The moment that they get to the hospital Zoro is whirled into a drama of antiseptic, bright lights and examinations. People urgently talk to Sanji but ignore him, Zoro isn't surprised and quite frankly he doesn't want to talk to anyone anyway. He also discovers with disappointment that not all doctors are like Chopper, kind and caring. Every member of staff seems eager to please Sanji though and Zoro hears the other man's name and title whispered in every corridor, here Sanji clearly commands some power.
The supervising doctor is apparently a man named Dr. Hogback who is apparently Sanji's father's preferred doctor and pet prodigy. The man is tall and unreasonably round in the middle with spindly legs, he is apparently the world's greatest surgeon.
"My brilliant plan," He announces, entering Zoro's private hospital room with a smug air,
"Is to remove the burnt flesh and insert artificial muscle into the gap in his arm, it appears that his tendons themselves are intact but damaged, they can be repaired, that is no problem. The real genius lies in this, the artificial muscle will serve as a temporary structure through which new muscle will grow, in a few months his arm will be as if nothing happened. Hah!" The doctor laughs clearly pleased with his own genius.
Sanji is standing at the side of Zoro's bed, his face taut with worry. He runs a hand through Zoro's hair, he's been doing it for a while now and Zoro has realised that he's doing it as much to calm and comfort himself as he is for Zoro's benefit.
"So, he'll be fine?" Sanji says hopefully.
"As I said, it will be as if nothing happened. I just need your consent." The doctor nods, producing some paperwork on a clipboard.
Sanji takes it and looks it over, flicking through the pages.
"This all seems fairly standard, warning that you might die while you're under, that you might react badly to the drugs and so on. Do you want to do this?" Sanji asks, looking down at him. Zoro is sure that Sanji is right but can't help but be struck by the idea that Sanji has started learning to read contracts since the last one that he was handed.
"I actually just need your consent Sir Prince, his isn't necessary." Doctor Hogback says before Zoro can speak.
"I won't consent for you to do anything to him unless he consents, so yes, actually, you do need it." Sanji growls, glaring at the doctor.
"Sanji, I need my hand. Sign whatever you have to." Zoro says, looking up at the blonde. Sanji nods in agreement and signs the papers, handing them back to the somewhat snubbed looking Doctor Hogback.
"Excellent! We'll begin right away!" Doctor Hogback says, evidently shaking off his funk and clapping his hands in excitement. The doctor pulls Zoro's bed away and out of the room with the aid of a nurse with short blonde hair. Zoro turns his neck just in time as they exit the room to see Sanji nervously standing in the empty room looking at him with a heart-wrenching expression on his face.
The operating room itself is clean and packed with expensive looking equipment. The doctor is barking orders to the other medical staff but the serious looking woman with the bobbed blonde hair stays at his side. She looks down at him and Zoro notices that she has two long scars running along her pretty face, her skin is so pale, almost white in its complexion and her eyes are serious. From this angle Zoro can just see a white collar peeking out of her high surgery scrubs, she leans over him to check some tube and reveals a small clear glass padlock at her throat too.
"You're like me." Zoro murmurs, touching his own padlock with his good hand. He'd known that some businesses owned mates, they could be useful as you didn't have to pay them and they couldn't say no to hours, buying them outright cost too much money for most businesses though so very few did so. He'd not thought that a hospital would do so, even if it did have Sanji's exceedingly rich family as clients.
Perhaps she was a gift from Sanji's father just as he was. Most businesses that owned mates though weren't respectable things like hospitals, they were either doing it as a status symbol or because they needed someone on staff that couldn't say no to people. Rather disgustingly prisons and other single sex establishments often had them. Or a business might own several mates and essentially be a high class escort service. But unless this hospital offered some rather unusual therapy this was a first.
"Doctor Hogback." She says curtly, explaining. She belongs to him then, not the hospital. Looking closer though he's never seen a collar like hers before though, unlike the synthetic plastic and metal of Zoro's hers looks to be made mostly of plastic and glass, even the ring on it for her glass padlock is plastic.
Zoro doesn't know what to say, he never does. He can't say that he's sorry because it comes off a little meaningless when he's in effectively the same position. And it's incredibly frowned upon for a mate to ask for details about another mate's master, half of the point of being owned is that your master's secrets are supposed to be safe with you. Besides, he's not sure that he wants to know what the Doctor is like, especially if those scars on her face are anything to go by.
