#✕ and then he gave to me more summer wine [zosan]

[pxratehunter-blog]

happy birthday, @blackleg5932 ♥

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter  

Sanji was waiting impatiently, fidgeting around under the blanket unable to stay put. Zoro needed to learn to type faster, this was turning into psychological warfare. With nothing to do, Sanji threw his phone from one hand into the other, he spun it around on his leg, peeled it out of its protective cover, snapping it back inside just to peel it out again. Rinse and repeat.

When Zoro finally wrote back, the message was filled with threats. Sanji frowned at the Marimo’s warning not to touch his shit. Well, he had already claimed Zoro’s bed but seeing as that had turned into something of a grey zone, it probably didn’t count. Otherwise Sanji really wasn’t interested in sneaking around and looking through Zoro’s stuff.

What really caught his attention was that Zoro was considering not to kill the creepy spider, spouting some Zen bullshit as the reason. Even if he was probably only teasing him, just the thought that he’d somehow had to get rid of that thing himself made Sanji’s insides churn.

Sanji was in the middle of furiously typing his reply when a second message arrived. Keeping a spider as a pet?! What a sick thought. The scary thing was that Sanji could absolutely imagine Zoro being the type to actually do it. He shuddered, deleted his message and started anew.

[Text] “Oh no, don’t even start that hippie shit with me. I don’t care if you don’t want to kill bugs in the forest, do what you want there Mr. Greenpeace. That monster already is the damn size of a tarantula and no it won’t go well with any of these rooms, it’s a fucking intruder and you will kill it!”

Ah well, this wasn’t the most dignified text he had ever written, his desperation clearly shining through. Pouting, Sanji read over his reply again. When it came to these creepy crawlers he was at Zoro’s mercy and the damn Marimo knew it.

Sanji was considering throwing in a bribe like a good bottle of sake or something, but that would only make Zoro even more smug. Begrudgingly he sent off the message as it was. In his mind Sanji could already see that cocky grin of Zoro’s that he always had the urge to kick off, though his brain this time came up with an alternative action to wipe that grin off of Zoro’s lips, something including his own mouth...

Turning over, Sanji dove face first into the pillow, groaning into the fabric, though it sounded more like a whine. He really needed an off switch for his brain, this was hell.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter  

He was sure that Zoro would not answer that stupid text, what was there to answer? Either the Marimo understood the implication and thought Sanji had a sexual partner over and would leave him be or he thought he had some friends for a visit and would probably take that as it was as well.

Sanji normally considered himself pretty smart but this was the dumbest thing he had done in a while. He snuggled up under the blanket, pouting that he had effectively killed the conversation. Not that they had much to talk about but the bed was really too spacious and lonely without the muscled idiot and he had felt a little closer to Zoro through their stupid texts.

The notification sound came in and his phone was still vibrating when Sanji grabbed it with lightning speed. His eyes widened in shock at the short question, especially the chosen pronoun. Did Zoro know he was bi? Had he been found out? Why did he default to a male pronoun? Before all of these questions could run through his mind a second text arrived, correcting ‘he’ with ‘she’ as a presumed typo.

Sanji blinked confused. Zoro was not asking which of their friends was over, that was for sure, he’d definitely phrased that differently. But it was highly unusual for the swordsman to inquire who it was that Sanji was allegedly bedding right now. Or has he seen through his ruse and this was his way to make the cook admit he was indeed alone?

Well no matter the intention behind the curious question, Sanji knew that he did not want to make up a random name, more importantly he just did not want to lie to Zoro, period. Chewing on his lower lip, Sanji considered what he could write. ‘Nobody is here, dumbass, I just wanted to see how you react’ would be honest, yes, but really not the best idea. It had the potential for some dangerous follow-up questions.

Remembering an unpleasant encounter he had had earlier that evening, Sanji decided to take that memory and use it has his cop-out for the situation.

[Text] “I don’t know his or her name, asking them that wasn’t really a priority of mine. If you are so curious you can ask them yourself tomorrow. I’m confident you will find that eight-legged monster still under the glass on the living room floor, where I have left it, whenever you return.”

Sanji shuddered just remembering that moment of horror of discovering the big-ass spider, running to the kitchen to grab the biggest glass he owned and the terrifying moment when he could not find it again, before he saw it slowly crawling over the wooden floor. He almost gagged when he managed to slam the glass over the creature without half crushing it. As much as he hated spiders and bugs, crushing them was even more disgusting especially when they were huge. He normally let Zoro take care of those things or if they were tiny and slow enough, he himself dared to trap them under a cup or something, shove a piece of paper under it and throw them out of the closest window. This spider though was definitely a Zoro category. Sanji had managed to trap it and that was already quite a feat, touching it, even with a piece of paper as a shielding layer inbetween, was out of question. That spider was big and looked heavy and just imagining to feel that weight on his palm gave him goosebumps.

[Text] “You gotta get rid of that thing as soon as you’re back. Just knowing that it is there in the living room gives me the creeps. And here I had been looking forward to a nice weekend on my own. That creature belongs in a forest with all its disgusting little bug friends and a moss monster, like you.”

He was babbling. Reading these big texts would probably piss off Zoro even more. But Sanji needed that exchange and he hoped he had managed to defuse his dumb and dangerous text from before. Normal interactions was what he was aiming for, well, as normal as things got for Zoro and him.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter 

Sanji was now completely rolled up on Zoro’s bed. Forgotten was the task to just snatch his pillow and return to his own room. If it was such a breach of privacy, well, Zoro never had to know about it. And quite frankly, Sanji’s mind was still whirring with the discovery of some new and disturbing feelings for the Marimo to actually care about that. He was trying really hard not to freak out but it’s not exactly good news to fall for your definitely uninterested friend that you share your living situation with. Urgh!

