"WHAT WE YOU THINKING?! DO YOU REALISE HOW DANGEROUS IT WAS TO GO OUT TO SEA WITHOUT LIFE JACKETS?! AND IN A SHIP THAT'S NOT SEAWORTHY."
"We didn't know she was going to break."
"Did any of you check before you took her out?"
Silence followed.
"One of your friends is in the hospital for a serious head injury and the other is unconscious from exhaustion, this is a very serious matter I hope you all understand that!"
"We're sorry."
"Yeah well it's okay to say that now…" The voice grumbled. "I'll be back later."
A door clunked shut.
What the fuck happened?
Exhaustion sounded right though; he was conscious enough to hear what was going on but opening his eyes and moving seemed to be off the table which meant he was just stuck lying wherever the fuck they were.
His hand was warm and it took him a few seconds to realise that someone obviously had their hand resting over it, the touch reassuring in his current situation.
"Are they sure Zoro doesn't need to go to the hospital too?" Asked Luffy.
"The paramedics cleared him. Luckily Sanji grabbed him before he went down, and they said he didn't show signs of drowning so he just needs to rest up, Zoro just pushed himself a little too far today." Nami followed.
"Yeah because of us…"
Sanji.
His voice was the closest of those that had spoken so far; much much closer.
Was he the one holding his hand?
"Like we told the guy, none of us knew that the Merry was going to sink otherwise we wouldn't have risked it, especially not considering we could have just asked Tom-sensei and Paulie if they would help fix it."
"If anything it's my fault; I would've been able to spot that she had problems but I was off on that stupid sail boat."
"It's not your fault, Franky."
"It's no one's fault."
The policeman came back ten minutes or so later and basically just shouted at them again for being idiots before stating that their parents had been called.
Rayleigh.
How many more chances was he going to get before Rayleigh decided he was too much hassle? He kept doing this to him, over and over, to the point where he had no idea why the old man even wanted him around?
After that from what he could make out there was a steady stream of pick-ups with the first being Nami who was collected by 'Hachi' and 'Nojiko'. He had no idea who they were but they were obviously the navigator's family.
Next it was Luffy with the familiar voice of Sabo making an appearance alongside a sweet sounding female voice identified as 'Makino'.
Franky and Robin left with Tom and Iceburg.
And finally Usopp, Chopper, Brook, and Kaya followed.
Which left just them.
Zoro could feel the shakes in the hand over his before the click of a lighter followed.
He's smoking because he's scared.
Now would be a great time to wake up.
Fucking get up!
With a groan he forced his eye open a crack feeling like absolute crap and more tired than he ever could have imagined possible.
"Zoro…"
He looked up a little to find Sanji sat beside him looking both terrified and relieved.
His bad eye stung like crazy.
"Son of a bitch!" He cursed.
"The seawater got into it, they flushed it out a while ago but it's gonna' sting a while."
Zoro nodded before gingerly attempting to push himself upright as the muscles in his stomach protested violently against even the smallest movement.
"Woah, woah, woah…" Sanji tried to get him to lie back down but he just continued until he was vaguely upright and leaning back against the wall.
It was ridiculous how out of breath even just doing that had made him.
After a few seconds he spoke up.
"You're okay, right?"
Sanji nodded.
"Uh yeah, I'm fine. I don't exactly have anything to worry about, it's either gonna' be Reiju or Zeff and neither of them are gonna' chew me out about going on the Merry."
It's that Zeff is going to chew him out for being with him and nearly getting killed.
"Just blame it on me, say it was my fault."
The blonde scowled.
"How the hell would it be your fault?!" He growled. "Don't be stupid; my home life doesn't have variables and yours might, if anything we blame this all on me…"
"Like hell!"
"Exactly, so you're not taking the blame either; this wasn't anyone's fault so we'll just leave it that way."
Sanji was still holding onto his hand.
The door clicked open before Reiju peeped her head round.
The hand retracted quickly.
"What the hell am I going to do with you two?!"
They both looked guilty.
She walked over and pulled her little brother into a smushing hug.
"God, don't scare me like that! Zeff called me from the restaurant to tell me, what the fuck where you doing going on that death trap?!"
