Hey guys! I'm really sorry for such a long wait between chapters 7 and 8, but I got a bad case of writer's block. I realised that while I knew where the story was heading, I didn't quite know how to get there and so put off writing it. No smut in this chapter, but hope it meets your expectations!
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Zoro managed to make his way back to the inn after touring the town a good three times which gave him plenty of time to dwell on the night's events, and by this time any other emotion that he'd felt up to this point had been taken over by anger. Yes, he was thoroughly pissed at the cook, but nowhere near as pissed as he was at himself. For years he'd trained and meditated in order to be able to be the master of his own emotions in any situation, and yet one cocky blond bastard later and he felt as though control hadn't been his in the first place. He'd shown himself to be weak, and in front of the shitty love-cook of all people.
So what if Sanji had withheld the truth in order to get under Zoro's skin? Sex was sex and the stupid idiot that he was turned it down to act like an insecure woman! He had a good mind to go back but his pride stood in the way and considering he was the one to turn Sanji down and it'd put Sanji back on top, figuratively speaking.
As he stomped up the stairs to the room that the rest of the straw hats were asleep in, he mentally kicked himself for being so pathetic. Sanji wanted sex? Zoro would give him sex. He'd make the cook beg for it.
He slowly opened the door and slipped inside, making his way through the sleeping figures to one of the empty futons in the far corner. Luffy's gentle snores filled the otherwise silent room as Zoro flopped, still scowling, onto the crumpled sheets and kicked off his boots. As he turned over onto his side and faced the wall, he caught the faint scent of cigarettes that still clung to him from the closeness he and Sanji shared that night. As his mind began to shut off, he subconsciously took long, deep breathes, the smell calming him and sending him into a dreamless slumber.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Early morning came to the crew with the sound of gunshots and screams that dragged the straw hats prematurely from their slumber.
'What the hell was that?'
Nami had jumped up from her futon to run towards the window, throwing it open to locate the source of the noise. It was still relatively dark outside but the jeering and screams were louder now the window had been opened. Nami span back round with a worried look on her face.
'Luffy! Zoro! Sanji! I think you may be needed!'
'Mmm' Luffy nodded in reply.
He jumped to his feet with a start and pulling on his hat, a fixed expression of determination on his face as he strode out of the room to make for the street, closely followed by Franky. Nami glared at the form of Zoro that hadn't moved an inch, before striding over and giving him a boot to the head. Zoro still didn't move but a small groan emanated from his throat.
'Zoro! Get up now you dumbass or I'll add 50% to your debts and make you scrub the deck for a month!'
Zoro sat bolt upright and glared at her.
'Has anyone ever told you you're going to hell?' he mumbled as he stood and pulled on his boots and picked up his swords. It was still dark, meaning that he'd had no more than an hour's sleep, if that, and he felt like death.
'Plenty of people,' Nami replied, smiling sweetly at him before turning back to the window.
Chopper rubbed his eyes sleepily and looked around the room.
'Sanji's not here.'
'Huh?' queried Nami, looking around.
Zoro chose this moment to leave, striding down the stairs to join Franky and Luffy out on the street, hand on the hilt of Shusui ready. He couldn't be doing with inducing awkward questions by letting on that he knew where Sanji was, and the sooner this was over the sooner he could go back to sleep.
Outside on the street Zoro made his way after Luffy and Franky who had made a bee line for the source of the commotion. A busty young woman was on her knees sobbing in front of two burly-looking men, one of whom was brandishing a short sword and the other one waving a flint-locked pistol at a small group of women who were rooted to the spot, terrified looks on their faces, a short distance behind the woman on her knees.
'Please! I'll do what you want! Please don't hurt anyone...' she sobbed hysterically. 'Just let them go home...'
The young woman had long dark hair that was flowing beautifully down her back, and her dark brown eyes were bright with tears as she looked up at the man in front of her.
'You have no right to be asking anything from us you bitch!'
'Oi.'
The two men turned hastily at the low noise muttered by Luffy, grins spreading over their faces as they saw the trio approaching.
'And who might you three be? Kanon, you've made some new friends?' jeered the one with the short sword. He had unruly red hair that hung down around his shoulders, with a scar running down the left side of his face.
'I would keep walking if you know what's good for you,' growled the other man, keeping his pistol pointed at the women.
Luffy's eyes flashed as he suddenly swung his fist back and propelling it forward into the face of the man with the gun, sending him spinning backwards.
The red haired man raised his sword, pointing it at Luffy defensively as a panicked look wiped the grin off of his face. Zoro and Franky took a step forward so they were stood either side of their captain.
'Stop!' screamed the woman. 'Please stop...'
All three of them looked down at her as she slowly got to her feet and stood between the straw-hats and the other man.
'I don't know who you are, but please don't get involved! This has nothing to do with you people, so just leave us be.'
The red haired man walked over to her and grabbed her hair, yanking her head backwards.
'You heard the lady,' he growled, leaning into her and smelling her neck.
Before he could do anything else, Franky had projected his fist directly into the red head's face creating a resounding crack from the man's nose before he slumped to the floor.
'Fucking pervert,' he muttered.
The woman flinched as the fist flew inches from her own face, but luckily Franky was a good shot. She turned and looked at the figure on the floor before rounding on the newcomers.
'Do you know what you've done?' she hissed.
'Look lady, we just saved you and your friends there so the least you can do is be grateful,' replied Zoro, frowning at her.
'Kanon! Now's our chance, we can leave!'
One of the other women had come up and gripped onto her sleeve pleadingly. There were four other women in total not including Kanon, all of them wearing what seemed to resemble Victorian- style corseted dresses.
