Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

Coral Reef	By : TreeStar Category: +M to R > One Piece Views: 8623 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Coral Reef

Part the Second: Ship

~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~

Zoro didn�t hit any corals the whole way to the Merry, and stopped every thirty seconds or so to make sure they were still heading in the right direction. They were. Every time. It was amazing. He couldn�t help but think about how Luffy would have cracked a joke about it, had the helpless boy not been sleeping on him throughout the journey.

As he got close to the ship, he turned around to swim normally. Robin was at the railing, and when they got close, she tossed down the rope ladder and bloomed some hands to take Luffy from Zoro. He passed the captain off to her, telling her to support his head, and swam for the ladder.

Robin retracted all of her arms until she had Luffy safe against her. She held him close and moved across the deck to the towels she had brought up while she waited. The poor baby was frozen through! She gently sat him down and wrapped him in a huge fluffy towel before lifting him up to her heat again.

Zoro had made it up the ladder and dropped to the deck to catch his breath. It was so cold. He watched how Robin handled Luffy and knew he would be okay with her while he got himself a towel. He wanted to put Luffy in the tub, but it would take too much time to reheat the bath water. Until he was drier, Robin was warmer for the freezing Paramecia.

Reveling the quiet as he dried himself off and threw his shirt over there somewhere, Zoro was glad that Robin hadn�t awoken the entire crew. They would only crowd around and make too much noise. Even Chopper was too business-like when it came to injuries to be gentle enough with Luffy this time. Luffy needed one-on-one attention after coming from an extended exposure to water. It was something he rarely got, Zoro had noted on several occasions. But this time there was more to it. Zoro got to take care of him now, because he was the one who had held him when he died and came back. If anyone tried to tear them apart now without his consent, Zoro would get� really mad.

Luffy had come to -for the second time- in Robin�s arms. He was confused a bit, because he knew he was just being held by Zoro a second ago� or something�

She looked down at him and spoke very softly, greeting him with the knowledge that he was very disoriented, for she had seen with her powers what had happened on that island. �Hi, Luffy. You feel okay?�

Luffy wasn�t used to being talked to so softly this much by his nakama, but found that he didn�t mind it right now, despite it�s out-of-placeness. It was nice to know that at least he wasn�t going to be expected to jump up and start laughing energetically, or ordering them through a battle or something. That was reassuring. He took a deep breath and whispered, �cold�zoro?�

She turned a little to put the first mate in his line of sight. �Right over there.�

Zoro heard Robin�s last sentence and turned his attention away from drying off as quickly as possible to look at them. A few feet away, he could see Luffy shivering and Robin�s arms, head resting on her shoulder while she rocked him. This wasn�t really an odd sight to be behold; Luffy was so light, after all. The boy�s eyes were open, and he was watching Zoro with a tired expression, like he had no energy at all. Since he was still letting himself be passed around and carried, Zoro was sure that was true.

Zoro was sure that Luffy�s memories would be returning before long, though, and he wasn�t sure which memories would come back. The swordsman wanted to have him in bed before that so that Luffy wouldn�t have to deal with his near-hypothermic state and memories of being killed by a sea creature all at once. He was too weak right now. As far as Zoro was concerned, he would be too weak for a while, and the swordsman was going to see to it that he stayed in bed all day tomorrow whether he wanted to or not.

As if reading his mind, Robin slowly approached him with her little bundle of Luffy and moved as if to pass him over. Zoro had to hand it to her: if there was only one thing that made evil women so conniving, it was that they were damn perceptive! Robin wasn�t really that bad, though. It had taken time for him to see that� but he�d met worse.

He flung his towel over there with his shirt, and reached to take the boy. Luffy moved from one person to the other, moving just enough to roll into Zoro�s arms nicely, which meant that at least some of his strength had returned. Or maybe Zoro was just being hopeful�

�Will you tell Sen-san?� Robin asked in a whisper.

�Not tonight. I�m gonna put him to bed.� Zoro answered in the same fashion as he walked over to the hold.

�Will you be alright?� she asked, lifting the hatch for him.

