A Starbucks in the middle of a hospital food court wasn't exactly a common place for most people to go on a first date. Even Zoro, 'the most romantically inept person in existence' Sanji had once said, knew that hospitals weren't very romantic or happy or anything really. It was honestly kind of depressing.

"This date sucks shitty nurse," Zoro groused, lightly rubbing at his temples through his well-worn, black beanie in an attempt to ward off an oncoming headache.

"It's honestly not that bad Zoro and it was your idea to come here in the first place," Sanji said, grinning at the annoyed expression on the other man's face. "And for the last goddamn time, I'm not a nurse. I'm a medical oncologist, I'm damn good at my job, and you fucking know it." The blond, clad in light blue scrubs, plopped down next to his wheelchair bound companion. He passed Zoro a cup halfway full cup of ice cubes while he quickly gulped down his own iced latte that had been made just minutes before.

"I don't think most good nurses sneak their patients out of a restricted hospital ward to go on a fucking coffee date," Zoro deadpanned glaring at the cup of ice chips Sanji had placed in front of him.

"Shhh…" Sanji hissed, glancing wearily around the small coffee shop, "If they find out I brought you down here I could lose by job. And besides, we haven't technically left the hospital so you should be fine, probably.

Zoro simply snorted, rattling the oxygen tubes that rested just inside his nose. "I'm glad to know you care so much about my wellbeing."

The young doctor shoved the laughing man roughly, biting his lower lip to try and prevent the giggles from building within his chest. "You're such a fucking smartass."

"Takes one to know one I suppose," Zoro shot back. "And if you're so worried about getting in trouble then why did you take me down here in the first place?"

"Because you looked like you were going stir crazy in your room and I felt sorry for yo-" Sanji cut himself off, noticing the sudden closed off look on the other man's face.

"Shit. Zoro, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," Sanji murmured, gripping the other man's bony shoulder tightly. "Hey, look at me Zoro."

Zoro didn't. He simply stared at his hands clenched in his lap. They looked thinner than he remembered. They were probably thinner than Sanji's now. He felt like crying. He always felt like crying lately. It was probably a side effect of cancer or something.

"Come on Zoro. Now's not the time to throw a pity party," Sanji muttered quietly, rubbing Zoro's back soothingly.

Zoro blinked quickly, bringing himself back at the Sanji's touch. Shit, the blond knew all his weak spots.

"Does that feel good?" the blond questioned, moving to rub his thumb around the edge of his shoulder blade.

"Mmm… Yeah," Zoro hummed, trying not to lean into the other man's touch. Fuck. That felt really good. If Sanji wasn't already a doctor, Zoro would have told him to become a masseur or something. "Don't feel sorry for me though shitty nurse. Enough people already do and it's fucking annoying. I'm fine."

"I don't moss-for-brains. I just said something without thinking," Sanji snapped, moving to rub along Zoro's other shoulder blade, causing the man to let out an appreciative groan. "You're not fine though."

"What the fuck to you mean? I'm fine Sanji!" Zoro snapped, sitting up sharply.

Sanji pulled his hand away from his patient's back and into his lap. "No Zoro. You're not fine. You've got tumor the size of a baseball in your lungs, it's fucking spreading to your legs, you're tired all the time, your survival rate has dropped to less than 10%, and you're sick Zoro. You're sick and I-"

"Tell me something I don't know," Zoro barked. He felt like crying again. When had he become so weak? He didn't need Sanji to tell him this. He knew. How could he not? He wasn't stupid, he was just weak.

"But I don't feel sorry for you," Sanji continued, acting as though Zoro had never interrupted "I don't feel sorry for you because you don't feel sorry for yourself. You don't whine or complain or blame anyone and you just deal with it. You're strong Zoro, inhumanly strong, but you're not fine."

Zoro had gone back to staring at his hands. At some point the fingers of his left hand had become intertwined with Sanij's own. His fingers were thin and bony but they were still a bit thicker than the doctor's. He was still alive, at least for the most part. He squeezed Sanji's hand and just breathed.

"I'm not fine," Zoro admitted, more to himself than to Sanji. It felt strange to say it out loud. He'd never let anyone else know how much being sick had affected him but it felt good to say it. It felt really good actually.

Zoro barely noticed the quick press of Sanji's lips to his cheek. He blinked quickly, looking up at the blond for some sort of conformation that he had indeed given him a kiss. A huge grin spread across Sanji's face and he looked so happy that Zoro couldn't exactly help the blush that broke out across his cheeks. "I'm proud of you Zoro."

"Wipe that stupid smile off your face, it's creeping me out," Zoro groused.

