Author's Note: My apologies once again. There seems to have been another confusion made from the first and second chapter, sorry for that.
Sanji is from the Red House and Zoro's from the Blue House.
I thought I had clarified that in the second chapter and a little in the first chapter, but I guess not. Sanji and Zoro work together wearing each other's house color in which Luffy thinks that it'll bring the two houses to drop their grudges against each other if they were do so. The colors are meant to show that the houses are being respected by one another because of the color the two heroes are forced to wear on Luffy's behalf…I hope that clears that up, but then again, I've been crammed with testing and exams coming up, so sorry if some things aren't properly clear or well said.
3
Oh, shit, he's gorgeous. Zoro stood there gawking at the blonde that wore a bright crimson ascot around his neck, a scarlet jacket, and a burgundy plaid vest with a golden chain hanging from its pocket indicating a pocket watch. The blonde had a handsome face that sparkled into a beauty Zoro couldn't describe for himself. Unlike most of the men and women Zoro had seen before, never had he come across someone with such golden hair. His face soon tailored down to a curly eyebrow, which he thought was interesting, a sapphire azure eye, and a pair of those pink lips that looked so soft that it was difficult to control himself from launching onto the blonde.
A blush vaguely appeared on the blonde's face as he, too, stared at Zoro. The green hair had saved him less time to find the man for his sake, yet that mask that had Sanji wondering about was a surprise until he was speechless when seeing that beau expression that stared at him. He rendered himself frozen with an inactive voice that wanted to ask so many questions that it seemed like a game.
The two stared at each other like that for a few seconds until Zoro glanced down to see that he had captured three of the blonde's fingers and was unconsciously rubbing his thumb over the blonde's knuckles. His expression softened startling the blonde.
"I apologize," Zoro started out with a small chortle and felt the blonde was returning his actions with the slide of his pink and thumb smoothing against the callous hand. "I simply forgot what I was meaning to say." He brought up the pale hand and dipped his head to press his lips against the creamy knuckles.
For a moment, Sanji felt his body react as it was starting to function again. He had wanted to grab hold of the other's hand and never let go. His knees felt a little weak and he couldn't understand why he felt so much heat traveling throughout his whole body. These things have happened before, but why were they so different now? What spark connected the two?
Sanji snapped out of it when he watched the green head of hair pull back after the kiss. His hand was still held gently almost as if he were fragile, but noticed that he was shaking a little. In anger? Humility? He exhaled briefly as he stared up at the guest. The blue coat the guest was wearing was such a familiar blue that it had to be from the Blue House. That scent, too, no doubt that this guest came uninvited or else he'd be there asking for a death warrant. Sanji's senses were sharp, sharp enough to tell that the other battled with swords from the small spot of polish on the bottom of the other man's palm and drank that rich type of sake from Grand Line from his scent.
The music had ended its song and was starting anew. They both looked over to see that the group had gotten bigger.
"Dance with me?" Zoro asked heading towards the dance floor. His partner followed after assuming the position with a hand on Zoro's shoulder and feeling his waist being taken with an arm.
"Are you sure you don't want to wear your mask?" Sanji asked after the green guest stuffed his mask into his pocket.
"Is there a problem with that?" questioned the other.
"Not at all, my apologies for being frank," he replied. For a little while, the two said nothing to each other as they tried to conceal themselves within the group of people in hope that none of their comrades could see them. "What house are you from?" Sanji soon asked once he felt safe in the crowd.
"The one just down the street."
"Oh, that one, what pleasant a home you have then."
"Never heard that one before," smiled Zoro as they joked around.
Running around in the back, Usopp was scraping through people as he rushed to find Zeff. Finally when he was able to recognize the tall toke on the old man's head, he stopped and waited for his panting to cease. Afterwards, he then approached the leader of the Red House.
Proudly, admirably, Usopp strutted towards the man.
"Z-Zeff," he shook in fear.
The older man grunted and turned to see the curly haired nephew. In his hand was a scotch on rocks and he wore a chef's uniform with a red necktie around his collar.
"What?" darted fierce eyes.
