Hi guysssssss... sorry for being dead so long. xDDx I have resolved not to say much about why the delay, but it's only fair to warn you that, aside from my Halloween new post, I don't know that I'll be posting much.

By the way, my baby sister turns 1 on Sunday. :)))))))) Time flies when you're not writing... ;A;

He'd been meditating for over a week, but he wasn't ready to come up yet. There was too much to think about. There would always be too much to think about. In fact, he wasn't so sure he'd ever leave his shrine again. Never mind all he had to think about, he didn't want to risk running into the cook.

But, despite his insistence to the island's spirit that he needed to keep meditating, he was kicked out of his trance. Obviously, the island was miffed at him, too. It didn't like Robin either, Zoro decided. He and the island were in full agreement, except for the part where he was being forced to go back into the human world.

It wasn't like he didn't look forward to skewering Robin; of course he did. He just didn't know how he would handle it. Normally, if some other demon, whether it was Robin or someone else entirely, was giving him trouble, he'd just take care of them. But this time he had hang-ups. Sanji called Robin a friend. Zoro had accused Robin of all the things wrong in his life right in front of the Sanji, so if he did anything to her or if she "went missing," Sanji would blame him immediately. Rightly so, but Zoro didn't want that.

The problem Zoro found himself facing was that Robin had been very much in the wrong. No, that's not exactly it, he thought with a frown. The thing was, he had to act fast. She was encroaching on his territory and she had been for a while. He couldn't think of why he'd let things get that far, but it was a very serious situation. It was his island and, as a demon, he had his place in the hierarchy to protect, regardless of what any particular humans felt.

I could tell him that, I guess, Zoro thought, glancing at the door of his little shrine. He didn't think it would go over too well, but he had to do something. A week was already too long to wait to attack someone over territory. That had been his courtesy period, he decided, thinking of all the things Robin had done, all the cryptic words she'd spoken, in her mysterious attempts to sabotage him for no apparent reason. The cook be damned; he was done waiting.

oOo

Her evil stink filled the air as he approached the deceptively bright lion's den she called home. Five other demons, in Zoro's time as the island's guardian, had lived on that same street for varying lengths of time, all of whom Zoro had liked better than he liked Robin. Zoro remembered that three of them had been living there when Robin moved in. They had all left abruptly and without notice at about the same time, to Zoro's memory. That was another thing he could pin on Robin.

"My, my. It certainly took you long enough. Did you get lost on your own island again, Swordsman-san?" Robin was sitting on her little front steps with a small, cracking-leather-bound book in her lap. She didn't even bother to look up.

Zoro glared at her. "I was considering the humans who can't see your hideous soul," he spat, standing in front of her in a flash. "But I have decided it's okay if they're a little upset, as long as I'm rid of you."

Robin glanced up at him, then stared off behind his head, surprised. Strangely, openly surprised. "Really?" she questioned, closing her book carefully. "You're going to let Cook-san believe you killed me? Forgive me, I haven't courted or been courted seriously in quite some time, but that seems a bad approach."

"No one said anything about courting anybody!" Zoro snapped quickly, his mind sticking to the thought a little longer than he would've liked. "And don't bring that shitty cook into this! It doesn't matter to me what a human thinks about this situation. This is between you and me!"

"Is it just? I thought by now you would now this goes far beyond you and I, Swordsman-san. Far beyond," Robin told him, standing up from her porch and handing her book back down to the concrete with two spare arms that emerged from the palm of its predecessor's hand.

Zoro narrowed his eyes at her. "I'll handle the higher-ups when I get to them. You're the only one I've got a problem with," he said, grasping a sword in each hand.

Nico Robin gave a little laugh. "I wasn't speaking of them, though you will have some trouble when they hear of this," she mentioned offhandedly. "What I meant to say was I thought you would know by now how important some people are and how bad it would be for you if I just... disappeared."

His comeback or rebuttal or snarl of a man without patience was interrupted by the sudden and baffling lack of someone to shout it at. Robin had run away or otherwise vanished without so much as a breeze left behind. Zoro knew very few people who could do that and none of them, up to that point, had been Robin. She must've been practicing, Zoro thought. Then it hit him that she would have been planning it. That she could have had some kind of failsafe to keep him from killing her. He had barely thought the words before he took off running, searching for her.

Robin's scent was everywhere. It burned his nose like vinegar, only he couldn't trace it. He searched through the town, through the small villages around the edges of the island, and in all the hiding places he had ever discovered, but the smell never grew stronger and it never faded. Whatever trick she'd used, it was a new one on him, and it was damn effective.

