Chapter 27

Ari and Zoro Meet Again! Her Memories Return!

After Zoro expresses his gratitude to the Fluttering Swordswoman, he heads outside of the palace to take it all in. He walks through the village with no particular destination in mind. Soon, he abandons walking through the village at all since he continually gets chased by the boy-curious women of the island. Somehow, he ends up getting lost in the forest yet again. Darn it all to hell and back! Why does this island have so many forests?! He sighs. Well, no use in standing still. I'm not going to get anywhere unless I keep moving. So, he continues walking around the forest, without a clue as to where he is, when he stumbles upon a tree that he remembers. Isn't this the same tree that blew my cover that one time? He remembers when he and Ari first met. A piece of fruit fell from a tree and I startled Ari off the edge of the cliff. He laughs to himself, when a fruit falls from the tree once again, plonking him on the head. He shoots the tree a begrudging look. Though the fruit made his head hurt, it causes a sudden flutter of butterflies in his stomach. He brushes it off as he looks past the trees and sure enough, right there is the cliff's edge where he and Ari first met. He smiles and steps past the tree line to relax against the pomegranate tree there. He slides down the trunk of the tree and rests his head against the solid wood. His hands rest in his lap and he closes his eyes, readying himself for sleep. Strangely enough, he finds himself unable to sleep and, defeated, he settles on just looking up at the bare branches of the tree. His grin stretches a little wider at the memory of how they came to be bare in the first place. I cut them down for her. She's so short. He laughs again.

Suddenly, there's a sound in the forest just beyond where's Zoro's relaxing. He puts a hand to the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it if need be. The sound comes closer and closer until the source makes its way out of the forest and into the clearing where Zoro lies. The source of the sound makes him shake from nerves, but is not dangerous. The source makes his heart pound out of his chest, yet is not a threat. It makes him quiver with longing, but it isn't food, nor sleep, nor a sword. It may not be dangerous, but it is lethal. The source smiles in surprise at seeing him here and he does his best to give her some sort of greeting, but her brown-pink ponytail and minty-green eyes steal his breath away and make him unable to say anything at all.

XXX

"Surprised to see you here," Ari says.

Zoro struggles to form the words necessary to reply, so he just shrugs instead.

Ari comes up and slides down the tree trunk until she's also sitting on the grass. The pair sit in a comfortable silence side-by-side.

"So, I asked you about the Fluttering Swordswoman before, right?" Zoro asks.

Ari gives him a weird look and replies with a laugh, "Yeah."

"Found her."

Ari goes still, thinking that he found her out. She goes over it again and again, wondering how on earth he could have found her out. Maybe he saw what happened in the auditorium or maybe Marguerite blew my cover to the Strawhats after all!

Zoro elaborates before Ari can say anything else, "It's a maid in the palace."

Ari holds in her relief and says, "Oh, congrats."

The two of them settle back into silence. Zoro steals a glance at the woman beside him and can't help but to linger especially long on her lips. His face flares as he remembers what happened before lunch today, how close they were and how their noses touched just slightly. His mind continues to torture him with the memory of the almost-kiss in his room after they had run from the snakes. Hell, catching her from falling today might as well have been an almost-kiss too! I am so tired of 'almost'! His gaze moves back up to her eyes and it's then that he realizes that he's been staring at her lips for an unnaturally long period of time. Not only that, but based on the confused look on Ari's face, she noticed his gaze linger especially long. He opens his mouth to say something, anything that can explain why he can't stop staring at her, but no words come out. So there he is: his lips slightly parted, his bright-red face clashing with his hair and damn near desperate to kiss her. He wraps a shaky hand around her neck, gently massaging the skin there and notes how she leans into his touch. This encourages him and he wraps the other hand, more confidently this time, around the curve of her waist to rest on the small of her back. The cardigan she's wearing is soft and somewhat familiar to Zoro, but he happily ignores the details of her clothing in favor of imagining her without it. Zoro bites his lip and looks back up to gaze into Ari's eyes. Her eyes flick back up in unison with his and their gazes meet at the same time. He smirks when he sees that he's effectively managed to turn her cheeks a soft pink. Ari's face remains still and unreadable, but it's her eyes that give away her lust. Zoro's always loved mysteries, granted not as much as Robin does, but they always demand his attention, not unlike Ari. So much mystery to her and so much that he has yet to uncover. And Zoro is more than willing to uncover her layer by layer. But for now, he'll settle for uncovering just one: a kiss. He leans his face in closer to hers and his face lights up at the memory of that afternoon, the recollection causing him to rub his nose against hers just a tad bit. This elicits an amused chuckle from Ari and she can't help but beam back at him. Zoro always races into battle mercilessly no matter how strong the opponent, but strangely finds that it takes more courage to do this one simple thing than it does to defeat a thousand giants. His heart pounds out of his chest and he struggles to catch his breath as Ari sways closer to him. Finally, Zoro gathers up all of his courage and tilts his head, leaning in for the kiss. Ari doesn't resist and tilts her head as well. Their lips brush at first, like a feather's touch. Their breath isn't the only thing that lingers between them; nerves do as well. Zoro tilts his head further, determined to actually kiss the damn girl this time, when suddenly Ari remembers what it was that she needed to tell Zoro. Granted, not the best timing for it, but she has to tell him nonetheless so she pulls away and exclaims, "Zoro, there's a marine spy in the palace!"

