The sky is pouring, drowning every other sound in the town with its noise. A ship is docked at the small port, void of any life besides the soft thumping of a sledgehammer coming from somewhere below the flooding grassy deck.
On a small cliff near the docked ship, a boy is standing in the rain, staring up at the pouring heavens.
"You're going to catch a cold like that."
He doesn't move, and the other sighs before walking next to him, leaning on the railing.
His eyes never leaving the skies above, the smaller pirate lifts a hand to run it over the scar on his exposed chest, the grim reminder of what he lost three years ago (I wasn't strong enough), as well as the resolve of his worst enemy (you're next).
The boy sighs and closes his eyes, letting the droplets soak his skin, wishing they could wash the pain and sorrow away.
The swordsman tilts his head to glance at his captain, and seeing Luffy so melancholic and unlike himself makes his insides twist. And though he wants to tell him it will get better in time and nothing hurts forever, he doesn't, because promising a less painful future won't make him hurt any less in the present.
And as much as he wants to give him a moment to himself, he has a promise made in a land of sand to keep to the one person his captain is mourning (take care of my little brother).
And so Zoro straightens, his arm brushing against a colder and smaller one, and says,
"You're not alone. Not anymore."
And Luffy thinks of the nights spent in pain and silence without the lullaby of a violin and the soft snores of sleeping pirates, but the warmth beside him is real and he lets out a breath, his chest feeling lighter than it has in a while.
Luffy opens his eyes, and he lifts a hand to shield them from the light that shines through the slowly dissipating clouds, listening to the voices and laughter of his crew coming back from the town as he says,
"I know."