Chapter Text
The morning came with great fanfare and excitement after the night's great disappointment.
Luckily barely anyone asked Zoro directly about it.
Not so luckily Nami did and she was about as pleased with him as favourite rat had been.
"What was that?" She asked, cornering him on his way to breakfast, like it wasn't annoying enough that he had wound up outside somehow. "What? You just thought you'd try it out? Some fucked up attempt to what? Get him into bed? I've seen the way you look at him and I swear to everything, Zoro if you think you can take advantage-"
"You can stop yelling, I've been over this with the bitey girl rat. I meant it when I kissed him. I still mean it," Zoro said.
"Bitey- Reiju?" Nami scowled at him. "But how? If you truly loved him the curse- wait I can say it! Did you learn about the stupid curse, finally?"
"I did. And either you lot got the details second hand or you can't read. He has to feel loved," Zoro said.
Her flame shot up in anger then shrunk again. "But that's impossible!" She said, promptly flaring up again like s bonfire.
"Ugh we have been cheated!"
"It's not like there was a lot of time to negotiate a better contract," Robin said gently from above Zoro, hanging over half the wall, hidden among ivy.
"What was that bullshit anyway? He took the curse from someone else?" Zoro asked, recalling the wording of the contract with a scowl.
He hated magic.
"The details have been hard to reconstruct," Robin said. "But yes, it was originally a trade, one that would have seen all of us dead and condemned at the behest of the King. Sanji negotiated on everyone's behalf, with the result you see now."
"Trust Sanji to take a sucker's bet," Nami murmured but the ire had gone out of her voice.
"It's my sucker's bet now, and it wouldn't be the first one I win," Zoro said. "And I really don't want him to die. If you want to help stop nagging and tell me what made him tick before."
"We've tried everything," Nami said. "The ocean, fish, spices, girls, clothes. Nothing works, he is completely indifferent."
"The Ocean?" Zoro asked, mostly so he wouldn't have to ask about girls.
"Yes," Robin said. "He grew up on a ship and loved the sea in the way sailors do. He liked to retell sailor yarns as well. But he has not been receptive to leaving the castle and on the few occasions he has done so there has been very little emotional resonance."
"He just stared out at the sea and the Merry -she's our ship- confused," Nami muttered, her flame crackling gently. Zoro remembered the Merry, Luffy talked about her a lot and visited her often on his adventures - and she was the only destination that Usopp would eagerly agree to visit outside the castle. "Besides the ocean he loved being a chef," she said, her flames now gently running around her candle stick. "He always liked to be helpful," she added. "Sometimes too much. Truth be told he was a bit of a lech. And my word did he love to yell and curse."
Zoro nodded, not really news but it wasn't like Curls was that much of a mystery, now that Zoro knew the details of that stupid curse.
"Thanks, but maybe if you want me to get on with it you should let me go to breakfast," he said.
They did, Nami even accompanying him on the suprisingly short way to the kitchens, where Curls was already doing the dishes except for one, Zoro's rice and soup.
"You are late," Curls said. "I keep mealtimes punctual."
It was a plain statement, yet somehow Zoro felt chewed out. Maybe anger would be a better avenue of attack than romance, even if Zoro definitely wasn't opposed to another kiss.
Maybe he needed to try both.
"Was held up," he said and took his now lukewarm food which tasted much like always but damn if Zoro didn't enjoy it anyway. After he was done he muscled Curls away from the sink to wash his own bowl, getting another one of those blank, constipated faces. "That is my work," he said.
"It's our work now, Curls, so you best get used to it," Zoro said and when Curls pushed him away from the sink again he instead settled for drying.
This evidently left Curls with some confusion for what to do with his hands after they were done.
"Tea?" Zoro asked and while he would have made it himself Curls was already moving into action. He made two cups which was encouraging and when he also sat down Zoro had to hide his grin in his cup.
Now. "Why fish Curls?" He asked and Curls raised one of his stupid brows at him. "You make fish all the time for me, Curls. Why?"
