"You are-" The green haired man sputtered, accusingly pointing his finger at the blond. For some reason the words were jumbling in his mouth, unable to make a coherent sentence.

The blond gave him a cold stare, lips sternly pursed. He silently strolled away from them, walking across the dining room, then climbing up the spiraling staircase.

Kuina gave him a weird look, "Do you know him?" She asked curiously, her brows knitting together.

The shock of unexpectedly meeting the man had remained, but his composure had washed over him as he had trained himself to do so in the past. "No. I don't know him. I met him earlier, but I guess we're not going to acknowledge each other." He took his seat, across from Kuina, whose eyes were scanning through the menu again.

She did not press the matter, which he was grateful for.

Why is the moss brain here?

He had certainly wished to see that green head again, so he could beat the shit out of him, but this was way too soon. Out of all of his wishes, it was irritating how God had granted him this one.

Then his thought processes stumbled across a certain detail. Wait... How the hell did he, that moss head, get a beautiful lady- like her? She was certainly a beauty, with a lean face, full lips, short ends of her black hair lightly cascading on her naked shoulders, body worthy of Nami-san's, and captivating brown eyes that had caught his utmost attention. Yes, how in the hell did that moss get a girl like her?

If he had to speak from a girl's point of view, he guessed that the moss head was slightly attractive, with his built body, noticeable even beneath that suit of his. However, that annoying face of his would be a turn off to anyone! And this girl was too pretty, much out of his standards.

So, Sanji formed a little impish plan of his own.

He decided to head out there with a bottle of expensive European wine, safely hidden in the bottom cabinets in the kitchen, to apologize for his recent behavior. Then, she would see that he is a gentleman, unlike the barbarian she came with. He would take her by her hand, and the two could begin a romance like no other, while moss head repent over his choices for being a barbarian.

The expression, killing two birds with one stone, never seemed so appealing until now.

When Kuina brushed her hair behind her ear, any thoughts about the blond waiter had swapped out with her. With a wild, mischievous grin, she said, "Hey, Zoro. We should get some fancy wine and get drunk as hell."

With a matter-of-fact tone of voice, Zoro responded, "Kuina, it would take at least four bottles of wine each to get us both drunk." They both had extremely high tolerance to alcohol.

"Fine. I won't get drunk, but I still want to taste it."

A low rumble vibrated in his throat, chuckling at the lovable request. "Anything for you, my lady," he answered, oozing with sarcasm.

"Huh, you sound like the waiter," she noted.

Strangely, as though he had been called, the blond waiter strolled over to their table. "Mademoiselle, I apologize for my actions earlier." In his hands, he was holding a small bucket of ice, with a bottle of wine inside; and two wine cups.

He's apologizing?

Kuina's eyes lit when she spotted the wine. "No, no. I was a bit uptight. It was completely my fault."

Zoro could not understand why this waiter was all of a sudden being nice to the two of them.

"No, my lady, it was my fault." The waiter pressed. "I can only hope this wine can compensate for the disturbances I caused tonight" He set down the wine glasses, each one in front of Kuina and Zoro.

He's giving me some?

The waiter, with utmost elegance, tipped the wine bottle to pour into Kuina's glass. He filled slightly above the halfway mark, perhaps sixty percent. He then turned towards Zoro's glass, repeating the exact process, but much slower this time.

Out of curiosity, Zoro glanced at the man's hands, which were hidden by the sleeves, fingers wrapped around the wine bottle like it would a precious jewel.

When the waiter began to retrieve the bottle after the sixty percent had been reached inside Zoro's cup as well, the wine slipped from his hands, landing on the floor with a loud clash. The bottle split into several pieces and the red liquid contained inside the bottle spread out like a river of blood.

The restaurant hushed. The conversations stopped dead, the eyes turned to them, and the other waiters hastily rushed over with mops in their hands.

The blond's hands unraveled, his sleeves pulled, and Zoro noticed the unnatural colors of his bruised skin. He wondered how the blond had acted casual all this time when his hands had swelled to the size of a ball.