�Yeah, thanks. If something happens, I�ll get that stupid cook to give me a hand. You�ll finish watch?�

Robin nodded. �Sure. You should sleep with him tonight and keep him in bed in the morning. I�ll tell the others why when they get up, so they won�t wake him.�

�I owe you one,� Zoro nodded, and climbed down the ladder. Robin closed the hatch behind them.

Luffy had closed his eyes and half-slept through the exchange. He felt Zoro go down the ladder, but didn�t rouse until the swordsman had stopped in front of his sofa and laid him down on the cushions. Then Zoro left, and Luffy opened his eyes and tilted his head painfully to look after where he had gone to, but Zoro was out of sight.

He returned after a moment, however, with Chopper�s First Aid bag from which he extracted a roll of bandages. Luffy sighed gently. He had forgotten.

Zoro lowered himself next to the couch and propped Luffy up with one arm to unravel the loose bandages. Luffy hissed when the gauze peeled away from few places, but the sand had been washed out by the swim back, so they were -for the most part- clean. Chopper had been saying that the salt water would ease the healing�

As he laid there, eyes closed again and letting Zoro do as he would, Luffy tried to trace the events that had put him here. Let�s see� he had woke up needing to pee, and went to the side of the boat. �And that was it. He saw a few blurred images in his mind of Zoro on the island, but he had been so out of it then, he couldn�t be sure if those were even real anymore. He had lost a great deal when he had fallen asleep on the way back to the ship. How had he even ended up so far away from the ship, freezing and soaked in the first place? Why was he so weak and in pain now? His mind was still too tired to formulate one solid question, and his body too tired to ask it, but he so wanted to recall�

Zoro felt Luffy try to tense up and looked up from his work, worried that he had hurt his captain. �Luffy?� he whispered, mindful of the others� sleep. Luffy didn�t hear him at first, so hard was he trying to trace what happened between the ship and Zoro� but those memories just weren�t there. They just weren�t.

Knowing at least partially what was wrong, Zoro laid the gauze down and took Luffy�s hand in his one hand, cupping Luffy�s cheek in the other. �Luffy, it�s gonna okay. You�re in shock, so you need to try and relax. That�s part of the reason you can�t move yet. It�ll wear off once you�re warm and you�ve slept a little.�

Luffy let the thoughts slide as Zoro caressed his cheek, settling to lay still on the couch. Maybe it was for the better that he couldn�t remember yet, as the only thing he knew about what type of memory would hit him was that it would be bad. Going through hard or painful memories was something that inevitably happened to everyone at times, but when they started to come to Luffy, he liked to go someplace alone.

He had good reason for choosing to do this: those memories that he had that effected him the most were about Shanks (the nights he�d spent on the ship with him, and of course That Day), or of Ace when they were kids, (like that time he�d fallen off that cliff, or when people had called him a freak throughout his childhood), or even of more recent events (he had never found out if the sandstorm that Crocodile sent to Yuba before running him through had killed that nice old grandpa, and he felt guilty that he had been so completely ineffective at stopping it), and all of those memories were personal.

Zoro had never once left his side since the island, and Luffy tried to thank him for simply staying with him, but when he took a deeper, rasping breath, his face scrunched up at the painful feeling it gave him.

�Don�t try to talk, yet.� Zoro caressed the cold cheek one more time before picking up the bandage again. �I need to finish wrapping you, so I can get you into something warm.�

Luffy didn�t feel ready to be moved again at all -this whole shock thing was new to him and he didn�t like it- but he was really ready to be warm and dry again. He couldn�t nod, and Zoro had told him not to speak, but he Zoro still had his hand, and Luffy had enough energy to squeeze it.

