~ Chapter 3 ~
"Say something."
"..."
"You hate me now, don't you?'
"No.. I don't know."
"It's okay.
...
I'm gonna go."
"Sanji, wait!"
"What?" Sanji's eyes flew open, answering the voice in his dreams. His hand lifted up to scratch the back of his head, blinking to shed the sleep.
He sighed.
"That's still on my mind, hu?"
There was a moment of silence. He didn't move. The only sounds came from out side. Cars, birds, people. Light sounds, though not light enough to be able to go back to sleep.
He finally raised and moved his legs to the side of his bed. Sitting up for a moment.
"Should have just left then," he mumbled to no one but himself as he stood up and left the small bedroom area.
It was time to get ready anyway.
Monday.
He had planned to make something special for lunch today. Vivi was going to love it! He could offer Nami something too~
The perfect way to start a conversation!
He coughed, smoothing his throat out to say with a deep, mature voice; "Nami-swan, would you like some of myself made cheese pie? I made it with love and you on my mind~"
Then with a feminine voice he replied; "Oh, Sanji~! For me? You made it all by yourself? You're so wooonderful~"
"It's nothing Nami. For you I'll do anything~~"
The blonde giggled and hummed cheerfully along with the radio he had just turned on. Pots and pans ready and there he went.
Lunch was going to be perfect!
---
The first part of the day was filled with math, art and history. The hours flew by with boring lectures.
Then finally it was lunch time. Sanji met up with both Usopp and Vivi, they all had different classes the period before lunch.
"Vivi~! You look absolutely wonderful today, my angel."
"Hehe.. Sanji, quit it!" The reply with a touch shyness came from the girl.
"Yeah, quit it Sanji. You're so full of it." Usopp said, rolling his eyes at the blonde guy.
"Who asked you long nose?" The blonde snorted as he sat down at a round table in the lunch area of their school.
As always it was loud. There was yelling, talking, phones going off. Some students were even running around like crazy. The third, fourth and fifth years' students had lunch at the same time, so it was crowded. Some looked up the quietness in the halls but were often chased away by the teachers or the cleaning ladies.
Sanji took out four large lunch boxes from his backpack with pride. One filled with sweet desserts, the others being the 'main course'. Of course he had made extra for Usopp or he would probably eat the girl's part too!
"How does that even fit in your bag?" Usopp asked with wonder when the blonde placed them on their table and carefully lifted the tops off of the boxes.
"Oh, Sanji, that looks delicious!" Vivi said, staring at the insides of the containers.
"I made it all for you~" The blonde cheered then looked around, in the hopes of seeing Nam-
"NAMI-SWAAAAN~" He stood up waving his arms as he saw another group of three entering the large area.
"SANJIIII!"
"..."
"The weekend was sooo long! I couldn't wait to meet up with you again~!"
Sanji's face fell, his arms wide open and in them was a smaller person hugging him.
"Thank you.. Luffy."
"Hello, Sanji" A calmer reply came from Nami as she went and sat next to Vivi at their table.
"Helloooo, Nami~" He greeted with a happy cheer, still being held by the straw hat.
He could hear the damn mossball snickering as he went and sat himself down too. That damn annoying....
"FOOOOOOD!! Uwaaaah and soo much!" Luffy's eyes sparkled as he looked at the boxes displayed on the table and lost interest in Sanji. "Is there meat in it?!?!" The boy sat down, ready to eat.
"OI! Those are for Vivi and Nami!" The blonde said as he took a seat between Luffy and Usopp.
"That's alright Sanji we can share." The blue haired girl said, smiling at the blonde teenager.
"Whatever you say Vivi~"
"Wooooo, this is really good!" The raven haired boy said as he made way through one of the lunch boxes. It was a dish with meat and salad, though mainly the meat was disappearing.
"Don't chomp everything down like that! Don't you chew?"
"Chew? Why?"
"Idiot! Save some for the rest! Here," the blonde pushed a plastic fork and knife in to the other boy's hands hoping that the cutting would slow him down a bit.
