Some angsty fireworks loving here :D Zoro/Sanji all the way!

None of the boys had really retained what the name of the island was, not that they cared very much. Especially since Nami and Robin, more Nami really, had put their foot down and banned all of them from taking one step off the Sunny under fear of death for the whole half day they had to wait for the Log Pose to reset.

And it wasn't like it was even their fault! Sure, at the last town they'd kinda made a hash of things. What with Sanji and Zoro getting into another fight and destroying almost half the town, Franky almost being arrested for SUUUPER indecent exposure, Chopper being kidnapped to become a little girls pet which turned out after he bit her and attack her with his hooves to be the town Mayor's daughter, Usopp almost had the shit kicked out of him in multiple pubs thanks to his stupid mouth refusing to not lie, Brook got into a music competition and almost beat the judges to death when he got first equal, and god only knows what the hell Luffy did to get half the town chasing him towards the ship carrying torches and pitchforks like "the good ol' days!".

On second thought… no one could really blame them…

But despite being confined to the ship, the boys were still having the time of their lives. Brook was currently stringing a tune, Franky sitting beside him as he hummed along and tapped his foot in time with the beat while Luffy, Chopper and Usopp danced around in front of the two, laughing almost maniacally. Well… Luffy's was the most maniacal especially when he raced to a dozing swordsman sitting on the deck a few meters away and managed to throw him over his shoulder to force him to dance before Zoro even had time to properly wake up.

The blond chef fought back a laugh as he relaxed against the door leading to the kitchen, a cigarette perched between his lips as he watched the two others of the "Monster Trio", as they were so delightfully dubbed, dance to the cheerful music, one reluctantly while the other was almost too enthusiastic.

"LUFFY! Watch the railing and-"

CRASH!

"… never mind…"

Rolling his eyes, Sanji turned to go back into the kitchen, leaving the completely heartbroken Franky with the supposedly apologetic Luffy. Their crew was just… special sometimes. Of course it wasn't like he was much better, especially when it was obvious he wouldn't have returned to the kitchen if he'd seen the two females of the crew come bounding into sight from out of the forest surrounding the island town.

"Hey guys!" Nami's voice echoed as her and Robin bounced into sight, grinning happily. Instantly all of the boys, minus Sanji's who was too busy humming to himself as he prepared dinner whilst being completely unaware of what was happening, froze and looked at Nami in fear. It wasn't often she would smile like that, clearly there was something in whatever she was about to say for her.

"H-Hey N-Nami!" Luffy stuttered out, knowing by now to fear the orange haired 'sea-witch' as Zoro called her, and he promptly grabbed the swordsman and threw him in front of the rest of the boys as a form of protection.

"So we were just walking around having a look in town," Nami began, her eyes getting bigger and bigger with excitement, "And we found this flyer!"

Everyone watched in curiosity as the red head held up a scroll of paper and let it unroll, showing a page covered in bright bright colours and… fireworks?

"There's a fireworks show on in an hour and a half! Something about a celebration or reminder or something about a guy attempting to blow up the government a few years ago."

"They celebrate that kind of thing?" Zoro asked, disbelief on his face as he ignored the cheers of the others behind him. Nami just shrugged her shoulders in reply and grinned at Robin who was glancing at the fireworks on the scroll, affection laced in her eyes while Franky came up to read over her shoulder.

"It was Robin's idea to stay for it," Nami then continued, everyone going silent. It wasn't often that Robin actually asked for something. "And I happen to think its a good idea. It goes for an hour so it ends exactly when the log pose resets."

"I think its a SUUPER-" Franky struck his signature pose, the one Luffy, Chopper and Usopp all instantly copied followed by Nami giggling, Robin rolling her eyes and Zoro facepalming at his whole crew's moronic actions. "-idea, Nico Robin!"

"Thank you, Franky," Robin replied, a genuine smile appearing on her face at Franky's obvious interest in her. "Would you like to discuss it some more? The ideas behind fireworks and the mechanics?"

