Heat
Chapter 2 - Temptation
Zoro lay in the grass and snoozed. The sound of Luffy babbling was
quite soothing if he ignored the words. The boy’s excitement was never
ending, anything and everything was a great mystery to be solved or a
grand adventure to be had. So far this morning he had saved the kid
from being stung by a hive of bees (in search of honey), being bitten
by a deadly spider (it looked cool) and drowning in the Oasis in three
inches of water (fishing, apparently).
Zoro was now taking a nap in the shade of a palm tree in order to get
his strength back for what was guaranteed to be an afternoon of similar
activities. He had managed to keep the blonde at the back of his mind.
Aside from the tantalising glimpses of flesh that he couldn’t avoid –
damn harem outfits! – he had kept his eyes and hands to himself. Sanji
had made it easier on him. He’d been so busy fawning over the ladies
that he’d barely registered the swordsman at all after their first
meeting. What he was doing in a harem when he was obviously a womaniser
was anyone’s guess. Did he even know what he was here for? Zoro
sniggered as he thought of the sweaty, fat noblemen that came to visit.
That would be quite a surprise to our refined lady-killer…
“What are you laughing at Zoro?” Luffy asked, pushing up Zoro’s eyelids
and peering intently. Zoro came back to reality to find the kid an inch
from his face.
“Damn it Luffy, what?”
“You were laughing! I want to know the joke!” Luffy enthused, pushing back his straw hat and waving his arms like mad.
“Well….ah…” How to explain…
“ZORO!”
Saved.
“Uh, Luffy that’s your dad, we’d better go.” Zoro got up quickly and strode off leaving the puddle of disappointment behind him.
“But I wanna know…”
The Sultan was in good form today; he wore scarlet from head to toe and
was beaming with joy. Zoro was a bit worried, there weren’t many things
that got the Sultan this excited and most of them involved effort.
“Zoro, glad to see you are always close!” Not that it mattered, the
girls shrieked so loudly he could be in another country and still hear
them. “Today I have a special mission for you, I’ve organised some
guards to take care of the ladies…” Here goes. Anything but… “and I
want you to take Luffy to see someone.” The Sultan’s black eyes
twinkled with mischief. He leaned down to speak in confidence, “I think
I have an idea. But no more about it… Luffy! Good to see you, boy! I
have someone that I want you to meet! Come along!” The Sultan waved
them along towards the Palace, Luffy looking bemused and Zoro confused.
As they were dragged up the staircase, Zoro started to get a sinking
feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was very close to… No. He
breathed a sigh of relief; they were going in the opposite direction;
in fact they were practically on the other side of the Palace.
The Sultan stopped outside an eerily familiar door and put one large
hand on Zoro’s shoulder. “You stay here and keep an eye out for anyone.
Let them have some privacy, ok?” He winked excessively and then took
his son by the hand. Zoro finally cottoned on; the Sultan had some new
girl to try on Luffy. Every now and then he got some exotic woman from
a far-flung island to see if she could kindle Luffy’s passion. So far
nothing had worked. Not even the Amazon women… although the swordsman
figured they had to be the closest.
“Son, I’m sorry that I didn’t realise before. Here is someone special
that I’d like you to meet, he should be ready by now…” He? No. There’s
no way that they could be on the mezzanine whe.. The Sultan rapped on
the door once and then before Zoro had the chance to look away, the
door was thrown open.
Framed, in perfect silhouette was the most gorgeous body Zoro had ever
seen. Slowly, as gauze curtains floated away on the breeze, the figure
stepped forwards into the light. His body was swathed with soft cloth
that draped and clung to his every curve and line. His muscles were
outlined in perfect symmetry, hell he might as well be naked for all
the thing left to the imagination. The blonde strode effortlessly
forward, leaving steadily more layers of see-through fabric floating
behind him. By the time he reached the door, only a few soft bolts
around his waist remained and they were pretty much just strands woven
together.
Zoro coughed and put his head down so quick he nearly cracked his chin on his chest. Shit. Why did I have to see that?!
While Zoro was struggling to make his body obey him, the Sultan was
giving Luffy a short speech about being careful and always having
respect for people. Zoro could see the boy nodding profusely from the
very corner of his eye. By the time the swordsman had regained his
composure, the door had already been closed and he was standing alone
on the landing outside Sanji’s room in a cloud of perfume and regret.
---------------------------------
Zoro stood on the landing and contemplated life, the universe and
everything. On the one hand, he’d had the luck to glimpse Sanji in all
his unearthly glory. On the other hand, now he had the image burned
into his retinae for all prosperity and every time he closed his eyes
he got a hard-on.
Plus there was the added problem that he was now expected to stand
outside this door and listen to his best friend get deflowered by the
man – no, the body – of his dreams. Great. The swordsman stood
awkwardly for a few minutes then decided that there was no point being
grumpy and uncomfortable. He sat cross legged outside the door and
rested his swords beside him, closed his eyes and tried to ignore the
whoops of pleasure issuing from the room behind him.
What was Sanji even doing? No-one’s first time was that good! How had
he managed to get Luffy going? Not that he wanted to know… but how?!
Suddenly his mind was taken over by possibilities… Maybe Sanji had been
trained from birth to give pleasure to men and had learnt all of the
arts of seduction and titillation. Maybe he’d just thrown himself
wantonly on the bed and begged Luffy to relieve his aching desires.
Maybe he was just tickling the kid. He could only hope.
The sound of giggling coming up the corridor was a welcome distraction,
until he realised who it was. Nami strode around the corner, arm in arm
with first-wife Robin. A trio of nervous looking guards bought up the
rear. Robin always had an afternoon stroll, but this was the first time
that Zoro had seen her with Nami. If the evil red-head got her claws
into the most powerful woman in the Palace then there would be no end
to the trouble she could cause. This day just kept getting better.
