Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of the characters.

Warning: Rushness; Grammar; OOCness; Yaoi; Lemon; swearing; repetitiveness (I'm a repetitive person) and anything you notice that isn't on this list but is on this list.

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Ayamichan34: Haha, yeh, Gotta hate the guy getting in the way of true love. Thank you for the review :)

Chapter eight: Pretty cool guy

Zoro sat in a dark secluded corner, with no food or drink. No one had noticed him sitting there and so no one had asked for his order. But that didn't matter, for this was just what he had wanted. He wasn't in there for neither food nor drink; he was in there spying on a certain blonde and he didn't need the attention right now.
Sanji had been serving food to tables but was now currently sitting at a table talking to someone, that person looked oddly familiar. It was someone who kind of angered him; that someone was Rui. Just why was he here so early in the morning?

He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could see their lips and their gestures. It was a real shame he couldn't lip read.
Sanji's lips were moving; it looked like he was asking something as Rui had shook his head, Sanji looked disappointed for a moment before saying something else. Rui looked apologetic as he spoke before smiling and making Sanji smile as well.

Shit. Now he was really curious.

He continued to watch, Rui looked apologetic again before quickly leaving the restaurant in a hurry. He travelled his eyes to look back at Sanji, his heart skipping a beat. He was looking right at him. He froze.
Could Sanji really see him?
Sanji turned away and headed to the kitchen door, he didn't come back out. Zoro sighed in relief, it had just been a coincidence that Sanji had looked his way, he must have been looking at something else, or thinking about something.

Zoro hadn't intended to spy on Sanji; he actually had a good reason. He had originally came into the restaurant because he was prepared to ask the blond if he was really dating that guy, just like Tashigi had suggested he should do the previous night, but then he had backed out of it at the last moment.
He had felt scared, a feeling he had not felt in a long time. He was scared of what the answer would be. What if it was a yes? What would he do?
So, he did what any normal person would do, he hid himself, as far as possible and out of sight as he could which, he then ended up just watching the blonde, trying to figure out a speech in his head and a few excuses if need be.

"What do you want Ma-ri-mo?" Sanji sounded out the insult. It had been a while since he had called Zoro anything but his name, but the time seemed right considering he felt quite irritated by the green man. He had felt his eyes on his back for a the past hour, to the point it was burning. He had tried to ignore it, since Zoro had obviously seemed to have tried to hide himself but sometimes it gets to a point where it's hard to ignore.

Zoro jumped, eyes widening in shock and surprise. When had Sanji appeared? How did he know he was there for an hour? So that moment before when he thought Sanji saw him wasn't actually a coincidence.
"…nothing, dartboard brow"
Sanji's face twitched at the name. He wanted to say he was twitching in anger, but he would be lying, his lips had twitched because he wanted to smile. The name brought back memories.
Zoro looked up at the blond as he calmed his beating heart. Sanji was holding a plate of food, the smell almost had Zoro's stomach growling for it. The blonde lowered the plate and placed it in front of him on the table.
"You've been sitting here for an hour; I thought you would be hungry. It's on the house, so eat and get out."

Sanji turned his body and began to walk away from Zoro so he could continue his work. He couldn't afford wasting a lot of time as the restaurant was getting busier.
"Are you really dating him?" Zoro asked casually, grabbing the fork on the table.
Zoro's question had stopped Sanji in his step, gaining his attention.
"Why do you want to know?" Sanji asked frowning, his voice drenched in a tone of 'it's none of your business. In his mind, he was hoping Zoro was jealous.
"It's not me, I don't really care, where as Luffy, Nami and Ussop were asking me, and my friend saw you around with him, they all thought I had answers, so I thought I'd ease their minds and ask you what is on everyone's minds since they're all too scared." An excuse with a calm face; totally believable.

Sanji blew out a stream of smoke, Zoro didn't care? Everyone else was scared to ask? "Alright, well I'll talk to them; they shouldn't be bugging you with my life."
Zoro let Sanji go back to work, questioning him more would irritate the blonde and possibly make him suspicious. He ate his food, the taste melting in his mouth, it was the taste he missed; it was Sanji's cooking. He finished his plate and made his way out of the restaurant and to the hospital. If asking Sanji failed, asking Rui would be easier.

As if luck was on his side. Rui was by the reception looking through some patient files. He had been checking through them and putting them in order. He walked up to him and leaned on the counter.
"Give me a minute"
Rui sighed, he recognised that voice, a voice he couldn't forget since it belong to the man who had hurt Sanji. He slowly looked up to the green haired man and lightly glared.

"You should speak to your elders with respect after all I am twenty-four." Rui turned away from Zoro and placed the files back into the cabinets. He looked back at Zoro before opening another cabinet and taking out more files he had to sort.
Zoro ignored the fact he had just learnt that the male was older than him and continued with the reason he was there, leaning against the counter.
"Are you and Sanji together?"
Rui paused for a moment before answering the younger lad.
"So what if we are? It's not your business." Rui spoke boldly as he flipped open a folder, scanning the information.
"I just want to know"
"Yeah, and then what are you going to do? Is it going to help you sleep at night? Help you get over him." He continued through the files.
"Yeah, it might…" Rui paused and looked at Zoro, his face serious about what had just said.
"You still love him?"

"I never stopped, and I know you're with him now, and I hope he's happier with you than he was with me."
Rui smiled. Zoro had only wanted the best for Sanji, he never stopped loving him and he never stopped caring, he may never have considered what Sanji had wanted.
He began to jot notes on a notepad as he read the information in the file.
Rui looked up at him again, his eyes stern.
"If I was you, I would have held on to him tightly whether he loved me or not, I would have just been happy he chose to be by my side."
"…" Zoro remained silent, the older male was right, he should have but he was foolish.
"But I can see why he still wants you…You're a good man, I may have misjudged you despite you hurting him…"

"Huh?" Zoro didn't know what he had just heard. Had Rui just told him they weren't dating, but why, he was always around Sanji…
"I've been making sure he's been eating, he needed to be watched." Rui spun the folder to face Zoro. It was Sanji's hospital information, everything that should have been confidential.
Zoro scanned the writing. Reading it all, and understanding. He hadn't seen them on dates. He had been watching Sanji until today…
Zoro looked at Rui shocked.
"We're not dating…because there's only one person for him"
Zoro blinked blankly at him.
Rui smiled sadly at him.
"You're so clueless…"
Zoro could see it all in Rui's sad expression and he could hear it in his voice. Was he actually saying what he thought he was saying? Sanji only thought about him? This was something he had wanted to hear, not from the right person but it was what he had wanted.

Rui ripped out the piece of paper he had been writing on. He held it towards Zoro.
"Sanji will be here tonight, he invited me earlier but I said I couldn't since I'm working the night shift tonight. He asked others but they declined too. So he's going alone."

Zoro took the slip of paper from him; it had the information of a club and time.
"why?"
Rui look back down at the papers. "...I want him to be happy."

Zoro smirked, he could feel that Rui had granted him permission to get Sanji back, and he was grateful because with out this information he wouldn't have known where the hell this club was. Zoro wanted to take his opinion of Rui being a prick back...

"Thanks."

...He was a pretty cool guy...

Go get him Zoro!
getting to an end! :o