Imagines III | ZoLu 🥀🔥

Last Mate | 7 💔

Staring at the body hidden beneath the neutral colored blanket, Luffy started talking to himself, dedicating every last word to the last person he wanted to lose in this world: Roronoa Zoro.

"My brother was in a relationship once too. He had a girlfriend named Koala, they were both in an army within a crew of revolutionary people, kind of like us... Well, not exactly, but similar, at least." The boy continued.

"S...Sabo loved her as much as we used to love each other. Maybe even a little more, since they ended up getting married. But ever since their marriage, nothing was the same way in between them," he confessed, trying his best to speak through his suppressed cries.

"They had a fallout, one bigger than ours.

When Sabo was arguing with Koala during a mission they had from a rooftop, their discussion became a distraction, and ended in a tragedy.

Koala got angry at my brother and started to walk away from him, thinking there was more space left on the platform she was standing on top of...

But there wasn't."

Luffy suddenly shut his eyes tightly, remembering the way Sabo sounded over the phone when he called him, screaming at the top of his lungs.

He placed his head on top of the man's chest while anger started to cloud his eyes with a misty fog.

"We could have stayed friends, enemies, anything would have been better than this! I... I never even wanted for us to break up. Dammit!!"

Luffy's breakdown was triggering others around him who were also within the same recovery room.

"Shhhhh," they said, angering the young man who was completely broken.

"Have a heart, my first mate just died! O-once you start crying, it's impossible to stop either way..."

"Stop crying already." They heartlessly spoke to him, unable to disguise how annoyed they felt by Luffy's persistent crying.

"He was everything I had when I was all alone. He's everything I wanted... And now... I have nothing at all!"

"Save your tears!"

Luffy clenched his fist, ready to attack the rude patient that ceased to make an effort in understanding the pain he was going through.

While reaching for the curtain next to him, dividing the room he was in to the other patient's room, the curtains flung wide open on their own.

The scenery that was revealed to the Captain right before his eyes left him speechless.

"Save your tears... For when I really die." A masculine voice responded, winking at the young man who's heart was racing abnormally fast.

"DOTHONOTHA DOTHO, GYU GOLMOST DAVE ME A HARTH ATHACK!" Luffy gasped, catching his breath before his tongue went numb for a second time.

"Nine lives, baby." The masculine voice smirked, showing a lazy peace sign at Luffy while extending his arms out, above the upper half of his bandaged midsection.

"Wait, If you're in here... WHO'S IN THERE?" He asked, pointing and moving away from the person he mistook for his ex-lover.

"An old man with the same problem I had. He was a heavy smoker-"

"SMOKEY DIED?" Luffy questioned, trying to lift up the cover from the dead person's body.

"I said he was a heavy smoker, not that he was Smoker."

"Thank goodness... ZORO, YOU'RE ALIVE!!!" The boy cried again, nearly pouncing on top of the Swordsman, giving him a rather brusque embrace that made him groan in response.

"You noticed?" Zoro sarcastically spoke, making both he and the younger boy laugh.

His laughter turned into him coughing as the pain in his ribcage radiated throughout his entire body that was covered in bruises.

"Don't do this to me ever again!!" Luffy gritted his teeth.

"What was I supposed to do? Let you die?"

"EXACTLY!" The younger boy argued against Zoro who insulted him in return.

"Get lost. If you wanna die, make your death meaningful or heroic."

"If living means that I can't be with you, then I rather not be alive at all!"

Though his eyes welled up similar to a tub when it's about to overflow and spill water everywhere, Luffy's glistening orbs refused to let out a single tear.

"Why did you split us up in the first place then? We could have stayed together, and problem solved." The Swordsman stated.

"Nothing good comes out of relationships. Sabo lost his spouse, and... Ace left his own the day he died-"

"What happened to your brothers is something they couldn't predict or prevent. Didn't you mention that one of them lost their girlfriend during a fight?" The man shamelessly interrupted.

To that, Luffy lowered his head, nodding.

"The same thing almost happened to you today, Zoro. See what happens with couples?" He spoke, frowning.

"No, this happens to couples who try running away from their problems instead of facing them. You should have told me you felt this way instead of making that sorry ass excuse, Luffy!"

"It would've been the same thing!"

"Yeah, how?" The Swordsman raised an eyebrow at the younger, testing him.

"If we stay together, one of us is gonna die... The last thing I wanna do is end up burying another loved one or leaving one behind like Ace did."

Luffy stood up from the chair he was sitting on beside Zoro's bed.

"Let's leave it at that. I'm happy to see you're alive, stay alive for me from now on, okay?" He smiled turning his back to leave when he heard a loud beeping noise from behind him.

His first instinct was to turn over, thinking something had happened to the Swordsman.

As he turned around, he saw him standing up, attempting to remove the machines he was hooked onto, by detaching the IV and EKG lead electrodes that were still stuck to his chest.

"Stop that, hey! Zoro, it's dangerous!!"

"Then stop making decisions on your own,"

Luffy stopped breathing when Zoro grabbed him by his collar, pulling him closely to his face.

The dominant look in his eyes was alluring yet triggering for the young Captain to stare at, over the fear of falling into the temptation of his hypnotic gaze.

Which is why, Zoro didn't make it difficult for him to decide what to do.

"And let me help you decide the next time, Captain."

He ended up making the first move and tucked his hand underneath Luffy's sharp jawline, sealing their argument with a kiss.

~~~