Chapter 4: Curse Broken

Sanji was on his way back to the crow's nest, his mind still awash the conflicting emotions that had bombarded him in his encounter with Nico Robin, as well as pondering the more immediate implications of what she had said. She didn't have the stone, which had to mean that Nami had it. For a second, he surged with envy. Damn Zoro, getting to make friends with Nami-swan in my body. Hopefully Zoro had gotten hold of it. Just as he leapt up to grab the ladder to the crow's nest, Zoro's highly attuned ears caught something, maybe. It was obscured by the clang of his body hitting the metal rungs, but he thought he heard the distinctive sound of a body part dissolving into flower petals. He wasn't certain, but he hastened up the ladder all the quicker.

Having departed earlier, and having finished his task quicker either way, Zoro had returned to the crow's nest first, impatiently awaiting Sanji's return. He was getting a little too comfortable in this body. Any longer and it would start to throw off his well-honed instincts. Nami didn't have it, so Robin had to, and hopefully Sanji had put that charm of his to good use and managed to get it off her. Otherwise they would have to concoct a plan to trick her and get it back themselves. He was just about to start compulsively weightlifting again when Sanji popped up into the chamber. "Well…?" Zoro began to say, but Sanji quickly put a finger in front of his lips, indicating silence. Sanji furtively scurried over to where Zoro sat and whispered something in his ear. Oh, geez. Zoro looked around carefully, then slowly stood up and said in an abnormally loud and clear voice,

"Oi! What are you doing in here, marimo?"

Sanji began walking around slowly, carefully checking the corners of the room, looking around the piles of free weights, and responded in an equally clear voice "Shouldn't I be asking that? This is my spot, get your own!"

Zoro began searching around as well. "You wanna go right now?" he roared, unconvincingly. As he said this, Sanji motioned him over. There it was. Behind a rather large leg press machine, the two of them saw an ear sticking out of the metal. They looked at each other, both wondering what to do. They could leave, of course, or communicate in whispers, but any of that would be deemed suspicious. Robin was too smart for either of those. Zoro nudged Sanji, they had to keep up the conversation.

"Bring it!" he yelled. Sanji then came up with an idea. He undid the green bandana that usually held its place on Zoro's left arm. He waved the bandana in the air a little. Zoro nodded, then kicked him.

"Oi, what was that for?" Sanji yelled again.

Zoro grabbed the bandana from him in annoyance, and carefully dangled it above the ear. He then made a buzzing noise "bzzzt," and began gently tickling the ear with the edge of the bandana. The ear twitched, then dissolved.

"That was close," Zoro breathed.

"Good job getting rid of it," Sanji replied.

"Nah, it was your idea, I just made it better," Zoro said jokingly.

Sanji scowled, then grinned at his erstwhile rival, nakama, and friend. "But it was a good idea, making her think a bug got in there."

"Damn her," Zoro said. "She knows we're looking for her stone."

"Her stone? She doesn't have it, Nami does."

"No… Nami doesn't have it."

"What?" Sanji exclaimed incredulously. "Then who has it?"

"It's gotta be Robin," Zoro asserted angrily, envisioning one of her trademark duplicitous smiles in his head, "she's hiding it from us."

"You don't trust her, do you?" Sanji asked pointedly.

"No, I mean, yes, I mean… I don't know," Zoro replied, confused. He paused, then finally said "I trust her, but I really don't understand her."

Sanji reached for his chest, where his pack of cigarettes would have been, if he were in the right body. He realized this, and tried to reach for the pack of cigarettes in the pocket of Zoro's chest, grabbed it, then pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and started smoking. He was mildly surprised that Zoro didn't try to stop him.

"You don't understand? Idiot."

"What do you mean?" Zoro growled.

"She likes you, idiot."

Zoro was at a loss for words. "What? Likes me?"

"Yeah. Likes. You," Sanji said, putting emphasis on each word. He blew out a puff of smoke. "She made it obvious enough."

"What? Robin acting lovesick?"

"Of course not. She makes it obvious in her own way."

Zoro narrowed his eyes. "How?"

"She likes talking to you, obviously. Haven't you noticed that?"

