Forget Me Not - One Shot Series

Roronoa Zoro - Semi-Sweet

Your fingers' tips had barely grazed his as gravity pulled you from the bird's nest toward the deck. The fear on Zoro's face was burned into your eyes, and the scream that filled the air had alerted the Captain.

Zoro had screamed your name, you had just screamed.

You weren't keen on heights, but you trusted Zoro, trusted him to keep you safe if you became too scared while in the bird's nest with him. Even as you fell that trust wasn't broken. You'd felt fine, assured, and hadn't asked him for any help. He'd been halfway across the nest when the storm bucked Sunny.

You'd opened the hatch and turned to let him know you were leaving. The shift had thrown you off balance and when you'd went to set your footing again, your leg had gone through the hatch.

The first impact made you growl in pain as your shoulders hit the rim of the opening hard, the second lurch tossed you inside the small area and you hit your forehead on the lip.

The impact and blood had disoriented you enough your grip slipped.

Zoro had managed to clear the distance despite the turbulence, but you lost your grip a split second too soon.

Luffy broke your fall enough that you weren't mortally wounded, but you'd bounced off his inflated stomach and slammed right into the foremast. You didn't remember anything after that.

When you first woke up you didn't remember much of anything. You couldn't place Luffy, or anyone else on the crew. You weren't scared, or uncomfortable though, and admitted you at least felt like you belonged with them all, but you just couldn't remember.

For days you healed.

For days he avoided you.

Like a cat, he would be just on your peripherals. Never in your line of sight, never looking at you, but always there, like he was watching you.

You were starting to think he didn't like you.

Everyone else had seemed to fall back into easy routines with you to the point you'd often have to ask them what they were talking about, because the memory had escaped you. They'd cheerfully fill you in and include you smoothly. Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, Robin, Nami, Franky, Brook, and especially Sanji.

But he stayed back.

After a couple weeks, you'd gone from worrying he hated you, to being angry you couldn't seem to get him to even talk to you. You couldn't fix what was wrong if he wasn't going to let you within 50 feet of him.

A need for sleep seemed to finally catch up with him, and soon after you caught him napping. Deeply enough that he didn't wake up from the other side of the ship and leave before you could close the distance.

You woke him up by sitting in his lap.

His eyes open a moment too late, your hips already dropping onto his crossed ankles, draping your legs over his thighs, your hands on his shoulders to steady yourself as you settle in. Your gaze doesn't break away from his, and you're not trying to hide your irritation.

"Oi!" He grumbles before you grab his collar.

"Why are you avoiding me?" You ask, cheeks puffed despite your efforts to maintain anger over irritation. You feel him jerk under you, but he doesn't say anything and just looks away. "I can't fix whatever I messed up if you won't talk to me."

"You didn't!" He looks back at you before crossing his arms over his chest. "... You didn't mess up anything."

"Then... is it 'cause I can't remember?" You question, your voice dropping. Your gaze shifts down, your stomach knotting, and your grip on his collar loosens. You'd been keeping it under wraps as much as possible, but your inability to remember everyone was eating you alive.

"No! It's..." Zoro bites the words off and furrows his brows. He looks angry, but you aren't sure where it's directed. "It's not that." He says finally.

You're both quiet for a moment, and a question swirls in your chest, but you aren't sure you want to ask it. You aren't certain you could, but you're never going to corner him like this again.

"Is there... no way to fix this then?" You question quietly.

"There's nothing to fix." He grumbles, and the words thread through your heart like a blade.

"Oh, all... all right then." You try to get the words out evenly, lightly, flippantly even, but you couldn't. They hitched in your throat with your own breath and tears filled your eyes before you could get up.

Zoro grabs your arm as you start to move away and pulls you close, yanking you into a hug. The desperation of it is warm. One hand on the back of your head, the other across your back.

"I mean, nothing is broken to need fixing." He clarifies, rough and quiet voice by your ear. He's quiet for a moment, still save for the occasional tremble in his fingers as he holds you close. "I'm...

Scared."

The words are hard to comprehend. You aren't sure if he said them, or if you just felt his soul cry against your heart. You can't even ask why, but you relax in his arms, wrapping yourself around him in return.

"Scared, that you'll remember, and blame me." He says in a voice that's almost flat. "And if you do, I'll accept it."

"Why... would I blame you?"

He shakes his head slowly, nuzzling into your shoulder a little as he does. "You'll remember."

You stay like that with him, until someone calls for one of you, or food is announced, it doesn't matter. The words of the crew cause you to part, but afterward he doesn't distance himself as much. Doesn't ignore you. He's still laconic, but something in your skin tells you that's how he is.

The day shifts to the next, and another, and one afternoon you're looking off the rail of the ship, eyes losing themselves in the horizon, and your wandering mind finally wanders back into your memories. Like a gentle tide coming in, all the forgotten steps return to you, your fingers tight against the railing as emotions fill you up.

Tears fall quietly for a moment, before sobs wreck your bones. You wail into the calm air, unable to keep the feeling inside your lungs. All the moments of being unable to remember, all the things you had to ask, all the subtle looks of concern and fear on the faces of your friends.

Your crew.

Your family.

You can feel them, in their own way, standing back and giving you space, but also support. Waiting for you to ask, to request, silently or otherwise.

But there's only one that presses against your emotions, and when you turn away from the ocean he's there. Stone-faced, white-knuckled, and with an implausible emotion chiseled into his face.

One you hadn't seen for years.

Fear.

"It's my fault." He says in a voice resigned to its fate, steel eye focused on you, resolute.

"It was a storm." You argue.

"I promised." He nearly hisses the words, his stony expression cracking in pain.

"I'm alive." You reply, stepping toward him.

"But -."

"Luffy heard you." You interrupt. "Chopper told me." You point out, stepping closer again. "No one heard me scream. It was swept away by the storm, but your voice cut through."

You reach out, slipping gentle fingers against his arm. "Whether by your own hand, or because you command the very world to comply, I know you'll protect me."

Your fingers move against his knuckles, insistent and pushing their way into the tight grip, forcing his hand to relax and accept them.

"Zoro."

His fingers relax on his other hand and he slips his between yours. His eye is focused on you, the tension finally giving way. Memories slip between you as you move closer to one another.

The request is on the curve of your lips, but the words are devoured by his before you can say them.