Chapter 6: "Obstacles"

"You're going to be the death of meee…!"

Just a minute. Maybe some explanation was in order as to why Chopper was on the brink of crying tears of rage in Zoro's bedroom.

It had started like almost all of Chopper's Sundays mornings had. Technically, Sunday was his only free day in the week, but for a doctor-in-training, there was not really such a thing as free time. Wah, that sounded so adultish, right? Well, Chopper was turning seventeen that year. And he would hopefully graduate college in the next! Calling him a genius wouldn't make him happy at all, idiot!

Where was he now. Oh, yeah! So, Sunday afternoon was reserved for studies, yes, but mornings were for treats and friends, like they had been for years! See, when Chopper had gotten into high school years ago, they had cooked and eaten breakfast every Sunday morning with his roommates - Zoro, Johnny and Yosaku. It had been a weird grouping, the four of them. But their room had been the only one with a free bed for a sudden new entry, and the guys had turned out not to be as scary as Chopper had at first thought! Far away from home and the Doctorine, those breakfasts were really valuable for Chopper. Even if none of them had really known how to cook, hehe!

Yosaku and Johnny had moved back to their hometowns after graduating high school, though. But Chopper and Zoro were still keeping the tradition, even though they were no longer living under one roof. Buuut they had both decided not to overdo the cooking bit…

It had been Chopper's turn to take care of the food that week. Zoro had agreed to sweets this time, yay! So Chopper had made his way over to Zoro's place from his dorm, with a backpack full of ingredients for strawberry pancakes. Those had looked easy enough to make! Chopper had left the dorm a little too early for Zoro to be remotely awake yet, but at least he would have had time to prepare the batter and then go and cuddle a bit. The recipe had said the mixture would have to sit for an hour at least, anyway. Getting in wouldn't have been a problem, either. They had exchanged keys a long time ago. Chopper sometimes stayed at Zoro's when the dorms were closed for the holidays, after all!

However, when Chopper had gotten off the subway at the closest station to Zoro's apartment, a person had walked past him, limping a whole lot and grumbling to himself. 'Shitty shit,' had been what he had said…?

"Sanji? Sanji! Is that you?" he had called after the figure, and sure enough, it had turned out he had been right.

"Ah. Morning, Chopper."

But when Sanji had lowered his hood and Chopper had seen his broken lips, cuts and bruises, all untreated, he had just not been able to let the poor guy go like that. What kind of lousy doctor would have done that?

Sanji had been hesitant when he had offered to look at his injuries. However, he had shown outright resistance when Chopper had mentioned that he kept a medkit at Zoro's place, nearest to the station. It had taken all of Chopper's pacifying and convincing skills to get Sanji to go with him; that and the mention of pancakes, and apparently him being 'too adorable to resist'. Chopper wasn't adorable! He was manly as hell! You bastard!

Chopper had knocked on Zoro's door that time. He hadn't been about to enter someone else's apartment with an unexpected guest with him, even if it had been only Zoro's. It had only occurred to him only after that Zoro usually didn't wake up to any knocking, or ringing his phone only once. Which was the other reason why Chopper had had the keys…

But to his surprise, there had been noises from within the apartment after the knocking, and Zoro had opened the door, confused and grumpy. And covered in ugly bruises and scratches!

"Not you too, Zorooo!"

"Uh… Morning…?" Zoro's eyes had gone straight to Sanji, though. "And what is he doing here?"

"Shut up, fuckface. I came along to make breakfast for Chopper, is all."

"Nice haircut."

"Fuck a hedgehog, rancid bastard."

Of course, there had been no way Chopper could have known that those two had only just parted, about an hour before he had happened upon Sanji in the street. And he had been mislead, too. Luffy had said Zoro and Sanji had been the best of friends! Sure, they sometimes wrestled with the guys, but it always ended in tickling and exhausted laughter on the floor. What Sanji and Zoro were doing was different… Chopper hoped the was just too paranoid and there was no cause for concern.

"I swear, you two! Luffy's birthday party wasn't enough for you? I mean, Doctorine was there!" She had been so worried about him all the time, and then she had seen two of Chopper's best friends fighting drunk…! "I even had to do stitches on your stupid heads!"

The pancake batter had been mixed and was in the process of taking a nap in Zoro's fridge. Chopper had ushered both of those knuckleheads into Zoro's bedroom to try and patch them up from his emergency medkit. So that was why Zoro kept having nasty black bruises every week... Training got harder, my ass!

"Sorry, Chopper..."

"Yeah. Sorry..."

"Shut up and lift your other leg, Sanji. Oh god… Do I even have enough bandages here? Zoro, you could have killed him, you know! Fighting with swords on an unarmed opponent! So irresponsible…!"

"Heh, unarmed. Yeah. You should have seen him fighting after he put his shoes on."

"Shoes you have ruined, asshat!"

"Shoes? Shoes?! Are you even listening to yourself?!" Chopper could have skapped them both with the ball of gauze in his hand. "When has this stopped bleeding?" Chopper grumbled as he peeled off the ragged, bled-through piece of paper tissue off a cut. "Oh cripes, it's still bleeding?! Aughh!"

"Sorry-"

"Shut up! I'm mad and I have scissors in my hand! Okay, Zoro, your turn! God, look at all this! Okay, you're coming to the hospital first thing tomorrow, I need to have this scanned!"

