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It hadn’t even been a week since they had left the shores of Wano, their new bounties had just been announced. Zoro could have told anyone that his Captain’s bounty was going to have risen the most out of all of them, not that anyone had been listening to him. It was only natural after all, usually a Captain was the fiercest fighter of the crew.
Now, if only the witch didn’t decide that Luffy’s bounty was getting tempting enough…
“Zoro!!! Catch!!!” His scatterbrain of a lover yelled out before bulleting himself into his side. Looks like he hadn’t forgotten about his promise to take a nap together after all. Could have done without the headbutt, but Zoro wasn’t all that fragile, so it was fine.
They ended up napping beneath the main mast, not his favorite spot, since it was the busiest place to keep an eye on most of their crew. Also Chopper had tackled him without reason and fallen asleep on his lap, so he couldn’t exactly move, now could he? Usopp had been roped into a game of whatever with their Captain and both had crumpled against him on either side in utter exhaustion after running around the Sunny like they were being chased by something. He wasn’t exactly sure, but it could have been him they were running from. Who knew? With Usopp and Luffy all the rules were made up before they got changed and re-made again and again, he could never keep track, which was why he seldom took part in their lollygagging.
“Puru puru, puru puru”
Huh? Zoro had just been having a great dream, they had been fighting some big name of a pirate crew and were about to win, when whoever the idiot that was calling them had rung him out of it. Unacceptable.
“Thousand Sunny here. We can hear you SUUU-PEEEEEER!!!” Franky proceeded to keep Zoro’s ears ringing.
“...*crackle*...amy here….*hissss*...close by?”
Franky looked personally offended by the nonsense the transponder snail was spitting.
“Uh, maybe not that SUPER after all.” He conceded and proceeded to fiddle around with the mechanical part of the snail. At least that’s what Zoro figured he was doing, since he couldn’t exactly see anything with the size of Franky’s hands. Also, Chopper was still sleeping so he was loath to move. Not that that had stopped Luffy from jumping up like an excited puppy at the first ring of the transponder snail or Usopp from twitching in fright like he had those first nights back on Sunny.
“Can you try again?” Franky asked with baited breath, ready to fiddle with the transponder snail some more.
“Bellamy here. Do you hear me now?” The snail answered and their resident Cyborg let out a WHOOP of joy, accepting the incoming praise from Usopp, but thankfully without waking Chopper in the process. Well, he could as well stay where he was, the connection was loud enough that he didn’t need to move closer to hear it.
“Grasshopper-guy!” Luffy exclaimed in joy and snatched the transponder snail out of Franky’s hand.
“I’m calling as a member of the Strawhat Grand Fleet and begging for your aid Luffy-sama.” Bellamy dropped a bomb on them, rendering Luffy mute for half a second.
“Eeeeh?” Their Captain responded with utter confusion.
“He’s asking for help Luffy.” Zoro heard Robin explain to the confused teen.
“I don’t wanna…” The gum-gum-brain whined.
Which really fit with his logic since he had already beaten up Doflamingo, so the Hyena really should have no reason to ask him for help. Not that he had beaten up the pink feather brain for the other pirate, but that was neither here nor there.
“Please…it would elongate my life if you could help.” Bellamy almost begged.
But Luffy had already strolled off towards the figurehead, no longer listening.
“What’s wrong YAUW?” Franky almost screamed into the snail, appearing to be roped into the sob-story already and finally overshooting the volume at which Chopper could stay asleep. The little reindeer shot up in a panic and looked around the deck, trying to find a hurt patient.
“Blackleg Sanji’s fiance was kidnapped.” was proclaimed from the snail and everyone froze for a second.
“WHAAAAAT?!” Chopper, Usopp and Franky screamed in unison, ending any chance for Zoro of continuing his nap now.
“Calm down. Curly-brow can go and help her…unless there was a reason he left her behind in Totto Land.” Zoro mused, trying to remember what little he had been able to glean from his Nakama about that disaster so far. It had been quite a surprise to have Big Mom in Wano and fighting on Kaido’s side after all. But she had not said anything about the wedding as far as the swordsman could recall.
