Zoro walked through the busy town, deep in thought and paying little attention to the people around him. He didn't know exactly what had caused his violent outburst earlier. It was just something about what the man, Bellamy, had said… and the way he'd smelled…He paused, gave that some thought, then shook his head and continued on. As he walked past a group of men sitting on crates and drinking, the sickly sweet smell of whatever liquor they were drinking hit him full-force and he wrinkled his nose slightly in distaste. Disgusting. All around him the smell of alcohol permeated the air. Bitter, rich, sweet, tangy, all of it smelled awful, and it was giving him a headache. Why these smells were so strong to him all of a sudden he truly had no idea. All he knew was that he'd gotten angry, if only somewhat, and had subsequently gotten into a fight. After that, everything had started smelling much stronger than it usually did. And all this alcohol in the air was really giving him a headache. That, coupled with the smell of cigarettes…

Hat gave him another pause. Cigarettes… spices… cologne… The distinct trail seemed to go around the corner he'd been about to turn, so he went the opposite direction instead. He had no desire to deal with the cook today.

It wasn't until several minutes (not to mention turns) later that he realized that the trail he'd been avoiding had looped around several buildings in a sort of crude imitation of a circle and was now headed toward him. He suppressed a sigh and, moments later, Sanji came into view. The cook immediately glared at him, though Zoro was hard-pressed to tell why the cook was irritated with him this time. "Where's Nami? Wasn't she with you, shit-head?"

Zoro ignored the barb as being merely empty words and blinked at the blonde man. "At the ship," he replied simply. "With Luffy."

Sanji frowned at that. "How'd you know Luffy was there?"

Zoro wasn't about to try to explain how strongly Luffy smelled of the meats he loved so well, so he opted to remain silent instead, holding Sanji's gaze steadily and not offering any sort of an answer. Still, despite his calm visage, his nose was slightly wrinkled once again. He still stinks. The fresh cigarette in the cook's mouth was most definitely not helping.

"Fine, don't answer," Sanji said suddenly, visibly even more irritated than he had been initially. He might have been tempted to give vent to his anger as well, had someone not interrupted the moment.

"There you are! Bastard!" Zoro turned halfway around and gazed over his right shoulder to see one of the men from the bar, Sarkies, marching up to him furiously with his blade in hand. "Asshole!" Sarkies shouted. "You'll pay for what you did!"

Zoro hadn't used as much strength on Sarkies as he had Bellamy, but he was now regretting that. He was starting to think that he should have knocked them both unconscious and been done with it, but Sarkies hadn't seemed like much of a threat at the time. He still didn't, really.

"Oi, what the hell did you do?" Sanji demanded. Zoro could feel the other man glaring daggers into the back of his head, but he ignored it.

"He beat up my captain!" Sarkies exclaimed, so furious that his voice cracked under the stress. "Bellamy could have died!"

Zoro personally thought that that was overdramatic, and an exaggeration, but Sanji seemed to have taken the man's words seriously. "What the hell did you do that for?!" he shouted. "Are you trying to get us kicked off this island, shitty marimo?!"

That about did it. Zoro had almost managed to push aside his anger during his time alone, bury it in some dark place where it hopefully couldn't escape from, but he could feel it resurfacing now, and very fast. He closed his eyes, frowning deeply as he struggled to maintain control.

""How stupid can you be?!" Sanji continued, his tirade seeming far from complete. "We can't get information if we get kicked off this island because you decided to cause problems, you idiot!"

That was it. Zoro couldn't take it anymore. He whirled around, moving so fast that his movement was a blur, seemingly even to Sanji's highly trained eyes, and, for the first time since Alabasta, he truly lost his temper. "Maybe you would like to prevent her head from getting chopped off next time!" The sound of movement behind him alerted him to his danger and he whirled again. This time, the blow he delivered to Sarkies with his fist was probably enough to kill him a couple times over. However, Zoro was by no means in the mood to care. Not that he would have cared anyway, even if he had been in a relatively good mood. Angry and troubled by the sudden surge of power he'd felt just moments before, he watched for barely a moment as Sarkies's body made a deep gouge in the ground before turning away. Then, gritting his teeth together so tightly that they hurt, he stalked off, struggling to understand what the hell had just happened to him.

(-)

Stupid marimo and his stupid swords and his stupid attitude and his stupid… Sanji stopped grumbling to himself long enough to grit his teeth and blow out a heavy puff of smoke. Sure hands gripped the rope ladder of the Going Merry and he hauled himself up with ease, climbing over the railing once he reached it and brushing himself off once he was standing on the deck. He glared pointlessly at the small clouds of dust and dirt that came off his jacket, product of his excursion in the filthy town. Befre he could even start to consider getting a head start on his laundry, a voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"Oh! Sanji! You're back!"

Sanji turned see Nami walking up to him with Robin in tow, a map in her hands. "Yeah," he muttered in reply. He wasn't in the mood to deal with people, even these people were the two women he treasured the most.

Nami's relatively cheery expression faltered somewhat at his tone, but she quickly recovered, pulling a mask on to hide her reaction. Thankfully, she said nothing about his mood. "Where's Zoro?" she asked instead, looking around and then leaning to peer behind him as though the swordsman could possibly have hidden himself behind the cook.

"Not back yet?" he inquired in mild surprise. It had been a god couple of hours since their fight, if it could be called that, and he had fully expected the swordsman to have returned to the ship by now. Nami shoom her head. "Did Lufffy at least come back like I told him to?" He knew that Zoro had said that both Luffy and Nami were at the ship, but there was now way the moss-head could have known that without actually going to the ship, something Sanji doubted Zoro had done.

