Chapter song: "In My Time of Dying" by Led Zeppelin

Zoro hadn't quite been able to process the news about Sanji's situation yet. Chopper had gathered all of the crewmembers into the galley, which felt incredibly empty without the energetic cook twirling around with a plate of food in hand, and explained to everyone that Sanji's body was slowly shutting down. He had used a lot of medical jargon that none of them had understood, but the bottom line was that their cook was really dying from an unknown condition.

"You really have no idea what caused it, Chopper?" Nami had asked worriedly.

The doctor stared down at his hoofs as he rubbed them together in shame. "No. I honestly can't explain what's happening to him. I just know that the rate of his deterioration is constant, and he'll likely reach the end of his endurance within the next 48 hours—probably less."

"But Sanji can't die! Who will cook all of our meals?" Luffy had asked. His straw hat was angled in such a way that it cast a dark shadow over his face, but Zoro could see that his lip trembled. The captain's hands were balled into fists, fingers pressed defiantly into his sides. "How will he find the All Blue?"

The question seemed to weigh down everything in the room, but nobody offered an answer. Usopp, Nami, and Franky had tears in their eyes, Robin had a hand pressed gently over her mouth in shock, and Brook's skull was somehow expressing a deep sadness despite the fact that he had no skin or muscles to form a frown. The entire crew had been unusually quiet that morning.

Zoro hadn't waited to visit Sanji, even after Chopper's instruction to steer clear of the infirmary while the doctor determined whether or not the serious condition was transferrable. He had barged in immediately after learning how little time his crewmate had left, and he hadn't left the chair by Sanji's side until the man himself had shown signs of waking up. Zoro fetched him a glass of water and anxiously awaited the opening of those pool-blue eyes. Chopper had not been pleased with the swordsman's lack of respect for his medical opinion, and Zoro had been ordered to barricade himself in the infirmary with Sanji, at least for the time being.

"You've been exposed for far too long for me to allow you to wander around the ship! You don't want to put the others at risk, do you?!" The offended reindeer hadn't been able to detect any sort of change in the swordsman's metabolism, even though the debilitating condition was relatively fast-acting according to Chopper's calculation. Zoro was sure that the order to stay in quarantine was actually supposed to be some sort of punishment for disobeying him, but what Chopper didn't realize was that Zoro was being confined in the one place he wanted to be, and that place was by Sanji's side.

Saying that the cook looked like shit was the understatement of Zoro's lifetime. The next night after Zoro had taken up residency in the infirmary, Sanji truly looked like death was catching up to him, and it wasn't long before his entire body fell into a state of complete exhaustion and immobility. That was the fourth day since the cook had claimed to have felt a decline in his reserves of strength—five days since they had docked at Loa, meaning that Sanji had acquired this strange condition sometime during the first day. He hadn't said much to Zoro during their stay in the infirmary, but sometimes Zoro would feel the other man's gaze on him and catch a strange, contemplative look in those blue eyes as he watched the swordsman from his place on the bed.

"Are you really feeling alright? You don't feel weak at all?" Sanji had asked on one occasion when the swordsman had called him out on his intense staring. Zoro winced inwardly at the quiet way in which Sanji had taken to forcing out his words.

"I feel totally normal. It can't be contagious if I'm still fine after we've been sharing the same air all night. More importantly, how are you feeling?" he inquired, reaching his hand out to check the cook's temperature since his face appeared flushed.

Sanji shied away instantly, and Zoro couldn't help but feel a little hurt until the other man said, "It could still be transferable through contact, you idiot! Don't come near me!" which seemed fairly redundant considering how close to Sanji's bedside Zoro had moved his chair, but he didn't comment on the absurdity of the statement.

"Is that what Chopper told you?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's just a theory, but the spreading of something this serious isn't likely to be airborne or the entire island would be dead by now," Sanji said grimly, his tone hardening when he spoke the word "dead."

"Have you thought about where you could have caught it? You can't have touched many people since we docked here," Zoro mused.

