Lucy is slow to wake. Her body feels heavy from sleep, and her head quiet. The sheets are soft, tucked up to her chin, and her skin soaks up the ambient warmth. The effervescent beams of morning sunlight graze her eyelids, and the waves roll gently against the ship's hull outside the room.
It's the scent that truly wakes her though. Warm and masculine and familiar. That, and the weight of a muscular arm slung across her waist, the dip in the bed that speaks of another body beside her own.
Lucy pries her eyelids open, fighting against the sleep-gunk, and finds herself face to face with a sleeping Zoro.
It's probably not a vision of Zoro at his most attractive. His hair is a mess, his face is smushed against the pillow, and he's snoring softly. Flakes of dried blood still cling to his face in places from their sparring. His mouth's hanging open, and Lucy's pretty sure she sees drool on his chin. But something about it—something about the lax, placid expression and the implicit trust involved in falling asleep beside someone and the way Zoro looks strangely vulnerable—speaks of intimacy, and it catches Lucy hard in the chest.
It's not the first time she's seen Zoro asleep of course, not the first time she's woken up beside him, even. It feels new today though, feels new and good.
It's probably the bed, Lucy reasons, still a little sleep-drunk and deliriously admiring the sight before her. Mattresses are good.
After a moment she rolls to her back, far too awake to sleep and too tempted to wake Zoro to keep staring at him. A quick, customary check on the ships' occupants assures that everyone is safe and accounted for, an action not really born of fear or concern, for once, but affection and curiosity.
They're fine, all of them. Lucy sinks just a bit deeper into the mattress.
The room itself is quite small, barely larger than a broom closet—so small the door doesn't open all the way, blocked by the cot. But it's nice, with the dark wooden panels and the serviceable window that lets in just the right amount of sunlight, and reveals the sea spread out below.
It smells like Zoro now, which is nice. Lucy kind of hated sleeping alone.
As she stares at the oaken ceiling, Zoro's hand settles on the curve of her waist, his thumb grazing the edge of her worst scar. Absently, she covers his hand with hers, the thin line of the old scar on her palm faded with time but still raised enough to drag a little against the back of his fingers.
Zoro has mentioned a couple times that his katana have sounds, that they sort of speak to him in music and thought. He said it's hard to explain, because katana don't speak the way people do, and that he's "not a fuckin' poet. Or whatever Usopp is." Lucy has always wondered if Kitetsu told him about how she got the scar. She's never explained it to anyone, but Zoro sometimes presses her palm to his lips with a weight that suggests he knows the story behind it, like he's saying I love you the way he probably never will aloud.
Her knuckles are bruised and the skin a bit broken. Her Devil Fruit will heal it within the day, along with the collection of cuts and bruises from the spar, but the damage is minimal and well worth a fight like that. And for what came after.
Lucy flushes a little, feeling a bit giggly and squirmy. She suddenly doesn't care if Zoro needs to sleep. She wants him to be awake, so they can maybe try a repeat performance before breakfast.
But she refrains, still kind of enjoying the intimacy of waking up next to him like this. And besides, Zoro almost never looks this relaxed. He's always on alert, even in sleep, and he's usually a terribly light sleeper. He always wakes a few seconds after she does.
So she squashes the urge to wake him—but she does indulge in the desire to touch him.
Zoro has a lot of scars. She's noticed it before, obviously, because it's hard not to notice when one's boyfriend constantly walks around half-naked. The big ones were obvious. The web of tiny nicks and cuts, most healed improperly, is a more complex thing that spans Zoro's body like constellations and frame the more terrible things that have tried to kill him in the past, from the loss of his eye to the scar Mihawk marked him with, to the thick ropes across both his ankles from Little Garden, when Zoro tried to cut his own limbs off.
There's a mess of tangled scar tissue on his lower belly, too. She can't see it now because the sheets are twisted around Zoro's waist, but she saw the scars last night. They're usually covered by his haramaki, and Lucy knows the pale scars are from Thriller Bark, because the memory of Chopper treating them every day for weeks is burned deep into her mind. They're hard to miss, when they stand out in such sharp relief from his bronze skin, but it's not something she wants to dwell on at the moment.
She uses her right hand to trace along the diagonal slash across his chest. Lucy thinks of Zoro's dream, of how such a dream is only right for someone as amazing and determined as he is. She is reverentially gentle as she traces the raised edge of the scar. It is older now, long-since healed, and the stitches that once held the parted skin together are gone, along with the angry red color. It's still a terrible thing, pale and stark against bronze skin, but it isn't as angry now as it was before, and the broken tissue has relaxed and softened just a bit.
But even her light touch is enough to disturb Zoro's sleep, and Lucy is gifted the rare sight of watching Zoro wake up as his hand squeezes her hip, unconscious.
His eyebrows pinch together, the left one a little sluggish due to the severed muscle there. His mouth snaps shut, the corners twitching and Adam's apple bobbing as he swallows. His right eye creaks open, gunmetal grey peeking out from beneath copper eyelids, and Lucy grins in helpless affection as she sees the bleary, sleep-driven confusion there.
Lucy rolls onto her side, her face a few inches from his, and she's sure her morning breath is awful but it's not like she cares. "Hey."
Zoro still doesn't seem fully awake, but he also seems reluctant to let go of her and the hand on her hip finds the one she rested on top of it, their fingers twining together easily. After all they've done and all they've been through, Lucy probably shouldn't be getting so happy over how well their hands fit together anymore, but, well. Their hands fit really well together.
"…Still dreamin'?" Zoro mumbles, his head curving closer to hers and his eye drooping closed.
