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The ever changing climate of the Grand Line means the descent of winter is always swift. A day of pleasant late-summer warmth has ended most abruptly in a night where several blankets piled on the bed are still not quite enough, and there’s a blizzard beating down upon the deck above their bedrooms.
While he doesn’t mind extremely cold weather, Luffy does mind being so cold in his bed that he wakes up and can’t get back to sleep. Wintery weather means making snowmen, snowball fights, delicious roasts for dinner and everybody piling into the library to drink cocoa afterwards. But when the weather changes so quickly that there’s no time to prepare for it, evenings like this are rough. The only sheets available are thin and made for summer, and Franky hasn’t gotten around to finishing Sunny’s internal heating system so the rooms remain cold no matter how many warm and breathing bodies they contain.
It would be easy enough to initiate second gear but Luffy wants to be warm and comfortable, not feverishly sweaty and ready for a fight. He shifts around awkwardly, attempting to get warm through movement, but unfortunately moves around so much that every turn pulls on the sheets, allowing cold air to rush into the gaps and pocket in his bed. Frustrated, he rolls heavily over onto his back.
Luffy hates not being able to sleep because he doesn’t particularly like napping during the day when there’s so much to do. Nakama to bother, sails to slide down, brilliant observations to make (“When a Sea King poops I bet it’s bigger than a whooole house- right, Robin?”), he’s got a lot of responsibilities to uphold being captain of the Straw Hats. Responsibilities which need a full night of sleep. A full night, damnit!
With chattering teeth, Luffy has woken in the middle of a night so cold that he could swear his breath is clouding in the air above him. He glares up at the dark ceiling, knowing he needs to figure out a solution; the longer he’s awake, the harder it’ll be to get back to sleep. Attempting to use his brain in such a way when already frustrated is quite a dangerous thing for the captain, but he’s willing to risk it if it means eventually nodding off again.
Luffy’s head feels light when he draws back his elbows and sits up, groggy as he looks around the room in the darkness of night. He’s probably gotten some sleep tonight but not nearly enough to wake up refreshed for tomorrow, he thinks, groaning quietly to himself. Luffy’s guessing it’s early morning, as it usually has been when he’s woken up before with this same grimy taste in his mouth. Ugh.
Jeez, but what to do about this awful cold! Shivering from accidentally leaving his bare shoulders uncovered, Luffy grabs at the paperthin blankets smothering his bed to throw them around his neck. Admittedly, wearing something slightly warmer than a thin vest and shorts would probably solve Luffy’s predicament, but he hasn’t quite figured that out just yet and is instead wondering what other sources of immediate heat he can find here in the room. Bottom lip stuck out a tad in thought, Luffy frowns.
He has several options. Zoro, while closest, is definitely a no-go. He’s a great size, broad and tall, but has never struck Luffy as the sorta guy to wanna share his bed space. He also tends to sleep naked, probably through getting too hot at night - there’ve been more than a few occasions when Luffy has been climbing into his bunk and noticed discarded boxer shorts on the floor by Zoro’s bed. Luffy also remembers seeing his first mate a couple of times before - even on the coldest nights of winter - with a leg hanging out of bed and the covers strewn low across his chest, tanned form sprawled and skewed where he has fallen asleep attempting to rid himself of some body heat. If it comes down to it, he doesn’t think Zoro would mind a whole lot if he asked, but. Eh. There’s probably someone better.
As a matter of fact, Chopper would be an awesome hot water bottle right now. Guaranteed to be cuddly thanks to that amazingly soft fur, too. The only problem is that he’s also pretty small. Too small, really, Luffy wants something more like a human blanket. Hm… well, there’s Franky, but Luffy isn’t sure about all that metal plating he’s got going on inside and he’s too big to comfortably fit in any one of their beds. When Luffy really, really squints, he can also see that there’s a black mass conspicuously missing from the corner of the room where his slightly bigger bunk is located. Apparently Franky isn’t even here tonight. Probably gone off to keep Robin company again, unless it’s his turn for lookout duty this week. Pah, that’s no use!
