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Nami’s always busy these days, working on maps, keeping the Going Merry on track towards the next island, making sure her crew mates are safe in the unsure world of the Grand Line. She likes the work, feels validated by her efforts when Luffy crows about how smart and skilled she is. The others always make sure to congratulate her too when she gets them out of a messy situation, but Luffy’s unabashed belief in her manages to touch that small piece of her heart that will always remember Arlong.
Still, as much as she likes hard work, even she needs a break from time to time. The room is getting stuffy and small and there’s no one around to tell her she can’t take a break. Putting aside her cartography tools, she stands from her desk and stretches before deciding to take a walk.
After Drum Kingdom, they’ve been slowly working their way towards Alabasta and it’s been nice having Vivi onboard. Another woman’s presence was sorely missed, but for now she just wants to wander on the caravel.
As she heads up to check on her trees, she hears muffled giggling that sounds an awful lot like Luffy before someone shushes him. He’s always had a fascination for the orange trees. Or, perhaps more accurately, a fascination with stealing her oranges and getting away with it (though with her sharp eye and Sanji’s declaration to protect them, he’s got about a 0% success rate.)
She sighs and shakes her head. He never does learn, does he? Though, she is curious about his partner in crime this time around so she slows down and quiets her footsteps. It’s probably Usopp. Or maybe Chopper. They’re both young and dumb enough to get roped into Luffy’s antics, and when it’s Chopper he’s almost cute enough for her to not get mad. Almost.
Peering around the trees, she spots Luffy sitting between the rows, peeling an orange and still quietly giggling. Angling her head, she just barely spots dark pants and boots and a tanned hand patiently held out to accept the slices of orange that Luffy passes over.
She frowns before heading over to them. “Zoro! Luffy!”
Luffy squeaks in surprise before shoving the remainder of the orange, peel and all, into his mouth to hide the evidence and Zoro snorts in amusement. Luffy makes a face as he swallows before attempting to look innocent. “Yeees, Nami?”
Nami sighs, rubbing her forehead. “I expect this from you, Luffy, but Zoro, you’re supposed to be more responsible than this!”
Zoro shrugs, completely nonchalant. “Luffy wanted to eat oranges. Captain’s orders. Nothing I could do.”
Nothing I could do, he says. She looks at him and he looks at Luffy, and she sees something she hadn’t expected. Something warm, almost like how Bellemere used to look at her, but different. It’s almost like how Sanji looks at women. Admiring, caring, tender... It’s so open on his face that she’s almost sure she’s imagining things - before he notices her staring and shuts down, making her positive it was real.
She tries to be mad, but she’s still off balance from the softness she didn’t know Zoro could even feel, so she picks another two oranges and passes them off to the two boys.
“You get these and no more, you understand?” she says sternly to Luffy. He nods sharply with a salute. “Good.”
Then she turns and walks away back down to her cartography room, chancing a look back at the two of them as she goes and sees Zoro looking dopily at their idiot of a Captain again and she can’t smother her grin.
They need meat, again. He’s not sure why he’s being punished - even his sudden case of ‘I can’t leave the ship’ syndrome didn’t get him out of being sent onto the island to help with hunting for animals. If someone needs to go with Luffy and Zoro to make sure they don’t get lost, he doesn’t know why it has to be him of all people!
Of course he wants to be a brave warrior of the sea just like his dad, but he isn’t quite there yet, and frankly he thinks he’s going to end up dead from a heart attack before they even make it half way!
Honestly, if he’s being really, truly honest with himself… He’s not even sure his Captain and First Mate are even human. Even Sanji’s a beast when it comes to combat. After everything with Kuro, the Baratie, and Arlong, he’s pretty much positive that he and Nami are the only actual humans on the crew, so why is he the one stuck babysitting?!
Usopp looks up from his moping only to realize the other two had already wandered off, casually discussing what meat they want to eat more - massive tiger or even more massive bear.
“H-Hey, guys, wait for me!”
Luffy turns and shouts, “Hurry up, slow Usopp!”
There’s no way he’s letting them out of his sight, firstly because he would surely die to whatever creatures haunt the thick forest on this island, secondly because if he did somehow survive, Nami would skin him later anyways for leaving them alone.
