Author's Note: Drabble references events of Crossfire Ch. 5 and takes place during the clinic visit, before all hell breaks loose.
I was gifted with a brilliant piece of fanart depicting this scene! If you'd like to see it, check my FF profile for the link, and please leave feedback for the artist. :)
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The thing perched on the tabletop fixes him with a disdainful and almost malevolent bug-eyed stare, and he immediately decides that he wants nothing to do with it.
"Hi!" Luffy chirps happily at the somber-faced Den Den Mushi, practically vibrating with excitement in the seat beside his swordsman as the Straw Hat's own physician talks quietly with the white-coated man they've roped into helping them. "Chopper says you're gonna let us see the baby!"
The snail blinks slowly, as though contemplating the unusual situation in which it's found itself, and Zoro's fingers tighten on his chair's armrests. "That thing is NOT crawling all over me."
"Chopper promised it wouldn't hurt- they'll just sit him on Zoro's tummy and he'll make pictures show up on the screen."
The reindeer's explanation was actually a bit more involved than this, but Zoro didn't understand all the talk about sound waves and echoes and computers either, and it doesn't really matter, because there's no way he's letting them do this anyway, because it'll involve him taking off his coat so they can put that flat slimy foot on his bare skin, and he's already uncomfortable enough just sitting here listening to them talk about him. He also doesn't like the strange doctor, who keeps stealing glances at him when he thinks the green-haired pirate's not looking.
"Do we really need to do this? I mean, looking at a picture's not the same as actually looking at the kid, right?"
Luffy inches closer to the exam table, fingers twitching as though he's tempted to grab the mollusk for a closer look. "Chopper said there's stuff he's gotta check, and I wanna see anyway."
"I don't-" He grimaces, hating that he sounds like he's nervous or something, even if he really is a little freaked out. "I don't wanna do this- I'd rather just go back to the ship."
"Zoro~" His captain whines, immediately returning to his side and clutching at his sleeve. "We might not get the chance to see him again 'til he's born-"
That again- is he really sure he doesn't want a boy? What if it's a girl? He said he's okay with either, but what if it's a girl?
"-and Chopper says that won't be for another four months! That's gonna take forever!"
Fuckin' hell, that's like no time at all- we're over halfway through this already! When the hell did that happen?
The rubber man's giving him that look. The one that's damn near impossible to resist, and he can feel his resolve slipping. "Luffy-"
"Doesn't Zoro wanna see our baby?"
Damn it, Sencho-
His lover's arms are suddenly everywhere, coiled around the swordsman's left bicep and also wrapped around the startled-looking Den Den Mushi he's just snatched off the table, and Zoro can't help feeling a little sorry for the thing as it dangles helplessly in midair and fucking hell, are those TEARS in the younger pirate's eyes? So much for his resolve; it forgoes crumbling and simply falls apart.
"I- f-fine. Do what you want."
Just stop looking at me like that!
He's torn between relief and annoyance when Luffy immediately cheers and blinks away the moisture in his eyes, feeling as though he's just been neatly manipulated- and wondering if he really cares, because his captain's just flung both arms around him and he can't help smiling a little himself even though there's a perturbed snail being shoved in his face.
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"I'm still not seeing it," he complains, squinting determinedly at the screen and trying to ignore the sticky-cool sensation of the Ultrasound Den Den Mushi's underside plastered against his abdomen.
"Right there!" Luffy insists, poking at the monitor forcefully enough to rattle it against the wall and draw a "hrrumph" of irritation from the doctor beside them. "Right under my finger!"
"That bunch of blobs?"
"No! Right. There."
"Look, I don't-"
A flutter of movement inside his belly as the baby shifts and the image on the screen shifts too and just like that he sees, and his breath catches in his throat because once his eye registers the delicate curve of the skull and the nose and the fist balled up beneath it, he can't stop seeing it, even after he glances away momentarily to shoot his captain an incredulous gape. He's glad he's already lying down because his skin's suddenly come over all cold and clammy and his vision's graying around the edges as though he's going to faint.
