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Luffy thought life was simple. It was supposed to be, it should have been, until recently he was mind-numbingly certain that it was. And maybe he was still sure it was simple, maybe there was just a worm in his brain now, worming around, making things more complicated. If the worm had a name, it would have been Zoro.
“ Roronoa Zoro ,” he grumbled to himself, deepening his voice and puffing up his shoulders and chest when he said it and then scowling at the array of sauces in front of him. Sanji had asked him to pick out a sauce he liked, and you know what else makes life complicated? Sauces. There are too many sauces, too many labels and words and colors and all of them look the same but different and the last time he tried to open and taste each one he got kicked out of the store. Nami was going to pummel him if he got them kicked out of another store.
One of the sauce bottles was green, and he reached for it, took it, then glared at it in his hand. He looked at it for a while, then got sad, heart sinking, and placed it back on the shelf before sighing. He really needed to make a decision, but it was a toughie. He knew sauce could make things taste better so he wanted to pick a good one, but he also had never made his own food beyond roasting fish or meat, so he didn’t know what he liked. Sanji knew but he’d asked Luffy to get it, having foolishly thought Luffy had any idea which one to choose.
It was all sauce, though, and Luffy was certain that in another life, another time, two weeks ago even, he would have simply snatched whichever one drew his eye first without worrying about it. But there was that worm in his brain now, the complicated worm that had introduced him to the concept of worry on a level with which he had never before contended with it.
He stuck his pinky finger in his ear, the idea of an actual worm being in his head giving him an urge to fish it out.
“Find anything good?” The voice made him jump, and suddenly Zoro was there, with his arms crossed, leaning all cool up against the sauces. Luffy glared at him. Worm.
“No,” Luffy narrowed his eyes as much as he could, wanting Zoro to know that he was annoyed with him.
Instead Zoro avoided his eyes, looked over his shoulder at the wall of sauce, and reached up and grabbed what appeared to be the first one that drew his eye.
“This’ll work,” Zoro said, and tossed it to him. Luffy tried to glare even harder when their eyes met for a moment, even catching the sauce bottle without flinching. But Zoro’s gaze didn’t linger on his long enough to get the picture, instead he turned and started to walk.
“Come on, Nami said we’re leaving,” Zoro said as he went, and Luffy was already following him, trying to send mental shockwaves of ‘ I’m annoyed at you ’ into the back of his head as he went. Zoro didn’t seem to pick up on any of them. It wasn’t until Nami and Sanji regrouped with them that he gave up on sending the shockwaves.
Sanji got his attention by snatching the sauce bottle from his hand, eyes narrowed at it.
“Seriously?”
“Zoro picked it,” Luffy gave credit where credit was due despite his mood, because something something Captain something.
“Right, I could have guessed that,” Sanji added it to a basket that was on a massive cart of foodstuffs he’d collected for their upcoming voyage.
“Fuck you,” Zoro said back to him.
“You coming?”
Luffy didn’t notice he’d been left behind, all up in his own head, until he realized Nami’s question was directed at him.
“Yeah,” Luffy said, and turned on his auto-pilot to trail after them.
It was just that everything had happened so fast on the last island. He got back to the ship ready to tell Sanji all about the meat he wanted. But then, Usopp had seemed so happy about something and he got distracted by wanting to know what it was. Then, Zoro did something to him. One second he was intrigued by what new shape he was going to learn to make with his hands— a shadow-puppet type deal, he thought. The next he’d been startled by sudden movement and shoved up against a wall and felt hot, all over.
He didn’t know a whole lot about what a kiss was, except that his life could be divided in half by a thin, fine line. On one side of it he didn’t like kissing, didn’t understand why someone would want it, only associated kisses with Makino or sometimes Grandpa when he got really drunk. Familial cheek and head kisses were a nuisance, and the prospect of on-the-lips ones was as uninteresting as an empty soup pot. He knew what they were, knew some people sought them out, but he didn’t know or give a damn why that was.
On the other side of that line was an abrupt but profound understanding, and an urge right along with it. Zoro had taken control of his arms, shoved him up against the wall, pressed up against him with his face so close. Like the flip of a switch, suddenly the only thing Luffy knew about kissing was that he was doing it to Zoro and it was awesome.