“Pudding-chan?!” Sanji squealed, after kicking the kitchen door open and balancing a tray with refreshment-drinks for both Robin and Nami. The annoying cook crowded close to the snail and demanded more information, so Zoro saw no reason to stay and listen to the conversation further. Instead he got up and retreated close to the figurehead, just resting beside the steps leading up to Luffy’s thinking place.
Whatever his Captain decided to do, he would follow his choice and back him up.
-_-_-
Not that the crew gave them that option. The witch must have been scared of Robin’s ever evolving possibilities of dreadful demises for the Hyena and that had naturally resulted in her bullying their Captain into submission and yeah, if Zoro didn’t want his debt to increase tenfold…then him too…crazy witch.
Zoro still held the firm belief that the cook should have come along as well, it was HIS fiance they were rescuing after all. But no, the witch hadn’t wanted to have the entire monster trio leave the ship at once, so only the two of them were leaving.
Franky made sure to go over all the features of the shark-boat-thing again, but Zoro knew that Luffy wasn’t listening and honestly…all the stupid controls looked the same. It was a godsend that Jinbei was going to accompany them there. At least the Whaleshark Fishman would be able to navigate easily beneath the surface of the sea.
They set off within the hour and arrived at the Hyena’s ship after a few hours of dodging Sea Kings and telling Luffy not to drool at all of them. Zoro was just happy that the cook hadn’t come along otherwise they would have had ten food breaks already and he wanted this dealt with quickly so that they could get back to Sunny and be on their merry way again.
As they emerged through the water surface Luffy went ballistic.
“NO!!! NO!!! NOOOO!!! NOT BISCUITS AGAIN!!! I WON’T EAT THEM!!!” He screamed at the top of his lungs and Zoro was tempted to throw him into the sea, just to have some relief for his maltreated ears.
“SHUT UP LUFFY!!!” He roared back. Thankful for Jinbei’s patience in dealing with their crews craziness, since all the former Shichibukai did was dock their submarine at their Grand Fleet members ship and not punt either of them out of it, which he was sure the witch and/or cook would have done without hesitation.
Luffy of course left no time for pleasantries and simply propelled himself onto the deck of the ship that looked as if it had seen better days.
“I can’t believe him… Ah well, it’s his Fleet, it’ll be fine.” Zoro stared after their Captain, before shrugging and following him. Jinbei just laughed Luffy’s insanity off, like the New World veteran pirate that he was.
“We’ll be right back Shark Submerge III.” A blue and webbed hand patted the equally blue boat and off they went. Following the sounds of screaming. Wow, that had taken less time than Zoro had expected.
“WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” A male and antagonistic voice shouted at Luffy, coming from a tall male with…was that purple hair sparking at the tips? The dude was lying in a pile of what looked like broken cookies, an angry Luffy standing a few feet away from him, standing in a manner that indicated he expected retaliation for his transgression.
“Your biscuits look ugly.” Luffy defended himself with all the conviction of a toddler.
There were indeed times where Roronoa Zoro forgot or at least questioned why he loved the moron.
“THEY’RE NOT BISCUITS!” The man defended.
“Yeah, they’re not biscuits Luffy. They’re clearly cookies.” Zoro nodded along, receiving a most peculiar glare for his troubles of trying to educate his Captain.
“THEY’RE OBVIOUSLY CRACKERS!!!” The annoyance screeched and Zoro was just done with him.
Looking away in an obvious dismissal and addressing the Hyena instead, he sensed Jinbei keeping a step back.
“So, what’s the big plan to get Pudding back?” He asked the blonde, who was just staring flabbergasted at the scene.
“Plan?” The Hyena choked. “All I know is that she was kidnapped, because that guy jumped onto my ship, screamed for Strawhat Luffy and went bonkers on my sails.” He clarified.
His story checked out, apart from the scratches Zoro had noticed on the hull, there were only some sad straps of cloth hanging from the two masts.
“Then why’d you even call us here?” Zoro grunted, slumping against the wall of a cabin or something behind him. The sun was glaringly bright after their time spent underwater, so he preferred the little shade.
“Because I threatened to kill him if he didn’t.” The annoyance was trying to get back into Zoro’s conversation.
