Baby on Board

Two New Friends

Remember how the "monster duo" had acted before. Hope I made them seem somewhat in character. Enjoy~

Luffy had never approached Zoro because he looked scary sometimes, but he was a bit sick of being smothered by Robin at the moment, so he decided he'd try and get closer to Zoro. Maybe he was actually nice. He also wanted to see the silver things swing around again since they were pretty when the sunlight hit them.

Luffy picked up three blocks. Two long rectangle ones and one long, thin cylinder one and stuck the cylinder in his mouth. He walked over the Zoro, who was back to sitting down. The green haired teen opened his eyes to see the toddler standing in front of him with a block in either hand and one in his mouth. Zoro couldn't help busting up laughing.

"What are you doing?" he asked Luffy, whose response was to wave his arms around wildly like he saw Zoro do not long ago. "That's no good. You have to do it more graceful," Zoro said. Of course Luffy didn't understand what he was saying, so Zoro decided he'd demonstrate. He didn't unsheath his swords, which made putting Wado in his mouth a bit awkward, but he didn't want to risk injury with Luffy so close.

"You go like this," he said through his teeth, and held both sheathed swords up on either side but in front of him. Luffy dropped his blocks a few times trying to get in the position, but finally did so and looked up to Zoro, who nodded in what Luffy assumed was approval. "Next, like this," Zoro said and slowly crossed his arms and bent his back. Luffy was able to copy this fairly quickly. He almost stumbled and fell but Zoro quickly put his sword in front of the boy to support him standing back up. Luffy pushed up against the steady held sword and stood straight again, only wobbling slightly.

Zoro walked him through simple sword poses for over half an hour, laughing while he did so. The kid even tried copying the names of the techniques, but they were just quiet, slurred mumbles that sometimes rhymed with what Zoro was saying.

Everyone was watching the two besides Sanji and Brook, but Zoro wasn't paying attention to them and he and Luffy were facing the sea, so they didn't know they had an audience. Eventually the fun was ruined when Luffy fell on his face and the block in his mouth jammed against his gums and teeth. He started to cry and sat up, holding his mouth after spitting the block out. Zoro, like Usopp and Chopper, wasn't sure of what to do. He awkwardly crouched next to Luffy.

"Hey, it's okay," he said, trying to sound kind. It was difficult. Luffy didn't stop crying, and Zoro wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. He didn't want to pick Luffy up because he might drop him. He'd actually never held a baby before, so he called Robin over.

Luffy was still holding his mouth in pain as he sobbed, making Zoro angry at himself because he hadn't been able to catch him again. Why was Luffy so upset every time he fell? He understood this time because he had hurt his mouth, but he was tiny, so it wasn't exactly a very big fall. Robin picked him up and shushed him. Usopp came over from the blanket he'd been on earlier and picked up the teddy bear. He handed it to Luffy, who hugged it and eventually stopped crying.

"Huwts," he mumbled. They assumed he was trying to say "hurts".

"Don't worry Luffy, it will be better soon. Do you want something to drink?" Robin asked. Luffy nodded to the word "drink" and was brought into the kitchen. He seemed to have forgiven Robin for now, having put the moment in the back of his head and focusing on what was happening now.

Sanji looked up from the table he was sitting at, reading a cookbook for food that he could make for Luffy besides the repetitive meals he'd been given, not that Luffy seemed to mind.

"What is it Robin-chan?" he asked. Luffy's eyes were still red and he was still holding his mouth.

"Can you make Luffy a cold drink? He hurt his mouth," she said.