Hello again :3

As always many thanks to Vergina and Thérèse, and to all you readers out there ^^ Your comments are very much appreciated :)

And now the beach story continues...

Hot as Fire

Chapter 12

He had his eyes closed, but he wasn't asleep. Not anymore. The sun warmed his body and he felt the sand beneath him. He didn't have to open his eyes to know someone was watching him.

A sudden movement made him react. He grabbed the person observing him and threw them down, straddling them.

"What the fuck, Marimo?!"

He stared in the shocked face of Sanji. A lit cigarette was less than an inch away from the swordsman's skin. He cocked his eyebrow, looking down on the chef. "Why were you staring at me?"

"I wasn't staring. Now get the hell off me!"

Slowly he did as he was told, still a bit suspicious. The cook's hair was still damp from the sea, but his body was dry, so he must have dried off. How long had he been watching?

Sanji sighed and sat down next to the place where Zoro had just been laying. His cheeks were red, but that might just be from the sun.

"How's the water?" the green haired man asked to break the silence.

"Fine."

"Ace asked for you."

The blonde's head snapped up. "H-he did?"

Zoro raised his eyebrow. "Why so surprised? Geez, he was acting weird as well, what the hell is going on?"

"Nothing." Sanji took a drag from his cigarette, but his hands were shaking and he was avoiding eye contact.

"I thought you said you weren't going to get weird on me anymore," Zoro snorted.

"This isn't about you! Not the whole world revolves around you, you know."

The green haired man was surprised about Sanji's sudden outburst. He examined the blonde's face closely, but the other man still didn't want to look at him. Suddenly it clicked in Zoro's head. "You fucked with Ace!"

Finally the cook looked at him, a mixture of surprise and disgust on his face. "How the hell did you come to that conclusion? Did the roots of that grass on your head affect your brain?"

"Then what?"

"Nothing! I… I can't tell you." Carefully he looked up. The eyes of the swordsman looked worried. The blonde sighed deeply. "All I can say is that Ace definitely did not cheat on Marco."

Slowly his brain tried to register the information it had just gotten. And then it hit him. "No way! You saw them–"

"I've seen a lot of things I didn't want to lately!" the chef interrupted him sharply. "So shut up about it!"

Zoro snickered, but after the deadly glare he got from the blonde he let it rest. "Your shoulders are getting red. You should rub on some more sun lotion," he changed the subject. He grabbed the bottle and squeezed some lotion on his hand. "Here, let me."

"I can do it myself!"

"You can reach everywhere?"

"You'd be surprised." But still he let Zoro rub the sun lotion on his shoulders. It wasn't like anyone would be watching anyway.

He was wrong. A group of girls walked past, whispering and giggling and pointing in their direction. He wanted to scream it wasn't what it looked like, when he heard Usopp laughing and say in a mocking tone: "So now you got Zoro to rub sun lotion on you? I bet you sounded just like Nami when she tried to get me to do it. 'Ah Zoro, please rub lotion on my back'," he said in a ridiculous high voice.

The blonde tensed up immediately and got on his feet while throwing on his Hawaiian shirt. He scowled at his former roommate, who turned back to his sand castle, whistling innocently. The sand castle was beautiful, complete with a drawbridge and battlemented – Sanji had expect no less from the architect – but the blonde was too pissed to complement his friend. In a huff he sat down next to Zoro again.

The green haired man snorted. "I don't get how you stuck it out with that guy for a year."

The cook sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "He's an okay guy, just a bit annoying sometimes. But he's scared of me, so it never goes that far."

"Still, you being an idiot love-cook, why didn't you get a female roommate?"

Sanji looked at him. "Did you just insult me and then pry into my life?"

When Zoro shrugged, he sighed again and said: "I didn't get a female roommate for the same reason I don't date the waitresses and female chefs at the restaurant. It gets too complicated."

"You mean when they dump your ass."

Sanji scowled at him, but didn't respond.

"That's assuming they would even want to date you," the swordsman continued teasing.

The blonde gave him a sceptical look. "You've seen me." He almost added: 'Even you can't resist me,' but decided against that. Zoro wouldn't mention it, so neither would he.

