Chapter 10

Luffy smiled down at the dog in front of him as he crouched down and held out his hand. "Shake," he said. The dog looked up at him assessingly, and then surprisingly, held out his paw. Luffy grabbed it and shook his hand up and down and the dog just looked at him passively as if this was a strange occurrence for him.

"Hey, you kids!" The group of three turned to the voice, two out of three recognizing him as the mayor of Orange Town. The man stopped in front of them and looked at them curiously. "Do you know what's going on? I saw those blasted pirates destroying the town again with that cursed cannon of theirs. I came to investigate and saw you three running away from their base. You're not hurt are you?" He looked absently at Chouchou. The dog didn't get along with people he didn't know. His behavior was borderline aggressive towards strangers, but he acted civil with this teenager. Strange...

"Nah," Luffy replied cheerfully. "We kicked their asses." The mayor was taken aback by this statement, and looked at him disbelievingly. These pirates had been terrorizing their town for a while. Luffy, seeing his skepticism, added, "You might wanna call the Marines while they're still unconscious. They'll wake up after a while."

Nami, who'd been staring at the ground ever since they left the plaza, not wanting to meet Luffy's eyes, looked up at the new arrival. "Are you in charge here?"

The man nodded. "I'm the mayor. But I hardly deserve the title at this point. I can't even protect my town from pillaging." Luffy thought that this was hardly his job to begin with, but didn't comment.

"Well, we'll be on our way then," Luffy said. "Remember to mention that the Buggy Pirates are incapacitated when you call them. They'll be much more likely to send a retrieval ship that way." Nami agreed wholeheartedly with the cynical logic.

The mayor looked at them with interest. "Are you three sailors?"

Luffy nodded. "Pirates. We just recruited a navigator," he said, pointing at Nami, who looked down again. Luffy frowned. She was acting pretty strange, and he could sense the guilt she was feeling. She had almost forgotten their original objective when they were about to leave, but Luffy had made sure to grab the treasure and the map.

"I'll have to confirm your story myself," the mayor said after some thought. "If what you say is true, then you have my sincerest thanks." Luffy nodded at him, and the three of them headed out towards the coast where their ships were docked. As they walked, Nami finally looked up at Luffy and spoke,

"Do you really still want me as your navigator?" He turned to her and nodded eagerly in response to the question. "I tricked you," she reminded him. "I almost got you killed." Luffy thought about telling her that there was no way he ever would have died at the hands of Buggy, or anyone in East Blue for that matter, but decided to be subtler than that.

"I'm alive, aren't I?" he said. Nami just stared at him, wondering not for the first time how his mind worked.

"You're not mad?" she asked quietly. Luffy smiled widely.

"Nah, don't worry about it," he replied. Nami let a small smile grace her lips but still felt guilty. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she couldn't join his crew permanently. She was so close. Sadness welled up inside her. She was really starting to like Luffy despite his affiliation as a pirate, but this couldn't last.

"I know this is really late, but my name is Nami," she told him.

Luffy's smile grew wider. "Welcome to the crew, Nami," he responded.

"Where do you want to go next, then?" If she couldn't stay in the crew, then she'd be damn sure to do her job well while she was here.

"Our next destination is Syrup Village," he replied. Nami looked thoughtful. She knew where it was. It was a small village on the Gecko Islands southwest of here. What did Luffy plan on doing there? She doubted there was anything of significance.

They tied their two boats together and set sail. As the island grew more distant, Nami noticed with slight panic that there was only one bag of treasure on the boat. They had separated everything into two. "Um, Luffy? Where's the other bag of gold?" she asked nervously.

"Ah, I left in on the shore for the townspeople." It took a moment for this statement to register in Nami's mind.

"You left it? That was worth at least 5 million Belly!" She yelled in frustration. Luffy just nodded.

"They're not a very wealthy town. They'll need it for repairs. Besides, you said we'd split the profits. I just gave them my share." Nami gave up and her head sagged. She had said that, and she didn't feel very deserving of that extra 10% right about now…

Luffy observed Nami out of the corner of his eye. She was definitely getting more comfortable around the two of them, but she was still slightly disconcerted after everything she'd witnessed them do. Nami was used to using her cunning to manipulate circumstances to her advantage, and she felt way out of her comfort zone when she didn't feel in control of a situation. But that was kind of the point. Luffy wanted her to feel completely at ease around them not because she could control everything, but because she trusted them to watch her back so that she wouldn't have to constantly look over her shoulder. It was still a work in progress.

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