Chapter Text
Zoro's jaw cracked wide open to release a yawn, his chin never leaving his hand where it rested in his palm. Far below him, scores of people meandered about the town's central square. They looked almost like blurry ants at this distance, but he idly watched anyway, his eyes drifting from person to person in the hope of spotting anyone even remotely familiar.
His hat's brim and the tint of his goggles helped to keep the bright sun off his face and out of his eyes, which was fortunate, since the execution platform he sat slumped on lacked any sort of shade.
It also lacked wind shields, he reflected, as a swift breeze swept through the open air and set him to shivering. He rubbed at his arm in a vain attempt to warm up. His jacket's sleeves helped to reduce some of the chill, but he found that nowadays he never could keep warm for long, no matter how much he wore.
Zoro heaved a sigh. His first day free to go out on the town unsupervised, and he was having zero luck. At this rate, he was more likely to catch a cold than to catch a pirate, and where would that leave him? Grounded, definitely. Best to switch up his methods, then.
He gave the square one last searching look, and when he still didn’t spot any bountied heads, he grumbled and scooted back to the far edge of the platform, towards the ladder.
He descended it carefully, using his injured arm gingerly. It still couldn't take his full weight yet, and if he happened to lose his grip and sustained further "trauma," as the doc liked to say, he'd never hear the end of it. He was already without a doubt going to have his ear yelled off for using his free time to hunt pirates, so no need to stack one headache on another.
Except… as long as he kept his activities under wraps, it would be as though it never happened. A win-win for him.
Zoro let himself drop the last couple of feet down to the cobblestones. Walking around to the front of the execution platform's base, he adjusted the tilt of his hat's brim. Another good thing about wearing the outfit was that he could walk around wherever he pleased while avoiding any nagging or pestering questions. Case in point, he hadn't been bothered once the entire time he'd sat up on the platform.
After all, who would question the presence of a Marine in uniform?
As he walked Loguetown's busy streets, glancing at the faces of passersby and the various shopfronts lining the way, Zoro tried to put himself in the headspace of a pirate. If he were a seafaring criminal with a bounty on his head, where in this giant maze of a city would he be…?
His eyes glided past a bookstore with cherry wood furnishing and muted red carpets. He didn't read much, and he didn't see how being a pirate would change that, so that was likely a dead-end.
Continuing on, he passed by a gaudy boutique whose display cases were packed with jarringly colorful clothing. A redheaded woman stood in the entryway, busy sweet-talking a harried man ladened with a leaning tower of boxes and bags.
Zoro only let his eyes rest on the shop long enough to see it was named Antique House before resolutely striding past. He doubted pirates had much self-respect—being criminals and all—but even they surely had enough that they would never step foot in such an eyesore.
His search took him down dozens of turns leading through twisting, looping streets. It was busy enough that he had to lend some of his attention to avoiding bumping into any townspeople paused to peer into display windows or engaged in conversation. The atmosphere was lively and cheerful, and as he walked, several times he was thrown a smile or friendly wave.
Eventually, when he realized the main streets were too peaceable to be hiding wanted pirates, he resorted to poking his head into narrow, deserted alleys. That was the sort of place criminals liked to frequent, right? His brilliant idea revealed a handful of scruffy cats and a dozen reeking garbage bins, but nary a single pirate.
After what felt like an hour of walking, Zoro's energy was just about spent. He dropped down to slouch on a bench, pulling off his cap to scratch at his sweat-soaked hair.
Long strands clung stubbornly and uncomfortably to his forehead, and when swiping at them was only a marginally effective deterrent, he put an end to the matter by mulishly jamming his cap back on, trapping the hair out of the way.
One discomfort was soon traded for another: an itch flared as sweat inched along his scalp in the confined space. It didn't help that the air was getting warmer as the sun hung at its zenith, and the mild cloud cover boxed in the resulting heat.
What he wouldn't give for a chilled flagon of booze… but that wasn't something he could acquire until after he'd caught himself a pirate with a bounty.
He slumped back in his seat with a sigh. Maybe if he tried begging the doc to sign off on alcohol, he could finally get a drink without having to resort to all this sneaking around. If he'd have asked for a small allowance, he wouldn't have to bother with this pirate-hunting business, but that would've invited questions. What a headache…
Broken from his thoughts, Zoro glanced down when he noticed an insistent tugging on the pants fabric by his knee.
A little girl stood just off to the side, her wide eyes brimming with unshed tears and her bottom lip quivering. The cloth was pinched between her finger and thumb, and as she tugged at it again, she gave a short, sad sniff.
Shit.
