Alright, so this took (literally) months to get down on my labtop. I know you probably hear that every one point five fics, but I had way too much stuff to do for my liking. But thanks to the time you allowed me to take, I've passed all of my exams... and am already happily (huh?) preparing for the next dozen. Whatever!
Go and read and have lots of fun!
Thanks go to my lil sis (Nooooo! He's not dead! .), Shan (deep down inside you love adventures, too... and looooove ;P) and Katrin (Maybe ya shoud read more un-loooove-like stuff OO.
Bye
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"30 hours? My ass"
Rolling her eyes in irritation, Nami stared out of the small bull's eye of her room, watching the last rays of the fading sunlight illuminating the calm ocean.
Turning away, she got up from the small stool and walked over to the sorry excuse of a bed. She considered lying down for a few seconds, before she decided that it was too early and still too bright to sleep just now. Maybe Nami could wander around on deck for another hour.
The red-head still wanted to check out the whole ship before she would make her move.
She had learned a long time ago that acting headless could get her in some deep shit. And she didn't believe that she could dick herself out that easily without any help... which was probably miles and miles away...
Exhaling slowly, she thought back to the conversation she had had nearly two days ago, recalling Shanks' promise that they should reach the next island within 30 hours... '30 hours' having already turned into 35! To say that Nami was pissed off was the understatement of the day!
Again she rolled her eyes and walked across the room to the door. Slowly she pushed down the handle and opened the door a bit.
Carefully she peeked aound the frame, making sure nobody of the crew was outside playing snooper.
"A ship full of idiots..." Nami mumbled before walking swiftly out of her cabin and closed the door silently behind her.
She wouldn't need long.
Nami just waned to make sure things were where she needed them... because when the time had come, she needed everything to work out according to her plan...
----------
"Pretty cold tonight, huh?"
Frowning, Sanji looked down from where he was sitting on the edge of the crow's nest, finding Zoro leaning casually against the main mast.
"'s been colder." He answered, averting his eyes from his annoying comrade. His gaze wandered aimlessly across the dark sea surrounding the small ship as he listened to some rough waves sloshing around the bow of the ship.
Sanji could have sworn that he had heard an "Idiot..." directed up at him, but he refused to give that shit-head of a swords fighter the satisfaction of a reaction... mainly because he was too tired to get pulled into any straining fights. Plus there was no time to beat the crap out of the bastard as long as he needed to look out for a sign of his precious Nami.
"Ya gonna come down any time soon, or are you just gonna grow onto that cozy lil place up there"
"Why don't ya just shut the hell up and mind your own unimportant business?"
With a smirk, Zoro noted that the irritation in the cook's voice had grown a few notches.
Grinning smugly, he folded his arms across his chest and stared up at the row's nest.
"Ya know, she's probably sleeping in some fine white bed and is ordering some poor guys around... wouldn't be surprised if she had already found another victim who's gonna pay back ridiculous debts for the rest of his life."
Despite his best intentions, Sanji had to chuckle at the thought of Nami sitting on a throne, ordering around an army of guys... that would be just her.
"Why are ya here anyway?" He suddenly called down from the nest, his fingers fishing for a new cigarette in his breast pocket.
To his disappointment he didn't find any and settled on tapping his boot against the wooden floor, trying to ease some of the apprehension that was formig in his guts.
"No reason... just wanted to see whether it's already dawn"
Frowning, Sanji shook his head. That was a way too stupid and sorry excuse of a reason even for that idiot.
Apparently Zoro too had realized that and with a sigh he continued, "Robin said that there should be an island somewhere around here and I wanted to see whether we've already reached it"
"Ya lost your brain in that hurricane? If there was an island within sight, you'd already know... or what do ya think I'm doing up here?... Looking for dawn? Tss."
Inhaling with a grunt, Zoro pushed himself off the mast and started to walk over to the lamb's head, where Luffy had been sitting some hours ago... before Usopp and Chopper had overpowered their captain and had dragged him (not without a fight) inside,
having even succeeded in tying him onto the couch in their room... which had resulted in wild trashing and screaming. Luffy only calmed down after Robin had told him that they couldn't hear Sanji calling for an island to have come into sight.
Staring across the railing, the swords-fighter watched some flotsam and jetsam floating past the ship, disappearing out of his sight after some seconds.
"Hep"
Startled, Zoro straightened sharply, watching in surprise as his captain jumped off the planks beside him and landed with a 'plop' on the lamb's head.
