So, hi. It has been a while, hasn't it? A little bit more than a month, I think? Well. I'm trying a new system for writing. Well, a system. I didn't have one to begin with, just wrote what I wanted, when I wanted. But, I have decided to try a system that may get me done a little faster. Anyway... I missed you guys. :) Even though I have posted stuff and I never stopped hearing from you (which is awesome, by the way ;D), I still miss this. Hah. What a sap I am.

P.S. chapter titles means "revelations."

Luffy noticed Sanji looking around again. That guy was so paranoid. Maybe Usopp had sent him one of his articles about alien abduction. Those always made Luffy a little paranoid. He should let Sanji know it was okay, since Usopp had trained him to recognize aliens. There wasn't any reason to be so antsy.

"Sanji," he said, "it's alright. I can kick their asses." There. He should feel much better.

The chef looked at him sharply, eyes wide. "Whose? What are you talking about?" Sanji asked, rather snappishly, in Luffy's opinion. He really was paranoid.

"Aliens, of course. It's fine, though. I won't tell anyone you got scared," Luffy assured him, putting a finger to his own lips to show Sanji that it was their secret. He remembered once telling Nami that Sanji was afraid of spiders and then Sanji didn't cook for him for years, it felt like. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

Sanji's jaw dropped. Was he surprised Luffy figured it out? He should know Luffy wasn't as dumb as everyone always said he was. "No. Luffy, what... what makes you think I'm scared of... aliens?" Sanji narrowed his eyes at Luffy the way the others did when he was absolutely sure he'd hit the nail on the head.

Luffy shrugged. "I just know," he answered. To humor Sanji, he looked around. But then he thought about it, and he did feel kind of watched, too. Maybe he'd keep an eye out, just in case.

oOo

Did they know he was there? Sanji kept looking back. After the first time Sanji had almost seen him that evening, he hadn't even come close, but it still made Zoro uneasy. A few times he wondered if finding out how Luffy got free of Robin's mind control was worth possibly being caught and blamed, but he stayed his course. It was probably stupid, but he wanted to know. He was keeping them safe and finding out how to save them from Robin in the future, he told himself. Which was true, he supposed, except for the part where they weren't really in any danger at the moment, but they didn't know that.

Zoro observed his surroundings, taking a deep breath of city air to search out demon-smell. He couldn't see her or feel her presence, but Robin's smell was still around. Not strongly, but enough that he began to feel angry again. He shouldn't think about her. He should just focus on the humans while he was there and he could think about Robin later, when he didn't have anyone to worry about protecting.

Wait. He was being watched, now, he could feel it. He wrenched his eyes back to Sanji, afraid he'd been spotted, but the blond wasn't looking in a direction even remotely close to him. Zoro's next thought was to look around for Robin, but as he spun, his eyes met a dark pair that he wasn't unfamiliar with. Their gaze didn't flicker or turn away when he stared back. He glanced down at the thin scar below the left eye and when he looked back up he was still being stared at. Was he just staring? Or did he actually see Zoro?

"Luffy, what're you looking at? Do you see something?" Sanji asked, perhaps looking around, but Zoro didn't know. He was too busy staring at the dawning grin on Luffy's face.

"Nothing," Luffy answered and Zoro was sure he winked.

He was almost entirely sure, then, as Luffy turned back to the road ahead and the two humans rounded the corner, that he'd been spotted. Luffy didn't say anything and Sanji didn't ask again, but Zoro felt like he should be worried. He didn't know what he could do about it if he had been sighted. Something, for sure, but what he could or should do depended on what Luffy did. Though Zoro dreaded the thought as it entered his head, he wondered if he might have to bring another human into his dark world.

Not even one whole year ago, he had been living an uneventful, silent, if a little lonely, lifestyle, one that he missed so deeply he couldn't even explain it. But, even as he longed for his unencumbered existence, telling the humans about himself seemed somehow interesting, exciting, even. Robin must have been affecting him with all her obsessiveness, he decided, because he had never had such conflicting opinions within himself on any matter he could recall.

"Hey, Sanji?" Luffy interrupted the silence and Zoro's thought train.

The cook made a sound of acknowledgement and Zoro could smell one of Sanji's beloved stink-cylinders burning away.

