Zoro's head is filled with a whirl of emotions that distract him from speaking to the people he's waited months to see. Sanji had explained his fear, shown Zoro his weakness and that alone had been enough to put Zoro's head and heart both into a spin. So when Kaku, his usually happy and peaceful friend Kaku, went right for the weak spot that he knew Sanji had, well... he couldn't allow it.
He'd challenged Kaku on it, hoping to make him back down or if worst came to worst he would fight him for it. That had been the plan right up until Sanji had called Kaku on it himself. At first Zoro had thought it was Sanji lashing out because he was hurt. The more that he listened to Usopp and Sanji talk though, the more he realised that Sanji really was challenging Kaku. Sure he didn't really know what he was doing in terms of how to properly go about it, but that was a challenge alright. He'd grinned and allowed it but now as he's walking in silence to the temporary knights quarters he's not so sure.
He's never known Kaku to be like this at all. Kaku is happy and bright, warm and friendly. He's always reminded Zoro of Luffy, if a bit more mature in his agreeable nature. Whilst Luffy can switch from childlike laughter to utter destruction, Kaku was smoother, though he was serious in his fights he was still Kaku. This... this doesn't seem like Kaku. It would help to know what's going on in the man's head, why he's behaving so oddly, he wants to know why Kaku has taken up such a problem with the man that Zoro is in... whatever it is with. His husband at least. He doesn't want to get into Kaku's head the same way that he does with Sanji's though and he needs to be clear about that with everyone.
It doesn't mean that he can't ask any questions though.
"Why are you doing this Kaku?" Zoro asks, as he goes through the door into the area prepared for the knights. There are still servants rushing about here and there, getting the things in from the horses and straightening the place up. Baratians and hospitality are hard to part.
The knight pauses in the middle of the room, his jaw tense and his head tilted so that the shade from his hat covers his eyes. Even through his high necked and full sleeved armor Zoro can see that he's strung tighter than a bow.
"Because someone needs to do it." Kaku finally says.
"To do what? Attack the crown prince of a country that we are in a new and tenuous treaty with at what is literally your first meeting with him?" Robin asks lightly, leaning against the wall and watching the pair of them intently.
The rest of his knights are in the room watching the pair with careful expression. Luffy in particular is looking at Kaku with a scrutinizing expression. Kaku is one of Zoro's knights and his friend, but as the captain of the knights he is Luffy's direct responsibility. If Luffy knows why Kaku is doing this then he's not giving any indication about it.
"He's not strong enough to be anything to you!" Kaku barks out angrily, turning to face Zoro for the first time.
"Kaku, it's not your place to decide that." Nami says, interrupting them.
"Besides, I'm Zoro's nakama and I thought the same thing, but then I actually spoke to him and... he seems to be a good guy. He's smart and from what I've seen of him so far I actually like him. But you are Zoro's friend, you can't determine that kind of thing for him and even if you could it's too late, they're already married." Nami points out. Kaku flinches when Nami calls him Zoro's friend, Nami's point isn't especially subtle. Nami is his nakama and Kaku isn't, she couldn't have made that point and the underlying 'back off' much clearer unless she painted it on his face.
"I need to get ready for the duel." Kaku mutters and walks off.
"Subtle." Ace snorts.
"Well someone had to point it out." Nami retorts.
"This isn't like Kaku at all. He didn't even see how strong the prince is." Johnny says with a frown.
"What makes you say that he's strong?" Yosaku asks with a frown and Zoro rolls his eyes. Johnny and Yosaku are dear old friends, he's known them longer than he has Luffy and Nami after all, but sometimes they're not all that bright.
He walks away from his knights and looks out of the window. There's an arch outside which Zoro knows leads down the courtyard where he and Sanji always spar, where Sanji is going to fight Kaku. It'll take them five minutes to get there at most, which gives Kaku ten minutes to get ready. Zoro bites his lip as unease coils in his gut. Kaku was stupid to agree to a fight with Sanji when he knows literally nothing about him, but Sanji isn't being that bright either. Even though Sanji's culture is more about manners are trade than it is war and battle he knows that Sanji doesn't leap into things blindly. He's going into a fight blind, he doesn't know how Kaku fights at all.
The thing that puts Zoro the most ill at ease is that he doesn't know who's going to win this fight. Kaku is a trained warrior, one of the fastest Zoro knows and strong too. Sanji is quick on his feet, strong and flexible, but Zoro has only seen Sanji spar. He doesn't know if Sanji has ever been in a real live combat situation with someone who might intend to kill him.
He hopes that Kaku isn't dumb enough to try to kill the Prince of Baratie, but even within a non-fatal match up there is a chance that the worst could happen, live blades are involved after all. The thought of Sanji hurt like that or worst still losing him altogether makes Zoro's blood run cold. He has to have faith in Sanji, but if it looks like Kaku might kill him then he'll intervene on the grounds that this isn't a fight to the death and also that killing the Prince of Baratie is a really fucking dumb idea.
"It'll be alright!" Luffy assures him, appearing out of almost nowhere to wrap his arm tightly around Zoro's shoulders.
"Yeah." Zoro agrees with a nod, relaxing at having Luffy so close to him again.
"It's very good to see your face again Luffy." Zoro says with a smile and ruffles Luffy's hair through his hat.
"We missed you!" Luffy declares loudly and Zoro hears Ace laugh in the main room.
"YOU MISSED HIM TOO!" Luffy yells back at him, making Zoro's ears ring.
"Which reminds me, why are you even here Ace? Not that we're not all pleased to see you of course." Robin asks and Zoro turns around with interest. This is a conversation that he'd been planning on having when he saw Ace for the first time, but with everything between Sanji and Kaku he'd forgotten entirely.
Ace isn't one of Zoro's knights. He's not a knight at all. He's Luffy's brother and a friend to Zoro in his own right, putting him in this nebulous nakama corner state that's almost nakamaship in its own right. But he isn't a knight and this is a little far to come for a social visit when Zoro will be back home before too long.
"Good luck finding that out, he's been tight lipped about it the whole way here." Nami huffs in irritation, leaning against the stone wall and giving Ace a glare for evading her.
"I'd tell you if I knew, all I know is that this is where I'm supposed to be." Ace answers with a big shrug and slumps back on the sofa that he's sprawled on.
"Your father's orders?" Robin asks, clearly intrigued. Ace's father is Whitebeard, the most powerful general in Shimotsuki's army and Ace is one of his most trusted men and a son to him too. If Whitebeard wants him here then something must be very wrong.
