Hellloooo! I'm back with chapter 10! I decided to name my chapter from now on, just to make it look a bit better (no matter how stupid the title is) ^_^''

There'll be blushy marimo for your entertainment ;)

Please enjoy!

Chapter 10

Kiss of Life

The three straw hats started their journey in silence. Everyone was preoccupied by their own thoughts and it seemed like the woods was imitating them, as if trying to mock them; making them slightly unsettled by the quietness of the greens around. Sanji led the little group, followed by Zoro and then Sunny who seemed to resume to his normal love-struck mode and was currently swooning over the visibly irritated green head.

"Zoro-kun, are you alright?"

"Are you tired, Zoro-kun?"

Those were the two basic questions Sunny would ask the swordsman, aside from the constant beams of how wonderful the green haired pirate was or praises over his admirable stamina and that kind of stuff. Sanji didn't really follow it, but he grew annoyed of the persistent blonde just by hearing it. He glanced occasionally over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Zoro's plummeting mood on his face as they went deeper into the forest and slightly sympathise the guy. He wondered whether his wonderful Nami-swan felt that way about his fawning but quickly dismissed the thought. She didn't look bothered at all, and if she did (which happened very rarely, mind you) she would just tell him to stop, or rather made him stop with her fist.

Ah! What a fierce beauty she was! Sanji's legs felt like a jelly by the mere thought of his orange haired goddess.

"Move, aho-cook!" The marimo grunted. His deep voice was terribly close and Sanji could actually feel his hot breath against his neck. Their bodies were almost caressing each other, literally.

Surprised, the cook hurriedly stumbled forward, desperately trying to put a space between them. Too close contact with the green head had made him felt weird lately and this time his face burned up and his body shuddered even though it's only slightly. Zoro apparently had realised the closeness and took a hasty step backward. If Sanji wasn't too busy hiding his face, he would notice the swordsman was awkwardly trying to do the same. The marimo had been increasing his pace in order to escape the other blonde's attention and create a rather too close space between them so he couldn't stop in time when Sanji stopped on his track.

"Zoro-kun! Are you okay? What did he do?" Sunny came rushing down at the two silent straw hats.

The over protective gesture somehow made the green head offended and his already bad mood plunged to dangerously bordering homicidal but then he thought better of it. His mission was, after all, to show Sunny he liked him and it would be unwise to commit violence toward the blonde prior to his little confession, however fake it was. At last, Zoro settled to just stomp away from the two blondes without a word, leaving them behind. But much to his dismay, a voice stopped him before he got farther on the track.

"It's this way, marim-" Sanji said and stopped abruptly and as expected, was quickly being countered by the other cook. Zoro wasn't sure whether he should feel appreciative or offended now, but at least Sunny was busy fighting with his other half and left him alone, for the time being.

Gosh, he hated blondes.

They reached the lake a couple of hours after minor fights, bickers, and a lot of insult trades, but luckily nothing too major happened.

"We must look more thoroughly this time; take note of unusual places. Let's split up to save time." Said Sanji, and then he added hastily "You two go together."

"Who says you could order me around, aho-cook? I'm going alone!" Zoro countered.

That's what I'm trying to avoid, marimo. You and your idiot moss brain could end up on the other side of the island once you're out of our sight! Sanji opened his mouth to voice his thought but decided against it, although his eyes still sent glares toward the meat head. The marimo knew what he was going to say, for he knew all too well that he was-um, directionally challenged as some would say, although he swore it was the direction that kept changing on him. Zoro just had to snap at Sanji to annoy him. In this kind of dire situation, the swordsman could still resort to minimum grumbling if the prissy cook bossed him around after a long tiresome journey, telling him what to do; but teaming him with his idiot fawning twin? He was clearly asking for a fight!

"Fine, you're going with me!" He said instead. The marimo looked like he's going to object, but then he seemed to realise that it was the best bargain he could get and didn't complain further. It's better than to be stuck with Sunny all alone!

To both of the straw hat's surprise, Sunny didn't object and they quickly went on their separate ways; the two boys went to the west side of the lake while Sunny to the east. The weirdness of the whole situation was the only reason for Sunny's out-of character behaviour.

