Author Note: Soooo...here's an upload. I know it's been five years, and I don't really know if anyone cares anymore or not. But here's a chapter! I hope my post-high-school graduation writing is better than my seventh grade writing! Even if it's still crap, I think that it might be better crap! Please note that I haven't actually watched One Piece in a few years. The last episode I saw was where Ace died. I don't know anything about what has happened in the anime/manga past that, so any and all contradictions to recent source material stem from that. Please excuse those. And I know that Luffy and Nami are OOC, but it's my story, so I can do what I want. Please review, and I will try to update more often! Thanks for reading!

~ SBC August 4, 2015

And so, in a similar fashion, time passed. The sun rose and set on the marine ship. The seasons changed on the marine ship. And, eventually, the years began to pass by. Childhood came and went for Luffy and Nami, and adolescence charged in its stead with all the delicacy and tact of a stampeding rhino. Despite this, their relationship remained close. With each being the other's only connection to their former cobbled together family of misfits, the two maintained a bond that was something deeper, more intimate than was normally shared by siblings, while being superficially identical to such a relationship at the same time.

To most people, the duo merely seems like the standard, teenaged bickering brother and sister. Nami, having been steeled by years of brusque treatment callous dialogue from the seasoned sailors on the ship, wold often become irritated and annoyed at Luffy for his usual boneheaded antics. Luffy, in turn, would often laugh off her exasperated nattering and carry on just as normal. However, the careful observer could tell that they both truly cared for one another. Luffy would never act out in his usual ways when Nami was unwell or in a particularly low mood. Nami, although she was quick to point out the stupidity and logistic faults of Luffy's fun and games, was always careful to never say anything that would truly hurt his feelings. The two continued to share the same small utility closet as a common sleeping area. Nights were spent quietly and eagerly anticipating the future - whispers and hushed tones that failed to contain their excitement of one day being able to escape the marine ship that they had spent so long working on. Luffy dreamed of getting his own ship, assembling his own crew, and setting off on the high seas in search of One Piece as a pirate, and he would often share his dreams and aspirations with Nami. He wanted her to join him on his quest as his first mate, but she was uneasy. Always having been the most cautious of the two, the uncertainties and unplanned nature of Luffy's offer made her reluctant to agree. After all, how would they escape the ship? How would they provide for themselves? What if they were attacked by stronger, more well established pirates? Not to mention, how would they even go about obtaining a ship? Luffy would always respond to her inquiries with a chuckle and a grin that spread out across his entire face and a reassuring "Don't worry - everything will all work out in the end!"

Though she was still skeptical of the validity of this statement, Nami eventually began to come around. She began to share in Luffy's dream a little, and she began to help him along in achieving it. They both agreed that they would never be able to run away from the ship during its normal operation - Garp was too sharp of an old coot to be able disappear from the ship just anytime. As Luffy could well attest, Garp had eyes in the back of his head, especially in regards to monitoring the actions of his younger grandson. Over time, Luffy and Nami began to cobble together an escape plan. First, they would slowly, carefully build up supplies to prepare them for their journey. They couldn't go out to a store and buy what they needed; it would be too suspicious if they suddenly returned to the ship with backpacks full of food and seafaring supplies one day. Instead, things on the ship started to "disappear". A bag of oats would go missing in the kitchen. A compass would go missing in the head navigator's room. Of the two of them, Nami was the best at stealing supplies. She was able to slip in and out of rooms with all the silence and slyness of a cat. Luffy was much louder and apt to being caught. Garp would often catch him mid-snatch and punish him for trying to steal food. In all reality, though, even when Luffy did manage to successfully steal a little food for them to take on their future journey, he would often end up eating it before it made it to their designated "hiding spot".

Said "hiding spot" was a dilapidated little lifeboat that was covered with a ragged canvas tarp. It was older and less showy than the other lifeboats on the ship, so the marines tended to not pay as much attention to it. Nami and Luffy would slip underneath the tarp when the watchman wasn't looking to stash their spoils of war when they managed to spirit something on the ship away from its proper place. Before long, their little lifeboat was pretty well stocked. They had maps and compasses, scraps of cloth to fashion into makeshift sails, small knives and daggers for self defense, and enough food that they could feed themselves for a couple of weeks, if they were sparing on how they portioned out their meals.

Their preparation complete, Luffy and Nami began to hatch a plan of exactly how they would escape. They both knew that Garp was going to have to be distracted if they were going to slip out from underneath his bloodhound-like nose. Eventually, they agreed to leave during the next pirate raid, when the ship was in an uproar and the other marines in the ship were busy fending off the rouge maurders.

