Onwards

When Zoro awoke it was to a disconcerting feeling of both having not enough and too many limbs, with what he did have being all in the wrong places. He also had a slight headache and the distinct impression of having remembered things that hadn't happened to him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," he heard Fox say, but he also felt the vibration of air in his own throat and the movement of his own mouth. Perhaps it wasn't his mouth; but hadn't he had three at one point?

He was starting to worry about his sanity when he started losing feeling in his limbs until he could only feel one pair of arms, one pair of legs, one torso and one head with associated accessories. Carefully reaching up with his only remaining pair of hands Zoro ran his fingers over his face and head, all the way around the back, then looked down at himself.

"Where's the rest of me?" he asked helplessly, looking up and feeling a little bereft as he gazed into unhappy golden eyes.

"This is all of you there is, on the outside at least," Fox told him.

"Okay," Zoro accepted. His head felt fuzzy and thick, like it was full of fog. "Is there any sake?" Sake always helped. He accepted the bottle from Fox and as he did so his fingers brushed hers, bringing back the feeling of the whole body he'd just lost contact with. "Hey, why are you-" he paused. That wasn't the right thing to say; it was clearly Fox' body, not his. "Why do you feel like me?" he asked instead, which really wasn't very clear but she seemed to understand anyway.

"Remember Kuma?"

Yes, Zoro remembered: Devil Fruit User, Pacifista and somewhat honourable. He'd given Zoro Luffy's pain rather than take their captain away.

"He killed you."

Zoro blinked. "I'm not dead though," he pointed out. He hurt too much to be dead.

"I stopped you from leaving me," Fox said flatly. "We are very much stuck with each-other now; the only advantage I can see is that my father definitely won't kill you. He may maim you though."

"You prevented me from dying," Zoro repeated, taking a large swig of sake. "I… is that why I remember being in my Asura form? And you with a Yuda tail?"

"Yes; those are the forms our souls take, as that is how we perceive ourselves," Fox explained. "You used up all your life-force absorbing Luffy's injuries so I trapped your soul as it left your body by snaring it with my own life-force, then infused myself into your body and healed it from within. Reality is much more fluid when you look at it from the other side." She sighed. "I got out as soon as your body was capable of functioning semi-independently but we were still merged mentally and spiritually for three whole days. You were wandering in and out of my mind like you owned the place and whenever we slept our dreams meandered all over the place with no regard for boundaries."

Zoro could remember some of that now; he knew intellectually he'd never met Red-Hair Shanks but the name now conjured up a distinctive laugh, a voice that meant safety and a cheerful face he would recognise in an instant.

"I'm walling you off right now," Fox went on, "But you'll have to learn to block me out as well or we'll get so tangled up we won't know where one finishes and the other begins. Here, have some lunch."

Zoro accepted the plate, his brain clearing further as he finished off the alcohol and got some food down his throat. "Is that why I was confused about how much body I have?" he asked.

"Yep; we've been practically one being for most of three days. You'll get used to it soon and your brain will get the hang on the fact we're only a complete entity on the inside," Fox told him, stroking the snake in her lap as it trilled happily. "Like how you can fly in your dreams, but know you can't in real life."

Zoro nodded carefully. "So, this is how it felt for you before," he said carefully, alluding to what she had told him about her life as a slave.

Fox bowed her head. "Similar. We are differently entangled as we are lovers, not just patient and healer. It is a more intimate connection, giving wider access. You will always be able to find me, like an Eternal Pose in your head, and we will never, ever be able to hide anything from each-other unless we agree not to pry. I can teach you how to keep me separate from your conscious mind and body memory but we will always share dreams now. That just can't be avoided." She curled in on herself, radiating guilt. "I'm so selfish."

Zoro put his empty plate aside and carefully dragged her into his lap, basking in the oddly sensual echoes that shivered across his skin when he touched her. "I'm sorry for dying on you," he said sincerely. "I never wanted to leave you behind. Thank-you for bringing me back." He kissed her.

The brief sensory overload knocked him flat on his back again, breathing heavily with Fox sprawled on top of him and just as dizzy.

"Whoah," she gasped, one hand running shakily through his hair. "We've got to do that again."

Zoro chuckled then winced as a brief pain ran up his side. "Is it always going to be that intense?"

"No idea," Fox admitted, voice slightly muffled as her face was buried in his neck. "Don't really care either way. You're still here and that's all that matters."

The swordsman wrapped his arms around his lover, holding her close. "Mine," he muttered into her hair. "All mine, body and soul." His grip tightened. "You're so beautiful, you know that?"

"Hm?"

"Inside as well as outside," Zoro clarified. "Your soul flies on bladed wings." He'd never seen anything so magnificent; if he hadn't already been in love with her before he definitely would be now, she was that wonderful.

"And yours prowls with eyes of flame, ever ready for battle," Fox told him, smiling against his skin. "Now let's see if you can stand up without tripping over your feet."

Fox sat quietly on the floor of hers and Zoro's cabin, Ace' hat in her lap. She'd missed the discussion about Ace' Vivre card, having been busy minding Calla, helping Zoro to learn how to keep their minds separate but adjacent and speeding his recovery as much as she dared. However she caught the tail-end of the conversation happening on deck when she got back from feeding her hatchling yet more fish that Luffy had decided against going to look for Ace. On hearing that she retired to her cabin before anyone noticed her tears, lifted the orange cowboy hat out of the box she was keeping it in and blindly petted the brim. Calla trilled worriedly at her, nuzzling her ear and jaw, and the assassin raised a hand to pet the baby snake.

"Fox?" Zoro pushed the door open. "Luffy wants us all on deck to toast Brook joining the crew." He paused, frowning. "Is that Ace' hat?"

Fox put the hat away and stood up. "Yes, it is," she said simply, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "You said we're wanted on deck?"

Zoro caught her arm, the odd sensation of being two people at once blooming between them once more, though no longer as distracting as it was in the beginning. "Why is Luffy's brother's hat here?"

"He's in trouble and it got left behind," Fox said, her words flat and empty.

The swordsman frowned. "If he's anything like Luffy he's rather die than lose his hat."

"I'm keeping hold of it so I can give it back to him when I see him," Fox said. "Now, you came to get me?"

Zoro gave her a sceptical look. "We are going to discuss this later, okay? I can tell there's far more to the story than that."

Fox nodded, then plastered a faint smile on her face and went out on deck to toast 'Dead Bones' Brook, the Straw-Hat pirates new musician.

Things start to go wrong.