"You complain about it the least, and always eat more," Curls said and stared in his cup. "Fish and rice are your favourite and you tell me my food is bland."
Zoro chuckled. "Well, less bland recently, but you're right. It's my favourite. Thanks."
"It's very obvious," Curls said. "And you are from the east where these are staples, I hear it in your dialect too."
"Right again," Zoro said, "but I moved away years ago to keep a promise."
"You really like your promises," Curls said after a pause.
Zoro shrugged. "When I say something I mean it. You'll get it eventually, Curls."
Apparently that was the conversation done or the schedule called. In any case Curls got up and was on the move again. Fine by Zoro, for the moment. He could find Curls again after his solo training.
That day he didn't need to, Curls found him and in a flash tackled him, sending Zoro hurtling through half the room before he caught himself and mounted an attack of his own.
They chased each other around the room in a fight that was amazingly exhilarating and after, when they were both breathing heavy Zoro kind of wanted to kiss him again.
But it wasn't the time for that, so instead he followed Curls along his routine for once, buff rat hitching a ride on his shoulder.
"You don't have to follow me," Curls said as he opened the door to one of the staff working rooms.
"I do what I want, Curls," he said and there was no further argument.
Curls dusted and moppaed and now that most of the windows were unboarded started to wash those too.
The guy was a regular maid and Zoro, for lack of anything much better to do, started helping.
About half the time that ended with Curls shoving him aside and redoing it, but when he didn't it wasn't so bad. Peaceful was the word for it and wasn't that a strange one for Zoro.
They finished the large window front to the garden but when Zoro went to clear out one of the corners Curls walked the other way.
After a moment Zoro saw why too. A spider about the size of Zoro's thumb had made its home there.
"Hey Curls, don't want to get these cobwebs?" He asked and listened to Curls stop in his tracks.
"Spiders don't belong inside," he said.
"So why don't you put this one out?" Zoro asked and hid his grin.
There was a pause and Zoro half expected for something to come flying at his head. "You do it," Curls said and then walked away.
Zoro laughed but obliged and then went off in search of Curls again. It took a while to find him in the kitchens, changed into different clothes and hair tied back in a thick braid, still shining with wetness. When the fuck had he washed up?
Well whatever. Zoro made himself comfortable on the kitchen bench and listened to the sounds of Curls cooking.
The ambience washed over him, his mind calm and before long Curls set down his dinner, rice with fried fish and Zoro could get used to this life being forever, after he beat Mihawk.
And after, when Curls had fed his rats and Luffy, they were in the kitchen again. Zoro opened another bottle of wine and watched Curls' helpless attempts at mending one of the curtains. It was odd to see him struggle for once. Endearing in a way, how far apart the stitches were and how he opened the same ones three times, his face never shifting for a second.
"Gimme that," he said after watching for a bit and then fixed the tear right up under Curls' watchful eye.
"That doesn't look terrible," he said.
"Grew up at an orphanage, you mended your own shit or waited forever," Zoro said. "And the brats ruined their toys half the time."
"You look more like a killer than a toy mender," he said.
"I can be two things, Curls," he said. "And you know that."
Curls nodded and took a sip of his wine, but didn't leave until the stroke of twelve.
Once more days past, then weeks and Zoro found that spending his time with Curls didn't get old at all.
They cleaned and fixed things together when they weren't sparring and while building something that wasn't his own body was a bit of a new experience for Zoro he couldn't say that he didn't like it.
Curls was his usual monosyllabically critical self but Zoro enjoyed that too and beyond that made sure to be on time for meals, the one thing that was non negotiable to his emotionless host.
When he wasn't with Curls he trained alongside buff rat, even if Curls' other pets kept their distance. The buff one at least was great company for training. Quiet, dedicated and when Zoro took a break for some water he'd be right there, sipping from his own dish that Curly was keeping filled and sometimes bumping his paw against Zoro's hand like a tiny handshake.
It was the closest Zoro had ever gotten to the peace of isolation Mihawk used to drone on about.
Nothing to do but get better, noone to witness but a rat and a man who could not really care.
