#Roronoa Zoro | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zorosangell · 2 days ago

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Hi!!! First off I wanna say how AMAZING ur writing is like truly WOW. I loveee how you write jealous Zoro, but I neeeedd some jealous, possessive reader. Reader don’t play about Zoro just as much as he don’t play about her. You can also totally add some spice if you want *wink wink*

⛥ﾟ・。 stall

synopsis: after you catch a girl trying to spike zoro's drink, all hell breaks loose... hell being you.

cw: fluffy fluff, comfort, a whole lot of profanity, reader's crashout is incredibly valid, reader is a BADDIE, nami is a down ass bitch, girl talk, zoro looooves his girl.

a/n: i'd be this crazy too if I had zoro as a bf

"Look at her! All giggly and shit... he's never said anything that funny his whole life," you huffed, brows furrowed and lip jutted in a pout as you watched from the window of the bathroom door.

"She is kinda hammin' it up," Nami agreed, peaking along with you. "But that doesn't explain why you dragged me out here."

"'Cause I needed someone to spy with. And I didn't wanna look crazy doing it at a table."

"Hon', you look crazy now!"

"Hey!"

With a harsh sigh, you came off your tippy-toes, your heels making a soft clack against the bathroom tile as you turned to your red-headed friend.

"I do not!"

"(y/n), you are in your best dressed while stalking your boyfriend from the grimy bathroom of a dive bar," she deadpanned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I love you... but this is insane."

Slowly, you deflated, shoulders slightly sinking at the facts presented for you.

It did look kind of crazy.

'A warranted kind of crazy...'

The girl out there with the annoyingly silky hair and infuriatingly beautiful dress had been practically throwing herself at Zoro since the moment she saw him.

And it had only been a week since you and the crew arrived at Asaashi.

The Sunny was in need of repairs, so the crew docked at a nearby port island in order to give Franky enough space and time to fix her up.

And guess who happened to be the harbormaster?

Every day, without fail, she had managed to tail your swordsman, following him and showering him with praise whenever she could.

You hadn't had not two seconds alone with him before she came barging in with some excuse like a pirate crew she needed help collecting from or boats she needed help destroying.

You knew Zoro had never—and would never—entertain her advances, but being his girlfriend, you couldn't help but feel some type of way.

"She knows exactly who I am, and she knows exactly what she's doing," you stated, firmly, pointing at the window. "I can't just sit around and do nothing, Nami."

"Well, hanging out in the bathroom surely isn't helping."

With a sigh, she stepped closer, resting a comforting hand on your shoulder.

"You've got more history with that idiot than that girl could ever know. And if you actually think she has a shot with him, then maybe you aren't as smart as I thought you were..."

"Hey!"

Amused, Nami let out a small snicker, before focusing on the task at hand.

"You're his girlfriend. And you've got every right to walk out there and plop yourself down on his lap. Kiss him! Shove your tongue down his throat! Lay your claim, girl! Men do it all the time."

Surprised, your nose scrunched.

"Really?"

"You think Zoro starts getting hot and heavy with you whenever Sanji's around just for fun?"

She paused a moment, thinking about her statement.

"Well... yes, for fun, but it's also a power-play."

Shaking her head, she returned to her point.

"So be bold! Take charge! Show that bitch who's boss!"

"Yeah!"

With new determination, you turned on your heel, throwing the bathroom door wide open and storming out.

Only to immediately rush back in.

"She's coming! Hide!"

"(y/n)!"

Quickly, you snatched up Nami's wrist, dragging her into a stall and shutting the door just in time for the woman and her friend to walk in.

"Oh, my god, Siva, the guy you're talking to is so hot," the friend commended, audibly plopping her bag down on one of the sinks. "Where did you find him?"

"At work," she smirked, going straight for the mirrors to check her makeup. "His crew's been docked here for about a week. We've been getting to know each other better."

