Chapter Text
There’s a knock at Sanji’s door.
“Can I come in, Little Prince?” His mother’s sweet voice calls out carefully, and he whines loudly in response. She understands him too well, walking in and shutting the door behind her. She has an envelope in her hand.
“Budge up,” She hums, and she sits on the edge of his bed as he curls up further under his duvet. “Now, now. Don’t be like that.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Oh, I think you do.”
“But what if I didn’t get accepted--”
“Oh, I doubt that.”
“You’re my mom, you have to believe in me.”
“I do believe in you.” The teen feels a pat roughly over his head from above the duvet. “But also, I got curious and opened it already.”
“Mom-!” Shooting up, Sanji stares in disbelief as Sora hands him the letter, emblazoned with his first choice’s insignia. He tries not to snatch the letter, as that was rude, but he does take it very quickly and skims the contents.
“I got in.” He whispers.
“You got in, my love.” Sora confirmed, and she laughs when Sanji leans forward and tugs her into a careful hug. She squeezes him back equally joyfully, and Sanji isn’t afraid to admit that he sheds some happy tears. Happy ones, for once; like he hadn’t just spent the weekend in bed crying his eyes out over a boy. “And there’s more.”
“More than the best news ever?” Sanji jokes, but Sora reveals one more envelope. It’s addressed to her, and also already opened.
“You got a full scholarship. Your course is entirely funded.”
“Oh…” Sanji’s breath catches in his throat. “Oh my god… that’s…”
“Amazing, isn’t it? I’m so proud of you.” Sora kisses the top of his head. “You’ve come so far, my brilliant boy.”
“I can actually go…” Sanji murmurs, and he must have been radiating uncertainty because his mother pulls away to look at him oddly.
“Of course you can? That was never a question, sweetheart.”
“I just… Well part of me thought maybe I shouldn’t--”
“Why’s that?”
“It’s so far away… I’ll be with Uncle Zeff, but you’ll be… here…” Sanji knows his worries are ridiculous. He’s about to become an adult, yet he can’t help but feel like he’ll be abandoning his mother if he goes.
“Well, I do like it here,” Sora hums. “And there’s nothing stopping me from visiting you, or you coming back here on your holidays. This is your dream, right? Or have you changed your mind?”
“No-!” Sanji shakes his head roughly. “No, nothing like that! Just nervous, that’s all.” He tugs at the long strands of his hair over his face; he’d almost impulsively hacked it all off after coming home from prom, but luckily his mother had talked him out of it.
Sora scoots closer to him, taking his hands in hers and squeezing them. “Is there something bothering you, Sanji? You wouldn’t talk when you came home early from Prom, and Vivi has been too upset to talk too. Is it about Karoo? I did hear that a senior student has been bullying him, and it came to blows at prom. Were you involved?”
Hearing the concern in her voice made Sanji’s lip tremble, but he shakes his head. It was all connected to him, sure, but it wasn’t his fault - this time. He’d just been stupid once again.
“Sanji, my love,” Sora pulls him close, forcing him to look up and meet her eyes. They were soft with worry, and she cradled his cheek. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
Tears blur his vision, but he does, and he falls apart in his mother’s lap for the first time in several years. He tells her everything, about opening up to Zoro, kissing him, finally trusting him enough to go to prom and then finding out it was all a lie. He’d read the texts; Zoro, Nami and Vivi had all texted him ‘the truth’ - that the whole thing had been a set-up so that Nami and Vivi could date and go to prom together and be girlfriends. He’d known deep down it was all too convenient, a little too coincidental, but he’d wanted to trust his stepsister, her crush, his crush, and it all fell apart once the truth came out. Even knowing that Koza hadn’t actually been involved, and was just messing with him once again, hadn’t truly helped. All he felt was heartbreak.
“I know this is my dream, I had my heart set on it.” Sanji sniffs as he finishes telling his mother everything. “But after all this, can I really trust my heart anymore? My brain was right all along, and it was fake, none of the past few weeks was real --”
“-That’s a lie!” Vivi shoves the door open, flailing a little when she receives identical disapproving looks from mother and son. “Well, not a lie, but more like, not true? You’re mixing up the facts!”
“What facts?” Sanji sniffs bitterly, refusing to look at her.
“I texted you,” Vivi fidgets, her hands tucked into the overly-long sleeves of one of Sanji’s old hoodies, and he sees in his side vision that she looks like she’s been crying too. “Basically, it’s mine and Nami’s fault, not Zoro’s. He likes you for real, and he wanted to tell you about us being involved, but we made him keep it a secret.”
“He made the choice himself to get involved in the first place.” Groaning, Sanji flops back against the headboard of his bed.
