a/n: birthday fic for zoro. i own nothing from any of this. fair warning though, you might fall asleep while reading. i just kind of revived something because eternal boredom at a farm makes me long for death. thanks for reading and for putting up with this bullshit. i forced my girlfriend to proofread but english is not our mother tongue so please forgive us for the horrible mistakes. beta by lovebreakage. still under progress though :) about one-fifth of this stuff is already beta-ed, and i can't thank her enough for explaining everything to me, she is that serene. i learned a lot from her.
\m/
i've felt the hate rise up in me / kneel down and clear the stone of leaves / i wander out where you can't see / inside my shell, i wait and bleed
goodbye / i wipe it off on a tile, the light is brighter this time / everything is turning blasphemy / my eyes are red and gold, the hair is standing straight up / this is not the way i picture me
i can't control my shakes, how the hell did i get here? / something about this, so very wrong / i have to laugh out loud, i wish i didn't like this / is it a dream or a memory?
get outta my head 'cause i don't need this / why didn't i see this? / well, i'm a victim manchurian candidate / i have sinned by just makin' my mind up / and takin' your breath away
goodbye / you haven't learned a thing / i haven't changed a thing / the flesh was in my bones
the pain was always free
and it waits for you
"wait and bleed" by slipknot (kinda inspired the story)
\m/
Roronoa Zoro has a life. And it runs in a monotonous cycle.
He wakes up in the morning, gets himself ready, and goes to work. All day long, he gawks at the computer screen, necrotizing his brain cells from charged particle emission and repetitive toil as well as chitchatting to dumb customers that never fail to ruin his already-ruined tetchy life. At noon, he takes his lunch break for exactly thirty minutes, and then religiously goes straight to his average-sized apartment.
Leftover from the fridge, which he didn't bother to heat up, is what makes up his dinner that night. Then he reads or watches TV until his eyes feel heavy and is asleep before midnight so he can get up the next day only to repeat it all over again.
Zoro has already memorized this routine so that he can practically finish his job when asleep or blindfolded, or so he likes to think sometimes. The only aberration in his timetable were the times when his adoptive sister, Kuina, picked him up and treated him to a meal, movie, or anything that would make him stray away from complete atrophy. The only problem is, Kuina died. Her death caused a major downhill in Zoro's routine life to where even going out to bars or attempting human contact is a rare occurrence.
So when Zoro wakes up one Tuesday morning next to a naked man in his bed…
Whoah, wait a fucking second, the naked body next to him doesn't even belong to a man but a boy! A boy packed in slender muscles if Zoro was willing to examine carefully, scrawny yet muscled, who probably can't be more than seventeen years of age. He can picture out the contour of muscles on the boy's biceps and triceps, going down to his slim waist. He makes a sigh of relief when the cottony blanket doesn't reveal the lower half of the boy's naked frame or it'll cause him a heart attack or anything that's quite exaggerated.
The boy is sprawled on his stomach and is facing away from him. He is the type of guy Zoro doesn't risk going out with. Well, if he went out at all, that is. Not anymore. Not since Kuina died, anyway. He likes discreet guys who will fuck him or who will bend over and be fucked, whatever position as needed, preferably the same age as him, blond, skinny but strong, with a closet of suits. One-night stands, so that he won't be able to deal with a possible pathetic romance and get hurt in the end.
He doesn't remember being in a bar last night, let alone picking up a random underage boy on the streets. So what the hell? He prays to a god that he doesn't believe in to spare him the criminal liability of sexual harassment to minor boys. He doesn't want to be in a goddamn courtroom sketch!
Way to go, Zoro. Your green hair is already one of a kind. Sure, you'll be remembered even in afterlife. Now you'll be in court to face the fury of the jury with a high probability of being accused of homosexuality and pedophilia. And a rapist, to make matters worse.
Zoro knows that pedophilia is only applicable to people suffering from a sexual perversion where children, preferably in prepubescent years, are the objects of sexual interest. And he, the man named Zoro, even in the strangest of his perverted thoughts, never had any sexual tendencies towards children.
This boy, whoever he is, is clearly years ahead of puberty. Maybe underage but definitely not prepubescent. However, he cannot spare himself from the continuous mind-joggling apprehension. Knowing how the society is with its views, bigoted and irrational, where even an innocent passing glance to a teenager is already considered rape and pedophilia, he can't sit and be calm about the looming assessment of society on this ambiguous situation he's found himself in.
Well, fuck. Age and gender: two of the society's most controversial matters when it comes to intimate relationships. All they will ever see are the gap of numbers and the biological category. They won't even dig deep into reason and reality. And Zoro is dangerously at the edge of all that mess.
