"Lucy are you sure?" Nami asks warily.

Lucy looks away from the burning island, glowing under stormy skies, and glances at her navigator quizzically. "Huh?"

"It's on fire," Usopp squeaks. "It's on fire. Of course it is."

"It looks fun, doesn't it?" Lucy asks eagerly.

Nami scowls. "Are you forgetting the mysterious call we had just now? The one where a guy got straight up murdered?"

Lucy shakes her head, denying it. "Yeah, that's why we gotta go. We'd have to even if the island was boring."

Zoro snorts behind her, and Franky chuckles.

"You may as well give up, Nami-san," Sanji sighs around his cigarette. "Lucy-san seems quite determined."

"I'm sure the island is quite interesting," Robin says curiously. Lucy beams at her.

"I'm not sure how well bones mix with flames," Brook mutters uncertainly.

"Or fur," Chopper grumbles.

"It looks fun, doesn't it?" Lucy asks again, giggling.

There's a collective groan around her. Lucy beams in the face of it.

"Let me go make a Pirate Lunchbox," Sanji capitulates reluctantly. Lucy almost tears up in gratitude. It's been years since she had a Pirate Lunchbox. She misses Sanji's bentos.

"Yeah, yeah, off with you shit cook," Zoro goads.

Sanji scowls at him. "At least I can provide for the ladies, shit swordsman!" He calls before disappearing into the galley.

Lucy pats Zoro on the shoulder—mhm, Zoro has nice shoulders—and gives him a sympathetic look. "I can't provide for anyone either. That's why we have Sanji."

Zoro gives her an exasperated look, but seems unbothered, otherwise. "Whatever. Everyone draw straws," Zoro orders dryly, digging out a handful of straws from his robes.

Lucy frowns. "I want to go though…"

Nami rolls her eyes. "We know. This is for the rest of us." She draws one of the straws, and gives a sigh of relief when it has no red marker.

"Oh, it's me," Robin says neutrally. She looks dully pleased.

"And me," Zoro asserts. Lucy grins, because this is going to be so much fun. Zoro likes taking the same sort of challenges and risks that she does, and Robin is always happy to go along with their antics.

"I—I—" Lucy turns to Usopp, who's tearing up a little with a red straw in his hand, "I'm not afraid!" He declares, shaking a bit.

Lucy grins, and thumps him on the back. Usopp is so brave. "We're going to have so much fun!"

"Yay…" Usopp groans. It kind of sounds like a whine, but it makes Lucy giggle anyway, and the island burns invitingly before them.

In retrospect, Zoro probably should have thought through the fact that walking through a burning island would involve shedding a few articles of clothing.

For him and Usopp it's not much of an issue. He just slips out of his robe and lets the top half hang over his hamarki, careful to retain easy access to his katana. Usopp wasn't wearing a shirt in the first place, but he does tie his hair up off his neck.

For the girls it's a bit more difficult. Robin is wearing a dress, and somehow manages to look unaffected even as she starts sweating bullets. Lucy removes her jacket, ties it over her hat, and sweats just as much as the rest of them in her black leather and denim and fishnets and shit Zoro can't stop staring.

Two years of training paid off.

It's more obvious like this, with the glisten of sweat highlighting every curve, every vein, every flex of lean muscle. The scar on her chest is more visible without the jacket, the lacing of her band tied so that the shiny red skin over her sternum is easily visible, the contours of her scar clear as sweat drips down behind the leather. The line of her abs disappears under her shorts.

He's supposed to focus under these conditions.

Unfair. Completely, totally unfair.

His only consolation is that Lucy seems to be having similar problems regarding him. Sometimes he catches her eyes and there's something molten and wanting there, and then he's glad he can blame his flush on the environment.

They haven't slept together yet. Chopper served them both a very long lecture on the importance of using two methods of birth control and the two weeks it will require for the injection he sicced on Lucy to take effect. Also, they're both pretty inexperienced when it comes to sex. Lucy wasn't Zoro's first kiss, but he was hers, and Zoro's few and infrequent sexual encounters have been…fine, at best.

He has a feeling that with Lucy it would be…different. Especially when she looks like that and looks at him like that.

