Chapter Text
“Land Ahoy!” The eager shouts of Luffy reach the entire crew. “Shut it!” Nami sharply snaps as Zoro walks to the front of the Going Merry.
“Hey.” Zoro says, staring at his captain, “what’s this island called?”
Luffy looked at him with an oblivious look, “how am I meant to know?”
“You-!” Zoro grumbled before he spun around and shouted at Nami, “what island is this?!”
“Shit head!” Zoro then heard the shouting out of Sanji, the crew's cook. The cooks' food actually was decent, but Zoro would rather die before admitting anything he made actually tasted good. “Keep your voice down!” Sanji continues to shout before Nami walks by and hearts appear in his eyes.
“Heart shaped island.” The cute voice of Chopper then rang from underneath him, “Nami said the island is told to be peaceful, let’s see!”
“I wonder how much meat there will be! Soooo hungry-“
Zoro tuned out the rest of his crew, he was too tired to help dock the ship. He slumped down near the kitchen door and started to doze off.
It took them at least another hour before they actually could dock the going merry. Zoro didn’t help, Sanji eventually started kicking Zoro in the side to wake him.
The green haired man groggily opened his eyes grumbling; “we here?” His eyes half open and Sanji could help but admire his face.
His mind told him different things when his voice said, “yes, come on moss head you little shit.”
Zoro glared at him, but Sanji didn’t mind, any attention from Zoro, Sanji would count it as a win.
“Heart shaped island” didn’t have a lot of civilization on it. From the dock you could see just a jungle. Trees and trees and more and more trees, birds and wildlife bloomed around them. The day was warm and the weather was perfectly clear. Sanji wasn’t sure if it was due to the island or not. Something Sanji also noticed was the strangely large amounts of flowers the island had.
Zoro instantly hopped off the ship with swords in hand. He couldn’t even step a foot forward before Usopp shouted at him; “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!” Usopp sounded frantic as he also jumped off of the ship, “you're gonna get lost!”
Zoro proceeded to roll his eyes.
“I’ll be fine.” Zoro grumbled, “I never get lost.”
The whole crew silenced instantly, even Luffy. “Zoro, we’re all going to go into town later, wait.” Nami said sternly. “If you're so eager to move, then help Sanji secure the boat.”
“Just stay here.” Robin sighed, “we’re leaving soon anyway.”
Sanji’s head popped up staring at Zoro who promptly turned away right as their eyes met. “I’m good!” Zoro groaned. Zoro sat underneath Nami’s orange trees as he watched the crew run around. He didn’t know why they weren’t forcing him to help, he guessed it was due to him trying to cut his feet off and the wound reopening. It was almost healed but it still cause issues when he tried to train, and now with a doctor on board it was even harder to train.
“Ready to leave!” Sanji called a cigarette in his hand. “Usopp; stay behind and watch the ship.
Usopp looked shocked, “me?! Why me?!” He complained, “the great captain Usopp should-'' he was cut off by Nami’s glare that said; “if you leave this ship I’ll throw you off the side of the going merry.”
“I’ll stay with Usopp so he doesn’t wander from the ship,” Robin said, “be quick.”
“Thank you Robin, Lets go,” Nami said, “we need a restock on food, otherwise that’s all.”
Zoro looked around the jungle, “hey, let’s just take something from the jungle. Kill something and leave.” Nami whacked him in the head. “No, no and no!” She sneered, “remember what happened last time we followed your glorious plan??”
He did remember. Very well actually. He and Luffy ate some sort of animal Sanji had prepared, causing both of them to weaken temporarily. Zoro chased Sanji around the ship many times in anger believing Sanji had done something to the food before Chopper just tells them the animal they ate, ate a bug that had something poisonous for humans.
Sanji blew a puff of smoke, his head turning to his left, his eyes turning to hearts.
“Bitch brows, Nami isn’t that way.” Zoro called after he noticed the cook turning his head in his direction. “Ey- stop looking at me!” Zoro said before he realized he wasn’t staring at him; a woman approached from the jungle.
