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The first time had been an accident. Sanji had been passing out plates of food, each slightly different to fit everyone's tastes. He passed beautifully made dishes to Nami and Robin with a wink, before he passed the last, admittedly average looking, dish to Zoro. Still on autopilot he winked at him as well.
As he walked away he grimaced slightly, knowing the stupid marimo was sure to loudly make fun of him for getting mixed up. Glancing over however, he noticed the tips of Zoro's ears were red, as he stared intensely at his food. 'Huh…?' Sanji thought with an eyebrow raised. He silently thought of an idea, as he sat down with his own plate of food. Maybe it'd be fun to see how much he could get the marimo to blush? Purely just to annoy him, of course. He chuckled to himself, at the thought of red moss.
The next opportunity Sanji got to mess with Zoro wasn’t too long later.
Sanji hummed silently, an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth, as he put the finishing touches on today's snacks. In order to combat today's heat, he made a variety of flavored slushies. Mentally noting Zoro’s dislike of sweets, he made sure to make it lower on the sugary side and higher on the booze side. As for food, he made two charcuterie boards, a simple one and one that had leaned more into the meat territory. That one would be for Luffy and Zoro to fight over. There was no doubt that Luffy would still try to nab some food from the other board, yet the others could defend themselves. He placed the two boards onto the diner table, along with the colorful drinks and some plates. He called for everyone that the snacks were ready.
After everyone gathered, with Luffy of course being the first to arrive (after nearly ramming into the table), he started to pass the drinks around, leaving Zoro’s for last again.
Zoro raised an eyebrow at it, unsure of its sweet contents.
“Don’t doubt my ability as a cook, stupid marimo, this one is made to suit your shitty taste buds.” he said, passing the drink over.
“Be sure not to shrivel up into dried seaweed, yeah?” Sanji paused to pointedly stare at Zoro. “It’s a hot one today” he licked his upper lip while remaining in eye contact. Zoro’s eyes widened quickly as a faint blush formed, he opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything there was a loud squeal.
“Sanji!” Chopper ran over to the man, drink in hand. “It’s cotton candy flavored! I didn’t know you could do that!” Sanji smiled softly at Chopper, patting him on his head.
“You like it? I’ll make it again then.” he said, earning an even bigger grin from Chopper.
Chopper glanced over, noticing Zoro. “Ah! Are you okay Zoro? Are you getting heat stroke? Someone call a doctor!” He briefly panicked before remembering he was the ship's doctor.
Despite Zoro’s protests, Chopper still dragged him to the infirmary quarters, leaving a snickering Sanji behind.
A few days had passed before Sanji decided to mess a little bit more with Zoro. The mosshead was late to dinner and no one was allowed to be late to dinner without a reasonable excuse. He found him in his usual spot, back against the railing wall as he napped. Sanji slammed a foot against the wall, next to Zoro’s head.
Zoro merely opened his good eye and yawned “What is it shitty cook?” Sanji’s eye twitched in annoyance. He paused to briefly collect himself, not wanting to waste any more time here then intended. Foot still firm against the wall, he leaned into Zoro's personal space, his nose nearly touching the others. A faint blush already formed as Zoro’s eyes darted back and forth between the cooks leg and his face, most likely noting how flexible the cook was. Sanji held back from laughing, and leaned closer to Zoro’s ear.
“Come eat, shitty swordsman.” He whispered, warm breath against his ear. He didn’t say anything particularly interesting, yet he watched as Zoro tried to press himself more into the wall, his blush deepening.
“Shitty cook?!” Zoro barely managed to whisper, voice cracking slightly. Sanji straightened himself up, adjusted his already straight tie, and walked back towards the galley.
“Hurry up shitty mosshead, before Luffy eats your share.” He coolly said, pretending nothing happened.
As fun as his little "pranks" were, which Sanji still firmly claimed they were, he couldn't ignore a recent revelation he had while watching the third grade swordsman. When Nami invaded his space during dinner to hit Luffy? Nothing. When Usopp hid behind him, frightened by a weird noise? Zero reaction. When Luffy flung himself on Zoro and hugged him any chance he got? Sure he smiled but still, no blush. This deeply confused Sanji. He stared at the stew he was cooking for tonight's dinner, deep in thought, when an arm reached past his head to the cabinet above him.
