"Alright, let's make this quick," muttered Law, leaning forward on the metal table. "I've left a team of morons in charge of a batch of new cell groups, and they'd only gone and killed the whole colony. So I'd like to get back and try to rebuild the farm as soon as possible."
Sanji swallowed, trying to appear relaxed as he perched on his stool on the other end of the table. He glanced at Robin, sat to his left and opposite the tattooed doctor. Her face was as undercipherable as ever. She sat with perfect posture, eyes closed, and her arms around Chopper, who sat on her lap in his smallest form. Bepo was flitting around the room, clearing scalples and pipettes from the countertops from some experiment Law must've been performing before the start of the meeting.
"So," Law cleared his throat. "We'll start by assessing the current situation. How's Tigey?"
It took a while, and a pointed stare from Law, for Sanji to realise that the question was directed at him.
"Uh, yeah. He's fine, I guess," answered the blonde. "You know, stroppy as usual."
He glanced at Robin, but she barely moved an inch. If she knew something, she wasn't letting on.
Law sighed. "You said you'd review the footage from the past week, Mrs Nico. Find anything useful?"
Robin's eyes opened slowly. Her piercing glance moved between the two men, before she let out a sigh.
"Unfortunately, it would seem that we have no footage."
Sanji balked.
"What?" exclaimed Law.
"It seems there was an error in the installation of the recorder transponder, Mr Black," said Robin, her eyes boring down on the cook. "Perhaps, during the chaos Mr Zoro caused when attacking Chopper, you failed to insert the transponder into the slot correctly. We didn't record a single thing."
"Ah, sorry my dear Robin," Sanji apologized through an uneasy chuckle. But he was dying to let out a sigh of relief. For now, his and Zoro's secret was safe. The tiger could remain in his care.
"I suppose these things happen," continued the raven-haired woman. "At least now, we have a fully functional and properly installed transponder in the tiger room. We should have new footage in two weeks."
Sanji swallowed the feeling of guilt bubbling up in the pit of his stomach. Robin wasn't going to like the fact that he destroyed the panel…
"Speaking of malfunctioning technology, I guess I do have something to report regarding the tracking chip," said Law.
Sanji's stomach plunged further into the depths of guilt. He forgot all about the chip! Balling his hands into fists and shoving them in his pockets, Sanji stared at the table's surface, awaiting Law's report.
The doctor checked his bangle. A small, green line projected in to the air above his hand.
"Usually, I can get a clear reading of the chip from wherever I am, but recently, the signal line has been flat."
"Flat?" Chopper piped up, panic shaking his voice. "Why? Wh-what does that mean?"
Law shrugged, the hologram shrinking back into his bangle. "It could be a number of things. The signal getting interfered by everything else between my reading and the chip. It could be that the chip is damaged, or my bangle is. We may have to install a new one."
"Well, do we really need a chip?" asked Sanji, receiving a solemn glare from Law for it. "I mean, Zoro's pretty much locked up. I'm not going anywhere near him anymore, and lovely Robin's already got him under surveillance twenty-four seven. Isn't it a bit… overkill?"
"Besides," Robin added. "With the way he is now, I doubt Mr Zoro would let you put another chip in him willingly. You'll have to sedate him again."
Law shook his head. "No. I think he's had enough drugs to last him a lifetime… Fine. We'll put off the chip for now."
Sanji did sigh in relief this time, but covered it under a cough, hiding his lips behind his hands as he leaned on the table. He glanced over at Robin, wondering if she took his side because she knew something, but the her face was still unreadable.
"Well," Law continued. "We haven't got much to go on without a proper analysis then."
"U-um," Chopper spoke up. "If it helps, after my last check up, Zoro's health seems stable now, and there's barely any trace of the sedatives left in his systems."
"Good," replied Law. "Our killing machine is back in top condition. Great."
"It is as you said, Doctor Law," said Robin. "Without the video feed, and with the tiger still refusing social contact, there isn't much we can do."
"Actually…" started Sanji, deciding that he might as well throw them something. "Zoro has started talking again."
Law and Robin's wide-eyed stares snapped to the blonde. Sanji shuddered, wondering if he should've kept withholding information like in originally planned.
"When?" asked Law.
"The other night, when Luffy was around."
"You really should let us know these things sooner, Sanji…"
"I'm sorry," interjected Robin. "Did I hear that correctly? Luffy went to see Zoro?"
Sanji gave Robin a slow and nervous nod. Robin threw Law a bewildering stare, her lips parted.
The doctor shrugged and shook his head. "It's fine if he knows. Not like this project was meant to be secret, anyway."
"Yes…" Robin hummed. "But I think the President might have something to say about keeping a faulty Companion in the residential areas."
"If the President even hears about this. You know what Luffy is like with details."
Law paused, face scrunching into a frown as he turned to Sanji. "I was there that night, wasn't I? I caught you coming back from Mainland."
"You don't remember? Geez, I had a feeling you were drunk, but not that drunk."
Law's eyes widened. "I wasn't drunk."
"Uh-huh. Yeah. That's why you stank of booze, right?"