Sanji gave him a sheepish grin. "Have you seen the women on this island? I must have held dozens of hands during my first trip to the market alone." His eyes shifted to gaze through rose-tinted hearts of admiration as he reminisced about his first night on the island. Zoro tuned out most of his love-sick babbling until a certain phrase struck him to the core. "…and then she grabbed me and kissed me full on the mouth like I was the last man she'd ever see! You should've seen her lips when she smirked at me just as she was leaning in—so coy and yet wanton at the same time. I wish I could've taken her with me to sea!"

"Wait a minute, what?!" Zoro said incredulously. "Where did you say you met this woman?" he demanded.

"In a tavern off the coast where we docked the Sunny. I stopped in for a drink because the barmaid standing outside was simply stunning and—"

"Spare me the retelling of your ridicules swooning for a minute, and get back to the part where a promiscuous woman tongue-fucked you at a seedy bar in a line-up of drunken pirates?"

Sanji stared at him in absolute horror. "Don't talk about Lola that way! That pirate was probably lying to make me think that she was some sort of harlot so he could have her to himself! Besides, even if he was telling the truth, a woman has the right to be as promiscuous as she wants, and I'm certainly not going to judge her for that! She was an absolute beauty—a treasure for the eyes! Her very existence was the epitome of feminine grace, and I won't stand for you dishonoring such a fair maiden in my—" A sudden bout of racking coughs cut off Sanji's spiel before he could finish properly chastising his crewmate.

"You idiot!" Zoro growled, running to fill another glass with water from the tap from the cook. "Did you tell Chopper about this woman?"

Sanji tentatively sipped the liquid, grasping the cup with pale, shaking fingers. Zoro steadied it for him as he drank most of the water before answering. "No. I hardly think that Chopper is interested in hearing that kind of—"

"You IDIOT!" Zoro roared again. "What if you caught something from her? That was probably the most intimate contact you had before the symptoms started. Doesn't the timing seem suspicious to you?"

"Maybe…I dunno," Sanji told him reluctantly. His eyes had begun to go out of focus, and he squinted as if he couldn't quite lock-on to Zoro's face anymore. "Hey, marimo. Stop movin'…yer makin' me feel…as green as yer hair." With that mumbled remark, the cook slumped against his pillow and promptly lost consciousness.

"Oi! Cook?!" Zoro gave him a small shake, but there was no response. "Shit! Don't go anywhere, moron. I'll find that woman and figure out what we can do for you." Sanji gave no sign that he had heard, but since he obviously wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, Zoro ran to find Chopper to relay what he'd learned.

"I suppose we could try and find this Lola person to see if she's sick," Chopper mused after Zoro had explained the cook's story, "but I'm worried that it'll be too late. If she really gave Sanji this…illness…than I doubt she had much time left to do so."

"We're still going to try, obviously," Zoro said resolutely. "I'm going to head into town and ask around about her before the cook withers away into nothing. He isn't even conscious anymore."

"What?! Why didn't you mention that FIRST?!" Chopper snapped, scurrying to the infirmary to check on Sanji.

"I'll come along for the hunt, Swordsman-san. We wouldn't want you getting lost when there's so little time left to cure Cook-san's condition," Robin suggested seriously. For once, Zoro didn't even so much as glare at the taunt about his abysmal sense of direction.

"You're unusually reserved today, Zoro," Nami noticed instantly.

"Our swordsman is just busy stressing over our dear cook. We won't let him die though, not unless an ambush or an untimely accident gets him first."

"Aw, Robin! Why do you have to say things like that? Now I'm worried too!" Franky interjected tearfully.

"Don't worry, guys! The great Captain Usopp will stay behind and protect Sanji's life at any cost! Nothing is going to take our cook prematurely if I'm on the job!"

"I'll help, Usopp! The REAL captain has to defend his nakama to his last breath!" Luffy shouted determinedly.

"I'd like to come along as well," Nami said firmly.

"Me too! If this woman is as beautiful and promiscuous as they say, perhaps she would like to show me her panties!" Brook cut in excitedly.

Nami knocked him upside the head with a closed fist and said, "You're staying here to help guard Sanji-kun and the ship! We don't need any perverts scaring the lady off—if we even find her in good health."

With that, the trio of Zoro, Robin, and Nami headed into town to search for the mysterious Lola. Luckily, it was easy to get information about her since it seemed that everyone on the island knew her name. What was unexpected, was her true identity and history.

