The Nature of Things (SanjixZoro, ZoroxSanji) Chapter 14: Part 1
I did it. It's finished. Much love to all those who helped beta this monster, also a big thank you to all who took the time to comment and review, even if your comments were more crit then constructive, I still appreciate it.
Of course, the biggest thank you goes to Sinisterbug. We thought this crazy thing up together and it's been a wild ride ever since. Bug, no matter where I go from here or who I collaborate with in the future, I don't think anything will ever be as much fun as working with you has been.
I must say this is bittersweet. I'm so happy to finally be done with this story, but at the same time, I'm very sorry to see it end.
Thank you again for reading, please enjoy the last chapter.
- Stark
Warnings for this chapter:
1) I took some timeline and dialogue liberties in the beginning. I don't think it really matters in the grand scheme of things but if it bothers you then I apologize.
2) I forgot that in dealing with the two-year time skip I would also have to deal with Sanji's stupid nose bleeding gag. I admit that it's hilarious in the beginning, but it drags on forever and pisses me the hell off. I decided, for my own sanity, that second major attack after Sunny dives and Chopper hooks him up to all the blood bags is where it stops. (Okay, full disclosure: the part where Chopper is crying and screaming at Sanji not to turn around and look at the mermaid princess or he'll die is pretty funny too.)
3) It ends sweeter than I first envisioned?
Note: We don't own One Piece, obviously. Also, no beta on this one. All mistakes are mine.
Title: The Nature Of Things
Authors: sinisterbug and stark_black
Rating: Big fat R to NC-17
Paring: Zoro/hookers/Zoro, Sanji/hookers, and eventually Zoro/Sanji/Zoro
Warnings: Yaoi, language, and general stupidity.
Summary: When the Sunny docks, Sanji and Zoro sometimes seek out relief in some not so savory places. After crossing paths in town on more than one occasion, the two find they have a lot more in common than they would like to admit.
All Previous Chapters Here
First Interlude
The day was warm. Salty sea air blew through a tussle of blond hair and pulled gently at a brown tie. A man, two years older and infinitely wiser than he had been the last time he had stood on this same railing, felt as if he had fallen into a quiet dream. Everything was how he had left it, and yet, everything was completely different because the man himself was different. He was looking at his ship with different eyes, hearing the wind through the folded sails with different ears. His heart beat a slower, steadier rhythm than it had the last time he had felt the dip and rise of the waves beneath this same hull.
Sanji stepped off the railing and landed on the grass of the deck, except it wasn't the grass his shoes sank into. Checking his footing, Sanji marveled at the thick layer of coating jelly. It covered every surface, up the masts, over the sails, there was nothing untouched.
"Wow," he said softly, "this is pretty cool."
He bounced around a little before making his way towards the upper deck. Silver and Shakky had told him that some of the others had already arrived and the cook had been ecstatic at seeing Usopp after all this time (damn that kid was a beast now). Franky was rumored to be on the ship somewhere and Sanji was sure he would run into him before he set out again. Sanji knew Sunny's stores would be low, if not completely depleted, and he was going to have to restock. If he just happened to run into Nami while he was shopping well… that would just make the day that much better wouldn't it? Smiling at the thought of his navigator, and all the ways she had probably "matured" over the last few years, Sanji climbed the stairs. He felt a little light-headed but he figured that was just from all the excitement.
As he neared the galley door he remembered what else Shakky had told him and he slowed.
Zoro was here too.
Thinking of the swordsman caused a lot of the muscles in Sanji's stomach to tense up, but the thought train had left the station and there was no stopping it now, no matter how much Sanji didn't want to think about it. If Shakky had noticed his reaction in regards to the mention of Zoro earlier, she had been sweet enough not to say anything.
Sanji was not looking forward to their reunion for several reasons. The last time he had spoken to Zoro, besides shouting at him from across a battlefield, had been… less than pleasant. There was the possibility that Zoro wanted nothing to do with him anymore. Maybe the swordsman had gotten over his infatuation-or whatever the hell it had been-with Sanji and had moved on. What if he resented Sanji for sleeping with him before turning around and saying all those shitty things? What if Zoro hated him for real now?
There was also a chance that he had completely forgotten. Sanji hated this particular line of thinking because it depressed the hell out of him, but what if whatever Zoro had felt for him had been so fleeting, so inconsequential, that it was just… gone? What if everything went back to normal? Insults, rivalry, one-upmanship… and Sanji was stuck dealing with all of these feelings that he couldn't even put a name to?
It was a lot to think about and it weighed heavily on the cook's shoulders.
There was also the fact that Zoro had been on the island ten days already. How the hell he had managed that was a mystery, but the bottom line was: that was two hundred and forty hours the swordsman had spent no doubt getting himself into trouble or lost. Or both.
Most likely both.
Granted, Zoro usually found his way to where he needed to be with sheer dumb luck, but there were what, seventy-eight? Seventy-nine groves? Sanji didn't think it very likely the Strawhats would be going anywhere until they were forced into a manhunt to locate their directionally challenged first mate.
The cook sighed and turned the knob on the galley door. He was already dreading the confrontation with the swordsman, and spending time looking for the bastard when they should be setting sail was just going to put everyone in a bad mood.
The galley was dark, and it had a metal, musky scent to it that was empty and sad. However, when Sanji turned on the lights, he was welcomed by a space and the shapes of things so familiar it was like coming home.
That's because I am coming home.
Emotion welled up in Sanji's chest and he let it take over for a moment before he stepped inside.
* * *
Zoro wanted to fish.
Why? Because he had nothing to do, and sitting around with nothing to do waiting for his crew was starting to wear on him more than Perona's whining, high-pitched voice ever had. His first few days on the island he had trained, and then he had explored. He had even taken up a few odd jobs just to pass the time but now the monotony of the days had all started to bleed together into one endlessly long day-night mush and Zoro was sick of it.
He just wanted to fish. He just wanted something to do with his hands that would keep his mind off how the day the Strawhats were supposed to reunite was close and he would finally, finally get to see his crew again.
How strange was that? He wanted to see his crew more than anything. If Zoro could have gone back in time to tell his eighteen-year-old self that he would soon meet a group of misfits that he would come to think of as family, Zoro knew his eighteen-year-old self would have punched his current self in the throat. Or he would have tried anyway. It would be a simple thing now to turn his eighteen-year-old self into mincemeat.
He missed them, more than he would ever say out loud. He had missed Luffy so much. Chopper and his hugs, Usopp and ridiculous stories, Nami and her debts. Brook, Robin, Franky, and even… even Sanji. Sanji and his food and his stupid frilly clothes and his cursing… Zoro had thought about his crew every day for the last two years, but Sanji, well. Zoro had tried not to think about Sanji at all, so of course, that meant he thought about the damn cook once every couple of minutes.
The last time they had spoken it hadn't gone so well, and Zoro wasn't sure how he felt about seeing Sanji again. He had screwed up and Sanji had reacted better than he had imagined, but the cook had still reacted badly. And he'd had every right to. When they got together again were they going to hash it out finally? Had Sanji forgiven him, even though he didn't really deserve it? Was he still mad? Where exactly did they stand? Were they still rivals?
Were they friends?
Would Sanji ever want to be with him again?
All that was unlikely. Friends? Probably not. Lovers? Never again. However, Zoro knew they were still nakama, they would always be nakama. So he could, at the very least, hold out hope that the two of them were still rivals. If that was all he could get well, shit, he would take it.
Shaking his head as if that would clear it, Zoro moved into the fish and tackle shop to speak to the owner about a boat.
* * *
It was just his luck.
Out of all the fish shops in the tourist and shipping groves, Sanji had found the one where Roronoa Zoro had, of course, apparently made one of his unfathomably bad directional miscalculations.
"Was it this guy?" Sanji asked as he held up Zoro's wanted poster. He kept a roll of the entire crew's posters for reasons he wasn't quite ready to admit, even to himself.
"Yes! That's him!" the old fisherman said. Sanji had already known, but there was no harm in making sure.
Mother of God, Sanji thought, He is such an idiot.
"Well," he said out loud as he lit another cigarette, "at least we know where he's headed."
There was a rumble, and voices cried out on the berm to the South of where Sanji and the fisherman stood. Sanji turned to the water and watched with some surprise-but not much-as a galleon surfaced in two pieces. It looked like the ship had been cut in half with a knife.
For some reason, this really didn't surprise Sanji either.
"Oh, never mind," Sanji said softly, "he came back. At least now we don't have to look for him."
The pirates aboard the ship were crying out in anger, flailing their swords in the direction of one of the masts.
A rough voice cut through their cries and Sanji's heart skipped. "Blame your fate. You brought a plague onto your ship."
Sanji looked up, his cigarette hanging from his bottom lip.
