As promised, here is the last installment for this story! And, for any hardcore ZoRo fans, this is the chapter when the romantic hints finally kick in. Enjoy!
(Part III/III)
excerpt from last chapter:
Nami muttered under her breath before turning to Robin. "I was going to ask you to hold him down, but I doubt that will be too much of a problem now that I'm waving meat under his nose. I'm sure Sanji would be willing if I asked...Why don't you cut Zoro's hair then?"
Zoro was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.
"Ah...do you have another pair of scissors? I left mine in the other room."
Zoro did not like the direction this seemed to be going.
It was due to circumstance and a bit of bad luck that a cursing Zoro found himself in the other room. Nami had no spare scissors and so he was forced to follow Robin through the winding hallways, turning in the wrong direction every now and then. The damn woman couldn't give directions. He was confused when he found himself walking into the aquarium, but Robin explained that Chopper had wanted to watch the strange fish swim around while waiting.
"Now then, Kenshi-san," Robin gestured to the stool in the middle of the floor as she bent to pick up her scissors. She smiled as Zoro mumbled something about not taking orders from her before grudgingly settling down.
He could tell by the fine hairs reflecting off the floorboards surrounded by droplets of blood that Sanji had indeed been there at one point. It looked like it had happened recently since Chopper was always diligent to clean the blood away. Something about health hazard, which he didn't quite understand, and something about Franky killing them all if there were blood stains in obscure places, which he could understand. Leave it to the curly-cook to get that on the resident cyborg's "DO NOT" list. (Zoro purposefully ignored the fact that he was also known to leave blood in "obscure places" –for a different reason.) He bristled a little when he felt Robin's long fingers brush against the back of his head.
"Gomen, Kenshi-san. I can't cut your hair without touching you a little."
"Whatever. Do what you like." She could have worded that better...
A giggle. Snip-snip. Snip. Snip-snip-snip. Zoro's eyebrow twitched, but then relaxed, "Just think of it as meditating," he reasoned mentally.
Bam! The door flew open, causing Robin to pause and widen her eyes a fraction while Zoro's eyelids twitched. They turned to look at a frightened Chopper, hiding in his signature way behind the doorframe. Apparently in his rush he had scared himself silly. Good thing Franky wasn't here. Slamming the door and uncleaned blood. Great way to irk the resident cyborg.
"Ah. Zoro, you're here. No wait! I have to clean up the blood!"
Robin began to laugh as the youngest member of the crew squealed "sorry"s to the air and rushed in, towels and a sloshing bucket in hand. Zoro was a little relieved. He would prefer to not spend so much time alone with the archaeologist behind him. Snip-snip.
"How is Cook-san?"
"He's alright. Did he get any blood on you, Robin?" Chopper looked up from his scrubbing, a frown on his adora–...his face. Zoro tried not to react to that slip-up.
"Oh, no. I'm quite alright," Robin smiled. Snip-snip-snip. Snip…snip-snip. "Will there be stains?" she nodded her head at the floorboards.
"I don't think so- at least, I hope not…" Chopper bit his lip and went back to his scrubbing. "I don't want to explain to Franky that it was my fault…"
"Chopper." Zoro's rough voice cut into the reindeer's depressive funk. "It's not your fault the damn ero-cook has no self-control over his own perverted bloodstream. Franky won't be mad at you."
Zoro saw the comforted bob of the head in his peripheral vision and settled for closing his eyes as Robin moved in front of him. For a few indifferent seconds, all that could be heard was the quirky swishing from the tank, the squeak of sponge and soap against wood, and the staggered snips of Robin's scissors.
"Oh, Zoro. You aren't wearing the bib?"
Zoro almost spluttered but caught himself last minute. Moving his head suddenly would not demonstrate the self control he prided himself on. "A bib?" he exclaimed, an incredulous frown on his face.
"Ahh," came the annoyed voice in the doorway. "You know, so it doesn't look like you went rolling in a bag of mowed grass."
"Hahh?" Zoro drawled, a glint shining in his now narrowly opened eye, the pupil slid so far to the side Zoro almost couldn't see the blonde.
"Sanji!" Chopper squawked. "You should keep the tissue in your nose a little longer!"
