Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey. I am so so so so sorry for the long wait but I promise that the new chapters will be updated much much quicker than this one was. There are going to be many many more chapters to come so if I really put the work in I can maybe do a chapter a week (hopefully). Please do not hesitate to review this story, I would love love love to hear your opinion of the story and the characterization and I would love critical comments as well, anything to make the story more enjoyable. So anyway here's the chapter hopefully next chapter will be in Sanji's perspective so that should be fun, seeing as he's my favourite character and al : P Enjoy xxxx

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In…out. In and out. In and out again. That's all the man was doing, just sitting there, breathing in and out. Zoro could have been angry; he could have been clenching his teeth so hard that they would turn to dust, and digging his nails into his palms with so much force that they could pierce all the way down to the bone, but to his annoyance, he wasn't. In all truth, he had had an extremely shitty day and although Zoro wouldn't usually let things get to him, today everything had just added up until he found himself to be in a very unpleasant mood, at least, more than he usually was. And in all honesty, as soon as Zoro found one of the objects of his irritation (sleeping in front of his apartment, preventing him from crashing onto his sofa), punching the blonde right in the face seemed like the best solution. But Zoro had the right mind to consider why the blonde was even there. He had, in essence, stolen Zoro's wallet, so the only logical conclusion as to why he was probably waiting for Zoro to get back to his apartment, was to return the wallet to its rightful owner and retrieve his own. Zoro took notice of how incredibly peaceful and content the guy looked, considering the fact that he was sleeping in front of a stranger's apartment, in an unknown building.

Zoro noticed the blonde's scruffy trench coat. It was ripped in a few places and there were patches of different materials sewn on badly in an attempt to fix a few holes in the coat. His shoes too were ripped and scruffy, with bits of leather half hanging off and the soles were caked in dirt. But strangely the shoes themselves looked like were originally expensive and fancy, fancier than his own anyway, Zoro thought. Zoro's nose wrinkled slightly when he caught a whiff of the stench emanating from the blonde. There was no denying the smell, he smelt exactly like a garbage dumpster, what did he do, sleep in them? It sure as hell smelt like he did.

Zoro heard howls of laughter coming from Usopp's apartment and chuckled to himself slightly. Knowing that a certain young and much too curious boy usually spent more time in the halls than his own apartment, Zoro wouldn't have been surprised if the blonde had had a rude awakening in the form of a rugby tackle to the floor and an invitation to become a nakama.

Zoro scowled when he remembered the blonde's face being screwed up with such fury, and the insulting words he had spat at Zoro's face, a stark contrast as to how he looked now. Zoro was quick to notice a large cotton pad taped over the cut the guy had received this morning, looks like he could look after himself after all. Or perhaps not, Zoro thought, when he looked at the blonde's abnormally grey/whitish skin tone, the extremely prominent dark blue under his eyes and his clumped together hair. Shit, was the guy sick? He'd better not throw up.

"Oh Zoro, there you are!" Zoro turned his head towards the squeaky call, and saw yet another one of his friends, running, almost skipping, towards him. The voice belonged to the youngest member of the strawhat gang, Tony Tony Chopper, a medical genius who used to live with a ridiculously old woman in the same building, but had managed to convince her to let him move into the apartment on the 12th floor. It was his kind nature and compassion toward sick people that attracted him to Luffy so much and made him an ideal member of the group. He now worked at the Grandline hospital as a fully trained doctor at the age of just 15.

"Yo Chopper" Zoro said tiredly. Chopper came to a halt in front of Zoro and looked up to the towering man with a gleaming grin.

"Ne ne d'you know him Zoro?" Zoro glanced at "him".

"Not really" Zoro interpreted Chopper's puzzled face as a cue to elaborate.

"Well," Zoro started the scratch the back of his head, "we sort of, err, bumped into each other this morning. We're pretty much just strangers; we don't even know each other's name". Chopper's big brown eyes examined his friend even more quizzically. Damn, he was probably thinking why the hell a stranger would know where his apartment was and would be waiting in front of it for him to come home.

"How long has he been there for?" Zoro asked.

"Mmmmmmm, about…3 hours" Chopper nodded. Zoro scrunched up his face. Seriously? The guy had waited 3 hours for him to get back?! No wonder he was snoozing away without a care in the world.

"Has he been sleeping all that time?"