Zoro had seemed to like it too. He didn’t say much while they were— making out . But they did do just that, on the main deck in front of everyone which should have been exciting and fun but for Luffy it had become a bitter memory. Even though they kept it up for a while and Zoro was totally, eagerly kissing him back for most of it, once it was over, it was over.
Maybe if the marines hadn’t interrupted it and chased them off there would have been time to talk about it. Instead they had to throw all of their combined energy into high-tailing it out of there, and by the time Luffy had stopped mourning the delicious-looking lizard meat he’d never get to taste, it was like the kissing had never even happened.
When he was a kid, Luffy and his brothers had played a game. It was a very simple game, Ace’s idea, where they would throw a bunch of unwrapped straw high into the air and Luffy would have to grab as many pieces as he could with is rubber arms before they hit the ground. He had loved that game, and it was the seed of gum-gum gatling, but they’d only ever played it once. He’d had the time of his life grabbing those pieces of straw, being cheered on, counting up how many he’d managed to snatch by the end. But after that one day, no one else ever wanted to play it again.
It had been almost a week since he and Zoro had done that, and Luffy was beginning to accept that it was like the straw game. Something he had loved that he’d never ever get to do again because for some reason he was the only one who wanted to do it anymore.
And of course, people don’t ever need to do anything they don’t want to do, but what he didn’t get was why . No one else was made of rubber, so he was the only one who could enjoy rapid-fire snatching pieces of straw out of the air. It took him a while, but he got that now. He got why no one had wanted to play the straw game again. It had only been fun for him.
So… did that mean…?
“Luffy,” Zoro’s voice called his attention, and for a moment because it was all that was on his mind, Luffy thought Zoro was finally going to bring it up.
“Why are you eating that? You didn’t pay for it,” he said, and Luffy realized that his mouth was indeed full, and he was tasting something sweet and chewy, like taffy. When he pulled his hand away from his mouth and looked at what was in it, he was pretty sure it was taffy.
“No big deal, we haven’t paid yet,” Sanji said, and gestured to the clerk who was about to name a price for their haul, “add that on too, yeah?”
“Thanks, Sanji!” Luffy didn’t know where he’d gotten the taffy, but he was grateful it wasn’t a problem. Even if some people did seem to have some kind of problem.
“Just try not to get us in trouble for petty theft,” Zoro said, “it really draws attention to the whole notorious pirate thing you have going on.”
Luffy glared at him again, cheeks full of taffy, worm worm worm WORM WORM worm WORM!
WORM.
“You good?” Zoro asked him.
“Worm,” Luffy shrugged while chewing, and Zoro just looked at him like he was crazy, and then turned and started to follow after Sanji and Nami to the sound of the cart’s wheels rolling again.
“You’re pushing this the rest of the way to the ship, Mosshead,” Sanji assigned, stepping out of the way and allowing Zoro to reluctantly grab the handle.
“I’m not bringing it back after we unload,” Zoro informed.
“Of course you’re not, you’d never find your way back to the ship again,” Nami confirmed, giving him a patronizing pat on the shoulder, which Luffy appreciated.
“Haha, Zoro’s so dumb,” Luffy said, earning a concerned glance-back from all three of his companions. “What do you guys think Usopp’s up to? We’ve been out a while, do you think he missed us?” Luffy missed Usopp, he was funny and cool and he didn’t make things complicated.
“Luffy, are you good? You’re acting weirder than usual,” Nami said this without looking at him.
“I am so good,” Luffy answered, even though he was out of taffy and definitely not great.
“Okay,” Zoro snorted, and Luffy wanted to kick him. He was walking behind him and so he wanted to kick him in the butt, which had become a pleasant sight over the past week and yet somehow that made him even more keen on kicking it.
He didn’t actually do it it, but the urge was something new. He watched Sanji slow down a little and lean over to Nami and then whisper something into her ear. She made kind of an “ aah ” sound like whatever he said had given her a revelation and then everyone just kept walking. Luffy saw a pebble and kicked it.
“What the hell is Zoro doing?” Nami.
