Heyya! My exams are finally over! :DDD God this feels sooo relaxing ~~ Anyway, the official start to the main story events and such are all gonna happen soon, in probably chapter 4 I suppose.
So here's chapter 3 for you!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own One Piece. I just wish I owned some of the characters.
Chapter 3 || Simple Realization
"But of course you can't do the dare now…" Nami was saying, "We all want to see it! Do it during the feast!"
"Yeah, yeah," Usopp agreed, bobbing his head up and down.
"Quick, spin the bottle~! I'm bored~! I want MEAT~!" Luffy was still whining in the background. Zoro scratched his head irritably.
"Okay, I'm spinning it," He said, giving the bottle a strong spin…
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" A blond emerged from the kitchen, just as the bottle spun out of control and went flying into the air. Before the bottle could smack straight at the blond's face though, a leg shot up, and the bottle tumbled onto the ground in defeat.
"Eh… it's not what it seems," Zoro said uncertainly, holding his hands up in a form of surrender. "H-Heh…" The blond let out a sigh.
"The food is ready," The blond said. Without invitation, Luffy had already bounded up to his feet and sprinted towards the kitchen in the speed of light. Sanji hastily ran over to the women's sides, cooing over their feminine beauty and gracefulness as he led them to the dining room. Usopp and Franky were both simultaneously laughing and patting Zoro's back as they made their own way to the dining room, and Zoro took a deep breath.
He just had to keep pissing off the irate blond new student, didn't he?
Finally, he got up to his feet and joined the rest of them in the dining room.
...
"W-Wow…" The room was in a stunned silence as they took in the feast with their eyes. A huge, juicy chicken grilled to perfection was placed right in the middle, and Luffy stared upon it as though it was a god – no, it was God. A plate of stir-fried bean sprouts was placed beside the chicken, the fragrance of chilli rose in the air… it was impossible to describe. Even without eating, one could feast on the delicacies prepared merely with their eyes.
"AWESOME~! SANJI, YOU'RE AWESOME!" Luffy suddenly yelled, jumping to the blond cook and hugging him tightly.
"Are you really not a cook, curly-bro?" Franky asked in amazement, and Sanji let out a laugh.
"Nah, I'm not," He answered, "Please have a seat." He gestured to the two ladies. Though still flabbergasted by the meal prepared, they took their respective seats anyway, and the rest of them followed suit. Finally, Sanji was the last to sit, and he placed himself beside Luffy. He may not be a cook, but with one look he could somehow tell that Luffy was a big eater – and he had to make sure the boy only ate his share, not more and not less.
"THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD!" Luffy bellowed, and then began scooping up large chunks of chicken with his bare hands, until Sanji slapped his hands away.
"Have a little decency in front of the ladies!" He snapped. Luffy pouted at him sadly, and the blond let out a deep sigh, helping to serve Luffy his food first before the ladies – which was extremely uncharacteristic of Sanji, but he knew he had to, if not the overzealous boy would cause trouble. After a string of apologies sent to the ladies, he finally served their food, and then to the rest of the table.
"Itadakimasu," They said, excluding Luffy, who was already gobbling down the food.
"Ish zelichious (it's delicious)!" Luffy proclaimed happily. "Shanjee ish orshome (Sanji is awesome)!" He chirped brightly again, stuffing even more food down his throat. Sanji laughed.
"Hey, Sanji," Usopp piped up while scooping more bean sprouts for himself, "You didn't bring anything to school today? Was that on purpose?"
"Ah," Sanji rubbed his hand behind his neck, "I didn't know I was supposed to bring anything…"
"You didn't know?" Chopper echoed, "How can you not know? It's school!"
"Well, I've never attended school before so…" He left the sentence hanging, and shrugged. "I've always been home-schooled, so I pretty much leave my books at home all the time and… I forgot to bring it to school, that's all."
"Home-schooled, eh..?" Zoro commented, "You must be pretty rich, curly-brow."
"… I'd say not," Sanji answered, not even responding to the 'curly-brow'. Zoro frowned, but resumed eating his onigiri. Sanji was a good cook, he realized, albeit belatedly. Onigiri had never tasted so good, but of course, Zoro would never admit it.
"Sanji-san," Robin said.
