The stars in the New World, Zoro decides, are weird. It's not like he's an expert or anything, but honestly there's usually not much to do on watch, so he ends up stargazing a lot. In the New World, the stars seem brighter, absolutely brilliant as they glare down on the world below like roughly cut diamonds. Maybe there are simply fewer cities on this half of the Grand Line, maybe it's just some weird moon thing, like Robin and Nami sometimes rant about, but the stars seem harsher here.
Zoro doesn't mind. There's probably a metaphor in there about journeys and destinations, but Zoro isn't one to think about that kind of shit and frankly just appreciates that the increased light makes being a lookout easier at night. Not that he's using his eyes so much as other senses.
In the cabin it's dark and silent. His friend's slow, peaceful breathing fills the room—the only one in Kyros' home. The bed is occupied by Lucy and Robin, the two of them lying nose to toes to maximize space on the narrow mattress. Neither of them could lay on their sides, due to injuries. Franky snores on top of a table, while Law, Usopp, the samurais, Bellamy—Law insisted, claimed Lucy would want him around—and the gladiator occupy the floor. Zoro himself is curled in the windowsill as he keeps watch, feeling bizarrely awake in the quiet hours after midnight. That's what he gets for sleeping almost twenty hours straight, he supposes.
His wounds still ache, but rest helped, and he's using watch to meditate now. Sensei would probably be long-sufferingly exasperated at the frequency he's used those techniques since leaving home. Zoro bets he'd be impressed at how good he's gotten at it though.
It doesn't smell fantastic in the cabin. They've all at least had their wounds dressed, but Dressrosa is not currently in possession of an abundance of showers. Or running water in general. Most everyone is homeless, and anyone who had any money is now destitute. The waterways are now clogged with debris. Half the population were slaves for varying lengths of time, so there's that trauma to deal with. Entire sections of their culture and heritage have been rediscovered, with the return of their artisans.
The Marines are helping the people here. They've set up infirmaries and latrines and cannibalized their own ships and facilities for Dressrosa's use. That's what the Tontattas have said at least. One of the little creatures drops by every couple hours to give them an update, and also check up on Usopp and Franky and Robin. They peek curiously at Lucy, and to a lesser extent, himself and the rest of their nakama as well. They somehow seem more awed by Lucy every time they drop by, which is…a little odd, to be honest. Zoro wonders what they've heard about her, or if maybe they just can't believe Doflamingo's gone for good.
Asshole sure left a lot of devastation in his wake. Zoro's not exactly the type to dwell on shit, but he does wonder, absently, if they'll dig a mass grave, or bury each body individually. Maybe they cremate people on Dressrosa. He hopes that admiral remembered the kid in the street.
Lucy makes a soft noise in her sleep. The moon cuts a swath across her body, and her lips are turned up in a slight, barely perceptible smile. The bed is pushed against the wall, so it's easy to reach down and gently sweep the hair from her face. The strands are a little oily from going unwashed too long.
Lucy turns into his hand, just a little. His fingers graze the aged scar under her eye.
She looks peaceful like this, with the moon throwing shadows across her face. He's seen her asleep before, but she doesn't look so calm, normally. Lucy's always moving, somehow, with her fingers twitching or her hair blowing in the wind, or snoring. She's not doing any of that now. It betrays just how exhausted she made herself.
He can't see her wounds at the moment. She's swamped by his jacket because, apparently, his shirt was the one with the fewest bloodstains on it, and Lucy wouldn't stop shivering earlier. Underneath the open jacket, she's wrapped in bandages. The newer ones haven't been bleeding through quickly, according to Franky. They're still supposed to change them every few hours, to avoid infection. The hospital was destroyed, and the Marines are, apparently, quickly running out of antibiotics.
Zoro withdraws his hand, and settles against the window frame, vaguely bored. He supposes he could doze a little while keeping his vigil, but with his injuries he might actually fall asleep, and then he'd be useless as a watchman.
He could…count the number of bonfires in the city below. Or the number of giant boulders ringing the island. Or—
Someone's out there.
Zoro tenses, casting his senses out.
The stranger is skilled. The presence is slippery, like oil on asphalt, used to slipping into cracks to obscure his presence, only truly visible with light from the right angles. Zoro noticed because his eyes caught his shadow, not because his Haki warned him.
That's…disquieting. Zoro's not great at Observation Haki, but he's not terrible. He misses details sometimes, sure, but usually not entire people.
As quickly as can without tipping the other guy off, Zoro conceals his own presence. He's got no idea what the stranger's skill level is, but it can't hurt to be careful. No one can be completely invisible from Haki, and some people burn brighter and more brilliantly than others, easily identifiable to friends and enemies alike. Some are naturally obscure, protected by intruding eyes by their own characters. It's impossible to hide completely from the competent, no matter how subtle a person naturally is, but it's possible to mask oneself a little. The key, Mihawk repeated ad nauseum, was to think of everything at once and nothing specific. It makes getting a read on someone's intentions difficult, if not impossible.
Zoro's never been very good at it. Mihawk is frustratingly very adept at the skill.
Still, he masks himself as best he's able, trying to at least make sure the other guy doesn't know Zoro's noticed him.
Silently, to avoid tipping him off, Zoro moves to the door, keeping track of the stranger with his Haki. Even knowing he's out there, even with a sense of where he is, it's hard to keep track. He's moving to the house though—to the back, actually. The wall opposite the door.
Weird. The path up the hill leads directly to the other side.
