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Luffy and Zoro has been sailing together for about a week now and Luffy couldn't be more happy. He wasn't alone anymore! Luffy looks over to his sleeping first mate and grins, letting out a snort of a laugh as Zoro shifts and promptly slams the back of his head into the side of the boat as he falls off of the bench he was laying on.
"OW! Shit!" Zoro exclaims over the sound of Luffy's cackling. Luffy doesn't miss the death stare that Zoro shoots in his direction as he doubles over from how hard he's laughing.
When Luffy eventually calms down, Zoro has already settled back down onto the bench, shooting one last glare in Luffy's direction before closing his eyes again.
Luffy smiles and turns to look out at the open sea, taking a deep breath of the salty air, the smell filling his nose. Luffy loves being on the open water. The first seventeen years of his life were spent on a tiny island in the middle of the East Blue doing pretty much nothing besides hanging out with Ace and Sabo when he was there too.
He had always wanted to be on the water, ever since he could remember. Wanting to spend his days exploring the seas and travelling to all kinds of new and exciting places. Staying in one place for a long time was never really his thing.
Luffy is drawn out of his thoughts when he suddenly spots an island off in the distance. He jumps up excitedly and shakes Zoro awake, much to the swordsmans complaint.
"What do you want, Luffy?" Zoro asks, voice still heavy from sleep. Luffy just beams and points towards where the island is.
"I wanna go there!" Zoro looks over to where Luffy is pointing and nods.
"Yeah, okay. Let's go. We could do with a restock anyway." Luffy lets out a cheer and jumps up, rocking the small boat slightly as he laughs. Zoro's hands fly out to cling to the edge of the boat as it sways side to side before stilling once more. Despite nearly getting flung into the sea, Zoro finds himself chuckling as Luffy cackles, shaking his head in amusement before grabbing the oars and starting to paddle while Luffy stands at the front of the boat.
Luffy grins, standing up with his arms wide and taking a deep breath of air before moving to sit cross legged, still staring out towards the island. He can't help but imagine what the island could be like as they approach.
When they get closer, Luffy let's out a gasp at the sight of snow slowly falling from the sky. Snow is usually very rare in the East Blue so Luffy let's out a noise of excitement as he catches a snowflake in his tongue. Too bad they don't have any warm clothes, maybe there will be a shop they-
"-me."
Luffy's thought process ends abruptly as he hears a voice. The captain turns but sees no-one. He shrugs and chalks it up to his imagination before hearing it again.
"-elp me."
Luffy looks around again and still finds no-one.
"Hey, Zoro," Luffy starts, turning towards the swordsman. "Do you hear that?"
Zoro turns to look at his captain with a confused tilt of his head. "Hear what?"
"Please, help me."
The voice is louder this time and Luffy has to place his hands over his ears to try and block the noise out but to no avail. They sound young, like a kid.
"Someone's calling for help, do you not hear that?" Luffy asks once more but Zoro just shakes his head, looking increasingly concerned.
"You alright, Luffy?" Zoro asks and Luffy nods as the voice quietens down.
"Let's just head to the island." Luffy says, feeling a pulling in his chest towards the direction of land that wasn't there before.
They get to the island quickly after that, Luffy practically jumping onto the shore when they tie the boat up to a nearby tree. There wasn't any visible dock so the island might be uninhabited.
The moment Luffy's foot touches the ground, the voice is back in his ears, louder than ever.
"Please, somebody! I'm so cold! Help me!"
The voice is wracked with sobs, clouding the words to the point that they wouldn't be distinguishable if it weren't for the sheer volume of them. Luffy clutches his ears again, the voice sounding like it's inside his head as he squeezes his eyes shut.
There's a weird feeling in his chest now, almost like he's being pulled by a string towards the voice, telling him to move deeper into the island.
Luffy starts to move, following the pulling instinct in his chest towards the rocky mountain that this island seems to be mostly made of. Maybe that's why it's so snowy here. Luffy shivers against the cold and wraps his arms around his body, taking off running towards the mountain, not able to hear Zoro calling after him before running after him.
The wind picks up as Luffy travels further inland, Zoro following closely behind him. The snowflakes like razors as against their skin due to the speed of the wind.
"Luffy! We should go back!" Zoro yells to be heard over the sound of the wind but Luffy shakes his head as the voice echos in his ears again, more desperate sounding this time.
"I can't! I have to help!" Luffy yells back and Zoro grabs his shoulders, stopping him from moving and forcing Luffy to look at him.
Zoro meets his captains eyes, full of desperate concern, and sighs. He's never going to be able to say no to this man, is he.
"Okay, just a little longer!" Luffy beams at this and takes off running again, followed closely by a cursing Zoro.
