Sanji opens his eyes to a world of green, mossy, messy hair right under his nose. He inhales and the smell of Zoro's warm skin floods his senses, making his chest hitch excitedly. His mind suddenly flashes back to Zoro's perfect mouth on him and around him, the way his earrings chimed as he moved and the dark, hungry look in his eyes.
As well as all of that he remembers, not that he's sure he'll ever forget, seeing Zoro holding himself above Sanji with his eyes squeezed shut and his lip bitten tightly between his teeth as Sanji got him to come. Every one of his senses seems to have etched the scene forever in his brain, he remembers how Zoro's mouth tasted and the feel of his tongue, he remembers the overheated, sweat-slicked feel of Zoro's skin. He can still remember the sounds of Zoro's harsh breathing and the delicious sound that he actually made when he came. Sanji remembers all of it in glorious detail.
Which is why there is a sleeping marimo tangled up with him on their bed, dozing softly on Sanji's shoulder being effortlessly gorgeous. Part of him is worried that he might have coerced Zoro into that but… well… he had seemed to be as enthusiastic about the prospect as Sanji was, and his own orgasm had come so quickly and easily right afterwards that there was no way that Sanji could even manage to argue that Zoro hadn't wanted this. But what exactly was "this"? Was it just the sex? One part of Sanji was completely happy with that but really he wanted it all. He wanted Zoro to actually want to be with him, stupid short temper, foul mouth, flaws and all. Now that Sanji was less certain of.
He untangles himself carefully from Zoro's warm sleeping body and sneaks into the bathroom, feeling dumb for sneaking about in what is technically his own room. He turns the shower on and spots the half empty bottle of conditioner in the bottom of the bath. Frowning he pulls it out and glares at it. As lucky as he feels for it having all been faked he can't help but wonder why whoever put them out in their room didn't just go through with really hurting Zoro. Perhaps they couldn't stomach it, either way Sanji is glad.
He doubts that it was his father or his uncle, though almost certainly the idea originated with them. Which left one of his father's lackeys, Jabra or Kaku were likely candidates. Scowling he throws the bottle in the bin and pulls a different one from the cupboard, it says it smells like grapefruit so he'll take that. In a flash of incredibly pointless cosmetics based rage he throws all of his coconut stuff away and replaces it all with new things, Zoro does not need more reminders of that. He showers quickly and emerges shortly after into the bedroom with a towel around his waist.
Zoro is sitting on the end of his bed with his towel from before slung over his own hips, the man looks contemplative which… worries Sanji. It's not that he doesn't like the idea of Zoro thinking, it's just that he doesn't like him looking so uncertain so soon after they had been… you know. Zoro doesn't look up at him but instead stares out the window.
"We… need to talk." Zoro begins with a frown, effectively dropping Sanji's heart into his gut. Nothing good ever followed those words.
"O-okay." He says meekly. Zoro scowls at the window before sighing and looking down at the floor.
"I'm… sorry." He says with what sounds like a tremendous amount of effort.
"Why?" Sanji asks weakly, not really wanting the answer.
"For the way I reacted, the things I thought. I should have trusted you." The swordsman says unhappily, his gaze downcast.
"Huh?" Sanji asks dumbly, he's not sure that he's following this conversation any more. Zoro's bright earnest eyes finally meet his now and the man looks agonised about this conversation.
"I thought it was you that- I mean, you of all people!" Zoro exclaims. Suddenly it clicks in Sanji's mind, Zoro is apologising for panicking earlier.
"What? No! You don't owe me an apology, not at all!" he insists, waving his hands in a no gesture.
"But I thought-" Zoro cuts in, standing up.
"It'd been set up so you would, anyone would! If I'd been in your place I'd have thought the same, hell- I thought that I might have lost my mind and hurt you! I couldn't remember anything, still can't actually but… really, Zoro it's fine." He argues back.
"Oh." Zoro finally says, seeming to relax a little.
"God Zoro, don't give me a heart attack like that! I thought you were going to say something awful." He exclaims in relief.
"Like what?" The other man quizzes with a curious expression on his face.
Sanji stops at that, should he really say what he thought? That Zoro was going to say it was all a big mistake? Doing so would pretty much out him as wanting more from Zoro, he wouldn't really be able to go back from that. But… god. He turns to look at Zoro, the man is amazing, gorgeous and strong – both mentally and physically. He really should put his cards down on the table.
