Title: Eavesdropping
Theme: #18: Cute
Claim: Zoro
(Words:) 1,209
Rating: PG
Warnings: Set post time skip, some time after Fishman Island, but no real spoilers. Couple swears, that's it.
Disclaimer(s): I do not own, or pretend to own, One Piece or any of its subsequent characters, plots or other ideas. That right belongs solely to Eiichiro Oda. I do not own the prompts either—those are assigned by 30_OnePiece.

Sanji was busy down at the local market, trying to order a number of fresh fish from an aggravating old geezer that wanted way more money than what they were worth, when he heard them: the voices of three heavenly angels, just around the corner and three stall-rows over.

Sanji's initial impulse was to twirl over to them immediately and begin wooing. After all, three beautiful young women, all on their own, without a gentlemanly escort? It just wasn't right! (And besides, he'd enjoy it too—he'd worked out that nosebleed issue, but he still had far more appreciation for a genuine lady than he'd ever had before, and promised himself he'd never again waste a moment in one's presence). But just as he was about to abandon the fish monger, something stopped him, and he ducked back behind the fisherman's stall.

He realized a second later what stopped him: the girls' conversation! He'd distinctly heard the word 'cute,' he thought. Suddenly curious, feeling a little bit bad for eavesdropping on the women but definitely wanting to know the object of their affection, he ducked forward a little more behind the stall and listened hard under the pretense of examining more fish.

"You're right," the first young woman said excitedly, "He really is sort of cute!"

"Mm, you're right," the second said after a moment. "I wasn't sure what to think at first, exactly, but he definitely sort of grows on you."

"Told you," the third said triumphantly. "I definitely wouldn't mind meeting him, bounty or no. And I heard from Marcie who heard from Amanda that their ship has even been seen in the harbor today!"

"No way," the first two said almost simultaneously, voices rising into little squeals.

Sanji, meanwhile, perked up in interest. Whoever they were talking about, they had a bounty, and they'd arrived recently. That met the qualifications of his own crew as well, since they'd arrived just that very morning! He very subtly sidled to his left just enough to see around one of the cart's posts, in the directions of the voices. He could see the backs of the three women, all with gorgeously long, shining, wavy hair and flawless skin and those round—

He clapped a hand over his nose, just in case, and glanced at the wall they were standing in front of at the edge of the marketplace. It was plastered with wanted posters belonging to all sorts of pirates, bandits and other outlaws. The women blocked the part of the wall they were looking at, but Sanji could just see the edges of Robin-chan's and Chopper's posters around the brunette's arm, and figured it was a pretty safe bet that they were discussing somebody on the Straw Hat Crew.

Now he was definitely interested in figuring out the object of their affections—especially since all of their wanted posters' photos had been updated recently, after their two-year vanishing act. Sanji had a legitimate photograph this time around, which wasn't his most flattering but was still infinitely better than that earlier monstrosity, and the rest of the Straw Hats' images had been updated as well to fit their new looks. Sanji was absolutely certain that he was still the best-looking wanted man of the lot, and giggled a little at the thought of coming up to surprise the three beauties after listening to them discuss him—

"He looks so strong," the first woman said with a dreamy sigh. "He could be my knight in shining armor any day."

"He is strong, look at that bounty," the second woman said. "Nobody earns that much money on their head without being powerful somehow."

Sanji waited for them to list the bounty amount, but none of them did. Drat. He kept listening.

"Look at the intensity in his eye!" the third girl said next, with a sharp squeal. Sanji was hopeful at this. Although he didn't remember seeing the photographer, by happenstance the exact shot they'd picked happened to be him glaring almost directly at the camera in mid-attack. That was as intense as it got, right?

"But it's gorgeous too," the second woman said. "Still so full of depth and just...mmm."

"It's just too bad you can't see the other one," the first woman said with a sigh.

Sanji perked up at this, and could feel the grin beginning to spread on his face. They were certainly talking about him now! He might have swapped the part on his bangs, but he'd habitually lived with one eye hidden from view since he was six, and no one else on the crew qualified. He suppressed a sudden fit of appreciative giggles as he thought of the excitement these beauties would get when he showed up behind them in the flesh. He ought to make a snappy comment, stay suave. Yes, that was exactly the way to handle it. This would be perfect.

He was just about to step out from behind the cart when the girls kept going. "I love the earrings, too," the first said dreamily. "I like a guy that can challenge boundaries. It's like he doesn't care what people think."

Earrings? Sanji froze in his tracks with a sudden cold feeling of horror.

"And the hair dye," the second woman added. "Green makes a statement, don't you think? He really stands out...it just emphasizes the good looks all the more."

This, Sanji thought, as his jaw dropped, is absolutely not happening.

"Good looks on a bad boy," the third almost purred. "Yeah, I definitely wouldn't mind coming across him in a dark alley."

The conversation collapsed into a fit of giggles, and through their laughter Sanji managed to pick out that they were thinking about heading down to the harbor to see the 'famous pirate ship.' They trotted off down the street, revealing the full collection of Straw Hat bounty posters. To Sanji's complete and ultimate frustration, Zoro's had been tacked in the center, mostly over his own. It cut off most of Sanji's photograph, making him look unflatteringly discolored while Zoro's photo glared sternly somewhere off to the photographer's left, prominently displaying his newly scarred over eye.

Gods-damned shitty swordsman! Sanji swore in his head. He stomped over to the posters, ripped Zoro's from the wall, crumpled it, and chucked it as far as he could. It did not make him feel any better. Abandoning his argument with the fish monger, he stomped angrily back towards the harbor, intending to teach the irritating marimo a lesson.

Zoro wasn't entirely sure why curly-brow came flying at him the moment he got back on the ship, or why he kept picking fights without even his own lame excuses, or why he muttered angrily under his breath whenever they fought about 'bad boys,' or why he inevitably accused Zoro of 'stealing his thing.' He thought maybe it might have had something to do with the girls that had shown up at the harbor that day and enthusiastically asked him to sign copies of his wanted poster (crazy women), but decided bringing it up would probably push the shit cook over the edge. Whatever. The fights were more entertaining like this, anyway.

Something a little more lighthearted after the last post. Yaaay.

~VelkynKarma