You're such a fugitive
But you don't know what you're running from
You can't kid us
And you couldn't trick anyone
Houdini, love, you don't know what you're running away from

-"Old Yellow Bricks" Artic Monkeys

XxxX

That Saturday they planned to fight while Koshiro was taking a break in between classes. Sanji made sure to arrive slightly late so he would be less likely to have to explain why he was there. As luck would have it he and Zoro actually turned up at the exact same time. When they walked in the door there was still a man inside, he looked up as they entered. He was tall and thin with his long black hair pulled back in a neat ponytail, circular glasses rested on the bridge of his nose.

"Ah, Zoro," he smiled upon recognizing one of his visitors.

Zoro raised a hand in greeting. "We won't bother you," he promised, "We just needed a place to fight."

"It's no bother," Koshiro assured, "It is always nice to see you fighting with friends." he turned his gaze to Sanji, "You must be very good to compete with Zoro-kun. You may call me Koshiro," he said tipping his head in acknowledgment to the blond.

"Sanji," Sanji said, nodding back.

Koshiro returned his gaze to Zoro again, "I was just leaving for lunch anyway, I'll leave you two alone."

Zoro nodded and unsheathed two swords. He didn't particularly want an audience right now. They waited until Koshiro left to start.

They fought with agility and ferocity but also in a strangely calculated way. This was probably due to the face that they were both so focused. This pointed focus seemed to work like constructive interference. It took both of their loud strength and amplified it into something beautifully destructive.

While they were fighting Zoro managed to whack Sanji in the chin with the hilt of one of his swords. Sanji stepped back with a sharp intake of breath. Unfortunately for him he somehow managed to lose his balance and fall on his ass. He was down, he had lost. Fuck.

Sanji glared at the floor angrily as he tried to catch his breath. Zoro's hand appeared in his line of vision and he reluctantly took it. His head swam slightly as he was suddenly on his feet. He rubbed his chin tenderly, trying to vanquish the resonating pain.

"You alright?" Zoro asked in amusement.

"I'm fine, asshole. I'm just upset because now I'm going to have a stupid bruise in my chin."

"Just use a little make up, I'm sure you have some somewhere."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Zoro said innocently.

Sanji sighed and he looked over toward his stuff, trying to read the time with x-ray powers that he didn't have. As he was looking he noticed the people watching from the front window. At some point a small group of people had gathered outside, watching them fight. At least some of them were there for the next class because there were kids in uniform among the adults.

Zoro also noticed them and thought that he should probably let them in. Koshiro would be back soon and it really wouldn't be nice to leave them out in the cold like that.

"I think we should call it a day, cook," Zoro said approaching the door.

Sanji didn't say anything, he just watched as Zoro let the people inside. The kids dropped off their stuff on one side of the room and went to sit in the middle of the floor, looking to Zoro expectantly.

"Koshiro-sensi won't be back for a few minutes so you don't have to get ready yet," Zoro said in his best teacher voice. He would start the class but less than half the class was there so it would be pointless.

One of the girls raised her hand, "Can we watch you fight again?" She asked with a grin. She hadn't waited to be called on but Zoro wasn't about to punish her for that. He never raised his hand to talk in school and her suggestion wasn't bad either. He didn't really want to quit yet anyway.

"Hey, cook," Zoro called over to the blond, who was doing something with his phone over by his stuff. "This little girl is giving us a chance to show off. What do you say?"

Sanji scoffed then smirked, "You know I can't say no to a little lady."

"Alright then, get over here and we can show them how it's done."

Sanji put his phone away and walked toward Zoro and the front of the class. They had a more limited about of space now with all the kids but there was still room to maneuver.

Zoro sheathed his swords and got two training swords from the closet because he didn't really want to go swinging around swords with a bunch if little kids in the room.

They two of them squared up, ready to leap into action. The kids and remaining parents were silent, aside from those annoying people who just can't shut the fuck up no matter how hard you try.