Zoro rewarded him with a soft smile, �Alright.�

As Zoro lifted him gently and continued to wrap his burns and cuts, Luffy enjoyed his first mate�s touches. Zoro was still acting in that way that clearly told Luffy that something more serious had happened than what he remembered. Zoro was being so gentle and patient� and he�d held him so tenderly, and the way that he�d carried him�

Zoro was rarely tender with Luffy. Gentle and patient were a given in order to be the first mate to someone like Luffy, but tender -and even boarder line pampering- went outside of Zoro�s general mainframe. He tucked the younger pirate in on special occasions, and visited him on watch when it was very cold, to keep him from falling asleep and getting sick. And Luffy knew, from all those times he had woken in the morning with more blankets on him than he had gone to sleep with, that Zoro occasionally watched him sleep. But Zoro had never behaved like this before.

It was as though the swordsman had completely disregarded the usual respect for the chain of command that he always stuck to. Zoro was seeing Luffy for who he was underneath all his unending courage, and he was treating what was left after he had pushed past the confident air. Not as a notorious pirate captain or as a hero of nations� just a little boy who needed to be loved and taken care of.

Except it was more extreme than that. Luffy felt, through Zoro�s touches, that his best friend was actually afraid for him. Such a demonstration of open care while Luffy was actually awake to enjoy it almost felt to the captain like Zoro was afraid that if he stopped pampering him like this, something terrible would happen to him. Something the swordsman couldn�t bear. But Luffy just couldn�t figure out what had done this to Zoro, because his Zoro NEVER got scared.

Zoro�s fingers roamed over his skin to wrap his wounds so personally and with more care than he would have shown had he been tending his own wounds. He soon finished and taped the gauze so that it would stay in place. Luffy sighed ever so softly as his first mate rested him back against the couch to relax.

Once he had laid Luffy back a little, Zoro walked silently over to get both his and Luffy�s blankets. He also grabbed Luffy�s dark red robe. There was a third blanket already draped over the back of the other, dry couch that he planned on putting the boy to sleep on, and Zoro planned to use it, too. Setting the blankets on the arm, he sat at the foot of the couch this time and got his captain�s attention. �Hey, Luffy? You still with me?�

Luffy looked at him and gave the strongest smile he could manage. Zoro could see Luffy�s strength returning in that smile, and gave him a smile in return. He slid the boy further down the couch before meeting Luffy�s curious eyes again. �I�ve gotta strip you out of your wet things, okay?�

Luffy tried to nod, completely trusting. It didn�t really work, but Zoro got the message. He had never been stripped down by someone else when he was awake before, leastways not after puberty, but he completely trusted his first mate. Besides, Zoro had seen it all before. Not only did he take his bath with Zoro so he wouldn�t drown, but Luffy knew that Zoro had helped change him after his fight with Foxy, and he�d probably helped with him in Alubarna. That meant Zoro knew what he was doing, and Luffy couldn�t be in better hands.

He watched as Zoro lifted his numb legs into his lap and slid the icy denim down his body. Zoro knew that Luffy didn�t bother with underwear half the time, so that at least made the swordsman�s job easier. As the jeans exposed him to the cold air, Luffy gasped in shock and then began shivering all over again, and Zoro sped up, quick to get the freezing pants away from contact with Luffy�s skin.

Once the cloth had been balled up and tossed to the floor, Zoro moved Luffy�s legs out of his lap so that his feet were just above the wood, and then leaned over Luffy to help him sit up. Luffy did his best to help, managing to lift his numb arms now to wrap around Zoro�s neck as he was raised off the cushions to be sat against the back.

Zoro didn�t let him stay that way for long, however, leaning him forward and supporting the boy�s with his forearm while helping Luffy get his arms through the sleeves of his robe with the other. Then he rose and moved in front of the captain to lift him so that he was on his feet, almost completely supporting the boy.

Once he had Luffy up off the couch and securely in his arms, Zoro reached around to tie the robe�s sash, and then grabbed a blanket and quickly wrapped it around the shivering Paramecia, completely enveloping him in the warm, soft material.

Maybe it was all the joggling around that did it, but that was the moment that every memory about what had happened to the boy that would ever come back to Luffy, did so. Luffy gave a strangled gasp, his arms reflexively coming out of the front of the blanket to wrap around Zoro for support, as the image of a huge white arm-thing shot up out of the darkness to grab him. Then he was in the dark water again, his energy leaving him and the pain around his throat increasing until the combined forces finally took him out. Then Zoro�s voice crying� Zoro was with him. Zoro was with him and crying and holding him. And he hurt so bad. That was why his throat hurt so bad� so the whole running out of air thing was maybe why his chest was still hurting� but he had run out of air underwater before, and his chest had never hurt like this did. So then how long�?

