"Mochi~!"
Zoro frowned and scowled when he heard Chas's voice interrupting his nice dream. Why was she bothering him? Wasn't there anything she could do on a nice sunny day, and when they were stopped on a nice, deserted, island too?
"Mochi, wake up!" Chas's voice said again.
This time Zoro was shaken and poked, but he refused to open his eye and see her staring at him. For some reason, just thinking that she was watching him right now made him feel uneasy.
"Zoro!" Chas was now whining, really wanting him to get up.
Never once had she said his name properly, until now. She had always called him by those stupid nicknames she always insisted on.
"We're getting attacks by Navy officers, wake up!" Chas shouted.
Zoro immediately sat up after that, but when he looked around there was no Navy officers, nor ships, anywhere in sight. He looked to Chas to see her smiling, confidently. "Great, yer awake!"
Zoro's eye flinched when she said that. "What do you want?"
Chas leaned forward, which made him feel even more uneasy then before. "I want you to teach me how to swim!"
"Eh?" That was all Zoro could say to that. She was an anchor, there was no way she could swim, ever. Well, unless there was a way to get rid of Devil Fruit abilities, but there isn't.
Zoro looked over Chas, seeing she was in her multicolored bikini and fully serious about wanting to swim.
"Go ask someone else," Zoro said, before turning his back towards Chas and getting comfortable again. Although, with his chest and stomach in knots again, he wasn't as comfortable as he hoped. Let alone his face was heating up which didn't help either.
"Not goin' to happen!" Chas said, rolling the swordsman over to look at her. "Everyone else is busy with other things. Yer the only one who's not doin' somethin'."
Zoro sighed and closed his eye again, not wanting to look at her anymore. "Then wait until they're not busy! I don't have time for this…"
"Yeah, ya do!" Chas said, pulling Zoro up by the collar, which surprised him greatly. "All ya do is lay on deck and sleep!"
Zoro glared at Chas and she glared right back. She wasn't going to back down, which meant he either ignored her the rest of the day or did as she asked, and ignoring her would be rather difficult.
"If I teach you, will you leave me alone?" Zoro asked with a sigh.
"Yes," Chas said, nodding. "I swear on my grave that I will leave you alone after I learn how to swim."
Zoro stood to his feet. "Good. Then let's get started."
Chas quickly got to her feet and cheered with glee. She hugged Zoro, thanking him multiple times for agreeing to teach her, but Zoro could have cared less about the thanks and hugs, he was just too frightened by her sudden amiability towards him.
"All right, what do we do first?" Chas asked.
"First…" Zoro picked up Chas, slinging her over his shoulder, and walked towards the edge of the ship.
"W-Wait! Put me down you damn swordsman!" Chas screamed, drawing attention from all the others on deck or somewhere nearby on the island's beach. "What are you doin'?!"
"First, you need to get used to the water," Zoro said. Zoro then threw Chas over the edge of the ship and into the water down below, shocking everyone who was watching.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Zoro?!" Usopp shouted with Chopper as they ran over to the edge of the ship to see Chas was laying in the water, eyes closed and mumbling about how tired she was already.
"How's you know the water wasn't that deep here?" Usopp questioned.
"I didn't," Zoro answered as he walked away, scratching his head with a yawn.
"You could have killed her!" the two shouted at the swordsman. Zoro simply shrugged and ignored the rest of the shouting.
Zoro now sat on the beach, watching as Chas continued to splash around in the water with, probably, the brightest smile he had seen on her face ever. But instead of making the green haired swordsman get all warm and fuzzy, it ticked him off.
Why'd I agree to this…? Zoro pondered to himself, scowling as he continued to watch the girl play around. Zoro sighed as he rested his chin on his palm. There goes my day of relaxation…
"Look, Mochi!" Chas shouted, waving to Zoro as she, sort of, paddled around. "I'm swimmin'! I'm actually swimmin'!"
"You're on a damn floaty!" Zoro shouted. "Of course you're able to swim with that thing!"
"So?" Chas frowned. "I'm still swimmin'!" Chas continued to splash and play around, until she began feeling her energy drain rather slowly and she was left lying on the floaty. "Ugh…so tired…"
Zoro simply rubbed his face and when he looked up when he heard laughing behind him.
"How's swimming practice?" Robin asked, crossing her arms with a large smile on her face.
Zoro's scowl deepened and he didn't say anything, until Sanji came up and said, "Why'd she ask you anyway?"
"Better than asking you, Ero-chef," Zoro said, smirking confidently.
Sanji took the platter he was holding and hit Zoro in the head with it. Thus, the usual arguing between them ensued, which soon turned into a fighting battle which ruined most of the beach. The only thing that stopped the two was when Chopper said, "Hey, where's Chas?"
Sanji, Zoro, and Robin turned their heads towards the water to see the purple floaty Chas had been using was now floating further and further away from the beach. Two people of the group were horrified when they saw this, but Zoro simply sighed again and scratched his head.
"I told her to stay away from the deep end of the water…" Zoro mumbled. Zoro expected this to continue happening the rest of the day, saying as she had fallen into the water more than her could remember. She just never listened.