Chopper looked at the blonde man and frowned. "Pretty much, yeah. I was just about to go to Luffy's when I found him here, sleeping just like he is now. I nudged him to wake him up, and , although he jumped away and tried to kick me, once he calmed down and got a grip, he was really, really nice." Chopper smiled to himself whilst still looking at the blonde. "It took a bit of persuading, but he let me look at a cut on his forehead, and even let me disinfect and bandage it." Chopper then displayed a pout that was a cross between annoyance and worry. Even Zoro had to admit it was kinda cute.

"What's up?"

Chopper fidgeted where he stood and looked at his hands. "Well I know it's none of my business, but when I looked him over I found signs showing that he was lethargic and extremely dehydrated. I did try offering him some food and a drink, but he refused both." Chopper looked down at his feet in shame which caused Zoro to chuckle slightly. He lifted his hand to ruffle the small boy's hair. Trust Chopper to be completely worried about a total stranger who had kicked him, being a doctor really did suit him.

"So, in other words "Can you look after him for me?"

Chopper's face looked up at Zoro with glee and he made a sort of happy squeaky noise. "Oh will you Zoro!? That would be so helpful y'know?" Chopper started to jump up and down on the spot, anticipating Zoro's answer. Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed loudly. So now he had to take care of a total stranger like some damn babysitter, who he knew first hand had one of the worst anger management issues Zoro had ever witnessed. But Zoro did his best to get rid of the creeping irritation that was starting to take over his mind and faked a smile in front of the innocent little doctor. He was no goddamn Samaritan but he would never say no if one of his friends asked for a favour.

"Yeah, yeah whatever" Zoro muttered. Chopper's eyes started to fill with tears but his smile grew even larger. "Thankyou so much Zoro!" Chopper cried out while wiping away his tears.

"Oiiiiiiiii! Chopper! We're waiting for you! Hurry up or Luffy will get impatient and start breaking things!" Usopp called from the open doorway of his apartment.

"Okay, I'm coming noooow!" Chopper shouted back. "Thanks again, Zoro. Oh and could you be extra nice to him. I think you two could be really great friends." Before Zoro could tell Chopper to stop being so cheeky and that he already had friends, the little tyke had already scampered off to Usopp's apartment. As soon as the door slammed shut, Zoro was met with utter silence, save for the soft breathing coming out of the blonde's nose.

"Oi". No response, not even a slight stir. Okay, now the blonde was practically begging to be punched. Zoro chose to kick one of the blonde's dirty and worn shoes. The man took in a big deep breath through his nose and slowly started to open his eyes, blinking multiple times, and slowly lifted his head to look Zoro in the eye.

"You're in my way, move" The blonde rubbed the sleepiness away from his eyes and heaved himself up to a standing position begrudgingly. He bent down to snatch up his hat and stuffed it into his coat pocket. Strange, Zoro thought, he looked so desperate when he thought he had lost it this morning.

"Is that really how you should treat a guest, asshole?" With the man standing Zoro could see that he was the same height as him, and so neither of them could look down upon the other. Zoro moved swiftly past the blonde and unlocked his apartment door, opened it halfway, before turning back to the blonde with a raised eyebrow.

"Guest? That cut must have been worse than it looked 'cos you must be under the delusion that I would actually let you in. You must be here to collect your wallet, so give me back mine and I'll give you yours, and then we can just go our separate ways." The blonde looked at him with a bored and unimpressed expression, but after a few seconds a smirk began to tug at the corner of his mouth and he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"You're one grumpy ass shit, aren't you? Here I was hoping to receive my thankyou after saving your life this morning. I might look like a piece of shit, but I sure as hell don't deserve to be treated like one". Man this guy was annoying, Zoro needed to get rid of him before his anger reached danger levels.

"Look if you think-"

"Ooooooh, this is a nice apartment you've got cabbage-head" The blonde said as he barged past Zoro and into the apartment, looking around the place like it was some kind of amusement park.

"OI! Don't just barge into someone else's apartment!" Zoro looked outside into the hallway to see if anyone saw the blonde go in but thankfully all was quiet and so he kicked the door shut. If anyone found out that some stranger had barged his apartment without his permission, he would never hear the end of it.

The blonde had already taken off his stinky coat and thrown it over the sofa, looking like he owned the place. It turned out the clothes under the coat weren't tatty or scruffy but was in fact a pretty fancy looking suit made up of black trousers, a black pinstripe suit, a black tie and a sea blue striped shirt. What the hell was with this guy? Zoro had never seen many homeless people wearing a suit, at least that's what Zoro assumed the blonde was.

"It's fine, I'm not doing anyone any harm cabbage-head" The blonde said as he started to rummage around in his kitchen cupboards for some reason with a smile plastered on his face that looked like it belonged to a 5yr old on Christmas morning.

