"So why did that cashier know you so well?" Zoro asked after the duo had gotten on home and stuffed the box of cigarettes under Sanji's bed.
"Old friends…" Sanji lit up the first cigarette of the pack with a sigh of relief.
"He was staring at me a little oddly... know anything about that?" Zoro pried to see if Sanji had caught on to the look in the cashier's eyes.
"Oh... Kaku is... well... he's kind of... how should I put this?" Sanji tried to look everywhere but the swordsman's eyes. "Kaku's gay."
"Oh... that's why... was he...? Uh..." Zoro's cheeks turned a dark shade of red. "Checking me out..."
"Yeah." Sanji stated bluntly before swiftly getting off his bed and to the door in seconds. "What do you want for supper?"
"I don't care... food." Zoro grumbled halfheartedly.
"Whatever... I'll make something Italian." Sanji mumbled half to himself as he slid out the door and down the steps.
~!~
Zoro was awoken from a nap Friday evening by his phone. It was ringing by his head like an angry bee. The swordsman groggily grabbed and answered to the unknown number with a small huff. There was a crackling noise before someone's voice shot through loud and clear.
"Zoro! Where the hell are you? Is Sanji there with you?" Ace's voice ripped through the speaker as a stream of screaming words.
"I don't know where the shit cook is but I'm at home." Zoro grumbled. "Why?"
"The party! Get Sanji and get to the party pronto! We've been waiting for a while!" Ace's voice was prominent but Zoro could hear the yelling and screaming of a club in the background.
"Alright..." Zoro hung up on Ace before the raven could damage his hearing anymore.
"Shit cook! Ace called!" Zoro yelled as loudly as he could.
"I was coming to wake your shitty ass up anyway." Sanji shouldered the door to the bedroom open and held up two different suits. "Pick one..."
"I don't want to wear that shitty thing. I'm going in what I'm wearing." Zoro declared before sliding off the bed and jamming his phone into his pocket.
"You are not showing up at a club wearing that while walking beside me! Just pick a fucking suit and put the damn thing on now." Sanji snapped angrily.
Zoro stiffened at the tone the blonde had used with him. It was the same one he used the day he had told Zoro that he would rip his balls off. The swordsman quickly grabbed a dark grey pinstriped suit and rushed into the bathroom to put it on. After only a minute, Zoro was back out of the bathroom.
"Try to do something with your god damn hair!" Sanji strode up to the swordsman and starting messing with his short hair fussily.
"It's fine." Zoro grumbled as he tried to bat Sanji's hand away.
"No it's not! It looks like a bird shitted in your hair after making a fucking nest out of it." Sanji shifted his weight to one leg and placed his hands on his hips with a pout. "Wait here a second."
Sanji disappeared into a bathroom for a few seconds before coming back out with a little jar. He screwed the cap off and dipped three of his fingers in until they were coated with the crème. Zoro's nose scrunched up in disgust as the cook ran his fingers through the swordsman's short hair and spiked it. After around five minutes of constant messing, Sanji finally deemed Zoro's hair presentable and shoved him out the door.
~!~
Ace was the first one to greet them the moment Sanji stepped out of the car. Zoro grumbled in irritation at the obvious signs that Ace had been drinking more than two cups of straight rum. Sanji smiled and accepted the raven's hug like it was normal and he wasn't drunk. Luffy came out a few seconds later and yanked all three of them back into the hubbub of the club.
"Hey Blondie~! Have shomething to drink! Tab'sh on me tonight!" Ace slurred happily.
"Then I'll enjoy myself!" Sanji laughed with just as much happiness that Ace had before ordering himself a bottle of Grover la Reserve.
Zoro listened as the name of the obviously French wine slid off the cook's tongue effortlessly. His thoughts wandered to what else the blonde could do with his tongue before he shook himself back into reality. Ace seemed to stare at Sanji with the same look in his eyes. It bothered the swordsman in ways that it shouldn't have.