Instinctively, he reached forward to grab the waiter's wrists.

Fuck.

As the bottle slipped from his hand, the mantra of 'fuck' echoed inside his head.

When the pain had shot up, his grip had loosened, and the bottle which wouldn't have broken in normal occasions, shattered into bits and pieces today. Today was not his day- at all.

The restaurant was eerily quiet and he could only fix his gaze on the spreading liquid beneath his feet.

Blood was rushing into his head and his brain had automatically silenced everything. This usually happened during fights. Everything becoming hushed.

Then the torrent of sounds crashed back when his wrist was grabbed. Sanji looked up to see the worried face of a green haired man. "Oi, why didn't you go to the hospital? Look at the state of your hands." His face contorted as if he was making difficult decisions. "That's it. I'm responsible for this and I'm taking you to the hospital." As he spoke, the silence hanging over the restaurant fell quickly. The customers went back to their own conversations. The waiters who finished mopping up, glared at Sanji before taking their leave.

Sanji was weary. He was tired, his hands were aching, and he was cranky. He wanted to go home.

"No." Sanji snatched his wrists back from other man.

The moss's eyebrows knitted with concern, which the blond despised. "What? But your hands-"

"Shut up, moss, it's none of your business." The blonde spat. He really didn't need to be nurtured, especially by someone who caused him this injury.

"What the fuck, ero-waiter. I'm just trying to help you." The moss growled with irritation.

"I'm not a waiter, I'm a cook."

"Whatever, ero-cook, I'm dragging you anyways."

Who does he think he is? Does this ball of moss think he is the boss of him? Fuck no.

A small smile surfaced into the blond's features as he recalled where exactly he had seen this ball of moss and what it was called. In the middle of his trip to Japan with his beloved, Nami-san, they had come across a museum full of these things called 'marimos,' which were basically balls of mosses. A bubble of laughter escaped his mouth, and soon, he was laughing uncontrollably.

"What's so funny ero-cook?" Hint of annoyance in his voice, and frustration oozing from his body language- frowning, crossing of his arms, and the slanted angry-looking brows.

"You, you look like a marimo!" He said with another burst of laughter following the sentence.

Marimo? Isn't that an algae that grows mostly in Japan? How the hell does this guy know about it? Zoro frowned at the blond.

"Zoro, I'm going to leave if you're taking him to the hospital." Kuina spoke, bursting through his train of thoughts.

The green haired man glanced at his girlfriend in surprise; for a second, he actually forgot she was there. "Sorry Kuina, it's my responsibility and I don't want to feel guilty about it later." He replied, hoping Kuina would understand.

"Alright, we will come and eat here some other time. I'll call my father to pick me up." She answered with a smile, clearly understanding the situation.

Damn, could this woman be any more charming?

Seeing marimo with a goofy grin made him want to barf.

However, he got some new information out of this conversation. The man's name was Zoro(not that important), and the lady's name was Kuina. His heart skipped a beat and butterflies fluttered in his stomach.

Ah, of course she possesses the most beautiful name! Ah, Kuina! My heart is in your clutches. Kill me, love me, I don't care!

"Sanji-kun, what happened?"

He knew exactly whose voice that was. And for a moment, he thought about cowardly running away, but he couldn't. If Sanji was anything, coward definitely wasn't it.

The little confidence he had melted away when his eyes met the red haired woman's though, who was wearing a very tight red dress, accentuating her already curvy features. Around her waist, there was a hand, who it belonged to a man slightly taller than Sanji. Though the blond was not intimidated by the height differences at all, he was taken back by his perfectly sculpted face, which matched the beauty of a woman standing next to him.

"Hello, Nami-san. I just dropped some wine, that's all." He didn't do his usual greeting, fluttering about and calling out "Mellorine!" due to her amazing appearance.

She looked at him strangely. It must be because he wasn't doing his usual flirting. But she quickly shrugged it off. She must have assumed that he was refraining due to Sebastian's presence, whom Sanji completely ignored. Sanji chuckled inside miserably, he knew so much about her, enough to almost read her mind, yet he could not have her.

