OPU. Could be looked upon as pure friendship, unless you wanna read more into it because you're desperate for some form of ZoLu. But really, it can just be considered very very light. XD I was tired, and made no effort to make it any deeper than what it is. No warnings. Please forgive any mistakes, as I was half asleep... and then couldn't be bothered re-reading it and such. -shrug- Enjoy!
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Lonely Moon
by Plushie
Silently, Zoro wondered what it would be like to sit here with someone beside him. Someone who wouldn't want to leave… wouldn't want to do anything other than sit in comfortable silence. He wasn't usually one to contemplate, and entertain such sappy thoughts but… tonight, he felt… odd. Kind of… lonely. He'd never read much into romance, or any of that crappy sort of thing. He'd just… never had the time or patience to just sit and think. Green eyes shifted lazily as a bottle was brought to his lips. Gulping down the burning alcohol, he placed the bottle back down again and commenced staring at the moon. After a while, he began to notice that it was starting to get a bit cool. A soft breeze was blowing over his face, ruffling his short green strands and making the pirate flag above him flap gently.
No… he wasn't a person to think this hard about things that were… time-consuming, wasteful, and downright pointless. So why was he now? It didn't make sense. Or… maybe he didn't want it to? Who knew… As far as he was concerned (and as much as Sanji taunted him about being the opposite) he was quite the complex person. Sure, his basic daily needs consisted of sleep, food, drink, train, then sleep some more but, he wasn't a complete and total barbarian as Sanji thought. Or… knew.
Bah, stupid love cook.
Faintly, he heard two voices rising and falling on the breeze, the tune bouncing merrily but annoyingly off-key. He heard another voice shouting at the two to be quiet, and couldn't stop the resulting roll of his eyes as Sanji, Nami, Luffy and Usopp appeared over the horizon. So, they were back already eh? Well, at least Luffy's distractions would keep his mind off such mundane thoughts. Che…
Idiot… He chided himself as he watched Sanji offer Nami a hand onto the ship, and helped her up before hurrying to follow and then offering to make her something to drink before she went to bed. Once again, the twirl of his eyes could not be paused and he shook his head slightly. Glancing at the half empty bottle in his hand, he contemplated throwing it at Sanji to see what would happen… but that would be a waste of alcohol. Stuff that… Stupid bastard chef wasn't worth it anyway.
Usopp got up on deck and hurried to go to the bathroom, while Luffy grabbed onto the crow's nest ledge and, as Zoro had predicted as soon as he had seen Luffy coming over that horizon, rocketed himself into Zoro's personal space. A grinning face was thrust into his as Zoro growled in annoyance before turning back to his alcohol again.
"Hiya Zoro! How was watch?" Luffy asked, perching himself like a bizarre parrot on the edge of the lookout. Zoro shrugged and grunted noncommittally. Should he say anything else…? … Nope, he was a man of few grunts and even fewer words. A shrug was the perfect answer right now. Luffy blinked at him before smiling and turning to look in the direction Zoro was looking.
"Ooh, I didn't notice how big the moon was." the captain said, his voice taking on a soft tone of awe. Zoro snorted a little.
"Yeah, it's big alright." he paused though when a hand was suddenly scrabbling out towards it. Blinking in pure confusion and shock for a moment, the swordsman finally narrowed it down to Luffy's arm.
"What… what are you doing?" he inquired, staring at the captain like he was bonkers. Which, in retrospect, probably wasn't far from the truth. Luffy grinned.
"Usopp told me there's a man who lives up there! I wanna meet him! Reckon he'd give me some moon cheese or something?" the boy chuckled, retracting his arm and wrapping it around his knees with a large grin. Zoro stared at him before turning back to the moon again and trying to hide his smile by taking another sip of burning alcohol.
Luffy spotted the smile, and his grin fell slightly into a softer look before he averted his eyes back to the moon again. He let out a soft sigh and a slight yawn. He knew it was time to go to sleep, but he kinda liked sitting up here with Zoro. It was… nice. Quiet. And he did like looking at the moon a lot.
"Whatcha thinkin' about, Zoro?" he asked quietly, his voice happy but soft.
Zoro grunted and shrugged noncommittally again… but this time, it didn't seem to be enough. Didn't seem to satisfy that little voice inside that told him to reply. He opened his mouth as if to say something, before he frowned and shoved the top of the bottle against his mouth again, avoiding the question by drinking instead. He wasn't going to tell Luffy what he was thinking. No way in hell… the kid'd laugh, then tell him he was either silly/funny/crazy or just plain stupid, before rocketing off to announce the others of the 'funny' thing Zoro had just said. No way was he going to let Luffy humiliate him like that. After watching his first mate for a while, Luffy just smiled again and then yawned widely.
"Well, I'm gonna go to bed. Night Zoro." he said before leaping down the ladder to the deck and heading through the trapdoor. Zoro looked after him, eyes narrowed slightly in annoyance. Che… stupid kid. What did he know? He wasn't thinking anything! As he looked back to the moon again, the same thoughts he'd had before being interrupted by his Nakama's arrival home, returned. He was alone… with the moon… again. Sighing heavily, Zoro moved to sit down by the mast, a smile curving his lips as he remembered what the kid had said.
Maybe… he hadn't been alone just before? Bah, that stupid love cook and his idiotic ideas about proclaiming said love for his Nami-swan, was getting to him. That's all it was! Stupid Luffy… thinking the moon was cheese. Che… idiot. Letting his eyes continue to rest on the glowing orb in the sky before him, Zoro continued smiling… unaware he was doing so. Somewhere along the line, in his small and febrile imagination… he'd begun remembering various ridiculous things his captain had said. That made the lonely feeling… just a little easier to bear.
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Bah, see how boring and blah that was? Yeah... Anyway. Hit the review button and tell me what you thought, ne? Thanks for reading!
