Sanji struggles against the ties binding him to the circle that he is trapped inside. It feels like something distinctly powerful but also fragile. He looks around the room and sees everyone's figures warping like funhouse mirrors, all of them except for Zoro. Zoro is slumped on the floor, the fresh forming bruise on his forehead and all of the rest of him rendered in perfect clarity.
So that's what's keeping him here.
He flexes his wrists against the tie and touches it with his fingers. It's blood, well, dried blood animated into a chain and diluted with alcohol and some other oil, cloves perhaps. The fact that he can see Zoro properly and not the others is hint enough that it's Zoro's blood. Zoro did tell him that his special "virgin blood" was useful in rituals. There's a bandage on Zoro's forearm that suggests that the draw was fresh, and given Zoro's own bound state it was likely not freely offered.
Rage boils inside Sanji, and he pulls against the blood bond. Virginity is a stupid concept, Sanji doesn't believe in it, and Zoro doesn't believe in it, so it has no power here. The only people who buy into is are the ones who made this trap, and if they really trusted it, they wouldn't have put two other layers of protection around it. Therefore, no one believes this works, and so, quite literally like magic, it no longer works.
The blood chains around Sanji shatter and then splash to the floor. The pulsing in Sanji's ears dies down, and the rest of the world outside of Zoro comes into true focus.
Sanji stands gracefully and smoothly and calmly cracks his knuckles as he turns to face the group of people around the circle. Alarmed faces look back at him, and Sanji regards them all coldly.
"I really want to hear how you all thought this was a good idea." Sanji says flatly.
"You're gonna pay for hurting Zoro, the only reason I'm not kicking your ass in person is because it'd screw with the circles!" A kid in a big straw hat shouts at him.
"Zoro wouldn't have told you that I'm hurting him because I'm not, and he's no liar." Sanji points out and walks away from the kid as much as he can so that he's off to the side where Zoro is slumped on the floor.
"Zoro, can you hear me?" Sanji asks softly.
Zoro's eyes flutter open, and Sanji can see how unfocused they are, his breathing is sluggish and uneven. What the hell did Zoro's so called friends do to him?
"You don't get to talk to him, you talk to us." A woman snaps and crouches down between the two of them, blocking Sanji's view.
Sanji bites down on his irritated hiss, Zoro is clearly not going anywhere, so maybe Sanji should work on these lot. He looks the woman up and down. She is wearing a knee-length wrapped skirt and her legs below it are bare and covered in rich jewel-toned feathers, her eyes are birdlike and sharply focused on him.
"You must be the rather ironically named Robin, the part siren. You know, Zoro was trying to convince me that we could all meet and be friends. He seemed to think that the way the humans treat you with suspicion would make you sympathetic to me. I guess we know the answer to that now then, hmm?" Sanji sneers and stands up again, he doesn't miss the flash of hurt on her face. That barb landed.
"So let's guess the rest of you then. I'm already acquainted with the cowardly squealing Usopp over there, I bet you feel real proud right now." Sanji says, and Usopp puffs up his chest.
"I got around your stupid deal didn't I?" He brags.
"I should have put you through the same pain you put Zoro through every time you thought about breaking it. I guess this is what I get for leaving out clauses like that in an effort to be nice to Zoro's friends." Sanji says bitterly. It really was a weak contract, but he figured it only had to last a little while with Zoro's friends, especially as Zoro wouldn't let him kill the bastard.
"So ok, I know who Robin is, that makes you Nami. Half harpy. Was the blood thing your idea because Zoro did tell me that you were smart, so I'd be disappointed if it was." He tuts.
"I don't see you getting out of the other two." She points out smugly.
"Sweetheart, you don't see me trying." Sanji replies smartly.
He looks around the rest of the group, it's a process of elimination now.
"It's pretty easy to spot the lich in the room. Brook, yes?" Sanji asks, looking at the skeleton which somehow still has hair.
"Correct." The man nods.
"Zoro thought that you and I would get along, that you'd understand me. But I can't help noticing that you have me locked up here." Sanji says calmly.
"Zoro is clearly not thinking normally, he's under some kind of spell that we can't remove. So it's regrettable, but this is our only choice." Brook says, and to his credit, he does sound unhappy.
"I suppose that Zoro told you he wasn't under any spell." Sanji says.
"Correct." Brook nods.
"And I'm telling you that I didn't put any spell on him to affect his mind, beyond the painkiller to soothe the damage that Usopp did to his arm that time. Do you believe me?" Sanji asks, though he knows the answer.
"You have every reason to lie, so I am afraid that I cannot believe you." Brook replies one last time.
"How convenient for you all. You've all decided that I deserve to die before I even got here, no matter what the alleged "victim" says in my defence." Sanji says waspishly.
"You, tall and metal. Franky the genius engineer I suppose. The furry incompetent doctor is Chopper. Which makes hat boy here Luffy. I know the whole lynch mob, how cosy. So what's your genius plan from here, hmm?" Sanji demands, pacing back and forth as he stares at them.
