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They’re all in high spirits as they set out to sea on that sunny afternoon. With a new ship and a fourth member to their crew, they’re finally beginning to feel like actual pirates.
Usopp seems like a decent guy — a coward and a liar, sure, but once they set sail, he seems to fit right in with the rest of them, making quick friends with both Luffy and Nami.
They have to spend a few hours with Nami instructing them on how exactly to sail this thing. Seems straightforward enough as long as they were given clear directions. Though of course Luffy zones out for half of it. Luckily Usopp seems eager to help out with anything pertaining to the ship and takes on the task of reexplaining everything to him after Nami’s patience had run out.
After taking way too much time to get everyone on the same page, they’re all eager to explore the remaining parts of ship they hadn’t had a chance to see.
Immediately Luffy’s eyes fall to what he probably thinks is the most interesting-looking point of entry, the hatch sitting by the main mast.
“What’s down this thing?” he wonders aloud, unlatching the wooden door to peer inside. On all fours, he stretches his rubbery neck down into the hole to get a better look before letting out a delighted laugh and snaps his neck back into place.
“Guys, you gotta come look down here!” he shouts at them before jumping inside. Zoro and Usopp follow to see what all his excitement is about, but Nami had already wandered off somewhere on her own.
They descend into a small paneled room, what Zoro quickly assumes is the sleeping quarters by the way Luffy greets them with a wide grin as he swings on a hammock hanging from the ceiling.
“Look at these! Isn’t this fun? We can sleep on ‘em!”
Usopp seems just as excited about it as Luffy, jumping onto a hammock of his own and it’s not long before the two of them get caught in a stupid game of trying to see who can push the other off first.
While the other two are distracted, Zoro takes a better look around the room. Aside from the hammocks, the room is also furnished with a couple couches, small tables, and a large chest sitting in the back corner. Underneath them, a large plush rug expands across half the room. It’s relatively simple, which Zoro prefers, and everything seems very well-maintained. Sleeping down here is definitely going to be much more comfortable than that little boat he and Luffy had been sharing the last couple weeks.
“Hey, what’s that?” Luffy points at a small wooden door on the wall beside them. Suddenly forgetting about their game, he jumps onto the couch to investigate it, jiggling the latch until the door swings open.
“I thought that’s where that door would lead,” a familiar voice says from inside.
“Huh? Nami? How’d you get in there?” Luffy peers into the room beyond the hole in the wall.
“There are stairs that lead down here from the storage room. By the way, I’m claiming this room as mine.”
“Okay,” he easily agrees and decides to invite himself in by stepping inside.
“Ew! Don’t step on my sofa with your dirty sandals!” she scolds him.
“Oh, whoops,” he chuckles, tossing his sandals back through the hole behind him.
With Luffy out of the way, Zoro and Usopp decide to take a peek for themselves.
“Woah,” Usopp marvels, “Looks nice in here!”
“Doesn’t it?” Nami beams, perched on a nearby sofa. “Kaya definitely has some great taste.”
The furniture in her room definitely looks a lot nicer than theirs, but Nami seems to care more about those types of things.
She turns to glare at Luffy, “I’m only letting you in here because the ship is new. You better not be coming in here all the time.”
Nothing in the room really seems to interest him anyways, turning his attention back to the hole in the wall with a toothy grin.
“Zoro, Usopp, watch out! I wanna try something funny.”
They step away from the small entrance, only to hear the approaching sound of running footsteps as Luffy dives through the hole and ends up somersaulting into the mast. Idiot.
Nami closes the door behind him, not before declaring that it was now to be used in emergencies only.
After more poking around the ship, they eventually end up back in the kitchen. They had already been in here before while learning how to steer the rudder, but hadn’t looked at much else in here yet.
Luffy makes the immediate decision that it’s a good time for dinner time, rummaging through the fridge and ration crates to see what food items were given to them. Though he’s shooed away as soon as Nami walks in. She says if they let Luffy dish out his own portions they risk going hungry for days. Actually, she has a good point.
Usopp ends up putting together a simple meal for them all — sandwiches, fruit, dried meat, and cheese. None of them are much experienced with cooking. Well, besides Nami, but she demanded to be “compensated for additional services” and fuck that.