They haven't really talked about it. The timing has been poor since arriving in the New World, and things have been hectic at best. Any alone time they've had has been brief, or they've been exhausted, and frankly they're both still getting to know each other again.

Zoro doesn't think it'll be long before it comes up, though, considering how blatantly she's checking him out. He's probably just as obvious. They should probably talk about this soon.

And okay, maybe thoughts of this are still lingering in his head when they run into the dragon, and maybe he wants to show off a bit. Maybe he wants to show her some of what he's learned in the past two years, and see what she's brought to the table as well. If he does, and if he takes a smug sort of pride in the hungry way she eyes him while he cooks the dragon, well he's not exactly complaining.

Falling into the icy water, Lucy experiences a second of pure panic. It's been a long time since she's fallen into water unintentionally while conscious—she had to be more careful than that on Ruskaina, since Rayleigh refused to fish her out. Full submersion is terrifying. She's paralyzed by the curse of the Devil Fruits, and too shocked by the cold to even preserve her air.

Then a large hand curls around her hip, and she's pulled up into the broad expanse of bronze skin and muscle, the forearm across the small of her back pressing her stomach to his, and through half-lidded eyes she sees heavy knuckles snatch her hat back from the black depths of the lake.

Oh, she remembers, feeling silly. Zoro.

If she wasn't already limp from the effects of water, she would probably melt into him, boneless and comforted. If Zoro's here, she's safe. And he's warm. So, so warm. If she could move she'd wrap around him a few times, burrow into his heat like she was made to be there.

He kicks furiously for the surface. Lucy starts to fall back and away from him as he does, water dragging her away from his chest, but then the hand holding the hat comes up to cradle her to his shoulder.

Safe, she thinks, dizzy from the lack of oxygen and disoriented from the water, Zoro means safe.

She knows that. She's always known that. For some reason though, it's this moment—ears popping from water pressure with her swordsman easily dragging both of them to the surface and thoughtful enough to bring her hat along too—that makes her kind of want to tear up, just a bit. Everything since they've met up again has happened so fast that she's hardly had time to adjust to having a crew again, or having Zoro within arms' reach. She spent six months alone on Ruskaina before meeting up with her nakama in Sabaody, and that was only a week and a half ago. Her instincts haven't readjusted yet.

They break the surface, and she hears Usopp and Robin splashing nearby. She's shaking so hard from the cold she almost can't see anything, and Zoro doesn't seem much better off.

Lucy grins at him anyway, as wide as she can. "My h-hero," she coos, delighted.

Zoro rolls his eye, his teeth chattering. "N-need to ge-et out."

Lucy and Robin are no use in this task, so Lucy just presses her face into Zoro's neck, trying to warm him and show her appreciation at the same time as he swims, one of his hands still clutching her close. The panicked tension in her chest eases as her instincts accept her safety, despite the circumstances.

Zoro may have thought she was joking, about him being her hero. She wasn't really. Zoro's one of the best people she knows. And the strongest. And he only proves it every time he deftly assuages all of Lucy's fears with the grace of a bull, whether he knows it or not.

But seriously, this water is holy-mother-of-God cold.

"I owe that guy my life," Lucy says quietly, eyes locked on the Shichibukai. Zoro's already mentally tagged him with Lucy's nickname for him, mostly because it seems to annoy him, and Zoro finds his frustration at Lucy's irrepressibility entertaining.

"You said thank you. Not much you can do if he doesn't want anything." He leans back against the icy cave wall, both hands behind his head. He figures he may as well take a nap while he can. With proper gear the cold is comfortable enough.

Lucy takes a sip from her hot cider, somehow provided by the cook. He was apparently concerned enough about the girls' health to make some even while freaking out about being in Nami's body. For once the stupid perv's concerns were spot on—Lucy's stopped shivering for the first time since falling in the lake.

Across the cave, Chopper-in-the-cook's body speaks quietly with Trafalgar, probably regarding the children Nami forced the rest of them to rescue.

Well. Forced is probably a strong word. There's not a single Straw Hat that would have felt okay with leaving them behind, even if they don't really have the means to do much for 'em. Nami just…put her foot down.

