Persistent Resistance Part 4
Title: Persistent Resistance
Author: Sinisterbug
Rating: NC-17 for Part 5
Pairing: ZoSan, mentioned Lucci/Robin, Saga/Shuraiya
Warnings: Modern AU, OOC
Jessica had made quite an impression on Sanji and his staff. She shook hands with Sanji and told him how much she’d heard about him and respected him. She was looking forward to working with him and learning from him.
Then she turned to his staff, who were all eyeing her warily.
“I realize that working in a kitchen under two chefs is going to be a challenge. You all probably have a very solid thing here that you do, and the last thing I want to do is disrupt it for the worse. My number one priority is the quality of this place, so in that respect, I’ll be working hard to meet your, Zeff’s, and Sanji’s expectations.”
She smiled, then continued, “But if any of you sad faced mother fuckers doesn’t keep up your end of the job, I’ll fuck you over so hard and so fast you’ll taste my dick in your mouth.”
Jaws dropped. The blond haired woman just continued to smile. “So let's all work well together!”
It was as if she’d never said anything out of the ordinary, and soon everyone got over their shock and got to work. Jessica was obviously very intelligent and a very good cook. She knew what questions to ask, and this was what relieved Sanji the most. She knew her way around a kitchen, she knew how to cook almost every meal on the menu and she learned very quickly.
By the end of the day, he felt much better about the situation than he originally had.
“So, do you want to go out for drinks?” Nami asked. “I think we should celebrate the success of our new addition.”
“Success has yet to be seen, but I’d be happy to join you if you’re all going out,” Jessica said.
Nami started asking around before Sanji had a chance to answer. No, he didn’t really want to go out for drinks. Especially if there was a chance Zoro would show up. And that was exactly the same reason why he hadn’t stepped one foot outside the kitchen all night. Lucci was there, and he did not want to know if Lucci knew. Because chances were, he did.
But again, it was a matter of putting up a good front. He really was pleased with Jessica so far, and he wanted to show that. Turning this down might make his staff think he secretly hated her.
Not to mention he still felt slightly ill from all the Morgan’s. Well, he could always order for himself and not let anyone know he wasn’t actually drinking.
“I’m out,” he heard Lucci say from the bar.
“Aw, why?” Nami asked.
“Got a life outside this place.”
Nami frowned. “Well fine, we don’t like you either.”
“What he means is, he’s got a hot woman at home waiting for him,” Ace added.
Well, if Lucci wasn’t coming, it was probably fine.
“Someone wanna call Zoro?”
“He’s busy tonight,” Lucci said.
“How do you know?” Nami asked petulantly.
“Fine. Call him. He’ll tell you the same thing.”
Sanji frowned from the grill he was cleaning in the kitchen, and wondered if Zoro really was busy, or if Lucci was covering for him. He wondered how he was going to face Zoro, if ever.
After his act of temporary insanity, Sanji had blacked out. Zoro must’ve dragged his sorry carcass to his bed and put a blanket on him. It was far more than he deserved.
There’d been no real time to dwell over it. He’d forced himself not to think about it, or else it would distract him. But he didn’t know when he was going to think about it. He didn’t have a day off until Sunday, and who knew if he’d see the guy between then and now.
Zoro didn’t show up that night, or any other night that week they went out. Lucci did eventually, but he didn’t seem to be behaving out of the ordinary. Then again, Sanji made a point not to be left alone with the man, or talk to him privately. It was getting to be pathetic, and Ace had noticed.
By Saturday Jessica had a brilliant thing going in the kitchen, and though he’d still rather not have to deal with what he was now calling ‘the demotion’, he was far more confident that it wasn’t going to tear his staff apart.
They’d gone to Water 7 since it’d been a heavy hitting night, and everyone was too tired to go clubbing. Ace cornered him in the hallway outside of the bathroom.
“What the hell is going on with you and Lucci? Does it have to do with Zoro ducking out on us?” Ace looked almost comically worried. Sanji sighed.
“I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do. You’ve never kept shit from me before. And man, getting on Lucci’s bad side is not a smart thing to do-”
“Yeah, cuz I’m enjoying this Ace. This is real fuckin’ fun for me.”
“What the fuck did you do?”
Sanji pinched the bridge of his nose. “I...” He sighed. “I… was contemplating.”
“Contemplating what?”
“Whether or not,” he said slowly, “to… actually… date. Him.”
“Who? Zoro?” Ace’s eyes went wide. “I thought you-” Ace shook his head and made a sort of rolling motion with his hands. “Ya know… didn’t do guys.”
Sanji threw his hands up in exasperation. “I know! I just… I’d forgotten about it, or not thought about it, but then Saga got pissed at me, and I kept second guessing myself, and before I knew it, ‘no way’ turned into ‘what if’ and- and… he came over the other night with Franky to set up my entertainment system. And when he left, I invited him over for dinner that Sunday. But I was half asleep and not thinking about it, and I realized that I was sorta… asking him out on a date… maybe. But he didn’t realize that, fuck, I didn’t even realize until the next day what I was doing! And he came over, and…”
“Did you two… do something?”
“No!” Sanji hissed. “He didn’t know the real reason I had him over. Nothing happened. But then you went and opened your big fucking mouth on Monday and he came over to check on me and I was so fucking drunk out of my mind and… I kissed him.”
Ace laughed in that ‘I-don’t-believe-this’ sort of way. “You… shit, man. Well... What happened?”
“I blacked out. But I haven’t had time to think about it or anything and obviously he’s not been around. I haven’t called him, he hasn’t called me, and I’m pretty damn fucking sure he told Lucci. Or if not Lucci, then Robin, and she told Lucci.”
“Well… So that means you like him?”
“I don’t know!” Sanji growled.
“Well it’s pretty obvious, Sanji,” Ace frowned. “You two have been attached at the hip since you got over the first misunderstanding. You even kept him around after you found out he was into you. And you’re not exactly homophobic, although you’ve always tried to keep your distance from people like Bonclay and the people at his club. The fact that you even have to wonder about whether you should date him… I mean… that’s a huge fucking wall that’s just crumbled right there. And you don’t just kiss people when you’re drunk-”
“I KNOW. I’m just freaked out, okay? This ‘sudden revelation’ is bad enough, but now I’m sure the guy fucking hates me and Lucci’s probably called a hit out on me! And I wasn’t exactly smooth that night; I basically mashed my face into his and then passed out.”
Ace laughed at him. “You are fucked, dude.”
“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.”
Lucci was staring at him when they got back to the table. Sanji purposefully avoided his gaze, and then finally decided to bail an hour later.
“Come on! There’s no work tomorrow,” Vivi whined.
“Yeah, but I’ve got an appointment in the morning to see the podiatrist.” A blatant lie, but since no one there really knew what a podiatrist was (except perhaps Lucci, who was keeping quiet), no one questioned him. He bade them a good night and headed outside to hail a cab.
“What happened.”
Chills ran down his spine as he heard Lucci’s voice directly behind him. He whipped around, and Lucci stood there, his mouth twitching slightly.
“What?”
“Zoro told me to cover for him all this week, and you’ve been avoiding me.”
“I’ve been avoiding you because you’re fucking terrifying, and you’re still pissed about me turning Zoro down.”
“I told Robin to tell you that I wasn’t pissed.”
“And she did, but I didn’t believe her. You’ve still been looking at me like you’re planning the best way to dispose of my body,” Sanji deadpanned.
Lucci sighed. “I look at everybody that way. Look, I just want know what’s going on with you two. I don’t have many friends, and I’m not Mr. Warm-n-Fuzzy, but I do what I can for them.”
Now Sanji couldn’t have felt any more like shit if he wanted to. He sighed. Getting it out the second time wouldn’t be as hard as the first.
“I… think I have feelings for Zoro. I thought I didn’t, but I changed my mind after I spent more time with him. I’m not trying to yank him around - I honestly thought when I found out about him that there was no way I could feel anything more for him than friendship. Then he came over on Monday when I was in bad shape over Zeff hiring someone new, and I was so fucking drunk, and I kissed him and then blacked out. We haven’t spoken since then.”
He added, “I honestly thought he’d told you.”
“No. Probably because he didn’t want me to kick your ass.” Lucci crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not the answer I was looking for.”
“Look, what do you want from me? I don’t even know if he wants to have anything to do with me anymore.”
“Have you asked him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“I do. It’s because you have no balls.”
Sanji groaned. “Lucci-”
“You think it was easy for me to tell Robin just after I’d cheated on her best friend and then dumped her that I wanted go out with her? Or to keep calling her back after every time she said no?”
“I don’t even know if he’d answer the phone if I called him-”
“Then call him. Right now. Call him and find out, and maybe I’ll call off the hit.”
