The theme connection is super weak here...
Title: Whiling Away the Hours
Theme: Set 4 #20 Iron (In a rather vague way.)
Claim: Zoro x Nami
Words: 1627
Rating: T
Warnings: Mild swearing and rampant, weird speculation. (Mihawk's an odd duck; for all I know, some of this is true.) Also, mild spoilers for post first Saobody visit.
Disclaimer(s): Oda deserves all rights to these characters and the setting, since he did such a fantastic job in creating them.
A/N: This is the first of what will be a short series of connected pieces I call "Zoro Needs a Hobby."
Nami would never admit it, especially after all the abuse she heaped on the younger guys for complaining about the very same thing, but she was bored! A stretch of bad weather had kept her inside enough that she had actually mostly caught up in her mapmaking. After the rainy weather, conditions had been quite stable, and she only had to monitor the log pose occasionally. However, it wasn't quite sunny enough for sunbathing, and if she gave her mikan trees any more attention she would be in danger of doing more harm than good!
As a last resort, she started working the crossword puzzles from the newspapers she received weekly. So far, she was still less than halfway through the first puzzle and was only succeeding in making herself feel stupid.
She mumbled to herself under her breath and tapped the edge of her desk with her pencil while she thought. Apparently, it was an annoying habit; a hand sprouted from the desktop and gently halted the motion mid-tap.
"I hate to interrupt you," Robin remarked without glancing up from her reading, "but that's quite distracting."
"Sorry, Robin." Nami sighed and gathered up her pencil and a few papers. "I'll go somewhere else, I guess."
Sanji was concocting some kind of secret, surprise dish in the galley, so she couldn't go there, and everywhere else she tried to go, the other occupants of the ship were even more distracting! Franky and Brook were composing songs together in the aquarium bar, and the boys were playing some combination of tag and hide and seek that seemed to range over the rest of the ship, including her surveying room and the spa, but not the gym. When she asked why, they told her Zoro was training.
She'd seen Zoro train with distractions before, so she hoped he might not even notice she was there. The worst that could happen was that he'd kick her out of the gym, and her search for a spot to work her puzzle in peace would continue.
Nami fully expected to find her crew mate in the middle of some ridiculously high number of reps, but Zoro was just standing there, staring at his weights. She figured he was probably deciding which apparatus to use for his ridiculous number of reps.
"Do you mind if I sit up here to work on my crossword puzzle?"
"Go ahead." He shrugged. "You don't have to ask my permission; this is everyone's space."
Zoro finally settled on doing squats under a massive barbell, and Nami curled up on the padded bench around the outside of the room and was soon absorbed in her puzzle. She found herself coming up blank on one clue.
"Peak," she mumbled. "Four letters long and starts with 'a,' but it's not 'apex' because then that down clue would start 'bx...'"
"Acme."
Nami jumped. She'd been so focused, she didn't notice Zoro walk up behind her and lean over her shoulder. He looked at her pointedly, and she filled in the letters. "That's it! How in the world do you know that?"
"Did I ever tell you where Kuma sent me?"
This seemed like a very random change of subject, but Nami nodded. "Mihawk's island, right?"
"Yeah, well, it turns out that island is where he goes when he wants to 'get away from it all' and relax. So there I was, basically invading his personal sanctuary and begging him to train me. I still have no clue why he agreed, but he eventually did.
"He told me I had to heal first, so I wasn't allowed to do anything physical. Apparently, it really annoyed him to have me just sitting there staring at him. When I told him I wasn't much of a reader, he started giving me the puzzles from the paper. Sort of a 'take this, sit over there, shut up, and don't bother me' kind of a deal.
"He kept giving me this look like it was really pathetically sad that I have no hobbies and spend all my time training or napping."
"And Mihawk does? Like what?" Nami had never thought about it, but she supposed it only made sense.
"He reads, both books and the paper; his favorite section is the obituaries."
"Creepy."
