Splash.

That sound is the bane of my existence, Roronoa Zoro thought as he roused himself quickly, tossed his katana aside, and cracked an eye open to see in which direction out to sea that Chopper was pointing. He ignored the little furball's panicked sobs and ran in a few graceful lopes to the rail of the Thousand Sunny to dive overboard.

The water was a clear blue, a fact for which Zoro thanked whatever gods were watching over his crew. He could easily see the limp figure of his captain not far beneath him, hands clasped over his mouth, uselessly trying to prevent a stream of bubbles from escaping, and his eyes wide. It took his green-haired first mate just two propulsions of his powerful arms and legs to reach him. Zoro grasped the back of the red vest and dragged his captain back to the surface.

Luffy gasped for air as soon as their heads were clear of the water. "Arigatou, Zoro!" he said, grinning and letting his head fall on Zoro's shoulder. "Damn seawater. Makes me feel weak," he complained, his grin falling into a pathetic frown.

Zoro could feel the frustration contort his face. "Don't fall overboard so much, then, baka."

Luffy glanced quickly at his first mate. Zoro was surprised; it had been so quick, he wondered if he had imagined it. "'Kay, Zoro," the rubber man replied, picking up the straw hat as they passed it in the water, and pressed it on his head.

"What was that for?"

"Nanda? Hat?"

"That look, baka. Don't think I didn't see it."

"What look?"

Zoro exhaled and gave up, swimming back to the ship lazily. His captain held onto his neck weakly – an effect of the sea – but he didn't worry. It would be only too easy to turn around and grab him if he slipped off. Sunny was cutting through the water in a direction away from theirs, but not so fast that Zoro felt the need to shout to the bitch navigator to slow down and wait for them. In a few moments, they were alongside, and the swordsman tossed the captain up onto the deck singlehandedly. He climbed up the side, feeling refreshed from the swim. The water made his already-tight-fitting white shirt cling to him and chilly, so he pulled it off to wring it out over the side, and then hung it over a barrel to dry in the warm sun. He sat down and leaned against the side of the ship, eyes already closed in anticipation of returning to his nap. Luffy had already run off to continue his game with Chopper. There was nothing – except, perhaps, Luffy's funny look – to concern Zoro now. As Luffy did lots of things that he didn't initially understand, he decided to ignore it unless it came up again.

"Storm's coming."

Zoro started, his eyelids springing apart to see Nami staring at him in the same way he was staring at her. With disbelief.

"… Did you just …"

"Did I? Did we say –?"

Their mouths opened and closed soundlessly for what felt like an entire minute. Then Nami seemed to realize something. "How do you know?" she asked bluntly.

"I… I don't know…"

She gave him an appraising look, and he realized her eyes were travelling all over his bare chest. "Oi, bitch!" he shouted, surprised and angry. "Don't look at me like that!"

"Hmph," she said, tossing her fiery hair. "I wasn't, you dolt." She turned her gaze back out to the sea before them.

"Crazy hag," Zoro growled and tried to go back to sleep, but he couldn't get what had just happened out of his head.

After a while Nami hmphed again. "It's your scars, isn't it." It wasn't a question.

"Huh?"

Her brown eyes were back on him, scanning the scarred skin of his torso again, but he saw that the look was detached and calculating. "Do they hurt?"

"No…" His own gaze fell to observe the slim stripes on his chest. He realized that was where the feeling was coming from. That's how he knew… "They feel weird, though."

"It's the pressure change. Scar tissue is more sensitive to it." She shrugged.

"That's even weirder." But he remembered that all the old swordsmen he'd spoken to and swapped stories with in bars often spoke of the warnings their scars could give them. Sensing weather changes was most common, but he'd heard of men who claimed their scars told them when an enemy was nearby.

"Whatever," returned Nami, uncaring. She turned to walk away. "Well, actually, Zoro," she began, pausing her step. She didn't continue.

"What?"

"Ah," she remarked. "Would you, ah, tell me if you… feel anything?"

He thought for a moment, then grinned, his eyes closing. "Clear my debt."

"N–"

He waited.

She bit her lip.

She sighed.

"Fine."

"Alright, then."

"But you'll tell me everything."

"Yeah, yeah."

"And I can charge you for things in the future."

"No interest," he said menacingly.

Another wait.

"Pain-in-the-ass baka jerk asshole moron stupid –"

He waited.

She inhaled slowly, nodded, and then went belowdecks.

He smiled at his scars. That's useful, he thought as he drifted to sleep again.

A/N: Sooooooooo I'm listening to cornandbeans's "flying away" and suddenly I feel the urge to write about Zoro's scars, cuz this morning I reread one of my fave books of all time - Tamora Pierce's Lioness Rampantand they say that scars itch when the weather changes and I was like "o rly?" and looked it up and it's true and I thought "I wonder if Zoro's scars do that!" so that was my purpose of writing however the nature of the song I was listening to made me go off on the tangent of "what if Luffy suspected what happened at Thriller Bark?" and so I threw in the funny look and then got to the actual damn story and I'm sorry it has no plot. *cries*

As you can see, I am a huge fan of exposition. :D

No pairings.

Oda-sensei owns everything.

I did not intend Luffy to seem OOC. It's just that in addition to being a fan of exposition, I am also a fan of Luffy's intelligence. I believe that he sees/understands more than he lets on, especially about the important things. How Dance Powder actually works isn't exactly important. How his first mate nearly died - and how he didn't - is, I imagine, pretty important to him. And since he's spot-on about so much concerning his nakama, I thought, why not this too?

Enjoi~