Lucy grins wide because oh, she is never going to let him live that down. She can't let the rest of their nakama find out though, because they'll tease him mercilessly over it in about two seconds flat, and then he won't get all embarrassed anymore when she teases him about it, which would be a damn shame.
"Not a dream," she promises. Lucy uses her free hand to tap gently on the broken skin between his neck and shoulder, a reminder she's a bit too proud of having left behind.
Zoro's eye flies open in surprise, and he's a bit more awake when he looks at her this time.
"…Oh," he says eloquently. Lucy just grins wider, and Zoro sighs, but he doesn't seem that mad, the easy warmth of the morning sapping irritation too quickly to form. "You woke me up," he accuses, but again, he doesn't sound that upset about it.
"Sorry," Lucy says, not quite meaning it. "I like waking up next to you."
Zoro's gaze grows a shade heavier, and he tugs on Lucy's hips, managing to pull them couple inches closer. He gives a low hum of approval when their pelvises press close, and Lucy leans into him a little further at the sound. "You were thinkin' about somethin'."
It's not quite a question, more of an easy, open-ended observation, and it takes her a second to follow his thought. But when she does she lets her fingers trail across his chest again, just memorizing the ridges and valleys of the old scar tissue. "Just that we match."
Zoro hums quietly, thoughtful. He slides their hands up a few inches, and his thumb brushes the skin there, grazing the bottom point of the star-shaped scar. The pad of his finger is about the width of the scar, and fits inside the corner spanning over her ribs. He was thorough in his exploration last night, but Lucy figures he has the same urge to touch and memorize that she does, and she isn't surprised when his fingers trace the ridges and depression and knots of gnarled, shiny skin over and over again. His free hand appears from under the pillows to play with Lucy's hair and brush it away from her face, exposing the old scar under her eye to daylight.
It's times like these where Lucy wonders why she ever worried Zoro would be repulsed by her scars, wonders why it even crossed her mind.
"I guess," Zoro mutters finally. He doesn't sound too interested, or like he's thought about it much. Lucy would not be surprised if she's thought more about Zoro's scars than he has. His face is a couple inches away, and despite his morning breath, Lucy really wants to kiss him.
So she does, leaning forward a little, and presses her lips to the skin right under his left eye, at the bottom edge of the scar that took it. He goes still at the gesture, and when she pulls back, he looks at her like...
Well honestly, Lucy's never been able to figure it out. He wasn't so open about it before Sabaody, but she still saw it from time to time, on occasions where he looked like he was about to swear fealty again, or like she's done something strange and he's realizing he likes it. She's never been sure, never been able to quite understand. All she knows is that it makes her feel like she can do anything—more than she already does—and at the same time, like she's very, very small. Not quite worthy.
It's a bit dangerous, that look, because it makes Lucy want to do things. Risky, impulsive things that would make her nakama either sigh or rue ever crossing paths with her or both. She likes it though. She likes it a lot.
"Sorry about the bite mark. Marks," she amends, noticing another one a few inches from the first. She honestly doesn't remember that one, but she's not exactly shocked.
"'s fine," Zoro waives, and his face is smug when he lightly drags his knuckles over the line of her neck and shoulder, her skin shivering a little, sensitive to touch. She likes this, with his arm resting above their heads on the pillow and his other hand at her waist. It makes her feel surrounded in the best way possible. "I got you pretty good too."
So that's why her neck feels a little stiff. "At least your shirt will cover yours," she complains. Her neck probably looks like an octopus tried to maul it, given the way it feels. Which, actually, is kind of appropriate considering the way people describe Zoro in a fight. Not her, of course, because Zoro in a decent fight is one of the coolest, most beautiful (and erotic) things Lucy has ever witnessed in this life, but other people have said as much.
"You bit me," Zoro retorts. "My own girlfriend, causing injury," he mocks. She'd probably play along, point out that actually, it was three times, because she distinctly remembers biting in a much less visible place too, but Lucy catches something she hadn't before, and realizes she's been not-realizing it for a while.
"You called me your girlfriend," she breathes, something happy and fluttery playing in her chest. "You've been calling me your girlfriend."
Zoro blinks, like he didn't realize that himself, the absent caress of his thumb against her ribcage stops in his surprise. "I. Uh. didn't notice."
There's a flash of something in his face that's young, a thing she rarely sees. It reminds her almost painfully of the lazy days in the dinghy, when they were both less experienced and when they'd seen nothing of the world. Lucy wouldn't go back if she had the choice, wouldn't change her swordsman for anything, but there's something almost boyish and charming about him this morning, something so utterly relaxed and comfortable even in the midst of his awkward admission that it takes Lucy's breath away.
Lucy grins so hard her cheeks hurt, and she leans in to kiss him properly this time. It's a brief thing, so quick Zoro almost doesn't recover his faculties quickly enough to respond, but she tries to pour her passion and affection into the gesture anyway.
"I like it," She reassures when she pulls back a little. "And I've been doing the same."
"That's, uh. Good." He looks a little flustered, which is, rare and, really, more than Lucy's poor heart can take.
"I love you," she tells him. She's told him a lot, but sometimes she feels it so strongly it just kind of bursts out.
His face goes soft at the words. His eye turns mercury-silver, like it does when he's really, really happy. Zoro's hand squeezes hers. "I. Uh. Me—too."
Lucy blinks at him, once. Twice. Zoro's face flushes darker than before.
Lucy can't help it—she snickers, then outright laughs, and then curls helplessly into his chest, burying all her laughter into the space at the base of his throat and snaking her right arm under him to clutch at his back helplessly.
"It's not that funny," Zoro complains, sounding a little miffed. Lucy just slings a leg over his hip, so he can't escape. Not that he seems very interested in doing so, but better safe than sorry.
