Happy Birthday, Zoro! As a treat, here's an addition to my 100 Theme Challenge! :D I didn't review this myself before posting, so please forgive typos and grammar mistakes.
A request response by NinjaShiek for "more ZoRobin please :)"
Theme: 70 – 67%
Summary: Zoro gets a surprise for his birthday.
Zoro had honestly forgotten what day it was. He didn't keep track of the dates, because it just reminded him that every passing day meant one more day that he had to wait to achieve his dream. So when he woke up to find the men's dorm completely empty, the swordsman was confused. Normally he was one of the last ones up.
He yawned widely and swung his legs out of bed, shivering as his bare feet touched the cold floorboards. Stretching his arms over his head, he stood and strode to the door, pushing it open into the sunlight. He adjusted his green yukata as he looked out at the ship.
The deck of the Thousand Sunny was completely empty. Not even Luffy was fooling around on the swing set, Usopp wasn't inventing more stupid contraptions. The women weren't drinking their morning coffee in their deck chairs, and the cook wasn't fauning over them either.
Zoro squinted his last good eye and spotted the bright red that was Franky's shoulder sticking out from behind the door to the kitchen. At least someone hadn't disappeared, so he blinked the sleep from his eyes and made his way to the door. The light was off, and the shipwright's shoulder had disappeared behind the glass.
"Damn bastards," Zoro muttered, trying the knob. The door swung open and the light clicked on.
"SURPRISE!"
Zoro jumped, reaching instinctively for his katana, which he realized with dread had been left in the dorm. He raised a hand over his eye to shield himself from the stringy substance that had suddenly wrapped around him. A noise like firecrackers shattered the air, and he backed up a step.
"I think it was a bit too much, Franky."
"Don't be stupid; he loves it."
"Yes, being covered in confetti makes him look very lovable."
"You're lovable, Robin-chwan~!"
"AH! He's going blind from over-exposure! We need a doctor! Oh, wait, that's me!"
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZORO!"
Zoro shook his head, and small colorful squares of paper fluttered from his hair, and he blinked silly string from his lashes. The crew were gathered in the center of the kitchen, each bearing a spray can and a small catapult loaded with confetti. "What the hell…?"
"Don't you know what day it is?" Luffy asked, launching another battery of sticky green putty. Zoro dodged the onslaught easily. "It's your birthday!"
"Is it?"
"You moron," Nami muttered from the other side of the room. She pointed to a calendar hanging on the wall, and true to Luffy's word, it was November eleventh. His birthday.
"I told you he wouldn't care," Usopp muttered, lowering his catapult. "And I went through all that trouble of inventing these confetti-launchers for nothing."
"We can use them for something else, too," Luffy pointed out, aiming the next volley at the sharpshooter.
"Not in the kitchen, shitty rubberman," Sanji interrupted, placing his boot against the side of the captain's head threateningly. "Take it outside while I force myself not to poison marimo's birthday breakfast."
Luffy was not one to turn down food, so he set aside his new toy and eagerly bounced in his seat as Sanji served breakfast. It was a hodgepodge of pancakes, waffles, sizzling bacon, smooth syrup and blueberries. To any normal birthday boy, it was heaven. To Zoro, it was just another breakfast.
To prove his point, the meal continued as usual. Each crewmember guarded their food against Luffy's prying fingers, constant jibes at other's eating habits, etc. The only addition was that booze was served instead of orange juice, which Zoro was most certainly not complaining about. And even though the shitty ero-cook had prepared the meal, the swordsman had to admit it was better than usual.
The group proceeded after breakfast to converge out on the main deck and play 'party games'. This consisted of 'musical chairs' hosted by Brook, 'hide and seek' by Chopper, and 'shoot-stuff-with-confetti-rockets' by Luffy and Usopp. Zoro sat off to the side, enjoying the ship's entire stock of alcohol. Nami and Robin simply stood to the side, giggling at the captain's and Chopper's "chopsticks-in-nose" dance.
"OW!" Franky yelled, striking a pose. "It's time for the cake!"
"CAKE!" Luffy cried delightedly.
"Shut up," Nami muttered.
"Don't you usually have the cake after dinner?" Sanji queried.
"Nope!" Luffy demanded. "We eat cake when I say so, cause I'm the captain! So I want cake now!"
"Isn't that for the birthday boy to decide?" Brook interjected.
"Don't call me 'birthday boy,'" Zoro muttered. "It sounds stupid."
"Would you prefer 'shitty birthday boy?'" Sanji growled. "We go through all this trouble to make your special day worthwhile, and you just pass it off."
"Because maybe I don't want any of this," Zoro retorted, standing from his spot on the stairs and making his way over to the cook. "It's just a normal day and I don't see why people are making such a huge fuss about it."
