Returning to his fully stocked galley after Libertine Island, for Sanji, was like the first cigarette in the morning; refreshing and gave him that sense of home. A sense of duty and routine returned to him the next day along with a lingering bliss from the previous evening. He was back to serving his crew food and despite the busy hours, he found the motions familiar and he could fall back into them easily.

Like serving the ladies their afternoon snack at the stern, a peaceful place from the rowdy boys that had taken up the main deck. Nami's citrus trees and the open sea being their only view.

"Sanji."

"Yes, Nami-swan~" Sanji turned on the spot, his serving tray balancing one last desert in the center of its reflective surface. It was a sunny day after leaving Libertine Island. Their navigator was enjoying the refreshing citrus sorbet he'd made her. She was under the shade of the umbrella that robin had set up for them to share at a small round table. Robin sat with her, a book in hand and spoon in the other; chocolate sorbet with a hint of hazel within reach. "Something else you need?" he asked them.

"No, no," Nami assured him with a casual wave. "You just seem..." She looked to Robin for assistance.

Robin glanced up from her book and gave one of her quiet smiles. "You seem quiet, but happy at the same time," she deduced.

"You have the glow," Nami added with a smile and a wink.

Sanji would always enjoy talking with the ladies, no matter what it be about. He'd swoon and praise their every word and aspect. He was not so familiar with actually being the center point of attention even though they were certainly his most of the time. He didn't doubt their observational skills, but he didn't think they paid him as much mind. And that was okay with him as long as they continued to allow him to pamper them like the goddesses that they were.

He should have appreciated the fact that Nami had winked at him knowingly but he was actually slightly embarrassed about his attention being taken from them. He felt... normal after he and Zoro had done it. As in, he wasn't completely drained of sexual energy, but his mind was in a haze, drifting along the day. Mostly back to the day before and especially to Zoro.

Since confessing to the swordsman, Zoro's attention had been on him far more intensely than Sanji was used to. It made his heart start thudding in his throat and Sanji found he still had trouble keeping eye contact. He had Zoro's attention and he wasn't adjusted to how intense it was outside of a fight. He couldn't even stand it during sex. Just thinking of Zoro watching him as they were intimate... gave him too much of a rush; it would have ended too quickly in the hammock.

It was... overwhelming, Sanji decided. He enjoyed it completely, even with the minor soreness of a new activity. There were a few aspects his mind kept returning to for hours on end. Such as the complete and utter fullness he felt with Zoro inside of him. He thought he'd only imagined it in that dream on the beach. And then the demon having zeroed in on it and snuck a digit into him by surprise; it really did feel better than he was expecting. After all, he was a man and he was fairly sure that normal men thought with their dicks, not their... ass-ets.

Sanji cleared his throat and could feel the heat rise to his face. Surely the ladies didn't want to know about those details.

"I apologize if I'm a bit distracted," Sanji said. Unfamiliar conversations with the ladies made him a bit more formal with them.

"Not at all." Robin tasted her chilled treat casually.

"So are you and Zoro an official thing now?" Nami asked.

"Ah, yes..." Sanji took a moment to mourn his bachelorhood. He gave them a deep bow. "I'm proverbially off the market." It was hard to word it even in his head how it felt. Especially with Zoro being the reason for it. He stood with a bright smile. "But do not fear, I will continue to treat you both lovely ladies with every bit of love and attention you deserve."

Robin chuckled. "I did not think Zoro would approve of that."

Sanji huffed at the thought of Zoro getting angry at his adoration of women. "As if I need his permission to show affection to my nakama, or any lady that deserves my assistance." And that was of course, every lady. Robin and Nami exchanged amused glances before pointing out the remaining dish on the tray.

"So is the last dish for Zoro?" She asked.

Sanji paused and looked at the remaining treat. Mint and bitter chocolate sorbet. He'd been tinkering with it since his mind would not kick the damn marimo out of it. It was not a traditional desert in that it leaned more towards salty than sweet. It could taste better in in his opinion but he knew Zoro didn't appreciate sweet things.

