Zoro leaned back against the white wooden railing, his arms folded behind his head to cushion it while he lounged. He was in the state between awake and asleep, conscious of the things around him but not fully aware of them. He could hear the sound of water lapping lazily against wooden boards, and the sound of a flag whipping in a passing breeze. Somewhere above him, a gull cried a mournful wail, but the sound was nearly drowned out by the laughter from a group of young men and the shouting of an irritated young woman. The humming of a low voice could be heard somewhere distant, as if behind a closed door.
They were peaceful surroundings, even with all the noise it was a place he felt more comfortable and at home than he could ever remember feeling before. He could feel the tendrils of sleep pulling at his consciousness, but he wasn't sure he was ready to fully let sleep take him yet. There was some reason he wasn't ready to fall asleep, but whatever that reason was, he couldn't remember.
"Zoro!" A young man's voice called to him.
Zoro's eyes opened, blinking against the blinding bright light of the sun as he forced them to adjust. He turned his head, glancing up at the black haired boy perched precariously on the railing above him.
"Luffy," Zoro grunted in return. He spoke as if on autopilot, like the words were being repeated from a long forgotten memory. They were words he'd spoken before, he just couldn't recall when. "Get off the railing. If you fall in, I won't rescue you."
"You're mean!" The young man shouted at him but obediently climbed down from the railing anyway. "Why are you being such a grump anyway?"
"I'm not," Zoro sighed.
"Jerk," Luffy turned his head away from Zoro and pouted like a petulant child might.
"What did you want?" Zoro asked, relaxing against the railing once more.
Luffy's mood immediately bounced back to that of and excited child's. "I'm bored. Wanna fight or something?"
"The last time we did that, Nami threatened to raise my debt again," Zoro chuckled.
"So?" Luffy asked, picking at his nose and adjusting his signature straw hat on his head.
Zoro looked up at Luffy where the younger man stood over him. It would probably never cease to amaze him how little concern Luffy had for things like rules or punishments. He wasn't sure he would ever really get used to it, but every day it grew less and less shocking and more and more amusing. He had yet to regret following this man.
"So nothing," Zoro laughed. "Let's fight."
Zoro's eyes snapped open, his gaze meeting the dirty white wall of his current apartment building, and he suppressed the urge to groan in disappointment. Instead he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and throwing his legs over the side of the bed. He needed to get up early today anyway, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that he'd been awoken like this.
That dream again. He'd been having it more and more often since about six months after his nineteenth birthday. It had been a couple of years, but the vividness of the recurring dreams had yet to fade. Not every dream was the same, but they usually involved the same setting and the same people. Sometimes things were different, they were on land instead of on a ship at sea, or some of the characters in his dream were absent while other times there were new ones added in, but they were all the same at their core.
And every one of these dreams involved the black haired young man named Luffy.
The dreams were strange. He'd had dreams before and since he'd started having these recurring nighttime visions. Those dreams were normal, usually murky and dark, hazy to his memory the moment he opened his eyes. They ranged in topic from being attacked by large birds to fighting off gingerbread men in his grandmother's basement, and he usually never paid them any attention.
These recurring dreams, however, were entirely different. They were brighter, more vivid. He could hear and see and smell everything as if it were real, rather than a dream. It was more like a memory; one that he had never experienced before.
Zoro had speculated that perhaps the dreams had been a memory; one left over from a previous life. His uncle certainly encouraged this belief when Zoro had asked about it. His uncle told him that sometimes when bonds forged in a lifetime were strong enough, the people they were forged between would meet again in the next life. It was a nice idea, but Zoro wasn't so sure he agreed.
The dreams felt real and were vivid and colorful, that was true, but their contents were too far beyond believable. The black haired young man – Luffy – for example, was made of rubber in Zoro's dreams and could stretch his body in impossible ways. One of the women that played a regular role in his dreams could sprout hands anywhere she pleased. These things were fantastic and magical and had absolutely no real world basis. This was why Zoro found it impossible to accept this as a past memory. It just couldn't be.
His connection to Luffy though… well, that did feel real, and despite the impossibility of his ever having lived in that world, he couldn't help but keep an eye out for that straw hat.
Zoro sighed, shaking the remnants of his dream away and pulling himself out of bed. He had a lot to do today, he didn't have time to think about those things any longer. He made it to the kitchen without slumping over in exhaustion and began brewing himself the coffee that would get him through the day.
"If our captain loses his will, our crew is sure to fall apart!"