The swordsman followed Sanji as they walked along the lake's stony shore. He noticed the blonde was constantly looking at the water surface, as if considering to go there. There's no way he was planning to dive in too, right? It was Zoro's plan and he had been trying to come up with an excuse to make Sanji go searching somewhere else while leaving him to look around here.

"Oi, cook, I'll scan this part closely. Why don't you go look somewhere else?" He suggested, the cook looked at him with a strange expression. His face looked surprised and a little bit panicked for a few seconds before he masked it with a frown.

"No! shit-hea-uhh..., I mean; No. I'm gonna take a look here. You can check..... there!" He pointed at a clearing not so far away from their position. There was nothing beside a few stumps of dead trees and wild bushes at the clearing. The swordsman lifted his brow at his odd behaviour. Why would he insist on staying around the lake's shore? Zoro turned his head to the cook again.

"There's nothing there." He pointed out, annoyed. He knew it was about him getting 'lost' in the bloody woods again so the cook told him to go to the clearing where he could still be seen from the lake. Like hell he was going to let himself be treated like a baby!

"Since you claim you're great with navigation, it'll be better if you search further and leave this area to me. I wouldn't get 'lost' as long as I can see the water." He pouted slightly as he said this; it nudged his pride to have to admit his lack of navigational ability to the cook but he had to mention it to show his point.

Sanji opened his mouth to say something, but quickly cancelled it. He could see that Zoro's reasoning was stronger. He was silent and glanced between the line of the trees and the lake, seeming torn between going to either of the opposing directions but finally he made his way towards the trees. He glanced back at the swordsman as if wanting to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth until he disappeared between the low bushy trees.

Zoro scratch the side of his head idly. Just what's up with the cook today? He seemed like he's holding back something... he didn't even call him names. Zoro shrugged; for the time being the green head decided to drop it and continued on his plan. He finally managed to get rid of the blonde. Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, it looked like it's been a few hours after midday. He only had a couple of more hours before sunset and if things didn't turn out as he had expected, he needed to quickly move to plan B which was to make Sunny think he likes him. Zoro mentally groaned at the thought of having to do the latter and it made him hurriedly went into the water after taking off his clothes and putting away his katanas.

The blue water was lit by the generous amount of sunlight coming from the surface, allowing the swordsman to see farther underwater. The water was somewhat murky near the lake bed where there were a lot of overgrown algae. Zoro could see small group of tiny fishes swimming around them and several timid dark shelled crap too but aside from them, the lake was pretty lifeless. He swam farther, passed a dead tree log and several dark green water plants but so far found nothing unusual. His oxygen shortage was running low and his lungs started to burn, so he decided to resurface. It was before he turned around that he caught a glimpse of big rocks formation that looked like an entrance of a cave. Bingo! He thought victoriously before hurrying to the surface.

After taking several harsh deep breaths, the green head dove in and searched for the rocks he had seen. It wasn't that hard to find again after he saw it. The cave entrance was hidden behind rows of long leafed water plants and could only be seen when the plants was moved in certain ways by the water. He was lucky to see it at the right moment.

Ha! Water god my ass! Thought Zoro. The lake water had just betrayed their master by showing it to Zoro and he grinned at his small victory for a short while before his suspicion that it was all part of the water brat's trick to trap him grew. He frowned but refused to back away from his original plan. It's too late to turn back now when he was nearly in front of the cave's entrance. He swam passed the last water plant and entered the cave.

It was pretty dark inside, but the light from the outside helped a little and soon his eyes adjusted it selves to the surroundings, enabling him to make out more of the cave's surfaces. The narrow cave walls turned slightly as he swam deeper inside but it didn't seem like it had an end. Zoro was sure he had swam quite far but the walls were just kept going. It could be some sort of natural underwater tunnel that led somewhere else but there was no way to reach it through this seemingly endless tunnel alive. He decided to turn back if he found nothing in the next couple of seconds. His heavy trainings and deep meditations had paid off in this kind of situation. No ordinary man would be able to hold their breath and made it as far as he could.

