Disclaimer: One Piece and all its characters belong to Eiichirō Oda

Chapter 21

Zoro's eyes opened slowly. Yawning widely, the swordsman sat up, blinking away the sleep. He looked around and realized that he was still in the dining room, and that the rest of his nakama were snoring contently all over the place. Usopp was stretched over a small armchair; Franky was missing, which led him to think that he had taken over watch at some point during the night.

As his vision became clearer, he glanced out the window, the sun was about to come out. It was then that he realized he'd missed something.

Sunrise? Wait, didn't we—oh shit!

He looked around in alarm, praying to whoever heard him that the redhead was still in the room.

He wasn't.

That bastard!

Zoro sprung to his feet, and ran out of the house, thinking the man couldn't have gone too far with the wound on his leg. As he looked around the streets, he realized that he wouldn't be able to spot Itami from where he was, and looked up to the roofs. Without so much as a second thought, he started climbing. What the hell's Franky doing up there!? He better not be sleeping or I swear I'll—

His thoughts were interrupted as he reached the top, and he saw the very same man he was looking for, standing straight, and looking at the rising sun. Letting out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, Zoro hoisted himself on the roof completely and waited in silence, not sure whether to disturb the man. It seemed there was no need to worry.

"You still don't trust me, Roronoa." It wasn't a question, and thus Zoro saw no reason to answer, although he did feel the bitter taste of shame in his mouth at the way the man's voice sounded. Itami didn't look back, taking his silence as an answer, he chuckled, "I don't blame you, really…" he sighed, "I'm not the most trustworthy person in the world...just ask your cook…he doesn't seem to like me much."

The air was filled with silence then, and Zoro felt the need to ask him what he was doing up there at that time of the morning…because it looked like he'd been there for quite some time. Before he could bring it up, however, a loud snore brought his attention towards Franky's sleeping form. Zoro scowled. He fell asleep, the bastard…

"Don't blame the cyborg," Itami said good-humoredly, still not looking away from the sun, "He was visibly tired…and I told him that I'd take over watch for him…you'll be happy to know that he didn't trust me much at first."

Zoro glanced back at the redhead, eyes narrowing; the man's voice sounded strained. "And why the hell were you here in the first place? I thought you said you were tired."

It was only then that Itami slowly turned around, looking at Zoro in the eye. The swordsman was slightly taken aback by the exhaustion in the green eyes, outlined by black rings. The man looked completely drained. His face was pale from blood loss and it seemed like it was taking him a great effort not to fall over; an effort that had already been used up to its fullest, apparently.

Zoro's eyes widened as he saw the man collapse, and managed to rush to his side before he crashed against the tiles. It was only then that he noticed the low rasps leaving the man's mouth whenever he breathed out.

"What the hell have you done to yourself…" the swordsman asked gravely as he kneeled, lowering the man slowly on the roof.

"Couldn't sleep," he gasped, "My leg hurt…" he took a deep breath, "And when I closed my eyes…my essence kept taunting me to kill you…it was all images of torture…Kaien—" his words were interrupted by hacking coughs, and Zoro understood that Kaien had sent nightmares to Itami, like he'd done to him once, "When I woke up….the pain in my leg wasn't…enough…" he gasped for air, "I had to get away…hurt myself…again…" the man got another coughing fit, and stopped talking as he tried to get some air back into his lungs.

Raising an eyebrow at the mention of Itami hurting himself again, he looked the man over, and indeed saw a couple more stab wounds in his leg. The one from yesterday was already somewhat infected, and the other two were well on their way. Zoro frowned; amazed at the pain the man had put himself through for their sake.

"Idiot." He growled, "You could've just waked me up," the man's glazed eyes looked up at him in pained surprise, "I would've knocked you out and problem solved."

Itami's head shot back as he started laughing, although he was soon overcome by another coughing attack, and he had to put his hand to his mouth to stop anything from coming out, in a way that reminded Zoro of himself just a couple days ago. "Pity…I would've…asked you…if I'd known you'd be…so willing to help."

"Shut up or I'll leave you here, bastard." Zoro snarled, not finding what was so funny as he picked the man up, earning a pained grunt from the redhead.

"Sorry, sorry…" Itami apologized, his voice strained while a smile still played on his lips.

"Just shut up already," the swordsman growled, "I'll take you to Chopper."

"Oi, Chopper." The little reindeer rolled around in his sleep as soon as he felt a hand lightly moving his arm, not wanting to wake up just yet. Apparently, the strong hand would not take no for an answer, and continued to shake his shoulder insistently. "Chopper, wake up."

"Huh? Wha?" he finally gave in, opening a big dark eye, glazed over by sleep, and looked up to the owner of the strong hands. "Zowo~," he whined, "Ten more minutes…"

He heard a frustrated sigh, and the strong hands were back again, "You need to check Itami's wounds, Chopper, they're getting infected and he's lost a lot of blood."

The reindeer sprung to his small hooves in alarm, his big wide eyes roaming around the room quickly in search of the redhead. "What?! Where is he?"

