Zoro yanked his sword out of Sanji's hand, the rattling still rang in his ears and anger consumed him for a whirlwind of a moment as he checked to make sure Wado Ichimochi wasn't damaged by the damn cook swinging it around. How Sanji had gotten a hold of it was a mystery but he assured himself that he'd never let it happen again.

"You-you talked," Sanji said, as though genuinely surprised.

"Of course I talk," Zoro said and he wasn't sure what Sanji looked so relieved about. He'd just... Zoro blinked and took a moment to collect himself as he held his sword in his hands. His memories were a wash of fog. He couldn't remember anything that was just happening or why Sanji was there in the first place. The last thing he remembered was defending himself against some sort of wolf-ram thing and he'd come out more injured than he planned. In fact, he didn't remember anything after it had attempted to take a bite out of him. The scent of his own blood was the last thing he really remembered before everything went dark.

Zoro looked at Sanji and oh god. Zoro's breath hitched slightly and his mouth watered. Sanji smelled ripe with energy and Zoro pressed the back of his hand to his nose. "Wh-when the hell did you get your energy back?"

"You... don't remember anything?" Sanji asked, that curly brow lifting.

"Remember what?" Zoro asked. Sanji just took a step back and with both hands, gestured to Zoro from head to toe. Zoro looked down at himself and he held his breath. His feet were… paws. His body was covered in black and grey fur with green stripes. He had a... tail, yep. Claws and his fingers looked half way between paw and normal. Bat wings... He paused and then slid Wado Ichimochi from its sheath to see his reflection in the blade and see his face. Weird ear wing things, deadly looking teeth, and he was disappointed that he didn't have any horns. He nodded in slight approval and slid Wado Ichimochi back into the sheath. "I do look cool as a demon," he decided, but he wondered something. "Why am I naked?"

"Can you at least act surprised," Sanji sounded annoyed with him and stared at him with a slight glare.

Zoro assessed himself. He didn't feel as hungry as he'd been last time he remembered. He was hungry though, in both manners. He felt like he'd been fighting recently with the way his muscles were tight and in need of a nap. He looked around and saw the rest of his clothes, as well as Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri. He gathered his swords first and made sure they were alright. He was annoyed by the scuff marks on the tips of the sheaths, but other than that the katana themselves were undamaged. Sanji pulled out a cigarette and leaned against a tree to start smoking, but didn't start offering an explanation of the past few hours. Zoro found his haramaki and it went on okay but looking at his pants and matching them to his waist, they didn't look very comfortable. They looked too small and his thighs were too thick with muscle and fur. Instead he tossed them over his shoulder and glanced back at Sanji, who observed him carefully.

"What?" Zoro asked. "Quit staring at me."

"I'm just making sure you're you. Don't hack up a hairball over it." Sanji blew out a long stream of smoke. "Let's just go back to the Merry. I'm hungry and I'm sure you are too."

Since Sanji mentioned it, Zoro was feeling hungry, for more than energy for once. He took a couple steps and stopped, hackles rising. He got a distant memory of a burning sensation as well as his allergies filling his head.

"I can't. The chastity bells are growing there," Zoro said.

"What? Chopper has medication for that," Sanji said easily. "You were doing fine earlier." Zoro's nose wrinkled.

"Fine?" Zoro nearly spat the word. "I was not doing fine. I haven't been able to breathe normally for a week. And last time we got close I thought my lungs were on fire."

Sanji blinked at him. "I thought you didn't remember anything." Zoro blinked and thought over that bit of information. He didn't exactly remember everything that happened at once, but he distinctly remembered the last time he smelled chastity bell it completely derailed him from following Sanji's alluring scent. Speaking of, he also knew Sanji was a walking beacon of sexual energy for any other cambion in the area. Some primal logic melded into his consciousness, as though filtered by incubi instinct.

"I guess I can a little." Zoro reattached his swords to his haramaki, having only a little difficulty with it because his fingers weren't as flexible as normal. "Besides if you go into town, I know you'll lose that energy." It seemed such a waste since Sanji was over flowing with it.

"So what? You're hungry again?" Sanji asked indignantly.

