Sanji is sitting on the beach doing his not-sleeping thing that he's started doing whenever there's nothing better to do. He'd already cleaned up the mess from the party and washed and cleaned everything that needed cleaning from his cooking. After that there isn't a lot to do. He could read a cookbook but he's read all of the ones that he's got five times over. Anyway, he doesn't follow any of the recipes exactly anymore. Perhaps he should consider writing his own but he'd need to ask Nami about how to write something into a proper hardbound book and ask her questions about bookbinding, then again Robin might be the one to ask about that. Either way, Nami's overworked herself enough as it is repairing his damaged book as much as she could and she's been obsessively reading it and cataloging the weather as she goes in the hope of finding All Blue with her guesstimated formula. She doesn't need more work.
The conclusion of all of this is that he has nothing to do. Not unless he feels like taking one of the crew's instruments and learning them. Brook had said that being dead gives you an opportunity to learn new skills, but it feels wrong to take that kind of thing from one of his nakama. So he's left staring out at the ocean.
He jolts out of his stupor when Nami walks up to him, sleep mussed hair and with her sandals in her hand as she comes to him.
"Have you seen Zoro?" She asks with a cute little yawn.
"Uh," Sanji says intelligently.
"Oh, actually, I remember him passing me a while back saying that he needed a- I mean, that he was going to relieve himself." Sanji answers, sparing his beautiful Nami the cruder phrasing that Zoro gave him.
"Ok, he'll be back any minute now then. Thanks." Nami nods. Sanji frowns to himself and looks over at the long since risen sun.
"Actually… that was several hours back. I didn't really think about it." Sanji says with some embarrassment. Some lookout he is.
"Great, he got lost on what should have been a five minute trip. Could you go find him Sanji?" Nami groans wearily and wanders back to the fire, not even bothering to wait for an answer. Not that she needs to of course, Sanji will always oblige his wonderful Nami-swan!
"Of course Nami!" Sanji chirps, leaping to his feet. She waves at him sleepily in acknowledgement without even looking around, just a casual thing over her shoulder. Nami is so cool.
Sanji deliberately turns his lungs back on again. He can't smell Zoro around here, even with his heightened senses, but with the smell of the surf and the sea breeze it's not at all surprising. His best bet is by the trees. He wanders aimlessly towards the treeline with his hands casually in his pockets and breathing through his nose. One of the first things that he finds is the tree that he and Zoro… well, where they had their fun last night. There's the tang of Zoro's blood, the iron in it tingling in Sanji's nose, as well as the faded pheromones and the hint of his release. Sanji grins a fanged smile, that was fun, the noises Zoro made especially and the way he reacted to everything Sanji did. He must do that again, sooner rather than later. Too bad that Zoro's most likely going to be smug about the fact that he was right, the more he loosened up the more at ease he would be. It turns out that, like lots of problems according to Zoro, the solution was alcohol.
The bastard is going to be insufferable now. Thankfully Sanji now has a pretty fail-safe method of distracting him.
He heads further away from the group's camp but confusingly doesn't smell… to put it the way Zoro did, anywhere that the other man pissed. Zoro is still gross, though at least he had the decency to go away from the camp and not just whip it out in front of the ladies and pee against a tree right there by the camp.
Still, it puts him no closer to finding his mossy boyfriend. Boyfriend? Whatever, he's going to go with boyfriend. If he says it and Zoro has a problem with it then maybe Sanji will change his label in his mind, until then he's going to call Zoro his boyfriend. It's a nice thought.
Sanji stops in his tracks and inhales deeply. There's nothing for it, he's going to have to go into the forest. It's the kind of dumb decision that Zoro might make, go right instead of back where he came from. He wonders if mildly drunk Zoro has worse directional skills than regular Zoro. Heaven help him if he does. Well, it's a small island, there's only so lost that Zoro can get without swimming out to sea and even Zoro isn't that dumb.
The smell of damp earth and sand surrounds him as he strides into the forest. He opens his other senses but he can't feel Zoro anywhere around, he's not getting an emotional read on the other man. Either Zoro is too far away or he's just feeling apathetic about things so his emotions are too light for Sanji to pick up and differentiate from his own.
Within a few minutes though he gets a hint of the unique cluster of smells that is Zoro. The steel of his swords, the hint of oil polish on them, the leather of his boots and belt, the hint of sweat and now also the added rum smell. He follows it and finds himself on a slightly trodden path where it's stronger. The occasional plant or tree trunk carrying a stronger hint of it when Zoro brushed up against it or touched it. He heads uphill following the trail and it's dumb winding path going left and right and occasionally doubling back on itself and twisting in spirals. He feels like a complete idiot tracking this dumb trail, but within an hour it comes to an end.
He stands with his hands on his hips and looks up at the structure before him. He must take Robin here. It's a giant and clearly ancient temple structure with stone steps leading up to a flat dais with an altar on the front and, noticeably, a giant pit underneath it. Sanji sighs, he'll bet anything that Zoro is in there. He doesn't smell any blood so Zoro is probably just fine.
He wanders over to the edge of the pit and looks down. Worryingly it's a spiked pit with large metal spikes sticking up at the bottom. There are sword slashes down the side of the pit and Sanji would guess that Zoro slowed his descent that way, there are also a few spikes with the top sliced off. In the middle at the bottom is Zoro, sprawled between the spikes with a large metal box at his side, it looks to be a chest and it doesn't take a genius to realise that was what was on the altar and removing it set off the trap. The real question is why Zoro is still in there.
Zoro snores loudly and Sanji groans, his face in his hands. He looks around and plucks a fist sized rock up off of the floor nearby and drops it on Zoro, hitting him in the shin. Zoro grumbles and wakes up, blinking blearily at him. Sanji stands, hands on his hips and tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for the explanation and it had better be a good one.
"I found a chest." Zoro says instead.