"Yes you are, and who the hell are you calling cabbage-head?" Zoro strode over to him and folded his arms.

"Well I don't see anyone else who as cabbage for h-uwaaahh is this seriously Kalpasi? You can only get this from India!"

"My friend got it for me as a souvenir, but that's not the point-" The blonde clearly had no intention of listening, as he had grabbed a coffee jar, opened it and stuck his nose into it.

"Ooooh man I've forgotten how good coffee smells"

Zoro snatched back the jar but the blonde had other ideas and opened the fridge to inspect the contents.

"Woah, this is one desolate fridge. You ever heard of a grocery store cabbage-head? Oh wait, you probably couldn't even cross the road to get to one without getting run over. What were you even doing in the middle of the road anyway, acting like some slow-minded ape?"

That was it, no amount of meditation techniques could have prevented Zoro's patience from snapping right there and then.

"Listen you cocky little shit, this is my home and you are not welcome. Now, judging by your scrawny little legs, I'm guessing that if I attempted to throw you out myself I won't know how many of your bones I might accidently break. Look I'm tired and I'm pissed off but I'm gonna give you one last chance to give me back my wallet and get the hell out or I'll call the police"

The blonde's head lifted a little at the last few words Zoro said, but when he turned around to look at him, his expression was calm and bored.

"Go ahead"

"Huh?"

"Besides", the blonde stood up from his kneeling position in front of the fridge, to stand squarely in front of Zoro, "you probably shouldn't underestimate the power of my "scrawny legs". I can wipe the floor with your ugly ass without even breaking a sweat." There it was again, that fire in the man's eyes that was burning as fiercely as when Zoro had met him that morning.

"Heh. If you knew what I was capable of, you'd be more careful with your choice of words. Arrogant people like you who are stupid enough to challenge me, usually end up on the floor begging for mercy." Zoro eyes were dark and deadly and his stare was enough to pierce all the way to the blonde's very soul. But the blonde was still being resilient and his eyes never wavered, nor did his expression and the fire in his eyes had neither grown nor died down. An unnatural grumbling noise caused both men's concentration to break and the blonde wrapped his arms around his belly in embarrassment and his face turned a slight shade of pink. Zoro raised his eyebrow and looked unimpressed but had to react fast when a small object was thrown at him.

"There here's your damn wallet, now give me back mine" Zoro unbuttoned the leather strap and opened the wallet to see if everything was accounted for. His credit cards were all there, the same as the way he'd left them. Although he couldn't say the same for his notes, Zoro realised, when he checked the back pouch.

"Sure, just as long as you give me back my 30 berris I seem to have 'lost'"

"Arrrrgh dammit. Look I don't have any money right now okay? I…used it to buy some food, I was starving."

"So you stole from me"

"I didn't steal anything, I just borrowed without permission"

"That's called stealing"

"Whatever, I deserve more than just a free meal for saving your goddamn life. I could have just stood back and watched you being crushed by a two tonne lorry. But no, I risked my own life to save yours and this is how you repay me?"

"I told you I didn't need your help. And besides I-" Zoro forgot whatever retort he had conjured when he realized something .

"Wait, I know why you're here. You've come to blackmail me through guilt so that you can have another goddamn free meal, haven't you?" The blonde's expression became that of slight shock but it changed into that of a scowl.

"What the he-"

"No I'm onto you, you son-of-a-bitch. Did you really think I'd be as dumb and gullible as to be guilt-tripped by an annoying little bastard like you? What, did you think I would have welcomed you with open arms and a cup of hot chocolate, huh? Or, I dunno, maybe you thought I would have let you stayed a night, a week, a year? I could fucking kill you right here and now if I wanted to you shit-headed hob-"

A phenomenal amount of pain hit Zoro in the throat with enough force to lift his feet off the ground and he heard an echoing crack when his head came into contact with the tiled floor. His vision had gone white for a few seconds and when it returned it was blurry and distorted. Zoro tried to blink away the fuzziness that was brewing in his brain and was fucking up his senses. What the hell happened? Was the blonde hiding some kind of weapon? It must have weighed a tonne 'cos that's what it had felt like. And the speed, Zoro had never seen anything like it. If he knew that the blonde was gonna attack him he would have been able to dodge it easily, but it had come out of nowhere. He coughed violently and he lifted his head to allow easier air access. Something hard slammed onto his chest, pinning him to the ground. Now when he looked up he saw the blonde looming over him and he bent down with ease to mock Zoro.

