Summary: Zoro and Sanji barricade themselves to escape their immortal lives.
Pairing: ZoSan
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: character death, vampire AU, weirdness/abstractness, fast-paced
Author's notes: This is the first time I'm doing a Vampire AU, but since I have always been a fan of vampire classics and various books (please don't think of Twilight, I am definitely NOT a fan), I decided to give this story a shot, since my treasure wanted it.
And I know I have many Bleach fics to take care of, but I can't help it. This couple captured me at the moment like none other did. I will get back to Bleach sometime soon, but let me enjoy the world of OP + ZoSan for a while longer. XDD
You can imagine before!timeskip or after!timeskip Zoro and Sanji here, but I had pre-timeskip-them in mind while writing this.
Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece.
Because They Were Monsters
He was running, fast, fending for his own survival. Good thing he has always had powerful legs, otherwise he would have been long dead for sure. Sanji had no time to eye his surroundings, no time to think or find a place to hide.
And it wasn't like he had many places to hide in on the ship.
He ran and ran, out of breath, as he ended up in the kitchen - his sanctuary. Leaning against the wall, he drank in much needed breaths, his heart beating in his ears and he sort of realized something: maybe he should have cut on smoking at least a bit. Maybe he should have-
No, the blond had no time to think and regret. He was close...getting closer. Sanji knew that. He could feel it in his gut.
Looking around the kitchen fast, he considered the storage room attached to it, but it was too late. The door to the room swung open revealing a figure of a man, a triumphal smirk plastered on his lips, cold eyes glittering is savage amusement.
Sickening...hideous...tasteless...
And before Sanji could even move, the man was instantaneously in front of him, slamming him against the wall with ungodly strength.
The cook struggled, raised his legs for countless kicks, but it was no use. He was just too strong and didn't even move an inch.
And that toothy smirk, revealing fangs, the lean of the other's face to his neck...
But Sanji wasn't about to give up. He struggled until his last inhale of a breath, until his last human thought, until he couldn't struggle anymore because of all of the blood that was sucked out.
...Until darkness engulfed him, revealing a red shadow of a giant skull that swallowed him whole.
And that was when he woke up, sitting up fast, mattress creaking, his blood boiling, heart pounding and he took in deep breaths, trying to calm himself. Looking around fast, around total darkness, he calmed down a second, lying back down.
He still got nightmares...
Eyeing the person beside him, he smiled a tiny friction, turning on his side to face the other, staring at the sleeping face. Such a beautiful face...
He could feel it... In this absolutely dark world, he could feel the sun was still high in the sky. He wasn't supposed to wake up during day time either, but... Nightmares still plagued his mind.
Was it even normal for his kind? Could he honestly...still dream?
Closing his eyes after a few more moments of waiting for his whole being to calm down, he drifted off into sleep again.
Grunting under his breath, Sanji let out a breath at the feeling of blood being sucked out of his system, at a pair of fangs on his pierced neck, that skilled tongue lapping.
Sh-shit.
His breathing heavy, the blond forcefully pulled the other away, getting a leg on the other side of his assaulter, sitting on top of him so now both legs were on each side of the green-haired man. Zoro... His maker.
Grinding his hips against the other's, he let a smirk adorn his features as he leaned over to Zoro's neck, licking at the place he was about to pierce only to hear an amused laugh. Laugh? It was such a rare treat...
"You still act too human. I told you many times already - stop wasting your time," and both of Zoro's hands were on his hips, stopping the blond from grinding against him.
Letting out a moan, Sanji bit into the other's flesh, lapping on the blood, messily, his hands all over the cold skin, enjoying the flow of the nectar into his system, the pulse of the vein that drove him on edge and the hitched breath from Zoro. He was ecstatic. He loved this...it brought him to a whole new level and gave him so many feelings...
Feelings he could not yet describe, but Zoro once told him this was like a sexual act to them. It didn't consist of actual penetration and closeness in the lower regions of the body. It consisted of stimulation, flow, being engulfed by the other, drowning in their blood. Over flown with senses. But because Sanji still remembered what sex felt like, he remembered just how thrilling the act itself was, just how alive it made him feel... This was no different. He was overdosed in life itself.
