AN: Set sometime, somewhere after Enies Lobby. Luffy/Nami, from the ears of Zoro.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or its characters – Eiichiro Oda does.

–dropping eaves.

That Roronoa Zoro spent most of his day asleep was as self-evident a truth amongst the Straw-Hats as the fact that Zoro never really could find his way back to the ship after an outing (regardless their numerous attempts at tying a string to his wrist for him to follow). In fact, 'Zoro's probably asleep somewhere' ranked a close second to 'Where the hell did Zoro go?'on the range of remarks most often related to the moss-head (incidentally, the latter often followed the first).

The fact of the matter was: Zoro slept. A lot. Which had led to the widely popular belief that he remained unaware of most of the happenings on the ship. Which was really just a bunch of exaggerated codswallop, because contrary to popular belief Zoro didn't actually sleep nearly as much as he pretended to (or not 'pretended to' per se, but that was probably what they'd call it if they ever found out he was just sitting around with his eyes closed half the time). He was well aware why it might look like he was asleep, but as far as being observant went, he was as alert with his eyes shut as he was in the middle of battle. And as a result of years spent feigning sleep, he had a very keen sense of hearing, and was very much attuned to the going-ons on the ship.

Including that which wasn't strictly meant for his ears.

Some (and he could name quite a few members in his crew alone) would probably classify what he was doing as eavesdropping, whereas Zoro had long since chalked it up on his extensive list marked 'Training and Related Exercises'. He wasn't a damn snoop – he was honing his senses. Everything else just came as an added bonus. Besides, he couldn't be held responsible for finding out the occasional oddity about his crewmates, or coming across conversations he normally wouldn't be privy to. It was their own damn fault for assuming. Didn't they know appearances could be deceiving?

Of course, knowing his nakama as well as he did by now the answer to that was a blatant no, and as a result, Zoro could with a fair amount of certainty claim to know more about his crewmates than anyone else on the ship, including the demon woman, whose cat-like eyes followed everyone, everywhere. Because there were things of which not even Nico Robin was aware.

"Luffy?"

The whisper was almost lost in the sound of the wind pushing against the slack sails, but he'd caught it regardless. He blinked, before his brows pulled down. Hadn't the money-grubber gone to bed already?

"Ah! Nami, there you are!" The eager voice of their captain wasn't nearly as quiet, and shattered the silence so startlingly that Zoro jumped despite himself.

"Idiot!" came the indignant hiss from the aforementioned money-grubber, followed by the distinct 'thwack' that was almost always included in Nami's confrontations with the captain. "Do you want to wake the entire ship?" she asked. "Mou, Luffy, you couldn't pull off a cloak-and-dagger if your life depended on it."

Zoro's brows furrowed deeper. Cloak-and-dagger?

"Eeh? Why would I need a cloak and dagger, Nami? I thought we were just sneaking around."

Zoro resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but he knew the witch well enough to know that she was doing it for the both of them. As well as rubbing her temples the way she did whenever their captain asked questions regarding the things on her extensive list of 'Self-Evident Shit that Should Be Pretty Damn Obvious Already'.

But this time an unexpected laugh burst from her mouth, taking Zoro by surprise. "You're a dork," she snorted, but there was a smile in her voice that made Zoro wonder if this really was Nami speaking, and not some impersonator who happened to sound like the klepto-cat. He was almost tempted to look over the railing to see what they were doing, but stopped himself. He might be pushing it with the not-an-eavesdropper claim, but damn it all if he'd let himself be reduced to voyeurism.

Luffy snickered. "Yeah, yeah. You've told me," he said, and the rustle of grass told Zoro they were on the lawn deck. There was a soft, ungraceful 'thump', followed by the tell-tale noise of someone stretching, and he knew his captain's habits well enough to know he'd plopped down onto the grass, which wasn't much of an oddity in itself. What was an oddity was the thief's unexplained presence. If he didn't know any better, he'd think–

Nah. That was pushing the limits of probability, surely.

...right?

"The stars are out tonight," Nami said then, breaking the silence, and her light, even footsteps followed Luffy's across the grass. Zoro couldn't hear her sit down, so he assumed she remained standing.