"You're not hurt, are you?" She asked, reaching forward to brush her hand across his cheek.

The traces she left behind burned.

He smiled, chest swelling. How endearing that she cared for him. "No, thanks for worrying."

"Yes, you are."

The blond blinked. Whose voice?

Then he recalled that Zoro had been right next to him, listening in on their conversations. Nami glanced at him with curious eyes, wondering who he was and what he meant with that comment?

"Wha-wha-" Sanji sputtered out.

Zoro glared at him, "Shut your chatter, cook. I'm taking you to the hospital."

The red haired woman's eyes grew wide. "The hospital? Oh my god, Sanji. What happened?" Nami asked in surprise, freeing herself from Sebastian's arm.

"It's nothing, Nami-san. I swear."

Sanji glared at the green haired man, giving him a look as if saying, I'm going to fucking kill you if you don't shut up. But of course, this man was oblivious and stupid to add to it, he just kept on going. "It's not nothing, there's a possibility that you broke your hands."

This idiot!

Sanji didn't want to worry Nami anymore, so he decided to just go with the flow. "Alright, fine. I'll go to the hospital, but you don't have to come with me."

"No, I'm coming. You could be saying that just to get rid of me."

That's the whole point!

This man was like a leech. Neither actions or words could rid Sanji from him. "Fine." He heaved a heavy sigh, which reminded him of his cigarettes.

Zoro grinned, like a child who had gotten what he had wanted. The blond wanted to leave an imprint of the sole of his shoes on this bastard's ugly mug of a face.

"I'm com-" Nami began but halted. Sebastian had wrapped his arm around her waist again, reminding her why they were there in the first place.

In Sanji's mind, the victim had changed from this green haired man to this bastard, Sebastian. Sanji started to grind his teeth.

"Oi, cook, you're making some weird noises."

Nami flashed the blond a sympathetic gaze. "I'm sorry, Sanji-kun. I came with Sebastian as a date, so I can't possibly leave now. But your friend can take care of you." She said sweetly, using that tone of voice women used to make their men forgive them straightaway. A voice, so powerful against men like Sanji.

And although the cook forgave his beloved, Sebastian remained on his hit list.

"Oh, I'll be fine. I have my moss buddy." Sanji said, wrapping his arm around Zoro's shoulder.

The blond was worried that the marimo was too dumb to catch up, but he sighed out as a sign of relief when marimo mumbled, "Uh yeah. I'll take care of it," with a very puzzled expression.

Sanji went inside the kitchen, over to where the coat hanger was. And along the way, the chefs questioned why he was leaving, but he simply told them to "fuck off," and the chefs gradually went back to their individual tasks. He grabbed his jacket and gloves, forgot to tell Zeff, and left the restaurant. The night air was chillier than usual. His face stung from the cold wind whipping his face from all angles. He wished that he had worn warmer clothes this morning.

"Hey, took you long enough." A black convertible pulled up in front of him, and marimo peeked his head through the crack of his window sill. "Get in."

"Shut up, moss." The blond spoke as he went around to enter the passenger seat. "Don't boss me around, marimo." Their argument continued when he entered the car. When the wave of heat hit his face, he immediately felt cozy. Slamming the car door only made his drowsier.

The marimo's already cranked up engine was roaring with impatience. He started to drive away from Baratie, speed increasing as they got closer and closer to the highway. When Sanji glanced over to his side, the marimo's face only became visible when they passed by occasional street lamps.

Zoro grumbled, "First of all, my name isn't moss or marimo, or any shit like that."

"It's fucking hilarious! And you call me ero-cook or whatever."

"Fine. your name is Sanji right?" A slight pause. "Uh, I heard from that red haired bitch. And why do you guys use Japanese formalities, are you guys part Japanese or something?" The car swerved to the left, speeding up to get past the truck that was in front of them.

