Day 1 - Vulnerability / Team work
Rating: T (language, some canon-typical violence)
Summary: Each person is afraid of something. There is that kind of fear that take away all of your will, leaving you helpless. Or so they say. Zoro don't know what he maybe afraid of.
Author's note: English isn't my first language and I'm not very good at it so there may be lot of mistakes. If you see any, please let me know so I could change it and not do it in the future. Also, I have no idea how dots and comas work in english, so they may be in strange places... Anyway, have a nice day :)
Everybody is afraid of something. Everybody has something that, when facing it, makes him weak and too scared to do anything. Just not everyone shows it to others. And in Straw Hat crew most people like to keep their secrets to themselves. Especially ones which could lead to their defeat.
Zoro wasn't sure what scared him the most. It wasn't like he spend hours thinking about that, but after Robin mentioned something like that, he couldn't resist to wonder. What was the thing that even thinking about it made him nervous? He never really faced situation when he was so scared he couldn't do nothing to defend himself. He was proud warrior, there wasn't much that could make him vulnerable. But then he remembered one situation when he couldn't move. He didn't think about it too much earlier, because the following actions were the ones which keep replaying in green haired head, but he still could feel the feeling of weakness and fear.
When Kuina beated him, holding real sword which could easily kill him, he frozed. He did nothing to fight back, to run away, to stop her. He just stood there, watching helplessly what girl would do. Just when she lowered her blade, he was back to himself. And then they made their promise, which he remembered so clearly.
Was he scared of being defeated? No, when he lost to Mihawk, he wasn't scared. He was ready to face whatever fate had for him. But if it wasn't that, then what?
„Keep moving, Marimo, or I'll leave you here!" Sanji's annoyed voice made him realize he was standing and staring at sky. He was supposed to follow Cook to the city.
„Who would carry all your bags then?" Zoro rolled his eyes but moved and started walking in the direction where town should be.
„I'll feed you to tigers and then use them. They should be more useful than you." Cook smiled around his ciggarete.
„Sure, but you'd have to beat me first. And that never gonna happen. You are too weak, shitty cook."
„Oh, you sure you want to test your theory, moss head?"
They glared at each other and were about to start yet another fight, when they both frozed and start looking around.
„You felt that too, didn't you?" asked Sanji, trying to locate source of the feeling of being watched.
„Yeah, we aren't alone anymore," agreed swordsman.
Nami warned them those woods were home for some kind of „wild people" who apparently didn't like having guests. They couldn't dock at the port thought, because there was marine base nearby so she just send two of the strongest people hoping they would be able to manage that. It looked like they were about to find out.
„Watch out!" yelled Zoro, before they both ducked. In tree behind them was some kind of dart embed into tree.
„That was close," huffed Sanji, getting up and dusting off his clothes. „Oi, stop hiding and come here!"
„I don't think they want to show themselves," muttered Zoro, taking out his sword. „We have to go get them by ourselves."
„Just don't get lost, marimo," teased Sanji, before running between some bushes.
„Fuck off." Zoro smiled to himself and he too went to look for their enemies.
Turned out, they were good at hiding. Swordsman was able to cut four of them after running around for an hour or even longer. He was getting impatient. It was annoying already.
„Cook, we should think about something else if we want to get to town today," he shouted hoping that blond could hear him. After few moments, he heard the reply.
„Yeah, wait fo me where you are!" It was coming from far but Zoro understood words perfectly well.
He was about to argue but in the sime time another dart was thrown at him and he had to avoid it before defeating another man.
„You better hurry before I lose my patience," he yelled angrily.
It wasn't long after when Sanji showed up in front of him, little out of breath but looking good anyway.
„We should just run to town. It would be less troublesome avoiding them than looking for them and fighting them one by one," blond decided after making sure Zoro too loked alright, just a little annoyed.
„Yeah, we..." swordsman stopped when he noticed another dart thrown at Sanji's back. Cook didn't see it. It was stupid, one little object shouldn't be able to hurt someone like Sanji but Zoro moved either way and blocked weapon with his shoulder.
„Those fuckin..." he muttered before cutting some trees with one of their enemies.
„Why did you do that, Marimo?" asked Sanji, looking at him with surprise and shame. He didn't like the idea of Zoro, of all people, protecting him.
„Oh, you know, you were..." he started, pulling dart out of his shoulder, before stopping abruptly. „You..." he tried again, but felt how his knees bend dangerously. „Shit, what is it?"
„What is what?" Sanji furrowed his eyebrow, not knowing what was going on. Then swordsman's legs gave out and the man fell on the ground. „Zoro, what's going on?" He asked, catching him before he could hurt himself.
„I don't know. It has to be some kind of poison..." he muttered, not being able to move any of his limbs.
„Shit, hold on, I'll take you to Chopper." Sanji looked worried.
