Title: Almost Easy
Author: kikokus (AoiTsukikage)
Rating: NC-17 overall
Characters/Pairing: Zoro/Sanji, Law/Sanji, Law/Zoro/Sanji
Chapter: 7/?
Word Count: 3993
Summary: Sequel to 'So Good So Far.' Everything was supposed to get easier after Dressrosa – at least, that's what Sanji had assumed. He was wrong. .
Spoilers: Up to chapter 773.

Chapter Seven

Dinner, as expected, as a lively affair. Between all of his own crew, most of Law's men, and the two other captains, he was on his feet all evening and barely got the chance to shovel some food into his own mouth before he was running again.

Bartomoleo had nearly fainted outright at meeting Nami, Chopper and Brook at the same time, and Cavendish spent most of the night grumbling about how nobody was paying any attention to him. Law's crew were always cordial enough, but there were a lot of them and they were loud, and his own…well, they were a handful all by themselves.

It was nearing midnight by the time everybody finally dispersed, leaving Sanji with piles of dishes and the remnants of food spread everywhere, and he groaned and thought that if he got two hours of sleep tonight that would be all he could hope for. He'd have to get up at five in the morning to start breakfast anyway, after all.

He wasn't sure where everybody else had gone, but it sounded as if the party had just moved out to the deck, so he cleaned everything up as quickly as he could before some of them decided to come back in. By the time the dishes were cleaned and put away, the sounds from the outside had quieted, and he was barely able to keep his eyes open as he set the last clean plate back into the cupboard.

Part of him wanted to just lie down on the bench behind the table and catch two or three hours of sleep, but the thought of a warm bed and warm bodies to cuddle up to was too appealing and he slumped out of the galley with his wet dishrag still slung over his shoulder.

Law's sub was as quiet as the Sunny, creaking softly as it swayed in the gentle waves of the harbor. He knew the path to Law's room by heart already, passing through the corridors to the familiar door.

He shuffled through the living quarters to the bedroom, shoving open the door and groaning as he tried not to trip over his feet and face-plant onto the bed.

"It's late."

"Yeah, well, you try feeding fifty people and see how quick you can get all the cleaning done," Sanji grunted, knowing he was being grumpy. He barely had any energy to strip his shirt off before he all but collapsed on the bed, groaning.

Law clicked his tongue, setting aside the book he'd been reading. Zoro, of course, was asleep already, his head in Law's lap as he snored quietly. Law had indeed kept his promise to talk about his past over dinner preparations (although, and Sanji might have been too smug about this, he only told Zoro a very basic amount of information compared to what he'd shared with Sanji over the weeks). Zoro hadn't really reacted to any of it, which was probably for the best because Law hated being pitied, but Sanji knew the other man was far more sensitive than he let on and no doubt he wasn't as unaffected as he pretended to be. He doubted Zoro would have curled up so close to Law otherwise, after all. "You were right about him being a cuddler, even though apparently he does it instinctively when asleep," Law glanced at him from over the top of his glasses and Sanji burrowed himself into Law's side, snuggled under his arm.

"I feel guilty, now," Law stroked his shoulder. "I could have offered some assistance in cleaning up, at least. My powers would have made things go a lot quicker."

"It's fine. I would have made somebody help me if I'd have needed it," Sanji felt like he was floating, caught somewhere between sleep and waking, and it was so fucking comfortable he never wanted to leave. "I'm used to not getting much sleep."

"You work too hard," Law replied firmly, his fingers moving into Sanji's hair and starting to massage his scalp. Sanji purred, feeling like some sort of cat, but it was just what he'd needed. "Oh, Mr. Robo informed me that my arm should be ready after lunch tomorrow," he added, his voice impassive, although Sanji could hear the obvious undercurrent of relief there.

"Mm, that's good," he mumbled, pressing a kiss to Law's chest. He was glad to hear it, for Law's sake, because while it honestly didn't matter to him he knew the older man wouldn't feel like himself until he had it properly attached and he understood that completely.