"Bastard, Nami-san is not a bitch! Don't talk about women like that! And no, I am not Japanese, I just took a trip there. I am also not calling you by your name because you're a bastard and you deserve shitty names." Almost like a child, he crossed his arms over his seat belt. It was true though. There were three kinds of people he absolutely did not tolerate. People who wastes food. People who threatens his old man's restaurant. And people who insults women. He despises them all.

"Whatever, love cook." Zoro responded, sounding apathetic.

But the remnant of that argument was a heavy silence lingering over them. It felt so heavy that Sanji felt claustrophobic. He, after all, growing up in a lively restaurant always full of people, he had adjusted to noise and constant chatters. This silence was slowly killing him from the inside. So he blurted out, "How are you and Kuina?"

God, he wanted to bash his brains in.

"Kuina?" A puzzled tone of voice. "Why do you want to know that?"

"Just curious."

Like the damn rude bastard he was and continued to prove himself to be, he grouchily responded with, "Well, mind your own business."

He half expected this rude response. He himself would have gotten defensive over a girl like her. "I just wanted to know why she chose you over... oh I don't know, someone like me?" He poked fun at the matter instead of blowing up like the usual hothead he is.

Zoro clicked his tongue, "Che, a little self centered, aren't we?"

"Huh, it's not narcissism if it's self realization," smirking at the end, realizing how clever his response was. Of course, due to the lack of street lamps, the marimo could not see his expression.

"Cook, I will beat the shit out of you." He growled, threatening in a low tone of voice.

Sanji rolled his eyes, "Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing about you earlier."

"Beating the shit out of me? Impossible."

"Look who's self centered now, bastard." A small chuckle. "I promise you, when my hand gets better, you'll be begging for mercy beneath my feet. Of course, if you even have enough strength left by then." Though Sanji used his feet at all times, his full potential only manifested if his hands were part of the package as well.

He uncouthly snorted, "In your dreams, shit cook."

For some reason, the air surrounding them had gotten much more comfortable to breathe in. It was weird how he felt that he was bonding with Zoro only through arguments, sputtering insults to one another.

Sanji's thoughts trailed to the dryness of his mouth. "Oi, can you stop by a store? I need some cigarettes."

"Those things kill you."

"Worried about me?" Sanji retaliated. Damn, was he having fun screwing this man over?

He growled, "Like hell."

The blond looked out his window, and noticed that they weren't around structured buildings anymore. Instead, there were rows of trees, unusually large amount of trees that weren't found in the city. To express his uncertainty, and wondering whether this man is secretly a serial killer, he asked, "Hey, are you going the right way?"

To his relief, the bastard responded, "I know what I'm doing ero-cook, don't pester me."

"Whatever."

Their conversation died, and the feeling of coziness attacked Sanji again, except this time he didn't have any urge to fight back. He knocked out quickly, into a deep slumber, leaving the lost man to fend for himself.

Trees... street signs... but no buildings or people...

He was in trouble.

Zoro glanced over to his side and noticed that the blond had buried his head into the crevice between the window and the edge of his seat. He was also snoring very lightly.

The green haired man reached out to turn on his GPS, hoping it could save the day. The brightness and the volume were adjusted to its minimum levels, in order for the blond to stay asleep. He could not afford that blond waking up, realizing that Zoro had lied about not being lost. It would be totally humiliating, a complete dent on his pride.

"Turn right. Turn left. Go straight. Go straight. Go straight." The GPS was annoying as usual, constantly nagging him with instructions, but he tried his best to follow its directions. And as a reward, about a half an hour later, he was back in the city. For once he was relieved to be back in this polluted environment. And soon, they pulled up in front of the hospital.

Thank you, GPS, you're not so useless after all.

Zoro turned off his engine and the car made uneven diminishing roars as it slowly became dormant.

He gripped the blond's shoulder and shook him in order to wake him up. But since the man was in such deep sleep, he only parted his lips as he turned over to his side. He heaved a heavy sigh from frustration. He had two choices. He could wait until this bastard decides to wake up, or he could punch him awake. The second option sounded much more pleasing. However, the blond was already injured and Zoro didn't want to seem like the actual bastard around here.

