Zoro didn't bother stifling the exaggerated yawn that erupted from his throat as he stretched his aching muscles, rolling his shoulders to make his joints crack with a series of loud snaps and pops. Sitting behind a desk all day, to him, was far more tedious than any sort of strenuous workout. His body still hadn't adjusted to spending so much time in the same stiff, cramped position for hours at a time. But at the very least, his clothes no longer felt like an itchy second skin to add to the discomfort.

Fabric softener, he had come to realize in the past couple of weeks, was pretty damn awesome; even if it did make all of his clothes smell like flowers and shit. It was a lot easier to focus on his daily tasks without being distracted by the sensation of being gradually abraded to the bone with every shift and stretch of the arm. He could thank the blond for that discovery, he figured. Not that he planned to.

His stomach, for once, was mostly placated as well. Chopper had stopped by Zoro's room earlier in the morning for the first time ever, leaving him a scalding hot cup of coffee and a particularly shiny-looking apple to "start his day off well". He wasn't usually one to bother with breakfast or whatever, but the gesture was so downright adorable he didn't have the heart to resist. Other than that short interaction, though, the first couple of hours had gone by without so much as a moment's interruption.

He would have enjoyed the silence if it weren't for the inevitable episode with Sanji hanging over his head. Every day, it was something; so why would that day be any different? Interactions with him were a lot like pulling off a bandage; it was better to just get it over with as soon as possible. Which was why, when the aforementioned blond finally swung the door open, striding across the room like he owned the place, Zoro felt almost relieved for a second.

"Oi, kendo master," he droned, twirling a silver key around his finger as he took a seat on the edge of the desk. That spot was becoming his favorite place to sit, despite Zoro having two completely functional chairs not even three feet away from there. "Come help me with some heavy lifting."

Nose scrunching at the newest in a long list of questionable nicknames, Zoro shot him an unimpressed look and leaned back in his chair. "Oh, so you're too weak to handle a few boxes or something by yourself? Why does that not surprise me?"

"I can fucking handle them just fine, asshole, there's just a lot of them. And I have better things to do than spend all day in a shitty basement."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Like making sure lazy mossballs like you don't sit around being useless," he retorted, twisting around to lift his legs up onto the length of the uncluttered desk as he pulled a lighter and mostly-flattened box of cigarettes from his pocket. "Don't think I didn't notice you taking that nap yesterday."

Not the least bit surprised to hear that the blond had been up to something as ridiculous as watching him sleep, Zoro opted to tackle the other discourtesy at hand. "Did I say you could light up in here?"

Sanji paused as the lighter's flame met the end of the cigarette, his visible eye going wide in confusion as his gaze shifted between Zoro and the stick in his mouth. Judging by the way he was silent for a moment, which never happened unless he needed a second to think, Zoro wondered if he'd even realized he'd gone for one in the first place. "Well, you never said I couldn't..."

"If you set off the sprinklers and ruin my laptop, I'm charging you for it."

The man glanced down at the chunk of worn-down, black plastic by his side, pausing for a moment before letting out an almost inaudible snort. "If that ever happened, I'd buy you one twice as nice. But it won't; quit worrying so much."

Well, if anyone knew anything about getting away with smoking indoors, it would probably be him. "Fine, whatever. You're here for another favor, right? What's the bribe this time?"

Sanji took a long drag, exhaling over his shoulder away from Zoro's direction. "...Carry half of today's orders upstairs, and I might be kind enough to wake you up the next time you're drooling all over your desk."

There was no telling what he meant by that, but Zoro had a sneaking suspicion that his methods wouldn't be as simple as a tap on the shoulder. His mind reeled with the ridiculous possibilities, and he found it becoming more and more difficult to ignore the sensation of heat gathering in his ears and across his face. "And just what the hell makes you think I'd want that?"

"Oh? You won't do it, then?" He leaned back toward Zoro's side of the desk with a nonchalant head-tilt, his voice raising an octave to a taunting intonation as he sucked in and released another wave of smoke through parted lips. "So, you won't mind if I go right now to tell the boss about what I saw before?"

