Sanji checks his watch, it's six AM and the Baratie is open for business. They're open pretty much every hour god sends right now, Sanji does barely anything but work and sleep. The hours are destroying him and if it wasn't for one thing he's not sure that he could make it through.
The guy that he fed for free, the tall green haired gorgeous one, he came back.
At first Sanji thought that all his Christmases had come at once, he'd desperately hoped that gorgeous (as he'd taken to calling him in his head before he knew his name) would come back and he had and all dressed up in a pretty little package too. He had walked into the Baratie in the middle of the day when there were no customers, all covered up in a sleek black suit with a black tie and a crisp white shirt. He looked like porn and Hugo Boss suit adverts smashed together into perfection.
He'd wanted nothing more than to drag the guy over by his tie and unwrap him. Until he had clocked the man's sombre expression and then the colour scheme of the suit, greys and blacks, and realised that he wasn't dressed up for him but for a funeral. It turned out that his childhood friend had been in a coma for years and then she'd died suddenly on the day Sanji had first met him. It had devastated him, the poor guy had come into the Baratie just to sit down and think, only for Sanji to open his big mouth and jerk him around.
He'd realised just how much he'd screwed up and had half expected the guy to punch him out. But… he'd just sat down and let Sanji feed him again. He provided some context to his last visit, which only served to make Sanji feel like more of an ass than he did already, the guy had just literally been told about his friend before he met Sanji for the first time. And he had… well, he'd done what he always did whenever he didn't really know what to say, he'd run his mouth. He'd got into an argument with this guy only for him to suddenly stop midway through and laugh. Zoro (he'd introduced himself by then) had just looked up at him with his dark eyes and said:
"The only time I felt any better that day was when I ran into you and you were such a complete asshole that I forgot about her for a minute. Thanks."
The only thing he'd been able to come up with to that at the time was. "You're welcome, dumbass."
Zoro came by every day now, despite Sanji's sudden lack of tact and social skills around him. But that wasn't the best part of Sanji's day, this is. He leans against the window under the pretence of cleaning them and waits, watching. He's on the second window pane when Zoro rounds the corner up the road and runs towards the Baratie. He's gorgeous, shirtless and drenched in sweat, running the same route he does every morning. Sanji pauses in his window cleaning and subtly admires the view. The man is fit, fast and strong enough to send all of the blood in Sanji's body rushing to his groin. Zoro flicks a glance in his direction and grins at him, Sanji scrambles enough brain cells to grin back in a non-lecherous way before the other man passes him completely.
Sanji leans his head against the incredibly clean window and lets out a calming breath as he resists the temptation to flick the sign on the door to closed and sneak into the bathroom and jerk off to that image. He's not been able to resist every single day, some days he breaks down and just has to shut up shop for a few minutes. One time Zoro stopped at the Baratie mid run for a drink of water and ended up pouring as much of it over his shirtless torso as he did drinking it. That had not been good for Sanji's blood pressure. Usually Sanji is into women, he really is, it's very rare that a man catches his eye. But… well… when a guy who pretty much walks right out of Sanji's spank bank and into real life comes up to him, he can't resist.
He pushes himself away from the window and gets on with the rest of his morning. He could have dealt with this attraction if it had just been physical but it's more than that. Sanji knows that he can be abrasive and rude at times, especially to men. That's why he doesn't have any real friends outside of work, he has people he knows but no friends. But Zoro doesn't mind his acidic tongue and his insults, in fact he seeks them out. Zoro baits Sanji and gives as good as he gets. Zoro had said himself that it was that quality in Sanji that made him come back. So Sanji has found himself torn between wanting to keep the guy up all night talking to him, getting to know him even more and wanting the guy to keep him up all night having sex. He had it bad.
Within twenty minutes Zoro saunters back into the Baratie in a tight white shirt and black jeans, Sanji tries not to drool.
"You look pleased with yourself." He says, because really it sounds a lot better than 'please let me blow you'.
"I am. I took half a minute off of my time." Zoro grins and hops onto his barstool, the same one he'd picked on the first day.
"Shall I call the mayor to arrange the parade in your honour?" Sanji snorts and slides Zoro over a bright green smoothie. Zoro never orders anything, he just trusts Sanji to make him something awesome, another reason that Sanji loves- uh… likes him.
