#acexnami

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.  

Selfish

Nami slowly, methodically swirled the punch around and around the faux crystal glass in her manicured hands as her hawk-like eyes watched the well-dressed patrons meander around the ballroom. She was sitting alone at one of the decorated tables, legs crossed to strategically display just the right amount of thigh but not enough to reveal the presence of her Climatact holstered just below the junction of her leg and pelvis. Her brown eyes flashed within the holes of the mask she was wearing, a white one with little kitten ears and tangerine-orange accents that match the embroidery of her regal silk gown. As she stalked her numerous mice, the cat thief slowly brought the glass to her lips to primly sip at the spicy punch. Her eyes soon bored into the businessman who was sweating just watching her every saucy move.

Bingo, she thought, unable to keep her lips from curling into a smirk. He would perceive it as more flirting, anyway. She set the glass down and took her clutch, turning to make quite a show of her walking up to the refreshments table by swinging her hips provocatively.

Seducing gross old men isn’t my favorite pastime, but… Their wallets never disappoint, she thought with a devious giggle as she approached the table.

The Straw Hats’ next destination was Saobody Archipelago, better known as the entrance into the New World, but there was just one island before that stop—this one, so appropriately dubbed the “Island that Never Sleeps.” It had established a name for itself due to the overwhelming population of rich persons of all backgrounds—from those who had crawled their way from squalor to those born into royalty—and their proclivity to throw nightly parties beginning the instant the sun set. It was another desert island, but somehow they had retrofitted it into a partying oasis—magnificent castles surrounded by man-made pools and shrubs and palms. It truly was a grand metaphor for making something out of absolutely nothing.

It was only one night until the log pose reset; it would have been reasonable for the Straw Hats to simply moor within the bay and wait for it to adjust before getting underway, but the Straw Hats never did the reasonable thing, did they? Luffy was just chomping at the bit to get off the boat, and for once Nami was willing to indulge him. After all, this was a pickpocket’s treasure trove. Nami was going to pilfer every Belli she could between sundown and sunup. So here she was, leaning over a table dunking a marshmallow into the chocolate fondue fountain in plain view of a wealthy silk merchant she recognized from the East Blue.

Giggling demurely, she flashed him a wink before bringing the soft, spongey sugar confection to her lips and very suggestively swirling her tongue around it to lap up the liquid chocolate. She had to avoid cringing as his face turned an ugly purple-red and he tugged at the collar of his shirt that had been hugging his bulbous neck even before Nami had begun her operation. It was enough to almost make her abandon her efforts, imagining his sweaty hands on her as he pulled her in for a dance, but she reminded herself of the fat wallet just peeking out of the pocket of his waistcoat.

It’ll all be worth it in the end, Nami.

“Tell me,” purred a smooth voice suddenly. Nami gasped as a bulky frame in a tuxedo suddenly forced its way between herself and her target, and she looked up to see a brown-haired, freckled man adorned with a tiger mask that had plastic flames licking at the ears and whiskers, “do you put on such a show for all your admirers, or just the ones you want to relieve of their Belli?”

“What the—?” she cried and stood up on her tip-toes to watch in dismay as the merchant was hauled away by his wife, who was scowling and dragging him by the ear. Surely the grinning man in front of her had alerted the woman to her husband’s debauchery.

“You jerk! He was probably carrying ten thousand Bellis in that wallet!” she huffed as she pouted up at him dourly. There was no point in denying his accusations; besides, she had this strange inkling that he really could care less about her sticky fingers and was more interested in her. Well, if he wanted to play with Nami, she was sure she could find something on his person worth her time.

Cooing, she traced her index finger abstractly over the thick muscle of his pectorals. “That’s all right, though,” she said with fluttering eyelashes. “If you went through all the trouble to get me by myself, surely you have a lucrative offer, no?”

The muscle bulged beneath the black fabric of his tuxedo as he rumbled with laughter, making Nami’s finger bounce as she held it right over his sternum.

“So, this is why you were known as the Cat Thief in the East Blue. That pretty face sure does hide a devious mind, doesn’t it, Nami?”