"Don't give me that look Zoro, I really don't know. Maybe the old man just wanted me out of his hair, he has been saying that I need to stop working so hard. Maybe sending me running between two countries is his idea of a relaxing time. Maybe it's something between him and the King, some kind of bet or who knows. I figure that spending time with my friends and my little brother can't be a bad thing, right?" Ace replies with a wide grin on his freckled face. Zoro shrugs, he likes having Ace around plenty and he has a suspicion that Sanji and Ace will get on well. Both of their fathers move in mysterious ways and often it's far more effort than it's worth to work out what they're up to.
"We should go." Robin says as Kaku returns to the room, his tough armor on and his swords sheathed at his right hip.
Robin leads the way and they all fall into step behind her.
"Non-fatal, you hear me?" Zoro says quietly but firmly to his friend.
"I'm not stupid Zoro." Kaku responds, his tone darker than Zoro has heard it in a long while. What is wrong with him?
"You could have fooled me." Zoro responds with a raised eyebrow and pulls away from him in the courtyard. He makes his way to the centre of it before the others do and sees Sanji leaning against a table top, his head tipped back and his bare throat exposed. Zoro's heart twinges for him.
Sanji is either very deliberately riling Kaku up with his outfit or he's being incredibly naive, the same white clothes and light floating shirt as before, the only difference is that he's replaced his black boots for his white formal ones, adding yet more white to his outfit.
"Is this some kind of stupid surrender?!" Kaku snarls.
"I don't believe so." Robin says lightly and makes her way to the edge of the courtyard, leaning daintily against the wall with Nami at her side.
"But he's wearing even more white, and he's not even bothered to bring a weapon! What kind of fucking insult is this?!" Kaku snarls furiously.
"He doesn't use one." Zoro corrects him, but Kaku is evidently too angry to listen to him properly and seems to be taking it all wrong.
"As if he doesn't need one to beat me? Are you going to let him act like this to me?" Kaku snaps in outrage.
"He doesn't use a weapon, he's hand to hand, same as Luffy and Ace." Zoro responds patiently, though his own irritation at Kaku's out of character behavior rising.
"Yeah, but we're devil's fruit users." Luffy points out.
Sanji saunters up to them, his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face. Maybe he won't need to fight Kaku, maybe that vein throbbing in Kaku's forehead will burst and he'll keel over in a messy stress induced spray of blood.
"I don't even know your name." Sanji says pleasantly.
"Kaku." the man answers through gritted teeth.
Zoro needs to intervene before someone gets stabbed in the throat.
"Back off and don't kill each other." he says, getting to his feet and fixing both men with a firm look. Sanji easily takes a step back but Kaku takes a moment longer. He looks back to Sanji who beams like he's having the time of his life. Zoro sighs, there's no stopping this idiot is there?
He gets out of their way and calls for the match to begin.
Sanji waits there, casual as you please, watching Kaku's self control slip away from him and the grip on his two swords become so tight that the blades shake. Zoro's frown deepens. Kaku is not one to lose his head usually, he's a far calmer fighter than Nami is for example, so for him to lose it so quickly is troubling. What is wrong with Kaku?
The knight cracks and lunges for Sanji but the blonde easily dodges it, lands and then converts the power from that landing into a coiled leap for Kaku. He lands on the knight's chest and kicks the sword clean out of his hand. He doesn't get it out of Kaku's range completely, but the swordsman isn't picking it up any time soon.
Sanji lands on the ground as light as air and, not for the first time in a fight, he wonders if Sanji is even human. The other prince moves with such lightness and grace that it's difficult just to grasp how fast and hard he can hit. Everything Sanji does feels and looks as fluid as the ocean that borders his country.
Kaku looks frankly shocked at Sanji's attack and it serves him right for challenging a man to a fight when he knows absolutely nothing about him. Sanji's already clearly worked out that Kaku is left handed like Zoro, clever man.
Sanji doesn't give Kaku a minute to get his bearings together though and instead kicks him hard enough to send him flying. Zoro's toes curl in his boots and he bites his lip hard, trying to keep himself focused but his mind derails into the idea of it being Sanji biting him and- okay, no, he can't think about Sanji and biting right now. It's bad enough that Sanji's clothes are so skintight on the bottom half of him and so floating and almost see through on the top. Zoro doesn't even have to strain his imagination to imagine Sanji out of them. When the blonde bends down and grabs Kaku's sword Zoro's brain helpfully supplies him of the image of Sanji naked and turning his back on Zoro, trusting Zoro to set the pace for the two of them in bed and-
"I'll guess I'll keep this then!" Sanji chirps and twirls Kaku's sword in his hand before jamming it in place between two paving slabs so that Kaku can't get it back easily. He's not damaged it but seeing that kind of dangerous treatment to a perfectly good blade is enough to put Zoro's head back into watching the fight and not getting distracted.
Kaku flings himself at Sanji again, his sword having switched hands to his dominant left once more and he swings it at Sanji in a high speed slice that makes Zoro jerk to attention. If Sanji doesn't get out of the way that could dismember him! Thankfully Sanji does get out of the way, only just, though Zoro can't see from here if he was injured at all in the process. Sanji no longer looks happy or like he's having a lot of fun. Instead his face is dark and deadly serious.
Sanji skids across the stone and then plants his feet, heavy and strong. Kaku moves to him again, meaning to cleave him in two and Zoro jumps to his feet because Sanji isn't moving and if that attack hits him it will kill him! Sanji just ducks inside of it though and slams his foot into Kaku's chest. He pivots with what should be impossible flexibility and redirects all of Kaku's force into smashing him into the ground hard enough that the floor breaks. He hears the air force its way out of Kaku's lungs and the scrape of metal as Sanji kicks Kaku's sword out of his hand again, leaving him now entirely unarmed.
Zoro stares for a second longer than he should. Sanji is balanced perfectly between Kaku's chest and his hand. He can tell from Sanji's stance and his control that if he tried he could snap Kaku's ribs and impale his heart and lungs on them if he chose, or he could move his weight to Kaku's wrist and shatter completely. Zoro should probably intervene right about now, regardless of how powerful and attractive Sanji looks right now.
"Match. Sanji, get off of him. Kaku, you lost. Robin, could you get a doctor for me? Kaku will probably need something." Zoro says and Sanji hops lightly off of Kaku and lands a little way away.
Kaku rolls over, clutching his hand to what Zoro knows is going to be an impressive bruise. He does want the knight checked out to make sure that nothing is bleeding internally, with how powerful Sanji's kicks are he wouldn't be surprised. Kaku is glaring at Sanji as if he cheated somehow and Zoro feels rage coil inside of him. His knights know better than to act like this, Sanji won fairly, Kaku ought to respect that without being told. When Kaku looks at Zoro he seems to remember this and gets to his feet, dropping his arm from his chest and moving to get his sword from the ground.
