This version is slightly different than the one that was submitted for the original contest, thanks to some interesting Devil Fruit facts that Callosum pointed out to me. Thanks for that!

Title: Icewater
Theme: #28: Frozen
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 3,290
Rating: PG
Warnings: Couple swears, little bit of blood, nothing serious
Disclaimer(s): I do not own, or pretend to own, One Piece or any of its subsequent characters, plots or other ideas. That right belongs solely to Eiichiro Oda. I do not own the prompts either—those are assigned by 30_OnePiece.

It's a winter island that they've been on for several days now. Zoro isn't sure why exactly they've been puttering all over it through the snow. He isn't really inclined to care, other than the fact that Luffy's ordered it. Something about treasure on the island hidden in a cave, or something. Whatever. He just does what Luffy orders.

They've been searching the island for days, poking around in the wilderness, bundled up against the cold. Chopper is in his element, delighted, and goes back and forth between lecturing the crew on staying warm and dry, and enjoying himself playing in the snow. He darts around the crew in his fleet-footed pure-reindeer form while the rest of them are forced to trudge through snow several feet deep.

There doesn't seem to be any particular danger here—there aren't any monsters or bad guys to face, there's no marine base stationed here, and hell, the townsfolk are even friendly. Zoro isn't really expecting much to happen, but he's naturally always on his guard, and keeps himself at the ready always, just in case.

He's glad for it, because four days after they land, something big happens anyway.

There's a network of rivers on the island, flowing down from the mountains. Most of them are frozen over almost year-round, but the villagers living here warned them to be careful anyway; it's their spring season, warmer than usual, and the ice tends to thin out some, making it treacherous to cross or walk on. Chopper takes the warning seriously, knowing the dangers, and the rest of them pay attention as well—all but Luffy, who is too excited at the prospect of a snowball fight at the time of the warning to care.

So Zoro isn't surprised that Luffy darts across the rivers as they explore with no qualms, or that he doesn't seem worried about the slight creaking as he darts over the ice. Most of the crew members, including himself, ream Luffy out the first few times it happens, but after the sixth river with the same dull-but-uneventful creaking and the same unmarred, frozen-over surface, they start to get a little careless. Maybe the villagers were just confused, or maybe they were referring to the parts of the rivers closer to the ocean, where it was warmer.

The villagers were not confused, as it turned out. Zoro discovers this himself when Luffy darts across river number ten, a particularly wide specimen dusted lightly with recent snowfall, and tips suddenly and alarmingly to the left as the ice shifts under him. Chopper's ears perk suddenly and he frantically shrieks a warning, and Luffy spins to launch a rubbery arm towards the nearest tree—but he's too late, and with a sudden almighty crack and a violent splashing noise, Luffy has suddenly vanished from their view, and there is a dark hole where he used to be. The nearly black water underneath rushes and chuckles cruelly, like it's played some sort of nasty joke and enjoyed it.

The others shriek in a panic, and Chopper calls frantically, but Luffy doesn't resurface. Which is unsurprising; even though all the Devil Fruit lore in the world says they're only affected by seawater, the crew has been around Luffy long enough to know that anything more than a little rainwater or a storm-wave on the deck is enough to freeze him up. And even if his powers weren't affected by freshwater, Luffy's had them since he was seven—he never learned how to swim even before he ate his fruit. In that rushing current, especially with the ice coating, even a person without Devil Fruit powers would be in deep trouble if they didn't know how to swim.

But Zoro does know how to swim, and his captain is under the ice. He doesn't even have to stop and think about what needs to be done. He pauses only long enough to unbuckle his sword-belt and drop his katana into the snow next to Chopper before diving forward, using brute strength to bull the thick snow mounds aside to get to the river and its now gaping opening, slashed into the ice like a black wound.

"Zoro!" Chopper calls frantically, "Wait!" and he can hear several others calling his name as well.

