Chapter 9.

Did anyone else think that the first strawhat who would actually give someone else a kiss would be Franky? I mean... Wow. I know he just did it on the spur of the moment and it was partly to distract the 'hover' woman, but … Wow … I had no idea that Oda would have a moment like that in One piece.

And now, I have been given false hope that he might just start coupling up people for real. Let's see what might have happened behind the scenes or who should we pair up ...

Makino and Shanks (I hope so. :D )

Vivi and Kohza (Woah... they're so cute please)

Crocodile and Robin (Dangerous, maybe happened...abusive... run away Robin!)

Luffy x Hancock (Maturity problem? Marriage problem, feels like a remake of Goku/Chichi romance problem... okay they would make a cute but queer couple. :D )

Luffy x Nami (Because without Nami... He would just get lost. :D )

Luffy x Robin (...hummm... not sure)

Usopp and Kaya (I mean that isn't up for debate. That is a definitely)

Robin x Franky (Before timeskip... :D ... after timeskip... :O … What has he done?... no.)

Robin x Zoro (Supported them at first, but now... not so much. They're a bit boring together...)

Nami x Robin (Maybe)

Sanji x Nami (Maybe, Sanji has tried for so long and so hard... maybe if Luffy x Nami doesn't work out)

Sanji x Robin (Okay, but ... she's a hard to read...)

Sanji x Zoro (HELL NO!)

Zoro x Luffy (...Huh?...um... cute... no... Ivankov change Luffy into a girl for a second... wow!... so cute)

Zoro x Kuina (cute. Adorable. In an AU...)

Zoro x Tashigi (PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! make this happen.)

Tashigi x Smoker (If Zota doesn't happen. Yes, please.)

Tashigi x Law (No way)

What do you guys think? Who would you pair up with who? Please No abusive comments about my pairings... but I'd be interested in seeing what other people think. Please comment your favourite pairings in a review.

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Hard Lines: Blanket Technique

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There was a sudden bang and I woke up instantly trying desperately to get up as quickly as possible, but ending up falling to the floor in a tangle of blankets.

'He's here. I bet he's here. Doflamingo is here to take back Caesar!'

I pulled off the tangle and stood up almost tripping over the fabric again in my hurry to get outside, I found a light switch and turned it on, and that was when I saw him still sleeping. Zoro was still sleeping.

"Oi Pirate! Wake up!" I stepped forward and slapped his knee and nothing happened. "Zoro! Look alive, the warlord has come back to get Caesar!"

I reached forward and grabbed Wado ichimonji's hilt trying to pull it from it's place in the sheath on Zoro's hip and the swordsman's eye fell open his hand instantly closing over mine in an iron grip. I felt a dangerous presence in the room again as if a demon was watching me from the shadows.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Zoro's eye blazed into mine.

I only briefly paused in shock at his glare, but then shook it off and allowed my own anger to flow. "Well, if you're just going to stay sleeping I'm going to be needing a sword in order to prevent the damned pirate Warlord from getting his evil scientist back!" I shouted and glared back at him trying to pull on the sword again ignoring the pain his gripping hand was inflicting on mine.

He stood up instantly and pulled my hand off the sword and pushed me back towards the couch. "Stay here and keep out of the way!" He demanded and walked to the door.

"No! Give me a weapon you moron!" I ran after him and blocked his route.

"If it is the Warlord then you're no match for him!" Zoro glared back angrily.

"I said, 'GIVE ME A WEAPON!'" I suddenly rammed into him trying to take him by surprise and push him away from the door, but he held his ground.

'Damn. AHHHHHH! My shoulder! I forgot...ahhhhh...damn it.' I showed no evidence of pain, and took a few steps back and got into a fighting stance.

Zoro sounded calm, but looked furious. "I said to 'get out of my way.'" He grabbed me kicking and punching by the front of my red top and pulled me back into the main room. He then pulled me face first onto the thin rug I had just escaped from and held me down onto it.

"GET THE HELL OFF ME!" I yelled through the muffling blanket.

"No, You're going to listen!" He hit my head back into the floor and put his hand on the back of my neck to prevent me from moving. "This is our ship! Our rules! And we are the ones that will defend her. Not some Marine Captain want-to-be. You are not to be seen by anyone else, Got That!"

"Get. Off. Me." I heard the venom in my own voice and was quite shocked out how much I was shaking and how mad I even sounded.

I heard Zoro sigh, "Not until you promise." he loosened his grip a bit and moved his hand away allowing my head to turn slightly.

"Like hell I'll make a promise with you." I growled back my reply.

"Fine then." Zoro pulled my arms down and held them to my sides.

"Get off!" I yelled trying to pull my arms free.

"In a bit." Zoro answered, turning me onto my side so that my right damaged arm was underneath me and pushed his weight including my also down onto it.