"It—it is," Lucy wheezes, "All that time agonizing over it, and you just—'me too,'" she echoes lowly, trying to copy his tone and cadence, and then cackles at her own joke when she's pretty damn successful.
"Oh ha, ha," Zoro returns. He rolls them over, so he's hovering over Lucy as she giggles helplessly on her back beneath him. The way their pelvises slide together distracts her just a bit, and her breath catches on the laughter.
Zoro smirks like he meant to do that. Asshole.
She draws him down like she means to kiss him properly, and then ducks to graze the stubble on the underside of his jaw at the last moment. It's more playful than anything, like blowing a bubble into his skin, and Zoro huffs above her, caught between annoyance and amusement.
He gets her back though, because he shifts, draws their joined hands up her side, and then it's near impossible to ignore their distinct lack of clothes and the possibilities that offers. The realization shoots something electric and good up her spine, and suddenly she's totally ready to follow the look Zoro's giving her into more interesting activities.
"D'you think they'll mind if we're late to breakfast?" She asks, hitching both legs a little higher on his waist and clutches him a little closer when they lock together properly. It kills her to skip a meal, but. Zoro. Naked. In bed with her. She has her priorities in order.
Zoro's eye is a bit darker when he replies, and Lucy figures he's on the same page. "They'll get over it."
"They might think you've done something to me," she teases, enjoying the light brush of his lips against the sensitive spot beneath her ear. "And we wouldn't want that."
"Yeah we would," Zoro counters, his lips grazing the bruises on her neck. "That's what these are for."
Lucy snorts, amused, because she doesn't really mind the marks—after all, she did the same and worse to him—but then he pulls back and Lucy pouts up at him, on the verge of complaining, but then he draws her left palm up to his lips and kisses the scar there, holding her gaze all the while.
It's never fair when Zoro does this. This is one of those moments Lucy thinks she could read Zoro's soul in his eyes, see the trust and loyalty and love and mess of protective instincts and impulsivity that makes her swordsman, and it always catches her unprepared. It's an I love you and it's an I'll follow you anywhere, Captain, and a you'll never be alone again, I promise.
With anyone else it would scare her. It does scare her, a little, how determined Zoro is to stand with her. But she believes him. She trusts him to stay, and she's known he loves her in one way or another since he raised his blade to the cloudless sky and called her Pirate King.
She tangles her fingers in his hair, and pulls him down and into her, trying to inject as much affection and passion and desire into the kiss as she can. Zoro responds enthusiastically, and it's sloppy and messy but it's good too. Warm and safe and just the slightest bit desperate.
It's decided. Lucy wants to wake up next to Zoro every day, if she can swing it. In a bed, if possible. It's clearly the only way to do this relationship thing properly.
The next few days pass in a blur. The Straw Hats are more or less banned from working on the Barto-Club ship, which leaves them all with a lot of free time, even with his training. It's a very pleasant, haze-filled blur, but a blur nonetheless. He spends it exploring Lucy in just about the only way he hadn't previously, with the two of them ducking off to Lucy's quarters whenever they get the chance (or various alcoves around the ship if they don't make it that far). This all takes place in endless folds of time between naps on sunlit decks and meals where he mostly fails in his attempts to ignore his nakama's constant and very blunt innuendos.
In Zoro's defense, there're only so many times he can be expected to hear Franky wonder aloud about what Lucy thinks of his "sword" before he snaps.
Zoro refuses to apologize. It's not like Franky can't replace his hand or anything. Besides, Law reattached it without much fuss.
Franky was nothing to Rooster though, because once that guy figured out what they were up to, he started asking questions. Many questions. Frankly, Zoro could have lived without suffering an interrogation over whether he was "treating Lucy-dono with the respect she deserved," only to have that speech immediately followed by Rooster prostrating himself and offering self-flagellation in pursuit of redemption.
His nakama got a kick out of it. Lucy and Usopp in particular laughed their asses off. Zoro kicked Rooster off the ship, mostly to make him shut up. He didn't actually realize the guy was a Devil Fruit user, but his crew fished him out quickly enough, it's not like he drowned.
The others' apparent interest in their relationship probably isn't helped by how clingy they've been. They take any excuse to touch each other—clasping hands under tables at dinner and casual brushes that were commonplace before but now draw his attention in a whole new way, his brain all too aware of new possibilities. The newfound clinginess kind of reminds him of the time right after they got together, before Punk Hazard and even Dressrosa, where the cook kept complaining and Usopp and Chopper made gagging noises behind his back. Zoro isn't exactly complaining. It's not like they've got anywhere to be except for chasing Zou, and the itch to touch every waking moment of the day will probably fade over time, just as it has before. For now, it's…it's nice to express and receive the casual profundity of their relationship.
So life on Rooster's boat is good, even if everyone is way too invested in his and Lucy's sex-life. It's been a non-stop ride since reuniting in Saboady, and it's nice to…settle, for a little while. Robin is way too good at dropping innuendos that he only figures out hours later, half the crew is missing along with their ship, and Kaido hovers on the edge of Zoro's thoughts, but the Barto-Club ship bobs across the water and they'll deal with challenges as they come. Even if he does have an unfortunately persistent headache throbbing in his temples.
Lucy pokes him in the forehead, and he scowls, blinking up at her. She grins at him, unrepentant, and draws her fingers through his hair.
"You're thinking too hard," Lucy chides. She shifts a little and leans against Usopp, and Zoro's head slides down toward her knees. "Torao said you should sleep if you want your headache to go away."
"Maybe it's alcohol withdrawal," Usopp muses, looking slightly put-out. "They don't have any on the ship because someone drank it all within two days."
Zoro narrows his eye. "It ain't my fault they didn't pack enough booze."
