He is nine when Zoro's mentor dies, he remembers because it was the 1st of March, the day before his tenth birthday. It's seven in the morning when there's a knock on the back door of the Baratie, the part that is the kitchen but in the morning before the Baratie opens is where he and Zeff have breakfast.
He's sitting on a high stool eating cereal at the table when Zeff goes to answer the door. Zeff opens it to see Zoro there. He knows Zoro, there aren't any other kids on their street so they used to play together a little when they were younger, but it always devolved into fighting which got them both in trouble. Neither of them like the other very much at all. There used to be a little girl called Kuina but she died some time ago, he hadn't been able to talk to Zoro about it but he'd made him lunch a few times to say that he was sorry for Zoro's loss.
"Zoro, what're you doing here?" Zeff frowns down at the boy.
"Koshiro is dead." Zoro says simply in an emotionless voice.
"What?" He and Zeff exclaim at once.
"He… I came downstairs and… he was just there, on the floor. I think it was a heart attack." Zoro explains looking shaken.
"Did you call an ambulance?" Zeff gasps, reaching for the phone.
"No. He was cold and stiff, it'd be a bit late." Zoro says shaking his head.
"Come inside, sit down." Zeff orders, shepherding the boy inside and pulling out the seat next to Sanji, he picks Zoro up and drops him in it.
"Stay here." Zeff adds and goes off to the phone. He calls for an ambulance and speaks in a quiet voice so that they can't make out the details.
Sanji stares at Zoro, he remembers that Zoro was as blank as this when Kuina died. For a moment he hates Zoro, the boy clearly has no heart if his guardian dying affects him so little, if Zeff died he'd be in pieces.
"Do you want some of my cereal?" Sanji offers knowing that he should be polite in any case. The older boy shakes his head.
Sanji chews his cereal in silence as Zoro stares stonily at the wall.
"Okay, the paramedics and the police are coming, they'll probably want to ask you some questions, but it shouldn't take long. If his death wasn't suspicious it should be over quite quickly." Zeff explains as he returns to the table.
"I remember from when Kuina died." Zoro nods.
"Okay then." Zeff nods simply.
"Don't you even care? Your guardian just died and you're sitting there like nothing's happened!" Sanji shouts, unable to contain his anger any longer. Zoro's bottom lip trembles slightly but other than that there's no reaction.
"Sanji! Be quiet! He's in shock!" Zeff snaps angrily.
"What's going to happen to me? Where will I go? What'll I do?" Zoro blurts out suddenly, looking up at Zeff with teary eyes.
"See! His old man just died and all he can think about is himself!" Sanji exclaims, pointing accusingly at Zoro.
"GO TO YOUR ROOM SANJI, NOW!" Zeff bellows so fiercely that Sanji flinches. The old man looks furious so Sanji scrambles down from his chair and flees the room. He runs to his room and slams the door but even he can't miss the faint sounds of crying from downstairs. He hates Zoro.
From his bedroom window he can see the police car and the ambulance come and go, eventually there is just one lady who walks back to the Baratie with Zeff and Zoro. Zoro is in Zeff's arms, sleeping on his shoulder like some kind of baby. They stop at the door and Sanji curiously opens his window a crack so that he can hear what they're saying.
"No, it's fine. The boys play together all the time, they're like brothers. I'll look after Zoro, it's no problem at all. I'd rather that he be somewhere familiar." Zeff says quietly. Sanji's eyes bug out at that, the old man is such a liar! He knows that he and Zoro loathe each other!
"Well, you were a registered foster carer before you adopted Sanji, I suppose we can let you foster Zoro until something more permanent is worked out. There would have to be checks of course, but I shouldn't think it would be a problem. We'll be by tomorrow." The lady agrees with a nod.
"Thank you, goodbye." Zeff says and comes back inside.
Sanji wrenches his door open and runs down the stairs two at a time, coming into the kitchen where Zeff is with Zoro sleeping on his shoulder.
"Wake him up and I'll kick your ass." Zeff threatens quietly and walks past Sanji up the stairs.
"He can't stay here! Where will he sleep?!" Sanji hisses at the old man. Zeff doesn't answer him but opens the door to Sanji's room in answer.
"No! That's my room, that's my bed!" Sanji wails loudly, Zeff shoots him a warning look and Sanji shuts up with an outraged expression on his face. Zeff slides Zoro into Sanji's bed and tucks the covers around him. He turns and tugs Sanji out of the room by his collar.
"You can't do this! That's my room, he can't have it!" Sanji fumes, kicking his legs at Zeff.
"What would you have me do little eggplant?" Zeff demands gruffly, dropping his collar and plopping Sanji roughly on the ground.
"Let that social worker lady take him away, they'll find somewhere for him to live!" Sanji shouts angrily, how can Zeff just replace him like his? Doesn't he mean anything to the old man?
"You want him in the social care system? He's already lost his biological parent and now his adopted father too, and you want him shuttled around foster carers? Bouncing from house to house, from family to family? Feeling alone and scared? Because you liked that so much after all." Zeff growls leaning down into his face.
"He's not your problem!" Sanji protests unhappily, he hated the foster care system until he ended up with Zeff but Zeff is his now, Zoro can't have him.
"Neither were you little eggplant." Zeff replies coldly. Sanji winces at that.
"Zoro is alone and he's scared, he's staying here, end of story." The old man adds, straightening up.
Zoro's bed is moved from Koshiro's house into Sanji's room by the end of the day. Sanji hates Zoro. He wanted a game boy for his tenth birthday, not a brother.
Sanji lasts a week before he tapes a line down the middle of the room, along the carpet, up the walls and when he can get his hands on a really tall chair he plans on doing the ceiling too. Zoro sits on his bed quietly watching Sanji.
"This side is your side, and this side is my side. I won't go on yours and you don't go on mine, got it?" Sanji huffs from his exertion.
"Your side has the door on it." Zoro points out observing the room carefully. Sanji smirks, he was quite proud of that moment of brilliance there, now Zoro will have to be extra nice to him if he wants passage in and out of their room. His side also has the large wardrobe with the mirror on it, the chest of drawers and his bedside table, as well as the window.
"You'll just have to ask nicely if you can go through my room to get in and out won't you? Maybe I'll say yes." He says smugly.
Zoro looks at him with dark eyes. Sanji has to admit, silently and in his head, never out loud, that Zoro creeps him out a little sometimes, he doesn't like how he has no idea about what the other boy is thinking. A sneaky catlike grin sneaks over Zoro's face.
"What's the penalty for stepping on the other person's half?" Zoro asks thoughtfully.
"The person who's side it is gets to beat the other person up and no one is allowed to say anything to Zeff." Sanji declares, that way he can kick the crap out of Zoro without Zeff telling him off.
"Okay. We'll keep the room like this then, you gotta ask if you wanna go through the other's half, or you'll get beat up, right? Shake on it." Zoro declares, hopping off of the bed and stepping to the taped on line.