It's a miracle the old, dried and half-rotted floorboards don't creak beneath his boots. He's careful, very careful, to step on the nails so the boards don't bend, but only luck keeps the air silent as he weaves around the bodies on the floor, trying to recall all the subjects Robin has doctoral-level expertise in while also trying to remember each sword he's ever broken and exactly how it happened. When he gets to the door, Zoro twists the doorknob slowly, carefully, willing himself to patience.
Patience…isn't his strong suit. It's why stealth is more the cook's thing than his.
The doorknob clicks softly. Zoro releases a slow breath, and pulls the door open—just wide enough to slip through without brushing the doorframe. To his relief, the hinges open silently, despite the years of neglect the house suffered.
It must have been well-built, Zoro considers idly. He should compliment Kyros on it later.
The door shuts behind him with a muffled click. The presence is still at the back of the house, but he's coming around to the front now. On Zoro's right. He would have passed Zoro in the window, had the swordsman stayed there.
He could rush him now, use the precious seconds to preempt him in an attack. He could climb up to the roof, get the literal drop on the guy when he goes to open the door. He could hide around the opposite corner, jump him as he tries to get inside.
Zoro steps to the left of the door and leans against the rough-hewn wall, his body obscured by pitch-black shadow even in the moonlight. He loosens Kitetsu in the red sheath, and waits.
A shadow turns the corner, his silhouette illuminated by the moonlight. He wears a top hat and a long coat—maybe Zoro's height, maybe a little taller. He has an easy, purposeful stride that speaks of battle training.
He draws closer, and Zoro tries to recall the steps to tying an anchor hitch knot, a skill he's long-since relegated to muscle memory. He tries, too, to recall other things he's relegated to muscle-memory, as well as the rate at which his debt to Nami grows.
The figure draws closer, seemingly oblivious to Zoro's presence. He stops at the door. Hesitates.
Zoro forces himself not to draw just yet.
The man takes a deep breath and reaches for the doorknob.
Zoro's draw is so quick and smooth Kitetsu doesn't make a sound, not even a whisper as the sword scrapes against the sheath.
The movement is simple—just a quick extension of his arm as Kitetsu sings. His back is still against the wall, the stranger stands frozen on his right. The blade hovers barely a centimeter from the intruder's neck, the fine edge of the steel sharp enough to rip the fragile skin of the man's throat with minimal effort. A child would be capable of exerting enough strength to kill him from this position.
The light is weak, especially with the shadow of the house swallowing all the moonlight, but Zoro catches the gleam of the stranger's eyes as they slide to him.
"Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, I presume." The voice is young. Confident and smooth, maybe his age.
The hand has not moved away from the doorknob.
"What do you want," Zoro replies. Kitetsu wails in his head, furious at the scant distance between the edge of the blade and fresh blood.
"To see the conquering hero, of course." There's something sardonic and testing in the stranger's voice. "Or heroine, as the case may be."
Zoro feels Kitetsu gnaw on his will at that, just a little harder than before. He narrows his eyes. "Back up."
The stranger doesn't move. His left hand is free, obscured by the night. Zoro looks him in the eye, promising bloodshed if the man didn't comply.
"Aren't you going to ask who I am?" The stranger asks, his voice light. "Where I come from, why I want to see her?"
"I don't care," Zoro growls. The back of Kitetsu's blade tilts up into the man's jaw in warning, the edge no further from that fragile barrier than before. "Back up. Now."
The man doesn't move. He just continues to hold Zoro's gaze, and the air strains thick with tension. Zoro twitches the fingers of his free hand, preparing to draw another blade if he somehow escapes decapitation. The goggles on the brim of his top hat reflect the moonlight, drawing Zoro's gaze upward for just a moment.
The stranger moves—Zoro can't see it in the dark, but his Haki blares warnings in his mind and he leans hard into a cutting strike with Kitetsu, raises Shusui half-out of the sheath to catch the attack to his chest on the flat of the blade, and—
The door opens, and light floods the doorstep.
Both Zoro and the intruder freeze, mid-motion.
"Sabo?" Robin asks, drawing the fluffy white coat around her like a robe. "Zoro? What are you two doing?"
Kitetsu is literally pressed against the stranger's throat, the guy only saved by his quick and minimally-used Armament. His left hand, tense in a shape like a claw, is barely an inch away from impacting Shusui's blade.
"You know him?" Zoro asks, still unwilling to look away from the maybe-not-an-enemy-after-all. Blue eyes meet his gaze beneath a curly blonde fringe of hair. A scar mottles the left side of his face.
"Yes," Robin replies, sounding vaguely pleased. "He's Lucy's brother. We met while I was with the Revolutionaries."
Zoro gapes a little, his eyes widening. "You're her brother?" Instinct compels him to hold his position against an attacker who hasn't withdrawn, but he beats it back, and pulls Kitetsu away from Sabo's neck. Shusui, however, remains in defensive resolve, and he doesn't return either katana to their sheath. "She mentioned you."
The blonde retracts his claw, the black film of Haki dissolving against his neck. He doesn't drop Zoro's gaze though. Zoro gets the feeling he's being tested, and his gaze narrows again, ever so slightly.
It's different now, than it was with Ace. Or it feels that way, at least. Ace hadn't been AWOL for a decade, when he met the guy in Alabasta. He hadn't known Lucy as well then either.
Ace showing up didn't make Lucy cry.
It's this guy who needs to pass Zoro's test, brotherly instincts be damned. He doesn't get to abandon Lucy for who-knows-how-long and then pretend like nothing happened. Not after Ace died. He doesn't get to screw with her head like that.
"Sabo?" Robin asks again, and the man's gaze finally turns to the tall woman.
The blonde's gaze turns instantly warm. Zoro doesn't trust it.
"Robin," he greets. He's smiling, showing off a set of pearly teeth and a dimple in his left cheek.