"I see that. WHY are you here though?" Sanji demands.
Zoro sits up and rubs his head, cracking his jaw with a yawn.
"Well, I fell in and I was tired so I just slept there." the swordsman says like it's obvious.
"Ugh. You didn't think that the so far peaceful natives might have got a bit pissed if they came here and found that you'd stolen their shit?" He asks sharply.
"I would have fought them." Zoro answer with an easy shrug. Sanji opens his mouth to protest that he shouldn't go around picking fights with innocent people but it'd be entirely wasted and it's not like they haven't done that kind of thing before.
"Okay, but why are you here here, in this temple? You went out for a piss and didn't come back." Sanji asks, full well knowing the answer.
"If I say that the camp moved, would you believe me?" Zoro asks hesitantly, eyeing Sanji dubiously.
"Take. A. Guess." Sanji grits out in irritation.
"Okay, I may have got lost. A little. But it's not my fault, and the chest has gold in it, Nami will be happy." Zoro says with a bright smile, like that will distract Sanji.
"You are the biggest moron I know, and considering some of the members of our crew, that's saying something. Come here, I'll pull you up." Sanji says with a sigh, crouching down and offering his hand. He realises his mistake after a moment. Zoro doesn't need his help to get out, not at all, but Sanji offered out of reflex. To his surprise Zoro doesn't bitch out his offer. Instead he throws the chest in Sanji's direction so that it lands at his feet. He weaves his way around tight spikes and then reaches up and clasps Sanji's hand. He hauls the marimo up easily with Zoro kicking himself away from the wall with one easy stride so that he lands lightly on his feet by Sanji's side.
"Okay, fine. Grab that chest and let's head back to camp. Do you need me to hold your hand so that you don't get lost?" Sanji asks in a sweet and mocking tone. Zoro responds by punching Sanji in the ribs. The cook snickers and leads Zoro back towards the camp.
Zoro was right, Nami is beyond pleased at the contents of the chest and entirely forgives Zoro for wandering off and even charitably agrees to take half of the amount off of his debt as a reward for finding it. Zoro knows better by now to argue with her on it but he grumbles about it under his breath as they all make their way back to the ship.
Franky catches up to Sanji with an excited smile on his face and starts to talk enthusiastically about something involving words like: Polydimethylsiloxane, quartz sand and carbo-thermic smelting. Sanji doesn't consider himself stupid or uneducated by any means, though a pirate ship was hardly an institution of higher education. He still read books on lots of things though and he's pretty smart. Even so, all of this is going way WAY over his head.
"-so when I worked on ships we often had to make our own materials so I used that and built a furnace so that I could refine the-" Franky babbles but Sanji holds a hand up to stop him.
"Look, I don't even know if I age now that I'm dead, but just in case can you get to the point before I grow old and die?" Sanji says, cutting the other man off.
"I have a surprise for you." Franky grins broadly with his eyes sparkling in excitement.
"Okaaaaay…" Sanji says suspiciously.
Franky has had surprises for him before. Admittedly the amazing high tech kitchen in the Sunny was one, but so was the 'intelligent' whisk and food processor that didn't include a lid, that when Franky demonstrated it, coated the entire kitchen and dining room in a very fine layer of vaporised carrot. The same could be said of the self rotating spaghetti fork which he had given to Luffy who, in his eagerness to eat, had ended up getting his rubber tongue stuck in it and wound up fifteen times before someone managed to turn it off. It had taken ten minutes and lot of whining to free him. Needless to say Franky and surprises make Sanji mildly concerned. The shipwright and engineer is unarguably a genius but between his childish enthusiasm and occasional lack of common sense things do go wrong.
Nevertheless Sanji follows Franky to his workshop and indeed notices a few new machines, including a few worrying scorch marks on the wall, but that could easily be from Usopp's workshop instead as they share the space. There is a gross chemical tang in the air and Sanji is glad that he can just stop breathing and dampen the smell.
Franky grabs a box off of the table where a bunch of blueprints are scattered and hands it to Sanji with a bright and expectant smile. Sanji peers warily at the box for a moment, as if expecting it to wriggle out of his hands. When it fails to do anything interesting he pops it open and peers inside. Inside are some lengths of leather in an odd configuration but he puts that aside in order to look at whatever it is in the smooth looking black pouch. He balances the box on one arm and uses his other hand to open up the bag from its drawstring.
He pulls out the… the thing in there.
Okay, there's no point in being modest about it. That thing in the bag is a dildo. That is what it is. In horrified fascination he squeezes it and finds that it has a little give in it. At least it's not hot pink or something, it's a smooth matte black.
"Like I said 'lil bro, I managed to make silicone and I thought, I know what I should make for my dead buddies!" Franky says brightly.
Sanji's brain recoils away from the plural there and the possibility that he's not the only one in receipt of one of these boxes. He doesn't want to know.
"Enjoy it! Oh, and before I forget, here." Franky says, turning around and pulling something from a drawer and throwing it at Sanji who deftly catches it. He turns the small bottle over in his free hand and sees the word 'lube' scrawled on it in pen in Franky's awkward scrawl on a wonkily placed label.
"Hah, if I hadn't given you that Zoro wouldn't have enjoyed it much!" Franky laughs loudly, his hands on his speedo clad hips. Sanji tries to get his throat to cooperate and push past the mortification freezing his whole body.
"How did you know… I mean, fine that you knew but how did you know it was…" Sanji asks, his voice sounding hollow with shock. He's kind of glad that his heart isn't beating, he's pretty sure that if it was his face would be tomato red by now.
"Ahahaha, you and Zoro aren't SUPERRR subtle you know!" Franky crows with laughter. Sanji shakes that thought out of his head with a wince. He had a feeling that Franky knew but he didn't know that they had been that unsubtle about it. Anyway there are more cringeworthy things to be thinking about right now.
