What's Not To Love

Chapter 39

8 Days to go

A loud shriek followed by a loud bang is what woke Zoro from his slumber. It took him a moment to register his surroundings, but once he did, he sat up quickly. The twins, though not entirely comfortable, still slept next to Zoro. Both had scrunched up faces and held hands, but they did not wake up. Looking around the crows nest, Zoro couldn’t help but notice how everything was moving around. Some of his smaller dumbbells had fallen  off their shelves and rolled away towards various parts of the room. The closet doors continuously opened and closed, dropping some of the contents onto the hardwood floor. 

Hearing something scrape across the floor, Zoro turned in time to see one of the short tables slide across the room from the rocks of the ship. Hitting the wall, the table bumped into one of the loose dumbbells, causing it to roll towards Zoro and the twins. Catching it quickly, Zoro threw it away from them, flinching slightly at the crunch sound that followed. He’d tell Franky about it later but first came the twins. Standing up, Zoro thought of the best way to get the twins to the deck. Usually, if he was alone, he would carry them safely in his arms, but right now, his main concern was whether they'd get knocked out of his arms. He glanced back at them and saw that they were still on the blanket. Working quickly, Zoro wrapped Daichi and Kairi up in the blanket tightly, before tying the blanket tightly to his body. To make sure they were definitely secure, he lifted his haramaki over them as far as it went.

Turning towards the hatch to the room, Zoro moved quickly. He felt himself knock something over but didn't look back for even a second. Carefully, he made his way to the deck. Once his feet hit the floorboards, he turned around and was met with even more chaos. There was water everywhere on deck and some seemed to be making its way down the steps. From his position, he saw Nami and Chopper pushing something towards the steps. It looked like an attachable door which Zoro guessed was one of the things Franky had been working on. Usopp, Sanji, Franky, Brooke and Luffy were trying to steady the sails as best as they could. Robin wasn’t too far from them, concentrating as she used her devil fruit powers to man the highest sail, too afraid to let another crew member take the risk of doing it with this storm.

Zoro rushed over to Nami and Chopper, helping them with the door as best as he could without bothering the twins. Upon his arrival, Nami turned to him, soaked.

“What are you doing?” She yelled. “Get below deck!”

Zoro ignored her and kept helping him. He saw Chopper glancing at him, making him look down at the twins. The sheet was above their heads and they were close to his body, so they weren’t really getting wet and were still warm. Cursing under his breath, Zoro used more of his strength to speed up the process. They were safe now but with how the storm was going, it could change at any moment for them.

“Zoro!!!”

The green haired man didn't turn to the navigator. Over his shoulder he shouted back.

“They’re fine.” He motioned for Chopper to come to his side as they were close to getting the door intact. Turning back towards Nami he yelled back at her. “It's no safer down there without the door up, so let's hurry up.”

He saw her say something but missed what it was because of the loud waves. As he turned back to focus on Chopper and the door, he caught a glimpse of the island. The storm was quiet over there and it didn’t look like it would take more than an hour to get there. He focused his attention back on the door.

On the side of the ship, Usopp put one foot on the ship rail and pulled hard on the sails rope. Another wave crashed hard into the ship a moment later, making him lose his balance. With another crash against the ship, Usopp was thrown off.