There was no doubt in Zoro's mind that Luffy was suffering. When Kuina had died, though Zoro had been much younger than Luffy and had seen less of the world, Zoro had felt broken.

In his head at the time, the childish thoughts of how could this have happened to me and how dare she leave me alone and who do I have to live for now were all that had swirled in his mind. Then he had gotten angry and taken it out on a few of the other children, then he had felt numb. It had taken a fair bit longer for him to accept Kuina's fate and take her dream on for her, and it had been a long and cruel period spent mourning until that moment, too.

Kuina had not been Zoro's brother, and had not been someone he had looked up to for years and years. In all honesty, they had not been that close. What did they have in common but sword fighting? There had been nothing else, and all they had done when together was fight. So, Zoro could not really understand the anguish that Luffy would be feeling.

Though he couldn't understand completely, he could empathise at the smallest degree, and sympathise at a bigger degree.

Then Luffy had fought his way out of the submarine and charged into the forest, and Zoro had the briefest thought of, fuck, I'm not suited for this. This was followed instantly by, fuck, I need to follow him. And so he had followed Luffy's path of clear destruction and screams in the distance with a heart pounding equal measures of anxiousness for his lack of comfort he'd be likely to give, and sadness for his captain that felt things too much.

Every time Luffy cried out his brother's name, Zoro felt it dig into his heart, as sharp as a shard of glass. It was insufferable to hear Luffy being in so much pain, screaming a name that no longer had an owner, who no longer could respond.

Two times Zoro had seen Luffy cry, and both times felt like a dream compared to this nightmare. When Usopp had left and Merry had died, all Zoro had to do was open his arms and welcome his captain into his bed so he could kiss the tears away and smooth the thoughts away with his fingers in his tangle of dark hair. Luffy would be the same as usual the next day, and all would be well.

Now, Zoro was sure that it was enough for Luffy this time to just be hugged and kissed and told it was okay. Now, Zoro wasn't sure if he'd be enough to soothe the internal wounds of his beloved Captain.

When he got there, Luffy had already destroyed the jungle space he currently inhabited. The most distressing part was the blood that seeped through his bandages that wrapped around his entire body, and the fact he was crouched on the floor, bloody hands clenched into bloody fists, and he was screaming into the mud.

"Luffy," Zoro thought he said, but he couldn't be sure because the roar of his blood pounding through his body was louder than his own voice, and there was no reaction from Luffy to tell him either.

A desperate sob caught itself in Luffy's throat whilst he screamed, and he stopped to cough.

"Captain." This time Zoro was sure he spoke, and this time Luffy heard as his head whipped up.

"Ace," Luffy said, voice scratchy. Zoro stared unblinkingly back, wondering if Luffy had really gone mad enough with grief that now he was hallucinating his best mate swordsman as his dead brother. But then, "Where's Ace, Zoro, where is he?"

The last sentence was yelled, but it was a yell within a sob, and it broke Zoro's heart so much he could not bear to reply, and so he closed his eyes instead. He closed his eyes on his captain, his strong rubber captain who had never let anything bring him down, who now lay sprawled on the ground unabashedly crying.

"You're gonna die if you don't rest," Zoro found himself saying instead.

"I don't care!" Zoro's eyes flashed open to see Luffy up once more, fists so tight blood was dripping onto the newly exposed mud he had ripped open himself. "I want Ace!" At that his arms stretched and unstretched to the point of pure absurdity as he punched and ripped and tore at the foliage around them both, missing Zoro but not the poor bush beside him, and not the tree behind, nor the large tree behind Luffy himself.

"ACE!" Luffy screamed once more. "ACE, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

In front of Zoro his captain was losing himself, and yet he could do nothing but stare, nothing but stand uselessly whilst he watched the nature get destroyed around him.

"WHERE IS HE," Luffy continued, Zoro flinching. "WHERE IS ACE, GIVE HIM TO ME!"