"Uh, Franky, this bottle… it isn't…" Sanji begins dubiously, looking down at the plastic bottle in his hand. "It's not the kind of thing you're using on your machines, right?"
The fact that the shipwright breaks out into gut busting laughter, his chestplate actually pops open a little he's laughing so hard, means that Sanji isn't especially reassured.
"Oh boy! No, no, it's nothing like that. It's stuff Chopper makes. Useful for medicine and other things." Franky says, sliding his glasses down his nose and waggling his eyebrows in a wave that both irritates and vaguely impresses Sanji with its coordination.
"Seriously though, you have to use that stuff. If you use any kind of oil the silicone will degrade and you really don't want that." Franky says, his face serious again. Sanji nods, he supposes it's a good thing that the other man said that. If he hadn't been given this bottle he would have gone straight for oil as a choice, it's what he's used in the past with his one night stands with guys after all.
Before Sanji can debate on giving his embarrassing gift back Franky hustles him out of the room with a merry 'you kids have fun!' and leaves Sanji standing in the hallway with wide eyes, an open box of sex toys and a bottle of lube in one hand. He awkwardly puts everything back in the box and scurries back to the men's bunkroom and shoves it in the back of his locker and locks it firmly. He often doesn't bother locking it, the others know not to touch his stuff without asking and the last time he caught luffy wearing one of his ties as a headband he punted him into the ocean and the rubber boy hasn't done it since. That had been fun actually, both because it punished the moron and because it meant that Zoro had to sharply wake up from his nap and throw himself overboard to rescue their captain, it was a great two for one deal.
He guiltily escapes from the bunkroom as if someone might know what he's been up to and what he's hidden. He shuts himself in the safety of the kitchen and paces nervously. He should be getting started on breakfast but his mind is too full of his 'surprise' to think about it. On the one hand he wants to throw the damn thing overboard or at least give it back to Franky. He knows the other man put a lot of effort into the thing but he didn't ask him to, and Franky's the kind of pervert who would enjoy that kind of thing, not Sanji!
Only… only getting Zoro off last night had been amazing and it's not as if he hadn't thought about this sort of… fake dick stuff since Franky mentioned it last. Besides, if he gets to feel Zoro's pleasure second hand, albeit muted, it's not like it won't do something for him. Sure it's not going to be as good as actually fucking Zoro would have done but… but it's something.
Sanji hisses in frustration, he's getting ahead of himself and just blithely assuming that Zoro would be okay about that kind of thing. Sure he hadn't said anything before but it's not like the possibility had come up before on account of, uh, it not coming up. On top of that there was the potential pitfall that Zoro might not be okay being the receiving party, some guys have a lot of hangups about that sort of thing.
Sanji personally doesn't have an opinion one way or the other, good sex is good sex regardless of the logistics involved. Two guys that he'd been with had insisted on being on top, one didn't care and seeing as they had sex twice they switched and that'd been fun, the other guy that Sanji had nearly slept with laughed at Sanji when he'd offered to take it. There hadn't been any real thought on Sanji's part, he'd just felt in that kind of mood, but the guy he was with seemed to think it was hilarious. Sanji had asked what was so funny and the guy had said something along the lines of:
'I didn't even think it was a question, I mean, look at you. Skinny, young, blond twink! You're such a pretty girly boy that-'
He hadn't got any further at that point, nor said much after, on account of the fact that Sanji had kicked him in the jaw so hard that half of his teeth shattered and he had to have his jaw wired shut. He showed that judgemental bastard what a supposedly skinny, blond pretty boy could do. And he's not and has never been skinny goddamnit, he's compact. He's got a kick as strong as Zoro's sword strikes and he doesn't have legs anywhere near as beefy as Zoro's arms. He's efficiently built, okay?!
Fucking bastard. He wants to break his jaw again now!
Sanji realises that he's growling at an empty room and takes a deliberate calming breath and stops it. Back to Zoro. The man could have preferences that Sanji doesn't know about and he shouldn't just whip that fucking box out mid makeout and expect the other man to go with it. After all, Zoro may never have been in that position before or indeed in any position before. If he's never slept with anyone before then the pressure to give Zoro a great first time may actually kill him again. Even though he's already dead. Sanji giggles to himself and wishes that he could share that one with Brook. Too bad it's too personal to share though.
So, there's nothing for it, he's just going to have to have a mature conversation with Zoro about it. Like an adult. Ugh, being mature sucks. He starts on breakfast and tries to work out a reasonable way to segue into that topic of conversation.
Sanji spends the entirety of breakfast and the clean up afterwards trying to work out how to bring up the subject to Zoro, so when Zoro's nighttime watch comes up Sanji is able to corner him up in the crow's nest. He figures that he has the conversation all figured out.
"So why don't you just tell me what Franky gave you? I'm on watch, I should be keeping watch." Zoro grumbles, looking out to sea disinterestedly. It's night time so at least no one else is up, or at least not up and about on deck.
"It's the kind of thing that I should show you!" Sanji declares, trying to force past the awkwardness in his chest that makes him want to avoid this conversation entirely.
"What do you need to be so dramatic about everything? It pisses me off." Zoro complains with a roll of his eyes.
"I am NOT dramatic!" Sanji snaps back, stamping his foot into the floor hard enough to make the wood give an unhappy creak.
"Uh-huh." Zoro says smugly and Sanji flips him off with both hands.
"Look just… just look, okay?" Sanji grumbles, fishing the box out from the storage in one the seats where he had transferred it to earlier just for this purpose. He had however shoved three blankets and several books on top of it to keep prying eyes away, which unfortunately means that he has to scrabble around for it for a little bit. Zoro gives a put upon sigh and makes a point of looking out at the ocean disinterestedly.
Sanji sighs, deliberately, and shoves the box into Zoro's hands and waits awkwardly for Zoro's reaction.
