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Is it surprising that Zoro takes a wrong turn on his way to the café that he frequents literally everday? No, but that’s not the point of this story.
The point is, he passes by a quaint, little flower shop he’s never seen before. And just outside, kneeled down so low that Zoro almost misses him behind the white, picket fence teeming with high climbing passion vines, - an inviting array of flowers to add a pop of colour against the green; blue, grape hyacinths that smell so inviting they make Zoro’s mouth water - is the most beautiful man in the entire world.
He’s blond, which is normally not Zoro’s type, even though he doesn’t date much in the first place, but the rich, champagne-yellow complements the paleness of his ivory skin and the blue of his visible eye.
Zoro has never been so attracted to someone from just one glance before. He struts over before his brain even has a chance to think about what his feet are doing.
Zoro is just going to say hi to the pretty man, and he is going to ask for his number. No big deal. But as he steps up to the fence the man is working away at, Zoro’s brain blanks.
“Hey.” He says, and all the confidence he had gathered up on his storm over blows away like an untied balloon when the man looks up at him.
He pauses pruning the plants he’s tending to, some white and light purple lilacs that Zoro doesn’t think he’s ever seen handled with such care before, and his eyes.. well, Zoro can only see the one, but it’s the deep blue of sapphire seas on a wind swept day, and Zoro finds that he’s lost in them.
“Hey..” he says, an oddly shaped brow quirking upwards as he takes in Zoro’s appearance. He looks him up and down, likely confirming that this is not someone he knows, and frowns softly. “Can I help you?”
Zoro panics, and instead of asking the man to get to know him like he had originally planned, instead of asking his name, for his number, to get dinner or catch a movie together sometime, - anything, really, - he blurts the first thing that comes to mind.
“Uh, yeah- you work here?” Zoro asks, and as soon as he says it, as soon as the slow smirk spreads across the pretty, so distractingly pretty, blond’s mouth, he regrets it. It’s such a stupid question.
Of course he works at the flower shop he is clearly pruning flowers at. What the hell, Zoro? Get it together!
“You could say that.” The man says. He stands, wipes his hands off, and reaches for his back pocket then seems to pause. Whatever he intended to grab, he opts to go without it. “What can I do you for?”
Zoro can at least hold his tongue long enough to push back the incessant me, oh god, please do me, that immediately pops into his mind. Instead, he scratches the back of his neck. “Directions, I guess.”
He doesn’t need directions. He doesn’t need anything, really, but the man before him is beautiful, and clearly Zoro is too much of a coward to do something about it, so this is the only way he can think to keep the conversation going.
The man hums, runs a hand through his precious, gold locks. Zoro wants so badly to see what’s hidden behind his bangs. Wants to see the other eye and get lost in its depths, too.
“I’m kinda new around here, so I’m not sure how much help I can be finding anything other than restaurants.” He says, his following laugh a little sheepish. It’s so hypnotizing that Zoro nods immediately.
“Yeah, I’m looking for a café.” He says, which, in a way, isn’t exactly a lie. He was heading out to meet up with Nami and Usopp around the corner, and that’s how he ran into this indescribable beauty in the first place.
Zoro doesn’t normally try to talk to people like this, doesn’t even enjoy flirting — which might be obvious by the terrible job he’s currently doing.
But as soon as he caught a glimpse of golden hair shimmering in the rays of sun that peak through the rich, green foliage of the large elm tree they stand under. Saw an oddly curled eyebrow — that Zoro now realizes, with a closer inspection, is not drawn on and is one hundered percent real, which makes him even more interested in the man than he already was for no rhyme or reason. As soon as he stepped closer, caught a whiff of smoke, herbs, spices, expensive cologne and earth past the sweet, aromatic hyacinths, Zoro couldn’t help himself.
So now he is asking for directions to a café he has been a known regular at for years, and though he made a wrong turn coming down this street today, it becomes his new daily route.
It’s the scenic route, of course. Because he get’s to see pretty blond boys in florist windows.
The next day, around the same time, Zoro shows up again. The man is actually inside the building, this time, instead of tending to the clearly well taken care of plants outside, so Zoro has to take a deeper plunge into unknown territory.
He finds him near the back, smiling sweetly at a little girl and what looks to be her granny, helping them set up a bouquet arrangement.
Zoro doesn’t care for kids. He doesn’t hate them, but liking kids isn’t something he would put on his checklist for a future partner.