"Are you and Zoro fighting?" Luffy asked, in the most innocent tone the demon had heard since he last spoke to Chopper days ago. His surprise at being mentioned did not measure up to his surprise at the straight-to-the-point nature of his question.

Zoro advanced through the shadows during a silence that seemed to him to be very telling. When he caught up with the humans again a second later, they were walking side-by-side, rather than Luffy leading Sanji. "Why do you ask?" Sanji questioned, as bored-sounding as Zoro had ever heard him.

Luffy shrugged, swinging his arms merrily, as if the conversation he was having was not dangerously close to a truth better left untold. "It just seems like you guys like to fight. And he hasn't been hanging out with us lately, even though I went looking for him to ask." He sounded vaguely pouty. Zoro knew better than to hope, but he had to admit he was becoming attached to the imbecilic human. And, unlike certain other humans, it seemed like Luffy wasn't opposed to his company.

The cook stared down at his own shoes in silence for a while, a thin fog of smoke forming a stream behind him. "Yeah. We're fighting," he said, his voice made visible by smoke. "I told him to stay away." Zoro frowned at that.

"Why?" Luffy asked, the picture of innocence.

Again, Sanji hesitated. "I, uh. I found out he was lying." Zoro held his breath. "I just decided it would be better if he went away."

Zoro pursed his lips as he followed the two humans. That was not how Zoro remembered it. Zoro remembered it with yelling and violence and horrible feelings and, perhaps, thunder rumbling. It wasn't "just" anything. Second, maybe to his utter defeat against Mihawk, witnessing the cook's revelations about Zoro's nature was the worst thing that had happened since he'd decided to come out of hiding and learn the modern world.

"Lying about what? Zoro's an honest guy." Luffy sounded matter-of-fact. That was good. If Luffy trusted him, which Zoro had sort of already known, then it would make everything a little bit easier concerning the humans.

"It's not important right now," Sanji said, sounding for the most part level-headed. Zoro could hear his pulse. He was lying.

Luffy stopped walking. "If it's not important, then why are you fighting?" he asked. He had a very good point, Zoro thought, but a better point would be pressing Sanji about why he didn't tell the other humans. Zoro supposed he could employ that line of questioning at the earliest opportunity after he found out how Luffy had escaped Robin's hold.

Sanji's cheeks appeared hollow as he focused on his cigarette. The cook sighed out a cloud of smog, taking his time again in answering. Zoro was getting tired of that. "It's not important for you to know right now. It's important to me, though," Sanji said very carefully, in a sharp kind of tone that indicated with little subtlety that he was done with the conversation.

Luffy looked at Sanji blankly and he did not blink. He just stared for five seconds, ten, a minute. He never stopped walking, but he didn't watch where he was going at all. Somehow, he didn't trip. Sanji almost did, glancing uneasily back at Luffy.

"What is it?" Sanji asked, and Zoro could almost read on his features that he was afraid Luffy had been possessed again.

The raven-haired human shook his head, reluctantly pulling his eyes away from Sanji. "How long have we known each other, Sanji?" he asked, as casually as one would inquire about the weather.

Sanji blinked. "Uh... About nine years."

Luffy nodded. "That's a long time. Now, when has something important to you, in all that time, ever been unimportant to me?"

Everything seemed to stop. Luffy was dead-serious, Zoro could tell. From the sound of the cook's heart beat, Zoro would guess he could tell, too. How could anyone refute such an argument? Zoro had known Luffy for all of four months and he felt like that same approach would work on him.

The cook sighed and hung his head. "Luffy," he said and sighed again. "Just let this one be, okay?" Sanji cast his eyes around again, not like he was looking for something, but like he was avoiding looking at Luffy. "I'll figure it out. And when I do, I'll tell you about it."

Luffy grinned, goofy and knowing at the same time. "I'm not very patient," he stated, looking at Sanji sideways, and for some reason the cook nodded and the conversation was over.

oOo

When they got to the Baratie, it was already closing time. Sanji ushered Luffy in through the back and was met with no shouts or complaints about brats in the kitchen. Luffy went peacefully with a yawn up the stairs. "Don't get into any trouble," Sanji said after him and stayed downstairs to do a little cleaning.