Zoro had frozen for a moment when Luffy had suddenly gone rigid and taken a death-grip to him. The blanket had been thrown back a little, and now Zoro reached around to get it back around Luffy�s shoulders as best he could with the boy glued to him. �Luffy?�

No answer. Luffy started to let loose with occasional involuntary spasms and whimpers, not of pain but of renewed shock. His mind hadn�t been ready to regain his memories, and it felt overwhelmed.

Zoro was positive that if Luffy hadn�t been so cold, this wouldn�t have been happening to him. He felt that this was fault. He was taking too long to get Luffy warm. In fact, this whole damn thing had been his fault. If he had just been faster in the first place, Luffy wouldn�t have been under for so long.

Zoro brought his arms around boy to hold him close against him, rubbing his back to create heat, and to ground Luffy here with him. He scooped the boy up after a moment and sat back on the couch, holding Luffy in his lap and wrapping the blanket back around his front to keep him closed in the warmth. Luffy never responded once during this treatment. He just laid in Zoro�s arms, eyes open, but unseeing. Zoro sat quietly with him for almost a minute before trying to get through to him again. �Luffy? Hey, Luffy?�

Luffy heard his name being called, and opened his eyes blearily. Where�?

�Hey, Luffy, you back?�

Zoro.

Luffy blinked at his first mate for a moment. �Zoro? How long� was I underwater?�

Zoro met Luffy�s eyes. He didn�t really know how to say this right so that Luffy would take it seriously and not just blow it off, but he had to say something. �A while. You drowned.�

Luffy appeared confused for a moment. It was almost as though he was confused about whether or not he should be confused. �But� I�m here now.�

Zoro stood, carrying the boy over to lay him on the other couch that was still dry. �Let�s get into bed. Then I�ll explain.�

Luffy didn�t argue, and Zoro walked to the dresser to change into a dry pair of pants. He came back, wrapped a blanket around himself, positioned himself on the couch beside Luffy, and pulled the blanket on the back over both of them before tucking his captain in against him.

Luffy was comfortable in this new position. It was finally starting to warm up. He could feel his limbs again, though he couldn�t make his body stop shaking.

Zoro held his arms around his captain and rubbed his back. He noted that the smaller pirate was still shaking, though whether it was from cold or shock, Zoro wasn�t sure. He suspected it was a combination of the two. �What do you remember?�

Luffy pressed himself as close to the heat as he could and closed his eyes as he tried to regain control of his body. �I remember the white thing pulled me in the water. It was choking me. And then I remember you on that island thing.�

�Do you remember breathing water?�

�No.�

�Getting sick?�

Now Luffy paused. �he had been sick� Had he been sick? He wasn�t sure� �I wasn�t sure if that was real or not.�

Zoro frowned. �It was. I jumped in when I heard a splash. It took me a while to find you because the water was dark, and then I had to get rid of that sea creature, and then get you to the surface, and by the time I did, you weren�t breathing.�

Luffy was still trying to make himself stop shaking. His control was slowly coming back as Zoro warmed him. �Then the island?�

Zoro�s eyes remained on the back of the couch as he kept hold of his captain, unwilling to let go again. �Yeah. Then the island��

Luffy didn�t respond as he waited for more. His shaking was almost nil now, and he was able to relax all of this muscles.

Zoro continued, �You died tonight, you know? I had to work hard to bring you back.�

Luffy was quiet for a moment as he tried to think of what to say. After a moment, he went with the traditional smile and gratitude, �Arigatou na, Zo-�

�You scared me, Luffy.�

The interruption had been unexpected, and Zoro�s confession shut down Luffy�s cheerful passivity in a heartbeat. Zoro was never scared, and he wasn�t about to let Luffy feign obliviousness to get out of his situation. The captain was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again, he was serious. �I know. I remember, Zoro cried.�

Zoro could have denied it to protect what was left of his pride after the fear confession� but part of him was glad Luffy knew.

