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Zoro rarely talks about his childhood.
It’s not like he’s ashamed of it the way many others could be. He often speaks fondly of his time growing up in Shimotsuki Village and the classes he took at the dojo. He doesn’t hide it from his crew, least of all from Sanji, who he’s been married to for over three years now. But those stories are few and far in between.
Sanji gets it. It took him a hell of a long time to finally open up about his past. So, it doesn’t bother him that Zoro isn’t as talkative about his childhood. Still, when Zoro does talk about it, there always seems to be something missing. For example, he doesn’t talk about old friends or classmates. Knowing his swordsman, it’s no surprise that he doesn’t make friends easily. In fact, it’s others who dare to approach him first (case in point — Luffy).
Growing up in a Dojo had to mean he interacted with kids his age. Far more than Sanji has, that’s for sure. But not a single story he’s managed to wrangle out of Zoro spoke of anyone that stood out. He might have mentioned a sensei at one point but no other details besides that teacher being the one who let Zoro have Wado. Normally, this wouldn’t be much of a bother.
It wasn’t until Zoro mentioned Kuina.
They were docked at a relatively small island and Zoro asked Sanji to accompany him in the bamboo forest for a walk. Sanji teased him as per usual, saying that he’ll get lost and wound up on a different island somehow. But Zoro, instead of firing something back, said nothing. This clued Sanji in that this wasn’t just going to be any other ordinary walk. With his gaze softening, Sanji takes Zoro’s hand, and they both make their way to the forest.
Their walk was quiet, neither willing to break the comfortable silence between them. It’s rare that they have quiet walks like this. At some point or another, they’d usually be bickering or spontaneously going into a duel. But today was different. Today seemed tense. And all Sanji could do was give Zoro’s hand periodic squeezes of reassurance. His husband would glance at him every time, the ghost of a smile on his lips, and Sanji would know that his effort has been greatly appreciated.
Eventually, Zoro stops walking, then points to a small clearing where the bamboo trees were more sparse and there laid a small patch of grass with some rocks.
“Let’s stop here.” Zoro looked around the clearing, silently assessing something Sanji can’t figure out. “I need to… do something.”
“Do you need help?” Sanji asked, not yet letting go of Zoro’s hand. Zoro just stepped forward and placed a rare kiss on Sanji’s forehead. Sanji knows that Zoro knows that kisses on his forehead would have Sanji folding faster than a lawn chair. He only does it when they’re in the privacy of their quarters or when Zoro needs Sanji to do something for him without argument. The current success rate of this method was at 100%.
“Just stay here, curls.” He gestured to a large rock behind Sanji, reaching over to brush some dirt off for good measure. “Sit here and look pretty.”
“Well, you don’t have to tell me I’m pretty twice.” Sanji turned his nose up jokingly, lowering himself onto the rock and crossing his legs. Zoro rolls his eyes at him but there’s a smile on his lips.
“I won’t tell you you’re pretty a second time then.” Sanji flips Zoro off for that. He gets two birds in return.
Eventually, Zoro quietly went to work. He carefully cut a few of the bamboo stalks down, evening out an even bigger area on the ground until it’s clear. He placed all the bamboo stalks in a haphazard pile next to Sanji, who tries not to get off his makeshift throne to stack it all together properly. At some point, Zoro reached into his haramaki and pulled out several handfuls of candles. Sanji tries not to think about how he was able to store that many candles there.
Instead, he focused more on why he kept candles there.
Before he could ask, Zoro is laying the candles in a large circle, outlining the clearing. It was much neater than how he handled the bamboo stalks. In fact, there was a solemn grace to it. Almost like he was getting ready for some sort of funeral.
“Baby?”
Sanji looks up at the rare use of the pet name. Zoro was in front of him now, his hand outstretched, palm facing up. “Can I borrow your lighter?”
“Hm? Y-Yeah, of course.” Sanji reaches into his pocket and takes his lighter out. Zoro thanks him softly and makes quick work lighting each and every candle he placed down in the clearing. While he was doing this, Sanji finally noticed the small stack of stones in the middle of the circle. His initial thought of a funeral suddenly came back at this sight.
“Cook?” Zoro was back to standing in front of him, his face illuminated in soft candle light. Looking up at his husband, Sanji finally sees a tumultuous sadness reflecting in his eye. The normally vibrantly confident swordsman stood nervous before him, his hand outstretched again, and Sanji took his hand immediately. “Sit with me.”
