Chapter Text
Zoro tumbled in through the cheap white door after Sanji, giggling.
“Shhh!” The cook brought a slender finger to his lips. “You’re going to wake the neighbors!”
“So?” Zoro moved the man’s hand aside to steal a kiss, “We’ll be out of here soon enough! Besides, Cook, what did they expect?”
Sanji dropped the scratched keycard onto the nearest counter before walking over to the small hotel kitchen. Zoro followed.
“You’re impossible.”
“Impossibly handsome!”
Sanji rolled his eyes and reached past Zoro’s shit eating grin to open the fridge. The compact thing only served to prove Zoro’s point correct. Wilting eggplant, a small bag of mozzarella, and a sharp fluorescent glow greeted the men alongside little else. The cook was getting better and better at buying groceries for Zoro’s fights.
“You still want Eggplant Parm?”
“I was thinking of it all fight.”
Sanji scrunched his nose at the lie but still threw the eggplant to the man who, despite his battered body, caught it with lightning fast reflexes. Wordlessly they started to prepare their meal.
In the months since Zoro’s UFC debut, Sanji had gone from hating the fighter’s insistence on helping to accepting it. It didn’t seem fair to make the man work in the kitchen after working so hard in the octagon, but the one time Sanji had booked a room without a kitchen, the man had grown childishly morose.
So Sanji prepared all the ingredients and the flavors, carefully packed from his apartment, as Zoro sought to carefully slice up the eggplant. Having finished first, Sanji spent the extra time admiring his boyfriend. The purpling eye from that night’s fight and oversized sweatsuit only served to make his boyfriend look more handsome. When Zoro finished, he show-cased the irregular pieces with a straight face but pink cheeks.
“These look perfect Zo!”
Sanji relieved the man of the vegetable and began the work of actually cooking the night’s dinner. Barely two seconds had passed before warm body pressed up against his back and warm arms wrapped around his waist. The burly man melted into Sanji, practically hanging off him.
A pang of worry pulsed through Sanji. While Zoro had promised to be transparent about his health and while Kuina gave a health report after every fight, Sanji would probably not be able to relax completely until Zoro eventually retired.
“Feeling alright?”
Zoro placed his bony chin on Sanji’s shoulder. “Of course.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want you to be getting sick.” Sanji sprinkled the mozzarella over the eggplant.
“Why?” Zoro dropped his hands from Sanji’s waist so the man could place the tray into the oven. Once the door was closed, Zoro poked his side. “Planning to abandon me afterwards, again?”
The words were playful but Sanji's cheeks burned.
“I told you! Sanji whined as he grabbed the pot to fill with water. “I was so embarrassed that I breached your privacy like that, I thought you hated me!”
With the heat set to high, Sanji was able to whip around. Zoro’s hands returned to his waist. The skin where Zoro made contact tingled. Was it the embarrassment or the closeness making Sanji so god-damn hot?
“The only respectable thing to do was avoid you.” Wanting to escape Zoro’s bemused gaze, Sanji settled his own sights on Zoro’s swollen lips.
“First of all, look how good that turned out,” Zoro leaned forward brushing said lips against Sanji’s fiery cheeks, “Second of all, gay!”
“Nuh uh, you more!”
“Me more?” Another peck, this time on the nose.
“Yup! Have you seen your hair lately?” Sanji brought his hands into the green tuft. It was the perfect length, short enough to be prickly but long enough to stay soft. He could run his finger through Zoro’s hair forever.
Zoro stopped him, bringing his bruised hands up and over Sanji’s own in mock hurt. “Kuina told me it looked tough.”
“She lied to you baby.” Sanjji pulled Zoro in for a longer kiss. Immediately Zoro’s hands left Sanji’s to trail down the cook’s body. When they broke for air, he stared intently into Zoro’s big brown eyes. “But it is handsome though, I’ll give you that.”
Zoro rolled his eyes and went for another kiss. Sanji tried not to be too aggressive, the man’s face had been pummeled just earlier that night. He brought his hands down to Zoro’s cheeks, if the man winced, Sanji would make sure to feel it.
But Zoro didn’t wince, so they continued like that for an eternity. Sanji could have continued to kiss Zoro for an eternity longer but was interrupted by a smokey smell. Absent-mindedly, Sanji tried to wiggle out of Zoro’s arms, but was taxed a pepper of face kisses before being truly set free.
He turned his head, ready to see nothing and then return to their afternoon plan, when he caught sight of the singed edge of his dress shirt.
Sanji’s head shot up to see Zoro’s dismayed expression. The man opened his mouth, presumably to expose an action plan only to be cut off by an eardrum shattering beep.
They had set off the fire alarm.