They didn't have to wait long. Garp loved to engage pirates, and he came across a showy-looking pirate ship within days of Luffy and Nami solidifying their escape plan. Seeing their Jolly Roger fly high, he commanded his artillery squad to ensure that it would never flow in the gentle sea breeze ever again after that day. After they fired the cannons, the pirate ship began to engage them as expected. Before long, it had sailed up to the marine ship, and the crew was beginning to board into Garp's ship to engage he marines directly.

Hearing the commotion from inside the stockroom where she was cleaning, Nami ran outside to see what was happening. Seeing the course of events in progress, she saw that she and Luffy had finally come across their chance - this was their golden ticket off of Garp's ship and towards Luffy's dream of obtaining One Piece and becoming King of the Pirates.

Running outside with her mop still in hand, Nami flew across the deck, throwing open every door she came across trying to find Luffy. 'That dumbass!' she thought, 'We finally get our big chance and he can't be bothered to show up on deck so that we can gather the rest of our things and leave!'

Unable to find Luffy, Nami quickly ran to their shared quarters and gathered up what few personal possessions the two of them had. A picture of Miyuki, a long-loved and well-worn toy monkey. She was in such a rush that she almost forgot the small wooden necklace that she had been wearing when she had washed up on the beach of Windmill Village so many years ago. The small wooden charm hanging on the thin rope was crafted into the shape of a tangerine, and appeared to be hand-carved. At one point, it had been painted the same shade of vivid orange as her hair, but the paint had faded and chipped over time. Despite its ragged appearance, it was still Nami's most precious possession. It was the only clue that she had towards her past life, before Miyuki had found her. 'I can't leave this here.' she thought.

Quickly fastening it around her neck, Nami then took off across the ship's deck like a speeding bullet. She knew where she had to go. She could only hope that the same was true of Luffy. She knew that they had to work fast - although these pirates were sufficiently distracting Garp and his crew for now, she could tell that they weren't strong enough to be able to draw his ever-constant attention away from them for long.

Barreling around a corner in the deck towards the stern of the ship, she was in for a nasty surprise. A stray pirate had separated from the rest of his crew, intending to sneak up on the group of marines fighting his crew mates from behind and stabbing them when they weren't looking. Seeing a young girl round the corner instead of a hardened marine seemed to throw the pirate off kilter for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "Heh. What's a sexy young thing like you doing on a ship full of shitty government dogs like this?" the man chuckled as he began to leer towards her.

"Doesn't really matter, I suppose. Government bitch or not, you'll still be good for a nice fuck before I smash your pretty little face in."

He then launched towards her, brandishing his dagger towards her abdomen. Thinking fast, Nami swung the mop that she was holding around her shoulder, striking the pirate in the neck. Seeing her fight back surprised the pirate for a moment, but it did nothing to deter him and his advances. "Ha! You're just as firefly as your hair! I love women that have some fight to them! I hate those easy little whores that you find on the islands!"

Nami took a step back, holding her mop towards her opponent as though it was a staff. Garp had given her and Luffy basic self-defense training, but he had never prepared them for a confrontation like this. Garp had always trained them under the assumption that they would attend he marine academy when they were of age, so he had not put that much effort into teaching them advanced combat. Their training pertained more to protecting themselves against the pickpockets and petty criminals in the towns that they docked at instead of to fending off hardened, trained killers.

Nami knew that she wasn't going to be able to outrun the pirate - this section of the deck was narrow, and she knew that she needed to get past him in order to reach the lifeboat that she and Luffy had stocked. The pirate lunged at her again, and though Nami tried to block his attack with her mop pole, it wasn't enough. The pirate feinted his attack, instead retracting his dagger and stabbing underneath the point where her mop offered her protection. Seeing what was transpiring, Nami's mind began to race.

'Damn! Is this it? Am I really going to die here when we were so close to getting off this freaking ship and setting sail for ourselves?'

She knew that she wasn't going to be able to react in time to block the pirate's attack - he was just too fast. Nami closed her eyes and steeled herself to feel the pain from her own disenbowelment, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, she heard the shrill yell of a young boy: "GUM GUM...PISTOL!"

Opening her eyes, she saw a elongated rubber fist punching her attacker out to sea. Relieved and glad to still be alive, Nami directed attention to her rescuer and called out "Luffy! Where the hell have you been!?"