"Come in," Robin offers, sending a quick, questioning glance to Zoro when his fist tightens on his katana.
It's a small, nearly unconscious check-in. Robin doesn't understand the quick animosity between them, knows them both separately as their friends. She interrupted what Zoro is not too proud to call a pissing match, and she's confused, but she'd be willing to rescind the invitation if he ordered it.
Zoro doesn't want to let him in. Something dark and protective in his chest rails against it, set off by this stranger-acquaintance's suspicious behavior, his sudden, upsetting presence in Lucy's life.
But Robin loves Lucy too, and she knows Sabo. She'd never let him anywhere near Lucy if she thought he was bad news.
Zoro's willing to trust her judgment.
For now.
He returns his blades to their sheaths, and Robin steps aside at the reluctant gesture of agreement, a hint of confusion still present in her eyes.
Sabo enters the little house first. Zoro reluctantly admires the guy's willingness to allow such a recent enemy at his back. It's ballsy.
Inside, only Franky and Usopp are awake. Two of the kerosene lamps are lit, Robin's disembodied hands hold them at strategic angles to keep their sleeping friend's faces in the shadows.
"Usopp noticed something, and woke Franky and I." Robin shrugs. "Lucy and everyone else are still asleep, but I can—"
"No," Sabo interrupts. He's already across the room, at the foot of the bed. Lucy has always been opportunistic, and she's already flopped onto her back and has an arm splayed across the space Robin's body just vacated. "No, just let her sleep."
Zoro leans into the juncture between the bed and the wall, near Lucy's head. "She'd want to see you."
Sabo doesn't look away from Lucy's face, but Zoro sees a flash of annoyance cross it before being replaced by something…complicated.
"No," he repeats softly. "She's injured. Got hurt protecting all these people." A smile creases his face, and Zoro is horrified to see something like tears gleam in his eyes. "She should rest. Heal." A gloved hand reaches out to pull the blanket up a little more, but he pulls back at the last moment.
Zoro narrows his eyes again.
He knows guilt when he sees it. He especially knows second-hand guilt, the type that comes with accidentally screwing up, the type that happens when a friend loses something and one finds oneself helpless to protect that friend from the realities of the world. It's guilt magnified by the knowledge that one has somehow failed to live up to one's duties, despite one's best efforts.
Zoro spent two years working off his own guilt, for failing his captain and the girl he loves. He imagines failing both a brother and a sister would be at least as bad.
Regardless, he can't help but think Sabo's being more selfish than selfless, at the moment. Lucy would want to see him. She'll be disappointed if she wakes up and realize Sabo left without a goodbye.
Normally, Zoro would tell Sabo that. It's too important to his girlfriend for him to just ignore it, let Sabo make his mistakes. But the blonde hasn't looked away from Lucy yet, hasn't even blinked, and Zoro thinks this might be more complicated than he knows.
…he's not exactly sure how a long-lost brother coming back from the dead after a decade of absence could get more complicated, but with Lucy, anything's possible.
"Her face is kind, still," Sabo says. His voice is soft and dreadfully quiet, and Zoro is certain he is not meant to hear. Not when there's so much affection and frank adoration in the man's voice. "I wondered if it would be, after…"
There's an awkward pause. Franky coughs lightly.
"So, you and Robin met in the Revolutionary Army?" Usopp asks, curiosity lighting his eyes. Zoro can relate to that. Zoro's been wondering what Robin did those two years as well.
"Yep," Sabo replies. He tears his gaze away from Lucy to look at the sniper, but even Zoro, who is not a particularly adept reader of body language, can tell where his attention still lies. "I introduced myself as Lucy's brother, and we became friends."
Zoro shoots Robin a questioning glance. Not accusing though, because Robin's loyalty to Lucy is unquestionable.
Robin catches the look and sighs softly. "He asked me not to tell her. Said he had to do it himself."
"Thank you for keeping it quiet," Sabo tells her. His eyes are suspiciously shiny as he looks at the archaeologist. "There were…things I needed to tell her."
Zoro remembers the way she sobbed outside the arena, and resents Sabo a little, for springing it on her like that and making Lucy such a wreck.
He wants to ask for an explanation, on Lucy's behalf. But he wants Sabo to offer one, too. Wants him to prove himself worthy of the hold he has on her.
"I'm afraid I'll have to head out pretty soon," Sabo says to the room at large. "We took some…sensitive items from the warehouses. Don't want to risk CP-0 getting their hands on them."
"CP-0?" Usopp squeaks, a little loud considering the number of still-unconscious people in the cabin. "Like CP-9, the people who tried to take Franky and—"
"Yes," Sabo interrupts. His calm makes Usopp look a little embarrassed. "They helped Doflamingo fool the world in thinking he renounced his Shichibukai title." Sabo gives a slightly exasperated smirk to the ceiling. "We were keeping an eye on them, but they were doing the same to us. Like two outposts guarding an empty valley." He shakes himself a little. "The items we took are valuable. There will be lots of people flooding the island in a few days, looking for them. And you." He looks to Robin, a little earnestness in his voice. "You guys should leave as soon as you can."
Zoro tamps down a bristle of irritation. He doesn't like the guy telling them what to do. He doesn't like that he addressed Robin, rather than him, Lucy's first mate, which is weird because he doesn't usually have issues with rank light that. He doesn't like the implication that they can't protect their unconscious captain without his help.
Sabo probably didn't mean to prick at Zoro's pride, though. And he's Lucy's brother. "Not being actively hunted" is a pretty good state of affairs for her. A little neuroticism is probably to be expected when it comes to her general safety, even if he hasn't quite earned it yet.