"You guys are looking for Lola? Her usual shift at the Pirate's Tavern started a few hours ago, so you'll probably find her there."

"I heard she quit a couple days ago."

"Oh really? Was it because of her health again?" one of the villagers asked the other.

"Her health?" Robin inquired. "May I ask if the lady was suffering from some sort of affliction?"

The two men glanced at each other at that, a small smirk on each of their faces. "Lola's been feeling unwell on and off again for as long as she's had the curse. You pirates wouldn't know about it, but its common knowledge here on Loa."

"A curse?" Zoro asked skeptically, but Nami cut him off before he could continue.

"Come on then, spill. We want to hear everything you know about this Lola character and her so called 'curse'. Tell us all of the details, and I'll make it worth your time. Name your price." Zoro heard the crick in his neck as he spun to look at her, astounded. "What are you staring at me like that for? If it's to save Sanji's life, I'll gladly part with a few berries," she whispered indignantly. Robin raised her eyebrows at that, and the greedy sea-witch added, "I won't even charge him interest when he pays me back."

The two men deliberated for a moment before demanding a reasonable sum for their time and information. "Deal," Nami told them. "Now explain about this curse."

"It all has to do with an old folktale here in Loa. Have you ever heard of the Curse of 100 Kisses?"

"We haven't," Robin answered for them.

"Well, the story goes that there used to be a beautiful priestess named Amara who lived on the island of Loa. She was in love with the warrior tribe's strongest fighter, Braun. She chose him to be her mate, which was considered the highest honor a man could receive—even more than he could earn winning countless battles. To be chosen as the priestess' mate meant that you were elevated to the status of a king in the eyes of the people. Braun respected Amara as his priestess, but he didn't love her. He only agreed to marry her to appease his family and the people of Loa, but he was unhappy in their marriage, because he been pressured into complying with the custom of their island.

"After a few years, Amara began to sense her husband's aversion to their marriage, and she finally confronted him about it. Braun could no longer hide his dislike for his wife—she was a cruel woman at heart who practiced black magic in the temple at night, and she was as unforgiving as the curses that she bestowed on their people. Amara's fascination with the dark arts was only known to her husband and a small group of devout followers. One of these followers had overheard Braun speaking of his loveless marriage and his ongoing infidelity. He bragged about having kissed 100 other women in an attempt to fill the empty void where a true companion should be. This boast was relayed to the priestess, who immediately began developing a curse to teach her unfaithful husband a lesson.

"She placed the Curse of 100 Kisses on him, causing him to grow weaker and weaker over time. He would die after 100 hours unless he reset the deterioration of his health by kissing a man. Amara still loved her husband, so she wanted to punish him in such a way that he could still overcome the trial and return to her if he learned to fear her enough to stay faithful. She told him that as a consequence of sharing 100 kisses with women who were not his wife, Braun should have to give 100 kisses to men who had never kissed Amara.

"If he didn't give the kisses often enough, his life would begin to fade away. It was a test of his endurance and dedication to their marriage. In Amara's eyes, if he was able to outlast the curse and complete the 100 kisses, he would be able to appreciate his faithful wife who had not engaged in those acts with other men. However, something unusual happened to Braun during his time searching for male companions to satisfy the curse. A close friend from his tribe willingly shared kiss after kiss with the warrior in order to keep him alive, but their relationship evolved beyond that of friendship, and their kisses became romantic in nature rather than of necessity.

"The curse evolved in response to this betrayal and became wild—the final kiss that should have broken the curse was transferred to Braun's lover, and he had to continue kissing men who had never kissed Braun. The man ended up moving to another village, telling Braun that it was so he could find enough men who fit the curse's requirements. What Braun didn't know was that Amara had found her husband's lover and revealed another method to breaking the curse—true love's kiss. This meant that because Braun had passed on the curse, he hadn't truly loved the man who he'd been using to negate the curse's effects. Braun's lover felt insulted that his kisses had been meaningless to the other man and resolved to never see him again. Braun had no choice but to return to his wife and remain faithful, rather than invoke her wrath again.