'Oh, she knows just how to woo the blue haired SUUPER freak' Zoro thought with a roll of eyes as he watched the two wander off, already deep in their discussion. Not bothering to stick around to be dragged once again into dancing, Zoro turned to head to the kitchen, smirking as Nami instead was dragged in by Luffy and jumped on by Chopper.

Victory.

"Dinners not ready ye-"

"I'm not here for dinner," Zoro muttered as he opened the door and stormed over to sit at the table. Sanji flicked him a glare from where he was standing at the bench, nose in some book as something bubbled on the stove behind him before the blond placed said book down and folded his arms.

"What do you want Marimo?"

"A bottle of sake," the swordsman replied, his voice emotionless as he held out his hand in Sanji's direction. The blond's glare was even more menacing this time, as he shook his head.

"Get it yourself, asshole."

"Bite me shitty cook."

Sanji was about to reply when he glanced out the nearby window, instantly freezing as he saw Nami dancing with Chopper. Zoro groaned as he saw the blond's mouth drop, hearts pop into his eyes and he watched in mild disgust as the cook began to float towards the door.

"Oooh Nami-swaaaan is sooo perfect when daaancin-"

"Oi! Shut up!" the green haired man snapped as he stormed past the cook, pushing him over as he made his way to the fridge. He ignored the cry of outrage as he dug around for the bottle, and counted himself lucky when he managed to move away from the powerful kick aiming for his head.

"You bastard!"

"Ero Cook."

The blond let out a snarl and was about to send another kick, one that Zoro was ready and waiting for, he hadn't fought with the cook in the past while so it was nice to finally get into it, when the sound of something smashing together and rumbling of… water echoed through the room. The swordsman was left to make his way back to his chair sulkily as the cook let out a cry and raced towards the food, yelling about "Perfection!" or something.

They sat in silence again, well silence between each other. Zoro was happily drinking his sake while flicking the lid up and down like one would do with a coin while Sanji hummed happily to himself as he continued to make dinner. It was reasonably peaceful, well peaceful enough for the two of them considering they weren't currently attempting to scratch each others eyes out with malicious intent. Not that you could do it without malicious intent but whatever right?

"Oi. Shitty Cook."

"What do you want Marimo?"

"The sea-witch-" he ignored the spluttering from the blond and dodged the sharp knife sent his way, "-just told us before that we're supposed to watch a show tonight before we sail off."

"A show?" Sanji asked as he walked over to get the knife that was currently wedged in the wall, much to Zoro's amusement.

"Yeah. Something about fireworks."

There was silence, which Zoro was not expecting. He was waiting for the excited "Oooh! Nami-swaaan and Robin-chwaaan will love that!" crap, but instead he turned to see a frozen Sanji staring at him with wide blue eyes. He frowned deeply, starting to stand up to approach the cook when suddenly he was pushed to the side.

"Out." Was the simple order.

"Cook-"

"Out. Now." Zoro swallowed hard as a knife, a darn sharp knife was suddenly millimeters away from his throat, as well as an extremely cold and hard looking cook, who was breathing so quickly it sounded like… hyperventilating?

"Oi… Cook-"

"GET OUT!"

He wasted no time in hurrying out, ignoring the bottle of sake that leaked over the table as the knife flew through it.

It wasn't until an hour later that Zoro saw Sanji, well actually anyone saw Sanji, when he called out that it was dinner time. Although surprisingly as soon as Franky took the first step into the kitchen, Sanji gestured once at the table, hid his face before turning and all but running out the other door, pushing past Zoro viciously as he went.

Everyone exchanged startled looks.

"So what happened?" Usopp asked as soon as they'd all finished and had been roughly pushed out of the kitchen by the odd acting cook, surprised when the blond had said he'd do dishes all by himself. Chopper, ever so delightful Chopper, had been about to offer but Sanji had just patted him on the head before slamming the door shut in all their faces.

Odd.

"I don't know."

