They did, in fact, survive. Chopper ran around tending to everyone, even through his own exhaustion. The doctor was very surprised when he inspected Zoro since he swore he'd heard a major bone breakage hours earlier, only to find the limb sore and swollen, but bones intact. Chopper still wanted him to rest but Zoro was more concerned with training so his bones wouldn't break again.
Sanji was strangely absent while they healed; spending more time with the girls or in the galley. Zoro let him be. He was sure Sanji was extra pissed at him for the kiss. He'd overstepped bounds he shouldn't have. He thought maybe if he waited long enough Sanji would ignore it and they could go back to their usual arguing about Sanji's stupid fawning over every woman he met.
Sanji's dream cloud was absent of the usual fantasies, but that was almost expected since Zoro had physically drained him of all sexual energy on the battle field. So the dreams didn't look pleasant from afar. The feelings replacing the normal ones were full of anxiety and discomfort. Not quite nightmare spiraling, but uncomfortable enough that Zoro didn't even enter the cloud until he regained most of his energy back. Instead, he drew his nightly energy from Usopp, Nami, Robin, and Chopper; rotating so as to not exhaust their already dwindled energy supplies. It was nowhere near as satisfying as it was in Sanji's dreams, but it would do until the cook's emotions settled down.
Finally, after a week of eerie silence, Sanji approached him while he was taking a nap on the warm, sunny deck and kicked him in the side.
"Hey." Zoro glared up at Sanji, rubbing his ribs, "What do you want, stupid cook?" Sanji had a freshly lit cigarette in his fingertips and he looked ready to get back into their normal arguments.
"You have some explaining to do," Sanji said sternly.
"If you're looking for who ever raided the fridge you should talk to the captain," Zoro said moodily as he scratched his head tiredly.
"I'm not talking about that." Sanji frowned. "I'll get to Luffy later." Zoro scoffed, amused, but Sanji went back to his first strict tone soon enough. "On Bazooka Island, you… went temporarily crazy or suicidal and you kissed me."
"Ah, damn it." Zoro wished Sanji had just forgotten the whole thing.
Sanji continued, face tinged red, "I don't know that kind of sick, demented, romantic thought possessed you… To fuck with my head. Or-or what ever you were doing, but I know both Chopper and I didn't imagine your arm snapping like a twig." Zoro grumbled and stood, just in case Sanji did decide to kick him again. "What the fuck did you do?" Sanji let out a breath of smoke, giving Zoro a hard stare.
The others were doing various projects while Zoro and Sanji were at the stern of the ship, shielded mostly by Nami's citrus trees. It would be easier for Sanji not to know about his secondary needs as a cambion. He couldn't see this conversation going well in any situation, but he wasn't the best liar. Not that the truth was any easier to explain either.
"It wasn't to fuck with your head," Zoro said. "We were in a bad situation and we had only one shot to get Nami and Chopper back to the ship. It didn't mean anything."
Probably not the best choice of words and clearly not the ones Sanji was expecting.
"Didn't mean anything?" Sanji repeated harshly. His face was flushed and confusion was mixed with anger and something akin to hurt. "You kissed me and then you run off into the fight like some self sacrificial idiot. As if you..." Words got stuck in Sanji's throat and Zoro realized that Sanji had probably read far too much into the situation with a cliché notion of a terrible romance story. The kind where the hero expresses a hidden love through a final or surprise kiss before rushing into battle.
"As if what?" Zoro felt uncomfortable with a misunderstanding like that. "As if I loved you or something?" Sanji stood there, stiff and tight jawed. Well, this had been blown way out of proportion; fuck. It wasn't as though he didn't like Sanji. He was a pain in the ass but he was his nakama and a strong, trust worthy man. He respected him -most of the time- and he was sexually appealing but it wasn't as dramatic as that. They certainly weren't intimate enough to be in love in Zoro's opinion. "No," he said firmly. "I'm a cambion." Sanji was quiet a moment, slowly digesting what Zoro said.
"A what?" Sanji asked.
"A cambion. It means I'm half demon. My father is an incubus; which means I need sexual energy to survive. I needed to heal my arm so I took some of your energy."
Sanji stared at him in silence so long that his cigarette burned to the nub and scorched his fingers. Sanji cursed and flicked it overboard. He lit up another cigarette and avoided looking at Zoro. Zoro let Sanji process everything. It was obviously not something Sanji had considered or even thought about in the realm of possibilities. Sanji smoked through one stick, looking over the back of the ship and started another before he spoke again, calmer.
"You're a sex demon." Sanji didn't sound convinced.
"It's not like your damn perverted fantasies or books." Zoro told him firmly. "There's nothing kinky about it. I just take the energy I need and no more."
"You never have sex," Sanji accused.
