For the first time in his life, Monkey D. Luffy admits to himself that he should have listened to his brothers. At least one of their warnings had probably involved walking through dark alleys at night. Back bent from the effort of staying upright, he slowly shuffles forward, leaning against a brick wall for support. His legs finally give way, and he falls clumsily to the ground, gasping when the impact jars the stab wound in his back.

Better me than Zoro, he blearily thinks. A scar on the back of a swordsman is…how did it go again?

With his thoughts turning to his boyfriend, Luffy fumbles for the phone in his pants pocket. There's something about this injury that feels fatal, unfixable. So he forgoes the rational thought of calling 911, and instead presses speed-dial, hoping to leave his last message with someone who mattered.

Twenty miles away, Roronoa Zoro wakes up in an ambulance. A paramedic shouts something off to the side before leaning over him.

"Sir, you need to stay calm. You were in a motor-vehicle accident, and you're currently bleeding out."

Something catches Zoro's eye, and he strains his head up to find a foot-long piece of shrapnel sticking through the center of his chest. "That supposed to be there?" His voice come out in uneven gasps.

The paramedic laughs uneasily. "No it's not. You're lucky it just barely missed your heart. But we're worried that you might have nicked a major vessel, so we're going to need to get you to the hospital immediately."

"Am I going to die?"

"Sir, don't worry, we'll do everything we can to help you."

That's not a no, Zoro realizes. Luffy's ringtone drifts somewhere in the background. "Phone."

"Sir, you're not in any shape to be taking calls right now."

"Give me. The Fucking. Phone."

When the phone is reluctantly presented to him, Zoro presses the call button and tries to hold it to his ear, but something's blocking the way. After a few unsuccessful fumbles, he yanks the oxygen mask off.

"Sir!"

"Shut up. I'm taking my last call." He redirects his attention to his phone. "Yeah."

"Zoro?" On the other side of the line, Luffy's mind wrestles with what he'd just heard: last call?

"Luffy?" Zoro presses the phone harder against his ear. Pain lances through his chest, and the shrapnel quivers slightly. "I can barely hear you."

"Yeah. Just...a little tired, I guess."

"Tired? Were you napping?" A memory floods into Zoro's mind: Luffy's warm, sleepy face. Sunlight streaming across his tanned cheeks. Hair messy with whorls and knots.

"Yeah. That's it." For once, the lie comes easy to Luffy. Guilt requires energy, and he doesn't even have the energy to turn onto his back. "What's going on? It sounds noisy."

Zoro tries to glare at the paramedics hovering over him. "I'm fine. Some kind of car accident."

A weak shot of adrenaline shoots through Luffy at those words. "Oh no. are you ok?"

Zoro doesn't want a lie to be the last thing he tells Luffy. But he can't be honest either. "Just who do you think I am?" He lets Luffy interpret that however he wants.

Meanwhile, Luffy smiles against his phone. He wonders why he'd bothered to worry about Zoro in the first place; Zoro was invincible. He thinks back to the last time he'd seen Zoro. The cold dampness of the alley fade away, and he's watching Zoro as they're lying in bed together. He loves to catch Zoro's face when he's just waking up; completely free of its usual tension. That awkward smile and that 'hey' that rises up, as if Zoro's surprised that Luffy was still there. And I'm never going to see that again. Luffy's breath catches in his throat, and he doesn't manage to stifle his sob.

"Luffy?" The silence has dragged longer than Zoro had expected for a reply, and the small sniffle instantly has him worried. "You ok?"

"Yeah. Might be a cold." Luffy doesn't bother raising his arm to wipe away the tears, it'll waste energy; energy better spent talking to Zoro.

"Geez. Take better care of yourself, you idiot. I won't always be around for you." Zoro coughs up something wet, which has the people around him waving around arms and things and… more things. His vision's becoming too blurry to tell.

"Zoro?"

Zoro plays off Luffy's worried voice with a laugh. "I might be catching the same thing as you."

"Don't worry. You won't."

Zoro smiles at the certainty in Luffy's voice. He has a sarcastic reply at the ready. What, so you're some kind of doctor now? Think you're better than Chopper?

"I love you."

Zoro freezes mid-thought.

Luffy's mouth is slow to obey, and the words drag slowly out of his throat. "I love you. I love you… so much. I just don't know…how to express it. I really am an idiot. Like you said." Luffy slides his hand across the gravel, pretending it's a rumpled bedsheet. He can almost feel it; pressed lightly against his palm is Zoro's rough, slightly bigger hand.

Zoro's lips twitch. He had never needed any flowery words or confessions. He wouldn't have minded being told those three words over and over, on an endless loop. Ignoring the cold, wet sensation trickling down his arm, Zoro slowly curls his hand around the ghost of a smaller one; knuckles scarred from fistfights.

"When will you get… back home?"

Zoro chooses not to answer the question. Around him, the snatches of 'heart rate' and medical jargon are thrown around. "I love you too. I love you just as much…" His voice hovers at a hoarse whisper, air wheezing through his throat. "Maybe even more."

"More than… booze?"

"Shut up." Of course, he silently answers. "And you?"

Luffy simply laughs with a weak puff. Of course I love you more than meat. Luffy's consciousness sinks toward a deep, lazy slumber. But he slurs out one last thing, his hand tightening over Zoro's. "Be happy."

It's too late for that, Zoro thinks through a haze. Yet the warm sentiment in those two words relaxes his entire body. He squeezes that hand one last time. "I'll always watch over you."

And the phone falls to the ground.