Sanji grins against Zoro's skin as the marimo nuzzles into his neck and gently places a kiss under his ear. Zoro's barely awake, only roused from sleep by the fact that Sanji needed to get up and piss a moment ago and has just got back into bed. The stupid swordsman had blearily looked at him when he climbed back into the bed before wrapping his arm around Sanji's middle and hauling him right up against him, now Zoro was holding him close to him and drifting off again.

Everything between them was still so incredibly new. They'd had a fight about a month ago with a fair amount of booze fuelling it and on some deep impulse Sanji had snagged Zoro by the neck and crushed their mouths together instead of trying to use his knee to crush Zoro's skull. He's not sure why he did it or what motivated him but judging by just how desperate Zoro had made him the instant that he responded he guesses that it had been building within him for quite some time and he'd just been too stupid to understand what it was.

He'd thought maybe that it would be a one off fuck, but no. Zoro evidently had pined for him for a long time and the marimo was surprisingly loving. He suspects that Zoro is in love with him and may have been for a very long time. He isn't really sure what to do with that idea so he is ignoring it.

Something about this whole thing just feels so right though. He rolls onto his back and shifts his arm under Zoro's neck and goes to sleep feeling strangely comforted by the arm that the swordsman has draped across his midsection.

When he awakes however he's alone in the bed that Franky made for them, the cyborg caught them making out in the kitchen one day and slunk off to make this. Franky had slapped Zoro on the back hard enough to make his earrings rattle and gave them both thumbs up and left them to it. Sanji wishes that he could say that they were mortified but in actuality they were both just stupidly happy to have a soft surface to do it on that wasn't sand (which got everywhere) or grass (which was filled with icky crawly bugs) that they'd just thrown themselves on it and ripped each other's clothes off right away.

It's unusual to wake up alone though, usually he's awake before the lazy swordsman. Perhaps Zoro just got up to go to the bathroom though, or maybe he just overslept and Zoro got up at the normal time. He yawns and clicks his jaw, absently scratching his belly. He's really sleepy still, what time is it anyway?

If his jaw wasn't already open from yawning it would have fallen open from the time on the clock, it's 5am, WAY too early for Zoro to be up. A sense that something is wrong buzzes in his brain like a trapped hornet and he quickly scrambles from the bed and throws his clothes on.

The atmosphere as he climbs above deck is humming with tension and though he can see Zoro standing on Sunny's head and staring into the distance his posture is all wrong. It's tense and serious.

"What…?" He asks quietly as Nami spies him and quietly runs to him.

"Mihawk just sailed up to the ship five minutes ago. I was on watch, he didn't even make it to the side of the ship before Zoro was out here with his swords drawn." Nami breathes in awe, her large eyes flicking to Zoro's form.

"What?" he gasps wide eyed.

"Zoro said they're going to fight, that Mihawk said it was time. We're on our way to an island that's been deserted for years, it's going to be their battleground." Nami explains quietly.

"What?" He stammers out again quietly, his brain not able to process this idea.

He makes his way past Nami as if in a daze. He stumbles to the front of the ship and to the figurehead, Luffy is sitting at Zoro's side and past them Sanji can see the island that they're drawing near.

"Stop the ship. I'll go the rest of the way on my own." Zoro says in a voice that is neither loud nor quiet but is heard through the entirety of the ship. Nami drops the sea anchor and the ship coasts to a halt as if Sunny herself was deciding to stop for Zoro's will.

"Nami. If it looks like Sunny is going to get damaged then move away, this should be out or range but I could be wrong." Zoro says in a level voice.

"Will do." Nami nods as Zoro turns and jumps down off of the head of the ship and walks towards the hatch that will take him below deck and to the mini merry

"You can do it." Usopp says suddenly from Sanji's side, there's a murmur of nods and agreements from across the whole crew.

"What if you can't?!" Sanji shouts, his voice echoing across the open water. His nakama all stare at him and Zoro looks at him for the first time, he seems… calm. Like a man going to his death almost. Fucking Zoro, he damn well knows that he might be doing just that and he's prepared to die!

"Then I wasn't worthy in the first place." The bastard answers as if it was as fucking simple as that!

