Chapter 6 - Conflicted Feelings

As agreed, the next day, Zoro turns up at the Baratie for lunch. He's escorted to his usual table at the back, near the bar, and he orders a beer while he waits for Sanji. The cook shows up at the table a few minutes later, with Zoro's beer, and he sits across from the swordsman.

"Ugh, I have such a bad hangover..."

"You barely had any drinks," a small chuckle is heard from Zoro, making the blond angry.

"Don't laugh!" Sanji hisses slightly when his head starts pounding from the massive headache he woke up with, "what do you want for lunch?"

"...Teriyaki chicken."

"Nope."

"...What?"

"I said no. You'll get what you're given."

"Then what the hell did you ask me for?" the swordsman growls, already irritated with the blond cook.

"Just wanted to mess with you."

Zoro glares at the cook as Sanji grins slyly at him before getting up and heading back to the kitchen.

He huffs as he folds his arms, leaning back in his chair, mumbling, "idiot cook…"

A few sips of beer later, he's already bored, and so he decides to take a nap. Zoro closes his eyes, and as he starts to drift off, he feels slim fingers slide into his hair, and brush through the strands a few times. The swordsman cracks open an eye to see Sanji above him and looking at him intently. His cheeks warm up, and when the cook notices that Zoro is awake, the blond looks to be in a similar state as he coughs to clear his throat while he slowly retreats his hand from short green locks of hair.

"Uh, lunch is ready, marimo…"

"R-right…."

As Sanji sits back into the seat opposite him, Zoro sits up in his chair and is slightly surprised to see that even though the cook said otherwise, he still made the food that the swordsman requested. Taking his first few bites, the teriyaki chicken is mouth-watering, and it is only then that Zoro realises how hungry he actually is, and so he quickly starts shovelling the food into his mouth. Too distracted with his food, he still doesn't miss the scoff from Sanji and the remarks about his table manners.

He rolls his eyes, finishing up his meal, then as he puts his bowl down, before he can register it, Sanji has reached over and gently wiped a piece of stray rice from the corner of his mouth, and has eaten it, causing the swordsman's cheeks to heat up once more. What the hell has gotten into that shitty cook all of sudden…?

The blond smiles at him, then proceeds to finish his own lunch, a simple ham and cheese panini.

"So, marimo, you never did tell me why you left early last night."

Zoro bites back the words on the tip of his tongue. Right now, he really wants to tell the cook what he knows, but Law's words ring his head. He doesn't want to ruin this peaceful moment between them, and he just wants to keep seeing the blond happy. But wouldn't it be worse off when he eventually finds out? Won't he be mad at Zoro when he finds out that he knew all along?

He realises he's not said a single word in response yet, and so he quickly tries to come up with an excuse of some sort, "...Uh...Koshiro rang, he was having trouble putting the mats away at the dojo…"

Sanji glances to him sceptically, "that late at night?"

"...Yeah, well you know he's there a lot nowadays, stays late. And he's hurt his back so… "

The cook nods. He doesn't believe Zoro. He can tell when the swordsman is lying, but he lets it go as everyone deserves to keep some things to themselves, even if they are not that important. Zoro doesn't have to tell him everything.

"Right, well, I'm going to head back to work. You can go if want," Sanji says as he picks up their empty dishes.

"I'll stay for a bit. Can I have another beer?"

"You haven't even finished that one yet."

Zoro grins as he grabs the bottle, then downs the rest in one go, the blond watching him in disgust.

"Fine, I'll be right back."

Sanji puts the dishes into the kitchen sink, and then grabs Zoro another bottle of beer, handing it to him, before heading back into the kitchen to work. He still doesn't know what came over him, and as he gets started on one of the Baratie's lunch orders, he vividly remembers running his fingers through Zoro hair. It's almost as if he can still feel the soft strands of green hair between his fingertips. The blond groans and gets back to work. Why do I keep doing things like this? I have a boyfriend. This shit with Zoro needs to stop...

Still at his table, Zoro is finishing his second beer. He reckons Sanji won't be back out anytime soon, so he takes his leave. Seeing the cook again since what happened last night didn't help at all. He really wants to tell Sanji about Law, but he's slightly worried about what the older man said. What if Sanji doesn't believe him? What if he does end up hating him?

Paying for his food and drinks, as he still doesn't like Zeff letting him eat there for free, he then walks out of the Baratie and heads home. As he walks towards his house, he spots Luffy sitting on his front porch step. Upon seeing Zoro, the younger boy jumps up and waves to the swordsman, with a large grin on his face as he calls out his best friend's name.

"Zoooroo~! There you are~!"

The eighteen year old tries not to smile but he always find it difficult not to when Luffy's around. Taking out his house key from his back pocket, Zoro then walks to the front door and unlocks it before walking inside and letting the other boy in.

