This is RL-san's belated fic, and I want to say I'm so sorry about the long wait, but I was busy! I was in a doggie mood, as you will see, and I hope you enjoy.

Heated Play

"Zoro! Come!" Called out a man in his late thirties to early forties as his golden, hawk-like eyes stared out to see a light green dog, no longer a pup but not full grown either. This man had slick back black hair, with a well maintained and groomed moustache and beard, which contrast his light, almost pale skin. He waited until the unusually colored dog came up and sat down obediently.

Now, to the man, the canine before him is like any dog, but in a different perspective… the dog is just as human with the exceptions of dog ears, straight up and alert, and a tail.

Zoro appears to be an older teen/young adult of nineteen, with short green hair, tan skin, and a strong body that most men can only dream to achieve. He stood to be in the exact same height of his owner as the mentioned man gave the order to follow him.

They were just on their way out when a Frisbee headed their way and another dog, a black energetic puppy, which he landed on the older green dog.

This puppy, however, is a teen of seventeen with ebony hair, black ears that were up with both tips bent slightly, and a black tail that curled up to an almost perfect circle.

"Ah! I'm sorry about that!" Called out a man with brilliant red hair that almost reached his chin, but the back was shorter. He also has three slash scars on his left eye that showed that he had them for a long time, a bit of a five o' clock shadow, and a noticeable missing left arm. "I didn't see you there!" He appeared to be around the same age as the other man as the mentioned man waved a hand, as if shooing the event away.

"No harm done. It is a dog park after all."

"Yeah! You're right!" He said with a full hearted laugh. "Oh! I'm Red Shanks, and my adorable pup is Luffy. Luffy, say 'hello'."

The mentioned pup's brown eyes met emerald and his tail wagged a mile a second. "Hello! Like my owner said, I'm Luffy!" He said, but to humans it was only a few barks.

"You new around here?" Asked the stonic man.

"Yeah, we just moved here a week ago." Shanks said as he looked at the pup. "Poor Luf didn't like the long trip here."

"Yeah! It was so boring!" Luffy complained with a pout, which would be whining and giving out a guilty look to humans.

The stonic man sighed as he straightened his back and looked at the carefree man before him. "I'm Dracule Mihawk, most people call me Hawkeye, and this is Zoro."

"Wow! That dog's green!"

"You just noticed?"

"That's just awesome!"

The pup also seemed excited about the other dog. "You're name's Zoro! That's such a cool name! And your fur is the coolest!" Luffy said, regarding the hair as fur.

"Thanks…" Zoro said, not used to being around such energetic pups.

"Well, thank you, Red-san. Not many people find unusually colored animals such."

"Aw! No need to be so formal! Just call me Shanks!"

"No."

Shanks's smile faltered to that of a deadpanned expression. "Yes."

Luffy, finding this funny, rolled to his back and laughed. "Our owners are being funny!"

"I wouldn't put it like that…" Zoro said, watching the pup roll around the ground.

"Well, we better be on our way then." Mihawk said.

"Oh? You're going home?" Shanks said, the deadpanned look immediately went to that of surprised confusion.

"Yes…"

"How long were you guys out here?" He asked and then smiled. "Maybe we can get our dogs to play together while we chat!"

"Wouldn't that be fun? Zoro!" Luffy said, immediately excited about the idea.

"I only just met you, Red-san."

"It's Shanks, and so? We can come by around when you guys get here and work from there."

Mihawk looked at Zoro, who looked back at him. After a moment he sighed and rubbed his eyes. "We come here around three."

"You spend two hours in the park, huh?" Shanks said with a considerate look before smiling again. "That's great! Luffy really needs a playmate here, the other dogs here are just too mean to him."

"Yeah…" Luffy said, though it would consider as a whimper to the owners. "I just wanted to play tag with them, but only been told off. They're so mean!"

Zoro looked at the pup and was at a loss at what to do, but he came up with something either way. "Oi!" He said, though it would've appeared like a low gruff sound. "Keep your head and tail up! Otherwise they'll start picking on you next if they see that you're submissive!" He said while, to the humans, he demonstrated by having his head up and is tail up, showing confidence as well as expressing an aura of slight dominance.

Luffy, looking alert and in awe of the other's position, copied the other, but his aura was more playful and trusting.

"Aww!" Shanks said. "Looks like Luffy found a big brother!"

"Zoro can sense that your pup has confidence, but needs to apply it a bit more."

"You a dog trainer or something?"

"Part-time…"

"No wonder!" Shanks said with a laugh. "Man! I really need your help!"

