Sanji was up before nine. He productively straightened up his appearance by taking a shower, brushing his teeth, combing his hair, and dressing up in a crisp, new suit. He even smoked two cigarettes so he would not bitch at Zoro as soon as they meet. When he heard hard knuckles tapping against his door, he tentatively tiptoed towards the entryway. His chest pounding loudly in his ears. It's just the marimo, he told himself. He pulled the door open as he stood poised against the wall next to the door. "Yo," he greeted with a light smile, his eyes flicking to the man's tanned expression.

Zoro appeared terrible, haggard and disheveled. The rims of his eyes were red with heavy bags beneath them. Any visible parts that were not covered by his clothes, like his arms and cheeks, were bruised. Sanji winced with guilt, assuming that those wounds were from himself.

"Hey, love-cook." Zoro yawned loudly as he webbed his fingers over his mouth. "Did you go get your manicures done, too?" He was referring to the blond's straightened appearance, of course.

"You look terrible," the blond commented, unintentionally rude.

The swordsman sourly glared his way and clicked his tongue. "Fuck you, piss off." Then Zoro slid past the blond, their shoulders softly brushing past one another. In a zombie-like trance, he then collapsed onto a couch and immediately began to snore. His legs hanging lifelessly by the edge since his height was much longer than the length of the couch.

With his mouth agape, Sanji stared at the man.

Bastard-

He noticed the marimo's sleeping face. The relaxed features, not a single line of stress creased along his tanned skin. It warmed Sanji's heart, for some weird fucking reason. It was probably this nurturing side of him that forbid any person to be not taken care of.

Sanji slid open his white closet, across from his bed, in his bedroom, and pulled down a downy blanket. He stuffed the heavy rolled up blanket into his arms and sprawled it on top of Zoro, who snored with his mouth open.

As expected, Sanji's hands already felt better, though it still stung when he moved them around too much. Since he did not want to exert them too much, he settled for a box of cheerios for breakfast. He could not go another day without eating the most important meal of the day, after all.

Before leaving, while fixing the collar of his shirt, properly tucking his red tie underneath the flaps at the base of his neck, he took a quick glance at Zoro. He was unattractively snoring still, with his mouth dumbly opened, and eyelids halfway shut; however, it was kind of... cute...

Sanji frowned. In a teddy bear way, of course, right? This brute is not cute at all, get it together Sanji.

He walked towards the man, curious. Curious of what? He did not know. But he stopped abruptly when a noisy ringtone played from the inner pocket of Zoro's pants. The blond somewhat panicked because he, without thinking, reached into his pocket and answered the phone. His only line of thought was that he did not want to wake the man up.

A low tone of voice asked, "Zoro, baby?" He sounded young and playful. "Hang out with us! You've been neglecting us for far too long," he whined. "You can bring Kuina if you want. I'll buy you guys drinks and I know you like alcohol! Come on, honey, answer me."

Sanji suppressed a laugh. It was hilarious how this man called that brute of a man 'honey' and 'baby'. He already liked this boisterous, energetic man. "Sorry, man. This is someone else. Mosshead is currently passed out on my couch, I'll pass on the message though."

There was a slight pause on the other line. "What? You're a dude, it's early in the morning, and Zoro is sleeping on your couch?" Uh oh... The man laughed. "Zoro, you fucking sneak. Don't worry, your secrets are safe with me."

The blond groaned, "It's not what it sounds like, mosshead can explain the full story to you later."

There was another pause before the man spoke up. "You guys have pet names for each other?" He asked, teasingly.

"What?" Dammit! Those weren't pet names. Those were just names that they called each other that weren't their real names... "I meant Zoro," he corrected himself, though it sounded terribly weird saying the man's real name. But he didn't want the man on the line getting any weird ideas about their relationship, which was strictly acquaintanceship.

"Oh, don't stop because of me," he teased again. Before Sanji could respond, he quickly added, "Make sure to drag Zoro to the usual place. He'll know what that means. But before I hang up, what is your name, mysterious man?"

Mysterious man? Hm, what a nice ring to it.

"Sanji," he answered with a smirk.

The man on the line chuckled, "Nice to meet you, I'm Ace. If you can, come with Zoro tonight. It'll be fun, I promise, bye!" The line ended with a click, and although the call had been short, Sanji felt like he had been talking forever. He gently placed the phone back inside the marimo's pocket and stood back on his feet.