"The Curse of 100 Kisses continued to be passed from man to man, always somehow making its way back to this island as if the land itself were cursed. They say that the people of Loa eventually banded together and sacrificed the wicked priestess in the hopes of stopping the curse for good, but this only further angered her spirit and the curse became tied to the island of Loa as a result. The woman named Lola who you're asking about is, in fact, a man named Logan. He dresses as a beautiful woman and frequents bars that serve pirates, because every man on Loa already knows about the curse and refuses to kiss whoever is inflicted in case they end up being the one hundredth man and receive the curse themselves. Now that you know the story, I take it you have a crewmate who fell victim to Lola's charm?"

Zoro nodded, feeling sick. He had absorbed several important details from the story that explained the cook's condition, as well as one that would help save him. Sanji had been the one hundredth man to kiss Lola/Logan—he obviously hadn't kissed any other men since then, which explained why he was slowly dying, and the maximum amount of time the cook could go without satisfying the curse's conditions was 100 hours.

He was struggling to do the math when Robin said, "So Cook-san has four days and four hours between each kiss before the curse steals his life…how horrible. Swordsman-san, at what time did Sanji say he met Lola in the tavern?"

"He didn't, but we docked around 10 pm and split up in the market. Sanji was back at the ship before midnight."

"That gives us a timeframe of between 2 to 4am. It's nearly 10pm now, meaning we have about four hours before we'll be cutting it close to the 100-hour mark. What should we do, Swordsman-san?" Robin asked expectantly.

Zoro didn't even have to think about it. "Take me back to the ship," he said instantly. With his amazing ability to get lost, he knew it could very well take him longer than that to find the Sunny when he was so desperate to get there, so he didn't try to hide his clear demand to be escorted and simply followed Nami and Robin to the docks. He ran across the deck, the rest of the crew tagging along on his heels as he burst into the infirmary, startling Chopper so badly that the little doctor dropped the syringe he'd been holding next to Sanji's body.

"What's going on?" Zoro asked, because Chopper's nose was running and he looked to be on the verge of tears.

"It's getting really bad. Sanji's been fading in and out of consciousness since you guys left. He started hallucinating for a while, even having full conversations with people who weren't there, and now he won't wake up at all. His heartrate is slowing down as well, so I was preparing to administer a shot of adrenaline if it dropped any lower."

"Go outside for a minute, Chopper," Zoro told him quickly. Why is his heart failing? he thought, panicked. We should still have more time…

The doctor looked surprised, and then angry, as Zoro began ushering him towards the hallway. "No! I can't leave my patient right now—he's in critical condition! Do you want him to die?!" he snapped, outraged.

"OF COURSE NOT!" Zoro snapped back, "but I need to be alone with the cook for a minute, so just take everyone outside. Please!" Zoro begged. If Chopper had looked surprised than the rest of the crew were flabbergasted when the swordsman pleaded for them to listen to him.

"You can trust Zoro with this, Chopper. Let him have a moment with Sanji-kun," Robin said reassuringly. She must have realized what Zoro was planning, because she was smiling like the Cheshire cat. It was creepy and much too knowledgeable for Zoro to contain the subtle blush that crept onto his face.

Protests made their way throughout the crew, but the captain was the one who silenced it. He readjusted the straw hat on his head and said, "Zoro's our first mate. He would never let anything happen to his cook. Sanji is an important member of our crew, and Zoro is one of the most trustworthy people I know. Even if we don't understand why, we have to listen to him when he's this determined. Let's go, guys."

"I know what he's gonna do," Nami interjected suddenly. "Zoro's gonna ki—mmpfh!"

A delicate hand sprouted out of Nami's shoulder in a flurry of petals, covering her mouth with its palm. Luffy shot a huge grin at his swordsman, and the absolute trust in that smile encouraged the rest of the crew to follow their captain out of the infirmary, leaving Zoro alone with a very unconscious Sanji.

