Original Characters © Eiichiro Oda. Cover Art & Creative Story © shipfiend.

"Lose Control" – J Balvin

Zoro banged the cabinet closed as Sanji stirred his pot, tasting the food. Zoro reeked of sweat and blood, but that was not the most intolerable thing to Sanji. No, it was the incessant muttering under his breath. When Zoro was really, truly angry, he shut down. He was quick and quiet with his anger. It hurt. However, right now, he was like a petulant child that did not get dessert. Quite frankly, Sanji would not even get to dessert if Zoro was going to stay in his space any longer.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sanji said as he tossed a few more spices into the pot, putting to use Usopp's, or more specifically Kaya's well-stocked kitchen.

Zoro snorted, "Nothing is the fucking matter."

Sanji put his spoon down and turned, "Alright, relax."

"I am relaxed!"

Sanji chewed on his lip from screaming at the unruly man. Truth was, Zoro had every reason to be frustrated. Getting Franky did not nearly bring them as close to Nami as they thought. For all they knew, Nami was locked up somewhere but without Usopp confirming anything, breaking into Impel Down or Enies Lobby was a suicide mission. Zoro had ridden his irrational tendencies down as he trained with Mihawk and Boa more, but Sanji could read Zoro like a recipe. He was bottling shit up and that was unhealthy.

"Zoro," Sanji came forward and pressed his palms into the smooth granite. "Why don't you stop pretending?"

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Zoro said as he slammed the fridge shut for the fifteenth time.

Sanji took off his apron and leaned back against the counter. "Okay, let's cut the crap, alright? You've never been good at expressing yourself, so what do you want to do? Knock me out? Punch out the lights? Set the dining room table on fire? What-"

"What are we even doing?" Emotions played across the tanned face, his eye nearly healed now but sealed shut with a pale scar. He paced around, his hands in his shorts but his feet kicking anything in his path. "It's like time has stopped. Nothing is happening and I'm…I'm fucking lost!" Zoro banged his palms against the kitchen island.

If Sanji were a betting man, he would say that Zoro was heartbroken. He always wondered how the man would wear it…when it came to someone besides Luffy. However, before Nami, Zoro would have just stormed off. He would have probably challenged Sanji to a fight and then walked away, leaving his anger and his feelings inside himself like a burning furnace. Sanji imagined that in some strange and small way, Nami leaving was forcing Zoro to acknowledge things within himself. To express himself…because it was much harder and larger than the weights he was used to carrying.

He let the man relax or at least feel somewhat comfortable in his utterings by not looking up. He spoke clearly as his blonde hair hide his eyes. "You cannot lose control now…what you're feeling…let it be felt. Be angry. Be sad. Demand change…but don't take it out on my kitchen."

Sanji ended with a chuckle as he quickly caught Zoro blinking his eye. Was he crying? No…he doesn't. Well…

Instead of inquiring more on the fighter, Sanji turned back as Zoro tossed out a joke even when his throat sounded dry and his voice heavy. "You shitty cook. Just making yourself at home, aren't you?"

Sanji waved a finger in the air, "You smell that? That's fucking delicious food. So, go wash your disgusting filthy self and come back and set the table."

Sanji heard a snort and then a shuffle as Zoro went out of the kitchen and to his room. He stopped chopping for a second to think about taking his own advice. Perhaps he should reach back out to Tashigi. Maybe she would have some insight on Enies Lobby that Usopp just is not getting. Her boss was married to that FBI Agent, wasn't he? Maybe…

The past few weeks, well since the moment Nami was taken, have been tense. Between what they knew and what they thought they knew, Sanji felt a tiny amount of regret. There were some other options…if he did not have his own fears. However, he disowned them as much as they disowned him. He could not back to them…I can't.

Sanji shook his head and continued chopping, giving credit to the onions for his watery gaze.

She felt his lips against her own, soft, so much softer than she would have ever imagined them. His dark eyes looking at her like they reflected the world back at him. She saw her hands move before she felt them, then suddenly the prickle of static and fire against her fingertips brought a sensation to grow in the pit of her stomach. Then he just had to smile, eyebrows furrowed as if angry but that was his stoic expression. One that urged her forward, toward him. Toward his hard muscles and soft words. Towards…

"Must be a really good dream." Nami's eyes sprang open as green hair in her dreams were overtaken by black hair in her reality.