"The plan is that we make you undo whatever it is that you did to Zoro. He's my friend, looking after him is my responsibility!" Luffy says angrily.
"But I didn't do anything, there's nothing to undo." Sanji says calmly, and Luffy clenches his fists in anger.
"Are you sure that I can't go in there and kick his ass?" Luffy asks, turning around to look at the harpy again.
Zoro groans and with some effort manages to lever himself onto his side, his expression is pained, and Sanji drops his focus on his captors to focus on Zoro.
"Hey, is whatever they did wearing off?" Sanji asks softly, crouching down to get a good look at Zoro.
"Mmmsorry." Zoro slurs and struggles to sit up, he takes a few tries, but he manages it. Sanji has to say that the effort makes Zoro go worryingly pale for a few moments and the sheen of sweat on his skin is worrying indeed.
"What're you sorry for?" Sanji asks gently.
"They got your name, it's my fault that… that they got you here. They found the paper… thought I'd destroyed it." Zoro says, clearly furious at himself.
"It's not your fault Zoro, I don't blame you." Sanji assures him gently. He doesn't blame Zoro, it's clear that his friends would do anything to catch Sanji. Zoro already told him that the siren can charm him into saying and doing things he doesn't want to, how ironic that she could use that skill to get Sanji here to murder him for supposedly doing the very same.
"Is this right?" A voice asks, and Sanji looks up to see that it is Brook speaking.
"What?" Franky asks, wide-eyed in shock.
"I mean, I know he's an incubus but what does he have to gain from this? This seems… real." Brook says uneasily, and Sanji has to restrain himself from smiling. Maybe there is hope here after all.
"'Cause it IS real!" Zoro shouts and nearly unbalances himself in the process.
"He's lying, he's manipulated Zoro into feelings things for him that he never would!" Usopp yells, waving his stupid arms around. Sanji hates that fucking selkie brat with all the strength of the fires of hell.
"Brook, we all promised not to let Zoro get involved with bad guys anymore. This demon took advantage of Zoro's loneliness, I don't care why. It's unforgivable." Luffy says coldly, glaring at Sanji. There's something there, something in his stare that shows more rage than Sanji was expecting. Like it's more personal than just looking out for a friend.
"I wasn't lonely! Don't make me sound pathetic!" Zoro argues angrily, the slur starting to fade from his speech.
"You're taking that awfully personally." Sanji says slowly, staring Luffy down. The rage in Luffy intensifies, and Sanji feels a lightbulb go off.
"You're like Zoro, aren't you? I wouldn't be able to seduce you either, would I?" Sanji guesses and Luffy snarls. So the kid feels protective over Zoro because he thinks that Sanji has stepped over some boundaries that Luffy himself is obviously very personally invested in.
"Tell us what you did to Zoro to make him agree to do anything with you, or else." Luffy says coldly.
"I work on consent, if I have to force someone to consent, then it isn't consent. What part of that confuses you?" Sanji sneers back, he's genuinely insulted here.
"He's telling the truth, let us both go." Zoro says, he sounds woozier than he did earlier and Sanji frowns. He was supposed to be getting better, but now he looks like he's going to fall over at any moment. Sanji figures that at least it means that no one else is going to use whatever magic they had on him to make him docile again, or at least not until this stuff wears off.
"Nami, turn it up." Luffy orders.
Nami holds her hand up, and runes and a circle appear around her hand, and the innermost circle begins to glow. Sanji frowns and looks down at it, scanning over the sigils and signs in there making up his cage. He feels his blood freeze as he sees his name, no wonder this is so strong, it's targeting him specifically.
He nearly staggers as suddenly everything feels far heavier, as if Nami turned the gravity up on him. A jolt of pain lashes out at him from the circle, skipping right through his skin and into his nervous system. It hurts but Sanji has dealt with far worse.
"Tell us what you did and how to fix it, we can keep making this worse for you." Robin says coldly.
Sanji says nothing, he's not going to beg for his life from these people. Besides, it's not as if they'd listen anyway. If he gets really hurt Zeff will probably come to find him anyway, the problem then would be with Zoro. If Zoro's friends die because of him, it's entirely likely that their new and somewhat fragile bond might break and then Sanji would die of a broken heart anyway. Or if Zeff inadvertently kills Zoro as he tries to free Sanji then Sanji dies from that. He's really fucked here.
His best shot is to break these barriers himself by force, not an easy task given that they have his name. Everything has a weak spot, and he has all the motivation in the world. Sanji jams his hands into the barrier line and pushes past the pain to try to feel the shape of the spell underneath, there has to be a weakness. He can hear Zoro's friends shouting and bickering about whether the spell will hold or not.
The shouting all stops though when a weight barrels into Sanji's side, knocking him to the floor.
"I'm a genius." Zoro's voice hisses in Sanji's ear.
Sanji sits up in alarm to see that Zoro managed to leap from outside the circle to the inside of it with him. His face is tight with pain and Sanji can see the barrier starting to attack Zoro's more vulnerable human body as well as Sanji's own.
