Hey there everyone! This chapter ran away from me, but I rather like it. It took forever though, so sorry! Also be warned that a tiny bit of Frobin shows up in this. Yes, I ship Mama and Papa Strawhat...

If you're interested in a clearer idea of what Lithium looks like, you can go to lithiumsketchbook. tumblr. com (obviously without the spaces) I do warn you though, there is NSFW on this blog, a little blood and quite a bit of nudity and smut, because I have no shame when it comes to ZoLith .

Zoro had not laughed so hard in a long time, still chuckling as he pulled a clean shirt over his head. He glanced over at Lithium, still face-first in the couch, and froze, his shirt still half-way off. He gulped, slowly easing the shirt over his head the rest of the way.

Lithium was wearing her usual worn nightshirt, but it was not exactly where it was supposed to be. It had been a while since he saw that first eyeful of Lithium's underwear, but this peek was far more remarkable. She shifted a little, revealing even more dual-toned leg and cute little butt covered in soft black and teal striped fabric. Were it not for his practiced self-restraint, the temptation to grab that ass would have be overwhelming.

Sharing a room with her is really getting to me...but dammit...she's adorable...

He shook his head and walked over to the couch, jamming his hands into his pockets to keep them busy. "Oi, Lith, you can surface again. I'm clothed."

She turned her head, one blue eye glowing softly at him. It seemed to him she did not entirely trust his word on this, but he did not mind her being overly cautious. They had both managed to keep things modest between them, aside from the occasional wandering teeshirt moments at night and she seemed to want to keep it that way.

While he managed to keep the blush from face, he could feel his ears burning as the last time her teeshirt had wandered in her sleep.

Damn her boobs were pale...

He shook his head again, though the image did not entirely leave his mind. He flopped down on the couch next to her. "Really, I promise, my pants and shirt are where they should be in public."

Lithium sat up, curling her legs under her, sitting backward on the cushion. He tried not to be disappointed as his previous nice view disappeared under her, but her embarrassed smile was a good distraction from it.

"Sorry...I should have knocked before coming in..."

Zoro shook his head. "Nah, don't worry about it. It was an honest mistake, bound to happen eventually."

She's more embarrassed than I am and I was the naked one...don't tell me I'm the first naked man she's seen...

He sent her what he hoped would be a reassuring smile. She smiled back at him, her cheeks the softest pink, her ears curling up from their apologetic drooping to their happiest position. Her nose wrinkled a little with her smile. She shifted on the couch so she sat down normally, her shoulder brushing his, silvery strands of hair trailing along his arm as she settled in.

Actually...I hope I am the only one...

Lithium kicked her legs like a little kid. The couch was just tall enough that her feet did not reach the floor. Zoro was convinced in that moment she was the cutest thing he had seen in a long time. With that admission came a slew of related thoughts, but they had to wait because her nose-wrinkling smile faded.

"Is Sanji okay?"

Zoro bristled a little at the mention of the cook, but since they had hashed things out earlier, he relaxed. She was only asking out of concern because she was a kind person.

I really need to get a handle on my...whatever this is...or she's going to think I'm mad at her...

"The idiot is fine. This has happened before."

Lithium tilted her head and frowned, one of her ears twitching upward. "That can't be healthy. I just made a smart-ass comment at him and then...that..."

Zoro ruffled her hair a little. "Not your fault. That happens when he thinks perverted things. You can't stop him from doing that."

She leaned into his hand when his fingers grazed one of her feather-soft ears. He ran his fingers over it again with extreme care, as her already-pink face flushed red when he did it. Only then did it occur to him he might be doing something he should not, and pulled his hand away. This did not stop her face from becoming progressively redder.

"Oi, Lith, ya' okay?" He poked her shoulder with a little more hesitancy than he normally would have had with her.

She looked a little sheepish as she peered at him out of the corner of her eye. "Ah...yeah...you're right...it's not my fault...but I might have made it worse..."

He turned so she could see his good eye better, the eyebrow above it raising. "I doubt you could do anything to make it worse. He's pretty far gone. Tell me what happened."

That blush of hers went from mildly red to crimson in seconds. He wondered for a moment if part of it was how pale some of her skin was that made it seem worse, but was drawn back to her when she made a strange squeaking noise. She covered her face with her hands and nearly wailed.

"I only meant to throw him off! He thinks I'm this innocent little thing, so I thought if said something less so...it would get him to shut up...but not like that!"

Zoro faced away from her, trying not to laugh when she seemed so distressed. Would she be mad if she knew "innocent", and "little" were often in his mind as well when he thought of her? He cleared his throat and put on serious face before turning back to her.

"What happened, Lith?"

She took deep breath and let it out slowly, though he noticed her ears were drooping. Never a good sign with her. "Well...he kept saying you're too rough on me...but he didn't just mean when we spar...like...rough in bed..."

