Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

—-

"…."

"…."

"Um…"

"So….."

"Yeah.."

The three of them blinked. Staring at the fancy sign hanging above them.

You are now entering Meadowcoast's "Iguana Street". (1)

Chopper chuckled nervously, "Well, look on the bright side guys, at least we'll be able to show the others where we can eat out at." He said, trying to lighten the tension in the air.

The sun was starting to go down and it'd be getting dark soon. The advertisement signs and shop lights from the district they were in were already starting to brighten up the streets in multicolored lights. The crowds from earlier had lightened up and there were just a few people still walking around. Most had on nice clothes, probably there for a nice night out on the town. Though, for some reason, they all seemed to be skirting around the area where they were standing, sending nervous glances toward the largest one of the group.

Zoro was just standing there, scowling at any and everyone that dared to cross within his line of sight. He was pissed that they all seemed to know perfectly well where they were, how they got there, and which way they had to go to get wherever they wanted.

"Can someone tell me again how this happened?"

Both Chopper and Ussopp turned to look at Zoro who just crossed his arms in front of his chest and grunted.

"What?"

He did't know what their problem was. Like it was his fucking fault this damn town was built all wrong. That stupid sign a few streets back had told him that all he had to do to get back to the town entrance was to take a right and then two lefts…or was it a left and two rights?

…..

…What the fuck ever. Anyways, the point still stood, that this was, in no way, his fault.

Ussopp sighed, "When Sanji gets back to the ship before us and sees that we're not there, he's gonna kill me. Do you know what he said to me? Do you!" he freaked, shoving his finger in Zoro's personal bubble.

Smacking the offending finger out of his face area, Zoro grumbled, "The love cooks not gonna do shit to you, so calm down."

"You didn't hear him! We have to get back to the Sunny before he does or I'm as good as gone!" Ussopp wailed.

"Guys…" Chopper tried.

"The worst he could do is cook you and at least then you'll have died for a good purpose."

"Guys…"

"I'ma come back and haunt you for this."

Zoro growled and grabbed ahold of Ussopp's shirt. "You should worry more about me right now if you don't…

"Guys!" Chopper yelled.

Zoro finally stopped shaking Ussopp long enough to let go of the front of his shirt and let him drop to the ground.

"Hm?"

"I think I see Robin over that way…" Chopper pointed a hove toward a restaurant with flashing neon signs further down the street.

Zoro squinted and saw that, yeah, Robin seemed to be standing near the entrance of a real shady looking place.

A loud voice carried down the street to them, "But I'm hunggryyyyy!"

Chopper winced and rubbed his ear, "And I definitely hear Luffy."

Ussopp immediately brightened and got up from where he'd been previously sulking on the ground.

"I'm saved!" he shouted and ran over to meet with the others.

"…."

"Idiot."

Chopper chuckled a bit and shook his head before following Ussopp down the street.

Zoro stood there for a second longer and then made a move to follow when he stopped dead in his tracks and clenched his fists. Almost immediately after, though, he forced himself to relax, just incase whoever was watching him noticed. The last thing to do in these kinds of situations was tip off whoever it was that you were on to them. No, Zoro thought, best to the stupid, blind pedestrian so that you can figure out wether or not its a threat.

He continued on as if he hadn't noticed anything and, instead of following Chopper, he walked toward a shopping booth on the side of the rode; acting as if that had always been where he'd intended to go. Still feeling a pair of eyes burrowing into his back, he stopped at the stall and pretended like he was interested in the stupid, gaudy jewelry it was selling. Lifting his head a bit he made it look as though he were examining one of the lockets hanging for sell and discreetly made a sweep of the area to both sides. He didn't see anything suspicious in his peripheral. Dammit, that meant it was coming from either the roof behind him (which he doubted, seeing that if the guy was on the roof everyone within a mile would be able to spot him) or the alleyway. Zoro narrowed his eyes and scowled. He hated fighting in small alleys. It was always so awkward trying to maneuver his swords the way he wanted inside such an enclosed space. He much preferred a nice, big open space for him to work in.

