No dear readers, you are not dreaming, having a heart attack or whatever type of condition you are imagining up. I am well and truly updating.
I know some won't be bothered to read this but I feel it's necessary to tell my readers why I haven't updated for what, half a year? (Blimey, that's a long time)
Well, here I go. (Feel free to start reading and skip this- I won't mind) The reason I didn't update for such a long stretch of time was mostly because I went to a rather bad/depressed place and had I have updated I would've surely made something so completely angsty that it'd depress you all or, I'd have most likely wrote some sort of horrifying death for one of the straw hats... which therefore would have turned into an angsty update and would've depressed you all... I think you get it.
Also, for some time I just thought what was the point? Then on top of that, I lost all inspiration to write anything for the straw hats (I know, you're probably thinking what the hell; so am I!)
Plus some big crappy family problems just over loaded me and I think I'll get on with it now as you've probably got the point of why I didn't update.

Anyway, I really am sorry- I hope you except it- and come back to support me with my updates. I've got a month or so left off so I will try my hardest to write some more and give you updates.

Who knew it could be so addictive?

It'd been a good few weeks since the crew had touched upon land so naturally they were all quick to evacuate the ship and flee onto land. Normally Nami had no problem with this, as long as she could tell (yell at) them to be back at a certain time and not to misbehave and cause havoc (Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp... in other words basically all the males on the ship) but today was different. Yes, she still yelled... I mean told, them all this but the dilemma Nami was faced with was that the money that'd been stashed in her room had magically disappeared and from what she knew no one actually had any knowledge of that money; not even Robin- the woman she shared a room with.

So there Nami was, practically pulling out her orange hair whilst brainstorming, in front of her empty box, where her private collection of money had gone. She quickly ruled out that she'd spent it- purely because she didn't and she had no knowledge of spending it- also; let's face it, as if she'd forget spending money.

So she quickly started pulling together a hit list of all the soon-to-be victims that had been stupid enough to touch her precious money. Sanji was out, as he'd never take any money without asking first- why couldn't the others be like him? She quickly threw that thought away as she wouldn't have the patience to put up with seven other males on the ship declaring there never ending love for her on a daily basis; one was enough. Hmm, Zoro... maybe. Then again he never cared very much for money and even he asks when he does want money. Nami placed him at the bottom of the list, followed swiftly by Brook and Franky- why would they want money? Nami moved onto Robin... she wouldn't take money from her would she? Nami didn't think she would but then again the woman was such an enigma you could never really be sure what she'd do next. She was soon placed third on the list, second was Usopp. He was a crafty one and if he wanted money he often peed his pants asking (what a wuss) so it'd make sense he'd steal some. Chopper was too scared to steal anything so he was put immediately to the bottom of the list.

So, who owns the top spot you ask? Of course it could be no other than her infamous, idiotic, moronic, captain and boyfriend. If anyone was to know it would be either Robin- as earlier mentioned- they did share a room together or Luffy, the boy- who on occasions- has slept with Nami in her room. He was crafty and stupid enough to steal something like that from her. He should know better but let's face it, Luffy would never learn from anything stupid he did, would he? Nami quickly left her room and stormed off in search for her boyfriend that would soon be dead.

34'#

"NAMI-SWAAA~N"

Nami flinched at the sound of her name being screeched down the high street- how embarrassing. Her eye brow twitched in annoyance as she turned to see Sanji full speed flouncing towards her. As he reached her he started to noodle around her babbling about her beauty, you know, the usual.

She quickly put a halt to it as quickly spoke in a sugary tone, "Sanji-kun, you wouldn't have happened to have seen Luffy, would you?"

"That moron? Haven't seen him since breakfast, sorry Nami-swan."

Breakfast was hours ago, he'd surely be hungry by now and the more time he had with her money, alone, the more time he'd be able to spend it on food. Oh dear.

"Hmm, okay, guess I'll do some more searching. Bye Sanji-kun"

Without another word she was out of site, the only time she'd move so fast is when her money was at risk.

34'#

As Nami was walking she saw up in front of her was Chopper and Usopp, she called to them quickly to get them to stop. Once she'd approached she put on her fake cheery smile and asked Usopp through clenched teeth "Have you bought anything nice today?"

