It's hours later when Zoro wakes fully, still slouched on the couch beneath Lucy and shadowed in the soft light of the glowing aquarium. He's been vacillating between sleep and the waking world for a while now, part of him still incredulous of their newfound understanding and wary of it being a dream. But every time he wakes he feels the pull of skin where she bit him, feels the scratches she decorated his shoulders with, sees the blooming bruise on her throat and the ones he littered on her thighs.

It's real. Somehow.

He still has a hard time believing it.

He thinks he wouldn't maybe, if they hadn't been separated so long. Part of him built up the idea of a relationship with her as a fantasy, a secret desire that would never be—for various reasons mostly centering around self-esteem issues he never realized he had. A lifetime of focusing on his swordsmanship and general manliness to the exclusion of all else apparently had side effects he wasn't aware of.

Lucy is still asleep, breathing deep and even. Her Voice sounds quiet and clear, like a tinkling windchime instead of a clanging bell.

She seems exhausted, even now. He's not actually sure he's ever seen her go this long without eating. It's been six hours already, yeesh.

He can't bring himself to rouse her, figures she'll wake up when she gets hungry enough. He swears though, if the first thing out of her mouth is the cook's name, he's going to lose it and not let her off the couch until she forgets everything but how to scream his own.

There's a knock at the door, and Zoro's arms tighten around Lucy, wary and jealous, before he realizes it's just Nami, probably checking up on their too-long-silent captain.

"Come in," he grunts. The door opens and he sees Nami cautiously peek inside before striding in all the way.

"We were getting worried when you guys didn't surface," she tells him, eyebrow raised as she surveys their disheveled but still-clothed state, Lucy's face—half-visible pressed against him as she is, but still obviously tear-streaked—and the unopened box on the tray. "You two look comfortable. You guys talk?"

Zoro nods, not bothering to deny it. He still can't believe how much he shared with her, everything he said, or almost anything she said in response. He wants to feel embarrassed, but he can't muster the feeling beyond the bone-deep contentment and satisfaction he feels.

I'm Zoro's, Zoro's mine, I love Zoro…

He's still a bit stunned, to be honest, that he can just kiss her whenever he wants now. Yesterday he couldn't even believe he could see her whenever he wanted, let alone anything else.

Nami's eyebrows both fly to her hairline, reading the expression on his face. "Wow, you guys really did talk. I kind of assumed you'd just start going at it like rabbits. Count me impressed."

Zoro would be offended if he hadn't thought just randomly kissing her would be the best and simplest course of action right up until he saw her staring at the aquarium. Looking at her face, it just didn't seem like enough.

"We're starting to see sunlight outside the ship," Nami informs him, and Zoro glances up, realizing he zoned out a little. "We should surface in an hour or so. Lucy will want to see it."

Zoro nods, agreeing. Lucy would be disappointed if she wasn't awake for their reckoning with the New World.

He squeezes the hand clasped in his, and nudges her with his elbow. She's a heavy sleeper on a good day, but he's fairly certain she's totally opposed to waking up right now. "Oi. Lucy. Wake up."

She shifts, humming sleepily, and nuzzles into his shoulder, but otherwise doesn't respond.

Zoro sighs. "Hey. Lucy. We're surfacing." He shakes her slightly, grasping her shoulder.

"Hmmm. Zoro," she mumbles, and pathetically he feels a little spike of something flattered in response to his name being the first thing on her lips.

"Oi, wake up," he tells her, capitalizing on momentum.

She squirms, and he feels her frown against his neck. "Hungry. Sanji, food," she orders, still half asleep.

Zoro feels an eyebrow twitch at the mention of the cook bastard. He's going to be lucky to keep his legs when Zoro's through with him after that note, the fucker.

His renewed anger seems to wake her up better than anything else so far, and she sits up, blinking blearily and frowning at him, her face still clouded with sleep and her hair sticking up everywhere.

Mine, he thinks giddily. She's mine, and I want to see this every day for the rest of my life.

He's still a bit…raw, obviously. He hopes he settles down soon, but at least he's not alone in that if the way Lucy's gaze turns hungry as she stares at him is any indication.

