Requiem for Trust Chapter 1
Melted chocolate is afraid of two things: heat and moisture.
Zoro recites Robin's tips in his mind as he quickly stirs the chocolate chips in the cook's double boiler. The strawberries are washed and dried three times over and laid out on a piece of paper towel within his reach. It is not that hard. He has gone over the procedure at least ten times in his head. Execution shouldn't be a problem.
He has picked the simplest dessert recipe he could find, purposely avoiding anything that demands the use of the cook's precious knives. The cook makes no exceptions when it comes to endlessly fussing over his knives being touched by anyone but their owner, even if it's used for a Valentine's Day surprise.
Though it shouldn't be a surprise anymore. It has more or less become a tradition. For just one day a year, Zoro would put away his intense dislike of sweets and consumerized holidays and give his favourite cook the utmost selfless gift of a handmade dessert. Of course the quality wouldn't be anywhere close to Sanji's standards, but he knows just how much the cook appreciates the effort from that first look of pure adoration, moments before a multitude of sarcastic compliments come pouring out of those smoke-filled lips every year. The cook loves it when Zoro makes horrible sweets for him on Valentine's Day. There's no doubt about it.
His phone vibrates. Zoro carefully removes the pot of half melted chocolate from the boiler and set it aside before digging a hand into his pant pocket. It's a message from an unknown number.
Hi Zoro, my name is Pudding. It says.
A phishing scam? He wonders where these bastards get his contact. It's not like he ever signs up for suspicious looking advertisements with his phone number. He's about to get back to the cooling chocolate chips when a familiar name flashes across the screen along with another buzz.
Sanji just told me today... The notification says, cutting off the rest of the message. Curious, Zoro taps to open the message.
Sanji just told me today about your obsession with swords. I'm reading a book about swords lately, and I think you might find it interesting. It's called -
His obsession, Zoro scoffs. Sounds like the shit cook alright. Not like he ever called the blond's passion for cooking an obsession. But seriously, who is this complete stranger who thinks it's a good idea to chat him up on swords just because they both know the blond? Zoro scrolls back to look for a name.
Pudding.
The name jogs the swordsman's memories. There was a girl with that name, a girl the cook used to date long before he ended up with Zoro, at least according to the cook himself, who is supposed to be at work until after dinner rush tonight.
Zoro knows that the cook has the tendency to chat up any female customers if he happens to be filling in for one of the servers, and if the customer happens to be an ex-girlfriend, it's highly likely that the blond would take a short break to join her at the table for a bit of catching up. However, instinct tells him that this woman is trying to imply something entirely different. It feels as if she is deliberately stressing the word "today", Valentine's Day. Zoro decides to ask the blond about it later before putting the pot of chocolate back on the boiler.
It's not that he suspects Sanji of being unfaithful in any way. The cook is addicted to the type of romance that appears only in movies and love songs, but he can be outright oblivious when it comes to real life situations. Early in their relationship one day, Zoro received a phone call from the blond close to midnight, two hours after he got off his dinner shift, asking if the swordsman needs anything that night because he was about to spend the night at a "friend's" place. When met with Zoro's obvious confusion, this was Sanji's response.
"I said, it's Viola-chan, the regular customer I told you about. I gave her a ride home, and now she asked me to join her for a drink in her apartment so I can't drive afterwards when I'm drunk. She said I can stay over for the night because her boyfriend is out of town. Do you need me? If you do I'll tell her I can't today."
The only reason Zoro even bothered to ask him about it instead of ending the relationship that day was because he was clueless enough to call the swordsman about it. After a few rounds of questioning, it was clear that the cook honestly thought it was an innocent drinking get-together, and the fact that the boyfriend was out of town just meant there was an extra bed for him to sleep in.
"She could've sold you into slavery, and you'd still be thanking her for the invite." Zoro told him after the fact, but to this day, the blond still defends the shady woman. This "Pudding" might just be another fruit fly taking advantage of Sanji's trusting nature. Either way, he needs to learn some boundaries.
The smell of burning snaps Zoro's attention back at the double boiler. Steam is shooting out from all sides along the crack between the two pots, raining a thin layer of mist over the upper pot. The swordsman grabs a spoon and examines the thick lumpy chocolate paste. It's not at all what it's supposed to look like, but food shouldn't be wasted. Zoro shrugs and dumps the strawberries into the pot.
"Wow, shit-covered strawberries. How thoughtful!" Sanji pokes the ragged surface of one of the swordsman's creations with a toothpick. "And burnt too. How did you manage to do that with a double boiler? Such a talent." He mocks, but Zoro's trained eyes can easily pick out the fondness in his smug grin as he takes the first bite.
"Happy Valentine's Day to you too, Shit Cook." Zoro rolls his eyes at the blond, earning himself a kiss with the taste of cigarette and burnt chocolate.
"Don't be so hasty, Marimo. Of course I prepared something for you too." The blond whispers all too seductively in his ear before disappearing into the shower.
Zoro eyes the bathroom door, left slightly ajar as a clear invitation, with the cook's undressing shadow spilling through the crack. He takes a step forward, and the phone on the table vibrates just as the cook turns on the water. Zoro glances at the phone, trying to determine if it's urgent enough to interrupt a good long Valentine's Day shower, only to find that particular name dancing across the screen.