Staring at the phone, it felt frustratingly long to wait for an answer. Maybe he was just impatient, ok not maybe, he definitely was the very definition of impatient right now. Zoro wasn’t a man of many words especially not in text form as his initial message so perfectly illustrated. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Marimo was already napping, he had probably just snorted at Sanji’s message and saw the conversation as done.

Sanji kept fiddling with his phone, randomly flicking through his photo gallery, deleting a few blurry ones, hoping for Zoro to answer. When his phone vibrated with the incoming message, he almost dropped it in surprise, his heart thudding hard against his ribcage. This was so ridiculous. Groaning, Sanji promised himself to get that stupid heart palpitation issue under control, or else he’d die within the first hours of Zoro’s return.

With luck, though, it would actually get better as soon as his flatmate was back at home. Maybe Sanji’s stupid romantic inclinations took to this physical separation thing and messed with his brain chemistry. Looking at the message, Sanji grinned to himself. Jerk. Yeah, as soon as the dumbass was around him again he’d get over this silly crush, it was Zoro after all.

Blissfully ignoring the fact that he was currently withdrawn in Zoro’s room, in his bed actually, typing fast to keep the conversation going, Sanji kept clinging to the notion that this was just some weird, unfortunate fad that he’d just have to work though. It was easier to stay more or less sane that way.

[Text] “Why should I learn a new trick when the old one still works so well to piss you off?”

Sanji hit send again, waited a second and then wrote another message on a whim.

[Text] “And who says I’m alone?”

As soon as that was sent off though, Sanji regretted it. What the fuck did he mean by that? That was such a stupid tease, as if Zoro cared if Sanji had someone over or not, even though it was fairly obvious that he was indeed alone, would he otherwise bother to hang on his phone and text with Zoro if he had company?!

Oh god, was this some weird shtick to get Zoro jealous?! Sanji pressed his face into the pillow, it would have been the perfect time to scream in embarrassment. He suddenly wasn’t so sure he wanted that conversation to keep going on.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter  

Sanji kept standing in front of the door for a while after it hat already clunked shut. He felt oddly lost and very confused. Snapping himself out of it, ‘cause staring at a door was not very productive, Sanji decided to return to bed for a little longer, it was still pretty early in the morning.

It turned out that that wasn’t such a great plan. Sanji had already slept longer than usual and wasn’t able to fall back asleep anymore. While before the bed had felt nicely warm and comfortable for him to spread out on as soon as Zoro had his ass off the mattress, it was now somehow too big and cold.

With a huff, Sanji rolled out of it again, straightened the sheets and went to the bathroom to freshen up for the day. Afterwards he made a plentiful breakfast all for himself. Deciding to get rid of the extra calories through some exercise, Sanji skipped the shower he had wanted to take and postponed it to later in the day, preferably right after his work-out.

Doing some sport was a fantastic idea for the day. The weather was nice and getting out of the apartment would probably make time fly by faster than staying indoors. Not that there was a particular reason he wanted the day to be over, after all it was finally the weekend and time to relax from last week’s stress, right? Right...

So Sanji changed into his jogging outfit, grabbed his smartphone and earphones, keys and a bottle of water and left the house. Putting some music on his phone, he started with a short jog to the park close to campus as a warm-up. It was a really modern fitness park with all kinds of outdoor equipment that could be used by people of any age. Sanji started out by stretching thoroughly, then went onto the balance beams.

He did some flips, forwards and backwards and took his time to work a bit on his balance and flexibility. It wasn’t the first time that he was thinking about taking up his morning yoga routine again. He had let that slide a bit thanks to his current schedule, but maybe he could just do the exercises in the evening instead. Sanji really liked to stay fit and would also really love to go swimming again. Maybe he could work something out with a friend from uni who had wanted to recruit him to the university’s swimming team at the beginning of the semester. Sanji wasn’t too keen on spending more money that he didn’t have on such activities but he couldn’t deny that he was itching to do some laps in the pool.

When the park was filling up with more people, Sanji decided to start on his run. After a couple of laps around campus, his feet carried him to a more secluded route along a forest path. On a park bench, he took a break at one point, drinking water and stretching his muscles to stay warm. With his hands on his hips, looking up into the foliage of the tree crowns around him, Sanji tried to focus on his breathing. The air was nice, the sun mild and flashing through the treetops and the earthy smell reminded him of Zoro.

Zoro, who right now probably was wandering through a much bigger, thicker and wilder forest. At the thought of the damn Marimo, Sanji’s heartrate picked up again. Great, he had just calmed down. Their goodbye from this morning sprang into his mind and a sick feeling twisted his stomach when he remembered what his subconsciousness had almost made him do. Oh yeah, he had figured it out that very moment but was too stunned to process it. Shit, Sanji had almost leaned in to kiss his friend goodbye.

This was not good, he really didn’t want to think about it. Feeling his face heating up and hearing the sound of his heartbeat hammering in his head, Sanji plopped the earphones back in and put on some music again, turning the volume up to drown out any stupid thoughts. He continued his run at a faster pace than he normally would have just to give his heart a better reason to pound so fast.

When he returned home, Sanji was really beat, drenched in his sweat and super hungry. He definitely had worked off the extra calories from his opulent breakfast and then some. After some cooling down it was high time for that shower. The warm water flowed over his body and relaxed his strained muscles a bit. Having overexerted himself quite some in the second half of that workout, Sanji was now paying for his stupidity with his whole body aching.

When he was finished, all clean and back into comfortable clothing, it was already way past lunch time. His stomach was growling now and it soured Sanji’s mood quite a bit. He normally eat regularly in order to not get too hungry at one point. An empty stomach was still something he hated a lot and it lowkey stressed him out, despite the knowledge that he was indeed not starving and could quickly get something to eat.