Zoro frowned, thinking. Now that he thought back on it, she did seem to inquire after his feelings fairly often, certainly more so than the others, who generally respected his personal space. He hadn't given it much thought, given how short a conversation with her usually was. As he thought further, he realized that such conversations were important for someone like her, though. She had spent so much of her life closed off from others. She wasn't the type of person who would pour her soul out to anyone, and she probably treasured having someone around with whom she could have a normal conversation.

"I guess," Zoro finally said. "She doesn't open up much, so every conversation has meaning for her."

"Bingo," Sanji replied, taking another drag on the cigarette. "Your cluelessness has helped you so far, but you should figure out what you want out of this pretty soon, whether you want to go along with this. If you let this relationship stagnate, you'll throw away something beautiful, then get stuck like I am with Nami."

They both stood silently for a bit, listening to the distant sounds of the waves lapping the hull of the Thousand Sunny. Zoro wasn't certain about what he wanted, since until just a moment ago, he hadn't been aware of the status of his relationship with Robin, unaware that her conduct had actually been a series of quasi-romantic advances. She wanted a friend, that much was certain, but the question still endured as to whether she wanted something more. As a nakama, he couldn't shut her out, he decided, and he figured he would decide whether he wanted something more later, as he grew to know her more. There was a lot there he could grow to like. Blunt, sexy, powerful, confident, she had many virtues. Romantic infatuation was still something foreign to him, but she would be a perfectly comfortable partner with which to journey into that zone.

After some minutes of quiet contemplation, Zoro finally spoke, changing the course of the conversation entirely. "Did you say you were stuck with Nami?"

"Ahh, Nami-swan," Sanji sighed. "Yeah, I ruined any serious chances with her long ago, treating her like any other woman. I flirted too much."

"Tell me something I don't know," Zoro said bluntly.

Sanji didn't get angry, but merely sighed again. "It's my fault. I treated her like just another pretty girl from the beginning, and that's really all she was at one point. I don't know when, but she became different at some point."

"You sure haven't acted like it." Zoro replied.

"That's part of the problem. I'm still infatuated with her just as a girl, aside from how I really feel. I'm aware of the way she orders me around. It's cute, it's adorable, but it's a sign that she doesn't want anything to do with me."

Zoro sighed. He hadn't wanted to tell him this, afraid it might launch him into another one of his amorous transports, but it bugged him seeing Sanji this dejected. "That's not what I saw."

"Huh?"

"When I was talking to her, she kinda… asked to help me look for the stone."

"What? She asked to do something with me? How?"

"I dunno. I was just talking with her about the stone. She suggested Robin might have it, and asked to go with me."

"How?" Sanji insisted.

"I dunno," Zoro replied again, "I was just… talking. Yeah," he realized, "I wasn't mindlessly flirting with her like you would've."

Sanji took another puff. "So… I have a chance." He set the cigarette down and began leaping for joy. "I have a chance! Nami-swaaaaan!"

Zoro smacked him again. "Oi oi. You have a chance, but only if you cut out that crap."

The moment was over, it seemed, as Sanji responded by saying "You're just jealous, shitty marimo!"

Zoro didn't rise to the bait. "At least wait until we get back in our own bodies to start acting like that."

Sanji came back to his senses. "Shit. So what are we going to do now?"

"We have to search the ship front to back, but do it in shifts so we don't arouse more suspicion than we already have. I'll go first." Zoro approached the hatch to leave.

"Yo, Sanji," he turned around and approached Sanji again, extending his hand. "Thank you."

Sanji extended his hand too. "No, thank you."

As their hands clasped, a different feeling emerged. Not the strong electrical shock that had removed them from their bodies, but a feeling of warmth. Then heat, then extreme heat.

"Ow!" Zoro yelled, freeing himself from the handshake and jumping up and down. "Damn that's hot!" He glared over at Sanji. "What the hell!" then realized that he was looking at Sanji.

"Oi, Zoro," Sanji said, looking at one another. They were back. Both of them took stock of their own bodies: hands, clothing, and equipment.

"We did it!" they yelled simultaneously, hugging one another, then realized that they were hugging.

"Get off me, curly-cook!" Zoro yelled.

