#this is about zoro in the one piece live action
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zosan-secondchances · 3 days ago
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The Pirate King of the North: Part 9
Bonus panels for some extra backstory.
Main Themes: Villain Sanji, Alternate Universe, Zosan Ship
Warning: Long post ahead with One Piece spoilers. Contains strong language and explicit content.
Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
That night, the swordsman makes a last minute decision to rectify things with the blonde. He figured that there's no point in delaying as this might be the only chance they get to talk one-on-one before they get stuck in Skypiea with Law for however long they need to be up there. Since his cocktail-making skills are apparently subpar at best, he thought he'd turn to doing something else that he hopes Sanji would like before he pops the question–about the name, he reminds himself. Whatever it is, it will need to be something incredible to make up for the shame of not knowing something so simple about the man after all the years they’ve known together.
He thinks about quickly jumping off to collect some flowers in Jaya’s South Grove, but he is met by Jean Bart who drags his sorry feet back inside. The large man assigned himself on “Zoro duty”, not wanting the Warlord to get lost the night before he needed to depart with their captain. Apparently they had pissed him off enough already that day.
Zoro turns to the kitchen to try and find Sanji's favourite snacks, and maybe sneak away with a couple bottles of wine to help set the mood. Unfortunately he bumped into Hakugan and Uni who are guarding the door, ready to strike him down should he set foot inside the room. They give him a powerful performance of their martial arts prowess as a gentle reminder that he's banned from the place, warning him that they’re not afraid to put their lives on the line to enforce Law’s rules. When he tried to ask for their assistance to go and fetch what he needed, they both turned him away, thinking that he's just trying to distract them so he can do whatever evil thing he apparently was set out to do.
His last option was the library. He’s not much of a reader but he figured he would try because he knew of Sanji’s love for knowledge and books. He wants to read a story or two with him to see if that’s something they would enjoy doing together. Sadly, when he arrives, he is met by the Grand Line’s most impatient doctor who is currently studying the Skypiea map with Bepo at the polar bear’s drafting table, trying to come up with a plan of action for when they get there in the morning. Not wanting to be distracted or have the library wrecked the way Zoro did with the kitchen, Law used his Room ability to teleport him out of there before he could even get a chance to grab something off the shelves.
Having no other options left, Zoro resorts to the idea of giving the blonde mind-blowing sex. He would worship him like the king he is and he would do it all night if the other man demanded it so. The swordsman figured it's probably the safest bet anyway while they’re in the early honeymoon phase of their relationship. Sanji is highly skilled in that area for a very good reason.
He makes his way to their bunkroom. Under the door, he sees that the dim light of the desk lamp is still on. Finally, things are looking up. He thinks to himself that now’s the perfect chance to make a move while Sanji is probably still up reading at this hour as usual.
Until he hears a couple of familiar voices on the other side of the door. They were muffled, but their identities were clear.
Sanji
…Are you sure that you're okay? I don't know how effective it is with the front broken like that.
Niji
Dunno. It's like…having mood swings. The sensation goes in and out. It's a bit weird.
Sanji
I need you to get it fixed first then. And while you're at it, drop off the new stones at the lab.
I'm not sending you in until you're all good.
Niji
I can still fight.
Sanji
I'm not letting you take the risk until your helmet’s fixed, Niji. That's my final word. You’re on your own with this next mission and I need you to be able to make good calls.
Another pang of guilt hits the swordsman–for not being careful enough and wrecking the commander’s helmet, and for eavesdropping for as long as he has so far. He starts walking backwards, and was about to turn his heel and move somewhere else to give them privacy when Sanji’s voice pierced through the door.
Sanji
Hey, Mosshead! Don't be a creep and get in here.
Zoro flinches, and silently curses the blonde’s mastery of his observation haki. He doesn't want to make things look worse than it already is so he opens the door awkwardly. He's met by two pairs of eyes.
Sanji is leaning with his palms against the desk while Niji is sitting on the chair, fiddling with the blonde's claw gauntlet on the table. It looks like there's two now. From afar, Zoro could tell that their blades are longer, sharper and more dangerous than the last. The metallic scale armour that covered the glove is a new addition, having only just durable leather holding everything together before.
Niji
Spying on us, are we?
Zoro grits his teeth, throwing the blue-haired man an annoyed look.
Sanji
This is also his room, Commander.
Niji tuts disapprovingly then resumes his work on the claw gauntlet.
Zoro
I didn't want to interrupt. I’ll just head out for some fresh air.
Sanji
You didn't interrupt anything. The commander was just showing me his handiwork. He’ll be done soon! I just needed a couple of fitting adjustments done and we’re all set.
Niji
Hmm… no. Now that I think about it, this will take a bit longer than I thought. 
Sanji
What? But you said–
Niji
Whoops.
As if done on purpose, a buckle disassembles itself in Niji’s hands. Little bits of metal scatter on the desk.
Sanji
You’re such an ass. Fine. Stay here, hog the room. I don’t care. Let’s go, Marimo.
Niji
No, I need you to stay here so we can refit it. Because the buckle’s broken now.
Sanji
You broke it!
Niji
And I need to fix it but I can only do that if you’re here. So, stay.
Sanji
I will actually pluck your eyeballs out one of these days, Commander.
Sanji stomps out the door, grabbing Zoro’s arm along the way.
Niji
Where are you going? We need to get this done tonight before you head off first thing!
Sanji
I’ll be back!
Zoro and Sanji walk arm-in-arm quietly to the deck of the ship. They were met by Jean Bart who was about to tell off Zoro for being outside, but the blonde reassured the large man that he has eyes on him, promising to keep the grumbling swordsman out of trouble. Happy with the response, the Heart Pirate retires inside for the night.
Zoro
Isn’t the whole point of me being here is to keep an eye on you?
Sanji chuckled heartily–music to the swordsman’s ears.
Sanji
I know. What the hell happened to us?
They proceeded to the bow of the ship and settled themselves against the railing. It was quiet and serene. The crescent moon is up, revealing the dark silhouette of Jaya island on the horizon. Above, stars shone brightly across the span of the night sky–its reflections twinkled playfully on the still waters of the ocean below.
Sanji
You’re awfully quiet.
Zoro tears his gaze away from the scene. He looks next to him where the blonde has a hand wrapped around his arm and finishing a cigarette with the other.
Sanji
You usually are, but your silence is…louder somehow.
The swordsman rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. Suddenly he’s not so sure what to say and how he’d ask the big question. He wanted to get this far tonight–tried many times to set up the scene better but to no avail. He also didn’t realise how he would feel right in the thick of things.
Zoro
There’s been a lot in my mind. Sorry.
Sanji
Never apologise for that…but whatever it is, I could tell that it’s eating you up.
Zoro sighs and returns his gaze to the island on the horizon.
