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When they told the crew about their relationship, their crew mates weren't surprised by the fact that they were together. They all suspected all that bickering meant something and thought the day would come.
"That's… weirdly expected", said Nami, after Zoro and Sanji literally held hands and declared they were a thing now.
"Yeah, unfortunately fate made me fall for an idiot- Ouch!" Before the cook could finish his sentence, he received a pinch on the hand Zoro was holding.
But they were shocked by the fact that Zoro and Sanji were actually romantic to each other. Even sometimes in public.
Sanji, of course, has always been a professional romantic, but they never thought he could be like that with a man — let alone Zoro. And the swordsman could sometimes be described as… Well, as a brute (Sanji usually calls him worse names) who didn't care about romance at all. But they all know he's got a shy, soft side he always hide behind a scowl.
So, in a notorious morning, when they were all gathered together in the galley for breakfast, Zoro was the last one to show up, and when he did, he didn't immediately sit down on his seat to eat.
He actually walked up to Sanji who was standing at the stove and kissed his cheek.
"Morning, curls."
"Morning, moss."
And then he went to his seat. With a subtle faint color on his cheeks and a stoic face trying to hide any emotion.
Their suddenly public display of affection took even Robin by surprise, but she couldn't help but let a small smile appear seeing the scene. The only one who wasn't surprised was Luffy, too focused on his food.
"What?" The greenhead grumbled while chewing on his bowl of rice, noticing all the eyes on him.
"Nothing, just…", Nami started, but couldn't bring herself to say it.
"You… You actually gave Sanji a good morning kiss in front of everyone", Usopp said, still in disbelief.
"Got a problem with that?" He glared at the other man, the words came out sort of difficult to understand because of his mouth being occupied with food, but Usopp got the message loud and clear. "We always do that. You guys just never see."
"I already told you to NOT TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!", the blond yelled at him from the stove, looking angry while flipping a pancake.
"Don't tell me what to do, shitty cook."
And they were back at their usual arguing, just like nothing different happened.
After breakfast, most of the crew had already dispersed throughout the Sunny to attend their own tasks. The only ones left in the galley were Nami, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji, who was starting to do the dishes.
"I still can't believe you two…" Nami commented to Zoro, who sighed.
"What's so unbelievable about that? We told you, we've been together for a while." He took a glance at Sanji, and spoke quieter this time, "Does it bother you?"
"No! No, that's not what I meant, Zoro. We're just so used with you two fighting all the time that it's kinda… weird to see you two like that. We're happy for you two."
"Shi shi shi, Zoro and Sanji are in looove", Luffy sang, earning an eye roll from the swordsman, who still had a tint on his checks.
The man ignored his captain and grabbed the rest of the dirty dishes at the table, taking it to the sink. He started to help with the dishes, drying what have already been washed, neither of them speaking a word. They did that every day, and nobody really noticed their closeness.
As the days passed, their friends started to notice other things they didn't think meant something. How Zoro would always be the one to go together with Sanji to supplies runs. How Sanji stayed up til late every time it was Zoro's turn on night watch, or how Zoro was always with him during his smoke breaks. How they were always coincidentally near each other.
When they docked at the next island, Robin went after the cook at the galley. It was mid-afternoon and the man was already preparing dinner with enough amounts of food to feed the crew and their captain.
"Cook-san?"
"Yes, Robin-chwan, my dear?" He immediately spun around, looking at her direction with a smile on his face.
"I have some things I would like to buy. Would you like to come along? We can go to the island market together before it closes and buy what you need too."
"Ah, Robin-chan, I would absolutely love to! It's just that, uh…" He felt suddenly nervous, dropping eye contact for a moment.
"Do you have something to do already? It's okay if you do."
Robin always had a calm tone talking to her friends, keeping a kind smile on her face all the time. The blond man sighed, his cheeks now having a light blush as he spoke with shyness:
"Me and the marimo, we actually… Have a date today. We like to go out together when we dock. I'm sorry, Robin-chan."
"What are you apologizing for, Sanji?"
"I just… Don't want to let you down-"
"Sanji," she sounded serious this time. "If I said I couldn't do something along with you because me and Franky would go out, would I be letting you down?"
"O-of course not! Never!"
"Then why would it be your case? Don't you feel happy that you and Zoro told our crew about your relationship?"
Along with Luffy, Robin actually already knew about their cook and swordsman being a couple before they decided to tell all of their friends about it. The woman seemed to always know what was going on, and one night when it was only her and the cook drinking tea at the galley, she casually asked him about it. She didn't need to hear much as the flustered cheeks and stuttering words were the response she wanted.
Luffy, on the other hand, walked into the galley in a very unfortunate moment. Zoro had to knock some sense into his captain's head so he wouldn't spill any of it to the crew. Luffy could really be a big mouth sometimes, but he would never spread something personal about someone.
"No, I'm happy. I've… I've never been happier, actually", he smiled, looking the other way. "You're right, Robin-chan, I apologize for what I said."
"There's no need for that, you know it, cook-san", she smiled at him once more, before turning to leave. "I hope you both have a great date!"