Nami did not give him a response as she sat up and glanced at the sun from beyond her lawn chair's umbrella. Ace continued as he found himself on the floor beside her.

"You've got quite the setup, don't you?" Ace peeled an orange and was about to pop a slice into his mouth when Nami snatched it from his grasp.

"What do you think you're doing?" She demanded with a firm frown.

Ace shrugged his shoulders. "I was hungry."

"This is mine."

"And?"

"And?" Nami repeated incredulously. "And as much as you don't call me Captain, that's what I am. To you."

"That's fair. But I figure there's a reason you hide all the citrus. You know it curbs scurvy."

Nami settled herself back into the chair as she continued to peel the orange. "So, do potatoes and broccoli, so why don't you raid the rest of the pantry?"

Ace smirked, "Fine. I'll bite. You don't like me, do you?"

"Why would I need to? I'm just taking you across uncharted waters to some uninhabited place for something you aren't going to tell me. So-"

"I'm going to kill a man." Ace said bluntly as he leaned back and let the sunshine warm his bare skin.

"What?" Nami asked almost hesitantly.

Ace continued nonchalantly, "Well, to be fair…I'm going to try my very best to bring him back alive. But…if he resists, then I will kill him."

"Why tell me this?" She fidgeted, suddenly aware that she did not have even a knife on her. Something told her he wouldn't do anything, but then again, it's not every day that people confess their pre-mediated kills.

"Perhaps I'm interested in the person you keep trying to call. Robin, is it?" Nami stopped, and Ace watched her freeze. "I tend to fall asleep anywhere. You'd be surprised the things you hear when someone thinks they're alone."

Nami swung her legs quickly and propped her elbows on her knees as she faced him, her waves framing her face but her expression cold and lifeless. "Whatever you think you've heard is nothing you need to know."

Ace flipped, his elbow on the floor and his head propped into his open palm. "I am not here to stop you if that's what you are thinking. You're right…you're just a means of transportation. But…it's not every day that your driver goes around blowing up ships, you know?"

"What I do-"

"Is your business. I'm not here for that…I am just wondering if you know what you're getting yourself into."

Nami scoffed, "You don't know me, Ace."

"I'd like to."

"You think you're hot shit, huh?"

"I'm a personable guy, sue me."

"I would if you had a cent to your name."

"I've got a bounty."

Nami smirked, "And I'll be sure to cash on it, as soon as I can."

She popped an orange slice into her mouth and got up, her long legs walking over him like he was an annoying bump into the road. Ace watched her leave and called after her, "Careful. You almost sounded like you wanted to keep me around."

Nami tossed him the finger and moved below deck. As she descended, she felt the heaviness back in her chest. Ace was a distraction she sometimes welcomed because otherwise, she would see his face when she closed her eyes. Him lying in that bed unconscious. Him on that screen as Arlong shouted his orders. Him smiling at her from the end of her couch as she kicked him to change the channel. Sometimes the dreams would be too vivid. She would remember the feel of his chest on her back, his hands coming down her arms. Such tiny moments that suddenly felt so magnified, so embedded in her brain that the fair hair on her arms and the back of her neck would rise at just the imagination of him whispering something stupid to her. So soft so that no one else could hear but her.

Which is why Nami threw herself into her "work". If she could distract herself enough, blow up enough ships, taunt enough criminals, pretend for a moment that he did not exist…the hollowness she felt would not make her sink to the bottom of the ocean like an anchor. Damn, Boa. She was right…I was blind. She did not catch herself the first time or the tenth time or the millionth time, because her heart betrayed her. Wanting to be near him, wanting to see him. How stupid could I have been?

Nami considered for a moment what sleeping with someone would be like. She had not done it in so long since she met Zoro to be precise. But then she would have that dream, of him above her, holding her, telling her she was his…safe…protected…wanted. And just like that, the thought of anyone else was like acid on her tongue. She could not bring herself to even tease the possibility, which made Ace more of an aggravation than a welcomed invitation. And now, he's digging…

Nami finished the rest of her orange and went to her quarters as she pulled out her maps, planning out what else she could from the little information she managed to get off Robin before she disappeared off the face of the earth. I'll be damned if I let another woman screw me over…I'm finishing this.