“Whatever, you don’t even work for the Mafia.”
“Right.”
Sanji looked at his bartender, who wasn’t smiling. No twitch at the corner of his mouth, no twinkle in his eye. Nothing.
He pulled out his phone and dialed Zoro’s number. It went to voicemail after five rings. He hung up.
“No answer.”
“Why didn’t you leave a message?”
Sanji was about to argue when he received a text.
‘At work. What's up.’
He texted back:
‘Need to talk to u.’
‘Tonight?’
‘Tomorrow is fine.’
‘Got class in a.m. Bounce p.m. 4?’
‘That works.’
‘I’ll come over.’
Lucci waited patiently while they texted back in forth for a few minutes.
“I’m meeting him at my place tomorrow.”
Lucci nodded. “Have a good night.” He turned on his heel and went back into the bar.
But a good night, Sanji did not have. He was bone tired, but sleep didn’t come until 5 am, when he finally gave in and took some old muscle relaxers he had buried in a box in his closet from an old knee injury.
He slept through his alarm and didn’t wake up until two thirty. His head was telling him he should eat something, but his stomach disagreed vehemently, so he settled for a can of V8 then hopped in the shower. When he got out, he realized he’d left his phone in the living room during the night and it was still on silent. He finally found it underneath a couch cushion. He had 4 voicemails and 24 texts.
“What the hell?” He flipped it open to see who the hell had been trying to get a hold of him, when there was a knock at his door.
It was Zoro, and he was sporting several small abrasions on his face, a black eye and a wrist brace.
“Jesus, what the hell happened to you?”
Zoro stepped in. “Work.”
Sanji looked at his phone again, and then at Zoro. He dialed his voicemail and shut the door behind him. The first one was from Vivi.
“Sanji, if you get this PLEASE call one of us! Zoro was in a huge fight at Skypeia and the cops took him to jail, so call one of us back!”
The next one was from Nami.
“Sanji, answer your damn phone! Someone said Zoro might have ended up in the hospital and Lucci disappeared somewhere and we think he might be trying to do something stupid, so call us back!”
The next was from Nami again.
“Sanji, where the fuck are you? Lucci got arrested and someone said he had a gun on him and we called the hospital but Zoro wasn’t admitted! We’re going to the station to see if they’re there.”
The last one was from Ace.
“Apparently you turned your phone on silent. Um, the girls left some pretty urgent messages, but everything’s alright. Zoro’s injuries were minor and Lucci was able to post bail. Zoro wasn’t arrested, he was just taken to the station to give his statement. So… yeah. Talk to you later.”
He gaped at his phone for a moment before looking at Zoro again, who looked somewhat sheepish.
“What the hell happened? I left Water at two thirty!”
Zoro shrugged. “Marshall Teach.”
“What about Marshall Teach? Did Lucci seriously have a gun?”
“He has a permit for it.”
Sanji swooned. He sat on his couch.
“Okay, telling me that Marshall Teach was there and that Lucci had a gun doesn’t explain anything. What happened?”
Zoro sat in the chair next to the sofa. “Lucci and the others had come over from Water. I was out back taking a breather. You remember that guy I whooped the shit out of at Skypeia that one time?”
“Bald guy? Long ass ears?”
Zoro nodded. “Well, if it had just been Teach and his shitty goons, I probably coulda handled it, but as much as I hate to give that mother fucker credit, they had Enel, and I couldn’t handle them all at once. It didn’t last long - some of the other bouncers came out back to smoke and broke it up.” He sighed and shook his head. “Teach and them ran off, but then someone felt the need to go inside and tell Lucci, who promptly ran off and tracked Teach a couple blocks down, beat the fuck out him and pulled his gun on him. But the owner at Sky had already called the police, and when they came onto the scene all they saw was Lucci pointing a gun at Teach. They were both arrested.”
“But Lucci was able to post bail?”
Zoro nodded. “He won’t face any charges, either.”
“Why not?”
“Just trust me, he won’t.”
Sanji ran a hand through his hair. “Damn. Bad night to have my phone on silent.”
Zoro said after a moment, “So you called me over.”
Sanji’s stomach clenched and he grabbed for his cigarettes. “Yeah. Figured I outta say something or you’d just keep avoiding me.”
He heard Zoro sigh. “I figured you probably didn’t want to see me any time soon.”
Sanji didn’t know what to say to that. He looked at the bruising under Zoro’s eye, then back at the coffee table and decided against lighting a cigarette. He had no idea what to say. Lucci had been the one to push him into this - he hadn’t made any decisions, didn’t have anything planned…
“Are you pissed at me?” That was one thing he did need to know.
Zoro scratched his head with his good hand. “No, just… confused. I thought you’d be mad.”
“At myself, yeah… but not at you.”
Zoro stood up abruptly. “You’re not mad at me, I’m not mad at you, now that’s straightened out.” He turned on his heel to leave.
“Wait- what the hell? Zoro-”
“You know,” he turned back around. “I don’t fucking get it, Sanji. It’s not like you get like that when you’re drunk and I’m pretty damn sure you didn’t think I was some chick at a bar. I know you were upset about The Baratie thing, so do you want to write it off as that?”
“I’m not writing it off!” Sanji snapped. “I just don’t know right now! I mean, there are some things I do know, but not everything. I kissed you because I was drunk and I wanted to, but I don’t know why I wanted to. You’ve made me reconsider my original decision, but I’m not done reconsidering! I didn’t mean to string you along; I had no intention of letting on to anything until I’d figured it out.”
Zoro obviously had not expected that reply. “What… what more do you need to know?”
Sanji was taken aback. “I just… I thought that if I did want to date you, I should have a firm yes. And right now… all I have is confusion. I haven’t been able to think about it all week because I’ve been training the new chef, and you haven’t been around so I’ve been freaking out over whether I even still had you as a friend or not, and Lucci has been spitting venom at me ever since I turned you down. Do you know he threatened me over the phone last Sunday before you came over?” He finished his rant with a heavy sigh. “I thought I’d have a few weeks to see if things got… I dunno, warmer or something. But then… well, you were there.”
“So what, I’m supposed to sit here and wait when there’s a chance at the end of a few weeks you could just say, ‘Huh, Nothing there. Psyche!’?”
“This is why you weren’t supposed to know.”
“But I do, and I don’t see that as being anyone’s fault but yours.”
He didn’t know what to say anymore. There was no winning in this situation.
“What do you want me to do? How do I make it right? I didn’t ask you to come over that night, and I didn’t ask for these feelings. But you did, and those feelings are there. I’m trying not to do something stupid and rush into something that I’m not sure about. And I’m sorry if that pisses you off.”
Zoro rubbed at his forehead with his palm. “So in your plan, your little test drive, just what were you going to do?”
“Nothing spectacularly different,” Sanji muttered. “Subtly find a way to spend more time with you.”
“Yeah, last Sunday was real subtle.”
“Shut the hell up, alright? You try sitting around going insane in your spare moments.”
Zoro looked at him. “Seriously? What do you think I’ve been doing since I fucking met you?”
There was a rabid bat in Sanji’s stomach - at least that’s what it felt like, the flopping. And no, his face didn’t feel hot suddenly.
“Alright,” Zoro sighed. “Do what you gotta do.”
Sanji stood up. “I’m not trying to be an asshole.”
“I know.”
“Besides...” He padded to the front door. “You can always console yourself knowing that if what I decide isn’t what Lucci likes… well, he’s got a gun, and he’d probably get away with it.”
Zoro grabbed Sanji’s arm, shoved him against the door and captured his lips in a warm, firm kiss.
When he pulled away he said, “Start your test drive out with a bang.”
Then he left.
Sanji snorted and rolled his eyes. He had to admit, it was a pretty bad line. Though it might work for a car commercial.
***
In hindsight, Sanji knew then, really, but it had taken him a few days to process everything at an angle that didn’t make his brain shut down. He wanted to date this guy, any other information was either stored for when sanity returned, or deleted. But it had taken him a few days to summon any confidence, and another two days after that to sort out logistics. But that was all well before Robin and Lucci invited him over for dinner and Lucci ‘showed him his gun collection’. It was when Lucci had showed Sanji how to put the silencer on his Kimber 1911 Compact that he’d finally had enough.
All he wanted was his regular, stoic, non-aggressive (at least, not to him) bartender back. Well, not just that, but when he started thinking about anything more than that, his brain would blip and shut down.
Sunday afternoon found him in Shuraiya’s class (now karate - the Muay Thai class had ended) working off his anxiety. He’d been keeping up with the crunches for the most part, and had even got back to stretching when he got up and before he went to bed. It almost didn’t kill him to do the splits anymore.
After class, Shuraiya walked with him to the locker room. “You’re looking better. We still doing poker at your place tonight?”