"Go play in traffic asshole." Zoro spits back and drinks. Sanji notes the pleased quirk of Zoro's lips and the set of his shoulders as he drinks and notes it down in his mind. He's starting to get a proper map in his head of what Zoro does and doesn't like, he's not a fan of sweet things, and the tart kiwi, grapefruit and mango smoothie seems to please him.
"Bite me." He says back instead.
"So, are you ever not here?" Zoro asks, leaning back on his chair and chasing a stray drop of smoothie with his tongue and completely derailing Sanji's brain.
"Huh?" he says intelligently and leans against the counter so that Zoro won't see anything he's not really supposed to on him.
"This place…" Zoro says, gesturing to the building, "are you ever not in it?"
"Of course I am, idiot. They don't just switch me off and wheel me into a cupboard when the lights go off. I'm not a robot." He shoots back irritably.
"Well that really put my mind at ease, idiot." Zoro snorts and sips some more of his drink.
"Not much mind to work with, so it wasn't hard." He shoots back.
"I was asking when the last time you had a day off was." Zoro sighs and flips him off. Sanji frowns, he can't actually think when that was, but it doesn't help that part of his brain is freaking out in the hope that this is some preamble to Zoro asking him on a date next time he has a day off. His stomach is getting in knots just thinking about it.
"I had an afternoon off last Thursday." He muses as he fiddles with a new roll of paper for the till.
"No, a whole time of at least 24 hours that you didn't work. See, today is Sunday, so I'm not at work, get it?" The green haired bastard says mockingly.
"Shut up! I think I had a whole day off at the beginning of last month, I managed to slice my thumb when Carne shoved into me, so I let it heal for a day. Why do you care anyway?" He demands irritably. Zoro just stares at him for a few long moments and Sanji swears that he actually sees the other man's eye twitching.
"That's not a day off, that's a sick day. And seriously, the beginning of last month?!" Zoro hisses angrily. Sanji shrugs, what does Zoro want him to do about it?
"What's in this anyway?" The man sighs, running a hand through his hair and seemingly dropping the subject as he runs a finger up and down through to condensation on the half full smoothie glass.
"Banana, kiwi, lime- where are you going?" he asks perplexed. Halfway through his sentence Zoro had leapt up out of his chair and started striding across the restaurant with the sort of fierce determination that Sanji really didn't like seeing on his face. Zoro doesn't answer him but instead shoves the door to the kitchen open.
"Hey, you! You own this place right?" Zoro yells in there before Sanji can rush inside and kick Zoro's trap shut. He gets in there fast enough to run right into Zoro's back though, he peeks around the other man's broad shoulders and sees Zeff looking at the green head suspiciously.
"Yeah, what are you doing back here?" the chef questions with an irate twitch of his moustache.
"I told your incompetent barista here not to give me kiwi, I'm allergic, and he did it anyway! Now I'm gonna have to go to the hospital." Zoro declares in what is blatantly an outrageous lie, however that's not the most egregious statement.
"BARISTA?! I'm a chef you shitty insect! I'll kill you! I'll shove my foot so far up your ass that-" he screeches in unbridled rage.
"SANJI." Zeff snaps angrily, cutting Sanji's rant short.
Sanji snaps his jaw shut and glares at Zoro, his teeth grinding in anger and frustration. What the hell was the other man even doing?! That bastard!
"I swear that he fell asleep earlier too, when is the last time you gave this idiot the day off anyway? He looks so sleep deprived he could be a corpse." The other man lies even further.
"Thanks. You're no prize either." He grouses, even if it's not strictly speaking true.
"Look, Zeff. This bastard ain't allergic to shit, he's lying." He insists, turning to his old man with imploring eyes. He's never made a mistake like that at all, and if he had Zoro would be on his way to the hospital, not out here bitching to Zeff about it.
"Haven't you got a hospital to go to? Get outta my kitchen." The old man growls at Zoro who begrudgingly nods and walks out. Sanji pouts a little despite himself, even if Zoro had been annoying he's always sad when the other man goes. Although he's not exactly sad to see Zoro leaving the guy is pretty pleasant to watch from behind too.
"When was your last day off anyway?" Zeff asks, folding his arms and leaning back against the counter as he looks Sanji up and down in an assessing way.