Sanji, on the other hand, is not nearly as cumbersomely big. An ideal candidate for sure. He even smells like food! Unfortunately, Luffy is quick to remember that Sanji has an inbuilt detection system which prevents male-shaped intruders from disturbing his personal bed space, having been active since that one time when he almost kissed Zoro. If Luffy so much as put a hand on Sanji’s bed he’d get his ass kicked right through to the deck above, and that’s not gonna help him get back to sleep, not at all!
Crossing his legs and grumpily drumming his fingers on the mattress, Luffy takes a break from thinking to sulk. But it’s in that very moment when genius strikes him, when he glances upwards from Sanji to the bunk above. Of course. Usopp is the PERFECT compromise, Luffy realises with a starry-eyed grin. He's warm, not too big or too small. Heck, Luffy has fallen asleep on him loads of times before and he’s never once complained! Yeah! Gonna get some sleep with Usopp!
It’s the perfect plan, right up until Luffy stretches his hand over to Usopp’s bunk to feel around for an arm to grab onto so he can pull himself over. Fumbling in the darkness, he squints – Eh? - when his fingertips brush against something far too soft, far too fuzzy to belong to any part of Usopp, even including his hair. “Wha-”
Chopper. That- that bastard! He took Chopper! “Aw, come on! Seriously!!” Luffy hisses, utterly infuriated as he whips his arm back. It’s impossible to see clearly without turning a lamp on, but apparently Usopp has had a similar idea to his captain and is using one small, cuddly and delightfully warm Chopper as a hot water bottle for the night. But, frustrating though it is, Luffy can’t bring himself to disturb them. Not when they’re both curled up and clearly sound asleep. Instead he sulkily drops his chin into his palm, mouth curling into a pouty frown. Now what he can do?
Well… there is one remaining option. Surely it couldn't hurt to at least give Zoro a try. He’s hardly gonna be mad about it like Sanji, if Luffy knows him as well as he thinks he does. And besides that, Zoro gets enough sleep during the day anyway. AND he’ll be warm. Perking up a bit at the thought of sharing with his first mate, and also feeling like he’s got nothing to lose, Luffy decides to drop his head down to try and convince the swordsman sleeping below him to share his bed for the night.
It’s a bit easier to see now that he’s been awake for a little while. What he can see tells Luffy that Zoro, while probably shirtless, doesn’t seem to have most of the covers thrown off him like usual and is laying on his front sleeping with his mouth wide open. Quickly concluding that he will do, Luffy whispers as loud as he can.
“Zoro. Oi.”
His neck is already stretched right down to the swordsman’s bed. Gripping onto the edge of his own bunk for support, Luffy leans his upside-down head closer and closer, stretching a bit further to better address him.
“Zoro. Psst. Zoro.”
Stirring, mumbling and gradually opening his eyes, Zoro’s heart constricts in his chest from the fright of having what is, for all intents and purposes, someone’s HEAD quite suddenly in his face. Gritting his teeth to silence a shriek into an incredibly well restrained ‘RGHGH’, Zoro jolts so far back into his bed that he almost falls out of it. Scrambling to sit up, he haphazardly throws an arm out toward the bedside table and flicks on the lamp, grimacing at the subsequent burst of brightness. Zoro furiously rubs his eyes, temper flaring as he faces the intruder, and is not at all surprised with what he finds. “For the love of- Luffy, what the hell are you doing?!” he snipes, and his heartbeat is doing some overtime to make up for having momentarily stopped.
“Hey,” Luffy greets him casually. “You naked?”
“Am I - ” Zoro balks. All at once he is wide awake. “What. No. Why would I be – ”
He controls the panic in his voice almost too well while subtly fumbling beneath the covers to check - okay good – and then with eyes narrowed and an eyebrow arched in sharp suspicion, he adds, “Are you?”
“No!” Luffy does a sort of laugh-choke. “I just- y’know- sometimes I see your shorts and- no, I mean-”
Zoro closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Luffy,” he sighs, “what do you want.”
