EPISODE 7 : THE GIRL WITH
THE SAWFISH TATTOO
( Your Lips, My Lips )

THE SWEET SPRING wind had been too good to pass, and even before they went back into Nojiko's quaint and cozy home, Roronoa Zoro and Estrella Narváez find themselves unable to enter through the door.

Something tugs them back, an aching, grating sensation against their entire beings - Through that door is another dilemma, another problem in need of solving, another warm human body in need of comforting.

Estrella and Zoro share a look of agreement, and instead of doing the normal action of heading back inside, they find themselves situated comfortably against the old wooden exterior, hidden behind the shadows of the house just large enough to hide their bodies from the flickering porch lamp. The taller of the two slumps further into himself, pressing his back gingerly against the planks in fear of hearing a creak from the old wood.

Estrella takes a comfortable position against the soft blades of grass that tickle her fingertips. She feels secluded; A sort of silence that makes her feel almost secure.

The frigid wind gently tickles her cheeks as it eases around Estrella's body, the only path of warmth being the closeness of Zoro's arm pressing against her own, grounding her from being swept away by the pull of the cold breeze and the need to consume sleep in the growing darkness.

( Subconsciously, she leans towards that warmth. It's too inviting, too sweet ).

The rattle of the green-haired man's quiet breaths reverberates in Estrella's head, decorating the obviousness of their distance - Or lack of.

"Why are we hiding?" He whispers, ducking his head to meet his lips inches away from Estrella's warm ears. His breath is intoxicating, too hot against her skin. She shivers.

The bounty hunter turns her head to look into the man's dark brown eyes, blinking slightly at the jarring closeness of his piercing gaze. Chocolate brown hues blink back at her expectantly, slightly chapped lips poised into a small frown. The curve of his lashes is so prominent that if given the time, Estrella would be able to count each individual lash.

"I don't know." She whispers in return, directing her gaze to the white bandages that poke beneath Zoro's loose button up. "I was just following you."

The man squints, bringing a hand to his tousled green hair. He scratches his scalp, twisting his gaze to fluctuate between the woman staring at him earnestly through golden-sheened irises and the cold, hard, ground.

They fall into a soft silence, listening to the muffled words from the other side of the wooden wall. Estrella wonders if the people inside can hear their voices.

( Surprisingly, she doesn't want them too ).

Zoro adjusts himself against the grassy patches of otherwise barren floor, wincing slightly at the ripple in his tensed muscles. Estrella looks over at him, something resembling worry drawing her eyebrows close together.

"Is your injury acting up again?" She asks, peering at his chest.

The man looks into Estrella's eyes, and he finds he can't lie to her earnest gaze.

"A bit." He sighs at last, rolling his shoulder in an attempt to ease the pain. "I probably pulled something going up and down those stairs."

"Let me see." She urges the man in a whisper, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him closer.

He lurches slightly, screwing his eyes shut at the flare of pain in his chest.

"Sorry." Estrella frowns as she allows the man a few deep breaths.

With steady fingers and a breath lodging her heartbeat in her throat, the brunette gingerly brings her fingertips to brush against the first of Zoro's shirt buttons. She tries to ignore the catch of breaths and the awkward silence that rings in her ears.

Carefully, she slips out the button from where it is lodged, exposing more of the white bandages covering the green haired man's chest. A small seep of crimson blood erupts like a small flower against the pristine white, and Estrella clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

"You're bleeding again." She sighs, leaning closer to run her fingers softly against the injury. She looks up at him. "Does that hurt?"

The man grits his teeth, eyes half-lidded as he stares down at Estrella.

"Yes." He replies with a hiss, gingerly shifting his position so that his good arm holds the rest of his leaning body straight.

His eyes are crystalline, glossed over in a mix of pain and embarrassment, a small red flush coating the tips of his ears and the beginnings of his cheeks.

Estrella struggles for a moment, letting out a small shaky sigh. She doesn't want this to escalate. She can't let it.

( Estrella's fondness for Roronoa Zoro is only superficial. It is nothing more than a way to shift her focus from her own problems and to a distraction. Nothing more ).

Zoro swallows, and the woman watches his throat bob harshly against his Adam's apple. She tears her eyes away from the pitiful sight.

"I can't change your bandages right now." Estrella mutters, moving her fingers away from his injury and leaning away from him. "But I can close the wound."

The green-haired man purses his lips. He traces the lines of doubt that begin to stem from Estrella's face with his eyes, memorizing every one of her features and engraving them into his memory.

He hates Estrella Narváez. Roronoa Zoro hates that she is too secretive, too annoying to a fault. He hates that she is better than him, and even has powers he could never fathom. He hates that her eyes are full of heavy melancholy battered over with false cheeriness, and that her smiles are made of steel instead of honey.