A woman with elegant blue eyes and long braided hair. “Madam!” Sanji said in a flirty tone dropping to his knees. Zoro rolled his eyes.
“What are you doing in the jungle?” The woman asked, sounding shocked, “it’s not safe!” She completely ignored Sanji and walked to Zoro.
Sanji felt a twang of jealousy.
Not because of the wonderful woman going to Zoro instead of him, but because Zoro looked at her with so much…care? Sanji didn’t know why he was so jealous but whatever .
Sanji had figured out he loved Zoro long ago. Sense he first saw him in the Baratie and even when he saw a picture of him on a wanted poster. He knew he was bisexual long ago, he just thought he preferred women. But that theory was thrown out the window once Sanji saw Zoro in person.
Who wouldn’t fall in love? Strong muscular body, charming green hair, a lovely personality! Sanji could go on and on. He’s so adorable when he eats and his cheeks puff up with food- when his body looks so relaxed when he sleeps, how he smells so nice! And how cute his face can get whenever he’s relaxed! Sure, Sanji was a bit of a creep. And sure! Sanji might watch him when he sleeps and smells his clothes and sure he might watch him when he showers…and sure; he might’ve agreed to go on the straw hat crew because of Zoro.
But whatever! That was totally normal!
“I’ve seen you all on wanted posters before.” The woman said, “Straw hat Luffy, correct?” Luffy nodded, “is there a feast?” He smiled, “I’m hungry!”
Nami rushed to explain her captain’s weird behavior, “he’s always like this…don’t mind him.” She laughed. “I’m Nami. I'm the navigator, the one smoking and has hearts in his eyes is Sanji, our cook. This is Chopper, our doctor. And Usopp is on the ship, he’s our sharpshooter. And Zoro…he’s…”
“Our protector!” Luffy shouted. “He’s very strong!” The woman smiled, “I see.”
She’s smiling too much.
Sanji felt irritated.
“I’m Muko,” she said, “my town is over there. It’s called Heart City,” she pointed west, “allow me to escort you, I was out here for watch duty.” They all nodded and followed her through the thick jungle.
Sanji looked around fairly bored, and suddenly a round purple fruit rolled towards him. It wasn’t quite round and it had strange ridges in it, a bright neon green leaf stuck straight out from the fruit.
Is it edible? I wonder if it’s safe. Sanji brought the fruit to his mouth and bit into it. It’s quite sweet, “Muko-sama!” Sanji said to the young lady, his eyes turning heart shaped.
Nami and Muko who were walking in front looked back at Sanji who was at the back of the group. Zoro was talking to Luffy and he turned around as well.
“Hey dartboard brows, what’s in your hands?” Zoro said, crossing his arms.
Sanji took another bite, finishing the fruit off, “not sure, mosshead.” Sanji snapped before noticing Muko’s horrified expression.
“Fuck.” She swore, Nami quickly asked what was wrong but Muko continued to swear before she shouted at Zoro, “knock him out!” She said waving her arms around, “quickly! Before it takes effect!”
Huh?
Sanji was confused.
“Fine with me!” Zoro said he drew his sword and flipped it around. Sanji could’ve easily dodged but he felt captivated by Zoro, for some reason more than normal and so-… before he knew it, he was knocked out by the hilt of Enma.
Zoro stood there with a triumphant look on his face before he asked why he even needed to knock the cook unconscious.
“He ate a devil fruit.” Muko said. They all froze, “Sanji ate WHAT?!” Nami shouted, “oh! Is he bendy now too?” Luffy said peering over at Sanji's unconscious body, “what’s it called and is it helpful at all?” Zoro asked poking Sanji with Enma. “Did I hit him too hard?”
“Heart shaped island is known for its devil fruits, majority of the devil fruits come from this island.” Muko pointed at Sanji. “He ate the Love Love fruit. It causes obsession and murderous intent and unfortunately increases strength.” She explained, “as far as devil fruits go, it’s quite common, it can also be artificially made. The Vinsmoke family re-created the fruit and it's rumored that the king gave it to all of his sons and daughters.”
