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“Hey.”
Dark eyes bored into Zoro’s the moment he lifted his head, irises with a simple, pure clarity he’d never seen before; like the rare moments of stillness on the ocean, when you could peer beneath the waves to the world underneath.
“They say you’re a bad guy,” the boy said, tilting his head slightly as he spoke, with a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth and baring his white teeth like he couldn’t keep it down.
“Yeah.” Zoro lifted his chin proudly as much as he could manage with his back hunched and tied to the wooden cross. “What do you want?”
“They left you out here to be publicly humiliated, huh.” He said that like it was funny; a lilt to his voice. “Are you actually strong?”
Zoro gritted his teeth, baring them back at him like a cornered dog. “Mind your own business.”
“My name’s Luffy.”
He would not, ever, mind his own business.
“What’s yours?”
He considered before he spoke, but with nothing to lose– tied up as he was– he answered. “Zoro.”
He waited for a flicker of any recognition to show up in Luffy’s eyes– his reputation always preceded him– but it didn’t come, so he continued. “Roronoa Zoro. The pirate hunter.”
“I'm Monkey D. Luffy. I'm going to be King of the Pirates.”
Zoro wondered if he was serious.
The sun caught Luffy’s straw hat, his smile stretching wide. “I’ll untie you if you promise to join my crew.”
“Your what?”
“My pirate crew.”
“Did you hear me? We’re not the best match. I’m a pirate hunter, not a–”
The sound of approaching Marines cut Zoro off, and he turned to see them rushing towards the gate to the yard.
“Look, I can’t. I made a promise to someone to become the greatest swordsman in the world.”
“Well, I’ve already decided you’re gonna be on my crew.”
“What? You can’t do that!”
“I hear you’re one of the best swordsmen around. I need only the best on my crew if I’m going to be King of the Pirates.”
Zoro tested the ropes again and found his arms as immobile as they’d been before. The Marines drew closer, and he didn’t have much choice.
“Fine, okay, I’ll join your crew. Untie me, okay?”
Luffy grinned, and his smile flashed brighter than the steel of any sword Zoro had ever seen. “Okay.”
—
Luffy seemed drawn to the sea, somehow.
It seemed typical for him. The way he rushed into danger headfirst, gravitating to wherever the action was most heightened– like a magnet for trouble. Luffy was made of contradictions; always stumbling into irony. The sea was his kryptonite, therefore it called to him.
“Get away from there,” Zoro would snap when Luffy leaned too far over the boat’s edge, reaching out to grab him by the back of the collar. “You’re freaking me out.”
Luffy would look at him with wide eyes, a mix of gratitude and pouty frustration reflected in the contrast between his smile and the knit of his brows. “But the fish,” he’d protest, grip tightening on the wooden lining of their little ship’s edge as he strained to lean forward.
“You can still look at them without leaning halfway out of the boat,” Zoro said, releasing the fabric of his shirt reluctantly and leaning back, ams crossed over his chest. “I don’t want to get my clothes soaked diving in after you.”
Luffy looked just a little surprised that Zoro would dive in after him. Zoro huffed and looked away, staring out at the horizon– it surprised himself, a little. He didn’t plan to care so much. Hadn’t even planned to stay after Luffy untied him, but he found himself staying anyway. Inexplicably.
Zoro’s eyes wandered, as if magnet-drawn, back to Luffy’s face. Watched him, quietly, as Luffy grinned down at the fish swimming below them with all the wonder of a child.
The grip his left hand had on Wado Ichimonji’s hilt by his side tightened, his instincts fighting off the twitching in his cheeks; Luffy’s smile was infectious in a way that was really starting to interfere with Zoro’s serious, cool-guy vibe.
His brows knit, tension forming wrinkles in his forehead as he watched Luffy lean a bit too far over the edge. His hands tensed, twitching towards him– ready to catch, to hold, ready to protect if he needed it. Willing to drag him up from the salty depths of the sea below them if he had to.
Luffy caught him watching, and his smile grew brighter when his eyes met Zoro’s.
—
Luffy found his favorite seat on the Going Merry the minute it became theirs– perched on her head, cross-legged between the sheep’s horns.
“I can see everything from up here,” he called down to Zoro, voice breathy with excitement. “And the sea is so clear– there’s so many fish!”
“A lot more exciting than the view we had on that little ship before, huh?”
“Yeah!” Luffy turned back to the horizon, moving his hat down to hang by its cord around his neck. The sun beamed down on him and he lifted his face to it, the light bathing his skin in a divine glow.
