A/N: ...aaand we're done! Please be sure to let me know what you think!

Six

No matter what anyone could do for the next week, there was little that they could do to bring Zoro out of the funk he found himself in. He remained in the crow's nest for days, barely emerging for things such as food and the bathroom. The swordsman even slept up there, which was troublesome to even Luffy, who was oblivious about most things of such a nature, as not even the jovial captain could coax him down.

Thusly, it felt almost like a miracle when Zoro left the ship for a while the next time they were at port. It was an island with a Marine base, and for a while the other crew members feared that he might have actually been captured as he wandered about lost. After four days, a woman with eyeglasses on her forehead and a sword at her hip returned him to the crew, with him retreating to the crow's nest as the rest of the crew regarded the woman tensely.

"Captain," Nami acknowledged.

"It's Commodore now," the Marine stated. "By all sensible logic, I should be bringing the lot of you in. The bounty on just one of you alone would allow me to retire."

"...except we know better than to think you'd seriously act on that, Sword-sis," Franky chuckled. The commodore smiled in response and most of the crew dispersed, leaving only the Marine and the cook as everyone else returned to their duties before castoff.

"Might I ask as to why you're the one to drag his sorry ass home?" he asked. The commodore shrugged nonchalantly.

"It's not often that the Devil himself comes knocking at your door, wanting to let off some steam," she replied. "I take it things aren't too pleasant here?"

"They're same as normal—we're just fighting… in a way."

"He's come to me when you were fighting before; that was not you two simply fighting." The commodore raised an eyebrow at the cook and let the moment sit. "Do we need to worry about the lot of you? I will tell Smoker and we will bear down on you all if that's what it takes."

"There's…" He trailed off, not entirely sure how to go about telling his former paramour's occasional paramour (or, as Usopp oh so elegantly put it once: his ex's fuck-buddy) that there was now a by-no-uncertain-terms-permanent break between them. It was not a situation that he could flirt his way around—it was serious. "I guess I've just been reevaluating a lot lately, and the moss-brain thinks that even though we're not together, that means he's caught in the middle of it."

"I can only sneak him around a base and past my subordinates for so long," the Marine stated. "Be gentle about it, or I will not be."

"You wouldn't fucking dare," he scowled. She did not let up in the slightest, remaining steadfast in her stance. "Stay out of my business."

"The business of the Emperors of the Sea is absolutely part of my job description, and you happen to be chef and a commander to one of them." The sight of a woman caught her eye—one she had only seen on wanted posters and in newspapers before then—and her eyes narrowed as though everything that had transpired the past four days was now clicking into place. "Fix this sordid affair before it gets out of hand. Do you understand? I will not hesitate to wage war if I think that your tiff will be a risk to how this crew operates. Out of all the pirate crews, yours is the one that needs to remain functioning and intact."

"A glowing endorsement."

"You know what I mean." She adjusted her glasses to sit on the bridge of her nose and turned to leave. "Next time I see him, it better be because he wants to see me, and not because he needs you."

With that, the Marine commodore left, the cook standing on the deck of the Sunny as he watched her go down the pier and towards town. Only his wife approached him, touching his arm gingerly after the Marine was out of sight.

"What was that about?" Mara wondered.

"Old friend of the crew; she and the idiot knock boots every now and then. They remind each other of… what could have been, I guess."

"Is he…?"

"Let me go talk to him," he grunted. He left a kiss to the back of her hand before climbing up to the top of the mast, catching the swordsman sulking as he stared out a window. The other man regarded him with a disapproving noise.

"Fuck off."

"Not until you tell me what the fuck is wrong." He sat down next to his crewmate and folded his arms across his chest. "Why did Tashigi-chan drag your sorry ass back here by the balls? You usually come back from meeting her with your head held high."

Silence.

"What is it? What bug crawled up your fucking ass and died?"

No response.

"Is it that Reiju's gone? That we're not fucking? Something someone said? Is it Mara?"

A flicker of emotion crossed Zoro's face momentarily and Sanji knew he hit it.

Fucking hell.

"Is the great Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, Demon of the East Blue, jealous of a woman who can barely land a punch?"

"She's a kid, Sanji." The words hung heavy in the air between them. "I guess I just needed to be with an adult for a change."

"I am an adult."

"She's the kid on the ship—the little sister. Are you really saying that you've known about her since she was a baby and now you're just okay with it? That doesn't sound like being an adult to me."

"I don't know what I'm okay with, to be honest," the cook admitted. He wished the piece of turf would just drop it already, but it seemed as though it needed at least one more go around. "We brought her on this ship for a lot of reasons, but… I don't know if there's a new reason for her to stay or not. Mara-chan…"

"...is still just a kid!"

