The love-cook was still screaming when he burst onto the deck. He was definitely a sight to see. His eyes were streaming tears, and he was white as a ghost. Even his hair seemed to have grown several gray strands over the span of 1 minute. He looked even uglier than usual. He had dropped to his knees, still sobbing, and was sniffling uncontrollably. He sat down, tucked his knees into his arms, and began to rock back and forth, muttering something incomprehensible. He. Looked. Hilarious. I could say that he didn't deserve it, but he probably did. The guy was a disgusting pervert. I was doing Nami and Robin a favor anyways. Although, he really did seem traumatized. I kinda felt bad for him. Not really bad, but just the tiniest bit of me felt gut-wrechingly terrible. I tried to just shake it off, but it kept gnawing at me. I looked over at Curly-Brows, who was still in a panic attack. He looked so helpless. I couldn't stand it anymore. I walked over to him in front of everyone and slung him over my shoulder. He didn't even protest. He just slumped on me, and that kinda scared me. Usually he would fight back, or make some snide comment if he didn't have enough energy. He looked almost... Lifeless. Maybe I had taken this a bit too far...

"Zoro!" cried Nami, confirming my inner worries, "That was too much! Even for you!"

"Hey!" I replied, "You're the one who bought the thing! If anyone is to blame, it's you!"

"Are you kidding me?" she screamed, "You're the one who had the idea in the first place! If anythi-"

"That's enough," Robin interjected, "Zoro-san, please take Cook-san to his room. We wouldn't want any heart attacks or fatalities to ruin this joyful day," she finished with a smile. I grinned back weakly, and just crossed the doorway into the men's room.

OOOOO

"Unngh.." Sanji groaned, slowly sitting up from my bed. I had placed him there since the offending *ahem* object was on his own bunk. I had quickly disposed of it by tossing it over board (maybe some mermaid would get some use out of it) but he had woken up only moments after. He looked around himself, and seemed kinda disoriented for a bit. He realized he was in my bed, and jumped out screaming.

"SHHH!" I whisper-yelled, "Chopper was worried as it was!"

The reindeer had come by to check on Sanji about an hour ago, and had diagnosed him with PTSD. Considering the amount of fighting we did on a daily basis, it was pretty extreme. According to Chopper, he would have violent panic attacks when he came in contact with any relating to the okamas. I felt pretty bad for him. It was a weird weakness, but a weakness all the same. I'd set it off, so I felt partly to blame.

He had gotten up now, and was pointing his finger at me. His digit was shaking, and he had a mad glint in his eye.

"You..." he snarled, looking ferocious, "Were you the one responsible for this?"

"Yeah..." I said looking downwards, "Sorry, man. I didn't know."

He stared at me, dumbfounded.

"Y-You can say S-Sorry?" he accused me, "Since when?"

It kinda irritated me that he thought so lowly of me, especially when I was trying to make things better.

"Whatever..." I muttered, "Merry Christams and all that crap..."

I began to walk out the door when he placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

"Hey Zoro," he began to say.

"Y-You know my N-Name?" I stuttered, imitating him. I could tell he was just as irritated as I was, but he composed himself and turned me to face him.

"Look man, thanks," he said, "That was cool of you."

"What was cool?" I spat, "The part where I set off your stupid memories of your stupid last 2 years?"

"No seriously," he said, squinting his one visible eye, "I know it's like, weird and not prideful or whatever to say 'sorry' and that sort of shit. It's cool that you would-"

"Look Curly-Brows," I snapped, throwing his hand off my shoulder, "I don't know if you know this yet, but we're nakama, ok? That means that I've got your back, and I shouldn't have to worry about mine, becaue I know you've got it. What I did was just letting the enemy stab you. In fact, I paved them a frickin' pathway. That deserves a sorry."

It was weird letting it all out. I mean, yeah we got into a lot of fights, but we were pretty much brothers. I just thought that he'd always thought the same, and to find out that he didn't even respect me enough to take my apology seriously just made me snap. I mean, it was a bit out of character for me, but he just stood there and made me feel like an idiot. Whatever...This was too much, I needed a break from feelings. I turned my back to him and was about to walk out the door when he stopped me again.

"What the hell do you want?" I muttered, unable to look at him.

"Seriously Zoro," he said, "thanks. I just didn't know you could care about me like that. You always seem pretty distant I guess. Like I'm not allowed in your little world. Not that I'd want to go to your world, I'm pretty sure it's just filled with just sake and swords, but.. Is this even making sense?" he stopped to scratch his head.

"Anyways, yeah. It's nice to feel accepted. I don't know. I always feel second-best and it kills me. I mean, you're a Supernova for Kami's sake. That's kinda crazy."

"Only because the Marines haven't recognized you yet. I mean, you don't even have a proper photo." He slumped back down and gave a little sigh. I immediately felt terrible.

"In any case, " I hurried on, "I don't think we'll ever get along. But still, we're Nakama, and that means we gotta look out for each other, know what I mean?"

"Yeah," he responded, "I got your back, you got mine?" he asked, extending his hand towards mine. I shook it, and gave him a curt nod.

"Just to be clear though," I began, "This doesn't mean we're friends."

"Definitely," he agreed. I released his hand and gave him a wave as I walked back onto the deck.

OOOOO

"Zoro!" chirped Nami, "You're just in time! Here's yours!" She handed me a green box, which was small but heavy. I held it with both hands and began walking to the crow's nest. As I walked, I felt the weight of it change from one end to the other, back and forth. I was really curious by now. I finally reached my little niche and climbed up fervently. It had taken forever to get here. I still don't understand why Franky had decided to make moving rooms. I sat down on one of the benches and tore open the paper, one strip at a time. Inside was a glass bowl cushioned with styrofoam. The bowl contained water and a...Marimo.

OOOOO

A.N.: I am sooo sorry for the late update once again. I was travelling back home, and my schedule got messed up, but I slaved over this to deliver it to you all within 1 hour of the day passing. Yes, technically there will be another chapter today. And by the way, some of you were asking if I ship anything. To answer that, I'm very strictly a canon-shipper, and will probably not do any shippings. I do canon fics though, and if you want to read a RogerxRouge AU story (Warning: Shameless plug ahead), you can check out my 'The Coffee Shop' fic. But as I said before, Oda is the Maker, and I simply borrow his characters. Also, I got a few questions on if I copied author ringtailedpehonix 's 2012 Secret Santa story. I am being completely honest here, I try not to read other people's stories for fear they might influence my writing. Plus, I don't want to confuse canon and fanfiction, so I keep them strictly separate. As a result, I honestly didn't know that story even existed. I found it really weird how we ended up with a lot of the same partner combos. I litteraly chose names out of hat, just like Nami did in the first chapter, no joke. Seriously, Sanji and Zoro were completely haphazard. I guess opposites attract. Anyways, sorry for the long AN, I just needed to clear some things up.