Sanji wakes up, the sand underneath him is starting to warm with the morning light and the dim embers of their campfire radiate some meagre warmth out to him. He'd been awake most of the night fretting about his near miss with Zoro, guilt and fear made for bad sleeping companions. But it seems that he'd dropped off at some point as most of his nakama seem to have wandered off. Usopp is curled up like a worm in his sleeping bag, talking softly to Franky who is stretched out beside him, both men have soft smiles and whilst Sanji doesn't understand the conversation he can tell that their conversation is technical. He knows from the wistful pull at Usopp's mouth that he's talking about Merry before he even hears her name from the sharpshooter's lips.
Sanji feels a pang at that. No one loved Merry as much as Usopp, but they all loved Merry deeply. A lost nakama. He glances around but sees no Zoro and he can't help his mind running over the thought that Zoro was so nearly lost too. In the same way that Merry's keel was shattered from a bad landing, so was Zoro's skull, only this one Franky could fix. What good would that have been though if he'd put his heel right through Zoro's healing head?
The thought sends a shiver down his spine and sets him onto his feet with an agitating itch to see Zoro alive and well with his own eyes.
He sets off towards the sea in the direction of the Sunny, he can make out Chopper and Nami's figures in the distance, and from the looks of it Nami is trying to restrain Luffy from doing something dumb. Perhaps they know where his idiot is hiding.
"But I wanna join him!" Luffy protests, wriggling and writhing in the headlock Nami has him in, his neck stretching as he tries to back into the ocean despite Nami's hold.
"You'll drown moron, how many times do I have to tell you?!" Nami chastises him, giving their captain's head a good punch with her free hand for good measure.
"Why does Luffy want to go swimming?" he asks, stepping up to the sea shore, his bare feet relishing the warm water lapping at his toes.
Before Nami can answer him though he sees his answer, bobbing in the waves is an unmistakable head of marimo green.
"What the hell is he doing out there?!" Sanji yelps, his heart leaping into his throat. He scrambles out of his jacket, he needs to get out there and pull Zoro back to shore before the marimo drowns!
"I took off his bandages, his wound is more or less healed, and it needs some fresh air. The salt water isn't actually bad for it, so it doesn't matter that he's swimming as long as we dry him off afterwards. He'll be fine Sanji." Chopper smiles up at him gently, his eyes quickly flicking back to Zoro.
"What if he passes out?! I'm going to get him dumb ass back here!" He snaps and sprints into the ocean. When the waves hit his thighs he dives under the next wave and swims, by the time he breaks the surface again the waves are no longer breaking where he is and simply bobbing him up and down. He's still far too far away from Zoro though who seems to be happily swimming around, oblivious to the danger he could be in.
As if it was ripped from his worst nightmares Zoro sinks below the water, disappearing from sight. He must have fainted! Sanji speeds up his swimming, going at breakneck speed. He's thrashing so fast that he's barely able to coordinate his sucking breaths with his strokes and not drown himself too. He gets to where he saw Zoro last and is just about to dive when he feels a hand skirt up his leg and ghost over his hip.
Sanji yelps instinctively and Zoro's head breaks the water, the swordsman heaving in a massive gasp. The marimo shakes his bandage free head and grins broadly at Sanji, uncaring about the frantic hammering of Sanji's panicked heart.
"What the FUCK asshole?! I thought you were drowning!" He snarls and slams an angry palm into Zoro's chest, splashing water into the laughing man's face in the process.
"No!" Zoro laughs loudly and smiles. The idiot grabs Sanji's arm and forces something cool, solid and broad into his palm. The swordsman grins and points down before diving once more. Perplexed Sanji pulls his hand up and sees that Zoro has handed him a clam easily as big as his palm.
He takes a breath and sticks his head under the surface of the sea. He doesn't like opening his eyes underwater in the salt, it makes his eyes itch, but a lifetime of living on a ship has made him used to it. As his vision clears he sees Zoro pulling another clam free from a giant submerged rock covered in clams, oysters and all sorts of delicious looking shellfish. There are even a few giant clams there, their big mouths opening and shutting lazily in the underwater currents. The eddies in the water ruffle Zoro's green hair, making him look every bit the sea-weed head that he always accuses him of being.
Zoro's head must shift slightly as he pulls another clam free and Sanji catches a flash of silver, but before he can stare too long Zoro is looking up at him and swimming back to the surface again. When the swordsman breaks the surface once more he hands Sanji two more sizeable clams before pulling his shirt off and knotting the bottom of it to make a makeshift bag. He then takes the clams back off of Sanji and puts them in there.
"From what I can see, all of those down there are edible." Sanji muses, already running his hands mentally over the contents of the fridge and cupboards, pulling together recipes and sauces in his mind.
"No." Zoro gasps in sarcastic mock surprise. A tone that perfectly conveys the attitude of "why the fuck else would I be getting them, idiot?"
