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There's a lot of frantic moving around him, and Zoro can barely keep track of who's hands are where anymore. His entire torso is stinging so sharply it's nearly numb. Every time he closes his eyes, he sees him: all sharp yellow eyes and sharper teeth. He feels hands at his face turning him.
"Zoro? Zoro, can you hear me?"
He makes a grunting sound that he hopes can be interpreted as yes, now please let go of me and stop pressing things to my chest because it fucking hurts, you fucking idiots.
"Shit, he's getting paler," Usopp says. "You don't have any more than that?"
"This is it," Yosaku says. "I can check again--"
"Go," Usopp says.
Zoro can hear some sort of liquid sloshing, blending in with the sound of waves lapping at the edges of the small boat. It sways beneath him and then lurches suddenly.
"Johnny?" Usopp calls.
"Sorry!"
Usopp sighs some string of expletives under his breath, but Zoro can't really make them out because there's someone else screaming out suddenly, and his chest is fucking on fire. Somewhere below the screaming is Usopp's repetitive apologies, but they fade with the rest of the noise, until it's all gone completely.
When Zoro opens his eyes, it's to darkness. He knows he's still on the boat because he can feel it continue to gently sway below him, but other than that he's not really sure where they are, what time it is, and what's going on. He blinks a few times and then reaches up to scratch at his eyes. His arm aches with the movement.
"Shit, you're awake," Usopp's voice hisses from the darkness. There's a small clicking sound and then a lantern lights on a table next to him to reveal a small cabin they're both tucked into on this boat.
"What's going on?" Zoro croaks out. His throat scratches as he speaks, but it's nothing compared to the burning coming from his chest.
"You, uh," Usopp winces. "You passed out."
Zoro makes a face at him. "What? When? I was awake when..." he fades off, the memories of his fight with Mihawk floating back to him.
"Yeah, it was when I tried cleaning your cut."
Zoro frowns and looks down at his chest. In the soft light from the lantern, he can just make out a stretch of bandages wrapped messily around his chest. There are small blossoms of red here and there across them.
"How are you feeling?" Usopp asks, a bit quieter.
"Like hell," he grunts, laying his head back down. "Are we on Johnny's boat still?"
"Yeah. We're still trailing a bit back from Nami, but she's in our sights. They're both out there working the sails and keeping us on track."
Zoro nods. "You--" he clears his throat hard. "You hear any update from Luffy?"
"Not yet. I think he'll be some time. Here." Usopp holds out a cup of water to him. "They don't have a lot, but they said to drink as much as you need and they can stock up when we reach the next island."
Zoro sighs and contemplates telling him he doesn't need it, but his throat is cut raw, so he tries to shift up onto his elbows.
"Easy, easy," Usopp urges, moving forward to brace his hands at Zoro's upper back and chest. "Here, hang on." He slides another pillow beneath him to help him sit up more.
"All the way," Zoro insists. "Just, set me against a wall or something."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Usopp doesn't seem thrilled at the idea, but he gets up and starts to help Zoro maneuver himself up more. He braces his hands to the edge of the bed, putting all his strength into pushing the cot up against the wall, arms straining. Once it gets into place, he helps Zoro lift himself up to lean against the wall. Something tears down near Zoro's side and he gasps in a breath.
"It's okay, it's okay," Usopp urges. "Just leave it, I'll fix it. Here, drink."
Zoro takes the water cup, but pauses before he sips from it. "Thanks," he says quietly.
"Yeah, yeah," Usopp says on an exhale, focus set on unraveling bandages from a box. "Drink."
Zoro drinks.
Usopp peels back one of the bandages at Zoro's side, painstakingly slow.
"Just rip it off," Zoro sighs.
"I don't want to reopen anything that's started healing," Usopp says, brows furrowed while he concentrates. "Just relax. Keep breathing too so the bandages set naturally."
"I wasn't not breathing."
"You know what I mean." He sits back and reaches over, sifting through the box. It's a bent up metal tin with what looks like just a bunch of junk inside. He finds whatever it is he was looking for and leans over again, setting bandages in place and brushing something just gently against Zoro's skin that makes him suck in a sharp breath. "Easy," Usopp says, hardly audible. "Just relax. I'm not gonna hurt you. Just trying to clean some of the residue out. I wasn't able to really get in here before."
Zoro tries to stretch his neck to look down, but one of Usopp's hands is blocking his view. He leans back with an exhale, knocking his head against the wall behind him.
"Are you in any pain?"
"No."
Usopp straightens and looks at him directly. "You don't have to lie."
"I'm not."
Usopp just holds his gaze.
Zoro sighs out and pulls away, looking out toward the far wall instead. "It hurts at my ribs."
"Yeah, makes sense," Usopp says, tossing something back into the box. "That's where it's closest to the bone. Down by your hip too."