Without another word, though Sanji desperately wanted to say something , they both walked to the middle of the circle of candles. Zoro knelt down and Sanji did the same, mirroring his husband’s posture. His eye was closed now, his breathing slow and even, his palms facing up on his lap. All Sanji could do was watch quietly and wait.
After a couple minutes of silence, Zoro finally speaks up.
“I wish you would have met her.”
Sanji tilted his head slightly. “Who, Zoro?”
Zoro’s eye opened slowly and he turned his head slightly to look at Sanji. The sadness was back again. All Sanji wanted to do was envelope his husband in the tightest hug.
“Kuina.”
Ever since that day, Sanji couldn’t get Kuina off his mind.
Zoro told him all about her in that clearing. Sanji stayed and listened until the candles burned down to the very last wick. Though he did not end up hugging Zoro, he did hold his hand again, and told him that Kuina would be proud of him now. Zoro didn’t say anything to that. He just laid his head on Sanji’s lap afterward while Sanji played with his hair.
Zoro didn’t talk about her after that. Sanji figured that the day they were at the island was her death anniversary for Zoro was never quite as vulnerable as on a day of remembrance for his dearest childhood friend. Though Zoro has gotten better at expressing his feelings (no thanks to Sanji at all. Sanji is equally emotionally constipated), it’s moments like in the clearing where Sanji realizes he truly has a much longer way to go.
So, Sanji decides that for their anniversary this year, he will give Zoro a gift that shows him that he can tell Sanji everything. From the small and insignificant anecdotes, to the impactful and crucial moments of his life — Sanji is there to listen.
“No big party this year, love cook?” Zoro teased when after the usual anniversary dinner feast, Sanji insisted Zoro come back to their room after they were done with the dishes. “It’s not like you not to announce your happy marriage to me all the way up to the angels in Skypeia.”
“First of all, I’d never inconvenience Conis-chan like that.” Sanji brandishes a soapy wooden spoon into Zoro’s face. “Secondly, I just thought we could switch it up this year. Keeps you from being bored of me.”
“How could I be bored of you with a mouth like that?” To make his point more prominent, Zoro leans forward to steal a short but heated kiss from his startled husband. He pulls away slightly, their lips barely separated by nothing more than an inch. “I like it best when you’re yelling at me. Or when you’re screaming my name…”
The sound Sanji makes has Zoro groaning in earnest. But before he could push it even further, Sanji aims a non-lethal but painful kick into Zoro’s thigh. Zoro doubles over slightly, looking up to glare at his smug husband.
“The hell?”
“Nice try, mossy.” Sanji grins down at Zoro, who just continues to glare at him. “No sex until I give you your present.”
“Can’t you give it after , baby?” Zoro almost whines , which would have gotten Sanji relenting immediately. But, Sanji remains resolute, and he hits Zoro in the head with the spoon still in his hand. Soapy suds drip over Zoro’s closed eye.
“Keep it in your pants, pervert.”
“That’s my line, Mr. nosebleed!” Zoro protests and Sanji flips him off before returning back to the dishes. Zoro, to his credit, goes back to helping him. With their combined effort, the dishes were clean and the sink was spotless as always.
As promised, Zoro and Sanji retreat to their quarters — the first mate’s room that has been promptly converted to Zoro and Sanji’s room. Sanji instructs Zoro to sit on the bed and close his eyes, earning him a teasing remark that he must have forgotten that his husband only has one eye. After a couple more minutes of back-and-forth bickering, Zoro finally obliges, putting his hands over both his eyes if only just to get the last laugh.
“Okay,” Sanji says once his present was safely hidden behind his back. “Are you ready?”
“I’ve been ready to fuck my husband for hours but someone had different plans–”
“I mean are you ready for your present , you horny motherfucker!”
“It depends.” Zoro pauses for a long while. “Are you naked?”
“Oh my god,” Sanji lets out a frustrated sigh, though a laugh threatens to bubble up from his chest. “Just open your damn eyes, you useless swordsman.”
“ Eye , in case you forgot.” Zoro chuckles deeply while Sanji curses him out again. Thankfully, Zoro finally removes his hands from his eyes and looks up cheekily at his irritated husband. Sanji was pouting like a child, which was one of Zoro’s favorite looks on him. But before he could say anything, he notices the small box nestled in Sanji’s hands. He points at it, curious. “Is that my present?”
“I don’t know if you deserve it,” Sanji says with a huff. He turns his head slightly to look up, looking more and more like a brat. Zoro chuckles again but reaches out to rub his hands over Sanji’s arms. “Don’t think you can sweet talk your way into me forgiving you, you ass.”