"Shut your face." He snaps back and kicks Zoro in the shin, the blow only slightly dulled by the water.
"Hey, Chopper took your bandages off. Can I see?" He asks quietly. Zoro shrugs but doesn't move, he simply continues to tread water. Obviously, if Sanji wants to see he's going to have to work for it. Sanji huffs to himself and slides gracefully through the water until he's behind Zoro, his feet gently paddling in the water to keep him still and afloat.
Sanji leans in close to Zoro, the waves splashing somewhat as the water is trapped between them. He remembers all too well the mess that was the back of Zoro's head when he hit the rock, now it's not so bad at all. It seems like Franky managed to piece back a hell of a lot more of Zoro's skin than he thought that he would be able to, but he supposes that a man who was once hit by a train has a lot of experience with that sort of thing. Zoro's hair is short and fuzzy in the back where the majority of the damage was. Sanji thinks that it looks as if it feels like the texture of kiwi fruit skin, if kiwi fruits were even fuzzier.
It has to be said that even with Franky's skills though there's still a sizable strip in the back of Zoro's head, a least half an inch high and a couple of inches wide, where there's no skin or hair at all and just the clean sheen of metal. It's curved and slightly matte in texture by the look of it, though the water makes it shinier. With a hesitant trembling hand he reaches up and touches one fingertip to the plate, gracing it with the barest of touches. It's very warm to the touch, despite the water.
"Can you feel that?" He asks warily drawing his finger back.
"Hm? No?" Zoro frowns, looking over his shoulder at him as if he'd not even been aware that Sanji had done anything. Zoro goes back to looking in his makeshift bag and Sanji reaches out and touches his plate again. He's heard before that your brain itself has no nerve endings in it, it's just your scalp and skull that do, or something like that. He supposes that this plate is neither. The warmth radiates out through the metal and Sanji shudders uncomfortably, it's not that the back of Zoro's head looks gross or anything. On the contrary, if he saw it on someone he didn't know he'd think it looked pretty cool. He just can't escape the disquieting knowledge that all that Zoro is, all that he nearly lost, is contained just below his fingertips.
It frightens him somewhere deep and primal to know that despite Zoro's speed, strength and size he's still just this. He's still just a mind, housed in a brain, protected by bone and now some metal and all it takes to simply erase all of that is one kick or hard enough impact and it all vanishes. He snaps his hand back, feeling sick. Zoro doesn't seem to notice though as he turns, grins at Sanji, takes his hand and drags him under water.
Keen for the distraction he and Zoro dive over and over again, collecting molluscs of varying species and shoving them into Zoro's makeshift bag that was previously his shirt. Sanji would object to Zoro using his shirt like this if it wasn't the closest thing to a wash that Zoro's clothes got.
With a full bag ready for dinner they swim back to shore engaging in a relatively friendly race back, relatively friendly in that it only requires a minimal amount of yelling, punching and shoving en route as opposed to the usual out and out warfare.
"Oh wow, meat for dinner?!" Luffy gasps excitedly as he peers in their bag as they step out of the ocean.
"Sure. Nothing beats fresh shellfish." Sanji nods, picking up his dry jacket from the beach and fishing his smokes out of the breast pocket. He lights up and breathes in a soothing lungful of smoke; he holds it for a few seconds before releasing it in a long stream above his head.
Zoro apparently didn't get any manners knocked into his head when he landed on that rock as by the time Sanji turns around he's fucked off down the beach and towards the mini merry that they came ashore in.
"Oi, asshole! Wait for me!" He yells after Zoro and chases him, struggling to get into his jacket at the same time. He scrambles into the boat and the two of them set off to the Sunny together, still dripping wet they climb up the side of the ship and get started on a delicious seafood lunch, working side by side.
The whole day has seemed insanely peaceful so far and Zoro seems to be miles happier with his bandages off. It's probably some psychological thing, if he has bandages on he must be injured, but if not then surely he's okay. It's dumb logic that makes no sense but some people just think like that he supposes. It must apply to the rest of the crew because they seem more relaxed around him as well; Franky and Usopp are no longer treating Zoro as if he's made of glass. Sanji even caught Zoro roughhousing with Usopp earlier.
None of it sits easily with Sanji, he knows full well now how fragile Zoro's injured brain really is and he doesn't like the idea of any of them being responsible for hurting Zoro. Aside from damaging or killing their nakama being a terrible thing he's not sure that any of them could live with themselves if they were responsible for such a thing. Before the play fight can get out of hand and hurt Zoro he calls the swordsman in to help him with some task that he'd intended on doing alone and plays off the occurrence as him needing to teach the other man more words.