When the boy stirs, Zoro feels himself blush to the sight. He stealthily pulls off the covers, careful not to dislodge the blanket off the lower body of the boy. It makes him want to drool but successfully controls himself and goes straight to the bathroom for a cold shower.
Zoro usually takes ten minutes for his ablutions but he spends it in twenty minutes anyway because, while he feels all guilty and dirty for it, the sight of the naked boy with a shock of black hair and a really toned body can't get out of his mind and if he doesn't take care of his aroused state right now, he might stroll in the office area with a tent on his pants.
By the time he exits the bathroom door, the scent of grilled meat welcomed his senses. Grilled meat? Early in the morning? He takes his time in dressing, trying to process all the information at once, it makes him light in the head. He inhales the scene before him, the rays of the early sun are still blocked by his large curtain but he doesn't bother open them. Nothing seems unfamiliar from his dark surroundings but his feelings seem rather light, like something or rather someone as bright as the sun and as cheerful as the wind has invaded the very dull backdrop of his apartment.
He needs to know what's going on. He needs to confront the boy.
The strange boy is in the kitchen in nothing but his trousers, hanging dangerously below his waist. He can hear the boy whirring and observes that he's making grilled meat and toasted bread. When the boy looks over at Zoro, the hollow space inside Zoro's chest fills with imaginary water and he can't breathe properly.
"Good morning Zoro!" the upper-half naked boy greets him in a cheerful smile. If Zoro isn't in the mood of confusion, he might've return the genuine smile back but instead, he just stands there, studying the boy's obvious familiarity in his kitchen. When he looks closely, the boy has a small scar with two stitches just below his left eye which adds to his boyish, rugged look. "C'mon, let's eat! Shishishi! I'm reaaallly huuunggryy!" the boy emphasizes the last two words like he's been famished for a week or so. Another thing that Zoro can't ignore about this young guy is his weird laugh. Where does he get all the oversized energy early in the morning anyway?
"I don't eat breakfast." Zoro answers instead but realizes he sounds stupid. He shakes his head and considers the problem at hand. That's not really what he wants to say. He has more important matters to discuss than to state that he doesn't eat breakfast. "More importantly, who are you? And how old are you? I don't remember picking up any underage boy from the streets. I'm not risky. If this is some kind of a pettifogging stunt, cut it out now." Zoro is kind of surprised about himself for speaking several sentences in one go. As far as his deteriorated memory has reminded him, he hasn't dealt with a conversational thing in a long time. He doesn't usually stress himself to questioning things unless terriblynecessary.
The boy's eyebrows knit together and a look of very grave confusion paints his face. He cocks his head to the side and thinks for a moment before exhaling air through pursed lips. He crosses the three feet area to stand in front of Zoro and places both hands on Zoro's tense shoulders.
"Eh? What do you mean? C'mon sit here for a moment." The boy guides Zoro to sit on one of the stools before his tiny island. He stands in front of Zoro and sideway leans on the kitchen table. "Of course, you do eat breakfast. We always eat breakfast before you go to work and I go to school." Zoro's inner self wants to voice out that the boy indeed is underage if he still goes to school but a firm grip on his shoulder halts him from doing so, and he allows the boy to explain his side of the story. "I'm Luffy, I'm your boyfriend. We've been together for eleven months now and I moved in last January."
As some sort of a reflex, Zoro's eyes swiftly move to glance at the calendar beside the kitchen doorframe. September, so it means they've been living together for nine months now. Zoro nods and gestures for the boy to move on with the story.
"I'm not underage, okay? Why the hell people tell me that? I'm already twenty and I have a part-time job at a kiddie shop while I study! I'm not a boy and certainly not a brat, Zoro. I'm a man. You always tell me that and you always tell that to people who try to scrutinize our relationship. More importantly…" The boy—wait no, the man—the younger man to be precise, takes a pause before continuing in a light tone. "…we had sex last night. How come you didn't remember, Zoro?"
Zoro has to do a double take in situations like this. The over-all information is too much to handle by his systematic brain and his mind is literally buzzing and reeling and having short-circuit right the fuck now. He is near to falling into unconsciousness, thanks to the younger man's warmth, Luffy is his name, he assists him to lean onto the island.
After several minutes which seem like hours and a drink of cold water, Zoro finds his voice. "I don't know a thing about what you said. I live alone." Well, Zoro is thankful, the guy isn't underage. At least, he can scratch that out of his problem list.
