Love Is Blind | ZoLu

28

Moments after the unnerving search for the Captain was over, the tension that once lingered around the Sunny, thickening the air, had dispersed, leaving motionless sighs of relief to roam around everyone in his presence.

Currently, he was being asked many different questions in such a short amount of time that it was causing him to develop inevitable anxiety in the back of his mind when knowing that the answers he was providing weren't even being heard by his friends.

Some were so desperate to seek answers, they went to the extent of shouting their questions to Luffy, unable to listen to what the Captain was mumbling when their dominant voices were overlapping his own.

It was then that Luffy began to realize how low the confidence in his speech had become as he struggled to raise his voice in this situation.

But at the end of the day, his crewmates' efforts in receiving a clear and final response from him were all in vein when the boy excused himself, remaining a mute for the time being.

Unlike the first time that he parted ways from his crewmates, no one allowed him to leave to not risk losing him again.

"Luffy, the closet we found you in felt humid. The air within it was dense and barely even breathable."

Robin commented, remembering how they ended up finding the young man, and where he had been the entire time.

Not long ago when they split up in between small groups to search for Luffy, Robin and Brook ended up finding him inside of his closet, holding onto a small square box close to his chest.

"Not to mention you were asleep too! That's very bad for your oxygen supply, Luffy."

Chopper placed a round metal diaphragm tip against Luffy's chest, examining the rhythm of his slightly irregular heartbeat.

It was pulsating at a faster pace than a normal heart should.

Chopper compared the young man's heartbeat to a marathon runner after their third lap was over.

"Is everything okay with him?"

Zoro anxiously questioned the young doctor who had a concerning look on his face that would have probably alarmed Luffy if he could look into his eyes.

"Chopper?"

The doctor nodded in response, preparing to reveal Luffy's results to everyone with the Captain's full consent to expose this amount of privacy to the others.

"His irregular palpitations and shortness of breath are all indications of severe fatigue in his body. I recently checked his eyes as well,"

He paused, bringing a light closely towards the center of Luffy's face.

The mere mention of the word "eyes" had invoked undesirable emotions for the doctor's patient that was visibly traumatized by the events that took his vision away from him in the first place.

"Did the color of my eyes change, Chopper?"

Awhile after remaining silent, Luffy's voice became the center of attention for anyone and everyone interested in learning what explanation Chopper would bestow upon them.

"Why would the color change, Luffy?" The doctor questioned with curiosity.

"I... I've seen blind people with different eye colors, like grey, light blue, or even white. Like that Fujitora man in Dressroba."

The boy enunciated to his faithful companions with a slight ray of hope in his speech, remembering the time he spent with them in a Spanish Island called Dressrosa.

"It's actually Dress-"

Zoro held his hand up to Usopp's mouth to prevent him from correcting the Captain, he then motioned him to keep his silence for the time being.

The Swordsman did this out of respect for Luffy and to keep him from feeling regretful or overwhelmed.

"So, that's why you were asking Chopper about your eye color then, right?" He then asked Luffy while wrapping his arm around his shoulder.

The boy shakily dragged his delicate hands up to the arm that was now rested on top of his back, wanting nothing more than to feel it and to guess who it belonged to.

Though it was rather heavy, the texture and scent of this person's skin was one Luffy could distinguish right away.

"It's Zoro. Has he been weightlifting lately?"

Luffy asked himself in the back of his mind, wondering why the Swordsman's arm weighed so much on his back.

In response to the question Zoro asked him before, the boy gave everyone a nod, squinting his eyes frequently.

"O-oi, Luffy! Don't distract yourself with Chopper's answer!"

Usopp raised his voice again, disrupting the moment of silence within the Sunny.

Luffy sensed his friend's voice and followed its direction in the best way he could think of, keeping his head facing the closest part of Usopp's body to remind him he was paying attention to him, even if the part he was staring at was his shoes.

"Do you have any idea how worried everyone was!?"

"Usopp..."

Zoro attempted to calm the young Sniper down, but the sailor didn't seem satisfied with Luffy's silent apology.

"The least you could have done was tell us where you would be, instead of hiding yourself away." He frowned upon the Captain.

"I told you guys I would be taking a nap, I wasn't... I wasn't hiding anything."

The younger reassured, but was unable to convince Usopp or take away the angst he felt towards him.

"L-Luffy," his Sniper choked up, appearing to breakdown as consequence of the stress he was under.

"You need to specify the place you are going to be sleeping IN." The amount of irritation in his voice caused it to start cracking.

And unlike the other times where Zoro steps in to defend Luffy, it would appear that the Captain was on his own on this one as his Swordsman didn't make an attempt to say anything to Usopp.

All that the young man did was give everyone an honest apology, holding his stomach that was in knots.

At around this same time, Sanji announced that he had run out of food in his kitchen workspace.

"We should be arriving at our Island soon."

Heads turned to face the ship's Navigator that brought a positive perspective to everyone with her statement.

"Luffy, where do you wanna go first? There's many places on Jaguar Island!"

The name made Luffy curious enough to respond to Chopper, so he did.

"Jaguar?"

"That's right! But don't be fooled by the Island's name, Luffy," Nami spoke.

"Jaguar Island is an Urban place mainly civilized people reside within. I heard that the weather in Urban Islands are warmer, so we'll have a nice time there."

She admitted, trying her best to motivate the young Captain.

Luffy, in return, gave Nami a casual nod, letting out a smile so forced, anybody could see through its falsity like the sunlight that shines through a sheer curtain.

With that, he took his leave, insisting that he wanted to rest the most that he could to gather up energy for when they would get to their destination.

Not thinking much about it, the crew let their Captain be.

Even Zoro, who had oddly protective instincts towards Luffy, was holding himself back on following behind the brunette boy, knowing that he truly did need to rest.

But deep down inside, a foreboding feeling was telling the Swordsman that things weren't the way Luffy made them seem to him and the rest of their friends.

"It's me again. Today.. I made my friends worry about me again. You guys... Please, forgive me."

~~~