Zoro sat on the main topgallant, one of his swords in hand, looking disgruntled but calm and steady. There was a new scar on his face directly over his left eye. When the swordsman slid that dark sword back into its saya, there was no doubt left in Sanji's mind that it was, in fact, Zoro who had cut the ship in half.
Shit. That was cool.
"I got on the wrong ship…" Zoro muttered matter-of-factly.
Sanji rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers and tried not to laugh. Or cry. Had he really just thought Zoro was cool?
"Still an idiot, I see."
Zoro heard him and rolled his one eye over to where Sanji was standing. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then he stood and shook the water from his hair.
"Ah, cook," Zoro called out, "finally. Let's get out of here, I'll show you where the ship is."
Bristling, Sanji watched Zoro as he made his way off the devastated galleon. "Marimo, you wouldn't be able to find Sunny if it was ten feet in front of you!"
Zoro cocked an eyebrow at him. "Relax, it's like two groves away."
Pulling the cigarette from his mouth and crushing the butt between his fingers, Sanji took a breath. He didn't want to go ape-shit on the swordsman after being back together again for less than a minute.
"No, idiot, it's like twenty groves away."
"Hm, maybe."
God, he was gorgeous. Had Zoro always been this gorgeous? No, his face had filled in, he was taller, wider. His skin was darker and that fucking scar on his face was sexy as hell. His manner had changed as well, the way he stood made him seem relaxed, but Sanji knew the stance. Zoro was actually in a resting fighter's pose. He was literally a string pulled taut, ready to snap and cut you in half at a moment's notice.
Fuck. Fuuuuck, Sanji thought. I can't stop looking at him.
That eyebrow twitched again and Zoro suddenly looked annoyed.
"So? Are we going or what?"
Sanji sighed and lit another cigarette to mask the fact that, for a moment, he had actually been stunned into silence. "Gotta get fish and then we'll head out."
The cook was so overwhelmed at Zoro's new physique and his new bearing that he almost didn't notice how easy it had been to fall right back into their old routine.
* * *
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Fuck.
Zoro had been here before. Yes, there was a god, and yes, he or she hated the swordsman with a celestial passion. There just wasn't any other explanation. No one's luck was this bad. Of all the fish shops on the island, how had Sanji managed to wander into this one? Why was he fucking here?
And why, why was he about a billion times hotter than when Zoro had last seen him?
He was taller, they were probably about the same height now, and he was bigger. Well, he was still skinny, but shit, he filled out that suite better than anything Zoro had ever seen him in. His hair was longer, and he had a beard. His eyes were still that icy blue that Zoro had always loved, but now they had these lines at the corners that made them seem somehow harder? Stronger? Zoro couldn't put his finger on it.
Shit, I can't stop looking at him.
They were going to have to fight. He was going to have to antagonize Sanji in every way he could think of so he could focus on something other than ripping all the cook's clothes off.
Luckily, Zoro didn't have to try too hard. Sanji seemed to be wound pretty tight, even after two years away from everything. Zoro merely had to mention "Number Seven" a few times and the cook was off.
Or, more aptly, the cook was on.
Zoro didn't know what he was expecting, but the force of Sanji's attacks was not it. The blows were five, maybe ten times as powerful than the last time he had been struck by those polished shoes. Where he had pulled punches and blocked easily before, Zoro found himself having to actively defend himself against a rush of attacks that not only hurt for real, but were also on fire.
Zoro had seen Sanji do the lighting-himself-on-fire thing before, but this was something new. Instead of just his foot or his leg, it was his entire body. Holy shit it was almost completely overwhelming.
When the two of them stepped back to take a breath, Sanji snarled at him from around a cigarette.
"Looks like you improved a bit, you third-rate swordsman."
Wait. Was that… a compliment? Zoro was so taken by surprise that he said the first thing that came into his head without thinking.
"Looks like you learned some new idiotic kicking skills yourself."
Damn, that wasn't what he meant to say. How did Sanji always manage to rile him up so easily?
"I bet your cooking skills have suffered because of it though." Ah crap.
"What'd you say, asshole!?" Sanji roared.
They would have started in again, damaging property and causing all kinds of chaos that Nami probably would have skinned them alive for later, but the sound of a den den mushi interrupted their argument and all the fight seemed to drain out of Sanji in a mere few seconds.
Zoro waited, his heart hammering as Sanji sat and talked to Franky on the mini communicator. He tried not to watch the roll of the cook's shoulders underneath his jacket; tried not to stare at Sanji's mouth as his lips teased the end of another cigarette. With some difficulty, Zoro managed to tear his one good eye away from the sharp edges of blond hair as they caressed the pale skin of Sanji's neck.
It was torture.
* * *
Well, one thing was for sure: Luffy was considerably stronger than he had been two years before. Taller, and a little filled out, but other than that, he was exactly the same.
Exactly. Fucking. The same.
There had been a commotion over the rise a few hundred feet from where Sanji and Zoro had been standing. Sanji had gotten a feeling that had proven to be completely spot-on when the two Strawhats discovered their captain in the thick of some Marine-Pacifista-pirate mini-war.
But really though, what had they expected?
Luffy was overjoyed to see them, and both Sanji and Zoro were happy to show off their newfound skills by taking out a Pacifista that happened to be standing in their way. When Chopper showed up riding a giant bird, no one questioned. It was just the way things were with them. Every single day was an adventure, and sometimes the adventure was weird.
The giant bird returned them to their ship, where they were finally reunited with the rest of their crew, and then with cheers of excitement and the merry commands of their captain, Franky inflated the coating jelly, and they dove beneath the surface on their way, at last, to Fishman Island.
Second Interlude
Sanji felt strange. That lightheadedness he had felt on his first return to Sunny was back and in full force. Things seemed to be spinning slowly, but his closed eyes were trying to follow things moving behind his eyelids at neck-breaking speeds.
He groaned softly at the dull throbbing in his head and tried to open his eyes.
"Just lie still, cook," a deep voice said softly, "don't want to die before we reach Fishman Island now, do you?"
Sanji froze, his heart slowed. That was Zoro's voice. What happened? Did he get knocked out? Did the fucking swordsman knock him out in the first few hours of being back together? No way, holy shit he was going to kill somebody!
"I said lie still, idiot. You've lost a lot of blood."
Blood? Oh, that would explain the dizziness. Had there been a battle? What the hell had happened?
Sanji finally opened his eyes and took in the strange surroundings. He was back on the Sunny. Oh yes, they had gone below. That would explain the water and the fish… He was lying on the deck, his arm strapped to a board. Tubes connected from multiple places on his arm up to a tree of blood bags above his head. Damn, he really had been hurt, that was a lot of-
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Zoro said, his voice still soft and emotionless.
Sanji turned and found the swordsman sitting at his side, arms folded and eyes closed, his face stern.
"I didn't think you could get any dumber, but apparently, I was wrong. What kind of asshole has nosebleeds at the sight of women that almost kill him?"
Nosebleeds?
Oh. Oooohhhh.
"What happened to you?"
Sanji ground his teeth. It was the fucking Hell Island and their stupid perfumes and the goddamned side effects they had warned him about and he hadn't listened to. Fuck, why hadn't he listened?
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Sanji muttered, and Zoro started. His eye opened and he looked at Sanji in surprise. It was as if the swordsman hadn't realized Sanji had been awake and listening. That thought made Sanji pause for a moment. Had Zoro been talking to himself? Had he been talking to Sanji but thought Sanji was unconscious?
"I just spent two years in hell," Sanji continued, "The nosebleeds are a side effect. Yes, I'm fine. No, I don't want to talk about it."
Zoro watched him for another few moments and then nodded, the surprise draining from his face.
"Chopper said you have to lie there until the bags are empty. Luffy brought food so you don't have to worry about that."
Sanji sighed and closed his eyes again. He hated not being able to do his job, he hated being worthless and helpless there on the deck with Zoro watching over him, but goddamnit, in that moment he couldn't find it in himself to care. He felt like shit. He probably could have moved, gotten up and made his way to the galley if he really wanted to, but he hurt. He was tired. There wasn't any point.
"You…" Zoro started, but the fell silent again.
Sanji cracked one eye open. "What?"
Zoro wasn't looking at him anymore. He was watching something above them in the water.
"You gonna be okay?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Sanji scoffed. "You worried about me, Marimo?"
For a moment, Sanji wasn't sure Zoro was going to answer, and that made the cook's heart flutter in his chest. It was suddenly very hard to pull air into his lungs, and Sanji was sure it had nothing to do with the blood loss or how much he hurt or anything like that.
Then Zoro lowered his head and his face returned to that stony, disgruntled setting that seemed his new normal.
"Not really. You die, I get to raid all the wine you have stored away."