He let his own hand rest on Zoro's back, knowing he wouldn't be able to stay awake for much longer.

"I'll let you sleep," Law kept rubbing his head, his motions repetitive and soothing.

"You should sleep, too," Sanji muttered, his words slurred from exhaustion.

"I will," Law promised, bending down to kiss his forehead. Sanji hummed, marveling a little at how open Law was being since coming back from Dressrosa. Of course the situation wasn't ideal, but Law seemed a lot less reluctant to show affection now and Sanji appreciated that more than he could say. Law still had his secrets, and he'd always have his scars, but at least Sanji could trust now that Law wasn't holding back with him.

He had one last thought before he fell asleep and made a mental note to talk to Franky as soon as he got up in the morning.

…he just hoped he'd remember it later.

000

When he woke up, the first thing he felt was confusion. His body felt cold, as if he'd somehow rolled out from under the blankets overnight, but there was a heat radiating from his lower half and his sleep-muddled mind took more than a few seconds to figure out why.

"I think he's awake."

Law's voice had that tonal quality he only got when he was aroused or trying purposefully to be seductive, a type of low growl in the back of his throat that made Sanji's entire body shiver.

"Good."

The word sent vibrations through his body, and that certainly wasn't normal, so he forced his eyes open to see what was happening.

"Good morning," Law was staring at him, mischief evident in his golden eyes, and Sanji wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and hauled him in for a sleepy kiss. He gasped into Law's mouth as the sensations through his body increased, and that's when he finally clued into what was happening. "Zoro and I thought we'd give you a little…gift, since you work so hard to keep us fed," he purred, every word dripping pure sex, and Sanji panted against his mouth and groaned.

"Have I actually managed to make you speechless, Cook?"

Sanji arched his back and whined, his body convulsing involuntarily and his fingers clenching at Zoro's hair. He really didn't care whose idea it was to wake him up with a morning blowjob, as long as it didn't end too quickly.

"It's truly quite a talent he has" Law said idly, but a second later his smug façade dropped and he huffed a frustrated breath, trying to shift his body and not really making any progress with it.

"Don't," Sanji reached for him again with his free hand, nudging his nose against the surgeon's. "It's okay. Just…stay here," he urged. He didn't know what Law had been planning to do, but it was obviously something that required at least one arm to brace himself against the bed, and right now if he did that he couldn't really do much else.

It wasn't anything to feel bad for, though, even if Law obviously thought so.

Law eventually nodded, his lips pressed together in a tight line, and ducked his head to lick a wet stripe up Sanji's throat, latching onto his pulse-point and sucking.

"Fuck," Sanji tipped his head back, letting the pleasure wash over him.

"Hey, Cook, can you get your legs over my shoulders?" Zoro asked, finally pulling off of his cock so that he could raise Sanji's hips. He ended up with his knees bent over Zoro's back, body bent almost in half with his shoulders pressed down into the mattress. It let Zoro rise up so he was kneeling instead of laying prone, and Sanji wondered what he was up to. "Good?"

"Yeah," the blond swallowed, breathless, and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head when Zoro deep-throated him without any hesitation. His large hands clamped onto Sanji's ass, knees spread on the blankets, and he started to bodily move Sanji, forcing the other man's cock deeper down his throat and out again by guiding his hips.

Sanji yelped and told himself to hang on, because Zoro basically fucking his own mouth with Sanji's cock wasn't something he'd considered, but since he couldn't really do it himself from the position he was in, he had to trust Zoro knew what his own limits were.

He certainly had no gag reflex, and every time he decided to speak it sent vibrations skittering through Sanji's body like he'd never experienced before.

He fisted one hand in the sheets, trying to keep himself steady even though his shoulders were sliding every time Zoro pulled his body in and then away again. The other one he kept locked around Law's shoulders, holding him close, as Law kissed back up to his mouth.