"She'll be twenty-five when we turn thirty, you braindead lump of moss!" Sanji defended. "That's less than is between Robin and Franky, and you know it. You even know it wasn't even her I was sleeping with the first few years she was sailing with us, but you. Why are you insisting on being so fucking weird about this!?"

"I'm not the one being fucking weird about it!"

"You are! You're being possessive!"

"Of whom?!"

"Of me!" Zoro scoffed at that, which only served to incense Sanji even more. "All this is doing is pushing us away even more, I hope you know this! You're being suffocating, quite frankly, and it's unnerving more than I'd like to admit!"

"As if I'd push any member of the crew away…!"

"Except, in this weirdo scenario, you are doing just that! You're trying to hold onto something that's no longer there, mosshead, and I really don't know what to tell you other than that it's a fucking lost cause." Sanji watched as the other man's good eye raised its brow. "I'm married, Zoro. I love her."

A beat.

"You didn't before." It was a quiet admission, tentative and full of emotion. "You married her without loving her."

"I didn't know who I was married to until very recently."

The crow's nest was disturbingly quiet, the only noise being that of their crewmates on the deck as Nami attempted to reprimand several of their number for disturbing her nap with wind-up bug toys. The cook and swordsman met their gazes for only a moment, the latter turning away almost immediately.

"Maybe I am jealous, and a bit possessive," the swordsman shrugged, "but can you blame me?"

"Yeah, I kind of can."

"I live for two, you know." Sanji already knew about Kuina, and honestly theorized there would be one more Straw Hat sword-nut on the crew if it weren't for a murderous staircase in their youth. "The last time I really let someone go, I next saw her at her wake. I never want that to happen ever again."

"…except, that's part of life, marimo-brain." Sanji sat down next to Zoro, so close they barely touched. "You have to let go, and learn when to do so."

"…but what if I'm not ready? What if it's not the right time?"

"We don't know what's right until we do… none of us do." The cook saw a new sort of vulnerability on the other man's face that he didn't like… it was something he knew was completely foreign to the swordsman's usual set of expressions. "We're both still here, right?"

"Well, yeah… but…"

"But nothing—we're still here, still part of the crew, and that's what matters most. We're here to reach our goals, help each other, help Luffy…" Sanji sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Just don't lose sight of what's coming just because you're too busy with what's already been. I mean, your eyesight's bad enough."

"Fuck off." A win—there was no anger in the words. "I guess… I guess I just need to think about this."

"You know where I'm at."

For the first time in a long while, Sanji felt like he was leaving the crow's nest on better terms than when he entered.

"Sanji? What's going on between you and Zoro?"

They were nearly at Sabaody at that point; the entire crew was tensing with excitement and dread as they readied to hide in a mangrove while the Dark King and their shipwright coated the Sunny. Sanji had been in the kitchen with Mara, collaborating on a peace offering to Shakky, when he had gone to investigate how much whisky they had on-hand in the pantry. When he emerged, it was just Luffy in the kitchen, sitting somberly while Mara was nowhere to be seen.

"Nothin', Luff," he grunted. A memory tugged at the back of his brain: one of explaining to his captain why he and the marimo were ducking inside the pantry or a storeroom and why he should not come in to investigate the sounds. They had not by any stretch of the imagination been moaning at good food and explaining other reasons for such sounds was… awkward to say the least. There had been meat, but not any their captain was interested in. "There's actually a whole lot of nothing going on."

"Ah. Maybe that's why he seems sad, even though he's trying to hide it."

"I don't know if that constitutes as sad…"

"Then what is it?" Curious, not accusatory. "I don't know what to do to make him feel better. Usually when he gets like this, it was because you two didn't have Closet Time. Now you don't need Closet Time, because you stay with Mara, but Zoro doesn't have any Closet Time with Reiju anymore… so what is it that he needs?"

"That's the big question, isn't it?" Sanji shrugged. For all the disturbingly excellent leadership skills Luffy possessed (as much as he didn't always admit), the man was completely at a loss when it came to romantic endeavors of a sexual nature. "I think he's a bit upset that there's no more Closet Time for him, actually, and that bothers him."

"We could always get Reiju back, or try to get Tashigi to pretend we kidnapped her for a bit, or…"

"I don't think it's as simple as that." His hands began to go in automatic, preparing a snack for his worried captain. Before long, some Sanji Special Stirfry was sitting on the counter, though its intended recipient wasn't even touching it. "Luffy, eat something."

