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Not all the time. But sometimes, Zoro liked to look at the sea.
Calm. Nurturing. Playful. Profound.
When he was in a good mood, the water could be as clear as crystal. Coral reefs and ruins of antiquity could be seen just from the ship as if he was inviting humans to his world of the undersea. They could feel the ship rocked by the mischievous steam, and before anyone realized, all the life onboard fell fast asleep by the sea's gentle waves.
Temperamental. Dangerous. Wild. Vulgar.
But there were times when the sea just raged. Stormy waves and cloudy water. Whatever kind of threats the sea promised, the sea delivered. Lives lost and treasure buried forever in the deepest of the blue.
Yes.
In his mind, the sea was always a he.
Usopp blinked and scratched his nose - it was his old habit whenever he got confused. Like right now. The sniper was clearly struggling to make sense of what Zoro had just blabbed. Zoro regretted not keeping his mouth shut.
"The sea is usually feminine - not that it's wrong to call her otherwise." Usopp tried to compromise. Zoro had no idea if the man wanted to save Zoro's face or just didn't want to be cut in half, but either way, Zoro could never want more for this pointless chat to be over and forgotten.
Thank whichever deity that laid claim on this part of the ocean, Usopp's eyes went back to the sea, preparing to cast his line. The bait flew forward and sat on the top of the water's surface, bobbing up and down on the waves.
Zoro secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The aquarium tank where they kept live food had just run out of the supplies recently. The cook was unhappy and immediately commanded the Strawhats with no ship duties (aka the male crews) to take turns fishing or "feel free to starve!" until they reached the next island. Both Usopp and Zoro drew the short straws. So here they were - sitting on Sunny's rail with nothing much to do but to wait for the fish to bite. Usopp didn't actually mind the job. In fact, fishing was one of the hobbies that their sniper enjoyed. Zoro, on the other hand, was not really interested in fishing. Besides fighting, there were not many things that could genuinely excite him nowaday. If asked, he would rather snooze. But taking a nap would be a lot less pleasant if his stomach kept growling for food.
Sigh.
Zoro was about to grab his fishing rod to help the sniper (and earn his right to demand food from the menacing eyebrows) when Usopp decided to bring up their earlier chat. Like he just happened to remember that he had more to say about Zoro's stupid comment.
"But I suppose you didn't know that, right? If I recall, you didn't grow up by the sea."
For some unknown reason, that factual statement left a nasty sour taste in Zoro's mouth, making him want to growl. Usopp hadn't taken his eye off the bait and was oblivious to Zoro's grimace. This proved again that Usopp had grown a lot stronger than the man, himself, realized. The younger and more paranoid Usopp would notice right away and ready to beg for his life if he ever slightly sensed that Zoro wanted to punch him in the nose.
He had no idea where this feeling of restlessness came from, and Usopp was being unhelpful. The self-proclaimed warrior of the sea started to whistle a merry tune Zoro didn't recognize, probably one of many sea chanties that he and all the sea people knew by heart.
That's it.
"I'll go catch them myself."
"Wha-"
Not waiting for Usopp's response, Zoro pulled off his shirt and jumped off the ship.
He had spent his childhood practicing swordfights; Koshiro's dojo was surrounded by mountains and paddy fields. During his younger years, he had wandered from places to places looking for a fight; his eyes always set for heavens.
It was his own carelessness that he stumbled and fell into the sea.
Whatever sea creatures he managed to catch, he just tossed them out of the water and let the others deal with them. He had busied himself, only coming to the surface to breathe at the last minute when his air was running out, before diving back.
The Sun was setting when he decided to climb back onto the ship. There was no one on the deck but the cook who was smoking a cigarette and watching the sunset on the sea.
"The sea is beautiful today." He said.
He said like he had said it many times before. The whisper of pure adoration, soft and reverent, bathed in the red and golden light of the Sun.
Zoro looked down at his cold feet, ugly pale and wrinkly skin.
Pirates. Sailors. Marines. The men, whose dreams are made of and for the sea.
It could be just for the simple excitement of venturing into the unknown. Maybe, it is for the whisper of time-lost secrets or the sweet promise of treasure that has driven these men to madness, and their hearts ache, yearning for its embrace. Its love.
They set out on the wide ocean for different goals; some to plough, others to cherish. But, in the end, those conquests and adventures are simply their love confessions to the ethereal entity that belongs to no man.
"Romantic, isn't it?" After putting down her novel on the table, Robin said to the man who had been running around the aquarium bar for one hour now.
