vvitch inbox.

[berrying]

( wip lol. )

Comments

text;

[theunluckygirl]

[in neat, carefully practiced handwriting:]

Good day, Mr. Zoro.

This is Jennifer. I was just writing to see how you were doing after we parted. Have you been able to fix your leg? I've been worried.

Sorry to bother you. Please let me know how you're doing.

Yours',
Jennifer.

text;

[berrying]

you don't have to call me mr
or apologize.

my friends found me the next day and did a healing ritual on me so i'm back to normal.

( he doesn't mention the part where they had to re-break his leg, or that the healing ritual was a blood ritual, but that's fine. )

i owe you my life. i don't say that lightly.

[theunluckygirl]

[oh okay we're doing the informal route here she sees. Now she feels a bit silly writing so formally.

The words 'I'm sorry' and 'my apologies' are written and crossed out MANY times]

I apologize often. I'll try to curtail it.

You don't have to. Owe me your life, I mean. I barely know what to do with my own. I just like to help.

But I'm glad you're doing well, and that you found your friends too! It'll be easier to not go at this alone.

[berrying]

i don't think anyone has a damn clue what to do with their lives here to be honest, but i like to help, too. so let me.

like you said, better to not do it alone.

:) :) :)

[swordlord]

Have you ever considered wearing less clothing?

asjshdgsgs goodbye

[berrying]

not really
only when my clothes start to stink
why

i had 2

[swordlord]

Once you start cutting down enough enemies it becomes rather pointless to bother with a shirt. The blood becomes a nuisance.

🤦‍♀️

[berrying]

that's...
oddly practical.

don't you ever get cold

special delivery ✨

[redforce]

( on a different evening — not wanting to raise any alarm with nikholas and the children, and because there is only so much shanks can effectively conceal on his person — another gift is left on the straw hat doorstep. this time, it's a bottle of greenish liquid labeled absinthe. a red bow is tied around the neck of the bottle with a note attached: )

Zoro, Nikholas called this the "Green Fairy." Highly potent. Drink wisely. -S ☠️

text — un: NAMI

[money]

so

( sooooooo.

nami is so sick and tired of people counting on her to be the one who’s good at talking about emotions. when has she ever given off that impression? hello? but are they just Not going to talk about it? )

you and sanji

?

text;

[berrying]

( wait for it...


wait for it ........


waaaait foooor iiiiiit ................ )




no

[money]

what do you mean ‘no’! not ‘no’! yes!!!
you could’ve mentioned something sooner, asshole

[berrying]

it's not

we didn't

when you were gone we kissed i guess but i was trying to get him to drink more blood so he would heal faster because he was being a stubborn dick and wouldn't let me try that fucking ritual or whatever that you guys did for me

( it's felt hollow every time he's used that excuse since it happened, but it's even emptier now, after ... )

i don't know what that was the other night

i wasn't trying to keep anything from you. didn't think there was anything there to keep.

after his woof week spree in the woods kdfgjsdlg

[swordlord]

(After settling things down and realizing what had happened, his first thought went to Zoro. Koby was well taken care of by now, but realizing he had accidentally abandoned his student in the middle of some crazed lunar romp in the woods stung his pride a bit. He wasn't used to feeling something of a failure and he wasn't entirely sure how to make up for the lapse of control on his end.

Might as well start with...a letter! Or something.)

Zoro.

I regret to inform you that I had a bit of a

Malfunction with my new wolf instincts and lost sight of myself for a while.

(Haha this is huMILIATING.)

I (DEEP, DEEP SIGH.)

I apologize. For leaving abruptly like that.

700 years late w coffee

[berrying]

( zoro wants to be pissed off. he does, because what the fuck? how could mihawk leave without saying anything? worse than that, who the hell could possibly train zoro to beat him once they're back in their world?

unfortunately, the sight of mihawk's offensively elegant handwriting in his notebook nearly makes zoro drop his notebook on the floor with joy instead. thank god he's home alone. )

good.
you owe me twice as much of your time for a week to make up for it

( so scary, so threatening. there's a brief pause before he can't contain himself anymore, because he's been dying to tell him: )

i got my sword back

( underlined a shit ton, for good luck. )

and i'm some kind of cat or something

( far less important than the sword thing. )

text — un: SANJI

[scone]

[ it's taken him the better part of the hour, but he's pulled himself together enough to prep a bowl of fresh meat and a generous pitcher of blood for zoro. he hurts in a way he hasn't since being stuck on that rock with zeff, and he feels one bad move away from kicking down the bedroom door and sinking his teeth right into zoro's throat. it's why he stands firmly on the other side of it, his food balanced on a tray. ]

can you get up yet? i'm leaving your food outside the door.

cw gore and body horror and stuff

[berrying]

( zoro's recovering, if only because he has no choice to — laying uselessly in their bed that's felt emptier lately for reasons he knows but doesn't like thinking about. it's easier to just sleep, ignore the nightmares of severed limbs, the grinding of metal against bone, sword clattering to the ground. this one is different, though — nami's there, too, tied down before him, tears on her face and hand reaching out desperately towards him as she's slowly sliced in half by the witches, and she's screaming in pain and he's yelling and struggling desperately against his restraints and he can't save her —

zoro wakes up with a jolt, gasping for air, throat feeling raw like he had been screaming for her. a hand touches his face, his neck, his shoulder — and everything is attached still, silvery scars where cuts had once been raised just slightly beneath his fingers. nami's despair still claws at him, though, sits so heavy in his chest that he almost thinks about calling to her through their connection just to see.

almost. because he gets a message instead, and he sits up slowly to grab for his notebook, blinking the sleep from his eyes as he reads it.

so, the cook's here — he must not have actually been screaming in his sleep, or he thinks that idiot probably would've burst through the door. he can smell the blood and the meat if he lets himself focus on it, which is actually helpful in grounding himself back in this fucked up reality. )

i could try
are you going out or something?