"I'm surprised a man like him isn't snatched up already," the friend remarked, slowly gliding the bright red lipstick across her lips.

"Oh, he is," Siva grinned, her lips curling in an almost witch-like expression. "But she's practically out the picture already."

At that, anger began to bubble in your stomach, your brows furrowing at the statement.

'Oh, she fuckin' didn't.'

Just as you were about to open the door, Nami looped her arms under your armpits, frantically holding you back.

"Clearly not enough. He hasn't touched you all night," the friend reminded, beginning to touch up her eye shadow.

"All week," Siva corrected, annoyed, as she grabbed something out her dress pocket. "But this little baby's gonna change all that."

You and the navigator paused your struggle for a moment, brows quirking as you both peeked in the crack of the stall to see what she was holding.

It was a small bottle.

"Few drops of this in his sake and he'll be up for anything."

"Few drops? He'll need ten bottles just to get a buzz," the friend scrunched her nose.

"Nuh-uh. Whole bottle's enough to kill a dragon."

You were clenching your fists so hard, your knuckles were turning white.

"What about the girlfriend?" the friend asked, amused.

"What about her? She'll be old like last week's shoe sale. Tossed out and left with the trash."

"Girl, you are bad..."

"It's good to be."

"Y'know what's gonna be really good?!"

Without hesitation, you kicked open the stall door, the resounding boom scaring the shit out of them

"When I kick your fucking ass!"

Seamlessly, you kicked off your heels before launching forward, grabbing Siva by her silky hair and letting off a rapid-fire round of punches, her poor balance easily taking you both to the ground.

"My extensions!" Siva shrieked as you tossed a clump of fake hair, attempting to lift her arms in order to shield her face.

"Siva!" the friend gasped, quickly moving to assist. "Don't worry! I'll get her!"

"Get who?" Nami scoffed, hopping on one foot as she attempted to take off her heels and take out her earrings. "You're not jumping my girl, bitch!"

Stalling for time, Nami stepped on the girl's toes with the point of her heel before finally managing to get it off, promptly snatching her up before she could grab you.

"Get the fuck off me, you fucking cunt!" Siva spat as you continued to throttle her head.

"Shut the fuck up!" you barked, tossing her into a tiled wall.

"Oh, that is fucking it!" she growled, brows furrowed and newly invigorated.

"C'mon, bitch! I'm right here!"

With a roar of anger, she charged you, slamming you both against another wall before you flipped her over and tackled her out the bathroom, taking the door completely off its hinges.

"Keep fuckin' trying me, hoe! I'm not scared of you!" you spat, the two of you right back where you started as you grabbed her hair once again, slamming her head against the hard wood of the door—Nami still being in a fist fight with the friend in the bathroom.

"Ohhhh, shit! Cat fight!" a random patron exclaimed, calling the attention of the entire bar.

Everyone cheered, letting out shouts of oohs and aahs as you whooped the woman's ass, the sight honestly a marvel as you did so effortlessly, without devil fruit powers nor freakish strength to back you up.

Just will and a whole lot of grit.

Though, it wasn't long before a certain pair of strong arms grabbed you, pulling you away from the woman as you frantically thrashed around like an angry cat.

None other than your boyfriend.

"No, Zoro! M'not done beatin' her ass!" you whined, attempting to wiggle out of his tight grip.

"Yes, you are," he shut down, instantly, his tone leaving no room for argument. "We're leaving."

"Nami-swan, please! A goddess like yourself shouldn't dirty your hands with things like this!" Sanji pleaded, attempting to pry your red-headed friend off the other girl.

"Fuck that! This bitch tried to pull my hair out!"

"Yeah! Run away, bitch!" Siva taunted, sitting up from the ground with a painful wince.

"Run away?!" you scoffed, eyes wide. "Oh, hell nah! Zoro, let me go!"

"No," he denied, tossing you over his shoulder before starting toward the door. "Let's go, cook! Hurry the hell up!"

