Chapter Twenty-Three: Zoro

Fucking early.

Zoro had no idea what time it was, but it wasn't dawn yet but had passed into morning hours. The last twenty-odd hours had left him drained and wanting to go home, but the need to make sure his one true friend would survive won out over his lethargy. When word finally came that Luffy had made it through surgery and been taken down to intensive care, Zoro had decided he would sleep on the hospital couches while waiting for Luffy to wake up.

He should have known that Luffy would wake up almost instantly. He hadn't eaten since brunch. It was the first time Zoro had been inclined to laugh over the last day to see Luffy gesturing wildly at his stomach while a nurse told him to hold still so he didn't disturb the breathing tube and they called the doctor.

Luffy looked like shit, no doubt about it, but he was alive and kicking. It was then that Zoro decided he could go home to sleep. He didn't, however, make it out of the intensive care unit before Luffy got a hold of a pen and paper, and after writing down about thirty things he wanted to eat, his first question was regarding the whereabouts of Nami.

Zoro, who prided himself on never being a coward, took up the responsibility to explain to Luffy that Nami was gone. Again. Luffy visibly deflated for a few moments before he began demanding food again. Zoro knew Luffy better than to think he'd dismissed Nami's second disappearance, but attributed his immediate desire for food would help him heal faster so he could go find her again.

Because somehow Zoro knew it would be Luffy who would find Nami.

Garp was obligated to stay at the hospital with Ace and Luffy, so Sanji and Zoro were left to their own devices to get home. Sanji took a taxi, seeing as he lived so much farther away than himself, which left Zoro to walk home on his own.

Sure, that pervert cook-boy offered to go halves on a taxi for them both, but Zoro wanted to walk home. He wanted to get away from the hoards of people he felt constant irritation with and contemplate his own failure with no one trying to make pleasantries with him.

It was a failure. Plain and simple.

They hadn't had much of a chance to succeed in the first place, truth be told, but all four of them had managed to get up to the sixteenth floor of that building and be close enough to physically touch Nami, yet she had needed to sacrifice herself so that they could get away. He'd failed his friend.

Not Nami. No, Nami definitely was not Zoro's friend. He liked to think of her as an occasional ally that couldn't be trusted. But it was more than a stranger and more than an enemy, so he did find it disappointing that he couldn't save her. He'd have loved to lord that over her and make her forget about the blender incident forever.

Ussop was probably close to a friend, but Zoro wasn't sure about him yet. Though the day's events made him rise in Zoro's estimation. It was no secret that Ussop had more brains than balls and could talk himself out of anything, but today he'd manned-up and came through for them. Plus his knife throwing was on-fucking-point.

That walking hormone that called himself a cook was definitely not Zoro's friend either. But he was a great stick-board for insults and Zoro didn't hate the time that he spent with the blonde. At least, not all of it. Probably only about a quarter of it. Because that dart-browed sissy-cook spent at least a quarter of his day spouting on and on about his adoration to the female population, whether or not a female was around to hear it.

But Luffy, he was Zoro's only friend. The only one who had managed to overcome Zoro's desire to be solitary. He didn't pick or nag; he simply was there and liked Zoro to be there with him. He only wanted Zoro's company and nothing more. So today, when he'd showed up at Zoro's house with that look on his face, Zoro had known that whatever they were about to do was important to Luffy. So thereby it was important to Zoro.

And he'd failed.

He wasn't strong enough. He wasn't fast enough. He wasn't good enough.

"Fuck!" Zoro spat, wallowing in his failure as he walked home.

He was going to have to be stronger. Train harder. Be better. He wouldn't fail again. This failure, almost exactly like his last failure, left the one he deemed important nearly dead in a hospital bed. He was determined that Luffy would not end up like—

Who the fuck was that?

Zoro had just stepped onto the street where his apartment was and saw someone standing under a light post next to his apartment building. Almost like they were waiting for something. Waiting for him?

Well, fucker, sword or not, you're gonna get it.

