special for Sanji - even if it gets him banned for life in some of the local supermarkets.
"I can't fucking believe this." Sanji panted, rushing down the deserted street. "I asked you to do one thing, Mosshead, ONE thing and you fucking forgot!"
This wasn't how Sanji imagined Christmas Eve. He imagined having the dinner prepped and waiting in the fridge for tomorrow morning by now and snuggled into bed with his personal heater, Zoro. Maybe have some cheeky Christmas Eve sex, you never know. Tis the season.
"It's not my fault, you shit cook! What kind of shitty cook forgets a fucking turkey? The fucking MAIN bit of Christmas dinner!"
"I've been too fucking busy these last couple days, buying presents for everyone I know, everyone YOU know because you're fucking shit at gift shopping!"
"And you're fucking shit at getting Christmas dinner sorted! You fucking COOK for a living, dickhead!"
"I asked you to do ONE thing, you bastard! How fucking hard is it to pick up a fucking turkey?! You're such a child! I can't trust you to do anything!"
Zoro grumbled, watching his footing on the frosty pavement as he dashed down the street alongside his lover.
That wasn't true. Zoro had done his fair share of Christmas jobs this year: chopping down a tree and putting up with the plant jokes that followed from the blonde: putting up the Christmas fairy lights, sitting through his nephew Chopper's nativity play without falling asleep or cringing at the high pitched mediocre singing that the kids belted out. ("They're children, you moron, not the finalists of X-Factor. Don't be such an arsehole." Sanji had argued). The cute brown haired boy was absolutely brilliant at his reindeer role at the birth of Jesus, neighing only through the three Wise Men's speech and a part of King Herod's monologue before one of the primary school teaching assistant's put an end to Chopper's repartee by shushing him. In short, Zoro thought he'd pretty much nailed Christmas on the head with his chores. And he wasn't that bad at gift wrapping, he thought.
He remembered the present he'd bought for Sanji this year, still in one of his dress shoes in his wardrobe, hidden from his blonde boyfriend's eyes. Zoro hoped the blonde would say yes. After spending hours with his friend Usopp choosing the perfect engagement ring, Zoro had nearly given up when Usopp offered to weld one in his workshop. Whilst the green haired man was grateful, he couldn't help but wonder if Usopp put him through the pain of Christmas shopping on purpose. He soon forgot this as he couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, even if the gift horse was a fucking wind up merchant sent from the depths of hell.
Zoro shook his head to gain concentration once again. He looked around the deserted street, slowing down from his sprint to a brisk walking pace. What shop would be open today? Better yet, would any of the shops be selling a turkey today? It was Christmas Eve, after all.
Turning to look at his blonde boyfriend, Zoro watched him as he stopped moving, closing his eyes and running his hands through his thick, silky hair. Zoro felt bad. Christmas meant a lot to Sanji. In fairness, Zoro vaguely remembered Sanji telling him to pick up the dead bird. Now Zoro felt really bad. Sanji had been so busy lately; it was his first Christmas season with his new restaurant, with a lot of VIP bookings and work lunches, making the blonde's working hour's ridiculous. It could be 2 or maybe 3 in the morning before the blonde would tiredly trudge through the front door of their shared home. Zoro would always stay up for the blonde, even for two minutes of exhausted conversation and a couple of sleepy kisses.
Zoro wished he had picked up that turkey.
"How about that 24 hour Tesco? Right round the corner? Or that cheap off licence? Hey, there could be a market stall open." Zoro tried really hard to come up with suggestions, but from the look on the blonde's face, he wasn't helping.
"No, idiot, they won't have them. It's Christmas Eve, for Christ's sake. No where's going to have leftover turkeys."
Zoro felt like a complete arsehole. He was ruining such an important holiday for such an important person.
Sanji pulled out a pack from his coats inner pocket and lit up a cigarette. Sucking in the addictive nicotine and letting out a long puff, almost as if he was trying to calm himself down, he turned to Zoro. "I'm gonna head back to the house, there's still some presents that need wrapping. You think you could look around some more?"
Zoro nodded, turning away and making his way down the street, leaving his blonde lover in the middle of a cold street on Christmas morning. He had to fix Sanji's Christmas.
Sanji watched Zoro stalk down the street and sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. This wasn't meant to be how they spent their Christmas Eve.
Sanji started to head back to his and Zoro's shared home. It wasn't a lie when he said he had to wrap up presents, even if it was only one. Zoro's present. Sanji had taken absolutely ages choosing Zoro a gift but this was important. A few months ago they had celebrated their eight year anniversary and Sanji thought it was about time they settled down as a married couple. Zoro had been away on his birthday, competing in an out-of-season kendo tournament and Sanji wasn't about to pop the question over a crackly phone call when Zoro was with his squad.
Sanji trudged through the front door, dropping his keys into the key bowl on the hallway counter and shedding himself of his coat. After hanging it up in the hall closet, me made his way upstairs to his wardrobe. Zoro never went near his wardrobe and Sanji made sure of it, kicking the green haired man up the bum if he so much as dared open the doors. Banging said doors open, Sanji dove his hand into his cufflink box and fumbled his fingers around until they closed around a smaller, velvet box. Found it, Sanji grinned triumphantly and pulled it out. Opening the box to make sure Zoro's present was still there, Sanji smiled at the simple gold band sitting in between the sill cushion. It was simple but it was Zoro at the same time. Not that Zoro was simple, though Sanji called him that from time to time.
How would he do it? Zoro wasn't really one for grandeur though Sanji knew the swordsman put up with it for his sake. Would he just pop the question over Christmas breakfast? Do it over dinner in front of everyone?
