A/N: As promised, here is your new chapter. I hope you guys are enjoying it as I pick up the plot although it's still kind of slow going. I'm trying to make each chapter about the same length BUT HOLY HELL IT IS NOT EASY WRITING THIS MUCH PER CHAPTER. I'm really not used to it but I'm trying my best! To, you know,….make up for leaving this story for three years…*Cough* Anyways, enjoy!

xxxxxx

Sanji lay on his bed, resting his head on the arm folded behind him.

He knew that Zoro was probably worried, the stupid Marimo wasn't really subtle with those concerned glances he kept giving Sanji, but he just had a lot to think about.

Like the fact that something was still weird about the situation with Blair and Cain. Blair didn't seem like he was possessed, it was like they were two different people in one body. However, the Headmaster was right in the sense that monsters could not develop mental disorders so it couldn't be a personality disorder…

There wasn't really much he could do about the current situation though, he would just have to leave it up to the university to solve the problem. After all, he had already suffered enough and was one of the main casualties.

There was another problem that kept bothering Sanji though. And that was his weird relationship with Zoro.

At first it had been fun, he could tell the man was attracted to him if only physically and it had been so easy to act innocent. Enticing Zoro with the many tricks Ace had taught him was all practice for when he could hunt for himself.

But as time went on, and especially with the recent life-saving, it was really hard to remain distant and unaffected. He felt fond of the man. Zoro was a loyal person and sometimes dense but heartbreakingly caring for those he loved.

There was no denying it anymore, but he wanted that all to himself. It wasn't fair to Zoro though, with him being an incubus, he could never know if someone liked him because it was him or just because of his pheromones.

It was the sad and unfortunate aspect of his existence. Everyone wanted him, yes, but they only wanted him because he was literally made to entice people and use them for food.

Especially if what he suspected was true; that the mushrooms he had inhaled were the ones he recognized as a special type.

Known as the Desire fungus, the effects included using a person's desire against them, giving it a horrifying twist.

And if what he saw was Zoro confessing his love for him, then he was in too deep already and there was no going back.

It wasn't going to happen though, until he recognized the full extent of his powers and learned to control them, he couldn't trust that Zoro really liked him.

It would break Sanji if he thought Zoro wanted a relationship with him but instead it was all because of the influence of his powers. That wasn't what he wanted.

Sanji turned onto his side and hugged his pillow to his chest, aching with loneliness.

He missed his family, he missed that old geezer and his crude personality. Everything was so different here and people seemed to keep forgetting that he had literally spent his whole life living with normal humans.

All he wanted was to cook and make people happy, instead he was stuck in this suffocating University living a life he never wanted and wanting a life he used to have.

He shut his eyes tightly, willing himself to sleep.

xxxxxx

The next morning, Sanji felt a lot better and he met up with Ace as they walked to the kitchen. He was going to cook Ace a five star breakfast for his help in saving Sanji.

Sanji smiled indulgently as Ace rambled on excitedly about the hot new security guy they had for the dorm. Apparently the Headmaster had kept his word and yesterday, after they spoke to him, he had hired extra security for all the dorms.

"...and he has this ridiculous weird looking weapon. I think he's a werewolf though, he kind of smells like dog," Ace wrinkled his nose at that and Sanji sighed before turning on the stove, deciding on omelettes and bacon for the hyperactive man. "It's cool though! Last night when he was handcuffing me to the bed he told me his name! It's so unique. I mean who would name their kid Smoker?."

Sanji turned around slowly, grabbing his cigarette with one hand so that it wouldn't fall out of his gaping mouth.

"He what?"

Ace paused in his rambling, scratching his head with a hand sheepishly as the freckled man realized what he had said "Not like that, Sanji! I may or may not have been sneaking out to go frolic in the woods and he may or may not have caught me...several times that night since I tried to escape at least 5 or 6 times. It's not my fault though! You know I have a lot of energy and I need to burn it off somehow, besides, it was totally worth it because again, Smoker is so hot. I guess he got tired of running after me though, because he just handcuffed me to the bed which I have to say I enjoyed a lot."

Sanji sighed and ran a hand through his hair, groaning in mental anguish when he heard Ace mutter "Hot like smoking, get it? Cus his name's Smoker." before bursting into giggles.

His friend was literally a teenage girl stuck in a man's body. He had no idea how Ace had survived so long.

"I'm going to pretend this conversation never happened." Sanji curtly replied as he turned back to the stove to lower the flames and flip the omelette. He quickly disposed of his cigarette in the nearby trash can, it was unsanitary to smoke while cooking anyways.

"But Saaaaaanjiiiiii," whined Ace as he slumped his body onto the kitchen table. "You're my bro, you're supposed to support me in this."

