Author's Note: I don't own One Piece. This was inspired by a Percy Jackson story called 52 Reasons and it was too cute so I had to do something like it.


Beautiful Moments
by: Setkia


52 Reasons

Because Sanji has to write one back. Takes place before Paris, but after White Day. Except for the omakes. The first is in Paris, the second after Paris.


When Zoro woke up, there was a deck of cards on his face. He knew that wasn't there when he fell asleep. Sitting up in bed, he read the package. It was a plain box, but written in black sharpie over it was 52 reasons why …

Recognizing the handwriting to be Sanji's, he yelled to ask Sanji what the hell this was about, to realize he was alone in the house. Sighing, out of pure curiosity, he opened the pack. The first card read: #52: your commitment towards sword-fighting

Zoro's brow furrowed. What? He flipped the next card over.

#51: you're stubborn

And then Zoro realized what this was. These were the things he had listed when they had played that game, the game he had then used to create a long list of all the things about Sanji that he loved. Zoro grinned. And Sanji called him cheesy?

#50: your earrings (they're hot)

Zoro laughed at that. So it was a countdown was it? In a deck of cards there were 52, four sets of 13. A part of him wondered why Sanji didn't just tell him, why he defaced a pack of cards but at the same time he knew why. Sanji couldn't say everything as freely as Zoro sometimes and sometimes words were more easily expressed written. Zoro didn't mind, now he could keep them, forever, save them for whenever.

#49: the way you treat your swords

Zoro's eyes wandered to the edge of the room where all of his swords were leaning against the wall. He didn't like putting them away into a cupboard, especially not her sword and Sanji never complained. He'd have to thank him for that sometime. It was almost like a show of trust, Zoro left dangerous weapons lying around and he was very skilled at using them. Sanji was trusting him not to hurt him with them. Maybe he was putting too much thought into this. He turned the next card over.

#48: the way you fight

Zoro felt a bit like a giddy girl getting confessed to by the boy she liked. Well, he was being confessed to by the boy he liked. Sort of. But he wasn't a giddy girl, he just felt like a giddy girl. Sanji almost always made him feel like a giddy girl.

#47: your tan

#46: your eyes

#45: you're considerate

#44: your muscles

Zoro couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course Sanji couldn't say something sweet and less crude, but of course he loved the cook for his foul mouth.

#43: your smile

#42: your laugh

#41: the way you say "shut up" when you can't think of anything else

It was a valid tactic, at least Zoro thought it was so there was no reason to make fun of him for it.

#40: the way you get lost all the time

He did not get lost all the time. He didn't get lost at all.

#39: the fact that you won't admit that you couldn't find your way around the block

Okay, maybe sometimes but that was because the streets changed without warning and it was complicated. Saying all the time was stretching it.

#38: the tone you use when you're talking to me

#37: your hands on my skin

#36: the taste of your lips

If this went on, Zoro might turn himself permanently red. Sanji called him embarrassing. He swore, if Luffy or Nami or whoever the fuck came crashing through the door he'd kill them if they interrupted his reading of this list, and then he'd kill them again for making fun of him

#35: your smell

#34: you're so graceful when you fight

#33: your dedication

#32: the way you watch trashy soap operas

They weren't that trashy, were they?

#31: how you look after you've eaten a really good meal

#30: you do sudoku in pen

If you did sudoku, you had to do it in pen, otherwise you weren't hardcore and Zoro liked being hardcore.

#29: you can't play sudoku

Zoro didn't agree with that.

#28: the way you look after a victory

#27: all the cheesy words you say

Zoro had explained it to him once and he'd say it again; anything was worth it to see the look on Sanji's face after Zoro said one of the most embarrassing things he had ever thought of.

#26: the way you look in the morning when you've just woken up

#25: you cuddle

#24: your scars

#23: the way you say my name

#22: when you look me in the eyes

#21: the way you pull at your hair

#20: how you don't push me for more till I'm ready

Zoro knew Sanji was a rape victim, he was sure anyone would treat him with just as much fragility. Though Sanji wasn't fragile. He was hard and muscle and lean, maybe a bit delicate-looking, but not delicate himself.

