#Sanji tries to tell them he was ‘attacked’ but then Luffy goes ‘Yeah by me ;))))’ and Sanji promptly gives up

[shima-draws]

Normally Sanji is the most put together person between him and Luffy. He’s probably the most put together person on the entire crew besides Robin. Meanwhile Luffy is a walking disaster, chaos is naturally drawn to him and he’s ALWAYS getting into trouble. When it comes to their actual romantic relationship tho. It’s COMPLETELY flipped lmao

Luffy will walk out on deck with his hair slightly tousled and his vest a bit askew but that’s normal for him. He looks smug as hell but that’s also normal for him. Nobody bats an eye. Then Sanji comes tumbling out of the galley. Shirt untucked and buttoned up the wrong way, hair thoroughly ruffled, clothes rumpled, looking utterly fucking disheveled. His nose is bleeding, he’s stumbling like he’s drunk and his neck is covered in hickies. Everyone on deck proceeds to lose their goddamn MINDS

[novosg]

Do you think you can do a headcannon w/. Monster trio with a s/o who has OCD? I'm OCD , and I know (just for me idk how other people react to theirs ) before I fall asleep , I have to recheck the locks on my doors , or check if the burners are off on my stove. Usually if I don't check atleast three times , I won't be able to sleep. Sometimes I try to fight it off, but I end up just checking because it literally drives me nuts! But yeah , a s/o like that, maybe they wake up in the middle of the night and see that their s/o isn't in bed , and went out to go looking for them ? Thank you! I love your writing , I love that's its diverse , and I'm always going back to your page to see if you have any new uploads. Thank you for your time and effort you put into your writings! Xxx Big fan !!

Of course! I myself have no experience with OCD so I hope I got this right! And tysm! I can’t even begin to express how much it means to to hear that! I’m so glad you’re enjoying my writing :) 🫶🏾🫶🏾

Monster Trio with a S/O who has OCD

Fluff, G/N!reader, the boys being supportive

Luffy

He doesn’t really notice at first

But when he does he's pretty blunt about asking you about it

He means well of course, just needs to be educated

He’s a bit confused at first, but after you talk it over with him he couldn't be more supportive!

Might pout a little that you didn’t tell him at first but he gets over that pretty quick

Has enough sense to realize it might’ve been a little hard to open up about

Every night he goes with you and chats about whatever comes to mind while you do your routines

And if you prefer to be alone he’d be right in y’all’s room waiting on you

Is like your own personal reminder-whether you need him to be or not

Will roll over and be like: “Y/N, don’t you need to go check the stuff?”

Even if you two are separated for whatever reason, his mind will drift over to you whenever that time rolls around and wonders if you’re still keeping up with your routine

If you’re ever feeling down he’s immediately stretching his face every which way trying to make you laugh and feel better

And if that’s not the type of support you need he’ll buckle down and get serious in order to console you

Will be there for you as much as humanly possible and then some

Zoro

Is one of the most observant people on board so he notices pretty quickly

Doesn’t say anything about it at first, just kinda deems it as a random habit of yours

Until he realizes you're doing it every night. Almost as if you need to do it

Thinks about what could the reasoning could be for hours on end before he finally decides to ask you about it

Follows shortly after you when you head into the kitchen and nearly gives you a heart attack in the process

“Y/N.” When you whirl around to face him he’s leaning over by the door giving you that knowing stare of his. “What are you doing?”

Is quiet while you explain it to him but that’s mainly because he’s super deep in thought

If he seems a bit annoyed please don’t think it's towards you. He’s more than frustrated with himself that he didn’t put two and two together and wasn’t there for you in all the times he could’ve been

Is a bit awkward in trying to offer help (but that’s mainly because he has the emotional availability of a rock), but he genuinely wants to help however he can

Even asks Chopper about what he could do to help you out

As much as he loves getting some sleep, he’s more than willing to stay up and wait for you

Has your routine more downpacked then you almost

Like he actually has a timeframe for the time it takes you to make your rounds. And trust and believe if you’re taking longer than usual he’s up and looking for you to see if anything’s wrong

Remember what I said about that emotional availability? Yeah..Zoro isn’t too good with sensitive talks (he tries, though) but if there’s days where everything feels like too much and you need him to listen or just simply be there, he’s right where you need him

Sanji

Has like a 6th sense for when people are in the kitchen when they’re not supposed to be so he finds out fairly quick. Especially when he wakes up and sees you’re not in bed

Is more concerned than curious when he asks what’s keeping you up

Once you tell him, he’s immediately ready to be at your service

“Oh, my love, how could I have been so blind? Tell me what you need and your prince will provide!”

If you don’t really need anything physical from him that’s fine too

Now if you need him to be there for you mentally and/or emotionally he’s right there by your side

Encourages you to come to him no matter what. He never wants you feel alone or like you can’t do so

Is very good at consoling people and never hesitates to offer soothing words or simply just a shoulder to lean on

Goes above and beyond and tries to do his own research. Just like Zoro, he’ll even ask Chopper for advice as well

Makes sure to leave the kitchen unlocked for as long as you need it open

Will also stay up and wait for you, even if you tell him he doesn’t need to

Once you get back into bed he’ll whisper all sorts of reassuring and sweet nothings to you before one of you falls asleep

To him, you’re in this together and any sort of helping hand you need he’ll lend

[oriigami]

good old-fashioned lover boy

[I put off posting this for like, a really long time, but I found it in my docs again and figured I might as well. TW for internalized homophobia/biphobia and a (non-graphic) panic attack. So, here’s my take on Sanji’s Issues, finally. Read it on AO3 here!]

In his defense, Sanji doesn’t actually mean to say it. 

The thing is, it’s something he tells himself on a regular basis, the words running through his mind in pure self-defensive panicky habit. It used to be a weekly or biweekly event, but since coming onboard the ship, it’s become more like daily. So maybe it’s not surprising that the words that are always on his mind eventually slip out of his lips. 

He doesn’t even remember the exact words that prompt it. He’s distracted, putting the finishing touches on the frosting for dessert as the rest of the crew lounge around the galley in playful post-supper sleepiness.  

Luffy and Usopp are joking around, talking about the flower-seller boy on the last island Usopp had struck up a friendship with, and there’s a giggle and a teasing question about love, and on autopilot Sanji rolls his eyes a little without looking up from the cake he’s decorating and says, “Boys don’t like boys, Luffy.” 

Suddenly, the room is very quiet, and everyone is looking at him, and Sanji is just as suddenly eight years old and wants to hide. 

“Oi, cook,” Zoro says, voice sharp and cutting through the sudden silence. “What was that?” 

And he really doesn’t want to defend the words, and he really doesn’t want to explain them, so he doesn’t. He scowls back and says, “Nothing.”

Zoro stares him down for a moment, and most of the time Sanji would glare right back at him and snap out something caustic and maybe try to kick his head in, but-

He looks away, teeth gritted and face too hot. 

“Sanji-kun,” Nami says, her voice too sweet to not be a trap, and it’s almost cruel because she knows there’s no way he’s not going to fall for it, because it’s Nami.

“Yes, Nami-san?” he says, because he can’t not. The frosting in the bowl in his hands is already fluffed to perfection but he keeps mindlessly whisking it anyways, because he needs something to look at that isn’t Zoro’s disapproving glare or Nami’s poison-trap smile. 

“You know I like girls, don’t you?” she asks, even though the answer is obvious- it’s not like she’s ever been all that discreet about her relationships. 

“Of course.” 

He’s still not looking at her, but he can practically see her tip her head to one side. “And do you think there’s something wrong with me because of that?” 

“I- of course not!” he says, jerking around to look at her, honestly appalled at the very concept. Nami’s perfect, of course there’s nothing wrong with her, not like there is with- “Of course not,” he says again, rather than let that thought reach its conclusion. “That’s- different-”

“What about Zoro?” Nami presses, jerking a thumb over at Zoro, who glances over at her for a moment before settling his glare back on Sanji. “Do you think there’s something wrong with him?” 

“That’s not- what I meant, I just-” He’s stuttering, he knows he is, because he can’t find the words, because the logic that makes perfect sense in his head is just refusing to leave his mouth, leaving him standing there, stupid and stammering. He doesn’t want to have this conversation, doesn’t want to be here, trapped between Nami’s merciless judgement and something he doesn’t ever want to drag into the light to examine. 

“Then what did you mean?” Nami asks, as relentless as ever, and-

-and Sanji slams the bowl down on the counter so hard it almost shatters and all but bolts out of the galley because he can’t can’t can’t-

She’s kind enough, at least, to let him go in silence. 

-

It’s Usopp, of all people, who comes and finds him in the crow’s nest. 

Sanji’s already five cigarettes deep into a pack, lighting each fresh one off the stub of the last with unsteady hands, sucking on them like if he can just get enough smoke inside his head it’ll block out the jumble of tangled thoughts and muffle the memory of Nami’s cutting words. The room stinks of nicotine. Usopp makes a face and goes around to open the windows, letting the nighttime breeze start to clear away the smoky air. 

Once that’s done, Usopp sits down against the wall just opposite him, giving him a thoughtful look. Sanji doesn’t meet his eyes, and fishes another cigarette out of the pack. 

“You never met Kaya, right?” Usopp says at length, sounding kind of distant, nostalgic, almost. 

Sanji blinks, glancing up from the floor. “Who?”

“It would’ve been before you joined the crew,” Usopp says, hands dangling between his knees, gaze focused on the stars visible through the open window.  “She was a girl who lived in my hometown. Syrup Village. She was sick, and couldn’t leave her house, so I used to go and tell her stories every day.” He smiles, big and genuine, and adds, “I really loved her. Still do. Sometimes I’d make up stories about the future, about us setting sail and having adventures together once she got well, and we’d be married in some of them.”

Sanji doesn’t know where he’s going with this, but unlike with a lot of Usopp’s stories, this one has the weight of honesty behind it, and so he listens. 

“And then Zoro and Nami and Luffy showed up, and helped me save my town and Kaya, and I joined their crew. And, um, Luffy told me we were already friends, and he smiled at me, and, uh, I realized I had a huge crush on him, too.” 

Sanji bites clean through his cigarette and has to spend a minute or so spitting out loose tobacco before he can say, very eloquently, “You- huh?” 

Usopp laughs a little, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, stupid, right? I mean, Luffy’s not, you know, he doesn’t do the whole, dating, romance thing, so obviously, uh, nothing ever came of it, which I was kind of sad about for a while. But, I mean, I got over it, cause he’s my best friend, y’know?” 

Sanji’s still staring. Usopp waves a hand. “I just wanted to say, like- it’s okay, you know? Liking both boys and girls. That’s normal. Even if nothing comes of it. You’re not on your own.” 

“Wait,” Sanji says, “Wait. You think I’m- I’m not-” He flounders for a moment. “...I like women,” he finishes, rather pathetically. 

“Yeah, I know,” Usopp says. “Everyone knows. But, like, a week ago I saw you shatter the glass you were holding ‘cause Zoro came in from working out shirtless and really sweaty.” 

Oh. Sanji remembers that, now that Usopp mentions it, and as soon as he does he feels his entire face heat up and swiftly buries it in his hands, digging his fingers into his hair. “Fuck,” he mutters emphatically.

There’s a pause, and then the sound of footsteps crossing the small room. Usopp sits down next to him. Sanji doesn’t look up. “I guess I don’t get it,” Usopp says. “What’s the problem?” 

“There’s no problem,” Sanji says into his hands, and it sounds unconvincing even to him. 

Usopp doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t really have to; even without looking up, Sanji can practically feel the skepticism radiating off of him. 

Sanji sighs, lifts his head, and focuses on shaking another cigarette out of the pack to replace the one he’d ruined, lighting it as he tries to put his thoughts in order. “It’s… there’s rules,” he finally says. 

There’s other things he could say, he means to say- maybe it’s okay for Zoro, for Nami, for you, but it’s not that easy; women make sense, aren’t threatening, can be trusted; I’ve already failed at being everything else I was supposed to be- but the words stick in his throat. He’s still struggling to dislodge them when-

“So?” Usopp just says, and shrugs a little. “We’re pirates. Breaking rules is kind of what we do.” 

…hm. 

Well, that’s a point to think about. Maybe. Sanji takes another drag off of his cigarette and feels something in his chest settle, just a bit, the loosening of a knot that’s been yanked too tight for years and years and years. 

“Maybe,” he concedes around a mouthful of smoke, and sees Usopp grin triumphantly out of the corner of his eye. 

There’s- a lot, in his head right now, and it’ll probably take some time to work though it all, but. For the moment he can breathe again, and Usopp has a point, so even if he’s not fine, he will be, probably. 

“Thanks,” he says, and means it. 

And then, after a moment, “But, Luffy? Really?” 

Usopp elbows him hard, but he’s laughing between the words when he says, “Shut up!”

And Sanji finds he can laugh about it, too. 

[xxrat-bastardxx]

mind if i slide in the first three parts of my zoro x reader fanfiction in here, its posted on archive of our own and wattpad too but i might just switch over to here so ppl can request one piece oneshots and drabbles n’ stuff anyway here it is:

Stargazer: A Roronoa Zoro x Reader

     I've been looking up recently. Not that I don't look up ever, as it is kinda my unspoken job on this ship. However instead of looking up to navigate the stars at night, lately I have been fascinated with looking at the crow's nest in the daytime, wondering what a certain swordsman was doing in there all day. Since I joined the crew the green haired hunk intrigued me. His cold personality strange to me as it was so different than everyone else on the ship. Although I found him interesting we never really had conversations, only short small talk here and there and common courtesy. A part of me wanted to get closer to him and find out all of his little secrets. The sane part telling me to leave him alone and find another person to bother.

    "(Y/N)!" Luffy yelled, pulling me out of my daydream, "FOOD!"

    "Go get Zoro while you're at it too," Nami followed.

    I got up from my spot on the grass and started my ascent. A sudden wave of excitement and nervousness washing over me. Finally I would learn the secrets of the crows nest. I unlatch the door and pull myself up, sitting myself up with my legs dangling out of the door.

    "Oh, that's boring," I say accidentally, quickly covering my mouth when I realized I actually said that out loud. Zoro drops his weight and looks at me, a puzzled expression on his face.

    "Excuse me? What did you say?" He questions even though he obviously understood what I said.

    "Shit, I'm sorry I didn't mean to say that. I was just expecting...Well I don't know what I was expecting, something different I guess." I answer not wanting to lie to the poor man I just insulted.

    Don't get me wrong walking in on a buff man working out is not necessarily boring. Just the obvious thing a buff man would be doing with his time. I guess I was hoping he would turn out to be a mad scientist or delicately painting the ocean from the perfect view the windows give.

    "Um...Anyway. It's dinner time, Nami wanted me to come get you," I say trying to change the topic and quickly make my escape. "I'll be going now, sorry I interrupted your workout."

    "Wait," Zoro says, stopping me before I leap down to the safety of the deck, "I'll walk with you." Weird. I just insulted him and now he wants to walk with me. It's not even that far of a walk either...

    I wait for him to grab a towel and dry off his sweat before heading down to the deck. Waiting for him at the bottom I listen to the commotion ensuing in the kitchen. If we don't hurry our damn captain will eat all the food. I hear a soft thump as the swordsman lands next to me. Looking up at him I shudder slightly just now realizing our hight difference. I quickly take in all of his features, never being this close for so long. Short green hair, did it always look that soft? Tan skin, was it always that smooth? Thick scar running across his chest, do you think he would let me touch it, I wonder how it feels? Damnit (y/n), why are you such a creep! I shake my head and start the short journey to the kitchen. Zoro following silently. I turn open the door to the kitchen with a smile and offer Zoro the chance to go in first. He nods to me in thanks and takes his seat at the table.

    "There you are (y/n)-swan! I thought that marimo brute kidnapped you, I was about to go save you myself," Sanji swoons carrying plates of delicious looking food. I laugh making his face light up as I sit down. The mentioned brute becoming visibly annoyed at the cook.

    "Don't worry Sanji he couldn't kidnap me even if he tried. Everyone knows I'm too quick to get caught," I reply teasing Zoro as I point my chopsticks at him.

    "Tch, how do you know...I wouldn't even want to kidnap you." Zoro grumbles poking at his food.

    "Did I make the moss head sad?" I jab, enjoying the thrill of making fun of such a powerful person. If I wasn't able to find his hidden talent, annoying him would be the next best thing. I wanted to know how far I could take it. I swear a slight tinge of red now dusted his cheeks and ears. Cute. He didn't respond but ate the rest of his meal obviously fuming.

"Luffy?" I question making the captain pause for a moment, "Who's on night shift with me tonight?" Since I navigated the ship most nights with the stars so Nami could relax, I usually asked for a helper to be on deck so I wouldn't drop dead the next day because of pulling all nighters every night. After asking it became apparent that Luffy hadn't thought of it one bit during the day. Which was typical of the airhead.

"Ussop!" Luffy smiles. It was obvious this was the first name to come to his head.

"Hey! I've done it 3 times this week already, why not someone else?!" Ussop retaliates. Ouch. I laugh it off understanding that for a normal person that was too much time to be awake.

"I'll do it," Zoro growls "I did it most of the time before she joined so its fine." This shocked me a little, he had never offered before and just after I've insulted him this much he wants to hang out with me? Or maybe he'll through me overboard as revenge. I guess if I survive the night I'll be able to learn more about him so maybe this is my dream come true.