"We're going to break the surface soon," Nami repeats. "You probably want to be on deck, right?"

Lucy startles, obviously a bit shocked to see the navigator. Then she processes the words and scrambles up off of Zoro, nearly pulling both of them to the floor with her flailing. "Yeah! Definitely!" She cheers while Zoro curses and stands.

He can't be mad though, when she's smiling like that. Or at all, considering the syrupy happy feeling tingling all over his body.

A strangled growl echoes through the little room, and all three occupants give Lucy's stomach a look ranging from impressed to horrified.

Lucy blinks at him, and then grins, grabbing his hand and yanking him toward the door behind her. "SAAAANNNJIIII, FOOOOOODDD."

Zoro manages to grab his katanas from where he set them by the door as she drags him along. It's not like he really tries to resist or anything, but it takes a little fancy footwork to take them up without making Lucy use her abilities. He's astonished at how quiet the weapons are, nearly docile. A week ago they were giving him migraines, and now...they almost seem united, like the four of them are finally on the same page, the hum in his mind a far cry from the wailing chorus that he's come to know.

"She's going to be awful when they actually start having sex," Nami grumbles behind them, "I'm going to have to double the food budget."

Zoro sends a glare over his shoulder because it's not that she's wrong, it's just that he'd like to be able to worry about their relationship without the rest of the crew prodding them.

But you know, nakama means you never have to say goodbye or be alone.

Nami gives him a challenging look. He lets it pass.

The rest of the crew is gathered on the lawn deck, chatting excitedly and sending him and Lucy's joined hands very not-subtle glances Zoro can't be arsed to care about. He'd much rather be teased than let go at the moment. He's done restraining himself around Lucy.

Mine, the still-deliriously-happy part of his brain chants. Mine, mine, mine.

He told her earlier that he wasn't going to make her do any of those things she suggested, but that whole tattoo idea is interesting. His hands tingle with the memory of her flesh between his fingers. Property of Roronoa Zoro indeed.

Maybe across her back, instead of her rear, so it's less demeaning? Underneath her leather band, so no one but him would see. Maybe his swords—

The cook bursts out of the galley, carrying several plates of food, and Zoro nearly growls, his hand clenching around Lucy's. She notices, somehow sufficiently distracted from the food to see his discomfort.

She frowns, and then her grin becomes downright diabolical, and Zoro just knows this is going to be either hilarious or infuriating.

"I'm getting a tattoo everyone!" Lucy declares, seemingly at random. Zoro raises an eyebrow. "On my butt!"

The cook chokes. Most everyone else gives Lucy a look somewhere between confused and fond, or a Lucy-specific mix of the two.

"What is it of, Lucy?" Robin asks, because of course she does.

Lucy's expression turns absolutely smug. "Only Zoro gets to know."

Zoro chokes.

Everyone chokes.

The cook cries.

Robin laughs, and so does Lucy, and soon everyone is laughing except Zoro and the cook, and even Zoro is resigned now, rolling his eyes, and Lucy sidles a little closer to him even as she eyes the food the cook is laying out.

Outside the sea is growing steadily lighter, the gradient fluctuating from black to clear periwinkle blue, and Lucy seems to grow more excited and animated with every passing minute.

She never lets go of his hand though. Not even during their meal, when it was an impediment to her furious shoveling of meat. At one point she even offers him some, which is how he knows she really meant it when she said she loves him. Lucy wouldn't share meat with God.

Their nakama are thankfully pretty casual about them, and don't make much of a fuss. Franky keeps giving Zoro suggestive looks that are one part the approving and suggestive raised eyebrows of an older brother, and one part the warning I-will-castrate-you looks of…an older brother. Nami occasionally gives him a glance that could be interpreted similarly.

Most of the crew, however, just smiles, like they're proud and somewhat relieved. Chopper especially looks happy every time he glances at them, and Zoro just hopes he doesn't bring up mating again like he did on Skypiea.

Sanji is the only one that looks at all displeased with the development, and even then it seems more like a token protest than anything. Zoro would ignore it entirely if he wasn't still furious about that fucking note.

But that can be dealt with later, when he isn't so violently happy.

