ZoSan: The Flower

Chapter 54 - Sanji

"He... doesn't remember?" He asked, looking at Robin with eyes that begged it to be a bad joke.

"Nothing past Alabasta. Didn't even remember me joining," she confirmed softly. "Called me Crocodile's flunky, actually."

Robin looked hurt at the memory of the words. Sanji should comfort her, tell her Zoro didn't mean it, that the Zoro who remembered their travels would obviously not say that anymore. Tell her that it'd be alright. But all rational thought had frozen.

Alabasta. Before Zoro had even really been his 'friend'. Ages before Zoro had admitted to being in love with him. Sanji's heart sank as his brain resumed its process. "We... just became official, I just claimed him today, and now...we have to start over?" He put his hand over his mouth, trying to hide his trembling chin from Robin and Brook. "I have to go to him. Where were they when you left?"

Robin gave him the info, and Sanji immediately launched into the air. It felt like eons before he got there, but it was really only a matter of minutes before he landed just a few feet away from where the group sat.

"Cook...," Zoro sounded... awed. Relieved, but like he wasn't sure what to say. "Since when can you fly?" His gaze darted around Sanji's face, taking in the different hairstyle, the other eyebrow that this Zoro didn't remember ever seeing, the goatee. Under other circumstances, that intense gaze would've made Sanji blush. Now it just made him sad.

"So you really have forgotten... dammit. Of all the times to forget more than two damn years of your life, you manage to do it when you were happiest." Sanji stalked up to him and pulled the swordsman to his feet. Zoro tensed, like he was ready to fight, but Sanji pulled him into a soft hug.

"Any damage besides the memory loss?" Sanji held the hug, silently begging the swordsman to remember.

Zoro stayed quiet, clearly not realizing that Sanji was asking him. And still not returning the hug. Chopper saved him the trouble of answering.

"Nothing. Physically, he's fine, as far as I can tell with the tools I have with me. He's in the same condition he was yesterday at the checkup."

Sanji finally let Zoro go, and a light blush on that tan face gave his heart room to rise an inch. "Would you guys be willing to take stuff back to the Sunny so he and I can talk? Maybe I can help get his memories back."

"Why not all of us go back? If I'm physically fine, then I should help carry, right? I assume I'm still one of the strongest on the ship?"

"You are," Luffy confirmed, "but this is more important. Go. Talk. We've got the cargo." The captain picked up the medallion and its scarf and shoved them into a pocket.

"Don't start eating that food, Luffy, unless you want to risk starving later," Sanji reminded his captain almost absentmindedly. Then he turned back to the swordsman. "Walk with me?" he asked, quietly, lighting a cigarette, his first for the day. Zoro fell into step beside him, curiosity seeming to radiate off of him.

"To be honest, I'm not sure where to start. Alabasta feels like so long ago, now."

"Start with when and why this started changing, then, curly-brow." Zoro's hand drifted between them to indicate his meaning. That voice held no malice, no spite, but also none of the affection he'd grown used to hearing. It made a lump form in Sanji's throat. "Everyone else filled in enough so I can get by if I need to, but they wouldn't say much about you aside from that our dynamic had changed."

"Started changing for you or for me? Because they were kinda different points."

"For you, then."

Sanji nodded. "Ok. For me, we started to be friends more than rivals a while back. Alabasta may actually have been the starting point, come to think of it. We still fought each other, of course, still competed in everything. But we began fighting more and more battles together, and it became a strange friendship. I trusted you, and you trusted me." Damn, this was hard. "Even when we were separated and eventually all reunited, I considered you my best friend. And then, about four months ago now, you started to get sick."