"Then don't go! You're only twenty five, you have years of training left that you can do! You nearly died last time you fought him and he wasn't even trying to kill you then! Just go, train more and then challenge him again later on your terms!" He begs desperately as panic and fear clutch at his heart. It's too soon, he's only just got Zoro and god why did they waste so much fucking time?!

"It's time now." Zoro says flatly, shaking his head no.

"You can't go!" He cries out, taking a step towards Zoro. A rubber hand on his shoulder halts him though.

"Sanji, if you try to stop Zoro leaving or interrupt his fight I'll beat you into unconsciousness myself. I'll do whatever I have to do." Luffy says seriously, his eyes dark and threatening under the brim of his hat. Only it's not a threat, it's a promise. Out of the corner of his eye he sees the rest of his nakama assemble their weapons, every one of them would stop him trying to keep Zoro from this. He can't stop Zoro… no matter how much he wants to.

"You don't think I can do it?" Zoro asks quietly, his dark interested eye watching him.

"That's not it." Sanji says shaking his head sharply.

"You can be the best and still lose, there are dishes that only I can cook, and no one else in the world can. I'm the best at them, but even I still fuck them up sometimes. What if you're the best and you lose anyway? What if he cheats? What if you needed more training and you're doing this too soon? What… what am I supposed to do if you don't come back?" Sanji gasps out the last sentence, barely able to comprehend the pain of the idea.

Zoro looks at him softly for a moment before pulling him in close and pressing his cheek to Sanji's, he can feel Zoro's stubble, the other man hasn't even shaved yet this morning. He hasn't even had breakfast, he can't… he can't die on an empty stomach.

"I love you." Zoro whispers to him and then is gone. Before Sanji has gathered his brain together Zoro's green hair is disappearing below the line of the grass. He wants to chase after him and stop him but he can see that he'll have to go through his nakama to do so.

He bites his lip and turns his back on all of them, turning to stare out at the ocean and the island before them. Sunny has swung around so that the side of the ship faces the ominous deserted island. Its surface is covered in a ruined city and somewhere in there Mihawk waits for Zoro.

The ship shudders slightly, its mechanical insides whirring and Zoro appears, sailing towards the island in the mini Merry.

"I'll never forgive you if you die, you bastard! And I won't go to All Blue without you either. You promised to help me find it and I won't look without you… so you have to come back!" He screams over the side of the ship. Zoro looks up at him through his one remaining eye and grins at him.

"You'll find it." Zoro answers him cryptically and turns back to the island. Sanji stares after him. Does Zoro mean that he'll find it without him that he'll quite literally move on or that he'll find it because Zoro will be there with him? Fucking bastard. That's deliberate. God, if he doesn't survive Sanji will kill him for this.

Sanji storms through his nakama and up to Zoro's training room, there's a good view of the island there and the whole place smells like Zoro. The scent of him calms Sanji's senses despite all the time he's spent telling Zoro that he reeks.

The ship disappears in the light off of the waves as Zoro gets closer to the island. Sanji squints and thinks that he sees the ship make it to the island. At least the idiot didn't get lost.

He sits on the benches by the window and waits, his chin resting on his arm as he stares unblinking at the island. With every passing second his heart tightens with anxiety, he wants to scream and cry, he wants to chase after Zoro and stop this madness, he wants to go back in time and kick himself for not realising all this sooner and giving himself more time with Zoro. But he can't do any of that, all he can do it wait.

Within ten minutes there's a blinding flash of light and at least a third of the buildings on the island suddenly slide off of their bases, cut clean through. Sanji raises his head from his hands and stares unblinkingly at the island. From that moment on the ruined city line changes moment by moment in explosions and cuts that rend the structures in two. With each passing second Sanji's heart tightens in his chest, though he barely even notices the cut that splits the sea and nearly hits the Sunny, all he's doing is focusing on the little dot that he thinks is the mini Merry and waiting for it to return.

As suddenly as it began, and no more than five minutes in duration, the commotion stops. There are no more slams of falling masonry, no more attacks that light the early dawn sky, nothing. The fight must be over.

Numbly he descends to the deck and stands by his nakama. Usopp is squinting through his goggles and Nami through her binoculars, but neither of them seem to know what's happened.