Zoro chuckled at the reindeer's antics, and grabbed the doctor by the back of his small shirt as he walked towards the next room. While he hanged in the air, Chopper used that moment to rub his eyes with his small hooves and cast the sleep away. As soon as he was placed on the floor once more, he opened his eyes, and bit back a yell of alarm at the state in which the redhead was in.

"What happened?" he asked worriedly as he hurried to the man's side, checking the infected wound and the two new injuries in the man's leg. "Did you do this?"

"I had to." The man responded with a tired but amused smile, "Sorry, it seems like I'm going to use up a lot more bandages than what was planned."

"It's okay," he smiled before getting into doctor mode, "Now stay quiet, and let me heal you."

Itami raised his eyebrows at the reindeer's firm orders. He glanced over at the swordsman, who just shrugged and smirked as if to say that he was always that way, before turning around to walk away.

"I'll let you handle this then, Chopper," he said as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, "I'll go wake to others."

As expected, the small doctor didn't answer, his mind too focused on the issue at hand, and Zoro felt a smile tugging at his lips as he left the room.

Sanji awoke to find himself in a situation that he had only dreamed of before. Robin was fast asleep, sitting right next to him, with her head leaning lightly on his shoulder; an open book still lying on her lap. The night before, after deciding that Itami was somewhat reliable, they had all scattered around to sleep. Since they were all way too exhausted to go all the way up the stairs to their rooms; they just looked for a comfy spot to start counting sheep. Of course, being the gentleman that he was, Sanji assured the ladies that they should sleep on the two small sofas while he sat down against the wall, keeping an eye on the redhead, who had sat down at the other side of the room, where nobody dared to sit.

As his eyes stared at the sleeping man with suspicion, he was startled as he felt someone sit next to him. He was even more surprised, however, when it turned out to be no other than the lovely archeologist, smiling warmly at him as she leaned against the wall and opened her book.

"I hope you don't mind my company, Cook-san." Her smile made obvious that she already knew his answer.

"Oh, never, Robin-chan," his smile was sincere, if slightly small because of exhaustion.

Robin's blue eyes glistened with something akin to amusement and affection as she turned back to her book; and Sanji took a last glance at her before turning his eyes back to the fast asleep redhead. It seemed he was really asleep, although the way he winced every few moments made him think that the man was not having the best dreams. Maybe it's the leg…

Not giving much thought to it, and deciding that he should not care whether that bastard had sweet dreams or not, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. At some point, when he was about to doze off, he felt a light weight on his shoulder, and he opened his dark blue eye just enough to see that Robin had fallen asleep. Normally, he would've rejoiced and turned into ero-mode…but he was just so tired that he couldn't do much other than smile.

Smiling at the memories from the night before, Sanji looked down at Robin, who was still peacefully sleeping; her chest rising and falling with a soothing effect that made the cook relax and lean his head back against the wall. As he sat there, he took a chance to look around the room.

Luffy and Vivi were cuddling together like a pair of kittens on one the sofas. The teens looked so sweet and innocent in their sleep that Sanji didn't have the heart to be mad at Luffy for being so close to his Vivi-chwan. The boy's face was covered by his hat, and one of his hands hanged over the edge of the sofa while the other lay lightly on Vivi's back. The princess's head was lying comfortably on the captain's chest, rising and falling along with the boy's breathing. One of her hands was next to her face, on the young man's chest, as though making sure he was still there with her. Sanji smiled warmly at the young couple, and his eyes moved over to the snoring men that slept about five feet away from the sofa.

Brook and Usopp slept noisily and completely dead to the world. By the way they were entangled; Sanji had to wonder how they could sleep at all. Usopp's nose was bent against the ground, one of his feet raised up, leaning on the closest armchair; his arms were stretched at either of his body, as though the boy had just thrown himself from the armchair on purpose. Brook's was just a pile of bones laying over Usopp, who didn't seem to notice the extra weight (although it's not like Brook was really heavy). His bony arms and legs were all over the place, stretched and bent in directions that should not by any means be comfortable. Sanji shook his head at their nakama's antics. It seemed like Franky, who was usually part of this tangle of limbs, was still on watch. The cyborg had completely healed soon after Zoro, Luffy and Sanji himself had found him on the road. The thought made Sanji think of the redhead, and his eyes turned towards the spot the man had occupied when he fell asleep.

His eyes widened in alarm as he noticed the man was missing. His head turned in all directions, trying to see if he'd moved at some point during the night.

Nothing.

Could he have betrayed them after all?

I knew it!

He hadn't taken anyone else, had he? It was then that the cook noticed that the swordsman was missing, and he felt dread forming at the bottom of his stomach. Hadn't the redhead said that Kaien wanted Zoro? Another glance and he noticed that Chopper was also missing.

Shit!

Taking care not to awake Robin, he lowered the archeologist down on the floor, so that she could continue sleeping. She must have been tired, because she didn't even flinch or writhe around. Satisfied with his work, Sanji burst out of the room and out of the house; the sun had just come out from behind the mountains. He could only hope they hadn't gotten too far.

"Marimo!!" he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth, hoping that the swordsman was still close enough to answer, "Zoro!!"