"Zoro! What the hell? You can't- it'll kill you! Anything strong enough to keep him contained will turn you to dust eventually!" Usopp shouts in dismay.
"You should let us out then." Zoro says through gritted teeth, and his hand finds Sanji's and grasps it hard.
"We can't, that demon fucker will kill all of us if we do." Robin says in horror.
"But Zoro will die if we don't." Franky finishes for her.
Zoro is grimacing, but Sanji can see a grin under there. That was admittedly smart, incredibly stupid but smart.
"You shouldn't put your life at risk for me, dumbass. I could have got out of here on my own given enough time! Don't look so pleased with yourself!" Sanji scolds him, but Zoro is entirely unrepentant.
Zoro's friends are arguing in fear about what to do, how to help Zoro while keeping Sanji chained and there is no way. Zoro's actions being held up as both proof and counter proof to Sanji's supposed mind control.
Sanji sees another crack of black lightning whip out from the barrier and strike Zoro across the cheek. For Sanji it is pain, survivable but very unpleasant. For Zoro though, pure human and nothing more, it is far worse. Sanji can see it leaving spiderwebs of blackness under his skin, a living death soon to beat out the living part. Zoro looks pained but nowhere near what he should be.
"I guess I should be glad I'm still kind of numb from Chopper, huh?" Zoro says jokingly, though he flinches from pain at the end of his sentence.
This will kill him, he's going to die, and as he is Sanji's ironically exposed heart, Sanji will go too. He crawls over Zoro, shielding him from the rolling black lightning with his body, hoping to catch the worst of it. Even then it won't be enough.
"I'll make you a deal." Sanji says, looking up at Zoro's friends who at once stop their arguing and look at Sanji in surprise.
"Something equivalent to these rings. All you want is for me to not be able to hurt any of you and for me to be stuck in one place until you are satisfied, yes? I can do that with a deal, one that won't kill Zoro. None of us wants him dead so can't we agree on that?" Sanji says. He's not begging, but it's close. Pain lashes up his arm, but at least it didn't get Zoro.
"We can't trust his deals, he makes you take them when you have no choice!" Usopp hisses angrily.
"Well, of course he does. It's a demon deal. But we can't leave Zoro in there, he's barely awake anymore!" Franky yells in exasperation.
"Name your terms." Nami says sternly.
"I'm getting the materials to erase the circles." Brook says lowly and ducks away from the group to rifle through some bags.
Sanji mentally runs through what he needs in this deal and what he can reasonably expect the others to accept.
"I'm sorry." Zoro rasps and Sanji leans down closer over him. He needs to make this deal fast.
"Everyone who agrees to this deal is bound by the following terms, default on any part of the deal by any participant voids the entire deal. No participant may harm or kill another participant, Zoro, or any other human. The deal will end when either the terms are broken, or all participants agree mutually to end it. You agree not to discuss or allude to my existence or this deal to anyone on this planet, except Zoro, who has the power to harm or kill me in any way, nor may you tell someone not included under those criteria for the purpose of them passing that message on. This includes any written medium, conversation, recorded sound and mime. Attempts to do so will be silenced or subverted. In return, I will not summon or contact any demon regarding any of you, Zoro, or this deal. This deal will also end-" Sanji falters as Zoro coughs wetly and Sanji glances down to see blood on his hand, redness is also leaking from Zoro's shut eyes and the man is fully unconscious now.
"This deal will also end if within three days Zoro is not awake and recovering." Sanji finishes with a hiss.
The group converse desperately as Zoro's life slips away from him. Sanji has never hated a group of people more than he does right now.
"We also want to add that you cannot go anywhere unescorted by one of us willingly and with permission." Nami adds and Sanji sighs, he had hoped that she wouldn't add anything like that, but he is restricted in what he can argue for.
"I agree, do we have a deal?" Sanji offers them.
One by one they all agree and as Luffy is the last person to agree the spell snaps shut. It's a big enough one that it has a physical manifestation, he can feel the weight of a metal ring run right through the tip of his left horn. It appears differently on each of them, but they are bound by it too.
The lich sluices a bucket forward, Sanji can smell water, alcohol and some herbs in there. The circles dissolve, and the black lightning stops. The small furry idiot dashes forward and starts muttering some healing incantations at Zoro and Sanji can see some of the black marks receding. He remains unconscious, and Sanji looks up at Zoro's gathered friends.
"You'd better pray that he wakes up in three days." Sanji hisses. If Zoro doesn't and is going to die from his injuries and take Sanji with him, then he is sure as fuck dragging these bastards down too.
Zoro's friends bundle all of them into a few cars and then begin to drive, evidently not caring that they left Zoro's place a complete mess. They had tried to separate Zoro from Sanji, but he had successfully stared them down and said that they had to make him if that was what they wanted. He never agreed to do what they asked of him, it's not his fault they were too stupid to demand that as an addition to their deal.