Zoro frowns, taking inventory of the pain there, and realizes it's stinging quite a bit. "I didn't realize that hurt until you said something."
"Sorry," Usopp says, ducking his head again to press something cool to his side.
"Oh wow," Zoro says, inhaling at the touch. Whatever it is sends a wave of something cool blossoming across his side.
"Good?"
"Yeah. What is that?"
"It says it's for burns and inflammation. Your skin is really red and hot to the touch, so I figured this would give you a bit of relief."
Zoro nods. "Yeah, that feels way better. Can you do that over here?" He points to his chest on the left side where Mihawk's blade sliced into him.
"Yeah, I'll hit that next." Usopp finishes adding it to his side and then places a bandage over it, setting it with tape. He scoots a bit closer on the bed, hip bumping into Zoro's and then leans across him to get a better look at the other cut. His fingers brush gently at the skin around it.
Zoro clenches his jaw so he doesn't flinch at the touch, but Usopp's eyes snap up to his mouth and then up to his eyes.
"That hurts?"
Zoro shakes his head.
The concern in Usopp's gaze switches to something a bit more pitying. "You should know better than to lie to a liar." He turns back to the cut, brushing his fingers against his skin again. He's incredibly close when he's leaning over him like this, and Zoro realizes quite quickly he's never actually taken in Usopp's more subtle features. Like the way his eyelashes curl naturally, or the way his nose narrows in before it curves out. There's a small mark on the side of his jaw that might be a scar, or might be a birth mark. He can't tell.
"Okay, ow, fuck," Zoro says.
Usopp laughs quietly to himself.
"It feels like you're sticking me with a bunch of needles."
"Yeah, that makes sense. The skin is still raw, even just around the cut. I think he got to, like, nerves or tissue or something. I can't really tell, I'm not a doctor or anything. Most I can do is clean this out for you. Stitches may have to come at some point."
"Great," Zoro growls. "Can you just use that cold stuff again."
"Sure, I just need to clean it a bit first."
"And that's the stinging part?"
"Yep."
"We can't skip that part?"
"Not unless you want an infection that will put you on bedrest for a month."
"Clean it."
Usopp's eyes flash up to his, amused. "Thought so."
He grits his teeth, muscles tense while Usopp leans across him and dabs a small cloth to his cut. It comes back spotted with blood. He gets a new one and then douses some sort of liquid on it.
"What is that?"
"Alcohol."
Zoro stares at him, waiting, but Usopp is busy making sure the cloth is plenty saturated with it. Zoro reaches over and taps his hand to Usopp's leg. "You gonna offer?"
Usopp frowns at him and then it hits him. "There's only a little left and I need it to clean your cuts."
"One sip will be fine."
"What is one sip gonna do for you?"
"Make me not want to strangle you when you press that to my shoulder." Zoro's barely done with the sentence before Usopp's already pressing the bottle into his hand, and Zoro lets out a laugh that only causes a slight ache in his ribs. "Thanks."
"Don't need to threaten me twice," Usopp murmurs, leaning back over him.
Zoro takes a quick sip and then nods at Usopp to give him the OK to clean the cut. He breathes through his teeth while it burns and Usopp rattles out quiet apologies and only a few more seconds and then finally he's pressing a small fabric square of the cooling gel, and Zoro exhales in relief.
"Better?" Usopp asks.
Zoro lets his eyes fall closed and nods his head.
"Good. You know you're psychotic for all this, by the way, right?"
Zoro's mouth curls into a smile. "Haven't you ever had a lifelong dream you wanted to accomplish?" He waits, but when Usopp doesn't respond, he opens his eyes to look at him. He's just focused on the cut at Zoro's chest. "No?"
Usopp shrugs. "I don't know. I just... I always just wanted to be brave, you know?"
Zoro watches him for another moment before he speaks. "You don't think you are?"
"Maybe. I'm trying to be."
"What are you doing to try?"
Usopp frowns as he adds more cooling gel to the fabric. "I don't know. I mean, I left my home, didn't I? Left all my friends behind and..."
"And Kaya?"
Usopp's eyes shift to meet his. He holds Zoro's gaze for a moment before he looks back down at the cooling gel. "Yeah. Her too."
"You two were close."
Usopp takes in a deep breath and sets the cooling gel down on the table. "A little, yeah." He leans back toward Zoro's cut and gives him a quick warning before he presses the gel down onto his skin.
"You miss her?"
Usopp shrugs. "Sometimes. You know how it is." He glances up at Zoro. "Didn't you leave someone back at home when you left with Luffy?"
Zoro frowns and shakes his head. "I told you. I was already out on my own when we met."
"Oh yeah." Usopp looks back toward the door and then over at him. "What about them? They were your friends?"
Zoro nods. "Something like that, yeah. We hunted together."
"When you say it like that, it sounds like you were hunting animals in a forest and not, you know, human beings."
