Finally! I got my mega-slow ass in gear and finished this up! Let me tell you, I think this chapter is pretty frikkin' awesome. I'm not one to brag, but... I totally ROCK!
Several times during this chapter, I felt like you could read it, though... I haven't posted it until now, but, I could just picture the reviews I might get for certain scenes that you will read in the near future! *winkwink* And, without further ado- The (hopefully) well-anticipated tenth chapter!
"Do you think they've seen us?"
"You guys, we can't fight the Marines here!"
"We can kick their asses any time any place!"
"Someone send that idiot back to bed!"
"There's another port on the other side of the island... Maybe we can go there?"
"Brilliant, Nami-swan~! Hoist the anchor, assholes."
Almost everyone was on deck, with the exception of Luffy, who was being led to his hammock by Ussop. The marine ship was very far away, merely a speck to the naked eye, but in no time they would be close enough to spot the Merry's unique bow. The lights in the city had gone off, though, giving them a fighting chance of not being spotted as they made their escape to the other port.
Zoro was stuck pulling up the anchor, cursing all the while. The marines just had fucking wonderful timing, those bastards. He was just starting to doze off, damn them. It was just fucking wrong. Why couldn't their damn 'justice' wait until daytime? The bastards. If they had been sighted, Zoro wouldn't mind kicking a few dozen asses.
The ship started to coast along slowly, being pushed by the waves. "Don't open the sail, it'll give us away!" Nami ordered, unraveling a map of the island. Sanji, who had started up the mast nodded. "Hai~ Nami-san." He said, smiling at her as he climbed up into the crow's nest. Ussop had abandoned the binoculars up there, after all, and someone needed to keep an eye on the marine ship, in case it showed any signs of pursuing them.
Sanji wiped the sleep from his eyes before holding up the binoculars in the general direction of the marine ship. He squinted and blinked, trying to focus on the ship. It looked like it had been through hell and back. He couldn't decide if that was a good sign or a bad one. The railing was broken up and it looked like the mast might've been patched up. The sails had tears in them and Sanji could swear it looked like the ship was lopsided. Definitely weird, but not necessarily dangerous.
"Looks like they've had some action pretty recently." Sanji called down, briefly glancing away from the marine ship to look down at Nami and Robin inspecting the map. Ussop appeared again out of the men's room. "That could be good! Maybe they'll just surrender?" Ussop suggested, looking hopeful. Zoro snorted at Ussop as he passed him. "Whatever. Let's just attack them head-on." Zoro said, thudding over to the side of the ship where the marine ship was most visible.
"You seem to be forgetting that we had some recent action, too!" Nami snapped, gesturing widely to the ship that looked like it had been ransacked by a bear. Zoro raised an eyebrow at her. "So what? I could take them." He said dangerously.
"If I wasn't afraid they'd break on your hard head, I'd throw these at you." Sanji called down, waving the binoculars where Zoro could see them. "Shut up, ero-cook! I just think-"
"Oh, God..." Ussop groaned, helpfully. Zoro glared at him as he continued, "I just think it would be better to beat those bastards and be done with it."
Robin shook her head. "Swordsman-san, I believe that would be very foolish. After all, last time did not go so well... perhaps we should avoid a fight where we can?" It sounded like a suggestion, but Zoro knew everyone else would agree with her. In the middle of the night, only a day or two after crazy stuff happened, he shouldn't feel so up to a fight as he did, but he couldn't help what he thought.
The Merry was slowly inching along the shoreline of the island, taking the route on the right side; because that was a little closer to the other port than if they went left. The clear view of the city disappeared behind a smattering of trees that became thicker as they sailed further around the island. The tree line receded further back into the island and the few feet of sand took up the space given by the trees. Zoro vaguely remembered crossing that area earlier in the night.
Sharp, jagged rocks grew out of the sand, eventually taking over the shoreline as they floated on, Chopper and Ussop rowing one oar and Zoro rowing the other, while Nami and Robin navigated and Sanji kept watch. "They're still heading straight... I don't think they've seen us. Seem to be in a bit of a hurry, though." Sanji mused, mostly to himself. No one replied or commented, but they didn't have to. They were already doing their jobs.
The cook squinted through the binoculars at a form standing on the foremost point of the marine ship. It was dark, and he could only just make out the person's outline, with help from the few on-deck lanterns. The figure looked drenched and Sanji wondered why he would be out there. Obviously, the man wasn't a mere deckhand, if Sanji were to go on his outfit. It was relatively formal-looking, white and pristine, aside from whatever was soaking it.
