What happened in the last chapter: Zoro hosted an application interview with Kidd. Afterwards, he and Ace visited the blacksmith where Ace found out that Zoro apparently bought a gun. Deciding to stay low for the time being, they made for Ace's place to game and have some drinks, not knowing that a drunken Sanji would be there as well. Now they're all playing black ops while Zoro helps Shanks out in the kitchen.
A/N: for those who have noticed, I've foolishly been switching between British English and American English in the previous chapters. I decided to stick with British from now on.
Zoro glanced over at the tv from his spot in the kitchen. He had offered to help cooking because of a seemingly random desire to isolate himself. Ace was playing with Sanji and they were actually doing well, much to Zoro's surprise. It really seemed that everyone got along with Sanji, but Zoro just couldn't stand him. Even looking at him now caused anger to bubble from his chest. Showing up into their lives with a horrible attitude, causing trouble, and still daring to have a freaking attitude. No modesty whatsoever. Zoro narrowed his eyes at the blond.
Sanji briefly looked away to meet Zoro's eyes and Zoro flinched, almost cutting off his finger in the process. He quickly rounded on his cutting board and busied himself with the first thing that came to mind; organizing the potato chunks on the cutting board to make the shape of a sword. It was truly random and pointless seeing as there specifically was a colander right next to the cutting board to put the potatoes in, but who cared. He had to look busy. The last thing he wanted was for Sanji to feel like he was admiring him. He grumbled something indistinctive under his breath and swiped the potatoes into the colander, getting started on dicing the second batch. Shanks walked by and peeked over Zoro's shoulder to see the evenly cut potatoes and smiled.
"Thanks for helping out. You seem to be good with every kind of blade," he complimented.
Zoro pulled back to study the chunks. "Is that so? Thanks."
"But you know, if you want to join the others then just go ahead. There's not much to do here anymore."
"Nah, I'm good," Zoro replied with a light shrug. Shanks' parenting sensors peaked at the lack of enthusiasm.
"Zoro, is everything okay? You look really strained lately. Not very sociable, a little touchy too. Am I wrong?" he asked with a worried expression.
Zoro's cutting pace slowed down and his mind wandered off to where he had hoped it wouldn't linger tonight. His eyes grew more distant by the second until the dicing motion of his hand came to a halt halfway through the vegetable. He stared it down and tried to summarize all the events into one sentence, not that he would be using it in his explanation for Shanks. The opposite actually; he'd use it to come up with yet another excuse to justify his behaviour.
Shanks cocked his head in an attempt to meet Zoro's eyes which were currently glued to the cutting board. Zoro glanced over only to find a pair of caring eyes, wanting an answer as if it was his own problem. He turned back to his cutting board and closed his eyes, a small smile gracing his lips at the reminder of being genuinely cared for. He thought up an answer that would be closest to the truth. Shanks was maybe the perfect person to talk to, but this thing was something he hadn't even told Ace yet, so it felt wrong to tell Shanks.
"You're probably right…" he started, hands going back into motion, "There's some things going on right now, but I don't even know what to make of it myself."
His answer was demanding enough for Shanks to get the rather disappointing message. Although it wasn't the whole story, Zoro still felt like it wasn't a lie either. Shanks stayed quiet for a moment, searching for a hint of some sort from Zoro's neutral expression.
"You don't want to talk about it then..." he made sure. Zoro opened his mouth to confirm, but then realized that that was not exactly true. He shook his head.
"I can't," he corrected, to Shanks' surprise.
"There's a huge difference there," Shanks gently urged.
"It's gonna be okay though, I just need some time," Zoro added to reassure Shanks. The last thing he wanted was for the man to worry about him. He's been going through so much for Zoro already. Allowing himself a moment to think back to a few years ago, Shanks had always treated him like one of his own, even though he treated him like trash. He had always been kind to him, even though Zoro ungratefully flicked him off. He treated his wounds, even though Zoro threatened to hurt him. Shanks had slowly and naturally slid into Zoro's life to the point of becoming a father figure, even when Zoro tried so hard to push him away. Shanks was the one person to break Zoro's ice.