In the corner of his eyes he could see Vivi starting to make conversation with the annoying green head.
-
"Euhm, hi!" The blue haired girl smiled politely at Zoro, who had just placed himself down in the seat next to her. Nami was sitting on her other side but was mainly focused on Luffy and the others.
"Hey," the strong looking teenager replied.
....
Conversation topic, a conversation topic...
Ah!
"Did you pick a subject yet? For the presentation. Sanji told me about it."
"Ah, no, not yet. We'll decide on it tomorrow."
"Aaah~!!! Usopp and I are going to tell pirate stories!!" Luffy's ear had caught what they were talking about and interrupted loudly.
"Stories?" Zoro lifted an eyebrow at that.
"Yush!" Usopp said, "about the brave adventures of Captain Usopp the fearless and first mate Luffy the reckless!!"
"Eeeeh? Why are you the captain?" The boy with the straw hat asked, munching on a piece of meat that stuck half way out of his mouth.
"Because! I have all the leadership qualities a captain should have!" The curly head said proudly.
"Like being able to detect dangerous situations from miles and hide from them?" Sanji asked.
Quickly followed by Vivi, "And being able to tell lies too outrageous for anyone to believe?"
"WHAAAAAT!? That isn't me!" Usopp stood up, and placed one feet on his chair, elbow resting up on his upper leg, standing like a statue of a hero. "I look danger in the eye and head straight to it! And the only stories I tell are the ones I've lived through!"
"Ah, those things that happen in your dreams?" The blonde asked.
Usopp looked shocked and was about to protest but the laughing around the table was too loud. You could only hear him scream something like; "that's not it!", and, "there's nothing to laugh about!!"
The blue haired girl giggled and turned towards Zoro again, "unlike them you have the best partner. Sanji always gets high scores on these things."
"Really? Tsk. He doesn't look too smart though." He said, then smirked as he saw a blue eye glare at him. Did the blonde hear him? He didn't mind. Actually their fight on the school ground Friday was pretty refreshing. He wouldn't mind having another go at it with the blonde.
"Nyaa, you'll be surprised. He works really hard but then again it's kind of logical. He already had to repeat a year, he doesn't want to do one over again." Now that she thought about it Zoro looked to be more of Sanji's age than Usopp and her's. "Euhm, did you too?"
The next words he spoke with a tiny bit of embarrassment, yet it was heavenly covered with an uncaring tone, "yeah. Actually. Two years."
"Two years!?" She asked a bit loudly in surprise.
Suddenly one of the lunch boxes speeded across the table to slowly come to a stop in front of the green haired youth.
"Stuff your mouth instead of upsetting my lovely Vivi!" The blonde teenager at the opposite side of the table said.
"Shitty blonde I wasn't upsetting anyone." Zoro protested but then his attention went to Vivi, who elbowed his upperarm.
"Just eat. It's Sanji's way of being nice to you."
"Ooooh, Vivi~ You know me so well~"
The blue haired girl chuckled, knowing Sanji wasn't realizing that he just admitted that he was trying to be nice to Zoro. Thought it surprised her a little. The blonde had always gone on about how he couldn't stand people like the green haired man but, eventhough he was annoyed, he wasn't hostile. He even offered his food to him. Then maybe he decided he liked Zoro after all?
Or not. Sanji was a little complicated, kind of like a girl but then a manly one with a goatee. ..Did that even make sense?
Zoro just took a bite from the food and decided it was too good to pass up and started eating hungrily while the others were making lots of noise.
"Hmm, Sanji, this is really good!"
"Reaaally? Thank you Nami swan~"
"Yo-Hooo~ Yo-hooo~ A pirate's life for mee~" Usopp's and Luffy's voices sang loudly as they had their arms connected and kicked one foot up after the other. That when standing on their lunch table. "We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot~"
"GET THE HELL OFF THE TABLE YOU TWO IDIOTS"
"But it's fun Naaami~"
---
"Here, here! Hurry!" Luffy said pulling Nami and Zoro along in to an empty class room.