Sanji
Is this because you had a fight with my brother?
Zoro’s eyebrows shoot up.
Zoro
Did he–?
Sanji
He didn’t have to. His helmet's busted and don’t think I haven’t noticed your little injury on your forehead, damn Mosshead. If you don’t take care of your head, how will you be able to photosynthesize?
Zoro scowls at the mockery.
Sanji laughs lightly, kissing the swordsman on the cheek as a way of reassuring him that it’s just a joke. After noticing that his attempt to release the tension didn’t work, he speaks in a slightly more serious tone.
Sanji
Did he try to scare you away? Is that why you’ve been avoiding me all night?
Zoro shakes his head.
Sanji
Don’t freak out or anything but… you’re not the first that he’s done that to. I can tell him to back off if you want.
Zoro
No… it’ll take a lot more than that to get me to leave your side, Curls.
The blonde’s expression softens.
Zoro
Though, I didn’t mean to make you feel like I was trying to avoid you. I spent hours… ages… trying to plan this whole thing for us tonight but I feel like whatever I do…
The swordsman gets flashbacks of all the times he’d slashed and stabbed the man. He remembers cursing his way repeatedly for attempting to propose to him for the umpteenth time. He recalls their first kiss–how the first thing that came out of his mouth was to tell him to not kill the Celestial Dragon, and because of that, it nearly cost him his life. In fact, he might have permanently if not for their skillful doctor. He remembers the way the blonde held onto the liberated family from Sabaody. How, even in his critical condition, he fought from fully succumbing into sleep just to make sure that everyone was okay as they fled from the Pacifistas. 
And now, with a seemingly easy task of organising a romantic night, the swordsman can’t even do such a simple thing for him.
Zoro clenches his fists against the wooden railing.
Zoro
I can’t seem to do anything right by you…. I just feel like everything that I do is not good enough–or just flat out hurts you. And right now, I have nothing but myself to offer. For whatever that's worth.
Sanji
Zoro…
Zoro shifts so he’s looking at Sanji face to face then holds both of his hands in his, making the other man drop his cigarette. The determined fiery look in his eye makes the blonde jump in surprise.
Zoro
Curls, I want to get to know you better.
Sanji
Uh–sure!
Zoro
What’s your favourite food?
Sanji
Uhm… let’s see…
Zoro
If you had all the money in the world, where would you go?
Sanji
Oh Mellorine, I do have all the mon–
Zoro
How long does it take to get there?
Is that where you want to go for our first date?
Is shopping your thing? I'm not good with that stuff but I could ask Nami or Robin for advice.
If we’re going on holiday, can we do it alone first or would you prefer bringing your family along?
How many kids do you want to have?
Sanji
MARIMO!
Sanji thinks that he’s about to go crazy. His face is all red, he feels hot up to his ears and his heart is pounding so much like it's going to burst out of his chest. The swordsman’s sweetness and thoughtfulness overwhelms him with joy. He starts laughing out loud–in a way that he’s never laughed before, ignoring the slight ache from his recent surgery. He thinks that if he breaks stitches this way, so be it, because he’s never felt his chest so light and heart so full. He felt so happy that he could fly. 
The swordsman looked confused and offended from all the unhinged laughter like he was being made fun of.
Sanji cups Zoro’s face into his hands, trying his best to recover from his outburst.
Sanji
I didn’t realise that you needed to know everything now!
Zoro looks down to his lips, watching that attractive smile that he’s always drawn to.
Zoro
I just… I really wanted to… to…
Sanji pulls him in to claim his mouth with his. He pushes Zoro roughly against the railing, determined to show the swordsman how much he appreciates him at that very moment. He slides his hand up and down the man’s body, massaging, caressing and feeling everything that he could lay his hands on. He wants to show his love and admiration to the man by worshipping every part of him. Zoro was more than happy to reciprocate the affection.
They stayed like that for what seemed like a lifetime. Regrettably, Sanji pulls himself away from the most passionate kiss he's ever had in his life so he could breathe. He kept his body close as he panted.
Zoro leans in and continues his assault on his lips–biting and sucking hard then giving them soothing licks to ease the arousing pain–not wanting for everything to stop so soon. Between breaths, the blonde speaks.
Sanji
We have our entire lives to get to know one another…. What’s your rush, Marimo?
Zoro freezes at that, blinking his eye. Then for the first time that night, he smiles his genuine toothy smile.
Zoro
I guess we do, don’t we?
Sanji scoops up one of his rough hands and gives it a tender kiss on the calloused knuckles.
Sanji
I want to savour every moment of this–of us, okay? Right now, it’s just you, me… and this.
Sanji gestures at the scene in front of them, then swings his hand around to point out the environment surrounding them–the bright moon, the calm waters and the clear starry skies.
Sanji
Nothing else matters.
Zoro looks into his wide blue eyes. They're positively glowing a lot more so than usual tonight. He wraps his arms around the man and leans his forehead on his, kissing the bridge of his nose. The blonde was correct–nothing else mattered. It felt right to be there. In his heart, he decides to make it a mission to spend every waking moment to prove that he's worthy of his trust, even if it takes a lifetime for him to open up and tell him his real name. He would not demand it that day. He thinks that if he truly deserved it, the blonde will share it to him in time at his own volition. They do have a lifetime to get to know one another, after all.
The swordsman had lost a gamble with Nami that night. He’ll have to remember to send the navigator a couple hundred Beri through the post somehow for betting on him falling in love that year.
At a far distance, hidden in the thick mist of the sea, a particularly tall and lanky Warlord watches the blonde and his green-haired companion through the lens of his spyglass. With a flick of his wrist, he retracts the telescope and tosses it to a dark silhouette of a man.
Stranger
Now's the perfect time. Let’s do it.
Doflamingo
Hmm…no. I want to savour… every… moment of this….
He lets out a deep chuckle. 
Doflamingo
Besides, I have another job for you. But that’s tomorrow’s problem.
You are dismissed.
He waves off the man, and the figure walks off. Doflamingo stands from the comfort of his chair and takes a few long strides to the bow of the ship, never taking his eyes off the small dot on the horizon that is the Polar Tang.
Doflamingo
I’m grateful you showed us the way, Pirate King. You never fail me, do you?
…Sanji.
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I had way too much fun with those panel drawings. (Honestly part of it was me trying to find an excuse to draw more dofsan lol)
If it's not obvious yet, I try to line up certain things about this Sanji and canon Sanji. Instead of him being exclusively in love with mermaids, I like to think he loves all merfolk in this story.
Fukaboshi's always been the one on my mind as Sanji's "the one who got away" romance. I was rewatching Fish-man Island arc and I remembered how wise and noble he is, and has a great sense of responsibility to look after his family. I figured this Sanji would be attracted to those qualities.
Plus, you know, have you seen those big hands? Fwah~!