Zoro stepped up his pace to a fast walk as he approached the stranger. The stranger, garbed in oversized jeans and a hoodie, seemed to notice his approach and somewhat wobbily kicked off from the light post and hobbled away.

Oh yeah. This fucker was going down! They thought they could try to jump him in front of his own apartment? Guess again, asshole.

Zoro caught up easily to the limping figure and grabbed hold of their shoulder, yanking them around. The girlish cry was unexpected, but Zoro wasn't about to back down now. He pulled his fist back and lined it up with her jaw—

"Nami?"

.o0o.

It was still early as fuck. Like still two hours before he would normally get up and go to the dojo. So Zoro was not as sure of his mental faculties as he usually was. Plus, there was always the possibility that he had been jumped from behind and knocked out and was having a really bizarre dream as a result.

"I'm too tired for this shit," he mumbled as he dragged the hoodie laden girl up the stairs to his apartment. She wouldn't say anything; hell he couldn't get her to even look at him. She was kind of comatose or something. But the two of them on the street together was a bad thing so he started dragging her to his apartment.

No way was she getting away this time.

"Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you've put everyone through?" he whisper-yelled at her, trying not to wake the neighbors. He didn't want the cops on his doorstep with an injured fugitive in his apartment. That wouldn't go down well.

He didn't get an answer. No surprise. He pulled a little bit harder on her and she whined again and fell on the steps. Great. Just fucking great.

"The hell's the matter with you?" Zoro spat, looking down at her. "You a zombie now? Is that the new thing? Since your crime syndicate days are over."

Nothing. Not a damn thing. Not a look, not a word. Nothing.

Zoro walked back down a few steps and took a good look at her. It was kind of dark out and the hoodie she had on was black (or maybe a navy or something) but the jeans were of a lighter wash but had a dark stain that was getting bigger on her right leg.

Oh yeah, she'd shot herself there. The left arm, too. His dragging her around was probably not too good for the wounds. But still, he'd been pulling on her right arm, so she should be fine. He reached down and meant to lift under her arms to get her to standing again but the right shoulder of the hoodie was wet. When he pulled his hand away, he saw that it was stained dark too.

Blood.

Great. She was bleeding. A lot. Could this day get any fucking better?

He sighed in agitation and picked her up. She wasn't light as a feather, but she wasn't as heavy as she should have been. She must have been malnourished in her time at the stronghold. He hadn't noticed before, but she'd been heavily doused in makeup then.

"Damn it, I just came from the hospital," he griped as he started to descend the steps.

"No!" Nami cried, louder than was good for zero-dark-thirty in the morning.

"Shh!" Zoro hissed back, looking around to see if any neighbor's lights came on. Luckily, none did. "Listen, you're bleeding and I've got to get you to a hospital—"

"I was already there," she replied, though her tone was off. "I left. I'm fine. I'll be fine. Just let me be."

Zoro looked closely in the darkness and saw that she wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were glazed over and she seemed to be answering out of reflex. Like she didn't even know where she was or who she was with. She looked zoned out, but whether it was from some pain meds or in reaction to the pain of her wounds, Zoro couldn't tell.

After a few moments deliberation, Zoro began trudging back up to his apartment. He could go in and turn on a light and see just how bad her wounds were. If they were as bad as he thought, he could call Smoker to come take her to the hospital. Zoro didn't trust cops, but Smoker wasn't a cop anymore and hadn't been too much of a shitty one when he was.

Getting in the door was tricky, but Zoro managed it. He got Nami in and took her straight to the bathroom. With the light on, Zoro could see that the hoodie was in fact a deep navy color with a yellow smiley face drawn on it that looked like a child's art design. Whatever. He peeled her out of it.

Nudity didn't bother Zoro. He'd seen enough porn by the age of sixteen that he knew what naked people looked like and wasn't exactly turned on by it anymore. Maybe that should have bothered him. But his focus was on being the best at Kendo, not being the best at fucking, so he didn't really mind too much.

