They admitted Sanji into the hospital again. The doctors joked about how he may as well live there with the amount of times he's checked in over the past two weeks. Chopper, on the other hand, saw nothing funny about the situation. He wailed and lectured Sanji about the importance of keeping a healthy wellbeing and staying out of trouble, all the while setting a cast on his broken arm and seeing to his other injuries.
His old man was furious, and just like with Chopper, Sanji let Zeff vent out his anger and worry, nagging on until Sanji was sure his ears would bleed. But, in the end, Sanji uttered one word of apology and Zeff shut up, resorting to grumbling and muttering to himself.
After all the fussing died down, and he was finally left to rest, Sanji wasted no time and sank into the realms of a dreamless sleep. He slept for fifteen hours straight, and would've gladly kept sleeping if Zeff hadn't woken him up and insisted that he eat. With food in his belly, Zeff left him to catch more of that much needed sleep.
Sanji didn't think he missed sleep this much. In the depths of his mind, he felt his body slowly repairing every weary muscle and aching bone. He swore he'd never take sleep for granted ever again.
But the absence of the spectre had his brain reeling through thoughts. At least it meant that he was no longer haunted, but… What did it mean for Zoro's spectre? Was he awake, or did he finally move on?
Unable to wait anymore, Sanji got out of bed and walked to Zoro's room.
The young man was still in his bed, wired to the life support machine. Sanji frowned. He was exactly how Sanji had left him last. Why? Sanji didn't know if anything should've happened after the night at the dojo, but he expected there to be some change.
The door clicked open, and for a moment, Sanji's hackles rose. But it was only Chopper, tilting his head at Sanji as he entered.
"Ah," said the young doctor. "Did you come to pay your respects? Sorry, did you need more time?"
There was another doctor behind Chopper, and a few nurses stood outside the door. Dread seeped into the pit of Sanji's stomach.
"What's going on?" he asked.
Chopper blinked. "Um, well… With Kuro being sent to prison, and no sign of the real Koshiro, he doesn't really have any other relatives. It's been a year since he went under anyway, so we thought it was time."
Sanji swallowed. "You're switching off the machine?"
Chopper's face fell solemn. He'd never seen him look so serious. It was his doctor face.
"I didn't know you knew him," said Chopper. "We can give you more time if you want."
Sanji shook his head. "No, this is… Something's not right. Wake him up."
"What?"
"Wake him up," Sanji insisted. It couldn't end like this. Somehow, the thought of Zoro just going out like that didn't sit right with him. The spectre who clung so violently to life wouldn't go just like that. The guy himself, the strong swordsman, survived several cuts and being flung off the edge of a cliff! No, that couldn't be it for him.
"You have stuff you use to wake people up, right? Wake him up."
"Sanji… Zoro hasn't responded to stimuli in months…"
"I don't care," Sanji stood his ground. "Wake him up."
Chopper glanced at the other doctor, eyes welling up. He hated being so tough on Chopper, but Sanji just couldn't let this go. The other doctor sighed but nodded to his younger colleague.
"I guess there's nothing to loose by trying one last time," he said.
Sanji followed them as they wheeled Zoro off to the CT scanner. Chopper let Sanji stay in the observation room outside the scanner. He watched as they positioned Zoro until his head was in the middle of the large, white ring.
The screens in the observation room flickered and displayed a grey, squiggly image on Zoro's brain. There were lines and numbers across the screen. Sanji didn't understand what was going on, but he stayed silent, willing for a result.
"Beginning stimulation," said Chopper, holding up a small circle with rough edges. He rolled the ring across Zoro's open palm.
Sanji watched the brain scan. He wasn't sure what exactly he was looking for, but judging by the stony silence of the nurses in the room, they weren't seeing anything different either.
Chopper moved to Zoro's bare feet and rolled the ring repeatedly up and down the bottom of each foot.
Come on come on come on.
Sanji gnawed at his bottom lip.
"Nothing," one of the nurses sat in front of the screen called out.
Sanji took a deep breath. Was this really it?
He glanced up when Chopper moved up towards Zoro's head again. The little doctor ran the ring along the side of Zoro's neck.
"Wait," the nurse spoke again after a while. "I'm getting something."
Sanji straightened. "Really?"
He watched as she tweaked something on the screen. The image was still a grey blob to Sanji, but clearly she could see a difference.
