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Zoro didn’t believe in love at first sight. The cook would gush about it from time to time, and it never failed to bring upon a headache. He’d spout nonsense about the stars aligning, your world becoming brighter, the sun feeling warmer on your skin - really just hokey shit that only the stupidest of love-sick fools would preach. He knew that it was something he would never understand. Zoro wasn’t that kind of guy, after all.
So he’d grumble out something like “Shut up, cook, you’re full of shit” and Sanji would kick him and they would fight until someone split them up or a meal needed to be prepared.
Whether he liked it or not, though, he had to eat his words.
The first thing he noticed about her was her height. He had to tilt his chin at an embarrassing angle to see her face, but once he did he was blushing for a completely different reason.
She was probably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and he loved her immediately and completely.
She carried herself with extreme elegance that was only made more captivating by her size. She was poised, gorgeous , and in a way he had never seen before. He’d seen plenty of pretty women before, even the supposed most beautiful woman in the world, but they all blended together in the wake of his newest exposure to beauty. She stood with a confidence that he recognised from warriors - strong warriors. Despite the strength he knew she held, her expression was calm and kind. Zoro thought he would collapse when she turned her tentative smile towards him.
He could barely form a thought, standing there slack-jawed in awe of the woman who stood before him. Suddenly all the prattlings of the cook made sense, damn him. It was as if his field of view narrowed so that he could only see her, everything else becoming white noise. A part of him that had been dormant for his whole life came to life, screaming at him to give all he had to the woman who he had never even met before.
If he was in his right mind he would probably be worried about it all, but as it stood his immediate and complete enamourment with the teahouse waitress was the most natural thing in the world. And Zoro wasn’t the type to underestimate the force of nature.
Seeing her fight only made it worse. Or maybe better.
Zoro of course knew Kiku was special from the second his entire world tilted on its axis upon laying eyes on her, but seeing her accept her capability - and god was she capable - was one of the most stunning things he had ever been witness to. She would look at him with a small smile, something sacred held in the creases of her cheek, and it took everything he had not to tackle her just to feel the warmth against his skin.
He wasn’t the most physically affectionate man at the best of times, but something in him longed to be held by Kiku. Sure, her being twice his size was probably part of it, but he couldn’t deny the constant feeling of being drawn towards her. As if the force of gravity she wielded was stronger than that of the planet they walked on. She would sit by him and he would lean towards her, something magnetic bringing him closer. If he paid attention, he would see that she leaned to him in the exact same way.
They had time for it later. After the public execution, after Hiyori was saved and returned, after they saw just what it was they were fighting. When everyone was together, the plan was underway, and all they had left to do was wait. Then, they had time for it.
“Spar with me.”
Kiku stood before he had even started, nodding as he spoke. She had that same warm smile that she wore whenever they were together and Zoro thought that he may have trouble being at his best for their match.
“I would love to. I’ll admit I don’t think I’m at your level, but I can’t back down when I’ll be fighting Kaido soon.”
Zoro scowled. He wished she would keep the same confidence that she held in battle with her everywhere else. She was more than deserving of it. He understood the burden she had to carry, but she had more than earned the right to carry it with pride.
“You could be at my level. Don’t make assumptions before you’ve even tried.”
Her smile grew, shaping her cheeks and framing her eyes to create the perfect image of warmth and love. Zoro looked away, scared of what Kiku might see in his own expression.
He led her to the small clearing he had been using to train his control over Enma. It was as good a spot as any, and remote enough that they probably wouldn’t be interrupted by anything other than an emergency.
They each lowered themselves into a deep bow before drawing their swords.
Leaping forwards at the same time, they attacked in perfect unison. Their blades connected and bounced in wide arcs, drifting apart and coming together in a violent dance. There was a trust there, both Zoro and Kiku knowing unconsciously that they were in no danger, that they were safe with each other even as they both fought seriously.
They clashed for what felt like an eternity, eyes never leaving each other as they lunged and ducked. Zoro didn’t go easy on her, but Kiku kept up with him even when exhaustion clouded her vision and slowed her advances.
He may be strong, but she wasn’t weak.
Kiku watched him for any hesitation - a wavering of his stance, an adjustment of his grip. An opening came in the form of a twitch, barely there, the angle of his blade changing just enough for her to dodge while swiping his feet from under him and pointing the tip of her own sword to his neck as he landed.
Zoro could recover easily, they both knew, but this wasn’t a real fight. He could accept defeat honourably - willingly even. He was almost shocked at how elated he was to be beaten by Kiku. He let Wado fall from his mouth beside him, raising a hand to scratch at his jaw. She kneeled beside him, sheathing her sword as he started to laugh. He must’ve sounded manic because she watched him with thinly veiled concern.