Zeff came downstairs not long after Sanji started washing stray dishes. "You're late, eggplant," he greeted gruffly. Sanji didn't look up from his task. "You're lucky we weren't busy tonight, kid." Was he trying to get answers? A rise, maybe? Sanji would not give it to him. He was too tired. "Just gonna ignore me? Well. Irresponsible, impudent little brats that take off without tellin' anyone don't get to have their annoying little free-loading friends over."

Sanji breathed in deeply through his nose. "By the way, old man," he said as if Zeff hadn't been talking, "Luffy's gonna be staying the night."

"I don't remember agreeing to that."

"Alzheimer's. Very sad."

"Bullshit! I may be old, but I'm not senile!" Zeff snapped, his peg leg smacking the tile floor loudly as he took up an angry stance by the counter to Sanji's left.

The blond rinsed the pan he'd been washing and placed it in the drying rack with only the slightest intention of slamming it. He thought about shouting "could've fooled me," but what sense would that make? Zeff wasn't senile at all and he did have a good reason to be upset. Sanji shouldn't have left the restaurant and his pseudo-father hanging. But, there were bigger things for him to be concerned about. So, instead of blowing up, he tried a new approach. "Can Luffy stay over tonight?" he asked in his most civil tone.

Zeff snorted. "Are you kidding? He's a great kid, of course he can stay. Just make sure he pays his tab this time," the head chef said with a false stern voice and a tired chuckle. Sanji looked at Zeff, eyes wide. He had never heard such positive things from Zeff about any of his friends. "What? Did you think I hated your little eggplant pack?" Zeff asked with a moustache smirk.

"Well. Yeah. Yeah, I did. Don't you?" Sanji narrowed his eyes at the chef, expecting barking laughter and a full retraction.

But, Zeff shook his head. "Nah. You're a pretty good judge of people for such a young brat." And then he left. What a weird day it was turning out to be.

When he finished with the dishes, Sanji went upstairs to find Luffy snoring on his bed. That kid had no consideration for or reservations towards Sanji whatsoever. But that was fine. Usually, Luffy would stay up and talk his ears off and he wouldn't get any sleep. This time, he would get as much rest as one could on a futon in the floor.

Sanji pulled the covers out from under Luffy and tossed them over his friend carefully. He was pretty sure he wouldn't, or rather, couldn't wake Luffy, but one could never be too careful.

The cook changed into his favorite "Kiss the Cook" shirt, one of at least half a dozen, and some plaid pajama shorts to the sound of Luffy snoring. He gathered his discarded suit and hung it up, fishing his wallet and smokes out of the pockets as he did so. The white paper carton was calling his name.

He glanced at Luffy's sprawled and snoozing form as he stepped over to the sill and cracked a window. It wasn't fully autumn yet, but the air had a chill to it that was undeniable in short sleeves and perhaps a little much for his resting friend. Even so, he didn't think he would be able to sleep without a smoke. He idly hoped the smell didn't wake Luffy as he lit up.

The grimy pathway between the Baratie and the jewelry store, where Sanji's eyes often wandered while he was smoking at the window, was nearly pitch dark, but he saw something move. At first he thought it was a deviant smoke stream from his cigarette, but then he exhaled in the opposite direction, and the same movement in the same place caught his eye again.

Please don't let it be a stray, he thought, remembering the disastrous time he'd taken in a stray dog and how it had gotten run over not a week later while he was at school. If it was a stray, he knew he'd take it in, but he told himself to spare his pride that he could and would resist.

Sanji leaned out the window, cigarette in hand all but forgotten, trying to get a better look. The flitting disturbance occurred again and Sanji squinted to make it out. It was big, he could tell, but, even though he was only two stories up, he couldn't see what it was.

And then it stepped into the light and it wasn't an animal at all. It was that bastard Zoro, Sanji registered slowly. The demon. The one that was supposed to be staying the hell away from him and all parties associated with him including anyone and everyone in the building that Zoro was standing ten feet away from.

