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Summary
Zoro doesn't know exactly what happened during Sanji's fight on the sea train, but something about the aftermath has the cook acting strange.
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Ch1
only your best
LibbyLune
Summary:
Zoro doesn't know exactly what happened during Sanji's fight on the sea train, but something about the aftermath has the cook acting strange.
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There’s a new pair of knives in the Thousand Sunny’s kitchen. Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise, given that the entire galley is new, still sparkling and smelling of fresh Adam wood, but Zoro knows that Sanji took all his cooking gear from the Going Merry before they lost her. The cook is particular about his tools. That was one of the first things Zoro started to respect about him.Sanji is sharpening the unfamiliar knives, wearing an expression Zoro isn’t sure he’s seen before, all tense and harried. Usually, Zoro likes watching the cook take care of his blades - he’s precise about it, respectful. Quiet. Competent enough that Zoro would almost, almost, trust him with one of his own swords.
This does not make him feel that way. The cook is working these knives like he’s waiting for a miracle, despite the fact that they're already sharp. Or as sharp as they’re going to get; the blades are not particularly good quality, Zoro can tell that even from here, and they’re marked with nicks and scrapes in the handles that Sanji would never allow, under ordinary circumstances. Sanji draws a soft cloth along one of the knives, tests the edge with his thumb, and his face scrunches up as if he’s about to cry, of all things. It’s enough to make Zoro speak up, and risk getting kicked out of the galley for his trouble.
“Where’d those come from?” he demands, watching Sanji startle. Sure enough, he hadn’t even realized that Zoro was there, which is also strange enough to put him on edge.
“Sea train,” Sanji says shortly. “What do you want, marimo? I don’t have time for -”
“How’d you end up with knives from that damn train?”
Scowling at him, Sanji grips the handle of the offending object so tightly his knuckles turn white. “When I - I went back after - I used them while I was there, if you must know, bastard.”
“I know you weren’t cooking while the rest of us were -” worried sick about you “- realizing that you’d run off like an idiot.”
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His gaze falls on Yubashiri’s hilt. Zoro can’t quite bring himself to leave the rusted blade elsewhere; she served him well, and deserves to remain at his side. Sanji must feel something similar for these crappy knives, despite his reluctance to fight with his hands. Mediocre as they are, they served Sanji well in his quest to retrieve Robin, so maybe Zoro was too harsh on them.“Besides,” Sanji adds, drawing Zoro’s attention back from the contrast between Yubashiri’s deceptively well-kept hilt and the scuffed knives, “it’s not like I’m a total amateur. I wasn’t going to cut my foot off by accident or something.”
“Didn’t think you were,” Zoro says, looking curiously at the cook. Watching Sanji work with his knives in the kitchen makes Zoro a bit hot under the collar; he’s certainly no klutz with them. “You don’t mean knives, do you?”
Blanching, Sanji breaks eye contact, straightening the elements of his sharpening kit. “It’s - forget I said anything. I wasn’t any good at it, and it was a long time ago.”
Zoro doesn’t know what to do with the vulnerability of that half-confession, the furtive darting of Sanji’s hands across his perfectly arranged kit. He doesn’t like it. After everything that happened over the last few days, he’s sick of this uncertainty and doubt in his crewmates.
“I wouldn’t want to fight you like that,” Zoro declares. “Some half-assed stopgap style. I only want you at your best.”
Instead of finally kicking him out, Sanji grins, looking almost as surprised as Zoro feels about it. “That might be the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
Zoro feels color rush to his cheeks, and Sanji’s smile slides into a smirk as he sits tongue-tied at the counter. Zoro wants to wipe the expression off his face. How, he isn’t sure.
“Don’t get me wrong,” the shitty cook adds, “I’d kick your ass either way.”
Snarling out some kind of challenge, Zoro gets to his feet all in a rush. Sanji meets his eyes, and his bravado, gesturing condescendingly at the door and leaving the unfamiliar knives forgotten on the counter as he follows Zoro out. Blood pounding, Zoro puts the discomfort of their conversation from his mind, and prepares for the stunning impact of Sanji’s shoes on his swords. It’s a much easier way to communicate, and he knows they’ll both give it their all.
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