"Just don't be too hard on yourself," Shanks spoke up, sucking Zoro back to reality. "We will always have your back. And if it involves some action, I'm sure that the boys are just eager to help," he winked. Zoro couldn't help but smirk.
"You're not exactly worried about them, are you?"
"Nah, they're not stoppable anyway," he replied with a shrug, much to Zoro's amusement. He was feeling nostalgic all of a sudden.
Sanji's match ended and he and Sabo went to collect all the empty glasses for refills. Sanji has had a little too much to drink and his concentration for the game was slipping away, which made Sanji unwilling to participate in the next one. When they walked into the kitchen, the cook couldn't help but glimpse at the food in the making. He walked over with a slight wobble and leaned his hand onto the counter. Zoro glared at him sideways.
"What do you want, curly?"
"I wanna cook~" he purred happily, making both Zoro and Shanks tense up in shock. This man… was officially drunk. Shanks put his hands on his hips and laughed whole-heartedly.
"You're a sous-chef, right?" he asked to which Sanji nodded proudly.
"Please take a break, Shanks-san. I'm shur that moss for brains made you work overtime."
"I was doing just fine!" Zoro objected.
"Zoro's right, haha! But I sure am tired. Thanks for taking over, I'll be going upstairs to finish off some paperwork. Come get me anytime if you need something!" he said and waved them goodbye, oblivious to the fact that the whole reason Zoro went into the kitchen was so that he wouldn't have to deal with Sanji.
"O-oi, wait a minute!" Zoro protested, being left with a giddy looking drunk. But Shanks just carelessly dismissed him with a laugh and left the room. Zoro turned to Sabo for support.
"Hey, Sa-"
"Have a beer and make us something nice. We're all hungry you know," Sabo interrupted and shoved a beer into Zoro's hands. A playful smirk danced across his lips and he leaned in to whisper.
"Learn to get along, will you?" he added just loud enough for only Zoro to hear, before making his way back to the couch. Sanji swung his head to call out to the people in the living room.
"I'll make shur the marimo doesn't poison anyone!" he announced.
"Yeaah! No poison!" Luffy shouted completely random as if Zoro had a passion for poisoning people.
"Luffy! focus on the game!" Ace scolded.
"Make lots of meat!" Luffy side-noted, completely ignoring Ace.
"Someone's rampaging with a bazooka," Ace tried, and with success, as Luffy enthusiastically switched back to the game.
Zoro reluctantly went back to the cutting board and observed Sanji through the corner of his eyes. He was currently checking the pan on the stove, his hand rubbing the stubble on his chin as he put the cover back on the pan, opening the next one for inspection. Zoro had never worked in a professional kitchen, but at that moment he felt like a cook who was being judged by the chef. It must have been a habit the blond had developed while working at the Baratie. He wouldn't be surprised if the blond suddenly started lecturing him about the wrong temperature of the meat and other things along those lines. Sanji finally reached a conclusion and put back the cover with a hum, rounding to face Zoro.
"Dat doesn't look too bad," he said, a little surprised by Zoro's cooking skills.
"I only cut the potatoes," Zoro deadpanned and held up his knife to emphasize.
"Dat explains dat…" Sanji shrugged.
"Hey now…" Zoro muttered wryly. Sanji strolled towards the fridge and took out some vegetables, laying them out on another cutting board.
"Dis dish needs some more greens," he decided and swiped a knife out of the holder with a light hold. When he started cutting the courgettes, Zoro noticed with terror struck on his face that Sanji was getting awfully close to his own fingers.
"And now, speed uuuup~" he chuckled and increased the speed of his unsteady cutting, almost making Zoro feel like he was doing it on purpose. He watched shortly with mild discomfort, before snatching the knife out of Sanji's hand at some point.
"Watch it!" he snapped, having removed the knife just in time before it made contact with his fingertips. "You almost cut yourself, stupid cook!"
Sanji put his hands on his hips in defence. "Aren't you cocky. I know exactly what I'm doing, don't lecture me, dishwasher!"
"Dishwasher?!" Zoro blurted incredulously. He knew he wasn't exactly outstanding with his cooking skills, but it was still insulting to hear Sanji say that without ever having tasted his cooking.
