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Chapter 10

We'll Manage

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Sanji had already kicked Luffy out of the kitchen three times, preventing him from sacking their supplies. If somebody had noticed his cursing was worse than normal or his kicks stronger and unrestrained, nobody mentioned. Though the fact that Luffy had given up after the third attempt could very well mean even he had realized that something was wrong and Sanji was not to be messed with at the moment.

Zoro raised an eyebrow at his captain's whines that woke him up from a nice nap. He heard himself growl and sigh, knowing he wouldn't be getting any sleep until Luffy got his stomach full again.

They had informed the crew of their current situation and though there had been slightly worried expressions, they had taken it the way Strawhats always did: firmly believing that was nothing more than a little tumble they'd get through. That wasn't Franky's or Sanji's opinion at all, though. Their frowns were tattooed in their faces after spending some time in the galley alone, discussing something. That could only mean they knew something the others didn't, namely that the situation was worse than they had told them.

Zoro saw Franky leave the galley, where he had been closed in with Sanji for a while now, again, with a dark expression on his face. Sanji would start cooking soon now that he was left alone. He stood on his feet and made his way to the cook's realm, knowing things were off. Not really a surprise, he already figured, but he needed to know the extent of their problems and not their sugar-coated version.

"Out of my kitchen."

"Yo, crap-cook, I'm also happy to see you."

Sanji glared at him before setting to work and getting all the utensils he'd need ready.

"What do you want? You're not going to get any booze."

"Didn't plan on stealing some, for a change."

"Fine. I don't feel like fighting."

Woah, something was really wrong. Zoro scowled at him, trying to keep his worry at bay.

"Just wanted to know what's wrong."

Sanji barked a bitter laugh. "Oh, come on, I thought I wouldn't need to explain to you that we are currently stuck in a deserted island which you have already seen. Are you really that dense?"

"I'm actually trying to be serious here," Zoro growled, already feeling his temper being challenged.

"Could've fooled me."

"You're an asshole."

"So I've been told."

Zoro sighed. "Franky was here with you a moment ago. What were you talking about?"

"Are you my girlfriend or something? You jealous now?"

"I'm gonna kill you."

"Woah, that's an ace way of prying information, go on, man."

Zoro could already feel the headache building up and his murdering urges raging. He rubbed his temples and groaned, wondering why the hell the cook had to be such a major asshole even when he was trying to be serious and, mind you, nice. But neither the sarcasm or the biting tone of the blonde managed to mask the waves of utter worry coming out of him. If he had expected his snarky remarks to get the swordsman away, he was sadly mistaken.

"Sanji."

Sanji had to turn and face him with that. It was twice the swordsman had said his real name aloud that day, which was something extraordinarily rare and alarming. That meant Zoro really meant business, but it wasn't that fact that made Sanji deflate and give in. The swordsman's voice pronouncing his name was annoyingly enough to make any snarky coherent thought fade away and tangle his brain, something weird building up in his chest. At that point there really wasn't much he could do to shoo him away.

"What, Zoro," he slowly answered, fixing him with a no-nonsense look, leaning his back against de counter and crossing his arms over his chest to show him he was listening.

"Can you stop being an asshole and trust me for once?"

Sanji grimaced at him, taken aback by the swordsman's words. Well, that seriously annoyed him somehow, so he didn't register his own indignant retort until he heard himself aggressively voicing it out loud, acting out of impulse.

"Trust me for once? When have I not trusted you, Zoro?!"

And once it registered, he decided he wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it. What the hell had that been?! However, instead of letting embarrassment take a toll on him and get him in a worse position as his cheeks were staring to feel hot, he let a mastered teasing smirk take the reins of his facial expression and he kind of fixed the embarrassing verbal slip with a, "Aside from when it comes to you giving me directions."

Zoro covered what he'd always swear was definitely not a fierce blush with an even fiercer snarl the moment the cook saved the situation with the last annoying-as-hell taunt. Oh, come on, the cook had not just said that! He tried to ignore his chest being stabbed by the crazy beating his heart had gotten into and luckily succeeded as annoyance at the last comment overpowered the weird initial feeling.