After dinner I go to the back of the ship and watch the sunset, It was my nightly ritual so to say. Something calm to end the hectic days on the Sunny. I take in the salty ocean air and lean my head into my hand. The ocean was so peaceful today, a gentle current pulling the ship along gentle waves. So lost in the moment I didn't realize the person coming up behind me until I felt a strong pair of hands on my shoulders. I yelp in surprise and whip around to face my attacker.

"You say you're too fast to catch, yet you don't even hear me coming," Zoro scoffs.

"Hey, that's not fair, I wasn't paying attention," I pout crossing my arms over my chest. Now this guy was touching me? What the heck did I do to get all this attention, I thought teasing him would do the opposite! I guess I'm in for a long night.

2

    We sat in an awkward silence for the next hour, I still had no idea why this man wanted to give me so much attention all of a sudden. I had been on the ship for almost 2 months now and had never gotten any recognition from him before. Most of my time was spent with Nami talking about maps and directions, or with Ussop and Franky trying to make bigger better telescopes to research the huge sky above us. And if I wasn't with them I was usually sleeping, preparing myself for the night ahead.

    I look over to the man sitting a couple feet away, bottle in hand. Aha! Conversation starter, please let this awkward silence end!

    "So, you like sake?" Damnit he wouldn't be drinking if he didn't like it. Why did you ask something so obvious.

    "Yeah, I guess so." He replied taking another swig. Come on (y/n) think of something better. A few more excruciating minutes passed, nothing came to mind of what I could do to fix the situation.

"I don't really drink, I don't like the taste," I say, another awkward sentence for another awkward situation.

Zoro snickers, "I guess you just haven't had the right alcohol then," He reaches the bottle out towards me, "Try it," He says. Carefully I reach out and take the bottle in my hands. I shrug and take a sip. Nope still awful! I scrunch my face as the swordsman laughs. Wiping my mouth I pass back the bottle.

"Nope, definitely not for me," I mutter, earning another chuckle from Zoro.

"It seems like you don't like anything I do huh," Zoro says.

"Huh! No no no, its not like that I promise!" I quickly jab. I sigh and look up at the stars. Zoro softly punches my shoulder.

"I know I'm joking. You're different, I like that," He reassures me. At least now I know he isn't planning on throwing me overboard.

    "Wait what do you mean I'm different?" I say, the phrase finally hitting.

    "You aren't in awe of me, I respect that." Zoro says softly. A blush creeps onto my face, I didn't expect something like this from the guy. He seemed so cold and distant most of the time, it was quite intimidating. I look down at my lap, trying to hide the redness of my face. It was reassuring to know that the scariest person on the ship thought of me with respect. With those words the atmosphere seemed to lighten up. Instead of excruciating silence it was calm, like my moments with the sunset. I lie down looking at the stars, the spring constellations jumping out at me. The grand line may have the strangest seasons, but the sky remains the same throughout the years, on a cycle you could count on. Reliable as always, beautiful as always.

I hadn't noticed Zoro lying next to me until he spoke. "What are you looking at?" I turn to him our faces closer now.

"The constellations," I reply, "They help me figure out where we need to go, and what time of the year it is."

"Hmm, I never thought of it that way," Zoro says turning back to the sky, hands behind his head like a pillow. I daringly scoot closer to the man. Leaning closer to him I point to a collection of stars.

"Look over there is the Big Dipper, that one you probably already know. Oh, and over there is Virgo!" I explain excitedly. I continue to gush over the stars pointing out more constellations and going into some of the stories behind them. This goes on for a while, I spit out random star facts while Zoro nods and quietly takes in the information I shove at him. By the time my rant is over we are sitting up again, much closer than last time. When we first sat down it was as ship mates who barely knew each other, now it was like friends, who still, barely knew each other.

"You see, I grew up on a small, but well developed island. There was a lot of light pollution so I could hardly see the stars. Definitely not how we can see them tonight. My parents were just business people, nothing special, but my grandmother was an astrologer. She taught me almost everything I know about the sky now." I slow down, "Before she passed she told me that the only place I could truly see the sky in its glory is the sea. There no one can pollute the sky with bright lights and you'll be the freest you'll ever be. So that's what brought me to the Grand Line I guess. My parents weren't so happy about it but I didn't care what they thought." I hadn't noticed my tears until a calloused hand wiped them away. A small gasp escapes my mouth as I look up at Zoro, our faces much closer than I ever thought they would be. His hand remains on my face as he looks at me, the gears in his head turning. He moves a stray (h/c) strand out of my face.

I don't know what drives me to do it but I wrap my arms around the man's waist and pull him into a hug. My ear against his chest. It takes a few moments but he soon returns the gesture sliding his strong arms around me. My heart skips a beat as he gently caresses my hair, running his fingers through it. I feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breaths, the beating of his heart echoing in my ear. I knew he was just as nervous as me, even if he refused to show it. I slowly pulled away and our eyes met, locked in to each other for what seemed like hours. A delicate smile was painted on his lips and I smile back at him. What were once cold eyes showed a new formed warmth and fondness. New feelings sparked in me as I looked at his expression and got lost into his gaze. Bravery flooded through me and I hoped he felt the same spark I did as slowly leaned towards him again. I closed the distance putting my forehead against his, eyes closed. I hesitate for a moment putting my hands on his warm cheeks, then softly place a kiss onto his lips. I pull back hands still cupping his face. I look at him, a blush dusted onto his face. He places a hand on my waist and closes the distance once more, returning the kiss with more force than the last. My hands move to his hair as he gently leans me back to the floor. I look into his eyes again when we come up for air.

"I don't hate everything you do, I definitely like this," I say bringing him into another kiss.

3

A few days had passed since the exciting night watch with Zoro. After getting caught with Zoro straddling me by Luffy we were too embarrassed to really talk to each other. Especially when the stupid captain brought it up during breakfast the next morning. Who knew the kid would expose us like that,

"Zoro why were you wrestling with (y/n) last night? I thought you didn't like playing, you never wrestle with me," Luffy pouts reaching for another piece of toast. This alerts Sanji instantly,

"You brute! Why would you lay a finger on my precious princess?! Explain yourself swordsman!"

Me and Zoro both turn red like a tomato and look away from each other quickly. Nami and Robin snicker both knowing what was going on.

"Um..w-well you see, Its not like you think Sanji. We weren't fighting its f-fine," I manage to blurt out before Sanji went completely apeshit on Zoro.

"But why was he on top of you (y/n)?" Luffy asks. At this point Zoro was just about ready to bolt out of the kitchen and I was just about ready to melt into a puddle of embarrassment. With Luffy's new statement it seemed to have clicked with our ero—cook what was really going on...

I shudder as I recall the events of that awful breakfast and rest my forehead on the chart I had been working on in the aquarium bar. Robin pats my head as she reads her book.

"(y/n), you're going to have to talk to Zoro again. You can't just keep ignoring him like this,"

"I'd rather die than have that awkward conversation. Plus he probably is totally over me now, he's avoiding me too you know," I mumble into the paper.

"I'm sure that's not the case (y/n). I bet he feels the same as you do right now," Robin reassures me, flipping the page.

"I think I'm going to go take a nap to clear my head," I say softly closing the lid to my ink and rolling the chart back up.

"Have fun," Robin replies, lost in her book like always.

I start my walk to the girl's room remembering how gentle Zoro was when we kissed. It was a nice surprise, I didn't realize how caring he could be. His smile flashed in my mind, how genuine it was, how deeply he listened to everything I said, truly interested in every story I told about the stars. Everything that night felt right after we took down our guard walls. God I hope that's not the last time I see his smile.

Hmm, tomorrow is my night off, I wonder what I should do. Sleeping that whole time sounds like a waste, maybe I'll pamper myself extra and take a longer bath. Yeah that sounds like it will be perfect.

I turn the corner and suddenly trip over something on the floor.

"Ack! What the hell was that?!" I yell, rudely pulled out of planning my night off. I turn around to see who tripped me to yell at them some more but stopped once I saw who it was. "Zoro?! W-what are you doing napping in the hallway?"

He blushes slightly and turns his head away from me, "I was waiting for you so I could talk to you."

"Oh, umm what did you want to talk about?" I ask sitting up,

"I wanted to apologize. For the other night," He says looking in his lap.

"What would you have to apologize for? You didn't do anything wrong" I reply

"If it wasn't for me taking things too far then Luffy wouldn't have embarrassed you in front of the whole crew like that. I'm sorry that I was the cause of that," Zoro says starting to get up. Before he could walk away I grab his arm and pull him back down. I look him in the eyes making sure he listens to what I have to say.

"Zoro, you have nothing to be sorry about, I don't think you took things to far. I'm glad you did what you did and no amount of embarrassment is going to change that," I start, "Look, I'm just glad you don't hate me. I really like you, you know."  

Those seemed to be the magic words as Zoro face lights up, the same beautiful smile he gave me that night resurfacing. He leans closer and kisses my cheek. "Meet me in the crows nest tomorrow night," He says, turning back into his confident self. He kisses me before getting up, "I really like you too," He says before turning and leaving me sitting in the hallway.

It didn't register what I got myself into until a few moments later.

"Holy shit, I just confessed to Zoro. AND HE LIKES ME BACK!" I yell to no one in particular. I jump up and run the rest of the way to the girls room like a 15 year old who just met their celebrity crush. Not my best moment but it was so good to know how Zoro felt about me. It was even better that he felt the same way about me as I felt about him. I was to excited after that to get a nap in but that was fine by me.

\ \ \

Nami came in to get me for dinner a few hours later. I was surprised she didn't ask me about what had happened between me and the swordsman, I'm sure everyone on the ship could hear my squeal of excitement earlier. I'm sure her pestering would come soon enough.

We make our way to the kitchen quickly not wanting Luffy to eat everything before we get there. I was going to sit in my normal spot next to Nami but before I could get there a familiar hand grabbed mine,

"Sit next to me," Zoro says gently tugging at my hand. I smile and sit next to him mouthing a quick sorry to Nami. The new seating arrangement did not go unnoticed by anyone. Everyone was either shocked or weirded out by how physical Zoro had become with you. His embarrassment was obviously gone as he shamelessly had his hand on my knee the entire meal and kissed my cheek every once in a while. Sanji was fuming the entire meal as well, and Zoro shot him his normal icy glares. It was almost as he was making fun of the cook at times or maybe just making sure that Sanji knew his place.

It actually wasn't long before the meal felt like just an average dinner on the Sunny. Brook singing and joking with Franky, Nami being annoyed with Sanji as Robin laughs at his antics, Luffy eating all the food while Chopper and Ussop try and match his impossible pace. Time seemed to slow down every time I ate with the rowdy crew, just having a good time.

After dinner I head to the back of the ship again to watch the sunset like normal. It was the perfect day for a nice sunset, just enough clouds to make the light shine just right, caressing the sky with beautiful pinks and oranges. I smile, stretch, and head to the grass to sit with Franky to start the night shift. We had planned to set up the telescope so I could do some extra research for my chart.

It was getting late and only a few of the crew members were still on the deck. I saw the light in the crows nest go out and Zoro heading down to the deck. I tell Franky I'd be back and went to go say goodnight to the moss head. I get to the bottom of the ladder just as Zoro does.

"You off to bed?" I ask.

"Yeah, I have to be up early for training tomorrow." He says yawning.

"Ok sleepy head, get some good rest. I'll see you in the morning,"

"Goodnight (y/n)," He smiles and leans down to gently kiss my lips. I watch him disappear into the ship before I go back to Franky and the telescope, a grin plastered on my face.

I love the whole "Zoro is actually a cuddle bug" head cannon so i sorta ran with it in this oops. anywhoo lmk how you like it or if u want more, i’ll be taking requests for x reader stuff and writing more so yeah

[chikabika]

I wanna talk about Whole Cake Island too!

So, I’m reading Whole Cake Island right now. And I have THOUGHTS about Sanji and Luffy’s “”””fight””””. And it’s probably nothing anyone hasn’t said before but I’m gonna write it out anyway.

(TL;DR Sanji and Luffy fight and it hurts because they both go for the throat. Also Nami has been through this shit I am surprised she’s putting up with Sanji trying to leave in the slightest.)

So first, yeah, I’m screaming into a pillow because this shit is rough. Let’s get those personal emotions out of the way first. 

Sanji’s whole thing is that he cares and serves, right? His love language is acts of service and that’s primarily shown through feeding people. When we meet the Vinsmokes (I shall not be referring to them as his family) we see pretty quickly that they are the antithesis to everything Sanji is. 

The men are literally said to lack the ability to sympathize or empathize. Not only do we see this is the case, but Reiju says so herself:

They do not value cooking nor food. Judge tells Sanji to never cook again, Niji wastes food.

And, of course, the brothers have no qualms about hitting women. The whole chivalry/won’t hit a women thing is a huge can of worms I don’t feel like unpacking in part because I don’t feel like I could talk about it without discussing women’s power levels and roles in One Piece. And I’ve already digressed too much.

So yeah, the Vinsmokes are the opposite of Sanji and hold none of his values. In fact, they may be why he holds some of his values, because they are as far from the Vinsmoke’s values as possible.

Okay so the two chapters in particular when Luffy and Nami find and confront Sanji! 

Pretty immediately we see that 1. Sanji was not expecting them, 2. He’s distressed that they’re here, and 3. It complicates things for him.

Like, that is not a face of someone happy to see his friends who have come to save him. That is an “oh fuck” face. (And as a sidenote, yeah, it’s a whole lot harder to sacrifice yourself when you’re confronted with the people you’re leaving behind, HUH, SANJI????)

Luffy’s all happy to see him, feels like they’ve accomplished their goal, doesn’t question that Sanji would want to come back. And he’s got things to do! Like save Wano and beat up Kaido! Chop chop Sanji let’s go on adventures! Plus, I would think that Luffy would also have the expectation of his crew that they understand that no one gets to leave if they’re doing it to sacrifice themselves. He’s already shown he’s gonna come get you and Sanji knows this. Sanji’s first arc with them after Baratie was going to save Nami from Arlong and her self-sacrificial bullshit! Luffy’s modus operandi is saying “Oh, you thought you were in a lose-lose situation and the only solution was to sacrifice your happiness and well being? Fuck that! You’re my nakama, let me save you!”

Both Luffy and Nami aren’t questioning Sanji’s wanting to come with them. They’re here, it’s time to go!

And so then we see the surface level reasons why Sanji would say “No, I can’t go with you.” And we also see that he knows Judge is watching him.

I don't think Nami's buying it either. She's done this. She knows what it's like to be trapped by circumstances, to have your loved ones held hostage. And she did this shit too! She fuckin laid it down, lied to her nakama about it all being a farce in her efforts to keep them out of her dangerous situation! Maybe the words sting, but I think this face of hers is even more from her thinking about how they all know eachother so much more, and know how Luffy wouldn't leave one of them behind. So Sanji must be under some real duress right now. Like, I feel like she could extrapolate a lot from what he's saying because she knows that's not who he is. And because she's tried the same shit. And, I wonder if she’s hurting for him because she knows what it’s like.

Every chance she gets, she reiterates that there was nothing between them, that she doesn’t care about them, that she tricked them, and even uses her supposed killing of Usopp as support of her betraying them. She is desperately trying to get them off this island. Arlong is well covered, we all know what’s up.

And, the parallels are pretty clear for Sanji. He’s got family being held hostage (Zeff, and the Strawhats too), and he couldn’t leave anyway because he’s got explosion bracelets on. Plus he’s got his own self-sacrificial streak (which I could guess comes from being raised in a household where you’re told you don’t have any value and everything you do is wrong-the fact that Sanji still cried at Judge’s rejection of him right before his escape speaks to how as a child he still wanted Judge’s approval and love as a father).

So, he comes out swinging with the thing that we previously established would be the shittiest thing to say, that Luffy rejected the possibility of him saying.

And then he starts on this buckwild speech that is so fucking hammed up I almost questioned if Sanji meant for them to understand the opposite of his words, and was just putting on a show for the Vinsmokes.

Nami only says he’s going too far when Sanji starts insulting Luffy’s dream, which the whole crew believes in and supports. 

Also, as a side note, it doesn’t really make sense to me that Nami would just take on the role of “you’re going too far, you can’t believe what you’re saying!” Maybe Chopper would do that cuz he’s gullible and shit. BUT NAMI FREAKIN DID THE SAME SHIT. I would almost expect a “...” speechbubble from her and later her saying something like “He really tried his best to make that look convincing, didn’t he? He’s not very good at it.”

Nami’s savvy!

But anyway, yeah, Sanji tries to go for the throat to push thme away saying shit about Luffy not being able to become the Pirate King. My first reaction to this whole thing was: 

“WOW HE'S REALLY DOING IT, HUH? HE'S LYING THROUGH HIS TEETH TO SAY THE MOST HURTFUL SHIT HE CAN TO HIS LOVED ONES SO THEY'LL STAY AWAY SO HE CAN SACRIFICE HIMSELF TO STOP ANYONE FROM GETTING HURT”

Usopp has tried to leave too, but his situation was different. His reasons were stated clearly and he didn’t try to pretend that all the shit they’ve gone through together and the bonds they’ve formed were fake. Nami, Robin, Sanji? They try to do the “ah, I never loved you” bullshit. 

But Sanji’s is the first time that from the get-go, the audience knows before the confrontation everything that’s going on for the crewmember trying to fake betrayal. With Nami and Robin, we didn’t learn their backstories until after they tried to push people away. With Sanji not only did we get it beforehand, but when Luffy and Nami show up, we are shown the three pieces of information that Sanji thinks about and that motivate him to push his crewmates away:

His hands (his treasures) are bound and threatened.

His nakama are threatened.

Zeff is threatened.