"Just stand back and let me handle dis," Sanji waved Zoro off. The cook got back to working the knife in an introverted manner, considerably more cautious this time as he seemed to realize with widened eyes that he was indeed becoming a little careless. Zoro just stood there, obviously ignored as Sanji in his drunken blur possibly forgot that Zoro was still there. He scratched his head in agitation. He could at least pretend to get along with Sanji while the others were around. Sabo had been serious when he asked Zoro to get along with Sanji. The swordsman stared at the blonde's sideview as he tried to come up with a way to handle this.
"What are you staring at, marimo? Have you finally lost your wits?"
Zoro's eyebrow twitched. This was gonna be a heck of a mission. He cleared his throat.
"Uhm, these potatoes are all cut. I can cut those for you so you can get started on the potatoes," he suggested and pointed to the vegetables that lay abused on the blonde's cutting board. He secretly just didn't want Sanji to injure himself or have blood in his food.
"What do you know, you were thinking after all…" Sanji
The rest of the cooking session didn't go so smooth. Sanji kept dozing off and when it reached the point that he almost fell face first into the stew that was boiling on the stove, Zoro had to drag him to the couch by the collar. Sabo took Sanji's place in the kitchen and together they finished the meals so that everyone could eat. They even woke Sanji up to have something to eat before he went back to sleep. Soon after the meals were gone, Luffy drunkenly passed out and everyone else was getting tired as well. Zoro got to his feet and stretched his back.
"It's about time I went home," he said. Sanji got to his feet as well and almost stumbled back onto the couch.
"I'm going too," he stated, causing the others in the room to fall silent for a second. They didn't really think that was a smart decision.
"You should probably stay here for the night, you're in no condition to walk," Ace offered.
"Yeah, he's right. We have a guest room just around the corner," Sabo insisted and jerked his thumb towards the hallway. Sanji politely waved a hand in dismissal.
"Thanks for the offer, but I gotta go back. I'm the only one with the keys to the front door tomorrow," he tried to articulate as best as he could. The slight mumble in his tone gave away the fact that he was still not sober, but his efforts weren't wasted as the guys exchanged a look of consideration. It really was more like telepathic harassment, because Zoro quickly figured that Ace and Sabo were begging him to take Sanji rather than trying to find a way that didn't include Zoro and Sanji within the same square meter. Seeing as he was the only one who still had to travel, it would only be logical for him to take Sanji back to the Baratie. Zoro sighed in defeat.
"I'll walk you," he offered and disappeared into the hallway to grab his coat. Sanji took the offer as an insult and objected.
"No way, I wasn't implying that I need an escort and definitely not a ball of moss. I can manage by myself," he said, followed by a hiccup.
"You can definitely not manage by yourself. Just take the offer and deal with it," Zoro replied wearily and threw Sanji's coat towards his chest, which the latter caught with a growl.
"If you're gonna complain, I'll have to call Nami to tell her that her boyfriend is flat drunk and needs to be picked up. Do you wanna worry her with that?" he warned, knowing that it would be effective on the blond. Sanji grit his teeth, roughly shoving his arms into the sleeves of his coat and standing up to button it up while he sulked. It was probably his way of saying 'fine, I'll come along'. To Zoro, just to see him cooperate was enough.
The weather outside was extremely cold. The snow had piled up considerably in the time they were inside playing black ops. They were just lucky that it stopped snowing and that there was no wind at this hour. Zoro and Sanji had been walking for about 15 minutes and one foot into First street, Sanji groaned dramatically and sat down in the middle of the street. Zoro turned around with a raised brow.
"You're gonna soak your trousers in the snow," he reasoned.
Sanji shrugged and moved his legs to one side attempting to lay down. There were still a few people out on the streets and they threw the couple a worried look, wondering why Zoro wasn't doing anything to help his 'friend'. Zoro who felt wronged by the judgemental looks pursed his lips and stomped over to the cook, stubbornly extending a hand. Sanji eyed it with disinterest.
"Get up," Zoro ordered, only to earn himself a scoff in return. Revolted by the attitude, he strictly glared at the man, implying that if the blond didn't get up, he would have to use force. Sanji just rolled his eyes and made himself comfortable in his new 'bed', cold of the snow burning away on his cheek due to the drunken flush.
