"WOAH, what's wrong?" Luffy asked when Zoro removed his jacket so that the boy could place his head against it when lying down on the graphite colored concrete that was rather dampened.
When Zoro grabbed ahold of Luffy's ankles, he gently lifted his feet up, sparking a fever in the boy who had grown red in the face.
"What's 'wrong'? That's what I should be asking you. How could you just run off without your shoes? Geez. Look at this." Beneath Luffy's dirty feet were cuts and pieces of thorn spikes that had slipped into them during his battle against the snakes.
It was during a time like this that made Zoro wish Chopper were around.
"O-ow... That hurts, don't touch them at the same time!" His face cringed at the shooting pain and stinging sensations Zoro's touch gave him.
"Oh, now it hurts? Seconds ago you were fine before I mentioned anything." He jeered, all the while removing the black jacket he had on, exposing his bare skin and muscular figure.
Luffy watched in silence as Zoro wielded his sword in the air, slicing the sleeves of his jacket to wrap them around his injured feet.
"T-thanks for doing this for me, but how am I supposed to move around in these?" He questioned, pointing out how immobile he felt in the tight bandages.
"What do you need to walk for?" Zoro responded in a serious tone of voice that made the younger stress out.
"How else am I supposed to gather the things we need in order to survive?" His friend commented.
"Leave that to me. Starting tomorrow, I'll get us food and anything else. Including wood to make a campfire..." Then their differences made them bump heads yet again.
"By yourself? Like you'd make it back without getting lost a thousand times!"
"This is a huge ass cave, how am I gonna lose my way here?" He scolded, earning a smack from the Captain.
Tempted to hit him back, Zoro battered his fist in the air but didn't swing at the boy. Oppose to doing that, he placed his body against the ground beside him and fell asleep.
"You'll definitely get lost, dummy..."
~~~
The next day, Luffy woke up in an unfamiliar looking cave and immediately freaked out, having a temporary memory loss from the events that happened yesterday.
However, when looking down at his feet that were still bandaged by the dark strips of Zoro's sleeves, he remembered everything.
When realizing that he was alone, the young man was annoyed at how Zoro went ahead before him and left him alone in the cave full of spiders and other freaky, creepy crawlies, so he stood up.
A groan emitted from his lips as he limped down the darkness within the cave, leading him towards the brightness that awaited the boy at the end of the dark tunnel.
His hair was still drenched, making his straight locks get curly. When the wavy strands brushed across the boy's face, he sneezed and earned himself a laugh over how his own hair caused him to sneeze.
At first, everything appeared completely deserted in his sore eyes. But as he stepped completely out of the cave, Luffy started to scream when being picked up.
"YOU S-S-SPY!" Luffy's legs trembled as he wiggled endlessly in his 'kidnappers' grip.
"You disobedient cripple, what was the first thing I told you last night?" Zoro asked, placing Luffy down on the sand.
They sat down beside each other, looking equally as disappointed in one another.
"So? So! How many times did you get lost without me?" Luffy teased, lightly pushing against the man's shoulder.
"None, actually!" His unexpected answer made the younger gasp, dramatically.
"I know, I know... I'm just as surprised as you, Floofy." Zoro's sudden nickname baffled the younger with curiosity.
When questioning the man over the meaning behind it, Zoro had only one way of responding to that: He began to messily disarrange the boy's hair.
"You have more waves on your head than the ones that form in the Ocean, Luffy." He giggled. Because of this, Luffy felt as though Zoro were mocking him.
"D-don't remind me! I hate humility..."
"Humidity, Luffy. It's pronounced 'humidity'." The older man corrected, earning a chuckle from Luffy.
"And wait just a minute, don't change the topic, young man. We agreed that I would gather the food last night while you stayed here to rest." Zoro broke the tender moment he was having with the Captain to scold him.
"Ah, come on!! I wanted food toooooo! I think I have more primitive survival skills than you do anyways."
"Sure you do, Jungle boy. If I wouldn't have chopped those reptilian freaks in half yesterday, you would have become THEIR food. Primitive skills my foot."
He continued to lecture the younger man until he grew agitated and stuck his tongue out at Zoro again.
"Blaaaah, blah blah." His mouth was suddenly filled up with a long, slippery, soft object that caused him to start gagging.
"All of it, get all of it in there." Luffy's cheeks flushed while following Zoro's instructions.
"M...m... Mmm!!!"
~~~
