Title: So Good So Far
Author: AoiTsukikage
Rating: NC-17 overall
Characters/Pairing:Zoro/Sanji, Law/Sanji, eventual Law/Zoro/Sanji
Chapter: 2/?
Word Count: 2806
Summary: Written for a prompt from curlybrow who requested "Sanji confesses his confused love for Zoro, but Zoro refuses him, then Sanji turns to Law for comfort, and when Zoro secretly learns that Sanji and Law are doing it, he becomes really jealous...".
Spoilers: For recent chapters, probably…

Chapter Two

"When's breakfast?"

"When I say so, shitty swordsman," Sanji grunted, the words rolling off of his tongue easily, but when no snappy comeback was offered he turned from peeling an apple and looked over his shoulder. "Oi. I thought you weren't being weird."

" 'm not," Zoro gave him a look that was all kinds of unconvincing and Sanji sighed, mentally berating himself for blurting everything out the night before.

Of course things were going to be weird. How could they not be?

"Whatever. Go train or something and I'll send somebody to get you when it's done," he stared down at the counter, trying to ignore Zoro until he felt somebody poke his shoulder. "What?"

"Food, Cook. I need stamina if I'm gonna lift weights," he poked Sanji again and Sanji scowled at him. "I thought you loved me. I should get special treatment," he was grinning and Sanji immediately felt more at ease, because if Zoro could make a joke out of it maybe they really would be okay.

It still hurt, because it was anything but a joke, but if it was all he had…

"Here," he threw an apple at Zoro. "And if you try to use my feelings against me, you'll be getting a kick in the teeth next," he added, hearing Zoro bark a laugh.

"I'd like to see you try," Zoro bit into the apple and Sanji grinned to himself, somehow feeling lighter for everything. No, Zoro wasn't returning his feelings, but he'd take the good-natured teasing over being ignored completely.

"Keep pushing me and you will," Sanji brandished the knife he was using to peel the other apples at him, and Zoro held up his hands before spinning around and walking out of the galley.

Sanji sighed and set the knife down, rubbing his eyes for a few moments and deciding he'd leave the apples for a bit.

He needed a fucking cigarette.

000

Breakfast was surprisingly tension-free. Zoro treated him the same as always, which basically amounted to grunting at him when he wanted seconds, but Sanji could feel Law's eyes on him more than once and the one time he looked up to check for sure, the older man was staring at him rather intently.

He remembered what he'd agreed to the night before, of course, and in the end his hangover hadn't even been that bad, but there was still a rather large part of him that wondered if he wasn't making a giant mistake.

Yes, he trusted Law to the extent that he wouldn't try to hurt him while on-board a rival pirate ship, and objectively speaking his body at least was quick to react to the thought of being…intimate with him, but he knew that he fell for people quickly.

At least, he fell for women quickly, as superficial as he knew those feelings were, and despite having at least a passable amount of experience with sex, he'd never had a steady lover before.

Fuck-buddy, he reminded himself harshly, because love wasn't a part of this at all, even if a part of him feared he'd turn any positive attention given to him into some twisted form of love.

Well, at least that way of thinking was one point for Zoro, because Zoro definitely didn't show him affection so his feelings weren't dependent on that.

"Sanji-kun?" Nami's melodious voice broke him out of his musings and he snapped to attention immediately. "Can I get some more juice, please?" she asked sweetly and he sprung across the room to do her bidding, seeing Zoro glowering at him out of the corner of his eye.

He had no idea why, since it was none of Zoro's business that he treated the girls as the princesses they truly were, but he filed that reaction away regardless.

He'd take anything he could get at this point.

000

"Have you thought about my proposal?"

"Fuck, don't do that!" Sanji spun around, knife in his hand, because he hadn't even heard Law come into the galley that time and he wondered absently how long the other man had been watching him.

"I apologize for startling you," Law said, the words sounding anything but sincere and rather like he knew it was expected of him to say them.

"Yeah. Whatever. Just don't sneak up on me when I'm handling knives unless you want me to throw it at you," he turned back to his work, ignoring Law for the time being.

Served him right for trying to scare him, after all.

Law, to his credit, stayed completely silent for about five minutes to the point where it was almost uncomfortable before Sanji heard his footsteps again. "Yes?"

"My proposal. Have you considered it any farther?" Law repeated, leaning one hand on the counter and raising an eyebrow as Sanji sighed. He set the knife down, giving himself an extra few precious seconds, because his conviction was starting to waver a little when directly faced with giving an answer.

He knew what he wanted to do, and even without the added bonus of potentially making Zoro jealous enough to realize he felt something toward Sanji, the idea of fooling around with Law was too tempting to pass up.

