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"Lazy Marimo... you have to let me up if you want me to cook you breakfast."
"Not hungry," the swordsman mumbled, not loosing his grip around the cook's waist. Sanji sighed.
"You won't be hungry right up until you are, and then you'll be cranky until you get fed. Let me head that off for once, will you?"
"Nah," Zoro grumbled, holding tighter. Sanji tried to push at the other's shoulder, but the big mossy cat of a man squeezed his waist in one arm... and then encroached on his side of the bed. Rather than lying where he was and just hooking an arm around his mate's waist and hips, he scooted forward, arching his whole body into that cuddle, wrapping his torso around Sanji's back and then throwing arms around his thigh, mashing his face into it. Sanji blinked, otherwise unable to move for a long moment. Finally, let his hand drift into the other's hair, fingers sliding through soft strands. The larger man mumbled wordlessly, cuddling his thigh more tightly and starting, quietly, to purr.
Sanji felt his heart melt, his insistence waver. This was so much needier than his mate usually was, so much gentler... ah. He glanced up at the calendar on the wall, checking the moon phases in the corners of the dates. New moon in two days. How had he missed that? Had he missed that? Still petting his mate's hair and scalp, he plucked up his phone with his free hand, checked his calendar. No, he'd remembered to take through Wednesday off, had just forgotten that in early-morning grogginess.
He smiled to himself, setting the phone back down and running the fingers of both hands into that soft, just slightly sweaty hair. Zoro's purr loudened. A curl of musky sweetness reached Sanji's nose, and he breathed deeply of it. Zoro's heat would start around sundown... unfortunately, that was all the more reason to get up. He'd have to cook a protein-packed breakfast today, make some dishes ahead.
"I have to start cooking, sweetheart," he murmured, croon and soothe, gentler nickname now that he knew why his mate was so relentless.
But the swordsman just frowned, not opening his eyes, and nuzzled his forehead into Sanji's leg. "Not yet. Ten more minutes." He didn't usually ask for more than five. Sanji sighed.
"Ten minutes. And then I'll make up the couch, hm? And pull out the kitchen bench. Let you stay close while I cook?" He didn't offer to open up the little fold-out bench in the kitchen often - it was very much in the way when he was busy - but then, Zoro didn't often get this soft this early in the morning.
It was the right call. The frown on Zoro's face reversed into a cockeyed grin, and he gave the alpha's leg a firm, snuggly squeeze before glancing up. His pupils were a little dilated, grey eyes stormy and dark. "You promise?"
Fuck, how dare the big burly swordsman be so damn cute. He ruffled all that green hair, bent double to kiss the slope of that broad forehead. "Promise. I'll even let you eat 'in bed' - on the bench, I mean. Maybe the couch too if you're nice."
Zoro's purr and grin both grew. Sanji was fussy about crumbs in bed, and that included when they rearranged their big sectional into a plush square made for cuddling.
"How nice do you need me to be, cook? You know that's a tall order."
Sanji hummed, let one hand drift to finger at the other's piercings. "What if we call it an alpha's order?"
Zoro gasped softly, almost under his breath, and shivered hard enough to shake the bed.
"That's fucking cheating."
"Only because you're so receptive so early today." Another kiss to the tan skin warming up under his touch. "Is this gonna be a rough heat? Should I schedule myself off for Thursday too?"
Zoro shook his head. "No... just... feeling a little...." He trailed off, but Sanji understood. Even in private, even just to the man he'd trusted to mark him, it was sometimes difficult to admit he needed any kind of care. That he felt particularly clingy, that he craved touch and comfort.
"I've got you," Sanji whispered, nuzzling close. "Ten minutes starts now, okay?"
That perked the swordsman up, brightened him from the low-rolling storm of embarrassment that had threatened to build. Normally the blond would have started any x more minutes from the moment the other man asked, been stingy about it. Now, he was indulgent, and Zoro was not still so proud as to scoff at the extra care, to insist he didn't need coddling. It wasn't about accommodating an omega's weakness, not to Sanji. It was about the alpha bowing and bending to meet his mate's needs, his wants. That, he'd grown to accept.
"Okay. Then I'll help make things up."
"You know you don't have to."
"I wanna help."
God. How was the bastard so cute? "You always help."