“Zoro-kun, I noticed my liege relieved you of your duties. Have you
come to check on our new delight?” Robin’s eyes twinkled with mischief.
The swordsman scrambled to his feet and tried not to scowl at the
thought that he might actually care how Sanji was doing.
“I’m just minding Luffy, ok. Idiot can’t even get laid on his own.” He
grumbled. Nami took in the door and Zoro and Robin’s comments, then
squealed. A dozen hands sprouted over her surprised face and clamped
her mouth shut.
“Shhh… Nami-kun, we don’t wish to disturb them,” Robin whispered.
Nami nodded and was hastily released. “Thanks Robin… I just didn’t
realise. Do you really think they’ll do it?!” She was practically
crawling the walls with excitement.
“Only time will tell.” Robin produced a cryptic smile.
“But you can tell! Why don’t you just take a little look and tell us
what is happening..?” Nami fluttered her eyelashes at the taller woman,
who beamed down at her and swept off along the corridor. At least she
had some sense then.
Zoro resigned himself to his fate and sat back down, the noises in the
room had gotten steadily more raucous. Now it sounded like Luffy was
riding a rampaging bull through a china shop. More mental images Zoro
didn’t need. The swordsman concentrated on blocking out all noise
behind him. As long as he had his back to the door and no-one could get
in or out, it didn’t matter what Luffy and his damn strumpet got up to.
He didn’t care.
Damn it.
He focussed on the sounds of the birds in the garden, the sweet smell of jasmine and perfume hanging in the air…
“ZORO!!!”
Luffy’s voice.
In a heartbeat Zoro was through the door, he drew his swords mid air
and landed ready and eager to shed blood. The sight that greeted him
was not quite the masked assassins that he had been expecting.
A large ball of flesh and rubbery limbs was rolling around on the
floor, knocking over 5th century vases and generally causing chaos. The
swordsman didn’t know what to do. Were they fighting or was this the
way that Luffy… No. That is so wrong. Zoro caught a fleeting glimpse of
washboard abs and decided – belatedly – that the polite thing would be
to turn away.
“Luffy!” He shouted, by way of acknowledgement and warning.
The mass of limbs careened in a different direction and Zoro was bowled
over. His ass hit the floor and he was swept up in an assortment of
body parts and hurled across the room. By the time they had finally
stopped, Zoro had a face full of gauzy cloth. That must mean his head
was in Sanji’s…
“Zoro! You came!” Luffy enthused. Not quite yet, but at this rate… Zoro
shifted his weight and tried to get away from the heady scent of
perfume mixed with Sanji’s crotch. His body was suddenly yanked away
and he found himself on his feet with an eager boy grinning over at
him. “Zoro! You have to see this! Sanji is amazing! He’s going to be my
friend!!!”
“No, I told you I’m not.” Sanji grumbled and swept a few loose strands
of gold from his eyes as he stood up and rearranged what could only be
described as a loincloth made of purple haze.
“He’s going to take me to sea and cook for me! He’s a cook, Zoro and he
can do this!” Luffy bent over, grabbed one of his own ankles, then
stood up and hoisted his rubbery leg over his own shoulder. “Show him
Sanji!!!”
The blonde had retreated to the window and was looking out over the
gardens with longing. He smiled at the boy and then walked over to him
slowly, deliberately raising one smooth gorgeous leg into the air and
hoisting it impossibly high before resting it on Luffy’s other shoulder.
“Not my shoulder!” Luffy giggled, completely oblivious to Sanji’s
sultry bedroom eyes, which were driving Zoro completely mad. “Isn’t he
great!? He’s teaching me how to wrestle!!!”
Well at least that explained that. Sanji lowered his leg slowly and
looked at Zoro properly for the first time. His clear blue eyes swept
across the swordsman’s bare chest and lingered on his three swords.
“No, I’m not. It’s just hard to..” Sanji started, his words cut off
when Luffy launched himself at the blonde again. Zoro side-stepped and
they swept past him. Now that he wasn’t afraid to look, he was quite
impressed with the blonde’s prowess. Not that he’d admit it. The guy
was holding his own against Luffy… Despite the boy’s youth and
innocence, he was one of the strongest people Zoro had ever met. And
Sanji was half-naked and pinning the wriggling boy to the floor. It was
making Zoro really horny in all the wrong ways. He turned to go back to
his post outside,
“Zoro! You should stay! I want you and Sanji to be friends. Come and wrestle with us.”
Oh no. No. That was not going to work.
“Uh, the Sultan said that I should…” He mumbled, backing towards the door.
“Come on Zoro…” Luffy gazed with wide innocent eyes, “He’s going to
come with us to sea and cook for us and teach us to wrestle. It’ll be
so cool!”
“I told you, I’m not!” Sanji snapped. Luffy ignored him.
“I… uh… wouldn’t want to hurt him. I have to take my work seriously.”
Zoro avoided looking at either of them, suddenly all he could see was
the bare sole of a foot hovering millimetres from his nose. He stepped
back - wouldn’t do to hurt the merchandise – and waited for Luffy to
dismiss him.
Sanji took one step closer, his foot wriggling under Zoro’s chin and
putting just enough pressure on his windpipe to make it hard to breathe.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” Hissed the blonde.
“Yay! You’re going to wrestle after all!!!” Luffy clapped in delight.
“No I’m not!” The two angry men shouted in unison.
While Luffy was rolling on the floor laughing, Zoro took his chance to
escape. He slammed the door shut behind him and slid slowly down in a
crumpled heap, his body quivering with a hunger that burned like fire
in the places where Sanji’s body had pressed against him.