"I thought that-" Sanji begins.
"Oops! Looks like we're interrupting something!" A high pitched voice laughs from the ceiling.
Sanji jerks in horror and spins to look up and see his cousin Perona floating up in the corner of his room along with a pink haired toddler that drops from the air duct and turns into a fully grown Bonney before she hits the floor.
"Yeah, you are! Do you mind?!" He yells at them.
"I don't mind at allll." Perona smiles deviously, her eyes focused behind Sanji. Sanji glances behind him to see a considerably less pleased looking Zoro glaring back at Perona.
"Focus Perona." Bonney sighs shaking her head.
"Sanji, we saw that photographer's pictures this morning, Perona heard that she's going to write one hell of a story when she gets back. She's already left and I guarantee you that it's not the kind of story that Uncle was expecting. You need to get your asses out of here now." Bonney explains quickly. Sanji pales at that thought, he'd not considered that he might be on the island still when the story broke. In fact none of this playing to the cameras business had been his plan at all, it was all Zoro.
"There's a plane on the runway too, and it's not one of ours." Perona smiles sneakily, trying to crane her neck to see around Sanji to Zoro a little more, Sanji steps back closer to Zoro to stop her. That's probably possessive and bad but oh well, he's done it now.
"What kind of plane?" He manages to ask instead.
"One with flowers and hands on the tail, it's kind of cute." His stupidly gothic cousin informs him with a overly saccharine laugh.
"Robin. I say we get out of here." Zoro says quietly in Sanji's ear, making him shiver ever so slightly.
"Good plan, we'll get dressed then leave. You two can leave too!" He adds snappishly at his cousins.
"Whatever." Perona huffs and flies through the wall. Bonney leaps up and grabs the air vent, shrinking and getting younger as she hauls herself into it until she's just a toddler again.
"Is that ever not weird?" Zoro asks after a moment.
"Honestly? Not really. Known them since I was born and it's still odd." Sanji answers shaking his head.
"Shower." Zoro declares and grabs some clothes from the dresser before entering the bathroom and shutting the door behind him.
"Thanks a lot girls, really lost my moment there." He mutters unhappily to himself and dresses.
In no time at all Zoro is clean and dressed, Sanji kind of preferred him sticky and naked. Okay, definitely preferred it. He's got enough of their stuff packed in a bag that they feel comfortable enough with slipping out onto the patio and running down the beach, they follow the line of the ocean for a little while until they hit the tarmac of the runway and spy the plane with Robin's signature flowers and hands on the tail.
Zoro dashes ahead towards the open door and the rope ladder hanging from it. They climb it and he's surprised to be pulled up the last few feet by Franky's large hands. He pulls the door shut behind them and wordlessly heads up towards the front of the plane.
"Franky?" he questions in surprise.
"Well someone had to fly the plane." Robin smiles at him serenely from her seat.
"Nami!" Zoro yelps next to him and before Sanji can register it his swordsman's arms are suddenly full of curvaceous redhead.
"Zoro!" She exclaims, burying her face in his neck for a moment. After a second or two she glances up over the edge of Zoro's collar and levels him with a suspicious look, Sanji flinches under the heat of it and, as if it was a sign of guilt, she glares harder.
"Here." She says simply, pulling back from Zoro and handing him his precious swords. Zoro audibly groans with relief and quickly fastens them around his waist. He watches with some interest as Zoro's frame visibly relaxes, he feels… safer perhaps? Well he is armed quite literally to the teeth now so he supposes that it makes sense.
"Your wrists!" She exclaims holding Zoro's hands and examining his bruised up wrists. Sanji feels an uncomfortable twinge of guilt, Zoro does seem to get hurt an awful lot more than is usual when he's around him. He's probably bad for Zoro.
Nami comes to the same conclusion, or possibly a worse one as her face flashes with endless rage. Suddenly her hands are full of the same blue weapon that he'd seen her nearly kill Blackbeard with before.
"Oi, not him. His family." Zoro sighs, pulling on Nami's hair.
"Don't pull my hair you bastard!" She snaps, wheeling around to face Zoro.
"Don't call me a bastard, bitch!" Zoro shouts back.
