Dinner time amongst the Straw Hats was as chaotic as ever, with food disappearing by the second, Sanji fawning over Nami and Vivi, Zoro insulting Sanji, and the Nami trying to get both to owe her more money. Usopp loved every second of it. Growing up, especially after the loss of his mother, made for a very lonely childhood. He made up for it by spending as much time with the Usopp pirates, and Kaya, as possible, as well as telling himself some of the most ridiculous stories he could come up with, usually surrounded by a group of best friends. It was almost enough to stave away the loneliness, but on those dark, cold winter nights, huddled up in his empty house, the stories just made him sadder. Now though, the stories didn't seem so ridiculous. He was part of a crew, they were going on adventures all over the sea, and he only had to tell stories to pass the time with avid listeners.

Yet, something was wrong tonight. Something didn't feel right, and he just couldn't put his finger on what it was. It appeared he wasn't the only one that noticed.

"Captain Luffy, are you alright?" Vivi's soft voice called out, and table went silent. Usopp frowned, looking over at his friend, and captain, finally realising what was wrong. Luffy was eating at a pace usual for a person. Which was a decidedly smaller amount than the rubber man usually ate, and even stranger, he wasn't trying to steal food of any of their plates.

"Idiot, better not waste my food." Sanji muttered, but Usopp noticed the slight frown on the cook's face.

"I'm not hungry." Luffy stated sadly, and Usopp nearly fell out of his seat in shock, as did the rest of the crew. Without being able to help himself, Usopp leaned forward, and started poking Luffy in the face, his finger pushing in deeply on the rubbery skin.

"Who are you! And what did you do to Luffy!" He demanded, sure that someone had replaced their ravenous captain at some stage. Perhaps it was really a wax person created by that Baroque Works agent back on Little Garden.

Luffy swatted away his hand, and stood to his feet shakily, a line of sweat beading his forehead. Usopp exchanged a confused glance with Nami.

"I...I..I'm going to bed." Luffy slurred, before falling backwards, crashing into the ground with a thud. Quickly, Usopp scrambled over to him.

"Ahh! What happened?" He screamed, picking Luffy up by the vest and shaking him.

BAM

A sudden pain erupted in his head, and he found himself falling backwards, clutching the bump now on the back of his head, staring mutinously at Nami who had now taken his place.

"He's burning up." She informed them all, her voice trembling slightly, "he's really sick."

It didn't take long for Zoro, and Sanji, to carry Luffy into a bed, their captain now completely out of it, and sweating profusely, an occasionally groan coming from his mouth.

"He needs a doctor!" Nami stated, her brown eyes worriedly scanning over Luffy.

"We're still too far from Alabasta. H...h...e could die before we get there." Vivi stuttered out, gripping the rubber boys hand tightly in one of her own. Usopp paled rapidly. He couldn't picture Luffy dying, even this, he couldn't imagine, he had always seemed invincible.

"V...V..Vivi. Got to save your home..." Luffy managed to groan out, his eyes fluttering open slightly, and they all felt uncomfortable when tears welled up in Vivis.

"What do we do?" Usopp asked, unconsciously finding himself looking to Zoro for answers. The man always seeming to be steady in the face of anything, a rock in amongst any storm. Now, when their strongest was struck down with injury, Usopp desperately needed something, something to prove that nothing would go wrong.

"I'm getting a drink." Zoro grunted, walking away, the door thudding closed behind him, leaving the room in silence.

"Shitty Mosshead." Sanji muttered, a fresh cigarette laying unlit in his mouth.

"We need to find him a doctor, Nami, can you find one?" Vivi asked, to which Nami sighed deeply. Obviously conflicted, the navigator wandered over to a drawer, and retrieved a newspaper.

"This came the other day. I didn't say anything, because it wouldn't change anything, but you should know." Nami whispered, before holding it out to Vivi, the blunette quickly grasping it.

Usopp peeked over her shoulder at her despaired gasp, and was shocked as well. To think that 300,000 people had defected from the Alabasta Royal Army to the rebels, it could spell the end of the war.

"This changes nothing." Vivi firmly said, and then continued when Nami went to open her mouth, "I need Luffy to save my country, and he can't do that whilst sick."

