B—B

What Not to Wear

Zoro could see the conflict on Sanji's face. The blonde looked like he had something fighting to get off the tip of his tongue. He felt his heart speed up hopefully, waiting with baited breath for what Sanji might say.

Seeing Zoro's eyes practically light up with hope gave Sanji newfound confidence. While the green-haired stoic didn't let his expression change, he could still tell that Zoro had an idea of what he was about to ask.

"There's uh..." Sanji's voice cracked a bit and he cleared his throat, "There's that movie about the gladiators that came out, if you wanna go see it, maybe? With me. Tomorrow after work?"

Zoro shoved his hands in his coat pockets, looking down at the ground as he tried to hold back that stupid smile that was spreading across his face. "Yeah, that sounds..." he finally managed to look up at Sanji, unable to contain the gin, "that sounds good."

Sanji grinned, "Good, good, uh...oh! I can take you back home to change, though." Sanji figured Zoro wouldn't want to be out and about in his uniform, just as Sanji wouldn't want to wear his chef's jacket.

"Sounds good." Zoro ran his tongue over his teeth as he kept trying to hide his smile, "I'll check movie times and get back to you?"

"Yeah, yeah...so, uh...see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, tomorrow... So, um... g'night, Sanji."

"Night, Zoro. See you tomorrow." Sanji watched as Zoro went up his stairs and inside his house before he drove off. His chest felt like it was expanding to the point of bursting with excitement. He pumped his fist before hitting the steering wheel with his fists out of excitement.

Suddenly, there was a loud honk as a car zipped through the intersection, almost slamming right into Sanji. The young teen screeched to a halt, almost pissing himself as his heart burst through his ribcage. He rolled down the window and yelled at the car, even though it was long gone. Sanji was irritated for a little while, but thoughts of his date the next day soon expelled any and all irritation. His heart was still beating fast, but only out of excitement now.

o()o()o

Zoro had to fight the urge to look back at Sanji as he walked to his door. He heard the engine rev just as he stepped inside. He peeked around the curtain and watched Sanji head off around the corner, almost wishing he'd come back and stay a little longer. As he pulled away from the window, he heard a screech of tires, and he was worried for a moment, but there was no sound of a crash. It was probably some asshole driving too fast on the icy streets and struggling to stop.

Hancock appeared in the doorway just as her son darted up the stairs. "Zoro?"

"Yeah, Mom?" He stopped at the landing, looking down over the banister.

As a fairly experienced mother, Hancock could tell that this wasn't the right moment to bring up a rather difficult discussion. She changed the topic before she could even get it off her tongue. "Where've you been? It's late." She folded her arms across her chest, voice stern as always, "You know I don't like it if I don't know where you are."

Zoro had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. It seemed that no matter how old he was his mother would never stop treating him like a child. "I was with Ace and Sanji. Ace had a fit and Sanji helped me get him home."

Hancock nodded, letting her son know she accepted his answer. "Go speak with your brother. He's been in an off mood ever since he got home."

Zoro heaved a sigh, "Alright." He waited until his mother waved him off, signaling the end of their conversation before heading upstairs. Out of courtesy to his brother, he knocked on the door, despite the fact that they shared the room.

Smoker looked up at the door for a moment before turning back to his computer. "Come in."

The door creaked open and Zoro stepped in. He held onto the door as he looked over his brother. To any outsider Smoker looked fine, but Zoro could feel that he was upset.

"Wanna talk?"

Smoker closed his laptop and set it on his bedside table. He looked up at Zoro, "Why? Something to talk about?"

Zoro went over to the bed, crawling over Smoker's legs and sitting opposite him on the bed. "You're annoyed about something. If it's something I've done I want to rectify it."

"Rectify? Big word for you, isn't it?" Smoker couldn't help the snarky dig; trying to ignore the clear offense his brother took. He knew Zoro still had a bit of baggage from their youth, growing up being known and treated as the slower of the two twins. When Zoro didn't say anything, Smoker felt he owed an immediate apology.

"Shit..." Smoker ran a hand back over his hair. "Look, I'm sorry, Zoro. I didn't mean it. That was petty." He shifted uncomfortably as he thought about how to continue. "I, uh, I heard you talking with Mom about helping Ace with a fit. I didn't know that. I guess I thought you were...you know, with him." Stupid jealousy. Utterly stupid and useless jealousy had gotten the better of him, and he'd acted like a dick.