He walked quickly to the bedside and sat down at the edge of the mattress. Even in this dire situation, he couldn't help himself from taking the opportunity to really look at Sanji in a way that he was never able to when the man was awake and other people were around. He took in the sight of his face, so calm that it was almost as if he were sleeping. The shiny, golden fringe of hair was resting over his left eye and matching yellow lashes cast shadows on his pale, hollow cheeks. His lips were not particularly inviting, looking as still as a corpse's and pressed into a thin line over a perfectly trimmed goatee. It was thanks to this facial hair that the otherwise innocent-faced man had an air of danger and rugged toughness that more closely matched the fighting cook's fiery personality.

Zoro swore he could feel his heart contract when he thought about Sanji's eyes possibly never opening again—his long legs, bundled beneath layers of blankets, never again performing the uniquely artistic style of fighting that saved the cook's precious hands from harm and always served to set Zoro's heart racing when they sparred together (for more reasons than one). He felt sick at the thought of losing the one person who seemed to understand him best, who always had his back in a fight, and who shared the feeling of deep responsibility for the crew that had given them a second place to call home on their adventure to fulfill near-impossible dreams.

"Don't you fucking die yet, you damn curly-browed bastard. People would miss you, you know? I'd miss you."

He didn't waste any more time with words that were falling on deaf ears as he leaned forwards and pressed his mouth to Sanji's unresponsive lips. Zoro screwed his eyes shut when the action produced no response from the other man. Sanji didn't flinch—didn't show any sign that he felt the touch of a kiss or Zoro's hand on his clammy cheek. The swordsman handled his comrade as carefully as he would his swords, and he was just as aware of every inch of Sanji from the softness of his lips to the pleasant roughness of his scruff against Zoro's jaw and the slight tickle of silky hair trailing over his fingers.

He memorized the shape of those lips as he held his position, afraid that the curse would not accept it if he ended it too soon. He counted the beats of his own racing heart while he absorbed the strange sensation that the kiss was producing—it was as if the heat from Sanji's body were flooding into the swordsman through every point of contact and flowing into his bloodstream. He felt oddly as if he were stealing something from the other man, and a small flower of apprehension bloomed in his mind at the thought that he was doing something wrong…

Sanji twitched. It was brief and weak, but Zoro definitely felt the lips beneath his tremble ever so slightly. Suddenly, he could feel that Sanji was breathing through his nose in a steady rhythm against Zoro's cheek, and then the cook gasped into his mouth, shocking the swordsman into retreating to the chair beside the bed. One blue eye flew open and pierced him with a reassuringly alert gaze. Sanji sat up in one fluid motion as if he'd never been sick at all.

"Zoro?" he asked, absently feeling his lips as he surveyed the room.

"Sanji!" The cook jumped at the sound of his own name coming from the swordsman's mouth and turned to stare at his nakama in stunned silence. "Are you…how do you feel right now?"

"Fine," Sanji answered instantly, as if he were confused at why he would be asked such a thing. It came back to him a moment later, and he looked down at himself in surprise, feeling his body with a pleased smile on his face. "Yeah. I feel…great actually. What happened?"

Zoro tried not to look as awkward as he felt when he avoided the question. "Chopper will explain it all. Let me go and get him." He stood up to fetch the doctor, and Sanji threw back the covers to follow him. "Hang on, don't just jump up and start walking around! You just healed. At least wait until Chopper has a look at you before you get back to your old routine, shit-cook."

"I bet you've been eating like shit ever since I've been in here. How long was I out anyways?"

"It's still the same day. You were mostly unconscious until a minute ago."

"Oh yeah…I remember seeing a bunch of weird stuff before I passed out. At one point, I swear you were in here dressed like Chopper—fur suit and everything."

"I most certainly was not, so please never mention those hallucinations again," he said with a shudder. "I'm going to let the rest of the crew know that you're awake so they can come see you."

"Marimo?"

Zoro paused with one hand on the doorknob. "Yeah?"

"Why were you sitting beside me on the bed?"

Shit, he knew! I can't just casually say that I was kissing him, even if it was to stop a curse from killing him! I'll have to lead up to that later. Shit shit shit shit SHIT! he cursed inwardly. Out loud he said, "I was just looking after our idiot-cook. Try not to take such a long break from your job next time. Luffy missed seven meals—twelve by his count," he said as casually as he could.

Sanji was silent for a long moment before whispering, "I won't. I promise," and Zoro fled from the room.