Hey readers! Just thought I'd point out that this is my first fanfiction in months. And like the meeting in this story, my reunion with writing fanfiction was awkward. I spent a lot of time looking up words I should've known, making sure my characters weren't OOC, and developing the plot in general. I felt like scrapping the whole thing at one point- especially when the latest chapter came out and I had to decide what to do with the whole 2 year timeskip/ training thing… But enough about me, sorry to keep you waiting! So without further ado, read on and remember to review too!

Theme 2

Unexpected Rendezvous

"You are so irritating! Go away!" A very aggravated and worn out swordsman yelled as he nearly tripped down a huge stone flight of stairs. Zoro could almost imagine the dull grey bricks sneering and laughing at his misfortune. He was that tired. And a whining, naïve goth girl following him did not help.

"Don't blame this on me you stupid swordsman! I'm not the one with the horrifying sense of direction! If you could've just followed me like a normal person we wouldn't be in this mess now!"

"Oh go complain to Mihawk and leave me alone." Zoro retorted, frustrated from all the running and arguing he had been doing for the past couple of hours.

"What! Well you know what, maybe I would! IF we weren't being chased by a bunch of sadistic, armed monkeys! Why don't you just stay behind and convince them to stop?"

"Are you stupid?"

Perona grimaced, then took a breath and exhaled loudly. She was tired of having to follow around the lost oaf in front of her, but she knew she had no choice. With their pursuers right behind them, she knew for sure the apes would kill her the minute they were separated. She had tried to return their attacks with one of her own- a negative hollow; but it hadn't worked, and had gone right through them without even leaving so much of a frown on their faces. Her powers were useless against them. She just wanted to go home, or at least find someone else on this pathetic island with a better personality than Zoro. A cute one would be preferred. She hoped-

Clank!

Perona snapped out of her daydream and looked up from her new seat on the ground. Zoro and one of the apes were in attack position right over her head. Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"What the hell are you doing, you idiot? Why did you just stop?" Zoro asked- no, yelled. The scowl on his face was not reassuring.

"What are you doing?"

Zoro's eyebrow twitched. "Saving you from being killed!" He quickly slashed his competitor in two and stood up straight. "If you don't want my help I can just leave you here. I don't need you, and you're only getting in my way."

"Hey! If it wasn't for me you'd be half dead and in a lot of trouble with the owner of this place! Not to mention you'd be heading in the other direction right now!"

"Fine! You give me the directions and I'll keep fighting these idiots! But you stay in front of me, I'm not stopping for you again."

"Whatever. You better stay right behind me, then." Perona glared at him, positive that her warning would go unheeded. But she didn't care anymore. If he got lost it was his problem. She would just find a way to slip away from the apes, float out of this crazy forest and get back to the safety of Mihawk's castle.

The two started again, looking every way for any hint of another attack. However it didn't last long, because as Perona was intently staring in one direction, Zoro was walking off into another. Before a minute had gone by, the two were separated.

Perona sighed and shook her head, clenching her fists at her sides. "That moron! I should never have given him back his swords! I hope he dies in this stupid forest!" She made her way through the branches of the fir trees surrounding her and up to the sky above. She looked around for the castle and started towards it. Now who will entertain me?

Meanwhile Zoro was actually headed in the right direction. He was proudly winding in and out of patches of growth and tall trees and odd looking bushes and wondering why he hadn't lost Perona earlier. The crunch of the dry leaves underneath his bloody, soiled boots was strangely comforting, and he was suddenly filled with a happy feeling. He was finally alone. Suddenly he looked up.

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

Zoro raised his eyebrow. He wondered what the noise was, but the curious feeling faded and he went back to his walk through the forest, for once correctly heading toward the coast.

"Arrrgh! Fuck you Haredas!"

Zoro opened his mouth slightly. Now he was really curious. He started a run towards the source of the sound, thinking it sounded kind of familiar. He wound up in an open field and looked around. There were no apes around. There were no people or other animals to be seen. Nothing stirred except a quiet breeze that shook the trees surrounding him. Then it hit him. Almost literally. He looked up and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"Zoro! Whaaaa- AHHHH!"

There was his navigator, Nami, falling out of the sky nearly at the speed of light. She couldn't have been more than 30 feet above the ground, about to plow right into it.

Zoro, stunned momentarily and very, very confused, sprang into action and leapt onto the spot he assumed Nami would fall to. Holding out his arms and swaying back and forth to stay underneath her, he waited. And in a second she landed- right onto his face.

BAM!