"Make me."

"Gladly."

Zoro was pretty sure Sanji had actually been the one to lean in first but it didn't matter because, holy shit, he was making out with his hot doctor and Sanji was really good with his tongue. Zoro's head spun and he felt like he was floating. He could kiss this man forever, he really could.

Sanji flicked his tongue so it rubbed along the roof of Zoro's mouth and Zoro was pretty sure he was going to lose his mind. He moaned loudly and tried to take a quick breath through his nose but found that he couldn't.

He couldn't breathe.

Zoro pulled away with a huge gasp, taking in as much air as his broken lungs would allow. "Shit," he wheezed, readjusting the nose tubes that had nearly fallen out during their brief make out session.

"Did I leave you breathless my love?" Sanji snorted, trying not to giggle at his crude joke.

"Oh for the love of... I cannot believe you said that. I thought it was kind of a rule that doctors weren't supposed to make fun of their patients' illnesses," Zoro sputtered.

Sanji simply shrugged. "I'm not exactly a traditional doctor. I play by a different set of rules."

"Yeah, no shit."

Sanji grinned, sipping at his drink in a way that made the butterflies in Zoro's stomach return in full force. This bastard really knew how to push his buttons.

"We should probably head back. Someone's going to notice that you're not in your room and you've got a pretty big day tomorrow," Sanji said, standing up to throw his cup in the trash.

"Yeah, don't remind me," Zoro groaned, "I'm not exactly looking forward to it."

"Aw don't be a baby. A pneumonectomy is no big deal," Sanji proclaimed, placing his hands on either of the chair's handles and pushing his grumpy patient towards the elevators on the opposite side of the room.

"They're taking out my fucking left lung!" Zoro retorted, turning in his chair to give the doctor an angry glare.

"Right. It'll be a walk in the park."

"Oh my god. I can't believe I actually like someone like you."

"I honestly can't believe it either."

xXx

Zoro actually didn't realize he was in love at first, although looking back on everything that had happened in the past six months he really should have seen it coming. After finding out he had stage 4 lung cancer, Zoro had been quickly assigned to an oncologist who would manage his case. He hadn't known much about the man at the time except his name, that he pretty new to the whole doctor thing, and he was supposedly really good at his job.

When he had first met the mouthy blond the first thing he noticed was his legs because, holy fucking shit, those things went on forever. And his eyes, he could stare at them all day and would still be able to find something different about them. They were like an ocean, always the same but always different and Zoro knew it was cheesy but those eyes left him breathless in a way that had nothing to do with the cancer eating away at his lungs. Zoro even liked that stupid eyebrow of his. It just suited the blond no matter how much Sanji wanted to deny it.

Zoro was even more taken aback by the blond's personality than by his appearance. He was hot headed, rude, moody, and had the mouth of sailor. But he was also kind. He was kind in the way that most people wouldn't notice unless if they were really looking for it. He loved his job and all his patients and he actually cared. He kept his word and didn't lie or bullshit his way through things like most people did. If he said he was going to do something he was going to do it, no strings attached.

Sanji's smile was defiantly the best thing about him though, or at least that's what Zoro thought. It was fucking dazzling. He could probably blind someone with that shit. Whenever Sanji smiled it was like a gift from the fucking heavens. He didn't half-ass his smiles either. His eyes would crinkle at the corners and nearly all of his teeth would show as he pulled his lips back to reveal a slight overbite and sometimes he'd laugh in a way that'd make Zoro's stomach flutter with butterflies. He looked like a dope and Zoro loved it.

Sanji didn't smile like that often but when he did it made Zoro's insides a gooey mess, not that he'd ever admit it of course. He had a reputation to uphold after all.

Within a week after arriving at the hospital Zoro knew he was fucked. He had fallen head over heels for his stupidly hot oncologist and had no idea what to do about it.

Zoro was a bit slow when it came to things involving romance but Sanji was fucking oblivious. After doing some research online, Zoro tried everything in an effort to get the blond to notice him. He bought him flowers from the hospital gift shop, tried all of the pick-up lines he knew (all three of them!), made him a mix tape complete with all the bad pop songs he knew, and he even tried giving the blond his hoodie which Sanji had outright refused to wear, much to Zoro's chagrin. He fought with Sanji occasionally which, according to Zoro, was pretty damn close to actual flirting.

After months of trying his hand at basic courtship Zoro was fed up with how oblivious Sanji was. He decided to make things easier for himself and just tell the blond how he felt. But whenever he worked up the courage to tell the other man, the words always seemed to die on his lips. Believe it or not, most stage 4 cancer patients didn't have a lot of free time to fraternize with their doctors and it never seemed like the right time to spit out his confession.