"Luffy," Zoro started, then at the break in his voice stopped to swallow and lick his lips. "Luffy, listen to me."

But Luffy continued shouting for his brother, and continued crying, and continued to bash the world around him.

Zoro took a second to collect his wits about him, and then took a deep breath. "Luffy," he said, voice loud enough to be heard, and as steady as Zoro's heartbeat was not. "Ace is dead, Luffy. He died." That made the rubber boy freeze, mid-punch and mid-sob. Zoro's voice grew quieter, softer. "He was killed at Marineford. Luffy, he's not coming back."

Luffy was blinking at him, his whole body stiller than Zoro had ever seen him be before. He said nothing, so Zoro just stared back at him, hoping it had gotten through to him.

But that was when Luffy let his fists snap back into their rightful place and he looked at the floor and he said, "No." When Zoro hadn't said anything at that, Luffy had raised his voice."No, Ace isn't dead."

"Akainu killed him. Luffy, you saw this."

"No, Ace isn't dead, he can't die." Luffy shook his head and built himself up and yelled, "Ace can't die, you're lying!"

"I'm telling you the truth, Captain." Zoro was amazed at his own ability to stay calm when Luffy was clearly unable to be. Maybe this was why they had worked so well together, before.

Though it had seemed more like they had been on the same page for most of it. With Ace's death, however, it appeared whilst Zoro had stayed on the right page, Luffy had disregarded the book altogether.

"You're lying, Zoro, why are you lying? To your own captain?" Luffy was so seething with rage he spat the last sentence at his best mate, and Zoro had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from letting his own anger flow out.

What he wanted to say was that he hadn't chosen this life of captain and best mate, he hadn't chosen to do what his captain told him or else. He hadn't chosen this path at all; Luffy was the one to pull him there, and he was the one who kept him there. So, really, did Zoro need to be held accountable for lying to a captain he hadn't chosen?

Even just thinking such thoughts made Zoro tired, and he was glad he had the foresight to not say them aloud, because they weren't entirely true. He followed the rules because he knew them important to Luffy, and Luffy was important to him. Now he was a pirate, and he he followed the pirate rules.

So, instead he said something else. "You're being childish, Luffy."

There was a second of calm before the storm, before the storm broke out uncontrollably and that storm's name was Monkey D. Luffy.

Whilst Zoro had only fought his captain once, it had never held the exact bloodlust Luffy saved for his opponents. But, facing an enraged Luffy now, Zoro wondered briefly how the criminals Luffy had faced before hadn't cracked the second they saw the rubber boy's wrath. Then Zoro was holding back a punch with his swords, and the thoughts were rattled to the back of his skull.

"Don't lie to me!" Luffy's voice was still so full of pain it took everything in his swordsman not to drop his swords and pull his captain into the tightest hug. "Ace is alive, I know it!"

Even though his swords were twisted round so the blunt side was stopping Luffy's advances, Zoro still felt bad that he was likely worsening the captain's fatal wounds. Swallowing it back, he told the boy, "You know he's dead, Luffy."

The next hits were so powerful, Zoro was left with one sword.

There was always a reason Luffy was captain, and it was not just because he wore a straw hat and claimed himself to be so. Luffy was strong, and even now, stronger than Zoro.

But Zoro was not fighting full strength, and neither was Luffy as he continued to barrage punches. For the second time in his life, the best mate let his opponent do what he wanted. He stood and put his sword in its sheath, and did his best to keep standing even whilst Luffy pummelled hard into him.

When there was a twinge as Luffy cried out in pain and collapse slightly, Zoro felt panic seize his own self and he found himself saying, "Stop being childish and realise the truth."

"I know it!" Luffy's voice then was so raw, so pained beyond belief, Zoro could do nothing as Luffy fell to his knees. "I know it," he whispered again, the words barely a whisper. "I know Ace is dead but he promised, Zoro. He can't die, he promised it! He's all I had left! He can't die, I can't go through this again!"

