Title: Almost Easy
Author: kikokus (AoiTsukikage)
Rating: NC-17 overall
Characters/Pairing: Zoro/Sanji, Law/Sanji, Law/Zoro/Sanji
Chapter: 3/?
Word Count: 3795
Summary: Sequel to 'So Good So Far.' Everything was supposed to get easier after Dressrosa – at least, that's what Sanji had assumed. He was wrong. .
Spoilers: Recent chapters, but especially chapter 769.

Special Notes: This chapter does contain some description of an anxiety attack, so proceed with caution if that affects you.

Chapter Three

"We need to talk."

"What about Nami-swan?" he decided playing dumb was the best course of action, even though he knew damn well what she wanted to talk to him about. He'd been expecting this conversation since the morning they'd left for Dressrosa, when she'd found out that he, Law and Zoro had all shared a room the night before despite having plenty of other rooms one of them could have stayed in.

It wasn't a conversation he was looking forward to, at any rate, since he had no idea how Nami would react or how…open-minded she would be about the type of relationship they were attempting. Luffy and Robin knew, but Robin was a good deal more worldly and Sani had the strange feeling she'd partaken in some rather…unconventional sexual situations herself (which led to his brain helpfully supplying him all the advantages being able to produce unlimited hands would have and he tried to brush those away because this conversation was going to be hard enough without him getting aroused right before it) and Luffy, well, he didn't care as long as everybody involved was happy.

The rest of them, though, Sanji was reluctant to tell. He knew most of them knew about him and Law, at least, and were okay with it, but adding Zoro to the mix, especially considering how he and Zoro normally got along…yeah, that might take a little more time to settle.

"You know," she said, sounding impatient, and he stood up from scrubbing an invisible spot of food on the countertop. He set the dishcloth down, turning around and leaning back against the counter before he let himself meet her eyes. "I'm not mad at you, Sanji-kun, but I'd like to know what's going on."

He sighed, knowing he needed something to get him through this, and put a pot of coffee to brew, waiting until it had and he'd poured both himself and Nami a cup before starting to explain. Just the basics, of course, because anything that Law had told him about his past or his life he would never reveal to anybody, but he figured she'd get the general idea.

When he'd finished, he took a long drink of coffee, and once he lowered the cup he saw she was looking at him with a rather coy smile and immediately felt a stab of fear because that look on Nami's face was never a good thing.

"I can't believe I didn't see it," she said, hands wrapped around her own cup. "You hate each other."

"I don't know if we ever really did, Nami-san," he admitted with a shrug. "Yeah, we disagree a lot, but I could never say I hated Zoro," he explained, lighting up a cigarette and leaning back on the barstool.

"How long?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Ah…Thriller Bark, for sure," Sanji didn't want to elaborate, because that was between him and Zoro. Yes, Brook knew, and he was pretty sure Robin did as well (because Robin knew everything), but otherwise it wasn't his place to say what had transpired with Kuma. Not only because it was still a massive blow to his own ego, but also because if Luffy ever got word of it he'd just feel guilty, and he had no reason to.

"You know," Nami sat up straighter, eyes widening a little and a tiny gasp leaving her parted lips. "He wouldn't even tell Luffy what had happened or why he was so badly injured."

"Yeah. I know," he touched his side without meaning to, because fuck, he had been so mad at Zoro for doing that at the time, and there was still a phantom pain there when he dwelled on it for too long.

"Okay," she let it go, apparently deciding that it wasn't worth it to press this time. "And he feels the same about you?"

"I think he's…getting there," Sanji replied. He was pretty sure Zoro loved him, or at least, felt something that he considered love for him, but he doubted anybody would view it as such in the conventional sense. It seemed to be working for them so far, though.

"Good. You deserve somebody who makes you happy, Sanji-kun," she smiled and tilted her head to the side, and he sighed dramatically and blew a couple of heart-shaped smoke rings into the air.

"I hope you know that this would be much easier if that person were you, my darling," he spun around on the stool and she laughed, patting his shoulder. Nami, much as it sometimes pained him to admit it, had truly become like a sister to him. He loved her, and he loved everything about her, but he knew deep inside that their relationship would never cross that line and he was becoming increasingly okay with that fact.

"Hmm, I could do worse," she winked, resting her chin on her hand. "Well, if all of you are good with it, I'm not going to say anything. What about the two of them, though? Do they like each other?" she pressed, and Sanji nodded.

"They're starting to, I think. I mean, if I wasn't around it's not like they would have ever gotten together by themselves, but it works," he decided, butting out the cigarette and going back to his coffee.

"Good. I'll let you get back to cleaning," she stood and patted his shoulder, walking to the door while he stared after her longingly. "Oh…" she stopped before leaving completely, half-turning. "Law. Is he…is he okay? His arm…"

"He will be," Sanji assured her, and he was mostly certain of that.