Zoro was the first one to attack this time. He made a quick swim with his right sword, aiming for the ribs but Sanji bent over totally backward to avoid it. One back walkover later and Sanji had aimed a kick at his left side. Show off. It was actually kind of funny how Sanji tried to be as show offy as possible for the kids leading the fight to be mostly fought on his hands. Sanji had a feeling that in elementary school Sanji was that one weird guy who could do the splits and did gymnastics stuff at recess.

Zoro blocked and they continued to exchange blows until Koshiro cleared his throat. Obviously they didn't know it was him at first but at the sound their eyes briefly snapped over to see the older man over by the door looking rather amused. They halted their actions both suddenly feeling rather embarrassed at their flashiness.

"Well, as interesting as I'm sure that was, I'm afraid I'll have to be starting now," the Japanese man said with a smile at the kids as they all made sounds of disagreement.

The other two adults made their way over to their things, putting them together quickly.

"Well, class, aren't you going to thank Zoro-kun and Sanji-kun for demonstrating for you?" Koshiro asked kindly.

There was a chorus of "Thank You"s as the two waved their goodbye and departed out into the world.

After this day Saturday fights became a thing to look forward to.

One Saturday the two met in Koshiro's dojo for their usual fight. It was rather late, as they had to wait for all the daily classes to be over. Koshiro himself had left only ten minutes ago. When Zoro saw Sanji walking up to the door the blond was holding his head like he was in pain, it maybe he just thinking too hard; it was difficult to tell. Most likely he had a headache. The blond always seemed to be having headaches, how sever they were Zoro had no way of telling but they didn't look like fun.

"Headache?" Zoro asked as Sanji pushed through the door.

Sanji nodded in return, his hand leaving his head. "It's not bad, it was worse earlier." He was lying. Over the course of the day his head became increasingly painful. He had spent most of the day curled up in his dark apartment desperately trying to sleep it off. It seemed that he always had a headache or a migraine, he could hardly remember what it was like to have a pain free skull. Any normal person would probably have called off this meeting but Sanji wanted to come. What else did he have to look forward to during the week? Plus, he could fake a calm, pain free expression when he need to. He was a people's person and to be a people's person one must be a good actor.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Zoro asked as they prepared for battle.

Sanji scoffed, "Of course I'm sure. I could beat you with half my brain let alone a shitty little headache." And that was that. They did their usual fancy dance of kicks, hits, swings, and misses. Zoro seemed to doing better this fight, which Sanji blamed on the headache. They fought for maybe fifteen minutes before blood began to drip onto the smooth flooring.

Neither noticed at first because they were so absorbed in their task, then Zoro noticed some specks of blood on Sanji's nice blue shirt. His first thought was that he'd landed a hit with a sharp end of his katana but quickly discarded the thought. He would know if that would have happened. He wasn't quite sure if he should stop and figure out were the blood had come from or just keep going. So he chose to give Sanji an opening for a kick, then tossed one of his katanas in favor of grabbing the blond's leg and yanking him forward to throw off his balance.

Sanji's hands landed on his shoulders as he came to a jarring halt. He looked up at Zoro, slightly confused as to why he had brought them to a stop.

"You're bleeding," Zoro said, he could now see the blood dripping form Sanji's nose at a steady rate. The blue eyed man lifted a hand to his nose, trying to feel the blood flow. He was never very fast to recognize that his nose was bleeding. His fingers came away red.

Zoro released his leg and went to grab some paper towels. When he returned Sanji was holding his nose as blood dripped though his fingers. The flow seemed to have increased in the small about of time Zoro had been gone. Quickly, he handed over the paper towels, which soon blossomed with bright red stains. It seemed to Zoro that he was bleeding too much.

"Are you alright?" Zoro asked, he didn't like the blood fountaining and he didn't like being worried.

Sanji nodded behind his mask of towels. "Fine, I used to get nosebleeds worse than this when I was little." His voice came out funny now that he was covering his nose up. Still it seemed that the blood was seeping farther up the paper towel.

"How long does it usually take to stop?" Zoro asked eyeing the bloody towel.