"Immensely as it seems." He said as he patted his leg, gaining his canine's attention. "Come, Zoro."

"Hai." Zoro said, which was a small throaty sound to the humans.

"Will you play with me next time?" Luffy asked, looking and sounding sad.

"It's up to our owners." Zoro said as he followed his owner out of the park.

Luffy whimpered as his owner came up and patted him on the head.

"Hey, don't worry Luffy. We'll see them again tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah!" He said, which sounded like an excited yip.

The next day, Mihawk was going over some drills with Zoro when both heard the excited bark of a pup. They turned, only for the black puppy to run pass the man and tackle the green dog.

"Yay! Zoro's here!" Luffy called out as Zoro got up gave out a warning growl.

"Don't tackle other dogs like that!"

"Okay! I won't! Only because Zoro says so!" He said, his tail wagging a mile a second. "Can we play now?"

"Hey! Mihawk!" Shanks called out as he ran up to where the man stood. "Looks like Luf beat me to you guys. He's really excited to see Zoro again."

"So it appears." Mihawk said as he got a whistle out and did a short blow on it, but Shanks didn't hear anything but the dogs became attentive.

"A dog whistle?"

"For training." He said as he looked at the man. "If you still want to train your pup."

"Well… I wouldn't be bad for him to learn that 'Come' command, because he does like to get ahead of me."

"That's a given…"

"What are you saying?"

While the two men talked, Luffy took this moment to face the other dog and took on a playful position. "Let's play now, Zoro!"

Zoro looked at his young companion, or so he thinks, and tilts his head to the side. "What do you want to do?"

Luffy sat down as he had one ear up and the other down in concentration before both perked back up. "Let's play tag!"

"Just us two?"

Luffy laughed, making his tail wag wildly once more before he pounced on the other. "You're it!" He said quickly as he ran away from the green dog.

Zoro blinked before going after the pup. "Luffy!"

Both dogs got the attention of their owners, one laughed while the other stared on.

"And there they go!" Shanks said, still laughing.

Mihawk looked at the man with hardly any expression. "Maybe it's best if you find another trainer."

"Aw! Why? I can pay you and Luffy would be completely heartbroken if I have to separate him from Zoro so soon after he just met and accepted him!"

Mihawk sighed, not sure what to do with this sudden development.

With the dogs, Zoro was impressed with how fast the pup is. 'Looks like he's a mutt with impressive traits as well.' He thought as he went faster to catch up to the pup.

Luffy liked being fast, he looked back and was happy to see that the other was catching up. 'Zoro can keep up! I knew he's cool!' He thought when he looked ahead, and jumped over a couple just in time, and Zoro followed suit. 'He jumps high too!'

"That's reckless Luffy!" Zoro called out, but he still ran after the pup.

"No one got hurt! So it's all good!" He called back as he looked back, not noticing a group of big dogs running as well.

"Luffy! Look out!" Zoro called out, but it was too late as he watched the pup, literally, crash into the group.

"Itte…" He said as he looked up from the now pissed off group of big dogs. "Hi, sorry I ran into you." He apologized, but the group were anything but forgiving at that moment. He knew this and stared at them wondering what they're gonna do until Zoro stood in front of him, facing the pissed off group. "Zoro!"

"Out of our way you mutt freak!" Growled one dog.

"Yeah! You have nothing to do with this!"

Zoro grinned as he crouched down. "Oh? You think so?" He said as, in human view, he bared his teeth and growled lowly, warningly. "It seems to me that you're planning to hurt my new friend here, and he did say his sorry." He can see that he was winning the mental fight as the group started to show signs of backing off with their tails between their legs. "So tell me, are you willing to bet your necks to believe that this doesn't concern me?" He waited a moment before the group slowly backed off and ran to another part of the park. "Thought so." He said as he calmed down and looked over at the pup. "You okay, Luffy?"

"Yeah…" Luffy said as he stared at the other in awe.

"Can you get up?" He asked as he bent down as the other started to get up, but yelped and went back down. He looked around and found a cut on the other's ankle. "Damn. Hold still." He ordered as he bent down and licked the cut.

Now, even though they appear human with dog ears and tails, to the humans they are dogs.

When Shanks and Mihawk appeared at the scene, they saw the black pup on the ground, the wounded leg stuck out behind him, and the green dog on the ground, licking the said wound. The black pup was looking at the other while the mentioned continued to lick until the blood stopped seeping out.

"What a relief." Shanks said. "I'm so glad that Zoro is there to keep Luffy safe."