I held back another outcry of pain and gritted my teeth. 'I don't care what sort of deal the stupid Strawhat pirates and that horrid Trafalgar Law warlord made together, I'm going to flipping kill that Gas Bastard and then their plans will be ruined, and that creep will be dead and gone and no longer able to bring such pain and hurt into the lives of defenceless children around this world.'

I tried to struggle some more, and Zoro pulled a corner of the thin blanket over my shoulders and tucked it into my cleavage and picked up the other corner and wrapped it around my foot and then rolled me on the ground once. "What are you doing? Get off!" I demanded.

He rolled me once more until I was lying on my stomach. He then straddled me and pushed down on my shoulders again. 'Damn, it hurts so much. Why is he so flipping against me going outside? Damn my pain, Damn you Zoro!'

"Hold still." Zoro said firmly. "Just hold still for a few seconds."

"No Way!" I yelled. He moved his right hand from my right shoulder and placed it into the middle of my back. He pushed hard onto it with the palm of his hand and I heard something 'clunk'. I was still for a second just thinking what on earth he had just done. 'Has he just broken something in my back? Something clicked? What was that?'

Zoro took that moment to take me by surprise and rolled me up in the carpet the rest of the way and pull the fabric tightly around me. "Oi! Stop it!" I told him.

"In a bit." Zoro sat down on me as he pulled up the other heavier blanket and shook it out so that it was a long spread of fabric. He then lifted me up and put me on that one as well.

"Don't you dare." I threatened as best as I could seeing now what he was planning on doing.

"Dare to do what?" Zoro asked innocently as he tucked the edges of this blanket in as well. "Not to do as a marine tells to me to do. Oh, no I wouldn't dream of it." He rolled me up in that blanket as well tucking in a large quantity of fabric in rolling up my legs that prevented them from stretching out and separating the fabric out. Unlike the first layer this one was not soft and stretchy, but thick and tough.

"You sarcastic bastard! Unroll me at once!"

"Nope, not right now I have things to do." he tucked away some loose fabrics that were in the way of my face and pulled all my messed up hair out of the rolled up fabric. "By the way, I forgot to mention your hair looks cool long." he said as he pulled a few more out of my face.

"What... I …" 'What the hell?' I looked up into his eyes. "I'll be cutting it." I said in certainty.

He leaned back to the couch and pulled down a pillow. "I'll be looking forward to it." He said as he put it under my head. I wouldn't admit to it, but having the pillow under my head made me feel ten times more comfortable, and it stopped the throbbing muscles in my neck from aching.

Zoro stood up and patted me on the head. "Now be a good girl, and wait here patiently like any other guest would, as we pirates deal with the problem." He lifted up the coffee table infront of him and put it over my rolled up body.

I could feel my face was red with embarrassment and rage as he gently brushed more of my hair away from my face and onto the pillow. "I'll be back, so try and not break anything okay, or we'll have to start putting cuffs on you too."

"Go to hell." I glared at him.

He grinned and shook his head. "Sorry, but that's not likely to happen." He smirked triumphantly. "I'm afraid I tend to get lost along the way."

He stood back up. "Don't you dare leave me like this!" I glared up at him.

"Go. Stay. Go. Stay. Make up you're mind woman." He raised an eyebrow before glancing back to the window hearing another thudding noise outside.

I felt my blood boiling in rage. "Get the hell away from me! I don't want to see your no-good, stupid face again!"

"So what you're going to give up on taking my sword away from me, because of some stupid reason like that?" Zoro questioned and knelt down again beside me. He tilted my head back and looked deeply into my eyes. "That doesn't sound like you. Did you hit your head too hard or something?"

I felt a wave of many emotions hitting me at once. 'Am I angry, frustrated, sad, worried, hot, cold? Happy, concerned, mad, confused, or … '

He put one finger on my forehead. "Well at least you feeling and looking better."

'Feeling the heavy weight of the fabric on my chest, arms, legs, and... why? Why do I have the sudden urge to touch him?' I wriggled a bit in the fabric and looked him dead in the eyes. "You'll regret this Zoro."

"I really don't understand some women." He shook his head. "So, we haven't seen each other in what two no almost three years and the best you can do is yell at me in hatred after I have saved your life, carried you, sheltered you, wrapped you up in bandages and blankets and shared a drink with you." He leaned forward and whispered. "That's not very kind Tashigi, not like you at all." He brushed a few more strands of hair from my face and rested his hand on the top of my head.

All my movements stopped when I felt his breath on my face. 'What is he doing?' I felt my muscles in my tied down arms start quivering as I felt helpless and unable to move. 'Is he going to kiss me again?'

'Kiss me. Yes, yes, …'

'NO WAY! What am I thinking?' I found myself looking at his lips instead of his eyes.