"That still doesn't explain why you picked him, though," the swordsman mused.

"Like I said, usually he's okay," Sanji sighed. "I needed a roommate to afford the rent. He was one of the few people I could get along with. What do you want me to say? I usually just don't get along with guys."

"You seem to do fine today."

He took a puff from his cigarette. "You guys dragged my ass out here. It's not like Ace gave me a choice."

Zoro started laughing. "Well, that's right. Once the D-brothers decide they like you, you can't cut them out of your life anymore."

"I can't seem to get rid of you either."

The green haired man looked up surprised. "And is that a good or a bad thing?"

The blonde inhaled deeply and let the smoke escape slowly. "I'm not sure yet."

Before the swordsman could respond, they heard a cry for help. It sounded like Luffy's voice. Quickly Sanji scanned the sea, where he just saw a hand disappear underwater. He didn't waste a second and ran towards the water, not even bothering to take his shirt off again. Zoro stared after him in shock.

With large strokes the blonde swam to where he had seen the hand disappear and dove after the black haired boy. He couldn't see a thing, so he had to trust his touch. It wasn't long before he felt some fabric and pulled Luffy up.

The blonde gasped for air, but the boy lay limp against him. The chef swam back to the beach and placed the teenager in the sand, the others surrounding him with worried expressions. Chopper ran up and down the beach screaming someone should get a doctor, until Zoro reminded him he was one.

Sanji lifted Luffy's chin and placed his lips against his, blowing air into the boy's lungs. The mouth-to-mouth resuscitation worked, after a few minutes the teen rolled to his side coughing and spat out some water. Sanji relaxed and leaned back panting.

Nami came running towards them and looked down on her boyfriend with a worried look on her face. "Are you okay?" When he nodded, she smacked him on the head. "Moron! You know you can't swim. Why the hell would you go so deep into the water?"

"But I wanted to catch a fish, so Sanji could cook it for me," the boy whined.

"We have brought enough food for the barbeque to feed an orphanage!" Franky commented.

"But I'm hungry now!"

Nami punched him again. "Stop whining and thank Sanji for saving your life." She pushed his head down in a grateful gesture.

"Thank you, Sanji. Can you make me some meat?"

The blonde started laughing. "You're welcome. I should get started with the barbeque anyway." When Luffy's eyes started to sparkle, he added quickly: "But in the meantime you have to behave."

The teenager pouted a little, but nodded anyway. His face brightened when Zoro placed his – apparently – precious hat on his head.

Sanji straightened and dusted down his clothes, in a wasted effort to rid it of the wet sand that stuck to them. He looked up when he noticed someone standing before him.

Ace bowed. "Thank you for saving my brother."

He couldn't look the raven haired man in the eye, not without having a mental picture of what he witnessed earlier that afternoon. Ace, on his knees before Marco, pleasuring the arson inspector orally… He shook his head as if that would clear his mind and mumbled: "Sure. You're welcome. I do wish I had some dry clothes," he added a little louder.

"Kohza has brought some extra clothes," Vivi said. "I'm sure you could barrow some, right honey?"

The man with glasses nodded and Sanji followed him towards the beach house.

Zoro helped Luffy get up and looked suspicious to the older brother, who was grinning mischievously. "What?"

The black haired man leaned in and whispered: "I was only thinking that you might wanna try to drown. Maybe then Sanji will give you the kiss of life." He winked and bounced away, before Zoro had a chance to kill him.

Sanji had barely placed the hamburgers on the barbeque, when a drooling Luffy stood next to him. "Smells so good," the boy moaned, licking an ice cream.

"Go away. They're not cooked yet," Sanji said and kicked his friend when he almost slobbered on the meat. After a few more kicks, Luffy reluctantly walked away.

When the first burgers were done, the raven haired boy was the first to shove his plate under Sanji nose, and the second, as he whined he didn't have enough. The blonde kicked him away and served the girls first.