The blood drained from her face as he all but revealed her identity and brought his face close, breathing puffing before her nose. Her eyes widened behind the mask, which apparently did little to shield her identity.

“What the—? Who are you?” she growled as her hand inched for her Climatact. He ignored her, reaching out to grab a strawberry and douse it in the chocolate pouring from the fountain. She licked her lips compulsively as he brought it to his mouth and bit down on the end of it, glittering dark eyes watching her from the holes in the mask. She stomped her foot, angry now that her prey had all but been wrenched from her with no offer of recompense.

“Look, buddy, unless you’re gonna reimburse me for my lost money or turn me into the Marines, I don’t have time to waste with you!”

“Reimburse? How about a dance, then?”

Nami scoffed and tossed her head as she rolled her eyes. The sheer incredulity! Still, she knew he was only doing it because he could so easily blackmail her; several high-position Marines were in attendance at the various parties in session across the island, including this one. He knew her name and face, and all it would take was one word and she would be thrown in a jail cell.

“Just one. That’s all I ask. As soon as we’re done, you can get back to relieving all these upstanding citizens of their monetary burdens.”

Nami peeked at him out of the corners of her eyes, arms crossed as she considered the proposal. His smirk was playful, mischievous, but not malicious as far as she could detect. There was some air of familiarity about him that was just tugging at Nami, inclining her to agree. A dance was harmless, and he didn’t seem to have any other angle besides enjoying the pleasure of her company. Snorting air out of her nose, she made another chocolate-covered marshmallow and popped it into her mouth.

“All right, Mister, you have a deal,” she conceded once she swallowed, then held out her hand for him to take. She cocked an eyebrow as he lightly took it and brought it to his mouth to gently press a lingering kiss to the top of her hand. Normally she would be creeped out, but the way his eyes glittered at her from within the tiger mask send electricity shooting up her arm and a blush creeping over her face. Tousled hair like wild grasses above the orange and black-striped mask, dark eyes pulsing with a dull heat, freckles above a confident sneer, and a body like it was sculpted by the gods, Nami would be a fool not to say the man was stupidly sexy—and that voice. Like honey dripping from his tongue, it was enticing and potentially dangerous. Nami very well could find herself stung by the end of this, but dammit if it wasn’t making her all hot and bothered.

Why did she have the nagging suspicion that she had heard it before, though?

Grinning at her all the while, the suave stranger pulled her out onto the dance floor amongst the other well-to-dos waltzing to the string quartet in the corner. Nami, now entranced by every move he made, could only be the puppet to his command as he guided her into proper position, a large hand resting at the small of her back while the other held herself aloft in a light grip. Her other found his broad shoulder automatically, fingers digging a little into the dark fabric.

“You finally look like you’re enjoying yourself,” he remarked playfully as she slowly eased her into the motions. Nami flushed but, ever trying to keep the upper hand, returned his smirk with a demure smile and flutter of her lashes.

“Well, what girl wouldn’t be enjoying herself in the arms of such a handsome man?”

His shoulders jumped up and down with deep, rumbling chuckles. Every one made his thick chest bump a little against hers; he was holding her closely, familiarly, but somehow Nami didn’t seem to mind.

“What’s so funny?”

“If you knew who you were talking to, I don’t think you would be flirting with me so hard,” he snickered, looking back at her. “It’s not like I have any money you can pilfer off me, so you can stop with the roaming now.”

Nami gasped; she was caught red-handed. Her hand had migrated down from his shoulder to feel up his pockets, finding them frustratingly empty. She really had been drawn into a useless venture, and daresay outwitted. She pursed her lips childishly at him.

“I still don’t get your angle here.”

“Angle? Don’t have one, aside from dancing with a gorgeous redhead.”

She was annoyed with her body’s insistence on responding to his honeyed words by gradually reddening her skin, making her unbearably hot. His smile was ever-present, roguish and toothy. She stared hard at it. She knew that smile, dammit, she knew it!

“You really don’t recognize me, do you, Nami?” He sounded sad at the prospect.

Nami huffed and glared up at him.

“Well, how am I supposed to with you covering your face like that?”

“I knew who you were the instant I saw you.”