Sanji chuckled at that. "Your concern warms my heart. Where are my cigarettes?"
"Chopper said no smoking for a few hours."
"Come on, what are you guys trying to do, kill me?"
* * *
Fishman Island had been another one of the Strawhat's bizarre forays into something that seemed completely unreal once you looked at it in hindsight. They had gone into the depths of the sea, deeper than Sanji had ever dreamed of going. They had met a kraken, encountered a ghost ship, met the King of Ryugu Kingdom, and had seen mermaids. Lots and lots of beautiful mermaids.
They had also managed to get in the middle of a civil war. They had fought the Fishman equivalent of the mob, almost gotten killed-for the what, two-hundredth time?-and saved the princess. Just another Tuesday in the life of the Strawhat Pirates, right?
Now, back aboard the Sunny which was sailing on the surface of the ocean, thankfully, back in his galley doing what he did best, Sanji reflected on the crew's first week all together again. It had been dangerous, terrifying at times, but oddly perfect. What was living without a little danger? How could life be truly fulfilling if you didn't come close to dying a few times a day?
Sanji grabbed a handful of flower from the jar beside him on the counter and sprinkled the powder across his cutting board. The bread dough was smooth and pliant against his fingers as he spread, folded, and spread it out again.
He couldn't think of being anywhere else, couldn't think of being with anyone else. He loved his crew. He loved them. All of their quirks, all of their shortcomings, all of their fears and endearments and stupid, hilarious antics. The Strawhats were truly his family, all of them.
All of them.
Thoughts of Zoro filtered in through memories of fighting and laughing and Marines and sea kings. Memories of Zoro grinning around a blade. A flash of Zoro's face splattered with blood. The feeling Sanji had felt in his gut when he had seen Zoro fighting Hyouzou.
It was probably time to talk to the swordsman. They had a lot of things they needed to clear up. Sanji still didn't have a good read on Zoro's feelings for him after their two years apart, but he was sure there was something there. It might just be nakamaship or rivalry, but that was something, wasn't it? At the very least they needed to talk about what happened before, he needed to hear Zoro's explanation of that night at the brothel. He wanted to hear the swordsman's reasons for what he did.
Sighing softly, Sanji wrapped the bread dough and set it in a container before sealing it and putting it in the fridge. He washed his hands and rolled the sleeves of his shirt down, buttoning the cuffs carefully. When he picked up his jacket from the back of a chair his heart started to pound in his chest, but when he opened the door to the deck, he was composed with a fresh cigarette hanging from his lips.
He wouldn't confront Zoro immediately, no. Maybe tonight, or tomorrow morning when he knew the swordsman would be training up in his gym.
The cook watched the crew as they frolicked on the grass or read their books and magazines on the deck.
Yeah… probably tomorrow morning.
Chapter 14
After Fishman Island, any port the Strawhats happened to sail into would have seemed banal. There could have been dancing bears or giant men made out of candy but it still would have seemed inconsequential and ordinary compared to underwater palaces, mermaids, sea kings, and swordsmen with eight tentacle arms.
However, after helping Franky lower the gangplank, Zoro gave the port another cursory glance and concluded that there was probably a picture of this place next to the word "ordinary" in the dictionary.
The Sunny had landed on Null Island after following the log pose for a little less than two days. It hadn't seemed like much when they had checked it out through a spyglass, and now, as the crew disembarked onto the dock, Zoro realized that it still didn't look like much. The sky was clear and blue, but the sunshine did nothing to brighten the colors of the fishmonger stands or tiny shops along the coast. As far as Zoro could see the town was clean and well kept, but shabby in some tired way, like old hand me down clothes that were still intact but hung a little too limp.
Maybe he should just stay on the ship. There was nothing he needed to buy, and it wasn't as if he needed a stretch, they hadn't been on the ship long enough for him to have felt cooped up. He had barely even gotten his sea legs back.
Zoro was about to call out to Luffy that he planned on staying behind when he heard the click of a lighter at his side. He paused for a moment, waiting for the answering click of the lighter closing, and then the familiar rush of an exhale.
"Oi, Marimo."
"Hm?" Zoro grunted almost on instinct.
"Let's get a drink."
Turning, unable to hide the surprise on his face, Zoro regarded the cook with one eyebrow cocked. "You paying?" he asked.
Sanji shrugged, "Sure."
With that, the blond slipped his hands into his pockets and brushed past Zoro, not briskly, just an easy pass by the swordsman's side, and made his way down to the dock.
Zoro followed, his stomach tightening into small knots. At that moment, Zoro wasn't sure if what he was feeling was dread or excitement. Maybe it was a little of both, hence the confusion. His mouth was dry and his heart had picked up a less than steady cadence. He knew all those symptoms well: they were side effects of simply being under the cook's radar.
The two pirates made their way through the port's small and unremarkable market and onto Main Street. Here the shops and stalls were a bit more bustling but still had that second-hand feel to them. Sanji stopped once or twice to appraise the produce and by the look on his face, it seemed to Zoro that it was all edible, but like the town, it was unimpressive.
They stopped at a tavern at the end of a long street. The place was dark but the sign read "Open". An old man was sitting on a crate beside the front door smoking a pipe. He eyed the two younger men as they nodded to him and entered the establishment, but he said nothing. Inside it was brighter than it had seemed from the street, but not a lot. Thick curtains hung over the windows, blocking light from a few lanterns hanging over a half dozen tables and a large electric lamp set up along the cabinet behind the bar. The place was dead, as Zoro had expected of a place like this at two o'clock in the afternoon. There was only one other patron sitting at the bar, and the bartender.
Sanji motioned to the table at the back of the room and headed to the bar to order drinks. Zoro ignored the fluttering in his chest and moved to sit where Sanji had indicated. He took his swords from his belt and laid them on the table to the side, and claimed the chair that had a good view of both the door and the bar. Sanji could take the one that watched the door and the window.
He sat for a minute thinking this might be one of the dumbest things he had ever done, and that was saying a lot. This could go a lot of different ways and most of them were really bad. There was a possibility that he and Sanji could talk like adults, work through whatever it was that they needed to work through, but it just wasn't very likely. He and Sanji had a history of settling differences loudly and violently. Oh, Zoro knew the two of them would definitely work things out in some form or another, but he also knew that by the end of the afternoon, this tavern would probably be needing several thousand beli worth of repairs, and Nami would have two new pairs of shoes made out of their hides.
A large mug appeared in front of Zoro and the swordsman was pulled from his musings.
"You look lost in thought," Sanji said. "Not surprising, since you can get lost literally anywhere."
The cook set his own drink on the table and sat, pulling his cigarette pack from his pocket and tapping one out into his fingers. Zoro watched the flick of the lighter and then the flame lick the end of the cigarette between Sanji's lips without saying anything. Surprisingly, Sanji's words hadn't sparked the usual hostility and Zoro couldn't really decide on why.
Sanji grabbed an ashtray from an adjacent table and took a sip from his drink before turning sideways and leaning against the wall. He lifted a leg, settled his ankle on the opposite knee, and regarded Zoro from around the curtain of his shaggy, blond hair. He seemed calm, collected in a way that Zoro himself did not feel. It wasn't necessarily how the cook felt on the inside-Zoro could testify to that no problem, his heart was now running a mile a minute even though his outside was stony-but the possibility that Sanji had control over his emotions while Zoro himself was hurling faster and faster into an emotional wreck was frustrating.
"You wanna start, or should I?" Sanji asked quietly. "Or should we just stare at each other for a while longer?"
Zoro rolled his eye and grabbed the mug-stein-shit, whatever this glass was called it was huge-and took a long swallow.
"I could stare at you some more if you want."
At that, Sanji grinned, and Zoro was relieved to see it.
"Flattery will get you almost everywhere."
Zoro smiled into his drink and thought about how to say the things sitting on the tip of his tongue. He had played this conversation in his head a few-okay, maybe a hundred-times over the last two years, but not once had he predicted that it would start out on this amicable a foot. He didn't know to begin this way.
"I…" he started, and then took another long swallow. Crap, this was harder than he had imagined. And he had imagined it being pretty hard.
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Zoro set the beer down and leaned his elbows on the table. He clasped his hands together and spoke staring at his fingers. His heart was pounding again.
"I can't talk circles around people like you do. I don't have a bunch of flowery words to make the things I say sound better, so I'm just going to say everything and hopefully, you don't have a conniption and try and kill me before I finish, all right?"
He heard Sanji snicker and a swirl of smoke appeared and wrapped itself around their glasses. He watched as the cook tapped his ashes into the ashtray but didn't look up.
"I don't know, Marimo," Sanji said, "‘conniption' is a pretty great word."