"Right!" Sanji agrees, shaking Zoro's offered hand.
"Great. Well, since my side of the room has the bathroom in it I'm gonna go have a shower and brush my teeth to get ready for bed." Zoro smirks at him.
"Hey, wait! I need to do that too!" Sanji exclaims, he'd not thought about the bathroom! He tries to step over the line but Zoro shoves him back so hard that he lands on his ass.
"The bathroom doesn't count, just this room!" Sanji wails unhappily.
"Of course not, but you have to go over my side to get to it don't you?" Zoro grins.
Sanji bites the inside of his cheek in anger and scowls up at Zoro, he tries to be nice. It's not like he has much choice, the only other bathrooms in the place are through Zeff's room (which he's not going to do because he'll get in trouble) and the customer toilets downstairs in the Baratie.
"Can I please go through your half of the room to get to the bathroom and back?" He growls.
"Hm, no. But, you can have your toothbrush." Zoro says smugly and saunters off into the bathroom and returns with Sanji's toothbrush and toothpaste.
"Here you go." Zoro smirks and tosses them at him.
Sanji scowls up at Zoro and stomps off downstairs to the customer toilets. He brushes his teeth over their sink and hates Zoro intensely. He'll be sorry in the morning when he has to beg to be let out of the room, he'll say no and then he'll get to kick the stuffing out of Zoro with no consequences from Zeff. Hah! That'll teach him.
The next morning they're all dressed for school and Sanji is sitting smugly on his bed watching Zoro sleepily shove his arms through his shirt. Soon he will realise his mistake and then he'll get to kick Zoro's ass. Zoro steps to the line, his bare toes tapping on the tape, he looks at the door in silence. Sanji grins at him.
"Gonna ask me then?" He asks smugly.
"Nope." Zoro replies and backs away from the line.
"You gotta go to school though." Sanji points out.
"Yep." Zoro agrees and crouches down.
Sanji frowns at him, what is the moss head doing? Zoro bursts straight into a sprint and as soon as the boy's bare toes touch the line he leaps and sails through the air, just landing in the living room. He wobbles unsteadily but doesn't fall back. Sanji's jaw drops open in outrage.
"NO FAIR!" He howls chasing after Zoro.
That night when they get back from school Sanji goes into his room first and shuts the door in Zoro's face.
"You can't touch the door! The door is mine, it's in my half!" Sanji shouts through the wood.
"But-!" Zoro exclaims unhappily.
"No!" Sanji shouts back.
"What about the frame?" Zoro asks after a moment.
Sanji thinks to himself for a moment, he has to be careful here, Zoro already tricked him with the not touching the floor thing. But what could Zoro do with the frame?
"Sure. That's neutral." Sanji agrees.
Zoro knocks on the wood, Sanji opens the door a narrow slip to see if Zoro is knocking on his door, but no, it's just the frame.
"What?" he demands, looking at Zoro. He's going to make Zoro grovel to get let in the room.
"It's polite to open the door when someone knocks." Zoro points out.
"I'm not polite." He retorts and shuts the door in Zoro's face. Sanji is ten and he hates Zoro.
Over the next few months they come to a tense arrangement, he's allowed to shower three times a week or whenever he gets especially dirty, in exchange he doesn't shut the door to their room much. Whenever he and Zoro have a fight though all bets are off and Zoro has to either leap out of the room or climb out of the building through the bathroom window. It's agreed with Zeff that when Zoro turns eleven he's allowed to move back to Koshiro's house for a few nights a week, but if he gets scared he has to come straight back home. Zoro spends most of his free time there anyway using the machines and making knives.
Zeff takes over Koshiro's business and lets Zoro make knives and swords for money even if business goes slowly because Zoro has to go to school still.
At school they barely talk to each other, they never used to before so nothing is new there either. They still don't like each other but they tolerate each other with a reasonable amount of fighting and bickering. They are both agreed on one thing, they are not brothers.
When Zoro turns eleven and moves out. His bed stays in the Baratie though, as evidence should the social workers come calling. And in fairness he still stays over about three nights a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the same rules about their bedroom still apply. Zoro still leaps through the air to get in and out of their room, though it's less fun when he's not there as much. He still comes over for all of his meals though and Zeff sends Sanji to school with lunch for Zoro which they occasionally eat together.
One lunch time when he and Zoro aren't eating together the school bully Duval and his gang decide to take and interest in Sanji all because that Usopp kid drew a picture of Sanji in class and everyone teased Duval saying it looked like him instead of Sanji. He mouths off to them, saying that it's not his fault that Duval is as ugly as one of Usopp's drawings. There's too many of them and they beat the crap out of him, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye.
He sits shame faced in the school's reception as Zeff comes to pick him up. Zeff takes one look at him and storms off to pull Zoro out of class, Sanji doesn't even get a chance to tell him that Zoro didn't do this to him before he goes. As if Zoro would do this to him, he and Zoro fight and sometimes there are cuts, bruises and broken furniture involved but neither of them would ever go this far against the other. But Zeff clearly thinks otherwise. He drags a confused looking Zoro down the hallway back towards Sanji.
"Sanji! Your face!" Zoro yelps and breaks free of Zeff's grip (an impressive feat) as he runs to him. Zoro reaches for him but doesn't seem to know where to put his hands.
"Who did this?!" Zoro demands.
"No one." Sanji lies thickly through a tissue held to his nose.
"He says that he fell down the stairs." The receptionist says unconvinced.
"I'll make whoever did this pay!" Zoro declares solemnly. Zeff looks at the two of them and understands. He takes both of them to the hospital and the doctors reset Sanji's nose whilst Sanji tries not to cry. That night Zeff gives him ice cream for dinner.
Sanji stays in bed at home the next day and he's almost looking forward to having all day to himself when he hears Zeff's car drive off at lunchtime and come back shortly after.
"Ow ow ow!" Zoro's voice comes from the living room. Sanji sits bolt upright in bed, why is Zoro home? Zoro went to school this morning!
He comes out of the room to see Zoro sitting on the sofa with Zeff crouched at his feet with iodine and cotton wool balls. The boy looks like he's been through several bushes backwards and his lip is split and bleeding and his hands are wrapped up in bandages too.
"What happened to you?" Sanji asks wide eyed.
"The idiot got into a fight at school and got his dumb ass suspended for a week!" Zeff snaps angrily and applies more iodine, making Zoro hiss in pain.
"If you're gonna fight like a man you're damn well gonna take the consequences like a man, stop whining!" Zeff snaps and rubs more iodine on, Zoro stays silent that time, though his eyes water.
"Who'd you fight?" Sanji asks carefully.
"Duval and his gang. That guy has no honour, so I kicked him in the nuts. Then I beat up the rest of his gang." Zoro boasts, looking Sanji in the eyes.
