You had to return the car at some point, you didn't quite get why the gang had such a mix of expressions as you walked into the kitchen doorway.

They were all gathered for dinner and as you'd figured, the table had turned into a battle ground. Everyone had frozen in place though. Robin and Nami sat still, spoons poised over plates of what looked to be curry. Luffy was almost standing up in his seat, his mouth shoved full of food as he reached across to Usopp's plate. Usopp himself looked about ready to swat Luffy away. Brook, the messy eater that he was, had curry all over his face and even some in his hair. Chopper and Franky were angled in towards each other, like they were having their own personal conversation before you came in. And then like always, Zoro and Sanji looked like they were ready to reach across the table and beat the ever loving shit out of each other.

"So, uh, I put gas in the car and it's back where I found it.....and the stuff I, um, borrowed is on that table...."

Luffy swallowed and grinned at you. "You're back!"

"Your late." Zoro huffed. "I told you six."

"I got caught up with some stuff, lost track of time."

"Leave her be moss head!" Sanji snapped. "Doll, I saved you some dinner from Luffy!"

"Sit with us!" Nami scooted over to make room between her and Robin for you.

"No, over here!" Chopper insisted. "I want to check the cut!"

"I think you should check that after dinner." Brook laughed.

As the crew bickered, you let out a small sigh. It'd been a busy but good day and you were beat. You weren't sure if you even had the energy to sit with them through the rest of the meal but at the same time, the curry smelled amazing. But before that, there was one particular matter that you needed to figure out.

"I don't know if I want to try the whole gang thing again." You said, leaning against the doorframe and kicking the toe of your boot against the floor. "But I don't know if I want to leave yet either."

"Just join." Luffy sat back down with substantially more food on his plate while Usopp had substantially less. "You like it here, right?"

You frowned. "It's not that simple Luffy, I can't put myself through the wringer again and this kind of work will have me doing exactly that."

"No it won't." He pouted and huffed. "I'm not Jaggy."

"Jaggy?"

"He means Kid." Nami rolled his eyes.

"Oh, right." You couldn't help but grin. Jaggy really made him seem that much less scary. "Still, I don't know if it's something I want to chance."

"How about this then," Robin started, cutting off Luffy before he could start back on his complaining. "we do a test run. You can join in on our usual business without the obligation to stay. See how our approach differs from Kids, see how you like it. You can stay with us in the mean time and get the full experience. I know our living situation isn't as luxurious as Kid had it but I think you'll find a better kind of companionship here."

You crossed your arms and nibbled at your bottom lip thoughtfully. At the very least, some time to reorganize yourself wouldn't be a bad idea. It was true, you did miss having friendly company around but you still weren't sure if that qualified as enough of a reason for you to stay.

"What about Kid and his crew? Wire and Hayate will have reported to Kid their run in with us and told him I left with Zoro. He'll know I'm here."

"He won't dare make a move in this city with both Law and us here."

"And is Law going to know that I'm here?"

"Yes, but nothing past that. You'll be able to move around the city without his men bothering you and if you choose to leave in the end, I think we can be fair and not let him know until you've actually left. That way you won't have to worry about him."

"I don't see how any of that benefits you guys."

"As a crew, it wouldn't." Franky took over. "But in that case, we'd just be friends helping another friend out."

They were making a good effort of giving you an enticing offer with no consequences on your part. Between yours and Zoro's talk last night and now this, you were beginning to feel really guilty about having thought about using and stealing from them earlier. They were just too good to be a group of criminals in your book.

"I've got some ground rules....and a request then."

"Whatever." Luffy waved you off. "As long as you stay!"

Your lips twitched up into an amused smile. "I gave Kid rules and he broke the most important ones. I learned my lesson with that so if the same thing happens here, with anything we've all agreed to, I'm out."

"Anything for you Doll!" Sanji practically swooned over you as he hung off of every word that left your mouth.

"I won't be bombarded with work so don't try it. I'm not going to do everything but I can and will pull my weight."

Everyone nodded, even Luffy.

"I know we've talked about this Zoro, but I'm not killing on command so everyone can forget about that. I've done enough of that."

Zoro scowled at you but was otherwise silent, as was everyone else. You took that as an okay.

"And I don't go dragon anymore. I haven't in a long time and I don't want anyone asking me to do so. People see me flying around and bad shit starts to happen. I don't want to deal with that, I'm looking for stability right now."

You were sure that'd be some kind of deal breaker but strangely enough, Luffy just shrugged as he shoveled more curry into his mouth and spoke around it. "No one's asking you to. So are you joining now?"

You were flabbergasted. It took you a good few seconds to process how little Luffy cared about the one part of you every other up and coming gang seemed to want. It was why you couldn't live a peaceful life and yet, ignoring the strongest part of you didn't concern him.

"I...well it's a test run." You shook your head to clear your thoughts. "If I'm okay with things here after a while....then I might join but there's nothing official until then."

He grumbled under his breath but let it go, it was the best he was going to get from you for now and everyone knew it.

"What's that request of yours?" Zoro side eyed you as he shoveled more rice onto his plate without Sanji noticing.