Luffy considers this for a moment before dragging him to the living room where Zoro sees every bit of what the other man has been saying. The living room is somewhat differently arranged as far as Zoro remembers. His worn-out couch is placed facing the window and there is a new small one on its side. He has a new plasma TV which sure is expensive for his own tastes. He has a new big shelf filled with miniature ships, pirate ships to be exact as he sees straw-hat-wearing Jolly Rogers. Beside the big shelf is another small shelf where several picture frames of him and Luffy, in different sizes and different colors, are displayed. Most of the pictures, Zoro observes, include him and Luffy, either hugging or kissing. Anyone, even Zoro himself, can tell that they are undoubtedly in love with each other, if the spark in his eyes and a happy smile in his face are any indication. Those kinds of facial expressions certainly cannot be faked and cannot be edited in any computer-generated editing machines, even with computer geeks at hand. Zoro doesn't look like that at anyone in his entire life, let alone posing like that in front of the camera. He is not a fan of fancy stuff.
"Do you remember now?" Luffy sounds so hopeful that Zoro wants to punch himself.
He doesn't answer right away but sits on the couch. Luffy follows and kneels in front of him, tracing small circles on Zoro's thighs and looking intently at him, concern flooding his body.
The older man considers for a moment if he really had suffered from a concussion and had forgotten everything about this; if he really had someone special, someone like Luffy, in his life.
But no. Things like these are too good to be true. The older man realizes at that moment how jealous he is of the Zoro that lives in this world, or whatever world this is called. He has never thought that he wants a stable relationship, it makes him want to kiss Luffy right there and pretend he belongs to this world just to feel what it's supposed to be with someone loving him, taking care of him, making him breakfast in the morning, welcoming him when he gets home, sharing a bed with him. But of course, he won't do that. That'll be cheating and he won't forgive himself, Kuina won't forgive him either. The thought of the alternate Zoro losing his love because of his own selfishness can't be swallowed by his principles and conscience, so he decides to do the right thing.
"It's obvious that you are Zoro's boyfriend, and I'm not him." Zoro isn't a fan of fictional stories but there is no way to explain this sort of thing. One of the books he has read out of boredom has explained everything about alternate universes but he lost himself on the third paragraph. He has already dealt with the possibility of this being a dream and he does what everyone does to wake up; he has pinched and cut himself in the bathroom, enough to draw blood out of his body but he doesn't wake up and it hurts like hell.
Luffy is quiet for a moment before slumping his shoulders and withdrawing his hands from Zoro's knees. If how much the younger man is cheerful from the earlier encounter, he sure as hell is the opposite now, if exhaustion and a deep frown in his face are any indication.
\m/
Work seems a lot normal, or so he thinks at first. Nami immediately greets him with a smug smile like saying in a sing-song manner, 'I know what naughty stuff you did this morning~'. The way how Nami winks at him makes his hackles rise and he scurries hurriedly to his cubicle.
He's gotta prepare himself with a lot of strange possibilities now that he knows he is indeed trapped in another world.
When he pictures out several photographs of him and Luffy pulling faces at each other taped shamelessly on the side of his computer, he stops dead on his tracks and prevents himself from falling over.
So… boss tolerates this kind of stuff after all, Zoro ponders.
On the left corner of his cubicle sits a black framed photograph of eight people, he and Luffy included, laughing and high on the head. Three people in the picture are his co-workers, however in different areas. One is Nami who is in the Finance department, other one is the long-nosed man named Usopp who is in the Technical department as an apprentice and the other one is Brook, his former subordinate in Human Resource department, who is transferred in another branch down south.
The other three in the crowd includes a blonde guy in a suit with a lit cigarette on his lips, and if Zoro recalls his previous one-night stands, the guy perfectly fits in his standards. That is, if the blond guy is gay. Another woman, older than Nami he concludes, with a long black hair and pointed nose wraps her arms around the neck of a big guy with a spiky bright blue hair, which is disturbing but whatever. His green hair is not any better. It takes a minute before Zoro realizes that he was holding a stuffed toy with a pink hat and antlers in the picture, which might've been a reindeer but more like a raccoon-dog. 'Chopper' in bold uppercase letters are embossed on its shirt. They all seem to be acquainted with each other that his jealousy over his alternate self increases exponentially. He thinks for a moment to take back all his words from this morning and claim to Luffy that he has indeed suffered from temporary amnesia but quickly and permanently deletes that off his mind.
His own cubicle back in his own world is dull and grey-scale despite the multi-colored sticky notes hanging haphazardly on every space of it as compared to the lively atmosphere of this cubicle that belonged to his alternate self.
A sigh leaves his lips and he focuses himself on his work.
\m/
It's nearing six-thirty in the evening when his phone goes off and he rethinks for a while because who will ever call him besides Kuina? Luffy's name appears and he answers right away.
"Hi Zoro, you home?"
"Yeah." He answers in a disinterested tone.
"We're going to dinner with the crew." Seriousness is apparent in Luffy's tone, a rare occasion if someone asks his opinion about this younger man. "Meet me at East Blue. And don't get lost okay?"