"Are you scared?" She asks seriously of him, apparently ignoring the sudden silence as she attaches two electrical monitors to his chest.
"Of being cut open? No." Zoro answers honestly with a shake of his head.
"You're scared that it won't work then." She says looking at him.
"I need my hands." Zoro concedes. They had left his swords in the car, to stop any awkward questions being raised, but all he can think of is not being able to use his three sword style again.
"It will work. Hogback is doctor whose skill is unrivalled, he says that he can cure death." The blonde woman says looking up at the unaware doctor in a sinister way. Zoro doesn't know what to make of her unnerving attitude.
"But… death isn't an injury or a sickness, you can't cure it." Zoro says with a frown.
"Quite." She agrees quietly. She picks up a clear plastic face mask and places it over Zoro's nose and mouth.
"This though, this can be fixed. Your arm will be fine. Breathe deeply and you will be back before you know it." She smiles gently at him.
"What's your name?" Zoro asks woozily as the strange, almost menthol smelling gas, diffuses through his system. The woman looks a little surprised at his question but smiles at him nonetheless.
"My name is Victoria Cindry." She says.
It seems as if Zoro has just blinked, one moment he was talking to Cindry, the next the world was coming into focus and moving. But also it seems as if some time has passed. He frowns as his addled brain tries to make sense of things.
His head lolls to the side, the bed is moving… he is moving. They're going through doors…
The world fades again as if just blinking and as if not too.
When he opens his eyes again, he is still. Two warm hands are clasped around his left one and he can hear a voice quietly pleading.
"Please god, please, please, please." Sanji whispers quietly against Zoro's skin. He repeats again and again, rounds and rounds of silent prayers.
"What good 's tha' ever don' anybody?" Zoro slurs, his tongue uncooperative and his mouth as dry as a desert.
Sanji's head snaps up, his blonde hair wild and unruly. Sanji stares at him for a moment, one wide, stunned blue eye looking at him.
"You're okay!" Sanji eventually chokes out.
"Good to know." He grins lazily at the man.
"Thank goodness." The blonde breathes in relief, running a hand through his locks, messing it further and giving Zoro an idea of how it got to be so messy.
Zoro struggles up, still feeling numb and un-coordinated. He looks down to his right arm only to find the entire thing in plaster from fingertip to elbow, his fingers are stretched out and separated in plaster so he can't move them even a millimetre.
"Doctor Hogback said that they'll take the plaster off tomorrow, run some tests and see how it took, until then you're kind of stuck." Sanji explains, picking a glass off of the table that comes over Zoro's bed and pouring water into it. Zoro immediately perks up at that, he's so thirsty. Sanji stirs the ice in the glass with a straw and gently holds it up to Zoro.
"Don't drink this too fast, they warned that you might feel sick after the anaesthesia." The blonde warns him.
"I'll be fine." Zoro huffs taking the glass from Sanji and throwing the straw away to drink normally.
"Fine, but if you puke see if I feel bad for you." Sanji snorts having apparently reached his quota of caring sympathy for the day.
As it happens Zoro doesn't puke, and he manages to eat some half-assed hospital food, it's certainly better than most hospital food but the sneering look on Sanji's face says more than Zoro ever could. Nurses come in and take his blood pressure, make him stand and walk around to prove that he's not about to keel over, they take blood samples and seem pleased.
Eventually Doctor Hogback comes into the room and looks his results over. The good doctor of course spends the entire time talking to just Sanji and not to Zoro at all, he might as well not even be in the room.
"He needs to stay here overnight, and if he feels any numbness or tingling in his arm or his fingers you need to get us right away." The doctor advises.
"Can I stay here too?" Sanji asks, his hand finding Zoro's uninjured left hand.
"Of course, we can get a bed ready in here for you tonight if you want." Hogback nods.
"Now, unfortunately, there are some police officers that want to see you. Cindry-chan has been putting them off for some time now but they're quite insistent. I'll show them up." Doctor Hogback says, leaving the room.
Zoro's spine snaps straight at the doctor's words. He looks over at Sanji wide eyed.
"You can't tell them about Ace! Please!" He begs urgently.
"He burnt a hole in your arm Zoro!" Sanji says with a glare.
"He didn't mean to, really." Zoro insists in desperation.
"No! He was just trying to kill me, which, really happen to take issue with!" the blonde snaps, standing up from his chair and pacing the room angrily, looking like a caged animal.