“The adults are talking and my Captain doesn’t like you, so shut your trap before I liberate it from the rest of your body.” Zoro joined Luffy in glaring at the weirdo.
An offended squawk was all that threat earned him, so he was relatively confident that such interruptions wouldn’t happen again.
Jinbei stepped up next to him and asked with a little eye-contact and an inclination of his head if Zoro would mind if he asked a question. Naturally the swordsman had nothing against that and so their helmsman turned to the quiet idiot.
“Charlotte Cracker, are you aware of the fact that Bellamy the Hyena is part of the Strawhat Grand Fleet? If so, are you also aware of the fact that Strawhat Luffy himself has gained the status of Yonko, after recently defeating both Kaido and Big Mom?”
Damn, was it fun to watch the gears turning. Bellamy was about to keel over from something like shock, if Zoro was interpreting those Haki fluctuations of his right and the Charlotte guy was gaping like a fish.
“Mama…?” He whispered in disbelief. “That can’t be!” He exclaimed in denial.
“Just because it happened in Wano doesn’t mean it’s not true.” Zoro smirked and enjoyed the fidgeting expression of the enemy pirate.
“Yeah, Tra-guy and Jaggy beat her up while I was fighting Kaido.” Luffy added, rubbing salt into the wound.
“So then, back to my question?” Jinbei prompted.
“It’s not exactly hard to spot the flag this ship is flying.” Cracker evaded grumpily, still trying to come to terms with their matriarch's defeat.
“Be that as it may, you have attacked a member of the Strawhat Grand Fleet, serving directly under a Yonko crew. You are aware of your offense now, I take it?” Jinbei clarified for the dim-witted dude that was still sitting in his crumble cookies.
Zoro was pretty certain that Luffy wouldn’t care too much about it, since Bellamy himself had not been harmed, but his Captain could still go to full out war for the damage done to the ship.
In the end of course Luffy had flabbergasted them all.
He had flat out refused to get involved in anything. Until their discussion had moved onto the rescue of Pudding. Not because he disagreed with the idea, but because he wanted to make certain that the food for their journey would NOT BE BISCUITS! Zoro was pretty sure there was a story there, but he was not going to ask for it for at least the next two days. He was kinda sick of hearing the words ‘no’ and ‘biscuits’ in the same sentence from Luffy.
“I can cook, it’s not a big deal.” The Hyena claimed and Zoro was going to enjoy the devastated look of shock on his face once he realized his mistake. Everyone underestimated Luffy’s ability to just eat. Well, maybe not everyone, judging by cookie-dude’s expression he at least knew that Luffy could pack away a LOT of food. Come to think of it, hadn’t Brook mentioned that almost everything on Whole Cake Island was edible? Whatever his Captain had done there…it sure had left an impression.
Checking back in with the rest of the crew went surprisingly well. Mainly because Jinbei was the one holding the snail to do the call and after the first three chaotic interruptions from Luffy, Zoro had just dragged him off to the figurehead of the ship and told him to sit. It might have had something to do with his waning tolerance to listen to the love sick ero cook, but he just didn’t want to give the witch another opportunity to saddle him with additional chores. He was already going to have to do a multitude of mundane tasks for the next two months and he didn’t even know why!
-_-_-
“Are we there yet?” Luffy asked with such an adorably innocent expression on his face that Zoro had problems telling him no, so he grunted as a sign that he had heard him, but was not willing to give an answer yet. He was just happy that Bellamy actually had back-up sails, not many pirates did, since they never expected to need them.
“Zoroooo.” His Captain whined.
“Lunch!” Bellamy shouted out from the open galley door and Zoro was saved from answering yet again, while being almost trampled by his lover…not appreciated.
Well, he had better get moving if he wanted to have anything edible before Luffy just devoured it all.
-_-_-
He was truly grateful that his admittedly desperate call for help had been answered, but he was still relieved when he was able to steal himself away from the socializing after dinner by claiming that he still needed to do the dishes. It had been a chore and a half to save just one serving from Strawhats grabby hands, but Bellamy had managed it and was now sneaking below deck to feed the sixth person unknowingly traveling with them.