"Okay. Good," she smiled one last time before leaving, and Sanji groaned and let his forehead thump against the bar. Three down, four to go, and he just hoped the others would all take it so well when they inevitably found out…because, as he'd long since discovered, with their crew it was hard to keep anything a secret for long.

000

When he entered Law's room later that afternoon, he was glad to see that the other man had finished with Franky and was back in his own quarters. Law was laying on the bed, staring up the ceiling, and Sanji's eyes were drawn to the metal arm he was holding across his chest. At first glance, it seemed to be the appropriate size and didn't look all that odd (besides, of course, being robotic), but he couldn't tell how Law was feeling about it because the man's face was entirely expressionless.

"Hey," he said by way of greeting, hopping onto the bed and pillowing his head on Law's shoulder. "How is it?"

"…manageable," Law decided after a moment of silence. He frowned, and a few seconds later the fingers of the hand flexed. "Your shipwright assures me that when he's finished the arm and it's actually attached properly the response time will be much greater, but for the moment there's a bit of a delay and it's irritating," he narrowed his eyes, concentrating again, and the arm eventually flopped off of his stomach to lie beside him. "At least it's not heavy."

"You don't look very happy," Sanji noted, reaching to touch the metal and finding it cool under his fingertips. Law shrugged, the movement short and jerky, before letting out a rather long-suffering sigh.

"It's nothing," he spoke slowly, as if he already knew that Sanji wasn't going to take that for an answer, and the arm flopped a little again, more reminiscent of a dying fish than anything else. "Fuck."

"Law?" Sanji pushed himself up a little, immediately concerned, and Law bit his lip, reaching to cover his eyes with his real hand and taking a shuddery breath. "Hey, what's…"

"If I ask you to leave, you won't, will you?" Law's voice had a tremor in it and Sanji debated that for a few seconds. No, he probably wouldn't, but at the same time it would be really fucking insensitive of him to stay if Law wanted to be alone.

"If you want me to, I will," he decided, moving back on the bed and stopping when the robotic arm twitched a little.

"Shit," Law hiccupped, and Sanji honestly didn't know if he should go or stay. He'd never seen Law this close to breaking down, not even the night before, and part of him felt like he shouldn't be there. Law didn't say anything else, the arm still twitching feebly, and Sanji had no idea what he should do.

"Do you want me to leave?" he finally asked, getting a jerky head-shake from Law that was accompanied by a frustrated growl, and Sanji suddenly clued into what was going on: Law was trying to keep him from leaving, but he couldn't get the arm to do what he wanted to.

He didn't want to uncover his eyes, and actually asking Sanji to stay would be beneath him, but if he'd have had his normal arm he could have just held him in place to assure Sanji that he wanted him to be there.

Still, that was a pretty clear sign, so Sanji lay back down, curling his body close and feeling Law shaking beneath him. He wasn't sure if the other man was capable of crying, but if he was, Sanji had no doubt he would be and it made his chest ache.

"I thought I'd be okay with it," Law's voice was thick, and he certainly sounded close to tears. "I thought I was used to it, but I can't even…fuck!"

"Franky said it would get better, right? This is just a prototype," Sanji knew he had to reassure him, somehow, even though he was crap at that normally. "Once he's got the finished product it'll be a lot better, and pretty soon you won't even remember it's mechanical," he tried to infuse as much optimism into his voice as he could, and Law feebly nodded, still keeping his eyes covered. "It's okay to be upset about it, it's…"

Law grunted, shifting his arm with quite a large amount of force, and Sanji felt it clamp heavily around his waist. "Finally."

"See?" Sanji nuzzled his nose against Law's neck. "Yeah, it's gonna take some time, but if anybody's stubborn enough to not stop trying until you can make it do exactly what you want, it's you."

"Your faith in me is touching," Law remarked dryly, but sarcasm was better than having a breakdown so Sanji let it slide. "I apologize for…"

"Don't," Sanji cut him off. "I'd be more concerned if you weren't freaking out about it, honestly."

Law didn't say anything, but after a few more minutes he lowered his left arm, wrapping it around Sanji's shoulders and holding him tightly.

"You're it for me," he said after another long bout of silence, and Sanji blinked, confused.

"I'm what?"

'When you told me that one day I'd find somebody else…I won't," Law sounded so certain and Sanji opened his mouth to protest, but Law kept talking. "You of all people know how much it took for me to reveal anything about myself to you, and I doubt I would ever be able to do that again. Maybe before, but this…" he shifts the arm again. "This makes everything markedly more difficult. You may not care, but I'm quite sure most people won't share your sentiments. I don't expect you to feel any sort of obligation toward me, and you know as well as I do that this is still just temporary, but I…" he stopped, eyes locked on the ceiling, and Sanji didn't know how to respond because this was just confirming what Zoro had said earlier that day and it was still something he didn't want.

