#acenami

Between the Lines

The night wind ruffled the wavy strands of Nami’s hair as she poked her head out of the door leading into the bowels of the ship. Left, right, left, right; she swiveled her head back and forth several times to ensure that her eyes inspected every inch of the calm deck of the Thousand Sunny. The grassy lawn’s spring-green blades rippled with every breath of the salt wind. The starlight caught on their waxy surfaces to make it seem like the shifting waves splashed gently against the ship’s sturdy sides. The sails flapped morosely, and the ropes twisted lazily back and forth. Other than the gentle sighs of the wind, the deck was silent.

High above in the crow’s nest, Zoro was currently keeping watch, but he would likely be not the least bit interested in Nami’s midnight stroll onto the deck—if he even noticed at all. Confident that she would not be seen, she slipped through the gap in the door and quietly shut it before stealing up the nearby steps to her tangerine grove.

Though she was hurried, she made sure that her footfalls were silent while she scampered carefully to the upper deck. Once there, she crouched down before one of the large clay pots that housed one of her prized trees, inching it up just barely to reveal a sealed envelope. She plucked it from its hiding spot before easing the pot back down with mere more than a gentle thunk. She once more peered up at the crow’s nest, waiting for any sign of movement with bated breath. No signs of any imminent inquisition.

Holding the envelope close to her chest, she crept over to the back railing of the ship where a delivery pelican was patiently awaiting her. She procured the agreed-upon delivery fee and dropped the Belli coins into the pouch strapped to his thin orange leg, then held out the letter for him. With a soft squawk, he parted his pouched bill to pluck it from her hands, then tucked it safely into the messenger bag at his side.

“Thank you,” she whispered gratefully to him. He raised his wing in a feathered salute before flapping lightly. He rose from the balustrade to catch the wind and coast up into the jet stream above.

Nami watched his white form retreat for as long as she could until his silhouette was indistinguishable from the softly glittering stars above. She held a curled fist over her heart while her hopeful eyes appealed to the heavens for her letter to be delivered safely.

I hope it finds you well… Ace.

Nami had never expected the first letter, given the little time they had spent together in the Alabastan desert. It had arrived while she was recuperating in Vivi’s lofty castle; the messenger pelican had fluttered down to settle on the sill of her open window, flapping insistently with the letter pinned between his beak. It had been unremarkable—just a means for him to keep tabs on Luffy through the most reliable and pragmatic of the crew, he had stated. Nami wasn’t sure why that letter gripped her in the way it did. Maybe it was the charm of his messy scrawl, or maybe it was the fact that she could see that big grin clear as day through his nonchalant words. Either way, Nami had no hesitations about committing to keep her captain’s brother apprised of their movements—with the utmost discretion and care, of course. If their letters were intercepted, it could be absolutely disastrous for both of them, so they spoke in code, using only the most general language and euphemisms and metaphors.

The change was gradual. It began with Nami’s light-hearted flirting and Ace’s playful replies—but, over time, the feelings transformed from teasing to true. They never acknowledged this unspoken attraction between them; it would just make things difficult. They traveled two different paths, destined to only meet intermittently rather than completely intertwine. One or both of them could be marching onward toward utter ruin. Thus, their love for one another only existed between the lines, in the hidden meanings concealed in those unassuming letters.

Nami had surprised herself; her feelings were quite powerful for having been developed in such a short span of time—a little over a month, really. Perhaps it was their miraculous adventures that made time seem so much longer… Everything that had happened to her since she leaped from the docks of Cocoyashi Village seemed like years of her life, when in reality it hadn’t even been a quarter of one.

Perhaps she was reading too much into things. Surely, something such as love couldn’t grow from one chance meeting and correspondence. Yet… Nami knew her heart better than anyone, she supposed. The dull ache that never left her, growing worse in the deep of night when she longed to see his face, touch his wavy brown hair, kiss each of his little freckles one by one—surely, that was love, wasn’t it? She often wondered if it was one-sided. Perhaps Nami was inventing feeling between those lines, crafting unuttered sweet nothings and longings that weren’t bled into the paper with the ink at all.