A shaky sigh escapes his mouth. Dinner with the 'crew' sounds like bad news.
\m/
Zoro takes several detours, short-cuts and wrong turns before he arrives at their rendezvous.
He finds Luffy standing just outside the glass doors of the club, kicking invisible rocks and trash, still in his school uniform of black pants, white long-sleeved polo and black tie. He feels too colorful, too tangible, too lively… like he's the United Colors of Bennington in his grey-scale, sepia-coloured and blurry world.
Tension should be filling the air between them. It should be awkward considering situations like this when they are supposed to be boyfriends but the other person, namely Zoro, doesn't know a thing about it. He comes to realize that maybe, the phrase 'awkward with Luffy' doesn't exist so he acts like himself and releases the tension off his shoulders. They enter the club side by side and he's pulled to a crowd of familiar faces. The faces that he saw once together in a framed photograph on his cubicle.
After awkward introductions, tense handshakes and hesitant eye to eye contacts, they eat their dinner in silence until Sanji breaks it.
"So our shitty mosshead here doesn't belong in this world."
It takes a couple of minutes before Zoro realizes the blonde guy is referring to him, so once he figures it out, he quickly retorts. "I don't wanna hear that from you, dartboard face."
Nami quickly butts in, eager not to worsen the situation anymore. "Our assumption is that you were from the alternate universe, Zoro."
"Yeah, that's basically all I came up with as well." Zoro answers.
"But how? I didn't know things like alternate universe exist." Franky offers.
"Well, if I think about it…" Robin's cold voice emerges in the area. "Alternate realities result from one's alternative choices over a particular action. For example, Zoro chose to have dinner with us tonight and the result is: we are talking to him right now. However, in alternate reality, Zoro might've chosen to just stay at home instead and stabbed himself to death. That is, in my own honest premise, the alternate reality."
Usopp coughs and clears his throat. "H-hey Robin, aren't you exaggerating quite a bit? S-stop scaring people with your morbid assumptions."
The older of the two women laughs conservatively. "Every action you make has different alternatives that can result to a plethora of constant happenings based on both internal and external forces such as perception and nature's force. It can be compared to a Decision Tree where conjunctive possibilities for all options are endless."
"Yohoho~ Ms Robin is really a woman of wisdom." Brook comments.
"I love it when Ms Robin displays her extensive knowledge~" Sanji passes out to the corner.
Luffy suddenly pipes up. "It's a mystery then! Zoro came from a mystery world."
"Hey Luffy, you didn't understand it, did you?"
"Either way, I really want my Zoro back." Luffy replies instead.
Zoro wants to fucking cry, wants to laugh, wants to yell. He feels ambivalent but he sure wants to punch something.
"I want me back either." He answers half-heartedly. "Look, I don't know what happened, alright? I didn't do anything supernatural." Zoro is aware that he sounds defensive.
"Of course we know that. We don't judge you, Zoro." Nami answers and touches Zoro's shoulder.
Something leaps out from Zoro's heart and he doesn't know why or what.
\m/
"So you mean, you live alone? How come you survive that?" the younger man struggles to crack the locks of their apartment door. "There's no one to take care of you. And you don't go out either. Well, you should go out! It's fun!"
Those statements hit Zoro like a three-hundred pound cannon. It's blunt. And Zoro has realized how those words materialized by someone, let alone a stranger, injure his ego. He follows Luffy inside the apartment, going to the kitchen. They sit on the kitchen stools, facing each other.
For a moment, Zoro regrets saying this fragile information to Luffy. This very delicate but large piece of his life that includes being alone during holidays, weekends and celebrations. Being pitied over by anyone is worse than being hated.
It seems that Luffy contemplates to say something but holds his tongue. And when Zoro is sure that the younger man doesn't plan on adding another statement, he articulates his concern.
"Look, don't go pity on me. I told you, I'm cool with my life and I can take care of myself just fine." The last thing Zoro needs in moments like this is a pathetic source of pity for a lifestyle that he's been living.
"Do you still go to a dojo to practice your swordsmanship? Or just practice with your swords in the least?" Luffy looks at him in the eyes and he averts his gaze.
"Of course I still do." He lies, looking anywhere but on the other man's eyes. Whatever this Luffy knows about his life and his swords, especially about Kuina, must be pretty deep so he doesn't want to bring that up when a gigantic ramshackle, namely his overturned life, is still left unsolved. If Luffy notices dishonesty in his answer, the younger man's face doesn't betray it.
"Well, you should be doing that. Anyway…" Luffy's head turns to the mountain-hill of food that's previously called their dinner wrapped in foil paper. "…let's eat now! Ride home always makes me hungry!"