"I would, except," Sanji slid the omelette onto the plate before taking out several strips of bacon and settling them onto the pan to sizzle before facing Ace "you always move on from your supposed crushes within the week. I mean, just the other day you were flirting with me."

"Yeah but you're taken now." Ace said dismissively as he reached a hand out to grab a bit of omelette but Sanji slapped his hand away with a glare.

Sanji was confused "I think I would know if I was dating someone, Ace."

"No, you're Zoro's and Zoro is your's. It's pretty obvious. I mean you have your scents all over each other." Ace said it as if it was common knowledge, as if Sanji even understood what he was talking about.

"What…?"

Ace took advantage of Sanji's shock to snatch the plate of omelettes, stuffing his face triumphantly. Once he finished swallowing a bite he regarded Sanji's confused face with a confused expression of his own before remembering "Oh right! You lived with humans your whole life so you probably didn't know, huh."

"Know what?" Sanji took a seat across from Ace because he definitely needed to sit down for this conversation, he had a feeling it was going to be something he really didn't like.

"Yeah well, we monsters have sensitive noses right? And I guess you never learned to use your's in everyday interaction, but for us, if we're interested in another person we touch them a lot. This leaves our 'scent' on them, it's to ward off potential suitors and it also establishes a claim. It's very primitive but it keeps our more monstrous sides content so hey, no harm done." Ace delivered this explanation as if it hadn't completely tilted Sanji's world on it's axis.

"Why do you say that Zoro and I belong to each other?" Sanji managed to choke out through his thundering heart and dawning realization.

Ace looked at him as if he was a dense idiot and Sanji realized that yeah, he probably should have seen this coming a mile away "Sanji are you serious? Vampires are not a really affectionate species, you would think that you would notice you're the only person Zoro ever really touches or allows to touch him."

Sanji gave a choked off nervous laugh because yes that was true but it didn't mean anything "I think you're mistaken, Zoro and I spar a lot so that's probably why we smell like each other. We have a lot of physical contact in our fights."

Sanji got up to check on the bacon, not wanting to face Ace for this conversation because he knew Ace wasn't lying but he didn't know how to feel about this information.

Scent marking was for serious courtship and he felt his hands shake as he grabbed the seasoning for the bacon.

He could feel Ace's serious gaze bore into his back. "Sanji I don't know why you're trying so hard to deny this. You have to know that you don't smell like casual touches, you smell like claiming possessive touches, ones that can't be mistaken as anything else." There was a pause as Ace seemed to sense Sanji's unsettled feelings.

"I thought you knew." It was a whisper but it was enough to jolt Sanji back into action, he mechanically grabbed Ace's plate and flipped the pieces of bacon on it before setting it back down in front of the man who was giving him a worried frown.

He smiled with fake cheer giving an excuse that he needed to 'go for a walk' before leaving the room quickly, ignoring Ace's concerned words.

This was not good. That was the one thing Sanji was certain of as he stormed out of the dorm, unsure of where to go but knowing he needed to clear his head.

This was really bad, he wasn't sure if Zoro was doing this on purpose or if it was Sanji's pheromones compelling him. He didn't know if Zoro really liked him or again, if it was Sanji's influence.

He didn't know and it was slowly tearing him apart.

There was one thing for sure though, he needed to stop this before it got any deeper and became something they would both regret. Until Sanji got his powers under control, Zoro and Sanji needed to remain friends.

He stopped at the edges of the forest, leaning against a tree before slowly sliding down until he could hug his knees to his chest.

Sanji sat there for a while, trying to clear his mind and not think too much.

He never asked for this. He never asked to be anything more than human and he certainly didn't need these complications in the only good relationship he had since he could remember.

There was no point in moping though and Sanji quickly got back to his feet, determined to find Zoro so they could talk about this. He was also quite angry about the fact that Zoro never thought to inform him about this development.

Way to take advantage of the uninformed incubus raised by normal humans Sanji scoffed as he headed back to the dorm, decision made and more than a little nervous for the conversation that he knew would not be pleasant.

xxxxxx

On the other hand, Zoro's day started with a rude awakening by the new dorm security, a gruff tough looking man by the name of Smoker. He had overslept and it was time for the weekly dormitory cleaning which he was obstructing.

Grumbling an apology to the cleaners and a sleepy glare at Smoker for banging on his door, he yawned and made himself presentable.

After using the bathroom and taking care of all his usual morning necessities, Zoro headed out to do his morning exercises in the woods.

It was true that technically the forest was off limits after the incidents and the killer that was still at large...but Zoro was never one to really follow the rules.

Once he reached his usual spot, he took out one of his swords and started doing swipes and lunges, stretching his muscles and waking himself up.

It wasn't until he automatically attacked a bush did he realize that his body had reacted to the presence of an intruder and there was indeed someone hiding in said bush.