Zoro squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep, shuddering breath, �I almost lost you tonight.�

Luffy heard the words and pressed himself to his first mate. �But you didn�t.�

�You don�t understand. You were dead, Luffy. Your heart wasn�t beating anymore.� This was hard. Zoro was really trying to open up to him, but he didn�t know how to say his feelings� geez.

�Zoro,� Luffy breathed, moving one arm to grasp the hand the hand around on of his shoulders, �I�m here with you now. I�m not going anywhere.�

Zoro forced his voice to stay low. Any more audible and the boys would wake. �Luffy� I�ve seen hundreds of men die. I�ve even buried friends before. Death is no stranger to me, and I know better than most that the life of a pirate can end unexpectedly. If one of us were to die in battle, I would accept it.�

His arms tightened around his captain, and Luffy responded as best he could. ��But I�ve never held someone I cared about as they slipped away. What you did tonight� If you EVER do again what you did tonight��

He knew he was probably freaking the kid out, but Luffy had scared the hell out of him, so he didn�t care. He was just so glad to be able to hold him again. If he had died� gods, if he had died� Zoro couldn�t even imagine the pain� And what would he have done then? He pushed those thoughts aside and just reveled that his captain was alive and talking to him.

Luffy stepped in when he saw that Zoro had talked himself into a corner, and the way in which he was being embraced changed to something�less desperate and more affectionate. �Zoro, you don�t have to be scared. I�m gonna be okay, you see? I�m not going to leave the people I love.�

Zoro ran his fingers through Luffy�s hair as he made himself calm down. He so wished that he could bring himself to say what he wanted to� but as it was� �You know you can�t abandon your crew out here. What would they do withou-?�

Luffy squeezed Zoro now, �I�m not gonna leave the person that loves me most.�

�And there it was. Maybe Luffy had felt that the moment was as right as Zoro had, and had merely had courage that Zoro had not to voice it� but he was ready to put all hands on the table. Just like that, Luffy had come to his rescue this time, and put his own heart in danger by making that first move. Zoro could confirm or deny the boy in only a few words. The ball was in his court now.

Of course, Luffy would never have made a play like that unless he was sure to be the victor. Idly, Zoro wondered how long his captain had known. He kissed the boy�s head, �You�d damn well better not. I don�t know what I�d do without you anymore.�

Luffy heart swelled with a happiness he�d never known. Finally� He tried to raise his face to see his swordsman�s but hissed in pain as his neck tightened instead.

Zoro moved one hand to guide the raven-tousled head up, and the two met in a soft kiss that told each other worlds more than words ever could. Neither forced their kiss upon the other, and neither pulled away. Knowing that this had to be Luffy�s first kiss, Zoro taught him what he knew, staying gentle, showing him that it was okay to breathe. Luffy responded well, focusing entirely on the feeling. They would pull apart only to meet again in different ways, experimenting. As they got more into it, Luffy started to really get warm. He moaned involuntarily. There was a stiffening below�

Luffy�s soft moan let Zoro know when it was time to slow down. He moaned softly in response to let Luffy know that he hadn�t done anything wrong, and then gently ended the kiss.

Luffy was breathing a little heavier now, �Zoro, are we� I mean, c-can we��

Zoro listened as his captain try to say what he had secretly longed to hear for so long. Luffy�s skin was hot to the touch now, which was certainly a turn around from earlier. Zoro was glad to see that Luffy was out of danger. He didn�t even seem to be in bad shock anymore. The libido of a seventeen year old boy was such a powerful thing�

�I mean, I�ve never�done�um��

Zoro silenced him with another kiss. When he pulled away, he smiled at the boy. �You�re not doing anything tonight, either.� When Luffy sighed, he continued, �When you�re better, I�ll show you some stuff. And we�ll move at your pace, captain.�

Luffy smiled at his swordsman�s words. That sounded nice. Unfortunately, arousal doesn�t go away so quickly, and when Zoro pulled him in for one last kiss, the two met in the middle and there was a surge of pleasure that he couldn�t ignore.