As the sun grew stronger they started moving their training outside more often and as they did Zoro found that even outside and even with the chatter of Nami and Usopp his focus did not waver even a moment anymore, their voices part of the world as much as a babbling river or the howl of the wind would be.
Brook was a bit different when he braved outside on the driest days to observe.
"Your blade is heavy," he said one day out of the blue, after the rare occasion of Sanji fighting him outside before his duties called. - Weirdo refused to do so when Nami or Robin were about. It is uncouth, Zoro's hairy ass. He knew when a guy just didn't want to get caught getting his ass beat.- "And so are your steps," Brook said.
Zoro stepped out of his form to turn to him. "What makes you say that?"
Brook laughed, a crackling, deep timbered sound. "Yohoho, friend, I used to be quite the fencer in my day, before my movements were so wooden."
Zoro raised a brow. "Any suggestions or just a complaint?"
Again Brook laughed. "Of course I cannot show you and your weight and form are quite different from mine - but perhaps if you were to step just a little different on the turn to maintain your spring and speed? I did specialise in speed in those days..."
Zoro turned away from the reminiscing, letting the sound blend into the world as he tried to keep his step just that little more light.
It wasn't intuitive and it wasn't easy, taking half a dozen tries until he stepped just right and the move forward was so fast he almost toppled himself into the next one.
"Yohoho, marvelous!" Brook said. "You truly are exceptional."
"Thanks," Zoro said and looked up at the sky where clouds had started gathering. "If you got any more advice maybe we'll take it inside. Wouldn't want to get you wet."
"Yoho, how considerate," Brook said. "It would be my pleasure."
At first Brook seemed hesitant to follow to the training hall inside, and when they passed the private dining hall he was solemn. But after a slightly uncomfortable trip down the stairs they went back to Zoro's footwork and before long they moved on from the steps of the fight to steps of dance. Curls wasn't going to know what to do with his bossy self when Zoro finally got the hang of this and he had nothing to lead anymore.
Between his duties and his training and his adventures with Luffy suddenly it was the height of summer and for all his domestic comforts Zoro decided that he wanted to do more to prove himself. The garden was coming along nicely, the fruit growing bigger by the day and when Zoro harvested the peas Curls sat outside with him for the entirety of an afternoon, strawhat firmly in place, shelling in silence. "They are sweet," Zoro said after popping one in his mouth, the fresh flavour bursting on his tongue.
"So they should be," Curls said. "I'll serve them for dinner, buttered and salted with carrots alongside a roasted chicken and potatoes."
"Sounds good," Zoro said and thought about how often they'd been having chicken lately and how much he was looking forward to the peas. Maybe that was something he could work with.
An opportunity presented itself as they scaled one of the cliffsides along the rush of the river's falling waters and Zoro spotted a number of massive salmons, swimming upriver.
The beasts were tenacious, but even roasted over a simple camp fire with nothing at all to season the fish it was tender and fragrant. Luffy was beside himself with hungry enthusiasm as they tried a little piece and for once he hurried them back. Their spoils slung over his back and celebrating the feast in the making all the way back under the particularly gruelling sun.
"What are you doing back," Curls asked as he stalked into the kitchen, his long hair braided in the way it usually was when he dusted. "And why is there a gigantic dead salmon on my kitchen table?" He continued and poked Zoro's spoils after retrieving a long fork.
"There isn't any in the self stocking pantry. I asked Robin," Zoro said and watched, perhaps more attentively than he ever had before, for a reaction.
Curls froze in his examination of the scales and the eyes and turned to Zoro. "You brought me dead fish. Because it's different from the dead fish I already have?"
Zoro shrugged. "You've been cooking with that pantry for fuck knows how many years. I figured you'd like something different. Seemed pleased with the peas too."
Curls looked between him and the fish and then gingerly lifted it to his work station.
"Clean up that mess," he said, but when Zoro watched him gut the salmon he could have sworn there was the ghost of a smile on his face. A man absolutely should not be that attractive with his forearm all the way in fish innards and yet Zoro could not look away as Curls worked.
