Hallo and welcome back!
Also, Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate!
A huge thank you to those of you who kudosed, followed and faved the fic so far and of course SomethingGhostly for beta reading!
Now have fun reading!
Last time Perona had seen things she shouldn't have. Repeatedly. Now she struggles to make sense of everything.
The next time she pushed through his bedroom wall she hoped to see him sweaty and straining against his sheets. It would mean that he had just been doing it out of habit every night around the same time and not because he had put on a show for her like he'd claimed. His words hadn't left her for days, putting on a show for her would mean that he expected her to like it, right? Who would like watching that? It wasn't pretty, it wasn't cute. And she was known to like cute things.
But. But as hard as she tried to get the pictures out of her head, as much as she tried to convince herself that she hadn't liked that supposed show… she had come to his room 17 times. In a row. And everytime she returned to her body it had been hot and tingly and slimey.
Her hopes were disappointed. He was on the bed, but he wasn't naked and he wasn't sweaty, and he wasn't straining. The sight in front of her maybe scared her even more. The dumb brute was leaning against his headboard… reading. Who would have guessed the guy knew how to read?
"Haven't pictured you as a reading person."
He scoffed without looking up, "I'm not."
She floated closer to him, turning in the air to put her head between the book and his legs, quickly jerking back without even getting a glance at the title when she realised just how close she was to that thing.
"What are you reading?" she asked instead, floating at his side to look over his shoulder to see actual words packed tightly on the page instead of pictures with minimal description. He really was reading. Like actually reading. Like an adult… with a brain.
"Robin read it before we got separated. She used to tell me about her books and it's really annoying not knowing how the story ends," he explained, calm but kind of ...sad?
She had known that he cared a lot about his captain and she'd been able to relate because Moria had been like a father to her, but she hadn't known that he felt that strongly for the others, too. For a second she wondered if maybe it was just the captain and Nico Robin, like they were a couple, but then she remembered that Nico Robin had been given a bounty of 79,000,000 at the age of 8 because the government feared her knowledge and intelligence. Perona wasn't stupid, but she was very much aware that she wasn't anywhere close to that woman and even she found him bland and dense…
Not cute at all.
"I miss them," he said after a stretch of silence.
"Me too," she admitted instead of telling him that at least he would see them again. Since his captain's appearance in the newspaper months ago they hadn't heard anything about any of them, who knew if they were still alive, who knew that they would stay alive?
"I'm sorry I watched you," she said into the silence that seemed alright with him, but made her absolutely uncomfortable. Probably because it made her think about the things he did in the silence of the night. She probably wouldn't have brought that up if he hadn't looked so c- lost in that moment, thinking about his crew.
He looked at her, mouth hanging open stupidly, eye widened in surprise. Yeah, why had she apologized? It was his fault he did things like that in his room!
"I don't give a fuck," he said shaking his head.
He didn't give a… How was that idiot so irritating? What did he mean he didn't give a fuck? And why did he have to be so crude about it?
He scoffed, "Don't look at me like that. I'm not the one flying around watching people jerk off in the middle of the night."
Oh, oh that was rich coming from him, he'd been doing it ev- he held up his hand right when she was about to give him a piece of her mind. And for some unexplainable reason she actually stopped.
"I ain't kink shaming. If it gets you off watching me, feel free, just don't play all innocent with me."
That was… she didn't… she would never- She huffed, crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned away from him. "I told you already it was for your training, I won't let you use me like some pet for your own perversion. I'll have you know, I haven't even looked."
"You a virgin?" he asked her absolutely out of the blue as if it was the most normal thing to ask and she gasped at the idiot's lack of any form of tact. Not cute.
"How is that any of your business?" she asked, calm and not shrieking at all and he had the audacity to laugh at her.
"Ah, well if I'm gonna make you my pet, I should know such things, right?"
She gasped, pet? Pet?! Sure, she had said it first but... Now... she was about 81% sure that he was joking, but if he wasn't… She sent five Negative Hollows his way and the idiot slumped off the bed, crumbled to the floor like wet cardboard since he apparently still didn't know anything about armament haki. Fists in her sides she floated over him, cute pink boots right in front of his bumbling mouth.
"Your pet?" she asked, "as if I would be a pet to the likes of you. If anything I'll make you my little boytoy, and if you're really lucky I'll allow you to clean my boots with your tongue," she declared with the same entitled air as always, because he really didn't have to know that her treacherous lady parts really didn't seem all that opposed to his suggestion. What was that even supposed to mean, Pet?
He stared at her while pulling himself on his feet again, that evil stare of his that now sent a shiver down her spine for a whole different reason than the first time he'd looked at her with that feral spark. His mouth stretched into a predatory grin as he sat back down.
"You can try, princess,, but you'll see that I don't do well on my knees. Now cut the bullshit, Perona, if you wanna fuck you're gonna have to answer me. Are you a virgin?"