Zoro made his stand, unwavering even under the expressions of sadness and uncertainty that some of the crew were giving him. He wasn't wrong though, even the shit cook seemed to agree, and Zoro knew his point was valid. Their crewmate had left them after a blowup with their captain; they couldn't allow him to come back like nothing had happened. He'd defied their captain, he needed to repent.
"This may seem like just another one of his jokes to you, but if I can't trust the man that's in charge here, then maybe this time I'll be the one who starts a fight and leaves."
Luffy stared at him in disbelief. He knew his words were harsh, they were blunt and borderline cruel, but Zoro didn't see any point in dulling the edges of his truth. They needed to hear this. The others, and Luffy. Luffy needed to know that being in a pirate crew wasn't all fun and games. They had dreams to achieve, and Zoro highly doubted they could achieve them entirely alone. They needed this crew, and Luffy needed to be their leader.
Zoro watched as Luffy's expression steeled. He didn't look any happier with Zoro's proclamations, but he understood. Of course he did, he wasn't as much of an idiot as he sometimes acted. He knew what Zoro was saying was the truth, and knew that the swordsman made a valid point.
Luffy met his eyes again, a hardened look, and Zoro knew his words had an impact. He knew Luffy was hearing him, and he knew that despite the hurt he still felt for their lost nakama, Luffy knew he was right. He wanted to be the Pirate King, he was going to have to be strong in situations like these.
Up until this point Zoro had been fairly passive when it came to following Luffy's whims and going with the flow of events. It was the first time Zoro ever really put his foot down, and the first time he ever threatened defiance. This was the first time he ever went against Luffy to this degree. It was necessary, he would never have to do this again.
"Roronoa!" A voice permeated his unconscious mind. "Roronoa! You can't sleep here."
Something nudged into his side, and he immediately reached for his weapon, half drawing his sword before he even realized what the situation was. Now that he was awake, he realized he'd fallen asleep leaning against the shoe rack in the locker room of the dojo he'd been a member of the past couple months. His legs were stretched out comfortably in front of him. It was a pose he'd been in before and seen often, though this was the first time he'd ever caught himself doing it while awake. Usually when he was lying like this, it was against a railing or the solid form of a mast, and he was listening to the sound of the ocean or of wind in the sails.
The problem with it now was that the length of his legs happened to be blocking the doorway that connected the locker room to the dojo, and a few of his fellow members seemed bothered by this. It was one of them that had planted a foot into his side as a not-so-polite wakeup call. Though in fairness it probably wasn't fair to cut the guy in two in retaliation, so Zoro resheathed his sword. Instead he made a big show of stretching and popping his stiff joints before moving out of the way.
"You're a real piece of work, falling asleep instead of joining us in practice," the man who'd kicked Zoro started in.
"There was no point in my going, I outclass all of you anyway," Zoro shrugged, unconcerned. He wasn't bragging, it was a simple statement of fact. He'd trained harder and with more dedication than even the most seasoned pro at this dojo, and quickly beat the previous champion here right away. That was how he'd been granted immediate membership into the dojo without the need for a membership fee.
No matter how truthful his statement was, however, it still seemed to offend the man who had spoken. He grumbled a slew of curses and threats and had to be held back by his friend when it became evident he was looking for a fight. Zoro was glad he didn't have to fight the guy. Of course he'd win easily, he had no doubts about that, but fighting in the dojo outside of a match wasn't tolerated, and he kind of liked this place. If he'd ever have the opportunity to come back, he wanted to be welcomed again, so he should probably leave on good terms.
"Relax," Zoro assured the overly worked up man. "I'm leaving today anyway, I just came to say goodbye to sensei."
The man spat curses in Zoro's direction as he left, but Zoro didn't pay him any mind. He would say goodbye to the instructor of the dojo (even if the man hadn't been able to teach Zoro anything new, he was kind) and then he'd be on his way. He'd almost overstayed his welcome here anyway. The tournament had ended a few weeks ago, but he'd gotten comfortable, so he remained. The dreams he'd had were actually what reminded him it was time to go. They got worse and more frequent when it was time for him to move on.
It was something he'd been doing since he was nineteen. He'd move into a town, establish himself in the local dojo and wait for the next tournament. Sometimes he was lucky and got into town the same week at the tournament, other times he had to wait six months or more for another event to come along. He'd been in this town for about four months and stayed much longer than he usually would have. This was a peaceful place, and he took some down time here, but it was time to move on. He had bigger goals than this place.
Zoro had packed what few possessions he owned this morning, and after he said his goodbyes here, he'd be gone.
No one was moving. Not his friends, not the allies they'd just made… no one. Luffy lay unconscious behind him, taken down by his own exhaustion prior to the explosion that took the rest. It was just Zoro and the giant now.