"Look, look, whales!" Usopp calls, and everyone at the table whips around, trying to see what he's talking about, and in the paling green-blue sea they all express awe and surprise as the massive creatures surround them, the ship speeding up uncontrollably in the current the pod creates. They're beautiful, and unbearably loud as they call to one another in the water, affirming each other's presence in a way not dissimilar to the way Zoro periodically checks on his nakama.

Everyone stands, expecting adventure and chaos, and Nami wails for them to brace themselves to surface.

"It's like last time!" Lucy cheers, using her free hand to press her hat to her head. "With Laboon! It's like they're seeing us off!"

And Zoro has too much experience with Lucy's weird connection with furiously large animals to doubt her, figures she's simply right, and twists his free hand into the rigging to hold them both down as they breach the surface, the others screaming and Lucy laughing laughing laughing, and Zoro can't look away, wouldn't if he could.

They break through the sea, ejected on the whale pod's current hundreds of feet in the air, like a Coup de Burst on steroids, or the top of the Reverse Mountain again. The bubble of glistening resin pops at the peak of their arc, and the water droplets mix to create fractals of light, cast rainbows across the deck and dimple Lucy's skin, and she giggles at the effect, glancing down at herself and then looking up at Zoro in wonder.

For a moment Zoro is blindsided, wholly convinced that light radiates from her smile, not the sun, and reflects in the falling water droplets and oily resin in a cascade of color and brilliance that floods the seas, the skies, everything and all things, everywhere. Lucy is the center of the universe, all there is, and he can't help yanking her forward as she giggles, pressing a kiss to her temple and her cheekbone and the corner of her mouth, an echo of a promise made long ago, one he's finally ready to accept.

Lucy shivers, obviously remembering, and when he pulls back her gaze is wondering, hungry, reflecting the same delirious happiness possessing him. The rest of the crew screams as they descend, Franky scrambling to fire off a blast to make sure they don't land at a bad angle, and Zoro can't look away from Lucy, can't stop soaking in the warmth of her dark eyes or the naked want she displays when he brings her fingers to his lips.

He'll deal with the cook later, explain in no uncertain terms exactly how many steps past too far he went with that note. He'll fight monsters both human and not for this girl, challenge the very seas themselves, move the currents if necessary, cut through any obstacle in her path as they make their way to Raftel, be anything she needs to realize her dream and his too. They're going to conquer these seas, them and their nakama, and they're going to do so in style, incite chaos and leave freedom in their wake as they pursue it themselves.

His captain is going to be Pirate King, he's going to be the World's Greatest Swordsman, and he's so terribly in love with her it hurts.

Maybe some of this shows on his face. Maybe none of it does. Either way, Lucy doesn't break eye-contact with him, her own thoughts of the future swimming behind her eyes.

The ship lands heavily in the water, but the Adam Wood gives barely a groan, strong and worthy as it is to carry forth the next Pirate King and her crew, and their nakama let out a collective sigh of relief, unanimously looking to her for the next order even as the two of them relive their ascent to this place in each other's eyes until finally Lucy breaks away, giving his hand a strong squeeze as she steps to the center of the deck.

She looks around at this new and final sea, they all do, and Lucy stands before them with her hands on her hips and a grin on her face as her hat tips over her eyes, looking every inch a King.

She doesn't give a speech. She doesn't tell them how she relies on them and their bonds to make it through, or how they've carried each other this far. She doesn't warn of the dangers to come, or the difficulties that might await them.

She just smiles, hair whipping behind her in the wind, skirt billowing around her thighs, and says "On to the New World, and to Raftel!"

There's a collective cheer, a perfectly unified crew under one banner, under one captain, each strong and wholly devoted to her in their own way, and in perfect agreement as the nine of them face Sunny's bow, eyes locked on the horizon and new seas ahead.

Notes:

The sequel is up. It's titled "New Seas Ahead."

I want to thank, again, everyone who has followed, read, or reviewed this story. I've really enjoyed writing it, and I've loved hearing from everyone. I just wanted to say I really appreciate those of you who have stuck with me so far, and I'm glad you seem to have enjoyed it.

Thanks so much! It's been a trip!