#19: the way you speak French (the things it does to me)

That was weird. Especially since Zoro knew Sanji didn't like it. What had he said? It made him feel like Zoro was somewhere far away, a place he could never really reach. Zoro blinked and read it one more time.

#19: the way you speak French (the things it does to me)

Well, that was something they shared in common. Hearing Sanji swear in Japanese did things to Zoro, hearing him say it in "the language of love" made him rethink it and believe that it was "the language that when spoken by curly browed blonds makes you want to bend them over till curses are all they can say".

#18: your eyelashes (they're really long)

#17: your loyalty

#16: your honesty

#15: that being defeated makes you stronger

#14: how you hold your head up high

#13: your protectiveness

#12: how you're really just an overgrown teddy bear

Zoro frowned. He resented that. He totally wasn't a teddy bear. He just got really soft when he was around Sanji. Or hard, depending on how you wanted to look at it.

#11: every sweet thing you've ever said to me

#10: because you think I'm strong

But you are strong, thought Zoro, shaking his head at the words in front of him. He couldn't help smiling though. It was so like Sanji to doubt those things, though Zoro didn't mind, he'd tell him as often as he needed to and he'd never get tired of it. He wouldn't say it until it lost all meaning, he would say it until it held meaning to the blond, as it should.

#9: your smirk

#8: when you talk dirty

Zoro knew that he liked it too, especially when Sanji felt confident while he was doing it. Though that first time he had dropped the bomb of liking it when he spoke a bit nasty could've gone downhill pretty quickly if he hadn't been careful.

#7: how you get all flustered

#6: you let me make love to you

Zoro was officially a tomato. Irrevocably, irreversibly a tomato.

#5: you watch my "crappy" anime even when you say you hate it

Watching Sanji watch anime was a guilty pleasure of his. He didn't really watch it, he just watched Sanji because if there was any time that the blond was so open and expressive, it was when he was watching anime. Zoro found it curious, maybe it had something to do with how it was an escape from reality. Those shows really were unbelievable, with plot-lines involving government cover-ups, cyborg men running on cola, pun-telling skeletons and islands in the sky. Where did people come up with that stuff? They were either really creative, or on some really serious drugs.

#4: your French confessions

#3: you make me feel strong

Zoro grinned. He was getting there, slowly by slowly.

#2: you're beautiful

Zoro's face was probably stuck in this position forever but then his breath caught when he saw the number one, last reason.

#1: you make me feel beautiful

Zoro couldn't breathe. If he was a sentimental sap, he may have started to cry uncontrollably, but he wasn't, so instead he shed very manly, controlled tears, holding the last card tightly in his hand. When he finally got his breathing under control, he flipped over the last card.

I love you.

Zoro checked the full title and broke out into a wide grin.

52 reasons why I love you.

Sanji had his list, Zoro had his deck of cards.


Omake #1

When Zoro woke up the next morning, the Parisian sun shining through the window (equally as annoying as the Japanese sun), he flipped over in bed to check the clock to find a playing card in front of the digital numbers.

#53: the way you make love to me


Omake #2

Zoro could not stop her. Nami had a purpose and that purpose was to play a game of poker. This was why he didn't invite her over to his house. Now he sat across the table from her and Luffy, with Sanji to his right, playing the dreaded game.

Luffy frowned when he picked up the cards Nami had dealt him.

"What's wrong?" asked Nami, "I taught you how to play, you can't back out on me now—Oh my God!"

Luffy had turned his card over to reveal an ace of spades.

The first thing Zoro thought was that the ace of spades as the card of death.

The second thing Zoro thought was that there was an unnatural amount of ink on it.

The third thing Zoro thought was that that handwriting looked very familiar.

#8: when you talk dirty

The ace of spades could not have predicted Nami's fate better.