Zoro had been sent to get the live food out of the aquarium tank for their dinner; he had been searching for the entrance. He found the tank but couldn't find the fucking door. Robin who was reading in the bar when Zoro arrived and asked if he needed her help with directions. Zoro said no.
Robin didn't offer again but every time Zoro did another lapse, she would read out her favorite parts of the book to him.
Robin finished the book before Zoro finding the fucking door. Needless to say, Zoro was pissed.
"I don't really care."
"You don't really understand."
The swordsman bristled.
"And you do?" He asked, his tone accusing.
Zoro didn't sing. He also didn't care about tales of the pirate's treasure or the marine's glory. He was a pirate out of loyalty, not heart. He vowed to serve only one man. But his dream -his soul- was for swordsmanship. They were all that mattered.
"No." The archaeologist admitted with an amusing smile. "That's why I think it's romantic."
He couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed. Of all the crew, he had always thought she was like him.
"I think it's pointless-"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Both of them looked up to see the ceiling shaking as if someone upstairs was deliberately stomping on his floor to get his angry message crossed.
Impatient bastard. Didn't even let Zoro finish his sentence.
Robin chuckled. "You should hurry."
I don't really need to be told. He thought. But suddenly, Robin had sprouted out her arms on Zoro's and gently pulled him toward the stairs.
Zoro resisted because it felt really weird and protested that she was in the wrong direction because they were already at the aquarium bar. "The entrance to the tank is upstairs, swordsman-san. Just follow my lead."
The entrance to the tank had indeed moved to upstairs. Was that pervert shipwright bored again? Why did he keep moving things?
Zoro didn't thank Robin's arms which already disappeared into petals because he didn't ask for her assistance. Instead, he started climbing down the tank with his three harpoons, aiming to get his job done as quickly as possible. Sensing danger, the octopuses had opened fire on him with their ink; the liquid had turned the water black and some got into Zoro's eye. Zoro cursed and seawater started rushing into his mouth. Stupid.
The stomping sounds had gotten even louder.
He gritted his teeth and tried to maneuver himself through the dark. The octopuses didn't miss the chance to ambush him, latching their arms on his body in an attempt to drown him. Zoro had to admit these creatures were clever. They figured out right away that they had the home advantage here. Zoro would get exhausted because he wasn't created to stay in the water.
One of the smug octopuses even smacked Zoro's face with one of its arms, deliberately taunting him of the fact.
These nuisances.
They reminded Zoro of the other nuisances.
That starving pirate, those Saboady's annoying riders, the G5 squad and who know, how many more out there whose hearts had already been drawn to him?
Troublesome. You and your followers.
The mouth appeared on the wall in his workshop and the cyborg swore he could never run any faster. Sadly, Franky was still too late to save his precious baby from the gruesome massacre. The tank was absolutely destroyed; it was made from cannonball-proof mirrors. The shipwright writhed and wailed, shaking the culprit like a ragdoll. Zoro let him. At the corner of his eye, the last surviving octopus was wriggling itself on the dry floor, Zoro put one of his feet on its squishy slippery body to stop the animal from escaping. He turned his attention back to Franky, waiting for the distressed man to finish his rant. When it seemed Franky wanted to continue yelling at him for eternity, Zoro told him, "I need to deliver the octopuses to the kitchen."
Franky gave a good Suplex. Zoro's entire body could still feel it.
"Explain."
"They thought I was a terrible hunter." He lied. Whatever he said didn't matter; he would get yelled at anyway.
"I told you I wanted just five octopuses, not all of them! You, useless swordsman!"
See?
Someday, Zoro would definitely let Luffy drown for good. That, if his idiot of a captain so insisted on falling overboard, knowing full well he could not swim to save his own ass.
When he fell into the sea, Usopp and Franky were still downstairs fixing the aquarium bar (early on, Zoro offered to help but was asked to "stay the fuck away from it, bro," by the sniffling Franky who was still mad at him, reasonably so). The cook was probably cooped up in his lair. This, left Zoro to be the only one on duty to save the idiot.
Luffy was now panting on the Sunny's lawn, along with Brook and Chopper who also had drowned from trying to rescue their captain.
Why it was always them idiots?
"This is not your first, or your second, or your third time onboard, Luffy!" Zoro let the other two, who were still unconscious, off the hook but smacked his captain's head hard. He was annoyed. Luffy had just made Zoro swim which also meant Zoro had to take a bath tonight. Taking an unnecessary bath was annoying but so was skin irritation from seawater.
