His heart beat rapidly grew as each minute passed in a suffocating silence. The tension in the room was bone crushing in anticipation for the awaiting news. Blunt nails split apart the skin on his forearms in distress. Little, red crest marks were left to spill blood onto the floor unnoticed as his attention was on the doors that would open and for the doctor to give him the answers that they left hanging, dangling in suspension until after the surgery was finished. Though the pain didn't filter from body to mind; it was too frazzled with worry, he even had to constantly remind himself not to bite off his own tongue in his consuming panic.

"Sanji," a hand was gently laid on top of his shoulder and he jolted at the contact. He met Luffy's gaze with unfocused eyes. "He'll be alright."

"But we don't know…" Sanji's voice was hoarse and his mouth felt as if it was full of cotton, weighing down his tongue.

"We know Zoro, and he never breaks a promise. He still has to become the world's greatest swordsmen, remember?" Luffy offered a small smile and Sanji felt his heart crack into even more pieces. His eyes stung in agony from the constant abuse, but no more tears fell. He'd already cried constantly for the three hours that they'd been holded up in the chairs of the small waiting room.

He let out a sob and Luffy leaned down and hugged him to his chest. Sanji would never understand how Luffy could manage to stay so calm, to seem and act like his normal self in these types of situations. Sanji was a mess within the first few days while Zoro was away, let alone trying to keep it together after they found Zoro bleeding—while he had held him and—

The air escaped his lungs in a pained noise as his mind descended into a panicked frenzy of anguish. He knew that Zoro was capable of pulling off inhuman stunts, but how could this be happening, how could this be happening, how could this be happ

_One_Piece_

Zoro was different; he wasn't quite like anything anyone had seen before. He was both one of the most unique person you could ever meet, and yet one of the most simplistic people as well—if you didn't count his unusual hair color. While he was prideful and stubborn, he was also gentle and kind when he needed to be, though there was a slight shift in his usual behavior recently.

Nothing severally noticeable happened, he still slept in class, sometimes skipped on playing games that Luffy tried to involve him in, and was unpunctual for his classes. Zoro was notorious for doing things like this, and people started expecting him to do them, so nobody gave any thought when Zoro started showing up later for his classes or moving to the back of the classroom and not by his friends.

He'd make up some excuse about the hallways always moving on him (even though it was halfway through the school year), and he usually sat in whatever seat wasn't taken anyways since he usually tardy for most classes. Zoro was a loner for the most part, only interacting with his friends when there was group projects, during lunch, or when they all hung out after school together; he rarely sought out attention. For the past few days, Zoro's slight behavior change went unnoticed by everyone, for the most part. No one thought any better of it when Zoro wasn't on time yet again, all except one student.

The bell rang, signalling the start of first hour's class. The student's started settling down, taking their seats as the teacher began the lesson for the day. A few students snickered about Zoro's nonattendance and joked about how he was probably sleeping to get out of the test today or had become lost again.
Sanji didn't really care what the green haired, muscled seaweed was doing. They fought enough times that the whole school knew not to get those two close to each other, but when Sanji really thought about what Zoro might be doing, he felt a slight uneasiness settle at the pit of his stomach.

The past week Zoro wouldn't argue with him as much, or more of he wouldn't start any arguments even when he had an opening. Even when they did argue there wasn't the same fire in his eyes, as if he was forcing himself into the argument, only fighting back out of the normality of it. Zoro faked being angry well enough to fool their friends and even acted the same way during their fights: getting up in Sanji's face and yelling at the top of his lungs, but Sanji had spent enough time around the Marimo to know when he wasn't putting his all into a fight.

He had also missed hanging out with their friend group yesterday; their "Thursday Fun-day," as Luffy so liked to call it. His absence wasn't a big deal, everyone missed the fun-day every once in awhile when something came up, but Zoro had never said anything during school or before the hangout time about not being able to be there. Everyone texted him, and Luffy even left a voice message, but Zoro never responded, never even checked his friend's worried texts.

Thursday evening had started out in a panic, though Luffy quickly defused the situation. They'd all played video games, ate take out, gossiped about anything and everything, but there was still an underlying worry for Zoro in everyone's faces. Sanji had seen the guys constantly checking their phones throughout the night, watched the girls excuse themselves to the bathroom for minutes and return looking disappointed, and even heard Luffy leaving another voicemail asking what Zoro was up to. Everyone was worried about Zoro, and even Sanji was guilty of checking his phone more times than he'd like to admit.

'As if I would give a shit about that stupid moss-head. No way, our classmates are probably right. The bastard is probably still asleep in bed. I wish I could get away with it like he does, the asshole,' he thought. Sanji was pissed at the idiots constant tardiness, but as angry as he was he couldn't shake off the queasy feeling building in his chest as his mind wandered to where Zoro was or what he was doing. A chef's stomach never lies though, and Sanji became anxious as he watched minutes tick away on the clock with still no sign of Zoro.