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rythyme · 1 year ago
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if you give a man a dangly gay ass little earring... hmmm... 🤔 yes i find that rather interesting... 🧐🧐 but if you give a man THREE dangly gay ass little earrings.......................... well. 👁️👁️ i'd say i'm quite riveted. 👁️👁️
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seancefemme · 1 year ago
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yeah well you want to fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid
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contactlessdrivethru · 1 year ago
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just finished opla mood
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mintypsii · 1 year ago
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yk adorable group hug and luffy moment aside, did zoro just kick the ground . after he was hugged . is this show even real
sorry but the way nami went 🤨🏳️‍🌈 TWICE
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gellavonhamster · 10 months ago
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One Piece Live Action + Tumblr text posts, 2/?
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torisprlng · 5 months ago
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I've been thinking about you for years.
ONE PIECE (2023) | 1.02
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andaniellight · 1 year ago
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Zoro you literally have the safest, most secure job position slash title in the straw hat crew are irreplaceable to Luffy, no need to be so fucking jealous and dramatic smh
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blacklegsanjienthusiast · 6 days ago
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i’m never not insane about how opla luffys first impressions of zoro and sanji mirror each other, how the first time he sees them both he watches them fight and out loud comments “good fighter” and then later, in his first proper conversations with them, he tells them both that they’re “a good guy” which he saw in zoro protecting rika and sanji feeding gin…like yup…those are his wings…his strongest fighters and two of the best people you will ever meet…
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hellmandraws · 1 year ago
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Not gonna lie, I'm super excited about the upcoming One Piece live action series! It's out Aug 31 on Netflix. I actually think it's gonna be good! 🤞🤞🤞
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opshizt · 2 months ago
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THIS IS MACKENYU'S FIRST TWEET OF THE YEAR
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LUFFY&ZORO&COOK 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
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homolobotomized · 1 year ago
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zoro has a built in luffy locator (canon)
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manzanamarim · 1 year ago
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POV: you attempt to arrest the strawhat pirates during snack time 🤨 rude
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revasserium · 4 months ago
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hi! I've been reading your opla!zoro stuff and I wanted to tell you your writing is so gorgeous! it's truly breathtaking, you're really talented ❤️ i've looked through your prompts tag, im not sure how requesting works, but could I ask for "edge of falling" or "the spaces between us" (whichever one you like the most) with zoro and fem!reader? i'm a goner for longing and feelings realization and the prompts give me those vibes, but i'm sure anything you write will be lovely <3
reqs are open!
the edge of falling
opla!zoro; 7,475 words; fluff and angst, hurt/comfort, passing mentions of: cult!, physical violence, & trauma/cult-programming, ex-cult member!reader, strawhat!reader, traumatized!reader, protective!zoro, healing from past trauma, learning to trust etc, angst with a happy ending!, a metric TON of plot
summary: "Lie to me," Time said to Love; Love smiled and said, "I promise, I'll never let you slip away."
a/n: thank u for the request anon!!! i uhm idk what happened with this fic tbh. there's def uh -- longing of SOME kind here??? welp. pls read the tw list! there's some dark-ish content in this. but i promise it ends well u__u
prelude: in which a fox teaches you to speak
Time is the greatest liar, so you are told, over and over and over. For the longest time, you think it’s the only truth you’ll ever know.
But we will live forever…
So long as you do the things you’re told. So long as you make the Fox happy. So long, so long, so long.
There is no way to mark the passage of time in the compound; with no sunlight to guide the way, you are left to other, more primal ways of keeping track — that elusive, silver-fish creature — time — always slipping through your fingers when want to hold on most.
You measure it in wounds, in the time it takes for a fresh wound to seal over, for the scab to break and reveal the soft, tender pink flesh beneath. You measure it in gulps of water, in bites of cold food, in the droplets of artificial rain that they let fall through the ceiling sometimes. You measure it in rewards too, in long baths and hot meals, in the evenings when the Fox would tell you stories in his low, lilting voice instead of leaving you in his seething silences.
And he is ever so good with stories. If you stay still and keep quiet, and let his voice wash over you like a hungry tide across a rain-starved beach, you can feel the words seeping into your bones, ringing out till they feel like nothing but god’s given truth.
As long as you’re good… I promise I’ll make you live forever.
Like this, you learn the weapon of words, the power of speech, how to listen for lies, and how to tell them, and tell them, and tell them.
The Fox is good at lying; you’ll just have to learn to be better.
act i: yet another sad, desperate soul
Roronoa Zoro has never been a man of many words, but it would be remiss to say that he isn’t a man of his word — you see, when he does speak, he speaks with intention. And always, with conviction.
“Hey. No one’s gonna hurt you anymore.”
This, then, is the first lie he tells you.
“Liar.” You spit out the word, drawing back, your body a tangle of livewire nerves, your eyes darting back and forth, an entire life’s worth of fight and flight caught on the hair-pin trigger of his breath as he jolts back slightly and blinks at you.
“Y-you — you can’t know that,” you say, your voice still ragged. But Zoro sees it for the attempt it is — an olive branch, however tentatively extended. And he takes it, wordlessly.
He nods once, reaching out to help you up. The compound crumbles around you, and you unconsciously wrap your arms around yourself, as if to hold yourself together, to keep from shattering into a hundred million tiny little shards of pain and mistrust.
“The fox-guy’s dead! But it looks like this whole island’s gonna blow!” Nami races out of the massive, temple-esque structure just as it starts to collapse from the inside out.
Luffy slingshots passed, cackling as Sanji and Usopp bring up the rear. On the Merry, Robin and Chopper are waiting, and the second Zoro manages to hoist you onto the main deck, the ship careens off into the dark tumult of waves.
You skitter away the minute Zoro’s arm slips from around your waist, and he turns to find you pressing yourself back against the railings, staring at them all with wide eyes, your expression caught halfway between fear and consternation. He takes half a step back, crossing his arms just as Luffy bounds forward with a bright, unassuming smile.
“Don’t worry! You’re safe now!” He makes to slap one of your shoulders but you duck out of the way, chewing on your bottom lip.
Robin clears her throat gently and offers you a smile, “We’re not going to hurt you.”
You narrow your eyes, your gaze darting between them like a trapped animal, but after another beat of stillness (punctuated only by Nami swearing softly to herself as she steers the Merry around a particularly difficult formation of rocks), your entire body seems to soften, and Zoro uncrosses his arms again, resting a hand casually on the hilt of his blades.
“Th-thank you…” you bob your head once, swallowing hard passed chapped lips and a raw throat. Your white linen dress is stained with blood and dirt, a tear at your collar making it slip from your shoulder.