"Geh heh!" He laughed in response, "It took some time to get away from the old man! Everything's okay though. He didn't see me run off! Are you alright?"

"Ugh! Yeah, I'm fine, but we need to leave NOW, Luffy. I don't know how long those pirates are going to tie Garp up!"

"Then let's go!"

Luffy wore his usual thousand-berry grin as they started off towards their lifeboat. Upon arriving there, Nami jerked the canvas off of the boat and threw their stuff inside onto the deck of the small ship. Hopping inside and yanking Luffy onboard alongside her, she took the small utility knife that she had stolen from one of the marines a few months previous and stashed underneath one of the boat's wooden seats and cut away at the ropes attaching the puny lifeboat to the giant marine ship. As the final rope snapped in two, their boat fell into the water. Nami then grabbed a set of oars and shoved the other set into Luffy's hands. "Now, row! We have to get away while they can't chase us!"

Instead of rowing, however, Luffy extended his rubber arms and propelled himself back into the marine ship. "LUFFY!" She screamed, "What the hell are you doing!? Get back here and row!"

"I'll be back in a minute!" he called back, "I need to get something first!"

'Oh my god, we're going to get caught. We are so dead. So, so dead." Nami thought.

As she worried about Garp catching them and foiling their escape plans, Luffy barreled across the ship's deck, seeming to look for something in particular. Coming across the item he wanted, he quickly grabbed it and started towards the life boat once again. Swinging off the side of the ship, Luffy landed into the lifeboat with an audible "thud" that shook the boat violently and made Nami hold onto the sides of the skiff for balance.

"What the hell was so important that you had to risk our entire plan to go back and get it!? You could have ruined our entire plan! You could have gotten us both killed!"

Luffy's grin was unaffected by Nami's chastise. Instead he brought his arms our from behind his back and showed her the item carefully cradled within his hands. "I got you one of the tangerines from the kitchen!" he responded, "I know how much you like them, and the peels on them are pretty, like your hair! We may not be able to get any for a while, so I took one from the galley for you."

Nami let out an exasperated sigh while the light pink dusting of a blush illuminated her cheeks. Going back for the tangerine specially for her was too nice of an action to fault him for, but she decided to ponder on whether or not she should chew him out for taking such a stupid risk at another time, when everything that they had been working for wasn't at stake. "Whatever, Luffy. just row!"

"I've got a better idea!" Luffy said as he began to extend his arms. "Gum Gum...BAZOKA!"

Luffy pushed against the marine ship with all his might, forcing the giant ship over almost to its tipping point before it regained proper bouancy, and propelling their tiny skiff miles into the distance. Too surprised to even let out a scream of absolute terror, Nami could only hold onto the boat for dear life.

The rocking of the giant ship was finally what tipped Garp off as to the whereabouts of his two youngest charges. Throwing another pirate off of the deck of his ship, he spotted Nami's bright orange hair in the boat just before it flew out of sight. Knowing that Nami never went much of anywhere without her adoptive brother, Garp realized that the two had just used the pirate attack as cover to run off together. "Those snot-nosed brats!" he bellowed, "stealing shit off of a marine ship so that they can become criminals! I try to raise them to become respectable marines, but they just go off and throw all my hard work to fucking waste!"

One of Garp's junior crew members approached his captain as the final few attacking pirates were being dealt with. "Do you want to go after them, sir?"

Garp considered this for a moment. "...No," he finally decided. "They're not worth the resources. If they want to become petty thieves, let then. We'll just catch them and treat them like any other criminals when the World Government puts a price on their heads."

Looking out to the red sun slowly setting on the horizon of the East Blue, Garp couldn't help bit wonder, 'Where did I go wrong?'

As the skiff finally started to slow down, Nami began to catch her breath. The adrenaline from their escape flowing out of her body, she quickly found herself exhausted and collapsed onto the deck of the lifeboat in relief. Luffy joined her on the deck of the skiff, but he was chuckling instead of sighing in relief.

"I can't believe we made it." Nami said, unbelieving of what had just happened. "We actually made it..."

Luffy turned his head to look over at her from across the little boat and took his hand in hers, speaking to her in an uncharacteristically soft tone, "...Yeah, Nami. We made it."

"...And now this," he said as he motioned to the rapidly appearing stars in the oceans's night sky with their intertwined hands, "all of this, is ours."

He looked towards her again, smiling in a way that was so gentle, so genuine, and so unlike Luffy that Nami couldn't help to look back at him with the same, soft smile.