-_-_-
The next morning dawned early and had them facing a grand line storm that kept them busy for a few hours. Luffy hadn’t complained about having been woken up by the storm for a single second, but once they had rode past it, he threatened to pass out upon remembering that he hadn’t had breakfast yet.
Zoro could only shake his head in misery, joined by Jinbei and distrustfully side-eyed by the cookie-cutter.
They continued like that, following Pudding’s kidnappers via her vivre card, fighting the grand line bullshit that dared to try and stop them, while making sure that crumble-cookie didn’t glare at Bellamy too much. Well, Zoro didn’t really care about the latter, but Luffy was pretty invested in having as little to do with the Charlotte as possible, so Zoro did everything in his power to make the guy feel as uncomfortable as possible while in his presence.
However Zoro also didn’t go out of his way to follow the Hyena, he wasn’t a guard dog. Whatever the guy did below deck was his business anyways.
It took them almost two days, apparently the Hyena’s ship was by far slower than the Sunny, but in the end they managed to catch up with them. Too bad that Jinbei stopped their advance immediately.
“If we can see them, then they can see us as well.” He cautioned them and proceeded to hide the ship just outside of visual range. Or rather Usopp's visual range, since Jinbei only stopped them until he could barely make out the top of the island with binoculars while standing in the crows nest.
-_-_-
Bellamy had just finished taking off the bandages and was in the middle of applying some healing salve to the numerous lacerations, when he felt the forward momentum stop. What were they doing up on deck to have caused the ship to stop? They had not reached shore yet, he could tell by the force of the waves crashing against the hull. So then, what was going on?
“I’ll be back later.” He told his friend. It wasn’t like he was moving much in his condition, so it would do the wounds some good to breath a little before he re-wrapped them after dinner.
-_-_-
“We need a plan. We can not simply charge in and hope for the best. From what little I saw of their flags, it’s Blackbeards Crew.” Their helmsman declared and Luffy’s resulting frown showed just how unhappy he was with that.
“I’ll sink them.” His Captain proclaimed with a glint in his eyes.
“Luffy. I know you want to see Blackbeard destroyed, I want to see that traitor dead as much as you do. Ace was my friend. But you can not simply sink an island.” Jinbei sighed, trying to come up with a plan that would hopefully leave them all alive, rescue Pudding and leave Blackbeard a soulless husk.
Zoro contemplated the likelihood of Luffy listening to Jinbei’s plan, considering that their Captain seemed to find a childish delight in ruining any kind of plan. Well, he technically hadn’t ruined Jinbei’s plan on Fishman Island, going by what he had heard from the crew during the banquet, so Zoro had at least a little hope.
“We could cut it though.” Zoro proposed to the apparent shock of everyone but his Captain, who started cheering ‘YES!’.
-_-_-
They didn’t end up cutting the island down, but it was a close temptation for the entire duration of the rescue. Zoro didn’t care whom he would be inconveniencing, if Blackbeard wanted to get angry about having to renovate then that was his decision. Luffy was going to best him soon enough anyways, since he needed to beat every other Yonko in order to be considered the Pirate King. Not that Zoro had any doubts about that, but apparently the rest of the world still needed to be convinced.
Bellamy had hopped ahead with a hurt Pudding. They were going to be brought back onto the ship by Jinbei while he and Luffy covered their retreat. Meanwhile crumble-cookie had decided to pick a fight with…something. Zoro wasn’t even sure if it was alive or just looked like a humanoid…something. Either way, he didn’t really care. If the idiot didn’t get back onto the ship, then he had no problem leaving him behind.
-_-_-
Thankfully Jinbei had more of a strategic brain than Luffy, which wasn’t a high bar to pass, but Zoro was still surprised that his Captain regularly came up with battle strategies that worked. Because most of the time, it was sheer stubbornness that carried Luffy to victory, not any amount of careful planning.
Their helmsman had the foresight not to rejoin the fight, but instead to simply flood the island with water and pluck them out of it and shove them into the Shark-Submerge-III, no longer giving them a choice about staying and fighting or coming with him and returning to the crew. Zoro was a little bit miffed, since his opponent had been a devilfruit user and Jinbei had just rendered them immobile, but since their objective of rescuing Pudding had already been met, he saw no reason to be too pissed about it. The bottle of King Neptunes good sake that had found its way into his haramaki had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Once back on the Hyena’s ship they took off, headed back for the Thousand Sunny and Chopper. Pudding hadn’t looked like she was dying, but she hadn’t exactly been awake when they found her, so they just really didn’t know what was wrong with her.
