Chapter Text
Luffy was eating alone.
He hated eating alone.
It had been a long time since he last ate alone. The last time he could remember eating by himself was the day after Ace’s death. He didn’t like remembering that.
Usually Luffy ate with his boyfriend, Zoro, but not today. Zoro had been invited to participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity kendo training camp, the only problem was it was a 4 hour plane flight away. Luffy was upset that he couldn’t go with him, but insisted Zoro go since it could help him get one step closer to his dream.
Luffy’s friends usually made time to spend with him when Zoro wasn’t around. They knew Luffy didn’t like to be alone for long times. He was supposed to have dinner with Sanji tonight, but there was an emergency at the Baratie he had to go handle. Sanji just dropped off the food and ran back to the restaurant.
Honestly the whole day had been boring for Luffy. He spent his Saturday sitting on the couch on his phone, alone. Usually he would go to one of his friend’s houses and hang around them, but today everyone just seemed so busy. Robin was at an important archaeology conference and Franky was visiting Ice-Pops and the rest of the Franky family, so they couldn’t hang out. Nami and Vivi had their weekly date night tonight, so Luffy knew he wasn’t supposed to bother them. Chopper had a big medical exam coming up soon and Jinbei agreed to help him study, so they were both busy too. Brook was across the country on tour, so he was out of the picture. And Usopp was still studying abroad at the Boin Archipelago. Usopp usually made it a point to text or call Luffy for a little each day, but today he hadn’t reached out.
So Luffy was alone.
Sometimes on days where it was just him, he would go down to the cemetery and visit Ace. He likes to pack a small picnic when he goes, so he could eat while he talked to Ace, and when Sabo came they always brought sake. But it had been pouring basically the whole day, so there was no chance Luffy was going out. He hated the rain.
It's not like Luffy didn’t eat the food Sanji had brought, in fact he demolished it in seconds, but he always thought Sanji’s food always tastes better when there are others to enjoy it with. As he licked off the crumbs on his plate, he patted his stomach and dropped it in the sink on top of the others. Zoro always did the dishes in their apartment, just because he was away didn’t mean Luffy had to start. Luffy pulled out his phone and tried calling Usopp again. It went straight to voicemail.
It was only 9 pm, but Luffy changed into his pajamas and crawled into bed, hoping that scrolling on his phone would soothe him to sleep. He knew his friends didn’t purposefully leave him alone today, but thinking that didn’t make him feel better. As Luffy slowly felt his eyes drooping, his phone started to ring. Luffy picked up.
“Zoro?”
“Hey Luffy,” Zoro said from the other end of the phone. You could practically hear the smile in his voice. Luffy loved that about Zoro, hearing him smile. Nami always said he was weird for saying he liked hearing smiles rather than seeing, but he didn’t care.
“What’s up? How was camp?” Luffy questioned. Usually he would start the conversation talking about his day, but since basically nothing happened, he let Zoro have the spotlight.
“You would not believe the day I had. First we started with-” Zoro went on for what seemed like forever about all the training he did at camp. He explained to Luffy each and every exercise they did, and how each of them helped his body. Luffy would usually love hearing Zoro talk this much, but right now he just felt distant.
“Luffy?” Zoro questioned from the other end of the line. That snapped Luffy back to reality.
“Yeah?”
“I asked about your day.” There was a small pinch of concern in Zoro’s voice. Luffy wasn’t usually one to space out.
“Oh, uh, it was fine, I didn’t really do anything,” Luffy said, sounding a bit embarrassed. Zoro had done so much today, and the most he did was sit on his phone.
“What about dinner with the cook?”
“There was an emergency at the Baratie, he had to leave.” Luffy could hear Zoro mumbling about “that stupid cook.”
A second of silence.
“Did you,” Zoro started out slowly, “did you visit-”
“No, it's raining here, so I didn’t go,” Luffy said, cutting him off. Even though it's been two years people still struggled to bring up Ace around him.
“Well that’s a bummer, I know how much you hate the rain.”
“Yeah.”
A longer second of silence.
“Hey,” Zoro’s voice was softer, “don’t get so down, I know today sucked, but tomorrow will be so much better, trust me.”
“You really think tomorrow will be better?” Luffy asked, hoping that what Zoro said would be true.
“It definitely will, I even swear on my swords that tomorrow is going to be a great day.” Even though Zoro had no proof to prove tomorrow was going to be better, hearing those words gave Luffy hope.
“Thanks Zoro,” Luffy said, a small smile creeping on his face.
“Yeah yeah, I gotta wake up early tomorrow, so I’ll talk to you tomorrow night again, okay?”
“Alright.”
“Bye, love you.”
“Love you too ... bye,” Luffy hung up the phone. While talking to Zoro did help, he still felt lonely. He wished Zoro was next to him in bed, that would make him feel so much better. For now though, he’d have to wait for him to come home. Hopefully tomorrow would be better…just like Zoro said.
___
Zoro sat up in his hotel bed as he looked at Luffy’s contact photo. He had his usual giant grin, one that never seemed to leave his face, except for today. He just sounded…so…not Luffy. Zoro knew this is how Luffy got when he was alone. It especially didn’t help that it started to rain. The rain always somehow ruins Luffy’s mood.
He hated how he couldn’t just give Luffy a big hug and spend the night watching his favorite movies with him. That's what they always did when Luffy was upset. They would watch movies and eat food till they both passed out from a food coma. Those were always the best nights.
Zoro wasn’t sure how he could make tomorrow better for Luffy while he was so far from home, but then an idea crept into his mind.
___
Zoro added : Nami, Vivi, Usopp, Stupid Cook, Robin, Franky, Brook, Chopper, Jinebi to the chat
Zoro: Hey guys, I need a favor.