"Yes~ Robin-chwan?" He chirped happily, wide grin lighting up his entire face. Robin chuckled.
"It seems queer that you have never attended school before." Robin hinted, an enigmatic smile spreading across her face. She took a small bite of the roasted chicken as she watched Sanji, her head tilted slightly towards the side. Franky eyed Robin – she was trying to fish for information, wasn't she? Franky was curious, too.
"Ah," Sanji looked back down on his food, as though considering his answer. "… My old man Zeff preferred for me to remain home-schooled," He replied, suddenly grinning at Robin again, "He just misses me too much, I suppose," He added with a chuckle.
"And now he allows you to go to school, and live here, alone?" Robin questioned, lifting up an eyebrow the slightest inch.
"I managed to convince him," Sanji replied, scooping up more food to pile onto Luffy's plate. Luffy gave him a hurried 'thanks', before gobbling up the food again. He let out a sigh, "I mean, I can't possibly be cooped up at home for the rest of my life."
Before Robin could continue her string of questions, a knock from the door disrupted them. Sanji frowned. He didn't know anybody else in this place, so who could it be?
"It must be Ace!" Luffy yelled suddenly, jumping up to his feet.
"How would Ace know to come here?" Usopp asked suspiciously. Luffy gave him a bright smile.
"I messaged him!" Luffy replied, running to the door while simultaneously grabbing a dish from the table. The rest of them got up and followed him to the door.
"Ah, hi," Ace said, holding one hand up as a greeting. "Sorry for disrupting your meal."
Sanji watched by the side of the door as Luffy bounded into Ace's open arms, grinning as brightly as the sun as he yelled, "YOU'RE LATE!" Ace laughed good-naturedly, peeling Luffy off him and setting the younger guy down on the ground. Luffy beamed up at Ace, pushing something into the older man's hands.
"Sanji's cooking is awesome!" He proclaimed loudly as he grabbed a chicken leg from the plate he had passed to Ace and stuffed it into the guy's mouth. Ace protested something that couldn't be heard, and pushed away Luffy's hands, but Luffy was determined. Forcing his jaw open, Luffy stuffed the chicken leg into a flailing Ace and grinned triumphantly, placing his hands by his hips. "Try it!"
Completely unexpected, Sanji suddenly noticed something – something that he couldn't believe he had missed before. From the moment Ace had stepped in to the moment Luffy ran across the room to meet Ace… All the tension in Luffy's body seemed to have disappeared instantaneously upon seeing Ace, that same radiant smile spreading across his face as he watched Ace chew slowly on the chicken leg. Ace's expression brightened up, his eyes sparkling, as he savoured the taste of Sanji's cooking. Luffy watched Ace expectantly, practically hopping on his feet as he waited for the older boy's verdict.
"It's really good," Ace finally commented.
"YEAH!" Luffy practically exploded with joy.
The blond shook his head slowly, a grin finding its way up his lips… Sanji didn't understand how he had never noticed it before, the way Luffy's tone changed when he was talking about Ace, the way his eyes brightened with every mention of the older male. It was so obvious, so glaringly obvious, that he was shocked he hadn't realized it sooner.
Luffy liked Ace.
And from the look of things, Ace didn't know a thing.
"Why did you come so late~?" Luffy whined. "We were playing a game of –"
"Oi, Luffy!" Usopp hissed, clasping a hand over Luffy's mouth. If Sanji knew about the game, and knew about the double dare they gave to Zoro… all would be over! Usopp wasn't about to let that big-mouthed guy ruin everything! "W-what about Vivi, heh..?" Usopp frantically changed the topic. Ace grinned brightly. Sanji's gaze flickered towards Luffy instantly, but the overzealous boy was still smiling as radiantly as before.
"I just sent her home," Ace shrugged, "She didn't want me to keep ditching you guys for her. Luffy, you should learn from her! See how understanding she is?" Ace laughed, shaking his head, "To think you keep pestering me every day about spending more time with you."
Luffy pouted. "But you used to always hang out with us, that's why!" Luffy protested. Ace waved off Luffy's accusations.
Sanji grinned. No matter what, whether or not Ace knew of Luffy's obvious adoration of him, there was an undisputable fact about the straw hat guy:
Luffy was so damn cute when he was around Ace.
