Zoro hadn't expected the King to summon him. He had been halfway to Sanji's room when one of the knights that Zoro hadn't known were knights catches up to him and tells him.
Zoro has Robin at his tail on their way to what probably is Baratie's excuse for a war room. There's a large table in the centre with a map of the continent and considerably more of the ocean than Zoro is used to seeing on maps. There are even topographical lines on the ocean indicating depth of the waters and hidden rocky spires. He's leaning over the table, fists balled up and the knuckles pressed into the paper preserved under the glass table top.
"Your highness?" Zoro asks. He realises that his voice was perhaps a little too strong for that. In Baratie being tactful and gentle is emphasised, but in Shimotsuki being firm and sounding sure is what's best in these situations. He's learnt the difference from Sanji but then again Sanji isn't so great at being polite all of the time either and Zeff is his father.
"What?" The King asks, his voice gruff.
"If you need me or my people for… for anything. Let me know." Zoro says, trying to keep his tone more neutral.
Zeff heaves out an empty sounding sigh and for a moment Zoro considers leaving. He's actually turning away when Zeff speaks.
"Does Sanji ever talk about-" Zeff cuts out. Zoro pauses, he doesn't know if he means Sanji's mother or specifically her death. Either way the answer is the same.
"Not to me." Zoro says with a shake of his head.
Zeff's fingers drum on the glass top of the table and Zoro hesitates before walking slowly closer to Zeff's side, but not too close for comfort. As it happens he's standing right near the side of the map closest to his homeland. He looks down at it. The map is detailed, showing the location of the cities, of his father's castle. He follows the two rivers that run around Amazon Lilly with his eyes, he sees how they form into the turbulent waters of the Orange Union. He mentally traces the route that he took to get here and knows that he will be following it back soon, but with this revelation about Sanji's mother, their trip may well be delayed.
"We were here." Zeff says, his finger tapping on the map.
Zoro looks where the King is indicating. The spot is in the territorial waters of Baratie, near a small chain of islands to the north east. He can't read their names because of the stupid Baratian script that Zoro still can't make heads or tails of.
"The ship sank in a storm. But if Absalom is right…" Zeff says and Zoro hears the way his voice goes into that tight hiss despite his tone being calm, he sees the set of his shoulders tighten in the same way that Sanji's does when he's really angry.
"Robin is very good at finding things out, if you need-" Zoro offers.
"I would be happy to talk to him for you." Robin confirms, stressing the word 'talk' slightly. Robin has a way of talking to people that make Zoro exceedingly glad that Robin is his nakama and not his enemy. She doesn't torture people, though she's not averse to causing a little harm, but she is so smart and so intimidating that she can rip the words out of someone and beat them with them until they tell her the truth.
Zoro gets the nice version of it now and then, where she makes him tell her things because she cares. Often she doesn't even have to do that with him. She knows enough to read his mind from who the fuck knows what, the slight raise of his eyebrows or the way his head is tilted or something else entirely inane. Between her and Nami he's lucky to have any privacy at all.
"No. That won't happen." Zeff growls and that's the sort of thing where Sanji would usually tell him that he's got the wrong tone, but this is deliberate with Zeff.
"My wife, my country, my nephew." The old man grits out. Zoro nods, it's best not to say anything here.
The King makes a frustrated sound in his chest and turns to Zoro, his eyes narrow and his moustache twitching. Zoro can't help but wonder why he was summoned then, if Zeff doesn't want his help then why is he here? It's not as if he's seen Sanji since, he can't give the man information about how his husband is reacting to the news. If Zeff intends to order him to control Sanji then Zoro will laugh in his face. Aside from the fact that he doubts that anyone in the world could completely control that man it's not his job to do that. He's Sanji's husband and he's in… whatever it is with him. His job is to protect Sanji and have his back, not to get in his way. If he needs to alter Sanji's course of action to protect his life then he will, but he's not going to get in the way of Sanji expressing his emotions, he won't make Sanji lie.
