ZoSan: The Flower

Chapter 18 - Sanji

He's going to kill me unless I kill him first.

Sanji wasn't sure whether to be furious or slightly turned on. Or both.

Both is good, some part of his subconscious decided for him.

Zoro had beat his little challenge easily, even flaunting an apparent familiarity with wine, which meant he owed the bastard the bottle of sake on the counter. That, of course, the swordsman seemed to have conveniently forgotten, meaning Sanji would be obliged to take it to him later because he was a man of his word. And Zoro'd done it making the sexiest freaking eye contact. And that little lick as he finished his damn glass. All the while shirtless but eating like he had MANNERS. And then he'd called him by name again and touched his shoulder with that warm, strong hand in front of everybody and and and....

And Sanji really needed to establish some ground rules for this thing because he was pretty sure that had crossed lines somewhere. Like all of the lines.

Except the lines hadn't been drawn yet. And Sanji had started it with the challenge in the first place, so could he really blame Zoro for taking it further? Would he have done the same if the situation had been reversed?

Also, the table had gone painfully silent, and he could feel their eyes on him, waiting for a reaction to the swordsman's uncommon use of Sanji's actual name. Had Zoro even realized he'd said it? If so, that was most definitely foul play.

Sanji couldn't stop his face from heating, but he gave no other indication of his thoughts. Still, the silence stretched on. His blush deepened further when he realized even Luffy had stopped eating to alternate between staring at the cook and staring at the door Zoro had just left through.

"Please talk," Sanji finally asked weakly after another minute, "or eat? Whatever."

Turned out there was a third emotion hidden there: embarrassment.

"He said your name," Nami breathed. "Sometimes I haven't even been sure he remembered it! I know what he said earlier, but... I never expected that!"

"... he's said my name before, Nami-swan. Please don't make a thing out of it." The sentence took all of Sanji's remaining composure. He was tired and overwhelmed and quite frankly felt like crying, really crying, for the first time since he'd heard about Ace's death. And he didn't mean happy tears, either. He began trying to pick at the food on his own plate again only because he knew he hadn't eaten properly in too long.

There was a cough and a pointed glare from Robin to the rest of the table. Usopp started telling some imaginative story, his voice a little higher and shakier than usual at first, but Sanji was grateful for the focus to be off of him. Still, he excused himself from the table as soon as he'd managed to choke down a decent portion of food.  He looked at the messy kitchen the bottle of sake on the counter. He'd clean properly tomorrow, he decided as he made his way to the men's dorm.

"Will someone make sure the moss-head gets this?" Sanji tapped the top of the sake bottle as he left the room, not even waiting for a response.

Even another cigarette could wait until morning. For now, he desperately needed sleep. He barely bothered to take his jacket and vest off before he flopped into his bed, still in his dress shirt and pants. Sleep came quickly, but even before it caught him, Sanji knew it would be a restless night.