He’s backed into a freakin corner! And he know’s Luffy’s track record on crew members trying to leave! So he goes for the throat and when that doesn’t work (or for the whole performance he’s putting on for the Vinsmokes) he attacks Luffy.

Luffy says he won’t fight Sanji, and I wonder if this is because of Water 7 and Usopp. That fight was so fucking painful, I wonder if Luffy vowed to never fight someone like that again?

Clearly he isn’t getting through to Sanji, even though, to him, Sanji should know what the deal is by now.

So he goes for the throat himself! Which is honestly just heartwrenching on Oda’s part and pretty unfair on Luffy’s part. Though, when has Luffy ever been fair lol. His whole crew agrees his selfishness levels are above emperor!

This page pretty much sums it up:

Also, throughout this entire encounter we get glimpses of Sanji thinking about the crew and meeting Luffy, which is cool to see his internal world somewhat.When Luffy first shows up. I mean. Look at the pain on his face.

This is not a “we have a difference in ideals and are fighting over it and I’m thinking about how we met because I regret that it’s come to this.” fight. It’s not even a fight. It’s Sanji desperately saying “Please leave before you die because of me!”

Actually, maybe it is kind of a fight of ideals because Sanji is fighting to say “leave me behind I’m not worth it” and Luffy’s saying “yes you are.”

For all the extremely clear things going on emotionally for people in this scene, I’m surprised Oda just left Nami’s responses at this. But, since he did, it means I get to interpret them how I please!

This could simply be read as her feeling betrayed and shit. But again, they all know the history of the crew. This could just as easily be her saying “You went too far.” or “I can’t believe you wouldn’t believe in Luffy enough to come back with us.”

I said she could probably guess at him feeling like he’s stuck, backed into a corner. And if I remember correctly she is aware that the Strawhat’s lives are threatened if Sanji doesn’t comply with Big Mom’s wishes. But she probably wouldn’t guess at the bracelets being bombs and doesn’t know (but might guess) at the Baratie being threatened too. Nami knows all about people who claim “family” as an excuse to hurt and bind you.

But basically, I would think for her, it would be a situation of her feeling like at this point Sanji should know Luffy well enough to know he won’t give up, and to trust Luffy enough to take Sanji home. So why the fuck would he try to play this game when they’ve all seen that it doesn’t work? Why say the most hurtful things he can think of? And why not just come home now?

I don’t think she’s angry at him for the betrayal he’s trying to act out, I think she’s angry at him for the betrayal he’s committing for not trusting the crew to get him out of there.

(Again, haven’t read past this part but I could absolutely see later Nami saying “do you think we acted hurt enough for them to buy it?”)

And then of course, the last four pages of the chapter where Luffy clearly calls bullshit on Sanji, saying Sanji felt the pain of his kicks more than Luffy did. And Sanji is just starting to fucking lose it. (panels from right to left)

Like, Luffy. Chill. It hurts so much! But no, he can’t just call Sanji out. He’s gotta go for the kill, present Sanji with an unacceptable situation he knows he can’t refuse. Or at least hopes he can’t refuse. Because for Luffy, Sanji leaving is an unacceptable situation.

Not only will he not eat (which, god, using that against Sanji is almost too much, fuck, Luffy), but he won’t even fucking move so get your ass back here soon before I starve, Sanji.

To use the two very deeply entrenched facts about these characters this way is sure something, huh?

Sanji will feed anyone who is hungry. He cannot stand hunger, almost.

Luffy eats all the damn time and lots and never refuses food. For him to say “i’m going on a hunger strike, I’m not eating until it’s from you” IS JUST SO MUCH.

Also side note god what cruel people to laugh at Sanji’s pain as Niji and Yonji are doing.

Sanji thought he could get away with thinking he’s expendable (just like Judge has said in every time period we’ve seen him on the page) Luffy flat out rejects that. Sanji is essential, an required part of the crew and a required part of Luffy’s dream. Just like the crew have adopted his dream as a part of all of their own ultimate goals, so Luffy is saying that they are all part of his ultimate goal. He has adopted them into him becoming the Pirate King.

And goddamn if this arc isn’t about found family. The blood of the covenant is thicker, don’t cha know.

[gildedmuse]

So... I have this bad habit where sometimes, when attempting to summarize the idea for a fic, I go into waaay too much detail.

Like, I don't go as far as to actually wrote the damn thing because, you know, effort and laziness, but... Well, it's a close call. It gets to the point where it's less a summary and more what my friends use to call a Quick Fic. All that's .kissing is the actual dialogue and descriptive narration.

Having said that....

Here is a "summary" of an ZoLaw AU where Law works for Doflamingo...

What happened was, basically, Law got caught by Doflamingo after eating the devil's fruit which eventually allowed him to cure his dieses, thus why he's still alive. Or, at least, isn't dead from lead poisoning. Because let's face it, Doflamingo could have just killed the boy then and there. Sure, he'd have to find the fruit all over again, but better that the deal with this little traitor

Except really it was his brother who had been the traitor. Law is still just a child, and children can be so suspectable to any number of ideas so long as an adult gives them a pat on the head and a treat after.

Which is when Doflamingo realizes that he can just manipulate Law into being another loyal follower. Then eventually - when he's no longer useful - Doffy will have him sacrifice his life for his own immortality. By that point Law will be family, and family never lets Doffy down. Not anymore.

So it's under Doffy's personal tutorage that Law grows up, and as much as he might resit the man who imprisoned Corazon, it's hard not to eventually fall to all Doflamingo's sweet praise and promised. And Law gets what he had wanted all along: a way to get back at the world that willingly watched his home wiped off the official world map and would be happy to see the entire town dead to the very last one. This Law truly earns his title Surgeon of Death, acting as the top officer of Hearts in the Doflamingo crime family. And yet despite his cruelty, he isn't even on the government's wanted list; protected under the Shichibukai's jolly roger.

In the meantime, the Strawhats are still doing their thing right on through Punk Hazard (which they somehow manage to not only live through but actually do more damage and cause twice as much chaos. The biggest difference is that Ceaser and Monet escape and Sanji can't perv out over being in Nami's body). So this time when they roll into Dressrosa it's less "backing up the plan of an ally" and much more "on complete and total accident" and "without a damn clue".

Yeah, basically they're the Grand Line's easiest prey.

But, hey, it works out! Well, no, not really. But Sanji does meet Violet, Luffy meet Sabo and help recover Ace's devil's fruit, and Zoro does get lost and require a magic fairy guide. Plus, hey, since they're not really there for any purpose other than that they happened to be passing by, it's not like they can't pull a dine and dash. They may be unprepared, but The Monster Trio can still keep up the fight until everyone is back on the Sunny.

A perfect escape!

Except no.

Because Luffy isn't totally ready to leave, not when he wants to know more about what Sabo is doing and help his new friend Rebecca. Not that they have time to debate the merits of staying or pulling a tactical retreat since at that poing Big Momma is on their ass. And that scary dude in the long black coat is still somehow following them, teleporting himself through the fucking air like wtf why is this happening now!? Nami is forced to make an executive decision: they're can't stay. Also, oh God oh God they're trapped and they're going to be killed and oh God.

It's moments like these you're almost thankful one of your crew members is a total maniac. Because in the middle of all this mess, Zoro just smirks, tells Nami to just concentrate on getting away from that annoying ass ship, he's got their other attacker covered. Which only makes everyone freaks out MORE because what is Zoro thinking: he'll be killed! ("Not immediately, of course. First they'll likely torture him for information, perhaps even kill him as slowly as possible." / "What? Why would you say that? That is not SUPER helpful to hear right then!") The Sunny goes into an all out panic attack. Everyone is yelling or crying or both.

Except Luffy.

Luffy who looks at Zoro, at the singing ship, at the dark power user trying to slash their ship apart, at the shore line of this island and the way it radiates a fake happiness covering Rebecca's very real pain. Luffy who just lowers his hat over his eyes and gives the nod.

Zoro smiles, and is immediately almost clobbered by a giant Chopper. What is Luffy saying? Don't they realize that is the same guy who almost took down Sanji, Zoro AND Luffy only moments ago? Zoro can't fight him alone! Sanji, more calm than the rest, lights a cigarette while explaining that he's not trying to stop Zoro from getting himself killed or anything, but Chopper is right. That guy was incredibly tough, and there's no way Zoro can do it alone ("Shut up dartbrow! You don't know what the hell you're talking about! I could take him down with just the two swords! With one hand behind my back!" / "He already kicked your ass once, Marimo! Or have you forgotten because of all the head trauma!?" / "The only reason he kicked OUR asses is because YOU kept getting in my way you damn weak-ass cook!" / "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME, IDIOT MARIMO!?") Franky tries to regulate the fight but he's busy blocking those deadly aimed slashes from hitting his poor ship while Brook and Kin'emon work on stopping the incoming cannon balls. Either way they're going to have to do something SUPER fast if they want to get out of here. Yeah, Luffy, we need an actual plan. We can't just send Zoro out to-

"Zoro", Luffy says and despite everything going on around them the deck of the Sunny goes really quiet. They all know that tone. "Zoro, I need you to take care of this until we can get back. I still need to kick Mingo's ass for a friend."

At the sound of his captain's no nonsense voice, Zoro is suddenly easily able to stand, shrugging off the pile of people trying to stop him from jumping to his death (and by pile of people I do mean the coward trio and Sanji, who is mostly just trying to get in a few kicks). He draws Wado, clutching the katana in his teeth and yet still somehow manages what you know is a smirk. It's a promise.

And like that, Zoro is launching himself right into the blue sphere of the battle.

A battle against one of Doflamingo's top officers. A devil's fruit user with a twisted heart and home field advantage. Needless to say, it does not end well for our hero.

—🧡—

Although, Law has to give his rival swordsman some credit. He has his share of fun toying with the boy, and despite never standing any real chance of victory Law can admit the strawhat pirate puts up a better fight than most. Far better than Law had been expecting from some one so new to the New World (supposedly he got Mihawk to agree to train him, but Law has met the Hawk Eye and finds the idea utterly absurd). Then there is the way his smile had just an edge of what Law could only call manical delight, even when it became clear he'd long lost. This greenhaired kid really is stupid enough to believe his captain will come back for him. As though he would come charging back into Doflamingo's territory a second time just to retrieve a single crew member. One who was not only crazy enough to sacrifice himself but couldn't even win the fight. At the same time the swordman's loyalty and faith - as misplaced as it is - is kind of... Adorable. Who knew someone could come so far on the Grand Line and still be so innocent?

Law immediately wants to corrupt it.

Thes other family members will whine tell you, Doffy has always had... Let's say... A "soft spot" for Law. He's spoiled that brat for years, is what they mean but don't dare to say. Sure enough, Law barely has to work to talk Doffy around to letting him personally see to the prisoner's arrangements. Doflamingo is a little suspecious at first (he can never truly trust Law, not after the Corazon incident), but he quickly dismisses it. He's had the Heart Officer's loyalty for years now.

Of course, when he sees the spark of interest light in his apprentice as they eye their newest spoils of war, he can't help but tease Law. After all, Zoro is quite an enticing young man and Law isn't the only one there who likes pretty things. They're so fun to destroy which - judging from the way Law shivers when Doffy runs a hand through thick green hair before yanking the boys head back against the wall hard enough to leave the young captive panting and dizzy - is precisely his protege's plan.

(Doflamingo also happens to know Zoro almost definitely had trained under Mihawk, and he would love to see his fellow warlord's eyes flash with barely contained anger when he learns how Doflamingo has broken his favorite toy. It's not his fault - Mihawk is always so uptight and repressed, it makes agonizing him too much fun for Doflamingo to resist.)

In the end, though, he knows when Law's determination is set. And for whatever reason the boy has decided he absolutely has to be the one to keep their guest "comfortable" while his captain makes up his mind on what he'll do. So Doflamingo only teases for a bit - touches a little, plays with the barely conscious boy kneeling at his feet, enjoys the way Zoro still has enough spirit left to try taking bite when Doffy's fingers trail to close to his bloody lips (oh, and, what a joy! Law nearly growls at the prospect of not being the one to ruin the boy!) - but eventually he stops his little game. He gives in, telling Law to have fun with his treasure. He is the one who took him down after all. It is only fair he keeps him.

Just try not to completely break the poor thing, not until Strawhat returns for him.

Law snorts at the very idea. This is hardly the first time they'd done this. He's never seen a single captain try and retrieve their stolen property (he has of course, but he doesn't remember them). He doesn't see why Strawhat-ya would be particularly special.

Before Doflamingo can come up with a clever, vague answer about Law trusting him, Zoro suddenly gives a bark of laughter that would have scared lesser men senseless. It only serves to draw the two men's interest back to their little pet.

Luffy won't come back for him, Zoro confirms, much to Law's surprise (he personally never thought Strawhat-ya would, but then why would the swordsman sacrifice himself so willingly for a man he has so little faith in?) and has Doflamingo raising an eyebrow in.... Interest. Zoro looks at both of them with no fear, like he hadn't taken a humiliating defeat and is even now bloody and chained up, helplessly listening in on these two infamous pirates talk about him like he is a mere object. Actually, if anything, he appears to be wearing a smirk under all that blood. Because he knows something they don't.

Luffy won't come back for him, because his captain knows Zoro doesn't need to be rescued.

To Law, this makes Zoro look like an even sweeter treat. Doflamingo is simply amused, remarking that perhaps their little pup has yet to realize the leash around his neck is shaped like a noose.

Zoro meets his gaze, steady yet daring. He promised Luffy that he'd take care of it, and so that is what he will do. He'll never go back on his word, especially when it comes to his captain. Something Doflamingo with his distrusting and fear-toed crew couldn't understand. So see, their plan to use Zoro as bait will never work, because Zoro swore to Luffy that he'd be take care of it. So he will. Luffy has enough faith in Zoro that he'd never believe anything less and would never turn around out of doing to try and mount a rescue.

No, when Luffy comes back it will be for the sole purpose of kicking Doflamingo's ass.

The mood darkens. In a flash, Doflamingo is in back in front of him, yanking Zoro forward by the chin. He squeezes hard enough to bruise. You can hear the cracking of bone as he explains to Zoro exactly how precarious his current position is only to grow second by second more frustrate by Zoro's completely lack of fear. So he squeezes harder. He slams the boys head back into the wall and starts smiling when he gets a since from the stoic swordsman.

Before he can do any real damage Law steps in, reminding Doffy that he promised him he could have the boy. And just like that, Doflamingo's whole mood appears to shift back to calm. He puts on his fake smile and let's Zoro go, even pets the boy's hair. Of course, he had promised. And he, too, is a man of his word. Something Zoro will surely learn in time now that he is one of them.

Zoro, now with blurred vision and the taste of fresh blood on his tongue, is smart enough not to answer. But not smart enough to lower his head or try and appear humbled. Lucky for him, Doflamingo decides the boy isn't worth it. When he turns around he notes the hungry way Law is eyeing the kneeling prisoner behind him. Which brings a crueller, yet more genuine, smile to Doffy's featurss. The Strawhats vice captain may act invincible now, but he's never faced Doflamingo's own Surgeon Of Death. As disinterested and put off as Law might usually act, the boy can be dangerously twisted. He's sure his top officer will break the young pirate down bit by bit - both literally and figuratively - long before his captain can come running back in to try and find him (and Doflamingo is sure Strawhat will, no matter what Zoro might think).

He leaves with one last reminder to Law not to completely shatter the infamous Pirate Hunter. No, Doffy would hate to see their newest family member treated so poorly, especially seeing as he has much bigger plans in store for the young Mr. Roronoa. Specifically, he wants to see the face of Monkey D Luffy when he watches as the last bit of his first mate's spirit broken.

And because Doffy practically raised the boy and knows exactly the right buttons to push, he decides to give Law a little extra motivation to bring Zoro to that point. Just in case that interest turns into something dangerous like longing or - laughable as it is - actual fondness. It's so simple, too: as he walks by he simply whispers how there is nothing like crushing the heart of unrequited love.

It will be such a treat, tearing Zoro from his captain, and watching Luffy realize he's lost his chance to love the other man, wouldn't it Law? What a truly tragic romance. It almost makes you hope the two of them at least had some time together. Law didn't happen to give them a moment along before forcing Zoro to throw himself into the fight, hmm? Just a small, precious second or so for the two to share a final kiss. After all, not even Doffy is so cruel as to deny the poor boys such a tender moment.

Sure enough, Law's eyes immediately narrow and Doflamingo can feel the jealousy rolling off him. Not because Law gives a damn for their prisoner's feelings - Doflamingo raised him better than that - but he always has had a possessive streak. Having taken an interest in the swordsman, he will hate the thought that the boy might even think of another or that Law won't be the first to possess him in ever possible way.

Doffy leaves with a cruel, deep laugh. He can't wait until dinner, when he may just happen to remember the rumours about his "friend" Mihawk and his taking a young green-haired boy under this wing and in to his bed. By tomorrow he suspects every part of Zoro's body will bare at least some mark that he now firmly belongs to no one but Trafalgar Law.

[where-s-all-blue]

Okay so I've entered the Alabasta Arc now (I am actually pretty close to the climax in my rererewatch) so here's some thoughts:

Reverse Mountain:

I personally adored the mishaps the crew has on their way to the GrandLine, and the entire reverse mountain is very intriguing to me to this day. One day, I'll figure out just how on earth that thing works.

Laboon's story, tear jerking, absolutely devastating. Luffy being able to talk sense into a WHALE tells all you need about his ability to befriend beings. He also was the first one to hear Laboon, foreshadow for his later on found ability to Hear All Things or Haki?