Then before heading out the door, Sanji left a little sticky note, messily written, for Zoro to read later on.

. . .

Few people greeted Sanji when he entered the training room. The pungent body odors were hard to miss, but the variety of martial arts being practiced everywhere was enough of a distraction for him. Bon came to stop by, to show the kids the techniques to his okama kenpo, in addition to few fluttering touches here and there towards Sanji's groin, which he slapped away. In order to get away from the man, he excused himself to the bathroom, which was few paces down the hallways, past the kendo room.

He glimpsed inside and saw the kendo teacher, whose appearance was strange for a teacher. Dark shadows covering his eyes, small goatee on his chin, two golden hoop earrings on each side of his ears, and a black and yellow sweater with a sinister symbol printed on it. Huh, strange man.

The kendo teacher noticed the blond's curious stares and smiled as a response. Not one of those pleasant smiles either, it was one of those nasty grins that a scientist have before digging into their subjects, or patients. The cook turned his gaze away, hastily, and went back to his own room, where the children were waiting impatiently. He silently wondered what kind of relationship or acquaintanceship (an assumption from what he had heard from their conversation the day before) Zoro had with that evil looking man.

Quite unexpectedly, the children jumped at him as soon as he entered the room. He plopped beneath tiny, wiggling bodies as they shouted, "We got him!" in excited tone of voices.

Guess it's not hugs.

"Mr. Blackleg, can we get our black belts now?" A young boy asked with a wide, childish grin planted on his face. He was sitting on Sanji's spine, tiny butt poking at his bones.

In a quick and flexible motion, he stretched his legs and spun, lightly kicking the kids away from him. Then he rolled over to his back before picking himself up without the usage of his hands. The kids who were hit were all sprawled out on the floor, dramatically groaning like soldiers who had been hit and had blood squirting out of them.

"Let me let you in on something, kid. It's dishonorable to attack a single person with a huge group- especially a surprise attack like that. It's cowardly and weak," he paused. The kids were staring at him with their wide, innocent eyes, appearing pitiful and ashamed. Sanji decided to soften his blows, "So, don't do it again, alright? Become people who don't need a huge group to fight against a single person." He smiled, "Now, for those who attacked me, give me fifty push-ups."

The children groaned but followed the order without a further ado.

When Zoro opened his eyes, he half-expected the place to be his own place: dingy, messy, and dim. However, by seeing the bright colors of blue splashed all over the living room, he knew that the place he was in was far from the word 'dingy'.

As he stirred, he felt a warm blanket over him, which was terribly fluffy and comforting. It forbid him from wanting to escape this luxury of coziness. The couch he slept on was much more comfortable than his own bed at home too. He wanted to sleep again, but the alluring affect of this couch was not enough for him from searching around the house, looking for the missing cook.

It was too quiet. Where is that gay cook?

The house was rather strange and lonely without that blond twirling around everywhere, cursing and biting with each word, throwing kicks towards Zoro with every chance, and smoking up the room with that sharp tang of his cigarettes. Where is he?

The swordsman peeked open into every doors to find the cook, but the man was nowhere to be found; instead, he found a note written by the cook on top of the table. A bright yellow sticky note that had a whole lot of insults at top but with real information on the bottom. For breakfast, you can eat those cheerios on the counter. I'll be back by noon. I'm going to work.

Huh. The cook actually let him sleep. Maybe within those layers of bitchiness and prissy traits, there was a soft bit of him?

Following the man's advice, Zoro pulled open the refrigerator door to pull out a gallon of whole milk, and grabbed a box of cheerios. He never liked American tradition of breakfast, since it was always something light; whereas in Japan, it was normal that people ate rice in the morning. But he wasn't about to complain since they weren't instant noodles.

After a few bowls of cheerios, he made himself a sandwich and watched television. It really was quiet without that annoying blond around.

Sanji stayed behind to train after all the kids have left. He had a rival now, and he was determined not to lose for a second time.

He used a punching bag as a replacement for an opponent; with each hit, his kicks became more vicious and powerful. He recalled the very feeling of powerlessness against Zoro, and although it sparked that determination and excitement in him, he was also angry. "Damn you, marimo," he cursed before rotating his body to deliver a final kick to the punching bag, sending it straight across the room. The sand poured out of the rip he created, creating a huge mess on the floor.

