"Well, Roronoa-ya?" Law greeted impatiently as Zoro and Sanji rejoined them.

Zoro set his jaw as he sank back down into his armchair, his eyes rekindled with the spark that Sanji had ignited in him.

"Your deal isn't good enough. I could find Luffy on my own. If you're going to ask me to go back into that viper's nest, I'm going to need something more from you," the incubus firmly told him.

"Like what?" Law furrowed his eyebrows, leaning forward as he templed his ink-kissed fingers.

"If I'm going to be able to take the throne and give it to Luffy, I'm going to need the intelligence and resources to do it," the incubus explained.

"I see," Law muttered, glaring at the floor as he considered his options.

"Fine. I lead a crew of highly trained individuals, but our help will only go so far as to gain you access to the palace and to give you accurate information," he said sourly, annoyed that he had to concede more than he planned to the incubus.

"That in exchange for your sealed doors. Before we shake on it, I want you to tell me where my friends are first," Zoro demanded, crossing his arms stubbornly.

The corners of Sanji's mouth twitched in secret approval.

The raven-haired man exhaled. "I have them, but they are both injured from the explosion. Luffy especially could benefit from an incubus's energy," he told him.

"Are they even getting care?!" Zoro yelled, suddenly on his feet.

"I'm a doctor," the tattooed man replied, ignoring the outburst.

"Law put himself through medical school by selling energy," Nami casually interjected.

With that, Zoro seemed to calm down a little. "One last thing. I'll be your ally, but only if the alliance extends to Luffy," he said solidly.

"Of course. Our alliance will extend to our subordinates so long as they working towards the goals we outline," Law agreed, then extended his hand.

Zoro locked onto Law's gray eyes, his own stare smoldering like red hot steel.

"If you betray me, you'd better make sure I'm dead, for your sake," he threatened, capturing Law's hand in a firm grip and shaking it. His new ally gave him a faint, amused smile.

"Now take me to Luffy," the incubus growled.


Zoro was preparing to leave with Law when he noticed Sanji brooding out on the deck with his back to him, his lean body sheltering the weak flame of his cigarette from the wind.

The green-haired man opened the sliding glass door.

"Well, I'm going to get going. Give my regards to the old man when you see him," Zoro said to the cook's back.

"When I find him, I'm going to kick his ass for hiring the damn incubus Prince," Sanji replied, not turning around.

"You couldn't kick his ass in a million years, cook," Zoro taunted, smirking as Sanji glowered at him over his shoulder.

"See you later," the incubus said glumly, knowing that it would be a long time before he saw Sanji again. He wondered why the hell that fact suddenly mattered to him at all.

Zoro slid the door shut, giving Law a nod across the room to indicate that he was ready.

The door to the deck abruptly rolled back open.

"I'm coming with," the cook announced as if he had just made the decision that instant.

The incubus raised an eyebrow. "Thought you'd want to stay with the lady, curly brow."

"I would, but Nami-san told me she isn't going to babysit someone she can't feed off of. Thanks a lot for that deal you made with her, by the way. Really saved me," the cook grumbled, his voice flat with sarcasm.

"Anyway, I can't go home, I can't stay here, and I don't know where the shitty geezer is. Might as well tag along for now," he told him with a shrug.

"I guess Luffy will be happy to see you," Zoro replied indifferently, trying to downplay his relief.

Law led them to the garage, where he pulled in his black SUV, stopping Zoro and Sanji before they got in. He went to the back and opened the rear hatch, reaching inside and folding down the back row of seats.

"I want you to lay down in the back. Security was tight when I was driving over, and we are going to go right back into their search area," Law explained, leaving no room for argument.

The two coworkers exchanged an uneasy look but crawled in and laid down. The doctor threw a light camping blanket over them, secured the hatch, and began to drive.

"Where are you taking us?" Sanji asked from underneath the blanket.

"To the waterfront," Law answered. "Now be quiet," he said.

As his new ally drove, Zoro's eye lingered on Sanji's softly defined features in the dim light filtering through the thin material. The cook seemed to be somewhere distant, engrossed in thoughts that Zoro could almost see bubbling right underneath the surface.

Law took a fast corner and Sanji was flung roughly into Zoro, his face smashing against his chest. The incubus grabbed the blond man's arm to steady him.

"Law, want to drive a little better?!" Sanji called up front as he smacked Zoro off of him.

"Quit distracting me! I turned around to avoid a police roadblock but they saw me and now I have three of them following me!" he yelled back irritably. Zoro heard overlapping sirens getting closer behind them.

