Second installation of this Marine series! Includes a cameo appearance from a certain Film Z character...

Enjoy!

To Never Do Her Wrong

Summary: It was a lovely sunny morning at Marine HQ. Perfect for drying washed laundry and idiotic Marine officers.

A Marine officer, hair disheveled and yawning, stumbled blearily towards the clothesline to retrieve his dried uniform. Shirt, two pairs of pants, another shirt… Where were his neckerchiefs? Someone must have shifted the clothes to clear up more space. He moved further down the line. Found one of the neckerchiefs… one Marine officer... another Marine officer… ah, there was his n-

Huh?

He rubbed his eyes before turning back to the clothesline. Sure enough, two of his fellow officers, whom he remembered seeing around the base (Garp and Sengoku, was it?), swung gloomily from the line. From their rather crisp appearances, they had probably been hanging there all morning.

He gaped. "W-What?"

"Anything the matter?"

The new recruit jumped, startled by the new voice.

"Ah, Zephyr-senpai! Well…" he gestured helplessly at the clothesline.

Zephyr blinked and took in the bizarre sight. As the two young men glared at him, his mouth slowly curled into an amused smirk. The baleful glares doubled as he burst out laughing. His companion could only look on in bemusement. He must have just been transferred to this base, the poor man.

"Don't worry," Zephyr managed to wheeze between his guffaws, "It's normal."

The sound of chatter and muffled giggles could be heard as the other officers poked their head out of the dorm building to discover the source of the commotion. As Zephyr continued to laugh his heart out, someone yelled out, "What did you do this time, Garp, Sengoku?"

The two men didn't reply, opting to continue looking mutinous.

Zephyr chuckled. Turning to the crowd, he waved them off. "Nothing to see here, people! Get back to your work."

Someone playfully accused the senior officer of being a killjoy, but the crowd eventually dispersed until only Zephyr was left watching the two pieces of human laundry.

The man still looked amused. "Alright, you two. Spill."

Sengoku was obviously disgruntled. "Why should we, Zephyr?"

"Well, if you don't want to, I guess I can't help it," the purple-haired man said nonchalantly. "Have fun sunbathing."

Zephyr turned and made to walk away. Behind him, he knew that the two younger officers were trading frantically conflicted looks.

"Wait!" Garp spoke this time. Sengoku probably still had too much pride. Zephyr smirked. Perfect. "We'll tell you, just get us down!"

"How about you tell me first, then I'll rescue you. What did you do to Tsuru this time?"

"…It wasn't intentional."

"Intentional or not, it must have been quite the scene if it resulted in you two hanging here as half-dried laundry."

The two youths sighed.

"Well… We may have burst into her room without warning…" Garp mumbled, turning a little red.

"It's our day off, so we were wondering if she wanted to go into town with us," Sengoku contributed, his face matching his friend's.

"And considering that guys are no allowed in the female dorms we may have opted to climb a tree to get to the window…"

"Which was open, so we decided to just go in…"

"And well…" They looked opposite ways in fake nonchalance, but their tomato-red faces gave them away.

"And you chanced upon her changing, I suppose?" Zephyr couldn't help the very amused tone that crept into his voice.

If possible, they turned even redder.

"Anyway, we told you, so let us down!" Sengoku yelled out to cover his embarrassment. Beside him, Garp looked like he was to about to expire between the combined pressures of the hot sun and intense mortification.

Not one to break a promise, Zephyr obligingly unpinned the duo and dragged them off the clothesline, effectively returning them to normal.

"Ah, Tsuru!"

The girl pointedly ignored them, storming away leaving two boys with hands outstretched towards her. They stared at her retreating back until it disappeared around the corner, flabbergasted. She hadn't bothered to glance their way, but even the swish of her long ponytail seemed to convey her annoyance with them.

Zephyr's mouth twitched in his effort to suppress his grin. Giving up, he strode forward and clapped his hands onto the pair's shoulders reassuringly. "Give her some time to cool down a bit. Then apologize. And make sure you properly show your sincerity when you do that. She won't be able to stay mad for long if you do that. Take this from someone who's older and more experienced than you when it comes to women." He looked thoughtful. "And buy her something nice from your trip to town today. Yes, that's a good idea."

Garp and Sengoku shared a tired look. "Girls are weird," they grumbled.

Zephyr just laughed more.

In case you didn't know and are confused, Tsuru ate the Wash Wash Fruit. I'm not kidding you. If you don't remember it, just take a look at the Marineford war. It's a pretty nifty power, hahaha.

Please review! Thank you for your support! :)