From the corner Zoro watched the chef work. He had been one of the last to get food, but his meat didn't show any sign of being overcooked, as expected. The blonde had gotten new clothes from Kohza, a shirt and trousers. Only his Hawaiian shirt had gotten wet by the sea, but Luffy had admitted he had buried Sanji's pants in the sand and couldn't remember were. So Kohza had lend the furious cook trousers as well, after the last had kicked the shit out of Luffy.

The chef was now wearing slim, red pants, which looked oddly good on him, and a wide white shirt, which showed off most of his chest. Of course, this looked good on him as well. What the swordsman didn't like though, was Ace who approached the blonde with a large grin on his face.

"Hey sexy."

Sanji almost jumped when the fireman suddenly showed up right behind him. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

Ace snickered. "Sorry." Then his face turned serious. "Are you avoiding me?"

"Why would I do that?" the blonde asked, focussing really hard on the sausages on the grill.

"You're evading my glance right now."

Reluctantly Sanji looked his friend in the eye, his eyebrow twitching when the images came back.

"Good. Now, why are you so tense?"

Something in Ace's look told him the man already knew why, but he was damned if he was going to admit he had been watching– no, accidentally walked in on a private moment. "I have to pee."

The grin on Ace's face grew wider – if possible. "Why didn't you say so? I'll watch the barbeque while you're away."

The offer was actually tempting. Sanji hadn't lied, he really had to use the restroom. But to let Ace watch the barbeque? "Let's not do that. I don't want the headlines in the tomorrow's paper to be: 'Thirteen people die in fire from barbeque gone bad'," he snorted and flipped the hamburgers.

"That's so mean," the other man pouted. "Come on, what's the worst that could happen? You're gone for like two minutes and there are a lot of people here. I'm a fireman, for Pete's sake!"

Sanji sighed. "Fine. But don't touch anything. The food shouldn't be ready before I get back." Ace saluted and the blonde hurried inside. He knew he had made a mistake the moment he agreed.

And he was right. He barely had washed his hands, when he heard Nami shouting: "Get the fire extinguisher!"

Sanji ran outside, only to see a barbeque put out, carbonised meat, a guilty looking Ace and Marco holding the extinguisher. The blonde could only stare, his mouth hanging open.

"Before you say anything," Ace started explaining, "I barely touched it–"

Something snapped in the cook's head. "Barely touched it?" he asked almost inaudible. "Barely? I gave you one instruction, for fuck's sake! Do not touch the barbeque! It's that simple. You've wasted perfectly fine food. My God, it's a miracle nobody has died with you around, isn't it? No wonder people think you're an arsonist!"

Halfway through his rant Franky had grabbed the blonde's shoulder, to prevent him from attacking the fireman. The raven haired man himself stared in bewilderment at the furious chef, who had stopped yelling and was just panting with anger.

Sanji watched as Marco took Ace aside and whispered softly to him. The chef sighed and tried to get the barbeque started again. He felt stupid for exploding like that. Yes, he was annoyed, he always was when food was wasted and people ignored him, but he shouldn't have yelled. He looked up and saw Marco and Ace kissing. He focussed on the barbeque again.

The atmosphere had gone tense after Sanji's outburst. Usopp had stopped telling his tall stories Chopper believed and even Luffy had stopped nagging about more meat. But while Sanji tried to get the barbeque to work again, Brook got his violin and started a song called 'Binks' sake', which everyone seemed to know. Soon the tension was lifted and the atmosphere was relaxed and festive again.

Later that evening Ace approached Sanji carefully. "Are you still mad?" the former asked in a soft voice.

The blonde shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have blown up like that." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm just a bit tense."

"How long is it since you've gotten any?"

The question made his head snap up. "Excuse me?"

"Sex. That's why you're tense, right? 'Cause you haven't gotten laid in a while. You're horny," the freckled man added with a big smirk on his face.

Sanji could feel his cheeks burn in embarrassment. It had indeed been a while. The last time he slept with somebody was before Conis broke up with him, nearly two months ago. He sighed. Who was he kidding? The last time had been with Zoro. That made it sound even worse! It wasn't like they made love in front of the fireplace, but the swordsman had relieved him. He didn't know if the green haired man had told Ace – he prayed he didn't – but he sure as hell wasn't going to bring it up.