"Sanji, please, you know what Ace must have thought. He just leapt to the wrong idea is all, he thinks that you've been keeping me chained up, he thinks that you did this to me! And if this is just what he can see, who knows what other marks you might have left on me!" Zoro argues back, pointing to the large angry bruise on his neck.
"I would never! I've never hurt you!" Sanji shouts with a hurt expression on his face.
"I know that, and that's what I was trying to tell him. But he doesn't know, everything he's seen tells him that you have been, of course he's angry. I've known Ace for years, we're close and he's protective about people he cares about." He reasons with a sigh. Sanji stays silent but Zoro can hear his shaky breaths from across the room.
"Please don't tell them about Ace, they'll throw him in prison. Please, for me, I'll do anything." He pleads.
Sanji whirls around to look at him wide eyed when he says that, he seemed shocked somehow, and almost angry too.
"Really? You'd really offer to do anything, knowing all that I could potentially ask of you? You'd do that, just to keep him safe?" Sanji says, striding over to him and leaning way into Zoro's personal space, his hand caging Zoro into the bed.
Zoro looks at Sanji, really looks at him. The other man is angry and upset, although what about Zoro isn't sure. But he is sure about Sanji, the other man has proved enough that he deserves trust so he's going to get it.
"Yeah, anything. I know you, I trust you." He answers quietly.
Sanji stands up and moves away then, he turns his back on Zoro and says nothing.
"What exactly are you expecting me to say to these police detectives that you're asking me to lie to? What lie do you want me to give them so that someone who tried to kill me won't get caught?" The blonde asks in a dark tone, without turning back to him.
"I don't know, tell them I hurt myself on a…. a… a blowtorch or something!" He says exasperatedly.
Sanji remains still and silent though, neither confirming nor denying Zoro's request.
"Sanji…" Zoro pleads to his master's turned back. He knows just what will happen if Ace is caught, the police and the courts always pursue justice for the rich, and then some. At the very least Ace will be thrown in prison for years and made to pay Sanji back for all of the money that Zoro's cutting edge and no doubt pricy surgery cost. And if he couldn't? Well, more jail. Ace would never see the light of day again as long as he lived.
Zoro has no more time to plead his case though as a large gruff police officer and a young female police officer enter the room. Zoro's eyes widen, the woman looks just how Kuina would have looked now if she had lived. He rubs his eyes in shock, maybe the medication from the surgery hadn't worn off after all.
"Sir Prince, thank you for finally agreeing to see us. I'm Captain Smoker." The man says in an irritated tone, as if he can't quite believe that he's having to spend his time talking to Sanji of all people.
"It's no problem at all, but my mate has only just woken up, I didn't want to leave his side until now. I'm sure you understand." Sanji answers formally in a stiff voice, his arms tight across his chest.
"Of course. If you'll go into the waiting room down the hall my Lieutenant will take your statement about the vandalism." Smoker says in something that Zoro guesses is meant to resemble cordiality.
"If you'll come with me, Sir." The woman who looks like Kuina says, gently taking Sanji's arm and leading him from the room. Sanji follows her without a backward look at Zoro, leaving him with a sinking feeling in his stomach and a grizzled police Captain watching him suspiciously.
"So, let's hear it then boy, what happened?" Smoker says, dropping into the chair by Zoro's bed that Sanji had been sitting in earlier.
"It was an accident, that's all. Why are you asking me anyway? It's not like the police get to take my statement of anything into account." Zoro points out unhappily and anxiously looks at the door that Sanji left through, straining his ears to hear any of Sanji's conversation with the woman.
"There are a lot of things that the chief of police and I don't agree on, but the fact that people like you are people is something that we do agree on. So, what happened?" Smoker says gruffly. Zoro thinks for a moment and files that information about Hina away for later examination.
"I was an accident, with a blowtorch. Franky, one of Sanji's staff, does mechanical work on Sanji's cars so he has one. I picked it up out of curiosity and accidentally turned it on, it burnt right through my arm, it's so stupid." Zoro smiles weakly, remembering that most accidents are as a result of dumb mistakes. He's seen Luffy do enough stupid shit by accident to know how things like this happen, they sound almost unbelievable when you have to explain them to someone else.
"And this was at Sir Prince's home?" The man asks, rummaging in his jacket for something.
"Yeah." Zoro says with a nod.
