Title: So Good So Far
Author: AoiTsukikage
Rating: NC-17 overall
Characters/Pairing:Zoro/Sanji, Law/Sanji, eventual Law/Zoro/Sanji
Chapter: 5/?
Word Count: 3075
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

Chapter Five

He dropped Law's coat off later that night, placing it on the bench beside him before he headed off to bed. Law glanced up, eyes flicking from Sanji to the seat next to him, and Sanji guessed it was some sort of invitation.

He sat down, leaning back against the mast and lighting a cigarette as he waited for Law to say something.

It didn't happen, of course, and when his cigarette was burned down to the filter he stamped it out under his shoe and leaned his head on Law's shoulder, trying to get some sort of reaction from him.

Law pressed his nose into Sanji's hair and sighed, the sound long-suffering and defeated, and Sanji had no idea what it meant but he knew somehow that Law wanted him to stay there.

"Why did you help me before?" Sanji finally asked when the silence got too stifling. "In the kitchen, you were trying to make Zoro jealous."

"I was," Law admitted, voice low. "I thought that was the plan."

"For me it is," Sanji countered, half-closing his eyes and letting his body relax. "But when you're doing it, it makes it seem like you just want to get rid of me."

Law didn't reply to that for a long time, but his breathing was harsh and Sanji felt like he'd said something wrong.

"Law…"

"Don't," Law murmured softly, his breath ruffling Sanji's hair as he breathed out slowly. "To be honest, I had underestimated Mr. Zoro's perceptiveness, and now that we have a timeline of how long it will be before we get to Dressrosa that puts a rather definite end date on our…arrangement," he stated. There was something cryptic about the words, and Sanji didn't know if asking would get him anywhere, so he stayed quiet.

"I told you that I enjoyed last night and I wasn't lying, but something of this nature cannot be sustained indefinitely and it seems that without a bit of outside influence, Mr. Zoro might never come around," he finished, and Sanji couldn't dispute that at all.

"Why do you care, though?" he asked then. "I mean, before you said that if Zoro and I ended up….as something more because of this that wasn't any of your concern, and now you're trying to help me," Sanji honestly had no idea what Law would say, or if he'd try to avoid the topic completely, because Law was just fucking confusing.

"I don't, particularly, but I understand well enough how…unfulfilling it is to not get something you really want. I've long since accepted that happiness is not something I'm destined for, but I'm hardly heartless, and it's not taking any real effort on my part to be a little more blatant in front of him," he sounded honest, at least.

"So you're only doing it because it's not inconveniencing you," Sanji decided, and yeah, from what he knew of Law that was believable.

"Precisely," he murmured, pulling away from Sanji then, and he seemed colder and more closed off than ever now, crossing his arms and pulling his hat down so the brim covered his eyes. Sanji wasn't sure what exactly had set him off, because if he couldn't even ask a simple question without getting the cold shoulder it wasn't worth it at all.

"Whatever," he sighed and stood up. The next words out of his mouth probably weren't smart, and they weren't tactful at all, but Law was being impossible and this whole thing was more stressful than when he'd never told Zoro how he felt. "Maybe the reason you're never happy is because you push everybody away. It's your own fault," he strode away, lighting up another cigarette, and wondered briefly if he'd gone too far.

It was the truth, though.

Now it was all on Law to prove him wrong.

000

He slept surprisingly well that night.

When it came time to start breakfast, he barely spared a glance toward Law, who seemingly hadn't moved all night.

It wasn't his problem, after all, and if Law was going to be nothing but contradictory and infuriating he didn't have any obligation to deal with it. He didn't know how old Law was, exactly, but he was guessing he was at least a few years older than Sanji himself and if by that age he hadn't learned yet that acting like a fucking statue was a bad way to make friends, he doubted the man would ever get the message.

Speak of the devil, he thought irritably when he heard the door open, because of course Law would follow him. Sanji wasn't sure what he should say, if anything, because he still had no fucking idea why Law had withdrawn the night before and he didn't sign up to play therapist to Law.

It was supposed to be about getting off. That was it.

"You know, you're not doing a very good job of convincing me you're able to hold up your end of the deal here," he finally stated, frowning when he glanced at the empty fruit bowl. Damn it, he'd thought that would be safe from Luffy, but apparently in the absence of any of type of snack he'd even willingly eat fruit.

Their food options would be limited for the day, so he hoped Nami was right when she said the island was close.

"I assure you, I'm trying, but this is…foreign to me," Law replied in an even tone, and Sanji rolled his eyes.

"Look, I'm sick of going around in circles with you. I'll figure out my own way to get Zoro interested. If there's a brothel at the next island, that'll work just as well," he knew he was purposely riling Law up, but hell, even anger would be a preferable emotion to nothing.

"If you knew what lay in my past, you might not be so quick to judge," Law's voice was dark and Sanji whirled around, glaring.

