They had agreed to meet in three days.
Zoro had spent the entire first day unconscious.
He had woken up to find that strange gothic ghost girl hovering above him. Ignoring her sardonic remarks and whines, Zoro had risen to his feet and promptly tried to find a way out of the castle he had been brought to, even as she trailed grumpily behind him.
When he had seen the paper, Zoro had stopped dead in his tracks, the blood in his veins turning to ice. Ace D. Portgas, son of Gol D. Roger was dead. Killed in front of Luffy. Killed saving Luffy.
Zoro was no stranger to death and loss. He had some inkling of what it was like to lose someone close to him too. But Ace had died saving Luffy, and Zoro couldn't comprehend what that guilt must feel like. He could only imagine what Luffy was going through right now.
Since Kuina, Zoro knew that he would never let someone he cared about die before his eyes again. If there was a sacrifice to be made, Zoro would be the one to give his life.
But Zoro hadn't been able to save Luffy from that pain of losing a loved one that Zoro knew all too intimately. He had been completely unaware of what Luffy had suffered, hadn't been at Luffy's side when his captain most needed him.
Instead Zoro had been unconscious. Out cold like a weakling. He had failed Luffy completely and though it was easy to wallow in his guilt, he knew he had to make it to Luffy's side. Now more than ever before, Luffy needed him and the rest of his crew. That was the least they could do for him.
That was all they could do for him.
It had come as a shock to realize he was in Mihawk's domain, but the urgency to reach Luffy was all-consuming. He had battled through those blood thirsty baboons and then he had seen it. That picture of Luffy boldly standing at the Marine Headquarters, his head bowed in a sign of mourning. Or was it respect?
Still it had taken him some more time to figure it out. He had known there was something about that picture. A message he was on the verge of grasping.
It was Perona who had pointed out the message inked on Luffy's arm and then everything had clicked into place.
Not three days. Two years.
Two whole years.
Zoro had instantly known that he had to get stronger for his captain. His weakness had caused them to fall by Kuma's hand, one by one. And that weakness had cost Luffy so dearly.
It had been the only way to get stronger in the fastest time possible. He had bowed his head and asked for Mihawk's guidance.
It came as no shock that training was brutal. In the day, he bore Mihawk's lessons through with gritted teeth, as his flesh flayed with each slash that tore into his body. Perona hovered around, sometimes silent, other times a noisy apparition.
She came to him in the night sometimes to bandage his wounds on the roughest days. Her bossiness and haughty attitude reminded him of Nami in a way, and he tolerated her presence and touch for that if nothing else. While she craved attention, he craved greater strength, to be Luffy's right hand man in the midst of battle.
Once he had woken up in the dead of the night, to find her warm soft body nestled against his. She was unusually silent, her huge eyes beseeching as she laid bare her shoulders with a rustle of fabric.
Zoro had met her gaze silently for a moment before he had turned his back completely to her.
They never spoke of that incident.
When Perona was not around, Zoro's thoughts haunted him. He yearned to be with Luffy, to protect his captain from all harm, both physical and emotional.
Never again, Zoro swore, would his teammates ever fall before his eyes, because of his weakness. Never again would one of them stand between himself and his opponent.
He could still recall how bravely both Usopp and Brook had stood up to PX-1 for him. Could recall how Sanji had charged into the fray, and taken on PX-1, knowing full well he could not win, but still desperate to give them time to escape. He had endured attack after attack. He had been battered, bloodied and bruised because of Zoro.
Zoro found himself wondering how the other man was doing, and knew even as the thought crossed his mind that Sanji was training to become stronger, just as he was.
Zoro would be damned if he ever let that blonde shitty cook cover for him again.
The day he lost his eye, Perona had drifted in and laid down beside him. He hadn't moved, had let small warmth of her small body sip into his as her cold fingers had gently slipped into his.
Zoro couldn't help but feel stupidly thankful that he still had his one eye. If that had been the last time he'd seen Luffy... and his stomach twisted in such a wrenching way he almost heaved.
He swallowed hard, trying to dismiss that dark thought and found himself wondering what Sanji would look like two years later. Zoro was not a vain man and he hardly cared about his appearance, but Sanji was another matter all together.
The man was always impeccably dressed, and he'd always had that wiry frame of hard muscle, coupled with a natural grace that seemed out of place on a pirate cook, but perfect on a ballerina.
And if he had ever said that to Sanji's face, Zoro would quite possibly be nursing some broken bones, if he had failed to deflect on time.