“’S alright now, darlin’ — how bout we run you a nice, hot bath? I could cook you just about anything y’like. Fancy a drink as well? I think a bubbly would be good for a —”
“Lay off, cook.” Zoro cuts Sanji off with a scoff, barring Sanji’s approach with an arm in the gut.
You watch them with dark eyes, your expression curiously blank.
“Will you let me look at your wounds?” Chopper offers.
You jump a little at his voice, piping up from your left side. You glance at Zoro once before looking back at Chopper and nodding.
Sanji tucks his hands into his pockets and watches as Chopper leads you beneath the deck, Zoro following a few steps behind. He lights a cigarette as soon as the trap door clanks shut.
A beat of silence, and then —
“Wow, that island really, really sucked!” Luffy says, turning back to his crew.
Sanji lets out a puff of smoke as Usopp slumps down against the main mast with a groan.
“You can say that again.”
“What happened?” Robin asks.
Sanji sighs, shaking his head, “Trust me, you don’t wanna know.”
Below deck, Chopper dabs at your wounds with expert ease as you sit very still on the kitchen island and Zoro watches from the sofa, arms crossed loosely over his chest.
“These surface wounds aren’t that bad but…” Chopper trails off, his eyes running over the network of old scars that mar your skin, layers and layers of them — down your arms and along your torso.
“It’s fine,” you say, your voice smooth as polished marble, “I’m —” you swallow, “I’m fine.”
And if it weren’t for the hiccup, the slight hitch in your breath, you would’ve been utterly convincing. Your expression is flat, your voice, even more so.
Across the room, Zoro makes disbelieving noise, “If it hurts, just say so. Chopper’ll fix it.”
“I’m… I’m fine,” you say again, tugging at the sleeve of your torn shift, your tone now a bit more honest, your words tired and resigned. Zoro looks to Chopper, who gives a faint nod of acquiescence before Zoro stands up and jerks his head towards the door.
“Cook’s right — you should wash up before dinner.”
You follow him down the hallway, through a small door that leads into a washroom that’s much cleaner than one might expect a ship’s bathroom to be. A large, wooden soaking tub sits in the middle of the room, and a clean change of clothes has already been laid out on a bench next to the bath.
Zoro grunts after he takes a once-over of the room, satisfied that all’s in order, and makes to leave.
You tug at his sleeve, head lowered.
“Can you…” you lick your lips, “can you stay?”
Zoro glances down at your fingers curled into his shirt sleeve before his eyes flick up to find your face. You’re looking at some indiscriminate point over his left shoulder, but your lips are trembling and your jaw is set.
He lets out a long breath, slowly twisting his body towards the room and you.
“Sure.”
He makes a show of turning around to face the door as you slip off your clothes and sink into the steaming bath water. A long exhale and the light slosh of water is all the indication he gets that it’s safe to turn back around.
He leans himself against the door, his swords propped on his shoulder, his head lolled back, his eyes closed.
He listens to the soft sounds of the water, to the faint splashes as you rub the grit and grime from your skin, inch by inch.
“We were only allowed to bathe as a reward for doing a good deed.”
Your voice makes him open his eyes, his gaze focusing in on the shape of you, nearly submerged in the bathtub, your hair slick and sticking to your pale shoulders. Even in this dim lighting, he can see the patterns your scars make against your skin. Water glimmers along the contours of your face as you run your palms along your cheeks, rubbing at them till they’re ruddy with color.
Zoro ticks his tongue against his teeth, “Quit bein’ so rough,” he moves forward without thinking, reaching out a hand to help you with some of the more stubborn pieces of dirt but he pauses, realizing how utterly still you’ve gone.
You stare at him for a long moment before relaxing back into the water and shifting towards the edge of the tub to allow him better access.
He runs a callused thumb along your cheekbones, wiping away the remaining dirt there.
“What was a ‘good deed’?” he asks, letting the tips of his fingers skim the warm water’s surface.
You shrug, “Mostly anything that made Mr. Fox happy… so all of us would —” you take another breath, your hand opening and closing beneath the surface of the still bath water, “we’d spend all our waking hours trying to think of something — anything — that’d please him. No matter how small… no matter how… terrible.”
“This Mr. Fox… what was his deal, anyway?”
You stare down into the dark water, now rapidly cooling from warm to lukewarm.
You take a deep breath, lifting a hand out of the water to distort the image of your ghostly reflection.
“He… was a liar. Except… he could make all his lies sound like the truth.”
“It was uncanny, really,” Sanji says, now at full throttle in the kitchen prepping for dinner service, Usopp lounging on sofa, his feet propped up on the hanging table.
Chopper and Robin both frown.
“What do you mean?” Robin asks.
“It was like… the guy could say anything and make it sound like the truth — even though you knew somewhere inside you that it can’t be real. Like — he could tell you the sky was green and every single part of you would believe him, even though you’re outside and starin’ up at the sky.”
“Yeah! Like he said I’d never be able to beat him and… for a second, I kinda almost believed him!” Luffy offers, munching on a bushel of apples and spitting out the seeds.
Robin’s brows furrow, tapping at her chin with a thin finger.
“It sounds like the Uso-Uso no Mi…”
“Ugh, what a weird, scary power…” Chopper shudders, shaking his head, his tiny hooved hands coming up to cup his cheeks, “I’m sure it’d mess with people’s heads!”
“It sure did. But he also used it to feed false information to the Marines,” Nami says, slipping through the half-opened door to join the rest of the crew on the sofa, “ran a series of taverns that just so happened to be situated in major Marine towns.”
Sanji glances up from a huge, steaming pan of paella, a cigarette caught between his teeth.
“So what was his end goal then? Just to fuck over the Marines?”
Back in the bathroom, you run your fingers along the edge of the tub as if playing an invisible piano.
“Power, domination… I don’t think he had a goal or purpose… I think… he just got off on it…”
Your voice is light, conversational, almost as if you were talking about the weather. But Zoro sees the glazed look in your eyes, the tightness at the edges of your lips.
“You called me a liar,” he says, reaching into the tub and flicking you lightly with a bit of water.
You blink, a smile threatening the corners of your mouth.
“Yeah… guess I did.”
“I wasn’t lying.”
He pulls out his hand and wipes it on a towel, leaning back to stare at you.
You shrug, “Sometimes… people lie to others, and sometimes, people lie to themselves. It’s the ones we tell ourselves that are always the most convincing.”
“I don’t lie. ‘Specially not to myself.”
You let out a tiny laugh, “But I guess… sometimes, if you believe in something hard enough… it’ll just start to be come the truth.”
There’s a note of… something in your voice that Zoro doesn’t like, but he can’t put a name to the feeling so he stays quiet as you continue the laborious work of scrubbing your skin clean, till all the water in the tub’s gone cold.
