Owed B-day Fic #1
Mar. 22nd, 2007 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dethoratsThis is for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lady_karasu, who always gives me lovely prompts that I, in turn, mangle horribly into boring, wordy, bizarre character studies. So I apologize, like usual, for all the inherent problems in this story.
Prompt: Loyalties
Pairing: LuZo
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2838
Notes: Spoilers for Chapter 438 and beyond. Possible OOC-ness. A distinct lack of pr0n. And...
There was just a single mackerel inside of the holding tank at the moment. In the dim light from a single underwater bulb, the blue fish was little more than a pale grey shadow against a backdrop of deeper shadows and yet Luffy kept his nose pressed to the glass, eyes tracking it as it slowly swam back and forth. They’d caught it just before dinner, the two of them, him and Usopp. Conspicuously left to their own devices after the escape from his grandfather and Water 7, Luffy had immediately told the sniper about Franky’s incredible fish tank and how they would never have to lack for some sort of meat ever again. Filling it as soon as possible seemed like it should have been a priority and so the pirate captain had enthusiastically suggested that they take up positions in the stern. There was no further hint given that anything beyond Usopp’s last words before boarding the Thousand Sunny had been heard, and the long-nosed teen agreed to the idea with only the slightest bit of hesitation.
Rods and reels in hand, the only advice they’d been given as they headed off to fill the tank had been from Sanji to catch something good for dinner. Silence, awkward and somewhat tense, had stretched between them as they stared out at the waves. Luffy had opened his mouth to speak several times, closing it every time as he remembered a conversation in Iceburg’s office from nearly a week ago. There were things that needed to be said, words almost as important as the apology that had brought Usopp back to him, but he wasn’t sure how to phrase them. He’d never had any problem expressing gratitude or respect or admiration or friendship, but his regrets, those were harder. Worse, he could barely stand his own feelings, a tangled mess of confusion when he should have been straightforward and happy. At last, though, the silence must have grown too long and deep for the sniper to handle and he’d started to talk before Luffy could manage the act himself.
It was all very familiar, the rhythm of the story and the intonations in Usopp’s voice, although Soge King being the star rather than the Great Captain was new. And if the sharpshooter’s voice was a bit less exuberant than usual, that was okay because Luffy’s responses were equally subdued. But he was grateful for the effort and by the time they’d finally caught the mackerel, they could look at each other without Usopp flinching and Luffy feeling his heart sink. There was no need for manic excuses to be friendly and, although there were still resolutions that had to be reached, they would be okay.
During dinner, in spite of eating as fast as devil’s fruit sped rubber limbs would allow, he didn’t miss the glances that made the rounds of the rest of his crew, the carefully hidden examinations of Usopp’s behavior. But they’d passed apparently, the two of them again together, and by dessert everything was more or less back to normal. With his stomach full, Luffy had been looking forward to spending his first night aboard the new ship when Zoro had taken his leave from the galley. Something must have shown on his face for Robin murmured in his ear about ten minutes later, revealing that the swordsman had climbed into the crow’s nest and was currently keeping watch.
Zoro. The swordsman’s speech, his demands and his logic and his resolve, from that day in Water 7 kept replaying over and over in Luffy’s mind. How much of those words had been meant to safeguard the crew and how many were to serve as salvage for the older pirate’s pride should he ever need them? And how could he even think such a thing of his own nakama, the young man who had been his very first crewmember, handpicked and practically coerced into joining him? Their bounty posters were all hanging in the galley, right where Sanji could sparkle at Robin’s and Nami’s and throw knives at his own, and Luffy found his eyes drawn to Zoro’s.
No longer even half of his own bounty but still higher than before, and the rubber pirate wondered if that was fair. Probably not but Zoro hadn’t complained. He didn’t often complain except where his debt was involved. But he did have cares. There were lines on his face that showed up when he frowned or when he was stressed and there was a hardness to his eyes, evident even in the poster, that hadn’t been there when they’d first met. Zoro was starting to look like someone else Luffy had known when he was a child and he could vaguely remember Makino joking sympathetically with the tall man, commiserating with him while Shanks drunkenly stood on the bar and sang in a horribly off-key voice.