"You've just eaten, Luffy." when the older man sees that Luffy is already rummaging their take-out, he doesn't bother getting worked up anymore. Sometimes, Zoro is convinced that Luffy's stomach is made of rubber.
"Hey, Zoro. You're not kicking me out of your apartment, are you?"
"No… No, of course not. I'm sure I'll be going back to my world in due time. And…" Zoro is almost sad to hear this coming from his mouth. "…and your Zoro will be back."
Luffy's face brightens and his weird laugh surfaces inside the kitchen. "Shishishi! You're right! You know what, you should remember that a lot of people still care about you. I think you just kind of put a barrier around yourself and purposely ignored those people that are willing to put their lives on the line for your sake."
After Luffy says those things, Zoro swears he's just seen seven people and one stuffed toy inside his head.
\m/
It's been a month.
It's been a month since Zoro has been living with Luffy. Been a month of sleeping on the couch in spite of Luffy's strong persuasions that Zoro should be the one sleeping on the bed or they should just share the bed with the pact of security that Luffy's not gonna do anything that'll compromise their current state. Been a month of pretending to be Luffy's boyfriend at work and at Luffy's school, thankful that they needn't do anything intimate in front of everyone. A month of eating properly cooked meals with someone. A month of everything that can only be made possible in Zoro's childish dreams.
"Are you going to a Halloween party?" Zoro asks, quite surprised.
When he gets home, Luffy is already dressed in unbuttoned, long-sleeved red cardigan with four yellow buttons which reveals a drawn X-shaped scar covering most of his chest, a yellow sash around his waist, blue short trousers and sandals. He also wears a straw-hat, similar to most of the Jolly Rogers in the miniature pirate ships, which adds to the Halloween feel of his costume.
"We are going to a Halloween party." Luffy grins at him and it doesn't help the butterfly wings constantly flapping in the older man's stomach. "We always go to parties together! We're pirates this time! Come on, come on! I prepared your costume on the bed! I hope you don't mind! Plus, bring your swords! It'll make you look like a legit pirate!" Luffy pushes him over-excitedly to the bedroom and he doesn't argue.
Zoro finds a dark-green coat, red sash, black trousers, his haramaki (an old gift from his friends Johnny and Yosaku from Japan) and black boots arranged on the bed. A smile finds its way to his face as he can't contain his inner joy from the undeniably sweet gesture that Luffy has gone through just to prepare all this stuff. He takes a quick shower and pulls on what Luffy has prepared for him. He starts with the black trousers and decides to wear the haramaki under the coat and ties the red sash around it to close at his waist. The boots fit him well too. When he studies his appearance in the mirror, he sure looks like a legit pirate in the modern setting, complete with three swords and all. Thinking about three swords, he searches his drawer for his three golden hoops that has long been forgotten since his adoptive sister died. He decides to add a scar on his left eye and another long one stretching from his left shoulder to his right hip using a Pentel pen. He looks at himself in the mirror again and wonders why he feels something is missing but quickly dismisses the thought away.
When he walks in the living room, Luffy is holding something like a black handkerchief in two hands and a mischievous grin is set on his face.
"Shishishi! Look, Zoro! A black bandanna!" Luffy walks towards him and he returns the gesture with a warm smile. Luffy ties the bandanna around Zoro's head, so close Zoro can feel the younger man's body heat on his back through thin layers of cotton. "There! You look cool!"
A bandanna, Zoro thought. Yeah, that must've been the missing piece to Zoro's puzzlement over the outfit. "A bandanna sure completes this whole outfit. Thanks, Luffy." Zoro needs to voice out.
"Well, yeah. A month or so before you came, you and I—oh! I mean, Zoro in this world and I sort of went out and planned for our Halloween costume and all… and all of us in the gang sort of decided that we play pirates and I found this bandanna from a store and I know that you like those sort of things as you always tell me how badass these people in the movies are with those bandannas around their heads so I want to surprise you and so I bought this."
Air doesn't find its way through Zoro's respiratory system when the realization hit him like a bullet train. He's in love. He's in love with his alternate self's boyfriend. Yeah, it's been a month and somewhere along the way, he's gotten used to have someone beside him when he does normal things like eating and watching TV. Gotten used to isn't even the proper term for it, it's more like he's been attached to it that he knows he can't live without Luffy somewhere in the future. The younger man's cheerful attitude is so contagious, he finds himself laughing and smiling at strange moments. He learns to gather a more positive view of the world and gets through everything everyday because Luffy is there for him.
"Let's go." Zoro interrupts his own thoughts while Luffy smiles and takes his hand.