Zoro chuckled and a pleasant shiver ran down his spine. There was the distinct sound of a smile in Sanji's voice and it was doing things to his calm.
He took a few seconds to collect his thoughts, took a breath, and opened his mouth.
"I was-"
The door to the tavern slammed open, rattling the glass in the windows and causing the bottles and glassware at the bar to chatter. Zoro and Sanji both turned their heads at the same time to see two figures in the doorway, one stout with a shiny, bald head, and the other, skinny and tall, with long, curly black hair hanging to his waist. Both men held rifles in their hands and twin expressions of anger on their faces.
"Albert!" the bald one said loudly in a high-pitched whinny. "You come out here right now or we'll start shootin' up the place!"
The long-haired one tapped his rifle on the doorframe and growled. "Yeah, Albert! Come out with your hands up! Don't give us any crap, and we'll let you and your slimy, no good brother live!"
Sanji sighed across the table. "Are you kidding me? I've been waiting two years for this!"
The cook stood and Zoro took the opportunity to finish off the rest of his drink. Why waste good booze?
"Oi, losers," Sanji growled, "I'm trying to have a serious conversation here. Why don't you come back later?"
The bald one pulled the rifle from his shoulder and pointed it at Sanji. This angered Zoro unexpectedly and the swordsman shot to his feet.
"Who the hell do you think you are, blondie?" the bald one sneered. "Maybe you're the one who should come back later?"
Zoro listened to Sanji puff on the cigarette and then every nerve in his body sang with delight as the cook chuckled low and huskily.
"You hear that, Marimo? This guy thinks his conversation is more important than ours."
"Rude," Zoro murmured. He was almost giddy on the inside.
The long-haired one tapped his rifle on the doorframe again. "Albert! You better come out in the next five seconds or we're gonna start hurting your customers!"
Zoro grinned manically. "Cook, we need to teach these guys some manners."
Sanji shoved his hands into his pockets. "Agreed."
* * *
Twenty-five minutes later, Zoro and Sanji were stepping outside the tavern and into a light drizzle. Albert, the tavern's owner, had spent the last twenty-three minutes trying to give the pirates a reward for saving his life. Sanji had refused profusely when he had learned Albert's only crime had been to fall in love with bald man's daughter. The cook had turned serious eyes on the small man and had said, "Don't worry about it. Just treat her well and we're square."
Goddamnit, the cook was such a sap, and Zoro fucking loved it.
Now, the two of them walked side by side down the gray street, rain soaking their hair and shoulders. Zoro was keyed up. The fight had been short, a mere few seconds, so not enough time to spend the adrenaline that came naturally when he readied himself for battle. He felt like running or screaming. He needed-
Sanji's hand on his coat startled him, but his instincts told him there was no danger so he let himself be pulled into a narrow passageway between two buildings. His back slammed against a stone wall, and then Sanji was there, inches from his face. His hair was heavy and dark with rain, and his eyes were a shade of blue that Zoro had seen only once before. Zoro had just enough time to growl softly before the cook's hands were sliding up his jaw, and then Sanji was kissing his lips.
Zoro felt as if the ground had given way. Suddenly his lungs couldn't get enough air and his groin was tight and throbbing painfully as white-hot desire burned through him. He kissed Sanji back greedily as his hands found the cook's hips. He pushed forward, sending Sanji back the two or three steps across the passageway until Sanji's back hit the opposite wall. Zoro pressed up hard against the other man's body, crushing him into the stone or brick or whatever it was, Zoro didn't care. All he could think about was Sanji's mouth. His lips. The cook's strong, lithe hips beneath his hands, muscles flexing against each other, the taste of rain and sweat and cigarettes on his tongue. Sanji's fingers found his hair and pulled desperately, pulled Zoro closer to him.
When he broke away to look into those sharp blue eyes, Zoro found himself panting as if he had just run a hundred miles. His arms, one wrapped around Sanji's waist, and the other pressed against the wall behind them, were trembling. He was rock hard and burning from the inside.
"Well," Sanji breathed against his lips, "that answers one of my questions, at least."
"I was obsessed with you," Zoro said suddenly, so soft it could barely be heard over the rain. Sanji watched him solemnly, his hands returning to Zoro's jaw. That touch almost distracted Zoro into forgetting what he was saying but he forced himself to focus. Over the last two years, he had spent much of his downtime in a deep introspection, sorting out exactly what he had felt for Sanji and had finally come to his conclusion.
"Two years ago, the only thing I thought about more than you, was my goal to be the greatest swordsman. And sometimes that wasn't even true. When you started going with me to the brothels-to the male brothels-it was fun. You were off balance, so it was like I had something over you. But then I saw how the other men looked at you and I saw how you were warming to the idea and I just got so fucking jealous. I felt responsible and I hated that I was angry about feeling responsible. I was so upset that you had discovered this about yourself and at the same time I was so ashamed of being upset in the first place."
Sanji's thumbs were caressing his cheeks and Zoro leaned in close. His body was thrumming with heat despite the rain, and another cascade of shivers trailed down his spine as the cook's hard length pressed against his hip.
"I just wanted you. I was blind with it. I didn't care what the consequences were and when the fucking companions at that fucking place set me up in that room with you, it happened fast and I had no real desire to make it stop."
With that, Zoro closed his eye and rested his forehead against Sanji's.
"It was wrong, I was wrong, and I'm sorry."
They stood that way for a while, forehead to forehead, Sanji cradling the back of Zoro's neck gently. The rain pelted the ground and the stone of the wall, but Zoro did not feel it. He didn't feel much of anything besides numbness for a long stretch of minutes until Sanji spoke, and when he did, Zoro's world froze.
"I was in love with you…" Sanji said.
Zoro felt that same sensation as if the ground had given way. He was falling, falling through space and time and everything was going white and hazy around him. Everything but Sanji's face; the crystal blue of his eyes.
"What?" he whispered.
* * *
Sanji ran his hands through Zoro's hair, wiped gently at the droplets of water trailing down the swordsman's brow and nose. His heart was racing so fast he thought Zoro could probably feel it vibrating through his body. Zoro's words had shattered every last bit of Sanji's reservation if he'd had any left at all that is, and had awakened the desire the cook had kept locked away deep inside himself for two years. He had not felt this calm, this sure of himself, or strangely, this frightened, in as long as he could remember.
"I was in love with you," Sanji said again, "and I didn't even realize it until you disappeared that day on Sabaody."
Shaking against him, Zoro blinked once, twice, slowly, and then shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something but it was as if his voice had left him. He closed it, tried again, but still nothing.
Sanji seemed to understand his plight and answered Zoro's unvoiced question.
"It started on Thriller Bark when I woke up to find you standing in a field of blood. You think no one knows what happened to you there, but I saw it. You took all the pain of the crew for yourself and never said a goddamn thing. It was the most idiotic, fucking dumbass, insane… most incredible act of selflessness I've ever seen."
His hands moved back to Zoro's jaw and he cradled the swordsman's head again, but this time he pulled him close, his hold a bit more forceful than before.
"I admire the shit out of you," he said, a smile playing on his lips, "I need you to understand that. No matter how much I tease you or challenge you or try and one-up you… you're…" he stopped, searching for the right words.
"Next to Luffy, you are the most incredible person I've ever known."
Zoro let out a breath, it was clipped with emotion and what Sanji hoped was desire. The hand that had been pressed against the wall, slipped around his waist and Sanji felt strong fingers tighten in the back of his jacket between his shoulder blades.
"But what I did, back at-"
"-You made a mistake," Sanji cut him off. "It was a fucked-up mistake, but hell, I've made mistakes. I get it okay? If your feelings haven't changed, I want to just… pick up where we left off. If that's something you want."
Zoro nodded his head. "Yes, I want that. My feelings… haven't really changed at all."
He made like he was going to kiss Sanji again, but then paused and pulled back, studying the cook's face with his brow furrowed.
"What about you?" he asked.
Genuinely confused, Sanji asked, "What about me, what?"
"What about your feelings?" Zoro murmured. "How, I mean… do you still…"
Laughing, Sanji tilted his head back and let the droplets of water hit his face. "I'm standing here, kissing you in the rain, Zoro. I told you I was in love with you-"
"-Was," Zoro said quietly, "you said ‘was'. That doesn't mean you're sti-"
Closing the distance, Sanji pressed his lips to Zoro's and cut the swordsman off mid-word. He opened his mouth and slipped his tongue between Zoro's teeth and shuddered happily when the other man moaned softly against him.
After a few long, wonderfully blissful moments, Sanji pulled back and whispered, "Nothing's changed, Marimo, except I might love you even more now than I did before."
He felt Zoro's breath catch and the swordsman's one open eye widened, but then there was a flash of teeth, and Zoro was kissing him again through a smile.
