Zoro was more than surprised that Sanji was willing to stay on the ship with him. Even lustless-Sanji always found an excuse to be with the women or in town with new women to praise. Shore time was not a thing easily shrugged off by anyone either. Weeks at sea on their tiny ship made them itchy to move about, even if the island itself was a boring place, he would have not blamed any one of them for needing to stretch their limbs. Zoro himself was a little sick of being on the Merry, even if his allergies were worse on the island, he itched to go ashore again. So for Sanji to volunteer to stay for him just so he could feed again was strangely sweet of him; even if it was for the whole crew's benefit in the end.
The ship definitely was not as entertaining as it was with the rest of the crew. Everyone visited and even partook in a few meals, but eventually land drew them back and it was just Zoro and Sanji on the ship. Usopp became Sanji's errand boy for the most part when ever Sanji realized he needed something, including restocking booze and fresh foods. Zoro gratefully passed the time with some of the alcohol. At least it made the time go by faster and made the company much more pleasant to be around. Not that Sanji had been a particular pain since they started their little routine of locking lips after dinner. Actually, Sanji had been downright tolerable; temperate in both mood and language. Maybe it was because Sanji was less lustful as of late.
With everyone else being off the ship, they spent the majority of the time together. Sometimes Zoro would sit on deck and Sanji would join him. They could banter a little and usually ended up talking about that happened at previous islands or what would be the next island. Or They could sit in the galley and speak of nothing, which was just as comfortable. Sanji was definitely less irritating with the women ashore.
Sanji constantly kept a hot pot of mint tea to help with his damn allergies, so combined with Chopper's medicine he didn't suffer completely though the whole ordeal. What Zoro did have to deal with was small mantras that would cycle in the back of his mind: 'Hungry', 'Energy', 'Empty', 'Feed'. It was sort of pitiful, like when Luffy pined for meat at Sanji's feet between lunch and dinner. Pitiful but persistent. It distracted him from any simple activity and cut though any hopes of meditating. It often butted in when Sanji was talking nonsense about something.
Zoro's focus was completely shot on their 5th day docked at the island and even with Chopper's medication, it wasn't the pollen making a throbbing headache.
"Oi," Sanji nudged his foot in Zoro's thigh as he sat on deck. Zoro glanced up and was handed a fresh cup of tea. Zoro took it without a word and set it on the deck next to him. "Never thought I'd be saying this, but maybe you should sleep."
"I'm not tired," Zoro replied easily enough. He slept fine and he napped as well, but that was not the source of his wandering mind. The drum beat of hunger reached him even then and he was often tempted to take physical energy from the sleeping town. He was caught between giving in and pushing down the urge. That had always been dangerous territory. Lust was an energy that was meant to be spent but energy from the body was for everything to function correctly. How much would he be able to take before someone got sick? It weakened the immune system, opened a body to diseases, and invited viruses to breed. There was no gauge to check if he dipped too far and it did not fill him as lust did. It wasn't even the knowledge that he would make people sick that really stopped him from doing it but there was an instinct that if he did it would only give more strength to that persistent voice that nagged him.
Fingers snapped in his face and Zoro blinked back to attention as Sanji said, "I said, 'hey, your ear looks weird'. Face too for that matter."
"Eh, that would be me turning into a demon," Zoro said with a long drawl. He already knew his teeth were sharper, his ears had ridges, and his nose was flatter to his face.
"So… I guess nothing's come back yet?" Sanji leaned against the railing next to where Zoro sat. Zoro shook his head. Sanji was still as lustless as he was when he decided to stay on the ship and they'd spent 3 nights together in the bunker. Something was stirring, Zoro could almost feel it with how his energy senses had heightened with the hunger, and that was much more than he could say for anyone else on the island. Maybe Sanji's body was trying to make energy, but it never rose with Sanji's thoughts; flat-lined before it could grow. It could be the pollen hampering Sanji's lust from coming back as quickly or even just the absence of the women from causing anything to interest him. Not that Robin and Nami didn't visit, but they weren't cramped in the ship with them all the time.