"He's responding," she said, her voice thick with surprise.
"Impossible," the doctor in the scanning room with Chopper left to join them in the observation room. He leaned over the screen, nodding to Chopper. The little doctor continued to run the small circle along Zoro's neck.
"There," the nurse pointed to a spot on the grey blob on screen. It brightened significantly. "It's little, barely a sign. But because he hadn't been showing any response at all…"
"He's still in there," said the doctor.
Sanji left the room then. He'd done what he needed to, and a weight lifted from his chest to know that Zoro was going be fine. He laughed to himself. Why was he suddenly concerned for someone he'd barely met? For someone he hadn't technically met yet? Maybe he felt responsible. Maybe he just needed the closure, the reassurance that Zoro was indeed a living being and not a spectre.
"Sanji!"
The blonde paused to see Chopper running down the corridor towards him.
"They're going to put Zoro on recovery treatment," he said, with a smile. "They can't believe it. None of us can."
Sanji smiled. "Good. I hope he wakes up well."
"Wait. We'll need someone as a sort of, um, witness I guess to Zoro's treatment. I didn't know he was a friend of yours."
"Well… It's a little complicated."
Chopper laughed. "Will you vouch for him?"
Sanji glanced at the tiled floor beneath his feet. He guessed there was no getting away from the guy now.
"Sure," he replied. "I'm gonna head back and get some more sleep. Let me know how he's doing."
Chopper nodded. "I'll keep you updated," he said, running back to the CT scanner.
Just as it took Sanji days of sleep to get back to feeling well rested and fully awake, Zoro took weeks until he was awake and conscious.
The first week, Zoro was still in his coma, but his response time to stimuli improved with each passing day. Sanji visited him during these days, just for an hour or so each time, talking to him in the hopes that it would help speed up his recovery.
After Sanji was discharged, he spent most of his time at home, nursing his injured arm. He didn't visit the hospital much. It was this time that Chopper messaged him to say that Zoro spoke. The first words to leave his lips were 'Kuro'. Needless to say, that was taken into evidence and added to the big pile already stacked against Kuro.
Sanji didn't visit the hospital still. Chopper messaged him with constant updates, that Zoro was awake, he'd opened his eyes, he was responding to orders and showing awareness of his surroundings.
But Sanji had had enough of interacting with a Zoro that couldn't talk. He felt he needed to see Zoro at a fully conscious and responsive state, in order to chase away any lingering images of the bloodied man.
Soon August rolled into September, and the start of school loomed ever closer. Sanji decided to visit the hospital then. Chopper had messaged him recently about how staggeringly fast Zoro was recovering. Apparently, the guy could speak and respond to others now, although his voice was rough from a year of misuse.
Sanji stood outside Zoro's room. Through the glass, the guy still lay in bed, eyes closed. But the life support machine was no longer there. The only wires attached to Zoro was an IV tube and a monitor. Sanji took a deep breath and entered the room.
Zoro's eyelids fluttered open at the click of the door. He turned his head, casting a dazed look in Sanji's direction. His eyes were a dark brown, the colour of earth.
Sanji cleared his throat, breaking the tense silence. "Er, hi."
Zoro blinked. Great, was he still unresponsive?
"Um, how are you feeling?" asked Sanji, closing the door behind him.
"Uh," Zoro's voice came out strained and rough, as though his throat was completely dry. "My ass aches, and I'm itching to get out of bed, but my legs won't listen to my brain."
Sanji chuckled.
"Other than that, I guess I'm okay," Zoro added. He stared at Sanji, as though he were a puzzle that he was trying to mentally solve.
"Um… How are you?" Zoro asked, and Sanji could tell he did it more out of politeness than anything. His voice was thick with awkwardness.
Sanji had to laugh. This whole situation was surreal. What the fuck were they even doing anyway?
"I'm fine," he answered, lifting his casted arm in a sling. "You know, making do."
Another silence, but thankfully not too long. Zoro frowned and coughed to clear his throat.
"Sorry," he spoke, his voice not sounding any better. "Um, please don't take this the wrong way. The doctors said I might forget a few things after waking up. I mean, you look familiar, but… Argh, I can't…"
Zoro's face scrunched up so hard, Sanji thought he could see a vein pop out on his forehead.
