"His regained consciousness," Chopper smiled as Shanks opened his eyes. He seemed clueless as to where he was and what was going on. His hand sexily racked through his red hair as he turned to face Sanji who was having a smoke in the corner.

He face palmed and sighed, "I thought I was dreaming when I saw the pirate flag. This is Luffy's ship?"

Chopper nodded. Shanks struggled to get up, but Chopper stopped him, "your wound will re-open if you make any sudden movements. Your cut is similar to the one Zoro got from Mihawk."

Shanks froze, his face pale white.

"Zoro-san? Is Zoro-san on this ship too?" Shanks asked, his voice almost panicking, "how is he? Has he been acting weirdly? Is he happy?"

"Stop!" Chopper shouted as he saw Shanks heart rate rising at a speed not known to me, "you need to relax."

Shanks removed the tubes in him and he got up, "I need to see him. I need to talk to him."

He stopped for a while, Chopper ran around the room looking for sedatives as Sanji watched Shanks with unguarded interest.

"...I need to apologize to him."

Chopper stopped what he was doing and looked up at Shanks. Sanji was smiling in his corner.

"Apologize?" he asked as he walked towards Shanks, "just what happened between the two of you? I thought it weird when Zoro was the first to arrive at Sabaody Archipelago, without an eye must I add. Not to mention the way he looked at you when he saw you. Such utter disgust he held in his gaze."

"That is something I cannot tell you," Shanks replied as he looked down in shame.

"Ah, so there is a reason for Zoro's actions and you know the reason. Out of curiousity, where did you guys even meet?" Sanji sat on the bed and pulled out another cigarette. He light it up. One eye on the cigarette, the other fixed on Shanks. This was ever so thrilling. He was gaining a satisfaction Zoro had never been able to give him through their bickering. Zoro had always kept many things to himself. He was not one to share easily. Due to this, Sanji had made it a habit of his to find out Zoro's secrets without having to consult Zoro himself. There was always someone with the information he needed.

It had become an unhealthy obsession of his. He felt Zoro was to blame though. If only Zoro opened up to him, then maybe he wouldn't have to go this far. The fact that he had too much time on his hands was a problem too. It gave him enough time to wonder about Zoro. Luffy was pretty much an open book and so was everyone else. He knew their stories, where they had come from. Hell, he even helped them out in their times of need taking into consideration that most of them came after him, but Zoro was different. He had been there before him and not much about him was shared. Whenever he asked Luffy about Zoro, he was able to squeeze out a sentence or two out of Luffy, before he got distracted. He even tried using meat to get Luffy to talk, but Luffy had done more eating than talking and when it was time to talk, he had fallen asleep. However, Shanks here seemed like a sensible guy. He was sure if he poked in the right places, he could get him to spit out a thing or two about the dilemma between him and Zoro.

"I can never tell anyone what happened between the two of us," Shanks said bluntly, causing Sanji's cigarette to drop to the ground as his mouth remained wide open. He had been wrong? There was no reasoning with him.

Shanks got out of bed and looked at Chopper before continuing, "this is something I have to handle on my own."

"You know, for someone who loves Luffy like a son, you certainly don't seem to care about his well being," Sanji said as he got up and put his hands in his pocket, "don't you care about how Luffy is feeling right now? Knowing that you are here, yet he can't talk to you. Knowing all this, you only seem to care about Zoro's well being. He is all you have been talking about. Don't you want to know how Luffy is doing? Has he been acting weird lately? How is he coping with the fact that you are here? I know I'm not one to talk, but you one shitty idol if you ask me."

With that he walked out and Shanks just watched him leave.

"I'm sorry about that," Chopper apologized on Sanji's behalf, but was startled by Shanks' laugh.

"Don't worry about talking blue-nosed raccoon dog," he said as he pat Chopper on the head. Sanji had not realized it, but Shanks was using Zoro as an excuse to get his mind off Luffy. He wanted to catch up with him, hear of his adventures and share some pirating advice, from captain to captain. He wanted to congratulate him on his new bounty and tell him that he was still rooting for him. He even wanted to share a glass of sake with him. There was so much he wanted to say and do, but couldn't.

"I'm a reindeer," Chopper shouted, baring his teeth like a fuming dog, "and my name is Chopper."

Shanks laughed, "Alright Chopper, Where is Zoro-san?"

"I'll lead you to him," Chopper said as he put away the medical kits and prepared the room. It was to be left clean and tidy in case there were other patients who needed him.

They entered the crow's nest. Zoro was lifting weights as Shanks made himself comforted. He mouthed 'thank you' to Chopper.

Chopper did not know if what he had done had been right. His gut was telling him that something bad was going to happen and he realized his instinct had been right when he had swords clashing in the crow's nest. He tried to open the door, but it had been locked from the inside. All he could do was wait and hope that no one got hurt. He could not alarm anyone. It would cause a problem and Luffy might overhear it. He did not want any trouble, unlike Sanji who was relentlessly trying to create it. The way he had talked to Shanks earlier, he had been looking for a fight. Zoro had been ignoring him and none of the crew members sunk to his level. It was not much fun with them anyway. Fortunately, Shanks had acted more like Luffy than a yonko. He had just laughed it off as if it were a bad joke. For Luffy's sake, Chopper walked away.

"You mustn't be so hasty to attack, Roronoa. That is what he likes to call you is it not?" Shanks laughed as he blocked Zoro's attacks with ease, despite the fact that he was missing an arm, "however, if you do have a death wish, I am willing to comply."

The sword slashing continued, as half the roof of the nest was cut off and went crushing down onto the deck, "Mihawk certainly trained you well, but it is ten years too early for you to challenge me to a sword fight. Your tenacity has intrigued me, I can see what he may have seen in you. If I was not in a relationship with Makino, I may have been tempted to take you here and now."

He laughed some more as his facial expression abruptly changed. He was serious, "now why don't we put an end to this! I came here for the sole purpose of talking to you!"

Zoro would not listen. Like a stubborn ox, he continued fighting, till Shanks hit the two swords out his hands and grabbed both his arms. Zoro could feel Shanks warm breath against his cheek.

"I just want to talk to you," Shanks whispered into Zoro's ear. Zoro was panting, struggling to release himself from Shank's grip. The feeling was somewhat familiar. It was almost like the time Mihawk had held him against the wall. He had felt weak and helpless. He knew he was no match for a yonko, but he thought that after the two years, he was able to at least put up a better fight. In honesty, Shanks had been fooling around with him from the start. He had not been fighting against Zoro at full strength, yet every attack of his had been blocked, "I was longing to tell you that I never stopped thinking about you since that day..."