Sanji glowers, he sees now what Zoro was trying to achieve. He disagrees with the other man though, his heart might be in the right place but he doesn't understand the circumstances. Still, he can't lie to Zeff, not if he wants to avoid being kicked in the teeth anyway.
"The beginning of last month, when I cut myself up, remember?" He answers in grumbled resignation as he runs this thumb over the still visible white line on his hand where the cut healed.
"Get out." Zeff says firmly, shocking Sanji.
"What?! You don't seriously believe that-" he splutters in complete disbelief.
"You've been working too much, Patty and Carne will cover your shifts. If I see you in here before Wednesday I'll rearrange your face. Now get out." Zeff states flatly.
"I'm not working too much you old geezer, and we can't afford- ah!" He yelps as Zeff's peg leg swings through the air that his head was just occupying moments ago.
"Out! No one wants your cooking anyway!" The old guy roars, swinging for him again. This time it's not so much of a warning shot and Sanji only just manages to dodge it and still feels the kick just sail by his skin.
"Okay, okay! I'm going!" He yelps and retreats. He grabs his coat and dashes out into the front again. Zoro is already gone, his glass is empty and there's a ten on the counter. He considers taking it and chasing the marimo down and making him take it back- it's way too much, but Zeff runs him out of the building before he gets the chance. He and Zoro have this thing, it's sort of a game, though a lot of what they do is a game. There's the game of trying to insult each other as much as possible, there's the game that he has where he tries to guess what Zoro does for a job since Zoro won't tell him, and there's this thing where Sanji refuses to let Zoro pay for his food and Zoro sometimes leaves far more money than he should behind and runs off. Sanji figures the money actually works out to be slightly in their favour and he doubts that's by accident on Zoro's part.
As the Baratie's door slams behind him he glances around the street hopelessly, he doesn't know what to do with himself now but he really wishes that Zoro was here. He doesn't expect to see Zoro still close by but there he is, just ten feet down the road.
"Thanks a lot asshole!" He shouts as he nears the other man. Zoro looks up in surprise and Sanji sees that he's on his phone, Sanji quiets down but still glares at the other man.
"Seriously, you- but I need your car today to help me move... Yeah... I guess. It's just... It was my last day off for a while, so now it's going to have to be next week then. Fine, no, it's not your fault man, if Iceburg needs you then I get it. Yeah, bye." Zoro grumbles and hangs up.
"So much for that plan." Zoro mutters to himself as he hangs up.
"What's gone wrong?" Sanji asks curiously, his rage pushed aside by nosiness.
"I was supposed to be moving into my new place, I've been sleeping on sofas lately and I really need to get my own place. Franky was supposed to be helping me and lending his car, I can't drive so he was gonna drive me, but he had to pull out. Now I can't move until next Saturday." Zoro sighs and shoves his phone back into his leather jacket.
"I have a car, and seeing as SOMEONE just got me kicked out of work..." He says, his words trailing off. They had caught him by surprise, the offer tumbling out of his mouth before he had time to think about it. Crap, this is weird isn't it? Zoro is going to think he's a weirdo, Sanji might secretly adore him but he's still a customer.
"Wait, he didn't just fire you or something did he?!" Zoro balks in horror.
"No, he just told me not to come back until Wednesday, which isn't any good either. Though if he had fired me it'd be all your fault, you meddling grass head!" He snaps, kicking the man in the leg.
"Hey, that's great!" Zoro beams at him.
"No it's not, and if you say it is again I'll run you over with my car instead of helping you." He threatens.
"You really don't have to help me you know, I'm sure you've got better things to do on a rare day off than help me move." Zoro says quietly. Sanji considers this, he doesn't know if Zoro is trying to brush him off and be polite about it or what, he doesn't want to stick around to find out either.
"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't feel like it, come along or don't, but I'm going." He shrugs casually and turns to walk off. There's a few seconds where he doesn't hear Zoro's voice or hear his footsteps, Sanji allows himself an internal pang of disappointment, so much for that then.
"Hey, wait! If you're really sure..." Zoro calls out, catching up to him in a few quick strides. Sanji grins and turns the corner to small staff car park around the back of the Baratie with Zoro following him.
They reach Sanji's gorgeous blue car, it's a vintage camero in an amazing powder blue. It was beat up when he got it, which was how he got it for so cheap, he's spent loads of time and money on it to get it to this level. Though lately not so much.