The two collided and rolled onto the ground, marred and bewildered. Nami sat up, holding her head and leg in pain. Zoro rolled onto his back and stared at his crewmate in disbelief.

"Nami! What the hell are you doing here! Where did you just come from?"

"Zoro!" Nami beamed. "So this is where he sent you!"

"What?"

"That Kuma guy. He sent you to this creepy place right?"

"Yeah…but what the hell are you doing…falling out of the sky?" Zoro sat there, puzzled.

"Well he sent me to Weatheria, a sky island, and I met some weird weather guys there and they taught me all about these strange things I'd never heard of before about weather and gave me- well more like I took- some pretty cool instruments and this one guy- Haredas- took me in and showed me stuff I'm going to use to upgrade my Clima Tact and-" Nami stopped, looking at Zoro's wierded out face. She smiled and laughed. "Long story short, I stole some important stuff and they decided to end my trip to Shabondy and kicked me off the island. Literally."

She pointed to the backpack on her back- which Zoro guessed was the source of the extra weight that had landed on his face- and opened it up. He saw some books, some sheets of paper, a couple of weird looking pieces of metal, and a couple of glowing paper bags fastened tightly with rope. He didn't bother asking about any of it. He turned back to look at her.

She looked genuinely happy. Her face was practically glowing, her hair was even longer, brighter, and…a prettier orange than before. The eight months that they had been separated hadn't been wasted. It was clear that she'd also been training, and her body was looking great. The only thing off about her was-

"Hey Nami, where is your ClimaTact?"

"Ah? Oh I dissembled it so I upgrade it later." She paused, looking at Zoro. "You're… looking pretty good, Zoro." She said, smiling.

"Umm…" Zoro was still looking blankly at the girl in front of him. "So do you."

There was an awkward silence as the two tried to think of the appropriate thing to say to each other after their long hiatus- and having just fallen out of the sky/caught someone falling out of the sky. Nami wanted to tell Zoro about her adventures on Weatheria and her new weather knowledge. Zoro wanted to tell Nami about the killer monkeys and Mihawk's decision to pick their current site as his "home." But before either could speak up, Zoro jumped up, spinning around to face the opposite direction. He lowered his eyes, and realized what he was staring at.

The monkeys of the island had also heard the scream from the sky and had probably come to investigate the site. Instead they found two vulnerable, unsuspecting humans. Zoro could spot at least three of them trotting along at a reasonably fast pace toward his- and now his crewmate's- current location. He nearly yelled at Nami, pulling her up off of the ground.

"Shit! Nami, I'll explain later but you need to hop on my back and we need to go! Now!" He knelt down and motioned for her to climb onto his back. She simply stared for a moment, still trying to absorb all the information. Within another second she had snapped out of her trance and fell to the ground to pick up all her things, stuff them into her backpack, and sling it over her shoulder. She tentatively jumped onto Zoro, trusting him with the unknown.

Her calm didn't last long, however. Barely thirty seconds into their sprint, Nami broke her silence. Quite loudly.

"Okay Zoro, what the hell is going on here? Why am I being piggy-backed through a creepy, foggy forest? What are we running from? If you keep me in the dark here, I'm getting off!"

"Shut up woman! Look, I said I'll explain later! If you're this loud they're going to find us before we even get a chance to hide or defend ourselves! Unless you wanna die, I suggest you listen to me!"

"Don't be getting cocky now! Remember your debt!"

"Really?"

"Yes really! I could easily just-" Zoro dropped his arms a couple of centimeters, pretending to drop Nami as well- just for a second. Then he shifted his weight and kept going, a smug smile on his face. Nami stopped mid-sentence and opened her mouth again to reply before a growl erupted from the distance. Whatever it was sounded angry and determined to catch up to them. She immediately dropped her argument and started a new one. "Go! Go! Go! Zoro don't slow down!" She yelled in a slightly hushed tone into Zoro's closest ear.

"Now do you understand? You didn't just drop into a harmless little haven here. This is Mihawk's island, home of some extremely vicious animals and if you still want to be alive when we get back to the Archipelago you're going to have to be a little less stubborn and actually listen to me for once, okay?" Zoro smirked and sped up. While he was glad to be with a crewmate, he was not loving the responsibility that came with it. Now he just had yet another female to take care of in this dangerous place.

"Ugh. Whatever." Nami rolled her eyes and hung on tight as Zoro sped up. "Do you even know where you're going?"

"Towards the coast. I think."

Silence.

