The article read like a death sentence, it's language was slow and ominous but it read clearly.
Akira Soshi, a resident of High Water, was killed in a mugging on Friday night; the perpetrator took his wallet. Akira's life partner, who was with him at the time, witnessed the murder and, being severely disturbed by the event, is currently being assessed by a police therapist at this time.
The article went on to talk a little about a happy couple who had been torn apart by a petty thief and described the thief loosely, but the words struck Zoro. Sanji had witnessed the murder of the person that he loved the most, that had started this all.
Skating through more articles, he found the one about the man that Sanji killed. The picture matched the description that the previous had given about the man but this one had been innocent. He'd been a local bike messenger, a man with no education but worked hard to support his wife and two sons. In the article the family spoke about Sanji, the children expressing hate and the thoughts that Sanji should have been the one to die and not their father. But the wife said no such words of hate, she only said that she felt sorry for the mentally ill man who'd killed her husband.
"It's so sad", she'd said, "that this man hasn't gotten help before now, it took the death of my husband to finally get him what he needs..."
Zoro read the article with torn emotions; it hurt to finally know what had landed Sanji into the institute in the first place, but a small part of him was glad that now he finally knew. While the blond's reactions weren't completely understandable, at least now Zoro had a good idea of how to handle some of the things that the blond threw at him.
"You going to sit there all day?" Zoro glared upward as the archive keeper at the local library leaned on the table he was using. Seemingly not bothered by the expression he was getting, the teen grinned at him. "You're going to get a crick in your neck if you keep this up for too much longer."
"Thank you for your concern, Luffy." Zoro growled out again, feeling a vein in his forehead twitch. "I know what I'm doing; go back to your part of the library and help the little kids find the volumes of "Name Nato Kitsu-chan" that they're looking for." Pointing, the green haired medical-intern went back to his newspaper articles.
Luffy laughed off the remark and left the intern there; picking up children's books on his way back to his station. Zoro went back to his work, reading through the articles a few more times before another voice interrupted his thought process.
"Well don't you look like you're hard at work...", Zoro opened his mouth to tell the person to go away, thinking that it was Luffy again, but it wasn't, it was Nami.
"Oh, hi...", she giggled a little as she came around the station to stand beside Zoro.
"What? Didn't want visitors?", it was then that she caught a glimpse of the article that he was looking up, "Hm? What's this?"
"Just doing some background work on my patient." Zoro shrugged, taking a sip of water from the cup he had. "I figured that it would be a good way to figure out how to work with him ... too bad the majority of it is just damn depressing."
If it weren't for the fact that they were in a public place, he would have been smoking a cigarette, but if he so much as pulled out an empty box, the matron would glare at him. He knew this because he'd nearly gotten kicked out of the library for doing just that, and if Luffy hadn't intervened, he would have probably smacked the woman senseless before showing her it was empty.
"What about you? What're you doing down here?" Zoro asked, looking over the current article he had in his hand.
Nami shrugged.
"Just filing some of the older hospital wing records, Chopper has the nurses do it once a month so that our own records office isn't too cluttered, files over six months old or of deceased patients get put in the section for our records down here while files over 10 years old get put into storage." She peeked over Zoro's shoulder then, "did you find anything interesting on patient 109?"
"Yeah, and none of it real heartwarming." Zoro muttered darkly, rubbing his forehead. "The guy wasn't always like this, you know?" looking over the article that spoke about what had happened to the Akira guy, the green haired intern began shaking his head. "there were very good chances that he wouldn't have even ended up here, had one thing not gone wrong in his life."
Nami placed a hand on Zoro's shoulder and squeezed it gently.
"Sometimes that's all it takes...", she said softly before giving him a smile, "I better get back to work, good luck with your research..." Zoro nodded and away she walked before he returned to the article.
Zoro looked up at the clock, sighing heavily; he had to get down to the institute. Standing, he went to replace the articles in their section of the archives. Leaving, he waved goodbye to Luffy -- who was currently reading to a group of preschoolers -- and walked down the road towards the bus stop.
Sanji's room was the same as normal when Zoro entered it, the blond sitting on his cot. "Hey." Zoro called, not knowing how else to greet Sanji after reading what he had.
Nothing was said, nothing had to be said; Sanji looked at Zoro in a way that said he knew he'd done something wrong but it wasnt like he could control the voice, he couldn't control the eyes; he couldn't control anything. Usually it didn't bother him, he didn't care if he stabbed or bit or kicked or maimed someone, he really didn't but for some reason he felt uneasy about Zoro seeing him like that.
