Just Before the Baratie Arc

Zoro yawned. He'd been on lookout for almost three hours now, and it was well past 1:00 in the morning. The next shift ought to have started quite awhile ago, and Zoro was more than ready to give a browbeating to whoever it was who had agreed to take the next shift and overslept. Shivering, he pulled his blanket more tightly about his shoulders and looked up at the clear night sky, spangled with brightly glowing stars. Damn it, he thought my vision's getting hazy. I need some sleep. If only I could remember what idiot said that they'd take the next shift... Was it Usopp, maybe?

"Sorry I'm late. Were you waiting for me long?"

"About damn time, Nami." Zoro scowled. "Had a good sleep, then, did you?"

"Oh, quit being so grumpy!" Nami scolded, sitting down in the crow's nest next to him. "I'm here now, so you can go skipping along to your hammock and get your sleep. But leave that blanket here. I'm cold."

"Fat chance. It's my blanket. And I'll be cold without it." Zoro threw the blanket over his shoulder and prepared to swing his leg over the edge of the crow's nest, but his legs buckled out from underneath him the moment he stood up. The sharp, painful tingling he felt made him almost start swearing, but Zoro kept his presence, instead sitting back down neatly.

"Everything all right?" Nami asked, glancing sidelong at him, then returning to her binoculars, all while shivering quite obviously.

"It's nothing." Zoro scowled, slouching against the mast. Nami smirked knowingly.

"Your legs fell asleep, didn't they?" she laughed, checking her compass and looking up at the sky through her binoculars.

"No." Zoro lied.

"I'm right." Nami smiled. "Aren't I?"

"Fine. But it's your fault. If you'd come up here when you said you would..." Zoro crossed his arms and shivered.

"You can stay up here on one condition, Zoro. You have to share the blanket." Nami announced, suddenly turning towards him with a deadly serious expression.

Zoro was somewhat taken aback, but not so much so that he would forget to complain. "Why didn't you bring your own blanket out here? You should have known that it would be chilly. After all, you're the navigator. You're supposed to be the expert on weather."

"I'm only cooperating with you guys. How many times do I have to say that? You should be grateful I'm even going so far as to help with lookout duties. I don't have to, you know." Nami took one side of the blanket, while Zoro refused to relinquish the other. Sighing, Nami tucked her half of the blanket around her shoulders, while Zoro tried to do likewise. It was too short.

"No good. Neither of us will be comfortable like this." Zoro voiced what they were both thinking.

"Yeah," Nami agreed. "You should just let me use it."

"No, you should try to come up with a reasonable solution." Zoro retorted.

Nami pouted, glanced up at the sky again. "Well fine. I suppose I have something of an idea. But if you so much as allude to this when you're talking to Luffy or Usopp, so help me, you will pay."