"Give me a damn second! She's got a death hold on her!" Sanji grunted, finally managing to loosen Nami's grip on the friend's neck before pulling her off.

"My fucking teeth!" Siva screeched, cupping at least five in her palm with horror.

"Thank my man, bitch! He's the only reason you're still breathing!" you barked, grabbing a nearby man's drink and tossing it at her. "Have fun suckin' sailor dick, toothless!"

"Fuck you!"

"Eat my ass!" you pulled down your eyelid, sticking out your tongue as you waved around a humongous chunk of hair. "Bald-headed bitch!"

The following shriek was high enough to shatter glass, but it sounded like music to your ears as you laughed, tossing her extensions on the ground as Zoro finally exited the bar.

With a sigh, he started in the direction of the Sunny—per Sanji's instructions—glancing back at you with a raised brow.

"You wanna tell me what all that was back there?" he asked.

Slowly coming down from your high, your shoulders slightly sank, arms crossing over your chest.

"She won't be coming around you anymore," you huffed, firm and final.

At that, Zoro finally realized what this was all about, forcing a small smirk to curl on his lips.

Letting out a chuckle, he pressed a soft kiss against your thigh, his large palm giving your ass a quick squeeze.

"Crazy woman..."

#zorosangell #one piece #one piece x reader #roronoa #roronoa x reader #roronoa zoro #roronoa zoro x reader #zoro #zoro x reader #op

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vyainide · 2 days ago

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ㅤㅤㅤㅤcoax me out, my loveㅤㅤ＼ㅤcomforting op menㅤㅤ𖥟

ワンピース၇⃪⃖ꪆ୧ㅤluffy, zoro & lawㅤ 𓊉 ㅤ~𝟣.𝟤𝗄—𝟣.𝟦𝗄𝗐𝖼ㅤ───gn! reader, canon compliant, angst/comfort, character study, can be romantic or platonic, marineford spoilers (luffy, zoro), thriller bark spoilers (zoro), dressrosa spoilers (law)᭮ ━─⠀ ❤︎ ㅤ2025©vyainide ㅤㅤ︶ིྀᩧㅤ1864lib

vyon's mouthpiece. sanji is not here because i haven't seen his backstory yet, i could write it bc it's impossible to avoid op spoilers for any arc and i essentially know the backbone of his lore, but i'm afraid i wouldn't do it enough justice so i'm just gonna not

sometimes, he gets distant— it's not then that you need to worry about luffy. you know to give him more credit now since you've become something to him; it's the times that he brands himself into you— stubborn and tense, even when it starts to hurt that you have enough basis to be worried.

the papers had ravished into every detail they could when it came to marineford, eager, eager, so disgustingly eager to find a physicality in ace's blood; they'd exaggerated every gory detail with a numbness that only those in their field are privy to. dug out open wounds where there were scars, tore wider cuts that were already stitched, ripped away the scab that had just formed— merciless.

you saw the news, everyone else in the crew did no doubt. and you'd have to give the paparazzi credit, they were there. you were not.

how the mighty whitebeard died standing, not bowing to any marine even in his death, stood as a shield for the sons he'd carelessly picked up over the years; how jinbei, shanks, all these big name pirates had shown up if only to cause enough chaos to make them regret; how ace— poor, sweet, loveable ace— died. you knew all the details, but you did not know the luffy that had lost his brother.

it was something that you did not quite know how to address when you'd come back from those gruesome years spent so out of reach from your captain, your crew, your family with only the trust you had in them that knew not one of them would go down. the return to saobaody archipelago was an undoing, the same way that it was when you'd been separated.

you worried a lot, and you're ashamed to admit that it was very much useless when you'd came across chopper first— and then he'd managed to coax you into buying him cotton candy like no years had passed at all. like time had been cut and sewn back together seamlessly and you were back to the day that camie and hachi were showing you around.

