Heat
Chapter 12 - Over Heated
That’s her!” a voice behind them shouted. Guards poured out of the plaster haze covering the doorway and chased after Nami, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. They ran at full pelt out into the garden, heading for the shadows where the glorious palace lights did not reach.
Nami was ahead pulling the rubber boy, her precious staff clutched to her breast.
“Hey, Sanji,” Luffy pondered out loud as he was jerked backwards, “why was it so dirty in there?” he nodded at Zoro with a knowing look in his eye, “You two should be more careful.”
“YOU DID THAT!!!” the pair shouted in unison as they bounced Luffy off the grass with a combo backhand. Nami blinked at her empty hand and then kept running as if her feet were on fire. Luffy tumbled awkwardly and then bounced back to his feet and continued as if nothing had happened.
“This is fun!” he shouted, “Why are we running?”
“They’re trying to catch us you idiot!” Sanji explained.
“Oh!” Luffy nodded eagerly, “Ok then.”
“Cut them off!” A booming voice shouted, as more guards poured around from the front of the palace. The line to the trees was cut off and guards circled their small band.
“We have to fight!” Nami shouted, shoving Zoro and Sanji out in front of her.
“Nami, I don’t wanna fight my dad’s soldiers, you know he’ll get mad,” Luffy whined.
“Luffy, please… I have to take this staff with me..” Nami said, urging him, begging him to go on.
“…please.. there are pirates on my island that are killing my family, I have to give them this money or..” a single tear crept out from somewhere locked deep inside her, and rolled down her cheek.
Luffy placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him, his eyes were bright and his idiotic smile made her feel hopeful again.
“Trust me,” he said.
The guards drew closer.
“What are you doing?” Luffy asked the man with the tallest helmet.
“She’s a thief, Your Highness,” the man bowed politely but didn’t lower his spear.
“But she’s my friend,” Luffy explained.
“I can’t help it Your Highness, the Sultan has ordered that she be presented to him,” the guard said. He was sturdily built, just past his prime but he looked strong and loyal, he nodded at Nami, “Come with me.”
Before the girl knew it, she was being dragged back into the palace.
“My dad will understand!” Luffy called out to her as she was whisked up the corridor.
Understand?
She was not so sure.
--------------------
Nami was led into the banquet hall surrounded by sheepish guards that cringed when she glared at them. They corralled her up to the Sultan’s table and presented her, bowing.
Sanji hovered around the edges, ready to pounce and Zoro watched protectively from behind the rows of guards.
The harem girls all gaped with amazement and then began to gossip at the speed of light.
“Who would have thought?”
“After all he’s done for her!”
“I knew that she was up to no good…”
Nami cried quietly, thinking of all her family, her village. "It's for my family..." she sniffed out.
Stupid Luffy! Why had she trusted him!?
A single deep voice roared over the chaos, the Sergeant at Arms,
“This woman is guilty of conspiracy to commit theft from the Royal Treasury, lock her up!”
A collective gasp echoed through the room and the guards advanced on the red head. Sanji lunged forward to snatch his Mellorine away but a voice as hard as stone stopped him in his tracks.
“No.”
The voice was so calm, so certain; as if it had the weight of the whole universe behind it. In his corner of the room, somehow already hidden by a tower of empty plates and gold goblets, Luffy stood up.
The excited babble in the room fell to a hush and every eye watched him. He swept the rubbish aside and strode up to the red headed girl, his eyes shining.
“I’ll go.”
“What do you mean?” Nami hissed, trying to get him to shut up.
Idiot!
“I’ll go to your island. I will save your family. I know that I can do it.”
Nami looked up, her face wet with tears and flush with fresh rage, “You can’t do anything! They’ll kill you, there is nothing that anyone can do. You’d just get everyone killed you st..” Luffy lifted his prized straw-hat from his head and jammed it down firmly on her head.
“I’ll do it.”
Zoro looked at the skinny boy and felt a strength in him that he had never imagined. Long lashed, dark eyes looked up at the swordsman and Luffy fixed him in a steady gaze,
“You coming, Zoro?”
The swordsman rolled his eyes. This was not a step he had foreseen on his journey to be the greatest swordsman who ever lived. Fate always had its own ideas.
