Chapter Text
“Fuck!” Sanji says sharply, rubbing his arms to try and infuse warmth into his skin despite the thick layer of his jacket being in the way. A gentle flurry of snow drifts through the air and catches on his hair and clothing.
“Yeah,” Usopp agrees, bundled up to his nose. His teeth are audibly chattering anyways. “At least Chopper will feel at home.”
They both cut their gaze over to where the doctor is running around in the snow, Luffy’s gangly form absurdly perched on his shoulders in what is probably one of the world’s worst and most vertically challenged piggyback rides. With the way they’re laughing and trying to eat the falling snow, neither of them seem to mind.
“Wish I had a built in fur coat,” Usopp sighs wistfully.
Biting the finger of one of his gloves to take it off, Sanji lights a cigarette before tucking the lighter back in his pocket.
“Could always go run around and do…whatever it is they’re doing. Get the blood pumping,” he suggests, sliding his glove back on and hurriedly tucking his hands back in his pockets.
“You’re right, my friend - in fact…it might be the only way,” Usopp says dramatically, like he’s about to head into war. He offers a brisk salute before running over to gather up a pile of snow to pack it into a snowball before launching it straight at Luffy’s head.
He could join in too, but Sanji has other plans.
Their resident clump of moss has been leaning up against the wall near the mast, quietly watching the deck and what has now devolved into a full on snowball fight that he obviously -for now- has no intention to join either.
A cold wind cuts across the ship and Sanji shivers as he puffs on his cigarette, mind now made up. He stalks over to Zoro, who darts his eye over to watch as Sanji approaches. He’s not signaling anything that would cue him in to get his swords out, so Zoro is probably expecting a love tap to the calf if anything, since he does admittedly have a habit of doing that while on his way to somewhere else.
“It’s fucking freezing,” Sanji says as he shoves Zoro’s crossed arms away from his chest and bullies his way into Zoro’s personal space, wrapping his arms around the width of his torso and squeezing.
“Yeah, if you have no mental discipline,” Zoro scoffs.
They’re close enough to the railing that Sanji reaches up to pinch his cigarette and flick it into the ocean. Now that he doesn’t have a burning ember in his mouth, he can shield his face from the cold in Zoro’s neck, immediately able to tell how cold the tip of his nose is now that it’s contrasted with Zoro’s warmth. He rubs it back and forth to try and gain the feeling back, like he can burrow even deeper into the other man’s warmth and stay there.
“You need to have some physical discipline and close your fucking coat,” Sanji says while wrapped within the confines of Zoro’s coat. Zoro rests one hand on his swords and slings the other around Sanji’s shoulders, protecting his neck even further from the cold bite of the wind.
“Why would I do that when I’m not cold? Maybe stick to the kitchen instead of telling me what to do.”
He barely manages to hold back the groan when Sanji kicks him in the shin.
“You’re exposing your best assets to the elements,” he explains, snaking his hands up and around to squeeze Zoro’s chest meaningfully.
“Hey, pervert cook, you realize we’re ten feet away from the others, right?”
“What if they got frost bitten and shriveled up and fell off,” Sanji continues like Zoro didn’t say anything. “Then where would we be?”
“You’d stop groping me in public, for one,” Zoro grouses, leaning down slightly to nip at Sanji’s ear in reprimand. The shiver that lights up his spine and runs down to his toes isn’t from the cold this time.
“Not true, I’m an equal opportunity tit grabber,” he mumbles into Zoro’s skin, placing a small kiss there since no one can see him anyways. The reality is Zoro does have a magnificent chest, but even if he didn’t Sanji would be obsessed with it anyways on account of it being attached to Zoro. Embarrassing and uncalled for, but true nonetheless. But if he said that, Zoro would get embarrassed and act affronted and try to fight him about it and he is so, so warm right now. So, back burner - he can bring it up later when they’re naked and have much better results.
Zoro snorts an abrasive sound that counts as a laugh and scoff all in one. Sanji gives one final squeeze of each palm before lowering his hands to loop back around Zoro’s waist.
“You’re so warm,” he says, half disbelieving. The other half feels the tension melting away from muscles bunched up against the cold, lulled into comfort. Limbs feeling loose, he starts swaying from side to side ever so slightly, pressing his face even further into Zoro’s skin and sighing happily.
“And you’re a cold little leech,” Zoro says, effectively killing any romantic sentiment Sanji was basking in just now.
“I’ll show you a leech,” he grumbles before biting into tanned skin - hard, but not hard enough to break skin- and feeling Zoro jolt in slight surprise. He figures he might as well give him a hickey while he’s down here proving a point, purposefully closing his lips and sucking with no plans to let go until Zoro caves first and, ideally, admits he was wrong and will never repeat calling the eternal light of his life a leech in the future.
“Ugh, they’re canoodling again,” Usopp complains distantly.
“Mind your business. And I thought I told you never to call it that,” Zoro snaps. The way Sanji is tangled with him and swaying them from side to side means his threatening aura takes a big enough hit for Usopp to feel justified in arguing.
“I’d mind my business if you weren’t canoodling in public! Right in front of Chopper’s innocent little eyes! Oh, the humanity,” he laments.
“Huh?” Chopper says, having not been paying attention at all.
Usopp whispers something to him and Luffy before a chorus of booing starts up.
“Less canoodling, more snowball fighting,” Luffy demands followed by a dull scraping noise, and Sanji already knows what’s coming next, bracing himself for the impact of a snowball. Zoro sighs before their positions suddenly switch, Sanji now pressed up against the wall as snow smacks into the back of Zoro’s head and causes his earrings to sway with the impact.
For his internal record, Sanji counts this as his win because the jostling removed his mouth from Zoro’s neck.
“Wow, I’m saved from the evil, dangerous snow attack! My hero!” Sanji praises, over the top and practically sparkling.
“You’re unbelievably lame, I need you to know that,” Zoro deadpans.
“Whatever,” Sanji says before Zoro cuts him off with a kiss and a smile against his lips. Sanji reaches for the top of his coat and buttons up the top ones to cover the sizable mark he left on Zoro’s neck, clearing his throat.
“I think we have a snowball fight to win,” Zoro says, competitive glint in his eye matching Sanji’s own as they both swivel their heads to make direct eye contact with Usopp.