"My condolences to Nami's life for dealing with someone like you…" Zoro grumbled and pulled the Sanji's upper arm to get him into a sitting position, but the cook quickly jerked his arm away.
"I can stand up by myself, stop trying to make it look like I need your help all the time," he spat indignantly while getting to his feet. Zoro tutted.
"That's what you make yourself look like, laying down on the ground like you have no energy to stand on your legs." That triggered Sanji's ego and he spun around, swinging a fierce yet uncontrolled leg at Zoro's head, who jumped back just in time, stumbling a little before coming to a stop.
"Woah, woah, that's dangerous! Are you trying to kill me?!"
"Yeah, with the no energy I have in my legs," he replied sarcastically. Zoro had to hand it to him, his kicks were no pushover. He remembered the kick back at Sunny and its impact when he blocked it. It was definitely more than he would have expected from the lean looking man. Zoro cautiously turned around, making sure he would not receive another kick while he wasn't watching, and lead the way.
"If you're booming with all that energy, you might as well use it to walk." As if on cue, Sanji crouched down and groaned again.
"Why don't you just help me walk like a good companion?"
"Y-you said you didn't need my help!" Zoro fumed.
"Not for standing up, no. Nothing wrong with helping me walk though." Zoro massaged his temple. This was all way too complicated for him. He was just a simple man with simple logic. Deciding to just go with it for the sake of getting home fast and collapsing onto his bed, he let the blond to throw his arm around his shoulders and lean on him as they continued down First Street.
Another 10 minutes later and Sanji was starting to become giggly without a reason. Zoro labelled it the 'high and completely lost phase'. While Sanji blabbered on about Nami and her ability to run a grand café all by herself because Zoro could never in his opinion be helpful to her, Zoro suddenly remembered to contact Kidd about his schedule for the next day and released Sanji's wrist to find his phone. Sanji immediately stumbled into Zoro and the arm he had just released slid off his back. Zoro grabbed Sanji's shoulder to steady him and pursed his lips at the lack of effort coming from the cook.
"Try to be a little independent at least, I need to make a call," he announced. Sanji clumsily found his way back to Zoro's shoulder and held onto it half-heartedly. Zoro rolled his eyes and looked up Kidd's number. The phone rang a few times before a sleepy sounding person picked up the phone.
"Seth speaking. Who is this?" came a grumpy voice, catching Zoro off guard. This was not what he expected.
"Uhm, this is Zoro. Is Eustass there?" The other side of the line went quiet for a good three seconds. Zoro seriously thought that this Seth was about to hang up on him.
"Just a sec," Seth replied instead and put the phone down. Zoro heard some shuffling on the other side and some distant voices. He was sure he heard Seth ask whether Kidd knew someone by the name Zoro. Some more shuffling followed and then Kidd finally picked up the phone.
"Hey, boss. You called," he greeted, his surprise just barely concealed over the phone.
"You can just call me Zoro… Did I wake you up?" he had to make sure.
"Whoever sleeps at 10 pm at this age could not be me," he grinned.
"Fair enough. I said I'd call you about the schedule. The shift starts at 3 pm, but there's a marketing session starting at 1 pm if you can make it. They might come across as strange for newcomers, so I won't blame you if you decide to pass this time."
"I actually talked to Nami today and she made sure I'd show up," he said and continued curiously, "What are these sessions usually about then?"
"You'll find out tomorrow," Zoro awkwardly dismissed.
"I might not, but you've made me really curious," he insisted. Zoro wrecked his brain finding out what that was supposed to mean. Did it mean that he might not show up depending on what the session was about even when he promised Nami? He had some nerve to talk like that to Zoro. he decided to answer nonetheless.
"It's about marketing strategies and analyses. But Nami focusses a lot on customer attraction and integrity as far as we bartenders are concerned, so she likes to spend these sessions on flirting strategies and trainings …" he trailed off at the end of the sentence, finding it extremely embarrassing that they housed this sort of stupid seminars. It must've sounded to Kidd like they're some kind of teenage dating agency.
"Aahh, the flirting skills you were referring to during my application interview," he brought up cheekily, purposely taking Zoro's mind back to their weird moment right before Ace barged in.
