Ch. 2

Even with half a ship worth of distance between the kitchen and the crow's nest, Sanji's newest attempt at swooning the girls still managed to reach Zoro's ears. With a twitch of irritation he dropped his weights and cracked his neck.
He had long since come to the conclusion that the cook was nothing but an interruption: When he was sleeping, it was always the cook who would rudely wake him; If, on any new island, he wanted to stretch his legs he would first have to deal with the cook stopping him and insinuating, quite wrongly, that he world somehow get lost; and possibly worst of all when he was training, well, the damn cook's voice always broke his concentration.

Zoro viewed the crow's nest as a sanctuary of sorts- the others had mostly accepted it as his training room, apart from the evening watches, and after so long on the ship it certainly smelled like he had marked his territory… Crumpling his nose at this last thought he towelled the sweat off of his face, pausing for a moment to let the material rest over his eyes before letting it fall to the ground. He was working to get stronger and if a pervert's crooning over women could cause him to stop then he obviously had a long way to go.
With a grunt, Zoro rolled his shoulder, feeling a slight tenderness where he had underestimated the cook's flexibility during their fight, he was sure his own leg would have snapped if he had flung it that far over his shoulder, with that much power. Everything else aside, Sanji was definitely good for sparring and arguing with. He was glad that there was someone on the ship who would stop him getting too complacent.

At that thought, the swordsman unsheathed Ichimonji and placed her white hilt in his mouth before neatly pulling Kitetsu and Shusui from his hip. Taking a measured breath in, Zoro lowered his stance and closing his eyes, he breathed out slowly. With the next breath in he stilled, emptying his mind to feel his swords presence; his old friend was calm, Shusui too was still but Kitetsu as usual hummed impassively, even with no enemies in sight.
Knowing his swords well, Zoro relaxed his muscles and tried to extend his mind, taking a moment to block out any solid noise. Eventually the walls and deck of the crow's nest seemed to breathe with him, a hollow warmth running through the wood. He could feel the wind outside whispering to the ocean, encouraging the full waves up to break gently against the ship; the movement swelling from deep beneath the surface. Everything has breath. The solid bow sighed with the waves, as if reaffirm this belief and the deck beat gently under the empty movements of his crewmates. Taking another breath in Zoro slowly started to move, running through his katas and sensing the air shift with each swing.
He continued his training ,this time uninterrupted until he felt the light cool and the wind change, knowing he had practiced longer than intended.

Satisfied, he sheathed his blades and made his way back down to the deck, just as Luffy raced past him, loud cries signalling that there was food around and causing the swordsman to turn in the direction of the kitchen.

"Oi! Someone should go call Marimo before his portion gets stolen."Zoro heard Sanji shout as he opened the galley doors- just in time to see the cook glare at their captain as the boy unceremoniously dumped a plate of food in his mouth and reached for a second… Rubber cheeks putting them all at a disadvantage.

"I'm here Shit-cook, glad to see you care about me," The swordsman replied smugly, watching the cooks face crumple at the suggestion.
"As if, Shit-for-brains. I just don't want you rummaging through the cupboards later on, we're running low on supplies."

Zoro took a seat, grin still plastered to his face as Sanji brought him over a plate. "Oi ape, you stink! At least shower after training, you'll turn the food bad"
Rather than grace the cook with a reply, Zoro chose to pile the food into his mouth until his lack of mnners caused the other to walk away disgusted. He counted that as a win, even if he'd probably find himself suffering from indigestion later.

"Hey Zoro... If by any chance you can swallow that without choking, you've got last watch tonight. Frankie's first and Usopp's second." Nami chirped, "I know how lazy you are, but try not to fall asleep."