Chapter 4
Sanji finished his shower in less than twenty minutes. He blew his hair dry in his haste to style it, and splashes on some of the cologne Zeff had given him as an early Christmas present. The tag said "from Santa" but Sanji had received one of those since he was a kid and they had always had Zeff's badly taped sides.
Sanji paused as he finished grooming his hair in the mirror. Gifts. He hadn't opened the company gift yet. The one Zoro probably wrapped himself; the stupid bastard boss. If only to inspect the terrible wrapping job and maybe have an excuse to thank Zoro for the chocolate he bothered buying for all the staff, Sanji walked to his old room and searched his bag for the present.
The cookies he'd bought the night before were crumbling out of their wrapping, and Sanji frowned when he pulled the crumb-covered gift out of the bag. He was allowed to open it now, even though he'd opened most of his gifts at the gift exchange over yesterday's staff dinner.
The bow was uneven and crooked, sitting too high on the box shaped gift. Sanji shook it once experimentally, the same cheap sounding clatter filling the room. He smiled to himself as he pulled the bow off, ripping the paper off at the sides to avoid the obscene amount of tape that kept the hideously patterned paper together.
Sanji's smile faded slightly when the box turned out not to be a box of chocolate like he'd expected. He discarded the paper on his bed, running a finger along the top of the box to cut the tape keeping the lid in place. The black lid sprang up under Sanji's fingers, revealing an array of items lying in the cotton lined box.
The first thing that caught his attention was his name. There was a large card lying on top of the box, his name written in a scribbly handwriting that he recognized as Zoro's from various staff announcement fliers. He took the card and flipped it over, generic holiday text on the back read:
Happy holidays! We wish you and your loved ones a merry Christmas! On the bottom was the strange smiley face logo of the store. Sanji flipped the card around, looking at his name written in slightly smudged ink. He placed it on his nightstand, looking back to the contents of his gift box.
There was a keychain, with a small silvery plate that had his name engraved in it. Sanji brought it up to look at it, the silver glimmered in the dim light of his room and Sanji rolled the keychain around in his palm. He pulled at the other item in the box, a pair of black, warm looking gloves. He slipped one of them on curiously. They fit perfectly, sitting tightly on his fingers and already warming his skin.
Sanji placed the keychain aside, slipping his other hand into the second glove and cradling his face in his warm palms. Fuck, this was probably the reason why Zoro had insisted everyone had to take their present. Sanji grinned stupidly into his gloves, the gift warming much more than just his hands.
"SANJI! Your boss is here!" Zeff's voice sounded from downstairs, and Sanji jumped to his feet and yanked the gloves off, stuffing them in his pocket along with the keychain as he ran down the stairs. He didn't want Zeff to get too much alone time with Zoro, the old bastard might embarrass him more than he already had!
Sanji caught himself at the corner of the stairs, calming his breath and straightening his jacket, glancing around looking for Zoro. Zeff was standing in the middle of the room with a big bag of empty bottles.
"Where is Zoro?" Sanji glanced around, wondering if the other man was hiding somewhere.
"He's not here yet." Zeff said casually, handing Sanji the bag. "I lied to get you to come downstairs already, take these out to the storage room for me."
Sanji sighed in annoyance, grumbling under his breath as he shouldered the bag, walking to the storage room. He slipped on his gloves, opening the door and entering the room full of alcohol bottles and recyclable plastics and glass, it was freezing in there at this time of year and Sanji was delighted not to feel any cold.
He started working, careful not to get any vile liquids on his new gloves. Separating the plastics and glass and cursing Zeff under his breath for sticking him with the sorting job out in the cold. He could have done this inside damn it!
It took a while, but Sanji finally worked his way to the bottom of the garbage bag, crumpling it together and tossing it into the garbage bag full of bags in the corner. Checking his gloves for stains, Sanji stepped outside, gathering up a snow and crushing it into a solid sphere shape between his gloved hands.
He wondered if he could hit the upstairs window with this. He used to throw snowballs at Zeff's window to wake him up when he was younger. Sanji took a step closer, aiming for his old man's bedroom window as he threw the snowball.
Not realizing in time he was both stronger and taller now, Sanji overshot the window, hitting the edge of the roof and triggering the thick layer of snow piled there to slide off in retaliation. The deep rumbling sounds of the makeshift avalanche on the metal plates of the Baratie's side were ominous to Sanji's ears.
"OH SHI-" Sanji backed out of the way as fast as he could, tripping over lawn ornaments and a long forgotten folding chair buried in the snow. He fell backwards into the pile of snow; the avalanche from above piling up at his feet and twirling up the snow so, for a moment, Sanji was buried in fresh powder.
