Zoro stared blearily up at the ceiling, trying to make his eyes focus but to no avail. He felt numb. A somewhat pleasant tingling sensation spread throughout his arms and legs and he shivered.

Suddenly a yellow blob appeared in front of his line of sight. It was a person or at least he thought they were a person. He honestly wasn't too sure of anything right now.

Their mouth was moving but their voice was muffled. It sounded like they were talking to him underwater.

His eyes felt heavy. The person kept talking to him but Zoro couldn't be bothered to reply.

Zoro closed his eyes, just barely feeling the hand that gripped his own through the numbness as he feel asleep.

xXx

The next time Zoro woke up he was somewhat more alert and in a helluva a lot more pain. The pleasant numbness he has once felt had disappeared and had been replaced with a burning ache in his chest.

"Son of a bitch," he hissed, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes in an effort to try and block out the pain.

"Sounds like someone needs more morphine," a familiar voice muttered, making Zoro flinch.

He immediately tried to sit up, swearing loudly as the sudden movement sent a shockwave of pain through his chest.

"You might need to take things slow for a while," Sanji murmured, pressing his hand into Zoro's chest and forcing him to lie back down.

"Fuck. Everything hurts."

"Oh really? I couldn't tell. Maybe you should swear some more, I'm sure that would help you get your point across."

"Fuck you."

"Oh my, major surgery sure makes you ornery. Maybe you should take a nap, yeah?"

Zoro glared at the other man as he replaced his nearly empty bag of IV fluid with a new one. "I don't want to sleep. I literally just got up," he whined, crossing his arms over his chest, wincing as he did so.

"Mmhmm. Well soon you're going to be sleeping again whether you want to or not. You're on some pretty strong pain meds after all," Sanji paused for a moment, fiddling with the tube that went from the bag of fluids to Zoro's arm. "I'm honestly surprised you've managed to stay awake this long."

"I have amazing-" Zoro paused for a moment, stopping mid-sentence to yawn "-willpower." He tried to ignore the familiar numbness that spread through his veins but whatever Sanji had given him was apparently pretty potent.

"I know you do Zoro. Trust me, I know that better than anyone," Sanji said, rolling his eyes ever so slightly. "But you still need to rest. Sleep is the best medicine after all."

Zoro nodded, settling himself back against the cheap hospital pillows that lay atop his bed. He felt too tired to argue any further with the doctor. "Hey Sanji?"

"Yeah?"

Zoro glanced at the other man for a moment; the idiot has probably hadn't slept in days if his appearance was anything to go by.

"I think I love you," he muttered quietly, searching the blond's face for any sort of reaction the confession may have elicited from the other man.

Sanji hadn't reacted in the way Zoro thought he would. Actually Sanji hadn't really reacted at all.

"Just get some sleep Zoro. I'll be back to check on you in a bit. Okay?"

"Okay," was all he said.

Sanji left.

Zoro was heartbroken.

xXx

Zoro was doing better. He wasn't cured but after his lung had been removed the cancer cell count in his body had decreased drastically.

Sanji had been missing in action since Zoro had confessed nearly three months ago and Zoro was frustrated with how the blond was acting. He knew things would be a bit awkward between them for a while but it was cowardly to try and avoid the situation entirely.

As soon as Zoro was able to walk again he set off on a mission to find the doctor. On his first few expeditions, Zoro had gotten a bit turned around. After a few hours of wandering aimlessly around the hospital, a nurse would usually find him in a restricted area of the hospital and haul him back to his room, complaining about how he wasn't supposed to wander off by himself.

Today, however, Zoro was in luck. During his sixth or seventh expedition around the hospital Zoro found himself in one of the hospital's bathrooms which just so happened to house a certain blond.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Zoro snapped as soon as he saw the other man. Saying he was pissed would have been a drastic understatement.

"Uh…" Sanji's voice cracked ever so slightly. "Peeing?"

