Chapter 4 - The Calm

People can change a lot within a few years, and a traumatic event can prominently affect a person's outlook on life. Zoro was no exception. After Kuina's death, Zoro became more drawn back, and quiet, hardly showing any kinds of emotion and for the next few years he vigorously trained to better himself and to fulfil the promise he made with Kuina. The problem was, he started pushing people away, including Sanji, and so, for a while they hardly ever saw each other, only when they had classes together. The blond still gave lunch to Zoro every school day, but they'd hardly say a word to each other at the time. As well as this, another problem was that Zoro would skip school often, and when he and Sanji were in secondary school, he'd miss quite a lot.

One year – when they were 18 -, around the anniversary of Kuina's death, Zoro didn't attend for the whole week, and that Friday evening after school, Sanji goes straight to Zoro's house and knocks on the door.

"Oi Marimo! Open up!"

After a few more loud knocks on the door, he hears rushing footsteps coming down the stairs, and the door opens to reveal Zoro, shirtless and only wearing a pair of black sweatpants.

"What the hell do you want, cook? I was in the middle of a workout."

Sanji pushes past Zoro and walks inside, "where's Koshiro?"

"He's been at the dojo all day."

The blond nods and makes his way up to the swordsman's room, Zoro following behind him, and he dumps his bag on the floor after getting out the lunch he made for the swordsman that day, "why haven't you been in all week? Luffy's been eating your lunches so they wouldn't go to waste, not that he minded. I had to avoid him all day so that he wouldn't eat it this time."

They met Luffy a few months ago when he transferred to their school, and although Luffy is two years younger than them, he would always end up hanging around them, even though they have different timetables, they reckon the boy must be skipping some classes just to annoy them. It was Zoro who met him first. Luffy would follow Zoro around for ages, trying to get the swordsman to become his friend. After he finally said yes he still wouldn't leave him alone, then starting hanging around Sanji when he realised that the blond was the one who was bringing Zoro his lunch every day. It wasn't long after that they become friends with more people that Luffy had pestered into become nakama, including a boy in the same class as Luffy, called Usopp, an orange-haired beauty in the year above Luffy, called Nami, as well as a young boy who is four years younger than Zoro and Sanji, called Chopper who is already at the top of his year. The school is large and there are loads of students who attend it, so if it wasn't for Luffy, they wouldn't have the friends that they have now. It's not just the students that Luffy and the others became attached to. They ended up becoming close to three of their teachers; Nico Robin who teaches A level history, Franky who teaches woodwork and electronics for GSCE's, and Brook who teaches music to students of all ages throughout the school.

The door is left open as Zoro sits down on his bed and starts digging into his food once Sanji hands it over to him.

"…It's already been ten years."

Sanji's confused until he notices Zoro gazing at the door across the hall, which used to be Kuina's room, until they could finally bring themselves to clear out her things and turn her old room into a home gym, moving Kuina's important and irreplaceable things into the attic. Feeling the need to try and get rid of the gloomy atmosphere, not out of disrespect but because it's not helping Zoro at all, plus he's no good with talking about personal things either, he decides to glance around the room and try to find something to cheer Zoro up, and as usual, the place is a mess.

"Would it kill you to clean up in here once in a while?" Shit, maybe I shouldn't have said it like that...?

He gets no reply and he glances to Zoro out of the corner of his eye before walking as he takes another look around the room. As he looks at the bookshelf, something catches his eye. A medium sized, brown teddy bear which has a blue nose and blue paw pads, is sitting up-right in the middle of the bookshelf between two books, and Sanji is sure that he's seen this bear somewhere before.

"…Oi marimo, is that my old bear?"

Zoro's eyes widen and he stops eating as he looks over to where Sanji is currently standing, "w-what? No, of course not…"

"Yeah it is. I'm sure of it," the blond says as he picks up the teddy bear to have a closer look.

"No it's not," Zoro puts down his food and makes a grab for the bear, but Sanji moves away and holds it out of reach, though Zoro keeps trying to get it off of him.

"It definitely is. Zeff got out our old photos the other day, and in most of my baby pictures I'm holding this bear."