It was at their ten minute break when the black haired boy had almost ran them over, then hurriedly pulled them in to the first empty room he could find. There was definitely something on his mind and it was making him look rather excited.
"Slow down, Luffy! Geez!" Nami almost tripped as she was pushed in to the room.
They hadn't had private conversation in a while and Luffy only took them apart when he had something important to discuss. Something about that thing they were going to do. The three of them. They were more than just simple high school friends. They were nakama!
"Oi, Luffy what's this all about?" Zoro grunted as he leaned down on one of the low standing school desks, crossing his arms. He was wearing a tight long sleeved shirt. Black. The shapes and lines of his muscled arms could be defined really well. It had distracted Nami for just a small second before she looked at Luffy again with a little frown.
"Yeah, Luffy.. Don't tell me it has to do with those three?"
Luffy had been pretty determined that they had to sit with them at lunch time and that they all had to try and get along. So they did. But she had a feeling there was more. She could see it as that twinkle in the ebony eyes of that boy appeared.
"Exactly!" The boy with the straw hat grinned, bearing the rows of his white teeth. "They're going to come with us!'
"Honestly.. Luffy.. You can't just decide to take people with us because you think they are funny or something." She crossed her arms, determined to not let her friend have his way this time.
"It's not just that, Nami! We need them!"
"We don't. We'll be fine the three of us. The more people we take, the more troublesome it will be. Just think about it logically!" Nami, protested and then to her surprise Zoro started to object too.
But not to Luffy's idea.
"Three is too few. Luffy's right we could use extra crew."
There was that exciting little sparkle in his dark eyes too. What the hell? He wants them to come now, why? He made it pretty clear he disliked the loud and obnoxious little group.
"Zoro..?" She looked at him pointedly. He shrugged at her.
"Zoro just wants Saaaanjii to come so he can play fight with him!"
"S-shut up! Who wants him to come along!" The man hmph'ed and looked slightly embarrassed before one end of his lips turned upwards in a smug looking grin. "I just want to see how long that bastard could last on a ship."
"Why would you think he WANTS to come along with us?" The girl of the group asked the others and tried to make them think reasonably.
"Ha! I know he wants to. I just know it!" Luffy cheered, that ever confident smile on his face.
Even though sometimes.. most of the time the boy looked and acted like a complete moron there was something more to him, something a lot deeper. It was as if he sensed and knew things normal people had a hard time to notice. It was admirable actually, but she wouldn't let him know she thought that. He probably wouldn't even listen or understand.
"How do you know?"
"Instinct!"
"..."
"Luffy's right. That man wants something he's not getting here." There was an understanding between Zoro and Luffy. She could see it in the way they looked at each other. As if they both had noticed something she had failed too. Zoro shrugged, apparently gotten hint of her train of thoughts, "it's in his eyes."
The smaller boy nodded, "yeah. He's just like us and he's our friend now. So, are Usopp and Vivi!"
That's how it was decided,
Their faith's had been twisting around each other only for a small period of time but they were already so tangled there was no way out.
They would face the sea with six.
"UP TO THE GRAND LINE!!" Luffy cheered with all his might and threw his fist in the air. Zoro smiled excitedly and knocked his fist against the smaller one, soon joined by a feminine one.
"Ah, well, I guess there's no way out of it." The red head smiled and soon they were all laughing loudly. Excitedly.
Up to the grand line!
They could hardly wait.
---
Tuesday.
Much like the day before Sanji woke up startled with a familiar voice ringing in his head. He swallowed and let himself have a moment, wondering what had triggered the memories to set off again.
What changed?
His life was going well, quiet, boring but satisfying at least.
What did change?
Luffy, Nami and Zoro suddenly entering his life?
He shook his head. That wasn't it. But then what? The blonde felt awkward in his own skin as if there were something ahead of him that would change the life he had build for himself. That calm and comfortable life... shattered to pieces. He didn't want that, and yet he did. It was complicated.
The slender boy finally got out of his bed, shrugging the feeling off and went to the bath to wash himself up. There were things he had to do before he could go to school.