Despite his hunger, Sanji did not rush himself and took his time to throw together a fulfilling meal. He could do something light for dinner later to compensate for the hearty meal now. Every now and then, his mind wandered to Zoro, wondering what he was doing right now and then forcing himself not to think about his flatmate any further. The dishes were done quickly and with the apartment clean and the fridge still filled with enough food there wasn’t much left to do concerning housework.

Leaving his smartphone aside to charge, Sanji plopped down on his bed with his laptop, noticing too late that his big fluffy pillow was still in Zoro’s bed. Too lazy to get his weary bones to move and pick it up, he found other ways to make himself comfortable, Sanji’s blanket made for a great substitute pillow when piled up.

In the evening, a little later than normally thanks to his super late ‘lunch’, Sanji made himself a salad and decided to go through some yoga figures to loosen up a bit again as he could feel his muscles straining still. He was not able to focus very well, though, his mind wandering off to Zoro more and more and that pissed himself off. He stopped after three figures.

Shit, there was no way to escape that Zoro issue no matter how much he wanted to. Sanji threw a wary glance towards his flatmate’s room door. He had yet to retrieve his pillow, but weirdly enough it now felt wrong to just walk into his friend’s room without him being around. The past couple of nights it had come to feel so natural...too natural, Sanji now realized and buried his face in his hands with a groan. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Shit, shit, shit!

A message notification sound from his phone pinged through the empty apartment and Sanji returned to his room to unplug his phone from the charger, it had long since fully charged. A message from Zoro was displayed on the screen. Perfect timing for his mental crisis to be disturbed by the very reason for that mental crisis.

Sanji rolled his eyes at the message, so very typically Zoro. One syllable and non-informative, a simple ‘hey’. And yet the fact that he had deemed to message Sanji at all made something in his chest flutter. Oh god, he was already behaving like a teenaged girl with a crush. And that was the whole issue here, really, that it was indeed a crush the cook had developed for his friend. So much for appreciating Zoro’s body for pure aesthetics. Bullshit.

Sanji stared down at his mobile phone, his mind blank or rather filled with chaos. He should answer. No witty reply came to his fingertips though. Geez, if he was this awkward with typing messages already it would be a real field-trip to be in Zoro’s company again after this stupid realization of his stupid crush on his stupid friend.

Sanji paced his room, once, twice, then walked over to Zoro’s room. Fuck it, he’d get his pillow and be out there in 3 seconds. Yet when he reached the other bed, Sanji just sat down on it, not reaching for his pillow, but typing a reply instead.

[Text] “Hey yourself, moss-man. Did you actually make it to your meeting point or are you lost somewhere in a strange city? If it’s the latter I’m not coming to pick you up.”

Not super witty but an easy joke to always fall back on, Zoro’s sense of direction - or lack thereof rather - was a staple joke of their banter. Sanji hit send and pulled his legs onto the bed, staring at his screen and waiting for a reply nervously. Interactions with Zoro both riled him up and calmed him down at once, it was the same now yet on a completely different level. Fuck, why did it have to be Zoro? This could not end well. Just his luck.

But Sanji had one more day to compose himself and it was just a silly crush, surely he could work through it. He had gotten over plenty of other crushes before.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter 

The movie night ended calmly, Sanji had managed to collect himself at one point and actually managed to follow the plot again until the credits. Afterwards, though, when the adrenaline from the action decreased, he found himself pretty tired. Sanji shut off the laptop and put it aside.

When Zoro left the bed for a quick trip to the bathroom, Sanji slipped under the blanket, fluffing up his pillow and making himself comfortable. By now this weirdly new routine felt pretty natural, more natural than their previous, separated sleeping arrangements actually. If Sanji had been a bit more awake, this thought would’ve definitely been something to scrutinize and maybe then he would have realized why exactly this felt so good.

But his thought process had already been shut off for the day, Sanji only managed to wish Zoro a good night before he snuggled deeper into the bedding, comforted by the dip of the mattress on the Marimo’s side.

Sleep claimed him fast and carried him into the morning of the next day.

Friday was the usual pain in the ass as the last day before the weekend that every student longed for, well, every student that did not have one of those long-ass weekend classes or people like Zoro who actually looked forward to those extra curricula activities. Granted, some nature time sounded more alluring than 8 hours indoor class time on Saturday and Sunday each. Sanji was actually glad that he did not have that, though some special cooking courses next semester might change that up for him soon.

So far still, the weekends were a time to look forward to for Sanji. Surprisingly he had a pretty good day with all of his courses being exceptionally interesting today in a weird coincidence, maybe his good mood helped a lot too, as he felt pretty energized and relaxed. Apart from the beginning of the week, he did have some pretty relaxing nights in a row. Oh what wonders being well-rested could do to the body and mind!

Sanji spent the afternoon doing some homework, using his high energy level of the day to be super productive and when evening came around he withdrew to the kitchen to work on dinner, the special last-filling-high-calorie-survival-weekend-farewell meal for Zoro!

He had a lot of fun cooking it and made plenty so that the Marimo could eat a lot and stay full for a long time. When he was finished with the dinner preparations, Sanji kept the food heated until Zoro would arrive and busied himself with cleaning his workspace.

When Zoro finally returned home he looked like he had gone through hell, probably didn’t have quite as good a day as Sanji had. The cook remembered that Zoro once told him his classmates would tend to panic and annoy him before each of those practical sessions they did. For once, Sanji bit back any cheeky remark and refrained from riling up his friend even more, instead leading him to the table to serve the freshly made food.

It was a quiet dinner, Zoro was obviously tired from the day and put all of his rest energy into eating. And a good eater he was, Sanji had expected there to be more leftovers afterwards but he felt oddly satisfied that Zoro had such a big appetite for his last proper meal of the foreseeable future.

The rest of the evening went by uneventful. By nighttime, Sanji found that his feet automatically carried him towards Zoro’s room as soon as he was leaving the bathroom. His pillow was still on the bed from the previous night and he slid right back into what was now ‘his side’ of Zoro’s bed.