"Zoro, you're the last one to talk to him."

The swordsman shot the long nosed freak a glare before plonking down on the grass lawn, not for the first time wondering why the hell they had it. Wasn't the point of going on a boat getting away from land? Some days he wondered if his crew was messed up, or literally insane.

"Don't ignore Usopp!"

"Shut up sea-witch," he snapped at her, trying to ignore the others as they all settled down around in the general vicinity. Chopper, who was nuzzling right up to his side, nudged him lightly to gain his attention.

"What did you say to Sanji to get him so mad, Zoro?" he asked, his big eyes all wide and innocent. Normally Zoro was pretty resilient to these eyes, but damn. This was a whole new level.

"Honestly, I don't know," he grounded out, frustrated as hell. "All I do know is that I went into get some sake and we were about to have a fight, you know, a real fight, and then he stopped for the bloody food and I left."

"Anything else?" Nami pressed, her eyes glinting with what Zoro identified as curiosity with malicious intent.

"I mentioned the fireworks. But apart from that no-"

"YOU IDIOT!"

Zoro was groaning painfully as he clutched his head whilst in in the most awkward position on the ground. Being punched in the head and yelled at by Nami was one thing, but when a random disembodied hand came out of nowhere and smacked you it was something else. With a small moan on pain, he managed to sit up and shoot both the woman, one quiet the other a seething mess, intense glares that he hoped cold kill.

"What the hell!"

'Don't you think there was a reason we didn't pipe up about them in front of Sanji!" Nami snarled, her eyes showing more than just intent. Zoro frowned in confusion, rubbing the back of his neck as he thought.

"I thought you just didn't notice he wasn't here."

"D-Didn't notice?"

"Zoro," Franky was piping up now, shooting Nami a slightly concerned look as froth seemed to bubble up from her mouth. "I think they always know when Sanji's around."

"Yeah… he's like a human leech for woman." Brook's comment was a bit odd, but no one really acknowledged it came from the skeleton, focusing more on the fuming Nami.

"Do you know nothing about his past?" she bit out, her gaze one of almost utmost hate.

"Of course I do. He got shipwrecked with Zeff, almost starved then got rescued and opened up their fancy restaurant."

"Besides that."

"Well… no…"

"There was a reason we didn't tell him, swordsman-san," Robin interrupted Nami before she could go on what would've been a slaughter spree. "We had plans to ask cook-san to locate something in the library for us while the fireworks display was on so he would not know." She held up a hand when Zoro began to speak, clearly stating with one movement she was about to explain. "See, when cook-san was a child and working at the Baratie there were many… different types of waiters that came and worked there. One of them turned up a few years into the business and he was a bit dodgy, but Zeff accepted him for trial. A few weeks into the trial though, he pulled Sanji aside and asked for some help with some 'extra' stuff."

Zoro frowned, wondering just what this 'extra' stuff was, and by the looks on the rest of the crews face, minus Nami, he gathered they too were just as puzzled.

"Not wanting to disappoint Zeff, Sanji accepted and later that night the waiter and him went outside. He was told to hold on to, he didn't know what it was at the time, but he was told to hold onto a firecracker. The man told him to hold on at all costs as he lit it. And Sanji did."

The whole crews mouths dropped open, knowing just how stupid a thing that was to do.

"Sanji can't remember anything but pain after that. He couldn't even remember when Zeff found him screaming his face off," Nami took over, now considerably calmer. "He only remembers waking up to Zeff yelling at him and demanding to know what happened."

"What happened to the guy?" Luffy suddenly asked, piping up for once throughout the whole time, which was a considerable feat for the noisy captain. Although, the look on his face was one of utmost seriousness as he regarded the navigator.

"Zeff found him attempting to stow away on a customers boat. He took him away, muttering something about punishment, and apparently he was never seen again." Nami sighed and looked towards the kitchen window, seeing a figure moving around inside. "That's why Sanji's always styled his hair over the left side of his face. It used to be covered in old burns and he refused to stop working until they healed. He just hid it and never grew out of the habit." She smiled sadly, her eyes leaving the figure and focusing on Zoro. "Thats also why he's so protective of his hands. Not only to cook, but because they were almost completely taken off."