"I need you to leave in the morning with Sanji and your knights. Take him with you." Zeff orders, his eyes hard.
"I'll talk to Sanji." Zoro says. He will talk to Sanji, he'll see what Sanji wants to do and they'll do just that.
"He can't be here. I need to know if there's any- he's got too short- need him to go." Zeff growls and with that and the longer words Zoro can't get all of what he's saying.
"Robin?" Zoro asks, looking at her.
"He said that he needs to know if there's anything to what Absalom said and that Sanji is too irresponsible and too quick to anger and lashing out to be helpful. He's basically saying that having Sanji around would be counterproductive and so he wants him gone." Robin explains. Zoro grits his teeth in irritation. He doesn't want to hear anyone saying bad things about Sanji, even if the man does lose his cool fast, Sanji isn't stupid.
"Ask him just what the hell he wants me to do about it." Zoro says, careful not to snap, to keep his tone something close to level but it's hard and he's sure that he fails at it because Zeff's look sours.
"Zoro wants to know what exactly your plan is and what it is- that you want him to do- Sanji and your request to leave. He wants-" Zoro isn't getting every word, but Robin is being more eloquent than him and right now that's what he needs.
"Why doesn't he just say that his goddamn self?" Zeff snaps at her and Robin narrows her eyes slightly in displeasure.
"Don't speak to her like that!" Zoro barks, and regrets it immediately from the way Zeff's angry stare turns at him.
"I will speak to Sanji." Zoro says in a calmer tone.
"This is important, you were going to leave anyway, just leave tomorrow. How hard is that?" the older man says in a stern voice.
"It's important to Sanji. I'll talk to him and do what he wants, not you." Zoro argues back.
Zeff glares at him, his eyes hot and furious. Zoro stares back at him, unblinking. Zeff is a tough man and Zoro respects that, frankly he wants Zeff's approval and wants the King to like him, but he is not in a position to order him to do anything. He's not going to break on this, Zoro has stared down far more intimidating people than Zeff. Zoro's own father has a stare that makes his skin crawl if he tries to outstare him, compared to that anyone else is easy.
Zeff breaks off with a growl and his posture alters a little, like Sanji does when he's weighing up the opportunity to kick someone in the face. Sanji doesn't do it frequently though, it's probably a subconscious thing, his body making him ready if he does make the decision to attack. He should probably try to work out just when he got such a good read on Sanji's body language but considering that for a long time most of their communication has been through that it's not surprising that he can read him so well.
"I'll speak to Sanji." Zoro repeats finally.
"Your highness." Zoro nods slightly and walks away, Robin at his back.
He picks a direction and walks off, not caring if it's the right way to Sanji. For now he just needs to be away from the King. He's still furious at Zeff's order, both because he has no intention of telling Sanji what he should do in a situation this personal and complicated but also at Zeff's assumption that he can tell him what to do. He is Sanji's husband and Shimotsuki is allied with Baratie, that does not mean that Zeff gets to give him orders. He's happy to do what the King wants if it's reasonable or if Zoro agrees, but in this situation it isn't and he doesn't.
"You aren't wrong, if that's what you're thinking." Robin says, interrupting Zoro's thoughts.
He pauses and looks around, no one else is in this corridor but he peers inside the nearest room and upon finding it empty he goes inside with Robin.
"I thought that you would tell me I should have been more 'diplomatic' or something like that." Zoro grumbles, glaring at the wall.
"Perhaps you could have been, but it would have been dishonest in this case." Robin shrugs and Zoro relaxes a little.
"You could have avoided scolding him for snapping at me. I can handle myself, remember?" Robin adds, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I know that. You could probably kill him." Zoro sighs. He considers that point though, he knows that Zeff uses the same fighting style as Sanji from the way he handled himself so it's likely that it was him who taught Sanji how to fight. If that's the case then perhaps Robin might be outmatched in the same way that she is with Zoro's own father.
"Maybe." He amends even as he looks at the inked roses on her arms. Robin's mouth twitches into a smile at the edge, clearly amused.