"When would you fucking remember that the sea drowns devil-fruit users!?"
"I know." Luffy was still coughing. But he clearly had regained most of his strength back and apparently, was not sorry at all for the trouble he had just caused. "But sometimes, I just miss swimming, Zoro!" Whined the captain.
"You were drowning," pointed out Zoro, looking like a tired first mate who uncannily resembled a tired parent.
"Worth it, shishishi!" Luffy beamed at him. "I know you will always have my back."
"You weirdo," said Zoro before kicking him in the head.
Luffy laughed.
Zoro had postponed his time to take a bath until the last minute. His skin had been itchy and dry all day, and his sweat from working out in the crow nest had worsened it miserably but Zoro wasn't that kind of man whose determination faltered from small inconveniences. He wouldn't chase after some quick relief. His body was better not getting attached to comfort. If it didn't know, it wouldn't crave.
Zoro was wiping his forehead with a rug when Brook had arrived with his violin case. Now that was unusual. The skeleton musician was a punctual person; he was never late but neither was he early.
"Your shift starts in an hour," Zoro told Brook in cases that the older man had actually forgotten when his watchkeeping shift started.
Brook chuckled while tuning the strings of his beloved instrument.
"I forgot to thank you for saving my life today, Zoro-san. So here I am to offer you the song that I've just composed today!"
"It's my job." Zoro shrugged. "But do as you please."
Brook rested the violin between his chin and his shoulder and started playing.
Brook's collections were usually jolly and carefree but this one was so different in a lot of ways. It had stirred something inside him, the indescribable feeling that almost felt like -
Suffocating.
"Well, what do you think?" Asked Brook eagerly, after finishing his last note.
"Weird."
Brook chuckled, seemingly unsurprised by Zoro's curt answer. "Thought so. I saw your furrowed brows (even I don't have eyeballs!). So far, this song is mixed feelings, it seems?"
He purposely didn't ask whom Brook had played this song for before coming to the crow nest. Instead, he asked,
"What the hell is this song about?"
And again, Zoro was reminded that musicians were the weird creature who found inspiration in everything -creepy things, like the sensation of being drowned.
"Drowning is really not the nicest experience. But not everything is bad, Zoro-san. For those who remember what it feels like to swim freely in the wide ocean, just to relive that feeling again even though our life force is being drained... not bad at all."
Zoro was initially taken back by the unexpected response. So, he knows all the time, and yet, he chooses...
He glared at the man. "So you knew but fucking jumped off the ship anyway."
"Yohohohohohoho! Please don't cut me. I didn't do it consciously. But your earlier conversation with Luffy-san made me think. I reflected. And decided to express it in the way I know best- music."
I still don't understand.
"You are a masochist."
"Yohohohoho, I suppose I should be flattered when it's you, of all people, who called me out!"
Sometimes, Zoro forgot that Brook could be sarcastic if he wanted to be.
Zoro went to take a bath before going to bed. The bathroom was occupied but he ignored the "closed" sign and just burst in. It was too late for the women to use the bathroom during this ungodly hour anyway.
The cook glared at him from the bathtub.
"Shower first!" Yelled the bathtub guardian. Zoro was tempted to just dive himself in the bathtub but decided against the idea; he was too mature for that kind of childish actions, unlike someone who right now was acting like a possessive five-year-old brat who refused to share.
"Just because you bath every day, it doesn't mean you could set the rules," pointed out Zoro.
The cook gave him a look and ordered. "Latrine with soap."
Zoro ignored him and started washing his body the way he wanted (he just happened to be in the mood for soap today.)
The clean freak had come to rest his chin on the edge of the bathtub and watched Zoro wash, probably trying to make sure that Zoro got rid of all impurities that could contaminate his sanctuary. His hair was damp and slightly curled around his face, but his eyes always had the same shade of blue.
When their eyes had met, Zoro knew his little moment of peace was about to get shattered into pieces.
"Have you heard Brook's new song?"
Zoro let out a noncommittal grunt.
"I think it's one of his masterpieces."
And, he started humming the melody of Brook's new song.
Zoro suddenly felt like he was drowning -perhaps, he had drunk too much saltwater early on.
He never hid his blatant display of favoritism.
Zoro had spent his past few days, sacrificing his nap times to help Franky with the ship's daily maintenance.
Zoro felt he had to atone his misdeed because Zoro deeply cared about his and Franky's nakamaship - definitely not because he happened to learn from Usopp that Franky had a hoard of non-cola beverage in his workshop. He had no idea what kind of sorcery the cyborg had pulled to get the barrels of mouthwatering alcoholic goodness from the cook's stingy fingers and he had no interest in finding out Franky's secret. Even if he attempted the same tactic, it would never work anyway.