It does raise the question though, as to what kind of doctor could go along with an operation that put those same kids at risk. He doesn't seem too concerned even now, really, not that it matters much so long as he doesn't work against them from here on. It's a bit bewildering, but not really an issue Zoro particularly cares about. Trafalgar seems like a complicated sort of person, and Zoro isn't paid for his people skills. That's more Lucy's job, and she seems to like the guy well enough.

"He's a good guy," Lucy says after a moment, like she's reading his mind. He raises an eyebrow at her, taking in the thoughtful expression on her face. She shivers and presses into his side, clutching the cider with her left hand and rubbing her chest absently with her right. Zoro doesn't comment. He's noticed she seems more sensitive to cold than she used to be.

It's odd. Everyone is so similar to how he remembers them, enough that they all slotted into their old patterns instantly, but there are little changes that keep throwing him. Like Lucy suddenly hating colder temperatures, or Robin smiling more often than she used to.

He shifts a little, making more space for Lucy. She takes advantage of it immediately, making a small happy noise that sets off a fond glow deep in his chest.

Zoro returns his gaze to Trafalgar. He owes the guy for Lucy's life. She thanked him already, but he's still curious as to why he saved her, especially now that he knows the two of them didn't meet up again after Sabaody.

"I'm gonna be his friend," Lucy declares blithely, heedless to the object of her friendship's wishes as usual.

Zoro snorts. "If you aren't already, you're losing your touch."

"I have a plan to take down one of the Yonko."

The grin on Torao's face is wicked and violent, but it doesn't scare Lucy. Doesn't even daunt her. Torao just doesn't scare her. Maybe because it's hard to fear someone who fought for her life, maybe because her "uncanny ability to read the character of others," as Rayleigh put it, is telling her Torao isn't so bad.

He wants her to ally with him. He must be desperate if he's asking a near-stranger.

Lucy doesn't mind helping him. Especially since he turned away her thanks when she gave it. He's not lording anything over her, just offering.

It's a good start to a friendship.

And then there's the prize he's so giddy over. The take-down of a Yonko. Another person at the top, one Lucy has to fight. This is a guy as powerful as the old man Ace was so fond of, the kind of person capable of wrecking islands on a whim.

It sounds like fun. It sounds like a challenge.

But she's got to be careful about this. Shanks is a Yonko. She can't approach him untested.

"Which one?" Lucy asks.

"Kaido," Torao responds bluntly. "I have a plan, but it has a pretty low chance of success."

"Hm. Well that's fine then."

Torao cocks an eyebrow, and it disappears under his fuzzy hat. "You're in?"

Lucy considers it for a second more. This really, really wasn't the plan most of her crew had in mind. Mostly they were just going to wander around the New World the same way they did Paradise, going from island to island until they found what they were looking for and having adventures along the way. This plan is…much more aggressive. Intentional. It tries to control the whims of fate instead of ride them.

But it's not a bad idea either. And after everything…Lucy would much rather be proactive than reactive this time around.

Plus, she can't shake the feeling that Torao needs her. Bad. There's something about this that's dark and personal and a howl against her senses when she uses Observation Haki. Regardless of what he said earlier, Lucy does owe Torao. And she'd like to be friends with him anyway.

"Yeah, I'm in," She says with a grin. Torao looks blandly impassive.

Nami-in-Franky's-body groans. "You idiot."

Lucy just sends her a grin. "It's fine. You'll see."

"Look, all I'm saying is, the captain may be strong and independent, but she's still a woman, and as such it is your responsibility as her woefully inadequate paramour to—"

"Would you shut up already?" Zoro growls, stomping through the snow. It's the kind with the thin crust of ice and soft stuff underneath. It's annoying, and it isn't improving his mood for this conversation. "I don't need your advice, pervert. And stop staring at Nami's boobs. You're going to trip, and then she'll fine me when her hands get all cut up from the ice."

It's taking a lot of Zoro's self-restraint to refrain from hitting the-cook-in-Nami's-body, but he does it because Nami would probably whip out a signed contract of indentured servitude if he actually damaged something.

"Obviously not, since it took you this long to get together in the first place. You suck at wooing."

"I do not," Zoro growls, affronted. He tries to think of an example of a time where he wooed. He fails. "Shut up."