That being said… the way the blond so effortlessly manages to keep the little girl active in the conversation, never leaving her to stand off all alone as he and the elderly lady pick out colourful flowers and some leafy sprigs to balance it out — the way he inconspicuously slips a small, pink primrose up his sleeve, then calls out to the little girl in surprise, materializing the flower again from behind her ear and giving it to her with a proud smile as she giggles and claps, thanking him with a toothy smile as her grandmother points out that it matches her dress perfectly… something about it, about how soft and genuine the moment is, makes Zoro like the man so much more.
When the man bids them a good day, leads them to the woman working behind the cash and tells them the pink flower is on him for being such wonderful ladies, Zoro thinks that maybe he should hide. Do something. Look busy.
But instead, he stands there, probably smiling like an idiot, as the man turns around and goes a little wide eyed when he sees him, blinking away his surprise before grinning and striding over. “Hey.” He says, friendly, and Zoro likes the sound of it.
“Hey.” It comes out a little gravely, but the blond is looking at him so intently and it’s a little distracting. Everything about him is distracting.
“Did you like the café yesterday?” The man - the pretty, pink flower boy - asks him, and Zoro’s heart thrums in his chest.
He can’t imagine they get too too many customers around this time of year, especially with the foot traffic dying down because the universities around have all gone on break and most students, Zoro and his friends not included, have left for vacation.
Still, though, the fact that the man easily recognizes him makes Zoro all kinds of happy that he’s never felt from another man’s attention before.
From anyone’s attention, that is.
“Yeah.” He says, then realizes the man is still watching him, staring into the steel grey of his eyes, so he continues. “The coffee was pretty fucking amazing,” as it should be, it’s his favourite café for a reason, “and the cakes were fine, but..”
The blond frowns, looks him up and down, then laughs. “You’re not the kind who likes saccharine sweets, huh?” He asks, and Zoro feels a little naked being read so easily, but at the same time, he doesn’t hate it.
He lets out a sheepish laugh, scratches the back of his head. “Am I that obvious?”
He turns to tend to some more flowers along the shop’s display, and Zoro follows him, gingerly hanging onto his every syllable.
“With a body built like that?” The blond seems to muse mindlessly. He even turns back to look Zoro over again, eyes lingering on the bulge of his arms where the sleeve of his possibly too tight T-Shirt ends.
Zoro never realizes the nearly nonexistent, wandering accent the man has until now. All open vowels and a soft, almost nasally way of rolling his words where Zoro’s never heard rolled before. It’s nice, especially with the deep, dreamy voice that accompanies it.
“You’re either on something, have the worlds greatest genetics, or have a strict diet and workout plan.”
“Nah.” Zoro laughs, ducking his head and gently brushing a group of dangling vines to the side so he can follow him around the corner and into the next isle. “Well, I do try to eat healthy, but it usually only lasts me a while before I get confused on what the hell I’m supposed to be eating - more calories or less? Lay back on the carbs or pound them back? Is this even a protein; and how much protein is considered too much protein? - plus, I live with an absolute glutton named Luffy, so I just kinda eat whatever I want, I guess. As for the sweets.. I don’t know, I’ve always just been more of a dark chocolate with rum kind of guy.”
“Otherworldly genetics, then.” He decides. Zoro feels his cheeks grow warm. “You like to drink?” He asks conversationally.
Zoro laughs. “While I meant chocolate with a rum center, yeah — I do like a good sake or whiskey, depending on the mood.” He says, and then he keeps talking, because this man makes him want to talk and talk endlessly. “Kind of my guilty pleasure. My Kendo instructor’s always telling me to quit cause it’s bad for the body, but.. I don’t know.” Zoro shrugs, his words dying off awkwardly.
The man hums and nods, doesn’t even seem to notice the sudden lull in the conversation as he pulls out a pair of sheers and snips away at a leafy plant with the precision of someone who knows what they’re doing.
“I’m an unfortunate chain smoker, so I get the feeling. Been tryna cut back, though.” He admits, and Zoro finally realizes the smokey smell coming from him is cigarette smoke.
Zoro doesn’t hate it.
“Kendo, huh-?” He asks, but at the same time Zoro asks his own question.
“So how long you been into botany-?”
The blue eyed man stops, turns to look back at him and blinks, a little confused, and then laughs and shakes his head. “Oh, no, I’m not into botany.. I mean, at least not really.” He says.