An hour into the forest hike, he’s starting to get the feeling neither of them actually remember he’s there trailing along after them.
Luffy’s chattering incessantly about this and that and Usopp barely follows a word of it as he swings around from topic to topic: the weather, their next meal, Zoro’s swords and how cool they are, wondering about the Grand Line, a man named Shanks, back to their next meal - his head is spinning.
Zoro nods along with Luffy though, adding a few words here and there to prove he’s listening, grinning at their Captain as he gestures wildly to depict whatever story he’s telling now. Well, that’s the First Mate for you. Someone’s got to keep up with Luffy and it may as well be Zoro.
“They’ve got… a unique connection,” Nami had told him one day as he watched them spar on the deck without swords or rubber powers.
“Sure, they’re best friends right?”
Nami laughs. “Something like that.”
Luffy trips in the middle of a story about how he’d fallen down a ravine as a child and survived - only more proof he wasn’t actually human - and Zoro catches him. It’s not a quick hand on his back hauling him up by his shirt, but a full on, two arm grab around Luffy’s chest, bringing him back up and holding him against Zoro for a second longer than Usopp thinks is really necessary.
“Thanks Zoro!” Luffy chirps, bounding along further down the path when Zoro finally lets go of him. Usopp raises a brow at the look on Zoro’s face, the little smile curling on his face as he watches Luffy run off.
Then Zoro turns and stares sharply at Usopp, suddenly remembering he’s there, with an expression he’s not sure how to read. It’s guarded, like he’s daring Usopp to judge him for something, but what - about Luffy, maybe? As though he’d seen something Zoro hadn’t wanted him to… Ah. Oh?
He blinks. Special connection, huh. For once in his life, he doesn’t have any story or conversation planned out in his head. “Er… So you two…?”
Zoro sharply shakes his head. So he’s walking a one-way street. Usopp can commiserate with that, he thinks, because Kaya was always well meaning and sweet but he doesn’t think she ever really liked him quite the same way he liked her and that’s alright with him as long as she’s happy and safe. Abruptly, so many things about Zoro make sense.
“Oh. Well. It doesn’t matter either way,” Usopp says reasonably. “Even if I told anyone, which I won’t of course, but even if I did, no one would believe me anyways. I am a liar after all!”
Zoro watches him for a second longer before nodding, tension easing. He turns and keeps walking. “We should keep after him, who knows what trouble he’s getting into.”
The kitchen is his kingdom. It’s his haven. It’s his responsibility to keep it in tip-top shape, or else they’ll be left with no proper way to prepare food and he’d rather die than allow his pride as a chef to be dirtied by something as sinful as allowing his crewmates to go hungry.
He’s in the middle of scrubbing his cutting boards and pots when one of his least favourite crew members strolls casually in. “The hell do you want?”
Zoro sighs as though he’s pained, gritting out, “Was... wondering if you’d... make me something to eat.”
“And why would I?”
“Hungry,” he says simply, though Sanji isn’t quite sure if he should believe him or not. Him, asking Sanji for a favour? Suspicious. Extremely so.
“... Tsk. Maybe you wouldn’t be so hungry now if you didn’t let Luffy eat half of your lunch earlier,” Sanji says snidely, though the effect is lessened by the fact he’s already putting together a sandwich for the swordsman. He may be irritated and doubtful, but they’re stocked up on food and no matter how he feels he simply cannot allow one of his crewmates to go hungry.
“Yeah, yeah…”
“Don’t ‘yeah, yeah’ me. I already feed him more than enough! Keep your food to yourself next time, or you’ll upset my meal plans!” He does plan ahead for these things. He hadn’t worked at a chaotic restaurant like the Baratie feeding pirates, marines, and even nobles for most of his life just to have his crew do whatever they can to disrupt things.
Though, he giggles happily to himself, if it was Robin or Nami asking, he wouldn’t have to think twice.
“He said he wanted it and I didn’t need it,” Zoro grumbles, waving a hand as if to say ‘go faster’. Sanji nearly bites through his cigarette when he grinds his teeth in frustration. “So what’s the big deal?”