Perhaps, but when the letter that stated he wanted to meet in person again came, Nami threw all reason and caution to the window for that single tantalizing, enticing, tormenting “what if?”

It almost seemed like the universe had aligned for the two of them. Nami related the ship’s current coordinates to him, and as it turned out, in two days’ time the Thousand Sunny would be moored within rowing distance to a very small island. “Island” was a generous term; it was a spit of land, a small streak of sandbar just peeking above the waterline with only a few coconut trees to boast. Nami could walk the widest point of its width in three minutes. The only residents of the unimpressive, isolated island were the hundreds of hermit crabs that feasted upon the fallen coconuts slowly fermenting because no one could gather them.

At the agreed-upon time, with the Thousand Sunny securely fixed to the ocean floor by the anchor, Nami stole away in the Mini-Merry II to shuttle silently over to their agreed-upon—or dare she say, destined?—rendezvous point.

Nami did not see Ace’s flame-powered boat upon landing, so she surmised that she was the first to arrive. She brought the boat as close as she could without stranding it along the rising sea slope before dropping the anchor. The water sloshing alongside her was still about knee-deep, so she pulled off her sandals and held them aloft with one hand and bunched up the silky fabric of her dress in the other, hoisting it up to her mid-thighs, before dropping down into the shallow beach water. Due to the late hour, it had long since lost the sun’s warmth and was cold, causing goosepimples to rise over the skin of her legs upon first contact.

Nami waded quickly up to the small shore, kicking the wet sand the best she could from her toes and rubbing her chilled legs to return the warmth to them while she awaited Ace’s arrival.

It took longer than she would have liked, or maybe time seemed stretched to her wandering mind. Had she assumed too much? She had dressed as if she were going on a date: light brown strapped sandals, a yellow sundress with a one-and-a-half skirt that bore a borderline scandalous amount of her shapely tan legs, a sunflower clip blooming in her plume of tangerine hair. Not that she was anticipating any intimate encounters, but Nami had even bothered to wear her good underwear… Blushing at the implications of the midnight rendezvous, she held her face to her hot cheeks. What if he laughed at her upon arriving with the way she was dressed? She had good fashion sense, but her desires were almost obvious with what she was wearing. Just as she was beginning to consider running back to the Thousand Sunny to change, she caught the ghostly flicker of a fire playing across the horizon.

Did she imagine it? The red-orange glimmer vanished almost as soon as her eyes seemed to catch it. Ace knew that the Sunny was moored nearby and likely didn’t want to catch the attention of their night guard, so perhaps he was approaching more stealthily? Sitting upon the sand a few yards away from where the Mini Merry was bobbing pleasantly in the rolling waves, she squirmed uncomfortably, wondering if her addled mind was indeed playing tricks on her.

That was not the case, however, as very soon she could distinguish the bulky outline of his vessel approaching. As it came up alongside the Mini Merry, she climbed to her feet (trying not to look too excited but failing miserably) and scampered down to the point where the water met the sand just as Ace splashed down into the surf.

Ugh, the way his body was illuminated by the moonlight sure was doing things to her. As he tipped his hat up to greet her, the white light played perfectly across his messy brown hair and dark skin, and it caught in his eyes in the form of a playful glint. His smile was simply radiant, brighter than the full moon overhead. The rugged outlines of his muscles were almost too defined; her heart began to pitter-patter in her chest, and her hand curling over the area of her bust where it beat frantically did little to still the frenzied beat. She could only stand there, mesmerized and nearly manic, as he splashed through the frothing waves to stand in front of her. Jeez, even the fact that she had to crane her neck back to stare doe-eyed up at him made her heart somersault inside of her ribcage. Was it possible that he was sexier than she remembered?

“Hey, Nami.”

She struggled not to swoon at his deep, sultry voice, just accented by the high pitch of overwhelming confidence. Surely, the way he was making her feel was obvious; once again, fear washed over her as she considered the idea that this was all amusing to him.