“Are you alright, Zorojuro? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
He shook his head through his laughter, trying to calm himself down to ease her worries. He waved a hand dismissively between them, turning to look at Kiku with a smile.
“I’m fine. You’re just really incredible, you know?”
Her worried frown eased, a blush flowing over her cheeks and her eyes creasing with affection.
“If anyone should say that it’s me. You’ve done so much for me, I really can’t thank you enough.”
Zoro scoffed, sitting up to lean on his elbow as he put his swords away.
“Don’t thank me, you did everything yourself.”
“Then I couldn’t have done it without you.”
There was finality to her words. A challenge raised if he tried to dismiss his own importance to her. He was sure he’d be just as firm about her accepting her own significance, and he could see her convey that very notion through the way she looked at him.
‘Let me care about you’, she was saying, ‘I insist on it.’
She stood and offered a hand, pulling Zoro off the ground as he brushed the dirt off his yukata. They walked back together, and Zoro tried to ignore the way Kiku’s hand was still clasped in his.
“Well, I’m glad you did it at all. You can take care of yourself, and you shouldn’t be pretending that you can’t. That’s acting exactly like that the asshole who tried to marry you thought you should, and he had no clue about you.”
At the mention of her former suitor, she wrinkled her nose in clear disgust. “You’re right about that. He was a piece of work.”
“Why didn’t you ever stick up to him?”
Kiku wore a far away expression, and Zoro could feel it as she looked backwards in time two decades to where she was from. Where she should still be, if everything had gone right.
“I couldn’t compromise my cover. A mere waitress can’t stand up for herself. Not in today’s Wano, anyway. If being able to face Kaido and avenge Oden meant I had to tolerate advances from that man, then I would tolerate them.”
“You will.”
Kiku turned to look at him, reeled back through time to the present.
“Hmm?”
Zoro looked up at her, expression set and determined. Clear.
“Avenge Oden. You will.”
She looked back at their path, her characteristic small smile returning. Zoro felt himself relax when he saw it, unsure when he tensed in the first place.
“I know. But it means a lot to me that you think so too.”
Zoro had nothing to say, nothing felt important enough, so he shrugged a shoulder and kept walking with her. Hand in hand, they moved towards the biggest fight of their lives.
Honestly, Zoro was surprised he only broke sixty bones by the end of it all. He was proud of himself, really. No matter how much Chopper was hounding him from his perch atop Zoro’s shoulder, he considered it one of the ideal outcomes. He was fine, wasn’t he?
Admittedly, he wasn’t all there yet. His head was still pretty cloudy and he was using all of his energy to stuff his face with as much food and drink as he could as quickly as possible. Something was niggling at him, though.
He figured out what it was when a head of midnight blue hair moved into his periphery. He shouted before he even processed what he saw.
“Kiku!”
Without thinking - and blatantly ignoring the squawking from the shitty cook - Zoro took off towards her at a run and launched himself at her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and legs around her torso. He shoved his face into her neck and clung to her like a lifeline. She didn’t waver for even a second, raising an arm to support him. Her only arm - shit .
Zoro pulled back to look at her.
“Your arm, are you-”
“I’m okay,” she interrupted with a voice so steady it calmed Zoro’s frantic heartbeat. “I can’t reattach it, but it’s alright. Now that Kaido has been defeated, I don’t need to fight anymore. Besides, it looks like one arm is plenty.”
She shook him a bit, chuckling slightly as Zoro grumbled about being babied. Her hold tightened as she looked at Zoro directly - eye to eye for once.
“You were much more injured than I was. I wasn’t… no, I knew you’d be okay in the end. But, even though I was certain you’d be fine, I was worried. It all seems silly now. You’re right here.”
As she spoke, her voice trailed off into a whisper, but in place of her voice a tender smile grew. Zoro didn’t let himself look away. He smiled right back.
“I’m right here.”
Smiling at her, letting himself submit to the feelings he harboured since the day he met her, Zoro felt more free than ever before. Heart to heart, eye to eye, he wanted nothing more than to feel this loved forever.
“Hey, Kiku…” he started, knowing what he wanted to say, and wanting to say it as soon as he could. “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you.”
Somewhere in the back of the mind he processed the sound of a leg igniting and a baton knocking the owner of said leg out cold. That wasn’t what mattered.
What mattered was the sun rising across Kiku’s face, her eyes shining and smile so warm it could burn him. He’d burn to ash if it meant basking in its warmth for just a second more.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. I love you too, of course. How couldn’t I?”
It was all Zoro could do but laugh, full of a joy he had never known. “I can think of a few reasons, but there’s no way I’m telling you.”
Kiku held him even closer, his own arms tightening around her neck. They shifted so that their smiles came together in the only kiss either of them had ever shared. The stars aligned, the world became brighter, the sun felt warmer on their skin. Zoro understood it all.
Maybe love at first sight wasn’t so silly, after all.