Luffy hummed in consent, before they delved back into silence – a rarity in and of itself, seeing as it involved Luffy. Zoro was almost beginning to wonder if he'd fallen asleep when he suddenly spoke, "What's wrong?"

A pause followed before Nami answered, "Does your head still hurt?"

"My head? Nah, it's fine." Then, after a beat, "Why?"

An exhale. "You took a real beating back there," she murmured, voice uncharacteristically...soft, for someone who spent most of her time yelling.

"I always take real beatings," Luffy reasoned happily, and Zoro resisted the urge to snort. Leave it to their captain to be so painfully blunt about his own health (or in this case lack thereof).

Nami chuckled humourlessly. "I know," she sighed. "But…you really scared me back there, you know. On the bridge, when that marine said you hadn't moved, and that you weren't getting up. I thought…" she trailed off. There was a shuffle of feet on the grass. "You always get up after a fight. You're always the first back on your feet, and–" she paused, and a beat passed before she continued, words strangely awkward for someone who was known for her smooth-talking, "I guess for a second there, I thought you were dead."

Zoro's brows furrowed, because she hadn't been the only one who'd momentarily faltered in her belief in Luffy's waterproof I-get-knocked-down-but-I-get-up-again policy. And she did have a point – he always got back on his feet, bashed in head or gaping hole through his stomach not-withstanding. Zoro had felt like a right idiot afterwards for even thinking it, but felt strangely better now, when it turned out he hadn't been the only one to consider the thought. As far as their encounters with the Government went, to say that Enies Lobby had been the worst would be putting it lightly. They'd been in over their heads, and they were damn lucky they'd gotten away alive.

Luffy laughed despite the sheer morbidity of the conversation. "Sorry," he apologized sheepishly, before another 'thwack' had him yelping. "Ow! Damn it, Nami, what was that for? I said I was sorry!"

Nami scoffed. "Jerk. Saying you're sorry doesn't make it any better!"

Luffy whined. "Whaddaya want me to say, then? And you freaked me out, too, you know! You were in the tunnel, weren't you? When it got flooded?"

Nami didn't answer, and he continued, "The hell do you think that felt, huh?" he asked. "Even if I went to help, I'd only end up drowning."

Nami was silent a moment. Then, "You'd jump in anyway, wouldn't you?" she deadpanned.

"Aa. If I could've."

Zoro almost expected her to hit him again, but there was no sound of fist hitting head, or any cries of despair from Luffy. "Nami? Oye."

"Don't."

"Na?"

A sigh. "Don't ever do something like that, if it should happen again."

Luffy was silent.

"Luffy-"

"I'm not gonna promise anything," he said.

She huffed. "You'd get yourself killed. I know we're your nakama, but–"

"I don't care. I need you."

"–I know. You're as bad at navigation as you are at sneaking around, but–"

"No," he cut her off. "Well, yeah. But that's not what I meant," he said. "I need you."

There was a stunned silence, and had Zoro not been so caught up in the whole thing, he might have lamented that the not-an-eavesdropper excuse had been thrown quite violently to the four winds.

"I need you," Luffy repeated. "I know I get lost, and I wouldn't be here without you," he said, "but…" he trailed off. "I wouldn't want to be here without you, either."

"Luffy…"

"If I'm gonna be the Pirate King, I need to achieve it all. I need to find One Piece," he continued, the words as familiar as they were confident. "But if you're not there to hog it all to yourself…then it's not worth it," he declared. "I don't wanna find it if you're not there to steal it from under my nose."

Zoro contemplated for a moment the oddly private nature of the conversation, and was suddenly very much aware of his intrusion, his denial not-withstanding. He'd heard his share of secrets, but this seemed different, somehow; it wasn't so much a secret as it was a deeply intimate matter, a fact made all the more evident by who was addressing whom. But he also knew that if he moved now, no matter how silently, the odds that he'd get away without either of them hearing were slim (he knew for a fact the thief had hearing like a damn bat). And there was no way in hell he was okay with being caught.

There was another shuffle on the grass and a distinct rearranging of positions, before Nami finally sighed, and when she spoke her voice was strangely muffled. "Idiot. You don't honestly think I would let myself get killed before we've found the greatest treasure in the world, do you? Who's going to make sure you idiots don't spend it all if I'm not there?"

