Treasure Hunters
Author Notes: Italy was nice, but I've missed writing!
Due to an untimely patch of writer's block, I might have to start slowing down the updates to every other week again. Stupid writer's block. But fear not! We shall see what happens.
Disclaimer: I still own nothing except the stuff I made up.
Chapter 16: Father and Son
Suggested Track: "Times Like These (Unplugged)," Foo Fighters
After another week afloat and alone, Zoro was lonely and desperate to hear or see anyone else. He ended up calling the ship out of desperation to hear another human voice.
"Usopp and Nami got back alright?" He asked Franky after formalities.
"Ayup, ayup, sure did! Chopper checked Nami out, but he has absolutely no clue when she's gonna deliver."
"No clue at all? You would think that they'd at least have a hint."
"Nami's best estimate is seven-and-a-half months as her maximum. Thinking about it, she's been less than her best for a long while."
"As long as she's alright. Luffy's going to be so excited when he finds out Gilly's getting a little cousin." Zoro smirked as he thought about it. "He's been bothering both her and Robin to make a baby already, and now, Nami's going to be a mom."
"Could be sooner than we thought," Franky murmured, his voice lowering a bit. "Chopper suspects that because of all the trauma she experienced, she might go into labor early, so he's trying to keep a really good eye on her. Have you seen any signs of Luffy and the shrimp?"
"Not a single thing." Zoro rubbed his forehead with his thumb and index finger "Luffy should be due sometime next week. If it's trauma you're talking about, I wouldn't be surprised if he's already had the kid…"
"Luffy and two shrimps," Franky began to sniffle. "An' Nami's baby's in trouble too…"
"Don't start crying on me now!" Zoro snapped.
"I'b dot cwying! I'b god a cowd!" Zoro groaned as Franky began to bawl, but noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
"Franky, I think I've spotted another ship. I've got to go!" He quickly hung up and directed the Mini-Merry towards the ship. As he got closer, he saw them waving and calling his name. "How do they know me…?" He frowned, and looked at their flag. He didn't recognize it as either Marine or pirate, nor World Government, but he didn't like it. He pulled alongside their starboard side and anchored the Merry, and they dropped a rope down to him. He quickly scaled it and jumped onto their deck.
"Roronoa Zoro! It really is him!" The deck was full of strange men, most of which were smiling at him, and Zoro did not like it. He quickly pulled his swords.
"Alright, what the hell do you want?" He growled. "Are you looking for a fight? I'll give you a fight, but unless this is really damn important, I don't have time for this!"
"He wants to fight us?" One man chuckled. He turned around. "Hey! We got any swordsmen who wanna take this guy on?"
"I'll do it!" A small voice chirped near the back, and the crowd parted to let a small girl with her hair tied up with a red ribbon rush to the front with her sword drawn. She skidded to a stop when she saw who, exactly, she had challenged, button-black eyes wide. Roronoa Zoro dropped his swords in disbelief.
"Gilea!" He stepped over his blades, dropped to his knees, and spread his arms. She sheathed her own blade and rushed into his hug. "I thought I'd lost you…"
"I was here, Daddy! All these nice people kept me here! We were looking for you!" Gilly rubbed her running nose on his shirt. "I missed you, Daddy! I thought you would never come!"
"I would have never stopped looking," Zoro murmured, scooping her up. He picked up his blades and sheathed them. Begrudgingly, he looked at the men around him. "I apologize for being confrontational. Thank you for looking after my little girl."
"And Daddy."
"Hm?" Zoro looked down at her.
"No, Daddy, Daddy. They took care of Daddy too," Gilly explained. Zoro froze, eyes wide at what she was implying.
"Luffy's here?"
"He sure is," the captain chuckled as he came forward. "He's just downstairs, giving Torao a bottle."
"T-Torao?" Zoro paled.
"Yeah, Toto." Gilly smiled. "He's cute."
"C-can I see him?"
"Yeah, come on," the captain offered with a smile, as the rest of the crew got back to their duties.