"Okay, I don't know who you think you are but this is my Christmas turkey and you need to sod off." Zoro put up with a lot of shit, usually on a daily basis but he was NOT putting up with anyone's shit but the cooks on Christmas Eve.
"Security! We've got another one!" a man in uniform walking down the aisle towards him gobbled into a walkie talkie. "It's code Bread Sauce."
"What the FUCK is code Bread Sauce?!" Zoro frowned and looked around. The woman in front of him was fake sobbing onto the security guard's shoulder. Zoro curse her and her pink pigtails under his breath. Who even needs to wear that much eyeliner? She looked like the ghost from Christmas Past, Zoro decided. Around him, some security guards had gathered and were now making to take the turkey from where it was being nursed against Zoro's chest. Fucking no, Zoro thought, if they think they're taking this bird I'm gonna take their heads
Zoro would never steal. He was brought up properly by his foster father, Koshiro, and despite the blond also teasing him about it, he DID know basic manners. But, desperate times call for desperate measures and time was ticking on a bit.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave; we cannot have you disturbing other customers whilst they are shopping. Please hand the turkey over and leave quietly."
"I wasn't disturbing anyone! This woman was trying to snatch this turkey from me! She's disturbing others."
Little Miss Pink Pigtails let out a loud sob, causing the security guards buff up their chests and fold their arms across them. Zoro snorted. He didn't care if they had a good head of height on him; he needed to get to the till. Zoro tucked the turkey under his arm and took his position. He'd played rugby during his secondary school years and he'd never thought the shitty games lessons would pay off one day. But that Christmas Eve, they did.
Zoro barged through the security guards, knocking them off of their feet and hurtled past the Pink Pest of Christmas Past and Mr Code Bread Sauce, making straight for the tills. Cries of protest were heard from security but Zoro didn't stick around to hear them complain. He legged it over to the self-service checkouts and was halfway down the street before the security guards, poultry under his arms and all.
Sanji sat at the kitchen table, bowl of soup in front of him serving as a late dinner. It was ten o'clock and Zoro still wasn't back. It'd been a few hours since Sanji had last seen the man and so far he'd called 9 times, left 6 voicemails and a text message respectively saying 'come home, the Christmas tree misses his brother,' but to no avail. Zoro wasn't picking up any of his messages. Sanji hoped the Neanderthal hadn't run into any trouble. It was getting pretty late, after all.
After sticking his bowl in the sink and getting out a bottle of red and a wine glass, Sanji made his way into the living room to take his mind of being alone on Christmas Eve. There were a few movies on, Christmas movies of course, so Sanji flicked through them before he picked on an old classic. Pouring himself a generous amount of wine, the blond sipped at it gently, savouring the taste. It was meant to be cooked with the Christmas turkey- the turkey they didn't have. Sanji sighed and leaned back into the sofa. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't have a turkey. They did have a hunk of pork that Sanji could work with- pork crackling, maybe even pigs in blankets. Christmas didn't revolve around some bird with stuffing up its arse, after all.
Running his free hand through his hair, Sanji tried to focus on the movie playing in front of him but he couldn't quite shake the feeling of loneliness away. It was his first Christmas Eve alone- he and his foster father Zeff were always busy busy busy on Christmas Eve, with parties held in the Baratie, Zeff's pride and joy. Placing the glass of wine down on the coffee table, Sanji brought his knees up into his chest and rested his chin on them. Despite Zoro always being a nuisance and stinking up the house after his work out sessions and generally being dumb and calling him names, Sanji couldn't imagine life without Zoro. The dumbass had been out of work for the last month as it wasn't the season for kendo and Sanji had really enjoyed coming home to a warm house with a hot coffee waiting on the kitchen counter and a big, warm sleepy idiot waiting on the sofa.
Sanji smiled sleepily, turning back to the movie. He didn't really care about the Christmas rom-com playing. He just wanted his idiot home for Christmas Eve.
A loud knocking at the door woke Sanji from his slumber. When had he dozed off? What time was it? Who was banging at the door at this time of night?
Zoro?
Had he gotten a turkey? Was he not back yet? Had he been out looking for one all this time? Sanji ran to the door, dropping the keys about a hundred times before he ripped the front door open and was face to face with a sleepy faced green haired man.
"Sorry. Forgot my keys."
"Jesus, Mosshead, you must be freezing! Get your arse in here this instant!" Rushing the green haired man indoors and into central heating as quickly as he could, Sanji was about to nip to the kitchen to make a hot drink for his hard worker when he saw a small something under Zoro's arm. Sanji raised his eyebrows.
"Is that…?"
Zoro looked down at his prized catch, holding it up so the cook could see it better. "Yeah, it is." He didn't mention the amount of times he had gotten lost on the way back - even if it was the streets that had moved- and that was why he was late back with a thawed turkey and a cold armpit.
It was slightly squashed but Sanji ignored this because he felt touched. He hadn't realised that Zoro cared that much to stay out all night in the cold on Christmas Eve just for some dumb bird they'd be eating the next day.
"Hey cook."
Sanji looked up at Zoro. Zoro looked up to the top of the door frame and grinned. A twig of mistletoe hung above them. Smirking coyly, Sanji argued. "Well, tradition is tradition. It'd be a shame to not take part."
"Can't break tradition now, can we?" Zoro smiled and leaned forward, pressing his lips softly against Sanji's for an innocent, chaste kiss. Opening his eyes, he looked at the clock above the blond's head and smirked.
"It's just gone midnight. Merry Christmas, idiot-cook."
"Merry Christmas, Mosshead." All worries Sanji had had earlier about his proposal to Zoro flew out of his head. If the idiot was dumb enough to search for a frozen bird for hours in the freezing cold, then the idiot was dumb enough to marry him.