Zoro knew something without question. While he watched over Luffy, covering for their captain whenever the occasion called for it, Sanji watched over him.
He didn't know when it had first started, and he tried not to read too much into it, although he couldn't help feeling rather offended. Sanji was always sticking his nose into affairs that were none of his damned business. It had something to do with all that chivalry crap he showered the gals with. And then Sanji had somehow extended it to him.
Did Sanji actually think Zoro was weak? The absurdity of it all set Zoro's teeth on edge and pissed him off to no end.
He didn't need protection. And he most definitely did not need that shitty cook's protection.
Zoro had always felt the other's watchful gaze on him at times even in the heat of battle. Whenever Zoro faltered, Sanji was there to back him up and thin the crowd. Not that Zoro ever faltered. Shitty cook just had no faith.
Zoro supposed it might have started at Thriller Bark when that dumb ass blonde had thrown himself bodily in front of Zoro.
Fuck that. Zoro was stronger. And that was proven when he had emerged, scathed but alive by the whole incident.
Between the two of them, Sanji was clearly more frail. All you had to do was look at that scrawny ass figure and you knew. If he had let the Strawhat pirates' beloved cook die, Zoro would never hear the end of it. Also, Nami and Robin just did not buy into traditional stereotypical feminine roles. More likely than not, the guys would take turns to cook. Zoro did not like raw meat and did not consider cola to be a staple food source. He did not like his food spiked with bitter medicinal herbs and he'd damn well rather chew off his own arm than have to taste Usopp's cooking again.
So yeah. The cook was freaking indispensable. Untouchable even. Between the swordsman and the cook, Zoro knew it was a no brainer as to who was more expendable of the two. He wasn't going to kid himself.
The world's best cook was sacred. Swordsmen were a dime a dozen. Brook was a skeleton and even he could wield a sword with a respectable level of skill.
Sure, they would never find someone as skilled with a blade as Zoro was. But put it down to a popularity vote and Sanji would emerge as the unanimous pirates' choice Sanji's continued survival was a matter of crew well being, nutrition and morale.
And why did his thoughts keep straying to that irritant?!
Zoro pushed all thought of Sanji from his mind. He needed to focus on his goal of becoming the strongest swordsman in the world. He could afford no distractions.
Zoro had taken uncommon delight in being the first of the Strawhat Pirates to arrive. Since the rest of the crew were taking their time to show up, he decided to look for the Thousand Sunny.
What with one thing leading to another, he'd been secretly pleased to see that it was Sanji who had witnessed his little display of strength when he had cloven the ship he had wrongly boarded cleanly in two.
Good. See if the idiot cook would ever dare try to protect him again. His place was in the damn kitchen, not standing between Zoro and his prey.
Sanji had also been the seventh person to arrive. Not second, not third, but seventh, and that was something else Zoro could gloat over.
When Zoro had pointed it out, they'd fallen easily back into their endless squabbling like an old familiar routine that they had both missed.
And god, how he'd missed it.
While Sanji was sporting a little goatee, nothing much about him had changed. He was possibly more idiotic than before, but other than that, the other man was still lean and wiry, although slightly more muscular. And although Sanji made no mention of it, Zoro did not miss how Sanji's gaze would stray to his missing eye every now and then.
Stupid love cook. He didn't need his pity.
When Zoro had seen Luffy, it was like the weight that had settled around his chest that was slowly choking him had suddenly lifted. Luffy was smiling and he was fine. They were together and it was plain as day to Zoro that everything was now going to be alright.
Things were simple and uncomplicated with Luffy. Zoro felt a fierce pride, joy and an undying loyalty for the other man. He knew he would follow no other man for the rest of his life.
He'd been happy to see the rest of the crew as well. Each and every one of them had grown strong, and Zoro was proud to stand tall beside them, to call them his crew mates.
It had been well worth the wait.
Things on the other hand, were definitely not simple with Sanji.
What Sanji brought out in Zoro, were other more complex feelings. Like annoyance, competitiveness, derision, tension, and a whole slew of misplaced emotions that Zoro did not want to give voice to.
He was aggravating, like nails on a chalkboard, and Zoro couldn't help riling him up on purpose, to the point where they were trading blow after blow, each unable or perhaps unwilling to surpass the other.
And Zoro had missed this fiercely too. Sanji was strong, and he was almost Zoro's equal on the battlefield.
Zoro blocked yet another blow aimed at his right.
And he was now officially pissed.