The rest of the evening passes as most evenings on the Merry do after a big fight — with a lot of food and even more booze. With music and laughter, and new crew member, sitting in the corner, watching mostly and smiling occasionally. No one pushes you, though Sanji does make a valiant effort in getting you to admit to your favorite foods, and Luffy tries two or three times to drag you into the more raucous celebrations (mostly involving way too much meat being roasted on a spike).
No one questions the way Zoro never wanders too far.
No one questions the way your eyes track him around the room, or how, even when Robin and Nami finally get a laugh out of you, you still instinctively searched for Zoro’s figure till you’ve found it in the other corner, a bottle caught between his lips, his eyes half-shut but his gaze caught on you like a fish to a seaman’s hook.
act ii: everything and nothing
A week passes, and then another. And you slowly, but surely, come out of your shell — it’s a strange sort of blossoming, the way you reveal yourself in shards and pieces, jagged and jarring. The shrapnel bits of your personality peaking out amidst the flotsam and jetsam of all your manifold defense mechanisms.
You’re a brilliant liar, but even better at spotting a lie, and it’s a thing that none of the crew had ever really thought about until you’d come along, casually poking holes in their daily deceits.
“Mm! These pancakes are perfect! Just the way I like them!”
“The new dress looks beautiful, Nami.”
“I absolutely did not finish the last bag of popcorn… Luffy did it!”
You clear your throat.
“Okay fine… the pancakes were really good but… but I like them… sweeter.”
“The dress is… well, everything looks gorgeous on you, of course, you know that Nami! But — the color… clashes just a tiny little bit with your… hair.”
“I might’ve uh… taken a few bites out of the popcorn bag… last night… but I was keeping watch and I needed to keep my energy up!”
Robin titters, a sphinx-like smile spreading across her lips.
“Apparently, 60% of people lie at least once every 10 minutes,” she says, casually taking a sip of orange juice as Zoro runs through his daily training regime, seemingly unbothered by the chaos currently taking place on the main deck regarding the “popcorn incident”.
“Dunno why people bother,” Zoro says, working through a set of single-armed burpees.
“I suppose it’s just human nature. We want other people to like us… so we say what we think they might want to hear, instead of what we really think. It’s harmless, mostly,” Robin remarks, leaning back against a white planter box, basking in the shade of the tangerine trees.
“Till it isn’t,” Zoro says, finishing up his workout and pushing himself up for a long stretch. He casts his eyes once more towards where you’re now laughing as Usopp tries to think of some new tall tale to tell.
It only takes you half a second to turn your head, and Zoro wonders at the kind of life you might’ve led to make you so sensitive to another person’s gaze. What must’ve happened to warrant this kind of alertness? But then again, he’d been a hunter long enough to know exactly what being hunted looks like.
He caught a glimpse of it at the compound but — still, his fingers itch toward his swords, his jaw clenches tight enough for Robin to cock her head and raise a brow.
“Yes… until it isn’t…” she echoes, her eyes also trailing towards you.
Zoro holds your gaze for a second before rolling his shoulders and looking away, squinting at the far horizon.
“Oi. Looks like trouble.”
Robin straightens, and a second later, Chopper sounds the alarm from the crow’s nest.
“Marines! Marines!”
There is the shink of swords being drawn, the gentle echo of Robin’s voice as her arms multiply. There’s canon fire and a lot of yelling. But at the end, there’s only bodies and blood and the tattered remains of the Marine’s ship, bobbing in the stained sea below them.
“Should we go after them?” Sanji asks, lighting up a cig, watching as the tiny emergency boat rows off into the distance.
“Nah. We’ll be alright!” Luffy says, wiping a hand across his nose.
Zoro turns towards you, sheathing his swords.
“You alright?”
“I’m fine,” you say, your voice immediately taking on an unctuous sheen that makes Zoro take a step closer.
“You hurt anywhere?” he runs an appraising eye down your form and nods in the knowledge that at least you don’t look hurt.
“No… I —” you chew down on your bottom lip, fingers digging into the bare flesh of your arms. But you back away from him the moment he tries to take a step forward.
“Hey — quit that,” he taps at your wrist with the hilt of his sword, the touch hard but not harsh, forcing you to pull away.
“It’s — I’m — I’m alright,” you say, insistent and mollifying. Zoro runs his thumb against the hilt of his blades and scoffs.
“Liar,” he says, tossing the word casually back at you in a way that makes your breath hitch. Then, he turns, and marches below decks to tend to his own wounds.
A deafening silence rings out around you as you stare down at the ships blood-drenched planks before Robin places a gentle hand on your shoulder.
“C’mon now — lets get your back looked at.”
Below decks, you find Zoro dabbing gingerly at a large slash on his right arm.
“Here, you’ve missed a spot —” you reach out to take the iodine soaked cloth from Zoro’s hand, only to have him jerk away. You flinch back, wide-eyed.
Zoro softens, if only ever so slightly.
“I’m fine,” he says, a harsh edge to his voice as he goes back to trying to twist around himself enough to see the spot he’s missed. You purse your lips, watching him for a second, two seconds, three — before you glance back at the place Robin had been only to realize that she’d gone.
“May… I?” you reach out your hand, palm up, tentative and imploring. But you hold yourself still, waiting for Zoro to make the next move. And he does, eventually, sighing as he turns back around to drop the piece of cloth into your palm.
You reach forward as he turns to his side, offering up his arm as you slowly start to wipe away at the bits of dried blood caking his skin to reveal the raw, red gash, the angry, raised flesh around it. You lean forward, blowing slightly as you daub at the wound, making your way down his bicep till the entire cut’s been coated in iodine.
“There. All done.”
You lean back to toss the cloth into the sink but Zoro stops you. He catches your wrist in his good hand and with a slight tug, has you toppling forward towards his chest.
“Turn around.”
His voice is soft, but firm. And it leaves no room for protests as you stare at him for a long moment before sighing and resigning yourself to your fate. You turn to show him your back.
A disgruntled huff is all you get before you hear the distinct sounds of Zoro rummaging around the first aide kit for a fresh piece of cloth, and the pop of the iodine bottle opening again.
“Who did this?” he asks as he slowly reaches out to tug a thin spike from your skin, small as a needle and just as sharp. You bite back a wince.
“The porcupine guy…” your voice trails off as Zoro grunts.
“Right.”
He tugs out another spike; it tinks against the metal of the sink as he tosses it away. A brief sting, and then the cooling feeling of the iodine cloth.
After a few minutes of working in silence, Zoro sighs.
“Geez, he really got you bad, didn’t he?”
“Not really,” you say, and you feel Zoro’s hands pause.
“No?”
You shake your head, “I’ve… been through much worse… and lived to tell the tale so…”
Zoro doesn’t need to ask to know that you’re talking about your past on the island, inside that windowless compound. He can see it in the scars that mar nearly the entirety of your back, the criss-cross lines of what looks like knife-wounds, the occasional puckered marks that look suspiciously like burns. He steels himself then, and continues to work — plucking out a spike and cleaning out the wound.
