#default!canon

“Are you hurt?”

“Hm?" Luffy turns away from the older Marine he’d just beaten into the dirt, who unfortunately had gotten a few hits in during this little skirmish. He looks at his navigator blankly, before giving her one of his usual sunny smiles.

“Nah, why?” He chuckles, and one of the deeper sword slashes the jerk had given Luffy on his side chooses then to give an extra spurt of blood. Luffy winces and palms the wound, frowning as the red liquid starts dripping through his fingers.

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“Eh!?” Damn. Maybe he should take up Nami’s offer to work on that whole ‘poker face’ thing she keeps going on about. But he doesn’t even play poker, so what’s the use of it?

“A-...am not!” Feeling sweat dribble down his temple hopefully Grandpa doesn’t notice, Luffy tries to regain some ground as he points a finger in the old man’s direction.

“ hey, look at me. i’m slowing you down, we both know it. it’s okay. i’ll hide and wait for back-up; you get yourself out of here. “

The silence that follows is deafening, consuming any sounds of battle that's been following them for who knows how long at this point.

Separated from the rest of the crew and both of them injured, Nami's statement would make absolute sense to anybody with any sort of self-preservation and sense. Luffy however, simply grits his teeth and angrily hauls his red-haired navigator up and into his arms, ignoring the protests of his bloody & aching body.

“LIKE HELL I WILL!!”

He’s gone through worse that this. And if Luffy ever found himself even considering what Nami was asking of him, he wouldn’t hesitate for a second to bash his own head into the ground.

“What the hell kinda captain do ya think I am!? Those two years...what would be the point of ‘em if I can’t even do this much for my crew? For Nami!?” On Sabaody, he watches Kuma’s hand come down. Nami is looking to him for help with tears in her eyes, and he watches her disappear with the rest. Another piece of his heart breaks.