TW: this story contains implied violence against a minor. Obviously Zoro is not okay with it. Please only read if this won't trigger you.
Otherwise, welcome to some found family, drama, and good ol' hurt/comfort.
Let me also say that the only thing I know of One Piece is a) the live action b) bits and pieces from the anime that I've seen here and there, which amounts to VERY little, and c) fanfiction. So I am the first to say I am not well-versed in this world, except, again, for what I've seen in the live adaptation. But I have fallen for this world and its characters very hard, and these stories are made with the honest love of a fan, and I own and apologize for any and all mistakes that may seem glaringly obvious to others.
Also, because of my limited knowledge, any and all fics (for now) that I write in this fandom will only have the following characters: Monkey D. Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji. (Although only lets me list four of them, grrrr)
It was a typical day and a typical island.
Which, of course, meant everything started simply, looked normal, and turned out to be neither.
It wasn't the day's fault. It was bright, sunny, and balmy.
It wasn't the island's fault. The people there were very nice, their village was bustling, busy, and open to travelers.
But all it takes is one person. One traveler. One introduction of a nasty to infect the rest.
And all it takes is one person noticing and getting involved for it all to turn into a crapshow.
And of course, that person was Zoro.
They didn't realize it at first. Everyone was busy doing their own thing - Sanji was happily browsing the food stalls, discovering, smelling, and tasting the new and different vegetables and fruits this island had to offer. His shopping wagon was steadily filling with all kinds of delicious supplies. Nami and Usopp were keeping Luffy with them as they shopped for non-food supplies and wandered the market, looking at goods and trinkets, and filling Luffy's stomach with snacks from food carts. Zoro had wandered off to find a drink, as he often did, and to check out the wanted posters - not because he could cash them in, but out of habit. And to compare their bounties to Luffy's. He usually came back from that one of two ways: smug, or scowling.
If he got lost, they weren't worried. The village was small, and there were only so many places he would be.
There was a bit of shouting a few streets over, just a couple of squawks really, the telltale sounds of a scuffle, but by the time they got there nothing was amiss. Just a dusty man in a floppy hat picking himself up out of the dirt, grumbling to himself. He stood up, swayed, smacked his hat against his leg with an explosion of dust, and glared at them, mouth thin and angry.
"Stupid donkey," he snarled at them, as if answering an unspoken question. Then he swayed away, cramming the hat back onto his head.
Luffy watched him go with a confused smile and furrowed brows. "I don't see a donkey," he declared, voice rising on the last word as if it were a question.
"Probably ran off," Usopp said, shrugging. "They do that sometimes."
"Hm." Luffy watched the swaying grump disappear down another street, then turned around. "It's suppertime. I'm hungry."
Supper was delicious. Hot and fresh and bursting with flavor, full of some of the new foods Sanji had discovered.
Zoro still hadn't returned.
Usopp entertained them with a new story as the sun set and the first three stars appeared in the sky.
Zoro still hadn't come back.
Finally, the absence awkward and a little concerning, Nami swirled the drink in her glass and pursed her lips. "He's probably lost."
"It's not his fault. The streets move on him. Like a magic maze that never stays the same." Luffy paused as an idea occurred to him. "Maybe he's a Devil Fruit Eater. Only his power makes the world move around him in funny ways."
"He's never eaten a Devil Fruit, Luffy."
"Not on purpose ."
Sanji slapped his hands to his knees with a dramatic eye roll and sigh, and stood. "I'll go look for him. Usopp! You come too."
"Yeah." Looking less than pleased, Usopp slung his bag around his body, settling the strap over his shoulder and the bag at his hip, and he followed the cook off the ship.
The streets were quiet, but there was music and voices and laughter from the homes and the local Inn. They went there first. It would be typical to find Zoro cozied up to the bar, engaged in a drinking contest with some unfortunate local who thought their endurance something to be proud of.
But when they entered the place, there was not a flash of green anywhere.
There was, however, a small group of grave people in the corner. A woman was holding a small child close, tears trickling silently down her cheeks, while the men were grave and looking like they were getting ready for a fight.