The generous shipwright, unfortunately, was willing to share more than his booze with Zoro. The man might have heard from Usopp or maybe Robin about Zoro's "newfound interest" - he had no idea what the hell they were talking about- and like "a good big bro" Franky thought he was, wanted to educate the countryside boy about the lore of the sea.
Zoro hated him.
He tried his best to keep his poker face on while distracting himself with anything from the unwanted education on shipbuilding stuff that had been forced upon him. They were on the deck, working on one of the ship's masts. The weather was pretty nice so most of their crew had come out to spend their time outside. He could hear Brook's violin playing not far away. There were sounds of something getting blown up and the burst of laughter, unmistakably the work of the two manchildren and Chopper. Now and then, the sea witch would get fed up by the noise and started yelling at them to shut up.
Franky finally noticed that Zoro had been zoning out and tried to win his honorary student's attention back. "Yo bro, how about you ask me questions that you want to know and I answer you?"
Zoro gave him a deadpan look. Franky's pupil was clearly not studious.
"Come on, dude! You really have no question?! Aren't you curious for the slightest like... Oh, this one might work! Why many ships have feminine names?"
"Ugh," sighed Zoro, defeated. "Fine. Why is that?"
Franky touched his sunglasses in a scholarly fashion.
"To appease the sea for its favor and protection. Masculine names are just bad omens, too provoking. Don't rebel, and the sea will watch over your ship."
Zoro scoffed. Typical.
He could practically hear his voice saying-
"Nami-swan! Robin-chwan! Desserts are ready!"
Men have no grace. No gentle beauty.
Everyone on the ship got their snack in a strict order. The women always got first, following by Chopper and the others who wore their hearts on their sleeve; young, childish or shameless enough to beg. Luffy, Usopp, and Brook. These guys always got berated and even beaten for their godawful table manners, but there were always second or third plates for them to eat their fill. He tried to hide his affection but it was pretty obvious that he was fond of them. He loved women -there was no doubt about it- but they were his favorites too. He only hated full-grown men. Them and their inability to accept his kindness without questioning his authority.
He tore his eyes away from watching the fifth Yonko wrapping his arms around his ship cook's legs, whining like a kicked puppy.
"But Sunny isn't feminine?" Zoro asked the shipwright.
"Naw."
"Will we be fucked?" Zoro smirked. Franky looked like he wanted to punch him.
"I wasn't the one who named him - he could have had a super better name than what that jerk-Burg gave to him," grumbled the salty shipwright, " - but I never intended to name him after feminine figures anyway."
"Ho."
Franky gently patted the mast he'd just finished repairing; his mind went to Tom and his last masterpiece, Oro Jackson.
"Those normies' fear never applies to me. I'm a great shipwright. If it incurs the wrath of the sea, so be it." Franky flashed him a confident grin. "My ship will never sink."
Zoro had watched Franky going to the cook for his afternoon snack.
Seeing their animated chat, from the way Franky was flattering the cook and how wide the cook's grin was, Zoro wouldn't be surprised if Franky actually had permission to access the wine cellar.
Franky was a man, perverted, loud and harsh. But he was always honest.
As always, Zoro was the last one who got his treat.
He ate. He insulted. It wiped the shit-eating smile off the cook's face.
"How stupid are you - to pick a fight with the ship's cook?!"
Probably, as stupid as those men whom the sea had drowned so mercilessly.
But the sea was a being of contradiction, wasn't he?
You hate being challenged, but more so you hate submission. Without a challenger, you would be bored. Right?
When Sunny finally disembarked on the nearest island, the sea witch had forced Zoro to be her pack mule. Zoro only agreed with the request just to see the cook setting himself on fire. The bastard did literally crawl at her feet, begging the sea witch to rethink and glaring daggers at Zoro.
After he poked his scrawny finger at Zoro's chest, threatening to skin him alive if Nami got hurt, the cook sauntered off to join the others who were heading to the city center.
The witch wanted to survey the island's uninhabited areas for her world-map project and needed a personal bouncer/pack mule. A kind of job that she could ask pretty much anyone in the crew to chaperon her and a certain fool would volunteer in a heartbeat.
Zoro had waited until the cook was out of their sight to ask the witch,
"Why didn't you ask him to come with you?"
"Because he would say yes." The witch gave him her unimpressed look.
