Sharp and Sharper. Roronoa Zoro x (fem OG) reader // One Piece fanfiction

first talk in years

We get to Luffy's boat at the docks. Koby is nowhere to be seen. "I thought you said he's preparing the boat for us?" Luffy asked. Everyone looked at me. "Well, that's what he had told me. I'm guessing he's somewhere around here. He wouldn't just run away." I say, more shocked about the little boat Luffy calls his own. Well, it's definitely always gonna be cozy on his pirate ship...

"So, where can I put this?" Zoro asked, ready to put the safe down. Luffy promptly showed him onto his boat. Nami followed ready to crack the code.

I get this weird feeling and start to turn my he- "STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Helmeppo points his gun at us. He is incredibly nervous. He wouldn't shoot. At most, a warning shot in the air.
It took me a second to realize what had happened. I busted into laughter. The others joined me swiftly. Helmeppo turns bright red.
"What happened to your hair?" Luffy asked while laughing. "Yeah, I might've done that" Zoro snickered. I look at him while laughing and catch him already looking at me. It felt so... nostalgic? Like good old times when we would always laugh together.

There it was, interrupting our little moment. Helmeppo's warning shot in the air, as expected. I look at him unimpressed. "Don't make a move! The safe you have is stolen property! It doesn't belong to you, so give it back!" "I was about to say something when Koby appeared and punched Helmeppo square in the face. Yeah, he is gonna be knocked out for a bit.

"KOBY! I knew you'd come back!" Luffy said happily. Koby didn't return the smile. He's not coming with us.
"I'm not coming with you Luffy." He said cautiously. Luffy isn't mad though. He seems almost happy. "I will be following my dream. Just like the two of you" Koby looks at Luffy and me. "I gathered my courage and I will be a marine. I'll sign up right now." He tries to convince us.
"I'm very glad you could find it in yourself:" I smile at him. "Alright then. Good luck, Koby." Luffy says and I see tears forming in Koby's eyes. Luffy pushed us off the dock so we could set sail. "I hope to see you again, Luffy!" he cried. "We will see each other again, Koby! Next time as enemies, not as friends!" and with that, we started our adventure.

I settled next to Nami, who was trying to crack the safe. Luffy is bored very easily so for the 10 minutes we have been on the open sea, he bugged Nami on how long it would take until they could open the safe. Nami loses her temper quickly. So, she has been screaming at him, not realizing it's of no use. I find this to be a great way to get around talking to Zoro. I know I will have to eventually, but I'd like to push it away for as long as I can. I think he started sleeping in the only room this boat has.

"Could you two knock it off?" he says in a grumpy tone. I can tell he slept, it's the so very subtle change in his voice. The others went quiet, all three of us looking at him. "Thanks." He looked at me "You. Can I have a word?" I tried to not get phased with everything I had. "Sure, yeah."

Nami continued with the safe while Luff hung head-first down from the sail.
Zoro and I leave for the little room. We both sit down and he just looks at me. I can tell he is trying to gather his thoughts. I can't deal with the silence. "So, uhm, how have you been Zoro?" He looks at me, wondering whether I'm kidding. I smile a little awkwardly. I don't know what it is with that man, but I just can't keep my cool with him. Usually, it's so easy for me.
"Well, apart from the whole being tied up in the yard of a marine base thing," I add. I thought he was about to scream at me, cut me to pieces, or just leave. Maybe he was thinking about it for a split second, but his face softened. He can't hate me that much. That's great, awesome even. I am incredibly relieved.

He almost laughs a little. "I've been good" he smiles. "I haven't met Dracule Mihawk yet as I've promised. I'm still on the search though." I am so glad we can continue the way we left it. As friends.
"Oh yeah right, I remember!" I chuckle. "I remember how obsessed you used to be. I've learned a lot from his hearsay." He starts laughing too. "Yeah, I'll find him and show him who really is in charge." "I know you will." We just smiled at each other.

Zoro coughs for a second and starts speaking again. "So uhm, how's your life been? Do you know everything yet?" He remembered? I smile widely. "No, not yet. I hope I'll get to that point eventually. I was thinking joining Luffy could help me. He's planning to travel to the grand line, you know?" "Yeah, he definitely mentioned that a couple of times during his speech." We laugh. "And that means you are just as new to being a pirate as I am?" Zoro asked. "Precisely. I joined Luffy like five minutes before you did" I laugh but Zoro was thinking about something. "Actually, I haven't really joined yet. At least not officially. I just carried the safe here..." "But you didn't have to. And you also stayed after you put it on the ship. You didn't seem to mind where we're taking off to." I know he is going to stay. Otherwise, he would've been long gone. "I did that because the Marines are after every single one of us." He said that to convince me but it resulted in the opposite. "I see. But our next stop is not Dracule Mihawk." I know that will get him. "Well, uhm-" he stuttered. I got him. "-you could never know his whereabouts anyway. He could be anywhere!" he said that so defensively. "Yeah, you're right" I could've told him that Mihawk is most likely not around the East Blue since it's supposedly the weakest of the four oceans. He is one of the seven warlords. He has bigger fish to catch than some puny pirates around here. But I didn't. I gave in. I am not going to put our friendship at risk if we clearly got off on the right foot. I'm not going to jeopardize that for me to be a know-it-all again.

I think Zoro was about to say something again until I heard a small click during our short silence. My head whipped towards the door. Zoro was a little confused. Nami started screaming. It was a happy squeaky scream. She did it. She opened the safe. Zoro and I stormed out the door to where the others already celebrated the small victory. "You did it!" "I did it!" "She did it" Everyone was so happy. "Now, what's in it?" "Did you see the map of the grand line yet?" Nami ignored us and took a look inside. Everyone else towering over her, looking into the safe. There it was. The map of the grand line and some other stuff, that didn't seem too important at the moment. But I knew I'd have to get back to it.