A LITTLE BIT MORE
Chapter Four
Nami pulled her sunglasses lower on her nose, and Sanji watched as her beautiful brown eyes blinked twice. "What do you mean, how did I know?"
Sanji shrugged, as overdramatic as ever in Nami's presence. "I'm just curious to know if all that stuff about women's intuition is true."
She giggled, and Sanji resisted the urge to droop his shoulders and give in to the goo-goo eyes as usual. The wind came by in a sudden gust, as a wave broke against the Going Merry's hull. A spray of water flew up at them as their hair flew about wildly. Nami smirked and faced the sun again.
"You're talking as if it's a one way street, this little relationship of yours."
"Now, I'd hardly call it that. A relationship, that is."
Nami reached over and her petite hand gave him a playful, surprisingly strong shove. He stumbled a bit and smiled, simply content to have enjoyed her touch. "Oh, come on!" she looked a bit angry, and Sanji paused to analyze her meaning as his smile faded, "if Zoro heard you talking like that, he'd be upset."
Normally he would have known she was kidding, but her tone and the nagging suspicions in his head – that Zoro really was the type who could fall in love – were making a strong case for Sanji to take her words seriously. He nodded, and leaned against the railing, tossing away another cigarette that had been extinguished by the breaking waves. "Yeah, but he'd never show it."
"Maybe not to you, but I happen to observe people very well. He'd stalk around in a huff and take it out on everyone—just like he did a few weeks ago, when the two of you had that argument after lunch."
Sanji nodded slowly, and seemed to understand what she was saying. "So was that when you figured it out?"
Her sigh was contemplative, indecisive. "I'm not sure. It was what sealed my conclusion, that's true. But the way he had been looking at you, following you around with his eyes when he thought no one else was looking...for a long time he seemed to be thinking about something, and not just how much he loathed you."
Weighing in the reality that he was nearly soaked from the blasts of cool sea spray, he decided against lighting another cigarette, no matter how much he needed it to aide his concentration. "For once."
Nami scooted closer, and leaned her head against his shoulder. "You're too hard on yourself." She cooed with a soft, placating voice. Sanji felt the truth of what he had said to Zoro sinking in deeper than ever before. The obligation, the respect, the lines. With Nami, everything was so defined, so well-ordered. For the first time since he had set foot on the weathered deck of the Going Merry, the last thing on his mind was how beautiful, how intoxicating and perfect a conquest she was. As he lifted his arm and cupped it against Nami's shoulder, he felt a delicious calm settle in his stomach.
"I love you, Nami," He sighed peacefully, weighing in another reality, which wasn't as cruel as he had feared it would be, "I need you here."
She gave a small, feminine chuckle inside of her throat, and smiled warmly at the ocean in front of them. "I know," she whispered, "I'm just sorry I was never—"
"No. No, you've been perfect. I mean, don't think I'll change my feelings, don't think you'll stop being my favorite person in the world." He hugged her with a quick pull, like a sister, or a best friend. It didn't hurt so much to consider her that way. "But don't think I won't try to kick the shit out of the first guy who tries to move in on you, either."
"I can take care of myself," Nami replied, although he could see out of the corner of his eye that she was still smiling, "but I don't think you can."
He was nonplussed, waiting for her to go on. His capacity for indignation had been stolen by the quiet comfort of the moment. Thankfully, she read his silence as a prompt, and continued. "Not in the emotional sense. I learned, over a long, long time, to survive on my own, to focus my own happiness. But you, everything you do, from your job to your dream to the way you choose your words when you talk....you're always out to make someone else happy....and that gives you peace of mind. That gives you your strength."
"I always thought it was just ego." He replied, his tone blank and considerate. Her words were making far too much sense.
She elbowed him gently in the stomach, and laughed. "You might think you know yourself, but you've got a long way to go before you're as good as I am. I can read people."
"Then tell me what I'm thinking right now." He looked down at her earnestly, setting his face in a cool, dauntless expression.
Expectedly, she hesitated. "I don't mean like that!" She drew back and put her hands on her hips, then took a longer look at him. "But it's strange..." she smiled, "I can almost tell."
