A cut deep through rubber. Luffy x Zoro angst.

Captain, come back to me. (Pt.1)

Zoro woke up with a groan. He was used to sleeping on the deck of the Sunny, but he had a pain in his shoulder, like he slept wrong on it.

When Zoro went to sit up of the bench he had fallen asleep on, he realized that they were close to a winter island, and there was a thick, comfortable blanket layer over him and Chopper.

'Wait—Chopper?!' Zoro thought as he looked down at his chest and, sure enough, Chopper was right there, cuddled into Zoro's jacket-thing. Zoro wrapped his arms around Chopper to stabilize him enough for Zoro to sit up without waking Chopper up, though he had to pause and stretch out his shoulder for a moment. Once Zoro sat up, he wrapped the blanket around him and Chopper. 'Maybe Robin was right. We really do act like we're family.' Zoro thought as he stood up and started walking towards the door to get inside, where it was heated.

When Zoro opened the door, he was hit with an abundance of sounds and smells. Sanji yelling at Franky for something, and Nami was chasing Ussop around with a rolled up map, trying to hit him with it. It smelled really good, like French toast, sake, and cooking meat; just overall breakfast smells. Robin and Brooke were sitting in a corner, laughing and talking while Robin tried his instrument 🎻.

As Zoro walked in and closed the door with a *click*, the crew all stoped dead for a moment and stared at him. "What?" He asked. Instead of an answer however, they all pointed to a door on the side of the kitchen. 'Strange...' Zoro thought. He looked at the door, and by the time he looked back at the crew they were continuing where they left off, yelling and laughing and cooking.

Zoro took the blanket off himself and wrapped it around Chopper before walking over to Robin and handing the little human-deer-burrito to her. Robin set down the instrument she was messing with and took Chopper into her arms. 'This woman adores kids, doesn't she?' Zoro thought as he walked toward the door the rest of the crew had pointed out earlier.

Once Zoro was closer to the door, he gripped the door knob and was about to open it when he heard a sound that made his ears perk up. He could hear soft snores and sniffles coming from the room behind the door. 'Oh, this must be Luffy's room. That's why they wanted me to go in there.' Zoro thought as he gripped the door knob harder.

Zoro took a moment and breathed deeply, steeling himself for whatever state Luffy could be in. 'If the crew moved him into a different room, he could have gotten worse.' He thought as he opened the door a crack and peaked inside.

Luffy was laying on a soft bed with white sheets, a thick blanket over him. There wasn't much else in the room, just a chair and a bedside table that had a glass of water and what looked like a first aid kit. The room was bare otherwise. Zoro walked into the room, shutting and locking the door behind him. He could still hear the chaos of the kitchen, but it was so muffled it was almost inaudible.

'Maybe that's why they put Luffy here, he still can hear that his friends are safe, and food is close by for when he wakes up.' Zoro thought hopefully. 'Please don't let anything else be wrong with him.' He said looking up at the ceiling.

Zoro walked over to the chair and sat down, starring aimlessly at Luffy's back, since he was facing the opposite direction of the chair. 'Why did you have to do something so stupid, Captain? Why haven't you come back to me?' Zoro thought as he fought the tears forming in his eyes.

Zoro stayed there with Luffy for the next hour, until breakfast was ready,but he brought the food back into Luffy's room and ate in silence. He stayed there until lunch, and did the same thing for eating lunch. He did the same for dinner as well. He eventually fell asleep in the chair.

Zoro was still asleep when Sanji unlocked the door and poked his head into the room to check on Luffy and him. With a sigh, Sanji walked into the room and shook Zoro, gently trying to wake him. When that didn't work, Sanji strongly considered kicking the swordsman square in the chest, but a glance at Luffy's sleeping form advised him against it. Sanji gave a resigned sigh and bent to be level with the swordsman's face. He squinted at the swordsman's sleeping face and gave another resigned sigh. Sanji picked Zoro up off the chair bridal-style and carried him back to his room.

'This stupid Marimo owes me big time for this.' Sanji thought grumpily as he walked back to his own room after a long day of work. 'If I didn't have to mother him, I could've been in bed snuggling Ussop by now.' Sanji thought as he opened the door to his room, only to find a certain long-nosed sniper curled up on his bed with a book, wearing one of Sanji's hoodies(which were too big for him and almost went down to mid-thigh). Sanji slept soundly, though more worn out and few hours later then he intended to. (If you know what I mean😏)

When Zoro woke up, he was confused to find himself in his own bed, when he knew for a fact that he had fallen asleep next to Luffy. There was a plate of breakfast on his bedside table, and and a note next to the plate of food. Zoro picked up the note and started to figure out who left it. Zoro started reading the note aloud, "You owe me big time, you stupid Marimo." 'So Sanji sent the note.' He thought "I carried you back to your room last night when I could've been in bed. And I brought you breakfast, so you owe big time, you stupid Swordsman." Zoro smiled slightly when he finished reading the note.

Zoro spent some time training and was taking a nap when Nami barged out into the deck of the Sunny screaming like a lunatic. 'LUFFY'S AWAKE!! HE'S AWAKE GUYS COME ON!!' She was gone as quickly as she came, but Zoro was right behind her rushing into the kitchen, where most of the crew was. "WHERE IS HE?!" Zoro shouted as he rushed into the kitchen. "Calm down, don't be so loud. He's in the spare room, but he's probably got a pretty bad headache." Sanji said, leaning against the wall next to the door.

Zoro rushed to the door and barged into the room, finding Luffy sitting on the bed wrapped up in blankets. "Luffy! You're alive!" He shouted happily. He ran over to Luffy and picked the boy-rruito up, holding him close. Luffy almost immediately started crying. Zoro sat on the bed and put Luffy, wrapped up in blankets, in his lap. Luffy was crying hard, and was burying his face in Zoro's chest. Zoro looked up at the door to see Sanji and the crew standing there. Zoro looked at Sanji, a silent understanding passing between them.

"Alright, everybody out. Leave and don't hang out in front of the door." Sanji said, ushering everyone out of the area and shutting the door to Luffy's room behind him.

"Why..... why did you do that to me?" Zoro asked softly. He held Luffy close, and was starting to tear up. "Why did you leave me for so long? Why didn't you come back to me sooner, Captain?" He asked, tears slipping from his eyes. He held a sobbing Luffy close to his chest, and started to cry too. They sat there in the dark, crying together for hours. Nobody dared disturb them, and Zoro was pretty sure that Sanji was guarding the door at some point.

Luffy was exhausted, from all of the events of late, and from crying his eyes out. He fell asleep in Zoro's lap, laying against his chest. Zoro smiled and kissed Luffy's temple gently. He felt a pant of guilt every time he saw the bandaged gash on Luffy's forehead, but he made himself look at it for 20 minutes before he finally laid down with Luffy and fell asleep.

HOLY SHIT I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I WAS STRUGGLING WITH LIFE FOR A WHILE AND I ONLY RECENTLY GOT BETTER. DON'T WORRY IM WORKING ON CHAPTER TWO. SORRY GUYS. 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