//⚠ DISCLAIMER: This chapter might make some people uncomfortable, so please beware of that! ⚠//
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A beige colored room with a shiny clean floor, was stained with droplets of blood that were dripping out of a clear plastic bag that was hanging down from the side a hospital bed.
Inside of it, there appeared to be a mix of urine and small droplets of blood that were causing the color of the acidic yellow hue of the urine to darken to a murky brown.
Darting his eyes across the room, Zoro followed the bag up to a clear, thick silicone tube that was connected to it.
Part of it was hanging down the side of the bed, most of it disappeared beneath a set of sheets that were swathed softly over a patient who's eyes were now met with Zoro's own eye as he stared back at him.
"Zoro...?"
The Swordsman walked towards the voice that mentioned his name, approaching a boy who was waking up from what felt like a long dream.
Zoro's heart began to race.
In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to stay beside Luffy, even if he wouldn't be able to hold him in his arms like before, considering the amount of machines connected to him, along with the cast around separate parts in his body.
"How long ago did you wake up?"
The Swordsman asked, sitting on a chair beside the hospital bed where Luffy was now trying to rise from.
"Don't push yourself too hard, stay in this position."
The older man suggested, placing his hand over Luffy's shoulder, soft enough to not harm or startle him.
"What's all this stuff around me? I... I feel stuck..." The younger groaned, moving his upper body from side to side.
"You have a cast around your hips, Luffy. Don't move too much, okay?"
Zoro stood up from the chair, trying to stay composed while looking down at the bed his Captain was lying down in.
The young man could barely feel anything other than a heaviness taking over his body while he attempted to move his legs, and soon realized that he couldn't
His surroundings didn't made sense to him. Nothing made sense to him at all.
"Why am I here? Where... Am I?" He questioned, turning his head every which way.
"Torao's submarine. The Cook brought you here when you passed out in the bathtub a few hours ago."
Fearing that he might slip up and mention something that would trigger the Captain, Zoro carefully thought about what to respond to Luffy, trying his best not to make him feel uncomfortable or nervous.
"I can't move my legs. Why can't I move my legs, Zoro?"
Before Zoro could give Luffy an answer, the perplexed brunette grabbed onto the sheet that was on him and flung it off of his torso, exposing to Zoro and to himself, the rest of his lower body.
The sight of him was enough to startle the Swordsman, as he had never seen a body so bruised and damaged before, in spite of all of the deaths he's witnessed first-hand, nothing could even express the emotions he was going through as he reacted silently to the aftermath of Luffy's surgery.
"Luffy..... What the hell did they do to you?"
Zoro asked himself, staring at the scars left all over his Captain's skin, and the blood staining the bedsheets from underneath him, as well as the multicolored bruises covering a large percentage of his body, similar to the ones left on Sanji's own skin as well.
The man's mind was filling up with questions on Luffy's current state, but he didn't have time to ask Luffy a single thing as a consequence of his Captain speaking up before him with just one question on his mind.
"W... What... Is it?"
He nervously pointed down at his midsection, with a worrisome expression tracing his facial features.
Down below, the boy wasn't wearing underwear, yet he wasn't afraid or embarrassed that Zoro was standing in front of him, because he was used to having the Swordsman see him this way before.
But in spite of the many times that Zoro has seen Luffy's unclothed body, this was the first time that the Swordsman was tempted to take a step back and analyze what he was staring at.
He didn't even know where to begin; there was almost too much for him to see, and part of him was telling the man that he shouldn't be looking down at all, out of respect for his Captain.
"H-hey... Hey, what is this?"
The Captain furrowed his eyebrows, lifting his head up again to stare down at his midsection.
Following Luffy's eyes, unintentionally, his first mate stared nervously at a catheter that had been left inside of him, after he had his procedure done.
"It's..."
"I don't want it.. It feels weird."
The boy retaliated against the silicon object, finding it disturbing just to stare at, and far worse to feel inside of him.
While Zoro made an effort to come up with an answer for the difficult questions Luffy was asking him, Luffy continued speaking, making his inquiries endless.
"Torao said that has to stay inside for a while. But wait until he comes back, he'll explain it to you."
The Swordsman finally responded, using a gentle tone of voice, remaining calm and collected.
"Zoro, I don't- I don't want it. It feels weird."
The Captain insisted, slowly being plagued with an overwhelming sensation that was increasing his heart rate.
"You need it... It's for your own health, Luffy. Try to endure it for a little while, okay?"
Though his first mate tried to be patient with him, the Captain wasn't paying attention to him in the slightest bit.
"Zoro, I don't like this. It-"
Having his legs immobilized with a set of heavy white casts were only making Luffy's situation far worse for him to withstand.
The sound of the heart monitor right beside him started going off when his heart rate spiralled out of control.
He started to sweat, and his tongue went completely numb as he tried to verbalize the words that were trapped in his mind.
"Z-Zoro- I don't want it there-" His hands were weak, but he could still move them freely.
Once the young man figured this out on his own, he used it to his advantage to rid himself of what was causing him so much trouble.
"Luffy, take it easy."
Keeping a close eye on the younger male, Zoro could tell that he was planning on doing something, and that thought wasn't setting too well in his stomach.
His biggest fear was that the boy might cause himself more harm than good with any of the hasty decisions he was contemplating, at the moment.
"Call Tra-guy... Tra-guy can take it out. Right? Right that he can?"
Luffy asked the Swordsman with a hopeful look on his face, making Zoro think back to the words that Law had spoken to him before he entered the recovery room.
"Once Luffy knows.... He won't be happy about it. But I can't tell him. That's up to Law..."
~~~
