This isn't going quite the way Luffy expected.
Instead of gaining an instantaneous, massive erection and tumbling him onto the nearby bed after hearing him say the word "fuck" out loud for the first time, Zoro's simply standing there with both arms clasped loosely around his waist, staring at him and looking so taken aback that he's not sure his swordsman even heard him correctly.
"I said, I wanna FUCK," he tries again and watches Zoro twitch as he voices the expletive more loudly the second time, brow furrowing in what he's now recognizing is dismay.
"Sencho, NO- you're covered in- you're dirty 'n you're- you're HURT."
"That never stopped Zoro from fucking me befo-"
"Luffy- Luffy, STOP." Zoro continues staring at him for a moment and then heaves a huge sigh, releasing his waist to take both of his hands instead. "Listen. I know you're upset 'n I get it, I really do, okay? I'm not happy either. This whole thing sucks 'n you feel really awful 'n you don't wanna think about it, so screwing around seems like a great idea 'cause it'll take your mind off shit." He squeezes Luffy's fingers. "But remember what happened last time we tried having sex when one of us was really messed up?"
"I didn't know about being careful then, but I know now!" the captain argues. "-'n besides, I'm RUBBER. Even if he gets carried away 'n fucks me really, really hard, Zoro's not gonna hurt me!"
"I DON'T WANNA FUCK YOU!"
Startled by his boyfriend's thunderous outburst, Luffy starts to take an involuntary half-step backwards- and stops when he sees the immediate shame and regret surfacing on the older pirate's face.
Zoro closes his eyes and inhales slowly through his nose. "Sencho… you're upset 'n you're tired- 'n so am I. Too upset 'n tired to think about ANY kind of sex right now, let alone us going at each other like goddamn cats in heat." He opens his eyes to regard Luffy with pensive amusement, the corner of his mouth twitching. "… also, you reek like rotten eggs, which doesn't exactly make me wanna kiss you all over or suck your dick or anything."
Luffy stares up at him, caught off-guard, and then begins to giggle helplessly.
The crooked little smile on Zoro's face widens, becoming a lot more genuine. He raises one hand to cradle and caress Luffy's cheek, brushing his thumb gently over his lower lip and uttering a soft, sympathetic hiss at the sight of the bloody split on the opposite side. "All I wanna do's pick you up, carry you to that bed over there 'n collapse in it 'n fall asleep with you curled up next to me. But that's not happening 'til we wash the crud off you 'n I find out what else needs bandaged besides your feet 'n your shoulder." He reaches higher to tip the captain's hat back and smooth aside his unruly hair, wincing when he sees the deep cut on his brow. "… 'n your head…"
"Do we gotta get dressed again or can we stay naked?" Luffy asks hopefully.
"How 'bout we decide that AFTER we get you a bath."
"… okay, deal."
His partner leads him by one hand to the tiny bathroom annexed to their temporary sleeping quarters and shooes him inside to sit on the closed toilet lid while he rotates the faucet handle towards the hot side. Once the drain plug's dropped in place and the tub's beginning to fill, he lifts Luffy's hat from his head and sets it carefully on the sink before falling to one knee at his feet to unbutton his vest and slide it gingerly off his torso. Careful to skirt the puncture wounds on his left shoulder and bicep as they pass through the arm hole on that side. "… those damn caltrops…"
"Usopp's smart," Luffy tells him quietly, shrugging. "Like he said, he wasn't gonna waste time tryin' stuff he knew wouldn't work on me."
Zoro drops the vest he's holding to the tiles and reaches out to unbutton the fly of his shorts. "I saw what you did during the fight, Sencho. You coulda hit him with that bullet punch right in the beginning, ended shit before it even got started. Or at ANY time once it HAD started." He tugs to loosen Luffy's waistband, then leans back to give him room, looking up at his face. "But you held back, tried to make it a fair fight." Even though it never was, his expression says. "Shorts off."
"What else could I do?" Rising stiffly to his battered feet, he thumbs his shorts down to his knees. Braces a hand on his lover's shoulder while he tries to kick them off one leg at a time, but he's too wobbly and Zoro ends up needing to take over, tugging the shorts down his calves to his ankles and lifting first one foot and then the other to help him step out of the rumpled cuffs and slip off his dusty sandals. "I was gonna give him Merry no matter what happened, as long as he showed up, but if I'd clocked him before he got chance to do anything-" He shakes his head, hand still resting on Zoro's shoulder. "That woulda been worse, y'know? 'Cause he showed up. Even though he was hurt pretty bad, he showed up 'n he was ready to get hurt MORE to save Merry."