'Where the hell had he come from?' He asked himself mentally, scratching his head absently as he stared at Luffy's back.
"How'd ya sleep?" Came the muffled question from behind the two friends.
Looking down from the crow's nest, Sanji watched as Usopp slowly walked down the stairs to the main deck, eyes still puffy from another night without any proper rest.
"Same as ya, I guess." The cook answered, re-assuming his postion and staring at the wide horizon that stretched seemingly endlessly in front of the ship's bow.
"Chopper's been tossing and turning in his hammock for hours... couldn't close my eyes for a second." Usopp said in a whining tone, inhaling deeply as he massaged the back of his neck. His eyes burned even though the sun hung still very low in the sky, the barely illuminated horizon glowing dark red.
"Where's he, anyway"
"Inside, helping Robin to prepare breakfast." Usopp answered Zoro's question with a ceased brows as he looked up to where he had heared Sanji kicking hard against the nest's wooden walls.
The blond man breathed heavily as he thought about how Robin had to stand behind the oven and make 'his' food, instead of sitting comfortably in her chair, smiling gratefully up at him as he served her another masterpiece of food.
But he couldn't leave his place right now. And he wouldn't for as long as they would need to find Nami!
"Sanji, you stay with Chopper, Usopp and Robin on board. Zoro comes with me"
A deep frown appeared on Sanji's face as he looked down at their captain. Luffy had gotten up from the lamb's head and had jumped down onto the main deck, slowly walking to where Usopp was still standing just as baffled as the other men.
"Huh? Whatcha meaning"
"Land in sight." He calmly retorted.
'What the fucking...' Sanji thought as his head snapped up, eyes immediately glued to a dark spot in the distance.
'That idiot is right! I was supposed to find it, dammit!' He cursed silently under his breath, eyes narrowed as he gripped the rim of the nest tightly. He wasn't going to hear the end of it.
"Hey, super-brain!" It was Zoro, who was yelling probably his newest abuse up at Sanji. "Who lost his brain in a hurricane?
Gonna buy ya some glasses, you blind shit-head"
"Shut the hell up you alga-brain and get ready!"
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"We're gonna land in less than twenty minutes. So get ready, young lady"
Looking up from the book she had been reading, Nami stared almost absently at Shanks.
"Yeah, right... I'm ready. Just gonna finish this and then come up on board." She answered, her eyes already drifting back to the open page in front of her.
Brows ceasing into a frown, Shanks nodded and turned to go. Throwing one last glance across his shoulder he wondered what the hell was going on with that woman now. First she hadn't shut up about his "inability to lead a pirate ship" after his prediction that they should have reached the island already ten hours ago had been totally wrong and now she didn't seem to care one damn bit that she finally could start her search mission to find her crew.
'Whatever!' He thought, shrugging his shouldes as he disappeared in the corridor, leaving behind the red-head.
A slight grin tugged at the corners of Nami's lips as she listened to the fast retreating steps of Shanks' sandals as he made his way back up on top of the large ship, probably already busy ordering his men around.
Silently she lifted one hand, counting down from five both with her finger and in her mind.
'Five... Four... Three... Two... One...'
The grin widened into a full smile as she slowly got up, closing the open book with a smack. The title said 'Ten easy ways to get a woman' and apart from that, Nami hadn't read one word... not even the name of the obviously desperate guy who had written the book.
Carefully, she took the strawhat from the nearby bed and tied it securely around her waist, not intending to lose it while she had to concentrate on every step she was doing from now on.
'Time is money', Nami thought cheekily as she slowly peeked around the door frame, making sure no-one was outside.
'Aaaalright...' Carefully, the young woman walked down the deserted hallway, purposefully making her way to one of the last doors. When she had reached it, she sowly closed her fingers around the cold metallic handle, praying silently as she pulled it down.
With a creaking sound it opened.
'And here I thought he would be smart enough to lock it!' Nami smirked as she entered the semi-dark room.
It was still early outside, the dawning sun not yet able to illuminate the inside of the large ship.
"Makes it easier." She whispered to herself, already striding to a large wooden box in one corner of the room.
Kneeling down in front of it, Nami examined the massive lock dangling down from the lit.
Inhaling deeply, she reached into her trouser pocket, grabbing the two items hidden within it.
A needle and a bended fork.
Well, Nami had picked locks with worse.
Once, she remembered with a grin, she had used a large stone, smashing the lock for almost an hour until it finally broke and she had been able to take the treasure inside.
