Chapter 6: How it all started...

There was nothing more pleasing to the eye than the scene of a fair lady grinding tea leaves in a graceful manner.

It didn't matter that she wasn't wearing a kimono or doing up her hair in a bun, which would've so wonderfully exposed the back of her neck when she lowered her head; It didn't matter either the look on her face was by no means soft or gentle, or the way she was moving was anything but graceful— in the vision of Sanji's pink hearty eyes, everything about his Nami swan was just perfect.

However, reality was brutal—

"Damn it! This thing isn't working right!" The orange-haired girl screamed irately and threw the mixer down to the floor. It broke into pieces.

Sanji let out a small sigh. It pained him to admit it, but in actuality, Nami was a monster in his kitchen—a beautiful monster of course, but still, a monster.

"Nami san…" he hesitantly opened his mouth to suggest, "Maybe you should get some rest. You looked tired." And if she kept breaking things like that, they'd be running out of plates and bowls by their next meal.

"No I'm good." Nami said shortly, not even looking up.

"But—"

"I said I'd help you grind these tea leaves so that's what I'm going to do right now! Quit bugging me!"

…okay, maybe it was her time of the month, which explained why she was so agitated today. The cook let out another sigh. His Nami swan was still lovable when she was angry. He just needed to admire her beauty from some distance.

"Nami san, I'm sure you'll hate it if I smoke in here. " Standing up, he said politely as he took his pack of cigarette out of his suit pocket, flipping the lighter between his fingers. "If you excuse me, I'll just go outside and—"

"Go ahead, I don't care." She cut him off shortly.

Sanji furrowed his curly brows in concern: Something wasn't right with his favorite navigator. Her voice was shaking. So were her shoulder blades.

Instead of retreating, the cook walked up to her.

"Nami san?" he put a hand on her shoulder and asked softly. "Is everything alright?"

The girl didn't give an answer. She kept her face down, eyes casted on her knees.

"Just go… ok?" She pleaded in a low voice.

"I won't until you tell me what's going on. You're starting to make me worry, Nami san." Sanji insisted. He had to give her shoulder a gentle squeeze to make her look up at him. And when she did, his eyes grew wide at what he saw—

"You are welling up!"

"No I'm NOT! " Nami immediately denied, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. "This is all your fault! Your cigarette…your smoke's stinging my eyes!"

Slightly taken aback, the nicotine addicted cook stared at the cigarette between his index and middle fingers: He hadn't lit it up yet.

"My apologies, Nami san. I was being rude." his next move was to toss the whole pack of cigarette into the trash bin, along with the one in his hand.

"I shouldn't have smoked in front of a lady." He said staring into her still watery eyes, his voice genuinely apologetic.

Nami looked back at her blond haired nakama without blinking. She was afraid that if she did blink, she might not be able to hold back the tears anymore. Her vision was still blurred, but she tried to look at him with grateful clarity: That was such a sweet lie he had made up for her sake.

And he was such a sweet guy. Especially compared with what someone had said to her to make her eyes water in the first place, Sanji's gesture was almost too nice to be true.

Nami sniffed a little. Trying not to let her embarrassment show, she told him: "I didn't cry." and then repeated what she said in a somewhat childish tone, as if trying to convince him (as well as herself)." I didn't."

"And I wouldn't say you did." Sanji gave her an understanding smile.

"It's just …grinding these tea leaves is so frustrating...but I'm gonna do it anyway." She picked up where she left with the mixing bowl and glanced at the chef warily from the corner of her eye." I can still do this, right Sanji kun?"

"Sure." Sanji nodded. "As long as it's in my kitchen, you can do whatever you want, Nami san."

0-0-0-0-0

He did the right thing.

Repeatedly lifting up the 10 ton weight in his grip, Zoro thought to himself.

It had been 6 hours since he broke things off with Nami. He figured if he kept telling himself that for long enough, it might start sounding true.

So, all in all, he did the right thing.

This physical intimacy he had shared with her had already become more complicated and emotionally drained than he could handle. He hated to admit it, but he found himself constantly getting confused, frustrated, or even irritated with how things were going between the two of them.

This wasn't who he was. He wasn't some sort of pathetic lover boy who'd easily be pushed around by some girl. Unlike that ero-cook who had basically no self-respect in this regard, he had boundaries.

In fact, he was doing just fine with his life before that manipulative bitch decided to barge in, pull off some stupid game that he didn't even know how to play along, and make his life miserable.

Flashback

"Gotcha!"

A mikan hit him square in the face. For a moment he was sure his nose bridge got broken.