and from there, things speed up quick. you're allowed to sink into nami's arms when she offers you a hug, you laugh at usopp's stories of his mentor and an island that wanted to eat him, your stomach rejoices when it's finally satiated by sanji's cooking— you can finally smile at luffy, but there's no time for anything else. you've spent many nights grappling on how to be there for luffy when you were reunited, but he seems to return to you whole. toughened up, with that same smile that only reassures no matter what and after fishman island, you can't, in good conscious, ask luffy to slow down and force him back into the memories that no doubt haunt.

and haunt they do.

you've never reckoned luffy to be weak— no, he was your captain and he was the man who was going to be the king of pirates. you've placed your bets on him long ago, all in for this firecracker of a teen, but marineford had done something to him— to the luffy that has always stood so proudly in your memory like a god out of touch.

when you see a rival pirate sneak up on luffy from behind him, you see that photo that had been caught by chance in marineford. the luffy that had never bowed to any authority with his shaky arms, wrapped tight around his dying brother— not in the usual manner, the excitable way where he'd coil his arm around, once, twice, thrice. his fingertips barely touching as they wrapped around ace's middle, his head ducked down into the slope of ace's neck, shoulders closed in. this was not your captain who had taken down crocodile, who had punched a celestial dragon, who had saved countless members of his crew. this was luffy that had lost ace.

and you think, you've been thinking that luffy could have well died in that battle. it's selfish in a way that you know luffy would never quite accept, but you're a pirate. so you step in between the sword and luffy— and when you see the absolute horror that contorts luffy's vision, you think you can understand him a little bit better.

you wake up a little after less than twenty–four hours and nothing is out of the ordinary, except— except for the fact that your right hand is numb when the sword had driven through your stomach. hazily dragging your eyes over the lines of wooden planks that made up the ceiling of chopper's office until it pulls down onto a squeeze of your hand. "captain." your throat aches.

"you—" his bottom lip wobbles and his hand, wrapped around yours, squeezes again. you wince.

he sees it, he loosens up a little, but his fingers continue on, pressing between the meat of the bones in the back of your hand.

chopper comes in, sees you've woken up, and takes over accordingly.

you don't get to talk to luffy about this incident either.

things melt back into what they used to be and what stands out when you look at luffy is that expression that had degraded onto his face when you'd jumped in front of him. burdened by a shame and guilt, you let it be.

two days pass— not so normally as luffy has taken to becoming an unmovable extension of you and you let that be until it becomes a problem.

"luffy," he turns to you when you call for him, "are you okay?"

he makes a face that's as judgemental as he can fathom— it's similar to how nami's face twists, only his eyebrows are pinched more in a zoro–like fashion. "why?" sticks his face closer to yours and his eyes draw wide, deep and suddenly unfathomable, "you're the one in bandages," he says like it's an insult. you're surprisingly wounded by it though so maybe it was.

"it's not a competition." but if it were, you don't think you'd be winning. luffy doesn't dignify that with a response past a loud huff and shrugging away, his hands tightened around his ankle but the length of his arm is wrapped around yours. "i'm sorry, luffy." and it's obvious, far too obvious, that it would have been you that gives in first.

a good captain he is, luffy knows you have more to say— his ear twitches but he doesn’t turn back to look at you. amused, you reach out for his hand and pull it from his ankle. "i am sorry, captain. i think everyone is."

that interests him enough to incline his head back to you, the straw hat tipping with the slope. you leave it be and nod your head down to the material, resting against him. "for not being there." you can't see his face but you're shamelessly capable of imagining what it looks like right now.

