A Smile So Contagious | Zolu

4, Why Do Nightmares Exist?

My Love Mine All Mine - Mitski

"Shit, that was a lot of work." I complained, we spent a whole day fighting a whole crew of marines, and they kept on barking with no bite. They pissed me off whenever they started yapping all the time, so they were a lot to deal with. I was carrying Luffy bridal style right now since he fought some Admiral, well, he was dead now, so no worries. But he was hurt real bad, tired, too. "U-huh...Real work..." Luffy mumbled, I looked down and saw Luffy staring at me with a dazed face.

"How're you feeling, Luf?" I asked, my heart dropping as I looked at him. He was injured, his while body was cut, his face was beat up, he had dry blood trickling down his nose, he passed out just a while ago, too. "I'm fine!" he tried to sound as cheerful like normal, but I don't think that was working out for him right now. "Where are the others?" he asked, raising one of his hand up to my face, he started to trace the wound on my face I didn't notice I got from the marine I fought. "They're waiting for us in the Sunny already." I replied.

"We're late?" he asked, then I nodded. He started to chuckle softly, "At least we're late together." then he drifted to sleep again. After a few minutes, I noticed that everybody else was on the boat, but there was someone spying on them in the bushes, probably a marine we forgot to handle or one that ran away. I jumped on the boat and laid Luffy gently on the floor of the Sunny so he doesn't wake up. "Finally! You guys are back. Now let's get going before the Marines catch up on us!" Nami yelled.

Once I glanced back at Luffy, he was already awake and kicking. "Hey, Luffy! You shouldn't be standing right now!" I yelled, I took a hold of his shoulders, but he was still being stubborn abut resting. "Whatt? It's fine!" he played off, I could tell he was still dazed, he couldn't even stand straight, too. Before Franky could raise the anchor, a gunshot was heard. It was fast and accurate, and it was going straight for Luffy.

Before I could act, Luffy stumbled into my arms for support, I then saw a pirate run off, the culprit. But—the gunshot shouldn't have hurt Luffy, unless it was—it was made out of sea prism stone. "Luffy? Luffy, you're okay. You're okay, Luffy." I repeated, I then sunk into my knees as I held Luffy in my arms. "Chopper? Chopper, get over here. Please." I started panicking, my voice started breaking, as well. Luffy was laid on the ground once again so that Chopper could check on him.

"Did he—did he not see it coming? Wouldn't he see it coming...?" Nami mumbled, Sanji even hugged her, not even for his malicious intents this time, but for her to be comforted. Everyone was silent as Chopper checked on Luffy, dumbfounded. Then all of a sudden, Chopper broke into tears and backed way from Luffy's body. "Chopper? What're you doing? Help him." I said, getting closer to Luffy and cupping his face with my hand. Suddenly everyone looked like they knew what happened and started breaking down.

Robin was being embraced by Franky, Nami was hugging Sanji, Usopp was looking at the ground, Brook was looking away, Chopper was crying beside Luffy, and I was there. Why was everyone not doing anything? "Chopper, help him." I told him, he finally looked at me, but he looked like he was guilty. "Zoro, I can't—I can't help him. He's..." he didn't finish his sentence. "You're lying." I muttered.

Then, my eyes were watering, "No he isn't." I tried to convince myself. I raised Luffy's body and hugged him, his face looked lifeless. "Luffy, this isn't a joke. Chopper, help him." I was helpless. He was really gone. I couldn't feel his heartbeat, I could feel his heartbeat whenever we hugged, but he didn't have one anymore.

"Luffy, what're you doing, slacking off!? You didn't even fulfill your dream yet!" I yelled as I shook him. My vision was getting blurry, I couldn't think straight. My heart felt like it was just shattered in pieces and I couldn't do anything about it. "Luffy!" I yelled once again.

——

I jolted up and I looked around, I was on the Sunny, just sleeping. "Luffy!" I immediately yelled, I hurriedly went up the staircase to go to the upper deck. Then I saw everyone talking and laughing, until they saw me, all sweaty and panting. "Zoro? What's wrong?" Chopper asked as he was eating some cotton candy. "Luffy—Where is he?" I asked, I wasn't gonna waste any time.

Did I just dream about it or was he really—"Zoro! I heard you scream, it scared me! I almost catapulted everyone off the Thousand Sunny!" I heard Luffy's voice once again. I saw his face, it was full of life and energy, he wore a huge smile on his face too. I rushed to him and put my arms around him, pulling him in a hug once I saw him. "Zoro?" he mumbled my name, right now I didn't think what the others thought. It was just me and him right now.

"We're gonna give you guys some space." Robin said, she then signaled all of them to follow her and they all went to the kitchen or something. "What's wrong, Zoro? You looked scared or something..." he pulled back a little to see my face, I probably had a frown on my face while I looked at him. "Nothing." I lied. I sat down, my back resting on the hand rails as Luffy was on my lap. "Nothing? You expect me to believe that?" he said, grinning at me.

"C'mon, tell me!" he poked my face playfully and I grinned a little while hugging him as he rested on my lap. "I...had a nightmare." I admitted, it was kind of embarrassing now that I thought about it. "You got shaken because of a nightmare? I didn't think you'd get scared because of a nightmare, Zoro!" Luffy teased, I pinched his cheek and chuckled with him. "No it's just that—" I then got cut off, I didn't know what to say. Luffy tilted his head in confusion, waiting for my story.

"...I had a nightmare where you died. And I couldn't protect you because I was stupid enough to think you could handle it." I said, averting my gaze from Luffy. Then I glanced back at him, Luffy was really listening, he had that serious look on his face he had when he was listening intently. "You know that won't happen. I won't ever die in front of my crew!" he yelled ecstatically. "I know." I ruffled his hair and gave him a peck on the forehead. I love hugging Luffy.

Whenever we hug, no matter how cold or how hot it is, he's always the perfect kind of temperature to just hold. That's why I hug him so much, I don't know why he hugs me a lot, though. I then smothered kisses on him and he giggled as I kissed him on every inch of his face and neck. "That tickles!" he laughed. He was just beautiful.