He turns to another plant and considers its petals between delicate fingers, before misting it with a bottle he has hanging out of his back pocket.
“I kind of got roped into this job because Robin - the gorgeous lady behind the counter - begged me to help her during Valentine’s week when the shop gets really busy. Since then.. well, I kind of enjoy the job, so I stayed.”
Zoro nods. “So what do you like?” He asks, then adds quickly, “if not botany, I mean.”
There’s a soft pink hue that dusts his cheeks as he turns to face Zoro. “I just enrolled at the University right down the street. They’re revered for their science and culinary arts, so I moved here for the Culinary Arts Department.”
“Isn’t that program, like, the hardest to get into in the country?” Zoro asks, impressed.
The man glances up at him, surprised. “You knew that?”
Zoro shrugs. “I’m in the History Department. Same campus, couple buildings over.”
He looks him up and down again, like he’s cultivating this information, storing it some place special, and it makes Zoro jittery. A little excited, even. “Well, I’m glad to have made my first friend from the University, then.” He says, and he reaches out a hand to Zoro. “I just realized we never exchanged names. Sanji.”
Zoro takes the hand in his, smooth and flattened finger tips, likely from hot pots and pans, where Zoro’s are calloused and hard from use and Kendo training. Sanji blinks up at him, blue eyes behind golden lashes that grow thicker and darker at the roots. A dirty blond like the hair on his chin.
“Zoro.” He says, shaking his hand.
Sanji smiles at him. “Well, Zoro. Tell me more about Kendo.” He says — Sanji says, rolling Zoro’s name around his tongue in a way so precious.
Zoro doesn’t think anyone has ever said his name like that before. Zoro really likes it when he does it.
When Zoro decides he’s taken up too much of Sanji’s time, he asks him for directions to the café again. Sanji blinks at him, a baffled laugh bubbling up in the back of his throat. Zoro wants to hear him laugh like that every day.
“You forgot already?” Sanji asks, incredulous.
“No..” Zoro admits. “I’m just really bad with directions.” Which is true, so he doesn’t feel bad about lying, because, technically, he hasn’t.
Sanji gives him the directions once again, then he and the beautiful florist behind the counter - Robin, Zoro recalls Sanji calling her - wave him goodbye.
It has now become ritual for Zoro to do two things.
Number one, show up to the flower shop and talk to Sanji, buy a single flower and gift it to him — when Sanji tries to refuse him, Zoro insists as it’s a gift for wasting his time, before tucking whichever blossom he’s chosen for the day behind Sanji’s pink, flushed ear, and arranging it between a curtain of champagne-yellow hair.
And number two, show up ridiculously late to hang out with his friends at the café.
When he finally does arrive, at least an hour after he texted Nami ’around the corner, chill’ to end the barrage of ’where the fuck are you???’ texts she had been spamming him with, Luffy jumps him and pulls him into a hug that Zoro quite literally has no choice but to accept.
“Zoro!!” He calls, excited as if he hasn’t seen him in months.
Luffy had gone on vacation when break first started, kind of, if you consider spending a couple days checking out new grillhouses on the other side of East Blue City a vacation - which Luffy definitely does - but he’s been back for a couple weeks now, and is Zoro’s roommate.
They see each other everyday.
They saw each other this morning, dammit.
“I thought you got hit by a car on your way here!” Luffy laments, and Zoro just pats his back.
“Glad to see you guys sent a search party to retrieve my body after my untimely demise.” Zoro grumbles sarcastically. Nami disinterestedly swirls her drink, which is mostly finished.
“We did.” She says simply. Zoro frowns.
“You sure? I think I would have noticed.” He challenges, but Usopp gives him a sheepish grin like he’s done something worth apologizing for, and soon Nami is taking out her phone and scrolling.
“Normally, you would have.” She agrees, handing him her phone. “So who’s the pretty florist who’s got you so worked up?” She asks, sipping at her straw innocently.
When Zoro flushes and deletes the picture, she just laughs.
“Go ahead, delete it, I already saved it and more to multiple files.” She takes her phone back, and though she has this I caught you doing something very, very bad, son tone and attitude about her, as if Zoro isn’t a year older than her, he knows exactly what this is about.
He frowns and sits in the booth next to Usopp, who likely took the incriminating photos based on their quality alone — fuck the stupid Photography Department and their long-nosed students who also double major in traditional art.
