Zoro leaned back and really tried to get some more sleep as he had intended. But so far with the noisy idiots in one room and distracting thoughts in his mind he hadn't succeeded … yet. In fact he had been finding it hard to sleep at all the last 30 hours. He couldn't get the disturbing image of the Marine woman lying almost dead inside the bathroom out of his head. He had known she was ill and probably wouldn't do what she needed to do at the time, but he hadn't expected her to not even try to keep warm. She hadn't gone back into the shower at all, and her skin had gone a pale creamy-grey colour. The bite in her shoulder had bruised badly going a black-purple shade, and it hadn't stopped bleeding as he had thought it would, but rather it reopened when it had been heated up.
When he had come up to the frustrated and concerned Nami he had in truth been shocked to find the proud woman in a pool of her blood. It looked like she had just been murdered.
Zoro opened his eye, trying to get the image out of the dark corners of his mind, but as soon as that one had gone another from just a few moments ago came to mind. Her running out of the woman's room in the most impractical and unprotective clothing ever. He hadn't been surprised that she had wanted very different clothes. He couldn't understand why Nami and Robin tried so hard at showing off as much skin as possible without showing anything off... off... Yep, one day Sanji's dream might become true and the girls were just asking it to happen.
He wouldn't lie he did think that the marine woman looked good in the turquoise... thing... he didn't know what the girls would call it, they had some stupid names for a lot of their dumb ass clothes. But she was very different from the other two. He was used to Nami and Robin and other women around him showing their body off easily without any shyness, so her embarrassment at her 'lack of modesty' in the situation had confused him at first. It was almost refreshing to see a modest woman around.
Zoro sighed again, but he never knew what he was supposed to think or how to react when she was nearby, being both irritating and yet quite relatable as well she was the sort of woman that Zoro found … well he didn't know yet.
With the way she acted you'd think she was a child in a woman's body, which in some ways made him feel comfortable, at the same time awkward, and uncommonly protective of her. She was often so childish he felt like he was speaking to a child. The total opposite of Kuina who had been a child, but acted like a grown up. Not saying that Tashigi hadn't grown up... no... she had definitely developed.
Zoro rubbed the frown lines across the top of his head trying to get rid of a miner headache. Yes, He had noticed quite a few things from carrying her a couple of days ago that were the same, but also many things that were very different.
She was wearing pink,
She had the same sword
She was a lot more... womanly... bigger ass and bigger... yeah, Next!
She had red glasses
She was just as annoying as he remembered, and
... Her hair was longer...much longer.
He had always assumed that she would just continue to look like Kuina, but she hardly looked like her at all now. He'd barely even recognized her at the first glance, the only thing that might have identified her to him were the glasses or her usually colourful shirt.
'Why was it that all the women I know were growing their hair really long?' he thought to himself.
He had gotten quite an eyeful earlier both when she had crashed through the doorway and another whilst falling down the stairs. He did not like this. He had seen way to much of the marine woman already, and now when he was supposed to be enjoying resting all he seemed capable of was thinking about her. He rubbed the back of his head, yawned and turned over trying to get more comfortable. But it didn't seem to work.
'Damn it. Why the hell did I kiss her that time? I can't get it out of my head.' Zoro stood up.'Stupid marine.'
.
.
I had not thought that I would ever be able to meet a band of pirates that would want to treat their hostages as invited guests. And yet here I am in the dinning hall of the strawhat pirates after most of them had already finished their meals eating an amazing dish of freshly cooked vegetables, fruits and red meat. I had never tried cooking fresh fruit and meat together and the sweet, and spicy taste was something really pleasantly surprising. At a glance it looked amazing, at the first sniff it was mouth watering, and at the first taste it was breath-takingly amazing. I closed my eyes and somehow the food tasted even better. It was invigorating.
Sanji came back to me. "Do you like it Tashigi chan? I made it especially for you, to lift up your spirits and rejuvenate your tired body." I saw his eyes almost sparkle with happiness at the thought.
"Yes, thank you. This is absolutely delicious. I did not expect to receive something as elaborate as this."
"You're qu