Zoro felt himself rub up against his soon-to-be-lover even through the blankets, and closed his mouth over Luffy�s to quiet the inevitable moan that a brush like that would, and did, cause. After Luffy had quieted, Zoro readjusted himself against his partner and then rubbed his back to help quell his need. �You need to get some sleep.�

Luffy tried to nod, remembered that he couldn�t, sighed instead, and relaxed. �Kay.�

Zoro continued to ran his hand through the boy�s hair as he felt Luffy�s breathing slow.

�mmn�love you, Zoro.�

It was the faintest whisper, and it made Zoro the happiest man alive. He had found his someone. He kissed Luffy�s head again, �Go to sleep, buddy. I�ll be here when you wake up.�

Luffy smiled to himself. He knew it would take some time for Zoro to be able to verbally express his love just because he was Zoro, but Luffy felt it. It was there and it was strong. And he knew it would last for life, for Zoro was nothing if not faithful. Besides, there were so many other ways to express adoration, and being the action man that he was, Zoro was sure to know several�

As Luffy drifted off, Zoro enjoyed the feel of holding him like that. He didn�t know what the others would say and he didn�t particularly care. Luffy was his now. He wasn�t going to let that change if he could help it.

Before too long, exhaustion won over and his captain was sleeping, giving Zoro a chance to lean back and run his fingers over the small boy�s throat. Pale green now, it would be black and blue before too long. He would have Chopper take a look. In the meantime, he reached over to the table and grabbed for the bag again. Feeling around inside, he came out triumphantly with the �bruise juice� that Chopper kept in a small bottle. It was liquid, so Zoro worked carefully as he poured some into his palm and pressed it to Luffy�s neck.

He worked carefully to rub it into the hurt flesh so as not to wake the boy or cause further damage. Not a treatment to be used sparingly or in a rush, Zoro rubbed in several coats until the small bottle was almost empty. It was just better to do this while Luffy could sleep through it, for the constant pressure on his neck and the slow process would be tedious for him to endure consciously. He would check Luffy�s temperature in the morning.

When he was finished, Zoro put the bottle back in the bag, making a mental note to tell Chopper to make more the next day. Zoro then relaxed, prepared to stay awake for the rest of the night.

�Which didn�t turn out to be very long, as luck would have it, and after only an hour or so Sanji was getting up to make breakfast. Zoro heard him roll out of his hammock and go through the dressing process, and then pause (no doubt upon seeing them)� and then head over to the ladder without saying a word.

