Small Miracles 12

Sanji's taste in sex clashed rather unpleasantly with his job. His legs were getting tired from standing still in the same place for three hours, but the only seat available was the tiny and terribly uncomfortable barstool. He'd tried piling staff sweaters on top to soften the black plastic surface and he'd tried sitting on the chair in all possible angles, but the dull ache in his backside kept creeping up his spine every time he sat down.

Real chairs weren't a problem, so he'd just have to hang on for a few more minutes until Perona came back from her break so he could take lunch. Then he could go get something to drink from the store, and spend the rest of his break sitting in a chair that didn't make him feel like he was sitting on top of the damn Eiffel tower.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Sanji tensed and turned on the spot, staring at Paulie wide eyed as the other blond stared back.

"Yeah? Why?" Sanji blurted out almost angrily, he wasn't used to Paulie chatting during work hours, but since both registers were clear of customers, he guessed it was okay. The main problem was that he hadn't thought about his ache showing. Thankfully Paulie seemed to be the type who kept his mind as far away from the gutter as possible.

"You've just uh... been acting weird?" Paulie scratched at his chin, hunched over on his chair, showing off his ability to sit on his ass. "You've been standing for the last three hours; you know I can handle this myself for a bit if you need to go take a piss or something."

"Thanks but, my break is in a few minutes, I can handle it." Sanji shrugged it off, trying his best to take a casual seat on his chair. It wasn't particularly PAINFUL, and he was certain nothing was broken or damaged. The pain was mostly in his lower back and he had felt it before, just never to this extreme. He wasn't surprised though, he'd never had as intense or as much sex in a single night as he had last night, just thinking about it made him all warm inside.

The best thing about it was that it wasn't a onetime only thing. He wasn't going to have to jerk off to the memory of last night for weeks until the details faded. If anything, it was probably going to get better the more practice the two of them got with each other. Sanji was already making a mental map of places on Zoro's body that made the older man particularly vocal; it was a subject Sanji was more than enthusiastic to learn more about.

He was really trying not to get carried away with memories of last night, but he found himself increasingly uncomfortable with scanning cucumbers.

Once Perona finally returned to her register, she hooked the chain on his line and flicked on her lights as Sanji finished bagging groceries for an old woman. Once he bid her a good day, he grabbed his wallet and cigarettes from the shelf under his register and went to seek out something to drink with his meal.

Sanji weaved through the aisles that had most of the customers, there were few things as annoying as getting held up assisting a customer on your way to your lunch break; Sanji even shrugged on his jacket, hiding his name tag in his pocket before he made his way towards the coldest cooler in the store. Technically it was against the rules, but one of the workers in the back turned the temperature down on the smallest cooler, making the drinks in there refreshingly cold. The entire staff knew about it, including Zoro, but no one seemed to want to fix this slight 'error'. Sanji snatched a bottle labelled 100% pure juice from the shelf, but he was also 100% sure that was bullshit advertisement.

Trying to stay hidden from most of the customer traffic, Sanji decided to take a short cut through the organics and health food isle, since that was always the least crowded place in the entire store. He was rewarded for his decision by seeing his boss toss a cluster of plastic bottles haphazardly into a box.

Glancing around and making sure no one was around, Sanji made his way over to the Marimo, watching the man absently mutter to himself while squinting at the label of a bright red energy pill bottle. Unable to resist, Sanji decided to live his life to the fullest while he could and do what he (and no doubt countless other staff members) had wanted to do for a long time.

With a slightly dramatic swing of his hand, Sanji's flat palm hit Zoro's back pocket, earning him a very satisfying smacking sound and a startled jolt from Zoro. The manager turned around with a furious glare, his face set in a indignant scowl that only grew larger when Sanji seemed unable to stop laughing, clinging to Zoro's belt as he buckled over to suck in a gasping breath.