He hates that he cannot tear his eyes away from the twinkle in her irises, or the gold that digs into his chest every time she touches him and ruins herself for him.

Roronoa Zoro hates that Estrella Narváez is so easy to like. She is so easy to need, to want to hold, but she is infinitely difficult to comply. Estrella is an enigma wrapped in an incomprehensible stardust of her own flaws and mistakes, and they blind her so that she can never see that the cocoon she has been hiding in all those years has been shed and she has bloomed into a creature that no longer needs to be alone.

"Okay." He says finally. Behind his eyelids and beneath his stony face, Zoro remembers Estrella's touch in his half-asleep mind, her kindness despite pretending she didn't care.

( Estrella Narváez is too good to him ).

Zoro remembers when he awoke to her tears, and the warm feeling that seeped into his chest as he heard her utter his name for the first time, a milestone that felt like something he would never be able to reach.

And perhaps somewhere in his heart, hidden away from anything sharp that could possibly pierce through it again, he allows Estrella Narváez's blade to puncture through his chest.

"Estrella." He calls to her suddenly. The woman hums, but her eyes are still trained to the the bandages around his chest, as though they might come undone and Roronoa Zoro might cease to exist the moment she looks away.

"Estrella." He says again, keeping his voice low. He doesn't want to risk being heard. Zoro hates being vulnerable, yet he calls her name so easily, as though it slides off his tongue in every lifetime.

But vulnerability is something Estrella has seen within him one too many times, and he no longer feels the need to hide away that part of himself.

"Look at me." He mutters, bringing a shaky and rough hand to gently touch Estrella's chin.

"What?" She sighs at last, her twisted brows and wide eyes meeting his. She looks scared, frightened of the possibility that perhaps this is all a messed up dream.

Estrella Narváez doesn't know how to love. Not anymore. She hasn't loved since Punto Alto, since Marisol Cáliz.

( The world is quiet. Estrella cannot hear the calamitous ocean beneath her feet condemning her, telling her she does not deserve to love again ).

"What happens when you use your power too much?" His brows are furrowed, a semblance of understanding flickering beneath the sharp ebony of his eyes. They are no longer brown, shadowed by the darkening sky.

Estrella turns her gaze to the side, seeing her mouth shut. Zoro pries apart her chest and digs his fingers around her heart, caging the already metallic encasing with a burning palm.

( Slowly, the layer of citrine shell begins to melt ).

He lowers his hands to Estrella's own when she doesn't say a word, taking her fingers between his palms and looking at them as though they are made from half-molten glass. Estrella feels like she is completely see through.

"Nothing." She lies, clearing her throat and snatching back her hand. Zoro doesn't let go, no matter how hard the brunette tugs.

"Would it kill you to sit still for a second?" He grunts in annoyance, peering up from his soft examinations of Estrella's fingers to glare half-heartedly at her.

"Would it kill you to let go?" She replies hotly, hating how warm everything is, and how close they are, crisscrossed knees and dirty boots clashing against the others.

"Depends." He hums, tracing one of the deeper golden veins that stems up to Estrella's wrist bone with a finger. "I noticed that the more you heal me, the more these grow."

Estrella purses her lips, letting her shoulders go slump. Stupid, nosy, Roronoa Zoro.

( Clever, endearing, him ).

"It's a curse." She sighs.

The man leans in. Estrella lets out a long breath. A small part of her wants to confide in Zoro, to share an intimate moment where she exposes truths about herself that no one else knows.

( No, the ocean whispers to her. You can't move on ).

"A curse?" Zoro echoes in confusion, his hand still enveloping Estrella's. Everything this man does is so warm.

Estrella looks into his concerned eyes. She is tired of running from everyone and everything that isn't home.

( Perhaps one day, she could rebuild a home here, instead of chase a silly fantasy that will end in nothing but broken hearts and empty graves ).

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‎A BITTER EXHALE falls from Estrella's lips, dry with the pressure of the breeze against her skin. She feels as though she has been torn apart, ripped open by her very seams, and exposed to the world as a mess of broken pieces and galactic thunderstorms of citrine rain and stardust.

Equally silent is the man beside her, Roronoa Zoro. With difficulty, he swallows both their stories and leaves them to digest against the arduous bile rotting a hole in his stomach.

( They feel bare, unshielded. Cold ).

A wandering swordsman, and a killer without a home to go back to. The titles feel too interchangeable for comfort, the thought of being so similar yet so different a prospect that digs into both their heavy burdened shoulders.

"So that girl became the ocean?" Zoro asks blankly, the thought never processing behind his wide eyes.

