mino 🍌

zoro would be even worse if you were friends before his feelings fully formed. you would be left clueless as to why suddenly his answers to you have changed into short, clipped responses that come out strained with zero eye contact.

a rotation of muttered, “uh huh. yeah. sure. mmhm. right.” any sarcasm he uses with the rest of the crew completely dissolves the moment you’re in the picture. if he does gain the ability to bring some of his natural life back into the conversation, it comes out with a grin too wide and a laugh too forced after saying something he’s later going to overthink instead of napping that afternoon.

he would become disgustingly nonchalant. at least he would try to be. it comes off as less unbothered cool guy, and more seasick on the verge of passing out guy. once he finds out by an off handed comment by luffy that you hate wannabe nonchalant guys, he immediately panics to find out a new strategy (he shouldn’t have anything to worry about though; he’s terrible at the nonchalant act).

soon after dumping the nonchalant idea for good, trying to look extra cool in front of you is something his body automatically does. he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it at first. jumping in front of you when there’s even a hint of the enemy around just becomes second nature to him.

the rest of the crew figures it out before you do. zoro is terrible at being subtle after all. he can no longer insult sanji for gawking at women because he’ll be met with a smug, angry retort along the lines of ‘as if you don’t do the same to y/n!’ zoro will just sputter a half-assed response in attempt of an insult back, ( as well an attempt to save his pride ) but come up with nothing to defend himself. he knows it’s true. and yet he’s still not all the way there to accepting his feelings as love.

© bananafrosting