"Then tell me. If you're right, I promise I'll take whatever advice you have to give me."
She smirked, unable as always to turn down a bet, however intangible it was. "You're thinking that you don't know why you can't be as comfortable around him as you are with me. And it's killing you, because you want to be. But you're afraid of something."
A flourish of blonde hair flapped over his eyes as another whistling gust of wind blew past the ship.
"What is it I'm afraid of, Nami?"
She shook her head slowly, sadly. "You don't know, do you? I can't help you with that," she sighed and moved forward, offering him a gentle, comforting hug, "I'm sorry."
"I'll still take your advice." He said, his voice suddenly weak and unsure.
Nami lifted a hand and smoothed back her hair as she pulled away, gripping Sanji's arm's meaningfully. "Compromise." She said simply.
"Compromise."
"When the time comes, I think you'll understand what I mean." Mysteriously, she offered him a parting smile, and turned to walk off. He listened to her heels clunking slowly away, and stared out at the hypnotic movement of the water.
They had been stealing timid kisses on the stairs and hurried touches in the dark, but he and Zoro seemed to be stuck right where they always had been. Teetering precariously on the edge of friendship, looking down the crevice of something deeper, but forbidden to simply let go, and fall. He was left understandably bitter by their last proper encounter, resentful that things had moved so far beyond control in such a short span of time. He wanted things beyond what gave him that excitement and zest for his own desire. Even though his body swam with heat whenever Zoro so much as touched his shoulder, brushed his lips, he couldn't help being selfish.
If Zoro felt he needed a woman, Sanji was determined to prove him wrong. The weeks had been long, each day turning into a personal vision quest, aimlessly searching for a sign that might not have even existed. But he wanted what was promised on the other side of friendship. He wanted to see what would happen to fall in love with someone he craved, who craved him in return.
His breath sped up as he considered it. The word 'love' had certainly entered his mind before, more as a fanciful consideration than a true assessment of his own feelings. But lately at night his sleep had been restless. It was hurting more and more to let go of Zoro after they kissed, to take no more than he was offered, no more than they were able.
He realized, with some humiliation and quiet regret, what a child he had been only a few days ago. Still clinging to the notion that he had known love, that he had experienced it whole-heartedly, with all of his soul. Naivete, infatuation, and nothing more. Nami was his dearest confidant, an object of unparalleled perfection in his eyes, but he had been silly to call his one-sided worship true love.
If that was true love, he considered, absently touching his chest as his heart throbbed in a painful, hauntingly unfamiliar way, then I'd hate to know what this is.
~*~*~
That night, for the first time that he could remember, he woke up screaming.
He sat bolt upright, his body weak but his adrenaline coursing strong. The dream, the sounds, visions that had awakened him – they flashed through his mind again. He had to shake his head, force them out before he could even grasp the reality of where he was.
Luffy only muttered his concern. "Oi, Sanji....?" He cooed, half-asleep.
"I'm fine." Sanji said huskily, still sitting up as his hammock swung slower and slower, recovering from the mighty jolt of his awakening. He stared ahead at the wall, and heard soft footsteps at the door.
"Is everything all right?" Nami's voice called.
"Nightmare, Nami-san," he said, unable to even muster his usual lilting tone for her, "go back to sleep."
She ducked out politely, without another word.
Sanji glanced over at the next hammock, the inexplicable lump of fear still blocking his throat of all but the most hollow, shaking breath.
Zoro stared back at him, obviously disconcerted but silent nevertheless. Sanji felt his bottom lip tremble as he tried to form words, tried to muster up the same courage to tell Zoro that he was perfectly fine, and this was nothing to worry about.
But he wasn't fine. There were still flashes. Memories. Screams in his mind.
"I need some air." He stood up quickly, and turned his eyes shamefully from Zoro's before running out of the small room.
One half wanted Zoro to follow, the other half was petrified of what would happen, what would be said if he did. Sanji knew exactly what he wanted to do, what his dream had awakened inside of him.
The sea had calmed considerably since that afternoon. As he pushed the door open and broke out into the open air, he sucked down a breath that wasn't half as refreshing as it should have been. He clutched his stomach, which growled angrily at being forced out of bed so unexpectedly.