He sees the pained look on Kaku's face and something closer to pity than sympathy flares in Zoro's chest. Kaku is a knight and Zoro doesn't think he's lost a fight that badly and that fast since he was an apprentice, it's his own fault of course, but it can't feel good.
"I've got your swords, I'll look after them." Zoro says gently and Kaku looks at him with a pained sort of frown and nods. Kaku withdraws his hand from the direction of his sword and looks to Sanji. Zoro can see his jaw tense and he looks like he's about to punch Sanji but instead he moves into the shallowest bow acceptable for the situation, the equivalent of a small child being forced to say 'thank you' for a gift they obviously didn't like. Any sympathy Zoro had rapidly evaporates and Sanji looks to him with an expression of panic, mouthing the question as to whether he should bow too. Zoro shakes his head, he wouldn't need to in this situation. Of course he could if he felt like the fight was honorable and both sides had fought well and with dignity, but it would be optional and this clearly isn't that sort of situation. He doesn't mention it to Sanji.
Kaku pulls himself back upright after the shortest possible time and jerkily turns away, trying not to show that his stomach and chest hurt. Robin thankfully leads him away but Zoro has a hell of a lot of questions that he wants to ask the man when he sees him next.
He stares at the place that Kaku left though whilst the rest of his knights buzz with their own questions about Kaku and comments to Sanji.
This whole Kaku thing is eating at him though and he knows that it's going to bother him until he finds out what's going on.
Zoro is pulled out of his thoughts when Luffy bounces past him and springs up and down in place like a rubber ball in front of a rather wide eyed Sanji.
"Luffy, calm down already." He urges his captain with a laugh. Luffy can turn even the most troublesome situations light and seeing as there's nothing that Zoro can do right now about the Kaku situation he lets it go and allows Luffy's good mood to overtake him.
"Yeah Luffy, just because he can cook doesn't mean that he'll sprint off to wait on you hand and foot. But I'm sure that our great leader can use some of his various parts to sweet talk his paramour for you." Nami grins at them and Luffy laughs so hard that Zoro thinks he might burst something.
"NAMI!" Zoro yells at her, thankful for the lost expression on Sanji's face that tells him that the blonde didn't get a word of that. There's only so long that Sanji's vocabulary in Tsukian will stay limited enough for things like that to pass him by.
"Yeah, you'll get to eat tonight, at the big feast." Ace says with a subtle grin that Zoro can't call him on without tipping Sanji off to what it was that Nami said. He glares at the man and Ace snickers quietly into his hand.
"I need to talk to the King and see if there's going to be a feast tonight or if it's tomorrow." Usopp says in Baratian and Zoro thanks small mercies that Usopp didn't translate any of that for Sanji and is subtly moving the topic on. He needs to do something to thank Usopp for that, and soon.
"Why wouldn't there be a feast? He was working on it earlier." Sanji asks, blissfully oblivious.
"Well, you did just duel a knight and kick him in the chest within an hour of the King telling you not to cause a diplomatic incident. Plus it was late when they arrived anyway, it's for him to decide though." Usopp answers and now Zoro is glad that he's speaking Baratian and Luffy can't hear the potential for not getting as much food as before.
"He started it." Sanji reasons. Zoro... Zoro suspects that Sanji's line of reasoning there will not go down well with his father, especially considering that they had only just argued mere hours ago.
The next thing that Sanji says seems to be some sort of accusation that Usopp would say something to Sanji's father, but it's some kind of metaphor that he hasn't heard before. Normally he would ask Sanji or Usopp to explain it but it's not really the right time for it.
"No, you're right. I think it'd be a far better idea for me to keep information or lie to the King about you technically attacking the representative of another country." Usopp answers, Sanji having apparently convinced him against telling the King. Was he wrong about what Sanji just said then? It was a guess. Still, lying to the King is a bad idea.
"I don't think that sounds like a better idea. Sanji you should probably talk to the King." Zoro adds with some concern. Sanji looks at him with a soft sigh and then rolls his eyes in despair.
"He was being a sarcastic little shit, Zoro. He thinks that fighting was dumb." Sanji explains and Zoro frowns. That hadn't sounded like sarcasm.
"Oh. Damn, I thought I'd got the sarcasm thing, but I think I can still only really tell when it's you." He admits unhappily and something soft and sweet flits across Sanji's face for a second, something like endearment and Zoro is pretty sure that even Sanji didn't notice it.
"Are you meddling Zoro? Really?" Nami gawps, striding up to him. Zoro winces. Shit he had been hadn't he?
"Uh- I don't- maybe?" Zoro hedges.
"He was! He's nakama already? That's so COOL!" Luffy exclaims with a yell and throws himself at Zoro with little regard for the fact that Nami has just jammed her finger in his mouth to pull his head around to look at her.
"Don't you lie to me Roronoa Zoro! You're meddling in his affairs already? I saw that, I might not be able to understand what you said but I know meddling when I see it." Nami insists, tugging at his face to make him look at her.
"Is he a corner then? Nakama's nakama?" Luffy wonders aloud.
"Little bro, that sure as shit 'ain't nakama." Ace answers.
Zoro flails out of Nami's grip and looks around wildly, he really doesn't need Sanji hearing just how quick his friends and nakama have caught on to what's going on. But Sanji isn't there, it's just Usopp standing nearby trying to pull Kaku's sword out of the ground carefully. Zoro gets up and stops him, pulling the blade out without scratching it.
"I wasn't meddling I was just... he was being sarcastic and I didn't hear it. I thought he was going to lie to his father about the duel and I was telling him not to, but like I said, he was being sarcastic so it didn't count." Zoro says slowly, turning the blade in his hand to check for damage.
"That's meddling bro." Johnny chips in with a nod.
"I- I was- oh fine. Maybe I was trying to interfere a little, but I was just trying to help and it was something he was going to do anyway." he mutters, rubbing his cheek and dropping his attention from Kaku's blade.
"You know full well that it doesn't matter if he was already going to do it, you were trying to change his decisions, you didn't just say it's not what you'd do, you were altering what he does. Are you always this public about it?" Nami demands, her hands on her hips. She had a point, Zoro had told her in confidence about how he feels but he can't return to Shimotsuki like this and expect people not to notice. His knights have been here a little more than an hour and they all seem to have to figured it out to one degree or another.
"Baratie doesn't have a word for nakama, we don't really have a concept of it so people here don't notice." Usopp says quietly and the others look at him in surprise.
"They don't have nakama here?" Yoskau asks in wide eyed shock.
"Well, we do... but... I don't know. It's hard to explain. They act like it with some people but because it's not an official relationship things get blurry. I'm Sanji's nakama and I have been for years, but Sanji doesn't call me that because he's only learnt the term recently." Usopp explains.