"Depends," Sanji shrugged.

"Do you always bleed so much?"

"Sometimes. Now it will stop faster if I don't talk, so stop asking me questions," Sanji scolded.

Zoro nodded. He turned his attention to the state of the paper towels. Handing over more when they were needed.

Sanji was none too happy with this turn of events. He hadn't had a nosebleed this bad since he was a teenager, although he'd had worse. He'd never actually been taken to the hospital for blood loss but there were a few times that he nearly was and managed to talk his way out of it or maybe he just willed the bleeding stop by force. He hated everything about nosebleeds; the taste, the feeling of blood running down the back of his throat, holding tissues to his face, the clotting, being a spectacle to those around him. It was all horrible.

It took about ten minutes to stop the bleeding. Sanji hesitantly removed the paper towels from his face. No bleeding, good, very good.

"I think it's over," Sanji said, sighing very carefully.

"Good." He sounded relieved, his eyes traced the bartender's slightly blood tinged face. "You used to get these a lot?"

"Yeah, it was awful, especially when I didn't know my nose was bleeding and I would like sneeze. Have you ever sneezed with a bloody nose? It is a gory mess, let me tell you. Blood everywhere." He shook his head thinking about it.

Zoro wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Well, at least now it's stopped now."

"Yeah, but I ruined this shirt and I probably have a blood stained face."

"You do look like you've just bitten a chunk out of someone or something. You will be getting some weird looks from people on the way home."

"Yeah, that's for sure. At least they won't bother me." Sanji was suddenly struck by the sudden desire to invite Zoro home with him. For whatever reason he felt the urge to cook for him. Maybe he just didn't want to walk home alone, or maybe he was hungry or something even though his stomach was filled with nose blood, he wasn't sure but he really wanted to ask.

Zoro began gathering his things to go and Sanji did the same. Should he ask? It would be too weird to ask, wouldn't it? It was late and it would just be awkward. Right, he wouldn't ask.

He stopped and turned to Zoro when he reached the door. "Night, moss head," he said quietly.

Zoro turned his direction. "Later." He raised his hand in farewell.

Sanji paused with his hand on the door. It was his last chance to ask.

He pulled open the door and walked out onto the sidewalk. No, it would be too weird.

XxxX

As the month progressed Sanji's headaches grew gradually more sever and his nose bleeds more frequent. He even had to miss out on work for a few days.

After three sick days Zoro was sitting in his usual spot when Nami, working as the bartender, started nagging at him about stuff he didn't give a shit about. It was almost enough to make him miss the cook. Almost.

"Zoro, are you even listening?" Nami said, angrily slapping down her hand in front of his glass.

"No," Zoro responded lazily.

"I said, you should go check on Sanji to make sure he's not dying or something," Nami huffed.

"Why the hell do I have to go? Besides, he's probably fine."

"Because you owe me and because I don't think he has anyone else to see if he's okay. So you are going to be a good person and make sure your friend is okay," Nami commanded.

"What are you, my mother? And we are not friends," Zoro denied.

"Uh, bullshit," Nami stated, "Every time you come in the two of you talk to each other every chance you get and you go do stuff together every weekend. You can't deny it, Zoro, you like him."

Zoro's face pinched in humiliation, "Don't say it like that. I don't like him, I tolerate him."

"You tolerate everyone, but you like him so you better go check on him or I will raise your debt," she threatened. Zoro did owe her some money but every time it was brought up the number somehow seemed larger than the last time it was mentioned.

"I don't even know where he lives." he was looking for a way out now.

"Then I'll give you his address, it's not far." She tore a piece of paper, wrote down Sanji's address, and slid it over. "You better go, before it gets too late."

Zoro made sure to groan obnoxiously before pocketing the paper and heading out the door. Damn that witch.

It took the green haired man a while to find Sanji's place, the city could be so damn confusing sometimes. He had also suspected that Nami had given him the wrong address for a while but then he found it at the address he was given.

