The Mosshead of a First Mate and The Idiotic, Strawhat wearing Captain

Bartolomeo The Cannibal

There was cheering in the air. Laughter, tears, pain filled screams from wounds and the loss of loved ones.The battle in Dressrosa, against Doflamingo, had been hard. For everyone. Citizens, soldiers, tourists and pirates alike. Blood painted the streets along with the bodies who were once lively the day before.

But most looked past that. They still mourned, of course they did. Everything they’ve grown to know as truth was all a lie. They were betrayed; they were merely toys to Doflamingo. A good portion of them literally were.

But now, Doflamingo was defeated. He was gone. Dead. Along with all of his makeshift “family”.

They all had their king back, they could all restart their lives and heal again. It would once more be a slow process, but they’d grow past it again, just like they had before. This wouldn’t break them. They refused to let it break them.

Zoro looked down at the gathered crowd, gaze vigilant as the final strings of adrenaline pumped through his veins. There was no longer any threats, none that he could deal with at the moment anyways. All the pirates and marines in the area could be considered threats, but at the moment, they were at a truse.

Sighing, he relaxed his stance, putting his swords back in their scabbards and resting an arm over their hilts.

The corner of his lips lifted up into a soft smile. They won.

He’d had no doubt in his mind that they would. His nakama were the best there was. And, yeah, fine, he’d admit that the love cook applied to that too. He was pretty strong.

But none of them could really touch Luffy’s level. Of course, he’s fought on even ground with Luffy before but...if they were ever to REALLY fight each other...he knows that Luffy would win. There was no doubt in his mind that Luffy would wipe the floor with him if the decision to really fight ever came.

With a final glance at the group of people below him, he began walking towards the direction he last saw his captain. He wanted to see Luffy and make sure the idiot wasn’t bouncing around while bleeding out. It wouldn’t do to have his captain suddenly collapse from blood loss. He’d already experienced that once, he wasn’t keen on having it happen again.

After about 15 minutes of walking, he mentally decided that he was going to take a little stroll first. No, it wasn’t cuz he was lost okay?

He just...needed to clear his head a little. That’s all.

After around an hour of frustrating dead ends and paths leading him towards where he’d already walked, he heard the ever reassuring laughter of his captain coming from behind what used to have been a rather fancy looking sidewalk.

Smiling to himself, he confidently walked towards him, his stride not even hinting at how he had lost his way. All the streets were broken and houses were hanging up in the air upside down, could you really blame him for getting a tiny bit lost?

Turning the corner, his eyes immediately zeroed in on his captain. More specifically, his captains leg. A green monster that WASN’T him was latched on to that leg.

Zoro almost immediately saw red.

No one got that close to his captain’s privates but HIM dammit.

Stomping over to his smiling Captain, he ignored the happy ring of “ZORO!” that he always adored and responded to, instead choosing to move around him and reach down, grabbing the stuttering and shaking form of Bartolomeo and tossing him a few feet away, the pressure of his haki surrounding him.

Of course, this only seemed to turn the younger pirate on to him.

Grimacing, he ignored the pirates groveling, crying and odd facts, turning his back on him and looking at Luffy, eye raking up and down his form to look for wounds that needed to be treated. Once satisfied, his small smile returned and he reached up to greet Luffy like he always does, brushing a bit of hair out of his eyes and running his knuckles across his cheek.

This time though, instead up pulling his hand away, he shifted it until he was cupping Luffy’s cheek, lifting the young captains face until they were looking eye to eyes.

“Hey…” he muttered gruffly, a softness in his eyes that he didn’t normally have. “You okay? Not gunna kick the bucket on us are ya?”

Luffy laughed, the familiar “shishishi!” surrounding Zoro and easing away any lingering nerves from the hard battle they’d experienced today.

“Yeah! I’m fine Zoro! I kicked that Mingo’s ass!” A wide, beaming smile that definitely required gum gum powers appeared on Luffy’s face, and Zoro couldn’t help but widen his own smile at that.

“Yeah, you did kick his ass. I knew you would captain, you are the strongest out of all of us of course.”

“Shishishi! Yosh!” Luffy smiled mischievously, hopping up onto Zoro and sitting on his shoulders proudly, looking like everything was right with the world and that it was a common occurrence for him to be sitting on his first mates shoulders.

And, well, it kind of was.

Grumbling out protests that didn’t quite match the contentment in his eyes, he tossed and turned a few times, trying half heartedly to dislodge Luffy from his shoulders before quickly giving up. Huffing, he reached up and loosely grabbed onto Luffy’s ankles, his thumbs gently moving in circular motions across the rubbery skin and bone.

Turning, he was startled to find Bartolomeo still crouching at where he’d thrown him, tears streaming out of the mans eyes like geizures.

Ugh, he had forgotten that the pirate was even there.

“UWOOOAAAAHHHHHH Z-Z-ZOWO-SEMPAAAAAAI, LUFWY-SEMPAAAAAAAI! I-I’M SO HAPPY TO BE ABLE TO SEE TH-THE CAPTAIN AND F-F-FIRST MAAATE OF THE STRAW HATS I-INTERACT TOGETHEEER. I-I’M SO HAAPPPPEEHHHHH!”

Zoro blinked down at the man, raising an eyebrow in annoyance as even more tears started to fly out of the mans eyes. Was it even possible to cry this much? How is he not dead from dehydration or something?

Whatever, it’s not his problem. He’d leave the other pirate in a ditch for even touching Luffy but...well, he’d helped. And Robin and Usopp seemed to like the guy so...no touchy. At least not I-am-going-to-murder-you-one-piece-at-a-time touchy. He would totally throw the guy off of a 10 story building though. If he didn’t live then that means that he should have been focusing more on training and getting stronger.

His fingers twitched at that thought, but Luffy immediately slapped him out of that train of thought by...literally slapping him. Upside the head.

“Zoro! C’mon Zoro! Let’s go on a victory run! Shishishi!”

Zoro groaned, glaring up at Luffy.

“Victory run?! You want me to run around all over the place with you on my shoulders?!”

“Well of course Zoro! I beat up Mingo so OBVIOUSLY I get to be carried around! C’moooooooonnnnnnnnnn Zooooooorooooooooo! Pleeeeease???”

Luffy looked down at Zoro, pouting adorably down at him.

“It’s a captains request!”

Zoro blinked up at Luffy, staring at him with his one good eye. It was a request, not an order. But, well...it was a request from his captain. As first mate, who was he to deny that request?

“...Aye, Captain.”

Sighing, he gathered up all his pride and started running through the broken up streets of Dressrosa, cheers going up around them as he focused on moving through the most crowded areas.

He completely denied when people asked or questioned his rosy cheeks. It was just hot okay!