And just like that, Nami went back to her plans and her maps…a faint image of his face tucked in the back of her mind where it was safe to dream.

A fucking chainsaw. That is what Franky imagined he needed to get through the shit he had buried himself in. Between the inhuman glares Zoro would give him to the strange silence Brook imposed, Franky was lost.

Usopp could dig all he wanted, but Franky was just trying to buy some time. When Brook had come to see him, the tall man nearly ordered him to not speak of the woman. Of Robin. The one who started this all. Brook would not even have a leg to stand on if he did not call Franky a name that he thought he buried. Cutty Flam. How the fuck does that skinny afro know my name?

He chuckled in frustration and thought how Zoro had his headache and it looked like Franky had his own, though any memory of her somehow made his balls hurt. And it's not blue balls…

Brook shared nothing else but that she was a part of something bigger, something connected to the Revolutionary Army. As much as Franky was all about dissent and anarchy, he also had to think of his family…who for all he knew was rotting away in Impel Down as he twiddled his thumbs in some dead girl's mansion.

So, he put himself to work, or else he would lose his mind. If he could manage to be helpful in some way, perhaps he could get away. He fixed faucets that Usopp said was on his list of "to-dos". This also meant cleaning out the gutters and installing that garbage disposal. It meant helping Law set up random equipment, so it could keep a coma patient alive. He was the mansion's handyman, but the joke was being played out.

Franky was restless, and so he considered more seriously that in lieu of his apparent capture and being held hostage, he needed to hang someone else to dry. So, let it be Robin. Cause fuck her. She got me into this mess…she's gonna get me out.

His name was being rung again, and by "rung", he meant Perona's not so dainty shrill called for him to answer the door. He used that to his advantage, once…until the shiny "anklet" Perona gifted him made him nearly unconscious as volts of electricity shot through his body before he could make it past the gate. She kept convincing him that "it wasn't intended to do that", as if testing to see if he'd try again. Stupid him, he did. He nearly convinced himself he had it figured out, but the petite woman was a little technician. One from hell, but good with her tools if she needed to be. God knows if this some secret sex toy either… And so, he had learned to just answer the door like the glorified butler he was.

Franky shouted back through gritted teeth as the rest of them went on their merry way. Apparently kidnapping and holding people for ransom was something they got "a taste" for, and Franky was their newest pet. He firm hand gripped the double doors as he pulled it open, fully expecting the blonde pervert and a thousand bags of groceries.

Sanji popped his head out from the kitchen as the others made their way down to the foyer. "Who is it?" they called out.

Franky was frozen as the tall woman titled her head to the side and gave him that vicious grin of hers. Before he could say one word, a hand was between his legs and fire shot straight to his brain as his body felt like it was being electrocuted again. There were gasps behind him but nothing that matched his own howl. Through it all, she leaned forward and spoke calmly and clearer into his ear, "Missed me?"

What the actual fuck. Franky's thought was made audible as he crumbled to the ground and the others addressed the newcomer. It seemed like Franky was never going to leave at this rate…at least, not as a man.

A/N: Fun fact, I often have the "eyes bigger than your stomach" syndrome. In that, I pile a ton onto my plate thinking I'm gonna die if I don't eat it all…but then only manage to finish 1/3 of my plate.

I will admit, I may have bitten off more than I could chew cause I got a fanfiction within a fanfiction…and suddenly went, "Oh, but what about-" and "what if I added-" …point is…less is more, so I'm trying to reel all my "clever" plots back in and just focus. Cause I gotta do ZoNa justice…rather than make this so confusing that I forget what I was writing.

Once again, having giant plots decides but then forgetting how things all lead up one another…#writerproblems BUT I'm working through it – so yeah be honest. "Hey shipfiend, you're losing me…this story is getting too big…or too wild…or not clear." Cause in my head, I'm a freaking genius, but on paper…it might as well be a happy seal flapping against a keyboard, so. Ya know.

BUT here we are. Robin to the rescue? Nami's off doing her thang, just clarifying for everyone…they still got feelings for each other, but a girl can forget when you're out plotting international espionage, I guess. To me, I think Nami has great leadership quality…I mean, she had to have been doing stuff away from Arlong on her own – so I have no qualms about seeing her rise "in ranks" like this. Let ma girl power pose and f ish up. I'm here for it.

Here's to more – stay tuned!

XoXo shipfiend