"They had an entire cargo hold filled with liquor, Sword-bro." Franky tinkers with his arm, wielding a screwdriver. Zoro thinks it's kind of weird and kind of genius that Franky can put himself back together with nothing but a Phillips-Head, but it's still weird, seeing the cyborg's innards like this. Usopp doesn't seem to have a problem with it, and keeps asking questions, but Zoro turns to look up at the sky, partially obstructed by Lucy, and the hat waving in the wind at the end of its string.
"I said what I said." A single cargo-hold is nowhere near enough. Even the cook knows that.
"Regardless, there will likely be no available alcohol to imbibe until we reach Zou," Robin comments lightly. She sits elegantly on a crate nearby, knees tucked daintily beneath her with a book open in her lap, and a wide-brimmed hat on her head.
"Robin, what book are you reading?" Lucy asks, her voice light and relaxed. Zoro feels relaxed too, despite the headache pulsing at the base of his skull. Her Voice feels warm and syrupy—content—and the warm comradery from his nakama seeps into him as the ship rocks gently and the wind plays over the deck.
"I am revisiting the story of Orla," Robin replies. She nods to the cabin. "Rooster-kun had a copy of her tale in his library."
"Again?" Lucy asks, like she can't imagine ever desiring to read a story more than once.
Robin's eyes are sharp and there's something sly and amused about her smile. "Would you like me to read it for you?"
"I want to hear it!" Usopp calls, excited. Zoro waits for Chopper to echo his enthusiasm, and grows vaguely frustrated with himself when the doctor's eager ramblings don't appear.
They'll join up with the others soon. The cook is with them.
"I guess it was a good story," Lucy replies. She's taken to playing with the fraying threads of his t-shirt, her knuckles brushing his collarbone in irregular, distracting bursts, but Zoro is suddenly too tired to swat her hand away. "Start from wherever you are, though."
"Go ahead, Robin!" Franky trills. Zoro doesn't think too hard about the fact that the cyborg's fingernail just fell off.
"Very well. Orla is about to enter a 'great and roiling sea of uncertain breadth and fathomless depth,'" Robin explained. "'The sea itself called its child, the siren song of her dreams beckoning her forth. She said to her friends, "we shall see what there is to see, and know what there is to know," and they answered, "we are with you, daughter of the family known across all seas." They followed her into the great unknown, that most dangerous and unkind sea, and were happy with their choice.'"
The fog of sleep creeps over Zoro. His limbs are weightless and warm, and Lucy's cool fingers soothe the ache throbbing at his temples, if only just a bit. He cannot recall when he closed his eyes
"'None could know that day, but soon she would be known across every sea as "Orla the thunder goddess," the first to go where no one would. She was known as a destroyer, but wherever she passed, her fires gave way to new growth, and the people she met would do nothing but insist upon her kindness.'"
"This person sounds familiar," Usopp mutters dryly.
"You think?" Lucy asks obliviously, but she sounds far away, and Zoro doesn't quite muster the energy to snort.
"Just a bit, Aneki," Franky adds fondly.
Robin clears her throat pointedly.
"Sorry, Robin!" Lucy laughs easily.
Usopp echoes her sentiment and asks, "How does it end?"
"Well, I think," Robin answers, and even half-asleep Zoro can see the knowing light in her eye as clearly as he can feel the push and pull of Lucy's lungs and the warm salt-wind across his face. "But I will not be spoiling it until we get there. You shouldn't either, Sencho."
"I don't even remember the ending," Lucy replies cheerfully, and Franky chuckles when Usopp sighs.
Robin, taking no more input from the peanut gallery, continues. "Orla did not set out to be a conqueror or heroine, though some would name her so. She wished only to live for adventure, to seek freedom and her dreams on distant shores. And on her greatest journey into the greatest of seas, she loved and lost and loved again, and forever chased her dreams."
Six days out from Dressrosa, Lucy makes her way over to Franky and Robin, snacking on a plate of sandwiches. She feels a little bad for taking so much from Rooster's kitchen when they aren't sure how long it will take to get to Zou, but Lucy can't help it—she's hungry, and dinner isn't for another two hours. She'll starve if she waits that long!
Nobody quite believes her on that count, but she doesn't care so long as she gets her food anyway. She misses Sanji. He always brings her and Robin and Nami snacks between meals.
"Hey Franky," Lucy greets, plopping down before him. "Whatchya doin?"
"Aneki," Franky returns. He shows her the open plate on his right arm. "Just fixing a few things. Had to do a bit of a patch job back there."
"Hm," Lucy hums, peering at Franky's arm-innards curiously. Franky's so cool he built himself, but Lucy would never in her wildest dreams be able to tell what was going on with his arm. Franky is, like, Robin-level smart. Which is cool.
"You're still working on that?" Usopp asks. He's wincing, having come down with the same mysterious headache that's been bugging Zoro since yesterday. "Are ya missing some parts?"
"'Couple things," Franky replies nonchalantly, and tests his hand's range of motion. "One of the ball bearings cracked in half. Gotta forge a new one on Sunny."
Usopp and Robin both make understanding noises of comprehension. Lucy nods with definitive confidence, like she has any idea what they're talking about. Robin hides a giggle behind her book.
"How are you, God Usopp?" Robin asks teasingly, but there's a note of genuine concern in her voice too. "Is your headache still there?"
Usopp grimaces, whether from the epithet or the reminder of his headache, Lucy isn't sure. "Mhmm," Usopp affirms as he fiddles with Kabuto and his supply of pop greens. Lucy knows he's getting low on the latter, and he's probably eager to restock. He looks off toward the prow of the Barto-Club, eyebrows drawn in frustration and admits. "It's getting worse, too."