And so Zoro started bringing him more gifts, forage and game and anything new he or Luffy could find. And the next time they went to have a picnic, it turned to an expedition instead where Curls told him more about edible plants and wild fish than he could possibly remember in a lifetime.
As they searched just into the entrance of a cave Curls kept talking. Only filtered light spotted his bright white shirt in the cool shadow as he collected plants from the entrance. He cut big chunks of fleshy mushrooms from a dead tree only just leaned into the entrance and carefully picked and flicked a number of fragnant blooms from the soil.
"Usopp won't eat the chanterelles we found or these oyster mushrooms. But there should be shooting pods around here, if we are lucky. They aren't edible but he likes anything that shoots, so keep those pots ready. The plants need to be intact."
And the idiots really thought Curls didn't care. "Yeah yeah, don't get your knickers in a bunch, I'm not going to loose your precious pots."
"Best not," Curls said and then fell silent, busy with the work of picking and digging. Not all the shooters made it, and Curls quiet count of ruined roots and broken stems tugged at something within Zoro.
"He's gonna love it, Curls." Zoro said. They all would, really. Zoro sure did.
Pots secured and mushrooms strung along a thread they made their way back to where Luffy was waiting by a rivulet, coveting the fish. "A rainbow trout." Curls said. "Best served pan seared with almonds and lemon."
"Yessss," Luffy said and bounced around at the edge, careful to not fall inside. As Zoro had learned the hard way he absolutely could not swim.
"Foraging first," Curls said. "I spotted some sorrel earlier. And elderberries."
"Whatever you say, Curls," Zoro said and grinned at the irritated look.
They ended up collecting all Curly wanted before going trout hunting. A challenge that saw Curls grace fail in the face of the slippery stone he was fishing from.
He fell and drenched he looked much less regal and cold, if no less attractive with the fabric clinging to every line and curve of his body. More than anything he looked like a drenched brother to his pet rats and Zoro couldn't help laughing. A reflex that got him pulled into the stream for a tussle.
In all honestly Zoro had absolutely no complaints as he grappled against the current and Curls firm yet slippery form. At least not until Luffy decided that the fun looked too good to pass up and almost crushed them by jumping in on their playfight.
Luckily the water wasn't so deep the current could claim him, but the ground was slippery and his form kept sinking.
In the end Curls and him had to drag the lion out and to the safety of the bank, the two of them breathing heavy while Luffy just laughed. "You both are so strong. It's awesome." He said. And while Zoro appreciated the vote of confidence the laughter only came haltingly as he gained his breath back.
Curls didn't laugh at all. "It's always the same with you," he said instead. But he did take his shirt off, hanging it across Luffy's stone back to let it dry and once more Zoro had nothing to complain about. In fact he took his own shirt off too and challenged Curls to another spar.
And if he lost because he might have looked just a little too intently that was room for growth.
Only with their energy spent did they finally fish two large trouts and made their way home on Luffy's back, Zoro holding on to Curls' still shirtless waist, more tightly than before, more gently than the iron skin required and more pleased than he had any right to be.
Curls for his part did not know how to be pleased, but absconded with his spoils to the kitchen the moment they arrived, only taking a second to put his shirt back on and primly tuck it. "Indecency would not do around the ladies," he said, as if Zoro would ever ask.
Zoro chose to keep his shirt off and opted to pass on the seed shooting flowers to Usopp. As he did he was almost sure a drop of cog grease dripped from the clockface. They ended up giving the flowers a new home in the most shaded corner of the garden, between pieces of shrubbery along the northern wall.
"He remembered," Usopp said, tenderly looking at the white petals.
Idiot, Zoro thought and left him to it.
He found Curls in the kitchen. Incapable of happiness as ever, but setting about cooking jelly and pickling mushrooms with the motivation of a man who did not care about anything else.
Only after the jelly was cooled and packed away and the fish gutted and in the oven - almonds were nowhere to be found in the 'shitty pantry' - did he start noticing the castle around him at all.