"Until you realised that there were too many and you couldn't win and ran off and climbed a tree until the principle caught you and suspended you." Zeff adds, brutally deflating Zoro's ego.
"Idiot." Sanji smiles, ignoring the lump forming in his throat. They spend that week at home together, eating ice cream and watching old movies under a blanket together. When they go back to school though they both pretend like nothing's different but Sanji feels that everything will always be different now, he's not sure how though. Sanji is eleven and he respects Zoro for the first time.
Zoro and he start to grow apart after they hit thirteen, he's started getting more interested in girls (they're so pretty!) and Zoro is still only interested in swords. His mocking Zoro for his immaturity always ends in fights.
"Good morning my beautiful flowers!" he calls, waving after two beautiful girls a year or two older than him as they enter the school gate giggling.
"Enough making a fool of yourself, we need to buy Zeff a birthday present tonight." Zoro scowls, pinching his arm.
"Don't manhandle me you ape." Sanji snaps, pulling his arm back and kicking Zoro in the shin.
"What did you have in mind?" He asks curiously.
"I wanted to get him something nice, and I figured that if we pooled our money we could get him something really nice without either of us bankrupting ourselves." Zoro suggests sensibly.
"Okay, yeah. I saw a really nice leather wallet in that fancy suit shop, maybe we could get him that, it was out of my price range but together we ought to be able to get it." Sanji agrees.
"Great, well, I'll meet you here at the end of the day?" Zoro suggests with a smile.
"No, I've got fifth free so I'll head there early and pick it out, I've gotta get food for dinner tonight anyway we're all out of ginger. So, I'll meet you outside the shop after I'm done getting that." Sanji suggests instead.
"Okay, later." Zoro says nonchalantly and saunters off with a wave.
Sanji leaves school at the end of fourth period and is delighted to run into one of the pretty girls in his class in the grocery shop as he's picking out dinner. She's so cute and funny and for once a girl seems genuinely pleased to see him. Her name is Ella and her pretty red hair shines in the light. He offers to take her to get something to eat, and because they're still in school and broke they eat at the food court in the shopping centre.
She's pretty and she laughs at his jokes, she even agrees to see a movie with him that Sunday. He grins happily to himself as he walks home, Zeff's birthday is the Saturday and he'll see Ella on Sunday. He skips up the stairs, buoyed by his elation only to have it pop when he reaches his room.
The door is open but when he looks inside not only is there no Zoro in there, which there should be, it's a Friday and Zoro always sleeps over on Fridays. Although he'd have trouble doing that now. Sanji gasps as he turns on the light and sees that Zoro's bed is broken in half, the sides are split clean in two and the bed sits in a sad little V shape. There's chunks of paint missing from the walls and ceiling and the paint job that they had years ago shows up in a dark line, the tape has been pulled down from the walls and ceiling.
What the fuck was Zoro thinking to do- oh god, Zoro. He was supposed to meet Zoro outside that shop, he checks his watch, four hours ago! He'd just left him there on his own! His toes curl in shame as he imagines Zoro standing waiting for him for hours, looking more and more hurt as the time went on. He scrambles in his pocket for his phone, he'd turned it off. He switches it back on, he has twenty missed calls and five voice messages.
He plays the messages and holds the phone to his ear.
"FIVE FITEEN PM: "Hey, it's me. Where are you? You said you had fifth off right? Uh… I'll stay here." NEXT MESSAGE, FIVE FOURTY PM: "Oi, where are you asshole? I've been waiting here for like… half an hour for you. I found the right wallet and they've put it behind the counter for me but you're still not here! Get your ass over here!" SIX OH-FIVE PM "Seriously Sanji, this isn't funny. They're starting to give me weird looks, call me already. You'd better be okay and not, I don't know, run over by a car or something. Call me." SIX FOURTY-FIVE PM "Okay, so I've called Zeff and you're not at home. I'm going looking for you, so if you get this and I'm not there, I'm off trying to find you."
It's the last message that chills Sanji the most, there's silence for a few moments, long enough for him to catch the faint strains of music that he knows comes from the candy shop right by the food court.
"SEVEN OH-TWO PM: "…fine. Screw you, I hope you and your girlfriend choke." END OF MESSAGES, TO REPLAY YOUR MESSAGES HIT-" Sanji hangs up. Zoro had been waiting for him for three hours and he'd forgotten him like he was nothing. And worse Zoro had seen him. He feels sick.
Zoro had come home and done this, and the message was clear. Have your room back, have your life back because I don't want to be here anymore. He makes a strangled sound in his throat and grabs the tape off the crumpled pile that it lays in on the floor where Zoro had thrown it. He unfurls some of it and desperately tries to stick it back onto the wall, he can put it all back can't he? But it won't stick and the pieces don't seem to line up any more, something has been broken here beyond repair and he's not sure that he just means Zoro's bed.
"What have you done Sanji?" Zeff asks at the door, looming large and judgemental. But Sanji doesn't need Zeff to make him feel worse, he couldn't possibly feel any worse, nor does he deserve Zeff's absolution for what he's done. He runs past Zeff, out the door and down the road. He doesn't have any keys to Zoro's, no Koshiro's place, Zoro doesn't live there, Zoro lives with him! He hammers desperately on the door, Zoro will shout and scream at him no doubt, maybe even thump him and he deserves it. What he doesn't expect is for Zoro to look calm when he opens the door.
"What are you doing here?" Zoro asks simply, not angrily, not accusatorially just… asks.
"I'm so sorry!" Sanji blurts out. Zoro regards him coolly for a few seconds and Sanji can't work out why that look weirds him out. Even though he and Zoro have never been inclined to discuss their feelings he's always been able to read Zoro somewhat, when Zoro's angry he stomps around with a scowl on his face. But now there's just perfect neutrality on his face. Zoro must be really mad.
"Okay." Zoro says with a shrug.
Sanji stares. Okay? What was that supposed to mean? Was Zoro forgiving him?
"I bought the wallet anyway, you can pay me back or not, I don't care." Zoro says, his face still blank. Zoro tries to shut the door on him but Sanji shoves it back, something is really wrong here.
"I don't care about that! Aren't you mad at me?" Sanji presses, looking up at Zoro desperately. Zoro sighs and gives him a bored look.
"No." He answers flatly.
"Bullshit, you trashed our room! You must be mad!" Sanji argues. Zoro doesn't just break furniture when he's not angry, in fact he's never really broken furniture like this before ever.
"Sorry I messed up your room, but you get all your space back now, be happy. Or don't, I don't care." Zoro answers with a small scowl, the expression vanishes as quickly as it came to be replaced with Zoro's blank stare that makes Sanji uncomfortable for reasons he can't quite place. Then he realises, this is how Zoro looks at everyone else but him and Zeff, with all of his barriers up, not letting anyone in. He's on the outside for once.