He waved off the stall keeper who kept trying to get his attention so he could practically shove his merchandise in Zoro's face.

What he didn't get was why someone would be watching him in the first place. He wasn't exactly a prime target for a pick pocket, seeing as how he was carrying three, rather large, swords and gave off a general air of "don't fuck with me or you'll lose a hand". (That and he had no money.) So that was out. He was pretty sure that he hadn't managed to piss anyone off too badly today, it had been too short an amount time for someone to want to off him yet; even for Zoro. It also couldn't be any navy pricks or pirate hunters, because, to his surprise, there hadn't been one bounty poster around that he'd seen and it turns out that the navy kept clear of this country for some reason. That and he hadn't seen any evidence of your normal city jackasses or gangs in Meadowcoast, which was weird, yeah, but a welcome change to some of the places they'd been to. So why the fuck was somebody watching him?

Getting fed up with all this stealthy crap (it was more the cooks thing anyways) he was about to turn around and head over to beat the shit out of someone, alley or no alley, when the feeling disappeared as soon as it had come. Confused, he whipped around and scanned the area, sure that someone had been there. But nothing, not a damn thing.

Strange...

Lingering a moment he tried to shrug off the feeling he was getting. One of those creepy, shits about to go down, feelings.

Hmmm…Whatever, he was overreacting. Turning back he made his way over to he others; who were probably wondering if he'd actually gotten lost again.

—-

Once they had all gathered around the rather rundown restaurant, Zoro noticed Nami and Franky (who were both trying to hold back a struggling Luffy) were there as well.

Zoro stood back and decided that he wouldn't bother the others with what had just happened. Nothing really happened anyways and if something actually did come up, he'd take care of it.

While they were pulling Luffy away from the doors to the place, Chopper turned to Robin and asked how they had ended up there.

"Oh. Well, we were on our way back to the Sunny when we ran into Franky near the town square. We were all about to head back to the ship when captain-san suddenly ran off. We ended up following him to this establishment."

Nami and Franky finally managed to drag Luffy over to the rest of the group, who were gathered under the restaurant's awning. Nami let go of him and huffed, "Seriously Luffy, couldn't you have just waited a moment?"

"But Nami the food! It just smelled so good!" He then pointed an accusing finger at the girls. "You guys didn't let me stop to get any snacks today either, so I'm starving over here."

"But bro, you ate plenty before we left the ship earlier. Remember, cook-bro made tons of snacks." Franky pointed out.

"That was like, forever ago!"

"More like 4 hours." Nami mumbled under her breath.

Luffy crossed his arms and huffed. "Well I'm captain and I say we eat here." he stomped his foot authoritatively, "Now!"

"I suppose I could do with something to eat right now." Robin agreed.

Franky shrugged, deciding to go along with it.

Chopper nodded and patted his stomach, "Yeah, I'm kinda hungry too."

Luffy nodded and looked satisfied. "Good, so now we can go eat." Turning he headed for the entrance before he was stopped short by Ussopp grabbing onto his wrist.

"Wait, shouldn't we go get Sanji first?" Ussopp asked.

"The shit cooks' probably found some woman to fawn over. You know how he gets. He could be anywhere…" Zoro trailed off, eyebrows furrowing. He wasn't sure why that thought bothered him so much. Why should he care that the cook liked to humiliate himself in front of every woman he came across, just to get their attention? He shouldn't.

Not at all…

…But he did, and Zoro wasn't used to not knowing why he did something. He'd always had perfect control over what he did and how he felt. He had had to train hard to gain such a high level self awareness and now, suddenly, he didn't know why he was doing certain things anymore. Like helping the cook clean when he didn't need to and noticing small things about the stupid blonde. Like how nice his voice sounded and how long his legs were and even how he had seemed so tired lately, like he badly needed a break, and Zoro found he really wanted to help give him one. Which was probably why the sea-witch was starting to piss him off more than usual. The cook had a hard enough time keeping up with Luffy's appetite and cooking for everyone else too, he didn't need Nami constantly ordering him around right when he was about to take a break. And the shit cook was too "chivalrous" to tell the bitch, no. Sure, she was nakama and all, and he probably shouldn't think of her that way (if the cook knew he'd kick his ass) but he couldn't help it. Not with the way she went around treating Sanji.

