What's Not To Love

Chapter 19

Zoro sighed and closed the book he was reading. He was currently in a back room in the aquarium, hiding away from the crew. The members of the ship were acting too hyper for him and he just didn't feel like being round it. Sadly, that doesn't happen on this ship. Hearing a sound, Zoro looked at the babies and willed them to stay asleep until whoever was in the aquarium left.

"He's not here either."

Zoro recognized the voice. Nami was currently in the room and by the sound of the sigh that followed, he could tell the Captain was with her.

"But, Nami. I really wanna play with the babies." More footsteps could be heard, signalling Luffy's entrance.

"I know that Luffy but he isn't here." Nami said in an exasperated voice, hoping that Luffy would stop dragging her around looking for the swordsman. She didn't hate the fact that they were alone together, though. She just hated the reason for it.

"Nami this isn't fair. You and Robin were with them all yesterday and I couldn't even play with them."

Zoro flinched. Luffy sounded really hurt at the lack of involvement with the kids but it wasn't his fault. After the girls showed him the clothes, the kids woke up and a lot needed to be done to adjust to the new routine. Hence, the reason why the girls slept in his room the night before.

"Sorry Luffy." Nami said walking to the captain and putting a hand on his shoulder. "We can try and look for them later so how about we go eat some mikan's for a while. You know, just so we have enough energy to look when we're done."

Zoro held off the urge of leaving the room when he heard a sad 'okay' from Luffy. Had the kids not have been sleep next to him, he would have let them out to play with Luffy. When the door to the aquarium closed, Zoro once again picked up the book he was reading and tried once again to comprehend what was going on. He was reading the latest edition of "Baby Brains", a book on how to teach kids and when to start. Robin and Chopper recommended that he read up on it and see what he thinks about it.

Later on that day, Zoro searched for Luffy and finally found him after a while. The kids were finally up and Zoro decided that Luffy should at least play with them while he trained. Luffy was on top of the Lions head, just staring off into space. A lot of the crew members were already watching him silently, trying to figure out how long he was going to be like that but they decided not to interrupt him. Zoro, however, held the solution to his misery.

"Hey Luffy!" Zoro called out as he placed the kids chairs on the grass. They weren't making much noise so he probably had no idea as to why he was being called.

When there was no response, Zoro looked up. Luffy continued to stare out at the sea  and if he hadn't been in the crew with him for as long as he had, he wouldn't know that Luffy was ignoring him. Zoro glanced down at the babies before calling Luffy's name again but still didn't receive a reaction. The crew sat watching, wondering how Zoro was going to get Luffy out of his childish state. They knew that since he didn't listen to them that he would at least listen to Zoro.

Zoro sighed as he knocked his head back and looked at the sky. Taking another breath, he started to walk towards his captain, all the while making sure the kids were okay. When he was close enough to Luffy, he started to speak.

"Hey Cap." Zoro scratched the back of his head. "Look, I wanna apologize. I haven't let the kids play with you in a while and I know you think I'm doing it on purpose-"

"You are" was the response that Luffy gave after cutting off Zoro.

Zoro stared at him for a moment. "But I didn't mean to. It was just hard. It was really difficult yesterday and even with the girls around I couldn't really rest. I just wanted to get away from the crew for a while to breathe. I just wanted to get use to...Life without...him."

By the end, Zoro was staring into the horizon. He didn't speak loud enough for the crew to hear him but he was still embarrassed. He never imagined that love would hurt him as much as it was. He didn't even hear Luffy jump down from the head of the lion and approach him.

"Zoro."

Zoro looked towards Luffy, who now stood in front of him.

"We may not understand what you're going through, but we're still nakama. If you need space, we could give it to you. Just dont...ignore us."

Zoro tried to hide his slightly hurt expression. "I'm really sorry Luffy."

Luffy nodded and walked passed Zoro and to the babies. His mood changed back into it's child like one and all that was heard was the laughter from the small group. With Luffy acting normally, everyone proceeded to do their usual routines. Unfortunately, Zoro did not manage to settle back into the vibe of things.

Zoro stared off into the horizon, trying to figure out what he should do. The crew was already getting affected by the situation. Once Luffy acts differently, the crew will follow suite and that wasn't what Zoro wanted. He couldn't talk to the girls about this since they were affected too. He just had to figure out how to fix this problem. Zoro turned to stare at the crew and continued to think. He didn't notice a certain cook watching him from the kitchen window either.