Because of the severe injuries, we were required to stay for a few more days. This time, Zoro and I were inseparable. We would do everything together from taking lovely walks to the village, from just staring into each other's eyes. There were times when Zoro wanted to do some training to get stronger but Chopper would scold him on how badly he was injured. When he lost a battle he would come to me for entertainment instead. When Marissa knew I was alone, she would pull me aside and ask how things were going. I would tell her everything in detail.
"Okay, you guys need to go on a date," Marissa said cheerfully one day to me. I gave her a look like she was nuts.
"Come on. You guys are starting over now aren't you? Dates are a great way for a couple to bond," Marissa grabbed my hands and held them tightly.
"It's decided. Tonight you two are going to have a lovely dinner. No questions asked," she was acting as if I didn't get a say in it at all.
"We must pick out a lovely dress for the date!" Marissa shouted. When she was done shouting, she grabbed the arm that was injured and pulled me along. Zoro walked by a couple minutes later with a scared expression on his face.
"Zoro help me!" I shouted as Marissa dragged me through the door. I was dragged to many stores; barely any of them had really nice dresses. Marissa would find a dress that was my size and placed it in my arms. Piles on upon piles they raised.
"Zoro isn't going to dress nice, why do I have to?" I asked annoyed as I started to try the dresses on.
"Because he's Zoro," was Marissa's response. At first none of the outfits seemed to be fitting to my liking. When I was about to give up, one in the pile caught my eye. It was my favorite color lavender purple with frills at the end. It was the perfect dress to twirl in. There was a dark purple strap with a big bow that tied in the back. I put over me and it was perfect, I loved it more than any dress I ever loved before. After I tried it on, I allowed Marissa to see it and she loved how I looked wearing it. After a successful shopping trip, it was only a couple of hours before our unnecessary date was about to begin. During those hours, Marissa helped me with my hair and put make up all over my face. I thought I looked like a clown but Marissa was satisfied and that's all that mattered at this point. We decided to leave my hair down since none of the other styles satisfied the both of us. The moment was finally here; time to reveal the new me. I crept down the stairs. Stalling as much time as I possibly could. I reached the bottom of the stairs and I waited for their reactions to my hideous self. I expected them to be disgusted along with me.
"Oh Jade you look so adorable in that dress," Sanji cried. That was not what I wanted, or expected to hear. I turned to Zoro to see what he thought. He started to blush as much as I was, though no one could see it under my makeup.
"You do look beautiful," Zoro assured with a nod and that compliment helped. After all the embracement, Marissa shoved Zoro and I out the door and slammed it behind us. The two of us looked at each other awkwardly and off we went. I held his hand tightly as we continued on the dirt path.
"I'm serious, you look beautiful tonight," Zoro said with a loving smile. My face turned completely red. When we got to the village that was surprisingly busy for this time of the evening, we found a lovely restaurant and luckily got a table. I ordered some fresh sea food and Zoro ordered steak. While we waited, I thought of some ideas for conversation starters.
"How are your injuries? Are they healing well?" I asked with concerned.
"Yeah, they are doing a lot better, healing faster than I expected. How's your arm?" Zoro seemed confident.
"It's better, I'm able to move my wrist again. I'm just thankful that I don't have to wear that hideous cast anymore." I chuckled in response.
"Again, sorry for being such a bitch these past few days, I didn't realize that I was over reacting."
"You don't need to apologize," Zoro assured.
"I swear I thought I lost you. I don't know what I would've done." I said looking down.
"Yeah, sorry about that, I thought that if you didn't know I was faking, Lily wouldn't have fallen for it. I'm so sorry for putting you through that," Zoro apologized.
"What you don't think I wouldn't have been a good actress?" I asked with my hands on my hips. Zoro looked away embarrassed and started to laugh.
"So who came up with this date thing anyway?" Zoro asked to change the subject. I sighed in anger.
"Marissa. She forced me to buy this dress; you didn't dress up so I don't understand why I had to." I said looking off to the side, I didn't want to keep looking away but it was just hard to after everything that happened. Until our food arrived, I gathered up my courage and the two of us stared at each other.
"Okay, pop quiz; how much do you love me?" Zoro asked pointing at me with his fork while we ate our delicious meal. My utensils stopped clanking together and I gave him a face like he was joking.
"Are you serious right now Zoro?" I asked in a whisper. Zoro nodded with determination. I gave it a moment to think to torture him.
