Work Text:
"No." With a resolute shake of the head Zoro dismisses his best friend's request. It doesn't happen often because most of the time he's more than happy to indulge in the crazy schemes of his best friend, but there are lines that he is just not willing to cross. Nope. Absolutely not. He doesn't care about the amount of puppy dog eyes that are being shown his way, he will not budge on this.
"But Zorooooooooo!" The long drawn out whine of Luffy attacks his ear while the younger man flops against his side. "I want you two to get along!"
"I tolerate him when he's around, isn't that enough?"
"No!" With a pout that makes him look like a chipmunk Luffy pokes a finger against Zoro's side which makes him flinch back. He knew he would regret the day he let Luffy find out that Zoro's ticklish.
"Why do you want us to get along so bad?" he asks, one hand still holding his beer bottle, the other hand busy fending off Luffy's attacks.
"Because you're my best friend and he's my boyfriend!" Zoro groans.
"Remind me again, why is he your boyfriend? He's weird, and creepy and an arrogant prick!" Next to him Luffy nods along to his points before grinning.
"Exactly! That's why he's my boyfriend. I'm glad you understand, Zoro!" Zoro feels like face planting onto the table. He would do it, but he's afraid that he's going to break the table again. The last time that happened, Sanji had been so pissed at him that he had to sleep on the couch for a week. He's not risking that.
“Luffy, for the last time: I don’t want to spend one on one time with your creepy surgeon boyfriend.” Zoro watches as Luffy’s face falls, and he seems to finally understand what Zoro has been trying to tell him for the last 20 minutes. He hangs his head and the edge of his ever-present straw hat shadows his eyes. He looks so miserable and dejected that Zoro almost agrees to his demands without thinking. But he’s able to hold himself back. He won’t get sucked into this. Not this time.
“So, what you’re saying is,” Luffy lifts his head again and gives him a critical look. Zoro didn’t know that Luffy’s face even could look critical. “that you’re afraid that you’ll lose to him in a one on one battle. Woah, Zoro, I didn’t know you were a chicken.” It takes several seconds for Zoro’s brain to understand that statement. No one has ever called him a chicken before. No one. And especially not his best friend.
“What did you just call me?” He asked, keeping his tone as calm as possible. He knows he’s being goaded, or at least he knows for anyone else it would be goading. But this is Luffy. He wouldn’t know cunning if it hit him in the face. So that means he’s completely serious. And he just called Zoro a-
“Chicken,” Luffy repeats. “I called you a chicken. Because you’re scared of my boyfriend.” And honestly, what else is Zoro supposed to do?
“I assume you were forced into this as well?” The voice coming from behind him is deliberately monotone. Zoro looks up from where he’s been doing his warm-up stretches and turns around. In front of him stands the newest thorn in Zoro’s side. Mind you; he doesn’t know all that much about the other man. He gathered all his information about him from Luffy’s animated retellings. But those are enough for him to know that he doesn’t want to go near all that baggage with a ten feet pole. Their friend group has enough of that as it is. They don’t need to add even more, thank you very much.
Judging from the look on Law’s face, he isn’t much happier to be here than Zoro is. Slowly Zoro nods in answer to Law’s question.
“What did he say to you?” the surgeon wants to know. Zoro shrugs.
“Let’s just say he insulted my pride, and I couldn’t let that stand.” A slightly condescending smirk shows itself on Law’s face.
“Really? That’s all it took? I would’ve thought he had to twist your arm a little bit more than that.” Zoro raises one eyebrow.
“Oh? So why are you here? What feat of strength did he perform for you to cave?” Law’s face loses a bit of his arrogance, and his eyes flit to the side.
“Let’s just say he made a compelling argument that I couldn’t refuse.” For a few moments, there’s a silence between the two before Zoro opens his mouth again.
“He looked at you with his big eyes and said, please, am I right?” The way Law’s face immediately turns red gives Zoro all the answers he needs.