But he can't wait. His captain doesn't have a shot at all under the water—at least he does. And he did some swimming in winter waters before, on Drum Island. He'll be fine. He chucks his heavy winter coat and gloves aside—they'll only drag him down—and before anyone else can protest, dives into the gaping hole in the ice. It's more of a crumbling fall than a dive, actually, seeing as more of the ice gives way under his weight, but he's in.

The cold hits him like a violent punch to the gut, and he can feel his limbs seizing up frantically as the icy chill seeps directly through his skin and muscle into his bones. For one moment he panics when he finds himself paralyzed by the cold waters, frozen in place as he's dragged along by the wild current underneath the ice. He can't move, he can't breathe, he is utterly helpless, lacking control of his very person. This, he thinks, in a moment of strange lucidity in the midst of his mindless panic, has got to be what it's like to be a Devil Fruit user in the ocean. It is a terrifying feeling; he doesn't envy his captain or Chopper or Robin or Brook for it in the slightest.

But he isn't a Devil Fruit user, and he doesn't need to submit to nature, to the water, to the frigid power of the current. He is in control here, and he is not going to let this thing take his captain, either.

He seizes control of his limbs, forces them to move. Even the most minuscule of movements hurts, burns like fire and yet isn't comforting in the slightest; his chilled body doesn't want to obey him, and it hurts so much to force it to. But he won't give in, and wrenches his eyes open, ignores the burning sting as he tries to see through the gloom.

There—a dark shape ahead of him, dragged along by the current, flowing like a loose ribbon through the water, completely relaxed, sinking fast. Zoro forces his screaming, freezing muscles to work and pushes himself forward through the water towards it, using the current to help him. He can barely get any reaction out of his body, and the water seems to sap more and more of his strength and mobility the longer he is underneath, but it doesn't have to work forever—just for a few seconds, enough to get his captain to the surface.

Luffy is ahead of him now. Zoro can just barely make out his eyes, vividly white in the dark water, though they are half-lidded, unfocused. Maybe the shock of the cold knocked him out, or maybe he'd inhaled some water by accident—whatever the case, he was out cold, possibly literally, and is unresponsive when Zoro closes in on him. Bad, very bad—Zoro would have to move fast, faster than his pleading, freezing-over limbs would allow for.

He reaches out, barely manages to snag his captain's coat sleeve. The body resists, heavy and dragged by the current, and for a fraction of a second Zoro's frozen fingers start slipping, almost lose their grip. He grits his teeth, narrows his eyes, and absolutely refuses to let go of his captain, not when he's finally caught him. He forces his fingers to dig in tighter—it feels like they'll snap off with so much pressure, like they're made of ice themselves—but he does it anyway, tells the pain to get lost, and drags his captain back towards him, until he can wrap one frozen arm securely in place around Luffy's torso. The limb is all too willing to lock in place once he's accomplished his task, and Zoro knows he's running out of time now, very fast. He has to hurry—he's running out of air, and his limbs are quickly becoming unresponsive, no matter how much stubbornness he puts into his movements.

He can't give up yet. Not until Luffy is above the ice again.

So he forces himself upwards, kicks with everything he has, doesn't waste time fighting the sideways current—too much energy would be burnt on that, energy that needs to be put elsewhere. His head hits the coating of ice above him, at the surface of the river; and damn, the locals might have said it was thin, but from his position it sure as hell looks and feels pretty thick. It might be better to go back to the hole he knows is there, but he doesn't know if he could fight the current and make it in time. He's pretty sure he's been dragged far by now, too far, and he doesn't have that much energy or oxygen left to get back to it.

There is only one other option. He summons the very last of his strength reserves, draws back his arm, and punches the ice above him as hard as he can.