"That's really weird." Johnny says with a frown. Usopp just shrugs and Zoro finds himself wondering for the first time if Usopp feels out of place in Baratie sometimes, being somehow both a native and a foreigner and if he'll feel the same in Shimotsuki too.
"Doesn't matter. Sanji isn't Zoro's nakama. I'll prove it." Ace declares and turns to Nami with a beaming grin.
"Nami, I'll bet you all of the money I have, winner take all, that Zoro and Sanji aren't nakama." Ace offers, his grin wide.
Every member of their group falls into stunned silence and they look between the pair with wide eyes. Betting against Nami is terminally stupid, but betting everything that you have is beyond insane unless you're completely certain that you're right.
"I'm not gonna take that bet." Nami mutters and Zoro groans because that is utter confirmation that Nami agrees completely with Ace. There's a split second before their group explodes in shock and amused laughter.
"You're in LOVE with him!" Luffy exclaims and flings his arms around Zoro's neck.
"So, Usopp, how long have they been like this?" Nami asks silkily, turning her gaze on Usopp.
"Don't you dare answer that." Zoro snaps, pointing Kaku's sword at Usopp who pales considerably.
"All of you drop it, okay? Like Usopp said, they don't have words for this shit here so it's... weird. I don't need anyone meddling in this and that goes double for you Nami!" Zoro calls over his shoulder as he stomps over to Kaku's other sword and remove it from the hedge that Sanji had kicked it in.
He pauses for a moment as his brain replays the way the graceful arc of Sanji's body as he snapped that kick out and sent Kaku's weapon flying. Kaku who is so fast and such a good swordsman and Sanji took him down in minutes and looked like grace personified in doing so.
"Definitely not nakama." Ace chuckles darkly.
"Shut up Ace, you're lucky that I like you!" Zoro shouts back at him, making he man laugh harder.
"Look, Sanji and I are still... it's complicated. Just... treat him with respect and don't treat this like some kind of entertainment. This is important okay? So no meddling!" He adds that last bit with some force as he looks at Nami and Luffy.
"No meddling, if you wanted my help you'd have asked me." Luffy says lightly.
"The point of meddling is that I do it whether you want me to or not. But I think I'll leave you be. For now." Nami grins at him.
"I hate you, witch." Zoro grumbles and stomps off inside, making his way up the stairs to where the knights are staying with Luffy only having to tell him he's going the wrong way once.
When he returns he sticks his head around Kaku's door and sees the man sitting on his bed, scowling at the wall, his chest bare with his chest armor discarded at the side.
"I got your swords. They're fine." Zoro says, banging on the door with them in an entirely pointless knock.
"Thank you." Kaku says softly.
Zoro sighs and walks into the room, putting the two swords carefully on the bed.
"Has the doctor seen you?" He asks, looking at the foot shaped bruise that's already forming in the middle of his chest, another on his ribs and a smaller half footprint on his pectoral, his wrist is starting to swell a little too.
"I'm fine." Kaku says, glaring at the floor.
"Okay." Zoro nods and leaves the man be. Kaku clearly isn't jumping over himself to talk about it and it's absolutely not Zoro's place to pry, they're nowhere near close enough for that.
It turns out that there isn't a feast that night, something that bitterly disappoints the two brothers until it becomes apparent that theres going to be pretty much the same amount of food without having to dress up or interact with strangers. He even manages to convince Usopp to stay when he comes by to tell Zoro that Sanji is having dinner with his father. The man is half Tsukian and Zoro considers Usopp a friend and it's better than him eating alone in their wing of the palace.
"Mn, Zoro, I got you some'fin." Ace says around a leg of lamb that he has stuffed in his mouth. He pins Luffy to the ground with one foot as he steps away slightly to drag his bag across the ground to their low table. He rummages inside and pulls out a small bottle and throws it at Zoro.
"What's this?" He asks curiously and uncorks it. The scent of oil and red fire flowers hits him, with tones of cool water and fresh grass underneath it.
"I figured that since we were all gonna be painting ourselves up tonight it'd come in handy. I got that oil at a market on one of the small islands off of the coast of Alabaster. I thought it was my kind of thing with the fire flower but once it sets it's more your sort of smell.
"Your second hand gifts are so thoughtful Ace." Yoskaku teases and Ace throws his fork at the man.
"Thanks, I'll try it." Zoro says absently. His mind wanders to Sanji again. If they're having the feast and a ball tomorrow then he will have to get his marks painted on tonight. Last time was amazing, laid out on the floor with his head in Sanji's lap whilst Sanji ran an ink smoothed brush over his skin.
An arm that shouldn't be able to reach him pinches him in the side, despite Luffy on his right having both hands on his food and Johnny on his left propping his chin up with one hand and gesturing at Kaku in a lively conversation with the other. Zoro's eyes meet Robin's and she arches an eyebrow at him. Zoro pockets the oil and shoves thoughts of Sanji out of his mind. The Baratians are definitely rubbing off on him, he never used to be this obvious about things like this.
The evening wears on and Zoro's mind keeps snapping back to Sanji and the fact that he beat Kaku in a duel. Sanji is owed a mark. It's not just going to be Zoro who'll be painted tonight, it'll be Sanji. Fuck, he could get to paint Sanji. The thought of having that smooth pale skin under his fingertips and trailing black ink in the wake of his brush is enough to send Zoro's heart into overdrive. Sanji doesn't know about picking designs and maybe he could think of something if Zoro explained it to him but he knows already what he wants Sanji to have. Sanji is water, smooth and fluid like his movements in that fight, nothing wasted at all. His mind flashes back to the waters that surrounded Nami's islands, of those narrow and delicate stretches of sparkling blue water that are the same colour as Sanji's eyes. Those patches of water that shimmered beautifully in the light, the same ones that fools tried to cross only to be sucked under instantly, dragged under into unseen depths never to be found again. Beautiful, capable of being both serene and raging but most of all utterly deadly at will. Zoro should probably see a doctor too because he's pretty sure that his heart is beating in a very unhealthy way.
"I should go." Zoro finally says after thoughts about Sanji drag him from the conversation one too many times.
"You don't want to finish that?" Luffy asks, his hand already edging for Zoro's plate.
"Go for it." Zoro laughs and leaves with a wave of his hand.
When he gets back to their wing of the palace he's alone, the only light in the otherwise sunset shaded room is coming from underneath Sanji's door. He knocks on the door, hesitantly and with visions of water and ink in his mind.
"Come in." Comes the muted reply in Baratian. It actually takes Zoro a moment to process it, he's been hearing his own language everywhere around him all day that suddenly Sanji's own words sound foreign again. How much had he got used to the other man's speech and their constant language switching in the relatively short time that he's been here?
