The Blind Brawler [ Roronoa Zoro X OC]

Chapter 24

Too close. He was too close. We were too close.

I could feel every shift of his muscles as he breathed and clutched me to his chest. His breath was hot on the back of my neck, a stark contrast to the cold snow pressing against the rest of my shoulders. The cold metal of his earrings was hard to ignore against the tender skin under the side of my jaw. I felt like I was suffocating, but not from being buried alive.

He spoke with a voice just above a whisper and I felt a chill go down my spine, "I think I have an idea. If we push against each other together, we can probably shift some of the snow around us enough to start digging our way up."

"O-Okay," I quickly answered, hoping my voice did not betray the panic I felt being pressed up against him, "On the count of three."

I felt him nod against my shoulder before he growled in his deep voice, "One..."

"Two..." My arms braced to begin pushing and I felt his do the same.

"Three," He grunted with effort as we both began to push with all our strength. The snow softly crunched from our efforts but did not budge.

I gasped as we stopped applying pressure, "It's no use."

His voice was a menacing growl, "Don't you dare give up! We can do this!" My body seemed to shudder at the force in his words, "Let's try again. One, two, three!" I let out a small whimper as I pushed back against my arms as hard as I could. His groan turned into a growl as he shifted against me, "Come on!"

There was a loud crunch as some snow gave way and a two-inch gap appeared between our chests. A gasp of relief broke past my lips and I smiled, "It worked!"

I could hear the smile in his voice as he panted from the exertion, "I... told you we could... do it!" He shifted his arms with the small amount of space we had to get better leverage. As his breathing became more regular, he turned his mouth closer to my ear and spoke in a rushed tone, "We're running out of air so we need to move fast. I give us twenty minutes at best. Are you ready to go again?" My brows knit together in determination and he counted us off, "One, two, three!"

Slowly, we managed to force the snow back little by little. It was not long before I was able to snake my arms away from his neck and onto his chest to push harder. Our legs were still tangled, but our chests and arms were able to move a bit more freely.

After about five minutes, the swordsman gasped, "Okay... I think... that's enough..." We both took a moment to catch our breath in the thinning air. His voice was ragged from exhaustion when he spoke, "Now we need to start digging up to the surface."

I nodded before a terrifying thought entered my mind, "But which way is up?"

He did not answer me right away. Instead, he shifted in the small space we made and slipped his arm out from behind me. His hand slowly came up my arm and bypassed my shoulder to my jaw just beneath my ear. The gentleness of the gesture had my breath caught in my throat as he took a small lock of my hair between his fingers.

He slowly pulled my hair up from behind my back and held it between us. The long strands dangled toward his chest from his grip as gravity pulled them down. I could hear the confident smirk in his voice as he nodded behind me, "That way," he dropped my hair and began to claw at the snow behind my head, pushing it behind his back to slowly lift us out of the hole.

It took me a moment to register what had just happened. Once I got over the shock, I began to help him dig the best I could. I packed the snow behind him tightly as he loosened it behind my head. As we progressed, I noticed that we had more room to move. Soon our legs were free and we began to stomp the snow down to push us up.