Shit, not another one.

There was a light chuckle filling up the empty silence of the room. The blond turned, warily, with his palms sweating.

"Ah, you caught me," he said in a flat tone of voice, putting his hands up like a culprit. He, as in the kendo teacher, Sanji noted that there was a real sword wrapped around in one of his raised hands. A real fucking sword.

The blond also noted how they were alone in this room, maybe even the entire building.

"What do you want?" Sanji asked coldly, standing straight, trying not to stare at the fucking sword in his hand.

The man grinned, "I'm curious about how much you heard yesterday."

He knows.

Sanji froze, surprised at the fact that this man knew that it had been him eavesdropping at their conversation the day before. Calmly, the blond pulled out a stick from his cigarette pack, freshly bought this morning. Then his porcelain, lean fingers cupped around his cigarette as a form of habit before lighting the end of the stick.

Oddly, the other man drank every move of his, watching with his dark obsidian eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he slurred, feeling the smoke roll around his tongue. Then, in a leisure form of motion, he breathed out, exhaling from the puckered lips of his.

The kendo teacher shrugged, "Whatever. Tell Zoro I said hi." He grinned smugly.

"Like hell! Get out of here," he growled, forgetting momentarily about the sword.

The man with dark rings around his eyes gave him a cold stare, stepping closer to Sanji's personal bubble. "Let me tell you something, Mr. Blackleg. As your fellow coworker, I suggest that you don't pry into Roronoa Zoro's life. Don't ask him about his past, present, or future. This is not a threat, this is a safety precaution measure that I am merely informing you about." He shook his head, "That man is truly the devil."

Sanji swallowed, baffled by the fact that this man was actually trying to warn him about Zoro. It must be a threat though, why else bring a sword to a conversation? Thing were so bizarre now, only a few days ago he was living a regular life as a chef; now, he was the main character of some crazy adventurous crime TV show.

"I can't promise you anything," he responded.

The man shook his head before turning around, facing the door. "Very well then, I can't change your mind. Have a nice day." He turned the corner and left, walking away from Sanji's field of vision.

What just happened?

Zoro was practically dying of boredom while watching a few children shows. He exercised in front of the TV to multitask; to keep himself busy, but his patience was running out. It was way past the blond's shift, so why wasn't that idiot home yet?

When he heard the swing of the door, he jumped up with excitement and ran over to greet Sanji. The cook stared at him in surprise when he was met with Zoro's sudden enthusiasm. "Uh, hi, marimo."

"Oi, curlybrow, what took you so long," he grouched as he trotted alongside the blond.

"I don't know, Zoro, you tell me." From hearing his actual name, his ears perked up with surprise. "The kendo teacher came to talk to me, to ask about what I heard from your conversation with him."

Zoro raised an eyebrow, "What? What happened?" A streak of aggravation brewed in his chest, shooting straight up to his head.

There was confusion written on the blond's face, "That's what I wanted to ask you about. What did I hear yesterday, between you and him?"

That was way too close to his personal boundaries. "None of your business," he told him, rudely. It was his automatic defense mechanism on a topic like this, which was about him.

Sanji took a step forward, popping Zoro's personal bubble, pointing his dangerous finger to his face. His nose was almost touching his own, so close that he smelt the scent of cigarettes when it seeped inside his nostrils. Sanji spoke in a low, menacing tone, "It is my business, you idiot. You know why? He came to me with a real fucking sword in his hand, to ask me some casual questions. I don't know if that's normal between you and him, or not, but that's not how the real world works, okay? Now, give me some damn satisfying answers. I am not about to be killed because I accidentally heard a conversation I wasn't supposed to."

Damn, he suspected that Law knew, but he didn't think that the guy would approach the blond about it. "Shitty cook, calm down. It's good that you don't know anything, alright?"

"Know what!?" The blond screeched.

Zoro took a few steps away from the blond, a safe distance from those legs of his. "Calm the hell down," he repeated as he put his two palms in front of him.