"… I know," Zoro murmurs. He raises both arms and wraps them around Luffy's hips, pulling him into a firm hug. "I'm sorry, Sencho. I'm just- really fuckin' sorry."
"Yeah… me too." The captain leans into him, ducking his head to bury his face in that spiky green hair and trying to ignore the deep ache that bending forward causes in his lower back and hips, bruised from being slammed down on the rocks when hit by Usopp's fire star attack.
He's squeezed around the middle, although more gently this time, as though Zoro's sensed the discomfort in his posture. "Alright, now it's time to get your rubbery ass into that tub."
Keeping a good grip on his partner's shoulder, the younger pirate's able to step into the tub and sit down without incident. Thankfully the steaming water's still shallow enough that it doesn't give him too much trouble, and he amuses himself by splashing his feet under the running tap while Zoro hunts down a bar of soap, washcloths and towels.
"Heh, you look like a little kid. All you need's one of those squeaky ducks."
He looks up to find Zoro grinning at him.
"Here, suds up awhile, Sencho," his swordsman chuckles, tossing him the soap, then lifting both arms to take his white henley by the collar and strip it off over his head. "Try'n get the worst of the dirt off 'n I'll give you a hand with the re-"
"Eh? Zoro's comin' in too?" Luffy asks, eyes roaming across the thick pectorals and taut abdominal muscles exposed by the removal of the shirt. His hand tightens reflexively on the bar of soap he's clutching and it squirts through his fingers, falling between his submerged thighs with a loud PLOP. He fumbles after it, face flushed.
"You better behave yourself," Zoro warns as he sheds his boots and trousers and leans momentarily through the doorway to prop his katana against the wall in the next room. "You try'n start anything, I climb right back out 'n then you're sleepin' in the bed by yourself tonight."
"Okay, okay, okay!" He reluctantly tears his eyes away and concentrates on retrieving the soap off the bottom of the tub and working up a heavy lather between his palms.
"Oi, scoot up?"
Luffy scoots. He glances back as Zoro squeezes in behind him, tucking a leg on either side of his body so he's sitting between them. Fingers drop to the captain's shoulder, easing him down until his back settles against his lover's scarred chest and there's arms reaching around him. Zoro's hands coming together to scoop up water and then rising higher to pour it over his head, slicking down his hair.
The level in the tub's continuing to rise and it's now deep enough that a familiar lethargy's creeping over him, making his body sag and his limbs weak, but for once it doesn't bother him. With Zoro's solid presence supporting him and wet fingers running through his hair, he's too comfortable to worry about accidentally slipping beneath the water. Not that it's even possible; the tub's clearly been made for one person, not two, because even with his knees bent, his feet are flush against the wall at the far end.
He's been zoning out instead of scrubbing himself, but Zoro doesn't seem to mind. He's stolen the soap back and started working lather into Luffy's hair. Fingers sliding through it, digging into his scalp, massaging, and it feels so good, he doesn't realize he's moaning out loud until Zoro starts laughing.
"… 'n you didn't want a bath," his swordsman teases, slippery hands caressing the back of his neck and running briefly behind his ears before moving down the sides of his neck to his clavicle and lower. Firmly kneading his pectorals, palms sliding slowly up and down them and dragging back and forth over his nipples.
Breath hitching as friction causes the sensitive buds to harden, Luffy eases a hand into his lap to rub the heel of his palm against the erection that's risen between his thighs- and then jerks it away when he comprehends what he's doing.
"Go ahead if you wanna," Zoro murmurs, reaching down his front to slide the soap bar in large circles on his belly. "Just don't get too carried away."
Luffy heaves a sigh of relief and returns his hand to his groin, lazily stroking himself beneath the water while his lover continues spreading suds over his skin. Up and down his arms and beneath them. Back and forth in big circles on his ribs.
After a bit, Zoro helps him to stand and addresses his hips and ass and thighs and calves in similar fashion, fingertips continue to knead every square inch of him. Gliding briefly between his buttocks and under them to his perineum.
Whimpering, he spreads his legs wider to let the soapy hands skimming his inner thighs reach between them to cup his scrotum and give that some attention as well, until he's breathing hard and his length's dripping clear fluid into the bathwater.
"Oi, I'm gonna drain the tub 'n fill it back up, okay? Water's gettin' pretty dirty."
"Shishi… sorry…"
"Don't be." A gentle caress of his hip. "It just means you're gettin' cleaner, right?"
It's true, and the captain's got to admit it goes a long way towards improving his mood when Zoro sluices him down with the detachable showerhead, rinsing suds from his body that are now more grey than white. And after another endeavor with the soap, this time accompanied by heavy scrubbing that leaves the floor scattered with dirty washcloths, and a second rinse, he's feeling almost like himself again.