But as they finish setting up the table, she gleefully pulls a couple bottles off the wine rack and places them in the middle of their spread.
A wide grin spreads on Zoro’s face, “Now we’re talking.”
They all gather ‘round, pouring out drinks and piling food onto their plates. For as simple as it is, everyone is more than eager to hurry up and eat.
But before that, Luffy throws up his mug in celebration of their newest members, shouting with a bright grin, “To Usopp and Going Merry!”
“Cheers!” The rest shout, clinking their mugs together and drinking to their small, but cheerful crew.
A fruity, floral taste coats Zoro’s tongue. Much too sweet for his liking, but he wasn’t about to sit here and complain about free booze.
“Hey, this is yummy!” Luffy exclaims as he peers into his mug. “I thought all booze tasted bad.”
He seems pleased with this discovery, slurping down another long sip before turning his attention to his food.
“Mmm,” Nami swirls her wine around with an appreciative grin. “This is really good.”
“Right?” Usopp agrees, “I used to drink this stuff all the time when I was a kid. Actually funny story about this wine, the grapes used to make it come from a vine so tall it reaches all the way up to the heavens.”
“Wha’? Fo’ rea’?” Luffy shouts, eyes wide and half a sandwich stuffed in his mouth.
“Mhm,” Usopp continues with a bullshit-knowing grin, “They say it takes about a hundred years to bring down just one basket of grapes.”
Zoro stares directly at the label reading Proudly harvested in the Gecko Island vineyards of the East Blue. Whatever. As long as they’re enjoying it.
Between mouthfuls of food, Luffy is quick to finish off his first drink, reaching across the table to grab the bottle and pour himself another. And after swallowing a huge chunk of cheese, he washes it down with yet another massive gulp of wine.
Zoro is pretty sure Luffy doesn’t have much experience with drinking. The couple times he asked Zoro for a taste of his stuff he would end up crinkling his nose and quickly lose interest.
“Oi, Luffy. That stuff’s probably stronger than you think.”
“Huh?” Luffy jiggles his cup a bit to watch the contents slosh about. “It’s really good though. Hey Zoro, how come you always drink that bad stuff?”
“It’s not bad!” Like this idiot would know anything about what’s good or not. “All I’m saying is take it easy. Have you ever drank before?”
Luffy stares blankly, “Yeah.”
Whatever then.
After their meal, they decide to move their little party out onto the deck, taking along the remainder of their booze plus a third bottle for good measure. Tomorrow they’d really start to make headway towards the Grand Line, so might as well relax and enjoy tonight.
A gentle, pleasant breeze whisks away the remaining heat of the day as the sun inches closer to the horizon. Though after getting caught up in Usopp’s tale about the time he saved his village from famine by catching a sea monster with nothing but a rusty hook and a dirty old sock he got from a passing traveler who hadn’t bathed for a hundred days or nights, Zoro hadn’t even realized the sun had already set.
Bullshit or not, something about his stories made it hard to stop listening. And it’s only about two drinks in that the alcohol is clearly getting to his head, slowly warping his tales to become even more exaggerated and unbelievable.
Of course Luffy is buying this shit, insisting tomorrow they gotta try it.
“I bet if we use Zoro’s smelly sock we’ll catch something even huger than Merry!” He starts cackling wildly at the thought and falls onto his side. Seems like he’s pretty tipsy as well.
Zoro doesn’t even get a chance to say that it’s stupid and won’t work because Luffy decides to derail everything with the idea that they should sing pirate songs because apparently all parties need to have music to be fun. Not for the first time, he brings up how much they need to find a musician. Though maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for times like these.
Only the two tipsy idiots seem keen on the idea, but it’s still kind of amusing to watch them clumsily dance around the deck as they belt out familiar tunes, most of which Zoro recognizes from hanging around in bars so often these past couple years.
Though in their stupid, drunken state, it’s not long before Luffy is tripping over Usopp’s feet and hits the deck laughing.
“Ah, I feel so weird,” he giggles and presses his palms against his temples to slowly shake his head from side to side. “I didn’t know being drunk felt like this.”
Then what the hell did Luffy mean when he said he drank before? That he’s just had a drink? Dumbass. Maybe Zoro should have phrased it differently.