The blond walked away while puffing on more of his cigarettes as he walked towards the kitchen, to fix something for he and Zoro to eat. However, to prevent Sanji from injuring his hands any further, Zoro stopped him. No way in hell was he going to be stuck with this prissy blond for the rest of his life out of guilty conscience because he couldn't properly take care him for a week.

"I'll make a sandwich for the two of us, so lay off."

Sanji raised a curious eyebrow. "Are you sure you can even make a sandwich?" he asked, incredulous.

As Zoro spread out the ingredients from the refrigerator in front of him, he grumbled, "Probably not as good as a chef (he said in a sarcastic tone), but good enough for it to be edible," he snorted. Why did it matter if something was good or not. As long as it filled up the stomach, it was totally fine.

The blond disregarded his comment as he jumped back to their previous topic, "Are you going to tell me or not, shitty marimo?"

"No way, ero-cook." Again and again, will this blond never stop sticking his nose into places where it doesn't belong?

Sanji impatiently sighed, "Why not, shitty marimo? I almost died." Of course he was exaggerating, Zoro knew Trafalgar wasn't the guy to kill without a reason.

"Look, man. It's not you, there's a reason why I lay off of these kinds of topics. Just drop it, ask another question." He threw in as a bait, hoping the blond could catch the drift and bite down on the worm.

He pulled up a chair to join Sanji at the table, placing one plate in front of Sanji and the other in front of himself. The blond curiously picked up the sandwich and bit into it, a small bite like a mouse. "It is pretty edible," he commented afterwards.

"Bastard."

There were a few seconds of silence, filled with the chewing of their food and sips of their water, which Zoro got for the two of them.

"So, what made you start swordsmanship," Sanji asked, filling in the silence.

Huh. Out of all the things, why is he curious about this one? The thought was quickly replaced by all the recollections he had during childhood, at his favorite dojo, where he learned swordsmanship with Kuina.

"I didn't really know much about swords until I met Kuina and her father. I think at the age of nine, I just wanted to be the strongest man alive, or just be best at something. Swordsmanship was the first thing that was offered to me, so I took it."

Sanji finished chewing before speaking up again. "Kuina... does she know how to wield swords, too?" This blond seemed to be interested in Kuina from day one. Obviously this guy was trying to score his girlfriend.

The swordsman furrowed his eyebrows. Although it was nice getting these pleasant recollections, it was frustrating all the same. "Yeah, she knows how to wield swords, and damn, she's fucking good at it. When we were young, she used to be number one in the dojo, ahead of all the kids and adults."

Sanji's eyes widened in surprise. He silently urged Zoro to continue with a nod of his head. He was a good listener, Zoro gave him that credit.

"When I first entered that dojo, I challenged the strongest one, which was her, but I was offended because she was a girl. I thought I would be able to beat her easily," he paused to take a bite out of his sandwich. "But I was dead wrong, she kicked my ass with just one hit," he swallowed after the last word. "Then, I trained every day time to beat her. I skipped school all the time to go to the dojo, since I always preferred training anyways. Now it's a dream of mine to become the best swordsman." Zoro grinned by the end of his story. He had never told his story to another human being before; and since Kuina was a part of his past, she always knew without being told. He had told his dreams to a bunch of his friends, but never the story behind it. Sanji was truly the first in that category.

As Sanji scoffed down every last bit of the sandwich, even the small crumbs from the crust scattered on the plate, Zoro patiently waited for a response.

"I guess there is a reason why that lovely lady has a thing for you," he mumbled with a slight pout.

Zoro blinked in surprise. "A compliment?" Hell probably froze over because Sanji gave him a compliment.

"First and the last, marimo." The tips of his ears blushed. "Now, do the dishes."

Obediently, to prevent the blond from injuring his hands any further, Zoro picked up both of their plates and began to wash the dishes. Sanji began to speak again behind him, but the green haired man couldn't grasp what he was saying. "What?" he yelled out.

"I said," Sanji began, stretching the first two syllables, "that one of your friends named Ace called earlier to tell you to meet them at the usual place. He invited me, too."

Zoro turned the faucet off and dried his hands on his grey sweatpants. "Huh, when did you talk to him?"

"This morning since you were sleeping. I just answered your call earlier." The blond fidgeted and avoided his gaze as he talked, appearing guilty as hell.