Zoro followed him on whatever his next aim was, dutyful as ever and with a bucket of scrap greens for the compost pressed into his hands.
Right in the mainhall Curls stopped in his tracks in front of a burnt tapestry, and a very chagrined Nami standing beside it.
"Nami, dear, are you alright?" He asked, offering his hand for her to hop onto. His tone was not warm exactly, but present in a way that had Zoro's ears perk up. "If I need to kick someone for you, just say the word."
Her flame sputtered up along with her voice. "No- no. I just. Ugh, I slipped on my wax." She said it with the weariness of having been robbed and Zoro felt for her.
"That must be remedied," Curls said and set her down on the mantle, retrieving a handkerchief and giving her a thorough wipe down before nudging some of her wax back into the holder, her flame flicking anxiously. "Careful!" She reminded and at once Curls moved much slower. With everything back in order he released her and proceeded on his way outside, leaving a confused Nami to crackle her flames around.
Idiot, he thought and brought out the compost in the dying light.
With the heat dissipating some the garden was ready for tending - there had been rain so watering wasn't as pertinent but apparently Curls thought it was a good time to harvest some of the zucchini and grab handfulls of dill and spring onion while he was at it.
Dinner that night was decent, and Zoro was so hungry he would have eaten everything anyway. And while Curls didn't do pleased he noticed that much. "A third serving of my bland food, really?," he said.
Zoro shrugged. "Never gonna live that down, am I? 'S nice food. New."
Curls, miracle of miracles, did not argue.
"Hey Curls," he asked, when he was full and it was late. Curls turned to him, holding one of the ornate windows open for the cool night breeze. "Wanna have another dance?"
"I guess so," he said, the wind playing through his hair, eyes closed as if he could enjoy it.
They did not set a date right away and Zoro wasn't really in any rush to disturb Curls' process of harvesting and pantry inventory. Interrupting felt like it might be dangerous even with no emotions involved and on a good day.
Really, he seemed much too busy pickling and preserving to engage with planning an event anyway on most days. In the mornings he would require water to be hauled to boil, then he would release Zoro to his training regimen, and only after the day's salting and brining was done was Zoro welcome close again.
They'd sit on the patio together then, drinking silently and sometimes when Zoro was in the mood he'd recount a story of the orphanage or of Perona's nonsense.
"You are unworthy of her," Curls said primly one of those times. "A sister so brilliant and creative ought to be cherished."
"Curls, she would sell me like a sack of old potatoes for one of her dolls," Zoro said. "Although I guess her doing that landed me here, so I can't complain."
"Can't you?" Curls asked and took a sip of wine. "Not even about bland food and weird ass magic?"
"That's not a complaint, it's noticing stuff," Zoro said and Curls fell silent.
"You should appreciate the family you found," he eventually said again and Zoro shrugged.
"I do, but it's just kind of a weird one," he said.
"They are like that," Sanji said. "I was raised by the weirdest old man in the world."
"But not here?" Zoro asked.
"Definitely not here," Curls confirmed. "On a ship, in a galley."
"Do you want to go back?" Zoro asked.
And Curls gave him one of those looks again. "I don't want anything." He said.
"Yeah, guess you don't," Zoro said and thought about the promises he'd made, his thumb stroking Wadou's hilt.
"I want to be the world's strongest swordsman," he said and it felt almost odd, saying the words aloud after such a long time. "It's a promise I made."
Almost he expected something deprecating from Curls for the admission but all he got was another bottle of wine. "You really do love your promises," he said and in the colourful hues of sunset he looked etheral.
But he was there, more solid than he should be even and so very real that every moment Zoro grew more sure that this was it for him.
He better break that curse or a part of him was going to die too.
About a week before the ball they went hunting once more, since Curls insisted on a boar to roast. It was a somewhat tedious process, starting long before dawn and culminating at the foot of a cliff when the beast was cornered, grunting at them wildly at first light. Curls was closer and in one swift kick he felled the poor creature, the sound of a snapped neck reverbrating against the stones.
