True to his word Sanji ensured that Zoro didn't get a chance to sneak off on his own, as such Zoro was spending his morning following Sanji around pulling the cart which Sanji was steadily loading up with food and supplies for the ship. The cook was however flirting shamelessly with every female store owner and passing skirt that they came across which was really starting to put Zoro in a foul mood.
Sanji had been 'educating' him all morning on how to tell if food had any peanuts in it. For a start he was banned from eating any mixed nuts because it was likely that they would have come into contact with peanuts even if they didn't have peanuts themselves in them. Secondly he was banned from eating anything advertised as 'nutty' just to be on the safe side, even if whoever was selling it insisted that there weren't any peanuts inside. Sanji had known merchants to lie just to make a sale, not caring whether someone's health was at risk.
As well he'd been told to ask everyone that he got food from if it had peanuts in just in case, even if it didn't look like it had nuts in. And furthermore if he was in doubt he was to not eat anything at all, Sanji argued that being hungry was better than being dead or suffering a massive allergic reaction.
Zoro thought that this was both excessive and stupid. Besides, this allergic reaction thing was just another weakness that he would learn to train out, just like any other. He wasn't about to just dive into a barrel of nuts but he figured that small doses could train up some resistance in him, not that he would do so right now of course, he wasn't stupid, but he would do it soon. Anyway, he wasn't a complete idiot, he didn't need to go through all of these stupid precautions, he could tell if something had peanuts in it.
And right now he was hungry and he wasn't about to drag Sanji back to the ship to make him something to eat just to be safe. Sanji had already gone through enough for him and he wasn't about to get on the cook's bad side by making it worse, especially when the two of them actually seemed to be getting along for a change.
He eyed up the food stall across the street, tempting smells of sizzling chicken wafted across the plaza to him. Sanji was busy flirting with a girl selling tomatoes. His stomach growled menacingly and Zoro obediently followed its orders and walked across the plaza with the cart in tow behind him.
"What is it?" Zoro asked the vendor as he pointed at the sizzling chicken in concession to Sanji's stupid rules and regulations.
"Grilled chicken skewers with a red pepper sauce. You want it or not?" The man said gruffly, clearly unimpressed by Zoro's question. Zoro decided that it would be wise not the ask any more questions and fished a few beli out of his pockets and paid the man. The gruff vendor laid out two sizzled chicken skewers on a cheap plate and poured some of the sauce on top and passed it unceremoniously to Zoro with an unimpressed expression on his face.
The man's sour attitude aside Zoro was really hungry and the food did smell good. His mouth watered eagerly in anticipation for his lunch. Hungrily he raised the plate and seized the edge of one of the wooden kebab skewers.
Suddenly a black shoe flew through his field of vision and Zoro watched in horror as his lunch sailed through the air and over the roof of the next building. The vendor looked angrily in the cook's direction and dragged his little food stall off in a huff.
"What he hell shit-cook? It was just chicken!" Zoro yelled angrily turning to face the cook.
"Cooked in peanut oil you blithering moss-brained moron! I could smell it from all the way back there!" Sanji snapped back, his one blue eye blazing furiously.
"Well-" Zoro floundered, he had to say something. "Well you owe me for that lunch! I paid good money for that!"
"Owe you? I just saved your stupid life! You owe me!" Sanji spluttered wide-eyed.
Zoro opened his mouth to retort when a sudden burning sensation in his hand grabbed his attention.
"Agh!" He yelped flicking his hand, there was a big splash of sauce on his hand, it must have been hotter than he thought. Some of the scalding sauce was still on his hand, he raised his hand to his mouth to suck the sauce off of his skin. It was silly but sometimes something that would burn your skin would be just fine in your mouth and he had no idea to leave a giant burn on his skin. But before he could put his hand to his mouth Sanji snatched his hand closer to him and a heavy show thunked into his chest, keeping Zoro apart from his own hand.
Sanji tugged Zoro's hand closer and suddenly Zoro was aware that his hand was burning and starting to feel like his back had on the ship when Sanji and Chopper had been trying to run those stupid torture tests on him to find out what he was allergic to.
"Don't you ever listen to a goddamn thing I say?" Sanji growled.
And then Sanji put his mouth on Zoro's skin and the swordsman's mind went temporarily blank. The cook's mouth was on Zoro's hand, right where that burning scalding sauce had been. And- oh god, now Sanji was sucking on his skin and there was just enough of a hint of teeth scraping against his skin for Zoro's skin to break out into goose bumps.