It didn't make sense anymore, nothing made sense anymore, he couldn't see faces anymore, couldn't remember them as anything other than shadows. He saw Zoro and Zoro's face would take the place of Akira's becuase Sanji couldn't remember. Oh but he tried to, he would sit for hours and hours holding his head and trying to remember when Zoro wasn't there but nothing came. Nothing ever came anymore. He wasn't even sure he could remember why he was here in the first place, he couldn't recall what he'd told Zoro and what he hadn't.
To feel like a stranger in your own body, it was maddening; maybe it was a good thing that he was here after all.
His drugs were changed, the mouth and eyes went away, at least for a little while. He would sit in his usual spot, even when Zoro came in to talk to him, today they were due for a therapy session. Did Sanji want to go? Not really. Did he have a choice? Not really.
Zoro knelt in front of the blond and shook his knee, knowing that the stillness was a bad thing. "Hey, Sanji, you alright?" It was a stupid question, Zoro knew it was stupid, but seeing Sanji like this made him feel bad for reasons he didn't fully understand, and he wanted to help. He really wanted to help the blond get out of the place he was in, wanted to get him back to the life he used to have.
"You up to talking today? We don't have to leave the room, if you don't want."
Sanji jumped at the sound of the intern's voice, as though he hadn't known that he was there.
"What?", he asked, Zoro repeated himself and he looked at the hand on his knee before pushing himself up and walking to the door. He didn't say anything and that scared Zoro more than the stillness, Sanji was never silent. Was this some effect of the new medication?
But it wasn't the medication, Sanj had just lost himself in his memories. He was home and Akira was making him breakfast as he always did as they got ready for work or in Akira's case school; Sanji had been a chef at a local restaurant. He still coudln't remember his face but he leaned down and kissed him gently and Sanji smiled as they made idle chatter. Akira had been going for his degree in engineering, Sanji had been working so that he could get through school.
"I made your favorite" he heard the memory say; Akira always made his favorite.
The sudden feel of the all too familiar manacles that were used to detain him being slapped around his wrists jerked him out of his thoughts and all of a sudden he was back at the mental ward and Zoro was leading him out of the room.
"Let's talk about Akira ..." Zoro whispered quietly, his hand gentle as it gripped Sanji's elbow. Feeling the patient stiffen, he gave the elbow a squeeze. "I know it hurts, but it's probably best you talk about it." He didn't know how else to begin to crack through Sanji's personality, apart from going with what he knew.
Briefly wondering how much of Sanji's past Zeff had bothered to look into, Zoro guided the blond into the room, and had him sit in the chair before settling himself, trying to get comfortable as he waited for Sanji to begin.
"No" Sanji said lightly as he sat down, the guards strapping him securely into the chair and the chair securely to the floor. He didn't want to talk about him, he couldn't talk about him; he couldn't remember, wouldn't remember, there was no face, that person was gone and they weren't coming back.
Zoro sighed heavily; he should have known that he would have to fight with Sanji to get this part of the treatment to work. "I know that it hurts, Sanji ... but it really would be best." He began, wondering how long it would take, his stubborn streak rearing its ugly head to see this part of it all through.
Sanji's expression didn't change and neither did his answer.
"No."
Zoro began to growl, and he stood up. "Listen, I'm not in the mood to deal with stonewalling." He stated, voice flat and beginning to gain a note of frustration. "I am not one of those people who will just let this go, and leave you to rot in some unknown cell, alone and madder than a hatter."
He wasnt?
"Oh you're not are you? You really want to know who Akira was?" Sanji glared; who was Akira? Who was he? He was everything and yet nothing at all. "I don't know who he was! I don't know anything anymore..." It was like a messed up jigsaw puzzle that he just couldn't put back together, he didn't remember his face, but he remembered his voice, he didn't remember his hair or his eyes, but he remembered the feel of him when he wrapped him up in a hug.
The blonde shook his head "I try to think of him and you take his place, no matter how hard I try...I don't know who he is, or who he was...or anything..."
Zoro didn't know how to respond at first, but he reached into his pocket to feel the piece of the article that he had kept. It would be a risk, he knew it would be, but it would be worth it if he managed to get Sanji to open up a bit. Pulling out the thin scrap of paper, Zoro looked at it again before glancing at Sanji. "... Would seeing a picture of him help you remember?" He asked quietly, and before the patient could respond, placed the piece of the article in his hands and backed away a step.