Sanji gives him a look that clearly states his skepticism. It's eerily effective on Nami's face. "Now I may admit that my previous attempt was…misguided, if well-intentioned—"

Zoro feels himself twitch with remembered fury. "You described in excruciating detail which positions we should use with adjustments for Lucy's size and body type." He wrote that stupid note like a goddamn itinerary.

"—and I admit that was, in hindsight, a smidge too involved. I had concerns about a delicate flower like Lucy-san and a brute like you, and sought to improve her experiences specifically."

Zoro stares, deadpan. "Lucy, delicate."

"Lucy-san is a gorgeous woman who deserves only the best!" Sanji declares, and that look on Nami's face is just bizarre. He feels vaguely uncomfortable witnessing it. "When I joined the crew, I swore to protect her! Provide for her! Assure her happiness!"

"You knew her for like a day at that point."

"All women are worthy of my attention and care!"

"Get a life, shit cook."

"I'm sure Zoro-san is perfectly capable of adequately romancing our captain, Sanji-san," Brook mediates sedately. "And Sanji-san, like the rest of us, has more than enough reason to worry over Lucy-san's welfare. She does seem to injure herself quite a lot."

Zoro huffs, not really able to argue that point. Not like he'd ever claim his nakama shouldn't worry over Lucy anyway. That would be just fucking stupid. "She's strong," he defends. Then, because the cook's annoying, "and I would only take your advice if I wanted to scare her off."

"What was that, asshole?"

"I for one don't understand how three strong warriors like yourselves could stand to submit to a woman's authority. Especially her suitor."

Zoro trains a glare on the samurai, and feels Sanji does the same. "Nobody asked you."

"Lucy-san is strong and worthy of respect! Her beauty is only rivaled by Nami-san and Robin-chan!"

Kin'emon gives Sanji a skeptical look, like he can't quite believe the level of idiocy spewing from the cook's mouth. Zoro can sympathize. "You know you're using the wrong honorifics, right?"

Sanji just stares. "No?"

There's an awkward beat where everyone stares at each other.

"I'm told wooing is an important aspect of any romance," Kin'emon says after a moment. Zoro groans.

"See! It's not just me! That guy convinced a girl to have a kid with him."

"Yes! I have reproduced!"

Sanji's face grows vaguely reverent at the idea, and Zoro gives him a disgusted look.

"Fuck off, both of you," Zoro growls, stomping off into the snow.

"You must have at least one idea for a date," Sanji goads.

Zoro rolls his eyes. "The vast majority of our lives are spent running around beating people up. At what point do you think we have time to go on a date."

"We have down time," Sanji counters. "And as Lucy-san's cook, I feel it is my duty to ensure her happiness and satisfaction, which now includes the health of her relationship with you."

Zoro glowers. "It's none of your business, shit-cook."

"The ship's not that big, shit-swordsman."

Zoro rolls his eyes again, and instinctively checks on Lucy and the others back at the cave using Observation Haki. She seems like she's contemplating something pretty serious—something important, if the tension in her voice is anything to go by. He wonders what changed since they left. She doesn't seem panicked or in danger or anything, and even if she was she probably wouldn't need his help.

Wooing. Pfft. He can woo. Zoro can totally woo. He just…hasn't had a lot of opportunities to do so. Most of their lives are spent on the ship. When they do make landfall it's usually a fight for their lives for a few hours or days, and then recovery, and then usually a mad scramble off the island. He supposes they could have gone on a date on Fishman Island, but they hadn't actually figured anything out by then.

He wonders if Lucy even wants to be wooed, and if so, how he should go about it. Then he hates himself a little for wondering. Can't be giving the shit cook any credit.

"Like I'd ever take advice from a guy that wore a dress."

Sanji's face turns beet red. "I told you, that never happened."

Kin'emon splutters. "A man should not adorn a woman's attire!"

"Oh fuck you, I didn't know samurai were bigots."

"Are you sure you reproduced?"

Occasionally, the cook was on the same page as him. Zoro just wishes he'd stop commenting on his love-life.