This almost instantly devolves into a screaming match between the pair of them, both shouting insults so loudly at each other at the same time that it's impossible to make out a thing that they're saying. Even the plane taking off barely phases them as they hang onto seats at the opposite ends of aisle and shout at each other. Nami threatening to rob Zoro blind and Zoro threatening to cut her head off.
"It sort of makes you glad to be an only child doesn't it?" Robin sighs from the seat next to him.
"A little bit, yeah." Sanji agrees.
Robin runs her elegant fingers through her hair for a moment and tucks it behind her delicate ears. Sanji tries to remind himself that she doesn't actually care about him. She folds her arms neatly across her chest, as if she was trying to hug herself, a sign of insecurity probably.
"I meant what I said before Sanji, I do care about you, and you are my friend. But there are bigger problems out there and I merely needed your position to help solve them. I… apologise if I seemed manipulative, but I didn't intend to put you in any undue danger." Robin sighs and looks at him with her big blue-green eyes.
Sanji bites his lip and remembers that she used him.
"There is a philosopher that I've read before, I personally dislike him and he has some very flawed theories but he had one that I think you're ascribing to here. It's part of his categorical imperative. He says that we must "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end." You seem to think that I treated you just as a means to some greater goal of mine, but that's not true." Robin quotes at him.
"It feels pretty true." Sanji says quietly, it feels like it's all anyone but Zoro treats him as.
"Not so, Kant was against slavery. By owning someone you treat them just as a means, not as a person with their own free will. You can't have free will if you're owned, no matter how benevolent an owner you may have." Robin points out. Sanji bristles at that comment, he didn't get a choice about owning Zoro and he's offered him the chance to leave already, what more does he have to do?!
"By giving you the chance to change the world you can free Zoro and get what you really want. You want him to be free, you want him to have the absolute ability to choose and to still choose you. I'm helping you by getting you to do this." She says gently.
"Where was my choice though? You didn't let me choose to do this for him, and I would have, but you didn't let me." He says quietly. Robin nods her head silently and stares into the distance for a moment or two.
"I'm very used to being self reliant Sanji, after what your father did to me and my people, to my mother… I had no one. I'm not used to having people want to help me out of their own free will, if… if I need your help again in future I shall ask and give you a chance to say no if you wish." She says quietly. Sanji's weak heart melts.
"I'm never going to say no Robin, not to you. But you should still ask." Sanji sighs with a soft smile.
A natural silence falls between them for a few seconds and in that time he hears a sound that nearly rips his heart out.
One quiet, solitary sob.
And it's Zoro.
He remembers the sound all too well from when Zoro told him about Nami's supposed death, but he never wanted to hear it again. He tries to spring to his feet but suddenly ten hands hold him down. Robin shakes her head and he understands that this moment isn't for him. He strains his ears and hears Nami's quiet soothing voice from the back of the plane.
"I will kill him. I don't know how or when but I will Zoro, for this, for everything. Spandam will die." Nami vows quietly.
"Stop, I'm fine. Nothing…. Nothing happened." Zoro says back in a voice that's still got an unstable tremor in its tone, Sanji's heart breaks a little more.
"I'm going to go see how Franky's doing." He declares and unbuckles his seat belt, striding to the front of the plane and shutting the door behind him.
The cyborg glances up at him and offers him a warm smile.
"Wanna be my co-pilot?" He offers, gesturing to the pilot seat beside him.
"As long as I don't have control of anything that might plunge us into the ocean and a terrible death." Sanji answers, dropping into the chair with a sigh.
"Don't worry." Franky chuckles.
"Man… I'm hungry. I need some of Zeff's food." Sanji sighs, leaning back in the chair. He feels too lost, too spun around and disorientated, he's just stumbling from one goddamn disaster to another. He needs food and he needs his home, his real home.
When they land Sanji leaves Zoro with Nami, he looks normal now, or as normal as a six foot, green haired, sword wielding maniac can look. At least he doesn't look like he's shed a single tear. His feet get him to Zeff's without him really paying attention to how he gets there. He walks into the kitchen through the back door and stops on the other side of the counter from Zeff, ignoring everyone else.
"Old man, I need your advice." He says simply.
The room goes quiet, Zeff's eyes go wide and someone across the room drops a pan lid which rolls comically across the floor towards Sanji before spinning a few times and dropping to the floor.