"And you managed to pick up a blowtorch and burn right through your right arm with your left?" Smoker says raising an eyebrow as he pulls out a cigar and sticks it between his teeth and lights it.
"I'm left handed, so yeah. You're not allowed to smoke in here, Sanji's already been told off for trying." Zoro points out, remembering when Cindry came in and damn near put Sanji's smoke out on his skin as punishment!
"Hm? I don't care." Smoker shrugs and blows a stream of smoke out at the ceiling. He sighs and looks back down at Zoro, the large cigar clenched in between his teeth.
"Now, how about we try this on for size, hm? Blondie out there demands something of your that you don't want to give. You say no, or perhaps you fight back maybe. Perhaps you just say or do something that he doesn't like or he's just had a bad day and needs someone to take it out on. Either way he takes that blowtorch, turns it on you as punishment. When he realises that you're hurt too bad for him to deal with on his own he takes you here and tells you to say that if anyone asks you that you did it, that it was an accident." Smoker says seriously.
Zoro just stares at him for a moment before bursting out laughing. That, at least, seems to surprise Smoker.
"Seriously? You've really never met Sanji before have you?" Zoro laughs. The image of Sanji who was so apologetic to him this very morning turning a blow torch on him as some sadistic punishment is almost too contradictory for words, it's funny!
"You don't have to play this off as a joke, boy. If he did this to you then tell me!" Smoker orders him, banging his fist on the arm of the chair angrily. The smile falls from Zoro's face at that.
"Of all of the people you could accuse of something like that you accuse Sanji? The worst thing that man's turned a blow torch on is a dessert. And even if he had, there's nothing that you could do. Damaging your own property isn't a crime, it's not abuse if I'm not legally a person, or didn't they teach you that in police academy?" Zoro growls angrily.
"Surely you have other actual psychopaths to harass for things that you can't charge them for? Like Sanji's father, or his uncle, or that scumbag Cabaji?" He adds with a snarl.
Silence falls between the two of them then, with Smoker looking at him in a considering way. During the silence Sanji's voice, though muffled by distance and the shut door, shrieks "I would NEVER!"
"See?" Zoro points out. He can hear Sanji's angry footsteps coming down the corridor towards the room.
"Even by a lady as lovely as you I won't stand here and be accused of… of such things!" Sanji exclaims and wrenches the door open.
If looks could kill then the look that Sanji gives Smoker would leave the man stone dead and shrivelled into a nasty puddle on the linoleum. Unfortunately, they can't.
"I think you can leave now!" Sanji snaps furiously at him.
"What did he say happened Tashigi?" Smoker says almost casually as he leans back in his chair to see around Sanji's angry form to his subordinate.
"He claims that it was an accident with a blow torch, self inflicted." The woman says curtly, her tone clearly conveying how unlikely she believes that story to be.
Relief and gratitude wash through Zoro's body like a wave, Sanji did it, he lied. Ace won't go to prison!
"Hm, same here." The captain says idly, taking a puff on his cigar.
"Because that's what happened, now, as I said, you should leave now." Sanji grits out tersely.
"I suppose. Oh, Tashigi, where did Sir Prince say that this happened?" Smoker asks casually as he stands up, almost as if the thought has just occurred to him. Zoro and his wave of relief freeze solid.
"At the Baratie, a restaurant that Sir Prince owns and works at." The woman answers swiftly. Zoro cringes as Smoker smugly turns to look at them both.
"Well, you've had an incredibly unlucky day haven't you? First you burn yourself with a blowtorch at home and then, on the way to the hospital I presume, you stop by this restaurant, wander into the kitchen and do it again! Neither of you are very bright apparently." Smoker says sarcastically.
"Oh, did… did I say the Baratie? I meant-" Sanji scrambles for an excuse.
"Yes, you also said that you could provide witnesses to this accident. You're aware that lying to the police is a crime Sir Prince?" The woman says darkly.
Sanji looks down at Zoro, he can see that the cook is angry and unhappy but he grits his teeth anyway and looks back up at the officers with a glare and remains silent. Smoker puffs on his cigar and blows a stream of foul smelling smoke their way, making Sanji wrinkle his nose in distaste, not that Zoro thinks that he can complain with how much he smokes.
"You know doing this to your mate might not be a crime but lying a police officer is, as well as giving a false statement, wasting police time. All of these things can carry some considerable jail time." Smoker smiles nastily. Zoro understands now about what Smoker meant about still being able to arrest Sanji. He looks at the two officers in horror, surely they wouldn't? How could the price for Ace's freedom be the loss of Sanji's?
