You had no choice. The nobles of that island wanted you in their possession because of your high bounty, so by the orders of their upper ranks, the guards caught you and sent you off to them.

It was from there that they did as they pleased — and for what? A round of applause? A congratulations? A feeling of superiority by subjecting the vulnerable to unfathomable pain?

Nami had been through that before.

You never expected your decision from all those years ago to become a pirate come back to bite you. It was just a misunderstanding. You assumed the royals would let it go, considering that you were younger and probably didn't know any better.

Besides, they tried convincing themselves they were better off without your presence wearing down their reputation.

But with you gone, they had no scapegoat to take out their frustrations on.

Oh, how you couldn’t have been more wrong.

They hung onto that incident — their pettiness and vindication clouding their ability to think clearly.

A sickening feeling twisted in her gut the longer you were away from her. No one on the crew had ever seen her this worried about someone.

Each second you spent with those bastards and not with her arms around you made her lose a little bit more of her sanity each day.

Her stomach was in knots and her brain was in shambles as she assumed the worst. What if they hurt you? What if they made you hurt yourself or worse?!

You were torn apart and broken down in every sense, in ways words could never be able to describe. They left you with nothing but the scars and emotional damage of what they had done.

She had never encountered someone she actually cared about before you came along. It was always her and her money against the world. However, after you’ve made your presence known in her life, she found someone she had actually grown to love.

And she’d be damned if she lost it.

Words didn’t cut it for them. You apologized, or at least, tried to, over and over and over again. But because it was a string majority you were up against, the townspeople turned a blind eye to your suffering.

Meanwhile, Nami had long went off the deep end. Robin would catch her pacing around her room until late hours of the night, the look in her eye nothing short of pure madness.

When your superiors decided that you gave all you had, no longer serving as a use to them, you were harshly let go.

The crew looked for what felt like months. She asked around, but up your bounty poster, and screamed your name from the rooftops.

Days turned into weeks. But the Straw Hats never lost hope.

You walked from nightfall to sunrise, finding yourself lying in a beautiful flower bed. The peonies and dandelions cushioned your body as you lay in their sanctuary.

A scream of your name jolted you awake, the bright light of the early sun flashing in your eyes and body.

The voice was feminine and hoarse over days of vocal tarnishing.

Nami.

She ran up to you, opening her arms to hug you, but balking slightly as you flinched back.

Gently putting her hands on your shoulders, her eyes were wide in disbelief, shock, and most of all, anger.

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE?!" She screamed weakly, wrapping you in a vice-like hug.

Not only did she miss you — she missed you.

The you that would spend hours talking about the flings and crushes you had when you docked on islands — the you that would follow her around for hours going from store to store without complaint — the you that was fierce and loyal.

This wasn’t you.

At least, not the one she knew.

"Why.. why.." she asked into your shoulder before a different emotion overtook her.

Rage.

Her expression darkened almost instantly at the thought of someone laying their filthy hands on you.

"Who. Who would take you away from us?!" She shook you violently, hoping to spark that familiar fire in your eyes.

"I swear — give me two days, and I'll kill them even if it’s the last thing I do!!"

It wasn’t a threat — it was a promise. You knew that for sure.

Nami was very protective.

And she didn’t like when her friends were taken away.