'Just once more.'

'No I can't.' I looked back up into his one uncut eye and saw a questionable, almost-excited gleam behind it.

His face came closer, and my head felt heavy. 'No, stay away.'

"I'm expecting an apology Marine." He whispered.

'His lips are just inches away. Kiss him.' 'No, if you do that … something bad … will … happen?'

I looked away from his eyes and I was instantly able to turn my head to the left. "Fine, I'm sorry!" 'Good you didn't let him kiss you, that was sensible.' "I'm in a bad mood, but pirates really tick me off. Especially the ones that have green hair and always lie." I mumbled the sort of apology that I think Zoro had said he wanted.

He chuckled and sat back up. "Tough luck with me having green hair and all, but it's a good thing I haven't lied to you then."

I could feel his eyes gazing down on me, but I couldn't, no wouldn't look towards him. 'I have no idea what my gaze would look like right now. Relieved, disappointed, angry, ashamed, desperate. Whatever you do... just don't look at him.' After a few seconds I heard Zoro stand up and pull a sword free.

"See you in a moment, Marine." Zoro said and I heard his booted feet walk across the room.

He opened the door and walked outside. "Oh! Zoro! Where have you been? This thing is..." I heard Luffy's voice call out to him just as the door slammed. And then silence... apart from the occasional thudding sound coming from outside.

'Well, I can't do anything about it now, so might as well get some more sleep.' so I shut my eyes and breathed out.

'What the hell was that?' I could still feel my heart pounding, and my eyes opened again as I imagined what Zoro might have done if there were no intruders outside. 'I had actually wanted … him to kiss me? What the hell had I been thinking?'

I closed my eyes again and shakily breathed out my anger and frustration. 'It had to be the build up of intense emotion and unchecked hatred that had made me think he was suddenly attractive. Wasn't it? Wasn't that how it sometimes worked?' I took another breath and found I couldn't take a very deep one because the blankets were so tight around my chest and abdomen. 'And maybe that's another reason why. Because of my lack of oxygen. Yeah, that had to be it. Be calm... Calm down, don't let him get you angry.' I looked up at the ceiling and took a few shallow and calming breaths.

'It was nothing more than an unexpected surprise. Yeah. Nothing more. I was caught off guard and being unable to move just made me think stupidly. Yep, that's it. Just shake it off... If you were able to move at all. Damn him. How dare he leave me like this. What had he been thinking? Did he want to do that?... kiss me? No. He was just making fun of me again.' I tried my best to calm down and not think about Zoro, but the more I tried the more frustrated and angry I felt and became.

'Why the hell was he even doing this? What was he going to benefit from by keeping me tied down. Having more hands to help defeat an opponent is better right?' I glared at the door waiting impatiently for someone to come back in.

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Wow... The old wrapping people up in the blanket technique. I'm surprised that people don't do this more often in movies when carrying kidnapped people from place to place. It's not painful, it's quite comfortable, and it's really hard to get out of.

I know this because I and my brothers and sisters used to play something we liked to call 'The kidnapping game.' when we were little (six of us from ages of 2 to 14). Where one of us was the evil baddy, and one of us was kidnapped and the rest had to save the kidnapped person while the baddy had gone around the back garden for a walk...(usually lasting about 2-3 minutes).

We were ingenious with our escape methods and with our evil tying up methods. I invented the dislocating shoulder technique (where my hands were tied behind my back by the wrists, I would be able to bring them forward over my head by dislocating my shoulders and untying myself with my teeth, (Don't worry, my shoulders could easily dislocate at that time in my life it didn't hurt to much and I could push them back in by myself). My younger brother invented the shake and break technique where he would shake most of the ropes off himself and … usually end up breaking something as he escaped.

For the 'baddy' side... I found it was a lot more difficult for some of my sisters' to escape if I plaited their hair into the rope. And my older brother invented the blanket technique. Where he would role someone up in the picnic blanket and wrap skipping ropes around it and then he would put the kidnapped person into the pirate boat (our blue swing) and swing them really high (it made it harder for other people to rescue the kidnapped person).

It sounds terrible, but this was one of our favourite games to play. While other kids my age where collecting Pokemon cards and watching Dragon Ball Z (I had never seen them before at the time.) And that was because Mum and Dad didn't have a TV license and so we didn't watch TV as kids. We read books and played games, and invented new things and did stuff like … the strawhats. I mean it. Really! I'm like … yeah, I'm like a mix of Tashigi, Luffy, and Robin. Sounds stupid I know, but that's what I'm like 'whoopsie do.' I like my special seat. I love food. I can stretch into weird shapes. I want to collect as many star wars books as possible! I want to read and not be interrupted. …

Good times. Remember to review!

:D