Chapter Text
Someone—who in Zoro’s mind sounds suspiciously and uncomfortably like Kuina—might say that waking up on a ship full of possibly hostile strangers isn't the sort of thing anyone should get used to. That it paints a rather sad picture of the life you're living. In Zoro’s opinion, it paints an accurate picture, but people don't like to hear that. Johnny and Yosaku had cried over it, despite Zoro not seeing any issues with his eternal wandering and heartbreaking lack of friends. Their words, not his.
Things get a bit stranger when Zoro takes into account that he just woke up on a crow's nest. He doesn't remember climbing up anything last night, and his mouth doesn't taste like the morning after drinking; alcohol might not be to blame for this. Maybe he was too tired to think when he got here.
He takes a look down and sees that the aforementioned possibly hostile strangers are talking among themselves, ignorant to Zoro’s presence. That gives him time to decide what he's doing next.
He'd have already left if he was alone, but here comes the one element of this entire situation that makes him actually want an explanation: there's a fox up here with him. The only way this animal could have gotten here is if someone carried it and, judging by how it's curled up in his lap, that someone was Zoro.
“Did I adopt a fox?” Zoro wonders aloud, in case anybody who can give him an answer hears him.
The fox puts its front paws on Zoro’s chest and licks his chin.
“What the fuck?”
There's no reason to be mean to this clueless beast. Tentatively, Zoro puts a hand on its back and pets it.
The fox nuzzles his neck.
“Shit, I adopted a fox.”
He grabs the animal and lifts it to take a better look at it.
Ah. It’s a vixen. Okay, then.
“You can take care of yourself, right?” Zoro asks, slightly furrowing his brow before he warns, “I can’t look after you.”
The vixen wriggles in his hands and Zoro sets her down in his lap again.
The animal tilts her head and watches him. He studies her back. If it wasn't for the shape of her head and ears, he'd have some doubts about her species—Zoro’s pretty sure that foxes aren't yellow. The fur of her tail is fluffy and long enough that it curls at the ends, making her tail look like the world’s poofiest duster. Over each of her eyes there's a line of black fur that ends on a spiral, creating the illusion that she has eyebrows. The fur at the tips or her ears is also long enough to curl.
“You're a really weird fox,” Zoro mutters, scratching the vixen behind the ears as he would a dog, and she leans into his touch. “Okay, girl,” Zoro says quietly, “we're getting out of here now.”
The vixen blinks, tilts her head, and doesn't offer any resistance when Zoro picks her up and makes his way down. He has no idea of what happened last night to make a wild animal bond with him so strongly, but it feels wrong to leave her behind after bothering to bring her up with him. Especially because she seems to like him.
The strangers all turn to Zoro when he lands on the deck. All of them look as confused as he feels, so maybe they aren’t as hostile as he’d first expected?
“What are you doing with her!?” a blond man with a swirly eyebrow barks, pointing at the vixen in Zoro’s arms.
Okay, so at least one of the strangers is hostile. That’s still better than all of them wanting a fight.
“She's mine,” Zoro says, lowering one hand to his swords.
“No, she isn't!” The guy takes a step forward. “Put her down now.”
“Oh my,” says a tall woman with black hair that looks far too amused by this.
“Forget it. She's staying with me.”
“Like hell she is!” The guy looks at the vixen and says, “Come back here, Xexelia!” without even bothering to soften his tone. The vixen barks at him and makes herself more comfortable in Zoro’s arms, to the blond guy's evident fury.
Keeping her is a matter of principle now.
“She doesn't want to go with you.” Zoro tilts up his chin and looks down on this jerk. “Maybe you should have been a better owner.”
“Maybe she should be less of a pain,” the guy says, taking another step forward.
There's no way that a man that thinks a suit and a tie are appropriate clothes on a ship knows anything about fighting. Zoro’s certain he can take him down, but he doesn't want to risk the vixen getting stolen by the blond guy's crewmates if he lets go of her to fight. He doesn't want to risk her getting hurt if he holds her while fighting either.
There's only one option left. Zoro doesn't like it.
He adjusts his hold on the vixen and jumps into the water.
“Get back here, you moss-headed brute!” the guy yells. As if Zoro would listen to him.
