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EIGHT WE ARE ON THE CRUISE
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"THANK GOODNESS, you're not dead!" Keeli rushed down the stairs (followed by Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and Kaya), past the tied-up Sham and Buchi, and threw her arms around Zoro's wide shoulders. He stumbled back a step, taken aback by the sudden embrace. He made no move to return the hug, though, he simply stood there, stiff as a board. "You could hug me back, y'know," she muttered closer to his ear. And Zoro, although rather awkwardly, patter her back. Keeli drew back, grinning up at him, "We'll work on that, sunshine."
Zoro rolled his eyes. Then he frowned at her. "Why would I be dead?"
"I saw them" — Keeli pointed her thumb at Sham and Buchi — "throw you down the well, and I wasn't sure if you were still... well... alive." She had been so insanely worried about him, which honestly kind of surprised her because she still barely knew him. But Zoro's grumpy attitude and his dry humor had grown on her, and she didn't want to even think about him dying. She wasn't sure if she would be able to bear it.
The same went for Nami and Luffy, too.
She'd been alone for so long, had walked through the world invisible to everyone, never leaving a trace of herself behind because it could've put her in danger. And then Luffy had barged into her life — or, more like, she had barged into his life —, this pirate in a straw hat who was nothing like any pirate she'd ever met, and he had turned her whole world upside down. Now there were people she cared about, people who cared about her. It was still surreal to her. She was still afraid that it was all a dream, that she would simply wake up in an abandoned attic, alone beside the rats keeping her company, and none of it would have been real.
Zoro gave her a smile. "I'm fine."
Keeli's gaze wandered to the black bandana he had wrapped around his head, and she tilted her head, a playful smirk on her lips. "I still think we should've gotten matching bandanas."
