Logicà la
Luffy
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Zoro clenched his teeth and quietly scowled his way through the market place, ignoring the children screeching gaily while running about, the pretty vendors thrusting this or that piece of fruit under his nose with promises of freshness and delightful taste or the coy looks from some of the older women. He looked over his shoulder and snarled quietly, before looking forward again.
This resulted in three children screaming in mortal terror and running away, a fourth bursting into tears and Luffy slapping him on the shoulder merrily, the force of the blow not sending Zoro anywhere at all though it did gain his attention long enough that the locals could execute a prudent retreat. The shopkeeper with the broken store awning from the reverberations of Luffy's attention getting shoulder slap on Zoro had no complaints – better that than the swordsman actually letting his foul mood slip further from the already precarious control he'd been showing since the crew's arrival on the tiny island, really.
"Neh, Zoro! Isn't it nice here?" This was said before Luffy proceeded to stuff something mostly unidentifiable but vaguely food looking into his mouth, cheeks popping out until he resembled nothing more than a chipmunk busily stuffing itself full of nuts for winter. While on speed.
"Whatever." The swordsman pointedly didn't look there and instead scowled at the end of the marketplace and the dubious freedom which beckoned beyond. Maybe he could go back to the ship and just do some weights... if Luffy would damn well let go of him. The slow realization percolated its way through the swordsman brain and he blinked, looking around slowly towards the brightly smiling (and eating) captain.
"Dammit Luffy, let me-"
"Neh, Zoro." In the silence that followed, heat waves radiating off Zoro as he struggled to keep hold of his temper just a bit longer, Luffy grinned disarmingly. "Wanna fight?"
The answering smile was akin to that of a starving wolf presented with a pair of lambs, hogtied and topped with a pretty pink ribbon.
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As Chopper put away his bandages and the disinfectant in his bag, he gave Luffy a sidelong look, frowning slightly.
"Luffy? You and Zoro have been... fighting more, lately." The remark was neutral, though the brief stutter in the middle was typical of the young reindeer whenever he thought he might be venturing in territory he wasn't quite welcome to tread into, yet. But he had been patching up the both of them a lot more lately and this was starting to worry him, despite Nami's reassurances that the two were just being dumber than usual.
"Yep!" Nodding cheerfully, Luffy grinned and nibbled on some of the treats he'd managed to sneak from the furiously cooking Sanji earlier, while Zoro was being seen to. It also explained why he'd had to bandage Luffy's hand, though Chopper hadn't commented on this yet.
"...why?" The question was direct and simple, not unlike one a small child might ask an adult, in an effort to make the world's mysterious workings a little bit clearer, a touch simpler. Chopper had discovered that when Luffy had an answer to give, the simple questions got the best replies.
"Cause we been hitting a lot of the smaller islands lately for provisions and Sanji keeps ogling the girls with big breasts." Luffy nodded (cheerfully) once more at that, and got up, stretching out with a sigh of satisfaction. "So Zoro gets jealous and sulks. But if I get in fight with him, Sanji stops ogling the women 'n pays attention to Zoro, Zoro gets to show off inna fight while Sanji screams at him an' then Sanji gets jealous cause he thinks Zoro is playin' with me too much and then cooks a lot. I get food, they argue lots, everyone's happy." Silence reigned for a moment, Chopper blinking up at Luffy with wide eyes. Finishing his slow stretch, Luffy bounced up and down a few times, and then beamed down at the ship's doctor. "Thanks, Chopper! I'm gonna go see if I can snitch more food from the kitchen while they argue!"
Blinking and staring into the empty spot Luffy had left behind, Chopper reflected that sometimes, Luffy was frighteningly clever, in his own simple way.