Disclaimer: We don't own One Piece! Oda-sensei does.
De-Ji was bored. She had been reading all week nonstop, and she was tired of it. She saw Luffy and Suta playing tag down below, and climbed down from the crow's nest to join their game. She was smiling in anticipation by the time she reached the bottom, and Luffy wasn't looking where he was going and slammed into the mast, knocking her down. Luckily, she was in a good mood and just laughed and tagged him, even though she wasn't it. To her suprise, he jumped up quick as a spring, and tagged her on the shoulder. De-Ji gaped in suprise after a second, and tagged him and ran off before he could react.
Up above, Zoro stirred in his sleep. He woke up, feeling cold. He looked beside him to see that De-Ji was gone. He looked down below and saw Luffy chasing De-Ji, and Suta was running in circles. Zoro's face heated with anger, and he climbed down the mast. He didn't even pause when De-Ji yelled a good morning, sleepyhead! at him. He just grumbled and climbed down into the men's quarters.
De-Ji shrugged, and kept running, and passed by Suta. Luffy stopped chasing her and tagged Suta, who then started running after Luffy. De-Ji paused to catch her breath and noticed that Zoro wasn't watching her. He usually did when she started playing with Luffy and Suta. She gave a worried frown at the trapdoor to the men's quarters, wondering if he was down there, when Luffy tagged her and ran off trying to scare Suta by saying he was it. De-Ji laughed in their direction, and started chasing Suta. After De-Ji was tired of tag, she went to go climb the mast, forgetting that Zoro had already climbed down. She reached the crow's nest, and saw that Zoro wasn't there. She was confused for a little bit, then shivered as a cold wind blew over her. She climbed over the edge, and started thinking about where he could have gone. She automatically ruled out the men's quarters, because she knew that he didn't like the stuffy atmosphere in there. She then decided that he might be talking to Sanji, in the kitchen. She smiled, and climbed back down to go see if Zoro was there. As soon as she arrived, Sanji was in her face, spewing some sort of nonsense, as expected. She walked around him, looking for Zoro. She asked Sanji where he was, and got no useful response.
Meanwhile, Zoro decided to ask De-Ji's side of the
story, and climbed up to find her talking to Sanji. Luffy would have been harmless, because he didn't know the meaning of the word girlfriend and the like, but
Sanji was a whole different sort of pirate. Red with rage, he stormed over to the kitchen and started yelling at the baka cook. De-Ji saw him, and started asking where he had been. Still furious, he started yelling at her. De-Ji looked at him with a shocked expression on her face. Tears started brimming in her swirling green eyes, and she ran off, leaving little tear tracks. Zoro just stood there staring after her. He hadn't meant to actually, really for truly hurt her. Sanji started yelling at him about what a big baka he was, making a girl cry, but he just pushed him aside and walked off. Before he realized what he was doing, he saw the tear trail under his rapidly moving feet. When his legs stopped moving, he was at the women's quarters, where he could hear Robin talking softly so that he couldn't hear what she was saying, and some sniffling every so often. Not wanting
to interrupt the girls, he walked off, thinking he could deal with it later.
De-Ji sat on Robin's bed,
starting to stop crying. Robin was saying comforting things, and reciting soothing poems softly by her ear. She looked up at Robin's taller figure, and smiled at her.
"Thanks, Robin-chan." she said gratefully. Robin simply smiled at her and continued reading her book, after she was sure that De-Ji was okay. De-Ji walked out the door, and saw Zoro leaning against the mast. She decided that she didn't want to get yelled at again, and walked behind the mast, meaning to talk to Sanji, and maybe get a snack. Zoro's eyes were closed, but he breathed her name under his breath as she walked by silently. Thinking it as just coincidence, she walked on. Zoro's eyes opened when he didn't hear her stop, and watched her walk up to Sanji. His eyebrows furrowed as he continued watching the most hated person he knew talk to his girl. Sanji tried to wrap his arm around her shoulders, and he turned away because he couldn't watch any longer.
