One Step Closer

A/N: Woah... I eventually manage to wrote up this piece of crap... O,O Yes, you heard it right. I said; 'Piece. of. Crap.' because I just wrote up whatever came to my mind in this story.

Warning: Plot-less story, slightly-OOC-ness characters, un-beta-read, so maybe there might be grammatical errors here and there. :T

Her chocolate brown orbs stared at the couple in front of her; her fingers didn't stop stirring the empty cup in her hand as she spaced out. She still couldn't believe the fact that Luffy will chose the Snake Princess; Boa Hancock as his Pirate Queen. It will be a joke if she said that she never liked that cute captain of hers, but then, there's no use crying over the spilled milk.

Maybe if she had confessed her feelings to Luffy, she will be the one standing beside him with the title of 'Pirate Queen' right now, but no. She have been foolish and tried to deny her feelings for him several times, and now she truly regret for never telling him her true feelings.

She remember the day she felt her heart shattered into pieces as Luffy walked past her and asked Hancock to become his Pirate Queen. She couldn't believe it, since she had always thought that Luffy might have a little interest over her. She even cried the whole night that day since it's the first time she experience such a large impact of heart broken… and it was him who came and accompanies her the whole night.

"Lost in your thoughts?"

Her thought is being interrupted by a rough voice, and she looked up. Zoro sat down in front of her with the challenging smirk of his, a bottle of wine in his hand.

"Want to have a drinking contest?" he asked her, pouring the wine into his cup. "We never got to finish up our contest two years ago anyway."

"Tsk, fine." She removed her long hair from her face with a swift movement of her hand as she commented. "Loser paid up three thousand bellis, sound good enough for you, right, the world greatest swordsman?" she asked, her cunning smirk spread on her beautiful face.

"Deal." The first mate said, grinning as he poured a generous amount of wine into her empty cup.

Nami raised her cup and simply said 'Cheers' before the contest start.

After hours of partying, most of the crew members collapsed on the ground, sleeping like a log. There are only two sober persons; Zoro and Nami who are still continuing their little drinking contest, and none of them seemed to be nearing on their limit at any time soon.

Both of them raised their cups once the eighth bottle emptied its content its liquid into their cups.

"Cheers!" They exclaimed and drank the alcoholic liquid with ease; so much more is needed for them to be truly affected.

While drinking the cup of liquor, Nami's eyes accidentally stopped on the sleeping couple; Luffy and Hancock. She notices how the Empress's face looked so blissfully happy, and it almost makes her wound tear up once again.

'Lucky girl…' she thought with a sigh as she lowered her cup down.

"He won't come back to you no matter how many times you sigh."

Once again, Zoro bring her back to reality from her sad thought. She turned her attention towards the floor this time, fisting the fabric of her silky pant.

"Perhaps… you will think that I'm a stupid woman… for falling in love with that idiotic captain of ours. I don't even know since when I had such feelings for him, it just happens to be. This feeling… even grows stronger and stronger ever since the day he saved my village from Arlong…" she murmured, chuckling bitterly to herself, before she continued.

"I used to think that Luffy had been looking at me as someone special for him… since he will always be worried about me whenever I get into troubles, and how he will do all he can to protect me from getting hurt… but then… I didn't realize that he had been treating every one of us the same…" she know that she is sprinkling salt in her own old wound, but she can't help. It just hurt her so much, as every time the image of Luffy asking Hancock to become his Pirate Queen recalled in her mind.

"Then… instead of mourning over the one who will never come back to you…why don't you search for someone else to fill up your empty heart?" She turned around, facing the first mate this time as she is surprised with how he had just talk with her with that kind of tone. What kind of tone? The rare comforting and gentle tone, which is the last thing Nami will expect him will use to her.

"I… I don't know… but… it might be hard to find someone else to replace him…" she murmured bluntly, and she felt her heart skipped a beat as her eyes looked into Zoro's good eye. She felt like she is looking at the most beautiful diamond in the world. Why haven't she realized about it before? The emerald green crystal-like orb twinkle with mixture feelings stared back to her in such a loving way that it made her wanted to blush.

"Well… someday… you will found the person… You just have to open up your heart and eyes right now and look around for the person. Maybe if you try to move an inch forward, you might find the person who had been waiting for you." Just like always, he could find a way to brighten up her mood when no one could. Because no matter how much both of them tried to detest each other, they know deep inside their heart that they cared dearly for each other… just like siblings...

"Let's just hope you found that someone soon." He said, giving her a rare gentle smile before he raised his cup, about to say cheers when he realizes he had nothing to drink already.

"I'll go get another bottle." The navigator said, standing up from her seat. She was about to walk away, when she stopped and turned around, looking at the swordsman. "Oh, and Zoro…"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you." She gave him a smile; a smile that is so stunning and bright… so pure and loving… it would've killed any other men, but just not Roronoa Zoro, who is the current world greatest swordsman. However, he did blush, seeing the rare smile of hers with her lips calling out his name.

"Y-You're welcome…" he managed to stutter out in his embarrassment. Wait, he did not just blush and stuttered at the orangenette that he used to call as a witch. He did not think that she looks like a wingless angel just now with that beautiful smile.

The orange head couldn't help but let out a soft giggle at his reaction before she started walking towards the kitchen once again. She doesn't know why, but whenever she could have this kind of rare moment with Zoro, she will always felt happy inside, as if she's so glad that there's someone who is able to comfort her and at the same time, knowing how she felt.

"Maybe I've found him… the 'someone' you're talking about, Zoro…" she thought, glancing over the swordsman once again.

Zoro watch as the orangenette make her way towards the kitchen. He immediately placed his palm on his forehead as he felt the strange feeling start aching up in his heart once again.

He found it funny how this crazy and strange feeling will only react when he's with the navigator that he hated deeply. There are also times he wished that he is the man that she is secretly in love with… it made him embarrassed for having such feelings to a girl.

"Why don't you just tell her that you loved her?" a voice said, startling the marimo head. Turning his head around, he growled when he saw Robin standing in front of him, looking at him with her usual mystery smile.

"Damn…" he muttered, letting out a sigh. "Robin… can you just stop peeking and eaves-dropping on other people's conversation?"

"Well, I can't help. Because this is surely important for me who is a sister figure for navigator-san." She let out a soft chuckle, before she continued. "And any elder siblings will always be worried over their younger sibling's love life."

"I DID NOT LIKE HER!" The green haired swordsman exclaimed, feeling his face turned burning red at what the elder archeologist said. As Robin chuckle at his sudden outburst, Zoro tried to look at anywhere but the older woman.

'No matter how much they tried to pretend that they hated each other, there's always a thin line between love and hate. If one of them will have took a step closer, perhaps their relationship as siblings will have changed into something even better.' Robin thought as she stopped chuckling, watching as Nami came back with a new bottle of wine and told Zoro to continue their drinking contest.

The End

Ending Note: I know that in this one-shot, Zoro and Nami are rather OOC-ness... ==" *sigh* :T I wrote this when I'm in a confused state, so yeah. It's actually supposed to be a Christmas fic... but then... it just turn out to be this piece of lousy crap... ==" I can't believe I manage to finish it up and then publish it... Let me hide in a hole right now... *sulk* Thank you for reading this lousy fic... and also... review? O.O It's my birthday today, so can I act a bit like a review maniac today?