Had he just felt... happy at what Sanji had said? What the fuck, was he a high school kid with a crush or what?! No, scratch that, better not try to answer that one or he may find unwanted surprises. So, instead, he feigned the first comment had never happened and redirected his energies at getting annoyed at the last taunt, which he was much better at when dealing with the cook. Latest days had proved that different kinds of rare situations and interactions between them didn't exactly boost his sanity.

"Don't you dare get started with that shit when I'm being all serious, curly-brow!" he growled, mentally patting himself for actually sounding convincedly pissed off.

Sanji cheekily snickered and Zoro definitely did not think that had looked kind of adorable as he considered slamming his unhelpful twisted brain against the counter. Where was all that shit coming from, seriously!

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Marimo," Sanji smirked as he lit a cigarette.

Zoro realized Sanji wasn't going to collaborate unless he pried the information out of him, so he sighed in order to calm himself down and resumed his interrogation, getting back to his serious expression. At least Sanji was now listening and apparently willing to answer.

"Okay, really now, what's the problem? What did you and Franky talk about?"

Sanji sighed and went back to worried mode as he realized there was no more fooling around. He absently directed his gaze at the ceiling as he fidgeted with his cigarette, taking time to order his thoughts.

"We were discussing how much time it would take to repair the Sunny so that it can safely sail again."

"And?"

"He told me it could very well take a week. The mast is really fucked up and there are other major damages he has to take care of without that many materials as lots of them were washed away and we can't get any new ones in this rock we're stuck in."

Zoro frowned. He understood it wasn't exactly the best news they could get, but that didn't justify Franky's and Sanji's dark worried expressions. It just meant their journey being delayed, which should annoy Luffy more than them as that also meant delaying his crazy adventure.

"Well then, we wait for one week, no big deal," he shrugged, voicing his logic line of thought. Which apparently didn't match the cook's as he grew an impressive frown capable of competing with Zoro's trademark scowliest scowl. That made Zoro frown back, an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he began to realize it wasn't that simple. "What?"

Sanji sighed, mentally trying to label Zoro's level of idiocy but forcing himself not to voice it out loud as he wasn't in the mood to start a fight.

"I also talked to Nami. Apparently next island is two weeks away from here."

"Which makes it three weeks to reach inhabited land, okay, so what?" Zoro pressed, starting to lose his patience. Cook sure liked to take long curvy paths to get to the point sometimes.

"Oh my, you've learnt to count!" Sanji exclaimed with wide eyes and a mock shocked expression Zoro felt the urge to punch.

"You're fucking pushing it, shit-cook!" Zoro snapped, getting into his personal space and grabbing a fistful of Sanji's tie. Sanji's amused laughter, though, erased any possibility of a real fight. Damn it, he was a pro at getting under his skin and the bastard enjoyed it to no end, even when facing serious situations.

Zoro tried to ignore the fading snickering of the blonde, the way his nose crinkled a little when chuckling, the way his full lips stretched over white perfect teeth and made him look younger and warmed the room like sunshine. Basically because those kind of corny, annoying, "what-the-fuck" labeled thoughts couldn't possibly be happily wandering around his brain. Like, no way. Nope. And also because he knew the cook was trying to divert the attention in an attempt to get out of the previous conversation. Which Zoro wasn't going to allow.

When Sanji had calmed down enough as to give him a teasing mocking smirk, Zoro showed him it wouldn't work on him by getting straight to the point.

"Cook, spit it out already. Where's the problem?"

Zoro saw Sanji's built up mirth fade away as he sighed and deflated, averting his gaze and growing that worried expression again. Zoro found himself hating it, but he wasn't going to let the core of the problem slip just because Sanji's smile made him feel funny things and was a billion times better than his current worried scowl.

"I've been doing some inventory. Again. Taking into account that we can't restock here."

Sanji still didn't look at him, but Zoro saw the brink of that defeated look shyly stick out in the blonde's eyes. Zoro clenched his jaw with enough force as for it to hurt, trying not to get carried away by what he knew was under the cook's shattering mask. He just hoped it wouldn't slip again, he really was afraid that this time, being this close, he wouldn't be able to restrain himself from introducing his fist to Sanji's face. As he read the cook's look and Sanji's words sunk in, realization started to hit him and the unsettling feeling in his stomach increased.