So, as the good first mate that he was, Zoro strolled below deck with the denden, dialing their crew and intent on demanding to talk to their doctor. Upon entering what he presumed to be the sick bay, since all the other 15 doors in this particular hallway had yielded no favorable results, the swordsman was shocked to see Bellamy hovering over two patients instead.
He immediately drew Wado and proceeded to ignore Franky’s greeting on the other end of the connection, slightly flaring his Haki to get Luffy’s attention in case of an emergency, he stepped closer until the Hyena blocked him.
“He’s my friend and on my ship. He’s under my protection, so you had better put that down.” The blonde frowned at him.
“I asked for your help to rescue Pudding, I did not ask you here so you could kill him.” Bellamy tried to make himself appear taller than he was and it reminded Zoro of Usopp, so ready and willing to protect a friend, no matter how outclassed he was.
“Fine.” Zoro grunted a sigh and slid Wado’s blade back into the sheath.
Now that he looked at him properly, it didn’t look as if Hawkins was here to pick a fight anyways. He wasn’t even conscious enough to react to his flare of Haki.
“Zoro-san.” Brook softly inquired via the still open connection and reminded him why he had even bothered to come down below deck.
“Hey Brook, can you get me Chopper? Pudding’s hurt and we don’t know what’s wrong with her.” Zoro said, all the while not taking his eyes off of the former headliner.
-_-_-
Zoro still didn’t know how he ended up helping Bellamy in taking care of them both, but there he was, two hours later, still putting bandages on them.
“How long has he even been here?” Zoro wondered after a while, not really expecting an answer to his random mumble, but receiving one anyway.
“I picked him up in Wano. I was a day too late to help in the fight, so I simply patrolled close by. I’m not much of a doctor, I only know some really basic first aid…thank you again.” Bellamy explained and thanked him sincerely.
“...” Zoro grunted noncommittally.
“It seems I have another debt to repay.” The Hyena stated and Zoro almost didn’t correct him.
“Chopper is a doctor. He won’t accept saving a life as deserving of a debt, so keep your repayment.” He brushed the other pirate off, knowing that the little reindeer would accept no such concept at all.
-_-_-
Cookie-dude came looking for them, demanding to know how his sister was doing and Zoro used the admittedly perfect opportunity to trade places with him. It took him a while to get back up on deck, those other 19 misleading doors were just annoying.
“...and then I punched him!” Luffy concluded, miming his actions for the audience of…whales? Well, at least they weren’t Sea Kings.
“Oh yeah?” Zoro smirked, leaning against the railing and raising an eyebrow at his lover, delighting in the way Luffy’s entire attention immediately shifted towards him.
“Of course! Zoro was there! Shishishi!” His Captain laughed heartily and all was right enough with the world for Zoro to go and take a nap. He plucked down the denden in his Captain’s hand and found a quiet place for himself and his swords.
-_-_-
THE END?
-_-_-
Omake:
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Bellamy snapped, finally fed up with the staring.
“I’m not staring.” Cracker immediately defended himself.
“Well, I can’t say your eyes have left my person at all during the past hour . So, what would you call that?”
“Observation.” The Charlotte immediately shot back.
“Did you plan that excuse in advance?” The blonde pirate drawled and turned his away in annoyance.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Don’t dismiss me like that.”
“Or what? You’ll threaten to kill me again?” Bellamy huffed, utterly done with the conversation.
“Marry me.” Charlotte Cracker demanded and Bellamy dropped the bucket with the used bandages in shock.
“WHAT?!” He whirled around and gaped at the taller man.
“No one has ever treated me the way you do. You speak to me as if you are not afraid of me and…and I want that.” Cracker tried to make himself understood. He had never needed to do more than put his wants into words. He had never before needed to explain himself to anyone but Mama and his older siblings and, against every expectation to the contrary…he liked it. He liked that the blonde challenged him so.