Zoro stayed quiet when Nami finished, his gaze one of contemplation as he looked at the figure in the kitchen. He hadn't know anything like this about the cook, then again they'd never been on the best of terms to actually sit down and talk about their pasts. Zoro had never gotten close enough to sit down and tell anyone about all the things he and Kuina had done, and how much of a sister she was too him. A small smile attacked his lips as the memory of her smiling face flittered in front of his eyes before he was standing up, gaining everyones attention.

"Zoro?"

He gave his captain a wink, ignoring the concern in his eyes before he was walking past the others towards the kitchen. A hand shot out and grabbed his arm, a disembodied arm, and Robin's voice echoed out.

"Don't hurt him Zoro. You won't like the consequences."

No reply was given as the swordsman brushed her off and continued forward.

…

Truth be told, Sanji knew that running away from Zoro when he'd tried to talk to him and taking refuge in the Aquarium was a childish thing to do, and he should just man up and face the swordsman, but he was… he was scared.

Sanji sighed and allowed his head to drop back against the glass, the luminous glow of the fish tank falling over his face as the only source of light in the dark room. He'd been stuck in here for a hour, a whole hour, trying to ignore the outside world. Originally he thought he could hide away for half an hour and then run to the men's room to stay curled up under his blankets, safe and sound. But he'd lost track of time and the sudden familiar bangs of fireworks rang out in the room, streaming in from outside and he'd found himself curled up in a ball on the opposite side of the room desperately forcing old memories, and cries, back.

And for some odd reason, a small part of him resented his crew for not attempting to find him, all too absorbed in the show outside.

Weren't they supposed to be nakama?

The door creaking open followed by his name being softly called made him instantly regret the thought, but his mouth refused to open in reply and his body pulled itself together even closer, making his head drop back to be buried in his raised knees. The door clicked shut again, and Sanji thought for a moment that maybe the person had turned around and left. But the sound of hurried footsteps and another gentle call of his name made his eyebrows pinch together tightly as he desperately wanted to ignore whoever it was.

"Sanji?" He couldn't recognize the voice. It was gentle, quiet. But too manly to be Robin or Nami, yet all males of the crew were too loud and obnoxious to be this.

"Oi, Cook, respond already."

Oh hell no.

Oh hell no!

It took one brief look for Sanji's fear to be confirmed, the fear of it being Zoro who would be standing over him with an emotionless face yet eyes that practically scream concerned and a hand awkwardly lingering in the space between them, clearly not knowing whether to be placed on Sanji or lie uselessly at its owners side.

The blond laughed at the irony of this.

How odd it was that the one person who actually did come to find him in the end, was the person who liked him the least, who he liked the least. Well, that wasn't true, not by a long shot. In fact his feelings towards the swordsman were quite the opposite, but it was still awfully ironic that the one person on the ship that hated him was the one who sought him out.

"Huh. Well go on then. Make your jokes."

Zoro frowned, his eyebrows almost meeting as he crouched down. "What?"

"Don't make me laugh," Sanji snapped angrily eyes blazing. "You're the one person on this crew that despises me. Why else would you be here? And not someone else. Clearly they don't care about me. What am I? Just a useless cook that can be replaced."

The swordsman was stunned as he managed to turn Sanji's sentence into something that made more sense before he reached out and smacked the blond on the side of the head. "I've never hated you."

"Liar."

"Thats Usopp."

Sanji let out bark of laughter, one that held absolutely no humor. "Usopp? Fuck Usopp."

Stunned wasn't even the right word now, and Zoro couldn't help but frown again. Clearly the cook was feeling lonely, and probably betrayed by the fact that no one else had come in to see him.