It's not his opinion that ultimately counts when it comes to Sabo, of course, but Zoro can't help forming one. And he plans to tell Lucy if he thinks Sabo is bad news.
"We won't stay long," Zoro admits. The others turn their attention to him. "Lucy'll want to meet up with the others."
The Straw Hats nod in collective agreement. Sabo's expression doesn't change, but it suddenly seems icier than before. "You know my sister well."
The air in the room tenses. Zoro holds Sabo's gaze, unwilling to back down. The words are innocuous, but they're said with a strange sort of resentment filtering through the edges. The room seems to burn a little hotter, crackling with electricity and potential.
Between them, Lucy shifts a little, her right hand closing in a fist and opening again. Zoro doesn't look away from Sabo.
His relationship with Lucy is, as far as Zoro's concerned, not relevant to Sabo. Or anyone else but the two of them, for that matter. He doesn't care who shows up.
Franky takes out a screwdriver, and sticks it in his half-melted face. "We had to split the crew up. Aneki isn't a fan when that happens."
Sabo looks away from Zoro, his eyes swinging down to Lucy's face. "…I see." Then he seems to relax a little, a soft smile on his face as he studies Lucy's. "She's a good captain then."
"The best," all four of the straw hats reply. There's a beat where they all look at each other in surprise before Robin laughs softly, and Franky has to clap a hand over his mouth to avoid making too much noise.
Zoro cracks a smile, looking down at Lucy. Fondness bursts in his chest, and he knows he doesn't quite manage to keep it from his face when he looks up to see Sabo staring at him, his brows knitted together.
Ah, screw it, this guy isn't being very forthcoming at all. And Zoro has no desire to tell Lucy her brother decided to fuck off for another ten years without an explanation.
"She never mentioned she had another brother," Zoro says to the room at large. He's not a subtle guy. He prefers the direct approach. But he tries to keep the accusation from his voice, for Lucy's sake.
Sabo relaxes slowly as Franky voices a muffled agreement from the other side of the room. There's something sad and wistful in his face.
"No," Sabo agrees. He pulls the blanket up over Lucy, tucking her in just a little tighter. Zoro resists the urge to draw Kitetsu and slice his hand off at the wrist. "No, I suppose she wouldn't have mentioned me." He smiles, and it looks a little forced this time. "She thought I died twelve years ago."
The other straw hats react in shock. Zoro looks down to the floorboards. That much he knows from Lucy's confused babbling earlier. He wants to know why he let her think that.
"There was an incident," Sabo explains. "I was running away from my birth parents, who were trying to force me into elite society." Sabo gives a proud kind of smirk. "Ace and Lucy and I weren't exactly cut from that kind of cloth. I didn't want to live anywhere they couldn't be." He shrugs. "Anyway, the incident made the papers, which is how they found out. I was grievously injured, presumed dead. When I woke up, I had near-total amnesia. I didn't remember anything about myself, or who I loved. Just that I didn't want to go back to Goa."
Franky, Zoro notices, already looks teary-eyed.
"Dragon found me after the incident, somehow." Sabo shrugs. "I had nowhere to go, but the Revolutionary Army took me in. I officially joined the ranks a few years later."
"But you regained your memory," Usopp points out. He has that shrewd expression on his face he gets when he's trying to interrogate someone.
Sabo's face spasms with pain. "The day after the war, there was a picture of Ace. In the newspaper." Sabo's fists clench, and his mouth sets in a grimace. "Payback of a kind, I guess. I remembered everything, when I saw that."
Zoro closes his eyes, bowing his head in acknowledgment of the other man's pain. He can imagine that such an experience would be…a shock, to put it mildly.
"I think Ace helped me. I think he wanted to make sure I knew to look after Lucy."
Honestly, Zoro wouldn't put it past Ace. He remembers the guy in Alabasta, how protective he was. If he couldn't be around, it doesn't surprise Zoro that his spirit would cling to Sabo.
Zoro doesn't believe in the afterlife, of course. But he doesn't doubt that Lucy's brother would be stubborn enough to avoid departing this world completely.
"Oi! What are you doing over there?" Usopp screeches. Zoro looks over to see Kin'emon and Kanjuro in the corner, clearly awake. Kin'emon seems to be chowing down on the dried meat, and also guzzling sake.
"Don't waste all the booze!" Zoro growls. Kin'emon just shovels another slice of meat in his face.
"Lucy will want meat when she wakes up," Robin comments uncertainly.
"Aneki eats disturbing amounts of meat," Franky agrees.
"We'll get food in the morning," Kanjuro pacifies.
"And booze," Zoro demands pointedly. Robin giggles. Lucy shifts in her sleep, her mouth curled in a smile.
"Lucy has a good crew, I see," Sabo comments. The look on his face is equal parts proud and humored, mixed with a strange sort of wistfulness.
Zoro doesn't know what having a sibling is like, but he can guess Sabo's currently wishing he hadn't missed a decade of her life.
"Anyway. I came here both for the fruit, and to meet up with Lucy again. We met in the arena. I'm afraid we were short on time, though, so we couldn't spend as much time together as we might have wanted." He tugs on the brim of his hat. "Lucy's grown a lot. I couldn't believe it when I saw her."
"What was Lucy like as a kid," Usopp asks curiously. Franky and the two samurai look on with interest.
Sabo smirks. "Oh, nothing like she is now. Total crybaby weakling." Sabo's expression morphs to something vaguely rueful. "Suicidally proud, too." He looks a little embarrassed. "Ace and I probably shouldn't have teased her so much. We weren't very good role models." He scratches the back of his neck. "Never expected her to go after the giant gator alone, though."
