Autor's Note: This story is going to be in more parts. Just everytime I come up with another tip. Thanks for the reviews and enjoy the story :)

Title: Flirt Tips
Word Count: 1.995
Warning: Ehm not really a warning yet. There will be later.

Flirt Tips

The hatch that lead to the men's dormitory opened softly and illuminated the dark room full of hammocks. Quickly a dark figure entered, climbed down the ladder and closed the hatch again. The darkness returned to the room together with the silence. There was no one here yet. The crew sat in the kitchen enjoying the last remains of their meal or their coffee except for the lone figure that had entered here. He looked around, but couldn't see anything of course, made a few hesitating steps, stumbled with a lot of sound over the small table and landed on the soft couch.

'Aaah, that surprised me! Oi table, watch where you're standing!'

Suddenly there was a flickering of light and a candle was lit, revealing a bit fussed looking Luffy (for who else could it have been) who stood before the couch now with the candle in his hand and looked very angry to the table that had been toppled over. Then his face lit up with he remembered why he had come here. Eagerly he looked around and moved towards the hammocks. That damn Sanji had kicked him out of the kitchen, he could still feel the swelling on the back of his head, after he had stolen the food of Nami for the second time this night. Just what was the big deal?

Still slightly whining about the pain on his head Luffy made his way towards Sanji's hammock and looked around until his eyes caught a black box that stood right under it. Snickering by himself he kneeled down and placed the candle on the floor next to him. He shot a glance around the room to make sure nobody was there and then opened the box with a expectation smile on his face. The candle light flickered on the covers of 15 identical looking black books that where placed neatly in the box.

'Ohooooh!'

Without a thought Luffy picked up the one to the far left where, in golden ink, a big '1' was written on the binding. It was quite a heavy and big book. He turned it around and read:

FLIRT TIPS; A BOOK FOR THE SINGLE MAN

And below that:

More than 100 tips to show the woman race your true intentions.

Luffy nodded by himself. This was it, this was it for sure. He sat down and let his back rest against the black box while placing the book on his knees and opening it on the first pages.

Now it had to be said that the young captain wasn't that fond of reading. He would rather jump around, scream, stretch, eat, talk to his nakama about very important matters like meat, explore new places, run, fight, eat, sleep, play with Chopper or Usopp, sing songs, fish, eat, make a campfire (which was not often possible), sit on Merry's figurehead or look to Zoro how he was training or napping or eating or sitting on watch in the crow's nest.

This last favorite thing was actually the reason why he was here now and tried to read by the soft candle light even though reading was absolutely not his thing. You see Luffy liked Zoro. Of course he liked all of his nakama very much, but he preferred Zoro's silence over Usopps songs and Zoro's skin over Choppers soft and warm fur (which was really soft and warm and nice on very cold nights). Zoro would never give him debts or kick him out of the kitchen when he was eating. He even liked Zoro more than meat. Only Zoro didn't seem to realize this and that was why Luffy had searched for a way to show him this. He had been pondering for days, but couldn't figure out how to tell it to him. It was then, call it faith if you believe in that or just luck, that he saw Sanji reading a book.

'What are you reading?'

'None of your damn business!' The cook replied angry. Yet he looked kinda caught off guard.

Of course this were the wrong words if you wanted to keep Luffy away from you. Had he said that it was a book about history then Luffy would have let it drop and would have continued bothering someone else, but now his expectations were set.

'Ne, ne, ne, what is it? Tell me! Sanjiii, tell me! Cooking recipes?'

' Luffy go bother marimo or something I'm busy.' And he kicked the boy away.

A minute later Luffy's head rose behind Sanji's back and peeked over his shoulder to read the page Sanji was currently studying. 'Tip 45', it read, 'A meaningful touch.'

'Heee, what is this?'

Sanji's eyebrow twitched, but refrained himself from kicking the boy again. Luffy would never quit so easily, maybe a little information would be enough.

'Say Luffy.' The cook started. 'Remember when you fished up that man in his sea shell?'

((I can't remember exactly when it was and I can't find it anywhere, but I'm sure it was there in one episode where a salesman tried to sell all kinds of useless stuff and eventually ends up running away when he finds out that he is on a pirate ship, leaving quality paper that Nami wanted very badly behind together with all the other stuff. Anyone who can tell me which episode that was gets a cookie.))