For a moment it seems like it won't give, but then the ice cracks and shatters, splintering away above him. The water blossoms with light and seems to grow so much brighter, and he hastily catches the edge of his newly made hole before the current can sweep him and Luffy away. The jagged ice slashes his palm and arm pretty damn badly, and he can see rivulets of red staining the ice above him, but he doesn't care. He forces his head through the small hole he's managed to make and sucks in air, beautiful, amazing air, air still cold enough to make his breath cloudy and yet it feels so, so much warmer than where he's just been.

He gasps once again, and then with what tiny slivers of strength he has left, manages to drag Luffy up with him, wriggling his own shoulders to widen the hole just slightly so he can flop his captain up over the ice. Luffy splats on the powdered snow like a wet doll, and slowly begins sliding back into the hole almost immediately. Zoro struggles for breath, forces his aching, exhausted, frozen limbs to push Luffy up again, and tries to scrabble for purchase on the slippery, iced-over surface of the river. The ice is unrelenting, cruel, useless—it cuts viciously into Zoro's already exhausted limbs but affords him no place grab on, no place to pull himself to safety, no place to put Luffy so the captain won't be right back where he started.

Zoro groans, sinks a little deeper as he pushes Luffy up out of the hole again. His vision is starting to go black around the edges, and he's getting tired, far too tired for this little level of exercise. He knows it's the cold affecting him, knows he has to fight it, but he is ice all over and his body is barely responding now and he can't even feel anything anymore, and fuck it's so cold—

He hears voices now, shouting frantically, although he can't make out what they are saying; only that they are nearby, probably on the bank near his position. He tries to scrabble for a grip again, and the ice slips underneath his fingers once more, sends him a little further back into the water. The current tugs at him maliciously, relentlessly. Luffy starts sinking back in as well, and Zoro struggles to force his unresponsive arms to push him back up again, keep his captain alive, because that was his job, but he can't seem to focus properly any more or remember what he's supposed to be doing—

A hand sprouts from the ice, and grips Luffy firmly by the collar, just underneath where his straw hat has miraculously remained still tied around his neck. Luffy stops sliding, and Zoro feels a vaguely warm sense of relief shiver through his frigid body almost at the same moment that it stops moving completely. The warmth is too late—pity. He starts going under, feels something grip his wounded arms, and realizes in a haze of confusion that the river is now sprouting hands that are holding him up by the wrists.

Make up your damned mind already, Zoro thinks to the river firmly. It seems to be trying to kill him and save him at the same time. Really, that was no way to live, going back and forth like that, you had to have resolve, passion, decision—

Apparently the river hears him, because he feels something catch at his legs suddenly; a branch, maybe, or seaweed, or a creepy fish, or hell, maybe even some strange ice-river monster. It drags at his trailing, frozen legs in the water, and the ice hole he made breaks further, shattering abruptly around the edges as it pulls at him. The last thing he hears is frantic screaming, and the last thing he feels is the strange tug at his wrists as the river's arms lose their grip, and then he's under again, plunging into the cold and the dark.

Fight, something tells him, something primal deep inside, and he isn't sure if it's a voice at all, or if it belongs to somebody, or if it's a man's or a woman's or if he even hears anything at all; all he knows is that the voice or the feeling or whatever it is has a point. It is freezing, so cold, and his body feels so dead, so heavy, so unresponsive, but he tries at least—raises his leaden arms and scratches at the icy surface, trying to claw his way through, but it's impossible, and the pressing current is dragging him down, away from the surface, away from the lighter parts into the gloom—

He sees something dark through the bright ice, something that slams down into and through the thick covering, and he can feel the concussion of the blow even from here, so deep down in the dark water. The black thing smashes through, plunges down, snags him by the wrist. From very far away, Zoro realizes it's having the same dilemma he'd had, earlier; stubbornly refusing to let go even though the current tugged violently, trying to steal away the body being rescued. Only now his position has changed and he's being saved, not doing the saving.