Zoro sighed, accepting his brother's apology with a curt nod and a mildly annoyed grunt. "It's fine. I get it. Ace pulled a stupid stunt," and that should be all there was to it. Yet, it was never so easy whenever there were feelings involved. Zoro and his brother both weren't particularly good at handling emotions like love or jealousy, mostly out of lack of experience. "You want me to talk to him?"

"Absolutely not." Smoker prickled up like a cornered cat. "I don't want anything to do with him."

Zoro gave his brother a look that made it clear he thought he was acting like a child. He was about to say something when he heard a thud and a quiet curse from outside their door. He got up and went to open it, finding Perona trying to sneak away.

Perona froze like a deer in the headlights. She sucked in her lips and gave an awkward smile. "I wasn't listening."

Zoro rolled his eyes and stepped out of the doorway, silently inviting her in. She hurried into the room before flopping on Smoker's bed. The younger twin closed the door after her before going to sit on his own bed.

"Soooo, if Ace likes you, aren't you going to do anything?" She poked at her brother's ticklish sides, goading him for an answer.

"I swear to god, Perona I will pin you down, and we'll play the spit game again." Smoker twitched away from his sister, grabbing her by the wrists and easily restraining her.

The girl screamed as she writhed and tried to slip from her brother's grasp. Her eyes bugged as Smoker pursed his lips, preparing a loogie to be dangled above her.

Zoro laughed from the sidelines until he felt a buzz from his pocket. He pulled his phone out and looked at the screen, smiling a bit when he saw who it was from.

curlybrow [received at 22:13]: So dad wont let me take the van after today so it looks like we have to walk. Hope you have boots it's supposed to snow all night tonite

Zoro didn't really mind walking. It was only about a fifteen-minute walk to the little downtown area. He texted Sanji back right away.

You [sent at 22:15]: thats ok i can walk to ur place after i get changed

curlybrow [received at 22:15]: It's fine. I'll walk over.
curlybrow [received at 22:16]: If you can get lost on your way to Ace's I doubt I'll ever see you again if you try to find my house haha

You [sent at 22:16]: asshole

Zoro suddenly noticed how quiet it was around him. He looked up and realized that Smoker was staring at him with a shit-eating grin while Perona was biting her lip, clearly trying to contain her excitement. Zoro hadn't even realized how hard he'd been smiling until his face fell into a frown.

"What."

"Are you texting Sanji?" She pressed, hands balled up under her chin, "What're you guys talking about?"

"None of your business." Zoro hugged the phone to his chest, trying to hide it from his sister's prying eyes.

"Come oooooon." Perona groaned, flopping back again with an annoyed kick of her legs. "You were smiling like an idiot, it's gotta be something!"

Smoker saw this as his chance to get a bit of teasing in. "You know, Perona," his grin never faded as he stared into Zoro's eyes, ignoring the warning look his twin gave him. "I'm pretty sure I saw them flirting at work today. I bet this is a date."

Perona gasped, bright red lips forming an almost perfect circle, her eyes shining with elation.

Zoro knew exactly what was coming and redirected his warning look to her. He extended his arm and pointed at her, "No. No, no, no." He could see the excitement bubbling up inside her and his stern look faltered for a moment. "Perona, I know that look. Don't you do it." He felt like he was talking to an excitable puppy.

The youngest of the bunch sprang up and zoomed over, ignoring Zoro's repeated protests as she tackled him in a hug. "Ahhh~ you're not denying it; you totally did!" She squeezed him tight, "I can't believe it! You finally got a date with Sanjiiii~!"

A strangled noise came from Zoro's mouth as he tried to pull Perona's arms from around his neck. "Perona...get off!" Just as he started to pry her arms from his neck, she suddenly let go. She grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes, suddenly completely serious.

"We have to pick out your outfit." Perona rushed to her brothers' shared closet, yanking it open and looking through everything before extending her raid to Zoro's dresser.

Smoker wasn't hiding his smirk as he pulled his computer back onto his lap. He was completely satisfied with the fact that all attention had been taken away from him and put on his brother.

Perona finally settled on a pair of red skinny jeans that both brothers had no recollection of, a white v-neck, and a grey hoodie vest. She ran to her room to fetch one of her favorite checked scarves. She put her hands on her hips proudly before looking to her brothers for their opinions.

"Well? Am I a genius or what?"

'Or what is certainly a good question.' Smoker couldn't have been any less interested as he glowered at his phone while Zoro looked at the outfit with mixed feelings. It's not that the outfit was in bad taste, but he wasn't sure about the whole thing. He figured he should just be himself with Sanji, as he always tried to be.