Lunch.
Tuesday.
Cleaning up.
The fucking moss ball was coming over, so he had to tidy up his small apartment. Not that it was a huge dirty mess, the opposite actually. But with that man, he needed everything to be perfect or he would probably laugh at him or something..
To tell the truth though, he didn't know the green head well enough to predict his reactions. Still he felt everything had to be clean and good looking. An urge of wanting to impress the green haired man burned as he went to vacuum the place.
---
The day went by fast. Much too fast in Zoro's opinion. Each ending period brought him closer to that inevitable meeting.
He and Sanji alone, together.
Right now he was fine with tolerating the man when they were with their lively group of friends. But that was just because there were others to annoy him then too. Being all alone with the guy didn't sit well with him.
The blonde's flirting and flaunting around the girl's, the constant smoking and that arrogant attitude of his.
Without anyone around would he be able to handle all that? But then again without the girl's around, would Sanji act differently? Maybe he would get even more on his nervs? Perhaps he would...
What if he comes on to you?
Fuck.
He didn't want to think about that. Those were just stupid rumours.
Don't trust anything out of that Rayl's mouth. That's what he tried to tell himself but his mind couldn't help but sweep in to the direction of 'what if's'.
With a little effort he banished those thoughts from his mind. He remembered lunch earlier that day. Sanji was offering Nami chocolates and whispering sweet compliments in to Vivi's ear.
The blonde boy would do anything to Nami's command. Poor guy was going to suffer big time if he really would come with them on their trip. The red head would probably dub him her personal slave. The darn woman could be a commanding wench sometimes and that would leave the blonde working over time to satisfy her, not getting anything in return.
So, there was nothing to worry about.
The guy went crazy for a pretty girl.
At the end of the six period, which was history and made for a good napping hour, he headed out towards the place they would meet with a fresh mind.
Zoro made it through the crowd that had gathered in the school building's halls and went over to the bike stables. It was a little less crowded there, but then there was a big risk to be run over by shitty kids on bicycles.
Once he saw the blonde with his bike standing at a quiet place a little further away from the crowd, waiting patiently while texting someone on his cell phone, he rushed over to him.
"Oi! Shithead!" He called out, making the blonde look up with a glare before he returned to his cell phone. Only when he had put the thing back in his bag did he reply to Zoro. Which annoyed the man to no extent.
"Where's your bike?" Sanji asked, looking curiously at Zoro.
"Don't have one."
"... It takes twenty minutes to my place by bike. We can't walk! It'll take forever."
"So, I'll just sit on the back."
"What!? How the fuck am I suppose to hold a fat muscled ass like you on my bike without falling over?"
A vein throbbed heavily on Zoro's head but was replaced quickly by a challenging curl of thin lips. Which to the blonde was the most irritating sight he had ever seen.
"Hmmhm. I see your point. What was I thinking? How could such a scrawny, weak little body like yours ever hold anyone on to the bike." The green haired man said casually with a sarcastic undertone. The pissed off look on the handsome blonde's features was quite a reward and only made the larger teenager smirk in delight.
"GET ON!!"
"Nhhh? Are you sure? I could ride the bike, you can sit at the back."
"I SAID GET ON YOU FUCKING SACK OF SHIT." Zoro could imagine puffs of smoke coming from the blonde's nostrils. He pretty much looked like a tiny dog with a much too loud of a bark. He'll probably quiver as much as Usopp when the big dog's would come after him. At least that's what Zoro thought.
Several people spared them a look at the yelling but he paid no regard to them as he lifted one leg to sit down on the pannier rack, a leg on each side. Which was the least said heavily uncomfortable to his manhood. He had to sit like this for twenty minutes?
"Weak little body my ass! I'll show you what this weak little body can do. Damn, toying with my mind. Shitty retarded moss ball. I'll show you weak."
Zoro almost rolled his eyes as he listened to the blonde's whiny mumblings. "Would you get going already?"