"Sanji, what's going on? You haven't said anything in a while." Ussop observed. Sanji startled out of his thoughts and looked down. Robin and Nami were looking up at him expectantly. "Oh, uh... forgive me, Nami-san, Robin-chwan, just... lost in thought. I only see one guy on the foredeck... he's just standing at the bow, not moving." Sanji reported, glancing through the binoculars again and seeing the figure was still in the same spot.
"That's weird. He's gonna catch a cold." Chopper said, sounding concerned. "My heart breaks for him and all, Chopper, but I don't think he'll accept your health advice." Sanji called down, without looking away from the solitary shadow. Chopper mumbled something that may have been a reply, but Sanji didn't hear it.
"Any other ships?" Nami asked, her heels thunking against the wood as she crossed the deck. Sanji looked left and right over the black water and hummed. Suddenly, he spotted it, a slightly smaller, and damaged-looking marine ship. "Oh! One other ship and it's in worse shape. Little smaller, too."
Something struck him odd about those ships and Sanji lowered the binoculars to frown at the ships. He couldn't figure out what it was before they'd floated far enough around the island that trees and sharp black rocks blocked their view of the ships. Sanji cursed under his breath and climbed down onto the deck. He shook his head for everyone to see, saying, "Can't see them anymore."
Half the crew sighed with relief and any and all urgency to get to the other side of the island faded significantly. The Merry still rocked steadily forward on the waves, but Nami relaxed and Ussop and Chopper abandoned their oar. Robin and Zoro, however, seemed to be on-guard still. "What's wrong, Robin-chwan?" Sanji asked.
The archaeologist blinked at him and then smiled slightly. "Nothing gets past you, Cook-san." She said kindly. "I... am not sure why I would feel this way, but I believe we are not yet in the clear." Sanji was confused, but, thinking about it, he realized he had a similar feeling about the situation. "Mm. Yeah, I think so, too." Sanji said, nodding.
"Will you two shut up!" Ussop shouted, pulling at his hair. "Don't friggin' jinx it! You never mention the bad feeling or bad stuff actually happens!" The long nose ranted, knees shaking slightly. Sanji thought he was just making a mountain out of a molehill, but that's what sleep deprivation does to people, he decided.
"What's going on? Can I get out of bed yet?" Luffy called from below, making most everyone jump. They'd almost forgotten he was even awake, since he had been so quiet up until then. "Uh, sure. Come to the sitting area in the galley, please." Chopper said, trotting over to the door and letting Luffy out of the men's room.
"Phew! Can there be a fight now? I wanna fight. Please let me fight?" Luffy babbled, seeking the doctor's approval. Chopper shook his head, frowning. "No, nobody's going to fight, remember? We're avoiding the marines for the time being."
Luffy pouted dramatically as Chopper steered him towards the kitchen. "Aww~! Well, if I can't fight, then that damn cat sure as hell can't!" Luffy grumbled crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out at something unseen. As Chopper pushed Luffy into the kitchen, he told him that the cat would not be fighting for much longer.
Sanji just shook his head at them, even after the door swung shut behind them. Luffy was really out of it. Despite the physical ability to be up and about, he was not fit to be. Sanji wondered how long it would be before their Captain was better, then he remembered Chopper's original diagnosis, through Robin's mouth, heavy as it had been the first time; "About a month."
The cook sighed and went for a cigarette, thinking of earlier that evening, when he had had to search for his cigarettes. This time, though, he had the carton in his pocket, right off hand. For whatever reason, Sanji felt that it was some sort of a sign, and not necessarily a good one. But, he wasn't any kind of authority on the matter of omens, so he just shrugged and lit up.
Zoro took the long way around to go to bed, so that no one would accuse him of being lazy. Which, he wasn't; he was just tired. He went down through the hatch in the storage room to the girls' room and through the door in the wall to the men's room from there, making sure to close both hatches behind himself.
The swordsman purposely left his weapons attached to his haramaki so that if and when the marines grew a brain, (A solitary, singular brain for the lot of them), and figured out that the Straw hats were, in fact, on the same island as them, he would be ready.
Zoro fell into a hammock sideways, settling in on top of a blanket somebody had left there. He closed his eyes and sighed through his nose and emptied his mind. But, that didn't last long.
