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The treasure chest they find buried on the last island that can be reached with a Log Pose is small and weathered. It takes Nami a moment to pick the rusty lock, and when the chest finally clanks open on the sand, they all gather around to peer down at it.
There is a small box that Luffy picks up and opens curiously. It is a compass, but it doesn't point North—its needle spins wildly before settling on a point behind the horizon. Luffy makes a curious noise.
Robin leans down to pick up the small piece of parchment that accompanies it. It is tattered, stained and yellowed from the years. She clears her throat and reads aloud: "Captain Jack Sparrow's compass points towards what its owner desires most in the world."
There's a stunned silence as they take that in.
"Does that mean it's pointing to Raftel!?" Luffy exclaims, lifting the compass to eye level.
"Can something like that really exist?" Nami wonders in awe.
"It looks pretty old," Luffy comments, before handing it over to their resident historian.
In her palm, the needle of the compass turns swiftly. "Hm, curious," she notes. "Only someone who truly wants to get there will be able to. I've never heard of a pirate named Jack Sparrow, though."
She passes it to Brook, and when the needle settles he looks up in the direction it points to. "Oh, Laboon..." Brook rests a bony hand over his empty ribcage. "Please wait for me just a little bit longer."
He passes it to the next person, and Zoro lifts a hand to take it. It goes a little haywire before pointing right in front of him.
"Is it pointing to where Hawk Eyes is?" Luffy asks with excitement.
Zoro stares at the needle, and when Luffy crosses their small circle to stand next to him and take a look, the needle follows his movement. Zoro clamps the damned thing shut. "Shit's broken," he mutters before throwing it at Usopp, who fumbles to catch it.
"Hey, be careful with it!" Nami snaps.
"Marimo just doesn't know what he wants," the cook goads.
"I know what I-"
Nami interrupts the budding fight by waving her arms between the two of them and taking the compass, ignoring Usopp's noise of complaint. "Anyways, this is the best choice we have." She turns towards Luffy and hands the compass back. "Captain, our course?"
"To the One Piece!" Luffy exclaims, and the rest of the crew agree enthusiastically.
Luffy sits on the figurehead of the Thousand Sunny, playing with the little box absent-mindedly. They've lowered the anchor for the night already, but this part of the sea is so exciting—so few people have ever sailed here. He feels like anything could happen at any moment. Still, there is something else that has been nagging at him since the afternoon...
"Zoro?" he calls into the dark—quietly, so as not to disturb the ones that are already slumbering. He knows Zoro's listening out for him anyways, in case he slips and falls in the water. And sure enough, he hears someone plop up the stairs to the foredeck.
"What is it?" Zoro asks gently, matching his tone.
Luffy slides down the figurehead, sandals slapping the deck. Without a word, he grabs Zoro's hand and plops the compass in it.
"Ah-" Zoro noises in complaint. Luffy skips around him once, and the needle spins once in a perfect circle.
"It really is pointing at me!" Luffy exclaims before looking up at him with a puzzled look. "Zoro, why do you want me when I'm right here?"
A beat passes, and then with a blink and a quiet oh, Luffy realises what the words he's just spoken mean. A blush tints his cheeks.
Zoro about dies on the spot, but, well, at this point, there's not much he can say to save himself. So he waits, unmoving, to see what Luffy decides to do with that information.
"Hm," Luffy noises thoughtfully, nibbling on his bottom lip. Of course, there had always been something warm in Zoro's gaze; the fickle of a flame, igniting something in Luffy in return. But because of their promise, and because Zoro always keeps his word, he hadn't let himself dwell on it, had just accepted that was how things were between Captain and Swordsman; loyal to each other but to their goals most of all.
But now, this compass—his heart—wouldn't lead Zoro to his goal—just to Luffy, despite him already being an arm's length away.
"Well, in that case..." Luffy speaks, pocketing the compass and flicking the brim of his hat back to make it hang by his shoulders. "Zoro can have me if he wants me," he murmurs, just for his ears, and Zoro is only mortal—after years of yearning and longing for the man right in front of him, all he can do is push Luffy back a step to cage him between him and the balustrade and lean down to catch his mouth.
The kiss is mostly a graze of teeth, and an airy laugh escapes Luffy's lips. He leans his head back to grin up at him teasingly. "Zoro wants this more than being the greatest, huh?"
"Shut up," Zoro mutters without any bite and ducks down to latch his mouth to that tantalizing spot on his neck, just below his ear, and Luffy does quieten. The crash of the waves drowns out everything else as Zoro presses wet kisses down his throat, fueled by the fire burning inside of him and the urgency of something a long time coming.
"C'mon," Luffy murmurs after a while, sounding breathless and subdued, and he grabs Zoro's hand to pull him somewhere below deck. "Or else we'll lose our course."
this could be the end of everything
so why don't we go
somewhere only we know