Putting the 'instruments' into the small opening of the lock, she started to work with expertise.
Nami had learned her job very well over the years and this time the lock was clicking open within mere seconds.
A huge mischievous grin spread out across her face, her eyes shining brightly when she hushed her first good look at what lay inside the treasure box. Just like he first time she had been 'guest' on Shanks' ship, the box, which was much larger than last time, was filled to the rim with gems, gold and jewels of all kind. In the middle of all the blinking, precious stuff was a small bag filled with gold coins.
It seemed to Nami as if the treasure was smiling back at her, beckoning her to take it with her.
And, well, who was she to decline such a generous offer?
Grabbing the pillow on the bed, she pulled it open and took it out of its case.
She threw it away carelessly and started filling the case with anything she could take.
Soon the pillowcase was filled with almost a third of the treasure and Nami feared the material would rip apart under the weight of the gems and gold.
She had nothing else she could use as bag, so she decided to leave it to this.
Getting up, Nami pulled the lid of the box shut and locked it again. She then took the bag and made a tight knot. Nami really didn't want to walk out onto deck and have the case open up suddenly, revealing her thievery to the whole crew.
When she took the bundle, her nose suddenly filled with the faint scent of smoke.
A small smile played at the corners of her mouth as she remembered her little diverson she had set up some half an hour ago,
consisting of a candle, some alcohol and two sheets of ripped paper.
Usopp would be proud of so much imagination!
She just hoped, that she hadn't caused an inferno.
No, what she had intended with this construction was a small fire that would both divert the crew and make them use the paddles to reach the island faster. Which wold mean that they wouldn't land within half an hour, but probably already in less then fifteen minutes!
Just the time she needed to get the treasure, sneak out of the room and hide somewhere near the bow of the ship where she could easily escape without anybody noticing!
'Tss, as if anybody'll notice me with a fire threatening their lovely ship!' She thought smugly.
"What the fucking hell"
Eyes wide in shock and horror, Nami nearly let go of the bag in her hands.
"You! You set that fire, right!" Shanks yelled angrily.
Turning around, Nami schooled her face into a neutral mask.
"Fire"
"Don't mess with me... I mean again!" He yelled, eyes glowing in fury as he watched her look back at him with such a smug,
innocent expression that he almost exploded.
'How dare she...'
"I'm actually sorry, but, well, is there anything else you want or did you just come here to accuse me?" Nami asked, carefully letting go of the treasure and fumbling for the three pieces of her bo attached to her thigh.
She calmly put it together, displaying openly just how much she didn't care that Shanks was watching.
Which made Shanks, on the other hand, even more angry.
"Ya know, 'Nami'," He sneered her name, eyes watching her like an eagle,"I just 'knew' you were gonna be trouble. But unfortunately for you I know your lil tricks this time and well, to be frank, that shit ain't work with me twice!" He told her with an evil look on his face.
Rather unimpressed, Nami started rotating her weapon, making faintly red and blue coloured bubbles come out of the small openings at the ends of the bo. They gathered near the ceiling, forming a small grey cloud that hovered dangerously near Shanks head... who stared a bit confused up at the small miracle.
"What da hell..." He started, but was cut short when Nami threw another small bubble at the cloud, electrical sparks running through it.
Suddenly a thunder-like sound errupted from it and with shock written all across his face, Shanks watched helplessly as a lightning protruded out of the cloud, crashing down on him and giving him literally the shock of his life.
Smoke rose up from his clothes.
Snickering, Nami watched as Shanks coughed out a small cloud of grey dust, his eyes staring incredulously at his opponent.
Gripping her bo more tightly, Nami got into fighting stance.
She didn't give him a chance to react and dashed forward, her bo connecting obviously painfully with his stomache.
Shanks sank down onto his knees, arms drawn across his belly when Nami used the moment to give him a good wack across the back of his head. As a result, the red-haired man fell over and landed in a smoking heap on the wooden floor.
Glad she had been able to defeat him, Nami took the bag with the treasure and made her way carefully out into the corridor.
When she looked back across her shoulder, Nami could see Shanks' unconscious form still lying where she had left him, hoping silently that he would stay that way for the time she would need to get away from this ship and hide somewhere on the island until they would give up on finding her.
----------
"Hmm... didn't Robin tell us to just follow this road?"
Sighing, Zoro fought the urge to beat his captain into a pulp... which would probably not work with Luffy being at least as strong as himself... so he decided to settle on a comment.
