Sanji breathes deep and stretches his spine out, flexing all of his muscles and loosening his tendons. He flicks his tail easily and glides through the water. He twists his neck to the side and the rest of his spine slowly follows, moving him in a gentle corkscrew. He does the same the other way and sighs happily. It's good to stretch.

He hears and feels the displacement of the water and doesn't even have to look around to see that it's Zoro who has jumped off of the side of the ship, he's the only one dumb enough to do it. Sanji glances around, there's no other fish of note nearby, none big enough to threaten Zoro at least. He slides over to him through the water slowly and watches as Zoro ducks his head under water and clearly doesn't even see him in the just broken dawn light. Sanji rolls his eyes, it's a wonder that nothing has eaten this chump yet.

He dives low and settles about ten feet under Zoro. He grins broadly and snaps his tail sharply sending him shooting up towards Zoro. He snags the swordsman by his underarms, his hands lacing over the back of the man's neck. Sanji waits the split second for his system to kick over from gills to lungs before he leans in.

"Got ya." He growls in Zoro's ear.

"What're you gonna do then?" Zoro asks, tilting his head as much as he can to look at Sanji.

"Hm, well a dumb human swimming in the ocean at dawn is just begging to have some big fish take a chunk out of him." Sanji reasons and feels Zoro's legs kick inefficiently in the water in front of him. He doesn't need to, Sanji wouldn't let him drown. How much things change, huh?

Zoro makes a thoughtful kind of sound and tilts his head to the side as much as he's able, exposing the long muscled sweep of his neck. An invitation, or maybe a dare.

"You're stupid, I could rip right through your skin with my teeth you know." Sanji mutters, letting Zoro go. The swordsman paddles and turns in the water to face Sanji.

"Could." Zoro repeats, like it's some wise answer. Sanji sinks a little lower in the ocean, his nose and mouth under the water and his mutant system switches back to his gills again. Where does Zoro get off trusting him like that?

"Is the aquarium big enough for you to sleep in? I see you out here a lot at night and in the morning." Zoro asks, a frown pinching his eyebrows together. The movement distorts the scar that runs from brow to cheekbone. Sanji wants to ask him how he got it but after the way he treated Zoro before he's got no right to anything in those intervening years.

"It's fine to sleep in, but it's not the ocean." Sanji shrugs, surfacing again. Another breathing switch.

"Good." Zoro nods.

"Were you worried?" Sanji grins, sharklike as he senses weakness. Zoro turns deliciously red and he glances away and mumbles denials.

"I'm gonna get back on board before I freeze my ass off." Zoro says after a moment and swims to the rope ladder and hauls himself up it.

"You're the one who dived in, idiot." Sanji shouts up after him.

Sanji rubs his face and curses himself as Zoro disappears out of sight, that whole encounter could have gone a lot better.

Ever since he kissed Zoro a week ago on fishman island Zoro has kept a respectful kind of distance from him. He's clearly interested, Sanji can tell that much from the way he sees Zoro looking at him, but he's waiting for... something. Probably for Sanji to get his shit together and make his own move.

He should really do that, get his shit together that is.

It feels stupid but he's spent so much of his life without any positive physical contact that he doesn't really know how it works. Even most of his relationship with Zoro from the beginning was characterized by him trying to drown the other man. But in between their fighting Zoro had touched him with reverence, with gentleness and some degree of adoration. The whole thing makes Sanji's stomach flutter about like a school of sardines.

He dives down again and breaks the surface with enough power to launch himself up the side of the ship and land himself on the railing with his hands and hips. He shoves himself forward and lands on the wood of the upper levels of the deck belly down and pushes himself back up into and arch with his upper body upright. Zoro is halfway across the deck but he pauses and comes back to Sanji. Sanji halts, he'd expected Zoro to be gone but he's coming back and he doesn't know what to do.

The man walks close to him, though he's on the deck below so his head is more or less level with the floor that Sanji is on. He feels Zoro's eyes on him and Zoro steps up on a box or something so that he can lean through the spaces in between railing of the deck with his arms.

"Does it hurt still?" He asks, his hand moving to the metal clip on Sanji's dorsal fin.

"It aches sometimes, but I can swim just fine." Sanji answers with a shrug. He prefers not to think of his un-numbed surgery, though the words of that doctor hurt him more as he dragged Sanji's past and his identity out in front of Zoro. Zoro didn't feel any differently about him though.

"The stitches seem to have healed though. I can't see them." Zoro remarks his fingertips ghosting over the membranes in between the spines of Sanji's dorsal fin.

Sanji doesn't know if there's anywhere that he could touch the swordsman that would feel the same as this. His nerves are so close to the surface that every contact feels like it's being shouted into his brain. When he's under the water he can feel the movement of things far off and find predators and prey alike, they tell him about currents and temperature. Right now though all they tell him about is Zoro. He can feel the curve of Zoro's fingertips, the occasional brush of shortly trimmed nails and calluses from his swords. Just the fact that it's Zoro would be enough, that it's Zoro touching him is even more intense but Zoro touching somewhere on him that's so sensitive is almost too overwhelming.

