Chapter 10 Vivid recollection

I sit up, gasping vainly into the darkness. Realisations hitting me harder than a hammer on concrete. The blankets fall off me as I sit up and I'm suddenly covered in goosebumps. It's cold but my hands are sweating. My pulse is racing. I don't know what induced the sudden recovery of my memory, but it's back nonetheless. I remember! I was there, he was there; it happned. It happned and I finally remember!

A slender hand cautiously places itself on my shoulder. A concerned and oh so familiar voice follows.

"Zoro?" He asks nervously. I swing round uncontollably and grab him. I stare into his wide eyes and see the same gems I saw in my dream… memory. I keep my arms on him and shudder. I forgot a hell of a lot. I don't blame him for being angry and resenting me at first. It must have been frustrating, knowing all that and not being able to say anything for… some unknown reason.

"I'm so sorry." I cry. "I shouldn't have forgotten you. I didn't want to forget I just…" I'm silenced by two arms throwing themselves around my neck and hugging me tightly.

"You remember? That's incredible!" He whispers almost breathlessly. "Chopper said you'd almost never regain your memory, let alone this quickly." I lift my hands up and wrap them around him; pleased, and relieved, at his response. "Typical marimo; you regain your memory just as I accept that you never will." He laughs. I squeeze him tighter in apology.

We stay like this for a while. Because we know that as soon as we break contact we'll have to start talking. I, especially, just want to stay here. I don't want to think about the Yakuza and Mihawk and this mystery guy chopper. I just want to stay here, with my gorgeous blonde. Away from the world and harsh realities.

"You're trembling?" I whisper.

"Shut up; a lot has happened very suddenly. I'm just…" I pull him down slightly to place my forehead against his.

"I know…"

He gives me a look of thanks for not making him explain himself further, then turns to the phone on the bedside table and presses in some numbers.

"I should inform Chopper of your recovery. He'll want to come over and give you a checkup and he'll be able to answer any questions on your scar and mental state that you might have." My scar… I run my hand down the rough and bumpy flesh down my chest.

I remember now; the numbing pain I felt as blade sliced through flesh. The passing thought that even the blunt edge of his blade was sharper than my entire skill as a swordsman. I failed... twice...

"Is this chopper fellow a doctor or something?" I ask, taking my mind to another topic. Sanji nods, he's already got the phone pressed up against his ear; waiting for Chopper to pick up.

"My personal doctor who handles all my injuries involving… yes, hello, Chopper? It's me. Zoro's here and he's regained his memory. Yes, I know. No, I'm not joking. When can you come over?"

He continues talking to the man across the phone and I wonder; he has a doctor who handles 'all of his injuries'? All of his injuries. Firstly; it's obvious he must be a doctor who doesn't need to get involved with the police or anything which is convenient if you're involved with, and some how opposing, the yakuza. So, he's most likely shady and unprofessional… And secondly; he sounds extremely familiar with this guy… how many injuries has he had? How many times has he been hurt and had to drag himself here to call upon the assistance of this chopper? "Also, I hit my head so bring some of your things to look it over would you? Um, I don't know; hold on." He looks at me and places a hand over the phone. "Hey, you saw my head right? Would you say it needed stitches?" I shrug, I'm not very good when it comes to assessing injuries.

"Maybe…" He tilts his head slightly and returns to the phone, repeating my answer.

"Well, look, judge it for yourself okay? Yeah, okay. You know your way in. Okay, bye."

He places the phone down and sighs heavily. He rubs over the bandage of his wound and laughs. "Chopper is a brilliant doctor but he cares way to much and over-reacts a lot of the time." He rubs again and winces. I grab his hand and kiss it.

"Perhaps he needs to, with you." I smirk at the blushing cook as he snatches his hand away from me and jumps off the bed; heading for a chest-of-drawers.

"Shut up." He curses at me. I exhale loudly. Though it's vaguely amusing to watch him blush angrily in reaction to my teasing, I actually mean it this time.

"You know, I'm actually being serious. You're involved with some pretty serious people who want to kill you. Not to mention that you'd jump in front of an iron fist for someone you barely know." He lowers his head, keeping his back to me.

"Look, I'll explain everything to you when Chopper gets here and then I'll explain even more when he leaves. I promised I'd be honnest and I will be. Having Chopper here will just give me somewhere to start." He scratches nervously on the wood of the chest-of-drawers and tilts his head slightly in my direction. "Just… don't judge me on my past okay, you shitty marimo."

