Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

Pairing: ZoroxSanji

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"Wow."

"Now that is impressive."

"Reminds me of Water 7 at night."

"And this is just one of the islands here."

"I wonder if they have any new medicines I don't know about."

"I bet they have all kinds of meat! Ugh, now I'm hungry again. Sanji! I demand you make me meat, NOW!"

"Che, you can forget that, you just ate dinner you bottomless pit."

"Alright, we might as well decide now. Who wants to volunteer to watch Luffy while we're here?"

"Awwwwww… but Nami~ I wanna explore!"

"Why do we have to babysit him?"

"Look at that place! He'll get lost and we'll never be able to find him again."

"You can leave me outta this."

"I say we leave him with Ussop to watch the ship."

"What! Why me?"

"Heres an idea, everyone shut up!" Nami yelled over the noise of everyone arguing. She sent a harsh glare at the squabbling bunch on the Thousand Sunny's lawn. They all froze and backed away from each other, fearing the navigator's wrath. The whole crew was on the deck, watching as the lights from the city lit up the night around them. It looked like thousands of fireflies on the horizon steadily getting bigger. Luffy hopped up onto the railing while Ussop, Franky and Brooke sat down on the grass and Zoro continued to look bored while lounging against the mast. Sanji stood by Chopper and Robin waiting patiently for Nami to continue. The navigator stood in front of everyone with her hands on her hips and surveyed the crew.

"Good," Nami nodded, "now, we won't be able to dock for awhile so we're going to make a game plan now while we can."

Chopper timidly raised a hove.

"Yes Chopper?"

The reindeer shuffled his feet a bit and fidgeted with his hat. "Well, I was wondering why we can't just dock now. With the size of that city the docks should big enough."

"Good question Chopper. Well, the country we're about to land on is a pretty big one. Bigger than Alabaster was, actually. And due to that, theres a good chance that our bounty posters are all over the place. So it'd probably be better if the whole place dosen't know where the ship is." Nami explained.

The crew nodded along and Sanji turned to look at the quickly approaching island. The city was huge, like Franky had said, it was Water 7 huge, without all the canals of course. It was kinda weird really. Sanji had seen a lot with this traveling circus and this new country was competing for a spot at the top of the list. Robin had explained everything that night at dinner. The place was called Paradigm. It was actually made up of five different islands that were grouped together; four on the outside and one in the middle. Each island actually had its own climate and shit if Sanji knew how that worked. But it was the Grand Line so...okay. They had simple names too. The Land of Fire, the Land of Ice, the Land of Sand, and the Land of Spring which they were about to disembark on. The one in the middle was called Paradise and apparently had a fucking gigantic tree growing on it. Gigantic, as in, the roots of the thing actually connected all of the islands together like some sort of bridge way. Robin had said that they'd even be able to kinda make it out when they got to the Land of Spring.

He was looking forward to seeing what kind of new ingredients he'd be able to find in this place. That and he was genuinely exited to explore some. He always loved seeing the awesome places the Grand Line seemed to randomly throw their way. Digging in his pants pocket he drew out his last packet of cigs and shook it around. Listening to the disappointingly absent sound that came from it, he made a mental note to pick up a few new packs when he went out. I hope they sell King Ground somewhere, he thought, fishing one out, he lit it and took a puff, turning his attention back to the conversation that was going on.

"It's going to take the log pose at least a week to reset so we're going to be here for a while." Nami finished.

Zoro's head snapped up and he narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute, are you saying that we're stuck in a country, that may or may not have a bunch of pirate hunters crawling around in it, for an entire week? Probably more? Can't that damn thing work any faster?"

"Hey, shithead, no glaring at Nami." Sanji snapped.

"I'll glare at whoever I wanna glare at shit cook." Zoro shot back.

Sanji grit his teeth, grinding down on the poor cigarette in his mouth he took a threatening step forward. Like he was going take that from a stupid moss ball. He watched Zoro move into a position to attack and he lifted his leg, ready bitch kick the smug look off of marimo's face.

Nami stepped up and scowled at the both of them. "Enough, I'm getting tired of your guys' constant fighting." Turning to Sanji she smiled and batted her eyelashes, "Sanji, go make me a drink please, I'm feeling a bit thirsty."

He instantly melted and smiled kindly at her, "Of course Nami, I'll go make something right now."

He turned away and headed for the galley not noticing the pair of eyes following him.

—

Sanji yawned and sat down at the kitchen table, leaning back against it as he stretched out his long legs and lit his last cigarette. Damn, it had been a long day. The rest of the crew had retired to their quarters, except for him and the shitty swordsman, who was on watch duty. Tilting his head back, he watched as the smoke drifted toward the ceiling, only to disappear before it got there. His thoughts wandered and he started to think about what kind of adventure they were sure to have in Paradigm. It was kinda unavoidable with Luffy as their captain; he always got involved in some sort of trouble. For some reason though, he had a bad feeling about this one. It was like a cold, forbidding feeling that made his stomach squirm. Which made no sense at all, seeing as he had nothing to go on and no evidence that any shit was about to go down. So despite that weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, he was honestly looking forward to getting off this ship for awhile. Not that he didn't love being with his crew, cause really, he did, but a guy can only take so much crazy before he snaps. That, and, though he would never say it, (he was reluctant to even admit it in his head) he sometimes got tired of all the constant running around Nami had him doing. He adored the girls and would always do whatever he could to make them comfortable, but he also wasn't stupid. He knew perfectly well that his kindness was more often than not taken advantage of; more by Nami than Robin. And for the most part he didn't really care.