What did bother him was the fact that Nami just didn't do anything. She should have been shy, or outraged, or trying to cover herself. Or something. But instead she was just sitting there on the bathroom floor where he'd set her down, oblivious to the fact that she was being stripped nude. And in addition to the bullet wound that was on her left forearm, there was also one in her right shoulder.

Both wounds were dressed and presumably stitched underneath, but the blood seeping through the shoulder dressing told Zoro that he'd have to check to be sure. He peeled away the gauze and tape and saw that yes, her wound was stitched, but that some of the stitches had busted.

That was probably his fault.

Well, he couldn't restitch wounds, but he could rebandage them. And the blood was just oozing now, not the steady stream he'd been expecting. It would probably be fine if she stayed still and didn't try to move too much over the next couple days.

He redressed her shoulder and took a look at her forearm, but it was fine. Next he pulled her out of the jeans and sneakers that were about ten sizes too big for her to see that she was completely naked under these oversized clothes. Where was her underwear?

Whatever. The wound in her leg was bleeding through the bandage too, so he removed it and saw that it was bleeding pretty badly. She'd managed to pop at least four stitches. That, he didn't blame himself for. She shouldn't have been walking on that leg with a bullet wound. She should be lying down.

Well, technically, she was lying down now, but that wasn't what he meant. The best he could do for her was to wrap her leg up tight and hope that the bleeding slowed. If it didn't, she'd be hospital bound, like it or not. As he wrapped her leg, he contemplated what to do with her.

Other than wipe the blood off.

She couldn't stay at his place. Her mother was still looking for her. And the police. Zoro didn't know who would be worse if they found her. Nami's mother seemed like a bull and even Nami herself had admitted to times when she couldn't handle her mother's nagging. She'd face hard time locked up no matter who got to her.

"Zoro?"

Zoro looked up to see that Nami had regained some…what? Vitality? Sense? Something. There was something in her eyes now that hadn't been there before. She was less zombie-like.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," he muttered at her as he wiped her down with a wash cloth. She watched him and seemed to take on a frown at her nudity. Finally.

"You don't have to do that," she told him, trying to sit up and take the cloth from him. He pushed her good shoulder down.

"I know I don't," he dismissed.

"I can take care of myself—" she tried to pull on him, but Zoro was ready for that bullshit.

"Listen, I ain't doin' this for free," he told her, wiping away the last of the blood. "I've been thinking. You can stay here for a couple days and recuperate, and I won't call the cops or Smoker. But you're going to have to forget about the blender incident. Forever. Got it?"

Nami closed her eyes and a slight smile came to her lips. "Deal."

Small miracle. Now if only he could get through the next couple of days without anyone busting him with her here in his apartment.

"Besides," Nami went on, "I also know about the time with the cherry blossom tree."

Zoro went still.

"You fucking bitch."

.o0o.

Zoro did not like living with anyone. Living alone was his preference. Nami was proving that to him every day she stayed. It was a rough first night to say the least; she'd woken up screaming with nightmares most of the time. After the first one, Zoro had elected to sleep next to her (he'd had her on the spare futon on the other side of the room at first) to wake her quicker as to not bother the neighbors.

There were less nightmares over the next two days, but much more attitude. Nami was not a nice injured person. Even to someone she owed a debt to. Because sure as fuck, dealing with her bitchy ass was worth both the blender incident and the cherry blossom tree debacle.

A result of the bitchiness, Zoro had been spending a lot of time at the hospital, too. Sensei had pretty much banned him from practicing at the dojo while he 'recovered' (Zoro knew that was Sensei's way of punishing him for getting into another fight) so Zoro had a ton of time on his hands. He wasn't going to spend it around Miss Pissy Pants.