They stood in that passageway until long after the rain had stopped and the sun had started to make its descent towards the evening sky.
* * *
Part 2 Here >>
:]
Of course, the biggest thank you goes to Sinisterbug. We thought this crazy thing up together and it's been a wild ride ever since. Bug, no matter where I go from here or who I collaborate with in the future, I don't think anything will ever be as much fun as working with you has been.
I must say this is bittersweet. I'm so happy to finally be done with this story, but at the same time, I'm very sorry to see it end.
Thank you again for reading, please enjoy the last chapter.
- Stark
Warnings for this chapter:
1) I took some timeline and dialogue liberties in the beginning. I don't think it really matters in the grand scheme of things but if it bothers you then I apologize.
2) I forgot that in dealing with the two-year time skip I would also have to deal with Sanji's stupid nose bleeding gag. I admit that it's hilarious in the beginning, but it drags on forever and pisses me the hell off. I decided, for my own sanity, that second major attack after Sunny dives and Chopper hooks him up to all the blood bags is where it stops. (Okay, full disclosure: the part where Chopper is crying and screaming at Sanji not to turn around and look at the mermaid princess or he'll die is pretty funny too.)
3) It ends sweeter than I first envisioned?
Note: We don't own One Piece, obviously. Also, no beta on this one. All mistakes are mine.
Title: The Nature Of Things
Authors: sinisterbug and stark_black
Rating: Big fat R to NC-17
Paring: Zoro/hookers/Zoro, Sanji/hookers, and eventually Zoro/Sanji/Zoro
Warnings: Yaoi, language, and general stupidity.
Summary: When the Sunny docks, Sanji and Zoro sometimes seek out relief in some not so savory places. After crossing paths in town on more than one occasion, the two find they have a lot more in common than they would like to admit.
All Previous Chapters Here
First Interlude
The day was warm. Salty sea air blew through a tussle of blond hair and pulled gently at a brown tie. A man, two years older and infinitely wiser than he had been the last time he had stood on this same railing, felt as if he had fallen into a quiet dream. Everything was how he had left it, and yet, everything was completely different because the man himself was different. He was looking at his ship with different eyes, hearing the wind through the folded sails with different ears. His heart beat a slower, steadier rhythm than it had the last time he had felt the dip and rise of the waves beneath this same hull.
Sanji stepped off the railing and landed on the grass of the deck, except it wasn't the grass his shoes sank into. Checking his footing, Sanji marveled at the thick layer of coating jelly. It covered every surface, up the masts, over the sails, there was nothing untouched.
"Wow," he said softly, "this is pretty cool."
He bounced around a little before making his way towards the upper deck. Silver and Shakky had told him that some of the others had already arrived and the cook had been ecstatic at seeing Usopp after all this time (damn that kid was a beast now). Franky was rumored to be on the ship somewhere and Sanji was sure he would run into him before he set out again. Sanji knew Sunny's stores would be low, if not completely depleted, and he was going to have to restock. If he just happened to run into Nami while he was shopping well… that would just make the day that much better wouldn't it? Smiling at the thought of his navigator, and all the ways she had probably "matured" over the last few years, Sanji climbed the stairs. He felt a little light-headed but he figured that was just from all the excitement.
As he neared the galley door he remembered what else Shakky had told him and he slowed.
Zoro was here too.
Thinking of the swordsman caused a lot of the muscles in Sanji's stomach to tense up, but the thought train had left the station and there was no stopping it now, no matter how much Sanji didn't want to think about it. If Shakky had noticed his reaction in regards to the mention of Zoro earlier, she had been sweet enough not to say anything.
Sanji was not looking forward to their reunion for several reasons. The last time he had spoken to Zoro, besides shouting at him from across a battlefield, had been… less than pleasant. There was the possibility that Zoro wanted nothing to do with him anymore. Maybe the swordsman had gotten over his infatuation-or whatever the hell it had been-with Sanji and had moved on. What if he resented Sanji for sleeping with him before turning around and saying all those shitty things? What if Zoro hated him for real now?
There was also a chance that he had completely forgotten. Sanji hated this particular line of thinking because it depressed the hell out of him, but what if whatever Zoro had felt for him had been so fleeting, so inconsequential, that it was just… gone? What if everything went back to normal? Insults, rivalry, one-upmanship… and Sanji was stuck dealing with all of these feelings that he couldn't even put a name to?
It was a lot to think about and it weighed heavily on the cook's shoulders.
There was also the fact that Zoro had been on the island ten days already. How the hell he had managed that was a mystery, but the bottom line was: that was two hundred and forty hours the swordsman had spent no doubt getting himself into trouble or lost. Or both.
Most likely both.
Granted, Zoro usually found his way to where he needed to be with sheer dumb luck, but there were what, seventy-eight? Seventy-nine groves? Sanji didn't think it very likely the Strawhats would be going anywhere until they were forced into a manhunt to locate their directionally challenged first mate.
The cook sighed and turned the knob on the galley door. He was already dreading the confrontation with the swordsman, and spending time looking for the bastard when they should be setting sail was just going to put everyone in a bad mood.
The galley was dark, and it had a metal, musky scent to it that was empty and sad. However, when Sanji turned on the lights, he was welcomed by a space and the shapes of things so familiar it was like coming home.
That's because I am coming home.
Emotion welled up in Sanji's chest and he let it take over for a moment before he stepped inside.
* * *
Zoro wanted to fish.
Why? Because he had nothing to do, and sitting around with nothing to do waiting for his crew was starting to wear on him more than Perona's whining, high-pitched voice ever had. His first few days on the island he had trained, and then he had explored. He had even taken up a few odd jobs just to pass the time but now the monotony of the days had all started to bleed together into one endlessly long day-night mush and Zoro was sick of it.
He just wanted to fish. He just wanted something to do with his hands that would keep his mind off how the day the Strawhats were supposed to reunite was close and he would finally, finally get to see his crew again.
How strange was that? He wanted to see his crew more than anything. If Zoro could have gone back in time to tell his eighteen-year-old self that he would soon meet a group of misfits that he would come to think of as family, Zoro knew his eighteen-year-old self would have punched his current self in the throat. Or he would have tried anyway. It would be a simple thing now to turn his eighteen-year-old self into mincemeat.
He missed them, more than he would ever say out loud. He had missed Luffy so much. Chopper and his hugs, Usopp and ridiculous stories, Nami and her debts. Brook, Robin, Franky, and even… even Sanji. Sanji and his food and his stupid frilly clothes and his cursing… Zoro had thought about his crew every day for the last two years, but Sanji, well. Zoro had tried not to think about Sanji at all, so of course, that meant he thought about the damn cook once every couple of minutes.
The last time they had spoken it hadn't gone so well, and Zoro wasn't sure how he felt about seeing Sanji again. He had screwed up and Sanji had reacted better than he had imagined, but the cook had still reacted badly. And he'd had every right to. When they got together again were they going to hash it out finally? Had Sanji forgiven him, even though he didn't really deserve it? Was he still mad? Where exactly did they stand? Were they still rivals?
Were they friends?
Would Sanji ever want to be with him again?
All that was unlikely. Friends? Probably not. Lovers? Never again. However, Zoro knew they were still nakama, they would always be nakama. So he could, at the very least, hold out hope that the two of them were still rivals. If that was all he could get well, shit, he would take it.
Shaking his head as if that would clear it, Zoro moved into the fish and tackle shop to speak to the owner about a boat.
* * *
It was just his luck.
Out of all the fish shops in the tourist and shipping groves, Sanji had found the one where Roronoa Zoro had, of course, apparently made one of his unfathomably bad directional miscalculations.
"Was it this guy?" Sanji asked as he held up Zoro's wanted poster. He kept a roll of the entire crew's posters for reasons he wasn't quite ready to admit, even to himself.
"Yes! That's him!" the old fisherman said. Sanji had already known, but there was no harm in making sure.
Mother of God, Sanji thought, He is such an idiot.
"Well," he said out loud as he lit another cigarette, "at least we know where he's headed."
There was a rumble, and voices cried out on the berm to the South of where Sanji and the fisherman stood. Sanji turned to the water and watched with some surprise-but not much-as a galleon surfaced in two pieces. It looked like the ship had been cut in half with a knife.
For some reason, this really didn't surprise Sanji either.
"Oh, never mind," Sanji said softly, "he came back. At least now we don't have to look for him."
The pirates aboard the ship were crying out in anger, flailing their swords in the direction of one of the masts.
A rough voice cut through their cries and Sanji's heart skipped. "Blame your fate. You brought a plague onto your ship."
Sanji looked up, his cigarette hanging from his bottom lip.