He kept picturing something that he was sure he wasn't supposed to be thinking about, especially when they were in such a tight situation what with the marines so close by. He kept thinking of Sanji's grin from earlier, his soft voice when Zoro had apologized. His short, content laugh before he'd fallen asleep. Zoro didn't know why, but he just couldn't stop his brain. His thoughts paired with a painful feeling somewhere in his chest made him think it was shame. He shouldn't have apologized.
He could hear Sanji's laugh again and again and his chest tightened further. He turned over in the hammock and buried his face in the pillow, shaking his head to try and make the sound go away. All it did was start him on creating an image to go along with the gentle voice and the laugh. Nothing he thought of seemed right, though.
Zoro ground his teeth together and tossed and turned, trying to just go to sleep and tell his mind to shut up. But, that didn't work. He could've kicked his stupid brain for thinking stupid irrelevant things. He only wanted to go below deck to sleep, not to be alone with the echoes of thoughts that he didn't ever want to think. The World's Greatest Swordsman wasn't supposed to spare a single non-violent thought towards the World's Most Annoying Ero-Cook.
Zoro sighed, realizing his mind had started to calm slightly. He could feel the blackness reverberating around inside his skull as thoughts of Sanji faded and whatever had been tight in his chest unfurled. He was initially relieved, but something in him started to miss the ache. Zoro ignored it and focused on keeping his mind empty, like he did during training. It wasn't ideal, but it worked.
He slept peacefully for a while, in his favorite kind of sleep; light, still partially alert sleep. It was nice, dreamless, just the way he wanted it to be. Then, he could hear something. It caused images to pop up in his mind to go along with the partial conversation he was hearing. Zoro was looking through binoculars, seeing a good place to hide the ship. He saw the sun was starting to come up, heard that breakfast would be started in a minute.
Zoro opened his eyes as if he hadn't just been sleeping. He could barely see straight, but he sat up anyway. He wasn't exactly sure why he woke up, but he figured he'd slept long enough. Zoro didn't know what time it was when he went to sleep, so, he could only guess that he'd been sleeping for about three hours, judging by the sun.
The hatch opened before Zoro could fully swing his legs over the edge of the hammock, and Ussop peeked down. He barely glanced at Zoro, instead looking past him, and then he let the hatch drop quietly. "Luffy's still asleep. Oh, and Zoro's in there."
The swordsman looked over his shoulder at the sleeping lump of red and blue that was the Captain. He hadn't remembered about Luffy being sent to bed. Oh, well. Zoro slipped out of his hammock, noticing that he'd slept in his boots and deciding to take them off. The second his first empty boot hit the floor, the hatch opened again.
Shiny black shoes stepped down the ladder carefully, revealing long black legs and hands in pockets, an immaculate blue pinstripe shirt, and finally a curtain of blonde hair. Zoro wasn't sure why he paid so much attention, but the cook kept him from thinking too hard on it by speaking. "Oi. Get your lazy-ass, moss ball-self into the kitchen! You're gonna help clean up."
Zoro glared at him. "Why do I have to? I didn't fucking do anything!" Zoro defended, pulling off his other boot and relatively throwing it to the ground. Sanji narrowed his eyes at Zoro, raising a curly eyebrow. "Because, the kitchen was invaded by a certain Monkey last night, while I was out rescuing your sorry ass. Therefore, as I see it, you are partially at fault." Sanji stated, blandly.
"Nobody asked you to come get me, shit-cook!" Zoro growled, minding his volume a bit when Luffy snorted in his sleep from somewhere behind him. Sanji sucked in a breath through his teeth and his hand jerked towards his head suddenly, his expression pained.
Zoro slid out of the hammock and towards Sanji, reaching out as if there were something he could really do. The blonde put up a hand to stop him and shook it fiercely. His head was hung, but he could still look at Zoro, grimacing. Sanji looked like he was going to say something, but he just ground his teeth together and stomped out. The feeling in Zoro's chest resurfaced and he took a step towards following the cook when a thought passed through his mind.
What the hell was he doing?
He couldn't do anything to help Sanji's head, so, why? Certainly, he didn't feel bad? No, he was fairly certain he didn't even pity the cook, let alone sympathize. He wouldn't follow him. Because, after all, cleaning up the kitchen wasn't his job, since he hadn't asked the blonde to come after him, leaving the kitchen unattended. He wasn't curious, he didn't even care. Not even a little bit.