"Well, times are a-changing, my young man," Ace patted Luffy on the back. "Hey Zoro, so how was the fight between Sanji over here?" He gestured to the blond, who was standing in front of him. Zoro's and Sanji's eyes met for a brief moment, before returning to look at Ace.
"It's alright," Zoro answered detachedly. Sanji narrowed an eye at him.
"Well, the marimo could barely keep up with me, so I guess that's 'alright'," The blond replied. Zoro turned around to face Sanji, his eyes hot with anger, a feline smirk creeping up his lips.
"Yeah," Zoro answered, his voice low and rough, "It was more than just alright. Didn't expect such a skinny curly-brow to be much of a challenge," He directed his words to the blond – a challenge.
"Oh? You want to have another go at it?" Sanji grinned, though his expression remained serious. "I'd beat you up so bad you can't tell left from right."
"You don't have to do that!" Luffy laughed loudly, "Zoro can't tell left from right in the first place!" With that said the rest of them burst out laughing. Zoro's face went a million shades of red, and he whirled around to face Luffy.
"Don't say that! I can't help it if the streets keep moving!" Zoro hissed, and Luffy continued to laugh good-naturedly.
"That's what Zoro always say when we talk about his bad sense of direction!" Usopp joined in, his face red from laughing. The moment Zoro turned to glare at Usopp though, the long-nosed man whimpered and turned away, all hints of laughter gone from his face.
"Ah, so a lost marimo, is it?" Sanji drawled, taking out his cigarette again. He placed it between his lips casually, as though he had always done it, and proceeded to light up his cigarette. They watched his every move with rapt attention, until the moment where he placed his lighter back into his pocket and exhaled a long string of smoke. They coughed, turning away quickly. "Hm, that's interesting. No wonder he couldn't tell how to dodge from my kicks."
"What?" Zoro growled. "What about you? With that curtain of hair covering your left eye, you couldn't even tell that my swords were coming your way!"
"Better than being a directionally-challenged marimo," The blond answered silkily.
"Do you have something to cover up, with that annoying piece of hair hanging over your face all the time?" Zoro suddenly remembered the double dare and grinned, realizing that this was the perfect time to try to get Sanji to show his other eye.
"Are you annoyed that you can never pull off this look?" Sanji breathed in that nicotine stick of his, a slight smile playing on his lips. "That you'd always stay a directionally-challenged, unfashionable marimo..?"
"You only wish that you actually have a sense of style," Zoro replied, "Do you have something to cover up, with that hair falling all over the place on your face?"
"I don't need to cover up anything," Sanji hissed, suddenly realizing the direction this conversation was heading.
"Prove it," Zoro said, a smug smile etched on his face.
"I don't need to prove anything to you," The snarky blond replied. Nami and Usopp exchanged glances that said: see, it wasn't so easy after all. Zoro was never one to admit defeat, though.
"What, so all you've said was just a pack of lies after all," Zoro said, feigning disappointment. "Huh, I thought you were more than just that."
"What are they doing?" Luffy asked Ace innocently, "Zoro's acting weird."
Ace laughed, having already caught up with the situation, "Zoro's acting on a dare, that's for sure," He explained to Luffy. Luffy's mouth turned into a comical 'o', suddenly remembering the game of 'Dare or Double Dare' they had played earlier on.
Sanji exhaled out another long stream of smoke at Zoro's face, and Zoro forced himself not to cough. The blond smirked at the sight of Zoro's restlessness. "It's precisely because I'm above all your taunts that I'm not giving in to it, you stupid marimo."
"Okay, fine, you look very handsome with all that dirty blond hair falling over your face," Zoro said sardonically, shrugging. "I guess without that bunch of hair, you'd look even worse than you do now, eh, dartboard-brow?"
An unbidden thought came to Sanji's head, and he shook it off hastily. He wouldn't think of such things, dammit! What was that accursed marimo trying to do, to get him to show his left eye? Why did he bother in the very first place? Trying to distract himself, he answered, "You can get me to show it… if you win me in a fight."
"Huh, that's easy," Zoro replied, adrenaline already pumping in his veins. Fighting with this guy was exhilarating, to say the least. They were almost exactly on par with one another, and so even though the fight they had ended in a stalemate, it was still fun to have someone of his standard to fight with him.