”We aren’t playing pirates like kids here.”
Those words echoed inside of his head again and Luffy put on a smile and excused himself. That was when he’d gone to check on the mackerel and somehow he just hadn’t found the energy to leave and settle into his new bed.
Watching the fish move hypnotically around the tank should have been enough to either make him hungry or sleepy but instead he felt anxious, one foot jiggling so that the heel of his sandal tapped out a steady rhythm on the Sunny’s floor. Did the world always flow in the same patterns? His grandfather seemed to find some truth in that idea and so did Zoro. They trained, working repetitively through the same actions over and over until the motions became the most finely honed instincts. And yet his own father, supposedly, was trying to break another set of patterns much as he apparently had with the raid on Enies Lobby. Still, even on the Grand Line, which was by definition unpredictable, Nami could read the weather and understand what would happen. Nature did have certain unalienable truths and paths. Was it the same for people?
In the relatively short time he’d been a pirate, he’d encountered a number of people in circumstances similar to his own. Captains and their seconds did have, as he reflected, a certain way about them. There was his very own brother to study on the matter; Ace and Zoro had gotten on pretty well and now, considering it, it wasn’t very hard to see why. Luffy wasn’t often aware of his personal charisma, the charm and guilelessness that drew certain others to him without him exerting any effort. At that moment, still half-watching the trapped fish, his thoughts weren’t centered on himself but on another. He thought always about his crew and rarely about himself – except for when food was involved. Even his adventures, his roles in getting his nakama caught up in excitement and trouble weren’t actually selfish moves on his part. He legitimately believed they would have as much fun and learn and grow as much as he did. As for Zoro, Luffy was finally starting to really believe he knew where the swordsman’s thoughts lay most of the time.
That location, that PERSON, obvious though it was, hit the young captain with as much force as his grandfather’s powerful ‘Fist of Love.’ The floor beneath him was welcoming and solid and the lower pane of glass, now streaked from his face as he slid down it, was nice and cool on his skin. The wheels in Luffy’s mind turned, cogs in part of it squeaking from long disuse. And then, as abruptly as his first realization, everything locked into place and he KNEW. Knew with the same sort of certainty that he knew he’d eventually become the pirate king, that he knew Sanji would find All-Blue and that they could face down the World Government and bring Robin back to them. And with that knowledge came both relief and renewed unease. Luffy rapped his head once against the glass, startling the mackerel whose pitiful fate would eventually be found in the same pirate’s stomach, and then he stood up. The rough weave of his hat as he resettled it on his head was reassuring and he nodded once, firmly.
“Yosh.”
The crow’s nest on the Thousand Sunny was in many ways a marked improvement over the airy basket that had served them on the Going Merry. Enclosed and safe from the elements, no more would night watches or observations in poor weather be regarded as awful but necessary chores. Still, the fact that he could no longer vault from the deck into the air to surprise whoever had drawn watch was just a little disappointing. When he pushed open the hatch that led into the warm and comfortable space, Zoro’s head moved from where it had been leaning against one wall, eyes directed out of the window at the sea around them, a brief glance of acknowledgement before he returned to his self-appointed task.
“Captain.”
There it was again, evidence that had been staring him in the face for longer than he could imagine. It made him happy and grateful and just the smallest bit scared all at the same time, and Luffy threw all of his vague and half-formed plans out of the hatch as he slid it closed behind him. The floor of the sky-bound room was comfortable and he sat down opposite from the swordsman, copying his pose but turning his gaze on the older pirate rather than out one of the windows. Green eyes had flashed at him again, a quick glance, but then Zoro went back to watching, guarding, even as the air about him took on a sense of calm patience. Luffy was grateful; Zoro didn’t push unless he absolutely felt he had to and it gave the rubber teen a chance to think.