~!~
It had been a few hours since they had come to the club. Sanji had drank enough to sway on his feet when he tried to stand still. Zoro had been here long enough for the music to start giving him a headache. Ace had drank enough to be completely smashed and hanging all over Sanji. Luffy was passed out on the table after having cleaned the bar out of hot wings and had drank a sip or two of Sanji's wine.
Ace barely sauntered up to the swordsman. "Zoro~ danche wit' me~!"
"Go home Ace, you're drunk." Zoro grumbled at the raven who could barely stand before him.
"No 'm not! 'M jusht warmin' up..." Ace gave Zoro the best glare he could before turning around and going back out to the dance floor. He wobbled out until he found what he was looking for... Sanji.
"Blondie~ Zoro won't danche wit' meh..." Ace whined as he wrapped his arms around Sanji's waist and peeked a look back at Zoro to see the swordsman's reaction.
Zoro glared at the raven for a few seconds before trying to find anything else more interesting. He caught sight of Nami and Robin chatting away in front of the bar and quickly slid down in his seat so that he looked like he was sleeping. Nami had a way of trying to give him loans every time they were alone.
"Ace... go back to Luffy. He'sh probably lonely..." Sanji slurred and put a hand over his mouth as an embarrassed gesture.
Zoro peeked an eye open ever so slightly when he heard the cook slur. Sanji's face went red at the sound of his own voice running together. Ace started to laugh and pick on the blonde for being drunk until Sanji said something about him being smashed. Luffy made a gurgling noise and looked up at Zoro as if he had gotten a frog shoved down his throat with the ten pounds of hot wings.
The swordsman took that look as an "I want to go home" look and strode out to the dance floor casually. "Ace, Luffy said that he wants to go home." Zoro found the raven and the blonde in the same spot that they were in just moments before.
"Luffy can find hish own way home." Ace growled. "'M goin' to shtay wit' Blondie here."
Zoro grabbed ace by the back of his jeans, for the lack of a shirt, and dragged him to an empty area between their table and the dance floor. "Get... Luffy... and... get... your... ass... home... now..." Zoro growled out threateningly in a low voice.
Ace took to the warning quickly as he was at the register, out the door, and half way home with Luffy in around three minutes. Zoro snorted calmly as he tried to keep his mind off going after Ace and murdering him. Someone threw their arms around his neck from behind and the swordsman stiffened.
"Are we going home too?" Sanji whispered in his ear rather seductively and the swordsman tensed even more in an effort to hold himself back.
"...yeah..." Zoro mumbled before dislodging himself from Sanji and grabbing the small bag of extra cash and cigarettes that he had brought along and heading towards the door.
"What are we doing when we get home?" Sanji trotted up to the swordsman's rather long strides with ease.
"Going to bed... and... sleeping..." Zoro tried hard not to grind his teeth together as he spoke. The alcohol in his system wasn't doing any favors to the swordsman's control.
"Can't we have another drink or watch TV first?" Sanji asked innocently.
"I... guess..." Zoro mumbled out as he hopped into the driver's seat.
"Oi, what are you doing? I know damn well you can't drive or we'll end up lost again." Sanji pouted as he put his hands on his hips.
That broke one of the strings of control Zoro had left and he shot out of the car in seconds. He grabbed Sanji's tie and pulled him close enough so that their breath intermingled. Zoro stared hard into the surprised blue eye in front of him but his control kept him from going any further. "Any objections?" The swordsman breathed out as calmly as possible.
"N-no..." Sanji stumbled slightly when Zoro let go of him and sat back down in the driver's seat.
Sanji hurried around the front of the car and hopped into the passenger's seat as fast as possible. He didn't want Zoro to get angry at him and really didn't want that angry swordsman to hate him for a few days. Zoro stared out at the road ahead of him and didn't look at Sanji the whole ride home, even when the cook would give him directions back to the house because he turned at the wrong corner.
They got home without an accident and Zoro opened the door. Zeff and Koshiro left a note on the counter saying that they had gone out for drinks with a couple of Zeff's restaurant's chefs. "Oh great, we're home alone and Sanji's drunk. I'm losing control on myself and he's at my disposal. How lovely." Zoro thought to himself as he plopped the note back down on the counter.
