A/N: Originally this was going to be a birthday tribute, buuut. So I sorta wrapped it up and now it's here. s: I never write Zoro/Luffy nakamaship! I feel like Captain Obvious when I do, it's just so clear in the series that any attempts I make at writing it come out all clumsy, like looking up unfamiliar synonyms for your favorite words.

Oh, and I got promoted last week. C: I'll be working a lot more, but I'm not going anywhere!

(This is my 150th fic on Fanfiction. Is that awesome or lame?)

Zoro watches as Luffy hits the ground hard and rolls, finding quick purchase on his knees and skidding to a stop. One hand flying up to keep his hat on his head, the young captain grits his teeth and glares up at the unimposing man who nonetheless knocked him away like swatting a bug.

But Luffy doesn't move, not even to stand, because the stranger has a little boy locked under one arm, and a hand pressed to the child's head; and he's strong, they don't know how strong, so Luffy waits, and lets him talk, and sizes him up with every word.

"I ate the Push Push Fruit," the man says with a leer, and Luffy's eyes narrow fractionally. Mind racing, Zoro knew, to figure out the potential and capacity and limitations of a "push" power; turning it over and over in his mind, against every other strength he's matched before, until he has the right perspective. All behind a blank face, turned up with round eyes, as the devil's fruit user throws back his head and laughs. "I'm a Push Man."

Zoro rests a hand on the hilts of his swords, can feel the crew behind him as they stand tense and ready to spring; after so much time together, all of them know to hold their ground and wait for Luffy's call.

"I met a man with a fruit like that," Luffy says suddenly, voice a neutral sort of calm that anyone who knew him wouldn't believe for a minute. "He sent all my nakama flying once, to places all over the world."

The Push Man tilts his head, looking intrigued and insincere. "Oh? My, my, that does sound similar!" His eyes trail away suddenly, past Luffy to roam over the rest of the crew behind him. The little boy in his hold is beginning to whimper, and Zoro can read- in every line of Luffy's face and the muscles in his shoulders- what his captain's next move is a moment before he makes it.

So he pops Shusui out of its sheath with his thumb on the guard, and when the Push Man looks his way at the sound, it's fine; because then he's not looking for Luffy, who's on him an instant later.

"Get the kid away before you kick his ass, Luffy!" Sanji calls out unnecessarily, probably just to hear himself talk, the idiot; because Luffy's rushing back already, child tucked securely in one arm.

The boy finally starts crying now that he's safe, and Luffy doesn't set him down until his crew moves in to stand between them and the Push Man. Once he does, the boy won't let him go, clinging to his shirt with the hand that isn't wiping away messy tears, little shoulders shaking.

"Hey, don't cry. I'm about to go beat him up, just for you."

Luffy gives off a bright light, with his kindness and his spirit and his cheer, and anyone standing close enough by him can feel it like sunshine on their skin. He's a star with that gravitational force, that pull, and Zoro thinks whole planets would revolve around him easily in the dark diamond ocean behind the sky if Luffy ever decided he wanted to go there.

Right now Luffy is shining, inviting, strong enough that he can give what he doesn't need of that strength away, gives it away in the wide, wide smile that dimples his cheeks and scrunches his eyes closed.

The boy looks up with something like wonder, caught in the glow; finally, slowly, smiles back.

Zoro can see it all without watching, like Luffy's alive in the darkness behind Zoro's eyelids, like he moves deliberately in tune to every blink and breath Zoro takes- an extension of Zoro's personal awareness with its own body, its own soul.

He would know when Luffy put out his hand, even if both of Zoro's eyes were closed forever. He would know when Luffy smiled, even if he never saw his captain's face again.

Zoro doesn't know when it became this way, but he can't remember anymore what it's like to not know, and that's fine.

There's a pull somewhere behind his breastbone that's been there since Shells Town, only getting stronger, and he's never been directionless, especially not now.

Luffy steps up beside him and rotates a shoulder, eyes fixed and wolfish.

"Ready?"

Zoro pulls Shusui the rest of the way out, and the black steel gleams. He doesn't have to answer, because he knows Luffy has a similar awareness, an unconscious understanding of any one of his nakama at any time. The scarred boy tips a wide smile at him for a fleeting moment- full of a familiar something that means close to always in a way neither of them would know how to say out loud- before he walks up to start a fight.

"If I free you, join my crew!"

And Zoro walks beside him.