"Or you can try to flick the hair off my head and see it," Sanji answered, a cheeky grin evident on his face. There, he said it. Zoro wouldn't – and couldn't, anyway – push away his fringe just to see his eye, would he? Sanji had only let one person lift up that curtain of hair blocking his left eye so far, and nobody else. It was more than just a style.
It was a memory.
Zoro smirked at the taunt. So the blond didn't think he was capable of simply reaching out and brushing those few strands of hair off his face, just because they were strangers. It was easy. Simply reaching out and brushing those few strands of hair was so easy, it couldn't be considered a mere challenge. But if the blond had brought that up as a dare, he'd do it.
He'd always take up a challenge.
Everyone there watched in silence as slowly, determinedly, Zoro reached out his hand. Sanji stared down at him with his firm, cool sea-blue gaze locking on Zoro's steely ones. The blond's taunting smirk never left his face even when Zoro's fingers inched even closer to the blond's face, hovering closely beside that curtain of hair.
And suddenly Zoro stopped in his pursuit. He left his hand there, hovering, with uncertainty coursing within him. What was he doing? Those strong oceanic blue eyes bore into his own; Sanji wore a calm, relaxed expression, but within his gaze, what Zoro saw was a challenge, a taunt… and somehow, a plea.
The swordsman suddenly realized how weird it was, how simply intimate it was, for him to brush away those accursed blond strands of hair from the guy's face. Even the mere movement of his hand moving towards the blond felt so damn intimate and personal that Zoro found himself stuck there, stuck in that action, unsure of what to do next.
And then a bubble of laughter burst from the blond's lips.
"Told ya you couldn't do it," The blond said, laughing loudly, watching as blood rushed up to Zoro's face, as the swordsman's expression changed from uncertain to mutinous in a second.
"What were you playing at?" Zoro growled, but it didn't scare the blond in the least.
"I was wondering if you'd take up the challenge, that's all," The blond shrugged, still grinning.
"That was so awkward," Nami hissed to Usopp, "But awesome! Look, I told you Zoro wouldn't be able to do it!" She chirped excitedly. The duo hi-fived softly, making sure not to catch Zoro's attention.
"Why are we all watching the two of them anyway?" Franky yawned in the background, "I mean, yeah, watching this 'double dare' proceed is pretty fun, but... Ow! How can you forget about this super ~ me right here?"
"Shh, Franky, I'm trying to watch!" Chopper said, and Franky looked depressed.
Even though Sanji was still laughing over Zoro's embarrassment, what he actually felt, instead of mirth and humour, was actually nostalgia. That was what he had said, didn't he, to the one person who had actually lifted that curtain of hair aside…
"You can try to see it," Sanji had dared the person, grabbing the person by the wrist; "I dare you." Somehow, whenever he had used those magical words, nobody had ever managed to get him to show his left eye. They'd either simply walk away, afraid of what his challenge meant, or gave up halfway, somehow finding it too intimidating for them to finish what they've started out to do. He didn't even know why everyone was so curious about his freaking hair anyway. It was just a hairstyle, there was nothing to it.
But this person was different.
The person glared down at Sanji, being taller than Sanji was at that point in time, "What, you don't think I dare?" The person answered sharply. Sanji lifted his chin up, his gaze taunting, the smirk on his face mocking. "It's just a couple of strands of hair, is all," The person had said, before calmly raising a hand to Sanji's face and pushing aside those blond strands of hair in a single fluid movement.
Sanji's jaw fell open as the person's fingers held those strands of hair behind Sanji's left ear, that calculative gaze meeting Sanji's stunned eyes as the person said, "There, I did it."
Sanji blinked away the memories, and then grinned at Zoro, "Don't worry, you're not the first to have asked, nor are you the first to have failed to do so. Always happens," Sanji told the marimo. "I'm not trying to make fun of you or anything."
"… Damn it," Zoro let his arm fall back to his side, annoyed by that sudden moment of hesitation. It was just a few strands of stupid hair! How could he have been beaten by just that?
But then he remembered that strong gaze of Sanji's, that odd sign of weakness in his eyes, and he relented. It was okay. This one loss meant nothing.
