Two years is a long time to be stuck on an island together and even for the most strong headed (Zoro), eccentric (Perona), and anti-social (Mihawk), something is bound to happen. Despite their best efforts against it, a family is formed.
It's another dark and dreary evening on Kuraigana Island. Perona sat on a wall of the castle, kicking her feet in the breeze and looking out over the dark forest. She held her head in her hands and sighed, thinking back to the last moment before Kuma's hand made contact and she found herself hurtling uncontrollably across the sky.
-
She barely had time to feel fear as she stared up into the face of one of the seven warlords of the sea-Bartholemew Kuma.
"If you were to go on a vacation, where would you go?"
-
She'd imagined a place not unlike this, a large gothic castle surrounded by spooky forest and rocky seas. But in her imagination that island also included her lovely stuffed bear, Kumashi, and a healthy stock of servants to make her hot chocolate and sweets.
"Ugh, I never would've wished for this if I knew I'd be ALONE!" She yelled out into the gloom.
She huffed and drew her legs close to her chest, hugging her pink boots close and absentmindedly rubbing out a smudge on the toe.
Man this island is boring.
At that moment, a sound like a thunderclap rang out above her head. Hurtling across the sky like a meteor, something began to fall to the ground at the far shore of the island. Perona stood up suddenly and leaned as far out over the edge of the castle wall as she dared.
"Could it be-"
Scrambling down from the edge, she tracked the meteor as it slammed into the forest with a bang. Before she knew it, she let her body crumple into a slump against the castle wall and jumped off the ledge as a ghost. If there's even a chance someone else could have come to the island, she had to check it out. Maybe it was her beloved Kumashi, or the plate hating Cindry, at this point she'd even take that flying buffoon Hildon.
Oh hopefully it's someone cute, or at least not ugly, maybe it's even, no it couldn't be... Moria-sama coming to rescue her?
Her hollows circled around her curiously as she approached the paw shaped crater in the ground. There they are, whoever they are. Slowly she drifted closer, until-
"AAHHHHHHHH," She screamed and jumped back, forgetting for a moment that she's incorporeal and sliding right through the first layer of surrounding trees. It couldn't be, no, her eyes must be playing tricks on her.
Laying in the middle of the crater, unmoving, was the moss-headed swordsman she had encountered weeks ago on thriller bark.
The last time she saw him he was on all fours in front of her wishing to never have been born. Clearly a lot had happened since then. At that point he had been depressed by her hollows, but otherwise seemingly unharmed. This was a completely different sight. Even from across the clearing, Perona could see that he had multiple broken bones, was rapidly losing blood, and whether or not he was even breathing she wasn't sure. Perona had seen zombies in better condition than this man.
"Well, he's going to die soon anyway so," She began to waft back towards the castle, "not my problem horohorohorohoro"
-
Perona wasn't sure why she found herself standing at the edge of the crater again, much less in her actual body this time. Something gnawed at her stomach as she looked at him lying there, it wasn't sympathy, she had no reason to feel anything for this man. And yet, something was stopping her from letting him die.
Perona was never the most physically strong, she'd never had to be. In a fight she would always win by knocking her enemies down with negative hollows from a distance, and anything that involved heavy lifting she had some of her many servants on thriller bark to do it for her.
Today was the first time she regretted never training with Absalom and his zombie cronies.
Damn this green haired freak, how much does this guy eat?
She had hoisted Zoro onto her back in her best attempt at a piggyback carry and was stumbling slowly through the forest. Her knees were buckling with every step and her hands gripped his arms slung over her shoulders in a vice grip. His three swords knocked together and the hilts pressed into her side as she walked. She imagined throwing them far into the forest, but she couldn't let go of either of his arms to grab them.
How far away is that damn castle? It feels like I've been walking for hours...
The forest made low growling noises around her that made even her hollows quiver. She'd guessed that something was out there, she'd seen shapes moving at night from the safety of the castle and what looked like many pairs of eyes peering through the brush. Whatever they were, she hoped they'd stay away just a bit longer. Her hollows are strong, but with this near-dead weight on her back she could only concentrate on dragging him forward with one foot in front of the other.
Finally, the forest opened up and the castle steps ascended in front of her. Oh right, the stairs, she'd forgotten about those. She all but dropped Zoro onto the steps and bent over to catch her breath. Her spine cracked as she slowly stretched out her back. He better be extra nice to her for this.
Looping her arms under his shoulders she began to pull him up one step at a time. It was slow work, and his head lolled from side to side as she swayed step by step backwards. She muttered occasional apologies as his head every so often lolled to one side and cracked against the steps. Hopefully he was still alive, or she was going to be so pissed she wasted all this energy on nothing.
By the time Perona finally dragged Zoro through the castle doors and into the first bedroom she could find, morning had begun to dawn on the horizon.
Her legs were shaking, her hair was filled with twigs and matted down by sweat, and she had ripped a hole in her skirt. She gritted her teeth as she sat on the edge of his bed and attempted to remove his blood soaked shirt. Perona wasn't a doctor, in fact she hadn't been around many living, bleeding, people to understand what exactly she should be doing here in the first place. But she had a bottle of some clear liquor she'd taken from the cellar and some semblance of a first aid kit she found under the kitchen sink, and that would have to be enough.
The worst wounds seemed to be concentrated on his chest and arms, so she decided to start there. After carefully prying his shirt away, she paused holding the bottle of mysterious liquor over his chest.
Liquor was a disinfectant, right?
She was lucky he was firmly passed out at that moment, because when the burning alcohol touched his skin every nerve in his body flared in pain. Somewhere deep in his subconscious he was screaming into the darkness.
His body was covered in grime, sweat, and dried blood and Perona went through every available towel and multiple rolls of bandages in an effort to clean him off.
When finally the blood had been cleaned off enough so she could see the wounds and his body was disinfected as best as she could, she began to slowly wrap him from head to toe in bandages. Almost immediately he began to bleed through the bandages, and Perona realized what exactly she had gotten herself into with him. She took a swig of the remaining liquor herself and grimaced at the taste. Not cute at all. She let herself settle into the chair next to his bed and her eyes began to shut of their own accord.
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