"Zoro, I said I'm sorry. I mean it! Don't punish me for one mistake, I didn't mean it!" Sanji pleads, Zoro can't just shut him out like this!
"I'm not punishing you, it's not like you can help it. It's just what you're like. You've been like this all year and you're always going to be like this, whenever some girl flutters her eyelashes at you, you forget everything and everyone else. I'd thought that- never mind. It's just who you are, it's fine." Zoro sighs. Sanji understands what Zoro means, he means that he'd thought that he was special enough to not be forgotten like everything else was. And he is special, the thought that he's losing Zoro likes this makes him feel like his heart is being ripped out, but he had forgotten him hadn't he?
"No, I'm not like that Zoro! I didn't mean to… it wasn't like that! It's…" Sanji tries desperately.
"It's just what you're like. It's fine. I'm going to bed, see you tomorrow." Zoro says flatly and shuts the door in Sanji's face.
Zoro doesn't hate him, hate requires that you feel something. Zoro has just surgically cut him out of his life. He avoids him and when he can't he pretends like Sanji's just some random person. He doesn't ignore him but he answers him apathetically. Even their friends are able to get more out of Zoro than he is, even Usopp.
Zoro says that the wallet is from both of them, he doesn't tell Zeff about Sanji's failings but Sanji knows that it's to spare Zeff's feelings and not his. They eat together at Zeff's but Zoro barely acknowledges that he's alive and treats everything Sanji says with apathy. Zoro sees him less and less and eats with them less and less. He's lost him. Sanji is thirteen and he's nothing to Zoro.
The Sanji of six months ago would never have believed that he'd be pining for Zoro's surly looks and smug grins. But they all seem so good in comparison to being left out in the cold like this. He misses Zoro deeply and hates himself for breaking something so precious so thoughtlessly. After a few months even Zeff starts to pity him.
As always Zoro's birthday is first, he turns fourteen. Sanji tries to make Zoro like him again by making him the most elaborate cake he's capable of, but Zoro just says that he doesn't really like sweet things and gives most of it away. He does eat some though, thanks Sanji and wanders off to talk to someone else.
Two weeks after that Zeff comes into the room that is solely his now. He stands at the door with a conflicted expression on his face before flicking a piece of paper over at Sanji. Sanji is at his desk doing his homework, he picks up the paper and stares at it for a moment.
It seems to be an itinerary or something. It's from a website and the logo at the top is a red bird with JAL written on it in white, underneath reads Japan Airlines. The line below makes Sanji's blood freeze. "Roronoa Zoro – Osaka International Airport – ONE WAY".
"He told me not to tell you, but that didn't seem fair." Zeff says by way of explanation.
Sanji clutches the piece of paper in his hands, the flight leaves in an hour and a half and the airport is an hour away!
"Wh-why? How long will he be gone?" Sanji gasps, looking up at Zeff.
The old man shrugs slowly.
"He said he didn't know, one of Koshiro's relatives offered to teach Zoro all about sword making. At least a year, maybe more, maybe forever. He seemed undecided." Zeff answers.
Sanji distantly hears the sound of his chair bouncing off of the floor as he leaps from it. He sprints to the train station so hard that he can taste blood in his mouth from the exertion, he slams his card into the ticket machine and buys the first ticket to the airport that he sees and just makes the fast train there. He nearly hacks up his lungs coughing when he gets on the train, his shirt is soaked through with sweat from running so hard.
The train seems to take forever but when he gets to the airport and starts running to the right departure gate he calls Zoro. He begs and pleads with the gods that Zoro will pick up. He does.
"YOU BASTARD! How could you leave the country without telling me? Where are you?!" Sanji screams down the phone at him.
"Sanji?" Zoro asks, sounding perplexed.
"Who else would it be? Where- what gate are you at? How do I get to you? The sheet says six but I'm not sure." Sanji says stopping to cough as his lungs protest their misuse.
"It's gate six, but I'm boarding now, you won't get through." Zoro warns. Sanji sees that he's approaching a security gate, two big guards glare at him.
"Why do you care anyway?" Zoro asks him, chilling him to the bone. Desperation floods Sanji's system along with more adrenaline than his pubescent body can ever reasonably use, he can't let Zoro leave thinking that!
"Please, please, you have to let me through, I need to say goodbye to someone!" Sanji begs the guards.
"Sorry kid, you can't get through here without a ticket." The guard answers.
"PLEASE! Don't do this to me!" Sanji shouts, the desperation making tears spring in his eyes. The guards just shake their heads at him. Sanji grits his teeth, no one and nothing is going to keep him from Zoro, not anymore. He backs up and sprints at the guards, planning on vaulting their station. He manages it, but as he's sailing through the air they manage to grab him and throw him to the ground.
"Get off of me! I have to see him!" Sanji screams, kicking at them.
"Jesus Sanji! Don't get yourself arrested! What's wrong with you?! Calm down!" Zoro's voice in his ear insists. Sanji stills, face down on the carpet with the guards twisting one of his wrists up painfully.
"Why would you do this to me? Why would you leave without even telling me? You told Zeff not to even let me know you were going, Zeff said you might not even ever come back! You can't just go!" Sanji sobs into the phone, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"God, I thought you wouldn't even care. What's with all this emotion from you anyway?" Zoro says defensively.
"Of course I care! I grew up with you, you're my best friend! I- I love you!" He shouts into the carpet. He wishes he'd had the strength to say this sooner, when this might have been fixed. But now he's losing it all, Zoro's going. He's shaking and crying and the guards have let him go and are just staring down at him along with a good portion of bystanders, but Sanji doesn't care, all he can hear is the voice in his ear.
There's silence on the other end of the line and a quiet female voice says "sir, you need to get on the plane now, it's last call."
"Even if you go I'll follow you! I'll buy my own plane ticket and track you down!" Sanji swears.
"You don't even speak Japanese, how would you find me?" Zoro says quietly, Sanji can hear a woman thanking Zoro for showing his passport in the background.
"I'll learn Japanese, I'll get the money, I'll come and get you back." He promises.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry for everything! I never meant to be such a jerk and I should have been brave enough to say this all sooner, I know I don't deserve it but… but… I need you. Please… please don't go, don't leave me!" He begs, sobbing into the airport carpet.
"Sir, you need to turn off your phone, you can't have it on when we fly." A woman says in Sanji's ear.
"I will, I will just… let me get to my seat first?" Zoro says quietly.
"Sanji, look. I can't stay on the line for much longer, but… see the Japan Airlines plane out there on the runway?" Zoro asks quietly, Sanji pushes himself up off of the floor and runs to the window. He sees the plane, he could run to it if he was outside.
"I see it." Sanji sniffs, his voice shaking.
"That's my plane. I'm… eight windows back, see me?" Zoro says. Sanji squints and counts, there's a flash of green in one window and he stops and stares. It's so far away and so small but he can see Zoro's face in the window with his phone against his own ear.
