Sanji looks like a petulant teenager in Franky's car with his arms crossed huffily and his feet up on the back of the seats, Zoro supposes that he is. Lord, the man is even pouting. He'd grudgingly left his study and got dressed into a fancy suit for the evening, but he didn't look pleased about it. Zoro wasn't pleased about it either but he knew full well that sulking like a five year old wouldn't get him out of it.
"So… your second condition, about behaving as expected in front of an audience…?" Zoro trails off feeling nervous.
Sanji is probably going to expect him to fulfil his part of their agreement, so far Sanji has held up to his, he's been perfectly fine to Zoro. He's remained in Sanji's company unhurt, unmolested and entirely unharmed by Sanji. For his part he's shown up for every meal, something that's hardly a chore with Sanji's food being as good as it is, but this part Zoro dreads. Sanji will probably touch him tonight and kiss him, although the man vowed that he'd do no more than that in public Zoro feels… uneasy at the prospect. Sanji is correct, he needs to give the impression that Zoro is doing his job, if his father is as much of a bastard as Sanji says and as he's experienced then the older man may well try and get Zoro returned regardless of what Sanji says about the damn contract.
With no offence meant to the blonde, Zoro figures that with Sanji looking the way that he does he's probably had plenty of practice, but he can hardly say that he is eager. In fact he is downright worried about it. Nami had always criticised him for listening so much to his pride and to his emotions, he worries that Sanji will kiss him and he'll react badly as a knee-jerk reaction. He worries that he'll ruin everything and slip from the tenuous knife edge that he's balancing on.
"Yes, I'm afraid. We've both got to put on an act tonight, you get to pretend that you're being exploited and I get to pretend to be some bastard that likes exploiting people." Sanji grumbles, clearly less happy about their situation now that he knows more than he did on their first day together. Zoro keeps his mouth shut and doesn't point out that he's hardly pretending to be exploited, it's not Sanji's fault and saying so would only make the man feel worse.
The house that they pull up to is big and lavish of course, with smartly dressed servants greeting people and ushering them in. Sanji's hand finds the small of Zoro's back and ushers him inside. He doesn't mind, the cook's touch is hardly lecherous but if it does something to make them look more convincingly intimate then great. Zoro reminds himself to stick close to Sanji's side, he had to think obedient and adoring.
They slide through the crowd together until Sanji seems to brighten and pulls him over to a tall man. The cook's entire being is instantly happier, he's smiling and there's even a slight spring in his step. Zoro immediately recognises the man, by height first and then the overly large afro second, it's the skeleton man that was at Sanji's ceremony – one of the very few that Sanji had pictures with where he looked happy.
"Ah, Sanji, so good to see you!" The skeleton exclaims, waving at them as they approach.
"Brook!" Sanji smiles up at the taller dead man.
"Ah, Zoro. You've already sort of met Brook." Sanji says turning to him.
"I certainly recognise you." Zoro concedes though he would have to be blind to miss a living skeleton walking around.
"Brook is a musician, a very good one at that. He plays violin, piano, guitar, you name it!" Sanji beams, clearly proud of his friend.
"Ah! You flatter me Sanji! It warms my heart- although I don't have a heart because I'm just bones! Yohohohoho!" Brook laughs loudly, his ribs shaking in mirth. Morbidly Zoro wonders how he talks with no lungs, or laughs for that matter.
"Yeah… don't worry about not laughing at that joke Zoro, it hasn't ever been and never will be funny." Sanji groans, rolling his eyes at the skeleton. Zoro gets the impression that this happens a lot.
"Sanji, your words cut deep into my heart! Except I don't have a heart because-" Brook exclaims.
"You're just bones, we know!" Sanji interrupts Brook. The cook's exasperation makes Zoro laugh.
"So Zoro, tell me about yourself!" the skeleton says looking at him and clapping his bony fingers together eagerly as he leads the three of them to a seating area.
"Nothing much to tell." Zoro shrugs noncommittally and sits down next to Sanji in the corner of a chaise-lounge.
"Do you like music?" Brook prompts curiously.
"I enjoy it I guess, I can't really play anything though. They tried to teach me but I've no talent for it, I could hit piano keys and produce the right notes but it wasn't music." He answers simply.