“Someone has to keep you out of trouble, right?”
Luffy faced Sanji, his solemn mask cracking in a show of youthful enthusiasm. “Saaaaanjjjiiiiiiiiiii…..”
“Yes Luffy?”
“Will you be my coooooooookkkk?”
Sanji laughed and addressed the room, taking advantage of the captive audience,
“Wherever a lady is in distress, Sanji chef-du-jour will be close at hand!”
He snuck a look at Zoro. The guy didn’t even flinch. No smile, no frown. Nothing. But somehow Sanji swore that he could feel the energy radiating out of him, a wave as intense as a slap in the face. It had to just be wishful thinking but Sanji would have bet a month’s wage that the stoic Marimo head was ecstatic.
He felt a tinge of scarlet creep up his cheeks; it would be nice to live and fight with Zoro.
Luffy turned and shrugged off his golden robes, “Father?”
The Sultan faced his baby boy and wondered where the tiny child with the sweet, wide eyes had gone. Now he was strong, fierce and determined, but the heart… his shining heart did an old man proud. This girl had lost everything and his son had reached out to her, despite her bad intentions he was standing by her. He was truly a man at last, making his own decisions about right and wrong.
“My Lord,” Robin bowed until her head nearly touched the banquet table.
“Yes, my learned-candy-floss,” the Sultan replied, never one to let state ceremony interfere with his personal quirks of expression.
“I feel that I must take this opportunity to express my desire to pursue a course of archaeological exploration and research in the waters further afield,” She said it so quickly and quietly that many missed it, but the Sultan could see it simply in the tilt of her head, the line of her chin.
“You also wish to go to sea?” he asked softly, tilting her head to look into her guilty, yet hopeful eyes.
“You know that I could never deny you anything. You have given me more than was ever my due,” he smiled and gestured to the maitre de, ordering more wine.
“As to you, Luffy,” he said louder, turning to his son. Luffy was so tense, his whole body was practically a question mark. His feet twitched and hovered and it looked like he might actually take off.
“..yess!?????” Luffy replied.
“I think that we have all had quite enough excitement for one night, don’t you?” - the Sultan was a wise man, so he didn’t leave Luffy enough time to reply -“I shall deliver my decision tomorrow, my son. I have many things to consider,” he gave a definite ‘and-that’s-the-last-word-on-it’ nod and then began to issue orders for the packing up of the party, the patching of the palace walls and the sleeping arrangements for the night.
Luffy stood in front of him with relative patience and bounced on the heels of his feet,
“Yes, my son?” the Suntan asked indulgently.
“You can’t send Nami to prison! She didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Well… that remains to be seen Luffy…” the Sultan started, Luffy stared up at him with big brown eyes burning with righteous indignation, “Ok, ok. She’s detained in her quarters until further orders,” the big man sighed. “And you,” he levelled stern eyes on his son, “go to bed before you cause any more havoc!”
“I have to wait until tomorrow?!”
“Yes.”
“Unfair!!!”
The Sultan waved towards the vault of the ceiling, inviting any passing Gods to rescue him from this chaos.
“Everyone to bed, we have much to do in the morning!”
The swordsman watched as Nami was taken away. Luffy raged, pacing silently while Sanji chased after his Mellorine,
“You will be fine, my sweet… Luffy, Zoro do something you molluscs! I will not let anyone harm you!” with a parting glare Sanji ran off, admonishing the guards for being brutes and generally getting in their way as much as he could.
With one last long look at the direction Sanji had disappeared, Zoro stepped out of the main hall and went to secure the grounds. No use dwelling on baka-cook. Nami would be fine until the morning and anyway, he always did a final patrol before turning in and with the dramatic turns the night had taken, he decided to be extra vigilant.
The first thing that he saw when he walked out into the garden did not take much of his warrior training to pick up. It was a pale, almost luminous bone, jutting out from a hawthorn bush.
“Brook, get out of there,” he sighed.
“Ah, Swordsman-san! How is it that you come to be here so late? I was just trying to find my way..”
“Save it,” Zoro cut him off, “how long have you been here anyway?”
“I was born many hundreds of years ago, and when I was young my first love was o..”
