Of Seminars and Men

AN: I liked this chap. It wasn't as long as Sanji's chap, but then again, Zoro woke up much later. Besides, things are about to get really interesting. Enjoy.

Chapter 5

Zoro woke up to the most luxurious feeling he had the pleasure to experience. This was most definitely not his bed back home. This felt like heaven. Sun was streaming in from open curtains warming his bare skin. His muscles were loose and the normal tension he felt had evaporated. Strange smells filled his nose. Wherever he was, he was happy. His body was way past due for this kind of special treatment. He had been living it rough since childhood. His current home was a loft apartment that he semi shared with his best friend. The bed there wasn’t much better than sleeping on the floor. But, it was home, and it was cheap. He still had a lot more money to save before he could fulfill his dream.

As much as he wanted to fall back asleep, his full bladder made it impossible. He opened his eyes to see if he could find out just where ‘heaven’ was. Pale blue color walls, cherry wood furniture, dark blue comforter and bright white sheets. Heaven turned out to be hell. He was still technically at work, and sleeping in one of the guest’s rooms. Shit, he’d better get out of there quick before the boss found out. Sure Zoro was the Chief Head of Security, but even he had to answer to someone. That someone had a tendency to make examples of his employees when they broke major rules. Sleeping with a guest was pretty high on the list. It was under stealing, but above starting a fight.

He slid out of bed and wound his way thru discarded clothing to the bathroom. After relieving himself, he decided it would be best if he cleaned up a bit before showing his face outside the door. He turned on the water and stepped inside. As he was washing, he began to think about last night. He remembered that the bar was pretty crowded. There were lots of women there. Someone had been sitting in his seat. They shared drinks. A couple women made passes at them. Then something about too many drinks and helping someone to their room. It was a blonde. Their hands were everywhere.

Apparently other parts of Zoro were remembering as well. He grabbed the lavender shampoo and poured a generous amount on his hand. The smell triggered the memory of a blonde standing before him trying to enter the room. He had buried his nose in the soft hair at the back of the head and was kissing the slender neck. It only took a couple strokes to bring his cock to its full length. He searched his mind for any further clues to the identity of his partner. Black clothes came to mind, and pale skin. He remembered long legs wrapping around him, bending in impossible ways. He began to stroke faster. Just imagining those legs bent all the way up to the chest while he drove in hard was enough to help him find release.

Whoever it was, he wanted to find them again. This time he would make sure they were sober. He thought about this morning when he briefly woke. She had run to the bathroom to get sick after answering the phone. Whoever was on the phone was either a complete idiot or a foreigner. Zoro couldn’t understand a word they were saying other than ‘hurry up’ and ‘you’re late’ so he figured that they were friends or co-workers. He wished he had asked a few questions before he had hung up now. Or at least he could have stayed awake to say thanks, or something. He’d just have to leave her a note to call him later. Then they could talk properly.

Zoro finished washing with the scented soap and stepped out. All kinds of hair and skin care products lay on the counter. The hair dryer was still plugged in from its earlier use. She must have been in a hurry and forgot to put things away. Zoro went ahead and took most of the moisture out of his hair with a towel and proceeded to dry his body. He winced as the fluffy fabric rubbed across his shoulders. It took some maneuvering, but he managed to twist enough to see his back in the mirror.

Ten scratches started at the top of his back and ran down several inches to the bottom of his shoulder blades. He smirked at what he considered battle scars, and decided to inspect himself further for marks. The grin grew wider at each blemish found. He noticed the bruises on his upper arms, each with a crescent moon imprint in them. When he got to his neck, he began to laugh. Several small nips could be seen, but what stood out the most was the perfect set of teeth marks in the mists of a very large hickey. He must have had her screaming to bite him like that. Zoro’s chest puffed out with masculine pride. Even if he couldn’t remember it, the evidence was written all over his body that it had been a great night. His shoulders slumped slightly as he again tried to remember just what happened. Robin must have let him have the good stuff last night for him to be suffering this kind of memory loss. It just wasn’t fair. His first night of sex since this job started and he couldn’t remember it.