"FUCK THIS STUPID SHIT I'LL MAKE SURE THAT SHITTY ROOM GETS-" Sanji sat up from the snow, trembling in anger at nothing in particular as he tried to dust the snow off his head without getting it all inside his jacket.
"Eggplant."
Sanji froze. No. This wasn't some sort of stupid romantic comedy movie; there was no fucking way that something like this could happen. Please let him be hearing things or even dreaming. Anything but this kind of cliché!
"Your boss is here."
Sanji grumbled, looking up with a glare. Damn his old man for doing this to him! He was sitting on the ground, covered up to his waist in snow like a child, and Zeff had the nerve to GRIN at him after bringing Zoro to the door?!
Zoro was staring at him in barely restrained amusement, his one open eye practically shimmering in glee at Sanji's childish antics. Sanji groaned in annoyance when Zoro started chuckling darkly, Zeff's moustache twitching in delight.
Sanji hurriedly stood up, dusting off his jacket and pants while grumbling under his breath. Damn it! This was not the mature adult Sanji had been planning on acting like!
Zoro's chuckles became laugher, deep rumbling and dark; low and appealing, despite being at Sanji's expense. He was never going to live this down. Zeff huffed delightedly while turning to Zoro with a look that could just as well have screamed 'STILL WANT HIM?' in the man's face.
"I could have sorted those bottles inside old man!" Sanji grumbled, walking over to them and avoiding eye contact, shouldering them aside as he stepped into the restaurant. Shaking snow off at the back door, he peeled off his coat trying to get as little snow inside his shirt as possible.
"Well you seemed to be having fun." Zeff pointed out smugly, Zoro's laughter following them inside as the green haired man closed the door.
"NOT having fun." Sanji sighed, rolling his eyes. "But I got the snow off the roof so it's not going to crush your limping ass if you leave the house." Sanji pointed out casually, hanging up his jacket.
"Oh? So it was all for your old man's safety?" Zeff was amused, walking past Sanji and into the main hall to continue cleaning up.
"Yes it was." Sanji grimaced as Zeff passed him with a sly grin. "You should be thankful geezer!"
Zoro, who had finally stopped laughing, was watching Sanji peel off his gloves. Sanji noticed, and smiled a little while peeling the fingers off one at a time. After a calming breath, Sanji raised his gloves up to show them to Zoro.
"These are great." He smiled, closing his eyes to avoid eye contact. He fought the heat in his cheeks, his heart thundering in his chest. "Thanks." He glanced to the side, putting the gloves in his pocket and pulling up his cigarettes.
"Don't thank me, thank the company." Zoro huffed, walking past Sanji and into the hall, pulling off his jacket and dropping it next to Sanji's.
Today Zoro was wearing a large black hoodie with a logo of crossed swords at the back and the nicest pair of sweatpants Sanji had ever seen. The black fabric pooled over the edge of the man's massive boots, with two green stripes along the side of the legs.
It was almost painful how perfectly those pants fit, tight in all the right places and the almost rude length of green string dangling down from the front of Zoro's hoodie, swinging as the man strode over to Zeff. Zoro looked around and eyed the collection of bottles on the bar with interest. Zeff hit him on the head with the broom.
"Don't even think about it!" Zeff huffed, pointing to the heavy furniture and Christmas decorations. "Make yourself useful first!" Sanji ran over, hoping to limit his crazy old man's interactions with Zoro, or better yet, prevent them all together.
Zoro rubbed at his slicked back hair, tousling it and frowning at the old man who simply grinned smugly.
"Then what exactly is it you called me over here for?" Zoro groused, looking over at Sanji who was trying to glare his old man into the kitchen. No. The neon green string resting at the front of Zoro´s pants was NOT getting his attention. Not right now.
"Well-" Sanji began explaining, already done working out the perfect excuse for Zoro being here that didn't involve any attempts by Sanji to get into his pants and, subsequently, fired from his job. Zeff seemed to have other ideas though, so he poked Sanji really hard in the chest with the broom, robbing him of his breath and a chance to explain.
"You're here because the idiot over here-"
Sanji would have screamed if Zeff hadn't poked him in the stomach again, it might look playful, but Zeff's blows always hit a weak spot of some kind.
"-will take all day moving some of these heavy things alone. I threw out my back this morning so I'm not going to be much help with lifting anything." Zeff explained rationally, his logic actually much sounder than Sanji would have given him credit for. Well, if Sanji hadn't seen him lug one of those heavy cinderblock supports across the hall earlier, that is.