"Let's g-go," Zoro choked out, keeping Gilea squeezed in his arms like a teddy bear. The captain obliged, taking Zoro down a flight of stairs through the cabin house.
"Your little girl there was in great shape when she came to us. She spent her first week here hiding and destroying things, though!"
"You busted some of their stuff?" Zoro glared down to Gilly in his arms. She looked away, making a face oddly reminiscent of Luffy post-meat-thievery. "Sorry," he groaned. "Look, just tell me how much the stuff she broke cost, I'll pay you back."
"No, don't worry about it! Our boss already said he'd compensate for everything. Anyway, she really calmed down when we found your captain. He was a major mess when we picked him up, though. Starving, dehydrated, depleted. It's almost a wonder he survived. And yet, once we gave him enough food to feed a small army and two days' sleep, he's almost back to normal."
"Almost?"
"Well, we haven't seen any of his rumored antics, but he's awake and aware!"
"Come aboard and bring along all your hopes and dreams… together, we'll find everything we're looking for…" Zoro grinned as he heard Luffy singing softly.
"Luffy!" Zoro burst into the infirmary, and saw Luffy sitting on the edge of a bed with a bottle in one hand and a bundled infant laying in his arm. Luffy was making faces as the baby fed, but looked up when he heard his name called. He didn't seem to know what to say, and nor did Zoro. "You… stupid… idiot!" Zoro fell at Luffy's bedside and grabbed his elbow. "Do you know how god damn worried I was?"
"I can't tell if Daddy is angry or happy," Gilly remarked to the captain, who laughed so hard he choked on his spit. Luffy looked down at Zoro, hands still full, as Zoro rubbed his cheek against Luffy's arm. Luffy bit his lower lip, eyes big and watery, and put down the bottle. He held out the baby in his hands.
"Your son," he offered. "You want to hold him?"
"Yes, I do." Zoro carefully took him, and cradled the boy close. He scooted up to sit on the edge of the bed with Luffy, and kept staring between Luffy and Torao. Finally, he kissed Luffy on the mouth, much to his surprise, and then kissed Torao on the forehead. "I have two children. I don't think I could be much happier." Gilly ran over and jumped into Luffy's lap, and he wrapped his arms around her and put his chin on her head.
"Zoro, what about our crew? Some guy said he'd arrested everybody…"
"Please, he was lying." Zoro smirked. "They're all back. It's just us they're missing now. You're not going to believe it, there's a lot going on! They just miss you."
"Great." Luffy grinned. "Are we going to go back now?"
"Sure, soon, as long as it's okay by them." Zoro nodded to the captain. He turned back to him. "Is it alright if we get going soon?"
"I can't hold you back!" The captain beamed. "You can leave as soon as you're ready."
"Great." Zoro took up the bottle Luffy had put down to finish feeding Torao. "He's so small, Luffy." Torao blinked his wet grey eyes up at him, before closing them in babyish contentment, and Zoro grinned in amazement. "He's so, so tiny." Luffy's smile shrank.
"Yeah… he was born too early," Luffy murmured, looking away. "I kind of failed him."
"No, you did just fine. He's alive, isn't he? Even after everything that happened." Zoro rubbed his nose against Torao's forehead. "I was afraid we'd lose him."
"We?" Luffy blinked.
"Yeah, we. We're responsible for each other, and I'm just as responsible for them as you are. I might not have been carrying him, but his life is my responsibility because I made him. If he'd been lost…" Zoro put the empty bottle down and set his palm on Torao's head. "I would never have forgiven anybody for it."
"Z-Zoro…" Luffy clamped his hands over Gilly's ears. "I wished him dead, I told him he should have been born dead."
"How could you-" Zoro started, but stopped himself, as Luffy's lower lip wiggled.
"He was born into a grave, and he was so hungry, but I couldn't do anything about it. He would have never been hungry or cold."
