Storms have a habit of stirring things up.

Enjoy~

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Chapter 4

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No matter how longed they looked at it, no one could believe it.

"Hahaha! Merry looks like a sea monster!"

"Stop laughing and help me clean her!" Usopp shouted as he weakly attempted to pull the clumps of seaweed off the sheep's head.

Miraculously, no real damage was done to the ship. Some of the rigging was tangled. The cargo was tossed all to hell. Things were missing from on deck, but other than that the ship was perfectly fine. Just floating roughly fifty yards from where they had originally anchored her.

"These storms are insane..." Nami glanced towards some of the broken limbs from her mikan trees and sighed deeply as she continued to list the things that were missing from the deck on a clipboard. "If Sanji-kun hadn't been awake to notice the winds changing, we could have really been in trouble."

Robin gave a thoughtful hum as she used a few dozen arms to sweep away the remaining water from the deck. "I wonder why Cook-san and Swordsman-san were up so late. Do you think something happened?"

The redhead gave a soft snort as she continued to write more items down. "Those two? They were probably having another fight to the death over something stupid. It doesn't really matter as long as they help out."

The way it was so flippantly dismissed had Robin quirking up a brow, but she let the conversation end there. They did have more pressing things to deal with.

So far everything was proceeding smoothly to get Merry back in running order.

Sort of.

"Waah! I can't find my goggles!" Usopp wailed as he began turning over everything in sight.

Chopper was in no better state. "I can't find some of my medicine bottles either! Doctorine gave me those! She'll kill me if I lose them!"

"How's that old lady gonna even know, Chopper?" Luffy questioned as he watched his nakama go crazy with worry.

The reindeer seemed to pause as a shudder went through his little body. He glanced back at the captain with a haunted look in his eyes. "She'll know... She always knows... Ahh! I have to find them!" he cried out before he aided Usopp in making another mess of the deck in their frantic search.

Luffy blinked at the reaction and gave a wide grin. "Eeee... Scary witch lady still has Chopper by the horns. Yosh! I'll help with the search! I expect to be rewarded in meat, though!"

"You've been hanging around Nami too long!" Usopp snapped in irritation.

"Hahaha! You're probably right!"

"I heard that!"

"Eee! Scary Nami!"

Hearing the commotion outside, Sanji looked up from his own search of his water logged kitchen. Normally he would be out defending the redhead's honor, but he was far too distracted to attempt it. That alone made him aware of how ragged he really was.

His body ached from last night's desperate sprint. Normally that would have been nothing, but he hadn't gotten any rest for the past two days. Add that to his current injuries, and it was a wonder that he could even move. His back ached from the healing bruises, and he felt his skin tightening around his wound. All of this moving wasn't good for such an injury, but last night took away the choice of recuperating.

'No point in worrying about that now.'

Instead he focused everything into the task he had before him. It wasn't surprising that some personal items had been swept away, but his head was hurting the longer he couldn't locate his own missing items.

"Dammit... My best carving knives are gone..." He had spent the past hour pulling open drawers and tearing through cabinets for his missing knives. A few glasses had broken in his haste, which only angered him further.

Ignoring the glass that was scattered about, Sanji continued his desperate search. Of all the things he could lose. 'Why my knives... Go ahead and tear my heart right out of me... Just don't mess with my fuckin knives...' he thought angrily. He couldn't have his set incomplete. He spent so long in gathering the perfect knife set. Scrimped and saved to buy them on his own.

"I have to find them..."

After one last vain attempt to search beneath the scattered crates that had been thrown around the room, Sanji was out of places to look. They were no where in the galley. Sanji felt his throat tighten when that dawned on him. "Dammit... How could they get out of here?" he hissed to himself.

His eyes darted around for any cracks that the knives could have fallen in. That led his eyes to the opened porthole above one of his counters. "No... Fucking shit!" He swiftly kicked a crate next to him, which shattered into thousands of pieces. For once his luck showed when the crate turned out to be empty.

It didn't improve his mood though.

It was bad enough that all of his flour and dry goods had been ruined, but now his knives?

He was pissed.

All of that anger came to a boiling point when his eye caught on the rumpled mass that had once been his favorite suit jacket. He turned away from the disaster that was now his kitchen and crossed the room to pick it up. It was still heavy with water and he could see the ugly patterns that had formed from the salt drying on the black fabric. There was no repairing it this time.

He wanted to scream.

He wanted to tear apart everything around him.

"I... Want this to stop.."

A weary sigh left him as he slumped heavily against the wall. His back throbbed in complaint, but he was feeling too depressed to really care. All he could think of was the moment he purchased the jacket. He had been so thrilled on finding it. It put the finishing touch on the look he had tried so hard to create.

For the longest time, that jacket was his personality. Everyone knew when he meant business the moment he put it on. Anyone that dared mess it up got the business end of his boot.