It all came down to that word, he supposed as he studied the sharp planes of Zoro’s face. One word which held so much meaning on the ocean, a word that was more than just a title or a job description. He could remember quite clearly making his vow to the man with a scarred face and brilliant, blood-bright hair. He’d worked hard to keep his promise, striving to become the best captain he could be and gathering nakama as loyal and bold as those who had surrounded the man who had saved his life. Shanks was his hero and his role model and among the great pirate captain’s strengths, at least as he remembered, had been his ability to have fun and seem like just another one of the guys. There had been no fear that Luffy had seen, nothing like the way other pirate captains had kept their rowdy men in line, only camaraderie and pure friendship. And so he’d tried to be the same, an easy task since it suited his own nature. But it seemed he had forgotten the other part. Shanks had commanded absolute respect when the situation warranted it; his men waiting for his word to act and not questioning his actions beyond an occasional laconically dry suggestion from the tall, smoking man who habitually stood at his back. Leading – someone had to be the compass or else the ship would just float aimlessly, lost on the sea.
Only Zoro ever called him ‘captain’ and seemed to truly mean it. In the very beginning there had been an undercurrent of bemusement to the way the swordsman said it, but even before they had met Sanji that had disappeared and been replaced with seriousness. When Zoro said that word, he implied everything that came with the title. There was responsibility there, something Luffy could admit he sometimes avoided, and respect and above all a promise of loyalty and unwavering support. It was Zoro who told the rest of the crew to have faith in him, Zoro who, when it really mattered, never questioned him. And it was the swordsman who had taken up some of the less pleasant jobs of running a pirate crew, stepping in when Luffy faltered or didn’t see. No wonder he had become less carefree, growing up fast and leaving Luffy to play with Usopp and Chopper in the sun while he pretended to nap and kept an eye on things. All actions he had done unasked, going unrewarded and unthanked, and that would have to change.
“Zoro…” The name came out more tentatively than he’d wanted and the swordsman sighed softly and shifted until he was more directly facing the younger pirate.
“Luffy.”
“Zoro…” He wasn’t sure where to start, what to say. Sometimes it was easy to speak and this should have been simple but his tongue felt knotted and thick inside his mouth. And the answer, the answer was so important to everything that came next. “Did Zoro really mean what he said in Ice-ossan’s house?”
Sword-calloused fingers dug into one knee, the only evidence of strain, and his swordsman looked him straight in the eyes. “Does it really matter now? He apologized and he’s back. What needed to be said has been said and everyone understands.”
“Not…not that.” This was harder than he’d thought it would be, maybe because he was afraid he knew exactly what the answer was. “When Zoro said he’d leave if I let Usopp come back without saying he was sorry…would you really have left me?”
There was hardly a pause before he had his answer, a flat “yes” that gave nothing away. It had been what he was expecting but he needed more. He needed something to cover up the pain that that word, that implied threat, had brought him. Any of his nakama leaving made him ache inside but Zoro, who had always warned him that he would go his own way if necessary, was the most able of them to strike out on his one. And he was the one Luffy could least bear to contemplate life without.
“Why?”
This time the silence seemed to stretch, as nerve-wracking as it had been that morning but with an added crackling, nagging sense of vague anticipation that made Luffy feel itchy inside his skin. Zoro’s hand had moved off of his knee, closed into a fist, and his shoulders hunched forward just a bit, the perfect picture of a man waiting to either give or receive a blow. But his voice was almost tender when he finally spoke, the words stroking Luffy like a caress.
“Because you wouldn’t be the man I think you can be.”
It was dark up there in the enclosed crow’s nest, light coming only from a single small lantern by the hatch. Warm and shadowy, it sparked yet another memory. He’d been carried home, safe in strong arms, and laid into bed next to his brother. Large hands had gently freed a lighter from Ace’s grasp and tucked the covers up around them and voices, deep and low, had murmured over his head. Just before he shut his eyes, he had seen something private and beautiful. There, on his brand new ship and facing the strong person that was his swordsman, he decided to replicate it.