"Indeed." Mihawk said as he watched his dog help the other up while the pup limped towards them. "I think you should head to the vet right away."

"Right." Shanks said in a serious tone as he picked up the pup easily with his only one arm. "Sorry Luf, but we have to get that looked at."

"No!" Luffy cried as he was being carried by the man. "I'm okay!" He looks, to humans, to be a struggling piglet.

"Luffy!" Zoro barked as he walked over to where the other can see him. "You have to be looked at so that we can keep playing." He said as he, to Luffy, smiled. "I would feel awful if you get worse."

Luffy calmed down, but he still whined as his owner took it as a good sign and he was carried out of the park.

The next day he was better and practically dragged his owner to the park.

"Oi! Luffy! Chill boy!"

"No! I wanna see Zoro! I wanna play with him again!" Luffy whined.

"Jeeze… Maybe I should get you into training." Shanks said as he looked up to see Mihawk by the entrance. "Hey! Hawkie-kun!"

Mihawk's eye twitched upon the sudden nickname. "Red-san…"

"Aw! Don't look like that!" He said with a laugh as he looked around. "So! Where's your handsome boy? Luffy acts like he's on pins and needles since yesterday."

"He's in heat."

"Eh?"

"It's about this time that some dogs get into…" He cleared his throat. "Their arousal states."

"Oh… so, he's at home so that…"

"Exactly."

"He's not fixed?"

"I see yours isn't either."

"It's like me getting it done."

Mihawk sighed. "Something we both agree on."

Luffy however was confused about the whole thing. He whimpered to get his owner's attention. "Where's Zoro! I wanna play with him."

Shanks, feeling guilty about his pup's disappointment of not seeing his friend. "So… How long will he be in that?"

"It varies, but usually a week."

Shanks was deadpanned. "What am I gonna do to make Luffy understand that he can't see his friend for that long?"

"Zoro!" Luffy whined as he kept tugging on his leash.

"Get a ball or some kind of toy, take him to the dog park and play with him. That's all I got to say." Mihawk said. "I have to get back. Zoro is obviously the dominant when he gets into heat."

"Eh?"

Mihawk sighed as he went to explaining it. "A dog can be one of two types. Dominate and submissive. Submissive is a type that can roll on their back and be taken advantaged of. Dominates are the ones that top the submissives, in other words the pack leader of some sorts."

"And Zoro is dominant? How do you tell?"

Mihawk shrugged. "I've trained him to be a leader, but he's also quite stubborn and sometimes doesn't want to heed my commands. In fact he nearly broke his chain leash the last time he was like this."

Shanks cringed at the thought as he looked at his pup, who was sitting down and whimpering for his missing friend. "What about Luffy?"

"Right now it's hard to tell." Mihawk said as he looked at the pup as well. "But he has potential to be dominate as well."

"Sweet!"

"But having two dominates in heat would only cause a fight."

Shanks shivered at the thought. "I don't even want to think about it. Hell, I saw Zoro make that group of dogs back out without making any sort of move. If he's able to do that without lifting a paw, I don't want to know what he can do when he does."

"I learned that the hard way, it's not pretty." He said as he looked down to see that the pup was pulling on his leash again, but something was amiss. "Red-san…"

"Eh?" He looked down at the pup, and saw that both men had the long leather leash around their legs.

Luffy was bored and wondered around the men as they talked and then caught the scent of Zoro on the owner's pants, then caught the lead from there. He started chewing and tugging his leash once he caught the scent when the men noticed him. He only had to tug hard once before the metal part gave way and he was free to go after his friend. What he didn't take in account for his actions was that, after the hard tug, the leash around their legs brought them together physically and fell on the sidewalk.

"Luffy! Oi! Luffy!" Shanks called from where he was, which is on top of Mihawk. "Shit! He could get hurt!"

"First things first…" Mihawk said, clearly uncomfortable about the sudden predicament. "Get the blasted leash off and get him before he finds my dog. I doubt he's experienced being in heat, correct?"

"If he was then he's defiantly not showing any of the signs." Shanks said as he noticed the uncomfortable position they're in. "Oh…"

"Are you going to continue gawking like an idiot or are you going to get the leash off!" Mihawk shouted, getting the other to get the leash off, which was a mistake since they seem to get tangled more than being free. "For the love of!" He called out as he took charge of getting them untangled.

While the men were doing that, Luffy ran quickly, causing a few accidents when he raced across the streets, and found the other dog's scent to the house. He barked happily as he backed up a bit, ran, and jumped over the fence and found himself in a yard. "Zoro! You here!" He called, his tail wagging happily as he looked around.