Still, the Sunny bobs happily through the ocean steadily bringing them closer to their goals. He looks up from his place at the stove where he cooks sliced chorizo and chicken to watch the swordsman. Zoro is quietly cleaning the shellfish, only the occasional growl disturbing the peace when a particularly troublesome one finds its way into his hands. He wonders what Zoro would do if their ship happened to bump into Mihawk's coffin like boat in the next month, or the next week, hell, in the next hour even. He doesn't even need to think on it, he knows that Zoro would rush to his swords and take the World's greatest on regardless of his condition. Zoro was willing to die for his dream and didn't seem to care much if he did or not. But Sanji cares.
He squeezes his eyes shut as the memory of not knowing if Zoro would live or die runs back to him. The sick feeling of fear hanging around him all the time, no matter what he did Zoro would live or die on his own. Zoro's blank and bloodied face with empty unfocused eyes, resting in a pool of his own blood in the sand appears in his mind and makes him shudder. It was far too close of a call.
"Are you done with those yet?" He grumbles in Zoro's direction, his thoughts putting him into a bad mood.
"Hm… yes." Zoro says thoughtfully, dropping the last few muscles into a colander in the sink. Sanji picks up the colander and pours it all in, a few of them still in their pretty little shells whilst the larger clams were diced up by himself.
Zoro leans over, his chin nearly resting on Sanji's shoulder, as he sceptically looks at the dish Sanji is making. He fishes a discarded shell out of the sink and holds it up in front of Sanji's face with a confused frown.
"Are you asking why some of them are still in their shells?" He questions, glancing back down to the dish to stir it again.
Zoro doesn't answer but Sanji sees him palm the shell and his hand comes close to Sanji's face. Zoro's thumb gently touches the edge of Sanji's lips, his free fingers just barely making contact with Sanji's stubbled jaw. Zoro's thumb slides along Sanji's lips to the centre, feeling far more like a caress than any other time Zoro has ever touched him and it sends shudders running up and down all of the vertebrae of Sanji's spine.
Sanji scrambles to recall his words and, having no idea what word Zoro wanted, simply picks one.
"Why?" He says in barely more than a breath.
"Why." Zoro echoes. Sanji pulls away, stirring urgently at his pan and stirring as if it needed his utmost concentration.
"Well, because… some of them were too big to leave like that and… and it makes it look good. Presentation is important- very important… you do half of your eating with your taste, half with smell and half with your eyes." He explains disjointedly as he tries to herd his scattered thoughts back together.
"Uh, cook?" Zoro snorts, Sanji glances up at him and sees the swordsman holding up three fingers. Sanji recounts mentally, that had given him three halves.
"Oh shut your face, you know what I mean. Go get me that risotto rice." He snaps and shoves the chopped vegetables into the pan with a satisfying sizzle. Zoro chuckles to himself and opens the cupboard nearest him, Sanji suspects that it's a guess but it happens to be right so he's not going to call Zoro on it.
He's stirring the vegetables around in his pan and trying desperately to convince himself that any redness in his face is just as a result of the heat and not Zoro touching him. It's then that he realises that he's not been poked and questioned about the rice by Zoro. He looks over to see the swordsman staring at the various packets of rice in bewilderment. It takes Sanji a moment to realise that Zoro can't actually read the labels on them at the moment.
"The third one." He clarifies, gesturing with the spoon.
Zoro grabs it and hands it to him. Sanji pours the appropriate amount of rice in for the number of people they have on the crew, and then half as much again seeing as how Luffy eats like a starved pig. He stirs the small grains of rice around in his large paella pan, letting them soak up the oil and flavours before pouring on his seafood stock.
Once again Zoro is standing in close looking at what he's doing, too close in fact. It's starting to make Sanji's skin itch.
"I'm going to go have a shower, keep that stirred." He orders Zoro as he throws in a few bay leaves and some saffron.
"Why?" Zoro calls as Sanji walks by him. Sanji instantly regrets teaching Zoro any word that means that he'll question him.
"Because I'm all sticky from the sea salt and it makes my clothes itchy, besides I've not showered today and unlike you I don't consider simply being in water, especially the ocean, a substitute for washing." He says snootily. Zoro pulls an unimpressed face at him from across the room.
"Just do what you're told for once in your stupid mossy life!" He orders exasperatedly.
"Tsh, shit cook." Zoro snorts and turns back to the paella, obediently stirring.
Sanji stomps off down to the men's bunkroom, more out of the principle of being annoyed rather than any actual annoyance. He stops by his wardrobe to pick up clean clothes. He's the only one of the men who owns enough clothes to warrant one, though Franky owns almost as much as he does the shipwright's penchant for not wearing an awful lot means that his clothes take up significantly less space. Zoro on the other hand just has one chest of clothes and seems to wear one thing until he either tires of it or it gets destroyed in training or a fight, either way, the man doesn't do an awful lot of laundry or keep an awful lot of clean clothes. He huffs irritably to himself and grabs clean clothes before turning to go to the bathroom.