He knew that Sanji had only meant well. He really, really did, but he couldn't help but to feel irritation rising to his temples. "You should have just fucking woke me up." His words were terribly harsh, but what if that had not been Ace?

However, the blond's temper was not something one should mess with. Even as a stranger, it was pretty obvious that the blond fought back when something pushed him into a corner, which Zoro was doing right now. Maybe, just maybe, it was one of those admirable traits that Zoro liked about the man. But not right now, of course. Sanji was fuming with anger, spewing profanities like pirate.

"Oh, fuck you, marimo. Boohoo, I'm fucking sorry that I let you sleep peacefully on my couch when you were supposed to be nursing me. I did it out of pure hatred because I wanted you to sleep like a fucking baby."

Zoro felt anger brewing in his stomach and anger rising up to his temples. "I never told you to let me sleep in, shitty cook. Mind your own fucking business. I hate people like you, someone who always has to stick his nose into places it does not belong in."

Then he heard a familiar ringtone playing from his jean pocket. He reached in with his fingers and swiped answer on his touch screen phone. "What?" He snapped at the person on the other line.

"Well, Mr. Grump, you ditch me and now you snap at me?" A familiar voice accused, teasingly.

"Kuina?" His anger immediately vanished and his voice softened.

She snorted before asking, "Who else?"

"Why are you calling?" he asked, though it wasn't so bad to hear her voice here and there. It was just uncomfortable talking to her with the blond standing right across from him, burning a hole into his brain with that piercing gaze of his.

"Ace called and asked if I wanted to go to the bar tonight. I told him that I'm going if you are."

"You know I'm going. Ace normally buys the booze, and when there's free booze, I'm always there," he cracked a joke with a light chuckle.

She laughed on the other line, "Glad you never change, Zoro."

"So, see you tonight?" he asked as a tiny grin expanded diagonally across his tanned visage.

"Yeah, we should totally do another drinking contest."

Zoro cringed inside for his freckled friend's sake. The last time they had done a drinking contest, they almost finished all the lined up bottles behind the bar. Ace had a total mental breakdown when he found out the next morning, with a terrible hangover to boot. "I'm up for it, but Ace is going to kill us." After a few more words about their friend, he hung up. He was grinning foolishly to himself even after the call had ended.

He glanced up to meet the blond glaring down at him, with a snarling curve of his lips, and crinkling of his aquiline nose. "What are you looking at, shit cook?" he shot at Sanji.

Sanji twitched with annoyance, and a growl vibrated in his throat. "I was wondering how your sappy smile managed to make your already dumb face look dumber."

This shitty, prissy bitch.

"I take back what I said earlier. I really don't know why a pretty girl like Kuina chose a dumb ass, like you, out of all the people she could have chosen. It's really a damn mystery."

Calm down Zoro, he's just trying to rile you up again.

It was almost creepy how Zoro managed to keep a straight face, even though his fists were clenched and his gut contracted and released with pure hatred. His quiet, placid demeanor seemed to urge Sanji's on, though, for he did not stop his big speech about how terrible Zoro was.

"Your personality is shit, too. I don't understand how you can't even do one fucking job around here, which is helping me out. If you don't want to, just get the fuck out of here, I'll be so damn happy to show you out the doo-" his sentence was cut short when a brutal punch met the blond's chin; from the contact, a terrible crack was heard stridently.

Sanji flew up just to land on the ground with a thud, appearing like a lifeless rag doll.

The swordsman stared at the blond in horror, half relieved that he could not see Sanji's eyes since his bangs were in front of his face. Zoro stumbled backwards as he took a heavy breath. He needed fresh air and he needed to clear his head.

He needed to get out of here.

The blond could not stand nor move in the slightest, his head spun, which made him feel nauseated. He felt something terribly heavy pressing up against his body, making him incapable of any movement and speech.

From a few feet from the top of his head, he heard the door slam and angry footsteps fading away with each passing second.

Zoro...

AN: They had a fight!

So, I'm sorry for the little Zoro and Kuina thing, even though this is supposed to be a Zosan fic, but there are going to be a few more moments between them.

Now, as for Sanji, the reason he is paralyzed and unable to get back up is because when a person's chin is hit, the shock wave travels all the way up to the brain, which causes the person to either faint or become paralyzed. If that had not been the case, this bad ass blond would've kicked Zoro's ass.