Zoro shrugged. "Maybe a little, I suppose. He also has a pretty nice rock garden."
"A rock garden?"
"He's not there very often, so a traditional garden would either die or get overgrown," Zoro explained. "He collects spoons, too. You know, those little ones with the decorative handles; he says he likes them because they don't take up much space, and he prefers to travel light."
Nami allowed herself a moment to imagine Mihawk lounging in a recliner with a newspaper open to the obituaries, sitting in front of a window overlooking a rock garden and next to a cabinet full of spoons as Zoro sat in a corner puzzling over a crossword. Surely, the reality had been much less ridiculous!
"So, you did a lot of puzzles, then?"
Zoro made a face. "A lot of puzzles! They're okay, but it kind of bites if you get stuck on a clue and no one will help you; Mihawk hated to be interrupted while reading, and Perona told me puzzles weren't 'cute.' I know my way around a dictionary and a thesaurus, though."
Nami noticed he still had a hand on the barbell. "Sorry; it looks like I am distracting you." That was extremely odd. She'd seen Zoro keep training through spontaneous blizzards, a game of tag gone out of control, and even a bored, whining Luffy clinging to one of his legs without so much as blinking!
"It's not your fault. Lately, I just can't seem to focus like I usually do," Zoro confirmed the highly irregular state of affairs.
"I'm sorry you're not enjoying your usual hobby," Nami tried to a be a little sympathetic.
"My training is not a hobby." Apparently, she only succeeded in being offensive. "A hobby is something you do for fun."
"You don't enjoy it at all?"
"There is a certain satisfaction in hard work and improvement," Zoro clarified, "but it's not like I get up in the morning and think to myself, 'I think I'l go pump iron for a few hours; it'll be awesome!' I do it because I need to do it. It's work."
"You really don't have anything you do just for fun?"
"I'm pretty sure drinking and pissing off the cook don't count." Zoro let out a disgruntled huff and scowled.
"This is really bothering you isn't it?" It might almost be funny, if it weren't clearly very serious to the swordsman.
"I know it's stupid." He ran a hand through his hair. "I never cared before, but to have Mihawk, of all people, pity me for not having a life is ridiculous!"
"He said that?"
"No." Zoro looked at her like she was crazy for suggesting it. "This is Mihawk we're talking about; the guy only talks if he feels like he's got something important to say. He kept looking at me funny, though. Now I can't help feeling like I've been neglecting part of who I am when I used to think I knew myself pretty damn well."
"Have you tried finding yourself a hobby?"
Zoro shrugged. "I gave fishing a shot."
"I remember Sanji-kun mentioning something about that." She quirked an eyebrow. "So?"
"It's pretty boring; you just sit around waiting for something to happen. I honestly don't know how it holds Luffy's attention at all!"
"He can stay pretty focused if there's food involved."
"True."
Nami looked back down at her woefully still full of blanks puzzle and had an idea.
"I could help you find a hobby."
"Yeah, but what's it gonna cost me?" Zoro scoffed.
"Nothing you can't afford," she teased with an impish grin. "I've been looking for something to keep myself entertained, too. I'll help you out at no monetary cost on two conditions."
"Which are?" he asked warily.
"Condition one: I may be doing this to help you out, but I'm calling the shots. If I tell you to try something, you'll do it."
"Figures," he grumbled. "Bossing me around has always been one of your hobbies."
"Condition two: Help me finish this stupid puzzle!"
Zoro stared at her suspiciously for a moment, mentally weighing whether or not she was serious. After a few moments, he shrugged and flopped down next to her on the bench with a grunt. "Deal, I guess. Now, gimme a clue."
"I'm not that good!"
"Very funny. I meant a crossword clue, and you know it!"
"Sorry; I couldn't resist!"
They made fairly short work of the puzzle together, and Nami had to admit, if only to herself, that it wasn't half bad spending time with Zoro. If all else failed, she had a whole stack of old papers up in the surveying room...
