The sea lulls the ship to a soft rhythm. Zoro finds himself awake in the middle of the night, shaken by an odd dream that he can only now remember to little scraps and pieces, butー
(that dead look on his captain's face. dazed, unfocused eyesー)
(ーa quiet island.)
... Zoro is nowhere near sleepy after that dream.
So he opts to leave the crow's nest to jump down the deck, hoping that the moon would accompany him with alcohol. There's a stash he kept away from Nami's grubby hands (who will definitely complain about him using too much money for rum. nonsense.) and it proves to be a helpful course now that he's all left to his own type of peace; the sound of the rigs faintly moving, waves of the sea, and his lovely little space of utopia. A bottle in hand, he moves to the spacious part of the deck, a victorious smile on his face. Screw Nami and her malicious ways of controlling the funds, he bets the woman would probably spend most of it without their captain knowing (or knowing, probably not even the people above can guess how that guy's brain works) for stupid clothes andー
"Luffy!?"
What the fuckー
Zoro slaps his loud mouth with a smack, eyes wide when he finds this stupidly tall guy awake. Isn't it sleep time for the dumbass? They do say, "speak of the devil and he shall come'' but Luffy comes second close to eery precision.
"Zoro." The back in front of him is still, as if nonchalant about the scare. Perhaps the man was.
His captain, now that he can squint through the darkness, wore a horribly tousled hair than usual. Ah. "Can't sleep again?" He strides beside Luffy, who propped arms on the railings, looking at the dark horizonー and plops on the floor; lazy and loud unlike what he plans to be, back comfortably leaning at the makeshift wall. "Isn't the second time, but you can't go on like this, y'know?"
His sole company hums a low note, as if dismissing him, and he opens his bottle with a little accidental splash to the person's feet beside him in spite. Luffy chuckles lightheartedly in return. Bastard. "Then why are you awake?"
Zoro pauses, hand stilling. He doesn't know how to name it, whatever that was. "Weird dream," resigning to horrible vocabulary, he takes a gulp of rum after. With a taste like what he got through his buds, he really doesn't understand how Nami can be so frugal about it. "had you in it."
"Oh?" Luffy seems to stir away from dreamland, awareness in his voice. "What was it about?"
Placing the bottle down, he stares at the wall in front of him. Good question. What was it about?
"I don't know." Zoro adds, helpfully, "I can't even remember it anymore."
Luffy hums again, this time, out of... Approval? "That's good."
It's good?
Left incredulous just for a moment, and within a second, he finds a pair of dead eyes in front of him. He jolts, and out of that, his bottle spills its content. There's something terrifying under Luffy's gentle smile, with moonlight peeking through the spaces of the railing and the darkness thicker behind the man in front of him, that he can't help but wonder what his captain dreamed of this time. It's cold under Luffy's hazy gaze. Like this, he can imagine how they must look; a broad chest and large physique looming over aーthat should look equally imposing, should'veーsmaller body. Under the man above him, reality feels too heavy. He remembers that Luffy is not as kind as what he seems to be.
Luffy laughs, somehow disturbingly kind,
"There are things that people shouldn't remember." His captain whispers, "No?"
Zoro nods.
Luffy stares at him for a little while longer. He does too, until the shadow slowly leaves him. Zoro stays on his spot for some reason, the alcohol left on the floor. Soon enough, the soft rocking of the ship took him back to consciousness. it made him finally stand up to go back to his sleeping place to realize that his dream wasn't meant to be one.
And Luffy knew.
.
.
.
"There are things that people shouldn't remember." Luffy drags him beyond the void in those eyes. The hair on his nape prickles the same way it does when danger dances behind him.
"No?"