Zoro wandered in this part of the city he didn't know and finally got home after hours – he didn't get lost, definitely not – feeling tired by this forced walk. After a long cold shower and a quick snack because he hadn't eaten anything, he checked his phone and saw a message from Sanji.

"Did you know?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you say anything?" The answer came instantly, as if Sanji had been waiting for it.

"In case you were a pervert"

"Hey, that's my line." Then, in another message, "Disappointed?"

"Well, you're not an old pervert. Though you do have weird manners with girls."

"It's called being civilized."

Zoro didn't answer, not knowing exactly where they stood now. Did Sanji still want to talk?

"Marimo," Sanji sent after a while, and a small smile appeared on Zoro's face.

"Shitty cook," he answered, and knew that nothing had changed.


Except that something had changed. Because a few days later, Zoro opened his door to see Sanji, bag in his hand, cigarette in his mouth, smile on his face, two fingers to the sky.

"Yo!" he said, joyful.

"What are you doing here?" Zoro asked, and Sanji rolled his eyes.

"An omelette, you never got to try it so I'm making you one."

"How did you even know where I lived?" Zoro continued, not moving from his doorstep.

"Luffy told me," Sanji shrugged, and pushed Zoro away to enter, not even asking for permission.

As they ate, they talked a bit and laughed. Then they fought over some stupidity, again, except that they really fought. On a hand to hand (more like hand to foot/leg), Zoro lost. Then Sanji agreed on fighting him with his katanas. Zoro only took two, not answering Sanji's questions about why the hell he had three katanas. None of them won, but they stopped when the oven rang, signalling them the cookies were ready, and they let their fight on hold because cookies were more important. And even if Zoro didn't admit it, Sanji's food was the best he had ever tasted.

They continued to text each other, but Sanji would occasionally drop by with something ready, or to prepare something, sometimes eating with Zoro, sometimes not, and they soon started to hang out with the same friends and they were arguing or fighting in real life as much as they had been by texts, which was fine. Zoro liked this challenging friendship. Except that they looked like an old married couple sometimes and as someone told this to Zoro again, he realised that maybe he wanted this. But every time he realised that he was contemplating it, he dismissed the thought with a shake of his head. It was stupid, and Sanji seemed hetero. Actually, he sometimes sounded like a pervert with women... Which made him wonder what he liked about him. But he didn't linger on that thought, not really keen to know what in Sanji made him feel... things.


Zoro stretched his arms above his head with a yawn and gently hit Luffy in the ribs with his foot. The young man winced and pouted, then gave the hit back. Then Law put his hands on their aggressive feet and they stopped, both pouting, and what seemed to be the only adult among the three sighed.

"I was winning," Luffy pouted at his boyfriend, looking up at him, his head thrown back to be able to see him.

"No you weren't," Zoro said, crossing his arms on his chest. Luffy pulled his tongue out in answer.

"Not when I can be the victim of a stray kick," Law shook his head, and kissed the pout away from Luffy's face.

The man tilted his head when they pulled back, and he smiled hugely at Zoro, as if to taunt the man because if none of them had won, at least Luffy had Law. Zoro ignored him and looked at Robin who was reading a book and Nami who was checking his flat. Zoro was sitting on his own couch, Law on the opposite side, with Luffy between his legs. They had planned a quiet evening at Zoro's place, and they were enjoying it so far. But then again, something was missing.

"Where's the shitty cook?" Zoro asked before he could even realise he had talked aloud.

He smiled nervously, hoping no one would notice. Did he talk too much about Sanji? He was sure he was talking too much about him, he didn't want the others to think he liked him or something like this.

"He had something to do, said he'd be here by five, it's almost time," Nami shrugged, not noticing Zoro's stress. He sighed, relieved, and nodded, only to let his eyes fall on Law who was looking at him knowingly. Knowing what? Even Zoro couldn't tell, and he jumped on his feet.

He lay on the floor to give himself something to do and started doing push-ups, counting in his head. He used one hand, the other pulling his shirt up.

"What is he doing?" Law asked after three push-ups.

"His exercises," Robin answered, then saw the sceptical look the man had and added, "And taking his shirt off because he forgot."

"Can't he just stop, take it off, and start again?"

Robin just chuckled and resumed her reading. Nami shook her head with a smile and Luffy raised his head to look at him. "Zoro doesn't stop once he starts," he shrugged and Law nodded.

Zoro put his tee-shirt on the floor next to him and didn't even flinch when the doorbell rang. Nami opened to Sanji, and Zoro looked up to salute him. He wasn't wearing anything particular, he wasn't more smiling than usual, he wasn't looking better than any other day, but Zoro babbled in his mind and totally lost count of his push-ups for no reason. Outwardly, he raised two fingers to his temple to greet Sanji in a neutral way, still working out with his other hand.

He stopped after a few minutes, the smell of what Sanji was cooking too enticing for him to be able to continue without his stomach manifesting its hunger. Sanji had joined them in the living-room when Zoro went to the kitchen to take a glass.

"Can you hand me one of those?" a voice asked, and Zoro took another glass and threw it behind him.

"Fuck!" he heard, but no sound of any dish breaking followed the exclamation.

He turned to see that Sanji had caught it and realised he hadn't even checked where Sanji was before throwing him the glass, and wondered how he could have known exactly where he was. Nah, probably a lucky guess, and his voice helping him.

He left the kitchen soon after, joining the others on the couch as Luffy was asking for a game. They voted for an old movie instead – it was a 'quiet evening' after all – and started it when Sanji came with the dinner, after one long hour of waiting. Their movie nights were usually full of comments and their meals pretty agitated, and this time wasn't an exception, the six of them spending quality time together. As they started a second film and the night was starting to fall, Luffy was starting to doze off, in the middle of digestion, and the room was way quieter. Robin and Nami were watching the screen, Law was half playing with Luffy's hair and half watching the film, and Sanji was sitting against the couch, asleep or watching, Zoro couldn't tell.

Zoro was trying to watch, or to sleep, but his eyes kept lingering on Sanji who was almost in front of him. He noticed a few wild strands of hair and smiled, thinking it was kind of cute. He snapped back to reality when his mind wondered how his hair would feel between his fingers, feeling so stupid and not understanding why he was thinking this. It wasn't the first time, but it was unsettling and he really wished his mind wouldn't go in this sort of thoughts.

He tried to watch the movie, but soon enough he felt a pressure on his leg and looked down to see that Sanji had fallen asleep. Against his leg. His first reflex was to shake him off but then he felt a strange warmth spreading through his entire being until it was burning his cheeks and he opened his mouth, taken aback by the sensation. He casually put a hand on his face and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep and praying nobody would see him.