Due to Zoro being a wanted criminal in Wano, Kinemon decides to pick up Luffy, Sanji and the others on their way from Whole Cake Island to Wano.
Sanji is happy to be with his nakama once again, but a certain swordsman behaves quite strangely, even for a stupid algae. Thereon, the cook alongside the crew come to learn things about their first mate they never anticipated - for better or for worse.
This story is based on a fantheory concerning Zoro's left eye. For the sake of the story, I altered the events after Whole Cake Island.
Spoilers for Whole Cake Island and Wano Arc.
Regarding the first mate of the Strawhat Pirates, one might easily come to think of him as a lazy person with him appearing to be sleeping all day. Still, even though Sanji would let this accusation slip to taunt the swordsman into a fight every so often, the cook would never come to believe this was the truth.
Indeed, Roronoa Zoro was a simple man, but a man of strict self discipline. After his return from Whole Cake Island and the reunion with the crew, Sanji came to notice this even more. Reluctantly he had to admit that the encounter with his blood-relatives stirred him up more than he had anticipated and sleeping through the night undisturbed became a rare gift. While lying awake after his recurring nightmares, the blond noticed the other man to be notorious to enter their sleeping quarters at 4am. In spite of this late bedtime, Zoro would get up at 7am, just as Chopper and Nami.
Sanji always considered himself to be someone not needing a huge amount of sleep, spending an average amount of 5 hours in bed, just as Luffy and Brook. But 3 hours per night seemed to be a whole different level – then again, the swordsman had a lot of naps during the day, didn't he? Thinking about it thoroughly, the naps of the swordsman weren't all that random. After getting up, he trained, ate when Franky would eventually get up – at least when the Cyborg was around and not already staying in Wano like he was now – had a nap, trained again, had lunch, napped again, trained some more, ate dinner with the whole crew, had another nap and would resume training until it was time for his part of night-watch.
Sanji furrowed his curled brows; essentially, Zoro's days consisted of training, eating, sleeping and humongous amounts of more training. Sure, the mosshead would always find time to care for his swords or to pay patient attention to Chopper, Luffy or other members of there crew. Furthermore, Sanji couldn't always tell the difference between Zoro meditating or Zoro sleeping. All in all, the cook couldn't help to wonder how the tenacious bastard of an algae managed to keep up with this rough schedule.
Sanji's gaze narrowed in on the target of his chain of thought. It was afternoon and Zoro once again drilled himself through kata after kata, pumping ridiculous amounts of weights. Maybe Sanji wouldn't bat an eye on the behavior of their first mate, but now it was effecting himself. Much to the cook's discontent, ever since he returned from Whole Cake Island, the damn marimo seemed to disregard Sanji apart from the occasional grunts the green haired man would give for an answer. It had been quite the surprise in the first place when they encountered their swordsman alongside Kinemon after leaving Big Mom's territory, since they were supposed to start preparations in the isolated kingdom that was Wano. But apparently Zorojuro was a wanted criminal in Wano now and Kinemon couldn't show his face in the first place, so they decided to use Luffy's vivre card to pick them up and help with entering Wano.
Nevertheless, Sanji was beginning to feel rather agitated with Zoro not willing to participate in any kind of interaction with him. No fighting, no bickering, not even a single word on Sanji's choice to follow Big Mom's shady invitation or the aftermath thereof. Glaring over at the swordsman, Sanji decided he have had enough and he needed, he craved a good brawl.
Stalking towards the swordsman who was now executing strike after strike with an enormous weight attached to an iron bar, the blond gradually increased the pace of his strides for one, two, three steps before pushing himself of the ground and pivoting in a semicircular motion, making the base of his heel connect with the swordsman's weight in perfect timing with it reaching the peek of it's ascent. Sanji couldn't help the smugness appearing on his face, as he noticed the swordsman's strained grunt as he tried to prevent the weight from dropping lower due to the sheer force of Sanji's kick.
Zoro obviously must have sensed Sanji's charge, since the weight only dropped by a few centimeters before Sanji was hurled high up again; the cook using the momentum to let his body shift into an elegant twist, landing in front of the swordsman. The blond was absolutely flabbergasted when his rival just resumed his workout without so much as looking at him. At this point, it was quite possible that a vein on Sanji's temple might pop.
"Oi, shithead! What you think you're doin'?", the cook snapped.
"Training, cook. Thought so much was obvious", retorted the target of Sanji's dismay without any spike to it, contributing into making Sanji even more furious.
"Got a problem with me, marimo?", Sanji spat back.
At that, Zoro raised the eyebrow above his scarred eye mockingly; an expression that seemed somewhat unsettling to Sanji.
"It was you who attacked me, ain't it?", countered the green haired man boastfully.
"Don't be so full of your self, moss-for-brains! You know damn well what I mean! Ever since I returned, you said anything to be, you dodge every fight – Why? Just get out what you want to say!", the cook blurted out.
To Sanji's utterly shock, Zoro's expression suddenly softened, even going so far as to show a hint of a smirk.
"Good you're home, curly", Sanji registered with bewilderment, while Zoro strode past him, making his way inside.
xxxxx
Hello and thank you for making it this far!
Since this is my first story and I'm new to his platform, I'd like to say that I'm very happy for every question, comment or critique you would like to offer.
Please note that English is not my first language, so I gladly take advice for improvement :)