He shakes his head, recovering from her sudden declaration, and replies, "A spy?"

"Yes," Ari shudders, "and the marines are coming for you and your crew."

[author's note: to see the illustration for this portion of the fanfic find me on deviantart! And yes my username on there is indeed Pheonixdino]

XXX

After Marin walks Zoro to his room, she's walked a couple of feet away when Robin hurriedly pulls him inside. It seems that Robin's in his room.

She quietly pads over to listen in, but before she knows it, Zoro rushes back out again. "Damn, I have no idea where to find Tori!"

Scared of getting caught eavesdropping, she ducks into the room across from his and slams the door shut behind her. She presses her ear up against the door and manages to hear Robin say, "Zoro, may I ask again why you're so set on tracking her down?" Marin suppresses a gasp and she smirks satisfactorily. Looks like they tracked the Fluttering Swordswoman down after all. She frowns. But it's not good enough that they simply think Tori is the Fluttering Swordswoman… she has to admit to it.

"How has a lovely lady landed upon my room?"

The voice startles her and she whips around and spots one of the Strawhats: the cook. He goes down on his knees and grovels towards her, extending out his hand to hold hers and brace it with a kiss. The moment his hand connects with hers, she grabs his wrist, twists it, swings him around, and bends so that one of her knees is now planted in between his shoulder blades. The force of his nose hitting the floor, as well as him getting a peek up her skirt, causes a massive stream of blood to shoot out of his nose. He remains unmoving and Marin Andakaba gives his shoulder an experimental jab, but Sanji is passed out cold.

"HE PASSED OUT?!" Marin exclaims, her jaw dropping at the ridiculous sight before her. "Geez, now I have to check him into the medical wing which will take forever and by that time…" Wait… if I hurry, I may be able to catch up to that swordsman later! Now that I think about it, Tori was checked into the medical wing for one of her chronic sore throats this afternoon… so if he's looking for her, I just might get lucky and run into him! With that thought in mind, Marin quickly pulls the emergency rope right by Sanji's bed that signals to the medical wing down below. Soon after, some nurses file in, lift the cook up on a stretcher and carry him down the hall to the stairs. Marin accompanies the nurses, claiming that she was very attached to this particular guest and wishes to help look after him. The nurses all nod, agreeing that the Strawhats, the men in particular, are hard not to get attached to. They get down to the medical wing and settle him into the room right next to Tori's.

One nurse stays behind as the rest file out to attend to other matters, when Marin interjects, "That's alright, I'll monitor his condition. You look so tired and I'll come find a nurse if his condition changes." Marin smiles.

The nurse smiles back, grateful and replies, "Oh, thank you so much, dear. I'm tuckered out." The nurse takes her leave and Marin quickly disregards Sanji in favor of peeking through the door to watch in case Zoro comes by Tori's room. She's not kept waiting long by the door when the green-haired swordsman passes by and curiously peeks inside Tori's room. He's so directionally challenged, he must have a boatload of luck to make it here at all, let alone that fast! Lucky me! As Zoro steps inside Tori's room, Marin steps outside of Sanji's and stands carefully by the open door to listen in. She gets in position just in time to overhear Zoro declare, "I know who you are. I know you're the Fluttering Swordswoman!"

There's a sharp intake of breath, presumably Tori's, and Tori responds, "You got me."

That's it! Tori's the Fluttering Swordswoman! Marin rushes out of Sanji's room up the stairs and finally lands in the janitor's closet right by the entrance to the kitchen. The transponder snail that she used last time is still there. She dials to the Vice Admiral that is currently waiting for the second time in five years, right by the calm belt surrounding Amazon Lily.

There's a click on the other end as someone speaks, "Hello?"

"Vice Admiral Momonga, sir?"

"This is he, what do you want, Marin?"

"The Fluttering Swordswoman is alive, sir. Send the ships."

"You sure about this, rookie?"

"I'm sure, sir. Even if I wasn't, the Strawhats are here as well. Either way, you'll catch a big fish."

"Very well," he pauses, "see you in fifteen." There's another click as Momonga hangs up.

"See you then," Marin says, a devilish smile curling her lips as she hangs up the transponder snail. Who's a rookie now?