"Sanji..."

With that, he effectively brought the evasive eyes of the cook back to his. He tried not to think about how weird it felt to pronounce his name aloud but it had still come out naturally three times that day, without him even thinking. At least it seemed to do the trick and got the blonde's attention.

Zoro sunk into Sanji's blue iris, trying to seek an answer in it, but he only found slight apprehension as the cook had managed to barricade his line of thought from his expression. So that only left Zoro to guess. And he had a pretty good idea of where this was leading them. His voice was carefully channelled when he settled for asking out loud.

"How long will the food last?"

It was then that Sanji's wall fell so that Zoro could read the answer in it as the cook sighed and rubbed his tired features, shrugging in defeat, his gaze avoiding Zoro's again.

"About a week. Ten to twelve days at most."

Zoro felt something heavy settle in his stomach, not only because of the news but also because of Sanji's expression. He still couldn't get the other to look him in the eyes. Oh, man, those were bad news. The crew starving was the last thing they needed and he knew that was kind of a sensitive topic for Sanji. Zoro's brain kicked into action, looking for ways of solving that mess while trying to get Sanji to look back at him.

"We can always... you know, go fishing or something. We won't have vegetables and other necessary stuff, but I don't think Luffy will particulary mind," he tried to smile at his half-assed joke in an attempt to make Sanji mirror his gesture. It usually worked. When Sanji's mouth's corner tugged up a little and a mildly amused look crossed his eyes for a moment, Zoro felt his own smile lift up in relief. "See? It's not like we'll starve."

"Yeah, yeah," Sanji nodded with a sincere smile. "Fishing time. Yay."

Zoro half laughed at that, giving Sanji some space back.

"Come on, we've managed worse! Don't worry so much about it," Zoro smirked as he made his way out of the kitchen. "We'll catch a big-ass fish and we'll have enough meat for a month!"

"Who said I was worried, moss-head?" Sanji sneered as he regained his usual confident stance.

"Well, you looked about to jump of a bridge," Zoro teased, feeling inexplicably happy that the cook was back to playing his arguing-for-nothing game back. "Thought I had to cheer you up, you know, can't have a damsel in distress growing wrinkles between her curly eyebrows, I know of a certain idiot who'd kick my ass if I ever let that happen."

He saw the kick coming even before Sanji put his leg into motion. He dodged with a feral grin as he took in Sanji's pissed-off snarl. An axe kick fell down out of nowhere and Zoro barely managed to avoid it as he rolled through the galley's floor trying to hold back a laughing fit. Really, he shouldn't be so happy, there wasn't even a reason for it, but the bubbling feeling in his chest didn't seem willing to disappear so he just let it be as he unshielded one sword and blocked a powerful attack directed straight at his face.

"Fuck off, damn idiotic marimo!" Sanji growled.

That made Zoro have serious trouble with containing an amused snicker. Oh my, he had managed to piss him off big time this time. Zoro scored another point in his little victories-against-the-idiot-cook mental list.

Sanji noticed Zoro's expression, knowing he was about to burst out laughing, and he decided he didn't want to see it.

"Out of my kitchen, damn it!" he ordered as he forced Zoro to the door with his next kick. A rant of curses and insults that would've made the manliest sailor blush later, Zoro was already back to back with the door, having lost his fight against laughter and guffawing like a kid. Which wasn't like Zoro at all, specially not around Sanji. Which made Sanji's chest do funny things, which in combination with the pissed-off feeling in his stomach didn't help his case at all. "I don't fucking need you cheering me up; I'm not a fucking damsel in distress; not a fucking wrinkle is going to appear between my eyebrows because I'm damn hot and that's just not happening; it's you who's the idiot, not me; and yes, oh yeah, I'm gonna fucking kick your ass!" he yelled as he kicked the swordsman's way out, red with embarrassment and rage. Zoro bending with laughter definitely didn't help.

"Fuck you!"

And with that, the galley door was slammed with enough force as to break it. Some lucky star prevented it from doing so. Zoro, who had barely avoided the wooden door slamming against his nose, stayed right there, body curled and not being able to control his laughter anymore. It was stupid, he didn't even know what he was laughing at anymore, he just couldn't stop it.