As if all that wasn't enough, he'd also noticed lately (he seemed to be noticing a lot of things lately) that Sanji had this strange habit of mothering the entire crew. He didn't dote on them all like he did the girls or anything, but he did do the little things. He gave good advice when someone needed it, made comfort foods when he noticed that someone was down, and always kept a watchful eye on all the crew members, ready to jump to someones defense at a moments notice (and he was always the one diving in after Luffy when he managed to fall over board); he took care of them. He was always there with a ready smile, willing to help in whatever way he could. But no one else, besides Zoro, seemed to notice that Sanji did all this for them, but no one was doing the same for him, and the fucking cook didn't seem to mind one bit. So damn it all if Zoro didn't feel like he should be the one helping the cook out.

He gave himself a mental nod. He'd take the time to properly sort himself out later. For now he was just going to go with what his gut was telling him to do; and that meant helping out the cook when he could. Besides, hadn't they just decided they'd try out the friends thing that morning. Well, friends did stuff like that for each other, right? With that decision made he figured he should start now and encourage this little outing. It'd give the cook the chance to take a break tonight and maybe get some extra sleep.

"I don't know, Sanji will have a fit when he finds out we already ate." Nami tried to point out. "Maybe we should wait until we get back."

Zoro scowled. Shut up bitch.

"I'm sure that cook-san would be grateful for the reprieve." Robin said

Seeing his chance, he nodded quickly and agreed, "Yeah, the guy could use a brake every once in a while." When the others looked at him weirdly he stiffened and felt heat rise up his neck.

He coughed, "Besides, I was getting tired of eating the shit cook's food all the time. Something different would be good." Which was a total lie, he could eat Sanji's food for the rest of his life and never get tired of it. Of course, he'd never tell anyone that, and if it got the idiot a bit of a break, he was willing to lie.

Robin shook her and looked vaguely amused. "So its decided then."

Luffy beamed, "Yosh! Foooood~" the only thing they saw was the door to the restaurant fly open before he disappeared.

Zoro grinned and mentally congratulated himself on a well executed plan.

—

"Damn it Luffy, why here? This place is an absolute dump." Nami complained, looking around at the place from where they were sitting.

Zoro was inclined to agree on that. He guessed they'd just found out where all the city's lowlifes had gone to. The sign outside was a fucking lier too. It had named the place as a "fine dinning" restaurant and not the shit hole that it really was. (See, it wasn't him and his sense of direction. They really did lie!) They were sitting in a corner booth in a more dimly lit part of the room. Unfortunately, he and Franky had had to throw out a few unconscious drunks before they'd been able to lay claim to it.

Robin looked up from the menu in her hands and smiled. "I think its rather nice. Its not often that we're able to dine in such places. The atmosphere is certainly…interesting."

Nami gaped, "Ok…I guess thats true but…," she cringed and ducked under the table, dodging a flying beer bottle. Tentatively reemerging she looked at the area of the wall where her head had been, now covered in dripping booze, and grimaced. "Not what I had in mind for a nice dinner out." Picking up her menu she grudgingly started to go through it. She glanced up once and awhile to glare at Luffy who was playing with the silverware along with Ussopp and Chopper.

"This place is awesome!" came Luffy's enthusiastic response. He laughed as two burly guys came crashing past their table; they looked like they were trying to see how many punches it took to get to the inside of a persons head. (2)

"Think on the bright side guys! …." Franky paused, scanning the place for something positive to point out, "Um…" He grimaced and slumped a little.

Ussopp looked up from the fork fight he was engaged in with Luffy.