"This is yours?" Zoro asks with raised eyebrows as he lays eyes on the car.
"Yep, my baby. Took her from nothing to this." He beams, stroking his hand along her side as he opens the door.
"You and Franky would get on like a house on fire." Zoro smiles to himself. Sanji's ears perk up in interest, Zoro's usually quite talkative if Sanji can get him going, but he's never spoken about his friends before today.
"Oh?" He asks with interest as he slides inside and buckles his seatbelt up.
"He's an engineer, he loves stuff like this, cars especially." Zoro says opening the door.
"I really hope you're not a serial killer." Zoro adds thoughtfully as he shuts the door from inside the car.
"Darn, you found me out. I'll help you move before I kill you though. So where to?" Sanji says flatly as he turns his car on, her engine purrs gorgeously, sending a shiver down his spine as always.
"Uh… let's go to Robin's first to pick my stuff up from there. It's on Ohara Avenue." Zoro says, leaning back in the seat and stretching alluringly, Sanji keeps his eyes on the road as they pull out of the car park.
"That part of town is pretty deserted, wasn't there a huge fire there like ten years ago? I thought no one lived there." He says. He remembers reading about it in the papers and seeing all of the burnt out buildings whenever he went that way.
"Yeah, don't… don't mention that if you see Robin." The marimo says distantly.
Sanji shrugs and drives off in the right direction, it's not far enough really for the silence between them to become awkward, it's just that he's hyper aware of the fact that the leading star of his latest jerk-off fantasies is in his car with him. He tries to keep his mind off of it, after all he doesn't have a convenient counter to hide his hard on behind now. Still, it takes a lot of concentration on his part to not visualise just pulling over and dragging Zoro into the back of the camero and getting all hot and sweaty with him. He's never been able to bring himself to have sex in the back of his precious car but for Zoro he would definitely make an exception. Goddamnit, he needs to think of something else!
"It's this side of the road, just… a little further I think. Unless we've already passed it…" Zoro says thoughtfully, looking out of the window.
"Those are pretty different." He shoots back, grateful for his smart mouth at times.
"Shut- oh, there. Pull over!" Zoro exclaims, pointing at a building. Sanji obligingly pulls over and Zoro hops out of the camero and shuts the door.
"I've just got a suitcase or two worth of things here, the rest of it is in storage downtown. I figured starting here would be better." Zoro says as he holds the door to the building open for Sanji.
"You seem to be pretty practiced at this, do you move a lot or something?" he remarks. Not that Zoro does seem especially practiced at this, it's just a nice vaguely complimentary thing to say and it makes him seem more insightful than he really is. He realises with a start that he's trying to talk to Zoro the same way that he talks to women, he's trying to make Zoro feel like he knows lots about him already, to build up a relationship quickly. He wants to kick himself because he likes getting to know Zoro, not just pretending like he does.
"If I was practiced I wouldn't be having to drag innocent bystanders into helping would I? I should be practiced though, I move more than I'd like. It's usually pretty last minute though. I've had to abandon a lot of stuff over the last year or two, I try to keep most stuff that I don't want to lose in storage. The rest is just in suitcases like I said." The moss head says casually as he steps into the lift with Sanji in tow.
"Now who sounds like a serial killer?" Sanji shoots back, making the marimo laugh brightly.
"Hm, I don't think Robin will be home, she's usually left for the university by now. But she's on flexitime so some days she's not." Zoro remarks as the exit the lift and Zoro fishes his keys out of his pocket and leans against the door.
She? Oh. Sanji had… well… he'd sort of assumed that Robin was a guy friend who owned the place that Zoro was couch surfing at. But Robin as a girl could well be Zoro's girlfriend. Damnit, she probably was. But… but if she was why was Zoro moving out? And why had he mentioned sleeping on people's sofas? Perhaps his girlfriend didn't feel ready to have him really move in yet, though she'd have to be stupid not to want to see Zoro around all the time.
"So, Robin is… your girlfriend or something?" Sanji asks, trying to force his voice into being as casual as possible instead of a tone that screams 'oh god, please say no!' instead.
"AHAHAHA! Seriously? What, no. She's- wait." Zoro pauses in his laughing and peers suspiciously around the very nice looking apartment that he's just opened the door to.