She flinched. Why did that affect her so much? The only way someone would be able to recognize someone under a mask is if that person was seared into their mind, every detail, every mannerism, every single bit of them preserved in immaculacy… His hand slowly traveled up the length of her spine, leaving goosebumps everywhere his fingers ghosted, but strangely she did not find it disgusting. She actually found herself arching into his touch, squirming a little so he would touch her more. Her eyes became lidded and her breaths heavy. It was like he was playing her body like an instrument he had mastered. His fingers skipped over her neck to tangle into her short waves of tangerine hair.

“I always thought your hair was so beautiful… The way it catches the sun and glows, like it’s on fire,” he breathed. When did his face get so close? It was angled, lips only centimeters from her own, those eyes sparkling like the sea at night.

Fire… she thought distantly.

He looked her face up and down, always trailing to her bangs peeking above the top of the cat mask.

“So gorgeous,” he breathed as he continued to stroke her hair. “An orange fire, the color of a desert sunset…”

Fire… Desert… Her mind was hazed, drunk on his innocent touches, but somehow the pieces finally clicked in her mind.

“Ace?!”  

“Took ya long enough,” he laughed good-naturedly.

Nami’s face was the desert now, bright red sand and burning heat. She gulped loudly as she just stared stupidly at him. What were the chances of meeting him, of all people, on the Island that Never Sleeps, of all places?! Now it was painfully clear why she had been so at ease and willing to go along with his playful goading; it was Ace, for crying out loud! Oh, the fact that it was him and not a stranger flirting with her was definitely doing some kinds of things to her. She wriggled in his grasp, not necessarily trying to escape but just suddenly very hyper-aware of her dress hugging her slim body.

“Ace… What are you doing here? I thought you were looking for Blackbeard.”

“I am. I caught wind he stopped here for some shady business dealings.” Of course. With all this frivolity and wealth, there was no question there was a seedy underbelly. “I’ve been party-hopping trying to gather information. From what I’ve heard, he’s already left. Just missed him. He went to a neighboring island to keep from attracting the Marines’ attention.”

“If you know all this, why are you still here? Shouldn’t you go after him?”

“Well, I was,” he shrugged, then flashed her a wolfish grin. “But then I saw you…”

Nami gulped again as the fire brightened in her cheeks. His face was still that close, his whispered words just barely preventing their lips from touching. She found that hers were tingling with the anticipation and desire of it. It didn’t make much sense, really. Their time in Alabasta had been dreadfully short, certainly not long enough to develop any meaningful relationships… But Nami would be remiss to deny that she wasn’t attracted to him. He wasn’t only physically attractive, but there was just something so magnetic about his personality. Nami had thought about him since then, wondering if he was safe in his search of Blackbeard… Wishful thinking, wondering if once all was said and done if he would come back to Luffy and join his crew instead, even though she knew damn well that he was loyal to Whitebeard completely.

She didn’t realize tears had bubbled up in her eyes until he was sweeping the rough pad of his thumb over her cheeks, catching them as they fell.

“That’s not fair,” she growled at him. She was angry, and sad, and happy, and all kinds of things that made her mind a confused, combative mess. “You can’t just show up here, and say these kinds of things, and expect me to just watch you leave never knowing when I’ll see you again. That’s not fair.”

They had stopped dancing and were just standing in the middle of the floor. Her posture was rigid; all her muscles were screaming to wrench and twist out of his arms, but there was a part of her that relished his hold on her, the way their burning skin touched and send signals propagating across her nerves like fireworks.

“Ace, dammit, I- nnnngh!” she finished off with a frustrated grunt because she really wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. She was most definitely confusing physical attraction with love because she couldn’t possibly love him. But her heart was aching, as it had been with the “what if” hovering over her head ever since Alabasta, and she wanted to both slap him silly and grab him by the front of that stupid hot tuxedo and kiss him until she wasted sure what he tasted like anymore, and surely that was love, wasn’t it? Nami didn’t know, and that made her cry more because she knew whatever the case, she was still going to have to watch him go.