"Come on Zoro." Robin breathes by his side, her hands tightening on the rain as she too looks for a sign of life.

"It's over but I don't see either of them." Usopp says aloud, his eyes scanning the horizon.

Sanji leaps up onto the rail and stares as well. Nothing, no movement. Fuck this shit. He looks down at Luffy who is staring dead ahead and not at him.

"I'm not interrupting and I'm not stopping him." Sanji states. Before anyone can react he uses every ounce of force he has in his legs and leaps as far from the ship as he can, he twists in the air and jumps again without even landing. He doesn't know if Luffy is trying to stop him, if there are rubber hands flying through the air to catch him but he won't let them do so if there are. Again and again he jumps, getting closer to the island until he can't do it anymore. As soon as he crashes into the sea he starts swimming as if he might die if he stops. His legs churn the water and his arms drag him ever closer to Zoro.

He drags himself onto land and breaks out into a sprint towards the ruined city. The buildings carry the mark of the epic battle waged here, whole sides of buildings cut like butter and streets torn asunder.

He screams Zoro's name over and over again as he runs through labyrinth like paths, heading for the centre of the destruction where the fight must surely have been. He comes to the centre of an old plaza, in it is a multi-tiered fountain and hanging out of one edge of it is a figure. He draws closer and the sight of a black clothed leg with a boot on it chills Sanji's heart.

The closer he gets though he realises that the boot is wrong, the toe of it is pointy and the thing is shiny and polished and the leg in it too narrow. Warily he climbs the fountain and peers into its blood red waters. Half of Mihawk is bobbing in the stagnant water, he's whole up until his ribs at which point a clean cut signals the end of that part of Mihawk and surely his life. Feeling somewhat lost Sanji looks around and spots the blood spattered figure of the previous world's greatest in a crumpled heap against a storefront, or the top half of him anyway.

Sanji drops from the fountain and looks around, Mihawk is dead but Zoro is nowhere to be seen. Why… why is Zoro not celebrating his victory or here giving his opponent a proper burial? Where is Zoro?

He looks to the floor at his feet and sees the blood of Mihawk splashed all around, but it leads in a trail… the way that he came when he was flying through the air in two clean bits only to be separated on impact with the fountain. Sanji follows the trail like some sick kind of hide and seek game or a breadcrumb trail from a fairy story. He spots the figure leaning against the building and sprints for him.

"ZORO!" He calls out, getting closer. But no, Zoro isn't leaning against the building catching his breath or tending an injury, he's pinned there. Five feet from Zoro Sanji skids to a halt. Zoro is slumped over Wado as she protrudes from the centre of his chest, his forehead almost touching her hilt. In either hand he has a sword and turning back Sanji can see that it was Zoro's left that rendered Mihawk apart and his left… Sanji tracks the path and sees Mihawk's gigantic blade buried in a building about half a mile away. It must have been a two move attack, disarm and then dismember.

But… but Mihawk disarmed Zoro too. Sanji reaches for Zoro's still warm face and traces the dark mark on his left cheek and sees the stain of boot polish there too. Mihawk kicked the blade from Zoro's head and turned around to stab him with it before Zoro killed him.

"Please don't be dead, tell me you're just sleeping this off because you're an idiot." He breathes, letting his hand drift lower to Zoro's neck.

"I meant what I said, All Blue… is not somewhere I want to go without you with me." He chokes out. He hadn't known it until today but he can't bear to see his dream if Zoro isn't in it. He doesn't know when he fell so badly for Zoro or when his dream changed to include Zoro but he has and it has.

"Please, I love you." He begs and presses his fingers to Zoro's throat, searching for a pulse or a breath of air, anything to prove that Zoro is still here and with him.

Something in Zoro's throat moves under Sanji's touch and before he can react Zoro coughs out a stream of blood that is considerably more than can be considered healthy all down the front of Sanji's crisp white shirt. Sanji has never been so pleased to be covered in blood.

"Zoro!" He exclaims, pulling the marimo's head up.

"You're alive! You did it! I love you, you bastard, don't ever scare me like that again!" He shouts as the laughter bubbles out of him.