"What's that face for? Does that hurt?" Zoro asks him and Sanji turns to look at the idiot's concerned face.

"No." He responds simply, flicking his dorsal fin flat so that Zoro can't touch it again. Zoro draws his hand back with a confused and concerned frown.

"Well... okay." Zoro says after a few long moments and heads below deck.

Sanji lets his head fall against the wood of the deck. Great. Even now he can't seem to sustain long periods of interaction with Zoro if he's not riling him up, fighting with him or laughing at him. They have moments here and there that feel real or feel almost romantic like just then. No matter how badly Sanji wants them though he always seems to panic at some level and sabotage it.

He does have feelings for Zoro, strong ones. To say that he's romantically interested in the man would be putting it lightly, but between his physical incompatibility and his inexperience he's not getting anywhere. He runs his hands through his hair, flattening his ear fins as he goes.

Right. He can do this. He can.

It's Zoro's turn to cook today, that's why he's up so early. So, if Sanji waits in the kitchen Zoro will come back and maybe he can have a proper conversation with him or properly flirt with him. He could kiss Zoro, he knows that, Zoro's never turned him down before. That's not what he wants though. Okay he wouldn't say no, but his goal here is to romance Zoro, at least a little. He grabs the bubbly coral on the necklace around his neck and slides through the bubble it makes, putting it at the ring around his waist, though for the moment it has to sit a little high otherwise it presses right against the clip on his fin.

He half floats and half swims into the kitchen before popping his bubble and setting himself down on one of the barstools there. He drums his fingers on the wood and huffs out a relaxing breath. He can do this. It's easy enough to be cocky and confident when he's trying to bullshit Zoro or when he's being smug, but he wants to actually mean it. If he can't do that then what could he possibly have to offer Zoro in a relationship? He can't offer him sex, so he has to at least be good at this.

The door squeaks a little on its hinges and Sanji looks over and the dry and slightly pink cheeked Zoro.

"Didn't expect to see you here." Zoro says, walking closer. Sanji can feel the way he's still warm from the shower, the heat is radiating off of him. Does Zoro find him too cold?

"What? Thought you'd lost me as well as your way?" Sanji bites back sarcastically. Good job, real smooth.

Despite that Zoro laughs and shoves Sanji in the shoulder. Sanji finds himself relaxing a little. Maybe he doesn't need to be this perfect smooth guy for Zoro, he hasn't been in the past and the idiot still asked him out on a date and then asked him to join the crew. Maybe he just needs to be able to hold a conversation of decent length without threatening to drown the man. How hard can that be?

"So," He begins conversationally, "what're you cooking for breakfast?"

"No clue." Zoro says to the inside of the fridge as he looks for ingredients.

"What? You don't have anything planned?" Sanji frowns.

"No, we never do. I'm just trying to see what I can make from what we have." the other man answers.

"That seems... inefficient, and dumb. How can you know what you need if you don't plan what you're going to make? And how can you be sure that you're not screwing up any plans that the next person has? Do none of you plan at all? Surely Nami or Robin do, they're smart enough to do that." Sanji protests. The lovely ladies on the crew are more than organized enough to ensure that this kind of thing happens.

In fairness Nami is as terrifying as she is pretty. Apparently she had been privy to his abandoning of Zoro on the beach two years ago as she had threatened to filet Sanji if he hurt Zoro again. Beautiful and terrifying indeed.

"Nami used to try and plan, but it was too hard and it never worked. Besides it's hard to work out what you have to use for what and when it goes off. It's just complicated." Zoro shrugs.

"You're an idiot. That doesn't sound hard at all, you can easily work out all that shit by seeing how long it takes things to go bad and learning from it." Sanji argues back.

"This coming from the man who admitted that he'd never cooked a day in his life and was excused from cooking duty?" Zoro snorts, throwing an onion at Sanji's face.

"It's not my fault that I'm a superior predator and have no need for your silly food preparation." he huffs as he snatches the thing out of the air. He turns it over in his hands and sniffs it. He knows what an onion is of course, he's just never held on before. It smells really strong.

"Well, if you're so superior and so smart then why don't you show me how it's done? You cook. You said you wanted a job on the ship, now you have one." the swordsman says with a smug grin. Sanji glares at him, fucking smug seaweed brain.

"Fine. I can't be any worse at it than you, can I?" Sanji says haughtily, making Zoro chuckle as he puts his ingredients down by the stove. Sanji pushes himself up on his hands and tries to peer around Zoro to see what he's doing. Ugh, the stupid marimo keeps getting in the way. He makes himself a bubble and swims up to Zoro's side, looking at what he's doing.

