MILK
When someone nudges him, he doesn't wake. Instead, he yawns, scratches his cropped green hair and turns on his side to sleep again. The next nudge becomes a prod and it doesn't let up until he sleepily grunts out a, "What?"
"Zoro…"
"What…?" he asks again, this time, turning to face the raven haired boy crouched next to his mattress.
He blinks and realizes that he is beside his mattress. Not up on the bed like how he had left him last night. His first thought is whether Luffy had rolled down by accident from the bed. His next thought is that, no, Luffy would have woken him up with a painful shout, then, a lot of moans and whines and that would keep him awake all night. Then his next thought was, Luffy had been saying something while he was thinking.
"Zoro!" Luffy pouted and said teen let out a sigh, focusing his attention back on the usually hyperactive boy.
"What?" he asked for the third time.
"You weren't listening! I want milk."
There is a moment of silent while he stares at Luffy, who isn't grinning for once, but just pouting as he waits for him to fulfill his request.
"I don't have milk…?"
"What!?" Luffy exclaims and he winces, drawing his pillow over his ears. "How can you not-"
The rest of the words become muffled and mean nothing until there is a sharp tug on his pillow and it flies out of his grip.
"Zoro! I want milk! Please?"
He sighs, exasperated and cranky now. His eyes flicker to the digital bedside clock where the glowing numbers tell him it's now 3 in the morning.
"Luffy," he grits out. "It's freaking three in the morning and I have class at collage tomorrow. Can we please wait until a more decent time to go get milk?"
"But-"
"It's a really boring class that I can't afford to sleep through," he continues, hoping desperately that Luffy will be nice enough to leave this matter alone.
Brown eyes blink at him and he bites his bottom lip, chewing on it.
"Alright…" he agrees softly, getting up and going back to bed.
There's a silent sigh of relief from the green-haired teen as he drapes an arm over his eyes to go back to sleep. He can't. But he lies quietly because he knows if he does, soon enough he will drift off to sleep. It's in the silence that he realizes something is wrong.
Because Luffy's breathing is too fast, too heavy and it hasn't slowed yet, meaning he is not asleep. He thinks back to when he woke up and he remembers seeing dried tear tracks on Luffy's face and knows.
"Luffy," he says, his baritone voice shattering the silence. He rolls over to look at the boy in bed who is now trying to act like he's sleeping.
"Luffy," he repeats again. "Did you have a nightmare?"
The boy in question stiffens and he's sure he has hit the nail on the head.
"You know," he says casually. "I can't sleep either. Wanna go get some milk from the grocery shop? I'm pretty sure it's still open."
"Really?" Luffy says, sounding so hopeful and it makes him wince because he should have realized sooner that Luffy wouldn't bother him for something that wasn't trivial. "But… what about your class?"
He chuckles. At least Luffy is trying to show some concern.
"It's fine," he says as he gets up from the mattress and grabs some clothes to put on for the trip. "I would probably have slept through it sooner or later anyway."
There's a warm giggle that makes him smile and he thinks somehow, this night trip is worth it.