The fireman leaned in and whispered: "We both know there is someone here who is willing to fix that for you."

Sanji clenched his jaw. "For the last time, I have no interest in Zoro!" He made sure his voice was hushed.

"Who said anything about Zoro?" Ace smiled mischievously and smacked the chef on his ass before hiding behind Marco.

Cooking for people with a large appetite like Luffy and Ace meant that the food was gone in record time and Zoro was well on his way to consume all the booze, though Kohza was well-matched. The freckled man had fallen asleep face first on the table. Nobody had been surprised by this narcoleptic attack, as it happened quite often. Marco had carried his boyfriend inside the beach house.

Brook was playing songs on his violin and Usopp tried to scare Luffy and Chopper with his ghost stories while roasting marshmallows. The girls were catching up with each other.

Sipping from a bottle of rum – he had long ago stopped using a glass – the swordsman stared in the direction in which Sanji had disappeared about an half hour before. He wondered where the blonde had gone off to on his own.

He took one last swing from the bottle and then threw it on the pile of other empty ones. He got up and walked towards the beach. Marco was the only one who seemed to notice him leave, but the arson inspector remained silent.

It wasn't hard to find Sanji. The blonde stood on the middle of the beach and stared at the sea. It didn't look like he saw Zoro, when he suddenly said: "Are you following me, Marimo?"

"Just wanted to stretch my legs," he lied.

The chef nodded, without looking at the swordsman. They stood in silence for a while, until Zoro said: "So what were you and Ace whispering about?"

Sanji jerked his head towards him. "That's none of your business."

"Fine." The green haired man shrugged. "I'll ask him when he wakes up."

The blonde clenched his jaw. "Alright. I just apologized for yelling at him and he made a suggestion of why I'm tense."

"So why are you?"

"For starters because some boy genius has buried my pants, including my cigarettes," the cook said, gritting his teeth.

"And for the rest?"

Sanji looked at him darkly. "You're so nosy," he snorted. "Ask Ace if you want to know. I'm not telling you."

Actually, Zoro already had a hunch of what the fireman had suggested. He knew his friend and the fact that he had smacked Sanji on his ass was a dead giveaway. So he dropped the subject. Instead he asked: "So why are you here?"

"For some peace and quiet." The blonde glared at him. "But it seems like I'm not getting that any time soon."

"You know what you got yourself into when you came with us," the swordsman smirked.

A smile appeared on the chef's face. "I suppose that's true." He sighed and looked at the water again. "I do love the sea, though. It's one of the few things I remember about my parents; they had a house at the sea. I think my father was a sailor or something."

Zoro remained quiet while Sanji continued smiling: "When I was a kid, I wanted to become a pirate. Sail the seas, free as a bird." He grinned as he recounted his childhood dreams.

"Like a ship's cook?"

The chef laughed. "Probably, if I would want to combine the two. What would be the alternative? A bunch of rogue cooks running a floating restaurant? That would be something." He thought for a moment. "I suppose that's not far from the truth about the Baratie, though. Except the floating part." He shook his head. "So what about you? What did you wanted to be when you were a kid?"

The swordsman smirked. "A pirate hunter."

"Really?" Sanji laughed. "Well, it's a good thing then that our dreams didn't come true. Otherwise one of us wouldn't be here."

Zoro snickered. "And we both know who that would be."

"Yeah, you." They looked at each other in shock.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Sanji snorted. "You can't beat me!"

"You can't defeat me either!" the green haired man shot back.

"You wouldn't know what to do without those toothpicks of yours!"

Zoro looked at the man before him. His cheeks were flushed with anger. The wind had ruffled his hair and toyed with his shirt. The moon lit up his face, making him the most beautiful person the swordsman had ever seen. He lost his self-control. He grabbed the back of Sanji's neck and smashed their lips together.

He expected to be kicked, but the blonde just pushed him away. He looked composed, but his eyes betrayed anger. "You better be really drunk," he spat to Zoro, before walking away.

The green haired man stared after him. "Not that drunk," he mumbled.

It was very late when Sanji returned to the beach house. Earlier that evening they had decided to stay the night and get back to the city the next morning. Most of them didn't have to work Monday morning, the rest would just come in late.