Franky and Robin exchange a glance. Lucy looks to the back of the ship, where Zoro is trouncing one of Rooster's swordsmen. He's winning easily—so much so that the spar is more like a training session for the other swordsman rather than an actual exercise of skill—but Lucy knows Zoro, and she knows his game is ever-so-slightly off.
Torao tried to make him take pain meds, but Zoro refused. Lucy would make him, but she hates the damn things too. They make it hard to fight. Harder than a headache already does.
"Chopper'll look them over when we get to Zou," Lucy tells her crew. Three pairs of eyes lock onto her face and she smiles brilliantly for them. "Rooster's navigator says the water's gettin' all weird, so we're probably close. And Chopper's the best, so they'll be fine."
The three of them blink, and then three fond smiles respond to her own.
She doesn't tell them that a knot of pain's been blooming at her temples since noon.
It's Zoro who realizes she's got a headache too, of course. She didn't really expect to be able to hide it for long, and at dinner that evening he frowns at her across the table and asks her about it.
This causes Franky and Robin to…well not quite fret, but Franky hovers and looks a little weepy and blacks out their rooms so they have somewhere dark and quiet to ride out the worst symptoms, and Robin smiles really creepily at anyone who makes an aggravatingly loud noise, which is deeply appreciated by the other three.
It's Torao who figures out what's going on though, and why it's only the three of them who've come down with a persistent—and growing—headache.
"It's your Observation Haki," he explains. "Or rather, it's Zou's."
"You can only sense living things with Haki," Zoro corrects. "You can't sense an island. And definitely not this far away."
"Zou is…" Torao pauses. "You'll see. But everything has a presence you can sense with Haki, right? A passive one?" Lucy nods, and notices Usopp paying close attention. "So Zou is giving off signals your brains are picking up on, but you're having trouble…processing." Torao shrugs. "I don't use Observation Haki, so I don't know, but it seems like the most likely explanation for your symptoms."
Which is a shame, because Torao would probably be really good at it. But Lucy frowns, thinking of Sanji and how sharp his Haki is. If she and Zoro and Usopp have a persistent, if irritating, headache, Sanji probably had a full-blown migraine. "So what'll happen when we get there?"
Torao shrugs. "No idea. You'll probably get used to it though. The Minks wouldn't have settled there otherwise."
So they sail on and the waters get more and more turbulent throughout the night as storm clouds boil overhead and fog gathers cloyingly around the ship. Early in the morning, Lucy finds a perch atop the mizzenmast of Rooster's ship, and Rooster's crew files in to man the oars as the waves toss the ship. The roiling waters grow darker and the waves steeper and the current tries to guide them back and away from their goal.
Even Lucy can see that it's kind of odd though. The sea is rarely rhythmic and patterned about…anything. And the large waves keep coming periodically, every minute or so from off the starboard bow. It's…it's almost like a wake. There's little wind, too, and for all the storm clouds threatened, the rain is barely more than a fine mist.
In other words, this storm is no fun, which. That's annoying. Especially since her head feels like it's about to split open. But she stays up top anyway, seeking a break in the clouds or a lighthouse in the distance, warning them of rocky shores.
Strangely predictable though the sea might be, it still doesn't take long for the oarsmen to tire. The current is strong, even disregarding the waves, and Rooster's crew isn't large enough to have multiple rotations.
"I'm telling you, draw the ship to starboard," Torao repeats for the umpteenth time as he chases Rooster around the deck. The sun must be rising because the grey soup clinging to everything is starting to take a rosy, golden hue. "It'll be easier on your crew."
"He's right, Rooster-kun," Robin chimes in with a gentle smile. "The sea will be calmer."
Rooster makes one of those weird squealing noises he sometimes does when Lucy or her crew directly addresses him. Thankfully he doesn't pass out, like that time a couple days ago when Lucy asked if he wanted to spar, and instead gives the order to turn the ship to starboard.
The waves cease almost immediately, the waters going still and quiet, and the current that was pushing them back…
"It's pulling us forward?" Usopp asks, bewildered. And then his eyes widen in realization.
"What? What is it?" Lucy pesters, jumping down from the mizzenmast. It's no fun when there's no big waves anyway.
"I—" Usopp starts, staring off the ship's prow before sending Torao an uncertain look. Torao doesn't respond, and Lucy looks between them curiously as Franky lets out a low whistle behind her, staring into the clouds with the same baffled expression that Usopp bears.
"What?" Lucy demands, now a little frustrated. But before they can answer, Zoro reaches out to take her shoulder and turns her around to face the ship's prow.
There amid the ashy fog stands a pillar, right in the middle of the sea. A column so wide the clouds wrap around it like smoke, obscure it partially from view. It goes up and up and up until it disappears, the same color as the greying sky. Beyond the pillar something long and vaguely leathery swings into view between the strips of fog, but the image makes little sense. Her temples throb in pain, her Haki rebelling against information she can't put together, just as her eyes do not grasp the form of the shapes she's seeing—not the massive globe of leathery stone hanging above the sea beyond the pillar, or why the ship moves closer and closer to the pillar even without wind in their sails or even waves to carry them on.
Then the pillar moves, shifts forward in sudden and terrible rush of muscle and sinew, and like a puzzle piece snapping into place Lucy understands.
"It's—It's a Zou," Lucy whispers in awe.
Pain in her temples spikes again, enough that she brings the heel of her palm to her head as the pain screeches higher and the giant elephant's Voice echoes louder and louder inside her skull until—
"It's bright," Usopp complains. Robin makes a curious noise, but Lucy's too busy agreeing with him to comment. In her mind's eye, the place where Haki whispers in vibrations and music, the elephant booms like the very turning of the earth made into sound, the frictionless grind of spinning rock in a vacuum, endless violence constrained to silence, and yet so loud she can barely comprehend it, so bright it nearly burns her eyes from her skull.