It's funny, but the New World seems pretty intent on making Lucy watch her nakama—and that's her boyfriend twice in a row now, dammit—fight for their lives over a Den Den Mushi. Ironically, Lucy's the one in the cage this time.

Zoro, Sanji, Brook, and some other people sprint for their lives away from the billowing purple cloud, and even through the screen Lucy's instincts are screaming that they cannot be caught by that.

"Oh, Sanji-kun is…" Robin breathes, and then Lucy realizes what she's talking about.

Sanji's not in his own body, where he could just fly away and probably drag the rest with him. He's in Nami's, who's strong, but not the same way Lucy and Zoro and Sanji are.

Shit. They might actually be in trouble.

Lucy experiments with the idea of unleashing all her Conqueror's Haki. She knows her friends would be okay, including Torao and Smokey. She's not certain it would really work though. Caesar's a weasel, and pathetic, but he isn't bereft of power. A mean, one-trick pony kind of power, but power nonetheless.

The screen winks out just as Zoro looks back over his shoulder at the cloud of gas, his face creased in disbelief and irritation. He's too far away to pick up on his Voice in detail, but she would be able to tell if he died.

Lucy relaxes. Zoro will be fine. He's strong. He's always been strong.

That doesn't mean Lucy's going to take an attack on her nakama lying down though.

She yanks against her chains once, and grins.

"Right. Time to stop messing around."

"What? Caesar beat Lucy?"

He says it sort of disbelievingly, like he's hearing it underwater. Usopp looks a little apologetic for having delivered the news, and Zoro scowls, gritting his teeth.

Then Zoro does something he almost never has before. He walks away from a fight, to go do something more important.

"OI! LUCY!"

Lucy is an idiot. Zoro knows this, and has always known this, and has never really expected any different from her. She gets carried away, occasionally fails to grasp consequences as well as she should, and sometimes that comes back to bite them all in the ass.

He's not going to lose her because she was being irreverent. He thought she'd learned a little better. He knows she has. He's seen the scars that lesson has left on her, physical and otherwise.

"Lucy! Get over here!"

He's searching the railing still, trying to figure out where she went. There's a flash of red a few posts down from him, and her face peeks over the railing, her cheeks raw from cold and wind and her eyes alight with purpose, but adventure too.

It makes something clench in his chest, makes him a bit angrier than he already was. She does not get to be so selfish anymore. She risks more than her own line when she risks it all. Zoro expects that much from her, wouldn't follow her if she didn't risk everything for her dream, but he expects her to do it with care, too.

"Hey, Lucy! Get a grip and take this seriously! This is only the beginning of the New World! We can't afford to be careless!"

Lucy blinks a few times, obviously surprised, and then she grins, a smile breaking over her face like the sunrise.

"Sorry, Zoro. I let my guard down, and we haven't even had sex yet!"

And just like that, his previous frustrations make way for a tidal wave of embarrassment and his face burns.

"Lucy."

"Don't worry, I'll win! See you in the tower!"

Goddammit, this girl is way more trouble than she's worth.

But he can't quite hide the amused smirk on his face, and the cook snorts when he sees it.

"Well that was a rude way to tell her you were worried," Sanji comments. Zoro glares, still a bit tongue-tied.

"He probably just needs to get laid," Usopp agrees, giggling.

"How uncouth," Kin'emon sniffs, "a woman speaking in such a manner."

"Shut up, you chauvinistic pig," Nami growls. Nothing gets Nami's temper up like people speaking ill of Lucy.

Zoro snorts as Nami puts the samurai in his place, and he watches men in hazmat suits fly unceremoniously off the catwalk Lucy's tearing through. He smirks a little, unbidden.

Honestly, only Lucy could reassure people by humiliating them.

It's so cute how utterly loyal to Luffy the gang is in the Punk Hazard arc. Like, both Sanji and Usopp at one point face someone and go "you're the kind of person my captain hates the most." The implication being, of course, that because their captain hates this type of person, they've begun to do so as well, perhaps even more than they would have otherwise. It's just cute. They're all adorable.

Can I just say, I definitely underestimated what publishing a sequel would do to my inbox? Jesus. You guys are amazing. Thank you for your support.

Also, I've had a really shitty week, which is why I'm posting this now. Let me know how it is?