"Heh.. I can't really kick mother nature's ass.. Not that I would anyway. Wouldn't want to strike a lady..." he mused bitterly to himself.

"Oi.."

Sanji glanced up at the familiar grunt and saw the moss headed swordsman step into the galley. "I'm not gonna be cooking for a while. This place is wrecked. I'll need to clean everything first." he pointed out flatly. It was a miracle Luffy hadn't barged in demanding breakfast yet.

Zoro paused for a moment before he closed the door behind him. "I'm not after food."

A strange feeling had Sanji's hair stand on end on hearing the other's tone. "Then what is it?"

Recognizing the strained edge on that smoky voice, Zoro kept his distance. He examined the way those steady hands were clutching at the rumpled mass of cloth. On seeing the gold buttons, he knew what it was. "I can't find my bandana. I can't remember if I took it off in here or not last night."

Now seeing the bare spot on Zoro's arm, Sanji thought back to before the storm had occurred. He remembered the idiot being a bit too eager to crack into a bottle he had stashed. The sake had splashed onto his arm, soaking the black bandana. "Yeah, you took it off and tossed it onto the counter." When he pointed towards the counter his visible blue eye grew wider when he realized it was the counter right beneath the opened porthole.

His palm collided with his forehead as a deep groan left him. "Shit.. I don't fuckin believe this..."

Zoro was perplexed for a moment, but his gaze soon fixed on the porthole. "... It got sucked out during the storm?"

"Along with my carving knives, apparently." Sanji roughly scrubbed at his face with his hand in frustration. "I'm beginning to think this island is toying with us.." he mumbled against his palm.

A strange conflicted feeling was twisting at Zoro's gut the longer he stood there. On one hand he was pissed about losing his bandana. On the other... "Hey, are you okay? You're not looking too good."

The question was unexpected, but Sanji saw it as the opportunity to bitch. He felt like bitching. "I'm just fuckin tired.. Two nights of being chased by big ass storms combined with losing too much blood. Plus now I'm pissed about my knives. I've had those knives since I was 14..." He glanced down at his jacket and glared at its state. "I've had this jacket since I was 16..."

Zoro never really knew just how personal those items were. He knew Sanji always carried a case of knives with him whenever they had to make an extended trip away from Merry. And that the jacket was always kept in pristine condition. No matter what they went through, Sanji always took the time to mend any damage done to the jacket.

As he looked at the way the blonde was holding the suit jacket, Zoro knew that the piece of clothing had reached its limits. 'That jacket is a part of him... This on top of everything else is going to push him over the edge...' In the state the cook was in now, the last thing he needed was that added stress.

The jacket he couldn't do anything about, but the knives...

"Nami said we have three more days until the log pose is set. There's a lot of shit missing. We can probably look for everything while we work on getting resupplied."

Sanji regarded the swordsman for a moment like a vegetable had suddenly began lecturing about physics. He was just stunned that the considerate thought passed through the normally distant man's skull. It made him realize that perhaps he was too quick to judge.

"I... Really don't give you enough credit..." he stated quietly as he let his suit jacket fall to the floor.

It made a strange slopping sound, but Zoro was more interested in the strange demeanor that was settling over the cook. It was subdued. Maybe even a little chagrined. He couldn't comment on it when Sanji began moving towards him. Curious, he allowed the blonde to approach while trying to keep the memories from the night before out of his head. 'He was just playing me last night. Making a dramatic goodbye. He's such a drama queen anyway.'

His boots came to a stop in front of Zoro's. Only roughly an inch separated them in height, but that fact never really mattered to Sanji. They were just different. Zoro was broad and built for strength. He was sleek and built for speed. Was there really any point in competing and comparing?

As he continued to look into those dark eyes, a frown formed on his pale brow. His left hand lifted to pull back the curtain that hid his other eye. Zoro's own eyes seemed to widen slightly at the action, but he ignored it so he could try to find what he wanted to say. As if the answer was written somewhere on the tan face.

In the end, only one question managed to make it past Sanji's lips. "Why do you keep surprising me?"

He had no idea why, but the question made a slight smirk twitch onto Zoro's lips. "Heh... I ask myself that same question."

It was almost coy the way he said it, and it had Sanji mirroring the smirk for some sadistic reason. "Stupid Marimo." He gave a light slap to the swordsman's cheek before stepping around him to head for the door. "I'm still pissed. I want my knives back, dammit. I'm gonna find 'em even if I hafta kick this shitty island into pieces." he stated with a bit of his normal fire back in his voice.

Zoro would never admit it even on his dying breath, but he liked it when the spastic cook was determined. The light in those blue eyes changed into something else. Something heated.

Just like that moment at the base of the cliff...

A chill shot down his spine. 'Dammit.. I gotta stop thinking of him like that.'

He kept telling himself that.

But he was beginning to like that chill more and more.

"Damn curlicue."

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TBC

Chilly

Later~