Zoro had just managed to untangle Tony from the last of the tinsel when Sanji rang. His son had been helping to decorate the tree before being distracted by all the colourful decorations and had somehow, and only God knew how, had managed to tangle himself up in a long strand of silver tinsel. It had took Zoro five minutes to get him out of it and now his son had gone to hang the last of the ornaments on the tree under his father's supervision. Zoro sighed, he'd been busy all day what with changing Tony's dressings, getting the decorations out of the attic, and making sure Luffy had enough stuff for the Christmas party over the phone. It was now five in the evening and Zoro remembered that Sanji had got off work two hours ago. He thumbed the accept call button and put his mobile to his ear,
"Hello?"
"Hi, mosshead." Sanji said, voice a little husky. The teacher had taken to calling him that nickname recently over texts and calls and Zoro would be lying if he said he minded- it meant Sanji was paying attention to him after all. And besides, he had his own name to say back.
"Curlybrow."
He swore he could hear Sanji smile, "How's Tony?"
Zoro felt something indescribably warm nestle in his chest at being reminded that Sanji actually cared about the both of them. He looked to his son who was singing a tuneless rendition of 'I wish it could be Christmas every day' whilst he hooked the baubles onto the lower branches, "He's good. He's decorating the tree."
Sanji hummed, "That's nice, good he's okay. Oh, hey, I wanted to ask you…"
The teacher trailed off and Zoro frowned, "Ask me what?"
"Well, I'm… going to a party on the twenty third and I just wondered if, you know, you wanted to come with me?"
Zoro almost accepted the invite but then remembered that the twenty third was Luffy's party and he already said he was going- there was no way to back out of that. But when he spoke to Sanji he felt genuinely disappointed in himself for not being able to go, "I can't… I'm already going to a party and I said I'd be there."
"Oh, that's okay." Sanji replied but Zoro could hear the slight note of disappointment in his voice. Sanji covered that note up quickly, "Anyway, I was wondering if you'd be up for New Year's Eve? Just a couple of drinks?"
"Yeah," Zoro said, "That sounds great."
"Okay, I'll see you then. Merry Christmas, mosshead."
Zoro, suddenly inspired by a random thought managed to catch Sanji before he hung up, "Hey, if you're not busy or have plans, do you want to spend Christmas Day with us? It's up to you but… yeah."
Sanji was quite a moment, like a surprised silence, but he caught himself, "Yeah, sure, I'd love to. My old man's running the restaurant over Christmas so I haven't got any plans. I can cook! If you want me to, that is…"
"It'd be great if you could cook, me and Tony never have a proper Christmas dinner." Zoro smiled, both at the teacher's enthusiasm and the fact that he and Tony ordered a lot of pizza from Dominos on Christmas Day as both a treat and to compensate for the fact that Zoro couldn't really cook.
"Great! Well, I've gotta go- got some serious marking to start."
"Nice, have fun with that," Zoro said, grateful he hadn't got to work until January.
"Oh boy, I will." Sanji said, sarcasm drawling off his voice, "Merry Christmas, mosshead."
"Merry Christmas, curlybrow." Zoro retorted.
He couldn't stop the smile that pulled at his lips as he hit 'end call'.