"Stop bullshitting," he eventually said, poking Law 's hip. "It's not like you're some old man, you've got plenty of time to find somebody."

"Old enough," Law murmured, fingers trailing through Sanji's hair. "You don't even know my age, do you?"

"You're not much older than me," Sanji didn't think he was, anyway, even though he hadn't thought that much about it before. "So?" he added, when Law didn't say anything else.

"Twenty-six," Law sighed, as if this was some great revelation, but it was about what Sanji was expecting so he was hardly surprised.

"Law," Sanji pushed himself up more so he could look at the other man. His eyes were a little red and a little wet, and he tried to turn his head away so Sanji raised his hands and cupped the other man's cheeks, keeping him in place. "Seriously, if you think that's old…"

"I was supposed to die when I was thirteen, Sanji," Law reminded him. "And you're so young…"

"I'm fucking twenty-one, I'm not young," Sanji snorted, suddenly feeling like he needed to get away, and quickly. It happened sometimes, the choking fear that made his chest seize up and his head spin, made his heart hammer so rapidly it felt about to beat out of his chest. Normally he'd lash out and leave, but right now that was impossible with the heavy arm pinning him in place. "Let me up."

"I apologize if I've said something wrong…"

"Just let me up," Sanji repeated, and Law looked taken aback before he frowned, teeth gritted. A moment later, Sanji felt the arm shift a little although it didn't actually move off of him.

"Sorry. I'm trying…"

"Forget it," he tried to calm himself down, even though the arm felt like a vise around his waist, holding him there, and suddenly he was all too aware that it wasn't real flesh and just a concoction of metal and wires; puppetry at its finest, perhaps, but nothing more.

"Sanji," Law said, his voice soothing, and Sanji closed his eyes and told himself to focus on that and not how trapped he felt. "I apologize. I shouldn't have said that. You're in no way beholden to me nor do I expect you to share my feelings in this matter."

"Just shut up," Sanji couldn't focus on anything right now except his body's natural instinct telling him to get out of there, and Law's voice, normally something that he could listen to for hours, was something that was only making him more uneasy. His brain felt too cluttered, thoughts bouncing around so rapidly he couldn't stay focused on just one. Concentrating on getting air into his lungs was hard enough, but trying to process words at the same time was damn near impossible. "Fuck."

Law did as he requested, thankfully, and he closed his eyes and let himself, relax, wondering what exactly had triggered this strange bout of anxiety. Yes, he sometimes didn't think that highly of himself or his existence, but he never could have imagined that somebody else doing so would make him so uncomfortable. It wasn't Law's fault, and there was a very large part of him that was flattered beyond belief that somebody like Law had chosen him to confide in and trusted him with information that, he was sure, no other living person knew, but there was an even bigger part telling him that he didn't deserve it, that it was a mistake somehow, and right now he didn't know which one to listen to.

"I've been so focused on my own demons that I've neglected to realize you have some of your own," Law spoke so quietly Sanji barely heard it, and while it felt so weak to admit that Law was right, he realized that Law had placed an immense amount of trust in him but he'd never done the same, and he did have to wonder why.

"It's fine," he grumbled, not wanting to get into this now.

"You've been extraordinarily patient with me," Law continued, and the arm finally slid off of Sanji's back. "Much more than I deserve, in any case, and I feel it would be rude of me not to return the favor somehow. I hope you know you can trust me," he said the last part slowly, as if he was truly afraid Sanji still didn't, and the blond pressed a kiss to his shoulder in response. "And you can leave, if you want."

"Mm, I think I'll stay," Sanji decided, since now that he was faced with the ability to leave he felt much calmer…and, unsurprisingly, exhausted from the surge of adrenaline that had just rushed through him and then abandoned him nearly as quickly. "You're a good pillow."

"I'm all bones," Law replied, brushing Sanji's hair back from his face and pulling him into a kiss. "But in all honesty, if you feel comfortable telling me what's bothering you, I do promise to keep it to myself."

"I know," Sanji promised, getting no sleep the night before finally catching up with him and he yawned and snuggled closer. "I will."

He fell asleep before Law could answer, if he even did.

000

When he woke up, he was still lying on somebody, but it was somebody with a much broader chest and he could feel the heat of two real arms around his body. "Zoro," he mumbled, getting a grunt in return. "Where's Law?"

"Probably out in the other room," Zoro replied softly. "We talked. He told me you're still beating yourself up over the thought somebody could like you. Tell me the truth," he sounded serious and Sanji looked up at him. "On Thriller Bark…was the reason you were willing to give yourself up…was it really because you thought your dream was less important than all of ours?"