Sanji stared at the picture that had been placed in his hands, it was of an average looking man with a thin nose and kind eyes, he had an almost angular face but it wasn't quite and shaggy dark hair that the black and white of the picture failed to tell was brown. It was like a door opened and the blonde could remember everything, the good and the bad.
He started with the good.
"We met at the pier, I was shopping for a uniform to wear to my new job as a waiter, he was working his way through his last year of lower schooling", a gasping laugh escaped Sanji. "When I saw him, I was so sure he was an angel; that is until he tripped and dumped a crate of fish on me. He apologized like there was no tomorrow and even though I would have otherwise got mad, I just couldn't when I saw the look on his face. I just laughed." A slow tear trailed down his cheek, "I was with him for 5 years, until his last year of College, he would have been an engineer; it was his dream. I remember I worked so hard just so he could have that dream, I loved him more than he ever knew..."
He stopped then, feeling his heart come up to his throat as he clutched the picture before him.
Zoro sat back down, listening quietly to the entire thing, smiling when he heard about how Sanji and Akira had met; he could just picture it happening, as if he'd witnessed it himself. He could tell just by looking that Sanji really had cared for Akira, and it made Zoro feel all the worse that Sanji hadn't been able to remember him until now.
"And ...?" He asked quietly, reaching forward and placing a hand on Sanji's knee again.
"We'd gone out to dinner that night", Sanji said softly, his emotion held back; it was time for the bad. "To celebrate his graduation..."
The streets were rainy as they got ready to leave the restaurant, it was more expensive than they could afford but Sanji had told himself multiple times taht they would make ends meet somehow becuase tonight was a special night.
"You forgot the umbrella at home again, didn't you?", Akira asked as he came up behind the blonde, handing off the coat that he'd been retrieving before putting his own on.
"I didn't think we'd need it", Akira shook his head at the answer and asked the matridee if they had a spare that he could buy. Sanji only smiled.
"So do you think it's going to rain tomorrow too?", Akira asked as he held the umbrella aloft over both of their heads, "Because Luffy was coming to visit..."
"I don't think so, I thought that you and your familiy weren't on good speaking terms, that's why you changed your name, isn't it?", Akira smiled and nodded.
"A little brother is different though...", he said lightly; Sanji was going to say something but didn't get the chance, a man lunged out of the alley that they were passing. Akira saw him, he must have, because he pushed Sanji behind him.
It was over in an instant but as he watched his lover fall to the ground that instant seemed to stretch on into an eternity.
"Akira...?", he spoke the man's name like a question, "Akira?" His lover didn't move and when he reached for him the police grabbed him and held him back. "Akira?" Their arms seemed like hard steel bars that wrapped along his chest, crushing his ribs and aching like nothing else. He wanted to get to his lover but they wouldn't let him; frantic pulling and pushing, he needed to touch him because this couldn't be real. "Akira!"
This couldn't be real....
And to Sanji...it wasn't...
"I didn't get to go to the funeral", Sanji said softly with a shocking lack of emotion, his parents and his little brother went but I couldn't face them. His brother knew who I was, we never met though; his parents had told Akira before that I was ruining him, they didn't know I was on the other phone listening...I don't think Akira even knew then..."
Zoro sat there, stunned into silence. That was just ... wow ... "My God ..." He eventually muttered to himself, and after a moments worth of thought, he got up, walked over to Sanji, and hugged the blond for all he was worth. "I ... I'm sorry ..." He whispered, not certain of what else to say.
... Wait ... he said that Akira had a little brother ... Could he find said little brother and try to talk with him about what all had happened?
Sanji said nothing, he just clutched the picture tighter, feeling Zoro's arms come around as him as he pushed away any emotions that were trying to surge to the surface.
"May I go back to my cell?", he asked in a raspy voice, willing it not to crack, he couldn't wouldn't; the good doctor was behind that mirror on the wall, he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of crying in front of him. The good doctor had never pushed about Sanji's past, after the first couple weeks of therapy he stopped even mentioning it because Sanji's answer was always the same.
He'd never heard the patient's voice sound like that before. Letting go of Sanji, Zoro nodded and stood up and away, waiting for the patient to stand up before leading him back to the cell. "You can keep the picture if you want."
Zoro already knew what he had to do ... he had to track down Akira's little brother and talk with him, maybe he knew something as well. But for now, what mattered the most was getting Sanji back to his cell before the blond broke down and cried.