“In the garden. How long have you been in the garden?”
“Most of the night I guess. Long enough to know that I would love to sail the seas with Captain Luffy, can you imagine it? Sanji would cook delicious delicacies, I could play sweet music to liven our souls… and travelling with those pretty girls!” Brook waves his arms with enthusiasm and Zoro ducked and changed the subject,
“How do you know Sanji?” he asked.
“Well, I see him at one of the *cough* bars in town,” Brook explained.
Zoro didn’t ask. He felt like it might be better not to. Instead, he tried a different tack,
“So what is with ero-cook and that Nami woman? Why is he so pissed off?!”
Yo-ho-ho! Brook had been waiting for this question! If he had a face, he would have smiled.
“Funny you should say that,” Brook observed.
“Why?”
“Oh, nothing I think. Why do you ask?” Brook replied.
“He was so huffed up he was puffy,” Zoro grumbled.
“Why don’t you ask him?” Brook hinted. It all suddenly made sense, them sneaking about in the gardens, Sanji concerns about Zoro’s mood. Obvious!
“Alright, I will!” Zoro announced.
“Well, good luck then,” Brook said, earnestly. Love was not such an easy thing, after all.
“Thanks. You know I’m going to have to kick you out now.”
“I guess so,” Brook would have gazed with a level stare, if he had any eyes.
“You going to leave easily?”
Zoro hoped the answer would be no.
“Can I have some panties?”
“No.”
“Then no.”
Wonderful.
Zoro stood up and drew his swords, “Do you want to settle this like a man?”
“Not really, can we have a dance off?” Brook enquired.
One mossy green eyebrow twitched,
“No.”
The swordsman suppressed a grin and hustled the taller man toward the gates.
“Can I just see the dancing girls?”
“No.”
“I just want to have one tiny..”
“No!”
“I just want to hold them and breathe in the..”
“OUT! NOW!!!”
Zoro shoved Brook out the west gate with strict instructions to the guards stationed there to keep him out and tell the others.
Che, what a ridiculous guy. Kind of reminds me of Sanji in some ways…
Zoro walked slowly back up the garden path. He took in the sweet jasmine-scented spring breeze, and enjoyed the cool night air taking the heat of the stuffy hall out of his skin. He did one last circuit around the palace proper and checked that everyone was where they should be. The Sultan had retired with three harem girls, so it would probably be pretty late when he finally emerged tomorrow… all the guards were at their stations…
Zoro walked and let his body take him where it wanted; night walking always cleared his head. He let his mind wander as well, soothed by the sounds of the palace bedding down and crickets in the bushes, frogs in the ponds… It would be good to travel with Luffy and fight the mermen on Nami’s island. He could fight towards his goal and still see Sanji, eat his food, laugh at his bad jokes, touch his soft pearl skin…
He might still be awake.
------------------------
“Let me in,” Zoro said, his grip on the vines by the window was secure, but he could feel them slowly pulling away from the wall.
The cook was having a cigarette near the window when he had managed to climb all the way down to his room from the roof. It had taken a little longer than he had expected because the stupid building was the wrong shape.
“Why?” Sanji mused, his eyes twinkling as they passed across Zoro’s precarious perch, “Don’t you have innocent young girls to molest?”
He just was not going to let it go.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me, bastard!” Sanji shouted, puffing his chest to its indignant fullest.
“Come on, at least let me in,” the swordsman said, trying not to remind Sanji that he was just going along with the bloody plan anyway. It’s not like he wanted to be mauled and squashed by those noisy, pointy, sickly smelling things!
Sanji finally stepped back and Zoro swung into the room.
The cook was still wearing his white chefs outfit from the dinner. It was as pure as snow; how he managed to keep it that way was beyond Zoro’s comprehension. Sanji was still smoking, his head tilted back and his eyes half closed. He let the smoke trickle from between his lips in a thin stream; he didn’t look worried at all. Since he had last seen the blonde, his confidence had returned. Sanji had this quality though, to seem relaxed when he was really on edge. Zoro had seen it before and he was not going to fall for it this time. Even though he knew that the cook was worried, it looked like he had decided to try and ride it out. Here, together, they could wait out the night.
