UPDAAAATE! BOOYAH.
So this chapter is basically more of Zoro and Nami fighting – since that's what they do best XD lol
They have reverted to their roots! What will this do to their hastily blossoming relationship? Dun dun DUHHHH! If you must know…read on…
P.S Shout out to all those affected by the Japan earthquakes (11/3/11)! You're not alone!
WARNING: for the sensitive types, there is a little bit of swearing when Sanji and Zoro scuffle…coz they BADASS. Oh yeah.
Disclaimer: I will never be the owner of One Piece. Sadly. :O
"We're being followed?" Chopper and Usopp's eyes literally bulged from their sockets from the new piece of information, and if Brooke had any eyes to goggle with, he would have certainly been doing it now.
"Ehhhhh? Then we're all in grave danger?" The skeleton's jaw was chattering quite distractingly and Zoro found it difficult having to repeat himself over the noise.
"CALM DOWN," the swordsman bellowed, rattling the ship's frame and causing a thin silence to spread among the four crew members before him. Luffy, who was also present, was unusually silent – by the star-studded look in his eyes he was apparently too excited to speak. "When you all stop acting like a bunch of clowns, we'll explain."
Usopp, who looked like somebody who'd had just heard the world was on the brink of destruction, swallowed the cry of terror he had been about to break loose. "B-bu—B-But you just said – the assassins…" he croaked shakily, though gave up mid-sentence, too distraught to finish.
"It's a possibility," clarified Robin, who had accompanied both the swordsman and navigator to help reveal the news. "We may have people tracking us – though, as has been said before, it's just speculation."
Nami wasn't surprised when Usopp's face still drooped more; the reassuring speech that she had expected Robin to make didn't exactly win her over either.
"But we've got the advantage of knowing this before hand," she added in a slightly pathetic attempt at optimism. "If they do come, we'll be alert and ready – right?" She glared ferociously at Zoro standing next to her, trying to get him to say something nice, but it seemed he completely missed the point with his next response:
"You'd hope so. But if they're the kind of people Robin's been making them up to be, they'll probably strike at a time we're least expecting it, even if we think we're ready." He eyed all four members with a sobering expression and all but Luffy seemed to shrivel in his presence. "The point is, we can't let our guard down. Just keep that in mind from now on."
Suppressing the urge to hit him, Nami simply trod pointedly on his foot with her high heel, causing him to turn a quaint shade of blue, then red, before swinging his head towards her looking irate.
"What he means is that we'll be fine if we just keep an eye out for anything unusual," pressed Nami with a sort of chilling positivity and ended with glaring down her partner and dragging him off to the side.
Zoro beat her to the mark, annoyance blatantly obvious. "What the hell was that? You might as well have skewered my foot, crazy bi—"
"That's my line!" hissed Nami, looking wild with her animated gestures and expression of extreme resent. "All you and Robin have been doing is making them paranoid! It's all we're going to hear about for the next month until they find something else to obsess over!"
"Good," grunted Zoro rather triumphantly to Nami's frustration. "It means that whenever these guys come they'll spot them, no trouble."
"No! No! It means that those three will be constantly nagging me for log-pose readings every five seconds until we reach the safety of the island!"
"But the island's not safe."
"I know - exactly!" Nami slapped a hand to her head with a groan. "Okay, listen. You have to try a little something called compassion. If you bombard them with all these crazy ideas they'll be rocking themselves to sleep every night! I don't need them even more mentally unstable than they already are!"
Zoro snorted. "Compassion? That coming from the woman who charged 300% for borrowed money that wasn't even used?"
Nami eyes flashed dangerously. "How was I to know you couldn't understand even the simplest of contracts?"
"The hell kind of a contract is that? I didn't even spend a single-!"
"Is something the matter?" Robin had drifted over at the sound of rising voices and now eyed the quarrelling pair with a stern but patient look.