Oh my god. OH MY GOD. It-It's already got a face and arms and legs and tiny little fingers and toes and- it's got a FACE! I thought- I don't know what I thought it'd look like, but I wasn't expecting-!
"He's sucking his thumb!" The rubber man beside him crows gleefully, grabbing for Zoro's closer hand and prying it loose from where it's now clutching the examination table's edge, and the swordsman latches onto his fingers with crushing force, too busy staring at the monitor with one enormously-widened eye to notice the physician attending them suddenly do a double-take as the man finally puts two and two together and realizes why his walk-in patient looks so familiar.
"That- that's sure what it looks like," he agrees slowly, feeling his heart give a lurching THUMP as Chopper nudges the Den Den Mushi a few centimeters to the left and brings the entire curled fetus into view. "Oh- oh, wow..."
He raises the hand that the younger pirate's not holding captive and tentatively brushes his fingertips across the screen's surface, nearly gasping out loud as the baby stirs and actually turns further towards him, and watching the movement at the same time he's feeling it nearly blows his mind. He's intensely glad he agreed to this and almost disappointed that they'll be forced to leave the snail behind when they leave, because even though he's complained almost non-stop about his nakama gawking at his belly and being far too eager to touch him, this is so amazing that he kind of wishes he and his captain could share this moment with them.
Luffy is examining every pixel on the screen with hungry fascination, as though he'd be pressing his nose to the glass if it didn't require climbing over Zoro to reach it, his free hand gently stroking the swordsman's distended side. "I can't wait to see you and talk to you while I'm actually holding you, but our doctor says you gotta grow a lot yet before you're ready for that, so I guess I gotta be happy with this for now!"
"D-Do you guys want to know what it is?" Chopper asks shyly, unable to help feeling as though he's intruding on a moment better left private between them. "The sex, I mean."
"Nah- don't need to; I already know it's a boy."
Zoro punches the rubber man's shoulder lightly without looking at him, eye glued to the screen. "Y-You mean you can tell just by looking at that?"
The reindeer nods.
"Then, yeah, I- I'd kinda like to know." He finally tears his gaze away from the baby's face to grin weakly at Luffy. "Just don't be disappointed if you're wrong, Sen-"
"Actually, he's right," the Zoan confesses, peering at the monitor. "It IS a boy."
"I'm afraid that's not definite," the other doctor says quickly, pushing his glasses higher on his nose. "It's quite common for novices to misinterpret ultrasound scans, and in this situation-"
"It's a boy," Chopper insists, closely echoed by the captain who's beaming down at his surprised and somewhat amused lover. "You can clearly see male genitalia, right... there."
Whatever the reindeer's indicating looks like nothing more than blurry shadows to Zoro, but he shrugs, figuring that if the Straw Hat's doctor sounds so confident, he's got no reason to doubt what he's been told. "If you say so. Oi, Sencho, I guess you got the boy you wanted, huh?"
"I never told Zoro I wanted a girl or a boy- I just told him the baby's a boy." Luffy smiles mysteriously. "I didn't need Chopper to tell me. I knew."
"Sure, whatever you say," the older pirate snorts. "We gonna tell the rest of the crew? Betcha Nami's gonna pitch a fit- she already complains there's too many guys and not enough girls."
"Yeah, let's tell 'em when everybody gets back tonight."
"You wanna tell 'em the name we-?"
"Zoro, can you stop talking for a second?" Chopper asks, frowning slightly as he squints at the monitor, and the taller man beside him leans closer as well, earning a mutter of complaint from the swordsman as unfamiliar hands prod at his belly, shifting the fetus from sight until there's nothing visible on the screen but amorphous gray and black masses. "Just lie still and don't move. It's probably nothing to worry about, but I saw something I'd like to take a closer look at-"