"Zoro." Nami gritted her teeth. "You better not be leading us into- holy shit!" She screamed at the top of her lungs as Zoro, who had turned his head around, left a circle of trees and ran straight off a cliff. The two flapped their arms in the sky, as if they were trying to fly, and splashed into the pond underneath.

Nami surfaced first, sputtering and nearly shaking with fury. "You idiot!" She screamed. "This is just not my day, huh."

Zoro just looked around, expecting some kind of consequent violent outburst or a slew of curses and insults. However he was surprised when she simply swam ashore and threw her backpack onto the sandy ground. He followed her out of the water and waited. Nami looked at her backpack for a second. Then she opened it up, carefully going through the contents to inspect the water damage. For the most part nothing was destroyed, but the paper objects were definitely not in good condition. She closed her eyes, still facing her wet backpack, seething silently. Zoro nearly trembled in anticipation of the fury to come, however Nami just stood up.

"Well. What now, Mr. Omnipotent?" She said, moving her hands to her hips with an indifferent look.

Zoro nervously cleared his throat, then looked up at the sky. It was a dark, splotchy grey. After spending such a large amount of time on the island, he could tell the difference between a normal sky and a pre-rainfall sky; right now it was apparently going to rain soon. He wondered if Nami could see it too.

"Don't you think we should find someplace to camp out for a while before the storm?"

Nami raised an eyebrow. "Oh so suddenly you can predict the weather?" She smiled subtly and followed him, wringing out her soaked clothing.

Well that answers that question.

Zoro and Nami were on foot until around 8 pm, neither could tell with neither the sun nor the moon anywhere in the cloudy sky to be seen. Shortly, they approached a small stone cottage that looked severely unkempt and on its last leg. The two looked around, as if expecting someone to guide them to their real campout. With a sigh, they cautiously stepped into the shack.

It wasn't big at all. In fact, Nami supposed she would have trouble fitting just the nine of her crew in it without being cramped. It was dark and dusty and fairly unfurnished. All that occupied the room was a small oak coffee table with a vase on top and two pink and blue dusty floral armchairs in the two farthest corners. On the floor was a half shredded royal blue tasseled carpet and next to the door was a small metal stand holding three unlit candles. A fairly clean looking towel hung on the metal pole on the other side of the door.

"Well, it'll have to do for now." Nami shrugged, walking around and plopping down on a chair. She was exhausted and had no clue what she was doing. She began fiddling with a strand of hair, looking straight at Zoro as if saying, "Explain. Now."

Zoro sighed, leaning against a wall and closing the front door, as if to lock themselves away from the rest of the world. There were no windows expect for a small crack in one wall big enough for you to stick your arm through, and he figured the place was pretty much soundproof. He let himself drop to the floor and began.

"The things chasing us were the residents of this island. They're called Humandrills. They've imitated the people that used to live on this island during some war and now they're bloodthirsty fighters who relentlessly attack anyone and everything on this island. Except Mihawk, who's made this island- specifically that castle up there-" Zoro unconsciously pointed upwards, "his home. That castle's the only place they won't attack."

"Then why the hell didn't you lead us up there!" Nami yelled.

"I… wasn't thinking."

"Obviously." Nami rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair.

"Well it's too late now anyway. It's dark out now and either way, Perona would probably irritate the shit out of us before we even reached it. Or send out another of those damn hollows."

"Perona…" Nami tried to remember who she was. The images of her flowed into her head like it was just yesterday that they had encountered each other. She lowered her brows and scowled in disgust. "Perona. That idiot tried to steal my treasure and our ship. You're saying she's here on this island? You've got to be kidding me!"

Zoro nodded. "She's the one who found me when I landed here. Of course then she stole my swords and made me run around for days searching for them! Ugh. And she gives horrible directions."

"Or maybe you just couldn't follow them?"

Zoro didn't answer.

"Whatever." Nami quickly added. She waited a second, anticipating an angry response from the man across the room, but when none followed she simply gave up and curled up into her chair. She squirmed until she could get comfortable enough to fall asleep. She looked over- Zoro seemed to be fast asleep- and within a few seconds she was too.

Well there you go! I was planning on this being a one-shot but meh, things change. Now I'm thinking it'll be around 2-3 chapters long, so expect the next one within a week or so. I promise this time. ;)

So how did it go? Did it meet your expectations? Did it exceed your expectations? Did it completely suck? Please tell me if you liked it/didn't like it! Not sayin' I'll change it, but I'd like to know where if went wrong here. Haha anyway I hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for Chapter 2!