"Blackmail, huh? And here I thought even you wouldn't go that low, curly-brows," he growled, glaring daggers back at the man's infuriating smile before a realization struck him and a smirk overtook his face as well. "...But I doubt you'd actually tell him. Because that would mean having to admit that you were watching me instead of working, too."

Sanji's smug grin faltered and he took another drag, lifting a hand to pluck the stick from his lips. He tapped the ashes into the perpetually empty garbage can behind him, and carefully stubbed it out on his metal tie clip before discarding the butt as well. "...Are you feeling lucky enough to test that theory, or do you want to just get this shitty chore done in half an hour tops and be done with it?"

His initial instinct was to opt for the former, for no real reason other than to match the other's level of defiance, like it was some sort of inadvertent challenge. But the more he thought about it, the more a chance to stretch out and work his body a bit seemed awfully tempting. Even if the task wouldn't by any means be an adequate workout, it would at least be better than sitting around staring at the ceiling for another hour or so.

"Fine. Let's go before I change my mind," he grumbled as he stood, choking back a groan at the suddenly apparent knot in his back from sitting in the same position for so long. Rolling his hips and arching his back to realign his spine, he didn't miss the lingering once-over the other man gave him before wordlessly following suit, hopping off of the desk and making his way to the door with a pleased but quiet hum.

They made their way down the hallway without so much as an ounce of smalltalk; either because they couldn't be bothered or because it was comfortable enough without it, Zoro wasn't quite sure which. He was, however, grateful as hell that the blond could apparently appreciate silence every now and then. But the second they rounded the corner into the lobby, whatever semblance of gratefulness he had for the other man was promptly thrown out the window.

"Oh, Robin! How stunning!" Sanji exclaimed in that grating voice that Zoro was beginning to realize was exclusively reserved for speaking to women, cupping his own cheeks in his palms as he bolted over to the front counter near the entrance. "Be still, my heart; has anyone ever told you how lovely you look with the sunshine framing your face? You look just like a work of art!"

"If I recall correctly, you did just last week," she smiled, reaching down to somewhere out of Zoro's line of sight. She procured a small glass bowl, and placed it on the counter between them. "Since you're here, would you by any chance mind taking some candy? The boss bought some for the front desk on a whim, but we don't ever have children visiting here, so I've only been able to pawn it off on Tony… I'm afraid he'll get a stomach ache if he has too much more, but I'd hate for them to go stale and have to be thrown away."

The chilling warmth in her tone made Zoro's hair stand on end. From the one time he'd interacted with her, he'd come to realize why she'd been chosen for the job that she held; part of her work involved scaring unwanted visitors away, something he'd experienced firsthand when he'd shown up on his first day without an official appointment. To put it lightly, she was damn good at what she did.

"Well, I guess it'd be a shame to let them go to waste…" Casually leaning against the counter on his elbows, Sanji gave the bowl a conflicted look for a moment, then flashed her a bright grin, picking through the individually wrapped pieces to pull out a small red lollipop. Zoro inwardly grimaced; of course he'd pick something like that. Fucking typical. "If it's Ms. Robin asking, there's no way I could refuse! Thank you for the offering, my angel!"

"If it's any consolation, I believe he mentioned they're organic."

"Is that so? Even better!" Sanji turned to back to Zoro and nodded toward the counter, his tone dropping to its typical nonchalant drawl as soon as they made eye contact. "Oi, marimo, be a gentleman and take one too."

Looking between the other two and scratching the back of his head awkwardly, he crossed the lobby to approach Robin's desk. He was unsure where exactly he stood with the woman in terms of acquaintanceship, but the look on her face was about as nonthreatening as he'd seen it so far; not that that said much, but he figured at the very least it meant his presence wasn't unwelcome.

"It's nice to see you out amongst the living, Mr. Roronoa," she started, that calm but questionably eerie smile still just as evident as always. "I wasn't aware that you two were very well acquainted."

"Ah, well, I wouldn't really say that," he muttered in response, pulling out the first candy his fingers fell on and promptly stuffing it into his pocket, making a mental note to take it out before throwing those pants in the wash later.

"No? How interesting."

Interesting? He couldn't see how it possibly could be. "Uh, I don't know, is it?"