The sea witch was not a bookworm like Chopper or Robin but she read and liked to lecture about what she had learned. Their day trips always consisted of her telling him about anything that crossed her mind while Zoro quietly listened. From the witch's account, it seemed this island had quite a reputation on fisheries, in fact, its fish market was ranked as one of the best in the New World.
"When the Log Pose had set for this island, Sanji-kun looked very excited. But we are here just for restocking, not staying the night."
"That's why you pestered me to come with you -so the perverted cook could go checking out the market that he's been dying to go."
They were hiking one of the coastal cliffs so the witch could gather information on the island's geography. Once in a while, she would signal him to stop, pull out her notebook, and scribble something on it.
"Correct, but there's no prize for you," Nami turned back to wink at him.
Zoro put down his water canteen and scowled.
"Why didn't you tell him you don't want to be pampered? You could protect yourself just fine." And would have saved me the trouble.
"Well, I actually like being pampered. Even he can be annoying sometimes, Sanji-kun is good at catering to my needs."
He's also good at neglecting his own. That was left unsaid.
"Tell him to stop being a lovesick fool, then."
"ํIt's his nature; he can't change," She said without pause. Zoro couldn't help but wonder how she'd got this good at understanding him.
"If you understand the mechanisms of the natural elements, all things nature can be manipulated."
Zoro remembered Nami once explained about how her Climatact worked to one of their crew, maybe it was Chopper. He just overheard while napping nearby. Thinking about it, that did sum up perfectly how the sea witch's mind operated. Nami read people like she read the weather on the sea. But damn that she made it look easy to have the unpredictable force of nature wrapped around her finger, doing her bidding.
Hence, the nickname, the sea witch.
"He'd do anything for you."
Nami paused from her sketching of the island's landscapes to regard him through her reading glasses.
"He would." She agreed. "But he wouldn't stop being who he is. He's enamored of the idea of love - to be frank, I have no fucking idea what kinds of shitty books he read when he was young but he physically craves romance the same way he's addicted to smoking. I let him cherish me but-"
She knew. He knew. Everything was just the camaraderie between the two nakamas from the start.
"- I'm not the one who he's in love with."
She heard the sound of something getting crushed. The victim was once the water bottle, now a lump of tin-plated steel in Zoro's fist.
"...What?"
"Hand me the compass."
"Who is-no, why did you tell me this?"
"Compass."
Zoro glared her log-pose bracelet. Nami sighed, "No, you idiot. The one for drawing in the backpack."
She watched him violently rummaged the backpack. His face darkened but his hands - they were shaking.
He was her first mate and a person she thought of as her brother.
"Hey Zoro, have you ever heard about this old phrase?"
She could only hope for the best that the water canteen was the last thing that got shattered.
Everyone seemed to have found what they wanted from this island. The cook had managed to grab necessary supplies along with some interesting catch. He was practically beaming with joy and promised them a feast which instantly made the crew happy.
Chopper waddled to where Zoro sat alone, furthest away from where the others had gathered. Whether it was his doctor's intuition or his reindeer's instinct that made him smell his illness, either way, the reindeer came to give Zoro medical assistance.
The little doctor's diagnostic process consisted of him patting his hooves all over Zoro's body in search of physical injuries. After finding none, he quickly deduced it was a mental one.
"Did Nami not let you buy something for yourself?" Asked Chopper because it was the most plausible explanation he could think of. Nami was pretty strict and the swordsman returned empty-handed. For all his expertise, Chopper was still a kid.
A rare, soft smile graced Zoro's face. "Maybe?"
Chopper climbed up to sit on Zoro's shoulder and started patting his head in a hope that it would make Zoro feel better. "Next time, you should come with me and Sanji. Sanji used me like a pack mule but he bought me stuff I wanted when I spent all my allowance."
"Nah, Chopper; it's fine. Really. I did get myself something too."
"What is it?"
"It's for you but I cannot explain everything." The sea witch told him. "You need to find out the rest for yourself."
"-The reason why I've been seasick lately."
"Why did not you tell me earlier, you bastard!?" Chopper reprimanded before running off to get Zoro a medication (that he didn't need) from his sickbay. Zoro accepted and swallowed them down anyway. Partly because of Chopper's genuine worry and he was Zoro's favorite.
Who knew, maybe Chopper's drug could work miracles and heal his seasickness.
The cook emerged back from the kitchen with a trolley of cakes, pies, and those disgusting pastel cupcakes, and Zoro's favorite reindeer had gone from his side, practically teleporting himself away to the cook's location. The cook patted the little nakama's head and gave him the largest slice of the strawberry shortcake.