Zoro climbs out first, not bothering to dry himself off but shaking a towel open and holding it out, enveloping Luffy in it and drawing him close after he steps out of the tub, moving cautiously because his knees keep threatening to buckle. He squeezes his eyes shut as a smaller towel's thrown over his head and scruffed vigorously over his hair to soak up the excess water. Then, before he can blink, he's being lifted off the floor still bundled in the larger towel's fluffy fabric, cradled in muscular arms and carried back into the other room towards the bed.
It's a little weird being pampered like this, but his boyfriend's either enjoying it or at least doesn't mind, and- honestly?- it's also kind of nice letting somebody else- well, okay, letting ZORO- take care of him.
Once he's lowered to the mattress, he shrugs the towel loose so he's sprawled in its center, limbs flopped out around him and his stubbornly persisting erection jutting into the air with its leaking tip glistening. Holding back from touching himself even though he wants to really badly, because he's hoping a show of restraint will eventually tempt his swordsman into doing it for him.
For the moment, though, Zoro's busy examining those wounds severe enough that they've left traces of blood on the towel, probably trying to decide whether or not they need stitches, and evidently whatever he sees he finds satisfactory, because he settles for nothing beyond antiseptic and bandages. Applying a small plaster to the rubber man's gashed forehead and wrapping his injured left shoulder and bicep in a lengthy piece of gauze. Grimacing when he moves down to examine Luffy's feet and then deal with their myriad scrapes and cuts as gently as possible. "Sorry, Sencho…"
"Mmn, it's okay." He inhales sharply as a thumb presses and slides along the arches of his right foot, his hips giving an involuntary little upwards surge.
Zoro raises an eyebrow, tilting his head. "That a good reaction or a bad one?"
"B-Both?" Luffy stammers. "I think. Mostly good though…"
Looking amused, Zoro shifts his feet closer together so he can wrap his hands around them both at the same time, kneading with his thumbs, moving slowly from heel to arch to instep to sole and back. "No numb spots?"
"Nah, they feel okay except-" Making a low noise in the back of his throat as one of the massaging digits passes a puncture wound left by a caltrop spine. "-e-except where I got spiked."
"Good, that means there shouldn't be any nerve damage."
The hands grasping him are warm on his skin, chasing away the slight chill left by evaporating bathwater. He closes his eyes. "I didn't know Zoro knew so much 'bout that kinda stuff."
"I spent lots of time by myself back while I was bounty-hunting 'n sometimes I ended up in the middle of nowhere, where there weren't any doctors. You get hurt in a place like that 'n don't know how to take care of yourself, it can kill you." Fingers traveling upwards, rubbing his ankles and calves, prompting a yip of surprise and restless squirming when they brush the ticklish spots behind his knees.
He can feel his pulse throbbing in his groin and bites his lip, letting his legs drift farther apart as Zoro's hands move up the insides of his thighs. Despite the lack of direct stimulation, he's hard as hell- not to mention getting gradually stickier from the viscous beads of moisture rolling down the underside of his shaft whenever they swell large enough to trickle free. And he's noticed Zoro's gaze keeps straying there, his eyes dark and full of heat, and there's now the faintest tremor detectable in his touch.
To his disappointment though, his lover bypasses his groin entirely, moving up between his open legs on his knees to address his torso. The palms and heels of his hands slide over Luffy's hips, his abdomen and chest, and the captain comes close to crying out in astonishment when they don't avoid his nipples but instead press down suddenly, grinding over the sensitive tissue so it perks up the moment they're once again exposed to the air. His hips shudder and rock, jabbing his rigid flesh towards the ceiling, thrusting up in desperate search of contact, once, twice, three times.
He's looking straight into Zoro's eyes then and sees his pupils dilate enormously in response to the strong reaction.
"That feel good, Sencho?" His swordsman's voice is hushed, husky. Hands gentle again, stroking his pectorals, fingers circling feather-light over his areolas and around and around the hard buds protruding from them until he's panting softly and arching his spine. Trying to push harder into Zoro's touch, trying to hook a leg over his hip to pull him close enough to thrust against.
His efforts inspire soft laughter and his partner's hand gliding down the side of his body to clasp his hip, giving it a gentle tug.
"Oi, roll over for me…"
Heart pounding, he complies the moment he's given room to wriggle onto his belly. Biting back a deep groan as his arousal's compressed between his belly and the mattress and oh god it's the friction he needed and he's humping frantically against the bed and panting into the rumpled sheets when Zoro moves over him, straddling his thighs.