“Not really?” Vivi winced. “Nami kinda guilted him into doing it, because he was failing some classes and she was helping him. She’s really good at getting guys to do what she wants.” She huffs when he rolls his eyes. “Hey, you can’t argue that when you act the same with literally any girl that asks you for a favour.”
Touche.
“The plan was we’d all tell you after prom.” Vivi continues, arms wrapped around herself in a self embrace. “We’d come clean and we’d apologise and we’d hope you two would stay together because of actually liking each other, without the rest of us pushing you towards each other.”
“But Koza found out.” Sanji added, and the younger girl nodded silently. “How did he find out, again?”
“Karoo is taking an elective at senior level, and it’s Koza’s class.” Vivi sniffs, and Sanji can see tears in her eyes as she thinks of her poor, painfully shy best friend. “He was targeted by bullies from the start, but he didn’t tell me, because I was so happy making new friends in my classes, he didn’t want me to worry about him! And one day, Koza apparently stole his phone and read our texts about the plan to get you to prom…”
“It spiralled from there,” Sanji nods, and Vivi’s tears spill harder.
“I’m so sorry, Sanji. I’ve been a bad friend to Karoo, and a bad sister to you, and a bad person for being so sneaky and selfish!” She sobs, wiping her face with the sleeves of her borrowed hoodie, and it pains him too. “I’m so sorry I was so hard on you and being mean, I’m sorry, I’m sorry--!”
“It’s okay,” Sanji shushes her, unravelling himself from his blankets to bundle her sobbing frame into his arms. He’d planned to put some distance between them for a while, with his trust so broken, but he’s known Vivi most of his life, and it hurts him to see her hurting, even though it was technically deserved. It was easier to talk it through with her than to keep her at arm’s length, and they’ll always be siblings no matter what. They’ll be fine. Sora, too, stands and takes them both into her embrace. “I forgive you, it’s okay. You were trying to help, I can see that.”
“I messed everything up,” she wailed, clinging to him. “Zoro really, really liked you and I could see that you liked him and it’s my fault you hate him now!”
“He’s a dumbass, he’s very easy to hate in his own way, not because of you,” Sanji says carefully, light-heartedly, trying to cheer her up. “It wouldn’t have worked out, especially since I got into my top choice college.”
“You got in?!” Vivi gasps, nearly knocking them all over in her eagerness to jump up and down. “Oh my god! Sanji! I’m so happy for you! I’m so sorry! I’m happy and sad all at once.” She sobs, and it’s truly a mix of happiness and sadness as the three of them chuckle softly.
“You really won’t give him a chance?” She asks again after a moment, when Sora leaves the two of them to talk in peace.
“I don’t think there’s any point.” Sanji shrugs, uncertain. “Even if I accept his apology, what then? I’ll be off on the other side of the country in a couple months for college. We’re just teens. The future is open.”
“It’d be romantic if he went with you.” Vivi sighs, and Sanji is immediately shushing her.
“Nope, nuh uh. None of those thoughts or we’ll hear Zoro break out into song again.” The pair laugh. “I can’t believe you got him to sing.”
Vivi snorts. “Nami did. She’s very forceful. I’m just glad he had a decent singing voice.”
“Yeah. It was kinda nice.”
She gives him a look, and he sighs. “Don’t. I still need time to process everything. My head is spinning around and around and I still have homework to do.”
“You’re still finishing your homework even after getting a full scholarship? Nerd.” Vivi teases, and the blonde chases the younger girl out of his room.
“Alright chuckleheads, settle down,” Jimbe sighs as he strides into the room, a hand already rubbing his forehead as he anticipates a migraine.
“I know most of you guys are excited to almost be done with highschool, and the majority of you have somehow, miraculously, made it to your chosen colleges--”
There’s a holler of various college chants from the boys who made it on sports scholarships, and Sanji rolls his eyes.
“-Yes, yes, I get it. You all feel like doing any classwork now is kind of pointless. The fact of the matter is I have to give you guys something to work on until you graduate, so I’ll make it something easy. Everyone has to write a short poem and present it to the class at the end of the class.”
There’s a collection of groans and unenthusiastic complaining, and Sanji feels strangely nervous. Presenting in the one class he shares with both Koza and Zoro…
“Oh, and one last announcement before I leave you guys to work in silence, Mr Arabasta has been suspended for the final week of school and while he will be allowed to graduate, he won’t be allowed to attend the ceremony due to his behaviour involving bullying and fighting.”
Sanji blinks in surprise, and he swears Jinbe gives him a wink and sly smile.