Luffy, who tried and failed to get into the Culinary Arts Department (so he could eat all the the food, no doubt) but ended up having to settle for English literature when he couldn’t think of anything else, reclaims his seat next to the redheaded business major, who sits with her legs crossed under the table, her hands folded on top.
“He.. his name is Sanji.” Zoro admits without needing to be prodded much at all. “Goes to our school. In the culinary program.” He continues, because Nami always gets her way, and Zoro doesn’t feel like going against her and seeing her evil witch side.
Luffy gasps. “Isn’t the culinary school like the hardest to get into in the country?” Luffy would know. “He must be a really good chef, then!”
Usopp laughs, rubs the underside of his nose with the back of his pointer finger. “Pfft, he can’t be any better than me! They don’t call me God Usopp for nothing!”
“No one calls you that except Kaya.” Nami murmurs, but Usopp continues, blissfully ignoring her words.
“For my food is a creation like no other, and it brings you to heavenly heights and delights!”
Luffy claps. “Usopp, make me meat!”
Nami raps her manicured nails over the surface of the table, and then a grin cracks, and this is what Zoro had been waiting for.
“Soooo.. tell us more, Zoro! Who’s this Sanji who’s got you, mister Roronoa I have eyes in the back of my head and can slice a moving target with my eyes shut Zoro, so distracted that you didn’t even notice us taking and exchanging pictures with the girl working the desk?”
Zoro blinks at her. “You exchanged pictures with Robin?”
Nami waves him off, like this should be obvious. “Well she was quite beguiled by the way you two make googly eyes at each other without a care in the world, so when she noticed us, she ushered us over and showed the pictures she already had from the past couple of weeks.” She says, and then Nami looks Zoro up and down. “And she has a lot, Zoro.. you’re really down bad for this guy.”
Zoro frowns, although, arguably, he isn’t nearly as annoyed to have them sniff out the person he likes as he normally would be. Having Sanji to himself is one thing, and it‘s a thing he enjoys, but keeping him a secret isn’t something he intends to do.
So he just leans back in his booth and sighs, nodding. “Yeah.” He whispers, and he’s glad that they’re regulars here and the waitress chooses now to comes over and drop off the black coffee he hadn’t even ordered yet.
He’s going to need the caffeine to deal with the way Nami squeals and asks for a thorough recount, making sure to tell him when he hasn’t given them enough details to meet her standards.
He wishes this place sold sake.
It’s too early for sake.
Fuuuck.
The next time he swings by the florist boutique, it’s Robin who comes out to greet him. “How’s your day been going, Mr. Swordsman?” She asks with a smile.
He supposes she either heard them talking or Sanji told her about the Kendo and his love for swordsmanship. The thought of Sanji talking to her about him when he’s not there makes him feel all giddy inside
“Good, Robin. Yours?” He asks, and though he doesn’t mean to peer around her, because being so clearly interested in something other than the conversation at hand is rude, he seems to be glancing behind her without even noticing.
“Shop’s been pretty busy today, so while a little hectic, I would say it’s been a very good day.” She says, and then she leans into his line of view and gives him that knowing grin she normally wears. “Our resident blond, however, shouldn’t be back until tomorrow.”
Zoro looks back up at her, realizing for the first time that she is quite tall. Taller than him, by at least a couple inches. He supposes he’s never payed her more than a few glances. “Oh.” He says, disappointment so clear in his voice that she actually laughs behind her hand.
Whatever, she already knows about how he feels for Sanji. Apparently, Zoro’s an open book.
“Did.. something come up?” He asks, a little concerned.
Robin’s smile grows warmer. “No, he just doesn’t have a shift today.” She says, and fuck, duh. He can’t possibly work seven days a week every week. “Though, you’re here a little early today.” She hums thoughtfully, ushering him inside. Zoro follows her without much preamble.
“Yeah, I guess..”
He usually comes around the same time everyday. Tonight, though, Usopp has a date with Kaya, so they all decided to meet up half an hour earlier so he has time to get ready afterwards.
“Something tells me if you were to wait here just a little bit longer, though…” she says, and as if on cue, someone stumbles into the shop, doubling over, hands on their knees and gasping to catch their breath. “You might just find what it is you’re looking for.” She finishes, and with a cryptic grin, she heads to the back room behind the counter.
“Sanji.” Zoro says, a little airy.