"s'not your fault." he tells you, voice as even as he could make it. "it's," his chest puffs up like he was starting a sigh but it never goes back down. "i was right there 'n—" his voice cracks. "it was meant for me."

ah, you realise something, you've hurt him more than you imagined. the hand you've held loosely twists around and settles over your thighs; when he clenches down, violent in the blunt press of his nails softened over the material of your trousers, you don't wince. "ace must have been happy." you can say that confidently. "to see that his younger brother had come to save him— embarrassed too i bet."

cocky that you're trying to lighten the mood but luffy huffs a laugh so you know you must be right. "he was," luffy tells you, petulant and childish. "he told me to go away."

you let that rest for a while, let it dust off the still hurt that had been weighing luffy down and allow your captain to find that after his small laugh, something in his heart stretches outwards, then snaps back into place with an ease that he'd lost since marineford.

then you're at it again. "ace couldn't have lived with himself if you had died for him— and i know it well. if he had lost you and whitebeard at the expense of himself," you don't finish that sentence because you know luffy understands. it's in the way that his hand loosens around your thigh. "i'm sorry i wasn't there and that i stepped in the way of that sword, but luffy—"

"i know." solemn. "don't say it." demanding.

"okay captain." smiling, you push closer into luffy.

the captain and his first mate, and you say this with so much love in your heart, are two like minded buffons. you knew that they had sailed together in a little dinghy together before they had received the going merry from a friend of usopp's and you have to wonder how the hell they had survived. luffy was one thing, but zoro was another.

zoro's charmed you to believe in his competence. he's a monolith of a man— every part of him heavy, hurtful, mean, he carries three swords, his eyebrows set in a deep frown that is soothed by no name branded alcohol, steps silent and so sure. strong shoulders set back, the boredom on his face easily mistakable as an easy glare— they knew him as pirate hunter roronoa zoro before he'd crawled onto a pirate ship and claimed his title as monkey d. luffy's first mate.

you're disillusioned enough now by this untouchable man. he's one braincell that is easily swayed by anything powerful and it sometimes aligns itself with luffy's own singular braincell. zoro is little more than a simple muscle head that is aware, to a fault, of his own shortcomings. his reckoning had come to him on thriller bark; you've no idea what exactly it was. he maintains that nothing happened, sanji and brook (the only ones privy to this detail) refuse to blab about it. and you respect zoro enough to leave it alone, but you do not miss the look that he offers luffy's back sometimes, like he's discerning something deep in his itchy bones, teething around the ache to get to the rot.

you know his origins well. he's a force that had come, snarling and biting, out of the east blue— toppled whatever hierarchy they'd made there as a singular unit. you also know that east blue is the weakest of all four seas so it matters not that zoro was considered strong there. he may have had the strength to protect himself in that weak sea, but he was more than a lone wolf now and the rest of the world? it should not be underestimated.

zoro, prideful man he is, had to learn that lesson the hard way. saobaody archipelago was the hurricane after the storm; for a short moment after thriller bark, it had seemed like zoro had learnt how to live after nothing, how to cope with it. you're still curious as ever, but you know to leave well enough alone.

then, there's after saobaody, split into two very precise periods. before marineford and after marineford. you take it about as well as you could and though you're not one to compare, you know that zoro must have taken it harder. luffy and zoro's joining didn't begin with the latter pledging his loyalty, nami had dramatised the tale to express her woes of sailing with a group of brutes (and usopp), but it was enough for you to understand. after his first reckoning at baratie, zoro had prided himself as luffy's first mate, staked his claim as the man stood by his side. his own dreams weaved perfectly into luffy's.

saobaody happens again and zoro has only grown stronger in those two years— even though he's now missing an eye.

you recognise quickly that his pride, his ego is quieter these days. it's still as easy as ever for him to be riled up by sanji, but it's more stagnant. on nights where he's no reason to be awake, watch duty delegated to someone else— just as capable— he's awake, an overbearing presence that refuses to rest. on your nights, zoro hovers.

you don't take it personally. you know that zoro believes in your capability just as much he does his own, but recently, you've been doubting his faith. not the faith he has in you, the faith he has in himself.