"Yes, I'm hungry again." Zoro copied Sanji's ridiculous tone and folded his arms over his chest. "It's been over a week."

"Try yesterday." Sanji snapped, looking impatient and flustered at the same time.

Zoro blinked. "Yesterday?"

"Are you part parrot now? Stop repeating me. Yes, yesterday," Sanji said. Zoro frowned because he didn't remember drawing energy from Sanji. Though that would explain why he wasn't ravenously energy hungry at the moment.

"How did that happen?" Zoro asked and he watched the color in Sanji's face rise.

"We're not talking about it," Sanji said firmly, which only drew Zoro's curiosity.

Zoro looked down at himself and scratched his collarbone, which had a mass of hair he hadn't quite been expecting. "Did I look like this?"

"NOT talking about it," Sanji said in a louder voice and huffed, "and you're definitely not taking more energy again until you look more human."

"So then we're not going back to the Merry because I'll start starving again," Zoro stated.

Sanji drew out a bottle, which had a few red pills in the glass bottle. They rattled around innocently. "Chopper and the lovely Robin found something to help with that, so you won't starve."

"Pills?"

"A cur…" Sanji cleared his throat. "A vitamin. It's an aphrodisiac, if you must know. If I just run back to the ship…" He paused, giving a hard stare at Zoro, suddenly sounding defeated. "You'll wander off and get lost again."

"I wasn't lost," Zoro said sharply.

"You're always lost." Sanji told him. "I don't want you getting lost again and I sure as hell don't want you to turn back into a demon." Zoro looked down at himself because he was pretty sure he still looked pretty demon-like; tiger-like. "Don't bust your brain thinking about it. You just weren't you and I don't want to have to deal with it again."

"What was I like?" Zoro asked.

"You were…" Sanji stopped, thinking it over. Finally he smiled a little devilishly and said, "You wanted your belly rubbed."

Zoro felt his face burn under the fur, startled. "W-what? Bullshit."

"The truth hurts," Sanji said, holding his cigarette close to his lips. "You were as tame as a pussy-cat."

"Fuck you," Zoro snapped, anger burning because there was no way he'd ever roll over for a belly rub from anyone. Especially Sanji.

Sanji chortled. "Aw, is the kitty-cat angry? Does he want another belly wub?" Sanji teased between laughter.

Zoro adjusted his hand on Wado Ichimochi's handle, a rumble coming from him that wasn't quite human but it expressed his anger nicely so he didn't mind it. "You want to fight, cook?" Sanji chuckled behind a hand.

"Don't get your tail into a twist, tiger-bat." Sanji placed his cigarette in his mouth and held his hands, fingers spread, on each side of his head. "Your ears." Zoro paused and touched his ears, finding them propped open in a half cocked way and pressed close to his head. They mellowed slightly at their mention. They were going to take some getting used to. "So what, is that your demon's cue for being embarrassed?"

"Shut up, stupid cook," Zoro said quickly. He really hoped he didn't do something stupid like roll over for a belly rub. "We'll hunt something down, you can do your job, and we'll be fed."

"That's fine, I didn't want to eat a bear-bull anyway," Sanji said.

Zoro blinked, confused. "Bear-bull?"

Sanji showed him the bear-bull and Zoro though perhaps eating it would be something like cannibalism if it really was another cambion. Plus it was still shallowly breathing so it wasn't as though it was just dead meat.

They moved away and into the forest, eventually Zoro tracked down a wild boar and with a quick hack of two swords it was down. They started a fire and Zoro fashioned sticks into usable spit and holders while Sanji walked off to get firewood and some natural spices to flavor the meat. Sanji told him to not start eating the meat raw before he came back and Zoro scoffed because he was sure Sanji was joking. Though while he was sitting there he did occasionally think about sinking his new teeth into the meat. But even with little supplies, Sanji's cooking was generally something worth waiting for, so he just prepped pieces of the pig for roasting.

When Sanji returned, a couple slabs of meat were decorated in an array of herbs and the fire stoked with several more to smoke the food. The silent work was a short reprieve, but then they had to wait for it to cook.