She didn't offer him up much of a response, not that he was particularly looking for one. "So, are you two on your way somewhere? I doubt that your final destination would be my desk... There's nothing for you to do here, after all."

"Ah, yes," Sanji cut back in, nudging Zoro out of the way with one foot to get closer to being in front of her again. "Shanks has us fetching stock today. We're on our way downstairs at the moment. Gonna get some arm work in for the day, if you know what I mean." Zoro snorted at the display as Sanji flexed to show off his average-at-best arm muscles, half of which were completely hidden by the sleeves that were rolled up to his elbows anyway.

Robin simply chuckled in response, and lifted the bowl to put it back behind the counter. "Sounds very enjoyable. Be careful though, would you? I would hate to see you break a hand… or perhaps worse."

After some pressing and actual physical tugging, Zoro eventually managed to pry the other man away from the counter and back to their original course toward the stairs, but not without some complaints and mild insults. The walk to the basement fell back into silence by the time they reached the staircase, filled only with the shuffling of their feet against concrete and the rattle of the candy rolling around between Sanji's teeth that echoed off the unfinished walls around them.

"...Where are we taking these boxes to, anyway? Back to the lobby?" Zoro finally asked, as it occurred to him that the other man had neglected to mention any sort of plan for what they'd set out to do, which sure as hell wasn't going to work out unless he had a destination in mind.

"Yeah," he replied simply, not bothering to look Zoro in the eye as they walked side by side. Instead, his eyes were glued to the passing steps underneath them, apparently finding the stairs far more fascinating than him despite the plain, cracked surface holding nothing of interest. "The boss mentioned something about some pick-ups today. Not sure who's swinging by, but he said we need fifty cases."

Zoro hummed on an exhale, slowing to a standstill on the bottom step of the last flight of stairs as Sanji shoved the key into the lock on the door before them. "Fifty? Impressive."

He rattled the doorknob a few times, his face twisting into a scowl as he fiddled with the lock. "Well, it's divided between three separate orders, I think. Who the hell would need four hundred bottles of sake at once?"

"Right, I guess that makes sense…" Zoro certainly wouldn't mind having that many himself, but that was beside the point, he guessed.

In reality, they were a loan company. The boss had a great deal of money, and had decided to make more of it in the most universally useful way possible; by loaning what he had to those who needed more immediately than he did. For a bit of interest, naturally.

The man's methods of gaining capitol, Zoro thought, were perfectly fair. After all, he was always mindful to take it easy on those who didn't truly deserve to be roughed up for being late on a payment. Unfortunately for them, the law definitely wouldn't always see things their way, which was why they chose to formulate a cover business; more specifically, distributing sake from a brewery in the boss's hometown. As one might expect, investigators rarely ever went poking around in the affairs of licensed salesmen. That wasn't to say that the business was a total lie, of course; they actually did sell to a few particular groups of people, but they didn't go out of their way to try to drum up more sales or anything like that.

To Zoro's disdain, that's where the majority of his job lied. He, Luffy, and the curly-brows were the ones that kept the cover business up and faked the books, trying to keep their false records as close to the ones they got in the real financial reports from Nami and Usopp as possible. That way, the company didn't have money spawning from seemingly nowhere and end up raising any eyebrows unnecessarily. It was an important job, if nothing else.

"Ah, there we go," Sanji perked up, his irritated expression turning to a victorious grin as he pulled the key out of the lock and shoved the door open. His hand slipped around the corner of the doorframe to flick on the lightswitch, and there was a low hum from somewhere in the distance for a few moments before the room lit up.

Stacks upon stacks of boxes printed with a logo reading "West Blue" on the sides stretched back further than the lights reached, disappearing back into the darkness. Zoro suspected that most of them were empty; embellishment, to keep up appearances or something, because he'd never once had to go past the tenth row of shelves to get what was needed. The ceilings were a bit low and every breath he took in brought some dust with it, but something about the musty scent of cardboard and aged paper was oddly relaxing. He kept a couple of steps behind as they made their way past the carts, stacks of books, and loose papers crowding the front of the room; their destination was a bit further back, beyond the cabinets and file folders that were decidedly more relevant to Nami and Usopp's use than to their own.

