Chapter 9

The warm air swept past the three allies, as they stepped out of the car. As soon as the final door was slammed shut, a man in a suit came to greet them. Well, not so much as 'greet', but ordered them to follow him. Not quite the welcoming party they had all been expecting. Each in their own way was nervous somewhat. There was Luffy, who didn't feel terribly comfortable about the whole back-stabbing an old friend situation. Then there was Zoro, who was silently praying to god that this would all go as smoothly as possible. Lastly was Nami, who was worried that her hair might be a strand out of place. Walking through marble halls, the three entered the ultimate contemporary home. There, centred in the midst of it all, sat quite casually, a skinny blonde, fag drooping from the side of his mouth. With a word from the suited man, the blonde turned around wearing a large grin on his face. Standing, he jaunted up to them, and took Luffy in a tight embrace.

"Luffy!" taking a step back, Sanji took the boy's face in his hands, and observed it, "God, you've grown up over the past few years!"

"So have you," ruffling his nose against Sanji's, he tickled the small patch of hair on his chin. This caused the drug baron to giggle, almost femininely. At least, that's what Zoro thought. As he watched the two, his face contorted into a nasty grimace, which Sanji seemed to catch on to.

"Hey man! Didn't know you felt left out," with a small hack from his throat, Zoro was squeezed into a hug by the surprisingly strong man, "I hope that you'll enjoy your stay." He whispered into Zoro's ear, nipping at the earlobe before moving on to Nami, "Hello there. You are quite a lady."

With a giggle, Nami deliberately placed a blush on her cheeks and lifted her shoulders into a slight shrug, "Why, thank you."

Sanji chortled a little, on taking another long look at the green haired man, who had the most amusing look upon his face.

"Please, come sit."

Placing an arm around Luffy and Zoro, Nami could only follow behind, arms crossed and huffing. "What the hell is this! Is this guy gay or something!" Nami laughed at the thought in her head, and put on a cheery face as she sat down on the sofa. To her great displeasure, Luffy sat beside her, while Sanji had ushered Zoro to the opposing sofa. No matter how much he tried, Zoro couldn't avoid making bodily contact with the blonde. He had never felt so awkward in his whole life!

"So tell me Luffy," he ran his eyes up and down Zoro's body, who was looking anywhere but at him, "Who's this cute little friend of yours?"

"Cute? Did he just call me cute!" Zoro sat as still as a statue, as he felt fingers making circles on his hand, "…oh…shit…"

"His name's Zoro," Luffy grinned.

If Zoro was worried before, only god knew what he felt at that moment. Apart from the fact he had been called 'cute' by Sanji, Luffy didn't even disagree. What did that mean? Could it be…

"I'm Nami," she stretched across the table, hand outstretched, desperate for some attention.

Looking from her hand to her face then back again, Sanji snorted, focusing his attention back to Zoro, "Yeah lady. Now Zoro, what did you say you do for a living?"

"Eh!"

Leering, Luffy pulled Nami back down to her seat, which he was given a glare for, "He's a male stripper. That's how we met."

"Eh!"

Even Nami was gob-smacked now.

"Oh yeah?" Zoro felt a hand pry at his shirt, "Maybe you'd like to give me a demonstration sometime."

"Eep!" he slapped away the hand, but it returned with a vengeance, stroking the curves of his chest.

"Ah, you're the quiet type then eh? I like that." The scent of smoke descended upon him, as Sanji slid up close, leaving the helpless cop with nowhere to run.

Growling at the back of her throat, the red head clenched her fists, jealous of Zoro being felt up by the hottie to his left. There was nothing in the job description about a gay guy, (a hot one might I add), flirting with her co-worker! Usually, she'd use her charms on men to lure them in before putting them behind bars. Basically, it all meant that she was useless, unable to do a darn thing. However, in the back of her mind, she figured that if she was of no use, she could still have fun.

"That's right!" she said, throwing a leg over another and twisting her hair playfully, "I'm one of the bar hands at the strip club. It would be an understatement to say he is admired by most of the guys who go there."

"I'm sure," Sanji purred, backing off from Zoro ever so slightly, but making sure his hand rested upon a firm thigh.

Scratching the back of his head, Luffy looked about the room and asked, "Got any food around here? I'm starved!"

Laughing and making sure he gave Zoro's thigh a good slap, Sanji grinned at his friend, "Yeah, sure I do. I still don't know how you keep that figure of yours Luffy! If I ate like you, I'd be the size of a whale!"

Even Zoro couldn't help but laugh a bit, even though he was uncomfortable with the hand on his person. He never was one for bodily contact, and some from a guy he only knew from some nasty looking case files, didn't help him at all. A guy! Yeah, he'd had a couple of woman flirting with him before which he could handle, but this was a first, and hopefully a last! Unless…

No, he refused to let his mind wonder down that path. It was off limits! Things were hard enough as it is! Every day that went by, meant one less day to be with him.

"MEEEEEEEEEEEAT!" bellowed Luffy, sounding like he hadn't eaten any for years. As the black haired teen munched away at the tender meat, Zoro was surprised that he wasn't disgusted by his unsavoury eating habits. In fact. He thought it made him look kinda…adorable. It was like, the sloppy eating was just another part of Luffy's personality, the sort of thing a person would wither love or hate. To be honest, he'd grown fond of it, even though they hadn't been together for very long. Mockingly, Zoro thought to himself that he was making things sound like they were a couple. The whole thing sounded ridiculous. He had no idea why he was even thinking about the subject.

If all this was so, why was he doubting himself?

Sorry for the long wait folks, blame my lack of inspiration (for life in general). Things have sucked just a tiddy widdy bit. Yeah, you guys aaaall now what I mean I'm sure. A good thing though, is that I managed to get through my college interview, so I'm starting up 4th Sept. I'll do my best to get this completed before then, since I have most of the chapters written up already.

Right now, my mum and aunt (who so happens to live right next door) are off on holiday to watch motorbike racing (yeah!), so me and my sis have to house sit two houses! On top of that, my other relatives are away to Turkey, so I have to look after their place and their birds while they're gone too. I was gonna use their internet connection, but they've taken the whole f'ing lot down. I hate them! And my hamster just died today, so kinda pissed about that too. Meh.

So please keep reviewing, I might even start replying personally to them (so lazy, I should be doing that already!). I'll try guys. Luv ya'll!