Zoro sat on the main topgallant, one of his swords in hand, looking disgruntled but calm and steady. There was a new scar on his face directly over his left eye. When the swordsman slid that dark sword back into its saya, there was no doubt left in Sanji's mind that it was, in fact, Zoro who had cut the ship in half.
Shit. That was cool.
"I got on the wrong ship…" Zoro muttered matter-of-factly.
Sanji rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers and tried not to laugh. Or cry. Had he really just thought Zoro was cool?
"Still an idiot, I see."
Zoro heard him and rolled his one eye over to where Sanji was standing. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then he stood and shook the water from his hair.
"Ah, cook," Zoro called out, "finally. Let's get out of here, I'll show you where the ship is."
Bristling, Sanji watched Zoro as he made his way off the devastated galleon. "Marimo, you wouldn't be able to find Sunny if it was ten feet in front of you!"
Zoro cocked an eyebrow at him. "Relax, it's like two groves away."
Pulling the cigarette from his mouth and crushing the butt between his fingers, Sanji took a breath. He didn't want to go ape-shit on the swordsman after being back together again for less than a minute.
"No, idiot, it's like twenty groves away."
"Hm, maybe."
God, he was gorgeous. Had Zoro always been this gorgeous? No, his face had filled in, he was taller, wider. His skin was darker and that fucking scar on his face was sexy as hell. His manner had changed as well, the way he stood made him seem relaxed, but Sanji knew the stance. Zoro was actually in a resting fighter's pose. He was literally a string pulled taut, ready to snap and cut you in half at a moment's notice.
Fuck. Fuuuuck, Sanji thought. I can't stop looking at him.
That eyebrow twitched again and Zoro suddenly looked annoyed.
"So? Are we going or what?"
Sanji sighed and lit another cigarette to mask the fact that, for a moment, he had actually been stunned into silence. "Gotta get fish and then we'll head out."
The cook was so overwhelmed at Zoro's new physique and his new bearing that he almost didn't notice how easy it had been to fall right back into their old routine.
* * *
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Fuck.
Zoro had been here before. Yes, there was a god, and yes, he or she hated the swordsman with a celestial passion. There just wasn't any other explanation. No one's luck was this bad. Of all the fish shops on the island, how had Sanji managed to wander into this one? Why was he fucking here?
And why, why was he about a billion times hotter than when Zoro had last seen him?
He was taller, they were probably about the same height now, and he was bigger. Well, he was still skinny, but shit, he filled out that suite better than anything Zoro had ever seen him in. His hair was longer, and he had a beard. His eyes were still that icy blue that Zoro had always loved, but now they had these lines at the corners that made them seem somehow harder? Stronger? Zoro couldn't put his finger on it.
Shit, I can't stop looking at him.
They were going to have to fight. He was going to have to antagonize Sanji in every way he could think of so he could focus on something other than ripping all the cook's clothes off.
Luckily, Zoro didn't have to try too hard. Sanji seemed to be wound pretty tight, even after two years away from everything. Zoro merely had to mention "Number Seven" a few times and the cook was off.
Or, more aptly, the cook was on.
Zoro didn't know what he was expecting, but the force of Sanji's attacks was not it. The blows were five, maybe ten times as powerful than the last time he had been struck by those polished shoes. Where he had pulled punches and blocked easily before, Zoro found himself having to actively defend himself against a rush of attacks that not only hurt for real, but were also on fire.
Zoro had seen Sanji do the lighting-himself-on-fire thing before, but this was something new. Instead of just his foot or his leg, it was his entire body. Holy shit it was almost completely overwhelming.
When the two of them stepped back to take a breath, Sanji snarled at him from around a cigarette.
"Looks like you improved a bit, you third-rate swordsman."
Wait. Was that… a compliment? Zoro was so taken by surprise that he said the first thing that came into his head without thinking.
"Looks like you learned some new idiotic kicking skills yourself."
Damn, that wasn't what he meant to say. How did Sanji always manage to rile him up so easily?
"I bet your cooking skills have suffered because of it though." Ah crap.
"What'd you say, asshole!?" Sanji roared.
They would have started in again, damaging property and causing all kinds of chaos that Nami probably would have skinned them alive for later, but the sound of a den den mushi interrupted their argument and all the fight seemed to drain out of Sanji in a mere few seconds.
Zoro waited, his heart hammering as Sanji sat and talked to Franky on the mini communicator. He tried not to watch the roll of the cook's shoulders underneath his jacket; tried not to stare at Sanji's mouth as his lips teased the end of another cigarette. With some difficulty, Zoro managed to tear his one good eye away from the sharp edges of blond hair as they caressed the pale skin of Sanji's neck.
It was torture.
* * *
Well, one thing was for sure: Luffy was considerably stronger than he had been two years before. Taller, and a little filled out, but other than that, he was exactly the same.
Exactly. Fucking. The same.
There had been a commotion over the rise a few hundred feet from where Sanji and Zoro had been standing. Sanji had gotten a feeling that had proven to be completely spot-on when the two Strawhats discovered their captain in the thick of some Marine-Pacifista-pirate mini-war.
But really though, what had they expected?
Luffy was overjoyed to see them, and both Sanji and Zoro were happy to show off their newfound skills by taking out a Pacifista that happened to be standing in their way. When Chopper showed up riding a giant bird, no one questioned. It was just the way things were with them. Every single day was an adventure, and sometimes the adventure was weird.
The giant bird returned them to their ship, where they were finally reunited with the rest of their crew, and then with cheers of excitement and the merry commands of their captain, Franky inflated the coating jelly, and they dove beneath the surface on their way, at last, to Fishman Island.
Second Interlude
Sanji felt strange. That lightheadedness he had felt on his first return to Sunny was back and in full force. Things seemed to be spinning slowly, but his closed eyes were trying to follow things moving behind his eyelids at neck-breaking speeds.
He groaned softly at the dull throbbing in his head and tried to open his eyes.
"Just lie still, cook," a deep voice said softly, "don't want to die before we reach Fishman Island now, do you?"
Sanji froze, his heart slowed. That was Zoro's voice. What happened? Did he get knocked out? Did the fucking swordsman knock him out in the first few hours of being back together? No way, holy shit he was going to kill somebody!
"I said lie still, idiot. You've lost a lot of blood."
Blood? Oh, that would explain the dizziness. Had there been a battle? What the hell had happened?
Sanji finally opened his eyes and took in the strange surroundings. He was back on the Sunny. Oh yes, they had gone below. That would explain the water and the fish… He was lying on the deck, his arm strapped to a board. Tubes connected from multiple places on his arm up to a tree of blood bags above his head. Damn, he really had been hurt, that was a lot of-
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Zoro said, his voice still soft and emotionless.
Sanji turned and found the swordsman sitting at his side, arms folded and eyes closed, his face stern.
"I didn't think you could get any dumber, but apparently, I was wrong. What kind of asshole has nosebleeds at the sight of women that almost kill him?"
Nosebleeds?
Oh. Oooohhhh.
"What happened to you?"
Sanji ground his teeth. It was the fucking Hell Island and their stupid perfumes and the goddamned side effects they had warned him about and he hadn't listened to. Fuck, why hadn't he listened?
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Sanji muttered, and Zoro started. His eye opened and he looked at Sanji in surprise. It was as if the swordsman hadn't realized Sanji had been awake and listening. That thought made Sanji pause for a moment. Had Zoro been talking to himself? Had he been talking to Sanji but thought Sanji was unconscious?
"I just spent two years in hell," Sanji continued, "The nosebleeds are a side effect. Yes, I'm fine. No, I don't want to talk about it."
Zoro watched him for another few moments and then nodded, the surprise draining from his face.
"Chopper said you have to lie there until the bags are empty. Luffy brought food so you don't have to worry about that."
Sanji sighed and closed his eyes again. He hated not being able to do his job, he hated being worthless and helpless there on the deck with Zoro watching over him, but goddamnit, in that moment he couldn't find it in himself to care. He felt like shit. He probably could have moved, gotten up and made his way to the galley if he really wanted to, but he hurt. He was tired. There wasn't any point.
"You…" Zoro started, but the fell silent again.
Sanji cracked one eye open. "What?"
Zoro wasn't looking at him anymore. He was watching something above them in the water.
"You gonna be okay?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Sanji scoffed. "You worried about me, Marimo?"
For a moment, Sanji wasn't sure Zoro was going to answer, and that made the cook's heart flutter in his chest. It was suddenly very hard to pull air into his lungs, and Sanji was sure it had nothing to do with the blood loss or how much he hurt or anything like that.
Then Zoro lowered his head and his face returned to that stony, disgruntled setting that seemed his new normal.
"Not really. You die, I get to raid all the wine you have stored away."
Sanji chuckled at that. "Your concern warms my heart. Where are my cigarettes?"
"Chopper said no smoking for a few hours."