Sanji thought he'd go away. He looked right at Sanji, without a doubt, and the cook glared back down at him. But rather than leave, Zoro waved at him, gesturing for Sanji to come to him. He didn't really want that. The cook was too angry still, especially so soon after whatever kind of episode that was that Luffy had. That had demon stink all over it, he was absolutely sure. He remembered the day Zoro told him the truth, the day which should have been remembered by the bloody fight. For a minute, or two, or ten, Sanji was lost to the world that day, staring into Zoro's eyes, and not in a romantic way. He'd felt like a zombie at that time and he'd seen a reflection of that in Luffy not too long ago.

Zoro beckoned to him again and Sanji couldn't help it. He shoved the smoldering tip of his cigarette against the empty window box and started out. It would not be to anyone's benefit, but he was going to have a talk with that ignorant demon. Maybe he could find out what really happened in between kicks to Zoro's ass.

oOo

He was coming down. Zoro thought for sure he wouldn't, but he was coming. He looked upset. Very upset, actually, but Zoro wanted answers. Starting with how Luffy got free of Robin, and maybe including some less-important questions that Zoro was perhaps too eager to ask. He felt stupid, the way he was getting excited to talk to Sanji, because he really shouldn't be. It didn't make sense. Not for him, or for anyone in a similar situation, but damn it all if sense had anything to do with it.

Zoro listened to Sanji's muted voice exchanging comments with someone inside the building and felt a pulse in his arm thumping erratically. Why was he so nervous? Sanji was just a human, one who didn't like him very much, and Zoro was capable of handling him with ease. Why didn't his pulse get that?

The heavy metal door shrieked once as it was slammed open, by a foot, it sounded like. Sanji strode over to Zoro, hands in his pockets, brows nearly covering his eyes. "This is serious," Zoro said quickly, trying to derail the cook before his anger reached a head. He stepped forward, stuck out his chest, crossed his arms, frowned heavily, did everything he could do without shouting or using his swords to slow Sanji's roll, and none of it was working.

Sanji spun around on one foot, swinging his heel at the side of Zoro's head, a move he seemed to favor. The demon caught his foot and if he'd had his wits about him he would have thrown it back, but he just held it there. Sanji's nostrils flared and he tried to jerk away from Zoro's hold, but the swordsman gripped tighter. "I am going to ask you some questions, and you are going to answer them. Understand?" he said, a little too nicey-nice for the stern and threatening disposition he was going for.

The cook's upper lip curled into a sneer. "No, as a matter of fact, I don't," he spat, pulling his foot free and taking another shot, at Zoro's gut this time. "How about this? How about you answer my questions and I don't fucking beat the shit out of you," he stated rather than suggested as Zoro narrowly dodged him.

It was not going according to plan. Zoro would like to say that he could stand his ground and pull things back into his favor, but he couldn't think of anything that would achieve that. His tough guy appearance, usually not a façade, was getting harder and harder to uphold. "Fine. Ask me anything," he grumbled, stopping Sanji as he was winding up for another kick.

And stop he did. He didn't completely gawk, not really, but Sanji looked surprised. However, he recovered quickly. "Okay. What happened to Luffy tonight? Was that you?" the cook asked, verging on hostile. Zoro flinched. "Why was he so set on digging in the graveyard? What-"

"Whoa. Slow down." Zoro put his hands up in a peaceful gesture before Sanji could get too worked up. "First, I'm not entirely sure," he said, thinking about Luffy's unexpected awakening from Robin's control. "Second, no, it wasn't me. I had nothing to do with that or anything else that happened tonight. And I don't know why... I have a guess about why he was digging in the graveyard."

"Then what? Who? And wh-"

Zoro interrupted him again. "Hold on. You don't remember?" He thought Sanji had remembered the time, or both times, that he had been controlled by Robin, but if that wasn't the case, Luffy must have rescued himself. That didn't account for the shout of pain by Zoro's reasoning, but what else could it be? Luffy was a very impressive human. Zoro would not be surprised if he'd freed himself.

"Don't remember what?" Sanji asked, offended and confused, maybe curious. Damn it. Now he'd brought it up and Sanji didn't look like he'd let it go. Was there a downside to telling Sanji it was Robin's fault? That she was the demon causing trouble for their group of humans, not Zoro? Sanji may not believe him. But he did not want to be blamed for Robin's crimes. Even though, as he understood it, the humans had known Robin for a lot longer than they'd known Zoro, he hoped Sanji would believe him.