“I take it that’s your favorite spot?” Zoro’s teeth worried the inside of his lip as he eyed the curve of the figurehead, dipping sharply toward the ocean– a wrong move, or a cannonball blast to the side of the ship, and Luffy could be knocked down and into the sea. “Hey– be careful up there, okay?”
“I’ll be fine, Zoro!” Luffy said back, in a tone that sounded very much like don’t ruin my fun. “I’m not gonna fall!”
“Okay, sure.” Zoro held in his sigh.
Usopp passed him on the deck with a box in his arms as he continued loading their things onto the Merry. He clicked his tongue with an air of disapproval and Zoro shot him a look.
“You’re too protective, Zoro, he’ll be fine. He’s the captain, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Zoro’s eyes wandered back up to Luffy, the sun silhouetting him, making a corona around his dark hair like a halo. “I know,” he repeated quietly under his breath, to himself.
His captain could take care of himself, he knew that. Luffy radiated strength– a tangible energy, a power of some kind that Zoro could sense beneath his skin. It intensified when he was angry, or before he got into a fight, the raw energy blasting outwards and putting everyone on edge even when they weren’t quite sure of why. It made the hair on the back of Zoro’s neck stand up, his sense of danger going haywire by instinct, even though he knew it was only Luffy.
He could feel Luffy’s presence, even without looking. Even when his back was to him, his attention elsewhere, he could feel the shift in him implicitly. Like there was a string tugging inside his chest telling him where his captain was, he could feel Luffy’s body blooming, opening up to recklessly leak his strength into the air around him. Zoro could taste metal in his mouth, felt electricity giving him static shocks from his clothing– the cloying scent of salt and ozone burned his nose and unrest settled deep in his limbs, an instinctual fear of the power he felt.
It was only Luffy, he’d remind himself, thinking of his unrestrained grin, his mirthy giggle, his desire to protect and his unending kindness; no part of him instilled fear. Not in Zoro– (Zoro told himself)– not in anyone.
Zoro watched that change.
Straw Hat Luffy became a name that echoed across the sea, a name with a reputation that preceded him. A name that put terror in the eyes of Marines and admiration in young pirate upstarts, and a mix of both in everyone else.
He became the most wanted man in the Grand Line, then an Emperor of the Sea, then– then, something else.
Zoro couldn't put his finger on what that something else was.
All he knew was that after they left Wano– no, it was after they fought Kaido, even before everything that came after– something was just a little different about Luffy. Just a bit more unsettling spaciness in his eyes, or more looseness to his limbs, like they subtly stretched and retracted with every movement as easily as breathing. If you looked close enough, his skin and muscles rippled, body parts never seeming to stay quite the right length or size for long; as fluid and free as the sea.
After Zoro had seen his hair turn white, seen his body grow so large it blocked out the sun and made him shine divinely in the sky instead, and felt his presence change in a way even Luffy wasn’t sure about, maybe wasn’t even aware of–
It became harder, day by day, to sense the power running through his captain’s veins and still tell himself it was only Luffy.
—
Zoro’s heart dropped to his feet the first time he saw Luffy pitch overboard, back when they had just left Long Ring Long Land.
Even when it was the first time, Zoro knew it wouldn’t be the last. He panicked, jumping into action before his mind caught up to his body; he just barely remembered to untie his swords’ hilts from his waist before he dove over the railing. The icy shock of the sea hitting his face felt like nothing against the fear seizing his body.
It was Luffy, it was Luffy, he told himself, remembering that overwhelming power he could always feel from him, the strength in his blood, trying to believe he’d be fine, but suddenly–
Suddenly his captain didn’t feel so strong.
Suddenly he was Luffy again, only Luffy– only a teenage boy who couldn’t swim, frightened and flailing beneath the waves.
Zoro squinted through salty water and found the dark, sinking shape of his Luf– his captain, and reached down for him, desperately, his other arm and his wildly kicking legs propelling him deeper. His fingers found the fabric of Luffy’s shirt and pulled him up, closer– he wrapped his body in his arms and looked up to the sea’s surface, feeling like it was a hundred yards away.
The sunshine filtered down through the waves, dappling the ocean around him in shifting light, though not bright enough to let him see more than a few feet. The endlessness around him was so oppressively, opaquely blue that he couldn’t see a thing below or beside him; not a rock, a coral outcropping, not even a school of fish.
There was only silence, only the infinite deep under his feet, dark and unknowable. Clutching his captain to his chest, praying his breath was held and his mouth empty of water, Zoro looked down below him and felt a wave of fear stronger, perhaps, than anything he’d felt before.