\m/
The sound of buzzing techno music hurts Zoro's ears as they stand just outside the entrance of the Halloween party venue. It certainly is not Zoro's scene but he'll endure it through the night with Luffy beside him. When they step inside the hall, Luffy holds his hand, twining their fingers, and drags him through dancing bodies all over the dance floor. He can't help himself but smile. He's getting the hang of having someone hold his hand while going out. While girls and boys alike look at the both of them with envious eyes, he feels himself loosen under Luffy's devoted gestures and feels totally loved.
For now, he's going to make himself stupid.
He grips Luffy's hand tighter which makes the younger man look back at him with a smile on his face. Once again, he's pulled to a crowd of familiar faces.
The wide smiles of Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Robin with the brown stuffed toy Chopper on her lap, Brook and Franky greet the two of them under the dancing lances of the disco lights. Somehow, he happens to remember that they decided to wear pirate-themed costumes so what the fucking hell? All their gears don't even resemble a bit like that of a pirate, save for himself and Luffy.
Nami looks like a beach-goer. Usopp looks like a hippie. Sanji looks like an idiot. Robin looks like a housewife with a baby on her lap. Brook looks like a jazz rockstar. And Franky looks like a pervert.
"Wow, you both really look like captain and right-hand man." Nami notes just loud enough to be heard with the buzzing music in the background, lips inches apart from Luffy's ears, Robin laughs somewhere behind them.
"Of course, Ms. Nami!" Sanji butts in and sort of noodle-dances beside the copper-haired girl. "My sense of fashion gets through all fuddy-duddies; even rock-headed idiots like those two! Are you in love with me now, Ms. Nami?" When Nami ignores him, he turns to Zoro. "Hey moss-head, you really look like a pirate, you know. You owe me some bucks."
Zoro snorts. "Like hell, shitty cook."
"Hey now bros, let's not start a commotion in here. C'mon, forget the worries coz I'm feeling suuuperrr this week!" Franky pipes up.
Forget the worries, Zoro quotes. Yeah, he's going to forget all his worries for the meantime.
"Yohohoho~" comes Brook's weird laugh which, to Zoro's ears, resembles a musical tone. "Let's party!"
"Alright, alright. Booze, wine, meat and all the food for y'all. I'm the Great Usopp so keep 'em coming! Here we go." Usopp, who seems to be good at bartending too, busies himself under the counters.
\m/
Zoro drinks most of the booze and Luffy eats most of the meat. They should at the very least feel drunk but each of their tolerance in alcoholic intake is high, they can almost go on until dawn.
By the time they arrived at the apartment, Luffy gets serious again.
"Hey," the younger man starts once they're settled on the couch. Neon lights from outside the window form patterns on Luffy's face like graphic formatting. It's almost three in the morning and neither of them has the lids that weigh a ton. Zoro carefully places his swords on the coffee table and hums in response instead so Luffy continues. "You're never really gone, you know." Luffy pauses and puts the straw hat beside Zoro's swords. "I mean, you're still the Zoro that I fell in love with. You give our friends your usual smirk, you bicker with Sanji, you get lost, you cuddle with Chopper, you nap on every place every normal being won't even dare. You look at me in the same way and you drink booze like I eat meat and well, you're him." Luffy slurs, a sad look enveloping his slightly lit face. "I'm in love with you Zoro. It's not a matter of where you're from because you're still the Zoro that I know no matter how I ignore it."
Zoro's heart sure skips a beat and his breath catches in his throat, tell-tale signs that he usually reads out of boredom from novels to describe romance and deep adoration between two persons. He had once laughed about how these authors would describe such rarity in his life and well, he wants to laugh at himself now because he sure as hell feels that way when Luffy utters those words and closes the distance between their lips.
He'll allow himself to be stupid.
And so, he returns the kiss with equal passion and melts under Luffy's frame.
Zoro wants to cry. He knows it's wrong but it doesn't feel wrong. Hence, when Luffy drags him to the bedroom, he doesn't argue.
Springs from the layers of solid foam creaks as Zoro drops his body down on the bed. Light-headedness starts to tingle from his brain cells up to its membranes. When his chocolate-coloured eyes catch Luffy's hands undoing his last clothing which is his short blue trousers, all alcohol induced complaints vanish from standpoint.
The room is dark and is only illuminated by a very fine light coming from the slit between the curtains but Zoro can clearly see the outline of Luffy's silhouette, standing not far from the edge of the bed, eyes boring down on him like he's some main course meal. Maybe it's his doing, maybe it's Luffy's, but Zoro finds himself already naked when the younger man crawls on top of him.