Usopp stepped up to the bar and waved the barkeep down. "Excuse me," he mumbled when the balding man came close. "We're looking for our friend. Green hair? Three swords?"
The man scrunched up his walrus mustache in thought, then shook his head. "Sorry. Can't help you."
"You sure?" Usopp frowned, an uneasy squirm beginning in his stomach. "He loves to drink. Has a high tolerance. He was headed here earlier today, you sure he didn't come in at all?"
"Nope." The barkeep picked up a glass and began wiping it, sympathetic but busy. "A green-haired drungiro? I'd remember someone like that."
While Usopp settled at the bar, Sanji had drawn closer to the group, listening.
"Where did they go?" one of the men asked.
"Away. Towards Solk Bay." the mother rasped, fingers white where they clutched her child.
"They get anyone else?" Another man asked.
She shook her head, chin shaking as she tried to hold back a fresh wave of tears. "Just the man."
"Excuse me," Sanji leaned in. "Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt, but can I ask what happened?"
They pulled back, the mother's arms tightening around the frightened girl in her lap, the men readying their fists.
"Sorry," Sanji immediately lifted his hands, keeping his face soft and non-threatening. "I'm not trying to pry. My friend is missing, and we can't find him."
"What does that have to do with us?" a grizzled grandfather, still strong and wiry, demanded.
"I heard there was some trouble, and usually - if there's trouble - my friend finds it."
"Your friend," the woman whispered. "You're from that new ship that came in this morning, aren't you?"
Sanji nodded. "Yes. The Going Merry."
"And… you're friend…"
"Green hair, carries three swords. Ugly mug."
Her paling skin and widening, wet eyes made his stomach drop.
"They took him," she whispered. "They tried to take my Ami, but he saved her."
"How many?"
"Five."
It didn't add up. Five enemies were no match for Zoro, not even on a bad day.
"He told me to run, so I grabbed Ami from him and I did, but they threw something and it exploded in his face - a - a strange, yellow smoke. He collapsed, right there. A poison, I think. They dragged him away."
Sanji's jaw grew tight. "You said they were headed toward Solk Bay?"
She nodded.
"It's a small bay on the other side of town," the grizzled grandpa explained. "Too small to be a decent harbor, but big enough for one ship."
"Do you know who they were?" Sanji asked, aware his voice had grown sharp, his expression less than friendly, but feeling an urgency starting to rush through his limbs.
Hours. It had been hours already.
The mother nodded. Her daughter hid her face in her mother's shoulder, and the mother looked at him without blinking.
"Slavers."
His head hurt.
Not in the sharp way that would indicate a blow to the head, or an injury. No, this was a dull, throbbing pain that pulsed in time with his heartbeat. His eyes burned, too, and his throat felt gummy in a nasty, dry way.
He needed a drink.
The straw under his cheek stank of mold, mouse, and other things he'd rather not identify. The wood beneath was rough and cold.
Blinking open his eyes, the world gradually came into focus - or, at least a dingy, dark, small cell did. Light filtered in through a couple small windows on the opposite wall, through the bars of his cell. He heard the familiar creaking of deck boards and wood, the distant shouts and calls of a crew, the lapping of water.
There were three cells in this small space. Three cells ringing the room, around a desk, a narrow hall to his left. There was another cage just off the hall, barely visible in the dark of the underdeck, but something - or some things - moved within it, large, beastly, and growling.
The cell across from him, the one lucky enough to have the two small windows, had a creature in it, curled up and shaking in its clothes. A person? A child? Zoro couldn't tell.
The cell to his right, between his and the other, the one at the end of the room, seemed empty at first. But then he saw a shuffling movement, a small, toddling walk, a bundle of cloth not even two feet tall - and a small, luminous-eyed face, staring innocently at him. Little chubby fingers closed around the bars, and then reached through, wriggling in his direction. Long pointed ears drooped.
The baby gurgled at him, blowing bubbles down its chin.