He walked back into the bedroom area and began looking for his clothing. His jeans and boots were easy. They were dropped close to the door. His shirt was found hanging off the corner of the TV. A torn blue shirt on the bed caught his attention. He picked up the tattered material and brought it to his nose. I smelled like the pillows in the bed; a hint of the lavender soap, spices still yet to be named, and cigarette smoke. Since the shirt was destroyed, he didn’t think the owner would mind if he took it with him. Just for memory’s sake, he told himself.

Quickly he dressed, completely forgetting that he was missing an article of clothing. He took the complimentary hotel note pad and scribbled out a ‘thanks, call me’ and his phone number. The blue shirt was clutched firmly in his hand as he cautiously opened the door and checked the hallway for any signs of life. He didn’t want anyone knowing he spent the night here against the rules. He left the room and walked down to the stairwell. There was no video there. The cameras in the halls would see him leaving, but he could fix that. Good thing he knew who was manning the monitor’s last night. It was going to be hell explaining why he needed to edit the feed, but at least they would let him do it. He just wondered how much it would cost him. Good thing that Ace slept so much. Zoro opened the door to the stairs. He was confident that he could erase all traces of his being there last night.

As he began his descent, ‘Pain’ by Three Days Grace sounded from his phone, echoing off the walls and intensifying his headache.

“Hai.” Zoro answered his phone with an irritated bark.

“Is that any way to show respect to your elders, boy?” An equally irritated man answered him on the other end of the line. “I’m calling to find out why my sister is being neglected by her only son. If I have to listen to another second of her bitching and whining about how her baby doesn’t need her anymore I’m going to kill something.”

“Gomen, Uncle. I’ll call her tonight. Right now I have some things to take care of.” Oh, shit. He didn’t call his Mom this week. She was great about staying out of his business as long as he called once a week just to say hi. Even if the call was only for two minutes, it was enough. Now that he forgot, she was playing dirty to get him to feel guilty. She sure was good at manipulating her younger brother into being her henchman. “If you talk to her before I do, tell her to plan a family dinner and let me know when it is so I can schedule the night off. That should make her happy and get her off both our backs.”

“Fine, but you have to bring someone this time. You know she’s going to hound you to start dating again if you don’t.” On the other end of the line, Smoker sat leisurely puffing on a cigar. That went much easier than he would have thought. He didn’t have to threaten him or anything. This must blonde guy must be something else. He wished the picture had shown the guy’s face. Maybe he could use his connections to find out his name. Then again, he only had to call the hotel and find out who the room was registered to. Being a law officer had its perks.

Zoro put his hand to his head. He may have slept the worst of the hangover away, but that didn’t mean he was a hundred percent.

“Oh, come on! You’ve got to be kidding me! That’s bullshit!” By now he had made it down the stairs to the Lobby. Some of the people stopped to give him disapproving looks. The scowl on his face made them scurry out of the way. Zoro continued his rant unaware of the things going on around him. He was headed to the Control Room. There was a video he needed to edit. “You know how I feel about introducing Mom to anyone. The first thing she does is scare the shit out of them by starting a Spanish inquisition. Then she continues by embarrassing the hell out of me, telling stories of my childhood. You know what it’s like. Remember the first time you brought Ace over.” Both men shuddered at the memory. That was the day that Zoro found out so much about anal sex. His mother had the audacity to ask for intimate details. Ace of course had been happy to supply every little piece of information he could think of. Zoro and his uncle were forced to sit and listen or feel her wrath. Ace charmed her so well that she completely forgot she was angry about the 14 year difference in age between the two. She and Ace were the bane of his existence from then on.

“I believe that was the worst night of my life. You’re right. I understand why you wouldn’t want to bring someone. Unfortunately, you don’t have a choice. Bring someone or else.” Smoker was now more than ever determined to get this blonde invited. If he had to go thru that, then so would Zoro. He hung up the phone before he could hear a response.