After wringing the buzzer to Sanji's door it took about a minute and a half for the blond bartender to answer. He looked pretty awful to be honest; pale and exhausted. It was weird to see him without one of his fancy little outfits, he was wearing a teeshirt and sweatpants, his hair looked like it hadn't been brushed.

"Oh," Sanji said in delayed surprise, "I wasn't expecting you. Wait, how did you find out where I live?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nami wanted me to make sure that you aren't dying. You aren't, right? Because you look pretty terrible." It was a genuine concern, he couldn't take anymore of Nami bar tending.

"I'm fine, I've just been having some seriously bad migraines plus a cold. You want to come in?" Sanji stepped out of the doorway to let Zoro inside. The inside of Sanji's apartment reflected nothing of the cook's personality. It lacked the silly things that made a house a home, there were still things in boxes. Granted he had moved here fairly recently but he'd been living there for at least over a month, one would think he'd have done more unpacking.

They walked into the living room where the lights were turned low, and blankets were piled on the couch. There was a little bottle of pills on the coffee table, which Zoro assumed to be pain killers.

"So this is where you've been holed up?" Zoro observed.

"Yeah, I've been pretending to be a cocoon, it's always been a dream of mine to become a butterfly." He flopped onto the couch.

"Well, like I said, you look terrible. Not that I think you should become a giant mutant butterfly man. If that happens stay the fuck away from me."

Sanji laughed gently. "This morning I was feeling better and I was going to go to work but then I had a seizure."

Zoro blanched, "You had a what?!"

"A seizure, don't fucking shout. My fucking brain is going to explode. It's not as bad as it seems, I've always had them. I have to take medication. It's been a while though and it totally wiped me out, not to mention I banged my head on the floor." He reached up to rub the lump that had formed on the back of his head. This did nothing to get rid of Zoro's horrified expression.

Zoro narrowed his eyes. "You don't have like a terminal brain tumor or something, do you? Because that would explain a lot. The bleeding, the spaceyness, the headaches, the sudden moving away from home..." Please let it not be like some sort of shitty terminal cancer or something. Zoro hated sad cancer stories, they fucking sucked. What kind of fucked up person wants to read a sad story?

"No," Sanji said in irritation, "I don't have a shitty brain tumor. I've had enough tests done to be sure of that. And I don't think being "spacey" and having nosebleeds are signs of brain tumors. Actually, no. If it were between your sinus and cerebellum it would cause nose bleeds but I still don't think spaceyness is a symptom."

"You're sure of that? Because I don't want to be having a nice day and then find out that you've died of a brain tumor." It would be like skipping along and out of nowhere face planting onto the sidewalk.

"Why, would that upset you?" Sanji seemed interested.

"No!" the swordsman denied, "I'd just be pissed that you lied to me."

"Mmhm, sure. I think you'd miss me if I suddenly died." A sly little smirk was beginning to form at the corner of his mouth.

"Whatever, I just came here to make sure that you weren't dying and, according to you, you aren't, so I'll just be going now." Zoro stood and started to make his was to the door.

"Wait," Sanji called out, "You want to stay for dinner? I can make you amazing food."

"You sure you want to invite me to stay? Because you look like death," Zoro said, eyebrow raised.

Sanji waved a hand dismissively, "Eh, what's a little mind shattering headache when it comes to friends. I could cook without a brain and it would still taste great, I'd be like a zombie chef and then I could cook humans and it would be socially acceptable. So how about it, seaweed brains?"

"Fine, although your casual mention of cannibalism unsettles me. I'll stay but only because this means I don't have to feed myself." He also did not miss the word 'friends' being thrown out there either. Whatever, if Sanji wanted to call them friends he could do whatever he wanted. He was an adult after all.

"Whatever." Sanji rolled his eyes and stood, walking over to the kitchen. "Oi, moss head, follow me so I don't feel like your looking through all my things," he commanded.

"Why would I want to look through your things?" Zoro asked, raising an eyebrow as he followed.

"Because you're creepy, that's why." Sanji poked him in the center of his chest."You could be a serial killer for all I know."