“Yeah, if you’re coming.”
Shuraiya nodded. “So what’ve you been up to?”
“Oh, not much.” He peeled off his sweaty shirt and grabbed a dry one from his bag. “The new chef at The Baratie is outstanding, I figured out how to enjoy myself on my days off, my feet don’t fucking hurt as much anymore, I decided to ask Zoro out, my new apartment's working out really well.”
“Grew a pair, did we?”
Sanji just gave him a withering glare.
“So when are you gonna do it?”
“Dunno. I’ve never asked a guy out, so I thought I’d seek out a pro’s advice.”
“Well, you could-”
“I meant Saga.”
“Fuck you, dickwad.”
Sanji laughed. “Come on, tell me.”
Shuraiya cracked him a malicious smile. “I think I’d rather see you fuck it up and flop around like a fish outta water. Makes for much better story telling in the long run. Maybe Zoro’ll change his mind.”
Sanji frowned and sat down on the bench, his bag in his lap. “He could. I haven’t made it easy.”
“I’m just fucking with you. He’s not gonna change his mind. Probably.”
When it came down to it though, Shuraiya didn’t have any practical advice to give. His relationship with Saga had been as much as of a surprise to Shuraiya as Sanji’s current situation was to Sanji. Sanji thought that was pretty hypocritical, given how shitty Shuraiya had been to him about it. But then, how else was Shuraiya going to act? He was a grumpy son of a bitch, no two ways about it.
“What about tonight? Is he coming?”
“Yeah, but everyone’s gonna be there.”
“So wait until everyone’s gone.”
Sanji frowned and stood up. He was hesitating to state the obvious, because he wasn’t sure Shuraiya would have anything helpful to say on that particular subject. He might even take it the wrong way.
Saga walked in just then, looking pretty beat. He nodded at Sanji, who nodded back. Apparently Saga was still pissed.
“Now, now kids, if you’re gonna keep this up I’m gonna have to call in a counselor,” Shuraiya wrapped his arm around Saga’s waist.
“You gotta be nice to Sanji now, he’s needs your ‘expert advice’.”
Saga looked his lover and at Sanji, eyebrow raised. “What’s going on?”
“I…” Sanji started.
“He’s gonna ask Zoro out,” Shuraiya interrupted. He looked at Sanji and shrugged off his glare. “Woulda taken you all day to spit it out.”
Saga frowned. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Never mind,” Sanji snapped. “I don’t have to fucking explain it to everyone who comes around. And I don’t need people around who aren’t cool with me unless I’m dating the guy they want me to.”
He snatched his bag and left. He knew he was just frustrated, and he’d probably regret snapping at Saga like that later. And really, if anyone deserved that speech, it was probably Lucci. But he really was done explaining it to everyone. The only opinion that mattered now was Zoro’s, and he’d find out what Zoro was thinking soon enough.
And though he never got to say it, the problem with ‘doing it’ or ‘confessing’ or whatever it was he was planning to do at his home or Zoro’s concerned the big thing he hadn’t really been thinking about since he decided to go through with ‘it’. The feelings were there but… Well, to put it the simplest way, he’d enjoyed kissing Zoro. But he wasn’t sure about anything else. And usually if he brought a girl to his place and told her he wanted to hook up, bing bang boom…
He couldn’t even think about it without killing half his brain cells. The thought just would not complete itself. And the last thing he wanted to do was tell Zoro he was interested and then shun him physically because he was freaked out.
But telling Zoro in some place more public than his home wasn’t ideal either. Maybe he should just text him… Shyeah. ‘I
u…’ He shuddered. That was out.
***
Though Sanji’s apartment wasn’t really big enough to fit this many people, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Anyone who had any cooking ability had brought something to share (taking the burden off Sanji), and everyone else had brought booze. Zoro, Ace, Kaku, Nami, Robin and Lucci were heavily engrossed in an intense poker battle, and it looked as though Nami was going to win. But he also suspected that Robin and Lucci might be cheating, so it was a toss up. His entertainment center was being put to good use (he hoped his neighbors were tolerant people) with Franky trying to convince everyone that naked karaoke was a brilliant idea.
Shuraiya hadn’t shown up yet, but Sanji wouldn’t be surprised if he decided not to show. If Saga wasn’t coming - and Sanji had no reason to believe he would - then Shuraiya probably wouldn’t either. So when the door bell rang and everyone got real quiet, expecting the cops to be on the other side, everyone was relieved to find it was actually Shuraiya and Saga.
“Oh. Come on in…”
Shuraiya glanced between them before giving them both a disgusted roll of the eyes and heading straight for booze and food. Saga hung back, a strange look on his face.
“Show me your room,” he said suddenly. Sanji didn’t really reply before his feet automatically started heading for his bedroom. Once inside, Saga shut the door behind them. He started in on Sanji immediately.
“Look, I have a right to be concerned for my friends. And Zoro? He’s the best friend I’ve ever fucking had. And he’s been through hell, and if you knew him the way I did, you would have never turned him down in the first place. But…” The lavender haired man sighed and looked down at his bad arm. “I shouldn’t hold that against you. I didn’t try to understand where you were coming from, or give you credit for the way you handled it. You weren’t stringing him along, I was just angry on his behalf, because he wouldn’t be. Somehow it made me feel better to be pissed at you.”
Sanji shoved his hands in his pockets. “Don’t worry about it.”
Saga snorted. “Look… You’re not just my friend if you date Zoro. You were my friend before then. You’ll be my friend if it doesn’t work out.”
Sanji nodded. “Thanks.”
They were silent for a moment before Saga said, “So Shuraiya said you aren’t sure how you’re gonna ask him.”
Sanji chuckled. “I have no fucking idea, Saga. I don’t know what to say, when to say it, where to say it…”
“Why not after everyone else goes home?”
Sanji groaned. “That’s what Shuraiya said but… look, don’t take this the wrong way, okay? But… I don’t- if- okay. Say I brought a chick to my place and asked her out. She says yes. What do you think we do next?”
“Have ridiculously kinky sex all night?”
“Precisely!” Sanji stood up and started pacing. “And so, logically, do you think that if I asked Zoro out tonight, and he said yes, then…”
“You would have ridiculously kinky sex all night?”
Sanji nodded.
“Well… knowing him and how he feels about you… I’d say that would be a goal he’s aiming for, yeah.”
“Ugh,” Sanji threw up his hands and collapsed back onto his bed. “Saga, I don’t… I’m not shy, you know me. But…”
“Gay sex is an intimidating and unexplored frontier for you, I’m sure,” he nodded, getting the picture. “Well, what about just fooling around?”
Sanji shook his head. “I don’t know. I mean, we’ve kissed. And I enjoyed that. So I don’t think it would be... impossible.”
Saga smiled. “Just let him know that. Hell, he’s probably already anticipated that much. If you don’t want to do it, he’s not gonna force you.”
“No, I know he won’t, but I just don’t want him to misunderstand. I’ve fucked things up enough already, and I don’t want him to think I’m being an asshole.”
“It’s gonna be fine. Seriously.”
***
“What the hell are they doing in there?” Zoro griped, looking at his dismal hand.
Shuraiya leaned across him for the salsa. “Giving each other a thorough anatomy lesson.”
“So you and Saga are like that, huh?” Nami winked.
“I just collect the money at the end of the day,” he grinned. Some laughed while others rolled their eyes.
“So,” Lucci elaborated, his expression neutral, “what you’re basically saying is, Saga is a prostitute, and you’re his pimp? Is that what you’re saying, Shuraiya?”
“You’ve all heard the Pimp’s Prayer?” Shuraiya asked the group.
“The Pimp’s Prayer, huh?” Saga said, looming behind Shuraiya. “No, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that one, Shura, why don’t you explain it to me?”
Shuraiya’s hand froze mid-dip.
From the other room, Franky cleared his throat. “Let us pray the Pimp's Prayer.”
Those who didn’t know it watched on in amusement as those who did recited it for Saga to hear.
“Lord, please pray for the soul of this bitch and guide my pimp hand and make it strong, Lord, so that she might learn a hoe's place. Amen." (1)
The entire apartment exploded with laughter as Saga grabbed Shuraiya by the ear and hauled him off to the bathroom. Sanji took Shuraiya’s spot at the table.
“You know they just went in there to make out,” Nami sighed.
“Whatever, as long as they clean up after themselves,” Sanji shrugged.
“So what kept you two in there for so long?” Kaku asked.
“Reconciling, I’m sure,” Lucci muttered. “Now can we get on with the fucking game?”
But the game quickly went down hill for everyone except Nami, who walked away with an extra four hundred dollars by the end of it.
They started to wrap it up by 2 am, since most of them there had to be at The Baratie the next morning.