He cradled Zoro's slumped body in the car all the way to some giant house. The gates opened automatically for their cars and when they pull up a young blonde woman comes out of the front door. Sanji has the jarring moment of recalling wearing that face, she was the one he impersonated for Usopp. The unscrupulous selkie dashes out of the car towards her and grabs her shoulders as he explains something to her fast and quietly.
"Can you please take him out of the car? He still has a room here, and he needs to be in a bed to recover best. I can lead the way for you." Chopper asks meekly. That at least Sanji will agree to and so he steps out of the car with Zoro's limp body in his arms.
He breezes past the blonde woman and her startled expression, he ignores everyone except the doctor leading the way. He remembers Zoro saying that he lived with his friends once, at least until he felt like he needed his own space enough to warrant moving out.
The room is small with a sloped ceiling as they're on the top floor of the house, but there's a large circular skylight and a matching circular green rug in the middle of the room. He sets Zoro on the bed, stiff guest linens not giving easily and he lets Chopper pull Zoro's shirt off. Sanji did his job in protecting the middle of Zoro's chest and stomach, but there are dark spiderwebs on the sides which Chopper sets to healing.
Sanji watches Chopper carefully for any sign that his healing is being less than helpful or even harmful, but it seems the little doctor just wants Zoro to be better. A small thing that Sanji can consider them having in common. When he's done Sanji climbs onto the end of the bed and sits in the space between Zoro's feet. He's going to stay here until Zoro wakes up. Chopper leaves him alone for a moment, though Sanji can just catch him talking to the others down the hallway. No doubt they're plotting a way to try to get out of Sanji's deal and don't want him listening.
He looks around the room and tries to take it all in. He can see small scorch marks on the rug and a few ink spills here and there, the result of early magic study perhaps. There are a few books still on the bookcase but from the way that it's warped it clearly used to carry many more books. It's a part of Zoro's life that Sanji knows almost nothing about. He's not going to get much time with Zoro in his short human life, and he resents all of the years he's missed already.
He wonders how long Zoro will get until he dies, until Sanji dies too. When Zoro goes will it be simultaneous or will his death spread down their bond like gangrene until Sanji perishes as well? Zoro's had three brushes with death in a week alone, that's not so much flirting with death as it is smacking it on the ass and winking at it.
A figure appears in the door, but Sanji doesn't bother to look up, still watching Zoro and the shallow rise and fall of his chest.
"We have plenty of time to work out what you did now. You should make it easier on yourself and just tell us." she says, Sanji looks over apathetically. It's Robin.
"That sounds like making it easier on you, not me. And I've already told you, I didn't do anything." Sanji sighs wearily. Why are these people so willfully stupid?
"We've agreed to take it in shifts, we're not letting you around Zoro unsupervised. And we'd rather that you weren't near him at all." Robin says, summoning a chair and sitting on it daintily.
"I'm not leaving you around him unsupervised either, you people are too dangerous for him. I'd rather you weren't near him at all." Sanji parrots back.
Robin glares at him, and he glares back, it's an old fashioned staredown. Sanji wins when Nami comes to relieve her five hours later.
They keep up the shift changes at regular intervals. Some of the groups try to diagnose what is wrong with Zoro, and others do not, Sanji supposes that there is only so much they can do when Zoro is out cold. For his part, Sanji does not move and doesn't sleep. It's not that he doesn't need to sleep, because he does. It's more that he can go far longer without sleep and he isn't keen on letting his guard down around these people.
It takes two and a half days for Zoro to wake up. Sanji had already been contemplating a plan of attack and no doubt they had been doing the same for him. Both of their plans are scattered when Zoro blearily opens his eyes and sits up.
Sanji and Usopp both rush closer to Zoro to see if he's okay. He looks… not great. His eyes are bloodshot, and his voice is croaky as all hell.
"How do you feel?" Sanji asks urgently.
"Like shit, how are you here? How am I here?" Zoro asks, looking blearily around his room.
"Well, I had to do something to get you out of that circle." Sanji mutters unhappily.
"EVERYONE! HE'S AWAKE!" Usopp screams down the corridor, making Sanji wince.
Sanji feels a pull on his horn and looks around to see Zoro, his hand raised and tugging at the brass ring in Sanji's horn.
"That's attached Zoro, don't pull." Sanji says snippily as Usopp returns to the room. Zoro's eyes go wide as he takes in his friend's appearance, Sanji knows just what he's looking at.
"Is that a RING in your nose?! Is… is that a physical manifestation of a deal?" Zoro asks in horror.
"Like I said, I had to do something." Sanji says regretfully.
"Zoro! You're okay!" Luffy exclaims, bursting in the room with Nami and Robin hot on his heels.
"Show me the deal Sanji." Zoro demands and holds out a hand.
"You should drink some water first Zoro!" Chopper pipes up, Sanji hadn't seen him come in but there he is.
"No thanks. I don't know what you might have put in it." Zoro says coldly, and Sanji watches with some glee as the doctor winces and lowers the bottle of water that he'd managed to produce.