“There’s no shame in it,” he tells Law. “We’ve all been there. After a while, it gets easier to ignore those looks.” The look Law shoots him is doubtful. Zoro can relate to that feeling. At the beginning of their friendship, it had felt like Luffy was a hurricane, and it didn’t matter what Zoro did; he just couldn’t escape him. Nowadays, he has learned to lean back and enjoy the ride. Because let’s be honest, was there anything more exhilarating than being friends with a force of nature?
He took one more look at Law.
Maybe dating one. But Zoro wasn’t quite that suicidal. Sanji was enough for him to deal with on the regular. He picked up his katana.
“So, are we doing this?” It was Law’s turn to raise an eyebrow.
“Are we doing what? You need to be clearer.”
“Are we going to spar, or are we going to stand around like a bunch of losers? Luffy told me you’re able to use one of these,” he nodded down to the practice swords in his hands.” so come on, show me.”
“I should’ve expected that when he told me to meet you in your dojo.” Law sighed before shrugging out of his jacket. He walked over to Zoro and held up a hand, but Zoro just shook his head.
“Nope, these are mine. Pick one from the wall over there.”
“You’re telling me you’re going to fight me using three swords?”
“Yes. Now hurry up.”
“How are you even…? You know what, nevermind, I don’t want to know.”
“You never will, if you don’t get your ass into gear.”
“Big words for someone who’ll have his mouth stuffed very soon.” With that, the taller man walks over to the wall and examines the practice swords. He picks one of the larger and longer ones. An unusual choice for sure, but nothing Zoro hasn’t seen before. He’s confident in his fighting style, which is to say unique.
They face each other in the middle of the parring mats.
“Rules?” Law asks.
“Till first blood or someone admits defeat,” he answers without hesitation. His teacher always tells him he’s too savage and that till first blood isn’t made better with the fact that they’re fighting with dull practice swords. In fact, it supposedly makes it worse somehow. Zoro doesn’t know what he means. But since then, he’s always adding the admitting defeat part. It’s been a long while since an opponent of his hasn’t used that option.
To his credit, Law only nods. Huh. Seems like Luffy’s boyfriend had some balls. Well, he amends privately, he had to, considering who he was dating.
Both take their positions, and if Law is surprised by Zoro putting one sword into his mouth, he doesn’t show it. Another point in his favor. Silently they regard each other. Zoro strikes first. He has always been a man of action and his experience has taught him that it was always better to act instead of reacting.
Law doesn’t hesitate. He meets Zoro blow for blow, not slowing or backing down the slightest bit. With a twist of his wrist, he manages to push him slightly off balance and starts an attack of his own. He uses the length of his sword to his full advantage and keeps Zoro a reasonable distance away from his body. Like everyone who faces him, he has trouble with dodging all three of his swords, but he adapts a lot faster then most of his opponents do, if they even manage that.
They spar for a good ten minutes, neither one backing down. Zoro had been sure Law would give up after a while, but he is holding his ground and even manages to start some pretty good counterattacks. He’s honestly impressed and has already resolved to invite (i.e., force) him to join their dojo. It could use the new competition, so it doesn’t get too dull around here.
In the end, Zoro manages to find an opening and strikes. His sword leaves a nasty welt on Law’s upper arm. It’s going to leave a nasty bruise behind. They’re already covered in smaller wounds, but nothing major until now. The welt splits open, and a small trickle of blood makes its way down the arm. Both men lower their weapons and breath happy, for a moment, just standing there and looking at each other.
Law inspects his wound with a critical eye and seems to shrug it off. He returns his practice sword to the wall, while Zoro does the same. With a nod towards the back office, he urges Law to follow him. Law complies without resistance, and Zoro can appreciate a man of few words. He loves Luffy and Sanji and all of their other friends, but sometimes it’s just nice not to talk. He hands over the first aid kit and watches as the doctor treats his small wound in a quick and efficient manner. After he’s done, Zoro returns the equipment to its rightful place and makes a note of what they’ve used up.