“Didn’t need it…?” he asks calmly before lashing a furious kick at the swordsman who barely dodges. “If you’re hungry now, you should have eaten then! Dumbass! Shitty moss-head! Don’t treat food so casually or I’ll kill you!”
Zoro scoffs, rolling his eyes.
If it weren’t for his pride as a chef… Sanji growls and mutters to himself, chewing on his cigarette before finishing the dish and handing it off to the swordsman who gives him a small nod and promptly heads off towards the deck. No ‘thank you’? Oh, that’s it.
Sanji quickly cleans his kitchen and sets the rest of the ingredients he hadn’t used away before stomping after him to give that shitty moss-head a piece of his mind. Throwing open the door and storming out on deck, he arrives just in time to see their Captain jumping happily while hugging that bastard - is that sandwich in Luffy’s hand now?
Zoro grins at the excitable man before looking Sanji’s way with an expression that screams ‘what the hell do you want?’
Sanji’s jaw drops. “ That was for you, shitty swordsman! ” is all he says before flying at the sentient cactus with a burning foot aimed straight at his face.
Naturally, it’s blocked with a quickly drawn sword, but Sanji’s ire isn’t so easy to quell this time. He’d been lied to, tricked! Luffy knew that Sanji would have refused to make him extra food after he’d already eaten half of someone else’s lunch - and for all that Sanji hates letting crewmembers grow hungry, he also knows when to draw a line over Luffy’s endless stomach. If he didn’t, they’d be eaten out of ship and home every day!
“Eh? Zoro,” Luffy complains slightly, “you should have told me you’re hungry too!”
Sanji stops his flurry of kicks and glares at their empty headed Captain. He scowls and opens his mouth to scold him, but Zoro speaks up first, shrugging mildly. “It’s fine, I’m not that hungry.”
“Not eating isn’t good! Right, Sanji?”
He grits his teeth. “It’s not good,” he forces out in agreement, knowing Luffy’s heart is in the right place.
Luffy hums thoughtfully. “Thennn… I’ll give you half of my sandwich!”
And he immediately pulls it apart and offers half of it to the shitty swordsman who’s smiling warmly at their Captain. Sanji blinks and rubs his eyes, but the warmth stays lingering on that damn Zoro’s face and he startles when he thinks that look is a tad too similar to how he looks at Nami and Robin.
He turns away, clicking his tongue and trying not to feel embarrassed at the obvious mooning he somehow hadn’t noticed before. Well, that was unexpected, but he’s a professional. If that moss-head thought he was going to get away with eating less just to feed the crush on his Captain, he’d have to start planning their portions even more closely. If Zoro would give away half of his food to Luffy, all he’d have to do is double the initial serving and lessen Luffy’s!
Sanji cackles to himself, preening under his own genius.
“Hm… Sanji’s a little weird,” Luffy says behind him.
That shitty cactus snorts and hums in agreement.
“Shut the hell up, both of you!”
“Luffy, will you sit back down!?” Chopper yells for the tenth time already, and he’d barely gotten started.
The attack had been a surprise, the ship coming out of fog so thick they’d not even been able to see from end to end on Sunny let alone across the waters. The enemies had not been terribly strong. Sure, they were powerful enough that they’d made it this far on the Grand Line at least, but they’d clearly run across some trouble that had worn them down and left them weak and starving.
Really, it should have been a simple case for them to fight them off, and for the most part it had been. Luffy’d gone over on his own to mop up the enemy crew and things had been going smoothly - at least until Usopp had declared he could take out all of the enemies without looking and Luffy had taken it as a challenge.
Even the weakest, hungriest man in the Grand Line could apparently land a lucky sword blow onto their Captain if he was swinging around with his eyes shut.
Sanji and Zoro hadn’t even bothered going over to the enemy ship until they’d heard Luffy shout in pain, that’s how confident they’d been that Luffy could handle things. When they came back over with Luffy complaining about his arm and Zoro’s blade dripping red - and Chopper really didn’t want to see the state that Zoro left the enemy in, not with how angry the man seemed to be - Chopper ushered Luffy into the infirmary.
And now it was Chopper’s duty as the ship’s doctor to clean up and bandage Luffy’s thankfully shallow wound. If he’d just stay still.