“If any of you jerks call in tomorrow or cause Jessica any trouble, I will fire your lousy asses!” Sanji warned as Carne was carried out by Patty and Franky, followed by the rest of The Baratie staff.
Saga and Shuraiya (who had finally come out of the bathroom an hour later, definitely not looking as though they’d been fighting) helped with clean up, and while Zoro was across the room picking up cups, Saga muttered, “Do you want us to stay… or get him to leave… or what?”
Sanji shook his head. “No… I think I’m gonna do it.”
His friend grinned. “Well, remember. You’re sober, so there’s no excuse.”
“Wow, thanks. That’s very encouraging.”
They left quickly after that, leaving just Zoro and Sanji, slowly walking around the apartment and picking up plates, cups and general party mess.
“That should be good. I’ll sweep and stuff tomorrow,” Sanji said as he surveyed the damage. A sink full of dishes and nacho dip drying in weird places - the damage was minimal, considering.
“Alright,” Zoro said, grabbing his jacket. “Gotta split. Got the rec center in the morning and then a physical.”
“What for?” Sanji asked, his heart hammering in his chest. Maybe he should save it for tomorrow…?
“Job application. There’s an opening at Bujinkan.”
“No shit? That would be awesome!”
Bujinkan New York Dojo was one of the most well respected dojos on the east coast. Classes were very expensive, and job openings almost never happened.
Zoro chuckled. “Yeah, I know. I could quit bouncing if I got a job there. Actually, I’d have to quit bouncing, is what they told me. I mean, I like it when I can bounce while Lucci’s running the bar, but… Shit like what happened with Teach… Some competitions won’t let you enter if you have a criminal record. And if the police had decided to press charges against me, I’d be fucked. And it’s just not worth it. Besides, ever since I started bouncing I haven’t been able to focus like I need to.”
Sanji nodded. “So when do you find out?”
Zoro shrugged. “I don’t know. There were a lot of applicants - over 100, I think. I hope it wasn’t any more than that anyway.”
“Well, let me know when you know.”
Zoro nodded. “I will. See ya.”
“Um-…”
Zoro paused. “What?”
“Uh…”
“What?” Zoro repeated.
Sanji’s courage shriveled up into dust and he laughed. “Ah, never mind. I was gonna say something, but then I remembered that I already said it. Never mind.”
Zoro narrowed his gaze. “What was it?”
“Just forget it.”
Zoro sighed and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, he looked determined. “Look, I can take it, alright? I’m not gonna get mad, but if you play it like this you really are gonna be jerking me around.”
Sanji’s voice caught in his throat and it took him a minute to find it again. Why was this so fucking hard? “I’m not jerking you around. I just don’t know how to say it-”
“Look, it’s real easy. ‘Zoro, I’m not interested, have a good night.’ See? Easy.” Zoro turned to go. Sanji raced past him and plastered his back against the door, blocking Zoro’s exit.
“That’s not what I’m trying to say-”
“Then what are you trying to say? I’m not a fucking mind reader!” Zoro growled.
Sanji huffed in exasperation. Maybe he should just let the jerk go if he was going to make this twice as hard as Sanji was already making it on himself.
“I’m saying yes, God damn it!”
Zoro froze, then lurched forward suddenly and stopped again, just short of crashing into the other man. He hovered within Sanji’s personal space bubble. “Y-yes?”
“Yes,” Sanji repeated.
“You’re sure?”
“You want me to change my mind?” Sanji asked incredulously. “Who fucking says tha-”
But Zoro lurched forward again, his hands slamming onto the door on either side of Sanji’s head. There was no space between them to speak of anymore - perhaps only a whisper before their lips met.
“Sanji…”
There was nowhere to go, really, and Sanji kept screaming at himself not to push Zoro away or duck out. But he felt like a dam had just burst and it was questionable whether he’d survive the impact.
“Z-zoro I…”
Maybe Zoro realized, or maybe he’d just happened to make the right move and hadn’t put any real thought into it (Sanji liked to say that it was the latter), but instead of the jarring impact of all Zoro’s pent up emotion and anxiety, the green haired man’s lips instead gently brushed against Sanji’s.
Sanji figured if he hadn’t spontaneously combusted by this point, he’d probably come out of this okay. So he pressed into the kiss tentatively and he closed his eyes, taking in the heat rolling off Zoro, his cologne, what he could smell of the man underneath his cologne. Before he knew it, his hands had suddenly become restless. He kept them pressed flat against the door, but wrapping them around Zoro’s waist seemed like a brilliant idea.
He jumped slightly as Zoro’s hands slid down the door and came to cup gently against his neck, sliding up to hold his head and then tilt it slightly until he gasped, and Zoro’s tongue swept across his lips.
This was a bad time for his rabid-bat-in-stomach syndrome to be acting up, and the result of his shock about Zoro’s tongue and his stomach apparently trying to form a spatial vortex caused him to think that maybe Zoro’s tongue in his mouth was a good idea. So, even Zoro was a little surprised when he felt Sanji’s tongue slip out to tease at his own lips, daring him to do something more. It was enough to make his control falter a little.
He parted the blond man’s mouth with his own and let his tongue caress Sanji’s - Sanji's mouth was hot and soft and tasted faintly like tobacco and the beer they’d both had earlier.
It was overwhelming, was all Sanji could think. It was good, but it was a lot to take in - the feel of such an aggressive kissing partner was not one he’d experienced before. And it was so good and it made him think he could probably do things right there on that floor that maybe he ought not to contemplate doing until he had a clear head.
He was panting through his nose to keep up - he didn’t want to stop, he could do this…
He…
He needed to stop.
His hands came up slightly, faltering on what to do. He settled for sliding them up Zoro’s forearms and squeezing at the green haired man’s wrists.
And maybe Zoro didn’t understand what Sanji was asking, or maybe he understood and just ignored him (Sanji liked to say it was the latter), but he took the opportunity to grab Sanji’s wrists and pin his arms above his head, deepening the kiss further and working a leg in between Sanji’s thighs.
Okay, maybe he deserved that for being so dense about everything. But then when Zoro had both Sanji’s wrists secured with one hand, his free hand promptly slid back down Sanji’s side and crept underneath his shirt.
Sanji tore his mouth away from Zoro’s and panted, “You are definitely about two seconds from needing to change that physical in the morning to a trip to the ER tonight.”
Zoro chuckled - Sanji could feel the movement of his ribs as he did, and the low, deep sound of it sounder much nicer than Sanji wanted to admit at the moment. He released the chef’s wrists and stepped back.
“Agree to go out with me and threaten to put me in the hospital all in five minutes. I’m… not sure what to think.” But it was obvious to Sanji by the cheeky grin on Zoro’s face that the other man was perfectly fine with it.
“Listen, dating I agreed to. Dating…” he took a few breaths and flicked the hair that had fallen over his eyes, “dating encompasses second base. That’s it. I’m gonna have to do a bit of hypnotherapy before you even think about trying anything else.”
Zoro laughed softly. “Alright. I get it. But it wasn’t that bad…?”
Sanji sniffed. “Not what I’m used to… but not bad.”
Then Zoro’s expression turned serious. “What were you and Saga doing in your bedroom earlier?”
“What?” Sanji asked, confused.
“You were in there for like half an hour.”
Sanji shook his head. “We were… He was apologizing. We had a fight earlier today, so we talked about it. What did you think we were doing?”
“So… he wasn’t like… giving you pointers? No… demonstrations?”
Sanji felt the best laugh he’d had in a while bubble up and burst out loudly. “Are you fucking serious? Yeah, Zoro, I asked him back there so he could help me practice kissing!” He laughed so hard his ribs hurt, but mostly at the indignant expression on Zoro’s face.
“What? It’s a serious question,” he stated matter-of-factly. But Sanji’s laughter only persisted, and finally Zoro growled, “Look, it’s how he tricked me out of my first kiss, alright?”
Sanji stopped, then covered his mouth and snorted. He tried to hold back, he did, but he couldn’t help it. He laughed. “You… are you serious?? Oh man,” he slapped his knee, trying to catch his breath, “you are SAD.”
“Alright, fine, Mr. Funnyman.” Zoro picked up his jacket and slung it on.
“No, Zoro-” Sanji said in between laughs, “Don’t leave, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I promise I’ll stop. Bff-” He snorted again and pulled at Zoro’s arm. “Okay, I’m calm. I’m calm. I’m done. See?”
Sanji hadn’t really stopped laughing, and Zoro did leave feeling quite scandalized. But that didn’t stop him from going over to Sanji’s directly after his physical the next morning and making up.
****
(1) The Pimp's Prayer is property of the television show The Boondocks. I'm not making money off of it, just incorporating it into my gay porn.
.