Zoro doesn't even think twice and nods eagerly when Luffy generously asks if the younger man can take him. He shamelessly spreads his legs apart to accept everything Luffy has to offer. When was the last time he has made love to a person? No, he can't remember because he didn't have any sex to be considered making love in the first place. All there was to every fuck that he had in past was release and that was it, period. No questions asked. With Luffy though… well, Luffy is different. The sincerity in his eyes, the look of adoration in his face, the longing and the hurt that this man endures for not being able to be with the love of his life for a month, the feeling of warmth that he emits through making love with him… all these are transferred to him, seeping through his every pore, absorbed in his bloody heart and distributed evenly down to his finest nerve endings.
Luffy is beautiful and vocal and aggressive and everything that Zoro has ever wanted. For one moment Zoro wants to play the very scene in slow motion just to memorize even the tiniest insignificant detail of movement into his memory; every drop of sweat and flick of slick hair, the pressure of lips against moist skin, the way every flesh fits into each other like balls and sockets, the moulding of Luffy's anterior thighs to Zoro's posterior ones.
Muscular arms and strong legs wrap around Luffy's torso as the older man underneath reaches his highest peak and returns every pound that the younger man above commences.
"I love you." are Luffy's words through strangled breaths as he himself reaches his own orgasmic feat. "I love you, Zoro." He whispers over and over, his warm breath does magic to Zoro's sensitive neck and ears. A song, a prayer, a one-month worth of bottled tension, a serenade of desire, a declaration of love.
Zoro feels his insides swell with the sticky substance but he doesn't feel disgusted with himself or the person responsible for it. In fact he likes it… no, he loves it. He loves the feeling of having someone's sign of attraction pool inside him and drip out of him. He loves the feeling of being impaled by someone whom he knows has a deep affection for him and that they've been bound and locked as one through religious sex, never mind the society's twisted standards.
For the record, it's the first time that he feels okay with being filled up the ass, and in which Zoro concludes the reason why he prefers to top most of the time in the past is because he disgusts every person that only fucks him for their own selfish relief and doesn't even do their part of the deal which is to satisfy Zoro's earthly needs.
Luffy cleans them both with a towel and snuggles beside him, using his arm as a pillow and the younger man's head tucked on the crook of his neck. Zoro in return wraps his pillowed arm around Luffy's shoulders. When the younger man drifts to sleep and soft snores escape from his lips, Zoro lets the words spill from his mouth.
"I love you too, Luffy."
\m/
Zoro wakes up alone in his bed and an impending panic is doomed to burst out any second from his emotional system. Is it a dream? Holy hell, it's not a dream. Significant parts of his body hurt from his recent breath-taking activity and he can't ignore the slick contents of his insides. He gets one sweat pants from his cabinet and wears them on to search his surroundings for any sign of Luffy; his voice, his loud movements, the scent of grilled meat in the morning, the boyish smell of fragrance from the bathroom.
But none. His kitchen lacks the lively man that makes him breakfast every morning. His living room is arranged back to normal setting. There is no plasma TV, no shelf of pirate ships, no picture frames of them together. And most importantly, no Luffy.
Zoro is back and Luffy is never there.
The news program on his old television informs him that this day is November 1, the day that he has first made love to someone. The same day that he lost that someone who was never his from the get-go. The same day that fate decides he should leave that alternate universe and be back in his own world.
Zoro leans his back on the wall and slumps on floor. He bends his knees and wraps his arms around them, burying his face between those barriers. He whirrs the name of the person and he doesn't even try to stop the cascade of tears from falling.
\m/
It takes all his willpower to pull himself together and work. He's an hour late but his co-workers seem not to even bother with this rarity.
"Hey Zoro!" Nami calls out. She walks towards him and must've noticed something on his face because her previously cheerful reaction turns to a worried one. "Have you been crying?"
"No." comes the immediate reply and a very defensive one to boot, considering he must've puffed eyelids right now due to excessive mournful tearing and hoarse voice due to painful sobbing. He doesn't dare look at himself in the mirror, taking in consideration that he'll just remember Luffy once he does regarding how the younger man always compliments his 'cool clothes' and 'how it looks good on him coz he's cool'. The earrings, most of all, should go. "I just overslept, that's all. Don't sweat it."
"Hmmm. Alright." Nami considers. If she knows something, she keeps it to herself. "I come to inform you that there will be new hired apprentices in every department so check your stats and arrange you schedule for the trainings. You cool with that?" Nami raises both of her thumbs up.
"Yeah, yeah. Go away."
\m/
It's been a week since Zoro's back in his world. Been a week of mourning over a lost love that he doubts to even exist. Been a week of life he just forces himself to partake in. It has also been a week until he realizes that he shouldn't be doing this to himself. Just because this is his old way of life, doesn't mean he's going to stick with it forever. If Luffy has taught him one thing, it's making him understand that what he's doing is not living but just existing. He's like a zombie, moving yet lifeless. He's like a puppet, moving yet mindless. It's like he doesn't even have his own control over his life that he strays away from all the positive vibes that he can easily squeeze out from every situation.