Zoro snorts at the mental image of a seven-year-old Lucy trying to take down an alligator and tripping into the water immediately. Robin giggles. Usopp expresses his doubt over Lucy ever being a weakling.
"Well, I better be going," Sabo says after a moment. He claps his hands to his knees and looks at Lucy's face for a long moment before standing.
Then Sabo looks at him, direct and in silent request, and Zoro moves to follow him out the door.
"I'm going back to bed," Franky declares. Usopp nods in agreement.
"I think I will as well," Robin chimes in.
"Roll Lucy over when you do," Zoro tells her. "She—"
"—hates sleeping on her back," Sabo finishes. The look he's giving Zoro is hard to decipher. Zoro's fairly certain he sees protective brotherly instincts warring with…something like relief. And a lot of other emotions.
"…I'll do that," Robin assures them.
Sabo moves to the door, and Zoro follows him out. The floorboards creak beneath their feet this time, and Zoro is glad the rest of the people in the cabin are either heavy sleepers or too exhausted to be disturbed.
Zoro shuts the door behind him. He can see a square of light from the window around the corner that, tellingly, indicates the occupants inside are not bedding down just yet. The night air is cool. Refreshing, outside of the stuffy cabin. Sabo waits for him about ten paces from the door.
"You know, I'd forgotten that, until just now," Sabo says evenly. Zoro raises an eyebrow. "That she hates sleeping on her back. Sometimes those things slip my mind." Sabo's mouth twists with distaste. "Sometimes that happens, where I remember something new. I think I have all the big stuff locked down—consolidated, as the doctors like to say—but the little stuff…" Sabo shrugs. "Who knows? It could just be normal memory decay. It could be amnesia."
Zoro says nothing. Not being able to trust his own mind is one of the few things, he thinks, that could really scare him.
"I remember why she hates sleeping on her back though," Sabo continues. He sends Zoro an embarrassed glance. "Ace and I may have told her giant snakes eat seven-year-old girls who don't sleep on their stomachs." He huffs a small laugh. "We were really sick of her snoring."
Zoro grins, fond in spite of himself. Lucy is nothing if not noisy when she sleeps. Without thinking, he replies, "Fair enough."
Sabo's eyes shoot to Zoro, contemplative. And, shit, Zoro just implied a level of intimacy several magnitudes higher than he maybe should have.
"You're my sister's first mate, right?" the blonde asks good-naturedly. His gloved hand tugs at the brim of his hat.
Zoro nods, his hands resting easily at his sides.
"Is that all?" Sabo asks. His voice is low and even, maybe a few notches shy of dangerous.
Zoro snaps his gaze to Sabo's. He doesn't reply.
Sabo sighs. "Thought so. Here." Sabo pulls a piece of paper out from a pocket in his jacket, and hands it to Zoro. "It's a vivre card for her. Had it made from the hairs in her helmet." He rips off a corner, and stuffs it into the same pocket.
Zoro nods, and folds the card down, sticking it in his haramaki. He's unprepared when Sabo's hand snaps out, trapping Zoro's wrist between his fingers.
Zoro looks up at him calmly, even though he resents being detained in such a way. Sabo doesn't seem interested in violence.
…well, not anymore, at any rate.
"Look, I know I'm about twelve years too late to give you a shovel talk, and I can tell you guys love her, so." He breathes out slowly. "Just. Take care of her, please? I don't. I can't lose her too."
Sabo's not looking at him. His gaze is pointed to the soil beneath their feet, to the cheerful sunflowers muted in the dark. Zoro thinks this might be the closest the guy comes to bowing.
Zoro feels something in his chest soften in sympathy, despite himself. "Always."
He doesn't…exactly trust Sabo. It's hard to trust someone who doesn't seem to trust themselves. Who seems so uncertain of the bounds of his authority. But he trusts that Sabo loves Lucy. That he's going to do everything in his power to protect her, that he'd never intentionally hurt her.
He'd never trust him the way Sabo's trusting Zoro. But he doesn't need to. Won't ever need to, because his destiny is to walk beside Lucy, make her Pirate King.
Sabo's grip on Zoro's wrist relaxes, and he breathes out, slow and purposeful. "Thank you."
Zoro nods, feeling awkward. He's not good with people. And Sabo seems a lot more emotive than Ace, and even Lucy, in some ways.
"Lucy might be a bit much for you to handle," Sabo says fondly, turning to leave. "but I leave her in your care."
And there's something about the way he says it, and the heavy gaze, that makes Zoro think Sabo is referring, in particular, to him, and his care.
Zoro kind of wants to be annoyed, because he's pretty sure neither he nor Lucy need Sabo's permission to do anything, brother or not.
…but, he supposes, any brother in Sabo's position would be anxious about leaving his sister alone. Hell, one of Lucy's brothers already made that farewell.
So Zoro snorts, amused. Sabo turns to him, eyes questioning.
"Ace said the same thing, you know." Sabo's eyes widen. "When we met him in Alabasta."
There's a long moment where Sabo doesn't say anything at all, just stares.
But then something twists in his face, and he speaks. "I didn't get a chance to ask Lucy earlier," Sabo says quietly. "Wasn't sure if I should, really. But." He looks up, and can't quite hide the desperation in his eyes. "How did he look?"
Zoro fights to keep his expression neutral. He doesn't think Sabo would appreciate pity.
"Happy," he replies, thinking of the pride in Ace's voice as he spoke of Whitebeard, of his fondness toward Lucy. "He looked happy."
The blonde's eyes water a bit, and Zoro pretends not to notice when he turns away to wipe moisture from his face.
"Good," Sabo breathes. Zoro is glad he doesn't sound as emotional as he seems. "I'm glad. I wondered."
