The Game (luNa)

4

Usopp woke up to two things; a killer headache, and the sound of someone screaming in pain. He rolled out of bed and shuffled out of the door, looking for the cause of the sound.

Meanwhile, in the medical bay, Luffy writhed around on the bed, thrashing from side to side and screaming until his voice cut out. Chopper was attempting to clean his wound out, but he was struggling to open the stitches with his captain moving around so much.

Luffy started a new round of screaming which turned into a coughing fit that bought even more blood out of his lungs and down his face. Chopper looked concerned. ‘Flip him on his side!’ he yelled, trying to be heard over luffy. The crew did as they were told. As soon as luffy was flipped off the side of the bed he began vomiting pools and pools of blood onto the floor.

Usopp, having just walked into the room, promptly feinted, although nobody paid him any attention. Poor Nami was shaking uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face in silence as she stroked her captain's inky black hair. After Luffy had drained the blood from his lungs, the crew followed chopper's instructions, flipping the writhing boy back onto his back and holding him there while chopper injected a stronger drug into his arm.

After a few more minutes of desperate struggling, Luffy finally stopped moving, his face changing from one of immense pain to one that looked, thankfully, at peace. Once he was still, chopper got to work opening luffy’s stitches up and examining the wound.

‘Infected.’ he muttered. ‘Possible - yeah that's blood poisoning.’ The others, despite lacking medical expertise, could tell that what chopper was describing was not good. Chopper cleaned the wound out and restitched it, before bandaging Luffy’s torso and lying the captain back down.

He pulled two more syringes out of his draws and stuck one in Luffy's arm and the other in his neck. When he had done that, he stepped back and took a deep breath. The others, realising they were done, made their excuses and left to get some air.

Zoro scooped usopp up again and wandered off with his lifeless body in its usual place slung over his shoulder. Chopper left as well, no longer able to stand being in the room when the floor and walls were spattered with Luffy's blood.

Nami couldn’t bring herself to move, and so stayed right where she was with her captain's head in her lap. Eventually she came out of shock and keeled over, sobbing. After a few minutes, she felt a warm hand on her face. she opened her eyes, only to be met by her captain’s penetrating gaze. To her amazement, he was smiling. 

Luffy’s entire body felt like it was on fire. He could tell that his wound had been numbed, at least for the time being, but his head was still killing him. As he came around, his ears began to ring.

After about 30 seconds, his hearing began to develop. He was alone in the medical bay … no there was someone else. Were they… crying? He listened to the voice for a moment, and recognised it as Nami. The captain opened his eyes and was met by her sobbing navigator’s pained face.

The captain plastered a reassuring smile on his face and raised a hand to cup her face. She gasped and opened her eyes. So close. She was so close. Luffy slowly sat up, panting. His throat was raw, and he could tell he had caused quite a scene, especially when he noticed the blood spattered all over the room, and the pools of it on the floor. He turned to nami. 

‘I take it that's mine?’ He rasped, his voice weak and raw. Nami’s eyes filled with a fresh batch of tears as she nodded. Luffy braced himself against the wall and stretched his arms out, wrapping them around nami. The girl let out a small gasp as she was pulled towards her captain.

He flicked her up and pulled her into his lap, only now noticing how much she was shaking. 
‘I’m alright.’ he assured her, before adding. ‘Where’s Sanji at, I'm hungry.’ this, despite everything, made nami laugh.