Saturday morning came early. Sanji noticed when Zoro got up and left the room but refused to wake up already so he kept dozing for a while. There was nothing to do for him anyways, the bathroom was occupied and there was no breakfast to prepare. At least not for the Marimo, who would leave for his bus in a while. Sanji blinked his eyes open, cursing the early hour when he spied the time on the clock on the nighttable. It was the weekend, he could and should sleep in for once. He grumbled and turned around, facing the empty side of the bed. Scooting more towards the middle of the mattress, he snuggled right into the still warm space that Zoro had left. Ah, to have the whole bed to himself!

Somehow that relaxed Sanji so much that the blond fell back asleep, only waking when Zoro made some noise by picking up his duffle bag. Sanji sat up. He hadn’t even heard him enter the room again.

“Leaving already?” Had he slept that long?! It felt like he had only closed his eyes for five minutes. Damn. Zoro told him to just keep sleeping but Sanji swung his legs out of the bed. It would feel wrong to not at least say goodbye to his flatmate. That wasn’t a sentiment he openly admitted to though.

“Nawww, I slept long enough and I gotta take a piss anyways...”

Tiredly rubbing his eyes, not able to suppress a yawn, Sanji lumbered after Zoro on his bare feet. He followed him towards the door. “You got everything? Ready to survive?” Sanji drew his fingers through his bed hair to tame it a little. “Are you sure you’ll find the bus.....?” Grinning, he pre-emptively dodged out of the way in case a punch was coming towards him.

“Well then, mountain man, have fun surviving and don’t forget to send me a sign of life inbetween, just so that I’ll know if I have to look for a new flatmate or not....” Besides all the jesting it started to feel a little lonely already, which was bullshit as their separation was only until the next evening or night rather with Zoro’s orientation skills. Seriously, how he always found his way out of those forests was a real mystery.

It was time for Zoro’s departure and Sanji suddenly felt the urge to lean forward but caught himself before he could do it, he might have twitched into his friend’s direction a little. But this simple action immediately blew any lingering sleepiness right out of Sanji, who was now wide awake and a bit confused at his sped up heart rate and a spreading heat on his face. Had he been that tired that he had lost his balance? Not likely. Zoro and Sanji also were not known to hug each other frequently so that wasn’t what he had intended to do either, it was more like....almost like he had wanted to-....

Zoro opened the door and stepped outside and the threshold suddenly felt like a big chasm between them.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

Fortunately, Zoro only had a short, dry comment for his friend before turning his attention back to the screen. He probably didn’t care much if Sanji was choking to death on his beer - or indecent thoughts - right beside him and the blond wasn’t sure if he should be glad for it or pissed off. Well, in this case at least it was for the better, so he just shrugged and turned his own focus back to the movie currently running. Luckily with those kind of movies you didn’t miss much if you weren’t paying attention for a minute, it was thus easy to return right to the action.

But Lady Luck was never favouring Sanji for long, if at all, and so he was soon ripped out of his film watching enjoyment again by Zoro deciding it was time for a little strip-tease. Oh fucking great! He had just gotten his mind out of the gutter a couple of minutes ago, having his half naked Adonis room-mate sitting right next to him shoulder to shoulder really wasn’t helping now.

Sanji took a large swig out of his bottle and then another one for the heck of it right after gulping down the first one. Yeah ok, it was stuffy in this room with two people using up the air in the relatively small chamber, a laptop running hot because designers thought it was clever to put the ventilation system at the bottom of it, and a guy who was a living furnace because he was 90% muscle mass. Normally Sanji had no problem with Zoro waltzing around with his shirt off, he was in fact used to it and had acknowledged that the eye-candy was even welcome sometimes - just for pure aesthetic reasons of course.

But this week Sanji’s brain was a mess and even after the whole stupid nightmare stuff it decided to form weird thoughts every now and then. It also did not help that Sanji was a healthy young man with an even healthier, active libido. His last relationship had been quite a while ago and though he had been sexually active since then it was more of the casual type and also not that frequently. Now that he was thinking about it, it also had been a while since his last jack-off session....Maybe that was why his brain kept latching onto Zoro of all people.

Hell, that sounded pretty logical and if that was the case Sanji definitely needed to get out more. He really needed to get back to socializing other than on campus. Getting hot and bothered by the Marimo was all kinds of weird. First of all, it was Zoro, yes he had a very nice body but he was also his idiot best friend, they’d known each other for such a long time it was a wonder they hadn’t killed each other yet, though not for a lack of trying, if he remembered their high school years especially. Despite knowing him for that long, Sanji wasn’t even sure about Zoro’s sexuality, if he had any at all, not that it was any of his business and seriously he didn’t care if the living kelp was still a virgin...

Mortified, Sanji leaned back and slid down, pressing himself into the pillow as if he was hoping to dissolve into it. From this angle he couldn’t really see much on the laptop screen anymore but fuck the dumb movie, seriously. Despite his better judgement, Sanji stole a quick glance at Zoro, not that it took much effort, in the cook’s new position his bulging biceps was already in his field of vision. He had robbed himself of the view of Zoro’s pecs but his eyes could still easily follow the ridges of his friend’s abs right down to the hem of-....Wow! What?! Instantly Sanji glued his eyes back onto the screen, despite the non-existent view, he practically glared at it, angry at himself, and just barely kept himself from growling in frustration.

Sanji usually was pretty proud of his brain capacities especially in the realm of conjuring up lewd fantasies. That was really useful if you were a horny, needy, single guy but right now was absolutely not appropriate at all, time-wise, location-wise and most importantly person-wise.

Sanji had never considered that watching a movie with Zoro in his room would technically constitute as him landing in bed with an objectively hot guy while remaining sexually frustrated. Whelp, the things you learn at the weirdest of times. What a perfect time to realize you need to get laid.