Luffy didn’t care about the answer to that question. For the first time in like ten days, he didn’t care at all what Zoro was doing, he had toquitos.
“Uh…”
From the corner of his eye Luffy saw Usopp shrinking into himself and Luffy still didn’t care.
“Are you fucking kidding me? He can’t just do that with you sitting right here…” Sanji’s voice was here now, “right, Nami?”
See, that was where Sanji was wrong. Zoro could do whatever he wanted, and it was fine, because Luffy had toquitos and they were flakey and crunchy on the outside and soft and melty on the inside.
“Is it better if he does it while he’s not sitting right here?” Nami again, and Luffy moaned as he chewed.
“Luffy!” Nami thwapped him on the shoulder, which was offensive and upsetting because he was just in the process of shoving more into his mouth to get the full effect and she’d really put a damper on that. He did look at her though, and when she gestured toward the bar, he looked there too.
Zoro was there, with a drink, like always, and he was smiling so Luffy’s eyes got stuck at the same time as chewed up bread, meat ,and cheese got stuck in his throat. He grabbed his water to wash it down but didn’t take his eyes off Zoro. He looked so shiny with the bar lights behind him, outlining his hair, lips, and earrings in a soft glow.
“Zoro,” Luffy smiled at the others as he pointed, a little high off just the sight and hoping they’d be able to relate.
“Luffy,” Nami reached across the table and put her hands on top of his, “he’s flirting with that guy.”
Luffy’s heart sunk, or maybe that was just the massive ball of food finally sinking into his stomach, he hoped it was the food. He looked back at the bar and saw a man he hadn’t noticed before there too, one that was standing awfully close to Zoro and talking to him. He had on a bright yellow shirt with orange splotches that may have been flowers. It really drew the eyes.
“No he’s not,” Luffy pulled his eyes away, “Zoro doesn’t flirt with guys.”
“Uh, I’m pretty sure he only flirts with guys,” Sanji said, and Usopp was nodding along.
“Okay, yeah, but not just any guys,” Luffy looked back at the pair at the bar, “not that guy,” he was sure of that much, at least.
“And even if he was, Zoro can do what he wants,” Luffy concluded, a little relieved that nothing was really going on at the bar and so he could get back to his eating.
“What? I thought you two were like, a thing. What do you mean he can do what he wants?” Sanji asked, eyes narrow.
“Aw, Sanji, you really do see love everywhere,” Luffy responded with fondness in his heart, and that seemed to be all Sanji had to say on the subject since he just made a face and then slouched in his chair.
“Wait, wait, wait, so you guys aren’t together?” Usopp was now the attacker.
“Come on guys, it’s none of our business…” Nami tried.
“But you hardcore made out with him in front of all of us, there was tongue , we all saw it—,”
“ Usopp ,” Nami warned.
“That was nothing,” Luffy said, confidently, “it was just something that happened,” he went on, “I guess, sometimes, when you kiss someone, it doesn’t mean you’re together or anything, it’s just…” Luffy looked at Zoro again, watched as he said something that made the other man walk away with disappointment on his face, “…it’s nothing,” he sighed.
“Oh, Luffy,” Nami put her hand on his again and squeezed. Usopp then put his hand on top of theirs and squeezed too, looking Luffy in the eyes like he was sad for some reason. Luffy was confused but he was glad they were all having a moment, except Sanji who maybe was grumpy.
The moment was interrupted by a fifth chair at the table being loudly pulled out, and then a big clunking sword-man falling into it in a slouch with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Struck out, huh?” Nami said to him.
“Yeah, he did,” Zoro mumbled and snatched Usopp’s drink and chugged it before Usopp could get a word out.
“Who’s strung out?” Luffy asked, but he was also ready to get back to eating. He didn’t get a response and that was fine because it would have been hard to answer with his mouth stuffed anyway.
Luffy was just coming down from Merry’s head ornament to tell Usopp about the huge wave that had splashed him right in the face when he heard the muffled sounds of shouting from the cabins as he passed them. The shouting was definitely Nami, though he couldn’t quite make out what she was saying.
He was the captain, so obviously if there was a concern of some kind, it was his business, so he made his way around to the door to go inside.
