Sanji watched, spellbound by the sheer incompetence, as Zoro tried again and again to wrap his lower leg with a bandage. He’d managed to get the other side done, though it looked like it had been wrapped blindfolded, all twists and crossings and knots.
The crew was still gathered in the galley over dinner: Nami and Usopp on one side of the hanging table, Luffy and Zoro on the padded bench, Vivi across from Sanji at the opposite end. The dinosaur had come out perfect, carved thick and juicy, set out with baby potatoes glossed in butter and a platter of vegetables. Dessert was bowls of strawberries, cantaloupe, and watermelon. Moonlight spilled through the stern windows while lantern light kept the room warm and gold. The ship rolled gently beneath them, enough to make the hanging table sway on its chains with a soft creak now and then. The air smelled of roast meat, wine, and the fresh sweetness of sliced fruit.
Zoro had been messing with the bandage since he’d finished eating, wrapping and unwrapping it around his left leg. The idiot, Sanji had learned, had thought cutting his own legs off at the ankle was a brilliant idea to save them from the Baroque Works agents. It took a special sort of man to be that stupid and that fiercely set on protecting others. Sanji hadn’t decided if he was appalled or impressed.
Good thing he was pretty. That made up for a lot.
Zoro was in a quiet argument-that-wasn’t with Sanji, still insisting that he was the one who killed the dinosaur. Which he hadn’t. If he had, there would’ve been dino guts spilled on the ground, not just a neat little slice in its belly. Sanji pointed this out as he watched with growing incredulity while Zoro wound the bandage lopsidedly around his lower leg, nowhere near the cut.
“Are your hands lost or something?” Sanji finally said, interrupting Zoro mid-bullshit.
Zoro paused, both in speech and in his hands. “What does that even mean?”
Sanji gestured at the leg with his nearly empty wine glass. “You can’t seem to find your way around that leg.”
“The bandage is being stubborn,” Zoro said with all the seriousness of a man who believed the blame lay exactly where it belonged.
Sanji opened his mouth, then closed it again. Yep, good thing he was pretty.
Dinner was over, leaving behind dirty plates, half-finished drinks, and the loose sprawl of people slow to get up. Nami was the first to leave the galley. Sanji continued watching the slow-motion catastrophe until he couldn’t stand it any longer. “Right.” He knocked back the rest of his wine, set the glass on the table, and bullied himself into Zoro’s space.
The table rocked when he bumped it, earning a complaint from Usopp. The lanterns on the table them swung faintly with the movement, throwing a warm shift of light across Zoro’s throat and jaw. Sanji knelt with one knee between Zoro’s legs on the bench, the other foot on the floor, and batted his hands out of the way.
Zoro stared up at Sanji with wide, dark eyes that made him look even more edible. “What are you doing?”
“Saving you from yourself,” Sanji said, stripping the mess away completely. The conversation around them stalled when he moved, then picked back up a moment later.
Zoro had gone tense all over, muscles pulling tight through his neck, arms, and legs. Sanji could feel the firmness of the calf beneath his fingertips as he checked the wound. “You cleaned this, right?” Sanji asked.
“Of course I did,” Zoro said, jaw ticking.
Sanji nodded and began wrapping the injury properly. Zoro’s skin was warm beneath his hands, smooth and bare. When Sanji glanced up, he caught the quicker rise and fall of Zoro’s chest. The pulse in his throat gave a visible jump.
Well, wasn’t that interesting?
Sanji slowed his hands, let his touch linger where it did not need to, and was pleased to see Zoro swallow thickly. He’d been half-flirting with the man since the Conomi Islands, trying to get a rise out of him with a word or a look. From the smiles Zoro tried to crush before they fully formed, Sanji had suspected there might be something there. Now he knew.
The galley had gone softer around the edges. Luffy and Usopp were talking with Vivi again, voices blurring into background noise. The ship gave another easy sway, wood creaking, lantern light shifting across the table and glinting against Zoro’s earrings. Sanji stayed where he was between the man’s knees and worked more slowly than the bandage strictly required.
It was difficult not to be charmed by Zoro. He had muscle, but he still carried that lean, lithe look of a panther or tiger slipping through the undergrowth. Sanji appreciated beauty in all forms, and Zoro’s was unfairly easy to appreciate – the delicate structure of his face, the slight curve of his jaw, the soft shape of his mouth. His dark eyes seemed to take in more than he said. There was a quietness to him that did not read as cold so much as contained, as if he kept himself carefully gathered in.
He was a little dumb, though. Just enough to make it endearing rather than irritating. And Sanji would never stop enjoying the chance to wind him up.
Sanji wondered what would happen if he pushed right now. If he bent down and stole a kiss. Would Zoro punch him? Or would he make some rough, breathy sound of want as Sanji’s tongue slipped past his defenses and tasted him properly?
Sanji dragged his lower lip beneath his teeth, and Zoro’s gaze dropped to his mouth and stayed there a beat too long to pass for casual. A slow smile spread across Sanji’s face. Well, that answered that.
He finished securing the bandage, then let his fingernail skim lightly across Zoro’s skin. Zoro went a shade tighter under his hand. “There. Much better. Want me to fix the other one?”
Before he could answer, the galley door banged open hard enough to rattle the dishes stacked by the sink. “Nami’s passed out on deck!” Vivi exclaimed, bursting into the room. Sanji hadn’t even noticed she’d left. Her voice cut straight through the warmth of the room, sharp enough to break it apart.
Luffy and Usopp were on their feet immediately, rushing for the door. Sanji shot Zoro a pointed look. “We’ll finish this later.”
Color rose in Zoro’s cheeks, and Sanji took that as a definite yes.
Then he was moving, heading for the door, concern crowding out the disappointment before it could take hold.
End