Law, though, was still more than a bit of a mystery. At the very least, he did seem to value their alliance (although Sanji was half-convinced it was just because Law needed pawns for his eventual plan). But committing to this, as casual and commitment-free as it was, still felt like a big step and he was wary of where it would go or if it would help at all with the whole Zoro-thing.

"I see," Law's voice was completely void of emotion and he turned away, shoulders hunched. "I had suspected that your view might well change in the light of day."

"Fuck," Sanji hissed under his breath, bracing himself on the counter and wondering why he had no problem throwing himself in the way or certain death but was too much of a coward to give a simple 'yes' to somebody that expected nothing of him.

"It's of no concern to me," Law still didn't turn around and his voice was tight. "And I could see why you might be reluctant to agree to such an arrangement with somebody of my…"

"I'm not afraid of you," Sanji snapped his head up, lighting a cigarette to give him some much-needed confidence and turning fully, staring at Law's back. It wasn't exactly true, but Law didn't have to know that.

"You should be," Law sounded like he was smirking now, embracing his reputation as always, and Sanji snorted, blowing out some smoke. "Most people who associate with me end up dead."

The words were delivered harshly, but there was something in his voice that told Sanji he wasn't proud of the fact.

"I don't care about your past," Sanji decided. "Everybody on this ship has been through hell and back at some point in our lives, and if I was afraid of death I wouldn't be following Luffy around," he grinned. He loved Luffy, of course, but it wasn't exactly like his captain took the safest route when going about…well, anything, really.

"What are you saying?" Law half-turned, eyes narrowed, and Sanji stubbed the cigarette out in the sink and strode over to Law, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking up at him.

"I'm saying yes, you shitty surgeon, and if you keep making up excuses as to why I shouldn't I'm gonna start believing you're the one who's having second-thoughts…"

He was cut off rather abruptly by Law kissing him.

Well, technically it was a kiss, but it felt more like a full-on assault and Sanji waved his arms rather uselessly before setting them against Law's shoulders and pushing him off. He stumbled back a little, opening and closing his mouth a few times but unable to make anything resembling proper words come out.

Law looked remarkably unfazed, scowling and crossing his arms. "I thought it was only natural to seal our agreement somehow," he said, his voice perfectly calm, and Sanji flapped his hands again before collecting himself.

"A handshake would have been fine," he straightened his tie and sighed. "Look, if we're gonna do this, we need to set some rules…"

"No," Law said immediately, causing Sanji to bristle.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" he asked evenly, and Law took a few steps closer.

"I mean that as soon as you decide to throw rules into the mix it becomes infinitely less enjoyable. I realize you have ulterior motives, and you know well enough that I only suggested this because you're willing and I haven't found a viable partner in much too long, but personally I feel that if it's merely some sort of…service agreement, it's going to be very hard for either of us to enjoy what could, at the very least, be potentially excellent intercourse," he raised an eyebrow as if he were daring Sanji to contradict him, and the blond was almost surprised to find that he really couldn't.

"Okay, fine, but that doesn't mean anything goes, and…"

"Of course not," Law waved a hand, interrupting him, and Sanji was resisting the urge to kick him. "If either of us does or suggests something the other doesn't like, and we refuse, the other has to honor that. But, from what you were saying, Mr. Zoro doesn't care that you partake in sexual acts with men, so by all accounts even if he discovered what we were up to if it was obvious that it was merely for the sake of convenience the chances he'd care are rather low. Would you agree?" he asked, looking almost expectant.

"Yeah. I mean, I think he had more of an issue that I like him as opposed to the fact that I like guys. I mean, he was surprised by it, but he wouldn't be all…weird around me unless it was something more," he decided.

"In that case, it wouldn't be enough to make him jealous if he simply learned you were sleeping with another man. Your feelings would have to…shift somehow," he started slowly, like he was unsure if it was a smart thing to say, and Sanji breathed out slowly because it made sense and yeah, Zoro might not have been that perceptive, but if he started treating Law like he did Nami or Robin, everybody on board would think he was ill.

"So you're saying I have to pretend to like you as more than a fuck-buddy," he decided, not looking at Law as he tried to work it through in his mind. "And somewhere along the way, make him believe that I don't have feeling s for him any longer because of you?"

"That's about the gist of it, yes," Law affirmed, and Sanji bowed his head forward and rubbed his temples.

It wasn't impossible, of course, because he was rather good by this point at pretending he disliked Zoro a good deal more than was the truth. Maybe inadvertently he'd been doing it to diminish his feelings (not that it had worked, obviously) but it wasn't impossible to think he could keep doing it. Law, however, was hardly somebody that made it easy to like him, and Sanji didn't see him changing his attitude so making Zoro believe there was something genuine there…it wasn't going to be easy.