Hands settle on his body, rubbing, massaging his lower back on either side of his spine and guiding his hips, slowing their movements until he's no longer bucking wildly but thrusting at a languid but still satisfying pace. It calms his harsh breathing, allowing him to moan his first mate's name when he feels turgid flesh drag against the back of his thigh and looks over his shoulder to discover that the older pirate's apparently not quite as tired as he claimed.
Zoro smiles when he realizes where he's looking and braces himself on one arm so he can lean down to plant a lingering kiss just above Luffy's tailbone. "Kinda tough to see you like this and NOT get hard." He runs the other hand up and down his side and over his flexing hindquarters, kneading with callous-roughened fingers.
Luffy shudders, pushing harder at the soft fabric beneath him. "Z-Zoro can- can put it in-inside me, if he wants…" He hikes his rear higher, trying to get his knees beneath him to provide better access to his entrance and whimpering as his length lifts off the bed as well, until nothing but the glans is making contact with the sheets.
"There's only thing I want 'n that's for my captain to feel good."
Both hands on his buttocks now, squeezing gently while spreading them wide, and he cries out at the sensation of soft, wet warmth sliding firmly over his core before he's eased back down to the mattress and feels lips kissing their way slowly up his spine.
"I want my captain to feel good when he falls asleep tonight 'n I want him to feel that way when he wakes up tomorrow too," Zoro murmurs, face nuzzling at his back. Breath blowing warm over his skin. "I don't want this to-" Voice catching as he bumps himself in the process of moving over Luffy on all fours and curling one arm under him, pulling him close so the swaying of their spooning bodies controls his thrusts against the bed. "I don't want tonight to be about- about fucking."
He's pressed tight to Luffy's bottom but positioned so he's trapped between his body and the mattress, angled along the curve of the rubber man's perineum with his tip nudging his scrotum, and Luffy can't help but shiver at the heat and hardness of him.
"Not fucking 'n not- n-not just sex either, not tonight, 'c-cause I-" Zoro's hips give an abrupt, off-beat lunge. "T-Tonight, I- ah, god, Luffy-"
He's gonna cum, Luffy realizes, startled. I didn't see him touchin' himself before or anything though, so how's he already gonna-? Confused but knowing he's not mistaken; he can feel Zoro's growing lack of coordination and the way he's beginning to tense, can hear the labored hitch in his breathing.
His swordsman's next words are strangled, heavily muffled by Luffy's shoulder and back as he buries his face against them, gasping, "-c-couldn't fuck… needed… m-m-make love to y-" And then Zoro's uttering a ragged cry, his body jerking as he spatters the captain's belly with warm wetness and spills down the inside of his thigh.
"Z-Zoro," he groans, voice strained, trembling. "ZORO-" Maintaining the same steady rhythm because his lover's weight against his back's grown abruptly heavier the moment his release made it more difficult for his shaking arms to support him, but he's on the edge anyway, with the friction caused by being crushed between Zoro's body and the bed threatening to tumble him over it, and when Zoro's face continues rubbing and nuzzling between his quivering shoulder blades, mouth rambling things he can't hear through the thundering of his heart in his ears and chest and entire being, there's something in the movement of those lips on his skin that he understands anyway, and it's the last little push he needs to send him over the edge.
He writhes under Zoro, crying out into the sheets his hands have bunched into fistfuls. Zoro's name, incomprehensible responses to the words whispered against his skin- branded into it by those moving lips. Helpless noises, pleas. Again and again as he feels the bedding beneath his pelvis becoming sodden with his release.
Zoro strokes him, crooning, kissing his shoulders and neck, carrying him through the most intense stretch of the orgasm until he's slumped gasping against the mattress and doesn't resist when his partner rises to roll to one side, calloused hands closing on his side and hip and coaxing him to follow. Kissing his jaw, his throat, his mouth, every part of him in reach.
He can't stop making those tiny, overwhelmed sounds, clinging to Zoro, shaken to the core, at last truly understanding that Usopp isn't- wasn't- a threat to their relationship - the sniper had NEVER been a threat, would have never come between them - and when the full enormity of what they've lost finally crashes down on him, it hits him harder than any of the sniper's attacks and when he begins to cry, he's staring into Zoro's face, into eyes still a bit hazed by lingering pleasure but also filled with concern and compassion and immeasurable sorrow.
His tears don't earn him any rebukes this time, just Zoro's lips on his cheeks and eyelids, kissing them away, and his muscular arms cradling and bringing him closer, until he's sobbing into his swordsman's neck while fingers run gently through his hair.
It takes a long time for his chest to stop hitching even after his eyes are no longer watering but now itchy and aching, and although at some point he leans away to seize the comforter and drag it back up the bed to wrap it around them both, Zoro never leaves his side.