"Robin? Robin are you home?" He calls out, stepping into the room. He pauses and listens, the flat sounds quiet and empty with no sign of anyone being home.
"Robin?" He calls a little louder, to no response. Apparently satisfied with this Zoro turns back to him and speaks again.
"Yeah, no. Robin and I are definitely not dating, for several huge reasons." Zoro explains, shutting the door behind Sanji and leading him to the sofa. Sanji can see that there's an open suitcase under the coffee table which Zoro leans down to grab.
Sanji frankly doesn't care too much why they're not dating, as long as Zoro is not dating this mystery Robin he is happy for now. But Zoro apparently is going to explain anyway.
"For one, she's nine years older than me- which is fine, I don't think that she's old, but I'm pretty sure that she thinks I'm young. And secondly, she's fucking terrifying." Zoro grins at him.
"Oi, don't be a jerk about a lady like that. That's impolite." Sanji shoots back on principle and shoves Zoro in the shoulder, nearly toppling him into his suitcase.
"I couldn't agree more." A silky voice says from behind both of them, making him leap about a foot in the air and Zoro suck in a startled breath. He scrambles around and stares at the frankly gorgeous woman who had snuck up behind them like some kind of ghost. She's beautiful, with refined angular face and a straight nose which makes her look more like some marble carved goddess than a living, breathing woman. Her eyes are captivatingly blue with a hint of danger in them, a wry smile pulls on her full lips. He looks her up and down, her figure is voluptuous but still somehow slender, she's all curves in a way that Sanji had only thought airbrushed models with the help of photoshop could be.
"I didn't know you were still here." Zoro says flatly from somewhere behind Sanji.
"Evidently." The raven haired siren purrs with a threat of danger in her voice.
"See, this kind of shit is why you're fucking terrifying, you're a homicidal ninja." Zoro snorts.
"Zoro!" Sanji squawks indignantly, that idiot can't talk to a beautiful lady like that! Zoro's gaze doesn't even flick his way though.
"Don't you forget it." The lady smirks, her voice cold and sinister. A shudder ghosts up Sanji's spine and the look on the lovely lady's face is a macabre kind of malevolence that makes Sanji feel a little… unsafe right now.
"After what you did to poor Franky? No way, I know what you're like." Zoro smirks with, Sanji notes, a certain tone of affection and mirth in his voice under the layer of deadpan.
This situation is… weird. Sanji doesn't know what's going on with these two and he's not entirely happy with it either.
"Speaking of Franky, I thought he was supposed to be helping you move, instead you're with…" she trails off, casting her curious eyes his way.
"Oh, shit. Sorry. This is Sanji. Sanji, Robin, Robin, Sanji." Zoro hastily introduces them, gesturing from one to the other.
"Pleased to meet you my lady." He flutters despite himself, bowing in awe of Robin's magnificent beauty.
"Oh my, I'm very pleased to meet you too Sanji. I've heard nothing about you." Robin smiles catlike at him, her eyes flicking back to Zoro with a smirk on her lips. Zoro looks considerably uncomfortable under Robin's gaze.
"He's a friend." The other man says tightly, looking extremely displeased with this conversation. Despite himself Sanji can't help but feel the thing that may well be his heart fluttering in his chest, Zoro called him his friend! This morning he hadn't been sure that Zoro had thought of him at all beyond being some chatty guy that he talked to in some restaurant, but… but Zoro thinks more of him than that.
"I see." Robin says knowingly and looks sidelong at Sanji, her expression turning into a cunning grin. Sanji wonders what expression she's seen on him to make her make that kind of expression but he supposes that he'll never know, not when Zoro interrupts with something as abrupt as:
"Don't you have a goddamn job to go to?" the green-head growls menacingly.
"Indeed I do. Well, have fun boys. Bye-bye." Robin smiles charmingly at them and saunters out of the flat with an elegant wave and a waft of floral perfume.
By the time Sanji scrambles his brain together Zoro is already back to grumbling to himself under his breath as he shoves a few things into a suitcase.
"Oi, what's your deal? You shouldn't talk to a lady like that!" He reprimands, kicking Zoro in the elbow.
"Hey, if you knew her like I did, if you heard some of the creepy shit that she says you'd understand. Besides, Robin's cool." Zoro says shaking his head. He steps past the table and grabs what Sanji had just assumed to be some decoration off of the mantelpiece, as Zoro turns he sees that it's a sword in a sheath.