Zoro sat back down on the edge of the hammock and stared at the hatch. He felt like he couldn't breathe all of the sudden, like the twisting in his chest had curled around his lungs. He wasn't sure why it did that. Suddenly, he felt exhausted and like he couldn't sleep at the same time. He didn't know what to do, then. He'd never felt any of those things before. Zoro didn't know what to do about it, but he certainly knew who to blame.
Sanji swallowed the last few sips of his tea and felt the ache in his head receding. The second he felt that stabbing pain, he decided that he knew the cause. It wasn't necessarily, Zoro, even though it was always caused by him. It just happened when he got irritated. Like really pissed off.
The pain in his head was reduced to a dull thudding; nothing he couldn't handle. Sanji glanced around at the kitchen and sighed. It was going to be a long day. Perishable items were strewn everywhere, spilled, wasted, and unusable. Drawers of silverware and such were abruptly dumped, out of the middle of nothing. Several bottles of good expensive wine were lying around, two of them broken and leaking. It made him want to weep.
He took a breath and prepared himself for a very long day, running on very little sleep. He bent down to pick up a container of a meat and rice dish that was meant to be someone's lunch when the door opened forcefully. Hearing the heavy, angry footsteps, Sanji decided he didn't need to look up. He knew who it was and, even though he was surprised that Zoro decided to come help him, he wasn't going to make a fuss.
Suddenly, Sanji was yanked up by the front of his shirt and pushed back into the stove top. He looked up with wide eyes, staring at Zoro's enraged face. "Wha-"
"What are you doing to me?" Zoro growled, shaking Sanji violently and causing his eyes to widen further. The blonde shook his head and started stumbling over his response, but Zoro silenced him by pushing him again so that his back hit the counter.
The cook winced at the impact and glared at Zoro. "What the hell are you going on about? I didn't do anything, bastard!" Sanji spat, trying to pry the fist off his previously-wrinkle-free shirt. "Let go of me, stupid moss!" Sanji shouted, kicking Zoro in the leg as best he could, whilst also being pinned to the countertop.
Zoro barely seemed to register the blow, instead getting in Sanji's face. "I don't know what you did, but it's messing me up! Stop it, or I'll chop your skinny ass into pieces!" Zoro threatened, his voice low. Sanji had heard many threats before, especially from Zoro, but it seemed much more uncalled for in the situation that he was in. He hadn't done anything, he was absolutely sure. Why the hell would Zoro blame him for something he hadn't done?
"I didn't do anything, fucking Marimo, but if you don't get the hell away from me fast, I'm going to change that." Sanji countered setting his jaw and bracing his hands on the countertop. If Zoro wanted a fight, Sanji would give him one. Or, two. Or, nine.
Zoro was seething, his breathing getting harder and his mouth about to throw out another insult or threat, but then he just stopped. His eyes were no longer glaring holes through Sanji's eyes, which surprised the cook, because Zoro didn't have any kind of problem with eye-contact. But, he was looking elsewhere. He'd stopped breathing and the fist curled in Sanji's shirt loosened slightly. Sanji was sure he must be having some sort of mental episode and was about to try to get the swordsman away from him, when Zoro started breathing again suddenly and dropped his hand from Sanji's shirt.
"Goddamn it, Zoro, what the hell's wrong with you?" Sanji groaned, looking at the mess where he'd, apparently, though he hadn't noticed it happen, dropped the container of meat and rice. The grains of rice had spread themselves to the far corners of the earth, it seemed, and the meat somehow managed to splatter every which-way.
Sanji looked back to Zoro and was startled by his closeness. "What the-? Back up, idiot." Sanji ordered, pushing Zoro's solid shoulders. He hardly budged at all, almost like he was leaning into the touch. "Will you just-!" Sanji started, frustrated and overcome by the need to clean up his kitchen.
Zoro was looking off somewhere, frowning, apparently not having heard a word Sanji was saying. His fists were clenched at his sides, his right hand intermittently opening and flexing toward his swords before returning to his side. "... 'M sorry." Zoro bit out, turning abruptly and stalking around the room like he didn't know where to go.
Sanji took a deep breath of Zoro-less air and pushed off of the counter. "Whatever. Grab a broom, shitty-swordsman." Sanji huffed, feeling an odd sense of disappointment. He had wanted to fight, he supposed. He hadn't thought he had wanted to fight, but it'd been a while since their last knock-down drag-out brawl.