Zoro took a breath and let his eyes wander. "Robin. She had a hold of you like that. Twice that I know of. She's the one who made Luffy... mindless tonight," he said, trying to phrase everything just right and say it in a level voice. Calm, soothing, believable. Even just one of the three would be more than he felt he deserved as Sanji's expression caved. He was hurt.

"R...Robin? No. No, I don't believe that." Sanji paused, thinking. A new expression, one Zoro associated with denial, came over his face. "No. You know what? I think you're lying. Robin-chan has always been a wonderful woman. I don't remember her ever doing anything to hurt anyone, especially not one of us. There's no way she's a demon," Sanji snapped. Zoro couldn't picture it. She had been a decent human being, but she had become a conniving demon. As far as Zoro was concerned, she was never to be trusted again.

Zoro started to explain, to tell Sanji about all the not-wonderful things she'd been doing recently, but the cook put up a hand to stop him. "But, you know what I do remember? You. Trying to convince me that your wound was old or some shit in an unnatural way." Sanji's voice was very calm. That didn't seem like a good sign and Zoro realized that right away, but it took him longer than he was proud of to get what Sanji was saying.

He didn't catch on at any great speed. "I didn't- I mean- Robin, she- You-" He had never felt more stupid. Over all the years he'd been a demon, even though he wasn't so good at the "look into my eyes" part, he had never been remembered as the enemy. No one ever knew he'd altered them, or tried to, in Sanji's case. "I didn't mess with Luffy. And, that was one time and it wasn't even successful! I couldn't do it and I won't. Ever," he defended, regaining his ability to speak coherently as Sanji lost his willingness to listen.

"I don't care. This is your final warning: stay away from us. All of us." Zoro was being too hopeful, but he thought for sure he saw Sanji waver.

"It wasn't me. I swear. I'd never do anything to hurt you," he said, trying to appeal to the waver. "Robin is the bad guy here! She doesn't care about you, but I-" He stopped. Sanji was staring at him, no longer seething, no longer glaring, shouting, or even talking. He looked surprised and, it may have been Zoro's imagination, but he didn't think Sanji was surprised in a bad way. Actually, he couldn't much tell with what inflection Sanji was surprised. Was he shocked into some kind of coma? By what? Was it Robin? Zoro looked around, but none of his senses were registering demon anything except for the tinge on Luffy's scent in the upstairs bedroom. But then he knew it wasn't because of anything supernatural. At first it was an empty realization, acknowledgement that no, it wasn't Robin this time, and not much of anything else, but he got it. He'd lost his generality. When? Why? He was speaking solely for one human, thinking of just the one human, talking only to the one human not just because he was the only that knew about Zoro, but- Stop. What is going on?

"Go." Sanji pointed off at the street. "Now."

He wasn't angry. Zoro knew that much, but he lacked any further indicators. So, he took a step back. Then two. Then he stopped, halfway to another step. It didn't seem important anymore, not compared to something that seemed to make all his insides still, something that he didn't want to look at yet, or maybe ever, but he felt compelled to ask another question. "How did you wake him? Luffy. When he was like that, what did you do?" Zoro asked. He didn't expect an answer. He felt a resounding emptiness, a lack of caring for anything else except what he wasn't ready for, but it was a question that had to be asked.

Sanji looked down. If Zoro wasn't mistaken, the human had a similar voidance of thoughts and feelings. "It's stupid," the cook said in a toneless voice, pausing only for a moment. "You'll leave if I tell you, right?"

Zoro tried to think about it, to say no, even. He could only nod.

"I punched him. Bye." Sanji turned around and walked with a slight wobble in his step back into the Baratie and Zoro watched him until he couldn't anymore. And he tried to mull over the cook's answer, to put any kind of strategic or deep or even coherent thought towards anything at all, but he just went home. He sat down in his shrine, closed his eyes, hung his head. Robin doesn't care about you, but I...?

What, what? Actual... romantic progress?! Or is it something else?! Maybe I do know what I'm doing?! *cough* Too much shouting. Opinions, people! Opinions!