"Gentlemen," Robin called their attention. "If the topic of conversation could sway back the project, please?"
Sanji leaned forward. "Of course! Sorry, Robin my dear."
"You said the tiger was talking when Luffy was around, right?" asked Law.
Sanji nodded.
"Alright, here's what we'll do," the doctor paused to pull a sheet of glass from a panel on the side of the table. He laid it flat on the surface and a green hologram of a graph and a timetable projected into the air.
"Mrs Nico, if it's alright with you, I'd like to halt your social interactions with the tiger for now. Right now, I want all human contact with the specimen restricted to the barest minimum. However, Chopper, Bepo, Luffy and any other Companions are allowed to interact with him in whatever way."
"Am I allowed to talk to him?" asked Sanji.
"You'll have to be the barest minimum. You are the nutritionist after all."
Law tapped on the projected timetable, highlighting some slots and changing some of the measures on the graph.
"In two weeks time, we'll assess the footage and Sanji's first hand observations and we'll make our next moves based on that."
"What are you hoping to achieve from this?" Questioned Robin, her piercing eyes glinting with interest.
Law leaned back on his stool and crossed his arms. "It seems that the tiger is more social and relaxed around his kind. I'm hoping more interactions with friendly and level-headed Companions will get him to calm down and come out of his shell."
Robin nodded. "Alright. I agree with the plan."
Sanji shrugged. "Worth a shot."
"Then it's settled, and I guess I will see you two again in a fortnight."
After Law closed the holograms and stashed away the tablet, Robin excused herself and flitted off with Chopper clopping after her in his full reindeer form.
Law let out a ragged sigh and sat back in his stool, rubbing the dark circles under his eyes. Sanji sensed something was off and stalled a little by taking his time to roll a cigarette.
"Ah, fuck," muttered the doctor, raising his arms and folding his hands behind his head, joints popping as he moved.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just fucking tired…"
Silence drew out between the two of them. Sanji decided to roll a second cigarette and passed the other one to Law, sliding both the stick and his lighter across the table.
Law narrowed his eyes at the blonde. "You can't smoke in my lab."
Sanji shrugged. "You're finished using it for the day, right?"
Law hesitated, but promptly lit up, the cherry blazing red as he took in a deep drag of smoke.
"Just this once, alright?" he threatened, as he passed the lighter back to the cook.
They smoked for a while with no exchange of words. Sanji watched his friend out of the corner of his eyes, as Law stared up at the luminous ceiling, slowly filing up with smoke.
"Let's go out together," said Law.
Sanji chuckled. "I'm flattered, but I see you as more of a brother."
"You know what I mean, you fuck," Law smiled and kicked the legs of the metal table. "Let's go out to Mainland and get absolutely smashed. Pick up a few women. Do you think that guy that sells Mecillin is still banging around in the Underground?"
Sanji glared at the doctor. This was bordering on dangerous territory.
"Law…"
"I'm just kidding. Maybe not so much about the booze and the women."
"Where's this all coming from all of a sudden?"
Law started shuffling in his seat like an impatient child. "We haven't been out in ages, and then you go and disappear off to Mainland and have some fun by yourself!"
"I already told you, I went to the shelter."
"Quit lying. At that time of night? You went out to see someone, didn't you?"
Sanji sighed and lowered his head until his temple hit the table with a soft thud.
"Jesus, there's no winning with you, is there?"
"C'mon, let's do it. When are you next off? We can get Usopp and Franky to join us."
"Law…"
"Maybe the girls will come to. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Nami in a while, either."
Sanji sat up, looking his friend in the eye. "Ah, you know I'm just as tied down with work as you are."
"And yet here's me, willing to squeeze in a bit of party time, and you making excuses again."
"Yeah," said Sanji, narrowing his eyes. The doctor let something important slip then. "Why are you so eager to get out all of a sudden? Usually, it's all cell groups this and experiments that."
"Eh, I wanna cut loose for a bit," replied Law, rubbing at his eyes again.
"You want a break? Take a holiday! You're due one, right?"
Law chuckled. "You know I don't have time to take a holiday. I leave my staff for a few minutes and they end up ruining a colony. What'll happen if I'm gone for a few weeks?"
Sanji laughed, but he was alone in that. Law's face returned to it's sullen solemnity. He shrunk back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling again. Sanji let the silence draw out between them, knowing that if he was quiet for a long enough time, the usually reserved doctor would speak his mind.
"It's all just been rinse and repeat recently," muttered Law, almost inaudibly. "I just want a quick break. I don't want to go away. You know how important all this is to me. It's just… It's been dragging…"
He watched the tattooed doctor blow a stream of smoke into the air. A heaviness in his chest told Sanji he knew exactly what his friend meant. That all this work they've been so passionately invested in over the years can tend to wear you down. All this utopia given to them can be just as dangerous…
"Law," said Sanji, getting up from his seat. "Take a break. I mean it. Even if it's just a week. You look like you need that week to catch up on sleep you've lost."