"Ah, then you and Sanji have something in common. His mother was a wonderful piano player, I've heard her music, but Sanji like you seems to lack the aptitude – although his appreciation is there." Brook smiles at them.
"I know enough about music to know that I'm no good." Sanji says in a wry voice.
Just then a large man bumps by Brook, startling him slightly. The skeleton seems to scowl a little at the man, clearly more from personal dislike than irritation at being bumped.
"You will have to come by my home some time and we can get to know one another when we are in… safer company." The skeleton says lowly.
At that they move onto safer topics of conversation. Zoro learns that Hina despite being an heiress and fabulously wealthy is also the head of the city's police, she doesn't have a mate and Brook and Sanji both confirm that the woman is too married to the job to even think of it. The woman apparently is passionate about justice, a claim that Zoro finds hard to believe when her friends are wandering around with slaves.
As he looks around the room he sees that most people of age seem to have mates. Zoro scans the collared members of the crowd and sees several familiar faces, men and women that were older than him at the institute and were bought long before him. A few of them look happy, whether they are or whether they are just very good at pretending now Zoro doesn't know, most simply look meek.
The ballroom is lavish and decorated all over with candles in the walls, the guests are equally lavish with men in full finery and women in fantastic almost structurally dangerous dresses, there are a few that Zoro can't figure out how they are possibly staying on. Everyone looks elegant though. Zoro supposes that in his newly arrived bespoke suit he looks like one of them too, he wonders what Luffy and Ace would say if they could see him now.
From their conversation with Brook Zoro works out that Sanji and Brook are old friends, indeed Brook seems to have known Sanji his entire life and it turns out that the skeleton is well over fifty years old. He seems genuinely friendly though and is easy enough to get along with. The man is happy and jovial but somehow almost too bright, his smile too fragile. Zoro doesn't think that the skeleton is being dishonest or duplicitous with Sanji, he's probably just covering up some inner pain. He supposes that one doesn't get to be as old as Brook is without some trauma, and if anyone is allowed to have a few skeletons in their closet then a dead man is.
A pretty woman enters the room in a pink dress, instantly a lot of attention focuses on her and several people flock to her side eager to talk to her. Zoro doesn't have to be a brain surgeon to work out that she's the host. Her hair is pink as well and Zoro vaguely wonders if she's a relative of Sanji's, a cousin perhaps, both his father and uncle have pink hair.
"Oh my, there is Lady Hina. I shall go ask her if she would mind showing me her panties." Brook announces merrily as he gets up.
"You what?!" Zoro splutters looking up at the skeleton in shock.
"Didn't Hina threaten to mount your skull on a pike outside police headquarters if you asked her that again?" Sanji asks raising a curly eyebrow at the dead man, his appearance otherwise seeming bored as if this is as routine as the skeleton's bad puns.
"It'd be worth it if she showed me!" Brook laughs in his strange yohoho way and walks off.
"He's weird." Zoro murmurs as he leans back, his shoulder brushing Sanji's.
"Yep, that's why I like him though." Sanji laughs.
"Yeah, he seems okay." Zoro agrees.
"Well I'm so glad that you-" Sanji's halts mid sentence, the smile falling from his face and his eyes sharpen on a point in the distance. With a frown Zoro looks up suspiciously in the same direction and sees Sanji's father Spandam walking towards them slowly, he is distracted in conversation with another man.
Sanji quickly kneels up on the chaise-lounge and leans over Zoro, caging him into the corner of the sofa with his arms, Zoro tries to pull back but he's nowhere else to go.
"I'm sorry- can I?" Sanji begs, his eyes wide with concern.
Zoro glances over, Sanji's father has noticed them and it watching them carefully. Zoro represses a wave of hatred for the man and looks up at Sanji, the blonde is so close now.
"Please?" Sanji asks, so close that his lips just brush Zoro's when he asks. He realises that Sanji really won't kiss him until he consents. He really does have a choice here.
Steeling himself Zoro closes the gap between them suddenly and the quiet 'oh' that Sanji gasps against his mouth makes him shiver slightly. He lets Sanji lean him farther back against the chaise-lounge as his hand slides up Zoro's side. He's aware that Spandam is watching them and Sanji has to be seen as the one in control here, it's expected after all.