So I've found it....I found what I'm afraid of.
He cupped his hands and hid his face, throwing his back against the wall of the cabin. Cold night wind skimmed the deck, bouncing in one direction and then another, as the sails rippled noisily above. He matched the smell of the sea to the images in his dream, and he pushed his shaking hands back through his hair.
"You fool..." he whispered harshly to himself, and gritted his teeth. He had promised Zoro, silently in his own mind, that he wouldn't cry again, not over simple things. But was this really so simple? Was this really so inconsequential, that he didn't deserve the reaction he wanted to wallow in?
"Sanji."
Zoro had appeared at the door, and he closed it gently behind himself as Sanji wondered what to say. He didn't want to be the first to speak. He didn't want to say the words that were waiting, spring-loaded on the tip of his tongue.
But he did. "How could I fall in love with you?"
The shock hit Zoro forcefully, and Sanji watched his entire body clench, his eyes pulsing and his mouth softly gaping at the words. "You...what?"
"I knew it when I met you! How selfish you are." He looked Zoro up and down, watched his shirt flap loose in the breeze. The lack of his haramaki made him appear almost delicate in the moonlight, with his face bowed from disbelief. Sanji looked away.
"Sanji....I don't understand. What woke you up?" he fought back a grimace of anger and went on, still desperate to understand and smooth over the problem, "I came out here to find out if you were all right, and you just attacked me! What did I do?"
"You didn't do anything, but...I can't convince myself...that it will always be so simple."
"What?"
Sanji tried to think back to Nami's words, tried to realize that Zoro, as improbable as it may have seemed, had feelings too. But when he thought, and remembered, and cursed himself for having forgotten the simplest of truths, Sanji simply couldn't accept it.
"I dreamt about....that time. When we first met. When....when you fought him."
Zoro took a step back, and knew better than to respond right away. Sanji knew that he may have been evoking memories that were painful to both of them, but things were far too complicated at that point to take anyone's feelings into consideration.
Sniffling in the cold air, staring down at the deck blankly, Sanji went on. "This time...you never came out of the water. You died. Right after I met you," he paused, "it seemed so real."
"It wasn't." Zoro offered immediately.
"I didn't expect you to come out the first time, either. Even after you did, I hardly expected you to live. Up until we left Arlong Park, I....I kept expecting you to die. Somehow. I was just so prepared for it. When you met me you told me your life belonged to your dream, that you'd rather die than leave it unfulfilled."
"That's right." Zoro responded, his voice confident, but sad just beneath the surface. Sanji heard him, heard the force and lack of hesitation in his reply. He wrapped his arms around himself and hunched low, trying to find someway to hide inside his own facade. But eventually, he knew he'd have to face Zoro and the truth, as much as he wanted to simply disappear, go back to the past and start things all over again.
He turned around, taking no attempts to hide the tears on his face, and walked the few steps to where Zoro stood. Barefoot and waiting, they both stared at each other; Sanji too hesitant to speak, and Zoro too stunned to do anything but look.
His hand was warm despite the cold of the night, and he lifted it to Zoro's cheek. The light bumps of stubble scratched his fingers, and he managed a tiny, twitching smile in spite of himself. He was thoroughly hateful of the moment, of fate and irony and the truth about the man he had been led to adore. With a little lift of his feet, he kissed him, and drew away very slowly, not particularly wanting to savor the moment, but desperate for any time.
"I can't take that chance." He finally said, his voice broken by the stress of his own misgivings.
Zoro started, ready to say something, ready to defend himself. But the look on his face, as much as it broke Sanji's heart to see it, was one of confusion. "I don't.....understand."
Sanji sniffed loudly and gently wiped at his tears. These were too important to be rubbed off angrily. He wanted to keep these tears a little longer. "No one in their right mind would fall in love with you," Sanji gulped, somehow finding the courage to explain himself, "it's a gamble even I'm too smart to make. At any moment, on any day, my dream could come true. I don't want to gamble my heart, my life, my desire...on someone who's in love with his own ambition. It's too painful to imagine. You said you don't like losing things once you have them...but maybe you should hold the mirror up and see what position you've put all of us in."