"I will… just… I'm very confused about Zoro. He's still the same guy, right?"

"For better or worse; I thought you were great at perceiving that sort of stuff."

"Not when it involves stuff like this—it can change people in a way I don't understand." He picked up his spoon and put a heap of stirfry in his mouth—the calmness with which he did so unnerved Sanji. "I'm really good with just knowing, at figuring it out as I go… and I just don't know what to do for this."

"It'll sort itself out, you'll see," Sanji assured. "Breakups happen all the time, people stop getting access to their Closet Time, and life goes on."

"I just don't want him to be sad."

"As pissed off at him as I get, I don't want him to be truly sad either." Luffy gave a knowing laugh—that much was obvious. "It's just… complicated now."

"…now that you're staying with Mara?"

"Since before then, but for the sake of the conversation, sure. All I know is that he'll get out of it in his own time." Sanji then looked at his captain and forced a grin. "Hey, if I make some special onigiri for Zoro, do you want to bring them to him? Think you can handle that without eating them all?"

Luffy nodded excitedly—food helped people feel better all the time. It made him feel better, which he hoped was fairly obvious. He definitely knew food would help Zoro feel better, because it was Sanji's cooking, and it was only logical that the Future Pirate King's chef made the food that could make anyone feel better no matter what was bothering them.

As it turned out, all but three of the dozen onigiri entrusted to Luffy actually made it up to the crow's nest.

Then again, even if only one made it, that would have been enough.

Sabaody, as usual, was a chaos generator for the Straw Hats. They found Shakky's Rip-Off Bar and the old man who was in it—the legendary Dark King, Silvers Rayleigh—resulting in a boisterous reunion that could only really be achieved by Luffy and his crew. A new batch of Supernova Rookies were in town as well, and the news of the Emperor Straw Hat being in the same vicinity as them made for a madcap scramble for the young pups to attempt to outdo one another before the Marines took the chance away. It made most of the first couple days there rather annoying, as nothing seemed to go as planned.

Eventually the excitement wore itself out and the Straw Hats were able to relax long enough to have some fun their ship is being coated. As the pirates dispersed to Sabaody Park and the varying tourist areas, things seemed to calm nearer towards what the regular excitement should have been within the mangroves. They all took care of their own lodgings, knowing that their ship's coating would be done in a few days. Provided nothing went wrong, they would be on Fish-Man Island within a week.

Privacy on a sailing ship is a rare thing, and true privacy even rarer, so when Sanji and Mara checked into their hotel room that evening after a day of shopping and planning further menus, their bags were barely on the floor before they were kissing fervently and undoing each other's clothes as they headed for the bed. He sat down on the mattress and she occupied his lap, both keen on getting his shirt off first, then hers. Melting into both the kiss and the feel of her skin against his, he leaned back until he was laying half on the bed with his feet still planted on the rug. She nearly purred as he moved his lips from her mouth to her jaw, then neck, taking pleasure in mapping her skin in hungry kisses while making his way down her chest. He stopped for a breath once his nose was resting between her breasts, held there by the bra that hadn't yet made it to the floor.

Something settled over the couple as they laid there, gasping for air as they relished in their rare time alone. Allowing himself to lay more flush on the bed, Sanji looked at Mara as though he was viewing the very image of a goddess. There is something about him laying there underneath her, gazing at her adoringly, that made it all the more surprising when he asked:

"Can I see it…?"

She paused a moment, knowing precisely what sort of permission he was asking. After considering it, she nodded, allowing him to tenderly brush aside her bangs. With her eye closed, she felt his fingers gently trace the bony ridge above her third eye, down to the side, and then below. He guided her face down towards him so that he could press a gentle kiss to the closed lid, doing more for her in that moment than her entire family had done in sixteen years.

"Is it the same color as the other two?" he wondered almost teasingly. Mara stared at him, curious, then slowly opened her eye, showing that it was indeed the same brilliant blue.

Sanji went quiet, staring intently at all three eyes. His expression slipped into seriousness, not giving insight as to his thoughts, making him nearly unreadable. He brushed her hair out of her face and cradled her cheek in his hand.

"How in the hell—when in the hell—did you become so beautiful?" he barely whispered.

Beautiful…?! What did he mean by that?! Mara began to sniffle—tears began to leak from all three of her eyes. She shifted off his waist and laid down at his side, nestling within his grasp as he allowed her to cry into his chest as they laid together completely on the bed.