And then something occurred to him. If she was looking to screw him over, which seemed like the goal she was getting at, her last words being "how bad it would be for you if I just disappeared" seemed to call up a very straightforward plan. She'd disappeared herself. He didn't know how or why, but Zoro was sure that, before long, he would be hearing from the humans and they would not be happy. The thought crossed his mind that he never should have gone to talk to Robin, but that was a useless detail after the fact. He was already turning in circles looking for her; there wasn't a thing he could think of that would change what had already happened.

Zoro looked around and around as an urge to scream in frustration built in his chest. There was nothing he could do. Nothing. No matter what her intentions were, he couldn't find her, he couldn't stop her, and he couldn't protect anyone from her or her plans. He was powerless.

oOo

Trash duty. They'd put him on goddamn trash duty. He was the assistant head chef and had been for years; how did they still think they could make him take out the trash? No—better still, why was he doing it? He could have refused. How the hell did they talk him into taking out the garbage?

Sanji threw the bag of waste into the big green Dumpster behind the restaurant. He shook his head, confused and annoyed more than was necessary for something little like being tricked into doing a basic chore. He knew that when he went back in a minute later, griping about garbage, he would just be overreacting. Sanji sighed and leaned against the cleanest spot that he could find on the brick building. He wished desperately that he could close his eyes and wake up in a life where trash duty was all he had to overreact about. When he opened his eyes, nothing had changed.

A sound like some unidentifiable animal call, a muted little noise that was both deep and high and, he told himself, could be easily imitated by a human, came from nearby. Sanji froze. Could have been imagined, he thought, turning slowly towards the phantom sound. It had been over a week since he'd heard from that person, but the last time he had heard from him, he had first thought that person was an animal hiding in the alley. As unlikely as it was and as ready as he thought he was to handle him, Sanji hoped to God no one was there.

"Hello?" Sanji called, timidly, he thought, which was not a good thing. "Is anyone there?"

A shadow moved ominously between two buildings across the service alley from him, which was unusual anyway, since there weren't any trees around and he hadn't heard anyone else moving around, never mind the fact that it was daytime. He should've been able to see what that was, he wanted to reason to himself, but that would not have made him feel any better.

"It's a little early to be skulking around, don'tcha think?" Sanji said loudly with a forced little laugh. There was no response, not even a stir in the shadows. Sanji shook his head, turning fully towards the mysterious faction of the alley. "There's nothing there," he told himself aloud. "I'm just being paranoid."

The restaurant's back door swung open violently and one of the chefs, the one with a snake neck-tattoo, stepped out exuding caveman-like grace. He looked at Sanji a jerked his calloused thumb over his shoulder, indicating the restaurant. "Owner says git yer ass back in there!" Neck-Tattoo grunted loudly and retreated back into the building before Sanji could give him a two-word message for the old man.

Sanji grumbled to himself about how the old fart wouldn't survive without him, even as he rooted through his own pants pockets in search of an excuse to stay out longer. Lately his work, his greatest passion, had nearly been the death of him. Cooking was still his favorite thing to do and he was still very good at it, but every time he got lost in his art his mind wandered back to things that made him want to beat his head against a wall. A cigarette wouldn't change anything, but at least it would make him feel better for a couple of minutes.

He pulled his lighter out and stared at it, turned it over in his palm a few times. There was a tingling on the back of his neck as he held the lighter between his fingers and balanced a cigarette on his lip. Sanji half-shivered, but he passed over the urge to rub the icky feeling from the back of his neck in favor of guarding the lighter against the breeze. He tried to light up, but the flame was struggling. He rolled his eyes, stupidly thinking that could be an analogy for his life, but then something hit his head and he was falling forward and everything about cigarettes and analogies and everything else came to a sudden and violent halt.

oOo

Zoro had an idea. It was a silly one that he was almost completely sure he got from human literature, but it seemed like it would work. It probably wouldn't help him find Robin; that would be a miracle. But, if it went according to his plan—which was not something he thought often—at least the humans wouldn't blame him for Robin's disappearance.

He saw a flaw in his own plan, however, which was always going to happen. Despite the flaw, he decided to go through with it. Or rather, he was leaning towards that option. But when he thought about it again, maybe he wasn't. So much for having a plan. It wouldn't do him much good if he couldn't bring himself to go against what a single human said.

Didn't I already damn him? Zoro asked himself silently, frowning in annoyance at his own inability to just disregard the shitty cook. So what if he'd been told to stay away from the humans? It wasn't like he had to obey. He could do whatever he wanted, talk to whoever he wanted. Before anything and everything else was his image and self-preservation, Zoro reasoned, fully aware that was not true. If he wanted to go asking each of the humans he cared to talk to if they had seen Robin recently, if only to make them believe he wasn't the one that got rid of her, then he would do that. It didn't matter what Sanji said.