"Yes," Robin answered, pointing to where he stood with Usopp in the crow's nest, grinning and pointing while Usopp squinted to see something, using a his hand as a visor over his eyes.

"Do you know where Zoro is?" Nami asked him suddenly, pulling his attention back. "The sooner he comes back, the sooner we can go."

"Go?" he asked, for some reason not following her train of thought.

"Yes," she nodded. "I found some information earlier when Zoro and I were at a pub. Well, after he left, anyway."

Sanji frowned. So was Nami the "her" he was talking about earlier? He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and told her, "I haven't seen that shitty marimo in a while, so I don't know where he is."

Immediately Nami's eyes narrowed at the nickname, one that he only called Zoro when they were fighting, which used to be always. "You two were fighting, weren't you?" she demanded.

Sanji was far too irritated right now to think about the logic of admitting such things to her. "Yeah. So what?"

Just like that, Nami's famous temper reared its ugly head. Clutching her map tightly in one fist, she practically breathed fire at him for his actions and lack of concern regarding them. "Do. Not. Fight with him! What the hell are you trying to do?!"

For only the second time in perhaps his entire life, Sanji had no quarrels about fighting with a woman. "He was already angry! That wasn't my fault!"

"I know that that wasn't your fault! I know that he was angry already! I was there when he beat the living crap out of a man with a fifty-five million Beri bounty on his head!"

Sanji's frown deepened. "The hell? Fifty-five million?"

Nami nodded, her voice also lowering now that his had. "Yeah, a man named Bellamy. Oh, and some guy named Sarkies or something like that."

"Who the hell are they?"

"I don't know. A crazy man with blonde hair and a man with purple shades and a fur coat."

Sanji ground his teeth together. "That guy in the fur coat was there when we started fighting," he muttered. "Zoro about killed him before stalking off somewhere."

"Sanji," Robin said suddenly, "while I understand that you were not at fault for making him angry initially, fights between the two of you tend to make you both upset."

"This isn't good," Nami said quietly, her gaze dropping to the floor. "What if he… changes again?"

Sanji's teeth made a particularly loud grinding sound in his head. Fuck. He hadn't even thought about that. All he'd been thinking about was relieving some of his stress from lately through a good ol' sparring match, verbal or physical he hadn't cared, with his favorite target. His crewmate's recent changes hadn't even crossed his mind. Damn it all… I'm an idiot. "What do we do?" he bit out. He had to know, because if something else had happened to Zoro and it was his fault-

Nami sighed heavily. "I don't-" Her response was cut short when Zoro himself suddenly landed lightly on the ship's railing, seemingly having jumped up from below. He looked completely calm now, the expression they had grown used to seeing on his face lately, as he stepped down and walked past them to the back deck.

Sanji watched him go silently. He's not my friend, he reminded himself. I don't care what happens to him. And yet, once the swordsman was out of sight, Sanji moved to follow him. He immediately found Zoro sitting on the floor against the railing with his legs crossed and his arms behind his head. Hesitating for only a moment, Sanji slowly walked over and sat down beside him. Neither spoke to the other. Birds chirped and sang merrily as they flew in lazy circles overhead. A gentle breeze teased their hair. The ship began to slowly move. Finally, Sanji broke the silence. "So… you okay?"

Zoro didn't even so much as crack an eye open. "Why the hell wouldn't I be?"

Sanji shrugged, though not because he didn't know the answer. I don't know if he should know about what Robin's told us. And even if I wanted to tell him… How the hell do you explain something like this? "You didn't answer my question."

"I did."

"Not really."

"I did."

"You're being stubborn."

"Deal with it."

"Fuck you."

"Go to hell."

Sanji didn't feel like arguing anymore, and Zoro was still irritable besides. Now probably wasn't the best time to start something with him. After another short silence he asked, "Fifty-five million, huh?"

Zoro snorted softly. "I doubt that."

"It's what Nami said."

"Doesn't make a difference."

"He was that weak, huh?"

"Yes."

"The government's getting generous with their bounties." Zoro hummed some vague approximation of agreement and Sanji gave him a sidelong glance. "What's got you so rile today?"

Zoro sighed through slightly bared teeth. "Hell if I know."

"You do."

"It doesn't matter."

"It does."

"It doesn't."

"It does."

"Whatever."

"Why won't you talk about it?"

"Why the hell do you care?"

"Because-" It was only then that Sanji realized what Zoro had actually said. Frowning, he looked away. "I never said I cared."

"Then stop asking."

"No."

"If you don't care-"

"Never said I didn't care, either," Sanji muttered almost sullenly.

"You don't need to say it," Zoro muttered back just as moodily.

"Oh, yeah?" Sanji challenged. "Why's that?"

Zoro almost looked like he wanted to say something, but instead, he closed himself off with a muttered, "Nothin'," and said nothing more.

"Bastard." At this, Zoro's eyes finally opened to look at him. Sanji drew on his cig. "I hate you. That's what you were about to say, right? That I hate you?" Zoro didn't reply, but Still Sanji knew the answer. "Idiot," he said as he stood. He turned to walk away, hesitated, then turned back around. Zoro was watching him a bit uncertainly, almost as though he was trying to decide whether or not the cook would attack. Sani searched his gaze for a moment. Seeing the lingering doubt there he looked away, his hair covered his eyes so that they couldn't be seen. "Idiot," he said again. He turned and started walking away, calling back over his shoulder after only a few steps, "I've never hated you."

Sorry for the delay. Posted 04-29-15.