"Good luck with that, I'll have witnesses to back my statement up." Sanji says scowling at them.
"Word for word the same or as inaccurately as his? Well make this stick." Tashigi says threateningly as she glances at Zoro's plastered arm before levelling an accusing look at Sanji.
Zoro knows that look, this Tashigi woman might not be Kuina but he knows that when Kuina made that face it meant that she was determined as all hell to do what she wanted. When Zoro saw that face he knew good and well that Kuina would stop at nothing, be it with her training, in an argument or in her quest to become the best. But now Tashigi was wearing it as she swore to put Sanji behind bars, she'll damn well do it too!
"No, please! He's not like that, it wasn't him!" He insists, lunging forward at her to stop her as she turns to leave and start ruining Sanji's innocent life. Before he reaches her though the IV drip in his arm yanks taut and catches painfully. He lets out a hiss of pain and tumbles backwards on the bed, landing awkwardly on his elbow as he does it which sends an even sharper stab of pain into his system.
"Zoro!" Sanji exclaims in a panic as he leaps onto the bed, grabbing Zoro's arm with the IV in it and straightening it to hold it still.
"Stop moving you idiot, you're going to make it worse! Oh god, you've stabbed the thing straight through your vein and out of your skin!" Sanji exclaims in horror, pulling sharply on Zoro's wrist to make him straighten his arm instead of curling in on himself in pain.
He shudders but manages to suppress his reflex to bend his arm enough to let Sanji pull him straight. He forces his muscles to relax and stares down at the needle in his arm. Sanji was right, it has indeed pierced through from the inside of his vein out through his skin, like some god-awful surface piercing. He's not a squeamish man by any means but looking at it makes him feel a little queasy in all honesty.
"I have to take this out, it's bleeding like crazy. What is this stuff anyway, do you need it?" Sanji mutters, squinting up at the IV bag, trying to read what's written on it. Zoro pulls his eyes away from the horrible needle and looks at Sanji instead, he's much more pleasing to look at.
"I don't know what it is. But they wouldn't give it to me if I didn't need it right?" He reasons as Sanji stares down at the needle, his hand hesitating as to whether or not to take it out or how to do so.
"Well, I don't care, it's coming out. You, pass me those cotton balls over there, if you're going to be here uninvited you can at least do something useful!" Sanji says snappishly, gesturing with a bloody hand at Smoker and the medical trolley that he's standing next to. On top of that trolley rests a small metal kidney dish with cotton balls in it.
Smoker raises an eyebrow at Sanji but without saying a word passes the bowl and the balls in it. Sanji grabs one and dabs away the fast flowing blood, Zoro swallows thickly, he's never been massively fond of needles before and less so now.
"Don't stare at it marimo, it'll just feel worse. I'm gonna take it out okay?" Sanji says with forced calm from his position sat straddling Zoro's thighs and leaning down over his skewered arm.
"I'm not a baby, I can handle the pain." He grouses, embarrassed that Sanji had apparently noticed his discomfort at the sight of the needle in his skin and even more embarrassed at being coddled for it in front of people who are effectively strangers to him.
"I didn't say you were, now open your hand so I can hold you down in case you jerk away and put another hole in your arm before I get this thing out. You're too much like a pincushion today already for my liking." Sanji tuts at him.
"You're making a big deal out of nothing." Zoro mutters, but he opens his palm all the same and Sanji firmly fits his knee into it and presses hard enough to hold him there.
"I'm not making a big deal out of nothing. Honestly, you've put me through so much stress since I've been with you, I've aged horribly I'm sure. I'll be all wrinkles and grey hair within the month if you keep this up, I'll look so awful no one will ever love me." Sanji says dramatically as he wipes more blood away with a cotton ball. Intellectually he knows that Sanji is trying to distract him, but he decides to go with it anyway.
"Well, I certainly won't love you." Zoro teases back gently as he rests his forehead in the crook of Sanji's neck and shoulder, nestling his nose in Sanji's shiny golden hair. Ever since that night when he told Sanji about Nami he's been a little fascinated by the blonde's locks.
"Gee, thanks for that." Sanji snorts.