Zoro didn't grumble about being insulted, or even about having to clean up. He just picked up the broom from one corner of the kitchen and got to work sweeping up all the spilled food, carefully avoiding the puddles of wine and piles of eating utensils. Sanji stared for a minute, completely baffled by everything Zoro had been doing recently, before he took to putting away the bottles of wine and cleaning up the liquid spills from the floor.
"You're surprisingly good at cleaning up messes. For a plant, anyway." Sanji commented, watching Zoro dump the dirt-covered, wasted food into the trash. Zoro turned to glare at him and Sanji just grinned. It was a compliment, after all, not meant to be taken as an insult, even if it was disguised as one. Zoro stared at him a second, looking to be caught between confused and offended. "Che." Zoro scoffed, sweeping up another pile of rice.
Sanji shook his head at the swordsman as he finished sopping up the wine mess and wringing out the mop in the sink. The cook picked up all the silverware and dumped it in the sink, creating an awful clattering sound. Zoro glanced over at him, pausing briefly in his sweeping. Sanji guessed he was startled by the sound, so, he shrugged in a vaguely apologetic manner and turned back to the task at hand.
Washing all the forks and spoons and knives took nearly an hour. Zoro had stayed in the kitchen the whole time, even though it didn't take nearly as long to wipe up a bunch of rice. He hadn't offered to help with anything else, which was irksome, but Sanji already figured he wouldn't get much help out of Zoro. He was almost to the point of sending him away if it weren't for his own need to figure Zoro out.
That scene earlier plagued Sanji's mind, causing him to look over his shoulder at Zoro. He had to admit, he was a little scared at that time. Mostly because Zoro was too close for him to land any effective blows, but also because the swordsman seemed out of his head. Sanji knew Zoro was strange, but randomly accusing the cook of doing something, that neither of them knew what it was, nonetheless, and then threatening him? It just didn't add up.
Sanji would've asked the swordsman directly what was wrong, but he didn't want another outburst like earlier, so he kept his mouth shut. Honestly, Zoro usually had pretty dumb and obvious reasons for the stupid stuff he did, but Sanji couldn't see this one. He wracked his brain in search of some wisp of a recollection of accidentally kicking one of Zoro's swords while it was lying on the ground, or making an especially cruel comment on his fighting skills, or something, but he couldn't think of anything. Nothing recent, anyway. If it was something a day old or older, he would kick Zoro's ass for bringing it up when he did, the way he did.
A creak in the wood made Sanji look over at Zoro again as he started working on breakfast. Zoro was lying flat on his back on one of the benches at the table, arms crossed over his chest, eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed. Sanji raised a curly eyebrow at him. "You better not be sleeping at my kitchen table." He threatened, putting a pan on the stove less-than-gently for *Tamagoyaki.
A muscle in Zoro's arm twitched and the corners of his mouth turned down into a frown. "It's not just your kitchen, shitty-cook." Zoro growled, readjusting slightly, but not opening his eyes.
"It is since I'm the one who cooks in here, cleans in here, works in here... Hell, I should sleep in here," Sanji said, shrugging. "You, on the other hand, don't have the right. If you're gonna go to sleep, sleep below deck."
"I can sleep wherever the hell I want to." Zoro argued, crossing his arms more firmly, but still not opening his eyes.
Sanji didn't reply. He could feel the rhythmic stabbing behind his right eye that signaled the start of a headache and he had to stop himself from just snapping at Zoro until he left the kitchen. The tolerable stabbing became a painful pounding as Sanji started thinking that Zoro never listened to him, and that he just wanted to piss Sanji off. The cook steadied himself on the counter and took deep breaths but it wasn't helping.
-~Switching~-
Zoro cracked an eye open to look at the suspiciously-quiet cook. He was just standing there, head down, hands gripping the counter so hard his knuckles were white. "Shit... shit!" Sanji cursed, his rigid frame becoming even more still than it had been. After a long couple of moments, Sanji started breathing heavily.
The feeling resurfaced in Zoro's chest, leaping up from his feet and into the back of his throat. Zoro stood and went over to Sanji before he really knew what he was doing, or even what he was going to do. "Oi! Wh-"
"Justgetthehellout!" Sanji slurred, gesturing violently towards the door. The mystery feeling swirled around in Zoro's gut at hearing that, causing his jaw to tighten and his frown to deepen. "Tell me where the stuff Chopper gave you is." Zoro ordered in a relatively level voice.