He turned away from Zoro, and after the air chilled the tips of his ears for a few moments, he suddenly heard a reply, unbreakably firm and painful to take. "That's not fair."
A twinge of gladness resonated in his emotional state, happy that he had upset him, happy that his problem was now Zoro's, too. He knew he was being unreasonable. But it was the reason one half of him hadn't wanted Zoro to follow in the first place.
Zoro went on. "That's not fair and you know it. You promised me—" he broke off his sentence and Sanji heard him take a step which ended mid-stride. There was a moment of silence, and when he heard Zoro's voice again it was calmer, softer, making a desperate attempt to be the mature one for once, "....I believed that maybe I finally knew someone who understood. Someone who was not only accepting of my life, but right there, living it with me. If you're not strong enough to do that—"
Sanji wheeled around and narrowed his eyes, shouting right back at him. "I don't want to watch you die!"
"Then leave," Zoro said flatly, loudly, pointing into the vast ocean ahead. He waited until Sanji's face showed the effect of his words, and continued, "we're both out there, risking our lives every day. We can't go back to normal lives, not one of us can! Just because your dream is different than mine doesn't mean you aren't risking your life, too. And it doesn't mean I'm going to die!"
"I don't want to have to worry about it, though, or know that something more is at stake than...well..." he trailed off. Even he didn't want to sound that selfish. There was something so cruel about implying that Zoro's death would mean less if they weren't in love.
"You could try believing in me."
Logical simplicity in his words, the same as always.
"I do," Sanji answered quickly, "I believe you can do it and I believe it's your destiny. But...it's a lot easier to do that when I'm not expecting you to come back and hold me every night."
"Sanji, let me ask you a question."
It was still stunning, breathtaking to hear Zoro say his name like that, without the pretense of trying to get his attention, outside the view of the others. Though his skin bristled with appreciation at it, his face remained inconsolable as he turned around.
Zoro stared at him fiercely, his expression and stance indicative of a much deeper emotion than he was expressing.
"Ask." But he was terrified to know.
"Why do you think you love me?"
Maybe it wasn't the question, or the implication at all. Maybe it wasn't the gruff, expectant way Zoro forced out the word 'love.' In fact, Sanji knew it wasn't any of that which hit him so hard. It was the word 'think,'
"I do love you." He responded in a flash, gritting his teeth and looking down at the deck, hoping his pained expression was hidden by the usual curtain of blonde.
"Mmhmm," Zoro assessed his words gently, making no judgment, showing no reaction. Not yet, "why? Why not one of the hundreds of girls you fall for every day?"
He felt a pang of guilt, but found his brain echoing Zoro's own defense. That's not fair and you know it...
"Because I know you. You understand who I am, what I do...I can be myself with you."
"And Nami?" Zoro jutted one hip out and placed his hand there, piercing Sanji's heart with his tone.
"Leave her out of this!" Sanji yelled, his fists clenching on instinct, "she...she doesn't have feelings for me. Not in that way."
"And who said that I did?"
The night was being quiet to torture him. Not even the whistle of a fierce wind, or the crash of choppy waters, was there to dull the impact of Zoro's words. Just the gentle thrum of the breeze, the same flapping of the sails that always was. He stared up at Zoro, dumbstruck. His practiced poker face showed no mercy, no sympathy. He stared down at Sanji with what looked like anger, disgust, or something worse.
Words. Something. Anything at all would have been enough, but Sanji's throat wouldn't loosen, his mouth just wouldn't do anything but gape.
"I told you before. I told you so many times, but I thought that you finally understood," Zoro narrowed his eyes, and scowled, "this is exactly what I knew would happen. Don't think I haven't hurt people before. Don't think I haven't conditioned myself to turn away any time something like this happens. I can't love you, Sanji, because you can't accept me. Not the full scope of what I am, what I plan to become. The risk involved. You don't have the strength to believe. Not as much as I'd need you to."
"But....but you—"
"Everything I did, everywhere I allowed this to go, was because of my faith in YOU. I thought this conversation would never happen. I thought the answers were too obvious," he sighed, and cursed under his breath, "you've wounded me. You've taken everything I never gave to anyone, not ever before—and you effectively destroyed it."