"I'll get her," Sanji said, walking into the water and soon diving into the deep side to fetch Chas. It didn't take him more than a minute to get Chas and bring her back to shore, where Chas then continued to cry into Robin's arms about not being able to swim.
"How's this supposed to help any, Black Leg?" Chas asked, turning her head to Sanji who had taken Zoro's place for the time being. He had his hands on her waist, keeping her floating on the water.
"Well, if you know how to float then you'll learn how to swim ten times faster," Sanji said, smiling.
"Oh," Chas said looking back towards the sky, watching the clouds pass by. Her eyes began getting heavy and she was losing focus on everything.
"Chas-san?" Sanji urged. "How are you holding up?"
"I don't feel so good…" Chas mumbled.
Sanji quickly lifted Chas out of the water and held her, still smiling. "How are you feeling now?"
"Better!" Chas cheered, having gotten her energy back immediately.
While the whole transaction between Chas and Sanji occurred, Zoro watched from the sidelines beginning to feel more and more ticked off. Looking Sanji fondle over Chas and Chas not minding just annoyed him. He could hear her giggling and laughing from where he sat.
"Something wrong, Zoro-san?" Brook asked, noticing the frowning swordsman sitting there on the beach as he walked by.
"Hm?" Zoro looked up and then away once seeing it was Brook behind him. "Ah, nothing's wrong."
"Are you sure?" Brook pressed. "Something seems to be bothering you." Brook noticed where Zoro was continuing to look and followed his gaze towards Chas and Sanji. The skeleton then knew what was going on. "Ah…I see… Wait…I don't have eyes." Brook then laughed at his 'skull joke' but soon got back on topic. "Zoro-san?"
Zoro looked back over his shoulder towards Brook.
"Do you, perhaps, have feelings for Chas-san?" Brook asked. Brook soon regretted his question when Zoro glared right at him as if saying, 'How the hell did you come up with that conclusion?' Which made Brook wonder if Zoro was hiding his feeling for Chas or just hadn't full discovered them. Then again, the two were on pretty bad terms, so made Brook was actually wrong.
"Well, of course he has feelings for her."
Both Zoro and Brook looked over to see Luffy sitting on a nearby rock, having been listening to the conversation.
"Teaspoon's nakama, right?" Luffy said, tilting his head. "Why wouldn't Zoro have feelings for her?"
"Uh…Luffy-san, I wasn't-" Before Brook could continue, he found a coconut in his mouth, keeping him from talking. Brook soon took out the coconut and glared at Zoro, furious. "You didn't have to do that!"
"Ah, sorry," Zoro said monotonously, "I thought you were done talking." Zoro soon took back the coconut and threw it, hitting Sanji right on the head and making both the blonde and red head in his arms fall into the water. Zoro then quickly got Chas from the water and dragged her back to shore to the shade.
"I feel dizzy…" Chas mumbled, her eyes spinning.
Brook, Luffy, Zoro, and now Chopper, who had joined them after hearing all the shouting, bent over Chas to see if she was okay.
"Too much water?" Luffy questioned.
"No," Chopper said, frowning, "she's got heatstroke. It's best to leave her be for a while."
"And what about Sanji-san?" Brook asked, pointing out towards the water to the unconscious chef who was still dreaming of holding his dear Chas.
"He'll be fine," everyone said, returning back to what they had been doing for the past few hours.
"She's still upset?" Usopp asked, looking towards Chopper and Luffy.
"Seems like it," Chopper said.
The three turned to Zoro, who was relaxing in his usual spot on deck and said, "This is all your fault…"
"Quit blaming me already," Zoro said.
"Then fix this!" Nami said, grabbing Zoro by the collar and pulling him up. She then shoved him towards the corner Chas was sitting in.
Zoro looked back over his shoulder to them, but they just kept waving at him to go towards her. Why do I have to do this? Zoro thought as he walked over.
"Oi, Taiyaki," Zoro said, trying to get Chas's attention. She didn't turn around. "Oi!" Zoro put a hand on Chas's shoulder, but soon took his hand back when Chas fell over.
"He killed her!" Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper shouted.
"I didn't kill her!" Zoro shouted back at them. He sighed and looked to Chas. "She's asleep…"
"Oh…" Usopp and Luffy looked to each other and soon smiled mischievously.
Next Day:
"Who the hell did this?!" Chas shouted at the three who were sitting on their knees in front of her. She held out her arm to show all the doodles drawn on it. Luckily it was only on her arm and not anywhere else.
"It was him," Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp said, all pointing to different people: Luffy to Zoro, Zoro to Usopp, and Usopp to Luffy.
Chas's eyes twitched in frustration. "Since I don't know which one of ya did this…I'll just have to punish all of ya…"
The three gulped, not looking forward to what she had in store for them.
A bit OOC on Zoro's part (a most of the others) but there are A LOT of characters to write for. Anyway, I wanted to do a fun chapter before getting back to the main plot/arc thingy. Hope you enjoyed and I look forward to seeing you next chapter!
Thank you for the support!