I wrote this one a while ago, and it's been sitting all lonely and forgotten over on my LJ. I'm slowly trying to get my account and my LJ to the point where they have all the same stuff. Right now, at least, there's more archieved here, but in some ways I prefer the format over at LJ. Comments, at least, are easier to reply to.
The lyrics in italics are from Mark Knopfler's 'Darling Pretty' on his Golden Heart album (this being his solo stuff after he left Dire Straits). It's amazing and I love it very much but, of course, I have no rights of ownership or anything like that.
Darling Pretty
Its time to come away, my darling pretty
"We have to leave, Nami-san. They're closing."
She looks at him blearily, not seeming to see him. Then she blinks, and the cloudiness is gone, replaced by the customary sparkle. "It's not all that late, Sanji-kun." As though he's the one who decided to close the bar.
Its time to come away on the changing tide
In a way, he's glad it's closing time. Now he can get these idiots - he loves them, but they're idiots - out of here before they drink themselves senseless and the bar has nothing left to serve anyone else.
"It's getting late, Nami-san," he says, as gently as he can. "We should get back to the ship."
Time to come away, darling pretty
"Fine. Come on, Zoro."
"I'm not finished yet."
Nami sighs in exasperation, as though Sanji didn't have to convince her just a moment ago. "They're closing. It's time for us to go home.""I'll catch up."
And I need you, darling, by my side
"We can't just leave you, dumbass. You'll get lost."
"It's way too late for us to have to search for you, shitty marimo."
"I'll be fine."
"You'll end up sleeping in a sty with the pigs again."
The grumbling swordsman lets them lead him outside into the cool night air, swearing darkly when the cold clears his head of what little cloudiness it has gained from hours in the bar.
Heal me with a smile, darling pretty
Nami's shivering, but she's trying to hide it. Sanji starts to take off his jacket, but she shakes her head.
"I'm fine, Sanji-kun." Then, more quietly, "Thank you, though."
Heal me with a smile and a heart of gold
"Dumbass cook, this is how you keep a woman warm." Maybe the alcohol is still affecting him after all: that pronouncement doesn't sound like the usually stoic swordsman. Zoro slings an arm around Nami's shoulder and pulls her close to him. Even in the darkness, Sanji can see the grin Zoro's giving him over Nami's head.
Carry me awhile, my darling pretty
"How's your nice warm jacket, dartboard brow?"
There isn't anything that can be decently said to that, and they both know it. Zoro thinks he's won: it's written all over his face. Sanji slips his arm around Nami's back, pulling her tight to him and making sure to slap Zoro's ass as he does. The marimo-head's flinch is all Sanji needs to claim victory.
Heal my aching heart and soul
"Stop it, you two. We just had a nice evening out." She doesn't mention how rare such evenings are, in between all the fighting and traveling and general adventuring that's a part of life for anyone who meets Luffy. Nor does she bring up how sometimes it seems they'll never have another chance for one, because they're all lying mostly-dead while their enemies are running around at full strength. She doesn't need to, because it's on Sanji's mind as much as it is hers, and he knows Zoro is just as terrified of the possibility, however tough he acts.
She laughs when each man plants an apologetic kiss on her cheek, her cheer restored.
Just like a castaway
They've reached a park, its jungle gym and benches empty this late at night. The moonlight on the grass puts Sanji in mind of the moon over the ocean on a calm night, when the ship is drifting slowly through the waves. The rustling reminds him of the sound of the sea, too, although that might just be the way it plays off the murmur of the waves in the distance. He can't remember the last time he couldn't hear the sound of the ocean.
Lost upon an endless sea
"Look, Zoro, that's your star."
"My star."
Nami giggles, and with his head pillowed on her stomach Sanji can feel it reverberate through her body and into his own. Zoro lifts his head off Sanji's chest to try and glare at her, but it's difficult to glare convincingly at someone whose head is on your stomach.
I saw you far away
"It's called the Wandering Star," Nami explains, and her voice has lost its teasing tone. The words are soft, thoughtful. "It's the only star you can see anywhere in the Grand Line."
"If you use it for navigation, Nami-san, it should be your star. Or at least not Shithead's." He's rewarded with a half-hearted elbow to the side from Zoro.
Now he can hear Nami's smile in her voice. "Don't be silly, Sanji-kun. You can always see it, but it's never in the same place."
Come to rescue me
"A star that gets you lost, eh?" Sanji is smiling too. "I guess it really is Shithead's star."
"Shut up, dumbass, what do you know anyway?" The reply lacks any real rancor. Zoro's main attention seems to be on his fingers where they're tangled in Nami's hair, twirling the shiny strands with utter concentration. Sanji let's his own hand rest on Zoro's head, and thinks how much the spiky green hair feels like the soft grass they're lying on. "At least I can always find my way home."