"You should remember that a lot of people still care about you. I think you just kind of put a barrier around yourself and purposely ignored those people that are willing to put their lives on the line for your sake."
These words coming straight from Luffy's mouth, still loud and distinct and unblemished in Zoro's ears, are his source of strength and motivation to begin engaging in small conversations with people at his work and maybe, practicing with his swords. Nami, he finds out, is cool to be with and shares a lot of common things with him like drinking booze and giving zero fucks to all people who are on their heads, even if she does have a proclivity of charging him with ridiculous amount of money and dragging him to parties where she sets him up with random guys.
For two consecutive nights, Zoro forces himself to meet up with guys, if his memory serves him right, namely; Law, a twenty-seven year old doctor with tanned skin and dark hair; and Kidd, a twenty-four year old owner of a big mechanic business downtown, with pale skin and red hair. Although none of them work out because none of them is Luffy and he's still in love with someone from another world.
Of course, he can't tell anyone something as controversial as that without ending up in a psychiatric ward. There's no way to explain that he fell in love with his alternate self's boyfriend in the alternate universe, now, is there? He keeps a tight zipper over this information.
\m/
"No, I'll pass. Thanks."
"Shut up before I call the administrator, Zoro. You're coming because it's your day! It's November 11 for fuck's sake! I'm gonna charge you with three hundred percent interest if you insist on that pathetic repetitive excuse of a pass, dammit!"
"I don't even owe you a single cent."
"That's beside the point! Move your lazy green ass, you selfish jerk!"
"So now I'm selfish. And my ass is green."
"Fuck you! This is our birthday gift for you, asshole!"
"Alright, okay, relax. Sheesh, don't stress yourself. You might want to check those wrinkles on your forehead." When Nami pouts again, Zoro laughs and gets ready to go home to prepare himself for his birthday celebration. "I'm going now. Booze sounds tempting too."
\m/
He's on his fifth shot when Nami approaches him again, pimping him towards one of the new apprentices in the Human Resource department.
"Stop being a coward, Zoro. I told you, I have my own resources and I assure you that he's into guys. He'd be the perfect match for you this time." Thin arms wrap around Zoro's neck as the copper-haired girl whispers mischievously to his ears.
"For the last time, Nami, I said, the guy's into men alright, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna date him here, let alone he'd date me here so just cut the crap and enjoy yourself."
"Shishishi! So you don't care about the kicks?"
Zoro nearly topples over his seat due to the familiarity of the voice and the weird laugh that must only belong to no one but him. Him. The one Zoro has been longing for these past ten days. Zoro must've given himself a goddamn neck fracture with the sudden rotating jolt of his neck to the very familiar and younger man before his eyes.
"Hi, I'm Luffy!" It's those eyes. It's those lips. It's those everything that Zoro has been hoping desperately to see when he wakes up every morning.
Yep, that's all it takes to make Zoro, the stoic man, lose his composure and he slowly, very gradually falls sideways, eyes blank of any emotion but staring at something at far-vision. Thankfully, the younger man before him has a quick reaction-time and so he does catch Zoro before falling head over heels, literally, on the floor.
When Zoro gets back to the present world, he first resists to say 'I know' to Luffy's introduction of himself and whisks himself away from Luffy's grasp.
"I'm Zoro." He answers and looks around to see that Nami is already dancing with a blonde guy.
"So Zoro, can I buy you a drink?" the guy, Luffy—and Zoro still can't believe his senses, he has to fucking punch himself or something—sits on the barstool beside him, so dangerously beside him.
"No, thanks, you're still a student." Zoro tries to ignore all the moshing entities in his stomach to the tune of hardcore metal, but failing terribly.
"Huh? How'd you know that?" Luffy looks puzzled.
"Well, you're still an apprentice, right? So I just kinda jumped into conclusions." Wow, Zoro taps his back for making up a reasonable excuse.
"Yeah. Well, I have a job so I can buy you a drink. And it's your birthday, I'll treat you."
"Hey, it's cool. I'll just buy you a drink. Or drinks. That alright? Just save that up for your studies and food or something…" Zoro very much remembers how alternate Luffy's appetite savaged their one-month supply of food in just a week. He still has the same appetite in this world, ain't he? "…it's my birthday so I should treat you. All of you supposedly, but Nami took care of that…" Much to Zoro's surprise. "…so all I have left is you." Zoro doesn't know if his last words indicate a pun.
"Shishishi. You're a funny guy, and I already like you a lot."
With a smile that reaches his eyes, Zoro states and really means it. "Whichever you want, Luffy."
A birthday gift, indeed.