Play it cool, Nami. You have no idea what this meeting is about, she scolded herself. She inhaled sharply through her nose before clearing her throat in some effort to maintain a sense of normalcy.

“Hello, Ace… What did you want to talk about?”

A shadow fell over his face. Maybe she shouldn’t have cut straight to the point? As he looked away from her, his curling waves of hair fell into his eyes, and the shadows darkened over his cheekbones. She had no idea what he could be thinking.

“Let’s go talk over here,” he instructed while grabbing her elbow—not roughly, almost intimately. Her body moved on its own, excited by the electrical impulses blasting up her arm into her shoulder, as he led her over to the cool sand beneath the shade of one of the coconut trees. He prodded a half-eaten shell of a coconut with the toe of his boot to push it away, and the dozens of hermit crabs feasting on its milk-white flesh scurried after it, clearing them a suitable space to sit. With a sigh, he plopped down on the sand with his elbows resting on his raised knees, head still hanging.

Nami eased herself down beside him, legs closed together with her folded hands resting in her lap, and eyed him curiously. This change in mood bothered her greatly. She couldn’t even be anxious because she had no idea what to be anxious over. The only thing she could imagine was that he had yet to find Blackbeard and was depressed about it.

“So I found Blackbeard.”

Wrong. The sound of an error buzzer almost blared in her head. Once more she was perplexed. Why on Earth would he be depressed, then? That was what he was after, wasn’t it? Avenge his friend and then he could return to the Whitebeard Pirates, right? She leaned forward to peer into his face, trying to get a read on what was going through his mind, but the shadows still eclipsed his features completely. She could glean nothing at all from them.

“He’s such a bastard, Nami. Everywhere he goes, he just sows destruction and terror. I can’t tell you how many islands have suffered because of him…”

Nami recalled Drum Kingdom, so far away now; she had heard after the fact about Blackbeard attacking the kingdom unprovoked and causing the political upheaval as a result. Sure, it had worked out in their favor due to Wapol’s cowardice, but the broken kingdom sure had a hellacious time piecing themselves back together. If the Straw Hats hadn’t happened upon them when they did, Nami didn’t want to imagine how they would have fared.

Beside her, Ace clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles glared as white as the rocky moon in the black sky above them.

“He has to pay for everything he’s done. I swear it. I’m gonna give it all back to him a hundred-fold…”

“And what… does this have to do with me?” she questioned quietly. She didn’t want to be rude, but she still had no clue why Ace had invited her to this little spit of land in the first place. It didn’t seem like he was torn up about the impending battle. Finally, he lifted his head slightly, allowing the shafts of light to illuminate dark eyes. Nami’s chest constricted tightly, cutting off both her breathing and her heartbeat for a moment. They were so… sad.

“It means no more letters, Nami.”

The words hung in the open air for a moment as the ginger-haired navigator struggled to grasp them. No more… letters?

“I… I don’t understand.”

He shifted uncomfortably in the sand beside her, hands twiddling to focus the nervous energy welling up inside of him.

“Once I finish off Blackbeard, I’ll go back to Pops’ crew,” he explained. Well, yeah, that much was obvious. “He’s one of the most wanted pirates on the Grand Line. We always have to take a lot of precautions so that the Marines can’t track us. You and I sending letters back and forth to begin with was a risk, but I’m by myself and can move fast. The odds of them intercepting the letters was really slim—but the Moby Dick, on the other hand…”

Loathe as she was to admit it, it made sense. She imagined that they were select even with their transponder snail calls to the rest of the fleet; likely, they relied on vivre cards for the most part to ensure the safety of their respective divisions. The Marines would catch wind of a messenger pelican visiting the massive ship in a heartbeat.

“If that letter was intercepted, the Marines would come after the Straw Hats, too,” he sighed. “I can’t allow that.”

A puzzle piece clicked into place in Nami’s mind. Of course. This was all because Ace wanted to protect his little brother.

It has… Nothing to do with me.

