He really wants to have a second date with Sanji. He really wants to talk to him again, to spend time with him, even if Sanji doesn't take him to some alien world. Though the thought of that alone is enough to make him want to summon the demon back. It's the little things that make him want to call Sanji back, like how happily Sanji's tail was moving when he agreed that they were dating, how bright he smiled. He agreed to date Sanji.
He's regretted it a little sense then. Academically at least. Sanji is... Sanji is great. But he is still a demon. Sure, he means him no harm but surely the whole thing can't end well, right? Even if he imagines the most far out things, that Sanji will really love him even without Zoro ever being sexual with him, if he imagines that maybe Sanji is his one true love and he lives happily ever after with him and then dies a happy old man. Well... even then, he still dies. Sanji has been alive for who knows how long and he'll still be alive long after Zoro is dead. Is that an okay thing to do to Sanji? But then again if Sanji is far older than him, which he surely must be, then he's old enough to make his own choices.
But what if people find out about Sanji? He hadn't given Sanji much of the benefit of the doubt before can he really expect other-
"Zoro!"
Zoro jolts in his seat and looks up to see half of the class and his teacher staring at him. His teacher is looking considerably annoyed, pointed elven ears lowered in irritation.
"Uh..." He responds and his teacher glowers.
"I was asking a question about exorcisms, if you're not too busy to answer." The man says primly.
"Sure." He says and remembers right away that this teacher hates anything but strict politeness.
"If you would be so kind to enlighten us about demons that you cannot exorcise. How about..." The teacher trails off, narrowing blue eyes at Zoro. Zoro's mind flares over the idea of 'please not incubi' just as he remembers that the kind of surface urgent thoughts directed at him is just the kind of thing that teacher can read. Fucking elves.
"Incubi." The teacher says with a nasty smile. That fucker.
Zoro stands up and his brain whirrs over facts about incubi and everything that he knows about them. He's not exactly the world's best student but when he is good at a class he is very good at it. Demonology is one of his best subjects.
"Ah... people don't have a chance to exorcise incubi or succubi usually because it's very difficult to resist their lure," Zoro says, not saying that it's plenty easy if you're asexual. But maybe seeing as he's currently dating an incubus that might make it hard to argue that particular point.
"So you're saying that you don't know." The teacher says with a smile.
"No, I'm saying that there isn't a lot of data." Zoro replies stiffly.
"Regular demon traps don't work on incubi or succubi," He continues, he knows that damn well. His home has traps in it and Sanji didn't so much as bat an eyelid.
"A specific higher level demon trap will work but that requires set up that you don't usually get time for. If you can catch one though youcanexorcise him or her with one of Spina's spells but not Agrippa's. So, really I don't know why you asked me about incubi when you wanted to talk about demons that you can't exorcise because you can exorcise them." He says with a wide grin and sits down.
His teacher is furious, so much so that the air around him is starting to warp and shift unpleasantly and it's making Zoro's teeth itch. Stupid elven magic.
"You've got a smart mouth Roronoa. I expect a five thousand word essay on how to kill incubi on my desk by Monday of next week seeing as you're so convinced that you know more than the rest of the class." he says darkly and Zoro bites down on the insult that he wants to say.
Nami moves her hand on the desk next to him and the words 'nice job there, idiot' appear on Zoro's paper in Nami's curved script, having slid off of her page onto his. He shoots her an unimpressed look. It's not his fault that his teacher is an ass.
He's sat in front of his blank paper for the second hour in a row. He's gone back and forth through all of his demonology textbooks and extra ones that he got out of the library but he can't make himself start writing it. All he can think about is Sanji. He closes his eyes and sighs, Sanji's not sucking the soul out of him but he's not doing his grades any favors. He gives up and walks over to his sofa and sits on the arm, looking out at the window. He chants Sanji's incantation, only having to glance briefly at the scroll that he keeps in his bookcase between 'Dante's inferno' and 'basic runes' to do it.
No sooner have the words left his lips than a man appears in his living room along with a full length mirror that he has his hand wrapped around, apparently he was in the middle of adjusting it. Zoro jolts in alarm, that's not Sanji at all. It's only when the man turns to look at him that Zoro relaxes again. It's not Sanji's face that he sees, it's some movie star guy looking at him. Pale skin, dark eyes, and slicked back black hair that's only slightly marred by the smallish and slightly curved horns that Zoro recognizes. Zoro has a flicker of recognition just as Sanji drops the glamour.
"Hey, wasn't that the guy from that thing?" He asks with a frown. Sanji rolls his eyes and sighs despairingly.