Sanji tutted and rolled his eyes mockingly. "God, how could you forget? After everything you put me through."
Zoro looked panicked for a moment, before his brain registered that Sanji was joking and his face softened.
"Uh, yeah," he said. "Must have one of those unnoticeable faces."
Sanji narrowed his eyes. "Bastard! I came all the way out here to see you, and you treat me like this?"
Zoro laughed. It came out dry and raspy, but it broke the tension in the air.
"Seriuosly though," said Zoro. "Um… I really can't place you…"
"I'm Sanji."
"Sanji?" Zoro frowned again. Sanji could practically hear the gears turning in his brain.
"Don't think too hard," said the blonde. "You'll put yourself in another coma."
Zoro huffed. "Well, you're gonna need to help me out here then, jackass."
Sanji hesitated. He supposed that saying 'I'm the guy you haunted until I solved your murder and burned down you house in the process of doing so' wasn't really what Zoro wanted to hear.
"Um," Sanji decided to take a shot in the dark. "We knew each other when we were kids. Er, before you moved to Japan."
"Really?" Zoro's brows knotted tighter. "That… That was years ago. You remember me from then?"
Sanji snorted. "More like hard to forget. You were a pain in the ass, even back then."
Zoro made a smug expression. "Better hard to forget than, hard to remember."
Sanji scowled at the grin on his face. All the while, it was odd how easy and comfortably they fell into banter.
"Hey, can you eat yet?" Sanji asked out of the blue, catching Zoro out.
"Uh… They gave me this grey soup yesterday," Zoro stuck his tongue out. "It tasted like ash."
"Soup. Okay, good."
Sanji pulled a small small tub and a silver spoon out of a plastic bag he'd bought with him.
"I though they might start you off on liquidized food first."
He passed the tub and the spoon to Zoro, who made a face as he received them.
"Eugh, I've had nothing but soup for the past week," he said. "I think I'll turn into a bowl of soup if I don't have anything else."
"Ah, quit you bitching," said Sanji. "Just eat it already. You won't regret it, I promise."
Zoro gave him a look of uncertainty but popped the lid off the box anyway. Steam rose form the golden liquid, and Sanji noticed the quirk in the other guy's brow as he must've caught the scent. Zoro dipped his spoon into the soup and took a sip. His face brightened instantly.
"Fuck, that's good," he said, hastily slurping up more
Sanji turned away, hiding the grin that pulled on his lips. God, he was such a sucker for compliments.
"Where'd you get this?" asked Zoro.
"Made it myself."
"No way. You a cook or something?"
Sanji rolled his eyes. "More or less."
He let Zoro finish the soup, settling down in the seat opposite the bed.
"So, a whole year," said Sanji. "Bet you're wondering what's been happening since you've been asleep."
Zoro grunted. "It hasn't sunk in yet that it's been a year… The doctors brought in a radio the other day, but I threw it out. The music now is shit."
Sanji laughed. "Music's been shit for a long time."
Zoro shrugged, downing the rest of his soup. He placed the empty tub to the side.
"What else has happened?"
"Bet your dying to know who competed and won in the City Tournament this year," said Sanji.
Zoro's eyes widened, head snapping to where Sanji sat. The blonde grinned and pulled out a DVD case from the plastic bag.
"A friend of mine knows the guy who organizes it. He let me borrow the recordings of the matches."
Sanji got up and switched on the T.V in the room. He could practically feel the excitement radiating off the Zoro. After slotting the disk into a DVD player, he sat back down, remote in hand.
"You know about my tournaments?" asked Zoro.
Sanji made a noise. "Who doesn't? Zoro Roronoa, creator of the three sword style."
Zoro laughed uneasily, and rubbed the back of his head. Sanji noticed the skin across his cheeks getting darker.
"I'm not that famous, am I?"
"Well, you are after your fight with Mihawk."
Zoro groaned, running a hand over his face. "Now there's a memory I wouldn't mind forgetting…"
Sanji laughed and flicked to the menu screen of the DVD. The familiar logo spun on the screen again.
He liked being with Zoro. It was odd and a little surreal, considering the circumstances of how he'd come to know the guy. But Sanji liked him. Once they'd gotten over their awkward first introduction, it was like they really had known each other before hand. It was weird. But at the same time, Sanji couldn't complain. This was a friendship he could get used to.