The doctor didn't reply, didn't move from staring at the ceiling. Worry niggled in the back of Sanji's skull.
"Get off the Island for a couple of weeks," Sanji added. "You've still got family up north, right? When was the last time you'd visited them?"
Law rose from his seat, stubbing out his cigarette on a circular dish on one of the counters to the side.
"Yeah… Maybe you're right," he said. "But that doesn't change the fact I still wanna go out."
Sanji laughed. "Fine, if it'll make you happy. I'll let you know when I'm next free."
Law grinned then. "I'm gonna get you so drunk, and pull you the most beautiful woman out there that night."
"Jesus…"
"Or man! Whatever you feel like at the time."
Sanji sighed, shaking his head and following Law and Bepo out of the lab. At least, for now, the dull sheen in his eyes and the dark cloud over his head was gone. Whatever it was.
Zoro was catnapping on the couch when Sanji got home. The tiger's ears perked at the sound of the shutting door and he glanced at Sanji from behind the armrests.
Sanji frowned. "You really shouldn't let you guard drop like this. What if that wasn't me coming in then?"
Zoro only yawned in reply and stretched out of the couch. He turned to Sanji, brows slightly furrowed in concern.
"How did it go?"
Sanji took a deep breath. "They don't know about you getting out."
Zoro's face creased deeper into a frown. "How?"
"The day I put in the recorder transponder, you lashed out at Chopper and I panicked. Apparently, I didn't set it up properly. It didn't record anything."
Sanji moved to slump down on the couch. Zoro stayed where he lay, not moving to make room. His hand absently rose to rub the back of his neck.
"What about the tracking chip?" he asked.
Leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, Sanji hummed in thought.
"Law said the chip's not giving out a signal anymore. I've been thinking about this… What if, when I used the scrambler to get off your collar, it jammed the signals of the tracking chip too?"
"It can do that?"
"Probably. When Usopp first finished it, he brought it to Law's lab to show off. Ended up nearly crashing the whole system. It's pretty strong."
Zoro's stripes straightened, face no longer creased. His shoulder relaxed and his tail swayed gently behind him.
"Law does want to get another one put in you though," said Sanji.
The tiger tensed again, sneering and growling.
Sanji raised his hands. "It's alright. I've managed to stall him for now, he won't do it any time soon."
"I don't want another tracking chip."
"I'll convince him not to use one. There really is no point anyway, if you're locked up in here all the time. Well, if he thinks you're locked up in here."
Zoro sighed and sank lower into the couch.
"How long do we have to keep up this act anyway?" he grumbled.
"I've been thinking about that too."
Sanji paused to light up a cigarette. "Law wants to have you interact with Companions more than humans for the next two weeks. He's hoping that'll get you to open up more. If we play along with his expectations, it'll be easier for us to get him to slacken security on you."
Zoro chuffed, folding his arms across his chest. "That all depends on what sort of Companions he wants to shove in my face. If I can't stand them, I can't be held responsible for what happens to them."
Sanji smirked at that. "It won't be anyone you don't know. At first, anyway. Likely candidates are Chopper, Bepo and Luffy."
"So I just have to pretend to be pally with these three?"
Sanji mulled it over, taking a long drag from his cigarette. The last thing he wanted was for Zoro to put up a pretense. He just wanted the tiger to ease into his surroundings. Having him pretend to be tame seemed to defeat the object of convincing him to return to the island the night before last.
"You don't have to pretend anything," said Sanji. "Just don't kill or attack any of them."
"And how's that gonna convince Law that I'm 'being tamed'?"
"I think at this rate, even if you make direct eye contact with a human, Law will take it as a sign of progress."
The questions died down after that. Sanji put out his cigarette on the coffee table and lit up a new one.
"It does mean that we'll probably be getting visitors more often though," added the blonde. "So you'll have to be on your guard more."
"That means you want me to stay in that room again, right?"
Sanji glanced over at the tiger. His eyes were following the fish swimming around the tank, but they were dull and distant. Ever since he got out, Zoro hasn't been anywhere near the tiger room, save for the times Robin visited. And ever since he got back, Zoro appeared more and more restless, itching to be out in the open again.
Stubbing out his cigarette, Sanji got up and strode the coat rack in the entryway. He grabbed the beanie hanging beside his jacket and threw it at the tiger who stared at him, bewildered.
"Why don't we got out to Mainland again tonight?"
Zoro glanced down at the beanie and back at the blonde, eyes wide and burning.
"But…"
"It's fine. No-one's gonna come visit us now at this time of night, and I don't have to be up particularly early tomorrow."
"Okay," Zoro answered immediately, pushing himself off the couch. Didn't need to tell him twice.
Sanji couldn't hide his grin as he grabbed his jacket and ring of keycards. He felt that rush again, of smuggling Zoro out. Of keeping this wonder of the past world to himself. His heart was drumming in his chest, and they weren't even out of the flat yet. Once Zoro's stripes were stashed beneath the beanie and behind a coat that now fitted him properly, the pair slunk out into the hallway and entered the lift. As they descended, Sanji wondered if Zoro shared the same sentiment.