"Is it in here?"
Before Zoro's hand could reach for a silver door handle against a light wooden door, Bepo grabbed onto the man's shoulders and moved him back.
"Huh? Is it there?"
"Yes, it is."
"Let me inside then, I wanna see him."
"You want to see him... But you are not prepared to see what he looks like. Your Captain needs reassurance and rest."
Bepo's words made Zoro slow down for a second, but that didn't stop him from trying to enter the room.
Especially after the bear reaffirmed the man's curiosity about Luffy residing within the recovery room he was now slowly walking into.
"Quietly. Quietly, now. Remember what the Captain said: Luffy is waking up, but he might not remember anything right away. So, don't bring it up, even if he asks."
"Am I supposed to lie and tell him he fell off a cliff or something?"
Zoro questioned, feeling offended by Bepo's request while they wandered around the room, having yet to locate the bed that the young man was in.
"I know why I'm saying it. What ever you say to him, don't mention how it happened. You are his best friend, aren't you?"
Although Zoro and Luffy have moved on from being best friends to being in a former relationship with each other, the Swordsman didn't pay mind to how other people viewed his relationship status with the Captain.
Not many people really knew about their budding romance either way, so he decided to nod at Bepo, without mentioning anything about their relationship.
"He's right over there. I'm going to stay with you, just in case."
"I would actually appreciate some privacy, and I believe that Luffy would as well."
Bepo frowned upon hearing Zoro tell him this, almost disappointed in what he now had to inform the Swordsman.
"I can't leave. I know you two need your privacy, but I can't leave Luffy on his own." Hearing this, Zoro found it strange. Suspicious, even.
"Yeah? You worried about my face scaring him?"
"No, that... That sounds ridiculous. He's used to you. It's not that."
"Is it because of the condition Luffy's in?" The older man continued pacing down the room at a much slower pace.
Bepo noticed a slight change in his eagerness to see his Captain, but he didn't think much about it. Instead, he continued to walk beside Zoro, continuing to answer his infinite questionnaire.
"I just can't leave that young man on his own. Captain's orders."
"Your Captain's orders, eh? Yeah?"
When Zoro's voice grew less serious and became rather annoying, Bepo started to sense danger radiating throughout the man's darkened aura.
"I'm doing this for your own good as well. Trust me."
"Is it because of me, or because of you?
Tell me: How am I supposed to trust in you? You could be anyone.
You could be working alongside Torao, but what do I know?
What if you snuck into the Submarine when no one else was around?"
Filling his mind with absurdity and keeping his own in a state of paranoia, the Swordsman was starting to get under Bepo's skin with his superstitious assumptions about him.
Overwhelmed by his own anger, Bepo was getting ready to give the Swordsman a piece of his mind.
But before he could start an argument with the Swordsman within the recovery room, he felt someone wrap their arm around his shoulder.
"Are you two trying to make ASMR videos in this place? Or did you come here to pay someone a visit..."
"C-Captain-!"
Bepo grew pale, standing up straight as if he was enlisting for the Military and staring directly at his commanding officer.
"You sure this is your buddy and not just a clone?" Zoro asked, approaching Law.
"What's this, now? A clone?"
The Surgeon couldn't help but smirk, appreciating Zoro's vivid imagination and how cautious he seemed.
"Now that you mentioned it, I haven't probed my guys in a while. I'll have them line up and bathe in sea prism to see who floats or who drowns."
The handsome man's humor, combined with his poker face was undoubtedly worth a laugh or two.
However, the muscles on Zoro's face made no effort to move to smile, not even once.
"I recommend you remain in a calm and comprehensive state when you see him, your buddy's really gonna need the extra help."
"Both of you are all talk and no action! Please, I need to see him. I..."
Before he could let his impatient tendencies get to him, Zoro breathed deeply, releasing some of the tension that he felt, to think with more accuracy.
"...I understand that he has to rest. If it's sleep that both of them need, then I'll let them sleep all that they can, even if they wake up next month. But if that really were the case, then I would at least like to see him awake. Just once."
By the time he finished his speech, Zoro felt slightly emotional and stressed out.
Bepo's sparkly eyes started to well up with sadness while he looked over at Law like a lost puppy.
"He's going to be asleep, not in a coma. For crying out loud. Now you got my bear sobbing over your story, congratulations." He paused to reach over for a chair.
"Sit down for a moment, I have something to tell you before you see Mugiwara-ya."
The Surgeon said, calmly.
"Can't it wait?"
"It could, but I would prefer for you to have some insight on what to expect beforehand. You might not like what you see on the other side of that door."
Taking Law's words into consideration, the Swordsman took a seat beside the Surgeon, staring at him with a worrisome expression.
"What ever lies behind that door can't be worse than what I saw this morning. That imagery of Luffy and that Cook won't ever leave my head..."
~~~