Sanji bit his lip, already knowing the answer but a little hesitant to admit it. "Yeah," he finally said. "Yeah, I…all of you, you've got dreams that exist, or ones that you can achieve. I'm looking for a fucking magic ocean that might not even be real! If anybody has to give up their life to make sure the rest of the crew lives, it's gonna be fucking me," he growled, still surprised he felt so strongly about it even all these years later. Of course, maybe it was just because it was the second time that day he'd been reminded of it, but obviously it was still something he hadn't come to terms with fully yet.

To his surprise, instead of getting angry or telling him off somehow, Zoro started to laugh, and Sanji huffed in irritation.

"What's so funny?"

"That, even after what I've told you, and what Law's told you, and what every damn person on this crew has told you, you still don't believe you're just as important as the rest of us," Zoro said, all humor gone from his voice now. "How many times would we have been fucked if you hadn't been there sneaking off and doing important shit in the background? You said once that sometimes brute strength isn't enough to win, and we've got that part covered, but pretty much every adventure we went on the only reason we all got out in one piece was because of you," he gripped Sanji's shoulders, forcing him to meet Zoro's eye.

"Zoro, I…"

"Look, it's killing me to be this nice to you right now, but you need to understand how important you are. It's not about your magic ocean, idiot, it's about who you are and what you're doing right now, and even if the All Blue doesn't exist, that's never gonna change," he growled, and Sanji chuckled and nodded. "Good. Now if you start being all 'woe is me' again I'm gonna kick your ass."

"Try, shitty Marimo," Sanji leaned in to kiss him, bracing his hands on either side of Zoro's body and flicking his tongue against the other man's lips. It felt…nice, to hear Zoro say those things, and all the more so because Sanji knew he wouldn't lie.

No, of course it wasn't going to suddenly inspire him with the self-worth he'd been lacking for so long, but at least it was easier to believe he meant something to all of them.

Now he just had to figure out how to accept that without feeling guilty that all of them were putting their faith in somebody who didn't deserve it.

He heard footsteps and turned, seeing Law come back in, and noticed that the metal arm was gone. "Hey. Where's…"

"Mr. Robo still has to complete it, of course, and since it was only giving me trouble I didn't see the need to try and wear it any longer," Law replied softly, crossing to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Eh. Okay," Sanji decided, because that was mostly the truth.

"Tell me if this makes you uncomfortable," was all Law said, kneeling carefully on the bed and draping his body over Sanji's, chin resting on his shoulder.

It was fine, Sanji realized after holding his breath for a time. The overwhelming need to run from earlier had disappeared and right now having Law close was nice. "Nah, you're good," he promised, feeling Zoro shift so that his hands were on Law's back, keeping them all together.

"Good," Law kissed the side of his neck, breath hot against his skin. "Mm, you know…Mr. Zoro told me earlier that you were disappointed I wasn't around to partake in, as he called it, 'victory sex,'" Law lowered his voice, his tongue dragging along Sanji's throat. "I think we should make up for that tonight, if you're feeling up for it."

"Fuck. Yes," Sanji tilted his head toward the attention, letting himself drift. Sex was something he'd never deny himself, no matter how self-loathing he was feeling, because it just felt good. Maybe it wasn't the healthiest thing, but at least he knew it would distract him enough that he wouldn't think about anything else…and, well, it was damn enjoyable, so he couldn't feel guilty about that. "I mean, if you are…"

"I'm…I know it doesn't matter to you," Law replied. "That's enough for me."

"Okay," Sanji grinned, letting his worries fade for the moment. He was sure that in the darkness, once the afterglow had faded, they would come slamming back…but maybe if he exhausted himself enough he'd be asleep before they did. "I need to make dinner, though…"

"Leave it," Zoro said, mouth latched onto the underside of his jaw, and getting attention from both of them on his rather sensitive neck was making him come apart remarkably quickly. "They can eat in town for once."

Sanji whimpered, blushing because he wasn't really that needy…except, right then, apparently he was. But trying to remember even the simplest recipe was impossible at the moment, and he decided that Zoro was right.

Even he deserved a night off once in a while.

Notes:

1. This wasn't supposed to turn super-angsty where Sanji was concerned, but it just kind of happened while I was writing so I decided to roll with it and see how it would end up. I can relate to that part of his character a lot, though, so that's probably why it came about…

2. I have a lot of plot ideas for this fic, but I know that it's still technically a threesome fic and of course there's going to be smut, so that'll happen…next chapter, for those of you who are looking forward to that ;)

3. I'm very glad people are enjoying this sequel so far, and I hope you all continue to do so :)