"What the hell is your problem, cook?" The blonde all but jumped out of his skin as he heard the swordsman's deep voice from behind him. Alarmed, he turned around, his heart still beating too fast and his breathing still ragged at the scare.

"Z-zoro!" he pointed at the first mate in awe and confusion, "You're still here!"

Zoro raised an eyebrow at the cook's odd behavior. "Was I supposed to be anywhere else?"

Sanji gawked at the swordsman, his mind momentarily left in a complete blank. When he noticed the amused smirk on Zoro's mouth, however, he shook his head quickly and scowled. "Wh-what are you doing out here, marimo? Where's the redheaded shithead?"

It then dawned on the swordsman that the cook had been worried that Itami had betrayed them, just like he had only ten minutes earlier. What amused him the most, however, was the fact that the blonde had actually worried about him. A wolfish grin spread across his face as he saw Sanji shake with anger and embarrassment, "Oh? Were you worried, shitty cook?"

"LIKE HELL I WAS!!" Sanji snapped, sinking further into humiliation as the swordsman started laughing. "What's so funny, shit swordsman?" He hissed dangerously. Zoro could've sworn that there was smoke coming out of his ears.

"Nothing, nothing," he chuckled, "The redheaded shithead is inside, by the way, he's being checked over by Chopper." His expression went back to normal then, "It seems he had to stab himself a couple times tonight to keep himself under control…he lost a lot of blood."

"Well he better get well enough to guide us, or I swear I'll shove him in the oven and roast him slowly until there's nothing left but ashes…" Sanji growled darkly.

Zoro stared at him, unblinkingly and the cook suddenly felt uncomfortable under the swordsman's scrutinizing stare.

"What?" he snapped.

"…You can be fucking weird sometimes, you know that?" He said, shaking his head.

"What was that, asshole?!" He could feel something exploding in his head as the green haired man turned around to get back in the house.

"If you keep saying stuff like that, Usopp will think you're into cannibalism or something." Zoro said with a bored tone, walking away from the cook. "I don't think even Robin's that dark. What would she think of you, ero-cook?" If Sanji had paid attention, he would have probably heard the smirk in his voice.

"C-cannibalism? Robin-chan?" Sanji gaped as he saw the swordsman walk in; it was only then that he realized that Zoro was only messing with him, "Hey! Come back here, you bastard!!"

"Let's go, cook." He heard from inside, "We have to wake the others. It's time."

"Don't change subject now, asshole!" the cook snarled as he ran back inside.

"Okay, then!" Luffy yelled in excitement as he swung a backpack over his shoulder, "Are we all ready to go?"

"Hai!" Vivi chirped, beside him, "Are we leaving now, then?"

"Y-y-y-y-you guys go ahead," Usopp stammered, his knees shaking with fear as he tiptoed back towards the house, "I'll be right b-b-behind you."

"Don't even think about it, longnose!" Sanji growled, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and dragging him back towards the group. "Nami-san and Iryann-chan are waiting for us!"

"Yohohohohoho! Usopp-san! It seems you have no option but to accompany us!"

"Although there's a 90% probability that you'll get killed." Robin said bluntly.

"Oi! Nico Robin! Don't be so morbid!" Franky yelled from behind the swordsman, who was smirking at the woman's dark humor.

"Oh my, it seems Usopp-san just dropped dead." Brook announced calmly, staring at the fallen body of the sniper, who was muttering repeatedly about Kaien's cave, scary, Kaien's cave, scary.

"Same goes for you, skeleton!!" the cyborg pushed his sunglasses to his brow, glaring at Brook as the skeleton sipped his tea serenely.

"Come on, Usopp!" Luffy's arm wrapped itself around the sniper, and brought him back to his feet, "Pull yourself together!" the captain chirped between laughs. "We have to leave as soon as possible!"

"Speaking of leaving," Sanji started, "Where's our shitty-guide?"

"Sorry for the delay~!" Itami walked out of the house with his usual smile. He was limping, but it was barely noticeable. The little reindeer, however, didn't think seem to share his opinion.

"Itami!!" he yelled after him waving a wooden cane, "Use the crutch!!!"

"Don't wanna~!" the redhead replied cheerily, ignoring the indignant screams of the little doctor. As he walked to the head of the group, he turned to them and smiled, "Are we ready to go, then?"

"Yeah!" Luffy cheered, "Nami, Iryann, here we come!!!"

"Yosha!!" the crew chorused.

"My, my," A dark voice echoed along the dripping walls, "It seems like Itami really did go to Straw Hat, after all…That was not quite what I expected…" His eyes turned to the two women at the other side of the cave. Their feet were chained to the wall, but otherwise they didn't seem to be harmed. Golden orbs moved back to the black pond as the images on the surface changed. "It seems as though the time has come for me to use her…She came in handy after all..."

A dark laugh reverberated against the wet walls; and Iryann and Nami curled up further into themselves, hoping to keep their bodies from shaking.

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Yo! To the ones that were expecting a battle, or at least some angst...I'm sorry!!

I'm not really sure how to go at it, although I have some ideas, I'm just going to need some time to put them together... T-T (I promise I'll have something akin to a battle scene in the next chapter)

Even so, I hope you liked the chapter! ^^

Please R&R =)