"That goes double for you!" Sanji returned. They glared at one another angrily, then the newfound tension was broken when the hatch opened again, this time revealing Nami, closely followed by Robin.

"Just what are you guys up to?" Nami asked suspiciously.

"Yo Nami, Robin," Sanji said normally.

Nami and Robin exchanged glances, somewhat vexed by the lack of Mellorine.

"We were wondering why you two were so curious about the stone, or how you even knew what it was." Robin said.

"Sanji found it missing," Zoro replied. "He knew Nami wanted to keep it secret, he was concerned."

"But why did he go to you?" Nami asked, still suspicious.

"I suspected him first," Sanji said. "But once I cleared him, he decided to help me." Nami wasn't especially convinced by that, but Robin decided to go with it.

"Just as Nami-san told Cook-san, it's a cursed stone, though I don't know what kind of curse it is. It's very important that we find it."

"Fine," Nami said, still suspicious. "Come on, Sanji."

For a split second, hearts surged in Sanji's eyes, but he knew what was at stake, and repressed it. "Right, let's go."

"Let's go too, Zoro," Robin added. The four of them departed.

It was a sore trial for Sanji, much as it had been before, but much worse. In her torturous cunning, Nami had decided it was necessary for them to search the girls' room. Sanji was careful, very careful, searching only in normal places like under the beds, while Nami sifted through the drawers. "It isn't likely to be in here," Nami said, "but Robin and I are the only ones other than you who could've taken it, so we have to rule it out."

"It is a cursed stone, too," Sanji added. "You and Robin were the only two to come in close contact with it, it's possible it may have affected you."

Robin. Nami thought. Not Robin-chwan, just Robin. What was going on? "Sanji, what's wrong with you?" she finally asked.

"Nothing," Sanji said reassuringly. "Nothing wrong with having a normal conversation, right?"

Nami smiled. "Yeah." Whatever had changed him, it had been for the better. She was going to have to re-evaluate her entire relationship with Sanji, and it was going to be a great experience.

Meanwhile, Zoro and Robin were searching around the bow of the Thousand Sunny. Robin had said that while it was unlikely, the little chamber that housed the controls for the Gaon Cannon would be the ideal place to hide something on the ship, aside from Sanji's fridge. Zoro agreed. After she found the mechanism to open the firing chamber, they went inside. There wasn't much to search, but they needed to be thorough, and searched everywhere they could. Zoro took the opportunity to broach a conversation.

"Nami said someone threw the stone on the ship?"

"Yes. Whoever it was seemed desperate to get rid of it."

"What do you think it could be?"

"Most likely it comes from an ancient South Blue society. They built those stones for a variety of curse effects."

"Like trading bodies?" Zoro said without thinking.

Robin glanced at him and smiled. "That was one of them, yes."

Zoro blushed. "I mean, that was just… something that they could do, right?"

Robin laughed gently. "You've had a busy day, haven't you?"

Zoro smiled, rubbing his head embarrassedly, "Yeah."

"You're a fascinating person, Zoro," Robin said.

Before Zoro could respond, their moment was interrupted by a cacophony of noises.

"Oi, Luffy! Stop it!"

"Wooohoho!" Followed by an explosion. The two of them leapt up on deck, as the others gathered. Usopp rushed up from belowdecks as smoke belched out.

"It's horrible!"

Nami and Sanji emerged from the girls' room. "What was that?" Nami yelled.

Chopper came out, too. "An explosion?"

Brook woke up from the nap he had sunk into, "Yoho?"

Suddenly Franky came up on deck, or someone who was apparently Franky. "Coool! Look at me! I'm Franky!" he started dancing around. "I feel really Mega!"

A rather battered-looking Luffy emerged, clutching the stone in one hand. "It's super! I always feel Super!"

Everyone was shocked, but Sanji and Zoro struggled to hide smirks. Here we go again.

The End.

Originally I was going to end it right when Nami and Robin confronted Zoro and Sanji, but figured it would be a bit too abrupt, and wanted to emphasize the positive benefits on their relationships. Comments? Did it work, was I way off base, was it too OoC or just right? Reviews are appreciated.