The green haired man stepped out of his car and made his way around to the passenger seat. He unbuckled the blond's seat belt, adjusted his body so his legs would spill over to the side, and heaved him onto his back by carefully wrapping the man's arms around his neck. He closed the car door with the side of his foot, then locked the doors with the press of his key-less remote control. In order to preserve the man's pride, Zoro avoided touching anywhere near his bottom region, which left him to grab onto his legs. Although they had joked about beating each other up earlier, the green haired man understood why Sanji was so confident when he felt the muscles in his calves. They felt like steel. Hard and compacted with muscles. Even so, for a man made out of power, he was fairly light on Zoro's back. Perhaps it was due of his lean frame and small bone structure.

The hospital lights felt blinding to his eyes when he entered through the automatic doors. To his side, there were rows and rows of guest chairs, but not many that were occupied. Only few elderly and playful children watching television.

He walked over to the front desk, where a familiar nurse was. "Mr. Chopper?" She asked, not even bothering to glance up to check whether it was actually Zoro or not.

"Yeah"

She nodded, not taking her eyes off of her cellphone. "Please go ahead."

For once, he knew what he was doing. Chopper's room was just straight down the hallway to the left. Room 127. And beneath those numbers, there was a customized name plate with the name 'Chopper' on it. Without bothering to knock, since the doctor was someone close to him, he twisted the doorknob and intruded inside.

As usual, the little doctor was at his desk, doing some piled up paperwork.

He looked up in alert, but his expression softened when he realized that it was just Zoro. "Zoro!" But when he spotted the limp blond man sprawled out on his back, his expression fell into seriousness. His eyes enlarged as he began to panic, "Zoro! Oh my god, did you murder him?" He asked, pushing himself up off of the chair, sprinting towards the man.

Zoro dropped the man on a nearby cushion, more gently than he normally would have, and went to ruffle the boy's light brown curls. "He's not dead- yet." He chuckled at the last word.

Just to make sure, Chopper went up close to check on the blond's pulse and breathing patterns. "Whew," he expressed his relief, wiping the nonexistent sweat that were on his forehead with the back of his forearms.

Zoro lightly chuckled before telling the little guy the actual story, emphasis on the blond's mistakes than his own.

"Well, I guess I'm just glad that he's not one of your victims..." Chopper lifted his glasses with his fingers as he rubbed his tired eyes, yawning out loud. Working as a doctor while attending college was one the main reasons for the bags under the boy's eyes. Zoro almost felt guilty for piling more work on his friend.

But the reason he had decided on Chopper's hospital than any other hospital was because Chopper got straight to the point. There were no unnecessary and annoying paperwork for Zoro to do here.

"So... are his hands broken?"

Chopper massaged the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Well, since you said that he was able to perform regular tasks with his hands, it seems that it's not broken. It's probably twisted." He went forward to observe the blond's two swelled hands. "But he must have strained them because the the membranous tissue looks unusually inflamed and irritated. If he does not rest his hands, the function of his hands could be lost permanently." Zoro simply nodded when Chopper spewed out medical terms. "But if he rests, his hands should get better in about a week."

From aggravation, Zoro ran his fingers through his short hair. "But he told me that he's a chef. If he can't use his hands, he won't be able to do his job."

"Damn right I won't," the blond man groaned, making Chopper almost jump out of his skin.

Zoro glanced at Sanji's slowly arising form, sleep still visible in his eyes. "Oh, you're finally awake," he stated.

"After your loud chatters, it shouldn't be much of a surprise." Zoro wanted to strangle the man then respond in the most vulgar manner possible. But before he could, the blond continued, "Oi, when did we even get here? And I said to stop by a store, damn marimo. I need cigarettes." He sighed, cupping his forehead.
"I knew your idiotic brain couldn't process what I asked for." His eyes roamed to his hands, which were being examined by Chopper. "And who the hell is this kid? Is this kid a doctor? Isn't he a little too young to be a doctor?" He raised an eyebrow with a smirk, "Wait, I get it. He's a genius or something, am I right?"