"what's up with you?" you can't help yourself from asking one night, up on the highest vantage of the sunny where it's easier to see.

zoro peeks over his shoulder, levels his one good eye at you, and glares— wow he's good at using that eye. your hands slip from the purchase of his shoulders, the pressure that had been keeping him bent down against his calves lets up and he follows the singing relief, straightening up. "what'dya mean?"

there's a lightness to his words that you belatedly recognise from the past, he hasn't been letting you see that recently. whiplashed from the sudden realisation, you give him your own stink–eye, annoyed more when it only carries half the potency that zoro's does. "you're running yourself dry is what i mean." your hands settle onto your hips.

he's undisturbed by the attempt at dominance so you give it up quick. sighing as you slump down next to him; he continues to stretch without your help.

"who did you go to?" you ask after a moment, realising that you didn't know.

zoro, bent down against his right leg, body inclined away from you, answers easily. "dracule mihawk." his voice a grunt of effort with his organs crushed.

"woah. really?" you can't imagine that— or well, you can, but it wasn't very easy. he doesn't dignify that with a response, stretches his body to his left leg, his arm brushed up against your knee as he wraps his hand around his ankle. "you trained with that guy?" scrunching up your face, "can't imagine him offering to train you."

"he didn't offer," you eye zoro warily, like his back would split open and cymbal clapping monkeys would grow from his spine, "i asked."

"you did?" you wince when you hear the own surprise in your voice, even though you think that the cymbal playing monkeys wouldn't be so strange now. "when?"

"after."

you pathetically fight the urge to wack him, hands turned into fists. "after what?"

zoro can't eye you since you're sat on his left so he stretches an arm out to push away your face. "stop bothering me."

hitting his arm away, you lean into him. "you're bothering me. it's my night." intruding into his personal space, you push your arm through the gap of his torso and his knee, slapping his nose. "after marineford?" he bites your hand and you take it as a yes, though you're sure it could also mean fuck off.

you gag, pulling your arm away.

you know zoro well enough now to know that he's only at rest when he knows everyone is accounted for; never speaks it verbal though, does a rudimentary sweep of the sunny with his haki and settles when he feels the giggling chirp of his crews' heartbeat that soothes his own. you don't bother with words, zoro has no need for them.

shifting, you slide behind zoro. "okay," you relent, pretending that this conversation never happened. "thank you for keeping me company, mister pirate hunter." slumping over so that you can lean your side against his back as it straightens up, your head hits his shoulder as he grows, back to the steady obelisk that the sunny depends on.

"if you fall asleep on me, i'm telling luffy."

you wrap your arms around his neck, inner elbow against his adam's apple; you let him go when he taps out for the third time.

to live his life right, law needed a heavy hitting hand, a very forceful and demanding hand that knows no refusal. no one pretended that it wasn't necessary, not even the man himself; the task is delegated mostly onto bepo, who law has an unexplainable soft spot for, shachi and penguin, who can hide behind their self proclaimed roles as his seniors in life and grew up with him, and ikkaku, who law treats a little bit less rough on account of her being female.

that's why everyone was so disconcerted about being told to go to zou without him— it would happen ultimately because the heart pirates prided themselves on their selfless loyalty and what their captain says, goes. but the aforementioned childhood friends were a lot more vocal, could afford to be, about their dislike of his plan. everyone else silently sided with shachi and penguin, treated law like he might shatter for the following weeks leading up to the split, drove him up the wall with it.

despite it all, law is a good captain— too good, separates himself from the individuality that would intonate himself as anything but a captain, so he leaves his crew alone when they start treading 'round him like he's about a breath away from shattering. it doesn't last too long though, because after an entire day's worth of silent looks from his crew and then badgering from shachi, he blows like a poorly constructed pipe— you all blame it on shachi and he takes it as poorly as law did, if only more childish.

after yelling about anything and everything— unrelated things like the state of the kitchen, the stain that clione had been sporting all week, the state of bepo's fur (which the mink apologises repeatedly for), the scarce stock of coffee grounds, law is sober enough to glare at everyone, except bepo for whom he offers something of an apologetic look, and then makes a point of stomping to his room like a prepubescent teenager in the midst of his angst. following his outburst, everyone peeks around quietly at each other until someone gains the balls to speak.