Snarling, he attacked the blur that had jumped out of the bush and was satisfied to feel flesh yield underneath his blade.

The figure staggered back and Zoro warily settled into a fighting stance, unsure if the guy was a friend or foe but he certainly didn't recognize him.

"Who are you?" Zoro calmly questioned as he shifted, ready to attack at a moments notice.

Green eyes focused on him for a dazed second "Blai-" before slowly bleeding into red, the previous hurt expression changing into one of cautious fury "Cain" the man finished with a whisper as he straightened up. Zoro noticed with some weariness that the man had healed already and was barely bleeding.

But Zoro recognized that name "You're the one who took Sanji." It was a statement, and one that Cain probably realized held a certain amount of anger as he put his hands in front in him in a placating gesture.

"Roronoa Zoro. I did not come here to fight you."

"Then I guess this is going to be straight up manslaughter." replied Zoro as he unsheathed his other blade, and used them to attack Cain.

The man dodged and Zoro noted vaguely that Cain's movements were sluggish. He didn't seem in fighting condition and that, coupled with the fact that Cain wasn't fighting back made him sheath his blades.

The man was speaking the truth and he wasn't much for attacking someone so weak anyways.

"Speak before I change my mind."

Cain, who had jarred his shoulder against a tree when he dodged, leaned back against it.

"I'm sorely tempted not to tell you now, after your warm welcome." He muttered, dusting off his clothing and crossing his arms, glaring at Zoro.

There was a moment of silence and when Cain realized that he wasn't going to get an apology, he huffed and said "I came here to apologize for attempting to steal your mate."

The words took a moment for Zoro to digest but once he did he made a noise of confusion "Sanji isn't my mate."

"Partner, whatever. Either way, I didn't realize another vampire had claim over him because your scents were so intertwined it was hard to tell."

Zoro chose to stay silent, slightly uncomfortable with the fact that he wasn't as subtle as he thought in his scent marking if even a weakened vampire like Cain could smell it.

And yes, Cain was most definitely a fellow vampire. Zoro could tell and it was grating on his nerves. Vampires were rather territorial and he had the urge to destroy the man for the simple fact that he had touched Sanji.

Not noticing Zoro's murderous thoughts, or at least choosing to ignore them, Cain continued "I also wanted to warn you."

Zoro stiffened at that, hand on his sword, expecting a fight.

Cain sighed at that, annoyed at Zoro's constant paranoia "Can you not? I'm trying to help you here." When Zoro settled down with a disgruntled frown he continued "I noticed that your partner was not a vampire, that he was another species."

Zoro didn't bother correcting Cain's assumption, the faster he finished his business here the faster he could capture the guy and turn him in to the Academy.

"You remind me of myself. That's why I want to help you. As you may have noticed, there's another person in my body. Blair." Cain's gaze softened at the mention of that name "He was my lover and the Academy killed him."

Shocked but intrigued now, Zoro listened on in morbid curiosity.

"You think the Academy is seriously there to help monsters? Do you really think they're that charitable? Haven't you ever wondered why the Academy is run by vampires that we never see? The only reason they killed my love was because he wasn't the same species as me. They wanted me to marry someone of the same species, to procreate and create a stronger lineage and to pass on the pureblood. I guess they didn't expect me to use their training against them when I contained Blair's soul inside my own body."

Zoro didn't know what to say but he had been with the Academy for so long it was hard to see them as evil like the man seemed to be suggesting.

"I didn't want to kill those people, Zoro. Please believe me." Cain's red eyes bore into his as his earnest stare showed that he wasn't making this up. "I had to gather as much energy as soon as possible to revive Blair's body. One body is not meant to contain two souls. I'm deteriorating and soon Blair will truly be dead to me."

Cain took a deep breath as if to calm himself down after such an emotional outburst.

He looked back up into Zoro's eyes, a clear warning in them.

"Zoro, your relationship with Sanji is so much like our's that I'm afraid you two won't be free from their wrath either."

Cain took another step closer as if to emphasize his point.

"At this rate Sanji is going to die. Just like Blair. And you will end up like me. Desperate and hunted."

TBC

A/N: Thank you to all the anonymous reviewers. I wish i could personally reply to you but it still makes me very happy whenever I see one of your reviews/comments. Thank you for all the follows and favorites too. It means a lot.

And yupppp you can tell shit's going to go down with some character deaths here and there….get ready xD I always planned for it to end up like this. It was just kind of difficult to steer the story that way because of my penchant for writing crack. But after a long hiatus I've found that I can actually write it! Which is awesome by the way and I hope you guys enjoyed it :D

Reminder that updates are every two weeks on a Wednesday. But 15 reviews and I will update a week early. Reviews give me a lot of motivation ^.^

Please do leave a review or a comment. It makes me very happy and I reply to all of them :)