They reach the base of the mountain after a while and Luffy looks around, the pull in his chest feeling almost suffocating. To his side he eventually spots a small opening in the mountains base, just big enough to fit a child, an adult if they really tried. Luffy immediately scrambles towards it, falling to his knees in the snow in front of the opening and starting to crawl through it.
He's stopped by hands on his ankles pulling him back. He's met with Zoro once more.
The swordsman looks like he's about to start lecturing Luffy on why he shouldn't go in there when the voice speaks again. This time it sounds like it's being spoken out loud, albeit quiet over the noise of the wind.
"Please. Someone help me. I don't want to die here..."
Zoro looks towards the opening at the same time Luffy does.
"You heard it too this time." Luffy says and Zoro nods. That's all Luffy needs to start scrambling into the opening again, just about squeezing his body through. He's met on the other side by a small cavern, not even enough space to stand up in.
Luffy moves forward as the pull in his chest gets more insistent. He hears a grunt behind him as Zoro just barely gets through the entrance too, following his captain into the opening blindly.
"Hello! Is anyone there!?" Luffy calls out into the darkness of the cavern, lit just enough to see to the back wall, a couple metres into the cavern.
"Yes! Oh yes! I'm over here!" The voice calls and Luffy crawls over to the back of the cavern where a small collection of decently sized rocks sits. As he looks behind them, he's met by a small girl, not any older than five, huddled in the corner.
She has pale skin and light brown hair that's held up in a ponytail, a couple strands falling out next to her fringe. Luffy can just about make out the fact that her eyes are green and she has small freckles covering the bridge of her nose. Her ears are pointed at the tips and longer than normal. As Luffy moves closer, he sees how her leg is pinned by a rock.
The girl starts sobbing loudly with a smile on her as Luffy approaches, followed closely by Zoro, a constant stream of 'thank you' leaving her mouth.
"Hey, what's your name?" Luffy asks the little girl as he gestures at Zoro to check out the rock. Zoro nods and moves towards the girls leg, checking to see if the rock could be moved without causing her harm.
"I'm- I'm Sola." The girl, Sola, says through tears, looking up at Luffy with wide eyes.
"Okay Sola, I'm Luffy. What are you doing in here then?" Sola sniffs again and looks away, almost as if embarrassed.
"I like playing in here sometimes, I was with my brother when the walls started shaking and a rock fell on my leg. He went to go get help but our village is very far away from here." Sola explains as she sniffs again.
"How long ago did your brother leave?" Luffy asks and Sola seems to think for a moment.
"I'm not sure but I think about thirty minutes ago? Our village is on the other side of the big mountain so it takes about an hour to get there." Luffy nods and looks over to Zoro who gives a thumbs up.
"Okay perfect." Luffy says. That means that help is going to come, it's just going to be a while, they should be able to get her out of here long before that.
All of a sudden, the ground beneath them starts to rumble, the walls of the cavern begin to shake and small chunks of rock fall from the ceiling. Both Zoro and Luffy immediately move to cover Sola with their bodies, protecting her from the shower of rocks. The rumbling and shaking continues for a couple minutes before coming to a stop.
Luffy moves to check Sola over as Zoro pulls back to inspect the damage.
"Hey Luffy. Bad news." Zoro calls from where the entrance to the cavern is, or rather, was. The shaking caused the opening to cave in on itself, blocking their way out.
"It's okay. You said your brother went to get help, right?" Luffy asks, turning to Sola who nods.
"Yeah. We're just gonna have to wait a little." Luffy says, beckoning Zoro back over. "We'll get this rock off of you in the meantime, okay?" Sola nods as Zoro moves back to the rock.
"This might hurt a bit so I'm gonna need you yo be really brave, okay?" Luffy says, taking Sola's hands in his. Freezing. Probably not good.
Sola nods and furrows her eyebrows as she scrunches her eyes shut. Luffy nods towards Zoro who lifts the rock up with slight strain and places it off to the side. Sola winces and cries out before sucking her bottom lip into her mouth and huffing, opening one eye slightly to look at her leg. Luffy smiles as she puts on a brave face before shifting her leg from side to side.
Her face breaks out into a smile. "Hey! It doesn't hurt that bad!"
Luffy smiles back at her as he moves to sit down next to her, Zoro sitting on her other side.
Sola shivers as a gust of wind suddenly floods the cavern. Luffy looks up and sees a slight crack in the wall where the opening was, nowhere neat big enough to get out through, but enough to flood the cavern with snow and freezing air.
Luffy looks over to Zoro who seems to understand what he means to say without him even needing to say it.
"Hey, let's move over here, then we'll be a bit more protected from the cold, okay?" The swordsman says, looking over to the rocks at the back corner of the cavern a few feet from them. Sola nods as the shift, the space just big enough to fit the three of them. It is slightly less cold over here, the wind not hitting them quite so directly.