"Er, there's been spotted Roronoa Zoro accommodating the party," whispered Usopp franticly. "Should we act or stand by?"
Zeff raised a brow. He took a step out towards the dancing arena to find his son. A head of blonde wasn't hard to find, but looking for the correct head of blonde was difficult. Sanji had always had that special golden sun color as hair unlike the other men and women Zeff had seen that couldn't even be comparable. Years ago, Zeff had to admit that his son attracted anybody, be it man or woman, because of his features. Though, his foster son would have denied it to his face or taken it as a compliment and insult the old man for growing soft, but Zeff hated to admit that it would be stressful to protect his Lil' Eggplant much longer with his tiring age increasing each day.
Soon that head of golden sunshine glimmered in the middle of the dancing arena. An arm was wrapped around his scarlet coat assuming that Sanji had taken the feminine role in the pair as he continued to see that Sanji was wearing that ruby ascot he had gotten him along with the pocket watch that had its chain hanging around his plaid burgundy vest. He couldn't see who the other man was, but whoever it was, he made Sanji smile and laugh adorably. Seeing that smile, though, Zeff couldn't take a step to inform his son about the intruder. Just seeing Lil' Eggplant enjoying himself like that made his heart sank. He sighed and turned back to his nephew.
"Stand by, inform Lil' Eggplant," he ordered weakly. "If trouble brews, Ace and Lil' Eggplant can take care of it."
"Roger!" Usopp said and sped off to tell Ace of the news.
Zeff looked back to see Sanji chuckling lightly. The eggplant can take care of himself for a while.
"My apologies, but it is intriguing," laughed Sanji as the other fumed with red in his face. The two had found themselves joking around while hiding or indirectly confessing about their background. They had gone off into talking about their jobs where Sanji confessed that he works in a family restaurant while Zoro revealed that he mostly taught classes about weaponry, mainly the sword though. Somehow it had fallen into the humorous act of revealing that Zoro's head has been mistaken as grass and was tripped over once when his friend, Kaku, had been sleuthing around in the yard when Zoro fell asleep on the lawn. "That's never really happened to anyone or to myself," he tried to stifle his laughing.
"How can they miss with that target on your forehead?" Zoro hissed back to see his partner pout a little in an adorable way.
"Because it doesn't cover the top of my head where a frog may jump mistaking it as its home."
"Then a dart shouldn't have so much trouble hitting that dartbrow of yours."
With their feud that brought smiles to their faces, they found themselves shooting at each other whatever they could to win that small fight of wits. Coming up with clever jests to poke the other with and see their reactions until one of them would turn away to indicate that the other had won a point.
Zoro shifted a little feeling somewhat lightheaded and feeling as if he had leaned on Sanji's shoulder for a short moment before recomposing himself again. He blinked a few times before they completely stopped dancing. The air was stuffy with drunken laughter that started creating a heavy warmth within the room.
"Are you alright?" Sanji asked seeing that his partner looked rather flush.
"I'm fine," Zoro replied rubbing at his eyes. His hand was taken tightly tugging him through the layers of pairs dancing to the music. He couldn't see much as his vision blurred for a moment until he felt cool air hit the back of his neck. He opened his eyes to see that they were out on the balcony of the house. A sigh escaped his lips as he relaxed into the cool breeze. His back was met with the wall as he leaned on it.
Red and white rose bushes had grown high to the balcony as Zoro saw the flowers poking their heads up and spying on the two of them in the darkness in full bloom. Red and white entangled each other with their vines in an envious twist of trying to control their hierarchy.
"It was suffocating in there," said Sanji as he leaned on the same wall a few inches away from Zoro with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. "Forgive me, I should have realized sooner."
"It's not your fault," sighed the other.
The night air felt great along with the view of the large moon that hung over them giving them light to see each other. Though, it did serve as a troublesome gift on Zoro's half. Whenever he glanced to the blonde redcoat, he would see glowing sunshine hair and glowing angelic skin brightening in a contest against the moon. Again, that rising body temperature of his was out of control.
