A great thank you to Eleonora, who as usual corrected my writing. Love you, Sweety!
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Eiichiro Oda does.
Enjoy!
Sanji was still thinking about the strange exchange of words between him and the swordsman when he finally finished sweeping the floor. The cook took the towel that was dangling from his belt and hanged it on the hook where Zoro—he shook his head trying to clear his thoughts.
How could the marimo tell him that he didn't know anything about love? He was the love-cook after all, the prince charming every girl aimed at! He wished good night to his kitchen before turning off the lights and walking outside: everything was so peaceful, the moon was high in the sky and he felt incredibly romantic; if just there was a beautiful woman helping him through the night… he shrugged and decided he could use a bit of his inspiration to kick the swordsman ass tonight, it wasn't like he was doing much: with all the probabilities he was sleeping during his watch.
He climbed the crow nest and opened the trap-door.
"Hey, marimo! You awake??"
Sanji waited before rolling his eyes, and got nearer to the figure on the couch.
"Oi! Shithead!"
"Whatta hell?"
Sanji kept quiet for few moments, deciding to make something clear before starting kicking the swordsman.
"That was weird…"
"Oh no, it wasn't: it is called sleeping, eyebrows freak…"
"I wasn't talking about that…"
"Mmmh?"
"Back in the kitchen…what you said…"
"I was just expressing my thoughts."
"It's not true…"
"What?"
"I love them…"
"Then I'm sorry…"
"Every woman need to be loved, a bit…"
"You can love them without acting like a stupid jackass…"
"What?!"
"Just two words: Enies Lobby."
Sanji mouth opened but no sounds came from it. Touché.
"I want you to remember something: I respect you as a fighter, as a warrior, but when I see you submitting yourself to every will of a woman, well…I find it revolting…"
The cook's gaze met with Zoro's: it was so intense he barely found the determination not to lower his eyes.
"You're strong, as strong as me maybe, if not, then you're just few steps backwards, and believe me you cannot imagine the effort it's taking me to say so…" Zoro stopped and narrowed his eyes. "It makes me sick to see someone so powerful turning himself into a worm…"
Sanji wanted to scream, to tell the swordsman he was wrong that nothing he said was true and tell him to get lost, but deep down he felt a strange pain, something he had never felt before not even when Nami had tried to make him open his eyes, telling him he was being an ass since he let a woman beat him. But now, Zoro was telling him so.
"I-I need to—" Sanji tried, but his voice trembled.
"Goodnight."
"Yeah, 'night…"
He turned to leave but stopped half the way to the trap door.
"Oi…"
"What, cook?"
"Can I…stay here?"
What the hell? Sanji couldn't believe his own words. Why would he spend sometime there, with the swordsman, alone? He cleared his throat.
"Never mind…scrap what I said…"
"It's not like the crow nest is my own property anyway…"
Sanji's pulse fastened as he moved towards the couch underneath the window, where Zoro sat. He faced the swordsman.
"I respect you too…"
Zoro nodded and whispered "Don't make a fool of yourself…"
"Eh…can't promise…"
Zoro smirked as Sanji leaned his head against the glass of the window and fell asleep.
--
Sanji woke up with the very first rays of the sun. He blinked few times, trying to get rid of the sleepiness, and wiped a trail of saliva from his chin.
"Rise and shine, cook"
"'morning Franky…"
"The swordsman watch ended but I decided not to wake prince charming from his beauty sleep just to tell that his date was goi—"
"My what?!?"
"Your date…"
"My what?!?"
"Oh come on! Then why were you sleeping in the same room as the haramaki? You usually don't even stand breathing the same air!"
"We had to solve something out…an argument…"
Franky watched him intently before speaking again.
"You both are good guys deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, de—"
"Hey I got it, ok?"
"—down, you shouldn't be quarrelling like asses all the time…" The cyborg finished.
"What, Franky? Old memories…?" Sanji smiled.
"Guess so, we used to argue about anything…" Franky almost lost himself in his own trail of thoughts. "Now, go and get started with breakfast, damn it!!"
Sanji got to his feet in a hurry, waved and closed the trap-door.
"Yeah…old memories… Iceburg was quite good in bed too, now that he made me think about that…"
--
He set the table in a hurry because, damn it, he was late with breakfast. Everyone would wake up in few minutes and he needed to bake pancakes and prepare the orange juice for the ladies and—at the thought he stopped still and the mental picture of Zoro appeared in his mind. He lifted his eyebrow to himself and started squeezing the oranges.
--
"Breakfast is ready my wonderful flowers!!"
Robin and Nami headed for the kitchen and stared for a good while at Sanji.
"Sanji, are you feeling right?"
"Yes, of curse!!!!"