"What are you doing here Luffy?"

"I was bored so I came over to play some video games. Your consoles are still in the living room from last time, right?"

"Yeah. The games are upstairs though. I'll go and get them," Zoro replies as he shuts the door and watches Luffy jump onto the sofa, "why didn't you ring, or text me? I would have gotten home sooner if I'd known you were waiting."

"I thought you'd be with Sanji so I didn't want to bother you. You were with Sanji, right?"

"Yeah."

"Is he okay?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't he be?"

"No reason," Luffy replies as he picks his nose, then goes over to the T.V and turns it on along with one of the game consoles.

Zoro watches him for a few seconds then heads upstairs, coming back down not long afterwards with a bunch of games for them to choose from.

"It's just, he drank a lot more than usual last night, and you left really early. Did you two have a fight or something?"

"No Luffy, we didn't."

They decide to play a racing game, so Zoro puts one of his racing games into the console. He then grabs the controllers and starts up the game. They are both choosing their cars as Luffy speaks again.

"So why did you leave early?"

Zoro ignores the question and starts the race, it's not long before Luffy is in the lead, and he himself is in a close second, racing around the track.

"Zoro?"

"It's nothing, Luffy. Just focus on the game."

They are on their second of three laps when the race is paused.

"Oi, what did you pause it for?"

"We're not finishing the game until you tell me what's going on."

"We'll leave it then. I wasn't fussed on playing anyway," the swordsman replies as he puts down his controller and gets up from the sofa.

"Zoro."

He glances towards the other to see a serious expression on Luffy's face. Zoro knows that when the younger teen gets like this, that there is no way that he'll drop his arguments easily. The only way he can get out of this is to tell Luffy what he wants to know, but would that really be such a good idea?

"If I tell you what's going on, you can't tell anyone. Got it?"

Luffy nods, waiting for his best friend to fill him in. "I promise."

"... At your party last night, I caught Law and Kid making out in the guest bedroom. Law's cheating on Sanji..."

"Eh?!"

Luffy jumps up from his seat, angry, and the game controller that he forgot about falls onto the floor.

"W-we need to tell Sanji right now! I can't believe Torao would do that….," Luffy mumbles the last sentence as he clenches his fists at his sides.

"We can't tell him, Luffy."

"Eh! Why not? He needs to know."

"It's best not to get involved…" I think….

"We need to tell him. Won't it just hurt him more to find out later on?"

"I don't know…. Just promise me you won't tell the cook. Leave it to me to decide whether to tell him or not, okay?"

"... Okay, Zoro. I won't tell him, I promise. But just so you know, I think you should."

Zoro nods then grabs the controller that fell on the floor, and they continue to play their game in silence.

Sanji sighs after a long day working at the Baratie. The restaurant had been packed all day and he'd been rushed off his feet, cooking, serving, and attending to the bar. Luckily, as things started to slow down, Zeff had asked if he wanted to leave work early and so Sanji jumped at the chance. After changing out of his chef whites, he'd grabbed his things and now he's heading out of the back door.

The blond is surprised to see Zoro out back waiting for him.

"Marimo? What are you doing here?"

"I got bored at home. Zeff texted at lunch saying that he was letting you off work early tonight, so…."

"Aww~ the moss ball came to walk me home~," Sanji teases, grinning as Zoro's cheeks flush.

"S-shut up, shit-cook. I did no such thing."

"Yeah? Then what are you doing here then~?

"I-I just went for a walk and ended up around here…."

Sanji chuckles at the marimo, smiling as they head out onto the main streets. They start making their way home and it's not long until he and Zoro are both in his bedroom, making small talk about their current upcoming assignments for school. He watches the swordsman's lips as the other talks and leans back against the bedroom wall. Before he can comprehend it, Sanji has gotten up from his bed and has closed the distance between them in an instant. Zoro glances to him questioningly, and his eyes widen when Sanji pins him to the wall and kisses him roughly.

The cook shoves his tongue into the swordsman's mouth and deepens the kiss as his hands roam Zoro's body, sliding up his shirt and feeling the muscles underneath. He feels the other relax against him and he's shocked, but pleasantly surprised, when Zoro turns the tables and he's now the one who is pinned against the wall.

Zoro's hand hastily unbuckles the blond's belt, and Sanji moans into the kiss when the swordsman presses his body up against him more, slowly grinding their clothed erections together.

Sanji hums in the back of his throat as the kiss is broken and he feels teeth lightly scrape the exposed skin of his neck.

"Mmm~ Zoro~... Zoro~."

He startles awake, his face hitting the table at full force.

"Shit!"