Sanji hones in on Zoro's emotions with laser like focus but Zoro isn't feeling much of anything aside from irritation at Sanji, which basically registers as nothing to him. He spends so much time getting under Zoro's skin for fun that he just ignores it.
The swordsman shuffles on the seat so he's not sideways on and instead now has his back to the window. He rests the box in his lap and opens it. Sanji tenses and watches Zoro's expression and emotions like a hawk. Zoro slowly lifts out the tangled leather straps of the harness or whatever it's called that the thing fits into. He looks at it and says 'huh.' flatly and Sanji has no idea as to whether or not Zoro knows what he's holding, either way he's not getting a read on him visually or with his stupid powers. He drops it back into the box and then Sanji hears the shift of fabric and he knows that Zoro is about to find the… the dildo.
Zoro pulls it out and looks at it, shifting the box off to his side and then looking at Sanji.
"You said Franky made this?" Zoro asks with wide eyes and Sanji can feel a faint tinge of surprise from him, but not much else. Is this good surprise or bad surprise goddamnit?!
"Yeah." Sanji nods, trying to behave normally and not like he's internally going over everything with a fine toothed comb for analysis whilst quietly panicking.
"That pervert has too much free time." Zoro remarks with a shake of his head.
Zoro doesn't say anything more and continues being inscrutable, much to the detriment of Sanji's frayed nerves. Zoro holds it up to eye level and peers at it. He wraps his hand around it and gives it a squeeze and then gently tries bending it between his two hands, it's not really flexible in that way so it doesn't do much. He turns it and looks at the base, probably trying to work out how it fits into the leather abomination that Franky made for him. Sanji hadn't actually thought to work that out, but he's sure that Franky wouldn't have given it to him if it didn't fit together. He hopes that if Zoro says yes that they manage to figure out how to fit it together because if he has to go ask Franky for help he will legitimately throw himself overboard and not come back on the ship ever again.
"I've never done it like this before. But I suppose guys usually wouldn't have much use for this. Women maybe…" Zoro contemplates out loud.
"Tell me what you're thinking already!" Sanji snaps, his nerves no longer able to take the tension.
"I think that you want to use this on me." Zoro says, spinning it around his fingers and then balancing it on the tip of one finger, it's realistic looking head balancing there perfectly. Show off. Great, the first real emotion that Sanji gets off of Zoro is smugness, this power is useless for snooping!
"I wouldn't have gone through the horror of having him give it to me and then having to show it to you if the idea didn't appeal, would I?" Sanji argues back.
"I wish I could have seen that, I bet your face was priceless!" Zoro laughs loudly, catching the offending item in his hand as he clutches his stomach in side splitting cackles. Sanji glares at Zoro. He's going to punish him for this!
"Yeah, I could have died of embarrassment, except I'm already dead." Sanji says with a grin. Zoro abruptly stops laughing and gives Sanji a dark look.
"Hey Zoro, don't look at me like that. It was just a joke. Man, if looks could kill- AUGH!" Sanji's second skull joke is cut off when Zoro retaliates by hurling the prosthetic penis right at Sanji's face. Sanji has a split second of seeing the thing coming towards him, the silicone wobbling slightly with the force of Zoro's throw, just before it hits him right in the eye.
"AGH! You shit brained bastard! MY EYE!" Sanji howls, clutching at it. The indignity of it hurts far worse than the injury but STILL!
He sucks in a pained breath and stands up, his hand still over one eye as he feels it healing fast.
"That would have been the worst black eye ever and the WORST way to get it!" Sanji yells at Zoro.
"I am not even slightly sorry." Zoro growls angrily at him.
"I'll make you sorry!" Sanji curses and walks over to the window. He can see his reflection in the glass thanks to it being so dark outside, thank goodness that vampire thing was a myth or else this would be super difficult. He watches as the colouration under his eye vanishes right before him. He blinks a few times without pain and turns back around to scowl at Zoro.
"If you're done with the skull jokes, then I have a question for you. If you make one again and I'll kick you out of the room for the rest of the night." Zoro threatens, waving the toy at him that he apparently retrieved from the floor. Sanji doesn't want to risk being hit by it again, he still has some pride left after all.
"What?" Sanji asks grumpily rubbing under his eye just in case.
"You want to use this on me, so tell me why." Zoro says, watching Sanji carefully.
"Technically that isn't a question. Don't hit me with that thing again!" He squawks as Zoro raises the silicone horror in threat.
"Okay, okay! Well, because he gave it to me for one. And… I really liked last night, and I know you did so I thought that this could be, you know." Sanji mutters uncomfortably. Does this mean that Zoro isn't into the idea? Warily he reaches out and feels Zoro's mental state out but all he's getting is supreme focus, nothing else.
"And?" Zoro prompts.
"And I'd like it too. And for all I kick your ass around I do actually like seeing you enjoy yourself you know, I wanted you to have a good time and it's not like I can… not on my own. Not anymore." Sanji says, not meeting Zoro's eyes and instead looking out of the window.
Zoro tugs at Sanji's chin and makes Sanji look at him. There's a smile starting to tug at the edge of the man's mouth and Sanji feels uncertain about it.
"Go back to that 'you like seeing me enjoy myself' thing." Zoro says, the smile creeping to the other side of his mouth too now.
"Of course I do, don't you feel like that with me? Anyway, you know that this half works because I get off on what you feel with my creepy Zoro-radio tuned in, remember?" Sanji frowns. What is Zoro getting at here?
"Yeah, I saw you watching me last night. You get off on me getting off alright, you watch me." Zoro says, all but purring at him and wow, Sanji can absolutely feel that same bright flare of lust coming from Zoro that he had before. He suppose that he felt it then too but it would have been too drowned out by the whirlwind of Zoro actually being pleasured to have really felt it clearly like this. But now… wow, that's a pretty bright burn going on in the other man.
