ZoLu Imagines II 🏖

Stranded | 6 🥥🌴

Later on that day, the lost boys ate their dinner peacefully as the silence got to them. Normally, there was never a moment of peace on the Sunny.

On a day like this, Luffy and Zoro could imagine Brook playing the violin or guitar on the ship while their other friends had fun with different activities.

"I'm starting to miss everyone, don't you?" Luffy asked, looking over at Zoro who shrugged.

"Somewhat. But on the bright side, there aren't any curly browed Cook's on this Island." The Swordsman acknowledged, making Luffy laugh in return for his response.

"I wanna go explore around again. You coming with me?" Luffy asked, standing up.

"As much as I appreciate your invitation, I don't think your feet are in the best 'condition' to be going on adventures like that."

"Psssh, who says not?" Taking Luffy's words as a debate, Zoro stood up as well with a grin on his face.

"Alright smartass, let's see you walk from here to that end of the cave." Accepting his challenge, Luffy was committed to walking as long as he needed to if it meant he would be able to explore undiscovered places within the Island.

"Got it, you're on." Placing his feet against the ground, Zoro was impressed at how smoothly Luffy was walking around.

He hadn't complained once and neither did he flinch one bit on his way to the finish line that the challenger had given him.

Or so... That's how it seemed to Zoro from afar. Yet while on his way back to the start, a sharp cluster of spiky rocks became a danger hazard for Luffy.

Remaining camouflaged in the crevices of the cave, the boy painfully ran his left foot beneath it, seeing his life flash right before him.

The damage done to his feet was unseen by Luffy yet, but he knew that it wasn't just a minor scratch.

When walking back to Zoro with a limp even worse than before, he saw a smirk on the older man's face.

"D-don't say a word.. I clearly won!" In the middle of his celebration, Luffy's moment of victory was cut short when he couldn't take the pain any longer and tripped over his aching feet.

He was unintentionally caught in Zoro's arms as he descended to the ground, landing on his chest at first until the man placed his body down for a minute.

"What are you doing? OUCH!" Luffy flinched, feeling his heart race as Zoro held his feet up to his face, examining them as he had done last night.

What he found this time was far worse.

"How the hell did this happen?!" He asked, finding a large rock buried deep within Luffy's torn skin as his foot bled.

"I-is it bad? I think there's something inside one of them." The other asked, clueless as to what was happening.

"That's because there is, it's a sharp rock... Hold still while I try to pull it out." As Zoro guided his hand towards the large rock, Luffy felt uneasy.

He looked like an injured puppy, flinching at every movement that the older man attempted to make to grab ahold of the invasive object that was causing him pain.

Seeing how nervous the younger was and knowing what he must've been feeling, Zoro lowered his other arm to where it was met beside Luffy's head.

"Hold onto me, I'll be gentle." Feeling his heart flutter from deep within, Luffy wondered why it had been acting that way lately.

"Ngh!" His eyes were now sealed shut as he wrapped his body around Zoro's arm, hugging it tightly while he felt the sharpness of the rock being pulled out.

Out of fear, he kept squeezing the man's arm, clenching his jaw.

The look on his reddened face was almost tender to view from Zoro's perspective while he continued tugging gently at the object lodged in Luffy's foot.

"Z...Zoro, Is it almost over? It hurts..." Tilting his head back, Luffy was getting painfully impatient as he waited endlessly for the man to finish.

He shifted his weight to one side, squeezing tighter against Zoro's arm, engulfing it into an embrace while secretly caressing his slim face against it.

The sensation was heartwarming to the feverish boy who had slowly started to develop feelings for Zoro, unbeknownst to him.

"Aaah, s-seriously! Tell me when it's over." He pleaded with a slight tremble in his voice.

Laughter echoed throughout the cave while Luffy opened his eyes to find Zoro smiling down at him.

"I took it out a long time ago," he admitted, showing off the sharp rock in his hand.

"See? You were moaning my name for nothing." His voice sent shivers down Luffy's spine while he slapped Zoro's arm.

"I wasn't doing that! T...thank you, by the way." The boy blushed, filling his lungs with air again.

"Did I stop breathing because of... Him?" He asked himself, shaking the thoughts out of his head right away.

After all, Luffy could never imagine himself with Zoro in any type of relationship other than a friendship. There was no way he could ruin that in between them over his own emotions.

"Hey, do you still wanna go "explore" the Island?" Zoro asked, putting Luffy's train of thought to a stop.

The boy nodded at his first mate with stars in his eyes.

"The furthest we could go from here without getting completely lost is probably the beach." He stated, still hovering over Luffy's body while the boy kept his legs in the air.

"It'll still be fun, let's go! Let me just... Figure out how to walk there. How hot can the sand be anyways." Hearing this from the Captain, Zoro kept him flat on the ground with his legs pointed towards his chest.

"You see, I already thought about that before, so that's why-" Pausing his speech for a split second, Zoro wrapped his hand beneath Luffy's back, lifting him up and around his body.

"I'm carrying you there, that way you could at least enjoy the view before night settles in again. It's not as sunny outside anymore, so we could kill a few hours in the sand." His offer was almost too good to be true, but Luffy took a chance on Zoro either way and agreed.

From there, they set off to head towards the beach before sunset. On their way there, Luffy cracked a smile above Zoro's shoulders, feeling pure bliss take over his body.

"He was thinking about me... Maybe not in the way I think of him, but still... I could get used to that."

~~~