Zoro, who was chewing on the steel chain on him, looked over to where he heard his name being called and growled lowly when he recognized who the voice belonged to. "What the hell are you doing here?" He barked, but the other took it as a greeting as he went up.

"Zoro! There you are! I was wondering where you are when I didn't see you!"

"Luffy! Stay away!" He barked and growled as he saw the other trying to get close.

"Eh? Zoro?" He said, when he noticed the change in the other's scent. "Are you okay?"

"No, Luffy, I'm not!" He growled as he laid down on the ground, keeping his sharp emerald eyes on the wide, innocent brown of the pup's. "I'm not feeling well, so go back to your owner and I'll see you after I'm well." He said, congratulating himself from not being any harsher or doing anything he'd regret.

Luffy, however, went down on his stomach and carefully crawled up to the other.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I wanna be with Zoro…"

"Why? Surely you know what I smell like now." He said with a slight growl, hoping he can discourage the other from getting closer.

"Yeah… your owner kept saying that you're in heat."

"Yeah, you know what that means, right?" He looked just like he had the other day with the group of pissed off dogs.

"Yeah, I'm not that stupid." He said as he stopped crawling and sniffed. "But…" He continued to sniff before shivering, which caught the other's attention and drop his intimidating look. "You smell too good to ignore…"

'He's also a dominate…' Zoro thought as he could smell the other's scent as well. "You're suddenly in heat now?" He asked, staying on the ground to prevent from any sudden moves.

"I guess so… I'm at that age after all." Luffy said as he continued to crawl until he was close enough to Zoro that the other was surprised to see him so close. "But you're the only one that I seem to go into heat for." He said as he licked the other's ear, making the other shiver.

"Stop that, Luffy." Zoro grunted, having every intention to stay where he was at.

But Luffy continued as if he didn't hear or ignored him.

"Luffy!" He growled as he got up. "I only met you a few days ago, damnit! You're still a pup for crying out loud!"

"I really like Zoro though…" Luffy said, as if unaffected by the other's attempts to get him away. "I really like Zoro from the day we met. I knew you were cool in your own special way."

Zoro looked away with a bit of a blush on his face as he sensed his body trying to win over his logic. "Idiot… You're just suddenly got in heat, you'll hate yourself and me if you continue this."

Luffy however, did something that the other didn't expect and caused his logic to fail. He got up, turned so that his rear was facing the other's direction, and was in position.

Zoro growled as his body moved and he was over the other as he slowly entered into the other's entrance.

The two men arrived too late as they stared, dumbstruck as they watched the green dog humping the black dog, and both were unsure at what to do.

"If we try to stop them, there's no telling what they'll do." Mihawk said, a bit disappointed in himself for letting this happen. "I'm sorry about this…"

"No, no, it's practically my fault." Shanks said, also disappointed in himself. "I should've guessed that he would try to pull that trick and be able to find his way here…"

By that point, the green dog parted himself away from the other dog and laid down in the shade, with the other dog following and laying down next to him.

"They seem to get along though…"

"We'll see…"

The next day, Zoro was grounded at home once again, but this time Shanks and Luffy went over to his territory, Luffy bounding over and pouncing on him. His first day of heat was usually the worst, but after what happened yesterday he seemed to manage it, which can't be a good thing.

"Zoro! Are you feeling better?"

"More or less…" He grunted, but he eyed the pup warily. "Are you, feeling okay?"

"Hmm… a little sore, but not in pain or anything." He said with a confident smile and his tail wagging up a storm like usual. "Zoro's really gentle!"

Zoro looked at the pup with a surprised look, and because the humans don't see them as humanoid canines, he was blushing. "W-What?"

"Are you able to play? Or is it still hard to?"

"Play? The yard is hardly big enough for me to run around in full speed."

"Then we'll wrestle then!"

"I rather we try to do anything that isn't close contact…" He said, looking away guiltily.

"Was it really that bad?" Luffy said, his tail stopped wagging and his ears dropped along with his face. "Did Zoro not like it?"

"Huh?" He looked at the saddened expression of the pup.

"Is it because I'm male?"

"It's not like that at all! I did like it, but yesterday I wasn't able to control it! And you're a pup for crying out loud!"

"I'm seventeen in human years! I'm plenty old enough for that kind of thing!" Luffy countered as he looked sad again. "In fact I would've started my heat period around this time, but I didn't find anyone attracting, so my owner wasn't aware of it."