Zoro stood outside the Security door looking at his phone with such intensity that passerby’s were afraid it would explode. He shoved it in his pocket and entered his office. Yosaku was sitting behind the desk with his feet propped up talking on the phone. Two other guards were standing off to the side drinking coffee and chatting, while a third was filing paperwork. The four of them jumped when Zoro slammed the door behind him. He looked at the two drinking coffee and frowned. They all but ran out of the room stuttering excuses as to where they might need to be. The young man filing papers nervously nodded and greeted the angry man. Zoro nodded to him and told him to keep up the good work. You could see the relief wash over his face as Zoro closed in on the remaining guard. Yosaku quickly hung up the phone and dropped his feet to the floor. He stood up and walked around in front of the desk.

“Hey there, Boss. Did Johnny get a hold of you already? We told him to let you sleep in on your only day off. Sorry about that.”

Zoro briefly forgot that he was about to yell at the guy. “Johnny? No, what’s going on? Did something happen?”

“What, he didn’t? Oh. Well what are you doing here then?” Yosaku scratched his head. Zoro always stayed as far as possible away from this place on his day off. Why would he be here now?

“Damn it! I’m the one asking the questions, not you. Now, what happened?” The Boss hated it when he was questioned for his actions by someone under him. He was tired, hungry, and his head hurt like hell. If this wasn’t important, he’d probably go off on the man.

“Oh, well not much. That chick we busted for stealing information made bail. The guy you threw out is threatening to press charges. A purse was left in the elevator that contained a couple ounces of cocaine. We put it in the control room. Oh and Ace is still sleeping in there. He said he had an eventful night and didn’t get much sleep. Bastard actually admitted that he slept during his shift. He said he needed to speak with you as soon as you came in. Hey, how’d he know you were coming in?”

“Forget it. It’s probably something to do with my Uncle or something. I’ll go talk to him.” Zoro sighed in relief. If Ace was in there, then that meant he more than likely saw him enter the room with the blonde last night. He was probably there covering for him. It was great to have best friends working with you sometimes. Now he could look back at the feed and see who it was he spent the night with.

Ace lay face down on the couch in the room. Zoro left him and went to the monitors. He searched the feed from the previous night, but could not find where he entered or left the elevator, hallway or anything. He went thru the feed from all the cameras. Nothing showed from the fourth floor at all. Strange. He just started looking at the Lobby feed when Ace rolled off to the floor.

“Oh, shit. Damn I hate it when I do that. Oi, Zoro. So you’re finally up, huh? Have a good night?” Ace grinned at him from a sitting position. He thought it would be safer if he had a shorter fall to the floor when Zoro decked him.

“Hai, but last night is still a bit fuzzy. Where the hell are all the tapes from the fourth floor last night? I’m looking for something.” He wondered if maybe there was a problem with the cameras and Ace just never noticed.

“What? That blonde maybe?” Ace grinned. Zoro was playing right into his hands. He could tell from the man’s expression that he was definitely right in his guess.

“How’d you know. Man, I wish I could remember what happened. All I know is that was probably the best sex I’ve ever had and I have no idea what she looks like. All I remember is blonde hair, blue eyes, and impossibly long legs. Shit, where is the feed? Did we lose everything on the fourth floor last night? Damn it, I have to find out what she looks like. This is gonna drive me nuts. What am I suppose to do when she calls me later and wants to meet? Huh? I was going to ask her to dinner and maybe try this again without the alcohol, but how will I know who she is?” Zoro never noticed the entertained look on Aces face until he heard the man hit the floor laughing.

“Oh, man. You nailed some chick and can’t even remember her face? Oh, that’s horrible. And on top of that you spent the night here in the hotel without permission! Just wait till Shanks finds out his number one broke a major rule! Oh this is priceless.” Ace couldn’t help it. Zoro had no idea he had slept with a man, and he just admitted that it was great. He began crying he was laughing so hard. If only the green haired man knew just what he thought was funny, he wouldn’t have joined him.

Zoro started laughing too. He was thinking about it all. He got drunk (against the hotel employee rules), made out in the elevator (also a no-no), had sex with a guest (big strike against him), and slept in one of the rooms (he could easily be fired now). If his boss, Shanks, found out any of that he was so in trouble. If he found out all of it, he was dead. And after realizing all that, he still wanted to screw that blonde again tonight.

