Sanji was on his way to school when his phone buzzed.
'Don't be too hard on Zoro as much as he was an idiot, just be patient with him.'
He sighed.
Reiju was right, he knew she was, but fuck… saying it once was hard enough but to be able to build up the courage to say it again, and after everything that happened last time?
And what if he said no?
I mean he couldn't have told him he wasn't gay any firmer back at the dojo so maybe he wasn't.
And why did he have to be the one who was patient when it was that stupid mosshead's fault in the first place for not understanding him?!
Because he'd never ask you.
Maybe he shouldn't have told him he wasn't ready to be friends yet, Zoro would never make the jump from acquaintances to boyfriends just like that.
He might not even accept him as a friend if he stuck to his own logic of feeling like he didn't deserve to be.
Why did he have to make everything so difficult?
Because nothing about their past was easy.
And Zoro refused to let himself forget.
To him everything might as well have happened yesterday, he still remembered what he'd done and the damage he'd caused, every time he made fun of him, every time they stole his hearing aids, every time he went out of his way to be a dick, those were clearly front and centre in Zoro's mind whenever they hung out together.
He didn't want to be forgiven, he even said so himself.
So he tortured himself constantly over it because he couldn't comprehend how he'd ever forgive him after what he did.
It was pretty sad actually.
Plus there was all that stuff he was refusing to talk about, mainly what happened after he left, and the whole story with his eye.
He wasn't an idiot.
That day on the bridge when they'd fallen in had clearly happened because he was trying to stop him from seeing the notes people had left for the mosshead after he'd transferred. He'd found them that night after reading through the notebook and he couldn't quite believe some of the stuff they'd wrote.
Most were just casual childish remarks while others were straight up mocking, but some were more worrying.
Threats about finding him after school, threats about what they were going to do to him, threats about if he was to go missing, threats about stealing his stuff, they just went on and on to the point where he'd struggled to even read them it was that painful to witness.
Something awful happened to Zoro and the notebook gave a very clear indication of just what exactly they did to him.
In one of the earlier pages, a few lines below his own handwriting (so just after Zeff found out and transferred him), there was the usual mocking calling him a loser and so on. Underneath that was a line that really caught his attention.
'Even Sanji is tougher than you, at least he didn't cry like a baby because of a little noise!'
He really wondered about the context but clearly something had happened where the rest of the class had seen Zoro crying.
He couldn't imagine mosshead crying about anything.
Last night however, after accidentally knocking it on the floor, something had fallen out that almost had him throwing up.
Photos.
The first was of Zoro dressed in his school uniform using his blazer as a blanket as he shivered sleeping underneath a bush outside what looked like a house.
The next was clearly taken on a phone in a hurry. It was clearly Zoro and appeared to be in the changing rooms of the gym block. What caught his attention thought was the sheer amount of dark black and green bruises all over his side and stomach along with finger prints on his neck, and a long scar down the centre of his chest which looked surgical.
And the last was taken from above and showed a very unconscious Zoro lying on the ground of the schoolyard with some upperclassman kid posing with a grin and peace sign beside him.
Underneath the last photo someone had written in marker.
'why should your parents get all the fun?'
The words had truly thrown him for a loop because he'd never even thought about Zoro's parents. He'd been there the day he had come to the Baratie to pay Zeff the money owed for the hearing aids but there wasn't a woman with him, only a guy, so was that his Dad?
No it can't have been because he'd gotten angry when Zeff called him by that.
So a foster parent?
'Could… Could you not tell anyone; please?'
It would also make sense for why Zoro was so afraid of coming out.
From what he had managed to find out from Luffy about whatever the fuck happened when Zoro went missing, he'd met the guy in the waiting room and told him to look after his straw hat. If it was the same guy then he clearly cared about him, or he was playing the role to look good for the social workers, but Zoro didn't seem as on edge as he used to back at school so maybe he was a foster parent that mosshead actually liked?
"Can you cook?"
"Not really."
"So what can you make?"
"Well like you said before, rice and ramen."
"Is that it? That's real sad, dude."
"Yeah well not all of us-."
Sanji winced at his own words, the sentence Zoro had cut off making so much more sense when he invented endings to it.
Is that why he'd been so tearful about him making food?
Did he have anyone who cooked for him? Had he ever had anyone who did?
And what had Reiju said about his kendo too?
'It's plain as day that all that kendo stuff means a lot to him. He holds onto it despite whatever's happening around him so the fact that he allowed you in says a lot.'
That was a weird way to describe a sport.
And then there was Zoro himself.
'I would have accepted if you decided to beat the crap out of me back in that community centre, that's what we're working with here.'
Sanji had even thrown clues straight to his face.
'And considering you just moved into our school like a month after the start of term in second year… it's a pretty strong coincidence; unless it's not.'
So the first messages about him crying, whatever happened back then triggered something in Zoro's life but they didn't change his school which meant it was probably linked to the comment they left about his parents, which led back to his eye.
'The stupid thing's getting infected and it's doing that because it's recent enough where you still don't fully know how to clean it properly.'
Losing an eye to bullies was above and beyond a reason to transfer schools but there was also the fact that Zoro, who had absolutely no sense of direction at school, did have at least some knowledge of the town, enough to walk around on his own and not get lost.
Considering there wasn't another high school in the prefecture he could have transferred from that meant he came from further away, so the incident was bad enough where his foster parent was okay with moving an entire prefecture away.
