AN: well. I recommend you find yourself some tissues and a teddy bear to cuddle with. This one is all hurt and angst you guys. SURRISE.
On a beautiful fantastically blue day, in the middle of summer, a couple was getting ready for a special occasion.
One was busy messing with his hair; gelling it back and lathering his blond locks with hairspray to keep it in the slicked back hairstyle.
He was wearing a white suit with a blue tie and vest. There was a rose pinned to his breast pocket. He couldn't stop smiling like an idiot.
Their ceremony was small and intimate; just friends and family were invited.
Red roses were everywhere and art of the classic Black Tie theme they were going for. Though Zoro had to have his open bar…
Their ceremony was held on a cruise, actually, since all of them had met on a boat they'd thought the idea was fitting.
Robin and Nami stormed into the room with looks of fury in their faces. "Zoro!" They chided, "You can't be in here! No peaks before the wedding!"
"But he's not—" Zoro began to protest.
"Marimo," his blond sing-singed, "don't finish that sentence."
"— a girl." Zoro gave a sly smile and then walked out chuckling as his blond yelled obscenities at Zoro's back.
The swordsman walked down the aisle to take his place at the altar and wait for his idiot cook to come out.
The white chairs were filled with their guests who were dressed just as formally as the man in the black suit and the man in the white.
The oak floors of the ship brought out the beauty of the red roses and of the black and white accents.
Shanks, the priest, laughed merrily and then clapped Zoro on the shoulder. "It's about time you love birds got hitched!"
"Thanks," Zoro shrugged.
The music started up and Sanji made his way, slowly, down the aisle. A blush and grin were donned on his handsome face as he held tight to Zeff, who walked him down the aisle.
Zoro sighed and then thought something dirty before he smiled back with the same intensity.
Zeff passed Sanji's arm to Zoro and then growled at the marimo: "Hurt my eggplant and I'll squash you, got it?"
"Dad!" Sanji cried out, obviously scandalized.
Zeff froze and then got misty eyed. "Stupid eggplant, marry the man already."
"I'm working on it, dad." Sanji smiled for what seemed like the billionth time.
Zoro didn't care though. Sanji was his and soon the whole world would know it, because they'd have the wedding bands to prove it.
The swordsman wasn't listening to Shanks so when he was nudged none to gently by the red-haired man, he sputtered and then remembered. "Oh. Right. Vows." They'd written their own to make it a little more personal.
Zoro cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and then gazed into his chef's eyes.
"Sanji, you cook like nobody's business and I want nothing more than to just wrap my arms around you. I'm proud to be a part of your dream to have your own restaurant; proud that you're mine. Your eyes are so damn blue and just now when I forgot I was supposed to start the vows, it's because I was lost in them. We fight and tease each other, but that's how we are and I don't want anything different. You're all I want, Sanji Black, and I won't ever need anyone else. I love you, and damn if that isn't embarrassing in front of everyone, but I do. So, Sanji, what do you say? Marry me?"
Sanji's eyes had leaked tears and he was holding Zoro's arm in a bruising grip, but that's alright because the smile that Sanji gave him next was the marimo's favorite.
"Dammit, marimo, you're so embarrassing. Making me and everyone else cry; stop it." Sanji took a breath. "I do, shitty swordsman, I do. I'll marry your barbaric, lost ass self because you're my uncouth, lost marimo and because you're protective and cuddly, just like a teddy bear. You make my heart race, and you make me laugh because you still can't find your way to our house even though we've been here for two years now."
The crowd laughed with happy tears running down their cheeks.
"But even though you have no sense of direction, you still found me and it took us a while, but now that we're here… There's nowhere I'd rather be, so of course I'll marry you, you shitty swordsman, just so long as you marry me."
"I do," Zoro said with no hesitation.
"You may kiss your beloved!" Shanks yelled out with a pump of his fist.
Shouts and yells and wolf whistles rang out from their audience.
The couple laughed and then drew closer to each other. "I love you," they said in unison.
They leaned forward even more so that their noses touched and then their lips were about to lock—
A dark room appeared. It was cold and empty. A tan hand lifted to touch his face. It came away wet and then he realized that the odd sounds he heard, that must have woken him up, were his own.
Another choked sob escaped the green-haired swordsman as his arm touched the empty space next to him.
No blond hair was strewed across the illow. There was no smell of breakfast or fresh-brewed morning coffee in the air. The sheets didn't even smell like the cook anymore. He couldn't hear the rattling of pots or the clinking of the glasses. Not even the hum of the air conditioner could be heard. It was just… Silent. Zoro turned over on his side to cry, and so he didn't have to look at the cold, empty spot next to him. A side that used to be warm.
It wouldn't know the touch of Sanji's skin or the smell of his girly shampoo… No, the bed would remain as emty as Zoro's soul.
The swordsman opened his dull, hazel eyes. The digital clock on the nightstand read 4:00am. He knew he wouldn't sleep anymore, so he got up and decided to take a walk outside.
It was a cold, grey morning, in the middle of winter, and there was a slight drizzle escaping the clouds. A lone man sat atop a bench next to a stone embedded in the ground.
His hands were in his jeans' pockets. His eyes were trained lifelessly on the stone. He read the words over and over again, because he still couldn't believe them. He didn't want to believe them.
He stood only to then collapse to his knees before the stone. More tears fell from his eyes.
"Remember when I ate snacks instead of dinner? I thought you'd get mad at me, but you didn't." A dead, hollow laugh left Zoro's lips.
"Remember that day we got lost in the woods while we explored it for food? I thought you'd yell at me, but you didn't." Zoro clenched his fists together and ground them into the dirt.
"Remember that time I slept through the whole day when I promised I'd send time with you? I thought you'd stop talking to me, but you didn't." Zoro looked remorseful at the memory. His fists loosened to just hang limply at his sides.
"Remember that day when I shamelessly rejected your affection? I thought you'd hate me, but you didn't." Zoro groaned at himself. He'd been such a fool back then, all those years ago.
"Yeah, there are a lot of things you didn't do, but you still put up with me and loved me and protected me." And married me, Zoro thought miserably.
"There were a lot of things I wanted to make up to you when you returned from that island…" His voice cracked as he trailed off and more unbidden tears cascaded down his cheeks.
"But you didn't."
Sanji's boat had sunk on the return ship. After they'd called and reconciled from their earlier, pointless fight before the chef had left to attend that cooking expo in Hawaii. If Zoro had known... He'd have done things differently. He wished he could take back every fight, but if wishes were horses then beggars would ride. Now all Zoro's got left is nightmares of a time long past, waking up to an empty, cold side of the bed, and a gravestone marked with his lover's name.
Sanji Roronoa
Beloved husband, friend, and cook
1988-2014
Imagine your OTP at the altar of a church, about to get married. Just as they're about to kiss, person A wakes up in bed, sobbing and staring at the empty space beside them. In reality, person B died years ago
- imagine your OTP on tumblr
"Remember when I ate snacks instead of dinner? I thought you'd get mad at me, but you didn't.
"Remember that day we got lost in the woods while we explored it for food? I thought you'd yell at me, but you didn't.
"Remember that time I slept through the whole day when I promised I'd send time with you? I thought you'd stop talking to me, but you didn't.
"Remember that day when I shamelessly rejected your affection? I thought you'd hate me, but you didn't.
"Yeah, there are a lot of things you didn't do, but you still put up with me and loved me and protected me.
"There were a lot of things I wanted to make up to you when you returned from that island…
"But you didn't."
-source: Anna-hiwatari