Whiskey Peaks:

Ahh the time Vivi tried to be a villain. And Mister 9 is an absolute sweetheart. Honestly they made a pretty good team even if neither of them actually knew how fighting works. Personally I would've loved to see more of them, Mister 9 and Miss Monday seemed like interesting characters.

I keep forgetting about Zoro having supersonic speed in these, I kind of miss him just disappearing only to reappear right in middle of the group to mock their reaction of looking at the place he just was sitting on. The speed of him and his ability to momentarily cut through things he later on can't pretty much just tells you that he does have it in him, but it just isn't conscious thing yet. Also unconscious usage of haki spotted?

Vivi being The Vivi Nefertari is one of the more interesting and intense sequences in the pre-timeskip era, even if it takes less time than for example the Arlong Park does and shows just how devastatingly strong both Luffy and Zoro are. I can't believe that these idiots would retort to a fist fight mid battle.

Mister 5's ability is very unhygienic and I'd like to drown him in sanitizer, Miss Valentine needs to be silenced forever, her laughter creeps me out and she honestly doesn't add any value into the conversation. This is a duo I'd like to murder slowly.

Igram blowing up still gets me, the reactions of the characters, the devastated facial expression of Vivi, the sound design, the shocked looks, it's just so well executed.

Vivi's reaction of mixed feelings regarding Miss All Sunday/Robin, albeit just, is very confusing for me. I remember when I met her the first time and all I could think of was "She's a nice person" just based on her facial expression and the words she used.

I forgot that Luffy broke the eternal log pose Robin gave them. Not because he didn't trust her but because the choice Vivi would've been forced to make after the shock of loosing Igram would've been too much. Also because he didn't want anyone to dictate HOW they get there, he's the captain and as such it's his job to make the final decision, he also appears to have been convinced that this way Vivi would be safe.

Little Garden:

Aah, Little Garden, the island I'd simultaneously love and hate. Love because dinosaurs, hate because loud and probably insects large enough to use me as a quick caffeine filled pick-me-up. I might have a problem.

The fact that I can understand the thought process of these giants concerns me greatly. Is this the power of the Monkey Brain?

Mister 3 would be an amazing character if only we could see his self proclaimed genius in action and hear him go through plans etc. I feel like he's just trying to compensate on his lack of battlefield knowledge and experience. Miss Golden Week is highkey a mood and I love her. I, too, want to paint whatever I want and get paid for it.

Zoro actually started to hack through his own leg because he wanted to fight so badly, what a mad lad. Usopp honestly is flexing with his quick thinking and reflexes here. We love that for him. Go you funky little sniper.

Luffy might've used observation haki instinctively in the Mister 3 crowd.

Sanji managing to outright fool Crocodile to believe that he is Mister 3 indicates that Crocodile has never heard the voices of his underlings before and just assuming that the man who answered is Mister 3. The two also apparently have similar sense of humour. That Crocodile is aware of based on what Robin has told him.

Sanji both taking down the Unluckies without any hesitation nor stopping to think about where they came from really tells volumes about him. He also apparently lied so convincingly that Crocodile was 100% sure that it was Mister 3 fighting Luffy and not a chef beating up his long distance murder pets.

Nami was bitten by a bug, which was the carrier of a rare, nearly dead disease. Based on the amount of time one would usually need to wait for the sickness to develop, I'd say that they were about a week on the ocean before Nami developed the fever.

None of the crew members, Vivi included, thought about doing a full body check on her to see if there were any other symptoms than fever, ie her body actively fighting against the infection/sickness. Also her sickness isn't apparently something that spreads, so it's very unlikely for it to be virus based or spread similar to flu.

Drum Island/Sakura Kingdom:

Nami is capable of sensing the weather, and act upon her feelings, under 40C fever. If I have any level of fever, I am rendered near vegetative state until my fever either goes down or raises past certain level. What I'm saying is that Nami is some sort of Goddess or superhero because of being able to do anything with that fever.

Vivi needing to think about whether or not she can afford waiting extra days for being taken to Alabasta or to change the course to find a doctor is one of the stupidest things ever especially since the person who is sick with such a high fever happens to be the navigator.

Warm welcome by residents is warm. And by warm I mean freezingly cold. I can't believe that Luffy thought about yelling to the person before Vivi bowed her head prompting Luffy to do the same (though heavily "encouraged" by Vivi). Vivi saying that Luffy isn't fit to be the captain reflects very strongly her own views and beliefs, but she keeps forgetting something very simple, yet important. Background. She has no idea about Luffy's past nor how he grew up, she hasn't been long enough with the crew to be able to tell just why people follow Luffy, nor is she aware of how he communicates with people. She doesn't realise that when it comes to Luffy, humility isn't a word to describe him with nor that he would be able to set his own pride aside just yet, Luffy is a 17 year old, a mere child, who has just set out on the sea few months ago, who only knows the harshness of the world, where to survive, you must take things with force or be aggressive. She also isn't familiar with Luffy's way of helping others and going all in no matter the situation.

It's interesting to see how from the time Vivi is with them, Luffy is clearly paying attention to how she does things and how she presents herself, the mannerisms and the likes. It's not as clear idolisation and wish for being equal/better than someone as it was with Katakuri's use of haki, but he is striving to learn. If not because he acknowledges how important manners and humility are, but because it makes things easier on certain places. He especially starts to pay more attention to it once Ace joins them.

By the way the sickness Nami is struck with? It's most likely the same as the one that cost the life of Captain Yorkie of the Rumbar Pirates. After all, the ship doctor couldn't heal it, he didn't know how to, he could only prolong his death for a little while, few days max.

Chopper is a joy to have around and I'd physically fight Doctor Kureha at first sight because WOMAN! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ATTACKING YOUR PATIENTS JUST BECAUSE THEY GOT OUT OF THE BED! What if they need to use the restroom. I don't care if you're a youthful 139 year old lady, you can't just do that. Also how the hell are you still able to move that well? Most people I see start to slowly loose their mobility at 60 as their joints are starting to wear out causing pain and their muscle mass is lowering due to the inability to move as much as during their prime.

I am surprised that a reindeer even cares about something like a blue nose. The devilfruit thing? Yeah sure, but not the blue nose. These local reindeer are dicks with human level of obsession to look like the "norm". News flash, there is no default anything. Your appearances are purely dictated by a set of genes that decide to either activate or deactivate as they please without any warning and genes can skip multiple generations. That's why I apparently look identical to my great grandmother.

Nami is kind towards other women and animals. Men not so much, my assumption is that she is carrying a trauma from the Arlong time that she hasn't yet processed and as such she is even now a bit guarded against the rest of the crew.

Hiriluk's character is closer to that of a mad scientist or a very enthusiastic chemist who keeps forgetting that people aren't test subjects. His curiosity and and enthusiasm are something to strive for even if his methods are questionable, all he does want is to bring people sense of hope, wonder and awe. Though I can't help but to wonder about his story. The thief (him) having a serious incurable heart condition and seeing cherry blossoms that cured him. A metaphor for his past self being relentless and uncaring while thieving, but the indescribable beauty of the scenery he saw changed his heart to be more generous and kind?

Hiriluk's death is one of the most important ones in the series if you ask me, it defined Chopper and who he became; Doctor hoping to be capable of curing any disease there is.

[readerstories]

My best friend - Roronoa Zoro x fem!reader

Don’t know if this is exactly what the requester wanted, but here you go :P Placed somewhere between Sky Island and Water 7. If you see any typos, please tell me. (AO3)

Warnings: none

Wordcount: 1985

Request: Hi! I was wondering if you could d a zoro roronoa x reader where the reader is a swordswomen and they become good friends but they slowly start to become romantically interested in eachother??

You and Zoro had know each other for a very long time. The two of you had first met when you were children, long before Zoro joined Luffy’s crew. Over the years you had gone separate ways, but you had a habit of running into each other without meaning to. 

Every time it was like you two never left each other’s side, and you just took up the conversation where it last left off. 

When Zoro joined Luffy’s crew, the meetings stopped, since they headed for the Grand Line while you stayed in the East Blue. 

Zoro didn’t really speak of you to the other crew members, but he misses you none the less. The crew are his friends, but you are his best friend. 

Sometimes, when he misses you the most, he would spend most of his down time gazing at the sky and wondering what you are up to. He guessed it couldn’t be anything too bad, since he never saw anything in the newspapers that was or could be about you. 

You could also be dead, but as soon as that idea popped into his head, he quickly abandoned it. You were not some kind of person he could imagine that would go out without at least making it news worthy. 

He knew that you probably had some idea as what he was up to, since the crew was making a name for themselves. He knew that you must have seen his bounty poster at some point, and he wonders how you felt. 

He knew that you most likely didn’t care, as you both had been on the grey side of the law most of the time anyways, but he couldn’t help but think about it.

It’s a calm day on the Merry, and as usual Zoro is napping on deck while the rest of the crew does whatever they like. He is vaguely aware of Luffy and Usopp sitting on the railing and fishing, while trading silly jokes between themselves. 

He’s half asleep and barely listening, but when Luffy says something about an approaching boat, he starts paying attention. Luffy and Usopp is arguing if the boat is coming closer or not, so Zoro decides he should go have a look. 

He gets up and walks over to Luffy and Usopp, and indeed, there is a small boat there. It’s tiny even to the Sunny, mainly comprised of a mast with a sail and a small cabin. He can’t see anyone on the boat.

“I think it is coming closer.” Usopp’s looks at Zoro where he is standing a few meters behind them and then back to Luffy. 

“See I told you so! What do you think it is? Maybe it’s-” Usopp’s out loud train of thought is broken right there, as something splashes over the water towards them, and before they know it, a person is between Luffy and Usopp. 

The seemingly half second they are there, Usopp has time to notice a smirk on their lips half hidden under a hood, and Zoro has barely enough time to draw two of his katanas to block theirs. 

The force of it sends him sliding backwards on the deck, he has no time at all before the person is attacking him again. The power behind the attacks are fierce, relentless, and weirdly enough, somewhat familiar. Zoro can’t pinpoint why, as he has little time to think between attacks.

Luffy and Usopp yells out, which makes the rest of the crew come to see what the hell is going on. Luffy tries to reach out, but before Zoro can yell for him to stay out of it, the swordsman deflects Luffy’s hands, sending him crashing into a wall. 

Zoro notices that Luffy isn’t bleeding at all when he gets up. The swordsman must have been using the blunt sides of the blades. Which means they only want to fight him, and not hurt anyone else. He yells this out loud to the rest of the crew. 

The momentarily slip of full concentration seems to give his opponent the tiniest of windows, and they send him reeling backwards again. As he gets some distance, the figure talks.

“Still not letting others fight your battles for you Zoro? Very good!” He realises then why the attacks seemed so familiar. He has blocked them hundreds, if not thousands times before. He almost doesn’t dare speak your name in fear of being wrong, but when the figure takes their hood off, he lets it slip anyway. You grin.

“Thought you might have forgotten me there for a second.” Zoro finds himself smiling back, and then his katanas clatter to the ground as he rushes forward to hug you. You laugh and hug him back. The rest of his crew sends confused looks between themselves, not understanding the sudden shift in tone. Zoro lets go of you so he can face them all.

“Everyone, meet my best friend.” You wave, presenting yourself properly with your full name and a peace sign.

“Nice to meet everyone!” Before anyone can say anything else, Sanji runs over and takes it in his. He kisses your hand, his eyes almost going heart shaped.

“Ahhh, such a pretty lady. How do you know such a brute as Zoro?” Zoro ignores the glare sent his way, while you pull your hand out of Sanjis. 

“Oh, we known each other since we were kids, and since we always ran into each other back in East Blue, we stayed friends over the years.” You sling an arm around Zoro’s shoulder and he can’t help but smile at the familiar weight of it.

“And then this dummy up and left East Blue, so eventually I decided I should probably follow him.” You ruffle his hair. Zoro can see the confusion on his crew members faces, except from Luffy, who nods.

“It’s decided then.” Luffy says, confusing everyone even more, including you.

“What?” You ask, but Zoro already knows the words that are going to come out his captains mouth.

“You are going to be our new crew member” A chorus of groans and “Luffy, no”, rises from the crew. Zoro notices you seem slack-jawed, but you regain your composure quickly.

“Yeah, sure!” You say with a smile, and just like that, the Strawhats have another member.

-----------

After that first day, you settle in rather quickly. You learn that the whole crew is quite the cast of characters and you love it. You have some favourites of course (Robin is interesting to say the least) and some not so favorite (Sanji had gotten a few bonks on the head with the handle of your katanas before the heart eyes stopped), but all in all you really like everyone. 

It also feels wonderful traveling with others again, especially when one of them is your best friend. It was so good to see Zoro again and hang out with him. And now you were in the same crew, so you wouldn’t need to be apart again. 

Which both of you enjoyed immensely, maybe you even more than him, since your old crush on him was flaring up again. You do your best to ignore it however, not wanting to spoil the friend reunion. 

One night, after dinner, you and Zoro start drinking together while reminiscing about old times. You get so into the conversation that the rest of the crew leaves you to it. 

In the middle of another story about how you beat up someone who challenged you in a bar, you hear two splashes, and then Nami screaming. It quickly becomes apparent that Luffy and Chopper have gone overboard. 

Without even thinking, you run forward to the railing, jumping over it and down to the freezing water down below. As soon as you are under, you spot the two of them sinking. 

A splash next to you and then Zoro is there too. 

You exchange a glance, and then you swim towards Chopper while he goes for Luffy. Dragging them both towards the surface, all four of you gasp for air as soon as you can. 

Careful not to lose Chopper, you carefully swim towards the boat and climb the ladder Usopp threw down. As soon as you place Chopper on the deck, he coughs up even more water, Luffy doing the same as soon Zoro and him joins you.

“You guys okay?” Luffy and Chopper nod, but says nothing. You breathe a sigh of relief while standing up. 

“Good. Going to go out on a limb here and say don’t play wrestle that close to the railing next time all right?” You take their silence as an yes. You wring out as much water as you can from your clothes. You’re soaked and so is Zoro. 

“Zoro, going to need to borrow one of your shirts, mine is still hanging out to dry after I washed them.”

“Sure.” You had done similar things over the years, so it comes naturally for you to ask and for Zoro to say yes. You follow Zoro while Nami yells at Chopper and Luffy for being so stupid. When the hatch closes behind you and you have your feet on the floor, you groan and stretch.

“Gotta say, Devil Fruits are really cool and all, but don’t think I would ever give up the ability to svim.” Zoro just hums, used to hearing you talk without needing a response.

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind like being my own personal lighter or something but-” You are cut off by Zoro’s shirt hitting you in the face.

“Thanks!” Without hesitation you pull of your own shirt, letting it drop to the floor.

“You got any towels around here?” You look up and catch Zoro looking the the new scars on your stomach.

“Those new?” 

“Yeah, got them in a bar fight of all things.”

“Look nasty.”

“You’re one to talk, with the one all over your chest.” Zoro shrugs and takes of his own shirt, letting that too fall to the floor. You can’t help the small hitch in your breath that comes from seeing it in its entirety. You walk closer to him, and in the small space it only takes a few steps. You touch the upper edge of the big scar, Zoro lets you, just watching.

“I wish I was there when it happened.” Zoro grunts, not really sure how to approach the subject, since he’s rarely a man of many words.

“Hey, you’re here now. I don’t care that you weren’t there then, I’m just happy that we found each other again.”

“Well, more like I found you.” Zoro snorts.

“Besides, it’s not like I don’t think the same about these.” Zoro touches the scars on your stomach, and you draw in a sharp breath. Looking up, you lock gazes with him. You feel your heart having its own 100 meter race in your chest. 

You don’t know if it’s Zoro’s touch or his words, but you feel the love for the man soar. Which guides your next action. 

You keep eye contact while your hands go the his shoulders, and then you are leaning forward, pressing your lips to his. 

It is brief, and when you lean back, Zoro mirrors you, and then he is kissing you. 

The brief shock is gone in second and then you are ecstatic, kissing him back. You can hardly believe it, but the man you love is kissing you.

After a while you break apart, and you lean your head on Zoro’s shoulder. His arms circle your back, stroking you slowly.

“We should probably go back up so the others won’t start to wonder what we are doing back here.”

“Mhm.” You look up at Zoro and grin, he finds himself matching it. You share one more kiss before putting your dry shirts on and joining the rest of the crew.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE SERIES: My Favorite One Piece Arc with Maffew

  I love One Piece and I love talking to people who love One Piece. And with the series going on 23 years now, there is a whole lot to talk about. As the series is about to publish its 1000th chapter, a true feat in and of itself, we thought we should reflect upon the high-seas adventure and sit down with some notable names in the One Piece fan community and chat about the arcs they found to be especially important, or just ones they really, really liked.

  Welcome to the next article in the series "My Favorite One Piece Arc!"

  My next guest in this series is Maffew, creator of the popular pro wrestling web series Botchamania. For my chat with him, he chose the Alabasta Arc, in which Luffy and his crew not only have to save a desert kingdom but also topple Baroque Works and its powerful leader Crocodile.

  A note on spoilers: If you haven't seen the Alabasta arc yet, this interview does contain major plot points. Watch the Alabasta arc starting RIGHT HERE if you'd like to catch up or rewatch!

    Dan Dockery: So I guess my first basic question is, let’s say for some reason, I got to the end of Drum Island and I said “Well, One Piece ends here for me. This seems like a good finale.” What would you tell me to keep me going into the Alabasta Arc in one sentence?

  Maffew: Well, after Chopper has made all the kids cry, you’ll need pickin’ up.

  That’s pretty good! What was the impetus for you getting into One Piece? What made you want to jump into an anime that’s nearly one thousand episodes long at this point?

