Soundless Imaginings | One-Shots

Someone Who Cares | ZoRaya

Raya's POV

"Ow, Zoro, that hurts dammit!"

"You know I've never done this before!"

"It can't be that hard, you baka Swordsman!"

"Hold still, Aka!"

"Gah! Dammit!"

Zoro pressed a hand over my mouth, silencing my cries. I glared at him, my morganite eyes flashing; he remained unfazed. His hand was warm, unnaturally warm. The bitter, metallic scent of blood wafted up to my twitching nose. My blood. I mumbled a muffled curse and he pulled away his hand, wiping it against the dark fabric of his pants.

I clutched at my arm, trying to ignore the warm trickle of blood that slid lazily over my fingers. The cut was deep, nothing fatal, no arteries nicked, but it hurt like hell. I bit my lip and closed my eyes, a sort of way to block out the pain.

It only helped a little.

"Move your hand," Zoro ordered curtly. He crouched in front of me, arms resting on his knees. His three golden earrings flashed in the dying light of the sun. "I can't pick out the shrapnel if you don't."

Where's that little tanuki when you need him? I wondered bitterly, tearing my eyes away as he once again set about digging the bullet fragments from my arm. I hissed in pain, feeling the bits of metal bite through my flesh. But soon it was done. Zoro sat back on his heels, hand held out palm up. The fragments of metal glittered like bloody jewels.

He closed his hand after a minute and dropped the shrapnel into the sand beside us, making to sure to kick fresher sand over the blood-stained patch so neither one of us would accidentally step on them. Then he turned his attention back to me. He said nothing, only tore off his black bandana and tied it securely around my wound. I would've offered my own, but it was currently back on the ship.

Damn Marines. This was all their fault! We (the Straw Hats) had just been sailing along peacefully, searching for another island to dock at cause our supplies were running low. Then out of nowhere there's a Marine ship chasing us down and another heading us off. They fired first, asked questions never. Since my Flame-Flame Fruit powers were still a little lame, I ended up taking a hit in the arm, and I lost concentration, which gave some guy who'd decided to board our ship the perfect opportunity to knock me overboard.

I know. What kind of self-respecting pirate gets taken out so easily?

Well, me, sadly.

Anyway, Zoro, who'd been the closest at the time, dived in after me but it was so chaotic in the water that once he found me, we'd already lost the ship and the only place close enough for us to go to was this deserted island. We'd been here for hours.

The island was nothing special. Small, sandy, a shred of jungle clustered in the center of it all. I hadn't seen any animals nor humans, so it definitely was uninhabited. There was food, at least I could see some fruit trees from where I lay bleeding on the beach. But, Kami, I'd kill for some sake right now.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, staring up at the sky. Hues of red, pink and orange swept across the clouds, turned to ocean blue of the sky into a flaming sunset. We didn't have long until dark. Would we be forced to spend the night here?

"What for?" Zoro asked. He was busy inspecting his katana, making sure nothing had happened to them from the fall or the water or maybe even the fight. I saw him pay special attention to Wado. My hand found Honoo's hilt and a rumbling purr shook through the blade.

Wado was fine, and so was Honoo, it seemed.

"I'm the reason we got stuck on this godforsaken island." I sighed and closed my eyes again. "I dragged you with me cause of my damn Devil Fruit power, so I'm sorry I ruined your night, alright?"