Deep Freese

Sanji had made Zoro carry the huge sides of meat into the Sunnys walk in freezer, was the least the idiot could do when Sanji was going to be doing the real work later with it to feed his ass.

He didn’t seem to be able to get even this simple job right, already the look of idiotic confusion crossing his face on where to put the heavy bundles. The cook sighed, putting his knife back on the cutting board and striding into the freezer behind the Marimo to properly educate him.

When the meat was on the proper hook Sanji took a quick mental count that Zoro had in fact brought it all in at once as he had said he would, rather impressive, not that he’d say anything about it. They both knew the others limits pretty well. Sanji supposed Zoro could have actually carried four times the amount if properly motivated.

The subzero chill sent a shiver through him and the cook walked back to the door to leave. Zoro was there already, a curse muttered under his breath. The door was firmly shut.

Not that it was a big deal, Franky had designed it to shut after a few minutes to keep the frigid air in and the meat frozen. There was a door release handle right on the door for just such an occasion, hell it even glowed in the dark, all Sanji had to do was push it.

Zoro reached the handle first and pulled, his strength pulling the knob completely free of the door and ending up in his hand. The hole left behind was the size of a pencil.

“What have you done!? Now we really are stuck!” The blond growled as the typical kicks and swords met in confrontation.

“Che, the crew will be back from market soon enough…” The swordsman shot back skirting responsibility for their situation entirely.

“Like hell they will, did you see the sale they- no of course you wouldn’t have.” The chef sighed dropping his leg to signal the fight to be over. “They won’t be back for maybe another few hours…”

“Dinner.” Zoro added.

“Yeah.”

“We could shout through the door then. Problem solved.”

“That simple? That means we’d be freezing our asses off in here for hours, I don’t think so. There is an even simpler solution, allow me..." The leg was already being aimed at the door.

“What if Franky can’t fix it right away…would the food be okay? I wouldn’t want my work to go to waste.”

“Shit.” The leg came down in answer. The summer island heat would force the stock to be used within a day or two, Luffy would be thrilled but it would be a waste of effort and leave them ill prepared. Two things even Zoro knew the chef hated.

That revelation had them sitting on an icy pallet for at least forty-five minutes in silence. Zoro was looking pretty damn cold and it was pissing the chef off just seeing the mans exposed arms starting to turn blue. He had a feeling he he’d regret this act of kindess but he’d deal with it.

He tossed his suit jacket onto Zoros shoulders, sure the man had a larger upper body but his suits were expensive for a reason, durable and with a weave that had stretchy give when needed that could then return to its original shape. It should be fine.

“Put that on… looks like you’re going to die a shitty icicle.” The new chill surged through him at the loss of his jacket but his teeth hadn’t begun chattering and for that his pride was thankful.

The jacket was unceremoniously thrown back.

“Don’t need it. I’m not going to take charity from someone who already looks like a corpse.”

Sanji debated responding in a way sure to prompt a fight…it might warm them up at least but decided better of it. He was just that much more of a man than the marimo if he didn’t let pride get in the way.

“Asshole it wasn’t a request, you’re making me feel cold just looking at you.”

“Same here.”

“Then let’s each take an arm…” The blond smirked in triumph as Zoro responded as he had wanted.

Zoros left arm in the left sleeve and Sanjis right in the right…and the other respective arms circled around the others waist, pulling close enough for the jacket to begin to close.
To do so practically had the chef sitting on the swordsmans lap and they each hissed at the initial cold and all to personal contact. After a minute or two though it felt warmer and they relaxed their respective tension.

“I don’t like this.” Zoro said, mostly because he felt he had too.

“Like I do? Shut the hell up and think warm thoughts.”

The grunt he got in response was just fine with him.

The hours passed silently. Zoro was meditating or sleeping. Sanji had fell asleep himself once or twice.

To their horror the crew had found them like that…snuggled together and asleep. Luckily enough violence was delivered to both warm the men up and ensure the incident wouldn’t be mentioned ever again.