He doesn't know what he'd expected to feel when Sanji kissed him, or rather when he kissed Sanji as he's the one who closed the gap, but… he hadn't expected to be so okay with it. He's been dreading this moment but Sanji's soft lips and clever hands make him wonder just what he'd been so concerned about. Sanji's mouth is talented, as Zoro had expected, and despite himself the blonde is coaxing a reaction from him. He can feel his heart rate pick up as Sanji's hand trails up his ribs to rest on his chest, he can feel his cheeks start to turn pink as Sanji's blonde fringe slides over his skin.
Sanji's tongue slides over Zoro's bottom lip in a way that promises pleasant things to Zoro's sex drive, his body jerks at that and his mouth seems to happily open to Sanji. Zoro's toes curl inside his fancy shoes as Sanji's other hand slides along his jaw.
After a while, and Zoro isn't sure how long –whether it was too long or not long enough, Sanji pulls back a bit ending the kiss. They're still practically nose to nose and Zoro is surprised that he has to force down the urge to close the gap again himself and kiss Sanji once more.
Sanji's captivating blue eyes slide to the side as he inspects the room through his hair. It's not real Zoro reminds himself as he shamefully tries to reel his body back into his control. His dazed mind though notes that the cook's eyes aren't the clear blue that he's thought that they were, they have flecks of green and grey in them – almost like the sea. Zoro thinks that he likes that a little, it seems fitting.
Sanji shifts so that his knee is provocatively between Zoro's thighs as he leans in close again, his lips just by Zoro's ear. The blonde is in actual fact barely touching him but they look as provocative and intimate as hell, Sanji is clever about appearances.
"He's stopped looking now, are you okay? I'm so sorry about that." Sanji murmurs into Zoro's ear, sounding guilty.
"I'm fine, it's fine." Zoro answers the cook. He feels the gust of a relieved sigh go past his ear.
"You know, you kiss like you argue." Zoro comments quietly into Sanji's own ear. And he does, there's the right amount of give and take and somehow it's utterly Sanji. The other man pulls back and looks at him in surprise.
"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not." Sanji remarks uncertainly.
"I'm not sure that I want to tell you." Zoro grins back knowing full well that not knowing what he means is likely to drive Sanji nuts.
"Asshole." Sanji mutters, deliberately kneeing Zoro in the leg as he sits back down. His pouting makes Zoro laugh and Sanji sulk further.
"Hey, there's a bar over there, do you want a drink?" Zoro offers, pointing to the bar across the room.
"Sure, it's an open bar so don't worry about money. White wine would be good, I know that Hina has excellent taste." Sanji replies looking up at him.
"Open bar huh? My two favourite words. Be right back." He grins, getting to his feet and heading to the bar.
He had planned just to order hard liquor for himself and wine for Sanji but he spies some particularly nice beer on the shelves behind the barman and on impulse orders that instead. When he turns back around he sees Sanji with his uncle Fullbody talking to him. Sanji's expression is tight and angry, which is unsurprising considering what Sanji found out this morning. Zoro hesitates at the bar as the barman serves his drinks to him, that's hardly a conversation that he wants to just blunder right into. Perhaps he should just… stay where he is for the meantime. He turns back and leans on the bar, hoping to appear busy.
"Zoro?" a voice asks by his side. A female voice in fact, a voice that he knows well. He looks over in shock and sees Vivi at his side.
"Vivi… VIVI!" Zoro exclaims and pulls her into an excited hug.
"It is you Zoro!" Vivi squeals in delight in his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and embracing him. Their collars clank together with the closeness.
Zoro puts Vivi down and gives her an assessing look. She looks just fine, happy and healthy in fact. There's no marks on her pale skin to indicate that any harm has come to her at all since the last time that he saw her. On the contrary she seems to have grown more beautiful, Zoro isn't into women but even he can appreciate Vivi's good looks. She is elegant and refined, graceful and sweet, she's always given off an air of glamour that she seems to have been born with and despite all of Nami's practicing she could never copy her friend. Indeed, only the heavy collar around her delicate neck could convince you that this beautiful creature wasn't a rich guest to this party but instead the property of one.