Zoro nodded before bluntly saying, “Give us the history later, what does it actually do?”
Muko grimaced. “I’m not the one to ask, you left your ship behind with the rest of your crew, correct?” She asked Luffy. “Yeah, we told them this would be a quick trip.” She laughed, “bring them here, your trip might take a while longer.”
**
They finally made it to the Village. Unconscious Sanji was slung over Zoro's shoulder and the rest of the crew complained loudly.
“Can you just explain the devil fruit Sanji ate?” Usopp asked, “you seem to know a lot.”
Muko shifted uncomfortably, they all sat in a large stone room apparently waiting for something or someone.
“I can’t explain it very well, but we have had similar cases to your friend here.” She said, “Elder Hua can teach you the best. I’ll wait out here.” Muko said as the door opened.
A elderly man appeared from the stone door, “Muko-Dono?” Elder Hua noticed Sanji slumped on the ground and he gave them all a knowing look, “he ate the fruit too, hm?”
Chopper nodded, “yes, we’re not so sure on what the fruit is beside it causing obsession.” Chopper walked to Zoro tugging on his arm, “what? You want me to go first?” Zoro said grinning.
The hallway Elder Hua wanted them to go down did look pretty scary, but it didn’t matter. Zoro walked and the rest of the crew followed behind as they listened to Elder Hua explain Sanji's situation.
“I’m sure Muko has explained the basics, all you need to do is figure out who Sanji is obsessing over. Easier said than done, The love love fruit goes to those who have had a difficult past with love and conceal who they truly love to the best of their ability. The fruit somehow gravitates near those types of people and nine out of ten actually eat the fruit. Before it was difficult but the Love Love fruit makes it even harder; now they need the perfect setting, the perfect moment, the perfect time before they would even start dreaming about confessing. In all the chaos it brings disasters, Sanji could see someone glance at his desired person and they would end up dead the next day with no leads to who did it. Sanji is going to act normal, but his mind will be going wild.”
Elder Hua laughed, “Luffy, you said he’s your cook right?” Luffy nodded, “yeah, he makes good food.”
“Make sure there’s no poisons on your ship, now, Sanji won’t hesitate to use them.”
Luffy laughed, and so did Zoro. “We already know who Sanji loves, it’s Nami! We just need to show Sanji we don’t love Nami romantically and it’s easy!” Zoro said grinning. “Yeah it couldn’t be anyone else besides Nami or Robin.”
Robin shook her head, “it must be Nami, he has known her for the longest.”
Nami groaned. “I don’t think it’s me guys.”
Zoro laughed at her before he realized she was being serious. “Is it Robin then?” Zoro asked. Nami shook her head; “I think it’s you.”
Huh? Me no way in hell! The love-cook? Loving me? Ha! When pigs fly maybe!
“Nami? Did you hit your head?” Zoro said, rolling his eyes, “that makes no sense.”
“Shut it!” Nami snapped. “It makes sense to think about it, Elder Hua said the fruit goes to those who ‘conceal who they truly love’ . Sanjis showed us love or at least some kind of care to all of us at one point, even Usopp! Making sure his food was extra special when he fell ill, but you- you fight so often I always thought something was up with one of you but it would makes sense if-“
“Bull shit.” Zoro snapped.
“Don't swear at Nami-Swan!”
Sanji woke up. The same thought ran through all of their bodies. He woke up WHEN ZORO WAS TRASH TALKING NAMI.
“Sanji-san, please talk to someone else who has eaten the love love fruit.” Hua said.
They had made it down the hall and now they looked into a room, it was white and a man was strapped to a chair. There was a window and a door, Hua pointed at the wooden door, “he can answer your question and we will catch you up afterwards, also we can hear you inside the room. So be honest, get all your questions out now.”
Sanji looked skeptical but pushed the wooden door open as said down across from the man in the chair. “Hey.” Sanji said.
