"I'm not the only one with a new huge fucking scar." It comes out harsher than he meant, but the bottled up emotions of the past two years added to the shock of seeing that on Luffy's chest are threatening to boil over, and the constant questions about his lost eye are only making it worse.

Luffy puts down his fork (he usually just throws whatever is on his plate in his mouth with two hands but today Sanji is weirdly adamant about table manners, and Luffy thinks that his cook has been away from the ship for far too long) and says,

"Akainu."

His voice is unwavering, an answer and order to his first mate at the same time.

"Akainu's the one who burned me."

All eight members freeze at the revelation and Zoro looks up to meet Luffy's even gaze. A barely audible whisper of 'the marine admiral?' escapes the navigator, and Chopper starts shaking next to her.

There's a fire in Zoro's eye and Luffy stares him down, effectively passing a message (he's mine to kill) and Luffy arches an eyebrow expectantly, making Zoro sigh in surrender.

"Hawk eyes."

There's a round of gasps around the dining table, and Zoro plops his chin in his palm in annoyance.

"You ran into him?" The little doctor asks in an awed whisper.

"Kind of." Zoro doesn't miss the way Luffy frowns at his vague answer.

"He trained you, didn't he?"

It's not really a question because Luffy knows that Zoro's new strength could only have come from fighting a formidable foe, and his voice is tinted with sadness at the implications of it all.

Zoro doesn't say anything. He doesn't really need to.

The rest of the crew stays deathly silent, knowing that they're not talking about scars anymore, it is about much more than that. It is about dreams and promises and sacrifices and 'didn't you say you would die for your dream?'

"Why would you-" Luffy's voice wavers because Zoro's reason for living and breathing is to become the best in the world, but now he will only ever be the pupil that surpassed the master, forever bound to the shadow of a hawk.

Zoro's not looking at him anymore and Luffy knows-

"Did you do it for me? Is that why you look so guilty?"

Usopp squints at Zoro's face but all he sees is the usual stoic glare, but even so, he knows better than to cross his captain on such a topic as Zoro's facial expressions.

Because the truth is that back when they were just two young, naïve dreamers on a dinghy under hazy skies, Luffy had learned how to read Zoro's body language. He had to, because Zoro hadn't trusted him fully yet, would not open up to him entirely. So Luffy had watched.

"You said you would kill me if I ever got in the way of your dream."

Zoro's smile is sad as he thinks of the fated day they had met and his would-be captain's words (The world's greatest swordsman? No less for the Pirate King!).

"Priorities change."

This time it is Luffy's turn to look down. "I don't want you to put my dream before yours."

And Sanji can only take a drag of his cigarette where he stands at the galley door, because he knows that Zoro has – and will, if he has to again – already put much more on the line for Luffy than his dream.

A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews! I'm back (a few years late... but still!)

It's been years since the timeskip and we STILL don't know anything about Zoro's eye? Oda I need answers

Also please let me know if you find things too vague. For example in chapter 1 "He catches a glint of gold" is an allusion to the light reflecting off Zoro's earrings, did that come across okay?

Thanks for reading!