Vivi was a very strange case, most people at the institute were bought young like Zoro had been, but Vivi had signed up at fourteen, usually an age that potential mates were deemed too old to train. However, she was already so beautiful, cultured and well mannered that they snapped her up anyway. Vivi had never told him or Nami her reasons for joining the institute despite them telling her theirs, she'd always refused to talk about it.
The girl was always more Nami's friend than his, although they were close. He liked Vivi although he didn't understand her all that well, all the same he felt protective of her and he was concerned for her.
"How are you? Are you okay?" He asks her carefully, clear on his meaning.
"Zoro, I'm fine, really! Stop looking at me like I'm dying!" Vivi laughs melodiously.
"But how are you Zoro? I'd thought that you were safe from all of this, I thought that Chopper had rigged your criteria so that no one could get you?" she asks looking at him with worry in her big brown eyes.
"Well… Chopper found someone. I guess he didn't have much choice when someone who matches comes along." Zoro shrugs glancing over at Sanji. Fullbody places his hand almost patronisingly on Sanji's shoulder, Zoro can't hear their conversation from where he stands but the manner in which he violently shrugs off his vile uncle's hand reminds Zoro that Sanji isn't the man he'd first thought that he was.
"What? They found you an assertive, gentle, non-violent man looking for true love?" Vivi snorts in disbelief.
"Well I- wait. How did you know that?" He frowns looking suspiciously at the blue haired girl.
"Ah, well… I read your report before I left. I broke into Chopper's office to find mine with Nami and we looked at yours too." The girl smiles bashfully at him. Great, had everyone but Sanji read the goddamn thing?
"And you didn't bring me along? I could have done with reading it sooner, then I might have been able to remove that bastard behaviour teacher's report." He says feeling somewhat snubbed at being left out of Vivi and Nami's secret mission.
"Zoro, sweetie, you're many things but stealthy and subtle aren't you. You'd sooner kick a door down than pick a lock, we've have been caught in five minutes if you'd come along!" Vivi smiles fondly at him. Zoro huffs but he supposes that she might be right.
"So, who's this miracle man then?" She asks looking curiously around the room.
"Sanji Prince, he's over there. His bastard of an uncle is pissing him off at the moment, he usually doesn't look that murderous." Zoro explains pointing at Sanji who is presently scowling at Fullbody for all that he's worth.
"Sir Prince?! But he's the heir to… oh… oh wow. Yes of course… clever." Vivi murmurs wide eyed.
"What's clever?" Zoro frowns looking back at Vivi in confusion.
"Ah, Chopper is. I can see why he paired you two together, he has a reputation for being quite kind hearted, although some people here think of that as a flaw. He… he has been okay to you hasn't he? He's not hurt you has he?" Vivi asks worriedly.
"He's been fine actually, he seemed horrified when he realised what I'd been expecting. He didn't even know the first thing about the contract and the things that we're threatened with." Zoro concedes, feeling strange to admit out loud that Sanji is actually okay, although it seems to be true.
"How could he not know?" The pale girl says in astonishment.
"Search me." Zoro laughs.
"And you? Are you okay with… whoever bought you?" he asks in return, gesturing to the silver and blue padlock at Vivi's throat.
"Oh, I'm more than fine, Igaram is a gentleman, he's never touched me." Vivi smiles, waving away his concerns with her hand, a tight knot of worry in Zoro's chest unwinds a little at that.
Vivi looks around warily and hastily pulls Zoro away from the bar as he snags his drinks. She pulls him into a shaded corner between two pillars and out of the way of prying eyes.
"Zoro, have you seen Nami? I left before her but… well, there are rumours about her. They say that she escaped, that she freed herself from her collar and lives free. The institute tried to cover it up but no one has seen her since. But if anyone would have it'd be you, have… have you seen her?" Vivi whispers excitedly.
Zoro's heart clenches painfully. He doesn't want to have this conversation, he wants to be somewhere, else, anywhere else. But… Vivi and Nami were close, she deserves the truth. The bottle in his hand shakes in his grip.
"Vivi, Nami is dead." Zoro says in a blank voice. The words taste acidic in his mouth.
"What?! No!" Vivi's face is shocked, she can't believe it, or rather she doesn't want to believe it. Zoro doesn't want it to be true either but what they want doesn't affect what is the case.