“What do you want?” Sanji asked flatly, looking washed out by the white clothes and the moonlight.
“I just wanted to see how you were doing. Nami is fine. She demanded some exotic drink and the guards are running scared trying to find it, one of my sentries told me.”
Sanji nodded absently, his eyes fixed on some invisible point in the distance.
Zoro leaned a little closer; the smell of the cigarette smoke had become oddly arousing, forever associated with his hot harem boy…
“I know that she’s fine… it just seems. Fuck-it. I just want it to be tomorrow already,” Sanji groaned.
“Are you ok?”
“What? Are you going pansy on me, Zoro?”
The swordsman smiled, you wish.
“You look sick, I’m trying to be supportive of my nakama, shit-head,” he huffed.
“Sorry,” Sanji blew his last smoke ring and put the cigarette out, “it’s probably just the outfit,” he chuckled to himself, “white isn’t really my colour.”
Zoro remembered the concubine’s outfit. Loose see-through pants, always bare chest and stomach. It was great that Sanji had more self-esteem but the swordsman felt like he had been a bit shortchanged in the bargain.
He thought that he should tackle the subject with a little tact and diplomacy,
“I liked your harem outfits better,” he said, with a cursory nod to emphasise the point.
“I bet you did, pervert,” Sanji grinned and threw a wad of fabric at Zoro’s head – his dirty, wet apron.
Zoro glared, he felt suddenly deprived. Why did he have to put up with this mouthy shit-cook? Where was his hot harem boy in silks?
“Why’re you grinning, Marimo?” Sanji asked.
“I was wondering what happened to my sweet harem girl,” Zoro taunted.
“She asked me to come over and kick your seaweed-astro-turf-lawn-clipping covered head,” Sanji replied, the toe of one shoe tap, tap, tapping on the floor.
“At least she would have asked you in a sexy as hell outfit,” Zoro grumbled.
“You want a sexy as hell outfit?” Sanji asked softly, his eyes flashing.
Zoro looked at him blankly as if he was a total idiot.
“Well?” Sanji prompted, smooth as silk.
“Yeah,” Zoro huffed the obvious.
Sanji continued to look at him with an expression that seemed to be on the turn. The swordsman braced himself for whatever wild sex or violence was to come.
Stupid unpredictable sexy idiot.
“You’re going to owe me one…” The cook said slowly, the corner of his mouth twitching ever so slightly.
“Ok, so I owe you one.”
Sanji hovered, seeming to be on the edge of saying something further. Instead he huffed dramatically and stormed away.
Zoro was left standing in the cook’s room; it was covered in recipe books and neat piles of clothing. Sanji had disappeared into another side room; this place was really quite big. Zoro just had a bunk in the sleeping quarters with all the other guards.
The swordsman strolled up and down the floor, admiring the canopy above the bed. It looked like it would be strong enough to do chin-ups off. That and other things…
“Oi! Marimo!”
Zoro turned and the sight that greeted him was enough to knock the wind out of his lungs.
The colour, green. Fabric soft as silk, clinging, gently caressing every perfect curve. The hard line of firm pectorals soaring above ripples of cream stomach muscles. A haze of blonde hair, framing moist lips, one perfect round eye of startling blue.
Sanji walked toward him, one crooked finger beckoning.
“You like that Marimo?” He swayed his hips as he moved closer, the coins and hoops of gold he wore clinking together. Those tantalising too-low pants were back and they were about the only thing of substance about the cook’s hot harem outfit. The top was just open floating green, baring the cook’s milk muscles.
Zoro put one hand behind Sanji’s head, ruffling his pale corn silk hair. The other hand, he planted in the small of his back, to pull Sanji closer. Zoro kissed down the pale, smooth neck, breathing in the heat of Sanji’s soft clean skin. It was a scent the made Zoro’s heart pound and made all the blood in his body rush to one destination. He tasted the creamy skin, warm musk with a hint of salt…
Sanji sighed a little and then stepped away, breaking Zoro’s grasp.
“That’s a yes? If we are going to do this, then I’m in charge. I am a professional after all.”
“You think that makes a difference?” Zoro scoffed. He knew that he was just fine when it came to bedroom technique; he’d never had any complaints.