"Look cook, everyone wanted to come in and see you, but I told them not too," he explained slowly, worried as to what Sanji's reaction would be. He hadn't expected the surprised look, followed by a glare and the grounded out 'what' but he very quickly jumped into explanation. "See. It was my fault you were like this. If I'd kept my mouth shut then you wouldn't be locking yourself up in the dark like some sort of fungus. I thought you might've hidden away in here until the show started and then left for the men's dorm but when you didn't leave I thought I'd come in and see whats up."

Sanji was quiet, looking down at the swordsman with interest, before he finally opened his mouth after a moment, "Your way of apologizing?"

"Fuck no," Zoro snorted as he pulled himself up to sit on the bench beside the blond. Sanji just rolled his eyes and tried to block him out, focusing more on the door but when a sudden bang filled the room followed by a menagerie of colours slipping through the cracks in the door, he flinched madly and couldn't stop the small whimper tearing out of his throat.

He jumped again when Zoro's hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"You're not scared of fireworks."

"W-what?"

Zoro's look was hard as he forced Sanji to look at him, searching the terrified and pissed off blue orbs with his own obsidian ones.

"You didn't flinch at the bang. Only the lights. You're not scared of fireworks, just the colours."

"How does that even work!"

"You never react when Usopp lets off a bang, or Luffy gets carried away and sets something off. You're fine with bombs."

"Those are different!"

"The only difference is the aftermath." The swordsman was staring even more intensely at the nervous cook. "You want to know what I think?"

"No."

"I think you're only scared of the lights. I think that you associate the pain you felt that night with that bastard on The Baratie with the bright colours. You don't seem to care about the sounds or results, you only seem to care about what your eyes see and what that tells your mind, what memories come screaming back."

Sanji was stunned speechless, his arms loosening slightly and his legs fell apart as he stared at the swordsman in surprise. Since when did he get smart? Since when did he actually notice something that wasn't booze or swords or training or any other stupid muscle head thing? Since when?

"And I think its about time you confront your fears."

A hand was suddenly shoved in Sanji's face, and the blond cook looked up in shock at Zoro's sudden… assertiveness.

"W-What?"

"Take it."

"Why?"

"Just take my hand, Shitty Cook."

"Stupid Marimo," he snarled, arms tightening again and his body forced itself back together. "Why would I want to touch you? Especially your right hand? We all know where that's been."

Zoro smirked, not really caring about the stupid excuses supplied. Instead he just leant forward, lip curled up slightly and eyes so intense it made Sanji swallow.

"I'm ambidextrous, idiot."

Sanji let out a 'manly' squeal as suddenly Zoro was grabbing him and slinging him over his shoulder. He cried out, insulting him and demanding to be let go. He tried kicking only to groan as he realised Zoro must've thought ahead and had his legs pinned down against his chest, so he resorted to punching the guy hard in the back. Of course the stupid muscle head only seemed to absorb the blows and Sanji was left to hurtle insults at him as he felt a sudden fear strangle his heart when he saw him heading for the door.

A loud bang followed by glowing lights and cheers greeted them as soon as they opened the door, and Sanji let out another whimper and buried his face into Zoro's back, right between the shoulder blades and he heard the swordsman grunt with discomfort. But he didn't care, the bastard deserved it and it helped to fight off the colours attacking his eyes. He had to wonder, how that hell that whole explanation worked, but somehow it did. It just made perfect sense.

"Yay! Sanji's out!"

"SaaaanjiiiI!"

"SANJI! Sanji! Sanji! Sanji!"

The cries of Usopp, Chopper and Luffy respectively were heard over the loud bangs, and by the way he was jostled on Zoro's back made him think that the swordsman was probably being molested, and a quick look up confirmed it. Although the sudden appearance of Robin's hands coming out nowhere to pull them back disheartened him.

"Here." Zoro's voice was blunt and brutal, just like the sudden fall Sanji felt as he fell flat on his ass on the lawn on the Thousand Sunny. He went to glare at the swordsman taking a seat beside him, an intense glare that would hopefully rip the bastard apart, but he was distracted by more lights filling the sky, making him quickly cover his face with his hands.