"Asshole, calling me a genius won't make me happy," Chopper said while smiling and squirming around.

Anger brewed in Zoro's stomach. Vile, nasty anger that couldn't wait to make its way out of Zoro's mouth. "For one, you dumb ass shit cook, I carried you all the way here because you wouldn't wake up no matter how many goddamn times I tried. And all the stores were fucking closed because it's goddamn late, so quit your stupid bitching."

"Wait, what? You carried me here?" The blond asked, surprise in his piercing gaze.

Zoro's mouth went dry, stopping in his tracks. "Uh yeah, don't thank me or anyth-"

"How fucking embarrassing, did any of the nurses see me?"

Of course

Zoro twitched. From the moment he and Sanji had met, he immediately knew that the blond was a prissy, ungrateful cunt. What he didn't know was, to what extent? There were no words left to say. He had expressed his anger already, and to lose his temper for the second time would defy all that built up self training he had done until now.

The blond turned his head away from the green haired man. "Hey, thanks though. I guess I did have a nice nap." Though he was facing away from Zoro and Chopper, Zoro could clearly see the man's ears turning scarlet red.

And just like that, all of his anger vanished. "Thanking me cook? Didn't expect that," he wildly smirked, cockily tilting his head to the side a bit.

"First and the last, moss," he murmured.

Staring at the scene between two grown men, the youngest one of the group stared at them with curious eyes. Chopper smiled at the scene and spoke his mind, "You guys seem like such good friends."

As soon as that taboo word, 'friends,' was heard, both of them simultaneously turned and growled, "We're not friends." After saying these words, the two glared at each other, wordlessly exchanging the words 'i hate you.'

"So cook, Chopper says your hands are not broken."

Sanji's face brightened immediately and the corners of his lips upwardly turned. He almost looked like Chopper himself, a kid. A happy, jolly kid, not an annoying douche who is so down about his life that he has to take it out on others.

The young doctor stood on his tippy toes, since he was half a foot shorter than the two men. He accusingly pointed a finger at Sanji. "Just because your hands are not broken does not mean that you should continuously use it. If you hadn't used it all day today, it might have began its healing process by now, but because you have been stubbornly using them, your hands had to take the toll." Chopper was getting that flare in his eyes again, that familiar doctor look Zoro hated seeing. "If you don't rest your hands for at least a week, you may never be able to use your hands again!"

Boom! Shots have been fired.

Sanji's smile fell. "But, I'm a chef. I have to do my job. And that's not all, how am I supposed to do anything without my hands this whole week?" He sounded incredulous, as though he had awoke into a nightmare, out of a nightmare.

Chopper squeaked, "Do you have any family members or friends who can take care of you for a week?"

"No."

That instinctive tug in his chest was happening again. Though Zoro was not meant to be an empathetic person, there were times when he had to step up the plate like a man. "Don't worry about it. I started this whole thing. I'll take care of you and your shit." He couldn't believe his own words that were coming out of his mouth. Zoro scratched his head.

Sanji scowled. "I never asked you to. I don't need taking caring. A week without hands is nothing."

Now he finally understood why some people snapped over the nature of his stubbornness and pride. But to him, it was especially annoying to hear from a cook who over-curls his eyebrows for too long. "Bullshit, cook. Just think of it as some form of revenge." Why was he giving him an excuse to boss him around for the next few days?

The blond's face scrunched up, clearly debating within himself.

What a priss... Zoro didn't see the big deal around here.

"Fine," he finally decided. "That means I get to boss you around, right?"

Zoro groaned, "No way, cook."

AN: Thanks for the great reviews everyone. I freaking love you all.

By the way, this is my revised version. When I looked over this for the second time, I realized that it was filled with mistakes. So, I'm going to try to tweak(completely change) a lot of the stuff. Don't worry, the plot will remain. Just the manner of how this story is presented because I'm so disappointed by it. I hope you guys don't recall my old versions... They were just... bad.