"Maybe tomorrow," Sanji said and Zoro heard a match get struck for Sanji to start a new cigarette. The sun was nearly to the horizon, telling them the 6th day was just another night's long wait. Sanji may have been lustless, but since hunger took up most of Zoro's head he was tempted to take his vibrant physical energy. It was not normally tempting and definitely not as good tasting as lust. Zoro would rather eat some old pervert's disgusting dream energy than eat physical energy. While lust could not really be defined by an earthly flavor, physical energy had a taste. It tasted like warm coppery blood. "Has Chopper said anything yet?" Zoro shook his head again.
"Nope. He said him and Robin had one more place to look in the library here," Zoro wasn't sure exactly what they were searching for but Chopper didn't look too sure himself. "That was two days ago though."
"Mm, maybe they're working on it," Sanji said. At least Sanji was optimistic about it. Zoro felt a finger on the shell of his ear and his head twisted away from it and he threw an annoyed look at Sanji. "You're ears look freaky."
"Well don't touch them, they're still my ears." Zoro rubbed the three pronounced ridges along his ear because the brush tickled some.
"Looks like a fin," Sanji commented with a teasing smile. "You might turn into some sort of fish demon looking thing. Maybe even a fishman."
"If I turn into a fishman I can still kick your ass," Zoro said even though he didn't exactly feel like a 'fishy' sort of demon. "Maybe a shark."
"Doesn't look like a shark." Sanji slid down on the railing to sit next to him. "I'd bet a barracuda with those fins you got going on." Zoro rubbed the flesh between the membranes of the ridges. They felt more leathery than fin-like, and there was only three defined ridges. Zoro's nose wrinkled because he couldn't imagine turning into a barracuda-demon. What would one even look like?
"I don't think I'm turning into a fish-demon." Zoro folded his arms. "I'd be a cooler looking demon. Maybe I'll grow horns and wings." Sanji scoffed and a laugh came from him, sounding nice to Zoro's ears.
"How boring," Sanji said. "I bet you'd want goat hooves and red skin too. Oh sorry, green skin to match you're hair."
Zoro scoffed. "Shut up." It was completely what he was thinking and Sanji wasn't allowed to mind read; all except the green skin, anyway. Maybe he'd look like an oni; that would be okay too. He leaned his chin in his hand and glanced at Sanji, who looked back with a softer expression than normal. Despite himself, Zoro thought the cook looked cute. He wasn't even sure what it was. Could have been the easy smile, but it was more in the half lidded eyes that seemed more affectionate than usual. "What?"
"Hm?" Sanji seemed to realize he was staring and he looked away. "Nothing." He pushed himself to his feet. "I'm going to make dinner." Zoro watched him disappear into the galley and he stayed on deck for a few minutes.
Energy, his mind reminded him and instinctively he wanted to go follow Sanji because that's what he normally did but Sanji didn't have it to spare. Feed. He took a deep breath and forced the persistent voice to shut the hell up. It still hummed there annoyingly and his headache throbbed
Zoro followed Sanji into the galley anyway after a while and found him with his jacket off and his sleeves already rolled to his elbows, cutting vegetables. Sanji looked up and frowned.
"I'm cooking," Sanji said firmly and it was Sanji's policy to kick people out when he was cooking; at least most of the time. It looked like Sanji was back to having a permanent annoyance towards him.
"I see that," Zoro said in return. If Sanji really wanted to kick him out, he'd have to put down his knife and do it himself. Zoro walked over and scoffed at what Sanji was cutting. "Carrots." And celery, but that wasn't the funny part.
"Shut up." Sanji's face was a nice rosy red. "If you're going to watch, do so silently." He went back to chopping with stoic ease. Measured cuts so precise it could be mistaken for sword work. Zoro did watch for a little bit. He watched Sanji operate in his comfort zone and completely ignore him.
Zoro sometimes wondered if he could get to Sanji after dinner and really taste him. Not through the short kisses they often exchanged. Sanji tasted good normally, so of course he wondered what Sanji's orgasm tasted like. Instead of draining Sanji, he could rev him up and show him how those dreams actually felt like. He would gladly partake in witnessing every shivering twitch Sanji made or sound from his lips. Zoro swallowed dryly and wondered if maybe that could break through the damn pollen that blew in from shore. He wondered if Sanji would let him.