Sanji mentally pulls on the binding deal that he has and forms the contract in its written form on a roll of parchment. He hands it across to Zoro, the man's just going to keep on about it.
As Zoro reads through it the rest of his friends filter through into the room, though it makes it more than a little cramped. Zoro's expression is getting darker and darker as he reads.
"Has it worn off? He looks pissed." Franky whispers to Brook, who simply shrugs his bone shoulders.
"Who wrote this?" Zoro asks quietly, his eyes still reading over the text again and again.
"I can colour code it for you." Sanji offers and snaps his fingers, turning his text blue and Nami's addition orange.
"Nami is this orange part, and you're… everything else?" Zoro asks, looking up from it. Sanji nods.
"I see." Zoro says and rolls the scroll up tightly.
Zoro shakily gets up out of bed, one bare foot touching the worn rug and reaching out to Nami's shoulder to steady himself with one hand. He keeps the rolled up scroll in the other.
"Zoro, I'm so glad you're okay." Nami says, tears glistening in her eyes. Zoro nods slowly for a second and then, moving so fast that Sanji almost doesn't see it, smacks her over the head with the paper.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!? WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID?!" Zoro yells at her and smacks her again. Sanji covers his mouth in delighted surprise, what a wonderful thing to see.
"There are so many holes in this deal you could drive a goddamn tank through it, you ought to know better! I could understand Luffy who slept through this class, but you're supposed to be as good as me!" Zoro shouts, waving his hands in the air.
"Well it worked, didn't it? Besides we were short on time what with you dying on us!" Usopp protests.
"No, it isn't working you idiots! The fact that you're all alive is a credit to Sanji's goodwill alone. If he wanted you all dead, you would be dead!" Zoro continues to argue and falls back down on the bed with a despairing groan.
"The standard of education in your school really must be very poor." Sanji agrees smugly.
"Well, what's wrong with it?" Nami says angrily, rubbing her head.
"To start with you didn't determine what counts as harm, what counts as dead, what counts as human or demon and you hung it off of terms like 'reasonable' without defining them. Sanji could go into the street and off anyone who isn't 100% pure human which is, oh yeah, ALMOST EVERYONE. But worst of all if you pare the text of this back all Sanji has agreed to is 'I won't break the deal, these things would break the deal, and if that happens the deal is broken'. There's nothing in here actually forbidding him from doing any of this and no punishment if he does. You've basically just given me a bodyguard who has every motive to kill all of you and every reason to claim you started it!" Zoro lists off angrily.
Sanji grins toothily as Zoro continues ranting about the intricacies of demon law and contracts, lecturing his friends on how dumb they were and how lucky they are that Sanji is a good person. Zoro looks hot when he's angry, even more so when it's angry at loudly defending Sanji and being smart on something really specific.
"Well, he hasn't killed us." Luffy points out, their argument is getting circular now.
"Because he's a good person!" Zoro argues angrily.
"He's a demon!" Usopp shouts back.
"Yes! That doesn't change anything!" Zoro snaps.
"He's obviously brainwashed you Zoro, you should sit down and not work yourself up so much. You're still weak from being hurt. I know it doesn't feel right, but you have to trust us." Nami assures him gently, but if anything that seems to make him angrier.
"Actually, I don't. I try to involve you all in something important in my life, and you attack me, drug me and kidnap me, all against my will. I don't have to trust you at ALL. Give me my wand back, we're leaving." Zoro demands, holding his hand out for it.
"Zoro, it's obvious what he's after. We're trying to help you here." Luffy says. He's been tense and tight this whole time, like it really does bother him personally.
"Yeah, I mean what else could he get out of being with me? Are you serious Luffy?" Zoro barks at him. That one had to sting Zoro. It couldn't be further from the truth, if all Sanji wanted was sex then being with Zoro would be the most pointless thing ever, especially as he can get laid with almost anyone else without even trying. It's his job for goodness sake!
"Zoro, we've been talking, and we're worried for you. You not bringing any of this up beforehand is worrying." Robin begins.
"Yeah, obviously you all handled it so well." Zoro all but spits, the resentment on his face plain to see.
"Zoro, that first seal we locked that demon in was a virgin blood seal. Your blood. But it didn't work." Robin says tensely.
Zoro's eyes widen, and he looks down at his arm. There's still a slight puncture mark there and a bruise under it, but Chopper cleared the worst of it up already.
"So you attacked me, kidnapped me, stole my wand, drugged me and stole my blood. Great, good to know. This doesn't make you look better, Robin." Zoro says, his fists tightening at his sides.
"The virgin blood seal broke, Zoro! You have to understand what that implies!" Robin shouts at him.
Wait. Is Robin accusing him of…
Zoro seems to come to the same realisation of Robin's words at the same time as Sanji. He bristles in anger and shoves his way past Luffy and towards the large circular skylight. He wrenches the handle and pushes the window open, he climbs up and leaps out in one smooth movement.
"ZORO!" Sanji yelps and leaps over the group. They're on the fucking roof, Zoro is going to be a pancake!