  I think I tried watching it on YouTube back in 2009, and I just couldn’t get into it. At that point in my life, I wasn’t ready for a character like Luffy and his adventures, and I couldn’t wait for the villains he fought to kill him. So I dropped it. A year later, I’m in Germany and this wrestler ACH was doing a Q&A panel for this German wrestling organization called WXW. And ACH is a REALLY big One Piece fan, and even dresses up as Luffy in New Japan and Ring of Honor. And I was like “Hey, you watching JoJo?” because that was my thing at the time, and he was like “No, no. Just One Piece.” I said, “What else are you watching?” “Just One Piece.” And I’m like “Wait, what? Just the one?” But he was sellin’ it to me like he was a One Piece ad on QVC. And guys like Steve Yurko are so passionate about it, and if one person tells ya to watch something, you’re like “Eh, whatever,” but if five people tell you, you start to pay attention. So I’m gonna blame ACH and my good friend Steve Yurko for this.

    What do you like about this arc in particular?

  You get so much wonderful worldbuilding. They go to Alabasta, meet up with Mr. 2, and it’s one of those cool interactions where they’re meeting, but they don’t know who they are meeting exactly, like when they meet Blackbeard in Jaya. So later on, they’re like “Oh, it’s THEM!” There’s a real sense of everything not being really pre-determined at this point. It’s building everything through a bunch of pirates just doing stuff. Ace shows up, knocks out some assassins so he can get his royalty checks.

  That’s such a funny way to put it.

  Then we get Kung-Fu Dugongs, and they’re a pretty pure expression of One Piece. They’re all synchronized, they’re adorable, they play their part amid all the serious stuff, and they’re completely ridiculous, but they work anyway. And it’s with Alabasta that Eiichiro Oda starts to perfect the tropes that he puts into place throughout, with the new islands, the new leader who everyone loves but is actually a bad person, the crew having to deal with him and the Navy, them having to help put someone back in their position, etc. And even though, on paper, it reads like “Well, he’s gotta beat this dude and this dude and this dude,” it’s so much more chaotic and less formulaic than you’d expect. It keeps things interesting. 

  I agree. I like how he takes all of these pieces and he’s consistent with them, but Oda always plays around with how he sets them up.

    But it’s all a foot massage before the real reason to watch Alabasta: Sir Croc. 

  Are you a big fan of him? That dude is so cool, conniving and powerful. He’s kinda the perfect villain. 

  Back when I was being miserable and first watching One Piece, I really liked him. I like the design, the sand powers that could actually pose a threat. I always appreciate it when a villain provides actual tension. It’s like why I think Goldeneye is still the best James Bond film. Because Alec Trevelyan is constantly reminding Bond “Remember, I could kill you. I’m from the same place as you. I can take your exploding watch and just, eh, I’ll stop that then. Thank you.” And Luffy loses twice to him in the three-match structure that really works here as it did for wrestling in the 70s.

  How so?

  So you’d have somebody like champion Bruno Sammartino and someone like Ivan Koloff or one of the Wild Samoans or Stan Stasiak. They’d have one match where the hero would beat Bruno by disqualification. Bruno’s still around to fight, but he’s lost. Luffy survives being thrown in the sand, but he’s been beaten. Then they have the second match, where Bruno would win because the villain would just give up and leave and get counted out. Luffy attacks Crocodile with water, but it’s not enough, and Crocodile just kinda leaves Luffy thinking it’s all done. And then Bruno would be like “Oh no ya don’t. Next time, you won’t be able to escape, because we’re gonna be in a cage match.” And then Bruno wins, just like Luffy wins by punching Crocodile up through that giant enclosed space. He escapes the cage.

      It’s just so satisfying and that’s a great way to describe it. So, villains in the series have had extensive crew members before, but they haven’t been as recognizable and colorful as Croc’s crew, Baroque Works. Do you have a favorite member?

  They’re all good in their own way, but at this point, I’m gonna go with Mr. 2. Eh, that’s probably too obvious an answer…

  Mr. 2 is a lot of people’s favorite member. 

  Oh, who cares. I’ll go with Mr. 2. I like how Mr. 2 interacts with everyone, having fun with the boys and fighting Sanji with kicks but respecting him. 

  So, in this arc, there’s a lot of government intrigue and a revolution is about to happen, and everyone’s dissatisfied with their perception of the monarchy. How did you react to all of this political drama in One Piece? 

  Well, it’s great because you have Vivi, and you get to learn her motivations and because she’s on the crew, it gives you a reason to care for the crew and how all of the political intrigue affects them. Without her, you’d just hear about a war and say “Oh, sorry about that. Hope it goes well.” And with all this lore being thrown at you because you have Vivi and that connection, it’s adding to the main conflict, rather than distracting.

  Yeah, Vivi really grounds it all with a personal attachment. Because otherwise it’s just savin’ the kingdom, which is cool and they’re good for it, but it doesn’t have the same impact. So, they did this back in the Arlong Park arc, but what returns here is the kind of 1 vs 1 match structure, where a member or members of the enemy crew are matched up against a Straw Hat or Hats. Mr. 1 has knife body parts, so he’s obviously gonna fight Zoro. Mr. 2 kicks and Sanji kicks, etc. What do you think about that kind of matchmaking, because it’s also a little wrestling-esque.

    Yeah, right, like if you have D-Generation X fighting the Nation of Domination, you can’t just have The Rock fighting Triple H. Ya gotta have D’Lo Brown vs X-Pac and The Godfather vs Billy Gunn. I like it because the characters feel like they have to prove themselves, like Zoro’s a swordsman, and he’s gotta test himself against another swordsman. And Usopp does it when he fights Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas with Chopper, because they have a weird dynamic and they’re fighting two people and they have no clue what they’re up against. 

  So, at the end of the arc, they do the iconic “We can’t let Vivi become associated with pirates so we’ll hold up the X symbols on our arms in solidarity” pose. What did you think about that? Because it’s one of the most famous images in One Piece, and it’s hard to avoid it, even if you’ve never watched the series. Was that your first time seeing it?

  It actually was. And I’m glad you brought this up because I was watching it and I thought “Wait, they’re just going? They’re not even keeping the duck?” And then they do that with the X and the original opening starts playing and I get goosebumps just remembering it. That really hit me. Because it finally got me really emotionally invested in the series. Made me feel a bit cheeky. 

      ONE PIECE LIGHTNING ROUND!

  So, considering you’re such a huge pro wrestling fan, your lightning round is gonna be a bit different. I’m gonna say a Straw Hat that’s in the crew at this point and you tell me which wrestler they’re the most like. You can also tell me what time period they’d fit the most in, since wrestler personalities tend to change. So, Luffy?

  Gotta be Cena. Specifically? With Luffy’s attitude? Probably 2015 defending-the-United States-Championship John Cena.

  Zoro?

  He’s all business, he likes to fight. So I gotta go with Cesaro.

  Sanji?

  Going with Eddie Guerrero.

  Usopp?

  That character is all over wrestling - the underdog who isn’t very good and uses every trick in the book to win. Gonna go with MJF. He had one of my favorite matches of this year against Cody Rhodes and he just had to use EVERYTHING to beat him - brass knuckles, distraction, chairs, everything he could to get that win. But he could be MJF, could be The Miz, could be Mikey Whipwreck from ECW, take your pick.

  Nami?

  Hmmm. Becky Lynch. 

  Chopper?

  KeMonito 

  Robin?

  Oh, she shows up after being booed for ages and you’re supposed to like her, so 2019 Charlotte Flair.

      Stay tuned for the next installment of "My Favorite One Piece Arc" as we speak with One Piece's official English manga translator Stephen Paul on his favorite One Piece arc: Skypiea!!

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Daniel Dockery

[laxuscouldnever]

Roronoa Zoro x Child!Reader

“How much longer until we get there?” Y/N asked, a slight whine in his voice. “Not too much longer. I think I can see an island from here,” Nami said. Y/N sighed. He had joined the Strawhats about a month ago and immediately seemed to fit in. Y/N got along with everyone but really connected with Zoro. Both of them were swordsman, although Y/N wasn’t very good at handling a sword. Still, he enjoyed it. 

Y/N walked over to Zoro, who was sleeping on the ship deck. Y/N stared at the man before his eyes finally landed on the three swords on Zoro’s belt. He looked down at his own sword. Zoro had been training him here and there. Zoro wasn’t the best teacher, he had little patience with the boy a lot. Zoro would never admit that he felt a sense of pride when Y/N finally learned how to do a technique. He saw the kid as a younger brother, just like the rest of the crew. 

“Ok, everyone! We should be coming onto shore soon!” Nami yelled, making sure that all of the crew members heard the announcement. Everyone gathered to the deck as the ship slowly came closer to the island’s harbor. “Finally!” Y/N yelled, startling Zoro out of his sleep, instinctually grabbing his swords. “Don’t yell when you’re standing next to someone who’s sleeping,” Zoro scolded. “Sorry, Zoro,” Y/N gave the man a smile before turning around and following the others off of the ship. 

“Make sure you’re all back here in three hours! We have to be more careful with how long we spend on islands,” Sanji announced. He and Zoro agreed to stay and watch the ship. Everyone yelled responses of understanding and went their separate ways. Sanji stopped Y/N as he was getting off the ship. “Be careful, okay? Make sure you’re aware of your surroundings and that you know where you’re going,” he said. “Understood, Sanji!” Y/N gave him a small salute and hurried away from the ship. “I hate that he just goes off by himself. Makes me worried that someone might hurt him or something,” Sanji said, turning to face the green-haired swordsman. “I wouldn’t worry. He’s getting better with his sword, he can take care of himself,” Zoro said, sitting back down and falling back asleep. Sanji sighed and walked to the kitchen to prepare a meal for everyone when they get back.

Y/N was happily running through the town, smiling at all the locals and peering into stores that caught his eye. He was having a good time until a leg stuck out in front of him and he fell flat on his face. “Hey, what was that for?” Y/N sat up and rubbed his face. He looked at the three men who stood in front of him. “Look at this kid. He looks like a street rat.” the one in the middle said, which caused his two friends to laugh. “I’m not a street rat! I’m a pirate!” Y/N yelled at them, standing up and getting into a fighting position. 

The three me looked at each other and then laughed. “You? A pirate? Yeah, as if anyone would have a runt like you in their crew,” the men laughed again. “Hey, look. He’s got a sword,” one of the backup men said. Y/N reached down and grabbed the handle. “Yeah, and I know how to use it,” he said. The bigger man in the middle reached down and grabbed it out of his hands. “Hey! Give it back!” Y/N yelled as he tried to grab the sword out of the bigger man’s grasp. The man punched Y/N in the face, sending him to the ground. The man’s friends began kicking Y/N, not giving him a chance to fight back. The men laughed one final time and walked away, leaving Y/N in the dirt. Blood and tears covered the boy’s face as he laid there, almost numb from the pain. 

“Where the hell is he? He should've been here an hour ago,” Sanji complained. Y/N had to show up back to the ship and everyone was waiting for him. “Maybe we should go look-” Robin was cut off as a small silhouette appeared on the trail by the harbor. Y/N was slowly limping towards the ship, sniffles and whimpers barely audible. “Oh my god! Are you okay?” the entire crew climbed off the ship and circled the little boy. Zoro knelt down in front of him, holding his face. “What the hell happened to you? And where’s your sword?” he asked, trying to estimate just how bad these wounds were. “S-Some guys t-took it a-and beat m-me up,” Y/N said between cries. “Grown ass men did this to you?” Sanji growled. Y/N nodded and fell forward into Zoro’s chest. “E-Everything hurts, Zoro,” he cried in pain.

Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro stood from their crouched positions. “Will you show us who they are?” Luffy asked. Y/N nodded. Zoro lifted the boy into his arms and began walking into to town, Sanji and Luffy right behind him. Y/N buried his head into Zoro’s neck, trying to ignore the aches in his body. “Don’t worry. We’ll make them pay for hurting you,” Zoro reassured, smoothing out the boy’s hair.

Y/N lifted his head at the sound of a familiar laugh. He looked around and saw the men from earlier standing outside a bar. “Yeah, we got it off some kid,” the man with the sword bragged to another man, one Y/N didn’t recognize. “Is that them?” Sanji asked, his voice calm as to not startle the boy. “Yeah,” Y/N said, his voice quiet. Zoro walked over to a nearby tree. “Sit here while we take care of them,” he said and walked to join Sanji and Luffy.

“Hey! Where’d you get that sword?” Luffy yelled at the man. “Some kid. We kicked his ass, too,” he said, his buddies laughing along with him. “You think beating up a kid is funny? Shameful. I guess we’ll have to show you what happens when you mess with one of our crew mates,” Sanji throws his cigarette on the ground and prepares for a fight. “What? That kid really is part of a pirate crew?” the man asked. “Yeah, and as his captain, I’m going to put your face in the dirt,” Luffy threatened and threw a quick punch into the man’s face, sending him flying threw the bar window.

Y/N watched as his crew mates attacked the men unmercifully. His body hurt, a lot. Once the men were successfully beaten close to death, Zoro walked back over to Y/N and carefully lifted him into his arms. “Wait! We forgot something!” Luffy yelled. Zoro and Sanji turned around. “Here ya go,” Luffy smiled and handed Y/N his sword. Y/N returned the smile and grabbed the sword out of Luffy’s hand. “Thank you,” he pushed out.

Back at the ship, the rest of the crew waited impatiently for the boys to return. “We have to leave immediately. They probably have the Marines on their way after what those three did,” Nami commented. “Yeah. They probably killed those guys,” Robin added. Brook, Franky, and Usopp all made sounds of agreement. “I have everything ready so that when Y/N gets back, I can check him out,” Chopper said as he walks onto the ship deck.

“Hey! I think I see them!” Robin said, pointing to the path. Sure enough, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji were walking towards the ship. Y/N looked ready to fall asleep right there in Zoro’s arms. “You need to stay awake, just until Chopper checks you out,” Zoro said softly. “Zoro?” Zoro looked down at the little boy, his heart cringing at the sight of his badly beaten face. “Thank you,” Y/N whispered. “Thank you for protecting me, you’re really nice. Can we train tomorrow?” Zoro looked at the boy in bewilderment. “I don’t think so, you need to heal up. When you’re all better, then we can train,” Zoro said. Y/N nodded.

“Bring him in here,” Chopper commanded. Zoro followed him into a room and laid Y/N down on a bed. “Can you tell me where it hurts the most?” Chopper asked. “M-My sides. And my face,” Zoro felt so bad hearing the boy’s pained voice. Such a sweet, happy kid, all beaten.

Chopper gently pulled up Y/N’s shirt, revealing a bruise the size of a man’s foot. Chopper and Zoro made sounds of surprise. “What’s wrong? Is it bad? Am I gonna die?” Y/N asked, panicking. “No, it’s just...a big bruise,” Chopper said. “Don’t worry! I’ll make sure you get better real soon!” Chopper went to work on putting bandages on Y/N’s body and face, making sure every injury was well taken care of.

After an hour of patching the boy up, Chopper was finally finished. “There you are!” he exclaimed. “Thanks, Chopper,” Zoro said. “No problem!” Chopper said and left the two alone. “Does it hurt real bad?” Zoro asked, sitting next to the boy on the bed. “Kind of, but it’s better than before,” Y/N said. “What kind of men beat up a kid?” Zoro said, more to himself. “I-I tried to fight back, but I wasn’t strong enough...” Y/N mumbled. “It’s okay. They’re three times your size. It’s not your fault,” Zoro ran his fingers through the boy’s hair. “Can we get food now? I’m hungry.” Zoro lifted him up and carried him to the kitchen

Everyone was sat at the table while Sanji was finishing up dinner. When Zoro and Y/N walked into the room, everyone turned to face the pair. “Hey, Y/N. How are you feeling?” Sanji asked. “Okay. Is dinner ready?” Y/N said. Sanji chuckled. “Yeah, just about,” he said. Zoro sat Y/N in an empty chair, then sat in the one next to it. “You must be really tough to get beat up and already be out of bed,” Nami said, trying to make the boy feel a little better. “R-Really?” Y/N asked. “Yeah, I don’t think I could do that. You’re really strong,” Usopp said. “Thank you,” Y/N smiled brightly at his crew mates. “Foods done!”

After dinner, the crew sat outside, watching the stars as their ship slowly sailed by. Y/N and Zoro were leaned against the side of the ship. Slowly, Y/N felt his body start to grow tired. He leaned his head against Zoro’s side and let his eyes close, letting himself be devoured by sleep.

Zoro looked down at the sudden feeling of someone touching him. His face softened at the sight of the little boy fast asleep against his side. “I’m gonna put him to bed,” Zoro announced, picking up the boy and carrying him to the dorms. Zoro gently laid in one of the hammocks and pulled Y/N onto his chest. After a while, he let himself be pulled into a slumber.

[lululawlawlu-writes]

Softly Stained with Spring

Part 1: Plans Made and Ruined

note: This fic is a collaboration for @lawlu-week with @yumenofude who created this amazing artwork which perfectly portrays the story, and who also helped me with thinking of the initial storyline.

rating: T (maybe M)

tags: canon universe, fluff and angst, hanahaki

summary: Law—being with him is the best feeling imaginable. It‘s the perfect kind of happiness mixed with a little excitement. Just having adventures with Law makes those adventures all the more exciting. 

_______________________________

“I’m all in!” Luffy declares, pushing his poker chips into the middle of the table. His eyes dart nervously over the other two members of his crew still in the game, lips pursed, eyebrows raised.  