Usopp nodded along, glad that the princess had said so. They definitely wouldn't be able to defeat a warlord without him, even with him had Usopps legs shaking from fright.

"Okay, I'll go try to see what I can do." Nami answered after a brief pause.

"I'll go make some soup, and other light, nutritious dishes." Sanji told them, before striding out. Usopp took a moment to once more stare at his sick friend, his feverish countenance unnatural on the normally cheerful face. Without a word, he too left the room, deciding to work on his special ammo as a distraction.

Zoro was alone on the deck that night, the cool breeze refreshing on his skin as he went through his basic sword stances. The blades slicing through the air with each movement. The familiar motions helping to clear his mind. As a swordsman, every swing of the blade must be without doubt, every movement sure of its purpose. The slightest hesitation, and you could fail to cut. To eager, and you cut too much. No, being a swordsman, you had to do everything perfectly, every single time, and to do that was to not allow anything to cloud his mind.

Yet, he couldn't quite get rid of the image of a sick Luffy out of his head. The black-haired boy twisting, and turning, in bed, his face red, the rest of his skin unnaturally pale. It didn't feel right. The whole ship just felt wrong. Luffy was their captain, but he was so much more than that. The very life, and soul, of the ship. Without him, the ship was quiet, the crew somber, even the damn alcohol tasted worst.

The soft thud of footsteps from behind caught his attention, but he ignored it in favour of finishing his katas. A gentle smell of smoke followed, informing him who his late-night visitor was. Thankfully, the other man allowed him to finish in silence. The only sound being the whoosh as each blade separated air, and the soft exhale of a man smoking. With a final spin of the swords, Zoro sheathed all three in one fluid motion. A single bead of sweat sliding down his face.

"You need to do better." Sanji finally spoke up, his tone even.

Zoro spun to face him, already enraged at the insinuation.

"What do you know about sword-fighting, cook?" He growled at blonde.

Sanji exhaled another puff of smoke, casually flicking the diminished cigarette off the side of the ship.

"Not that, Marimo, back inside. You need to do better."

Zoro thought back to what happened earlier, but honestly couldn't work out what the other was talking about.

"Tell me what you want, or leave. I got training to do." He demanded, ready to just ignore the whole conversation.

"You're the First Mate, and the Captain is sick. It's your job to lead us, not come out here and get drunk, Shithead." Sanji stated, his tone still even, but his brow furrowed.

Zoro snarled, "I didn't ask to be First Mate."

"It doesn't matter if you asked for it! You are the First Mate, it is your duty." Sanji responded, anger finally leaking through his voice.

"If you feel so strongly, you do it, Ero-cook." Zoro roared back. Before he could blink, Sanji spun around on one leg, slamming his foot in Zoro's face. With a painful bang, Zoro landed on his arse, skidding across the deck. He was all ready to pounce with his swords, but Sanji's next words stopped him.

"I can't do it, because I'm not the First Mate. The crew respects you, I don't know why, but they do. They look to you for comfort, for strength, someone to get them through this tough time, and you ignored them!" Sanji shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. "You left them alone, you came out here to deal with it by yourself, whilst they tired to put together the pieces. We're a crew, we're Nakama. You are a part of it, you are the leader currently. Act like it."

With that, Sanji spun around, quickly disappearing back in the ship. Zoro stared after his rival crew member for a moment, the words echoing in his head. His hand outstretched to grab a bottle of sake, but found himself hesitating, fingers lingering just above it.

With a grunt of frustration, he ignored it, and leapt to his feet. His swords coming out once again to continue his katas.

'Left them alone.'

Swish.

'Ignored them.'

Slash.

'Need to do better.'

Swing.

'Respects you.'

Stab.

'We're Nakama.'

Swoosh.

'Act like it.'

With a final roar of frustration, he put his all into the next swing. The force enough to generate a slight blade of wind in front of him.

The next day the weather had grown colder, and the crew found themselves huddled around Luffy's bed once more. Zoro steadfastly ignored Sanji's meaningful glances, but unfortunately that meant his eyes were locked onto the captain's sick form more often than not.

