AN: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece!
Hey! XD So, hope everyone's having an awesome day! XD Don't know why I'm in such a good mood, I just am! XD But here's my attempt at answering the wonderful YukiHannah87's awesome Zorobin one-shot request! XD Hope you like it!
Zoro sauntered into the bar behind his idiot friends, sighing at the memory of the previous week. The dancers had practically robbed his tall blonde friend, but he still insisted this place was the best. They came here every damn week, and Zoro had to admit, their bartenders were particularly good at pouring drinks, and of course, Zoro's glass was never empty. Their food apparently wasn't half-bad either, but Zoro hadn't exactly tried any – Luffy didn't exactly leave anything for anyone else, Sanji was here for the girls, and he wasn't going to waste good drinking money on some average food after having just eaten at the Baratie.
The three men made their way to the long mahogany bar that stretched the length of the room, curving away as it reached towards the matching stage, which was currently hidden behind heavy red curtains. The bartender smiled at them as they took their usual seats on the tall black leather barstools in front of the bar, already pouring Zoro's drink while calling through the back that their regulars had arrived. Ah, it was good to be known so well that everything was done without you having to say anything.
A large mixed grill was carefully laid in front of Luffy within minutes, along with Zoro's pint and Sanji's martini, served by a tall busty blonde who, of course, received a generous tip from the chef. Zoro sighed as he watched the usual routine of Sanji's flirting, knowing that the blonde was clearly not interested his friend, only in the money he had in his pocket. He took another long sip of his pint, trying to blank out the stupid chef, just as he sees their idiot best friend open his mouth. Oh no.
"A Captain and his crew were sailing across the high sea, while the First Mate napped in the crow's nest. Suddenly a huge wave crashed against the side of the ship," began Luffy, waving his arms around in giant movements as he narrated his joke, "the ship rocked wildly, throwing the First Mate out of crow's nest. He crashed through the deck and landed in the Captain's room, head first. The Captain asked the First Mate if he's ok, and the First Mate says 'Huh? Sure Cap'n, I've been through hardships before!'"
Zoro groaned into his pint, pretending he hadn't heard Luffy's joke and ignoring Ero-Cook as he continued to flirt with the female bartender.
The piano by the bar, currently hidden behind the heavy curtains, started up, a distant tinkling of keys barely registering in Zoro's mind as he silently sipped slowly on his deliciously bitter pint. The soft hum of a feminine voice started to rise slowly as the lights began to dim, reminding Zoro that it was time for the usual line up of dancers. Another sigh escaped him as he thought about the stupid chef two barstools along from him. He'd move further along to prevent anyone from associating him with the overly-flirtatious blonde, but Luffy would just drag him back.
Usoppe was damn lucky he had Kaya as an excuse to not come out drinking with them every week – not that he complained about the drinking...just the idiot lying in a love struck puddle as the paid dancers accept his attention. Zoro sighed again as he heard a gasp escape the chef. Usoppe and Kaya would be curled up in together, Usoppe reading to his girlfriend and making her laugh before bed. Zoro would rather alcohol and sleep, than sitting reading to some woman, but anything would be better than the embarrassment of dealing with the pile of noodles Zoro could see out the corner of his eye.
He turned in his seat, expecting to see the girl with long orange hair that had introduced herself as Nami. That was not who he saw up on stage. A dim purple light shone on a curvy figure, the soft feminine hum that continued to rise seemingly coming from it. Instead of sparkling jewels and heavy gold, there was a large, simple pair of earrings and a necklace, with thin gold bangles chiming gently as her arms began to move slowly. Zoro couldn't help but think her choice was tasteful in comparison to the other dancers' decor. So many of them loved their jewellery, that Zoro was often surprised they could dance at all.
He continued to watch, entranced as she moved elegantly to the soft sounds of the piano, her actions as smooth as the perfect chord changes, her humming like silk, continuing along with the soft melody. The spotlight suddenly changed from its dim, deep purple to a brilliant white, now shining on the dancer's pale skin, her long legs appearing between the side slit of her long, white skirt as it slid over the smooth skin as her moves became bolder as the piano played louder, her humming now stopped, her moves now enough to capture any man's attention if they hadn't been before. Her movements became increasingly faster along with the fingers of the afro-haired man.
Zoro watched, trapped by the mesmerising movements of her arms, his pint stopped halfway to his mouth as his jaw hung open. She winked in their direction, breaking Zoro's trance as his face flared, turning back to the bar as a tambourine suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He listened as the music quickened, imagining her dancing behind his eyelids as he refused to turn back to look at her. He didn't even dare glance across to see Sanji's reaction as he waited for his sense to return.