“You were right,” he says, when he finally finishes cleaning up your back and you both straighten to face each other. He wipes his hands clean and winces slightly as he flexes his newly bandaged arm.
“Right about what?” your voice is innocent, but the flash in your eyes tells him that you know exactly what he’s talking about.
“That first day — I couldn’t protect you. I couldn’t… make sure that no one ever hurt you again.”
His fingers curl into fists at his sides and you can see the muscle ticking in his jaw as he clenches his teeth.
You reach out, tracing a thumb along his jawline. When you pull back, there’s a small daub of blood on your finger and you wipe it away without breaking his gaze.
“No, you couldn’t but… you tried.”
Zoro scoffs, “Tryin’s not good enough.”
“No,” you jerk up to glare at him, your voice harsh in a way that he’s only ever heard right after they’d rescued you, the edges of your words raw and ragged as a serrated blade, “trying is everything.”
interlude: truth or dare
It gets better after that, and you grow and bloom and grow some more. Zoro does too, though in his own way — he gets stronger, gets faster, hits harder. And though you two never quite agree on anything, he is always by your side, and you’re somehow always by his.
“’M not even a lil drunk —”
“Liar~” you singsong, giggling as Zoro shakes his head, tipping the remains of a bottle of sake back down his throat before wiping at his lips with the back of his hand.
“Mm… ‘s that all I am to you? Just another guy who lies?” Zoro swings lazily on the hammock hung on the main deck, his eyes half-lidded and alight with the dancing firelight.
“Stupid question — drink,” you answer, bringing our own bottle up to your lips.
Zoro laughs, quiet and pleased as he reaches for a new bottle.
“Alright then — truth or dare?” he asks, uncorking the new bottle and reaching out to offer you some. You bat him away, your movements languid and heavy, your back pressed against a heavy wooden barrel, one leg propped up to support your arm, the other stretched out long and lithe in front of you.
“Truth,” you say, your voice easy, your smile even more so.
“Alright then — do you trust me?” Zoro’s voice dips, and your eyes flash up. There’s a sobering light somewhere behind the alcohol soaked haze clouding his gaze and you can tell by the steadiness of his hands that he’s not nearly as drunk as he might seem.
“What do you mean?” you ask, casually evading the question.
Zoro tuts, “’S not an answer.”
“I’m asking for a clarification.”
Zoro shakes his head, taking another soft swig, “Simple question — do you trust me?”
You purse your lips, mulling over the myriad answers you could provide and make it sound like the truth. But that’s not really how the game goes. So instead, you take a deep breath.
“I — I want to,” and it’s the way your voice breaks that makes it honest, the way you can’t hold the truth in by the seams of your careful cadence, no matter how hard you try to smooth out the ragged edges.
“So… that’s a no,” Zoro says, keeping his tone even. You can’t help reaching for him — imploring.
“Not yet but —”
“Why?”
“Why… what?”
“I guess…” Zoro leans back, casting his eyes up at the wild, dark sky, careening above the ship in an ecstatic spread of stars and, long sinuous, moon-silvered clouds, “why d’you want to trust me? Doesn’t seem like something you’d be eager to do after… y’know, everything.”
You lick your lips and stare into the empty bottom of your glass.
“Honestly?” you say, “because you’re kind of a shit liar —”
Zoro lets out a soft, rumbling laugh, but doesn’t deny it.
“But… also because you’re the only person I’ve met who… who treats words so carefully — I mean…” you swallow, leaning forward slightly as Zoro drops his gaze back down to you, “it’s like — my whole life has just been people saying things they don’t really mean, and never meaning what they say, and then trying to figure out what’s really happening — trying to say the right thing, not the thing you mean but the thing you think they’d want to hear —” your breath quickens, “and — and if you don’t or if you’re bad at it, then bad things happen to you and the people you care about —”
“Hey.”
A hand presses down on your shoulder and you gasp, your breath knifing through your chest as you clasp your shaking hands to your sternum.
“Breathe. You’re okay.”
You nod, unable to say anything as Zoro sits in front of you, his hand like an anchor in a summer storm, keeping you tethered.
You breathe and take stock of your limbs — feet, legs, hands, arms. It’s then that you realize Zoro’s crouching in front of you, your drink glass resting by his side.
“Thanks,” you say, nodding as he gives your shoulder a slight squeeze before pulling away. Physical touch has never been one of your strong points, and it seems Zoro’s learned that without you ever having to tell him.
It’s strange — the sudden knowledge that somehow, his understanding of you has been wordless and implicit. Complete, from nearly the day the Straw Hats had picked you up on that island. You’d never had to explain, never had to draw your boundaries.
And yet somehow, he knew. As if he’d always just known.
“Truth or dare?” you ask him, your voice barely a whisper, shifting to make more space for him on the dark deck of the ship’s forecastle. Zoro sits down in front of you, crossing his legs.
“Dare.”
You don’t fight the grin as it lifts the side of your lips.
The quiet pulses between the pair of you like a heartbeat.
“Tell me a secret.”
“Gotta be more specific,” Zoro’s grin lilts to mirror your own.
“Any secret,” you say, “something you… something you wouldn’t otherwise say out loud.”
“Isn’t that what a secret’s supposed to be? Something you don’t say?”
You laugh, tasting the sound like a mouthful of champagne, bubbling up through you and spiraling towards the endless summer’s night.
“Quit stalling!”
“Think I wanna kiss you.”
A gasp slices through the air between you. You feel the weight of it in your throat, the white-hot flicker of his gaze as he glances down at your lips. You wet them without thinking, and as Zoro lean’s in, you can sense the night around you slowly coalescing into something warm, something solid. Like a marble clutched in a child’s palm, or a pearl held on an oyster’s velvet tongue.
“Truth or dare?” he asks.
He stops just short of your lips, his nose almost grazing yours. You can nearly taste the sweet sake on his breath —
“Dare.”
“Close your eyes.”
Your lashes flutter and for a second, an eternity revolves in the space between your heartbeats. Faintly, you register the gentle rocking of the ship as an indolent wave catches her starboard side.
You close your eyes.
For a second, there is space. For a second, there is breath. For a second, there is gravity. And then — all of that disappears. All of it eclipsed by the kiss. And then, the kiss is all there is.
All there was, and ever will be.
There’s a graze of fingers against skin, the bump of legs against legs against thighs against knees — there’s knuckles and noses and hair falling, hair being tugged into closing fists. There’s the clink-clink-clink of earrings, and the clatter-clap-clat of swords and hilts and rough, wooden planks.
There’s the dull thunk and baseline rumble of a glass being knocked over and rolling away.
But all of that is afterthought. All of that is supplement, a postscript, marginalia and footnotes.