"Luffy, I swear to fucking god, i'll-" Sanji started as he turned around, words soon dying in his throat. Zoro stood close in front of him, eyebrows raised.
Zoro quickly grabbed a bottle from the cabinet and leaned closer, their noses brushing. "You'll what?" He asked, a slight smirk forming at his lips.
Sanji knew this was just Zoro's way to get back at him, he knew that, he truly did. Despite that he could still feel his own heartbeat raise rapidly and his face warm up. It's fine, it's the kitchen, this is normal temperature. Sanji swallowed deeply.
"You'll get your booze when dinner is ready." Sanji murmured, reaching to swipe back the bottle of booze in Zoro’s hand.
Later Sanji would realize, in hindsight, what was about to happen was most likely his fault. At the current moment however, that thought could wait.
As Sanji leaned forward to grab the bottle and Zoro angled his arm away, out of Sanji’s reach. However, he made no move to back away otherwise. Clouded by how confusing their “relationship” had been recently, with this current situation doing absolutely nothing to help, Sanji didn’t stop to think as he angrily surged forward - briefly brushing against Zoro’s lips in the process.
For a brief moment they stared at each other in shock, Sanji’s eye getting wider and his expression getting more bewildered.
“You IDIOT mosshead, you PERVERT, has no one ever taught you any manners?! You come into MY kitchen, attempt to steal MY cooking supplies, and NOW THIS? Get the fuck out of my kitchen, and don’t you dare let me see you unless it’s meal time because I swear on my fucking life, what you did is beyond forgiving but if you dare try to skip meals, I will personally see that you are never given access to the liquor cabinet ever again. I will personally dump all the alcohol into the ocean if I have to. Now get the fuck out of my kitchen you piece of shitty stray algae.” Yelled Sanji furiously, not daring to even touch Zoro this time, no matter how appealing the idea of kicking him overboard was.
Zoro silently left, not without the bottle he had nabbed of course. He quickly glanced back though to see Sanji covering his mouth with his hand and blushing furiously. If he was moss, Sanji would be a tomato right now.
A couple days had passed, then a week, then another and Zoro so far had listened to Sanji’s angry command about staying out of sight minus meal times. In which he’d quickly eat then disappear before anyone could say anything.
Sanji wasn’t quite sure how he had managed that considering the ship wasn’t really that big but he managed it all the same. Deep down he knew where to find Zoro but what would he say?
‘Hey, sorry I kissed you, called you a pervert and threatened to take away one of your few pleasures in life.’ like that would go well. Most likely they’d end up fighting and…well, Sanji didn’t want to admit it but he was terrified of ruining whatever they had going on even further. Who knew his little prank would backfire spectacularly? ‘Anyone with half a brain’ he sighed and gloomily thought.
Finally, after dealing with the weird atmosphere for nearly a month, the rest of the strawhats drew straws to see who was forced to talk to Sanji and who’d be forced to talk to Zoro. Nami was assigned to cornering and talking to Sanji, while Luffy ended up dealing with Zoro.
“You think it’ll be alright?” Chopper glanced worriedly at Nami as Luffy swung away to the crows nest to talk to Zoro. Nami stared at their captain and firmly nodded. “Right now the best person for the job is Luffy. Why do you think I rigged it so he’d get chosen?” She grinned mischievously.
“Does that mean you rigged yours too? I didn’t know you cared about Sanji so much!” He said, admiration shone in his eyes.
“Of course I care about Sanji.” Nami smiled gently at Chopper. “But if he doesn’t listen, I've been dying to knock some sense into him.” She said, clenching her fist with a smile full of ulterior motives. Chopper opened his mouth and closed it, silently deciding to prepare the clinic just in case.
The conversation with Zoro was more or less straightforward. As Luffy swung into the crows nest, Zoro briefly glanced at him and grunted, continuing with his workout.