"Come on, what are you guys trying to do, kill me?"
* * *
Fishman Island had been another one of the Strawhat's bizarre forays into something that seemed completely unreal once you looked at it in hindsight. They had gone into the depths of the sea, deeper than Sanji had ever dreamed of going. They had met a kraken, encountered a ghost ship, met the King of Ryugu Kingdom, and had seen mermaids. Lots and lots of beautiful mermaids.
They had also managed to get in the middle of a civil war. They had fought the Fishman equivalent of the mob, almost gotten killed-for the what, two-hundredth time?-and saved the princess. Just another Tuesday in the life of the Strawhat Pirates, right?
Now, back aboard the Sunny which was sailing on the surface of the ocean, thankfully, back in his galley doing what he did best, Sanji reflected on the crew's first week all together again. It had been dangerous, terrifying at times, but oddly perfect. What was living without a little danger? How could life be truly fulfilling if you didn't come close to dying a few times a day?
Sanji grabbed a handful of flower from the jar beside him on the counter and sprinkled the powder across his cutting board. The bread dough was smooth and pliant against his fingers as he spread, folded, and spread it out again.
He couldn't think of being anywhere else, couldn't think of being with anyone else. He loved his crew. He loved them. All of their quirks, all of their shortcomings, all of their fears and endearments and stupid, hilarious antics. The Strawhats were truly his family, all of them.
All of them.
Thoughts of Zoro filtered in through memories of fighting and laughing and Marines and sea kings. Memories of Zoro grinning around a blade. A flash of Zoro's face splattered with blood. The feeling Sanji had felt in his gut when he had seen Zoro fighting Hyouzou.
It was probably time to talk to the swordsman. They had a lot of things they needed to clear up. Sanji still didn't have a good read on Zoro's feelings for him after their two years apart, but he was sure there was something there. It might just be nakamaship or rivalry, but that was something, wasn't it? At the very least they needed to talk about what happened before, he needed to hear Zoro's explanation of that night at the brothel. He wanted to hear the swordsman's reasons for what he did.
Sighing softly, Sanji wrapped the bread dough and set it in a container before sealing it and putting it in the fridge. He washed his hands and rolled the sleeves of his shirt down, buttoning the cuffs carefully. When he picked up his jacket from the back of a chair his heart started to pound in his chest, but when he opened the door to the deck, he was composed with a fresh cigarette hanging from his lips.
He wouldn't confront Zoro immediately, no. Maybe tonight, or tomorrow morning when he knew the swordsman would be training up in his gym.
The cook watched the crew as they frolicked on the grass or read their books and magazines on the deck.
Yeah… probably tomorrow morning.
Chapter 14
After Fishman Island, any port the Strawhats happened to sail into would have seemed banal. There could have been dancing bears or giant men made out of candy but it still would have seemed inconsequential and ordinary compared to underwater palaces, mermaids, sea kings, and swordsmen with eight tentacle arms.
However, after helping Franky lower the gangplank, Zoro gave the port another cursory glance and concluded that there was probably a picture of this place next to the word "ordinary" in the dictionary.
The Sunny had landed on Null Island after following the log pose for a little less than two days. It hadn't seemed like much when they had checked it out through a spyglass, and now, as the crew disembarked onto the dock, Zoro realized that it still didn't look like much. The sky was clear and blue, but the sunshine did nothing to brighten the colors of the fishmonger stands or tiny shops along the coast. As far as Zoro could see the town was clean and well kept, but shabby in some tired way, like old hand me down clothes that were still intact but hung a little too limp.
Maybe he should just stay on the ship. There was nothing he needed to buy, and it wasn't as if he needed a stretch, they hadn't been on the ship long enough for him to have felt cooped up. He had barely even gotten his sea legs back.
Zoro was about to call out to Luffy that he planned on staying behind when he heard the click of a lighter at his side. He paused for a moment, waiting for the answering click of the lighter closing, and then the familiar rush of an exhale.
"Oi, Marimo."
"Hm?" Zoro grunted almost on instinct.
"Let's get a drink."
Turning, unable to hide the surprise on his face, Zoro regarded the cook with one eyebrow cocked. "You paying?" he asked.
Sanji shrugged, "Sure."
With that, the blond slipped his hands into his pockets and brushed past Zoro, not briskly, just an easy pass by the swordsman's side, and made his way down to the dock.
Zoro followed, his stomach tightening into small knots. At that moment, Zoro wasn't sure if what he was feeling was dread or excitement. Maybe it was a little of both, hence the confusion. His mouth was dry and his heart had picked up a less than steady cadence. He knew all those symptoms well: they were side effects of simply being under the cook's radar.
The two pirates made their way through the port's small and unremarkable market and onto Main Street. Here the shops and stalls were a bit more bustling but still had that second-hand feel to them. Sanji stopped once or twice to appraise the produce and by the look on his face, it seemed to Zoro that it was all edible, but like the town, it was unimpressive.
They stopped at a tavern at the end of a long street. The place was dark but the sign read "Open". An old man was sitting on a crate beside the front door smoking a pipe. He eyed the two younger men as they nodded to him and entered the establishment, but he said nothing. Inside it was brighter than it had seemed from the street, but not a lot. Thick curtains hung over the windows, blocking light from a few lanterns hanging over a half dozen tables and a large electric lamp set up along the cabinet behind the bar. The place was dead, as Zoro had expected of a place like this at two o'clock in the afternoon. There was only one other patron sitting at the bar, and the bartender.
Sanji motioned to the table at the back of the room and headed to the bar to order drinks. Zoro ignored the fluttering in his chest and moved to sit where Sanji had indicated. He took his swords from his belt and laid them on the table to the side, and claimed the chair that had a good view of both the door and the bar. Sanji could take the one that watched the door and the window.
He sat for a minute thinking this might be one of the dumbest things he had ever done, and that was saying a lot. This could go a lot of different ways and most of them were really bad. There was a possibility that he and Sanji could talk like adults, work through whatever it was that they needed to work through, but it just wasn't very likely. He and Sanji had a history of settling differences loudly and violently. Oh, Zoro knew the two of them would definitely work things out in some form or another, but he also knew that by the end of the afternoon, this tavern would probably be needing several thousand beli worth of repairs, and Nami would have two new pairs of shoes made out of their hides.
A large mug appeared in front of Zoro and the swordsman was pulled from his musings.
"You look lost in thought," Sanji said. "Not surprising, since you can get lost literally anywhere."
The cook set his own drink on the table and sat, pulling his cigarette pack from his pocket and tapping one out into his fingers. Zoro watched the flick of the lighter and then the flame lick the end of the cigarette between Sanji's lips without saying anything. Surprisingly, Sanji's words hadn't sparked the usual hostility and Zoro couldn't really decide on why.
Sanji grabbed an ashtray from an adjacent table and took a sip from his drink before turning sideways and leaning against the wall. He lifted a leg, settled his ankle on the opposite knee, and regarded Zoro from around the curtain of his shaggy, blond hair. He seemed calm, collected in a way that Zoro himself did not feel. It wasn't necessarily how the cook felt on the inside-Zoro could testify to that no problem, his heart was now running a mile a minute even though his outside was stony-but the possibility that Sanji had control over his emotions while Zoro himself was hurling faster and faster into an emotional wreck was frustrating.
"You wanna start, or should I?" Sanji asked quietly. "Or should we just stare at each other for a while longer?"
Zoro rolled his eye and grabbed the mug-stein-shit, whatever this glass was called it was huge-and took a long swallow.
"I could stare at you some more if you want."
At that, Sanji grinned, and Zoro was relieved to see it.
"Flattery will get you almost everywhere."
Zoro smiled into his drink and thought about how to say the things sitting on the tip of his tongue. He had played this conversation in his head a few-okay, maybe a hundred-times over the last two years, but not once had he predicted that it would start out on this amicable a foot. He didn't know to begin this way.
"I…" he started, and then took another long swallow. Crap, this was harder than he had imagined. And he had imagined it being pretty hard.
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Zoro set the beer down and leaned his elbows on the table. He clasped his hands together and spoke staring at his fingers. His heart was pounding again.
"I can't talk circles around people like you do. I don't have a bunch of flowery words to make the things I say sound better, so I'm just going to say everything and hopefully, you don't have a conniption and try and kill me before I finish, all right?"
He heard Sanji snicker and a swirl of smoke appeared and wrapped itself around their glasses. He watched as the cook tapped his ashes into the ashtray but didn't look up.
"I don't know, Marimo," Sanji said, "‘conniption' is a pretty great word."
Zoro chuckled and a pleasant shiver ran down his spine. There was the distinct sound of a smile in Sanji's voice and it was doing things to his calm.