Nothing childish about what he’d seen in the past, and he was a man now, seventeen instead of seven and a captain for real. Zoro was warm and sturdy, a pillar of support that he could lean into even as the older boy gracefully yielded in one of the very few ways he would allow, mouth opening softly against Luffy’s gently demanding own.
For a few moments, all of his cares washed away and all he knew was Zoro, once again taking everything that the swordsman freely offered. His world was right again, certainty running through him. He had his nakama back, all of them, and a wonderful ship to carry them all forward towards One Piece and their dreams and he had someone to help him keep growing and evolving, making him into the kind of captain he wanted to be. There were questions dancing in Zoro’s eyes when they broke apart but he didn’t say anything, just returned Luffy’s huge grin with a warm smile of his own. And then the younger man yawned and stretched and remembered that he had a brand new bed just waiting for him to try out and a day of adventure waiting for him in the morning.
Everything else could wait. Zoro was patient and he usually understood. Besides, he knew what to do now, how to return the unwavering trust the other had placed in him so that there would never be any reason for them to part. Luffy patted him lightly and didn’t bother to remind the swordsman not to fall asleep on watch. The older pirate would do as he saw best. And when he was halfway through the hatch leading down towards Sunny’s deck, Zoro smiled at him one more time before he turned back to study the waves.
“Goodnight, Captain.
lady_karasu, who always gives me lovely prompts that I, in turn, mangle horribly into boring, wordy, bizarre character studies. So I apologize, like usual, for all the inherent problems in this story. Prompt: Loyalties
Pairing: LuZo
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2838
Notes: Spoilers for Chapter 438 and beyond. Possible OOC-ness. A distinct lack of pr0n. And...
There was just a single mackerel inside of the holding tank at the moment. In the dim light from a single underwater bulb, the blue fish was little more than a pale grey shadow against a backdrop of deeper shadows and yet Luffy kept his nose pressed to the glass, eyes tracking it as it slowly swam back and forth. They’d caught it just before dinner, the two of them, him and Usopp. Conspicuously left to their own devices after the escape from his grandfather and Water 7, Luffy had immediately told the sniper about Franky’s incredible fish tank and how they would never have to lack for some sort of meat ever again. Filling it as soon as possible seemed like it should have been a priority and so the pirate captain had enthusiastically suggested that they take up positions in the stern. There was no further hint given that anything beyond Usopp’s last words before boarding the Thousand Sunny had been heard, and the long-nosed teen agreed to the idea with only the slightest bit of hesitation.
Rods and reels in hand, the only advice they’d been given as they headed off to fill the tank had been from Sanji to catch something good for dinner. Silence, awkward and somewhat tense, had stretched between them as they stared out at the waves. Luffy had opened his mouth to speak several times, closing it every time as he remembered a conversation in Iceburg’s office from nearly a week ago. There were things that needed to be said, words almost as important as the apology that had brought Usopp back to him, but he wasn’t sure how to phrase them. He’d never had any problem expressing gratitude or respect or admiration or friendship, but his regrets, those were harder. Worse, he could barely stand his own feelings, a tangled mess of confusion when he should have been straightforward and happy. At last, though, the silence must have grown too long and deep for the sniper to handle and he’d started to talk before Luffy could manage the act himself.
It was all very familiar, the rhythm of the story and the intonations in Usopp’s voice, although Soge King being the star rather than the Great Captain was new. And if the sharpshooter’s voice was a bit less exuberant than usual, that was okay because Luffy’s responses were equally subdued. But he was grateful for the effort and by the time they’d finally caught the mackerel, they could look at each other without Usopp flinching and Luffy feeling his heart sink. There was no need for manic excuses to be friendly and, although there were still resolutions that had to be reached, they would be okay.
