Dirty little secret

Chapter 3

The sound of running followed by a door slamming was what woke me from my surprisingly restful sleep that following morning. Slightly alarmed by the noises I shot up from my bunk and looked around the room ready to kick the shit out of whoever may be intruding. Seeing most of the guys still asleep soundly and only Usopp and Zoro missing, I relax knowing now no one is attacking. I walk over to the door and swing it open to find Usopp spilling his guts out over the side of the sunny.

'Ah, just what I wanted to see first thing in the morning.' I sneer a bit at the scene in front of me before turning about and going back into the bunk room to get ready for the day.

On my way into the kitchen I spot Zoro training as always, I steal a glance at him to see his skin glistening with fresh sweat. He's swinging his largest weights around as if it was one of his swords, I note he's swinging it rather violently. 'That's odd he usually more careful, he's probably going to tear something if he keeps that up.' As I'm staring at Zoro's back muscles tensing and releasing, he must have felt my stare as he quickly looks back and catches my eye. He looks absolutely livid. I'm a bit stunned at the suddenly angry look thrown my way before I quickly tear my gaze away and mentally slap myself for being so careless.

By the time I get all the ingredients out and am about to start cooking I realize last night didn't do as good of a job as I was hoping. I still feel antsy, agitated and frustrated; it isn't as bad as it was before but it's certainly not gone. 'Fuck, now what am I supposed to do, I even tried out that toy and that didn't help get rid of this!' I do my best to ignore it for the time being as the crew is starting to wake up, time to hurry and get the food ready.

During breakfast I can feel Zoro glaring at me rather fiercely. I look over at him and see he looks angrier then earlier if that's possible. 'The hell crawled up his ass today?' I try my best to ignore the idiot but he's not giving up. I'm not the only one who notices Zoro unfairly placed anger.

Robin speaks up, "Swordsman-San are you alright? You seem a bit odd this morning." She eyes him quizzically as she sips her coffee.

Zoro turns his glare onto Robin and spits out, "No actually I'm not ok, because of this idiot I couldn't sleep last night or focus properly on my training!"

I slam my hands on the table and sit up a bit, "Oi bastard! Don't raise your voice to a lady!"

Zoro looks like he wants to rip my head off, "Why don't you stop putting on an act, you perverted freak!"

"The fuck did you say!" I practically scream at him.

Just as we are about to engage in a fight Nami yells out, "Take it out side dumbasses! We do not need more noise in here!" She sits back down and cradles her head in her hands obviously plagued by a massive hangover. I look over to Zoro and see he's already stalking out of the kitchen to go out onto the deck.

I love fighting Zoro; it's one of my favorite ways to help ease the frustration that infects me. I get to be as close to him as I like, smell the sweat and scent that makes up Zoro. Best of all I get to feel him come at me with everything he's got; feel him trying to take me down with that beautifully powerful body. But I need to get myself back into reality; he has no thoughts in that direction I'm sure. Especially based on how pissed he seems this morning.

Lost in my own thoughts I almost miss blocking the sword that comes full force at my face, I get it just in time with my shoe. 'I have no idea why he's so pissed, but I hope this fight helps him, maybe it'll even help me get over the rest of this frustrated feeling.'

Our fight lasts longer than normal, tiring me out pretty well which is rare for our normal fights. I would have thought by now Zoro would have cooled off but he just seems even more irate, he's got a murderous look in his eye as well as looking a bit tired himself. His attacks have become harsher and more than just the "training" type he normally uses with me, it almost seems like he's attacking me to hurt me. But he would never do that; he may hate me most of the time but I know he would never hurt me.

I kick back his swords as I pant out "Oi, Zoro haven't you had enough, this has gone on forever!"

Zoro growls out, "Hell no, I'm gonna fight you until I can get your stupid image out of my head!" He swings all three swords at me and I know this has gone too far. He's so lost in whatever the hell he keeps talking about, too angry to get full control over himself.

Having had enough of this fight, I jump back a bit and stand straight and still. It's our sign for stopping during our fights; however it seems today that isn't going to work. Before I have enough time to react fully he's coming at me with his blade business side aimed right for my face, I have just enough time to put my arms up to block my face from the brunt of the attack. I grit my teeth to keep any noise in but a loud grunt escapes my mouth as I feel the blade bite into my left forearm. He jumps back almost immediately and looks very shocked; all traces of his previous anger have left his face.