Theme: Set 4 #20 Iron (In a rather vague way.)
Claim: Zoro x Nami
Words: 1627
Rating: T
Warnings: Mild swearing and rampant, weird speculation. (Mihawk's an odd duck; for all I know, some of this is true.) Also, mild spoilers for post first Saobody visit.
Disclaimer(s): Oda deserves all rights to these characters and the setting, since he did such a fantastic job in creating them.
A/N: This is the first of what will be a short series of connected pieces I call "Zoro Needs a Hobby."
Nami would never admit it, especially after all the abuse she heaped on the younger guys for complaining about the very same thing, but she was bored! A stretch of bad weather had kept her inside enough that she had actually mostly caught up in her mapmaking. After the rainy weather, conditions had been quite stable, and she only had to monitor the log pose occasionally. However, it wasn't quite sunny enough for sunbathing, and if she gave her mikan trees any more attention she would be in danger of doing more harm than good!
As a last resort, she started working the crossword puzzles from the newspapers she received weekly. So far, she was still less than halfway through the first puzzle and was only succeeding in making herself feel stupid.
She mumbled to herself under her breath and tapped the edge of her desk with her pencil while she thought. Apparently, it was an annoying habit; a hand sprouted from the desktop and gently halted the motion mid-tap.
"I hate to interrupt you," Robin remarked without glancing up from her reading, "but that's quite distracting."
"Sorry, Robin." Nami sighed and gathered up her pencil and a few papers. "I'll go somewhere else, I guess."
Sanji was concocting some kind of secret, surprise dish in the galley, so she couldn't go there, and everywhere else she tried to go, the other occupants of the ship were even more distracting! Franky and Brook were composing songs together in the aquarium bar, and the boys were playing some combination of tag and hide and seek that seemed to range over the rest of the ship, including her surveying room and the spa, but not the gym. When she asked why, they told her Zoro was training.
She'd seen Zoro train with distractions before, so she hoped he might not even notice she was there. The worst that could happen was that he'd kick her out of the gym, and her search for a spot to work her puzzle in peace would continue.
Nami fully expected to find her crew mate in the middle of some ridiculously high number of reps, but Zoro was just standing there, staring at his weights. She figured he was probably deciding which apparatus to use for his ridiculous number of reps.
"Do you mind if I sit up here to work on my crossword puzzle?"
"Go ahead." He shrugged. "You don't have to ask my permission; this is everyone's space."
Zoro finally settled on doing squats under a massive barbell, and Nami curled up on the padded bench around the outside of the room and was soon absorbed in her puzzle. She found herself coming up blank on one clue.
"Peak," she mumbled. "Four letters long and starts with 'a,' but it's not 'apex' because then that down clue would start 'bx...'"
"Acme."
Nami jumped. She'd been so focused, she didn't notice Zoro walk up behind her and lean over her shoulder. He looked at her pointedly, and she filled in the letters. "That's it! How in the world do you know that?"
"Did I ever tell you where Kuma sent me?"
This seemed like a very random change of subject, but Nami nodded. "Mihawk's island, right?"
"Yeah, well, it turns out that island is where he goes when he wants to 'get away from it all' and relax. So there I was, basically invading his personal sanctuary and begging him to train me. I still have no clue why he agreed, but he eventually did.
"He told me I had to heal first, so I wasn't allowed to do anything physical. Apparently, it really annoyed him to have me just sitting there staring at him. When I told him I wasn't much of a reader, he started giving me the puzzles from the paper. Sort of a 'take this, sit over there, shut up, and don't bother me' kind of a deal.
"He kept giving me this look like it was really pathetically sad that I have no hobbies and spend all my time training or napping."
"And Mihawk does? Like what?" Nami had never thought about it, but she supposed it only made sense.
"He reads, both books and the paper; his favorite section is the obituaries."
"Creepy."