He locks himself inside, kicks off his shoes and switches the shower on, letting the room fill with steam. It's kind of nice having someone helping in the kitchen like this, it means that he's not tied to the room for almost the entire day, he can leave if he needs to. Having Zoro around him has actually been far more of a benefit than he'd ever anticipated. With the stupid arguments taken out he actually enjoys the man's company.
He considers that as he slides his shirt off, his bare skin reacting in goose bumps to the cold. It's not that he and Zoro don't fight now, they do, they certainly bicker and agitate each other- as much as is possible with Zoro's vocabulary anyway. But… he can't really understand Zoro unless he pays close attention to the other man, and in doing so it's easy to see that Zoro doesn't really hate him, he just enjoys pissing Sanji off. Which works wonderfully because he gets a kick out of it too.
He shimmies out of the rest of his clothes and tosses them all in the laundry basket after carefully removing his smokes, lighter and keys. After that he steps into the soothing shower spray with a gratified groan. He scrubs at his hair first, getting all of the salt out. As much as he likes the sea, saltwater makes his hair feel dull and sticky, he doesn't like it and if he has the opportunity to get it clean he will. Unlike the rest of his male nakama who almost never shower or bathe, pigs.
God some of his nakama were annoying, like Usopp and his stupid kissing joke. That shit had got in his brain and messed with his system so much he'd nearly killed Zoro by accident! You couldn't just say stuff like that as a joke. And what a joke it was, as if he'd ever do something like that with Zoro. That was… ridiculous.
He stills under the spray and lets the water run over his body, it wasn't as if… it wasn't as if the idea appealed to him or anything. He worries at his wet lip and lets his mind wander that way, as if to prove it to himself. Yes, once he knows for sure that the idea is stupid and really does nothing for him then he can let it go, and this time with no marimo to interrupt him and nearly get killed he's fine.
So then...
He closes his eyes and mentally flashes back to only minutes ago in the kitchen. He remembers Zoro's thumb brushing his lips in a way that was almost a caress and Zoro was so very, very close, his shoulder was pressed against Zoro's chest. Then he turns from remembering to imagining, he imagines that Zoro hadn't looked at him with his expectant eyes, wanting a word repeated, he imagines instead that Zoro's gaze had drifted down to Sanji's mouth, he imagines the gentle hand on his jaw tilting his head just so as Zoro moves closer.
Both in his imagination and in reality he gasps in anticipation. He imagines Zoro's nose brushing his cheek as he slants his mouth just so against Sanji's, how salt-chapped lips would slide slickly against his own. He supposes that with Zoro being the way that he is he would be confident in what he was doing, always self-assured regardless of if the fucker had any idea what to do. The bastard would probably press the advantage of surprise and deepen the kiss with his tongue before Sanji knew what was going on. Yeah, something like that. Sanji bites his lip and shudders. It would get competitive quickly if they kissed though… it would get fierce with the challenge of teeth. Zoro would no doubt use his brute strength and try to shove Sanji against the counter but he'd dig his heel right into the back of Zoro's thigh, threatening to cut off his circulation and drop him to the ground, just to remind the fucker who has the strength in that situation. He'd take advantage of that fact, after all, if they were in his kitchen it would be his home ground advantage and Zoro would be an idiot not to know that. It would be half like making out and half fighting and it would be entirely fantastic. He imagines how differently every fight they've had could have gone if whenever they got to close quarters and Zoro grabbed a fist of his hair or slammed him against something, how amazing would that have been if it always led to this?
Fuck.
Sanji doesn't even need to look down to know just how hard thinking about this has got him. So much for the idea being unappealing. Fucking Usopp with his fucking big mouth.
He pointedly ignores his dick and angrily shampoos his hair. What the hell was up with him? He'd never felt anything like this for Zoro before, or any other man for that matter! It wasn't as if head trauma was a turn on for him or anything so what gives?
He sticks his head under the spray and tries to rationalise. He's been really highly strung lately, there's no denying that. He was anxious as fuck the whole time Zoro was in his coma and wound up as all hell when he woke up and didn't talk, Zoro didn't fight with him so all that pent up energy was just building up in him. It wasn't as if he'd had any time to himself for this kind of thing since Zoro cracked his skull open like a walnut anyway. So… it was just tension and frustration was all.
Except… usually if he gets too hot under the collar from deprivation it would be thoughts of Nami or Robin, or even Nami and Robin that would be haunting him in the shower. That doesn't explain why it's Zoro in his head. He groans and reaches for the conditioner, dumping a load of it on his hair and working it in. Despite his best intentions, rubbing his scalp like that feels pretty good and his treacherous brain imagines Zoro's rough fingers instead of something more wholesome like Nami's dainty digits.
Shit.
Why Zoro? Why now?
Well… Zoro's method of relearning speech is pretty sensual, even if the marimo doesn't mean it that way usually no one would touch Sanji like that unless they were having sex or just about to kiss. So it makes sense that his mind is connecting the two. That feels like pretty flimsy reasoning even to him.
