AN: One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda! ^_^
You asked for more Zorobin, so here's a little one-shot! ^_^
Zoro shoved the two medals into his pocket, releasing a heavy sigh. He'd won another championship, but he still hadn't had another chance against the champion, not since he'd received a thrashing during their last encounter. His dream was to become the best, but the best had disappeared off the scene...again. Mihawk was the World Champion of Kendo, but he usually didn't bother turning up to the competitions or championships anymore; he preferred to be alone. Without him there though, it was just another boring day where he defeated every guy there. If he was lucky, there'd sometimes be a decent opponent, sometimes they were women; they were usually underestimated, but Zoro had learned at an early age that gender didn't matter in the world of kendo.
Zoro stepped out of the back door and into the rain. He pulled his jacket collar further up his neck to try to protect him a little more from the cool water that threatened to trickle down the inside of his jacket. He should really get a jacket with a hood, at least then he could escape through the front door with everyone else without getting attacked by reporters and fans wanting his attention. He'd worked his way through the levels for years now and everyone knew him. He'd wanted everyone to know his name, but not the way they knew it. He'd gotten a bad reputation a while back for his 'brutality', not his skill. To make matters worse, he'd then challenged the champion just to get defeated without Mihawk even trying. He'd promised he'd never be beaten again, and he hadn't by any swordsman.
He walked over to his group of friends, yes friends, as annoying as they were, they were still his friends. He was greeted by the giant smiles of Luffy and Usoppe, while Nami told him he should have been able to finish that last fight faster. She was right, if he ever wanted to beat him, he'd have to be a lot faster. He had to train harder, to perfect his skills and techniques, to become stronger. He felt something hit the back of his head hard and turned around yelling at whoever had just hit him, only just turning fast enough to see Sanji's foot replant itself on the wet pavement.
"Oi, Marimo, pay attention when Nami-swan's speaking! She was asking if you wanted to go to the new pub near hers to celebrate. Be grateful she's even bothering to give a marimo like you some of her very busy time!" Sanji challenged, taking a stand.
"Oh? Why should I, Spiral-Brow?" Zoro replied, his hand going to the hilt of his shinai, while Luffy clutched his stomach, laughing at the two of them.
Usoppe sighed, shaking his head and muttered something about going on ahead. Nami banged their heads together and grabbed their ears, dragging them behind her as she followed after Usoppe, cursing the two of them loudly, Luffy still laughing as he followed. It didn't take them long to hail a taxi and get to the pub, Zoro and Sanji still sulking, Luffy between them as per Nami's orders so that she didn't get stuck between them if a fight started. Zoro sighed once again as he climbed out of the taxi after paying the driver. They still had the same routine. He'd win, they'd go to a pub to drink his winnings – or 'eat' in Luffy's case –then he and Sanji would get into a fight and they'd get kicked out. They had to find a new place to go every time. It was just as well each competition or championship was held in a different town and sometimes even country. His friends were always there with him though, and he was grateful for that.
He walked into the pub, his friends already inside and ordering their food. He walked up to the bar to order a drink before joining them. He looked up in surprise at the height of the blue-haired bar tender. He was huge! His arms were the size of Sanji's waist! He looked down the other side of the bar and realised the giant man was wearing Speedos with his open Hawaiian shirt, revealing tiny legs. Zoro had to stop himself from laughing at the contrast; he'd be in trouble if he got them kicked out before they'd eaten, then again, Nami did live just along the road – Sanji could just cook for them if he upset the bartender by laughing!
"Oi, oi! You're the SUPER kendo champion that I've been hearing about all week! Everyone's been talking about the 'green-haired guy who always wins' since we opened last week. Some orange-haired girl was saying to my friend the other night that she was betting a couple of thousand beri on you – did you win?!" The strange man practically shouted, standing less than two meters away on the other side of the bar.
"She did, did she?" Zoro turned to look over his shoulder at his friends, "Oi, guys – looks like Nami's paying tonight! She's just won a million beri!"
