Title: Swords and Fists

Characters: Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy

Genre: Nakama-ship

Summary: Fists and swords were sometimes the only way to settle differences, especially when words just wouldn't do.

Warning: Spoilers for One Piece episode 66, "All Out Battle! Luffy vs. Zoro, Mysterious Grand Duel!"

He was going to kill him.

(He has not made good with that threat yet, no matter how many times he had said it in the past, like when Luffy tossed him in the sky during their fight at Arlong Park, or accidentally knocked him off Going Merry when he snatched Apis from her little lifeboat. He didn't know if he'll ever make good of it, ever.)

The idiot would not listen to reason, and actually attacked him over a misunderstanding.

(They've had countless arguments before, the first one when Luffy invited him to be part of his crew. The mugiwara was such a baka, Zoro has to literally bonk him in the head a number of times just to make him see reason. Half of the time it didn't even work.)

Luffy gomu gomu no pistol'd him with the intent to kill, and had it not been for Zoro's quick reflexes, his skull would have been smashed like the brick wall behind him.

(Luffy knew Zoro has quick reflexes.)

Zoro had done everyone a favor and defeated the Baroque Works bounty hunters who were after their heads.

(Luffy's, in particular.)

And instead of gratitude, all he got for his troubles were blackmail from that witch and a duel with his captain.

(He didn't expect anything less from Nami, but it was pretty annoying to get attacked by a half-awake, big-bellied rubberman. Luffy did him a favor, though, by beating up Mr. 5, because he did not appreciate cutting up the snot of other people, explosive they may be or otherwise. It was even more disgusting than the time Luffy had tried to make him drink water with booger in it, back at the Baratie.)

And so he decided that if Luffy was going to attack seriously, he would as well.

(Because fists and swords were sometimes the only way to settle differences, especially when words just wouldn't do. He and Luffy were not much of conversationalists anyway.)

It was the perfect time to test who was stronger, too.

(Zoro didn't care either way. His dreams did not contradict Luffy's, and Luffy's dream propelled them both in the same direction.)

And steel clashed with rubber skin and bones, and slashes and slices met with punches and kicks, and both of them attacked with all they got, as seriously as they could, neither of them backing down.

(It was not a mere fight between men—it was a clash between friends. It was a duel between nakama.)

And in the end, if one of them did kill the other—if Luffy managed to crush Zoro's skull with his fists, or if Zoro succeeded in stabbing Luffy in the heart—that would just prove that one was stronger than the other. And that was just how far either of them (or both) could go.

(He trusted that it would not come to that, though. It was a duel between nakama, after all.)

Another update, after two long years!

See, I've been rewatching some One Piece episodes for about two weeks now, and I'm again reminded why I love this series so much. The fights were awesome, the arcs well written, and the bond between the mugiwaras was exceptional. Especially between Luffy and Zoro. I am seriously appreciating the trust they have for each other even more now that I'm going back to the older arcs. Ah, it's so beautiful.