"I'm guessing that the reason you didn't call Franky a pervert and run off without this is because you thought about using it on me and watching what it'd do to me, huh?" Zoro continues and Sanji only realises that Zoro's been getting closer to him when his back hits the slightly curved wall that makes up the watch room.
"I-uh… that…" Sanji tries to coordinate his mouth and lungs to work together. Behind his eyes flashes the image that he had in his head of Zoro, of pressing the marimo up against the nearest flat surface and being able to watch Zoro fall apart without the distraction of his own body getting in the way. Usually if he fucks someone he's obviously caught up in how good it feels for him too, but with this he could just see Zoro and-
"Go on?" Zoro says smoothly, leaning in and wrecking Sanji's mind. For fuck's sake, he doesn't have hormones any more, he shouldn't be having this hard a time thinking about this! But between his mind's mental porn screening, Zoro pulling his apparent kinks out to look at them, and the feel of Zoro's own want his mind has turned his brain to the consistency of scrambled eggs.
"So, what, you're just trying to laugh at me now? Well fine!" Sanji blusters, trying to say something, anything. Plus he doesn't like how Zoro is pushing him on this, it's like he's going to do something and Sanji's sure that it's laughing at him. Zoro doesn't give him a chance to get away though, even though Sanji was moving to push past him. Instead Zoro pushes him back against the wall with one hand and leans in to bite the corner of Sanji's jaw before kissing it right after.
"Not laughing. I want to know what kind of things do it for you, I've got to know this stuff to be the best at this, remember?" Zoro says against Sanji's neck.
"You're still going on about that?" Sanji asks shakily, his hands coming to rest on Zoro's sides all on their own. Zoro doesn't answer but just hums in agreement and kisses Sanji. Evidently whatever this thing is that keeps Sanji tuned into how Zoro feels gets stronger with physical contact. Zoro backs off a step or two and Sanji feels it fade down to less burning levels of intensity.
Zoro throws the toy at Sanji and whips his shirt off in one smooth movement, his haramaki going with it too. Sanji fumbles to catch the thing and stares at the marimo in shock.
"Come on, let's do this!" Zoro says eagerly, his hands going for his belt.
"Wait, what? Right now? I mean- now?!" Sanji asks, his voice climbing in pitch as he stares at Zoro's half naked form.
The swordsman fixes him with a challenging look and Sanji clutches the toy a little tighter.
"What happened to 'I'm busy being on watch' then?" Sanji shoots back, scrambling his brain in order and hitting the default setting of annoying Zoro.
"Your vision is better than mine right? Spin around. See anything? No, now get over here!" Zoro huffs irritably and fumbles with his belt buckle. Sanji can feel the eagerness rolling off of Zoro in waves.
Sanji stares at Zoro, this is really happening. He's really going to get to do this with Zoro, to see him like… oh shit. Oh shit! This is gonna be great! Zoro apparently takes his inaction for lack of interest rather than being paralyzed with excitement.
"You know, unless you're not interested. If you're not then you can hand that over and I can have fun all on my own. I suppose you could watch seeing as that apparently- MPH!" Zoro is cut off as Sanji launches himself at Zoro, mouth first, and topples them onto the floor.
"Tch, you always were a little slow." Zoro says. It's probably meant to come out mocking but the way Zoro is breathing fast and how he's squirming out of his trousers betrays his eagerness. Sanji is absolutely ok with that, Zoro is right, this is what he likes to see.
"I'm locking the door!" Sanji exclaims, his last few functioning brain cells propelling him into action. He stumbles to the door, pulling his own shirt off as he goes. He flips the lock quickly and kicks off his shoes on the way back to Zoro.
Zoro is caught inelegantly trying to get his trousers off over his boots which he hadn't thought to remove beforehand. In the spirit of getting naked as quickly as possible he generously helps Zoro out of them and only just manages to avoid accidentally throwing them out through the glass with a last minute reigning in of his strength.
Zoro repays Sanji's charity by clambering all over Sanji the moment that he's naked, with no regards as to the fact that Sanji is still trying to focus his attention enough to get his own clothes off without interrupting the whole process. He finally gets his own clothes off and a lapful of Zoro as his reward. There's a fleeting moment of unease when he feels again that Zoro is so hard against him, specifically against Sanji's abs as the other man leans forward against him and kisses him as hard as he can, whereas Sanji is just… not. The thought skitters away from him though when Zoro's nails scrape down Sanji's skin hard. It seems that Zoro both gets off on pain a little but also gives as good as he gets. He shouldn't disappoint the man then, should he? Sanji scrapes his teeth along Zoro's collar bone and gets a whine back in return which is of a higher pitch than Zoro would probably willingly admit to.
"Okay, we need to- oh- find that… put it together and… yeah." Zoro breathes, getting distracted as Sanji laps at the graze with his tongue, making it so that there's not even the slightest red mark there at all. He didn't even pierce the skin but apparently it's still good enough for Zoro.
Zoro twists and grabs the box, pulling it off of the seat and onto the floor with a noisy clatter as Sanji reaches for the silicone dick that Franky had so kindly gifted them.
"Give me the lube, you can work these out." Sanji says, holding the toy out to Zoro and motioning with the other hand for the bottle.
"No way, you're the one raised by sailors, knots are your deal." Zoro argues back.
"You're lucky that I can't get hard. For future reference, talking about my old man when we're naked counts as killing the mood. You do this, I've got better things to be doing with lube and you." Sanji snaps and kicks the box towards himself with a twist of his hips. He shoves everything else at Zoro's chest and snags the bottle out of the box, shoving the empty thing away.
He adds lube to his fingers until he thinks that he has enough, and then he adds a little more. You can never have too much after all and Sanji suspects that patience isn't Zoro's strong suit right now so the more the better. He only just touches Zoro's skin when the other man jumps.
