Sanji continued to tap the pencil against the table and bite down on his lit cigarette. He couldn't think of anything, which was really a first for him. Usual this would come as a snap to him, but this time, it didn't. It just showed how much he actually knew about Zetsumei.
Sanji looked down to his list. There was one thing on it. One. And this was to bake the woman a cake. Everyone needed a cake on their birthday, right?
Other than that one thing, Sanji had absolutely no idea what to get her, nor what he could do for her. Robin had told him to be his romantic and quixotic self, but that seemed harder to do this time around. He wanted to win her over, prove that he wasn't the child she was making him out to be. He wanted her to know his feelings, but if he was going to tell her, he was going to do it with style. But...he just didn't know how that was going to work.
Sanji sighed and began writing things down absentmindedly, not even noticing what he was actually putting down on the paper. Maybe just jotting down the first things to mind would help him later.
"Hey, Ero-cook!"
Sanji quickly hid the paper in his pocket and continued with what he was doing earlier: cleaning the floor.
The door opened and Zoro walked in, finding everything completely normal.
"What is it you need, Marimo?" Sanji asked calmly, stopping in his frantic mopping and looked towards the swordsman.
"Do we have any more booze?" Zoro asked, scratching his head.
Sanji looked at the swordsman like he was stupid. "You just drank most of what we had last night!" The chef knew that didn't matter to the swordsman and proceeded to head towards the pantry. "I'll see what we have left after your binge last night..."
Zoro walked over to the table, noticing the pencil sitting there with a notepad. He could see that the chef had torn something off rather quickly in order to conceal it because of the leftover paper with the end of a letter on it. However, when he looked to the ground, he saw a crumpled piece of paper, which he picked up and looked at. Zoro couldn't help but smirk in amusement to what he was reading, so much so he wasn't even paying attention to Sanji talk.
"There's about three barrels and ten bottles left of sake," Sanji said, grabbing a bottle from a shelf. He sighed, annoyed, and looked at the bottle. "At the rate you drink we'll-"
"'Dinner under the stars'?" Zoro chuckled.
Sanji froze, his face noticeably paling when hearing what Zoro was reading. He knew it was the paper from his pocket, and when he checked his pockets to see, he found he was right.
"'Bouquet of flowers'?" Zoro scoffed again. "'A love poem/song', 'dancing under the moonlight', 'romantic dinner for two'?"
Sanji quickly ran out of the pantry, face flushed crimson. "Give that back, Idiot!"
"What the hell is this?" Zoro laughed, looking to the chef. "Planning something for Chibi?"
"That's none of your business, Jackass!" Sanji shouted. "And don't insult her!" He reached for the paper, but Zoro pulled it out of his reach. This continued on for some time until the two men began fighting, almost sending the kitchen into shambles.
Both men stopped fighting when the door to the kitchen suddenly opened and they were quite shocked to see Zetsumei, who was also fairly shocked at the sight in front of her. Sanji sat on Zoro's chest, gripping the swordsman's falling off jacket, while Zoro gripped the chef's jacket and gray shirt. To Zetsumei, she found this situation rather compromising, but in actuality it was far from that.
"Sorry for interrupting," Zetsumei said with a small, joshing, smile. "I'll leave you two to your…foreplay." Zetsumei then shut the door, obviously laughing as she left.
The two men were two shocked to even say anything, let alone straighten the situation out. They looked to each other and soon jumped away, completely disgusted with the idea entitled.
"Already done with your fun?"
Zoro opened his eye and looked up, clicking his tongue irritably when seeing Zetsumei standing there with her arms crossed.
"What the hell to you want, Chibi?" Zoro asked, closing his eye again and settling down to continue his nap.
Zetsumei's eye flinched at the nickname, but she continued talking nonetheless. "I needed a favor."
Zoro scoffed, amused with the word 'favor'. "I don't think so."
"Not even going to hear me out?" Zetsumei asked, making the swordsman open his eye again. "I'm sure you'll reconsider when hearing my offer."
Zoro looked at the woman, narrowing his eye at her before hearing her out. Once she was done, he could help but smirk and agree to her request. There was no way he was going to pass this chance up.
Later that evening:
"Hey, Soumei," Luffy asked, stuffing his face with food like he usually did at dinner. "What do you want for your birthday?"
Zetsumei paused, her mouth open and the soup spoon inches away from making contact. She looked towards Robin and Nami, glaring at the two. "You told them?"
"It might have slipped out," Robin chuckled before taking a bite of her salad.
Zetsumei sighed and looked back to her soup, answering Luffy. "I don't want anything." This shocked mostly everyone in the room. "And I surely don't want to celebrate."
"Why not?" Usopp asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"You're turning the big three-zero," Franky said with a smile. "We need to do something super!"
"No thank you," Zetsumei replied, taking a bite of her soup and ignoring all further conversation, or questions, about her birthday. Thirty was not a great age to turn, it just meant she was getting older.
"Come on, Zetsumei," Chopper pleaded, looking to the woman next to him. "Let us celebrate!"
"Yeah!" Luffy shouted, jumping to his feet and pointing his meat bone at her. "As captain, I order that we have a party for you Soumei!"
"I refuse," Zetsumei said flatly, not caring whether he was captain or not.
"I refuse your refusal!" Luffy said, crossing his arms with a large grin.
Zetsumei froze and looked to Luffy, narrowing an eye at him before saying. "I refuse your refusal to my refusal."
Everyone seemed rather surprised that Zetsumei was saying this, considering if was rather childish. Especially when the argument continued to go back and forth before the two.
"I refuse your refusal to my refusal of your refusal!" Luffy declared.
"And I refuse your refusal to my refusal to your refusal to my refusal earlier."
"Is she really having this argument with Luffy?" Nami asked, ignoring the argument as it continued. And as Nami feared, the others nodded, quite surprised themselves.
"Luffy," Sanji snapped, "give it a-"
"I triply refuse your refusal of my refusal!" Luffy shouted before Sanji could continue.
Zetsumei opened her mouth to counter, but she found herself without anything to say. This made Luffy grin confidently, knowing he had won. The marine sighed at this and shook her head, standing from her seat. "Fine… I don't care anymore." Zetsumei walked to the door, opening it before saying, "I'll be in the gym is anyone needs me." She then walked out, slamming the door behind her.
Before anyone could say anything, Zoro had stood from his spot too, grabbing his bottle of sake and making his way towards the door. "I think I'll join her. See ya later." He then left also.
The other blinked blankly, except from the idiot captain who continued to stuff his face with food.
"Did Zoro-san say what I think he said?" Brook asked, looking to his friends.
"Yeah…" Franky answered.
"Since when did he start getting along with her?" Usopp asked, looking around; however no one had an answer for him. They were just as puzzled as he. That was all except the chef, who was suspicious about this recent change and had begun to fear the worse from it.