"The point is that he had no right to speak to you like that." he reasons.
"I appreciate that. Come on, let's go find Sanji. I believe that you mentioned that you would talk to him. Maybe just the once though." She says with a smile.
"Shut up." he groans and opens the door. With a swish of purple dress and black hair Robin walks out before him and leads the way, he sighs despairingly and follows her.
"Actually…" He says after a few minutes of walking. Robin pauses and looks back to him.
"We'd better go see Nami first. There's no point in asking Sanji if he's okay with leaving tomorrow if we can't actually do it, is there?" Zoro reasons.
"I hadn't thought of that. Okay, this way." Robin nods and turns back the way they came and then takes a left… or was it a right?
When they get back to the knight's quarters and shared room most of them are lurking around there. Evidently Sanji's threat to murder his cousin and Zeff's arresting of him and his brother presumably for future execution kind of broke up the party.
Luffy is sprawled on the sofa, having instantly got out of his formal attire and is now back into his well worn blue shirts with his red vest on. Luffy is the only one of them who hasn't adjusted their clothes from being in Baratie. He guesses that maybe rubber doesn't get cold that easily.
"Oh, ick. Incoming." Nami grimaces, looking out of the window.
"That's not nice!" Luffy snickers.
"I didn't mean him." Nami sighs, rubbing her nose and turning to face him.
"So, are we going to see how they execute people in Baratie then?" Nami asks him.
"Treason's gotta carry a pretty nasty one for sure." Ace says thoughtfully and bites into a chicken leg that Zoro swears that he saw going around on plates near dinner. There's another full plate by Luffy. Either they sweet talked one of the chefs or they stole it. Seeing as almost the totality of the kitchen staff are apparently knights that's a pretty dumb idea.
"In Baratie the execution is standard regardless of crime, it's hanging. Very few crimes carry it from my understanding. Cold blooded murder does, but self defence or killing with a good cause doesn't. Treason obviously does. Interestingly so does stealing food if it causes other people to considerably suffer, cases in which stealing food results in death or starvation for the rightful owners is always a hanging offence. It's fascinating really." Robin informs them all with interest.
Zoro shakes his head, he should have expected Robin to know that sort of thing. It's almost surprising that she hadn't shared that information with him before now.
"I wanted to know if it would be possible for all of us to leave tomorrow morning, Sanji and his knights too." Zoro asks.
"Well, we can leave at any time. Whether your husband and his people can pack their most needed things is another matter. You'd also have to set whatever you wanted to take back and whatever Sanji wants to take with him but doesn't need on the journey aside and leave instructions for the others to take it when they get here." She explains and wrinkles her nose in distaste.
Suddenly thunder booms outside and the weather goes from slightly chilly to thundering downpour. Aside from the fact that Baratie is colder than his homeland Zoro hates the fact that the weather changes every five minutes, or it feels like it at any rate.
"Thank goodness for that." Nami mumbles and rubs on either side on her nose. She's always been especially sensitive to weather pressure and occasionally it bothers her instead of just informing her.
"Why would we have to leave it?" Zoro frowns.
"What? We-" Luffy starts, leaning up on his elbows to look at Zoro.
"No, no. Don't tell him, I want to hear this. Didn't you go to see the horses and our supplies Zoro?" Nami asks him, coming closer to him, her hips swaying with the movement.
"I… got distracted. I found Sanji's old room though." Zoro says, staring at a spot on the wall two inches to the left of Nami's head, maybe she'll think that's eye contact and leave it at that.
"You mean that you got lost." Nami purrs, getting close to him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
This is the difference between friends and nakama. Nakama understand everything about how each other work and have zero intention of ever pulling their punches. Zoro knows that Nami cares for him deeply, if she didn't she wouldn't make his life hell so often. Zoro would defend her to the death and cares for her deeply, he also regularly wants to strangle her.
"But we can leave tomorrow if we need to." Zoro says, ignoring her.