"SHUT UP! I have to prepare." Sanji said, waiting a few minutes for the majority of the crowd to have left. Then he carefully tested out how the bike felt with someone so large on the back of it. He stepped on the bike then off again and repeated the actions, trying to keep balance a little longer each time.
The green haired teenager could tell he was having trouble. It started to work on his nerves, the many times Sanji lifted himself up on the bike then got off of it again.
"Geez, just have some fucking confidence and stick to it!" Zoro bellowed out in a annoyance.
To his surprise Sanji didn't yell back and did as he was told.
They were finally moving forward for more than a second.
Crash.
Until they were on the ground.
"You damn idiot!" Zoro hissed.
His uncomfortable position had now become quite painful and he hurriedly got on his knees, away from the bicycle. The boy was only a little shocked when he saw the way Sanji had fallen down. "Oi!? Are you okay?"
The blonde grunted out a curse at him. He had his hands in the air and had obviously taken the blow of the fall to his shoulders and head.
"What the hell is wrong with you? It's that darn idiot head of yours that you have to protect." He said, relieved to see that the blonde wasn't hurt badly, he pulled the bike off of Sanji then yanked the guy from the ground.
"The hell! That was all your fault, you're the idiot!" The blonde said while rubbing the back of his scull. It hurt but it wasn't anything big. "Get off of my bike."
"Do you want to fall down again? Well, I don't, so get on the back."
With a lot of whining and cursing the blonde got on, resting his hands just slightly against the sides of Zoro's waist. He wasn't keen on falling off again. A slight blush covered his pale cheeks because of the accident. He didn't like that Zoro was managing to do something so easily, he himself had failed to do. The whole way to his apartment the blonde was pouting and whining.
Zoro just wished he wasn't going to be like that the whole day.
---
Sanji searched his school bag for his keys, and pulled a whole set of them out. Jiggling, as he placed one in the lock of his apartment door. They were at the second floor of a small building. The blonde couldn't be bothered by the fact that he probably looked poor to the other man, living is such a worn down building.
He wasn't really, he just had to save up as much money as he could to get a step closer to his dreams. Not having a fancy home was only a minor sacrifice.
The blonde held the door open for the green head then turned to lock it again. The other man looked unfazed, though he could see by the small frown on his face he was thinking things over.
The apartment was more of a loft. It was well kept, clean. The kitchen was open and could be seen clearly from the sitting room. If you'd look to the right you could also see his bed partly hidden by a wall, the open bedroom was one stair higher then the rest of the apartment floor. The bathroom was the only closed room, the opposite of where his bed stood.
There wasn't a whole lot of furniture in the loft but still it was obviously decorated with care and class.
"You live alone?" The expected question came from the larger man, as he looked around.
"Yeah. Have since two years. Make yourself comfortable." Sanji said as he ruffled through his bag to snatch up his cigarette's.
Zoro nodded and sat himself down on the two seat coach. It was a light beige colour, the fabric soft and flexible. "Nice place."
The blonde had just lit his cigarette and threw his lighter on the counter of his kitchen. He looked slightly surprised. "For real?"
"Yeah. It doesn't need much to look good. Besides it's cool you live alone."
That wasn't really what he had expected the man to say. Just shows that he really didn't know him at all. He smiled, yet tried to restrain himself from smiling too much. "You want something to drink?"
"Got beer?"
"Got wine."
"That'll do."
He saw Zoro bent forward, grabbing the tv controller off the low, light ochre coffee table. After some zapping he heard a beat and singing from the area. Not long after he brought two glasses and a bottle to where Zoro was.
He filled the long wine glasses with a light, white wine. Offering one to Zoro as he sat down on the coach himself.
"Thanks." Zoro said, bringing the glass to his lips and tasting the sweet liquor. It wasn't really his thing but it was better that some kiddy soda. "How's your head?" The green haired man asked pointing at the blonde's skull.
Sanji rubbed the back, it was still a bit soar but the pain had been ebbing slowly. "It's fine. Doesn't hurt as much now. It'll be a bump though." He said grinning widely as he stood up again and went to the area where his bed stood.