To end this horrible, terrible brain-fuckery, Sanji actively forced himself to think of anything else. He tried to listen to the action sounds and dialogue from the movie that he had no visuals for anymore, then he made a plan to return to researching and checking out any and all upcoming events scheduled for their favourite club. He’d definitely scratch together the money needed for it somehow, so that he wouldn’t have to go completely bonkers with university work and staying home so much.

It was really good that the day after tomorrow Zoro would be on his survival trip and the cook would have the apartment to himself until Sunday night.

He emptied his bottle of beer and aggressively snacked on one of the muesli bars he had grabbed. The movie could not end soon enough, too bad ‘cause he had really enjoyed the bit that he was able to follow before.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

Zoro's slip of the tongue was pretty amusing but Sanji did not have time to laugh about it as he was thrown out of his friend's room at last. After two nights of keeping him from studying and outright invading not only his room but also his bed, this was where Zoro drew the line. Sanji was thrown out over the issue of hogging his pillow apparently.

The blond hopped off the bed and obediently walked over to the door grinning to himself. Zoro seemed angry about his surprisingly cute slip-up and Sanji enjoyed his flustered expression a bit too much. Still, after the Marimo had been so indulging the last two days and nights, Sanji decided to follow that growled command and respect his wish for privacy.

“I'll be occupying the bathroom!” He declared before slipping out of the room. At this early hour it was almost illegal to be in such a good mood but Sanji found himself quite relaxed. He should've felt at least a little guilty about stealing Zoro's pillow but every time he thought about it, 'next time' echoed in his mind and he kept cracking up instead. Zoro was way gentler than he'd let on most of the time.

Sanji's good mood held up for the rest of the day and a busy day it was compared to yesterday's lazing around. Half of it was spent at uni of course, Thursday being one of those days his schedule was stuffed with courses from the early morning to afternoon. But with his energy renewed the cook powered through his classes with ease.

Afterward he did some grocery shopping to refill the fridge. He'd have to cook a nice meal on Friday evening to send Zoro off into the Survival Weekend strongly. Zoro had said that the bus was scheduled to leave on Saturday at around 7am, knowing his friend he wouldn't eat any breakfast beforehand, making sure that this truly was 48 hours of survival, Sanji had already planned for a meaty dinner that would keep Zoro sated for a while.

Working on assignments ate up a couple of hours, too, the cook was adamant to stay ahead and not let too many writing projects pile up. He liked to get things done as soon as possible to have that stuff out of his mind.

After a long study session, Sanji went for a run and returned on time to prepare a light dinner. Finally free of any obligations the blond withdrew to his room and played around on social media for a bit, happy to see that Nami seemed to be online as well. They sent each other some vlogs and gossiped about the people in it.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

Sanji wiggled around a bit to get into a comfy position, with the video file prepared he set the laptop between himself and Zoro, so that they could both see well enough. "Are you ready?" He clicked 'play' and put the setting on full-screen and the volume on max.

As soon as the opening credits were running, Sanji leaned over Zoro to grab a bottle of beer and two of the muesli bars. He could have just asked for those but sometimes the cook liked to be an obnoxious little shit, annoying the Marimo with small things like these.

He had to do some more wiggling to find the comfortable position once more and had to move the laptop again, which had tilted over thanks to his budging. Zoro and Sanji were sitting close to each other so that they had the best shared view on the screen. The Marimo was a living radiator so Sanji did not bother with the blanket at all, the laptop would also give off some heat as well.

He hadn't planned on a movie night but now that they were spontaneously doing this, Sanji was actually looking forward to the film. The title wasn't anything he was familiar with, Usopp had only said that it was supposed to be an action movie along the lines of John Wick, and Sanji had enjoyed those movies quite a bit, even if most action flicks tended to bore him. But he trusted his friend's movie recommendations especially as Usopp always tried to cater to everyone's preferences.

And the movie started off strong with some great cinematography and action scenes that immediately drew you in. Sanji forgot to open his bottle until the protagonist got introduced, the muscular brooding type, of course. He side-eyed Zoro while taking a swig of beer, maybe the mosshead should consider a movie career with that build and frown edged between his brows.

Sanji almost choked when his brain helpfully and out of nowhere added that there was another movie niche where acting was secondary to the physical build and people were paid for naked skin and performing certain activities in front of cameras rather than actual acting skills. Holy shit. Jesus Christ! What the actual fuck, brain?!

Sanji turned to the side, hand clamped over his mouth in an attempt to choke silently as to not disturb Zoro's enjoyment of the movie. He wouldn't mind dying right now as he was mortified at his own train of thought. That really wasn't something he was willing to think about for even another second, lest his brain decided to provide some pictures as well.

Managing not to die and actually calming down enough to be able to breathe normally again, Sanji glared accusingly at the label of the beer bottle, maybe there was more alcohol content in his than normal. The label told him that wasn't the case but the blond still blamed the beer for his thought derailment. The beer that hadn't even made it down his throat before the invasive thought had made him choke on it...

When he turned around to Zoro he just shook his bottle explaining with a raspy voice "accidentally inhaled this shit..." and instantly glued his eyes back onto the screen, letting the sound of shootings and explosions fill his mind again.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

Zoro's eyes stayed sharp and observant but he just shrugged off Sanji's unwillingness to get piss-drunk again. This didn't keep Zoro from drinking, though, expectedly, but the blond didn't care about that at all on this occasion. He had learnt not to meddle too much in his friend's drinking habits anymore.

During their lazy chatting Sanji grew more comfortable on Zoro's bed again, sinking down on it and lying with his head propped up on his arm. The soft mattress accepted his weight, it was different from his own mattress that was a bit harder and wouldn't yield like this but at the same time it felt nice.