"Whoa, is that yours? Is it real?" he asks in interest, his hand reaching out to touch but not quite daring. Zoro's smile is broad and slightly dangerous as he pulls the sword from the sheath. God the thing is sharp and dangerous looking.
"Yeah she's real and… yeah, she's mine now." Zoro says. Sanji's eye stares back at him, reflected in the blade's pristine surface.
"Now? Did it take you ages to pay her off or something? This looks like one hell of an expensive sword." He whistles, impresses with it.
"Well, it's an antique. An heirloom actually. Kuina's father gave it to her, I was just keeping it safe until she got better but… well." Zoro trails off and snaps the hilt back over the sword and tucks the thing into his belt, Sanji can't help but notice the way that Zoro runs his thumb sadly over the metal end of the sword hilt.
Sanji doesn't know whether Zoro wants to talk about her or not. Sometimes if something to do with Kuina comes up in conversation Zoro will dodge right around the subject and avoid the whole topic, but sometimes he brings it up deliberately and tells Sanji things about her or about how he misses her. Right now seems to be the avoid it situation as Zoro grabs up his bags and shoves one into Sanji's chest and leads the way out of Robin's home. He takes the hint and follows in silence, heading down the stairs whilst Zoro locks up.
He comes out to the camero and slides Zoro's stuff into the back and buckles himself in. Zoro hops into the passenger seat with his sword resting between his knees.
"Where to now?" Sanji asks, starting the engine and thoroughly avoiding the question of Zoro's dead friend.
"Storage, it's on the main road that leads to the stadium." Zoro explains. Sanji nods and pulls off, he knows where he's going.
"So… how much stuff have you got in there? Is this gonna be three trips? Four?" he asks curiously as he indicates and pulls right.
"Nah, just one. I really don't have much." Zoro answers.
"Hmm… moves around a lot, not a lot of possessions. Are you a hobo?" Sanji guesses with a grin.
"I don't think hobo is a job title, and no. Guess again." The green-haired man smirks at him. Something in Sanji's chest settles a little at seeing that smile on Zoro's face.
"Lifeguard?" He guesses again hopefully, the idea of Zoro soaking wet and in skin-tight swimming trunks has a certain appeal. It'd explain the tan too.
"Oooh, I did do that one summer, but not now. Sorry." Zoro laughs and Sanji sorely wishes that he knew Zoro that summer.
"I'll guess, you'll see." Sanji argues back and kicks up some speed on the road, overtaking some idiot on his phone.
"Hey, so how long have you worked at the Baratie?" Zoro asks conversationally.
"Since I was about seven I guess. My old man owns the place, he adopted me when I was five and we saved for ages to finally afford it and I've been there ever since." Sanji answers.
"That must be nice." Zoro smiles, a little wistful perhaps.
"If you like living with your boss, then sure. It has its moments though." He adds with a touch of honesty, because cooking is his life, his love. Zoro looks a little melancholy and Sanji can't help but wonder if he's thinking of his dead friend.
"What about you? Have you got family nearby?" he asks, curious and wanting to pry more into Zoro's life.
"No, I've not got any family. All dead. I've got my friends though." Zoro shrugs, apparently unbothered by this. Despite Zoro's nonchalance about that statement, (he doesn't even look wounded or anything he's just staring out the window for fucks sake!) Sanji feels for him. It's not right.
"I don't have any friends." He blurts out unthinkingly and immediately wants to eat the words back up. Stupid! What will Zoro think of him now? The green haired man is staring at him wide eyed and Sanji briefly considers crashing the car and killing them both just to get out of this conversation.
"I don't believe that." Zoro says suspiciously and Sanji stays silent, squirming in his seat. The uncomfortable air apparently convinces Zoro though and the other man's eyebrows raise high on his face.
"How come?" Zoro asks with completely blatant curiosity.
"I'm kind of an asshole if you hadn't noticed." He grits out and distracts himself with indicating and looking for his exit.
"Only kind of." Zoro replies, making Sanji look at him in surprise. Zoro's grin is broad and slightly mean but his eyes are soft, as Sanji watches the grin cracks into something warmer and Sanji realises that this was meant to be some kind of stupid compliment.
