One Piece isn't mine. So please don't sue me…

Warning: This story has implied yaoi, which is a term of Japanese origin used to refer to work that refers to homosexual relationships between male characters. Boy love. So if this isn't your thing, please go back now.

Zoro x Sanji, written for the topic "Routines and Rituals" at LiveJournal community OnePieceYaoi100. WARNING: Character Death
It was finally quiet. One by one emotional exhaustion overtook the rest of the crew, until it was just you and me.

The evening had started with another pointless Marine attack. You and I argued, kicked ass, and covertly watched each other's backs. I suppose that's why you spotted that goddamn private leveling a rifle at my back when I didn't. Why you screamed my I name /I , not one of your usual insults, but I was too caught up in bloodlust to heed your warning. Why your lithe form suddenly tackled me from behind, almost simultaneous with the gun's sharp report.

I remember pushing you roughly from me after we'd ended up in a heap on the deck. Remembered the shock I'd felt when you didn't push back, and the way my hands came away covered in blood. The wry smile on your face as you reached up to touch mine, almost in apology, as the light slowly faded from your eyes. Your hand dropped back to the ruinous exit wound in your chest as I vainly shouted your name.

You wouldn't get up for your morning routine of keeping Luffy from the food stores; for fawning over the girls with endless tokens of affection; for our almost ritualistic courtship of insults and violent fights that led to us tangled together in my hammock. Morning would be ushered in instead by your nakama lowering your canvas-wrapped form into the ocean's final embrace.

I never asked for you to die for me, baka. Leaning down, I placed one last kiss on lips that were no longer warm and pliable. I felt the wetness of tears slip down my face before they dripped down to dampen your cheeks. I don't cry; it's a weakness. But tonight I cried alone with you.