"I wanted to see if I could borrow the car again possibly.......I left something back at my old place and I need to get it."

"We can replace whatever it is I'm sure." Brook chuckled.

"Yeah, no. Not this."

"What'd you forget that's so important?"

".....My cat."

"Are you fucking serious?" Zoro scoffed. "You should've mentioned that before we left!"

"Well I didn't think I'd be staying more than a night!"

"Soooooo, dinner then picking up a cat?" Usopp interrupted.

There was already a fresh plate put together by Sanji, sitting between him and Usopp for you.

"Sit down (Y/n)." Zoro huffed. "We'll take care of your damn cat afterwards."

You walked around the table and did just that. It'd been a long time since you last had homemade curry.

----

"I should probably be driving you know." Zoro was watching the nightime scenery pass by through his window. "You hadn't slept in a while."

His knees knocked against his swords that sat nestled between his legs. They'd been brought along in case any Kid gang members were still in the area, which wouldn't be as a surprise. Besides Kid himself, the rest of the gang was quite thorough in their work.

"With your sense of direction? Please." You fought the urge to laugh. It'd been so long since you'd done it that it was almost an intimidating thought. Instead you stuck to giving him a sidelong smile while he gave you a moody frown.

"I know my way around here."

"Of course you do." You nodded. "But, I seem to recall a time, that honestly seems so long ago now, when you managed to get lost walking around the block of your very conspicuous hideout."

"No, that-"

"We waited for an hour to start the meeting that day because no one could find you!"

"I was just on a walk!"

"When you knew we had a meeting planned? So your timing is terrible then."

"It-it is not!"

You couldn't help it this time. Even in the dark you could make out his flustered looks and deep blush. He never handled it well when someone pointed out his faults.

You laughed. To the point you had to pull over and park the car so you wouldn't run into anything.

"Shut up, it's not that funny!" Zoro sunk into his seat like a pouting child, arms crossed and brows furrowed.

"I'm sorry." You gasped out an apology, though it wasn't exactly sincere. "It's just, I've never seen someone so directionally challenged before. Like, I feel like that's a skill."

"Go get your cat." He grumbled, tossing you the backpack you'd borrowed before from the back seat. "And bring anything else you'll need. I'm not leaving the car alone in this part of town."

You'd managed to stop the car across the street from the old, run down diner that you used to live at. Perfect.

Zoro got out of the car with you but leaned against the side of it instead of crossing the dark, quiet street with you, his swords hanging loosely from his hip as he scanned the area. You shouldered the bag and scampered into the building in hopes of escaping the cold but inside wasn't any better. A shiver ran down your spine as you puffed out clouds of warm breath that dissipated into the air. You were already missing the car's heated seats.

The walk upstairs proved no one besides Zoro had been around, everything was as you left it. You took a moment to rummage through your things, finding whatever you deemed good enough or necessary to take back. There were a couple pairs of shoes you liked that you snagged, your only decent pair of jeans, a few tops, a couple of your more fun jackets, and your underclothes. All in all, it wasn't much, the dresses you wore for "work" were better off left behind and they were the majority of your wardrobe. Besides that, all your stuff managed to fit in the bag with plenty of room to spare.

Just as you finished gathering your stuff, you heard a questioning meow from the top of the stairs and turned to see Clover staring back at you. Her green eyes were piercing in the dark and her remaining half of a tail swiped from side to side impatiently.

"Hiya girlie." You cooed, stretching your arms out to her as you crouched down. "Wanna go somewhere fun with me? I know you're hungry, we can find you some food there."

At the mention of food, a word she knew well, she padded up to you, meowing away. You figured she'd be by as soon as she assumed you were back as well, as was normal for her.

"Chatty today huh?"

She let you pick her up without complaint and you hugged her to your chest as you went back downstairs. When you were outside once again, Zoro straightened out across the street, no longer leaning on the car.

"That was quick." He noted.

"I didn't have much."

He nodded and was smart enough to not need you to elaborate. "We good to go back then?"

"Yep."

Getting situated in the car was interesting. Clover handled rides well but not without being in someone's lap. As you were driving, yours wasn't available so when you'd tossed the bag in the back seat, you plopped her in Zoro's lap. She immediately began inspecting him, nosing at his face and purring.

"What? Why'd you give it to me?"

"Her." You corrected. "Clover likes company on car rides. Just hold her, she's sweet."

"If you say so...." He tentatively placed a hand on her head and rubbed between her ears until she was leaning into him, purring even louder.

It wasn't hard to tell, they were going to get along just fine. And you were sure the rest of the gang would appreciate her as well, it was hard not to take to her loving personality.

And just as you thought, she was a hit.

Everyone else waited for you to get back before anyone started making their way to bed. That meant they got to meet Clover and fawn over her for a good amount of time. While they did that, you got yourself a little more comfortable in your space in the library. Usopp let you keep the bag so you took that to the room and left it by the couch that was doubling as your bed.

And when that was done, you did your best to try and spend a bit of the night in the company of the gang but you were functioning on fumes at this point and needed sleep more than anything else. At Robin's insistence and with the promise of work the next day, you were ushered off to bed.

Things were about to change once again and you needed to be prepared for whatever was to come.