“Nami,” he sighed, both his hands holding her flushed cheeks now. They were so warm. So comforting. She leaned into his touch, eyes closing and pushing more tears down her already tear-stained face. Her emotions going from zero to one hundred almost instantaneously left her weak and she stumbled into him, her feeble hands digging into the front of his tuxedo. His broad frame supported her shaking body as she looked pleadingly up at him.

“Why are you doing this? Why would you do this to me? Of all the selfish, mean, conceited—!” She began punctuating each insult with a slam of her balled fists into his chest. “Egotistical, self-centered, cruel, selfish—!”

After she had rattled off at least a dozen insults, he grabbed her wrists and jerked them up to his face, staring pointedly at her as he held them.

“I know, Nami. It’s not fair,” he conceded with a heavy sigh.

Oh, no, she didn’t want that sad look on his face. She would take it all back. She didn’t mean it, because God, she had never seen such a broken man before.

“It’s not fair, and it’s selfish, but I’ve thought of you every single day since I left that desert.” He kissed her right fist, then the left, lips lingering on her knuckles as his face scrunched up in pain. “Every single day,” he whispered again, and she almost wailed in dismay as his voice cracked. “I know it’s not right. I never should’ve approached you at that damn fondue fountain. I should’ve just left you none the wiser, because it’s not right, saying all these things to you and then leaving. But I just… In that moment… I didn’t think I could go on like that, with just a memory to love…” He was crying too. She could tell by the thickness in his voice, and the tremble in his hand as he took a piece of her tangerine hair, her hair like the desert sunset bright and blazing, between his thumb and forefinger.

She leaned forward, pressing the forehead of her mask against his and wishing that those stupid pieces of plastic weren’t between them.

“Well,” she said in a shaky, shuddering breath, “I guess if you’re selfish then I’m selfish too.”

Before he could look at her in confusion, she slapped her hands against his cheeks and yanked his head down to draw him into a burning, sloppy, desperate kiss. His hands were still wrapped around her wrists and they squeezed so hard she thought he might snap the bones, but then her hands were free because his hands had a bruising grip on her hips, tugging her closer. Every inch of her melted over him, her body burning and molding like lava fresh from a volcano. Ace wasted no time in shoving his tongue into her mouth and Nami welcomed it, swirling it feverishly with his. He tasted like that chocolate-covered strawberry with mute tones of punch, and it had her reeling. She groaned as her knees buckled beneath her but his sturdy body and harsh grip kept her from collapsing.

“Ace—" she gasped, jerking back, but his face insistently chased hers to reclaim her lips with furious fervor. “Ace—!” she repeated adamantly, once more jerking her face away from him despite how much she would like to keep on. “We’re in the middle of the ballroom; we can’t keep making out like this!” she whispered harshly. She could already feel prickling gazes on them.

“Fine,” he said gruffly.

She squeaked in surprise as he grabbed her by the wrist and began dragging her off the dance floor in the direction of a hallway she knew led to private rooms. Her face blazed with blush at the obvious insinuations. She stumbled over her heels, legs jellified after the intense kiss, and couldn’t even find the words to explain that they should probably part ways before it got too heated… Did she even want to explain, though?

The thick plush carpet muffled the frantic clacking of her heels. Once he had hauled her around the corner he was on her again, pushing her up against one of the doors and hands slamming into the hard mahogany on either side of her waist. Nami moaned into the hot, open-mouthed kiss, prompting his tongue to tango fervently with hers again. Her hands jumped into his thick, curly brown hair, scratching at his scalp as she fisted the strands. Frustrated with the constant clinking of the plastic, he growled and wrenched her white-and-orange kitty mask off, chucking it down the hallway as if it had offended him. Nami’s constant ministrations in his hair loosened the small string securing it around his head, and eventually it snapped, sending it bouncing off her heaving chest to fall forgotten to the floor.

“You’re so… fucking… beautiful,” he snarled affectionately as he grabbed her jaw to angle her head, other hand diving into her fiery red hair again. All Nami could do was clutch onto him as he lavished pent-up affections onto her, a desert sky slowly being tinted red by the burning intensity of a dying sun.

She squeaked as his thick arms suddenly yanked under her thighs to hook her legs around her waist. As they snapped closed around his hips, he pushed her into the door, and she could feel his rigid abdominals flexing with every intense move of his body.

