Anonymous requested:
maybe for the fanfic tropes mash-up zonami nr.8 hospital au + nr. 75 bed-sharing? I hope i‘m doing this right, it‘s the first time i am requesting something
If you guys want a part two, just request it and I’ll be happy to write it! I totally accidentally invested myself in this story ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Warmth. His strong arm draped over her shoulder, his breath stirring the stray hairs on her pillow. She sighed happily and curled up tighter under the weighted blanket.
Nami?
"Laisse-moi," she mumbled, turning her back to the voice so her front was pressed against Zoro's chest.
Nami!
“Maman…?” She shuddered. Suddenly, the blankets weight seemed oppressive, the air thick. A whimper escaped her lips.
“Nami! Are you–?” Usopp’s voice cut through the fog of her mind. With a gasp, Nami bolted upright, throwing the blankets off her body.
“–okay?” He stared at her, confused. “I didn’t know you spoke French.”
“I forgot,” she said simply. Partially true. It was just that forgetting was harder when you slept. She wiped her face and was surprised to find tears wetting her palms. “What am I doing here?”
Usopp sighed. “Long story. How do you feel?”
“I’d feel better if I knew what was wrong with me,” Nami shot back.
“You really don’t remember?” he asked, then shook his head. “Chopper said that might happen. You remember that mist, though, don’t you?”
“Of course,” she replied, surprised. The blob that haunted the peripheral of her maps confused everyone on board, but it especially frustrated Nami. The crew had tried to avoid it, but eventually they had no choice but steer the ship through its mass. Nami could recall the crew on deck, everyone assigned to a station, all anxiously watching the horizon. Then–
She rubbed her eyes, pressing her fists against her head until spots bloomed in her vision. “I remember we saw, like, this reddish fog, and then I felt…”
Heat. Burning, searing heat. It stole the air around her and pressed against her skin. Her lips cracked and her skin tightened on her bones as she choked on the air, suddenly too heavy for her to inhale.
They had been expecting monsters, Marines. Not nature in its full force.
“The heat got us all.” Usopp’s voice faded back into existence as her memories reached a dead end. “Chopper got the brunt of it, with his fur and all, and most everyone ended up with a variety of burns.”
Nami looked down at her skin, noticing, for the first time, the red patches on her skin. “So, why are Zoro and I…?”
A thought came to her, back from the day she dedicated herself to an anatomy textbook she had bought (more like stolen, but that merchant deserved it) and read while leaning on Zoro’s shoulder, reading aloud the most interesting passages while he pretended to understand, the sound of water lapping at the portholes of his bedroom lulling him to sleep. He had made an off-handed complaint about his arms feeling sore, and she pointed at a line about heat’s loosening effect on muscles. All the heat from the mist, enveloping him in a matter of seconds….
She rested her hand on Zoro’s arm, panic rising in her throat. Sure enough, the muscles under his skin felt different–looser, deflated. Weak.
“You steered the ship away from the mist,” Usopp continued, his voice soft. “I saw you stumble to the mast and grab the wheel and just….” Nami could detect a hint of awe and pride as he spoke. “You dragged yourself through the worst of the storm to save us.”
She didn’t feel brave. “Will he be okay?” she whispered, scared of his answer.
Usopp coughed to cover his knowing smirk. “He’ll need physical therapy, a lot of work, but we can fix what the heat did.”
Nami choked back a sob of relief. “Thank you,” she murmured. She buried her head in Usopp’s shoulder, squeezing him in a tight, shaky hug. He mussed her hair playfully when she released him. “Please don’t tell anyone else I’m awake,” she said, and he nodded, closing the door behind him with a quiet clack.
She waited until she heard his footsteps recede from the doorway, heard her crewmates’ voices rumbling through the floorboards, before she collapsed back into bed. She pressed her lips against Zoro’s chest, letting her hot tears soak the thin shirt covering his skin, and prayed, prayed to anyone she could think of. Bellemere, Nojiko… heal him, please, please, don’t let him suffer like this, please, save him….
Under the fabric of his shirt, Nami felt his arm twitch.