"I bet Sanji's food is way better than this places'…"

Zoro agreed.

"Aahhhhhhh…dammit Luffy, that was my eye!"

—-

Later, after they had ordered their food and Ussopp had gotten some ice for his eye, Zoro was almost starting to regret his insistence on this eating out plan. Not only was this food shit compared to the cooks', the captain and the sharpshooter were starting to get on his nerves with their constant fooling around and the witch would just not stop complaining about other patrons. The constant noise and commotion around them was starting to give him a headache. He had also noticed that the booth situated right behind where he was sitting had been filled by some suspicious people that were really setting him on edge. He was leaning back, trying his best to listen into their conversation since he wanted to make sure they weren't planning to jump them once they left.

"So, you heard about that political meet thing thats gonna start in Gran Granada soon, right?

A second, more gruff voice scoffed, "Shit yeah. You kidding me? Its all anybody's talking bout. They say all the big guns are gonna show up."

The first ones voice dropped to a secretive whisper and Zoro had to strain to hear.

"Yeah, well I heard that the Paridians are actually gonna show."

"Fuck. You're lying."

"Swear thats what I heard."

"Well, I wouldn't wanna be one of them right now."

The first one laughed but it sounded cold, "No kidding, everyones gonna be after their asses. Think about it! Just one would…"

"Shut the fuck up man, ya can't talk about that here. Too many people."

Zoro smirked and thought that was ironic, but stopped when he noticed someone approaching the shifty mens' table, he looked like he had something important to say too. Swerving in and out of the rough crowd like none of it was there he made a b-line for the other two's table.

Reaching his goal he slide into the booth and immediately started to talk in a low, fervent tone. Zoro leaned back farther, filtering out all background noise so he could hear.

"The boss wants you guys out back, now. You'll never guess what we've manage to get our hands on."

He had an excited edge to his voice that immediately put Zoro on the alert. That was the kind of tone he would expect to hear from someone who'd just found a load of cash in the pocket of the person who's throat they had just slit.

All three of them filled out of the booth and made their way to the back of the building where they disappeared into a hallway that Zoro assumed led into a back alley.

"Is something the matter swordsman-san?"

Zoro clenched his jaw and looked back to the others at the table. Seeing that none of them seemed to have noticed any of what just happened, he turned his attention toward Robin. She was looking at him curiously and, quickly making up his mind, he nodded in response to her question.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna step outside for a second. All the noise in here is giving me a migraine."

Casually sliding out of the booth he didn't bother to wait for a response. He wanted to see what those freaks were up to and didn't need the others to get involved.

Striding through the crowd he made his way over to the hallway in back where he'd seen the thugs disappear to. He stood back a second and scanned the room to make sure no was paying any attention to him before he peered around the corner. Last thing he needed was some idiot pointing him out and ruining his attempt at stealthiness. It was difficult to see with how dark it was, but he could make out a door at the very back. Quickly slipping into the narrow corridor he approached the door, keeping his footsteps light. Pressing his ear up against the doorway he stood still, waiting to hear if anyone was still on the other side. Not hearing anything he cautiously opened the door and slipped through, closing it behind him.

The backstreet he'd just entered was absolutely trashed. There were broken pieces of glass all over the place, probably from beer bottles, and junk littered the ground everywhere; collecting up against the walls and in corners. When he looked up at the walls he couldn't help but to cringe a little. They were covered in something wet and…ugh, yeah, he didn't wanna know.

Looking up and down the hell hole he saw no one around but he did hear a few faint voices coming from further down the alley.

Fuck, he thought, of course they went deeper into this damn maze.

Lightly he made his way further in, being careful to avoid any of the glass shards strewn about. The voices were getting louder and he was able to make out a sharp turn up ahead that had blended in with the darkness before. He got to the corner and stopped, carefully pressing his back up against the wall and peered around the edge.