During dinner, in spite of eating as fast as devil’s fruit sped rubber limbs would allow, he didn’t miss the glances that made the rounds of the rest of his crew, the carefully hidden examinations of Usopp’s behavior. But they’d passed apparently, the two of them again together, and by dessert everything was more or less back to normal. With his stomach full, Luffy had been looking forward to spending his first night aboard the new ship when Zoro had taken his leave from the galley. Something must have shown on his face for Robin murmured in his ear about ten minutes later, revealing that the swordsman had climbed into the crow’s nest and was currently keeping watch.
Zoro. The swordsman’s speech, his demands and his logic and his resolve, from that day in Water 7 kept replaying over and over in Luffy’s mind. How much of those words had been meant to safeguard the crew and how many were to serve as salvage for the older pirate’s pride should he ever need them? And how could he even think such a thing of his own nakama, the young man who had been his very first crewmember, handpicked and practically coerced into joining him? Their bounty posters were all hanging in the galley, right where Sanji could sparkle at Robin’s and Nami’s and throw knives at his own, and Luffy found his eyes drawn to Zoro’s.
No longer even half of his own bounty but still higher than before, and the rubber pirate wondered if that was fair. Probably not but Zoro hadn’t complained. He didn’t often complain except where his debt was involved. But he did have cares. There were lines on his face that showed up when he frowned or when he was stressed and there was a hardness to his eyes, evident even in the poster, that hadn’t been there when they’d first met. Zoro was starting to look like someone else Luffy had known when he was a child and he could vaguely remember Makino joking sympathetically with the tall man, commiserating with him while Shanks drunkenly stood on the bar and sang in a horribly off-key voice.
”We aren’t playing pirates like kids here.”
Those words echoed inside of his head again and Luffy put on a smile and excused himself. That was when he’d gone to check on the mackerel and somehow he just hadn’t found the energy to leave and settle into his new bed.
Watching the fish move hypnotically around the tank should have been enough to either make him hungry or sleepy but instead he felt anxious, one foot jiggling so that the heel of his sandal tapped out a steady rhythm on the Sunny’s floor. Did the world always flow in the same patterns? His grandfather seemed to find some truth in that idea and so did Zoro. They trained, working repetitively through the same actions over and over until the motions became the most finely honed instincts. And yet his own father, supposedly, was trying to break another set of patterns much as he apparently had with the raid on Enies Lobby. Still, even on the Grand Line, which was by definition unpredictable, Nami could read the weather and understand what would happen. Nature did have certain unalienable truths and paths. Was it the same for people?
In the relatively short time he’d been a pirate, he’d encountered a number of people in circumstances similar to his own. Captains and their seconds did have, as he reflected, a certain way about them. There was his very own brother to study on the matter; Ace and Zoro had gotten on pretty well and now, considering it, it wasn’t very hard to see why. Luffy wasn’t often aware of his personal charisma, the charm and guilelessness that drew certain others to him without him exerting any effort. At that moment, still half-watching the trapped fish, his thoughts weren’t centered on himself but on another. He thought always about his crew and rarely about himself – except for when food was involved. Even his adventures, his roles in getting his nakama caught up in excitement and trouble weren’t actually selfish moves on his part. He legitimately believed they would have as much fun and learn and grow as much as he did. As for Zoro, Luffy was finally starting to really believe he knew where the swordsman’s thoughts lay most of the time.
That location, that PERSON, obvious though it was, hit the young captain with as much force as his grandfather’s powerful ‘Fist of Love.’ The floor beneath him was welcoming and solid and the lower pane of glass, now streaked from his face as he slid down it, was nice and cool on his skin. The wheels in Luffy’s mind turned, cogs in part of it squeaking from long disuse. And then, as abruptly as his first realization, everything locked into place and he KNEW. Knew with the same sort of certainty that he knew he’d eventually become the pirate king, that he knew Sanji would find All-Blue and that they could face down the World Government and bring Robin back to them. And with that knowledge came both relief and renewed unease. Luffy rapped his head once against the glass, startling the mackerel whose pitiful fate would eventually be found in the same pirate’s stomach, and then he stood up. The rough weave of his hat as he resettled it on his head was reassuring and he nodded once, firmly.