"I see you." He says quietly and presses his hand to the glass. Inside the plane Zoro presses his own hand to the small window.
"Write to me? Please." Sanji begs.
"I will. I have to go now-" Zoro starts to say.
"No! Don't you dare say goodbye, if you don't say it then you can't leave for good. So… I'll see you later!" Sanji demands desperately.
For the first time in almost a year he sees Zoro smile at him through the tiny window.
"See you later Sanji." Zoro says and hangs up. Zoro and Sanji stay with their hands pressed to the windows until the plane taxis out of sight. Sanji crumples against the window and cries with happiness and sadness.
A week later Sanji gets his first letter Zoro talks about the culture shock and Koshiro's cousin, he talks about the workshop and the language barrier (even Zoro's Japanese isn't that great). But most of all at the end he signs off with "see you later Sanji."
Sanji writes back, he tells him about school and the Baratie, he bitches about Zeff and asks questions about Japan. But above all else neither of them ever say goodbye. Every Friday and Wednesday there's a letter in the post from Zoro and every night he receives it he replies and posts it first thing the next morning. Sanji is thirteen and complete again.
Sanji is fourteen and on Friday the 9th of November no letter arrives in the post from Zoro. Sanji is fourteen and on Saturday the 10th of November there is still no letter from Zoro. Sanji is fourteen and has never been so goddamn desperate for a letter in his life! He starts panicking, Zoro has never been late with his letters.
He goes down to the post office and shouts at them for losing his letter, he makes them look for it but they don't find anything. When he gets home it's nine at night and he's grumpy as hell. He comes in and goes straight to the post to check through it again. Angrily he stomps up the stairs to his and Zeff's place.
"The post office must have lost it, can you believe that?! Do you think I should sue them, can you do that? Maybe I should just write and say they lost it. Man, I'm so fucking- agh!" Sanji yelps as he trips right as soon as he comes in the door upstairs.
"Who left these fucking BAGS here?!" He snarls furiously, glaring down at them. Then he notices the stickers on the handles, airline stickers, stickers from Japanese Airlines. He stares at them for a second before looking up.
Zoro is there. Right there in the flesh in front of him, and he's taller than him. He's tall and dark and gorgeous, Sanji doesn't even have time to analyse that thought before Zoro opens his mouth.
"Sorry about that, my bad." Zoro rumbles in a deep voice that goes straight to Sanji's crotch, when did Zoro's voice change to that?! Before he can get too excited he flings himself at Zoro and wraps his arms around his neck and just squeals in delight.
"I missed you too!" Zoro laughs deeply in his ear. Sanji thinks that it's wise to stop touching Zoro now before that voice has too much of an effect on him.
"Are… are you back for good?" he asks breathlessly as he pulls away, his hands tight on Zoro's shoulders. He'd better be back for good, Sanji's not sure that he can let him go again if he plans to leave.
"Yeah, I'm back for good." Zoro nods with a small smile. Sanji's heart backflips and he couldn't possibly be any happier, he beams at Zoro. He opens his mouth but he has so much to say, so many questions, so much emotion that he just can't pick any one thing and say it.
"You look tired." His mouth says, clearly desperate to say something. It's true though, Zoro has dark circles under his eyes.
"God, you've no idea. Sensei and Tashigi were set on throwing me this big leaving party so I was up all night and then I had my fight first thing so I didn't sleep, then some woman had a screaming baby on the plane right behind me the whole time and now I've got to stay up until night time here or I'll screw up my body clock. I swear I've been up for nearly three days straight." Zoro groans, rubbing his eyes.
"Have you eaten? I'll make you some dinner." Sanji offers quickly.
"Just awful aeroplane food, you cooking sounds great." Zoro grins at him. Sanji grins back and takes him downstairs. They somehow instantly fall into the relationship they had before their stupid falling out, but somehow it's better. It's like Zoro never left and they can't stop talking to each other about all the things Zoro did and all the dumb things that their friends have done this last year.
Zoro eventually falls asleep in front of the TV on Sanji's shoulder. Zeff gives them both a gentle look and advises that Sanji put Zoro in his bed tonight. Sanji obliges and slides Zoro into his bed before covering him up, shutting the door and climbing onto the sofa under some blankets thinking about how it's so similar to when Zoro first came here, yet so different.
It's then that he first starts to really think about Zoro. At some point when Zoro was away he became gorgeous, or perhaps he always was and Sanji didn't notice until now. Even just thinking about him and his new sexy voice is making him hard. And, fair enough, he's fourteen and it doesn't take much to set of his sex drive, he could probably get hard thinking about the kitchen tiles if he wanted to but this takes no effort at all. He's trying to work out if this is just hormones or whether he really wants Zoro.
He can't help but conclude that he really does want Zoro, he's thought about him endlessly while he's been away and now that he's back it's only got stronger. The thought of Zoro in his bed is enough to send shudders through his body. He's never been attracted to men before and thinking about all the guys he knows it seems to just be Zoro.
It's only after he very quickly gets himself off that he comes to the sickening realisation that Zoro would probably be so grossed out if he knew what Sanji was thinking about right now. They've both always hotly denied it but they are brothers really, this is probably illegal as well as sick. And Zoro is a man too, there's no guarantee that he'll like Sanji back even if they weren't sort of related. He whines unhappily into his pillow and resigns himself to a life of Zoro related sexual frustration, assuming he doesn't grow out of it.
The next morning he still wants Zoro and when he comes in to wake Zoro up for breakfast he just wants to climb into bed with him naked. He shoves the thoughts aside and wakes the boy up.
"Happy birthday." Sanji whispers, shaking Zoro's shoulder. Zoro opens his eyes sleepily and murmurs something in Japanese fondly as he looks up at Sanji. Sanji's heart beats twice as fast as usual.
"What does that mean?" he asks, so unused to hearing Zoro speak his mother tongue, it sounds good on him.
"That this is a pretty good birthday present." Zoro says, yawning and sitting up.
"I actually got you a birthday present, it probably got there yesterday." Sanji pouts. And he had, he'd bought Zoro a really cool book about medieval European swords and scrawled a note in it saying that Zoro should come back and study with him to make them.
"Hah, oh well. Oh, hey, I got you a present." Zoro remarks as he gets out of bed with a lazy stretch. He rummages around in his bag and pulls out a crappily gift wrapped present, Zoro never was any good at wrapping.
"It's your birthday, you should be the one unwrapping things." Sanji protests but undoes it anyway. It's a sushi kit, all the instructions are in Japanese but Sanji knows the basics and Zoro will read him anything he can't read anyway.
"Maybe you can make me sushi for my birthday." Zoro smiles down at Sanji. Sanji grins up at him and knows that he will.