"You should have better taken Robin along with ya, Luffy. You are some idiot! Can't even follow a damn road without getting lost"
"Hahaha! It's not as if I'm the only idiot here, right!"
Smirking, Zoro was glad to finally hear Luffy laughing... not his typical carefree laugh, but it was a start.
"Hey! There's smoke! So there is a house and food! Let's go and finally get that Lockpose, Robin wants so badly"
With that Luffy started to run in highspeed to where he assumed the town to finally be, Zoro trailing behind after him with much less enthusiasm.
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"Dammit!"
Arms slung around the way to heavy bag, her fingers clawing into the material of the pillowcase aka 'the modified treasure-box.
She was panting hard as she sped through the empty streets of the small coastal town of the island... the island that was supposed to be the launching pad of her search an rescue mission.
Right now, she needed to get rescued herself.
'I should have hit him harder! I should have tied him! I should have taken him hostage! But nooooo, lovely Nami had to play right into their filthy hands!' She scolded herself, thinking back to when the whole ordeal had started in the first place...
-
"Get her"
"Huh?" Puzzled, Nami watched as Shanks leaned far across the bow of the ship, his hand pressed against the back of his head... the thief with their treasure... funnily, smoke was still rising up from Shanks' shoulders and hadn't there been some twenty men jumping down the ship and heading straight towards her, Nami would have probably stopped and laughed.
But well, right now she had other things to do.
Such as running for her life and get away from the gang chasing after her...
-
'Dammit!' She screamed mentally, willing to get her legs to move faster, but she already felt the strain and feared she wouldn't make it...
Looking up from her rapidly moving feet, Nami tried desperately to get somebody to help her. Which happened to be a big huge honkin' problem! It was still quite early in the morning, the sun having barely showed its full size and only few men were busy setting up their tents and putting away articles and goods in the market street.
They had no eyes for the young woman that was being chased by some very angry looking, yelling men... and even if they saw her, there was barely time for them to do anything about it. Nami was running or better fleeing through the streets with such a speed, that they were lucky if they saw a glimpse of her.
"Stop! You damn bitch!"
Another abuse, but well, Nami had heard much worse in her young life and she so didn't care.
'Whatever... I need somewhere to hide!'
Eyes roamed over the various houses, but every door was closed and to be frank she didn't want anybody to get pulled into the mess she had caused... no innocent would suffer because of her idiotic plan.
"Woahh"
Startled out of her internal musings, Nami barely had time to catch herself before hitting the dusty ground.
She had stumbled across an empty beer bottle. Cursing, she bit her lip as her ankle started to hurt from the slight twist.
Her breathing got heavier and her sweaty hands could barely hold onto the silky material of the pillowcase. It kept on slipping out of her grasp every so often and she had to lesson her speed to pull it back up into her arms.
Rounding another corner, the red-haired woman found another part of the still deserted market.
Only two men stood in front of a tent, one of them crouching on the paved floor to examine something in one of the boxes...
Eyes wide, Nami willed the last energy reserves in her body to activate, forcing her legs to gain more speed as she sprinted straight towards them.
----------
"What the...!"
Luffy couldn't remember having started to run.
He couldn't remember having done anything wrong that would deserve such foul words coming from the fifteen or so men running after him.
Luffy also couldn't remember when Zoro had gone all touchy...
Somebody had grabbed him by his wrist.
And this someone had also been the one who had pulled him roughly off the ground and had dragged him along down the street they had just come from.
And Luffy was pretty sure that Zoro had never had such soft and delicate fingers... and well... he guessed Zoro wasn't the type of person who would take ones wrist just to get your attention or run away for that matter.
Zoro and running away? Ha!
"Damn, Zoro! Just take it!" A gruff, breathless voice suddenly exclaimed from beside Luffy.
Gazing to his right, his eyes went wide.
"N-Nami?" He asked incredulously, dodging a flying watermelon.
"Here..." Was all the woman beside him replied as she let go of his wrist and untied some thin cord from around her waist.
Within a fraction of a second, she grabbed the item that had been tied around her torso and planted it roughly on Luffy's head.
A hand flew up to grab the rim of said thing and immediately his dark eyes lit up.
"Thanks." Was all he could say as he pulled his straw hat deeper into his face, hiding his eyes as a large grin spread out across his lips.
"And what's this!" Zoro's baffled and slightly irritated voice caught Luffy's and Nami's attention.
"A treasure! What else, you dumb-head!" She retorted inbetween breaths.
