FLOP! Epic failure! I abhord this letter, it's so icky! But like I said befor I have a plan and I've set due dates and W was due today so W will be posted.

This was a really good idea to start then I hit a wall and pushed through it so I could post tonight -ermmm this morning- and it morphed into this hideous creature. So gone on and tell me how bad it sucks because I know it does. No need to sugarcoat things!

Summary: He was tired, and Zoro understood.

Weary

A bone weary sigh echoed through the silent night. The moon elegantly lit up the darkness of nigh baring witness to a number of things. The moon saw forbidden lovers meeting under the twinkling stars, she gazed at tired sentries falling asleep at their post, she viewed tiny children being tucked in for the night by loving parents, she caught glimpses of devilish men slinking around in the slums, and she witnessed one of the most wanted 'rookies' contemplating his life in silence.

Luffy was by no means a philosopher, he didn't wonder at the origins of the universe, he didn't ponder if there really was a god, and the ageless question of 'which came first, the chicken or the egg' didn't leave him tossing and turning at night. But he did wonder at life, he pondered about fate, and the thought of his nakama being taken away kept him awake at night.

And for only being seventeen Luffy was tired. He was bone-weary at times when it felt like he had lived centuries instead of his mere decade and seven years. The things that he's seen made him wake up in terror sometimes, the events he's lived through hound him when everyone else is gone, and the crimes he's committed; the ones that hurt people and make them bleed and kills them torture him never giving him a moments respite. But even with all this he plays his part. He acts the childish captain because that's what he is. He shoves the night terrors to the back of his mind only allowing them to surface when he knows that no one will see, that no one will know. His crew shouldn't have to shoulder his burden, it was his sins and he had to atone. So he hid away his pain and kept it deeply under wraps so no one could find it.

Zoro knew things. He didn't read books like Robin did, nor did he gather slips of information on the wind like Nami, and he certainly didn't talk to animals like Chopper would on occasions. Instead he had gut feelings, he read people; he dug into a person's psyche and learned what there drive was. He went by instinct, if he had a feeling he followed it. Simple.

So when he felt a certain tiredness, a certain feeling of exhaustion coming from his captain he followed his instinctive feeling to confront and listen to Luffy.

When Zoro faced him about his worn out aura in a no nonsense way that told Luffy that Zoro knew what he was talking about Luffy was honestly surprised. Then he became slightly annoyed when Zoro just wouldn't let up. The damned green haired man wouldn't take 'I don't want to talk about it' as an answer! He kept on about it never leaving him to sort out his thoughts by himself, and finally he did break. The dam burst and he was telling his first mate everything. About his sins, the ones that he had committed and wouldn't give him a moments peace. He poured everything out, telling Zoro everything. All his worries, all his insecurities, everything that he had kept bottles up. And through it all Zoro sat, he listened, and he didn't judge. It was a blessing, that he had someone who would listen to everything and still see him the same.

"Thanks Zoro. Thanks for listening."

"Baka, you should have just told me what was going on in that rubber head of yours form the start. Would have saved you a bunch hurt."