Staring into the abyss where the deep blue faded into navy and then into black, where anything could be lurking, any monster or Sea King, Zoro didn’t find himself being afraid of them. Anything on the sea, or anything in the sea– pirates, sharks, Sea Kings, giant squids, poisonous fish, any aquatic horror one could imagine– that wasn’t what scared him. Those threats… they were knowable. Fightable. One sweep of his swords and no Sea King could hurt his captain, no pirate could take him– from those things, Zoro could protect him. From those things, Luffy hardly needed protection.
But this?
The water stung his eyes but Zoro couldn’t look away, couldn’t close them; the abyss sucked him down, making him sink any time the furious kicking of his legs slowed. Fighting to keep them both afloat, Zoro’s grip tightened on Luffy’s clothes, as if the sea would rip him away and drag him down any minute.
Against this, Zoro was powerless. Barely afloat, barely alive, his lungs aching as he ran out of breath, fighting a losing battle against a force more powerful than him. A fight Luffy didn’t even have a chance in, one that sapped his strength and claimed him the moment the salt touched his skin.
Terror felt tight and nauseating in Zoro’s gut– his mind filled with thoughts of Luffy falling overboard when he wasn’t there, when nobody was, and of how quickly he would sink into the empty, dark blue below them. Sinking as fast as a rock, bubbles floating to the surface as his mouth filled with seawater, not even popping above the waves until his body was too far down to reach. Powerless to fight, even to scream for help, Luffy would sink in silence and Zoro would be left with nothing.
Lifting his head to watch the faint sunlight coming down through the water, Zoro forced the last of his strength into his legs and kicked the two of them up towards it, resolve taking the place of his fear.
It would never happen on his watch. Not ever.
Pain shot through his chest, his lungs screaming for air, but he fought the instincts telling him to open his mouth and breath and hoped Luffy would do the same. Just as he felt his dizzy mind starting to blacken from lack of oxygen, Zoro’s head broke the surface of the water and he gasped a blissful breath of ocean air, lifting Luffy above the waves to do the same.
He didn’t hear an inhale, and his heart dropped.
Scrambling towards the side of the ship and grasping at the rope ladder Usopp had lowered, Zoro pulled himself up with one arm while the other stayed wrapped around Luffy’s waist. Luffy’s head lolled back, falling away from Zoro’s chest as he was jostled, and Zoro saw his eyes still closed. Wet hair stuck to his forehead, his lips pale and almost blue from the cold, and though they were parted, they didn’t move. Zoro could feel the stillness of his chest, the usual rise and fall absent.
“Usopp!” he cried, keeping a white-knuckle grip on the ladder with one hand and on Luffy with the other. After swimming down to get him, Zoro wasn’t strong enough to pull them both up to the ship with only one arm. “Usopp!”
His familiar face popped over the side of the Going Merry, eyes wide and concerned. “Yeah, Zoro? Is he okay?”
“Get– Get Sanji, get Robin, I don’t know– get anyone who can pull him up there. Now!”
Usopp looked panicked, but he backed up and a moment later, Zoro saw hands appearing from the side of the ship. Any other time, he would have flinched, still not used to the unsettling power their new crewmate had, but thoughts of Robin’s strange Devil Fruit were the last thing on his mind. She reached down for Luffy and Zoro hoisted him up and into her arms, a chain of them passing his limp and dripping body up to Usopp.
Zoro scrambled up the rope ladder, grateful when he felt his feet finally leave the sea, though the fear lingered, as if he was afraid the waves would reach up and snatch him and Luffy again.
“Luffy,” he said, the moment he half-jumped and half-toppled over the side of the railing, and he fell to his knees beside his still captain. “Luffy!”
Robin, leaning over him, placed two hands in the center of his chest and started pressing down rhythmically. A third hand of hers reached for Luffy’s face, patting his cheek, but his head lolled to the side with no reaction.
The terror came back, seizing Zoro’s chest and squeezing the breath from his lungs, making his eyes sting from more than just the sea’s saltwater. “Luffy?” he said again, quieter than before, more of a plea than a call. He reached for him and Robin moved her hand away from his face, letting Zoro’s replace it instead.
Luffy’s face was cold against his palm. Cold and wet, unresponsive to his touch, unchanging even when Zoro’s hand slid up into his soaked hair. Zoro ached to see those eyes open, to see Luffy’s dark pupils gazing back at him the way they always did; like he could see straight into Zoro, could see everything about him and loved everything he saw.