She'd caught him staring.
He never stared, especially not at the dancers. They insisted on wearing too much jewellery and too little clothing. They were paid to dance and flirt with the customers. They focused on earning tips by seducing drunken men that couldn't hold their drink – he wasn't one of them. Zoro had always found them overbearing, trying to force their attention on you as you tried to drink in peace. This one would be no different.
He glanced sideways, catching her looking back in their direction as the stage went dark, the white light now buzzing with the heat still radiating from it, the only sound throughout the silent gawping bar. Zoro absently watched the stage as the white light flickered back on dimly, the voices starting to murmur as the piano began again, three of the usual dancers now on stage.
Zoro stared back into his pint, trying to remember himself. She'd been looking at them when everything had gone dark, he was sure. She was paid to pay attention to the customers, but why was she singling them out? What was so special about them? Had Nami told her that Ero-Cook was a good tipper? It wouldn't surprise him if every female member of staff in this place knew that anyway without Nami gloating about how much she got out of the idiot.
Zoro heard a sigh from his blonde friend on the other side of Luffy, causing the common urge to hit the idiot to arise. What was he sighing at now? The fact that the new dancer was gone? She'd be out on the floor soon enough to earn some more tips, and with that single shouldered amethyst coloured top accentuating her chest and that skirt revealing those long, smooth-looking legs, she was going to get plenty. It didn't take a genius to guess that she was going to be pretty happy with her haul when she left.
Zoro sat quietly on his barstool, vaguely aware of voices around him as he drained his pint thoughtfully. Maybe there was another reason for her watching them? She was clearly new, or they would have seen her before. Maybe she'd realised they were regulars and had been curious? Most of the guys came to this bar for the dancers, but Luffy certainly hadn't paid much attention to her, and it wasn't as if he himself had paid her any attention at first...the only reason he'd started to was because she was new. Yeah, because the woman was new.
"OI! ZOORRRROOOO!"
"MARIMO!"
Zoro looked up from his empty glass, expecting the bartender to be trying to hand him another pint. He was, but he seemed completely stunned, just standing there staring at him with the pint still in his hand. He heard a giggle from behind him, quickly realising one of the dancers must have appeared to try to earn a few tips – if they thought they were getting some from him, they had another thing coming.
"What?" Zoro grunted, turning around on his barstool, his gaze falling on two laughing pale blue eyes as he did so.
"I just thought I should perhaps say hello – you seemed to be very keen to watch my dancing." She smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Wasn't anything special." He replied gruffly, turning back to the bar again for his next pint with a slight tinge to his cheeks. She really had caught his staring.
"Have you any ideas on how I could improve – this is my first night?" She asked, holding a teasing tone in her voice as she almost purred her question.
"How would I know? I don't watch that stuff; I just come for the beer and because these idiots drag me along," he grumbled, conscious of his growing blush as he sat with his back to her.
"Ah, then shall I take your full attention as a complement?" The woman giggled, making Zoro's ears turn crimson as the blood rushed around in his head, betraying him. Why'd he have to end up staring at her?
"Take it however you want." He muttered, taking a long drink of his pint, easily draining it all.
"Take no notice of the Marimo, my beautiful lady! He has no manners!" Sanji cooed, trying to slide into the conversation, unknowingly rescuing Zoro. "My name is Sanji, my dazzling flower!"
"Ah, my name Robin, Sanji-san." Zoro could hear the smile in her voice without turning to look at her, in fact, he could see her smile if he closed his eye.
"Wonderful! A beautiful name for such a mature, elegant woman!" Sanji swooned, "are-"
"-No family name?" Zoro interrupted grumpily, getting increasingly irritated with Sanji's behaviour. "You're just like every other waitress in this place."
"Excuse me? I hadn't thought you would wish for my family name," she replied, sounding strangely pleasantly surprised. "My name is Nico Robin, and what would your name be?"
"Zoro, Roronoa Zoro, and now what do you want, Robin?" Zoro asked, finally having completely regained control of his blood flow, allowing him to turn to face her suspiciously.
"I just wished to say hello, since you seemed so interested in my dancing – you even stopped drinking, which I have been informed by Nami-san, is very impressive." She replied with a knowing smile, almost seeming to dare him to deny it.
"What?! Marimo? He'd never give a beautiful lady such as yourself the time of day, I'm afraid, Robin-chwan – he has no manners." Sanji interrupted again, taking her hand and kissing it, eliciting an unexpected growl from Zoro, surprising even Zoro.
"I'm afraid, a man requires no manners to stare at a dancing woman, but he has already impressed me by requesting my family name, unlike any other man I have met tonight." Robin replied, smiling at Sanji with serious eyes before turning back to Zoro, "I do have question though, if you'd kindly answer my curiosity, Zoro-san?"
