Title:Aftermath of the aftermath
Theme:Set #3 - Student
Claim:Zoro
Words:646
Rating:T
Warnings: Some swearing.
Disclaimers:I don't own One Piece.
Zoro's eyebrow twitched violently as the knife in his hand suddenly refused to cut any further into the carrot he was slicing. He glanced furtively to his right where Sanji was whistling as he placed a generous chunk of sea king in the oven, and pressed down with all his might. Still the carrot didn't budge. Zoro glared at it malevolently. He was going to be the greatest swordsman in the world, dammit, he couldn't be defeated by a garden vegetable! He deeply regretted ever mentioning his ability to cut through nothing to the cook now. No wonder Sanji'd holed himself up in his galley for the last few days. Come to think of it, that explained why all their meals recently had been served in small bite-sized chunks, too. Insecure bastard.
"All right, what am I doing wrong now?" he barked, tossing the knife down in disgust.
Sanji straightened up and looked over the most recent products of Zoro's knifework. "Too thick. Slice 'em thinner," he directed.
Picky, insecure bastard. He wasn't even trying to hide that smug smirk on his face, for fuck's sake. Shit cook was enjoying this cooking lesson a little too much.
Zoro sighed, eyeing the mountain of carrots he'd been assigned to chop up with something approaching despair. Why they even needed so many carrots he didn't know - Luffy sure as hell wasn't going to eat them. Sadistic, picky, insecure bastard.
He waited for Sanji to turn away again before picking up the knife once more, surreptitiously changing his grip to one he was more accustomed to. To hell with proper cutting technique, he was gonna do this his way.
A moment later, he was swearing like a sailor when the knife slid along the length of the carrot, stubbornly refusing to slice through despite all the pressure he was exerting on it.
"What's the matter, marimo? Your swordsman's spirit not up to my cook's spirit?" Sanji teased.
"Leave me alone! You wanna get these carrots cut or not?" Zoro demanded.
"The way you're holding that knife, you're not going to have enough control for a fine cut," Sanji lectured. Zoro gave a start as Sanji wrapped his slender fingers around Zoro's and the knife handle, rapidly chopping up the rest of the carrot, holding up a disgustingly paper-thin slice for them both to examine when he was done. "See?"
Show-off! Zoro's fingers twitched towards his swords. So the shit cook thought he was a real ace with his knives, huh? He'd show him a thing or two about fancy bladework...
"Don't even think about it, marimo. I'm not gonna let you contaminate food with oil and powder and blood and whatever other shit you get on those swords. It's unsanitary."
"Who says I was gonna use my katana on the carrots, curly?" Zoro retorted, flicking Sandai Kitetsu a couple inches out of its hilt.
Sanji's grin stretched still wider as he shifted his weight onto one leg, in preparation for a block. "Bring it on, marimo."
"A-hem."
They glanced around guiltily to see two beady reindeer eyes fixed on them in a warning glare.
"Er...on second thoughts, I do have a lot of carrots to slice."
"Yeah, I guess I'll give you a hand with those."
"This the right way to hold the knife?"
"Yeah, that looks pretty good."
Zoro and Sanji gave each other a look of mutual commiseration and returned to work, exhaling a breath they didn't know they'd been holding when the rustle of a page told them Chopper had gone back to his book. The crew doctor's decree that neither of them was to be allowed near a bare blade without adult supervision couldn't be lifted soon enough.
A/N: And, Chopper wins again! Honestly, this fic totally wasn't in the plan in the beginning but people liking Zoro's ability to cut through nothing made me wonder if Sanji could develop that same ability with his kitchen knives, hence this fic. And then Chopper popped out from nowhere at the end. XP
Although this is the end of the four-parter, the events of this "arc" will be mentioned again in future fics...and as always, I'm eager to hear what you think!