Larger ones suddenly grabbed his though and pulled them away, Zoro clearly not impressed by the display of weakness. Sanji kept his eyes screwed shut though, ignoring the calls of the others as they realised he was there and the sudden pressing weight of Luffy snuggling up to his side and beginning to jibber jabber about all of the 'pretty shapes in the sky'.

"Look cook. Just look at them." He ignored Zoro's voice as well, shaking his head as he tuned everything else out, trying not to fall into a hyperventilating fit.

"Sanji. Please."

That made his eyes pop open.

The look on Zoro's face, the one of quiet, calm support was enough to make his heart stumbled to a halt, and the way that Zoro's mouth seemed to be saying his name again, the lips caressing it as it came out, made Sanji want to quite literally jump the guy right then and there.

But a flash of anger broke through though when Zoro was suddenly forcing him to look up and bright lights flickered in front of his horrified eyes.

Only to be replaced by awe as the lights arranged themselves into a beautiful rose.

"It's amazing, isn't it Cook-san?" Robin's voice trailed over, and Nami's happy giggles as she nodded and smiled at Sanji encouragingly.

The blond was in love.

"Ooooh Nami-swan! Robin-chwan! That rose pales in comparison to your undying beauty!" he practically choked out, the fear still there but seeing his beautiful girls bathed in the red glow and the absolute happiness on their faces made him force most of it aside. He heard a relieved sigh behind him, and was surprised to feel the swordsman let go.

And for some reason he suddenly felt the fear come screaming back.

"Who said you could let go, Marimo?" he snapped, reaching out to grab the swordsmans hands, happy to see the shock on the mans face as he wriggled clsoer before all out climbing onto his lap, forcing the other to put his arms around his waist. It felt awkward for a moment, but then he just couldn't care less as the fear drained away and he could focus more on his beautiful angels glowing in the pretty, yet still memory inducing, lights.

The crew exchanged relieved smiles.

Although, none of them looked harder at the cook. On the outside they saw his captivated eyes, ignorance of his surroundings besides the lovely ladies that he complimented continuously and the bright shapes forming in the sky, they heard the excited cries. But none saw the way his hands were white from fisting around his suit sleeves, only relaxing when Zoro stroked over them with his own hands. They didn't see the fear reflected in his eyes, lit up by the flashing lights. No one noticed the way he froze, stiffened and almost whimpered as each bang echoed in the air and a new shower of colours broke out over the sky. Only Zoro did as he squeezed him tightly, letting him know he was here, whispering in his ear about the shapes and sizes, the colours, how he wasn't a coward after all. The last one earned him a nasty nail scratch but the way the cook leaned back into him for comfort was an added bonus he knew he wouldn't regret. Of course, if Sanji was aware of just who it was he was sitting in the lap of he'd probably be across the ship either camping down with Franky and Robin or disappearing into the crew quarters. He was kind of glad that Luffy on his left and Chopper on his right were using the two as leaning posts, making most movement ineffective anyway.

Eventually the continuous stream of fireworks began to dwindle down until it was only the occasional big one, and Zoro felt his eyes beginning to droop shut. He didn't realise that Sanji noticed, feeling Zoro's eyelashes flutter against his cheek from where his head was perched on the cooks shoulder, and was slightly surprised by the way Sanji's head fell against his and their hands entwined together.

"Thank you Zoro."

"You're welcome… Sanji."

The swordsman drifted off to sleep, content with himself and the cook watched him with gentle eyes. He truly was thankful, thankful that Zoro had deemed it necessary to help Sanji through his fear and pain.

A brilliant smile appeared on his face as he too closed his eyes, blocking out everything but the gentle rise and fall of Zoro's chest against his back and the small waves of breath that fluttered against his cheek.

I thought this was relatively dreadful to be honest, cute but dreadful. What did you think?