Zeff had been watching and listening, his face unreadable as he watched the two leave. 'So, that was his deal, eh?' The head doctor thought to himself. All he had heard about from the police on the scene was that Sanji had killed someone, and that several months before, he'd watched his lover get killed. 'Those idiots didn't even bother to try and connect the two, did they?'
It added a whole new layer to Sanji's problems, though, and Zeff doubted that anyone would ever be able to dig through enough of that madman's mind to get it out. The best bet anyone had was Zoro. 'Heh, no pressure, kid.'
Sanji fell like a dead tree to the welcoming surface of his cot, curling up and staring silently at the wall. He didn't want to talk, he didn't want to hurt; he closed his eyes and watched the eyes and mouth silently. The mouth said nothing, the eyes closed and before long Sanji had sunken into the abyss of his thoughts, soon succumbing to a sort of half sleep with his eyes glazed over and staring at the unforgiving gray of the wall. He stayed that way for hours, the silence of his cell surrounding him; he was still there when the door opened and Zeff came in.
He didn't move, no smart remarks left his lips, he acted as though the old doctor wasn't there.
"Sanji", the old man's rough voice shook the blond from his thoughts but he didn't move.
"Good doctor", he said with as much animosity and sarcasm as he could muster; he heard the old man shift a little.
"Why did you tell him?", he asked, "Why did you tell him when you never told me?" The patient almost laughed; that was what this was about, the gold star on his record; the old man was angry that he'd cracked for Zoro and not for him. Very slowly he stood up, putting the picture down and pushing his hair out of his face as he towered over the old man; a cruel grin on his face.
"You want to know why~?", he purred in a taunting voice; the blow was instant, rearing back he jammed his knee hard into the old man's stomach before spinning and kicking him across the face, sending him sprawling and splitting his brow so that it bled. "You want to know?" Spinning around again he kicked him across the face so that he hit the floor, pinning him down by the throat with one hand, one knee on Zeff's stomach and the other on his arm, the other arm being held down by Sanji's free hand. "Because I HATE you! You're nothing, you're a toy!" He grinned almost evilly, "you have no feelings, your blood is fake! AND I HATE YOU!"
Zeff flailed and kicked, trying to get the patient off of him but his rather large stomach and Sanji's knee made that difficult.
"I should kill you~", the blond said with a grin, "Would you like that? It would go on your record~ Think of all the people that will feel sorry for you~", he gave an evil smile and lunged so that the old doctor flinched.
Back at his small apartment, Zoro felt a cold shudder go down his back as he took a bite out of the leftover pizza he was eating. 'Why do I feel like something horrible is going to happen soon?' He asked himself, looking around. When his eyes settled on his jacket, he swore when he realized that he'd accidentally left Sanji's medicine bottle in his jacket pocket.
"Guess I'll have to run it back." He muttered, grabbing his coat and leaving the apartment at a fast walk. He hadn't gotten far when his phone rang, and Nami's voice came on over the phone.
"Get your ass down here! 109 is acting up again!" She shouted, making Zoro swear as he stored his phone away and broke into a dead run, hoping that he would make it back to the institiute before Sanji ended up killing someone again.
Sanji cackled as the hands grabbed his shoulders, trying with all their might to drag him away from the old doctor. He let them a little bit, kicking the man hard in the side and legs as they pulled him away. His feet slid along the cool tile and he grinned, but then they were pulling him too far away, he couldn't kick him and Sanji wouldn't tolerate that.
Turning his head, he bit down on one of the hands at his shoulders and wheeled to kick the other hard in the gut when the first pulled away and swore.
"Thought you wanted to die~?", he crowed, racing at Zeff again before more hands caught him, "It's just like you, all about your record, all about what you want..." Kicking one of the nurses in the shins, grabbing the sedative that they'd gotten out to put him down with before pumping it into the system of the nurse that he hadn't kicked.
Zeff was getting up off the floor, holding the ribs that the blonde had probably broken; he looked ready to fight. Turning and pushing the body of the unconscious nurse into the other nurses that were coming towards him, Sanji grinned at the old man who was bravely standing before him. Then he lunged.
Zoro burst through the institution door in time to see Sanji kick one nurse and sedate the other. Standing there stunned for a heartbeat, he lunged when Sanji did, hitting the blond patient in the small of the back. It wasn't enough to knock him over, but at least he had been briefly derailed from his target. "Sanji, NO!" he shouted, and eventually did tackle the blond when he lunged again, knocking him to the floor.
"What the hell is going on!" He demanded of the blond beneath him, holding onto him with his arms around his waist as the other tried to squirm away.
