Zoro and his Assassin

Zoro's POV

I look perplexed at Nami, then turn to follow after Anya. I had to put a stop to this ridiculous cold war between us. I wasn't sure how things had become so twisted. 

The crew was looking at me strangely, I could not even fault them, I was being weird, following around the small venomous witch and trying to chat her up. Tch it was unbecoming of me. 

Yet I couldn't control myself. I wanted to fix whatever was broken  between us. Maybe i have been celibate for too long and now I have brain rot. I dont know Fuck!

Thinking back to our first proper encounter, when Anya had rolled on the ground due to her hangover, still makes me chuckle. She looked so small and miserable. All my protective instincts had roared to life. I had picked her up and taken her to the girls' dorm, to the shock and silent judgments of the rest of the crew. After all, I wasn't known for my acts of service.

She was so delicate in my arms, I was scared I was going to break her with an errant thought. Her rosebud lips were slightly open and she was moaning and groaning in pain. But all my mind could think was how I wanted to make her moan for me. Depositing her on the bed I had stood back to see if she needed anything, she looked like an angel spread out over the soft duvet. I had to run out of that room fast to stop myself from thinking or worse doing something stupid.

Since that day, I have tried to avoide her. I know she used to look at me, like all the time, it was doing a number to my ego - the way her eyes would search for me and then stop when she found me. I had to pretend not to be affected. Best way was to feign sleep.

That changed the day she had huffed and puffed over to the crows nest. How this small, loud brat of a girl was a deadly assassin, was a mystery to me. Or maybe people were lulled stupid by her cuteness while she finished them off. I dunno.

I heard how her breath stilled when she realized it was me, I felt her anger. 

I also felt a blast of heat - its a strange kind if heat that she always directs at me. Luffy had insisted that the heat from Anya was actually her killing intent, but to me it felt different, almost like a warm caress. At times I purposely did stupid things to get her to direct that heat at me. 

I digress. Anyways, she had proceeded to climb down equally loudly all the while giving herself a pep talk which sounded suspiciously like she was justifying her running away.

I had to call her out on that. I thought that interaction led to the ice breaking between us, I was sure it would have led to more if that idiot cook hadn't interrupted. Tch, just thinking about it makes my blood boil. Sanji had paid for that and has a nasty scar to prove it.

But to my utter confusion, she stopped talking to me completely—worse, she stopped looking at me. How dare she stop looking at me? I waited for her eyes to scan across the room and land on me ...but she did not. That was unforgivable. 

Around this time I picked up a stupid habit. My heart felt too small at times specially when I saw her walking by and not glance at me. I would rub small circles around it as if to ease it up. It was stupid and I hated it, but it was an unconscious habit that I was working on getting rid of. 

To the shock of everyone I started approaching her directly to talk - as in initiate conversation. I figured maybe she believed I was ignoring her when the others were around. So I did the opposite. I made sure to reach out to her specifically when another crew member was around, just to show her she had the wrong idea. I will not go over any of the comments I was subjected to by the crew over this topic. Suffice to say I am surrounded by idiots.

But she only avoided me more, giving vague answers and treating me like the plague. I started feeling like a damn creep, stalking her around the ship.

One time, I even asked if she wanted to learn sword fighting, thinking it might help break the awkwardness. Do you know what her reply was? "At least it's not green." What in the hell goes on in her pea-sized brain? I was so confused, I lost a fight with Sanji.

That brings us to today. I had seen her earlier going in the kitchen probably to speak with Nami. I walked in just as she barrelled out. Her small frame bounced off of my body when we collided. I was going to steady her when she became still like a snake. 

I was almost blasted back by the force of heat she subconsciously focused on me.  I could see her cheeks were flushed and she was staring at my nipples. I was feeling a little embarrased when she suddenly shouted that I was a perv and bolted. Leaving Nami to laugh her head off and spout some nonsense. I was going to put an end to this today, I thought as I chased after her.