And yet, less than a minute later, he found himself standing on the oh-so-familiar rooftop across from the cook's bedroom window. There was no reason not to ask Sanji first, except for the fact that the blond hated him and basically told him to go away and never come back. No, never mind that, it was a terrible idea. He shouldn't be there. There were so many ways that his next interaction with the cook could go violently wrong. Zoro should start with someone who didn't hate him, he knew, but his feet could only move forward.

Zoro felt his heart doing a weird shifty thing in his chest as he crouched on the edge of the jewelry store's roof. He was nervous. He was fucking nervous. He couldn't just leap for the window, ask his question and be on his merry way, he had to think of something to say, some kind of explanation. The swordsman hadn't second-guessed himself so much ever before in his life.

To avoid what little anger he felt was optional, Zoro jumped down from the roof into the alley between the restaurant and his hiding spot. He knew popping in through the window would be a horrible idea, but he also knew that he couldn't just walk in the front door, lest he be accosted in front of innocent humans by a very, very aggressive chef. That in mind, Zoro walked around to the deserted back of the building. He was thinking of just running through really quickly so no one would notice him and hanging out upstairs until the cook realized there had been a supernatural breeze in a still kitchen and came looking, but then he smelled something he was all too familiar with.

Sanji's blood, Zoro thought urgently, ripping the back door open so forcefully that the hinges shrieked and storming through the kitchen. He was moving too fast to be seen by anyone who wasn't paying extra-special attention, he knew that much, but the breeze he brought into the restaurant behind himself caused so much commotion he might as well have walked in there with a gun. He didn't care. He had a shitty, curly-browed blond to find.

Zoro barreled into the living area upstairs, but no one was there. He could smell the cook, but it wasn't fresh. He'd been somewhere else, somewhere nearby. Zoro balled his hands into fists and ground his teeth together without meaning to. The smell of blood wasn't strong but the cook's scent was, so it must not have been much blood and there was nothing else to suggest that anything was wrong, but Zoro had a terrible feeling like icicles in his veins. Something happened to him. I just know it.

Just to be sure, Zoro darted back downstairs and quickly checked the dining area, the bar and the kitchen for Sanji, but he wasn't there. His scent was and his blood was, but the cook himself, the overreacting idiot who knew too much, he wasn't in or around the Baratie as far as Zoro's supernatural senses could detect.

That doesn't mean he's missing, Zoro reasoned with himself, blowing back through the kitchen and out the back door. The smell of Sanji's blood arose once again, warm and alarmingly fresh, and Zoro skidded on his heels to slow down so he could locate it. There was almost a visible trail of blood-scent that Zoro followed almost too quickly to see the small puddle still oozing outward slowly on the coarse pavement. "Shit," he cursed, left with nothing else to do. That blood—that was it. The trail ended there. That was the last place Sanji had been, Zoro confirmed after sprinting a few meters in either direction, but that was impossible. If that was the last place he had been, he would still be there.

Robin.

Sometimes his brain just spat things out that were irrelevant or otherwise wrong, but this time he was sure. He didn't just want to blame her, it had to be her. It was too much of a coincidence that she had disappeared literally without a trace only minutes before Sanji disappeared leaving behind only a sign of violence and ill-will. It had to be Robin.

Zoro cursed to himself in the language of his people, darting back and forth within a wide invisible circle. He should have known she was planning something drastic. He should have felt it before now that she knew exactly how to get to him. Of course she had. Everything she'd ever said to him about the humans echoed in his head with the added annoyance of Robin's chuckle alongside every word. His frustration was reaching the exploding point before the full extent of the situation figuratively beat him over the head.

All of the humans.

Everything she'd ever said to him about all the humans. just Sanji. All of them.

Shit.

Zoro booked it to Luffy's house, the nearest one to Sanji's, and nearly slammed right through the front door. He stopped himself mere inches from the door, even though he was sure Luffy would be completely okay with him breaking the threshold if he was home. His nerves were jumping, his muscles were tense, his only thoughts were worrying and cussing, but he could still function somewhat rationally. Before his compelling need to break something completely eclipsed his thoughts, Zoro realized that he could hear Luffy talking.

"Oh no! Usopp, that's cheating!"

And then Usopp: "Hahahaha, you're just a sore los- Hey! No special moves! We agreed!"