He'd still end up winning in the end.
...
"Do you even have your school timetable?"Usopp asked Sanji, who shook his head. "Argh, okay, so I'll lend you mine first…" He dug his bag for the timetable and handed it to Sanji.
"Let's play a game! Let's pack Sanji's school bag together!" Luffy announced chirpily.
"I can pack my bag myself," Sanji retorted, but Luffy didn't back down.
"C'mon, we'll show you how to do it!" Luffy grinned brightly at the blond, "Don't be shy! You've never been to school before!"
"You've never been to school before?" Ace asked, and Luffy nodded his head.
"Yeah, he has always been home-schooled! Isn't that awesome?" Luffy chirped, and Sanji shook his head, sighing deeply. There was no way to get out of this, was there?
"Hey, Franky," Sanji said, suddenly curious about that older male, "Heard from Luffy that you've never graduated?"
"Nah, he gets the story wrong every single time," Franky answered, "The super ~ me only entered school two years ago!"
"How old are you now?" Sanji asked, frowning.
"28! I was actually pretty alright with not completing my education, but after my stupid brother baka-berg, or as some people know as Iceberg, got really successful with his Galley-la company, my old man decided that I had to at least finish up my education," Franky told Sanji. "I'm actually the same age as Robin," As usual, he rolled the 'R' in Robin's name.
"Robin-chwan is 28~?" Sanji cooed, "Wow! Such a mature, delicate, feminine –"
"OKAY, Sanji, where's your bedroom?" Luffy interrupted.
"Eh? For..?"
"We're gonna help pack your school bag!" Luffy beamed up at the blond, and Sanji couldn't help but return the smile.
"Alright," He said, defeated. "Come with me."
"Yosh! Everybody, come with me!" Luffy punched his fist in the air, and everyone followed behind him, all chattering noisily like a bunch of school kids on an excursion. Sanji shook his head. He'd never interacted with such youthful, immature people back at Baratie.
"Here ya go," Sanji said, opening his room door, "There's nothing much in there, since I just moved in." True to his words, Sanji's bedroom was completely bare except for a king sized bed, a study desk, and a wardrobe spanning the length of the entire wall. The inside of room was also painted blue, the exact same shade as the living room.
"It's so plain…" Usopp commented.
"It's like a hotel room!" Chopper squeaked.
"Interesting," Robin said. A room could tell a lot about a person's personality, but since Sanji had just moved in, this wasn't an accurate representation of the blond. However, the fact that the room was so clean and immaculate despite him just moving in was enough evidence of his tidiness.
"Where's your bag, Sanji~?" Luffy jumped onto the king sized bed, bouncing up and down on the bed. "Hey, this is fun! Usopp, Chopper, Ace, join me!"
"You know I never join you for this kind of things, Luffy," Ace said, turning away from Luffy. "So, what do you think?" Ace directed the question to Zoro, who was still lingering outside the bedroom. "Come on inside."
"You say that as if it were your room," Zoro answered, but stepped into the room anyway, to be immediately greeted by the loud laughter belonging to that of the childish trio – Luffy, Usopp and Chopper.
"All I've got is this," Sanji placed a messenger bag onto his desk. Luffy jumped off the bed and frowned at the bag, reading the words written in a beautiful, flowing script, 'the Baratie'.
"What's 'the Baratie'?" Luffy asked earnestly.
"Ah, it's my old geezer's restaurant," Sanji replied.
"So you are a cook!" Usopp exclaimed loudly, "That explains everything!"
"No, I'm not a cook," Sanji denied once more, but he didn't elaborate his statement. Robin stared at the name of the restaurant, yet again memorizing it. That restaurant sounded very familiar – maybe she had once dined there before? But she couldn't remember, no matter how much she probed her memory.
"Let's take a look at the timetable, shall we," Zoro said, taking Usopp's timetable. "… You're in the same class as me?" He said to Sanji, who rolled his eyes.
"Well yeah, how else would I know this bunch of rowdy kids? Excluding Nami-san and Robin-chan, of course~!" He said, bowing deeply to the two ladies, "I would never put you in the same category as those children!"