"I hate blue," Sanji heard being blurted out. He turned to see tanned skin gleam in contrast of his. The man appeared god-like to Sanji as he couldn't help but stare at the solemn look his guest had along with the brightened features of a god.
"What's wrong with blue?" Sanji asked turning his gaze away and leaning his head against the wall.
"Everything about it depresses me."
"But what is blue to you?"
"It's the challenge that I can't defeat," Zoro replied. "I lost my mother when I was younger. Fell down the stairs when shoved by a raging family man." The young prince of blue then realized what he was doing and turned to Sanji with wide eyes. He had been expecting the blonde to show a little confusion, but instead he was met with a look of a sad frown. "Sorry, that was personal. I shouldn't have said that."
"My mother also died when I was young," the Red host smiled gently. "I understand how you feel. When I was little, my mother would tell me stories about this ocean called All Blue. It was an ocean that held all the seas together and consisted all of the fishes from everywhere. Her death was a brutal one committed by a man I can barely remember. I must've been seven when that happened because I know I ran away and joined a crew taking leave of that island when I found her."
Zoro listened intently feeling sympathy for the blonde. His mother was killed for vengeance while his mother was possibly murdered something completely different.
"They took me in, taught me how to start cooking. Then I lost them," he frowned again. "There was a storm and our ship was attacked by a band of pirates. The pirate captain was a different type of bastard though. When the ships collided and I fell into the sea, he saved me. We found ourselves on a rock in the middle of the sea with barely any food," Sanji stopped, finding it difficult to continue since it was a stranger he was revealing all of this to. "I owe that man a lot," he sighed.
They were silent for a while. Letting the story sink in, Zoro couldn't help but feel pity.
"Have you seen a blue rose before?" Zoro asked.
"No, they don't grow anywhere," replied Sanji with a befuddled look.
"They exist though."
"Where?"
"You can make one," amber eyes stared at sapphire in search of understanding. "I'll show you," he said. Lifting his muscular body from the wall, Zoro reached forward and tore off a white rose from the vines. Sanji was given the rose to hold while Zoro turned his back on him to prepare the ink. From his pocket he pulled a blue inked pen and cotton ball from polishing his swords.
Once it was ready, Zoro turned back with a smile and took the rose from Sanji's hands. He placed the edge of the rose in the palm of his hand. Sanji watched intently until seeing the white pedals starting to darken. Within a minute, the white rose had turned into an opaque blue rose. Sanji then understood the trick and smiled.
"Do you usually keep cotton balls in your pocket?" Sanji asked.
"I just apparently had some with me tonight." The blue rose was removed from the palm of his hand to reveal the blue inked cotton ball. "Ow!" Zoro grunted when he felt his thumb being pricked by the rose's thorns.
"Are you alright?" questioned the blonde taking Zoro's hand into his. There hadn't appeared a mark or scratch to indicate a wound.
That sad look was on Sanji's face again which irritated Zoro a little, but he felt a little guilty.
"Blue," the blonde head looked up. "I'm from the Blue House," confessed the green haired stranger.
Sanji smirked after letting the confession sink in. The blue coat had been tempting for him to accuse the other, but it wouldn't be right without proof.
"My allegiance is with the Red House," declared the Red host. "If you're from Blue, then saying that you hate the color nearly sounds as if you hate yourself."
"Maybe I do." Zoro's hand soon freed itself from Sanji's grasp. Gently, he his hand caressed Sanji's cheek and grabbed hold of the blonde's chin to connect their lips tenderly.
Silently, the kiss transitioned into a deeper one with a response from the blonde. A tangy taste of spice and nicotine was licked at with an alcoholic tongue purging throughout the blonde's mouth. Heat rose in both of their faces burning their lips as they forgot how to breathe. Sanji's hand had crawled up to Zoro's coat clenching his lapel in his frail hand. Slowly they broke away from each other panting slightly with their beating hearts choking them. Sanji rested his head against Zoro's shoulder feeling a heart beating shuddering throughout the man's body. An arm wrapped around Sanji's waist to pull him closer and feel a small kiss pecked in his golden hair. For a few minutes they stood like that until they both cooled their heads.