"But he wouldn't have had a chance to live!" Zoro frowned, and Torao whined. He looked down at him, and dropped his voice. "Thank whatever god there is or isn't that he's alive. It's not your fault, either. Marines… they made all of us hurt. They made you hurt, her hurt, him hurt! Never again. I won't let it happen." Zoro wrapped his arm around Luffy and kissed his cheek, and then fluffed Gilly's hair. "I love you guys. All three of you. I've got a beautiful daughter and a cute little son and a great captain. As far as I'm concerned, I am the Pirate King."
"That's my job!" Luffy laughed. He kissed Zoro a few times on the cheek, and Gilly stuck her tongue out.
"Ick. Toto, aren't they gross?"
"Toto?" Both Luffy and Zoro looked at her, and both grinned.
"Look at that. Cute little ass already has a nickname, eh, Toto?" Zoro snickered. "So, can you walk?"
"Yup, I'm up!" Luffy set Gilea aside and swung his legs off the side. He hopped to his feet, stretched his arms, and pumped his fists into the air. "Yosha!"
"Yosha!" Gilly hopped up at his side and imitated him. Luffy giggled, and Zoro rose, Torao still cradled in his arms. Gilly hopped at his heels as the couple made they way up, eagerly shouting, "We're going home!"
As part of his reward for "staying alive, dammit," Zoro allowed Luffy to "drive" the Mini-Merry. This, however, provided a discreet benefit for Zoro. Luffy got to snore in the front seat with the boat on autopilot, Gilly got to snooze in the shotgun seat, and Zoro got to lay in the backseat with his son.
"You know, I really liked the name Torao." He smiled a little bit, rubbing the boy's head through the layer of blanket. "It's even better now that you have it."
He had tried to prepare himself for it, but he couldn't. He had known it was coming for four months, but he hadn't been able to know what to expect. It should have been just like the first time, shouldn't it?
It wasn't. It was another animal completely.
Zoro looked down into his infant son's face with a smile, but he felt utter wonderment and confusion. "What am I supposed to do with you?" he wondered aloud. He sat up, shifting Torao into his lap to look directly down at him. He moved the blanket off his head and tried to arrange his little tufts of dark hair into little pigtails, but it didn't look right. "I know what to do with a little girl, but you're a damn mystery." Torao's eyes opened for a moment, before he yawned, smacked his lips, and closed them again. "I mean, your sister was so easy. Natural. How the hell do I show you I love you?" He glanced to the front seat, where Gilly had sprawled her way into Luffy's lap. "She liked it when I made funny faces, but not until she was a little older. You're too little to think they're funny. And I don't have any toys for you. I'll make you some when we get back. I'll carve you a little boat to play with in the tub. That'll be fun, eh?" He grinned, as Torao continued to doze in and out. "And we have some of your sister's toys still. You can play with her old rattle. It'll make noises for you. But that'll be better when you're older too. What did Gilly like when she was a new baby?" Zoro lifted Torao to touch noses, trying to look down into his eyes and understand him. Somehow, he smelled oddly sweet to Zoro. "Hm. I guess, when she first got here, all she wanted was a cozy crib, a dry butt, and a warm bottle. And me. And Luffy. And lots and lots of sleep. That was a lot of what she did. Is that it? I bet you like to sleep. I can do that. And I bet you like attention. Yeah. You probably just like to hear my voice. Okay, Toto. We'll figure this out together." Zoro lay back down on the bench and carefully settled Torao on his chest. He clasped his hands over Torao's bellybutton as a seatbelt. "Let's start right here." Zoro closed his eyes, and both father and son dozed contently in the warm night air.
"So, you're feeling okay?" Chopper asked. Nami was hard at work on the upper deck, enjoying the fresh air, legs folded under her as she scrawled away on her map.
"Never felt much better, I guess, but I really need to finish this," Nami replied as she measured out a gap on a ruler. She was seated on the grass with her notebook and her charts. "Three hundred islands in the Vindaloo Archipelago and only three on the current map! Lucky that most of them are tiny. And Usopp said that he heard a story about a fourth one getting a name shortly before we left the island we were on, and got a page of folklore. I haven't had time to look it over yet because I'm trying to record all the islands we've passed so far, and I have to catch up!" Nami sighed anxiously.
