"We're going out." Sanji declares as Zoro gets out of the bathroom, still all warm and relaxed from his bath and with his towel around his waist.

"You mean dating? Because I already knew that." Zoro says with a frown.

"No! I meant we're going out to dinner, I've left food for everyone else, well, those who aren't going out somewhere on their own. You and I are going out to dinner together. Come on." Sanji tells him and turns around and walks back towards the men's bunkroom as if he expects Zoro to follow like an obedient little dog. Zoro is tempted to not follow him just out of spite, but he does need to get dressed into something so he reluctantly follows afterwards.

When he gets into the room he finds that Sanji is picking shoes out of Zoro's locker of clothes and clearly he was going through them while Zoro was in the bath because his one solitary suit is laid out as well.

"Are you going to put them on me too or am I allowed to dress myself?" Zoro asks mockingly and Sanji smacks him with a tie.

"Don't be a smartass. We're going somewhere nice so wear this. I'm going to go finish up everyone else's food." Sanji says and disappears in a whirl of his own open suit jacket.

Zoro flips him off as Sanji leaves the room but he's not going to stand there naked out of spite, partially because him hanging around their beds naked isn't something that's going to upset Sanji all that much. He dresses in what Sanji asked him to, except for the fact that he switches the shirt to the one other kind of suit shirt in his locker. He's only got the two shirts and if the only bit of resistance that he can put against Sanji's ordering him around is to wear the 'wrong' shirt then that's what he'll do.

He sets the blue shirt that Sanji laid out for him aside and instead puts on his white one, that'll show him.

Unlike some people it doesn't take him a million years to get ready. So it's barely any time at all until he's up on deck waiting for the cook who is fussing around with the last of his food related activities. When Sanji finally comes out he looks Zoro up and down before smiling slyly.

"Like the shirt?" Zoro asks with a mean smile because there is no way that he's going back in to change it again.

"It's perfect, just the one that I wanted you to wear." Sanji says with a smile and pauses to light up a cigarette and breathes in as he does so, sucking the first breath of smoke in.

"No it wasn't, you put the blue one out but I wore this one instead." Zoro retorts.

"I knew you'd do that, so I switched them. Come on." Sanji smirks and blows smoke in a stream behind him as he walks off of the ship. Zoro pauses and squints at Sanji as he walks away.

"You're just saying that to cover your ass!" He accuses, following after Sanji.

"Whatever you have to tell yourself so that you can sleep at night Zoro." Sanji says with a condescendingly airy tone. Zoro considers the merits and demerits of kicking Sanji off of the gangplank. He decides against it but only because of how much Sanji would bitch about it, and then Zoro would get dirty in the fight and then that would somehow be his fault too. Zoro opts for the easier choice and just scowls at Sanji's back.

Zoro figured from the fact that he was made to dress up that they were going somewhere nice, Sanji dresses nice at the slightest occasion but for him to make Zoro dress nice suggests something big. Sure enough Sanji leads him to an incredibly fancy restaurant for reasons that elude Zoro. Zoro can't help but notice that Sanji has this determined single-minded focused look on his face and isn't really talking. They sit down and Zoro can see the waiters looking down their noses at him, he's pretty sure that to them his swords, hair and earrings all scream pirate. It just shows what they know, he had all of these things when he wasn't a pirate.

"Why are we here?" Zoro asks Sanji.

"To have a nice meal together, just the two of us." Sanji answers with his well-worn in 'are you stupid?' expression.

"Yeah, but if you wanted to do that we could have stayed on the Sunny and sent everyone away. It would be better than this and these guys aren't nearly as good at sneering at me as you are." Zoro snorts, looking at one of the waiters and then back at Sanji who is wearing a stunned expression and rapidly going red.

"Shut up and… and just enjoy it." Sanji mutters, looking off to the side and reminding Zoro of an embarrassed Chopper. Did he somehow compliment the chef in some way?

"Hey, don't look like I'm flattering you. I'm just pointing out the truth." Zoro reasons and Sanji goes a deeper shade of red. Zoro wonders how much redder he can go before he faints from all the blood being in his skin and not in his brain.

As their food is delivered to them the cook looks nervous. Out of both truth and an attempt to turn him redder Zoro tells Sanji that his food is better and, because Zoro is a good multi tasker, he says it within earshot of one of the snooty waiters who looks offended at the comment.

"Are you sick or something?" Zoro asks eventually and drinks his wine. He normally dislikes wine but Sanji picked out the only decent one on the menu for him and then ordered the food that apparently 'went with the wine' or something.

"No, why would you say that?" Sanji asks but he's twitchy enough that he looks uneasy just saying that.