Sanji sits in his room thoughtfully that night after Zoro's gone home to sleep having been inundated with sushi from Sanji. He turns his computer on and thinks about the soft words that Zoro said to him in Japanese that morning. He goes onto google translate and types in English to Japanese "This is a good birthday present". He makes it play, the end sounds right but the beginning is wrong. He keep playing with the words until the computer reads out the right sounds, he looks at the English translation: "you are a good birthday present".
He reddens and turns the computer off. Surely that was just the inaccuracies of the software, no way Zoro said that. But… what if he did?
Zoro is fifteen, Sanji is fourteen and has a crush the size of the Baratie on Zoro.
Sanji never acts on it of course, he pretends like he doesn't dream steamy things about Zoro, he pretends like when he stares at him he's just thinking about kicking him and not Zoro holding him down and pulling him apart. The older he gets and the more sexual experience he gets with women the more creative his imagination gets. There's hardly a place that they've been to that Sanji hasn't imagined having sex with Zoro in. But he keeps his eyes to himself mostly, and keeps his thoughts to himself completely. He never entrusts his secret to their friends just in case, although Usopp tried teasing him about it once, he never did that again. He walked funny for a week too.
It's Christmas, Zoro is sixteen and he's just fifteen. He's bought Zoro a really nice shirt and a cool collection of films with lots of sword fighting in, he's bought Zeff the book he wanted and some new shoes (the other one is always frustratingly wasted though).
Zoro however has only brought two shittily wrapped gifts with him and Sanji is feeling a little snubbed. They always do Christmas morning together and it's one of Sanji's favourite times of year even though it's one of the few months where Zoro is a year older than him, which irks him. He's got Zeff some fancy booze or something and he slides this awfully wrapped thing over to Sanji that looks like a large-ish bedraggled cracker.
"One present, that's it?" He snorts at Zoro. Zoro looks uncomfortable and doesn't say anything, just stares at the present. Sanji sighs and unwraps it in boredom, if it's socks he'll cram them down Zoro's throat. Instead it's some black fabric roll thing with a little knot on it. He feels puzzled and pulls the cord on it open and flicks the thing open.
His jaw drops. Inside are six gleaming knives, their blades tempered beautifully in the way that Zoro does that's just art. His shaking fingers stroke their cold perfect blades, he pulls one free and holds it up to the light. The closer he looks at it the more perfect it seems, slowly it slides into the palm of his hand and Sanji just stops. He's never felt anything like that, the handle sits flawlessly in his hand as if it's just an extension of him as if it was made… for… him.
"I think he means that he likes them." Zeff laughs deeply.
Sanji startles back into alertness to see Zoro, the perfect, gorgeous fucking wonderful Zoro looking at him with hope in his eyes. Sanji hurls himself at Zoro, wrapping his arms around his neck and screaming that he loves them right in Zoro's ear.
"Are they really for me?!" He gasps, pulling back to look at Zoro. The guy is actually blushing, it's so sweet!
"The wrapping had your name on didn't it?" Zoro mutters, red faced.
Sanji spends the rest of the day running around playing with his new knives, all other presents forgotten. He keeps cutting things as if they were butter and running off to Zeff to show him. They're the best thing he's ever gotten and a way to have Zoro with him when he's doing what he loves best.
Sanji is fifteen and completely, utterly and hopelessly in love with Zoro.
Ever since Zoro came back in the country, Sanji still can't quite believe his luck about that, he's been religious in making sure that he always keeps his promises to Zoro, or at the very least calls and lets him know if he needs to cancel. Something deep down also tells him to be especially careful never to blow Zoro off for a girl again. However, since Nami entered the picture that's been increasingly difficult. He's always been easy to distract when it comes to women and Nami might just be the love of his life. Well, perhaps not. Zoro is depressingly the love of his life, Sanji is sure about that much now, but seeing as he's accepted that his one sided love affair with Zoro is never going to come to anything more than dreams and frustrating jerk off sessions by himself he's going to overlook that fact.
Nami can be the requited love of his life.
Zoro doesn't actually go to school anymore even though they're both sixteen and he really should. Zeff is "homeschooling" him. Which is code for letting Zoro fuck off and make weapons unsupervised and occasionally submit some English coursework online. He still shows up at school sometimes to see Sanji though which is both brilliant and awful. They have the same circle of friends now so Zoro often has lunch with them.
He's flirting successfully with Nami, telling her how her beauty has struck him across the picnic bench and how much he adores her. He's been doing this for several months now and he hopes that she'll actually agree to one of his offers to date him soon. Suddenly a warm hand cards roughly through his hair, pulling just right but messing it all into his face at the same time. He looks up with a scowl to see Zoro sauntering past him, apparently having succeeded in messing up Sanji's hair and his hopes with Nami for today.
"Get lost, shitty marimo! You're good at it!" He snarls angrily as Nami laughs at them.
"Love you too." Zoro retorts teasingly, his voice still in that deep rumble that sets off all different parts of Sanji's sex drive. That and the words together make his head spin, he knows that Zoro's kidding him, mocking his hostility with fake affection but still. He forces the scowl back onto his face and turns back to Nami.
"Sorry about that ape, my flower." He swoons, fixing his hair quickly.
"She's not a flower, she's a witch!" Zoro calls as he sits down. Sanji shoots Zoro an evil look, ever since he's come back he's inexplicably hated Nami. They got on more or less okay before Zoro ran off to Japan for a year.
"Don't talk about Nami like that, you peasant!" He snaps, pointing an accusing finger at him. Zoro ignores him pointedly and starts talking to Usopp about a machine in his workshop.
Sanji sighs and flashes a winning smile at Nami, she looks bored at him.
"Nami, my sweet, I was wondering if you might want to come out with me this weekend, we could-" He begins smoothly.
"Look, Sanji." Nami says loudly, her hands on her hips.
"I cannot make this clear enough. I am not interested in you like that, I will never be. I will not date you, I have no interest in doing so and if you ask me again I will never speak to you again, are we clear?" She insists in an irritated voice. The entire table has fallen silent and Sanji's face is scorching.
"But- but Nami…" He pleads.
"I mean it Sanji!" She snaps, standing up and striding off. With a wince, he looks up, the others are all deliberately looking elsewhere except for Zoro who is tactlessly staring right at him. At least the marimo looks as shocked at he is and in stunned silence Zoro turns his eyes on Nami's retreating form before flicking back to him. Shame burns on Sanji's face as Zoro's piercing gaze makes him feel even more uncomfortable, he's rejected by one love and kept from the other by a series of insurmountable obstacles. He forces himself away from the table and storms off to his next class early.
When he gets home Zoro is in their living room in faded loose jeans with a rip in the knee and a threadbare sleeveless shirt, he looks like a hobo, a sexy sexy hobo. Goddamnit, what is wrong with his brain? Zoro beams up at him, they're both only sixteen but Sanji can already see from Zoro's frame and his muscles that he's just going to get bigger and even more built as he gets older. Sanji has looked at his own frame and build before and realised with some sadness that the same will not happen to him.