Chopper instantly questioned Elder Hua, “you told him we couldn’t hear.” Elder Hua laughed, “yes, but right now your friend isn’t stable and will easily stop being your friend with one wrong move. So listen to what he’s like, what he will and is able to do.”
“You seem to do this a lot.” Zoro said, watching Sanji who blankly stared at the tied up man. “I specialize in Devil fruits.” Elder Hua said. Zoro grumbled a response, “I see.”
“So…” Usopp said. “I remember you saying something about Sanji's strength increasing?” “Ah- yes I did.” Hua said “it’s quite interesting-“ he was cut off. The tied up man awoke and they all went quickly as they heard Sanji talking.
“So you also ate some devil fruit?” Sanji said, lighting a cigarette. The man nodded, “and now I’m locked up here! Haha” the man laughed, "Kenbu, nice to meet you. I’d bow but I can’t move, so unfortunate.”
Sanji nodded, looking quite bored. “The old man said you’d explain the situation to me, get to it.”
Kenbu laughed at Sanji, “well I can’t explain but I can give you advice!”
“I don’t need your shitty advice.” Sanji sneered, “why would I want advice from someone who’s clearly unstable and tied up in a room?”
Kenbu continued to laugh, “that’s fair! I did kill my lover because she dated another man.” Kenbu laughed like a crazed maniac, “if you don’t take my wisdom, imagine your loved one walking side by side with a man? Loving them? Touching them-“
Kenbu was cut off with a sharp kick to the chest. The others could see Sanji's facial expression but they could feel his anger from the other side of the room.
“Keep them close to you,”
Zoro suddenly turned to elder Hua. “Isnt Kenbu just giving dartboard brows motivation to murder?” His eyes narrowed, “how will that help us?”
Elder Hua explained, “Nami-San said she believes Sanji loves Zoro, correct?” Nami nodded, “it makes the most sense.” She said, “who else could it be?”
“Literally anyone else.” Zoro said gruffly.
“I actually agree with Nami,” Robin sighed, “I’m not sure why…something has always felt…of whenever he was flirting.” Chopper grabbed her hand and gently tugged on it, gaining Robin's attention. “Do you really think it’s Zoro?” His cute voice clearly got to Robin as she gently patted him on the head. “I believe so.” She said smiling.
Zoro asked, “So what's the point of this?”
Elder Hua grinned, “Kenbu actually isn’t mad, nor did he eat a devil fruit. He’s one of the island's best actors.”
“Whaaaaaaat?” Luffy and Usopp said, “why?”
“We’re testing your friend. We’re trying to fish out as much information about him and anything we can get about who he’s obsessed over.” Elder Hua said, “what do you know about Sanji? And what’s his relationship with the crew?”
“We actually don’t know much about Sanji,” Usopp said, “Nami-San? Has he told you his last name? I don’t think he’s even told us that.”
Nami shook her head, “he’s not told us.”
“Sanji has a good relationship with the entire crew! He fights with Zoro sometimes and his eyes turn into hearts whenever he sees a lady!” Luffy told elder Hua.
The door to the “interrogation room” slammed open, “man, that Kenbu is irritating.” Sanji said a puff of smoke coming from his mouth. “I don’t feel anything different with this fruit. I say we just leave this island after we get our supplies.”
There was no doubt it was the easiest thing to do, ignore the devil fruit problem until it’s actually something severely apparent. But something inside all of them told them ‘no we stay here until we make sure Sanji will be okay’ nobody liked this plan, but they all sucked it up.
It will also get Elder Hua to have extra time to figure out who bitch brows is obsessing over. Zoro thought.
Zoro had mixed feelings about the recent events, they were chaotic for sure but he didn’t know what to think about the fact that Sanji now loves someone on their crew so much! He’d kill for them!
“You all can stay at a nearby hotel.” Luffy shook his head at the offer, “no thanks, we’re just going to stay at the going merry.” He said adjusting his straw hat before Usopp interrupted, “let’s just stay there. The dock is far from the town and I’d be extremely difficult to go back and forth every day, and there’s weird stuff in the jungle, Luffy.”