"That guy. From that thing." Sanji repeats, squinting his eyes at Zoro.
"Yeah, you know. The film." Zoro elaborates.
Sanji groans and hides his face in the magazine that he's holding.
"Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a highly acclaimed actor and the object of many people's fantasies and if I could get his FUCKING EYEBROWS RIGHT then my night won't have been completely wasted!" Sanji snarls and turns back to his mirror, shrugging the actor's appearance back on.
"Oh great, now his nose is wrong too. I'm going to have to start all over." Sanji mutters and drops it again.
"Sorry, I didn't know that you were busy." Zoro says in embarrassment. It's not like Sanji just sits there waiting for Zoro to summon him, of course he has other things to do. It's interesting that the two things that he was holding came with him though, he didn't expect that from the spell but then again the spell does summon demons complete with clothes, so maybe it's the same logic.
"No, it's fine. I was just going in circles anyway. What were you doing?" the now blonde demon asks him curiously.
"Trying to write an essay and failing. I got it as a punishment for 'arguing' with my professor. All I did was answer his question, not my fault it was a stupid question." Zoro says bitterly.
"Oh? What was it on?" Sanji questions him and Zoro realises that it's probably not best to tell Sanji that his current essay is about how to kill incubi. He's not even sure that he's going to write it, or not how his professor had in mind anyway.
"He asked about exorcisms." he says instead. Sanji drops himself onto the sofa, sprawls out like he owns the place and smiles up at him. Sanji isn't as nervous as he had been in parts of their last date, but then this isn't a date. The knowledge that he is dating a demon rolls over him again. It still doesn't seem quite real.
"I've never had anyone try to do that to me." The demon says thoughtfully.
"I think people usually have other things on their mind when you're with them." Zoro points out and a devious expression slides over Sanji's face.
"Well I am very good." Sanji boasts and pouts at Zoro and bats his lashes up at him. Zoro isn't sure if Sanji is exaggerating and playing around or if people really do find that attractive. Asking would probably be a blow to Sanji's ego. He's gonna do it anyway.
"Do people actually fall for that look you just gave me?" He asks with a snort and Sanji no longer looks flirtatious and instead looks more than a little angry.
"I'll have you know that I can bring men to their knees begging for me with this face. I've seen so many people swoon for me that you wouldn't even believe the number." Sanji snaps.
"Hm. Speaking of seeing, do you need those glasses that I see you wearing sometimes?" he asks curiously.
Sanji's mouth opens and then shuts. A smile spreads across Sanji's face and it reaches his eyes in a way that shows that Sanji is actually really happy.
"What?" He asks curiously.
"It's just that it's really different talking to you than other humans." Sanji says.
"Usually," Sanji says, moving so that he's sat down on his knees instead of sprawled on his back on the sofa.
"Usually I'd do this."
Sanji's glamour intensifies a little, he can see it now that he's watching it. Sanji's lashes look longer and the flick of peacock coloured line along those lashes gets a little brighter, giving Zoro almost no choice but to look there. Sanji's glasses appear, sitting lower on his nose to that Sanji can look up at him past them. Sanji moves forwards, almost on his hands and knees on Zoro's sofa.
"Are you saying..." Sanji says in a breathy voice as he slides them off. The frames hang loose in Sanji's hand and Sanji brings them to his mouth so that he's almost biting the arm of one of them between his too white teeth.
"That you want me to wear them?" He asks, sliding the arm of the glasses out and Zoro watches as they run over Sanji's magazine perfect lips. How had no one ever kissed Sanji before?
"You think that they look good on me?" Sanji says in a voice that's almost a pleasured sigh. He doesn't quite flutter his lashes at Zoro but he blinks deliberately, the dark lashes fanned out against smooth skin, before looking up at Zoro. His eyes are all but an advert for mascara and the way that his lips are slick and slightly parted is probably enough to send most people's minds into the gutter.
"You want to know what I want?" Zoro responds and takes Sanji's glasses from him. He holds them up and looks through them at a distance. He sees the world warp a little through them, yeah, they're real glasses alright. Sanji isn't just wearing them for looks, he actually does need them.
"I want you to wear them if they actually help you." He tells Sanji and carefully slides them back onto Sanji's face. He's careful to slide them over Sanji's ears and not just poke him with them, as he does so however he can't help but see that Sanji's ears are a little more pointed. His hair is a little darker too. Sanji's glamour isn't so strong right now. Is it because he was using a lot of it earlier to be that actor or because he was just turning it up a lot then? Or maybe, and here's the thought that makes Zoro's heart flutter a little, maybe Sanji is relaxing around him some more and he doesn't feel the need to turn it up so high.