He'd had to buy her clothes too. There was no way he was going to let her wander around in his clothes. Fuck that. He had no idea whose clothes she'd stolen in order to get around after her supposed hospital stint, but he wasn't giving up any clothes to her. So he went to the nearest cheapo store and picked up the first thing he saw on the woman shaped mannequin. Two thousand berries later he was thinking pretty hard about demanding the money off of her as soon as he got back to his apartment and then charging her crabby ass interest when she didn't have any. It would serve her right.

The joke was on him; she pulled two thousand berries out of the pants he'd found her in.

Regardless, she was clothed and cranky and he was visiting the hospital to watch Luffy mend. Bullets to the lung were not easy heals; he was going to be hospitalized for at least three weeks. So when school started up again, Luffy would probably miss at least two weeks of it being in the hospital and possibly more depending on his discharge instructions.

Luffy had his breathing tube out and ate much more than the doctors told him to. He even had Zoro and Ussop (now that he was up and about) and Sanji too when he was allowed to come visit (Zeff had supposedly grounded him for life or something but Sanji kept telling the old man to fuck off) going down to the cafeteria to buy him more food.

And that old fuck Garp would roll in a couple of times a day to bitch about Nami being missing again. Like he had yesterday, when he'd tried to rally them for another search party. Zoro had stayed home this morning through the bitchiness to avoid it, but finally around ten o'clock he could endure no more and was on his way to the hospital.

Zoro, for the first time in his life, could not wait to go back to school. He didn't want to deal with any of these problems anymore. This was why he didn't want friends. Well, at least part of it. It was a lot more work than it was worth and he would have rather practiced at home with his sword but that old fuck Garp had confiscated it.

Bastard.

"Where the fuck were you this morning, snot hair?"

Fuck. It was too…too something in the day for that sissy-cook.

"The fuck business is it of yours?" Zoro returned, turning to face the blonde. Sanji was just outside of the hospital and smoking a cigarette.

"We were supposed to be looking for Nami again this morning," Sanji informed him. "Garp told us yesterday. Or were you sleeping again?"

No, Zoro hadn't been sleeping. But he'd been deliberately avoiding listening to that old fuck Garp about going out looking for a girl who was hiding in his apartment.

"Look, you ain't my keeper, so butt the hell out, alright?" Zoro replied. Sanji sneered at him and threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped it out with vigor. "The fuck's your problem today?"

"Other than Nami's missing again and you've got about as much enthusiasm for looking for her as Luffy did a couple weeks ago?" Sanji surmised. "Luffy tore some stitches this morning. He had bleeding in the lung again. He was put back on the ventilator for awhile."

"Son of a bitch," Zoro muttered, heading for the hospital entrance again. Sanji was following him in.

"And Ussop's at home with a cold," Sanji went on as they boarded the elevator. "His immune system was weak from healing the wounds he'd had so he caught a nasty virus and is practically bed ridden according to his mother."

"Just keeps getting better and better," Zoro muttered again. Sanji continued to bitch all the way to Luffy's room, but finally, as they crossed the threshold, the blonde shut the fuck up. Luffy was indeed back on the ventilator, but the vigor was not gone from his eyes. He looked positively thrilled to see them. His hands flopped around aimlessly for a few moments as they searched out the pad of paper and pen.

Did you find Nami?

"No," Sanji answered. "We didn't find her. But your grandfather doesn't think that she's being held against her will by someone. He thinks she's hiding."

Why?

"I wish I knew," Sanji lamented.

When can I get off this thing?

"Have you asked the nurse?" Sanji inquired. Zoro sighed. When Sanji answered Luffy's questions, it always seemed like a parent trying to placate a child. Luffy was fifteen, but not really a child anymore, so Zoro found it annoying.

She said maybe this afternoon.

Sanji checked his phone. "We can ask in an hour then."

Luffy visibly deflated. Zoro sighed again.

"Where's your brother?" Zoro asked.

Which one?

"Ace," Zoro clarified.

With Nojiko.

"Again? What, are they fucking?" Zoro complained. Sanji hissed.

"Don't be crude," he complained. "Ace is responsible for looking over Nami's sister right now."