Sanji turned on the TV with the remote and headed into the kitchen to grab two glasses, a bottle of wine, and a bottle of Jack Daniels. Zoro watched the cook rummage around in the wine cabinet for a while before pulling out a bottle and grabbing his Jack Daniels from the fridge. It was probably the slight sway of Sanji's hips when he walked that held the swordsman's attention for so long. Or it was the way his legs seemed to get even longer when he reached up to get two glasses.
Zoro shook his head to try and get rid of his wandering thoughts. That was just another symptom of losing his control little by little. It was bad enough that he had considered doing the cook against his will in the parking lot of the club. The swordsman took a few deep breaths before the cook pushed his shoulder slightly and headed for the couch.
"You coming or not?" Sanji looked over his shoulder at the swordsman as he put the glasses and bottles on the coffee table.
"Yeah..." Zoro mumbled before carefully sliding his coat and shoes off and dropping onto the soft couch.
Sanji plopped down beside him and started flipping through the channels. When he found nothing of interest, he got up and dug around through their DVD rack. Zoro caught sight of the cook as he swayed his hips back in forth like he usually does when he has to chose something. The swordsman stared for a while until mentally beating himself for losing another string of control by thinking of all the things he could do.
"Fuck, Sanji... just pick something already!" Zoro growled.
"I'm getting there! Just fucking wait!" Sanji kept digging through the movies until he found something that caught his interest. "How does Paranormal Activity sound?"
"Fine! Just put the damn thing in and sit down." Zoro mentally beat himself again for sounding a slight bit needy. This was going to be a long two hours.
~!~
Every time something would slam shut or there would be noises, Sanji would jump slightly in his seat and lean towards Zoro. The swordsman's expression had went dark within the first forty five minutes of the movie. He was using every ounce of restraint he had left to keep himself from jumping the cook every time the blonde's shoulder would rub gently against his own. Near the ending, Sanji wrapped his arms around Zoro's stomach and nearly ploughed the man over trying to hide his face from the screen. That gesture seemed to snap what little control he had left, though he stayed right where he was.
The movie ended and the credits came on. Zoro let out a yawn and smirked as he leaned into the back of the couch. Sanji's next choice words were muffled by Zoro's back and the couch cushions. With a fling of limbs, Sanji pushed against the couch and bent nearly in half in an effort to pull himself from the suffocatingly small space.
"Are you trying to kill me?" Sanji growled after pulling himself free and panting to get some much needed air.
"No... just thought it would be fun to watch you struggle." Zoro laughed as Sanji stared at him incredulously at the words that just came from the swordsman's mouth.
"How do you call that fun? That'sh more like harasshhment!" Sanji covered him mouth as the slur came out more harshly than the one before. His few more cups of wine were starting to get to him.
"What's that? I couldn't understand you for the slur." Zoro teased with a smirk.
"Shut up bashtard!" Sanji slurred again and covered his mouth and blushed.
Zoro laughed and looked at the reddening blonde before him. Something about the way the red tone was on his pale skin seemed to tug at the swordsman's "feral" side. Sanji glared at Zoro angrily before opening his mouth to speak again. The blonde never got to say the next sentence for Zoro pulling his tie forward and crashing his lips against the other forcefully.
Sanji stiffened slightly in surprise before relaxing into the gesture. The swordsman let out a low growl as he got a response from the blonde. They stayed like that for a while before having to part for air. Sanji panted against the swordsman's neck for a few seconds before Zoro forced another kiss, this time accidentally clashing their teeth together.
The swordsman pushed Sanji down flat onto the couch and hovered over the blonde. He parted and started to leave a trail of butterfly kisses down the cook's jaw line and throat before nipping lightly at his adam's apple. Sanji swallowed nervously, making Zoro nip a little bit harder, but not enough to leave marks. A shiver passed over the blonde, making Zoro trail his kisses down to the blonde's collarbone.
