N/A: Oh dear…it's drama. I usually don't write drama but I don't know this one just kind of wrote itself.

Always Waiting

Along with dishonesty, failure, and indirection; Roronoa Zoro hated waiting. God had gifted him with plenty of gifts strength, loyalty, and other admiral traits but it so happened patience wasn't one of them. He hated the anxious feeling eating away from the inside and the tension building up slowly. He hated the way the seconds stretched increasing and how the stress and worry grew exponentially until it drove him mad. The haunting numbness that he should do something, anything at all to help the situation but in perspective there was nothing he could do but wait.

The swordsman sighed deeply and finally stood up from his seat, unable to take the nervous tension. Why? Why did he feel so worried? At any angle it was really wasn't his fault. But even this information didn't seem to comfort him, if anything it made Zoro feel even guiltier than he had previously.

"Sanji, you bastard." Zoro cursed to himself under his breathe and took his seat again unable to keep still. Each second that passed seemed to add more and more weight onto him making him feel guiltier.

Just when Zoro felt than he couldn't take anymore waiting and that he would burst, the wooden door opened. Zoro held his breathe as his eyes settled on the flushed reindeer. Chopper's head was drawn down, shadows obscuring his features and his expression.

Zoro gulped almost afraid to ask but curiosity getting the better of him. "Is he? Is he…alright?" the swordsman's voice coming out almost as a whimper.

Chopper lifted his head, the dim light illuminating his face. His face was tired and his expression grave. "I don't know yet. It's still too early to tell." Chopper spoke softy as he gingerly shook his head.

Zoro felt his hand form into a fist. Damn it I shouldn't be this way. "I'm going to see him." He proclaimed stubbornly.

"But… you can't! He's still in critical condition!" Chopper exclaimed exasperatedly, trying to stop the swordsman.

Zoro paused, his hand already grasping the doorknob. "I have to see him." He said simply before he entered the bedroom.

All was still into the little bedroom. The air smelled of antiseptics and blood. The little reindeer's things were littered all over the floor. In the middle was a single bed and in it was the bloody, beaten up body of a man who lost more than a battle. Zoro took a step closer so he could have a better view. The cook's hair was matted with dirt and soot, his neck covered in dried blood, his lower lip red and swollen, and his eyes where bordered with dark circles. His pale face was glimmering with sweat, his whole body was shivering compulsively, and his breathe coming out In short painful hufs; it was awful.

Zoro bit his lower lip at the terrible image. He felt his knees buckle and before he knew it he was on his knees. His hands balled in fist and his head buried in the side of the bed. "Sanji, you idiot." He croaked as he lightly pounded his fists into the bed frame.

"You're always an idiot." Zoro whispered hysterically to the unconscious man. "Why? Why did you save me? What idiotic thought passed through your thick skull and made you take that bullet for me?"

Those horrible seconds played over and over in the swordsman head like a broken record. They had fought a group of skilled pirates that had planned to take over the Going Merry. They were actually better than the crew had expected. Zoro of course was the one that piled the most bodies up but even he had trouble. While fighting off a group of the hideous pirated Zoro had his back turned to their wicked Captain. Feeling that his crew was losing he pulled out a rusty revolver and planned to shot Zoro and eliminate him. But the bullet never touched Zoro. It was intercepted by Sanji, he had taken the bullet for Zoro and in the end put him in the critical condition he was in now.

"Idiot…" Zoro whispered. He didn't know how long he sat there telling Sanji over and over he was an idiot but he just couldn't bear to leave.

It wasn't until Chopper timidly told him that he needed to leave because he needed to take of Sanji that Zoro got up. He left the room without another word.

It was getting pretty late. It was already night and the moon was shimmering over the deep cerulean sea. But he didn't go back to his room to sleep. Instead he sat on the chair he was sitting on a while ago. He was going to wait. No matter how much he detested waiting. For Sanji he would wait. For Sanji he would always be waiting.