"I tried to stop it, I took Nami and ran, I got my swords back and tried to fight when they cornered us. I nearly died doing it. Next thing I heard when I was better is that the mansion burnt down killing that bastard, all they found of Nami was ashes and her collar." He explains in a dead voice.
"But, if all they found was a collar and ashes she could have escaped. She could be alive Zoro!" Vivi insists desperately. Zoro looks away, he can't stand to see her hopeful face.
"I thought that for a while, but it's just fantasy. These collars don't come off while you have a pulse, she's dead. Ace and Luffy have never seen her and believe me they've looked, they've spoken to everyone that you'd need to speak to in order to get a new identity and no one has seen her. She's dead." He says coldly.
"No… you must be wrong." Vivi whimpers.
"She's dead Vivi!" Zoro snaps furiously.
"Zoro?" Sanji's familiar voice asks from behind him. Sanji's nimble fingers touch his shoulder lightly but he shakes off the blonde's touch as if it burns him.
"Here's you wine, and my beer too. I need something stronger." Zoro growls, pressing the drinks into the startled man's hands.
He strides over to the bar and scowls at the barman.
"Rum, just give me the bottle." Zoro orders the barman, the guy hesitates with the bottle in his hands so Zoro takes the decision away from him by leaning over the bar and taking it out of his hands. He snags a glass too and quickly fills it. He downs it in one ignoring the almost painful burn down his throat as the first glass goes down uneasily. Sanji comes over to him and takes his hand with the bottle in it, lowering it and setting the bottle on the bar top.
"I just spoke to Vivi, who is Nami?" Sanji asks quietly in his ear.
Zoro snatches his hand back from Sanji and pours himself another glass. Maybe if he tells the rich pretty boy he'll leave him in peace to drink.
"You know how Zeff isn't your father?" He says back quietly, even as angry as he is he's aware that they're not in safe company. Sanji nods in silent curiosity.
"Well Nami wasn't my sister." He explains draining his glass and trying to numb the hollow feeling inside.
"Oh… oh Zoro. When… when did it happen?" Sanji asks him quietly. Zoro thinks that the cook's eyes are filled with pity, fuck that, he doesn't need pity and he certainly doesn't want it.
"Six months ago, now leave me alone." Zoro growls back quietly.
"Put the drink down, you're sick and I'm taking you home – at least that's what I'll tell Hina. Let's go." Sanji says standing up from his barstool and pulling Zoro from his.
Zoro doesn't want to stay so he allows Sanji to drag him from the fancy house filled with rich bastards. Sanji will have alcohol at his home, he can drink there in peace if the blonde will leave him alone. Sanji pulls him through the fancy ballroom and out into the night. The cook calls Franky and in minutes the mechanical man pulls around the front in the car looking surprised at their early departure.
"Everything okay?" Franky asks, peering at them in the rear-view mirror over his sunglasses.
"Just drive home, and quickly." Sanji says shooting him a worried look.
The car ride passes in silence, Zoro doesn't care, he just wants to get inside and then get drunk or sleep, preferably both. When they get in Zoro is somewhat surprised to find Sanji walking him to his room, or so he thinks.
"Wait, come to my room. I've got alcohol in mine." Sanji says halting Zoro's progress in the spot of corridor that is between their two rooms. The blonde opens his own bedroom door and gestures for Zoro to go inside. Unthinking or perhaps just uncaring of the risks he follows his master into his room.
It's a big lavish room. The bed in the centre of it is absolutely massive and plush looking, it's set on a furry white rug that rests on top of the blue marble flooring covering the rest of the room. It feels cold under Zoro's bare feet. He shucks his expensive tailored jacket off onto the fancy floor, Sanji takes his off with more care and hangs it up on a coat hanger.
The blonde gestures to the two comfortable looking chairs by the wall at the foot end of the bed, it's glass from ceiling to floor and looks out over the grounds and a pool below. Zoro had no idea that there was a pool in Sanji's property, he doesn't really care right now though. He drops himself into the chair to the left of the small table between them and looks approvingly at the ice filled crystal tumbler that Sanji places before him, the other man sets his own glass down in front of himself as he sits opposite Zoro.