"You don't seem to be the only cambion here," Sanji mentioned as he lit a new cigarette with the light of the fire. He sat haphazardly, one arm wrapped around his knee. "Not if the weird combinations of human-animals here is anything to go by."

Zoro nodded. He leaned up against a tree that was nearest to the fire. He sat cross legged and the tree settled fine between his shoulder blades; where his new wings were. The wings didn't seem particularly useful except for fanning the flames as he had started the fire. They couldn't lift him, which he experimented with while Sanji had been gone. "I found one while I was sleeping; in the dream world. Sort of how I wound up in this forest. It was a blue wolf-sheep-thing."

"Cheh, figures that's how you got lost," Sanji muttered and he savored his cigarette smoke before he blew it out.

"Shut up," Zoro said, annoyance rearing up. It wasn't his fault the real world didn't work like dreams. He didn't want to mention that a wound that would normally wouldn't phase him dragged him into unconsciousness and the hungry voice inside reared up to take over.

"I think I ran into the same thing before you popped up," Sanji continued. "He didn't try to eat me. Wasn't even really that aggressive. Well, not until you sunk your claws into him."

Zoro could picture the wolf-ram clearly and some of that primal logic leaked back into his mind. "It was hungry, like me. Probably wanted to try to seduce you before it tried to eat you." Sanji was quiet a moment, a grimace on his face.

"That explains a few things," he muttered. "Guess the bear-bull didn't care to wait."

"In theory, if it ate you, it would have gotten all of your energy that way." Zoro said. Even in the dimming light of the sky, Zoro could tell the color drained from Sanji's face at the thought.

"It's creepy that you know that," Sanji said and lifted his head to blow smoke into the wind, casually exposing his throat. "At least you didn't try to eat me." Zoro watched Sanji for a bit but didn't mention that he nearly had on the ship. He didn't feel that extreme hunger anymore but he felt some guilt for nearly giving in. That being thought, his demon self hadn't tried to eat Sanji?

"Does that mean… I seduced you?" Zoro asked. Sanji's throat bobbed and his head lowered, but he didn't meet Zoro's eye. And if that wasn't enough, he felt Sanji's lust climb steadily. It felt like forever since he felt the comforting spike of lust while talking to the cook. Even though this was more like a rolling wave, differing from the usual sharp incline and decline. It rose slower and lingered longer than most. Zoro could only guess at that point that Sanji's reluctant emotion was tampering with his lust or because it wasn't just a fantasy; something physical had happened.

"I don't want to talk about it," Sanji said firmly.

Some dark ideas crossed Zoro's mind and it took a moment for him to gather his wits. He still didn't know exactly what he did as a demon so he could only assume the worst. His fingers gripped the fur on his thigh and he could feel his strange wing ears lower as an uncertain shame crossed him. "Did I… force myself on you?" He wanted to think even his demon side was above the act, especially when it came to his nakama, but he couldn't be sure.

Sanji stared at him a moment, looking surprised, but he answered quickly, "No. No it wasn't… exactly like that." He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "You didn't rape me or anything so don't start thinking that. As if you could. You just, uh…" Sanji's face was turning redder each time he tried to give a detail, but his throat seemed unable to translate what happened. Finally he settled on, "I knew you were hungry, so I let you do what you needed to so you'd be fed. You didn't even… get hard or anything."

Zoro relaxed slightly, relieved that he didn't force Sanji into anything. Sanji still didn't look comfortable about it though. Zoro could only assume he'd been too focused on feeding to do anything else, much less take pleasure in whatever they did. So if he didn't just kiss Sanji, then he'd… encouraged the cook to orgasm? It was a good source of sexual energy. Zoro felt… oddly angry that he couldn't remember it. Maybe even a bit jealous of himself because he had been wanting to taste that for several months now and when he apparently did sample it he couldn't even remember? He never assumed Sanji would be okay with it. Sure he offered sex to Sanji before, but he knew the cook would never take him up on it.

Sanji was equally quiet for a long while and he burned through his cigarette, tossing the last bit into the fire and watching it burn. Sanji's lust hadn't diminished since being brought up and there was that tension that Zoro remembered from weeks ago. It was a mellow throb but still radiating.