Usopp started to sweat and his teeth chattered- no matter how much he tried to stop them- as he answered, "Urmmm, uuhhhh, y-y-yes?"

No one was prepared for Nami's response as she seemed to suddenly grow in height and loomed over them with a demonic look on her face as she asked in the scariest voice known to man- at that point Chopper and Usopp were now in tears and quietly wetting themselves as they prepared for death- "And just where and how did you get the money?"

Chopper quickly took to cowering behind Usopp as he was left to answer the incredibly angry woman in front of him, "W-w-well, I-I-I h-had money l-left o-over f-f-from last t-t-time..."

Nami quickly shrank back down to her original size and beamed with happiness at the answer, "That's good then... have you seen Luffy?" The last part of the sentence was when her voice began to get dark again.

Usopp's stuttered out a 'no' that disappointed Nami as he'd know better than others where he was. Without another word she turned on her heel and left in the other direction muttering about places and torturing a certain rubber boyfriend.

Chopper and Usopp exchanged glances before Chopper, for the first time, spoke out in a timid voice, "If she was like that with marines they'd never bother us again."

After, Usopp puffed out his chest- a signal he was about to start spewing out a bunch of lies- and spoke in a booming voice, "The great Captain Usopp wasn't scared at all, before meeting Luffy I have to face off alone against five thousand..."

34'#

Nami was starting to lose her last nerve; she'd met up with EVERYONE on the ship except the one person she was actually looking for. Then, to make it even better, they all told her they hadn't seen him, where the hell had he gone!

No one dared get in the navigators path as she walked along, practically fuming about not being able to find him. The only time she stopped her rampage was when she overheard some men walking out of a Casino muttering about 'some boy... in a straw hat... sitting there all day... loads of money.' Her whole face dropped as she connected the dots before her face turned bright red and she changed her course towards the huge casino with blaring lights shining in her face.

As she walked in she heard the background noise of chit chatter from the people around her as they sat around tables, in front of machines and in front of the bar. However, she dispelled these people as she went in search for a boy in a straw hat. She didn't have to search long either because when she got to the second floor there was a long row of machines which seated a few people but what caught her eye was the lanky boy, with a red vest top, tattered shorts, sandals and of course, the straw hat perched on top of his head. She watched him for a moment as he picked up a coin that was sitting in a huge pot then put it into a slot where it disappeared, her eyes then looked down to see another large, very empty pot- she almost had a heart attack as she realised it was her money that used to be there.

She marched over at full speed as he went to pick up yet another coin and spun him in the chair to face her. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, no caring that others were now looking at them.

"Nami-"

"YOU TOOK MY MONEY, YOU'RE SO LUCKY THAT YOU'RE NOT TEN FOOT IN THE GROUND RIGHT NOW!"

"But Nam-"

"NO BUTS! HOW DID YOU EVEN KNOW IT WAS THERE, YOU BAKA!"

"Na-"

"I NEVER TOLD YOU ABOUT IT NOR DID I EVEN LOOK AT IT WHEN YOU WA-"

"Nami!" Luffy's voice cut off anything else she was about to say and his only explanation was his hand raising and pointing over to the sign above the machines.

Belli signs appeared in her eyes as a very greedy- ahem- happy smile soon pasted itself onto her face.

34'#

"Luffy, keep going, we have to win!" Nami's voice rung out to the archaeologists ears as she approached the both of them, camera in hand.

"Navigator-san, Captain-san?"

Nami quickly spun in her seat with belli signs still in her eyes- Luffy next to her carrying on- as she excitedly explained, "Robin! Good you're here! Take a seat, maybe you're lucky!" Without any other explanation Nami turned on her chair and carried on with the task of taking a coin, placing it in the slot and pulling on the lever at the side.

Robin raised a brow and looked up at the sign about, "Win 200,000,000 belli with only three cherries in a row!"

Snap.

Wow, feels weird to be writing again if I'm honest. Went back to the song that started this whole story off; Photographs. It gave me a lot of inspiration.

Anyway, I'm incredibly nervous about posting this update as I haven't done so in a while, so I'd really appreciate some feedback- i.e., did it suck? Characters not too OOC? Etc. Looking forward to hearing from some of you.

Thank you for reading. Much love, Memories'34 x