sanji, the kiss seemed to last an eternity, but in reality it was over within a fraction of a second,
Nami having feared that she would have gotten too consumed into the feeling.

Eyes still fuzzy, Sanji noticed her get up from the floor in the corner of his eyes, hands searching for something at her thigh.
When she stepped in front of him, he suddenly snapped out of his trance-lik state, averting his eyes from her legs and looking directly into her hers.

"Nami... "
"I'm sorry."

With that she lifted her right arm.
In a haze, the cook realized that she was holding her bo tightly in her hand, but it was too late for him to do anything about it.
The staff came already crashing down at him, hitting Sanji at the side of his neck.

White light seemed to explode around him and Sanji felt himself slide down the wall, falling down onto his side where his cheek then lay on the cold dirty ground.

Before his vision blackened and he lost consciousness, he saw Nami's blurred form walk over to window, where she got up onto the sill and after some hesitating jumped out of window.

/()/()/()/()/()/
FINIS!!

... what the heck was this all about?! Why did she do that to our lovely Sanji?? I want answers!... You, too? Well, go and drop a review...