"Sure. What's the hurry though?" Nami asks, leaning back a little and looking from him to Robin and back.
"It could be nothing, I just needed to know. I'll tell you if we need to go." Zoro nods, pulling away from her and heading to the door.
"Zoro," Nami calls out and Zoro halts in his tracks to look at her, "this rain is going to keep up all of tomorrow and until at least midday the next day. The route that we took here isn't passable in the rain. Just… bear that in mind."
Zoro nods and leaves, Robin still with him. He knows now that they can leave if that's what Sanji wants, so now it's up to Sanji when he gets there. He and Robin walk in silence to the area that he and Sanji have been living in, but Sanji isn't there and no one else is either.
"Shit, he must be in his old room." Zoro curses, he goes back out of the door but in all honesty even he can admit that he has no idea how he can get there.
"Did you have to go upstairs to get to it?" Robin asks, coming out of the room and shutting the door. She has clearly came to the same conclusion that he had.
"Yes. And… I could see the sea from the window, the room was wood but the hallway was only in parts." Zoro frowns, that's about all of the information that he can give her.
"Well, let's go exploring then." Robin smiles brightly and she heads off.
Twenty minutes of wandering and deductions on Robin's part leads them to a corridor that Zoro isn't sure looks familiar, but Usopp and Franky are standing outside of the door so Zoro would bet that Sanji is in that room.
Franky spots them first and nudges Usopp in the arm. The translator had been staring off at the wall in front of him and as Zoro gets closer he can see that Usopp's face is pinched into a frown.
"I need to see Sanji." Zoro announces as he walks up to the room.
Usopp looks at them and swallows thickly then shakes his head.
"Sanji wants to be on his own." Usopp says.
"That's why we're standing outside." Franky points out in a slightly amused tone.
"I'm not surprised, but I need to talk to him." Zoro sighs and steps towards the door. To his shock Usopp steps between him and the door. He can see the man shaking a little as he does so. He tilts his jaw slightly upwards at Zoro and looks him in the eyes.
"I- I can't let you in. Sanji wants to be on his own and- and I'm his nakama so- so I'll stop you if I have to." Usopp says unsteadily. Usopp is sweating anxiously and this is clearly taking a lot for him to do.
"He is? You asked him?" Robin asks brightly and Usopp looks at her with a red flush creeping up the back of his neck.
"He… asked me actually." Usopp says slightly bashfully. Robin's face lights up and she smiles widely. Zoro suspects that there had been some conversation between the two of them on that subject before and in part Zoro is pleased that Sanji seems to be getting the hang of the idea.
"I… didn't understand much of that." Franky admits and Zoro realises that they'd inadvertently held that entire conversation in Tsukian, leaving Franky out of it.
"Sorry about that." Zoro apologizes in Baratian. He hates when Robin and Usopp talk in one of their other languages and he loathed it when he could barely understand Baratian and people talked in it around him.
"I still need to see him though." Zoro repeats this time in Baratian and looks back to Usopp.
"I think it would be better for Sanji if we let them talk." Franky reasons to Usopp. Zoro groans internally, does Sanji have more unclaimed nakama around the place or does everyone in the goddamned country flirt with each other without knowing it?
"It's still not what Sanji said." Usopp replies and tries to stare Zoro down. As if that's going to work at all.
"So, you're going to make me fight you then?" Zoro asks, tilting his head curiously. He had seen the warrior hidden in Usopp before, the potential there covered up by nervousness and disuse in Baratie, but perhaps it's starting to shine now. Though it has to be said that Usopp looks a little like the idea is going to make him throw up, but it's a step in the right direction at least.
The door behind Usopp swings open and Usopp nearly falls through it because he'd backed up so much. Sanji glares out at him and Zoro can see that his eyes are red and his hair is messed up.
"No one is fighting anyone." Sanji asserts and Usopp sags in relief.
"Oh, you heard us then." Zoro notes. Sanji gives him a withering glare and blows some of the hair out of his usually visible eye.