Because there, then — there is only the kiss, and nothing but the kiss: a catastrophe of inevitability, smooth as a secret, and whisper-sweet.
When the pair of you pull away, there’s a chaos of wings against your ribcage.
There’s the honeyed, lambent light in Zoro’s eyes as he grins down at you.
“Truth — or dare,” a breathless gasp punctuates your words.
Zoro’s grin only grows as he tips your chin back between his thumb and forefinger.
“Dare.”
It’s only then that you realize his cheeks are wine-flushed, his chest rising and falling nearly as fast as yours. You swallow slow and track his eyes as he watches the pale bob of your throat.
“Kiss me again.”
act iii: fool’s gold
It takes all of three hours for Sanji to get something out of Zoro, and three days before Robin and Nami manage to wheedle something out of you.
“No seriously! Things have been different since that one party we had —” Nami presses her palm to the kitchen table, here eyes wide. Robin sits on the couch, her expression one of mixed amusement and near academic interest.
“Different how?” you reach into the cookie jar and fish out a crumbled corner of what used to be a double chocolate chip cookie.
“Ugh! You know what I mean!” Nami turns to Robin, motioning towards you, “Help me here!”
Robin laughs, tossing up a graceful hand, “I suppose something does seem… changed.”
“Something?” you ask, licking at a smudge of chocolate on your thumb.
“Well…” Robin says, drawing out the syllable and making to examine the nails on her long, thin fingers, “it’s definitely not nothing.”
You allow yourself a smile, “Something’s definitely not nothing.”
Nami lets out a frustrated groan, but she’s smiling too.
It’s been long enough that you’d learned to relax around them, and you’d since also learned that nothing is so sacred as the sanctity of sisterhood. That bonds between friends might be forged in fire and brimstone, but bonds between women are forged in cinder and smoke — in the wreckage of after, when the fighting’s been done and all that’s left is the mending.
“What’s all this giggling about?” Zoro ducks into the half-ajar door, staring at the three of you.
Nami cocks an eyebrow; Robin shrugs.
You, for your part, smile and bat your lashes.
“Oh nothing,” you say.
“Just girl-talk,” offers Nami.
“Nothing to interest a legendary swordsman like yourself,” Robin polishes off.
Zoro’s eyes narrow, his gaze jumping between the three of you before it lands on you and he scoffs.
“Yeah, whatever. We’re docking soon.”
And that’s all he offers before sauntering back out of the room, leaving the door swinging behind him, but not before you catch sight of the redness at the tips of his ears as he hurries away.
You give it a beat of three seconds before pushing to your feet and following after, humming to yourself. Behind you, Nami and Robin share a knowing look.
“Definitely not nothing,” Robin says as she stands to follow you.
The island, if it can even be called that, is nothing more than a rough conglomeration of steep cliffs strapped together by a thin band of land barely wide enough to be categorized as a beach.
“Well! This is something!” Luffy declares, his arms akimbo on his hips as he stares at the island.
“Yeah… it’s uh… something for sure,” Usopp agrees, making a face as he squints at the cluster of rocks that look more like the jagged edges of a broken bottle than any kind of proper land formation.
“We’ll just anchor here for the night… get some good rest, and then...” Sanji’s words trail off, interrupted by a ghostly wail that rises from the gathering of dark cliffs, turning them into an echo chamber until it seems to rumble through the sand beneath them.
“… gold, all gold! — no, not a liar — please!”
A shiver etches itself up your spine and instinctively, you wrap your arms around yourself.
Zoro steps out in front of you, as if to shield you from whatever might come. His thumb presses against the hilt of his swords, his shoulders tense as corded wire.
“Uh… everyone else heard that too, right?” Chopper asks, peaking out from around Robin’s legs.
“Yep. Definitely not just you,” Sanji confirms.
Luffy grins, “Seems like there’s someone else on this island! Maybe they can show us around!”
Time passes by strangely on the island — one minute, the sun is still hanging low on the far horizon, and the next, the sky is the color of a bullet wound, darkness seeping in around the horizon.
“Whoever’s here on the island — they sure aren’t making it — easy —” Sanji grunts as he hoists himself up a slippery piece of rock face, sweat glistening on his forehead as he squints into the looming blackness.
“Luffy? You sure you know where we’re going?” Nami shouts, her voice ringing back in a way that makes everyone wince and cover their ears.
Zoro grabs your elbow a second before you slip, fingers digging into your flesh even as you steady yourself against him.
“Sorry — thanks,” you say, unsure of which one you really mean.
“Yeah! I can smell something — like a campfire! And… cooking!” Luffy’s voice calls back from somewhere in the gathering dark. Everyone shares a glance before bracing themselves and trudging on.
By the time you all catch up to Luffy, no one is certain of what time it is, only that it’s dark. But the kind of darkness that seems to cling to the skin — a darkness so dense it starts to take on shape and weight.
It presses in around you and you feel your breaths shortening in your chest.
Beside you, Zoro reaches out to brace a hand at the small of your back.
“Oh! I see a light ahead! C’mon!” Luffy’s voice rings out from somewhere up ahead, followed by the patter of sandals on stone. The rest of you follow, and then all too suddenly, light flickers to life in what seems to be a huge, subterranean cave deep within the cliffs of the island. It casts stark shadows against the slick, cavernous walls.
You frown, goosebumps rising along your arms and legs.
But before you have time to dwell on the wrongness of something there, Luffy’s voice snags your attention like a thread on an errant splinter.
“Hi! Oh, wow — that looks delicious!”
You turn a corner to find Luffy hunkering down over a blazing campfire and the silhouette of someone sitting opposite him, a sharp spike held out in front of them, turning slowly over the flickering flames.
“Oh… please… come join me — sit and listen to a story — I have so many stories — so many adventures to share!” the figure across the fire seems to quiver with the dancing flames, his voice filling up the whole of the cave, loud and boisterous and eager. But strange and hollow too.
You frown, chewing on the insides of your cheeks.
Ahead of you, Usopp and Chopper both take tentative seats next to Luffy, who had cheerfully plopped down next to the fire.
“Wow, this looks great! Are you here by yourself? I’m here with my crew! Are you a pirate too?” Luffy asks, his endless enthusiasm pouring from him like a spring.
Robin, Nami, and Sanji all hold back, but you take a step forward, and then another. Something compelling you towards the voice, pulling you closer. There’s a desperation, a loneliness with which you’re all too familiar — you inch closer, and then closer, till you’re almost level with Luffy, and you lower yourself to the ground next to him, Zoro dropping down beside you, his knee pressing against your leg in a silent reassurance.
“Come… come closer! It’s a good story — I promise!”
“Truth,” you mutter, just beneath your breath. Beside you, Zoro lets out a puff of breath, though his stance doesn’t loosen.