"We didn't know it was going to sink!" Sanji retorted. "I don't know how many more times we have to say that?!"
"Are you okay, Zoro?" She asked softly.
He nodded.
"Apparently they couldn't get through at your house."
Oh right Rayleigh has the night shift today, the last thing he needs is to have to worry about this rather than sleeping.
Reiju seemed to notice something in his expression.
"Hey, Sanji and I are going to the Baratie for our shifts if you wanna' come with, Zeff won't mind?"
I'm sure he would… but it would mean not disturbing Rayleigh for a few hours at least.
Zoro nodded.
"Thanks."
Sanji smirked.
"Ayyyy jiji's gonna' have a new chore boy."
Reiju gave her brother a light shove.
"He already said you're on service tonight, the new guy called in sick and Patty won't do it."
"WHAT?! Why can't you do it?"
"Because I don't want to." She answered matter of factly. "That's why I volunteered you."
"REIJU!"
Zoro laughed.
His stomach churned the entire way to the restaurant which was only made worse by the fact that the Baratie was halfway between their prefecture and his old prefecture; Zoro wasn't exactly in a hurry to ever go back there after all.
Sanji was quiet on the drive, head resting against the window as he looked out at the scenery and Reiju's attention was focused on the road so he just sat there and tried not to let his own brain scare the living daylights out of him about 'Zeff' was going to react to the mystery visitor.
The first and last time he'd stepped foot in the Baratie had been when Rayleigh handed over a ridiculously large amount of money to pay for the damage he'd caused to Sanji's hearing aids, not exactly something he wanted to remember in a hurry.
The restaurant staff hadn't exactly been too welcoming to him at the time, not that he blamed them, but he could only hope that some of them had moved on during those years.
Knowing his luck they wouldn't have though.
That was if the owner even let him in full stop.
Especially considering what just happened to them down at the docks.
Would he find some way for it to be his fault?
He sighed.
"Here we are."
Reiju pulled up outside a familiar looking building.
The owner was sat on the steps out front waiting for them when they arrived.
Oh boy…
He heard Sanji grumble quietly before reluctantly throwing the door open and climbing out.
"What did you do this time, brat?"
"We thought we'd recreate Titanic for a group project… what do you think?" The blonde replied sarcastically.
Reiju locked the car before nudging him forwards encouragingly.
Zeff noticed immediately.
"What's he doing here?"
"Thought you could use the help, you know with us being understaffed today and all?" She offered. "Be nice, the kid jumped in for Sanji after he fell off the boat."
That seemed to catch his attention.
The blonde scowled.
"I don't appreciate you talking about me when I can't see what you're saying!" He scorned.
"Sorry, eggplant."
Zeff seemed to exhale deeply before getting to his feet and crossing his arms.
"So you're my chore boy for the shift, eh?"
Zoro nodded.
"Yes, Sir."
"Fine… Reiju, eggplant, go show him the kitchens and get him an apron."
"Okay." Sanji nodded before turning to him with a smile.
"You two go on ahead; I need to talk to Zeff about something real quick."
The blonde scoffed, clearly knowing what they were going to talk about, before continuing on anyway.
"Fine, come on mosshead."
He followed him inside.
Reiju walked over to Zeff with a guilty smile.
"I can explain."
"Go on then."
"He's a good kid I promise."
The old man scoffed.
"I'll believe that when I see it."
"He's Sanji's friend, you have to at least try and be nice to him, okay?"
"I'm not a child, Reiju." Zeff smirked.
"Oh hush, we both know where Sanji got his stubbornness from and it wasn't me." She teased.
The old man smiled.
"He's not going to wreck my kitchen is he?"
"I honestly don't know."
Zeff shook his head.
"Fine…"
"Hey you never know, the kid might surprise you."
"I'm already surprised enough by how the hell you managed to persuade me to let that heathen into my restaurant to begin with."
Reiju scoffed with a smirk.
"Because my little brother has you wrapped around his little finger."
"That is not true!"
"Suuuuuuure it isn't, jiji."
Zeff's hand came to rest on her back as they headed on inside.
"You're menaces, the pair of ya'."