"Much appreciated, Sanji-san," Robin said with a slight smile, causing Sanji to swoon over her once more.
"Tch, so I'd have met you no matter what happened, huh," Zoro said to himself. "Okay, let's see. Tomorrow's a Tuesday, so…"
Usopp jumped off Sanji's bed, joining Zoro in reading the timetable, "Eeks! Mathematics! You have already offended Kame-sensei today morning, when you were late and when you came in with no school bag! Just in case, you should prepare two exercise books, your mathematics textbook, and maybe even the workbook…"
Nami came from behind Usopp, looked over Zoro's shoulder and read, "Ooh, next period's Robin's lesson, history! Sanji-kun, you don't need to bring anything for this, since Robin has never touched the textbook before." At the corner of the room, Robin chuckled.
"I found them!" Luffy cried, holding up a couple of books in his hands like treasure.
"What are you doing to my things?" Sanji said, annoyed, as Luffy stuffed the books into Sanji's messenger bag messily.
"Then afterwards –"
Finally, with a lot of rummaging through Sanji's drawers and shouting across the room, they finally managed to get Sanji's bag packed, leaving his room in a mess. He ran his hand through his hair in irritation. Now he'd have to clean his room up again, just because of Luffy's overzealous digging, among all things.
"It's getting pretty late," Ace noted, looking at the clock. The hour hand was inching to 12, the minute hand barely passing the number 10. "We should be going back now."
Usopp looked at the clock and jumped in horror. "I-I-It's gonna be 12! Oh crap! The gangs will be out there, won't they? Those infamous gangsters around the area…!"
"WHAT GANGSTERS?" Chopper shrieked in horror. "O-Oh, you're talking about the… oh no! I don't want to cross paths with them! I don't want you to find my disembodied parts all over the streets!"
"What's going on?" Sanji asked.
"Well, recently, there's a series of events pertaining to gang fights and stuff, all happening during midnight or dawn," Ace clarified, "So they're pretty freaked out."
"Then why not stay overnight here?" Sanji offered. Instantly, Usopp and Chopper turned their pleading eyes on Sanji.
"Really~?" They said in harmony, huge puppy eyes now staring up at their benevolent benefactor, Sanji. Sanji ran his hand through his hair again, clearly embarrassed.
"Well yeah, this house is pretty big with quite a few guest rooms…" Sanji answered slowly.
"THANK YOU!" The two of them pounced onto Sanji, enclosing him in a huge hug. Luffy laughed, not knowing what was going on, and joined in, hugging Sanji tightly. Franky, not one who liked being left out of things, followed suit too, crushing the poor blond in a strong grip.
"Help ~ me~" Sanji choked out, clearly being strangled after Franky's addition to the group hug. Nami and Robin didn't bother to give him a second glance; they were already looking for a room to sleep in. Ace chuckled, trying to pry Franky's arms off the blond, while Zoro merely stood there, grinning at the scene.
Finally, with a well-delivered kick, Sanji managed to push aside the bulk of the people strangling him, leaving only Luffy who still clung onto him like a slug. Sanji glared at Luffy. "Get off!"
"No!" Luffy yelled, clinging onto Sanji for his dear life, as though it had suddenly became a competition. The blond tried to pull Luffy away from him, but the brunette's grip held firm. He let out a deep sigh.
"Hey," He said, suddenly remembering a question he wanted to ask the raven-haired boy. "Why do you keep claiming I was strong when you didn't even know me?" He asked. Luffy tilted his head at Sanji.
"I saw you from the window." He answered simply. "You were running to class, but when you entered class, you don't seem tired at all."
"… Ah," Realizing that now Luffy's guard was down, he hastily pried Luffy's rubbery fingers off his neck and pushed Luffy away. "I win," He grinned at the straw-hat boy. Luffy grinned back.
"Yeah, you did! I'm gonna choose my room now! How many rooms do you have?" Luffy asked, already running to inspect the rooms, pouting when he realized Nami and Robin had already laid claim to the room that Luffy had wanted.
"Um, excluding my room and the store room, I think I have 3 other rooms?" Sanji answered, "Now there's two more rooms left," He shrugged.
"Ace, I'll bunk in with you!" Luffy announced, grabbing Ace firmly by the arm and leading him to a room.