He’s never been a good liar but he’s trying so hard to win. If all goes well he’ll be able to make enough money to pay his debt to Nami, in return for which she’s agreed to coordinate a meeting with Law’s navigator to bring him there sooner than planned.

Luffy’s heart does a happy little flip inside his ribs at the thought. His stomach feels all… bubbly, like it’s full of really fizzy, shaken up cola. It’s a weird feeling, but he kind of likes it.  

He shuffles his cards around in his hands. He doesn’t really know if they’re good or not, but they’ve got  hearts on them, so he’s got a good feeling about it. Law has hearts on him and he gets good feelings just thinking about Law.

Law—being with him is the best feeling imaginable. It‘s the perfect kind of happiness mixed with a little excitement. Law is fun to be with. It’s thrilling to fight alongside him. And he makes silly plans even though they don't really work, because how can anyone predict the future and plan the exact best way to handle it? But in any case, just having adventures with Law makes those adventures all the more... exciting? Luffy would use the word ‘fun’ for their adventures too except Dressrosa wasn't actually all that fun. Law had been hurting really badly. It made him angry to think of it even now. Law didn’t deserve that. Law-

“What’s with that array of faces, Luffy?” Sanji asks from across the table. “Smiling one second then scowling the next. You purposely trying to make yourself hard to read?”

“La- what?” Luffy’s only half heard the question.

Usopp regards him with a raised eyebrow, sly smile on his lips and now suddenly Luffy’s much too aware that he’s been caught thinking of Law. He can feel his cheeks heating up, though he doesn’t really get why thinking about other people catching him thinking about Law makes him get all hot. It’s not really a bad feeling, just weird how he only feels like this when it’s about Law.

Sanji nudges Usopp, “You gonna call?”

“I’ll go easy on you guys this time. It’s not easy playing against a real card shark like me,” Usopp says confidently, laying his cards on the table, “I fold.”

Sanji leans back in his chair, taking a long drag on his cigarette as he inspects his cards. He squints at Luffy briefly before tossing his cards on the table. “Same here. I fold,” he concedes.

Luffy’s about to declare his victory when Nami herself interjects.  

“Hey, Luffy, Bepo says Torao wants to talk to you,” she calls across the deck as she leans out the door of her navigator’s office, her hand over the receiver of the den-den mushi she keeps.

Luffy immediately sheds all of his playing cards on the table to cries of ‘What?! He didn’t have anything after all!’ and ‘Goddamnit Luffy! Why can’t you just be consistently shit at lying?!’

He dashes over to the door, hands grabbing for the receiver but Nami holds it away from him as she retreats into her office asking, “Did you win me lots of money?”

“Yeah, is Torao coming over?” Luffy follows her in, stretching to snatch the receiver from her without waiting for an answer.

His heart flutters light and happy at the thought of seeing the other captain again. It makes him euphoric, but maybe a little nervous. He doesn’t really get these feelings either, but he’s pretty addicted to the way it feels when he thinks about Law—he just can’t get enough. And as much as he likes thinking about Law, that’s nothing compared to actually talking to Law, or better yet, seeing him in person which is what he’s sure is about to happen in the near future. “Torao!” he cries into the receiver, his excitement brimming over.

“Mugiwara-ya, I thought we agreed to meet in two weeks’ time,” Law speaks through the den den mushi, just a hint of annoyance on his voice, “Can’t you for once stick to a plan?” The snail mirrors Law’s apparent expression, frowning at him. Is Law disappointed? Is he mad?

No.

No, this isn’t right.

Luffy can feel his heart pounding anxious against his ribs, it’s happy fluttering turning to panicked skipping. Worries that he wasn’t even aware that he’d had now begin flooding into his mind. He doesn’t want to think that he’s done something wrong. He was just trying to organize a get-together. Does it mean Law is mad at him—that he won’t come? He thought Law liked seeing him too. Law should like seeing him too. But Law doesn’t seem happy. He doesn’t seem like he likes seeing him too. Law’s not just tolerating him because they’re allies, right?

“So what’s your reason for calling a meeting this time?” Law speaks through a sigh.

“I don’t wanna wait two weeks. I wanna-” Luffy starts. A sudden, sharp pain shoots through his chest, cutting off his words. He nearly drops the receiver, instinctively clutching his chest. He pauses a moment, hand over the scar that marks him. What a strange feeling—like something attacking him from the inside.

He leans over Nami’s desk trying to steady his breathing, willing his pain away as much as he can. His whole chest suddenly feels so tight. The heart beneath his shaking palm thumping so hard he half-thinks it might fall out if he moved his hand.

“You’re breathing into the phone pretty heavily. Is everything alright?” Law asks, voice calm, serious.

“Yeah, I’m- ah!” almost as soon as he opens his mouth, the sharp pain is back, piercing him like a knife. He tries to take a deep breath and it stabs through his chest again. Luffy doubles over, leaning onto Nami’s desk, knocking over her mapping utensils, crumpling the map under his arm, but he’s hesitant to move any more.

“Speak to me,” Law tells him.

“It- hurts,” Luffy manages to grit out, panting shallow through his teeth.

“Get yourself to Tony-ya. I’ll be there in two days,” and with those terse words the line goes dead.

The next few minutes pass in a haze. Luffy doesn’t know if he hung up the den den mushi and he doesn’t know if he knocked more of Nami’s stuff on the floor on his way out, but he somehow makes it down the hall to Chopper’s medical office. Luffy leans against the door, pushing it open with the weight of his body as he stumbles in.

"Luffy, what's wrong!?" Chopper cries, immediately abandoning his book to run to his captain's aid. He helps him to sit down on the infirmary bed.

"I didn't do anything, it just hurts here," Luffy insists through gritted teeth. He's apprehensive about moving his hand from over his heart in case it might cause the stabbing pain again. He’s never felt anything like it. He can’t even guess what’s going on with his body.

Chopper reaches for his stethoscope at his desk. He places the ear pieces into his ears and rejoins Luffy on the bed. He takes Luffy's hand from his chest, holding onto his wrist as he places the stethoscope’s cool metal against his chest to listen to his heart. Chopper listens intently for what feels like much too long without saying anything. Then he instructs Luffy to lay down and uses a stethoscope to listen around in what seems like random places on his chest. Whatever Chopper’s doing it seems like it’s working because Luffy’s starting to feel a lot calmer. The pain is only kind of a little bit of a tightness inside of him now—like his heart is getting a hug from his lungs or something.

Whatever is happening to him is not fun, and Luffy doesn’t want to repeat the experience. Unfortunately for him, his body doesn’t seem to agree.

… … … … …

“So, what are we dealing with?” Law asks the small, antlered doctor as they pace down the hall toward the Thousand Sunny’s infirmary.

Chopper flips through several papers secured onto his clipboard before answering. “Well, the patient has been suffering from bouts of chest pain. I haven’t yet been able to find the cause. During the episodes he says there’s pain when he takes deep breaths, but there are no other symptoms that would suggest anything like pulmonary embolus or pleurisy.” The tiny reindeer doctor is taking his job very seriously. He seems to be doing his best at dealing with his captain objectively. He refers to him as ‘the patient’ although he speaks the words with a heavy-hearted wavering in his voice. It makes him sound as if he could break down at any confirmation that it’s Luffy they’re talking about.

“And this all started two days ago?” Law follows as Chopper slides open the door of the infirmary.  

“My heart hurts,Torao,” Luffy whines from the infirmary bed when he sees him. “I don’t like it.”

“Thanks for your efforts doctor. If you don’t mind, I’d like to examine him myself,” Law addresses Chopper.

He’s heard that Chopper’s been looking after Luffy almost constantly over the past two days, and Luffy is always a pretty tough patient to handle. Law wouldn’t blame him if he felt relief at leaving his patient in his hands.

It’s not that Law doesn’t trust Chopper as a medical professional or that he takes a personal interest in this particular patient. It’s rather the case that he prefers to assess the patient to gain his own insight into the situation. It never hurts to have a second opinion.

Law takes his own stethoscope from around his shoulders to give his patient a standard preliminary check-up. Law tries not to feel too self conscious from the way Luffy stares up at him, those big, obsidian-dark eyes following his every movement. Law tries not to read too much into the situation—tries not to imagine that it’s his touch which triggers the soft blush on Luffy’s cheeks.

Law has to chase away inappropriate thoughts from his mind. He needs to remain professional, and focus on his work here. In the end he notes no irregularities, and even though Luffy’s heart seems to be racing bit, all of his vitals are well within normal range.

“What were you doing when you first felt chest pain?” he asks Luffy as he takes the clipboard from Chopper’s desk, flipping through the notes.

“Talking to you.”

“And the next time it happened?”

“Checking with Nami that you were still coming.” “And this morning?”

“Eating pre-breakfast.”

“Pre-breakfast?” This is something Law has never heard of, and he’s stayed with the Strawhats for long enough to know that it’s not something their cook would indulge in.

“Well, since you were coming I went to the kitchen to eat all the food you don’t like.” Luffy explains, “‘cause you’re really picky, and-” “I am not picky. I just don’t like bread-” Law interjects “and pickled plums,” Luffy supplies.

“You remember that?” Law wouldn’t have expected him to remember any detail about him let alone that in particular. Luffy just doesn’t seem like the type to notice things.

“Yeah, ‘cause that one time you got one in your onigiri at lunch and you were surprised and spit it out. And I caught it in my mouth!” Luffy reminds him proudly.

‘That was disgusting,’ Law thinks. “That was tasty,” Luffy says with a wide smile. He seems to be feeling better for now.

“Well,” Law hums, flipping over the pages and setting Chopper’s clipboard aside. “Nobody can find anything physically wrong with you. So I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s stress-related anxiety. I suggest you let me keep you under observation while you take a rest.” That earns him an exasperated huff from the small, adventure-loving captain. “There’s an island called Rosales nearby. It’s a popular tourist spot,” Law continues. “It’s renown for its flowers, but I hear there’s some unique local cuisine that you can’t find elsewhere in the world.” He hesitates to go any further but by the look on his face, Luffy doesn’t seem entirely sold on an ambiguous promise of unique foods. “If you agree to a relaxing vacation, I’ll call ahead and reserve us a table at a restaurant with a buffet,” Law tries.

This earns him an emphatic “Yes!” from an excited Luffy who jumps up and runs out of the room, shouting to his crew about a new adventure.

Law does not have ulterior motives—absolutely not. He is not at all trying to smooth-talk his way into a date with his ally. That’s right, he simply is looking out for the well being of his alliance and nothing more.

[one-piece-dumpster-fire]

Scenario where the straw hat’s chemist (who’s a young boy around the age of 15) starts an experiment and it goes horribly wrong and ends up exploding in his face and blowing out his right eye and burning him severely over his arms? Everybody was out relaxing one day and then suddenly they hear an explosion and some straight up terrifying screams. How would they react when it happened afterwards? (Especially if he says he’s ugly and that it’s okay if they don’t want him anymore)

boo you’re making me really sad here here :(

a very sad Strawhat Pirates scenario

It was a calm day at sea for theStrawhat Crew. They’ve been sailing around for a while now withoutstepping foot on an island, and everyone was pretty relaxed. Usuallythe crazy and unpredictable weather conditions kept the pirates fromenjoying themselves, so when a day was as peaceful and promising astoday came along, they would definitely make use of it. Everyone was doingsomething to cease their boredom- Zoro was training, Luffy, Usopp andChopper were hunting each other with water guns, Nami and Robin weresunbathing while Sanji constantly brought them snacks, and Brook andFranky were performing a funky duet for the rest of the crew. Onlyone person was missing.

(Y/N), the newest and youngest memberof the Strawhat Crew. They only picked him up a couple weeks back,but he quickly became an important friend and irreplaceable asset tothe crew. He served as their chemist, and would often create new potions to help them on their voyage. From deadly poison tomedical cures, the boy’s talent and creativity seemed to know nobound. And even though Luffy, Chopper and Usopp often tried to makehim join the Crew in their group activities, (Y/N) almost alwaysdeclined and preferred to work on his experiments inside of the ship.

„Give it time. He’s new, and dealingwith a crazy bunch like us will take some getting used to.“ Sanjialways assured the three boys when they left (Y/N)’s room with agloomy expression on their faces. And today was no different. Thethree of them had burst into his room, each with a watergun in theirhands and wearing nothing but Swim Shorts.

„C'mon (Y/N), the weather is reallygreat! Let’s play!“

„Zoro is totally focussed ontraining right now, I’m sure he wouldn’t even notice it if we’d hit him with our guns! It’llbe fun!“

„Franky said he’d build you anextra-super water gun if you want to!“

But it didn’t work. No matter how muchthe three of them begged and asked, (Y/N) didn’t want to leave hisroom.

„Look guys- I really appreciate youreffort, but I can’t leave until I’ve finished my experiment.“ Also,you’d probably just get bored with me anyway, he added in silence.Knowing that further pressuring (Y/N) won’t do any good, the threegave up and left his room in a defeated state.

Their gloom didn’t last long however-as soon as they felt the heat of the sun on their skin again allworry was gone and they continued to play by themselves. Everyone was havingfun. No one was prepared for what would happen next.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The sudden sound of an explosion torethrough the air, and a strong quake was shaking the entire ship-causing Luffy, Chopper and Usopp to fall onto their butts.

„What was that?!“

„An enemy attack?“

„No way, the sky is clear and there hasn’t been ship in sight for days!“

„Then what else could it be?!“

All of them were shouting at each otherand no one could grasp what had just happened. That is, untilFranky’s expression turned into pure shock and he rushed to the doorleading inside the ship.

„Smoke! There is smoke coming out ofthe ship!“

„Maybe something catched on fire andexploded?“

„But what?“

„(Y/N) IS STILL INSIDE! WE GOTTA GETHIM OUT!“

In no second, all the other member of the crewalso rushed towards the door and followed Franky into the smoke.

…And it didn’t take long until they knewthe cause of the sudden explosion.

(Y/N)’s room was completely covered insmoke and ashes, with a fire crackling ontop of the table he alwaysused to experiment on. And the young man? He was sitting against thewall, his body covered in dust, ashes, shards of glas and blood.Chopper immediately rushed past the others gathered aroundthe boy, who were too shocked to even move, and started to check on (Y/N).

„(Y/N)? Can you hear me? (Y/N),please answer me!“ Tears started to well up in the littlereindeer’s eyes as he pleaded for his friend to reply. The otherStrawhat’s finally came out of their paralized state and also jumpedto the boys side.

„What happened?“

„Is he dead?“

„No he isn’t, you fool!“

„One of his experiments probably blewup in his face…“

„Oh no. (Y/N), please don’t die!“

Chopper pressed his ear against theboy’s chest, and tears started to flow down his face. „I… I don’thear a heartbeat!“ He sobbed and took a step back while everyonegasped in horror. „N-No….“ Luffy said, trying to fight backtears. Everything turned quiet, and only the crackling of the dyingfire filled the room with any sort of sound. But then- suddenly, asound emerged from the boy’s mouth.

„G-g-g….g-guys?“

Everyone looked down and stared at theboy, who was still lying against the wall.

Robin was the first one to react. Shesummoned a couple of arms and told everyone to put out the fire whileshe and Chopper would take (Y/N) to the treatment room. The othersjust nodded, still way too overwhelmed with what had justhappened and followed Robin’s directions, while she and Choppercarried (Y/N) away. It took less than a minute to put out the fire,but it felt like hours for the Strawhat’s. Everyone was still tryingto understand what had happened and if (Y/N) would really make it.

Meanwhile, Chopper was quick to performfirst aid on the injured boy. „Luckily, none of his wounds appearto be fatal,“ he explained to Robin before swallowing hard,„however, his right eye was blown out by the explosion, and hisface and body suffered severe burnings, which… he might never fullyrecover from.“ Another sob escaped the reindeer’s throat as hecleaned up the boy’s body. Robin simply nodded, since there were nowords needed. Nor was there anyway for her to express how devastatedshe felt right now. Oh god, (Y/N)…

A few seconds after Chopper finishedtaking care of (Y/N)’s worst wounds, the rest of the crew rushed intothe room. They all tried to enter at once, and for a moment got stuckin the doorway as a result. Chopper’s treatment room immediatelyfilled up with people gathering around (Y/N) and asking the little doctor all sortsof questions regarding the boy’s condition.

„Will he wake up?“

„Is he okay?“

„Idiot, of course he isn’t!“

„Do you know what happened?“

Chopper was too overwhelmed to answereven a single one of the questions, so Zoro screamed for everyone tobe silent and let Chopper explain.

And after he was finished with his report, no one dared tomove a muscle. Everyone was completely silent. They remained likethat, standing by (Y/N)’s side completely motionless for what feltlike hours.

When suddenly, (Y/N) started to coughout again.

„y-y-you g-g-guys… I’m…. s-sorry,I… I messed up… t-t-the experiment….“ Nami had to cover hermouth in shock at the sight of (Y/N)’s burned body. Zoro and Sanjilooked to the side, unable to face (Y/N). Franky and Brook bothsobbed and fought back tears. Robin stood in silence. Chopper, Usoppand Luffy all started to cry.

„M-m-my eye…. it- it’s gone……isn’t it?“

But no one replied.

„I…I….I’m probably lookinghideous right now…“

Utter silence.

„I-I’m so useless…Y-You should justthrow me into the ocean…“

And suddenly, someone screamed. It wasLuffy.

„(Y/N)!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE ALIVE!“ Hisface wasn’t recognizable due to a mix of his snot and tears dripping tothe ground.

„WE WERE SO WORRIED!!!“

(Y/N) was shocked for a moment, but then violently shook his head until he had to stop due to the pain souring through his body.