Taking a sweep around, Nami realised that Luffy, Brooke, Usopp and Chopper had already relocated themselves to a safe distance from herself and her roommate. Further aggravated by this, she turned on the historian, scowling angrily. "You too, Robin! You can't just go around telling everyone they're about to be killed by bloodthirsty contract killers! Anyway, I thought that the possibility of them actually following was slim – right?" She whipped round to Zoro in confirmation. "Isn't that what you said?"
"Yeah, to shut you up," he muttered irritably, folding his arms in a display of disgruntlement. "How the hell am I supposed to get any shut-eye with you whining in the background about being butchered in your sleep?"
"Wha—You-?" Unable to utter a comeback for once, Nami simply stared at him in open disgust.
"I think that's enough you two," said Robin with an unnervingly even tone and taking a long judging look at each individual. "At least Captain-san and the others are aware now of what we are dealing with – that was our main purpose, was it not?"
Nami couldn't bring herself to agree out loud and so resorted to examining the backs of her hands in a reluctant, guilty sort of manner, feeling horribly defeated under Robin's unwavering gaze.
"Yeah, well," said Zoro, "whether they take it seriously or not is the main problem." Unlike the navigator, he was not so flustered as to not offer a sensible reply. This was extremely vexing to Nami, who couldn't understand how or why he could do this; the notion that Zoro was behaving more mature than herself was virtually unimaginable.
"I'm sure they'll be fine," said Nami in an effort to contribute.
Robin smiled. "Yes, I agree; if anything I believe they'll remember the warning for the rest of our journey. Also, Zoro," she added turning to the person in reference, "I was meaning to talk more in depth to you about the capabilities of the IONA company but it seems we ran out of time this morning – perhaps tomorrow I can give you the details?"
"Or you could tell me now."
"Or we can talk later when everyone is a little calmer?" said Robin, passing a pointed look between the pair. "It would be far more useful to discuss it in front of the other crew members in any case – I'm sure Franky and Sanji especially would appreciate the extra information as well."
F-I-V-E-M-E-T-R-E-R-A-D-I-U-S
Zoro's deep dissatisfaction at Robin's frank reply had affected his mood, and Nami found herself equally annoyed at her friend for putting her in the situation of having to deal with it.
On top of it, the temperature had unexpectedly soared around ten-thirtyish into a scorching hot day and everyone but Zoro and Nami were able to clamber over the side and into the ocean to cool themselves off.
"I don't think you should swim today, just in case," concluded Chopper after hearing the story of the training session. In his human-form he was examining Nami's outstretched injured leg on the grass with a strange seriousness that contrasted against his usual exuberant child-like nature.
"And you still want me to keep going with the physiotherapy?" said Nami, looking somewhat frustrated at the answer.
Zoro leant against the railing a few metres away, listening quietly despite his expression of bored indifference.
"It's the fastest way you'll recover," insisted Chopper in his sternest voice. "It's working well already – you just have to be careful not fall awkwardly. Make sure you're holding her properly as well," he added, passing a look to Zoro. "It's important that there is someone always watching to make sure everything is going smoothly. But I'm glad you told me what happened – it'll give me some idea of how her recovery is going."
Once he had helped the navigator to her feet, the reindeer shrank to his default size, voice once again squeaky. "It's hot but you shouldn't swim at least until tomorrow or you might just make things worse by stressing out the ligament."
With a deep sigh of disappointment, Nami nodded miserably. "But everything will be better in a few more days, right?"
"If you keep up the physiotherapy and nothing else happens then yes," answered Chopper, trying to sound encouraging.
"And if you stop complaining," said Zoro almost automatically, receiving a piercing glare from Nami in reply. "So, you going in or not?" he asked, noticing that Chopper was now shifting uncomfortably in the heat.
With a guilty look like a child who had been caught doing something naughty, Chopper shook his head violently. "I can't – I have to keep working on your medicine-"
"Hurry up and get lost already," growled Zoro, who just by looking at the furry doctor was starting to sweat himself.