"Sor-ry… y'r shirt." Zoro slurs at him.

"You can buy me a new one, let's get you out of here." Sanji says dismissively and leans Zoro's shoulders back against the wall, wary of the sword in his torso.

"I did it…" The marimo mumbles with a grin pulling at his bloodied mouth. Sanji ignores that because he has the strange feeling that Zoro isn't talking to him.

"Let's get this out." Sanji says instead, grasping Wado's bloodied hilt. As he does the blade moves ever so slightly and rips a pained hiss from Zoro and a fresh spurt of blood to run down Zoro's shirt.

"Don't!" Zoro coughs making Sanji freeze.

"I think it might be keeping my insides... Inside." The swordsman croaks, gesturing weakly to his chest.

"We still need to get you off of that wall though, you need to see Chopper." He insists. Zoro nods weakly and groans as he straightens up a little. He clasps Wado's blade where she emerges from his chest and yanks forward as he pushes from the wall at the same time. The masonry crumbles and Zoro stumbles free into Sanji's careful arms. He holds his lover by the shoulders and keeps well clear of the blade in his chest. Zoro trembles with his head resting on Sanji's shoulder and his breathing sounds awfully bubbly in a way that suggests blood in his lungs.

The wall that Zoro was pinned to is stained deeply with his blood and Sanji is once again astounded by how much Zoro can seemingly lose without dying. His eyes are drawn to the end of Wado's blade protruding from his back, her tip slick with her master's blood.

"Come on, you need to walk." He orders, pulling Zoro in close and ducking under his arm to support his weight as they walk. With each step they take though they're leaving a trickle of Zoro's blood on the floor, every movement makes more of it ooze from his chest and back, Sanji wonders just how much he has left in him.

"So, it might be the blood loss but I swear I heard you say that you loved me." Zoro croaks out weakly as he stumbles forward with Sanji's steps.

Sanji realises dimly that Zoro is giving him a chance to escape his declaration, to put it down to heightened emotions. He doesn't want that though, only when the threat of Zoro really disappearing from his life shows itself does he realise that he can't handle the opportunity of a future without him.

"I said it, so you'd better stick around. You know what I'm like when it comes to love, I'll be a mess." He says jokingly.

"You're not gonna go all noodly on me are you?" Zoro asks looking up at him with half lidded eyes and a grin stained by blood, colouring his teeth red.

"Not while I'm carrying your skewered butt home." He snorts and carries Zoro further into the plaza where Sanji had just come from.

"Mihawk..." Zoro murmurs as he looks up at the fountain with Mihawk's legs hanging from it.

"I'm glad he's dead. Stabbing a man with his own sword, that's low. And how were you so dumb to let him kick you like that? Haven't I kicked you enough to make you expect that?!" He snaps irritably.

"He wasn't you though, I wasn't expecting it. But he dropped his guard after the kick, not like you, so I managed to cut him." The swordsman says simply. Sanji raises an eyebrow, Zoro certainly cut Mihawk. He cut him into two clean pieces and threw him thirty feet in the process.

"He was a good man though, talented. I wish he wasn't dead, I still had a lot I could have learnt from him." Zoro says softly, his gaze on the bottom half of the man.

"I don't care, I'm still glad he's dead; if it wasn't him it'd be you." He snarls and pulls Zoro on.

"You really thought I wouldn't do it." Zoro states, stopping walking.

"It's not that, I know how good you are. But I know that you didn't do all that training for nothing, he was strong, he was the best after all. Besides, who knew what kind of trick he was going to pull, like kicking you. I mean if that blade was a little further over it'd be through your heart." He points out reasonably, his eyes flickering down to the unnatural protrusion of sword from chest.

"I think it might be through my heart actually, it aches every time my heart beats." The marimo grimaces and sure enough Sanji can see the blade shivering every so often, in time with the pulse that he can feel running under Zoro's skin.

"Oh great." He says weakly, "It's not like you need a heart or anything, they're optional right?"

"I assume so, I mean you've been walking around without a brain for years and it doesn't seem to have done you any harm." Zoro shoots back as they pass the top half of Mihawk on the floor, his famous eyes staring into nothingness now.

