The car ride would have been a comfortable silence if Tony hadn't insisted on singing 'The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round' for ten minutes followed by a rendition of his oh so famous 'Are we there yet?'. Much to Zoro's surprise though, Sanji took the whole thing on the shoulder and even joined in with some of Tony's singing. He was patient when Tony asked if they were nearly there yet and even put the radio on when Tony wanted music.

Zoro was shocked but it was a good kind of shocked; he'd met a few guys before but none of them wanted anything to do with Zoro when they found out he had a kid already. It was insulting to think that someone wouldn't want to spend time with his son. Tony was bright, charismatic, a little on the shy side around strangers but loud once you got to know him, and though he could be annoying sometimes he was a good kid and Zoro was insanely proud of him. So with this past of men in mind, Zoro was caught off guard by the fact that Sanji had accepted Tony so openly and so quickly- he was expecting at least a little bit of a cold shoulder- but looking at them now, buckled up in Sanji's car with the teacher guessing answers to the game of 'I Spy' that Tony had got going, he couldn't help but see an image.

They looked like a family.
—

"I used to come here as a kid," Sanji said as they walked through the car park to the building before them. They walked in a straight line across, Sanji next to Zoro with Tony hanging on to his father's arm.

As they walked past the window, Tony jumped as he walked to look through the glass, "Dad!" He gasped, "There's a slide! And a ball pit! Can I go play? Please?"

"We've got to get a table first, Tony," Zoro said, "But then you can go and play for a while, okay?"

"Yes!" He began tugging on Zoro's arm, "Come on, come on! Let's goooo!"

Sanji laughed, "You heard him, let's go."

Zoro smiled and he thought he saw out the corner of his eye, Sanji moving a little closer to walk beside him.

It didn't take them long to get seated in a booth by the window that was close to the soft play area and no sooner had they sat down then Tony had shucked off his coat and kicked off his shoes and made a beeline for the play equipment with a cry of joy. Sanji sat the opposite side of the table to Zoro so they were face to face and chuckled softly to himself. Zoro gave him a look, "What?"

"Nothing. I just really don't know anything about you, do I?" Sanji replied.

Zoro shrugged, "It's much the same for you too."

The teacher hummed as if to say 'fair enough', "You look nice," He said, looking the other man up and down very openly and Zoro flushed.

"Shut up."

Instead of being put off, Sanji seemed to enjoy the response he'd provoked if his smug little smirk was anything to go by. Zoro felt a little swung around suddenly from Sanji's sudden dive from the teacher he knew to an open flirt but the way the blond held himself- more relaxed and natural- told him that perhaps this was more of the real Sanji that he couldn't show given his profession. And as this was a date, this was the kind of Sanji he had to dig out. He had to get to know the real Sanji and that could either make or break this date. If he didn't like Sanji then the whole thing was off and Zoro would have to go through months of Tony being downhearted and blaming himself again for his dad never being with anyone very long- he'd been through that enough to last a lifetime after the divorce came through.

"So," Sanji said, folding his arms and resting them on the table as he leaned forward a bit, "Tell me about yourself."

Zoro must've pulled a face because the teacher sighed, "You don't talk about yourself much, do you?"

Zoro shrugged, "It's not that. I just haven't really dated anyone in years and the people I do know know everything about me so I don't have to explain it to people."

"Well, why don't I start?" Sanji offered, "You already know my name, and that I'm your son's teacher. But there's more. So I'll start from the beginning, yeah? My old man owns the Baratie and-"

"The Baratie?" Zoro asked, surprised. That was the fanciest restaurant in town with it's lavish décor, fine foods, and its five star rating, "That's the best restaurant in town, right?"

Sanji laughed, "I won't tell him you said that, his ego is big enough already. But yeah, he owns the restaurant and I used to want to be a chef when I was a kid. He didn't have to take me in, you know, he really didn't have to take me in. I must've been six when he fostered me for a while and I was a little shit."

Something seemed to change in the blond's face, almost like shame, and when he caught Zoro's questioning look, he continued, "I had attachment issues and I got angry a lot. I broke his stuff whenever I was mad just because I could." He shrugged, "I guess it was because I'd convinced myself no one wanted me around- it was almost like I was trying to get him to ditch me back at the orphanage. But he didn't, he adopted me less than a month later." He sighed but it was with a smile, "I always tell him he's an idiot."

Sanji seemed to catch himself and he grimaced under Zoro's gaze, "I'm sorry, you probably didn't want to hear all that and-"

"No." Zoro said, "We're supposed to get to know each other, right?"

Sanji studied him a moment before smiling, "Right."

Zoro tried his turn at opening up, "I was adopted too, by Koshiro. No one knows where I came from and I was too young to remember but I wound up on those orphanage steps either way. He owned a dojo with his daughter, Kuina, and she became my sister eventually. We used to fight each other with practise swords all the time and she always used to beat me- I never did win against her. But… things… happened and I ended up getting married, having Tony, realising that I was gay, getting divorced, and then finally moved town and here we are." Zoro gestured between them.

Sanji looked dissatisfied with that answer, "Seriously? Come on, I've told you what happened, you could at least tell me in more detail!"

"Nuh-uh, I don't just tell that kind of stuff to anybody- I've got to know them well first." Zoro said.

Sanji huffed, "Fine. Fair enough," Then he smirked, "I guess I'll just have to keep dragging you on dates then until you tell me."

Zoro's stomach twisted at the barely disguised promise of more dates to come but he brushed it off coolly, "That doesn't mean I have to tell you anything."

"Hmm, then how about an exchange?"

"What d'you mean?"