The others were discussing possible nearby islands, and how they could find them. Vivi was a great source of information, but apparently it was all for nothing with an eternal logpose. Zoro wasn't sure he understood it all, but he understood enough to know that the outlook was dim.

"Pick a direction, and go as fast as we can. Can you make that happen?" He finally interrupted, turning to Nami.

"Yes, but why?" She answered, confused.

"If we don't know where an island is, we head to the one direction as fast as we can so we get to the closest island in that direction the soonest we can." Usopp responded for him, "It's brilliant."

Zoro nodded along, though that wasn't his thought process. He always just picked something in the distance, and moved towards it, and it always worked for him. Suddenly, the ship jolted, all of them nearly tripping over.

With a muttered curse, Zoro bounded from the room, his hands drifting to the hilts of his swords. Once on deck, he saw what had caused the commotion. A ship so large it dwarfed the Merry, hundreds of people crowded across the deck. The pirate flag on it was a crowned skull and crossbones, with a metal jaw.

In moments a rotund man landed on the Merry's deck. His visage similar to that on the flag, clearly the Captain. In his grip was some meat on a sword, his mouth opening inhumanely wide to bite down on it, sword and all crunching between his teeth. He was followed by many of his crew members.

"Do you have a pose to Drum Island?" The man asked, shards of metal falling from his open mouth.

"No." Zoro growled back, feeling Usopp and Sanji come out from behind him, "Now leave our ship before I get violent."

"Mahahaha." The large man laughed.

"Be careful how you speak. This is King Wapol, of Drum Kingdom." An afro man explained to them.

"I don't care." Zoro answered, unsheathing two swords with a hiss.

"Mahahaha. I like this ship. I think it'll taste delicious." Wapol chuckled, bending down and taking a chunk out of the Merry's railing before he could be stopped.

All the frustration, the anger, the helplessness, that Zoro had been feeling at that moment erupted, and he dashed across the deck. Two of people closest to Wapol went to intercept him, but one had Sanji's black shoe slam into his face, and the other got a faceful of an exploding star courtesy of Usopp. A smirk crossed Zoro's face as his swords sliced into Wapol's chest, and sent the man flying into the ocean.

"King Wapol!" His crew cried out, before they quickly chased off after him.

"Land Ho!" Usopp's excited voice called out from the crow's nest, and a wave of relief washed through Zoro. Finally they could heal Luffy, and he could go back to just being the swordsman.

With ease, Nami navigated them through into an opening of the river, and further into the island. It was beautiful, like nothing Zoro had ever seen before. Covered in snow, a glittering white landscape that defied belief.

Just as they were about to get off the ship, a gunshot rang out, a brand new whole appearing on the deck of the Merry in front of Sanji's feet. A group of people appeared on both sides of the ready, all holding guns or an assortment of farm instruments turned weapons.

The largest of them, a man in a green coat stepped forward.

"Get out of here, Pirates!" He spat, "Your kind aren't welcome here."

Zoro felt the frustration build once more, they finally found a place, only for the villagers try to turn them away.

"We have someone sick on board. We just need to see a doctor." He shouted back, his tone as firm as possible. Glaring at the leader.

"We won't fall for your tricks." Another villager yelled with a warbling voice.

"Just get a doctor." Zoro responded, sick of the time wasting whilst Luffy still lay dying.

"We told you, you need to leave, now." The leader said once more.

"Listen here.." Sanji started, taking a step forward.

"Sanji, stop!" Vivi cried out, pushing the cook aside as another bullet fired. The projectile slicing through her arm, splashing blood on the deck. Ignoring her wound, the Princess knelt on the floor, tears flowing down her face.

"Please. We have a very sick friend. We'd stay on the ship, but can you please bring a doctor to us. I beg of you!" She pleaded, her voice hoarse with despair. She then turned her head slightly, one eye staring accusingly at Zoro.

"You should be ashamed Mr. Bushido. All of you should be. Your captain is dying, and you want to fight because of your pride. You do not deserve your captain. You are a poor crew." She whispered.

Each word pierced Zoro deeper than any physical wound. She was right, completely, and utterly right. Luffy had done everything for them, would do anything for them. Yet, now he wasn't doing the same.

'You need to do better.'

Without a moment's hesitation, Zoro dropped to his knees as well, turning his face to the leader of the villagers.

