HI EVERYONE. I HAVE RETURNED. It's been roughly three weeks since my last chapter update, not counting The Zoro Tree, but it feels like it's been a year. Okay, that's a bit off. It feels like it's been three-hundred years. xD You may have to refer to the previous chapter, because I, myself, had to look back several times. Anywho! Read away~!
The second Sanji stepped out into the hall, he nearly ran right into Zoro. Immediately, Sanji ditched his smile for a less-then-impressed sort of glare. "What are you doing here?" Sanji asked, holding the swinging kitchen doors still for a moment before starting off down the hall without waiting on Zoro's answer.
"Before you start on some insulting tirade about my sense of direction, I'm not lost," Zoro snapped, catching up to Sanji quickly.
"Good. I wouldn't have helped if you were lost." Out of the corner of his eye, Sanji saw Zoro grit his teeth.
"Anyway," Zoro bit out, clenching his jaw. "Luffy sent me down here to ask if you knew whether the doctor was done with Nami yet."
Sanji laughed through his nose. "And, how would I know that? I have been working in the kitchen, not the infirmary. Why don't you ask the nervous kid that was down here earlier?" Sanji suggested, remembering the little child who had requested plain vegetable soup on behalf of Doctor Kureha. He could not, for the life of him, figure out if that kid was a boy or a girl, but he had taken the request politely and shouted at the chef until he listened.
"I couldn't find him," Zoro answered, plainly.
That reply irked Sanji. So, Zoro tried to avoid me, huh? Time to make this awkward for him, then. Sanji put on a pout and mumbled, "Oh."
Zoro started to say something, but drew up short, apparently just processing Sanji's tone. Then, Zoro switched to the amusing setting that Sanji was proud of himself for bringing out. "W-what was that about?!" Zoro stuttered, recoiling away from Sanji slightly.
The blond swallowed his smirk, turning his head away from Zoro and sighing. Zoro ran around in front of Sanji and stopped him from walking by putting his hands on Sanji's shoulders. "Wait a second! Wh-what the hell are you upset about now?!"
"Nothing," Sanji pouted, averting his eyes to a random spot on the wall. Oh, how he loved to mess with Zoro. The damn plant deserves it.
"That's not a 'nothing' face! What did I say wrong?" Zoro asked loudly. Sanji barely held back a snort, keeping his eyes away from Zoro's fish-out-of-water face. "This isn't still about earlier, is it?"
Diverging from initial plan, Sanji thought, his eyes widening slightly as he looked up. "Excuse me?" he asked, just to be sure. If Zoro just brought up their fight about Zoro not giving an inch about his past while requesting all of Sanji's past, then they most certainly had a problem. If Zoro was only talking about a couple of minutes earlier when he implied that he went looking for the strange little nervous kid before going to speak to Sanji, then his plan would go swimmingly. But, of course, that couldn't be so.
"I know you know what I'm talking about!" Zoro said, inclining his head and making his frown look more serious. "Earlier when I ask what you were thinking about and you started bitching about-"
"What?! I told you you didn't want to hear about what I was thinking about and, for the record, I don't bitch!" Sanji interrupted, swatting Zoro's hands away and stomping off. He was going to be angry about that one for quite a while.
"Hah! Yeah, right! You bitch all the time. And, anyway, I told you that I wanted to know about your past, you already knew that, so why the hell are you mad about it?" Zoro asked, having a surprisingly difficult time catching up with Sanji.
Sanji abruptly stopped walking and Zoro nearly tripped trying to stop, too. "Why am I mad...? Oh, Zoro." Sanji shook his head, glaring at Zoro. "If you don't backtrack and walk the hell away from me, this is going to get serious."
"What makes you think I'd walk away now? I've said over and over that I want to know about your past," Zoro said, turning himself towards Sanji. "I've already made myself clear about that, dart brow. You can't threaten me out of it."
Sanji pursed his lips, looking at the floor. "You want to know why I'm mad?" Sanji asked, glancing around them at the empty hall before looking square at Zoro. "Well, I've told you about my dad, about my mom before she died and afterward. I've told you about at least one specific memory from my past and about what happened with and to my adoptive parents. You know more about my past than anyone else here, and what do I know? I know that a dojo may have been involved in your past. To add to that, I know that you don't want me to know about your past and have decided that the best way to keep me from knowing is to lie and say you don't remember anything."