"A serial killer who you just invited to stay for dinner?" He asked quizzically.

"What can I say," Sanji shrugged, "I like to live on the edge."

From there Sanji skillfully prepared dinner for himself and for Zoro. He make something relatively quickly they quickly ate their yummy food. Then they watched a bit of tv, which they also did while they were eating. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit was just too good to not stay and watch for a while.

"This show makes me upset," Sanji said, although his eyes were fixated to the screen.

"Yeah, it's supposed to. If it doesn't make you upset then you have issues."

"But it's so bad, why do I like it if it's bad?"

"Because it's not just another boring murder mystery show. Sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous after all," Zoro laughed.

"I guess that's true. I never though murder could get boring."

"It can when you watch too many episodes of Criminal Minds. The writers on that show severely overestimate how much I care about it's characters." Zoro rolled his eyes.

"If I made a tv show I would make it super awesome and then in the end I would totally crush the hearts if all my viewers. I would like, kill off everyone for no good reason or something. It would be one final fuck you to all my loyal fans," Sanji smiled happily. Zoro was starting to suspect that he was slightly slap happy because in the last few minuets he had become very giggly.

"Why the fuck would you do that? It's a real dick move," Zoro countered.

"Yeah, but I don't give a shit. Endings always blow anyway so I might as well make it memorable with the shock value. By the end if a series the show is always shit anyway so not that many people would care."

"I guess not. I just hate when endings suck. It's so annoying."

Yeah, I mean like..." Sanji trailed off, making a very hard thinking expression.

"What?" Zoro asked after an extended period of silence.

Sanji mumbled something incomprehensible and Zoro decided that he didn't care enough to try to decode what he said. They slipped back into silently watching the NYPD run around catching perps.

When Zoro felt it was time to leave Sanji was passed out on the couch in his cocoon of blankets. He considered just crashing for the night but he had to go to work in the morning and he felt creepy about staying the night in his house without explicit invitation to do so. Then again this chair was reeeeally comfortable, and his place was soooo far way. Would it really be so bad if he were to just fall asleep here? He could always say it was an accident. Yeah, fucking fuck it, that sounded good to him. With that in mind Zoro promptly fell asleep.

XxxX

Zoro was awakened by a disheveled looking Sanji.

"I don't know how early you get up for work but it's 4:30 now. You can use the shower while I make breakfast," Sanji said helpfully, his voiced was rough from lack of use. Why was he even awake this early? Not that it wasn't extremely helpful, he just wondered if the blond had sleep troubles. Not that he cared.

Zoro groaned, he hated waking up but he stood up regardless and went to turn on the shower. The warm water made him want to sleep. He tried to shower quickly, less time he was in there the less likely he was to fall asleep standing up. He did, however, look at Sanji girly fucking hair products, what a priss. Zoro refused to use those products because he was a man, a manly man, who smelled like men and maybe pine trees like a fucking lumberjack, not like vanilla or strawberries.

When Zoro walked into the kitchen Sanji had food waiting on the table and he was pouring himself a glass of apple juice. He looked up when Zoro sat down at the table.

"Want some?" He held up the pitcher of juice.

Zoro gave a short nod as he stuffed a piece of French toast into his mouth. God damn was it good. A glass of apple juice was placed in front of him. After setting down the glass Sanji tisked at Zoro's wet hair.

"You should really blow dry your hair." Without thinking he ran a hand through the short wet locks, jostling them lightly. "It's still pretty cold outside, your hair might freeze off." He withdrew his hand without any indication that he'd noticed he'd done something really weird.

Zoro made a face, "I'm not blow drying my hair. Blow dryers are for girls and people who try too hard, it doesn't take long for my hair to dry anyway."

"Blow dryers are for people who want to look presentable," Sanji argued.

"Fuck that." He continued to eat in a half asleep sort of way. "What time is it," Zoro asked when he was done eating.

Sanji checked his phone. "Uh, it's 5:16."

"I still have like fifteen minutes," he sighed, slumping onto his arms.

