Chapter 2 - Still Irritated

Wow... It's been quite a while since I last updated any of my fanfics... I suppose you could beat the crap out of me for being a lazy bum, but if you were a good person, you'd know that two wrongs don't make a right... right? Anyway, please don't hurt me! I promise I'll be better! *cough cough* (...Maybe.)

Oh, and in response to one of the comments, I do sort of have a plot planned out. Well, okay I'm lying... But i do have a very general idea of where this is going. That's usually how I write my fics. They're formed from very general ideas and I make 'em up as I go along. It might take a few chapters, but I do promise this is going somewhere. ^^;

I don't own One Piece or any of it's characters. I'm sure you thought I did, but I'm sorry to say that all the magic belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

***Chapter Two***

What is wrong with me?? Zoro thought to himself as he hid behind a stack of boxes in the storage room. Why the hell am I avoiding Luffy? This is ridiculous!

Zoro had spent the past two weeks ducking his captain. He couldn't explain why, but every time he was around the energetic young man he felt strangely uncomfortable. It bothered him to the point where he couldn't be in the same room with Luffy for more than a few minutes. Zoro had never had this problem before. He just wasn't the kind of guy who felt "uncomfortable" for any small reason. Uncomfortable is having a sword sticking out of your belly. Being uncomfortable because someone was standing too close was just a little too lame for Zoro to admit.

Just as he was about to leave his hiding place, Zoro heard the door open.

"Zorrrooo~!! Are you in here?" Luffy shouted at a seemingly empty room. "Sanji says lunch is ready!"

Luffy inspected the room, looking behind bags and boxes. Zoro quickly pretended to be asleep. He couldn't explain himself if Luffy found out he was hiding, but it wasn't too unusual for him to be sleeping in the dark storage area.

"Zoro! There you are!" Luffy grinned at his 'sleeping' nakama. "Oi, Zoro... Are you sleeping?"

"Yes. Get out of here."

"Why are you sleeping in here??" The captain grinned. "Are you trying to steal food?"

"No, I'm trying to sleep! At least it's quiet down here. If I sleep on deck, you'll just bug me."

Luffy frowned. "You sure have been in a bad mood lately..."

"Then why do you keep hanging around? Let me sleep, you pest!"

Zoo's tone stung Luffy for a moment. "Fine, sleep then!" He puffed up his cheeks and stomped away.

He felt guilty for yelling at Luffy, but he couldn't help it. The only thing he could do was be alone right now. After he sorted himself out everything would go back to normal and he and Luffy could be friends again, right? Of course, why wouldn't they be..?

Zoro stretched himself out on the floor. Since Luffy thought he was down here to sleep, he figured he might as well do just that. Just when he thought he might be able to will himself to sleep, his least favorite voice rang through his ears.

"Oi, Seaweed!!"

The green-haired young man sat straight up and glared at the source of the noise. "What the hell do you want, Love-Cook?!"

Sanji stood in the doorway of the room giving Zoro an equally unfriendly look. "I told Luffy to tell you lunch was done, Cabbage-head. Why aren't you up there eating it?"

"I don't want that shoot you try to feed us. I'd rather starve that eat your poisonous cooking." Of course he was lying. Just like everyone else on the ship, Zoro loved Sanji's cooking. But the lie did exactly what it was intended to do.

Sanji's foot was inches away from the swordsman's face in less that a second. "What did you say?!"

Zoro dodged by a hair and drew two of his swords. He wanted to let out some stress and the ship's cook was always a good outlet. "I said you can't cook!"

"As if an ugly cactus like you would know the difference between a boot and a ladle!"

"Huh? What's the difference then?"

Sanji threw another kick, but this time it connected. Zoro skid back a few feet into a stack of flour sacks. He quickly recovered and swung at the cook. He wasn't trying kill Sanji, of course, but let's just say he wouldn't lose any sleep if he left a few scars on the pretty Love-Cook.

------

The rest of the crew were gathered on deck eating the meal Sanji had prepared. Sanji had ordered them not to touch the food until he came back, but once Luffy started inhaling their lunch, it had become obvious that it was every man for himself.

Of course Nami and Robin had been allowed to eat the entire time. They even had their own table set up beneath Nami's tangerine trees. Robin watched Luffy and Ussop fight over a piece of fish and smiled as a mysterious hand snatched it away from both of them and tossed it to Chopper.

"HEY!!" The two shouted in unison when they finally realized where it had gone.

"Stops being such pigs, you two!" Nami said angrily. "You could at least try and wait for Sanji-kun."

"That's easy for you to say, 'Nami-swan'," Ussop spat at her. "You don't have to wait!"

"Yeah!" Luffy shouted through a mouthful of food.

Suddenly several loud noises sounded from downstairs.

"What was that?" Chopper asked the others nervously.

"It was probably Zoro and Sanji fighting..." Nami sighed. "They're so idiotic. I swear they enjoy it."

She rose from her seat and made her way toward the stairs. "I guess I'll go break those nimrods up..."