“N-no, you don’t understand… I am worthless… I-I damaged the ship… I can’t do anything right… j-just… get rid of me…please”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the room started to break out in chaos.

“Why would you say that”

“(Y/N), please don’t tell me you mean it”

“Listen, this wasn’t your fault and….”

“QUIT JABBERING SUCH NONSENSE, IDIOT!”

Zoro’s voice ripped through the air and everyone immediately shut up.

“When we asked you to join our crew, what did you say?”

“I–I said yes, b-but-”

“And when you first came aboard, we celebrated you as our new nakama, right?”

“I-I don’t-”

“And we wouldn’t have done that if we’d get rid of you because of something so stupid, fool!”

“…”

Everyone was visibly shocked at the way Zoro talked to the young boy, but silently, they had to agree with him. (Y/N) was a member of their crew, there was no way they’d abandon him.

“Taking someone onboard as a nakama isn’t something someone does on a whim! It’s a decision that can last a lifetime, and if you don’t get that then you didn’t pay enough attention.”

(Y/N) simply stared at the green-haired man, too shocked and suprised at his outburst to reply. So instead, Luffy stepped forward.

“He’s right, (Y/N). No matter how lowly you think of yourself, there is no way any of us would share those thoughts.”

Now Usopp took a step towards his bed.

“Y-Yeah! We all mess up, but that is just what it takes to be a part of this crew. And no matter what you’ll look like, you’ll always be our precious nakama.”

Chopper nodded in response.

“And I will treat you the best I can! I don’t care if you never wanted to play with us, that didn’t make me like you any less!”

Franky sobbed again and wiped away a tear with his massive hand.

“If you want to, I can build you a replacement for your right eye. It won’t be the same, but it’ll definitely give you back your full sight.”

Robin smiled at (Y/N).

“I’ll bring you my best books to read until you’ve recovered.”

Nami winked at the boy.

“And I will buy you some stylish clothes to hide your scars, if you want to.”

Sanji lit a cigarette and took a step forward.

“Suit yourself. From now on, you’ll be on a strict diet. I will supply you with food that will help you recover as fast as possible.”

And lastly, Brook made a spin and took out his guitar.

“Yohohohoho! And I shall perform my most energetic songs for you, to keep you entertained!”

After everyone’s speech, silence returned once more to the room. (Y/N) didn’t know what to say, but tears started to drip down his face.

“Y-y-you all…”

Everyone smiled before assuring him one last time,

No matter what, we’ll get through this together!

[neverwatchedonepiece]

609-610: "Luffy Dies from Exposure?! The Spine Chilling Snow Woman Monet" and "Fists Collide! a Battle of the Two Vice Admirals!"

Surrounded by trash, unsure of location or direction. Too real, Luffy. Too real.

I feel like a broken record at the moment but Punk Hazard really is delivering.

Across 609 and 610, we had Law vs Vergo with a surprise interruption by Smoker. Caesar was the subject of unexpected character development. Even Luffy vs Monet had a twist, with Luffy falling into a trash compactor and meeting a tiny talking dragon.

I bet that’s Foxfire’s son. The little dragon had a kid’s voice.

I’m just glad the big dragon the Strawhats roasted wasn’t Momonosuke (@mrkashkiet, I am looking at you sternly. xD)

Law Just Cannot Quit Smoking

And does not want to.

The action picked up with Vergo hoofing it to the SAD Room. Speed lines ahoy!

Inside, Law slowly drew his sword in front of a vast tank of SAD Gas. Not sure what he was planning to do, but let’s not dwell on it, in case his plan was literally explosive.

Vergo appeared at the door. “I feel like my hand has been bitten by my own dog. This is too much even for a mischievous child. You were always too smart for your own good. People like you tend to die young.”

You know, I’m not keen on stoic villain types but I’ve got to admit that Vergo has some killer lines.

“It would be easiest to crush your heart but I won’t do that. I’ll torment you slowly as I please and warp your smart ass face with fear.”

Like I said, good lines.

He wailed on Law with grim purpose to the point I found myself shouting, “Come on, Law! ROOM YOURSELF OUT OF THERE!”  Law was not having a fun time. (Dare I say, he was SAD?)

But his instinct for shit-talking was irrepressible. “Are you guys frustrated because your scheme is coming crashing down? Is this thing that important to you?”

Well, yeah... If Caesar is *the only person* who can make whatever it is that Doflamingo wants, then SAD must be profitable. Profits before pals seems to be Doflamingo’s modus operandi, but I don’t get the feeling Law is all that surprised Vergo is trying to kill him.

Law did fight back. There was an attempt.  He tried to Room his heart back. But Vergo is fast and snatched Law’s heart from the air.

The worst thing, though? Vergo punched Law so hard he lost his hat. That is not cool. It must have riled Law enough for him to try his (awesome) Counter Shock attack. It was big, flashy and high voltage, but it only left Vergo lightly toasted.

Vergo must have decided to kill Law then because he said, “I have a message from Joker. He said, ‘What a shame.’”

Law was weirdly zen about the whole situation. “Oh, well. It didn’t work. I was pretty sure I could take my heart back from Caesar, but I didn’t expect you here, Vergo.”

The lack of -san honorific was the last straw for Vergo. He squeezed Law’s heart like a stress ball. Toei’s red filter descended. Soul-shredding pain was experienced. Law screamed a lot. As you would if your heart was being squeezed by a maniac.

Then, a shaft of light descended from the vaulted heavens.

Except not really because it was Smoker.

It’s almost the same thing.

Vergo was typically cool about the interruption. “I’m in the middle of something. Does it have to be now, Vice-Admiral Smoker?”

And I did a backflip. Yes. Excellent interruption. Great timing, Smoker! Now stop being so fixated on the Big Tanks That Go “Blort” and execute your glorious revenge!

Really, now I think about it, Vergo is almost as bad as Caesar. When Smoker called Vergo out on his deceit and told him not to tell the G5 Men as he was a father figure to them, Vergo said, “Don’t tell me you actually care about those guys? I’m a base commander. I can do whatever I want to my no-good subordinates.” Another one who treats other people as disposable pawns.

Unsurprisingly, Smoker and Vergo came to blows. Smoker seems to be having more luck than Law, but then Vergo does not have Smoker’s heart in a box. What I’d like to happen is Smoker retrieving Law’s heart and they tag-team Vergo into oblivion.

That sounded wrong. But you get what I mean.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Rubbery Hope

How did Luffy end up in the Death Star’s trash compactor? 

His battle with a bird woman from Hoth went south. Literally.

And I cannot believe I am about to say this, but I kind of wish Luffy’s fight with Monet was a little bit longer. Her powers are great. Her self-awareness and cunning are too.

She maintained those ten layer kamakura walls without breaking a sweat. When Luffy smashed one layer, she wrapped another around her frozen prison without missing a beat. Luffy knew she was stalling for time and said he’d just break every layer quicker than she could replace them.

“I bet,” she said. Then swept up behind Luffy and, in an oddly flirty manner, whispered in his ear, “I don’t think I’ll win if I fight you, but the strongest isn’t always the winner in a fight.”

Then she grabbed him and wrapped him, literally, in winter’s embrace. 

That hypothermia power was quite cool (no pun intended). Paired with those desolate, snowy vistas and her eerily calm voice urging Luffy to let go, to sleep, relax and let it be, Monet’s Devil Fruit seems pretty strong to me.

But just as Luffy was about to pass out, Zoro’s voice - the very warning he yelled at Luffy a couple of episodes ago - cut through the darkness. “THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW WORLD!”

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of the blue filtered haki moments. When he sprang up and let loose that Jet Spear attack, I cheered.

Then he fell through the floor into a garbage chute and I laughed.

It was cool, though. He’s rubber. He’d bounce. And sure enough, it wasn’t long before he was raking through broken gadgets for food. At which point a tiny dragon spoke to him and that is where the story ended.

I am now 75% sure that tiny dragon is Momonosuke. It had a kid’s voice. Probably should be a higher percentage than that but I like to hedge my bets, haha.

Chopper Looks Like Every Harried Substitute Teacher Ever

While Luffy was readjusting to life in a trash compactor with a small talking dragon, Monet flapped away to tick off another box on the never ending to do list: securing the Addicted Experiment Kiddies.

Said kiddies were knocking lumps out of Chopper with their ferocious addict strength. He could not restrain them without hurting them. He tried to convince them not to eat the candy. “I know it’s hard but you have to endure it!”

The thing is, Chopper was dealing with a double helping of trouble here. Not only are they kids, who are naturally more self-centred due to their developing brains. They are also addicts who are so far down the rabbit hole of whatever drug Caesar was peddling they’ll do anything for a fix.

When Chopper’s rumble ball wore off, the kids trampled him and thundered straight for the Biscuit Room, where Mocha was waiting alone.

Luckily, he was picked up by Nami, Zoro, Usopp, Robin, Brook and Foxfire. (Do not remember Brownbeard hanging around. Did he leave or did he just not have any lines?) 

Robin tried to restrain the kids. That was interesting for two reasons: one, I didn’t know Robin could feel damage sustained by her extra hands, and two, she asked Usopp and Brook to try and find a pair of Sea Prism Stone cuffs because Luffy had asked her to. (I bet his plan is to cuff Caesar!)

The kids charged Mocha, who tried to tell them the candy was evil! Then Monet whirled into the room on a frosty zephyr. (The best part of this entrance was when Usopp shouted: “I TOLD YOU THERE WAS A BIRD WOMAN!” He was finally vindicated.) 

Yay, thought Mocha. It’s Monet-san. She’s lovely!

Nooooope. Monet told her, in a sweet, ever-so-reasonable voice that it wasn’t nice to keep all the candy for herself. Mocha should share it with the others, like always. Mocha’s little face when she sensed betrayal was just heart-wrenching. “Why?” she whispered.

Because Monet is a nasty piece of work just like Caesar? Just a thought.

Not sure what’s going to happen here. There are a *lot* of Strawhats in the room, so I’m guessing Monet will be defeated by them. Then they’ll push through, deliver the cuffs and - BAM - we have one angry, kidnapped scientist. 

Sanji Acquires Unexpected Fans

This was a short scene but the fact that Sanji has a cadre of devoted fans in the G5 is hilarious. Yeah, he claims he doesn’t want their approval. And he probably doesn’t.

But Sanji cannot stop himself running back to save the poor saps who can be saved.

This is the Sanji I like: surly on the outside with a golden heart on the inside. More, please!

And the Academy Award for Best Actor goes to . . .

CAESAR CLOWN!

Seriously.

The yarns this guy can spin could crush the GDP of a small textile-dependent country.

Caesar should run for office somewhere. Then he could appoint himself head of the science department.

For that is exactly what has been bugging him for years, it seems. He wants Vegapunk’s job.

Well... maybe not the job. (He’s getting by just fine thanks to pirates. A Government job would ruin that). It’s the fame and kudos. That’s what he’s after.

Plus he has a weird goal: to achieve world peace by obliterating all sources of conflict - collateral damage be damned. Unless he’s lying about that. Given his oscar-winning performance, that would not surprise me.

The action picked up with Caesar caesaring through a pipe and landing outside the Secret Room (I laughed when I realised everyone on Punk Hazard literally calls it the Secret Room).

He was bitching about having to enter the room because it was Vegapunk’s old office. Still, he claimed it was the only place where he could “pull it off”. (I am unsure why he had to go to Vegapunk’s old office just to close some doors, but I’ll chalk it up to plot and say no more.)

He promised to make Luffy, the Strawhats, G5 and Trafalgar Law pay for ruining his plan. It was all their fault! The experiment could have been a great show - everything perfect and beautiful and befitting of the world’s greatest scientist (Vegapunk says hi!) But they screwed it up. He couldn’t let the Strawhats do as they liked. They’d pushed it a little too far and he has Joker on his back now.

He ordered a minion to close the gates to Buildings C and D. This would lure all survivors into one narrow room. His plan? Trap them in the bottleneck and pump the room full of his poison gas through the air vents. He would broadcast it as a snuff movie for the brokers. That would show them what he was really made of!

But the minions hang on his every word and they caught one small discrepancy.

“Um... did you say that *you* had created the poison gas, Master?”

Caesar’s haughty reply was, “Yes, I did.”

“But it’s like Vegapunk’s gas. It freaks us out.” Understandably, the minions probably have ptsd from four years ago.

The moment when Caesar realised he’d let his ego run away with him and opened his big mouth was glorious. How could he spin this? How? The animators did a great job here. You could see the evil, conniving cogs turning in his mind. 

Then he broke out his Oscar winning performance. 

“This is . . . an avenging battle of science. My people! That day, I tried to stop the mad scientist, Vegapunk. No! If such a weapon exploded, what would happen to the people on the island?” Caesar even threw in a melodramatic “YAMEROOOOO, VEGAPUNK!” for some extra emotional sparkle.

“But the accident happened. And he still lords if over us as the head of the science department of the Marines. and he’s considered the world’s greatest scientist. I cannot tolerate it! He’s the cruel man who hurt you all! Do you think it’s right that people still call him the number one scientist? That’s why I want to prove them all wrong. I didn’t want to make a weapon of mass destruction! But I want to show them that there is a greater scientist here. That I am the greatest scientist in the world! When the Marines acknowledge it and when I become head of the science department, my dream will come true. I can use my scientific knowledge to bring peace to the world!”

I honestly had to stop myself giving Caesar a standing ovation. What a performance that was.

You know, it’s weird. Every lie Caesar told there has a basis in truth. That’s the most dangerous liar right there because the lies they tell are more believable. Does the Gas-Gas Fruit confer gaslighting powers too? Because Caesar is a hellishly efficient manipulator.

And while Caesar was congratulating himself, a flashback happened!

Caesar is Prime Material for /r/IAmVerySmart

Caesar with a bob was weird. I’m guessing when he moved to Punk Hazard, there was a lack of stylists, so he just grew his hair out. That hair you see right now? That is four years of growth.

At any rate, Caesar was doing something a bit more important back in Vegapunk’s lab. He was debating morality with some other scientists. They begged him to stop his experiment. If it exploded, it would kill everyone on the island. 

Caesar was typically receptive to criticism. “STFU, boneheads! Where do you think you are? This is a Marine research facility. They want to kill as many pirates as the can. What they need is a weapon that will do it for them.”

“But they don’t want one that will also kill civilians!”

Caesar’s rebuttal? “It’s called collateral damage! If we blow away everything, we can bring peace to the world.” (Does he genuinely believe that? That’s a properly depressing view of the world he holds there, if true.)

“You’re so...”

Caesar had a, “I’m gonna stop you right there” moment. They wanted to say he was cruel? What a joke. They were using prisoners as guinea pigs as if they were trash. What was the difference? (Fair point, Caesar.) Moreover, Admiral Sengoku was too soft, but Akainu, if he was in charge, *he* would want a weapon Caesar made. (Also interesting. I hope Caesar never decides to change sides again. He would be dangerous in Akainu’s hands.)

He went off on one about how Vegapunk had failed to turn people into giants again. Caesar knows you can’t turn people into giants in a short period of time unless you use magic, so had suggested Vegapunk just kidnap some kids and feed them drugs until something worked. What a lovely idea, Caesar! xD

The flash forward revealed Caesar’s “William Birkin Moment”.

Just as he made a significant discovery, Marines burst in and cuffed him with sea prism stone. Vegapunk himself came to see off his old colleague. I was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT HYPED for about half a second. But there was no face. 

Blue balled. Again. xD

Caesar was summarily dismissed from the Science Department. “Your eccentric behaviour is intolerable and I cannot protect you anymore, Caesar.”

Interesting that what the rest of the scientists did was viewed as fine and dandy, but Caesar taking it a step further was regarded as “eccentric”. First off, eccentric is a gross understatement. Secondly, what they’re doing is pretty evil too. Caesar is just overtly, unashamedly amoral. They hide it better.

Suffering such a humiliation, Caesar had his “SCREW YOU!” moment and pushed the big red button. Punk Hazard went up in a Mighty Kaboom-Boom Cloud. 

Still wondering how they all survived that, but I will chalk it up to plot and say no more.

Of course, after Caesar’s theatrics, his minions fell over themselves to apologise. Sorry, Master! You are the saviour, after all.

“Thank you... thank you all,” Caesar simpered, while inside he called them unintelligent fools. So easily manipulated. Dumb as bricks.

This guy needs taking down several pegs. Maybe an entire cloakroom rack.

Luffy, please oblige asap.

Caesar tells a rip-roaring, thigh-slapper of a yo momma joke. 

(No one laughed.)

[slurp-imagines]

Usopp - The Thunder Breaks

Angst/Fluff prompt 18: “I can’t breathe.”

An Usopp-centric fic lightly inspired by the song “Neptune” by Sleeping at Last.

Words: 1,947 Warning: mild descriptions of anxiety attacks

As always, he doesn’t know how the hell it gets to this point, but Luffy is leading the five of them into another stupidly dangerous adventure.

Again: stupidly dangerous. Unnecessarily so. They could have left hours ago, and would have been happily on their way to the next island! But one thing led to another, and now there are explosions left and right, bullet spray maybe thirty feet behind, and the threat of sudden death looming over Usopp’s head.

A body flies past him– an enemy’s, thankfully. He screams because he’s terrified, and he clings to Nami when she grabs his arm (because they’ve seemed to silently come to an agreement that you’ve got to cling to something when it seems like everything’s about to go to hell, and what better than a person who shares your fear?), and when Chopper starts sobbing, he does as well.