Eventually, however, Zoro's patience wore thin and the need to confess won out because he was a man dammit. He may not have had any hair but he had his pride and a shit ton of angry butterflies that never seemed to quit their insistent fluttering whenever a certain blond was around that would back him up.

Sanji was wheeling Zoro to one of his chemo sessions when Zoro had suddenly blurted "I think I kind of like your butt maybe." Zoro knew that was a pretty dumb confession but he assumed that even Sanji would be able to understand what he meant. Boy was he wrong.

Sanji nearly tripped over his feet at the seemingly random statement, his shoes squeaking loudly on the cheap floor tiles as he came to a sudden stop. "You what?" Sanji basically screeched, drawing the attention of various passersby.

Zoro was annoyed. He really didn't like repeating himself but Sanji was kind of a numbskull and apparently didn't understand what it meant to like someone's butt. "I like you asshole," he restated, turning in his chair to give the other man a level stare.

Sanji blinked owlishly at him, seeming to process what the other man had said. "Wait, do you mean you like-like me?"

"Jesus. Are you in fucking middle school?"

Sanji glanced shyly at his shoes, nervously biting his bottom lip and even going so far as to twiddle his thumbs. "No…"

"Stop that shitty nurse. It's creeping me out." Zoro snorted, trying not to laugh at the blond's façade.

Sanji dropped the act quickly, shooting Zoro a shit eating grin that caused the other man to scowl. "I like you too asshole, a lot actually."

Zoro's scowl quickly turned into a grin that could rival Sanji's own. "Don't you mean you like-like me?" For some reason Zoro felt like crying, but he didn't. He was too happy to cry. Way too fucking happy to be able shed a single tear.

"Oh fuck off," Sanji growled, playfully shoving Zoro's shoulder. The blond began moving again, bending over slightly to murmur in the other man's ear "So where do you think we should go for our first date?"

Zoro hummed for a moment, seemingly deep in thought about all the places they could go for their hospital rendezvous and just the slightest bit distracted by the young doctor's hot breath against his ear. "I was thinking we could go out for coffee. Does that sound good to you?"

"That sounds absolutely perfect."

xXx

Zoro usually prides himself on being able to keep calm under pressure but lying awake on an operating table preparing to get your entire lung removed is something he wouldn't wish upon his worst enemy. The whole thing made him anxious and nervous and he really wants to see Sanji and his stupid face and his stupid eyebrow and just hear his stupid laugh and his…

"You alright Zoro?" Someone asks. "Don't cry big guy, you're gonna be alright."

He's not crying. He hasn't actually cried since he was like nine or something. Or at least that's what he tells himself as a woman, he thinks she's the anesthesiologist, wipes his eyes dry with a tissue.

She situates a mask on his face and he vaguely registers a sharp prick of pain as one of the nurses sticks him with an I.V. needle. He feels tired. "Sanji…" he croaks. His eyes feel wet again.

He watches corners of the anesthesiologists eyes crinkle up into a smile. He can't see her mouth beneath the mask but he can tell her smile isn't nearly as nice as Sanji's. No one's smile is as nice as Sanji's. "That's right Zoro. You're going to see him as soon as you wake up," she assures.

Zoro closes his eyes and he feels himself nod slightly. He's going to be okay. He's got to see Sanji and maybe propose when he wakes up. They've only had like one date, and it wasn't really an actual date, but life is too short to waste it on formalities and Zoro wasn't very traditional when it came to stuff like romance and falling in love anyway.

Sanji would probably be surprised. And then he'd probably try to kick him in the face. Then maybe he'd say yes.

Zoro can feel himself slipping. He's floating and suddenly he's back in that shitty coffee shop. Sanji is holding his hand, laughing, smiling, kissing him. His perfect blue eyes are alight with something that could almost be considered love and it makes his chest hurt. Sanji.

'I love you' is Zoro's last thought before he slips under. 'I should have told you that I love you.'

He falls asleep and doesn't wake up.

xXx

A/N: So this fic is for the ZoSan Coffee Shop AU project on tumblr which is run by the lovely Kumiko-sama-chan. I'm not an expert on cancer but I have had numerous secondhand experiences with the disease and I felt like I had enough information to write at least a semi-accurate fic regarding the subject matter. If anyone has any problems with what I've written or if you see any sort of inaccuracies please tell me. Depending on how much feedback this fic gets I might write a (much happier) alternate ending.

Reviews are always appreciated and thank you for reading!