“It doesn’t even hurt anymore, Chopper! I heal quick, ‘cause I’m made of rubber.” Then Luffy laughs and tries escaping from the infirmary again.
Scrambling to get his supplies back onto the table so he can chase after Luffy, he suddenly hears his Captain yelp in surprise before groaning. At the door Chopper sees Zoro holding Luffy sternly by the collar of his shirt and dragging him back into the room.
“Ah, thank you Zoro!” Chopper cheers as the swordsman drags the now grumpy Luffy back to him. “I promise I’ll be quick, Luffy, okay?”
“Gahhhhhh… Zoro! You’re supposed to help me!” Luffy complains but obligingly holds his arm out to be cleaned, stitched and bandaged. He could still get away if he really wanted to, everyone knows that, but Luffy listens to Zoro most of the time, so Chopper doesn’t waste a second.
“I am helping you, idiot,” Zoro huffs without any actual anger or irritation. “What if you get infected and your arm falls off?”
Luffy gawks in horror. “I didn’t think about that!”
“Well, there you go,” Zoro says, satisfied he’d made his point. “It’s my job to make sure you stay in one piece and Chopper’s to patch you up, so no more complaints out of you today. Understand?”
Luffy looks torn between arguing, but by the time he’s made his mind up and opened his mouth Chopper sighs and wipes his forehead. “All done!”
“Eh?!” Luffy looks down at his freshly bandaged arm with awe. “Wow, I didn’t even notice! Good job, Chopper! You’re an amazing doctor!”
Chopper wiggles in place grinning happily. “Ehehe, saying that won’t make me happy, dummy!”
Luffy laughs and Chopper picks up his tools and brings them over to the sink to wash and sterilize. Behind him, he can just barely overhear the two men talking quietly over the water. Then they fall utterly silent and a silent Luffy means a Luffy that’s getting up to something mischievous and he really doesn’t want to deal with that in his infirmary so he turns back around.
But Luffy isn’t getting up to anything. Zoro isn’t either. They’re just… standing there, staring at each other.
“You guys?” he asks cautiously, wondering if they’d been replaced by statues in the short time he hadn’t been looking. Then he notices Luffy holding his wounded arm. “Is your wound okay? Is it hurting?”
Luffy breaks the staring contest first, pointing at his bandages and grinning broadly. “Nah, it’s not hurting!” Then he laughs easily. “Not anymore, at least! Zoro fixed it, just like Makino used to!”
Zoro looks suspiciously red and avoids his eyes. Chopper waits for an explanation.
“He kissed it better!”
Zoro grimaces and hides his face with a hand, and he’s definitely red now.
Chopper tilts his head thoughtfully. “Oh, wow! A kiss that stops pain…? I never learned about this type of medicine from the Doctor or Doctorine! That’s incredible! Zoro, you were a doctor this whole time? Teach me!”
Zoro bursts out of the room and Luffy just laughs merrily at Chopper’s confusion.
For much of her life, there had not been a great deal of time to explore her hobbies or find things that she truly enjoyed, that brought her peace. Too much had been taken up by the constant fear that someone would recognize her or arrest her or betray her.
Now, though, on this handsome new ship built by the shipwright their Captain would not give up on (and that seems to be the trend around here, she smiles to herself), she finally relaxes. She breathes freely. And she indulges in hobbies that she never could before. She collects books and stories, things that would have weighed her down before that now she has a home for.
For some books, it is the archaeologist in her that spurs the thirst for more. Occasionally though she finds a book full of stories, fantastical tales with twists and turns and wonderful things that even their resident liar could not imagine. These books, she finds, are her favourite, for a rather specific reason.
“I have new stories to tell,” she smiles at the dinner table that evening after a rather successful shopping trip to a small, merchant island they’d stopped at for the evening.
Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper all brighten, eyes sparkling and all inhaling their dinners even more quickly, which was quite a feat for Luffy who already ate like a man starving. A solid warmth settles in her chest at their eagerness to hear her read to them and she finds herself eating a bit quicker herself, playfully chuckling when the chef swoons at her apparent delight in the meal he’d cooked.
She washes up first, picking out the newly purchased book from the girls’ room, and then heading to the library only to find four people waiting for her.