Luffy didn't say anything in return, and Nami fell silent again, and the following quiet was so damn severe Zoro almost felt his eye twitch–

–just as a feminine giggle broke the spell, like a glass shattering against the deck.

"What?" There was a smile in his voice.

"Your hair's tickling me," she replied. There was a pause, before another giggle escaped her lips. "Luffy! Q-quit it!"

He didn't heed her wishes, and the giggles rose in volume to full-blown laughter, piercing the silence of the deck, and Zoro felt a reluctant smile tug at the corner of his mouth quite despite himself. He hadn't thought the woman could laugh like that.

"C-come on! Stop it!" she laughed. Luffy did, apparently, and the laughter receded to soft, wheezing giggles again.

"And I'm loud?" Luffy snorted.

"Oh, shut up! You know I'm ticklish. It's your own fault if we woke anyone," she snapped, but there was a good humour in her voice that left little room for anger. "Besides, the only one out right now is Zoro, and the man can sleep through a storm."

A snort. "How d'ya know he's not awake?"

A pause. "Is there a time of day when he's not asleep?" she asked dryly. Zoro rolled his eyes.

"Good point," Luffy said with a laugh, before it turned muffled, and Zoro's brows shot into his hairline at the sound, because regardless of whatever plausible scenario his mind could come up with as a way of explanation, there was really no denying what that noise implied. And for all his presumed ignorance of anything bordering on the erotic (and his permanent place at the butt of the cook's perverted jokes), there was nothing remotely innocent about Luffy's reaction to the witch's advances, at least going by the distinct smacking sound Zoro was sure was now permanently carved into his mind.

Well, damn. It would seem his weren't the only deceiving appearances on the Sunny.

He was thankfully spared anything overtly graphic, which was a good thing because he was pretty damn sure he wouldn't have been able to look his best friend in the face for at least a week if that had been the case. There was some more rearranging of limbs, another yelp and a giggle from the witch (who'd laughed more in the past half-hour than he'd heard in weeks, he noted idly), before they settled back down into silence. And it was such a glaring anomaly he couldn't quite wrap his mind around it: two of his decidedly loudest nakama being quiet in each other's company.

"In the New World..." Nami began then.

"I won't die." There wasn't a trace of doubt in the reply, but then this was Luffy, and Zoro hadn't come to expect anything else. "I won't die," he repeated. "And neither will you. I'll protect you. All of you."

Nami sighed. "I know you will," she said. "Just be careful, ne? You're too reckless."

Luffy laughed. "Yeah, I know."

There was yet another 'thwack', but even Zoro could tell it was half-hearted. "Idiot. At least you're self-aware in that regard," she said, the words trailing off into a yawn.

There was a shuffle. "Wanna go back inside?"

"Mm. Let's just stay here a little while longer," she murmured. "It might be the last peaceful moment we get in a good while."

"M'kay."

And they fell back into silence once again.

When they'd been quiet for a good fifteen minutes, Zoro decided to risk a look over the edge of the railing, only to realize that the reason for their silence was that they'd fallen asleep on the lawn, limbs all a-tangle and leaving very little doubt as to the nature of the situation leading up to their predicament. Luffy was sprawled on his back and took about as much space in his sleep as he did wide awake, one arm slung around the shoulders of the tangerine-haired navigator who'd curled up against his side like a cat, head tucked into the hollow of his throat. It was far closer than he'd seen the woman get to anyone, and there was an intimacy there even Nami's silver tongue couldn't reason away if she tried.

Unduly pleased for some reason, Zoro stretched languidly as he started off in the direction of his cabin. He could easily have woken the two of them, told them to get a damn room because if the cook found them like that in the morning they'd not only be one pirate crew short of a captain, but also but in a very awkward (although undoubtedly also very entertaining) situation. He could have easily done this.

But he didn't. Because the ero-cook needed someone to wake him up from his fantasies, and to be honest, the severe shit-storm that had gone down in Enies Lobby had earned the crew the right to some good news for a change. Besides, he thought as he opened the door to the cabin, throwing a last look behind him towards the railing looking down onto the lawn deck, he'd had no idea they were even there.

He'd been asleep the whole time.

AN: Mah cuties. I hope to write some more about these two from other Straw-Hat perspectives, if this was enjoyable. Please leave a word if you feel like it!