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[kitetsu]

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623 – 9111

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"Wrong number."

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—text.

[mouton]

hey mosshead,
you find a place to stay yet?

[kitetsu]

something like that

[ read: no. might as well get some value out of this stupid car. ]

[mouton]

[ he debates leaving it at that. but no, he has to be the responsible one. ]

well you can crawl out of whatever dingy hole you're sleeping in.
the room next door to mine here at the motel opened up. you and usopp should stay there.

[kitetsu]

[ zoro shoved down the urge to tell him exactly which hole he should crawl into - because ultimately, sanji wasn't wrong. with or without their captain, sticking close was the smarter play here. ]

you talk to him yet?

[mouton]

i'm telling him now like i'm telling you.
makes it easier for me to feed you both too.

[ because someone has to. ]

text, some night the girls are both on shifts.

[mouton]

[ with both girls working late tonight, it leaves sanji a little down in the dumps over on his side of the two connected suites. after all, it's their company he'd prefer to be around on quiet nights like this, but unfortunately there's only one person actually available tonight ... ]

is nami back yet?

[ he knows she isn't, but it's the best question to avoid seeming like he's voluntarily seeking talking to zoro. ]

[kitetsu]

[ for someone who enjoyed the quiet, it had become far more weighted in the wake of usopp's disappearance. probably why his response came a little more promptly than usual. ]

no

[ like the cook hadn't already known exactly where she was - he also knew she had her own phone. ]

not til morning

[mouton]

[ texting nami would mean bothering her while she's working and he's not about to do that, no matter how desperate he is in preferring to talk to her. besides, it's his duty to keep checking in on zoro too — as a crewmate and nothing else. ]

you're not dirtying up the place while she's gone, right?
make sure to start using the trash can to actually throw out your empty bottles.

[kitetsu]

don't remember asking you to move in

[ it's still his room too - the empties are on his side. ]

[mouton]

[ will he ever not be infuriating? not that he's exactly being nice either, but there's a reason for it. ]

even if there's a bathroom between us, it's still practically one space.

what are you even doing over there right now?

text, 747 – 8564

[bigsmile]

you'd tell me, right? if it was hurting, yeah?

( One day, Luffy will give context, and that day will be the heat death of the Universe. )

[kitetsu]

[ and yet somehow, zoro still had a pretty strong idea of what he was referring to. ]

it's fine
they cleaned it up when i got here

[bigsmile]

( It's the best unspoken language going. Who needs words? )

they said they cleaned me up too, but i don't remember much of that.
GOOD. are you still training?

[kitetsu]

[ words are definitely overrated. ]

not sure i buy all of it

[ he was in rough shape, but not that rough; certainly not enough to justify the number they'd slapped him with. ]

yeah
dome's been enough to keep sharp anyway

[bigsmile]

they said something about bumps and bruises, but i don't have any. not sure what they're talking about.

( Apart from the fact Luffy had practically dropped a building onto his head. A+

He thinks something over for once and then asks one of the most important questions he ever could. )

can i join in? it'd be amazing for our teamwork.

text, late month

[cartographie]

I'm not coming back to the room tonight. Don't mess up my side of the bed.

[kitetsu]

[ that could have meant a lot of things. nami could have been working late, out with someone else, or maybe, she just didn't want to admit she'd ended up in some sticky situation. asking for help wasn't something either of them were particularly good at, and all things considered, she was plenty capable without him.

yet, could they really be taking that risk here? when they still didn't have the first clue what the hell had happened with usopp before-? ]

careful
might get used to having it to myself

[cartographie]

[ ah, but will she ever come to him again for something like that, now well acquainted with the absolute fear that came along with watching him get hauled off by the Enforcers? ]

Doubt it. [ wait. shit. too much intimacy. ] The ramen and beer doesn't refill itself.

Driving with this girl from the hospital to Kolliery. She makes maps too. We're all better off with more information about this place. [ and then she takes another forty seconds typing and deleting 'bring you back some of the local booze' like an idiot might. ]

[kitetsu]

made it fine so far

[ that was not true, and they both knew it. the room looked better than it ever had; they had a stocked minifridge, intact furniture, and not a soiled bandage in sight. it was dangerously close to comfortable.

it was also why zoro was tapping the brake. sharing a space, that slow ease of his guard that he hadn't fully recognized - it had something in him throwing up a hand, grasping for that last ditch bit of protective distance.

there were questions he wanted to ask. shit that he didn't usually make a big deal of, and shouldn't have here - did nami even know this person? instead, he belatedly replied with the next best thing, trusting her to catch the meaning buried somewhere between the lines.

she usually did. ]

watch your back

[cartographie]

[ it's stupid.

all of this is stupid.

his first message makes the very corner of her lips quirk up into the ghost of a mirthless smirk, as though her mouth hasn't decided if she's annoyed by the remark or not. they both know it's not the case, and, deep down, they both know why he'd give her the brush-off.

but she's proud of the way she's turned that room into something, and the quiet familiarity they fall into when nobody's paying enough attention to throw a wall up or say something stupid to ruin it is a big part of what keeps her anchored. ]

She can heal, and I can drive. [ it's a generous amount of detail, coming from her, they both know it, and, ideally, they both understand why she would divulge any of it. ]

I'll be back late tomorrow. You better not finish the beers.

text, during november killer things.

[mouton]

keep a good eye on the girls. i don't like the sound of whatever crazy dangerous asshole is out on the loose right now.

[ not that the girls aren't plenty smart and capable, but in hearing about more and more deaths in the city, sanji would say there's hardly such a thing as overprotective right now.

not that he needs zoro, since he could easily protect them on his own, but — well, the precautions wouldn't hurt. ]

obviously usopp and luffy too.

[kitetsu]

[ while there was a part of him that would have also reminded sanji just how competent both women were, it'd be a lie to say he didn't share in his concern. shit never seemed to go the way it should in this city, and the increasing murders had been on his radar as well.

the part where they watched each other's backs didn't need stating, but zoro understood. ]

yeah

doesn't seem like they're any closer to taking them down

[ his disdain for the enforcers is palpable; someone is still a little bitter about his afternoon in lock-up. ]

[mouton]

[ of course it's all completely frustrating. sanji isn't the kind to let things like this go ignored, especially in the cases in which women might be in danger due to some violent threat let loose. even if wanda and nami could handle themselves, women out there — people — have died. ]

seems like they've been pretty damn useless.

[ hmm ... ]

maybe we need to take care of it ourselves.

[kitetsu]

you really surprised?

[ not like he needed to ask twice, if it meant there would be a potential fight involved. then, it was more finding the bastard that presented the issue. ]

last scene's gonna be picked clean

[ he's open to suggestion. ]

[mouton]

[ hardly surprised. most people working in any official kind of capacity tend to prove useless, whether it's here or back home. besides, there's plenty of motive to get involved, isn't there? ]

we just need to learn enough about where he's been to see if it points to where he could go next
then we find that asshole and take him out