Kanon turned to regard the women, before looking down at the unconscious forms on the men on the floor.
'Come on,' she muttered, 'we have to go before any more of them find us...'
'We have a room there if you want to take a minute...' interrupted Zoro, nodding towards the inn in the distance, Nami and Usopp's heads visible from one of the first floor windows.
'I'm sorry, we don't have the time.'
The woman bowed low to them, her hands in her lap.
'Thank you for helping us.'
She ushered the other women down the street and they disappeared around the corner.
'Well. That was strange,' muttered Franky, scratching his head.
The three of them made their way back into the inn to report on what had happened to the rest of the crew, leaving the two men by the side of the road. Zoro hadn't joined in on the report, choosing instead to collapse on his futon, boots and all, his snores filling the room within seconds.
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A few hours later Zoro stirred from his sleep when a small knock on the door caught the attention of the crew. Robin, as always, was sitting gracefully with a book in her lap, while Chopper, Usopp and Luffy had decided to play charades after being yelled at by Nami for being too loud. Nami herself was immersed in a debate with Franky and Brook with their own theories about the marines and their purpose in the world. Luffy jumped up at the sound of the knock.
'SANJIIII! BREAKFAST!' he yelled, running over to the door. Zoro's eyes opened at the cook's name as he wondered what mood the cook would be in this morning, his stomach squirmed at the anticipation of seeing the man again. His anger had subsided slightly from when he first arrived back at the inn, but his forehead furrowed defensively.
Luffy opened the door expectantly, to find Kanon stood there wringing her fingers tightly in her lap. Nami stood and hurried to the door, shoving Luffy aside so that the woman could come into the room.
'Kanon, was it?' she asked kindly, closing the door as the woman stepped into the room. She only saw the earlier scene from the window but there was no mistaking the dark hair and the deep red corseted dress she was wearing.
'I'm so sorry for coming and disturbing you again, but I think we may have a problem...'
'Oh? What is it? Has there been some more issues with you and the other girls,' asked Franky.
'Do you people by any chance have anything to do with a blond man who wears a suit?'
Zoro sat bolt upright. The other straw-hat members' mouths dropped slightly at the question, wondering how she knew the cook, and what he'd gotten himself involved in.
'Sanji? He's our cook!' exclaimed Luffy, a worried look on his face.
'I thought so. Well, I met Sanji yesterday in a bar just around the corner, and allowed him to come back to mine to sleep it off as he got himself into a bit of a state.'
Zoro frowned at this bit of information. What on earth had he been like before he'd had a chance to 'sleep it off'? He hardly ever got drunk. What the fuck was going through the stupid cook's head? Kanon continued.
'Our island has been taken over by a group of pirates who are using our girls in order to make money. They call themselves the Black Boot Pirates, and they arrived just over a year ago but unfortunately, being such an unknown island, we're pretty vulnerable. Fortunately for me, I am charged with looking after the girls and so don't have to give some of the sorts of... services that they do.'
'Can't you just go to another island?' enquired Nami. Kanon shook her head.
'The pirates are holding some of our people at their base at the other side of the island and threaten to kill them if we don't make enough money to meet their standards.
'Occasionally, about once a month, I help some of the girls escape on a tanker that drops them at the next island. As there are roughly fifty girls being used by the Black Boots, the occasional three or four go unnoticed as they don't really keep tabs on us as well as they think they do, but unfortunately we were caught this morning and if it weren't for you then we would have been taken to the base and god knows what the Leader would have done to us.'
'But you seemed really upset that we helped you to begin with,' pointed out Franky, frowning. Kanon looked at the floor.
'Yes, I didn't want to get anybody else involved, I didn't want to bear the burden of anyone else getting stuck on this God-forsaken island. It was my own stupidity that got us caught and I would have taken responsibility.' She looked up, a small smile appearing on her lips, 'But thanks to you, those four girls have made it out.'
'We're strong, we can handle it,' said Luffy matter-of-factly.
'Yes, I see that now...'
'So how does the cook come into it?' asked Zoro, getting impatient with the story.
'Well, this morning, whilst at the harbour getting the girls onto the tanker, Sanji recognised me and came to give his thanks for the night before. He mentioned that the rest of his crew were staying in an inn and that he'd gone back to the ship so he didn't wake them up in the early hours. A member of the Black Boots saw us and tried to stop the tanker from leaving, but Sanji knocked him flat. I had no choice but to tell him about the Black Boots and what I was doing at the harbour. Anyway, he's gone to the base and...'
'THAT FUCKING IDIOT!' yelled Zoro, getting to his feet.
'Z-Zoro!' exclaimed Nami, her eyes widening at the sudden outburst. Zoro was gritting his teeth and looked positively livid.
'Luffy, I'm going.'
Zoro straightened up the belt holding his katanas and made his way to the door, only to be stopped by Nami.
'You can't go on your own! Wait for the others! Luffy?'
Nami looked pleadingly over at their captain, who was sat cross-legged on the floor, his face a picture of calm as he and his first mate exchanged a look for a few moments. Finally, he nodded to Zoro, who nodded back.
'Luffy?' asked Nami, questioningly.
'Zoro wants to do it on his own, so I won't get in the way.'
'But...' Nami hesitated and then nodded slowly. 'Kanon? Would you mind directing Zoro to their base? You don't have to go in with him, it's just he'll end up and the wrong end of the island if he goes himself.'
Kanon nodded as Zoro threw Nami an offended look. Nami stepped out of the way and let Zoro and Kanon leave the room. Once they'd left she looked over at Luffy again.
'If he's not back by noon, then we'll go after him,' he reassured her.
Nami nodded at him, her eyes portraying the worry that was in her heart.