Luffy purses his lips. He can force himself into Zoro’s bed and possibly maybe make Zoro mad, or he can wait a little longer, play it safe, and get a guaranteed offer. Putting on his best I-really-want-something whinge, Luffy decides to sniffle. “Want to lay with Zoro so I can get warm and go sleep ‘cause I woke up and it’s cold.”
Zoro is incredulous. “You want to lay with me. That's a joke, right,” he asks, though it's not really a question.
“What? No! I’ve done it with Usopp before – I mean, slept on his bed, y’know, with him! And I woulda done tonight but he’s stolen Chopper so now I can’t have either of them!” Luffy asserts, a little high pitched in his attempt to justify what he thinks is a perfectly reasonable request. “It’s cold in here, y’know!”
So it’s stupid o’clock in the morning, Usopp has stolen Chopper, and somehow this is all a problem because Luffy is cold. Yeah. Okay. That’s totally normal. Zoro scrutinises his captain, wanting to be absolutely sure that this isn’t some asshole prank because Luffy can be pretty convincing about this sort of bullshit when he wants to be. He glances sharply to the surrounding beds, confirming that everybody else is still asleep, and then back to the captain who now looks remarkably forlorn. Luffy’s gotten too good at making that damned face, Zoro thinks, frowning.
But he has mostly already resigned himself to the inevitable. Knows that fighting is futile at this point, when it's late and Luffy seems so set on sharing. “So… you wanna sleep here with me to stay warm?”
Zoro looks and sounds pretty unsure about it. Unsure, however, does not mean mad. Luffy can’t help offering him an only slightly sheepish grin to replace the dejected pout. “I’m real sorry to ask and all, but… yeah.”
Zoro is quiet while he apparently considers this. The room is no less cold for his consideration however, and a shiver shakes Luffy from his head down along his bare extended neck. By now it’s clear that his captain isn’t joking, but Zoro is hesitant nonetheless. He shifts uneasily, massaging his temples, disguising his discomfort as exasperation. “Do you have to?”
Luffy knows he’s difficult to resist when he pleads. Especially when he pleads to Zoro, who tends to weaken pretty easily when it comes to requests from and involving his captain. “Come on, Zoro, it’s freaking cold!” he says, just the right amount of coy playfulness mixed into whimpering desperation. The pout returns for the final punch, along with the same forlorn eyes. “Pleeeease. Just this one time!”
He knew this was coming – can see right through it, plain as day. In fact it’s enough to make him almost gag, both the act itself and the fact that it affects him at all. But Zoro relents because he really can’t help himself when that damned manipulative little asshole knows exactly which strings to pull to get his first mate compliant, exactly which faces make him melt and feel terrible for ever even thinking of saying no.
Zoro closes his eyes and, with just a small knot between his eyebrows, pulls back the covers. “Alright.”
Luffy doesn’t even pretend to act surprised when he gives the hushed exclamation of "Yessssss!", but at least he doesn’t have that dumbass pitiful look on his face anymore, at least now they can both go back to sleep.
He drops down to Zoro’s mattress with a moderate thud, earning a tired grumble which isn't nearly as annoyed as it should be. Hurriedly Luffy lies down, eager to settle in with Zoro and get warm, and then in the cold, silent, dimly-lit room, they’re facing each other. With a decent amount of space between them they can just about share Zoro’s pillow, and exchange an awkward smile as neither of them know what the other is okay with, where the boundaries are in this confined space. How Zoro is supposed to go about keeping Luffy warm. What they're supposed to say.
The light makes Zoro’s earrings shine and brings out the brown of Luffy’s eyes. Casts them both in soft light and shadow, in the warm colours of autumn. “Oi,” Luffy murmurs. “Your face is all red. You sure this is okay?”
Zoro takes a short breath ready to find an answer to this, but clearly the question is rhetorical; Luffy begins to scoot closer anyway, clearly not in need of an answer either way. He can’t help himself, not when the natural warmth of Zoro’s shirtless body radiates from him even while they’re separate. Usually, when he wakes Usopp up for the same sort of reason, Usopp just grabs him into a shameless cuddle and they laugh and tease each other about it. But things with Zoro are different; the swordsman seems frozen to the spot, afraid to move an inch and unsure of where to even look. Caught between wanting to just bypass the awkwardness and grab Zoro close and equally wanting to respect Zoro’s space, Luffy stops moving, lips pursed again and wishing desperately that this whole thing wasn't so awkward. Probably shoulda given this more thought...