"Cold!" Zoro exclaims quickly, stilling Zoro's hands with his words.
Of course. Sanji isn't warm blooded anymore, of course this was going to feel weird and wrong for Zoro.
"I- I'm sorry. It's my fault..." Sanji says unhappily, his hand falling back down to his side.
"Hey, I didn't say stop. Cold lube is just always awful, warm it up in your hands or something." Zoro pants in between frustrated breaths as he tries to both kiss Sanji's neck and work out the straps of the harness.
"I. Can't." Sanji says through gritted teeth.
"Oh." Zoro says slowly, realising what he's said. "That was dumb, keep going, I didn't think. Just go. It's good." Zoro says gently and kisses Sanji's cheek, just once and softly too.
Sanji nods and deliberately takes a breath and lets it out, trying to stop worrying but what if he's too cold all over and this doesn't work and-
"Overthinking it." Zoro says with a snort and thunks his giant stupid forehead into Sanji's temple.
"Shut up." Sanji mutters back in response and puts his hand back to good use.
Whatever progress Zoro is making on their equipment is halted when Sanji gets a knuckle or two deep as Zoro groans deep in his chest in a way that vibrates right through Sanji's unmoving lungs. He keeps going, relying on both his feel of Zoro's enjoyment in his head and the useless curses spilling from Zoro's lips as he tries to multitask.
"Don't stop but just… move your arms." Zoro says unsteadily and drops everything in Sanji's lap, fake dick and all. Zoro leans in, pressing his face to the crook of Sanji's neck and peering down. Sanji keeps his fingers moving but his attention is on what Zoro's doing. Zoro draws something tight around Sanji's hips and yanks on what Sanji would guess is some kind of clasp or whatever. The other man then shuffles awkwardly, trying to get one leg in between Sanji's so that he can get another strap around Sanji's leg. He pinches the skin on Sanji's right leg when he tightens the strap and gets Sanji's leg hair on the left, but Sanji doesn't care in the slightest about that. What he does care about is that he's now got a dick worth having again, artificially made though it is, and someone he very much wants to use it on.
"Alright, let go!" Zoro says eagerly, smearing lube over what Sanji is for now considering his dick.
"Are you sure that you're okay to go now because-" Sanji starts, moving his fingers to emphasise his point. Zoro could certainly be more ready than this, they could take their time.
"Oi, you might be happy to do this all evening but one of us has a rapidly approaching deadline for this!" Zoro hisses at him and pulls away from Sanji.
"Oh, so you can't handle it, That's what you're saying?" Sanji asks with a catlike grin.
"Oh fuck you." Zoro snaps.
"No, fuck you." Sanji laughs and pulls Zoro closer.
"I'm only putting up with your horrible sense of humour so I can get laid." Zoro lies, shifting into place above Sanji.
Sanji's pretty sure that he was right because Zoro's not sliding down on him all that quickly and he can feel the muscles tensed up in Zoro's back. Distraction is always the best tool though so Sanji reaches up and bites him in the closest place that he can reach that isn't Zoro's ribs. He sinks his teeth, carefully though, into Zoro's forearm right near his elbow. The wave of pleasure that smacks into Sanji from Zoro hits as hard as the sea train and he's not sure if it's the feedback of Zoro wanting to be bit or if it's just the up close version of whatever Zoro is feeling. Either way Zoro goes from a mere inch or so onto Sanji to slammed all the way down into Sanji's lap and shuddering happily at it too.
"Are you okay? You've got to be careful, idiot." Sanji says a little sharply, his mouth coming off of Zoro's arm with an absent lick to close it up.
"I'm... I'm good." Zoro assures him, rounding his back and breathing out shakily against Sanji's skin.
"Okay." Sanji says. He's dubious though. Zoro tends to just muscle through things and pain has never been something that's massively deterred him from doing anything, the fact that Sanji hasn't starved yet is evidence of that. But he's known Zoro long enough to know that calling him on Zoro's assertion that he's good will only encourage the other man to take it as a challenge and Sanji really doesn't want that. Instead, he keeps still and doesn't encourage Zoro to move.
He distracts both of them by running his hand up Zoro's bare thigh and dotting his skin with kisses as Zoro collects himself.
"Aren't you gonna move cook? Or don't you know how this works?" Zoro teases him, though when he shifts forward to mutter those irritating words in Sanji's ear he gets the feeling that Zoro moved enough to make things work for him.
"You're the one who has me pinned to the ground with your dumb and heavy body." Sanji points out, settling his hands on Zoro's hips and pulling the other man back down and thoroughly enjoying the pleased grunt that he gets from Zoro at the action.
"Are you saying that you can't move? That you're not strong enough?" Zoro challenges, opening one eye just a little bit to watch the reaction to his gibe.
Sanji knows that Zoro is taunting him. He knows that Zoro doesn't mean it. He knows that Zoro thinks Sanji is strong and Sanji thinks that he is too. So he should be able to ignore that barb completely. However knowing all of that logically does nothing to shut down the competitive instinct that he has that may well have been strong enough to bring him back in the first place. Hey, maybe not everyone who gets bit turns like he did, maybe only the really stubborn assholes like him make a second appearance back to the land of the living. So, being the mature person that he is he topples the pair of them onto the floor, with Zoro's back on the ground and gives the other man a spiteful roll of his hips just to show him that he can. Zoro wanted him to move, so he's gonna move.
Sanji keeps up moving his hips against Zoro, he has to remind himself to do it now that he doesn't have his own biology screaming at him to move like it would have when he was alive. In any case Zoro would probably react to Sanji stopping and that he would notice for sure. As it is he can hear how hard and unevenly Zoro is breathing and all of the little sounds that come from Zoro.