“Zoro and Sanji are fighting.” Luffy stated, no judgment or questioning tone in his voice.
Zoro tensed for a moment but continued with his reps.
“We aren’t fighting. Shitty cook’s just being his usual moody self, nothing new.” Zoro replied.
“Then why are you avoiding him?” Luffy asked, head cocked slightly to the side.
“He doesn’t want to see me right now.”
“If you aren’t fighting, then why do you care if he sees you or not? Don’t you normally ignore him anyway?”
Zoro sent a hard look at Luffy, trying to decipher his motives with this talk. Seeing the lack of worry or care on his captain's face irked him.
“Don’t ask questions for something you don’t even care about. I won't let this get in the way of my fighting, so tell the others to mind their business.” Zoro grunted, dropping the barbell and wiping his sweat off with a towel, pointedly avoiding eye contact with Luffy.
Luffy hummed in thought, staring at Zoro’s back.
“Of course I care but I know you’ll both be fine. Zoro and Sanji always fight but you also always make up cause you love each other. Why would this time be any different?” He said casually, picking at his nose.
Zoro whipped his head around so fast, he was surprised he didn’t give himself whiplash.
“What do you mean we love each other? No we don’t.”
“Zoro and Sanji love each other! Why else would you fight so often?” Luffy asked, a bit too loudly Zoro thought.
“He doesn’t love me.” Zoro scoffed. “He tolerates me at best and despises me at worst. That’s why we often fight, because he can barely stand the sight of me.”
Luffy stared at Zoro shocked, mouth slightly open. He then loudly laughed, nearly falling out of the window he had been perched on.
“Talk to him!” Luffy finally said, leaping out the window.
Zoro stood for a moment, unsure how to react to that. Quietly he returned to his bellbar, getting more reps in before dinner.
“Shitty cook doesn’t want to talk to me though.” He mumbled to himself.
While that conversation had taken place, Nami managed to track down Sanji which wasn’t too hard as he was where he almost always is, the kitchen.
As she entered the kitchen, Sanji turned gleefully in her direction.
“Nami-swan! For what do I owe this pleasure? Are you hungry? Dinner isn’t too far off but I don’t mind getting a snack for you!” He gushed with his usual heart shaped eyes.
“I want you to talk to Zoro and deal with whatever you two fought about. It’s making the atmosphere weird for everyone to the point that even Luffy has noticed.” She firmly said, arms crossed.
“We didn’t fight, I promise Nami-san. Zoro is just being his usual moody self! Nothing new, I can assure you.” He smiled, avoiding eye contact with Nami.
“Zoro?” Nami blinked in surprise.
“Yeah?” Sanji replied slightly confused, eyebrow raised.
“You never call him Zoro…it’s always marimo or mosshead or some other weird pet name.” Nami explained, a genuine worry on her face. “What happened? Are you okay Sanji?”
Sanji opened and closed his mouth, unsure how to react to how genuinely concerned Nami looked and sounded. Not only did he hurt and push away his first real friend but now he was affecting Nami and the others? Just how pathetic could he get. Not wanting to see her pained expression, he turned towards the boiling soup he had previously been working on before she arrived.
“They aren’t pet names.” He mumbled half heartedly.
He felt a gentle hand on his arm and looked over to see Nami.
“You guys always fight but you also always make up too. I’m sure whatever happened, it’s eating away at him too. Go talk to him, alright? Please?” Nami said, eyebrows furrowed in a deep look of concern.
Sanji sighed, knowing he had been cornered.
“Alright. After dinner.”
“Nope! You’re going to talk to him right now. All that’s left is the soup right? I can keep an eye on that until you get back!” She smiled, pushing Sanji out the door.
“Oh, and Sanji!” She cheerfully called out as Sanji stood frozen, staring at the crows nest.
“Yes Nami-san?” Sanji asked, quickly turning around towards her hopefully.
“If you two don’t talk things out, i’m going to make your budget a living nightmare” she smiled.
Sanji shuddered at that and got a move on at once.