Whenever he's nervous he goes all tsundere on me. It'd be cute if it weren't for the foul language. I think about pointing this out to him, but push the feeling aside as it'd only make him even more defensive. I slide up behind him and ease my arms around his slim waist.

"Relax. I'm not going anywhere; your past will not interfere with the way I feel now." He leans back into my arms and smiles.

"Thank you..." I look at him and grin.

"Hey, don't thank me for anything ero-cook. You're the one who saved my ass back in the alley."

"More like your face…" He mumbles. I laugh at the ridiculous and true remark.

We stand there for a while… just stand there, together. I appreciate the comfort of his body close to mine. I've been so incredibly lucky. A while ago I never believed he would let me this close. Ever. But now I've held him countless times and all through the night. I notice that he's just the slightest bit shorter than me. Not much, but it's enough for me to irritate him with. I mentally file that away for later, as I decide I don't want to ruin the moment. I nip at his ear and he gives me an elbow to the ribs, pushing me away with a pout. Before I can grab him again, he throws a shirt in my face.

"Not now." He huffs, irritated. "If your stuff's still wet then wear that. It's the biggest top I have." I look at it and grin; I don't care if my stuff is dry, I'm wearing this because he's worn it before… Is that weird? Whatever. I pull the shirt over my head and nod approvingly at its fit. It's not extremely loose but it's not tight either. I look over to Sanji who's taking a wide collar, light blue shirt and black trousers from a drawer. He eyes them up, closes the drawer and ushers me out of the room so that he can change. I think to argue (what's wrong with me seeing his naked body? I've already seen most of it…) but I need to use the loo anyway so I decide against it.

When I return from the bathroom I'm startled to see a young teenager standing in the middle of the living room in front of me. He jumps slightly at the realisation of my presence and turns to me with a fright. Howerver, his fear quickly turns to astonishment. He stares widly at me with huge brown eyes and I stare back with narrow, suspicious green eyes. It takes me a few minutes to realise just who the short, brown haired, brown eyed kid with a huge first aid box is. The name is on the tip of my tounge… But I can't quite remember…

"Chopper!"

Sanji emerges from his room fully clothed. He runs over to the young boy and scoops him up in his arms giving him a big squeeze. Chopper squeals happily. Sanji goes to lift him higher but something goes wrong and he stops in his tracks and places the small boy down quickly. Chopper turns to him in concern as sanji falls to the floor with his hand over his head. I instinctivly clear the gap between us and catch him before he falls. He goes limp in my arms and I begin to panic just as much as the young doctor. As I maneuver sanji over to the sofa and place him down gently, Chopper begins to hastily rummage through his first aid kit. From the huge first aid kit he pulls out a smaller kit labled 'head wounds'. I find the image of a small box being pulled from a bigger box slightly amusing, but keep my attention on the now burning cook. I place my hand gently against his cheek and feel a deep heat resonate onto my palm. His face is scrunched up in pain and he looks so uncomfortable.

It takes a moment for his pain to subside but, eventually,he opens his eyes again and relaxes slightly.

"Shit, that hurt like a bitch." He grumbles, irritated. He goes to scratch his forehead and meets bandage.

"Baby." I tease. He looks at me like he wants to kick me.

"Fuck off, you shitty jerk." He scowls half heartedly. Though I tease him, I'm acctualy relieved to hear him properly complain about his pain. When he'd awoken yestarday he'd been more concerned about my head than his own. It pisses me off to see him so nonchalant about himself.

Chopper pushes me aside and kneels on the sofa next to Sanji. Pulling out various tools and bandages from his smaller box, he pinns up sanji's fringe and inspects my handywork. A nod of approval and a slight impressed grin speads across his tiny features. Without removing his gaze from Sanji he asks me;

"Did you bandage this, Zoro?" I nod.

"I've had my fair share of bandaging wounds." He turns to me, eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar. I shrug. "What? I train with swords and fight people who also use swords. It's inevitable. Anyway, this isn't about me at the moment. Check if twirly need stitches already." Sanji rolls his eyes and Chopper's expression turns to an annoyed pout but, knowing that I'm right, he returns his attention to his patient.

He gently unwraps and removes the bandage from his head and inspects the wound underneath. It's relativly clean and still looks fresh. The removal of the bandage induces the release of fresh blood. Sanji hisses and Chopper apologises sympatheticaly.

I watch the small doctor's actions and notice the professional vibe around his movements. I remember Sanji saying that he was his personal doctor but he must only be fifteen... sixteen at the most. How could he be a doctor at so young? And why does Sanji trust him?