ironically, it's ikkaku who throws her arms into the air and declares that she can't do it anymore. she's looking at you pointedly, which makes everyone else follow— even bepo, his two life seniors, jean-bart "traitors," you call them.

you follow after the quake of law's stamping, the metal panels of the polar tang squeaking under your careful feet as if forewarning your fate. you knock on the door of his quarters, forceful hand he needs, you don't wait for the answer that'll never come and come in swinging. "captain," you greet, acquiescently.

he looks all parts of a man that was mourning a loved one— the man he was before he picked up his idiotic and nosy crew. sat on the edge of his bed, knees locked as he stabilises his elbows on them and rests his head on his hands, fingers locked together. law doesn't even acknowledge you as you invite yourself in, overbearing and click the door shut behind you, ignore the fact that his two life seniors will come and press their ears up against the door.

a miffed huff leaves his throat when you take a seat next to him, the dip of the mattress makes you slide up next to him. "they're worried," you give him a pointed look that makes the sarcastic remark on his tongue shrivel. "that's all— we're not going to stop you if you're so insistent on going off alone."

your look doesn't stop him this time— incline his head away so that he can look up at you, something of a sarcastic grin on his face. "you seem hellbent on trying though." your eyes trace over the scruff of his face, up between the creases at the corner of his dry lips, catch on the honey gold of his eyes that flicker with his eyelashes.

"we physically can't," you sweatdrop, "you've built a crew of medics, who here can overpower you?" he shakes his head away, a small laugh, his shoulders loosening. "if only shachi hadn't been caught in his plans of procuring a set of seastone cuffs that we would've used to chain you to bed." you let out a faux sigh.

"don't try that again."

you eye his door, imagine the shiver that runs down shachi's spine with the veiled threat. despite how awful and strange the one–sided interaction ended, everything simmers back down and the crew is back to their usual idiocy when law leaves his room a half an hour after you've left and makes a point of not looking at anyone whilst making himself coffee, then dropping by the navigation room. the heart pirates bask in the coldness of their cruel captain's forgiveness.

when he leaves, it's full of tears and promises. law, as he usually does, looks about as emotionally constipated as ever and he can only take the dramatic farewell until shachi delegates himself as stand–in captain. he opens up a room, but doesn't shamble away until he tells you all that anyone�� quite literally anyone— can be the stand–in captain if it means that shachi is not. you all wordlessly push the role onto penguin and then watch his room fizzle away after he shambles himself. then, the polar tang is off.

you all keep up with him the best you could. all you get is a newspaper headlining doflamingo's resignation as a warlord, it's hard to get news on zou, apparently. it's fine though— because even if law had not promised that he'd make it back in one piece, make it back at all, you knew he was a good captain and death was not as kind enough to take him yet.

when law comes back to you, he's smaller in a way you can't fathom. it's strange only because you feel like you're finally seeing him for the first time— everything redundant peeled back, the flesh that he keeps up to continue as a captain pinned away, bones shaved down, muscles melted, and you were staring at law. if anyone else in the crew sees it, they don't mention it.

when you're allowed to, your arms wrap around his middle— pat down his back as if feeling for his body and slide your ear against his heart. it's a hug that's too tender and intimate, less excitable than the ones that his oldest friends have offered him and law has since become a stranger to this kind of touch. he feels like an imposter when he lets his arms circle around you.

you don't say anything to law during or after that, don't bother giving him ammunition to be able to rationalise, nitpick, and dissect your words into anything less than it is. you leave him with a hug and make him grasp at the meaning.

if law is there, hidden around a corner or behind a tree, when you sincerely thank luffy for bringing him back— half–alive and less of a vindictive existence— whether it's by design or not, he does not know. but he's thankful regardless, for not being forced to come face with it.

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