He opens his eyes a little and looks down at his dick, still there, still incredibly hard. Great. Well, maybe he just needed to get this out of his system. Yeah, he could just… release all of this tension and then things would be fine again. He slides his hand lower down his stomach and decides to let his mind do what it wants and instantly he's picturing that those are Zoro's hands on him. Throwing all sane thought to the wind he just goes with it.
Zoro's lips are on his shoulders as he looks down and watches, one hand running up Sanji's lean torso, trailing heat along sweat slicked skin as he does so. Zoro's other hand slides lower, making Sanji bite his own lip to keep the whine in. Zoro's hand wraps around him, stroking with strong grip as-
"Oi! Cook!"
Sanji leaps about a foot in the air, despite being the voice that matched his fantasy just then it certainly didn't come from his own head. He releases his terrified death grip on his own cock and squeezes his eyes shut, desperately hoping that Zoro will just go away.
"Cook!" Zoro's voice calls him again. His dick twitches treacherously at the voice and Sanji hates himself a little more.
"WHAT?!" He yells back angrily.
Only silence follows. A heavy pointed silence though. Ah, yes, the not talking thing. Right.
"Is the kitchen on fire?" He asks, readying himself for a stupid game of twenty questions instead of jerking off like he wants to be.
"No." Zoro answers.
He supposes he could jerk off to the sound of Zoro's voice with him right there and- the FUCK was wrong with him?!
"Is the food burnt?" He guesses, removing his hands entirely from himself and setting them on the shower wall so as to remove temptation.
"No." Zoro answers again.
"Has something gone wrong with the food that you don't know how to fix?" He asks further.
"Yes!" the marimo answers, sounding pleased.
"Great. Do you really need me right now? I'm kind of… busy." He says, looking down at his still entirely full cock. His hands itch to get back to touching it but he's not going to do that with Zoro right there.
"Yeeees." Zoro whines at him through the door. Sanji smirks to himself, the old Zoro never would have whined like a kid about something like this, but then the old Zoro would have had the vocabulary to insist that he help right now and also somehow belittle him. But without it the most Zoro can do is to express that he really needs Sanji's help. Taking his speech away has stripped Zoro pretty bare and… and he likes that.
"Alright, I'll be out in a minute let me just wash the stuff out of my hair. Get back upstairs, I'll be right there." He sighs. Despite so long trying to get to know the marimo he never got to, so he resorted just to fighting with him all the time. Which was cool, he enjoyed the fights and he knew Zoro did too, but he'd thought that he and Zoro could never have any other kind of connection, no matter how much he… wanted… to. Shit. He'd always wanted something more from Zoro but he'd just shoved it down.
Apparently it wasn't just his defensive layers that he wanted to strip Zoro of, it's his clothes too. Well, shit. So this isn't just garden variety sexual frustration then. He glares down at his dick, the damn thing always gets him in trouble.
"Thanks for making this way more complicated than it needed to be." He mutters to it and sharply turns the temperature gauge on the shower to freezing cold and steps into it with a pained yelp. He shudders under the arctic spray and quickly washes his hair clean of conditioner whilst the temperature drop kills his protesting erection.
Still shivering he clambers from the shower, roughly dries off and throws his clean clothes on. He doesn't bother with shoes and instead stomps up barefoot to the kitchen. He hangs back at the galley door though when he hears Usopp's voice inside.
"Oh come on Zoro, you can ask Sanji if you like, he always lets me have them." Usopp says with a huff of irritation. Sanji frowns suspiciously and peeks around the door. Zoro is standing between Usopp and the fridge with his best intimidation face on.
It's… interesting to watch actually.
He's seen Zoro kill people of course, they all have. Zoro really gets into it actually, probably because it's the most that he gets to use his skill and also because it's him proving yet again that he's better than other people at that skill. The look of sick glee and concentration is what Sanji has internally dubbed Zoro's "psycho face". He never looks at his nakama like that though, not ever. Even he never gets that look from Zoro. What Zoro does do is this, he looks as big and threatening as possible- which to be fair is pretty big and threatening, and if he has the vocabulary he'd be threatening to do creative things with Usopp's insides. Usually that would be enough to either scare a nakama away or to engage Sanji into a fight. It's almost like watching a cat puff up its fur to scare something off, it's kind of… funny.
"Hey, hey, don't give me that look Zoro! Please, just… just give me the chillies. Sanji doesn't like them being wasted, I'll preserve half for him and use half for my stars, that's where I get the pepper from. So just let me- hey!" Usopp squeaks as he tries to get past Zoro only for the swordsman to shove him back. Zoro is right to disbelieve the little liar's tale, he never gives Usopp chillies from his fridge, not at all.