“Mr. Swordsman, you’ll be joining us?” she asks, quirking a brow. This was rather surprising. He’d shown up once or twice before, and she knew he’d listen if she told her stories on the ship’s deck as he did weight training, but it was a rare occurrence to be sure.
He turns to look at her and shrugs.
“Robin, Robin, what story today?” Luffy asks, bouncing excitedly, Chopper and Usopp echoing his question.
She looks at how Zoro settles himself down to sit nearly flush with their excited Captain, looking at Luffy from the corner of his eye with a small tilt to his lips. How interesting. Flipping the book opens, she skips past the short fantasy story she’d been planning on reading and instead finds the horror story she’d noticed while skimming it earlier.
She chuckles darkly and sees her three eager listeners share glances. “Today, I’ll be telling you the Legend of the Sacred Burning Beast.”
And so she begins spinning a tale of brave marines hunting after a dastardly villain who destroyed villages and whole mountains at a whim and gobbled up humans in the night - though, after some pestering by Luffy, she had agreeably changed the marines into brave pirates hunting for treasure instead.
It’s not very long, and obviously a quite embellished folk tale (and wouldn’t it be interesting to hear the actual events?), so it doesn’t take long for her to reach the climax of the story. At some point, Zoro had begun snoozing while sitting upright somehow.
“... and then,” she says quietly, her three frightened listeners leaning in to hear her more clearly. She smirks, raising the volume of her voice for effect, “from the thicket of trees, a giant, raging, burning tiger burst out at them, chasing them all the way out of the woods, with its mouth open and ready to devour them all!”
Usopp screeched, grabbing onto Chopper who had jumped into his arms. Luffy looked equally spooked and latched onto a suddenly awake Zoro. Robin smothered a grin when their resident swordsman looked a little too satisfied with his situation. She gently shuts the book.
“Well, how was that?” she asks politely.
Chopper makes a quiet, choked sound. Robin almost feels bad about scaring them.
Usopp recovers first, forcing a shaky grin even as he cowers with Chopper in his arms. “H-Hah! I wasn’t afraid whatsoever! In fact, I once defeated 100 sacred tigers when I was trapped -”
“That was so cool!” Luffy interrupts, squeezing Zoro tightly as if to emphasize how cool he thought it was. Or perhaps he was intending to use the swordsman as an example of coolness…? Robin wasn’t sure. And then the moment passes, Luffy releasing him and turning to the others, chattering excitedly.
Robin and Zoro watch them fondly, before she addresses him. “Will you be joining us again, Mr. Swordsman?”
He doesn’t look at her, instead staring at their Captain with softness etched into his face. After a few moments, he shrugs. “Sure. It was fun.”
She laughs gently behind her hand. Oh, seeing where this little crush goes would be interesting indeed.
Clang, clang, clang.
Franky loves the sound of pounding metal almost as much as he loves sawing wood, finds putting things together with his hands almost therapeutic. For too much of his life he’d refused to create, believing that more ill than good could come of it, that burying down Tom’s teachings would ensure he’d never hurt anyone else he cares for.
Luffy pops up out of nowhere just then as though he can hear his thoughts, casting his eyes over the large metal tubes he’s putting together. Franky can just about see the sparkles in his eyes.
“Are you making a bunch of giant cannons you can shoot us out of?!”
Franky stops in surprise, then laughs. He should have seen that curve ball coming. “Nah, Luffy-bro, it’s for a suuuuper special surprise tonight.”
“Ohh… What are they then? What do they do? They do shoot things right?”
“You betcha they shoot stuff!”
Luffy hums, tilting his head to get a different angle of the launchers that Franky’s bolting together, like that will help him understand. It doesn’t work - Franky can just about see the question marks popping up above his little Captain’s head, his face going red from thinking so hard, and he laughs.
“Just relax, Luffy-bro. You’ll see in an hour or two when it gets dark!”
“Aww…” Luffy pouts, slowly wandering away from the display, looking back now and then hopefully, like Franky will just break and tell him if he applies enough of his puppy-dog eyes. Franky just waves him off, grinning.
A few hours later as the sun goes down, as promised, he’s done putting everything together, just in time as Usopp starts hauling some boxes full of colourfully wrapped tubes.