Sanji hangs three-quarters of the way out of the window and looks down at the ground, but there's no Zoro there. There's a clink of tile and Sanji cranes his head to see Zoro climbing further up the roof and out of sight. This used to be his room. Clearly, he knows his way around.
"I forgot he used to go up there." Nami groans.
"This still counts at this building, so I don't need permission or an escort." Sanji tells them and bounds up the roof after Zoro. When he reaches him, Zoro is sat leaning against a chimney on the peak of the roof. His legs are tucked up to his chest, and his head is resting in his folded arms atop his knees. He looks small, and for the first time Sanji does feel older than Zoro, he's only nineteen when Sanji is almost two hundred. This probably is one of the worst things to have happened to him.
"I'm sorry your friends are assholes." Sanji says consolingly as he sits down opposite Zoro.
"They aren't assholes. They're just… acting like it." Zoro says bitterly, looking up at Sanji. He looks tired and hurt, Sanji doesn't blame him.
Zoro looks out across the pleasant gardens of this house and stays silent for a good few minutes.
"It's all my fault, I'm so sorry. You could have died because I was too sentimental and forgetful to destroy the paper that you gave me with your name on it." Zoro apologises bitterly.
"It's not your fault, from what you've told me about Robin's powers I think they would have forced you into saying my name anyway. Kind of ironic for people accusing me of mind control but there you go." Sanji laughs weakly.
"Apparently they don't care what they have to do." Zoro agrees sadly.
The silence rises up between them again. Zoro is obviously hurting, but Sanji just doesn't know what to say or do to make him feel better. But… maybe he doesn't have to. He reaches out and recalls his phone from his room and hands it to Zoro. The other man takes it in bafflement and looks from it to Sanji.
"Even though… even though me and Zeff don't always get along, he does make me feel better sometimes. So I figured maybe you'd want to call your sister, I don't know where your phone is but you can use mine." Sanji explains, feeling somewhat sheepish as he talks.
"Thank you." Zoro says softly, and Sanji hears the sound of him dialling. He holds the phone to his ear and Sanji hears it connect.
"Kuina, it's me." Zoro says, and his voice sounds small. He can hear a small and angry sounding voice which makes Zoro wince.
"I'm sorry, it really wasn't my fault. Look can- what? No, it's not my phone. Can I see you? I need-" Zoro trails off, and there's a waver of weakness in his voice that stabs Sanji through the heart.
"The worst. You wouldn't even believe me. I- what? No, no, we didn't break up. He's right here, he was the one who suggested calling you so you can put him on your nice list." Zoro laughs weakly.
"Can you come over? I'm- no, not at my place. I'm at Kaya's place, where I used to live. You should still have it in the GPS. And I need you to make me a promise, it's about my boyfriend. I have to tell you something about him and you're not allowed to freak out, just trust me. No, it's not that. Don't you think I would have said if it was- no, you shut up. Okay, I'll see you soon. Use the GPS. No, use it! You need to- hello?" Zoro takes the phone from his ear and grimaces.
"Well, she'll be late." Zoro sighs and hands the phone back to Sanji.
"She's going to get lost?" Sanji guesses.
"Uh-huh. I really need to get that curse removed." Zoro sighs and leans back against the chimney.
Sanji sits on the roof and looks up at the clear blue sky above him. He's never spent this long on Earth before, except for that one time as a child, and in all honesty his time here hadn't been spent gazing peacefully at the sky. Now that he knows that Zoro is going to be okay he feels less stressed and can at least somewhat appreciate this place. It still feels incredibly alien to him. He misses the warmth of his realm and the smells from Zeff's kitchen.
"You know, by leaving that many holes in the deal you really put yourself at risk too. It worked more in your favour, but you weren't exactly safe." Zoro points out.
"If you die then my heart breaks and I die too. 'Risky' is a step up from dead. Besides, it's not like your friends noticed." Sanji says with a shrug.
"I really can't believe that. The class on contracts with demons is a core class, they've all taken it! I took it with Nami and Luffy! And I know that it's been a number of years for Robin and Franky, but it's ridiculous!" Zoro exclaims in frustration.
"You're pretty when you argue about academic things." Sanji blurts out, because his mouth evidently hates him. Zoro stares at him for a moment, and his cheeks go pink.
"Shut up." He mumbles and looks away.
The pair of them remain on the roof until after sunset, Sanji had actually slid into Zoro's lap and started sleeping after he confessed about his waking watch over Zoro. It's the least exciting time he's ever had with his face in someone else's crotch. An engine revving as a car pulls in startles him away from Zoro, and he's fairly sure that he was starting to drool in his sleep and he's also pretty sure that he can feel an imprint from Zoro's zipper on his cheek.
"That's my sister's car." Zoro says and slides fearlessly and casually down the roof, only just making the ledge of his circular window which is thankfully still open. Sanji follows him into his old room, down the hall and then down several flights of stairs to get to the front door.