“Yosh.”
The crow’s nest on the Thousand Sunny was in many ways a marked improvement over the airy basket that had served them on the Going Merry. Enclosed and safe from the elements, no more would night watches or observations in poor weather be regarded as awful but necessary chores. Still, the fact that he could no longer vault from the deck into the air to surprise whoever had drawn watch was just a little disappointing. When he pushed open the hatch that led into the warm and comfortable space, Zoro’s head moved from where it had been leaning against one wall, eyes directed out of the window at the sea around them, a brief glance of acknowledgement before he returned to his self-appointed task.
“Captain.”
There it was again, evidence that had been staring him in the face for longer than he could imagine. It made him happy and grateful and just the smallest bit scared all at the same time, and Luffy threw all of his vague and half-formed plans out of the hatch as he slid it closed behind him. The floor of the sky-bound room was comfortable and he sat down opposite from the swordsman, copying his pose but turning his gaze on the older pirate rather than out one of the windows. Green eyes had flashed at him again, a quick glance, but then Zoro went back to watching, guarding, even as the air about him took on a sense of calm patience. Luffy was grateful; Zoro didn’t push unless he absolutely felt he had to and it gave the rubber teen a chance to think.
It all came down to that word, he supposed as he studied the sharp planes of Zoro’s face. One word which held so much meaning on the ocean, a word that was more than just a title or a job description. He could remember quite clearly making his vow to the man with a scarred face and brilliant, blood-bright hair. He’d worked hard to keep his promise, striving to become the best captain he could be and gathering nakama as loyal and bold as those who had surrounded the man who had saved his life. Shanks was his hero and his role model and among the great pirate captain’s strengths, at least as he remembered, had been his ability to have fun and seem like just another one of the guys. There had been no fear that Luffy had seen, nothing like the way other pirate captains had kept their rowdy men in line, only camaraderie and pure friendship. And so he’d tried to be the same, an easy task since it suited his own nature. But it seemed he had forgotten the other part. Shanks had commanded absolute respect when the situation warranted it; his men waiting for his word to act and not questioning his actions beyond an occasional laconically dry suggestion from the tall, smoking man who habitually stood at his back. Leading – someone had to be the compass or else the ship would just float aimlessly, lost on the sea.
Only Zoro ever called him ‘captain’ and seemed to truly mean it. In the very beginning there had been an undercurrent of bemusement to the way the swordsman said it, but even before they had met Sanji that had disappeared and been replaced with seriousness. When Zoro said that word, he implied everything that came with the title. There was responsibility there, something Luffy could admit he sometimes avoided, and respect and above all a promise of loyalty and unwavering support. It was Zoro who told the rest of the crew to have faith in him, Zoro who, when it really mattered, never questioned him. And it was the swordsman who had taken up some of the less pleasant jobs of running a pirate crew, stepping in when Luffy faltered or didn’t see. No wonder he had become less carefree, growing up fast and leaving Luffy to play with Usopp and Chopper in the sun while he pretended to nap and kept an eye on things. All actions he had done unasked, going unrewarded and unthanked, and that would have to change.
“Zoro…” The name came out more tentatively than he’d wanted and the swordsman sighed softly and shifted until he was more directly facing the younger pirate.
“Luffy.”
“Zoro…” He wasn’t sure where to start, what to say. Sometimes it was easy to speak and this should have been simple but his tongue felt knotted and thick inside his mouth. And the answer, the answer was so important to everything that came next. “Did Zoro really mean what he said in Ice-ossan’s house?”
Sword-calloused fingers dug into one knee, the only evidence of strain, and his swordsman looked him straight in the eyes. “Does it really matter now? He apologized and he’s back. What needed to be said has been said and everyone understands.”
“Not…not that.” This was harder than he’d thought it would be, maybe because he was afraid he knew exactly what the answer was. “When Zoro said he’d leave if I let Usopp come back without saying he was sorry…would you really have left me?”