Usopp looked at him with a weird puzzled expression as he reached the conclusion that the man had finally gone nuts. There was no other explanation as to why Zoro was laughing like that, at least not in the sniper's brain, and it made even less sense as the reason had apparently been something related to Sanji who, judging from how the ship had almost lost the galley door in the process, hadn't found it nearly as funny. He ended up shrugging it off, though. The whole crew was crazy as they came, so nothing surprised him anymore.

They didn't catch a single fish that day. There were no signs of life under water or up in the sky. They had formed a small group consisting on Usopp, Zoro, Sanji and Franky to dive into the water and use some weird net Usopp had just been working on, apparently designed to attract fishes in it from a respectable distance. Luffy had been clapping all along, cheering them, singing, whining because he was hungry and falling face first into the sea twice much to Sanji's dismay since he seemed to be officially the one to save their captain's sorry ass in those kind of situations. Luffy even came up with an out-of-tune awful song he bawled rather than singed, its lyrics somewhere in the way of inviting fishies to come play and be his friends and informing them he'd devour them right away.

Still, by night time they hadn't caught anything. No signs of life, no signs of anything.

Zoro watched Sanji's bare back as he got out of the water and climbed back to the Sunny. His shoulders were down again and though he even smiled at Luffy when he joked about something once he was on deck, Zoro could see he was barely containing a painful sigh. He himself got on deck and kept staring as the cook slowly made his way back to the galley, looking down. Nobody seemed to notice. Zoro did and felt his chest tighten.

Dinner was crazy as always but smaller portions were served, much to Luffy's despair. He didn't whine as much as expected though, maybe sensing it wasn't time for that. Sanji kept his cool, smiled and complimented Robin, brought Nami's portion to the infirmary, kicked Luffy's stretching hand from here and there and kept himself busy all along, not letting the smallest sign of discomfort or worry show in his face. Zoro knew they were there, though. And he found himself not knowing if he was more annoyed at the fact that the cook was stubborn enough as to keep it to himself or that the crew failed to notice.

His anger grew when he saw the cook's serving. It was even smaller. Much smaller. And he left half of it for Luffy to calm him down. Again, no one noticed. Now that he thought about it, Sanji's servings had been smaller ever since he had realized they were short of food supplies. But anger dissipated into a pained feeling Zoro couldn't quite pinpoint, so he settled for murdering his food with his fork, trying to ease some of the tension he was feeling. He didn't even know why he cared so much anymore.

The crew slowly left as they finished, leaving Sanji to do the dishes with Usopp. Zoro saw the long-nose leaving the galley when they were done and took the chance to sneak in, promising himself he wouldn't snap.

Once he was inside and facing a surprised cook, he stopped and wondered why he was in there in the first place. He came to the conclusion that his brain had switched off a while ago, not letting him connect his missing common sense with his actions. But he was already there and Sanji was already looking at him with a questioning look that reminded him of a non-spoken 'what the fuck do you want', and flying out of there would do him little favour. So he stayed.

"Hey."

Sanji blinked but nodded, acknowledging his presence. He was sat near the counter, noting things in his notebook, apparently doing inventory and meal planning all over again.

When Sanji realized Zoro wasn't trying to steal booze and felt him sitting next to him, he finally left his devices aside, sitting straight and really looking at the swordsman.

"What?"

Zoro shrugged. He really didn't know what he was doing there. Neither he knew what he wanted. Well, he knew, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. He was pretty sure that if Sanji heard him say he just wanted to erase the expression he was currently making out of his face, he'd kick him. Hard. So he shut up for good.

"Marimo."

Zoro looked back at him when he heard the pissed off tone directed at him. He was probably not in the right path for avoiding a potential painful kick if he kept on acting like this.

"You know, I was just thinking..."

"That's new."

"Shut up, asshole."

"Get to the point. Lately I'm even seeing you sailing in my soup. Any reason you're here or you just wanted to enjoy my inestimable company?"

Zoro scowled at Sanji's mocking tone.

"Obviously, I came here to enjoy your company, you know I adore you," he snapped back with a sarcasm overdose. That earned him a smirk from Sanji mirroring his own.