He immediately saw the three freaks from before all gathered around something on the ground. There were two others there as well. Both had their backs to him and stood facing a dead end, the one on the left was a small, weasely looking bastard with overly greased hair and the other one Zoro assumed was the boss. He had a more confident air about him and he was also the one ordering the three stooges to drag the man at their feet over to him.

Wait…

It was only then that he noticed that the "something on the ground" had actually been a person. He had a torn cloak (Zoro assumed it was the work of these assholes) that was attached to his shoulders. It had covered him before but when two of them picked him up by the arms to drag him off, it fell and revealed a severely beaten, unconscious man.

Son of a bitch, he had known something fishy was going on.

"Gye!"

Oh hell no…

Thrown off, he looked past the head honcho and his sidekick and saw that, yes, that really had been a frightened woman's voice toward the back of the dead end. The men had covered any sight of her before but now that, "Gye", had been moved, she had hurried to kneel at his side where the goons had dropped him.

Right in front of the boss.

Che… Zoro's hand fell to the swords at his side ready to step in when he needed to.

She put a hand on the unconscious guys shoulder and started to shake him, "Gye! Gye, wake up!" her voice was panicked and she seemed a lot more concerned for her friend than she did for herself.

A low, gruff chuckle broke into the air and she froze. Her long, red hair covering her face.

"Whats wrong sweetheart? You don't like how we were treating this piece of shit here?"

Zoro saw her hand tighten its grip on Gye's shirt and tensed, if she was going to do something stupid he'd have to run in quickly to get in between her and the thugs in time.

But to his surprise she didn't start screaming or try and bolt. She just lifted her head and gave the thug boss such a venomous glare that he was surprised the ass didn't actually spontaneously combust. There was a definite "fuck you" in that glare.

Apparently, this wasn't the reaction boss man was expecting either.

Someone needs to take an anger management class…or three.

A look of pure hatred came over his face and the guy growled before he raised his hand, ready to hit her, hard.

Well, fuck that. The cook would shun him forever if he let that happen. It was time for him to step in.

Vaulting from behind the corner he drew a blade and slid it across the stone street while he ran; making sure the noise would draw all their attention to him. The original three goons were the closest so he made straight for them, ready to whittle down the numbers.

Sparks flew.

He gave his first victim no chance react or even pull a weapon. Quickly cutting him down he faced the other two who had been quicker to recover from their surprise. One ran at him and threw a clumsy punch his at his face. Zoro calmly leaned back and sidestepped the amateur, bringing his sword hilt up and driving it down into the guys neck when he passed by, knocking him out instantly. Bringing his sword back down to his side Zoro regarded the third one who's face had paled and looked to be rethinking his plan to confront the swordsman.

Zoro smirked and lunged at him.

—-

"Che… Not even worth my time."

Zoro looked up from the motionless bodies of the three gangsters and eyed the last two.

He raised an eyebrow, "So, someone gonna to tell me what the hell is going on here?"

They gaped. The woman looked confused and a little wary, like she wasn't sure whether or not he was on her side.

Zoro stood staring at them all, still waiting for his answer. He quickly sized up his remaining opponents and was not impressed. In fact…

"What the fuck happened to your face?"

His question was directed at the boss, cause now that he got a better look at his face he could see a huge scare marring his cheek. Not only that, but it looked like he'd been on the losing end in a fight with a steel pole. His right eye was blackened and swollen shut and he had a giant bruise that looked real recent covering his collar bone and it also looked to be crawling up the side of his neck. With how bad it was, he wouldn't be surprised if it covered the majority of the guy's upper chest. Zoro knew a thing or two about bruises and this guy had gotten the shit beaten out of him.

The glare he was sending the thugs got a tad harder. He was kinda ticked off that someone had gotten ahold of this guy before he did and he wasn't sure why.

"You going to say something anytime soon, cause I've got other places to be."

That seemed to snap them out of it. The incredulous looks on their features were replaced with ones of fury for the boss and fear for the weasel.