"Take my life in exchange for his," Zoro pleaded.
He was aware of what he was sacrificing. If he died here, so would his dream. He would fail Kuina and fail himself. There would be no second chance for him. He'd never become the world's greatest swordsman. Eventually someone else would come along and take that title from Mihawk, and that person would not be Zoro. He was aware of that. He was also aware that he was exactly where he needed to be. His body positioned between the enemy and his captain, and he was offering his life in exchange for Luffy's. This was more important than his dream, because if he let his captain's dream die, his own would worth nothing.
The shitty cook tried to get in the way, but Zoro wouldn't have it. When a man makes his decision, he sticks to it. He wasn't going to let another of his friends fill in the duty for him. This was his battle now, and he would see it through to the end. He was prepared, and Sanji wasn't going to take that away from him.
The bear-like man made him an offer and promised him hell. He wasn't lying, hell was an understatement. The weight of Luffy's pain and fatigue wore into Zoro's body like a thousand burning hot knives. It tore at his insides, burned his flesh… he awoke on the ground sweating and shaking in its aftermath.
And that was just a small taste.
He wouldn't be deterred though. No matter how badly he suffered, he wasn't going to back down. His captain's life was on the line, and Zoro had a duty to him he was more than happy to fill. So the plunged forward, arms outstretched, into that waiting torment.
That was the last thing he remembered before he lost all coherent thought and the torturous pain set in.
He opened his eyes and peered out over the water. It ran under the bridge he stood on and met with the horizon in the distance. This dream had come to him when he'd closed his eyes, intent on relishing the feel of the sea breeze against his face. He'd never experienced one of his dreams while he was still awake, this was a first. Maybe it was this place. He'd felt, since he entered this town, that it was some place special. He thought maybe it was the way the buildings of the town reached all the way to the waterline of the ocean, or the open, airy feel of the place. Something about it felt familiar to him since he'd set foot here.
As new as a daytime dream was, the dream itself was one he'd had before. It was one of the first he'd ever had, if not the very first. He remembered the first few times he had it, he laughed them off. He could never imagine himself giving his life, sacrificing his dreams for anyone else, captain or not. It really was a laughable concept.
That was in the beginning, though. Now, so much time and so many dreams later, Zoro knew he'd do it again if he had to. If Luffy appeared right now and asked him to, Zoro would sacrifice himself again. In his dreams he came to know the man, his captain, the Pirate King, and he knew that his sacrifice had been worth it.
He wondered again if these were memories. Did those people actually exist in a past life? Had he really been that man with so much to lose? If he was in this life now, were the others here too? Was Luffy here? If so, did Luffy dream about him too?
Maybe that was why he found it impossible to settle in one place for too long. Maybe his constant wandering was because he was searching for something, searching for Luffy. He knew from his dreams that he'd been directionally challenged in his past life, finding it impossible to even follow a straight path without getting lost. Maybe he was looking for something but had spent so much of his time getting lost on the way.
"There you are," a voice spoke. It was strangely familiar, though Zoro was sure he'd never met anyone with a voice like that. He could have sworn he knew the speaker. Then, as if the person could read his thoughts, the voice said, "Did you get lost again? I thought you would have come here ages ago."
Zoro turned in surprise, feeling a little on edge about this stranger that had just read his mind.
"Hey, Zoro," the man before him greeted with a friendly wave and a wide smile. "Man" was a bit of an overstatement, he looked more like a kid in his teens still. His clothes were different: a faded, old red t-shirt instead of a vest and full-length jeans that were torn at the knees instead of cut-off shorts. He straw hat was identical, however, as was the tousled black hair. The scar under his eye was thinner and less visible than it had been in memory – a result of modern medicine, most likely – but still there.
"Luffy?" Zoro asked in a mixture of disbelief and building exhilaration. Something inside of him was crying out triumphantly, thrilled and ecstatic to have found his captain once again.
"Yep!" Luffy beamed, tugging at the brim of his hat. "I've been waiting for you."
Zoro continued to stare, disbelief turning quickly into relief. It was as if the world had aligned for him. Zoro had never been an unhappy man; despite his lonely lifestyle he'd never felt as though anything was particularly wrong with it. It was how he lived, and he was used to it. Now, however, he could feel himself filling up, as if there had been an emptiness inside he hadn't been aware of. Now he felt complete again, standing only a few steps away from a person he had never met before and yet knew very well.
"Well? Are you just gonna stand there? We still have to find the others, right?" Luffy asked. He looked as happy to see Zoro as Zoro felt seeing him.
"Yes, Captain." Zoro replied with a grin and allowed Luffy to lead him once more.