“I’m just saying that you should talk to him!”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“You’re so stubborn, it doesn’t make any se—,” and that was when Luffy walked into the room and she stopped there.
“Hey, Luffy,” Zoro greeted, calm, like Nami hadn’t just been yelling at him.
“Hey Zoro!” Luffy was a little relieved at the way it lightened the mood, but quickly realized that only Zoro was fine when Nami made a frustrated sound a stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door behind her.
“She’s mad,” Luffy observed.
“Yeah, she’s always got a stick up her ass about something…” Zoro muttered, and then turned over to collapse in his hammock.
“You should listen to her,” Luffy walked over to where he was and sat down on the ground cross-legged next to the hammock, “she cares about you.”
“I know,” Zoro said, and let his arm hang off the hammock on Luffy’s side, “she’s always cared a little too much.”
“No such thing,” Luffy grabbed Zoro’s hand and pulled it into his lap to fiddle with his fingers. Zoro’s hand twitched like it was surprised by the action for a moment but then it relaxed in his touch.
“Everything we’re doing is so massive, Luffy,” Zoro said, “it’s larger than life, just what I’m doing is, and then with what you’re doing on top of that…” he paused, “…we shouldn’t lose sight of it or get distracted with the details.”
“I’m never going to lose sight of my dream, no matter what else happens,” Luffy said.
“Well, not everyone’s as powerful as you,” Zoro said, and Luffy loved the soft sound of his voice on top of the words he was speaking and the glow of his smile even in the dark.
“The details are important, though, I think,” Luffy said, turning Zoro’s hand over to pick at the dirt under his fingernails, “I mean, most days are just details, right? And we can’t all just work out and sleep them away like you do. That would be so boring…”
“Oh, I see,” Zoro mumbled, “you think I’m boring,” he teased.
“No,” Luffy didn’t miss a moment with his objection to that, “you’re the most awesome guy I’ve ever met.”
Zoro opened his eyes and his smile disappeared, and Luffy watched his face as he thought about all of the different ways the statement he just made was true. Then he thought about the way Zoro’s mouth and body felt pressed up against his.
“Well, anyway,” Luffy stood up, his heart pounding and breath quickening for some reason, “you should listen to Nami,” he recommended, “she’s smart.”
“Uh…” was all Zoro got out as Luffy gave him his hand back.
“Have a nice nap,” Luffy said, and then he left the room feeling like he’d done good. He wasn’t mad at Zoro anymore, he understood now.
“What the hell is Luffy doing?”
Luffy heard Nami’s voice from down the bar, but he was a little distracted by the other man’s mouth against his at the moment. He kissed soft, slow, and Luffy felt him smile gently when their lips first touched which must’ve meant he liked it. Luffy didn’t know how much he liked it, but he was going to give it a few more seconds.
“You’re flirting with me, right?”
“Uh… yes?”
“Can you kiss me, then?”
“Uh… yes….”
“Looks like he’s making out with some guy,” Usopp responded. He’d been drunk for the past half-hour, which was funny as always.
“Oh my god, Luffy,” he could hear the clack clack clack of Nami’s heels on the floor and then the kissing ended when the guy was shoved off him. Luffy didn’t really mind, he’d been ready for it to be over.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Nami said, and then she kicked the guy in the shin when he tried to protest, and otherwise completely ignored him. “You can’t just kiss random strangers in a bar, you could catch something!”
“Sorry Nami…” Luffy found his drink and sipped it because the guy who was currently stumbling away from Nami’s wrath had tasted kind of funny. Nami had been a little too mean, he thought, but it was also kind of funny to watch him flee, and the way he was looking at Nami like she had horns was funny to.
It was all funny, until he bumped into someone’s chest while backing away, and Luffy’s eyes moved up to spot a head of green hair attached to that chest.
“Zoro!” He exclaimed, holding up his drink. He didn’t realize Zoro had been here too!
It took a few moments for Luffy to comprehend the next few things that happened, mostly because they were so sudden and came as such a surprise and he didn’t know why they were happening.
