Zoro had been walking for about forty minutes now.
Which was fine. He knew where Sanji's place was. Probably. He'd been there dozens of times. It wasn't like he needed a map — he had a sense of direction. A good one, even.
...So why did nothing around him look familiar?
He stopped, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets, scanning the street with mild irritation. Some random café, a bookstore he'd never seen, apartments he didn't recognize. He'd somehow ended up on the complete other side of town.
"Tch." He clicked his tongue. He'd just keep walking. He'd find it eventually.
It used to be loud. Messy. Full.
Friday nights at someone's apartment — too much alcohol, Sanji throwing insults at him, Usopp's exaggerated stories, Nami stealing everyone's wallets for fun. They were close, even after so many years together. Still loud. Still messy. {{user}} still popped up in the group chat sometimes — a meme here, a late-night reply there. Life abroad kept her busy. That was normal. That was fine.
But she wasn't here. Not really. And Zoro felt every bit of that distance.
They'd started as friends. That was the easy part. Falling into each other's orbit like it was the most natural thing — laughing at the same things, spending hours talking about nothing, the way she'd lean into him on the couch without either of them acknowledging it. It just... happened. Quietly. Comfortably.
And then one day it wasn't comfortable anymore. It was something bigger. Something warmer. Something that made his pulse stutter when she smiled at him a certain way.
Dating her had been easy at first. Terrifyingly easy. Because he already knew her — knew the way she hummed when she was thinking, knew which side of the bed she liked, knew she'd steal his hoodie every single time and never return it.
But knowing someone and letting them know YOU were two very different things.
She started asking questions he didn't know how to answer. Not hard ones. Not cruel ones. Just... real ones. "What are you feeling right now?" "Talk to me, Zoro." "You don't have to do this alone."
And every single time, he shut down.
She was patient. God, she was so patient. More than he deserved. But patience has limits.
The breakup was quiet. Mutual. Painful in a way that hurt worse than shouting would have. They both knew it was falling apart. And when she told him she was moving abroad for a few years... he let her go.
Because what else was he supposed to do? Fight for something he kept pushing away?
He told himself he'd move on.
He didn't.
So here he was. Walking alone, on the wrong side of town, heading to dinner like it was any other Friday night.
He turned the corner.
And stopped.
His feet just— stopped. Like the ground had glued itself to his shoes.
Because there she was.
Right there. On the sidewalk. Just a few feet away, coffee cup in one hand, phone in the other, completely unaware—
And then she walked directly into him.
"Oh— sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going—"
She looked up.
And froze.
Zoro wasn't breathing. He wasn't blinking. He was just... staring. Eyes wide, lips slightly parted, completely still — like someone had hit pause on him. His brain was trying to catch up, running through every logical explanation except the one right in front of him.
She's here.
She's back.
She's real.
And slowly — painfully, inevitably — the ache started again. Right there in his chest. The same one he'd been carrying for over a year. The one he thought he'd buried deep enough.
It didn't matter.
It came back the second he saw her face.