zoro was a man of his word. whatever came out of his mouth, he meant it. his words were never empty or untrue, and his promises never ran hollow. you, of all people, knew this to be true, as he especially kept his word when it came to you. he always seemed to stick to your side like glue. he refused to let you out of his sight. as much as he hated to admit it, he loved you. a lot. never would he have cared for someone that he had asked simple directions.

the day he decided to be a pirate, he just left. without a word. disappeared. no goodbye, no letter, nothing. just an "imaginary" kiss on your cheek that felt so faint and distant. it was like you could feel his lips on you, but had no idea how.

he abandoned you. was living the life of a pirate so worth it to leave you in a vast pit of worry and fear? he already had a high bounty on him. perhaps he thought keeping you with him would result in your death as well.

days, weeks, months, and years had passed since the two of you had last seen eachother, and you had learned to live without him. it took a while, but with time and patience, it became easy to live on without the constant pain of not having him by your side. but you always had him at the back of your mind.

however, you had no idea just how much you were eating away at him.

on the ship, with Luffy, Nami, Sanji, and the others, his mind would often wander back to thoughts of you. not a day passed by when he wasn’t thinking of you. he felt a wide range of emotions — rage, regret, and frustration. what if he took you with him? what if he woke you up to tell you goodbye?

so you could only imagine his reaction when he saw you at a nearby market.

as the Straw Hats came to a stop at a nearby port town for supplies, zoro wandered around the place, looking for essentials to put in the ship's storage. when his eyes landed on you, he froze.

— "You…"

he mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper. all memories suddenly began to come back to him.