In his relaxation Sanji soon found his eyelids growing heavy, they drooped down for longer periods of time and more frequently until his eyes stayed closed and sleep crawled up on him. His brain vaguely noticed Zoro leaving the room and it triggered a feeling akin to disappointment as Sanji's last active grey cells told him his friend was probably leaving for the couch again.

Snuggling into the pillow, beyond able to bother getting under the blanket, the blond was finally overtaken by the oblivion of sleep.

Zoro's room was always somehow the warmest of the apartment, so wearing his pajamas to bed was enough to keep Sanji from being cold. But when Zoro's bulk caved the mattress on the other half of the bed, it didn't take long until the cook unconsciously scooted closer to the body radiating heat, drawn to the warmth instinctively.

Sanji's upper body automatically lined up with Zoro's, his head found a new pillow in his friend's pronounced biceps and the blond's fingers of one hand curled lightly into the fabric of Zoro's shirt on his chest.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

As soon as Nami went offline, the internet grew a lot more boring again. With his legs drawn up on his chair and his head resting on his knees – Zeff always used to question the level of comfort of that pose – Sanji kept pointlessly clicking through some websites.

Man, he missed going out to party with his friends but everyone was really busy and broke this semester. He was yearning to move his body to some nice beats, Nami always challenged him to go full out and they usually drew quite some attention, tearing it up on the dancefloor. Sanji took his headphones and threw on a playlist of some nice dance music, checking out their favourite club's website to see if there would be any special events coming up with some nice happy hours for students to take advantage of.

The knock on his door was loud enough to reach his ears through his headphones, Sanji slid them off when he turned his chair around to face the intruder, the music now sounding against his throat.

Zoro was casually standing in the doorframe but he seemed to be annoyed and his brusque question threw Sanji for a loop as he didn't understand what he was talking about. He looked at the laptop screen and clicked on the playlist to stop the music, maybe he hadn't quite grasped the question correctly?

"Er, I'm just doing stuff online...?!" Apparently that wasn't the right answer, going by Zoro's reaction. After all these years Sanji had learnt to interpret Zoro's weird grunts and shrugs quite well but sometimes, like now, he was left with a big question mark. He only knew that the Marimo was expecting something from him and the cook apparently wasn't delivering, well tough luck. Words would make things a lot easier, communication-wise. For someone as straight forward as Zoro, he could be frustratingly evasive at times.

Sanji frowned, what was he still doing here, he had been asked. Where else was he supposed to be? Oh. Something suddenly dawned on him, but wait, could it really be that Zoro had been expecting his nightly visit again? Sure, he had been a pretty constant and persistent guest the last few nights but that was out of the norm and he thought they'd just go back to how things were before. Sanji's heart thumped in his chest, probably out of surprise, so he just ignored it.

No, no, no, he was probably overthinking things. Maybe Zoro was just bored and this was him asking for some entertainment, after all he had been indulging the blond a lot so now he should repay his friend. Yeah, that sounded more like the Marimo.

Sanji remembered something. "Uh, so....Usopp has sent me this new action movie, wanna watch it on my laptop?" Their friend was a great source for high-quality movies, for free and entirely illegal. Nobody knew how he got those movies in such great quality so fast after their release but they were gladly shared amongst the friends and other broke-ass students for some cheap entertainment.

And apparently this proposal was more to Zoro's liking, who agreed to it and then turned to move back to his room. Alright, so this was going to take place in his friend's room afterall. Cool.

Sanji unplugged his laptop, the battery was full and would last more than the length of the movie so he left the charging cable where it was. Walking to the door he turned around once more to grab his big pillow from his bed and went over to Zoro's room. The door stood ajar and Sanji threw the pillow at Zoro as soon as he entered his line of sight. "I learnt my lesson. Don't wanna hear you whine about your pillow again."

Zoro's room was tidier than last time and Sanji spotted the big outdoor bag already packed for the weekend trip. The cook approved, he would have done the same to keep the last evening before the trip as stress-free as possible. He tore his eyes from the bag, suppressing a weird surge of something akin to loneliness. Which was weird, 'cause Sanji was definitely looking forward to a whole weekend to himself.

Sanji crawled onto the huge bed, taking his place beside Zoro, the action by now almost normalized, as he opened his laptop to put on the movie. "Ah, wait, should I make us some snacks or...?" Zoro seemed to have the provisions covered and Sanji grinned at that foresight.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

Zoro could be as stubborn as Sanji himself and he also knew when to turn it all back on the blond.

Sanji scrambled backwards, higher up on the bed, his legs now up on it, too, so that he could easily throw out a kick as he watched Zoro approach threateningly. Sanji pretended to think really hard about an answer to Zoro's question.

“Hmmmmm~, no, I quite like it here,” he finally answered provocatively while bouncing a bit on the mattress. Zoro was definitely about to grab him and drag his cute ass off that bed and possibly also out of the room, so Sanji prepared himself for the inevitable, unwilling to go without a fight at least. When Zoro just sat down on the bed close to him, Sanji was more than surprised, this wasn't the violent action he was bracing himself for.

He blinked rapidly in confusion. Did his friend just offer him a drink? It did sound more like a challenge though and made the blond grin at the handsome swordsman, a natural reaction to that tone.

Another friendly drinking session sounded great, in theory. His throat had gone surprisingly dry when Zoro joined him on the bed. But Sanji had just overcome his hangover of the day, he really didn't need another one so soon, especially as he would have an early start into a long day tomorrow. Hmm this was conflicting, as a man he couldn't just back off a challenge, but maybe it was just a genuine question (like hell it was).

Shrugging, Sanji cocked his head to the side and made a grimace. “Eww, I just brushed my teeth and I don't even want to imagine how shitty that would taste.” He made a gagging sound to get his point across. “But have a go at it, if you want. Seems like you can only handle me drunk.”