He said it all in a very quiet voice, in the calmest possible tone, with a deadly serious look in his eyes. Zoro stared at him, still mentally digesting everything he'd just heard. Standing up a little straighter, Sanji said, "Do consider that before you start demanding things again." He then walked away from Zoro, hoping what he said would take root in Zoro's brain with a good result.
oOo
Luffy peeked around the corner, sighing heavily when he realized the strange child wasn't there either. He'd looked just about everywhere, including several hiding places inside and outside of the orphanage. He'd asked everyone he passed if they'd seen a little boy or girl with a tall pink hat, but, apparently, no one had seen the child. It was at that point that Luffy decided he must be looking for a ninja.
That, according to various employees throughout the orphanage, was ridiculous. But, he didn't care at all. He wanted that kid to be his friend even more, knowing that the kid was a ninja. So, it was secret, stealthy search time. That's what he loudly told anyone who asked what he was doing.
"Oh!" Luffy dropped a fist in his open palm. "I forgot to check the infirmary!" he realized aloud, turning and walking away from the maid that he'd been talking to and heading towards the infirmary. He grinned, congratulating himself on his brilliant revelation. If the shy kid with the pink hat was there and he could see Nami, too, that would be like... "Catching two birds with one net? Or, fish?" Luffy puzzled, tilting his head to let his thoughts in at an angle.
Luffy walked straight into the infirmary, paying no attention to the nurse at the door that was trying to tell him to wait for permission to enter. He wandered over to Nami's bedside and sat down, lost in thought. "Y'know, Nami, I forgot what I came here for. I know there was something..."
"Young man, you can't be here right now!" a nurse whispered to him hoarsely, looking around like a squirrel or something. "Doctor Kureha will not be happy!"
Luffy hummed thoughtfully to himself, looking around. "Oh! I remember now!" he exclaimed, sliding off his seat and running around the room, looking under beds. "I'm looking for that funny kid with the pink hat! Hey, have you seen him, Nami?" Luffy asked his unconscious nakama.
A squeak from across the room caught Luffy's ever-mobile attention and the top of a pink hat held it. "There you are!" Luffy laughed, skipping towards the hat that was slowly moving out from behind an examination table on the other end of the room. "I wanna talk to you, kid!"
The kid with the pink hat squeaked again, jumped up and ran from the room with a laughing Luffy hot on their heels. "Wait up!" Luffy called, enjoying himself almost too much as he chased after the strange kid. "I want you to be my friend!"
"No!" the kid called back, booking it up the stairs.
"Why not?!" Luffy whined.
"Because!" The kid got off on the third floor and Luffy slammed into the door as it attempted to shut itself.
"Hey!" Luffy shouted, rubbing his forehead where it had met the door. "Sanji! Anyone! Catch that kid so I can talk to him!" he called, hoping Sanji had come back up and was not still in the kitchen, unavailable for helping him capture small animal-like children.
Down the hall and around the corner was a squeak, louder than before. A moment later, Sanji came around the corner holding the strange, squeak-prone kid high enough off the ground that their flailing limbs did no good towards their escape. "How did you know I was up here?" Sanji asked, bypassing the fact that he'd just captured a small child for absolutely no reason other than for Luffy to talk to them.
Luffy shrugged. "I'm lucky, that's how! Now, you," Luffy said, pointing to the squirming child Sanji was holding and grinning at them. "What's your name?"
"Lemme go!" the kid squeaked, flailing harder and causing Sanji to stumble back a step.
"Whoa, calm down, kid," Sanji soothed, laughing when the strange child listened. "Nobody here's gonna eat you, so just-"
"EAT ME?!" the child shrieked, scrambling to get out of Sanji's hold.
"Hey, we don't eat people! Geez, Sanji, don't tell him stuff like that!" Luffy scolded, walking over to them.
Sanji's jaw dropped slightly. "Didn't you hear what I just said? I said we won't eat him! Don't blame me for things I didn't say, idiot."
"Lemme go!" the kid squeaked again, putting their arms out to keep Luffy back for all the good it would do them. "Don't eat me!"
"Don't be silly! I wanna be your friend!" Luffy laughed, patting the top of the kid's hat.
The kid froze and stared at Luffy with wide eyes through their fluffy light brown hair. A blush bloomed on the kid's face and they grinned goofily. "Are you trying to flatter me, asshole~? Well, it's not working~!"
Luffy and Sanji exchanged a look before they both busted out laughing. "What was that?" Sanji asked, setting the kid down on the ground, but not letting go entirely.
"He's so much fun! Sanji, we have to introduce him to the others!" Luffy announced excitedly, seizing the kid's hand and leading them towards the elevator.
"Luffy," Sanji called, hesitantly. "Are you even sure it's a boy?"
"What do you mean? Of course he's a boy, Sanji, don't be rude. Are you a boy, kid?"
The kid blushed deep red. "Y-yes! I'm a boy, can't you t-tell? And, my name's not kid!" he stuttered.