Right. Because the last time Sabo saw Ace, they were ten. He never got to know the man Ace became.
"I'll be off then. See you." He lifts his hand in a wave as he walks off. Zoro watches until his top hat melts into the night.
He releases a heavy sigh, and turns back to the cabin. The emotional baggage that tends to follow Lucy around is surprisingly complicated, for such a straightforward person.
The door opens easily. Zoro is completely unsurprised to see everyone still awake, although mostly bedded down. Usopp looks up at him from his sleeping bag, frank curiosity on his face.
"That looked awkward as hell," the sniper declares. "We weren't sure you were coming back."
"I told you it would be fine," Robin interjects calmly. Zoro notices that Lucy's been moved to her stomach again.
"No, Sabo-dono looked understandably upset to discover the close relationship between his sister and a thief like Zoro-dono."
Zoro scowls in Kin'emon's direction. "I thought we were done with the thief thing."
"What did he want to talk about?" Franky asks. He already sounds sleepy.
"He gave me a vivre card for Lucy," he informs them. "And he asked us to take care of her."
Robin smiles softly. "Sounds like Sabo."
Zoro walks over to the windowsill, climbing on the ledge again to settle into his watch. Robin's hands turn the lights out, and set the lamps on their respective tables.
"Lucy's got a good brother, doesn't she?" Robin says into the quiet.
Zoro presses his forehead to the cool glass of the window. "No," he says, placing his palm over the vivre card. "She's got two."
Robin laughs in that quiet way she has. "Ah. I suppose you're right."
Lucy shifts, and her left hand wraps around the bars on the bed frame. Zoro keeps watch until morning.
"I can walk."
"Right."
"No, really, I'm like, sooo good at walking."
"Law said you'd be loopy from the meds for a while."
"Loopy? Who's loopy?"
Zoro rolls his eyes, and tightens his grip on Lucy's waist as she stumbles over quite literally nothing. "You. You're like three miles high and somehow clumsier than usual."
Lucy tilts her head back, and stumbles into him. Her face scrunches in concentration. "I could be clumsier," she promises. "Watch! Gum Gum—"
"No," Zoro says sternly, just barely managing to pin Lucy's right arm to her side before she lets loose. He's forced to nearly lift her off her feet in his attempt to still her. "No, no, we're not doing that."
Lucy, sufficiently pinned against him with her left arm slung across his shoulders, pouts.
Zoro rolls his eyes. "You're lucky someone was willing to deal with you out in the open. Don't complain."
Lucy beams at him. "Yeah, but you're always willing to deal with me. You're Zoro." She says his name like there's something to be awed about, and he can't help the flush that rises to his face. He reminds himself that Lucy is currently too medicated to truly understand that words strung together in a row are meant to be a sentence.
It's not that hard, he thinks in response. It's you. "Yeah, well. Someone has to."
Lucy does not seem to see this as a rebuff. Instead she leans even more heavily into his side, so he's practically dragging her along. Her face presses roughly into his armpit and she jerks away with her nose crinkling. "Ew."
"They still don't have running water and all the rations are either keeping people alive or washing out infected wounds. You don't exactly smell like a peach either."
Water is a bit of a problem, actually. The Marines are apparently expecting relief ships to arrive soon, but for now the entire island is subsisting off of the supplies in the Marine fleet. Apparently, it's not nearly enough.
Zoro still wants a shower.
Lucy nods solemnly. "Yeah, okay." Then she looks at him, eyes wide. "I still love you though. Even if you smell like BO. "
Too medicated to understand what a sentence is. She's high as a kite right now. "Yeah, well, you've got that and also you smell a bit like rotting fish, for some reason. Not sure why."
Lucy trips again, and Zoro nearly tumbles with her. "That'd be Snot. He was gross. Torao killed him, or something." Lucy cocks her head. "Maybe 'cuz he smelled?"
Zoro raises an eyebrow. He's about to ask about it, but then Lucy sags against him, her legs suddenly giving out.
"Oi, you were the one who 'needed to get out of the house,' who 'wanted to go outside,' who nearly caused a mutiny with the amount of trouble you were getting up to with Franky's innards."
That had been kind of gross, to be honest. Franky has very realistic synthetic blood, which is, apparently, just cola. Zoro doesn't know, Franky is possibly crazier than the rest of them. They voted on that once, when half of them were drunk. Fanky and Zoro tied for second place which, honesty, is saying something. Lucy, obviously, got first, and the fact that Robin placed last is honestly the most terrifying part of that whole experiment.
"That was before," Lucy declares imperiously. Then she twists, and her chest thumps into Zoro's, and before he knows it there's a hand on the back of his neck and her mouth is pressed firm and hard against his.
Zoro responds, a bit blindsided but willing nonetheless. Two arms loop around his neck and he fumbles a bit as she jumps up, her legs wrapping around his hips. Zoro just bare manages to catch her before she slides straight to the ground. The angle changes, their teeth scrape, her mouth is warm and her tongue is smooth and restless as they twist together.
Lucy pulls back, ending the kiss as quickly as it began. Zoro stares up at her, and he thinks the dilation of her pupils is probably not just from the drugs.
"…Wanted to do that, too," Lucy admits, biting her lip. Zoro can feel his eyes latching on her mouth, and he feels a little helpless to look away.
Then Lucy goes limp, like her strings have been cut, and Zoro nearly drops her again as his grip changes. Lucy's head thunks onto his shoulder heavily, like her neck can't bear to hold it up any longer.
"Tired now," she mumbles into his shirt, stating the obvious.
Zoro sighs, frustrated. Clever little shit got him to carry her.
Well to be honest, he doesn't really feel like going back to the house either. He'll go stir crazy if he stays in there much longer.