Sanji thinks it's the sweetest thing the other man has ever said.
Cast away the chains, darling pretty
Nami's curled in Zoro's lap, warm and contented and wiggling happily as Sanji kisses her neck in just the way she loves. Zoro's drinking from a flask of rum that Sanji brought along for him, knowing how, without rum or his first love to distract him, the swordsman tends turn to his second love, fighting. Even so, Sanji's surprised the rum's enough to keep the other man occupied: he knows where his thoughts would be if Nami was doing that in his lap.
Cast away the chains away behind
Zoro finishes the rum flask with a contented sigh and tosses it aside. "That's enough of this bullshit," he says, and pulls Nami's face roughly towards his own. His kisses aren't confident and teasing, the way Sanji's are, or sweet and satisfying, as are Nami's, but Sanji well knows just how intense they can be, and right now the man is giving Nami his full attention. The girl is shaking in those well-muscled arms by the time Zoro breaks the kiss. "As for you, bastard…" Zoro says.
Take away my pain, my darling pretty
Sanji's showing Zoro just how much fun a gentle kiss can be when the screaming starts, and something smashes into the tree just beside his head. He hears words like "disgusting" and "degenerate" and "living in sin" before the old woman's screams are drowned out by Nami's. He's never seen an old hag run so fast as this one does when Nami starts throwing the rocks back at her.
And the chains that once were yours and mine
Nami's shaking when she sits back down, but this time it's from anger. She takes one of each of their hands and holds them fiercely. She seems too angry to speak.
"She's gone now," Sanji tells her, running a finger along her cheek.
"You're scary when you're mad," Zoro adds, as though he hasn't always known that, and loves her for it.
She plants a quick, fierce kiss on each of their cheeks. "No one messes with my boys."
There will come a day, darling pretty
He's used to the sea, so now it's the land that seems to move, rocking gently in time to the distant sound of the waves. The stars are dimmer here too, but he doesn't think that's a bad thing: their light is soft, and they waltz slowly across the sky, unlike the brilliant points that spin madly across the sky out on the open ocean. He's warm from the alcohol and the heat of his companions, and the grass seems far softer than it did just a little while ago.
There will come a day when hearts can fly
Zoro's breath is hot against his cheek. It's slow and regular, so that anyone who didn't know him would think he was asleep. Sanji knows Zoro doesn't sleep on his side, which is how he's lying now, wrapped around Nami as though trying to touch every inch of her at once, one hand reaching across her to lie on Sanji's hip. Nami's on her side too, tucked up between them, her breath warm on Sanji's chest where his shirt hangs open. Nami has her hand fisted in his shirt, and he's pretty sure she's asleep. She's better at pretending than Zoro, though.
Love will find a way, my darling pretty
"Hey, Sanji." Zoro's voice is soft as he tries to keep from waking Nami. Sanji thinks that maybe she wasn't asleep after all, because she doesn't move, and the vibrations from Zoro's chest when he speaks, which even Sanji can feel, should wake her. "How come you can say it and… and I can't?" Sanji wonders how much Zoro had to drink tonight, if he's voicing a thought like that.
Find a heaven for you and I
He cups Zoro's cheek with one hand, noticing how the man tries not to flinch at the gesture. It's not the closeness that bothers him, but the gentleness of the gesture. Zoro has trouble accepting gentleness from Nami, who's a woman: he hardly seems capable of accepting it from Sanji, as though doing so makes them both weaker somehow. It had never occurred to Sanji that his complete inability to express anything in kind would bother the man.
Love will find a way, my darling pretty
Preoccupied with the question, he's running his thumb along Zoro's cheekbone. Nami likes it when he does that, enjoys the contact and the gentleness. She won't say it out loud - she's a bit like Zoro, that way - but she leans into the touch and she smiles one of those special smiles. He's searching for an answer that Zoro will be able to understand, but whether it's the wine or the late hour, the closeness of the ones he loves or just that he wouldn't know what to say anyway, he can't find the words. He feels Nami kiss his chest where her breath had been brushing before. "Let me." She's not asleep after all.
Find a heaven for you and I
She brushes another kiss against Sanji's jaw then turns over. Her arms wrap around Zoro and pull him even closer to her. When she kisses him, it's hard, and Sanji can feel all the muscles in her back tense. Her ankle hooks around Sanji's, draws him closer. He puts his arms around them both, draw them closer to him, so that all three of them are locked in a single, tight embrace. "Dumbass," Nami says when she finally breaks the kiss. "You don't have to. We know."
Find a heaven for you and I