She doesn't like me.

Zoro snorted. "She's Nami's sister. She's going to be stuck up to people who don't do things the way she wants."

"You ass!" Sanji snapped. "She's emotionally damaged right now. Of course she's resentful of Luffy! She's pissed at us too! She thinks it's our fault Nami has disappeared again."

"She's a bitch, just like her sister," Zoro diagnosed.

"You shut your fucking mouth!" Sanji snapped again, this time kicking him for good measure. Zoro raised his fists. He wasn't as good with judo as he was with kendo, but he'd make do.

Luffy's monitors began beeping. The two looked at Luffy and saw that he looked like he was struggling to breathe again. Sanji jammed his thumb down on the nurse call button. After a moment, though, the struggling died down and Luffy began writing again.

You guys are so funny!

The nurse bustled in asked what was the matter. Zoro pointed at Sanji, who had the crappy task of explaining to the nurse that he'd mistaken Luffy's laughing on the ventilator as struggling for breathing. After scolding them all that they shouldn't be making Luffy laugh in the first place, she checked some monitors and promised to call the doctor to see if they could remove the ventilator.

The afternoon passed slowly. Zoro couldn't bicker with Sanji too much without the possibility of making Luffy laugh. The doctor came in an hour after Luffy's laughing fit and said they were taking him to x-ray to see if there was any more bleeding in his lung. It took another hour after that for someone in x-ray to actually show up to take Luffy down. He was gone a grand total of twenty minutes, in which Zoro decided it was a good time to go down to the food court and secure Luffy some food for when the ventilator came out.

But it was another two hours after Luffy came back from x-ray before the doctor came back and decided the ventilator could be removed. In the meantime, Luffy kept writing up lists of foods he wanted to eat as soon as the ventilator was out.

It was all for naught. The doctor put Luffy on a liquid diet for the next twenty-four hours. The only upside was that Luffy could drink as much as he wanted. Zoro texted Ace to bring back five milkshakes when he finally decided to roll his ass in to see his brother.

Ace's response was to fuck off.

Garp showed up around six and sent the two boys home. He wanted to talk to his grandson about the yakuza incident again and didn't need anyone interfering or interjecting this time. So Zoro and Sanji were sent on their way.

Sanji called a cab and stood outside of the hospital waiting for it while Zoro walked home. A couple times, he felt like he was being followed, so he took a long route home, going down alleys and double backing a couple times in order to lose his pursuer. Whoever it was didn't lose him until he reached the bus station and got on. Zoro boarded a bus heading to the south side of town but got off after one stop.

Satisfied that he didn't feel like he was followed anymore, Zoro resumed his trek home. Unfortunately, he'd done so many twists and turns throughout the day that he got lost three times and ended up at the bus station again. Finally, about two hours later than he'd planned, he got to his apartment.

Dinner was going to be leftover take out. In all of his wanderings, Zoro hadn't strolled past a food cart so there was nothing to eat. He let himself in and saw Nami on the futon sleeping. Damn, he was jealous. He wished he could sleep all day. That or train. But Sensei said no more kendo until school started up again, so sleeping was high on the list of wants.

"Wake up," Zoro called, nudging her with his toe. "Get up, Nami. Take a bath. I'll reheat some food."

Nami slowly inclined to an upright position and then pulled on his arm to get herself standing. He endured it as he had for the last week, but at least he didn't have to carry her anymore. Her leg was starting to heal and didn't look like some roughly stitched meat anymore.

Nami limped to the bathroom while Zoro took up post in the kitchen. He took out some yakisoba and some takoyaki and heated both up in the microwave. While he was waiting for the food to cook, there was a knock at his door.

Zoro debated not answering, and pretending that no one was home. But the buzzer on the microwave went off while he was debating and ruined that plan. But then he could hear the shower running and thought maybe he could play off the microwave going off if it sounded like he was in the shower. The knocking died down and Zoro wondered if his potential visitor had finally given up. But as soon as the sound of the shower stopped, the knocking started again.