“Of course it does, idiot,” Sanji moved his achingly perfect body closer again and that intoxicating smell wafted back.
“Mmmm-kay,” Zoro muttered; he really didn’t care anymore.
Sanji pulled the swordsman closer by his hips and whispered to him, tiny hot breaths puffing onto his ear,
“You have no idea.”
Zoro’s earlobe was pulled into a hot wet mouth, sending shivers all the way to his toes. Sanji pulled him closer and the gentle, delicious pressure on his groin made him moan into soft blonde hair. Sanji kissed him, once briefly and then again, letting Zoro taste the sugar of his mouth and bite hungrily at his lips. Zoro loved the feeling of the tender, willing flesh between his teeth…
Sanji pulled away from the kiss but left his hands stroking Zoro’s stomach over his shirt, hovering so close to his begging nipples and then away again. The swordsman looked the cook in the eyes and Sanji grinned,
“See, you’re undisciplined, moss-head.”
Sanji’s fingers skirted his collar bones, popping the top button if his shirt. He left a trail of hot kisses down Zoro’s throat and let his lips follow his fingers. With each button popped he kissed, caressed and licked Zoro’s chest. When he reached the swordsman’s first nipple, he ran his wet tongue around it and blew gently, making it harden in the cool air. The cook’s tongue flicked across the delicate tip and then he took it in his mouth, sucking slowly, teasing with each flick and slow stroke. Once he had finished, he kissed across Zoro’s chest to repeat his ministrations on the second nipple.
Zoro moaned as Sanji’s hands went even lower, brushing against him with agonising softness as he undid the final buttons and sent the shirt fluttering to the floor. The cook sunk to his knees and the hot kisses moved on, getting lower and lower, the wet heat making Zoro groan as nimble teeth pulled his tender flesh.
“I want you to lie on the bed,” Sanji said, his voice raspy and slightly breathless.
Zoro moved quickly, he stretched out on his back and watched Sanji through the canopy of the bed. The cook stretched, his luxurious body twisting in the flickering light. Then he began to undo the many clasps that held on the exotic jewellery, he watched Zoro intently as he took off each piece and dropped it to the floor. Finally, Sanji’s searching hands began to move across his own body. He traced circles across his stomach, loosening the folds of light fabric, his knowing fingers applying more pressure here and there. Sanji’s breathing became more heavy, as he ran his hands up his sides and slid his fingers across his shoulders, sending the green shirt rolling to the floor. Finally, he looked Zoro in the eyes and slowly plunged one hand below the waistline of his pants.
“I like to lie in bed and think of you Zoro, the way you would touch me…” he bit his lips as his hand moved out of view, then drew it back slowly, “…all the things that I want to do to you…” his hand emerged and stroked slowly up his chest, tweaking nipples as it went.
Sanji climbed onto the end of the bed and crawled slowly towards him,
lips red and slightly parted. The cook kissed his toes, gentle kisses,
almost tickling at first but then… Zoro liked the hot breath on his
feet, the wet heat of Sanji’s mouth sucking each toe in turn... The
swordsman put his hands above his head and ground his hips into the
mattress, fisting the sheets to stop from doing anything stupid.
Why the hell did I think he should be a cook? This suits him so much better.
The hot lips left his toes and then firm hands were running up his legs over his trousers, gentle caresses spiralling ever higher. Blonde hair followed and in an instant, Sanji was straddling him. Zoro’s whole body twitched with the urge to thrust as Sanji’s weight pressed down on his cock. The blonde snickered and shifted his hips, grinding down. Zoro tore the sheets he was holding clean down the middle and pulled the cook into an embrace.
The taste of Sanji’s lips was like a drug, the more he had, the more he wanted. Sanji returned his fierce kisses, pressing him into the pillows and making him growl with lust. The cook’s fingers flicked across his chest, lightly pinching his nipples and then going down. Sanji’s kisses moved down his throat,
“Lift your hips,” the cook huffed into Zoro’s chest.
Anything for you…
Hands reached for the buttons of Zoro’s pants and he obeyed his instructions, relaxing into Sanji’s touch and letting the professional take over.