"Why me? For all I know I only know you as Luffy and your owner is Shanks. And if you're really in heat, I would've smelled it!"

Luffy smiled sadly as he looked at the other from the corner of his eye. "It's easy for me to change my scent when I put my mind onto something else." He pulled at the grass a bit as he looked down. "Then I met you… At first I didn't feel anything, because I wanted to be your friend. But that was quickly shot down when you stood up for me that day. Believe me, I tried everything not to let it show. Then yesterday… It just happened…" His ears went down as he stopped pulling the grass. "I should've known that you wouldn't like me after that."

"It's not that I don't like you, I do for some strange reason." Zoro said as he leaned forward and gave the other a reassuring lick before looking into wide brown orbs that still held their innocence. "I guess I misjudged you."

"So… we're still friends."

"I think you and I both know that we're beyond that by now."

"Lovers?"

"Definitely. But we're not going to repeat yesterday's event, got it."

"Right! But… what are we gonna do then? Since you and I are still in heat and all."

Zoro had a thoughtful look before grinning. "I'll be scolded for this, but I think it'll be good."

"What is it?"

Inside the house though, both men looked on in wonder at how their two canine companions handle one another after yesterday's unforeseen event.

"Looks like things are gonna go well!" Shanks said with a smile. "You must have a really smart dog!"

"And you're an idiot for not seeing that your dog is in heat for some time."

"How was I suppose to know! And anyway you didn't pick that up until afterwards! So don't pin the self-righteous ownership on me!"

"Duly noted. You have a cunning pup."

"Why thank- Eh! Oi! No changing the subject!" He said when he saw the other smile. "Hey, you look good smiling."

That commented smile disappeared to that of a deadpanned look. "What?"

"Come on, Hawkie-kun! Smile again! You look friendly that way!"

Before Mihawk could make a snappy remark, the sudden splash of water hit the window, causing both to look out to see Zoro holding the garden hose and hosing down Luffy, who was running around, barking happily.

"Zoro!" Mihawk called out as he ran out to catch his dog. "I thought I taught you never to do that!" His reply was a stream of water to his face.

Shanks couldn't help but laugh as he watched this.

"If you got enough energy to laugh, then get your dog!" Mihawk shouted, clearly pissed at being soaked.

Well, he couldn't say he didn't try, but as he was chasing his dog, he was tricked to bumping into Mihawk while Zoro quickly wrapped the hose around them before knocking them down, being soaked in the process.

"Not again!" Mihawk called out, finding himself in the same position as yesterday.

"Ya know… I just noticed you have really great golden eyes."

"And they'll be the last you'll ever see if you don't help me get out of this predicament, again!"

"I think our dogs are trying to tell us something though."

"In your dreams!"

While the men argued, the two dogs turned off the water and watched their owners being idiots.

"You're so right! That was a lot of fun!" Luffy said, laughing.

"But your idea about wrapping the hose around them is an instant classic!" Zoro said as he laughed along with the other. "And if I'm not mistaken, I think my owner is actually in heat with your owner."

"I guess there's no way of getting rid of us."

"Like either of us are going to let that happen." He said as he licked the other's face. "As strange as it is."

Once the men were out of the tangles of the garden hose, both looked at their soaked dogs, sitting there innocently as Shanks chuckled.

"What is it?"

"I just thought of something silly. Wanna hear it?"

"Not really…"

"I'll tell ya anyway!"

"Figured as much."

"I was thinking that maybe since our dogs obviously like each other, that we should start dating."

"What!"

"What do you say? Shall I take you out for dinner?"

"I didn't even agree! You bastard!"

Shanks laughed. "You're blushing! You must like me then!"

"I'm pissed off! There's a difference!"

"So, next week?"

"Have you been listening to anything I've said!"

"So it's a date!"

Mihawk looked like he was going to blow a vein, but he sighed as he looked at his dog accusingly. "I hope you're happy, you damn son of a bitch."

Zoro grinned as he nuzzled the other, who barked in happiness.

"So cute!" Shanks said. "Looks like we're going to be father in-laws!"

"Shut your mouth! You idiot!" He said as he hit the man on the head.

"Itte… Zoro! Why's your daddy so mean!"

"I put up with worst." Zoro responded, which only sounded like a throaty gruff to the spoken human.

"They'll be okay, I can tell." Luffy said as he nuzzled against the other. "Cause we're okay."

Zoro grinned. "Right."

(laughs) Oh! I actually had a ton of fun with this, especially the Shanks and Mihawk parts.