Last part of a five-part series, exploring what would have happened if Zoro joined Baroque Works when he was asked to ages ago. Because I like AU speculation like woah.

Title: Baroque Works Saga: Agreements
Theme: #29: Proposal
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 3,847
Rating: PG
Warnings: AU-ness, some things happen differently than usual. And please note I'm using the 'deal/agreement' definition of a proposal, not a wedding one—this is still gen.
Disclaimer(s): I do not own, or pretend to own, One Piece or any of its subsequent characters, plots or other ideas. That right belongs solely to Eiichiro Oda. I do not own the prompts either-those are assigned by 30_OnePiece.

Zoro was surprised to find himself waking up for the second time in as many days. He just couldn't seem to stay dead, although he supposed that was actually a good thing. But damn, he needed to stop waking up in unfamiliar places. It was getting old, fast.

He blinked until his bleary vision gained some semblance of clarity and looked around, trying to figure out exactly where he was. It appeared to be a very large infirmary, with dozens of beds laid out for whoever was visiting at the time. Most of them were empty. Sunlight blazed through the enormous windows, and based on what little architecture he could see outside through them, he had the bewildering impression that he was somewhere inside the palace.

Huh. Now that was unexpected.

"You're awake!" came an excited-sounding squeaky voice from somewhere down low to his right. Blinking, Zoro turned his head and found himself face to face with a teddy bear with antlers. After a moment he realized some of the features on the creature were recognizable, and that it was a bizarre half-human, half-deer form of the yeti-deer he'd seen back on Folgasse.

"Um," Zoro said, blinking again in confusion. "Hey. You're with the Straw Hats, right?"

"That's right!" the little creature squeaked. "I'm Tony Tony Chopper, the ship's doctor. It's good to see you're okay, Mr. Roronoa! You were out even longer than Luffy." The deer's expression went from enthusiastic to admonishing. "You shouldn't fight with broken ribs, you know," he lectured severely. "It's very dangerous. You damaged a lot of your internal organs. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to help you at first."

"Uh...right," Zoro said—because really, what else could he say, when his brain still felt like it was clogged with smoke, and he was getting lectured by a stuffed animal? "You can just call me Zoro," he added, as he tentatively started to sit up. "That other thing sounds ridiculous."

"Okay, Zoro then!" the deer, Chopper, agreed. He looked thrilled at being on a first-name basis, but switched to anxious in a heartbeat. "Oh, you probably shouldn't move around too much yet, you probably won't feel good for a few days still..."

Zoro was learning that fairly quickly. The agonizing stabbing pains in his chest were no longer present, but he did feel sore all over, and breathing was still a hassle if he inhaled too deeply. Grimacing, he tossed back the covers to give himself a once-over and was surprised to find himself positively covered in bandages. Damn. He'd never seen so many in his life—he'd been injured pretty badly, yeah, but this was ridiculous. "This your handiwork?" he asked hoarsely.

"Well, yes. You were hurt pretty bad, I wanted to make sure you were taken care of—"

"Why?" Zoro interrupted, before the kid could go off on another lecture. "I'm not exactly on you guys' side. I was assigned to kill you, you know."

Chopper shivered at that and opened his mouth to answer, but he was interrupted before he could offer one. "I told him to do it," someone said cheerfully from the doorway.

Zoro looked over. Luffy was grinning at him, also heavily bandaged, over an armload of fruits in an enormous basket. He set the basket down near one of the empty beds, sat on its edge, and began enthusiastically helping himself to the food, smiling all the while.

"Why?" Zoro repeated, giving the pirate a look. "That witch did deliver my message, right? I told you we were even. You don't owe me anything, and I don't owe you anything."

Luffy swallowed a watermelon whole, and his stretching abilities made it look grotesquely like a python swallowing a small pig. When he finished he patted his stomach and said cheerfully, "Oh, don't worry, she told me. That's why I told Chopper to save you."

How was that for confusing. Zoro shrugged. "Fine, but I still consider my debt paid. I'll be out of your hair as soon as the excitement outside dies down enough for me to leave without being arrested." He was still sort of surprised he wasn't arrested now, to be honest. If Luffy and his crew were here and the palace was still intact that probably meant that he'd beaten Crocodile. But Zoro was fairly sure Alabasta's government and the marines would still be more than happy to drag him off, or put him down for good. It sounded like he'd been unconscious for days; he couldn't imagine why nobody had taken advantage of that.

Luffy frowned, and Chopper looked disappointed. "You want to leave?" the doctor asked slowly. "Well, I mean, you can't for a few days anyway because of your injuries, I still have to give you some treatments, but...you want to go away?"

"I don't see why not," Zoro said dryly. "I'm sort of out of a job now, and anyway I've got somebody to look for."

"For your dream," Luffy stated, not asked. "You have to beat the greatest swordsman, right?"