He disappeared for a moment behind the wall, where supposedly the rest of his bedroom laid hidden. The blonde came back carrying a black laptop with him. "We can search some information on the net. Got any idea about the subject yet?"
"What about swords?"
"Swords?" Sanji placed, the laptop on the low table and connected it with a wire that would give them access to the word wide web.
"Yeah, or kendo!"
"What's that?" The blonde asked, obviously not interested about anything to do with swords.
"It's a Japanese martial art of sword fighting."
"Sounds boring." Sanji sat down again next to the other man and opened his black laptop. His cigarette still in his mouth, he picked it up with his hands so he could draw out a long smoke from his lips and leaned back in to the coach. The laptop loading itself in the mean time.
"Kendo is anything but boring." Zoro said a little offended and slightly annoyed again.
"Well, I can't talk about something that doesn't interest me. I need a good grade."
"Then don't ask me if I have any ideas! I don't give a shit about this project anyway."
"You dumb marimo! You better not screw this up for me!"
"The hell you called me? Shitty ass blonde?"
"I'm not going to waste energy to repeat myself to a retard."
Little sparkles of negative energy jumped from blue to black eyes. Both of them working themselves up, remembering the fact that they actually couldn't stand each other.
Blue eyes narrowed at the sight of the marimo's lips twisting in some sort of anticipation. What the hell was he thinking?
Zoro leaned back, arms crossing, smug look in place. "So, what subject did you have in mind?"
The question not at all fitting with the air around the larger man.
Sanji looked warily at the him, ".. the art of cooking."
...
"The hell I'm gonna talk about a sizzy thing like cooking!!" Zoro bellowed, disbelieve in his voice. Honestly cooking? The art of cooking? No way! He stood up when he had spoken, almost as if wanting to look bigger so he could win the sudden argument.
The blonde followed suit, and stood straight on his long legs. His height not much from Zoro's own.
"Sizzy? You call cooking sizzy? You over grown moss ball!? I'm not going to talk about some macho, brainless sport about swords, got that? Weren't you suppose to pass that 'sword loving' stage and ten already?"
"Let's fight." That previous look on the slightly taller man's face became more clear. Was this something he had been waiting for? "Whoever wins gets to pick the subject."
"Tsk. Bastard." Sanji matched the other man's smirk, taking the small bud from his mouth and pushed it in the astray on the low table. "Like I couldn't handle you."
"You're all talk no action. Right, blondie?"
His respond was a firm feet against the jaw. Zoro's face went flying to the side.
"Apparently you're the one who is all talk." Sanji retorted, placing his hands in his black slacks' pockets.
A low chuckle was heard from his opponent before a strong fist met his stomach. Sanji coughed, not having expected such a fast responds.
Without furhter hesitation the blonde's leg was lifted up in the air and kicked with a strong amount of speed against Zoro's shoulder. The green haired man flew back through the air, his fall however saved by the soft coach.
The man jumped up quickly as the blonde charged another set of kicks his way. The green haired man could block some of them with his arms, looking hastily for a weakness, an oppening. Suddenly the man's eyebrows were furrowed, slightly confused as if he had noticed an abnormality.
He had.
Sanji was ready to make another high kick. The aim was the side of Zoro's head, he stood firm on one leg, the other raised high as it swifted throught the air.
It never made it's destination.
Zoro had dropped his own body to the ground, resting his weight on flat hands as he gave away a kick of his own. Connecting to the one leg Sanji was standing on. The kick took away the ground from under the blonde who crashed to the hard floor, landing on his back.
A hiss of pain made way out of the blonde's mouth. His eyes closed. Openened again when he felt a heavy weight on his stomach.
Shit.
Zoro was on top of him, a large fist aiming for his face. The blonde tried to squirm his way out from under the muscled man. He kicked his feet up, yet the other man was too far to the front to reach. Then he twisted and turned his hips. That didn't work out either.
The hell could a bastard like Zoro be so strong? Well, he did look very strong but still! Sanji was trained by the old man Zeff himself! He couldn't be defeated like this!