"Add volume to the list of things that you're incapable of controlling. I'm sure everyone in the fucking corridor heard you." Sanji snaps.
"Whatever. You look like shit by the way." Zoro points out, and really he does. Sanji usually is very pretty most of the time, even if Sanji might try to force feed Zoro one of his fancy white boots if he heard him say it. Right now though he looks like a wreck.
"Fuck you." Sanji snarls in Tsukian and Zoro grins brightly.
"Can I come in?" He asks. Sanji groans but steps aside, waving a hand into the room inviting him in. Zoro steps around Usopp's form slumped against the door frame and walks in. Sanji shuts the door after him, leaving both of their nakama and Franky outside.
"Come to make me feel better then?" Sanji asks bitterly, his tone coming out acerbic and barbed in his Baratian.
"My parents are both alive." Zoro says simply.
"WELL FUCKING GOOD FOR YOU!" Sanji screams at him, his fists balled at his sides and Zoro genuinely thinks that Sanji might kick him.
"I have no idea how you feel!" He yells back at him.
"I can't tell you shit because I don't know anything! How can I make you feel better from something I can't possibly understand?!" He shouts and that seems to tip Sanji off balance. The blonde screws his eyes shut and Zoro thinks that Sanji might actually cry. He's never seen the other prince cry but in this kind of situation he can hardly hold it against him. He really doesn't have any idea how Sanji must actually feel and he certainly can't tell Sanji to change his feelings because it's uncomfortable for Zoro to be around and making Sanji hide how he feels would be lying to the highest degree.
"Everyone else is telling me that we're gonna find out what happened, like that will make her less dead." He says bitterly.
"I'm an ungrateful shit because that should make me feel better and they're trying to help but-" Sanji says guiltily and presses the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to stop himself from crying again. He clearly has done already if the way his face looks is any indication. He's trashed a fair amount of his room too. Zeff might be right about Sanji being hot tempered but Zoro can't see that as a bad thing, at least Sanji is honest with himself about how he feels. Plenty of people aren't.
Zoro frowns to himself, he has no idea what he'd feel like if either of his parents died, much less if someone had killed them on purpose in some disgusting underhanded way like that. It'd be one thing if either of them died in battle or simply in an accident, but to have someone plot your death and kill you through dishonesty is so much worse. There are people who do that kind of thing, even in Shimotsuki. Just because his culture despises that sort of behaviour doesn't mean that there aren't people who do it anyway. Between having never lost a parent and Sanji's culture being so vastly different all he can do is guess at what Sanji must be feeling and thinking. All he can tell is that it hurts him.
"If you're not here to try to make me feel better then what do you want?" Sanji asks, looking off to the side with his arms folded across his chest.
"I wanted to talk to you." Zoro shrugs and realizes that Robin is right, he has said that far too much today.
"So talk." Sanji sighs and runs his hands through his hair. His fingers get tangled in the chains of his crown and he curses, trying to untangle himself. Zoro moves behind him and starts unwrapping Sanji and freeing his fingers. He unweaves the strands of silver from Sanji's golden hair in silence, it gives him something to do with his hands.
"The King summoned me. Yours, not mine I mean." He clarifies, because from what he's going to say next it might not be clear.
"And what did he want?" Sanji asks unhappily, apparently somewhat bitter at being held back from kicking the information that he wants out of Absalom.
"He told me that you were too hot tempered to be around right now, that you'd fuck up him trying to get information out of Absalom. He wants me to take you back to Shimotsuki as soon as I can, tomorrow morning." Zoro explains and frees Sanji from his crown, stepping back with it in his hands.
"So you're what, here to tell me what to do and shove me in some carriage to pack away or something?!" Sanji snaps, his eyes ablaze.
"No. I told him that I don't take orders from him." Zoro replies flatly and the fire goes out of Sanji, leaving the blonde just staring at Zoro in a kind of numb shock.