"But I don't know, because you won't fucking tell me!" he snarled, stepping closer to Law and looking up at him. "You have no idea what the rest of this crew has had to deal with…what I've had to deal with…so don't play that card with me. I don't care how shitty your childhood was. We all had shitty childhoods too, but you don't see any of us acting holier-than-thou about it," he was panting now, getting far angrier himself than it seemed Law was, but there was a tightness around the corners of Law's eyes that told Sanji he was trying to keep it together.

"Don't speak so casually of what you cannot possibly know," Law shifted the sword he always seemed to carry, fingers tightening around the sheath so much his knuckles turned white.

"What are you gonna do?" Sanji barked a laugh, wondering if he was going mad because he was pushing far too hard but he couldn't stop. "Cut me in half? Is that how you always deal with your problems?" he took another step closer so that he was pressed bodily against Law. "I've told you already: I'm not afraid of you."

Before Sanji could even so much as blink, he found himself lifted into the air and slammed into the wall, Law's hand fisted in his collar and a Room materializing around them.

"Do it." Sanji didn't try to fight back. Well, not yet, in any case. "Unless you're too much of a coward for that, too."

Law's golden eyes flashed dangerously and he growled, but a second later the Room dissipated and he let Sanji drop, spinning around and heading for the door.

"The only reason you're not in pieces right now is because I need your crew more than I'm willing to risk your Captain's wrath," he said bluntly. "Remember that I owe you nothing, and you're nothing more than a warm body to me."

He left with that, and Sanji balled his hands into fists, muttering a rather restrained "fuck,"that turned into a much louder "fuck!" that was accompanied by his foot going clean through one of the kitchen cabinets.

"…fuck," he sighed, realizing that he didn't have to worry about Law killing him, because Franky was going to take care of that for what he'd just done to the ship.

000

Franky, it turned out, didn't kill him, but he did get a stern lecture about taking his anger out on Zoro instead of the cabinets. He sulked throughout most of it, smoking more cigarettes than normal and nearly breaking something else when he realized he'd have to ration the remainder if he wanted to have enough to last him until they made landfall.

He was shooed out of the galley after breakfast so Franky could fix the cabinet, and he found himself leaning over the stern rail, staring at the wake streaming behind the ship and letting the cool sea breeze ruffle his hair.

"So what was that about?"

"None of your business, Marimo," Sanji replied, sniffing, but of course Zoro didn't get the rather obvious hint and instead moved closer. He leaned on the rail beside Sanji, crossing his elbows and looking like he wasn't going to move for a while.

"You never get that angry unless Luffy steals a whole pie or something," Zoro looked over at him and Sanji shrugged, jamming an unlit cigarette between his lips and resisting the urge to light it.

"It's nothing," he realized belatedly that he was doing the same thing he'd accused Law of doing, but he definitely wasn't going to tell Zoro because that would blow up the entire plan. "I'm over it now."

"Sure," Zoro sounded completely unconvinced, but he did drop the topic. He didn't leave, though, and he shifted from foot-to-foot nervously for a while until Sanji was getting a little irritated with him just hanging around.

"What do you want?" he asked, not really in the mood to deal with anything else today, and Zoro set his hands on the railing and frowned, apparently psyching himself up for something.

"What's it like?" he finally asked, something quiet and a little ashamed in his voice, and Sanji blinked rapidly at him because for the life of him he had no fucking idea what Zoro was referring to.

"You're gonna have to be a bit more specific," he replied, watching Zoro's face carefully for any hints, and Zoro finally muttered something under his breath before straightening up.

"Sex. What's it like?"

And Sanji was really, really glad that he hadn't lit the cigarette in his mouth because he probably would have burned the inside of his throat with it. As it was, he damn near swallowed the thing and spent about half a minute hacking it up and coughing uncontrollably before he regained any sort of composure.

For once, though, Zoro wasn't laughing at him or looking like he was going to mock him in any way. He just seemed…curious, and Sanji thought that it was probably rude to dismiss his question when it was asked so honestly.

"Please tell me you've jerked off at least," he rasped, voice hoarser than normal after his choking episode. "There's not some weird bushido code about denying yourself self-pleasure or anything, is there?"

"Not really. Or at least, not that I follow," Zoro shrugged, shoulders dropping a little as he realized that Sanji wasn't going to make fun of him for the question. "And yeah, I have. I guess it feels good, but it's more, y'know…"

"Cleaning the pipes?" Sanji raised his eyebrow and Zoro nodded quickly. "Well, feeling good is kind of the point of it. For me, it just feels better when it's somebody else touching me," he swallowed and tried not to conjure up mental images of Zoro being that 'somebody else' because it's not like his plan was working too well at the moment. "And I…not that I've ever experienced this, but I've heard that when you truly love somebody, and they feel the same about you, it can be even better."

"Emotions and shit, right?" Zoro snorted, but the words sounded like a front.

"I guess. There's just something…freeing about being stripped completely bare, and it can be scary, but if you know they're right there with you it's not so bad," he raised a hand to pat Zoro's shoulder before thinking better of it. Zoro noticed, of course, and stared at Sanji without blinking until the blond lowered his hand and completed the motion.

