#I DIDNT ACTUALLY ANDWER THIS BC it made me too sad

[assiraphales]

Do you have any sick!Luffy ZoLu headcanons? If (heavens forbid) Luffy ever catches the Pirate King disease (like Roger) do you think Zoro would cry? Would he get angry (at Luffy or the universe or himself)? I can picture Luffy breaking the news to the crew and laughing saying "It's fine, it's fine" and then Zoro grabbing him by the collar and shouting "It's not fine!" all teary eyed which then makes everyone else cry (specially Chopper... And now I made myself sad af)

…………..well I didn’t (this also sent me down a reddit rabbit hole of discussions about not only only illness but the wear luffy’s fighting style and decisions has put on his body, as well as how age works differently in the op universe ie kureha & garp) but the twisted part about a sickness is it’s not a physical opponent anyone (zoro) could protect his captain from, or sacrifice his life for. and of course luffy, who laughs in the face of death / if it’s his time it’s his time, would accept his fate (imo) fairly well. the crew? the crew would not. (trying not to think about how upset chopper would be to be faced with one of the most important people in his life yet again being taken away by an illness he couldn’t cure)

everyone on the crew owes their life (tho of course not in the sense of a debt) to luffy in one way or another, and they love him so much, but zoro is in the unique position of his goals entwined so much with luffy’s own that his goals have become luffy. he wants to become the greatest swordsman for himself, for kuina, and for luffy. he would become the king of hell for luffy. the quote about what’s the point of ambition if you can’t protect your captain. zoro in the foxy pirate arc saying he wouldn’t be a pirate if it wasn’t with the strawhats. don’t die or I’ll kill you. he’d follow his captain to hell.

before luffy found zoro, he was lost. he knew what he eventually wanted to accomplish (beat mihawk) but other than that? the straw hats gave him purpose. a family. a reason to fight and grow stronger. to grow stronger to protect his family, and his captain. luffy was his priority days into meeting him. loving luffy is second Nature at this point and it’s hurting my brain to try and imagine taking luffy out of zoro’s life because while he’d still have the rest of the crew, he’d be missing his other half. a twin flame extinguished.

long story short no I don’t have any headcanons bc I don’t wanna :(((((