"Pervert." Zoro huffed, rolling his one remaining eye at the blond as he waited for Sanji's laughter and occasional snort to die down. After a few failed attempts, Sanji managed to draw a deep breath, containing his laughter as much as he could as he looked the older man in the eye.

"What are you going to do about it?" Sanji wiped a tear from his eye, trying to contain his chuckles. "I have bruises with your fingerprints on them; I think I am entitled to harassing you a little."

Before Zoro managed a comeback, two middle aged women walked into the aisle, looking both of them over and giving Zoro a wide berth as they started looking at various seeds and root pulps they were no doubt going to use in some bland healthy recipe that would make their husbands weep.

"I'm off to lunch then." Sanji raised his drink, leaving the other man to spitefully continue his work. He was looking forward to their date that night.

According to Paulie, once upon a time, most of the staff bought themselves garbage food for lunch at this very store, either microwave heated or cold foods, or left the workplace in a hurry to try to get something a little less processed in the meagre 1 hour long lunch break.

All that did was cause stress and discomfort, people got sick of always eating the same thing and the first person to crack, allegedly, had been Zoro. This was back when the bastard was just starting out as a manager and according to Perona, the Marimo had been in the middle of eating yogurt when he got incredibly angry for some reason and stomped away to his office in a very angry manner.

Next day there was a lunch menu from a nearby restaurant pinned haphazardly to the announcement table, with everyone's names in a list below, Zoro's being at the top with a big X below the tags for every single day of the week. Now staff could tick off when they wanted Zoro to order 'meal of the day' for them, and the total cost was deducted from their pay.

That was why Sanji was currently seating himself with a tray of slightly overdone broiled salmon, steamed vegetables that he would have personally steamed a bit more and a sauce that could just as well have been dry Greek yogurt.

It was all edible though, possibly even great for those who didn't have Sanji's experience and expertise. What really mattered was that the staff here was eating something that took more than 3 minutes to cook in something that wasn't a microwave, and Sanji would happily partake in support of that.

"Hey! Sanji!" Usopp entered the staff cafeteria, scarf around his neck and his nose slightly red from the cold. Sanji knew Usopp was working two jobs, and the long nose always arrived early for his shift so he could eat the ordered lunch before he had to clock in.

"Usopp, you're late." Sanji smiled, sharing some of this drink with the long nose by pouring it into the plastic cups stacked on all the tables. Usopp thanked him and took a sip, digging into his tray with a vigour that bordered on mannerlessness.

"I had to chat with Zoro before I came up here, I'm sure no one will mind if I take 5 extra minutes up here to finish eating." Usopp waved off the concerns casually, barely bothering to swallow before speaking. "Did you see the HUGE hickey on his shoulder?!"

Sanji's face started reddening at that, the flush creeping up his neck and threatening to consume his entire face up to his blond roots. He was about to cunningly redirect the subject when Caimie gleefully rolled over to their table, face lit up with excitement.

"Do you think Zoro-chin finally found someone he likes!?" The green haired girl squirmed slightly in her wheelchair, her smile incredibly bright and hopeful. Damn, Sanji couldn't change a subject that made a lady so excited.

"Unless Zoro was making out with a vacuum cleaner, it has to be someone he likes. He's HUGE so it's not like someone could give him a hickey that size without his approval." Usopp wiggled his thick eyebrows and a sneaky smile curved his thick lips as he leant forward towards a super excited Caimie. "And I know for a fact Zoro wasn't home at all last night, I was going to suggest movie night. He didn't answer his phone either."

"EEE!" Caimie fist pumped, excitedly bringing her hands up to her face and squishing her cheeks together in glee. "I hope it's someone nice! I hope its true love!"

"I'm going to pop out for a smoke." Sanji rasped as casually as he could, avoiding eye contact as much as he could so the other two people wouldn't notice his practically glowing cheeks. If Usopp had talked to Zoro already, that either meant that the long nose KNEW about them, or Zoro had done as Sanji asked and kept it a secret. Usopp didn't seem to be teasing him, so he suspected the latter; he didn't need his damn red ears to give him away.

