Love/Hate -Zoro-

-Nineteen-

You haven't left your house in three days. You couldn't find the will to shower, let alone eat what little food you did munch on. Zoro was trying his best to make your days easier, but you only felt guiltier since he was hurting just as much as you were.

"Reader," The familiar voice of Zoro echoes beside you. You wiggled in response, no energy left in you to mutter a sound. "Come on, you gotta get up." You finally sighed, sliding from the bed and into Zoro's grasp. He hummed a low tone of calmness to keep you focused on him and doing what you originally planned.

"Do you wanna try taking a shower with me?" He whispers lowly while running a finger up and down your spine. "We need to make sure your incision is keeping clean and not getting infected." You weakly nodded, grabbing his hand and steadily following him to the bathroom.

Your head hung as you watched your feet shuffle across the hardwood floor. You knew you were done crying, quite literally no tears left to cry. All your weeping and mourning was done with sounds of crying, but no tears were shed since yesterday morning. Only sounds of sadness would echo in your room.

"Careful," Zoro speaks, bringing you back to the present time. That's when you realized he already had the shower running, probably going to shower with or without you, and already leaving it on for himself. He quickly stripped off his loose v-neck shirt along with his boxers, leaving him naked and exposed to you. His fingers gently cupped the bottom hem of your shirt, slowly pulling it up over your head. The cool air nipped your skin and made you involuntarily shiver.

"Sorry, I tried turning the heater on beforehand..." Zoro trailed. You only nodded weakly in understanding, gripping your sweats and tugging them off slowly. Once you were also fully naked, Zoro lead you carefully into the shower, making sure you stepped over the small step that kept the water inside on the floor level and shutting the door behind you both.

The warm water tickled your senses and seemed to add some level of relief to you, even though you didn't know what part of you it relieved. Your hand steadied you on Zoro's bicep as if feeling him to make sure he wasn't going to leave you all alone.

"Do you wanna do your hair or body first?" He asks softly. You weren't one that spoke often during this incident, Zoro usually doing all the talking, but right now you wanted to try and give him some sort of help for everything he did for you.

"Hair," You croaked, feeling the strain in your voice. He smiled weakly, nodding and grabbing the bottle of shampoo, adding a generous amount to his hand before replacing the bottle and lathering it into your hair. You let him massage your scalp roughly, enjoying the feeling of the caressing at the moment. You kept a hand on his waist to balance yourself and yet still feel grounded to him. It helped for when you needed to focus and your fingers would If into his skin to show he was still there and not just a figment of your imagination.

"Lean back." You do as told, Zoro taking the shower head off the wall and rinsing out your hair entirely. Once the water ran clear, his hands whipped through the locks again with conditioner. "I'm gonna do your body now, alright?" You nodded.

He carefully spread soap along your body, watching and avoiding the scarring incision made to your abdomen. The cut wasn't as big as you remembered; It was about the length of your hand and the thickness of a pencil. Law had explained that it would cause minimal scarring as long as you didn't reopen the wound.

"Thank you," You whispered as you watched Zoro intensely. His eyebrow furrowed as he tilted his head.

"For what?" He asks quietly.

"For loving me." He smiled softly, pausing his movements as he stared at you.

"I feel like I should be saying that to you." He leans over and places a kiss on your forehead with a feather-like touch. "I love you, Reader." He places the loofa behind you, both arms encasing you as he scrubs your back and shoulders. Your hands slowly came up, embracing the man in a harsh hug that made you dig your nails into the back of his shoulders.