"You're gonna help right now, huh?" Zoro asks with a grin.

"Why should I watch you screw something up when I could do it myself?" he sneers.

"So you're going to screw it up instead of me then?" the other man asks smugly. Sanji frowns and replays what he said in his head and groans, he screwed that up.

"Shut up, you're distracting me." Sanji barks and looks down at Zoro's assembled ingredients. He's got all kinds of vegetables here but Sanji isn't sure if they're all going to cook at the same time and if he has to cook them differently. He bites his lip and looks around the kitchen. There are spices and tools shoved everywhere, they're stuck in places so that they won't get damaged or lost when the ship moves but other than that there doesn't seem to be any organization. This won't do. Up on a shelf he spots a book.

"What's that-" Sanji starts but one look at Zoro tells him that Zoro's just going to deliberately annoy him and say something obvious like 'it's a book', so he changes his question slightly.

"What's that book about?" He asks, pointing to it.

"Uh... it's just recipes and shit." the swordsman answers, squinting at it with his one working eye. Sanji wonders if he can't see so well now.

"Well pass me that book on 'recipes and shit' then." Sanji says, quoting Zoro exactly and mimicking his voice as best as he can.

"Why should I do what you say, huh? Get it yourself." Zoro responds, clearly just being contrary for the sake of it. Sanji grits his teeth, Zoro is so fucking annoying sometimes and he's just begging for someone to kick his ass and shove his face in how dumb he is. He leaps from his bubble, popping it as he moves. He grabs for Zoro's shoulders and heaves himself up so that he's holding himself above Zoro with his tail wrapped around the man's ribs and around again to his hip.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Zoro demands, wide eyed and reflexively holding onto Sanji's tail to stop him falling, not that Sanji would. He's plenty stable and strong like this, he's wrapped himself around Zoro like his before when he's tried to drown him. It's a little different on dry land though.

"Getting that book, what're you gonna do about it?" he says, tightening his tail around Zoro's chest to demonstrate that he could crush him pretty badly if he wanted to. He's done too in the water before, trying to squeeze the air from his lungs to drown him. Zoro's eye widens and Sanji figures that he gets the point.

He reaches up and grabs the book, it is indeed a recipe book. He drops the book onto the counter with a weighty thud. Sanji looks down, thinking of working out where to put the bubble so he can drop off of Zoro and smugly go back to what he was doing. That thought entirely derails when he sees how Zoro is looking at him. Zoro's hands are on his tail, holding him close but it's the expression on Zoro's face that is most notable, he's looking at Sanji like he's everything that he's ever wanted. Sanji's heart clutches in his chest and he drops down so that he's sitting on the counter next to the book. He relaxes his vice grip on Zoro and his tail slides down Zoro's body and he curls it loosely around his leg.

"I..." Zoro says in a disoriented voice, looking at him intensely. Sanji fists his hand in Zoro's shirt and pulls him closer, he had wanted to flirt with Zoro first or manage to have a normal conversation with him first instead of just leaping in and kissing him like this. But how can he be expected to do that if Zoro looks at him like that?

He kisses him harshly and desperately, it's just been a week but it feels like forever. Zoro whines in his throat and Sanji can FEEL it through his fingertips. He tightens his tail again and pulls Zoro closer, he needs him as close as possible right now. Zoro's hands come to Sanji's sides and it's like he can't decide where to put them, or rather he wants to put them everywhere and just can't keep still. He lets Zoro go, if only because he's starting to get a little out of breath and Zoro doesn't seem any better.

He sees Zoro smile, slow and sweet and Sanji just has to kiss him again for that. This time they're a little slower and Sanji gets his hands in Zoro's hair, tangling between the strands and using his grip to pull Zoro closer or tilt his head slightly. Zoro kisses Sanji's jaw and down a little bit before pausing.

"Can I kiss you here?" Zoro asks quietly and Sanji can hear in his voice how much this is affecting him. Zoro's thumb just skirts on the edge of Sanji's gills, careful not to touch them.

"I guess you could, I don't know why you'd want to but sure. Just don't stick your tongue in there or anything." Sanji frowns. What's the big deal? They're just gills, he breathes through them. Sure Zoro kisses his mouth but he can kiss Zoro back like that.

Zoro gently peppers kisses down the side of Sanji's neck and then cautiously over his gills. Sanji wrinkles his nose a little, it doesn't feel bad, just odd.

"Is that okay?" Zoro asks with a worried pinch to his brow, having clearly caught Sanji's expression.

"It's fine, just... odd. It's like if I asked if I could kiss your ears or something. I could but it'd be kinda weird and pointless. They're nothing special." He answers with a shrug.

