Instincts [Roronoa Zoro x Reader]

Chapter 22

Zoro awoke with a pained groan, slowly opening his eye. He was in the infirmary again.

He sighed, feeling his own body for how bad his injuries were. Having a ridiculously high pain tolerance, he supposed he was fine. He started getting up, and felt hooves angrily but kindly pushing him back down.

"Zoro!" Chopper called. "Don't get up yet."

"I'm fine." As he resisted, though, he hissed in pain as he felt his numerous acid wounds sting.

"I've put some ointment on the wounds and bandaged them, but they still need time to heal," the raccoon dog said.

Zoro grumbled a curse at his situation, and let Chopper continue to work on making something to help his wounds further.

He closed his eye, trying to remember what happened before he fell asleep. The pirates had fallen into the ocean, and with the lack of commotion right now, they were probably dealt with. He had pushed you out of the way of the acid bubble, and had taken the full blast. But maybe you had gotten in the splash zone as well. He was too busy dealing with the pain of the acid burns to be able to be aware of what was happening around him.

"How's [Y/N]?" he asked Chopper.

"She's doing fine! She and Nami helped bring you here. [Y/N] helped me treat your wounds too, despite...." He paused, then smiled sheepishly. "...despite how injured she was."

"Hm." Zoro huffed, relieved that you were okay. But something was wrong.

"The pirates you two fought should be long gone," Chopper continued. "With two of them being devil fruit users and the other injured by you. [Y/N] seemed to be really relieved that they're gone."

"What's she hiding?" Zoro asked bluntly. Seeing Chopper's movements still, he added, "From me?"

Chopper stared at him, unsure of what to say. "What do you mean, 'from me'?"

"You seem to know something about her that I don't. Almost everyone else knows, too. Maybe Brook and Robin don't, unless they hide it really well, and you hadn't as well, but now you do." He had noticed before but shrugged it off, but now... now it was more important to him.

Chopper sighed, pondering his options. "You should ask her yourself."

"Will she tell me?"

"Most likely. I'm just not in the place to tell you."

Zoro frowned. What did that mean?

There had to be some reason you hid whatever you were hiding for so long. But if everyone knew except him, that was... almost infuriating. He sighed. He'll let you take your time.

<+>

You swung down, left and right, and spun it. The quarterstaff was almost an exact duplicate of your old one. However, the seastone was a bit less and focused at the ends of the staff, with a little spread in the middle of it. There was also no sentimental value.

"Thanks, Franks," you said to Franky, who you knew worked hard on getting the right dimensions of the staff and the mix of Adam wood and seastone. It took quite a while too, as he had to acquire more seastone.

"Not a problem!" Franky handed you the remains of your previous quarterstaff. "I salvaged some of the seastone from your broken one for this one."

"That's fine." You smiled under the mask.

"I heard that you were going to spar with Zoro to test it out."

"Yep. Since we're both healed now." It had been about a week since the incident. You bent your previously injured leg and tapped it on the floor. "It's been a while since I've fought so it'll be good training. How Zoro works out while injured is amazing."

"The guy's a monster!" Franky chuckled. "But you keep up with him anyhow. And with everyone knowing that you're blind now, isn't it a load off your back?"

"I actually haven't told everyone yet," you admitted. "Everyone but Zoro knows."

"What?" Franky pushed his sunglasses up to look at you, confused. "Why?"

"It's... I don't know. I didn't mind telling everyone else, but Zoro.... I feel like he already knows. When I first fought him, I could tell he was holding back."

It really wasn't that, you knew. Why did you care so much about how he thought of you?

"I'm sure he was just making sure not to hurt a new nakama. Even if he seems cold and distant, he really does care." Franky smiled, putting a hand on your shoulder. "Out of everyone in the crew, he's the least likely to treat you any differently. And if he does, it'll be the least amount. Sanji treats you differently the most, but that's because of his chivalry."

You smiled, grateful for the reassurance. "Well, I might just be worried over nothing if what you're saying is true. I guess I'll let him figure it out himself if he doesn't already know." You adjusted your mask, then headed for the door with your new quarterstaff. "Thanks for everything, Franky!"

He gave you a thumbs up as you left. You climbed the stairs then ladders and made your way out to the deck, where you found Zoro napping against the wall and Luffy hanging next to him, stretched down from the top balcony. He snapped back when he saw you.

"[Y/N]!" he called happily, waving at you. He held something small in his hands. "Is that a new toy Franky made you?"

"Yep," you said, not bothering to correct him. You walked over to Zoro, poking him. "It's got seastone as well by the way," you added before Luffy could snatch it and attempt to play with it.

Zoro woke up with a grunt, and Luffy laughed before leaving to the dining hall. He looked up to you and took a glance at your weapon before his aura radiated excitement. "You ready to go?"

You chuckled. "Yep. The weight and length of this is slightly different so I need to get used to it."

He stood and grabbed his swords, walking to the other side of the deck. "I won't be going easy on you because of that."

"I know." You twirled your quarterstaff once around your arm, warming up, then took a stance and imbued it with Haki. "Don't."