Beta'd by the lovely bronzetigress !!
Author: Sinisterbug
Rating: NC-17 for Part 5
Pairing: ZoSan, mentioned Lucci/Robin, Saga/Shuraiya
Warnings: Modern AU, OOC
Jessica had made quite an impression on Sanji and his staff. She shook hands with Sanji and told him how much she’d heard about him and respected him. She was looking forward to working with him and learning from him.
Then she turned to his staff, who were all eyeing her warily.
“I realize that working in a kitchen under two chefs is going to be a challenge. You all probably have a very solid thing here that you do, and the last thing I want to do is disrupt it for the worse. My number one priority is the quality of this place, so in that respect, I’ll be working hard to meet your, Zeff’s, and Sanji’s expectations.”
She smiled, then continued, “But if any of you sad faced mother fuckers doesn’t keep up your end of the job, I’ll fuck you over so hard and so fast you’ll taste my dick in your mouth.”
Jaws dropped. The blond haired woman just continued to smile. “So let's all work well together!”
It was as if she’d never said anything out of the ordinary, and soon everyone got over their shock and got to work. Jessica was obviously very intelligent and a very good cook. She knew what questions to ask, and this was what relieved Sanji the most. She knew her way around a kitchen, she knew how to cook almost every meal on the menu and she learned very quickly.
By the end of the day, he felt much better about the situation than he originally had.
“So, do you want to go out for drinks?” Nami asked. “I think we should celebrate the success of our new addition.”
“Success has yet to be seen, but I’d be happy to join you if you’re all going out,” Jessica said.
Nami started asking around before Sanji had a chance to answer. No, he didn’t really want to go out for drinks. Especially if there was a chance Zoro would show up. And that was exactly the same reason why he hadn’t stepped one foot outside the kitchen all night. Lucci was there, and he did not want to know if Lucci knew. Because chances were, he did.
But again, it was a matter of putting up a good front. He really was pleased with Jessica so far, and he wanted to show that. Turning this down might make his staff think he secretly hated her.
Not to mention he still felt slightly ill from all the Morgan’s. Well, he could always order for himself and not let anyone know he wasn’t actually drinking.
“I’m out,” he heard Lucci say from the bar.
“Aw, why?” Nami asked.
“Got a life outside this place.”
Nami frowned. “Well fine, we don’t like you either.”
“What he means is, he’s got a hot woman at home waiting for him,” Ace added.
Well, if Lucci wasn’t coming, it was probably fine.
“Someone wanna call Zoro?”
“He’s busy tonight,” Lucci said.
“How do you know?” Nami asked petulantly.
“Fine. Call him. He’ll tell you the same thing.”
Sanji frowned from the grill he was cleaning in the kitchen, and wondered if Zoro really was busy, or if Lucci was covering for him. He wondered how he was going to face Zoro, if ever.
After his act of temporary insanity, Sanji had blacked out. Zoro must’ve dragged his sorry carcass to his bed and put a blanket on him. It was far more than he deserved.
There’d been no real time to dwell over it. He’d forced himself not to think about it, or else it would distract him. But he didn’t know when he was going to think about it. He didn’t have a day off until Sunday, and who knew if he’d see the guy between then and now.
Zoro didn’t show up that night, or any other night that week they went out. Lucci did eventually, but he didn’t seem to be behaving out of the ordinary. Then again, Sanji made a point not to be left alone with the man, or talk to him privately. It was getting to be pathetic, and Ace had noticed.
By Saturday Jessica had a brilliant thing going in the kitchen, and though he’d still rather not have to deal with what he was now calling ‘the demotion’, he was far more confident that it wasn’t going to tear his staff apart.
They’d gone to Water 7 since it’d been a heavy hitting night, and everyone was too tired to go clubbing. Ace cornered him in the hallway outside of the bathroom.
“What the hell is going on with you and Lucci? Does it have to do with Zoro ducking out on us?” Ace looked almost comically worried. Sanji sighed.
“I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do. You’ve never kept shit from me before. And man, getting on Lucci’s bad side is not a smart thing to do-”
“Yeah, cuz I’m enjoying this Ace. This is real fuckin’ fun for me.”
“What the fuck did you do?”
Sanji pinched the bridge of his nose. “I...” He sighed. “I… was contemplating.”
“Contemplating what?”
“Whether or not,” he said slowly, “to… actually… date. Him.”
“Who? Zoro?” Ace’s eyes went wide. “I thought you-” Ace shook his head and made a sort of rolling motion with his hands. “Ya know… didn’t do guys.”
Sanji threw his hands up in exasperation. “I know! I just… I’d forgotten about it, or not thought about it, but then Saga got pissed at me, and I kept second guessing myself, and before I knew it, ‘no way’ turned into ‘what if’ and- and… he came over the other night with Franky to set up my entertainment system. And when he left, I invited him over for dinner that Sunday. But I was half asleep and not thinking about it, and I realized that I was sorta… asking him out on a date… maybe. But he didn’t realize that, fuck, I didn’t even realize until the next day what I was doing! And he came over, and…”
“Did you two… do something?”
“No!” Sanji hissed. “He didn’t know the real reason I had him over. Nothing happened. But then you went and opened your big fucking mouth on Monday and he came over to check on me and I was so fucking drunk out of my mind and… I kissed him.”
Ace laughed in that ‘I-don’t-believe-this’ sort of way. “You… shit, man. Well... What happened?”
“I blacked out. But I haven’t had time to think about it or anything and obviously he’s not been around. I haven’t called him, he hasn’t called me, and I’m pretty damn fucking sure he told Lucci. Or if not Lucci, then Robin, and she told Lucci.”
“Well… So that means you like him?”
“I don’t know!” Sanji growled.
“Well it’s pretty obvious, Sanji,” Ace frowned. “You two have been attached at the hip since you got over the first misunderstanding. You even kept him around after you found out he was into you. And you’re not exactly homophobic, although you’ve always tried to keep your distance from people like Bonclay and the people at his club. The fact that you even have to wonder about whether you should date him… I mean… that’s a huge fucking wall that’s just crumbled right there. And you don’t just kiss people when you’re drunk-”
“I KNOW. I’m just freaked out, okay? This ‘sudden revelation’ is bad enough, but now I’m sure the guy fucking hates me and Lucci’s probably called a hit out on me! And I wasn’t exactly smooth that night; I basically mashed my face into his and then passed out.”
Ace laughed at him. “You are fucked, dude.”
“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.”
Lucci was staring at him when they got back to the table. Sanji purposefully avoided his gaze, and then finally decided to bail an hour later.
“Come on! There’s no work tomorrow,” Vivi whined.
“Yeah, but I’ve got an appointment in the morning to see the podiatrist.” A blatant lie, but since no one there really knew what a podiatrist was (except perhaps Lucci, who was keeping quiet), no one questioned him. He bade them a good night and headed outside to hail a cab.
“What happened.”
Chills ran down his spine as he heard Lucci’s voice directly behind him. He whipped around, and Lucci stood there, his mouth twitching slightly.
“What?”
“Zoro told me to cover for him all this week, and you’ve been avoiding me.”
“I’ve been avoiding you because you’re fucking terrifying, and you’re still pissed about me turning Zoro down.”
“I told Robin to tell you that I wasn’t pissed.”
“And she did, but I didn’t believe her. You’ve still been looking at me like you’re planning the best way to dispose of my body,” Sanji deadpanned.
Lucci sighed. “I look at everybody that way. Look, I just want know what’s going on with you two. I don’t have many friends, and I’m not Mr. Warm-n-Fuzzy, but I do what I can for them.”
Now Sanji couldn’t have felt any more like shit if he wanted to. He sighed. Getting it out the second time wouldn’t be as hard as the first.
“I… think I have feelings for Zoro. I thought I didn’t, but I changed my mind after I spent more time with him. I’m not trying to yank him around - I honestly thought when I found out about him that there was no way I could feel anything more for him than friendship. Then he came over on Monday when I was in bad shape over Zeff hiring someone new, and I was so fucking drunk, and I kissed him and then blacked out. We haven’t spoken since then.”
He added, “I honestly thought he’d told you.”
“No. Probably because he didn’t want me to kick your ass.” Lucci crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not the answer I was looking for.”
“Look, what do you want from me? I don’t even know if he wants to have anything to do with me anymore.”
“Have you asked him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“I do. It’s because you have no balls.”
Sanji groaned. “Lucci-”
“You think it was easy for me to tell Robin just after I’d cheated on her best friend and then dumped her that I wanted go out with her? Or to keep calling her back after every time she said no?”
“I don’t even know if he’d answer the phone if I called him-”
“Then call him. Right now. Call him and find out, and maybe I’ll call off the hit.”
“Whatever, you don’t even work for the Mafia.”