Sanji's blue eyes glinted sharply, mischievously, "How about every time I kiss you, you tell me something new?"

Zoro felt the flush rush across his cheeks and tinge the tips of his ears, "Shut up, you're an idiot."

"I don't hear a 'no'…"

"Shut up!" Zoro repeated, but this time laughed. For the first time in a long time he was having fun on a date. With his now ex wife their dates had been, though entertaining, not as open as this. Sanji was just free about everything and there was a charm and a character in it that seemed to draw him in. Zoro was enjoying himself fully.

"You'll at least tell me about your hair, right?" Sanji asked and Zoro instantly put his hand to his head defensively.

"What about it?"

"It's green! Why do you dye your hair green?"

"I don't dye it, it's natural!"

"Seriously?! It looks like grass," Sanji laughed, "Or even better yet, you look like a marimo!"

Zoro felt himself getting riled up about the teasing but he wasn't angry. He was rather the opposite. This was enjoyable, he liked that Sanji wasn't afraid to wind him up. Most people tended to avoid that because his constant frown made them think he was ill tempered. Sanji seemed to want to challenge him every step of the way and Zoro liked being challenged.

"Well what about your eyebrow, huh?" Zoro retorted, enjoying the way Sanji's face turned beet red.

"H-hey, that's natural too, you know! I can't help that!"

"I dunno, a curly eyebrow just doesn't seem natural to me."

"Says the man with green hair!" Sanji pointed and they both paused before laughing at each other. He was so used to being serious around Tony all the time that Zoro almost forgot what it was like to act stupid sometimes or even go out on a date. Sanji was bringing out a side in him that he hadn't seen in years and he loved it.

Their discussion fell soon into work and though Sanji tried to weasel out some more of Zoro's past, Zoro simply wouldn't let him hear any more of it and talked about their interests. They shared quite a few apparently, both in books, TV shows, and movies, they differentiated on music and fashion but if they were identical in every way then it'd be a bit too much. Zoro liked the fact that Sanji was so similar and so different at the same time. Around midway into a discussion about Game of Thrones, Tony made another appearance wanting pizza so they ordered and Tony sat with them, filling out an activity sheet from the kids area and colouring in the picture on the side.

The little boy seemed to have worn himself out but after a few slices of pizza and a fizzy drink he was off again into the soft play area whilst Sanji paid the bill before Zoro could protest. As Sanji paid, Zoro gave Tony ten minutes before fetching him from the play area, "Come on," He said as he helped his son lace up his shoes and put on his coat, "It's almost your bed time."

"Dad?" Tony asked, "Do you like Mr. Black again, now?"

Zoro lifted the little boy up and onto his hip to carry him and thought to how much he'd enjoyed the evening and how nice Sanji's blue eyes were, and how the corners of his mouth dimpled slightly when he smiled, and the way he flicked his head every now and then to control the flop of hair over his right eye. He rubbed Tony's back with his free hand, "Yeah, Tony, I do."
—

Zoro guessed the embarrassment was bound to happen at some point so he wasn't all that surprised when Tony complained of stomach ache on the way to the car and turned his head to throw up over Zoro's shoulder and all over Sanji's shoes. He would've apologised but Tony started crying and Zoro was too preoccupied in soothing his son to do it.

"It's okay," Sanji said after he'd cleaned up and got in the car, "As a teacher I'm used to kids throwing up on me, trust me, it's nothing new."

By the time they got back and up to the door, Tony was feeling better and he barrelled past and through the doorway, knocking Sanji off balance on the front step and he would have fallen back if Zoro's quick reflexes hadn't of caused him to shoot out his arm and grab the teacher's wrist, using it to pull him upright. Sanji looked a little stunned but otherwise fine and laughed a little in his relief at not having cracked his head off the brickwork of the drive.

Zoro apologised on behalf of his son, "Sorry about that…"

"It's fine," Sanji reassured him with a smile and then began an uncomfortable silence caused mainly by the fact that Zoro hadn't a clue what to say. Luckily Sanji decided to supply some conversation, "Tonight was fun."

Zoro rolled his eyes, "I don't really think Tony vomiting on your shoes counts as something fun."

Sanji chuckled, "It came off pretty easily. You don't have to keep apologising you know, Tony's great."

Zoro stumbled with his words a little, "It's just I haven't really done this- dating- in so long and I-"

Suddenly Sanji moved close and Zoro became hyper aware of the small amount of space between them and the fact he was still holding onto Sanji's wrist and his face heated rapidly under the skin. Sanji was too close now and Zoro slackened his grip on the teacher's arm but he was too frozen to move away.

In a movement so fluid he almost missed it, Sanji leaned in and pressed his lips softly to Zoro's left cheek, just near the corner of his mouth and then pulled away.

Zoro became also aware that the teacher had turned his wrist so his hand was now cupped lightly around Zoro's. Sanji looked up at him with those stunning blue eyes and Zoro could feel the place Sanji had kissed as the skin there felt electrified and prickled, burning with excitement and Zoro would have given anything that moment to have Sanji kiss him again.

"I hope we can do this again sometime?" Sanji asked with a smile but then looked a little embarrassed, "You know, if you want…"

Zoro was still a little dazed from the kiss and the fact Sanji was still holding his hand, "Yeah, I'd like that."

There was another brief moment of awkwardness as Sanji let go of the other's hand but he saved it with a grin and a promise to text him soon.

"Oh," Sanji turned around to look at him as he walked down the drive, "That counts as a kiss, so you owe me a story next time, okay?"

He got in his car, started the engine, and waved. Zoro waved back and watched him pull off and drive away, he brought his hand to his cheek.

Sanji had kissed him.