Ameliorate ✦ One Piece

64

Waking up was different this time. She didn't feel groggy or heavy, like opening her eyes was going against what every bone and muscle in her body really wanted to do. It was just a slow and simple return of the room around her, detail by detail sinking in as Nami started to look around and took stock of the unfamiliar room.

It wasn't the ship, not only was the quiet entirely different, but the high ceiling and lights hanging from it belonged in no room on the Merry, that she was certain of as she began to move to get a better look. It made her become aware of the feeling in her hand, eyes drawn to the needles embedded there and connected to a length of thin tubing that ran up to a bag of clear liquid hanging from a pole beside the bed. The drop of it into the chamber below was the only sound, small and regular, marking time.

And accompanied by an echo that made her head turn to her left. The bed beside her was close, positioned nearer to the fire than her own. Akira lay in it with her eyes closed and her chest rising and falling in the even rhythm of proper sleep, her own IV drip hanging from a pole at her bedside. Some of the colour had come back to her face, or at least the worst of the pallor had eased, and in the firelight she looked less like someone who'd been wrung out and left to dry.

The sigh of her made Nami give out a heavy breath of relief before she turned again and continued her search. Against the wall to the right, a row of more than half a dozen beds was lined against the brick, only one occupied by Sanji's own sleeping form. "You're both alright," she whispered to herself, shoulders relaxing. But not entirely, not as she continued to scan in an attempt to find the last remaining member of their group.

However, she didn't get far before something moved at the edge of her vision and the sound of tapping caught her attention. She saw the source of the noise a moment later as it passed through the aisle between her bed and the row of others. Whatever the creature was, it was small, barely reaching the height of the mattress with its tiny body that was covered in brown fur. A pink fuzzy hat sat atop its head, nestled between a pair of small antlers, never swaying or falling as the creature moved around with a tray balanced in its tiny hands.

"Hello?" She called out as she straightened up in her beds, covers falling away as she watched it freeze.

The pause was a brief one, and then the tray hit the floor with a clatter that echoed while the creature spun around, looked at her, gasped, and then bolted up a set of short steps and threw itself towards one of the stone pillars on each side of them. Only, most of its body remained entirely visible.

"Are you..." Nami's brows furrowed as she watched it. "Hiding?"

"Of course!" The child-like voice spoke indignantly. "That's why you can't see me."

"You're peaking the wrong way," she pointed out, amusement slightly seeping into her voice as she continued to watch it.

"Shut up!" The creature yelled back at her angrily. However, with it's voice, it was hard to be intimidated. Although, she didn't point this bit out, which turned out to be a good thing as, after a beat passed, the tiny animal started to edge out from behind the pillar, its enormous eyes reappearing first and then the hat. "Are you... feeling better?" The indignation dropped out of its tone now, replaced by something much more earnest as it smiled at her.

"A little bit, yeah." Nami found herself smiling back. "Are you the one that's been taking care of me?"

A laugh answered before anything else could — a cackle, really, rich and unselfconscious, echoing in from beyond the corner of the room. It was accompanied by the clicking sound of heels hitting stone, footstep which soon revealed a woman as she came into view at the top of the steps. "That'd be me." Long grey hair framed her shoulders, perfect in posture as she uncapped the green bottle which she had in one hand and raised to her lips. She drank from without ceremony before lowering it again.