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"So are you guys like… dating?"
Zoro and Perona look up in unison and two pairs of eyes instantly snap to Vivi. It was an innocent enough question from the girl, and Zoro can't really blame her for asking. Nami's girlfriend is still pretty new to their ragtag group of friends, and it's not like he and Perona aren't close. The two of them are sitting on the floor of the lounge where they had all gathered between classes, and Perona's hands are still on his from where she had been working on his nails. It's not the first time she's captured him as victim to try out a new design, and it won't be the last. She had just finished the initial coat of black polish and had been intently working on adding little accents of pink and white ghosts when Vivi's question had short circuited both of their brains.
So yeah, Zoro doesn't exactly blame Vivi for her assumption, but the idea of him and Perona? Dating? It makes something churn in his stomach and he scoffs in disbelief.
"No, we-" he starts to explain, but he's cut off by a frustrated half-groan half-shriek.
"What? Dating? Oh my god ewwwww," Perona laments, something akin to genuine anguish in her voice as she shakes her head repeatedly.
Nami ducks her head and presses her fist to her mouth, but Zoro can see the way her shoulders are shaking with laughter. Vivi, for her part, at least has moved on to looking a bit bashful for her assumption. The rest of their friends seem to be in various states of amused smiles or small laughs (save for the idiot cook who seems just as appalled as Perona at the idea of the two of them).
"He's like a pathetic brother to me," Perona continues, gesturing at Zoro with the hand still holding the polish brush and inadvertently flinging white paint at the man. "He's not cute at all."
"Oi," Zoro interjects in protest, frowning over at Perona for her comment.
It's not that he disagrees with the underlying meaning of her words—he thinks of her as a sister as well—but she doesn't have to be so rude about it. The familiar shishishi of his best friend's laughter cuts through his thoughts and something lightens in his chest. He glances up to where Luffy is leaning back on the couch and kicking his feet with laughter, and he doesn't even try to fight the upward twitch of his lips.
"Don't be silly, Vivi!" Luffy says with that big grin of his. "Everyone knows Zoro and I are dating!"
With those words, Zoro can practically hear the record scratch that goes through the air as all the attention in the room snaps to Luffy. Dating? Are they dating? Zoro mentally rolls through his memories and comes up short of anything that would qualify them as anything other than friends. He thinks he would have remembered any sort of romantic interactions with his the man in question.
"You're what?" Nami asks, disbelief in her voice as she gapes at Luffy.
"We're what?" Zoro echoes, just as lost as her.
Luffy just laughs again, filling that room with the musical sound of his voice that floats with a heavy dose of contagious happiness. Normally that laugh can lighten the mood for everyone who hears it, but right not it's not quite enough to chase away the cloud of bewilderment in the air. Just about every person in the room is wearing a look of shock or confusion, save for Robin who is chuckling behind her book like she knows something the rest of them don't.
"Zoro's my boyfriend, yeah?" Luffy answers easily, that grin never faltering on his face.
Luffy says that like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Like it's a concrete fact that everyone in the room should already know. Zoro can feel more than see the gazes that flit between him and Luffy, clearly looking for an answer. At least this time he's not the only one who's completely lost. It's not that he wouldn't date Luffy, per se... He doesn't have much of an interest in romance or anything resembling intimacy, but he knows he would do just about anything Luffy asked of him without question. It's just that this has genuinely never come up before. There's been no discussion of dating or boyfriends or anything of the sort.
"Uh, since when?" Usopp asks slowly, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle which Luffy has just metaphorically tossed into the air like confetti.
"I dunno. Since like always, I guess!" Luffy replies with enthusiasm.
Zoro stares for another moment at his best friend. This perfect beacon of light in his life. This man he would die for without hesitation. If Luffy says they're dating, who is he to deny that fact?
"Okay," Zoro says with a one-armed shrug, turning back to Perona as if there's nothing more to say.
Perona is staring at him with her mouth agape, like she is in more disbelief over his words than she was over Luffy's. He can feel attention shift almost entirely to him with his relenting comment.
"Hold on, what do you mean 'okay'?" Nami questions with incredulity.
"Luffy said I'm his boyfriend, so I'm his boyfriend," Zoro answers without missing a beat.
A minute ago he wasn't, but now he is. It's as simple as that. If Luffy said it, then it's so. If Luffy had said they were married and moving in together, he would have agreed to that as well. There's just something about the guy that makes Zoro want to follow him to the ends of the earth.
"See?" Luffy adds, something proud shining through.
"I just can't with you two," Nami laments with a sigh, a layer of exhaustion tinging her voice even as Vivi giggles next to her.
Zoro lets his mouth curve into a smile. He's still not sure what Luffy means by his words, but at this point it doesn't really matter. Ever since they met it's felt like a part of him belonged to Luffy, and he feels like it always will. Even if no one else in the room really understands, he knows that Luffy must feel it too.