It saddened her. It saddened her so much that she wanted to burst into bitter tears right then and there, but she didn’t, because honestly, what had she been expecting? It had been spelled out for her from the beginning. The letters had only ever been to keep tabs on Luffy, and now that doing that was much too dangerous, that was it. It made sense. It made sense, and that broke her heart into a million painful pieces.

“Of… Of course.” She disguised her emotions with a sweet smile. “Of course, you wanna protect Luffy. I get it! But why did you have to come all the way out here to tell me that? I mean, that’s something you could’ve just said with a letter, don’tcha think?” Her light-hearted laugh was hollow and meaningless. She wanted to scream and cry and throw a tantrum, not laugh like she didn’t care. She did care. She cared too much, but she couldn’t let him know that.

Her airy giggles faltered when he stared at her incredulously.

“Nami, it’s not just that—”

“Well, now that you’ve delivered your message, you should get going. Who knows how long Blackbeard will stay put?” With a nonchalant air, she rose from her position and began jaunting back towards their anchored boats. She had to leave. She didn’t know how long she could hold up this façade. He could just leave, and she could go home and cry, and they could both forget about each other and the feelings Nami invented between those lines. Life at its finest, right?

Her steps faltered a little in the sand as she heard him scrambling wildly to his feet behind her. She didn’t turn back; she couldn’t. If she did, that fabricated love would come back, and Nami didn’t know if she could keep it all from crumbling.

“Nami!”

His voice cracked like a whip in the night air. She gasped as he grabbed her elbow again, roughly this time, and wrenched her around. Her bare feet spun in the sand, throwing it up in streaming clumps, and as she came to rest in front of him his hands clapped down hard on her shoulders to pin her in place. He looked a mixture of angry and desperate, nostrils flaring and eyes blazing like the flames flickering across his shoulders and tufts of hair from how riled up he was. Nami was left breathless. She was caught, and the tears she had been battling back spilled over the rim of her eyes to roll down her cheeks.

“But I imagined it,” she whispered suddenly. The distraught expression on his face dissolved into one of confusion. Nami’s face then fell; she couldn’t bear to look at him anymore. “I imagined that you loved me… didn’t I? Didn’t I?” A part of her with better judgment wanted it to be true. Nami knew nothing good could come of loving Ace. He was a member of a rival pirate crew, and someday, at some place, they would be pitted against one another. It was just too complicated. It was better that he didn’t love her; he ought to just tell her right now so her heart could break, and she could get on to putting it back together. He ought to…

But, God, did she want him to say she hadn’t imagined it at all.

His grip tightened on her shoulders, then relaxed. Her name left his mouth in a breathy whisper. The tendons in her neck twitched as his left hand suddenly left her shoulder, timidly sliding up her neck to cup the underside of her chin. Her eyes fluttered as she all but leaned into his touch; his calloused hand felt so nice on her skin, she couldn’t help but betray herself.

“Ace…”

Agonizingly slowly, he tilted her face up to force her to meet his gaze. She was instantly electrified. The fire had dwindled down to a smolder, but it was no less searing, making Nami’s lungs convulse like they were filled with smoke and her heart sputter under the curse of her fogged mind.

“No,” he affirmed gently. His thumb began to trace soft circles into her cheek. “No, you didn’t, Nami.” His other hand had migrated down her arm to hold her hand, squeezing it tightly. “It’s because I love you that I came here, even though it’s so dangerous for the both of us.” Her hand flew up to hold the one on her face, which was now tenderly holding her cheek. His eyes, which had been fixated on her tearful ones, dropped down to his feet. “If only… If only I wasn’t… Then maybe the Marines wouldn’t care so much…” he mumbled under his breath.

“What? What is it?”

He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. His gaze was now flying in every direction but that of her face.

“It’s not just because I’m a division commander that the Marines want me so bad. It’s also because… my father is Gol D. Roger.”

She just stared at him. Of all the many, many things that could’ve come out of his mouth, that was never one she would’ve dreamed.