"Hey." Zoro greets him and undoes his own belt, sending Sanji's brain right into the gutter. Zoro uses the inside of the belt buckle to pop the top off of two beers, one of which he hands to Sanji. Numbly Sanji takes the drink and sits down next to the oblivious Zoro.
"Nami didn't exactly hold back, I thought you might need it." Zoro offers and scooches over on the floor to allow Sanji some room next to him, leaning against the sofa and looking at the TV. Sanji folds himself onto the floor next to Zoro, their shoulders touching and thinks about Nami.
"She was pretty clear." He sighs and drinks.
"I'm sorry." Zoro sighs and drinks as well.
"No you're not, you hate Nami." Sanji accuses with a glare.
"I don't hate her." Zoro says sounding sincere, which is a surprise to Sanji because Zoro has declared many times that he does hate her, suddenly though there's no malice in his voice when he speaks about her. Sanji wonders what's changed.
"I don't get why girls don't like me." He sighs morosely, running a thumb over the neck of his beer.
"You keep picking the wrong people is all. There are plenty of people out there that want you, believe me. It's not you." Zoro answers and takes a deep swig of his drink. Zoro's cheeks are red and it's actually a little cute, Zoro is never this sweet to him, he must be feeling really sorry for him after Nami's rejection to be so kind. Sanji's not going to say no to the affection though, not with how desperate his crush on Zoro makes him for it.
There's some samurai movie on screen that's still in the original Japanese, Zoro catches him up on the plot and translates the important bits for him in a soft voice, sometimes reading out whole scenes for his benefit. Sanji rests his head on Zoro's shoulder and feels sorry for his lost love, both with Nami and with Zoro, but at least he has this with Zoro, at least he has this. From then on whenever Sanji has a nasty break up or a rejection they have beer and undubbed martial arts movies, sometimes they have beer and movies other times but hearing Zoro switch effortlessly from Japanese to English again is a treat reserved only for healing Sanji's broken heart and dented pride.
Sanji is seventeen when he loses his virginity. It's amazing and awful at the same time. It's kind of awful because it's his first time and no one is great at anything the first time. With that said though he is probably more considerate than most male virgins. He does his best to take care of his lady's pleasure before seeing to his own, he manages to last an almost respectable amount of time before the stray thought of "I wish this was Zoro" crosses his mind. The thought of Zoro and sex whilst he's already having sex is just too much for him to take and does him in completely.
Obviously he doesn't voice these thoughts to his partner but he has a hard time (both mentally and… ah… physically) being around Zoro for a little while after that. It happens every time he sleeps with someone after that though, it's always a flash of imagining Zoro instead that does him in. He thinks that perhaps he could try to get this Zoro-thing out of his system by having a fling with a guy that looks a little like him. Except he's both a) not attracted to men who aren't Zoro and b) so utterly besotted with Zoro that he knows that he wouldn't consider anyone good enough to be comparable with Zoro. He discovers that he's loud in bed when he realises that his female partners aren't as vocal (although with practice he manages to make even the most naturally quiet of them very audible in their appreciation for him) he's always careful never to say Zoro's name though.
It seems though that he wasn't alone in losing his virginity at seventeen, Zoro had obviously lost his too. Sanji had quite liked Ace when he showed up and Luffy introduced his cool older brother, he liked him plenty until he realised that the guy was flirting with Zoro and worse that Zoro was responding! The more Zoro and Ace spoke and flirted the less Sanji liked him, until it got to the point where even thinking of Ace was enough to send Sanji into a black pit of loathing. He couldn't have Zoro so why should anyone else? Especially a man!
He scowls across the crowded bar, Ace is leaning against the bar, making eyes at Zoro who seems to be completely lapping up the attention. Sanji grinds his beer bottle into the beer mat under it at the table and hates everything. He throws the drink back and glares some more.
"What's your problem with Ace, Sanji?" Luffy asks with an upset expression.
"I just don't like him is all. I don't have to like everyone you know." Sanji growls out. He needs to just forget it, maybe he was just being to jealous, it wasn't as if Zoro had ever shown interest in anyone before now so perhaps it was just new. If he was going to live a life of loving Zoro from afar he'd probably have to get used to this. But still, it was just flirting.
He glances back up and sees that Ace now has Zoro pressed up against the wall of the bar, kissing his neck. Zoro tilts his head, his eyes shut in pleasure with his face stained red with a blush. Sanji slams his beer down and abruptly turns the other way.
"I'm going home!" He announces angrily.
"What's wrong Sanji?" Luffy asks with wide eyes.
"Nothing!" Sanji shouts, oh god Zoro has his tongue down Ace's throat now!
"He keeps looking at Ace and Zoro, maybe he's jealous." Usopp grins smugly.
"Fuck you, I hate Ace! I'm not jealous of Zoro, he can stick his tongue town Ace's throat all he likes, I couldn't care less! I don't like men anyway, I'm all about the ladies." He rants angrily, his fists clenching.
"I didn't say that you were jealous of Zoro, maybe you want-" Usopp continues grinning insufferably. Sanji kicks him in the nuts then and there and doesn't feel even a little bit bad about it. He glances back at the corner where Ace and Zoro were but they're gone now and the bar's back door is swinging suspiciously shut. He storms out into the cold and only has to strain his ears a little to hear Zoro's quiet chuckle in the darkness followed by a second pair of footsteps heading off in the direction of Zoro's home. Sanji stomps back to the Baratie with tears in his eyes.
The thought of Zoro fucking some guy when he should be fucking Sanji was just unbearable, he couldn't tolerate it, especially as Zoro wouldn't stop going on about the guy! The very next day he's in the Baratie kitchen with that happy post-coital grin on his face, loitering and stealing raw food as Sanji tries to cook and ignore Zoro talking about Ace of all people.
"Did you know that Ace can windsurf? Apparently he picked it up when he was in Australia for a few years, how cool is that?" Zoro grins at him as Sanji angrily chops carrots.
"Good for him." Sanji grits out through clenched teeth.
"I think he's cool, it's nice to have someone to talk to about travel, he's been all over the place." Zoro smiles distantly.
"Why do you need Ace to talk to about that? You and I used to talk about you going to Japan all the time!" Sanji points out waspishly.
"Well yeah, but he's actually been places too." Zoro shrugs and steals a carrot slice and crunches into it happily.
"Well sorry I'm not as interesting as freckles. Now piss off, I have work to do." Sanji huffs and slaps Zoro's arm with the flat on his knife.
"Hey, you really hate him don't you? It wasn't just Usopp lying, he said you kicked him when he mentioned something about Ace last night, what's up with you?" the marimo asks with a curious tilt of his head.
"Just leave it, not everyone likes your new stupid hat wearing, freckle faced, smart mouthed, loser friend!" Sanji snaps, only just able to stop from calling Ace Zoro's boyfriend.