Zoro shifted him a little, using one hand set under his lower back to keep his body completely still even as he was half-suspended. He started to bob his head instead, lips sliding over Sanji's cock as the blond moaned into Law's mouth, not even caring how shameless he was being.

"You're close," Law murmured, his eyes locked with Sanji's. "Don't fight it."

"Zoro…" Sanji said shakily. "Zoro, fuck, if you don't want me to…i-if…"

"He can handle it," Law assured him, brushing another kiss across his bruised lips. "Come."

And Sanji had never been able to deny Law when he gave that command, the muscles of his stomach clenching and his legs going rigid over Zoro's shoulders. He felt his entire body shudder, fingers gripping Law's shoulder hard enough to leave marks. Zoro let Sanji's cock slip from his mouth, pressing a kiss to the spit-slick head, and Sanji's body flopped to the bed as if boneless.

"Fucking hell, Zoro," he groaned, and shit, he wouldn't mind being woken up like that more often.

"Yeah?" Zoro crawled up his body to kiss him, the bitter aftertaste on his tongue a testament to what he'd just done. Sanji was coming not to mind the taste, though, and there was something indescribably hot about the act.

"Yeah," Sanji pulled back. "Hey. You two should…y'know," he quirked a curled eyebrow and Zoro grinned, looking over at Law. "I want to watch."

He knew as soon as he met Law's eyes, though, that it wasn't going to happen, and Zoro seemed to clue I at the same time because he rolled his own eye and huffed a rather irritated-sounding breath.

"Law, seriously," Sanji held out his hand but Law shook his head, getting off of the bed and wrapping his arm around his body like he was trying to make himself look smaller. "It doesn't fucking matter…"

"To you it doesn't," Law replied shortly, eyes flashing. "But when I cannot even give you pleasure the way I desire to…" he stopped, gritting his teeth, and turned his back to them. "Continue if you wish. Perhaps after I receive my new arm I'll be more inclined to participate, but at the moment, it's only making everything worse."

Zoro met Sanji's eyes, jerking his head in Law's direction, and Sanji nodded and slipped out from under the swordsman to walk quietly across the room. He tried to sense how Law was feeling, but the other man had slammed all of his walls up and the only thing Sanji could really pick out was that he felt guilty for stopping things.

"Hey," he reached out, laying his fingertips over the tattoo on Law's back. "It's fine."

"It isn't," Law said with a terse shake of his head. "It won't ever be."

"Not if you keep telling yourself it won't," Sanji tried to keep his voice neutral even though he was getting a little annoyed now. "At least wait until you try out the arm before you start being melodramatic about it."

"I apologize. Some days it just hits me harder than others, I suppose," he sounded so defeated. Sanji pulled his hand away, moving so that he was facing Law. He drew the taller man into an embrace, guiding Law's forehead to rest on his shoulder so their heights were more even, and held him as tight as he dared. "I know…" Law started, his words hesitant. "I know you don't view me any differently, and I appreciate that more than I can say, but there are times I still forget and go to do something that would have been second-nature with two hands and instead I just…can't, and it…"

"Like the Cook said, it's fine," Zoro stood up and made his own way over. "And I get it. After I lost my eye, it took me forever to adjust to having to turn my whole head if I wanted to look left, and my depth perception was all fucked up. I had to re-learn a lot of my techniques to account for having a giant blind spot. But I did it, and you're damn well stubborn enough to not let this stop you," he growled, almost daring Law to contradict him. Law didn't really make any sort of response, his breath harsh against Sanji's shoulder.

Zoro walked closer, hesitating for a few moments as if waiting for some sort of signal before he hooked his chin over Law's shoulder and wrapped his arms around the other man's chest. Law's body stiffened before he suddenly went limp between them, and Sanji felt a jolt of concern before he realized what was happening.

Law was letting them comfort him. He was completely lax, trusting them to hold him up and hold him together even as his own sense of hopelessness threatened to overtake him. It was a huge gesture and Sanji just hoped they ended up being worthy of it.