“Awright~! Let’s get this show going!” Franky cheers.
Usopp shouts for the rest of the crew to come out as he piles the tubes into the various launchers, the other crew members filing out onto the Thousand Sunny’s grassy deck. Sanji brings a spread of finger foods and some wine, setting aside Luffy’s portion and everyone else’s. Luffy almost doesn’t even notice, eagerly bouncing in place as he stares at their contraption.
“You guys ready?”
Robin and Nami settle themselves onto a blanket, tended to by an attentive Sanji, Chopper curling up on Robin’s lap, and Zoro standing back with his eyes trained on Luffy.
“Go for it!” Usopp cheers and Franky lights the tubes up.
They stand back and a few seconds later they fire into the air before a loud pop sound rings out and the tubes explode into rings of colour, glittering over the water and stark against the night sky. Some of them spiral, some make shapes - Franky’s impressed when there’s a fireworks Chopper and mini-Merry painted in the sky. They vanish shortly, before a new round replaces them.
The crew seem stunned. Robin recovers first, clapping with a few pairs of hands sprouting from the ground. Nami, Sanji, and Chopper all cheer and damnit Franky loves these guys!
Looking at the Captain, he sees Luffy’s jaw has dropped to the floor, literally. It takes a few long moments, but when he finally comes back to himself, he hops around the crew excitedly, pointing up at the explosions of colour in the sky with stars in his eyes. “Oh, wow! Franky! Zoro! Everyone! Look!”
“We’re lookin’, bro!” Franky strikes his pose. “It’s our SUPER special fireworks surprise!”
“Wow, wow, wow! What’s it for?! Did something happen?”
Franky and Usopp turn to look at the guy who’d requested this all in the first place - Zoro. It had been a surprise when the swordsman had pulled them aside and asked them if they could do it, which of course they could, Franky can build anything and Usopp is a genius when it came to putting gunpowder together!
Luffy follows their eyes. “Oh, Zoro?”
Zoro shrugs, sternly avoiding their gaze. “Your insane old man happened to let me know your birthday was coming up. So…” He shrugs again. He looks at Luffy and Franky wonders if everyone else can see the warmth exuding from the swordsman, all of it aimed directly at Luffy. “So, happy birthday.”
Luffy jumps at him, grinning from ear to ear, then Usopp, then Franky, then back to Zoro who doesn’t even bother pretending to be annoyed at the attention, hugging him back just as tightly. Franky does not cry at the beautiful, manly love Zoro displays - he doesn’t! He’s just got gunpowder in his eyes!
After so, so very long drifting the seas, Brook is loath to be alone for too long at a time. He seeks out company, warmth, even if that’s just sitting next to a quietly reading Robin or listening to the fantastical stories their resident sniper spins as easily as he breathes. It’s a unique crew, and typically there’s always something going on to occupy his mind.
He’d had his taste of freedom and stardom during their two year separation, but there is simply something special that the Straw Hats could provide that no one else could. It’s friendship, the easy way they talk to and touch one another, the type of skinship he’d had with his old crew - though he doesn’t have any skin!
Sometimes it’s baffling to him how easily they had allowed him into their crew despite the protests at first, how easily he’d fit into their odd, rag-tag team as though they’d been waiting for him without realizing it.
He laughs - well! Luffy had been waiting for him. At one point, Zoro and Nami had both casually mentioned to him how much Luffy had wanted a musician for the crew, always mentioning it even before a doctor or a shipwright! What a strange man he is, but it makes Brook feel truly wanted.
And, befitting a man who had longed after a musician since perhaps the beginning of his pirate dreams, Brook often found himself being hounded after by Luffy to play a tune or sing a song for him. There is no rhyme nor reason to his requests, at least that he can tell, but he obliges every time nonetheless.
“Brooooook!” Luffy chimes in as he chats with Sanji about the beautiful women they’d seen on their journey. “Song!”
“Yohoho, it seems I am being called!”
Sanji just nods before spying the swordsman trailing after the Captain who’s already heading to the music room, a sly grin crawling across his mouth. Brook wonders what on earth that could be about.
“Sing something nice and romantic,” Sanji winks at him.