But beneath it all there is a melody—something old and as ancient as the sea, a slow, steady beat on a calfskin drum. It is this Lucy focuses on until the booming echoes subside and resolve to form the shadow of a Voice—incomplete but comprehensible, enough so that her eyes can take the strain of the elephant's presence.
The pain throbbing in her skull peaks unbearably, then wanes. Lucy opens her eyes—she doesn't remember closing them—to see Franky staring down at her with a concerned frown on his face. She has an arm slung over Zoro's shoulders as he holds her up—she didn't even notice him, she can barely hear anything at all over the elephant's overwhelming presence—and though he seems steady he looks a shade paler than usual. Her knees feel weak and shaky, and Lucy can guess that Zoro caught her in the middle of her distraction—and his own, presumably.
Usopp—poor, untrained Usopp—leans over the ship's railing to retch. Robin pats his back with a disembodied arm, not risking getting caught in the splash zone. One of Rooster's nakama offers Usopp a stick of gum uncertainly, and Lucy can't help the tired grin that crosses her lips when she sees it.
"Straw Hat-ya," Torao calls. She looks up to see Torao raise an eyebrow at her, questioning. Lucy's vision is a little blurry, but she's pretty sure this is his way of asking after her welfare.
"I'm good," She reassures. "Zou's just loud."
"He must be, if you were sensing him almost a day away, Sword-bro," Franky adds he still looks concerned, but less so than a moment ago. Behind him, Kin'emon and Kanjuro restrain Rooster, despite the guy's determined to declarations to claw his way to "Lucy-dono's side."
"No kidding," Zoro grumbles. Instinctively, Lucy forces her feet to carry her—an easy task with Zoro there to lean against. When her knees stabilize, she stands on her own and Zoro releases her without prompting.
"What the hell," Usopp complains, having recovered himself. Robin offers him a glass of water, this time without use of her Devil Fruit, and Usopp gargles it a few times before drinking eagerly even as he complains. "'It's a cool power,' they said, 'perfect for a sniper,' they said, 'it's useful,' they said…"
He continues, but Lucy's attention strays back to Zou, and notices for the first time the splash of color where the elephant's leg sank into the sea.
"Sunny!" Lucy calls in delighted recognition. She squints at the deck, wary of using her Haki to search for her nakama lest Zou's Voice overwhelm her again, but she can't see anyone there.
"Guess that's the best they could do without a dock," Franky muses, eying the resin-soaked ropes latching the Sunny to Zou's leg skeptically. But he's grinning too, and Lucy figures he's just as glad to see their nakama and home as she is.
"I suppose the others are above?" Robin asks, her gaze travelling up and up and up into the clouds, where the elephant's back is obscured by fog.
"Yah," Torao replies offhandedly. "The millennium city of the minks rests on Zou's back."
Lucy looks up into the clouds, sees the curve of Zou's back outlined faintly in the fog, and lets jittery excitement shift her feet. Her nakama are up there, and soon she'll have them all within reach and she'll make sure Sanji teaches Usopp Observation Haki because she and Zoro aren't that great at it and tell Nami everything she remembers about Dressrosa and give her the map she had Rooster steal so she can make her own and hug Chopper and ask Brook to sing Bink's Sake and—
"Right," Lucy decides, pressing her hat to her hair. Zoro shifts beside her into a battle-ready stance she's sure is unconscious, Robin's eyes shine with something close to eagerness, and even poor Usopp grins back at her as she sets her sights on the elephant's back. "Let's go see them then."
Franky lets out a joyous Super! and Lucy finds that she couldn't agree more.
Zou is a big-ass elephant, and Zou has a big ass.
The thought is kind of unavoidable as they ascend to the city of the Minks. Kanjuro and Kin'emon, who presumably know a little more about the place than even Law, fell off almost immediately of course, and after that there wasn't a whole lot to do other than contemplate the truly epic proportions of the elephant's backside. It was either that or focus on Lucy's impatient squirming, and considering how close they all have to press together to even fit on the dragon, well. The elephant's posterior was preferable to say the least.
She did finally settle down a little after Franky and Robin took pity on him and explained the physical consequences of rubber impacting water at terminal velocity. And why Armament would likely not help her at all in such a situation. She still couldn't quite contain her enthusiasm about exploring a new place—especially a country as unique as this one—but near-constant stream of excited babbling and occasional sudden gesture of anticipation made manifest was much preferred to having her wiggling in his lap so much he was tempted to just throw her off himself.
He gets it though. He's been long-since infected by Lucy's love of exploration—all the Straw Hats are—and Zou is so strange and unknown that it reminds Zoro of Skypiea, just a little.
Admittedly, that might just be the ridiculous ascent up a vertical plane, but the parallels weren't lost on him.
Spending the better part of a day climbing an elephant's backside was not on Zoro's bucket list, but he can admit it was cool. The sunset was…nice enough. It caught the red tones in Lucy's hair.
Zoro was more than ready to get to the top of the elephant though—if for no other reason than he pitied the dragon.
Crying over the damn thing was a bridge too far though.
"This is ridiculous," Zoro grumbles, watching his nakama weep over the ridiculously dramatic death of Ryunosuke.
Thankfully, Law is not nearly as quick to befriend aggrieved life forms as his nakama. "It's just a drawing," he agrees, vaguely disbelieving.
The others pull themselves together eventually, though. Lucy, as per her usual approach to exploring a new place, almost immediately charges past him and Law and then launches herself up to the top of the looming marigold walls. The stone bears intricate designs interspersed with vines and trees growing into the structure. No one mans the gate, apparently, because Lucy meets no resistance as she disappears over the other side of the bell tower.