Another growl rumbled through the swordsman's chest when Sanji arched his back against Zoro's chest. He caught the cook's lips in another heated kiss before sliding his tongue playfully against the blonde's lower lip, not expecting entrance. When Sanji complied, it caught the swordsman off guard and he faltered for a few seconds before continuing. The kiss had just gotten more heated when a shoe was whipped past the swordsman's head threateningly.
"What the fuck are you two doing?" Zeff growled dangerously from the living room door.
Zoro pulled away from the cook as fast as he could. Sanji just laid there stunned before glancing up at Zeff but keeping his mouth shut. Koshiro wiggled past Zeff, saw Zoro still hovered over the blonde, and took off to his bedroom as fast as possible. "Keep it down... okay?" Koshiro mumbled with his head down as he raced up the steps. Zeff stared after him angrily.
"I even brought Patty and Carne to come see you, Sanji." Zeff sighed before turning to speak to someone standing somewhere in the dining room behind him. "I guess you guys can go home after you say hi unless you want to join in too."
Zoro blinked in confusion as the older chef hurried up the stairs as fast as his outdated wooden leg would carry him. Two guys came into view from the door to the living room. Sanji looked up again and waved casually, but didn't dare to say anything.
"I didn't know you leaned this way Sanji~! You should have told someone earlier so that we could find someone a bit more... feminine." One of the guys with a rope tied around his forehead and a pink scarf around his neck talked first.
"Fuck off Patty, I don't lean that way." Sanji growled threateningly, signaling their time to leave the premises.
"Then what the fuck are you doing?" The other, shorter male asked.
"Having fun..." Sanji shrugged them off before completely ignoring the two males in the doorway.
Patty and Carne took that as a signal to get the fuck out now or else. Sanji had a way without words and just actions that can say a whole lot more than what he spouts off normally. Zoro watched them leave at the cook's silent treatment and laughed slightly. The blonde looked up at him with his one eye looking rather puppy-ish.
~!~
Sanji woke up in Zoro's bed, snuggled against the swordsman's chest. His memory came back in a flash.
Sanji looked up to Zoro with pleading eyes only to get a hand in his face. Zoro laughed slightly before getting off the couch and cleaning their glasses after putting the wine and Jack Daniels away. He had somehow managed to get some control back when Zeff and Koshiro came back from the bar with some guests. It took him just a few minutes to clean the glasses and put away the alcohol.
The cook slid his arms around Zoro's waist as he cleaned the glasses. "...continue?" Sanji asked a simple question, but it was enough to tear at the swordsman's control again. "No... we're going to bed since it's late. We can spar in the indoor gym tomorrow if you want." Zoro answered back and pried himself from the blonde's grip to put the glasses away.
Sanji followed him up the steps after turning the TV off. When they got up there, Sanji refused to sleep in his own bed and wouldn't let go of the swordsman. They ended up falling asleep with Sanji nestled comfortably in the swordsman's chest, somehow fitting on the twin sized bed comfortably.
Sanji gently pushed himself off the swordsman's chest and sat up. He rubbed at his head where a headache had started due to the hangover from drinking way too much. Zoro shifted in his sleep but didn't wake up. The cook slid himself out from under the covers and towards his dresser. His alarm clock didn't ever go off, but the time was the same as always. Three thirty.
Digging through his drawers, he found a pair of pull on sweats and a lose T-shirt. Sanji's mind kept replaying last night's events and he kept asking himself what he would tell Zoro when the swordsman woke up. He had known that Zoro definitely wasn't drunk, so did that mean that the swordsman like him that way and should he just ask Zoro out just to see where this went or should he just give him the silent treatment. The blonde lost himself deep in thought while he cooked. There was only slight differences in the way he moved about the kitchen, but not enough that someone who didn't watch him constantly would have noticed.
Zoro woke up with his alarm at five and noticed the lack of heat near his chest. He remembered drifting off to sleep with something warm pressed against his chest, but couldn't remember what. Then it hit him. Sanji was that warm thing and he was no longer in the room. The swordsman thought about last night and decided that it would be better just to tell the cook to forget about it. Though that might send a bad impression.