He slides into the kitchen and stealthily sneaks up behind the sharpshooter; having no shoes on has its plus sides it seems. Zoro grins and sticks his fingers in his ears just as Sanji leans up to Usopp's ear and very softly whispers "boo" in his ear. The sharpshooter shrieks and leaps about a foot in the air. From the ringing in Sanji's ears he rather wishes that he'd done the same and blocked his own ears.
"I give you what from my kitchen now, long nose?" he purrs dangerously at the rapidly paling Usopp.
"I- I- Ihavetogobye!" Usopp squeaks and dashes out of the kitchen, ducking past Sanji to do so. Sanji has to give it to the lying little idiot, he really can move fast when he wants to.
"Long-nose." Zoro murmurs quietly.
Sanji's gaze snaps around to the swordsman who is standing thoughtfully with his fingers on his lips.
"Shitty long-nose." Zoro adds thoughtfully.
"Most sensible thing you've ever said. Now what's this cooking emergency that you had to drag me from my shower for?" He asks, his hands on his hips.
Zoro snags a finger inside Sanji's belt and yanks his forward, showing him the paella with a distressed look on his face. Sanji inspects it, there's nothing wrong with it at all. It's not done cooking yet but otherwise it's fine.
"What?" He demands looking back up at Zoro.
Zoro frowns the points at the rice before pointing at his teeth.
"Well, of course it got stuck in your teeth if you tried to eat it, it's not cooked yet. And why haven't you added any water?" He huffs, filling a glass with water under the tap and pouring it into the cooking paella as he puts it back on the burner.
"Water?" Zoro growls at him.
"Yeah like I-" he trails off. Actually, he hadn't explained that Zoro needed to keep adding water until the rice was cooked. He'd been so flustered by Zoro's presence that he'd just… what? Assumed that everyone knew how to cook? He'd given some vague instructions and bolted to the shower and ended up trying to jerk off to Zoro instead.
Zoro's hand shifts against his belt as he pulls him slightly closer and growls in irritation at him. That should piss him off, but all it does instead is makes his apparently no longer sulking cock twitch with renewed interest. Fuck, there is something wrong with his brain.
"Alright dumbass! Out! I have to cook since you got me off- I mean out of the shower, now shoo!" He shouts, loudly talking over his slip and shoving Zoro from the room.
He lets his head thunk against the door heavily and lends himself a moment of self-pity. He's attracted to Zoro, and it's not going away. He stirs the paella and thinks a little more, usually he'd realise that this is a problem and avoid Zoro until it went away, but he couldn't do that. He wouldn't risk Zoro losing the ability to talk just because he couldn't keep it in his pants. No, he was just going to have to deal with this no matter how awkward it might be.
Freed from Zoro's enticing presence he continues cooking and eventually bullies Usopp into setting the table as recompense for his earlier attempts to steal chillies. He spots Zoro up in the crow's nest staring out into the sea. He could have asked Zoro down there with him to help serve lunch but the idea of being alone with him in closed quarters so soon seems… inadvisable.
He sets out bowls of steaming paella down at everyone's places and sets about ensuring everyone has drinks as his nakama bound into the galley one by one. All except Zoro. He's about to go looking for the idiot when Zoro bursts into the kitchen, startling everyone as he does so. He launches himself at Sanji, snags a fistful of his shirt at the front and yanks him right back out of the room.
"What the hell?!" He yelps as Zoro hauls ass up the steps to the ship's wheel.
Zoro makes a desperate sound in his throat and lets go of him, he grabs the binoculars up off of the bench and throws them at Sanji's head. Luckily Sanji manages to catch them and reluctantly brings them up to his face to look in the direction that Zoro is frantically gesturing at.
He scans the horizon and feels his stomach drop in dread as he sees just what Zoro had spotted, there are three very large marine ships heading right their way. Whether that's deliberate or not, he doesn't know, but if they keep on that course they're going to intercept the Sunny for sure.
He lowers the binoculars and looks at Zoro. The swordsman is looking at him with wide expectant eyes and his posture is humming with energy, Sanji knows that look, Zoro wants a fight. Zoro will… Zoro will fight those marines if they get here. But if Zoro gets hit right now he'll die. One errant rubber fist of their captain's, one misaimed star from Usopp's slingshot, a stray bullet from Franky or shot of lightning from Nami… all of those could jolt Zoro's injured head enough to destroy him. None of that even accounts for the damage that Zoro could do to himself, he could trip or crack his head on something again or perhaps the marines might actually get him. In less than a second Sanji sees a vision of a thousand ways that Zoro could die, all playing mercilessly behind his eyes.
He… he can't do that. He can't allow that to happen. Right now Zoro needs protecting from everyone, including himself and there's nothing that Sanji will stop at to keep him safe. If he has to run from a fight so be it. Thankfully his pause was long enough for Zoro to step into his space with a look of concern on his face. Sanji quickly wraps his arm around Zoro's middle and pulls the lever by the ship's wheel, setting the Sunny off on a Coup de Burst away from the marines. He holds on tight to Zoro and the wheel as the ship flies, no doubt everyone in the galley downstairs is now wearing their lunch but he'll take that cost.