They always wind each other up like this. It’s a way of coping with the stress of it all, he knows, but he also knows that sometimes long after Nami and Chopper have accepted whatever horrific turn of events just took place, he finds that he’s still trembling.

He always tries to squash it down. Always tries to keep up an air of bravado, but he guesses it’s kind of his running “gag” now that he always fails at it.

It’s Sanji who first notices.

Usopp is staring bug-eyed at nothing while countless thoughts run through his head, tripping and crashing into each other as they go.

What’s gonna happen to me? Am I gonna have to help them? Can I even help? What do I do, what can I do? I can’t even breathe what’s going on what if I get hit? Where’s Zoro, I’ll just stay behind Zoro, where’s–

“Oi, what’re you just standing there for?”

Usopp lets out a yelp and flinches at Sanji’s hand on his shoulder, then immediately curses himself for it. There’s a pause, and he’s sweating and taking heaving breaths, and then,

“Are you scared?”

Usopp doesn’t think he can speak right now. He wants to push his chest out, to grab his slingshot and send his own spray of ammo into the slew of enemies. He tells himself it’s the sternness of Sanji’s gaze that stops him from doing it, but he knows it’s an awful lie.

So Usopp swallows over the lump in his throat, forces himself to hold eye contact, and somehow manages a single slow nod of his head.

There’s a moment where Usopp’s heart all but leaps out of his chest, fully expecting to be kicked directly into the fray and scolded for his cowardice.

But then Sanji nods back. Not pitying, not teasing, not disappointed or irritated. 

Just a nod.

The hand on his shoulder gives a firm squeeze.

“Stick close to me, then.” He smiles, wide and fully at ease. “You’ll be fine.”

“Sh-Shouldn’t I help?”

Sanji side-steps him and delivers a firm kick to the gut of an approaching enemy pirate. He glances over his shoulder and shouts back at him,

“Take a breather! When you’re feeling up to it, I could use the back-up!”

He clearly doesn’t need it, Usopp thinks, watching their cook send another pair of men flying.

He can still feel his heartbeat pounding all the way to his ears, but after one trembling, deep breath, he reaches for his slingshot.

He fights.

Not very impressively, but he fights still.

Two years and four crew mates later, and it still hasn’t gone away. It’s less often and usually less immobilizing, but there are still times where it returns full-force. Sometimes at night, and sometimes for no reason at all.

He really thinks he couldn’t have worse luck. No one else in the crew is like this. He’s sure of it.

He lies awake in bed for an hour. Trying to breathe like Zoro taught him to some time ago.

One, two, three, four.

Four, three, two, one.

One, two, three, four.

Four, three, two, one.

But Zoro isn’t in the room right now. Zoro isn’t counting out loud for him. So he tries listening to the snores of his crewmates to help guide him, but as time goes on it just gets fuzzier and fuzzier.

He doesn’t want to bother Zoro while he’s up training. His heart is pounding out of his chest but he doesn’t want to wake Chopper again for something that’s not life or death (even if he feels like it is). Sanji, too, needs all the rest he can get– it’s still a couple hours before he rises to start with meal prep.

And so Usopp staggers out of bed. His clumsiness probably makes his exit a little too loud, but almost everyone present is a deep sleeper, anyway.

He doesn’t trust himself to sit on the lion head, so sits on the deck right behind it and leans his back against it.

He knows it’s Luffy’s spot, so he thinks maybe it’ll help him feel a little stronger.

It doesn’t help.

It’s almost sunrise once he feels like his body is back under his own control. He’s splayed across the warm wood of the deck, trying to regain his strength and stretch out his limbs that had gone cold and cramped while he sat curled up through the night.

The captain himself leans directly over Usopp, and nearly startles him into a real heart attack this time.

“L-Luffy! What the hell!” he shouts, scrambling back into a seated position.

He’s snickering, but otherwise ignores Usopp’s outburst. “Wanna come sit on the lion head with me? It’s nicer up there.”

“Can both of us even fit?”

“Sure we can!”

Luffy was right, but it’s a tight squeeze seated between Usopp’s legs, an arm fixed around his waist (because his sniper is paranoid like that). It was the other way around at first, but Usopp’s hair kept going up Luffy’s nose so he insisted that they switch. It took another five minutes reassuring Usopp he wouldn’t fall– and if he did, then Luffy would catch them both– before they were able to watch the sunrise together in peace.

"D’ya think Sanji’s gonna wake up soon?” Probably. He usually gets up not too long after first daylight. “I’m so hungry! Aren’t you?”

"Nah. Just tired.” Dammit. He doesn’t mean to complain, but he gets way too loose-mouthed with exhaustion.

“Eh?” Luffy cranes his head around, peering at his friend behind him. “Didn’t you sleep enough?” Usopp cringes and looks away, and Luffy takes that as a no. “Why didn’t you sleep?”

Why not indeed.

Usopp’s first instinct is to lie. It’d be pretty easy with Luffy, too. He saw a huge fish in the water last night, so he stayed up to keep an eye out for it. Simple enough.

But then he sees the look in Luffy’s eyes. Not concerned, not yet; still just innocently curious. It’d probably eat at him if he isn’t honest with his answer, but he’d get over it, right?

The only qualm is that he listens to his body. It is aching all over and begging to continue resting.

He really does not think he has it in him right now to keep up any sort of facade.

So he gulps down the saliva collected in his mouth, and speaks to his captain’s waiting ears.

“It-It’s just–” When the words leave his throat, he almost feels his dinner come up with them. “W-When I think about everything we’re gonna face out there... it gets... hard to breathe. Th-That’s why.”

Luffy turns back to face the sea, letting out a long, thoughtful hum. Usopp can all but hear the gears turning underneath that straw hat while his captain tries to see where he’s coming from. Luffy doesn’t seem to succeed and shakes his head as if to signal this. “How come? It makes me excited.”

Usopp heaves a deep sigh. “Just forget it, Luffy. You wouldn’t understand.” Perhaps a little too harsh, his tone a little too biting, but could anyone blame him? He is one man on a sea of goddamn monsters. “You aren’t scared of anything.”

The shift in his captain’s mood is basically palpable, and he’s filled with regret at his words. Why does he always get so snappy when he’s anxious?

Luffy is quiet for ten seconds– Usopp counts them– before he says,

“Sabaody was scary.”

The three words manage to take him back to that day almost instantly.

He feels it again– the horrified confusion and overwhelming dread that bloomed in the pit of his stomach when Zoro disappeared before his eyes.

“Run! RUN!”

Back then, he could only barely hear his captain’s voice in the distance, could only barely find it in him to move, let alone run. He had never seen Luffy in a panic until that day, all too accustomed to his captain’s unyielding positivity in the face of danger. Which is why nowadays, he can hear it clear as day while he’s dreaming. Over and over.

“Y-Yeah.” He doesn’t know in what order the rest of them were blown away, but he couldn’t imagine being the last one to go. The thought of it is just... “Terrifying.” Usopp places a hand on his chest, hoping desperately that it won’t start up again. It’s been hours with it already. It all feels like too much. 

“I don’t want you to be scared, Usopp.”

“W-Well... me neither,” he sighs. “But here we are.”

It’s hard to catch Luffy during a serious moment, and even harder to keep him on a serious topic for long. But his captain’s quiet voice lets Usopp know that perhaps talking about it with him this time around might be a good idea.

“I’m not strong like you guys,” Usopp blurts out. “That’s why I’m not excited about it.”

"What are you talking about?” He sounds amused, like Usopp’s just said the dumbest thing he’s heard in a while. “You’re strong!”

“Not as strong as you!”

“Yeah, but so what? You always make things work.” He pats Usopp’s hand that is still fixed at his hip. “And you’re my friend, so it doesn’t matter if someone ends up being too much for you. I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you.”

Luffy says it like it’s more than a promise. Firm and resolute, a simple refusal to bend.

I’m going to beat up Big Mom. I’m going to beat up Kaido. I’m going to become the Pirate King. And I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you.

He says it like it’s fact.

Usopp really has no clue how his captain’s brain or heart exist the way they do. It leaves him in awe each time he’s reminded of this.

But like everything else– like a black cat’s claws, like a fishman’s punch– he guesses he has to take it on the chin, and press forward still.

His captain doesn’t want him to be afraid. There are plenty of reasons to be, but that fact alone seems to cancel them all out.

I’m going to beat up Big Mom. I’m going to beat up Kaido. I’m going to become the Pirate King. And I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you.

There’s still that familiar curl of apprehension in his gut. But he thinks that maybe, by the same incomprehensible force that pushes his captain ever higher, the curl will come loose when it counts.

Luffy pats his hand again, leaning back further into his chest.

The extra warmth is a little stifling underneath the heat of the newly risen sun. Usopp knows part of himself is glad for it.

[lululawlawlu-writes]

Softly Stained with Spring

Part 4: Rivals

note:  This fic was written for @lawlu-week!!  But I couldn’t keep up so I’m planning for updates to happen weekly instead~

rating: T

tags: canon universe, fluff and angst, hanahaki

____________________

Chattering voices pull Luffy from his dreams. He doesn’t want to wake up, not yet. It feels like he’d fallen asleep stargazing with Law just seconds ago.

Even though sleeping outside on the ground has never been uncomfortable for him and his body does feel like it’s not ready to get up, he mostly wants to savor a few more minutes of being cuddled up with Law. Law’s body is warm, the sound of his breath soothing. He even smells nice with the smoke from last night’s grilled meat still clinging to his clothes.

“Aww, aren’t they the cutest?” someone coos, almost mocking in tone. Sounds like one of Law’s crew although he can’t place exactly whose voice it is.

“I never thought I’d ever hear anyone call Captain ‘cute’,” someone else remarks.

Luffy would agree, but come to think of it Law could be cute at times. The way he tugged the brim of his hat down to try hiding his face—that was cute. And the tiny smile Law sometimes wore when it was just the two of them—the kind of smile that was there and gone in an instant like Law was trying to hide it—that was cute too. As much as Luffy wanted to know Law’s feelings, it was pretty cute when he tried to hide hem.

“You think they meant to sleep out here?” came a voice a little too close.

“Shut the hell up, Penguin. You’re gonna wake them!” another scolds.

Luffy’s already awake. He just doesn’t want to be yet, and it’s seeming like he won’t get to drift back to sleep again.

“At least wait until Nami takes a picture.”

“Huh? What’s Nami taking a picture of?” Luffy yawns, blinking his eyes to adjust to the morning sun. It’s no use fighting to sleep. He really can’t ignore all their voices. Besides, he’s awake enough now to feel his stomach starting to grumble.

“Never mind it,” Nami tells him.

Stretching, Luffy sits up just in time to see her palming something suspiciously snail-like and tucking it away in a woven basket. But the snail isn’t really what concerns him so much as his curiosity about what else is in that basket. His meat-detecting instincts are cuing him into something salty, fried over flame and dripping with juicy, cured flavour.

“Did you bring breakfast?” Luffy asks, and the answer better be ‘yes’ because he’s had more than his fill of deceptive flowers.

“We came up here ‘cause we thought it would be a nice day to have a brunch picnic in the wildflower field,” Ikkaku discloses, pulling out a large plaid picnic blanket. It’s not really an answer to his question but close enough.

“Imagine our surprise when we found you two.” Robin smiles at him discreetly, knowingly as though she’s keeping a secret of his. She sprouts a half-dozen hands to help Ikkaku set out the blanket on the lush grass.

“Our lovely high-class ladies-only brunch picnic has already been infiltrated by uncouth men,” Sanji grumbles, pulling dishes from a large covered basket, “so you may as well wake up Torao and get your asses over here too.”

“Oh, Sanji, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Ikkaku quips, “you’re not that uncouth.”

“And if you were talking about Shachi and Penguin, judging by how they act, I’d say they’re just kids,” Nami adds. She and Ikkaku give each other appreciative glances, giggle at each other’s wittiness.

Shachi just looks to Penguin who stops helping Sanji long enough to give a quick shrug. He doesn’t deny they act like they’re half their ages half the time.

“Hey, Torao, wake up,” Luffy says, shaking his shoulder with one hand, body already up and closing the distance to the food.

“That’s not gonna work,” Penguin notes, handing a cup to Shachi who shouts “Wake up Captain, we’ve got coffee!” as he pours the dark, steaming liquid into the cup.

Law does this weird little sit-up, folding in half with his body stiff like he’s being sat up in a hospital bed. His hat tumbles from his head, but he doesn’t pay it any mind. Groaning out like a zombie, he pulls himself off the ground to stumble the few steps to the picnic and throw himself back down next to his crew mates.

Luffy grabs a fistful of bacon and scoots closer to him.

“There, there, drink your coffee,” Penguin tells Law, almost patronizing, putting the cup in his captain’s hands.

Law mumbles something, head lolling forward to sip from the cup in his hands.

“That’s a good boy,” Shachi encourages mockingly, going so far as to ruffle his hair.

Law just grumbles incoherent, lazily smacking his hand away.

He really is funny when he’s just woken up Luffy decides, adds one more thing to his mental list of things that’s cute about Law.

“So what were you two lovers doing sleeping out here?” Ikkaku asks, passing Luffy a plate of sandwiches and a hearty helping of sausages.

He’s almost persuaded to start a list of reasons why she’s his next favourite of the Heart Pirates.

“Rivals,” Law interjects with half-asleep muttering. “We’re rivals.”

“You and me?” Luffy asks. He’s never thought of them as rivals and he’s sure he never will. They’re allies technically, friends definitely, and maybe they could be lovers. The word does have a nice sound. Come to think of it, it would be pretty nice if Law loved him enough for that. Something stirs in his heart at the thought—that light, happy fluttering.

“We may have an alliance now,” Law states from behind his steaming cup “but we’re both after the one piece.” He gives Luffy a little less than a glance, goes back to his coffee, staring at it like it’ll telling him the secrets of existence.

“That doesn’t mean you guys can’t be more than one thing,” Penguin notes.

“Yeah, don’t you want to be lovers too, Torao?” Luffy asks, leaning close, stretching a little to wrap an arm around Law in a sort of hug. He does wish Law would love him, but the thought that he might not does stick Luffy with a slight twinge of pain. Still, he wants to know if it’s possible.

“They do say that rivals make the most passionate lovers,” Robin concurs calmly.

Their crew members, especially Law’s have a laugh at his expense.

Law’s efforts to retort while mid-sip send him choking on his coffee, sputtering, coughing which only has them laughing harder.

Luffy can’t help but join in with them as he takes his arm from around Law. He smacks him on the back just like Law had done for him before.

“Yeah, laugh it up. I should cut your hearts out,” Law mumbles his threat which doesn’t seem to carry any weight, downs the rest of his coffee.

Luffy’s about to offer a ‘sorry’ once he can manage to stop laughing but a sharp pain in his ribs cuts off his breath. A tickle rises to his throat, only allows him a few short coughs before flower petals, the same as before, start to spill from his mouth.

This shouldn’t be happening. He thought he’d gotten them all out last night when he spewed the flowers onto the floor of the meat restaurant.

“What the hell?” Sanji mutters under his breath.

“Mugiwara, are you ok?” Ikkaku gasps, passing him a cup of tea Shachi’s poured out.

“Luffy, what did you do now?” There’s worry in Nani’s voice.

“I only-“ Luffy’s cut off by a stab through the chest again. He doubles over, leaning in to Law as the pants in shallow breaths, eyes squeezed shut trying to concentrate on making the pain go away.

“He ate poisonous flowers that happen to smell like meat. He’s been coughing them up ever since,” Law supplies. “I didn’t think he ate that many.”

“I didn’t,” Luffy confesses, “only a few.” That’s not his biggest problem right now. He’s more inconvenienced by whatever it is he feels attacking him from the inside.

“On the way to this island I was looking up information. I recall coming across a tale about a curse carried by such flowers,” Robin discloses. “I’ll try to find the book again.”

“But my heart hurts now,” Luffy tells them. That’s what he wants to fix most of all.

“It’s going to be alright,” Law tells him, stoking Luffy’s back soothingly. “For now just concentrate on my voice.”

“Tell me what things we are,” Luffy demands weakly.

Law just looks down at him, hums.

“More than rivals,” Luffy asserts. He wants to know what Law defines them as.

“Ok,” Law consents, “We are rivals to an extent still, confirmed allies, and I suppose we might have established a fairly friendly rapport-“

“Just say ‘friends’, Captain,” Shachi urges.

“And then say ask him to be your boyfriend,” Ikkaku suggests, “We see the way you look at him.”

“Like the way you look at her?” Law asks, gesturing to Nami.

Ikkaku blushes a deep shade of red. The rest laugh.

“You should have seen her buying her drinks all night last night,” Penguin chimes in.

“It was sweet,” Nami says, patting Ikkaku’s hand.

Thinking about other things, like what Law thinks, being able to laugh with everyone, the comfort of having Law’s hand on his back, it’s helping. Luffy’s pain is fading into just a little tightness in his chest now. Even so, he doesn’t want it to come back.

“Torao,” Luffy nudges Law, “What about my heart hurting. Relaxing isn’t fixing it for good.”

“I’ve got another suggestion for how to help you then,” Law says, “but it’ll make us rivals only.”

“Not funny,” Sanji snorts. “Luffy is gonna take you seriously.”

“I’m not joking,” Law says plainly. “It’s only temporary. He’ll see what I mean.”

“But-“ Luffy tries to protest.

“Yes we can still be more than one thing afterward,” Law answers, looks away from him.

Luffy thinks he catches a faint smile on Law’s lips before his hand moves to mask it, chin propped on this palm, fingers covering his mouth in a mock display of contemplation. He really is kind of cute when he tries to hide his feelings.