Sidestepping a particularly vicious kick, Zoro lunged, slamming heavily into Sanji, sending them both careening into the ground where they both lay panting, temporarily immobile.
"Bastard," Zoro growled through clenched teeth.
"What's your problem, marimo?!" Sanji snapped back. Zoro didn't even have to look at him to know that he was tetchily fishing out a cigarette for a smoke.
"Who the hell do you think you are? What gives you the right?!"
"Do you really have moss for brains?" Sanji demanded, pulling himself up to a sitting position.
"You were going easy on me."
And now Zoro was sitting up too, and glaring fiercely at the other man.
"What the hell are you on about?! Why would I…" And Sanji trailed off, staring at the scar on Zoro's face, as realisation dawned.
"Ah shit," Sanji murmured, still staring. "I didn't mean to."
"Our enemies are not going to do us the courtesy of attacking me only where I can see them!"
"I'm sorry, okay? I just…" Sanji seemed at a loss for words.
Zoro knew Sanji well enough to know that his apology was genuine. Sanji hadn't consciously gone easy on him. It was just that instinct in him to stand up for the underdog, the downtrodden and be the champion of those too weak to fight for themselves.
But Zoro was neither of these.
He glowered angrily at Sanji, before picking himself off the deck, and stomping off up to the observation deck where he could work off his frustration, training with weights.
When Zoro finally woke up from his nap after a more exhausting workout than usual, he knew that Sanji was in the same room without even cracking an eyelid.
"What do you want?" Zoro asked gruffly, hands folded behind his neck.
"I came to apologize."
Sanji set a plate of rice balls down before him, and a bottle of sake carefully, like offerings to a terribly tempestuous god.
"You slept through dinner."
Zoro took a rice ball and bit into it.
And this too, Zoro had missed.
It was all Zoro could do to keep from moaning out loud about how fantastic it tasted. He wouldn't give Sanji the satisfaction. How could something so simple like rice contain such complex flavours? If Zoro ever captained a crew, he knew he would pay a king's ransom for a cook like Sanji.
No, not a cook like Sanji. There was no one else like Sanji. It was Sanji himself or nothing.
Zoro crammed another rice ball into his mouth, before taking a large swig from the sake bottle Sanji had brought him. It was one of the rarer ones that Zoro liked too.
Sanji folded his long legs carefully under him, sitting just in front of Zoro.
"What happened?"
Hn. The bleeding heart cook really was bothered by that old injury.
"I deserved it. I wasn't strong enough," Zoro said, looking Sanji right in his eye, daring the other man to show any morsel of pity and live to walk out of the deck.
He almost, but didn't flinch when Sanji reached out slowly towards his face, an unspoken question in his gaze. Zoro nodded, almost imperceptibly, and Sanji let his hand rest lightly on the long scar marring his eye, and a good part of the left side of his face, before tracing its line all the way down to his cheek.
"Does it hurt?"
Not as much as not being there for Luffy, Zoro didn't say.
"No," he replied tersely.
"Did you give him hell?"
The feral grin on Zoro's face spoke volumes.
"You better believe it."
Sanji's eyes softened as he matched Zoro's grin with a knowing smile of his own and Zoro knew suddenly without a trace of doubt that the other man had missed him too, whether it was as a sparring partner, misguided pet project, fellow pirate crew mate or- or whatever it was between them that Zoro couldn't give a name to.
"I don't need you to protect me."
"I know," Sanji replied solemnly, his hand still on Zoro's cheek, as he leant in closer. "You're the strongest swordsman in the world. But no swordsman should ever have a scar on his back."
And looking searchingly into Sanji's deep blue eyes, it dawned on Zoro finally that when it came to the Strawhat Pirates, their devotion was one and the same. It wasn't that Sanji was cocky. Nor did Sanji not trust him.
Zoro himself had the utmost faith in Luffy to pull through any calamity, and he would still do anything to keep his captain safe. Sanji's trust in Zoro meant that the cook never had to worry about Luffy, so he'd naturally assumed the role of protector when it came to everyone else, to close the loop.
If it ever came to that, both Sanji and Zoro would lay down their lives in a heartbeat for the rest of the crew, without question. Better that than allow someone else to sacrifice for them.
They were just two halves of the same complete whole. And Sanji had always had Zoro's back.
"I'm not the strongest swordsman yet," Zoro replied, grinning fiercely. "But when Luffy becomes the King of the Pirates, I will be."
And when that day came, Zoro knew that Sanji would be right there beside him too, as his partner in crime, and only equal.