He comes into the room slowly, leaning around the door. Sanji is... half naked. His shirt is missing and his still damp skin shines gently in the dim light of the room. His hand is over his arm though, the towel pressed against it and Zoro suddenly isn't so sure that Kaku missed him after all. Could he have missed that? He can't remember if he saw Sanji's arm after that, but surely he would have, wouldn't he?
"Are you hurt?!" He exclaims, crossing the space quickly to Sanji.
The blonde smiles and huffs a quiet laugh and reminds him of his tone. Stupid fucking language, he can't sound concerned without suddenly yelling something inflammatory. He repeats his question, this time more controlled and with as little emotion as he can manage after holding back all that he can.
"No, he just tore my shirt, look." Sanji answers, dropping the towel and moving to show him his damaged shirt. Zoro does not have any fucks to give about Sanji's goddamn clothes. It's his arm that he's concerned about. He grabs the blonde, twisting his arm slightly to look, but the perfect ivory skin is entirely unmarked. Kaku didn't catch Sanji at all.
"I wouldn't lose." Sanji says and Zoro realises that he must have said some of that aloud. Zoro's stomach flutters at Sanji's assertion of his own strength. How the hell did Zoro get to marry this man? How does a thing like that happen by chance?
"I mean… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have argued with one of your knights. It's the first time that I met them and I go and cause a big incident and I'm sure there's lots of cultural stuff that-" Sanji starts, suddenly lapsing into apologies that Zoro is sure that he doesn't really mean, effectively killing the fluttering that he had been feeling. Sanji's stupid culture indeed, this is lying, plain and simple. He puts his hand over the other man's mouth, stopping his idiocy temporarily.
"Are you really sorry? Do you regret challenging him to a duel?" Zoro asks him in Tsukian, knowing that Sanji's language will mangle his meaning. The blonde twinges and Zoro sees regret on his face plain and simple, though Zoro finds himself unsure as to whether he's regretting what he's supposed to be regretting or if he really does feel wrong for challenging Kaku. Zoro will feel... not disgusted with Sanji if he regrets that fight, but disappointed perhaps.
"Don't lie, do you wish that you had not done it?" Zoro he asks again and takes his hand slowly from Sanji's mouth. He can still feel the ghost imprint of Sanji's lips on his skin and his husband looks at him with wide blue eyes and Zoro can see Sanji's head and his heart fighting in them as clear as he could see forces on a battlefield.
"No." Sanji answers in a hushed voice and somewhere inside him Zoro sees a flicker of the Tsukian that he could be. Sanji feels afraid of being is Zoro's country, that people will mock him or that his grasp of the language will be too poor for people to understand him. Sanji couldn't be more wrong though.
If he stops letting the things that he should do hold him back from what he feels is right then he will be great. Right now he's babbling justifications for doing what Zoro knows that Sanji felt justified in doing all along. Zoro wouldn't have encouraged Sanji to fight Kaku, no doubt the man will hold a grudge on that for a while, it would have been easier if he had let Zoro deal with it himself. Zoro doesn't want to change him, he knows that Sanji will make different calls to him, they have different values and different experiences. All Zoro wants to do is to see Sanji set free from things that are weaker than him, things that he allows to bind him that have no right to hold back a man that strong. Sanji is contradictory, gentle and restrained but fierce and proud.
"You are very strange." Zoro remarks and kisses Sanji. The blonde sighs and melts against him and Zoro wants every part of the strange man that he's with.
Still, Sanji is strange but also naive. He needs things spelled out for him and at least for a while that's got to be Zoro's job to do.
"A man who had no right to speak to you like that insulted you, repeatedly, it was your right to challenge him. Stop saying 'should'." Zoro explains patiently and Sanji nods. After a second he feels the man's body relax, evidently it was playing on his mind more than the blond perhaps realised. Zoro kisses him again, light and gentle and Sanji responds in kind.
"I… I owe you an apology." he admits unhappily to the prince. Sanji is so worried about what he's done wrong that he's not even considered that Zoro has wronged him. Or rather that he is responsible for Kaku. He breathes deep and starts to explain.
"One of my men insulted you, badly. With Nami it was different, she was frustrated for her nakama but even so-" Zoro begins. Nami shouldn't have insulted Sanji either and frankly this day could have gone a whole lot better for him. Sanji cuts him up before he's got a chance to finish explaining.
"Yeah, and I challenged one of your nakama to a duel and beat him. That was out of line for me, wasn't it?" Sanji argues.
That... takes a moment to sink into Zoro's head. Did Sanji just get his words wrong? No, he definitely said nakama and though the term is new to him he knows that Sanji knows what it means.
"Kaku and I aren't nakama." Zoro he explains slowly as the idea of Kaku and nakama collide in Zoro's mind. Kaku is a friend and Zoro respects him but there is no way that he'll ever be in that kind of relationship with the man, they just don't gel well enough for it. He has no will to kick Kaku's ass into line as anything more than someone with authority over him and the idea of Kaku meddling in his affairs is ridiculous enough to make him laugh.
Sanji looks utterly confused.
"No, we're friends. He's a good fighter, fast too. Though… not as fast as you are." Zoro explains, forcing himself not to laugh and feeling a little mean for having done it. As far as Zoro knows Kaku doesn't actually have any nakama of his own and he's not a bad guy, he's just not for Zoro. Still, he knows how fast and how strong Kaku is, he wouldn't have him around if he wasn't. Sanji had never fought him before and he figured him out right away.
"So I didn't do anything wrong?" Sanji asks uncertainly.
"Nothing. Watching you fight was…" Zoro starts to explain but his throat goes dry. He's pretty sure that the image of Sanji fighting today will keep him company when he's alone for some time. He swallows thickly. How can Sanji be so unaware of his own strength and how Zoro feels about him? His throat tightens again, it's been doing that a lot lately, maybe it's his heart trying to climb out. He reaches out and takes Sanji's hand in his and squeezes it.
"Come with me. The celebration isn't until tomorrow, so tonight." Zoro nods, his mind flicking to the mark he so desperately wants to leave on Sanji, something that can explain how he feels better than he can. He's not good with words at the best of times and with a language barrier on something this important and something so rarely talked about... well... he doesn't want to screw this up. He pulls Sanji with him and the blond comes easily enough, perhaps he's just as eager for his as Zoro is.
He grabs the bottle of ink and his brush and turns around to face Sanji.
"The ink needs time to dry before you sleep." Sanji says with a slow nod, seeming to understand.
"It changes to a darker black over the night too. Come here." He says in Baratian and takes the uncertain looking blond with him. He hopes that it's just that he's screwing up Sanji's language rather than Sanji having second thoughts about this.
Sanji reaches for the bottle but Zoro pulls it away from him with a grin.