"Shitty bastard." He mutters, making the turn and willing away the redness in his face.
"None at all though?" Zoro asks after a moment.
"No. The hours don't help either." He offers in some defence.
"Well. People are overrated anyway, mostly all idiots too." The other man grins, stretching his arms over his head and arching his back against the camero seat and making Sanji seriously want to break his no sex in the camero rule even if he is driving right now.
"I know, right? Always talking, fucking mouth breathers. Using their phones and shit." Sanji agrees.
"Having lives and feeling the need to interrupt yours too." The other man chimes in with an evil grin.
"Definitely. It'll be better when we're all extinct." He agrees.
"I guess this means that if you ever think of me as your friend I'll have to, what, jump off a bridge or something?" Zoro asks, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Sanji says seriously, making Zoro crack up with laugher. It's infectious and Sanji's giggling as well, so much so that he almost doesn't see the storage place and pull over in time.
He follows Zoro into the building and eventually they find a small storage unit that matches Zoro's key. He slides it open. Inside are a few pieces of furniture, a beat up old sofa and a few chairs, a shitty coffee table and a couple of decent sized boxes. He raises an eyebrow, there's no way he could or would even try to get that sofa into his car, and the coffee table is pushing it too.
"Don't look like that, the place is furnished. I only need the boxes." Zoro says, apparently catching his look.
Sanji shrugs and Zoro hands him one of the boxes, it's reasonably heavy but he doesn't complain as Zoro drops another on top of the box in his hands. Zoro stacks several together and then lifts them all up together in one impressive movement. Zoro walks out of the unit and Sanji follows, he watches as Zoro lifts one leg up and shifts the weight of the boxes to one hand and a knee as he rummages in his pocket for the key. Sanji shamelessly takes the opportunity to watch the play of muscles under Zoro's skin and tries to avoid the temptation to bite him. Zoro nudges the door shut with a narrow hip and locks it one handed before shoving the keys back into his jeans. He hefts the boxes, his back muscles tensing under the heavy load before he sets off down the hallway. Sanji follows, trying to wrench his mind out of the gutter and holding the boxes low enough to disguise his half hard state.
"You didn't have to do this." Zoro says, Sanji supposes that it's kind of another thank you from Zoro. They put the boxes into the back of the car, and only just fill it up. Zoro wasn't joking when he said that he didn't have much stuff.
"Where to now?" Sanji asks, instead of saying you're welcome. Zoro fishes an envelope out of his other pocket and hands it to Sanji, it's got an address on it, printed, and Sanji can see from the scuff on the paper an outline of where a key used to be in the envelope. The address itself is familiar to Sanji.
"Hey, this is like half a block from my house! You're just around the corner!" Sanji exclaims happily.
"Great, now I don't have to pretend to know where I'm going." Zoro grins as Sanji reverses out of the storage parking lot and drives in the direction of home.
Zoro's building is literally the one next to Sanji's, though he's a little lower down the building than Sanji is in his. It's a little more run down than Sanji's building, which says something as Sanji doesn't exactly live in the Ritz himself. The lift is broken so they heft the boxes up the stairs in one trip, neither opting to do the sensible thing and take those storage boxes in two easy trips, instead they're trying to out macho each other or some shit like that, though they'll have to go back for Zoro's suitcases and his sword.
Zoro lets him into his apartment, the number to which Sanji burns into his brain like the desperate stalker that he's apparently becoming. The place is nice, bare but nice. With the exception of what Sanji assumes to be the bathroom everything is in the one room. There's a metal framed bed just within sight of the door with cupboards and built in wardrobes around it, in the middle of the room is a beat up old sofa facing the wall which has a mark on it where previous tenants have obviously had a TV. In the far edge of the room is a decent little kitchen with counters around the edge, if this was Sanji's place he'd set up bar stools there so that you could have breakfast there in the morning sunlight.
Seriously, he's not fucking imagining living here with Zoro. He barely knows the man. God he's such a psycho.
Zoro puts his boxes on the floor and opens the top one, out of it he pulls a duvet and pillows which he hurls at the bed before carefully flattening the box and tossing it aside. He seems intent on unpacking right whilst Sanji's there, making the blonde feel a little awkward.
"I'll… I'll go get your suitcases and your sword, yeah?" He says, stepping backwards.