Feeling tugging on his blond locks, he pulled away from Zoro, knowing it was a sign he was drinking too much, feeling the other's tongue on his lips, licking all of the blood off, cleaning him and watching that face sneer in slight amusement, "Newly-turned are like children: messy, poorly-mannered, humanly savage and with no self-control."
Frowning at those words Sanji has heard so many times, he let out a sigh, "Coming from the one who has no clue what manners are despite being turned centuries ago."
"Oi! I don't need to hear it from you."
Laughing under his breath, Sanji caressed Zoro's cheek, "You woke up before me... That's a rarity," and he settled down beside the other again, right at his side.
Staring into cold blue, Zoro concluded, "You had another nightmare, didn't you?" and that was the exact reason Zoro woke up earlier. He was no longer a newly-turned, so he slept longer...and even then he slept longer than he should still. Zoro had no clue why.
"...Yeah..." closing his eyes a second, Sanji opened them soon after to look hopefully at Zoro, "...when are they going to stop?"
"I wish I remembered..." the elder vampire replied plainly.
Sanji could feel the darkness of the night seeping through the walls. His senses were out of this world and still hard to get used to. He wasn't sure when he would, or if, but guessed he could live with it.
"I dreamed of the time you turned me into this monster," Sanji snorted under his breath, leaning closer to Zoro. The blond knew it was logical for him to hate the man for what he did, but...he couldn't bring himself to actually hate Zoro.
"Stop calling our kind monsters and be proud I saved your life," despite finding all of the extra touches from the other strange, Zoro accepted it as a fact. The blond was still newly-turned and had that human behavior overridden in him. How very amusing...
"Saved my life? I would have rather died..."
"Don't say that shit," Zoro half-glared at Sanji, "Your ship was struck by plague. Humans are very delicate when it comes to that. Didn't your entire crew die? You were next and last."
"...yeah...and instead, I got 'gifted' with immortality I don't need. What great luck it was for our boat to pick up a weirdo stranded at sea at night time, on the verge of death. Imagine what would happen if the sun got you."
"...So, I told you already - be grateful."
"You could have saved everyone else."
"They could not be saved. Nor did I wish to save them."
"...yeah, selfish prick."
"Compassion and desire to help is a human feeling I absolutely no longer possess."
"Yet you saved me..."
"Because you could be saved. And you drew me in."
Grunting, Sanji was a bit pissed off, "You do realize you just contradicted yourself, right?"
After a small pause, Zoro replied a "yes."
Sighing displeasingly, Sanji shook his head, "I have no idea how you survived for so long..."
Ignoring what the blond said, Zoro growled, "Stop imitating breathing. It's annoying..." and when he received another annoyed grunt, he said, "And who would have thought that after about two centuries I would end up destroying myself over some idiotic idealist."
Glaring at Zoro, Sanji raised his head for a better, menacing effect, "We are monsters. We deserve death... Besides, I never asked you to turn me..."
"Yet you found amusement in dragging me to die with you," Zoro paused a second, "...you didn't even let me show you how thrilling the world looks from a vampire's perspective."
"You could have disagreed with this plan. No need to die with me," Sanji lowered his head again, calming down, "...I don't want to see the world from this hideous point of view. I want to remember it the way I saw it with my human eyes."
"...unfortunately, as time goes by, you will forget, like me."
"I won't get a chance to forget. I will dry up and die before that happens... We won't survive on each other's blood for long, after all...right?"
"I'm not sure. Obviously I never tried it before," Zoro wore a scowl on his face for a fleeting second before it disappeared into nothing.
"...well, we'll see then," staring into dull grey, Sanji pulled an arm under his head, "...you never told me before... Why did you agree to die with me...exactly?"
And that was when Zoro turned his head to look at the ceiling, "When you live for hundreds of years, you get bored with life. You no longer value it or anything else. You just pass every day, trying to find something new, anything to spark your interest again. But when you have already seen everything, there is absolutely nothing that could interest you... That was what I believed until I met you," looking back at Sanji, Zoro continued, "I don't remember the trivial feeling called 'love', but you sparked my interest... You made me feel something. I do not know what that 'something' is, but it is definitely there... And that in itself is the greatest achievement."
