One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Two Hundred and Sixteen [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two Hundred and Sixteen-

"Hey, what was all that noise about earlier?" I inquired the second I walked out on deck after finishing my letter and putting it somewhere safe until I had the time to mail it. Aside from Zoro, I couldn't see another living soul anywhere as I curiously looked around.

"Nothing important, you don't need to worry about" Zoro dismissively waved as I made my way over to him. "Where'd you go anyways? You kind of just disappeared on me there" he questioned, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Not really? I told you I was going to go write a letter" I answered.

"A letter? To your brothers?" he asked.

"No, to Santa Claus, I thought I'd get my Christmas list out of the way early this year" I sarcastically responded. "Yes, of course, to my brothers—who else would I be writing a letter to?" I rolled my eyes, causing him to chuckle. "So," I started, gaze wandering the deck once more, "is Sanji back yet?" I curiously asked.

"No, he's not" Zoro answered before frowning as he narrowed his eyes in slight jealousy. "Why do you want to know anyway?"

"Because I'm madly in love with him and wish to confess my undying love for him right here and now—what do you think, dummy?" I rolled my eyes before clearing my throat. "I just assumed he was back due to all that commotion from earlier" I explained.

"Well, he's not" Zoro repeated, expressioning lightening up as he relaxed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to head back to sleeping" he yawned.

"Really?" I pouted as I crossed my arms. "And here I thought I could spend some quality time with my man" I dramatically sighed and turned before yelping in surprise as I was suddenly pulled back and down onto the swordsman's lap.

"If you want to spend time together, then why not just take a nap with me?" he sleepily mumbled, pecking my cheek and snuggling close to me.

"Well...I guess a nap together doesn't sound that terrible..." I softly murmured, a small smile tugging at my lips as I nuzzled my face into his neck and quietly hummed in contentment as I closed my eyes.

-Later-

"Pardon me" sluggishly blinking my eyes open, I loudly yawned as I rubbed my sleepy eyes. Humming, I blearily looked around for the source of the voice that had woken me up before finally, my gaze landed on the slightly blurred figure of a man with a rather long nose.

"Usopp...?" I quietly questioned, brows furrowing in slight confusion as to why he was suddenly back here before quickly shaking my head as my vision became clearer and I was finally able to notice that the man before me looked quite different from the sharpshooter. For one, his nose was a lot more squared while his build was much bigger. Wiggling out of Zoro's grip, I ignored his displeased grunt as I curiously approached the strange man.

"My goodness, I know they told me their ship needed repairs, but I didn't think it would be in shambles..." the man murmured as he examined Merry's rough condition.

"Um...excuse me...?" I questioned as I gently tapped the man's shoulder, causing him to turn around. "Uh...not to sound rude, but who exactly are you and why are you on our ship?" I asked, fingers twitching as my hand inched just a bit closer toward my swords even though I didn't want to jump to any conclusions nor did I really want to get violent. But there weren't really that many reasonable explanations as to why a stranger would walk aboard a pirate ship.

"Oh, pardon the intrusion, my name's Kaku" the man introduced as he tipped his hat. "I'm one of the shipwrights on this island, your friends had asked me to come and check out your guys' ship" he explained as I nodded, immediately relaxing a little at this new information.