"Yes," Zoro replied as indifferently as possible, not wanting to give Kidd the pleasure of knowing that he had been sulking over that specific event countless of times. Kidd was obviously grinning on the other side of the line, but Zoro stubbornly stayed quiet, wanting to let the subject die out.
"So who will be teaching?" he continued, much to Zoro's discomfort.
"Nami will be instr – Oi, get off of me!" Zoro blurted in shock as Sanji decided to subtly climb onto his back while he was distracted. The blond awkwardly wrapped his arms around his neck, unknowingly suffocating the swordsman in the process. Zoro tried to untangle Sanji's fingers with the one hand he had left to prevent himself from dying a pitiful death when Kidd spoke up hesitantly.
"What?" he asked, a little unsure of who Zoro was talking to and what the rumbling on the other side was. Zoro leaned backwards for Sanji's feet to touch the ground to relief some of pressure on his throat and gasped for air.
"Nothing… where were we?" he said, thinking back to the conversation.
"Uhm, you sure you're okay over there? Sounds like you're not alone either."
"Just taking a drunk man back to his house," he explained when Sanji started whining childishly, climbing back up every time Zoro tried to push him down.
"I'm tired! If you give me a piggyback ride I promise I'll make you somefin delicious sometime~" Sanji managed right before his head fell limply on Zoro's shoulder, slumbering away.
"Get a grip, will you!" Zoro hissed in frustration. The commotion was obviously loud enough for Kidd to hear, because he started laughing hysterically.
"Sounds like he'll do about anything to receive a piggyback ride from you," Kidd pointed out mischievously. Zoro's eyes widened in embarrassment. At first, Zoro wasn't sure when to think of Kidd's way of talking as casual and when to think of it as perverse. But ever since Kidd obviously tried to hit on him this afternoon, suddenly everything the punk said sounded wrong. He was sure that Kidd was trying to get a reaction out of him.
Zoro wasn't really the kind of guy to be into hierarchy. He liked to think of his fellow employees as equals, but it was moments like these that he was reminded of his position as supervisor and recollected himself. If Kidd was trying to be cocky with him already when he hadn't even started working yet, he should probably be tamed before all respect was gone.
"What are you implying, Eustass?" he answered sternly, gaining back some of his credibility. Kidd sensed the change in tone and took a moment to find his answer. He cleared his throat.
"Nothing…" Zoro crossed that answer off as his win, Kidd was adjusting his attitude.
"You can call me Kidd by the way," he added. Zoro was a little shocked about the fact that Kidd just mentioned his real name over the phone, that also happened to be the name he used for underground business. Did he even realize that the police could track them down this way? This guy was either a total moron or just overconfident. Zoro assumed it was the latter and just decided not to mention his name over the phone at all.
"Alright. You can change into your uniform when you arrive tomorrow, I'll have it ready by then. Is there anything you want to know before you start?" he asked. Next to him, Sanji slowly raised his head from where he had been drooling on Zoro's collarbone and lifted his hand to poke Zoro's cheek repetitively.
Very annoying.
Zoro just menacingly glared at the finger but decided to pay it no mind for now, preferring to finish up his talk with Kidd first.
"I'm sure I'll learn everything else when I get there tomorrow," Kidd answered. Zoro nodded in agreement. Now, there was only one thing he didn't quite understand.
"Just to be clear – Are you coming to the marketing session tomorrow or not?"
"I'll be there," he answered much more clearly than last time and Zoro smiled despite the sore feeling that was building up in his cheek.
"Awesome," Zoro replied calmly before he turned around and his temper exploded, "And YOU! are REALLY starting to PISS ME OFF!" he roared and punched Sanji in the face. The cook fell backwards onto his bum and pouted, but stayed put anyways. It finally occurred to him that he might have gone a little too far. Kidd chuckled softly on the background and Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose. He decided that now was a good moment to wrap up the phone call.
"Sorry, but I gotta take this monkey back to its habitat," he exhaustedly sighed.