"Well it must have been a different one because that is not yours. Give it back."

Sanji chuckles and he keeps pacing around the room, Zoro hot on his heels as he keep trying to get the bear off of the blond, "it's got my name on the label."

Zoro groans as he goes back to his bed and starts shovelling the rest of his food into his mouth, "yeah it's yours, so what?"

"And you've kept it all this time?"

"Shut up. You still have my blanket in your room."

Sanji's eyes widen and he quickly puts the teddy bear back on the bookshelf, "no I don't…."

Zoro smirks as he glances over to Sanji, "you do. Zeff told me that the last time he was here."

"That shitty old man, I'll kill him."

Sanji growls when the swordsman laughs at him, but he lets it slide as this is the first time that Zoro has genuinely looked cheerful since Kuina's passing. The blond feels a small smile appear on his face after seeing a genuine one on Zoro's, and he looks away before the swordsman can catch a glimpse of the light pink tint on his cheeks. Zoro hasn't smiled like that since we were 7...

"Whatever…...here," the blond reaches into his backpack and takes out a pile of papers and a book, "your maths homework, not that you can do it anyway as you've missed the work because you haven't been in school all week."

Sanji dumps the homework on Zoro's bed and the swordsman rolls his eyes, "give me your maths book then and I'll copy the work."

"No."

"What? Why not? How am I supposed to do the homework then, shit cook?"

"Should have been there," the blond says as he takes out a cigarette, however Zoro stops him before he can light it up and the swordsman takes it from him.

"I've told you before, no smoking in my room."

Sanji rolls his eyes and goes back to his backpack to grab his maths book. Once he's grabbed it, he throws the book at Zoro, who catches it effortlessly without even looking, and watches as the swordsman proceeds to copy out the work that he's missed out on.

"I'll start on my homework then…"

A grunt in reply is all he gets from the green-haired man so he grabs his homework before sitting down at Zoro's desk and getting to work. Three minutes pass, but it feels more like hour, until Sanji is already bored with the stupid maths questions, though that's mainly because he's already stuck, and it's only the second question….

Chewing on the end of his pencil, he glances over Zoro's desk space. As with the rest of the room, the desk is a mess, though that's not what catches his eye. Sanji smiles as he picks up a blue picture frame. The picture behind the glass is of him, Zoro, and Kuina. The three of them are proudly standing beside a snowman they built together during a winter season. It was the first time they had seen snow, well, the first time they were old enough to remember it. If Sanji remembers correctly, he'd say that he and Zoro are 6 years old here, and Kuina was 7….

"Oi, eggplant, calm down and put your coat on."

"I want to play in the snow already~ I don't need a coat," a young Sanji whined as he made a break for the front door.

Zeff rolled his eyes in slight frustration, and kicked his son back into the living room, "put your coat on. Or do I need to kick you again?"

Sanji frowned at his father as he stood up and rubbed his head. This time he did as he was told, and put on his blue coat, along with a pair of black gloves, and his multi-coloured scarf with a matching hat.

"There. Can I go out now?"

Zeff nodded in approval, and the six year old grinned as he rushed outside to his neighbour's, proceeding to repeatedly knock on the front door while calling out for Zoro, "ma~ri~mo~! It's snowing!"

The door opened up to reveal a scowling Zoro, who was wrapped up in similar winter attire, his coat, scarf, hat, and gloves, are all the same dark green colour. Koshiro was standing behind Zoro, and he lightly pushed his son forward and out of the door.

"Right, you can only play in our front gardens, got it? No wandering off down the road."

"Of course," Sanji beamed in excitement, "come on Zoro~!" the blonde grabbed the other little boy's hand and pretty much dragged him out into their snow filled garden.

Part of the fence that used to run between their gardens, separating them, had been blown down in the harsh winds a few weeks before now during a storm, and instead of fixing it, as it was likely to collapse again eventually, Koshiro and Zeff had decided to take the rest of the fence down and join their front gardens together, giving their kids more room to play out front.