"I can try. But you're gonna have to do more than walk around looking like you've got a permanent stick shoved up your ass," he grunted, and Law gave him a half-smile that didn't seem quite as sarcastic as normal.

"That can be arranged," he promised, and Sanji believed him.

"Then okay," he nodded firmly, feeling at least a little better about everything now that it had been laid out so plainly. It might not be a contract or any sort of formal agreement, but he knew what to expect and he knew what Law expected, and that was more than enough to least get the ball rolling.

Whether Zoro noticed anything or not remained to be seen, but Zoro wasn't nearly as clueless as people seemed to think and if he got even a whiff of Sanji and Law acting differently toward each other he'd start to get suspicious.

"Good, then," Law murmured, looking at him with a pronounced gleam in his eyes. "And just to clarify, kissing…"

"Go for it," Sanji decided, because yeah, he knew that some people probably thought it was crossing that intimacy line, but in all honestly Law was right when he'd said that there was no point if they didn't enjoy it.

This time when Law kissed him he was prepared for it, and without the suddenness of the first time it was easy to enjoy it. Law obviously had experience and he was as assured in this as he was in almost everything he seemed to do.

Still, it was obvious they were feeling each other out in a way, both unwilling to take it too far. Law pulled away after only a few moments, setting his hands on his hips and clearing his throat.

"So. Where is the best place on-board to…partake in such activities?" he questioned, and Sanji thought about it.

"Well, the only room with a bed besides the girls' cabin is the sickbay, but Chopper stays up late working sometimes so I don't want to risk that. Otherwise we're either stuck with the bench in the aquarium or up on the mats in the crow's nest," he grimaced, because neither of those were tempting options but it wasn't as if they had a lot to pick from.

"Do you have watch tonight?"

"No. Zoro does…" he stopped, then, and realized it might be the perfect way to start putting his plan into action.

"So the aquarium," Law reasoned, nodding to himself and walking toward the door of the galley. "I'll meet you there after first watch starts," he called over his shoulder, as casually as if he were discussing the weather, before leaving the room without another word.

Sanji sighed and collapsed back against the counter, wondering if he was going to get any relief from this at all because he felt like he had to constantly be on his guard around Law.

Still, the knowledge that he was actually going to have somebody other than his own hand getting him off in a few hours put an extra spring in his step, and he had a feeling somehow that he just might not come to regret this.

000

"Oi."

"Hey," Zoro grunted in return, staring out at the sea. He didn't look at Sanji when the blond stepped up beside him, lighting a cigarette and letting the wind blow it toward Zoro in an effort to annoy him enough that he'd have to acknowledge him further.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping if you want to stay up for your shift?" Sanji asked, the words sounding strange on his tongue because it wasn't as if he was used to making small-talk with Zoro.

"I can handle it. If I sleep now I'm just gonna be groggy," Zoro was also being unnaturally cordial and it was weird. "Why d'you care, anyway? Thought you'd love it if I did something wrong and got in trouble for it."

"I don't want you to put the girls in danger, asshole, so I'd prefer it if you did your job and kept the ship safe," he muttered, easily falling back into their normal banter, and Zoro reached out to nudge him with his elbow.

"Not gonna happen, Cook, so don't worry about it," he grinned, and Sanji couldn't help but smile back.

"I'm not worried. I just wanted to know if you needed anything from the fridge for the rest of the night," he let that trail off, hoping that Zoro would find the offer out of place, and he wasn't disappointed.

"Why? Since when did you care if I had a midnight snack waiting?" he frowned and Sanji shrugged, pivoting on his heel and blowing a few smoke rings into the air.

"Because. I'm gonna be…busy all night and I don't want to be disturbed," he watched Zoro's face carefully for any sort of reaction, seeing a bit of confusion there before Zoro schooled his features into neutrality again.

"What're you up to that's so important?" Zoro asked slowly, and Sanji had to hide his grin because he'd played right into that one.

"Wouldn't you like to know, Marimo," he said, deliberately teasing, before shooting a knowing grin over his shoulder and striding back into the galley.

He'd set the trap.

Now he just had to wait and see how long it took for Zoro to take the bait.

Notes:

1. Thank you all so much for the amazing responses I received on the first chapter! I had no idea so many people would be inclined to review but I really do appreciate it because it's incentive for me to keep writing.

2. I hope this chapter was enjoyable as well, and now that most of the set-up is done we can start to move more into the action, as it were.

3. Please feel free to leave a comment or review if you're so inclined, and you can also find me on tumblr at kikokus (dot tumblr dot com).