Sanji's knees started to shake and he sunk down to the ground, holding his head such that Zoro couldn't see his face. "You have to tell me what to do so I can fucking help you, idiot!" Zoro said, considerably less calm than he had been a moment ago.
The cook made a sound like a pained laugh. "Ialreadydid!" He hissed through his teeth, curling in on himself. Zoro was about to argue, but then he recalled what Sanji had said; "Justgetthehellout!"
Zoro sprang up from where he had been kneeling beside the cook, even though he didn't remember getting there in the first place, and darted out the door. He called for Chopper and everyone looked at him, but nobody said anything as Chopper hurried into the kitchen, backpack in tow, quickly followed by Zoro.
Chopper flew to Sanji's side and put his hooves over Sanji's hands on his head. "What happened?" Chopper asked, sounding very professional and serious as he dug through his bag. Zoro shook his head. "I have no idea. The shitty-cook just started holding his head like that!" Zoro gestured towards Sanji and Chopper gave him a disapproving look, before turning back to his bag and pulling out a glass jar of herbs.
Sanji whispered something that Zoro couldn't hear from his spot by the door and Chopper's eyes widened. The doctor's head snapped in Zoro's direction and he frowned. "Leave, now!" He ordered. Zoro started to dispute, but Chopper shouted, "NOW!"
Left with no room to argue, Zoro exited the room with one last look at the blonde head bowed in pain. He felt like breaking something. A lot of things. He thought he should leave the ship and go do some intensive training to regain control over his temper, but the crew intercepted him before he could leave.
"What's going on? Is Sanji-kun okay?"
"Zoro, you d-d-didn't k-k-k-ki-i-ill him, d-d-did you?"
Robin stood back behind the other two, silent, but still asking just as much.
Zoro narrowed his eyes at them. "I don't know." He said venomously, glaring a bit. "Something with his head, something none of us can see or help." Zoro turned to Ussop and his expression evened out into a dark fury. "And, what makes you think I killed him?" He asked, challengingly.
The long nose gulped and stuttered until he finally settled for scurrying off to hide somewhere. Nami huffed at Zoro, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him. "My God, you're awful. You don't know? How could you not know? Didn't you ask him? Or Chopper?"
Zoro side-stepped Nami and ducked down into the men's room to retrieve his boots. The navigator yelled about him not walking away from her when she was interrogating him, something about a heavy fine, but he wasn't paying much attention. He needed to get away.
"Because you got upset?" Chopper asked, interrupting Sanji's explanation. The blonde nodded, holding his head with one hand and holding himself up with the other. "Yeah. Zoro wasn't helping me, and then we were arguing and my head started pounding."
The little reindeer nodded, looking like there was something he wanted to say, but instead he just mixed up an herbal tea for Sanji. The cook noticed Chopper's expression and asked, "What's on your mind?"
The doctor began to deny that he was thinking about anything of importance, but he ended up blurting out what he had been thinking of; "What were you arguing about? I mean, if it was serious enough to... incapacitate you, I would like to know what it was."
Sanji took a deep breath and frowned. "It wasn't necessarily... the argument. Of course I was pissed at him for arguing with me, but the worst part came from my own thoughts..." Sanji trailed off as Chopper handed him the steaming cup of tea. The cook swallowed a large amount of tea in one gulp and sighed. The herbs weren't helping very much.
Chopper gave him a questioning look, hoping he would continue, but Sanji closed his eyes and gave a small but determined shake of his head. He wasn't going to say. The doctor frowned. "I could probably help you more, if I knew-"
"No. It really isn't possible. Besides, you're already being so helpful. You needn't worry about me, I'll be fine." Sanji said, smiling. His head was still pulsing painfully, but the herbal assistance did help him a bit. It was exactly what he needed so that he could get breakfast done and go take a nap.
The doctor finished his hovering a few minutes later, after inquiring about his scratches and his head three more times. As Chopper made to leave the kitchen, Sanji stopped him with a request; "I'm sure that damn swordsman's gone off somewhere to pout and fume, but, if you see him, could you send him to me, please?"
"Uh, s-sure...?" Chopper said, pausing in the doorway just long enough to catch Sanji's smile and his head shaking. Something was definitely up.