"Forgive me." I begin. "But you're kinda young to be a doctor aren't you? What are you? Fifteen?"

"Sixteen!" Chopper demands. Sanji laughs.

"Chopper's always been an incredibly bright kid. There isn't a better doctor around." Chopper blushes brightly and wriggles with a hysteric expression on his face.

"Don't think that's going to make me happy you idiot!" He's clearly happy. I look to Sanji who laughs as if it's normal which brings a smirk across my face.

"So do you guys know each other outside of the patient/doctor thing?" I ask.

"Chopper's my cousin. Well... my adoptive cousin I guess. Zeff and his mother are siblings."

"Yeah, but..." Chopper reaches down into his first aid box and rumages around inside it for a bit. "Sanji's always been more of a big brother than a non-related cousin." He grins.

Sanji looks at the young boy with the softest of smiles. He tussels the doctors hair as he continues to search through his first aid box.

"I just wish you weren't dragged into all of this trouble. You always injure yourself and get hurt." Chopper whines. Sanji releases his hair and sighs back into the chair.

"I wasn't dragged into this. I involved myself. I've told you this chopper. Don't make it sound like I'm the victim." Chopper looks close to tears. Sanji sees this and quickly reassures the small doctor. "But it's okay because I can always rely on you to patch me up!" He smiles half heartedly. Chopper lowers his head.

"But I can't patch you up if you're dead." He mutters. Sanji's expression turns fierce but not at the little doctor; at the idea of dying.

"I won't die." He says firmly. He says it with such confidence... it makes you want to beleive him and trust his words...

I stare at the stupid blonde. A thin trickle of blood has run down his forehead and is now moving down past his eyebrow. I watch as the cook notices the blood and scrunches his eye up to avoig getting it in his eye. It rolls down from his eyebrow down to his eyelid and then continues down onto his cheek.

"What a pain." He mumbles, irritated. Chopper notices this and passes me a white cloth.

"Help him out, Zoro." I nod and move over to stand in front of Sanji. I take the cloth and dab at the blood from his cheek upwards. I can feel his cheeks burning from underneath the cloth and try my best to restrain the urge to smirk. To no avail; I realise I must have smirked when I receive a firm kick to the shin.

"Oi, I'm trying to help you, idiot." I smile. I take a glance over at Chopper; his back is turned. I lean into Sanji's ear and whisper "I'll save the seducing for another time." His face goes bright red and he kicks me harder this time (hard enough to make it throb under impact… that'll bruise). He scowls at me but I continue to tap away the blood until I've reached the initial wound like nothing happned. I gently press into it and dry it of further bleeding. His eye twitches but he gives less of a reaction than before.

"Want me to kiss it better?" I tease.

"Fuck. You."

After quite a bit of rummaging, Chopper pulls out a needle and wire consealed in a sealed clear bag. Sanji raises an eyebrow at the young doctor and sighs.

"Is that really necessary?" He bites his bottom lip. Chopper nods slowly.

"It's too deep to just leave. It'll scar quite nastily if I don't stitch it up."

"Right..."

I step back slightly and watch as the small doctor positions Sanji accordingly and prepares the needle. His hands are already gloved up and there's a small tray with a clear liquid in it that says 'Sterile' placed on the table. It all looks a bit shifty to be honest.

"Is this safe?" I ask, hesitantly. Chopper looks at me, shocked slightly, offended maybe, and nods.

"I have three medical degrees and all of my equiptment is steralised with gamma radiation back at the hospital I work for. It's all supplied by them too... although they don't know that I use it without their go ahead." Yeah, that covers pretty much everything. He waits a moment to see if I have any other questions then returns his gaze back to his patient.

He brings the needle close to Sanji's forehead and presses it against his skin. Sanji instinctivly slams his eyes shut and clenches them tightly. Chopper retreats with a sigh.

"Sanji, you know I can't do this if you tense up like that. If I try, it could seriously injure you." He keeps his eyes pressed tightly shut. His hands are clamped down onto his lap and his whole body is shaking. "I'm sorry I don't have anything to numb the pain. You know my supplies are short at the moment." The blonde nods.

"I know, sorry... I just..." I reach out and grab his hand. He startles slightly but relaxes into my grip none the less.

"Hey, Put all the pain into your hands. Hold on to me with all your might and relax the rest of your body. Don't let go and don't pass out on me. Just focus on our hands." He stares at me in scepticism before nodding and allowing the doctor to finally pierce through his skin to begin pulling the two sides back together.