"WHAT?!" Everyone in the kitchen but him and Zeff yells in unison.
Sanji has never in all his years asked for advice from Zeff. Not once. Oh sure, sometimes Zeff has given advice, shouted it sometimes, but always unsolicited. Or sometimes Sanji has mentioned a problem in his vicinity and listened carefully to the anecdote or gruff statement that Zeff might make afterwards. But never has he admitted that he's so lost, so hopelessly screwed as to outright ask.
Zeff strokes his moustache and turns on his peg leg, leading Sanji up the stairs into the small home that they used to share. Zeff sits in the indentation on the sofa that he's always sat in, Sanji spots his own place at the furthest other end of the sofa, as far away from Zeff as possible. Instead of sitting there he sits on the floor by Zeff's feet.
"I love Zoro." He states outright. The old man says nothing.
"I'm absolutely completely gone, he's all I think about, all I dream about. But he's in a bad place, being owned is wrong for him, I tried to set him free and damn the consequences but he wouldn't leave without me and I couldn't just leave and throw you under the bus. My father would take everything out on you, the Baratie, everyone here. So he stayed with me." Sanji continues.
He traces a pattern on the carpet with his finger and speaks again into the silence that Zeff is leaving for him.
"My father won't change the rules, and everything I do to try to make things better seems to make it worse. Last night he set up a situation so that Zoro would think that I'd raped him, assuming that my father hadn't just hoped that Fullbody hadn't drugged me enough to make me do it for real. Zoro was smart enough to work out that it was fake, he changed the set up into something that would make us look good in the press, something that would strengthen my case. There was a photographer, there will probably be pictures in the paper tomorrow." He says shaking his head.
"But I can't shake the suspicion that this is just going to get worse and the whole situation is already careening out of control, something bad is going to happen and I just know it. Father will be furious when he sees the photos and sees what we did to his plan, he's so vengeful and I'm afraid for Zoro." He adds, spilling out all the fear that he's been keeping inside him.
"But I… I don't even know whether Zoro even feels the same way about me. I'm doing this because I love him and I'm trying to do what he wants and what Robin wants, but… I don't know if Zoro really… He has a friend, a guy named Ace – he hates me. They used to be a thing… I don't know if they still are or…" Sanji trails off.
"I'm scared that I'm going to lose everything that I care about and get my heart broken, what do I do?" He finally asks, looking up at his old man.
Zeff, the only true father he's ever had, the only family he had since his mother died, looks down at him with deep old eyes. His expression is sad and it's some moments before he speaks to answer.
"I loved once, as you are now. But I was young and stupid, prideful too maybe. I thought that if someone wasn't willing to risk everything for me then they didn't really love me, I left when I was given the chance to leave. I left when I should have stayed by her side. I'd thought that she didn't want to risk everything for me but it wasn't until years later that I realised that she was risking everything to protect me, because she loved me." Zeff says quietly, his eyes distant and sad.
"Yours has risked everything to stay with you and don't kid yourself into thinking otherwise, you're the most dangerous person for him to be around right now. I've been watching the news, and I know what your father is like, you've declared war and you can't go back on it now." Zeff says in a sobering tone.
"So what do I do?" Sanji asks wide eyed.
"You fight, you've got the only thing worth fighting for, love. You fight because if you don't you're going to lose it. You've got what it takes my boy but it may well just take everything you've got, so don't hold back." Zeff declares gruffly, his peg leg thumping emphatically against the wooden floor.
"But what if he doesn't feel the same way about me?" Sanji asks in a small voice.
"Don't be stupid Sanji, he wouldn't have stayed if he didn't. Now man up and tell him how you feel, you never have as much time as you think you do… believe me." The old man says in a sad tone.
Sanji bites his lip, he can picture Zoro rejecting him and running to Ace.
"Grow a pair and do it." Zeff snaps, standing up abruptly.
Sanji nods, it's tough advice but it's well given, he should listen… he should… he should tell Zoro how he feels and accept whatever the other man says.
"Oh… and one more thing." Zeff says casually as he stuffs his hands in his pockets. One slow part of Sanji's brain wonders why that gesture looks so familiar, then before he knows it he's flat on his back with a shoe heel painfully embedded in his sternum.