"Thanks!" Zoro calls from the inside of a larger box.
Sanji rushes down the stairs and wonders if he's doing the right thing here. Is he getting in too deep with someone who's really a stranger? Has he just built up some idea in his head of what Zoro is like and is he going to be disappointed the more he gets to know Zoro? Maybe, but he hasn't been yet.
He pulls Zoro's suitcases out with one hand and picks up his sword with the other. He closes the door to his baby carefully and thinks. He's gotten infatuated with this guy pretty quickly, he's never fallen for anyone quite so fast before but he has felt passionately about people before. It's… never ended well. Sensibly he knows that he should back off, there's no guarantee that Zoro even likes guys at all and Sanji may well get his heart broken here.
He bites his lip and promises himself that after today he'll try to avoid flirting with Zoro, he'll try to keep himself in check and just be Zoro's friend. He'll watch the other man like a hawk for any sign that the other man might be into him as more than just friends and if so he'll bite the bullet and lay his feelings out there. Until then though, he should just be happy to have a new friend and an unwitting star of his mental fantasies. He can do that.
He runs up the stairs and re-enters Zoro's place. The other man spots him, smiles and takes his sword back, he carefully leans it against his bed frame and takes his suitcases from Sanji as well. Zoro doesn't give him anything to do and doesn't tell him to leave either, leaving Sanji in a dithering state of uncertainty. Eventually he leans down and opens up a box, figuring that if Zoro wants to tell him to fuck off he will.
He finds a pair of smart shoes and a suit, obviously not something Zoro felt the need to keep on him often as he didn't have it at Robin's. He gives them to Zoro in his bedroom and the other man looks at them disdainfully before putting them away, interesting.
Next he finds a few books, all about swords or sword fighting techniques. Zoro doesn't have a bookcase so he stacks them next to the sofa. Next Zoro has a few really nice beer glasses, some fancy shot glasses too. Those he puts in a cupboard in the kitchen along with a small box that has "cutlery" scrawled on it in biro. He unpacks that box into a drawer and finds the biro with it, he leaves the on the side. The extent of Zoro's cooking equipment horrifies him he has one medium sized saucepan with an unstable looking handle and a chip in the side and a frying pan where half of the non-stick coating has come off. With the addition of a wooden spoon with the end broken off and a spatula that seems slightly melted that's all he has.
"Are you fucking kidding me with this cooking equipment?" He says out loud, looking up at a guilty looking Zoro.
"Ah… I didn't really want you to see that. I can't cook really, so… yeah." Zoro confesses with an air of embarrassment.
"That is just… I don't have words. Look at this!" He says indignantly holding up the awful excuse for a frying pan.
"I can make eggs! Well… fried or scrambled, and mainly they're only scrambled if I screw up frying them. Oh, and toast! And pasta, boil it for 20 minutes and then throw a sauce from a jar on it." Zoro says quickly, hurting Sanji's soul with each word. What kind of demon cooks pasta for 20 goddamn minutes?!
"You need to stop talking now, you're ruining my brain." Sanji insists, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tries to repress the horror. He looks up at Zoro and thinks bitterly that Zoro does not deserve that body if he eats like that.
"Listen, you need to unpack and I think I need to go home and look at my cooking equipment after that. You are going to buy new equipment tomorrow or I swear I'll kill you and dump your body in the ocean. But listen, you're not going to want to do whatever pathetic excuse for cooking that you do after you're done unpacking, so come over to mine and I'll cook for you if you like. Here." He says grabbing Zoro's hand and using that biro he found earlier to write his address and phone number on the palm of Zoro's hand.
"Did… did you just threaten to murder me and ask me over for dinner at the same time?" Zoro asks, staring at his hand wide eyed.
"Yes." Sanji answers, jutting his jaw out as if to challenge Zoro to call him on that. The edge of Zoro's mouth quirks up in a grin.
"See you later then I guess." The other man smirks at him.
"Later." Sanji agrees and saunters out of Zoro's flat as cool as anything and far different to the shaking wreck that he is inside.
He pulls the door to behind him and freaks out in the privacy of his head. What the fuck was that? He practically just asked Zoro out, he could hardly be more forward without dropping to his knees and opening Zoro's fly with his teeth! Shit shit shit! He's such a shitty idiot. What if Zoro doesn't come over? What if he does?