A/N:

For a prompt from Kakashis_Library:

I see toddler zoro being just as romantically clueless as 19/21 yr old zoro LOL like he'll come up with a solution but there's a 87% chance it'll end up with more cute bickering between zoro and sanji bc they are idiots LOL

Well... sort of. Haha... Let's see how this goes.

For FF net, July 6th... I'm so sorry I didn't update this for so long. It's been sitting on AO3 with all four chapters finished for almost a month now, but first I kept forgetting to post here, and then we had a record breaking heat wave of the century, and I managed to catch a nasty cold in the middle of that... of I've been coughing my lungs out for the last couple of weeks and haven't been on my computer for a long time. To make up for my tardiness, I'm posting both of the remaining chapters today. Please forgive me.

Kindergarteners 3

Zeff usually gets one of the servers to pick up the eggplant from school so that he can work on dinner preparations, but since the brat hasn't been himself after the rejection by that broccoli crush of his yesterday, the chef has decided to take the afternoons off to pick him up in person for the time being.

Today he arrives in the hallway just in time to see the brat giving a cold shoulder to that ex-crush of his.

"Hmph!" The eggplant huffs out loud through his nose when the green haired boy taps him on the shoulder. The gesture is complete with an exaggerated crossing of his little arms and a quick jerk of his head that flings out locks of blond hair.

Zeff raises an impressed eyebrow at the display. Kids sure recover fast from these things.

When the broccoli tries tapping on his shoulder again, the brat turns to him and sticks out his tongue, pulling at the bottom eyelid of his visible eye for emphasis. The other boy gives him the telltale blank stare that kids have when they don't know how to respond, and the eggplant promptly starts hitting on the older girl standing next to them in an obvious effort to ignore the boy.

"Is that a wooden sword you're carrying? It looks so cooool!" He points to the practice blade on the girl's back.

"It's a shinai, made of bamboo." The girl says with pride, taking the blade off her shoulder and into her hand in a smooth swing. She is about a head taller than both of the little brats. The daughter of that dojo owner down the street from the Baratie, Zeff guesses.

"Wow, you look beautiful and strong with that, miss!" He flashes her a smile. "Can I try? Pretty please! I bet your personality is as sweet as your looks!"

Zeff scoffs, recognizing the compliments and the smile as something the eggplant picked up from his own employees. Those flirts make great servers, but he'll have to watch what they're teaching the brat when he's not around.

Before the girl has the chance to reply, Zeff catches glimpse of a scowl, just like the one in the eggplant's drawing, from the boy who has been watching the exchange from the side. He takes a step forward, and for a moment Zeff worries about the boys getting into another fight.

"Kuina!" The boy pauses to take a deep breath. "I challenge you to a duel!"

"You mean a match, Zoro." The girl giggles. "Do you even know what a duel is?"

"I know what a duel is, and I'm challenging you!" The broccoli stomps a foot and balls his little hands into fists.

"There's no way you can win! You haven't even started your training yet. You don't even know how to hold a shinai."

"It doesn't matter! Tomorrow after school in your club room-"

"Tomorrow's Saturday. We don't have school!"

"Fine, tomorrow at noon in the dojo then."

"What for?" The girl rolls her eyes.

The boy raises a hand to clutch the pendant on his necklace. His gaze shoots to the eggplant.

"You have to be there too, dart brow."

"W-w-why do I have to listen to you-" The eggplant protests, visibly flustered.

"I have something to tell you when I win." He says with all the determination of a five year old and starts walking down the hall. The girl and a man with glasses quickly catch up to him.

The eggplant watches with that same blank stare until the three of them disappear around the corner.