Luffy seemed sad but complied. He too knew that it would also serve as extra time for Sanji to be examined.
Sanji had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.
“Let's get our supplies then leave this island.” Sanji said, looking back through the window at Kenbu. “Yeah Saniis right, let’s go.” Luffy said as he was already half way down the hall. “Thank you, Elder Hua.” Nami said before she followed the Luffy.
They all exited the tunnel and Muko was walking for them, she sat on a nearby chair. “So how’d it go?” She asked, “boring.” Sanji admitted, “I thought I’d actually get told what the love love fruit it’s, but I didn’t.”
“Yes you did, asshole.” Zoro grunted, “it causes obsession and makes you stronger, something like that.”
Sanji’s insides felt like they were on fire, worse than normal. Is it because Zoro gave me attention?! It feels crazy good… “watch your mouth, moss head.” Sanji grumbled, “I don’t feel any different.”
Muko looked surprised, “really?” She said gaping at him “most have immediate effect. By chance…have you eaten one of these before?”
Now Luffy looked confused, “Shanks told me there couldn’t be copies of devil fruits.” He scratched his head, “so how would Sanji eat two of them?”
Muko sighed, “have you heard of the Vinsmoke family?”
Sanji felt his gut clench. Why is she being this up now?
“No,” the crew said. Muko continued; “they are a family of elite assassins. They are a royal family that come from the Germa Kingdom. Vinsmoke Judge, there’s a rumor that he got his hands on the original love love fruit and made copies of them feeding them to his children. But there were also defective copies, so the family sent the defective fruits to heart shaped island and scattered them around.”
She knows…a lot. Sanji felt uncomfortable, yes he did eat a successful copy, and he didn’t know how different the defective copy looked from the successful one. And so he ate the fruit.
He knew the basic difference between the salty one and the successful fruit; the successful one keeps sanity at a decent level and it increases your strength. The failure supposedly messes with your mind.
“Did you happen to come across an unsuccessful love love fruit?” Muko asked. Sanji didn’t know what to say, if I say yes, then the crew knows I love…someone. And it might ruin my confession to Zoro. If I lie and say no thank the crew knows that I’ve eaten a fake fruit and my sanity will be gone! They're gonna know I love zoro eventually. But it needs to be perfect…Argh! What should I say?
Sanji ended up with the easiest answer he could think of; “my childhood is a blur, I don’t remember.” That seems reasonable, I mean who would remember a single fruit they ate as a child?!
“I see,” Muko seemed to believe it. “Let’s go eat somewhere, my treat.” She whipped out a small bag of coins and Nami rushed to it and dollar signs appeared in her eyes, “how kind of you Muuko-San!” She beamed, snatching the bag of money.
“Yes! Let’s eat, I'm starving!” Luffy grinned and Usopp and chopper immediately agreed with their captain.
They all walked to a restaurant Muko suggested. ‘Ranting’ “it’s very good!” Muko said, “it’s the most popular restaurant on the island.” She beamed as she pushed open the door, the restaurant was bright, and it was packed.
“Good evening Muko-Chan!” A man came running up to her, he had a suit on, he seemed like a waitress. “Good evening, Kepi-kun!” Muko said happily, “I have a group for six, are you open.” Kepi nodded, “of course, right this way!” The restaurant seemed to be France themed. In the middle of the restaurant there was a large model of the eiffel tower, surrounding it was a large amount of red roses. There were a few paintings up but nothing special.
The waiter brought them to a booth, the round table in the middle of a seating area with maroon cushions. “Here’s the menu, I’ll be back in a moment!” Kepi rushed away to attend to the others in the restaurant.
They all sat down, Zoro was on the end, because of his swords and Sanji sat to the left of him. Robin, then Chopper, Usopp, Luffy, lastly at the other end of the booth, Muko sat across from Zoro.