"Chopper!" Usopp shouted across the living room, and the reindeer jumped up to his feet, "I've claimed for us a room!"
"Yay – What is Franky doing here?" Chopper yelled from the room. The older male grinned, stretching his arms across the bed.
"Well, I guess I can make room for two more, since I'm feeling super~ good this week," He shrugged.
"You're kidding! You're too big-sized!" Usopp shouted.
"Hey! Is that a problem?" Franky protested, while Chopper had snuggled up under Franky's arm. Usopp glared at Chopper.
"You traitor," He shouted.
"Usopp, let's go and sleep already, I'm tired~" Chopper said, his eyes already fluttering shut. Upon seeing the reindeer drifting off to sleep, Usopp sighed and squeezed into the bed with Franky.
That left Zoro and Sanji standing face to face with one another in the living room, an awkward silence hanging between the two of them.
"Guess it's just you and me now," Sanji said, breaking the silence. "I'll take the couch but… I'll just pack up my room for a quick while, so…"
"I'll help you," The marimo replied. It was awkward – really awkward, considering the two of them had barely known each other and had started off as enemies. "Huh, you're really a clean freak, aren't you?" Zoro commented as he watched Sanji arrange his clothing neatly according to type – for formal occasion, school, and casual wear. When he had tried to help the blond, he was quickly waved away, and Zoro sighed.
He couldn't help the obsessive blond, so he just stood at the door, his expression unfathomable as he watched Sanji go about cleaning his room. The blond let out a deep sigh. "You can go sleep or something, I won't disturb you."
"I can take the couch, you know," Zoro answered, but was once again waved away by Sanji as he made his way to the door.
"It's my house, and so it's my personal policy to let guests sleep on beds." Sanji answered, pushing away a bunch of books that Luffy had managed to extract from his closet. Zoro nodded his head. He'd always respect someone else's policies and morals. That, too, was his own policy. The marimo grunted in response, making his way to the bed. He sat upright in bed, feeling weird to simply claim the bed as his own in another person's house. "Hey, so that Baratie is a restaurant, right?" He asked the first question that popped up in his mind. The blond gave him a sideway glance.
"Yeah," He replied. "The old geezer's in charge of it, though I don't know how anyone can keep up with his horrible temper," He let out a chuckle.
"Like how nobody can stand your temper?" Zoro teased, which resulted in the blond giving him an aggrieved look.
"When I'm finally trying to be friendly, you have to open that shitty mouth of yours," He said in an annoyed tone. The corners of Zoro's lips lifted upwards. That blond really did have a short temper, didn't he? It was going to be fun.
"Huh, your friendliness is really appalling," Zoro retorted, already feeling more comfortable with their bickering. He leaned back against the pillow, his legs outstretched in front of him. "Only someone like Luffy would be able to make friends with you in the first place."
"Then I wonder how Luffy had made friends with you," Sanji answered back, "He probably thought you were a plant that needed watering, only to realize that your marimo head was too thick to even be a plant in the first place."
Zoro frowned, at first not comprehending the 'plant' joke… "You calling me a plant now..?" He replied in shock.
"Wow, the plant gets it! Bravo!" Zoro couldn't see it, but Sanji was grinning. "Perhaps all that watering really did you some good after all."
"I bet Luffy only befriended you because of that target-brow you have grown on your face. What, were you so desperate for friendship that you had grown a target-board for people to notice you?" Zoro teased, and Sanji laughed.
"Just like how you sat with the plants for the whole day to leech the chlorophyll off their leaves just to get attention, right?" Sanji answered, somehow not feeling annoyed by the marimo. Usually he'd be pissed off by now.
Zoro chuckled at that response, "Guess the two of us are really attention-seekers, huh?" He said, not knowing why but feeling extremely comfortable talking to the blond. Sanji had finally finished packing up the room, and he made his way to the light switch.
"Go sleep already," Sanji said, his back facing Zoro, "God knows how tired you must be without your sunlight," He said, and Zoro snorted.
"Yeah, you only want me to sleep so that you can curl your eyebrows in private, isn't it?"
"Well, of course, thanks for being so considerate," The blond answered, flipping the light switch off. "Night, marimo," He said as he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
...
Sooooo how's it?