One Piece Goda belongs to. Author's notes bottom at.
Chapter Five
And Your Bird Can Sing
"Zoro, are you going to bath?"
"In a minute. Why?"
"Can I join? I need someone to brush my fur for me."
"Sure, I'll be there in a sec."
And so the little reindeer walked off to the bathroom at the end of the house, the bathroom in which the boys had to share - and to be fair, Sanji was the only one who had a habit of bathing like a decent human being, thank you very much. Zoro sighed, and washed his face quickly at the kitchen sink. Everyone else had gone out somewhere, doing God knows what for either sightseeing, visiting, or in preparation for the wedding. He regretted that he just needed to train a little earlier that day, to make up for the following days that he might not be able to make time for. The guest house is fairly quiet now.
Des yeux qui font baisser les miens... Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche...
Zoro froze at the sound of a romantic old tune, which was heard from the living room. Wondering who else was at home except him and Chopper, he immediately walked to the living room to check out who it was. There stood the raven-haired archaeologist, in her floral sundress, leaning against the cabinet on which a tone dial was located - and played. She hummed along to the song, slowly swaying her body to the lovely sound.
She jumped a little when he caught her waist from behind, and later, he rested his chin on her shoulder. "I didn't know you like Italian songs."
"French, of the North Blue," Robin corrected him. "It's Edith Piaf, La Vie En Rose."
"Mmhmm," was Zoro's only reply, as he began trailing kisses from her ear, along her neck, and her shoulders, and his hands wandered under her dress, touching her in places that made her chest heaved as if she was in need of breath.
Robin used her strength to turn towards Zoro, protesting his seduction attempt. It was new to him, as she would usually let him take control. The woman gave her a crooked smile, and cupped the back of his neck instead. "Why don't we just dance?"
"I don't dance," he told her, but he held her waist and subconsciously followed in her slow swaying pace.
"Quand il me prend dans ses bras," she continued singing along to the music, while letting him kiss at the nape of her neck, again. "Il me parle tout bas," his fingers brush against the thin fabric of her sundress, over her bosom, "ja vois la vie en rose," her lean fingers slipped through the waistband of his pants, without her even realizing it, but then, oh maybe just once more, she told herself, and she tried to sing along to the song while the green-haired man undressed her, held her tenderly while leaving constellations on her chest, under her naval, and... "when you kiss me, heaven sighs, and though I close my eyes, I see la vie en rose..."
"Il est entré dans mon coeur, une part de bonheur, dont je connais la cause..." Sanji sang, miraculously with a cigarette in between his teeth and both hands in his pocket, while strolling along the lovely streets of Water 7 on a Thursday afternoon, with Nami - also known to him as the goddess, the angel, the flower of my garden, the rose of my Valentine, and other cheesy romantic things that ero-cook could come up with. Though they had entered several shops and found nothing for herself, only a pair of dress lilac flared dress that would make Robin looked like a princess of a very classy bath soap commercial - which they decided to pick up for her as a surprise - the weather today was at least, sunny but windy, like fall on a summer island. And that pleasurable weather made Nami a little less cranky, thankfully.
"Is that a French song?"
"La Vie en Rose, Edith Piaf," Sanji explained. "Heard it once at Baratie. It's a really lovely song, Nami-swan! As lovely as you!"
"Shut up and don't embarrass me," she replied, although she loved being showered by compliments from Sanji every single time, she would get annoyed if he did it in public. Hella embarrassing, yeah. They walked passed another boutique, with mannequins wearing pastel-coloured dresses. "Let's try this one."
They entered the shop, and she tried a few dresses she thought would suit the wedding theme - now, what is the wedding theme again? - but it's nothing different from the previous shops, if she would depend on the blonde cook's opinion. It was always compliments, compliments and compliments, and she was always beautiful, lovely, and gorgeous in every dress she had tried. At that very shop, she found a baby blue halterneck dress, a marshmallow pink bodycon dress, a yellow flared knee-length dress and finally, the one she was trying one, a pale red fishtail dress.