Chopper took a glance at Nami, who he saw was already nodding gloomily in consent. "Really?" Face lighting up with joy, he thanked both crew members profusely before happily bouncing away to find himself spare pair of floaties so that he could join the others.
"You could have just not said anything," muttered Nami, dragging herself over to sit in Zoro's shadow, out of the sun. "We could already be cooling off in the water by now!"
"And make me lose out on two weeks more training just because you pulled a muscle again? Yeah – no."
Nami did not even make the effort to scowl at this, let alone come up with a retort, and instead simply slumped unhappily against the railing, watching as Chopper dove in with his numerous buoyancy devices and was soon splashing and laughing with the others.
Seeing this, Zoro couldn't help but feel slightly bad for her and softened his tone slightly in a half-hearted attempt to cheer her up. "He said tomorrow, right? Just go in then. No big deal."
Nami barely acknowledged the comment, seeming too caught up dwelling on her own gloomy thoughts to answer. "I hate this," she finally mumbled, though it was barely audible even to Zoro who was standing right next to her. "I hate being injured."
Zoro just raised an eyebrow, caught between amusement and surprise. "I think that's the point."
"No! You don't understand!" exclaimed Nami, straightening suddenly and looking both vexed and distressed at his lack of empathy. "I thought at least being injured would give me some leverage in this stupid situation – but no! It turns out I'm worse off than if I had no leverage at all! Manipulating you isn't fun anymore and if I can't do the things I want to do, then what's the point anyway!" She collapsed back onto the railing, her face sagging in despair. "Now I just wish none of this ever happened!"
Next to her, the swordsman's face had flitted in and out of expressions at the confession from frowning indifference to shock, then indignation and now was finally fixed in a rather dramatic look of repulsion as all remaining sympathy for the navigator evaporated at her last words. Of all the twisted, selfish…! Leverage? Manipulation? Was that all it was? "Well, what the hell did you expect?" he growled in reply, tone strikingly dark.
Nami snapped her head up, looking taken aback at his manner. "Excuse me?"
"Getting injured isn't supposed to be a holiday!" Zoro went on, unable to stop himself – he was too angry. "People don't get injured for fun, Nami! It's not an advantage! If you think you're the only one who suffers, take another look around! It's us – all the people who have to look after your sorry ass –who get the worst deal! Do you think I want to be stuck doing your damn phys-ed exercises-"
"Physiotherapy," was the quiet correction, though Nami didn't dare interrupt him further.
"Physiotherapy! Whatever!" he boomed, causing the navigator to flinch. "The point is, I could be putting in ten times the effort and getting ten times the training in the time that you're complaining five minutes into your own training session - one that a doctor recommended to you – that you want the day off because you broke a sweat. The hell do you think you are?"
At this point, Nami had paled slightly and there was an intense silence which filled the air. Nobody was splashing anymore, all attention drawn to Zoro's raging presence.
"And then you go and say that you hate injuries because you're bored of using everyone around you and now you actually have to work for once. You gotta be kidding me." He clenched his jaw shut, tempted to continue his rant, but thinking the better of it – it seemed his message had already sunk through.
The woman before him was clearly shaken, and was staring up at him with wide, familiarly fearful eyes. Like how his opponents looked just before he took his killing slice. But there was no room in his heart for any compassion – the fact that she had openly admitted that she had used him only fuelled his anger further.
Too disgusted to even look at her, he turned away, his brow set in a deep and steely, unforgiving frown.
"Oi, Marimo – who the hell do you think you are, saying that to Nami-san?"
Sanji who had appeared out of the kitchen at the ruckus was literally leaping down the stairs towards them, expression livid.
Zoro had a hand was at his katana hold straight away – there would be no messing around if it came to a fight.
However, the cook, once reaching Zoro's vicinity simply brushed passed him – perhaps with unnecessary aggression – to reach the navigator, who he curled an arm around with measured care, checking to see the damage.