Zoro could feel the eyes glaring at the back of his head as he turned back to the man behind the bar, grinning. He'd pay for that later, but it was worth it. Nami clearly owed him by now after how much she'll have won betting on him over the years. Hell, he'd probably paid for her house. He sat on the barstool, ready to sit and chat before heading to the table, only to notice there was also a woman there now too. He smiled awkwardly at her, looking her over, starting with her bright smile. She had long dark hair with a strange blue shine to it, a shine that matched the colour of her eyes. She was wearing dark blue zip-up jacket that made it painfully clear that there wasn't anything underneath, while she seemed to only wear some sort of pink wrap as a skirt. He watched as the bartender laid a giant arm around her shoulders.
"So you did win then? Robin, this is the green-haired guy everyone's been talking about." He grinned.
"Hello there, Swordsman-san," she still looked so suspiciously happy, almost as if she was hiding something.
"...eh, um, hi 'Robin'...I'm Zoro." He replied awkwardly, not sure what to make of the clearly confident older woman, "yeah, I won. I plan to be the World Champion some day so it shouldn't be all that surprising. Sake please."
"Sure thing. I'm Franky by the way, nice to meet you, Zoro! Tell you what, this one's on me for your win. I took the young woman's advice, she seemed to like money so I figured she wouldn't benefit from placing a false bet, and she was waving those slips around like nobody's business." Zoro grunted, annoyed at her for being so reckless.
He downed his drink and strode over to the table, keeping an eye on the strange couple behind the bar as he walked. It wasn't long before the woman came over to the table again – to get his order since she'd already been across to get everyone else's – she hadn't realised the man at the bar had been part of their group and no one had thought to tell her. She hadn't seemed amused at that, at least to Zoro, but she'd maintained her smile perfectly. She had a pretty good poker face; no wonder she was a waitress. She appeared about fifteen minutes later with everyone else's meals, apologising that his would be at least another five minutes. Perfect. Another perfectly normal occurrence in his normal, uneventful life.
One of these times, something would change this ongoing routine. Something just had to. Maybe if something changed about their routine, he'd get that chance he'd been waiting for, for so many years. He'd been young and foolish back then, but if he hadn't been, if he hadn't been so determined, Mihawk would have just forgotten him. Instead he'd gained an impressive scar and some respect from the World Champion. If he could just change one thing; maybe Mihawk had been in the crowd? No, he wouldn't have been. Perona would have said hi if they'd been here. He'd actually gotten to know her pretty well over the two years that he'd spent with Mihawk, having begged him to take him as a student, much to Mihawk's disgust. Zoro still wasn't sure why the champion had agreed, but he didn't care. He'd tried hard during those two years, and he's continued training since. He was sure he was ready.
He listened as a violin started up in the corner of the room. He glanced over at the man with the violin. What was with this place and the ridiculous height of everyone in it? This guy even had a huge afro! Zoro shook his head, taking a final bite of his dinner. It had been good, but Sanji's food was better – not that he'd tell him that. He looked around at his laughing group of friends, glad that they were there. Without them he'd probably just wallow in self-pity, drinking the night and his money away all by himself, completely alone, instead he got to laugh. He wouldn't trade them for anything, well maybe he'd get rid of them if they got in the way of his dream, but that wasn't going to happen. They were stuck together for the ride, whether they liked it or not.
"What did you say to the lady behind the bar, Marimo?! You were rude to her, weren't you?! She keeps looking over at you, what did you say?!" Sanji suddenly shouted in his face, making Zoro subconsciously grab his shinai and jump back from the table to take a stance.
"I didn't say anything, Spiral-Brow – I was talking to the guy!" Zoro yelled back, frustrated at Sanji's sudden attack.
He just wanted to have a drink and relax! What was wrong with Sanji today? Oh yeah, nothing...they were always like this. Why'd he keep forgetting that? He couldn't wait until they got home and the idiot could stop acting like an idiot just because there's 'beautiful ladies' around. He just wanted to show off. Well, maybe he should teach him a lesson, maybe then he'd remember his place. Zoro kept his face completely straight and unchanging as he watched Nami sneak up behind Sanji. He burst out laughing as she punched him in the back of the head. He heard a quiet giggle behind him as he wiped a tear from his eye and turned around. There was the strange woman, standing behind the bar laughing at them. She wasn't about to kick them out? He walked up to the bar, replacing his shinai in his haramaki.
"Hey...Robin, right? Aren't you gonna kick us out?" He asked as she smiled happily at him, this time with a strange truthfulness to it.