There's a sharp pain all of a sudden in his arm and true enough his body tries to instinctively jerk away from it but Sanji's knee pressing into his hand keeps him still. He gasps against Sanji skin, and hisses back out in discomfort. The needle at the end of the IV clinks metallically against his bed frame as Sanji lets it go. Quick as anything the other man has a cotton ball tightly pressed against the wound to stop the bleeding.
"There, I'm gonna hold that there until the bleeding stops, okay?" Sanji says, his voice soothing whilst his fingers press so hard as to be almost painful. He gingerly eases his knee off of Zoro's palm with a gentle apology. Sanji turns and glares at the two officers who are still standing in the doorway staring at them.
"Are you two still here?" Sanji says pointedly, twisting slightly to look at them without taking his hands off of Zoro's arm. Zoro peers over Sanji's shoulder at them, the woman who looks like Kuina looks surprised and confused but Smoker just looks thoughtful and slightly amused.
"If you have any more questions for me you can direct them at my lawyer who, I assure you, will be paid more per hour to make your lives hell than you two are paid per week. And don't think I won't press harassment charges if I catch you speaking to Zoro or to me for no good reason again." Sanji says nastily and returns his gaze to Zoro's arm, as if the two aren't even worth his attention any more.
"Sanji…" Zoro murmurs feeling guilty. He feels bad for Smoker especially, sure they're completely wrong about Sanji but they were trying to protect a mate, something that he thought the police would never do. Their hearts were in the right places.
"Don't worry, I don't have any more questions, but if either of you feel like telling the truth about who really did that to him, you give me a call." Smoker says placing a business card on the blankets at the bottom of Zoro's bed. Without another word he guides his partner out of the room and shuts the door behind them.
Sanji doesn't say anything after that, he simply remains silent and checks on whether or not Zoro is still bleeding every so often with an unhappy frown on his face. Zoro is acutely aware of how much Sanji just risked for him, even if his lawyer got him off scot free his reputation would undoubtedly be sullied. Sanji didn't have to lie for him either, he didn't have to do as he asked to protect someone that he doesn't even know and has no reason to like, let alone protect. But Sanji did it because he asked.
While Sanji is occupied with peering at his skin Zoro leans in to the blonde's hair and presses a kiss to the soft skin just behind Sanji's ear and where his neck starts to meet the side of his head. Zoro feels the muscles there jump under his lips and Sanji pulls back to look at him in surprise. His big blue eye is staring at him and Zoro just can't miss the dusting of pink across the pale skinned cook's cheeks.
The blonde's eyes flick down to Zoro's lips for the briefest of moments and Zoro thinks that Sanji might just kiss him back. The moment balances precariously on a knife edge for a moment before Sanji scrambles off of him in haste.
"Damnit, where's that nurse?" Sanji mutters red faced as he quickly exists the room.
Zoro sighs and lies back down on the bed, Sanji seems to be pretty funny about this kind of thing, he remembers when Sanji got all upset about him kissing him over the swords. He hadn't really thought about it at the time, he had been so overcome with emotion that he'd just grabbed the other man and crashed their mouths together. But this time he'd really meant it, he'd wanted Sanji to kiss him back just then, he'd hoped that the cook might swallow nervously before leaning in towards him and kissing him back. But he hadn't, he'd run off. Well, whatever, Sanji would probably talk to him if they had a problem. He yawns deeply, whatever medication they had given him has made him completely lethargic and sleepy. He dozes off lazily.
"Hey, thanks so much old man. This hospital food is god-awful." Sanji's voice says, slowly filtering down into Zoro's consciousness.
"Don't mention it." Zeff's voice grunts through the fog of Zoro's consciousness.
Zoro rolls onto his side and curls up into himself under the sheets, he feels almost weightless, it's kind of nice.
"Stop looking like you did this to him." Zeff's voice growls, followed by a dull thud and a pained yelp from Sanji.
"It is my- Ow! Look, if I had got Zoro out of the way quicker then-" Sanji protests.
"Then you would be the one burnt by that kid. Zoro made his choice, you might not like it but you have to respect it." The old man says sternly. Sanji starts to protest but Zoro fades away again to the sounds of bickering and kicking.
Zoro wakes again some time later, he isn't sure how long, to a hand being run gently through his hair.
"Hey, you awake? I've got food, real food." Sanji says softly to him.
Enough of Zoro's body is familiar with Sanji's excellent food to form a rebellion against the drugs in his system and pull him fully into alertness and give him back control over his body. His sleepy eyes open to Sanji's golden hair as the man leans down to fuss with something on the chair by the bed.