There's a tall linden tree about fifty feet away, an ancient, gnarled thing with sprawling branches and thick leaves, surrounded by a copse of honeysuckle. Zoro shuffles over. Lucy's not being super helpful with this, her whole body kind of limp, but even with his injuries she doesn't weigh anywhere close to what he's capable of lifting.
The sun in Dressrosa is hot today, glaring down on the flower field. The wind is cool though, a pleasant balm to the stifling heat. The linden tree offers shade, which is probably a good idea since Lucy isn't supposed to get overheated.
He gets to the tree, and coaxes Lucy off of him so he can sit. She whines about it but complies, swaying on her feet sleepily.
Zoro huffs a breath out in disbelief. Ten minutes ago she was more or less literally bouncing off the wall. Law hadn't been kidding when he said the drugs would work fast.
"Zoro…" she complains. She makes grabby motions with her hands, like a child whose favorite toy was just snatched away.
"Jeez you've been clingy," he grouses. But he lifts her into a bridal carry anyway, and sits between two big tree roots with Lucy settled across his lap. It's a little clumsy, but he manages to do it without jostling either of them too much. Zoro unwinds the arm under her knees to pull her torso closer and support her chest a little more. Lucy just presses her face to his neck and curls her ankles to press against his thigh as she twists her fingers in his shirt.
"Zoro," she hums happily. Zoro finds his hand coming up to stroke her hair, because yeah, holding her like this feels pretty good.
…it's possible he's feeling clingy too.
Then she tenses a little, her breath just a hair too short. "You smell like blood. Different than usual. Kinda…" Zoro freezes in response, because he never in a million years expected Lucy to think— "You're injured?"
Zoro releases a breath slowly, and resumes stroking her hair. "Yeah. I'm fine though." He lays a kiss on her temple, trying to shake off the perceived accusation. "I'm not the one with an infected wound. And I didn't recently have emergency surgery to ensure gangrene didn't set in."
The gouge in her hip was worse than previously realized. The infection—from rusty, poorly maintained metal, apparently—was worsened by the effect Gear Fourth has on her body. Using it in rapid succession, twice, is apparently a blow to her immune system.
If Zoro ever finds out which bastard used a rusty sword on her, he's going to kill the guy. Poison's a cowardly way to kill. That's part of why Zoro takes such fastidious care of his katanas.
Lucy frowns into his collarbone. "I scared Zoro," she realizes. She pecks his neck, like a child innocently believing a kiss makes the hurt go away. "Sorry."
Zoro lets out a slow breath, and brushes some of the hair from her eyes. "Just be careful."
Telling her not to scare him again would be a waste, after all.
Lucy hums and settles a little deeper against him. Her slowing breath informs him that she's about to drop off to sleep.
Zoro could join her, to be honest. He stayed on watch for most of the night and he had a nap this morning but he's still tired.
"Z'ro?" Lucy mumbles, slurring her words. "Where're the others?"
Zoro draws soothing circles on her back. "They're waiting on Zou, remember? Curly's with them, they'll be fine."
Lucy relaxes. "…right. Sanji promised…" She falls asleep mid-sentence.
Zoro leans his head against the tree. That was what set Lucy off earlier, he remembers. She wanted to get to the rest of the crew immediately, now that everything on Dressrosa was taken care of.
They don't have a ship yet, though. And Lucy's still not healed enough to be awake more than a few hours at a time. They're working on the ship, sure, and they'll need to get going sooner rather than later, but no one on the crew is fully functional yet. It'd be best to wait until at least one of them is, just in case they have to fish someone out of the ocean.
Zoro's eyes snap open to the sound of creaking wheels. Lucy's still pressed against him, tucked in a ball against his form, but the sun is a little lower in the sky. An hour has maybe passed.
The wheels are coming from behind him. He senses two people—a woman and a child, and they're close.
Zoro's hand drops to his katana, his left hand splayed between Lucy's shoulder blades, pulling her close. Drawing will be awkward at this angle, with Lucy in his lap, but if he can just get his feet under him—
A cart moves around the tree. An old lady with a leathery face and clouded eyes pushes it, and a young boy maybe ten years old with bright red hair and freckles stops to pick a lavender crocus flower.
"I thought I might find you here," The old lady declares. "Oh, and the poor dear's asleep. She must be tired."
"Deposing an evil dictator will do that to a person," Zoro replies absently. He blinks. "You're the lady from earlier. The one with Observation Haki."
"Alvera, dear, my name's Alvera." She sets the cart down and gestures to the boy. "This is my grandson, Arlo."
Zoro squints at the boy. "The toy dog?"
The boy makes a face. "Not anymore."
Which. Fair enough. Zoro supposes he would prefer it if people didn't remember him as a toy dog, if he were in the same situation.
"So you both survived, I guess," Zoro says awkwardly. Around ten percent of the Dressrosi population died, so it wasn't a guarantee.
"Thanks to you two. And your friends, of course."
Zoro shrugs. "I think Usopp took out the toy chick." Actually he knows, because Usopp won't shut up about this incredible shot he made to save Lucy and Law. The story sounds so ludicrous Zoro would think Usopp was exaggerating, but Kin'emon and Kanjuro both corroborated the account, and honestly even Zoro's a little impressed with a shot like that.
Alvera makes a clicking noise with her tongue. "Well. I have a gift for you both." Her wrinkled hand slides over the edge of the cart, her fingers blindly searching between the stems.
The boy, Arlo, comes over immediately, and plucks a bouquet from the cart. He gives her a blinding smile and chirps, "This one, Nan."
The old woman places her hand on the boy's head. The gesture looks intimate and familial, like a private reunion taking place in public.