“Everything is so- so romance themed!” Chopper said, “yeah.” The swordsman grumbled, “makes me sick.” Sanji gave him an offended look, “romantic is my life! My life! my dreams, my will to live!” Zoro laughed at him in a probably sarcastic way, “yeah, it all makes me sick!” Sanji didn’t care if Zoro was telling the truth or not, Sanji felt to ingrosed in Zoro’s laugh to even process his own thoughts.
From the corner of his eye, Zoro was Muko watching them argue. Zoro silently thought to himself, is she here observing us? Technically she's doing us a favor, the quicker we solve bitch brows devil fruit problem the quicker we can leave this island.
The waiter, Kepi, came back with a notebook in hand. “Orders?” He said smiling, “I'll have three pigs in a blanket, a whole cow-” Luffy went on as the rest of the crew said their orders, “ shit, I didn't look at the menu. Zoro hurried and grabbed the menu Sanji was handing to Kepi, scanning it over. “Uhm, Beer, and a…salad with…salmon, please.” Zoro said not being able to read quick enough. Dammit. He grumbled to himself.
Sanji saw all of this, and he couldn't leave his marimo with something that was displeasing to eat! But Kepi is already gone, so I'll just sneak some of my food onto his plate. Sanji settled on this plan, glancing at Zoro almost every second to see if he was still displeased over his order.
Muko also seemed to notice this, and Zoro noticed Muko constantly staring at him and Sanji, she sat directly across from them so it was quite easy for her to take a peak and go unnoticed. But with Zoro’s sharp senses he could tell Muko kept looking at them. Something that also bothered Zoro, was Muko was totally right about something up with Sanji. Zoro could practically feel his gaze. The rest of the crew didn’t seem to notice. I'm going crazy. Zoro thinks to himself as Kepi came back with beers in hand. You're just going crazy. Right as the glass of beer hit the table, Zoro grabbed it and downed it.
A few minutes later, their food arrived. There was a lot of it too.
Zoro stabbed his salmon before shoving it into his mouth, his plate looked quite weak to the others, but he didnt care. Food is food.
He shoved another bite into his mouth before he feld an elbow poke into his side, “try.” what? “Huh?” Zoro thought aloud, Sanji had his hand out, for in hand with a piece of pork on it. Sanji had such a serious look on his face Zoro couldn't even guess what Sanji was thinking.
The rest of the crew paid no mind to this and continued to talk, “why?” Zoro asked, “didja’ poison it?” Sanji laughed at him, “just wanna know how their cooking is, anyone over there wouldn’t be honest about the seasoning of the restaurant's food, you’d be honest. So fucking try the god damn pork.”
The meat was on top of a bed of lettuce covered in a mouth watering sauce. Chili peppers decorated the plate along with a few lemons.
Zoro rolled his eyes…but the pork looked so delicious. He couldn't resist. He took a bite from Sanji’s fork, enjoying the new flavors that were nothing compared to the salmon he ordered for himself. Zoro grabbed his own fork and stabbed into Sanji’s food. “Thanks ero-cook.” He grinned, pulling some of the meat back onto his plate.
Sanji felt like he was gonna explode from joy. Maybe I should just keep this fork… Sanji stared at the fork, Zoro’s saliva still coated the fork. Just keep it… Sanji then quickly shoved the fork into his pocket before retrieving a new one from the rolled up napkin on the table.
“Oh, so do you guys have a good relationship?” Muko said suddenly. The table got quiet and looked honestly quite curious.
“It’s complicated,” Zoro grumbled, “I’ll be nice to him any day if he gives me his meat, I’ll eat all of it if he allows me.”
Zoro clearly didn't understand the double meaning of that. But Sanji ... the pervy cook, did. “Sanji!!!!” Chopper squealed, the reindeer pointed to his noses. Sanji felt the underneath of his nose, he was having a nose bleed.
Because of Zoro.
Because Zoro said he'd eat his meat!??!??!?!?? Who woudlnt lose it?!!!??!?!?
Sanji didn't blame himself, I mean honestly, if a extremely sexy, hot, adorable, sweet, loving...if a attractive man came up to anyone- they'd pass out!
Sanji blotted his nose, yeah, he was losing it.