a better view (One Piece, Zoro/Sanji) for narcisisticniny
I was prompted with “amuse me (one character trying to cheer another up)” by narcisisticniny
Title: a better view
Fandom: One Piece
Pairing: (pre) Zoro/Sanji
Rating: PG?
Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters do not belong to me.
Word Count: 747
A/N: Takes place between Arlong arc and Loguetown arc. (It got more fluffy than funny. Oops.)
Sanji watched Zoro more than he’d like to admit. He could see him through one of the galley’s portholes now, standing at Merry’s railing. His shirt was off and the movement of his shoulders while he breathed was as steady as the calm waves they were sailing on. He couldn’t see his front but he didn’t have to; he knew it. He’d studied it with the same concentration and curiosity he donned when dealing with an ingredient he never used before. The fresh scar that stretched over the bronze skin was already etched into his mind more vividly than the faces of beautiful women he’d seen on the Baratie.
Sanji’s lips pursed around an unlit cigarette, his fingers idly fiddling with his lighter. Zoro was brooding. Staring off into nothing with eyes unfocused, silent as the grave. They were still like strangers, but Sanji knew what the swordsman was seeing. He saw it, too, sometimes, though only in nightmares of memory-the black blade, the sea going red. With his wounds still healing, Zoro spent too much of the day like this and Sanji was tired of it. He didn’t let himself think about why he was so interested in watching the other man, but as long as he was going to, he was determined to have something less gloomy to look at.
--
“Oi, mopey.”
Zoro’s eyes closed, opened to look sideways at him with a renewed sharpness.
Sanji leaned his back against the railing with a grin, cigarette now burning with a playful glow. “I’ve figured out your problem.”
A snort was his only response.
“Right now, you’re close to useless,” he said, continuing quickly, casually, as Zoro’s face tightened. “You managed in Arlong Park but, let’s face it, if I hadn’t been there to help out-”
“You’re trying to start something.” Not a question, but a growled warning. They were still learning how to exist together, figuring out where lines were drawn. Sanji couldn’t help but step over those lines, anyway.
“Of course not. You’re practically out of commission.”
“Look, shit-cook-”
“Shh, don’t worry.” His voice was overly reassuring, his smile far too sweet. “You’ll be happy to know I’ve got a solution.”
“I’ll be happy when you fuck off…” Zoro muttered, looking away from him again. Which worked out just fine-as he didn’t notice when Sanji pulled a few orange seeds out of his pocket. He did notice, however, when the man’s hand started sifting through his hair. “Oi, oi, what are you doing?”
“Planting,” was the cook’s cheerful answer.
“Planting.” He gritted his teeth.
“Mhm.” The seeds were tucked into the hair that Sanji tousled up some more just for the hell of it. “See, marimo, now you’ll be much more useful. And this is just the start! I’m thinking cherry tomatoes, maybe some squash… Think you could still fight with a fig tree on your head?”
Zoro said nothing, did nothing, and Sanji took advantage, patting him on the cheek.
“My own marimohead garden.”
He meant to say “the ship’s own”, not to make some implication that he wanted the swordsman for himself, and he forced his face to stay unchanged and uncolored when Zoro met his eyes. A quietness he couldn’t interpret passed between them until -
“Water,” Zoro said.
“Huh?” Sanji asked, very eloquent.
“You need water,” Zoro explained, “for the garden.”
Sanji smirked, catching up and coming back to himself. “Ah, so you can be smarter than you look!”
Zoro hummed in distracted agreement and Sanji never saw it coming. He moved much faster than the cook would’ve expected and all he had time to do was make sure he didn’t swallow his cigarette in surprise when Zoro pushed him over the railing and into the ocean below them.
“Bastard!” Sanji spat salt water out of his mouth, resurfacing.
“Man overboard,” Zoro called out calmly.
“Man overboard!” They heard Luffy echo with excitement, followed by the sound of splashing and Usopp and Nami’s yelling after him.
By the time Sanji retrieved their idiot captain, the swordsman was gone from the deck. But when Zoro came in for dinner that night and saw the orange slices in that evening’s salad, he chuckled lowly, so low that Sanji barely heard it (and rather, felt it, felt its vibrations beneath his feet and up inside his chest), and he smiled a faint smile with one corner of his mouth.
And that was a million times better to look at.