Unfortunately Curls had also disloged a rock from higher up the cliff - one that was hurtling down the slope at the full speed of gravity.
In a moment the world retreated, as it did when he trained and there was only him and the rock and Curls. And from that a sound emerged, like a vibration.
He pulled his swords, he moved, fast and fluid and when he came back to his own mind the rock was split clean in half, the parts having fallen on either side of Curls and his swords sheathed again.
"You might fullfil that promise yet," Curls said, tapping against the solid rock with the tip of his shoe.
And all Zoro wanted to do in that moment was kiss him. For believing. For being here. For making his stay a choice and not a chore.
Instead of doing that Zoro laughed, his hands shaking and his heart pounding.
The power to cut rock, and he had found it without any of Mihawk's bullshit.
"Have you finally lost the remnants of your mind?" Curls asked when he couldn't stop laughing.
But he didn't insist and Zoro couldn't really stop lsughing all the way home, even with a dead, gutted boar slung around his shoulders in the chill of early morning.
The next few days he barely saw Curls between his preparations and Zoro's new found skill. Buff rat, Luffy, Chopper and Brook seemed to be as fascinated as he was however, especially finding that it was a skill he could use at will.
Nami had no sense of the magnitude of his achievement but Zoro felt like she still might be reeling from Curls taking time out of his day to compliment the shine of her flame or brass, so ahe didn't complain too much about his priorities.
By the day of the ball the novelty hadn't worn off but
chopping and taste testing under Sanji's watchful eye was much more interesting. Zoro thought he'd never eaten better.
The castle was decorated with dried fruit and flowers along with some of the first colourful leaves of the season and the whole house was there once more, making merry.
Curls fit right in in a suit of dark red with black gloves, which thankfully he took off to dance.
This time Zoro was ready to take the lead, courtesy of Brook. But so was Curls, which naturally meant that they took turns, easy as breathing and much like the last time Zoro felt like time both ran and stood still as they moved together and the world fell away.
The clock struck ten and they barely stopped to have a drink, eleven and the music went on, twelve and curls slowed them down, looking at Zoro intently with his blue, blue eyes almost clear of fog.
He leaned in and Zoro had to stop him, "Curls, if we're gonna do that," he swallowed. Fuck he was an idiot. "It's not just what we do. It means something."
Curls blinked at him.
"I'm in love with you, Curls," he said.
He still looked at Zoro like he didn't comprehend, then leaned in again to peck Zoro on the lips. "I'll be in my room," he said, long fingered hands brushing over Zoro's chest just a little too hard.
The buffet had been cleared already for once and there was barely anyone in the room anymore.
"That was an invitation, right?" Zoro asked the rats.
They didn't disagree and they didn't bite. But once more the favourite was giving him as much of an evil eye as a rat was capable off.
It had to be an invitation.
He swallowed but when his feet would move again he hurried, more annoyed than ever when he passed the same statue for the third time. Why did this place need to be such a damn labyrinth now of all times?
Finally he was in the right corridor and the door was open, candle light calling to him like a beacon.
Zoro burst through, standing panting in the door like an idiot.
"You came," Curls said from behind the door. His silence so thorough and predatory that Zoro startled at his voice. "And so quickly."
Zoro covered his suprise with a breathless chuckle. "Ya Curls, I wasn't gonna not-" he said, taking Curls in, dramatically handsome in the candle shine without his fine jacket. Fuck. "I meant what I said Curls. I'm in love with you."
Curls nodded and Zoro almost combusted when he deftly unlaced his shirt and pulled it over his head, revealing all that pale skin, dusted with smatterings of dark hair. It wasn't the first time Zoro saw him like that, but his body was different in the privacy of his own chamber. Sacred, somehow, something to covet, to hide away from the world and worship.
Fuck.
Before he could even properly stare, Curls was on the move, pushing him towards the bed. Zoro's back hit the soft sheets and later he would be embarrassed about his dead reflexes and his brain leaking out of his dick.