Zoro never felt so betrayed.
Also, Chopper's medicine didn't work.
Many years later, Zoro found the cook ankle-deep in the sea of his dream, watching the Sun going down.
"The sea is beautiful today." He said. Like he had said it many times before while Zoro had been too blind to see.
"Yes. It's."
"...What are you seeing?"
"You."
He chuckled,
"You are standing before perfection and you are seeing a man?"
His figure was glimmering under sunlight, and for a moment that flickering had Zoro believe he would disappear, finally becoming one with the object of his love.
"Did Nami-san tell you?"
Zoro didn't bother replying. Sanji was flicking his lighter; the calmness had returned to the blue.
"Of course, she did. Oaf like you would never care to learn this sort of thing."
"How long did you plan to play this shitty riddle?"
"If you didn't find out? The rest of my life."
Zoro wanted to stab the man standing next to him badly.
"What does it actually mean?"
"Didn't Nami-san tell you already?"
"No. I want to hear it from you."
"Why now?"
"Why not?"
Sanji's eyes still remained on the All Blue.
"To us, it's the sea, not the moon, that is the most beautiful thing in the world. We feast on her abundance, sing of her generosity, and dream of the tide. When I die, I want my body tossed into the sea. That's why it's special to say "the sea is beautiful" when we share our love with someone else. But-"
You cannot demand the other's love when you, yourself, cannot give.
"-Sailors are unfaithful bastards; they aren't made for marriage. They cannot choose the love of their life over the sea. I don't want to offer ludicrous promise - I cannot give what you deserve. My everything. If I hadn’t become a pirate, maybe I could still give you my life. But, it’s belonged to my captain now. And my soul is on the blue.”
He started wading deeper into the water, now waist-deep. Zoro wanted to shout 'don't go', but he had already known the rule of the sea: do not beg.
Instead, he bargained,
“What’s about your heart?”
Sanji had stopped.
"My heart?"
"You still have a heart," Zoro said. "Trade yours with mine, cook.”
Sanji stood with his arms akimbo, scrutinizing Zoro's face, looking very much a mortal, and less of something unreachable. The man had finally come to the shore. Finally, looking back at him.
“Since when did you know how to bargain?” Asked Sanji, irritated.
“I did pick up a few things living among the worst.” Nami, indeed, had this lesson beat into him since the first time he dared to borrow her money. "After all, I am a pirate."
Sanji blinked and let out a peal of laughter, "A pirate who is still keeping the name, 'pirate hunter'. How ironic."
Zoro shrugged.
"It's a cool name. The pirate who hunts pirates- it shows that I'm stronger. Strong enough to have your heart."
Sanji closed his eyes, and let the event of their barter rewind. It had happened just a moment ago but somehow felt like a lifetime.
"What a coincidence, I'm not a whole person too. I will have the heart or whatever part of you that loves me."
"What took you so long to come up with this silly excuse of a proposal?"
"I've been thinking-"
"Poor you."
"Shut up. I've been thinking that I'll never see the same world as you, taking me forever to realize I don't have to. Just let me stand here with you is enough."
"...From that day you walked into my old man's restaurant, I've known this man has the sea's blessing. A man like you who gambles his life for his dream. I've known since that day the sea is beautiful and I love him."
"Next time, say it with that 'I love you' part."
Sanji opened his eyes and flashed him his signature shit-eating grin. His eyes never changed -always the same shade of blue.
"If I'm in the mood."
Zoro knew he would never say it again. He could live with that.
"Shi, let's go back to the ship, cook. Your pirate king's probably wrecking your kitchen at this point."
"Then, we shall feast on his flesh and blood."
"Can you cook a rubber?"
"Even my razor blades are delicious."
There was no guarantee that Sanji's eyes wouldn't be straying, neither that Zoro would keep living for him. Their love had no deity's promise that eternal happiness would be waiting for them in the afterlife. They only had this life and couldn't take more than they needed.
The sea had made men content with meager possessions of two hearts, and the day to seize.
Extra1
"You know, marimo, a love contract witnessed by the legendary sea is to be kept for eternity."
"You are making up shit now."
"I am the person who has discovered All Blue, of course, I'm allowed to make shit up. Legend also says you might never step your feet on land again. Can you live with that, o great swordsman?"
"Aren't your father living on a floating fish-head restaurant?" Zoro genuinely didn't see what the problem was.
Sanji wanted to drown the love of his life.