It makes me cringe just looking. Chopper's excellent, there's no doubt about it, but the awkward placement of the wound would definately make the whole operation a lot more difficult... and painful. Sanji complies, however. Gripping fiercely onto my hands but not showing anything on his calm and relaxed face. Jeez his grip is strong. As chopper pushes the needle in his grip intensifies and when he slides the needle out at the other side he releases to some extent. Expressing the pain through his hold rather than his facial muscles. I'd be twitching and shaking and swearing like hell by now, but he's just sitting there barely moving a muscle. Even if he is going to dent both my hands inwards, and even if it is just because I told him not to, it's still impressive.

Chopper finishes up and places the bloody needle and remainder of wire into the tray on the table. He cleans up the now sealed wound and covers it with a new bandage. Surprisingly, it's me who gives a sigh of relief. Chopper explains to Sanji how he'll visit him and give him regular checkups and Sanji thanks him.

"Right. Now enough of me. What about Zoro?" Sanji presses.

"Okay, okay. I'll be giving him a checkup in a bit I just need to clean up and use the loo first." The small doctor clears up his equipment and quickly excuses himself to the toilet.

I begin to wonder what I'll be told about and whether or not it was Chopper who stitched my chest up. More than likely. I'll have to thank him for that when he comes back. It takes me a moment to realise the voice calling my name.

"Zoro." I blink. Sanji's in front of me; his head lowered and his eyes looking anywhere but me. "Zoro, do you plan on holding my hands for much longer?" I look down at my hands. They're gripping onto Sanji's paler, slimmer fingers. I blush as I realise I've been holding onto them this whole time. I release with an apology.

"I'm the one who should be apologising... and thanking you." He reaches up and removes the clip keeping his fringe up. It flops down awkwardly over the new bandage. He ruffles it until it sits comfortably, if a little messily.

"Thanking me? For what?" I ask.

"You know what, you idiot!" He pouts.

"No..." I shake my head. "You're going to have to explain it to me." I smirk. I don't expect him to answer but, after a thoughtful pause, he does.

"For everything. But mainly... for being there for me. Even on that day, the day we first met, you were there when I needed help. And just now, too. So... thank you."

Have I ever mentioned that I'm impulsive? I don't tend to think about the consequences of my actions. It's un-natural for me to stop and think about something before I do it and it's unheard of for me to do something other than speak my mind. Some people think it's an commendable and honest quality and others think it's a recipe for disaster. I don't really think about it much. I just make it my goal to not regret my actions or the things I say. So when Sanji finishes that sentence and I lean forward, grab his jaw, pull him close and press our lips together... I definately don't regret it.

His lips part and I happily slip in my tounge which is met with the hot warmth of his own. Ever since I first kissed him, all of my other explicitly pervy thoughts have been less frequent. Kissing him is so amazing that I just can't wish for more. I mean, yes, touching him is also amazing. But the connection felt from a deep kiss is irreplaceable. A kiss has a meaning and can be read in many ways. I hope he reads this the way I'm trying to convey to him. I want him to know that I am here for him and, from now on, I'll always be here to help, comfort and support in any way I can. And as he slightly pulls away to gasp for air I place a hand on the back of his neck and pull him back in, giving him the second part of my passionate message; Whether you want me here or not.

We part, breathless, and pull away quickly when we hear the lock on the toilet door click open. As chopper re-enters the room, Sanji stands and hastily disappears into the kitchen. The small doctor makes his way over to me, standing in front of me he puts out his hand and grins wildly at me.

"We haven't properly met yet. I'm Chopper. I gave you surgery a while ago and this is a follow up checkup." He smiles brightly.

"Roronoa Zoro." I take his hand and shake.

"Right, let's see how your body and brain are doing!"

TBC

This confirms you guy's questions of 'was it a dream?' and 'Will zoro remember when he wakes up.'

I didn't want zoro to be mad at Sanji for not telling him about what happened. I know that seemed like it could have been a possible outcome but Zoro has already witnessed how far Sanji is willing to go for him, So the anger just isn't there. I just couldn't write about him being resentful and agressive after such a deep and passionate longing. Sorry if that doesn't seem Zoro-like. But I feel Zoro is able to move past miniscule details, such as that, and look to the bigger picture. In this case, his love for Sanji.

Please leave feedback and reviews! Feel free to ask questions, I'll answer all. However, I won't be releasing any spoilers (=^‥^=).

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Eiichiro oda; the creator of One piece.