"And why would I do that, Zoro-san?" She asked, confusing Zoro completely. It must have shown on his face because she suddenly started giggling again.
"Well...em...well, we...we, em, just started...em, you know, fighting? In the middle of your bar?" Zoro explained feeling strangely embarrassed.
"My bar?" She looked momentarily confused before smiling at him again, "this is Franky's bar, not mine, and no, we're not together. He's a good friend that needed help while he set up. I'm actually an archaeologist."
"An archaeologist? Seriously? What are you trying to find around here?" Zoro asked, trying to hide his surprise at her not just being a waitress, or even Franky's wife for that matter.
"Nothing here, but it's a good place to be since I can travel anywhere from this city. I travel around the world, looking for information on a lost age of history. I've managed to find bits and pieces as I've travelled. What about you? You said you wanted to be the World Champion of Kendo, Zoro-san." She leant over the bar to get closer in her fascination.
"I...em, I made a pact with a fri-friend when I was, em, younger. We decided that one of us would become the world champion, and she died..." He looked away, his building blush from her attention fading as he remembered the girl he'd made the pact with, "...now I have to achieve our dream alone."
"You don't look very alone to me, Zoro-san." He looked up, surprised by her response before looking back over his shoulder at his laughing friends.
"I guess you're right, thanks." He said smiling awkwardly at her, hoping that his smile showed how grateful he was to her at that moment; he'd spent all day feeling sorry for himself since finding out Mihawk wasn't going to appear.
"Sake?" Zoro nodded at her, her false smile having returned as she'd pulled back, "so, what happened to your eye?"
"Huh? Oh, training accident. I actually train a lot with three katanas, real ones, and ended up losing my eye to one of my opponents – one eye wasn't exactly a problem, I'd been against several opponents at the time, and anyway, if I'd lost both I'd just of had to learn to fight without any eyes. I can already win with my eye closed!" Zoro gloated, his chest swelling with pride.
"Very impressive, Zoro-san! I'll have to come watch you fight some time; where are you next?" She smiled, Zoro's smile growing larger for some reason.
"Well, the next competition isn't for another month, but you're welcome to join us, as long as Franky can spare you. We'll all be here in the city until then. Love-Cook and I live on the outskirts of town, but Nami lives just along the road from here. Luffy and Usoppe live pretty close to here too, actually." He tried to regain his seriousness; he didn't know this woman, he wasn't going to fall for her mind games, whatever her end goal...and he'd just told her where everyone lived...he's an idiot.
"That would be really nice, Zoro-san. Franky and Brooke would probably like to come as well if that's ok? I hope your boyfriend doesn't mind you inviting me though?" She asked, shining a glass as she smiled at him.
"Bo-Boyfriend?! What?! I don't have a boyfriend!? Where'd you come up with that?!" He asked completely flustered.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Zoro-san! I thought your blonde friend was your boyfriend; you said you lived with 'Love-Cook', and he seemed to be getting jealous because I kept looking at you. I thought he was worried that you were thinking about cheating on him." Zoro's jaw fell to the floor. It all made annoyingly perfect sense as she said it...what if that was how it seemed to everyone else? No wonder girls always thought he was weird when he accepted one of Sanji's bets to go talk to them.
He was gonna kill him.
"SPIRAL-BROW!" He yelled, turning towards the group, hearing another giggle behind him...she was laughing at him again; she probably had that happy smile on her face.
He sighed heavily. Well at least something had changed. There was now a woman laughing at him as he fought with Sanji, instead of running in fear, or in Nami's case – getting extremely irritated. He couldn't exactly complain; he had wanted change. The change just thought he was interested in men. He watched as Sanji marched up to him, Zoro already knowing that a kick was about to look for a target. Sanji didn't exactly like to be 'summoned'. Zoro was going to get an earful when they got home...oh god, they really were like a married couple.
"What do you want, Marimo?!" Sanji yelled as his foot swung through the air towards Zoro's head, only to meet with a shinai instead.
"Tell her that we're not together! She thought you were my boyfriend because you were getting jealous, Spiral-Brow!" Zoro yelled back, causing Sanji's face to momentarily blush at the thought of how their previous argument must have looked to the unknown lady.