Zoro covered his eyes with one hand, groaning slightly at this. He was not sure where this was going, but if her blush sweeping across the rest of her face was any prediction, she found it pretty damn embarrassing.

"He offered to destroy you if you were being rough on me...that way...I asked him if he ever thought I might like it rough...and then..." She threw her arms up in the air. "POOM! Nose-spolsion!"

Zoro blinked at her a few times before he burst out laughing, even harder than about the whole "man-dongle" thing. "Damn Lith! You destroyed him with one sentence!"

She stared at him, slack-jawed as he laughed himself out, which took longer than he thought because he kept picturing Sanji's brain shutting down completely, unable to handle the sheer amount of perverted images it was trying to conjure up from that one simple sentence. Unable to resist, he ruffled her hair again and asked the first question that had come to mind when she explained the case.

"So do you?"

Her ears took on their usual questioning positions, that expression that deemed her innocent back on her face. "Do I what?"

His tone was entirely teasing but he also could not deny he was curious. "Do you like it rough?"

A throw pillow hit him in the face hard enough he almost fell back over the arm of the couch. How she managed to do that with a pillow was no real surprise considering how hard she had been training with him and on her own. It was how she could make an embarrassed and furious look so cute that had him confused.

"How the hell should I know? Never done it before!" Her ears were even laid back in her frustration as she grabbed the other throw pillow off the floor and smacked him again, though not quite as hard as she held on to it this time.

He grabbed the first pillow and prepared to defend himself. "I hadn't really thought about that! Sorry!"

She leaped off the couch and put her weight into her swing, some of the stuffing coming out of the popped stitches of the pillow seam. "What, are you saying I seem like a loose woman?"

He would have been much more upset she said this as he never thought anything of the sort, were it not for the mischievous grin that was slowly spreading across her face. He nearly knocked her flat with a pillow-smack to the side, more stuffing flying through the air.

"No I mean I didn't want to assume anything until you said it!"

She used her retaliatory swing to right herself, hitting him upside the head again. "Okay then!"

"Why are you still hitting me?"

"Because its fun!"

Zoro felt the smirk spread across his face before he bounded across the room, snatching up the pillows from the bed. He turned back to her, the throw pillow in his mouth.

Lithium's eyes lit up as she slapped a hand over her mouth. Her giggles escaped anyway. "Three Pillow Style, eh?"

"Damn right, woman. If you want a pillow fight, you've got one!"

"Bring it on Marimo!" Her grin was cheeky, knowing full well what she did in calling him that.

Stuffing flew everywhere as they leaped around the little room, unrelenting in their playful attacks. While he was able to compensate for how agile she was, he had recently learned the full extent of her flexibility when he assisted Franky and her with some ship maintenance. Not only could she bend herself into impossible positions, but she was fully functional in them. She was using this ability now, tumbling over the furniture with fluid grace, sliding in and out of the shafts of pink sunlight softly accenting the room.

To say he was distracted by shapes her body took on as she moved was gross understatement.

She took a flying leap, smacking him upside the head as she flew past, landing nimbly on the mattress. The last of the stuffing in her pillow spilled over him as he whirled around. She tossed away the decimated throw pillow, looking around for another one, chest heaving from effort she was putting into the fight.

Zoro dropped the pillows and tackled her to the bed, holding her wrists to the side but gently. He was kneeling between her legs before he knew it, looking into her eyes, soft blue and wide in surprise. His hands drifted to her ears, stroking the edges with his thumbs. He watched the flush of exertion on her cheeks deepened into a true blush. She made the smallest, softest sound he could have imagined, one ear moving against his hand in a silent question.

There was only the briefest moment of worry that she would be upset when he pressed his lips to hers, but it dissolved the moment he felt her arms around his neck, the soft pressure as she kissed him back. He felt a growl rise up in him as her body arched up toward his, and he was more than happy to help close the gap between them.

His growl rumbled out when he felt her legs wrap around his waist. He ran his tongue along her bottom lip, demanding more than asking entrence but receiving it without hesitation. Her felt her growl against his body, only hearing it when the vibration reached her mouth. He wrapped his arms under her, pulling her off the bed while still keeping her body flush with his. He leaned back against the headboard, settling her on his lap with a groan.

Zoro knew he was hard. Given the circumstances, it seemed impossible he would not be. He had not realized just how hard he was, too focused on the softness of skin under his calloused hands as he slid them up her back under the worn cotton fabric, the light scent of lavender that clung to her skin after she had bathed, the taste of her brew still on her lips and tongue from an earlier drink before she cleaned up herself. Placing her on it made it plain and lest he forget to quickly, he was reminded when she pressed closer to him.

He moaned against her lips, worry creeping back up on him that his sounds would make her uncomfortable. His concern seemed unneeded yet again as her teeth caught his lip with another more confident growl, her fingers twining in his hair. He trailed his hands down her back, gripping her hips, hooking one thumb under the band of her underwear.