“Anyway, get to work on those poems. Or don’t, I don’t care.”
The blonde feels eyes staring into his back as Jinbe finishes talking and the class breaks into quiet chatter. Of course Zoro had shown up for their final English class, after weeks of skipping. He’d been trying to contact Sanji any way he could since Prom night - at one point, Cobra had even had to ask him to leave the property since he’d been standing outside their house. A little creepy, but the sappy part of Sanji’s heart wants to acknowledge the romantic intentions.
He scribbles down some shitty rhymes, but there’s no love for the words. His mind is still on Zoro - so maybe it’ll help him to write about him. His writing isn’t his best, but like Jinbe said, it was only a small project to keep them busy in their final class. Sanji didn’t have to write anything good. Just his feelings.
And his feelings were a mess.
By the time Jinbe gets them to settle and picks a few students to read, most of whom wrote something stupid about graduating, Sanji feels nervous again. He feels good to have his feelings written out, but speaking them out loud was something else. He hopes that Jinbe won’t pick on him, but he isn’t so lucky.
“Sanji, you look like you have something there, care to read it aloud?” Jinbe asks, and he says it in such a reassuring manner that Sanji gets up automatically, moving to stand at the front of the class.
“I’m not apologising for swearing,” Sanji says to Jinbe first, and the teacher simply raises a brow. He clears his throat.
“I hate your stupid caveman face,
And your stupid grassy hair.
I hate the way you look constipated,
When you’re trying not to stare.
I hate all of your stupid muscles
And your stupid fucking scar
I hate that you made my heart spike
That day you jumped in my car.”
He tries hard not to glance in Zoro’s direction. He can see him in the corner of his vision, the way his hands are balled into tight fists. His eyes feel watery.
“I hate the way you make me laugh,
And how often you’ve made me cry.
I hate that after all this time,
I should have known you’d lied.
I hate the way I like your witty lines
And even the way we fight
I hate that I can’t stop thinking about you,
Even though I know it isn’t right.
Mostly, I hate that I don’t hate you.
I really don’t know why.
I can’t wait to leave this place
So this is my Goodbye.”
Sanji feels his tears spill as he glares at Zoro, his breathing hard and laboured after baring his heart out for the whole class to see. People are whispering, and giggling, and some even look pitying at him, and he can’t have that, he can’t stand the stares anymore. He dashes to his seat to grab his bag and legs it out of the classroom, ignoring the shouts from Jinbe - and Zoro - behind him.
He makes it to his car right as he sees Zoro at the school doors, panting and glaring. He can see the green-haired teen pointing at him, sees the way he shouts “Wait-!” as Sanji turns the ignition on, sees him slow in defeat as Sanji pulls away and speeds out of the car park.
“You just left him there?!” Kaya gasps, her voice high over the phone. Sanji’s sitting on the roof just outside of his bedroom window, where he usually hides to smoke when his mother is home.
“I was not about to talk to him after I said all of that.” Sanji groans. He’d filled Kaya in on what had happened, and she empathised at first, but now he felt a little bad.
“What if he was going to ask for you back?”
“I would have said no. Feelings or not, he still betrayed my trust. And I’m leaving in two weeks.”
That’s right. In two weeks he’ll be leaving to move in with Uncle Zeff and get a head start on working in his restaurant, all in time to start college. He’ll fill his mind with work and cooking and he won’t think about mossheads or pretty eyes.
“You’re being so hard on yourself,” Kaya sighs. “You could at least stay and hang out with me for a while longer.”
“I’m sorry, my sweet, but it’ll be easier to leave sooner.” Sanji smiles softly. “Plus, you’ll be plenty busy with your new beau. Usopp is a nice enough guy.”
Kaya sighs sweetly and Sanji’s heart aches a little bit. He’s happy for her, truly, but now he feels just a little bit lonelier. They eventually wind down to talking about nothing, so they call it a night and hang up. Sanji takes another cigarette out of his pack, lighting it up when he sees a sleek black motorcycle pull up outside his house. It’s one he’s only seen a couple times before, and he glares at the rider as he disembarks the vehicle.
“What the fuck do you want?!” He calls out, hoping his anger covers up the loud thumping of his heart. Zoro pulls the helmet off, looking around curiously before finding Sanji on the roof with a jolt.
“I made you something.” Zoro calls back, voice hesitant. “I was gonna give it to you after class, but..”
“Just leave me alone.” The blonde is so tired of his feelings being shoved in his face today.
“Please, I’ll leave you alone after this.” Zoro hurriedly pulls his backpack off his back, pulling out two containers that Sanji recognises as things to hold food, and he’s annoyed at how interested he suddenly is.