"I'm... trying something new and he needs to taste test it for me," Sanji said. It was still difficult to talk about casually. It wasn't quite as fluid as with serving the women tasty treats. His affections and passions were part of his food after all.

The three of them were alerted to the other half of the crew mostly because of the accelerated noise level that had that edge of panic to it. The kind that usually followed their captain's curiosity and often got them into trouble. Nami's citrus trees blocked most of what was going on from the main deck. It was something Sanji would normally ignore, though when Merry gave a small but sudden lurch, it nearly made him lose balance of the tray he held. Nami nearly fell out of her chair and Robin's devil fruit hands popped up to catch anything that may actually topple over, including her own chair, the umbrella, and frozen dessert.

Sanji was the first one up and around the galley cabin. Half way down the stairs he halted mid way because he could see what had caused the upset of the ship. Taking up the main deck from port to starboard, was a huge black tiger with green stripes. It was laying on its side and curled half way around the main mast. Two proportionate bat wings were curled up at his back, looking cramped and shifting to get comfortable. The tiger's ears were familiarly bat wings instead of normal feline ears, but he was clearly all animal now and no longer human looking.

Sanji had to stare a moment and his mind flashed back the violence of wild cambion in the woods. Usopp and Chopper were still freaking out and hugging each other for the moment from whatever had transpired and Luffy of course looked completely excited.

The beast was clearly Zoro, Sanji knew that. However, the caution for Sanji was whether it was his Zoro or the demon he'd encountered instead. The tiger-bat turned his head and met his intense gaze with Sanji's for a moment and Sanji relaxed, feeling the recognition in them instead of the blank stare.

"We finally got a ships' cat," he said calmly.

"Sanji, it's Zoro!" Luffy said excitedly, waving his arms in the air. "Zoro! Zoro! Flap your wings!"

"He doesn't have enough room to Luffy! He'll knock over the main mast!" Usopp said loudly, fearing more for the Merry than his life. "Just laying down nearly capsized us!"

Sanji eyed Zoro in return for a moment before Zoro gave one of those greeting chuffs he did as a demon and lifted his head proudly as though he'd just proved something, but Sanji had no clue what it was.

"What are you looking so proud about? Nearly capsizing the ship?" Sanji sighed and his bat wing ears gave an annoying twitch. Chopper had been released from Usopp's hold and scampered to Sanji.

"Luffy and Usopp wanted to see the result of Zoro's demon training and he said he was taught how to let out his full demon form but hadn't done it completely yet," Chopper said. "So he took a nap and a few moments later, he grew so huge!" Sanji blinked and looked at Zoro who gave a yawn that could swallow someone whole and probably miss all the flesh tearing teeth. "He's still waking up, I think."

"He's always falling asleep and waking up on his own time," Sanji felt annoyed. "How useless is his demon form that he has to be asleep to bring it out?" Though looking back he only remembered Zoro's body changing after he slept. It probably was because he was a cambion; a lust eating, dream-walking asshole.

"Yeah, I suppose it's not useful if we get into a fight," Chopper agreed. Zoro gave an annoyed sound and huffed along with a growl. Chopper listened and then said, "Zoro said he doesn't need this form to fight. He commented that his paws can't even hold swords now."

"You have CLAWS now, moss-cat. Your swords would be as useful as toothpicks," Sanji said.

Zoro took a moment to inspect his huge paws, curled black claws appeared when he flexed them but he seemed dissatisfied.

"He says he needs BIG swords." Chopper translated.

Sanji let out an amused huff and rubbed his hand down his face. "Single minded idiot..." He then held up the tray, which still beheld the bowl of iced treat. He was disappointed with the timing most of all, "I was going to give you this but now that you're a huge cat, who's going to test it?"

Zoro opened his huge jaws again and held open those huge teeth again. It was sort of comical the way the ears flared out a bit and held it as Chopper translated, "He said he can eat it like this."

This annoyed Sanji. He took the bowl in one hand and knocked Zoro over the nose with the tray, startling the lazy looking cat-bat.