"It's the only way I put up with you." He retorts and tries to pull Zoro past the body but the stubborn swordsman stops still and stares.

"We need to bury him properly." Zoro says slowly.

"Not right now we don't you shitty idiot, unlike you he's not getting any deader. We'll deal with him when you're safe and sound. Now move your ass!" Sanji snaps and pulls Zoro along.

In the distance he hears the sounds of his nakama, Luffy calling their voices and the tell-tale beat of hooves that signal Chopper running in their direction. The reindeer can almost certainly smell Zoro's blood from far away.

"Sanji… you've got me right?" Zoro asks quietly.

"Yeah, I've got you why-WHOA!" He yelps as Zoro's legs suddenly give out underneath him as soon as Sanji had confirmed that he had Zoro. He pulls Zoro's weight upwards and the man doesn't land on the sword in his chest.

"Oi… you bastard, what was that about?" He demands, his voice shaking. Zoro doesn't answer though and his head just lolls limply. His skin is shockingly pale too now and Sanji can't help but worry that perhaps Zoro might not wake up from this, that Zoro might just be the best for five minutes and then die.

Thankfully Chopper skids up to them at that moment and takes over with finely honed medical precision, they sprint back to the ship with Zoro and fill him right back up with stored blood of his and blood donated by Franky. His skin looks a little better until Chopper goes about removing Zoro's sword from his chest and stitching the idiot's heart back together, then he loses almost all that blood all over again.

While Zoro is in surgery he buries Mihawk, just to give himself something to do that he knows Zoro will want. He'll still happy the psycho is dead though and he only just resists the temptation to kick the ex-warlord into the grave as vengeance for stabbing Zoro with his own damn sword.

No human should be able to be stabbed that badly through the heart and survive, so of course Zoro is awake the next day and out of bed too. Chopper predictably pitches a shit-fit about the whole thing so Sanji stays in bed with Zoro to keep him company and ensure that he stays there, usually Chopper wouldn't allow that but it does seem to be the only way to get Zoro to cooperate.

Zoro is clearly getting bored with his bedrest though and is apparently trying to annoy Sanji out of bed, he's already plaited all of his hair, tried to make it into some kind of Mohawk and now he's pulling all of it so that it hangs in Sanji's face completely and stops him from reading. To Sanji's pleasure simply ignoring Zoro's actions seems to irk the swordsman more than anything else.

"What are you going to do now then?" he asks as Zoro pokes him in his shut eyes with his own fringe.

"I don't know, maybe see if I can stretch your hair and knot it with your beard." The swordsman muses and pulls on Sanji's thankfully too short goatee to demonstrate.

"I meant now that you achieved your dream." He corrects and smacks Zoro's hand away from his goatee.

"You mean aside from getting a higher bounty than you'll ever have?" Zoro teases.

"I'm not above telling Chopper that you're getting addicted to painkillers so he'll cut you off you know." Sanji threatens back, though really he wouldn't do that either and the shitty swordsman probably knows it too.

"Well, I've got to find your magic ocean haven't I? I figure I'll just pick a random direction and tell Nami to sail that way, then we'll find it." Zoro muses and scratches Sanji's hair back away from his eyes and traces patterns through his scalp.

Sanji stares at the ceiling above their bed for a little while. He considers Zoro's bizarre sense of direction, how he always gets ass backwards lost and how he always shows up at the right place at the right time.

"Knowing you that'd probably work, you lucky directionless shitty bastard." He growls flatly.

"Of course it will, I am the world's greatest swordsman after all, I know what I'm doing." Zoro says smugly.

"I hate you." He seethes and kicks Zoro in the leg.

"You love me." Zoro corrects and Sanji rolls onto his side and curls himself around Zoro.

"Yeah, but I hate you too." He pouts against Zoro's bandages.

"Same." Zoro agrees and pinches him just because he's a bastard. Sanji bites him back and a small scuffle erupts that ends with Zoro's elbow in Sanji's eye and more cursing than is strictly speaking necessary. Beneath the ship an elephant tuna from South Blue and an East Blue school of clownfish slide through an underwater current that pulls them further west where other currents like it collide.