The cook waved his hand absently, cigarette smoke zigzagging. "I didn't need it anymore. Besides!" his mood completely switched round, "Robin-chwan didn't finish cutting my hair~ and- "
"So." Zoro interrupted, an amused, feral grin spread across his face, "You wore the bib?" His hand gestured in the general direction of the blood-speckled plastic sheet.
"So what." Sanji snapped. "At least I don't look like I crawled through bales of hay to match your blades of grass."
"So you admit that your hair is like hay."
"No-"
"That's basically what you said," Zoro lifted his shoulders slightly in a small shrug.
"Tch. Too bad a marimo like you has to be trimmed like a bush. I should buy an oversized pot at the next port and just plant you. At least you'd get a shower more often-"
Zoro growled and lunged, eager for a bout with the almighty hay-head. Robin saw it coming, but was careless with her footing and tripped backwards, to which Sanji changed course in order to dive and catch her, and Chopper's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. The timid reindeer crouched in an unnecessary attempt to avoid the sailing cook, almost knocking the sudsy bucket over.
The swordsman pivoted and ended up more or less where Sanji had been standing seconds before. Chopper peeped out from under his hat. Robin was fine. She had caught herself before actually falling, but Sanji wasn't so lucky. He had slipped on the damp floorboards and ended up being caught by Robin's devil fruit power, which was all well and good except he ended up suspended at an odd angle with his head near Robin's stomach, ie between her bust and hips. Okay, so maybe he was 'lucky?'
Chopper wasn't. He had more blood to clean up and more tissues to buy at the next port. Zoro stared blankly out the door as a Heavy-Point Chopper half dragged, half carried a bleeding Sanji away, berating him with every step though the scoldings probably went in one ear and out the other. Or maybe it dripped out his nose, Zoro mused. That actually made a lot of sense. It was only around women that the cook seemed to lose his sense. Or what little sense he had left.
"I was about finished when Cook-san had another nosebleed. I believe you are done here, Kenshi-san," Robin smiled.
Zoro rubbed a calloused hand through his newly-cropped hair and grunted his thanks before heading out, casually avoiding the droplets of blood on the way. So getting his hair cut by Robin hadn't been as bad as he had expec-
"That wasn't so bad, was it?"
Zoro could hear the amusement in her voice and just see that stupid, wry, all-knowing smirk. He growled in irritation and stormed the rest of the way to a stretch of railing that seemed to demand he lay down and nap. From the backend of the Thousand Sunny came a clamor that could only be Luffy and Usopp horsing around with Franky. Brook had undoubtedly been with Nami if the skeleton's distinguishable laugh following a "bone-crushing" thud was anything to go by, and a few minutes later Sanji was strolling to his domain most likely to make dinner. The patter of Chopper's hooves echoed by as the reindeer rushed to be included in the captain's fun with Robin's much slower taps at his heels. Zoro shrugged inwardly at the feeling of her eyes on him and resisted the urge to bristle at her amused chuckle. He heard her gait wane as she continued towards the ever-increasing chaos. Damn woman knew how to mess with him. At least his hair was cut.
Author's note:
Wah! My first story is published in complete form! Remember that I did say that this story could be complete nakamaship ;0 I'm the type of person that enjoys the hints of romance if the love isn't canon. One, its more believable, and two, its almost like trolling. Hah! In any case, I had fun with this.
As to UltimateC3's comment about the speed of my updates, I was anxious because it was my very first fanfiction. I didn't know what to expect. I also had written the story in its entirety beforehand and I personally dislike waiting forever for updates, although I probably could have drawn it out a little more. That and, after a while, all excuses as to why I didn't update sound the same in the long run and I didn't want to start now, aha. I also wanted to double check, triple check, and...okay, I checked so many more times than that...in any case, I wanted to be as true to the characters as possible.
Thank you so much for reading my story and reviewing and everything good in-between! I have been working on a new one but I like to take my time when I'm writing so it can be perfect. Meanwhile, if any of you have a good idea for a next story, you are perfectly welcome to make known your suggestions! Not gonna promise anything, but who knows?
Until next time then! Ja ne!
Misa-kike-chi
[EDIT] About a month after I published this story, I found that, according to Oda, Usopp and Robin are responsible for cutting the crews hair. I'm shocked that I was that accurate except for the fact that I also had Nami involved (though now that I think about, she wouldn't bother with a stressful task like that).