"I guess you want to get your work out of the way before the baby gets here, huh?" Chopper leaned over her shoulder to look at her work. "I think you should try to relax and all. I mean, you shouldn't stress, it's bad. Have you and Sanji picked baby names yet?"
"Sanji's got a whole stupid list of girl's names," Nami replied, rolling her eyes, but she managed to smile. "He's really set on one, Cora."
"Cora? Where did he get that from?"
"Coeur, French for heart." Nami smiled.
"Ahh! How stupid can he be? That's a dumb way to pick a name!" Chopper blushed and squealed with delight. Nami giggled.
"Yes, I think I like Cora too." She continued to work.
"What about boy's names?"
"Sanji didn't know, he said I could pick if it was a boy. I was thinking of Mika or Saffron."
"Aww, so cute. Things that are delicious!" Chopper grinned and began to bounce on his heels. "I can't wait to see your baby. It'll be so exciting to have both your and Luffy's babies here!"
"I'm just worried it'll be chaotic. I mean, Gilly's way too energetic, she was too much for me to handle, and Nojiko always told me I was a difficult child." Nami sighed and scratched her head. "I don't know if I'm even ready, but I kind of want it to be over with so I stop having all these cramps… Okay. No time to mope." Nami straightened up and took out her notebook. "Tiger Buckets."
"Tiger Buckets?" Nami looked up as Sanji entered with a plate of soba and a cup of iced tea. "Odd thing to say." He set down the plate before her and took a look at her map.
"It's the name of an island. Apparently it was either that or Tiger Grave, but Buckets stuck. It got named that a few weeks ago by some other travelers passing through, and word got to the island we were on right before we left. The travelers heard this terrible noise like a dying tiger, and landed only to find a big, empty grave lined with blood." Nami chuckled a little. "So they decided that, surely some awful beast dug its own grave there. A half-drowned monster that dragged itself ashore, dug a grave, died and was reclaimed by the sea."
"Poor tiger!" Chopper sniffled sympathetically.
"Interesting story." Sanji smirked. "Is it true?"
"Good question. I can't answer it, though." Nami put down her pencil and started on her snack. Sanji took a seat beside Nami and kissed her cheek. Chopper continued to whine.
"I hope it's not true! I'd feel so bad for the tiger!"
"Ugh, Sanji," Nami sighed, pushing her plate away. "I'm sorry, I can't eat this. It's making me nauseous."
"Don't worry, I understand; what would suit your sensitive palate?" Sanji asked subserviently, giving her a very sweet smile. Nami smirked deviously.
"Venison."
Sanji looked over to Chopper with an evil look in his eyes and a terrible, terrible grin. "Nami-swan wants to eat you." Chopper screamed and ran away, and Sanji gave chase down towards the mast. Nami laughed hard, slapping her knee, until there was a distinct rumbling from below as the Soldier Dock was turned. Usopp ran past her on his way down.
"They're back!" Usopp howled.
"Usopp! Could you give me a hand up?" Usopp turned and helped pull her up to her feet. "Ugh. Hope you didn't break anything there."
"Just my back. Shit, you're heavy!" Usopp groaned. Nami whirled around and scowled.
"You suck." She put her hands on her hips, and Usopp flinched in preparation for the slap. "Just you watch it. You're lucky I like you." She hustled away down the stairs, and Usopp followed her. Sanji and Chopper, having heard the movement in the bottom level, had given up their chase and were rushing for the stairs. Brook was already there, and Franky and Robin were waiting as the Mini-Merry sailed in. Luffy was jumping up and down and waving even before they were all the way in, and once they were close enough, he leapt across the gap and wrapped his arms around as many of his crewmates as he could.
"We're home!" Luffy tried to give everyone a group hug, as Zoro directed the Merry into dock. Gilly hopped onto the deck as well and hugged onto Robin's leg.
"Auntie Robin! Everybody is safe! Uncle Usopp! Auntie Nami!" She rushed from person to person to distribute individual hugs. "Daddy! Let's show them what we got!"