Something in front of him reflected the light above and caught his eye; the silver key, still in the blond's hand, twirled once around his finger before being deftly tucked into his back pocket for safe keeping. Watching the key disappear behind black fabric, he couldn't manage to tear his eyes away from it even as that pale forearm, practically luminous under the soft lowlight, fell back to his side. His pants were just tight enough for the outline of the key to be visible against his ass, and keeping an eye on its shape made Zoro suddenly all too aware of the way the man's thin hips moved with every step. He'd never noticed the way Sanji walked with such a subtle spring in his stride before; like his legs naturally wanted to do more than what was needed to take him from point A to point B. The innate need to evaluate strength that was so deeply rooted inside of Zoro wanted to test them; he knew the signs of power lying dormant when he saw it. He'd written off the blond's comment about "being into martial arts" before as being more conversation fodder than anything else, but he was beginning to second guess that assumption.

"You always this damn slow, mosshead?" Sanji called back to him, peering over his shoulder with an impatient look. Zoro's gaze shot up to meet his, but not quickly enough; Sanji's visible eye widened and shifted down, following the invisible trail down his body that Zoro had left behind. He came to a sudden halt, as the realization that he was being checked out hit him, and he quickly spun on his heels to face Zoro directly. "O-oi, what do you think you're-"

"Don't stop so sudden- Shit!" Zoro stuck his hands out to brace Sanji's shoulders as he stumbled into him. Their brisk pace being interrupted was enough to offset his balance, throwing them both into a shelf that stuck out into their pathway. The blond let out a grunt as his back slammed into the metal frame, which grated sharply against the concrete floor in protest.

"Ow, what the hell did you do that for?!" He snapped, reflexively shoving Zoro back into one of the shelving units behind him. The blunt force of his shoulders sent the mostly empty frame toppling over on impact, stacks of paper that had been placed on it spilling to the floor in a fluttering whirlwind of white as it landed tilted against another shelf behind it with a metallic clang.

"Me?! That was all you!" Zoro growled back, steadying himself to avoid falling back with the shelf he'd collided with. "Don't just stop when someone's right behind you, moron!"

Sanji wasted no time planting a solid kick to his solar plexus; Zoro had his wits about him just enough to tense his abdominals in time to avoid having the wind knocked out of him, but not enough to block properly. The sharp pain that seeped into his gut confirmed his previous suspicions; those legs had some serious capability. The realization was enough to make his head swim in excitement. "I wouldn't have stopped if you hadn't been so obviously staring at my ass, perverted moss-idiot!"

"Perverted?! Like you're one to talk, curly-browed voyeur!" Fortifying himself in a more solid stance, he threw a calculated punch for the man's neck, which was left completely open and devoid of proper shielding. Was he doing that on purpose? Instead of throwing up an arm block like Zoro had expected, he ducked, dropping all the way to Zoro's waist-level and side-stepping toward the wall to avoid a follow-up attack. They exchanged vigorous but precise blows and blocks without either gaining an edge on the other, until one particular dodge had Sanji leaning so far back his head nearly touched the floor. Zoro was certain the other man would need a moment to recover from a dodge like that; never before in his life had he so sorely misjudged an opponent. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he felt the rubber sole of a shoe slam into his jaw with a violent crack reverberating in his eardrums.

"Damn it…" Zoro recoiled from the strike, rubbing his cheek as he popped his jaw back into place. Sanji was upright again, very obviously basking in the glory of landing such a good hit. But Zoro was too fascinated, too absorbed in his newest discovery to get riled up over the shit-eating grin on his face. Grabbing as much of the man's shirt in his fists as he could manage, which wasn't much given how perfectly fitted it was, Zoro lifted Sanji from his feet and shoved him against the more weighted shelf that still stood, ignoring the sound of protest as the blond squirmed to find a foothold. "What the hell kind of bullshit flexibility is that?" he growled under his breath, more badgering than angry, leaning in so close that the end of the lollipop stick almost touched his nose.

"Ten years of training in savate," he smiled, rolling the candy in his mouth around with his tongue. "I've never met a guy who could take my blows so easily, though. Most men would be out cold by now..." One foot had managed to secure a resting place on one of the metal slabs behind him, but his other leg was slowly making its way around Zoro's waist instead, potentially setting him up for some significant leverage. Did he think he was being fucking sneaky? "Feeling a little light-headed yet?"