Though he also didn’t expect Luffy to be this much of a lightweight. Zoro had been keeping up with them and didn’t even feel a buzz yet.
To his surprise, Nami doesn’t seem affected by it either. That or she’s just really good at hiding it. Regardless, she actually goes along with their playful antics, eventually accepting Luffy’s invitation to dance with him.
Since they had met, he had always felt like something was off about her, like she was hiding something from them, something more than just her distrust of pirates. But watching the way the three of them laugh together, he was starting to hope he was wrong about that.
It’s not long before Usopp and Nami reach their limit, unable to compete with Luffy’s boundless energy. Much to their captain’s disappointment, they both insist on needing a break.
“Zoro!” Luffy calls over, “Dance with me!”
“Not happening.”
“Boooring!” He marches over and grabs Zoro by the arm unoccupied with a beverage. “Come onnn!”
As Luffy starts annoyingly pulling on him, Zoro tries to yank his arm away, but in Luffy’s uncoordinated state he ends up getting dragged along with it, stumbling his way into Zoro and nearly kneeing him in the crotch.
“Oi, watch it, idiot! You’re gonna spill my drink!” He shoves Luffy off his lap, forcing his back to slam into the deck with a hard thud. A new spark of excitement flashes in his eyes as his boisterous laughter roars up at the night sky.
And with that that, Zoro knows to set aside his drink for safekeeping because as soon as Luffy is up he’s on him again, tugging at his limbs and ordering him to hurry up and move. Of course this guy would become even more of a pain to deal with once he’s intoxicated.
This definitely isn’t happening though, despite his captain’s excessively giddy demands. Luffy might have the high ground, towering over him with both of Zoro’s arms locked in his grip, but Zoro knows he has no real advantage here.
He hooks his boot around Luffy’s ankle, causing the other to stumble just enough for Zoro to twist his arms free, turning the tables on him by grabbing Luffy’s wrists in a tight hold.
“Hey!” Luffy shouts, growling playfully as he tries to wriggle himself free. After no luck with that, he starts pulling his arms furiously, stretching them out long as he digs his heels into the deck.
“Zorooo,” he whines, “Let go!”
Zoro smirks, “Aye, captain,” releasing him and consequently sends Luffy’s arms directly into his face.
He hadn’t even registered the other two had been watching them until they burst into laughter at the sight of their captain’s idiocy.
“Zoro’s mean!” Luffy rubs at his face where his fist had made contact, but his face never lost that mischievous little grin.
“That’s what you get,” Zoro tells him, probably feeling a bit too satisfied with himself.
Nami shakes her head at the two of them and mutters something under her breath, too far away for him to hear, but from the way Usopp audibly snorts and Nami elbows at his ribs to shut him up, Zoro decides he doesn’t want to know. Maybe those two were hitting it off too much. He takes a long drink and decides not to think about it.
Luckily they quickly move on from whatever the hell that was, as Nami decides it’s a good time to crack open the last bottle they brought out.
“Oi, Nami, gimme more! I wanna keep feeling funny!” Luffy scrambles his way over to them.
“You’re already crazy enough as it is,” Zoro calls after him, only to receive a cheeky look from his captain, who sticks out his tongue and snatches the bottle from Nami’s hand mid-pour.
“Hey!”
But before she has a chance to do anything about it, Luffy tips it back to start chugging straight from the bottle.
“Luffy!” Nami and Usopp scold in unison, but even in Luffy’s clumsy, drunken state he’s still agile enough to impede their efforts to seize it from him.
Eventually Nami manages to finally pry it out of his grip, but lets out an exasperated groan after checking it’s contents. He’d basically managed to down half of it. Shit. He’s probably had an entire bottle to himself at this point.
“Idiot! Look how much you wasted!” she grabs him by his vest and violently shakes him, but even as his head jostles about his wild laughter howls across the deck.
Usopp gapes at the bottle and turns to Luffy, “You know you can get sick from drinking too much, right?”
“Nuh-uh!” he argues, “I never got sick before.”
“Ugh, keep this away from him,” Angry heels storm across the deck before handing the booze over to Zoro. She sits herself beside him and they silently agree that the rest is for themselves, passing it between each other as the four of them eventually get lost in other conversation.