The suddenness with which she pushed herself away and was out the door left him stunned. Zoro sat there where he was, the swollen feeling of his lips and one hell of a hard on the only evidence of what had just happened.

"Dammit..."

Several minutes earlier:

Sanji stood in the kitchen, finishing the prep work for dinner with a strained look on his face. He whispered to the pots around him, as crashing sounds and giggling could be heard from Zoro and Lithium's room. "She really does like it rough..."

Lithium fled the room, her heart pounding so hard in her chest, she swore everyone on board would hear it. She did not know where she was headed, but her feet seemed to know the direction they were headed so she followed them. She found herself in front of the door of Franky's workshop. She knocked on the door, not just out of politeness, but that more than once she had seen Robin go down there and not come back for a while. Given what had her freaking out already, she did not want to walk in on anything.

She figured the cyborg man at least would be in there, finishing up his work in there for the day before dinner. It had not taken long for Lithium to make the repair duo of Franky and Usopp in to a trio with her ability to crawl into small spaces and see in the dark. Apparently she also took directions very well so Franky called on her often for somethings that were certainly not out of her depth but hard for him to reach. She had formed a fast friendship with him, almost considering him a father-figure, even in such a short time. In her panicked state, it only made sense to come to him.

Franky opened the door with a big grin, knowing it was her because she tended use unusually paced knocks, something he had pointed out to her. "Hey! What brings you here?"

Lithium took a deep breath and let it out slowly before taking a seat in his spare chair when he offered it. "I needed to talk to someone. You said I could talk to you if I had any troubles. So here I am."

Franky sat back down at his drafting table but faced her, watching her curl one leg against her chest with a frown. "What's got ya' down?"

Lithium chewed her lip for a moment before answering a simply as possible. "I kissed Zoro."

She could tell he was suppressing a laugh for her sake. "Lithium, did you forget you're married to him? That's kinda' what you do."

"No but Franky, you see, I've been trying tell anyone who will listen..." She glanced around, looking for any place Luffy might be hiding. Finding no place for the captain pop out of, she continued. "...we aren't married..."

"You're joking right?" Franky's disbelief was evident on his face. "Why did Luffy say you were?"

"Because he overheard the lie I made up to save Zoro from being executed on that stupid island where we met..." She blushed bright red. "Before then...I had only ever saw his wanted poster..."

Franky ran an over-sized hand over his short-cropped hair. "What did he do to get himself nearly executed?"

Lithium pressed her forehead into her knee, talking into her thigh a bit. "Sat his ass down on their Hero's Monument. Lucky for him, they don't execute newlyweds because they don't want to make young widows and dad-less potential kids. So I pretended to be his wife of a very short time, he successfully played along and we got outta' the situation. But Luffy had found Zoro in time to hear the lie. And you know what happened after that..."

She could see the tell-tale signs of Franky becoming overly-emotional over the story and politely closed her eye so he could cry without an audience. She could still hear the thick emotion in his voice, but at least he had not called her an idiot yet. Not that he had ever done that directly, just when she was part of a larger group.

"You two seem to get along well, though, considering you're sorta' stuck."

Lithium sighed. "We agreed to make the best of it...I just...I just didn't know making the best of it included falling for him for real...and then we were just being giant five year olds, beating each other with throw pillows...and it just happened and we were caught up in the moment...but I ran before things got...got too...ya' know..."

She could hear him nodding emphatically, clearly not wanting anymore detail than that. "I can see how that might be a problem."

"I really like him, Franky..." She could feel that ever-present blush only becoming worse. "...but I'm scared to find out what he thinks of me...I don't want to ruin what's already there..."

"Well, I would say if he was a willing participant in this thing that just happened, there's a decent chance he feels the same way." The sound of rustling papers and a few pencils shifting around the cup he kept them in reached her ears. " But you would have to ask him about it. We are all stubborn here and Zoro no exception."

He held out a few blank pieces of paper and pencil to her. "Why don't you find a quiet corner and draw until dinner. Don't think about it for a bit."

Lithium opened her eye and accepted the drawing supplies with a grateful smile. "Thanks...I'll do just that."

She left with a small wave and eased nerves. The only think that seemed strange to her was that she had managed to say something without Luffy blinking into existence right there and interrupting her. It was a load off her chest though and maybe if Franky knew, the others would listen to him better than they had Zoro or her.

No one was in the aquarium bar, so she made herself at home there, settling in the draw the one thing burned into her mind. She would worry about how to hide nude Zoro sketches later.

Robin unfolded herself from behind a particularly large piece of scrap metal in the pile Franky kept in his workshop. She strode gracefully over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, her chuckle soft and light.

Franky leaned his cheek on her arm. "Well, you were right, not that I doubted that. So what do we do now?"

Robin kissed his cheek. "We keep acting like we have no idea to the rest of the crew, of course. But we also keep working on bringing those two together. They're good for each other."

Franky chuckled. "Brilliant and sneaky, as expected."