"You look…quieter…"
"No…It's just your impression…" Sanji's eyes widened as he took his hands to his mouth: he just, did he—he contradicted Nami…roughly. Zoro passed by, lifting both his brows. Usop, looked at Sanji carefully and checked his temperature.
"Chopper, come and have a look at him…"
"Aaaah, Sanji get yourself together, I need food!"
"N-nami…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"
Franky who was coming down from the crow nest, merely snorted at the sight of Sanji jumping off board.
"What got into him?"
"He ish 'mitting sheppuku! (He is committing seppuku)" Answered Luffy while stuffing his mouth with whatever he could reach –almost everything being the rubber boy he was.
Breakfast went by in a hurry and he found himself to deal with the usual amount of dirty dishes and the pretty uncommon feeling of self-pity; the swordsman wanted him not to make a fool of himself ever again, and what did he do today? He just jumped off board because he had spat back venom to his beloved Nami, even though she kept on saying that it wasn't like he said 'fuck you' or something… as for her it was a normal answer. Bullshit. Oh God! He had contradicted her again.
He removed his apron and headed outside: a cigarette and some fresh hair would do good, and maybe the beautiful view of his ladies sunbathing. He smiled at the thought and hurried his way out.
He had his hand on the door-handle when the door opened and Zoro appeared on the way.
"Oi…watch out, marimo!"
"What?!"
"Drop it…nothing important…" He didn't feel like arguing right now. The question 'what the hell got into you, bastard, you're always in for a good kick-the-swordsman-ass' crossed his mind for a second before Zoro spoke.
"The knives, dartboard eyebrows…"
The cook was taken aback.
"W-what?"
"You must be deaf or stupid…much more like the second option…"
"Asshole…"
"Freak…"
Sanji stared at the paper bag Zoro was holding.
"What's in it?" he pointed.
"Oh, here…the things I need to narrow the knives and all…"
The cook looked at the bag and then straight into Zoro's eyes: they stayed like this for a while, none really knowing what to say or do. The swordsman coughed.
"Nami is sunbathing… hurry before she gets tired and dresses up…"
"Hey, keep your irony all for yourself, I've enough of mine…"
Zoro smirked, he had never enjoyed so much challenging the cook.
"Tsk…the only thing you'll never have enough of it's brain…there's a long way to go before you stuff all the room in your skull…"
Sanji grinned back. "I'll not have brain but at least I look like a normal human-being and not a Neanderthal…"
"You're right, a little blonde princess it's what you are…"
Sanji grunted loudly and turned his back to the swordsman, facing the cupboard. He walked the very short distance to it and opened the door: he withdrew his whole knives-set and took it on the table.
"Here…"
Zoro sat on a chair and got ready to start.
"…and here." Sanji added leaning a bottle of his best sake on the table. Zoro looked at it perplexedly and then at the cook, and then back at the bottle.
"Are you kidding me or something?"
"Shuddup, marimo…"
The blond was ready to leave but he stopped on the door way.
"Thank you, moss-head…"
Zoro smiled to him.
He smiled.
Something inside of Sanji melted but he couldn't really understand what: he just felt warmness spread in his chest as his throat dried and his cheeks set on fire.
--
It wasn't like he didn't enjoy watching Nami in a small, pink bikini but his mind had been somewhere else all the while he had been leaning on the railing, smoking and staring at the hot redhead. Alright: pretending to. He wasn't interested in what he was looking at, and that was not a good sign: he should have gone wild, mental pictures of Nami stripping of her minimal clothing should have popped in his mind and he should have felt his trousers getting uncomfortably tight. But nothing happened… nothing of that, nothing in general. As a matter of fact, he wasn't thinking at all, it was like his mind shut down the moment the swordsman smiled at him, like all his brain activities stopped their usual course: and he was pissed at that.
"Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanji!"
"Luffy… I've got a bad headache…"
"Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanji, I'm huuuuuuuungry!"
"Yeah, yeah…"
"Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanji!"
"Look, I'm not quite in the right mood…"
"Saaaaaaaa—" he kicked, hard.
"Hey, marimo!! Go and get the captain back!!"
The swordsman appeared on the doorway of the kitchen, he looked lazily at Sanji and then he realized that Luffy had been sent off-board.
"Shit" he jumped.
After retrieving the rubber boy, Zoro dragged them both over deck where Chopper took care of the captain, and he peeled off of his body the wet shirt.
"Like what you're staring at, dartboard eyebrow?"
Sanji's eyes widened. He hadn't been staring at him, come on. He wasn't even looking his way! How could the marimo possibly think he was- How could he- Sanji wasn't- Ok, maybe he was staring at the swordsman, but it was just because he thought he was a fucking exhibitionist.
"Dress up, shithead, you're in front of innocent ladies…"
"Innocent?? Is Nami innocent?? What th—"
"What have you said, marimo?"
"I said—"
"Here we are again" Nami rolled her eyes and walked away.