"You can still touch me, you know," Zoro said then, glancing down at Sanji's hand. "I wasn't lying when I said that I don't see you any different just because you've got a thing for me."

"I know," Sanji sighed, removing his hand and deciding not to push his luck. "But I don't want to make you uncomfortable…"

"You're not. And you'd know if you were," Zoro pointed out. Sanji had to concede that, because it wasn't as if Zoro were shy about telling him exactly what was on his mind. "So you've never…found that connection with anybody?"

"Nah," Sanji shook his head. "It's all been…I mean, I've never really paid for sex, but most of the port towns we stopped in, there were enough guys around looking for a fuck that as long as you had a place to go they'd take you up on the offer. But it's been a long time since I've even had that," he said quickly, because he still couldn't give away what was happening with Law.

Had happened.

Because the way Law was acting now, he wasn't sure if he'd get that again.

"When did you figure out you were into men?" Zoro asked then, and Sanji furrowed his brow and tried to think through that one.

"I guess, in a way, I'd always known. I grew up around men, back at the Baratie and even before, and women to me were customers and my job was to please them in whatever way possible but never to demand any pleasure for myself. Some of the guys did, of course, and they traded off going for supply runs so they could get it out of their systems now and then. The older I got, though, I realized that while I love women, and I think they're beautiful and if one of them ever asked me I wouldn't refuse, when I got…hard, most often it wasn't a woman's body on the other end of my fantasies. I didn't get the chance to…experiment much, since I was by far the youngest person at the restaurant, but the first time it happened was with a customer," he blushed, then, because it sounded so sordid when he talked about it like that. "I don't know what signals I gave off to him, but when he went to use the toilet he cornered me in the back hallway and made his intentions very clear. He was a couple of years older than me, maybe, and rather handsome, so I agreed. I don't know if Zeff ever found out; I was so nervous that he barely touched me before it was over, but after that I knew for sure that I was attracted to guys."

Zoro didn't comment, and Sanji wondered if he'd totally freaked him out or something, but when he looked over the swordsman looked completely serious, and he reached to grip Sanji's elbow before nodding.

"I guess maybe because I've spent so much of my life alone by my own choosing, I just never took the time to figure out things like that," he decided, patting Sanji's arm once before he let go. "Thanks for telling me."

"Hey, if I can awaken your latent sexual tendencies, at least there's a chance it might turn out good for me, right?" he grinned, trying to cover the fact that he knew the chances of that happening were still next to zero, and Zoro snorted.

"Yeah. In your dreams," he grinned, and Sanji had to reply to that one because it was too perfect not to.

"Oh, you don't even know what happens in my dreams," he winked, fluttering his fingers at Zoro in a wave as he walked back toward the main part of the ship.

It didn't mean Zoro was any closer to coming around, but at least if he was asking questions he was interested, and Sanji would hang onto that knowledge for now.

000

By the time the evening meal came, Law still wasn't showing himself. His absence had been suspicious during breakfast and lunch, but Sanji knew it would look strange for him, normally so adamant about making sure everybody was eating enough, to not be concerned.

So with Nami's gentle encouragement (see: threats of bodily harm) he set off to find the other man, unable to come up with a decent excuse as to why he shouldn't be the one to look for him.

He found Law in the darkened aquarium, sitting on the bench with his knees pulled to his chest and apparently trying to make himself look as tiny as possible. It was such a stark contrast to his normal presence that it gave Sanji pause for a moment or two. He looked worn-out and young, hiding from the world (or from himself, Sanji wasn't really sure which).

Before he could convince himself it was a bad idea he walked over to the bench, sitting down beside Law and manoeuvring him gentle so that he was at least uncurled a little, his head resting on Sanji's thigh while the blond stroked his fingers through Law's deceptively fluffy hair.

Law didn't stir, face relaxed and free from its normal worry lines while he was asleep, and Sanji spoke without knowing if Law could hear him or not.

"You know you don't have to tell me anything about yourself," he said quietly, staring forward. "But I really wish that you trusted me enough to do it anyway."

There was complete silence then, the burbling water in the fish tanks the only sound. Law's eyes remained closed, but his hand came up to grip Sanji's knee, fingers curling in and holding tightly enough for it to be an obvious response to Sanji's words.

He didn't know what it meant, or if it meant anything at all, but Law wasn't running away.

And that, no matter how small, was something he could still count as a victory.

Notes:

1. Yes, I know Law's being extremely difficult, but the more we learn about his past the more I think he would probably be even more hesitant to open up to anybody than I had originally thought. Although apparently my response to finding out how awful his life has been is to torture him even more emotionally, but well, we always hurt the ones we love, right?

2. Thanks again for all the lovely comments and reviews! I promise we'll get back to the smut soon, but there's more backstory and development going into this fic than I had first thought so please bear with me a bit until these boys figure themselves out :)