At that point though Sanji hangs back, he's pretty obviously a demon, and he doesn't want his clearly demon visage to be what he shows to Kuina. His plan isn't entirely foolproof though, the main living area of the house is the room that the front door is in and Sanji lurking around the corner is noticed by several people.
Zoro opens the door as soon as Kuina knocks on it and Sanji ducks out of sight.
"Kuina." Zoro says, clearly relieved.
Several of Zoro's friends leap up off the sofa at the sound of her name and rush to the door.
"Hey, go away!" Zoro shouts at them.
"Kuina, Zoro's so called boyfriend is an incubus!" Usopp yells at the top of his lungs.
"Fucking squealer." Sanji grumbles bitterly. Maybe Zoro will let him make the bastard mute some time, that'd be fitting.
"Go away!" Zoro shouts and Sanji hears Usopp yelp like a startled puppy.
"A what now?" Kuina's confused voice asks.
"It's a kind of demon." Nami explains.
"NAMI!" Zoro shouts at her.
"Is that the thing that I'm not allowed to freak out about?" Kuina asks wisely.
"Yes." Zoro answers her.
"Sanji is- wait, Sanji? Where'd you go?" Zoro calls out, and Sanji winces. This won't be good.
Nevertheless, he steps around the corner and uneasily looks Kuina in the eyes. She seems startled, and he watches as she takes in his horns and his tail.
"We were in public last time we met, you were hiding those." Kuina says smartly.
"I can't exactly go out like this, so..." Sanji answers calmly, he doesn't feel calm, but he can pretend. He still has his dignity.
"That's understandable." Kuina says with a nod.
"You two have met before?" Nami asks in wide-eyed shock.
"Yes, he seems like a nice boy. I warned him what I'd do if he hurt Zoro and he seemed to think it was fair. Though they gave me a different name for him then so I don't know what to make of that." Kuina says, looking sidelong at Zoro suspiciously.
"Ah, I'm sorry. True names are pretty powerful stuff for demons, so we didn't say. His name is Sanji." Zoro says apologetically.
"Kuina, I know you don't know much about magic, so you need to understand. He's a bad demon, all demons are bad, but he's a sex demon. He literally kills people by fucking them. He's clearly got Zoro under some kind of spell for him to be okay with this." Nami insists.
"How many times do I have to tell you, I am not under any kind of spell!" Zoro snarls at her.
"And my magic doesn't work on him anyway, and even if it did, then you'd know if Zoro and I had fucked because he'd be dead. You'll notice that he's not dead." Sanji points out.
"Exactly!" Zoro shouts.
Kuina is watching this back and forth with careful and considered eyes.
"Little brother, are you under any kind of mind control?" She asks calmly.
"No." Zoro answers, simple and frustrated at the same time.
"What is our fight tally?" Kuina asks him with a smile.
"Five thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one." Zoro groans.
"To?" Kuina asks sweetly.
"Zero." Zoro hisses, covering his face with his hands.
"Seems like Zoro to me!" Kuina laughs and slaps Zoro on the arm.
"Come on, let's go upstairs where we can talk." Kuina says and steers Zoro in Sanji's direction, towards the staircase.
"Kuina, he's a monster!" Nami shouts after them.
"Funny, I used to say the same thing about you, but Zoro told me you were alright." Zoro's sister says calmly, without even looking around. Sanji was looking at Nami though, and he sees the way that she flinches back as if Kuina just backhanded her physically as well as with her words. Sanji's grin stretches wide, he likes Zoro's sister more and more.
Zoro leads his sister up to the room he's been laid out in for almost three days, Sanji follows because he doesn't want to spend time around Zoro's so called friends right now. He's not sure that he wants to spend time with them ever. Zoro shuts the door with a slam and leans on it silently.
Kuina looks around the room a little and then takes a seat on the bed. She looks over at her brother in silence before sighing.
"Start with why you're here." Kuina suggests.
Zoro clenches his teeth and Sanji can see the muscle in his jaw tensing as he does so.
"I wanted to introduce people to Sanji, as he really is. Not in the half way that I did to you, even though I thought I might have to do that first. But thanks to Usopp it went wrong." Zoro says tightly, pushing away from the door and pacing across the room.
"What did Usopp do?" Kuina asks calmly.
"He told everyone what I am, not that he should have been able to." Sanji answers unhappily.
"I could kill him!" Zoro hisses. Sanji perks up in surprise, he's not heard Zoro this angry before. Or at least he hasn't seen him this angry when he's not yelling at the person in question. This is genuine anger and resentment.
"And how did he know?" She asks, looking between the two men.
"We met already. The asshole nearly killed Zoro with a bad spell, and Zoro called me in to help. After I'd stopped him from being tortured to death, then Usopp showed up and I ended up silencing him so he couldn't tell people about me. I didn't do a good enough job, clearly." Sanji explains with a regretful sigh.
He looks up and sees that Zoro has gone pale and completely still, his eyes on his sister who is staring bug-eyed at him.
"You WHAT?!" She shouts and lunges for Zoro. Zoro tries desperately to escape, but she grabs him in a headlock and smacks him in the ear.