"Let me see, I love you more than Luffy loves meat!" I almost shouted so that the entire restaurant could hear. Zoro made a face like he was satisfied.
"Luffy sure does love his meat, I'll take it." Zoro said with a smile. The two of us continued our meal for a bit.
"How much do you love me?" I asked curiously. Zoro gave me the same look I gave him.
"Really? I almost died saving your life. How much proof do you really need?" Zoro begged. I gave it a second thought.
"True, but it's not enough. Come on, you made me do it, now it's your turn!" I teased.
"I love you more than taking naps?" he answered in the form of a question. I gave him an expression that told him that wasn't enough.
"More than Luffy loves his hat?" he asked again.
"Keep going," I encouraged. Zoro thought for a moment.
"More than anything in the world," Zoro said with confidence this time. I gave him a satisfied smile.
"There you go, I was waiting to hear you say that with confidence," I pumped my fist in the air and the two of us laughed.
"I got to know, what made you so infatuated by me when we first met?" Zoro asked near the end of our meal. I shrugged our shoulders.
"I don't know. I just thought you were so cool and I had this determination to make you mine. I honestly can't describe how I felt," I replied. I looked at my almost emptied plate.
"You know, if Marissa was here right now, she would be throwing up," the two of us chuckled and finally paid for our meal. On the way home, I held onto Zoro's arm as tight as I could. None of us said a word to each other because we were too full from dinner. It was starting to get dark out, the lanterns were coming on and the streets were starting to get empty. The road to my house was dimly lit by the lanterns from the village. When we got home, I got changed out of the dress and Marissa and I sat in my room and waited while Zoro was taking care of things before going to bed. I was telling her everything that happened.
"You're right. I would throw up," she sniggered. We talked about everything that happened for past couple of days. It wasn't pleasant reliving the nightmare.
"I think everything is fine between us now, I hope so at least. The date was romantic, we kept saying how much we love each other and everything," I smiled at the thought.
"You two are obsessed with each other. I love Luffy more than anything but I'm not that crazy," Marissa stated. I placed my hands on my hips.
"Come on, what if you guys were in this situation?"
"Okay, one; Luffy would never do that to me. I don't think he has any other girlfriends that I'm aware of and two; we try not to show our affection in front of others like you do. We don't make out every two minutes," the two of us laughed uncontrollably.
"Would you do anything for Luffy? Like if he was in danger?" I asked curiously.
"Absolutely! I would kill anyone who would hurt my man," Marissa punched the air.
"You do like Zoro do you?" I asked to change the subject.
"Of course I do, he is like a big brother to me. I may pick on him but that's just a tough way of showing my love," she chuckled.
The next day, everyone was called to order in the kitchen for a meeting. There was a moment of silence before we started.
"I think it was about time we were on our way," Luffy announced. My body was tense at the thought of leaving my mother and my younger sister after everything that's happened.
"For once our captain is right, I mean his, Zoro's and Jade's wounds are completely healed. There isn't any reason to stay here any longer," Sanji pointed out. I nodded at the statement. My arm was finally healed, there was still some numbness but that didn't really bother me.
"But why can't she stay?" Luna asked pointing to me. There was a moment of silence when everyone turned to me. My face turned completely red from the embarrassment.
"It's a pirate's duty to be loyal to her crewmate's sweetheart. I don't want her to leave either but she must," mom explained.
"She's my sister!" Luna shouted.
"She's my best friend!" Luffy shouted back as he stood up.
"Will both of you shut the hell up?" I shouted over their hating cries. I felt Zoro placed a hand on my shoulder; I dared not to look at him. I stood up and stomped out of the house and into the woods, I stomped all the way back to the hill. I sat over the edge and cried my eyes out. I debated on if I should stay or go. I thought of all the adventures that I would be missing if I stayed. I would love to take care of my little sister and see her grow up and help mom with chores around the house but because of all the good times I had with Luffy and the others, it's making it difficult for me. Suddenly, bushes rustled and I turned to see Zoro standing there with a worried look. Tears were threatening to come, as I turned to him with opened arms.
"I don't know what to do Zoro, why did she have to go off and say that? Then Luffy had to go and say I was his best friend—not that I'm complaining about that—this is torture," I sobbed into his chest. Zoro said nothing but held me tightly, letting me cry out all my anger and stress that gathered up in the past few minutes.
"I'd love to stay here but I don't want to leave you or Luffy or the others. After all you guys did for me and all the adventures we had together; I can't just leave you guys. You're my friends my," I almost couldn't say the word because of it being to unbearable.