"I'm fine, Chopper. You worry too much."

"Don't argue! Aghhh, you guys…! You two and Luffy, too! You're going to be the death of meee…!"

Chopper collapsed on the bed between the two idiots, exasperated. It was a nice 'thank you' to have them both pat his back, though. He felt a little less like crying.

"Where's the Marimo?"

Some minutes later, Sanji was standing at the stove to bake their pancakes. Well, they had agreed on Sanji showing Chopper once or twice how to, and then he could do the rest. He was looking forward to trying it, after all!

"In his room," Chopper replied, watching as Sanji heated oil in a pan. "If he doesn't keep his eye under ice now, it might swell badly until tomorrow."

"Ah… I see," was all Sanji said to that.

For a while, the kitchen was silent, except for the calm guitar tunes coming from the mini speakers in the living room behind them. Zoro still had the mixtape they had made…! Chopper's chest swelled up each time when he heard it…! The oil sizzled in the pan, and Sanji quietly reached for the ladle, and Chopper tried to remember about how much batter went into the first pancake, poured and stirred quickly.

"Do you feel bad about it? His black eye?"

"Fuck no," Sanji replied almost instantly. "Now watch this," he jerked the pan up to flip the pancake.

"Wow, cool! I wanna try, too!"

Chopper was excited to be handed the empty pan. Distributing the batter went sort-of okay, even though the shape was more amoeba than round. But when he flipped it…

"Oh no!"

It didn't get stuck on the ceiling, thankfully. But it did tumble down onto the grid of the gas stove and got a big, gaping hole in the middle.

"Ah, that's okay," Sanji reassured, and with a quick pinch of his fingers, he pulled the pancake right back into the pan to bake the other side. "I'll take this one. Or would you like to have your first pancake for yourself, Chopper?"

"But it's torn! I messed it up," Chopper sniffled.

"Well, that doesn't mean it won't taste just as good," Sanji ruffled his hair. "You did good for your first try, little guy."

"Really…?"

"Hell yeah! Now, don't forget to add a bit of oil before the next one," said Sanji, handing the oil bottle to him, too.

"Thanks!" Hokay! Chopper wouldn't give up so easily!

"And..." Sanji trailed off. He waited until Chopper could circle the batter along the line of the pan evenly. "I kinda do feel bad about it. About Zoro's..."

"Hey, Sanji. Do you hate Zoro?"

"What..?" That seemed to startle Sanji. "I… Yes? A little. I mean, he's a colossal pain in the ass, but… Sparring with him is actually, kinda… Kinda fun, and… Ugh, he just has a knack for making me so mad…!"

"Mm, I see. O-oh no!" Chopper totally forgot to flip…!

"Oh! Oh, wait, here, use this," Sanji handed him a wooden spatula from the near empty utensil rack on the wall. "This might work better for you," his words sounded warm and nice. But they were also distracted, somehow.

"Say, Sanji..." Chopper carefully flipped the pancake. Damn, it was too dark… But it would be more bitter, so Zoro might like that...

"Hmm?"

"I..." How could Chopper begin? How would Doctorine do it…? "You know, I've also been studying psychology, so… If you want-"

"Oh no no, it's okay," Sanji cut in quickly. "Thank you… Thank you, Chopper, but it's nothing like that. I'll… I'll try figuring this out. On my own. For now..."

"Okay," Chopper allowed.

"I uh..." It was only after another batter refill and a flip that Sanji spoke up again. "I don't… I didn't hit him so much because I particularly enjoy hurting him or anything like that, a-and I don't think he did, either, so… Please don't worry. We'll deal with this."

"Yeah," Chopper nodded, then paused until the freshest pancake was safely placed onto the plate with the other two. "I know you will! But if you guys need me - need us -, we've got your backs. No matter what."

"Chopper… Thanks," Sanji said softly, then pulled Chopper into an one-armed hug. "You've already helped," he added in a hushed voice.

"Yay~ Um, I mean, that doesn't make me happy at all, you idiot!"

They heard a noise, like a snort, coming from the living room. Turning around to peek over Sanji's arm, Chopper could see Zoro standing in the kitchen doorway. Each time Zoro smiled, Chopper felt like they were the same age. Or as if they both had gotten younger; just dumb little roommates in high school...

"O-oi, mirelit Marimo," Sanji hastily let go of him to sneer over at Zoro. "What are you looking at?" Only Chopper was close enough to see the tremble in Sanji's lashes, the slight flicker of his eyes.

"Two dorks cuddling in my kitchen, I guess," Zoro yawned loudly, then pulled out a chair to sit down at his small table. He wasn't smiling anymore, just looked at his folded hands on the tabletop…

"Well, Dork King," Sanji scoffed. "Now that you're here, you could move your ass and lay the table. Food's not done yet."

"Yeah-yeah..." and indeed, Zoro stood up again to pad over to the cupboard.

Sanji went ahead and started on the strawberries and cream, and Chopper turned back towards the stove, coating the pan with oil and starting on the next pancake. He wasn't feeling so anxious about the two of them anymore. Sure, he wasn't deluding himself, thinking that would have been all with tending to their various wounds. But, just like his mentor Dr. Hiluluk had told him again and again - the road to overcome some obstacles was rocky, but not impossible to walk.