"Who wouldn't," Sanji retorted with a playful fighting tone.

"Oh, you'd be surprised to know," Zoro bit back, quickly falling into their own interaction rhythm.

Which Sanji cut off when he got serious again. Now that he looked at him, he really looked tired. And not just physically. Silence filled the room, both of them absently looking at each other with their faces held by their own hands, elbows against the counter. It was almost funny how they had mirrored each other's pose without realizing.

Zoro wondered why it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. But he didn't feel the need of looking away and neither did Sanji, apparently. Actually, that had been the most comfortable and calm he'd been in a while, there, lost in Sanji's blue orb.

Sanji's worried wrinkles started to disappear and he slowly switched from being anxious to plainly tired and surprisingly relaxed. He had been trying to read what was behind Zoro's steel eye and at some point he had just lost his purpose, simply staring back for the sake of it. It felt weirdly calming. And intimate.

Time went by without any of them moving or looking away, their bodies slowly relaxing. Sanji was starting to feel sleepiness invading his body for the first time in a while when Zoro's brain seemed to return back home and the swordsman opened his mouth to speak, not leaving Sanji's eye.

"You know, right before Luffy found me, I starved for more than a week. Some marine bastard arrested me and promised me he'd let me go if I survived a month without eating."

Sanji's expression changed as Zoro spoke, becoming unreadable. But he noticed the tension back in his shoulders.

"He intended to kill me anyways, the asshole," Zoro shrugged, remembering the experience. "I think... I think I managed nine days before Luffy came by and freed me. Then I joined him."

Sanji hadn't spoken yet. He just stared at him and Zoro realized something deep within the cook had changed as he kept on talking. He didn't know why he expected Sanji to answer, but the cook never did. Now that he took a better look... Was there pain in his eyes? Sympathy? He was trying really hard to read him, but he couldn't, for the life of him, decipher what it was that the cook was looking at him with.

Zoro felt a shiver run down his spine and forced himself to continue.

"What I'm trying to say is..." he started. But Sanji's expression was finally changing into something he could read and it was dangerously reminding him of a hostile snarl. He didn't let it take him back and instead resumed what he was saying, feeling tension fill the room. "What I'm trying to say is that, if we can't really manage to hunt something down, I could... you know, stop eating, and the food would last longer."

Now it was definitely a snarl. No, it was worse. Zoro hadn't even seen that face on the cook when he fought against his enemies. That made something in Zoro's stomach twist, but he forced himself not to back off, even when the atmosphere had turned oppressive as fuck. He didn't know why, but he felt the urge to defend himself.

"You know I can take it. It's no big deal and the crew needs it."

Sanji was trembling. His eyes were still boring a hole in Zoro's and Zoro felt like he couldn't keep his stare in place like this. There was suddenly something very wrong in the situation. All calm had evaporated and now everything Zoro could feel was a legitimate apprehension of losing his life. He had never seen Sanji this angry. He didn't even understand what he had done wrong.

When Sanji moved, Zoro braced himself for impact, not finding it in him to physically defend himself from the incoming attack. Even though that one would hurt like a bitch.

But the attack never came. Zoro blinked and looked back at Sanji, who had stood up and was glaring at him in a way that actually hurt. What made it worse was the hurt behind Sanji's eyes, the primal rage that showed in his features as his whole body trembled in an attempt to control himself.

His voice was surprisingly steady when it finally made it out of his mouth.

"I'll pretend I haven't heard that," he started. Then he jabbed a finger against the swordsman's scarred chest, which clenched at the contact, not knowing what to expect. "If I ever hear you suggest it again I'm going to personally kick your ass out of this ship. You. Will. Eat."

And that was mandatory. No room for a reply, no room for an argument. It was imperative and Zoro didn't find his voice to say otherwise. What had that been? How had the situation switched to that? Damn, he couldn't stand seeing Sanji looking like this. But he had apparently fucked up and didn't even know why.

"Out of my kitchen," Sanji ordered in a glacial tone that cut deeper than his katana's blades.

Zoro didn't register his body obediently walking to the door until his hand reached the door knob.

And, suddenly, rage kicked in. What the fuck. His mouth was spilling words before he even thought about what he was saying.