Zeff has him pinned to the floor and he means to hurt. He can't even breathe, Zeff's heel is paralysing his lungs, making him unable to suck air in and out; he feels like he's dying. The old man leans down until his face is close enough that his stupid moustache almost touches Sanji's face.
"You owe me your life you shitty excuse for a son, I nearly died to save you, I lost my leg to save your life so the next time you're offered a chance to actually live the fucking thing you'd better take it or I'll take your life back." Zeff snarls in his face, ignoring Sanji's hands frantically scrabbling at his ankle.
"Don't you let me ever catch you sacrificing anything for me, much less love of all things. As if someone like me needs some punk kid getting in the way by causing trouble for himself in order to protect me. I'm a million times stronger than you shitty eggplant. So don't you dare risk another goddamn thing for me, you understand?" Zeff shouts, easing off his heel enough to let Sanji suck in a breath of blessed air.
"Do you understand?" Zeff demands again.
"Yes! Yes!" Sanji coughs out breathing in big gulps of air. Zeff removes his foot entirely and humpfs in an entirely dissatisfied way.
"Jesus Christ, I think you punctured a lung or something." Sanji wheezes, pulling himself unsteadily to his feet.
"Well maybe it'll remind you. Now beat it." Zeff snaps, kicking in his direction. Sanji rolls out of the way in time and scrambles out of the room. He hesitates on the stairs and sneaks back, opening the door to the room.
"Love you too old man!" He calls and dashes down the stairs before Zeff's wrath can chase him.
Sanji walks into his home with his heart in his throat, he loves Zoro, he knows that he does but... Despite Zeff's words he's not sure that he can bring himself to say that to Zoro. It's just too much possibility of rejection in one go. But he has to say SOMETHING, they can't go on as they have been, especially after what happened this morning.
He is about to head upstairs in search of Zoro when he hears a noise in the kitchen. Curious he opens the kitchen door and finds Zoro leaning his arm on top of the open fridge door, looking inside hungrily. He's dressed in loose jeans which ride low on his hips, showing a delicious stripe of skin below his faded t-shirt. Zoro seems to notice him and grins broadly at him.
"That's a pretty useful super power you've got there, I decide I'm hungry and you appear!" Zoro chuckles.
"I aim to please." Sanji says bowing deeply with an equally stupid grin on his own face.
"What would you like?" He asks, making his way to the fridge as well, leaning slightly against Zoro's warm body as he looks inside.
"Whatever you want to make, it's all good. Something warm though?" Zoro adds hopefully. Sanji hums and thinks of warming comfort food and surveys his potential ingredients.
"Carbonara?" he suggests, glancing up at Zoro. The other man's beaming smile is enough of a yes for him, he laughs and pulls out the ingredients.
Zoro hops up to sit on the opposite counter and watch Sanji cook.
"How was your old man? I would have gone with you if you wanted but Nami was here, that and every time I see your old man something bad happens. First time I got my face smashed into a wall and the second time I got set on fire." Zoro laughs.
"He's fine." Sanji laughs.
"Hey, about Ace... Luffy mentioned something when he was here last." Sanji says, trying to conceal his nervousness as he pretends to focus on his cooking, this is actually a little easier with an excuse to not make eye contact with Zoro.
"Everything Luffy says is weird, I wouldn't take whatever it was too seriously." Zoro snorts and reaches around Sanji to grab a glass from the cupboard by Sanji's head, making him jump slightly. Zoro goes to the sink to fill it with water.
"It was about you and Ace." Sanji says after a deep breath. Zoro swears loudly as the tap suddenly turns on too high, spraying them both.
"Shit, sorry." Zoro mutters, switching it off.
"He said that you and Ace were... ah..." Sanji starts, searching for a word that wasn't "fucking". Evidently his pause is long enough and significant enough for Zoro to get the idea.
"Yeah I can guess. Man, Luffy just can't keep his mouth shut." Zoro mutters.
Sanji nods, so, that's that then. Zoro and Ace are really a thing. Well, it isn't surprising, Zoro is gorgeous and loyal.
"That explains why Ace hates me so much I guess, if you two are together." He sighs and stirs his sauce.
"Wait, what?" Zoro asks with a note of surprise in his voice.
"Well, it must be pretty rough for him seeing you around me so much, especially with everything in the papers. No wonder he's pissed off at me and fought with you." Sanji explains, looking over his shoulder at the startled looking Zoro.