But then, with a kind of resigned sigh, Zoro leans in and hoists the covers up and around Luffy’s shoulders as if about to pull him right in close. Instead he puts a hand flat on Luffy’s chest, pressing gently, maintaining a bit of distance. Luffy blinks. “Zoro?”
“Luffy,” he starts, eyebrows creased again. He's still not quite able to meet Luffy’s eyes. “Are you... I mean… if you’re that cold, I can. We can. Uh. ” Zoro doesn’t want to say cuddle because cuddle sounds like the kind of word Luffy would laugh at and forever make fun of him for saying. H…hold each other? Hug? God, this is excruciating, hopefully Luffy can fill in the blanks or make his own suggestion or initiate the next move himself, anything which means he doesn’t have to say any of the things which sound so stupid in his head.
Instead, when Zoro finally manages to look Luffy in the eye he’s met with silence and eyes which are big, brown, and… blank. About to quietly hiss-yell at his frustratingly uncooperative dumbass of a captain, suddenly Luffy's entire being seems to ripple from the force of another shiver skating across his body. His eyes squeeze shut and he starts to rub his own arms in an attempt to warm up, seeing as Zoro isn’t doing a very good job of it.
How can he be so cold? Zoro wonders, honestly amazed that a warm-blooded kid like Luffy could suffer this much. A guilty weight quickly fills his stomach, however, and then instinctively he finds himself cutting through the silent space between them, driven forward by the innate desire to protect his captain, and the knot of annoyance in his brow softens into concern. This is the responsibility which comes with being first mate, he tells himself, you’re not doing your job right if he’s come to you for help and you can’t give it. And while his motions are still with lingering hesitancy, Zoro immediately curves his arms around Luffy’s back – smaller than his own, smaller than he’d imagined – and forgoes his own embarrassment to pull him into a firm embrace. Luffy’s jaw fits neatly into the crook of his neck and, jeez, he really wasn’t kidding about being cold.
“Th-thanks,” Luffy murmurs, soft and relieved. The sound, wholly different from the whinging of coy deceit minutes earlier, makes something in Zoro give a little. His arms reflexively tighten until Luffy is pressed flush against him. And he can’t see the brown eyes widening in surprise or the touched, honest smile on his captain’s face, but he doesn’t need to to know that he is now comfortable; Luffy presses back unresistingly, allowing Zoro’s warmth to seep through his skin.
They remain close for a while until Luffy is no longer shiveringly cold, until they’re comfortable in one another’s presence and it doesn’t feel so awkward anymore. Zoro gently pushes him back, but keeps his arms loosely around his captain just in case. He wants to make sure that Luffy is alright.
“Better?” he asks, no longer hesitant or even embarrassed. Luffy’s eyes are hooded from tiredness, and the smile which faces Zoro this time is far more relaxed than the last.
“Yeah,” he mumbles, sleepily, honestly. “You’re really warm.”
The line of Zoro’s mouth pulls into a lopsided grin. “Good. Think we can get some sleep now?”
“Ah, right.” For a second, there’s a threat that the awkwardness from before is going to return, and worse this time because they’re that much closer. But Luffy is more confident now and able to say outright, unabashed, “I kinda go by Usopp’s side when I crash with him. But I think that’s ‘cause his nose would stab me at any other angle.”
Zoro laughs at this, the sound deep even while he keeps his voice quiet. “Well, that isn’t a problem here. But it is a problem that I’m on the edge of the bed while you’ve got all that space, captain.”
Blinking, Luffy glances over his shoulder. “Ah. Yeah.” His grin isn’t the least bit apologetic when he looks back around and says, “Sorry, Zoro.”
Zoro shakes his head. He wouldn't expect anything less. “Anyway, move over and turn around. We’ll go on our sides.”