“What is that?” He finds himself asking, and Zoro’s whole demeanour shifts as Sanji asks about his little gift.
“It’s-” Zoro clears his throat as his voice breaks a little. “It’s uh, seafood pasta? And onigiri, they are basically like--”
“-Rice balls with filling, I know.” Sanji scoffs a little, but his heart is already swayed. His favourite pasta, and something from Zoro’s heritage? Too much. He shuffles to the edge of the rooftop and drops silently from the ledge to the grass below, years of practice coming in handy, given it’s quite late at night. “If you wanted to give me this after school, why wait until now to drive by with it?”
Zoro hesitates.
Sanji blinks. “Did you seriously get lost--”
“No!”
A bark of laughter erupts from the blonde, surprising the both of them. It wasn’t intentional, but it breaks some of the tension between the two of them. Zoro looks appropriately embarrassed, but also a little relieved that Sanji seems more relaxed.
“Did you at least refrigerate that pasta?” Sanji sighs quietly with an amused smirk as Zoro flusters.
“Well, yes, originally, but the drive here was a little…” Too long, maybe. Zoro says the words with his expression, and Sanji almost feels for him.
“You have to be careful with seafood, Marimo.” Sanji chides softly, but he takes the container to look at it. “Here, shine a light on it for me.”
With the flashlight app on Zoro’s phone activated, he looks at the pasta. It’s… okay. The noodles look overcooked and a little soggy, the sauce is watered down and a little congealed with the lack of refrigeration, but the seafood itself - the prawns and mussels that he can see - they look okay. He dips a pinky finger into the sauce and gives it a taste, trying not to wince at the other teen’s hopeful look.
“It probably would have been okay to eat when it was fresh,” Sanji tries to say nicely. “But it definitely has too much salt in it.”
Zoro seems to deflate. “Well, if that’s too salty, the onigiri…”
“I’ll still try it.” Sanji and Zoro swap the containers they’re holding. With the light from Zoro’s phone, Sanji sees three seaweed-wrapped, misshapen rice balls. They’re almost cute, the blonde thinks, imagining the clumsy and awkward way Zoro must have tried to shape them.
“It’s just some tuna-mayo filling, it should be okay to eat, right?” Zoro mutters, hopeful.
“Yeah, it’ll be fine.” Sanji reassures, he’s not about to waste two meals if he can help it. “I feel kinda bad, to waste the pasta.”
Zoro takes out a fork from one of his biker jacket’s pockets, and shoves a forkful into his mouth.
“Oi!”
The blonde tries to stop him, but Zoro backs away. “Oi yourself, you have the onigiri, I’ll have the pasta. Nothing’s wasted.”
“Don’t give yourself food poisoning, dumbass.” Sanji sighs, and it’s irritating how fond it sounds.
“Shut up and eat my shitty rice balls.” Zoro smirks at the innuendo.
“Prick.”
Sanji does bite into one, and it’s - fine, actually. There’s a little too much salt, but it’s not obvious amongst the layers of seaweed it’s wrapped in. The tuna and mayo was portioned correctly too, so it wasn’t overflowing and breaking the ball apart.
“This is good, Mosshead.” Sanji finally admits, and the teenager pauses his aggressive shovelling of pasta into his face.
“Really?”
“I’m still pissed at you so I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.” Sanji snaps back, and instantly Zoro looks remorseful and hurt. They both instinctively go back to their food, neither wanting to speak, nor wasting the food due to Sanji’s mantra. When they’re done, they close the containers and Zoro puts them back in his bag.
“So…” Zoro hums, looking around but not at Sanji. It’s clear what he wants to ask.
“I don’t think I can forgive you and just pretend we’re okay.” Sanji says after a moment, and Zoro finally looks at him properly. The brown and green flecked eyes staring back at him are hurt, but accepting. “I said what I said, and I meant it, but I’m leaving for college in two weeks.”
“That soon?”
“That soon.” Sanji confirms. “This has been my life plan since the beginning, and while I want to live the romantic movie life and forgive you and take you back, the real world isn’t that nice. The reality is that you hurt me, and all of this drama affected not just me, but my sister and my friends. And I know you got pulled into all this by them, but you could have done better.”
“I know.” Zoro’s voice is soft. “I’m sorry.”
“I know.” The blonde echos back. His heart aches. “We’re just stupid teenagers Zoro. These feelings will pass, right? It’s not like you’re gonna chase me across the country--”
“I could, though.”
“Don’t joke like that,” laughing, he watches Zoro’s expression turn serious, determined. “Seriously, don’t.”