They wiped the tears away and sat together on the couch.

“I saw you get attacked in the elevator so I watched what floor you got out on and accidentally disconnected the lines. I figured you needed a break. That and I went back and erased your trip up in the elevator too.” Ace threw his arm around his best friend. “I didn’t know you were that aggressive of a lover. Man you two were really going at it. I was actually jealous. I wish I was the one who had my hands on your ass.”

Zoro threw the wistful raven off of him and stormed out the door. Behind him on the screen was the image of he and a blonde fumbling into the elevator late last night. Ace quickly got up and fixed the feed. This was getting interesting and he wanted to see just how it played out. What would happen when the frustrated man figured out who he slept with? He had to make sure that he was there when that phone call came in. Quickly he grabbed his bag and left the room to follow Zoro outside.

Ace caught up to him as he was collecting his bike from the parking garage. Subsequently, Ace’s bike was parked beside it as well. It was then that Ace noticed the bite on Zoro’s neck.

“Wow, that must have been some kind of mouth to do that much damage to you. Holy shit, you sure you didn’t fuck a vampire last night?” Ace pulled at his collar to get a better look at the entire mark.

“Maybe she was just that into it and was trying not to scream and wake everyone up.” Zoro gave him a smug look. He knew he rocked someone’s world last night. All of the other marks on his body said so. He couldn’t wait to do it again.

Ace laughed. “Hey, let’s go eat lunch. I know this great little place downtown that just opened. They give the local law enforcement guys a discount. I bet we can get in on that.” He secured his bag and started the engine.

“Sure. I could use some food anyway. Lead the way.” Zoro revved up his bike and the two took off.

The hyper waitress got the biggest kick out of teasing Zoro about his hickey. She fell victim to Ace’s flirting and was conned into giving both men a discount. When they were full Zoro brought up the blonde again.

“So, what about this blonde? Did you get a look at her face?” Zoro kicked back in the booth an sipped his drink.

“Nah, you know me. I usually sleep at that time. I saw you and some long legged contortionist in the elevator and figured I’d give you privacy. I know you wouldn’t want anyone watching, so I made sure you two weren’t disturbed. All I could really tell you was a black pant suit and kinda short blonde hair. Other than that, I couldn’t say.” Ace decided that he wasn’t really lying. He did make sure that the redhead didn’t go up. He also gave an accurate description of the clothing and hair length. He was covered when this came up again. He’d just claim to have been asleep the entire time if necessary.

“Shit, I guess I’ll just wait for her call.” Zoro decided that he would go up to her room tonight if she didn’t call him. He had to at least apologize to her for not waking up this morning before she left. Maybe he’d even get permission to stay in one of the rooms tonight. He had to be at work in the morning, so he didn’t want to invite her back to his place. Besides, it had been several months since the loft had been cleaned. There was no way he would invite a beautiful woman over with it in that condition. He mentally slapped himself. Here he was acting like he was in love and he didn’t even know the woman’s name.

“Oi, Ace? Do you remember what room I was in last night?”

The freckled man looked at him completely confused. Why would he need to know what room he stayed in? Just what was he planning? “I’m not sure, why?”

“I just realized that maybe I could get her name from the guest registry and see what I could find out about her in the police database. Uncle Constantine owes me a favor anyway. Besides, he called this morning bitching about me not talking to Mom. Asshole had the nerve to trick me into bringing a date. If I tell him it is in order to help me find one, he might be more willing. That, and you’ll help convince him.”

“I will?”

“Hai, or I’ll tell Shanks you were sleeping last night and knocked out some of the feeds.” Zoro gave his friend a smirk.

“I guess I should call him and make dinner plans then.” Ace grinned back at him. Oh manipulating this poor green haired man was so easy it was almost wrong. He took out his phone to make the call. When Zoro turned his head, the raven snapped a picture of the dark love bite showing above his collar. He quietly sent it to his two newfound conspirators. The caption underneath simply said this: ‘He wants to know HER name.’