Sanji wriggled and clawed to get away, wanting desperately to mame the old doctor but only could watch as he got up and left. Holding his ribs; at least the patient had done some form of damage.
When he was gone the blond stilled, laying with his cheek against the cool tile floor, vaguely aware that Zoro was still anchored to him.
Not letting go of Sanji until the last nurse had left the office, Zoro continued to sit on top of the patient, unaware that the position he had used to subdue the madman was ... awkward to look at from behind. "Are you calm now?" Zoro panted once everyone had left, slowly letting go of Sanji as his cramped arms began to twinge from being in one position for so long.
Sanji didn't answer him.
"He'll have something to talk about around the water cooler now", he mumbled before slowly pushing himself up and sitting in his usual spot between the bed and the toilet. "He deserved it..."
Rubbing his arms to get the circulation in them going again, the intern shot Sanji a stern look. "That doesn't mean you can get away with that." He stated. "For all either of us know, they might just decide to lock you up for good the next time you do that and I'm not around."
It had been something Zoro had noticed frequently as the weeks went by; he was some sort of tranquilizer for the blond, no matter how unnerving the thought could be.
Sanji said nothing to the effect of the young man's words; instead he traced his fingers along the grout lines before getting onto his hands and knees. Crawling across the floor to the intern, he grinned at the green haired male when he reached him. With cold hands, he reached and gently held Zoro's face, knowing that he probably expected abuse by now because he flinched.
The patient watched him flinch and grinned; running his fingers through that scruff that Zoro called his hair. It was surprisingly soft, it looked wirey and stiff but it wasn't.
Sitting the way he was on the floor, Zoro couldn't move as Sanji's fingers threaded through his hair. "Can I ... help you with something?" He asked, remembering what Sanji had been doing to him before his first panic attack over Akira. Again, he felt warmer than normal as the blond settled over him, fingers still tangled in his hair. "Sanji?"
The patient didn't seem to hear him as he fixated his attention on the man's hair; his fingertips tracing patterns down the man's neck. He could feel the muscles and tendons flexing beneath his touch; he swallowed and almost laughed in giddy surprise as the intern didn't push him away.
"Trust me", he whispered.
Trust me, put all your faith in me and let me show you that I wont let you down...
Letting his fingers wander down the man's chest, he wrenched away suddenly at the sound of one of the doors down the hall closing. The intercom button must've been sticking again, because his room was no longer sound proof all the time. When he'd waited and was sure that no one was going to catch him, he returned to his touching.
His touch was light, he traced patterns down the intern's arms, noting that they were all muscle and cracking a smile as he realized that this fact was probably somewhat due to his need to be restrained so often.
Zoro hissed and shivered under the touch, not fully liking the fact that his body warmed beneath Sanji's touch. Getting romantically involved with a patient was a very suicidal way to leave the profession ... Sitting still, he registered Sanji's two words only vaguely as he began to relax under the teasing touch.
The door closing snapped his attention to it, and he felt a cold wave of fear run through him. 'I should probably be leaving now ...' He thought to himself, listening to the silence as it returned. However, the thought left him in a rush when Sanji started touching again, making Zoro begin to melt. A weak moan left his mouth and he slowly fell backwards to the tiled floor.
Sanji grinned at the sight of Zoro laying down on the cool tile; he pulled his fingers away and laid down beside the intern, watching him intently.
"Do you have a family?", he asked curiously.
"None that I talk to regularly. Why?" Zoro asked after a moment, letting the cold tile numb his back.
The blond said nothing in return to the question, instead he just watched Zoro silently.
"I wish I had a family...", he said after a long silence; "a word of advice? Don't become an orphan..."
Become? How did one BECOME an orphan?
He said it like it was a choice, of course he did, it had been a choice for him...
Zoro didn't respnod, but stared at the ceiling blankly, the results of a long, stressful day. "mmhm, I'll keep that in mind ..." He replied after a good long while, yawning. Sitting up, he sighed. "Are you going to behave now? I'd like to go home."
Sanji just smirked.
"If I say no, will you stay with me all night?"
"I don't think the security guards would let that happen." Zoro laughed weakly, not really wanting to entertain the thought of spending the evening in a cell with Sanji.
Not that he had flat out refused ...
The blond seemed to contemplate the answer for a moment, using the time as an excuse to take in the intern's features and grinning.
"Give me a kiss and I'll be good~", he stated wickedly, silently telling the intern that it wasn't really a request.
Zoro stared at Sanji for a good long while, chewing on his lower lip. A part of his mind was panicking over the statement, but after looking to make certain that nobody was coming, he sighed and looked at Sanji.
