"I recognized you instantly. All of our lives flashed through my mind in a split second. I felt a pull so strongly towards you that I almost couldn't stop it."
― J. Sterling, In Dreams

They stared at each other, ignoring the applause and congratulations, ignoring the excited voices talking about how cool it was to watch a tattoo fill in, only focusing on each other. Vaguely Zoro heard Nami talking, something about clothes and leaving. Somebody grabbed his arm, tugging him away and breaking their eye contact. He scowled down at Nami, stumbling after her as she dragged him angrily away. He looked back at Sanji to see him scrambling to grab his shirt and jacket before the doors closed, hiding him from sight.

"What the hell?" Zoro growled, snatching his arm back from Nami, taking the shirt she thrust at him.

"You were supposed to expose her for a fraud!" Nami wailed, "Not prove that she's the real deal."

Zoro's eyes narrowed, "You're seriously pissed off about that? I just met my fucking soul mate and you're blaming the fact she knew it on me?"

"No." Nami huffed, crossing her arms and pouting, "I'm not blaming you, it's great you found your soul mate, but I was supposed to get rich exposing her. Speaking of your soul mate, where is he?"

Zoro rolled his eyes at her, "Probably still standing in the middle of the room looking like Chopper when we tell him Usopp is lying."

"Why did you leave him in there?" Nami shrieked, "You just met him! How could you ditch your soul mate like that?"

Zoro stared at her like she had grown horns and a tail, "You do realize you're the one who dragged me out of there and left him right?"

"I'm afraid he is right, my dear." A smooth voice commented. Both of them turned to see Sanji standing a few feet away, smoothing his shirt nervously. Nami flushed and bit her lip, "Sorry, I… was focused on something else."

Zoro could only stare at him, this was his soul mate, the person he was meant to be with. Sanji turned and met his gaze, "So you're my… soul mate. Never thought it would be a guy"

Zoro nodded, "Guess you're mine. My, uh, soul mate."

They stood awkwardly outside of the tattoo reading building, not knowing what to say or do. It was Nami who broke the silence first, turning to Sanji, "Well I'm sure you'd like to get to know Zoro, so how about I leave now and you guys can get on with that?"

"Uh, I- maybe?" Sanji half asked, still looking dazed. Nami rolled her eyes, "Okay sounds great, Zoro text me where you are and I'll pick you up, I don't need to be looking for your lost ass for an hour today."

Zoro spluttered and growled as she walked away, flipping her long orange hair over her shoulder. He flipped her receding back the finger before turning back to Sanji. Who's eyes were glued to Nami's ass. Great.

He cleared his throat and almost smirked when Sanji jumped and looked at him guiltily. And then they were back at square one, both staring and not knowing what to say.

"Coffee?" It took Zoro a couple minutes to understand what Sanji was asking him, but he nodded as soon as he got it. That was something people did right? Get to know each other over coffee? Zoro wouldn't know, he'd never been on an actual date-like outing. No matter how lax people were about hooking up and having fun before they met their soul mate, no one had ever wanted to get serious. How awful would it be to have to leave someone you came to love because you met your soul mate? No one wanted to be that asshole. Unless they didn't care about the whole soul mate bullshit, but there didn't seem to be anyone like that.

They walked in awkward silence to a nearby café Sanji had found on his phone. They snuck glances at each other, dropping their eyes when the other turned. Zoro hated this, hated the feeling that was clenching inside his gut. And from the looks of it, Sanji was having just as hard a time with this as he was. The blonde man kept pulling out an expensive looking lighter, flipping the cap up and down with his thumb. He only stopped playing with the stupid thing when they finally got to the café.

"Green tea" Zoro grunted at the barista, shaking his head when the girl asked if he wanted sugar. A sharp pain in his side had him jerking his head towards Sanji, who looked livid. The blonde man glared for a few minutes more before turning to the barista and sending her a sickeningly sweet smile, "I'm sorry my dear flower, he seems to have forgotten his manners. I'll have a Caramel Chai latte my dear, thank you."

Zoro just barely supressed the urge to groan at the tone of Sanji's voice. Before it had been smooth with just a touch of a rasp. Now it was disgustingly sweet, he could almost taste the honey dripping off his words.

He went through the rest of the exchange on auto pilot, handing the now blushing girl a bill for his drink, scowling when Sanji knocked his hand away to pay for both the drinks.

When they finally sat down it finally hit Zoro. Really hit him. This was his soul mate. He was sitting across from the guy that was in every way made to be with him. He was the person Zoro would probably spend the rest of his life with. The guy who looked like he'd rather be anywhere but with Zoro.

"Okay, look, this is kind of… awkward for me." Sanji said, fiddling with his mug, "I… I'm straight. Not that I can't admit someone is attractive when I see a good looking guy, it's just… I feel no attraction to men. Felt no attraction to men."

Zoro cocked an eyebrow at the correction and Sanji flushed a light pink. It looked... good on him.

"I walked into that room and there you were there and… I have never felt this and it's freaking me out. Our eyes met and this is so fucking stupidly cliché and overdone in movies but it was like there was a spark and this is getting so fucking ridiculous."

Zoro chuckled and Sanji glowered at Zoro, "Sure laugh all you want, ignore my freaking out about finding out I'm gay in front of a large group of people."

"You're making this a bigger deal than it is. And you aren't gay, if anything you're bi." Zoro said, taking a sip of his green tea. Sanji stared at him, "You aren't freaking out? That I'm a guy? That I'm… your uh….y'know…"

"No, I never really cared. I figured that my soul mate was going to be whoever they were going to be and it wouldn't be a big deal, because they were still going to be my soul mate. Not gonna lie, I thought it would be a women, most people who saw my tattoo did, but I don't care either way. Didn't care. Whoever it was… whoever you were, was perfect for me."

Zoro sighed, he'd said it a million times, but saying it to his soul mate was all kinds of awkward. Sanji stared at him for a minute before dropping his gaze to whatever the hell his drink was, "that was… kind of deep. So you never really thought about your sou… me? What I might have turned out to be?"

Zoro shook his head, "I gave it some thought, but I didn't care much. Honestly I had better things to do than moon over someone I might never have met."

Sanji bit his lip and stared into his coffee. Zoro sighed and wiped a hand over his face, Sanji was probably the kind of person who had mooned over someone he might have never met. Great. He could almost hear Nami sighing in exasperation, 'great first impression there buddy, real smooth.'

"What did you think I was going to be like?" Zoro asked. Sanji bit his lips, "A woman… a strong Japanese woman who had a violent streak." He glanced up a Zoro's face, "It looks like I got most of it right."

Zoro snorted, "If you're silently commenting on the hair you can shove it, I've heard everything there is to hear curly"

The blonde bristled, "Curly?"

Whenever Nami got a call from the police station, she always expected to walk in and find Luffy. So of course she was shocked to walk in and find Zoro and Sanji sitting side by side on a bench, glaring away from each other. Both were in a state of disarray, bruises, blood and clothes torn.

"What the hell happened?" She asked, glaring at both of them, "I get a call from the police saying I need to come in and pick someone up, and it's you and your soul mate? What the hell did you guys do?"

"Got into a fight." Zoro said sullenly. Nami sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling like a parent who had just got called to the school to talk about their delinquent child.

"Why would you fight your soul mate?"

"He started it!" Both exclaimed at the same time, before turning and glowering at each other. Nami sighed again, this was a match made in hell.