Sanji stared down, eyes wide, chest pounding. He gripped a ball of fabric in a fist right over his heart, and tightened until his knuckles felt numb. Nami..... his brain spun in the silence, what do I do now...?
What do I do?
"Compromise."
His strength gave out. He collapsed to his knees and crumpled, slouching as he heaved a dry, angry sob. "Bastard. Bastard!"
Zoro was still staring him down, unmoving, lording over his breakdown. "I wanted to try. But I'm not going to feel guilty. Not for who I am, not for what you knew about me from the very beginning. Nothing has changed since then. The only thing that can change now is you."
"I know that." Sanji's voice quaked, his body still limp and prone. He looked up, a little too far, letting his hair cover his eyes, keeping his expression as drawn and dead as he felt. "I know that." He whispered again.
"Then come back to me when you're stronger." Zoro said, his words blearily familiar, foggy someway when they dealt with matters of the heart and not the sword. As Zoro turned to the door, Sanji's lips trembled again. He found himself fighting so hard, hurdling over his doubts and self-loathing before his voice rang out. He heard the voice of a child, the only part of him that still seemed courageous enough to fight, in the face of the biggest risk he would probably ever take.
"NO!"
Zoro only glanced down, and then continued, determined to escape.
With a midnight strength he was barely able to control, Sanji sprang to his feet, and lashed out toward Zoro. One long, leaping stretch of his body was enough to bar him from the door, enough to let his palm connect, in a final refusal, against Zoro's face.
Though Zoro didn't move, he held out his arm to catch Sanji as he stumbled forward, too delirious to focus his own steps. His long, skinny arms flopped lazily as he fell into the crook of Zoro's elbow. He panted, "No...don't walk away again. I won't do this again."
He blinked his eyes and stared down at his hand. It stung, throbbing from the force and exertion of his blow. He couldn't believe, not even in his half-fainting, already dreamlike state, that he had done that. Striking out with his hand against Roronoa Zoro.
"You weren't worth that," he growled softly, grimacing as angrily as he could.
Zoro was still holding him, but not moving, not even turning his head back around. Gazing in opposite directions, they sank into the vicinity of each other, knowing it was too comfortable to be a bad place. "I know," Zoro whispered back gruffly, "but I wanted to see if you'd do it."
Sanji smirked, still hanging limply over Zoro's arm. He was angry, undeniably. But as long as Zoro remained, there was hope. Hope that he wouldn't have to spend the night in solitary confusion. Hope for tomorrow in his heart, which still pounded and burned as implacably as ever. "I see. You really are a bastard. All that to rile me up?"
"No, just the leaving part. I've meant everything I said."
"Oh."
"You wanted to end this, too. Why were you so adamant to stay, then, when I agreed?"
Sanji bit his bottom lip. The answer was so clear, but how could it possibly be communicated? He wasn't as wonderful with words as he wanted to be, not when situations like this cropped up. "Because I wanted you to be hurt. I wanted you to be guilty. I wanted you to have loved me too."
As heavy as the silence was between them, it was no longer torture. Sanji found a place for his foolish hope despite the wall that still remained. "I'm more patient than I seem, sometimes," Zoro sighed, "I'll wait as long as I have to, for you to change."
"I can't change, Zoro," he whispered painfully, "I can't take this back now, and I think no matter what happens, I won't be able to look you in the eye and say I wouldn't feel abandoned, betrayed, regretful....if you died fighting. That's simple."
"Well, then—"
"But I can compromise."
Zoro sighed heavily. "How can you possibly do that? This issue is black and white."
"No," Sanji was getting more used to saying the word. He straightened up and stood next to Zoro, taking the weight off his arm but still not glancing over. He could smell him, he could feel his warmth, but until he said what needed to be said, there was no use in looking. "it's not. I can still believe in you, as fiercely as I have. I'm the one who placed battles in your hands. I'm the one who trusts you when you're the only one there to cover my ass. If you think that isn't believing in you, then...well...think what you want. But it is. I'll believe, I'll accept. All you have to do is let yourself go."
The muscles in Zoro's arm tightened. Sanji watched them, and heard the breath beside him gasp softly. "To what end?"