"Well, you could at least put some effort into it."
"Twenty percent."
"Eighty."
"Forty."
"Sixty seven."
Zoro curled his lip in disgust. "Sixty-seven percent. Then I say get out the damn cake."
"YAY!" Luffy punched the air. "Sanji! Cake!"
Sanji eyed the green-haired man as he went back inside the kitchen to fetch the traditional birthday cake. He emerged a moment later with a two-layer cake, covered in green icing and outlined with white whipped cream. Happy Birthday Zoro was scrawled on the top with lime green icing, and a crude katana made from sugar was stuck on the top like a flag.
"Shall I lead the accompaniment in a round of singing?" Brook asked, raising his violin.
"Don't you dare…" Zoro began, but the crew had already burst into song.
"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to Zo-ro… Happy Birthday to you!"
Zoro grimaced. "Thanks."
"PRESENTS!" was the next order as Sanji finished slicing the cake.
"It's just past lunch and you're already hammering for that? It's not even your birthday, asshole." Nami jabbed her fork at the energetic captain.
"So?"
"So, Zoro decides when we do that."
"Later," was the swordsman's response to Luffy's puppy-dog look at him. "I just want to train a little and take a nap."
"What kind of party is that?"
"Party without me for now, but I want to train."
"Party-pooper," Luffy muttered, and sauntered off with Usopp and Chopper to continue playing with the confetti.
Zoro rolled his eyes and sat with his bag to the rail of the ship, closing his eyes. He heard Sanji clearing up the plates as the other crewmembers went about their other activities. He didn't mean to sound so forceful, but he just really didn't care about birthdays. It was just another day to him, even if it did signify his becoming one year older.
He must have fallen asleep, because when he opened his eyes again, it was growing dark, and Chopper was prodding him to wake up for dinner. With a large yawn, he stood and accompanied the doctor into the kitchen, where Sanji had prepared steak and booze.
The meal turned into a full-fledged party complete with basket-dancing and singing Bink's Sake courtesy of Brook. Before long, most of the Straw Hat crew was drunk and stumbling back to the bedrooms to sleep away their intoxication. Zoro had somehow managed to remain mostly sober, enough to stay up for watch as the sun set and the Sunny moored to the latest uninhabited island for the night. He climbed into the crow's nest to at least do a few bicep exercises as he waited.
A knock sound on the door, and he looked over as it opened to reveal Robin. "Mind if I join you?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Can if you want."
She took the invitation and entered the circular room, sitting close to him on the sofa. A little too close for his comfort but he didn't complain, continuing his usual goings on. She pulled out a book and began reading, turning a page every so often to coincide with a clank of his dumbbells.
It was coming close to midnight when he finally relaxed and leaned against the back of the seats, letting cool night air seep in through open windows. Robin looked over at him, closing her book.
"Are you okay, Zoro?"
"Hm? Oh, fine."
"You don't seem fine."
"I just don't understand why people make such a big deal about birthdays."
"Maybe it's because it celebrates another year that you've lived to the fullest and the start of another one waiting for adventure." Robin said philosophically.
"Bah. Everyday is an adventure; I don't need a year to tell me when it has to restart a cycle."
"But you don't enjoy it?"
"I enjoy every day; you never know when it'll be your last."
The archaeologist smiled mischievously. "So you put one hundred percent and not sixty seven percent like you did today?"
Zoro winced. "Yeah."
They sat in silence for another minute before Robin spoke again. "I didn't give you your birthday gift yet."
"You don't have to give me anything."
"Maybe I don't have to, but I ought to."
Zoro turned to tell her off when he suddenly found her face an inch away from his. "Oi, Robin, what are you…?"
"Just promise to enjoy it at least sixty seven percent positive, " she whispered, and leaned closer, pressing her lips to the corner of his mouth.
He tried to lean away further, but there was only so much room to move around. In any case, Robin was moving too fast for him to do much. From the corner she moved to full on lip-lock, keeping her tongue in her mouth respectfully but also not letting up either.
Zoro didn't know exactly what to make of it; her lips tasted like blackberries, a very sweet texture. She was warm, and soft, and passionate, and Zoro suddenly found himself returning the kiss, just a little bit. He didn't fight it anymore, but accepted it, and even went so far as to slide his arm around her waist, her long hair tickling his bare skin.
She pulled away first, smiling widely. "I would say that was eighty percent," she laughed, standing up and moving back to the door. "Happy Birthday, Zoro," she added before descending back to the main deck.
Zoro stayed up the rest of the night, denying Usopp's shift change request. He kept his hand against his mouth and his eyes on the stars, and the only thing that continuously ran through his head was that it was definitely more than eighty percent enjoyment rate.
I hope that was enough ZoRobin for now, NinjaShiek! :D Please review and keep those requests coming!