"That's right," Zoro answered. He was surprised Luffy still remembered that.

Luffy watched him for a while as he rapidly ate his way through the contents of the basket. Zoro was a little unsettled by the stare, and after a few moments devoted himself to finding his swords (laid out on the bed next to his) and his other belongings. His shirt had been completely torn apart in his fight against Daz Bones. Pity, that. He accepted the robe that had been laid out next to his swords for now, but he was definitely going to have to buy a new shirt somehow before he left, if he could find a store that would sell to him and not just try turn him in. His haramaki would need a little mending as well, but at least it was still intact—

"I decided what kinda guy you are," Luffy announced brightly, cutting through the silence.

Zoro raised an eyebrow at that, and looked up from rummaging through his things. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Luffy said. "You're definitely a good guy."

"Glad to hear it," Zoro said. His voice was laced with sarcasm, but the truth was he actually was kinda glad to hear it. He'd come to respect Luffy a lot over the past couple of days, somehow, even though he still barely knew the kid. It was sort of nice to know he'd made a good impression in return, although he sure as hell didn't see how he'd done it.

"Yup," Luffy said, still grinning. "That's why you're gonna join my pirate crew."

Zoro froze. Luffy looked perfectly confident, like he knew what he'd said would inevitably be the truth. Zoro begged to differ. "Might wanna try asking before you make claims like that," he said flatly, and returned to rummaging through his things, making sure each of his katana were okay.

"Nope," Luffy said. "I've decided you're going to join my crew."

"Well, I've decided I'm not, so it looks like we're at an impasse here."

"No," Luffy said insistently, his voice and expression childish. "I refuse your refusal. You're gonna join my crew and that's final."

Zoro turned to face him again, glared back coldly. "I don't think you quite get how this works," he said, slowly and clearly. "I said no. And why the hell are you asking me to join you, anyway? You do realize a few days ago I was trying to kill you and your crew, right?" Hopefully the latter would get the point across. Luffy didn't seem to have much concern for himself, but his crew was clearly another thing entirely.

"You're a good guy," Luffy said. "You wouldn't."

"I fought you twice. If I'd won, you'd probably be dead."

"You couldn't beat me."

"Tch. Whatever. No is no, kid. I'm not joining your crew. Best of luck to the rest of you, but I've got things to do." He pulled himself out of bed against Chopper's frantic protests, slid the provided robe and his haramaki in place, and slipped his three swords through their belt loops.

Luffy pouted at him. "C'mon. Join my crew!"

"No," Zoro said, as he walked out the door. "Go away." And that was the end of that, or so he thought.

As it turned out it was not the end of that, and Luffy did not go away. Nor did the rest of his crew, which was equally persistent in making the next few days of his life the most irritating and simultaneously oddly enjoyable time he'd ever had.

Zoro found himself effectively trapped in the palace with the rest of the pirates after the recent near-rebellion Crocodile had managed to cause. The city was on full alert after all the combat. And although its citizens and military were clearly supportive of the Straw Hat Pirates, the marines that had taken it upon themselves to help re-establish order in Alubarna were most certainly not. The Straw Hats kept mostly out of sight in Cobra's palace as a result, and were treated with every possible courtesy, from food whenever they wanted it to access to the enormous baths to comfortable rooms. For some unexplainable reason, Zoro found this same courtesy being extended to himself, for which he couldn't fathom. Didn't these people know he'd been allied with Crocodile, however unknowingly? Sure, he'd gone and defeated Mr.1 and saved Nami to pay his debt back, but that couldn't possibly be public knowledge, could it?

And anyway, the servants and even the royal family kept treating him like he was a part of the pirate crew, which was most certainly not the case. It grated on his nerves to even think people assumed that. Especially because Luffy had not let up on alternately begging for and demanding his joining the crew, no matter how many times Zoro said 'no.'

Obnoxious, persistent bastard.

To counteract it, Zoro spent as much time as he possibly could on his own, usually finding some secluded corner of the palace to curl up and take a nap while his wounds healed, or an empty courtyard where he could run through his katas and do a little more training. It worked—for the first day. Unfortunately, every single one of those Straw Hat idiots became rapidly adept at finding him, no matter where he tried to hide.

The witch, Nami, had tracked him down first. "You told me you'd be fine," she snarled at him, after unceremoniously smacking him awake with that stupid metal staff of hers. "When we found you, you were almost dead. You are going to owe me so much for scaring us like that!"

The woman made no sense. A few days ago she'd been scared of him even when he was half dead; now she easily took the liberty of hitting him when he actually was capable of fighting back. "I'm unemployed and flat broke," he responded sleepily, as she stood over him, glowering. "Too bad. Sucks to be you." He was already asleep again before she could make a comeback.