"You're gonna be fine, idiot," Sanji whispered into Law's hair, nuzzling his nose into the fluffy strands. "And if you need to lean on us for a while, nobody's gonna think you're weaker because of it."

"I know that. I do," Law promised. "Sometimes it's just hard for me to convince myself of it," he kissed Sanji's shoulder and cleared his throat before straightening up. "But you both should know that you're helping me far more than I can ever articulate, and probably more than I deserve, so I do thank you for that," he seemed in control of himself again so Sanji reluctantly let him go, and Law spared him a last tiny smile before heading into the bathroom.

Sanji shivered a little, realizing he was still naked, and sighed happily when Zoro's arms wrapped around him with more than welcome warmth. "He's still so damn guarded," Zoro mentioned, staring at the closed bathroom door, and Sanji nodded.

"I think that's never gonna change. He's a lot better than he was, though," he thought back to the first time they'd fooled around, where Law had pretty much shut down entirely and sat there staring blankly into space after the fact. Sanji much preferred Law how he was now, even if he could still sometimes slip back into his old habits.

"Yeah," Zoro let go of him and he went to go get dressed, knowing he needed to start breakfast.

And then talk to Franky, he reminded himself.

He had an idea.

000

Usopp wasn't happy when Sanji pretty much grabbed him by the nose and carted him down to Franky's workshop after breakfast, and he stood there poking at his tender nose and grimacing while Sanji explained what he was thinking to Franky.

"Yeah, it's possible, bro," Franky shrugged. "I'm done with the arm so I'll grab it for you," he lumbered off and Usopp sniffed, still looking put-out.

"Think you can handle it?" Sanji knew the best way to get Usopp's mind off of his own indignity was to challenge him, and Usopp predictably puffed out his chest and set his hands on his hips.

"I, the great Usopp, am an expert artist and can no doubt deliver exactly what you are asking!" he crowed, even though Sanji knew he could.

That's why he'd asked him, after all.

"But um…" Usopp blushed and stared at the floor, stammering a little. "Y-you've probably looked at them more than I have, I mean…since you…" he flailed his arms a little and Sanji had to laugh.

He knew Usopp was fine with him and Law, but he still turned into stuttering mess whenever he brought up the fact that they were intimate on a regular basis.

"Usopp, you can say it. I'm not ashamed of it," Sanji smirked at him, laying his arm across Usopp's shoulders and running his fingers down the sniper's arm.

"Th-th-that's not it!" Usopp squeaked, though he didn't try to pull away. Sanji could feel at least a little sympathy for him, since he had his girl at home and he knew that Usopp wanted to be faithful to her, but he was still a teenager and probably horny as fuck when it came down to it. Maybe he was jealous that Sanji had found somebody to release some tension with, or maybe it was more who he'd found (Usopp might have still been terrified of Law, but he'd admitted more than once to Sanji how attractive the man was), but at any rate Sanji couldn't take offense to his reluctance to mention it more than he had to.

"I know," he promised, laying his cheek against Usopp's curly hair. "But I'll help you out."

"Okay. Good," Usopp nodded, glancing up when Franky came back in carrying what certainly looked like a rather passable human arm. In fact, once it was in place, Sanji figured that anybody who didn't already know would have a hard time realizing it was mechanical.

"Here you go, bros!" Franky set the arm down and went to root around in a cabinet, returning with a vial of some sort of black paint. "And this is the stuff I use for my paint jobs, so it's not gonna come off easy," he warned, causing Usopp to gulp.

Yes, it meant that it would be durable, but it also meant that Usopp couldn't fuck this up and that added a lot of pressure to it.

"You'll do fine," Sanji promised, seating himself cross-legged on the floor and tugging Usopp down beside him. "Now, let's get started."

000

It was almost dinnertime before he saw Law again, the older man having disappeared with Franky after lunch, although Sanji had no idea how long it would take to get the arm attached properly. He knew Franky wouldn't let Law walk out of there until he was completely satisfied, and hopefully it would improve Law's mood a little as well.