When the other two boys awoke, they went topside without even pausing to stare. Of course they were both so innocent that Zoro wasn�t surprised a bit that they failed to read between where the big neon lines of red and green met.

~~~ *** ~~~ *** ~~~

Robin must have explained what happened to the crew at breakfast like she said she would, for Sanji brought down a breakfast for both Zoro and Luffy without a word about an hour later, and Chopper came to give the small captain a check-up without explanation right after they had all finished eating. Luffy�s breakfast had consisted of only very soft foods, and the boy had taken his time in getting it down.

As soon as the sun was high enough, and as the tide rose nice and high, the crew acted on Luffy�s previously given orders to maneuver off the reef and ride out of the corals with the tide that day. Nami had come down a little before lunch to double check. Luffy had been sleeping, and neither had wanted to wake him, so Zoro had simply asked, �We leaving?� which had been the authoritive hand-off.

As Zoro had expected, Luffy had contracted a high fever by the first afternoon, and the swordsman stayed downstairs with him almost constantly over the next two days until it had dropped again. His neck had no permanent damage, but lots of swelling, and with a diet of soft foods that Luffy couldn�t possibly get full on, and an ice pack on it when he took his almost constant forced naps (Chopper gave him painkillers that had a rather strong narcoleptic side effect), the swelling and tenderness lessened considerably from the lack of abuse it would usually be getting. Though Luffy didn�t agree, the sleep was really a mercy on both his fever and his throat. Had he been up, he�d have been racing around the freezing deck even though he was sick, and also when he was awake he had a tendency to swallow everything from marshmellows to silverware.

On the morning of the third day, a healthy Luffy woke Zoro and asked him to come play outside. At first Zoro was about to tell him to go back to sleep because it was barely the crack of dawn and no one else was up yet. And then he woke up a little more.

Without a word, the swordsman got off his couch and followed his captain out of the cabin. Once he got to the top of the ladder and closed the hatch, he turned to see� an empty deck. Not seeing Luffy anywhere that someone just coming out of any of the bedrooms could see, Zoro moved on a hunch up the stairs that led to the back of the ship. Anyone coming to the back deck could be heard coming, giving some warning. Though Luffy�s reasoning would probably be less about the rest of the crew�s potential view, and more about the two of theirs.

As Zoro suspected, as soon as Aft came into view, there was Luffy, standing at the back of the ship by the railing, watching the sunrise. It was a view that Zoro had grown fond of during his time with Luffy.

Knowing that their time was precious, Zoro walked over to his captain. When Luffy didn�t move upon hearing his approach, Zoro knew he wanted a peaceful moment and wrapped his arms around the smaller pirate from behind.

Luffy leaned back against his best friend, raising his hands to wrap them around Zoro�s larger ones. It was quiet. It was nice.

After a couple of serene moments like that, Luffy spoke quietly in Zoro�s arms. �You know that thing you told me a couple days ago? About how I might be a little careless about falling in the ocean?�

Zoro smiled a little without moving his eyes from the sunrise, �You mean that you are definitely way too careless about falling in the ocean, yeah.�

Luffy smiled a little sheepishly. �Yeah. That.� He was quiet for a few seconds after that before proceeding. �Does it scare you when I fall in the ocean?�

�Every time.� There was no point in hiding it. �That�s why I yell at you for it. Even when you�re safe, you put yourself in danger.�

Luffy frowned a little. �I�m a pirate, Zoro. It�s never really safe.�

Zoro loosened his arms a little to turn Luffy around. �That logic won�t work here. Dying in battle is one thing, but almost drowning three times a day on a calm day for no justifiable reason, Luffy?�

Luffy smiled. �I know. That�s why I�m going to try not to fall off the ship anymore.� Seeing that Zoro wasn�t impressed right away, Luffy continued, �I mean really try. For real.� He gave his decisive nod, �I�ve decided.�

Zoro watched all this, and after a moment he laughed a little. In answer, he pulled Luffy tight against his chest, running his hand through the raven hair, �I�d appreciate that.�

Luffy hugged him back for a moment, before pulling away again to meet his swordsman with a rather coy smile. �Soooo� I�m better now. Didn�t you say something about how you were gonna show me some things�?�

Zoro burst into laugher. Luffy coy. Now there was a picture!

Luffy didn�t get offended, however. He just sighed dramatically and turned away, �I should have known you were bluffing. I mean, what �stuff� could you possibly know that�s so impressive?�

Zoro�s laugher stopped dead. Oh you�re asking for it! Just for that, instead of exercising in the traditional way, he was going to show his cocky little captain so much �stuff� that the imp wouldn�t be able to use his legs for a week. �Do you have the Armory Room key?�

Now Luffy looked back curiously, �But we never lock the Armory.�

�We are today.� Zoro kept his eyes fixed on his captain�s changing expression as realization dawned on the smaller teen. �Do you have the key, or not?�

Luffy looked him up and down, and, still feigning indifference, began to head back for the stairs. �Of course.�

Zoro followed him at a distance. There was no need to crowd him� there would be plenty of that starting in the next few minutes. He was really going to enjoy establishing the power of his manhood to his captain. Zoro had been willing to move the sex slow before this, for Luffy�s own virgin sake, but now that he was positive that this moment was all that Luffy had been thinking of for the last three days, there would be no mercy. After all, if Luffy wanted to be impressed, who was Zoro to deny him?
- 1
- 2
- 3
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Coral Reef