Luffy is sat with his back to the wall, Sola in his lap so that she can get the most out of his body heat, anything to try and calm her shivering. Zoro is to Luffy's side, the side thats open to the rest of the cavern, also pressed close to try and share body heat.
Luffy takes this as an opportunity to look Sola over, the light from the crack in the wall providing enough that he can see. He checks her leg first, and apart from some scraped and a little bleeding, it seems to be okay. He checks her over for any other injuries but can't find any so that's good.
The most concerning thing is that her lips seem to be turning a shade of blue.
It only gets colder as they wait.
Sola's shivering only gets worse as they sit there and as much as he tries to hide it, Zoro has also started shaking. Luffy pulls the both of them closer, letting his naturally higher body temperature help to try and warm them up a little.
"Hey S-Sola?" Luffy starts, hoping to distract the poor girl from the cold.
"Y-yeah?" She stutters and Luffy feels he should be concerned about that.
"Do you know wh-why I could hear you all the w-way out on the s-sea?" Luffy asks, making both Zoro and Sola look at him.
"I don't think I w-was doing an-anything." Sola says, looking like she's thinking for a moment, before shaking her head. "I was just pr-praying that s-someone wo-would come and he-help me while I was w-waiting for my br-brother."
"Wh-who knows then." Luffy says with a chuckle. "W-well it's a good th-thing I did hear you, cause now w-we are here to keep you sa-safe."
Sola smiles at that, shifting closer to Luffy and leaning her face on his chest. Luffy smiles and wraps his arms around her more. He looks over to Zoro who is starting to look bad. He's shivering a lot and his lips are definitely blue now. Luffy imagines his must be much of the same as he shivers against the cold.
"Hey Z-Zoro, gim-gimme your hand..." Luffy asks, holding his own hand out.
"Wh-what for...?" Zoro asks, words slurring together, looking towards Luffy sluggishly. Not good.
"Ju-just gimme, c-come on." Zoro huffs and places his hand in Luffy's, only to find himself staring at it as Luffy looks it over. Zoro's fingertips where almost white, a stark contrast to his usually tanned skin, and every so slightly blue.
"Shit..." Zoro mumbles, as Luffy quickly gestures for the swordsman to give him his other hand. Luffy also pulls Sola closer, covering her as best he can with his vest shirt.
Luffy takes Zoro's shaking hands in his own and clasps them together, the warmer skin of his palms against Zoro's fingertips to try and keep them warmer.
"Hey, M-Mister Luffy..?" Sola begins to say, her words also slurred. "I'm-I'm really ti-tired..."
"I-I know... Y-you gotta try and st-stay awake though, o-okay?" Luffy says, adressing both Sola and Zoro, who's eyelids have started to droop, his head falling onto Luffy's shoulder, his breathing slow and shallow.
Zoro winces as another gust of wind blows through, the air like knives on his skin. The swordsman looks down to his hands when they suddenly feel a little warmer. Luffy's palms, just for a moment, seemed to glow. It was so faint that Zoro would have chalked it up to his imagination if he hadn't seen it happen before.
Back on the last island they visited, when Luffy got heatstroke, he had done the same thing then, with that old doctor. Zoro hadn't thought much of it at the time, but he had heard the doctor say that his back felt better as they left.
Zoro snaps out of his thoughts as the razor sharp feeling of the wind on his skin seems to fade, leaving behind a dull buzz where there was previously sharp pain. Zoro shoots a look towards Luffy, who doesn't seem to have noticed anything, too busy keeping an eye on Sola.
Zoro winces again when, as quickly as the feeling faded, the sharp pain of the wind comes back full force as Luffy's palms return to normal. However, Zoro can't take his eyes off of Luffy long enough to feel the pain properly.
Who was this man?
Zoro quickly becomes aware of how little he actually knows about Luffy, they've only been together a week now and Zoro still has practically no information on the rubber man.
Still, Zoro can't help but think that he would follow Luffy to the ends of the earth if he wanted.
It's the last thought Zoro has as the world starts to go dark. He slumps forward against Luffy as he loses consciousness right at the same time as Sola does the same thing, going limp against Luffy's chest.
Luffy panics, he might not know much but he does know that falling asleep when you're this cold is not a good thing. Luffy lets go of Zoro's hands and grabs his shoulders, shaking him with a call of his name. The swordsman shows no response at all, falling limply when Luffy moves.
He can't lose Zoro, he can't. Luffy starts to shake with more than the cold, breathing heavily as he really begins to panic.
He can't be alone again.
He won't.
A warms starts to bloom in Luffy's chest, almost boiling him from the inside out as it spreads through his body. He can suddenly see clearly where he would need to hit the wall to get them out safely. So he does. Luffy pulls back his fist and punches at the solid rock wall with more strength than he remembers having before.