“Ace, the door, the door,” she groaned as she was crushed between the wood and him. She heard him scrabble at the metal for a minute before it finally clicked and the door fell away from behind her, making her jump back into open air. His arms wrapped around her back to keep her in that hungry kiss. He stumbled over the threshold, kicking a few times until he found the door and successfully shut it. Nami felt all the hair on her body rise as she heard the switch of the lock.

He didn’t bother switching on the light or the lamp; the moonlight and lights of thousands of surrounding castle windows were plenty enough to illuminate Ace’s way. He carried her over to the bed and they both fell into it, his heavy weight sinking her down into the mattress as he all but fell on top of her. If she had any breath, it would’ve been forced out of her, but she was already reeling from the intoxicating, dizzying kiss that he kept greedily sucking her into.

All of his actions up until then had been feverish and desperate, nearly battering Nami with their intensity; suddenly, his touch was soft as he pulled back and ran the pad of his thumb over her bruised lips. She gazed at him through lidded eyes as he dipped down to drop soft kisses along her neck, and she automatically craned her head to give him unrestricted access. His hands roamed up and down the side of her body as if he were committing her curves to memory. His lips painted across her neck and across her collarbone then back up the other side of her neck in a circuit, before finally arriving back at her waiting mouth. The kiss this time was soft, gentle, yet somehow more passionate than the ten minutes they had just spent tearing at one another. Her eyes fluttered shut as she could only yield to its feeling.

“I love you, Nami. I mean it. I really do,” he whispered against her mouth as his hands rubbed circles into both of her thighs, exposed by how the fabric of her long dress had bunched around her hips. “Don’t ask me how. It’s stupid, falling in love with someone you barely know, but I—"

“Hey,” she said, opening her eyes to catch his unsure face in her hands. She smiled sweetly at him. “I don’t care how it happened. All I care about is what you’re gonna do about it.” Her eyes glittered as she all but challenged him. A roguish smile flashed on his lips and he crawled further up her body, her legs angling as he kept them pinned to his waist.

“You truly are a seductive, devious woman.”

“Part of my charm, right?” she purred. Her eyes searched his face, recording where each of his little brown freckles was located. He didn’t make any move to kiss her again, allowing her to do so. Her finger came up to start connecting them like a constellation. “Can I ask you something?”

“Hmm?”

“Will you keep being selfish?” She wanted him to. She knew he had to leave, and he probably wouldn’t even be there in the morning. He would probably dip out as soon as she fell asleep, resuming his hunt for Blackbeard. She knew that was his duty and she would never ask him to forsake that. She would never ask him to forsake Whitebeard, either, because she knew what it meant to be loyal to someone. No, she would never ask that of him…

“Will you be selfish, and not forget about me, even if our paths go two totally different ways?”

He smiled warmly as he ran the tip of his nose along her jawline, dropping kisses onto her flushed skin all the while.

“Of course, Nami,” he breathed into her ear before kissing her temples. His lips lingered in her sunset hair for a long while as he struggled with the emotions that were threatening to spill over. “I’ll come for you,” he told her suddenly. “I’ll come back. Somehow, someday, I dunno when. But I’ll never forget, not ever.” He pulled back to look down at her, burning honesty in his eyes.

She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, fingers twisting around his slightly sweaty brown locks.

“Okay. Then that’s enough. Now get down here and kiss me.”

He chuckled slightly and did as bid, and her eyes fell closed again as she savored his lips rolling over hers, dripping with love that should not be but was present nonetheless…

Sometimes, things don’t work out like you want them to. That was a hard lesson that Nami learned, the day she read that newspaper and that one night of passion flashed in her mind like the spinning reel of a movie. Every kiss, every touch, every breathy declaration of feeling… They burned bright in her memory, like the desert sun doomed eternally to hover just above the horizon, forbidden to sink and disappear no matter how much it wanted to. She crushed that paper to her chest as the tears streamed down her cheeks, but he wasn’t there to wipe them away that time. They just fell, two rivers of clear water unable to cease flow.

But Nami was selfish, and she never forgot. Not ever. Even though it hurt like hell. Because sometimes the memories most worth keeping did.