"Please." He uttered, ignoring the shocked looks from the other Strawhats.

After being allowed onshore, they learnt from the village leader(Dalton) that there was only one doctor left on the island, and she was more of a witch. As well as the fact that she was on top of a massive mountain surrounded by killer animals, with no way to call her.

Ignoring the arguing Usopp, and Nami, Zoro turned to Sanji.

"Help me strap him onto my back, Dartboard."

"You plan to carry him to the top?" Sanji asked.

"You can't!" Vivi gasped, interrupting them, "He's too sick."

Zoro tuned her out, "Got a better idea?"

With a shrug, Sanji started tying Luffy to Zoro's back. "You know you won't be able to fight with him on. Too much jostling, and he could die."

"I'll take Usopp with me." Zoro enjoyed the brief look of shock that fluttered across Sanji's normally unflappable face.

"Not me?"

"I've contracted I-can't-climb-the-mountain-itis." Usopp cried out, which Zoro discarded as well.

"You need to protect Vivi, and the ship. Luffy would be upset if either got hurt."

Sanji nodded in acceptance, "Of course I would protect Vivi-chan."

"Idiot." Nami interrupted, bashing Zoro over the head. "I'll go with you, or you'd get lost."

Zoro failed to see how he would get lost, but just accepted the help.

Minutes later, they were out the door, and rushing towards the mountain.

"Shitty Swordsman!" Sanji called out, just before they were out of hearing range. "Don't catch a cold."

Zoro allowed a brief smirk, before setting his face in determination.

Only halfway on their journey, they were interrupted by the Lapins. Giant rabbits with a hunger for human flesh. Usopp, and Nami were bravely fighting them off, but were close to being overwhelmed. It took every ounce of his self control not to take out his swords as he watched the battle.

In the end, the Lapin's caused a landslide, that Zoro hid from under an overhanging rock. He had lost sight of the other two, but was comforted by the soft breathing in his ear from Luffy.

Emerging from his shelter, Zoro continued on his journey. He couldn't find Nami or Usopp anywhere, but he didn't have time to look. He hoped they were okay, that no sight of them was better than finding them bloody and broken.

Finally, he arrived at the base of the mountain. A sheer wall, with little on footholds, and handholds. He couldn't even see the top from the base, its height so humongous.

For a moment, he waited, looking down at his own hands. The two hands he used to fight, the hands that were roughened by years of holding swords, and then back on at the wall. What damage would climbing do? Could he risk it? Luffy's increasingly short breaths washed across his neck, and Zoro made up his mind.

The wall was freezing. The rocks digging harshly into his skin. With each new step upwards, his hands numbed, and Luffy's weight seemed to double. His whole world shrank to just putting one hand forward after the other. He experienced a mixture of pain, numbness, tiredness, and weariness.

After what seemed like forever, he dragged himself onto the top, slumping forward into the snow. His hands blue, black, and red. Vision clouded from exhaustion, he tried with all his might to keep going forward, but his body would no longer listen.

Zoro thought he saw some figures come towards, indistinguishable voices muttering.

"Please," He muttered, "Please help Luffy."

Finding out that there were two doctors, one a lady over a century year old, and the other a talking reindeer, was just crazy in Zoro's opinion. Already one of the weirdest things he had seen on the Grand Line. He was just so thankful that they could heal Luffy, and they treated his hands at the same time.

Sitting next to the reindeer named Tony Tony Chopper, Zoro fiddled with his bandages a little bit.

"Are you really pirates?" Chopper questioned in his squeaky voice.

"Yes."

"Are you the captain?"

Zoro snorted at the thought, he was clearly barely capable as a First Mate.

"No, Luffy is."

"Oh," Chopper said, "But you're so strong."

"Yes, but Luffy will be King of the Pirates!" Zoro replied, but the words sounded dull on his tongue. It wasn't meant to be him that said it, that was Luffy's job.

"Wow!" Stars appeared in the little reindeers eyes, "What's your dream?"

"I'm going to be the World's Greatest Swordsman!" He answered with more conviction.

"That's so cool!" The reindeer squealed.

They sat for a moment, before Zoro decided to ask, "And what dream do you have?"