The latter certainly seemed to be true, because he barely had time to register the clumping of booted feet behind him before he was spun around, Law grabbing his face and kissing him with an intensity that he'd rarely experienced from the surgeon (and really, if Law was picking up anything from Zoro, Sanji would rather it not be the fact that he kissed like he was trying to subdue some sort of enemy).

He kissed back, clutching at Law's arms, and he realized two things at the same time: he was grabbing both of the other man's elbows, and Law had two hands on his face, holding his head steady while he damn near plundered his mouth.

"Thank you," Law whispered against his lips when he pulled back, hands dropping from Sanji's face.

"For what?" Sanji asked, raising an eyebrow. He leaned one hip on the counter, crossing his arms and looking at Law more closely.

He looked…good. The arm fit him, well, like a glove, as bad as that analogy might be. It was a near replica of his left arm, and Franky had even matched his skin tone perfectly. And Sanji and Usopp's addition had turned out better than he could have hoped, the tattoos expertly and precisely painted and placed. There was a tiny, barely noticeable seam where Law's real arm met the mechanical one, and of course it didn't feel exactly like skin, but for what it was Sanji could hardly imagine a better solution.

"I know you're behind this," Law gestured to the tattoos and Sanji shrugged one shoulder, giving him a rather flirty toss of his head before he turned back to his dinner preparations.

"I might have been," he said vaguely. "How is it?"

"Much more responsive than the prototype. It's still not exactly an instant response, but it's close enough that it won't affect me much," he replied.

"What about…like, can you feel things with it?" Sanji wasn't sure if Franky had technology advanced enough to replicate nerves and the like, but it wouldn't surprise him since the shipwright seemed capable of almost anything.

"Sort of. I can feel…textures," Law explained. "I can tell if something's hard or soft, and I can regulate how much pressure to exert…for instance," he picked up a coffee cup on the counter, the fingers of the arm jittering a little before seizing around the fragile object. "I'm not going to go around breaking glasses by squeezing them too hard. I don't think I can feel temperatures…or pain, for that matter, but that's not something I'm going to complain about," he pursed his lips into a thin line.

The galley door opened then and Usopp came in, his eyes widening when he saw the two of them. "Um…hi, I was just…I…"

"Usopp painted the tattoos," Sanji said, and Law spun away from him and stalked over to the younger man, who cowered back and raised his hands like he was expecting an attack.

"Don't worry, Mr. Nose. I merely want to thank you. It…it means a lot to me," he held out his real hand but Usopp seemed to gain some sort of courage in that moment and threw his arms around Law's body instead, holding him for just a moment before he sprung away as if burned.

"Don't kill me," he begged, but Law only looked vaguely amused. He set a hand on Usopp's shoulder, giving him a smile that, for him, was rather kind.

"I would hope all of your crew have learned by now that I'm hardly somebody to fear. Just don't make a habit of it," he mentioned. Sanji knew that Law would never be as touchy as Usopp and Luffy were with everybody, but at least he was coming around a little.

"I'm glad you like them," Usopp laughed and patted Law's arm before moving away. "I'll leave you two alone," he called over his shoulder, seemingly brimming with confidence once more.

"You should go show Zoro," Sanji spoke up, going to pre-heat the oven and wiping his hands on his apron once he straightened up. "And then later on maybe you two can give me the show you copped out on this morning. If you feel up to it…"

"I believe I just might," Law wasn't shutting down the idea entirely, which was a good sign. "I'll leave you to your work, then," he raised his real hand in a wave, leaving the galley, and Sanji started humming to himself.

Maybe now Law could finally start to move forward, and in the end, that would be a good thing for them all.

Notes:

1. Yes, now that Law's got his arm 'back', the real plot of this fic can start, and that will be introduced in the next chapter…

2. I don't have a lot else to say about this chapter, but thank you all again for continuing to read this fic and for your lovely feedback!