When the blonde arrived at the house, most of his friends were already asleep. They had dispersed all over the floor of the living room, with an exception of Kohza and Vivi, who probably had gone to their bedroom. Nami and Robin occupied the couch, whilst the men lay sprawled out on the floor. Luffy was snoring loud and murmured something about meat in his sleep.

Sanji shook his head while looking for a place to sleep, when he saw Zoro laying on the floor. Chopper was using his stomach as a pillow.

That can't be comfortable, Sanji thought, it must be hard with all those muscles… He froze. Why the hell was he thinking about the marimo's abdomen?

Suddenly he felt the urge to kick the man, an unexpected rage taking over. But he had hardly lifted his leg, when the swordsman's eyes flung open. His dark orbs penetrated Sanji's. His mouth went dry and slowly he put down his foot. How did the swordsman do it? How did he know every time Sanji was looking? Both times the blonde had been convinced the man was asleep, but he couldn't just feel him staring, could he?

"Wake the boy and you're dead," Zoro said in a soft, but dangerous voice.

Sanji swallowed and turned brusquely around, lying down in a corner of the room.

It was still early when the blonde woke up. He never really slept in and today was no exception. Carefully not to wake anyone, he stepped over the sleeping bodies until he reached the kitchen. His pink shirt hung over the back of a chair. During the night it had dried, but as the pink clashed with Kohza's red trousers and his own were buried somewhere on the beach, he would have to remain wearing Vivi's husband's shirt. He would return it later, giving him a very good excuse to visit the blue haired girl again. Softly humming he opened some cabinets and pulled out ingredients for breakfast.

The others woke about an hour later from the smell of fresh baked bread and coffee. Luffy was the first to smell it. His nose came up and he sniffled. With a loud "Food!" he jumped up and ran to the kitchen. Whoever wasn't woken by the smell, was woken by Luffy's jumping up and down.

Vivi came down the stairs yawning. "Sanji, you didn't have to make breakfast," she said pleasantly surprised.

"Good morning, princess. I assure you it's no problem at all." He wanted to kiss her hand, almost missing a certain black haired boy sneak towards the unattended food. He kicked Luffy away.

Zoro hauled himself on a chair by the dinner table. He looked up when a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice was placed in front of him. "Drink up," Sanji ordered. "You can probably use some fluid."

The swordsman nodded silently and took a sip. He wasn't hung over– he never was – but it would probably be best to pretend he had had a little too much alcohol last night. That would prevent an awkward conversation about the kiss.

They had started to load the van. Vivi and Kohza would stay a little longer at the beach house, so they would travel back with the same group. This time Sanji managed to get a seat next to Usopp and opposite to Luffy and Nami. He couldn't handle having to look at Marco and Ace – the happy couple – the whole time and he didn't want to sit next to Zoro either.

Unfortunately for him, Usopp decided at the last moment that it probably would be a good idea to use the restroom before their ride home, so the architect got out of the van again and Luffy yelled to Zoro to join him. So Sanji ended up sitting next to the swordsman anyway.

After everyone had taken leave of Vivi and Kohza they finally drove away, being waved goodbye by the stay-behinds.

Usually Sanji didn't need much sleep, but the bumps in the road made the van rock to and fro and made him sleepy. Slowly his eyelids fell close.

A bit surprised Zoro looked down when the blonde's head lulled aside to the swordsman's shoulder. He heard Nami snicker, making him very glad he faced the more naïve D-brother, instead of Ace and his suggestive glances.

A vibrating feeling woke Sanji with a start. He was even more startled when he noticed he had fallen asleep – worse, he had used Zoro's shoulder as a pillow. The blonde mumbled some apologies, but the swordsman just shrugged and looked with curiosity how Sanji answered his phone.

"Old man."

"Where the hell are you? You should have been here hours ago!" his adoptive father yelled in his ear.

"Calm down, shitty old fart! I texted you I would come by this afternoon!" he yelled back.

"I never agreed on that."

Annoyed the younger chef pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well, that's too bad, because I'm not home yet. It's at least an hour drive."