Zoro wasn't about to answer the door. Whoever it was, they should have text him if they knew him. And if they didn't know him, he didn't need to see them. That was his thought on the matter.

However, the knocking continued relentlessly until it turned to pounding on the door. Zoro's short temper was lit and he walked to the door and yelled through it.

"Who the hell is it?" he barked through the door.

"It's me, you cretin," Sanji's voice floated back.

Ugh. Zoro did not want to deal with that lovesick blonde. Not at all.

"Beat it. I've had enough of dealing with you today," Zoro told him.

"Fuck you. I need to ask you some questions about Nami," Sanji barked back. "Do you want me to yell them through the door, or do you want to let me in and talk like civilized people."

"I want you to go away," Zoro answered honestly. "Whatever you have to ask can wait until I'm forced to hang around you tomorrow. How the hell do you know where I live anyway?"

Nami had come out of the bathroom and limped toward the main apartment area to see what the yelling was. She gave Zoro a curious look before she heard Sanji's voice and then looked panicked.

"I followed your directionally challenged ass on your way home," Sanji replied. So that's who had been following him. The piece of shit!

"Look, you fairy-faced twitching cock," Zoro insulted through the door. He heard a clatter behind him and saw that Nami had tripped on some of his dumbbells and gone down. The look on her face was agony as she bit her lip trying to not cry out.

Zoro turned to help her just as the door to his apartment buckled under Sanji's kick. Zoro then wasn't sure what to do: help Nami or kill Sanji. Probably kill Sanji. Yeah, that would be best. Especially since the moment he stepped through the door, Sanji's eyes locked on Nami and his mouth opened wide. Probably to yell, but Zoro was quicker than that. He punched the blonde in the throat and followed it with a solid strike to the stomach.

Sanji, caught off guard, fell to his knees and grasped his middle as he gasped for air. He looked up at Zoro with equal murder in his eyes.

"Please Sanji," Nami's voice interrupted. "You have to be quiet!"

Reluctantly, Sanji's face turned back towards Nami with a look of hurt and confusion on it. Nami had her hands up and was gesturing gently towards him.

"I promise, I'll explain, but you have to be quiet," she insisted. Sanji finally got the gist of things and sat up on his knees, rubbing his throat.

"I'm going to kill you some day you fucking marimo," Sanji gurgled from his mangled throat. "But for now, I will listen to Nami-san. Please tell me what is going on."

Sanji came into the apartment fully and Zoro closed his door, though the deadbolt was broken on it now. As Sanji pulled himself back together, Zoro helped Nami over to the futon. She sat down and still looked overly nervous in Zoro's opinion, but she wasn't panicked. Finally, she spoke.

"I'm here, with Zoro, because I'm hiding from some people who are trying to find me," Nami told him. Sanji nearly burst out with his rebuttal.

"But we have been trying to find you," Sanji replied. "Why are you hiding from us?"

"It's dangerous for me right now," Nami told him. "I can't really go into specifics without endangering you, but there are people who weren't in that building when it came down that will be looking for me. And I won't be safe with anyone. I'm not safe here with Zoro, but I trust that Zoro can take care of himself if trouble comes up for him."

It was probably the closest thing to a compliment that Nami had ever said about him. Zoro didn't like her, but that compliment spoke volumes. She had confidence in him over everyone else she knew not to end up dead if things went south. He may have despised her slightly less after that.

"Are you okay, Nami-san?" Sanji asked, taking in her bandages. They'd been changed each time she had bled through them, but the leg that she'd shot was a fierce red color and swollen still.

"I'm relatively okay," Nami assured him. "Nothing I can't live through."

"But you've been shot two—no, three times according to Sabo," Sanji insisted. "That was two weeks ago! Luffy's still in the hospital from being shot and Ussop still hasn't recovered from being shot through some books."