“I’m serious, my old man has a house in basically every part of the world.” Zoro shrugs. “If I tell him I want to live wherever you go, he’ll find me somewhere to live.”
“That easy? Must be nice.” Scoffing, he wraps his arms around himself. “I’m working hard for everything I get and he’ll just hand it to you?”
“If I prove myself, then yes. I’m not just all talk when it comes to swordfighting.” Zoro glares back. “I have another competition next week. Come watch me win, you’ll see.”
“I don’t have time for that.”
“Make time. Meet my dad, my sister. Together we can convince them to let me go with you--”
“Stop. Just, stop there.” Sanji’s head was spinning. His grip on his arms was nearly painful, and he took a couple steps away from Zoro to put distance between them. “I’m talking about starting the rest of my life and putting my feelings for you in the past, and you’re talking like you’re going to follow me no matter what and then what -? Move in with me like it’s no big deal? We act like a moved-in, married couple? It doesn’t work like that. Especially not us.”
“It could.” Zoro insists.
“No, it fucking couldn’t.” Sanji snaps. “I still get irrationally mad when I think about how you hurt me. Feelings or not, my trust is still broken and the rage is very, very real. I run on my anger, I’m fueled by it, and if you follow me now, I won’t ever calm down from it. I’ll constantly be reminded that you hurt me and I’ll doubt every nice thing you’ll do for me - is this just another trick? ”
The words hurt, and he can see Zoro reacting like he’d slapped him, he’s angry too - but it’s true. Even bringing him food he’d cooked himself, now feels like a bribe in hindsight, though he’d loved it in the moment.
“If you really want this to work.” Sanji says after a moment, speaking before Zoro can say something just as hurtful back - because that’s the kind of people they are, apparently - “then stay here. Go to college locally. Or work locally, I don’t care. But when I come visit for the holidays… we can go on a date. Start from the beginning again. If you’re still interested by then.”
The green-haired teen stops in place, frozen in thought. It’s almost comical to Sanji, to watch him try to process everything he’s said.
“So… we can try again? Be a real couple?”
“Eventually. Give it some time.” Sanji shrugs, offering a tiny, hesitant smile. “I need the summer to find myself a place working at my uncle’s restaurant, to prove myself. I probably won’t even have a lot of time to text. But we can - text. And when I get started in college I’ll probably have even less time.”
He takes a step forward, towards Zoro, who’s eyes never leave his, wide and hopeful and so full of emotion again that Sanji wants to start crying for the fourth or fifth time today - he’s not counting.
“But I want to forgive you. I want to text, and call, and get butterflies thinking about you while I’m busy thousands of miles away. And I want real dates. Dates where we’re both nervous and wondering if we’ll end the night with a kiss goodbye. Dates that are real, and romantic, and something to remember. I want that romantic fairytale moment authentically, not striding down the school field singing a cheesy song you’re bullied into singing.”
They both laugh quietly at that, and surprisingly Zoro is the first to look away, his hand quickly brushing away stray tears from his eyes. It’s a shock, to see a brutish type of guy spill real tears, and Sanji’s own spill over quickly after that.
“If you’re able to do all that, if you want all that, then maybe things will work out.” Sanji says after a moment, wiping tears away quietly. They both have a bit of a sniffle, but there’s no awkwardness. Just longing.
“I want that,” Zoro whispers, voice rough. “I want you.”
“Good. Then we’re on the same page.” Sanji nods, beginning to step back. “I - I really should get back inside. I need to pack a bit more…”
Zoro steps up to him equally fast. “Please just - just one thing.”
“What?” Sanji sniffs deeply, trying to clean up his face.
“A kiss goodnight?”
It’s cheesy. It’s hopeful. Zoro knows he’s pushing his luck, it’s all over his face, red blotchy cheeks bursting with colour. But it’s also exactly the kind of romantic cheesiness that Sanji had expressed wanting, so how can he really say no?
“Just one.” He whispers, and Zoro approaches him carefully. Those big rough hands cup his jawline, eyes baring down deep into his own, and then their lips meet, eyes slide closed, and it’s so soft Sanji almost starts crying again then and there.
It’s over after a moment.
“Goodnight, Sanji.” Zoro murmurs softly, and he takes the first step back to his bike.
“Goodnight, Zoro.” Sanji whispers back. He lets the other teen go, putting on his helmet and straddling the bike. “Zoro!”
He looks up, curious.
“Text me when you’re home.” Sanji gives him a wave. “I won’t reply if it’s after midnight, though.”
“Fuck you, Curls.” Zoro gives him the middle finger, and Sanji laughs. Hard. He swears he hears Zoro laugh too, under that protective gear.
He figures they’ll be alright.