Sanji jumps. Straightens up and wipes his forehead with the back of his hand, and Zoro catches a glimpse of the hidden eye as he does it. Just as blue and captivating as the other.
“Hey!” Sanji says, eyes wide, still a little out of breath. He recovers quickly, though, and Zoro thinks he must be pretty fit for a self proclaimed chain smoker.
“Were you running?” Zoro asks. Steps closer to get a better look at Sanji’s disheveled mess of golden hair framing milky, white skin splattered with honey coloured freckles. He wants to count them like stars. To press his lips against and kiss each and every one that litters his skin.
Sanji flushes, his cheeks and the tips of his ears growing an intoxicating shade of pink. Zoro has always been a green kind of guy, hence the hair, but yellow, pink and blue are really starting to win his favour.
“Yeah.” Sanji says, eyes darting around for a moment. “My.. shift starts soon.”
It’s a lie, and Zoro hates liars, but this one seems so innocent. It’s adorable, the way he avoids Zoro’s gaze so adamantly.
“Robin just told me you don’t work today.” He says, and the quick curse Sanji lets out as his cheek grow brighter makes Zoro’s heart drum. “Are you here to see me, by chance?”
Sanji huffs, rolls his eyes. “What, you think you’re my only regular?” He snaps, but then he places an unlit cigarette in his mouth and rolls the filter between his lips, - a nervous tic - and Zoro thinks he is the cutest man in the universe.
“Well I’m here to see you.” He admits. Sanji returns his gaze at that, the man no more than a centimetre shorter than Zoro.
He lifts his chin, cocky. “Aren’t you always?” He says, then he walks past him and leans over the counter and towards the back room. “You can come out now, Robin dear! Gotta take this lost ball of marimo to the café!”
Zoro blinks, surprised, but not at all affronted. “You’re coming this time?”
Sanji pulls the cigarette from between his teeth. “Got a problem with that?” He says, raising a challenging brow, but there’s also something coy and hesitant about his expression that has Zoro grinning and shake his head, reaching over to grab Sanji’s hand and pull him along side himself.
“Bye, Robin!” Zoro calls, and they get an amused giggle and ‘bye’ as they exit the shop.
“You should know..” Zoro says, turning to Sanji with a grave expression. “We’re going to meet my friends.”
Sanji nods, popping his cigarette back between his lips and pulling out his lighter from his back pocket. He pauses, halfway to lighting it before he gives Zoro a searching look, as if to ask for permission to smoke around him. When Zoro nods, he lights the end and draws in a long drag.
“The glutinous one?” Sanji says, and there’s a hint of preparedness to his tone that Zoro wants to explore, but they’re halfway there, and Sanji needs a fair warning before he steps into the chaos zone.
“Yeah, among others.”
Sanji blows out smoke then looks up at him. “How many?”
“Four, if Nami’s girlfriend Vivi tags along.” Vivi sometimes comes to their daily café visits, but is more often than not helping out at her dad’s company and can’t make it. “But that’s not the issue… these people are vultures.”
Sanji gives him a skeptic look. Zoro squeezes Sanji’s hand in a firmer grip, both to ground him and because he’s a little terrified Sanji might just vanish and disappear. He’s not ashamed of his friends, he loves them all dearly, but that being said, they’re a little intense, and it wouldn’t be the first time they managed to scare a date off.
…
Is this real? Is he really bringing Sanji to meet his friends? Is this like a date? Did a Sanji finally agree to go on a date with him?
Well — that’s not exactly right. In order to have finally agreed, he would have had to have been asked in the first place, and since Zoro always fumbled around that part, that isn’t the case. On top of that, if this is a date, of sorts, it was really Sanji’s idea.
Did Sanji just ask Zoro on a date?
Zoro said yes.. right?
“Meaning..?” Sanji asks, and he’s got this fond smile as he glances up at Zoro. Not at all the expression he usually receives when trying to explain his friends to someone new.
“They will jump you.“ He says, and when Sanji laughs, Zoro shakes his head. “No, I mean seriously. They will jump on you and act like you’re old friends. They don’t understand the meaning of chill or personal space.”
Sanji pauses, forcing Zoro to stop with him as they’re still holding hands. He takes a final pull of his cigarette, eyeing Zoro carefully, before putting it out and throwing it in the designated area for cigarette butt disposal.