The ship skips across the sea like a stone as it lands, before gently coming to a halt. He lets go of Zoro who stumbles back in shock, right after that the galley door below them bursts open and his food splattered nakama emerge.
"Whoa! Are you under attack?!" Luffy gasps, hurling himself up to their level and looking around them excitedly.
"No, but I was." He lies immediately. He dusts himself off and shoots a glare at the startled looking marimo.
"What? You two were fighting again?" Nami groans disapprovingly as she rubs some food from her beautiful cheek.
"Oh, I didn't mean to my swan! He just dragged me out here like a crazy person and then attacked me, I'm afraid we knocked the wheel when I was trying to defend myself." He apologises effusively, the lies tripping from his lips with ease.
Zoro's hand grabs him by the elbow and yanks him around. The swordsman grabs his shirt and angrily shakes his head, gesturing with his free hand at the place in the ocean where the ships were.
"Get off of me you psycho, you see what I have to put up with?" He sighs dramatically, batting Zoro away as he does so.
"Sanji, you really shouldn't be fighting Zoro! Remember what I said!" Chopper says disapprovingly.
"I know, I know, I was just trying to keep him away from me. I didn't lay a toe on him, honest, he's perfectly fine." Sanji says soothingly, gesturing to Zoro's unharmed form.
Zoro is still shaking his head, looking at the rest of their nakama like they've all lost their minds and looking at Sanji with anger. He keeps gesturing to the ocean and sure enough Usopp pulls his goggles down and squints at the horizon. Sanji holds his breath and really hopes that he got them away far enough.
"There's nothing out there, I don't know what he's pointing at." The sharpshooter frowns, looking back at Zoro like he's lost his marbles. Sanji knows that Zoro can't understand Usopp, but his tone and his look of scepticism clearly say enough.
Zoro's crestfallen look is nearly enough to break Sanji's heart, but not nearly enough to break his resolve. Everyone is telling them both off for fighting and making a mess, everyone believes him and Zoro can't tell anyone what he really saw. Zoro is safe.
"Well, I'd better clean up." He says innocently and backs down the stairs and into the galley. He shuts the door after himself and sighs, that was close. Too close.
He surveys the galley with the air of a man who knows just how much time it will take to clean the damn place. There's food splattered on every surface and a fair amount of broken crockery. The Coup de Burst is more than powerful enough to shoot the ship far away from marines but the price for that is that everything not nailed down gets shaken around like a child's toy. He goes behind the counter, picks up a trash bag and starts to gather the debris up, piling anything broken beyond repair and bits of food not worth saving for fish bait into the bin whilst everything else either goes aside for cleaning or other uses.
He's barely any way into clearing the table when Zoro bursts into the room with a face like thunder and slams the door shut behind him. He looks up through his hair and Zoro points at him furiously, his finger actually shaking with anger.
Sanji lets the bag drop to the floor and stands up, Zoro's mad enough to fight him and he's not going to let his reflexes kick in because he's unprepared. He refuses to allow himself to risk Zoro's life again so he needs to be prepared for the situation he's about to be thrown in.
"You got something to say?" he asks flatly, arranging his face into a look of contempt.
"Yes!" the sword-less swordsman snarls back at him, taking two angry paces towards him.
"Cook! …" Zoro's mouth hangs open as no other sound emerges and agitation fills his eyes.
"I lied?" He suggests, deciding to spare Zoro the trouble of miming such a concept.
"YES!" Zoro shouts loud enough to make Sanji's ears ring. Zoro stares at him for a moment before his look of anger is slowly edged aside for one of hurt and confusion.
"Why?" he asks quietly.
"You didn't really leave me any choice." Sanji answers, looking aside. He doesn't feel quite able to meet that upset stare.
"You were going to tell the others when I didn't, and they would have steered the ship towards the marines and fought them. Even if- and this is a big if, even if you'd been smart and not fought them yourself the others would have. The ship would have been filled with marines and fighting and… and you would have been killed. I won't let that happen. So I'm not sorry, and I'd do it again if I had to." He answers defiantly, looking at the shocked Zoro.
"Wh- cook… why…?" Zoro asks, drawing a cut across his neck with his finger as he talks- miming his throat being cut. Sanji gets his meaning; Zoro doesn't understand why he'd die.
"You don't get it, do you? You don't think you'd die." Sanji states flatly. Zoro raises his eyebrows at him, as if obviously he doesn't understand.
"See, this is why I did it. You're an idiot, and a weak one at that." He states.
Now that gets a reaction out of Zoro. The man's eyes widen and his spine straightens in shock as if Sanji had actually just slapped him about the face.
"Wh-weak?" Zoro repeats in shock.
