Fic: nakama (n.)
I was looking in my old WIPs folder for inspiration for a onepiece_300 fic. Didn't manage that, but I did stumble across this ancient, ancient Zoro+Chopper fic that was too fluffy to post.
Title: nakama (n.)
Summary: Leaving Drum Island, Chopper gets to know his new nakama
Characters: Chopper + Zoro
Words: 949
Rating: G
Warnings: Fluff!
It's the hottest he can ever remember being. Drum is well behind them now, so distant that not even the faint glow of pink snow can be seen on the horizon. The others went to bed near sunrise, after their raucous party, but Chopper's too excited to sleep. He's taking an inventory of the medical pack Doctorine prepared instead, laying out the precious packets of herbs systematically around him. The last things he finds are three sheets of paper, neatly folded - the notes he'd compiled on his latest patients, he realises, and Chopper fights off a sniffle as he realises just how much Doctorine understood him, even if she couldn't bring herself to show it.
He repacks his herbs, and is about to get up when a deep voice next to him says, "What're those?"
Chopper squeaks in fear and dashes for cover behind the mast, eyeing the human warily. It's the scary one, the green-haired swordsman. Zoro, the others call him. Chopper wouldn't ordinarily have sat so close to him, but Zoro's coat had smelled of home.
"I'm not going to eat you," the deep voice rumbles again. Then, with a touch of impatience, it adds, "Well?"
Chopper realises he owes the swordsman a reply. "They're my medical files on Nami and Sanji and Luffy," Chopper says, looking at the sheets of paper he still clutches in his hoof. The mention of his captain's name makes Zoro frown.
"What happened to Luffy?"
"I can't say. Doctor-patient confidentiality," Chopper says, and Zoro snorts, a little alarmingly. "Well, you can't expect to climb the Drum Rockies wearing shorts and sandals, no gloves and no coat, with two people on your back without getting injured, right?" Chopper decides it's safe to say.
A hard, serious look comes into the swordsman's eyes for a moment, then it clears. "Guess not," Zoro says, beginning to remove his winter coat. Chopper half-wishes he could do the same. Then he sees it. The gigantic scar running diagonally across Zoro's chest.
"Guess I'll have to start one of these for you soon too, huh?" he blabs. And then he's mortified, because he realises Zoro might take that as an insult, but instead the man grins and settles back comfortably against the deck.
"Probably."
That one word makes Chopper relax at once, and he stashes the sheets of paper back into his pack and turns to go.
"You've forgotten something."
Chopper turns back, to see Zoro holding up a small scrap of paper. "Nakama," he begins to read off it. "Someone that you -"
"Give that back!" Chopper interrupts, blushing pinker than one of Doctor's more successful experiments.
Zoro raises an eyebrow and hands it over. "I didn't just violate doctor-patient confidentiality, did I?"
"No," Chopper says miserably, taking it in his hoof, knowing that Zoro will now think he's an idiot.
It's been playing in his mind over and over again. Him and Doctorine in the snow, triaging the three new patients who've just appeared over the edge of Drum Rock. He thinks they're all out cold, but he's wrong about the frostbitten one, who grabs Doctorine by the arm and struggles to speak through chattering teeth. If it had been Chopper he'd grabbed, he'd have run away and hid, but Doctorine knows just what to say. "Don't worry. I'll take care of that kid and this girl. Rest easy."
"They're my NAKAMA!" the human roars back, and Chopper gasps at the look in his flared eyes, which manage to be frantic and angry and pleading and a thousand other things at once.
"Nakama," Chopper repeats to himself, idly tearing a scrap of paper from the edge of a clean sheet. He prints the word on the scrap, then pauses. Doctorine's taught him that whenever he reads or hears a new word, to come up with a trial definition first, then check it against the dictionary. But he doesn't know how to even begin defining this one, how to capture the thousand things the human was saying with those eyes in just a few words.
It doesn't mean family. He's sure of that. The human has black hair, the female orange hair, and the second male blond hair. Genetics precludes them all being related.
But it doesn't mean friend either. He's heard the people in the village call each other "friend", and he knows that can't be the sum total of what "nakama" means. You don't risk losing all your fingers and toes to frostbite for just a friend.
He thinks and thinks, and finally makes a stab at a definition. It doesn't seem entirely satisfactory, but it's time to change the female's cold compress, so it'll have to do for now.
"I didn't know what it meant when I wrote that, but I know now," Chopper hastens to explain, on the defensive now. "Doctorine told me."
"'Someone that you care about more than you care about yourself'," Zoro quotes from memory. "I dunno, seems to me you got it pretty much right the first time."
Chopper stares at Zoro for a moment, then retreats into his usual defensive mechanism when faced with having to express emotion. "Don't think I'm happy about you complimenting me like that, you asshole!" he wriggles in delight. Then he stops and looks down at the scrap of paper. "You know what else Doctorine taught me?"
"What?"
"That you don't really know a word until you start using it." He takes a deep breath, then declares in all earnestness, "Zoro is Chopper's nakama!"