Zoro had no clue what the last part meant, but he decided to keep to the topic at hand. "And what about your dreams? Pirate King, remember?"

"It doesn't matter anymore."

In that moment, Zoro was frozen. Because he felt it, the truth of Luffy's words. Never had Zoro questioned Luffy's ability to make it as Pirate King since the moment he became his crew member, because Luffy himself had never questioned it. But now, hearing those words in a broken voice from a broken pirate, Zoro suddenly felt as if the world had shifted. For the first time, Zoro had a brief glance at what would happen if Luffy were not to be Pirate King.

Zoro made his decision.

Luffy had made a mess of his face, so Zoro did what he could to wipe it up, ignoring a likely broken nose to look down at his shrivelled captain. He ignored his own shattering heart to say what he had to. "Then I'm no longer going to follow you, Luffy."

The rubber boy was silent. "What?"

Since his reply had been so quiet, Zoro pretended not to hear.

He crossed his arms. "I'm the captain now, since you don't want it anymore." It took all it had in Zoro to act nonchalant. He was struggling to keep it in, so he looked away from Luffy, away from what would have him back down instantly. "I told you before, when Usopp left, that I wouldn't follow a captain who allows himself to be walked over so easily. If it's so easy for you to quit now, clearly you don't have it in you to be captain."

That made Luffy rise, and he grabbed the front of Zoro's shirt, seeped in Zoro's own blood, to shove him against the remains of a tree he had smashed. "What are you saying, Zoro?!" Luffy demanded, eyes flickering across his best mate's face angrily.

For the first time that day, Zoro saw a piece of his old captain back. "I'm saying that you clearly don't see the importance of nakama anymore, so you won't be allowed to have them back."

Something in Luffy's face changed at that. With his eyes wide, he muttered, "Nakama." It was as if his whole demeanour changed with that one word, and suddenly his features were twisting in a softer way and he was crying again. "I have my nakama!"

Zoro was sure now that his captain was back and that he understood what Zoro had been telling him.

Now Luffy was openly sobbing as he said the names of all the members, clenching his bloody fists at Zoro's shirt and pulling him closer so he could rest his forehead on a chest he was well accustomed to resting on. "I love them," he told Zoro, still crying. "I still have my nakama."

They were stood like that for a while, at some point Zoro's arms rising to wrap around Luffy because he couldn't help himself, until Luffy's sobs quietened and the tears stopped.

Then it was, "You're not really going to leave the crew, are you, Zoro?" asked softly into the cotton of Zoro's shirt.

"That depends on what your plans are next, captain." Though Zoro knew that he would follow Luffy to the ends of the Earth, he couldn't exactly bring himself to say so.

Luffy sniffed and was quiet. It was some time before his now croaky voice spoke up again. "I was embarrassing as a captain."

It was a statement that didn't really warrant a response. Instead, Zoro let his hand rest on Luffy's cheeks, hoping it didn't hurt him too much, as he lifted his head from his chest so he could kiss Luffy softly on the lips. Just a brush of lips, just a promise.

A promise that Luffy swallowed with his eyes closed, a sigh escaping his mouth as he let his forehead fall onto Zoro's forehead once more.

For an hour before Zoro made Luffy return to get a check up on his wounds, they sat on the floor with no words needed as Luffy reconciled with his thoughts and started to think of what he could do next, and repeatedly felt love for a crew who had done so much for him.

When they returned and there was Rayleigh waiting, and Luffy made his decision to stay, Zoro made his decision to leave. A lone swordsman on a ruined castle island was waiting for Zoro, and he knew what he had to do to make sure Luffy was never to go through such a thing again, even if it meant giving up his pride for new strength.

Zoro loved his captain too much not to leave. He also loved him too much to not give Luffy more than a kiss and a goodbye before he was helped by one of Jinbei's sharks to find Mihawk without a second glance back.

After all, he knew he'd find Luffy again sure enough, even if it felt like he left a piece of himself with the captain with each mile they put between them.