Silver Bells

AngolMoaChan

A ZoLu for my dear Inumaru12, who wrote me the sweetest Sasori fanfiction EVAR. X3 (snuggles) The prompt on this one was 'jingle bell'

Ting ting! Ting ting!

A twitch of a green eyebrow.

Ring-a-ling-a-ling!

Yet another twitch, this one slightly more pronounced. Rorona Zoro was sitting in his usual spot against the mast, snoozing, when he had heard that…blasted…noise. It was driving him up a wall.

There was a little part of him that told him he should like the sound of bells, but that was the same part that told him it was okay to watch Sex and The Grand Line reruns, wear sweater vests, and think small furry animals were cute.

He didn't own any sweater vests, he did think Chopper was kind-of-sort-of-cute for a fuzzball, and okay, maybe he did watch those reruns. But only once in a while.

Ring ting ting!

The quiet jingling he heard immediately snapped him out of his slightly self-indulgent thoughts. Zoro stood up, keeping a grip on all three of his swords and grumbled under his breath, looking about for the source of the jingling.

His first suspect was Chopper, because, hey, fuzzy things wear collars. But the little reindeer just shrugged and replied, "I've been hearing it too, but it's not me!"

Zoro stalked off, the tic in his eyebrow growing noticeably. Time to find Nami.

After an hour of fruitless (not counting the tangerine that Nami threw at his head when he suggested that she might have been wearing a collar) searching, the turf-topped swordsman was down to just two members of the Straw Hats: Sanji and Luffy.

Frowning, he headed towards the galley and turned the corner to see the blonde cook, casually smoking a cigarette as he washed an abnormally large pot. "Oi," Zoro spoke up gruffly, "You heard the bell?"

Sanji turned around, his hands in his pockets. "Bell? Oh, yeah. I found one in the last port over and bought it."

For the first time, the blonde noticed that the swordsman was seething, practically heating up the entire kitchen. "…what?"

Sanji gulped. "I gave it to Luffy a ways back."

The captain's name came out of Zoro's mouth like a garbled snarl; he dodged out of the kitchen and headed towards the wheel, seeing the straw-hatted pirate.

Sure enough, the ring-ting-ting from earlier was noticeably louder. Zoro stalked up to Luffy and put a hand on his shoulder. "Oi."

The Captain jumped a good foot (jingling included) and practically squealed in shock, "Yikes! Zoro, you scared me!"

"…right." The swordsman suddenly looked down the body of the overeager captain and noticed that the bell was on a red ribbon that was tied rather tightly around his neck.

It looked like a collar.

Zoro tilted his head, feeling the familiar rush of blood to his cheeks. "Uh, anyway, what's with the bell?"

"Oh, isn't it cool? Chopper gave it to me!" he chirped brightly, ringing the bell with his fingers, "Said it was a present from somebody!"

Suddenly, at that moment, the pieces fell into place. They had all been in on it. Every single one of those idiots was involved in this, watching Zoro blush and stutter and stammer because Luffy was wearing a collar.

Zoro sputtered twice, still a brilliant shade of red. He whirled about towards the tangerine trees and thought he saw them rustling. Zoro took two steps and was about to break into a full sprint after the bastards that mocked him when--

"Hey, wait, Zoro!"

The swordsman turned back to Luffy, confusion written on his features. In that split second moment of bewilderment, the captain took the chance to lightly press his lips against his first mate's.

The squealing from the mysteriously rustling tangerine tree could have been heard miles away.

Zoro let out a startled yelp as the Captain grinned. "Thanks so much for the bell, Zoro!"

And with that said, he headed off towards the galley to, Zoro was sure, tell the tale of what had just happened in vast grandeur.

He touched a finger to his lips, then sighed. He could go stop him after his brain stopped rattling in his skull.

--

:3 Hope you liked it!