"Nami-san? Is the green-bastard upsetting you?"
To this Nami offered no reply, and simply stared blankly off to the side, though her eyes had moistened slightly and all concentration seemed to be focused on controlling that factor. She didn't even resist when Sanji pulled her in for a hug, instead numbly accepting it as she watched Zoro stalk further off, stretching the rope out between them.
Getting next to no response, Sanji turned viciously on Zoro, grinding his cigarette with a ghoulish animosity before grabbing the front of his shirt with great energy. "The hell are you doing, you shit-head, treating women like that?"
"It's none of your business, Cook," Zoro shot back, unsheathing his sword an inch with an eerily soft screech.
"You're making Nami-san unhappy – that's automatically my business."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, really."
Sanji had his leg raised threateningly over Zoro's shoulder – in turn Zoro moved his own katana to hover over the blonde's collarbone.
"Whoah, whoah, what's going on?" Usopp had already managed to scramble onboard and tried to squeeze himself between them, avoiding Sanji's leg and Zoro's sword with excessive caution. "Let's talk about this, first! C'mon!"
At the intervention, Nami seemed to snap back to her senses and rushed over (as fast as her leg would allow – which was not very fast) to assist, shoving Zoro backwards – and when that didn't work – coaxing Sanji away. "Don't, Sanji-kun! Stop it!"
"Oi, Zoro! Calm down!" persisted Usopp, literally dragging the swordsman to the side. "It's not worth it!"
After a few more persuasions, Sanji reluctantly agreed to let it go, though protectively stuck beside Nami, still staring daggers at her roommate.
"Just leave it," Nami warned him, though she was silently glad for his company. She had been deeply shocked by Zoro's change of attitude to the point of fear – in fact she dreaded Sanji and Usopp's departure.
"If he ever gives you a cross word about anything, let me know," Sanji muttered, with darting side-glances at the swordsman who was glaring unwaveringly in their direction. "Hear that, you shitty Marimo? If I hear you're making Nami upset again, you're a dead man!"
"Ahh?"
"Don't provoke him!" exclaimed Usopp, who was once again trying to wrestle his crewmate to a safe distance.
"And you're okay?" asked Sanji with a genuine concern, both hands gripping Nami's shoulders as if for confirmation. "I mean, seriously, if there's anything wrong, just let me know and…"
But Nami was already nodding for what seemed like the tenth time in the period of a minute, so he sighed, hiding a worried smile.
"If you're absolutely sure. I have to finish off dinner, so I'll leave it to you, Usopp." He passed one final, threatening look in Zoro's direction before brushing by him quite purposefully and climbing the stairs to the kitchen.
"Ehh? Me?" Usopp said a little shakily, eyes darting fearfully between the two roommates, who were eyeing each other uneasily.
"I'm going inside," Zoro mumbled and was already striding towards the bedroom as he said this, apparently unconcerned that Nami was being yanked into obedience behind him by the rope.
With a final, desperate look at Usopp, Nami stumbled after, stomach unsettled at the thought of spending the rest of the day alone with the swordsman and the repercussions it could possibly bring.
A/n:
Oh no!
I actually planned to get more into this chapter…but it turned out pretty long so…_
What did I tell you! I proper Nami/Zoro fight again!
Can't say Nami didn't deserve it, though.
Zoro: Damn straight.
Nami: We will never be on speaking terms again, you know that?
Me: But the show must go on!
Nami: Then it'll go on without me. I quit.
Zoro: Suit yourself.
Nami: I will
Zoro: Good.
Nami: Fine.
*slamming of door*
Me: What are you doing? You just lost us our romantic lead!
Zoro: And that's bad, how…?
Me: ….It isn't. Technically I can always get Sanji to fill in instead….
Zoro: =_=…...HEY NAMI! WAIT – COME BACK!
Me: And so there a resolution.
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