"Now I may have tattered clothes and an empty wallet but that doesn't make me a fucking hobo. I'd advise you to not assume stuff about my life, unless you wish to suffer the consequences"

Zoro realised that it was the blonde's foot that was holding him down and he started to grind his heel into Zoro's chest, twisting the skin, probably his way of emphasising a point. Zoro winced and his body tried to reel away from the pain, but that leg was keeping him firmly in place. Shit, what the hell was this guy? How could a skinny ass punk like him be causing so much pain, with just one foot? The blonde's face was covered in shadow, emphasising the look of pure hatred that was etched into his features and he kept grinding into his chest.

But Zoro had confidence in his strength and there was nothing he hated more than to be restrained like a caged beast. Zoro grabbed the foot that was pressing down on his chest with both hands. This annoyed the blonde and he tried pulling his foot away from the iron grip, but this was what Zoro wanted. Using his incredible strength, Zoro pulled the foot towards him, causing the blonde to wobble and lose balance.

When the blonde fell to the floor on his back Zoro stood up, bent down to grab the blonde by his shirt and lifted him up so that he was hanging a few inches from the floor in Zoro's grip. "I guess I'll just have to throw you out myself, huh?" Zoro walked towards the door carrying the blonde with him, "I did warn you, you little sh-oof" The blonde kneed him in the stomach with his eerily strong legs, hard to enough to wind Zoro slightly. This caused him to let go of the blonde, and when he bent over to cough hard he barely had enough time to dodge a roundhouse kick aimed at his head. Zoro retaliated by swinging a powerful fist toward the blonde's ribcage but he dodged this by ducking down to the ground in a crouch. Zoro thought the blonde would just stand up again but he was wrong. The blonde planted his hands onto the floorboards and launched both legs up towards Zoro's chin, performing a perfect handstand. Zoro dodged the black feet again but still had to defend himself when the blonde swung his impossibly long legs while still maintaining his handstand. The legs started to spin faster and quicker until the blonde looked like some kind of deadly black whirlwind. Zoro stepped back further but stopped when his leg brushed the side of the coffee table. Tch, he wasn't gonna break furniture that he'd paid for in some petty fight. Zoro stood his ground, crossed his arms in front of his face and waited for the oncoming impact. When the black shoe made contact with Zoro's ribcage his immense strength and durability prevented him from moving even an inch from where he stood. But Zoro was a worse liar than Usopp and he could never try to deny the fact that the kick had fucking hurt like hell. Did he have fake legs or something? Was he wearing prosthetics made out of lead? Zoro tasted the all too familiar taste of blood in his mouth (although he wasn't exactly familiar with the taste of his own blood) and spat the liquid out. Che, that's something he'd have to clean up later.

The attack was effective; however it had left the blonde in a vulnerable position. Zoro took a swing at the blonde's leg, and although he did make a full impact, it wasn't as powerful as Zoro would have liked. Damn, the suit was restricting his moves like a fucking straightjacket. If only he had his swords, he could finish this fight in 2 seconds without having to defend himself all the time.

The blonde shrugged off the punch like it was nothing and flipped over to stand straight again. Like a black cat, the blonde whisked through the air at lightning speed and went in for another roundhouse kick. Zoro, again, had to dodge and so he ducked down to the floor in a crouch. He looked above him to see if it was clear for him to stand up again but he saw a black leg hovering above him waiting to slice down like a guillotine. He leapt to the side and heard the sound of wood being shattered behind him.
Zoro was fuming, he couldn't allow this man to get the better of him, not this annoying, money stealing, insulting, rude little shit. But when he stood up and swung round to see what the blonde was up to next, he was surprised to see the man standing with a relaxed posture, his hands shoved into his black trouser pockets, looking up at the ceiling. Although his breathing was a little heavier than normal, Zoro tried to keep as still as a stone statue to avoid giving off the impression that he had let his guard down. When the blonde turned his head a little to look at Zoro, he flinched slightly, expecting the blonde to come flying across the room at him with another barrage of kicks, but he simply looked at him with a thoughtful expression. They stayed like that for a few seconds, with Zoro feeling like the most confused man on earth and the blonde looking like he was calculating something in his head, until finally he spoke.

"Okay, I've decided" he said.

"Huh?"

"I've decided. You're gonna let me have a shower in exchange for me cooking dinner"

"What the- you decided? I'm theone who's gonna make the decisions here, not you, got it? You've let yourself into my house without permission, you've also insulted me and attacked me for no goddamn reason. The only thing you need to do is to get the hell outta my house before I slice up your skinny ass"

The blonde lowered his head slightly so that his visible eye was covered by his hair but his soft smile was still visible.