But if Zoro knew his way around, did he used to live here at some point, and if so, how young would he have been at the time, and how did he end up over in that other prefecture for them to meet in elementary school?
Sanji hadn't managed to get much sleep because his brain hadn't shut the fuck up, with new connections clicking in his head through the night leading him closer to understanding the mystery of mosshead.
He wished Zoro would just tell him about all this himself but he knew there was an incredibly strong chance that something like that would never happen. Mosshead didn't strike him as much of a talker, especially not about that kind of stuff, or to him.
Zoro would probably think all of it was karma that he deserved somehow after the bullying, which sounded obscenely ridiculous to Sanji but probably didn't in mosshead's head. To say the guy probably had self-worth issues would be an understatement considering some of the stuff he'd come out with during their conversations together.
Sanji also felt like he was intruding on something he shouldn't have.
He hadn't exactly meant to come across all that stuff but even he knew that Zoro would not want him knowing. It wasn't something he could just bring up in conversation with him and he wouldn't want to because everything he'd read and seen was insanely personal and probably painful too.
But…
He was also glad that he at least knew a little.
Regardless of Zeff's opinion, or even Reiju's at the beginning, he did care about Zoro.
There was more at play then he could ever have imagined but he was determined to make sure that nothing like that ever happened to him again.
Hopefully he wouldn't push him away.
That was always a real possibility.
Zoro would throw himself in harm's way for someone just because of how much he hated himself. It's not sacrificing yourself if you don't see any value in your own life to begin with.
How long had he seen things that way?
How long had he been drowning?
Had anyone ever noticed?
Had anyone ever cared?
Probably not.
Fuck.
Sanji knew he was probably far too deep in all this and that he desperately needed to let it go before he blurted something out by accident in front of one of the Straw Hats, or worse, Zoro himself, but a part of him couldn't because he couldn't help the awful thoughts that came into his head.
Did Zoro think that he deserved whatever abuse he suffered because he'd bullied him?
That's what had kept him up all night.
Because part of him was sure Zoro actually believed that.
'He'd never ask you.'
Even if mosshead did understand what he was asking, would he even say yes? Would this guy, who had all of this truly awful crap going on, who didn't even believe he was deserving of having friends, allow himself to be happy?
Sanji took a breath.
His phone buzzed.
'Pain in the Ass 1: Anyone wanna' go to the docks this weekend?'
It was Luffy.
'Cyborg Franky: Well you know my answer.'
'Pain in the Ass 2: Sure, can I ask Kaya?'
'Nami-Swan: Oooh, I'll invite Vivi!'
'Book Nerd: Is there really nothing going on between you two?
'Nami-Swan: NO! She's all of our friend.'
'Book Nerd: Sure…'
'Nami-Swan: ROBIN!'
'Pain in the Ass 1: So are we going or what?'
'Nami-Swan: Fine'
'Book Nerd: Sounds good'
'Racoon Child: Yay! We haven't been in ages!'
'OAP: I'll bring my violin!
'Cyborg Franky: You just gonna' lurk there, Sanji?'
He tapped out a response.
'You: Sure.'
'Pain in the Ass 1: Hey we should add Zoro in here.'
'You: Yeah we should.'
'Pain in the Ass 2: Anyone have him on here?'
'Cyborg Franky: Vivi does I think.'
'Pain in the Ass 1: Oh I'll just ask him at school then.'
'Racoon Child: I'm nearly there.'
'Cyborg Franky: Same.'
He closed the app and put his phone away.
Looking up ahead Sanji jumped as someone appeared from behind.
"Jesus!"
It was Zoro.
"Shit, I'm really sorry!"
He burst out laughing before shaking his head.
"It's fine, that was actually really funny."
Mosshead smirked.
"Oh!"
Grabbing the phone he'd just put away he opened the app back up and motioned towards it.
"Do I have it?" Zoro interpreted.
He nodded.
"Uhh yeah."
"Add me."
Sanji reeled off his username before the notification arrived.
'Roronoa Zoro sent you a friend request'
He hit accept.
"Cool!" He smiled. "Can I add you to our group chat?"
Zoro didn't seem sold.
"They want you to join, don't worry."
"Sure."
Sanji added him in.
'You: Be nice!'
'Pain in the Ass 1: ZORO!'
'Cyborg Franky: Hey dude!'
"'Curly Brows'." Zoro commented.
Sanji furrowed an eyebrow.
"What?"
He looked over at mosshead's screen.
'Curly Brows: Be nice!'
"What the fuck?!"
'You: WHO CHANGED MY NAME TO CURLY BROWS?!'
'Pain in the Ass 2: AHAHAHAHA'
'Pain in the Ass 2: Nice job noticing.'
Sanji turned back to Zoro.
"That nickname is entirely your fault!"
The mosshead chuckled seemingly proud of his achievement.
'Pain in the Ass 1: Zoro! Come to the docks with us this weekend!'
"What's at the docks?"
He smiled.
"You'll see."
"That sounds ominous."
"Nah, I think you'll like it, it's something cool, don't worry."
'Roronoa Zoro: Okay, thanks.'
'Pain in the Ass 2: You need a nickname.'
Sanji's eyes lit up.
Zoro saw this and sighed, throwing his head back, knowing exactly what it was going to be.
'Curly Brows changed Roronoa Zoro's nickname to Mosshead'
"Thanks…"
"Not a problem."