"Family," I whispered as I looked up at Zoro. He kissed my forehead in response. I dug my head into his chest.
"What do you think I should do Zoro?" I asked still buried into his chest. He pushed me away so he could look at me.
"I would want you to come with us of course. If you stayed, my heart would be broken; half of it would stay with you," he said as he stroked my cheek. My heart stopped completely.
"Okay, you convinced me to leave," I chuckled. After a minute, I was finally able to calm down and the two of held hands as we walked back to my house. When we got there, all except for Luffy and my mom were gone. Luffy came up to me and hugged me like he never hugged me before and I hugged him back as tight as I could. He placed his hands on my shoulders.
"It's not in my place to force you to come with us, I mean I would give anything to have you come along but it's up to you, not me," Luffy assured. I patted his head and smiled.
"Come on you goofball, of course I'm leaving with you guys. Imagine all the adventures I would be missing," I said with an assuring smile. Luffy replied with another big hug. Behind him I could see my mom looking sad. After the hug, I went up to her with a worried look.
"Mom, I would love nothing more than to be here with you and Luna, but they are my friends. Luffy saved my life so many times I lost count, I owe him my loyalty," I explained.
"You're still my mom and I love you more than anything," the two of us hugged for a long time.
"Would Luna be able to come with you?" Mom asked. I turned to Luffy to see what he would think.
"I would love to have her but she is still too young. We are wanted criminals and if she joined, she would be one too. Her life would be in danger all the time and we can't guarantee her safety," Luffy explained with confidence.
"I'm sorry mom, it's the truth. We have the navy coming after us all the time, we make enemies everywhere we go, it just wouldn't be safe," I assured. Mom turned to Zoro and walked over to him.
"I never had the chance to thank you for looking after my little girl. I can tell that you love her, please, make sure she's safe," my mom said following with a smile. Zoro nodded and smiled back. The next morning, everyone was gathering their supplies. I took my time in gathering supplies, I made up my mind on going but it was still hard for me to leave my mom and sister behind. After I gathered my things, I noticed when I got downstairs everyone was there. My face turned red, realizing that I made everyone wait.
"On the way to the ship, we'll need to stock up on food. Who knows when we'll be able to make port next," Sanji announced. On the way to the ship, I held onto Zoro's hand tightly. Our swords clamped on the ground. Mom and Luna were in front, leading through the market place that smelled like fresh meat and fish that had been recently caught this morning. I was going to miss this place, who knows when I will see it again. Sanji would stop at almost every stand, stocking up for months on food that we will surely eat up. Marissa and Luffy were holding hands as well, swinging their arms back and forth as if there was no care in the world. When we reached the going merry, my heart stopped realizing that it was time to leave. One by one everyone was climbing on board. Marissa held onto Luffy and he pulled them up. Luffy came back down to wait for Zoro and I. I placed my backpack down and gave my mom a hug. Luna jumped up impatiently begging for my attention. After giving mom a long hug, I finally came to Luna who had her hands on her hips. I picked her up and placed her on her hip.
"Hey, when you're old enough you can leave like I did and come find us," I chuckled. Luna had a serious look on her face, reminding me that this was no laughing matter. I gave her a big kiss and another hug. I smiled at my mother and gave her another hug as well.
"Don't worry mom, I'll be alright. You'll probably hear news about us sometime, somewhere. I'll be fine," I assured. She nodded and started to cry; I did too. Zoro held my shoulders and I felt Luffy hug me too. When it was time, Zoro and I held onto Luffy and he pulled us on deck. I waved to my mother and sister as we pulled away from the docks until my arm couldn't take it anymore. As we sailed away, I placed my elbows onto the railing and rested my head on my palms. I took a long sigh and was deep in my thoughts as images from the past few days went through my mind. Zoro touched my shoulder and I turned to him with smile.
"What are you thinking about sweetheart?" Zoro asked followed by a light chuckle.
"About Lily," I answered with a disappointed sigh.
"Why are you thinking about her?" he asked curiously.
"I don't know, just thinking about all the things she's done to us and why she would do such a thing," I shrugged my shoulders and turned around, leaning on the railing as if I was trying to act cool.
"Don't worry about it, she's gone now. There's absolutely nothing to worry about," Zoro assured.
"I hope you're right," I replied as I watched my island turn into nothing but a black speck in the distance.