A/N: Not based off a prompt, but I wanted to do it... Next one already planned out from your guy's prompts :)

~X~

Since rescuing that kid a few days ago Zoro's mood had drastically improved. Not that he still relied super heavily on his weird hunches, but from the oddly heated look Sanji had sent his way Zoro was pretty damned sure that their was a bit more to the man than met the eye. Zoro wasn't about to go all gong-ho and start chatting up the man, but it had damned well restored his inkling of hope that maybe he'd actually have a chance with the guy.

Sanji was just finishing up for the evening, climbing out of the pool as Zoro took full advantage of the view and happily watched the lean flex of the man's arms as he hefted himself up. A foot was then placed on the tiled ledge before the blond pushed himself up so he was standing and Zoro took the guilty pleasure of watching every perfect movement in the man's back as he did so. But instead of making for the change rooms the blond began to make his way around the pools edge and toward Zoro's side of the pool.

Zoro took a sip of the lime green Gatorade that was provided free by the facility, pausing with it at his lips as he noticed the blond making directly for him. Usually he would have doubted his own eyes but the blond was once more making eye contact with Zoro as he made his way across the wet tiles toward Zoro's observation chair. Usually Zoro would have been mesmerized by the blonds walk – the perfect jerk of his hips with each step – but this time his dazed eyes barely were able to focus on the man.

It may have been three weeks but as far as Zoro was concerned it was still far too soon to be talking to the man. Sure he'd fantasized about the man but he had never actually planned anything out for if the gorgeous blond actually did decide to speak to him. Zoro carefully set the bottle of Gatorade down, cheeks still full of the green liquid as his panic was beginning to shut down all his functioning systems and a single mantra repeated in his head in ecstatic trepidation.

Sanji's coming this way. Sanji's coming this way. Sanji's coming this way.

By the time the blond was stopped on the right side of Zoro's observation chair, the life guard hadn't come up with a single thoughtful thing to say and just stared blankly down at the man. Instead of helping the situation Zoro opted for taking advantage of having the blond so close and for once really being able to take in his facial features. Zoro vaguely remembered his face from bumping into him at the door, but up close and in the light had nothing on a quick glance in the dark.

He had a strong, yet rounded jawline that gave his face a slender, friendly look as high cheekbones highlighted his narrow nose and bright, wide eyes. The blue was even more dazzling up close, and was set off by smooth, thin eyebrows that arched lightly above them. Weird tattoos were placed at significant places on the blonds forehead, but instead of making the man look weird... they were oddly fitting. Sanji kept the sides of his head shaved – with intricate swirls sheered into it – as the long hair on top flopped over casually to slightly hide his left eye.

"Hey." Sanji looked up at where Zoro was currently lounging, a friendly smile plastered on his face as his still wet blond hair fell back to reveal both eyes for once.

Opening his mouth to respond, he completely forgot about the Gatorade that had numbly been sitting in his mouth and half of it fell out and into his lap. The other half ended up down his throat as he inhaled sharply in embarrassment and just ended up keeled over in his chair as he hacked up the stinging lime flavoured drink from the back of his throat. Staying for a quiet moment with his head resting on his knees he silently wondered if embarrassment was actually able to kill a person.

As soon as his coughs died down he schooled his features as best as he could and sat up straight to address the blond once more. Though Zoro knew it was probably too late for a suave first impression now, Sanji had just seen him spit out his drink on his lap like a drooling first born.

"Uh..." Sanji stalled, tilting his head slightly as his eyes quickly skittered across Zoro. The corner of his mouth was slightly scrunched as though he was holding back laughter, "You okay?"

"Brilliant." Zoro replied scathingly, wishing he could just excuse himself and go drown himself in the deep end and be left for Nami to have to fish out his rotting corpse. It was the least she deserved for all the times she'd dumped cleaning duty on him in the past.

The tone didn't seem to affect the blond at all and if anything it just seemed to be the permission he wanted to start grinning and Zoro would be lying if he didn't melt at the simple reaction. And Zoro was really starting to fall in love with the man's voice, it was a lot deeper than Zoro would have taken him for having and there was a sexy husk to it that made it sound like he smoked or something.

"I'm just on my way to work but," Sanji stalled as he brought his arms up to cross casually over his chest as his left hand fidgeted with his goggles, "I wanted to say I saw you rescue that kid the other day. I know it's your job and all but I still wanted to let you know that it was amazing."

A multitude of things came to mind of how he usually replied when someone said things like this, mostly just writing it off as something anyone would have done. Or saying that it was nothing and he was just doing his job. But Sanji was here in front of him, and damn he was complimenting him to boot, dismissing him was the last thing on his mind.

Instead he eloquently managed around a stutter, "Um... thanks?"

Something about Zoro's stutter had the blond looking at him smugly, but Zoro was still too dumbfounded by the talking blond to say anything snarky to cover it up. Still far too busy at admiring those amazing blue eyes up close and how they looked up at him steadily, not looking away shyly for even a moment. It was practically refreshing to have someone meet his scowl and not look away.

"It's nice to finally meet you though." Sanji murmured sincerely, "I'm Sanji, by the way."

Sanji smiled, not bothering to offer his hand for a handshake since it probably wouldn't reach up to where Zoro was sitting anyway. Eyebrows raising slightly at finally hearing the name spoken aloud he realized that while it wasn't far off from how Zoro imagined it in his head, he liked the soft way the name rolled off the blonds tongue. It was a name that Zoro wanted to say aloud.

Zoro was moments from responding that he already knew that but caught himself at the last second as he realized that he wasn't supposed to know the man's name. As far as the blond was concerned he wasn't a creepy man whom looked up people's name on the internet so that he could have silent month long crush on them. Nearly letting the confession slip past his lips had him frozen in place; half congratulating himself on the save and the other half looking around and stupidly asking what he was supposed to say now.

Realizing his silence was probably taken as something more like stupidity and not Zoro having a small internal aneurism at almost looking like a creep he shot out quickly, "Zoro."

Sanji just smirked at the answer, looking all too smug about Zoro's slack jawed moment as he slowly gave a small wave to signal his needing to leave. Turning he mumbled, "Alright, nice meeting you, Zoro."

The way the name was practically purred from those perfect lips had an uncontrollable shiver going up Zoro's spine at how erotically foreign the man had made his name sound. Instead of speaking the word it was more like he had breathed it, his rasp rolling the 'r' in such a way Zoro had never heard pronounced before. And it was something he wanted to hear again. A lot.

TBC...?

A/N: So from all the prompts I have so far I'm getting a basic outline of where this is going... I plan to try and incorporate all the prompts I get for this so we'll see how it goes. Lol

Also, have you ever inhaled lime Gatorade? It hurts a lot...