"I'll eat."

He turned to face Sanji, who was frozen in place, clearly having trouble restraining himself from kicking the swordsman's face in. Which only riled Zoro up further.

"But only, and I mean it, only if you fucking eat as well. Don't think I haven't noticed you're barely eating, bastard."

"But I fucking ate!" Sanji snapped, nearly losing it. "It's not like I intend to fucking starve myself like you just suggested you'd do!"

"That's what I hate about you!" Zoro snarled, crossing the distance between them and getting into Sanji's personal space. "You're always like this, damn it! What the fuck, Sanji! Do you think you are the only one with the right to make sacrifices for the crew?!"

"What?!" Sanji snorted in disbelief, rage taking over his features. "You've got some nerve telling me this after Thriller Bark, you damn self-sacrificing bastard! And now you just go and offer to starve yourself! Don't you dare tell me that when you're the worst when it comes to this kind of shit!"

"And what the fuck does Thriller Bark have to do with this?!"

Sanji's insides burned. He suddenly saw red and only realized he had kicked Zoro to the other side of the galley when he saw him slammed against the wall and groaning in pain.

"You don't fucking understand!"

"No, you are fucking right, I don't! Why the fuck is it only you who can carry the whole crew's burden?! What about the rest, you egotistical bastard!"

"That's my line!" Sanji all but screamed as he straddled Zoro in place, barely restraining himself from punching the swordsman, which he had been about to do just now. His hands weren't at fault after all. "What does it feel like, uh?! Are you angry?! Well, damn perfect, because that's how I felt like in Thriller Bark, so shut the fuck up and stop telling me what I can't do when you're the first one to do it without a care in the world for how the people who care about you will feel!"

"I still don't understand what Thriller Bark has to do with all this shit!" Zoro yelled, not getting anything anymore.

"Because you're a fucking idiot, that's why!"

Zoro's eyes bored into blue as his fist reached for Sanji's shirt and tie to aggressively drag him inches away from his face as he yelled, "Will you shut up and fucking listen for a minute?!"

Sanji startled at the sudden closeness and Zoro saw his mouth shut and his jaw clench to a painful level, abruptly freezing in place. Zoro sighed in relief and ordered his thoughts so that he could properly get them through before the blonde snapped again.

"I promise, I fucking swear, I will eat if that's what you want, but only and only if you don't fool around with your own eating," he informed, firm voice and stern look in place.

He saw the beginning of a snarl in Sanji's expression and he realized he was about to stand up and leave, and his big calloused hands darted to the cook's hips, griping him with bruising force to keep him in place and force him to listen.

"I mean it."

Sanji's body started to calm down, his ragged breath reaching Zoro's face, his trembling and heavy breathing reverberating against Zoro's stomach, where he was seated.

Suddenly, his visible eye seemed to become understanding of the words spoken, not leaving Zoro's, who was trying to convey his determination silently. Zoro's thumbs, out of their own accord, started to soothingly draw small pressing circles on Sanji's hips without him processing his own actions. The motion seemed to calm Sanji down.

Once he realized what he was doing, Zoro asked himself why Sanji was letting him and, even more, why he was doing it in the first place. But he couldn't tear his eye from Sanji, taking in the way his expression started to relax, the way his breath calmed down, the way his tights felt hot against his sides, how Sanji's precious hands warmly rested against Zoro's chest no longer clutching his clothes, the way his body got rid of the tension and anger at the same rhythm Zoro's thumbs massaged gentle circles against his hips, no longer holding him in place but just soothingly rubbing there for the sake of it.

He definitely ignored the weird pounding in his chest as the room was filled with a whole new kind of tension.

"Sanji, I need you to promise back. Okay?" he finally let out in a shaggy breath. That was the fourth or fifth time that day Sanji's name had slipped through his lips. That was definitely a record.

Sanji took a few moments to answer but, when he did, it was with a nod. His eye was still buried in Zoro's. And with the intense way he was looking at him, Zoro suddenly felt something hot launching south and... no, no, no, no, NO! Zoro's grip on Sanji's hips suddenly tightened, making the blonde flinch, but he still didn't move, just looked at him with slight surprise at the gesture. For fuck's sake, that was so not happening! What the fuck, whatthefuck. What. The. Fuck!