"Sounds like a wise plan, good luck," Kidd offered. Zoro smirked and hang up, turning to Sanji with a contemplating look. The idiot was hugging himself while he visibly shivered, his head hanging in between asleep and awake. Zoro had noticed the moment they walked out of Shanks' house that Sanji was poorly dressed for the weather. His coat seemed thick enough, but was not very long and was with lapel. Also, he wore low-model shoes, no gloves and nothing to cover his head and ears with.
Zoro sighed at the sight and kneeled down next to the sleepy blond. He had already anticipated that this would happen sooner or later and was just glad that Sanji managed more than halfway on his own. He snaked his arm under Sanji's arm and around his back. Surprised by the lack of objection coming from Sanji, Zoro looked at the blonde's side view to see if there was any fight in his eyes. But Sanji just distantly stared down at the concrete, relaxed countenance and jaw slacked. He wasn't bothered at all; wasn't in the mood to fight anymore, to be more precise. Zoro awkwardly removed his eyes.
"Don't pass out just yet, we're almost there," he encouraged lamely and carefully pressed up to get the cook back on his feet, to which Sanji complied. Zoro felt strangely out of place now that Sanji ran out of brawling fuel. He looked much more at ease now, but Zoro wasn't sure if that meant that he was actually open to conversation or just too tired to want to conversate, so he just settled for silence. A few minutes of peaceful silence ensued.
"Neh," Sanji started. Zoro hummed in response as he gripped Sanji's wrist tighter when it was about to slide off his shoulder.
"Did you know that the Baratie is connected in a straight line with the Sunny?" he stated randomly.
"I figured when you said it's on First Street. Why?"
"I just thought I'd let you know, since you guys are invited over this Wednesday," he shrugged. Zoro frowned. That was news to him. "It's only a ten minute walk," Sanji added.
"I'm just hearing this for the first time," Zoro said and sceptically scanned the blonde's eyes before his next question.
"Are you sure you want to invite me?" he asked. Something in Sanji's eyes changed, it went from aloof to amused and he let out a tired chuckle. Zoro frowned at this behaviour and awaited the response that was sure to be an interesting one.
"Of course, you idiot, you can't be that bad," he said and paused.
"Getting angry with me for endangering your business is something I can't blame you for. I just need a chance to make it up to you," he clarified with a hint of regret in his tone. Zoro's shoulders relaxed. This was definitely normal talk – like what normal people did. He never thought he and Sanji would be able to pull that off. He smirked, feeling a little relieved. So Sanji did care about their business and the horrible impression he left on Zoro. It suddenly didn't seem like such a bad idea to give it a shot. Maybe he and Sanji could be get along too if they just tried hard enough. Sanji had certainly apologized after the fight he started at the bar and even apologized after Fullbody's appearance. So as a matter of fact, it was now Zoro's turn to accept the apology and move on. Even though he had trouble trusting others and Sanji's attitude was a huge patience tester. But first of all, he had to take him to is house.
The next morning, Zoro got into the routine of getting ready for work while Nami's never ending complaints guided him through it. He knew he was a handful, but there was really no motivation in him to try hard for a marketing session.
"Come on, Zoro! Ace and Sabo are already downstairs!" she urged, even more impatiently now. Zoro hastily fumbled with the bow tie while shouldering the door to the hallway, where he stopped abruptly in front of an irritated Nami. She let her scrutinizing eyes wander over his whole person, making him shift in place awkwardly.
"Ehm, I'm ready," he stated lamely and rolled his eyes in an attempt to mask his discomfort. Nami's eyes travelled down to where the bow tie dangled sadly around his neck, obviously abandoned in his rush. She sighed and started adjusting the ribbon. Zoro glanced over and saw her brows furrow in concentration.
"You don't have to, it's fine," he grunted, although he was secretly endeared by her caring side. Also, he was just glad that she could get the damn thing right for him because he was a natural disaster at delicate things.
"You're the owner, at least make yourself presentable," she finished with a tug on the ribbons and a satisfied leer, pulling back to do one last inspection. As if on command, Zoro smoothed out his shirt and waited for her OK sign. She chuckled and gave him a playful wink.
"Let's go, boss."