Zoro shrugged. "Maybe a little, I suppose. He also has a pretty nice rock garden."
"A rock garden?"
"He's not there very often, so a traditional garden would either die or get overgrown," Zoro explained. "He collects spoons, too. You know, those little ones with the decorative handles; he says he likes them because they don't take up much space, and he prefers to travel light."
Nami allowed herself a moment to imagine Mihawk lounging in a recliner with a newspaper open to the obituaries, sitting in front of a window overlooking a rock garden and next to a cabinet full of spoons as Zoro sat in a corner puzzling over a crossword. Surely, the reality had been much less ridiculous!
"So, you did a lot of puzzles, then?"
Zoro made a face. "A lot of puzzles! They're okay, but it kind of bites if you get stuck on a clue and no one will help you; Mihawk hated to be interrupted while reading, and Perona told me puzzles weren't 'cute.' I know my way around a dictionary and a thesaurus, though."
Nami noticed he still had a hand on the barbell. "Sorry; it looks like I am distracting you." That was extremely odd. She'd seen Zoro keep training through spontaneous blizzards, a game of tag gone out of control, and even a bored, whining Luffy clinging to one of his legs without so much as blinking!
"It's not your fault. Lately, I just can't seem to focus like I usually do," Zoro confirmed the highly irregular state of affairs.
"I'm sorry you're not enjoying your usual hobby," Nami tried to a be a little sympathetic.
"My training is not a hobby." Apparently, she only succeeded in being offensive. "A hobby is something you do for fun."
"You don't enjoy it at all?"
"There is a certain satisfaction in hard work and improvement," Zoro clarified, "but it's not like I get up in the morning and think to myself, 'I think I'l go pump iron for a few hours; it'll be awesome!' I do it because I need to do it. It's work."
"You really don't have anything you do just for fun?"
"I'm pretty sure drinking and pissing off the cook don't count." Zoro let out a disgruntled huff and scowled.
"This is really bothering you isn't it?" It might almost be funny, if it weren't clearly very serious to the swordsman.
"I know it's stupid." He ran a hand through his hair. "I never cared before, but to have Mihawk, of all people, pity me for not having a life is ridiculous!"
"He said that?"
"No." Zoro looked at her like she was crazy for suggesting it. "This is Mihawk we're talking about; the guy only talks if he feels like he's got something important to say. He kept looking at me funny, though. Now I can't help feeling like I've been neglecting part of who I am when I used to think I knew myself pretty damn well."
"Have you tried finding yourself a hobby?"
Zoro shrugged. "I gave fishing a shot."
"I remember Sanji-kun mentioning something about that." She quirked an eyebrow. "So?"
"It's pretty boring; you just sit around waiting for something to happen. I honestly don't know how it holds Luffy's attention at all!"
"He can stay pretty focused if there's food involved."
"True."
Nami looked back down at her woefully still full of blanks puzzle and had an idea.
"I could help you find a hobby."
"Yeah, but what's it gonna cost me?" Zoro scoffed.
"Nothing you can't afford," she teased with an impish grin. "I've been looking for something to keep myself entertained, too. I'll help you out at no monetary cost on two conditions."
"Which are?" he asked warily.
"Condition one: I may be doing this to help you out, but I'm calling the shots. If I tell you to try something, you'll do it."
"Figures," he grumbled. "Bossing me around has always been one of your hobbies."
"Condition two: Help me finish this stupid puzzle!"
Zoro stared at her suspiciously for a moment, mentally weighing whether or not she was serious. After a few moments, he shrugged and flopped down next to her on the bench with a grunt. "Deal, I guess. Now, gimme a clue."
"I'm not that good!"
"Very funny. I meant a crossword clue, and you know it!"
"Sorry; I couldn't resist!"
They made fairly short work of the puzzle together, and Nami had to admit, if only to herself, that it wasn't half bad spending time with Zoro. If all else failed, she had a whole stack of old papers up in the surveying room...