A second later, the car came to a sudden, rattling stop as Law executed a tight u-turn, then floored it. Without seat belts, his passengers felt every bit of pull from the G-forces as they collided, their bodies flying towards the incubus's side of the SUV.

The cook's panicked breaths warmed Zoro's cheek as the vehicle whined, reaching high speeds. Sanji cursed as the buzz of a highway rumble strip purred from under the tires, indicating that their driver was most likely passing people on the highway using the shoulder.

The SUV suddenly slowed, pulling into a wide, fast turn that flung them both to the other side of the vehicle from the heavy centrifugal force. Zoro lashed his arms around Sanji from behind, his warm grip preventing them both from flailing around. Sanji's hands came up and gripped the incubus's arms to his chest.

"Room! Shambles!" the incubus heard Law call out, and for a moment everything became eerily quiet, as if the vehicle was suspended in mid air. Then the entire weight of the car slammed painfully back down on the pavement, like they had been flying and suddenly dropped out of the sky. Sanji grunted at the jarring landing, digging his fingers into Zoro's forearm.

As their speed evened out, the flustered cook roughly shoved the incubus away, blushing vibrantly.

"Get off!" Sanji hissed under his breath.

"I didn't do anything!" Zoro angrily whispered back, his heart pounding out of control.

For a man who literally ate sex for breakfast, he had to wonder why an unintentional touch or two was dwarfing the fear of dying in a fiery wreck.


Law parked the SUV and let his shaken passengers out in an decaying garage that looked like it used to be an old repair shop.

"I am never riding with you ever again!" Sanji griped at Law, lighting a cigarette with unsteady fingers.

"Would you rather I had stopped and let them arrest us?!" he returned with annoyance.

As they crabbed at each other, Zoro peeked out of the grimy windows and saw what looked like a forgotten dock of the marina on the bad side of town. A bright yellow, sleek-looking trawler stood out like a fishing bobber rocking in the water. The name etched on the prow read Polar Tang.

"That yours?" Zoro asked, cocking a thumb at it. "It's very subtle," he smugly commented.

"Shut up," the dark-haired man snapped half-heartedly, distracted as he fished through what looked like a case of medical supplies in the passenger seat.

Sanji narrowed his eyes as he analyzed their position from the window. "That's a long way to walk without being seen," he said with concern.

"That's why we're not walking there. Room," Law breathed, and a thin blue film filled the garage and stretched outwards, sinking into the yellowed walls.

In an instant, they appeared in the compact dining area of the boat, and Zoro gripped onto a table to keep from falling over.

"Oi, couldn't you have warned us you were about to use your creepy Devil Fruit power?!" he shouted at him.

"I don't have all day to explain things to you, Roronoa-ya. You want to see your friends, correct? Follow me," Law told him brusquely, disappearing into the bowels of the ship.

They followed him until they reached a bedroom that had been outfitted with various medical machines.

Sabo was seated in a chair beside the bed looking pretty rough, the left side of his face and eye completely bandaged. He looked up tiredly as they entered.

Luffy was bandaged from nearly head to toe, lying motionless on the bed. He was hooked up to a breathing tube, and an obscene amount of drips and wires branched from his body.

Zoro was instantly at his side, his mouth set into a firm, hard line as he stared at his friend's still form, his mind a raging torrent beneath a seemingly calm exterior.

Luffy had been there for him when no one else had. After Bellemere had died, his and Nami's relationship exploded into constant fighting and blaming. Not even the cool-headed Nojiko could prevent Nami from throwing a combative, self-destructive Zoro out of the house. The sixteen year old incubus was on the streets again, selling his underage body to feed.

One particularly cold, desperate night, the hungry incubus pulled a young man into a deserted corner of the subway station and tried to feed off of him, only to find he was Anathema.

Zoro had laughed cynically, cursing the boy before collapsing on the ground in front of him.

But rather than call the cops, Luffy took him home. He bathed the dirty teen while he was still unconscious, wrapped him in his bathrobe, and called his brother Ace with a huge favor. Then he let Zoro live with him indefinitely.

He later told Zoro he took him in because could see the guilt and sadness in his desperate eyes. Luffy was sure the incubus was a kind person that had been pushed to the brink.

He was right as usual.

After Ace died shortly after, Luffy went into a deep depression, losing his job and his will to live. Zoro began working at a particular five star restaurant washing dishes, and they managed to keep their small apartment while Luffy recovered.

They were in each other's debt, but they had also cemented an unbreakable lifetime bond.

Zoro looked up and found Law.

"You said it was ok?" he asked quietly.

The doctor nodded. "He's doing so poorly that any strength you could give him couldn't hurt," he bluntly told him.