"On the mouth?" He asked weakly, although he highly suspected that was what it was.
To Zoro's dismay the patient said nothing but grinned wider, making it clear that a kiss on the lips was exactly what he wanted. He didn't know why but he didn't want the green haired male to just give in to him, he wanted him to fight him; make it as physical on his end as it was on Sanji's. So when he relented towards him, the mad man pulled away and stood to go to his cot.
"Should have stuck to your guns", he said lightly, repeating a line from one of their other encounters.
Zoro blinked and scowled, also standing up. "With someone as hard headed as you, perhaps I should have." He muttered, grabbing the blond's thin wrist. "Stand still so we can get this over with."
Sanji jumped at the intern's sudden aggressiveness, his eyes widening ever so slightly as a shiver of electricity snaked down his spine, He wanted him to pin him down, throw him against the wall, bend his arm backwards until it cracked so hard it threatened to break.
Can you do that?
Reaching up suddenly he threaded his free hand around Zoro's skull, cupping it in a firm grip.
Hit me, hurt me, punish me for being bad...show me you love me enough to let me trust you not to hurt me too badly...
Pulling him down by his hair, he kissed him darkly, making him stumble slightly to keep his balance. He could feel Zoro's grip strengthen on his wrist and he bit away a moan.
Not letting go of the thin wrist in his large hand, Zoro involuntarily responded to the dark kiss, pressing his weight against Sanji to try and force him back onto the bed. He didn't know why, but he liked this contact, now that he was actually somewhat complying to the interaction instead of being half molested.
Sanji felt a soft whimper escape him as he was forced back onto the bed; his body heating in a way it hadn't in a long time. His hand slowly unknotted from the intern's scruffy green mane and let it travel down. Pulling away he gave the man an evil grin, as his hand closed around the back of Zoro's upper thigh and forced him to press against him before kissing him again.
Zoro shuddered faintly at the hand on his thigh, instinctively opening his mouth a fraction to protest. Doing so, however, made his teeth graze against Sanji's lower lip, which was just inviting him to chew on it. The hand that wasn't holding down Sanji's wrist slipped up the patient's arm until it found the other thin wrist.
Gripping it tightly, he yanked on it so that he could hold both of Sanji's hands above his head, still keeping the blond's mouth occupied.
Sanji groaned and bucked up against the other man, feeling his hands hit the cool porcelain behind his head. Finally he tipped his head up, breaking the kiss and panting. The eyes were there, in his head, and the mouth was there, grinning and cruel.
Zeff limped his way angrily into the surveillance office, irritated about the encounter with Sanji and the fact that he'd had to have Chopper patch him up again. Zoro was like Novocain for patient 109 and that fact above all the others pissed him off; he didn't like it, he didn't want him to get the recognition that went with a patient like 109; not when it was he who deserved it for these past years of injury in the line of duty.
Mentally noting to yell at that damn security guard-what was his name...Usopp?-the head doctor turned to leave, glancing at Sanji's cell camera out of habit. The sight he saw made him stop and a glare came over his face; Zoro had Sanji pinned to the wall, sprawled over his cot and was kissing him.
Jamming his finger to the cut off button on Sanji's room he left and headed back down to the cell floor, and was there when Zoro came from Zanji's cell.
Zoro had known he was in over his head the moment the second kiss had broken, but he was completely okay with it. Staring down at Sanji as the blond panted for air, the intern felt a thrill go through him, but he knew that he was pushing his luck. "I have to go ..." Zoro mumbled, lifting up and standing.
Adjusting the coat he wore over his clothes, Zoro shook off the suspicious feeling that someone was watching him as he left the room. Stepping out of the doorway, it took a lot of self control for the green haired intern not to flinch when he saw a very angry Zeff approaching him. 'Great ... what's got him pissed off now? the fact that I don't get hurt working with Sanji?' Zoro wondered to himself, walking down the hallway as casual as he could manage.
Surprisingly the head doctor only stopped in his path briefly to talk to the intern; his voice was cold.
"Turn in your I.D. card, you're fired..." then he continued on his way towards Sanji's cell.
Zoro blinked, stunned and lost. "'You're fired ...'?" he mouthed, blinking. When it finally settled in, Zoro scowled greatly, glaring at Zeff's retreating back. 'Fine; don't blame me when Sanji kills you deader than dead.'
Turning around, he continued to walk towards the exit, shoving his hands in his pockets as they began to ball into fists.