Behind you, you can hear the distinct sounds of the rest of the crew drawing just a step closer.
“Once upon a time… there was a city on an island where everything, and I mean everything was made of gold!”
The figure across the fire sounds cheered, elated even. Behind you, you feel Nami take half a step closer. Cold seeps into your veins despite the warm, dancing flames, and your fingers dig into the hard packed earth beneath you.
“I found it — I did! With my crew — the best sailors and seamen around! But the king… he was greedy! And he wanted his own men to take the treasures, so he forced me to lead them to the city again —”
“Truth,” you say again, but something in the tone of the figure’s voice makes you frown.
“Except… the city had gone… and there was nothing left… nothing but lies!”
You shudder back, swallowing hard. All around you, the darkness presses in with long, thin tendrils like so many loving fingers. The fire flares up, casting sparks up towards the cave’s ceiling, where stalagmites hang like broken teeth in a petrified monster’s maw.
“Oh… don’t be scared… come back — I won’t hurt you —”
“Liar!” you spit, the word scraping its way out of your throat.
Zoro leaps to his feet just as Luffy does the same. The fire flares again, a second before snuffing itself out, but in that second, you finally catch sight of the figure, hooded in shadow, sitting across from you — it has the shape of a man, tall and broad, but the limbs of a spindle-legged monster. It wears the darkness like a cloak, with beady, red eyes and a too-wide mouth.
“Don’t! Call me a liar! That’s what they called me — that’s what they called when they killed me! KILLED ME FOR TELLING THE TRUTH!”
You scramble back, Zoro nearly lifting you off the ground in his haste to pull you away. Luffy whips back his arm and swings it forward but all it catches is tendrils of shadow.
“Hey! That’s not nice!” he shakes off his fist, frowning as he stares at the bits of wriggling darkness still clinging to his skin.
“Run!” you shout as everyone bolts for the lightless path you all took to get to the heart of the cave.
“NOT A LIAR! NOT A LIAR! I FOUND IT! THE CITY! BELIEVE ME! BELIEVE ME!”
You clap your hands around your ears and race for what you hope is the exit. Behind you, you can hear the distinct sounds of Zoro’s blades whistling through the air*.*
“Damnit! How’dyou fight a shadow? There’s nothin’ to hit!”
“Quit tryna hit it and just run!” Sanji’s voice answers a second before he breezes passed you.
“Why don’t you believe me? Why?!”
“We — I believe you!” you shout, your chest a thundering mess of footfalls and scrambling bodies, and against all instinct, you turn around to face the darkness again, cupping your hands around your mouth, “I believe you! I know — I know you’re telling the truth!”
“What’re you doing?” Zoro asks, leveling himself by your side, his arm pressing against yours. Behind you, the thinnest sliver of light is creeping into the cave from what you assume is the entrance.
Morning. Has it really been that long?
Time is the greatest liar, you remember, suddenly, violently, the thought tearing through you like teeth.
“I — he’s telling the truth,” you say through gritted teeth, even as you take a few steps back. Inside the cave, the figure seems to shrink back from the encroaching light.
“What truth?” Zoro asks, his blade held aloft, his stance wide and ready.
“All of it,” you say, forcing your voice to be gentle, turning your face back towards the darkness, “I know, I can hear it — I know you’re telling the truth — about the island, the city — all of it!”
“Yes… all I wanted was to get back to the city… but… no one believe me… and I died… I died for it!”
“I know, and I’m sorry… no one should be punished for telling the truth —” your voice cracks.
“I tried!”
“I know…” you say as the figure shrinks and shrinks and shrinks and the light behind you grows and grows and grows, until you can feel the warm seeping into the skin of your back.
“And trying is everything,” you say, biting your lip as Zoro wraps an arm around your waist.
“Come with me… I’ll take you to the city — we can go together!”
You shake your head, heat prickling at your eyes as you turn away from the darkness of the cave and towards the light of the oncoming day.
“Liar…” the word falls from you like a rock, or a tear, cast off the cliff that greets you and Zoro as you both stare over the edge. The rest of the crew is nowhere to be found, but Zoro’s arm is still around your waist, and you can feel his warm breath by your cheek.
“Hey — do you trust me?”
You look up; in the dawning, morning light, Zoro, with his sun-kissed skin and dark moss hair appears to be limned in gold.
And maybe it’s the air, or the sea, or simply the angry pieces of this jagged, left-behind island of shadows like broken teeth trying to tear apart the sky, conducting his voice into a cacophony of echoes that sing and scream through the crags and eves of the valley beneath — but the whole island seems to reverberate with the question —
Do you trust me?
You close your eyes and breath. When you open them again, your heartbeat is steady. And when you speak, the rising sun streaks the tips of the saw-toothed peaks in strokes of molten gold. The valleys beneath you conduct your answer into an entire single-syllabled symphony —
Yes.
You feel his arm tighten around your waist, the wind as it tangles soft fingers in your hair. All around you, everything is light, and light, and light.
“Jump!”
You close your eyes, and jump.
-----
footnotes/appendix
uso-uso no mi translates to "lie-lie fruit"; i made it up bc it would be too op to have in the actual animanga i think
the "acts" refer to a classical 3-act structure that most movies/plays/scripts are written in: setup, confrontation, and resolution... with a smattering of other things sprinkled in for ~vibes~
in much of classical japanese and chinese mythology, foxes are associated with trickers and lies, often turning into beautiful women to deceive men, luring them into forests and mountains before taking their lives
the "figure" in the last scene is... can you guess? noland! kudos to anyone who figured it out as they were reading *\ (>o<) /*
did i absolutely take the "do you trust me" line from disney's aladdin??? HELL YEAH i did !!!! tru trust is my kink u__u
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alicenpai · 1 year ago
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i love...wanpee...........🍊🍶🧡💚
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subbyp · 5 months ago
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In an OPLA verse version of the “Zoro and Sanji met and started dating before the Straw Hats formed” premise, the reveal of their relationship would go like—
they behave totally as they do in canon up to when Sanji brings the Straw Hats their drink orders.
then Sanji intentionally starts shit with Zoro (“You know, we do also serve food here.”). they start bickering (there are reaction shots from a wary Nami, a raptly interested Luffy, and an increasingly alarmed Usopp) until Zoro legitimately draws Wado and takes a swing at Sanji.
Usopp and Luffy both start out of their seats but Sanji blocks Zoro’s swing easily. there’s a beat of total silence—even some of the nearby tables are watching, stunned—and then both Zoro and Sanji crack up. Zoro sheathes Wado and just fuckign. does the scoop-up-and-twirl-around-into-a-big-ol’-smooch maneuver on a grinning Sanji right there in the middle of the dinner service (reaction shot of the other Straw Hats, looking various degrees of flabbergasted).
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