“Right.”
Sanji looked at his bartender, who wasn’t smiling. No twitch at the corner of his mouth, no twinkle in his eye. Nothing.
He pulled out his phone and dialed Zoro’s number. It went to voicemail after five rings. He hung up.
“No answer.”
“Why didn’t you leave a message?”
Sanji was about to argue when he received a text.
‘At work. What's up.’
He texted back:
‘Need to talk to u.’
‘Tonight?’
‘Tomorrow is fine.’
‘Got class in a.m. Bounce p.m. 4?’
‘That works.’
‘I’ll come over.’
Lucci waited patiently while they texted back in forth for a few minutes.
“I’m meeting him at my place tomorrow.”
Lucci nodded. “Have a good night.” He turned on his heel and went back into the bar.
But a good night, Sanji did not have. He was bone tired, but sleep didn’t come until 5 am, when he finally gave in and took some old muscle relaxers he had buried in a box in his closet from an old knee injury.
He slept through his alarm and didn’t wake up until two thirty. His head was telling him he should eat something, but his stomach disagreed vehemently, so he settled for a can of V8 then hopped in the shower. When he got out, he realized he’d left his phone in the living room during the night and it was still on silent. He finally found it underneath a couch cushion. He had 4 voicemails and 24 texts.
“What the hell?” He flipped it open to see who the hell had been trying to get a hold of him, when there was a knock at his door.
It was Zoro, and he was sporting several small abrasions on his face, a black eye and a wrist brace.
“Jesus, what the hell happened to you?”
Zoro stepped in. “Work.”
Sanji looked at his phone again, and then at Zoro. He dialed his voicemail and shut the door behind him. The first one was from Vivi.
“Sanji, if you get this PLEASE call one of us! Zoro was in a huge fight at Skypeia and the cops took him to jail, so call one of us back!”
The next one was from Nami.
“Sanji, answer your damn phone! Someone said Zoro might have ended up in the hospital and Lucci disappeared somewhere and we think he might be trying to do something stupid, so call us back!”
The next was from Nami again.
“Sanji, where the fuck are you? Lucci got arrested and someone said he had a gun on him and we called the hospital but Zoro wasn’t admitted! We’re going to the station to see if they’re there.”
The last one was from Ace.
“Apparently you turned your phone on silent. Um, the girls left some pretty urgent messages, but everything’s alright. Zoro’s injuries were minor and Lucci was able to post bail. Zoro wasn’t arrested, he was just taken to the station to give his statement. So… yeah. Talk to you later.”
He gaped at his phone for a moment before looking at Zoro again, who looked somewhat sheepish.
“What the hell happened? I left Water at two thirty!”
Zoro shrugged. “Marshall Teach.”
“What about Marshall Teach? Did Lucci seriously have a gun?”
“He has a permit for it.”
Sanji swooned. He sat on his couch.
“Okay, telling me that Marshall Teach was there and that Lucci had a gun doesn’t explain anything. What happened?”
Zoro sat in the chair next to the sofa. “Lucci and the others had come over from Water. I was out back taking a breather. You remember that guy I whooped the shit out of at Skypeia that one time?”
“Bald guy? Long ass ears?”
Zoro nodded. “Well, if it had just been Teach and his shitty goons, I probably coulda handled it, but as much as I hate to give that mother fucker credit, they had Enel, and I couldn’t handle them all at once. It didn’t last long - some of the other bouncers came out back to smoke and broke it up.” He sighed and shook his head. “Teach and them ran off, but then someone felt the need to go inside and tell Lucci, who promptly ran off and tracked Teach a couple blocks down, beat the fuck out him and pulled his gun on him. But the owner at Sky had already called the police, and when they came onto the scene all they saw was Lucci pointing a gun at Teach. They were both arrested.”
“But Lucci was able to post bail?”
Zoro nodded. “He won’t face any charges, either.”
“Why not?”
“Just trust me, he won’t.”
Sanji ran a hand through his hair. “Damn. Bad night to have my phone on silent.”
Zoro said after a moment, “So you called me over.”
Sanji’s stomach clenched and he grabbed for his cigarettes. “Yeah. Figured I outta say something or you’d just keep avoiding me.”
He heard Zoro sigh. “I figured you probably didn’t want to see me any time soon.”
Sanji didn’t know what to say to that. He looked at the bruising under Zoro’s eye, then back at the coffee table and decided against lighting a cigarette. He had no idea what to say. Lucci had been the one to push him into this - he hadn’t made any decisions, didn’t have anything planned…
“Are you pissed at me?” That was one thing he did need to know.
Zoro scratched his head with his good hand. “No, just… confused. I thought you’d be mad.”
“At myself, yeah… but not at you.”
Zoro stood up abruptly. “You’re not mad at me, I’m not mad at you, now that’s straightened out.” He turned on his heel to leave.
“Wait- what the hell? Zoro-”
“You know,” he turned back around. “I don’t fucking get it, Sanji. It’s not like you get like that when you’re drunk and I’m pretty damn sure you didn’t think I was some chick at a bar. I know you were upset about The Baratie thing, so do you want to write it off as that?”
“I’m not writing it off!” Sanji snapped. “I just don’t know right now! I mean, there are some things I do know, but not everything. I kissed you because I was drunk and I wanted to, but I don’t know why I wanted to. You’ve made me reconsider my original decision, but I’m not done reconsidering! I didn’t mean to string you along; I had no intention of letting on to anything until I’d figured it out.”
Zoro obviously had not expected that reply. “What… what more do you need to know?”
Sanji was taken aback. “I just… I thought that if I did want to date you, I should have a firm yes. And right now… all I have is confusion. I haven’t been able to think about it all week because I’ve been training the new chef, and you haven’t been around so I’ve been freaking out over whether I even still had you as a friend or not, and Lucci has been spitting venom at me ever since I turned you down. Do you know he threatened me over the phone last Sunday before you came over?” He finished his rant with a heavy sigh. “I thought I’d have a few weeks to see if things got… I dunno, warmer or something. But then… well, you were there.”
“So what, I’m supposed to sit here and wait when there’s a chance at the end of a few weeks you could just say, ‘Huh, Nothing there. Psyche!’?”
“This is why you weren’t supposed to know.”
“But I do, and I don’t see that as being anyone’s fault but yours.”
He didn’t know what to say anymore. There was no winning in this situation.
“What do you want me to do? How do I make it right? I didn’t ask you to come over that night, and I didn’t ask for these feelings. But you did, and those feelings are there. I’m trying not to do something stupid and rush into something that I’m not sure about. And I’m sorry if that pisses you off.”
Zoro rubbed at his forehead with his palm. “So in your plan, your little test drive, just what were you going to do?”
“Nothing spectacularly different,” Sanji muttered. “Subtly find a way to spend more time with you.”
“Yeah, last Sunday was real subtle.”
“Shut the hell up, alright? You try sitting around going insane in your spare moments.”
Zoro looked at him. “Seriously? What do you think I’ve been doing since I fucking met you?”
There was a rabid bat in Sanji’s stomach - at least that’s what it felt like, the flopping. And no, his face didn’t feel hot suddenly.
“Alright,” Zoro sighed. “Do what you gotta do.”
Sanji stood up. “I’m not trying to be an asshole.”
“I know.”
“Besides...” He padded to the front door. “You can always console yourself knowing that if what I decide isn’t what Lucci likes… well, he’s got a gun, and he’d probably get away with it.”
Zoro grabbed Sanji’s arm, shoved him against the door and captured his lips in a warm, firm kiss.
When he pulled away he said, “Start your test drive out with a bang.”
Then he left.
Sanji snorted and rolled his eyes. He had to admit, it was a pretty bad line. Though it might work for a car commercial.
***
In hindsight, Sanji knew then, really, but it had taken him a few days to process everything at an angle that didn’t make his brain shut down. He wanted to date this guy, any other information was either stored for when sanity returned, or deleted. But it had taken him a few days to summon any confidence, and another two days after that to sort out logistics. But that was all well before Robin and Lucci invited him over for dinner and Lucci ‘showed him his gun collection’. It was when Lucci had showed Sanji how to put the silencer on his Kimber 1911 Compact that he’d finally had enough.
All he wanted was his regular, stoic, non-aggressive (at least, not to him) bartender back. Well, not just that, but when he started thinking about anything more than that, his brain would blip and shut down.
Sunday afternoon found him in Shuraiya’s class (now karate - the Muay Thai class had ended) working off his anxiety. He’d been keeping up with the crunches for the most part, and had even got back to stretching when he got up and before he went to bed. It almost didn’t kill him to do the splits anymore.
After class, Shuraiya walked with him to the locker room. “You’re looking better. We still doing poker at your place tonight?”