( unwritten: why don't you bring it in? not — that he expects to be waited on. but maybe zoro's gotten a little too used to it. )

[scone]

[ he feels shitty, because zoro is obviously not okay and hasn't been for a while. the necromancers at the circus did a hard number on him, and sanji has been pointedly trying not to think about what might have happened had he not stumbled upon that tent. it's a painful hook in his chest, the thought that he might have been too late, or might have not made it at all, and zoro could be gone. just like that. the strongest man he's ever known, picked apart like an animal on the wrong end of his cleaver. all while still alive.

his forehead lightly thunks against the door, eyes screwed tightly shut. he doesn't want zoro to try getting up and risk hurting himself further, not when he's seen the pain he's in. the scars, they've realized by now, only serve to hide his wounds beneath. a superficial, magical band-aid courtesy of the witch sanji had killed.

if zoro doesn't eat, he won't heal. in other words, if sanji doesn't get his shit together.

he twists the knob, looming in the doorway. he has no right to look as bad as he does when zoro is the one currently dying, but the whiplash of losing nami's connection, of arguing with nami at all, and his cavernous hunger has hollowed him out. as if daring zoro to say something, he crosses the steps to their bed, setting the tray on the nightstand. the expression he gives zoro is pinched, shadows etched into his face. ]

Sit up.

[ the room is hot from the fire burning in the hearth, though sanji has firsthand knowledge that zoro's body runs hot anyway, especially when he sleeps. he eyes the angles of zoro's body, so hungry that he'd lick the salt from his skin and be satisfied. his sleeves ride up as he reaches for zoro's pillows to prop them against the wall, revealing his bandaged wrists — still not healed either, and not any closer to it while he's starving himself. ]

I'm busy. [ he swallows, his throat bobbing. ] We need more blood.

[berrying]

( zoro's ears twitch at that small thunk against the door, brow furrowing, confusion building which he attributes to his abrupt awakening. mere moments later, the door opens, and the cook stands in the doorway, shadowed without the flicker of the fireplace to light him. lazily, he fumbles with the drawer of the night stand beside him, dropping his notebook in there, because — okay, the cook is still here. weird. why the hell did he write him a message?

it doesn't matter, because the smell of raw meat and blood hits zoro's nose and his stomach growls, mouth practically salivating.

he barely has to be told to sit up, grimacing a little less than he expects as he pushes himself up, scooting backwards as sanji reaches out to fix his pillows for him — and his eyes flicker to those bandages on his wrists, stained coppery-red. there's a pang in his stomach at the realization, because —

zoro's wounds have been healing over the past few weeks. though he's stayed mostly in bed, sedentary, everything scabbing over into a thicker silver tissue in all the places he'd been rejoined, he hasn't been actively bleeding since — well, since sanji had rescued him in the circus tent and made that necromancer fix him. it reminds him all too well of the bandages over his eye, blood seeping through, the grief radiating off of the cook so strongly zoro swore even he could feel it.

it feels like that now, too. )

Cook, ( zoro says, immediately realizing how stern it sounds, blanching a little. ) There's nothing dumb enough to be outside when it's this cold. Can't you feel it? ( because he can, since he's changed — it's weird, the foreboding sense that washes over him in the day or so before a snowstorm hits the village.

he tips his chin up, eyes scanning sanji's face, like he's already ready for whatever bullshit excuse is going to tumble out of his mouth before zoro even says: ) Eat with me.

text — un: NAMI

[money]

question

( a little weird to be messaging him, since she's just a door away — but some questions are better asked not face to face. like, for example, this: )

remember when you offered to let sanji tie you up?
was that offer exclusive to sanji?

[berrying]

( it may or may not take zoro a little while to even see nami's message, let alone respond to it, because even though he's most definitely on the mend now after a rough start to the year, his midday naps feel even more frequent since he changed. it's hard to distinguish whether it's a cat thing or just a zoro thing.

when he finally does yawn and open his notebook with bleary eyes, reading nami's words, he drops it on his face. )

i forgot i said that

( or, really, he forgot that he was so — desperate. and forgot that he let nami read it. )

it wasn't.
you'd
you're into that?

[money]

yeah. maybe.
i was just thinking about it.

( nami isn't as worldly in that direction as one might assume — but it was a seed zoro himself had planted, and now it's flowered out. stuck at home under their paternal third party, she's gone through the motions of thinking about literally anything and everything else. now there's just zoro and rope. )

would you let me?

inbox threads are The Thing

[kobes]

Are you awake? I'm not leaving this salmon under your pillow again.

[berrying]

mmmmmm salmon

( uncertain if drool on the page registers as part of zoro's message. )

i'm awake but probably not for long
believe it or not, i actually went out for a run this morning for the first time in forever. felt like shit but kind of good too
definitely wouldn't say no to a late lunch

[kobes]

Okay, good, stay awake for a little more. This thing is very heavy, so I'd rather not carry it around. [Smelly fish is great when you're a seal, but dragging it around human-shaped is...smelly.]

You went for a run??? Are you sure you're recovered enough? If you strain yourself too much, you could hurt yourself WORSE!! What were you THINKING?!
Seriously, don't do that again. And don't move until I get there.
I mean it.
I'll eat this whole fish myself, see if I don't.

[Fret, fret, fret.]