Sanji stuck out his tongue at Zoro, the banter coming effortlessly. This was it, this was what he had needed. The interaction with the Marimo was familiar and comfortable.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

At first Zoro seemed a little distracted by his phone. Sanji noticed the lack of study material on the desk, or at least it didn't look like he was smack in the middle of a study session like last night.

“Huh, when did you move to poisonous plants instead?” He shrugged, not that he cared too much.

“So you already got your fungi knowledge down?” Sanji didn't know what else to talk about so he desperately stuck with the topic of edible and non-edible stuff you can find in the forest.

Unfortunately Zoro preferred to scrutinize him, his smartphone now discarded on the desk, and fixed the cook with his dark eyes.

It felt as if he could see right down into his soul and that made Sanji a bit uncomfortable. A shiver ran along his spine and he almost missed the short question he was asked. The Marimo had even noticed that Sanji had trouble sleeping again, perceptive bastard, although the cook had probably given himself away by showing up here again.

“Y-yeah, kind of, all that lazing around today has put my body into 'awake' mode and now I'm bored.” Zoro's expression stayed openly questioning and it started to be a bit unsettling and annoying.

Ok, so he had had one bad night and wasn't too willing to play psychoanalysis with his roommate over some stupid dream, it didn't mean he was made out of glass and had to be handled with utmost care. Sanji bristled at the thought that Zoro would think him weak and glared right back.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and stubbornly held his friend's gaze in quiet defiance for a few seconds. All the while silencing his own mind that kept telling him that he admittedly was quite pathetic right now, not being able to return to his own room and sneakily leeching off of Zoro's calming aura.

Pissed at himself and at Zoro, this was not the mood he was aiming for, he should have brought that peace offering after all. Sanji clicked his tongue in annoyance and broke the silence.

“What? Will you let me know when you're finished checking me out?” Well, that came out way sassier and gayer than intended, but Zoro was used to his sharp tongue and would hopefully not pick up on the unfortunate double entendre.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

In the early afternoon, Sanji returned back home right after his class had finished and he was really glad that he only had to live through one course this day. Right during class his lack of sleep had caught up with him and his concentration dropped with the queasiness returning as well. He had powered through it but the time had felt like it dragged on endlessly.

At home Sanji unceremoniously dropped his things in his room, then he went to the kitchen where he emptied a whole bottle of water and had some of the leftovers for lunch, though he was lacking the appetite for it and it was more of a snack than a real meal.

Sanji did not really feel like taking a nap but he wanted to lie down and relax, his body told him to take it easy for the rest of the day and his treacherous mind immediately wandered back to Zoro's bed that was so comfy and calming for some reason.

No way could he just waltz into his friend's room and plop down on his bed again. The last night was an exception and a generous one from his roommate. The cook's own bed, though, wasn't quite as tempting yet and he would have to crawl into it this night again anyway. So the only option left where he could stretch out his legs and lie down somewhat comfortably was the couch in the living room, that would have to do for the afternoon.

As he would have to make this a lazy day, Sanji changed into a more comfortable outfit, a loose t-shirt and some jogging pants. He put a big bottle of water, the ashtray from the kitchen counter and a pack of cigarettes with his lighter on the coffee table. The living room had the added bonus of the TV and for a second Sanji was contemplating playing a video game on it, but that would take too much brain-power.

Concentration was something he wanted to avoid for the sake of his brain, luckily his headache wasn't that prominent currently. The cook didn't like taking medicine so much so he hadn't taken another aspirin since brunch-time.

If Zoro were there, Sanji would've made his friend play the game and watched instead, but the Marimo was still out. Unfortunately the TV program was mostly crap at this time of day, so he ended up watching a sports broadcast of some swimming event, which was entertaining enough.

He grabbed the wool blanket, even though it wasn't cold at all, the same one Zoro had used the night before, and snuggled up with it. Lying down on his side, legs angled because they were too long for the damn sofa, Sanji watched the men stretch and step onto those diving boards in their tiny speedos, his focus now on those well-trained bodies.

Yeah, definitely not a bad program at all, this could be quite fun to watch, Sanji grinned to himself mood lifted quite a bit and already feeling a lot better thanks to the eye-candy.

[blackleg5932]

of night terrors and wonders, contd. ✕ @pxratehunter

When Zoro returned home, Sanji fought the impulse to switch channels but that would have been a bit suspicious and it wasn't as if there was suddenly better stuff on other programs. He just had to focus more on the swimming than the toned bodies now, no big deal, the swimming part was also pretty interesting, though the Marimo definitely preferred the football broadcast that followed soon after.

In general it was a really pleasant afternoon and evening. Zoro was still pretty lenient, letting Sanji rest his legs on his lap while sharing the couch, providing friendly chatter, ordering good food when it was time for dinner and the resident chef didn't move a muscle for once, and watching more sports together.

It was a completely lazy day and Sanji was so comfortable in his roommate's company that his hangover was soon forgotten, the headache gone from inside his skull, but his body started to ache due to the excessive lying around on the sofa. By the time night broke, there was no position that felt comfortable anymore on the couch.

After the last bit of the Thai food had been eaten, Zoro cleaned up and threw the food cartons and plastic cutlery into the bin, then he retreated to his room. Sanji stood up as well, stretching his body and cracking his neck. He switched off the TV and also returned to his room.

After all this lazing around and with Zoro's presence now lacking, everything felt boring and he wasn't in the mood to do anything at all. He briefly considered checking social media on his laptop but he had been doing that on his phone on the couch occasionally and after that extensive TV session, Sanji really had enough of screens for the time being.

So he just started to prepare his bag for the classes the next day but that was also quickly dealt with. In the end, Sanji's body was itching for some exercise, after not having much movement the whole day, and he did some half-assed shadow-kicking for 20 minutes before occupying the bathroom to get ready for bed. He figured he might as well just go to sleep now with nothing else on his agenda for the last couple hours of the day.