They leave the dojo and close up after them. Even though Zoro hasn’t been here long, he’s already managed to get a key for this place. It took some convincing, but in the end, the owner simply gave up and handed over a copy of the key.
“So, that was more enjoyable then I thought it would be,” Law says to him as the two of them stand outside on the sidewalk. Zoro snorts.
“Don’t be too excited about it, doc. Just admit that we had fun beating the crap out of each other and call it a day.” Law’s lips twitch up into the tiniest of smirks.
“Sure, why not. Against all expectations, I had fun today. We can do that again, sometimes.” He lifts one hand in a kind of wave. “See you around Zoro-ya.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” Zoro stops him before he can turn around. ”We’re not done here.” With that, he starts walking. Over his shoulder, he throws a casual “You coming or what?” and doesn’t stop to wait till he hears footfalls following him. He leads them to his favorite after workout bar and takes a seat at the counter. With a finger wave, he orders a bottle of sake.
"What if I don't drink? Or maybe I'm on call?" Law asks while taking the seat next to him. Zoro snorts.
"This is my bottle. If you want something you need to order it yourself." That manages to get a short, hard laugh out of the surgeon. He turns to the bartender and orders his own bottle. Zoro raises an eyebrow.
"Oh? Not on call then?"
"Shut up Zoro-ya." They fill their cups in silence and clink them against each other before downing them. The two of them drink in companionable silence for a while, their bottles emptying quickly. Zoro can feel the slight buzz of being tipsy. It would take a lot more than just one bottle of sake to make him drunk, but he's feeling loose and relaxed. It seems the same can be said for Law. His shoulders, which have been tense for the whole day seem to slump down a bit as he leans on the bar. He gives Zoro a critical look (maybe this is where Luffy got that look from?).
"How did you meet Luffy-ya?"
"Prison." is Zoro's dry answer. The eyes of the surgeon seem to widen in shock.
"Excuse me?"
"Sure, you're excused," Zoro grins at him.
"Idiot. You know what I mean," Law groans and gives him a light shove. Zoro decides not to be outdone and shoves back. That is how they end up on the floor, rolling around like children scuffling in the dirt. They're interrupted after a little while by a voice that both of them know well.
"Oi, what are you two doing?" Both men freeze in their respective pose on the ground. Zoro has one arm around Law's neck to try and pull him into a headlock. Law has one hand in Zoro's face and is pulling on his cheek. The other hand is pinching Zoro's sides, clearly trying and failing to use his ticklish nature against him. In his head, Zoro is cursing Luffy's betrayal of his weakness to others, while trying not to flinch back from Law's hands.
They both loop up from the ground, neither letting go of the other. Their eyes met Luffy who's standing above them, his arms crossed.
They answer him in complete unison as if they had rehearsed this a hundred times already.
"Hugging." Luffy's face breaks into a big smile.
"Shishishishi~ I knew you two would get along!" And then he's letting himself fall down on top of them.
"God damnit Luffy!"
"Luffy-ya, get off!"
"No! Cuddle time!"
"You know, as amusing it is to watch you three rolling around my floor, could you maybe do this somewhere else? You're scaring the other customers." The bartender seems resigned to his fate. Zoro should know. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. When none of them move the bartender sighs again.
"Don't make me call that scary red again."
Zoro's pretty sure they haven't moved that fast in quite some time. They're out of the bar in record time and are walking down the street towards their apartment complex. Luffy's still grinning like a maniac and excitedly he grabs their hands and starts swinging them.
"I'm so happy you guys!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Zoro grumbles, but he can't hide the small smirk on his face. When he looks over at Law he's pretty sure the other man is smiling as well. Suddenly the surgeon seems to remember something and turns towards Luffy.
"Where did you and Zoro-ya meet?"
Luffy blinks up at him before answering in the same dry tone Zoro had.
"Prison."
"What the actual fuck?" At that Zoro can't help himself and starts laughing. It seems Luffy's gut feeling had been right once again. He can keep this one around for a while.