Zoro grumbled as he was lead out into the snow. He doesn't really see the appeal of it. All it did was cover everything which meant that he had to wear his scarf and hat which were close to suffocating him. With his free hand, he pulled his scarf down away from his mouth, and watched his feet as he walked, leaving footprints in the snow with his boots, and listening to it crunch underneath him.

Zoro almost fell forward into Sanji when the blond suddenly stopped moving and turned to grin at him, making his cheeks red slightly, though arguable if anyone were to question him, he would have said it was because of the cold, and not the grin from Sanji, or the fact that the other boy was still holding his hand.

"Look~," Sanji said as he looked down the street, "Doesn't it look pretty~?"

"Yeah….," the green-haired boy doesn't look away from the blond, not at all remotely interested in the snow, and only glanced away when the other brought him over to the middle of their joint gardens.

"Let's make a snowman~ like in the movies~ it can't be that hard."

Zoro stared down at his hand as Sanji let go and started digging his hands into the snow. The blond glanced back to his friend when he realised that Zoro hadn't moved from his spot at all, and was still staring at his gloved hand.

"What are you doing, moss-head?"

Startled by the sudden question, the green-haired boy quickly shoved his hands into his coat pockets, "N-Nothing curly-brow, shut up….!"

Sanji walked back over to Zoro and placed his hand on the other boy's forehead, "are you sick or something?"

"No! And get your hand off me! Those gloves are cold and covered in snow, idiot!" Zoro retorted, as his cheeks, partly hidden behind his scarf, turned bright red, and he batted away the blond's hand.

He watched when the other simply shrugged at his behaviour, and they both turned towards Zoro's front door when Kuina called out to them.

"If you're making snowmen, I want to help."

Sanji grinned when he spotted Kuina, wrapped up warm in light blue winter wear, and he rushed over to take her hand and helped her walk through the snow. The girl one year older than them only allowed the blond to fawn over her at times because she knew that her brother got jealous, and she liked teasing him, she liked teasing them both.

She was right; Zoro would always get jealous when Sanji's attention went from him to a girl, faster than a light switch, especially when it was his sister. He knew she was teasing him, but that didn't mean he had to ignore or like it. And so, Zoro glared at Kuina, who smirked to him as she was led by Sanji.

The trio started their attempt to make snowmen, but it proved to be more difficult than it seemed. Half unfinished attempts covered one side of the garden, some too small, some with only bodies and no head, and most of them were falling apart. While they tried to make a snowman, it started to snow again, and continued to for the rest of the day.

Eventually Zeff went out to help them, and not long after, a large snowman was built. The three kids stood around it proudly, and as Kuina went to put her scarf around the snowman's neck, Sanji politely stopped her and they used his instead.

The stones for buttons and eyes were put into place, and as Zeff went inside to grab a carrot for the nose, and to get his camera, Zoro took off his scarf, and gently wrapped it around Sanji's neck. The blond blushed and thanked him with a grin.

A few minutes later, Zoro, Kuina, and Sanji, stood proudly beside the snowman they had built, as Zeff took their picture.

Putting down the picture frame, Sanji takes another look at his second maths problem. It's frustrating to say the least. He'd managed to do the first one fine, but… looking back over his example question, it seems that he calculated that first one wrong. Groaning in annoyance, the blond folds his arms, placing them on the desk in front of him, then rests his head on his arms and closes his eyes, letting out a sigh.

"Oi, cook?"

"What do you want?"

"If you're stuck, I could help you?"

"….what?" Sanji lifts his head up, and is slightly started to see a close up of Zoro's chest, "get your sweaty chest out of my face marimo."

The swordsman rolls his eyes and moves to lean his back against the wall beside his desk, "do you want my help or not?"

Zoro dumps his homework on the desk in front of Sanji, and the blond's eyes widen when he sees that the marimo has already finished all of the maths questions.

"How have you done all of this already? You've missed all of the lessons on it and you have only just gotten the work."

Sanji picks up Zoro's homework but it's yanked out of his grip before he can take any of it in, "no cheating, cook. These things are easy anyway."

