Disclaimer: One Piece, again, is owned by One Person. That one person being Oda, not myself. Thanks.
Alright this is the last chapter of part one of this fanfic! It's taken quite a while to get this far and I want to thank all of my readers for sticking with it! Part two will be coming soon, I hope you enjoy!
CHAPTER 16
The Forgiveness of Friends! Ari and Zoro's Denial!
"Well, it doesn't look like you'll have any lasting damage, so that's good," Chopper says. "But I want to keep monitoring you just to make sure."
Sanji nods.
"And I still think that I should give you a full examination too," Chopper argues.
"Forget it. It's not necessary." The snake bites on Zoro's arm are already scabbed over, and he thinks that there's no need for any fancy treatment since he feels fine. He also just wants to rub in how much more man he is than the dumbass cook on the examination table in the middle of the room.
A maid escort, Marin, had led Chopper, Sanji, Marguerite, Zoro, and Ari to one of the many examination rooms that are in a hospital that is located under the Palace after Sanji had beaten all the snakes singlehandedly. Or in this case, singlefootedly. The hospital is conveniently located right by the servants' quarters and has on-site doctors and surgeons in case of an emergency.
"Damn it, mosshead!" Sanji sits up on the examination table.
"It's not my fault that you didn't know the blood was poisonous!"
"Not that, you idiot! You put our dear Ari in danger, and Marin, and Marguerite as well!" Sanji glares disapprovingly at his crewmate.
"Would ya calm down already?!" Zoro sneers.
"Oh yeah, fight me!" Sanji springs off of the examination table and goes head to head with the green-haired swordsman.
"Actually, Sanji, Zoro's right," Ari intervenes. "The snakes are only poisonous to men."
Sanji breathes a sigh of relief and says, "That's a relief." He takes out a cigarette and lights it.
"But how did the snakes go from upstairs and then rampaging into the foyer over at Sanji and me?" Marguerite inquires.
"That's true." A puff of smoke escapes Sanji's lips. "They were even more enraged too."
"Excuse me," Marin finally speaks up, "but I think I know what happened."
Everyone looks over at Marin to hear her explanation.
She looks over at Zoro. "You said that they fell down the stairs at the end of the west wing, right?"
Zoro nods.
Marin continues, "There's a hallway at the end of that staircase and a door that leads to the lounge, which connects to the foyer," she explains. "That must be how they got into the foyer and back to you guys."
"At least the Empress made sure that they were put back in the garden after Sanji knocked them all out," Marguerite says.
Before the trip to the medical room…
"That was strange," Sanji says as he smokes his cigarette. He is no longer flipping the pan in his hand since Ari had stolen the pancake from him. Marguerite walks from the hall to the foyer to see what was keeping him, and watches with bewilderment as the army of snakes chase after Zoro and Ari up the stairs and into the west wing.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
A few minutes later, Sanji replies, "Sounds like a storm's coming." He looks up to the ceiling and is enjoying the intricately painted naked angels decorating its surface. Marguerite notices a maid coming out of a doorway, with a duster and notepad and pen in hand. The maid begins dusting the snake-embossed railing of the stairs next to the doorway when all of a sudden, the same snakes that were chasing Zoro and Ari earlier, come out of that same doorway and barrel straight for her and Sanji.
"A storm coming from the hallway!" Marguerite points to an open door right across from them.
Sanji places a hand on her shoulder reassuringly and says, "I can handle this, my lady."
"Wait-" Marguerite's voice is left unheard as Sanji charges forward and leaps into the air. His kick lands on the army of snakes, and their blood sprays around the exquisite floor as Sanji kicks the crap out of the hoard of reptiles, knocking them all unconscious. "Their blood is…" Marguerite sighs in frustration, "poisonous."
After leaving the medical room and entering into the hallway outside of it, Marguerite scuffs to Ari's side cautiously.
"Hey."
"Hey," Ari replies.
"Are we ok? I'm really sorry about telling Zoro about your nightmares, you know that." Marguerite places a hand affectionately on her friend's shoulder. "Can we move past that?"
Ari thinks back and wonders if she can. She remembers how badly she failed her crew back in the Florian Triangle five years ago, and decides that there are worse things that Marguerite could have done. Did she tell a pirate about her nightmares when she shouldn't have? Yes, she did, but it was only out of concern for Ari and this is something that Ari now realizes. She was only telling him out of concern for me, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I guess I just didn't want Zoro to think I was weak, and fragile. "We can." Ari smiles at her friend and puts a hand on her shoulder as well.
"You like him don't you?" Marguerite asks and eyes her. "That's why it took you longer to let go of what I told him than usual, right?"
Ari looks down to her feet. It's true that I didn't want him to view me as weak, but could it really be because of something much bigger than that? She thinks back to earlier, before Sanji burst in on her and Zoro. Her face ignites all over again thinking of how his hands were holding her face and how his lips were mere inches away from joining hers. He's so strong and powerful, yet his touch was so gentle. She couldn't help but to put one of her own hands to her cheek, and feel the spot where Zoro's hands were about an hour ago. Who am I kidding? Of course it's something more than me just not wanting him to see my weaknesses… and it's more than me wanting to conceal my identity for that matter… She shakes herself awake and notices that Marguerite's still eyeing her curiously. She laughs to herself and says, "Well, I'll just have to get over it." Ari walks aways down the corridor, leaving Marguerite by the medical room door, and spots Zoro going down to the east wing, definitely not the way to the stairs. At first, she feels like running like hell in the other direction, but ultimately decides to help him out instead. "It's this way, you know."
He whips around and is surprised to find Ari at the end of the hall he's walking down. He thinks back to an hour ago, when they were alone, and coincidentally in his room, of all places. He can recall her lustful gaze that was beaming into him, and her lips that were mere inches away from his own, before that dumbass cook had to kick the door down and interrupt them. Color creeps its way up into his face, and he makes his best attempt at pushing it away, but he is powerless against it. He doesn't know what to say, so he just ends up replying, "Yeah, I knew that." He shuffles toward her, and takes note of how she waits for him to be by her side again before continuing walking to the stairs. To his surprise, she remains silent as they walk, not even inquiring about what happened, or rather almost happened between them. And he is perfectly fine with that. He never enjoys talking about his feelings, unless they involve how he feels about swords. The answer to that question is obvious, and he can easily answer that any time, but he is very unsure of the answer to the kinds of questions he thinks Ari has running through her mind. He finds himself looking over at her often, and each time, she is still focused on the path ahead of them. But the thing he notices the most is the smile that lights up her face and makes her even more alluring to him. He looks back at the path, and then again at her, this time more discreetly, and she peeks over at the same time. They turn their heads away, just as in sync as when they turned their heads to each other. They both pretend like nothing is happening, like there isn't this indescribable connection that links them together, not just as swordsmen, but as something much deeper. A connection between two human beings, or rather superhuman beings, that neither the pirate or the ex-pirate have the courage to confess.
Your opinion is valuable to me and greatly appreciated however it can only be made known by leaving a review! Please feel free to let me know what you thought of part one so I may use your helpful feedback to make part two! Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you soon!
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