"Are you okay Sanji?" Usopp noted with a concerned expression and Sanji waved it off as he shrugged on his jacket.

"Are you getting sick Sanji-chin?" Caimie reached out to tug on his jacket sleeve, looking up at him with wide concerned eyes. Sanji bit his tongue to reprimand himself for worrying a lady, and mustered up his widest casual smile.

"I'm just a bit tired. Nothing a smoke won't fix." Sanji waved the duo off, ignoring their further conspiracy theories as he jogged down the wheelchair ramp and out the back door. The smoking area was thankfully vacant, so he didn't have to explain his blazing cheeks.

Sanji lit up and squirmed slightly, his face almost flushing hot enough to cause steam to come off it in the cold air. The sky was gray and ominous, threatening to drop another inch of snow onto the already deep layer on the streets.

He couldn't bring himself to regret making that mark on Zoro's neck, or anything he did last night to be honest. He couldn't even regret having unprofessional feelings towards his boss. But he did regret not being able to brag about Zoro. Now that he thought about it, everyone he worked with had lives of their own outside of work.

If someone who worked at the store saw the two of them on their date, rumours would start spreading. He could get away with things like teasing at work and occasional grope when no one was around, but the people who worked here weren't idiots. The moment the two of them would be seen together outside of work, they would figure out something was going on between them.

He'd have to be careful every day to make sure he wouldn't be seen with Zoro outside of work. This whole situation was risky for their careers. Sanji grit his teeth and exhaled smoke through his nose, watching it waft in the still cold air. The crushing pressure of not being able to be seen with Zoro weighted on Sanji's chest.

How could he have been stupid enough to agree to go on a date!?

The excitement and anticipation he'd had for the evening was snuffed out as Sanji crushed his cigarette into the crackling snow under his foot. He couldn't go out with Zoro tonight. It would be for the best if he wasn't going out with Zoro at all, but he was pretty sure that if he tried breaking it off with the man his own heart would wither and die in the process.

Besides he couldn't break up with the other man. Especially not the day after they had finally had sex. What kind of bastard would break up with someone they dated for less than a day? No he'd told Zoro he wanted more than a one night stand, and he couldn't go back on his words. He wasn't sure he'd be able to look the other man in the eye if he did.

But he couldn't go out tonight either. If they were seen, people would figure out they were dating. If word spread about that, their jobs would be in jeopardy.

He couldn't do such a selfish thing. Sanji was working a register in a department store, sure he liked working there and he'd made friends with some of the staff, but he wouldn't lose any money getting a job as a cashier someplace else. He wasn't the one who could lose something he'd spent a lot of time earning.

Zoro, on the other hand, was a store manager. Sure it wasn't the classiest of titles, but Zoro had earned that status and promotion with hard work in the same store for years. He'd become important to the people who worked there and Sanji wasn't about to become the reason Zoro was fired or relocated. Even if Sanji would keep his job and they would get another store manager, his co-workers would hate him for sure.

He'd have to go to Zoro and cancel their date. Maybe convince the man to do something at home instead; like each other. As long as they didn't go anywhere with other people or display any sort of feelings in public, it was alright. As long as they were never seen together outside of the workplace, no one would know. He would have to be sneaky about it, he didn't want Zoro to think he'd changed his mind about them.

Right. That wasn't too hard. Sanji kicked snow off his shoes before going back into the store, shaking the cold from his body in disgust before he rubbed his hands together before he slid back into his post at the register. With Usopp here to help there were no lines on any of the registers and Sanji was confident he'd manage to slip away for a minute or two to talk to Zoro about keeping their date private.

Less than an hour after returning to his post, Sanji was scanning in a big bag of dog food when the crackle of the store announcement system coming to life caught the attention of everyone in the store. Zoro's voice was a hint deeper than usual as it echoed through the halls of the store.