The swordsman has to breathe and so he can't help the way that his breath stutters when Sanji angles himself just so, he can't do anything to stop the little moans and groans that escape with his breath when Sanji moves a little faster or a little slower. Sanji however isn't as distracted as that, instead he can focus all his attention on Zoro. And Zoro may just be onto something because watching Zoro like this is way better than Sanji could have ever imagined.
He can see the way that Zoro's skin goes red and even hear the other man's pulse going haywire as he reacts. He gets to see the way that Zoro's pupils are blown out and the way that his fingers scrape against the wood of the floor as he tries to keep himself steady and give himself enough leverage to grind back down on Sanji, moving himself just as much as Sanji is moving in him. Yeah, Zoro certainly makes a picture worth watching alright.
What's also interesting is the way that Zoro tilts his head to the side, watching Sanji through one eye. Oh, Sanji knows what Zoro is angling for. He looking to get bit and trying to goad Sanji into doing that.
"I'm not dumb enough to fall for that, you know. You're not as subtle as you think." Sanji insists, leaning down over Zoro and shifting his hips slowly.
"Yeah you are." the other man asserts and pushes himself up onto his elbow to reach up and tangle his other hand in Sanji's hair and pull just so. The swordsman drags him over to the place where his neck becomes his shoulder, the place that's been their go to spot for biting ever since they started doing this instead of Chopper's dumb curly straw solution.
Sanji doesn't actually want to refuse to bite him, even if his instinct to spite Zoro at every possible opportunity tells him to do so. Because he wants this just as much as Zoro does and that's all there is to it. Even before he bites the other man he finds himself getting more feedback from Zoro. They are pressed together, bare chests against each other and Zoro's legs wrapped around Sanji's hips so tight that Sanji has no doubt that he couldn't stop moving and leave Zoro hanging if he wanted to, Zoro would just move him by himself. Luckily for Zoro, Sanji has no such intention of stopping. Either way, all of that skin to skin contact is sending Sanji all sorts of signals telling him just how much Zoro is enjoying this. It's so close that Sanji can feel it as if it was his own reactions. It's not physical enough that Sanji feels like someone else is giving him the same treatment as he's giving Zoro, but he's getting all of the enjoyment out of it.
He gives into what Zoro wants, or more accurately what they both want, and sinks his teeth right into that place between Zoro's neck and shoulder. There's the taste of Zoro that Sanji knows deep in whatever he has left that passes for a soul, but it's the rest of it that grabs his attention. Between the taste of Zoro, the physical contact with him and his weird mind thing he may as well be completely wired into Zoro's system. He can feel every desire Zoro has for faster, or harder or slow down and Sanji gives him whatever he wants, he couldn't even think of doing anything less. He's no longer feeling what Zoro feels in the abstract sense, it's happening to him too. Sanji's own system is alight with 'yes' 'please' 'oh God yes' and 'don't stop, don't ever stop'. He doesn't know if it's from him or Zoro or both.
He doesn't know if Zoro is getting what Sanji is feeling too, but Zoro's responsiveness has spiked since Sanji bit into him. The other man has his hands on Sanji's sides so tight that Sanji thinks he can feel his ribs shifting under Zoro's monstrous strength. He can feel the way that Zoro's muscles are starting to shake ever so slightly, like Zoro might just fall apart from this.
He had wanted to see this happen to Zoro so badly. He had liked the idea of kneeling up over Zoro and watching this happen. He still wants it. Zoro is so so strong that Sanji can't forgive himself if he misses an opportunity to see the other man get thoroughly wrecked. So with some reluctance he licks Zoro's bite mark closed with a mental urge for Zoro to feel amazing, it clearly works because Zoro cries out from it and arches his back so suddenly and so hard that Sanji hears Zoro's head hit the floor with a wooden thunk.
Sanji sits back on his heels, pulling Zoro back with him as much as he can.
Sanji had expected Zoro to look amazing like this, and he does, sweat slick skin shining and Zoro's face entirely unguarded for a change and just a picture of needy bliss. Zoro never looks needy, not for anything. He's never seen the man beg for anything but right now Zoro looks like he just might. What he hadn't expected though was for Zoro to look... beautiful. It's so jarring. He's attracted to Zoro and even before all of this Sanji might have privately acknowledged that Zoro was attractive in his own way. Whilst Zoro can be gross and crude he has a certain classic handsomeness about him in places, his high cheekbones and a nose that is far too straight for the number of times that Sanji has kicked him in his face. Between that and his hard won muscled body Zoro has every right to be attractive. But beautiful... well, that's something he'd never thought of Zoro or any other man being. But right now with Zoro spread out below him, responding to everything and anything that Sanji does, with his emotions and his sensations running through Sanji's veins like the blood his heart doesn't move any more, like this Zoro really is beautiful.
When Zoro comes it's not with a shout or a cry, it's not with hissed expletives like Sanji used to. It's wordless, it's a break from the vocalisations Zoro had been making up to that point. A sharp intake of breath and a halt to his breathing are all Sanji can hear. Zoro's response is more physical, it's the look of concentrated bliss on Zoro's face, it's the way everything in his body tenses so hard that Sanji can see each muscle define itself harshly for a moment and then everything relaxes and Zoro is left panting and trying to catch his breath as he comes down. Sanji probably isn't helping Zoro breathe by leaning down and kissing him so much that Zoro's more breathing into Sanji's mouth than he is kissing back.
He bites Zoro again and physically shudders all over at the feel of everything coursing through Zoro's system but to his surprise Zoro taps his hand sharply and repeatedly on Sanji's side. The signal that they both agreed on long ago when Sanji first started biting Zoro regularly, it meant stop.
"Ngh, too much, stop." Zoro breathes out between sharp breaths. Zoro hadn't even got to the word stop before Sanji's teeth are already out of Zoro's skin and he's licking Zoro all better between murmured apologies.
