"Th-They're so mean, Zoro. Just a bunch of assholes."
"Want me to go beat them up for you, Kuina?"
"Don't make me laugh. A little boy can't beat them. You can't even win against Perona."
"Okay, then I'll get strong and protect you from all the bullies."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Zoro rose from bed, his hand gripped his throat as his breathing labored and his heart thundered. He choked on his dry throat, coughed a few times then swallowed the forming lump down. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes from choking but they quickly dried as his breathing grew to nothing but short pants.
He sighed, relieved to be pulled from that dream, and fell back into the fluff of his pillow. He slung his arm over his eyes with an exhausted groan. Conis was going to have a field day next week… if he tells her, that is.
Not wanting to brood over the dream, Zoro searched his mind for anything else to fall asleep to but he soon found himself wide awake with transparent wisps of Sanji in the back of his mind. His eyes darted to the blue digital clock on his nightstand, four thirty - eight hours since he's last seen him but it felt like eight years.
He was so distressed, he was able to wreck the Wreck Room, smash windows, topple over broken shelves, kick holes in the walls. It turned into such a hazardous place after he was finished that even Franky had to call the room off limits with yellow crime tape since there was no longer a door. Franky even thanked Zoro for calming Sanji when he did because he would've destroyed the whole third floor at the rate he was going. He would've found his strength impressive like the others if he didn't know it reflected how much pain his soul was carrying.
At the end of everything, Sanji concluded his rampage by falling asleep standing in Zoro's tight embrace; and though Sanji's arms grew lax around his neck, Zoro couldn't let him go even after he carried him to his room. He was able to convince Franky to let him watch over him incase he needed to be calmed again - which wasn't hard in the slightest - and thus laid with Sanji until it grew time to leave.
He was conscious of the fact that Sanji might not feel so delighted to wake up to Zoro laying beside him, so he tried to busy himself with covering the busted window and sweeping the glass off the floor, but those chores were quickly completed and he soon found nothing else to do but lay with him.
They did, however, get into a little dispute when Sanji woke up. Sanji called him a pervert, which Zoro couldn't really argue against, but then Zoro countered with the fact that Sanji wasn't trying to run away or push him back. Sanji in turn ended the little discussion by calling him an asshole and telling him to fuck off, but he still didn't move and seemed to fall into an easier slumber with his face shoved into his collarbones. The entirety of the quick conversation was just a whisper and a tension free settlement despite what their words may have implied.
They weren't friends, haven't seen enough of each other to be labeled acquaintances, either; but Zoro couldn't stop this feeling of knowing him his entire life. It was warm inside his chest where his heart was usually stone, it sent his nerves blazing, making them yearn to touch him and pull him closer. Sadly, he didn't have an excuse to do anything more but wrap a lazy arm around his back and watch his golden hair glow in the setting sun. But when Sanji started weeping in his sleep, he found the excuse. There was no hesitation when he tangled their legs together, no hesitated as his other arm slipped under Sanji's head to serve as a pillow and tangle his fingers in his hair. There was no hesitation as he pulled him closer to his chest and rested his chin on the crown of his head.
His heart was thumping away in those moments as Sanji's fists gripped his shirt, whatever was in his nightmare couldn't be stopped, but Zoro refused to wake him in order to keep him held flush to his chest. He was selfish in making Sanji suffer through his nightmare alone just to hold him, but those thoughts passed when his weeping ceased moments later and he was back in a peaceful state of mind.
Sadly, that was also the moment Robin came in and told him his time was up. Luckily, Sanji didn't wake up when Zoro removed himself from the small twin mattress but he couldn't help the heart wrenching feeling when he watched Sanji's hands subconsciously search the now empty side of the bed he was on.
Zoro sighed, breaking himself from his thoughts as he glanced at the clock again. Only two minutes have passed but his narrow window of falling back asleep closed long ago. With a stiff groan, he sat up once again, stretched his arms over his head to hear the satisfying pops of his shoulders and stood from his bed. The pant legs of his sweatpants had bunched around his knees but as he crossed the room, they fell back to his ankles and sagged at his hips. He didn't bother with a shirt as he stepped into the hall, the obnoxious snores from Luffy's room filling his ears he ignored him and wondered down the hall. His feet scraped against the chilled wood floors until they were met with the soft texture of the living room through carpet. Franky tried to get Robin to instal real carpeting when she first moved in, but she said the wood panels give the place character - and, in Zoro's opinion, weren't a pain in the ass to keep clean.