"I'm very sorry, miss, if my friend here has been rude to you in any way." Sanji started, bowing politely to Robin, "my name is Sanji. May I ask for your name, fair maiden?"
"Nico Robin, nice to meet you, Sanji-san," She giggled, somehow annoying Zoro.
"Yeah, yeah. This is Love-Cook – he's my flatmate, not boyfriend." Zoro grunted, turning away and leaning against the bar.
"Love-Cook?" Zoro could feel Sanji's glare and figured he'd pay for that one later too.
"Yeah, he's obsessed with women – he'd do anything for a woman he'd just met. Just ignore him, I do." Well, if he was already in trouble then it couldn't get any worse.
"Really? So does that mean you don't want me to cook for you?" Zoro visibly gulped. Why'd he forget about that part?!
He heard another giggle.
"So you cook all the meals, Sanji-san?" He could hear the smile in her voice. What did she want with him?
"Yeah, he's a trained chef – shame he doesn't have a job and I have to pay the rent. He's actually pretty good" – that was an understatement – "but he doesn't have any experience that isn't 'family related', and after we moved here, he couldn't get a job. I work at the local Dojo training some of the kids." Zoro explained, not turning around to find out if steam was coming out of Sanji's ears.
"Really? That's very impressive, Zoro-san," she was clearly still smiling, "your scars must really intrigue the children. I always find the stories behind scars fascinating!" – was she making fun of him? It didn't sound like it... – "but Sanji-san, are you currently looking for a job? Franky is actually looking for someone. He's having to cook the meals himself while managing the bar – his cook never turned up, you see. That's actually why I came here to help; he was panicking a little because it was just him and Brooke – the musician – so I offered to come over. It's actually a good base for my work."
"Are you telling everyone about your research again, Robin?" Franky asked appearing from the kitchen.
"Actually, Robin-chwan was just telling us that you were looking for a cook?" Sanji defended cheerfully.
"Oh, are you interested in the job? I have a few questions I have to ask you." Zoro turned around and smiled gratefully at Robin.
"Another sake, please? It'll be good if he gets a job here – all of you actually seem alright, not that I'm saying that I thought you wouldn't be; it's just you seem to keep putting on a brilliant poker face. Is there a reason for that?" He asked her, blushing slightly as he tried to decide if he'd just been rude to her.
"Would you like to meet up for coffee?"
"Wh-What?" Zoro spluttered, his face turning red.
"I'll be in the city for some time, and I really only know Franky, Brooke and you," she smiled, "if you want to meet up, we could maybe talk to each other about our difficult pasts. Yours seems very interesting, Zoro-san. Maybe we could even talk about our plans for the future?"
Zoro walked in through his front door, Sanji following him in with a huge grin on his face – he'd found a job working with a tall beautiful lady, a lady with a mature elegance about her. He grinned at his luck; now he had both Nami-swan and Robin-chwan to look after – he was the luckiest man alive to know two such beautiful women. Zoro shook his head at his idiot flatmate as he closed and locked the front door. He patted his trouser pocket, checking for the sound of paper before walking into the kitchen. His cat walked along the worktop as he walked in. Zoro lifted him before Sanji caught him, and grabbed a bottle of sake before heading back into the living room, throwing himself onto the couch.
"You know, Chopper, I met someone interesting today, I think you'd like her." Zoro told the purring cat quietly while he rubbed behind its ears.
He took a swig of the sake before placing the bottle on the coffee table. He pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket and stared at it for a while, absent-mindedly rubbing his cat's ears. He reached into his kit bag and pulled his phone out of one of the inside pockets, flipping it open. He clicked a button and started typing;
'Hey, Robin, you know, coffee sounds nice.'
Hehe, thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! ^_^ I kept thinking of Zoro just walking out into the rain with his medals when I was trying to think up a Zorobin, and it took me a while to lengthen that idea, sorry! :) Anyone reading 'The Life of the First Mate', I have some good news for you – Chapter 2 will be up next week! ^_^
Thursday will be Chapter 7 of 'With Someone Else', it'll be up at the new 'Thursday' time ^_^ But next Monday, you're getting the next chapter of my One Piece story! ^_^ It'll still be at the usual time though! ^_^ (Family matters to deal with, so Monday, not Sunday!)