Sanji is shushed from somewhere and he warily takes in his surroundings. Unfortunately for the cook, he'd fallen asleep in the school library at one of the tables near the back while studying for his upcoming maths exam. He groans quietly and rests his head on his arms which are folded across the table and his maths book. What the hell….? I'm getting hard and falling asleep in the library…. Shitty marimo, this is all his fault…..

The following weekend, on Sanji's day off, Zoro gets roped into helping Sanji and Law rearrange the furniture in Law's apartment, for what, Zoro doesn't know, and he doesn't exactly want to know either. It's always been difficult for the swordsman to be around the other two, especially when it's just the three of them, but since he caught Law with Kid at the D brother's party, he can't stand it even more. He's angry at the older man, and it makes his blood boil whenever Law so much as touches Sanji. It's not just the anger he feels, and it just seems at times like this, that the world is rubbing it in his face that the person he loves is with someone else.

Today just isn't Zoro's day, as once they get into the lift, on its way up, it stops with a loud screech, and Sanji almost falls face first into the swordsman's crotch as the lift shakes. The blond grabs onto Zoro's pants, almost pulling them down, as he loses his balance, and the only reason Sanji's face isn't currently in the swordsman's crotch right now is because of Zoro's quick reflexes, grabbing the cook by his elbows to stop him from colliding with the floor.

"Shit, sorry marimo. What the hell is going on?"

"The lift has stopped."

"I know that, you idiot!" Sanji snaps, "I mean, why has it stopped?!"

"The lifts have been faulty lately. They were supposed to have been fixed. Obviously that's not the case."

They turn their attention to Law as he explains, and the cook pushes away from Zoro once he's steadily back on his feet. The situation only gets worse when the lights cut out and the emergency button in the lift stops working. Not only are they stuck in a lift and have no mobile signal, they can't even contact anyone for help. All they can do now is wait and hope that someone notices that the lift is not working.

Out of all the people in the world it had to have been these two he got stuck in a lift with. Sanji he didn't mind, but adding Law into the mix was definitely not ideal. Not that he even wanted to be stuck in a lift in the first place…

"This is just great. It's not like we're busy or anything," Sanji rants to himself.

The blond groans as he paces around, already uneasy with the current situation at hand. This is one of the top three things he never wanted to happen. Although he supposes it could be worse. He could be trapped in this lift with a spider. A shudder runs through him at the thought and he frantically looks around, shining the light on his phone to make sure that there actually aren't any unwanted guests that have joined them.

"Stop pacing, shit-cook. With your weight going back and fore the wires will probably snap."

No, forget that, this is the worst thing that could happen to him in this situation, being stuck in a lift with an overgrown moss. He would rather take this on with a spider any day.

"Shut up, you shitty swordsman, this is your fault!"

"How is it my fault?!"

"Obviously it's your extra weight, the lift couldn't handle it!"

"Sanji."

The way his name is said in a tenor deep and slightly husky voice sends shivers down his spine, but for a completely different reason than before. Law's arms snake around his waist as the older man comes up from behind him and he relaxes instantly.

"Don't waste your breath on him."

He hears Zoro scoff from somewhere in front of him, but he ignores the swordsman and listens to Law as the man whispers into his ear.

"He's not worth it."

He instantly closes his eyes at the feel of a pair of lips placing kisses on his neck.

"Let's make the most out of this situation. Haven't you always said that you'd love to have sex in lift?"

Sanji's eyes snap open as his cheeks warm up, Law's lips lingering on the skin of his neck, "yeah…," he whispers back, "but we can't…"

"Why not~? We're stuck in a lift. Who knows how long it'll be until help arrives."

That's a fair point…. But Zoro's right there…. It's bad enough that they're in this lift with someone else, but for that person to be another guy, who isn't his boyfriend, but who has been the star of most of his wet dreams recently, and who is his best friend… it isn't a good idea… even if they can't see a thing….

"And it's dark~."

Law's hands delve into his pants, and he bites his lip, trying to make as little noise as possible as the older man's fingers wrap around him.

"There's not a single reason not to~."

"Just because it's dark and I can't see, it doesn't mean that I can't hear you. I'm not fucking deaf," Zoro growls snapping the blond out of his daze.

Sanji grabs Law's wrists and he pulls away from his boyfriend, clearing his throat as he goes to sit in the back right corner of the lift and fixes himself up.

The swordsman can feel Law's sharp glare directed his way but he pays it no mind as he leans back and closes his eyes. That bastard, it's bad enough to be stuck in here with them, but for him to go and try to pull that shit in front of me, knowing what he knows… It pisses me off.

At some point, the swordsman dozes off, with the same thoughts repeatedly swirling through his mind, until they eventually get help and out of the lift.

Should he tell Sanji about Law's affair, or should he leave it for the cook to figure out for himself?