Somehow off the topic of Merry, Nami starts getting invested in what Usopp has to say about that girl, Kaya. She was a nice girl, and Zoro was definitely thankful for her generosity, but Usopp’s feelings about her wasn’t exactly a topic he found interesting.
And Luffy seems to agree with that sentiment. “Zorooo,” he calls, splayed out on the deck beside him. His speech was starting to slur, “Le’s play a game!”
“Idiot. We’re not kids.” If Luffy wanted to play around that was his deal, but someone’s actually got to have some sense around here.
Luffy reaches up to poke an obnoxious finger into his bicep. “Sometimes when I make you kinda mad then you wrestle me.”
That wasn’t playing. No way was he stupid enough to get sucked into Luffy’s games. It’s just that having a troublesome captain means sometimes you have to put him in his place. Zoro brushes the prodding hand off him and avoids coming up with a response by drinking more booze.
“Hey!” Luffy finally notices, “You guys’re bein’ greedy!” He extends a wiggly arm to reach for the bottle but it just flops into Zoro’s chest.
“Says you who just drank half of this.” Zoro flings the arm off of him again.
“Shishi, oh yeah,” he laughs with a crooked smile. “Zoro, ‘re you feelin’ funny?”
“No. It would take a lot more than this before I feel anything.” He’d made a conscious effort to build up a tolerance the last couple years. Letting this become a weakness wasn’t an option.
“Zoro, if you were funny — if you were funny like when’y’re stupid then I would like you ev’n more.”
“The hell does that even mean?” He’s most likely just talking nonsense at this point. Though Luffy offers him no clarification as he curls in on himself in a fit of giggles.
“You’re a handful,” Zoro snorts.
Luffy only proves his point by demanding, “Be stupid again.”
That does it. Zoro plucks the straw hat off his captain’s head tosses it across the deck.
“Hey, you big jerk!” Luffy squawks before worming his way over to retrieve it.
On the other side of him, Zoro feels the bottle being tugged out of his hand. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding onto it for a while now, but when he turns to hand it over, he’s met with a raised eyebrow and a thinks-she-knows-everything smile.
“It’s not like that.”
“Did I say anything?” she smirks before deciding the remaining booze is for herself, draining it all in one long swig. Bullshit. She knows what she’s doing.
He wasn’t sure what this was suddenly all about, but he had to shut these ideas down now. Zoro hadn’t even considered thinking about Luffy in that sort of way. Those sort of thoughts only serve as a distraction him from his goals. Luffy probably wouldn’t feel any different from that.
Sure, he would admit he was glad things turned out this way. The two weeks he’s been traveling with Luffy have already been some of the most interesting adventures he’s had so far. Despite the guy’s idiocy and rubbery weirdness, he was admittedly fun company to be around.
However, if it hadn’t been for his and Luffy’s agreement he would have never ended up coming along in the first place. It was clear from the day he started following him that their dreams are at forefront of everything. He’d respect Luffy’s dream if Luffy continued to respect his. Just because that’s how it is between them doesn’t mean she has to twist it to mean something else. It’s her fault for reading it wrong if she doesn’t get it.
“Luffy, you okay?” Nami’s concern breaks him out of his train of thought. He hadn’t even realized Luffy has been silent for a while now.
Luffy groans, clutching his stomach as he curls up like a pill bug, “Not feelin’ good.”
It’s probably all hitting him now.
His eyes squint shut as he takes in a sharp inhale through his nose, “Think I’m gonna puke.”
“Oh god,” Nami grimaces, “Please not right here.”
Zoro sighs, though he can’t say he’s surprised at this outcome, and wastes no time unfurling his curled up captain to drag him over to Merry’s railing. Luckily they make it just in time for Luffy to start vomiting overboard.
“This is why I said take it easy.”
His knuckles are white as he clings onto Merry for support and between his retching, he wails, “This isn’t fun anymore!”
Drooping himself further over the railing, Zoro quickly grabs the straw hat before it has a chance to plummet to it’s demise.
“No, Zorooo!” Luffy tries to reach back but his arm goes limp.
“It was going to fall into the ocean, idiot.”
Luffy looks back at him with watery eyes, “You saved it?”