It figures, Zoro supposes, that there would be no real need for defenses. If the Minks were expecting an attack, the elephant itself would act as their fortress. Picking any attackers off Zou's legs during the climb would be easy, and if someone made it to the top, the Minks would just attack him or her as a group.
It's…bothersome that Zoro can't sense anyone nearby with his Haki so handicapped by Zou. He's going to be slower to react than usual in the event of an attack, especially on his left side. It probably won't get any better, either, because the others would have met them at the top at Sanji's behest otherwise. Fucking cook was good with Observation Haki.
Ah well. The Minks are meant to be allies anyway, so far as Zoro can tell, and the giant elephant defense will work just as well for them as it has for the Minks.
"Oi, Robin," Usopp calls, frowning at the carvings in the gate as their party passes through. "Don't these look like…?"
"Skypiea?" Robin asks, her eyes soaking in the etchings eagerly, her hands already filled with her notebook and pen. "Yes…and no. These are older, by about three centuries. Two hundred years before the Void Century, and yet…some of these characters are similar to the alphabet in the ruins we found…a related language maybe? Or an ancient government? The Shandorians were descendants of the people who built those ruins, but they only cared about the bell, so it is possible the cultural significance of that place was lost to them…"
Zoro tunes her out. The ruins must really be something, because Robin almost never rambles like this, but he needs to pay attention to where he's walking with his blind spot more onerous than usual, and he kind of doesn't care.
As it turns out, his extra attention pays off when he stops just short of tripping over two large, oxidized iron gates.
Iron gates whose hinges are shredded off their pins.
Zoro looks around, just shy of eager for an opponent to battle. The city of the Minks is large and expansive, built right into the elephant's hide with lichen and moss and green, green trees framing the massive stone buildings. The city and forest seem merged, like they grow from one another, but above it all is a tree the size of Mihawk's castle in the shape of a whale.
The streets are empty though. Deserted, and far, far too quiet. Not far from the gates, two structures loom—each two beams crossed in an X, dark stains mottling the wood in different places.
Zoro knows what a crucifix looks like.
So much for elephant defense.
Lucy's disappeared on them already of course. He didn't really expect any different, given her eagerness. But with the city seemingly deserted and an unknown attacker that could pose a threat to a civilization as old as this one possibly on the loose, the urge to go find his nakama now increases tenfold.
Also the urge to facepalm, but he ignores that bit.
"OI! CURLY BROW!" He bellows, his left hand cupped near his mouth to focus the sound. "SEA WITCH. CHOP—"
Usopp, clearly possessed of more faith in Zoro's ability to tell friend from foe than he has in himself at the moment, leaps gracelessly onto his back and slaps his vaguely sticky hand across his mouth.
Zoro twists away from him, but Usopp is scrappy when he wants to be—and even if he's annoyed, Zoro doesn't actually want to hurt him by, say, slicing his hand off or something equally permanent.
So Usopp clings to him like a slightly cowardly octopus and whisper-hisses, "what if they're still here?"
Then Zoro will get a good fight in and take a nap after. It's better than waiting around to get ambushed. And he wouldn't have to keep wondering if passing out is an acceptable trade-off for figuring out where everyone is via Haki.
"Guys!" Lucy calls from the city. Their party looks up to see her bounding through one of the empty streets, a big grin fixed on her face. "This place is so cool!" But she stops a few paces away from them, a little furrow of confusion between her eyebrows. "No one's here though. It's all empty."
"That's not super," Franky agrees gravely.
"It doesn't make sense," Law adds, inspecting the fallen gates and the strange footprint in the elephant-skin ground. "The Minks have lived on Zou for a thousand years and never fallen. A simple attack wouldn't take them out. Even a big attack wouldn't eradicate them completely."
That would mean they're either hiding, hoping the Straw Hats would go away, or…or they're…
A branch snaps. Six heads flinch toward the tree line.
"Usopp-kun," Robin whisper-warns. The sniper releases Zoro and promptly hides behind him without question.
They stand silent and ready for one heartbeat, then two. Usopp shifts his weight, uncertain. Lucy's nostrils flare, like a coonhound scenting prey.
Zoro lets his aura spike with bloodlust. Usopp flinches behind him, but stays his ground. Lucy eyes him for half a beat, and he knows she understands his tactic—knows the strategy, is willing to go along with it, but doesn't necessarily like it much.
Another branch breaks—this time from behind. Usopp and Franky both turn toward the noise. Zoro loosens Wado from the sheath.
Without Haki, he's relying on instincts for battle honed sharp and fine over a lifetime, which is almost as good. His blind spot weighs heavier than usual, but his gut draws his gaze to a point behind him, and his aura will draw attention to him, mislead the attacker into thinking he's the biggest threat.
He'd probably go for Zoro first anyways, considering the eye.
And he'll come on my left, Zoro reminds himself, his grin promising retribution for the presumption of weakness. Wado slips another centimeter out of the sheath.
It happens in the next moment—a rush of white at breakneck speeds, the crackling of electricity, and his instincts blaring danger! danger! danger! as he sweeps into a devastating lunge aimed at cutting his opponent in half.
But his blade doesn't land—not because he missed his mark, but because the assailant changed velocities in midair.
Right into his blind spot.
He can't see the white blur at all, and instead reacts entirely on instinct by raising Wado to protect his face and half-drawing Shusui to protect his body as he turns to put the attacker in his sights.
A hit bears down on his blades, and Wado hums a clear, ringing tone as electricity flickers across the steel.