"I'm fine," Nami repeated, but Sanji was on a streak. Zoro figured it was all the concern he'd been bottling up over the last couple weeks making its way out of him, but it was still annoying as hell to listen to.

"She said she's fine, shit for brains," Zoro spoke up finally to end the streak. "And she is. Or I'd cart her off to the nearest hospital."

He'd do no such thing, but Sanji didn't know that. Thankfully, Sanji piped down a little bit.

"You should come out of hiding," Sanji began. "We can protect you now. There's no need for you to be on the run anymore. The yakuza's been destroyed, and anyone who made it out of that building alive is in police custody."

"Except me," Nami pointed out. Sanji opened his mouth to say something, but Nami was quicker. "And don't you dare lie to me and say that I won't be put in to police custody, whether it be for 'protection' or otherwise."

Sanji closed his mouth. He must have realized that Nami was right.

Zoro had not talked to Nami about the possibility of her turning herself in. Well, truthfully, they didn't talk about anything beyond Luffy or what was for dinner. But Zoro started to wonder what was out there for Nami in terms of returning to her family.

"Nami-san, you're injured," Sanji tried again. "You need medical attention. Your leg is likely inflamed because of infection or worse. At a hospital—"

"No hospitals," Nami cut him off with a heat that Zoro was sort of impressed by.

"What can I do to convince you to return to a normal life?" Sanji implored. Nami simply shook her head silently at him, indicating that there was nothing.

"Now, Sanji, what can I do to convince you that it is in my best interests right now to stay hidden?" Nami countered. Sanji took on a defiant look. Nami gave him a shrewd look for a few moments.

"Zoro, why did you guys come for me alone?" Nami asked out of the blue.

"Because Luffy's old man would have made us stay behind," Zoro predicted.

"But you guys came for me long before they did," Nami recalled. "Why did you make it there hours before it looked like Garp's men even were ready?"

"Garp was organizing a special ops unit," Sanji answered for Zoro. "Sabo told me about it. Because he—"

Sanji cut off his words immediately. Nami let it be silent for a good half a minute.

"Because what, Sanji?" Nami pressed gently.

"Because he didn't trust some men on the police force," Sanji spat, digging out a cigarette. "Fine, Nami-san, I will stop trying to convince you to come back to us for the moment. But please, please, get some medical attention. You need it."

Nami smiled, forever patient with the blonde. "I will look into my options. I promise. Okay?"

Sanji lit up and took a long drag before nodding. "Alright."

Nami heaved a breath of relief. Zoro looked at the blonde in annoyance. "Hey, Smokey the Blonde, no smoking in these apartments. So get the fuck out."

"You can go fuck yourself," Sanji told him, but got up and went towards the broken door. "You're lucky that Nami finds you capable enough to not get killed, because the moment I get you alone, I'm gonna try."

"Good," Zoro baited. "I've needed a good work out since that building went down."

"Oh, I'll give you more than a work out," Sanji promised. Standing by the broken door he waited until Zoro got close enough to close the door and spoke quietly. "Thank you for taking care of her."

"Not doing it for you," Zoro said back. It was the truth. Blondie didn't need to know he was doing it so some of his most embarrassing moments in life didn't end up spilled to the world.

"I'll pay the bill for the door," Sanji told him, speaking at a normal tone.

"You're damn right you will," Zoro agreed and closed it in the blonde's face. When he turned back to look at Nami, she had a wary look on her face.

"Do you think he'll tell?" she asked worriedly.

"He'd be insulted that you doubted his honor," Zoro predicted. "No, I don't think he will."

"Good," Nami sighed, flopping back against the futon. Zoro set the food in the microwave to warm up again.

"He's right though," Zoro spoke up. "You need to get that leg looked at."

"I know," Nami answered.

Zoro ate his leftovers in silence with Nami, thinking about Nami's options. She couldn't stay with him forever; he'd lose his mind and she'd nag him to death. But what were her options? He just didn't know. And Zoro believe that the reason Nami had stayed so long with someone she didn't like all that much was because she didn't know either.