"Fuck Marimo!" I yell out at him, I place my right hand onto the wound and can tell its deep, I think it may have almost if hit the bone. Blood is pouring alarmingly fast from it as I watch it seep past my fingers in a steady flow.

I feel light headed and a bit nauseated after just a few moments. The world around me starts to blur and I stumble forwards, I hear a clattering and then I find myself being supported by Zoro.

"Shit, Sanji I'm so sorry I don't know what I was thinking, I didn't mean to do that!" Zoro gently grabs my wrist and lifts my arm to take a look at it. He looks really guilty and I feel him hold me tightly to his chest. Turning his head towards the kitchen he yells "Chopper, we need you out here quick!" That's the last thing I hear as my vision blurs further and all I see is black.

When I come to I find myself in the medical room, I look to the side and find Chopper swiftly sewing up my arm, I can't feel much of anything so I assume he's given me something to numb the pain. I sigh, and Chopper looks up to me and gives a small smile. I can hear Nami yelling just outside the door, sounds like she telling Zoro off.

"Sanji, what happened out there?" Chopper calmly asks me as he finishes stitching me up.

I feel very tired but force myself to stay awake to answer Chopper, "It was just an accident; he didn't realize I had stopped fighting until it was too late. I think he was just a bit distracted." I watch as Chopper starts wrapping my arm up in gauze.

"You guys seriously need to be more careful he almost got you down to the bone. Nami is giving him an ear full now for it. Luckily we are going to be here for a few more days since the log pose takes that long." Chopper toddles over to his shelves and starts putting his tools away and washing off what he used. "I'm going to ask you to please stay in bed for at least half the day; you lost a lot of blood quickly so you need rest Sanji." Chopper looks back to me with a pleading look in his eye. He knows just how much I hate being tied down to a bed, but I feel bad for making him worry.

I sigh, settle myself down in to the bed and cover up, "Oh, alright Chopper, besides whatever you gave me is making me feel too groggy to get up anyways." I close my eyes and wait to fall asleep, I'll deal with the Marimo idiot later.

I wake up and feel a dull throbbing in my arm, 'Guess the drugs are wearing off.' I glance up to the porthole on the wall and see it's gotten pretty dark out. "Shit I gotta get up and at least make dinner." I swing my legs slowly over and just about manage to stand when I hear the door creak open. I look up and find Zoro looking at me; he looks more like his normal self now. 'Thank god for that, I really didn't want to deal with his unfairly placed anger again.'

Zoro closes the door behind him and gestures for me to sit back down. I do and wait to see what it is he wants. He sits on the edge of the bed next to me with a gap in between us, "How are you feeling now Cook, you've been asleep for almost the whole day." He turns his body so he can look at me, since his eye is scarred on his left side he has to turn almost fully so he can actually see me.

I regard Zoro before answering him; he's a lot more relaxed now and has a calm aura about him. "Well, to be honest I'm pissed I slept so damn long. But my arm does feel ok, just throbbing a bit now." I lift it up to show him Choppers work. He reaches over and runs a finer gently over the gauze. I can feel my face blush at the gentle way he's acting towards me. It's so different from this morning let alone how he normally is around me. I have to be careful; he's probably just feeling badly about hurting me. I can't confuse this for anything more than just concern for a friend.

I slowly retract my arm, "Listen Zoro, don't worry about this it's really ok. I know you didn't mean to do it, and I understand the feeling of being so angry you lose yourself sometimes." I give him a big grin and make to stand up to leave but before I can even get all the way up; Zoro grabs ahold of my good arm and tugs gently on it. Not expecting him to do that I lose my balance and my body weight shifts down towards him. Before I know what's happening I feel warmth on my lips and my eyes automatically close at the feeling of being kissed. Gods how long has it been since I've been kissed, about 4 years now I guess.

'WAIT KISSED!'

I wrench myself away from Zoro and cover my beet red face with my right hand as I stare down at him in shock. He looks just as shocked as I am, blinking up at me in confusion. Several moments pass in silence as we both stare at each other in awe, unable to take the silence and strangeness of the situation any longer I bolt out of the room heading straight for the kitchen. I see no one on my way there and no one is in the kitchen so I lock the door and sink down to the floor. I pull my knees up to my chest and rest my head on my good arm as I try to understand what the hell just happened.

To be continued

End note:Whew! well that took forever and a day! I had a very hard time getting this one out but I am happy with it. next time I think we will have a Zoro pov of this day but in Zoro's eyes, (or eye lol.) Well anyway see you soon and please feel free to comment. :D