He half expects the guy to jump after him, but Zoro makes it to land without anyone trying to catch him. That says just how much those people actually cared about their pet.
The vixen shakes off the water and gives him a judging look.
“I wanted to help you!” Zoro doesn't know why he's defending himself from an animal nor why he thinks this is important, but he figures he should trust his gut. This vixen likes him and he might as well keep it that way. Something about animal instincts, maybe. Or animal senses.
The vixen remains unimpressed.
Zoro grits his teeth.
“Sorry,” he mutters. “I thought that guy wanted a fight.”
The vixen nods and rubs herself against Zoro. Like a cat.
“You're a really weird fox.” There's no point in saying it again, but it makes him feel better and she doesn’t seem to mind.
Some things that Sanji’s early life in Germa had left him with: a love of cooking, a fear of bugs, the unshakable awareness of his own worthlessness, and Xexelia. The first three shaped his life. The fourth one was a pain that he'd have gotten rid of if it wouldn’t have literally killed him to do so.
At least she had the decency of mostly staying hidden—she rarely found anything around them to be worth interacting with. It made her existence and her presence manageable.
There was no keeping her sealed whenever she found something she liked, though.
The chefs at the Baratie had gotten used to the vixen that sometimes popped up around the restaurant, asked for pets and food, and then disappeared. They loved to tease Sanji about his secret pet, calling her the only girl that gave him the time of day, and fed her scraps whenever she appeared outside.
There was no keeping her out of the kitchen when Sanji was demoted to waiting tables.
“Control your pet, Little Eggplant,” Zeff had said after one too many times of finding Xexelia curled up in a corner of the kitchen.
“She's not a pet,” Sanji had grumbled around a cigarette. “If you want her out of there, let me back in.”
Zeff had huffed.
“She behaves better than you do.” And that had been that.
Xexelia loved to curl up at the geezer's feet, and the geezer found out he had a soft spot for the ball of fur that demanded his attention. Xexelia also loved to ask for affection from Patty and Carne, and from each and every person that had made the rest of Sanji’s childhood something worth remembering.
“You'll give us away at this rate,” Sanji had chastised her once, but Xexelia didn’t listen. That selfish creature only cared about chasing after what she wanted.
It all went to hell when the idiot with the three swords challenged Dracule Mihawk to a duel.
Give up, Sanji thought. Give up and live.
But Roronoa Zoro wasn't like Sanji. He wasn't someone that tried to smother his own heart, and that made Sanji’s own stupid heart go to him. Literally.
Sanji had never noticed before whenever Xexelia broke the seal, and that time wasn’t an exception. It was when he heard a splash that he realized he didn’t have a pulse anymore.
“Get the fuck back here!” he called after Xexelia, who was resolutely swimming towards where Roronoa Zoro had sunk.
She even went and got on the boat that he was hauled into, leaving Sanji powerless to do anything but watch as she was carried away. He tried to seal her again, but her stubborn determination to find out whether or not the Demon of the East Blue survived was stronger than Sanji’s desperation to keep his secret.
“Fuck it, ” he grumbled. “She can find her way back.”
She allowed herself to be sealed again when they all met up later, when Sanji promised he wouldn't let the Moss-head die. He hadn't needed to say it out loud.
Since Zoro has no idea of the name of the island he’s on, he can’t help it that he’s utterly lost as soon as he walks away from the shore.
The voice in his mind, which once again sounds like Kuina, points out that he’s lost more often than not. It then chastises him for blaming it on the island being unfamiliar. Zoro ignores her and proceeds to walk around aimlessly, hoping for the best.
The vixen seems content to walk next to him, but sometimes she bumps her head against his leg and paws at his boot until he agrees to follow her instead. It happens rather often, actually, but she’s the one with the animal instincts, right? If she thinks some path is no good for him, then it's no good. It must be her way to thank him for stealing her away from the prick in the suit.
Which reminds him…
“You have a name, right?” he says to the vixen, who looks up at him and tilts her head. “He called you something.”
The vixen nods like she understood him. Zoro’s pretty sure that that also isn’t normal, but he doubts she’ll appreciate him pointing out once again that she’s weird.
Zoro stops walking and crouches in front of the vixen. This is a serious conversation, after all.
“Do you like that name or should I give you a new one?”