------

"I'll Kill you!"

"Go ahead and try!"

"Try not to cry too much, okay?"

Insults continued to be thrown back and forth as the two young men beat the shmalt out of each other. In the short amount of time they had been fighting, they had already managed to make several tears in eachothers (and even their own) clothing. Zoro even had a bruise on one of his cheeks.

Zoro half scowled half grinned as he avoided several would-be painful kicks. He hated to admit it, but it was fun to fight with Sanji. It was usually simple enough to annoy him, but it wasn't as simple to subdue the cook's anger afterwards. The blonde was a pretty good match even if he was the most annoying person he had ever met.

"Is something funny?" Sanji asked as he barely managed to jump out of the range of a sword.

Zoro quickly hid any hint of a smile from his face and swung his sword less than an inch from Sanji's ear. "No. Should I be laughing?"

And that was when something much scarier than a sword or kick came sailing through the room and smacked Zoro in the side of the head.

"What the hell?" The swordsman rubbed the side of his head.

Before Sanji had realized what had happened, a second something flew right into the back of his skull.

Zoro picked up one of Nami's shoes from the ground. Okay, so maybe the shoe itself wasn't scary but the person who threw it was.

Nami stomped into the room and snatched her shoes away from Zoro. "What's wrong with you two?!"

"Nami-san~!!" Sanji swooned, forgetting all about Zoro. "You're so beautiful when you're angry!"

She chucked the shoe she was holding at the cooks face. "Why can't you two ever get along? Would it kill you?"

"Yes." They answered together, glaring at each other.

Nami groaned and picked her shoes up off the ground. "Well, you two probably won't get any lunch now since you're so stupid..."

"Those assholes ate while I was gone?" Sanji ran upstairs, most likely so he could kick the food out of the others' bellies.

Nami sat down on a box and started to put her sandals back on.

Zoro decided to leave. After all, the last time he was alone with Nami, he somehow ended up owing her even more money than before.

"Zoro?"

"What?" He half-winced.

Nami looked him in the eyes. "I don't know what's going on between you and Luffy, but you had better get your act together."

"What??" Zoro was shocked. Had he been that obvious?

Nami sighed. "You're such an idiot..." She finished with her sandals and stood up. "You know how Luffy is. If you keep acting the way you have been, you're going to hurt his feelings. He may not act like it most of the time, but he is our captain."

"Stop acting like I'm such a bad guy. You yell at him all the time. What's the difference? He's used to it."

"The difference is that you're his first-mate. A first-mate sticks by his captains side. You might be too dense to see it, but Luffy really counts on that."

Zoro was speechless. He hadn't really thought about what it meant to be first-mate. He had always known his title, but he didn't really think it meant anything. Especially not to Luffy. Maybe he had been handling himself badly. After all, it wasn't Luffy's fault that he had been in a weird mood lately.

Nami left without saying anything else. She was suprised with herself for saying what she had. She had been meaning to scold Zoro for being such a baby, but she hadn't expected to really mean what she had said. I'm going soft... She thought to herself as she climbed the stairs.

------

The clock struck three a.m. and Zoro was still awake in his hammock. He had went to bed without eating dinner. He just didn't have the stomach for food. He couldn't stop thinking about what Nami had said. He felt like he had done something horrible to Luffy. Deep down he knew his captain would forgive him. Hell, if he were to apologize with a cookie, he would probably forget the whole thing had ever happened. Or would he? Zoro had learned that there was a lot more to Luffy than what seemed to be there. Most people who knew Luffy would think he was a complete idiot. One woman even asked if he had "special problems." Zoro knew better than that, though. Luffy was a lot smarter than he would let you know. He was also sensitive deep down in that rubber brain of his. The thought of actually hurting the rubber-boy worried Zoro. He had been up all night long trying to decide how he would fix things.

This was a difficult situation Zoro had gotten himself into. He was a very proud man. 'Sorry' just wasn't something that he said very often. At least not if he could help it. Admitting he had done something wrong was almost like admitting he had lost a fight. He couldn't handle that. He knew he'd have to think of some other way to handle this. Maybe... I could just pretend like nothing ever happened and we'll all forget about this whole thing.

"Yeah right," He muttered to himself.

He rolled over in his hammock. He could see the silhouette of Luffy's sleeping form across the room. Like usual, he was snoring away. His snoring is almost cute in an annoying sort of way... He smiled unintentionally. When he realized what he was thinking, he quickly erased the smile from his face. What am I thinking? Cute? I really need to go to sleep...

And with that thought, he did.

***Chapter End***

Yay! I finally wrote a new chapter! I've been wanting to write for a while now, but I haven't had a computer. I just got one a few days ago with my roommate. I can already feel that empty void filling up. ^__^

Anyway, if you want me to write more, you should leave a comment. I feed off of attention. And with that I can fuel my brain and type up a new chapter. But until then, I must sleep, for I have to work tomorrow and it's going to be very unpleasant. Well... Goodnight!

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