Estrella nods, pulling her arms to wrap around herself in an attempt to shield away the chill. The sun is completely gone from the waxy horizon, and the world is shrouded once more in thin moonlight and patches of darkness.

"And you? Your friend died?" The woman attempts to shift the conversation. Zoro slumps beside her, leaning almost tiredly against Estrella's pull. One of her hands is still caught in his grasp.

"Mm." He nods, gesturing to the eggshell white sword he carries with it everywhere. "This was hers."

Estrella swallows. Her free hand inches to her scabbard. Sharing this information to Zoro feels like tearing off a piece of herself and handing it to him on a blood soaked platter.

"My dad made me my machete." She hums, tracing the smooth surface with her fingers. "It was the last thing he ever made."

Saying the words out loud washes another wave of guilt through Estrella, and she ducks her head, hiding her face behind her tousled mess of hair.

"He died because of me." The brunette lets out a shaky exhale, turning away from Zoro.

They all did.

If only Estrella Narváez had never been tempted by the dewy eyes and starlit skinned daughter of the sun, if only she had never tried to be something more than she could be, then perhaps the Narváez family, and every other family in Punto Alto, would still be here.

The burly swordsman brings the woman into his arms, finding nothing he can say will ever convince Estrella that it is not her fault. In a moment of weakness and fear, Estrella allows herself to be wrapped around, to be held, tenderly and firmly and yet lovingly all at once.

With trembling fingers, Estrella snakes her arms around Zoro's neck, resting at the tuft of spiky green hair at his nape. She breathes in the smell of ocean water and lingering coppery blood, burying herself into him. Estrella does not want to be weak, she does not want anyone to see her shed tears.

( But doing so in front of Zoro is so embarrassingly easy ).

"I couldn't save any of them." Estrella spits, a muffled mess of hidden sniffles and golden tears that stain Zoro's shirt and bunch up his clothes.

Soothingly, he pushes the woman's hair behind her ears, pulling her away from him in an attempt to dry her tears with his fingertips. He says nothing, just watches Estrella finally break away from that mask she has been wearing since so long.

"Just say something, damn it." The woman mutters in between indignant sniffles, her brown eyes littered with golden flakes.

"I'm thinking." He says seriously, thick eyebrows furrowed and crumpled in thought.

Gently, the green-haired man takes Estrella's face between his hands, moving her gaze to stare right into his own eyes.

"It wasn't your fault." Zoro says earnestly. "You were just a kid, Estrella. There was nothing you could do."

"No, If I hadn't -" Estrella begins.

"If you hadn't been like every other teen and done things teenagers do?" Zoro raises a brow, offering a tilt of his lips. "There was no way you eating a Devil Fruit could've possibly sunken an entire island."

The bounty hunter stays quiet, allowing Zoro to wipe the remainder of her tears. She feels less humiliated at the prospect of crying in front of the man now that the moment has passed.

Still, even though she wants to believe Zoro's kind solaces, Estrella knows that there are some things in life that she will never be able to move past. Not without time.

Wiping her runny nose hastily, Estrella clears her throat and recalls why they had been in such close proximity in the first place.

"Your injury." She mumbles, shame rushing to her cheeks in a flurry of heat.

Zoro looks down at the wound with an air of disinterest and shrugs. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

( The lie is so obvious, and yet, Estrella allows him to get away with it. Not ).

"Liar." She narrows her eyes, and reaches for the man's half-buttoned shirt.

Zoro catches her wrists one moment before they can slip off his shirt, leaving them a tangle of awkward limbs and flushed cheeks.

Warm, ragged breaths tickle Estrella's chin and neck, and she glares down at the awe-stricken man who stares at her through glossed over eyes. From the pain, or from the lack of light, Estrella doesn't know.

"Just leave it." He huffs out, another hot breath escaping his lips.

"No way." Estrella argues. "You need to be in good shape in case something happens."

The green-haired man lets out a deep chuckle, eyes crinkling. The beginnings of a glittery plethora of constellations shine in his eyes.

"Estrella Narváez, are you worried about me?" He teases, regaining some of his senses.

Estrella flushes - From anger, she convinces herself. "What?"

"I'm flattered." The man continues, beginning to laugh quietly, Estrella breaks away from his grip and smothers his chuckles with her hands.

The two tumble to the floor, and Estrella frantically brings a finger to her lips, unaware of how close their faces are. Once more, hot breath fans her face, and she and Zoro lock eyes.

Estrella swallows. The earth buzzes. And then, the man before her leans upwards and cups her face once more, touch hands encasing Estrella's flushed face with a tenderness that makes her feel as though she might break apart in his arms.