"You are. But you don't get it do you? That's why this is dangerous and why I lied. Your brain is still scrambled in that half metal head of yours, one knock, one slight hit and it's lights out for you forever. You're too weak to fight and too dumb to know it." He accuses angrily, why can't Zoro just understand that he's doing this for his own good?
"NO!" Zoro snarls and grabs a fistful of Sanji's shirt front and slamming him back into the wall behind him and shoving him at least a foot off of the floor. Sanji lets him.
"I'm not going to fight you Zoro, I didn't go through all that trouble of protecting you just to kill you myself. I'm not going to lay so much as a toe on you." He promises, looking down at the open mouthed Zoro.
"No… Nami… Robin!" Zoro snaps angrily. Sanji tilts his head at that and it actually takes him a few moments to grasp what Zoro means. The marimo is complaining that he's treating him as he would a lady, refusing to fight back or attack him.
"No, you're not. But I'm still not going to attack you any more than I would attack them." He replies. Zoro gasps and drops Sanji to the floor, he looks… wounded almost.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not doing this to insult you, I'm doing it for your own good." Sanji tries to reason. Zoro shakes his head vigorously and desperately grabs Sanji's right arm, he yanks him forward and shoves his hand up Sanji's sleeve revealing his bare arm. With two deliberate swipes of his finger Zoro draws a cross on the top of Sanji's forearm.
It was… it was their sign to Vivi that they were nakama, just like they'd done in the desert to show who they really were to each other.
"Of course we're nakama, dumbass. That's why I'm doing this." He reasons, Zoro's taking this all way too personally.
Zoro lets him go and stumbles back away from him. Zoro's thousand degree scowl swings away from him and the swordsman instead scowls at the wall. He's thinking about it, Sanji can practically see the cogs turning in his head. He's angry though, really angry, and upset too. Sanji waits in silence for Zoro to get it and accept what he's done for him. Sure enough Zoro's scowl fades and his breathing becomes less angry. Figuring it's safe he steps in closer and places his hand on Zoro's shoulder, it'll be a bit of a change until Zoro's truly better- if ever, but Zoro has to accept it.
Quick as lightning though Zoro smacks his hand off of his shoulder and gives Sanji the coldest and most malevolent look he's ever seen. It stops him dead and in his hesitation Zoro grabs Sanji's middle finger and pulls it backwards.
"HEY! Stop that!" He yelps, twisting his wrist backward and stepping closer so that Zoro doesn't snap the damn thing off. Zoro doesn't relent though, he keeps pulling the digit backwards, towards Sanji's forearm as if to break it right off.
"What the hell?! Let me go!" He yells, fighting the urge to kick Zoro. Usually he'd have kicked Zoro clean through the wall for daring to threaten his precious hands but he can't hurt him. He won't! So he bends. The more Zoro pulls the more he arcs backwards and the more he forces his elbow up to ease the pressure in his knuckle.
He struggles but he daren't do so too hard or else he might lose the finger completely! He catches Zoro's expression and the shock of it makes his knees buckle to the floor below him.
Zoro's face is devoid of emotion, there is no compassion or mercy there, no anger, no challenge. It's not Zoro trying to make himself big, he's not threatening or snarling like he did to Usopp earlier. No, this isn't that. This face doesn't threaten this face is cold and deadly, a face that thousands of marines have taken to their grave burnt into their minds as the last thing they saw. Zoro means to break his hands and it's not a threat, it's a promise. Zoro doesn't care who he is anymore, not at all. Zoro continues to pull until Sanji's head hits the floor and then he continues still. Sanji's back arches until he's practically on the crown of his head, his elbow is as high as it will go and the heel of his hand right by his ear and his middle finger bent back in Zoro's unrelenting grasp almost to the ceiling.
At such a close distance Sanji can hear the joint creak as the pain fires hot in his system. This is it, he can't bend any more, he can't stretch and he won't kick Zoro. But this means that at the very least his finger will dislocate and snap. Maybe it could be put back but probably not, fingers are delicate things. His cooking will never be the same, his precious hand will never be the same. He shakes and his eyes fill against his will. Zoro's face is inches from his and now his expression changes, the cold look is replaced with a disgusted snarl.
"Weak." Zoro growls in his ear and releases his finger.
Sanji collapses into a heap on the floor, curling protectively around his hand. He clutches it to his chest, his finger is still whole and in its joint though it hurts fiercely. He gasps in pain and clenches his hand into a painful fist before opening it again and wiggling his fingers. They're okay, his finger is okay.
The slam of the door startles him and his quick movement into a ready crouch jolts the tears free from his eyes and sends them running down his cheeks.
Zoro is gone and he's alone in the galley surrounded by destruction and damage. But… but his hands are okay, though they're trembling with fear. He came so close to losing something so important, so very close. He lets himself drop to the floor and holds his hands at his heart. He's never seen Zoro look at any of them like that, never.