After six hours of business-as-usual around the ship, Sanji decided Zoro wasn't going to turn up any time soon, so, he left the ship with a pocket full of money. It was early in the afternoon, still, and he had some serious shopping to do after the kitchen raid. Plus, he could look for Zoro.
He did have his reasons, but even the ones he'd decided were good enough to go on were a little hazy. Sanji knew he had to ask Zoro about what happened that morning, whether or not he felt like being the target of a possibly-violent psychotic meltdown. He did have some explaining to do himself, anyway. He didn't know why, but he felt like things would get better if Zoro knew how and why Sanji's headaches triggered. Maybe he would even care enough to avoid pissing the cook off.
The path to town was a good bit longer from their new position at the back of the island. It took Sanji at least ten minutes of walking on a boarded path to come across the lamps that were so easily seen on the other side of the island, and another five minutes after that to see any buildings whatsoever. The first few buildings he saw were interspersed between thick patches of ivy-covered trees, and all of them were little houses. It was such a quiet area, he kept wondering if he had accidentally gone to a different island.
Sanji couldn't hear the town yet, even though he was sure business must be in full swing. He couldn't imagine the island being big enough, the town being far away enough, for him not to be able to hear anything. He couldn't even hear people or birds or insects. Not a thing, except for the waves.
Suddenly, Sanji was jerked to the side by his sleeve, causing him to fall through a thick curtain of ivy and land heavily against a tree trunk. Before he could do anything, a hand was placed over his mouth and a quiet voice breathed into his ear; "Shh. The marines are close by."
The cook rolled his eyes, pulling the hand away from his mouth. "I swear to God, I will kill you, you fucking bastard." Sanji threatened, trying to turn around and realizing there was an arm around his waist, too.
Zoro shifted behind Sanji, keeping a hold around his midsection and a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me; you want to wait them out." He whispered. A moment later, heavy, frequent footsteps stomped past, accompanied by shouting of orders. "I think they know we're here."
Sanji pushed away from Zoro and tried to get out of the little tree-cave they were in. "Let go! We have to warn the others and move the ship!"
"Shh! Just, listen to them, okay?" Zoro hissed, clamping his hand over Sanji's mouth again and holding it there with crushing strength. The footsteps thundered past again and came to a halt not three feet away from where they were hidden. "Anything?" An angry, severe sounding voice. "Nothing, sir, not yet, sir!" A scared-sounding, weak voice stated formally.
A horrible growling sound caused Sanji to jump and Zoro held onto him tighter, telling him to just listen. "Find those little shits! They couldn't have gotten far! The storm ripped everything apart, and they don't even have a ship!" And, with that, the footsteps trampled away again, leaving an echoing silence behind them.
The cook's eyebrows drew together. Don't have a...? He turned his head towards Zoro, barely spotting him out of the corner of his eye. Sanji pointed to the hand over his mouth and shook his head and Zoro let go of him. "They think we don't have a ship? And, somehow, they think it's possible to survive a storm like that without a ship?" Sanji questioned quietly and Zoro nodded.
"I don't know why they think that, but it works to our advantage." Zoro said, shrugging slightly. Sanji smirked. "Yeah, it kind of does. Well, it'll make it harder to go shop... but, we should be able to handle it." Sanji commented, happy that at least one thing hadn't gone horribly wrong.
"We will still have to tell the others, though, as soon as they move on from this place." Zoro said, craning his neck to look around the ivy. Sanji agreed and tried to take a step forward, realizing then that Zoro still had his arm around Sanji's waist. Sanji almost mentioned it, but Zoro pulled his arm away quickly, causing Sanji to look up at him with a confused expression. The swordsman looked like he'd just been caught singing at the top of his lungs.
"What the hell?" Sanji asked. "Am I that disgusting?"
Zoro's mouth opened and closed several times, an uncharacteristic speechlessness taking him over. Sanji frowned at him and tossed aside the ivy curtain. "Whatever. I've got shopping to do, so you should get back to the ship and tell the others about the marines." Sanji said, without looking back or even stopping.
Something in him said he shouldn't leave. He chalked it up to not wanting to encounter a bunch of angry marines, but he knew it had to be something else. He was as brave as they come, smart and strong, so, he sure as hell wasn't scared of the marines. So, what was giving him that weird feeling?
* Tamagoyaki - Literally 'fried egg'. It's an omelette! They actually look really nice, if you feel like looking up traditional Japanese breakfast.