"Like hell they are. I thought I was doing them right but I've been working them out wrong this whole time."

"Like I said, I'll help you."

"Why? What's in it for you?"

"Nothing. You want to pass your A Levels, Right? What did you even take maths for anyway if you can't even do it?"

"Yeah well, I need it, and I thought I could do it…."

"Let me see what you've been doing wrong."

"Fine, whatever…"

Sanji just sighs softly as Zoro starts to explain the problems. The blonde doesn't pay much attention though as he becomes too distracted by Zoro leaning over him with his bare muscular chest which is on show right in his eye line, and he starts imaging different scenarios where Zoro ends up pinning him against the desk, and they forget all about the homework.

"….. What?"

"I said, you've been multiplying at the end when you should be dividing it, you shitty cook."

"Shut up, moss-head…." Sanji mumbles as he turns back to his homework. What was that all about…? I shouldn't be thinking about him like that... But I can't stop staring at him…

"Do you want my help or not?"

"Yeah, just hurry up and help me work these out."

With Zoro's help, half an hour later, Sanji manages to finish his homework.

"Finally, it's done," the blond sighs as he puts his work away and back into his school bag, also taking back the plastic container he'd brought Zoro's lunch in.

"It's good that you've done the work, but have you taken it all in though, cook?"

"I'd rather take all of you in," Sanji mumbles quietly as he stares distantly at the swordsman.

"What did you say?"

The blond's eyes widen slightly and he quickly gathers his thoughts, coming back to Zoro with a retort, "I said, are you my teacher now or something, marimo?" he says sarcastically.

"No, I'm just saying…. We have our first set of exams coming up, and you'll need to make sure you remember this stuff… that's all."

"I know."

Zoro sighs quietly and puts on his shirt as it's getting a little chilly, then he sits on his bed, while Sanji stays at his desk. The swordsman tries to think of something to say before this silence becomes awkward, but he's coming up empty.

"Are you going to Luffy's party tomorrow?"

Oh yeah, the party….. "Yeah, I'm going. Are you?"

Sanji nods his head and replies, "Law will be there too."

"Oh..."

Great... Zoro knows that Luffy doesn't have a problem with the so called heart stealer, so he shouldn't either, but with Law's known name, and the rumours about the man's track record with cheating in his relationships, to have Sanji, his best friend, dating Law, doesn't sit too well with him.

It isn't just because of the rumours that he doesn't approve of Sanji's relationship with Law, there is another important reason. And that reason is that he is in love with Sanji and has been since they were younger, he just never realised what those feelings were until a few years ago. Zoro remembers that when they were around 7 years old, he'd see the couples on T.V. shows and films, and hoped that he could be like that with Sanji. Of course those notions dispersed as he got older as he ended up not that interested in the sappy romance he'd constantly see on T.V, but his feelings for Sanji haven't gone away, they've just gotten stronger.

Zoro has tried several times to tell Sanji, but each time he'd finally build himself up to do it, Sanji would be with a new girlfriend, or more recently, a new boyfriend. He remembers when he first found out about Sanji's sexual preferences, he felt more hopeful knowing that the blond was also into guys, but unfortunately, as always, he'd never get to Sanji in time before the cook had a new partner.

"You two are still together then?"

"Yeah, of course we are, why wouldn't we be?"

"No reason, I was just asking..."

"….Want to go together, to the party?"

Zoro's eyes widen at the question and he looks over to the blond, but Sanji won't look back at him, "what? I don't think Law would li-"

"Not like that you idiot," the cook snaps, "I'll be running late from helping my old man at the Baratie. So just meet me at the park around the corner from the restaurant."

"What about Law? Can't he pick you up in his car?"

"He'll be working at the hospital and won't be at the party till he's finished his shift. Are you going to meet me before or what, moss-head?"

"Yeah, what time?"

"I'll text you," Sanji says as he picks up his school bag after checking his phone, "I've got to go, I'm meeting Law in a bit and I need to change first."

Zoro nods and watches as the blond leaves, then sighs as he lies back on his bed. Frustrated, thinking about the things he should have said, the swordsman falls asleep.