Disclaimer: One Piece is not mine.
Pairings: ZoLu, Fem!Zoro
AN: I completely forgot about this fic that I meant to post.
Although the captain and the swordsman had been privately talking about it for a few days, it wasn't until Sora chose water over beer that the other Straw Hats noticed.
"Uh… Sora?" Usopp asked hesitantly, watching as the green-haired girl turned off the tap, her cup full of water despite the perfectly fine keg in the corner. "Is everything… okay?"
Sora shrugged. "Yeah. Why?"
"You're… um… drinking water," Usopp said carefully.
Sora gave an irritated look at her tankard. "Yeah, I know," she grumbled.
That only raised further questions. Sora was clearly not pleased with the fact she wasn't having alcohol. By that logic, it wasn't her choice.
"Why?" Nami asked finally.
"Doctor's orders," Sora grumbled, giving a dark look to Chopper.
Chopper was grinning, as was the usual recently. The doctor had seemed surprisingly cheerful for the past week. When Robin had asked why, he'd brightly told her that by the code of doctor-patient confidentiality he wasn't allowed to say anything.
Now, Sanji gave the reindeer appraising look. "Finally convince the marimo that she was killing her liver?"
Sora was officially the only woman who had ever successfully gotten on Sanji's bad side. It had taken almost two months of active effort and several broken ribs, but eventually the cook had stopped trailing after her like a lovesick puppy and had focused his attentions on Nami and (at the time) Vivi, and later Robin. He still hadn't actually hit her back, which bugged Sora – nothing angered her more than someone assuming her gender determined if she could fight.
"Nup," Chopper said, giggling. "It's something else."
"What is it, then?" Luffy asked.
Sora glared at him. "You know exactly what it is!"
"Oh…" Luffy said slowly, realising. Then his eyes lit up. "Can we tell them yet?"
"No!"
Luffy sulked back down to the table.
Robin drummed her fingers elegantly on the table. "Has this got something to do with your and the captain's constant talks recently, Miss Swordsman?" she asked.
"Yeah," Sora admitted grudgingly, sitting down at the table.
Ignoring the stares from four of her six crewmates, she started to eat dinner, digging into the stir-fry Sanji had cooked for dinner and trying not to let her cheeks blush.
"Luffy, what is going on?" Nami asked sharply, glaring at the captain.
Luffy was sulkily playing with his food, which in his case entailed rolling it around the plate for a few seconds longer before shoving it into his mouth. He glanced up at the question, still pouting. "Sora says not to tell anyone, so I can't tell you."
Nami instantly turned to the doctor at the table. "Chopper?"
"I won't break doctor-patient confidentiality," Chopper told her.
"So your recent cheerfulness is related to this?" Robin mused.
Chopper chose to start digging into his rice as opposed to answering that.
Robin mentally ran through a list of medical conditions that would delight the reindeer so. She'd already gone over that list several times, and had a suspicion, but the definite correlation was a confirmation. Her eyes glanced at Sora, trailing down to her stomach for just a moment.
Sora's cheeks were turning bright red. Robin quickly looked away.
"So you can't drink alcohol anymore?" Usopp asked Sora as the swordsman took a drink of her water, screwing up her face in disgust.
Sora glared at him. "No," she grumbled. She gave Chopper another irritated look. "I still think I should be able to do for another month at least."
"Do you really want to risk it?" Chopper challenged.
For a long minute Sora looked like she was willing to risk it, before she reluctantly groaned in defeat.
"For how long?" Robin asked. Her voice was neutral enough, but there was something knowing in her eyes.
Sora gave her a deadly look that she had developed hunting the worst pirates in the East Blue. She glanced around the table. Luffy had stopped sulking and was grinning as widely as he'd been since Sora had told him; Chopper was looking delighted; Robin was waiting for confirmation of her suspicions, a smile tugging at her lips; Sanji, Usopp and Nami were all watching curiously.
"Sora? How long do you have to drink water for?" Usopp asked after the silence dragged on.
Furiously, the swordsman glowered at the table. "Nine months, alright?!"
There was a long moment when nothing happened. Slowly, shock was beginning to filter over the three Straw Hats who hadn't already worked it out.
Robin let her smile break out across her face. "Well, I believe congratulations are in order then, Miss Swordsman, Captain."
Sora groaned, leaning back over her chair.
"You said we weren't going to tell them yet!" Luffy whined.
Sora gave him a rude gesture without looking.
"You…" Nami's face had paled as blood fled her face. "You… how…" The red-haired girl shook her head. "I told you to use protection!" she snapped.
"We did!" Luffy protested. "It just didn't work!"
"How could it not work?" Nami snapped.
"Well, statistically speaking, nothing's a hundred percent effective," Chopper informed her.
"You knew?" Nami rounded on him.
Chopper cringed slightly under the ferocity of her glare.
"Of course he knew," Sora jumped to his defence. "He's the doctor, remember? I took a pregnancy test, it came out positive, and so I got Chopper to check."
"So you're… so you're actually pregnant?" Sanji said faintly.
Sora glared at him. "What of it?"
"There's actually going to be a spawn of yours?" Sanji continued, his one visible eye almost popping out. It widened even further as he realised: "A combination of you and him?"
"Pretty much," Sora grumbled.
"What are you going to do?" Robin asked.
