The sound of the seagulls darting through the grey morning air seemed almost melancholy. The soft footfalls of his boots accompanied the clacking noises her heels made on the cobblestone roads running between the houses of the abandoned town. Zoro glanced around the eerie silence. The decision to make a stop here had been a mistake. It had cost them dearly.
Nami was next to him, hugging herself in the chill. She seemed unfocused, hardly seeming to notice the heavily bleeding cut on her right shoulder. Her foot caught and she stumbled forward. With trained reflexes, he caught her before she fell but as soon as she regained her balance, she slapped his hand away angrily.
"I can walk by myself." Her tone was flinty.
Zoro shrugged and let her go. She turned on him with a newfound energy propelled by her own grief.
"Why are you so calm?"
"What do you mean?"
"He's dead. You know he's dead."
An edge entered Zoro's voice. "He's not dead, Nami."
"You saw the cave. It floods completely with water every three hours. There's no way he could have survived. He's like a rock in water."
Zoro stared out across ocean, visible through the gaps between the houses. He breathed in the comforting scent of the salt and seaweed, choosing his words carefully. This was why that idiotic curly-eyebrow was so much better at dealing with women. Nami was strong. But she needed comfort he couldn't give.
"Luffy…" he trailed off thoughtfully. The name released a flood of memories that washed through his brain like a tidal wave. Monkey D. Luffy who had pulled him down this path.
Monkey D. Luffy whom he loved
"I hate this."
He looked at Nami. She had hunched down to the ground, her hair like flames in the wind. She was a bright dot of color in this landscape of grey.
"Luffy is strong. Something as trivial as this won't kill him."
"You're always like that."
"Huh?"
She looked at him in the eye for the first time. "It's like the two of you share an understanding, and the rest of us are left out. I understand...but sometimes I'm jealous." A soft sigh escaped her lips. "Luffy taught me I didn't have to be alone. But even so...his closest bond is with you, Zoro."
"Hm." He didn't know how to respond, so he simply didn't.
Nami gazed miserably at her toes. "It's been three days. If he was alive he'd have come back already."
Zoro crushed the sliver of doubt that had managed to snake its way into the back of his brain. An image of Luffy's cold body floating in the darkness of the ocean flashed across his mind. He fought an urge to run straight back to those nightmare caves and search for his….
His what?
Lover.
It isn't something so sweet. It isn't something so sentimental.
"He's not dead." Feeling like a broken record, Zoro continued to watch the little fragment of the sea. He heard Nami sniffle.
"Do you really think he's alive?" she whispered.
"Yeah… I'd feel it if he was dead. He'll be back and next thing you know he'll be eating all our provisions for the next three weeks."
Nami managed a small laugh. She could easily imagine Luffy bursting into the kitchen and demanding food. Sanji would complain but prepare the inhumanely large meal anyway.
Sanji! Meshi!
Her voice caught in her throat. Her strained laugh dissolved into tears.
"Luffy," she sobbed into her hands. "Luffy…"
You're my nakama
Zoro's hands clenched into fists.
Luffy...you better not be dead