"Well, I was going to invite you to see that movie with me tonight, but if you're gonna be an asshole…" Zoro shrugs nonchalantly.
"You wanted to go to the movies with me?" Sanji asks with wide eyes, his hands stilling. Zoro makes an affirmative noise and steals another slice of carrot.
"You know, that one you were going on about, with that guy." Zoro says, clarifying nothing.
"How helpful." Sanji grins back.
"Fuck you, you know what I mean. The cop one." The other man snorts. Sanji can't help but smile, he loves going to the movies with Zoro, films were sort of their thing together and, lame as it sounds, he likes being in the theatre with Zoro. In the dark of the movie theatre he can pretend for a moment that Zoro isn't sort of related to him and that, perhaps, they are there on a date. Some part of him always hopes that the lights will come back on and that stupid little fantasy will have somehow become reality.
"But, I guess you won't want to go." Zoro sighs with mock innocence.
"I want to go. What time?" He asks and smacks Zoro's hand away from stealing more food.
"Eight. But since Ace and Luffy are coming too… or rather, Luffy was supposed to be coming but I think Usopp roped him into this video game thing, so it might be just the three of us." Zoro shrugs. Sanji's smile turns to a scowl, just him, Zoro and Zoro's new lover? Fuck that!
"I don't want to go, screw the pair of you!" Sanji spits and stomps off upstairs.
"What's your problem?" Zoro yells after him but Sanji doesn't want to talk to him.
Sanji has that evening off, he'd rather be at the movies with Zoro and Zoro alone, but the other man was probably making out with his new boyfriend in the dark. His heart clenches and he whines to himself. It was a horrible double edged sword, on the one had it was confirmation that Zoro did like men, and that potentially he could like Sanji back. But to find it out by Zoro seeing someone else and to see some lucky bastard having all the freedom in the world to kiss the love of Sanji's life, it just hurt too much. He locks himself in his room and tries to read, watching as the clock slips past eight and tries not to imagine what Zoro is doing with someone else right now.
He's more than surprised then when he hears, muffled through his bedroom door, the deep sexy lilt of Zoro's voice in his living room. He gasps and scrambles to the shut door, pressing his ear to it.
"Hey old man." Zoro rumbles in greeting.
"You want dinner?" Zeff asks.
"That'd be great actually, I had planned to eat out tonight but plans changed." Zoro answers. Sanji's eyes widen, did Ace stand him up? That unappreciative bastard!
"I'll see what we've got downstairs." Zeff says and from the click of his pegleg Sanji guesses that he's leaving, often the three of them will eat something that's been sent back or mis-ordered from the kitchen, if there isn't anything then either he or Zeff would usually cook.
"Hey, old man, do you know what's wrong with Sanji?" Zoro asks hesitantly.
"I could go on for hours about all the things wrong with Sanji, you're going to have to be specific." The old man snorts.
"Well, he's been really bitchy and angry since Ace got here. Has he said anything to you?" the marimo asks, concern ringing loudly in his voice.
"What do you think?" Zeff says dismissively and walks downstairs.
Zoro sighs to himself and after a moment heads towards Sanji's locked door, he knocks on the frame, a habit Zoro never grew out of from when they were kids as the door was Sanji's and not his. After a few hesitating seconds, not wanting to seem like he was standing right by the door, he opens it.
"What do you want?" He asks like a petulant child. Goddamnit, couldn't he just be civil to Zoro? Why did his mouth have to me so much faster than his brain?
"I wanted to see if you were okay, you've been really weird lately." Zoro answers, the corners of his mouth tugging down into a displeased expression.
"I'm fine, aren't you supposed to be at the movies with what's-his-face? What'd he do? Ditch you?" Sanji huffs, stomping back into his room and glaring out the window.
"No, I told him I couldn't make it, I wanted to see what was up with you. Is this really all about Ace? Is that why you're so pissed off at me?" the other man presses, following him in.
"No!" He denies hotly.
"So that's a yes then." Zoro sighs, seeing through his paper thin lie. Sanji glances over at the troubled looking Zoro. Hell, the other man already knows that it's about Ace, the least he can do is give him a little bit of the truth. He turns to face Zoro and tangles his hair tightly in the back of his own hair.
"I just hate seeing the two of you together, it's gross. It pisses me off." Sanji admits. Zoro's posture stiffens and Sanji sees his fists snap shut.
"Because he's a guy. I really didn't think I'd get this from you Sanji." Zoro says harshly although Sanji doesn't have to be a mind reader to hear the note of hurt in the tone. Sanji's eyes widen and he looks up at Zoro in shock, the other man thinks that he has a problem with it because Zoro is into men!
"What? No! I don't care that Ace is a guy, I just- he's such a self-aggrandising douchebag! And seeing him all over you… it's just- ugh!" Sanji exclaims. What he really wants to say is that he hates Ace simply because he has what Sanji can never have, Zoro.
"He's not a douchebag. If you actually got to know him-" Zoro corrects irritably.
"He is! And I don't want to hear you harping on about how great he is! I get it, you and he talk about travel and sports and all the things that I apparently am no good to talk to about! I just don't want to hear it!" Sanji snaps turning his back on Zoro and trying to blink away any dampness in his eyes that has nothing to do with filling with tears because Sanji is a man goddamnit and men don't cry about stuff like this! And if he did, which he isn't, his eyes would be glistening with unshed manly tears.
"Oh." Zoro says slowly, as if realising something huge.
"Oh, you're jealous!" Zoro exclaims loudly. Sanji's face instantly flushes, of course he's jealous, he's loved Zoro since forever and now he's off with some other man! But Zoro couldn't know that, it'd ruin everything! He'd have to convince Zoro that he wasn't, and fast!
"No I'm not!" He squawks impudently, turning on his heel and glaring right at Zoro's face.
"You are!" Zoro laughs loudly, stinging Sanji's pride somewhat.
"I don't get it, really I don't. We grew up together and you still act like a spoilt only child sometimes! Just because I hang out with someone else or see movies with someone else doesn't mean I'm going to just forget you Sanji, honestly!" Zoro laughs loudly.
Sanji glares at the floor, at least Zoro hasn't realised that he's romantically jealous too, but still… is it really so funny? Suddenly Zoro's large warm hand is around the back of Sanji's neck and pulling him close to Zoro. Zoro presses his forehead to Sanji's and laughs gently.
"Idiot." Zoro grins, with a world of affection in his tone. Sanji bites his lip, he wants so desperately to tilt his head up and kiss Zoro, but he can't. He can't risk offering all of himself to Zoro and have the other man turn him down.
"Come on, let's have dinner and watch a movie since you made me miss mine. You can pick." Zoro smiles, tugging him by the hand into the main room. Zeff brings them food and the two of them curl up on the sofa next to one another and watch the film. He sighs and leans his head against Zoro's shoulder. He's seventeen and for now this is enough.