Every second felt like it took years to tick past, time dragging on as Robin pressed again and again on Luffy’s chest, trying to force the water from his lungs. Zoro felt the rest of the crew around him; Usopp standing anxiously behind Robin, rope ladder in hand as he reeled it up, trying to be useful; Nami a few feet away, her mouth covered in horror; Sanji watching with concern by the kitchen door, having rushed out when he heard the commotion; and Chopper, running up to Robin with fear in his face and a medical kit in his hand, desperate to help Luffy; but all Zoro could pay attention to was the face of his captain, longing to see any movement or any twitch that meant he was okay.
Chopper knelt beside Robin and they talked about some medical jargon Zoro didn’t understand, barely even heard past the rushing of blood from his pounding heart echoing in his ears. He at least leaned back to stay out of their way, but he couldn’t bring himself to take his hand away from Luffy’s face– just shifted around closer to the top of his head to give Chopper space to touch him, laying a hoof on his neck.
Zoro wanted to ask if he was okay, if he was going to be okay, if he would take a breath again and he’d see his captain smile again– but it was all too overwhelming, the fear too much, and he couldn’t get a single inhale past the lump in his throat, much less a question. He could see his terror reflected in Chopper’s face, too, hoof still on Luffy’s pulse point; even Robin’s concern had broken through her peaceful exterior and he could see it in her eyes.
Please, Zoro wanted to say; would have if he could. He would’ve let the tears fall freely if Sanji wasn’t watching, but he gritted his teeth and swallowed, forcing them down. Please, Luffy, come on, he thought, trying to scream the words into his captain’s head, trying to pull him back. Come on!
I can’t be the greatest swordsman without you!
Luffy stirred; Zoro’s heart nearly stopped.
Robin pressed on his chest harder and he let out a weak cough.
“Luffy!” Zoro said– it was echoed at the same time by Chopper and Nami, exclaiming his name with just as much excitement.
Luffy’s head turned to the side and he coughed again, water spilling from his lips. Robin helped him turn over and he continued hacking, his shoulders convulsing as he expelled it from his mouth. Zoro reached for him and laid his hand on Luffy’s upper back, just grateful to feel the stuttering breaths of his struggling lungs again– anything was better than that horrible stillness and silence.
Gasping between spluttering coughs, still splitting out water into a puddle on the deck, Luffy lifted his head to meet Zoro’s eyes. A shaky grin spread itself across his lips, and relief flooded Zoro’s chest. A tear escaped one of his eyes despite his suppression, and he quickly wiped it away before Sanji could see it.
Luffy opened his mouth to speak and broke into another cough; Zoro patted his back gently to help him through it, making him spit up more seawater. “Hey, th– thanks for saving me, Zoro.”
Zoro returned his smile. “Always, captain.”
—
He may have been able to guess, but could never have known at the time just how true that “always” would end up being. Time after time, Zoro would hear that telltale “Ah!” and a splash, and his instincts would kick in before his conscious mind registered what happened, sending him diving off the side of the boat.
It became so easy to forget that weakness of his, sometimes– with the strength Luffy possessed, power that bent reality and made him akin to a god, he felt invincible. It became so easy to forget how the sea sapped that strength; how the ocean itself rejected him, and dragged him down into its depths at the first chance it got, its waves like ruthless tentacles seeming hell-bent on taking his captain away.
Not even godhood made him safe from the sea.
When it became harder to tell himself that was only Luffy, when Luffy didn’t seem like he was quite just himself anymore, Zoro’s fear of the sea was always a stark reminder of how mortal Luffy really was.
Luffy never feared the sea. No matter how close he got to the railings, no matter how high the waves crested around the boat or how soaked in seawater he became, Zoro never saw a hint of fear in his eyes. Only fascination, a love for it– the ocean drew him in, like a siren begging him to drown.
Zoro’s vigilance, his caution, his quick reflexes the moment Luffy was too close or fell– they would keep Luffy safe, if Luffy wouldn’t do it himself.
As they left Wano behind, for what felt like the hundredth time Zoro dove overboard chasing the sinking shape among the waves. The choppy sea had rocked the Sunny, knocked Luffy from his perch, and as always his first mate came after him.
Zoro dragged Luffy from the sea’s grasp, hoisting him back up to their crew and watching with concern as he gasped precious oxygen and spit out seaweed. Reaching for him and laying a palm on his back just to find comfort in the rise and fall of his uneven breathing, Zoro noticed something new.
Along the side of his head, above his ear– a shock of white hair, just a few strands running through the black. Zoro felt a twist of something he couldn’t place in his stomach, a mix of confusion and awe, and unease at what Luffy had become.
“Zoro,” Luffy said weakly, still recovering– “I saw the most awesome fish down there. Will you let me go back down for a sec?”
Zoro shook his head and laughed. No, Luffy hadn’t changed at all. He was incorrigibly, unchangingly, only Luffy.