The familiar burning felling in his lungs told him that he would need another air supply soon but then he saw vague light coming from the direction he was heading and soon he was showered with rays of sunlight. The cave walls suddenly formed a huge chamber of dark green and purple stone and before he knew it, he was already emerging from the water surface. Huge stalactites were hanging on the cave's ceiling and there was a hole from where the sunlight was coming. Zoro studied his new surroundings briefly. It must be in a place higher than the water level which meant he was out of the lake somewhere. The air was humid and filled with fungus stench.

There was a part of rocky surface which was untouched by the water in the middle of the cave and Zoro climbed there to dry himself a bit and studied the cave walls better. He decided that it was the end of the cave. There was no other way that led to more cave chamber, it seemed. And what's more disappointing was there's nothing in there besides stalactites and the vague sound of dripping water. It was an empty cave, quite the contrary of what he had been expecting to find.

Feeling slightly dejected, the swordsman got into the water again and began to swim back towards the lake. He was swimming through the long tunnel-like cave and when the walls turned narrower, he suddenly felt something tugged on his right leg. He quickly jerked his leg away from whatever tangling on him but the movements only made his other leg got caught. He looked down to see forest of dark algae plants on the bottom of the narrow tunnel. It was easy to be tangled on them due to their long rope-like shape. He was swimming too close to them, since he hadn't notice them in the first journey and didn't pay attention.

Oh crap. I don't have time for this. Zoro bent to untangle his feet. He pulled several times and finally managed to free one of his legs but now one of his hands was tangled together with his trapped leg.

Great. Now my hand is tangled too. He tried to pull away but the plant would only tightened around him so he tried to untangle it and somehow his other hand ended up tangled too. He gave a mental sarcastic laugh at his predicament.

Oh hohoho! Just... perfect!!

Damnit! I really don't have time for this shit! He cursed when his violent struggles were proved fruitless. He was getting hysterical now. His lungs were running out of air while he was wasting time to break free from the stupid plants. If only he got one of his swords with him... Ah, the irony. Like hell he was going to let some plants killed him easily! And even if he was going to die, he'd died fighting! No matter how stupid he might look like while struggling against their harmless looking stem...

Argh, Damniiittt!! I'm not gonna die like this!! The thought gave him a temporary renewed surge of energy and he began to kick and swing his arms wildly. He was drained out of energy soon after and gradually ceased his resistance. There was no more air in his lungs and they burned painfully inside his chest. Just when the lights around him started to dim, he felt air was blown to his lungs. Not much, but enough to drag him back to full consciousness.

His eyes widened as he saw Sanji looking back at him. He couldn't imagine how relieved he was to see the prissy cook's face again. He pulled his now almost wholly tangled limbs slightly to show the cook his situation and the cook shook his head. Zoro wasn't sure what he was trying to say and pulled his limbs again. This time Sanji waved both his hands and shook his head rapidly.

What? ...don't pull? Zoro tried to ask with his questioning eyes. He gave a slight pull again, trying to gesticulate his question. The blonde shook his head once more and the green head took it as a 'don't pull'.

Sanji raised his hands and gestured a 'wait/stay' sign to the green head then began to examine the trapped body parts under him. He waited for a moment then began to slowly untangle one of Zoro's hands. He managed to free it at last, but they were both short in air supply so he told the swordsman to wait again and swam away. At first, the green head thought he was going to grab one of his swords from the lake's shore to chop it all off, but then he realised the cook was heading towards the opposite direction. What was the cook planning to do? he wondered anxiously.

Shortly after, the cook was back and the first thing he did was to bring their mouths together which caught Zoro by surprise. Deep blush was creeping up his face in an instant. He opened his mouth reflexively but his words were swollen back as new air was blown into his lungs.

Ah, he got it now. Sanji was sharing his air supply and continued untangling his other hand slowly. His hands were free now but they would need another supply of oxygen before they could untangle his feet.

Wait. That meant the cook had to do it again at least twice, seeing how he had tangled his legs much worse than his hands; it's gonna take longer to set his legs free, even if he helped.

Zoro's face heated up and his lips were tingling with funny sensations.

Oh shit.

TBC

Yay! Two more kisses and more blushy Zoro to come! XD

Oh, don't forget to review ok? I'm sure there's a lot of mistakes here since I didn't have it beta-ed. See ya next time!