WINTER HEAT | ZoSan ❄

5

Ending his long and detailed speech that took him almost an hour to finish, Zoro stared at Sanji, waiting for him to speak.

The blonde man hunkered down into a squat position, sitting beside a tree to clear the mind distortion he was now dealing with while trying to comprehend Zoro's side of the story.

"Still don't get it? I was asleep."

"Doesn't justify the fact that he was sleeping on top of you."

Torn in between trying to believe Zoro or not, the Cook was unsure of what to do.

"He's a man!"

"What the hell am I then? A dog!?"

The Swordsman allowed his eyes to drift off in the sunset, running the risk of going partially blind, all for the sake of maintaining the peace with Sanji by ignoring him instead of shouting back at him.

"And let me tell you something: Instead of getting drunk at the bar, you could've gone back to the Sunny instead!"

But ignoring the Cook was no easy task. Especially when his words felt so irrelevant towards Zoro.

"If you really know nothing, don't opinionate anything at all."

"Screw you! You suck at giving explanations, 'cuz I didn't understand JACK SHIT. You were at a bar, but somehow woke up in some stranger's bed?"

Sanji questioned with a rude tone of voice, letting his rage get to him, the further away his heart drifted from the good memories he once shared with the man he thought he loved.

Zoro attempted to speak again, but the Cook raised his voice, silencing him in seconds, having no disregard for his opinion, whatsoever.

"And hold on, not just that. Not only did you have the kind gesture of taking this man back to his house, but you also took the time to take his clothes off so that he was more comfortable while sleeping next to you! What a gentleman!"

The Cook chuckled, keeping his composer to not lose the last string of sanity he had locked inside of him.

Listening to him with an impatient tapping on his left foot, the Swordsman swiped his hand across his own face out of frustration, continuing to tap his foot against the ground.

A gathering of ice cold flurries blustered near them, signalling a snowfall was seconds away from descending from the sky.

And as the wicked wind started picking up, so did their argument.

If someone were there to witness the way that the men violently shouted at each other, they would think that they were controlling the weather with their words.

The louder they would yell, the stronger and colder the wind would get, ripping through the pine trees within the forest.

"Talking to you is worse than trying to start a conversation with a carrot. I think I'd get a more accurate response from a vegetable than from the person who cooks them."

The Swordsman retorted, his words piercing through Sanji's pride as a Chef, similar to the serrated edges of a knife.

"Wanna talk about cooking? Who cooks for you every day? Are you up before the sun, preparing nine different meals for everyone on the ship? No, right?"

Even when he was close to giving in, Sanji defended himself from every hateful verse that the Swordsman directed towards him.

"Bear in mind, I still cook for you too!" He divulged.

"I never stopped eating your food, so don't act like I've been leaving it out for the birds by the deck, or throwing it away."

The sun slowly started to set, and the stubborn men weren't even worried about where they would spend the night, or how much colder it was going to get, without the light of the sun to provide a small amount of warmth for them.

"And I never asked you to cook for me either! I've never asked you for a single favor, but why don't you do me this one solid and go somewhere else? I don't even wanna see your face."

For the first time in a while, Sanji clenched his fist and prepared himself to strike Zoro's face with it.

But to not make things more complicated for him, the angered Cook grabbed a pile of snow from the ground and launched it with all his might against the Swordsman's face.

Though it wasn't a direct hit, the side of Zoro's neck, running down to his chest, reddened and grew a bit sore from the collision of the snowball that Sanji had angrily struck him with.

"I hope you freeze your ass off out here and turn into a snowman."

He silently spoke through a lump that was poking at his throat as a result of the pain he had been holding in, ever since his discussion with the Swordsman took place.

"You can suck on these snowballs, for all I care."

The older man's immature reply delayed Sanji from leaving, as he was tempted to start another argument with him.

"Can't believe we used to date before. The Summer heat waves must've really screwed up with my neurons back then to make me end up with you."

He bit the inside of his cheek, missing the presence of his lighter while craving a cigarette in his moment of despair.

No longer receiving a sarcastic response from his foe, the Cook walked away without turning back to see if he was being followed.

And as for the Swordsman, he stayed behind watching the blonde man's figure disappear down a dark pathway, full of snow, but absent of hope in escaping Snowbound Island.

Pulling out a liquor bottle from his jacket, Zoro took a gulp, feeling the alcohol burning him from the inside, wondering how much more his body could handle before collapsing.

"Rather be poisoned by the alcohol and not that look in your eyes. Of all the enemies I've dealt with in my life... No one's ever pissed me off, the way you do, stupid love Cook."

~~~