"No."

"WHAT? WHY NOT?"

"I'm not interested, now leave me ALONE"

"Fine I'll bend... Join my crew please."

The green-haired man's irritation was unavoidably obvious as he stared at the woman in disbelief. She'd been following him for the last two hours; ever since he'd saved some little girl from a crazy-eyed dog and his weirdo owner (Hippo or something? He hadn't cared enough to listen properly) but he was almost at his limits.

"What part of 'NO' do you not understand?"

He had barely shut his mouth before Luffy's retort was sent back.

"And what part of 'join my crew' do you not understand?"

"Grrr!"

Running his right hand down his face the sword wielder decided that he was clearly wasting his time. She wasn't listening and he wasn't going to change his mind no matter how many times she asked, begged or pleaded.

Luffy on the other hand, couldn't understand why Zoro was being so stubborn. It was clearly the best thing for the both of them. She needed a crew and he needed...well, whatever it was he needed, so obviously it made sense for him to join. 'No' just wasn't a choice, no matter what the swordsman thought.

"Stop following me."

The deadpan voice floated lowly towards Luffy as Zoro continued to weave his was down the busy market place looking for a way to ditch his afternoon stalker without trying to have to outpace her. He'd already tried that approach twice with both attempts ending in dismal failure.

Normally his words of warning would have discouraged anyone from following him, but in Luffy's case they had appeared to have the opposite effect.

Bouncing up and down faster than Zoro thought was possible, Luffy's excitement peaked with the realisation that he had offered her the start of a conversation rather than just responding to one of her own questions. To her this was a very positive sign of progress.

"No see, you'd be following me, 'cause I'm the Captain! But don't sweat it, I'm just glad you finally agreed to join my crew!"

"What? No, I-"

Luffy continued. "After all you said you wanted to be the world's greatest swordsman, right? Well, I'd expect nothing less, with me going to be the King of the Pirates and all! So really there's nowhere else you could go or anyone else you could go with, otherwise you won't reach your dream 'cause how else are you gonna get round the world to know you're the best?"

Had a wall or table been at a closer proximity, Zoro imagined it would becoming rather well acquainted with his head. Reputation be damned.

"What kind of logic is that?"

Luffy ignored Zoro's exasperated comment and continued to prattle rather exuberantly on why her illogical logic was indeed logical.

Reaching the local tavern Luffy steered the mentally drained Zoro, unable to comprehend how Luffy could possibly take two completely unrelated things and make it seem as if they'd been related the entire time, to a table that already had a customer talking to the waitress.

"Oh! Hey Luffy. You found Zoro then?"

"Yup! Zoro, this is Coby. He's gonna be a marine."

Head still reeling from the mental battering he'd just received, Zoro simply nodded dumbly in acknowledgement. It wasn't until the two were seated and their orders had been taken that Zoro's head snapped to attention.

"Why the hell are we eating with a MARINE? We're PIRATES! This sh*t ain't supposed to 'appen!"

The remainder of the customers chatted on as if his explosion had never happened. Pirates and marines were not unusual visitors to the island and they had come to accept the strange ways of both breeds of men (and women). It was now understood that outbursts were a highly regular occurrence and should just be expected from the not completely unwelcomed strangers.

Coby gave a weak laugh, sounding more like a choked chuckle. "Well I'm not actually a marine yet. Luffy saved me from an evil pirate; she was absolutely amazing! I mean, you should have seen the way..."

Noticing the less than impressed face of Zoro, Coby thought it'd be best to wrap his story up quickly.

"...and um well, she brought me here so I could join the marines, which hasn't happened yet."

"I see..."

Zoro clearly not understanding what he was being told was thankful as the waitress came back with their pile of food and drink.

Luffy smiled with absolute glee as the only thought that crossed her mind was foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfoodfood.

Coby quickly snatched a plate off the table and brought it to rest on his lap, not really caring what it was as long as he'd now get something to eat before Luffy devoured everything given to them.

Arms flew everywhere as Luffy stuffed food down her throat faster than Zoro thought possible, causing him to wonder if she could actually breathe, whilst shoving the copious amounts of food into her mouth. Shrugging off her lack of table manners Zoro put it down to she-was-a-pirate-so-what-the-hell so he too dug in, not even coming close to matching the speed Luffy had set.

Once the food was gone Luffy stretched back in her chair patting her stomach in content.

"Thanks for lunch Zoro"

"WHAT?"

"I don't have any money." Laughed Luffy.

Zoro's previously contented mood dropped instantly.

"YOU CAN'T EAT LUNCH AND THEN EXPECT OTHERS TO PAY FOR IT, YOU MORON!"

Sorry about it not uploading properly earlier, I'm not sure what went wrong