He gives Zoro another once over, hesitant. “If you don’t want me to come-“
Zoro is pressing forward to grab Sanji by the arms in a flash. “God, no.” He says, pulls him closer. Sanji is small and lean, compact compared to Zoro who is teeming with broad muscles, but he is all long, strong limbs, and it makes Zoro go crazy. “That’s not what I want at all.”
Sanji stares into his eyes, and Zoro recognizes the gaze as the one he looks into Sanji’s own with.
“Okay.” He says softly, nods, searching Zoro’s face. “Okay.” It’s a little more shaky now, filled with air, and Zoro must forget they’re in the middle of the walkway, because he leans forward and finally does what he’s been wanting to do ever since he first laid eyes on the beautiful stranger in a field of purple flowers.
Sanji’s lips are soft against his. Thin where Zoro’s are plump, beard tickling the bottom of Zoro’s lip as the man hums and leans closer into him, and god, it is everything Zoro ever imagined, and somehow, so, so much more.
Sanji’s hands fist into the fabric of Zoro’s shirt, tugging him with a strength a lithe body like his own shouldn’t be capable of possessing, and soon, Sanji gasps as his back hits the brick wall of the building they stopped in front of, and Zoro takes it as an invitation to lick into his mouth.
He tastes like smoke and dark chocolate, and Zoro craves him like oxygen. Needs him like water. And Sanji takes him like he’ll die without it, and Zoro’s brain malfunctions.
It’s a little backwards, he thinks, if they had truly being going on their first date to meet his friends, that they end up kissing before the date even starts, but Zoro thinks that he and Sanji will always have their own way of doing things. Such as the way Sanji kicks Zoro in the shin, the green haired man pulling back in surprise.
“Ow!”
“You ass,” Sanji says, eyes flitting between Zoro’s gaze and his lips, likely as kiss swollen as Sanji’s own. “I wanted to do that first.” To kiss you first.
Zoro blinks at him, absolutely incredulous. And then he laughs. “Well sorry to break it to you, curly, but you snooze y—“
And though Sanji can’t change the past, he does live up to his promise, in a way. Zoro is shushed with a pair of lips on his, and he isn’t complaining. Not even when sharp teeth dig incessantly into his bottom lip and tug, followed by an apologetic tongue that soothes over the sting with kitten licks then slides into Zoro’s mouth.
They should probably stop. They’re in public, for fuck’s sake, but then Sanji kisses the corner of his mouth, and Zoro’s having a hard time remembering why that’s an issue.
“I think your friends are waiting for you.” Sanji murmurs against his lips.
Zoro shakes his head. “Fuck them, they can wait.” He says, but it’s only half hearted, and Sanji rewards him with an amused laugh and another kiss before he pushes Zoro away.
“Come on.” He says, holding out his hand.
Zoro takes it and leads the way, content and warm inside.
When they get to the café door, Sanji is laughing about how Zoro asks for directions every day but now he can get there on his own. Zoro does not make excuses, and it’s worth it to see Sanji flush, to feel his grip around his arm tighten, when Zoro admits he’s always known where it was and had only wanted to talk to him.
And then, there are a familiar pair of golden arms wrapping around Sanji’s neck, and all Zoro can do is sigh.
“Sanji!!!” Luffy shouts. Sanji looks over at Zoro, a little wide eyed, but not nearly as shocked or fearful as most people would be meeting Luffy for the first time.
The glutton? Sanji mouths, pointing at Luffy’s back as the man hugs him like he were his long lost, childhood friend.
Zoro laughs and nods.
“Hey, Luffy.” Sanji says easily. Zoro doesn’t know why the fact that he remembers his name after only mentioning it once two weeks ago makes his heart stammer and his body temperature rise.
Luffy pulls back to get a good look at him, up close and personal because Usopp’s pictures can never do the real deal the justice Sanji deserves, then turns to Zoro and slaps him in the back. It earns a few shocked coughs.
The boy may be small, but he’s strong as hell.
“You were right, Zoro! He is really pretty!”
And as if he hasn’t just made Zoro go bright red and singlehandedly ruined his cool guy reputation, Sanji watching him with amused eyes, Luffy returns his attention to Sanji. “You’re a cook, right?”
Sanji’s eyes seem to sparkle at Zoro at that, utterly fond, before turning back to the boy in front of them. “Yeah.” He says, and the rest of Zoro’s friends can be seen getting out of their usual booth and making their way over.
“So that means you specialize in making meat?”