"You're going first." Zoro says firmly, and spins the brush around in his fingers. He's been thinking of what to paint on Sanji all night, no matter how much he's tried to focus on anything else, now he's finally going to get to do it!
"I don't understand." Sanji responds, a small crease forming in the middle of his forehead. Maybe one day Zoro could paint around both of Sanji's eyes and that way the man would have to show both sides of his face at once. He knows full well that if he just did one then Sanji would simply switch his fringe over. He's clearly committed to... whatever look it is that he's got going.
"You need one too now." He explains, in case he's being unclear.
"For Kaku?" Sanji asks. Zoro barely manages to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. What the fuck else would it be for?
"I thought waves. Calm, powerful but… brutal." Zoro says instead of calling his husband a moron. He wants to babble about all of the designs that he has in his head and feel Sanji out to which one he'd like. He's settled on a favorite but perhaps Sanji won't...
Sanji looks uncertain and uncomfortable and Zoro feels like he's swallowed a rock. He'd just, shit, he'd just assumed that after their talk where he'd admitted that painting one another is something you do with someone that you know that Sanji would still be on board with this. Has he assumed too much?
Shit, he'd got so carried away with what he wanted and what the others had read into their relationship that he'd just assumed that Sanji would want this too. He lets go of Sanji's hand and the blonde takes it back. Hell, he's really screwed this up, hasn't he?
"If you want. You don't have to do it if you don't want to." he amends, sticking to Baratian in the hope that Sanji will get his sincerity. He wants so badly to do this but he needs Sanji to want it too.
"Stick to your own language if you're gonna be tense." Sanji snaps back at him, that same fire showing up in his expression and now Zoro has no clue what's going on here. Is Sanji berating him for assuming and screwing up his language or what?
"You want to do this to me? Even after everything we said?" the other man asks him warily and Zoro is starting to distinctly get the feeling that Sanji thinks that he's gone too far.
"I want to." Zoro replies, trying to cram in as much of his desire to be that close to Sanji into his words as he can. It was bliss when Sanji did this to him, but the idea of actually exchanging these marks to each other is what he wants more than anything right now.
"Waves sounds great." Sanji says, snapping Zoro from his doubts. Sanji's warm hand is suddenly in his and Zoro looks down at it in shock. Sanji has... he's changed his mind. The words click into place and he realises in one brilliant moment that not only has Sanji agreed to letting him paint his own design. He's trusting him completely.
He looks down at Sanji's hand in his own and tries to see his design on there but it's Sanji's hand itself that distracts him. Sanji is a prince but he's a cook too and very proud of it. Sanji is right handed like most people in Baratie seem to be and this is Sanji's right hand in his, wrist up. Sanji's not just trusting him with a long lasting but temporary design, he's trusting him with his most precious things when Zoro's swords sit well within reach. He's never had any intention of harming Sanji but he could and Sanji must surely know that, but he's trusting him so intimately anyway.
He nods and opens the bottle of ink and tries to focus on his design rather than letting his mind fly away with him on ideas of just what this means to the pair of them and what it makes them. He wants the waves facing upwards towards Sanji's body, so that when his arm is down it will look like the waves are lapping up his arm rather than running off of him.
He breathes out, steading the brush in his hand like he would his sword. He makes the first line smooth and straight, the base for the band of waves sitting on the bones to Sanji's wrist. He manages the lines that make up the band seamlessly before breathing in again. It is perfectly straight.
Sanji physically relaxes in Zoro's grip, any tension from his arm and wrist gone, his hand loose and pliable under Zoro's thumb and fingers. He refreshes the ink on his brush and draws the first wave of the design that haunted him the most this evening. He focuses on his steady hand and the traits of Sanji he wants to show off to the world. The fluid fighting that beat one of Zoro's personal knights.
He draws the curve of the wave and the inside arc of it. In a flash of possessiveness he shades it in sets of three. Maybe it's not wise to be advertising it but he can't restrain himself.
When he completes the last wave he turns the brush around in his hand, the fine ink soaked bristles pointing away from Sanji's skin. He pulls Sanji's hand closer to his face and turns it this way and that, making sure that it's all perfect, that no lines are broken or missing and that it all seems right. Before he finishes looking at it though Sanji blinks a few times and seems to come out of the peaceful daze that he'd fallen into when Zoro was painting.
The man pulls his hand back and looks at his own wrist, turning it in each direction to see the whole pattern just as Zoro had. He watches as the small smile spreads over Sanji's face as he looks at it, only to get brighter when the man finally looks directly at him. Sanji leans in to him, warm and pale hands sliding into Zoro's hair and Sanji kisses him. It shouldn't mean this much, it's just a kiss, but it does. And as he does so Zoro realises that Ace is right, this is love at the very least. So maybe it's just Sanji's fucked up culture that doesn't even have a word for nakama and blurs the lines between love and knowing someone, maybe it's just that and he's falling in love with Sanji the way that the Baratians do but Zoro realises that he so badly wants to know Sanji. He wants Sanji to be a piece of him that he can never pull out of his heart and wouldn't ever want to anyway, he wants this is and it is terrifying and he knows it but even so he wants it with everything that he has.
Sanji pulls the brush from his hands, not even noticing Zoro's turmoil. Sanji looks him over, thoughtful and considering and Zoro only represses a shudder of excitement at it.
"Thirty five…" Sanji says thoughtfully, looking at him and Zoro's pulse jumps. Sanji remembered how many victories he had as marks.
"You remembered." he says and the corner of Sanji's mouth quirks into an amused smile for a second.
"Shh, thinking." Sanji reprimands him with a look of concentration and Zoro wisely shuts his mouth.
"Are you wearing the same thing as last time? So this is bare?" Sanji asks, touching the side of Zoro's neck and shoulders. Zoro nods. He has other formal clothes but he will absolutely wear the same thing again if that's where Sanji wants to paint him.
"Okay." Sanji breathes and dabs the paintbrush in the ink. He starts by leaving blank bands first, which is odd but perhaps he means to fill them in afterwards. He works from the top of his shoulders down, leaving bands in sets of three on his shoulders, biceps, forearms and wrists. He repeats himself on the other arm and Zoro watches him. Sanji's hand is steadier than Zoro had been able to do on his own left arm. His hands might be skilled from sword fighting with both hands but delicate ink work was quite a different skill set. He can see the strain on Sanji's hand though, he's being very careful not to let his wrist touch anything and Zoro thinks that it might have been better for Sanji if he had waited until after Sanji had done him before returning the favor. He probably should regret that but he doesn't, every time he sees the waves on Sanji's wrist with his three lines shading under each wave he feels a flare of pride at the man and knows that he did the right thing.
With his arms done Sanji kneels up to paint along Zoro's shoulders and so he leans back, keeping his arms behind him and out of Sanji's way.