"Perona...I don't know." He appreciated where she was coming from, but... "I never wear shit like this. Can't I just wear a shirt and jeans?"

Perona rolled her eyes, "Well sure you can, but this is a first date! It's what normal people do." She turned away, pursing her lips as she muttered, "Not that you two dorks would know that."

"Hey!" The brothers began to protest in unison, but neither of them had any further argument.

"Ugh, whatever. Smoker, you can just angrily stare at whatever Ace just sent you forever, and don't deny it. I know that look when I see it. Zoro, you can go to your first date in stained sweatpants and a wifebeater for all I care. I give up!" Perona threw her hands up with a noise of exasperation before leaving her brothers' room.

The twins exchanged a look, neither of them sure if they should feel bad about what had just happened. They knew she just wanted to help, but she also had the tendency of crossing that line and becoming a meddler. It was silent in the room, the only sound that interrupted the stiff atmosphere was Smoker's ring tone, but it was cut short when his phone died.

"...Guess I could try it on." Zoro mumbled before starting to strip. He'd humor his sister, but he still refused to coddle her when she got frustrated with not getting her way. He had to wiggle a bit to get into the pants, but they fit comfortably enough. The shirt and hoodie were both comfortable, but he wasn't sure about the scarf. If they were going to be walking in this weather he wanted something more insulating. He turned to his brother, arms spread as he looked down at himself.

"Well?"

Smoker stopped searching for his charger to look up at his brother, giving him a once over before nodding. "Looks good. Not something I'd think you'd wear, but it works." He paused, "By the way, whose pants are those?"

"No idea."

o()o()o

The next day, the entirety of Alubarna was filled with varying degrees of tension. Ace had spent the better part of his night trying to get in contact with an unresponsive Smoker. He'd tried to call Smoker, tell him the truth about the whole jealousy scheme. He'd wound up having to leave a message, but he was afraid that Smoker had either A) heard the message and decided to never speak to him again, or B) he hadn't heard the message and was still mad at him over what he'd done.

Either way, it didn't look good, but that didn't stop Ace from coming in and requesting a seat in Smoker's section. Unfortunately, no tables had been available, so he was sitting in Zoro's section. Would Smoker misunderstand the unfortunate seating arrangement? His paranoia was piling up with every sidelong look that Smoker gave him.

Smoker didn't know what to make of Ace being there, and it was distracting him from his work. He knew Ace was staring at him, and every time he tried to cast a casual glance, Ace would make a face like a startled rabbit and pretend to be engrossed in the menu that Smoker knew Ace practically knew by heart at this point. He knew they needed to talk, but Smoker didn't want to be the one to initiate it. It had been the freckled moron's dumb shit plan that had gone to hell. Smoker refused to fix a problem he didn't feel he'd caused.

The tension between the two had permeated through most of the restaurant. Even a few of the casual patrons were starting to suspect that there was something brewing under the surface.

As Zoro hurried to the window to pick up an order, Sanji called out to him, leaning on the sill a bit as he spoke. "Do you know what's going on with them? The cooks won't shut up with their daytime drama theories."

Zoro let out a long sigh, "They're both morons that are turning something stupid into a drawn out mess. If you really want to know, I'll tell you about it after work. Just tell them that their theories probably aren't too far off."

"Yeah well, wait till you hear some of them." Sanji turned to go back to work when suddenly he remembered, "Oh yeah, the movie times are at 4:45 and 8:20. Unless we want to rush straight there after work, I think that the later one would be better. It's a long ass movie, so maybe we wanna do dinner first? I can pop by around sevenish?"

Zoro threw Sanji a grin, "Sounds good." He picked up two armfuls of plates before hurrying to serve the hungry guests. His smile was genuine as he placed the food, already excited for after work.

Sanji smiled and bit his lip, drumming the sill a moment before moving to pull away. He stopped when he saw Ace sitting alone, looking down at his food morosely. He sighed before calling out to the head chef. "I'm taking five!"

"Not until you finish the onions, ya damn slacker!"

Sanji sighed and rolled his eyes. Hurrying over to his station, he chopped the onions with skill and speed beyond his years. He was done in half the time it took most everyone else. "I'll be back in five."

The blonde ducked out of the kitchen, heading over to sit across from Ace. "What's going on, man?"

Ace startled, as if he hadn't noticed Sanji had approached and sat across from him. "Oh, hey," he paused, "is it really that obvious?"