“Yeah, if you’re coming.”
Shuraiya nodded. “So what’ve you been up to?”
“Oh, not much.” He peeled off his sweaty shirt and grabbed a dry one from his bag. “The new chef at The Baratie is outstanding, I figured out how to enjoy myself on my days off, my feet don’t fucking hurt as much anymore, I decided to ask Zoro out, my new apartment's working out really well.”
“Grew a pair, did we?”
Sanji just gave him a withering glare.
“So when are you gonna do it?”
“Dunno. I’ve never asked a guy out, so I thought I’d seek out a pro’s advice.”
“Well, you could-”
“I meant Saga.”
“Fuck you, dickwad.”
Sanji laughed. “Come on, tell me.”
Shuraiya cracked him a malicious smile. “I think I’d rather see you fuck it up and flop around like a fish outta water. Makes for much better story telling in the long run. Maybe Zoro’ll change his mind.”
Sanji frowned and sat down on the bench, his bag in his lap. “He could. I haven’t made it easy.”
“I’m just fucking with you. He’s not gonna change his mind. Probably.”
When it came down to it though, Shuraiya didn’t have any practical advice to give. His relationship with Saga had been as much as of a surprise to Shuraiya as Sanji’s current situation was to Sanji. Sanji thought that was pretty hypocritical, given how shitty Shuraiya had been to him about it. But then, how else was Shuraiya going to act? He was a grumpy son of a bitch, no two ways about it.
“What about tonight? Is he coming?”
“Yeah, but everyone’s gonna be there.”
“So wait until everyone’s gone.”
Sanji frowned and stood up. He was hesitating to state the obvious, because he wasn’t sure Shuraiya would have anything helpful to say on that particular subject. He might even take it the wrong way.
Saga walked in just then, looking pretty beat. He nodded at Sanji, who nodded back. Apparently Saga was still pissed.
“Now, now kids, if you’re gonna keep this up I’m gonna have to call in a counselor,” Shuraiya wrapped his arm around Saga’s waist.
“You gotta be nice to Sanji now, he’s needs your ‘expert advice’.”
Saga looked his lover and at Sanji, eyebrow raised. “What’s going on?”
“I…” Sanji started.
“He’s gonna ask Zoro out,” Shuraiya interrupted. He looked at Sanji and shrugged off his glare. “Woulda taken you all day to spit it out.”
Saga frowned. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Never mind,” Sanji snapped. “I don’t have to fucking explain it to everyone who comes around. And I don’t need people around who aren’t cool with me unless I’m dating the guy they want me to.”
He snatched his bag and left. He knew he was just frustrated, and he’d probably regret snapping at Saga like that later. And really, if anyone deserved that speech, it was probably Lucci. But he really was done explaining it to everyone. The only opinion that mattered now was Zoro’s, and he’d find out what Zoro was thinking soon enough.
And though he never got to say it, the problem with ‘doing it’ or ‘confessing’ or whatever it was he was planning to do at his home or Zoro’s concerned the big thing he hadn’t really been thinking about since he decided to go through with ‘it’. The feelings were there but… Well, to put it the simplest way, he’d enjoyed kissing Zoro. But he wasn’t sure about anything else. And usually if he brought a girl to his place and told her he wanted to hook up, bing bang boom…
He couldn’t even think about it without killing half his brain cells. The thought just would not complete itself. And the last thing he wanted to do was tell Zoro he was interested and then shun him physically because he was freaked out.
But telling Zoro in some place more public than his home wasn’t ideal either. Maybe he should just text him… Shyeah. ‘I
u…’ He shuddered. That was out.
***
Though Sanji’s apartment wasn’t really big enough to fit this many people, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Anyone who had any cooking ability had brought something to share (taking the burden off Sanji), and everyone else had brought booze. Zoro, Ace, Kaku, Nami, Robin and Lucci were heavily engrossed in an intense poker battle, and it looked as though Nami was going to win. But he also suspected that Robin and Lucci might be cheating, so it was a toss up. His entertainment center was being put to good use (he hoped his neighbors were tolerant people) with Franky trying to convince everyone that naked karaoke was a brilliant idea.
Shuraiya hadn’t shown up yet, but Sanji wouldn’t be surprised if he decided not to show. If Saga wasn’t coming - and Sanji had no reason to believe he would - then Shuraiya probably wouldn’t either. So when the door bell rang and everyone got real quiet, expecting the cops to be on the other side, everyone was relieved to find it was actually Shuraiya and Saga.
“Oh. Come on in…”
Shuraiya glanced between them before giving them both a disgusted roll of the eyes and heading straight for booze and food. Saga hung back, a strange look on his face.
“Show me your room,” he said suddenly. Sanji didn’t really reply before his feet automatically started heading for his bedroom. Once inside, Saga shut the door behind them. He started in on Sanji immediately.
“Look, I have a right to be concerned for my friends. And Zoro? He’s the best friend I’ve ever fucking had. And he’s been through hell, and if you knew him the way I did, you would have never turned him down in the first place. But…” The lavender haired man sighed and looked down at his bad arm. “I shouldn’t hold that against you. I didn’t try to understand where you were coming from, or give you credit for the way you handled it. You weren’t stringing him along, I was just angry on his behalf, because he wouldn’t be. Somehow it made me feel better to be pissed at you.”
Sanji shoved his hands in his pockets. “Don’t worry about it.”
Saga snorted. “Look… You’re not just my friend if you date Zoro. You were my friend before then. You’ll be my friend if it doesn’t work out.”
Sanji nodded. “Thanks.”
They were silent for a moment before Saga said, “So Shuraiya said you aren’t sure how you’re gonna ask him.”
Sanji chuckled. “I have no fucking idea, Saga. I don’t know what to say, when to say it, where to say it…”
“Why not after everyone else goes home?”
Sanji groaned. “That’s what Shuraiya said but… look, don’t take this the wrong way, okay? But… I don’t- if- okay. Say I brought a chick to my place and asked her out. She says yes. What do you think we do next?”
“Have ridiculously kinky sex all night?”
“Precisely!” Sanji stood up and started pacing. “And so, logically, do you think that if I asked Zoro out tonight, and he said yes, then…”
“You would have ridiculously kinky sex all night?”
Sanji nodded.
“Well… knowing him and how he feels about you… I’d say that would be a goal he’s aiming for, yeah.”
“Ugh,” Sanji threw up his hands and collapsed back onto his bed. “Saga, I don’t… I’m not shy, you know me. But…”
“Gay sex is an intimidating and unexplored frontier for you, I’m sure,” he nodded, getting the picture. “Well, what about just fooling around?”
Sanji shook his head. “I don’t know. I mean, we’ve kissed. And I enjoyed that. So I don’t think it would be... impossible.”
Saga smiled. “Just let him know that. Hell, he’s probably already anticipated that much. If you don’t want to do it, he’s not gonna force you.”
“No, I know he won’t, but I just don’t want him to misunderstand. I’ve fucked things up enough already, and I don’t want him to think I’m being an asshole.”
“It’s gonna be fine. Seriously.”
***
“What the hell are they doing in there?” Zoro griped, looking at his dismal hand.
Shuraiya leaned across him for the salsa. “Giving each other a thorough anatomy lesson.”
“So you and Saga are like that, huh?” Nami winked.
“I just collect the money at the end of the day,” he grinned. Some laughed while others rolled their eyes.
“So,” Lucci elaborated, his expression neutral, “what you’re basically saying is, Saga is a prostitute, and you’re his pimp? Is that what you’re saying, Shuraiya?”
“You’ve all heard the Pimp’s Prayer?” Shuraiya asked the group.
“The Pimp’s Prayer, huh?” Saga said, looming behind Shuraiya. “No, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that one, Shura, why don’t you explain it to me?”
Shuraiya’s hand froze mid-dip.
From the other room, Franky cleared his throat. “Let us pray the Pimp's Prayer.”
Those who didn’t know it watched on in amusement as those who did recited it for Saga to hear.
“Lord, please pray for the soul of this bitch and guide my pimp hand and make it strong, Lord, so that she might learn a hoe's place. Amen." (1)
The entire apartment exploded with laughter as Saga grabbed Shuraiya by the ear and hauled him off to the bathroom. Sanji took Shuraiya’s spot at the table.
“You know they just went in there to make out,” Nami sighed.
“Whatever, as long as they clean up after themselves,” Sanji shrugged.
“So what kept you two in there for so long?” Kaku asked.
“Reconciling, I’m sure,” Lucci muttered. “Now can we get on with the fucking game?”
But the game quickly went down hill for everyone except Nami, who walked away with an extra four hundred dollars by the end of it.
They started to wrap it up by 2 am, since most of them there had to be at The Baratie the next morning.