"I never really got your name," Zoro whispered drifting his head to lean against the blonde's.
"I didn't get yours either," the host muffled.
Zoro blinked for a moment. What would his host think if he told him that he was Roronoa Zoro, the son of the Blue House's leader? It'll have to be a risk he'll have to take.
"It's Zoro." The figure in his arm shifted and pushed back. As expected, the blonde was wide-eyed. He waited to be rejected as he stood there sadly sulking and beating himself up for stating his name.
Shit, fucking shit…Sanji thought. He wanted to run away from this. All of it, he wanted to erase everything that had happened that evening. Why had he chased after that green head? He heard Ace's remark about it and it had seemed as if Ace knew who exactly who he had spotted. So why didn't Sanji realize it earlier? What a fool he's been.
"Oi, Lil' Eggplant, where are you?" called a familiar voice, but it wasn't the person that Sanji had thought. Instantly, he had flinched and turned beet red from embarrassment. The person calling for him inside kept shouting over the music looking for him. "Your father wants to talk to you!" it continued. Sanji sighed glancing to Zoro who had a confused look about his face.
"Lil' Eggplant?" he smirked trying to stifle his laughter.
"It's not my real name!" hissed the blonde. "Ugh, please excuse me," he turned. "It was nice mee–"
Sanji was then cut off when he felt the rose being placed in his hand. The thorns were carefully avoiding the pale skin but the small leaf gently rubbed against his palm. The blush darkened on his face as the tanned hand soon drifted away from him. Amber eyes stared back at sapphire that soon disappeared when he leaned forward to give Zoro a small kiss on the lips.
"I'll see you around?" Sanji requested.
"How can I miss you with that target on your forehead?"
"As if anyone would miss a patch of grass walking around."
They both smiled and stared at each other before Sanji left with the rose in his hand.
Zoro's smile disappeared when the blonde did. His heart was aching uncontrollably in which he thought that he fell right at the redcoat's feet. The back of the blue coat fell onto the concrete wall again with a sigh.
"Well, that was depressing," came a relaxed tone. Zoro froze and craned his head to the side where he saw three heads poking over the stone railing.
"I think he came off too strong," Chopper mused as the other two heads nodded.
"How long have you been there?" he shouted fuming with both anger and embarrassment. With Kaku's stealth, it would be possible to teach a reindeer and cyborg, although it would be difficult considering they were loud and bizarre.
"Long enough," answered Kaku as the three of them pulled themselves over the railing to stand on the balcony. The long nosed man had ruffled orange hair and a little lipstick on his collar. Some candy was stuck on Chopper's coat. And Franky looked as if he had been in some sort of dance battle or was ambushed by a group of people. His clothes were practically full of tears and slits. "So, does our prince know who he has been getting along with?" teased the long nose assassin.
"You were watching, you tell me," growled the other.
"He looks recognizable," Franky hummed.
Kaku straightened his back with a serious look on his face.
"Chopper, what did you think of him?" he asked.
"He did seem familiar, but I don't know from what," sulked the little reindeer.
"Zoro, do you know who you just kissed?"
"Again, you saw who it was and you know very well that I already know," Zoro glared at the assassin as he continued to play his games.
"Who was it Zoro?" Chopper asked earnestly.
Zoro turned away. He fidgeted slightly. There was that thought that Franky or Chopper would go spouting it out to his father, but then there was Robin to worry about. They could rely on her, but what would happen if their father tried to break one of their necks? Robin would definitely go first to protect her little brother. Then there was the fact that Chopper and Franky would know and certainly Mihawk wouldn't let them go for holding that piece of information from him. Not everything they did have passed Mihawk even though they were his important doctor and engineer. However, Mihawk wasn't all that unreasonable sometimes. He had understood some dire things that would have been expected to be blown up in a fury, but instead his had father had been calmed about those. Still, Zoro worried.
"No one that you have to worry about," he soon replied.
Author's note: I hope this chapter made sense. And I will be adding in some anger issues later on, just give me some time cause testing's coming up and it's a bitch at school right now, but I'll try my best to update ASAP.