The sniper tracked him down several times, introducing himself nervously as the 'Great Captain Usopp' and insisting that if Zoro tried to do anything scary he had an army of eight thousand men at his beck and call. "Right," Zoro said dryly, in the middle of his katas. "I'm sure you do."

The kid had seemed pretty terrified of him at first, but Zoro had no real desire to hurt him, especially not now when Baroque Works wasn't giving him the kill orders anymore. Besides, he respected Luffy too much at this point to start targeting his friends, even if he was seriously beginning to consider burying the pirate captain under a ton of rubble just to get him to shut up. Usopp seemed to pick up on that, and tentatively started asking the swordsman about his fights, and how he got stronger, and how long he'd been a 'brave warrior of the sea.' The kid seemed to genuinely want to get stronger, and Zoro couldn't begrudge him that, so he eventually started to answer the questions. Usopp seemed much more relaxed and friendly around him after that.

Chopper (who it turned out was a reindeer, not just a deer) unsurprisingly followed Zoro everywhere with strict, frantic orders about his health and why are you lifting heavy rocks like that when you still have broken ribs and don't take those bandages off, are you crazy! and do you have a death wish, because you are definitely going to kill yourself if you keep doing this. Zoro got tired of it pretty quickly, especially since when he wasn't being lectured or dragged back to the infirmary by that enormous yeti-form the reindeer was usually staring at him with something akin to hero worship. Seriously. Did anyone on this crew make sense? Did any of them even remotely understand that he'd been assigned to assassinate every single one of them?

Even the cook, Sanji, had tracked him down, the night that Zoro skipped the big banquet held in the Straw Hats' honor in favor of a little solitude and a chance to finally get away from all the pirates. Zoro had learned very quickly from brief encounters that while most of the crew could be alright (if insane), the cook was an absolute asshole. He vehemently did not like the guy for his smart-ass attitude and his obnoxious, perverted skirt-chasing habits, and privately thought to himself that he really couldn't blame Crocodile for finding 'Mr. Prince' so aggravating. They'd basically gone out of their way to avoid each other, which was why Zoro was so surprised to find the cook shoving a full, laden tray of banquet foods and drinks at him with a sharp warning of "You'd better eat every single bite, shitty Bushido," and muttering under his breath about how people shouldn't skip meals, and how at least he knew how to be grateful when people saved other peoples' lives. The cook had stomped off almost as soon as he'd arrived, but Zoro managed to pick out enough muttering to realize this was probably a sort-of thank-you for saving Nami's life.

This crew was freakin' insane.

But none of them could beat out their captain for insanity—or for persistence. Luffy bugged him constantly about joining the crew, wheedling, begging, insisting, demanding, and the kid just did not know how to take a hint.

"Join my crew."

"No."

"C'mon! Having a guy who uses three swords on my crew would be so cool!"

"I'm sure it would be. Good luck finding somebody else."

"You could fight a lot more with us."

"I can fight a lot anywhere."

"Usopp tells really good stories, I bet you'd like them!"

"I really don't care."

"Nami says you owe her money, so you have to join, right?"

"That greedy witch? Please. She's just making shit up. I don't owe her anything."

"Chopper really likes you, you don't want him to feel bad, do you?"

"I'm not joining just to avoid a guilt trip, and I can stand to avoid being tortured by paranoid bandage-happy doctors for the rest of my life, anyway."

"Sanji's food is the best food ever. You can't get the best food ever somewhere else!"

"Hell no. I don't care if he's the only cook left on the planet, I am not joining just to eat that curly-browed asshole's food."

"Well, I don't care. You're joining my crew."

"No means no, Luffy! Get lost already!"

And on and on it went. Zoro was stubborn, but Luffy was doggedly persistent, and the swordsman was seriously beginning to wonder if even his great levels of endurance could withstand this.

He was entirely unsurprised to find Luffy tracking him down late at night, as a result, although he was a little surprised at the serious, solemn nature the kid had when he did visit again. Zoro had been getting a few evening katas in, and was fully prepared to ignore Luffy's puppy-dog-like attention, but that much more serious expression actually had him stopping and sheathing his swords in confusion.

"We're leaving tomorrow morning, really early," Luffy said, diving right into the conversation without preamble. "It sounds like some marines figured out where we are and they might find our ship, so we gotta go now."

Zoro shrugged. "Good luck to you guys, then. It was interesting meeting you."

"You should come with us."

"I already told you," Zoro said, warning in his tone. "I'm not going. End of story."

Luffy looked deeply disappointed, but he met Zoro's eyes and asked seriously, "Why don't you want to join my crew?"

Zoro raised an eyebrow. That was the first time in all of Luffy's days of wheedling that he'd ever bothered to ask why. "For starters, I never had any intentions of becoming a pirate. I've seen pirates do a lot of cruel things in my time as a bounty hunter. It doesn't exactly inspire a person to be one."

"And working for Crocodile is any better?" Luffy asked with an angry snort. "Pirates helped Vivi save her country, not the stupid marines."