"Forgive me for being curious, I'll get back to what I'm supposed to be doing then." the other man says, flashing him a slightly devious grin before yanking Sanji in for a more intense kiss that sends Sanji's heart and his fins fluttering. Zoro's hands are still roaming on him and when they come back to Sanji's dorsal fin and the membrane of it he hears himself whine into Zoro's mouth. It'd be easier to enjoy if the kelp brained idiot didn't glow with self congratulation every time he does something right. The irritatingly attractive human nips at Sanji's lip and Sanji very carefully returns the favor, making Zoro sigh happily.

"You know I could bite right through you, my teeth are way sharper than yours." Sanji points out, pulling back and grinning wide to show his shark sharp teeth. He's not got any shark in him, but from his teeth it'd be hard to tell except for the fact that his teeth are nicer than the sharks he's known. They're just as sharp though and he can rip through the skin of much tougher creatures than humans with their fragile skin. Zoro doesn't care though, Zoro just... lets him.

"I trust you." Zoro shrugs and kisses him again.

"You're talking to the guy who's tried to drown you on multiple occasions and that's just this week." Sanji says with a slight laugh.

"Eh, what's a little attempted murder in the grand scheme of things?" Zoro laughs lowly as his hands roam up and down Sanji's back.

With a detached sense of horror Sanji watches himself sabotage the entire fucking thing because he's a moron.

"I've done worse, I hurt you, I abandoned you. Why do you keep trusting me?" He asks, pressing his face into Zoro's shoulder not able to look him in the eye when he's thinking this kind of thing.

"You had your reasons for leaving and it doesn't matter now anyway, if it helps I never stopped looking out for you when I saw the sea. I care about what you're doing now and you're here on the ship with me, that's what matters. I trust you." the other man points out with a frown.

"Great, I abandoned you so rudely and without reason that you kept hoping I'd come back, even if it was just to explain what the hell I was thinking." Sanji mutters angrily and he unwraps his tail from Zoro, curling in on himself as guilt and anger at himself gnaw on his insides like a parasite.

"No! I've never felt like this with anyone before, that's important! That's why I never stopped looking. I told you, I don't want anyone else, I want you!" Zoro insists sharply and his expression is strong and fierce, his eye pinning Sanji with burning intensity.

"What am I supposed to say to that?" He asks quietly, almost meekly. He never feels meek, not about anything but in the face of the enormity of what Zoro is saying he feels... small and stupid. He has nothing to offer back, not to someone like Zoro.

"I don't- I shouldn't-" Zoro stammers out, his face going bright red. Sanji panics, he should have said something real about that, like agreeing that he's never felt this for anyone either, which is true. Instead it sounded like he was rejecting Zoro.

"I mean, wait- I didn't mean that! I like you too, you know that!" Sanji blurts out.

"Hah, no. Don't... don't worry about it. I'll leave you to cooking and I think I hear Usopp calling me." Zoro says in one long stream of words and backs out of the kitchen.

Sanji whines and picks up the cookbook, he needs something that heavy to bash his head in with it. He smacks it into his forehead over and over again. What the fuck is he doing? How did he screw that up so badly? He really wants this to work, he does, but he just can't get through this without this kind of thing happening.

Sanji hears a thunk outside and for a second he fears that maybe Zoro fell over something, and then he hears it again. Frowning he makes himself a bubble and swims over to the window. Zoro is standing by the mast, hitting his head against it just like Sanji had been doing with his book.

Like everything else when it comes to comparing humans to damn near every other species, humans are inferior. He can hear Zoro muttering to himself. But it becomes a lot clearer when he opens the window ever so slightly.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid." Zoro groans, banging his head against the mast.

"What the fuck was that? Why not just get down on one knee while you're at it?" Zoro hisses at himself and then sighs in frustration, running his hands through his hair. Zoro turns and heads towards the hatch that leads to the man's quarters with an unhappy mutter. Franky and Brook appear moments after on the way up.

"What was that about?" Brook asks in confusion.

"I bet I can guess." Franky snorts and rolls his eyes.

"Aah, our new aquatic friend." Brook trills with laughter.

Sanji shuts the window and frowns. He's not sure what that knee thing was about, some human idiom perhaps? Even if he didn't understand that part he feels a little better that it's not just him who's saying the wrong thing. Zoro usually seems so cool and calm when the two of them talk, but maybe he waits until he's alone before berating himself, just like Sanji does. It's still not a good sign if neither of them can manage to talk properly to each other for any real length of time, but at least Sanji isn't the only one worrying about it. It feels a little better to know that he's not alone.

He turns around, he had just been mocking Zoro when he had said about cooking but now Zoro's left him to it and he really does have to do it. He swims over to the book and flicks it open, eyeing what Zoro left out on the side. There must be something in here that he can make with that and he'll be sure to do a better job that Zoro would do. He might not be able to interact normally with the subject of his affections but he absolutely can piss him off just for fun.

Besides, it's cooking. How hard can it be?