The vixen shakes her head. Zoro has no idea what part of the question she's replying to.
“You want a new name?” he asks slowly, scratching behind her ears.
The vixen vigorously shakes her head, throwing off Zoro’s hand in the process.
“Okay, you're keeping your name. You were… uh…” There was an ‘L’ somewhere, he thinks. “Celia?”
The vixen once again shakes her head.
“You’ll make yourself dizzy,” Zoro says, putting his hand on her head again. “Silja?”
She barks.
“Xena?”
Double bark. That's gotta be especially bad.
“Cecelia?”
The vixen tilts her head from side to side and then tilts it back to poke at his palm with her nose.
“Similar to Cecelia, then.”
A nod. Good. Zoro rolls the name on his tongue, thinking of variations.
“Xexelia!”
The vixen—Xexelia—rubs her head against his hand.
“I got it right?” Zoro grins, so wide he can feel his eyes crinkling. “That's your name, girl?”
He runs his palm down Xexelia's back repeatedly, and Xexelia closes her eyes and enjoys it.
“Are you hungry?” Zoro asks after spending a while petting Xexelia. “I'm starving.” He stands up and stretches his arms above his head. “Let's find somewhere we can fish, yeah?”
Xexelia nods and takes off. Zoro follows her, trusting her to smell the water or whatever. He loses sight of her a couple of times, but she comes back before long to fetch him and put him on the right track again.
“You're the best companion anyone could ask for,” he says to her when she leads him to a river, where various fish are swimming.
Xexelia preens under the praise and approaches the water. Zoro picks her up and sets her down a few steps away from it.
“Fire first.”
She turns out to be surprisingly good at finding the right-sized twigs. She completely ignores the ones that are too big or wet for their needs, and barks to get Zoro’s attention when she sees something she can't get.
“Did the prick in the suit make you help him with this too?”
Just when he thought he was used to this vixen's oddities, she scoffs. Zoro will not try to figure that out.
As soon as they have the fire going, Xexelia heads straight for the river.
“Stop that,” Zoro chastises, grabbing her and putting her by the fire. “I've got this. You keep watch.”
He takes off his boots and shirt and dives into the water. He catches a fish that's half his size and returns to Xexelia, who is standing with her back to the river, staring intently into the trees. Zoro sets down the fish and rests his hand on Wado’s handle.
Xexelia growls at the trees. Zoro takes a step forward, as certain as Xexelia that someone is watching them. A minute passes in tense silence before Xexelia relaxes and turns back to him expectantly.
“Well done, girl,” Zoro says, smiling, and crouches to pet her. As before, she leans into his touch and welcomes the attention.
He had no idea that foxes were this cuddly, but he never really knew anything about foxes.
Keeping Xexelia sealed became nigh impossible the moment Sanji set foot on the Merry. Just as she'd done on the Baratie, she ran after everyone in search of affection that she returned tenfold. She watched Usopp tinker, followed Luffy when he sat on the figurehead, and rubbed herself against Nami-san's—and later Vivi-chan's—legs. Her love was evident in every action, and everybody laughed at her having an obvious favorite.
Wherever Zoro went, Xexelia followed. When he trained on the deck, she sat down to watch him. When he slept, she curled up on his chest and slept too. The first couple of times she saw him climb to the crow's nest, she looked up and whined until someone took pity on her and distracted her. The third time, Zoro took her up with him and that was the end of the problem.
That was the worst part for Sanji: Zoro doted on Xexelia. He fed her scraps, pet her absent-mindedly when she settled in his lap and looked around for her every morning after waking up. Sanji’s stupid heart, already a bit his after seeing him fight Mihawk, was entirely at Zoro’s mercy.
“Why won't you stay hidden?” Sanji hissed, dropping Xexelia's food in front of her. She barked at him and it was Zoro—of course it was Zoro, who else could it be?—that came to see what was happening.
“If you hate her so much, why do you have her?” he said, crouching next to Xexelia and petting her as she ate. He glared daggers at Sanji, who was glaring at Xexelia in turn.
“I’d get rid of her if I could.”
Zoro set his jaw. “If you do anything to this fox—”
“I can't even starve her, Marimo,” Sanji gritted out. Zoro’s hand went to his swords. “She's going to bother me for the rest of my life.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Shit Cook?” Zoro said in a low voice. Almost a growl. “If you hate her so much, I'll keep her.”