"Hold on, hold on!" Zoro chuckled, as he finished docking the boat. He had Torao bundled in one arm, and he carefully stepped onto the dock. "Would anybody like to see what we've got?"
"Let me see!" Usopp jumped to the front of the crowd, and looked into Zoro's arms. "Ohoho!" Robin turned to look at Torao as well.
"My, he looks just like you."
"Awful small, mossball," Sanji remarked sarcastically, before jumping back when someone stomped on his foot.
"Oops, sorry, Uncle Sanji!" Gilly grinned innocently, and rushed behind Zoro to hide. Zoro smirked a little, as Sanji took another look.
"Well, he is damn cute," Sanji conceded while giving Gilly a sharp look.
"He was born a little early, but he's still pretty healthy. Quiet, too. You want to hold him?" He offered him to Sanji. "You're going to need to practice doing this."
"And you have to be careful!" Gilly chimed in. "You have to promise to be careful, because he is very small and delicate."
"He is tiny, isn't he?" Nami remarked with a small smile. "I almost forgot how small babies were." Sanji seemed amazed in his own right as he took up Torao.
"A few weeks with his family will make him all better!" Luffy chirped. "He needs some whole milk. All they had on the ship we were on was powdered." Luffy wrinkled his nose. "It tasted bad."
"Heh, poor guy," Sanji chuckled, tickling Torao's nose. "Have you been drinking skim?"
"He's alive, that's all that matters," Zoro said, before turning back to look at the rest of the crew. His eyes fixed on Nami, and he cocked his head. Luffy noticed, and he cocked his head as well. Nami turned a nervous shade of pink. Zoro and Luffy both seemed to be considering their words carefully, before Zoro finally said, "Hey, Nami, you got fat!"
Silence. Horror. Chopper hid behind Brook.
"Hold this." Sanji carefully passed Torao to Robin (who showed him to Franky) and pounced at Zoro. "I'll kill ya!" Zoro dodged and ran. Luffy chuckled and crouched by Nami's middle. He gave it a few gentle pats and prods, giggling and grinning.
"Meat?" Nami and Gilly both giggled as Luffy's suggestion.
"No. Just a little tangerine." Nami grinned.
Luffy giggled madly. "That's a lot of tangerines!"
"One big one!" Usopp pitched in.
"Nah, two big ones!" Luffy teased, before standing up and embracing Nami. "I'm so happy for you."
"Aw, thank you, Luffy," Nami chuckled, hugging him back. She then began to strangle him. "Are you saying I'm fat too? I'd kill you if you didn't have a newborn!"
"Hey, calm down guys!" Franky wrapped his arms around both of them and split them up. "We're all back together! This is super!" Robin reached a fleur to grab Sanji's ankle and trip him, thus getting him off Zoro's trail. This allowed Chopper to hug onto Zoro's leg, protecting him from further chasing.
"Why don't we all go upstairs and celebrate?" Zoro suggested with a grin, and he scooped up Chopper onto his shoulders. "The family's all together!"
"Damn right!" Luffy concurred, grinning. "First, I need a nap, and then something to eat, and then, we've got business with the Marines."
"Damn right!" Gilly added cheerfully. Zoro gave her a harsh look, but it was hard to argue with words from the mouths of babes. Luffy giggled, ruffling her hair. The rest of the crew briefly gazed eye to eye, then nodded and concurred:
"Damn right."
End Notes: Got quite few this time!
1) The song Luffy is singing to Torao is the beginning of the Funimation interpretation of "We Are!"
2.) Tiger Buckets- one of the Japanese term for grave is "bokketsu." Say it aloud, it sounds like Buckets to me.
Finally, the informal reader poll I mentioned a few chapters ago! I'm trying to pick a boy's name for Nami and Sanji's son (if they do have a son) but I myself am stuck between Mika and Saffron. I really like both names, and they both serve the same reference. If you have an opinion either way, please post it in your review!
Remember to review, review, review! I'll post again soon!