"You can sit or something," Sanji told him with an uneasy look. "Don't just stand there looking at me like I'm the main course." Zoro realized he was zoning out again and he rubbed his head.
"I was just thinking," Zoro said after a moment and he moved closer, "there is something we haven't tried." Sanji tilted his head in mild confusion. Zoro laid his hands heavily on Sanji's slim waist and his lips descended on the warmth of Sanji's nape. He felt Sanji's body stiffen and go very still as he kissed to where the collar met neck. Sanji was very warm and inviting and didn't even turn to kick him.
The disappointing part was that Zoro did not feel the normal mouth watering spike of lust on Sanji's skin. There was hot flesh under his mouth and a pulse of strong physical energy just under the fair layer of skin. For the briefest of moments Zoro's head was filled with very clear and vivid images of sinking his sharp teeth into Sanji's neck to satisfy his hunger. Rivers of blood dripping down fair flesh; an embodiment of the energy he craved. He needed.Feed.
Zoro yanked himself back several steps from Sanji, clenching his teeth together sharply; they fell uniformly against each other even though they were much sharper now. Sanji stared at him, half turned from his spot more from being startled rather than a move to rebuff him. His face was red and he looked stunned and probably not fully aware that Zoro's jaw had been poised -for a moment- to tear out actual flesh. From his own nakama.
"Shit," he muttered and turned. He left the galley without another word, slamming the door behind him. He was in control, he reminded himself. In control. Zoro was in control. Not his damn hunger.
He climbed to the crows nest and ignored Sanji's calling for him not even a couple minutes later. He also ignored Sanji when he inevitably checked the crows next and demanded that he explain what the fuck just happened in the galley.
Zoro did not though. He would not be able to say clearly that he had the urge to eat the cook; and not in the way that could be fun. It wasn't him and he wouldn't do that. Explaining it would just make it real and he did not lie well, so he just didn't speak.
Eventually Sanji got to fed up with him, kicked him over the head and fumed as he descended back to the ship; saying things such as 'absolutely crazy demon-marimo' and other obscenities pertaining to Zoro.
Zoro just closed his eyes. He shoved down the drumming to continue what he'd envisioned in the galley, and steeled himself to wait out the night; and as many as it took for them to leave the damn island.
Somehow, Zoro drifted to sleep in the night. He decided that making someone sick was better than sinking his teeth into Sanji and attempting to become a cannibal. He went to town where all the dreams were mellow and calm. He went to the nearest one, deciding it wasn't important who it was as long as he took a little and moved on to the next person. The closest not-too-happy-and-not-too-sad dream would do, he decided and approached the white puff cloud.
That was solid as a steel door.
Zoro didn't have physical strength in the sleep-haze world. Nothing had ever stopped him from doing anything he wanted. The clouds normally allowed him in with as much resistance as fog. He pushed, he shoved, and hell, he even tried diving into it like he did the sea when he was trying to get Luffy back to land. He tried the next dream, and the next, each leaving him more frustrated and desperate than the last.
He almost cried out with enough frustration to wake himself up but he stopped as he caught a sense of something else. Someone else? At the edge of his sleep-vision, outside of Piety and the chastity bell was a creature on four legs, with ram horns and its gray fur was smudged with blue. He locked eyes with it for a moment but then it turned tail and ran out of sight; out of Zoro's boundary and into its own.
That time Zoro did awaken and he stood, looking out at the island, almost expecting to see the creature standing out on the cliff edge out looking back. It was not. The island was pitch black, save for the lights coming from Piety. Zoro slid down quickly from the crows nest to the deck and did not even check to see if Sanji was sleeping or still in the galley. He hopped the rocks to the island, sneezed once, and bypassed the row of chastity bell into the woods while holding his breath. His lungs burned now as he was near the plants; Chopper's medication or not.
He walked. He walked until the chastity bell stopped growing and there were only familiar, normal trees. His eyes stopped itching and he could breath regularly for the first time in days. He remembered vaguely how nice it was to be on land. He didn't find any other beings in the forest after a long time so he sat at the base of a tree and decided that if he could sleep he might run into it again. It was better than being stuck at the ship waiting to lose his mind.
He really should have been more aware of the fact that he was entering into something else's territory.