"Because you look as nervous as Usopp when he's broken something and Franky hasn't found out yet." Zoro points out and that at least makes Sanji laugh.

"Well, it's just that…" Sanji starts off uncertainly but stops himself and then scowls at Zoro.

"What?" Zoro asks curiously.

"Don't lick your knife!" Sanji hisses and kicks Zoro in the shin under the table, his attack hidden by the fancy tablecloth.

"What? I was enjoying the last of the food." Zoro protests and waves the knife at Sanji. Sanji's expression takes another step towards murderous but is still within the range where Zoro is unlikely to get a foot to the face. He's become an expert at balancing Sanji's rage for his own amusement, it's a fine art.

"You don't lick your knife in a fancy restaurant." Sanji tells him in quiet anger.

"So you want me to waste the last of this food then?" Zoro challenges, holding out the food covered knife. Sanji's face does this complicated twitch as the conflicting ideas of 'don't lick your knife' and 'don't waste food' vie for dominance. Zoro smiles with victory and puts his knife in his mouth, licking the food free of it.

"Could I interest you in anything else… sirs?" The waiter trails off, looking Zoro up and down and fixing on the knife in Zoro's mouth.

"We wanna pay." Zoro answers with perfect clarity around his knife which seems to disturb the waiter who backs off and goes to get their bill.

"I don't know why I take you anywhere." Sanji groans, his face in his hands.

"I don't know why you took me here either." Zoro agrees with a shrug.

"Well… I…" Sanji trails off. He keeps starting and stopping.

"Spit it out whatever it is." Zoro tells him but Sanji flashes him an uneasy smile and leaps on the excuse of the bill arriving.

They aren't even out of the door of the fancy restaurant before Zoro is loosening his tie and undoing his jacket. Now that he doesn't have to go to a fancy meal he can at least get closer to how he wants to look rather than being stuffed into some fashion designer's idea of what looks good.

Sanji does a quick half run half walk to catch up with him as they head back to the ship together. Zoro can feel the weight of whatever Sanji hasn't said weighing heavily between them. Sanji's not been saying it all night, he had got him out here to have dinner and say whatever it is and he kept chickening out. Now as they're walking Zoro can feel Sanji doing the same. Well, Sanji's no coward usually and Zoro's sure as shit not going to help him if he acts like that.

"Zoro." Sanji says suddenly and Zoro realises that Sanji has stopped walking.

Zoro stops and turns to look at Sanji, is this it then? Is he going to hear whatever it is that Sanji has to say?

"I wanted to… to tell you something." Sanji says, looking deeply nervous and uncomfortable. He seems to be doing his best to look everywhere but Zoro.

"Oh?" Zoro asks flatly. Sanji squirms and stuffs his hands in his pockets. Zoro watches him as he breathes in and out in a sharp huff, he reminds Zoro of Usopp trying to psych himself up to do something that he's afraid of.

"It's important." Sanji adds, clearly just buying time.

"Go on." Zoro tells him.

Sanji nods, presumably to himself and then looks Zoro right in the eyes with incredible intensity.

"I love you!" He shouts and stares unwavering at Zoro, though he looks a little like he wants the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

"You did all of this to tell me that?" Zoro questions, gesturing back up the road towards the fancy restaurant and then at them and their formal clothes.

"Well, yes. Obviously." Sanji adds that last part with a snort of his usual derision seeping back into his tone.

"Huh. Okay. You're kind of slow, you know?" He tells the blond and turns around and heads back to the ship.

"Oi! You can't just say that when someone tells you they love you! You have to say something back! And what the hell is that supposed to mean, I'm not slow!" Sanji argues, sprinting ahead of Zoro and throwing his arms out to bar his path, as if that would ever stop him.

"I mean that I worked that out for myself ages ago, apparently it just took you longer to realise it. You're kind of oblivious you know?" He says with a grin as he ducks under Sanji's arm and walks on.

"You mean you love me too?" Sanji asks hesitantly, presumably worried that Zoro might have meant that he had worked out how Sanji felt ages ago instead of himself.

"Yeah, I do. Don't worry though, I can show you how it's done, since you're new at this and all." He retorts. Frankly he'd just assumed that Sanji loved him too and didn't need to say it, but hearing that he does feels good, but not quite as good as irritating Sanji this deeply feels.

"I hate you." Sanji mutters angrily as he catches up and walks shoulder to shoulder with Zoro. Though his words are angry Zoro can see the pinkness on his cheeks and the smile that keeps trying to creep onto his face before Sanji shoves it down.

"No you don't, you love me." Zoro replies gleeful at Sanji's sour expression.

"I suppose." Sanji mutters and fails to hide his smile.

Love, huh? He can work with that.