"I'm sorry I'm late," Zoro apologized, pushing through the door of the room.
Sanji didn't respond. He lay stretched on the bed, unmoving as if he didn't even know Zoro was there.
"Yeah, I know. I forgot," Zoro sighed, moving into the room. The door closed with a soft click behind him and he approached the bed.
"Did you really expect me to remember our anniversary? I still can't remember my way home sometimes," he chuckled.
Sanji still didn't acknowledge him. Of course, the cook was always angry with him for his forgetful nature. It wasn't the first time Zoro had forgotten their anniversary, and it wouldn't be the last.
"I'm sorry," Zoro apologized sincerely. He sat gently on the edge of the bed. "But look, I got you something," he dug the gift out of his pocket and held it out to the cook, but Sanji didn't react.
"I'll open it for you," Zoro said, untying the bow and unfolded the paper, neatly the way Sanji always got after him to. He wasn't sure why, it wasn't like they ever reused the paper. But the cook was a neat freak like that, and Zoro had learned that unless he wanted to piss the blond off it was better to just go along with his stupid whims.
He set the paper and ribbon aside and opened the small velvet box in his hand, revealing the thin silver band inside.
"Yeah, I know," Zoro sighed. "This is stupid late too. You already told me," He raised his pitch into a poor mockery of Sanji's voice. "What kind of idiot proposes without a ring?" He mocked, quoting Sanji's argument from the day Zoro had finally worked up the nerve to pop the question.
"Here, at least put it on idiot, it's what you wanted right?" Zoro pulled the ring from the box and lifted Sanji's hand, sliding the ring onto his pale finger.
"There," Zoro said, admiring the way the ring looked on his fiance's finger. "Are you happy now?"
The frail hand hung limply in his own, the new ring threatening to slide off the fingers that had become almost skeletal.
"Were you happy, Sanji?" Zoro asked, his voice weak, cracking under the weight of his emotions.
The heart monitor beeped a steady, unchanging rhythm in the background, and the hiss of the machine pumping air into Sanji's lungs punctuated the silence.
"Please wake up," Zoro pleaded.
But Sanji slept on.