"To loving me. Of course."
Zoro was conspicuously unresponsive.
"I know you want to."
"Fuck you."
Sanji smirked, happy to hear the usual retort. Comfort returned all at once on the heels of that insult, and he felt enough of a place in Zoro's arms to lean against him gently. "You've been looking for a reason. Ever since we started. You always look for a reason to run. I'm compromising my own needs, my own determination to keep you here, so why can't you do the same?"
Somehow, he could sense that if Zoro had a katana at his disposal, it would be pointing steadily at his throat. He smiled at the thought. "My determination isn't easily compromised."
"Oh, I know that," he patted Zoro's shoulder and, his thoughts still somewhat muddled by doubt, tried to walk past, "I just want you to know I'm that one thing you won't be able to run away from." He doubled back and pushed his nose into Zoro's face. Zoro was surprised, affronted, but certainly didn't pull away, "And I don't think you want to."
He pecked him on the lips, a litmus test of Zoro's ability to handle it. When the kiss wasn't rebuffed, he tried again, pushing a little harder, a little fuller. His lips were thin and soft, used to kissing hands and pursing against wine glasses. They hardly had the same force as Zoro's.
On this second kiss, Zoro's lips pushed back. Finally parting, he lifted his hand through Sanji's hair, rearranging what the wind had knocked askew. "I'll give it some thought," He sighed, cold and distant, but Sanji could see the faintest hint of a smile forming beneath the words, "do you think you can really sleep tonight?"
It took Sanji a moment to understand that Zoro's question was one of true concern, and not simply sensual suggestion. He would have minded neither. "I don't know," he turned his head and glanced back into the darkness of the cabin, "I have a lot I could keep myself up thinking about. I don't want to get distressed again."
"Baka," Zoro grabbed him and pulled him forward, embracing him firmly as he sighed. "Then you're sleeping with me tonight."
Sanji's eyebrows flew up and he was quietly shocked. "What? You mean...together?" It was a foolish thing to ask; of course that was what he meant, but Sanji couldn't manage to wrap his brain around it. With all the secrecy and shadows their relationship had been steeped in, there was no way the speculation wouldn't fly if the others woke up to see them cuddled together in the same hammock.
As tempting, and heartwarming, as it was to have the invitation.
"Yes. If anyone says anything they'll have to deal with both of us, and I don't think anyone is up to that."
"You know, you're right," Sanji grinned, enjoying the warmth of Zoro's body, "so you're ready to go public, eh?"
Zoro made an odd face, half-sneering with the usual ennui. "Couldn't hurt anything."
Sanji took him by the wrist and led the rest of the way, smiling triumphantly on the inside, still stumbling with sleepiness, and determined not to dwell too much on the night's events.
As they stood next to the hammock, Luffy's snores drowning out any whispers except to each other, Sanji turned Zoro's face and kissed his cheek, where his palm had struck earlier. "I'm sorry."
"I'm not," Zoro said simply, and fell not-quite-gracefully into the hammock. Though Sanji knew there was more than enough room for two bodies, he still blushed, grateful that the darkness was hiding his suddenly coy expression, "come on, get in, I'm tired, here."
"Oi, oi, I am, too." Sanji muttered in response, letting out a frustrated hiss. It took a bit of balance and maneuvering, but finally he tucked himself comfortably into the curves of Zoro's body. With a pleasant smile, he sighed and tilted his head back.
"Aren't you going to kiss me goodnight?"
"If I kiss you goodnight, you're going to kiss me back, we're going to keep going, I'm going to get hard, you're going to get hard, and we're gonna end up fucking right here in the hammock, now sleep."
He was silent for a beat. "Would you really—"
"Just go to sleep!" He tossed one arm over Sanji's body. Sanji felt frail by comparison, but that was expected.
"Goodnight." He breathed.
Zoro snored in response.
~*~*~
Sanji woke up to an unmistakably large pair of eyes, leveled with his head, mere inches from his face.
"AHHH!" he reared back, unintentionally reaching up to slap Zoro in the face. In the chaos that followed, somehow they both ended up on the floor, and neither was very happy about it.