Zoro's brow arched and he glanced around, probably locating the heaviest objects in the hall. There were three tree supports remaining in the main room, crates and large barrels of alcohol and a few heavy stone Christmas decorations that needed to go up a flight of stairs.
"We need to clear out these decorations and then reposition all the tables over there." Zeff swung his broom to the lines of heavy wooden tables. "They're too big to move alone without dragging and ruining my floors." Zeff stomped his wooden leg on the polished floors for emphasis.
"Alright. Sounds simple enough." Zoro took a step back, hauling his baggy sweater over his head. Sanji stared, breath stuck in the back of his throat as he watched the shirt Zoro was wearing underneath drag up his stomach, revealing the hem of the sweatpants and the elastic of them man's boxers.
The green string at the front of the pants was barely more than a distraction, only one lopsided bow, without a single real knot, was all that was holding them up. All it would take was a slight yank of the string and the pants would slide off Zoro's perfectly defined hips. Sanji's fingers were itching and he remembered to close his mouth just in time before the green head appeared from the confines of the sweater.
Zoro tugged the shirt down again, tossing his sweater over to a table before, rolling his shoulders casually and cracking his neck. Sanji glanced over to Zeff, who was looking at him with an amused expression, smirk barely hidden under his beard. There was a single EXTREMLY suggestive twitch of the old man's eyebrow and Sanji was reeling in horror at his old man's pervertedness.
"So, what do I move first?" Zoro asked, stretching his arms over his head casually, leaning to the side. Zeff's mustache twitched in amusement, his expression the picture of innocence.
"I'll just go to the kitchen and get dinner started, just follow Sanji's orders." Zeff placed his broom off to the side, walking towards the kitchen. "-and don't destroy my restaurant!" he threw in as an afterthought.
Sanji stared in horror at his old man walk away, feeling Zoro turn to him expectantly. He occupied himself with finishing his cigarette before he turned to face his boss; who was currently awaiting his orders.
"Sorta… weird." Sanji noted, glancing at Zoro as he blew smoke into the air. "Usually I take your orders."
"Enjoy it while you can curly brow." Zoro smirked, crossing his arms. "Then tell me what to do, boss?"
This should not be turning Sanji on.
But it was.
"Uh… well." Sanji grimaced, trying to wrench his mind out of the gutter. "There are three of those large concrete slabs over there; they need to go out back." Sanji gestured to the door to the right of the kitchen. Zeff was already in the kitchen, looking through the kitchen's window to the restaurant.
"Got it." Zoro walked over to the one furthest away, grabbing the metal top of the stand and hauling it up. "That one over there too right?" Zoro pointed at the second one, picking it up in his other hand and carrying both of them like shopping bags across the hall.
Sanji strode over to keep the door open for him, sparing a glance to Zeff who was watching. He had that same bizarre approving expression on as before, making eye contact with Sanji and giving him a sneaky thumbs up from the back of the counter.
"This won't take long if you're planning on moving everything at once-" Sanji held the door open with his foot, glancing over to the various heavy objects in the room. It had taken at least three guys to carry just one of those supports, exactly HOW strong was Zoro?
"The sooner we can do other things then." Zoro's voice was a little huskier than before, a slight groan rumbling from his chest as he paused in front of the doorway. Grinning to Sanji as he hauled the heavy loads inside the room sideways, brushing slightly against Sanji's leg as he passed.
The touch sent heat through Sanji's entire body. He tensed, not sure if the innuendo and the physical contact had been accidental. Perhaps one of them had been, but Sanji couldn't tell which one it was. He could also just be overthinking the whole situation. He stared into the main hall to distract himself from Zoro's impressive display of strength and tantalizing flex of muscles.
The loud heavy sounding thud of the weight hitting the floor caught Sanji's attention and he glanced inside the storage room where Zoro was bent over, pushing the supports into a far corner next to the only one they had already put away.
Oh holy fucking shit world , why are you doing this to me? Sanji bit his tongue to hold back all sounds, trying to let go of the breath he was apparently holding in a way that didn't sound like aroused panting. He quickly averted his gaze from Zoro's lovely fitting exercise pants.
"I'll go get the last one of those, you can start bringing in the boxes of booze and piling them outside in the shack." Sanji tapped his foot on the floor in front of the back door, jerking a thumb to the exit. "Start piling them up in the doorway and I'll help carry them outside when they're all here."
"Booze?" Zoro shouldered the door open looking at the floor and over to the boxes of booze. "Got it."
Happy new years! I'd love to hear how you like Zeff so far! Thanks for reading my works in the year 2013! I've got stuff planned, 2014 is gonna be big!