“I found out after I snuck into a Marine base—long story—and happened to read some pretty important documents. If they ever caught me, I’d make one hell of an example to execute.” His smile was wry, painful, tragic. “There’s no telling what lengths they’d go to in order to get to me… Luffy’s bad enough, but if they found out about you—”

“I get it,” she interjected quickly. She didn’t want to imagine the torturous scenarios that were beginning to bubble up in the recesses of her mind. “I understand. It’s dangerous, but I don’t care.” She took the hand that was holding hers and moved it to her hip, then pressed every inch of her body that she could against him, her arm rising to push his hat off his head and weave into his messy brown locks. “At least for tonight, I don’t care. If we can’t write letters anymore, fine… but please don’t leave me hanging like this.”

Her breath puffed lightly over his shocked face. If she wasn’t so in her head, maybe the fact that he was the son of the most famous pirate ever would be more of a bombshell; but right now, she could care less. Ace was Ace, the man she loved. It didn’t matter who his father was. All Nami cared about was who he was.

“You’re the one who almost walked off,” he retorted playfully, but his voice was low, roguish. It lit a fire in the pit of her belly, one that demanded to be tended to. His hand slipped from her hip to the small of her back, jerking her closer, as if every inch of their bodies weren’t already touching. The hand on her cheek traipsed into her short tangerine hair, spinning the locks around his fingers to drive them into a gradual state of messy disarray.

“Shut up and kiss me, before I do leave.”

And oh, did he oblige her. She didn’t even have time to prepare herself before his lips crashed into hers like a tidal wave, locking her into a fierce, burning open-mouthed kiss. His fingers tugged at the roots of her wild orange hair while hers combed through his equally messy locks; both of them fought for dominance as they each pulled their faces towards the other, lips rolling like a thunderous tempest. Nami soon lost that battle, however, as his tongue delved into her mouth to eagerly tangle with her own, dissolving her knees to jelly and stealing all the breath with her body. She slumped against him with a needy whine. While one of her hands scratched lines into his scalp, the other was traveling the roads of his muscles, committing every rugged contour to her memory.

He was doing the same with her curves, and as his hand snuck under the hem of her dress to give her thigh a sharp, teasing squeeze, she jumped and let out an affronted yet aroused gasp.

“Chickening out?” he laughed at her raging blush.

“Oh, you devil—” she growled. It was his turn to gasp as she bore down on his shoulders to vault herself up, locking both her legs around his hips. His hands snapped to the undersides of her thighs, holding her up as she attacked his mouth hungrily again. He stumbled backward under her assault and ended up tripping over his discarded hat. They both cried out as he tipped backward and landed roughly on his back in the sand; they looked at each other, breathless and red-faced, before they began giggling uncontrollably.

She leaned over him, elbows dug down into the white sand and her nose mere centimeters from his own, smiling sweetly as the mood dissolved into something more intimate yet no less passionate. His large, rough hands smoothed a lock of her hair behind her ear as it dangled in front of her eyes.

“You’re so beautiful, it’s painful.” The wistful sigh danced across her face with his warm breath. His hand took to caressing her cheek again in rhythmic lines. She moved to kiss him again, but he caught her face, locking her rigidly in place.

“Just let me…” he whined softly. His dark eyes searched her face continuously. “I want to remember everything, everything about you and this moment.”

Eyes closing, she leaned into his touch, so overwhelmed by emotion that she felt she may cry again. Was it humanly possible to love someone so much? So much that it felt like you were dying when you were with them, though you were also in an impossibly blissful high? Nami’s heart was struggling to beat with all those conflicting emotions, twisting into pretzel knots in her chest. She forced her eyes to open though it was hard because she too wanted to remember, everything about Ace and this one night…

Nami never thought that would be the last time she saw him. She never told anyone about the night they spent on that pathetic little strip of land in the unforgiving sea with no one but the stars as witness, not even Robin. It was her memory to treasure and mourn; it was her scar to bear. Many years later, when the pain was but a dull ache that appeared only in the midst of night when her mind wandered the roads of memory, she would pull out those letters and lose herself in those words unwritten, that love between the lines that was theirs and theirs alone.