'Well he left this.' Sanji held up the books with a glimmer in his eyes. 'And with this,' The glimmers turned into burning firers, 'I will show Nami-chan and Robin-swan my eternal love and we will –'

'Ooooh can I borrow it?' Luffy, also with glimmering eyes now, looked hopefully before being smacked in his face.

'Of course not!'

'Sanjiii!'

'Shut up otherwise you won't get dinner!'

But Sanji had underestimated the rubberboy if he thought Luffy would just stick with that rejection so easily. Tonight Luffy would read the books Sanji had hidden from him for so long. He grinned by himself and skipped through the first pages which looked boring until he spotted the title:

TIP 1: SHOWING INTEREST

With an excited face he started reading.

"The first step in the approach of a lady showing interest in her well-being.
Let her know that you care about how she feels. Ask her what she is doing, what her hobbies are. Look for things you two have in common and continue from those subjects. A light conversation will help the two of you to get to know each other better which may lead to her seeing you in a different light when she realizes how much you have in common. Don't lie about what you like, women hate men who lie. Instead of that let her see that you might be interested her hobbies even though you have never practiced them yourself. Showing interest in her interests is the most basic way to test each other out, see if you can get along. You want to avoid ask–"

'Oi Luffy!'

The hatch opened and Luffy, just in time, hid the book behind his back and turned towards the light above him. Zoro was looking through the opening down on the boy.

'What ya doing down there?'

'Nothing.' Luffy tried to sound normal and fumbled with the book behind his back.

Zoro raised his brow, but didn't ask further. 'Whatever…' He mumbled before raising his voice again. 'Oi you want me to come down or are you going to come up. I got you some food.'

A broad smile appeared on the boys face as he stretched out his arms in a responds and rocketed himself towards the hatch where he smashed, accidentally of course, into the swordsman and made them both topple over.

'Ah wari Zoro.'

# Tip 1 Showing Interest

'Zoro?' The young captains head floated just inches before the swordsman's who was enjoying another of his midday naps against the railing of the Going Merry. Grumbling the man opened one of his eyes and glared to the rubber boy.

'What?'

'What are you doing?'

Zoro raised his brow to this ridiculous question which held an too obvious answer. Yet the boy seemed deadly serious about it. 'Napping.' He therefore responded before closing his eye again.

'Soka… You like napping don't you?'

Zoro grumbled something vague as an answer.

'What do you like about it?'

Sighing the green haired man opened his eyes again and looked bothered to his captain. 'It is relaxing. Now let me sleep will ya.'

Two hours later.

'Zoro, what are you doing?'

Zoro rolled his eyes as he lifted another weight. 'Isn't that obvious. I'm training.' He raised his other arm.

'Think I can do it too?'

'Maybe.'

'Can I try?'

'Sure. Here take this.' He placed one of his weights in Luffy's hands which immediately smacked down on the deck.

'Itte!' Luffy cringed with his hands stuck under the metal.

'Zoro! Stop making Luffy shout!' Nami's voice came from the cabin. 'I'm trying to work here.

Zoro grumbled something, picked up the weight with one hand and walked away towards the men's dormitory.

Three hours later.

Luffy jumped out of the kitchen and looked over the deck. He smiled when he saw his favorite crewmember resting against the railing again. Quickly he made his way over.

'Hi Zoro!'

The swordsman didn't even open his eyes, but his eyebrow twitched in a sign that he was irritated. Of course Luffy didn't notice that.

'How are you?' The captain said, remembering the first sentence in the book about asking how a person felt.

'Bad.'

'Huh, why?'

'Someone has been keeping me out of my sleep all day.' The man said hoping that Luffy would get the hint which he, of course, didn't.

'Ah who? As captain I order that nobody should keep Zoro out of his sleep!'

'IT IS YOU MORON!' Zoro smashed Luffy on his head and stood up to walk towards the other side of the ship, leaving a slightly whining but also confused Luffy behind.

What did he do wrong? Luffy couldn't figure it out. He had done exactly what the book said, but Zoro had glared to him more today than ever and even seemed somewhat angry at him. Slowly he sat up and placed his hat back on his head. Yosh, he would just try it with tip 2 then tomorrow. Maybe tip 1 was just not working for Zoro. Figuring that must be it the young captain jumped up and started looking for Usopp and Chopper to play a game.

Next Tip: Giving Compliments