“Won’t even attempt whatever your version of sweet talk is then, dartbrow.” He looks down at the small box in Sanji’s hands again. “But I am curious what’s in this.”
Despite Sanji at least pretending to still be annoyed, he gently places the box in Zoro’s waiting hands. Almost immediately, his hands fidget behind his back, the nerves suddenly coming back as Zoro takes the lid off the box. Sanji holds his breath as his present is finally revealed.
A long earring was settled in the middle of the box, nestled on a pure white satin cushion. It was the same shape and size as Zoro’s earrings, two of which were still on Zoro’s ear, and the third now reformed into a golden wedding band on Sanji’s left finger. However, there was a significant difference to this earring.
Instead of gold, it was a dark midnight blue.
Zoro says nothing for a long time.
Sanji almost thinks he must have made a mistake. Does he not like it? Oh, god. It’s ugly to him, isn’t it? And many more irrational thoughts plagued his brain the longer Zoro stayed silent. Sanji had half a mind to just take the box and chuck it out of the room. Maybe he could get away with calling it a prank.
But then Zoro takes the earring out of the box and dangles it in front of him.
“Where’d you get this?” Was Zoro’s first question, which launches Sanji into a long ramble.
“I had it custom made at the last island.” He says with his hands continuing to fidget nervously behind his back. “There was a renowned jeweler there and it cost an arm and a leg to have it done before we left. I think I owe Nami like 300,000 berries…”
Zoro just watched as his husband talked about how he had the earring made. How he chose the color, the material, and how meticulous he was with the jeweler that it had to look exactly like Zoro’s own earrings. It still stuns him with how much effort Sanji puts into making Zoro feel special. When all he really needs to do is just be with him.
Sanji has always been more than enough for Zoro.
“... Anyway, do you like it?” Sanji’s last question trails off into an awkward pause and Zoro takes this opportunity to put the now empty box down so he can hold one of Sanji’s hands.
“Can you put it on me?”
“Hm?” Sanji seemed genuinely surprised by his response but somehow gets his bearings back together enough to nod. “Sure! I’d love to–”
Zoro stops him before he could reach for the earring and scoots backwards onto the bed until his back hits the wall. Sanji was confused for a few seconds before Zoro wordlessly pats his lap. Very few things fluster Sanji nowadays. But when Zoro gives him wordless commands like that, knowing Sanji would understand him, it sends a shiver down Sanji’s spine.
So, Sanji crawls forward, straddles Zoro’s legs and sits down gently on his husband’s lap. One arm immediately wraps around his waist and the earring is promptly presented for Sanji to take. Wasting no time, Sanji takes it, and shakily but slowly attaches it to Zoro’s ear. It’s a miracle the third piercing hadn’t closed up yet. But Zoro has always been an anomaly to human society anyway.
“I made it blue to commemorate Kuina,” Sanji found himself saying without much prompting. A light squeeze on Sanji’s waist tells him to continue. He reaches out again to lightly brush his fingers over Zoro’s earrings, smiling softly when the blue earring gently clinks against the gold. “To thank her somehow.”
“Why?” Zoro’s question doesn’t come out accusatory or mocking. The soft gaze Zoro held for him through it all told Sanji that he would listen to whatever he had to say. Sanji’s lucky to get to see this version of Zoro in his daily life.
“Without her,” He starts, leaning back slightly to cup Zoro’s face in his hands. Zoro looked at him like he was nothing short of divine. Sanji swallowed audibly. He’s still not used to Zoro’s silent but powerful expressions of love. He takes a deep, shaky breath before he says, “I wouldn’t be here with you now.”
“She’s important to you. And I’m so honored that I got to know her story through you.” He continues, rubbing his thumb gently over Zoro’s scar. “And I am more than willing to learn more about her whenever you want to.”
Zoro continues to look at Sanji with all the adoration of the universe in his gaze. It nearly takes Sanji’s breath away when he leans forward and places the softest of kisses on the tip of Sanji’s nose. They say nothing for a while. Just sitting there in each other’s arms, faces inches from each other, noses touching and foreheads pressed together.
Eventually, Zoro speaks up. And it’s words that bring tears to Sanji’s eyes.
“I was right,” Zoro whispered, lips hovering above Sanji’s slightly parted lips. “She would have loved you.” Zoro places one more ghost of a kiss on Sanji’s lips then and it takes all of Sanji’s willpower not to lean forward and chase for more.
“But I’ll always love you more.”
With that, Zoro captures Sanji’s lips once more and Sanji melts into the kiss, heart bursting with a love that only his idiot swordsman could bring out of him.
I’ll always love you more.