Sanji closed his eyes, readying himself for the blow. A blow that never came.
He peeked one eye open and stared at the fist. It had stopped mid air by a frowning green head. "Wha-?'
"Fight." The bigger man demanded, looking as if he was noticing that abnormality again.
The blonde teenager started to wriggle again, trying to get the man off of him. "What do you think I'm doing shithead?!"
"Use your hands." Came the firm reply.
"Oh." So, that was what Zoro had noticed. "I can't."
The fist lowered. The fighting lust had been conquered by curiosity. "How come?"
Sanji leaned his upperbody up a little on his arms, feeling just a tad bit uncomfortable in the position they were in. "They're important. It doesn't matter if I hurt my legs ´cause I'll still be able to cook."
Zoro couldn't really tell when exactly, but somewhere along the line he started noticing lips. Lips? Yeah, lips, thin once that were actually speaking to him in a calm manner.
"Euhm, c-cook?"
Sanji raised a curly eyebrow, wondering about the sudden stutter in Zoro's voice. He better not be saying it's a sizzy thing to cook again! Hell, if he did, he'll somehow get out of underneath the heavy man and kick him real hard in the balls.
"Yeah, cook." He said with a frown and a hard stare. Challenging the other man to make a stupid remark about it.
Something was really off though. The marimo was completely unfocused at the moment.
He licked his lips, feeling the sudden urge to proof himself. "Want a taste?" He asked looking straight in to the black eyes of the man on top of him.
"What the hell?" Zoro asked, slight anger in his voice. Was the shit blonde trying to make fun of him or something?
What if he comes on to you?
The unwanted voice rang in his head again. Sanji couldn't be..? Could he?
"If you want a taste?" The blonde asked again, confused by the other man's reaction. Right now he wasn't really sure whether he should be pissed off or not.
"A taste of what!?"
"My damn cooking! Fuck. What's wrong with you?"
"Oh. Alright." There was a relieved touch to the muscled teenager's voice.
"What the hell did you think I was asking?"
"Ehh? Nothing." Zoro said quickly as he stood up. He offered a hand to help the blonde up but it was left hanging in the air, ignored.
With a slight frown Sanji went in to his kitched area. Followed quick by the green head.
"What you want?"
"Dunno," Zoro shrugged, "whatever's your speciality or something."
"I don't have a speciality I'm good at everything."
"..."
-
It took Sanji about fourty minutes to whip up something decent.
Zoro had been looking over his shoulder the entire time. It was kind of fun to watch the other man. It was obvious the blonde was in his element. He seemed to be just as happy as he would be surrounded by a group of hot chicks. No, probably even happier.
"Eh, you going to put eggs in there? I thought you said you were done?" The taller man stood paying attention to how Sanji was suddenly throwing raw eggs in the mixture he said was going to be the sauce.
"It's done. I just need to whip this upp."
"We're eating raw eggs?" Zoro made a look of disgust.
"It's healthy! Besides you're not going to taste it. Trust me."
"Hmph. Like I'd trust you." The green haired man walked back to the sitting area and took a seat in the coach again, waiting for the food to be served.
"Asshole!"
"Shithead."
Zoro refilled their glasses of wine when Sanji walked over with two large white plates. On top of them laid nicely displayed beef steak with a thick sauce and wokked vegetables on the sides.
Zoro couldn't deny the hypnotizing smell of the food. It both looked and smelled delicious.
"Eat up." Sanji said, passing Zoro a fork and a knive and sat down himself.
It didn't take too long before Zoro had his mouth stuffed. "This shit is delicious!"
The blonde beamed, "really?" Obviously taking a lot of joy out of the compliment.
Funny. Zoro thought he'd only look like that when a girl would compliment him. Apparently not.
He nodded and took another bite, "it's like ten times better than my girlfriend's food."
"..."
He was picking up some of the vegetables with his fork. In the back of his mind the sudden silence felt strange. But the food was too good to let that distract him.
"EEEEEHHHH!?!? You have a girlfriend!?"