With the help of the dim lamp light, they shift and turn into a more suitable position for shared sleeping. Arms and elbows get in the way here and there, but once they’re on their sides the two give an accomplished sigh, grateful to have moved without starting some kind of fight. Zoro is still too close to the edge for his liking, though, and squirms forward just enough to reclaim a few more inches of his bed. He bumps into Luffy’s back, and when Luffy makes no attempt whatsoever to move in kind, Zoro decides to stay right where he is. Might’ve been a better idea to sleep back to back, but this way he can at least make sure that his captain stays warm.
“Wow, I musta really scared Zoro for his heart to still be beating so fast,” Luffy chuckles quietly, and Zoro says nothing. Nestling his cheek into the pillow, Luffy squirms against the warmth of the swordsman’s chest pressed into his back. He can’t describe it all that well, but it feels pretty nice to have Zoro close like this.
After a while Zoro mumbles, “Gonna turn the light off,” and the warmth of his body leaves Luffy’s back for a few seconds. When it returns the dim autumn light has gone, and they’re left with the cold darkness of winter, the warmth of respite from it in Zoro’s comfy bed.
Suddenly they fall quiet, listening to the gentle creaking of the ship, the soft and ever present pulse of one another’s heartbeat. When they breathe, the cool air around them turns warm for just a moment at a time. Neither of them know quite what to say. But even though there’s nothing really to say now that he’s warmed up and it’s time for sleep, Luffy feels like there’s something he wants to tell Zoro, something on the tip of his tongue.
Tiredness overwhelms him before he can figure it out, so he resolves to think about it in the morning instead. And Luffy is about to mumble a sleepy goodnight when a hand tentatively brushes against his waist, making his eyes spring open. Slowly the same hand slides around to his tummy, protective and pulling just barely but enough to draw their bodies flush together again, and Luffy helplessly shifts into the touch. It tickles when Zoro’s fingertips tug in gentle affection at his vest just like it tickles when Zoro quietly exhales and there’s a ghost of his breath on the back of Luffy’s neck. The shiver prickling his skin this time is somehow different to the shiver which came with cold. It kind of makes him want to rub backwards, get closer to the source even though Zoro has made it so they can’t really get any closer.
Probably shouldn’t say he doesn’t need to be this close anymore, Luffy thinks, something curling a bit inside him where Zoro’s hand gently covers his tummy. To be honest, he never thought Zoro was capable of showing affection like this, much less be the sort to cuddle. Never thought Zoro would be so obliging to keep him warm. But then, what had he expected? A first mate’s duty is to support his captain after all. And Zoro has gone above and beyond, just like he always does when Luffy has depended on him for something.
Luffy smiles. This wordless display of affection actually fits Zoro well. These protective little motions, the awkwardly executed but nonetheless immediate embrace earlier. Luffy doesn’t realise it yet, but everything clicks so naturally into place; Zoro is the complete opposite of Sanji in how he expresses himself, with no need for obvious, flashy gestures when a gentle touch or quiet word can say just as much. And it’s something Luffy finally understands when he realises that he doesn’t need to be kept warm anymore – they both know he doesn’t - but his swordsman is there regardless, holding them together, making sure his captain is comfy. The tenderness and care present in the slightest of movements makes warmth seep into his tummy, and when Zoro shifts against him, that inexplicable shiver from before comes back.
“Sleep well,” Zoro murmurs. The words are close enough to tickle his neck again, and Luffy thinks that he probably shouldn’t tell Zoro that he smells good, that his closeness is making him feel kinda funny in a way he’s pretty sure he hasn’t felt before. They are both still, very still, waiting on one another to start breathing again. A long second passes, and Zoro goes to withdraw his hand only to find that he’s stopped when something comes around to hold it in place.
Luffy squeezes – stay close -before slowly, hesitantly lacing their fingers together, bringing the hand beneath his a little higher over his chest.
Zoro says nothing, makes no movement in return. That’s fine. Luffy doesn’t expect him to.
He mumbles, “G’night,” and falls asleep with a smile on his lips and Zoro’s hand over his heart.