He was late. He was late and it irritated him. Being late annoyed him as a general rule, but he despised being late in the morning. Being late in the morning meant being late with breakfast, and being late with breakfast meant Luffy following him around his kitchen (which was a whole new level of hatred in itself) and whining at his elbow things like 'Sanji, where's breakfast?', 'Sanji, I'm STARVING because I haven't eaten ALL NIGHT', and 'Sanji, I'm going to die if I don't get meat right now!'.

So, in order to shut his idiot captain up, he would have to rush the food out onto the table, and the meal would lose all of its presentation, and that would not doubt lower his standing in Nami-san and Robin-chan's lovely captivating eyes.

"Oi, Cook."

Sanji promptly dropped the large copper bowl that he had snatched up almost immediately upon his hasty entrance into the kitchen. He spun around while sucking in a large gasp of air back into his startled lungs.

"What the HELL are you doing here, asshole?" he demanded as he faced the swordsman who was slouched casually in a chair in the still dark corner of the kitchen.

"Sitting."

"What? Sitting? You have to do that here?"

Zoro stayed uncharacteristically calm as Sanji shouted at him, and that only made the cook angrier. The green-haired man kept his eyes on Sanji as he carelessly gestured around.

"There are chairs here."

Sanji knew that he was just wasting even more time fooling around with the moss-brained moron, so he bit back another angry retort and bent down to pick up the dropped bowl. When he straightened back up, he noticed that Zoro was still staring at him. The blonde found it rather unnerving.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" he demanded.

"Nothing, really. I was just thinking."

There was a long pause.

"You can close your mouth, you bastard cook!"

Sanji's smirk was a far cry from an apology as he leaned his hip against the counter, deciding to enjoy the show now that he finally managed to bait a normal reaction from the other man.

"Sorry, I'm just not use to seeing you actually trying to use your shitty brains, asshole. It caught me off guard."

His casual stance tensed slightly as he prepared himself in case the other man attacked. But the violence never came, and Sanji was perplexed to observe that the calm considering expression remained fixed on the other man's face.

"You have a nasty mouth, Cook."

"So? The fuck you care?"

"I don't. I was just commenting."

Zoro stared at him for a moment before adding,

" It doesn't look that way, you know."

Sanji looked at him in confusion.

"My mouth?"

Zoro rolled his eyes.

"Yes, asshole. Your mouth."

"Wh-uh, what the–."

Now it was Zoro's turn to smirk as the chef floundered for the words to respond to the ridiculous statement, which only pissed Sanji off more. If there was one thing in life that Sanji wouldn't stand for, it was letting the green-haired idiot get the best of him. To hide his growing discomfort, he pulled his cigarettes from out of his breast pocket, and lit a stick. After taking a long drag, Sanji glared at the other man who's eyes were still fixed on him with annoying intensity.

"So, what does my mouth look like, asshole?" he challenged, not knowing what else to do.

The smirk faded but the dark eyes never left his face. After about a minute of twisting silence, the cook finally gave in and turned around, away from the asshole and his weird unsettling mood, and cursed himself up and down as he felt heat touch his face.

"I have to make breakfast. Get the fuck out."

He was feeling so out of sorts from the odd tones of the conversation, that he barely jumped when an insistent hand pulled at his elbow. His eyes widened in question and ill ease when the swordsman tugged him around to stand them chest to chest. Zoro's hip bumping his own finally broke him out of his startled trance, and he put his hands against the other man's shoulders to shove him away.

All action stopped when Zoro reached out and plucked the still burning cigarette from between his lips. Traces of smoke curled faintly from the corner of his mouth when Zoro muttered, "Just..." and nothing else before kissing him.

Light pressure, enough to stun him, and then a curious tongue dragging across his lower lip. It was over as quickly as it had started, and the swordsman took a step back, eyeing him carefully.

There was no way for Sanji to tell, not as his mind sputtered and tripped, how long he stood there just gaping at the other man.

"You look like an idiot, you stupid cook."

That snapped him out of his shock just enough for him to close his slack mouth. The first coherent response that popped in his head was 'Well you ARE an idiot!', but he didn't say that, and he felt as if he should attack the other man over what had just happened, but his feet didn't move and the rage wouldn't come.

So instead he said, "I'm not a girl." and it sounded weak and stupid even to him.

Zoro finally stopped looking at him, and turned to the side. He shook his head and smiled, but there was no humor touching the dark eyes.

"Yeah. No fucking kidding."

The sun had just broken over the eastern horizon, and yellow strings of light were beginning to zig zag their way into the tense atmosphere of the kitchen.

"Get out."

Sanji hardly realized that he was the one who had spoken as his voice sounded peculiar and distant to his ear. And as strange as the entire morning had been, it was the sight of Zoro quietly turning and doing as he was told that finally drew all strength from the cook's body, and dumped him numbly into a nearby chair.

TBC