The day after katana care was uneventful and laborious for Zoro. He simply wanted to go back to the Thousand Sunny house and sleep after lunch had come and gone. Lunch always seemed to be the highlight of an uneventful day. The gang always had lunch together in the Thousand Sunny house. Today, it was Nami and Usopp's turn to cook. The two had begun to serve the ham casserole onto plates as the others poured into the common room after their first three hours of lessons.
"Hara heta!" Luffy screeched, banging his knife and fork on the table.
Nami smiled. She had offered to make him a little something earlier but he'd refused on the basis that she'd be cooking soon enough.
"Matte!" Usopp yelled back as Luffy began to hover about the kitchen.
"NO! Hara heta! NOW!" he whined when the largest out of them grabbed him and hauled him out of the kitchen.
"Matte, Luffy!" Franky said as his grip tightened around the squirming boy.
Luffy punched the man once more before he stopped thrashing and lay limp in his arms.
"Now, go sit down and chotto matte," Robin said pulling a chair out so Luffy could sit down.
The straw-hat obediently sat down. Chopper moved to sit down next to the head of the house but Luffy stretched his hand across the seat.
"Nami's sitting here," Luffy glared at him.
Nami, in the kitchen, began to blush with such unbearability that she had to turn away from her nakama. Chopper, who had been scared out of his mind by the straw-hat's unusual behaviour, was now cowering behind Kaya.
"Never mind," Kaya whispered to the frightened brunette.
"Nami can sit next to Luffy and Chopper can sit next to me," she said taking a seat and gesturing to Chopper to sit down in the seat beside her. Usopp smiled as Chopper and Kaya sank into deep conversation about their medical studies.
"Zoro? Can you help Nami with the plates?" Usopp asked as he began placing lunch on the table.
Zoro's hand was intertwined with Sanji's and as he let go, Sanji placed a kiss on his cheek. Usopp had seen this gesture and began his loud praise in the direction of Sanji.
"Way to go Sanji!" he shouted and Zoro smirked as he moved around his long-nosed nakama.
Sanji blushed furiously as he made an attempt to hide even more of his face behind his blonde fringe. Zoro took as many plates as he could carry to the table and Nami dealt with the rest. As they tucked into their meal, they were met with a pleasant silence. Everyone at the table was either sat next to a lover or nakama and everyone was thoroughly happy with the food they'd been served. This is how they sat: Brook was at the head of the table and to his left were Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, Kaya, Usopp, Robin and Franky on the right of the tall, thin, musical swordsman.
"So Nami, what's going on between you two?"