"I'm going to catch hell for sneaking you out of there early, so make it worth my while." Sanji says, uncorking a bottle of whiskey with his teeth.
"So I was wrong about you then." Zoro says in a hollow voice. He should probably feel frightened or angry or betrayed if Sanji means what his words suggest, but Zoro is so numb from thinking about Nami that he's not sure that he'd notice or care if Sanji hurt him like that. He feels as dead inside as Nami is all over.
"Asshole, don't insult me." Sanji snaps and fills their glasses.
"Have you ever talked about what happened to her? Besides Vivi tonight I mean." Sanji asks as he set the bottle down.
"Everyone who needs to know already knows." Zoro answers and downs his glass, the ice clinking against his teeth.
"But did you ever talk to anyone about it? I didn't talk to anyone after I watched my mother drown, Zeff already knew of course and I didn't want to tell anyone else. But not talking about it… it was like letting a wound go septic. It just… rotted inside me, it nearly killed me." Sanji says slowly.
"I eventually broke down, cried until I puked and then cried some more. I told Zeff everything, even though he knew, and somehow it made it better. So, from someone who's been there, talk." Sanji orders him and sips from his own glass.
"It's not the same." He says looking away.
"Oh, what, your pain is so much more important than mine now?!" Sanji snaps irritably.
"It's not that, Nami was family to me!" Zoro retorts.
"So was my mother! I had to watch her DROWN!" Sanji shouts at him, leaping up from his chair.
"Well that wasn't your FAULT!" Zoro roars back shoving his chair away as he stands up angrily.
"Like yours was!" Sanji snarls at him.
"It WAS! She's dead because of ME!" Zoro screams.
Sanji blinks at him in surprise, as if a spell had been broken. Zoro wrenches his gaze away and draws a shaking breath, his hands are shaking on the table top so he clenches them into fists.
"Zoro… Zoro please tell me." The cook begs, reaching across the table for him.
"I don't want to talk about it, it was my fault, so it's not the same situation as your mother at all. Just- just don't." he mutters, pulling away from Sanji.
"Unless you killed her yourself I doubt that her death is your fault. So talk." Sanji insists, as he sits down in his own chair again.
"Why should I?" Zoro says stubbornly.
"Why shouldn't you? How can it possibly make it worse? I mean, forgive my bluntness but if she's already dead what harm can it do?" Sanji points out coldly.
Zoro's jaw drops at that. He tries to come up with a suitable reply, other than telling Sanji to go die. He hesitates as the silence stretches longer and the words still fail him.
"Pour me another drink." He says eventually. Sanji smiles a little crookedly at him and rights his glass from where it had fallen and fills it again.
Zoro pulls his feet up onto the chair with him and sips from his glass, he rests it on his knees and talks almost as if to the glass instead of to Sanji.
"I don't know what you know about the institute, apparently not much, but no one joins because they want to marry some rich kid like you. Despite what the adverts say. Every one of us has a story for why we signed up and they're all awful." Zoro says quietly.
"Why did you sign up?" Sanji asks curiously.
"You only get one horrifying story about my past, which one do you want?" Zoro says tersely as he looks at the blonde.
"Both, but for now let's go with Nami's." Sanji smiles slightly at him over the rim of his glass.
Cocky bastard, Zoro thinks.
"Nami came from a small village, it was small and not that successful but they got by. Nami and her sister were adopted by an ex-navy woman called Bellmeré, they were pretty poor but they got by too. When Nami was about eight a real scumbag fishman named Arlong came to her village with his thugs, he told them that unless they paid an extortionate amount for each person living in the village they'd kill them. Nami's family didn't have enough for all three of them and because of it Bellemeré was killed in front of the girls." Zoro says with a sigh.
"My god, what happened?" Sanji gasps in horror.
"Well, Nami realised that she couldn't fight Arlong, so she made a deal with him, if she could buy the village from him they would leave. Arlong agreed but only if Nami could pay the rest of the village's money for the next six months upfront, something he never expected her to be able to do." He continues.
"What did she do if she didn't have the money?" the cook asks wide eyed.