Sora looked at Luffy pleadingly. Her boyfriend cheerfully jumped in. "We figured we wanted to keep it."
The entire conversation was being peppered with long silences.
"So…" Usopp said finally, "this time next year there's going to be a little kid running around the Merry?"
"Probably longer than a year for the child to be walking," Robin said thoughtfully.
"How long does it take for kids to start walking?" Luffy asked curiously.
"Typically between eighteen months to two years old, but of course there's several months before we can expect a birth," Robin answered him.
"Robin-chan is so wise," Sanji swooned. "Do you perhaps know these sort of details because you've been planning for your own family?"
Sora snorted. Sanji ignored her.
"So, you're really going to try and raise a kid on the Merry?" Usopp asked hesitantly.
"We can manage," Luffy said confidently.
"What if we get caught by marines?" Usopp protested. "What happens if a storm comes and the kid gets thrown overboard? What if we get into a fight and no-one's there to protect them?"
Sora gave him an incredulous look. "Why wouldn't the kid be able to defend themselves?"
"You think a newborn would be able to fight?" Usopp shrieked.
Sora's eyes glinted with confidence. "I think they'd be learning young."
"You would be teaching them nicely, though," Chopper interrupted.
"Of course," Sora said, a little offended. She and Chopper might disagree on where her own limits were, but Sora never mistook anyone else's.
"Yeah, I can teach them how to throw a punch!" Luffy agreed. "And Sora's said she'll teach them sword-fighting!"
Suddenly Usoppa had a vision of a three-year-old toddler with hair as green as their mother's and their father's smile, swinging around three full-sized swords with the same inhuman strength as their parents.
No wonder Sanji had looked so panicked at the realisation the Roronoa and the Monkey D. bloodlines were about to merge.
After a moment he realised that Nami was trying to get his attention. "What?"
"Well, you're the one with most experience here about having a pirate parent. How would you describe being left off the ship?" Nami asked him.
Usopp blinked at her, and then swallowed. For a moment, he could just remember the old longing burning in him, a constant, painful hope that his father's ship would come over the horizon. And that feeling would be double for the child, who'd have both parents off at sea.
Then he let himself try to imagine what life would be like on the Merry with a child running about.
Finally, he let a smile broaden over his face. "This kid is going to have so many adventures before they even know what an adventure is."
"That's the spirit!" Luffy said eagerly.
"Have you got any ideas for names?" Chopper asked brightly.
Sora gave him a withering look.
"I was thinking 'Scarlet Ember Rose Briar Fire' if it's a girl, or maybe 'Rubber Lulu Ann Eiko'-" Luffy began.
Sora took the time to move her half-full plate to the side before slamming her head onto the table with a groan. "No."
"Good call," Nami said, amused.
"Don't you like my names, Sora?" Luffy asked her innocently.
Sora's only response was a negative grunt.
Luffy laughed. He walked around the table to stand next to her. Taking her somewhat-discarded plate and downing the food in one gulp, the captain patted his girlfriend on the back.
Then his hand reached under the table and grasped hers, intertwining fingers. Sora pulled up from the table, a red mark forming on her forehead. She looked at Luffy and smiled.
Sanji chuckled suddenly. Sora glowered. "Something you want to say, dumbass cook?"
"I'm just picturing you in the third trimester, trying to wave your stupid swords without falling over," Sanji said cheerfully.
Sora snarled. She got to her feet, her hand still tightly gripping Luffy's. "I could manage to beat you either way, curly-brow. Then again, why wait when I could rip you to shreds here and now?"
Sanji raised a swirled eyebrow. "I don't fight girls in such a delicate condition," he said patronisingly.
"I'll show you delicate condition!" Sora snarled, lunging forwards.
Luffy's arms wrapped around her chest, pulling the swordsman back. Sora grudgingly fell back into the chair.
"So," the father-to-be said thoughtfully, "if you don't those names, how about 'Plate Food Glass-'"
"You're just naming random things you see!" Usopp protested.
"Personally, I think that 'Sika' is a good name," Nami suggested thoughtfully. "Or 'Gavivi'. Or 'Cash'. Or 'Berri'. Or 'Rich'. Or-"
In unison, both of the expecting parents said a resounding "No."
"Have you got any ideas, Miss Swordsman?" Robin felt it was time Sora got to give a suggestion.
"Not really," Sora shrugged. "'Hunter'? 'Fighter'? 'Warrior'?"
"And you said no to my names?" Luffy asked indignantly.
The Straw Hats kept throwing around various names, giving each other suggestions. Usopp's suggestions all seemed to be variants on his own name, whilst Sanji tossed in a few ridiculous suggestions just to watch Sora violently refuse them. Nami's all seemed to be different currencies (what island even used a 'Penny', anyway?). Robin and Chopper both suggested various names after famous historical figures/doctors they'd read about. Luffy kept suggesting lists of continually commonplace nouns, while Sora offered names that she thought sounded 'tough'.
"Hey, how about 'Fighter Hero Warrior Hitting Man'? 'Woman' if it's a girl," Luffy suggested.
Sora actually looked to be considering it. "Not too bad."
"You might want to reconsider that," Nami suggested frantically.
"The poor, poor kid," Usopp said mournfully.
"Oh, shut up," Sora said brusquely.
The suggestions kept going for hours.
And all through it, the newly-expectant parents kept holding hands.