Chapter Text
It’s a warm spring morning when the first lightbulb goes off. He’d started his day with a light workout of 100 reps of everything, you know just a light simple workout. After finishing he makes his way to the ships gallery for some breakfast, but knowing that Sanji would have a fit if he came to the table a sweaty mess he opts for a quick rinse off before being the last to join everyone for the first meal of the day. The previous night they had set down anchor at a small island Nami had said was known for being a great place for pirates and sailors to restock and reset. It was around noon when everyone had finally gotten everything in order so they could head out to explore the island. Sanji had declared that he NEEDED to go out and get more food and cooking supplies for the ship as well as see what the island's flora and fauna had to offer, and being the crew's designated pack mule he insisted that Zoro must come with him. At first hearing this news made Zoro a little nauseous, in all honesty he didn’t mind going into town with the cook. It was often nice to hear the cook rave about new spices and recipes he wanted to try, it brought a sense of comfort to see him so elated over something other than woman. But half of the time Sanji was raving about new recipes it was because he thought Nami or Robin would like it, now that made Zoro even more irritated, just think about the way the shitty cook dotes on them hand and foot all day made his blood boil. Standing next to him, Chopper takes notice of Zoro’s stiff and angry posture and asks Zoro if he’s alright. Not realizing he had gotten that physical angry at the thought of Sanji doting on Robin and Nami he gives chopper and nod and assures him he’s fine, and heads to the barracks to get his things in order to head out.
~*~
As they made their way around the shops in the village square Zoro half heartedly listened to Sanji go one and on about the different fruits and spices people are selling and what he could do with them. His mind can’t help but drift back to earlier that day, still trying to unravel what made him so angry about Sanji and how he treats the girls. But as he starts to try and untangle it Sanji announces that they have made it to the butcher which is also next to the town armory. Sanji mentions something about splitting up and meeting out front when they are done Zoro opts for checking out the sword collection and tucks the thought away in his back pocket for future drunker Zoro. After they are done there they make the last stop at the liquor store upon Zoro’s request and head back to the Merry. The trip back is full of light hearted bickering about nothing and eases Zoro’s mind about his conflicted feelings from earlier. Zoro helps Sanji unload all of their purchases and sort of helps him put it away which is quite out of character for him and Sanji says as much through sarcastic remarks regarding a certain Marimo being a suck up to get first dibs on the fresh boos. They continue to put away the food or more like Zoro puts something somewhere and Sanji yells at him for putting it in the wrong place. As it grows darker the blonde realizes he has to start making the crew dinner and to Zoro’s surprise he asks if he’d like to help cut the vegetables. Before he has time to really register the unusual offer he’s putting down a bag of rice and walking over to pick up a kitchen knife. Zoro, whether it should be a surprise or not, was quite good with a knife. They worked in a comfortable silence only ever being broken by the cook's exclamations of joy when the island’s vegetables tasted good in his recipe or when he would give Zoro a correction. The Marimo found himself smiling a lot in those hours, whenever Sanji would giddily parade around the kitchen in victorious glory that his recipe was working or whenever he would stand so close to Zoro to show him how to properly cut something that he could smell of the smoke from the cook's cigarettes under his smooth cologne. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it, all of it; the comfortable silence, the close proximity, the domesticity of it all. As they finished up the cooking Sanji had sent Zoro out to clean up as he was a bit disheveled from earlier, he reluctantly made his way out of the kitchen grabbing a bottle of boos on his way out.
Dinner comes and goes and nothing is all that different on Sanji's part but Zoro hasn’t taken his eyes off of him since he had sat down at the table. Watching the cook dote on Nami and Robin is rekindling that annoyance he had felt earlier ten fold. Watching it all go down in real time Zoro puts a name to this feeling. Jealousy. He was jealous of Sanji? No. The girls. He wanted Sanji to dote on home like that. Wait huh? That's a little rash isn’t it? Ok wait. Zoro’s brain kind of short circuits and he is rendered useless until he finally excuses himself as things start to calm down. He makes his way to the crows nest to start his night workout and think through what he just realized at dinner. Working out always helped Zoro,it was monotonous movement he had done a million times, so he uses that time to think. He thinks back to the last couple days and the events of today. They had fought with Marines a few days prior and got pretty banged up. Zoro had taken the most damage and when Sanji found him doing bicep curls instead of at the infirmary he let the cook drag him to Chopper while he yelled at Zoro about taking care of himself. At the time he had thought his and Sanji actions were justified, they were crew mates-no they were family and family cared about each other, took care of each other, occasionally fought each other for little to no reason, but in retrospect Zoro had never been that compliant to Sanji demands and Sanji avoided going into the crows nest at all costs, justified by the fact that it was hot and smelled like BO in there 90% of the time. So maybe Zoro’s mild concussion had played a part in his rationalizing of the events that day but it wasn’t all that crazy right? Yes, yes it was that crazy and Zoro knew as much. So he mulled over it for a few more reps of pushups and tossed it around in his brain as he started his pull-ups and by the end of his workout he had come to a conclusion that he, Roronoa Zoro, had feelings for Sanji. Zoro was surprised to an extent, not that he liked a man cause Zoro is gonna like who he likes regardless of who they are, but that it was Sanji. The same Sanji who berates him for just about everything he does and doesn’t let him get away with a single thing. But as he thought just a little bit deeper, it made sense, the man checked all of his boxes. He was confident, good at cooking, had a dream he was fighting for just as much as Zoro, caring, a strong sense of morality, and well he was hot-like hot hot, like push him against a wall so Zoro can go down on him hot. Zoro took this new epiphany and added it to his short list of things he was never going to do anything about because let’s face it Sanji is as straight as they come, do you see the way he dotes on the women of the ship, there’s not a gay bone in his body. At least he was pretty sure, well he had never confirmed that Sanji was 100% heterosexual and you know what they say in court, gay until proven otherwise! Knowing that he had thought about the cook enough for one night Zoro made his way down from the crows nest passing by the gallery to grab a bottle of soju
And totally not to see if Sanji was still around. Zoro quickly makes the decisions that there’s no real use in denying these feelings, it took too much concentration which he could be using to train to become the world’s greatest swordsmen, so he formulates a plan. Before he can think about telling the cook about these feelings he has to a) find out if Sanji is even gay and b) see how close the blonde will let him get.
Zoro goes to bed that night with a bright light of clarity shining in his head, which was oddly comforting, and who’s to say there were also a few dreams of Sanji.