"No reason, huh?"

"What was that?"

The blonde snapped his head up quickly and had a new scheming look in his eye.

"I guess that moss on your head has infected your brain and made you more even more stupid than I originally thought you were. If you'd actually think over my proposal you'll realise that everything works out in your favour. All I want is to use your shower for at least 5 minutes in exchange for a free meal. And I don't mean your average fry up I mean the best meal you've ever fucking tasted. I'm also willing to accept the use of your shower as a sign of gratitude for saving your life this morning. That means you can spend the rest of your life guilty-free and never have to think about me and what I did ever again. Capiche?"

Zoro thought about the offer. A free meal didn't sound too bad, and he was just too tired and frustrated to even give a shit anymore. And there was the promise he had made to Chopper out in the hall. If Chopper saw Zoro throwing a possibly sick and injured person out of his apartment he would go ballistic on his ass, especially when he had agreed to take care of the stupid, annoying prick. Shit, he was going to regret this. Zoro covered his eyes with his hand and rubbed his temples, while letting out a big frustrated sigh.

"Fine, fine. Anything to shut you up". The blonde also let out a big sigh but his was of relief. The blonde looked around the apartment awkwardly, "Errr..."

"It's to your left, down the hallway and past the bedroom. There's towels in the white cupboard next to the mirror."

"Oh, thanks moss-brain" The blonde turned to go behind the glass sliding door that separated the hallway and the living room/kitchen.

"Hey!" Zoro shouted after the blonde, and he stopped to turn around by the glass door.

"What?" he said.

"I'll feel much better knowing the name of the person who's gonna use my shower. Or would you prefer me to just call you "annoying, bitchy, blonde shit-head"?"

The blonde chuckled softly at Zoro's creative naming skills. "How about you tell me your name first and then I'll consider telling you mine, mosshead?"

"Zoro Roronoa"

"I'd say it's nice to meet you but I think we both know I'd be lying"

"Ditto"

"Ha-ha! I think it's best if I stick to moss-brain for now though." The blonde paused for a few moments, pulling a face that looked like he was trying to recall his own name. "Sanji Black" he finally spoke while turning round to walk toward the bathroom.

Sanji, huh? What an annoying name,...it suits him. Zoro looked around the apartment. Strange, it looked even more emptier than usual. Zoro went into the bedroom to change out of the annoying suit. He could hear the noise of the shower droplets hitting the glass encased around the bath through the bedroom wall and it calmed him a little, it was a similar sound to rain pattering on the windows, something he would often listen to to help him meditate.

Zoro sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. What a day. Nearly getting run over, meeting the most annoying man in the world and fucking up his plans for achieving his dream, wasn't exactly what he had planned for the day when he woke up this morning. Zoro looked toward the bedroom window and the white sword that was placed in front of it. The pure white hilt was a stark contrast against the orange and purple evening sky, and its gold plated tip glistened in the setting sun.

He couldn't get the gruesome image of Kuina being hit by the truck instead of him out of his mind. In his moments of hurriedness he had completely forgot to even look back to see if she was still there. How could he have forgotten her like that? He thought about her every single day, there was never a day that went by when she wasn't in his thoughts. She was in his dreams, sometimes his nightmares and whenever he trained he would imagine he was fighting her, imagined that he was still a child and that he had never left the dojo. Zoro brushed away the useless thoughts, there's no changing what's already happened. What the hell was the point of just sitting around moping? Getting that job wasn't his only option of making a lot of money in a short amount of time.

Zoro decided that he would visit that place, he was certain there would be a big tournament being held there in 2 weeks. 2 weeks to train and practice, 2 weeks to get his goddamn head screwed on.

Before taking his jacket off he reached inside his pocket to find the blonde's wallet. He must have forgotten about it. Zoro's mind flickered back to what happened before the blonde kicked. And when he remembered what he was about to say, he didn't blame the blonde too much for kicking him. It must have been stress from the long day that had caused him to say those spiteful words; he was going to need a long meditation session tonight. And that meal better be fucking worth it.

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So did you enjoy the wonderful Zosan XD. There's going to be plenty more interaction next chapter so look forward to that ;). Also I just want to point out that Sanji didn't necessarily win the fight I'd call it a tie but he definitely had the advantage. Zoro's definitely strong, but without his swords in my opinion he could be seen as equal to Sanji. Plus the fact that his suit was tight and he didn't want to break his poor furniture stopped him from getting any good hits in. So yeah :P