Sanji was in the middle of making some grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast when he noticed the telltale thump of the swordsman's feet hitting the wooden stairs. He flipped off the heat to the burner and washed his hands before striding out of the kitchen to talk to Zoro about last night.
"Zoro (Sanji) I have something to tell you..." They both said in unison. Sanji blinked as he was stunned by the swordsman asking and Zoro blinked as he was stunned by the cook asking.
"Go first..." Sanji urged.
"Uh, okay... about last night..." Zoro scratched the back of his neck nervously.
"Yes... we need to, Uh... talk... about that." Sanji fidgeted nervously as well.
"Yeah... Uh, when... when do you want to talk... about that." Zoro asked in a hushed tone.
"Soon, but not here... Zeff and Koshiro... they... they saw... but I don't want them to know... that we... were...uh... about this..." Sanji tried hard not to stutter as he spoke as softly as he could.
Both males were blushing by this point and there was no turning back now. Sanji went back into the kitchen and started to continue cooking the grilled cheese for everyone. During the time that he was cooking, he remembered the invitation to spar in the indoor gym that the swordsman was otherwise oblivious to. A smirk graced his lips when he thought of all the ways he could make Zoro have to bend and twist to avoid his own flexible attacks. Sparring sounded like a great idea at the moment.
"Hey Zoro!" Sanji yelled out from the kitchen.
"What?" Zoro stumbled into the kitchen when he tripped over his own feet.
"I'll take up that offer from last night." Sanji smirked at the confused look on the swordsman's face before remembrance hit him square in the face.
"Are you sure you want to get your ass handed to you this early in the morning?" Zoro smirked playfully.
"What are you talking about? I'll be the one handing it out." Sanji growled challengingly as he flipped one of the grilled cheese sandwiches.
Zoro leaned against the door frame and continued to throw insults to lighten up the mood a bit. Sanji kept handing them back and soon they had the atmosphere feeling a more comfortable. Zeff came barreling down the stairs at his own pace and fumbled his way to the table sleepily. The blonde made a quick effort to speed up the cooking process on the tomato soup and get Zeff a bowl and sandwich almost instantly.
Sanji rushed his way back into the kitchen and Zoro laughed at his quick attempt to please his adoptive father. The blonde kicked his shin hard for making fun of him. He turned the heat down on the tomato soup and left it to simmer as he continued making more grilled cheese sandwiches. When Zeff called for another, Sanji made sure to give him the warmest one there. Koshiro came down the steps not long after and the blonde made a feeble attempt to please him too.
"Ah, Sanji..." Koshiro called after the blonde's retreating form. "Did you have fun last night?"
Zoro and Sanji stood just inside the doorway to the kitchen staring at each other with wide eyes and red faces. Luckily, they were just out of sight, but that didn't help much. "W-What are you talking about?" Sanji winced at the stutter he made as he tried to play dumb. The swordsman's eyes got even wider at the obvious stutter.
"He's talking about what you and that asparagus were doing on the couch last night." Zeff stated bluntly.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Was the damn marimo trying to rape me in my sleep or something?" Sanji tried to sound dumb and angry, but it came out sounding nervous and aloof.
"Something like that..." Koshiro mumbled loud enough for them to hear.
Zoro stood there smashed against the inner frame while Sanji stood just out of view from their foster parents. The look in the swordsman's eyes was the same as Sanji's. They hadn't realized that Zoro was in the kitchen with Sanji and they weren't going to find out.
~!~
The duo had gone the whole morning without incident. Koshiro continued to complain on how long it was taking Zoro to wake up, but the swordsman didn't dare come walking out of the kitchen like it was nothing. Suspicion would grow and soon the two adoptive parents would be throwing accusations around and teasing them to no end. It was already evident that they had been suspecting something and had been continuously harassing Sanji about it all morning.
"Sanji, get me some coffee, dark." Zeff called from the table and the blonde rushed to get his order out in a few moments.