Staring with widened eyes, Sanji smiled tenderly, "Then tell me... How is it that you said you wanted to show me how thrilling this world is, if you yourself lost interest in it?"
"...I thought that with you in it, it would look much better. And besides...you have seen so little and I could have shown you a lot."
"...well, I guess I would have to pass on that alluring offer."
"You already made your choice. What's done is done. And if I'm not regretting it, you shouldn't either."
"How stuck up...and I am not regretting it, dumbass."
Silence followed after that, before Zoro ruined it, "Tell me about your human life. Share it before you start forgetting."
"...does it at all matter?"
"I will be here to remind you of things you forget. This is simply a chance I personally never received... Be grateful and we still have a lot of time on our hands."
"...well..." sighing dreamily, Sanji ran a hand down Zoro's torso, "There isn't really much to tell... Before you showed up, I was following my dream of a lifetime. I was in search of this wonderful place called All Blue."
"Oh?.. I have heard of legends concerning that, but never got interested enough..."
"Of course, why would you be? Mostly everyone laughed it off saying it was impossible for such a place to exist. But I always believed it was true and would have found it one day... I used to think so..."
"With immortality, you would have definitely found it."
"...it wouldn't be the same," Sanji let out in a slightly upset voice. Thinking about All Blue for a little while, he closed his eyes, imagining himself finding it, that exotic paradise. But it all fell apart as he smelled blood still in the air. Damn, he was so hungry, yet he could do nothing about it. They preserved as much as possible to make the death, on his own suggestion, slower and much more painful, and they made sure neither would be able to escape this place by barricading everything, every since inch of the wall.
This time, it was Sanji's turn to break the silence, "...since you don't remember your human past, tell me...who is your Sire?" the blond learned from Zoro that was what they called their 'parent'... He would never be able to call Zoro that though.
"...my Sire, huh?" Zoro clenched his fists and this was the first time Sanji saw the other make such an emotional face. Rage...there was pure rage written all over it, "I don't know much about that snake, but what I do know is that I hate him. The fucker left me to fend for myself too... I will never forgive him for this."
"...what was his name?"
Turning his stoic face to look at Sanji again, Zoro 'tch'ed, "Not that it will tell you anything, but... Dracule Mihawk."
Sanji thought about it for a bit, then said, "You're right. It doesn't ring a bell at all."
"Centuries ago, he was known at the world's greatest swordsman. And the only detail I remember of my human life, thanks to these swords," he nodded towards them on the right side, lying neatly beside, "...was that I was trying to take the title from him, but did not succeed..."
Staring at Zoro as the other calmed down from his anger, Sanji ran his hand over the greenhead's arm, putting his hand on top of a clenched fist, that unclenched for him instantaneously and he grasped it, "...who holds the title of the greatest swordsman now then?"
"...you were human not too long ago. Shouldn't you know better?"
"I was never interested and the information never actually came out anywhere."
"...I don't know either though. I have long since lost my desire over the title."
"...but Dracule Mihawk was defeated, right?"
"...I believe so..."
Caressing the cold hand in his, Sanji let a small smile adorn his features, changing the subject fast, "...You know... I really still remember what it's like to love..." and to make a point, he leaned over to Zoro's face, kissing the other on the lips. And Zoro kissed back, only bringing up blood into the picture in seconds by biting into Sanji's lower lip, them rolling it on their tongues. And although the blond was scared to admit it, he did anyway - it was far more exquisite to kiss like that.
And every single day, they shared like this and it was ridiculous, but both had to admit - time flew by too fast without them noticing. And what Zoro said turned out to be true - Sanji was slowly losing interest in his meaningless human habits. He even lost craving for cigarettes that he was missing so much. All they ever actually needed was each other's company and survive by the little amount of blood until the next night.
Sanji's nightmares stopped.