"Your energy is just going to attract more cambion in the night," Zoro mentioned.

"I'll just have to beat in more heads then," Sanji said casually and leaned over the fire to turn the spit and roast the other side of the flanks of meat.

"We'd get more sleep if you just let me take it," Zoro said.

Sanji straightened up more as he sat back down and he folded his arms. "No."

"What do you mean 'No'." Zoro frowned.

"No. I've already told you, not until you look more human," Sanji said. "Especially with those freaking teeth you have." Zoro grumbled, but it was about as good as arguing with Sanji about his dreams. "Besides, you ate yesterday."

"It's not like I remember eating yesterday," Zoro muttered.

"Well you did. And yesterday you also looked more human. So maybe since you've got your mind back, you'll start to look more human tomorrow," Sanji said.

"Fine, but I'm not protecting your ass all night," Zoro said

"I never asked you too, marimo-cat." Sanji looked annoyed which only pleased Zoro. Though the marimo-cat comment equally annoyed Zoro.

Before he could retort on the subject, he heard the rustling of the forest, as though someone was approaching. His ears opened to listen carefully and he sat in a crouching position, his hand resting on his swords. Sanji stood and faced the same direction he was but it was maybe 2 seconds later did the noise become loud enough for him to really hear because that's when leaned back and braced up for another fight.

"Meat~" A pitiful voice said just before Luffy came through the trees. Both Zoro and Sanji dropped their guard, between annoyance and relief. Luffy was holding his hat to his head and his face lit up with a huge smile as he saw them. He had a backpack, presumably the one he'd left with Sanji's lunch box. "Sanji! Man I'm glad to see you. I'm hungry!"

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know." Sanji sat back down at the fire. "There's plenty of boar here for you too."

"Yes!" Luffy jogged over to the fire and then stared at Zoro for a long moment, distracted from his journey for meat. "A cat… bat-cat." Zoro rolled his eyes.

"It's me, Luffy."

"Whoa! It talks!" Luffy jumped, eyes wide. "And it sounds just like Zoro!"

"That is Zoro," Sanji assured him and at least Sanji looked amused when Luffy started poking Zoro in the ear. It was much less amusing for Zoro and he batted away Luffy's finger. That didn't exactly detour Luffy as it moved him on to other areas.

"It's so weird!" Luffy said excitedly and Zoro endured only so much poking before he got their captain in a head lock.

"So where have you been for the past week?" Sanji asked about the time that Zoro released Luffy from the head lock. Luffy had proceeded to drool over the meat that still cooked on the fire and Sanji smacked his rubber arm away when he tried to grab one of them.

"I climbed the mountain," Luffy said, somber from being derailed from eating. "I got up there eventually… but I forgot a coat so it was really cold." Zoro shook his head. Of course Luffy forgot that. "But there were these really awesome people up there and they gave me one and they had good food." He paused and pulled off the backpack before pulling out a furred coat. He grinned as he stuffed it back into the pack. "They were also a lot of fun. They had some weird animals, but lots of singing and dancing!" He then pouted and poked his fingers together. "No one wanted to be a musician on the Going Merry though."

"We don't need a musician," Zoro grumbled but he went ignored by the captain.

"Anyway, it was way more fun than Piety," Luffy said. "So I thought I'd take everyone up there until the log post sets."

Sanji let out a long breath but then asked, "Did they have any chastity bell there?" Luffy shook his head.

"No, I haven't seen any of that since I went exploring," Luffy answered and looked back to the meat longingly. Sanji snapped his fingers and got Luffy's attention back.

"Since you're going to get the others," Sanji said, speaking slowly so Luffy could keep up, "let them know I found Zoro." He cleared his throat. "In fact, by the time you get back the meat should be ready." Luffy's eyes lit up excitedly. Sanji pointed him in the direction of town and sent him off with the promise of a second helping when he returned.

"Sure he won't get lost?" Zoro asked and Sanji scoffed, going back to the remaining boar.

"He can sniff his way back here with little problem, unlike you." Sanji said and Zoro rolled his eyes. "Now get off your lazy ass and help me butcher the rest of this pig."