It was just that, at times like these, when he was tired and just wanted to sit down, relax, and have a good fucking smoke, he wished they were more considerate of him. Instead he'd get an order to make some sweet or beverage, or fetch something from storage, or do innovatory that apparently was vital to have right that second. Even when it was clear he needed a break. Usually Robin would notice his drooped shoulders and slightly strained smiled and would tell him to go sit down. Of course he'd immediately refuse and brush it off; but it was nice to know that she noticed and cared. Nami however, well, sometimes he wondered if she was really oblivious or if she just didn't give a crap.

Sanji sighed and moved to stand up. Fuck, he must really be out of it if he was starting to think such awful thoughts about his precious flowers. Stubbing out the remains of his cigarette, he moved to the sink to quickly finish washing the rest of the dishes. He figured the faster he could get them done the faster he could get to bed.

He let his thoughts wonder and eventually started to think about what he was going to make for breakfast in the morning when he heard the door open and someone quietly walk in. Not turning around, he let a small smile creep onto his face. The shitty marimo probably thought he was being all stealthy. Sanji almost snorted, the day Zoro was subtle would be the day Sanji told him he loved him.

He blinked. Wait. That came out wrong…

"What are you humming?"

"Huh?" Sanji wiped around startled by the voice. "I never sai… wait.. what?"

Zoro raised an eyebrow, "I asked you what you were humming over there. Whats wrong? You finally go brain dead?"

"Shut up marimo, I was just thinking." When did I start humming? And fuck if I didn't just think of Zoro and love in the same sentence.

"You mean you can do that?"

"Ugh, what do you want? You know, besides annoying the shit out of me."

Zoro scoffed and moved to join him by the sink. "Besides that? Well, everyone else has gone to sleep and you still hadn't left the galley. I was wondering what you were doing in here." He gestured to the dishes, "You need some help with those?"

Sanji felt his eyes widen, honestly surprised. Did the marimo just volunteer to help clean up? He quickly composed himself, determined not to show how grateful he was for the offer, and pushed all the other…stuff from his mind. He'd think about it later. He had more important things to do right now, like tease the marimo.

"Awww… is the moss ball worried about me?"

Sanji almost sniggered at the way Zoro's face screwed up like he was insulted by what the cook had said.

"Fuck no," Zoro scowled and started grumbling to himself about "shit cooks" and "stupid fucking dishes".

Sanji sighed, amused but too tired to really push the marimo's buttons and start a fight.

"Look, no need to get defensive. Just stand there and dry whatever I give you." Sanji turned to the sink and went back to washing dishes.

Zoro got an annoyed look on his face for a second, not liking being ordered around, but shrugged after a minute, not really caring, and started to dry off the the things Sanji passed him.

—-

It was quiet for awhile, just the sound of moving water, clinking dishes and the occasional "Zoro…" when Sanji passed over a plate. Zoro glanced over at the cook and couldn't help but notice that he really did look exhausted. He had noticed it earlier when the witch had demanded yet another thing from the stupid love cook. It was only there for a split second but Zoro caught it. The slight strain in the cooks smile and the look of resignation on his face. Zoro didn't understand why Sanji didn't just tell the bitch to get her own drink if she was so damn thirsty. He ran himself ragged for the woman and she didn't even appreciate it. It pissed the swordsman off. Don't ask him why, the hell if he knew, it just did.

He wasn't even sure why he came in here in the first place. He had gotten bored on watch and had noticed the lights on in the galley and just wondered on up. He was surprised to see the cook still cleaning. He'd expected it to be Luffy attempting to, yet again, break into the refrigerator (He'd even prepared himself to fend off the rubber food vacuum and save the crew's rations from certain doom). So he was even more surprised to hear the cook humming to himself, the idiot didn't even seem to notice he was doing it. Zoro had stood there for a second taken aback by just how nice the blondes voice had sounded. He had a soft, smooth, almost velvety tone to it. It was about that time that he started to wonder why he was thinking about how nice the cooks voice wasin the first place when he noticed just how sad the melody was. Of course he blurted out the first thing that popped into his head and seemed to have startled the love cook. Things had degenerated from there.

Sneaking another look at the tired man he realized that the cook had never answered him. Putting up the last plate he turned to see Sanji looking at him weirdly.

"What?" Zoro snapped, kinda put off.

Sanji smiled tiredly and waved a hand placatingly, "Nothing, nothing you've just never volunteered to help clean before."

"Yeah well you looked like shit so…"

Sanji snorted, "Well, you sure know how to make a guy feel good about himself."

"I didn't…"

"Calm down marimo I'm teasing." Sanji shook his head and started to head toward the door. "I'm going to go catch some shut eye and hopefully in the morning I won't look like such "shit"." Sanji opened the galley door and turned to look at Zoro over his shoulder. He smirked, "Thanks for the help moss ball. I appreciate it." And with that he left and shut the door behind him.

Zoro was left there to stare after him and wonder why he had gotten this warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest when the cook said he appreciated Zoro's help. He didn't know why but it felt real damn good. Hmmm, he thought as he went back outside to continue his watch, maybe I should help out more often.

It was only once he settled down against the mast and had started to watch the far off city lights pass by that he remembered. The cook still hadn't told him why he'd been humming such an eerie tune.

—-

To be continued…

—-

Ja ne~

A/N: Finally I have posted a story! Yay :D it's my first so lets hope this goes well. Tell me what ya think and if you run into any mistakes don't be afraid to tell me, k. I'm editing it myself so sometimes I miss stuff. Anyways I hope you like!

Warnings: I'm gonna go ahead and put this here so you guys'll know what the M's for. Lets see here...Violence, Gore, Language (Its Sanji and Zoro so theres gonna be a lot of that ^_^), and maybe explicit scenes - thats debatable though since I've never written anything like that and I don't wanna ruin the story (I'm pretty sure my skills in that area could do that O.o) so we'll talk later when we get to it. I think thats it, so not too bad really :) oh and don't be intimidated by the summary, its not a death fic.