"Painfully." Sanji folded his hands, like he was some sort of guidance counselor meeting with a troubled teen. "You don't have to talk about it, and I'm pretty sure the head chef would be yelling at me to get back in the kitchen before we finished working through it, so I'm just going to say this. If I know those brothers, they are both stubborn as hell and are the absolute worst at dealing with drama. Or feelings in general, for that matter. Sitting here beating yourself up is going to get you nowhere, and this tension is going to eat the two of you alive. So, for now, just go home. We all get off at three today, so unless you plan on waiting around here for the next five and a half hours, go home. De-stress a bit so you don't have a fit in the middle of your apology. Alright?"

Ace nodded, "Yeah, yeah you're right." He sighed, carding a hand through his hair. "I need to figure out what I'm going to say anyways." He glanced over Sanji's shoulder, noting a dirty look that one of the chefs was throwing them through the service window. He turned back to Sanji and smirked, "It also looks like you're about two seconds away from getting your ass handed to you."

Sanji turned around, cursing under his breath. "Fucking Christ." He got up from the chair, "Feel free to text me." He clapped Ace on the shoulder before heading back into the kitchen.

Ace felt a bit better after hearing Sanji's input. He properly dug into his food, trying not to stare at Smoker too often. Smoker, on the other hand, felt instant relief once Sanji had finished talking to Ace. He could tell that Ace's mood had picked up, and the tension within the room began to dissipate.

Smoker took a deep breath and squared off his shoulders. He'd let his mind wander with unanswered questions once work was done, but for now he had customers to serve.

o()o()o

Sanji was pacing his room, clothes spread out across the floor and his bed as he tried to decide what to wear. He had Ace on video call as they both discussed their current dilemmas.

"I don't know, Ace. I know Zoro won't care, but I have no fucking idea what I should wear. Do I go overly casual? Make things feel real at ease? Or do I dress it up a bit? It's a first date, you know?" Sanji had always been a sharp dresser; got a lot of flack for it until he busted a kid's nose for trying to tease him.

"Well, Zoro would probably go casual if given the choice, but I bet you anything his sister's gonna try and push him to dress up a bit for you. She's always been a meddler that way." Ace rolled his eyes as Sanji unbuttoned another shirt and tossed it into the pile. "Just...wear those red plaid pants you liked, that white polo or whatever, and maybe one of your button up sweater things."

"Cardigan."

"Whatever, doesn't matter what its called. The point is that either way, you'll look great. Zoro's not gonna like you any less whether you wear jeans or slacks."

Ace could hear Sanji changing off screen, and he sighed for the millionth time. "In the meantime, what should I do about Smoker? He's home now, right?"

"Unless he went somewhere after work. You can probably text Zoro first to see. Or better yet, ask Smoker. Let him know you want to talk to him." Sanji pulled on the outfit Ace had suggested, though going with a pullover sweater instead of a cardigan.

"Yeah, he wouldn't like it if I just ambushed him at his door." Ace pulled out his phone. He had to do this while he was amped enough. He couldn't give himself enough time to think this through or else he would definitely wimp out.

You [sent at 18:14]: hey
You [sent at 18:14]: mind if I pop by tonite? I really need to talk to you

"Alright...sent it." Ace took a deep breath, feeling a bit shaky. He suddenly regretted ever sending the text and felt a nervous pounding in his chest. He took a deep breath and calmed himself, trying not to stress too much.

"It's gonna be fine, Ace." Sanji had sat down in front of the computer again now that he was changed. "Whether he responds tonight or not, whether he says yes or no, I can't imagine that you two are never gonna get past this.

The curled eyebrows drew down in a frown when he noticed that Ace wasn't moving, nor was anything being said. "Ace? Did you freeze on me?"

The video pixelated for a moment before going back to normal. "Yeah, sorry. The little thingy that pops up when someone is typing kept popping up and then disappearing; its making me anxious as hell. Ah! He responded!"

Smoker [received at 18:16]: Sure. Zoro's heading out soon so come over whenever
Smoker [received at 18:16]: Just give a heads up

You [sent at 18:17]: I'll head over now then! See you soon!

Ace winced, hoping the exclamation marks weren't over the top. "Alright. I'm heading over now. Want me to pick you up on the way? Storm's starting to pick up; it'd be a bitch to walk." Ace offered, looking up at Sanji.

A) Go with Ace

B) Walk over as planned (Next Chapter)


Author's Note

Maaaaan is it good to get back in the saddle. Taking a while, but I'm getting there.

Sorry for the wait, hope ya'll enjoyed!

-PD