But sleep eluded him as he was turning and tossing about in his bed to find the perfect sleeping position. Maybe it was because he had already done so much lying around and his body was now protesting him, or maybe it was still too early and he just wasn't tired enough yet.

Sanji sat up and grabbed his phone from the nightstand, where it was connected to the charging station, idling through his social media messages again, then wasting some time with a mobile game that quickly bored him. In his desperation that boredom brought with it, Sanji scrolled through his contact list, looking for a name that would inspire him to a conversation or something but every name he scrolled past was probably either busy or asleep at this time or the cook just plainly didn't feel like writing them.

At Zeff's name at the end of the list Sanji was overcome with a feeling of guilt for not having given any sign of life recently. University had kept him so busy that he had just plain forgotten to call the old man to update him on his life, not that anything particularly interesting was happening but he should at least give some feedback on the progress of his culinary education to the shitty geezer, who had made this possible in the first place.

The memory of that crappy nightmare flashed back into his mind and Sanji groaned in annoyance. Hell no, he could not deal with both his guilty feelings and whatever the shit those memories made him feel at the same time. Why did this crap always assault his brain like that?

Sanji stood up to get a smoke, he had just freshly brushed his teeth but didn't care as he really craved that cigarette right now. With the smoke hitting his lungs at the first inhale, he left that cursed room of his and walked to his kitchen on naked feet. He switched on the light and checked the inventory of every closet just to busy his mind with something else.

When he was done, he sighed and threw away the long since burnt up butt of his cigarette. There was no way to escape his own thoughts but being as stubborn as Zoro always said he was Sanji refused to return to his room and proceeded to procrastinate in the bathroom, where he gurgled some mouthwash to get that minty fresh taste back onto his tongue all the while avoiding to look at his own reflection in the mirror, or rather his trademark eyebrows in particular, that in their mirrored version looked just like his sibl-.... no! He didn't want to think about it, why did he keep thinking about this shit?

Sanji splashed some cold water into his face. Not good, he was overthinking things again, that would only make it worse but he also couldn't stop thinking about it. There was no way to get out of this, to make himself feel better again. Yet, last night he had felt better after that stupid nightmare. Zoro had made him feel a lot better.

Sanji was nervously chewing on his bottom lip, his mouth already lonely in its anxious habit. He couldn't possibly annoy his roommate two nights in a row. Zoro would get pissed at him, wouldn't he? He had been so surprisingly tame since last night, maybe Sanji would still be in luck?

There was no other option now, despite feeling bad for disturbing his friend yet again, Sanji felt the need to enter Zoro's room as strongly as he felt the need to avoid his own at all cost. So he left the bathroom and walked straight up to that closed door, knocking his usual pattern and then slowly entering. This time he had no peace offering in the form of food, it was just him. Sanji tried to be casual about it.

“So, how is the learning coming along? I thought I'd test your new-found knowledge on fungi, wouldn't wanna let Chopper's efforts be in vain.” He grinned, glad that he could make use of the information he had received when Zoro was telling him about his day. It's always good to pay attention. And he had some kind of excuse now, no matter how unusual.

Sanji closed the door behind him and plopped down on Zoro's bed, daring to invade that space again after having slept there the last night just so he wouldn't keep awkwardly standing in the doorframe.

[pxratehunter-blog]

of bad habits and good intentions, contd. ✕ @blackleg5932

Sanji was static at first, as though he did not comprehend what he was being charged with; or as if he did but was having trouble coming up with a suitable reaction. When a short-lived spark lit his eyes showing he had made the maths and Sanji's face grew even longer, Zoro's confidence in his dirty findings received a boost; which he transfigured into a wide grin. He was proud of himself and he would have Sanji know it. 

"I pay half the rent money, therefore half of the kitchen is mine." His reply was cool, which made Sanji heat up. Zoro could sense that his cook friend would not spend another two minutes without searching his person for a fresh cigarette. When his words became a not-so-friendly warning, Zoro forced himself to deny his instincts' first suggestion, for every fibre of his being was telling him to get physical. 

Getting Sanji with his bare hands or by the tip of the katana was more of a pastime than it was a form of violence. Whatever it was, it was delightful. 

Zoro simply took his time confronting the cook, knowing full well silence could be just as unnerving an answer as a witty remark, and left the kitchen with a shrug. 

Of course, all the tension that had bottled up inside him hadn't just evaporated - it was there, reverberating in his blood, with his heart's every beat. But Zoro's body was not weaker than his will was, and so he collected himself and entered his room, not without grabbing the six-pack first in a last act of defiance. 

No matter how much and how hard they fought, Sanji would never let his friend's stomach be empty. Of course sometimes he would shout at Zoro to make his own dinner, but for some reason seemed to take pity on his friend - the question was, did he took pity on Zoro having nothing better to eat than some microwaved noodles or did he took pity on the noodles being eaten in such a disrespectful way? 

When Sanji went out with his mobile in his hand and still mute earphones coiled in his fingers, Zoro knew he was going out for a jog. Perfect timing. Zoro's plan had formed the moment he had come face-to-face with the reality that his booze would not be so easy to find. If that was the game the cook wanted to play; it was game on. 

Once he was gone, Zoro tried to give it five minutes before execution commenced, lest Sanji come back to the apartment; but what had once been anger had now turned into excitement. Zoro searched the house for all cigarette packets, boxes, and other containers he could find and placed them inside a black waste bag. It was only fair for Sanji to be deprived of his passions after what he had done, what with invading his friend's property and sticking his nose into his own business. 

 When it was time to throw Sanji's cupboard stash inside the bag as well, Zoro gave it a moment's thought: should he leave it there so as to keep Sanji occupied and stall that harsh moment of realization? Nah. Thinking of how good it would be to see Sanji feel so bad was too sweet to resist. Zoro shoved Sanji's entire collection of smokes inside the bag and took it out, not to the nearest bin.