"You look stunning in this, Nami-swan!" Yes, he said this with hearts on his eyeballs, like the typical Sanji she had always known.
"I wish you'd not say I look equally good in every dress I tried, Sanji-kun," Nami rubbed her temple and shook her head. She studied her reflection in the full-length mirror again. "Hmm, this is pretty, but this isn't for wedding..."
"You look gorgeous in whatever you wear, Nami-san," Sanji said again. This time, he walked to the accessories corner of the shop, picked up a golden metal belt and returned to her. "Up, lift your hands up, Nami-san. Careful, if you touch me I might die."
Nami lifted her arms to allow Sanji to secure the golden metal belt around her waist. "How come?"
"Nosebleeds."
"Baka!" Although, she knew it was only a joke. Once the belt was secured, Sanji retreated one step back, and allowed her to check herself in the full length mirror, once again. The golden metal belt really did the dress good. "Wow, Sanji-kun, you do know how to accessorize."
"It's just like food, you need to have the right colour and the right side decoration to make it presentable! Do you like it, Nami-san?"
"Yeah, I do." She turned to the shop assistant who was by the cashier counter. "I'll take this dress and this golden belt for fifty percent discount!"
"Eh? I'm sorry ma'am but the dress is only on twenty percent discount..."
"Fine, I'll take this dress, this golden belt and the three other dresses with seventy percent discount."
"Eh?! W-wait!"
Nami returned to the dressing room to change into her previous clothes. "You know, Sanji-kun, for once you're actually useful right here..."
"Nami-san calls me useful!"
"It sucks, really, having to shop all by myself, and Robin isn't really feeling well since yesterday-"
"Eh, what happened to dear Robin-chwan? Is she sick?"
"Uh, I reckon so. But she'll be alright... Don't worry. We have the best doctor in the world on our team, aren't we?"
"You're right. Leave her to Chopper, he'll heal her as fast as he could."
"Hmm. By the way, Sanji-kun, what are you gonna wear to the wedding?"
"I had a really fine pair of suit that I don't usually wear. I bet Luffy's getting all dressed up for his tailored best man suit right now. It's not fair that he had a chance to date on the beautiful bridesmaid!"
"Bridesmaid?"
Robin stared blankly at the empty ceiling above her, with the swordsman's naked body over hers on the mattress, and his heavy breathing brushed ticklishly on the skin of her neck. The atmosphere was so quiet that she could only hear their thundering heartbeat on sync against each other's chest. She cursed herself mentally for about seventeen times before she finally realized that the swordsman was giving light kisses on her neck, with his one free hand brushing and playing her hair.
"Zoro, what are you doing?"
He stopped. "Not gonna go again, don't worry."
"You never did this. You don't do this."
Zoro knew what she meant. The tender kisses on her neck, the hair brushing an toying, he have never did that after sex. He have never even gave any affectionate gesture after sex, all these while, and they were used to getting what they wanted and that's that. Thing is, though, he did not even realize what he was doing until she pointed it out, and well, he sighed, moved to her side on the bed with his one arm pillowing his head. "Sorry. Didn't know you didn't like it."
Robin closed her eyes. "I thought we both agreed to not be... affectionate."
"Right."
"Leave all those only for foreplay."
"Yeah."
She turned her head sideways to face him, a handful lock of her hair fell on her jawline to partially hide the worrisome expression she was giving him. "I suppose Chopper is waiting-"
She was unable to finish her sentence, as Zoro quickly claimed her by the mouth, his rough hands grasping her waist along with the tongue-voided kiss. It took her a few seconds to eventually attempted to free herself, with the help of several phantom hands.
"Zoro!"
There was a certain expression of remorse on his face as he returned her look, apologetically. He quickly sat up, avoiding her gaze now. "Sorry, I... fuck." The swordsman got up onto his feet, collected his clothes earlier abandoned on the floor, and attempted to leave, before Robin called out his name with a rather cold voice.
"Tell Chopper we'll be heading out to town after bath," she told him. "You included."
