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There were a few things Nami picked up as odd as soon as she met Luffy and Zoro. With the way the two were so loyal to each other and seemed to pass hidden words through their eyes, she had assumed they had known each other for quite a while. Perhaps they were some unknown, loser crew that got wiped out to just them. Or maybe they had known each other for years before they decided to set out. She didn’t ask simply because their team up wasn’t going to last long. If you could even call it a team up.
But then she stayed, even when there were numerous chances to slip away. Even as they found more crew members and saved more islands from ruthless pirates. That had been a distinction she made in her head: Luffy’s pirates and pirates. Luffy wasn’t anything like a pirate, and sometimes it was hard to remember that he was one.
Zoro didn’t seem like the kind of guy that was a pirate. He was known all over the East Blue as the “Pirate Hunter”, which didn’t really scream loyal first mate. But he constantly had Luffy’s back and stood behind his more pirate-like decisions. Luffy was one of the few people who could touch Zoro for extended periods of time, and when Zoro wasn’t in need of wrangling, he was the crew’s go-to man to keep Luffy in check. He could request something of him, and Luffy would listen to him.
She knew Marineford must have hit Zoro more than it hit any of them. He was the first one to believe in their captain; he was the one who was always by his side and protecting him from danger. Despite not knowing what happened at Thriller Bark, she knew that his injuries were a result of protecting them. Protecting Luffy. Perhaps that had been her light bulb moment that maybe something was going on between them that she didn’t know about. Maybe it had been how he shared his space, sake, and food with Luffy without qualms. Maybe it was how Luffy shared everything of his in response.
She didn’t need to know everything about her crew, she reasoned. It wasn’t like she knew everything about their backgrounds, just like they didn’t know everything about hers. It didn’t hurt her that her Captain had a clear favorite. He was kind and considerate and would lay his life down for any of them. If she really asked it of him, he would share his food too. He showed how much he cared for the crew in many ways. He would spend afternoons with her tending to her tangerine trees, carefully harvesting enough fruit for Sanji or clipping away leaves that were starting to wrinkle. Sometimes he’d sit by her side and listen to her talk about whatever was on her mind.
He did that for everyone. He’d read Sanji’s cookbooks and help with deciding dinner, or he’d lay rested against Robin as she read him a book that he probably had no interest in. He encouraged their tinkerers to go wild with their imagination and cheer about how amazing each project was even if it really wasn’t. His affection was given freely and without thought, because he was their family, and they were his.
That was enough for Nami. But, she still noticed.
She noticed how sometimes Luffy and Zoro would sneak off to be alone together. Zoro would let Luffy play with his hair and talk low enough for just Luffy’s ears. Luffy would go to Zoro to make sure he ate and drank enough that day or make him stop his constant training to take breaks. Sometimes Nami would find them sleeping in the same bunk, curled into each other as if that was all they needed to be whole again.
Sometimes she would notice how Zoro’s gaze would linger. How his eyes never really left Luffy, even on the Sunny. He’d look predatory sometimes, as if Luffy was the prey he had been long-since stalking, and he was finally going to pounce. Luffy returned the behavior in kind, always having a sharp eye on Zoro.
Nami sighed into her cup. She had finished it a while ago, and the little umbrella Sanji decorated it with slipped further into the glass as the ice melted. A ring of water seeped into the table it rested on; the condensation coming quick with the heatwave they were experiencing. Luffy was propped in the water of a small tub Franky had brought up, and Zoro was making sure he stayed afloat despite the risk of drowning being slim.
“What is on your mind, Nami?” Robin asked, not looking up from her most recent novel. Nami could only see part of the title but saw “torture” and decided she probably wasn’t going to read it anyways.
“Nothing,” Nami said but watched as Luffy splashed at Zoro and got an annoyed huff but no further retaliation. Since reuniting from their two years apart, Zoro’s need for space had only become a stronger boundary. Luffy waltzed over it without care time and time again. “Luffy and Zoro have a special bond, don’t they?”
“Indeed. First mate and captain.” Robin agreed. She sipped her drink and placed a marker in her book before closing it. She watched the scene with a fond smile. Luffy pulled Zoro close by his neck and tried to goad the man into the little pool with him. Zoro said something Nami couldn’t hear, but it made Luffy erupt with laughter. “Sometimes they act like lovers.”
Nami watched as Zoro smiled at Luffy as though he was the only thing on the world and felt like everything clicked into place.
Remember how she didn’t care that Luffy was closer to Zoro than he was to anyone on the crew? That still stood. She cared that they would dare to not inform her of their relationship because, like, what the hell?
_-_
Later that same evening, Nami watched as dinner progressed with a new eye. Luffy would pour Zoro more sake when he finished his glass, and Zoro would keep food on his plate. Before it had seemed like a habit Zoro had to spare the other crewmembers from Luffy’s sticky fingers, but now it felt more so for Luffy’s benefit than theirs.
As dessert came and went, Luffy migrated outside to sit on Sunny’s figurehead, as he usually did before bed. That was the captain’s spot, and they learned that very early on. The crew didn’t even sit on the railing near Sunny’s head, respecting their captain enough to give him the space he wanted. Zoro was the only one who could lean against it and not get chased off. He sometimes dozed against it, others he would watch the crew or the stars, or often, the captain himself.
Nami watched as Luffy tangled his fingers in Zoro’s hair, and Zoro tilted his head back as if he needed to get even closer to it. Eventually, Luffy tugged Zoro to properly sit on the figurehead by his side. He leaned his body onto the swordsman’s, Zoro’s arm sneaked around his waist, and they stayed like that. The ocean was calm, with a salty breeze making their ship cut smoothly through the waves. The stars were out, Nami’s favorite time of the day as the navigator of the ship.
Luffy pointed at a constellation above them, and Zoro smiled at Luffy as if he were the stars. How she never saw it, she didn’t know. It wasn’t like they were being subtle.
“Come inside soon!” Nami cupped her mouth to be heard from across the deck, “It will start raining!”
“Okay!” Luffy waved to her and wished her a good night.
Nami watched them snuggle back up together and made a mental note to check that they make it to the bunks when the rainstorm hit.