Then Sanji's tongue licked along the inside of the seal that his lips had made on Zoro's hand. Zoro was well aware by now that he was probably standing there bright red and gawping at Sanji with every desire that he'd ever felt for the cook written plainly across his face for all to see. But there was nothing that he could do about it because Sanji was licking him for goodness sake!
Sanji's heel slowly pulled away from Zoro's chest and Zoro stumbled forward slightly now that Sanji wasn't pushing against him. Sanji straightened up, his toe skimming Zoro's hip on the way to the floor in a way that heated something in Zoro's gut. Zoro could see through the curtain of Sanji's hair that the cook's face was at least as red as his own felt.
Zoro stared as Sanji pulled his mouth away from Zoro's hand, it was only then that Zoro spotted that his whole hand up to his wrist was covered in angry red blotches.
"Idiot." Sanji breathed, his breath cooling the patch on Zoro's hand that was still wet with Sanji's saliva.
"Shit, we need to get you to Chopper now." Sanji said as he watched the redness creep up past Zoro's wrist and up his forearm.
Sanji pulled Zoro off toward the left and away from the cart of food that Zoro had spent the entire day dragging about. He reached back with his free arm to grab the cart, the last thing that he wanted to do was to piss Sanji off by forgetting the food.
"Leave the damn cart! We need to get you to Chopper NOW!" Sanji snapped, jerking on Zoro's arm, which the swordsman noticed was now red up to his elbow.
Zoro was so stunned about Sanji leaving perfectly good food behind that he was powerless to resist Sanji dragging him along. As they sprinted by shops, bars and restaurants he was more and more sure that this wasn't the way that they had come before. Nothing seemed familiar at all and he was sure that this was the opposite direction than they had come. He held out his other arm in front of him which too was starting to become covered in red burning blotches.
Suddenly the world span and tipped to the right and his vision went fuzzy. Zoro stumbled and fell, almost dragging Sanji down along with him.
"Zoro!" Sanji yelped, kneeling down and clutching the side of Zoro's face. Zoro swayed again, his head felt all swimmy and he wasn't sure which way was up any more.
"You're burning up, this isn't good." Sanji muttered as he pressed the back of his hand to Zoro's forehead. Zoro's eyes fluttered shut, Sanji's hand felt cold and good against his skin.
"How's your breathing? Can you walk?" Sanji asked, his voice rising in panic.
"I can walk, I just don't know which way is up any more." Zoro groaned and the world behind his eyes span again.
"Sounds like your usual lack of direction to me." Sanji laughed nervously as he hauled Zoro to his feet and wrapped Zoro's arm around his shoulder.
"We're nearly there, come on." Sanji urged as he ran in some direction, Zoro could tell which one. He could barely keep himself upright but at least he could still support his own weight, he wasn't going to make Sanji carry him to Chopper. He forced his legs to move under him, trusting Sanji to steer him in the right direction. After a while Sanji dropped him to the floor and leant him back against a wall. He could hear Sanji frantically shouting for Chopper or anyone able to help. He was starting to find it a little hard to breathe and his entire body felt like it was on fire.
"I don't understand, I didn't even eat that stupid chicken." He gasped as he started to feel his chest tighten. Zoro squeezed his eyes shut, this wasn't good.
"Good thing too or you'd probably be dead, you said it touched his skin though right?" Chopper's little voice said by Zoro's ear. Zoro frowned, when had Chopper got here?
"I'll kill you if you put me through this again god damnit. I'm not trusting you to eat anyone else's food again, you're too dumb!" Sanji snapped angrily.
"You say that as if eating just your food for the rest of my life is a punishment." Zoro chucked, his head lolling forward onto Sanji's chest.
"You… you… what?" Sanji said in a small voice.
"I'm not repeating myself just to stroke your ego dart-brow. Ouch." He muttered as he felt the sting of Chopper's injection in his arm.
"You'd really actually want to eat my food alone for the rest of your life?" Sanji asked, his voice shaking for some unknown reason.
Zoro buried his face in the crook of Sanji's neck in the hope that it'd stop the world spinning so violently. His lips brushed Sanji's skin and he felt a feeling sense of familiarity that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He smiled against Sanji's skin.
"Why wouldn't I? It's perfect." He conceded, his breath rushing across Sanji's skin. He felt the bob of Sanji's Adam's apple against his lips and Zoro thought for the first time in a long while that the world was just perfect right now. And with that he faded into unconsciousness.