But holy fuck, Curls was a vision, climbing on top of him with all his warm iron weight, straddling Zoro's waist. His blue eyes almost shone when his hands framed Zoro's face, tracing his cheek bones, his jaw, his throat. It felt amazing even as Curls dull eyes remained fixed on his face and his hands were just a bit too firm, his fingertips a bit too smooth.
"Curls, fuck, I can't believe this." Zoro breathed in the air between them.
"Why?" Curls asked, as toneless as ever when his hands tangled in Zoro's collar, fingers wrapping around the top most button of his shirt, rolling his hips against Zoro's. "This is what you want, isn't it? It's why you came? Why you keep looking at me? I can tell."
And that was enough for Zoro to pull his head out of his ass and finally grab the warm, too firm hands. "Wait, Curls," he said and Curls, to his credit, stopped at once.
Zoro sighed and held fast, entangling their fingers. "Curls, fuck. Can't believe- I'm in love with you. And yeah, fuck it all, I want this. But I only if you want it too. And don't-" Zoro said when Curls opened his stupid mouth, "give me some bullshit about you guess or you don't mind. All or nothing, Curls."
For a long moment Curls looked at him, then at where their hands were intertwined. "So you'll leave?" He asked.
"If you want me to," Zoro said.
"You can stay," Curls said after another few moments and rolled off Zoro, sitting down at the edge of the bed instead.
The silence stretched after Zoro pushed himself to sitting again with nothing to say and no place to put himself that didn't feel dangerously close to temptation.
"Have you ever heard of All Blue," Curls suddenly asked.
"No," Zoro said.
"It's a mystical ocean, somewhere, where all creatures of the sea can be found. It's a paradise for sailors and especially so for seafaring chefs," he said. "The most beautiful place in the world."
"Sounds like it," Zoro said. "Wanna go?"
Curls looked at him, eyes glazed over. "I'm not going anywhere," he said.
"We'll see about that," Zoro said and took his hand, lacing their fingers together. "Tell me more about it."
And Curls did, he talked about routes and sailors who claimed to have been, of seamonsters on the way. Of his true father and how he had looked for that mystical ocean his whole life until he saved a lost child from starving to death and gave up the dream for him - althoigh Zoro could hear nothing but the story of a man who found new meaning in an unexpected place.
He talked long past the witching hour and even when they lay down together, chaste but close and Zoro stroked his hair he talked of all the fish in it, right until he fell asleep.
As determined by a fading dream the contract had said, and Zoro understood what it meant. More than anything he understood that he couldn’t allow it.
Zoro woke up to the scent of Curls' bed and the feeling of small pressure points on him.
Even before he opened his eyes he groaned and when he did there was rat right in face, baring it's teeth.
"I know what this looks like," he said only to get a four way hiss and buff rat hopping on his chest twice with all his considerable weight. He was pretty sure there were claws digging into him too and then they were crowding up and around his throat.
He didn't want to hurt them, but if they were about to chew on his face or rip out his jugular he might have to.
"My virtue is intact, such as it is," Curls said from one of the doors and the rats stopped in their tracks to turn their small faces towards him. "So you can release the prisoner."
They squeaked wildly but backed off a little so Zoro could sit and watch Curls wash up, dabbing at his neck and nacked chest and arms with a small wet towel, the lines and curves of him illuminated by the early morning light falling through the window. No less enticing in the early sun.
Fuck. Zoro couldn't wait for the day this stupid curse died and he could really take Curls to bed.
"I recommend you also wash up," Curls said, oblivious or indifferent to Zoro staring. He slipped into a shirt and offered the rats his arm to climb and the spell on Zoro was broken- at least partway.
The damn rats were still looking between the two of them. "I'm not lying," Curls said. "My invitation ended up not going as I expected it to."
He looked at Zoro as they finally scampered up to his shoulder and with his hands he cupped Zoro's unshaven face, his palm warm but not soft at all.
"And now everyone has missed breakfast," he added and let go. As he left the room out Zoro followed, on his heels, smitten.
The castle was disappointed again, justifiably so, probably.
But breakfast was really good, not bland at all and that had to mean something, right?