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Zoro slammed the door of his shitty car and tried to erase the tension he felt from this shitty day, which happened to be the cherry on top of his really shitty fucking week. All he wanted was to lay on the couch and drink until Sanji got home, and then maybe the chef could take him to the bedroom and help him unwind.
But apparently his plans would have to wait. Because as Zoro approached the door to the place he shared with his boyfriend, extremely loud and extremely cheerful music assaulted his ears.
~Deck the halls with boughs of holly~
“Fa lalala la, lala la la!” Sanji sang loudly, twirling over the moment Zoro opened the door and kissing his boyfriend on the cheek before dancing off again, trailing tinsel and garland in his wake.
“What the fuck?” Zoro managed to ask once he’d recovered from his surprise. It looked like the spirit of Christmas had projectile vomited all over their apartment.
Sanji pointed above Zoro’s head from where he stood at the bar before expertly mixing something in the cocktail shaker. “Mistletoe,” he explained brightly, apparently mistaking Zoro’s general astonishment for confusion over the fleeting peck he’d given as a greeting.
“I was kinda more what the fuck-ing over hurricane Christmas,” the green haired man specified, surveying the damage.
An artificial fir tree stood half assembled in one corner of the modest apartment, taking the place of a chair and end table that were now pushed to the side, giving the small space a much more crowded feel. Zoro knew how disappointed Sanji had been that morning when they learned they couldn’t have a real tree in their apartment complex, but he hadn’t expected the blonde to go out and buy a fake one the very same day. Scattered around the base of the partially put-together tree were boxes of ornaments, strands of multi-colored lights, tinsel, and an unsettling amount of red bows. Lengths of garland with white lights artfully wound into them were laid out on the couch, and Zoro couldn’t help but sigh as he realized he wouldn’t be able to occupy that furniture as soon as he’d hoped. The table was covered in a snowflake patterned cloth, with a holiday centerpiece in the middle, and Sanji had even hung lights from the bar and the island in the kitchen. He must have been decorating for hours.
“Here,” the chef said, pushing a glass of dark liquid with a thick white foam, which had some kind of pattern on top, into Zoro’s hand. “Try this.”
Zoro had long since learned that it was best to just try whatever Sanji handed him without question, so he dutifully took a tentative sip. It was pretty good. “Hmm. What is it?”
“I saw it on pintrest. It’s called “Deco the Halls.” Not bad, huh?”
“Not bad at all,” Zoro agreed, causing the chef to brighten noticeably. “So, uh … what’s the deal here, Curly? Were you planning to actually decorate, or just, you know … get out every Christmas thing we own? Wait … do we own this shit? There’s at least twenty things here I don’t recognize.”
The cook stuck his tongue out but otherwise didn’t rise to the bait. Which was kinda strange. “You wanna help?” he asked. And damn, was it just Zoro, or did his boyfriend sound really hopeful?
“Uh, sure, I guess? Whaddaya want me to do?”
Sanji placed his hands on his hips and examined the trashed living room. “Can you hang the garland? The stuff on the couch? I want it around the windows.”
“Yeah, okay.”
As Sanji busied himself with assembling the tree, Zoro grabbed some garland and started stringing it around the windows. After that was done, Sanji instructed him to replace all their regular throw pillows with the more festive ones he had found on sale when he went to get the tree. Then he enlisted Zoro’s help with putting lights up on said tree, once it was fully put together. The two worked with minimal talking, just humming along with the carols blasting from the stereo and focusing on their tasks. But before he knew it, the stress of Zoro’s hectic week had practically melted away, and he found himself smiling, all plans of lounging on the couch long forgotten.
“You’re in an awfully good mood,” Sanji remarked carefully after Zoro had playfully stuck a bright red bow in the blonde’s hair. “I thought you might be mad that I trashed the place.”
Zoro shrugged. “It’s not like you weren’t gonna clean it. Besides,” he added, taking a moment to appreciate their now mostly re-assembled living room, “it looks really good now.”
“Yeah?”
Nodding, Zoro slid an arm around Sanji’s waist and pulled him closer. “Yeah. And this ...” he pointed up to the second bunch of mistletoe he’d secretly hung from the ceiling directly above where they stood, before kissing his favorite chef deeply. “... this is something I can definitely get used to.”