Zoro only nodded, feeling how his throat gave up too. Whatever they injected him with, it was strong. Swordsman was lifted and moved, but he couldn't do anything. He felt it was getting hard to breath. His heart started pounding in his chest louder. He tried to calm himself to made his body to move, his lung to work, but nothing worked.
And then he remembered that feeling. It wasn't the poison. Well, it wasn't only the poison. It was fear. It was that kind of fear, what Robin told him about. The paralizing kind of fear, that take away all of his strenght.
He wasn't afraid of being defeated. No, what he was afraid of, was loosing control. To not be able to control his own body, which he always trained so hard, made sure it always did what he wanted it to and nothing less. And here he was, not being able to move a single finger.
When he understood that, it was much easier. Usopp always fough his fears so why couldn't Zoro do the same thing? He concentrated on breathing and while it was still hard – his muscles didn't work the way they were supposed to – he could feel himself relaxing.
„Cook," he managed to rasp out, despite the poison still in his veins. „It's getting... hard to breath... hurry."
„Bear it a little longer." Sanji gritted his teeth, running even faster. He dodged all darts thrown at them. „Just don't die here, marimo. I'll laugh at you, if you die because of something like that."
„You wouldn't be able to survive as long as I," replied Zoro, though his vocal cords started to give up too.
„I wouldn't survive at all, because you would get lost before you could get back on ship." Blond smirked and waited for reply. But there was only silence.
He ran faster than he thought was possible. He needed Chopper, now. Losing his swordsman right now wasn't even an option. He had to survive!
„Don't worry, I'll save you. Just bear it a little longer. Please," he whispered, feeling few tears leaving his eyes.
Zoro heard that. He was consious, just couldn't do anything to let Sanji know that he was ok. He couldn't speak, move, do anything. He just concentrated on breathing. It was getting harder and harder, but hearing Sanji's assuring voice made him less scared so he could fight with the poison. Yeah, that's right. He didn't have to worry about losing control when others where near him. When... when Sanji was near him.
He felt when they reached Merry's deck. He heard how Sanji called Chopper, how little doctor started panicking. Then something was put on his mouth and he felt fresh air in his lungs again. Little sting in his shoulder and after few minutes, he was able to open his eyes and look at his crew. Some kind of plastic mask with attached bag was held against his mouth and Sanji keep pumping it. Looked like it was the thing that helped him breath earlier.
„Yeah, I'm fine," he muttered, lifting his hand to let everyone know that he indeed was fine.
„It was dangerous, Zoro." Chopper moved closer to bed. „It was kind of poison that makes your muscles unable to contract. You could suffocate while still being consious!"
Sanji frozed, hearing that.
„Consious?" he repeated, looking worriedly at Chopper.
„Yeah, it didn't take away his conciousness. He just couldn't move, speak or breath."
„That's right, cook." Swordsman grinned. „I heard everything."
„I think we should leave them alone," chuckled Robin, motioning for everybody to leave room.
Nami only nodded, Luffy shouted something about food and ran out. Usopp looked surprised but moved anyway. Chopper made sure Zoro was okay and then left too. In infirmary it left only Zoro and Sanji.
„So... you heard, huh?" Blond looked away.
„How you cried? Yes, I heard that." Zoro smiled and gently touched Sanji's wrist. „Thanks for that. If not for you, I don't think I would be able to survive that long."
„Why?" Cook looked at him.
„Do you remember what Robin told us about? About that everybody has something they are afraid of?" Sanji nodded, not sure where it was going. „I guess I found out what I was afraid of."
„Darts?"
„Shut up." Zoro rolled his eyes. „Not darts. Being vulnerable. But you made me realise, I didn't need to worry about it because you got my back. So I just concentrated on breathing to buy you some time."
„Hmmm." Sanji smirked. „I was hoping for something better than 'being vulnerable'. How am I suppose to use that against you?"
Zoro rolled his eyes.
„You can't. You need to defeat me first and we both know it's not going to happen."
„Are you sure about that, marimo?"
And before they could actually start fighting, the room entered Nami.
„If you can fight, then you can as well go to town already! We need supplies!" she yelled, looking threatingly at both men, before leaving them once again.
„I think we should go for that food," decided Sanji. „Chopper prepared some medicines against this poison so we should be alright."
„I'll cut all of them before they can get near me again." Zoro angrilly got up and moved toward door. Just before he was able to grab the handle, he felt Sanji's hand on his shoulder.
„Darkness," he said.
„Huh?" Zoro looked at him without understanding.
„You told me, what you are afraid of. I think it's only fair if you know that too." Cook's eyed were on everything but on swordsman's face.
„And I thought it were spiders," he snickered. „Don't worry, cook. We'll buy some candles."
„Shut up already! We wasted enough time!"
~~~~
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