"YOU NEARLY DIED AND NEVER TOLD ME?! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" She shouts at him.
"This is exactly why I didn't say!" Zoro shouts back, trying to squirm backwards away from her.
"Shut up! You are… you are grounded! You, keep talking!" Kuina snaps, pointing at Sanji.
"You can't ground me! I'm nineteen, and we don't even live together!" Zoro yells, he's still failing at escaping.
"I… ah… well, I guess Usopp got around the deal I made with him and let the others in on what I am. From what I understand they all decided that Zoro was being controlled by me somehow, which I can't even do, and then they knocked him out somehow and kidnapped him back to Zoro's place." Sanji tells her.
Kuina's arm goes slack, and Zoro squirms away, his hair sticking up in about eight different directions now. She looks up at him with wide eyes and a stunned expression on her face.
"They knocked you out and kidnapped you?" She asks him in quiet horror.
"They tied me to a chair, interrogated me, refused to listen to reason and then Chopper magically drugged me. They somehow got me back to my place and set out a bunch of circle spells to trap and kill Sanji. Oh, and they also stole some of my blood." Zoro says, his voice is angry and bitter.
"Why would they try and kill you?" Kuina asks, looking at Sanji now.
Sanji opens his mouth to answer but hesitates. He wraps his arms around himself unhappily. Why wouldn't they want to kill him? Humans are pack animals and super defensive of their own. Not to mention that humans hate demons, it was humans who killed Sanji's parents after all. Honestly, it was stupid to expect anything less.
"Because I'm a demon." Sanji answers weakly.
"Well, so what? None of them are human, we don't attack them!" Kuina argues, and Sanji can see it, the same fierce and angry kindness that Zoro has.
"They figured that if he had me under mind control that they could torture him into breaking it or see if killing him would end the spell. Which is… aside from being horrible, it's stupid. Sanji can't use magic on me without my consent and unless he'd specified that him dying ended any magic then killing him would do nothing anyway." Zoro points out correctly.
"So, how did you get here?" She asks warily.
"Zoro was an idiot, that's how!" Sanji says, still angry that Zoro risked so much.
"What did you do?" Kuina asks, looking at her brother dubiously.
"They were trying to kill Sanji, but demons are harder to kill than humans. I couldn't just watch that. So I threw myself in the circle with Sanji, they'd kill me before they killed him. I knew they wouldn't do that and they had to let him go to let me out." Zoro explains.
Sanji expects Kuina to attack her brother for his suicidal levels of idiocy, but instead she just nods sagely, as if she completely understands.
"That sounds reasonable." She agrees with a nod and Sanji smacks his forehead with his palm. Evidently, this is a family trait.
"Sanji made a deal with them to let me out, there's a bunch of holes in it, but he's basically their prisoner as long as they don't tell anyone about him. I only just woke up today, apparently I was out for almost three days." Zoro explains and walks past both of them to flop down on his bed.
Kuina stands there in the quiet room and looks from Zoro to him and back again. She sighs and reaches out to touch Sanji's arm with her hand.
"I'm very sorry that happened to you, we're not all like that. I'm very disappointed in his friends right now." She says sadly, and Sanji is touched by her thoughtfulness.
"I can't say that I'm happy about it, but I guess they were trying to look out for him." Sanji says unhappily.
"That's bullshit." Zoro growls from the bed, glaring up at the sloped roof with anger.
Kuina walks over to the bed and sits by Zoro in silence. She reaches out and pats Zoro on the knee.
"Even if your friends had good intentions that doesn't excuse the terrible things they did Zoro, you're allowed to be angry and hurt." Kuina says, her voice soft but sure. Zoro sits up and stares at the floor, his shoulders hunched in. He looks so wounded.
"Could you give us a moment?" Kuina asks, looking up at Sanji hopefully.
Sanji nods and calmly leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. He's not family. Not yet anyway. He wonders if Zoro is going to tell her about their bond and what it means for Sanji's life span. He turns around in the hallway to see Robin, Luffy and Usopp loitering there. They were clearly eavesdropping earlier and have just been caught.
"Fuck all the way off!" Sanji shouts, loud enough that he can hear Zoro and Kuina react inside the room.
They wisely decide to leave, and Sanji settles himself halfway down the staircase, well out of earshot of the sibling's voices. Sanji takes his phone out and contacts his old man, he did it once before just to let his old man know not to summon him back, but he gave no details then.
"Hey old man." Sanji says when the call connects.
"Brat, what are you pulling? You've been missing work." Zeff demands.
"I'm stuck on Earth for a little while, don't come up here looking for me. If I need you, I'll call you. Tell Iva I'm taking a vacation or something, I would call but I can't." Sanji says.
"What do you mean you- Sanji what did you do?" Zeff asks, his voice going quiet with horror.
"I did what I had to, Zoro was in danger." Sanji says defensively.
"I told you that boy was trouble." The old man says bitterly.
"I told you he was worth it." Sanji answers smartly and hangs up.
Well, now what?