He took a few seconds to collect his thoughts, took a breath, and opened his mouth.
"I was-"
The door to the tavern slammed open, rattling the glass in the windows and causing the bottles and glassware at the bar to chatter. Zoro and Sanji both turned their heads at the same time to see two figures in the doorway, one stout with a shiny, bald head, and the other, skinny and tall, with long, curly black hair hanging to his waist. Both men held rifles in their hands and twin expressions of anger on their faces.
"Albert!" the bald one said loudly in a high-pitched whinny. "You come out here right now or we'll start shootin' up the place!"
The long-haired one tapped his rifle on the doorframe and growled. "Yeah, Albert! Come out with your hands up! Don't give us any crap, and we'll let you and your slimy, no good brother live!"
Sanji sighed across the table. "Are you kidding me? I've been waiting two years for this!"
The cook stood and Zoro took the opportunity to finish off the rest of his drink. Why waste good booze?
"Oi, losers," Sanji growled, "I'm trying to have a serious conversation here. Why don't you come back later?"
The bald one pulled the rifle from his shoulder and pointed it at Sanji. This angered Zoro unexpectedly and the swordsman shot to his feet.
"Who the hell do you think you are, blondie?" the bald one sneered. "Maybe you're the one who should come back later?"
Zoro listened to Sanji puff on the cigarette and then every nerve in his body sang with delight as the cook chuckled low and huskily.
"You hear that, Marimo? This guy thinks his conversation is more important than ours."
"Rude," Zoro murmured. He was almost giddy on the inside.
The long-haired one tapped his rifle on the doorframe again. "Albert! You better come out in the next five seconds or we're gonna start hurting your customers!"
Zoro grinned manically. "Cook, we need to teach these guys some manners."
Sanji shoved his hands into his pockets. "Agreed."
* * *
Twenty-five minutes later, Zoro and Sanji were stepping outside the tavern and into a light drizzle. Albert, the tavern's owner, had spent the last twenty-three minutes trying to give the pirates a reward for saving his life. Sanji had refused profusely when he had learned Albert's only crime had been to fall in love with bald man's daughter. The cook had turned serious eyes on the small man and had said, "Don't worry about it. Just treat her well and we're square."
Goddamnit, the cook was such a sap, and Zoro fucking loved it.
Now, the two of them walked side by side down the gray street, rain soaking their hair and shoulders. Zoro was keyed up. The fight had been short, a mere few seconds, so not enough time to spend the adrenaline that came naturally when he readied himself for battle. He felt like running or screaming. He needed-
Sanji's hand on his coat startled him, but his instincts told him there was no danger so he let himself be pulled into a narrow passageway between two buildings. His back slammed against a stone wall, and then Sanji was there, inches from his face. His hair was heavy and dark with rain, and his eyes were a shade of blue that Zoro had seen only once before. Zoro had just enough time to growl softly before the cook's hands were sliding up his jaw, and then Sanji was kissing his lips.
Zoro felt as if the ground had given way. Suddenly his lungs couldn't get enough air and his groin was tight and throbbing painfully as white-hot desire burned through him. He kissed Sanji back greedily as his hands found the cook's hips. He pushed forward, sending Sanji back the two or three steps across the passageway until Sanji's back hit the opposite wall. Zoro pressed up hard against the other man's body, crushing him into the stone or brick or whatever it was, Zoro didn't care. All he could think about was Sanji's mouth. His lips. The cook's strong, lithe hips beneath his hands, muscles flexing against each other, the taste of rain and sweat and cigarettes on his tongue. Sanji's fingers found his hair and pulled desperately, pulled Zoro closer to him.
When he broke away to look into those sharp blue eyes, Zoro found himself panting as if he had just run a hundred miles. His arms, one wrapped around Sanji's waist, and the other pressed against the wall behind them, were trembling. He was rock hard and burning from the inside.
"Well," Sanji breathed against his lips, "that answers one of my questions, at least."
"I was obsessed with you," Zoro said suddenly, so soft it could barely be heard over the rain. Sanji watched him solemnly, his hands returning to Zoro's jaw. That touch almost distracted Zoro into forgetting what he was saying but he forced himself to focus. Over the last two years, he had spent much of his downtime in a deep introspection, sorting out exactly what he had felt for Sanji and had finally come to his conclusion.
"Two years ago, the only thing I thought about more than you, was my goal to be the greatest swordsman. And sometimes that wasn't even true. When you started going with me to the brothels-to the male brothels-it was fun. You were off balance, so it was like I had something over you. But then I saw how the other men looked at you and I saw how you were warming to the idea and I just got so fucking jealous. I felt responsible and I hated that I was angry about feeling responsible. I was so upset that you had discovered this about yourself and at the same time I was so ashamed of being upset in the first place."
Sanji's thumbs were caressing his cheeks and Zoro leaned in close. His body was thrumming with heat despite the rain, and another cascade of shivers trailed down his spine as the cook's hard length pressed against his hip.
"I just wanted you. I was blind with it. I didn't care what the consequences were and when the fucking companions at that fucking place set me up in that room with you, it happened fast and I had no real desire to make it stop."
With that, Zoro closed his eye and rested his forehead against Sanji's.
"It was wrong, I was wrong, and I'm sorry."
They stood that way for a while, forehead to forehead, Sanji cradling the back of Zoro's neck gently. The rain pelted the ground and the stone of the wall, but Zoro did not feel it. He didn't feel much of anything besides numbness for a long stretch of minutes until Sanji spoke, and when he did, Zoro's world froze.
"I was in love with you…" Sanji said.
Zoro felt that same sensation as if the ground had given way. He was falling, falling through space and time and everything was going white and hazy around him. Everything but Sanji's face; the crystal blue of his eyes.
"What?" he whispered.
* * *
Sanji ran his hands through Zoro's hair, wiped gently at the droplets of water trailing down the swordsman's brow and nose. His heart was racing so fast he thought Zoro could probably feel it vibrating through his body. Zoro's words had shattered every last bit of Sanji's reservation if he'd had any left at all that is, and had awakened the desire the cook had kept locked away deep inside himself for two years. He had not felt this calm, this sure of himself, or strangely, this frightened, in as long as he could remember.
"I was in love with you," Sanji said again, "and I didn't even realize it until you disappeared that day on Sabaody."
Shaking against him, Zoro blinked once, twice, slowly, and then shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something but it was as if his voice had left him. He closed it, tried again, but still nothing.
Sanji seemed to understand his plight and answered Zoro's unvoiced question.
"It started on Thriller Bark when I woke up to find you standing in a field of blood. You think no one knows what happened to you there, but I saw it. You took all the pain of the crew for yourself and never said a goddamn thing. It was the most idiotic, fucking dumbass, insane… most incredible act of selflessness I've ever seen."
His hands moved back to Zoro's jaw and he cradled the swordsman's head again, but this time he pulled him close, his hold a bit more forceful than before.
"I admire the shit out of you," he said, a smile playing on his lips, "I need you to understand that. No matter how much I tease you or challenge you or try and one-up you… you're…" he stopped, searching for the right words.
"Next to Luffy, you are the most incredible person I've ever known."
Zoro let out a breath, it was clipped with emotion and what Sanji hoped was desire. The hand that had been pressed against the wall, slipped around his waist and Sanji felt strong fingers tighten in the back of his jacket between his shoulder blades.
"But what I did, back at-"
"-You made a mistake," Sanji cut him off. "It was a fucked-up mistake, but hell, I've made mistakes. I get it okay? If your feelings haven't changed, I want to just… pick up where we left off. If that's something you want."
Zoro nodded his head. "Yes, I want that. My feelings… haven't really changed at all."
He made like he was going to kiss Sanji again, but then paused and pulled back, studying the cook's face with his brow furrowed.
"What about you?" he asked.
Genuinely confused, Sanji asked, "What about me, what?"
"What about your feelings?" Zoro murmured. "How, I mean… do you still…"
Laughing, Sanji tilted his head back and let the droplets of water hit his face. "I'm standing here, kissing you in the rain, Zoro. I told you I was in love with you-"
"-Was," Zoro said quietly, "you said ‘was'. That doesn't mean you're sti-"
Closing the distance, Sanji pressed his lips to Zoro's and cut the swordsman off mid-word. He opened his mouth and slipped his tongue between Zoro's teeth and shuddered happily when the other man moaned softly against him.
After a few long, wonderfully blissful moments, Sanji pulled back and whispered, "Nothing's changed, Marimo, except I might love you even more now than I did before."
He felt Zoro's breath catch and the swordsman's one open eye widened, but then there was a flash of teeth, and Zoro was kissing him again through a smile.
They stood in that passageway until long after the rain had stopped and the sun had started to make its descent towards the evening sky.
* * *
Part 2 Here >>
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