Hhh. I'm sorry to anyone who reads this. It started out alright, but gets pretty bad as it goes on. I really couldn't do much better though. It seems I'm starting to run out of ideas for this story. But if anyone has one, I would really really appreciate it if you told me. Please do, really. I'll be sure to credit you and I'm not very creative on my own. Thank you.


Luffy had worked himself up into a fit, though he really tried not to show it. The seam of his hat was coming apart in a small area, causing him quite some distress. He had already lost about six pieces of the precious straw and anymore might cause his poor little heart to break. His eyebrows knitted closely together as he tried pushing the unfolding straw pieces together so they wouldn't fall out anymore, but his unskilled fingers couldn't manage the task.

"Aaahhh. Noo." He whined, his voice shaking and getting higher in pitch. His back was turned to his nakama, who hadn't the slightest idea why his captain sounded upset. Zoro was currently sitting on the opposite side of the dinghy, his knees brought up close to his chest and his elbows resting on either one. His head had been hanging low, as he was sleeping, but after about ten minutes of hearing Luffy's crying, he started to get curious as to what his problem was.

"What?" He asked simply, wondering what could be the matter. Nothing, as far as Zoro could see, was bad that day. The sun was out, the sky had only a few clouds, and the ocean was fairly calm. The two had just eaten and they were getting along. But once the swordsman had spoken up, his captain jumped some before turning around to face him.

"Zoorooooo..!" He yelled, turning abruptly and holding the ever-present hat tenderly in his rubber hands. "It's falling apart! My hat!" He yelled, squeezing his eyes shut as a few tears of frustration fell from his eyelashes. His voice turned to one of a little boy's whose puppy died. But Luffy didn't care what kind of appearance he was portraying at the moment; he was panicked. There was no way he could let this hat fall apart. He wasn't sure what he would do if that happened.

"H-hey!" Zoro exclaimed, caught off guard. He really wasn't expecting the captain to be crying and it honestly surprised him. "It's fine! Let me see!" He raised his voice as well, growing just as flustered as the crying boy who was now only a foot away. Zoro took the straw hat gently from the captain's outstretched arms to inspect the damage for himself. He didn't notice anything to be much different with the hat. But he then spotted a small portion of the brim had frayed. Zoro thought, however, that it truly wasn't anything to cry over.

"What.. this is it?" Zoro asked, stifling a small bit of laughter and trying to show concern instead. But Luffy insisted that it was a big deal. He balled his hands into fists and bit onto his lower lips. His eyes had never opened but he nodded his head vigorously. "Oh. I see…" Zoro said with a smile. "Do you want me to try and fix it?"

"M'hm. M'hm. Do something, Zoro." Luffy rushed out, finally recovering his shame and wiping the moisture from his pinker cheeks with his palms. And this time Zoro couldn't help but set the hat aside for a moment and pull the thinner rubber frame of his captains close to his thick and hard one. He squeezed him tightly between his rather muscular arms and couldn't hold back a large grin.

"You're too damn adorable sometimes, captain. " The swordsman said straight into Luffy's, now red, ear.

"I-idiot, I'm a man.." Luffy huffed, keeping his gaze rather at the stretched out ocean than his teasing second-mates glance. "And you said you would fix my hat." He crossed his arms and broke free from the other man's firm grasp to sit frontwards in his lap.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting to that." The green-haired man picked up the 'broken' straw hat and started to meticulously tie a knot at the end of every piece of straw sticking out from the broken seam on the brim of his impatient captain's hat. This took quite a while and while Zoro was at work, Luffy talked about how important the cheap thing was to him. He told him the story of Shanks and how he saved his life, and the promise he made to him. He told him how it had to be in mint condition when the hat was returned to the red-headed pirate after he had become the Pirate King, which he very well intended to do.

"Whoa. Thank you, Zoro!" Luffy said thankfully to the swordsman after twenty minutes of tying was up and showed his gratitude with a small kiss. He returned the hat to the top of his head with a swift, familiar motion and pressed his slightly puckered lips onto the sharp cheek of his second-mate.

Zoro was not satisfied with just this at all and pulled the front of Luffy's red vest back to him so he could press his own mouth to the captain's lips instead. "Sure."