A/N: The final chapter! This is an extension of 'price that has been paid in full' so there is no real conclusion but I just want to explain that I wrote this with the Punk Hazard arc in mind. Zoro having to explicitly tell Luffy to leave the dragon to him and Sanji's reaction to when Zoro reprimanded Luffy to 'stop dicking around' sparked this idea that maybe, before the Punk Hazard Arc, something like these six chapters could have happened.

"You were supposed to move."

"I told you I wouldn't."

"You were supposed to move."

"I was closer," Zoro replies just as tersely because he finally remembers what he did and why he did it. He has no regrets. "I had him and-"

"I told you-"

"You-"

"Enough!" Chopper shouts, startling all of them. He pushes his patient back, forcing Zoro down. He has kept vigil often enough to recognize the lines of pain in Zoro's posture even when the swordsman himself will deny it. "Stop it, both of you!"

The strained distress snaps everybody else into action.

"OUT!" Nami orders and at her cue, Sanji and Franky grab Luffy by his arms to drag him outside; the pirate doesn't put up a fight. The rest of them, throwing uneasy looks between their captain and their green-headed swordsman trace out as well with Robin in the lead. Nami, after watching all of them go, turns to place a careful hand on Zoro's elbow.

"When you went down," She tries. "When Luffy hit you and you-you just dropped, we thought-Luffy thought," She stops and swallows hard, having to steel herself. When she sees the straw hat still placed on the bed, her gaze softens as her resolve hardens. "We thought we lost you Zoro, and the problem is we're not strong enough for that. We probably won't ever be, but especially not now. So whatever is going on between you and Luffy, fix it."

—

Chopper frets, worried that the shouting match aggravated his injuries and because it is Chopper, Zoro obediently tilts his head back to comply to Chopper's insistence that he check the wound.

(When the bandages slipped off but the half-darkness stayed, Zoro may have stilled but Chopper doesn't ask and Zoro doesn't answer.)

—

The one to break the strangely tense silence Luffy left behind is the love-cook.

"Marimo," Sanji greets as he places a tray down on the bed table. The meal is exactly as Chopper had asked for and the doctor, who is reading while keeping an eye over his patient from his desk, nods in approval. Sanji whistles. "You look like hell."

"Screw you," Zoro grumbles though he is quick to accept the food in grudging thanks. When Sanji makes no move to leave, he smirks. "Gonna feed me yourself?"

"Screw you," Sanji echoes, immediately and almost absentmindedly. He is flicking his lighter open and close his lighter. Zoro is sniffing the soup when Sanji suddenly asks. "You know it was just an accident right?"

The swordsman instantly stiffens, back tensing like that of an irritated cat's.

"No, shut up and listen," Sanji's eyes narrow because he can recognize defensive anger brimming when he sees it. "Two years is a damn long time. We can't... We can't help not being the same. Accidents happen, but all of us-even Luffy-are trying, so be the idiot you are and brood on, but quit blaming Luffy; he's so miserable he won't come near the kitchen."

Sanji adds idiots under his breath. The two are and he's stuck running interference because it's been two years two years and watching Luffy and Zoro ripping into each other is not what Sanji waited for. He raises his eyebrow in challenge, in question, daring Zoro to explain.

Zoro, being Zoro, rises up to the bait and grumbles. "It's the new world from now on. We can't screw up like this; it'll get all of us killed."

The cook takes in the seemingly non-linear answer, Zoro's glowering and realizes. "You're not pissed at Luffy for hitting you. You're pissed at yourself for getting hit."

Zoro twitches and Sanji, who is fluent in marimo-speak, understands it as the confirmation it is. He balks.

"So Luffy thinks you're pissed at him and won't talk to you and you're too pissed at yourself to talk to him?" Sanji throws his hands in the air. "What the hell? You two spent the past hours sulking and brooding like some love-sick teenagers-"

"Oi!"

"Putting the rest of us in misery and what the hell?" Sanji immediately turns to leave; his remaining course of action is obvious: "C'mon Chopper, let's go tell the rubber idiot a marimo idiot is looking for him."

"Love-cook," Zoro immediately shoots to the retreating back but the cook snorts, incredulous.

"Idiots."

—

Mere minutes after the cook's departure, familiar footsteps pad down the hall before the door swings open. "Luffy."

Luffy answers, just as quietly. "Zoro."

—

("He's mad at me."

"Yes," Robin agrees carefully. "But perhaps not for the same reasons you think him to be."

"I hit him," Luffy says because no one could deny that; that fact was laid bare for all of them to see. "I hurt him."

Robin does not try to offer condolences; she only asks. "Why didn't you let him take on the marine, Luffy-san?"

"...I could have handled the marine."

"Did you not trust him?"

Luffy's head snaps up. "I trust him with my life."

"Yes," Robin pauses. "But do you trust him with his own?"

And the rubber pirate stares at his friend while he thinks of another; Zoro who was steady strength that doesn't flinch in battle. Zoro who was fierce loyalty that would never yield an inch of ground. Zoro, who cared more about his crew mates than he cared about himself.

Zoro, who would rather die before he let his friends get hurt.

"No." Luffy remembers the scrutinizing look Zoro had given him before Zoro had turned away and ignored his order, the uncertainty in the gaze that on any lesser man, would have been fear. "And neither does he.")