Sanji laughed bitterly. “I don't know if you've noticed, but she's already yours.”
As if to prove the point, Xexelia bumped Zoro’s leg with her head. Just to ruin Sanji’s day further, Zoro smiled at her.
“Don't worry, girl,” Zoro said softly. “I'll look after you.”
There are scars on Zoro’s body that he doesn't remember getting. The one that runs down his chest looks like a wound that should have killed him, and that's not something you forget. The scars at his ankles confuse him.
He has two swords he doesn't recognize, but which seem to understand his will almost as well as Wado does. His hands curl easily around their hilts.
Xexelia is far too fond of him for an animal he might have bonded with while drunk.
“How much have I forgotten?” he asks her that night. Her eyes are fixed on the woods around them. She hasn't truly relaxed since the afternoon.
She turns her head just enough to give him a look he can only describe as sad.
Zoro rubs his forehead and puts together what little he knows.
“The people on that ship… I knew them, didn't I?”
Xexelia nods.
“Did I steal my own fox?”
Xexelia nods again. It startles a laugh out of Zoro, jarringly loud in the silence of the forest at night.
“I was so sure I was rescuing you!”
Xexelia walks over to him and settles in the space left between his crossed legs. Immediately, Zoro’s hand goes to her back.
He thinks back to the few minutes he spent on that ship this morning.
“The guy in the suit was a dick, though.” He was also attractive.
He could swear that Xexelia sighs.
“I'm guessing we don't get along even when I remember him.” Zoro tries not to be disappointed; it's not like there aren't any other hot guys out there for him to look at. “I bet I can't even stand him.”
Xexelia nods. Then she gets up on her hind legs and rests her front paws on Zoro’s chest, the same way she'd done in the morning. She nuzzles his neck and whines pitifully.
“What's wrong, girl?” Zoro holds her in his arms and lets her curl against his chest. “Is this about the jerk in the suit?”
Xexelia whines again.
“I won't let him hurt you, don't worry.”
She shakes her head and bumps his chest with her head, right over his heart.
“I won't let him hurt me either.”
She rubs her head against him, her ears drooping. Zoro fixes his hold on her, trying to comfort her.
“I'll stay away from him and he won't be able to bother either of us, how does that sound?”
Another pitiful whine. She raises her head and licks Zoro’s chin before settling into his arms again, looking like the saddest creature in the world.
It was in Drum Island that things got difficult.
Despite Sanji ignoring her at best and being downright hostile to her at worst, Xexelia stayed outside the operating room while Chopper and doctor Kureha fixed his back.
When the surgery ended, the woman sat down next to his bed, put Xexelia in her lap and said, “You don't have a pulse.”
It wouldn't be possible to lie his way out of this one.
“I don't care,” doctor Kureha continued, raising a bottle to her lips. “I gave her a check-up too. Your heart is fine.”
“Thank you,” Sanji said.
He figured that'd be it, but then Chopper joined the crew.
“Don't worry, Sanji!” Chopper said, sitting next to Xexelia on the floor. She wouldn't stop nuzzling him. “I'm a doctor! I'd never reveal something related to your health!”
Sanji could only take his word for it.
When days passed and nobody gave him or Xexelia odd looks, he decided to actually trust Chopper.
Xexelia showed that by starting to sit next to Chopper when he prepared the various medicines he used. In return, Chopper started doing part of that work in the galley while Sanji cooked.
It feels wrong to suspect a kid of something evil, but Xexelia's barking at him and Zoro’s not going to doubt her judgment.
The kid looks shady, anyway, with his cloak and the oversized seahorse he's holding. Also? Good kids don't approach strangers that are trying to peacefully eat lunch in the middle of the forest to talk them into picking a fight with someone they've never met.
Zoro looks at Xexelia.
“Do I know this Monkey D. Luffy guy?”
Xexelia nods.
“Do I like him?”
Xexelia nods again, repeatedly.
“Yeah, no,” Zoro says to the kid. “I'm not fighting him.” He wasn't going to anyway, but Xexelia vouching for him is an additional reason.