"Sanji, Ace and I aren't together. We haven't been for- and it was never like that anyway." Zoro says quickly. Sanji raises his eyebrows in surprise, what did Zoro mean then? The other man bites at his lip for a second before looking down at the glass in his hand and starting to speak.
"I didn't know when I was going to get bought, I was fifteen and really freaked out. I didn't want my first time to be with some hideous rich bastard against my will, so I decided that no matter what I was going to have sex before that. If I'd known I'd get you I might have changed my mind." Zoro adds with a mutter, making Sanji's eyes go wide with surprise.
"I could never escape from the institute for very long, certainly not enough time to get involved with someone. And… well… I'm not exactly proud of it but Ace and I were already friends and he was more than willing. It was supposed to be just the once but it ended up happening a little more than that, but it was just sex and he certainly wasn't my boyfriend or anything." He says shaking his head at the idea.
Sanji stirs his sauce a little more and thinks about that. He remembers the way that Ace looked at him, the angrier he looked the more Zoro defended him. He remembers how furious Ace looked when he'd misinterpreted Zoro's explanation of the handcuff marks on his wrists to think that they were having sex. Ace was jealous, most definitely so. Possessive too.
"Does Ace know that?" He challenges gently.
"Yeah, we've argued about it before. He says we're together, I say we're not, he acts like an asshole, we argue, we make up, I get drunk or stupid, we sleep together again and repeat." Zoro grumbles. Sanji winces and for the first time ever he feels a pang of sympathy for the fiery guy, it must really suck to have Zoro like that and keep losing him. That said, he wasn't sure that is position was much better at all, at least not right now.
"Why'd you bring it up?" Zoro asks as Sanji drops fresh penne pasta into boiling water.
"I ah… I wanted to talk to you about a few things, that was one of them." He stalls.
"Okay…" Zoro says slowly, clearly expecting Sanji to go on. Sanji keeps his back to Zoro and reminds himself of Zeff's words, the throbbing bruise on his chest hardly gives him an opportunity to forget in fairness. Still, he's a little nervous. He decides to ease into it gently.
"Remember when you first got here and I told you that this wouldn't be how you expected?" He hedges.
"Yeah, I didn't believe you but you were being honest." Zoro answers from behind him.
"Well, remember how I said that even though I intended on leaving you completely on your own if you wanted but in public we would have to act otherwise?" He continues nervously, pretending to focus completely on his cooking.
"Yeah. Is this about the photos? Because-" Zoro interrupts him.
"Let me finish." Sanji cuts in, shaking his head. He knows that if he doesn't say this now then he may well come down with one of Usopp's cowardly diseases.
"I don't know when it happened exactly but… well… the stuff that we fake in public, or in front of that photographer… I… it's not… fake. Not for me." Sanji says quietly, unable to stall any longer.
"What?" Zoro says in a strange voice, Sanji hears him put his glass down. Oh god, this can't be good.
"I just wanted to say, especially after this morning, I needed you to know. But the same deal as before still stands, I still mean what I said in this room on your first morning here, I don't intend to coerce you into anything at all! If you don't want me anywhere near you then I'll keep as far away from you as you want, I'm not a creep." He explains quickly. His heart is plummeting in his chest and is now somewhere in his stomach, Zoro is staying way too silent through all of this. Sanji suddenly starts wracking his brains wondering if Zoro was wearing his swords when Sanji came in. He doesn't think that he was but even so they're usually not too far away, oh god, what if the other man cuts his head off or something?!
"And I'm not expecting anything or nothing, it's just for some reason which is presently escaping me I thought that I should tell you, which was a really dumb idea because-" He runs on, only cutting off when Zoro tugs on the back of his shirt.
"Hey, look at me. You know you babble when you're nervous?" Zoro says, tugging at Sanji's chin to make him look at him. Sanji's not sure that he can do that though so he quickly starts looking anywhere but Zoro, even though his face is now pointed at him.
"Well, you see," He starts babbling again, staring at Zoro's earrings instead of his eyes.
"I'm pretty much panicking here and trying to lengthen the amount of time between me starting this stupid conversation and you dismembering me with your swords." He explains quickly.