He pulls back and watches as Sanji sets his glasses a little straighter and tries to repress this small secret little smile. Sanji looks back up at Zoro who is half on and half off of the arm of the sofa above him.
"I don't have to think about everything that you want and making myself change to fit it. I can actually enjoy just... this." Sanji tells him quietly. Zoro's heart thuds a little harder in his chest. Sanji isn't being an incubus and pulling Zoro's sex drive to make him lose his soul, this isn't an engineered attempt to be Zoro's personal fantasy. No, this is far more deadly. Sanji is being himself and being honest and Zoro loves it.
Shit, he loves it? That's an awfully strong word isn't it? Okay, he doesn't love Sanji though, though his brain quietly adds 'not yet'. Fuck.
Oh well, self preservation has never been one of Zoro's strongest traits. He slides down off of the arm of the sofa and kisses Sanji. The blond sighs happily and Zoro can feel the way that Sanji's tail curls around Zoro's thigh. When the kiss finishes he still stays close to Sanji, only pulling back far enough so that he can look at Sanji's face properly.
"Did you... still want that date?" The blond asks him uncertainly.
"The one to another planet?" Zoro questions. Sanji nods enthusiastically, making his earrings chime has he does it. His make more noise than Zoro's do.
"I do. But... I think we're both supposed to be studying right now. I've got other schoolwork to do and you have to pretend to be that guy." Zoro tells him.
"Joseph Gordon-Levitt, you fucking peasant." Sanji growls, shoving Zoro in the shoulder.
"Yeah, him." Zoro agrees. Sanji makes a despairing kind of sound and gets up off of the sofa, grabbing his magazine up off of the floor.
"Go do your essay then." Sanji tells him. Zoro looks at Sanji for a second and remembers his teacher's demand to write about how to kill an incubus.
"Fuck that essay. I've got useful work that I could be doing." he says with a shake of his head.
"Oh?" Sanji asks curiously.
"Studying and preparing for my advanced wards class. We've got to try to interfere with another classmate with a ward. My friend is part selkie so I'm going to try to keep him out of his locker with a selkie ward. I feel bad for him though, he's got to get me back somehow and I'm full human so not much works on me." Zoro answers, already imagining the look on Usopp's face as he tries to get into his locker. It'll be both funny and get him credit in his class. Usopp's probably going to find another way to get him back though, but he'll still be helping his friend, he's just giving him... motivation.
"Plenty of things work on you humans, just not spells that demons are willing to share with you." Sanji purrs at him and Zoro is burning with curiosity about them but Sanji probably won't tell him. Still, they were supposed to be talking about arranging that date.
"How about Saturday? Unless that's a busy night for you. Do incubi have busy times compared to others? Some kind of demon rush hour?" He wonders aloud.
"Idiot. I choose when I work and what contracts I take. I can be free Saturday for you if that's when you want me to take you there." Sanji says as if Zoro is stupid for asking.
"So you're a freelance incubus? That's really interesting, do you-" He starts to ask. He's never really thought about the actual organization of demons beyond where they fall in hierarchies and what classifications they're in and so on. It never occurred to him to wonder how and when Sanji gets his contracts like the one he foolishly accepted for Zoro.
"Focus, idiot. What time on Saturday?" Sanji demands, smacking him on the head with his magazine.
"Uh... seven?" Zoro suggests.
"Good. You should eat before though, I can't exactly take my food with me, humans shouldn't eat our food." Sanji tells him.
"Yeah, I don't feel like ending up like Persephone. I'll eat early." Zoro snorts.
"Hey, Persephone is queen. But I don't think she'd like you trying to muscle in on that territory." Sanji tells him with a fanged grin. If even half of the things that Zoro has been taught about Persephone is true then he absolutely does not want to fuck with her or piss her off.
"So. Saturday at seven. I'll... see you then." Sanji says, suddenly looking a little awkward. Zoro is about to question it until Sanji leans in really quickly and kisses him. It's this tiny hesitant thing and Sanji jumps back afterwards, goes red and drops through the floor in a portal back to his own plane of reality.
Zoro runs his thumb over his lips and smiles. It takes a minute or two for him to notice that Sanji's mirror is still propped up against Zoro's wall. He walks over to it with a grin and recites Sanji's summoning spell. The blonde appears with a scowl wraps his hand around his mirror and vanishes with a muttered 'shut up, asshole'