"You can't taste it as a cat, you have to do it as a human, damn demon," Sanji snapped. Honestly, how was he supposed to get a good read off of Zoro as a demon with Chopper translating everything. It was so unsatisfying. The man was hard enough to read as a human but as a cat, an impossible feat.

Zoro's ears dropped into an annoyed fashion and he rubbed his nose with his paw. He quickly recovered from surprise but instead of turning aggressive and bearing his teeth he just lifted the paw again and Sanji found himself flat on the deck under said paw, the wind knocked out of him. It was clear Zoro wasn't even trying to hurt him, but Sanji got the message that Zoro's demon form was heavy with muscle as he used it to pin him down on the deck. By some miracle, he had not spilled the dessert. "Oi! If you make me spill this, I'll kick your fuzzy ass into the sea!" Sanji threatened. Zoro still looked annoyed with him but his movements were still those of a half asleep cat. Sanji wedged his leg under the paw and shoved his foot into the pad of the paw. Zoro still look annoyed with him as Sanji set the dessert aside to safety and then resumed whatever fight they were tangled up in. It became more like a cat and mouse game rather than their usual shoe and sword dance. This woke Zoro up quickly and his wings stretched out and the tip of his tail flicked.

But the tiny ship could only take so much because when Zoro sat up and was determined to take the upper 'hand', the Merry rocked and a certain amount of creaking was enough for Usopp and Nami to freak out. Nami put a stop to the fight before it gained the momentum to topple them over.

The sorbet did not spill, primarily because in their fight, Luffy found it and devoured it. His comment was 'Yum!' but Luffy's taste was hardly refined and not even close to the opinion Sanji had been looking for. Zoro settled down on the main deck again and tolerated the attention well as the rest of the crew got their fill of his new form without the danger of being too close to his claws. Sanji, on the other hand, made his seat the very forearm that had pinned him minutes before. It was like having a warm fury log under him and behind him was Zoro's thick mane, which was actually very comfortable to lean against. Warm and cushiony. Zoro ranged from looking bored to annoyed as the rest of the crew acclimated themselves to his new appearance. Luffy had wrapped his limbs around the end of Zoro's tail and was riding it like a bucking bronco because the more he enjoyed the ride, the more it twitched in annoyance. Usopp used the change to inspect Zoro's wings and make sketches of them for some future project or maybe for the artistic value. The girls sat near by and shared their deserts with Chopper and commented on Zoro's cute and tame appearance. Zoro just turned his head away from them to ignore them but Sanji smirked when Zoro's ears took on that downward embarrassed appearance.

"Such an unpractical demon form you have," Sanji commented dryly. It was both truth and a falsity. It was a powerful form that was for sure, but Zoro's willingness to fight in it and turning into it was a big hassle. Zoro's head and one of the ear wings opened towards him to show he was listening. It was a slight movement, but one Sanji found comforting because of the contrasted conversation from the woods. At least Zoro couldn't verbally argue back, which was sort of nice, but also a bit missed on Sanji's end.

Sanji took out a cigarette and lit up. Then he relaxed into the thick fur behind him and stretched out his legs on the deck. He let out a breath of smoke that Zoro's ear lazily fanned away. Sanji placed his whole arm under Zoro's chin and gave it an affectionate rub, satisfied when Zoro relaxed his bulk into it. Sanji was glad he found Zoro before he completely turned to this monstrosity of a wild cat. He was amazed by his size over all and knew they never could have transported the wild demon personality to the next island in the Going Merry. He just could not be contained if he didn't want to be. Though really, that was normal for Zoro as well. "At least you make a fine fur covered couch." Zoro turned his head abruptly and snuffed out an annoyed breath into Sanji's hair. Sanji chuckled. It was so bizarre to also know this creature his lover. At least Zoro was much better with affection in this form because rubbing under Zoro's chin not only made Zoro stretch his neck out for more, the occasional feline nuzzle (When no one was looking, of course) that ranged from Sanji's head to his arm was a wonderful sensation. And absolutely adorable to boot.

Sanji supposed he'd have to try the dessert at another time, and also get Zoro back for messing up his plans.