Only then did Zoro notice that Sanji was indeed standing slightly over a urinal, looking rather embarrassed and just the slightest bit startled at Zoro's intrusion.

Zoro flushed slightly, forgetting for a moment that he was mad at the blond. "No, that's not uh… that's not what I meant. I just wanted to know why you've been avoiding me lately," he stuttered, trying to will his blush away.

"I haven't been avoiding you," Sanji said, his voice rising in pitch ever so slightly as he tucked himself back into his pants. Now that was a blatant lie.

"Oh really? You've barely said a word to me at all these past few months. We haven't even had a proper conversation since I've woken up. I know you don't love me back but you don't-"

"I never said I didn't love you Zoro," Sanji snapped, effectively cutting Zoro off.

"You didn't fucking have to! How you've been acting the past three months has pretty much shown me that you want nothing to do with me!" Zoro was furious. How could Sanji even act like he wasn't in the wrong?

"That's not true!" Sanji barked back "God Zoro, I fucking love you."

"What?" Zoro croaked out. "N-no you don't."

Sanji sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I do. I love nearly everything about you. I love you so much it hurts."

"If you love me so much then why did you run away?" Zoro murmured, trying not to raise his voice.

Sanji sighed again, trying to keep his emotions in check. "I was scared. I didn't-" the blond's breath hitched as he began to fiercely rub at his eyes. "I honestly didn't think that you'd live thorough the surgery. If you had died I don't know what I would have done." Sanji paused again to let out a chocked sob. "And when you told me that you loved me I was so scared. What if you get another tumor in your lung? Then what? I can't watch you go through this again. I just can't-"

Sanji honestly wanted to say he was surprised when Zoro's bony arms worked their way around but he wasn't. Zoro was far too kind to let him break down on his own. "We just need to take things one step at a time shitty nurse. Don't worry about things that haven't happened yet."

Sanji pressed his face into Zoro's shoulder, hugging him tightly. "I thought I was going to lose you."

"Well you didn't asshole. I'm here for the long haul," Zoro muttered, pressing his nose into Sanji's blond locks. "So don't leave me again, okay?"

"Only if you don't leave me first," Sanji whispered back as he rubbed soothing circles against the other man's back.

"It's a deal."

xXx

Even after they had gotten married, the butterflies that only seemed to appear when Sanji was around didn't go away, in fact they seemed to multiply significantly.

"Do you ever get these weird butterfly things in your stomach?" Zoro had asked one night after a particularly active night of lovemaking.

"Hmm… Yeah." Sanji flipped onto his side, interrupting a particularly nice back rub Zoro had been giving him so that he could turn and face the other man. "They're annoying as hell aren't they?"

Zoro was surprised. He honestly wasn't sure whether or not Sanji was also plagued by the insistent butterflies like he was. "They are. Do you know how to get rid of them?"

Sanji snorted, trying to hide his amusement behind a hand that he had lifted to cover his smile. "They're not exactly something you can get rid of. Just think of it as an incurable side effect of being in love."

"Kind of like how losing all your hair is a side effect of having cancer?"

"Well you actually lose all of your hair because it's a side effect of the medication they give you to treat cancer but yeah, pretty much," Sanji nodded to himself, reaching up to brush his hand through Zoro's short, fuzzy head of hair. "You know, you kind look like a fuzzy ball of moss."

"Shut up, it's still growing back," Zoro grunted, shoving Sanji's shoulder lightly. "Just go to sleep asshole."

"That's honestly the best idea you've had all day," Sanji yawned, scooting himself over slightly so he could press into Zoro's side more fully.

"Goodnight Sanji," Zoro muttered, trying his best not to sound too sarcastic.

"Goodnight Mossball, I love you."

Zoro smiled. He felt at home. This was where he belonged. "I love you too."

xXx

A/N: While writing this I listened to Hold My Heart by Sarah Bareilles on repeat and cried a lot. (You should listen to that song. It is a great song.) Thank you for reading and as always, reviews are welcome and greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the alternate ending!