"Ite… "Rubbing his aching nose, he scowled at the assaulter."What the hell did you do that for, witch?"

There she stood in the midst of her little orchard; with both hands on her hips, her long orange hair fluttering in the sea breeze.

"What did I say about you walking around shirtless, Zoro?" she questioned, voice dangerous.

"…that I look good?"

"You wish!" She screamed. "I said IT'S VULGAR AND YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT ANYMORE!"

"Not allowed?" This was ridiculous. If it wasn't for the fact that his nose bridge still hurt he might actually laugh out. "You are not my boss, woman. What I wear or do not wear on my own time has nothing to do with you."

"People don't wanna see that!" She held out a finger, pointing towards his bare chest. "It's visual pollution!"

"What people? You mean you?" he quirked his eyebrow in a sarcastic manner. "I'm sorry, find yourself something else to look at, Your Highness. It's a hot day and I'm staying this way." He stated as he walked into the shade of one of her mikan trees. Dropping down and lying on his back, he allowed his eyelids to grow heavy. It was actually a cool place to take a nap in—it could be better though, if only some annoying woman wasn't nagging beside his ears.

"You can't sleep here!" He felt his side kicked by her pointed shoe toes. "You can't sleep in my place like this!"

"Last time I checked, this is everybody's place. Just because you planted some trees here doesn't make it your place." he yawned, not bothering opening his eyes.

"At least put something on, psycho nudist! This—"She accused."—is sexual harassment!"

"…says the woman who wears bras outside in public." He mumbled under his breath.

"I can hear you!" she was screaming again. "This is a bikini top, moron! People are supposed to wear them outside. Don't you have any sense at all? ...Don't distract me! ...anyway, my point is you can't just lie half naked under my trees! They'll feel violated if they have souls…You know what? Forget about it, it's my fault to talk about souls in front of a soulless being such as you…"

She kept on ranting for a while. He ignored her for long enough, till her voice finally trailed off. Or he just tuned her off in his head, which was a wise thing to do and he should have done it a lot earlier.

Just as he was about to embrace his usual sleepiness, he felt something soft pressed on his lips.

Wide awake and stunned, he snapped open his good eye and sat up: "Nami?"

Did she just...kiss him?

She pulled back forcefully, apparently caught off guard. He stared at her face, which was now so close to his and was wearing an equally shocked expression.

"I thought you're… why aren't you asleep!"she accused, raising her hand in an attempt to slap him in the face.

He caught her wrist with one hand. And when she tried to lift her other hand to attack him he caught it too. "Hey hey, stop it, stealthy kisser, that's not gonna undo what you did—"

"I—I HATE YOU!" She squeaked, struggling in his grip. "You tricked me!"

He certainly did not trick her. In fact, he'd never expected she would've kissed him in his sleep. Yet somehow, looking at her now crimson colored cheeks, he couldn't help but do the only thing that seemed right at the moment, the only thing that could shut her up.

He leaned over and kissed her full on the lips.

End of flashback

That was the first time they had kissed. And on that very day they did a lot more than kissing. Did she have a crush on him? Was she merely acting on impulse? He never knew. He never asked.

Technically, she started this. If there was anyone who had been playing a trick, it was her. She basically tricked him into this whole thing and then all of a sudden she was like "I'm sick of ALL THIS" .

Letting out a disgruntled sigh, Zoro put down his weight. He just couldn't concentrate on his training. That devil woman had reduced him to a very easily distracted man.

"Snack time, my dearest Robin chwan~~~~~~! And you shitty bastards are all invited to bite me!"

Great, the cook, yelling crazy stuff like he always did — just the last thing he needed right now.

Zoro thought indignantly as he climbed down the crow's nest jackladder. Seriously, what's wrong with that retarded cook today? Didn't he use to call out Nami's name before everything else?

Unless... did something happen to that woman? She wasn't on hunger strike or hiding in her closet just because he broke things off with her, was she?

Damn that bitch. Why couldn't she for once, stop making him worry about her?

He cursed inwardly as he picked up the pace towards the kitchen.

Author's Note: I was just wondering… maybe I should write this beforehand, something like "WARNING! Some Sanji Nami moments", cause you know, some people might hate it.

For the record, I don't ship SanjixNami. I thoroughly and utterly adore Sanji but I just can't see him together with Nami.

To Blaeed: Can't reply to you via PMs. So there: Thanks~~ I'll try to stick around and maybe finish this some day. :)

Note on Japanese part: "Ite"- It hurts. Girls don't usually say it though, they say "itai" instead.

So...R & R, people~ Tell me where this is going cuz I honestly have no idea.

Minami