What’s with that stupid look? Not like he was just gonna stand there and let it fall.
Once his wave of sickness has finally passed, Luffy slumps down against Merry’s railing, letting his limbs flop limply beside him almost like he’s melting into the deck.
It’s at that point Usopp comes over to join them, sitting himself beside Luffy and puts an arm around him. “How ya doin’ man?”
“This sucks!” Luffy chokes out and lets his head fall to Usopp’s shoulder.
“Yeah, why’d you start chugging the bottle?”
“’Cause I thought it’d be funny,” he regrettably groans.
Zoro turns at the sound of heels approaching on the deck behind him, but Nami stops a distance away with a glass in her hand.
“Is he done?” she asks.
“Looks like it for now.”
She closes the distance between them and crouches in front of Luffy, offering him the glass. “Here, Luffy, drink this.”
“No,” he slowly shakes his head, “No more drinkin’.”
“It’s just water,” she explains, “You need it right now.”
He takes it from her and brings it to his lips, taking a slow, shaky sip.
“All of it,” Zoro towers over him. Now that he’s learned his lesson maybe he’ll finally start listening.
The demands receive a groan of reluctance, but Luffy slowly drains it’s entire contents. He hands the glass back over to Nami before throwing his head back against the railing with a dull thud. “I don’ wanna be drunk no more!”
“You should get some sleep then,” Usopp pats his back, “By the time morning comes it’ll all be gone!” Then adds under his breath, “Though you might feel bad in a different way.”
Luffy wearily nods, “But ‘t’s hard t’ geddup.”
Nami and Usopp look up at Zoro expectantly. Again, Zoro sighs. How’d he end up with the task of carrying their stupid captain around when he gets himself into stupid situations? Day after day, jumping into the sea after him, dragging him around in a metal cage after he was messing around with that idiot clown, and apparently now carrying his ass to bed because he’s an impulsive idiot that doesn’t know what listening is.
He places Luffy’s hat back onto his head and reaches for his forearms to pull him off the floor. Luffy doesn’t resist to being moved, but once he’s on his feet he slumps into Zoro’s chest like a rubbery limp noodle.
“Come on. Stand up.” Zoro wraps Luffy’s arm around his shoulder and places a hand around his waist to steady him.
“’m standin’.”
He isn’t really, but Zoro has enough of a hold on him to slowly urge him towards the hatch leading down to the men’s quarters.
“Goodnight, Luffy!” the others call after them. Luffy only groans in response.
Getting him down the ladder is the real challenge, wrapping an arm around the other’s torso to keep hold on him while slowly descending below deck. It all looks very stupid.
Once they successfully make it down, Zoro flops him onto the nearest couch. He’s not even going to try to deal with getting Luffy in one of those hammocks right now.
Luffy lands on his back, hat falling off behind him and limbs spilling over the edge. Zoro picks the hat off the floor and places it up on the back of the couch.
“Don’t sleep like that,” he grabs Luffy’s shoulder to readjust him. “Sleep on your side in case you get sick again.”
“M’kay,” Luffy mumbles and rolls onto his side.
He stays quiet for a moment before looking up at Zoro with bleary eyes. “Zoro, ‘re you mad?”
“No, just think you’re an idiot.”
His eyebrows scrunch together and he pouts, “Thought it’d be fun ‘n now I hate it.”
Zoro eyes a blanket folded on a nearby table and makes the quick decision to toss it onto him. “You could have fun with it if you actually learned how to have restraint.”
“No,” he whines, pulling the blanket down to reveal a disgruntled face.
Zoro can’t help but snort out a laugh.
Luffy lets out a long exhale, placing his palms against his temples. His eyes squint shut and Zoro pretends not to notice the small stream form down his cheek. “Just want it t’ stop.”
“Go to sleep, Luffy.”
“’kay,” he sniffles and clutches the blanket close while he begins to drift away.
Zoro isn’t sure why he stays there. Maybe he’s already grown accustomed to watching his captain drift off every night in that little boat they used to share.
As Luffy’s soft snores begin to fill the silent room, his features begin to soften in that way that makes Zoro almost forget he has such a high-maintenance captain. And for a moment, Zoro wonders what it would be like to think about Luffy in that kind of way.