Work Text:
"I'm in love with you."
"Excuse me? Marimo, I must have something in my ear, what did you just say?"
"That I'm in love with you?"
Zoro chewed on his onigiri. Sanji looked so red he thought his head just might explode.
Zoro knew he had about .2 seconds before Sanji started yelling and kicking, so he followed it up before he even swallowed. “I’m not lying. Or saying it to piss you off or whatever you’re about to go on about.”
He could practically see him deflate. Like a fire sputtering out suddenly. Sanji pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long, frustrated breath. He took a long drag on his cigarette and blew it in one long stream of smoke to the side before turning back to Zoro.
“To get this straight. I brought you onigiri while you’re training and suddenly you -” He seemed to stumble on his words. “You...” He moved his hands and made a face Zoro had to stop himself from laughing at.
“It’s not suddenly. I figured it out last week. But I think it's been happening for a while.” He put down the now empty plate and started to walk back to the giant weights left on the floor.
“What?” He heard Sanji huff again behind him. “Marimo you get back here right now you don’t just -” Zoro looked back to see Sanji waving his hands around and walked back with his own huff of annoyance. “You don’t just say things like that to people and then leave!”
Zoro sat down in front of him and tilted his head. “What else am I supposed to do? Nami said I have to tell you. I didn’t think that was really even necessary, but-” He made a gesture with his hands. “There you go.”
Sanji paced back and forth in front of him. “You told Nami-swan?”
Zoro finally had the decency to look a bit embarrassed. He scratched the back of his neck and looked to the side. “It's not like I really meant to. That witch is always being nosy about something.” He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
He got an earful about calling Nami a witch for at least a full minute before Sanji seemed to remember what he was originally upset about.
“Look, cook, it's not something you gotta reciprocate or do anything about it. I just figured it out and I’ve been told it's something you’re supposed to know. Nothing has to change.”
Sanji stopped dead in his tracks. He ran a hand through his hair and groaned in frustration.
“I told her I shouldn’t have told you.” Zoro muttered under his breath.
Sanji looked like he was about to scream as he stomped over to Zoro. He put out his cigarette against the wall and let it drop. “That isn’t the problem, you idiot.”
Zoro stood to butt heads, getting increasingly impatient. “Then what is, love cook?”
Sanji grabbed Zoro’s hair at his nape, keeping their foreheads pressed together hard enough to sting.
“Do you mean it? Or are you too stupid to know what that word means?”
“I think I’d know what it means better than you do! At least I’m not saying it to every girl I meet.”
“Answer the question Marimo - do you mean it?”
Zoro had never looked so deeply into Sanji’s eyes before. It was his own head that was pushing aside the bang that usually kept one covered. They glittered like the way sunlight always hit the waves.
“I mean it.”
Sanji’s mouth collided with his so quickly and with such force he was convinced for a moment one of their noses was going to break.
Zoro’s mouth moved before his brain caught up, but his hands stayed in the air, inches away from Sanji. Sanji had no such reservations, one hand still buried in his hair, another pressed against his chest.
The places where his skin touched Sanji’s felt hot, like at any moment they might burn him. With Sanji’s technique, he had the briefest thought that there might actually be fire.
His heart was racing. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins as Sanji moved against his mouth. It was like when they were fighting each other except cranked to a thousand and without trading a single blow.
He broke away to breathe for a moment, still barely an inch apart. Sanji’s lips were ever so slightly swollen and he had to swallow to resist the urge to just start again.
“Can I touch you?” Zoro’s voice sounded breathier and softer than it ever had before.
Something shifted in Sanji’s gaze and for a moment Zoro had the distinct feeling he was going to eat him alive. He leaned in and was suddenly okay with being devoured, if this is what it felt like.
He took that as a yes and hesitantly threaded his fingers in Sanji’s longer hair and felt his face flush hot when he got a breathy moan in response.
It felt right, even more right than annoying the hell out of the cook day in and day out, and he loved that more than most things these days. He didn’t know how much time passed, just that Sanji smelled incredible and his lips tasted even better.
It was the cook that pulled away next, both hands cupping Zoro's face as he did.
“Wait, you said that you think it’s been happening for a while? How long?”
Zoro looked up in thought and scrunched his face a little bit. “I dunno. Looking back there were a lot of little things. Like,” He let go of Sanji’s hip to scratch the back of his neck. “Like the sea train with Robin and Franky. You scared the hell out of me.”
Sanji looked like his jaw was about to unhinge. “Water Seven?! Zoro!”
Zoro tried to ignore how his heart skipped a beat at the use of his actual name. He straightened Sanji’s jacket absentmindedly and shrugged. “I mean how surprising is it? We’re nakama, of course I cared about you.”
“You never...” Sanji looked a little lost.
“Of course not, and don’t expect me to get all mushy just cause I know I’m in love with you now. I don’t say shit like that, I just do things. You know that.”
Sanji’s expression melting into a lovey-dovey sentimental mush. “Oh, Marimo, I do know...”
Zoro raised an eyebrow. “What about you? I expected a kick to the head not...” He made a vague wave between them.
Sanji made a small squeaking noise. “O-oh well I dunno we don’t need to talk about - I mean you don’t really-”
Curiosity officially piqued, Zoro held on tight to Sanji’s hips afraid he’d jet instead of telling him and waited patiently. Sanji sputtered a bit more at the tighter contact.
Sanji buried his face in his hands, refusing to look at Zoro, and mumbled something under his breath.
Zoro leaned in close next to Sanji’s ear, close enough that when he whispered his lips ran against it. “I can’t hear you, love cook.”
Sanji moved his hands just enough to let sound out. “I thought you were pretty damn cute at the Baratie.”
It was Zoro’s turn to feel like he was knocked off his feet. From the first time they met? He hadn’t even known Sanji was interested in men.
“But then I knew you and you had a damn annoying personality! So take that with a grain of salt will you!” Sanji left his hands and complained indignantly.
Zoro blinked slowly. And cracked a smirk. “I just didn’t know you were looking at men, too.”
Sanji waved a hand between them dismissively. “Women are beautiful, perfect creatures that deserve all the love and attention a gentleman like me has to offer. Just because I like to look at men sometimes too doesn’t change that.”
Zoro’s smirk widened. “Have you ever looked at me? Like when I’m working out maybe? And you stand at the door a bit longer than you have to bringing me onigiri?”
Sanji’s face flushed an impossibly deeper shade of red. Zoro was reminded of the tomatoes he sometimes had in the kitchen.
“Oh just shut up and kiss me, Marimo.”