Zoro wets his lips with his tongue, eyes flickering to scan the entirety of the woman's features, committing them to memory for an eternity.

"I know you might not think so, but you're beautiful, Estrella." He mutters, and the closer he gets, the more Estrella's chest feels like it might rip out of her body. "Like a star."

"Shut up." She mutters, and feeling like she might burst into flames and ascend at that very moment, cups Zoro's face in her hands and slams their lips together.

His lips taste like salt water, and he hungrily consumes Estrella as though he is a starved man being offered a glass of water, pressing his lips against hers and moving his hands to take through her messy waves. Estrella wraps her arms around his neck, her legs weak beyond compare.

( The thought makes her both giddy and terrified. She wants this ).

They pull apart a panting mess of swollen lips and wide eyes, stuttering hearts and shaking limbs.

Zoro swallows. Estrella does the same.

Then, a small crooked smile blooms on the green-haired man's face, and he engulfs Estrella in a warm embrace, inhaling the smell of her hair and clothes. The woman lets him, completely at a loss for words.

You deserve love, Zoro thinks as he presses his lips against Estrella's burning forehead.

( And oh, he prays that she will reciprocate and not desert him in his most vulnerable moment ).

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‎ ✣ AUTHOR'S NOTE !

barf.

anyways the title is so very obviously a cas lyrics ref cuz this chap is so cheesy and mushy and i absolutely detest it !!!! also it's basically js a filler lolll

someone tranq me cuz im ab to go feral ... writing this has fully convinced me that i physically cannot write ACTUAL romance i js like the prospect of it LMAOOO 😭

eugh this chapter has me shuddering and cold even in 100 degree weather i actually hate it so much i just threw away estrella's entire personality for a little smooch IM SO SORRY 😞 seriously someone sedate me i can't even bear to look at this chapter at all i'm ILL.

it took me so long to set a scene where it wouldnt be super random for them to kiss but idk yall its not hitting 😭 it doesn't help that the writing is so ass

going on a rant here but like im being so deadass i feel so grossed out by the sudden fast pace of the romance and the weirdly added feelings it feels so out of place and i hate it 🙏 im sorry yall im a slow burn writer thru and thru like i genuinely cannot fathom how two people can just randomly immediately fall in love it's so unrealistic and even tho ive been steadily building zostrella's relationship for the last like 25 chapters it just feels weird to suddenly throw them into a romantic relationship without elaborating further on their actual personalities and complex emotions because they're both stupid when it comes to relationships (sigh)

no hate to those of u that enjoy cheesy romance, i'm all for cutesy scenes but it was so difficult in this specific setting with these specific characters (closed off idiot #1 and closed off idiot #2) so it all felt off 😢 i admit it could've definitely been a better scene if i could actually write what i wanted buttt im legit dying inside cuz of the heat and the smart part of my brain is temporarily shut down for the summer so this is about as much as yall are gonna get until like sep/oct but by then i hope the vol is already complete 😭🙏

pretty long filler chap for all u romance lovers, honestly debated on scrapping the entire chapter and just pretend like that never happened but i made a promise and had to follow through 😣 cannot have another growing pains ending

this chapter is dedicated to all of u who continue to support this fic i love yall mwahhh 🤗 also to those who spam commented about the kiss and threatened to doxx me... you know who you are (cough ray).

next chapter marks the beginning of the final episode of season 1, and i want to stretch the first vol to be at least 30 chapters that way if either 1) the second season is ass or 2) i fuck up the second season in the fic, u guys will have gotten a lot of decent content before the fic goes downhill😭

sorry to those that feel this fic has been dragged out, i can't say ur wrong bc i actually put a lot of effort into incorporating estrella's backstory and character way more than i did in growing pains, where anjali was essentially just adjacent to zoro for everything (backstory, technique, etc) and lacked a really good and rounded character because to be honest i made her to revolve around zoro and kuina and im definitely going to fix that in future chapters... anyways i feel like estrella def had some development and i love her since she's one of my characters with the most backstory etc so i hate to see her falling off towards the end of the fic and will try to keep it to nothing above 30 chapters for vol 1 for sure🙏

idk how zoro and estrella's dynamic is going to be now, but tbh im so done with romance atm and will take like a quick while to gather what's left of their weirdly functioning relationship and see what i can do to not make it an awkward mess !!

as always feedback would be very appreciated !! questions, advice, etc, anything goes!!!! i take criticism pretty well so dw ab hurting my feelings

anyway pls lmk if there are any mistakes in the spelling or anything so i can fix it !

also don't b afraid to vote or comment, i will probably (very likely) reply!!!! and if you don't understand something, plsplspls lmk!! i want yall to fully understand what's going on

happy reads!

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─── ANNIE