She crossed her arms in a huff. "What makes you even think that?" And who said anything about fucking? Nobody! Not her! Not while being awake at least!
"Not many guys would want to stick their dicks in this much crazy," he answered with that stupid grin that wasn't cute at all and made her want to sew a bandage over it.
"Oh but you would?"
He shrugged. "I don't give a fuck, there's nothing you could dish out that I couldn't handle. And don't you dare hollow me again," he added with an odd air of authority he hadn't shown before. Made her want to do it even more, like any other time someone tried to order her around. But at the same time it made her dread the consequences yet also kind of anticipate them and worst of all, it made her want to comply! It was confusing, irritating, infuriating! This Zoro in front of her was … she didn't even know what he was, so different from the childish, petulant one she had known.
"Fine, yes, I'm a virgin, what are you going to do about it?"
"Change it, obviously."
Oh that cocky bastard!
He gave her another of those weird stares that did even weirder things to her lower belly, in her ghost from, mind you. She shouldn't be feeling anything!
"Wanna know how else I knew you haven't done it yet?"
"How," she asked, eye twitching in irritation at him and her own body.
He leaned in, hopefully clean breath fanning through her skin, his eye burning with an intensity she'd only ever seen during his fights. "'cause fucking ain't cute. It's gonna be dirty and sweaty and fucking filthy and I want you to think real hard about that. If you knock on my door at night, I won't be granting you any second chances, Perona," he rumbled, voice deep and raspy and not cute at all and yet…
He left. Bastard left her floating here, with blood rushing to her cheeks, fury burning in her chest and excitement brewing in her belly. Like fucking hell would she go to him, no matter what her body was telling her, and even if, she for sure wouldn't fucking knock!
Just where the hell was he going anyways, this was his own ro-... Never mind. Idiot.
When Perona barged into his room five days later demanding he take her virginity, he sent her away.
He actually had the gall to throw her out, not even looking up from that stupid book of his. Because he had told her to knock, and because she should ask politely. What the heck did that barbarian even know about politeness? And just how long could it take to read a few hundred pages anyway?
Now, she hadn't actually wanted him to take her virginity. Who would want that? Just kind of see if he'd try to pull it off. She would have negative hollowed his butt through the floor if he had so much as attempted to touch her, but…
He hadn't. He hadn't touched her since that one time shortly after he arrived at the island, when he had accidentally scratched along her delicate skin with those rough hands of his and consequently ended up on the floor wallowing in self deprecation.
Who would even want hands like that to touch them? All brutish and rough. Who would want that anywhere on their body, much less at the sensitive and disgusting parts? She didn't know a whole lot, but she did know that those parts were involved. She had seen enough during her late night prowlers through Thriller Bark. She didn't want hands like his there. She didn't even want her own hands there, although for different reasons. He had looked comfortable touching that though. Maybe she should try? She couldn't help the excited flutter of her lower belly but still shivered in disgust. It just wasn't … it wasn't cute down there. She had looked. It was wrinkly and hairy and smelly and just not cute at all. And slime was just… yuck. She wasn't a snail after all. But… if that thing was to go in there slime was probably helpful…
She scoffed. Ask politely… that idiot. He should feel honoured if she actually were to let him… and he wanted her to knock and ask like some puppy, the audacity!
… Pet...
She huffed, still unsure on what he had meant with that.
The next time she saw him was over dinner, where he -despite Mihawk-chan's best efforts- still ate like a pig. Shoving the next fork of food into his disgusting maw before he'd chewed the last one even half way through and still she wondered how that horrible mouth would feel on her body… Zombie nurse had always liked being kissed down there at the ugly.
She huffed, put down her cutlery and stood up. "You disgust me," she proclaimed.
He swallowed the tons of food still in his mouth -she really, really hoped he'd choke on it- and laughed at her with that raspy voice of his, that was not cute at all.
"Funny, I smell your heat from here," he barked.
She gasped. That… that.. that vile creature! Her negative hollows were already halfway over the table when old man Mihawk interrupted: "For god's sake, would you keep your prepubescent foreplay away from the dinnertable? And do us all a favour and add contraceptives on your shopping list, your mood swings are bad enough as they are," he said, before turning back to his perfectly fried steak as if he hadn't just… just…
She left. Of course she could have hollowed the old man for that disrespect, for those insinuations, she would have if it wasn't for his hospitality. Had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was still a little scared of him and quite frankly no match for him. She did send a Negative Hollow to the guffawing brute though.
Hope you enjoyed, leave a kudos and/or a comment to let me know what you think of this chapter.
And I think it goes without saying that most people probably very much give a fuck if you watch them like that without their consent. Don't do it, there's places to cater to that kink.
I hope to see you next week, I'll tweet a preview of the next chapter on the weekend!