#pregnancy and labor is the vulnerability labyrinth i trap my faves in

[spock-smokes-weed]

re my last post about Zoro's labor: I actually think he noticed the night before he was experiencing contractions, but they were faint enough that he could be in denial about them. When he wakes up the next morning he's like "oh fuck this is really happening now, isn't it?"

So much of Zoro's fear and anxiety comes from being weak or being seen as weak, so I do think he'd be incredibly freaked out by the idea of giving birth. With how much hovering Sanji and the others are doing in his last month, it gets under his skin and he feels like he needs to prove he's still strong and self-sufficient. He wanted to prove a point to Sanji by making him go on his trip with Zeff, that he'd be fine without Sanji's mother-henning for a few days. But predictably it backfires and he's digging himself into an even deeper hole by not altering his friends to what's happening and admitting he was wrong and maybe he can't do everything on his own. And that he feels like a total tool for possibly making Sanji miss the birth of their kid.

Since Sanji is out of town, the gang decides to all crash at Nami's so they could collectively keep an eye on Zoro (Zoro of course thinks this is stupid and unnecessary and he's a grown man who can look after himself thank you very much) and Zoro knows he's in labor for hours before telling them. He finally breaks when his water does (haha) and he has no more time left to stall and deny. I think he gets upset and has a borderline panic attack when he does admit to it, but he has good friends and Nami is able to talk him down.