Sanji kneels over Zoro's legs and he would be lying to the highest degree if he said that he wasn't eying the way that Sanji's silken sleepwear hangs low on his hips, showing off sharp hipbones and a defined V of muscle plunging low and reminding Zoro of the devastating kick that he gave to Kaku, the one that has his knight turning black and blue.
With an irritated huff Sanji settles into place astride Zoro's legs and scoots a little closer to him as he does it. He stops thinking about Sanji's fighting ability and starts thinking about the possibility of having sex with Sanji. The thing is though that Baratians are weird about sex, the only people that they ever have sex with are people that they're married to and never with anyone else unless they were being unfaithful. Sure, he's married to Sanji so they could, there wouldn't be any problem there, only Sanji has never been married before and so he's never had sex with anyone before. Zoro doesn't want to do that yet, what they have is still so new that he feels like anything could break it. Before today they'd only ever flirted and kissed. He'd even had to check with Robin that kissing someone was definitely something that Baratians only did with people in a romantic sense, it had felt romantic rather than platonic but Sanji's culture was so goddamn weird it was hard to be sure. The two of them don't even have a name for what they feel they are, so adding sex to that mix and what would be Sanji's first time as well... that's too dangerous and he doesn't want to do it.
Okay, that's a lie. He does want to have Sanji like that. The idea of having the blond in his bed, calling his name and being overwhelmed by- No. If he starts thinking like this Sanji is absolutely going to notice and that would be just as risky. Instead he focuses on the cool touch of the brush on his skin and absolutely doesn't think about the gentle shift of Sanji in his lap as the blonde moves ever so slightly as he paints. Well, only a little.
Sanji thankfully skirts by Zoro's throat itself, that would have been an awkward conversation to have. Instead he paints from a little way past both sides of Zoro's neck and down onto his collarbones. If he's not mistaken it feels like there's a slight swirl there too, is Sanji doing the same thing that he had been? Sneaking his own distinctive symbols and shapes into Zoro's?
With Sanji so close and focused on Zoro's face he can really watch him up close and try to get a read on him. He sees Sanji's gaze flicking between what he's doing to Zoro's eyes and then jerking it back again, as if he doesn't mean to look. There's a slight frown of concentration on his face and Sanji keeps poking the tip of his tongue out between his lips ever so slightly as he focuses, he probably doesn't even realise that he's doing it at all. The marks that Zoro had admired most of all when he saw them were the ones under his cheekbones, maybe it was a little vain but he'd thought that they made him look somewhat fearsome, so when Sanji does it again he sighs happily.
Sanji's brush hesitates and his frown deepens, pulling the brush away and resting his other hand on Zoro's pectoral, chewing absently on the wooden end of the brush. Sanji glances at his fingers before brushing one fingertip across Zoro's forehead horizontally. His warm finger runs from one side to the other, varying off of a straight line ever so slightly. Zoro realises what it is that Sanji is trying to hint at with his drawing. Zoro and his father don't have crowns, who they are is obvious enough to everyone and leadership doesn't come from displays of wealth, much less from hoarding metal for fancy jewelry. Baratians aren't as obsessed with gold and silver as some countries are, but they do have crowns. He hadn't realised it at the time, only when Robin remarked on how pretty it was afterwards, but the silver chained decoration that Sanji had around his head and in his hair at the ball was his crown. It was a series of thin chains, polished highly and woven into his hair as well as clasped with a catch. It ran across his forehead and dipped down slightly with the weight of the sapphire that hung right in the middle of his forehead. That slightly dipped band is just the shape that Sanji is tracing on him.
"Can I do this?" Sanji asks him, this time in Zoro's language rather than his own. Zoro wonders why Sanji is asking, he hadn't asked about any other part of his designs, but this evidently is different. It's important to Sanji in a way that no doubt is tied up with his notions of royalty and even his claim on Zoro himself.
"Do you want it?" he queries, curious to see what Sanji will say.
"I want to know what you think, idiot." Sanji retorts, as unhelpful and pushing on Zoro's patience as he always is. He laughs because Sanji couldn't be any more like himself than he is right now. Being sentimental but also being a dick about it, that's Sanji through and through.
"Yeah." He answers with a smile, knowing that he won't get more of an explanation from Sanji now.
Sanji makes a hum of approval, refreshes his brush and leans in, drawing the lines and inadvertently making it so that the pattern on his wrist is all that he can see.
Sanji starts to fill in the patterns that he's painted now, working from his inked crown downwards. The shading is delicate and the light repeated brush strokes are lulling Zoro into a soft kind of semi consciousness. He's acutely aware of everything that Sanji is doing, but the rest of the world fades away from him and his thoughts until there's nothing but Sanji and his brush. When Sanji is done with his face Zoro drops his head back onto the edge of his bed, luckily the bands on his shoulders don't spread so far that Zoro can't move his shoulders to keep them untouched. If that means that he has to lightly hold on to Sanji's hips to keep his shoulders off of the bed then that's fine by him, not that Sanji seems to notice.
"So if… if you gave me this one on my wrist for beating Kaku… maybe when I earn a second you could put it here on me." Sanji says, and Zoro is about to open his eyes and ask Sanji where he means when he says 'here' when Sanji takes his hand off of his chest and instead runs them right over Zoro's throat.
Sanji wants... Sanji wants him to paint his throat. Images of pairs of people who know each other and have for years flash behind Zoro's eyes, all of them with permanent tattoos around the most vulnerable part of their throats, over each artery and over their throats. Painstaking tattoos done with needles and ink with utter trust that the person that you know would sooner die than hurt you. Sanji doesn't know what that means, he can't, and he's not proposing that Zoro tattoo him, he's just suggesting it in ink and it's different but... but it's so real and all Zoro can see is Sanji with Zoro's mark around his throat forever.
He surges forward holding Sanji close and presses his mouth against Sanji's throat, it was supposed to be a kiss but that somehow doesn't feel enough. He wishes that he could breathe all of the fucked up feelings that he has no reason to have for Sanji so soon, things that don't even have a real name right now, and turn all of that into an imprint of himself on Sanji's skin forever.
"I'll protect your life with mine until I die." He breathes against Sanji's throat. It was part of his wedding vows. They hadn't put anything in the vows about love, at least not in Zoro's side, because it wasn't certain that would ever happen. One way or another Zoro would always have made sure that Sanji was safe, a promise is a promise after all, but now he feels like he doesn't know what he'd do if Sanji died. He'll fight the fucking world for Sanji and now that he's seen Sanji in a real fight, because a spar can only show so much, now he knows that Sanji would be right at his back fighting with him. What more could he ask for?