"You're definitely babbling." Zoro says flatly, though worrying not saying that he doesn't intend to dismember Sanji. Perhaps he does. Well, it was an okay life. Okay, the bits with Zeff were good but the rest pretty much sucked all around.
The kiss startles him, so much that he nearly jolts himself completely out of it. But no, Zoro is… kissing him. Sweetly and gently. The lips against his give way to teeth as Zoro grins against his mouth.
"It's real for me too dumbass." Zoro says gently against Sanji's skin.
"I'm not a dumbass. How was I supposed to know?" Sanji mutters glaring at the grinning Zoro. He thought that being rejected would be awful but being told that he was stupid wasn't great either.
"What? Are you gonna insult me now and say that this morning would have still happened if everything was just an act?" Zoro questions with a laugh.
Sanji decides that it'd probably be best for him to not incriminate himself and further so he says quiet and avoids Zoro's gaze.
"Seriously?" Zoro remarks in surprise.
"I don't know! You'd only just stopped panicking and you could have had a concussion or still be worried that I was drugged up enough not to take no for an answer! I spent half of the plane ride back worried that you were never going to forgive me and the other half worrying about having this conversation!" he exclaims indignantly.
"That's kind of sweet." Zoro smirks at him.
"Shut up." Sanji huffs.
"It's a good thing dumbass." Zoro tuts. But before Sanji can protest about being called a dumbass again Zoro's lips are on his, which makes his general mood and world view infinitely better.
He pulls away from Zoro after a few long happy moments and grins like a complete fool.
"I didn't think that this would go like this." He admits with a smile.
"Really? I didn't think I was being subtle, last time I kissed you when no one was around you pretended it didn't happen. And you seemed to be doing the same about this morning too, I figured that you weren't really interested." Zoro points out.
Sanji rubs the back of his neck awkwardly and realises that Zoro is right, all the signs that Zoro wanted him were there he just hadn't seen them. He either figured that he was reading into them too much, projecting his own desires onto Zoro, or that he didn't deserve him. He'd been so paranoid about exploiting Zoro that he'd just been completely ignoring everything the other man had been trying to tell him. Now he really does feel like dumbass.
"Okay, I am a dumbass." He sighs.
"I'm told that admitting that you have a problem is the first step towards recovery." Zoro smirks at him.
"Anyway," he adds resting his chin in his palm, "it kind of suits you."
"Shut up." Sanji grouses, turning back to his sauce and stirring it, the stuff was starting to stick to the bottom of the pan – something that he never normally allows to happen.
"I don't know what we're going to do Zoro, especially when my father finds out." Sanji sighs, as the awful nature of the rest of their situation settles in.
"Do you mean the photos or us?" The other man asks curiously.
"The photos, well… both I guess." Sanji answers with some consideration. He really doesn't know just what the photographer got shots of or how it looks, he's not sure how it'll play out except for him being certain that it wasn't what his father planned.
"Eh, we'll deal with it when it comes. There's nothing that we can do now is there?" the swordsman points out apathetically as he leans back on the counter and stretches his neck with his eyes shut. Sanji eyes him worriedly, perhaps Zoro is more used to living in fear than he is but Sanji is really uneasy with this situation. He knows just how vindictive his father can be, he's seen the cruel punishments that his father serves up to people who cross him in business or simply don't bend to his will. As for him… well, his disobedience will no doubt be seen as far worse.
His father has long held the threat of harm to Zeff and the Baratie over him, but he and his father have had an uneasy truce with that. Spandam knew that destroying Zeff would free Sanji and make him vengeful, but equally Sanji knew that too much disobedience would lead to Spandam destroying Zeff. Now he has a new weakness, enough so that he's got enough to lose and still lose more, Spandam could harm Zeff and hold a threat over Zoro to make him comply. Zeff had told him not to worry about him but Sanji wasn't sure that he could do that. At least he had Zoro by his side where he could protect him first hand, Zeff was so far away.
He mixes the pasta and sauce together and serves the dish up, pleased at Zoro's delighted reaction. Even with his joy of Zoro's returned affection still running through his veins he can't quite shake the sharp whine of paranoia in his mind. He feels as if he's fallen into a trap already but just can't see his demise coming. Even when Zoro leaves Sanji stays in the kitchen ruminating over all of the potentially terrible things that his father could do and how he could act to stop them.