Romantic, eh…? He chortles at the thought, as though his energetic captain would be satiated with something slow and sappy over something upbeat and as chaotic as himself.
Oh well! Off he goes to sing another tune at the behest of dear Luffy.
In the music room it’s just Luffy and Zoro waiting, sitting pressed against one another on the couch as Luffy chatters about a story Robin had told him earlier.
“Just the two of you today?” he queries.
“Mhm, I asked Zoro first and Zoro said he would but when we went and asked all the others, Robin said she was busy and Nami said she was busy and Chopper said he would come but then Usopp kidnapped him because he said he had ‘Can’t listen to music’ syndrome and needed Chopper to heal him, and Sanji couldn’t because he was cooking - but wasn’t he just with you? Weird. - and Franky started crying about manliness or something and couldn’t make it,” Luffy says all in one breath. Then he looks pensive. “Actually, doesn’t that seem weird? Are they avoiding me for some reason?”
Brook stares. Zoro scowls at him. Brook stares harder. Zoro looks at Luffy and then looks at the floor.
“... Yohohohohoooo! I see, I see! Though I don’t have eyes. Skull joke!”
Luffy laughs agreeably at his skeleton puns as he always does and Zoro rolls his eyes, fighting down a fond smile at their joyous Captain. Brook does see. He understands quite clearly now, what Sanji had meant.
Well, well, a romantic song it is then!
Two years… Two very, very long years. It’s been utter hell.
Their reunion is as chaotic as expected, and he’s happy to finally be back with his crew on the Thousand Sunny under their Captain. Luffy’s grown, muscles filled out and skin tanned, his shirt open and bluntly showing off a scar on his chest that makes Zoro’s own, long-healed chest scar hurt in sympathy.
His eyes are different too. There’s something firm and hard that reminds him of all the times he’d proudly declared he would be Pirate King, and when he’d seen his crewmates hurt and vowed to protect them. Unlike before, though, it never vanishes entirely. It stays in his eyes like a shadow. It’s loss. It’s a promise. Zoro takes that promise into himself too, to ensure what happened to Ace would never happen again.
And what happened to Luffy, all alone without Zoro and the others there, will never happen again. He’ll die first.
In the end, they don’t talk about what happened. Zoro wants to ask, wants to say a lot of things actually, but he doesn’t because Luffy doesn’t need that from him. Not right now.
“So, where did Kuma send you?” Luffy asks brightly, as though they hadn’t been ripped apart and kept that way for two years, as though they’d simply taken vacations and were now reuniting as if nothing had happened.
Zoro picks up right where they left off as easily as breathing. “You’ll never guess…”
The others look their way, save Chopper who’s happily munching on some cotton candy Sanji decided to give him as a treat. Zoro knows they’re wondering if he’ll finally admit it, if Luffy will accept him, but he dismisses them. Now isn’t the time. Luffy needs a First Mate and a friend, a pillar of unwavering support, and he’ll be that for him. His own feelings don’t need to get in the way of anything.
He talks about Perona and Mihawk and the baboons and the gloomy island and castle he’d lived in, and Luffy listens eagerly to all of it.
Zoro won’t say anything about his feelings, but… he wonders if Luffy knows.
When Luffy mentions Boa Hancock and how he had refused to marry her because she didn’t feel right and he looks at Zoro with those serious eyes, Zoro wonders if Luffy knows. If… If Luffy feels the same.
But he doesn’t ask. And Luffy doesn’t say. And that’s alright with him.
As long as they’re travelling together, where Zoro can watch his back and keep him safe with everything Mihawk had lashed into him over and over, and Zoro can be at his side when he’s Pirate King… He doesn’t need anything else. The only ways Luffy’s ever going to get rid of him is by Zoro’s death or by removing him from the crew, and maybe not even then.
Luffy hugs him tightly before he moves on to the rest of the crew, to get their stories, and Zoro feels alright for the first time in two years. A piece of him that had been missing and aching slots right back into him, and he sleeps peacefully knowing he’s back where he belongs.
Maybe when this is all over, when they’ve conquered the Grand Line and Luffy has taken his rightful place at the top of the world, maybe then he’ll be able to ask.
He wakes up smiling.