"Sanji, report to my office."

The speakers went dead and so did Sanji's trail of thought. His heart thundered irregularly in his chest, he wasn't sure if he should be nervous or excited. No one else seemed to pay it any mind, and why should they? Sanji finished his customer, turned off his register light and wiped his slightly sweaty palms on his pants before he traversed the hallways to Zoro's office.

The office itself wasn't big; it had three narrow one way windows with tinted glass, making it impossible for Sanji to see if Zoro was watching him from his chair. Sanji didn't bother knocking, elbowing the slightly stiff door open and trying to keep his posture as casual as possible as he noticed Zoro's smirking face and amusingly arched eyebrow.

"Close the door." Zoro said with a nod to the side, earrings clattering with the movement. Sanji's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and he closed the door with a click, fingers lingering on the lock. He raised a questioning eyebrow, and Zoro nodded once. The door locked with a muffled click.

"You could have called for me more subtly, mossbrain." Sanji frowned, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against the door. "Are you trying to get us into trouble?"

"You are already in trouble." Zoro shrugged, leaning back in his worn leather chair until the back creaked. He looked a little too amused, eyebrow quirked as he folded his fingers at the back of his head. "Did you think you could harass your boss like that and not get called to the office?"

"I wasn't harassing my boss; I was harassing the idiot that sucked me off in the shower this morning." Sanji stated bluntly, watching Zoro's brows raise in amused disbelief. Sanji placed both his palms flat on the table, leaning over the desk and tilting his head back confidently. "Am I still in trouble?"

Zoro sat up in his chair, dragging it closer until their faces were intimately close. His one intact eye narrowed as he held eye contact for a second before his mouth quirked up in a smirk, furrowing his scar.

"I'm glad you're not going meek on me." Zoro grunted as he pulled back from Sanji's personal space, dragging his calloused fingers up and down the top of his scar, creating amusing furrows in his brow. "This place would be horribly dull if you suddenly started behaving."

"Just because I sneak out for a smoke doesn't mean I'm misbehaving, mossbrain." Sanji huffed, smirking teasingly at the older man. "Now that I think about it; I'm probably less inclined to obey you."

"Is it because you are an annoying bastard?" Zoro challenged with a smirk; leaning forward into Sanji's personal space until they were practically breathing the same air. Sanji knew exactly what Zoro was doing, and he wasn't about to back down from the challenge, so he closed the gap between them. All worries washed away and all his plans crumbling to dust in a second.

The rush of adrenaline spread through his body as his heart thundered in his chest, Zoro kissed him back, the gentle pull at Sanji's lips and the feeling of warmth from their mixing breaths was just as intoxicating as it had been the first time. He was sure kissing Zoro was never going to get old, he still got the same flutter in his chest and the same damn jolt of electricity all the way down to his toes.

"I don't mind being called to the office anymore-" Sanji pulled away to speak, barely finishing his teasing before Zoro reached out and grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer and sealing the gap between them again, wiping Sanji's mind clean of everything around him with a guttural grunt between their mouths.

This round of kissing was less languid and more passionate, growing in intensity with every second until Sanji realized he had climbed on top of the desk, sitting on the scattered papers and leaning over Zoro in the creaking leather chair. Sanji pulled away for a deep inhale, looking down at the older man who sat so invitingly sprawled out in his chair.

With a slight shift Sanji caught Zoro's shoulders and moved from the table and to his lap, straddling him as he resumed the kiss; pressing Zoro's head into the back of the chair eagerly. The creak of the chair grew rhythmic as Sanji took control of the kiss. Being allowed to lead despite the other man being bigger, older and his boss got him all fired up.

He could barely restrain a moan as he sucked at Zoro's lips, hands trailing up Zoro's neck and tangling in his earrings as he scratched at green sideburns. The heat was crawling in his skin, he could feel Zoro's large hands dragging longingly over his lower body, pressing into bruises from last night and pulling at the fabric of Sanji's pants with calloused fingertips.