"It depends on the question." Zoro replied seriously, eyeing her suspiciously.
"May I ask about your scars? You seem to have quite a few and they seem fairly serious, considering one has clearly cost you an eye." She queried, reaching a hand out towards his face.
"I fight with Katanas, and most have been training accidents – my eye included." He grunted, pulling back slightly from her touch, trying to act as indifferent as usual to anyone asking about his eye.
Why the hell did this woman want to know about his scars? Women usually backed away from him when they seen his eye. Most of the woman that approached him, did so having seen his impressive muscles, and not all of them seemed to be afraid of the scar down his torso, but they usually tried to get away politely when they realised he'd lost an eye, not that he cared. Why would he? He had more interesting things to do than deal with random women trying to talk to him, but this woman? She was actually touching his face with this weird look in her eyes, almost as if she was in awe of his scar.
"Most of them have been training accidents? Which ones were deliberate?" She asked, looking at his scar over his left eye as she ran her fingers over it, making Zoro slowly feel uncomfortable.
"The one across my chest and the ones just above my ankles." He answered, gulping as her eyes flicked from his scar to his right eye, her face only inches from his own.
"May I see them?" She smiled, a look of dark delight passing through her eyes.
"Uh, sure?" He grunted, reaching for the bottom of his shirt, hoping to hide his slowly warming cheeks behind his rising shirt.
"Marimo! You can't just start stripping in the middle of the bar!" Yelled a furious Sanji, clearly pissed at Zoro's lack of common sense.
"Huh? Oh yeah." Zoro pulled his partially lifted shirt back down and turned back to the bar for his new pint, quickly taking a sip – maybe he could pass his cheeks off to the alcohol? "Sorry, Ero-Cook here has a point."
"Oh, well, you could come through to the changing area, Zoro-san – you could show me there and tell me the story without interruption." Robin smiled innocently, making both Sanji and Zoro turn red at her words – what was wrong with him?
"Ro-Robin-chwan, I-I don't th-think that that's very a-appropriate?" Sanji stuttered, clearly torn between jumping on the chance of going to the women's changing room and being a gentleman.
"I'm sure no-one with mind, Sanji-san, in fact, I'm sure the women would love to have your company for a while – you appear to be quite a favourite here." She giggled, her comments forcing a quiet snort of laughter from Zoro and a puddle of Sanji to appear on the floor, hearts in his eyes.
Zoro hauled Sanji off of the floor, Sanji oblivious to Zoro's rough treatment as he stayed in his dream state, Luffy following after them laughing at them, as they all made their way into the back, Zoro keeping his eye on the women, daring them to try anything. He usually tried to ignore them unless they were serving him, and he certainly never tipped. They were already being paid, so why should he give them even more?
Robin pointed at a cushioned seat, clearly indicating to drop Sanji there. Zoro did just that, smirking as Luffy sat down in the seat next to him just as another mixed grill appeared from the kitchen and women surrounded Sanji. They were certainly being looked after, but Zoro wasn't quite ready to let his guard drop as Robin slipped into a side room, glancing over her shoulder at him, clearly indicating that she wanted him to follow.
Zoro warily followed after her, closing the door behind him as he entered, glancing back at his friends one last time. The worst the women would do was take their money, Zoro was pretty sure. They only brought the money the planned to spend anyway, so it wouldn't do them too much harm, and it wasn't as if the women had an excuse to kill them, but then again, this woman was acting particularly strangely.
"We may talk in peace here, Zoro-san." Robin smiled, casually walking towards him, making Zoro tense.
"What did you want to talk about?" Zoro asked, feeling increasingly suspicious of the woman, feeling the urge to check again on his friends.
"The story behind your scars." She giggled, starting to lift the bottom of his shirt.
"Is that all?" He questioned, stopping her hands.
"That is all." She smiled reassuringly.
Zoro let go of her hands, watching her carefully. She certainly seemed to be genuinely interested in his scars. She got his shirt up to his shoulders and paused, letting go with one hand to feel the roughly healed scar that ran from his left shoulder to his right hip. He'd accidentally ripped it back open several times while it had been healing, stopping it from forming a smooth scar, instead leaving rough pink scar tissue, which made Robin's eyes open wide with a look of wonder.
Zoro smirked and finished pulling his shirt off for her, allowing her to explore all the scars of his torso. She ran her hands over them curiously, repeatedly going back to the giant one. He stood silently as her eyes devoured his scarred torso, clearly trying to save it to her memory. He started to shift as he slowly began to lose his nerve. Was she looking for his weak points? The giant one was clearly the most obvious one, and she did seem to be giving it a lot of her attention?
