Sanji stared at the scene before him. Zoro propped up on his left shoulder staring at him with the faintest hint of a smile on his face. At first Sanji was beyond bewildered. But then what was really going on sank in. Zoro was not giving him a warm smile, he was giving him a smug smile. Immediately Sanji's face heated up and his right leg shifted upwards on instinct.
"Why you little- what are you smiling about!?" This made Zoro chuckle weakly, which turned into a horrible coughing fit. Sanji watched as Zoro curled up in the sick bed, covering his mouth with one hand as he violently coughed.
"O-Oi, easy!" Sanji felt his previous anger become replaced with worry. Zoro finally stopped coughing and he breathed heavily. More sweat dropped from his face and his cheeks flushed a dark red. His eyes then parted again, very slightly, and he began to move. Zoro shifted onto his back and then he began to sit up. Sanji immediately dove towards him and supported his back as he sat up. Zoro winced in pain and, when he was properly propped up, began breathing heavily from the effort. Sanji sat back down and watched Zoro try to steady his breathing. Finally the swordsman swallowed thickly and spoke in a very horse and very weak voice.
"W-Water..." It took Sanji a while to realize that he had said the word 'water'. He needed a drink of water. Sanji immediately turned his attention to a small table near the bed with a cup of water and a bowl of soup he had made earlier, though it was probably already cold. He went for the water and then handed it to Zoro. He grasped the water in his weak fingers. His hands shook slightly as he brought the cup up to his dry lips. He downed the cold water in one gulp and gasped for air when he removed it from his lips. He seemed to regain some strength from rehydrating himself since his eyes opened more and he was able to prop himself up further on the bed by himself.
"T...Thanks..." Zoro mumbled, so softly that Sanji almost did not hear it. Sanji waited a bit longer so that Zoro could get into a relaxed position before asking,
"Are you hungry? I've got some soup you could-" Sanji was interrupted by Zoro shaking his head slowly. He then let out a low sigh and looked at the cook.
"W...where am I...?" He asked. He sounded as if he were possibly going to lose his voice at some point, so Sanji urged him not to talk too much.
"We're still on the Sunny." Sanji said. "We're in the infirmary." Zoro seemed to relax a little, perhaps thinking they were somewhere else besides the pirate ship.
"I guess I should also tell you that the others are gone." Sanji lay back in his chair. "We docked at an island and they left to find some ingredients for medicine for you. All except Franky who is up there working on the ship." Sanji jabbed a thumb to the deck above. Zoro groaned loudly and rubbed his temple.
"You've gotta be kidding me." He mumbled. "They left to find me medicine? Damn I know Chopper is a paranoid guy, but I didn't know He was THIS paranoid." Sanji raised an eyebrow.
"My aren't you talkative all of a sudden." Zoro grunted at him.
"Also Chopper's not being paranoid, he's just worried since your infection is pretty bad." Zoro looked up at Sanji with a cocked eyebrow.
"What infection?" Sanji opened his mouth to say something, but let out a sigh instead when he realized what was going on. Zoro had most likely forgotten about everything that happened before he blacked out. Sanji was just annoyed that he had to explain it all again.
"Look," he began, "remember when you got shot in the foot?" Zoro seemed thoughtful for a second before he nodded slowly.
"Well apparently the wound got infected and you got sick. Chopper doesn't have a cure so he left with everyone except Franky and I to find ingredients." Zoro understood after a few seconds and nodded. It seemed that the water had given him more energy since he was moving a lot more and some color was back on his face. Zoro turned to Sanji and opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a horse whisper and then a cough, reminding Sanji that he was still not well. When Zoro had regained his voice he spoke, but it was much quieter that how he had been speaking before. If he kept coughing his voice would be completely gone in no time.
"Why were you left here?" Zoro asked. Sanji could have sworn that he sensed a slight hint of mocking from the swordsman, but it was drowned out by the sheer hoarseness of his voice. Sanji answered him with a shrug.
"Luffy picked randomly. I wouldn't have been able to switch if I wanted to." Zoro looked slightly confused.