"He lives."
Zoro's tired gaze turned to the two girls laying on the couch. Nami was sitting up, her back to the arm rest with her legs across the couch and spread out for Vivi to sit between them. Nami's comforter wrapped around them as a bowl of popcorn sat in Viv's lap. He quickly concluded Vivi was the one to speak as she giggled.
He gave a curt nod and slight smile as his eyes closed, "Princess." He couldn't deny his body felt weighed down with the shadow of sleep but his mind wouldn't let him drift.
Vivi giggled again as he watched Nami's arms tighten around her torso, a smile gracing her face - nothing able to break her good mood, not even Zoro's sudden appearance.
"Normally you're not up until four thirty P.M. on a Friday." Her smile faded slightly as a glint of concern flashed in her hazel eyes. Zoro sighed, knowing here this was going and stalking into the kitchen. He grabbed the milk and drank from the carton as Nami continued. "Are the nightmares back?"
Zoro swallowed down a large gulp of milk, wiped his mouth with the back of his arm, and then put it back in the fridge exactly how it was before. It was none of her business, but he also poked into her life from time to time. They've been living in the foster system together since they were children, to say their bond was nothing would be heart breaking.
He didn't look at her as his eyes swept the fridge for nothing in particular, but he cold feel her gaze and nodded in reply.
She sighed, "I there anything I can do?"
Zoro chuckled as he closed the fridge. Nami has also lost someone dear to her, two someones actually, but she still puts others before herself - if she isn't occupied obsessing over money, that is. "That's what Conis is for."
"She is helping at all? I heard she can be a little… forward," Vivi chimed, turning down the volume to the movie to heard Zoro better.
Zoro chuckled, "I'm not sure if that's the correct word for it." He walked around the back of the couch, lifted Vivi's legs and sat before lowering them onto his lap. He rubbed his tired eyes when the tv screen became to bright from him to handle.
"But those damned red rubber boots," he scowled. "It's like she's purposely trying to remind me of… that time."
"Want us to take them?" Vivi giggled.
"Yeah," Nami smiled. "We'll break in, steal them, and then burn them."
He watched Vivi's face fall and eyebrows frown before she leaned her head back against Nami's shoulder and look up at her, "Wait, burning rubber is bad-"
Nami quickly shushed her with a quick peck on the lips, "Sh," she cooed, "No one has to know."
Zoro chuckled at the pair. They've been dating for a long time, ever since they met actually. Vivi moved to Seven Spout in elementary school and transferred into Nami's class. Right away they hit it off because Nami was fascinated with hearing stories about the richest country, Alabasta Kingdom from Vivi.
Since they've met they've been an idiom, sneaking around to be together since Vivi's father was strict on age appropriate dating; but as soon as Vivi turned fifteen, and came out to her father with Nami at her side, his reaction to the two was nothing either could've predicted. Nami still jokes with Vivi about how her father ordered pizza and started playing Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl And I Liked It" by playing the song and ordering the same pizza from that night every once in awhile.
Zoro doesn't know Vivi, but he knows Nami and knew her during her worst time, he couldn't be more thankful that she was able to see the light within Vivi and break from her darkness.
Zoro chuckled, looking away as Nami fed the pouting Vivi a popcorn puff. "Why don't you two just get married already?"
"Ha!" Nami huffed, accidentally dropping the puff on Vivi's chin to fall down her shirt. Without even thinking, Nami reached after it and ate it anyway. Vivi didn't seem to mind and giggled. "I will as soon as you marry that Sanji guy from earlier today. Like seriously, what was that all about?"
Zoro felt his face heat up, his muscles tense, and his back break into a cold sweat. He scratched the back of his neck and refused to meet her eyes, "Did you walk in on us?"
He glanced over to find Vivi and Nami staring at him wide eyed and he suddenly realized he over shared. Before he could take back his question Nami yelled, even her cheeks were reddening, "Was there something to walk in on?!"