Zoro grabbed the guy who’d bumped into him by the throat, and started dragging him between tables toward the exit. Another guy tried to attack Zoro as he did this, but Zoro punched him out cold in one move. Normally, Luffy was all for joining in on a fight, but it all happened so fast, and it wasn’t like they were marines or bad people. Before he could even think about it Zoro was outside with the guy and out of sight, and Nami was running after him.
Usopp tried too, but as soon as he left the bar stool, he fell on his face, and the feeling that there was no time to help him up was finally setting in for Luffy as he hurried outside as well.
“Zoro, stop it! There’s a marine base in this town and we don’t need their attention!”
“I’m not going to kill him,” Zoro’s voice was slow and serious and then Luffy heard and “mmf” sound like someone had been hit.
“Zoro!” He exclaimed, rushing outside where he found the guy he’d been talking to on the ground with Zoro standing over him.
“Please, please, he didn’t tell me he had a –oof!” Zoro had kicked him in the gut again.
“Zoro!” Luffy shot his arm out and grabbed Zoro by the back of his shirt, dragging him back and away from the poor guy, whose only real crime was kind of not being that fun to kiss. Not as fun as Zoro had been, anyway.
Zoro jerked around, grabbed his rubber arm by the wrist, and threw it back at him.
“Fuck off, Luffy,” he said.
“No, I’m not going to fuck off,” he put fuck off in air quotes, “you beat this guy up for no reason—!”
Luffy didn’t get to finish the sentence before his back was shoved up against the outside of the tavern wall, and for a split second he saw himself instead shoved up against the wall on Merry’s main deck, then back to reality. In reality, Zoro’s face was still so close, his eyes so full of piercing anger, so pretty . He remembered what had happened the last time Zoro had gotten so close and pushed him against a wall.
“Oh, I’m in trouble,” he panicked, pawing at the hand Zoro had on his collar that was holding him still, trying to scoot out of Zoro’s hold but his feet just slid in the sand.
“Luffy,” Zoro asserted, catching his panicked attention and making Luffy freeze, “ why ?”
“Why what?” Luffy breathed out.
“Why this guy?”
“Because I thought I never would with you again?” Luffy blurted, because Zoro always made him feel so many complicated conflicting things and he wasn’t good for all of that so he needed to get away.
Still, even when Zoro released him, it was hard to retreat, hard not to stay lost in his eyes, and Zoro didn’t seem keen on ending that either. Luffy considered that perhaps, it never was the hand gripping the fabric of his shirt collar that had him trapped.
“Okay,” Zoro said.
“Okay?” Luffy questioned, and felt himself mindlessly leaning in ever so slightly.
“Okay,” Zoro repeated, and met him half way in another kiss that made him forget himself, close his eyes, live only in that feeling. It wasn’t like a cold crashing wave, but a slow, seeping warmth that crawled inside and stayed there. There was no way, no way in hell that five, ten, fifteen years from now when he was the King of the Pirates, this was going to be nothing more than a detail . Whatever this was, it was going to stand right beside, and just as tall as that.
“You people are insane!” A frantic voice from behind them. “I’m getting the marines!” Then he heard some fast-paced footsteps in the sand and would have loved to have stretched an arm out to stop him because that sounded bad but Zoro’s mouth was so soft and hot and he simply couldn’t be bothered.
“Guys, you heard that, we need to go!” Nami. No no no, no Nami no.
“What happened? Did I scare ‘em off…?” Usopp’s still drunk-sounding voice was here now too, “oh,” he said a second later, “this again?”
“No time to analyze, we have to go, now.”
A moment after she said that, Zoro was ripped off of Luffy, and maybe that was for the best because the marines may have been coming and that was probably the only way Luffy was ever going to let him go this time. Before he knew it Usopp was pushing him along and Nami was pushing Zoro along and then they were all running.
Luffy felt the wind whipping through his hair and let out a euphoric laugh and leapt into the air before landing back into a full-speed run. Zoro was keeping up beside him, he noticed by the clank clank clank of his swords.
“Zoro,” Luffy said to him, getting his attention immediately, with his lips all kiss swollen and his face all red.
“What?”
“Let’s do that more once we get back to the ship.”
“Yeah, okay.”