Zoro clears his throat and replies, "Yeah, well, you're my nakama too, little buddy."
Title: nakama (n.)
Summary: Leaving Drum Island, Chopper gets to know his new nakama
Characters: Chopper + Zoro
Words: 949
Rating: G
Warnings: Fluff!
It's the hottest he can ever remember being. Drum is well behind them now, so distant that not even the faint glow of pink snow can be seen on the horizon. The others went to bed near sunrise, after their raucous party, but Chopper's too excited to sleep. He's taking an inventory of the medical pack Doctorine prepared instead, laying out the precious packets of herbs systematically around him. The last things he finds are three sheets of paper, neatly folded - the notes he'd compiled on his latest patients, he realises, and Chopper fights off a sniffle as he realises just how much Doctorine understood him, even if she couldn't bring herself to show it.
He repacks his herbs, and is about to get up when a deep voice next to him says, "What're those?"
Chopper squeaks in fear and dashes for cover behind the mast, eyeing the human warily. It's the scary one, the green-haired swordsman. Zoro, the others call him. Chopper wouldn't ordinarily have sat so close to him, but Zoro's coat had smelled of home.
"I'm not going to eat you," the deep voice rumbles again. Then, with a touch of impatience, it adds, "Well?"
Chopper realises he owes the swordsman a reply. "They're my medical files on Nami and Sanji and Luffy," Chopper says, looking at the sheets of paper he still clutches in his hoof. The mention of his captain's name makes Zoro frown.
"What happened to Luffy?"
"I can't say. Doctor-patient confidentiality," Chopper says, and Zoro snorts, a little alarmingly. "Well, you can't expect to climb the Drum Rockies wearing shorts and sandals, no gloves and no coat, with two people on your back without getting injured, right?" Chopper decides it's safe to say.
A hard, serious look comes into the swordsman's eyes for a moment, then it clears. "Guess not," Zoro says, beginning to remove his winter coat. Chopper half-wishes he could do the same. Then he sees it. The gigantic scar running diagonally across Zoro's chest.
"Guess I'll have to start one of these for you soon too, huh?" he blabs. And then he's mortified, because he realises Zoro might take that as an insult, but instead the man grins and settles back comfortably against the deck.
"Probably."
That one word makes Chopper relax at once, and he stashes the sheets of paper back into his pack and turns to go.
"You've forgotten something."
Chopper turns back, to see Zoro holding up a small scrap of paper. "Nakama," he begins to read off it. "Someone that you -"
"Give that back!" Chopper interrupts, blushing pinker than one of Doctor's more successful experiments.
Zoro raises an eyebrow and hands it over. "I didn't just violate doctor-patient confidentiality, did I?"
"No," Chopper says miserably, taking it in his hoof, knowing that Zoro will now think he's an idiot.
It's been playing in his mind over and over again. Him and Doctorine in the snow, triaging the three new patients who've just appeared over the edge of Drum Rock. He thinks they're all out cold, but he's wrong about the frostbitten one, who grabs Doctorine by the arm and struggles to speak through chattering teeth. If it had been Chopper he'd grabbed, he'd have run away and hid, but Doctorine knows just what to say. "Don't worry. I'll take care of that kid and this girl. Rest easy."
"They're my NAKAMA!" the human roars back, and Chopper gasps at the look in his flared eyes, which manage to be frantic and angry and pleading and a thousand other things at once.
"Nakama," Chopper repeats to himself, idly tearing a scrap of paper from the edge of a clean sheet. He prints the word on the scrap, then pauses. Doctorine's taught him that whenever he reads or hears a new word, to come up with a trial definition first, then check it against the dictionary. But he doesn't know how to even begin defining this one, how to capture the thousand things the human was saying with those eyes in just a few words.
It doesn't mean family. He's sure of that. The human has black hair, the female orange hair, and the second male blond hair. Genetics precludes them all being related.
But it doesn't mean friend either. He's heard the people in the village call each other "friend", and he knows that can't be the sum total of what "nakama" means. You don't risk losing all your fingers and toes to frostbite for just a friend.
He thinks and thinks, and finally makes a stab at a definition. It doesn't seem entirely satisfactory, but it's time to change the female's cold compress, so it'll have to do for now.
"I didn't know what it meant when I wrote that, but I know now," Chopper hastens to explain, on the defensive now. "Doctorine told me."
"'Someone that you care about more than you care about yourself'," Zoro quotes from memory. "I dunno, seems to me you got it pretty much right the first time."
Chopper stares at Zoro for a moment, then retreats into his usual defensive mechanism when faced with having to express emotion. "Don't think I'm happy about you complimenting me like that, you asshole!" he wriggles in delight. Then he stops and looks down at the scrap of paper. "You know what else Doctorine taught me?"
"What?"
"That you don't really know a word until you start using it." He takes a deep breath, then declares in all earnestness, "Zoro is Chopper's nakama!"
Zoro clears his throat and replies, "Yeah, well, you're my nakama too, little buddy."