"I want to cure all diseases."

"Heh, nice dream. You'd fit in on our crew."

"But I'm a monster!" Chopped cried out. "I have a blue nose, and I can talk."

"Listen here," Zoro said, thinking back to one of his first conversations with Luffy, "it doesn't matter what people say, or what they think. It only matters that you achieve your dream, and be able to never regret what you've done to get there."

Tears continued to stream down Choppers face. "But what if I do regret something? What if I killed someone accidentally?"

Zoro sighed, and leaned backwards. "I didn't think I needed to tell a doctor that dying is a part of life. Learn from it, get better. Don't kill anyone ever again if you don't want too. Just don't wallow in pity and make that death meaningless. That you would regret."

In his mind flash the image of a young girl with dark blue hair.

By the time the unexpected attack on the castle occurred, Luffy was up and bouncing around, much to the doctor's displeasure. He was still only half as active as before, but Zoro took it as a good sign. Though trying to stop the rubber teen from fighting Wapol was a difficult task.

"Luffy, don't be an idiot. You can fight the afro guy, I'll take the big one." Zoro ordered.

Luffy looked visibly annoyed, but after staring at Zoro for a moment, agreed with a nod of his head.

The fight was difficult, and long. Wapol being much stronger than his earlier invasion of their ship had shown, and Zoro's hands burned gripping his swords. The pain stopping him from putting the full force behind any of strikes. The gloves Chopper had provided comforted it a little bit, but not enough for him to completely ignore.

At the end, Luffy was still pouting he didn't get to fight the big mouth guy, but was excitedly chasing around Chopper asking him to join their crew.

Shortly after, the rest of the crew had arrived with the villagers. Zoro breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Nami, and Usopp. They explained to him that the avalanche had carried them back down to the village, and that they had helped Sanji fight off Wapol's forces, however the king had managed to slip past them.

The journey back to their ship was lighthearted, even after the scary chase from the doctor when Chopper agreed to join their crew.

He felt his heart lighten, just a little bit, when the pink cherry blossoms lit up the night sky. It was good to no longer be in charge, and to have Luffy back.

"Your hands are nearly fully healed. You can start training again." Chopper informed him, as the little reindeer started packing up his supplies. It had been a few days since they had left Drum Island, and Zoro was glad that his daily checkups were nearly over.

"Can I ask something?" Chopper put forward hesitantly.

Zoro turned to face him, and nodded in assent.

"Why did you risk your hands so much to climb the mountain when you need them to be the World's Greatest Swordsman? Any more damage, and they would have never healed properly."

Zoro looked at his hands, the skin still slightly a raw red colour. His eyes raking every crease as he turned over what their newest crew member had said. To think he was that close to ruining his life dream. Then he thought back to their journey since he joined the Straw Hats.

'You should join my crew.'

'If you can't manage something that small, I'd be embarrassed.'

'This is Zoro's dream! This is why he set sail! No one has the right to take it away from him!'

'We're Nakama!'

Throwing all the memories around in his head for a moment, he decided the best way to answer.

"A dream is meaningless, if you don't have people push you onward. To be there when you stumble, and to cheer you when you succeed."

Without a backwards glance, he left the small infirmary, and stumbled into Sanji who was leaning against the opposite wall, a smoke dangling from his mouth.

"I'm glad you can now spar again, Mosshead" The blonde stated.

Zoro smirked back, "I still could beat you anyway, ero-cook."

A/N: So I've kinda hit a wall with writing lately because of reasons. So figured I'd just write something new, and hope that unblocked me for my writing. I went into this with only two scenes in mind, the zoro/sanji scene at night with Sanji explaining what a first mate was meant to do. And the final Zoro/Sanji scene were they both know and respect what the other has done, but don't mention it.

I need threw this together in a couple hours. So sorry if it is poor quality. It's also kinda drabble-ish. I wanted to only focus on Zoro. I didn't want to focus on the fighting, or the recruitment of chopper, because that's not what the story is about. And then we'd have a 10k+ story with all this information that isn't relevant to what I wanted to tell.

Anyway, tell me what you think. Read, review, favourite hopefully. And maybe check out my other One Piece Story I hope to update very soon.