"Oh, that was so many words!" Luffy shouted, astonished. "I wasn't sure you knew how to talk!"
"Luffy, he was talking earlier," Sanji reminded him, pressing the down button for the elevator. "Don't you remember? 'Lemme go' and 'don't eat me.'"
"I-I can talk just fine!" the yet-anonymous child said loudly. "I just d-don't talk to people who chase me!"
Luffy threw his head back and laughed, just as the elevator arrived. "Well, there wouldn't have been a chase if you hadn't run from me! I only want to talk to you, kid, that's all. And, since you can talk, you can tell me your name, now!"
"Ch-Chopper! My name is Tony Tony Chopper!"
oOo
"Zoro," Usopp called, waving Zoro over from down the hall and around the corner. "You have to come here, quickly! It's important!"
"No, I don't, and just tell me what it is," Zoro grumbled, taking his time getting to where Usopp was. He wasn't in any kind of mood to put up with Usopp's antics, but it was on the way to his and Luffy's room, so he supposed he had no choice.
"Come look! It's talking! Oh, but don't move too quickly or talk too loud, you might scare it!" Usopp whispered loudly, waving even more vigorously. That did very little to compel Zoro to move faster. "Hurry, we never know when it'll stop!"
Zoro rolled his eyes and grumbled as, when he got within an arm's length of Usopp, he was grabbed and pulled around the corner and to the open doorway of a room that was all too familiar. "What the hell do you want me to see in my own room that I haven't already seen?"
"B-but it's t-t-true! I a-am a doctor!" an adorably high voice squeaked indignantly from inside Zoro and Luffy's room. Zoro looked at Usopp suspiciously, then he peered into the room. Sitting on the bottom bunk was the strange little kid, pink hat and all, looking nervously between Luffy and Sanji.
Trying his hardest to pass over the amused smile Sanji was wearing, Zoro barged into the room and directed his attention to the kid whose gender he had yet to learn. "You guys are friends already? I should've figured," Zoro snorted, smirking at Luffy. Behind him, in the doorway, Usopp was stuttering about scaring a proverbial deer in the headlights.
"Hey Zoro!" Luffy greeted, waving enthusiastically and grabbing on to the back of the nervous kid's shirt when they tried to jump off the bed. "This is Chopper! He says he's a doctor and I believe him, but Sanji doesn't! Can you tell Sanji he's wrong, Zoro?"
"You're wrong, curlicue," Zoro deadpanned. "Now, how could that little toddler be a doctor?"
Chopper started to say something, but glanced at Sanji and squeaked shrilly before diving behind Luffy. "I-I just am! Pleasedon'tfight!" he wailed, pointing at Zoro and Sanji.
The blond was making a disdainful face at Zoro, while Zoro blatantly ignored him. Luffy looked at the two of them several times, pouting. "What happened this time? Didn't you take my advice, Zoro?" he whined, crossing his arms and directing his pout at Zoro.
"How many times do I have to say it ain't my fault?" Zoro snapped, raising his chin challengingly.
"I'm going back to the kitchen," Sanji said loudly, standing up and nodding kindly towards Chopper and Luffy. "I'll come get you both when dinner's done. And, Usopp, could you go find Vivi-chan, please? I need to talk to her." He left the room without even glancing at Zoro, leaving behind a stunned Luffy and Usopp and a confused deer in the headlights.
"D-d-did you s-see that, Luffy?!" Usopp asked urgently, craning his neck and making sure Sanji was definitely out of earshot.
"I did!" Luffy answered, eyes bulging out of his head. "This is terrible! You've really made him mad, Zoro!"
"Th-that was 'really mad?'" Chopper asked, looking around at the other boys for answers.
"Yeah!" Usopp hurried over and sat down on the bed next to Luffy and Chopper. "Friends bicker, Sanji and Zoro fight, but anybody who's really mad is quietly ticking like a time bomb! This has happened before, you know, Chopper. Once, they didn't talk to each other for nearly two years!"
Zoro growled. "Shut up! That was different!"
"No, not really," Luffy said, shaking his head. "You should've taken my advice, Zoro!"
"Boys!" They all looked to the empty doorway that became occupied momentarily with an out of breath Vivi. "Oh! Hello, there! You were with Ms. Doctor, weren't you? Nice to meet you," Vivi greeted Chopper politely. "My name is Vivi-"
"Is something wrong? You look exhausted," Usopp observed and Luffy agreed.
"Oh!" Vivi gasped. "Right! I forgot! I came here to tell you something important!"
"Well? What is it?"
"Nami-san's awake!"
:O
This will prove interesting... Won't it? Maybe... xD