(A/N: This was one of those birthday stories I started and abandoned; I rearranged a lot of stuff and it's pretty drabbley, but I wanted to share it anyway. Let me know what you think, and if I should make it a twoshot. C:)

The creature quivers, eyes wide and round in small face, and darts a fleeting glance between each one of them, coming to a rest on Luffy; it goes still, focusing intently, and Zoro narrows his eye. The voices nearby are getting louder, shouting and thundering closer, and before any of the Straw Hats have time to move, the animal spooks, and sprints straight toward their captain.

"Hey!" Sanji shouts, making a grab for it; it dodges his arms nimbly, jumps at Luffy, and plows him over into the pond. He yelps and flails for an instant before hitting the water, and after a singular, startled moment, Nami sighs.

"We can't have one normal afternoon, can we?"

Usopp, Brook and Chopper are already fishing Luffy out, so Zoro turns his attention to the road just as a group of disheveled village men break from the trees out onto the tarmac. They hesitate, shoulders heaving, and look around- eyes landing in no time on the little band of pirates.

"You there," one of them calls out. "Have you seen a strange creature run by here?"

"It looks something like a cat, with long ears and a tail," another says helpfully, holding up his arms to indicate its size. "Has it come by here?"

"Uh," comes Usopp's voice, quiet and unnerved, "guys, you might wanna... "

Zoro turns, and disregards the muted sounds of shock and confusion from his crewmates in favor of analyzing the expression on Luffy's face; of alarm and uncertainty in equal parts. He's sitting in the shallow water, arms held up and away from the creature attached to his middle. As if feeling Zoro's gaze on him, his eyes snap up and lock onto Zoro's one precisely.

He looks as pleading as he ever has before when he says, "It turned into Ace."

Zoro's hand falls from Shusui's hilt like a stone, and as Robin covers her mouth, and Nami drops to her knees, and Sanji's fists clench painfully, and the others only stare- dumbfounded and afraid- Luffy looks back down, very slowly

and a young boy, with freckles and matted hair and a bandaid across one cheek, looks up.

Luffy probably would have sat there, stunned and unmoving, for a long time; but it's chilly, and there are clouds moving in that promise rain, so Zoro moves forward and offers Luffy a hand.

It does well in shaking the rubber boy from his stupor, and when he puts his hand in Zoro's, the swordsman hauls him to his feet. Luffy does a weird dance away from the creature in the water, circling around behind Zoro like he isn't even aware he's doing it, keeping his eyes locked on the child the whole time.

And he's shaking, but that could have been from the cold. Sanji slips out of his jacket, dropping it around Luffy's shoulders and fussing with it; he mutters under his breath as he straightens the lapels and smooths out the shoulders, but Zoro knows it's only an excuse to linger and search Luffy's face intently for any sign of hurt or distress.

After a few minutes, half of the crew shifting protectively and eyeing the thing in the pond, the other half inching over to Luffy and biting lips against a torrent of "are you okays", Luffy seems to come back to himself with a blink.

"What is this?" he asks plainly, looking at Sanji, who finally drops his hands and moves back enough to take a drag from his cigarette.

"Search me, captain," the blond murmurs. There's a slight tremor in his fingers that belies an utter rage. "But it's a nasty trick, and I'd like to find out who's responsible."

It's only when Luffy's involved that Zoro finds himself thinking along the same vein as that ridiculous love-cook; because as one, the two of them turn to the men crowded in the street with expressions that promise retribution.

The one who spoke up first before throws up his hands. "We have nothing to do with that thing," he shouts. "It's caused nothing but problems for us here, we've been trying for days to drive it out!"

The villagers clamor, raising clubs and their voices in agreement; the little thing in the water whimpers, and Luffy flinches. Zoro cuts a sharp look at him as the mob starts to move past him to the water's edge, and Luffy meets it helplessly.

"Wait," Zoro says, for him. "What do you plan on doing with it?"

"Nothing, if it leaves quietly," an older man in the back spoke up. "We're not out to kill it, we just want it to leave. That thing has been a nuisance around here for too long."

What's the right thing to do here?

A man grabs the creature's arm, and it cries out and glares defiantly, scrambling and splashing up water in its attempts to get free, but it's all futile. It's dragged up onto the grass, coughing and gasping, face crumpling in its attempt not to cry-

-and then, so quickly no one saw it happen, the man is reeling back with a broken nose, the creature is swept up and away, and Luffy- cradling it safely against his chest- looks as surprised as the rest of them.

"I- " he starts, and falters. He looks down, and his arms tighten around the child; and when he looks back up, he's looking straight at Zoro. Wet, and with his hair plastered around his face, and Sanji's jacket, too-big and clinging to his shoulders, he looks young and pale and at a loss with the whole world.

"I don't know," he almost whispers and behind an expression that doesn't change, Zoro aches for him.

What's the right thing to do?