They greeted the two bartenders on the ground floor and unlocked the meeting room. A long table, fitting 22 people resided there in the middle of the rectangular space. It always looked quite lonely with just the four of them housing it. Nami sat down at the head of the table, Zoro on her right and Ace on her left. Sabo sat down next to Zoro. Immediately, Zoro slumped down in his chair and folded his arms, groaning childishly before the session even started. Nami pulled out her paperwork and scowled at his behavior, that was obviously aimed to annoy her.
"Complain and I'll increase your loan," she warned, to which Ace and Sabo chuckled. Ace rested his cheek on his fist and tapped lightly on the table to get Zoro's attention, who looked up with a hum in response.
"Did you have trouble taking Sanji home last night?" he asked.
"A little. He was drunk out of his mind," Zoro answered with a light chuckle. Sabo and Ace both raised their brows in mild surprise. Nami also briefly looked up from her paperwork.
"How come I don't hear your endless cursing on the topic of taking a drunk Sanji back to his house?" she wondered out loud.
"Did you guys finally make peace?" Sabo inquired as he leaned onto his elbows to get a better look at Zoro. Zoro thought for a bit. He and Sanji didn't exactly shake hands on it, and to be honest, Zoro wasn't even sure if Sanji remembered saying that he wanted a chance. But even if he didn't, the facts remained the same; Sanji wanted a second chance.
"It's worth giving a shot," he shrugged indifferently, making Sabo grin and Nami's countenance lighten up. She brought her fist up to her lips and cleared her throat.
"Okay, I'm all set," she announced and Ace immediately straightened up while Sabo took out a notepad and pencil. Zoro however only sunk deeper into his chair, earning himself a sideways glare from Nami.
"I didn't do my homework," Zoro confessed without as much as a blink.
"As expected," she sighed.
"You're a real disaster, Zoro," Ace helpfully pointed out.
"But it doesn't matter… We're here for a different reason," Nami droned, suddenly appearing a little nervous. The bartenders exchanged looks of confusion, trying to figure if the other knew what was going on. The redhead stacked the papers, folding her hands on top of it as all eyes were back on her again.
"As we are all aware, we're in a bit of a crisis right now," she started, efficiently zipping up the confusion from just seconds ago. They all knew where this was going and had to admit that they've been dying to take action.
"We've had a little incident last Saturday involving government official Fullbody who has given us a sneak peek at our vulnerable state. We should be grateful for the heads up, really. The government is surely going to make its move soon. We need a plan," she trailed off, eyeing every single one of the men seriously before she added, "Allies, to be precise."
Realization struck Zoro as he saw the phone call he and Kidd had the night before in a different light. Zoro pursed his lips as Nami's eyes at last searched his.
"Are there any objections?" she inquired.
"None here…" Sabo spoke softly. Nami turned to Ace who had closed his eyes in thought and opened them again to give her an unreadable expression. Nami held her breath in anticipation.
"None either," he voted. At last, her eyes searched Zoro's, who gave her a strict look of slight disappointment, but sighed in defeat.
"I'd really appreciate it if you discuss this sort of thing beforehand… Fine, let them in," he gave his consent. She seemed to have confirmed something in her head and pulled back her sleeve with her index finger to glance at her watch.
"I need you guys to behave," she clarified strictly and raised her arm, snapping her fingers. "Gentlemen, come in."
The boys braced themselves and turned their heads around just as the door creaked open and Kidd walked in, followed by a dozen other men. The competitive tension immediately lay heavy in the air around them. Zoro's heartrate increased gradually against his chest as he inspected each and every gangster that came through, their footsteps echoing through the empty room. Some of them familiar faces and big names, others people he had never heard of before, which wasn't necessarily a good thing either. As long as some specific people weren't amongst them, it would be alright. Once the last one walked in and securely shut the door behind him, Zoro only slightly relaxed. His secret would now most likely not be revealed or endangered.
An eerie silence followed as all candidates glared each other down. Zoro knew that gangsters meeting in secret to form alliances typically ended up in carnage and he didn't fail to notice that every single person had at least one weapon on them. If he had known this would happen, he would never have left his sword in the training hall downstairs. His eyes finally locked on Kidd's. The redhead was looking right back at him with a sickening smirk plastered on his face. Zoro's adrenaline was pumping and he couldn't help but slip up, smugly matching his glare with a maniacal grin.
This was it.