The wall cracks easily, making a sizeable opening and Luffy immediately starts to move. He gathers Zoro and Sola in his arms and rushes out of the cavern, suddenly feeling far too claustrophobic.
Luffy makes it outside quickly, looking down at Sola in his arm as he hauls Zoro over his shoulder. He feels light as a feather, barely even cold despite the violent wind whipping the air around him. He glances down at his white clothes, since when were they white?, and shakes his head, his hair feeling like it's floating off of his neck.
Luffy finds himself unable to hold back a laugh, snorting as he cackles, setting about walking through the snow that bends and warps under his feet. This is fun! The ground is almost bouncy, it's way easier to move like this. Why isn't the ground always bouncy?
Walking carefully on the suddenly malleable ground as to not jog Zoro and Sola too hard, Luffy laughs again, louder now.
Luffy walks for a while, must be at least an hour, until the silhouette of a group of people comes into view. The bubbling warmth in his chest begins to fade, making the cold air around him much more noticeable. The ground seems to return to solid icy snow, making walking seem like a lot more of a chore than it was earlier.
Stumbling, Luffy finds himself feeling a lot heavier, still holding onto Sola tightly and keeping a firm hold on Zoro's limp body.
Right as he starts to make out the faces of the group, Luffy collapses into the snow on his elbows and knees, careful not to crush Sola beneath himself.
"It's Sola! Come on guys!" Luffy hears someone say, a boy. Maybe it's Sola's brother? He moves Sola so she's laying carefully on the ground in front of him and, unable to hold himself up any longer, Luffy collapses bodily into the snow.
Luffy blinks his eyes open, sitting bolt upright and immediately searching for Zoro and Sola. He hears a gasp from his side before he suddenly has a lapfull of Sola who launches herself at him, crying as she hugs him tightly.
Luffy laughs and hugs her back, looking around as he does so, spotting Zoro in a chair next to his bed.
"How did we get here?" Luffy asks, turning to Zoro and gesturing to the medical looking room they're currently in.
"Apparently they found us in the snow, said you must have carried us. You don't remember?" Zoro explains. Luffy thinks back for a moment, but the last thing he can remember is Zoro and Sola passing out.
"No, don't remember doing that at all!" Luffy says with a laugh, brightening as Sola laughs too and Zoro struggles to hold back a chuckle, masking it as a cough. Luffy turns when he feels a small hand grab his arm and looks down.
He's greeted by the sight of a boy, around twelve or thirteen if Luffy has to guess. He looks absolutely identical to Sola, must be her brother.
"Thank you, for saving my sister." The boy says quietly, looking away. Luffy can't help but laugh slightly at the boys shyness. He perks up and lets out a small giggle, turning and smiling brightly up at Luffy.
"Eshan! There you are!" Sola exclaims as she jumps off of Luffy and into her brothers arms. The boy, Eshan, hugs her back quickly and mouths another thank you towards Luffy.
Luffy waits a moment for them to separate before speaking.
"Hey do you guys have any food? I'm starving." Luffy says before getting hit over the head by Zoro.
"You can't just ask that! They helped us!" Zoro sits on the edge of Luffy's bed, looking like he wants to check him over but is holding back. Luffy laughs and launches himself forward to hug Zoro tightly. Zoro barely even takes a second to react, instantly wrapping his arms around his captian.
"I was worried about you." Luffy confesses, and the gentle way the words are spoken lights a spark in Zoro's chest.
"No need to worry, I'm not going away that easily." Luffy smiles against the skin of Zoro's shoulder as the swordsman speaks. "I'll be with you till the end of the line."
"Promise?" Luffy asks, hugging Zoro just a little tighter.
"Promise." Zoro responds easily, like dedicating his life to Luffy was as simple as breathing. And it really was. Zoro would follow Luffy forever, he realised this back in the cavern. He's never going to leave this man's side.
They leave not so long after that, already having spent a couple days on the island while they were recovering. They say goodbye to a tearful Sola with a promise to come see her again some day. She and Eshan wave them off as they depart from the island with a refilled supply of food and water, a thank you from the villagers for saving Sola.
Luffy waves back enthusiastically as they sail off, eventually sitting down on the bench of the boat when Sola and Eshan leave his eye line.
"Did you mean what you said, back on the island. That you would follow me forever?" Luffy asks suddenly, making Zoro look up from where he was checking their new supplies.
"Of course. I wouldn't say something like that if I didn't mean it." Zoro says, turning back to keep checking the supplies.
Luffy beams, turning towards the open sea once more.
He smiles up at the sun and laughs, hearing Zoro let out a small chuckle from behind him.
He's not alone anymore.