That was marginally alarming, but Zoro had heard similar arguments several times in the past when he would circle the island. They were only playing a game. They were fine. Had Robin not gotten to them yet? Or did she really only want Sanji? Zoro couldn't tell.

He was halfway to convincing himself to stand guard outside Luffy's house before he remembered a time when Robin had brain-washed Nami into helping her with her plan. If Robin was planning anything with the humans, Zoro thought, she would definitely take Nami.

Zoro ran to the orchard that the redhead called home, hoping but not expecting to catch Robin in the act of kidnapping Nami. However, what he found confused him further, because Nami was bickering amongst the trees with the blue-haired girl Zoro assumed was her sister. Noriko or some such—but that wasn't important. The important thing was Robin wasn't there and neither was her scent, nor her presence. The premises was Robin-free so either she only took Sanji or someone else was at work here. But Sanji's still the only one missing…

The swordsman was becoming more and more disconcerted every second. Most of his thoughts were Why? or Sanji! and none of them were coherent. He had almost no idea what was going on, but he didn't like it one bit. Sanji shouldn't be in the middle of things, especially not by himself. And, of course, if anything happened to Sanji, it would be on Zoro's conscience for decades to come. Nothing ever would have happened to any of the humans if it weren't for Zoro and his "friends" in bad places.

Zoro could not unclench his fists and he had to work for the same effect on his jaw. He wanted to roar, to yell louder than any other sound ever to be made on the island and, for God's sake, why couldn't he just think? If he had a clear mind for even a minute, he felt sure he'd know what to do or where to go, but he couldn't think. All the focus he had was going towards not trying to run in every direction at once and slicing down anything in his path and-

There it was. The smell. The spicy, warm, soft, intricate scent of the cook, the one he was sprinting after as soon as it hit him. He didn't know where he was going, just that the messy line he was cutting across the island was leading him towards Sanji.

And the coast. He processed the smell of salt water just a half second before he broke out of the trees and was suddenly knee-deep in the ocean. He stopped for a moment to process where he was and where Sanji was and what was going on, but a very much larger distraction was right in front of him. A caravel ship. The Going Merry.

Zoro took quick, stumbling steps to the dock. He hoisted himself up and faced the ship and he couldn't say he was surprised at what he saw. That did not mean it didn't enrage him.

Sitting on the edge of the boat, legs crossed and looking as calm as ever was Robin, of course. She was grinning at him, a broader grin than he'd seen her wear in centuries. Lying next to her with his head in her lap was Sanji, dead-eyed and motionless. Zoro could hear a steady human heartbeat, presumably the cook's, but the fact that he was alive didn't bring Zoro much comfort.

"I can almost see the gears turning in your head, Swordsman-san. Do you finally realize how serious I am about gaining full access to your island?" Robin called down, stroking the cook's hair gently.

Zoro drew his swords in record time and lunged for Robin-

"Ah-ah-ah," she taunted, caressing Sanji's throat. "I strongly advise you hear me out before doing anything rash."

He stopped. He had to. She'd backed him into a corner with her vague threats where all he could do was glare at her.

"That's better," she cooed. Her hand did not move from the cook's neck. The cook didn't appear to have noticed any of it. Zoro knew that was most likely the case.

"What do you want?" Zoro gritted out between fiercely clenched teeth.

Robin's smile soured. "I've told you already. I have been telling you, Roronoa Zoro-san, ever since I arrived on this island, that all I want is your permission. Full guest privileges or however you want to call it. All I want, all I have ever wanted, is to be aligned with you and your island," she told him, darkness overtaking her blue eyes.

"I'm not going to allow you to live here. I know you're planning something past this," Zoro snapped, glowering up at her. "There's no way all you want is my permission." He remembered in that moment the day she arrived on the island. It was not the first time he'd seen her, but that knowledge of her did not indicate friendliness, even at that time. She had asked him right away, after more than a century apart, for his official permission to dwell on his island. Obviously he had said no, and he could find no reason at present to change his opinion on the matter.

Nico Robin smiled at him again, the smile of everything wicked, and pushed Sanji's hair back to frame his blank face. "I am sorry to hear your staunch refusal, but I cannot truthfully say I haven't been looking forward to it."

Before Zoro could question her, Robin lifted the lifeless blond's head and brought his neck up to her lips. Zoro's blood stopped in his veins.

Robin smirked at him. "If you don't give me your blessing," she began, visibly tightening her hold on the cook, "I will turn this boy, who I know you adore, into a demon like me."

:O

That was has been a long time coming. And exactly where I wanted it to be! What luck! :D There are so many "EEEEE, I can't believe I just did that!"s that I could put here, but I am pressed for time. Anyway... What do you think?