TEN SECOND RENDEZVOUS
Summary: Zoro decides to test out his theory that Tashigi is nothing more than a fake.
Every time he laid eyes on her, there was a moment's pause. Just a moment's pause where he would look down into her scowling face, study her features, conclude that she was a copycat, a cheap imitation, a fake mirror image to Kuina. Just a moment's pause where he would assure himself that she was not Kuina, she could never be, she wouldn't be. Just a moment's pause where he would wonder how and why and what was her reasoning for being.
It took just that moment for all his thoughts to flood his mind, where her image filled every corner of his eyes, both her and Kuina, Kuina and her, and then he would turn on his heel and he would run. Roronoa Zoro could not fight her; he would not fight her, he refused. She was a fake. She wasn't worth his breath, she wasn't worth his time.
Normally, she wouldn't hesitate to give chase, but on this particularly hot, scorching desert day, she couldn't find the strength. He sipped it all from her lips in that kiss, unexpected and uncalled for, and Tashigi wasn't quite sure how to react to it. Outrage had been the first registered response, but the stunning curiosity of it all made her legs weak, made her hands tremble around the grip of the Shigure, made her conviction waver for just a moment's pause.
That was really all it tookâno more than ten seconds. In two, she recognized him, called his name, started her clumsy chase. In three, he whirled around, looked into her eyes, and told himself that she couldn't be Kuina. In another two, he leaned forward, brushed his lips to hers, and in three, she stared after him, left in a flurry of confusion and silent wonder.
"My God," She whispered, touching a gloved finger to her lips on eleven, "I'm in love with a pirate."
And, far away, stretched in distance by the sand, Roronoa Zoro realized that those lips were real, and she was not fake.