"Woah, woah, don't cry!" He lurched forward to comfort the kid, but he quickly realized he had no idea how to do that. His hands hovered in the air hesitantly. "It's okay! Uh—are you hurt? What's wrong?" The girl didn't look hurt, but maybe she had one of those kinds of injuries you couldn't see? He wasn't equipped to deal with something like this!
She gave another—longer—sniff, and thick tears began to slide down her cheeks. "Papa…" she cried, her reedy voice catching on shuddering breaths.
"...Did you lose your dad?" Zoro hazarded a guess, careful to keep his voice low and gentle. He had to remember to keep a scowl from his face; he got enough comments as it was for apparently having a face that could make a baby cry. It wouldn't do to prove the rumors right. "Do you need help finding him?" he asked her.
The girl nodded dolefully, her blonde bangs bouncing on her face, the hair held out of the way of the wetness by a ponytail and two blue hair clips.
"Alright, okay…" he murmured, relieved it was simply an issue of a lost child. That made things simpler.
Zoro slowly stood up from the bench and cast his eyes around the crowded street. It was impossible to pick out anyone in particular with all the hustle and bustle. Maybe he could ask…?
He crouched before the girl, who was wiping away at her tears with a white and orange-striped sleeve. "My name's Zoro," he volunteered, hoping to make her a little more comfortable. She looked up at him with big, brown, watery eyes. Her cheeks were still tear-stained, but at least no more were falling. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Yu." She hiccupped. "I want Papa."
"We'll find him, Yu." He gave her head a reassuring pat. It seemed to help, as she blinked away the rest of the lingering tears. "Can you tell me what he looks like? We'll look for him together." He hadn't had any luck of his own in the way of finding people lately, but surely an anxious parent would be doing half the work, right?
Yu offered him a nod. "He's tall, like you, Mister," she said, sniffling. "We were going to buy ice cream, but then he wasn't there anymore. Papa says you're supposed to ask a Marine when you're lost."
"That's right, and you did a great job." It wasn't lying, but it wasn't telling the full truth either. All in all, she was at least right in the spirit of things. He pulled free the blue uniform kerchief he'd tied around his bicep over his jacket sleeve, saying, "So, don't cry, alright? We'll find your dad soon, and then you can have all the ice cream you want."
Encouragingly, her face broke out into a small smile at that. Maybe this wasn't so hard after all.
"A hundred scoops, even," he thought to add with a wink. She giggled—the tinkling sound high and bright—and he used the kerchief to gently wipe away the tear stains from her cheeks. When he finished, he took a moment to tie it back, and when he returned his attention to Yu, he saw that she was holding out her arms towards him.
"Papa lets me sit on his shoulders sometimes, and then I can see way up high," she explained eagerly.
"That's a good idea." With the added height, she might be able to spot her father even given how crowded the street was. "Keep an eye out, and let me know if you spot him, okay?"
She nodded with a smile, and as Zoro hoisted her up and plopped her onto his shoulders, she let out an elated giggle. His injured arm twinged at the effort required, but he ignored the slight pain in favor of placing steadying hands on her ankles.
"You ready?" he called up to her.
He saw Yu lean out to the side to catch his eye. "Yep!" she chirped. "Let's go that way!" With the hand not planted on his hat, she pointed up the street, where he could see above and far behind the rows of businesses loomed the island's low mountain. It was as good a direction as any, so he followed her lead and began a slow jaunt up the way.
As he walked—keeping an eye out for an aggrieved father—Zoro noticed he and Yu were gaining a bit of attention. Young women and couples that passed by watched them with smiles, some even waving up at Yu, who he could tell from the way she shifted on his shoulders waved back cheerfully.
If the captain could see him now, he'd be insufferable, Zoro mused, his cheeks burning. Best to keep this under wraps as well.
This also wasn't how he had anticipated his day going, but it sure beat hanging around the medical wing and being forced to sit through yet another lecture about not taking off his bandages.
He listened instead to an impassioned speech about the yummiest flavors of ice cream, the secret spot in the park that was always the nicest to sit at and eat, and the funny faces Yu's father made when he ate his ice cream too fast.
Zoro glanced up at Yu's beaming face from the corner of his eye, watching her pause her story about her favorite, lucky hairpins to instead giggle at the sight of a dog trotting past, and then at a grumbling man and his amusing struggle to lug an enormous blue fish with large tusks and bulging eyes.
A passing idea came to Zoro, so he adjusted his grip on the girl's ankles before taking a quick, hopping step.
At the sudden movement, Yu was bounced slightly into the air with a startled gasp, and when she dropped back onto his shoulders, she burst out into gleeful laughter and patted insistently at his hat for a repeat performance. Smiling, Zoro obliged, to Yu's delight.
(Yeah, this wasn't bad at all.)