Zoro found a chair and scooted close to Luffy. He took a serious look around the room. "Just so you know, I'm going to let down my glamour so I can concentrate on this," he warned.

Law simply turned around and left the room, and Sabo was getting up.

"What does that mean?" Sanji asked Sabo as he passed by.

"Most incubi and succubi put a damper on themselves to conceal their true appearance and prevent humans from getting inadvertently drawn in. It's not impossible to resist, but it will probably be a little too intense for me at the moment. I don't think he would do anything to hurt Luffy," Sabo said softly, taking a long look back at his brother before exiting the room.

"What are you going to do?" Sanji asked Zoro.

"What I did for your cough earlier, but more. Much more," he replied, raising an eyebrow at the curious cook, who was standing still undecided in the doorway.

Zoro gestured towards Sabo's chair on the other side of the bed. "If you can stay in that seat, then you can watch. If you get up or start distracting me, you have to leave," the incubus told him.

The cook nodded in agreement and sat, watching as Zoro gently touched a patch free of medical devices on Luffy's arm. A faint, delicately glowing light formed in the green-haired man's hand and sank into Luffy's skin. That was when he could no longer hold the glamour.

Zoro, in his ratty jeans and faded t-shirt that he had scavenged from his old room, now looked to Sanji like he had stepped off of the red carpet at the Oscars. All of his features were the same, but his body seemed more defined and sculpted, his skin smoother, and his green hair looked like it had been perfectly styled to look just messy enough to be roguish. His eyes which were normally an indistinguishable, darkish color were now a soft pearl gray.

The cook's jaw dropped as his gaze stumbled over two folded jet black wings peeking over the incubus's shoulders, rising and falling with his breathing.

"Wings?" Sanji managed to sputter, clinging to the chair with an iron grip.

"Well duh, I'm an incubus," Zoro scoffed. He didn't move from his task as he gave a wicked grin, slightly unfolding his massive wings, his shirt and hoodie pushed up over them where they met his back. His luminescent eyes shot up to watch the cook's reaction.

Sanji fidgeted, no longer able to concentrate on the energy donation that had been interesting and sobering moments before. He was turned on, all colors flying at full mast.

He found himself hovering above his seat and forced himself to sit back down. All this horniness was mortifying in front of the egotistical incubus, and he reminded himself that this was still the aggravating bus boy who did nothing but get under his skin and mess up his carefully organized kitchen. The cook forced himself to avoid looking at Zoro and watch Luffy only.

"I'm surprised you're not already over here," Zoro said smugly, his deep voice smooth and velvety.

"Now you're distracting me, asshole," Sanji growled, sucking in a breath.

The incubus cursed as the power he was feeding Luffy began to grow dimmer. His face looked a little pale as he drew back his hand, momentarily pausing as he cloaked himself again in his human glamour, his inky black wings gone in an instant.

"Shit!" he softly swore, dragging a hand down his face.

Sanji breathed out a sigh of relief. The spell had been broken.

"What's wrong?" the cook asked.

"It's where I haven't been eating enough!" the incubus said in frustration. "I'm going to see if Law feels like doing me a favor," Zoro muttered under his breath, moving his chair out as he stood, casting a tight frown at the unconscious young man.

Sanji watched Luffy, helpless and bathed in the glow of his monitors. The cook knew enough to know how bad some of his readings were.

"What exactly do you have to do to get more?" Sanji asked, keeping his expression neutral. "I mean physically," he clarified, swallowing hard.

Zoro narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him. "It depends. The more excited someone is, the less I need to touch them," he explained.

"How excited does one have to be to need no touching at all?" Sanji gingerly asked.

"Ho ho. Is that an invitation? Because I know for a fact you can't handle it, so don't even bother asking, shit cook," the incubus said as he opened the door and headed up the narrow stairs to the bow.

Zoro came back alone a few minutes later and sat back down in his chair next to Luffy, crossing his arms grumpily.

"Figured he wouldn't," the cook said.

"Asshole," Zoro grumbled.

Sanji stood and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Luffy needs our help, marimo," he said quietly.

The incubus gave Sanji an irritated frown. "No. As soon I started taking your energy you'd just freak out and run. You can't handle it," he said dismissively.

"I don't run when a friend needs my help!" the cook snapped, throwing a finger over at Luffy. "He's not doing great, marimo!" he yelled, his voice filling the small space.

Zoro blinked, bewildered by Sanji's concern.

"It's going to be a lot more personal than just handing me a plate of rice, idiot," Zoro said, getting up and stalking towards him smoothly, like a predator.

"But if you still want to help him, come here."