His assailant is strong, but nowhere near strong enough to knock him back, even with her advantage in motility. Zoro is a rock, and the slight strain in his arms, the numb tingling in his hands, it's nowhere near enough to make him back down. His grin is a terrible gash across his face, tinged with battle-lust.
Her momentum discharges into him and she flips away. When she lands near the tree line, her eyes dart back and forth across the six members of their party, each standing with weapons and fists at the ready. She's either a Mink or a Devil Fruit user, with her white fur and fluffy tail, but the way she analyzes them, looking for weakness, would speak of competence in battle even if she hadn't just surprised him.
It'd probably be over in a few seconds if he had access to Haki, but at the moment they're a little closer to an even playing field. Not by much, but. He thinks a fight against her would be fun. Good way to practice fighting blind, so to speak.
"Hi!" Lucy calls, sensing the lull in the fight because of course she does, "I'm Monkey D Lucy, and I'm gonna be the Pirate King! Who're you?"
The rabbit mink blinks, startled. "Monkey D Lucy?" She asks, her whole face lighting with recognition. "Monkey D Lucy, captain of the Straw Hat Pirates?"
"Uh huh," Lucy replies, casual and unconcerned and friendly. "But what's your na—"
The rabbit disappears, gone in a flash of white against the green of her homeland. Zoro lets his bloodlust dissipate a little reluctantly.
"Huh," Usopp mutters, lowering Kabuto slowly. "That was…"
"She recognized Lucy," Robin adds, "And…us?"
"She's probably going to get reinforcements," Law growls, clearly annoyed.
Zoro nods to him, glad someone's actually thinking here. "We should go after her."
Lucy scratches the back of her head, her nose scrunched so that some of her freckles meet. "D'you think she knows where Sanji and the others are?"
"They're our best bet to find out," Franky declares, pounding his massive fists together. Still a weird habit, if you asked Zoro.
"Let's go then!" Lucy declares cheerfully, and Zoro just barely manages to catch her by the collar of her shirt before she charged off into the forest alone.
"We shouldn't split up," Zoro tells her. She smooths her collar down, frowning at it, and then grins at him with far too much energy.
"Okay!" She agrees easily. Too easily. "Let's go fast!"
Lucy's nakama take a wary step away from her, all too familiar with Lucy's definition of fast travel and her preferred methods of achieving it. Poor, stupid Law just blinks at them, clearly bewildered.
"Lucy, no—"
"I don't want to die!"
"I would prefer to walk, Sencho."
"We made a rule about this, Aneki! Remember the rule."
Law takes all this in with a slow blink, and then sets his icy gaze on Lucy as comprehension dawns.
"Touch me and die, Straw Hat-ya."
Lucy frowns at them all, completely uncomprehending. "But you said—"
"Lucy?"
The voice is familiar, and it's been missing from the crew for almost two weeks. The six of them turn back to the tree line just in time to see a redheaded woman in a blue dress stumble out of the forest.
They all stare at each other for a few seconds, stunned in spite of themselves.
But Lucy is the first to react, throwing herself at their navigator gleefully just as Nami runs to meet her.
The two girls catch each other in a hug, their smiles huge as they babble eager questions that go unanswered in the face of each other's enthusiasm, and then everyone but Law steps forward to greet their missing comrade. Zoro even lets Nami punch him, which makes Lucy smile, and he will never admit the relief—the slight relief—he feels at seeing her safe and sound.
And then Lucy asks a question, innocent and innocuous as anyone might expect.
"Are Sanji and the others going to fall out of the forest too?" Lucy theatrically puts her hand over her eyes, as if expecting the others to be hiding in the trees.
Nami's face falls. She bites her lip.
"What is it?" Zoro asks lowly. Nami doesn't usually…hesitate. Especially not when it comes to the cook.
"Chopper and Brook and Momo are fine, of course," She starts. Her eyes get a little watery. "But Sanji-kun…"
"Sanji what?" Lucy asks, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Is he okay?"
"He's…" Nami's face cracks, and her chin wobbles just a little as a few tears roll down her cheeks, but when she speaks her voice doesn't waver. "He's gone."
Lucy's face goes blank. Usopp and Robin share a look, and Franky asks Gone? Where to?
Zoro places a hand on Kitetsu's hilt as the blade wails ever-louder in his head.
He has a bad feeling about this.
…I still couldn't write Zoro saying "I love you." That's about as close as he'll ever get, probably.
I know it might seem like I'm just adding in random bullshit for the sake of it, but I promise there's actually a plot-related reason Zou needs to be overwhelming enough to people with Observation Haki to make it so they use it as little as possible while on the "island." Plus, logically speaking, it makes sense that this ability would work this way, sort of. It's at least arguable. Especially if the "Voice of All Things" power is what I think it is.
I'm sure y'all knew this already, but Zou's name is a pun in Japanese. Zou is the word for elephant. Zou is an elephant. Named elephant. Get it? Cool. I do not have an explanation for why Lucy randomly knows the Japanese word for elephant, but I liked the pun. Throw your tomatoes at Oda, not at me. Although I will take credit for my own puns, thank you much.
The way Oda wrote the Ryunosuke joke is perfect. I will hear no words to the contrary. So I made sure not to touch it too much.
I don't think it was ever suggested in the show that Robin was interested in the architecture and culture of the Minks, which honestly seems a little funky to me. Zoro repeatedly mentions Skypiea because narratively and aesthetically, Zou and Skypiea have a lot of similarities. However, I don't necessarily abide by the idea that each new world arc has a corresponding pre-time skip arc, because frankly when a series has gone on for 20+ years, the author is bound to reuse a couple ideas. #letOdarest
Happy Thanksgiving! Sorry I've been absent so long. Please eat Pecan Pie for me, and leave a review if you so choose.