"Your cooking?" Zoro asks, aware that his mouth is so dry that his tongue is sticking to the roof of his mouth.
"Better, Zeff's." Sanji grins at him, Zoro gives a disbelieving snort at that – he's never tasted food as good as Sanji's and has every suspicion that Sanji's respect for his mentor's food has to be just that, no way it could be better. Sanji gives him a startled look at his derisive noise before going completely pink and averting his gaze.
"Here, dumbass. It's chicken soup, you need the protein no doubt but it should be nice and easy to eat." Sanji mutters, pulling the fitted lid off of a bowl and handing it to Zoro.
He tries it, it is damn good, easily the best soup he's ever had. It certainly doesn't taste like this stuff even knows what a tin can is, let alone having ever been in one, he does wonder though what Sanji's version of this would taste like. It's kind of fun actually, deliberately saying things to make the cook go bright red, it's almost as much fun as pissing him off is.
His stomach growls threateningly as he eats, making Sanji look up sharply at him.
"Eat slower you moron, some of those anaesthetics can really mess with your system. I don't want you throwing that up." Sanji warns.
"As if I want that." Zoro says back sarcastically. Nevertheless he does eat a little slower and enjoys every bite. He and Sanji talk for a little bit after that, pointless inconsequential stuff, he's not really paying attention and actually falls asleep halfway through.
Sanji is in his lap again, this time his arm isn't bleeding though so he can properly enjoy the feeling of a lapful of Sanji. He strokes both hands nimbly up Sanji's sides, his orange shirt looking so tempting on him, though it would doubtlessly look better off of him.
He smiles and pushes forward, toppling Sanji back onto the bed and leaning over him with all of his weight resting through his right hand so that his free left hand can pop the buttons on Sanji's shirt open. The orange light in the room makes everything look soft and out of focus whilst making Sanji's gold hair blaze brilliantly, spread out on the bed below him it looks like a halo.
Sanji's smile is both lazy and sexy as he trails a hand along Zoro's scar just as he had done that night before, except this time his hand continues lower instead of stopping with the scar. Zoro shivers happily at the feel of Sanji's fingers on him.
Brushing the other man's touch aside he slides the blonde out of his shirt and basks in the joy of being able to kiss a path down his fair skinned chest. The blonde smirks up at him and pulls him down, reversing their positions. Sanji grins against his skin as he undoes Zoro's pyjama trousers and shimmies them off of him. Zoro throws his head back and bites his lip as he hears the sound of Sanji's belt buckle coming undone.
"You want me don't you Zoro?" Sanji breathes heavily in Zoro's ear as he leans over him. Zoro whines and nods desperately, he really really does want Sanji to fuck him.
"I can't hear you." Sanji teases.
"Yes!" Zoro begs out loud. Loud enough, it seems, for him to startle himself awake. Disorientated Zoro blinks at the dark room, realises that the plaster cast is still on his arm and that he's painfully hard inside his pyjamas. To make matters worse Sanji is sleeping opposite him in a small temporary bed and, if the look on his face is anything to go by, is starting to wake up from the noise.
In a panic Zoro freezes still and shuts his eyes again, trying to force himself to look relaxed enough to be sleeping.
He hears Sanji groan and shift in the bed next to him.
"Zoro?" He asks in a whisper. Zoro stays silent and makes no noise.
"Did you say something Zoro?" Sanji asks again.
Shit, he did hear then. Uh… what could he do?! Oh! He could pretend to be talking in his sleep, Nami used to do that sometimes!
"No… orange boat… Luffy leave that penguin alone." He mumbles making his dream sound as random and disjointed as possible, the things that Nami used to say in her sleep rarely made any sense either. The big challenge is trying not to make himself laugh at his own stupid words. To make it more convincing he rolls over and snores slightly.
"The fuck?" Sanji sniggers to himself. After a moment or two of quiet laughter Sanji settles back into bed none the wiser as to the nature of Zoro's interrupted dream. Zoro allows himself to relax and stop panicking. Now he just has to go back to sleep as well and resist the temptation to climb into Sanji's bed and convince the other man to help him re-enact said dream.
Zoro does manage to eventually get back to sleep and when he awakes Doctor Hogback returns and informs Sanji that they need to put him through an MRI to take a look at whether or not the surgery worked before allowing Zoro to move his hand and fingers at all. The three of them walk to the MRI room together, it's not too far but Zoro can't help but notice how clean the hospital is and how snooty all of the other patients look. It really is one world for the rich and one world for everyone else, he feels like deliberately looking like a slob just out of spite, but his in his pyjamas so he doesn't have a lot to work with.
