Previously:

As first mate, Zoro knew it was his duty to the crew to find out what was bothering Luffy. He needed to shake their leader out of his strange reverie, and the only way to do that was through confrontation. When the swordsman reached the straw hat wearer, he copied the boy's position over the rails but remained silent. He wracked his brain, trying to figure out what to say to his Captain.

Luffy broke the silence first.

"What's Straw Hat Luffy without his straw hat?"

-x-

Zoro was so stunned at the outburst that he didn't reply. He hadn't though that his captain had even noticed his presence.

Luffy lifted the hat off of his head and held it in front of him, over the railing. He fingered the dented rim of the article before turning to the swordsman with a wry smile.

"It doesn't fit, you know. This hat… it's always been just a bit too big for me. It makes sense though. It isn't my hat after all."

"Luffy…"

"People always think that finding One Piece is just a childish dream of mind, but its not. Zoro… I need to become King, but for me. I'm doing it for Shanks, Ace, all of the crew… hell, I'm doing it for Alabaster and Vivi, Lougetown, and everywhere we've been. Sure, I want to be known as King of the Pirates, but that's just a title. What it represents is the most important thing."

"But even all of that isn't what's bothering me. Sure, its stressful but I'm up for the challenge. Hell, I love it. Being able to prove myself by giving Shanks back his hat will be the most fulfilling thing I'll ever do… heh, and beating Whitebeards crew will make Ace pretty annoyed., but what about after that? After I'm King, what will happen to the Straw Hat Crew? All of you guys have already given up so much to help me find One Piece, and after that happens, it'll be even harder to accomplish your goals."

Luffy lapsed back into silence and Zoro contemplated the points his Captain had brought up. He had never heard his leader speak so many words at once, especially without any mention of meat whatsoever.

"Luffy, when we joined this crew, we knowingly put our dreams on the backburners to help you achieve your goal. Right now, finding One Piece is the most important thing to every one of us."

"But Zoro…"

"Just think about it. Once you find One Piece, there's going to be a bunch of pirates out looking for your head in order to prove that they're the best in the sea, and I'll be there to tear each of them down. You won't even have to lift a finger and I'll be getting closer to my goal until I finally become the best swordsman there ever was. And what about Nami? You already freed her village from Arlong, which is way more than she ever hoped to achieve when she joined the two of us. With all this traveling that we're doing, she's already documented a great part of the Grand Line and her navigational skills keep improving. This voyage you included us in has already helped each and every one of us immensely. Why the hell are you thinking so hard about all of this anyways?"

"Hehe… exactly ten years from this day, Red-Haired Shanks saved me from death at the cost of his arm. He sacrificed his own safety, just so that a seven year old brat who picked a fight with a bandit had a chance to live. This day just really puts things into perspective."

Zoro looked at the rubber boy and sighed. Luffy didn't talk much about his childhood, and especially not Shanks.

"I guess the whole point of this was, do you realize that my fate is to die just like Gold Roger? I'm most likely going to be executed someday… and can any of you stand that? Can you just stand back and let my life ended by some Marine pansies?"

"No. We would fight and you would survive."

"And at what cost? Your life? Sanji's life? Or the rest of the crew's? The thing is, I want to be killed that way. Its a hell lot of a better way than to die in battle to someone who possibly wouldn't deserve the title and dying of natural causes would be a lot worse."

Luffy flinched and looked away from the swordsman. "The whole debacle with the Baron on Omatsuri Island (1) is definitely my worst memory to date… and I couldn't stand any of my crew dying for me and what I've done. Everyday, we get closer to One Piece and the danger surrounding us increases. I'm ready for the challenge, but I hate putting you all in needless danger."

Zoro sighed as he roughly rubbed his face with his right hand. "Luffy, there's no way in hell that we blame you for that damn Baron. Besides, what good is being a pirate if you don't have a bit of danger attached to every adventure? Believe me, you're not going to die due to some Navy scum and neither are any of us. Have faith."

Luffy smirked. "Faith? Heh… you don't have to worry about that. I have all the confidence in the world that my crew will be great and will survive. I… ehh, sorry. I really shouldn't have worried all of you over something so silly…"

"Luffy, you just keep surprising us. What's next? You actually preparing a strategy before confronting some enemy behemoth? Really, none of us ever imagined you to be so serious!" Zoro snorted at the uplift in mood.

Luffy frowned as he looked past the swordsman, towards the ship's cabins.

"What is it now?"

Luffy grinned shyly as he put the infamous straw hat back upon his head. "Well… I'm kind of hungry."

Zoro rolled his eyes as he pushed off the railing and turned towards where the rest of the crew had been silently eavesdropping.

"You heard the captain you shitty cook. Make us some food."

"Seaweed head!"

Luffy laughed gleefully as he jumped up the stairs towards the rest of the Straw Hat crew, his previous musings temporarily forgotten.

(1)- Reference to the Sixth One Piece movie. I highly recommend you watch it if you haven't already.

Author's note:

Okay, so the end result has deviated far from my original idea for this, but I'm hoping that's not a bad thing. Instead of a 500ish word drabble, this has become an over 2k ficlet… whew. Plus, it's my first One Piece fic, so hopefully I did the manga some justice and didn't completely butcher Luffy. I really can't decide for myself, I'm definitely my own worst critic, so any opinions through reviews are greatly appreciated!

Thanks for all reviews and I truly hope that you enjoyed this piece.

This story is definitely pending edits. Nothing major, but I haven't proofread either chapter yet… horrible, right? So please forgive any grammar mistakes.

-fin-