Just as the blonde was about to rush the cup out to his adoptive father, he tripped over his own feet and came crashing into Zoro's chest, effectively spilling hot coffee all over himself and Zoro. Zoro held a hand over his mouth to keep himself from yelling out and spewing a string of unkind words at the culprit. Sanji screamed in pain while stripping himself of his shirt and apron.
"Eggplant, you okay?" Zeff yelled in worriedly from the table. The sound of his chair scraping the tile brought Sanji back to the green-haired male in front of him, his eyes going wide.
"It's nothing... I'm good. I just spilled the hot coffee on my toes and fingers. No biggie..." Sanji struggled to get to his feet on the slick tiles.
There was the sound of a chair leg scraping again and Sanji calmed down a bit at the telltale sound of Zeff sitting back down. The spilt coffee made the kitchen tiles slick and hot. Sanji slid around a bit when he tried to stand up and almost ended up back in Zoro's lap. The swordsman struggled to get himself off the floor without making too much noise and alerting Zeff and Koshiro to his presence in the kitchen.
Sanji slid his soaked shirt and apron back on as fast as he could and grabbed another cup and put coffee in it. Zoro looked at the blonde with wide eyes from across the coffee puddle. The puddle spanned the whole kitchen width and Sanji had a look in his eyes like he was going to attempt crossing it with a full cup of coffee. The swordsman stared at the blonde with wide eyes as Sanji put a foot onto the puddle and carefully crossed it with a smirk when he didn't fall again.
Zeff got his coffee hot, accompanied by a coffee stained blonde. He looked up and down Sanji with an eyebrow raised questioningly. Sanji rushed back into the kitchen when Koshiro kindly asked for a second grilled cheese sandwich. Forgetting about the spilt coffee, Sanji rushed towards the stove top.
His feet slid on the slick tiles and sent him lurching forward into the hot stove. Zoro had seen him come into the kitchen at break neck speed and was going to warn him but it was already too late by the time the swordsman turned around. Sanji started falling forward right into the hot stove, but Zoro sidestepped.
Sanji did a face plant into the swordsman's chest. Zoro made sure to grip the oven's handlebars so that he wouldn't fall backwards onto the burner and burn himself. It took Sanji a moment to realize that he was no longer tumbling into the hot burner and was no longer in risk of getting burnt. He peered up at the swordsman as his bangs started to slide out of his one eye.
Zoro's eyes widened as the layer of bangs slowly started to fall down, probably because the cook forgot to use hairspray, and reveal his hidden eye. Sanji blinked up at the swordsman until realization hit him. The blonde shoved off of Zoro harshly, put a hand up to cover what his fray no longer covered, and dashed out of the kitchen as fast as he could. Zeff watched as the blonde high-tailed it towards his bedroom and noticed the flustered look in his eyes and the way he covered his one eye.
"Koshiro... if you want a second sandwich, you might want to get one yourself before the asparagus eats them all." Zeff scooted his chair back and stood up.
"Why? Zoro's still in bed." Koshiro blinked at the older man like he was saying that fantasy was real or that every woman's breasts were fake.
"He's been in the kitchen since earlier this morning." Zeff explained before plopping himself down in front of the TV and flicking on the cooking channel.
Koshiro silently stood and went to get himself another sandwich only to find Zoro mopping coffee off of the floor. The swordsman looked up at him with wide eyes before sighing and going back to his mopping. Meanwhile, Sanji was struggling to get his hair to lay back over his eye stiffly. It kept fighting the hairspray and styling products that the cook was dousing it with.
~!~
Zoro trudged up the stairs when the blonde hadn't come back down after a whole hour. The swordsman looked around in their bedroom a bit before going into the connected bathroom. When the search for the blonde came up empty, Zoro stood in the middle of the room and thought about all the places that Sanji could have went. Relying purely on instinct, Zoro thought only about the cook and walked out side before walking in a seemingly straight line towards the area he expected Sanji to be. His feet brought him back to his bedroom and standing in front of the closet.