Sanji chuckled, "Are you always this bad at getting up?"

"Yes, let me sleep," he said nearly inaudibly.

"Go sleep on the couch, I'll wake you up in fifteen minutes."

Zoro raised his eyes in suspicion, "You're being oddly nice this morning. I don't like it, I feel like I'm getting lured into a false sense of security."

"Well, my head doesn't feel like it's going to split apart, so yeah, I'm in a pretty good mood." He slimed, "I'm also planning to kill you and wear your skin as a body suit, but you didn't hear that from me."

Zoro looked horrified, "That is both horrifying and disgusting. So, you'll be at work today?"

"Yep," Sanji confirmed, "Unless something unexpected happens. Now go sleep."

Zoro shambled over and fell onto the couch where Sanji had spent the night, it was much nicer than the chair. Fifteen minutes later Zoro was once again awakened by Sanji, this time he had a lunchbox in his hands.

"I made you lunch," Sanji said lifting the box bag thing. "I packed something for Luffy too, you'll know it when you see it, it's labeled."

"Uh, thanks," Zoro said, sitting up.

Sanji made an irritated face, "Ugh, don't make me feel weird about it. Just go on, don't be late for work."

He walked to the door and Sanji shoved the lunchbox into his hands. The door was opened and he stepped outside.

"See you tonight, marimo," Sanji smiled sleepily.

Zoro nodded blankly in return and headed on his way, unable to shake the unease after such a strange morning. He looked down at the lunchbox in his hands. At least he would have a good lunch.

Despite being prompted to move Zoro ended up being slightly late to work because he got a little bit turned around on his way. Everyone was waiting at the site when he arrived. Along with Luffy and Usopp were two blathering idiots named Johnny and Yosaku. They were hired hands, mostly for building although they were good at getting things die when Zoro told them to do things. They pretty much worshiped the ground he walked on. It could get annoying but at times it was very useful as well.

"Yo, aniki, why are you so late?" Yosaku asked as Zoro approached everyone.

"Left too late, I guess," Zoro said setting down his lunchbox.

Taking notice of this new lunchbox, Johnny lifted a hand to his face in thought.

"What is it, Johnny?" asked Luffy, excitedly.

"Aniki has a new lunchbox, he's late because he probably got lost-"

"Hey, no I didn't!" Why did no one have any faith in his navigation abilities? Was it because they had failed so many times? It was, wasn't it?

"And he's wearing the same cloths as yesterday. You know what this means?" Johnny asked no one in particular.

"Zoro forgot how to get home again?" Luffy guessed, trying to answer the rhetorical question and unintentionally insulting Zoro.

"He has a secret girlfriend! It is the only explanation!" he said with great confidence. Luffy gave a little cheer of support.

"No, I don't," Zoro said smacking a hand to his face, "Nami told me to check up on the cook yesterday and I ended up falling asleep at his house."

"Sanji's sick?" Luffy asked, looking distraught.

"He looked better this morning." Zoro offered with a shrug.

"Who's Sanji?" Asked Johnny.

"And why have we never me him?" Asked Yosaku, tears forming in his eyes at the thought of having been forgotten by Zoro.

"He's the bartender at Nami's place, you can meet him anytime you want," Zoro stated, it wasn't like he was hiding Sanji somewhere like some sort of fugitive.

"Wait, did Sanji make you that lunch?" Luffy asked, eyeing the lunchbox with newfound glory.

"Yes, he said he packed something for you. You can have it at lunch."

Luffy let out a, "Wooooh!" Throwing his hands to the air. He tried to lunge for the lunchbox but Zoro snatched it away in time. Zoro rolled his eyes and they finally got started with work.

XxxX

A/N: it's my birthday so I'm feeling generous and you get an early chapter ;)

I'd love for you to guess where exactly this story is going. I'm fairly confident that you won't, I might cry if you do.

Thanks to my beta Mary_Nine :)

I typed in "nosebleed" on YouTube and a video of Sanji popped up XD

Thanks.