"No one's genuinely seen my third eye and called me beautiful in a long time," she claimed. "You can't mean that…"

"Why wouldn't I?" he chuckled. He kissed the top of her head and kept an arm around her shoulders as her tears became sobs. "You're beautiful, Mara-chan. Only fools can't see how you've grown more beautiful by the day."

"Are… are you sure…?"

"All the most gorgeous women are very confident and sure of themselves, which is something I've seen you become over the past few years. It's been an immense honor to be called your husband as you've become a fearsome and awe-inspiring goddess, and this just proves it. I truly am the lucky one here."

"You idiot."

It took some hours for their marriage to finally be consummated, with hushed gasps and whispered instructions as they guided one another in what their bodies wanted. Both took turns sobbing in the other's arms as the night progressed, a whirlwind of emotions overtaking them as they realized that it's finally over and done with.

They were finally one, as they had promised to one another in front of their shitty families just over five years prior. It was genuinely humbling and terrifying to know something unexpectedly lovely came from such an awful situation; the rescue mission had turned into something much more than that and neither of them would trade it for anything.

Eventually, the Thousand Sunny was done being coated and the crew all returned to Grove Thirteen to depart for Fish-Man Island and the New World. They all said their goodbyes to Rayleigh and Shakky before heading down underneath the surface, on course for Fish-Man Island.

"This never gets old," Jinbe chuckled. He deftly maneuvered the ship through the treacherous waters beneath the Yarukiman Mangrove, bringing the crew ever closer to his homeland. Most of the other Straw Hats were marveling at the sights as they passed, some even discussing how wise it would be to cover Luffy and Floe in coating and see how well they did outside the ship.

"Many things about the sea are breathtaking no matter how many times you see them," Mara agreed. She and Robin were sitting next to Jinbe, looking up at the water above them as they dove deeper and deeper. Glancing over, she saw Robin was watching over their crewmates instead, their antics amusing her more than was usual. "What are you looking at?"

"Just how perfect our little family is," the older woman admitted. She chuckled lowly as she watched her daughter get tossed in the air, activating her Devil Fruit ability to catch her, then pass the toddler back to her father. "It makes me wonder how much more perfect it will become in the future."

"Usually perfect means that nothing should change."

"There is no such thing as the ultimate perfect family," Jinbe mentioned. "Family often changes definition based on the people within the unit. If you had told me ten years ago that I would belong to a family that looks like this, I would have called you insane."

"As would I," Robin nodded. "Still, it makes me wonder if Floe will get a cousin soon."

Mara furrowed her brow to see both Jinbe and Robin looking at her, as though she had something to confide in them. "What?! No! You have a better chance of Luffy finding an infant and deciding to keep it."

"Don't tell me that with the way you and Sanji are with Floe that you don't want a wee thing of your own," Jinbe smirked. "We saw the look on his face when you returned to the ship—there is nothing more between you now, is there?"

"Maybe we'll have kids at some point, but not now," Mara pouted. Her face was hot with embarrassment, knowing that they definitely noticed what she did not confirm. "Why would you even ask that?"

"To cover our bases, what else?" Robin replied gleefully.

Mara dragged her hands over her face as she loudly groaned in protest—give them some time, why couldn't they?

In an out-of-the-way part of the Ryugu Kingdom, a young teenaged merman led his young cousins in play. The children all floated about the yard as they sang a song, one of glory and heroes and days long past, until they caught sight of a couple of humans wandering down the path to the house. While the little ones hid from the strangers, the teen went to the window and shouted inside.

"Aunt Praline! Aunt Pudding is here! And she brought someone!"

"It's your Aunt Mara, you algae-brain," Praline groaned. She stepped outside the house to see that, yes, it was her younger sister, husband on her arm and a sheepish smile on her face.

"Hello there," Mara offered cordially. "Praline, I'd like to officially introduce you to my husband, Sanji."

"Good thing you caught us on a down period—Aladine and I just swapped places for the day," Praline said. Her grin got wide and she concentrated on the blond man with her sister, putting on her scariest face. "Shashasha, so what is your intention with my kid sister, Vinsmoke?"

"…to let her be more than she ever was allowed to be back in Totto Land," Sanji said, holding his own, "and to treat her with all the love and respect a woman deserves from her husband."

"Well said." The mermaid then looked over at her children and nephew. "Go on! Get your dad! Tell him we've got family for company!" The teen took the children away, leaving the adults to themselves. "Figured out how to be an adult, didn't you Mara?"

"Caught on to a couple things here and there," she chuckled. "Now tell me: how is the life of being a rural doctor treating your husband? Finding that retirement from piracy is everything he was hoping?"

"Shashasha—everything he wanted and more!"