Sanji couldn't help but gyrate his hips slightly in the other man's grasp, just enough to push Zoro into the soft leather of the chair until their bodies were pressed together. Sanji's nametag was making an indent against his chest; he could feel the heat from Zoro's body seep into his skin and he wasn't sure if the thundering heartbeat was his own or Zoro's.

"D-don't move like that" Zoro warned breathlessly, his voice husky with arousal as he leant his head back to get the words past Sanji's lips. The older man's extended neck was too tempting so the blond ignored the man's demands, sucking at the sensitive skin at the edge of his jawline. The feeling of Zoro's raging pulse against the younger man's hyper sensitive lips sent a shudder down Sanji's spine.

He sucked and nibbled his way down, relishing in the feel of Zoro's adam's apple moving as the man swallowed thickly. Slender, pale hands trailed down the man's neck and shoulders, pressing and rubbing against the larger man's chest. Sanji could feel the edge of the deep scar through Zoro's tight black work shirt.

"Fuck, Sanji-" Zoro grunted angrily, his grip on Sanji's hips tightening in an attempt to still them as the blond nibbled at the edge of the love bite from last night. "I don't want to spend the rest of this workday hard."

"Damn it, you're right." Sanji pulled back, taking a deep breath to try to calm down his raging hormones. Despite all his attempts to reason that 4 years weren't that much of an age gap when both people were over 20; it was still painfully obvious that Sanji was less in control of his urges than the older man. Zoro's lips tracing the outline of his collarbone wasn't helping.

"Just 4 more hours." Zoro rumbled against his skin, and Sanji let his eyes flutter shut, enjoying the feeling of his lover's lips pressing against his pulse as he spoke.

"Ah, that reminds me." Sanji said casually, sitting upright in Zoro's lap and pushing the green head back into the chair to force the other man to look at him. "My ass hurts."

"What?" Zoro flustered, blinking in confusion. "You said nothing was damaged-"

"It's just sore. The shitty work chairs are painful to sit on." Sanji frowned, pressing his palm into the side of Zoro's face to squish it comically. "And I'm really tired from barely sleeping, so your damn date better not be anything boring or physically taxing."

"Hey you said another round was going to be worth getting only 5 hours of sleep, it's your own fault." Zoro groused, frowning at Sanji with a huff. "And I was just going to invite you to see a movie."

"Can we just watch a movie at home instead?" Sanji suggested, playing with the older man's earrings. Sharing the couch with Zoro while watching bad television and dozing off sounded pretty damn amazing to be honest; especially if he could get some nice languid sex out of it.

"I suppose it doesn't matter;" Zoro watched Sanji suspiciously. "-is there a reason?"

"Yes. I'm tired and I don't feel like sitting still for two hours." Sanji frowned, flicking Zoro's name tag upwards and dragging his finger down Zoro's chest. "And I would prefer to be somewhere private in case I get bored with your no doubt shitty taste in movies."

"I have excellent taste in movies." Zoro frowned in annoyance, with the blond still seated in his lap.

"You can prove that to me in 4 hours." Sanji challenged, enjoying the way Zoro's brow sank and his face became serious. "If you do well, I'll come with you to the movies sometime. If not, I'm the one who controls all our movie dates until the end of time."

"That's unfair you blond bastard." Zoro growled under his breath, glaring as Sanji stood up and dusted off his work shirt. "You can just pretend not to like whatever I choose."

"That's true." Sanji nodded thoughtfully watching as Zoro's brow furrowed in annoyance. Feeling charitable, Sanji leant in and planted a kiss on the corner of the older man's lips. He pulled away as Zoro began kissing back; leaving the larger man pouting comically. "Then just make sure it's so good I can't fake it."

The beta for this is the lovely MistressHasty!

I'll be focusing on this story more in an attempt to finish it off before Christmas!