"Sanji... I know you're in there. Come on out already." Zoro leaned his forehead up against the closet door so that he could hear any movement. There was a light shuffling noise and a quiet sniffle.
"Va te faire foutre marimo (Fuck off marimo)." Sanji's voice came in a language not quite English, but he recognized his nickname.
"Sanji, don't start speaking French. You know I can't speak French." Zoro pleaded through the door.
"Va t'en..." Sanji mumbled. (Go away...)
"If you don't start speaking English I'll start speaking Japanese and we both know that we don't want that." Zoro threatened at the lack of understandable words.
"Then go the fuck away..." Sanji's voice lacked it usual enthusiasm and hype that it usually had when he cussed off the swordsman.
"Tell me what's wrong... I'll listen..." Zoro turned and locked the bedroom door before sliding his back down the closet door, expecting to be there a while.
"I don't want to talk about it..." Sanji grumbled with a muffled volume. It sounded as though he had pressed his face into his knees before speaking.
"It can't be that bad..." Zoro started before he was abruptly cut off.
"It's fucking horrible! You wouldn't understand!" Sanji practically screamed into his knees and Zoro heard the faint cracking in his voice.
"I might... just let me in, then we'll talk. Okay?" Zoro tried to plead again.
There was a light clicking noise as the closet door unlocked and Zoro stood up quickly. He wasn't expecting the cook to let him in so fast, nor was he expecting the cook to even agree to talk. Zoro pulled open the door to find Sanji on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees and his face was smashed between the top of his knees and his chest, just like the swordsman had expected him to be. The cook's shoulders shook slightly but he didn't make a noise.
"Sanji..." Zoro let his voice sound saddened and worried at the way the cook was acting.
"..." Sanji didn't make a sound or say a word as Zoro relocked the closet door and sat down beside the blonde comfortingly.
"You still wanna talk or are you just going to sit there and pout all day?" Zoro whispered soothingly to try and urge the blonde to speak up.
"...pout..." Sanji mumbled into his legs.
"You spoke~!" Zoro teased.
"Shut up." Sanji shot back without his usual bite.
"So... what is wrong?" Zoro prodded lightly.
"... mghi... ffgghin... gruhli... ehgibrghs..." Sanji grumbled incoherently into his legs.
"Uh... say that without all the extra sounds and syllables." Zoro looked at Sanji like he had spit out an eel when the cook had first grumbled his answer out into his legs.
"My fucking..." Sanji started out nice and loud before it dissipated down into barely a whisper. "... curly eyebrows..."
Zoro had trouble catching the ending, but he managed to hear it somehow. "What's wrong with them?" The swordsman asked innocently.
"You saw..." Sanji growled, his voice sounding like dripping poison.
"Oh!" Zoro thought back to the kitchen incident and it hit him like a truck. Sanji's eyebrows faced the same way... "There's nothing wrong with that... the one just didn't feel like being like the other one."
"You're making it sound worse..." Sanji struggled to keep from bawling at the thought of every one of his friends finding out and making fun of him for it. It was bad enough that he let Zoro kiss him last night, but this added would just make him a freak.
"Sorry... it just seems as though the one wanted to be exactly like the other one." Zoro tried to fix his mix-up only to see Sanji's back move in a silent sob. The swordsman started to freak out as he thought, "What have I done?! "
"It's stupid... isn't it?" Sanji struggled to get his sentence out between the silent sobs that raked the blonde's thin body.
"No, no, no..." Zoro slung his arm around the cook's back and grabbed his shoulder lightly with reassurance and for comfort. "It's not stupid at all... it's kind of... cute, really."
"It's not cute." Sanji mumbled stiffly.
"Sure it is... you just can't see it that way because you've had it all your life." Zoro explained.
He pulled the blonde into a lopsided hug and felt the cook's sudden jolts when he sobbed silently. Zoro dug his nose into the top of Sanji's hair comfortingly and just held him. Sanji cried for a while before slowly drifting off to sleep because of exhaustion from this morning.
"G'night sleepyhead..." Zoro muttered into the golden locks before drifting off to sleep himself.