Sanji's face stung a bright red after De-Ji had slapped him as hard as she could. She huffed and turned around, meaning to walk away in a huff, but she saw Zoro's back in her path, and her heart stopped. She couldn't walk that way. She turned around again and ran into the kitchen, shut the door and locked it. As she stood there with her irratic breathing and heart pumping wildly, she thought that Zoro might come up to the door and burst in, simply by breaking the lock. She ran and got a chair and put it underneath the doorknob, making it harder to break into the kitchen. Sanji was knocking on the door, and she pushed the oven up against the door, so he couldn't get in. She heard Zoro's slightly gravely voice coming nearer, and she backed into the farthest wall, and slid down, seating her butt on the cold floor. She sat there, and thought about what might happen between her and Zoro. Tears started welling up in her eyes again, and she shook her head in a futile attempt to stop them. She stopped shaking her head when she realized it wasn't working. So she sat in the futile position, her cheeks stained with tears, and sobbed.
Zoro was talking with Sanji, trying to find out what was going on. The door to the kitchen was locked, and he had heard scooting of something heavy across the floor. He found out that De-Ji had slapped him, and then started making strange reactions to what seemed like nothing. Luffy hadn't helped by running up and asking for food. Zoro's head hurt from confusion and Luffy yelling in his ear. Suta then wanted food as well, and that only made his headache worse. Zoro yelled at Luffy, thinking of earlier when he was chasing De-Ji. Before he knew what he was doing, he had screamed for Luffy to stay far, far away from De-Ji. Luffy stood there, looking confused.
"but Zoro, I was just playing tag with her," said the
empty pit that was Luffy. This time, it was Zoro's turn to look confused, then the confuzzled look turned to horror when he realized that he had yelled at her for nothing. Zoro turned around, and stared yearnfully at the door. For the first time in his life, he wanted to apologize.
De-Ji heard Zoro scream at Luffy, and looked up at the door, tears still streaming down her face. She wiped her cheeks, and stood up. She took a couple of cautious steps toward the door, and heard Luffy's voice through the door, though she couldn't tell what he said. She pushed the oven back to it's original
position, and pressed her ear up against the door, but heard nothing else. She sighed, wishing that she could just hear Zoro's voice again. She moved the chair back to the table, and unlocked the door. Zoro heard the lock click, and made his face turn cold again. He started fumbling with his swords as he waited for the door to open. It didn't. He waited a little more. It still didn't open.
De-Ji's head spun with indecision. She so wanted to see him again, to try to figure out what was wrong, but on the other hand, she didn't want to see his furious face, or hear his loud voice yelling at her. She reached for the knob, but then her hand stopped. It drew back slowly, but started moving forward again. The tears that were welling up again dropped from her eyes onto her arms and the doorknob. Then she finally decided to not open the door. She backed away from the door, and then collapsed from stress.
Zoro heard some footsteps moving away from the door, and then a thud. He almost gasped, but caught himself just in time, and broke the door off of it's hinges, earning some choice words from the already angry cook. He carefully set the door down by the doorframe, and looked inside to see De-Ji sprawled on the floor. This time, he did gasp. His legs ate up the length to her, and he knelt by her, and called for Chopper, who was peering around the door frame. Chopper's hooves made their little sounds as they crossed the floor. He took her pulse, and looked up at Zoro. Time seemed to slow. Then Chopper smiled and said she was fine, just overstressed. A sigh escaped his lips before he could stop it, and told the ero-cook to stop his whining, and looked down at De-Ji. He couldn't believe that he had done this to her. He picked up her head in his hands, and placed it on his lap, and started to pet her hair. His eyes popped open in suprise when he saw her eyelashes flutter, and her eyelids start to open. De-Ji blinked, and opened her eyes slowly. The light hurt her eyes, but she was curious as to why the back of her head was on something soft, and saw Zoro leaning over her, with a suprised look on his face.
Then she realized that she was on his lap, and his hand was on her hair. She blushed, and Zoro's lips started moving, so she interrupted him.
"Don't yell at me again. I'm sorry." She whispered up at him. His face softened.
"No, De-Ji, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you
like I did. I thought Luffy was after you, and then
you were talking to Sanji. I overreacted. Please forgive me," she almost didn't hear him say, it was so soft. De-Ji smiled, and grabbed his hand and held it loosely. Zoro smiled as well, then his head moved toward hers. Their lips connected, And the tears on De-Ji's tears suddenly felt cold, but were swept away kindly by one of Zoro's big hands. De-Ji lifted her other hand, and rested it on Zoro's cheek. They heard an "awww" in the background, and De-Ji blushed, but went on kissing. Zoro pulled away when he heard the aww, and glared at them, and they all scattered.