Zoro frowns and looks at the crown in his hand. It's all delicate chains and small stones, there's a larger one that sits right in the centre of Sanji's forehead and he knows that if he put it on it would line up just right with the marks on his own forehead. There are diamonds in this thing though, small ones in the chains but there nonetheless. Zoro could break apart this crown with a bit of effort, he could make the silver bend and come apart, but the diamonds in it… nothing could break them. Sanji is the same. Some bits of him are strong but ultimately breakable, the same as everyone else, but there are parts of him that are harder and tougher than anything else.
"Why would you say that?" Sanji asks, sounding shocked.
"Because I don't take orders from him, I said the truth." Zoro shrugs and pours the delicate chains and stones of Sanji's crown back into the other man's hands.
"If you want to leave for any reason, even if it's not what your father said, then we'll leave. I can help you pack what you need and what you want sent there afterwards and we can go first thing in the morning. We don't even have to see Zeff before we go if you don't want to." Zoro offers. Sanji's eyes widen and his lips part a little, like he has something to say but doesn't know quite what.
"If you want to stay, we'll stay. I don't care what your father says. If you want to stay here he'll have to get past me, my knights and yours too mostly likely if he wants to make you go. He'd have to pack up our things for us and physically throw us over the border and even then Nami would find us a way back in. If you want to stay then we're not fucking leaving." He says with a defiant snap to his voice that probably distorts the fuck out his his Baratian but he doesn't care, Sanji knows him well enough now to know what he means and that's the important thing right now.
Sanji stands stock still, his hands still in front of him with his crown pooled in his palms. His eyes are wide, so wide that he can see all of the blue in Sanji's iris in his exposed eye. It would be almost funny if it wasn't so serious.
"You'd… you'd do that? Even though Zeff told you to get rid of me?" Sanji asks in a voice that has a slight shake to it. Sanji's skin is paler than usual, which says something.
"No, I said it for fun. Do you think I'd lie to you about this?" Zoro snaps irritably.
"No! No, that's… that's not what I mean. It's just that you'd go against Zeff for me." Sanji says thickly and drops his crown on the edge of his bed. He turns back to Zoro and stares at him some more. Why is this such a difficult idea for Sanji to get? Maybe his brain is just scrambled from all of the bad news.
"I don't take orders from him, why do I have to keep repeating myself?" He grumbles irritably. This is starting to get tiresome.
"But you take orders from me then?" Sanji grins, tilting his head and though his face still shows signs of his earlier distress right now he looks like the cocky and smug Sanji that Zoro is used to seeing.
"I will kick your ass, fucker." Zoro threatens with a glare. Not that he's willing to admit, and certainly not to Sanji, that having the other man argue with him makes Zoro feel better about this. Despite all that Sanji's been through he's still got those unbreakable parts, apparently being an asshole to people is one of them.
"My old man is the King though." Sanji points out, walking back towards Zoro empty handed this time.
"No shit, I had worked that out, Prince Sanji." Zoro drawls, his tone dripping with sarcasm. Hell, does he even need to be in this conversation right now? All Sanji is doing is repeating him or stating the fucking obvious.
"That level of 'fuck you' to him though, that's a pretty big deal." the other man says, again repeating the obvious.
"I'm married to you, you idiot. This is what you do." Zoro groans, pressing his palms to his forehead. Sanji is so goddamn dumb sometimes that it hurts.
"Even if I wasn't I-" Zoro cuts himself off and glances over his shoulder to the door in the wall behind him. He wonders how many ears are pressed against it or even if Robin has one of her own in here thanks to her Devil's Fruit power. Fuck it, she already knows and if the others don't then they're going to work it out sooner or later.
"Even if I wasn't married to you, at the very least I love you. Even if it could be more than…" Zoro decides not to keep going down that path, this conversation is complicated enough as it is.
"Fighting for you is what I'm supposed to do, even against a King. I'm not taking orders from you, you moron, I'm doing what you decide is best for you. I'm supposed to and it's... what I want to do." He mutters, looking away and feeling his own cheeks heat up. He's probably redder than Usopp was.