"That's none of your business." Zoro wasn't even sure why Sanji paid attention to that sort of thing. Though it was true, he didn't often go for the physical attention. He was far more interested in training than casual pleasures of the flesh like Sanji was.
"You don't even enjoy Nami-swan when she's in a tank top." Sanji stressed.
"I don't like women like that," Zoro muttered through clenched teeth. Sanji looked at him like he was crazy.
"Then how can you be part incubus?" Sanji asked.
"Just because I'm a cambion doesn't mean I'm a pervert like you," Zoro said firmly. "Incubi are dream jumpers. They don't have physical bodies. I just take energy from dreams. Usually it's enough, but because of the situation I needed to take some physically."
"From me?" Sanji frowned. "Because I was the only available person?"
"Because you've got the highest sex drive on the entire ship, I was able to heal my broken arm."
Sanji puffed on his cigarette, again processing what it all meant. Zoro was about to sit again what Sanji asked, "Wait, how often do you need energy?"
"Daily, preferably." Zoro's feeding schedule had been a bit skewed since Bazooka Island. Not only had Sanji been recovering for the first few days and then his dreams had been chaotic and distracted.
Sanji's frown deepened, considering all the time they had at sea. "So you take energy from everyone without saying anything?"
"It's not body energy," Zoro explained grouchily. "It actually keeps everyone calm here."
"Then you're taking energy from Robin and Nami? Or..." He paused, sounding too wistful for Zoro's comfort. "Or you can see into their dreams..."
Zoro rolled his eyes. He could see Sanji thinking his perverted thoughts. Sanji's lust rose up and the urge to pull Sanji close for a nibble of that energy tempted him. It had tasted so good the first time. He wanted another bite. Zoro gripped the railing of the ship, scowling. "Not if I can help it. They don't think about sex as much as you do."
"So... where do you get your energy from?" It started as an innocent question, but then ended in a suspicious tone. Zoro didn't answer because it really should have been obvious. Sanji glared at him. "For that matter, how do you know I have the highest sex drive on the ship?" Another moment of silence was followed by a low kick, which Zoro blocked with his elbow. "You've been digging into my head, marimo?!"
"Just your dreams, shitty cook." Zoro shoved Sanji's foot away. "I don't even take that much."
Sanji's face was hot and angry. "So, what, you just sit there and watch what's happening?"
"Only if it's interesting," Zoro said and smirked. Impishness crept in from a very fun time he'd had in Sanji's dream. "Like when you were bent over a table with a man named Jacques." It had been a night Sanji had really ticked him off, so he'd tweaked the dream, where Sanji had been sampling food from an upscale restaurant, followed by being pressed face first into a white table cloth for dessert. It had been a very sexy scene that Zoro had almost felt guilty to enjoy. But from the look of things, Sanji had been enjoying it far more with the things he moaned.
Something in his voice must have given him away because Sanji's gaze hardened. "That was you." Sanji's voice was filled with such venom and Zoro didn't deny it. "You-you have been fucking with my head!" Sanji twisted around and started kicking him. Zoro parried the kicks with his swords. Sanji was royally pissed; not the normal annoyance that was there in fights because Zoro was having a time keeping up with the blows. "Do you have any idea how screwed up that is, you stinking demon?!"
"You liked it, it wasn't like you started having nightmares!" Zoro snapped, catching a shoe that came very close to giving him a black eye.
"That is private and I'm not like that!" Sanji's face was red and he'd lost his cigarette somewhere in the tussle. They stopped when they were both breathing hard but Sanji was still vibrating with anger. "Fuck! It was you the whole time!"
"What?" Zoro decided to tease just a bit further. "Scared you might like it in the real world?" Sanji opened his mouth, looking like he was about to curse at him some more, but instead Zoro's feet were swept out from under him and the flat side of his sword was the only thing between Sanji's shoe and broken ribs. Zoro was flat on his back and Sanji glared down at him, a finger in his face.
"Stay out of my dreams, Zoro. You're not welcome," he said in a deadly, even tone.
Zoro frowned. He'd been thriving on Sanji for his source of energy; not to mention it was the most satisfying. "Oi, normally I don't do any-"
"I mean it." Sanji applied more pressure onto the sword so that the metal creaked. "If you have any sort of decency as my nakama, you'll listen to me." Zoro shoved Sanji's foot off and they matched glares for several moments. Damn it. Why did Sanji have to phrase it like that? Sanji was his nakama, but relying on the others' dreams seemed stupid when Sanji was clearly the one to be feeding off of.
"Fine," Zoro said begrudgingly as he stood and sheathed his swords. He hated this, but it wouldn't starve him immediately.
"If I find you fucking around in my dreams again, I'll kick your head in," Sanji warned and stomped off.
Zoro sighed and resigned himself to scraps while the buffet was pissed at him.