Before he can come up with a plan to disgrace himself though they arrive at the MRI room, Cindry is waiting by the door, her white collar just visible over the top of her nurse's uniform. She holds the door open for them, inside is a small corridor that leads to two rooms, there are big signs up prohibiting them from bringing any metal any further inside.
"This way Sir Prince, Cindry, take him through there and don't forget the sedative." Doctor Hogback warns and leads Sanji through a separate door.
"Yes master." Cindry answers in a flat voice as they leave. Cindry scowls at her master's back before leading Zoro through another door.
Inside this room is a big white machine that's hollow in the middle like a giant ring donut, the lighting is low and there's plastic medical tray on the table that runs through the middle of the white machine. More signs prohibiting metal are hung around the room.
"No metal huh?" Zoro asks, looking at one such sign.
"Yes, I'll need you to take your earrings out. We can't have any metal in here, even if it's not magnetic it has a habit of blurring the detail on really fine pictures so it all has to go. If you put them in this dish here you'll get them back right after." Cindry explains in her monotonous voice, holding out a little plastic tray for him.
Zoro hops up onto the table and fiddles with his earrings, but he can't really take them out one handed. He sighs and gives up.
"Don't you think it's a little pointless to take these little things out when this massive collar is full of metal?" Zoro points out irritably. In his padlock alone there's more solid gold than in this three earrings put together.
"Let me help you." Cindry answers loudly, leaning in close and fiddling with Zoro's earrings.
"They always take your collar off for an MRI, they mean it when they say no metal, it all has to come off. I'll be taking it off in just a minute. They'll put you through an MRI for lots of things, but they will always give you one for a suspected head injury." She whispers in his ear incredibly quietly.
"Why are you telling me this? And if you can take collars off why haven't you taken your own off?" Zoro whispers back, careful to keep his face neutral as he can see that behind Cindry is a window and through it are Doctor Hogback and Sanji. The doctor is watching them offhandedly but Sanji is asking some questions, though his words are silent behind the glass.
"If I could take my own off I wouldn't be here. Mine's been designed to be all glass and plastic so that even if I have an MRI they don't take it off. But yours we have to." She answers. She straightens up with his earrings in her hand and drops them into the tray.
"Now, do what I tell you and when I ask you to lay down and pretend you're out, do it. We have to sedate mates before taking off their collars, ever since the orange haired girl escaped when we tried to MRI her chest for smoke damage." Cindry whispers as she picks up a needle from the tray, there's another by its side, both have a clear liquid in them.
Nami! It has to be! She supposedly burnt to death but… but if she hadn't and she'd been brought here… well, supposing that she had escaped of course the institute would cover it up, they wouldn't want mates thinking it was possible or getting an idea of how to do it. She… she could be alive! Oh god, Nami could be alive!
"Please lay back Zoro and just relax." Cindry says loudly, rolling the sleeve of Zoro's pyjamas up. She flicks at the needle and squirts a little of the liquid out before leaning down. Instead of jabbing him in the arm though she sticks the needle into his sleeve and depresses the plunger, dampening Zoro's shirt. Zoro takes the hint and quiets his mind of thoughts of Nami and makes himself relax.
"Is he out?" Doctor Hogback asks over the intercom.
"He seems to be." Cindry answers looking over her shoulder at the doctor.
"Why does he need to be out? I don't see why-" Sanji's voice says in the background but it cut off when the doctor turns the intercom back off.
"They've just sent the code through, 5435." The doctor says. So, Cindry needs a code to open his collar, no doubt one which changes every time.
Cindry presses something against his collar, Zoro hears a beeping noise as four digits are entered into the thing against his collar. And then, with a simple click, his collar pops open just to the left of his jugular. Cindry pulls at it and the thing comes off in two solid pieces. His neck is bare, he's free. It's been so long since he's felt this that he can hardly contain his excitement.
"Are you sure he's out? I think I saw him move." The doctor says suddenly over the intercom.
"I'll dose him again, he took more anaesthetic to put out for the surgery after all." Cindry comments. This time Zoro feels the prick of the needle in his skin for real as cold sensation spreads through his body and drags him into sleep with one thought on his mind: Nami could be alive.