Zoro thanked his lucky star that Sanji was sat on his stomach and not further down. That would have probably earned Zoro an early death. He felt his face tense as he thought of a way out and tried to keep his cool so that he didn't give anything away. He didn't need that. Shit! That should have never happened to start with! The fuck was wrong with him!

"Hey," he rasped awkwardly when he trusted himself to speak. Still, he was quite proud his voice wasn't far away from composed and casual. "Hey, cook, let's go to bed. We're both tired," he suggested as he tensely patted the side of Sanji's hip in order to snap them both off their trance and urge Sanji to stand the fuck up. Which he did, finally leaving Zoro's gaze while sighing.

"Sorry about that."

Zoro froze in place, forgetting about his damned sneaky hard-on as the cook's apologize sank in. It had sounded sincere. And it wasn't often that the cook apologized to him. Zoro blinked and awkwardly stood up, thanking his loose clothing for covering anything that would have led to what would have definitely been the most uncomfortable moment of his life.

"Uhm, yeah. Don't worry."

Sanji nodded and lit a cigarette, his calm and suave stance back in place. Then he walked to his notebook and working stuff in order to keep on doing inventory or whatever he had been about to do before Zoro walked in.

Zoro scratched the back of his hair as he carefully approached the cook.

"Hey," he started again, catching Sanji's attention back. When Sanji looked at him he really felt like blushing, but held an awkward gaze and fought it off. "Sleep?"

"Nah, you go. I need to work on this," Sanji waved as he went back to his devices, apparently oblivious to what had just happened. He really looked tired. Deflated.

"Come on, shit-cook, you need sleep, stop being fucking stubborn!" Zoro insisted, not daring to close the distance separating them. He was actually glad he found it in him to fall back to his usual way of addressing the cook. That felt normal. That felt safe. That totally made him forget about the little situation his nether parts had just gone through. Speaking of which, part of his brain was already thinking of castrating himself after going through such a villainous treachery courtesy of his unhelpful body or brain or wherever that had come from. But he'd have time to think about it later. Right now he needed to face the suddenly pissed off expression the cook was directing at him while keeping a casual pose that didn't reveal the bulge in his pants. Why he hadn't just left already instead of risking it being noticed, he didn't even know.

"Don't push it, marimo," Sanji warned with a small snarl.

Oh, so Sanji was still pissed. Of course. Moody bastard. Having been able to calm him down had already been a great feat, he shouldn't have expected to make his hissy fit fade away just like that. Well, pissed off Sanji he was used to and he could gladly take it. At least it wasn't furious Sanji anymore. The bad furious kind, not the one he enjoyed fighting.

"Whatever," Zoro shrugged, judging it best to just make a safe escape instead of pushing his luck further. The previous chest-tightening fight and the later small southern accident had been enough risks taken for tonight, thank you very much.

Tension had already dissipated and now he could finally breathe normally, the situation slowly sailing to their usual known interaction territory, much to his relief.

"Night."

"...Night."

Zoro paused just before making his exit, turning yet again to the cook, who sensed his small halt and looked at him with a frown, waiting for whatever he had to say. And Zoro wanted to tell him to go to sleep, he wanted to tell him not to worry so much, he wanted to tell him he could count on him, he wanted to tell him he didn't like that tired face he was wearing because it made him worried, but he didn't find the words to do so. That would have earned him a kick anyways.

"We'll try again tomorrow," was what he finally managed, a small smile tugging his lips. Then it turned into a smirk. "Hold your shitty-self together, crap-cook."

He barely dodged the spatula thrown at him and heard the cook insult him with what he had to admit was a colourful ingenious palette of curses before he closed the door behind him in time to block a flying shoe aimed at his face.

When he finally made it to his hammock, he was not amusedly smiling anymore but asking himself the same question over and over and over again.

What the hell?

Zoro was no fortune teller, but he already knew that it was going to be a long night without an ounce of sleep.

Great.

A/N: Hiiiiii! So, did you like this one? Things are starting to get messy between them! I hope you liked it, I'm working on the next one! :)

Thanks for all your reviews!