"Well, when you join the institute you can name your own terms, you essentially haggle for yourself. You sell yourself for whatever you can convince them to give them for you, you name your own price. Nami signed up to the institute for double that amount, one of the highest prices ever. She gave her sister the remaining money and told her to keep it safe but to use it if anyone looked like they wouldn't be able to pay one month. The rest she gave to Arlong and their agreement was made." Zoro explains.
"What was your price? What did you agree to?" Sanji asks suddenly. Zoro scowls at him, he'd explained that he wouldn't be telling that story already hadn't he?
"Anyway, Nami was smart, Nami had a plan. She would be bought eventually when she turned sixteen and she would steal the remaining money from whoever bought her, she'd give it to Arlong and buy her village back. She figured someone rich enough to buy her would have so much money that she could skim the top off of his accounts without him noticing. Then she'd find a way to lose her collar and be free. That was her plan." Zoro explains and drinks slowly again.
It had seemed like such a great plan at the time, he hadn't had a plan. Nami had said that when she was free she'd come back and set him free, that she'd find him. She had been his plan. His alternative plan was either murdering the bastard that bought him or suicide. He looks up at Sanji and realises that his plan hadn't exactly worked out either.
"What went wrong?" Sanji asks eventually.
"On the morning of Nami's sixteenth birthday her face flashed up on the board of departures, anyone who was bought showed up there, everybody on the grounds can see it. She'd made me swear not to stop her leaving, she needed to be bought for her plan. She expected her mate's representative to show up to take her to the ceremony, but instead she found Arlong at the institute gates waiting for her and laughing. He'd bought her so that she could never buy her way free, and worse he was going to make her steal from other people to aid him, and as she belonged to him whatever she stole was his anyway. She'd never be free and neither would her village." He says scowling at the ice in his drink.
"I took her, grabbed her hand and ran. I could escape from the institute at will and I did so regularly, Chopper allowed it because I always came back. The institute can track you wherever you go if you have a collar on, but I didn't care. I had to get Nami away from Arlong. I ran with her, stole a car and drove to where I came from. I stole my swords back and… and I don't know what I was planning to do. I'd thought perhaps I could cut us free maybe, or perhaps I could kill Arlong, I hadn't really thought it out." Zoro says shaking his head, he'd been so scared and so stupid. He couldn't think with Nami sobbing uncontrollably next to him, she was always so cool in a bad situation but then she had just fallen to pieces. She knew that they couldn't escape.
"What happened?" Sanji asks in a worried voice.
"What do you think happened? They caught us, of course they did." Zoro frowns, leaning back in his chair with a sigh.
"The institute sent its dogs after us. It's a horrible irony really, I'd once wanted nothing more than to face the world's greatest swordsman in a fight and I got my wish." He laughs bitterly and drains his glass again.
"You mean Dracule Mihawk? Hawk eyes?! He's the world's greatest, how are you even alive?!" the cook asks with almost comically wide eyes.
"I was a swordsman myself you know, before… before I sold myself." Zoro points out.
"I'd thought… hah, I'd thought that it was a sign. Like some stupid book, there I was protecting a damsel in distress, admittedly not my true love or any crap like that but I did love Nami even if she was hardly a damsel. And I was protecting her from my sworn rival no less, in the place that I'd once called my home town. When that kind of thing happens in books the hero wins." He laughs. He might as well laugh, his life was one big joke and he was the punch line.
"I was armed but I might as well have fought him with toothpicks, I tried to protect her from him, I thought that I could beat him. It became abundantly clear to me before too long that I was hopelessly outclassed. He destroyed two of my swords and I knew that I couldn't win. All I could do was to buy Nami time, I made her run and told Mihawk that if he wanted Nami he was going to have to go through me, he might have been the best but even he couldn't just get by me like that without using his sword." He explains. He remembers as clear as day as he stood stock still with his arms out facing Mihawk ready for death as long as it meant buying Nami more time in the vain hope that it might be the time that she needed.
"What… what did he say?" the cook asks him shakily.
"He said that I was an idiot to throw my life away, but he applauded my bravery. He said it was a shame to waste such talent with a blade. He asked me if I was prepared to die. I said that I didn't want to die, that I'd planned other things for my life, but that I wouldn't let everything be taken from Nami and if my death meant her life then I would gladly give it. I told him that I wouldn't step aside, I told him again that he'd have to go through me. So he did." He says as he unbuttons his shirt and lets it slide off of his shoulders exposing his scar. The fine fabric slides smoothly off of his skin leaving him shirtless. Sanji's quiet gasp is the loudest thing in the room.