"You fucking wish." Unable to do much else in that position, Zoro brought one leg up to knock his foot from its resting place before he had the chance to try anything. He felt the blond's leg tighten around his waist to keep from slipping down, and his hands that had been so arrogantly stuffed in his pockets reflexively shot out to latch onto Zoro's forearms for balance. Zoro, however, had yet to set his own foot back down and had no balance to give; the full weight of them both fell into the shelf, knocking boxes of sake and paper to the floor, and the shelf and their bodies along with it.

Zoro caught himself just before he hit the ground, planting one hand on the overturned shelf and one on the floor, effectively trapping the other man underneath him. But before he had the chance to taunt him, a second leg joined the first around his waist and Sanji twisted his hips to successfully switch their positions.

The concrete floor and dusty papers that Zoro found himself forced onto were wet and reeking of spilled alcohol. There was a foot tucked under his chin and a hand pulling his arm in the other direction, keeping him locked in place with no way to move. He was almost certain he felt a papercut slice across his cheek as the blond's foot pressed his neck down harder into the pile of half-soggy documents. "Had enough already?" Sanji panted, his chest heaving from the exertion as they stared each other down.

Enduring the pressure of the pseudo-armlock, Zoro shifted just far enough for the foot on his neck to slip off and promptly grabbed a fistfull of Sanji's tie, pulling the man down onto his knees and consequently to his eye level. "Fight me when I'm armed and I'll knock you flat in seconds, you got that?"

"Is that a threat or a promise...?" The blond asked, raising an eyebrow as he crushed the remainder of his lollipop between his teeth. Before Zoro had the chance to respond, he was cut off by a wet, cherry-flavored stick sliding between his lips; the leftover shards of candy stuck to it were rugged and scraped his tongue on the way in, but he was too dumbfounded by the action to care much. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest when the door across the room opened with a loud squeak, filling the room with the stark white lighting of the stairwell.

"Zoro, Sanji," a rough voice called from the doorway. "Are you both alright? Robin called me to come check on you! Something about a banging noise...?"

"Uh, w-we're fine!" Sanji called back, reflexively swatting Zoro's hand from his tie and smoothing his hair back, eyes darting around as he finally seemed to realize the horrible mess they'd managed to make in the last few minutes of blind rage and contention.

"Oh, damn, what did you guys do?" The voice was closer suddenly; Zoro looked up and over his shoulder to find their boss studying the shelves they'd toppled with a relatively impressed expression.

"Uh, we tripped," Zoro replied simply, pulling the stick from his mouth and tucking it into his pocket and out of sight.

"Both of you?" Shanks raised an eyebrow, his line of sight still scanning the area for damage.

"Uh, yeah, both of us." Well, the explanation wasn't exactly a total lie.

"That explains a lot..." Shanks let out a sigh through his nose, running a hand through his hair with an exhausted but oddly understanding smile. "It looks like a storm passed through here."

"Er, something like that."

"Well, no harm done if you're both okay, I guess. If it's fine with you guys, I want to hold our monthly group meeting once you're done cleaning up this mess and bringing up the stock... So be quick about it, alright?"

"Yes, sir…" Sanji groaned in mortification, nodding from behind the pair of hands that shielded his very obviously bright red face.

"Alright, then. I'll leave it in your hands," the boss nodded, picking up a half-emptied sake bottle from one of the overturned boxes and taking a sip before he made his way back to the door. "...Oh, and Sanji?"

"Sir?" He called back, broken glass crackling under his foot as he finally stood up again.

"Those sake bottles are coming out of your paycheck." He lifted the bottle in their direction as a friendly sort of gesture, flashing them one last smile before disappearing behind the door.

If those legs weren't going to be the death of Zoro, the murderous look the blond shot him when they were alone again certainly could have been.

Ah yes, my first fight scene... Things are gonna start getting real sexy real quick… *evil laughter*

Thank you to those who reviewed; your support makes the effort worth it! And to those of you on spring break like I am, I hope you have fun this week!~