"Don't- just... move." Zoro hisses, shoving Sanji's hips away and Sanji gets it. He pulls out of Zoro proper and gets a pleased groan from the other man from it.
He hovers over Zoro warily and watches the other man come down and then grin lazily up at him.
"That was..." Zoro breathes, beaming up at Sanji, "intense."
"Good... or? Sorry for biting you then, I thought-" Sanji starts to apologise but Zoro claps his hand over Sanji's mouth to halt him and shakes his head with an endorphin doped grin.
"Quit apologising." he orders in a tired out voice.
"How was it for you? Did you..." Zoro asks, leaving the rest of the sentence hanging as he sits up and looks at Sanji.
"It was great!" Sanji exclaims, his face splitting into the widest smile that he thinks he's ever had outside of talking about All Blue. Zoro looks pleased and wraps his arms around Sanji's neck and kisses his skin and then lazily biting him without anywhere near enough force to worry him but enough to make him sigh happily, a deliberate exhale of breath to match the feeling.
"Yeah, but did you come?" Zoro prompts as he lets Sanji go and leans back to look at Sanji properly.
"Well, no, but you shouldn't-" Sanji starts but Zoro's scowl stops him in his tracks.
"Damn, I thought that might have worked." Zoro says in a frustrated tone that Sanji has previously only heard reserved for frustrating work outs.
"I don't think it works like that, different biology remember? It's like... look." Sanji tries to explain. Instead he goes for a physical approach, reaching his hands around Zoro to the other man's back.
Sanji digs his fingers into the muscles of Zoro's back, following the lines of tense muscle, places where his workouts have knotted the muscles or tightened up from too much use. He rubs them and works them around until they release and relax. Within a few minutes Zoro is slumped against him, bonelessly happy. If he was a cat he would be purring right now.
"Feels good huh?" Sanji asks smugly.
"Mnh, you need to do this more. We're... yeah, more." Zoro says hazily into Sanji's still bare chest.
"So it feels good, you're enjoying yourself and you don't want it to stop?" Sanji asks, leading him right where he wants him. He digs his fingers right into a particularly tense spot and Zoro groans loudly. Privately Sanji agrees that he should do this more, he wants Zoro to get stronger, he needs it for his dream after all. He can't do that with muscles that need this sort of attention. Plus now that he and Zoro are dating, or whatever it is that they're doing, he wants to take every chance that he can get to get his hands on Zoro's bare skin.
"Yeah, just keep- oh, right there. That's ohhhh." Zoro groans as a tricky muscle just under his shoulder blade suddenly relaxes. That one was awkward, he had to shift Zoro's arm a little just to get the bone to move so that he could get to it properly.
"But it's not like you're going to come from this, right?" Sanji presses, feeling more smug with each passing moment. He feels some tension return to Zoro's muscles, though not enough to ruin all of Sanji's hard work. Zoro looks up at him with narrowed eyes.
"Are you making a point here?" Zoro demands, his accusation somewhat muted by his obviously relaxed state.
"Yeah. I don't need to orgasm to enjoy the hell out of what's going on, and it feels a fuck load better than what I'm doing to you right now, I promise." Sanji argues, digging his fingers into Zoro's lower back and feeling the tense and release of the muscles there.
"You know I'm going to fall asleep if you keep this up." Zoro says with a well timed yawn as his sleepy fingers start freeing Sanji from his now rather awkward feeling harness.
Sanji shrugs as he slides free and tosses Zoro's clothes at him.
"That's fine with me. I don't sleep any more remember. Pass out for all I care, I'll take your watch." Sanji says, standing up with a glorious stretch before searching for his own clothes and having a lazy internal debate as to whether he can be bothered to clean everything that they used now or whether he should wait until morning and make Zoro do it so that they at least have to share the awkwardness of owning something like this.
"You're being suspiciously nice." Zoro says, eyeing him carefully.
"I think I'm more than nice, kelp brain. But what can I say, fucking your brains out puts me in a good mood." Sanji says, practically preening with his accomplishment and the memory of watching Zoro burned into his brain forever.
"Smug bastard." Zoro accuses and flings his crumpled up shirt at Sanji and hitting him in the head again. What is it with Zoro and throwing things at his face today? Sanji freezes though when a familiar smell hits his nose and he hastily pulls the shirt away from him.
"Did you just... did you just wipe your jizz of with this and THROW it at my face?!" Sanji demands furiously, his anger not helped by Zoro laughing loudly and jerking his black trousers up and snapping his belt closed with a gleeful grin.
"You are... you are the worst person I have ever met, and the grossest." Sanji grumbles wondering, yet again, why he is sleeping with this utter bastard. He grouchily puts on his own trousers and starts on his shirt.
"Yeah, but you like it." Zoro says silkily, leaning in and kissing Sanji. The cook feels his will wavering and only just manages to shove Zoro away with a palm to the face. Zoro responds by licking his hand grossly, Sanji cries out and hastily wipes his hands on what little clothes he's managed to put on.
"Clearly dying scrambled my brain." Sanji sighs deliberately and flings a pillow and blanket at Zoro, having rummaged around in the storage that he originally pulled his stashed box from.
"Nah, you were always this dumb." Zoro mocks, dropping the pillow on the cushioned bench and collapsing on it in an ungraceful shirtless heap before tugging the blanket over himself. Sanji groans and sits down next to him, looking out over the ocean, unable to keep his frustration going as the memory of watching Zoro look so jarringly beautiful floats through his mind.
He looks down at the already snoring marimo, goodness knows how the bastard is always able to fall asleep in mere minutes. Sanji frowns and stares out to sea, letting himself relax and absently stroking Zoro's bare shoulders now and then as he does so. He slides into his auto pilot that he's developed for watch. He zones out and looks around at regular intervals, trusting his internal timer to do it with little to no input from Sanji's conscious mind.