"Wait so you didn't want to switch?" Sanji cocked a brown at him before realizing his mistake. His face flushed a bright red and his muscles tensed.
"O-Of course I wanted to switch!" He practically yelled. "I just mean I couldn't have switched because when Luffy sets his mind to something you can't change it no matter what you do, so I just didn't bother trying!" Zoro smiled menacingly at making Sanji so flustered. Sanji crossed his arms and almost went for a cigarette before stopping himself and simply closing his eyes so that he did not have to look at the shitty Marimos smug face. But then Sanji was reminded of something.
"Oi, shitty swordsman." Zoro responded with a glare, obviously not wanting to speak to Sanji, but the cook possibly guessed he would not be able to even if he tried. Zoro looked exhausted and was struggling to keep his eyes open. His few moments of strength had been used up and he needed to rest, but Sanji needed his question answered.
"When you woke up you...smiled at me..." Sanji suddenly felt slightly awkward asking the question. "Why?" Zoro squinted at Sanji in an angry/confused look.
"Why would I ever smile at you shitty cook?" Sanji rolled his eyes.
"It wasn't a nice smile. More like a 'I know something you don't' smile." Sanji elaborated. Zoro frowned.
"I...don't remember doing that..." Sanji knew Zoro was telling the truth since he seemed to get lost in thought, trying to remember. "I don't even remember waking up." Sanji grimaced. Obviously something about the illness was affecting his memory, but it did not seem too bad. Just some small memory gaps here and there. If he suddenly forgot who he was or one of the crew mates then that would be bad, but it did not seem like it would get that bad. But Sanji felt disappointed. He really wanted to know why Zoro smiled, and in that specific way. Zoro knew something Sanji did not. Would he ever figure out what that something was?
"It's fine." Sanji said to the swordsman as he struggled to obtain his lost memories. "You don't really need to remember something as useless as that." Zoro stopped straining his brain and nodded. Even though Sanji knew Zoro would have stopped eventually, he noticed how quickly he decided to give in. He was being so submissive, especially towards Sanji. Was it because they were closer than they were before, or maybe he took pity on Sanji. The cook really hoped it was not the second one, he hated it when people took pity on him. Thinking he was weak and unable to fend for himself. It made him sick. But something inside of him made Sanji believe that it was not pity, but not respect either. Then what was it!? Sanji was so annoyed at how mysterious the moss-head was being. It made him angry and frustrated. Why? It should not have been be bothering Sanji so much, but it was. It made him want to shake the answers out of the damn bastard. For some reason being in the dark when it came to Zoro was just...so aggravating! And Sanji had no idea why.
"Can...you get some more water...?" Sanji heard Zoro ask in a weak voice, but it was different. Zoro seemed slightly embarrassed about asking Sanji to do something so simple. Sanji simply shook his head and smiled.
"Sure thing. Oh! And don't go anywhere while I'm gone. Chopper would kill me!" Zoro snorted.
"As if I'll be able to." He sighed out quietly. He was right. Zoro was too weak to so much as move an arm, plus the wound on his leg was still healing. If he put any pressure on it it would hurt like a bitch. "Just get back here soon. I hate waiting." Sanji rolled his eyes and stood up out of the chair he was sitting in and walked over to the door. He then opened it, stepped out and closed it softly behind him. As soon as he did Sanji Immediately stuffed his hand on his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. He bit down on the filter and took out his lighter and lit the tip. He breathed in the smoke with a large breath and let it out in a long sigh. He stood with his back against the wall for a few seconds before making his way to the galley to grab the glass of water Zoro asked for.
Sanji opened the door to his favorite place on the Sunny and then made his way to the kitchen area. He went to the cupboard and pulled out a glass then went to the sink and filled the cup up with fresh cold water. He then made his way down the hall, thinking about the questions that he would never get answered, and all of them were for that damn Marimo bastard. When Sanji really thought about the questions he knew that they were stupid and unreasonable. Why did he smile? Was he ok? That stuff, but the bigger questions on Sanjis mind were was Zoro awake when Sanji was asking Chopper about him? Did Zoro know that their relationship had changed after their time at the base? The swordsman was good at hiding his emotions and thoughts so Sanji was unsure if Zoro knew these things. Sanji let out an annoyed sigh through his cigarette. It was going to be one long day.