Grunting, Zoro heaved the heavy bag onto his shoulder, avoiding Nami's fist as she tried to hit his head when he very nearly lost hold of the precious stuff in his arms.
"And you stole it from them!" Zoro gestured to the party of angry men behind them.
"No, they're my new fan-club! Idiot! Why would somebody chase such a lovely girl without a reason!"
Not answering, Zoro turned away slightly and absently eyed a stone one rug had thrown after them but had missed them quite spectacularly.
"And why aren't we fighting them?"
"Because, idiot, it's a long story! And, no, we won't beat the crap outta them! Understood"
It was no question, even Zoro could tell by the dangerous gleam in her eyes and the way her hand clenched into a wrist.
Laughter errupted from beside the two fighting friends and when they turned into the direction of its source, they found Luffy nearly doubling over. He was laughing so hard that Nami swore she had seen a tear running down a cheek... 'Strange', she thought, bt shook the though off when another stone missed her only by inches this time.
"Where did ya land anyway? We can't keep on running around like this for much longer?"
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Chopper was bored.
"I'm bored."
"Me, too." Usopp replied, sweeping a calming hand across his features.
Looking up from where he was sitting on the railing of the bridge, he watched Sanji standing straight on top of the crow's nest.
The cook was shielding his eyes against the bright light of the dawning sun, looking out for a sign of their captain and the 'shitty' swords fighter...
"Have I ever told ya about the time when I fought against the creator of all Devil Fruits, 'the' devil!" He started and was very pleased to find Chopper's all-trusting eyes already bulging out in obvious excitement and expectation of a new story.
But before Usopp could even get started, a loud 'thud' caught his attention. When he looked up again he found Sanji getting up from the planks of the main deck, having obviously jumped down the mast.
He suddenly sprinted towards the lamb's head, leaning so far across the railing that Usopp feared he would fall over.
"NAMIIIIIIIII!"
Startled, the two friends stared wide-eyed at the cook.
"Wha-...?"
"Fucking hell! She's back!" Sanji yelled at the top of his lungs, tears of utter joy welling up behind his eyes as he waved frenetically to where Nami, Luffy and Zoro headed quite fast to where the ship anchored.
Usopp and Chopper ran to where their friend was standing, watching shocked beyond words as their lost navigator ran towards them... followed by an angry loocking party of bulky men.
"Get the paddles!" Nami suddenly yelled when she was within hearing-range.
That earned some frowns, but when she yelled the order again, Usopp turned around and sprinted down the alley to where they stored the large paddles. He had grabbed both Sanji's and Chopper's arms and had dragged them along, much to the cook's dismay. But they both complied and helped him getting the paddles into place.
"What is it?" A surprised voice asked.
Grinning wildly, Usopp gave Robin a 'thumbs up', positioning himself beside Chopper at one paddle.
"Nami is back!" The little reindeer answered for him instead, his lower lip quivering as he tried to hold back tears.
"Alright people!" Spinning around, their eyes found their navigator standing beside or better leaning heavily on the main mast.
Her breathing was labored as she lifted her arm.
"Get started already!" With that she gave them the sign to start paddling. Which they did promptly.
The loud splash could be heard as all men plunged their paddles into the sloshing sea, water splashing around the long shafts as the straw hat men started to row.
Blending out all noises of the yelling mob at the beach and the grunting and heavy breathing of his friends, Sanji listened to the laughter that had errupted from Luffy's throat accompanied by the silent sobs of his precious love.
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Epilogue:
"Shanks?"
"Yeah... I'm almost sorry for having robbed that much, but I thought we would need it, so well... Luffy? What is it"
The young man sat silently beside Nami. He had barely uttered a word ever since Chopper and Usopp had literally dragged Nami inside the ship after they had escaped from the island, having begged and whined so long until their friend had sighed and had started to tell them what had happened.
"You told him about me"
"Not much... he was kinda strange when it came to ya, so I was careful not to say too much. I didn't know whether he was some sort of arch-enemy or whatever. Wasn't intending to get sent over the planks or something like that." Nami finshed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"That idiot had some stupid obsession with your hat... babbled something about me having robbed it, that he knew the owner..."
"Hahahahaha"
Frowning, Nami and the rest of the gang watched Luffy curiously as he doubled over in a laughing fit.
He held his stomache and nearly fell onto the floor.
"Hey! What's so funny?"
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FINIS!
Like? Not like?
sigh Happy I finally got the time finish it... stya tuned for more (fantastic) work of mine OO''