Chapter 2
"This is your fault!" Zolo yelled, his face one reminiscent of a shark's. Luffy pouted.
"Well you could have told me this was going to happen." Luffy replied. Zolo's jaw dropped.
"How the hell should I have known! I told you not to come in here but nooooo, don't listen to me!" Zolo snapped.
"Huh? Whadija say, I was looking at that shiny light over there." Luffy replied. Zolo slapped himself in the forehead. This was pointless. Hang on, shiny light? He looked up and saw Luffy walking towards it.
"What is it?" Luffy muttered as he walked closer. Zolo felt a stab of apprehension in his stomach and took a step forward.
"Luffy, I don't think we should go near that." he said. Déjà vu much? Luffy ignored him.
"It's so shiny." Luffy muttered. Zolo jumped forward and grabbed Luffy's shoulder, pulling him back away from it.
"Let's not go that way." Zolo said. Luffy pouted.
"But I wanna go that way." he replied. Zolo sighed.
"If you follow me, I'll give you some meat." he said slyly. Luffy brightened.
"Ok!" he cried instantly forgetting about the light. The two began walking towards the other side of the tunnel, making their way slowly across fallen boulders. It really didn't occur to Luffy that Zolo didn't actually have any meat. Zolo sighed as he looked at the dead end.
"Can't go that way." Luffy stated. Zolo glared at him.
"Duh," he replied. Luffy pouted. Zolo sighed as he settled himself on the floor, leaning back against the wall. He had been walking for what seemed like hours, and surely it must have been getting late. Luffy watched him and then his brows furrowed.
"Zolo, where's that meat you promised me?" he asked. Zolo shrugged, his eyes already closed.
"Must have lost it," he replied, half asleep. Luffy whined in the back of his throat before flopping down onto the rock floor with a thump that couldn't have been healthy. Zolo cracked an eye open, and wasn't surprised in the slightest to see Luffy pouting as he gazed around the chamber. Was it just him, or was it getting colder? He shivered slightly. It was getting colder.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he drew his knees up and closed his eyes tight. No way was he missing out on sleep just because it was getting a little chilly. Drum Island had been worse, and he hadn't been wearing a shirt in the cold, so, he wasn't gonna get cold that easy.
But Luffy, once he became aware of it, he was likely to freeze. Zolo cracked his eye open slowly again. Sure enough, Luffy still hadn't become aware of the rapid change in temperature. Zolo shook his head.
"Luffy," he said and the straw hatted boy turned towards him.
"Yeah?" he asked. Zolo opened his arms.
"Come here. You're gonna catch a cold, and if you do, I am not carrying you out of here." Zolo replied. Luffy blinked and then shivered, rubbing his arms.
"It's freezing!" he cried and hurried over to the swordsman.
"Oh, now you notice." Zolo said sarcastically as Luffy sat down between his outstretched legs. Zolo wrapped his arms around the small boy, his hands almost coming back to touch his own chest, Luffy was that small.
"Christ you're tiny Luffy." Zolo said. Luffy looked up at him, innocent eyes wide from underneath his straw hat.
"Really?" and he looked down at his own body, "Huh, guess I never noticed." and then he shivered and pressed against Zolo's chest.
"Oh, it's not that cold." he muttered as Luffy's teeth chattered. Luffy nodded, but continued to shiver anyway. Zolo sighed and tightened his arms a little. It was going to be a long night.
Sanji looked around, the setting sun making him put a hand over his eyes so he could see through the glare. So far they had found an empty town, obvious signs of a 'Luffy attack', in other words there was no food, but no tree, no cave and no actual captain and his swordsman.
Nami sighed beside him and Sanji cast a glance down at her. Even though the woman was trying to hide it, she seemed worried.
"We'll find the idiots." he said, taking his cigarette from his mouth. Nami nodded and then she frowned.
"This is all Luffy's fault. He's gonna owe me big time when we find him." she growled, turning around and walking a little further up the track. Sanji smiled. In other words, Nami would be happy when they found the captain again.
"Don't blame Luffy, Zolo probably got them lost and wandered into the cave. The jerk." he said puffing on his smoke before dropping it to the ground and grinding the heel of his boot on it. Nami turned so she could smile at the chef.
"Yeah, probably." and then she squinted past Sanji towards the other end of the road. Sanji turned to see Usopp running towards them, waving his arms frantically as though he wished he could fly. He reached them and doubled over, breathing heavily.
"I…found…the tree." he gasped. Nami's face brightened.
"Where?" she asked. Usopp pointed behind him.
"About an hour's walk that way." he replied.
"Well, there's not much time, let's go." she said and began walking forward. Sanji gently placed a hand on her arm.
"Nami, I don't mean to sound rude or mean, but, if we keep going, we may end up looking in the dark. That's not a good idea. Something bad could happen." he told her. Nami paused and then smiled grimly.
"You're right Sanji. They can look after themselves for one night…" she trailed off, biting her lip. Could they?
"The great captain-" Usopp began.