"I got sn-sn-snot all- all over you…" Luffy observes when he's eventually calmed down enough to make an attempt at speaking, his voice choked because his nose is so swollen and his sinuses so congested that it's difficult to breathe let alone try to make himself understood.
"It'll wash off- just like all the other junk you've gotten on me at one time or another. I mean, what's one more body fluid, right?"
Flushing, the captain finds himself giving a little wheeze of tired laughter despite the dried tear tracks on his face and that distressing hollow feeling in his chest. He leans into the older pirate's embrace with a shaky sigh, closing his eyes as the older pirate continues stroking his hair. "Zoro, do you- do you think it's my fault? Do you think Usopp- do you think he woulda stayed if- if-" He fights to swallow past the lump in his throat. "Would it've made a difference if I'd been o-okay with him- y'know- sharing you?"
"No," Zoro tells him softly, kissing his forehead. "I… I sort of have a feeling this whole thing would've happened anyway… 'n if you HAD been okay with him joining us 'n we'd actually tried it… shit would be even more complicated now." Kissing each of his closed eyes. "I mean, you know how much he loves Merry. So do you really think it would've turned out differently just 'cause we invited him into bed a couple times?"
"… no, I guess not…"
"Sencho, you can't beat yourself up over a crappy choice somebody else made 'cause they didn't wanna hear the truth. You 'n I both know- no matter what Usopp thinks or what he said- you made the best decision you could 'n you had the welfare of the whole crew in mind when you made it… 'n I'm so fucking proud of you." Seeking his mouth now, drawing him into a kiss that's slow and deep and tender and leaves his head spinning drunkenly until he's dizzy with it.
When he breaks away, panting softly, not just his face but most of his body feels hot and flushed, his fingers trembling as they trail across Zoro's torso and his gaze questioning because he can feel himself getting hard again where he's resting against Zoro's thigh and he knows Zoro can feel it too. And much to his relief, this time his swordsman doesn't tell him to behave himself but answers him with a soft smile and a "yes" and shifts to press more firmly against him.
Luffy plants a hand flat on his chest, intending to push him down on his back and move over him, but then he hesitates. "… I want Zoro- but I told everybody I was gonna look at that catalog again- at the ships in it- but-" He bites his lower lip, conflicted.
"Tomorrow," his lover tells him sternly. "I'm glad you wanna be responsible 'n take care of important shit 'n- like I said- I'm PROUD of you for it… but as your first mate, I gotta make sure you're also takin' care of YOU too, 'cause that's just as important." His smile turns wry and a touch self-deprecating. "… I swear, I'm NOT just sayin' that 'cause I want your dick- even though I do." He takes the hand Luffy's resting on his left pectoral, over the uppermost stretch of his scar, and raises it to brush his lips across the knuckles and then turns it over to kiss the palm. "Sencho, if you're all stressed out 'n upset, you probably won't get any decent sleep 'n that'll make it even harder to get shit done. Tomorrow's gonna be busy as fuck, right? Especially if we're gonna try'n find out where the hell Robin went."
Luffy nods, letting his fingers slip under Zoro's chin to cradle his jaw.
"… so tonight's yours," Zoro murmurs, nuzzling into his hand. "-to do whatever you wanna. The rest can wait 'til tomorrow morning." His arms give a little squeeze, pulling Luffy against him forcefully enough to make him gasp, his hips giving an eager, involuntarily nudge in response to the increased contact. "I think you- we- need this. Not sex necessarily, 'though that's definitely- very definitely- on the table if you want it. But if you decide you don't, I- well, I just want- I think I NEED- to hold you for awhile. If that's okay…" This last bit's spoken almost shyly, and much to the rubber man's delight, it's accompanied by Zoro's face flushing pink across his cheeks and nose.
It's sort of hilarious seeing his swordsman blush over THAT considering they're curled naked around one another, sprawled on sheets rumpled and damp with perspiration and cum from getting off together, but he holds back his laughter, because the emotions in Zoro's eyes- studying him with something approaching desperation- are the polar opposite of funny. Those eyes make his stomach do wild backwards flips and his pulse speed up and- "Wh-Whatever I want?"
"Yeah." Zoro swallows, adam's apple bobbing in the thick muscle of his neck. Still looking up at him with those eyes. Eyes that Luffy's pretty sure he could happily drown in… because he's certainly fallen, hasn't he? "Whatever you want."
Luffy wasn't aware he was holding his breath, but it comes out in a rush, along with his answer- an answer that makes his first mate- his Zoro- laugh out loud and rise readily to meet him when he bends his head to kiss his mouth. "I want EVERYTHING."