They yelled some insults back and forth, but in the end Sanji gave up. He agreed he would be there as soon as possible, at which Zeff grouched he should have been there already. With that, Sanji hung up the phone. "Franky, could you drop me off at the restaurant?" he asked the driver sighing.

"Sure, no problem, bro," the blue haired man answered.

At the word 'restaurant' Luffy's eyes started to shine. "Can we visit it? Please?"

The blonde frowned. "It's not done yet. You'll be invited when it is."

The black haired boy grinned broadly at that comment, but still insisted: "But I want to see it now. Please Sanji!" He pouted like only a D-brother could.

The cook sighed. "Whatever."

And suddenly it was decided they would all take a look at the new Baratie. Franky and Usopp already knew what it looked like of course and they didn't work on Mondays, but resolved in tagging along anyway.

The restaurant ended up being pretty crowded for a place under construction. Zeff was already at the door when the van arrived, having a grumpy look on his face.

"Shitty old man," Sanji greeted him. "I've brought some friends. These lovely ladies are Nami-swan and Robin-chwan. The rest are the idiots."

The restaurant owner snorted in response to their greetings, but his face seemed to lit up a little when he noticed Zoro. "Grasshopper."

The green haired man grinned back at him. He had a liking for Sanji's foster father and the feeling seemed to be mutual. And it was a good thing to have a good relationship with your in-laws, wasn't it? Well, father-in-law to be, if things worked out right.

Sanji gave his friends a quick tour through the Baratie. There was still a lot of construction material around, but the place already started to look like a real restaurant. Proudly Usopp explained his contribution, exaggerating for the most part of course.

While the architect was telling his tall stories, Luffy pulled at Sanji's sleeve. "Where do you keep the meat?"

He could have known that was what the boy was after. A mischievous smile appeared on the blonde's face. "In the freezer, of course."

Exclaiming: "Yay!" the black haired boy ran into the walk-in deep freeze. With a small kick to the heavy door, Sanji closed the cold room, leaving Luffy puzzled behind. After all, the freezer was still empty.

"Shouldn't you let him out?" Chopper's voice sounded a bit worried.

"When he discovers there's no food in there, he will probably notice the door handle on the inside," the blonde shrugged.

He was right. "There's no food in here!" the muffled voice of Luffy sounded disappointed from the freezer. "And it's so dark!"

"And cold?" Sanji asked teasing.

It stayed silent for a moment. "Right! It's really cold in here," the boy exclaimed then.

The blonde shook his head, when the freezer door opened. Luffy came out grinning. "Shishishi, there was a door handle on the inside," he laughed. But then his face got all serious again. "Why is there no food?" he asked accusingly. "A restaurant should have food."

"Look at this place! The construction work is not even done yet. Why on earth would we have food already?" Sanji gestured wildly around.

Luffy didn't seem to understand his point, but Franky decided it was time to go. "I don't want to spend my whole day off in the place I work." And as he was their chauffeur, the others decided to go as well.

Ace leaned on Sanji's shoulder. The blonde flinched a little, the images of the previous day still hadn't left him. "You'll invite us all when it's done, right?"

Sanji cast a glance to his adoptive father, who watched them with a grumpy look on his face and his arms folded across his chest. "Sure, but you'll have to pay."

Nami's head snapped up at the word 'pay'. Her eyes turned into pound-signs and she turned to Zeff. "Do you still need help in the kitchen? Like someone to do the dishes?"

"But Nami-swan! A delicate lady like yourself can't possibly–" Sanji started to protest, but she dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"Not for me. I'm a notary, remember? But Luffy is out of a job at the moment." She looked at the restaurant owner expectantly.

Zeff observed the black haired boy from head to toe. Luffy looked uninterested and picked his nose. "I don't think our former dishwasher-boy will come back." The man plucked at his enormous moustache. "But you should check with my head chef."

Nami turned to Sanji, who nodded. "Anything for you, Nami-swan!"

Zeff snorted. Apparently he didn't like it either when his son behaved like an idiot around women, Zoro noted.

The orange haired girl smiled triumphantly. "Good, that's decided then. So tell me, how much is your employee discount…?"

~ To be continued