This story turned out a lot longer than I planned... It suddenly made me want to write a story set between the Kobi arc and the Buggy arc... We'll see what happens with that... Anyway, this is just some random story that I thought up while trying to work on my essay about media today for my Social studies class...

The fear of a Hammer
By KuroKame

Leaning out over the side of the boat, Luffy watched the shadow of something unknown moving in the dark water below him. He wondered what it could be, and the thought of asking Zoro if he knew what it was flashed through his mind for a brief moment before he remembered that his swordsman had said not to wake him, unless there was an emergency (just in case the sun fell down or if they found an island with mountains of meat and rivers of rum).

Luffy straightened up with a troubled expression on his face and turned towards his first crewmember, who was fast asleep by the rudder. Being the only one awake aboard the boat wasn't fun, but then again, Zoro probably wouldn't count a mysterious underwater creature as an emergency. However, Luffy reasoned, he wouldn't know that for sure before he had tried to wake his swordsman. Besides, who was the captain of this boat anyway?

A split second of incautiousness in his quest to wake Zoro, combined with the coincidence that a strong gust of wind shook the small boat at that exact moment, was all it took for Luffy to lose his footing – again. Feeling the tingle in his stomach as he fell from the ship, he tried to grab the edge of the boat, but it was too late. He hit the water with his back first, and created a huge splash before he went under the surface. It all happened very fast, and he didn't even get the chance to call for Zoro before he sunk.

---

Zoro was brutally awakened when the boat rocked sharply and the rudder suddenly turned and smacked him right across the chest. He was just about to tell Luffy to stop rocking the boat when the boat rocked again, this time closely followed by a splash and then nothing but the whisper of the waves and silence.

"Luffy?" Zoro cracked one eye open and peered towards the other side of the boat, where he desperately hoped to meet the eyes of his captain. Hell, he would even settle with hearing another whining 'I'm hungry…', as long as that splash had been nothing but a fish jumping after bugs by the surface.

No such luck. The boat was hopelessly empty. Zoro quickly got up from his comfortable spot by the rudder.

Here we go again… he thought bitterly before he dove into the clear blue water.

---

Luffy didn't like being under water. He had never liked it at all.

It wasn't just because the ocean made him completely powerless, or because it was dark, wet, cold and full of things that wanted to eat him. No, it was because he always had to be fished out again. Even if Zoro kept telling him that he wouldn't go after him one more time, he knew that his first and only crewmember wouldn't just leave him in the water. He knew, because he knew that he could trust Zoro with his life.

Since Zoro had joined him a few days earlier, Luffy had tried extra hard not to fall into the water. Of course, he always tried really hard not to fall into the water, but from time to time, he simply forgot to be cautious. He really hated that sometimes. That something could catch his attention to the point where he just forgot everything else and only focused on whatever it was he had spotted. Just these past few days, he could remember being fished out of the water at least five times - even if Zoro kept telling him that he must have jumped in after him at least fifty times already.

Being under water was like being in another world. A world where he couldn't move, couldn't hear and couldn't breathe. It was a world where he was easy prey for anything that was somewhat larger than him and had sharp teeth. And he kept returning to that world where he didn't belong, whether he wanted to or not.

While watching the shadows of unknown creatures swim by next to him while he was sinking towards the bottom in that helpless state, Luffy always fought to keep calm. He wasn't the kind of person who would resort to panic very easily, but he really, really didn't like to feel helpless like he did under water.

The thing that really scared him the most about falling into the water was that someone would have to fish him out of it. Because the one fishing him out would have to go down into the water as well, just to get him out of there. He had never told this to anyone because he knew that they wouldn't understand. They wouldn't understand how it felt to be paralyzed by the curse of the Devil's Fruit, and still be clinging to someone for dear life with fingers stiff from the contact with the cold water, fighting to hold back the tears of fear, guilt and relief that threatened to spill down your cheeks and mix with the salty seawater. They wouldn't know what it felt like to realize that the smell of copper you felt really was the smell of blood coming from the very person you were clinging to.

Each time he fell into the sea; each time he looked up towards the gleaming surface to spot the familiar shadow of Zoro as he jumped in after him; each time the pressure of the surrounding water crushed his lungs together, he was afraid. He was afraid that this time would be the time when he would see another shadow approaching them – a larger, much more threatening shadow – and that he, when he was brought up to the surface again, would be clinging to his nakama, burying his face in a white shirt to hide his tears while the smell of blood mixing with seawater once again would be tickling his nostrils. He was afraid that this time would be the time when those words once again would escape his lips after ten years.