The moment passes quickly. Alvera makes a shooing gesture to the boy, and he bounds over to Zoro and Lucy, placing it next to Lucy's leg.
Zoro raises an eyebrow as he looks at the gift. Some of the flowers look a little worse for wear. "Is that—"
"We found it near the ruins of the colosseum," Alvera replies. "It was sitting on top of the rubble. We decided it should be returned to you."
Zoro stares at it, and thinks of the unidentifiable kid. "…thanks."
Alvera pauses and stares at him, registering the tone in his voice. Zoro stares back, unbothered by the accusative look.
"We'll be planting yarrow and live oak on the ridge up there," Alvera says, pointing to the mountain Lucy battled Doflamingo on. The spikes and various craters from where Lucy and Doflamingo hurled each other through solid stone give it a strange silhouette. "It'll be a memorial. One tree for everyone who died." The old lady taps the side of her nose. "Recovering the dead is impossible. Grief is inadequate." The woman shrugs in a helpless sort of way. "Remembering them is all we can do. And appreciating gifts along the way is not such a bad thing," she says, nodding to the flowers by Lucy's feet.
Zoro nods. He agrees. He just hasn't figured out how to ask one of the tontattas if the kid was identified or not.
The lady seems to get the hint, and changes the subject. "You know, that bouquet is a special one. The most curious I've ever made."
Zoro raises an eyebrow, and ignores the drool Lucy's leaving on his shoulder. "Yeah?"
Alvera nods. "You remember the legend I told you? The one about the girl and her lover?" When Zoro nods, she continues. "The supposed arrangement of the flowers he left her is passed down among those of us in the craft. It's a trade secret, you might say." Alvera's clouded eyes look sharp for a moment. "Imagine my surprise when you and your lovely captain pick it out!"
A gust of wind bows the flowers in the field to its whims. "Er. What."
"There's a prophecy or thirty that goes with that bouquet," Alvera continues. "Most of it's probably hogwash. But they all say it's associated with a new age. With freedom."
Zoro rolls his eyes. "It's got nothing to do with some flowers. She's going to be Pirate King. She already said all that."
Alvera chuckles. "Indeed. Well, we'll be off then. Arlo, let's go. We have some marigold to collect."
The little boy runs up to the cart, depositing several colorful flowers into their baskets. "Yes, Nan!"
Zoro leans back, watching them leave. "Thanks for the flowers," he calls. He doesn't particularly want them, but it was nice of her to drop them off. Then he blinks in realization. "Wait, how'd you find us?"
He hopes it wasn't Observation Haki. The blind admiral probably knows exactly where they are, if that's the case. The guy's a master of the skill.
Alvera stops the cart and looks over her shoulder. "Oh that's easy dear!" She winks, and it looks a little odd on her wrinkled face. "The tree you're sitting under—we call it the hanging tree! It's the one from the legend!"
And then she walks off, the boy dancing around her, plucking flowers as they went. They look odd. Otherworldly. Zoro considers her parting words with a little consternation.
Zoro believes in fate. He's just not big on prophecies. The future is for him to decide, for him to grasp or die. He is determined to be the man who makes it all the way, he believes it will be him, but he knows it could be his fate to fail.
He's certain of Lucy's fate, at least. She'll be the Pirate King. He knows because he'd never let her die. Not while he still breathes.
"We don't need flowers to tell us what we already know," Zoro mutters. Lucy mumbles something in her sleep that sounds a lot like 'meat.' He sighs, looking at her fondly. "You're going to make me carry you back, aren't you."
Lucy gives no response except to knock the crown of her head against his chin to make herself more comfortable. Zoro's not sure why, but it makes him feel like laughing.
The reason, by the way, that the tontattas get progressively more awed about Lucy is because they've been listening to Bartolomeo rave about her.
Just in case you were upset about this, the reason Zoro kind of got the drop on Sabo is because Sabo was really, really focused on Lucy. And he was nervous about seeing her again, this time without any emergencies to act as a buffer to the emotional fallout. Plus, despite everything, the concept of Lucy having a crew of fanatically devoted friends is still kind of foreign to Sabo. He remembers her as the dumb kid who nearly died getting eaten by various oversized animals in increasingly ridiculous ways. While he obviously sees that she's strong, after having defeated Doflamingo, he isn't really expecting a crew competent enough to set up a watch schedule in the aftermath. And also not a zealously protective swordsman who will let a complete stranger near his unconscious captain over his dead body.
"Like two outposts guarding an empty valley" is a Red vs. Blue reference, if you know what that is. I have not seen all of it, or even most of it, but clearly I've seen enough to make a reference, which is more than I thought I'd seen, to be quite honest.
The "you smell like blood" thing and Zoro's reaction to it was inspired by one of the very recent chapters. Zoro confronts this guy who definitely murdered somebody, and he's like "you smell like blood." I was kind of ecstatic about this since I have long established that to Lucy, Zoro smells like "blood, steel, and sake," and also that he's killed people before. That is also the first time Lucy tells Zoro what he smells like. Zoro thinks Lucy's calling him a murderer. Lucy's just worried about why he smells bloodier than usual.
A crocus flower means "youthful gladness," in Victorian flower language. Yarrow means "war." A live oak means "liberty." The linden tree they sit under technically means "conjugal fidelity," but I'm just using it for the last part. The honeysuckle surrounding the tree means "bonds of love, generous and devoted affection." All of this is very cheesy, but trust me, it could have been worse. The little experiments with Victorian flower language were fun though.
Again, sorry this was later than usual. I usually write/edit on Saturdays, and I spent last weekend protesting family separations. Babies in prison takes priority over fanfiction.