Scar-face opened his mouth and started yelling, "Damn it! Where the hell do all you people keep coming from? First its the little one and now this chicks got some bastard that appears out of nowhere to but into our business."

"Um… Boss, maybe we should, you know, leave this one alone. I mean…"

"Shut the fuck up! This bitch is coming with us if its the last thing I do!"

He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Zoro's chest.

"You're gonna go back to whatever whole you've crawled out from and we're not gonna have anymore problems, yeah?"

"Hmm…" Zoro pretended to consider the offer before grinning viciously.

"No."

Dashing straight toward the guy Zoro got up close and dropped low before he was able to get off a shot. He slashed upward and pushed, sending the man flying into the opposite wall. Scar-face slumpped to the ground and stayed there.

Zoro turned and saw the weasel running away and decided to leave him. Not even worth the effort.

Before the weasel guy disappeared from view though, his voice reached to the back of the alley where he and the woman still were.

"Don't think this is over! You're gonna regret this…"

Zoro scowled. Ugh, do not tell me I just pulled a Luffy and got us involved in something thats none of our business.

"Sir?"

Looking over to where the woman was still kneeling by Gye's side he noticed that she didn't look wary of him anymore and, in fact, had a grateful look on her face.

He sheathed his sword and grunted in response, letting her know that she had his attention.

She smiled tentatively. "Thank you for getting rid of them."

"Whatever, they were getting on my nerves anyways."

She nodded and looked down at her friend with concern. "Do you…I mean…well…"

"Spit it out."

"Oh! Right, its just that I don't think I can carry Gye, so do you think, maybe…you could…?"

He stood there for a moment without answering. Looking the man over he had to agree, she would never be able to lift him up on her own and he really did need to get looked at. Zoro supposed he could just leave them though, this wasn't his problem and the crew didn't need to get involved in whatever was going on around here. But…damn it…

Knowing he was going to end up regretting this eventually he nodded. "Fine. I've got a friend thats a doctor, we can take your friend to him so he can get looked over."

Her face lit up and she gave him a grateful smile.

"Thank you so much sir!"

He didn't say anything, just lifted Gye up onto his shoulder and started to walk back to the restaurant. He only got a few feet before he realized that the woman wasn't walking with him. Turning around he saw her looking further back down the maze of alleys with a small frown on her face.

"Hey, you coming or what?"

Her head snapped over to him and she looked at Zoro blankly for a moment before seeming to shake off whatever was bothering.

"Yes, yes I'm coming." She came over and started to follow him back when he staring walking again. "By the way, I'm Aerona. And you?"

He shifted Gye on his shoulder and grunted. "Zoro."

"Well, thank you again Zoro."

Nodding he continued on. It made him kinda uncomfortable when people thanked him for stuff like this. He was just doing what he wanted to do. Though, when the cook had thanked him he had gotten this funny feeling in his chest right after. That hadn't been so bad, it was nice really.

He glanced over at Aerona when a thought flashed through his head. He snickered quietly.

Heh, he couldn't wait to see the look on the cooks face when he told him what had happened. He'd get so riled up over the fact that he hadn't been the one to save the girl.

Which reminded him. Something weird was going on around here, and what with all the bull that had happened that evening he hadn't given much thought to the fact that the cook was all alone right now.

He frowned.

Well fuck. Sanji had better have made it back to the Thousand Sunny alright.

—-

To be continued…

—

Ja ne~

—

(1) TFS fan anyone?

(2) Is it weird that that sounds like a tootsie pop commercial?..…but violent.

A/N: Hey guys! I'm back with another update. Yay! So since I spent a week on this chapter (and not a few hours like the last two) I've ended up changing it around so many times that I'm not sure how I feel about it anymore. I got real in depth with Zoro and it just doesn't feel like I got his personality right. That and I've re-read over everything and I think my subconscious may hate Nami, cause I've really been bashing haven't I? I'm not trying to make her out as a bad person (i kinda like her) but, oh well…tell me what cha think about this one, and any suggestions you have on improvement are much appreciated. :D