With time, Zoro learned of Sanji's vampire side and liked it. There were no more extra touches, even though Zoro actually craved them because he got used to them after so long. It was entertaining telling the other about many things he saw in the world and the blond learned how to control his urges too. Somehow, watching the slow changes was very interesting...
And Zoro wished they lasted far longer than they did.
Some months, or was it at least a year already, they had no way of telling, Zoro woke up to a completely dried up and dead Sanji.
Everything happened over day. Of course, they were growing weak overtime and it was shown in both of them, with the way their hair withered, the way their skin was dried up to the point where bones were shown, from the way they looked so tired and no longer talkative.
During the entire time, they both had an urge to run, to leave that hell hole they put themselves in, to go on a hunt and bask in the light of the moon, but they didn't. Because they were both stubborn and could talk each other out of it.
But now, Zoro wished they didn't get this damn idea in the first place, that they escaped this hell while they still could, while their legs could carry them.
But it was too late now. Sanji was dead.
Dead...
Leaning over to Sanji's face, slowly, being himself absolutely weak, Zoro placed his lips over the other's in a normal kiss, not that he had the strength or blood to play around, watching the face crumble easily from just his light touch.
His eyes dark with an old emotion he thought was dead in him, Zoro smiled tenderly, his lips moving in a quiet, slow and delicate, barely heard, whisper, "I now know what that something you made me feel was...what it was like...to actually...live," because love was really something he thought he would never be able to remember... But perhaps, he was confusing life with love? Or maybe the two feelings mixed up within him now?
He would never know.
Taking one of the rusty old swords, neither of names he remembered anymore, Zoro could barely lift it, not that he had to, for even the slightest of hits would be the death of him now. He just couldn't wait any longer. Staying like this in wait of your natural death without company, without Sanji, was worse than hell. The other brought up emotions in him too... Emotions he thought died in him ages ago... Somewhere deep down, he almost felt...like a human again.
What a strange sensation.
The only thing he regretted...was not being able to say a proper goodnight to Sanji like they always did every single time, except for yesterday.
But then... He guessed that kiss from a few minutes ago could be counted as, what did humans call it? A goodnight kiss?
Yes, that was his goodbye with Sanji. And it spoke louder than a thousand words.
...The idiot sure rubbed off on him to unknown levels.
As he watched Sanji's crumbled face, he dragged the sword over his neck, bringing it down without a second thought, without even a moment of hesitation, dying instantaneously, crumbling away with that same smile still on his face...
...Because that's what they were and Zoro finally admitted Sanji's words.
They were monsters.
The End.
P.S.
Three Years Later
"The fuck is this place?" a man yelled when they pulled one of the rocks using an excavator away, revealing the small space the two dried up bodies were buried in, the sun falling on the two mercilessly, not that it mattered anymore.
"What are these burned down bodies?" another man asked, just as shocked as he stared at the two, and around the small space.
"They weren't burned down, dumbass. Look, the mattress is still intact," inspecting the bodies with his eyes, the third one smoked a cigar, "They probably got dried up because of dehydration and lack of food," though as he looked at the crumbled face of one of the men, he knew that wasn't exactly the case. They looked like they were made of ashes, "The question is, who would do such a cruel thing and find strength to lift these rocks, not to mention put them so well they wouldn't fall for thousands of years?" if they were nothing but a naturally turned pile of ashes, thousands of years must have passed, right?
Neither of the construction workers had an answer.
And the not-so-old-looking mattress was the most illogical piece of their finding.
"Oh, look, there are three swords. Must be worth a fortune."
"Yeah! Let's sell them!"
"Idiots, we need to do our job first."
Soon after, the 'grave' would be no more. No matter how carefully they tried to move the bodies at first, they would just crumble more. So they carried them away on that same mattress and buried under a nameless stone, containing nothing but the year they were buried in.
Soon, half of the forest and the rocks were completely removed and a new building stood in the exact spot the grave was at, neither of the civilians knowing of it, just a few crazy rumors they didn't believe in.
The swords found their places in countless auctions all over the world, cursing anyone's existence who dared touch them.
The Real End.