ZOSAN
Sanji sat back in his chair and sighed. He simply sat in thought for a second before his face grew hard and he leaned over to the bedside table to grab the cold soup that had been left there for almost an hour. Sanji straightened back up to see that Zoro had opened a single eye as he lay on the sick bed. He gave the cook a 'what are you doing?' Look since he had completely lost his voice after another coughing fit a few minutes prior. Sanji rolled his eyes and stuck the soup bowl out in front of him.
"You need to eat something if you want to get some strength back." Sanji then sighed and rubbed his face with one hand. He heard Zoro give a weak grunt before shifting in his bed. Sanji watched as Zoro moved to have his back to Sanji. This did not make the cook happy.
"Oi! Don't avoid this! You need to eat." Zoro did not respond, but his stomach did. Zoro flinched at the sudden noise while Sanji simply rolled his eyes and sighed. "See? You're hungry. You haven't eaten anything since this morning, and even then you barely ate anything. We went four weeks without any food and you still starve yourself?" Zoro still remained silent, but only for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh and shifting into his back. He looked up at Sanji with tired eyes and began to sit up. Sanji placed the soup bowl down to help the swordsman into a comfortable position. He then picked the bowl back up and handed it to Zoro. He took it and looked at it for a second before shrugging and taking a spoonful.
"It might be a bit cold." Sanji muttered, not sure why he had to point that out. Zoro would figure it out in his own. He was not THAT stupid. Zoro looked to Sanji and then back to his spoon of soup. He raised it to his lips and sipped the soup out. He swallowed thickly and squinted his eyes in slight pain. Sanji then realized that it had to be because his throat was sore from all of the coughing. It had to hurt to drink anything that was liquid. Sanji made a mental note to feed him something else besides soup to minimize his pain.
After a few seconds Zoro had eaten less than a third of the soup before setting it down in his lap. He looked up at Sanji with a look that told him he was not about to finish the whole thing. Sort of like the look a toddler would give when their parents told them to finish the vegetables on their dinner plate when they did not want to, but it was a lot more menacing on a mans face. Sanji glared right back at the swordsman, not pleased.
"I'm not about to let you waste food you shitty Marimo bastard." Sanji said in a dangerous tone. Zoro seemed to not care about how thin he was drawing the line since he shrugged and handed it to Sanji. The cook ignored this gesture and instead placed his hands in his pockets and darkened his glare.
"You've gotta finish it. You barely ate anything for weeks. I'm not letting you go hungry, even if you annoy the hell out of me." Zoro glared right back at Sanji to indicate that he was not about to listen to the man. Sanji was about to lash out at the green haired man. He would not hurt him too much, maybe just ruff him up a bit so that he would get the message Sanji was trying to send him. That was until he realized what could really be going on. The reason why Zoro was not hungry was possibly because of the illness he had. Maybe it made him feel less hungry then he actually was. That was why he barely ate anything at breakfast after four weeks of absolutely nothing, the exception being few pieces of stale bread here and there, but that was absolutely it.
After realizing this, Sanji became a little less angry. It was not Zoros fault. He was just sick. Even though when it came to food Sanji rarely thought anything was an excuse for not eating. But he let it slide just that once, but the next time Zoro rejected food Sanji would not hesitate to drive his foot through his head.
Sanji sighed and took the bowl from Zoros outstretched hand. He placed it on the counter, reminding himself to give it to Zoro later. There was no way he could eat it himself or give it to someone else because it was contaminated, so he would just heat it up again and give it to Zoro some other time. With that Sanji sat back in his chair and watched as Zoro shifted back onto his back to rest. He looked much better. His face was back to its normal color and his breathing was a lot less labored. Even though this was the case, he was still very sick. He needed the cure otherwise he could never get better. Sanji rested his head on the top of the back of the chair and stared at the ceiling. They just needed a cure, then Zoro would be alright. This was Sanjis last thought before he felt his eyes shut and his mind drift off into sleep.