Zoro swallowed down the food, startled by the sudden scream then simply said, "yes."
"What the hell? How come I don't know? Nobody mentioned it."
"That's because nobody knows, idiot. At least not them," he said, 'them' referring to the people that usually sat at their now common lunch table.
"Awww," Sanji whined as he started to cut his meat, "how come a brute like you has a girlfriend?"
"Brute like me?" Zoro repeated, irritated.
"What's she like?"
Zoro shrugged, not liking the direction of their conversation. "She's a pain in the ass. Tricked me in going out with her."
Sanji looked shocked, "WHHAAAT? How can you talk about your own girlfriend like that!? Asshole! She´s too good for you!"
"How the hell would you know? I haven't even told you who she is!"
"Talking about women like this.. You deserve absolutely no girl," he shook his head in disapproval and sipped his wine. "Women should be treated gently with care and respect."
"You can't treat her gently or she'll bite your head off!" Zoro said putting another piece of meat in to his mouth. Almost losing himself in the bliss of the sweet taste.
"Do you even love her?" The blonde asked with a curly eyebrow raised skeptically.
It took a second for Zoro to answer. You know, because it was one of those hard question you actually had to think about. "Yes. I wouldn't have let her trick me if I didn't," the answer finally sounded.
Suddenly Sanji's lips curled in a sad, sweet smile that left Zoro wondering. The blue eye showed that the blonde was somewhere far away, not in this room. He couldn't deny the fact that he had a sudden urge to lay an arm around the blonde youth. Only to show him a bit of comfort, of course.
But what would he be comforting him about?
"Oi, Sanji?" He decided to keep it to just talking. Touching would be weird, really weird.
"That's nice atleast. But I still think you don't deserve her." The cook resumed the conversation, letting out a little huff before eating from his meal again.
In the end the evening went by quick. After dinner they talked, occasionally they fought about something petty or yelled at each other but mostly they talked about things. Calmly. Sanji told Zoro a bit of why cooking was so important to him
That he had to defeat some shitty old cook that was supposedly the best damn cook in the world. He told Zoro that the man was floating somewhere in sea on a huge ship that was actually a restaurant.
To his own surprise he loved hearing the cook talk. He sounded happy when it had to do with cooking. He was only half as annoying as he was when he was around the others, and especially the opposite gender.
Zoro's biggest and probably most upsetting discovery was how he loved the blonde's smile. When he was really smiling.
That just left him with a confused and bitter after taste. Honestly, he wasn't sure how to handle that knowledge he had obtained about himself. So, he let it slide. Why stress himself about something that was probably a feeling of some sort of friendship?
They were going to become nakama afterall.
Even if Sanji didn't know that piece of information yet. Though Zoro thought it would fit perfectly with the blonde cook's dreams.
It had already become passed midnight when he decided to leave Sanji's place. Both of the guy's were highly embarrased that they hadn't even started working on their project yet. They decided to work on it when they had a free period at school and then work it out further in the weekend.
Following the direction Sanji had given him he ended up at a tram stop, he had taken a wrong turn somewhere so it took him a little longer than expected but he made it at least, and that was what mattered. After taking the tram he got home easily.
As he placed his key in to the house's door lock, he didn't even have to turn it before the door was opened from the inside.
He frowned.
Nobody should be home since his foster father was on a business trip. He couldn't think of anyone else that had a key to their house. When he looked up, he saw it was a young woman who had opened the door. Smiling seductively at him.
Zoro grunted. So it was her.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Aaand Cut!
I had to stop myself or this chapter would never end! x3
Thank you for the reviews on the last chap! It was very encouraging to hear what you all had to say =D And thanks to 'Queenoffiction' for giving me advice about Zoro's character! I'm sure he's still not completely like the Zoro we all know, but darn he's hard to get down on paper! I at least hope I improved a little~~
Also, I'm not sure about the word 'coach' but when I looked it up it seemed right... It still seems off though..
And last, I changed the title to 'common dreams' because the long title started to piss me off XD
Leave me a review? I love them~~~ =D
Hope you all enjoyed!