There was hardly a pause before he had his answer, a flat “yes” that gave nothing away. It had been what he was expecting but he needed more. He needed something to cover up the pain that that word, that implied threat, had brought him. Any of his nakama leaving made him ache inside but Zoro, who had always warned him that he would go his own way if necessary, was the most able of them to strike out on his one. And he was the one Luffy could least bear to contemplate life without.
“Why?”
This time the silence seemed to stretch, as nerve-wracking as it had been that morning but with an added crackling, nagging sense of vague anticipation that made Luffy feel itchy inside his skin. Zoro’s hand had moved off of his knee, closed into a fist, and his shoulders hunched forward just a bit, the perfect picture of a man waiting to either give or receive a blow. But his voice was almost tender when he finally spoke, the words stroking Luffy like a caress.
“Because you wouldn’t be the man I think you can be.”
It was dark up there in the enclosed crow’s nest, light coming only from a single small lantern by the hatch. Warm and shadowy, it sparked yet another memory. He’d been carried home, safe in strong arms, and laid into bed next to his brother. Large hands had gently freed a lighter from Ace’s grasp and tucked the covers up around them and voices, deep and low, had murmured over his head. Just before he shut his eyes, he had seen something private and beautiful. There, on his brand new ship and facing the strong person that was his swordsman, he decided to replicate it.
Nothing childish about what he’d seen in the past, and he was a man now, seventeen instead of seven and a captain for real. Zoro was warm and sturdy, a pillar of support that he could lean into even as the older boy gracefully yielded in one of the very few ways he would allow, mouth opening softly against Luffy’s gently demanding own.
For a few moments, all of his cares washed away and all he knew was Zoro, once again taking everything that the swordsman freely offered. His world was right again, certainty running through him. He had his nakama back, all of them, and a wonderful ship to carry them all forward towards One Piece and their dreams and he had someone to help him keep growing and evolving, making him into the kind of captain he wanted to be. There were questions dancing in Zoro’s eyes when they broke apart but he didn’t say anything, just returned Luffy’s huge grin with a warm smile of his own. And then the younger man yawned and stretched and remembered that he had a brand new bed just waiting for him to try out and a day of adventure waiting for him in the morning.
Everything else could wait. Zoro was patient and he usually understood. Besides, he knew what to do now, how to return the unwavering trust the other had placed in him so that there would never be any reason for them to part. Luffy patted him lightly and didn’t bother to remind the swordsman not to fall asleep on watch. The older pirate would do as he saw best. And when he was halfway through the hatch leading down towards Sunny’s deck, Zoro smiled at him one more time before he turned back to study the waves.
“Goodnight, Captain.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-23 10:57 am (UTC)Did hurt a little bit too...
no subject
Date: 2007-03-25 11:06 pm (UTC)(In ZoSopp fan note...having read the NULL scanlation of Zoro's big speech, I was SUPER pleased to note that Zoro blames both Usopp and Luffy for the fight itself and not just Usopp. YAY!)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-26 08:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 04:17 am (UTC)http://www.n-u-l-l.net/
no subject
Date: 2007-03-23 09:05 pm (UTC)Great read! Thanks for the tasty Luffy/Zoro supplement!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-25 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-26 12:10 am (UTC)Right now, Zoro is the one I'm having trouble with. In the story I'm writing (not Iron Will *sweatdrop*) the plot depends on Zoro doing this one BIG thing that, by Oda's recent characterization of Zoro, he would just NEVER do. But I'm going to dream up some paper-thin reason and make him do it anyway, cause I think the story idea is that damn good. ^_^;; But I can't help but feel like I'm betraying his honor or something by doing it. heh.
Review
Date: 2007-04-13 10:26 am (UTC)However, Luffy is not the “main character” in this fic, Zoro is, and you did a wonderful job with him.
All in all, I’m very glad I read this. :)
Re: Review
Date: 2007-04-14 10:26 am (UTC)