Alright everyone...since the first chapter of this was so much fun I decided that I really should write the second part that I'd been mulling over. I think the first was fine on its own...but we'll see how this goes, hm? Plus, I'm still waiting for the next chapter of Tiger Hunt. Dah, oh the torture...
(By the way: I realized, after I posted the first piece of this, that the changes they made to this site in my 3 year absence are really assanine. And the weird formatting thingie "document manager", or whatever, really aggravated me. Can someone tell me where my little stars went? Or why two dashes in a row turns back into one? Or why I can only have one exclamation point at the end of a sentence? And I bolded that because it won't let me put exclamation points in addition to questions marks. God that's irritating...)
I own no part of One Piece.
Shameless II
A slight shiver ran through the man in bed. It was taking him an annoying amount of effort to peel his tired eyes open. They finally cooperated, letting him stare blankly up at the ceiling of the Going Merry's cabin. It had felt like years since the green-haired man had last been awake. He had been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past two days, all the while sporting a completely ridiculous fever. The man hadn't been able to tell Nami from Chopper in his constant daze.
But here he was, gazing up at the ceiling tiredly, with a pretty good degree of awareness...it made him wonder just what the hell had happened to him, now that he was capable of such thought processes. The swordsman had some vague memories of falling over after the battle had ended. And then some more of Chopper bandaging his stab-wound...but as the memories went on they became fewer and more distorted. Well, it didn't matter what the fuck had happened. All he knew was that he was never gonna let it happen again. End of discussion.
His hand twitched slightly as his brain commanded it to move. The appendage reluctantly obeyed, lifting with the rest of his arm. The man sighed deeply as the callused skin of his palm connected with his forehead.
'Damnit, who knew headaches could even get this bad...'
He writhed slightly under the covers, attempting to stretch out his stiff muscles...his elbow knocked something, the swordsman suddenly noticing that here was a weight pressing down on him. He squeezed his eyes closed as his head throbbed in confusion. The green-haired man blindly let his hand investigate...the air flooded out of his lungs as his fingertips met with the skin of a face. That sure as fuck wasn't gravity.
Zoro's eyes popped wide open-his skin was already pale from illness yet it managed another few shades as his eyes met with the top of a blonde head. All he could do was stare, convinced that he was having another one of the strange hallucinations that he had been growing so familiar with lately.
Not only was this blonde head resting on his chest, there was an adjoining arm, covered by a blue pinstriped shirt sleeve, draped across the bare skin of his tan stomach. The rest of the intruder's body was curled against the swordsman's side. The green-haired man twitched, mind falling completely blank.
"...What...the..." his scratchy voice barely whispered.
His hand reached out tentatively, certain that he would regret his next course of action. The man knew he would be much happier by just classifying this as a crazy fever-dream and giving in to his body's desire to sleep some more. But he proceeded anyway. And his fingers sank into the blonde hair slowly...his hand seized a fistful. And he lifted the face from its resting-place on his chest. ...And the swordsman was so shocked that he could barely keep himself from dropping it once more.
Sanji's face was glaring up at him like the sun, causing him to flinch. The shit cook was still asleep, for god's sakes. Who the fuck could sleep while their hair was nearly being yanked out by the roots? He carefully set down the man's head, once more-mainly to be kind to his own wounds as opposed to Sanji's skull. And the swordsman laid there quietly, completely shell-shocked.
Finally the former bounty hunter's wits had somewhat returned to him-sickness and surprise had stolen the rest. His first thought was naturally to throw the cook off of him quite unkindly...but he didn't have enough strength. How pitiful.
"Get the hell off of me," he tried weakly, feeling himself wheeze from the effort. "You shit cook," he said a little louder, voice still sounding quiet in the empty cabin. The green-haired man gasped for breath as he struggled to sit up, Sanji's body rolling off of him. The movement made him lightheaded and the swordsman suddenly felt as though he couldn't hear or see very well...and after the black had cleared from his vision he noticed a wide awake Sanji staring at him.
The cook was just picking himself off the cabin floor, following his rude-awakening. The man dusted himself off with a few grumbles. "The thanks I get," he was muttering in an annoyed tone.
"You shameless spiral bastard," Zoro managed breathily-he really was feeling rotten. The blonde just laughed.
"You really are sick," he commented. "That was the lamest insult you've ever given me, not to mention that it's a blatant repeat." The cook shoved his hands in his pockets, beginning to turn towards the door.
"Cook, what the hell are you talking about?" Zoro rasped after the man, coughing slightly. His head was still pounding...the yelling didn't really help anything either. Sanji flashed a grin back at him.
"...Good. That's the answer I was hoping for. And don't do anything stupid until I bring back Chopper."
The swordsman's brow was furrowed in frustration as the cabin door closed behind the cook. His back hunched tiredly. What the blonde had said moments ago was boggling the green-haired man's fevered mind. It didn't make any sense...he had no memory of calling Sanji a "shameless spiral bastard" before. "Spiral bastard" was naturally one of his old favorites...but...shameless?
The man flopped back in bed, sighing heavily. The clattering of hooves on the deck was faintly audible, closely followed by the cabin door bursting open and a tiny reindeer bounding in.
"Zoro!" Chopper cried, his large eyes wobbling happily. "You're awake!"
The former bounty hunter couldn't help but be bothered by this reception...he managed to sit up in bed again. "Yeah," he muttered, running a hand through his cropped hair.
Zoro's headache intensified as the ship's doctor launched into a long narrative, explaining that the swordsman had been poisoned and had been sick for a few days-keeping close to the injured man's original estimate of two days. This information greatly irritated him. He was way off on his training. It would take more than double-effort to make up for all the lost time.
Chopper continued his excitedly stuttered tale while checking the swordsman's bandages. "...So Nami-san took me to this shop in the town we stopped at and I got the supplies I needed to make the antidote...but I wasn't totally sure what the poison was so I made something to keep your fever down..." Blah blah blah. The little reindeer didn't seem to have the capacity to think that a man like Zoro would enjoy hearing so much about his own weakness.
"...So yesterday I finally perfected the medicine I was working on and it was just in time, too, because your fever was really high, the highest it had been! So Nami-san and Sanji-kun helped me take care of you but then the poison got very bad, suddenly, and you got so cold that we thought you might die!" the reindeer cried dramatically, hooves thrown in the air to show his distress. Zoro nodded boredly.
"We lit the fire and brought another blanket but we had no more ways to keep your temperature from dropping!" A green eyebrow twitched. "So that's why Sanji-kun was here when you woke up. It was to keep you warm, last night. And it worked!" He clapped his hooves together happily.
The green-haired man nodded in drowsy understanding. "I see, now..." he told the doctor. "That devil, Nami, must've asked him to..." he growled. Chopper blinked at him.
"Nami-san didn't ask him...Sanji-kun volunteered."
The swordsman's mouth fell open.
And out on the deck, where Sanji stood smoking a cigarette in the cool breeze and bright sunshine, the cook could hear a voice angrily yelling:
"Shameless bastard!"
Hahah. That was kinda funny. The first part was a lot better. But drop me a review if you cared for it. This story is officially finished now so there's zero chance of me adding to it again. But it's been fun. Maybe I'll start up another one, pretty soon-if I get a good idea. And I'll check all you crazy fanfiction kids later...