Hah. Funny, how the world could work like that, could switch up so suddenly. He starts laughing right then and there, only the cold makes it so hard for him to breathe, and the frigid water presses in against his chest and his mouth and fills his lungs and oh fuck he's freezing inside and out, it's so wrong—

The black shape has a tighter grip on him now, an arm around his chest, and kicks them to the surface. Zoro doesn't fight back, just waits patiently, dull and sleepy and so cold with the world so thick around him, and still dark, even though they're getting towards the bright ice again, and awareness seems to be slipping away through his fingers—

Then it is warm, just slightly warm, as their heads break the surface of a third hole, and the frigid-but-still-not-quite-as-cold-as-the-water air slaps them painfully in the face like needles. It jars Zoro just enough to make him to flinch slightly, and although his vision is still black his hearing has re-aligned itself enough for him to hear the black shape that has grabbed him yell, "Franky, I got him, pull me in!" and to register the sudden rapid clanking of metal that is probably chains, and then a less loud, but no less frantic hiss of, "Fucking hell, marimo, you'd better not die after pulling that damned stunt or Luffy will kill you!"

Something about that doesn't really make sense, and Zoro tries to tell his rescuer—which he thinks might be Sanji, but it's sort of hard to tell—but his mouth and tongue feel thick and unmoving, and all that comes out is a flat slur of noises that don't make sense even to him. He groans, and coughs, and remembers suddenly that Luffy is in the water and he has to be saved—struggles frantically against his captor, but Sanji grips him firmly and snarls, "Stop fighting or you're going to fall back in! Everyone's fine!" And that's when he finally gives up and allows himself to go limp. Everyone is fine. That's all he needs to hear.

The last things he remembers are Chopper's frantic instructions that they need to reach the ship immediately to warm up, and several people bundling him up in thick coats, more than just his own, which is a little weird. Then he finally submits and lets himself fall asleep, because everyone is fine.

When he wakes again he is warm, wonderfully, amazingly warm, and more surprisingly in the galley on the Thousand Sunny. The room is boiling, probably thanks to the oven and who only knows what else, but it still feels infinitely preferable to the frigid waters from earlier. He's stretched out on one half of the couch under piles of blankets, and Luffy is sitting on the other side, wrapped in a number of his own and grinning cheerfully at his first mate. The rest of the crew are sitting around the table, except for Sanji, who is bundled up in several thick sweaters instead of his usual suits and stirring an enormous pot of what smelled like soup—very hot soup—carefully by the oven.

"Oh good," Nami says, when he sits up. "You idiot, what were you thinking, chucking yourself in like that? Do you know how worried we were? Sanji-kun almost didn't get to you in time, and it was only thanks to Robin's eyes we were able to find you with that current at all!"

"Sorry," Zoro says with a shrug. "Instinct. Had to get to Luffy in time. Did one of you grab my swords?"

Brook gestures to the nearby wall, where all three swords have been carefully propped. Zoro tosses back the blankets after discovering he is dressed in a new pair of warm, dry pants and a sweatshirt, and moves to retrieve his weapons, buckling them back into place.

Nami is still yelling at him for being stupid. "Are you aware that you could have almost died? Don't you even care?"

"It's hopeless, Nami-san," Sanji says, shaking his head in disgust. "He's probably forgotten about it already. Memory loss, you know. I hear trauma does it, but my guess is he just never had enough brain cells to begin with."

"Watch your mouth, shit cook."

"Make me, shit swordsman."

"Thanks for saving me, Zoro," Luffy interjects cheerfully, grinning widely from the depths of his enormous blanket cocoon. "It was real cold down there!"

"No problem," Zoro says, because it isn't, and he'd do it again in a heartbeat, regardless of the temperature. "Er...thanks to you guys too for pulling me out."

"Tch. Thanks isn't going to replace my best tie, marimo," Sanji mutters, but he shoves a warm bowl of soup and a spoon at Zoro all the same. Zoro smirks and digs into the tasty, but more importantly warm meal, assured that all is right in the world again.

After all, everyone is fine once more.

The last one was pretty short, so I'm uploading this one a day early.

~VelkynKarma