The climb up the crows nest felt like it took forever, had it always been this tall? What if Zoro isn’t even here, then what would Sanji do? Maybe he could figure out a nutritious low budget menu and just avoid this whole mess. He sighed and shook his head. With Luffy’s appetite, that’d be close to impossible.
He peaked his head through the trap door to see Zoro lying on the ground, staring at the ceiling. He was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. Stupid marimo must have overdone it, again.
“Hey.” Sanji said, not quite fully entering the crows nest.
Zoro tensed up slightly before he forced himself to relax.
“Did Luffy tell you to come here?” He asked.
“Huh? Luffy? No, Nami told me to.”
“Huh.”
A brief silence fell over them, as Sanji finally climbed fully into the crows nest and sat down on the opposite side to Zoro.
“I guess we ended up causing everyone more trouble than we realized.” Sanji mumbled, lighting a cigarette.
Zoro grunted in reply.
“Is this where you’ve been this whole time? Working out in between meals?”
Zoro grunted again.
Sanji’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance.
“Is all you’re going to do is grunt?”
Grunt.
“Stupid marimo, I come here to sort things out and it’s like I'm talking to a brick wall.” Sanji complained with very little heat behind his words.
“There’s nothing to talk about, you made how you feel very clear. I don’t know what Nami said but if it’ll get everyone off our backs, I'm willing to say that things are fine with us.”
“What do you mean that I made how I feel clear?” Sanji asked, confusion apparent.
“I know I should have known better cook, but I had started to think that maybe my feelings for you weren’t as one-sided as I had grown to accept. That maybe there was something there? That was my mistake and you made it perfectly clear that it’ll always remain one sided.” Zoro paused and briefly glanced at Sanji. “If it means we can fight like we used to, i’m okay with pretending none of this happened.” he quietly admitted.
“Well, I’m not!” Sanji yelled as he stood up.
“Don’t go deciding how I feel, shitty marimo!” He stomped out his cigarette and marched over to the side Zoro was.
He crouched over the lying swordsman, Zoro still refusing to make eye contact.
“Why did you avoid me? Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Shitty swordsman. Why do you think so lowly of yourself? Why didn’t you have faith in me? Look at me!”
Zoro did his best to continue boring a hole in the ceiling but froze when he felt something wet hit his face. Quickly sitting up, he stared in horror as he realized Sanji was crying.
“Shit, I’m sorry Sanji. I avoided you because you told me you didn’t want to see me. I thought as long as I listened, that maybe you wouldn’t hate me. That maybe things would return to normal”
Zoro tentatively cupped Sanji’s face with his hand.
“Please don’t cry. I’m sorry.”
“Shitty marimo…i’m not crying.” Sanji said as he wiped his face with his sleeve.
“I may only have one good working eye but I know what I saw” Zoro smiled, rolling his eyes.
He placed another hand on Sanji’s cheek, cupping his face gently with a bit more confidence. He gently wiped the remaining tears and smirked.
“Never thought i'd see you cry, especially not over a mosshead like me.”
“Shut up.” Sanji mumbled as he started to pull away, embarrassed about this whole situation.
“Hey. I love you.” Zoro sternly said.
Sanji stared back in shock. He looked for any trace of joking but only found sincereness in Zoro’s expression and words.
“I think we’re skipping a few steps here marimo.” Sanji lightly complained, blushing.
“Then I'll do them, all of them. I’ll take you on fancy dinners and do all that romantic crap you love. I’ll bring you flowers and chocolates. I’ll eat all your shitty food, even the sweet stuff.
Various emotions flickered on Sanji’s face as he processed what Zoro just told him. Unsure what to reply to first, he just laughed. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, as a rush of relief washed across him. He could feel himself start to tear up but he didn’t care this time. He leaned in and gently kissed Zoro, making sure to properly enjoy it this time.
“It better be the highest quality chocolates.”
“Only the best.”
“You better look presentable for our dates too, if you’re taking me to fancy dinners.”
“I’ll try my best.”
Sanji let out a wet laugh and leaned in again for a kiss.
“Good.”