An hour later, Jinbe and Aladine arrived at the house to find the sisters having tea while the small children terrorized their cousin and uncle. Both former Sun Pirates laughed; their lives had turned into something most welcome, after all.

As it happened, the newspapers took a turn towards actual journalism the following year, even if they didn't necessarily get all of the facts correct. There was a new Pirate King—the King amongst Kings and a consolidating force amongst those with ideals and dreams—and he decided to go rogue for a bit. How terrifying it was for the majority of the world that a man so powerful simply vanished, and yet, it is something much more than that. He went with his blood-brother and his father as they decided to catch up with one another properly, being something more akin to a real family than anything he'd ever experienced outside of his crew. Everyone else dispersed, agreeing to meet back in a few years as before, making it so that they could be their own people and yet still fulfill their sense of adventure.

Franky and Robin take Floe to Water 7. They tease Iceburg and force Chimney to babysit her little cousin as they make the town theirs.

Brook goes on tour again, to the delight of millions. He's so popular that even the Marines endorse him.

Jinbe accompanies Nami to Cocoyasi and bows deeply to the residents there. They make him stand and bring him into their midst, while she continues on to parts of the East she had yet to map.

Chopper returns to Drum and sets up shop within Kureha's castle. He brings so much new medical knowledge to the kingdom that the Isshi-20 all sob in joy.

Usopp sets sail for Syrup Village. He bends down on a knee, flowers in-hand, and Kaya says yes, for she knows this is not a lie.

Zoro wanders for a while. He eventually is picked up by a curious craft that can sail beneath the waves, its captain taking a reluctant form of pity on his directionless ways.

Sanji and Mara… they head towards the only place they'd rather spend the next few years.

The sea was calm as it rained that evening, as was the restaurant. Business was slow as the floating eatery bobbed gently amongst the waves. Its proprietor—a man with a large mustache and an even larger hat—sat at a corner table reading a newspaper with some tea, knowing that there was unlikely to be anyone else coming in that night. Rain was always bad for a sea-bound business, even if it was of the gentle, lulling sort.

"Headed up to bed, Chef," one of the lesser cooks called out from the kitchen door. He was a recent hire, and his boss wasn't entirely sure the green lad was going to make the cut.

"Okay, yeah—there's not going to be anyone tonight," he grunted. "I'll lock up in a while."

"Call if you need anything." At that, the newbie vanished behind the kitchen door and left the other man alone. Considerate—at least the kid was that. It wasn't as though he could say everyone who'd ever worked there was even half as considerate. He fluffed the newspaper and went back to reading.

Time passed in relative peace, with only the sound of the rain to keep him company. The man continued reading, only stopping when he heard the telltale sound of footsteps out on the receiving deck.

"We're closed," he warned, raising his voice.

"Even for your own son?"

Zeff put down the paper and stood, his eyes on the door as it opened. In walked Sanji, with one of the most beautiful women the older man had ever seen on his arm. A split second and he recognized her from the bounty posters—ah ha… an awful lot of news stories were starting to make sense now…

"What do you think you're doing here, you shitty little eggplant?" Zeff growled as water from their umbrella got all over the newly-replaced rug. "You take off for eight years with barely a word, not even a visit!"

"Zeff, I've been busy…"

"You've been a shit," the older man huffed. He turned towards the woman, his expression softening somewhat. "I don't know how much he's paying you but you don't have to pretend for me."

"I'm not," she replied with a giggle. "My name is—"

"Charlotte Mara, I know."

"I was thinking more 'Kuroashi Mara', now that we're home," she corrected. Zeff glared at Sanji.

"Eggplant…"

"Mara is my wife of six years, though we've only been acting on it the past two," he admitted. "I brought her here because I wanted her to meet you, because despite my better judgement, while Luffy's on this break of his, I wanted to finally come home… be a family."

The old man considered that pensively. "So… Kuroashi Sanji… you know that the sous chef position is still open for as long as you're here."

"Pretty sure I know why, you ornery asshole." He opened his arms and approached Zeff, the two embracing in a hug that was not only awkward, but felt incredibly right. "It was amazing, you know? The All Blue."

"Of course it was, eggplant." Zeff pushed away, trying his best to not shed any tears. "Now how about if you get us some fresh tea? I think I need to get acquainted with my daughter-in-law if what I've been reading and you're implying are both true."

"Long as you haven't hidden anything on me in the meantime, bastard," Sanji sniped back. He watched as Zeff and Mara sat down at the table and began to talk before he disappeared into the kitchen.

There really was nothing quite like home.