He had a point, Zoro conceded, so he didn't push that line of thought any further. "Besides that," he continued, "I've got my own goals to accomplish."

"Your dream," Luffy said. "To be the world's greatest swordsman."

"That's right."

"You can do that with us."

"Maybe, and maybe not. I prefer to trust myself over you, no offense."

"I'm going to be the Pirate King," Luffy said, very seriously. "It only makes sense that the world's greatest swordsman be on my crew."

Zoro shrugged. "Tell you what. When I get my title, and you get yours, I'll visit."

"No. I want to see it happen, too. A captain makes sure all of his crew is taken care of and he helps everyone reach their goals." Luffy's gaze was intense, and said very sincerely that he meant every single word he spoke.

Zoro actually believed it, too. But something still unsettled him about the whole situation, felt off in the pit of his stomach. "Look," he said flatly, "Luffy. I still don't get why you want me to join your crew so bad. Yeah, I'm strong, and yeah, I want to be the world's greatest swordsman, but there are probably hundreds of other strong guys out there with strong dreams. Why are you so insistent on recruiting me?"

Zoro expected some ridiculous explanation about how his santoryuu style was 'cool' or because he had green hair or something else just as stupid, but Luffy just shrugged. " 'Cause you're a good guy," he said, straightforward, truthful.

Zoro snorted. "You don't have any proof of that," he said cooly. "You have no idea what I've done in the past, or what I could do in the future. I might've killed hundreds of people for all you know. My reputation back in the East Blue definitely supports that. I'm sure your crew has told you those rumors."

Luffy shook his head. "You're a good guy," he repeated insistently.

"You don't know that," Zoro snapped. "I obviously didn't have a problem turning on Baroque Works. What's to stop me from turning on your crew as well?"

"You won't," Luffy said. "Baroque Works was bad. You're not, and we're not either."

"You're awful confident about that," Zoro said, raising an eyebrow.

"I just know, that's all. You're a good guy. I can tell."

Zoro sighed. The truth was, Luffy was probably right. He'd never cared much for the people at Baroque Works; that was why he always worked alone, kept his relationships with them strictly professional at best. Having met all the members of the Straw Hat crew, he could say with certainly that he wouldn't relish the thought of turning on them, slaughtering them out of hand. They were people, and felt much more real and solid and easy to relate to than any of his previous coworkers had. He could get to like them. Hell, despite their irritating habits he already did sort of like them, as more than just bare acquaintances. He supposed it wouldn't be so bad, to spend his days sailing around with them on the seas.

To his horror he found his emotionless facade cracking as he considered his options. Luffy was grinning at him now, as if the kid knew exactly what was coming next, and gritting his teeth Zoro finally said with a sigh, "If I join you, it's gonna be under one condition."

"Sure," Luffy said, still grinning, but Zoro could tell he was listening too.

"I'll join your crew," Zoro said, slowly, carefully, "but don't forget that I am going to be the greatest swordsman in the world. If I think for one moment that sailing with you guys jeopardizes that chance for me, I'm gone. I have the right to leave, and if you get in my way, I will kill you."

"That's fine," Luffy said. "You won't leave. And anyway, it'll be really awesome to have the world's greatest swordsman on my ship!"

Zoro rolled his eyes; there was the expected excitement. But he'd made his statement, and he was honor bound to it now. "Alright. Fine. Then so long as we're clear on that, I'm in. Captain."

"Great!" Luffy fastened rubbery fingers in his sleeve almost immediately and set to hauling him off towards the sleeping quarters where the rest of the crew was likely at, babbling, "We've gotta tell the others then, they'll be excited, and we gotta pack up anyway and get ready to run, 'cause the marines'll find our ship otherwise—"

Zoro listened to him babble with only half an ear and let himself be hauled off, feeling oddly content with his decision. In the span of a few days he'd lost his old boss, his old job, his old life, and found them bewilderingly exchanged with a new captain, a new status as a pirate, and a whole new set of adventures that were inevitably waiting for him. It was dizzying, and thinking of what he'd gone through in order to get to this moment—his orders, his losses, his frustrations, his not one but two near-deaths—made him wonder if it was worthwhile.

But when he watched his new enthusiastic captain, and realized with a start he was now a part of that dynamic that just a few days ago completely confused him, he abandoned the thought. Everything he had gone through up to this moment had probably been for a purpose, to get him to this one moment in his existence, this life-altering change of fate. This life didn't look like it would be half bad; he figured he could get used to it with time.

Zoro of the Straw Hat Pirates. It sounded right. Yeah, he could definitely get used to it.

Well really...one way or another he belongs with them :P Besides, once Luffy sets his sights on you, there's really no way to say 'no' lol.

Next update, we'll go back to the regularly scheduled one-shots. :)

~VelkynKarma