Thrice Prophesized - Zoro x Reader

Chapter 13: Green Demon

The only sound you could hear was the ocean lapping at the sides of the hull. Everything else was quiet. The swell of memories returning to you was mixing with the heat in your face and all you wanted was another kiss.

Another... kiss.

Wait – Kiss?

Your eyes go wide as memory and the current moment come together entirely. You're on the deck, the crew is gathered around, and you just shared a kiss with the green-haired demon Zoro. In front of the crew!

"My first kiss." You whimper as the realization dawns, your forehead dropping into his chest as you slump forward a little.

"Eh?"

You grab his collar and ineffectively shake him. This green demon bastard is immovable when he wants to be, so you know he let you pull him forward earlier.

"You took my first kiss!" You exclaim, rattling the clothes of an immovable body. "You... You DEMON!"

"You really are a brute." Sanji grumbles.

Usopp's face is almost as red as yours and Nami and Robin have smiles on their faces.

"It was my first kiss too, what's the big deal?" He gripes. "Your memories came back, right?"

"... Oh." Your brain puts a few things together in quick succession. You're a knight, and Zoro is kind of one as well, and you are not staying on this world. As a matter of fact, he's promised to get you back home. You shove the tightness in your chest aside, smoothing down his collar before stepping back. "Right. Yes. Yes it did, uh, thank you for that." You pat his shoulder as you take a step back. "It was quite the assist, thank you."

Nami growls. "Zoro you -."

"It's fine." You say quickly, cutting her off and managing a genuine smile. "Truly. I'm glad to have my memories back, as mortifying as it was." You pat Zoro's shoulder in a way that you hope is reassuring and then excuse yourself to go train. You had been resting for two days and needed to catch up.

You picked a spot by the helm and decided to just flex the way Jinbei had taught you. It was a matter of pulsing the haki within your body and following the flow of it through your veins. It was less a matter of trying to direct it, and more a matter of giving yourself a view of the pathways. Like a bat in the night sending out sounds to see the world around it.

Once you were comfortable with the image it created in your mind then you could try to flow your haki through those pathways. Jinbei had warned you to be patient with the exercise, and cautious. Feeling and manipulating haki as it flowed through you was an advanced technique, but practicing it was a good way to beef up your capacity for the ability.

The problem with working on your haki was that it didn't help distract you from your thoughts. If anything it made you more aware of them, much like honing what you knew as Awareness, you almost needed to be overly aware of things in order for it to be effective. Being overly aware meant being able to see everyone on the ship, and quite a lot of ocean around it.

Sanji was in the kitchen, Robin and Nami were on the deck – Nami was tending to her trees, and Robin was reading. Chopper was in the sick bay, and Usopp was helping him. It looked like they were organizing things. Franky was in the lower decks working on something that Brook was helping him with. Luffy was napping on the bow of the ship, a spot he seemed to favor despite the risk of falling into the ocean, and Jinbei was nearby, steering the ship.

Zoro was in the crow's nest.

He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, and of all the people you could see on the ship, you could see him the clearest. It bothered you, on some level, but you realized you weren't seeing him clearly for any emotional reason, rather, he was training his haki same as you. It was his haki you were seeing that made him appear so clearly. The control he had cultivated over it filled him with such detail that you could see him breathing