"You're... what? I didn't understand that." Sanji asks quietly, having either not heard or not understood what Zoro had said. That's fine, he can show Sanji what he means. He shoves Sanji backwards and topples the blond to the floor. He knows that he shouldn't have sex with Sanji, but that does leave an awful lot else that he can do. He can make Sanji feel amazing and tell him just how much he wants this as he does it. As his hands bracket Sanji's shoulders he sees the marks on his arms and realises that he can't get any closer to the other man like this, not without ruining what Sanji has done for him. He freezes and tries to work out in his head if there is any way that he can coordinate this to get what he wants but he comes up blank and the longer he has time to think on it the more he realises that this is still not a good idea, no matter how much Sanji tempts him with things that Zoro wants but Sanji doesn't yet understand.
If the smug grin on Sanji's face is anything to go by, he's worked out that Zoro can't get any closer too. The blond stretches his arm arm out, cool and casual, and dips his brush into the ink again. Zoro figures that Sanji is going to start inking him again and force him to stay still or else ruin the pattern, meaning that Zoro will have to hold himself there on his arms for who knows how long. Zoro likes a good work out as much as any Tsukian but being stuck in half a push up for what will probably be over an hour doesn't sound like a good time to him.
Instead Sanji's left hand comes up before his right and Zoro figures that it's just to steady his brush again, right up until the moment that Sanji wraps his left hand around Zoro's throat and he swears that his breathing goes backwards.
Sanji's hand isn't tight, he's not trying to hurt him or even threaten him, it's more of a show that he can do it. Zoro squeezes his eyes shut. He is so very fucked because whether Sanji knows it or not this is a possessive claim, this kind of thing says 'I have you and you are mine'. You could do it to someone that you were in love with, maybe, but this is more than that, he knows it is. How the hell does Sanji not know what he's doing when he's doing it so perfectly?
Sanji puts pressure just right over Zoro's artery, a smooth stroke up and down that tilts Zoro's head off to the side as Sanji's brush comes up and paints thick dark ink into the outlines on Zoro's shoulders and down to his collarbones. His mind runs all over the ideas of Sanji, throat and ink. He imagines having that tattoo right where Sanji's hand is holding his throat, completely dangerous but with him in no danger at all. He wants, no, needs Sanji to wreck him and rip him apart into little pieces and put him back together over and over again. He shouldn't be thinking this but in this moment it's all he wants. Sure he wants Sanji to be his, but right now he wants to be Sanji's. The man below him turns his head again to paint the other side and Zoro hears the wretched sound that he makes, a wordless confession of what he feels.
Sanji puts the brush down into the ink with a clink of wood on glass and Zoro opens his eyes again, aware that he's breathing hard. Sanji is looking up at him searchingly. He doesn't know what Sanji sees or even what he's looking for, but the man slides out from under him and then crouches level with him. Sanji's index finger comes up against the underside of his chin and Sanji tilts his head up to look at him. He stands, taking Zoro with him and then immediately back down to the floor, moving him without question so that he's on his back with his head in Sanji's lap. Sanji starts painting again, first his wrists and then moving upwards. Zoro floats between a mental blankness of noticing only sensations and flirting with the edges of sleep. He notices when Sanji finishes with his work but doesn't care enough to do anything about it. Sanji starts running his fingers through Zoro's hair and so he stays put, just being with Sanji.
"Zoro, you should sleep." Sanji prompts him, and a gentle touch on his chest brings him back to something closer to alertness. Sanji's painted wrist moves past his eyes as Sanji takes his hand back off of Zoro's chest.
He tells Sanji that they need to wash the ink off but he suspects that he didn't say it very well, but who cares? He's barely awake anyway.
He pulls Sanji along to his bathroom and turns the tap on, the cool water making him wake up a little more. The water needs to be cool, but not cold, to wash the ink off without opening up Sanji's pores so much that the ink will rush right out again.
Sanji lets him take his hand with zero hesitation and Zoro puts Sanji's wrist under the water, letting the hardened medium that the ink was in wash off in dissolving flakes. When the larger parts are gone he carefully runs his thumbs over the waves that he's painted, making sure to go in the direction of the ink so that even the slightest smudge that he might make will he hard to see. When he's sure that he's got everything off and isn't just cleaning the ink out of Sanji's skin he dries him off carefully with a towel.
Zoro searches for his own bottle of oil. It's large and a mix that he's used for years and years, it's part of the reason that Ace brought him a new one, second hand or not. Nami, Ace and several others had been teasing him about being stuck in his own routines so he often found himself gifted with new oils in a not so subtle attempt to give him some variety.
He runs the oil over his hands, warming it and making sure that nothing has got in it or that it's spoilt in any way. It hasn't of course but he always checks, the one time he doesn't will be the one time that something goes wrong. When he turns to Sanji to put the oil over his ink to help it set overnight he finds Sanji standing there completely absorbed and fascinated in examining the waves on his skin.
He catches Sanji and carefully pats the oil into his skin. It smells familiar and like the countless occasions before now when he's set his own ink, but now Sanji smells like him. It's... nice, comforting actually. He realises that he's going to need to give Sanji oil to refresh it himself in the morning, unless he's up late enough for Zoro to do it for him. Unlikely but he has to ask.
"Are you cooking breakfast?" Zoro asks, failing to suppress a yawn. If Sanji is then he's going to have to do the oil himself because Zoro is certain that there's no way he's getting out of bed that early.
"Yeah. Is that going to be a problem?" Sanji responds, looking uneasy and clearly torn between wanting to take care of the artwork on his skin but also fulfill his obligation to cook.
"No, just… when you wake, wash it gently, like that. No soap. Then use a little of this, less than I did then." He explains, handing the bottle of his own oil to Sanji, he may as well stick with the same stuff, he can use Ace's gift for himself and maybe then some of them will get off his back about changing his routine. Now he needs to carefully shower and get the dried up ink medium off of him.
"I'm going to sleep, you should too." Sanji says just as sleepily and wanders towards the door. He pauses at the threshold though before turning back.
"It's beautiful, thank you." Sanji says with quiet earnestness and kisses Zoro. It's short and sweet, but even so it takes the other man a moment to step back away from him. Everything still feels like it did when Sanji was painting him, like time held no real meaning and they could take their time with everything.
Sanji leaves and Zoro gets into the shower, taking good care not to rub the ink too hard. When he's finally cleaned up and dried off he reaches for his oil but remembers blearily that he gave it to Sanji and that he was going to use the one that Ace gave him as a gift. He shakes his head in a daze and starts to cover his ink with the coating of oil that will set it and make it last so that he can see Sanji's work for as long as possible.
He extinguishes the light in the bathroom and then his room before crawling into bed and wondering as he falls asleep what it would be like if Sanji was there with him.