The blonde steps from his chair and almost stumbles towards Zoro, falling on his knees before him. Pale shaking fingers reach out and touch the topmost tip of Zoro's scar at his collar bone. His fingers are cold and slightly damp from the whiskey glass and they bring Zoro's skin up in goose bumps. Sanji's fingers trail down his scar, sliding in the gouge in his flesh that will never knit back together again. Sanji's fingers are so deep in his scar that Zoro almost wonders if Sanji means to plunge his hands through it and touch Zoro's insides. Sanji's hand continues lower, his face showing a mixture of horror and awe as he does so. Finally his fingers stop at Zoro's hip and Sanji lets out a startled breath.
"How are you alive?" the blonde asks after a moment.
"I don't know." Zoro answers honestly.
"All I know is that before this Nami was alive and when I woke up she was back in Arlong's hands. Mihawk even did me the service of making the institute strike the event from my records if I lived, perhaps so that I could see that my sacrifice achieved nothing, who knows? But before I was well enough to mount an escape attempt and rescue her the fire broke out at Arlong's mansion. When the fire brigade got there all they found of Nami was ashes and a charred collar." He scowls.
"If I had been stronger or faster or better with my swords I could have won or at least lasted longer so that Nami could run and escape for good. It's my fault. So you see, it's different to your tragedy, this one was my fault." He finishes quietly.
"Bullshit!" Sanji snaps, his head jerking up to look Zoro in the eyes.
Zoro's emotions are fraught already but Sanji's curse snaps something inside of him, he swings for the cook. Sanji dodges back away from him and blocks his next punch with his leg. The fight is sloppy and uncontrolled but Zoro is fighting with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart. Still, he manages to knock Sanji to the ground and pins him under him with one hand trapped above him and the other between them.
"You don't understand! You'll never understand!" He screams in Sanji's face.
"It's my fault, I should have been stronger! I'm never strong enough, whenever someone needs me I always fail and they die!" He yells incoherently. Sanji stares up at him with shocked blue eyes. It's not until he notices the tear fall onto Sanji's cheek that he realises that he's crying. He arches up off of Sanji and forward onto his own hands, burying his face in them. Sanji's freed hand slides down between them to fall on his stomach.
"Zoro, it's not your fault." Sanji intones seriously. Zoro gasps, jerking up out of his hands at the words.
"It's not your fault." The man repeats as Zoro looks down at his golden hair splayed out on the blue marble floor. It's some impossible colour, gold. The colour of his precious earrings, he could drop them into Sanji's hair and never find them they're so alike. God, he's gone crazy, why is he thinking this?
"It's the institute's fault, them and Mihawk. It's them, not you that are to blame." Sanji says certainly. Zoro curls up and buries his face in Sanji's impossibly gold hair as if he could lose himself in it. He shakes silently and tries to repress the sob, he hasn't felt like this since the night that he heard Nami died.
"They cut my heart out." Zoro breathes against Sanji's scalp. And it's true, since he heard that Nami was nothing more than ash and screamed himself to sleep he's felt dead inside. He'd been starting to feel a little more normal when he was with Ace and Luffy but even then something in him felt frozen and dead.
"You still have a heart, can't you feel how fast it's beating?" the man below him breathes reaching up almost gingerly and touching Zoro's chest over his heart. The touch is feather light and Zoro really can feel his blood pounding through his skin as if it's trying to pump harder to meet Sanji's touch.
"I promise you Zoro, I will do everything to destroy them. I don't care what I have to do, you'll be free and they'll be the ones reduced to ash." Sanji promises, his hand splaying out over Zoro's heart.
Zoro presses his palms together and closes his eyes, he was never a religious man – his life had always been too terrible for that kind of faith, but one could almost believe that the golden haired man below him was an angel, a vengeful angel. He prays that it is true, he wants Sanji to keep his promise. He inhales the smell of Sanji's golden hair and presses one solitary chaste kiss to Sanji's scalp. If Sanji will keep his word then Zoro will happily belong to him, it'll be the least that he can do.