Nami was awfully quiet after they had left the earlier boutique with that lovely red fishtail dress - with the golden metal belt, thank you very much to Sanji's ten- seconds-of-being-Alexander-Wang. Correctly, it was after Sanji mentioned the bridesmaid, or the maid of honor, that Nami had gotten a little less enthusiastic in the dress hunt.
In effort to cheer her up a little while trying to figure out what has been bothering her, Sanji took her to a lovely coffee shop downtown, and they sat by the window with a view of the nearby canal. Accompanied by cheesecakes and blackcurrant-flavoured tea, he blabbed about nothing else but food, though he was kind enough not to criticize the tea. Still, Nami didn't say much.
"Nami-swan? Is everything okay?"
"Ie, everything's fine." She gave him a nervous laugh instead, realizing that he was getting straightforward. "Can't wait for the wedding!"
"Me too, Nami-swan."
Nami wrinkled her forehead, and gave him a sorta smirk. "That's it? Where's your, I can't wait to meet all the beautiful ladies!?"
"That's true. But... But..."
"But?"
"My loyalty is to Nami-swan!" Cartoonishly, he raised one arm and pointed towards the ceiling. Oh, yes.
"Get a life, Sanji-kun. I don't know whether to feel flattered or to feel sorry for you." Of course, she meant for it to be a joke, well, maybe.
"Well, at one point of life... No, never mind."
"What? What is it?"
"Never mind, it's just a stupid thought..."
"No, go ahead. I won't laugh. Least I could do is gossip about it to Usopp later, but well, that's it then."
"Well, you know, at one point of life you will thought of settling down, you know? Be dedicated to only one person, the love of your life, exactly what Sabo and Koala did. Well, they're still going to be doing their job, shitting on the Government's schemes and all that every now and then, but-"
"Yeah, I get what you mean. To be all happy and cuddly with a life partner. Isn't that what love is all about? Love, you're the expert on that, aren't you, Sanji-kun?"
Taking that as compliment, Sanji took out a cigarette stylishly. "Love, is something-"
"Excuse me, sir," a waiter approached him, "this is a non-smoking restaurant-"
"I'm not gonna light it," Sanji replied for a quick save, though he wouldn't care, really, and dismissed the waiter who mumbled, 'alright, Agustus Waters'. "Now, love, Nami-san, is something very precious-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not necessary, though. Right? You can just shake off these feelings if it appears."
"Love keeps one moving, Nami-san."
"Cheesy nerd."
"You ever been in love?"
"I have. With cartography."
Of course, Sanji thought. "Ah, but does cartography made your heart beat faster than a real person does?"
Nami was about to criticize the concept of love and emphasize how love towards a passion, a field of knowledge or an activity could also be considered love, but she was taken aback by the mention of 'heart', 'beat', and 'faster'. Sure, that shit is pretty much familiar to her lately. That that that that, that that. Feeling a certain frustration with her own self, she let her face fell flat on the table. "Heartbeat, you... sonofabitch."
I'm sorry that this chapter is a little ZoRobin-centric. It was meant to be a side-story, but I suppose maybe I wanted to make it the kind of story where, at the conclusion, you would enjoy and you would be proud of what they have become throughout (even if it's fanfiction lol). I'll try to put more Sabo and Koala soon, I promise.
RosesAndRavens, why are you so lovely? Actually, you've prompted me to start this fic, I sure as hell wanted to write a LuNa but I've got nothing in mind. And then, chapter 744 came in, a new ship set sailed and what the heck let's make a wedding! I'm glad you enjoyed it so far, love! 1327, hahaha and this fic loves you so far. Stick around, my love! scatteredPhilosopher, (reaches for towel) look, it is not what it looks like. Hahaha. Would you like Nami to meet Bellemere? The reviews affects the story, you know :3 Shiningheart of Thunderclan, thank you, do stick around! (:
Thanks for the reads, follows, favourites and reviews. I'm gonna go cuddle with Sabo for a bit and then sleep, maybe. Goodnight, flowers!