"Your-- your arm…"

---

Can't even get some sleep without him falling overboard again… Zoro thought as he swam deeper with determined strokes. His eyes darted from side to side while he searched for something that would look like Luffy in the dark water. Who would think that something that glittering and azure blue on the surface could be so dark and dangerous?

There! Just a few meters below him, he spotted Luffy, who was sinking rapidly. Now if he could just keep his eyes on the boy, everything would be fine…

---

Luffy's eyes adjusted quite easily to the dull light coming from the gleaming surface above him, and he could see the dark shapes of fish swimming by in their own quiet world, where he was now intruding. He didn't know how long he had been down there, time seemed to pass in another way below the surface, but his lungs were aching and his head spinning from the lack of oxygen when he finally saw the burst of bubbles by the surface way above his head that told him that Zoro was coming for him. Luffy felt a weight lifting from his stomach, and was sure that he would be fine now, if he only could hold his breath a little longer.

It was when Zoro's dark form was only a couple of meters away from him that Luffy spotted it from the corner of his eye. The large shadow of a creature coming directly towards them through the depths of the dark water, weaving in and out of the shade cast by the pirates and the boat on the surface as it silently drew closer.

Luffy's eyes widened by the sight of the huge creature coming closer and closer at a greater speed than Zoro, and he tried to scream "Zoro, watch out!" to alert his swordsman of the danger that threatened them both. But all that left his mouth was a feeble gargling sound, and a myriad of bubbles rising towards the surface. He could see the pale light from the surface reflected in at least a hundred sharp, pointy teeth at the same time he felt a hand grabbing his arm. The next thing he knew, an arm was wrapped around him just as another reflection of light flashed before his eyes and the clear water was suddenly colored deep red.

Had he been able to move properly, Luffy would have turned around, just to find out where the blood in the water had come from. But for now he had to give in to the power the water had over him, and wait.

They broke the surface right next to their boat after a short while, Zoro with a deep gasp for air, and Luffy with a gargling coughing fit. As soon as he felt the fresh air enter his lungs, Luffy turned his eyes towards Zoro, afraid of what he might see. But when he turned around, he couldn't see any blood by the surface, and there was no thick smell of copper. Just Zoro with a drawn, white-hilted katana in his left hand above the surface, where it wasn't going to accidentally hurt either of the two men.

"What the hell?" Zoro snapped, still panting lightly as he pulled Luffy closer to avoid dropping him while trying to regain his orientation. Not that it helped that much. "This is the sixth time I jump in after you today. I can't take my eyes off you for even a minute before you end up in the water again, you moron. Didn't even get the time to leave my katana in the boat…"

Zoro reached out for their boat and pulled it towards them so that he could throw Luffy over the edge and into the vessel.

"I swear," he said, not sounding so angry anymore. "If my katana rusts because of you, you'll pay for them in blood, Captain."

He threw something over the side of the boat, and it landed on the bottom with a short, metallic clang. Luffy pulled himself up from the bottom of the boat and looked at the white-hilted sword lying there, still covered in red dots of watery blood. He turned his eyes towards Zoro, who just pulled himself out of the water and into the boat, still muttering to himself, and grinned.

"Sorry, Zoro."

Zoro stopped muttering and sank down by the rudder again. He looked at Luffy, and sighed in defeat as he wrung some of the water out of his shirt, emptied the white sheath of another gallon-or-so of the clear liquid and settled down, now looking for a dry towel to wipe the water off his katana.

"Yeah, yeah, just be more careful. I'm not jumping in after you again today… I can hardly remember what it feels like to be dry."

Luffy nodded. Now, he realized that everything had changed. He didn't have to be afraid of being under water anymore, because there would always be someone there to watch his back now, no matter what.

There would always be moments where he would be helpless on his own; moments where someone or something overpowered him to the point where he couldn't handle it alone. That meant that he would have to work harder and be strong enough to get himself and everyone around him out of the situations where he wasn't helpless. How else could he be the man who was going to be the King of Pirates?

Speaking of which… Luffy looked around, his hand grasping at his black hair. He met Zoro's eyes as a horrible fact dawned on him. A fact much more horrible than any thought of hungry sea creatures ever could be. A fact so horrible that he couldn't hold back a faint cry at the mere thought of it.

"My hat! My hat is gone!"

---

At the other end of the boat, Zoro sighed again and put away his katana. So this was how he would spend the rest of his time until he became the greatest swordsman in the world? He dove into the water for the seventh time that day, not because he had to, but because he could sense how important that tattered old hat was to Luffy. He didn't know the reason to why it was so important, and he really didn't care, as long as he could bring it back to his newfound nakama in one piece.

After all, he thought to himself, being dry was overrated.