Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, just own my own creative spirit that's all.

And without further adieu, I give you chapter 14! Only two more chapters left of part 1 after this folks!

I know it's been a long haul for this fanfiction, and your patience is greatly appreciated!

Part two should be done by Christmas! That's twelve more chapters of the Strawhats that we all know and love!

Until next time!

p.s. I've had someone vector a map of the Amazon Lily palace for me as my imagination sees it. If you'd like to see the map look me up in deviantart. Just search for, "PheonixDino" and you'll see three deviations. One is the news coo from chapter one, and the other two are the first and second floor of the palace. Please note that you must capitalize the "P" and the "D" to find me. Thanks again!

Chapter 14

Potential Danger for the Straw Hats? Tension Builds!

After getting back to his room, Zoro tosses and turns in bed for hours, and is strangely unable to sleep. Dammit, why can't I get to sleep already?! Well, in that case… He climbs out of bed and grabs his swords beside him on his way out. Nothing some weights can't fix. He intends on heading toward the gym, but not noticing that it's directly across from his room, he heads down the hallway in search of it. He continues to wander along the guest quarters hallway when he hears a loud thud in one of the nearby rooms. He draws one of his swords and swings the door open, only to find Ari fumbling to get out of her blanket on the floor. Assured that it's not an intruder, Zoro tucks his sword away. He walks over to her bedstand to turn the lamp on, when all of a sudden, her hand grabs his ankle. She mumbles something in her sleep and her nails dig sharply into his flesh.

"Hey would you quit it already?" He tries to shake her off of him, but is unsuccessful and ends up stooping down on the floor. She's now untangled from the blankets, and Zoro puts a hand on her shoulder to wake her up.

"Stop it! I won't let you, you bastard! How dare you! My… cr… " She slaps him in the face clumsily with the hand that was originally gripping his ankle. "My friends… Emi… Pheonix… they're all dead," she mumbles, "...pirates…"

"YOU'RE REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF! Would ya wake up already?!" He wraps his hands around her wrists to shake her awake.

Her eyes flash open and she blinks away the foggy tears clouding her vision. Zoro… what's he doing here? She takes note of her wrists, taken captive by Zoro's calloused hands. He releases her from his grasp and gets to his feet. Ari fumbles off of the floor and says, "Ok, so what exactly are you-" Her step falters and she stumbles forward. Zoro reaches out and secures her against his chest. With her face resting there, she is overwhelmed with how solid he feels underneath her. A distinct smell comes off of him in waves. Not man-stink, but the same sort of musk that caught on the wind a few days prior. She finds herself instantly enveloped in it and it takes a little more self-control than she would have originally thought to pull away from him. And even after Ari pushes herself off of him, the warmth from his body seems to spread all over her, especially in her face. She's grateful that the room is too dark for him to notice. As she struggles to regain her composure, her legs are even more wobbly than before due to his touch. "As I was saying," she continues, "what are you doing in my room?"

"Heard a noise. Thought it was an intruder."

Ari gnaws at her lip. "Oh," she says. "I guess I'll just be going back to bed then."

"Ok, do what you want." He lingers there, playing for time and secretly hoping she'll ask him to stay. The orchard scent that hangs on her skin is toying and torturing his mind unlike anything else he's ever experienced. The night coats the entirety of the room, but the moon shines through the window, allowing him to take in not only her scent through his nose, but the sight of her with his eyes. He notices a scar just barely reaching above the low neckline of her top. I knew there was something else. There's a scar on her chest. And she mumbled something about a pirate killing her friends… This must be one of those nightmares Marguerite was talking about… "You know-"

"Well, goodnight!" she interrupts him out of fear from what he was going to say next. She hurriedly climbs into bed and wraps herself in her blanket and feigns sleep.

Zoro flashes one last look in her direction and she can feel his puzzled gaze boring into her. "Night." He paces over to the door and clicks it shut behind him as he leaves.

Ari breathes a sigh of relief. Good. I have no idea how his sentence would end, but it was probably best to stop it before it went all the way to its period. That way mine doesn't end up possibly skipping nine months. She lies awake in her bed, tossing and turning restlessly. This is partly because of her nightmare, but even more so because of Zoro. Little by little… I'm starting to not care about the walls I've worked so hard to put up the past five years. I've never cared for anyone this much before so why now? I was always too focused on my goals to even consider something like this… Besides, he's after the Fluttering Swordswoman: me. He already knows too much… Eventually, she gives up all hope of getting any sleep and groans in frustration. Ari tosses a pillow to the wall in her restlessness and is amused by her own punny thoughts. No wonder they call it a throw pillow. She laughs to herself as she rolls out of bed, perhaps too literally, and crashes down to the floor once again. She stays perfectly still for a moment, half of her hoping that Zoro is long gone and hadn't heard her fall, and the other half hoping he would come back to check for more "intruders". She shakes her head in defiance to bring herself back to reality and stumbles to her feet.

She tiptoes outside her room and goes down the stairs to the foyer and means to go outside to grab a breath of fresh air, when she hears someone whispering nearby. She sneaks closer to the source and finds that it's coming from inside a janitor's closet. There's a duster and cleaning basket deposited in front of the door. She presses her back against the wall as she carefully slides closer to eavesdrop. It sounds like a woman and man talking via snail phone… the only snail phone that I've ever seen on the island is with the Empress in her room… so why would a janitor have it? She clears her mind and quiets her thoughts in order to overhear the conversation.

"Investigation… yes sir… ships… no sir, not yet… Straw Hats…"

Ari's sharp intake of breath is so alarmingly audible that the person inside the closet abruptly hangs up and slams the receiver back into place on the snail phone. Ari scurries over to the open door beside the janitor's closet and runs inside for cover. She is unsure of what the room is, but is terrified at being discovered and she quickly closes the door behind her. Heels click along the tile as the unknown janitor rushes out of the janitor's closet. Two pooling shadows pause a second too long in front of the door that guards Ari's hiding place. Her back rests against the door and she holds her breath but it isn't enough for her to feel secure. She swears that her pounding heartbeat is going to relay through the door and betray her position. Finally, the mystery heels click along past her, and continue back to where they originated. Ari lets out a sigh of relief. Whoever that call was to, it was clear that they mean harm to Zoro's crew… Ari catches herself and is surprised that she is concerned for the pirates that she held both hate and fear for mere days earlier. She sighs irritably. Since when do I look out for a pirate anyway?