He should probably know better than to take his eyes off of Sanji because before he knows it he's slammed against the wall behind him with the other man kissing him as hard as he can. One hand is pinning Zoro's shoulder to the wall and the other is in his hair, pulling him to just where Sanji wants him. Zoro puts his hands on Sanji's hips, his skin covered with pretty but combat useless clothes, he puts his hands there and with some reluctance he tries to push his reckless husband back. He opens his mouth to speak but Sanji just pushes closer to him again and licks his way into Zoro's mouth.
Zoro considers himself to be a strong man, a man of conviction. With that said he probably shouldn't frantically kiss Sanji back for a good minute or so. But, he needs to know what Sanji wants and then he needs to do it. If they're leaving then he has a hell of a lot of things to do, if he's staying then he needs to work out what to tell the King in a way that expresses that Sanji is staying no matter what and there's fuck all Zeff can do about it. These are important things. It takes him another half a minute to work himself into pushing Sanji away again.
This time he manages to gasp out Sanji's name, to try to point out all these reasonable things to him. Sanji ignores that and leans in and bites Zoro's lip. He… he bites him and Zoro is sure that his whole body reacts, he jolts like he's been struck by lightning. Sanji bit him and, oh fuck, he's bitten him hard. Zoro wants Sanji so fucking badly. He wants to grab Sanji up, throw him on that bed and pull him out of those stupid fucking clothes and just-
Shit no, Sanji bit him so he clearly wants it too, but they don't have time for this. He puts Sanji at arms length from him and screws his eyes up so that he doesn't see Sanji looking kiss drunk and pleading with him to do what he just asked.
"Stay in Baratie or leave in the morning? Tell me." Zoro manages to say between heaving breaths. Sanji's hands come up and wrap around Zoro's wrists. One of them is shaking slightly and he doesn't know if it's him or Sanji. Zoro opens his eyes and looks at Sanji cautiously, Sanji's head is hanging down and all he can see of Sanji is his blond hair.
"I- I'm not sure that I can stay here if that old man is going to talk about me like that, even if I am seriously considering kicking the life out of my cousin. We'll go." Sanji says with a nod.
"Okay… okay. I'll, I'll go tell Nami. We'll go at first light. And… pack for rain." Zoro says, somewhat impressed with himself for gathering the brainpower to think of all of that when most of him is still focused on the idea of Sanji and bed.
He slides out of Sanji's grip and to the door. He opens it, lets himself out and then shuts it behind him, pausing to lean against it with weak knees.
"Zoro, your lip!" Robin gasps, her eyes showing a level of shock that Robin does not often show. Zoro raises a hand and rubs it over his lip and when he looks at it there is the slightest smear of blood there. Sanji didn't bite him hard enough to split it but enough to… Zoro debates turning right around and going back in there.
"Don't. I have… I have things to do. Sanji wants to leave in the morning." he manages to say, screwing his eyes shut and thinking of the things that he needs to pack and the things that he doesn't. His bedding can stay here and no, thinking about his bed after that is not a smart thing to think when he could have Sanji on that- no. He should find something else to think of then.
"But he bit you." Robin says incredulously.
"Shit, I don't think he gets what that means." Usopp says wide eyed.
"Me neither, what does it mean?" Franky says, leaning over and peering at Zoro.
Zoro sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and a slight coppery tang blooms on the tip of his tongue and he can feel where Sanji's tooth snagged him slightly. His whole body is repeating a litany of 'Sanji, Sanji, Sanji, Sanji' and yes he's wanted this for a long time but he doesn't have time and if Usopp is right and Sanji doesn't get it.
"I'm going to go talk to Nami about… the weather. And maybe stare at a wall for a while." He manages to say and picks a direction and walks. If the corridors keep up their habit of moving then it will be easier to resist, he knows that he won't be able to find his way back to Sanji in this maze and then he can focus.
He tongues at the small cut in his lip again and shivers all over. Goddamnit.