Like Usual

The cook and I didn't fight that day.

The new morning kiss had lifted everyone's mood, even Nami was smiling and relaxed, I could finally rest my ears from her nagging me all day. The happiest was of course, our captain.

I could, for once, have a decent conversation with curly eyebrows, although it was brief, it made me even more happy. Nothing interesting, we just talked about how funny but cute the thing Luffy did was. All of us were tense after what happened back in the fishman island, but he somehow knew exactly what to do to let us know that everything was fine.

I also made fun of the way the blondie tried to explain what ''kissing'' was. But he didn't get offended, he just lowered his face and blushed. I was trying to pick on him but his reaction was too cute for me to handle. Good for me, he was staring at the floor and didn't notice my sudden gay panic. The conversation ended there because I'm an idiot.

Unable to respond or keep making fun of him, awkwardness filled the room and I ended up leaving him there without saying a thing. Before I started regretting my existence, I had to find somewhere else to be. As far away as possible from the cook.

I ran across to the other side of the boat and saw everyone chatting around, all of them happier than I had ever seen them. Yet, Luffy was nowhere to be seen. Usually, he would be with anyone, keeping them company as they did their usual things, sometimes, before our separation, he would try to join me in my training...except when I was meditating. Other times, he would join Brook and torture all of us with his zero talent with instruments (or just ''dance'' (or he calls that dancing) around), or play with whatever creations Franky or Usopp had, if not, he would just stay in the kitchen and torture Curly eyebrows until he gave him something to eat.

I noticed just then. He was acting a little weird. I found him alone, sitting quietly over Sunny's head, just like back when we had the merry. That worried me. Him sitting quietly? My brain, which for my concern, somehow knew everyone's habits and daily routines, was probably fault of my ''be-sure-everyone-is-still-alive'' anxiety. It had been forcing me to monitor everyone, for my own sake mostly.

The guy was so lost in his thoughts he didn't notice me. I knew he could be relaxed, or calm...sometimes, but that was different. The idea of talking to him about my completely disastrous interaction with the blondie vanished from my mind. I wasn't expecting any advice from him, but he was still my best friend, and he could be surprisingly good at listening...when he wanted. (Or maybe just with me?).

''What's wrong?''. I said to snap him out of his fantasies. He got so startled he almost fell off the boat. 

''WHA- oh it's you Zoro!''. And he smiled at me. We were close enough for me to notice the bags under his eyes, almost invisible, but still there. ''What's up? Anything interesting?''. He said, making my next question hard to ask. He was back to normal, it would be weird for me to ask if he was okay when he was smiling at me like that.

My brain did its job and helped me notice without even having to ask. He had been avoiding us when it was time to sleep lately, and even though I'm not the best at math, I could tell that if he went to sleep almost the last, (He had been falling asleep from 1 to 2 am lately), and still managed to wake up before all of us (that meant before 5 am), the count didn't make the usual 5 hours of sleep he used to get before.

Knowing him, asking would only make everything awkward, so I decided to find out what was happening by myself later.

''So... I'm aware you know nothing about romance but... would you mind?''. I asked, acting like I didn't notice anything weird. He laughed, loudly.

''Well, there was this woman who kept asking me to marry her... but you're right, I don't really care, why? Any news about that?''.

A woman? To marry him? Him?? I was just about to ask, maybe she was blind, or completely desperate to find a partner because that made no sense. But I couldn't, because someone spoke before I could.

''A woman??'' Said the cook, right behind me. And of course, I froze up. ''Who? When? What did you offer her?'', he kept asking, and Luffy laughed, although he was looking at me when he did.

''Oh, I think you saw her? When we left the bubbly island, you even turned into stone when you saw her''. He was completely amused by our reactions.

The cook started going crazy, screaming things like: ''She wanted to marry you?!'' or, ''That woman was the most beautiful I had ever seen''. But I didn't want to keep listening.

If our captain is good at something, is at reading one's feelings, because he giggled and when I made eye contact with him, he even winked at me. I was done with both of them.

To start with, when did they become so close? That need to make him pay attention to me made me say another not-so-nice comment, and before I knew it, he was mad at me again, and we were fighting. Nami didn't waste time and came towards us right away to smack us and complain about how we had just ''ruined'' a perfect day. It was still morning though, we all knew it was going to get ruined eventually.