It's Just A Little Crush-Part 2

"We need to talk."

Zoro approaches Nami when she is lying in a lawn chair on the deck peacefully enjoying her routine sunbath time.

Her eyelids have drooped halfway close as if she were on the verge of sleep. Upon hearing his voice she lifts them to give him an incredulous look. "Oh okay." She says as she lazily props herself up on her elbows.

"Chopper has a crush on you." He says bluntly, sinking down to the spot right next to her chair.

For a minute she can only bat her eyelashes mechanically. "…EH?"

"I said, that kid has a crush on you. Apparently that Hito Hito No Mi*'s finally gotten him thinking like a normal boy." He elaborates a little bit; his tone nonchalant.

She bats her eyelashes some more, until the information fully sinks in. Then she clutches a hand at her chest and coos softly: "Awww~~~that's so sweet~"

"No 'awww~~~'," He shoots her a warning glare, mimicking her tone but in a sarcastic manner. "You need to fix this." He tells her.

"Fix this how? "She asks, quirking an eyebrow, "You want me to let him down?"

He nods. "Yeah, but…cushion the blow, let him down easy, okay? Whatever ya do, just don't hurt his feelings." He demands.

Nami rolls her eyes and snorts sarcastically. "Yeah, cuz I was just planning on ripping his heart out and leaving him bleeding to death. Thanks for the useless advice, genius."

"I'm not finished yet." He frowns.

"Okay. Continue." She gives a slight shrug of her shoulders as a concession.

"I dunno…maybe you should stop cuddling him so much." He pauses and thinks for a brief second before continuing. "And stop carrying him around like he's your personal Teddy Bear." Ignoring her glare he goes on, "—and DO NOT invite him to shower with you ever again."

"But he loves that!" She protests on reflex. "He loved it when I used my Clima-tact to produce these puffy little clouds and we both pretended they were marshmallows…and he'd help me wash my hair, pulling through the knots gently using a little comb, aww~~we had so much fun together!"

Zoro glares at Nami, not saying anything in response. His lips press into a firm line, waiting for the realization to dawn on her.

Luckily, she gets there real fast. "Oh," Her cheeks turn a little pink as she concedes:" I heard you. Point taken. No more showers."

"Um-hmm. That's what I thought. "He says. The mental image of her playing with puffy clouds in the steaming bathroom —without any clothes on—might be a little bit disturbing for his inner peace so he chooses to look away from her pretty face, inwardly cursing himself for even allowing his mind to wander there for a second.

"But, it's not that a big deal, right? I mean, we are nakamas, we get along pretty well, and we are all good-looking young people—well, at least some of us are. It's not a crime that we have feelings for each other from time to time; it's just involuntary brain activity— "She says quickly as if trying to justify what she has done to that poor reindeer teen.

"I don't blame you." He cuts her off with a nonchalant shrug, "It's not your fault that dumb kid feels that way about you." It's kinda her fault, he thinks, because of all the misleading cuddling, showering and hair-combing… but he decides not to say his thought aloud. She looks guilty enough to him.

"I'm so glad you think so too Zoro~" Letting out a sigh of relief she rambles on. "—I mean, I have crushes all the time! Hell, I even had a crush on you when we first met, and I never thought you should be responsible for it—" she slaps a hand onto her mouth as soon as she realizes what she just said. Now her cheeks turn a really beautiful hue of pink.

Zoro stares at her, somehow managing to pull a blank face. Although he can feel somewhere in his head just short-circuited.

"Say what?" he asks quietly, his heartbeat quickening against his will. "…you had a crush on me?"

"It's—it's not a big deal, okay?!" her voice rises instantly in defense. "It was just some stupid fuzzy feelings and it went away like, ten minutes later! You…you saved me then, and asked me whether I was injured, it was uh, kinda sweet—and that was BEFORE I know you for this stupid, annoying, lazy ass swordsman you are!" she stresses every word of her last sentence for emphasis.

"So…you don't feel that way about me anymore." It's more of a statement than it is a question on his part, although his throat feels a little dry.

"NO." she says a little too quickly," Not at all!"

"Um, good." After a short moment of (awkward) silence he nods his head briefly. "…good to know." If he feels the slightest bit of disappointment welling up in his chest he doesn't show it.

"So, are we good?" she peers at him from the corner of her eyes cautiously.

"…Yeah, why not." He confirms and stands up to walk away from her. She sighs at his retreating back. Whether it is a sigh of relief or something else she doesn't know.

And she surly doesn't expect him to spin around and walk straight back to her almost immediately. He even looks a little angry when he stands in front of her again. Her eyes widen slightly in surprised confusion. "Zoro, what are you—"

He cuts her off bluntly. "Ya know, it's not really fair that you kept something like that to yourself. So next time you have a crush on me, I wanna be informed, 'kay?"

Nami stares at him, stunned. His tone is un-mistakenly accusing and she dare not wonder why.

"Next time?" she raises one eyebrow.

"If." He amends quickly. " –If there's a next time."

"But…why would you wanna know something like…that? It's not like we can…" she trails off, biting on her bottom lip. "We can't, right?" she looks up at him, her eyes half confused half-exploring.

"Well, I'd like to have the option." He says with a shrug, playing cool—although the edges of his ears have turned very uncooly red.

And then he flees the deck so quickly that she wonders if she has imagined the whole conversation.

The End


Author's Note: Well, the end seems a little...unfinished but I've decided to stop right there. I'm so glad that you don't think I'm a horrible person for corrupting Chopper like that. He's so cute; I promise I won't do that to him again.:3

*Hito Hito No Mi is the Devil Fruit Chopper ate which allows him to turn into human point and some other points.

R&R, pwease~~~~? XD

Minami