Can I Steal Your Heart? - A LawLu fanfic

(Luffy)Chapter 2 - Sick

Luffy had woken up in the middle of the night and, as was his custom, made his way to the kitchen for a snack. Sanji almost always left something out for him, though Luffy had still never convinced him to leave something meaty. Something about it going bad overnight, as if that would bother Luffy. Today it was sandwiches. Luffy grabbed three of them and was shoving them into his mouth when he heard a faint, painful-sounding coughing fit coming from the crow's nest far above.

Zoro had taken the watch tonight, if he remembered correctly, and Zoro got sick as rarely as Luffy himself. The rubber-man reached up and swung himself to the door of the crow's nest, opening it without waiting for an answer to his gentle knock. He froze upon catching sight of his first mate.

A dribble of blood trailed down from the corner of the emerset's mouth, and a tiny pile of blood-stained white flowers sat on an equally blood-stained hand towel that Zoro frantically tried to hide. "Luffy? What're you doing up?"

Luffy put a hand over his mouth, trying not to be sick at the sight of the blood, especially the blood at the corner of Zoro's mouth. He'd done so well at hiding his lingering trauma reactions from his crew, but Zoro's skin had paled over the last couple weeks, and the paler skin and the blood combined and for just a second, it wasn't Zoro Luffy saw. It was Ace, in those last few moments of his life. The room spun and Luffy felt like the air had been sucked out of his chest. He could even smell the scent of blood and charred human flesh. Then reality reasserted itself and it was Zoro in front of him again. The smell changed, still the coppery tang of blood, but now mixed with a strong floral scent instead of that char.

"What... what's wrong? Are you sick?" Luffy asked once he regained his ability to speak, ignoring Zoro's question.

Zoro fell silent.

"Answer me, Zoro." Luffy's voice took on a commanding edge that he rarely used.

"Yes... I'm probably dying, Captain." Zoro wiped his mouth, getting rid of that damn trickle of blood.

"No. NO. No, you're not. Go down, we're waking up Chopper." Luffy hated the panic rising in his chest, but not as much as he hated the damn calmness in Zoro's voice. "Not losing includes to sickness, doesn't it? You promised."

"Don't wake up Chopper. He already knows, Luffy. He and I have been doing everything we can to cure it for months. He deserves every minute of sleep he can get." Zoro was too calm, his voice soft and barely audible. There was a tinge of regret in the first mate's eyes, mixed with an inevitability that Luffy had seen before — in Ace's eyes, on that podium before Luffy had gotten up there. "I didn't want to worry anyone with it."

Luffy's knees gave out on him and he slumped to the floor. "Months? Months and you didn't tell me?" His hands ran through his hair in distress. "Dammit, Zoro! Didn't I deserve to know?!"

"We were actually going to talk to you about it in the morning tomorrow."

Luffy took a deep breath and forced himself to stand and walk over to the bloody towel of flowers. "Well, I'm here now, so talk now. What is it?" He reached for one of the flowers, but Zoro stopped him.

"Don't touch it! You probably shouldn't even get close to them. Though, well, Chopper thinks they're low-risk right now." It was Zoro's turn to take a shaky breath. "Short version, it's a flower that gets into the lungs and somehow feeds on unrequited love. Can only be cured by returned love."

Luffy tilted his head, curiosity overriding his panic at least for the moment. "Love?"

"That's what Chopper's book said, and Chopper can't seem to prove otherwise."

"Like... romance-y feelings?" Luffy asked again, receiving a nod. "Doesn't that mean you're in love with someone?" Another quiet nod. "Well, then, tell us where the person you're in love with is and we'll get you to them quickly. Then you sweep them off their feet or whatever and you're saved, right?" Luffy let out a hopeful, slightly nervous laugh.

"... the person I love would never love me back. It'd do no good."

The captain gave a little huff. "I bet you haven't tried! You at least can't give up without trying! Who is it?"

"It doesn't matter. They don't like men, and most especially don't like me."

"Are you sure?"

Zoro nodded quietly again. "Let's just say I couldn't accept my feelings for a while and so I wasn't always... nice to that person."

"Well, we can still get you back to them and you can try again! Who is it?" Luffy demanded.

Zoro's lips pressed together into a thin line, like he was in pain. "Sorry, Luffy. I won't give their name. I don't want you to be mad at them."

"Then it's someone I know." Luffy played the card he hated playing. "As your Captain, I order you to tell me!" Zoro sat silently, a heartbroken refusal evident on his face. He'd never refused one of Luffy's orders, and Luffy found this new insubordination aggravating. "Dammit, Zoro! Let us help save you! Or at least let us try!"

"Sorry, Captain," Zoro said again, before breaking into another cough. Once he'd pulled a small bud out of his mouth and thrown it onto the towel, he spoke again. "Please, don't tell the crew? Not yet. I... need to figure out how to say goodbye."

"... Fine. I'll hold off on telling them. But since you refuse to tell me who or where they are, I order you to fight this thing to the very end. Don't you dare just give into it!"

Zoro gave a weak smile. "That I will do. Will you still meet with Chopper and I in the morning? There's more to talk about regarding this... thing, but you should go back to bed for now."

Luffy nodded as he silently exited the crow's nest, his mind still silently screaming repeated, panicky 'no's. He would leave Zoro alone for now, but he knew sleep was a long way off.