Zoro's mouth twitches up. "Sorry. Force of habit. Bounty hunters talk about pirates like they're animals."
"You're a pirate now too, don't forget."
"You're right."
"So is my dad."
Zoro feels a bit of surprise at the mention of Yasopp. He never met him, of course, but he's heard Luffy and Usopp talking about him. It's clear that Usopp admires him, but he doesn't talk about him often. "I heard about the Red-Haired Pirates, but never the members' names. We were too small to hunt any crews that big."
Usopp shrugs and tosses aside the fabric square. He grabs the bandages and starts unrolling a stretch.
"Anyway, you're forgetting something important here."
"What's that?" Usopp asks, tearing off a stretch of bandage. He presses it gently to Zoro's cut and starts taping it into place.
"You're a pirate, too."
Usopp's movements falter just slightly and Zoro can see the recognition hit his gaze, like he's just realizing that fact.
"You fly under a black flag same as me, don't you? Same as Luffy? Same way your dad does?"
Usopp swallows and refocuses on setting the bandage. He tears a piece of medical tape and starts putting it in place.
Zoro reaches forward just a bit to rest his hand on Usopp's leg, giving him a soft squeeze there. "I'd say that's pretty brave, wouldn't you?"
Usopp looks up to meet Zoro's gaze again. Beneath his hand, Usopp's muscles slowly tense. "Um, I... I don't know. I guess. But... it's not the same as..."
"As what?"
"I don't know. I mean, watching you just take on Mihawk without a second thought? You just walked right up to him as you are. No preparation or anything."
"Back in your hometown," Zoro continues, "you didn't run from anything. You stood between Kuro and your village with just yourself."
Usopp sighs and drops his gaze.
"Besides," Zoro adds, tilting his head to try to catch Usopp's eyes, "I've been preparing to fight Mihawk for my whole life. Since I could hold a sword. You never prepared to fight a fucking cat butler."
Usopp breaks out into a soft laugh. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Zoro gives his leg another squeeze. "See? Brave."
Usopp nods and looks up to meet his gaze again. "I feel pretty lame sitting here making you say all this while you're practically bleeding out."
Zoro's smile curves wider and he shrugs. "I called you brave. I didn't say you weren't lame."
Usopp drops his gaze, laughing.
For whatever reason, Zoro reaches forward with his free hand and shifts Usopp's face to look directly at him again. "You don't have to fight people one-on-one to be brave, though. Just so you know. You can be brave in a million different ways that don't involve fighting."
Usopp takes in a slightly shaking breath, but he nods against Zoro's hand.
"But if you tell anyone I gave you this pep talk, I will make you fight me."
"Noted, yeah. Got it. Will not repeat it."
"Good. I'm sort of building a reputation and I don't want Luffy to think I'm soft, you know?"
"Are you?" Usopp laughs. "You don't seem very soft to me. You're always so stern and stoic. Like a statue."
"I can be soft sometimes," he reasons. "Mostly when I'm still delirious from passing out from blood loss."
"Right, of course," Usopp laughs.
"And when I think someone's earned that side of me." He waits for Usopp to look back up at him. "I mean it. You tell anyone about this, it'll be your head."
"You terrify me."
"Good." Zoro tugs him forward just a bit, but it doesn't take much effort. Usopp leans in just as well, and then Zoro tilts his head enough to gently slip his tongue into the kiss. He tugs softly at Usopp's bottom lip before Usopp pulls back from him.
"You're injured," he says, clearing his throat.
"Mhm," Zoro nods. "It's making me feel better."
"Yeah, until I fuck up and, like, press an elbow to the giant gash across your chest."
Zoro reaches forward to Usopp's hands and then wraps his arms around his neck. "So keep your elbows away from my chest. He pulls Usopp closer by the waist and presses another kiss to him.
"I don't think this is conducive to your healing."
"It is," Zoro nods, mouth brushing against Usopp's. "It just takes some time."
"So I should... I should keep...?"
"Yes," Zoro laughs against him. "You should keep kissing me."
"Okay, great." Usopp tilts forward again, enough for Zoro to lean back against the wall again. He tugs Usopp closer by his waist and leg before Usopp pulls his head back again. "I am going to draw a line though, because you're actively bleeding."
Zoro sighs out, shoulders dropping, but he nods. "Alright. That's fair."
"You should rest. I'll go check to see how close we are--"
"Oi," Zoro says, tugging Usopp forward again. "Didn't say we couldn't kiss. We just need to be slow."
Usopp's brows tilt up. "Oh."
Zoro tilts his head. "For now."
Usopp nods against him. "Okay. Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's-- Okay. Sure. I mean, if that's something you... You know, if--"
"Shut the fuck up."
"Right."
Zoro pulls Usopp into a kiss again, letting his head cloud over with it and take over the shame from losing to Mihawk, and the pain burning across his chest. Instead, he lets himself feel relief and a bit of joy for the first time in a while.