"No, no, no, no!" Zoro gaped in horror. He never wanted to have this conversation ever again, not after Luffy's first wet dream. "Nothing like that! We just fell asleep, nothing else, I swear!"
Vivi giggled at the pair, quickly shushing both of them as to not wake up the entire house and the neighbors. Once they were both somewhat calm, Vivi laid back down on Nami and smiled at Zoro, "So you have a boyfriend?"
"What? No," Zoro shook his head. "Nothing like that." Though he secretly wished…
He sighed, "I don't even know if he swings that way."
"Dude," Nami smiled, "I asked because when you came back down, you were glowing with happiness. Glowing. It was like you just met the love of your life."
Zoro was reminded of that feeling of his heart fluttering and he couldn't help but feel it again when Sanji's sleeping face crossed his mind. He didn't realise a small smile had slipped onto his face until he heard Vivi gape up at him.
"Oh God," she gasped, "He is glowing."
"How long have you two know each other?" Nami asked, an all knowing smirk on her face as she said, "You ran up to check on him pretty fast when Usopp said he was having a rough time."
Vivi awed.
Zoro sighed, trying to tame his blush. This conversation was no longer avoidable. "I met him the other day." He knew better than to tell them where and how - he didn't want them thinking Sanji was someone too broken to be fixed and too glum to hang with.
"Where? How?" Vivi asked. They were both more interested with Zoro than the movie now, but from walking in earlier, they weren't all that interested in the film to begin with.
He thought quick, "In the park. We just ran into each other and got talking."
"Oh, please don't tell me he obsesses over staying fit, too," Nami groaned.
Zoro couldn't help the small glare he threw her way, but then his gaze softened as he recalled the blond's abs rolling over his own when he was trying to calm his panic attack. They weren't as prominent as his own but they were there, oh God did they mold nicely to his own.
Vivi's giggled brought him from his thoughts. "I think we lost him."
"What?" he questioned.
"Nothing," they both laughed.
"But, I'll take that as a yes," Nami chuckled.
"He's smitten," Vivi teased.
Zoro found it time to leave before they could get anymore out of him. He lifted Viv's legs and stood before setting them back down. "I'm going to head out for a bit."
Nami knew it was because he never can go back to sleep after have that nightmare and so he visits his sister's grave, but she couldn't help but tease, "To go see your boyfriend?"
"No," Zoro called from his room, confident he heard them as he put on a loose black shirt then a light grey zip up. He traded out his sweatpants for his usual black cargo pants and slipped on his boots before exiting his room and entering the living room again.
"What should I tell Robin if you aren't back before she wakes up?"
He crossed the foyer and grabbed his house keys from the hook. "She's it."
"Alright. Have fun," Nami smiled, finally turning the volume back up on their movie.
"Don't get lost," Vivi giggled just as he closed the door.
He rolled his eyes as he locked the deadbolt and started walking down the graveled road.
It was still dark, the sky a mixture of dark purples and blues, but the moon was full and accompanied by the bright stars. His vision wasn't too strained as he wandered down the path but as he came to a divide he stopped. Pulling out his phone, he unlocked it and brought up his notes. They were mostly directions to the most mundane places around town like the dojo where he worked after school, the local produce market, and many more but the two he looked most at were the Franky Family estate and Kuina's graveyard. He hasn't had to look at his directions for Kuina's place for a while now, it all absorbed into muscle memory by now but he still had trouble dedicating the Franky house in the same way.
He looked to his phone and flicked between the two destinations. Kuina was the path to the left, fourteen blocks - fifteen to twenty minutes - away. Sanji on the right, eleven blocks - five to ten minutes - away.
He looked up from his bright screen, heading to the left before he slowed and stopped after five steps. He looked back to the path on the right and couldn't find it within himself to move in either direction.
He always visited her after a nightmare, always. But he promised her he'd look after Sanji, what if he's having another nightmare and can't wake himself from it?
He walked back to the intersection, looking back and forth between the two options.
Left or right?
He looked at the time on his phone, four fifty. Robin will be rising with the sun, if he's going to go anywhere, immediately would be the best time to decide, but…
Kuina or Sanji?