The kid sighs. “I tried to give you a choice.” He lifts the seahorse he's carrying and points it at Zoro like it's the funniest looking biological gun in the world.
Before Zoro can think of what to do, Xexelia lunges for the kid, fangs bared, and bites his leg.
Nobody would simply take such an attack, and the kid isn’t an exception. He hits the side of Xexelia’s head with a fist, yelling at her to let go as he tries to shake her off.
Zoro sets his jaw, draws one of his swords, and rushes forward, ready to put the fear of demons in the kid’s soul.
He doesn't get far. The kid once again raises the seahorse and
Zoro
forgets
and
submits.
“How did you get her?” Zoro asked while they recovered in Alabasta. Xexelia was curled up next to him in bed, fast asleep.
“I was pretty much born with her.” That shouldn't give him away, right? “But I met her when I was… I think I was eight.”
The dungeon was still a memory he didn't like to think about. Xexelia turned in her sleep and shivered, whining.
“Why does she stick with you? You hate her.” Zoro put a hand on Xexelia's back and rubbed gentle circles on it with his thumb. Sanji wished he wasn’t jealous of her—Zoro had easily made space for her in his life, while Sanji had to literally fight for it.
“Neither of us has a choice.”
“She has one now.” Zoro smiled, teasing, and pointed at himself.
Sanji snorted. Xexelia grew quiet and unconsciously moved closer to Zoro, who kept petting her.
They didn't speak for a while. Sanji smoked and Zoro kept comforting Xexelia, holding back the nightmares and old fears with his presence.
“I don't hate her,” Sanji finally admitted. “I hate what she's like, it’s different.”
“What, nice?” Zoro smirked and raised his eyebrows, baiting him. “Clever? Not a pervert?”
Sanji rolled his eyes and put out his cigarette, using it as an excuse to lower his face for a second.
“I get it, you like her more than me.”
“She’s better than you in every way and she actually likes me.” Zoro looked down fondly at Xexelia.
I do like you. That fucking fox proves it every day.
Sanji bit his tongue and lit up another smoke.
There is a boy wearing a straw hat.
Zoro has to fight the boy with the straw hat.
Zoro doesn't know why he has to fight the boy with the straw hat.
Zoro doesn't need a reason to fight the boy with the straw hat.
Zoro has orders.
Zoro will obey the orders.
An animal has been following him since the moment he got his orders. A yellow thing that could be a fox or a dog or even a cat. It behaves like all of them. It behaves like none of them.
The animal keeps running ahead and blocking his path. Zoro walks around it and continues. He has orders.
When Zoro finds the boy with the straw hat, the animal barks at him and tries to bite his boot to hold him back.
Zoro has orders. This animal is interfering with his orders.
Zoro kicks the animal as far away from him as he can. It hits a tree and falls to the ground. It doesn’t get up.
Zoro draws his swords and goes to fight the boy with the straw hat.
Robin-chan wasn't only a beautiful woman, she was also a very smart and cultured one. Sanji would have been a liar if he'd said he hadn't expected her to figure things out.
She was petting Xexelia when she said, “She's a very interesting animal. She doesn't look like any species of fox that I have heard of.”
Sanji looked at Robin-chan's hands and wished they'd touch him too. He'd have died happy if Robin-chan had doted on him like she doted on Xexelia.
“I'm afraid I don't know what species she is either,” Sanji said, averting his gaze from the selfish beast that was curled in Robin-chan’s lap.
“She looks more like the idea of a fox,” Robin-chan continued. “I like her.”
“You do?” Sanji smiled, feeling himself float from the approval.
Robin-chan nodded and scratched behind Xexelia's ears. Xexelia stretched her neck to be able to lick Robin-chan's wrist.
“She's a very honest creature, isn't she?” Robin-chan hummed. “After all, the heart never lies.”
That sobered Sanji up. “What do you mean, Robin-chan?”
In that very moment, Zoro came out onto the deck. When Xexelia saw him, she gave Robin-chan an affectionate bump with her head and ran to him without even glancing back.
Robin-chan gave Sanji a sympathetic look. “It must be hard for you to be at odds with her all the time.”
Sanji took a long drag of his cigarette and decided not to acknowledge her words, as disrespectful as that was. He thought that, if he opened his mouth, he might scream.