“If any of you jerks call in tomorrow or cause Jessica any trouble, I will fire your lousy asses!” Sanji warned as Carne was carried out by Patty and Franky, followed by the rest of The Baratie staff.
Saga and Shuraiya (who had finally come out of the bathroom an hour later, definitely not looking as though they’d been fighting) helped with clean up, and while Zoro was across the room picking up cups, Saga muttered, “Do you want us to stay… or get him to leave… or what?”
Sanji shook his head. “No… I think I’m gonna do it.”
His friend grinned. “Well, remember. You’re sober, so there’s no excuse.”
“Wow, thanks. That’s very encouraging.”
They left quickly after that, leaving just Zoro and Sanji, slowly walking around the apartment and picking up plates, cups and general party mess.
“That should be good. I’ll sweep and stuff tomorrow,” Sanji said as he surveyed the damage. A sink full of dishes and nacho dip drying in weird places - the damage was minimal, considering.
“Alright,” Zoro said, grabbing his jacket. “Gotta split. Got the rec center in the morning and then a physical.”
“What for?” Sanji asked, his heart hammering in his chest. Maybe he should save it for tomorrow…?
“Job application. There’s an opening at Bujinkan.”
“No shit? That would be awesome!”
Bujinkan New York Dojo was one of the most well respected dojos on the east coast. Classes were very expensive, and job openings almost never happened.
Zoro chuckled. “Yeah, I know. I could quit bouncing if I got a job there. Actually, I’d have to quit bouncing, is what they told me. I mean, I like it when I can bounce while Lucci’s running the bar, but… Shit like what happened with Teach… Some competitions won’t let you enter if you have a criminal record. And if the police had decided to press charges against me, I’d be fucked. And it’s just not worth it. Besides, ever since I started bouncing I haven’t been able to focus like I need to.”
Sanji nodded. “So when do you find out?”
Zoro shrugged. “I don’t know. There were a lot of applicants - over 100, I think. I hope it wasn’t any more than that anyway.”
“Well, let me know when you know.”
Zoro nodded. “I will. See ya.”
“Um-…”
Zoro paused. “What?”
“Uh…”
“What?” Zoro repeated.
Sanji’s courage shriveled up into dust and he laughed. “Ah, never mind. I was gonna say something, but then I remembered that I already said it. Never mind.”
Zoro narrowed his gaze. “What was it?”
“Just forget it.”
Zoro sighed and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, he looked determined. “Look, I can take it, alright? I’m not gonna get mad, but if you play it like this you really are gonna be jerking me around.”
Sanji’s voice caught in his throat and it took him a minute to find it again. Why was this so fucking hard? “I’m not jerking you around. I just don’t know how to say it-”
“Look, it’s real easy. ‘Zoro, I’m not interested, have a good night.’ See? Easy.” Zoro turned to go. Sanji raced past him and plastered his back against the door, blocking Zoro’s exit.
“That’s not what I’m trying to say-”
“Then what are you trying to say? I’m not a fucking mind reader!” Zoro growled.
Sanji huffed in exasperation. Maybe he should just let the jerk go if he was going to make this twice as hard as Sanji was already making it on himself.
“I’m saying yes, God damn it!”
Zoro froze, then lurched forward suddenly and stopped again, just short of crashing into the other man. He hovered within Sanji’s personal space bubble. “Y-yes?”
“Yes,” Sanji repeated.
“You’re sure?”
“You want me to change my mind?” Sanji asked incredulously. “Who fucking says tha-”
But Zoro lurched forward again, his hands slamming onto the door on either side of Sanji’s head. There was no space between them to speak of anymore - perhaps only a whisper before their lips met.
“Sanji…”
There was nowhere to go, really, and Sanji kept screaming at himself not to push Zoro away or duck out. But he felt like a dam had just burst and it was questionable whether he’d survive the impact.
“Z-zoro I…”
Maybe Zoro realized, or maybe he’d just happened to make the right move and hadn’t put any real thought into it (Sanji liked to say that it was the latter), but instead of the jarring impact of all Zoro’s pent up emotion and anxiety, the green haired man’s lips instead gently brushed against Sanji’s.
Sanji figured if he hadn’t spontaneously combusted by this point, he’d probably come out of this okay. So he pressed into the kiss tentatively and he closed his eyes, taking in the heat rolling off Zoro, his cologne, what he could smell of the man underneath his cologne. Before he knew it, his hands had suddenly become restless. He kept them pressed flat against the door, but wrapping them around Zoro’s waist seemed like a brilliant idea.
He jumped slightly as Zoro’s hands slid down the door and came to cup gently against his neck, sliding up to hold his head and then tilt it slightly until he gasped, and Zoro’s tongue swept across his lips.
This was a bad time for his rabid-bat-in-stomach syndrome to be acting up, and the result of his shock about Zoro’s tongue and his stomach apparently trying to form a spatial vortex caused him to think that maybe Zoro’s tongue in his mouth was a good idea. So, even Zoro was a little surprised when he felt Sanji’s tongue slip out to tease at his own lips, daring him to do something more. It was enough to make his control falter a little.
He parted the blond man’s mouth with his own and let his tongue caress Sanji’s - Sanji's mouth was hot and soft and tasted faintly like tobacco and the beer they’d both had earlier.
It was overwhelming, was all Sanji could think. It was good, but it was a lot to take in - the feel of such an aggressive kissing partner was not one he’d experienced before. And it was so good and it made him think he could probably do things right there on that floor that maybe he ought not to contemplate doing until he had a clear head.
He was panting through his nose to keep up - he didn’t want to stop, he could do this…
He…
He needed to stop.
His hands came up slightly, faltering on what to do. He settled for sliding them up Zoro’s forearms and squeezing at the green haired man’s wrists.
And maybe Zoro didn’t understand what Sanji was asking, or maybe he understood and just ignored him (Sanji liked to say it was the latter), but he took the opportunity to grab Sanji’s wrists and pin his arms above his head, deepening the kiss further and working a leg in between Sanji’s thighs.
Okay, maybe he deserved that for being so dense about everything. But then when Zoro had both Sanji’s wrists secured with one hand, his free hand promptly slid back down Sanji’s side and crept underneath his shirt.
Sanji tore his mouth away from Zoro’s and panted, “You are definitely about two seconds from needing to change that physical in the morning to a trip to the ER tonight.”
Zoro chuckled - Sanji could feel the movement of his ribs as he did, and the low, deep sound of it sounder much nicer than Sanji wanted to admit at the moment. He released the chef’s wrists and stepped back.
“Agree to go out with me and threaten to put me in the hospital all in five minutes. I’m… not sure what to think.” But it was obvious to Sanji by the cheeky grin on Zoro’s face that the other man was perfectly fine with it.
“Listen, dating I agreed to. Dating…” he took a few breaths and flicked the hair that had fallen over his eyes, “dating encompasses second base. That’s it. I’m gonna have to do a bit of hypnotherapy before you even think about trying anything else.”
Zoro laughed softly. “Alright. I get it. But it wasn’t that bad…?”
Sanji sniffed. “Not what I’m used to… but not bad.”
Then Zoro’s expression turned serious. “What were you and Saga doing in your bedroom earlier?”
“What?” Sanji asked, confused.
“You were in there for like half an hour.”
Sanji shook his head. “We were… He was apologizing. We had a fight earlier today, so we talked about it. What did you think we were doing?”
“So… he wasn’t like… giving you pointers? No… demonstrations?”
Sanji felt the best laugh he’d had in a while bubble up and burst out loudly. “Are you fucking serious? Yeah, Zoro, I asked him back there so he could help me practice kissing!” He laughed so hard his ribs hurt, but mostly at the indignant expression on Zoro’s face.
“What? It’s a serious question,” he stated matter-of-factly. But Sanji’s laughter only persisted, and finally Zoro growled, “Look, it’s how he tricked me out of my first kiss, alright?”
Sanji stopped, then covered his mouth and snorted. He tried to hold back, he did, but he couldn’t help it. He laughed. “You… are you serious?? Oh man,” he slapped his knee, trying to catch his breath, “you are SAD.”
“Alright, fine, Mr. Funnyman.” Zoro picked up his jacket and slung it on.
“No, Zoro-” Sanji said in between laughs, “Don’t leave, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I promise I’ll stop. Bff-” He snorted again and pulled at Zoro’s arm. “Okay, I’m calm. I’m calm. I’m done. See?”
Sanji hadn’t really stopped laughing, and Zoro did leave feeling quite scandalized. But that didn’t stop him from going over to Sanji’s directly after his physical the next morning and making up.
****
(1) The Pimp's Prayer is property of the television show The Boondocks. I'm not making money off of it, just incorporating it into my gay porn.
.
Beta'd by the lovely bronzetigress !!