"How on earth did you get this one? It looks like it should have killed you, Zoro-san?" Robin asked, her voice sounding just a little concerned as she looked up at him from her crouched position in front of him, her hands still running over his scar.
"That one came from a guy called Mihawk – I challenged him and lost, so he gave me this to remember him by. I turned to face him to receive the slash, since I believe it to be shameful to have any blade slice your back, no matter how strong the opponent." Zoro answered, looking back down at her seriously, all nervousness gone as she looked back up at him with an impressed look across her features.
"May I see your back?" She smiled hopefully at him, standing back up and starting to circle behind him.
Zoro nodded and watched her cautiously, tensing his back muscles for her to study. He felt her hands move ghostingly over his back, feeling every smooth inch of skin under her soft fingertips. He closed his eye, letting himself enjoy the unusual sensation while she couldn't see his expression. He felt his muscles slowly relax, failing to keep them tense as she worked her hands over them, searching for any hidden scars, clearly determined that there must be one somewhere.
"There really are no scars on your back, Zoro-san – very impressive!" She giggled, clearly catching his relaxed expression as she started to circle back around before he could make his face unreadable once again. "May I now see your ankles?"
"Eh, sure...but I'll have to take my boots off...?" Zoro replied, unsure as to how serious she was about investigating all his scars.
"That's fine, Zoro-san." She returned with an almost playful tone to her voice.
Zoro bent down to take off his boots, watching her warily as she kept intrigued eyes focused on him. He stood back up, hitching his trouser legs up to show her the healed hack-marks above his ankles. She crouched back down in front of him, running her hands over them before starting to slide her hands up his legs, clearly searching for more, her hands reaching his knees before being stopped by the material of his trousers. Her hands retreated back down to the scars just above his ankles, circling them curiously before she turned her eyes up to look at him expectantly.
"My friends and I got into a life or death situation, and our legs were trapped..." he began sheepishly, looking away from her gaze, "...so I decided to try to cut myself free...apparently that wasn't a good idea..."
He smiled awkwardly as her giggle reached his ears. He felt her slide her hands up the outside of his trousers, making him shift nervously. Her hands started to pull closer together as they reached the top of his trousers, causing him to gulp. They reached his abs and slowly started to skim up his torso. He heard her giggle as he continued to refuse to look back at her. He couldn't. He could feel his cheeks start to heat, and he was pretty sure she knew exactly what thoughts she was putting into his head. He wasn't going to fall for her tricks.
"Would you like a drink, Zoro-san?" She asked, pulling away from him and walking over to a side table that held a few bottles of various alcohols.
He warily nodded, wondering if she planned to drug him. What did she want from him? He didn't have all that much money, so surely she would have been better dragging Ero-Cook in here? What was so interesting about him? He was just a guy who liked a drink and could hold it, so what if he had a few scars? A lot of people he knew had scars...most of them had two eyes, but he couldn't imagine a woman being interested in a guy just because he had one eye.
"Why'd you want to see my scars?" He asked as she handed him the small glass of colourless liquid.
"You looked like a very interesting young man, and I felt you would have no objection to answering such simple questions since you seemed to enjoy my dancing so much. I hope to get some more detail about your stories as we talk some more – I hope you have no objection to me feeding you sake in return for more fascinating stories?" She asked coyly, running her free hand down his giant scar to his right hip.
"Oi! Marimo! What are you doing to lovely Robin-chwan?!" A furious voice called from the suddenly wide open door, its owner's eyes equally as wide in horror at the sight of a shirtless Zoro in the middle of the room, Robin almost pressed against him.
"Looks like it's time for you to go – shall we continue this next week?" Robin smiled at him, the playful look obvious in her pale blue eyes.
"Sure." Zoro grinned, pulling on his boots and shirt before leaving the room with an irate Sanji.
Hope you enjoyed it! XD And YukiHannah87, I hope I've done your request justice! XD I started writing during my lunch break (in a notepad – I normally just type it), and the notes started so basic – "They walked into a bar" basic – and then I really got into it...heh, hope you liked it! 0;D
Monday:
His Sixth Year Crush Ch3– One Piece (Zorobin)
Wednesday:
Conceit and Crudity Ch5 – Fairy Tail (Gajevy/GaLe & others)
Sunday:
I May or May Not Be Posting – It Depends on Where in the Country I Am (going to my parents')
(If anyone has any requests, just let me know! ^_^ I have a week 'off', and no, you're not pestering me, no matter how 'silly' you think your request is! It's fun chatting to everyone! ^_^ )