Luffy grinned down at them. "Good morning!"
"You asshole, you don't wake someone up like that!" Sanji sat up and barked in his face. Luffy simply leaned back, smiled stupidly, and called out.
"Oi, Ussop! They woke up!" He waited for a few moments, then scratched his head, "I guess he got tired of waiting. Hey, why were you two sleeping together?"
"I'm going to kill you...." was all Zoro could muster, face-down and too tired to otherwise move. Sanji, beleaguered and now bruised, immediately pulled out a cigarette and found himself completely calm about it.
"Because we felt like it." He responded simply, cupping his hands to light a match.
"Okay!" Luffy replied, nodding in satisfaction with the answer. With that, he marched out of the room, humming a random tune as he left. Sanji watched him leave, a bit puzzled.
"That damn guy," he shook his head and exhaled pointedly, "aye, Zoro. Zoro." He looked over and was not surprised to find that Zoro had been able to return to slumber, even after the frantic tumble of their awakening.
A few pokes, and Zoro turned halfway, striking an unintentional pose as he blinked up at Sanji drowsily. "Mm?"
Sanji grinned evilly around his cigarette, "You look really cute. Makes me wanna eat you up."
"Don't let your mouth write checks that your ass can't cash." Zoro grumbled, and somehow found the alertness to sit up. After the obligatory stretch of his arms, he arched his back and Sanji heard a few popping noises.
"That's so creepy. Don't do that around me."
"You've never had your back cracked?"
"No, and I'd rather not. I think it's fine the way it is."
But before he could put up any defenses, before he even knew he should have, Zoro's fingers clutched him, kneading into his shoulders. "Oh, really? You feel awfully tense."
With a little head-rush, the prickling sensation of ecstasy, Sanji couldn't help but let his head roll back as he puffed lazily. "Are you going to give me a massage?"
He hoped beyond all hope that the answer was yes, but Zoro didn't even feel the need to give one. He simply pushed Sanji slightly forward, and continued to work his fingers into the muscles.
"Mmmmm.....bastard....that feels really good...."
"Lay down. On your belly." He did as he was told, powerless under the spell of Zoro's fingers. They were rough and calloused, yes, but every touch was so firm, so perfect. In the places where the tension ran so much deeper, his thumbs brought goose-bumps to Sanji's skin, and in the tender places where he was usually so sensitive, Zoro's fingers managed to work out the ripples of stress, calming his entire body to a practically comatose state.
The sounds he found himself making, he couldn't care less what the others would think if they heard. If they ran to investigate, HE was still the one being treated to the overwhelmingly wonderful massage. Not them. They could gawk and giggle all they wanted, but he was still in heaven.
After several minutes, Zoro's fingers left his back. Sanji murmured with echoes of tiny moans, the strength of his ecstasy hardly abetting. "Zoro....that was fantastic. I never knew you could—"
He gulped back his words in surprise when he felt Zoro's hands cup one of his feet. "I'll bet you've never had these feet massaged."
With every touch they had exchanged, this one seemed to trump them all. Sanji suddenly felt the most intimate charge in his mind, exploding very softly through his supine body. He groaned loudly, appreciatively, and closed his eyes. "No." He practically pouted.
Again, he knew Zoro was smiling, as his hands began work on what Sanji had somehow just realized was his most sensitive zone. He arched his back and writhed a bit, drawing a suggestive little noise from Zoro when he did. "This is turning you on?" Zoro asked heavily.
"Yes." Sanji whined, absolutely mesmerized by the sensations he was feeling. Nothing very carnal and powerful, but something, some little erogenous tickle that made his stomach flutter.
"Maybe I should save it, then." Zoro responded, slowly softening his grip. Sanji whimpered in disappointment, and turned around to tell Zoro exactly what he thought of that.
"You're a—"
"LAND HO!!!" They suddenly heard from the deck.
The Going Merry wasn't supposed to reach Loguetown for another four days, at least. The two exchanged a quick, befuddled look, and scrambled to their feet quickly. Eager as Sanji had been to find out the lengths to which his pleasure would go at the mercy of Zoro's more savory touches, he was more eager to know how the plans, as they were, had changed.