"Oh shut up." Sanji cut him off and began walking with Nami back towards the ship. Usopp frowned, put out that Sanji hadn't even allowed him to say his own name before telling him to shut up. He glared at the back of the chef's head while they walked back to the ship.
"Stop glaring Usopp, you aren't scaring me." Sanji quipped from in front. Usopp's face grew red and he turned away, grinding his teeth together in frustration. Oh how he hated the cook right now. He wished he had Luffy to talk to. His face fell at the thought of his missing companion and captain. He hoped they were alright.
Luffy awoke, still in Zolo's embrace and yawned. It was still cold, but the sun must have been back up because the rock they were leaning on was becoming hot to touch. Luffy stretched out his cramped legs and tried to wriggle free of the swordsman's grasp, but Zolo tightened his hold convulsively, giving a slight snore.
Luffy peered up at the green haired man, eyes boring into the other's face as he tried to wake him without speaking.
"Alright, I'm up." Zolo muttered, opening his eyes blearily and looking around. Luffy beamed.
"It worked." he squeaked. Zolo raised an eyebrow.
"What did?"
"I woke you up without talking. Cool huh?" Luffy asked, obviously very pleased with himself. Zolo smiled.
"Yeah, cool." he replied but didn't bother to mention that it was actually Luffy's fidgeting that had awoken him. He pulled his arms away from the smaller boy and Luffy immediately bounded to his feet. Zolo pulled his legs under him and got up, stretching as he did so.
"Come on Zolo! Let's explore!" Luffy called, already bolting down a passageway. Zolo groaned. Last time they had done that, well, being trapped in a cave wasn't that bad. In fact, the rats weren't that bad either.
Luffy's enthusiasm about a wet, humid and smelly place, that was annoying. He hurried after the captain, Luffy's sandaled feet slapping wetly against the drenched floor. Wait, when had that happened? It hadn't been wet last night when they had gone to sleep, and now…
"Luffy!" Zolo called, hurrying to catch up with the younger boy. The rock slide must have opened a hole in a lake or something, causing water to flood into the tunnel.
"Luffy! Damnit, get back here!" He called, now running as he tried to catch up to the younger male. Luffy paused, finally stopping and looking over his shoulder at the swordsman.
"What's wrong Zolo?" he asked, tilting his head.
"There's water up ahead. Has to be. This place is flooded." Zolo said as he caught up. Luffy shrugged.
"So?" he asked. Zolo shook his head.
"If there's a lake, that may be our ticket out of here." he explained. Luffy stared blankly back and Zolo had the sudden urge to just pick Luffy up and whack him against a wall to try and knock some sense into that rubber brain of his.
"In other words, water has to get down here in the first place, right? And water can't go anywhere unless it has an opening, right? You follow me so far?" he asked. Luffy grinned and nodded.
"Yeah, you think I'm stupid?" he replied. Zolo had the urge to say 'yes', but he denied it. It wouldn't help the situation.
"Anyway," he continued, "If we can get into that opening, I can swim through it and we can swim out."
"But, how do you know if the hole will be big enough?" Luffy asked, a little concerned.
"Well- wait, you understood that?" he asked.
"Yeah. It's just interesting to hear you explain things like you were explaining it to a three year old." Luffy replied cheekily. Zolo paused and shook his head, he would deal with that later.
"Ok, well, the water came in so quick, the hole has to be pretty big, and that rock slid yesterday must have opened it." he explained. Luffy nodded and then began walking forward again.
"Then what are we waiting for?" he asked. It took a little while for Zolo to realise Luffy was heading back towards the area where that light had been. It now occurred to him, that perhaps the light hadn't been a bad thing, but a sign that outside was near.
However, when they reached the sunken corridor, it was flooded, and instead of a small white light, there was now a murky black hole. Zolo peered at it and then turned to Luffy.
"Wait here." he said. Luffy nodded and Zolo dived into the water, not bothering to take off his swords, as they were going to get wet anyway. He swam towards the murky hole and looked through.
It was dark, but he could see a blue-ish brightness at the end of it, and he smiled. It wasn't far. But, it depended on how deep the lake was. He swam back up to where Luffy was waiting, rather impatiently at that.
"It should be easy enough to get through. It doesn't look like it will be a long way." he said when he had surfaced. Luffy nodded, and looked a little uneasily at the water. Zolo shook his head.
"It's the only way Luffy. If we don't take this opportunity now, who knows what will happen." he encouraged. Standing ankle deep in the water was cold, but he didn't let it bother him. Luffy nodded.
"Right." he said. Zolo held out a hand to the captain and Luffy took it. He paused, and looked up at Zolo.
"It's a good thing you're around Zolo. I don't think I would have got into the water with anyone else." he said. Zolo paused and then smiled.
"Come on, the others will be getting worried." he replied and then he waded into the water, Luffy's hand beginning to go limp in his. He pulled the cursed boy toward him, wrapping his other arm around Luffy's waist and cradling him against his chest. Maybe this swim would be a little harder than he thought.