INCOMING CALL: PUDDING.
Zoro glares at the phone, fighting the urge to answer the call. He tries to stop the vibration through his will power alone, and it seems to have worked after a few long seconds. Then come two short buzzes, and two new lines pop up on the screen.
You're off work, right?
Home already?
A casual tone with no mention of intentions, as if the messages are... expected, or dare he say... routine? Zoro picks up the phone and taps to enter the password.
1111, Zoro's birthday. It was Sanji's idea when they started this relationship that they set their phone passwords to each other's birthdays so that they can look through each other's phones at any time. No secrets, but no tampering. The first brick in their great wall of trust. Zoro rarely feels the need to use this provision, although he's plenty familiar with Sanji's phone, having been asked by the preoccupied cook to look through the message history and read out the takeout addresses or reservation times whenever he drops by the Baratie. Today is a little different though.
He opens the message history to find it empty except for the two just now.
"Leaving me in there alone just to spy on me out here, hmm?" The blond snakes a pair of damp hands around his chest from the back. Still wet strands of hair tickle the back of the swordsman's neck as the blond rests his stubbled chin on Zoro's shoulder.
"You've got a missed call and messages," Zoro hands him the phone, "and... this." He digs out his own phone to bring up his earlier messages from the same sender.
Zoro turns to study the cook as the man, still wrapped in a bath towel, reads through the few short messages. There's a split second of surprise, a slight pinch of confusion, and a low exhale of frustration. Sanji puts both phones down on the table and fishes out his cigarettes and lighter from the jacket by the door. He lights one, wordlessly meets Zoro's gaze, and seems to be taking his time considering how to start the explanation. The swordsman waits.
"Pudding, the ex I told you about." Sanji starts slowly, his visible blue eye watching the swordsman for reactions. "Are you... worried?" He pulls on a faint teasing smirk, but Zoro can tell it's a genuine question.
"Should I be?"
"She's on the other side of the globe, if that makes you feel better."
Zoro doesn't consider himself to be the jealous type. Sanji is a free spirit, and that's part of what Zoro loves about him. All he asks is for boundaries and principles to be kept. The cook struggles with the idea of boundaries at times, but they make it work because he understands principles just as well as the swordsman.
Principles, like honesty and trust, two sides of the same coin.
"The other side of the globe?"
"Yeah, she went back to Whole Cake Island about a year ago, to help out in her family business."
"And she knows when you get off work." It's a question phrased as a statement.
The blond averts his gaze and gets busy sucking on his cancer stick, a clear sign that he's nervous, like a child anticipating a scolding after getting into trouble. For a moment Zoro tries to remember when this kind of dynamic started, when Sanji started to feel the need to yield to the swordsman's demands in order to sustain the relationship. Zoro would never demand anything of the cook that they haven't already agreed on, and the idiot should know this by now.
"I... message her sometimes when I finish a shift to chat about the day, you know, when you're not picking up my calls."
Zoro stays quiet for a minute, trying to parse the new information. He does have a habit of missing the cook's calls when he sets his phone on silent for his meditation sessions and forgets to turn the volume back on. It's also true that Sanji is the type that absolutely needs to talk it out with someone to process the shit that happens during the day. His fault, he makes a mental note.
"I-I'll block and delete her if you want."
"You know I wouldn't ask you to do that."
"But if it'll make you happy-"
"I'm not unhappy. I was just curious about stuff," Zoro tries to sound as nonchalant as possible to calm the flustered blond, "like why an ex of yours would want to message me on Valentine's Day, or... why your message history is empty even though you chat with her regularly."
"... I cleared her history... because there was some stuff I didn't want you to see." Sanji says in a near whisper, biting his trembling lower lip and keeping his blue eye glued to the table.
Years later, when all of this becomes a silly story of the past, Zoro will often wonder that if the blond had made up some stupid lie about this one small detail, something along the lines of "My finger slipped and pressed the delete button," maybe the swordsman would've believed him without a shadow of a doubt, and maybe they would've carried on with their Valentine's Day celebration as planned. Years later, Zoro will often wonder if it was ironically the cook's honesty that made the first dent in their trust.
But in that moment, all Zoro can hear is the sound of their wall of trust tumbling to the ground. Suddenly he's no longer curious about the whats or the whys or the hows or the whens. Suddenly he doesn't want to be on the receiving end of more information. Suddenly he finds himself drained of energy to do anything other than to be alone with his thoughts.
Alone, so he can mourn the death of their trust.
He grabs his keys and heads to the door.
"Zoro!" He hears Sanji's panicked voice.
"I'll be back." He tries to reassure the man. "I just need some time alone."
"You'll get lost! At least take your phone with you!"
"That's the point." He closes the door behind him and lets his feet take him wherever they want.
Lost is not a bad place to go to be alone.
A/N:
Please let me know if you can help me fix the part in future tense to make it sound less weird. I write in present tense most of the time because I can't figure out how layering works with past and perfect and hypothetical past tenses and the passive voice, let alone adding future into the mix. XP
This might get a part 2 at most if I get to it. Won't be a long story.