Love Is Blind | ZoLu

3

Luffy showed a wide, happy smile towards his friends, laughing along with them as they walked down a lonesome road, heading towards their ship.

"We better hurry to get back to the Sunny, it's getting darker out." He stated, making heads turn to face him with odd facial expressions.

"Um, Luffy?"

"Huh?" The boy asked, looking up at Usopp's shadow figure in the distance.

"It's not that dark outside yet."

He admitted, getting ahold of everyone's attention as they were eager to get an answer from their confusing Captain.

"Whataya mean, Usopp, uh? It's almost sunset!"

The younger furrowed his eyebrows in disbelief, asking those around him what time it was.

"It's only 8:00 o'clock in the morning, buddy."

Franky spoke, looking down at his watch.

This raised a bit of concern in between the Strawhats as they stopped halfway to look at Luffy.

"Are you feeling alright?"

Robin asked, to which Luffy nodded in confirmation, sensing nothing was wrong with his body.

"Still, I think it's darker than usual out here."

The boy continuously insisted, feeling as though everyone else was in the wrong, or joking around with him.

At last, they made it to the Sunny where they all separated from one another to do their own individual tasks.

Zoro, Chopper, and Franky handled the ship so it could take off, smoothly, while Nami focused on navigating them to back to the sea.

Something unusual about Luffy, was how tired he looked as if he could barely keep his eyes opened.

Without saying a word, the young adult teen walked away from his regular position in the ship to trade it with Chopper for a day as he went to sleep on a hammock that was recently installed in their new ship by Franky.

With nothing left on his mind aside from how worn out he felt and how badly he needed to sleep, Luffy called it a day, shutting his eyes to drift off into a deep, peaceful slumber.

~~~

"Has anyone seen Luffy? Usually the smell of food would've had him sitting at the table before anyone else around here."

Asked Sanji, Luffy's trustworthy cook of the ship.

"I think he went to sleep earlier today, it's weird... He hasn't come out of his room in awhile." Nami responded.

Zoro volunteered in checking up on the Captain, given that he knew that the current state he was in wasn't the best after fighting against Blackbeared.

Truth be told, he had never once gotten along with Teach, even before knowing that he was one of the most powerful Warlords, and the first to ever eat two devil fruits.

When he first met him at a bar in Mocktown, the boy and him fought over something rather insignificant: A pie.

Within the bar, the Straw Hats were laughed and pointed at ever since they spoke about a sacred floating Island called Skypiea.

Surprisingly, on their way out, Blackbeared had a short conversation with Luffy in regards to that same Island.

He told him, along with Nami and Zoro who were present at the time, that the magical sky Island truly did exist.

In the end, what he said was in fact, true. Luffy and his crewmates found the floating sky Island where they made many new friends and enemies along the way.

~Now~

"Hey, Luffy. Food's ready, Captain."

Zoro knocked against Luffy's door, making his way into his room where he found the boy tossing and turning.

"Luffy, psst. Wake up."

He pat on his Captain's shoulder, gathering his attention as he rose from a much-needed, peaceful rest.

The young man mumbled inaudible phrases that were mainly made up of grumbles and soft hums as he stretched his arms out, slowly awakening from what felt like an endless dream.

"Is... Is that you, Zoro?" He asked, squinting his eyes.

His first mate didn't seem to respond to him at first, so Luffy aimed for his face and heard him growl in response.

"Haha, yup. That's Zoro!"

"Stop that."

Zoro rolled his eye at him, leaving the room with the boy, holding onto his waist for temporary support as he insisted he was having trouble walking around.

For some unknown reason, Luffy felt awfully weaker than before. Even having slept for a long time, he didn't feel energized one bit.

He kept that a secret to his own self for the time being, blaming his weakness on the hunger he felt.

"Look who's finally up!"

The Straw Hats cheered, all still gathered around the table, with a welcoming smile to greet their Captain.

To their dismay, however, the feeble looking boy didn't return a single smile at them, despite how joyful his crew seemed.

"Luffy? Is something wrong?" Zoro asked him, drawing attention to Luffy's appearance by everyone around.

Aside from his bed head hair or frail looking body, his complexion was slightly paler than usual, and he wasn't acting like his regular old self.

"Shall I play a song after lunch, Luffy-san?"

Brook suggested, holding up his violin that his young Captain failed to even acknowledge in everyone else's perspective.

"Sure, why not? Let me eat first, I'm hungry!

Luffy responded, keeping his vision set on one person: Zoro.

The Swordsman was sitting from across the table, opposite of where Luffy sat, yet he couldn't help but to notice how he kept on looking at him.

Heads started to turn towards Zoro, confusing him more than he already was.

Their meal went on as they sat in silence, unsure if they should speak up or not.

Zoro was overwhelmed and felt offended to see his friends looking at him with judgemental eyes, so he broke the silence there was at the table.

"Luffy, did I say something to offend you? Anything at all?"

"No." Luffy immediately responded without over thinking or hesitating.

"Then why do you keep on looking at me? Why do you all keep on staring at me?!"

"Because Luffy does, of course! Oi Zoroooo, be honest. What did you do to him." Usopp frowned upon Zoro, looking over at Luffy.

"Oh! I'm... I'm staring at you? I didn't realize, it's so dark in here." Luffy giggled, making everyone at the table go silent.

"Can someone turn the lights on?"

~~~