Kitsune here with the next chapter dump. Sorry for the delay, I wanted to work out a couple of plot things in this and then stuff happened. One thing being Uncle ended up in the hospital again so… he's out now but my timing got thrown off. Sorry again.

This dump is dedicated to Anj, who has definitely had a bad week and needs all the hugs. Also there will be notes at the end of the chapter dump.

Question of the chapter: "do you sleep with stuffed animals?" I do. I adore build-a-bears. But I have to keep them in a small pile because my bed is crowded at night with all the animals!

Zoro couldn't say he was exactly surprised to see the Red Force appear in the distance. It had more to do with him being used to strange things happening to him than actually expecting to run into the Yonko. Not when he was on his way to Dawn Island himself. But again, stranger things had happened and he supposed it would be the last place anyone would look for him.

That didn't mean he was happy to have Benn stick a gun in his face when he tried to board. The first mate snorted after a second. "It's just you."

"Oiy."

"False alarm, captain." Benn continued as if he hadn't said anything before moving to help him board.

"Zoro?" Shanks sputtered, "What the hell are you doing out in the Calm Belt?"

The young bounty hunter frowned. "This isn't the Calm Belt. It's the East Blue. I'm on my way to the Goa kingdom." He crossed his arms, "Didn't expect you to be returning there so soon."

"Well, at least we know the rumors of the kid showing up in the West Blue and Paradise are likely true." Yasopp laughed.

"What?" Zoro asked, getting annoyed by the pirates and by the three half naked teens trying to sneak up on him. He figured those were the kids Shanks supposedly 'kidnapped' but you'd have to be blind to miss something being off about them. Not to mention Shanks wasn't the type to kidnap civilians. Zoro might be a bounty hunter and usually at odds with pirate crews but even he knew Shanks' men were some of the good ones.

"We're in the middle of the Calm Belt, you directionally challenged idiot." Shanks half laughed. "Rockstar, tie up his skiff. We'll tow you out. How the hell you manage this I don't want to know…."

"It's not like I plan it! Would you three back off!" He snapped at the brats as one sniffed his swords.

"Don't." Shanks cautioned. "Not unless you want to spent the whole trip in the brig. They're jumpy enough about people and yelling at them makes it worse."

Watching the way the three scrambled back, silent snarls stretching their faces he could believe it. So he crouched low and looked them in the eyes. "I didn't mean to yell. Please, don't touch my swords. They mean a lot to me." He explained.

"It's nice of you to try, but they don't spea-" Yasopp began only to trail off as the smallest approached.

Zoro kept his eyes slightly to the side as the boy stared right at him intently. It was hard holding still when they were nose to nose; harder even when he felt those teeth tug on his hair. But he'd caught the wild look in those intense eyes. When the boy shoved against him he allowed it, easily falling to sit cross legged but going no further. He silently bared his teeth when the boy bumped him again, not willing to be pushed further. It seemed enough for now as the boy seemed to grin back wolfishly, tongue hanging out of his mouth before sneezing and returning to the others. The moment over the three practically vanished from sight.

"Interesting brats you kidnapped."

"Two of them are older than you." Benn commented, offering him a hand up.

"Yeah well, I'm only half crazy." He nodded to where they'd been. "They're full crazy." He looked over at Shanks, wanting the full story more than ever but knowing better than to push. Still… "It's a good thing you took them. They're not safe; they won't run if someone spooks them. They'd kill them. Might not right away, but you could see it in the little one's eyes."

There was a moment of silence as the pirates looked around for the three. After a moment one of the crewmen let out a nervous chuckle. "Guess it's a good thing we put locks on the doors…"

Zoro just shrugged. What did he care? It would be an interesting trip if nothing else.

"Who's a hungry little terror? Yes you are." Konnon cooed at Sabo who was lying under the main table in the mess hall watching him. Where the other two were he had no clue, but he wasn't too concerned. The last week the three of them seemed to have settled down some and had stopped popping out of nowhere to scare the crap out of the crew. Likely they were hiding out somewhere waiting for their brother to bring food back, which was exactly why Sabo was here.

Nothing unusual about that by this point. Not since they'd found the mess hall, anyway. He smiled over at the boy as he blended the dried sausage with ground fresh meat. Not too much or none of them would touch it, even when he added the orange slices and steamed spinach they seemed to like. Konnon turned to pull those off the stove, laughing slightly as Sabo shifted forward slightly, panting. Kid must be pretty hungry. He didn't remember if anyone found them to give them breakfast this morning.

Thinking that had him adding some more ground steak to the mix before putting the whole foul looking mess on a piece of an old sail and using a cord to hold it all together. Konnon wasn't too worried about Sabo being able to open it all up later, and finding the smelling rags later was a small price to pay to save the crew the sight of the kid literally wolfing the mix down only to throw it back up wherever his brothers were for them to eat. He'd only needed to have that happen once, thank you very much. Pirates were surprisingly squeamish about that.

Sabo didn't growl this time when the cook placed the makeshift bag next to the table, but he was a little slow to take it. Konnon didn't take it personally. Instead he went back to the preparatory work needed for dinner, watching out of the corner of his eye as the blond finally picked up the knot between his teeth and slunk to the door, a little unsteady with the weight of it. He offered a weak growl at Zoro who had been about to enter. Instead the bounty hunter moved to the side and let the wild boy pass with a raised eyebrow.

"Haven't seen the other two around." Zoro commented coming in and helping himself to a beer.

"Oh, I'm sure they're around. Probably sulking with how boring everything has been in the Calm Belt. Sabo's a bit better about being in closed spaces with people then they are, so I'm not surprised he's slinking around for food." He replied. "We should be leaving the Calm Belt tonight. Watch, the moment they scent an island they'll be running about the deck getting underfoot again."

"Probably." Zoro shrugged, turning to leave. "It's not like they could get into any trouble on board anyway."

"Right." Konnon nodded to himself. They were just sulking. Nothing to worry about. Still… if he hadn't seen the others by the day after tomorrow he'd mention it to Shanks. It was probably nothing, since Red Force was a big ship, but it couldn't hurt to be cautious.