Sanji laughs. “Kid, I can make anything.” He says, that cocky grin that Zoro adores spreading across his lips. Zoro wants to kiss it off, if only to hear the way Sanji groans for him again.
He refrains from this action.
“Make me foooooooddd!” Luffy chants, and it’s Nami who hits him in the back of the head.
“Luffy, stop being rude!” She says, Vivi laughing at her side.
Usopp leans his elbow on Luffy’s shoulder while the boy grumbles an ow, Nami! That hurt! and rearranges the strawhat he’s worn as long as Zoro can remember.
“Sorry about him, he’s not house trained yet.” Usopp says, earning a chuckle from Sanji, who Zoro realizes for the first time, is wearing a bag slung over his shoulder.
“It’s fine.” He says, glances at Zoro before reaching into his bag and pulling out a small container. “I made this for you..” he says, reaching back into the bag, his tongue poking out the side of his mouth as he digs around. “And for Luffy.”
He digs in the bag of wonders again, and pulls out more containers.
“Usopp.” He accepts it with watery eyes. “For Nami, my sweet dove.” Sanji says.
Zoro starts to feel bad, because he realizes he hadn’t told Sanji about Vivi until their walk over here. But then Sanji pulls out another container, smiles sweetly at the girl, and Zoro recalls Sanji saying a chef must alway be prepared in response to Zoro asking if it was difficult to move around Europe — born in Germany, then living in Paris, England and Spain to learn different cuisines — before moving to East Blue City. “And for you, Miss Vivi, my darling Angel.”
There’s a moment where they all stare at him in silent shock. Then Zoro steps back, and just like forewarned, they jump him. There’s even tears and sniffling as Sanji tries to explain that he had been testing something out for his upcoming exams and thought they’d like to try the extras, but he’s barely heard through their overjoyed sobs.
“Zoro, where did you find such a nice guy!?” Vivi laments, causing Sanji to smile wider.
“I want one! Zoro, find me one!” Usopp says, and Zoro frowns.
“Did you already forget Kaya?”
Usopp pulls away from the group hug, clears his throats and straightens his clothes. “Of course not! A God could never forget his Goddess!” Zoro gives an unconvinced hum and nod. “But, uh, maybe I could just borrow yours...?”
Zoro means to respond to this, to mention that Sanji isn’t his.. at least not yet, and to declare that he will be partaking in absolutely no sharing once he is, but then Nami says something that leaves both Zoro and Sanji turning beet red.
“Zoro, marry him! Please marry him and have his babies!”
Luffy agrees quickly. “And make sure there’s meat at the reception!”
It takes a while for Zoro to get over the idea of him and Sanji married in the future, adopting kids of their own. To stop recalling the warmth that overtook him at the sight of Sanji interacting with a random little girl in the florist shop. But once his overly excited friends give Sanji enough space to breathe, Sanji doesn’t take a longing glance at the door.
He doesn’t even consider leaving, and instead, retakes Zoro’s hand and follows his lead to their booth.
Everyone seems to have the same meal, save for Luffy who has mostly meat - shocker - and Zoro, as he realizes his comes with a desert where the others don’t. He takes a bite into the chocolate, and he could cry, because Sanji remembered.
It was the day they exchanged names, the day after they first met, when he’d mentioned the type of sweets he enjoys. Dark chocolate with rum.
This one is covered in a light dusting of kosher salt, the gooey centre a rum infused caramel. He practically moans at the taste, eyes fluttering closed as he takes another bite.
Zoro strikes down hard, and is unsurprised to hear Luffy whine and pull his grubby little hands away with a pained cry.
Zoro opens his eyes again, turns to face Sanji, only to find the man is already watching him, fascinated as if Zoro did something more than just eat.
“Did you make these yourself?” Zoro asks, pointing to the chocolates.
Sanji shrugs. “I had a little extra time after making the food.” He says, but the way he looks off coyly leads Zoro to believe that isn’t true at all. That maybe he’d started with the chocolates in the first place, and that makes Zoro want to kiss him until his mouth hurts.
And so he does, ignoring the way Nami cheers and likely takes pictures.
Sanji doesn’t stir, doesn’t freeze, doesn’t hesitate. He just accepts the kiss, and Zoro is drowning.
Maybe it’s his eyes.
Yeah, that’s gotta be it.
So, yeah, Zoro is the worst at flirting and asking people out… but maybe he’s not that bad, because in the end, everything works out smoothly.