"Thank you, Robin-chan! Me and the marimo will be eating out, so I'll be leaving dinner ready to whoever stays at the ship tonight."
"I'll make sure Luffy doesn't rob anything, then."
With the cook not available, Robin went to Nami, inviting her to come along for shopping. It was always great when the two girls went out together, always coming back with more items than they planed to buy — most times, clothes.
"So, you're going with Sanji-kun?" Nami asked when Robin entered their dorm. She was reading a magazine while lying on her stomachs on her bad. "I think I'll go with you guys, I really wanna find the new edition", she mentioned to the papers on her hands.
"Actually, he and our dear swordsman have a date, so it'll be just us."
"What? He actually turned you down to go out with Zoro?!" Something seemed to click on the ginger's girl head as she gasped, "Oh– Zoro fucking bathed today! So that's why!"
Robin giggled, "I believe it so."
"They're actually so in love it's kinda disgusting but still cute. I never thought we would experience seeing that." She sat up on the cushion, leaving the magazine aside, before grabbing her hair in frustration, "Ugh, how will I survive this without Vivi here with me?"
The older woman laughed again at her friend, but then looked at the window placed near their beds, noticing some movement at the deck. Nami approached by her side, peeking with curiosity.
"Marimo, if you take one more second, I swear!–" The cook was in the middle of the deck, apparently impatient with crossed arms. Zoro appeared next, following him.
"What? Gonna do one of your stupid twirls?"
He really wanted to give Zoro a good kick on his head for this, but instead he just took a deep breath in to calm himself. "I'm not going to fall for it. C'mon, I wanna take a look at the market before we choose a nice place to eat!"
"I prefer your food, but okay."
Sanji stared at him for a second, before looking around to check if there were no one at the deck with them. He then grabbed both sides of Zoro's face and pressed their lips together in a tender kiss, which the mosshead was quick to reciprocate.
When they separated after long seconds, they were both smiling wide and dumbly at each other, talking in a tone the girls weren't able to hear anymore, and soon they're stepping out of the Sunny on the way to their date.
"Yeah, I really miss Vivi."
As the time passed, the crew grew more familiar with seeing the soft side of the couple. In fact, they were quite discreet when it wasn't just the two of them — always subtly touching each other with hands and bumps, always stealing quick kisses when they had the chance — yet now their actions didn't go unnoticed by their friends.
Sometimes they would let slip sappy comments in front of the others by mistake, making both their faces burn with embarrassment while the Straw Hats laughed and cooed at them in mockery. Like the one time Sanji accidentally called Zoro "mellorine", leaving an awkward silence hang in the air when he realized what he just did. He then immediately tried to explain himself, saying that "mellorine" and "marimo" are two very similar words (they are not). Brook, Franky and Usopp spent the rest of the day calling the very much flustered swordsman by his new lovely nickname, until they were scared away by three blades being pointed in their direction.
Or like when Zoro spends more time than necessary polishing Wado, Kitetsu and Enma on the galley sofa while Sanji is there preparing the next meal. His eye follow the blond chef's movements across the kitchen, how quick and agile he is as he grabs what he needs from the fridge, and the very next moment he's already chopping the vegetables and setting them to boil. One time Franky was sitting by his side and notice the gaze that didn't left Sanji one moment.
"Wow, Zoro-bro is SUPER in love, huh?" He commented cheerful, and while expecting a snap or a curse at him, the man actually just nodded and continued to watch his lover. Franky let a tear comically roll down his face, "Bro… That's so romantic…"
Yet, it was still a mystery on how they first got together, as neither of them ever told anyone about it. So yeah, Nami was curious, and one day she was alone with Sanji in the galley and couldn't help but ask about it.
"Sanji-kun, I was curious. You never told me how you and Zoro got together", she asked as he put a strawberry smoothie he just made in front of her at the table. "We never had our gossip session again for you to tell me more about it…"
"Ah, Nami-san, there's nothing important about it", he went back to the kitchen counter, as he was making sandwiches for the afternoon snack. Robin said she was craving it, and how could he possibly deny her wish?
"Nothing important about how you got together with the love of your life?" She grinned at how the pink on his cheeks deepened at the way she referred to Zoro. "C'mon, I really want to know!"
The blond stayed quiet for a few seconds, stopping slicing of the tomatoes, making Nami wonder if maybe she overstepped a boundary and shouldn't have asked something so personal. However, before she could say anything, he continued his task and started speaking in a calm voice,
"We've been… 'together' since we left Thriller Bark", he explained, and the information surprised the girl, but she didn't interrupt him. Sanji opening up was a very rare moment. "But it wasn't anything serious, you know? And Zoro wanted it to be, but I didn't, because I'm a mess and I'm fucked up in the head, and-", he stopped himself and smile at his friend. "Sorry, Nami-san, I'm being stupid right now."
"Sanji-kun, you're not any of that, and you are definitely not being stupid. So stop it."
"Well, we started dating for real when we reunited at Sabaody after those two years. And I decided I wanted to tell the crew about us after you guys made me come back from Whole Cake", he turned his back to her, as he went to the sink to wash his hands. "I truly don't deserve someone as patient as him, do I?"
This time, the woman got up from her sit and walked up to him, taking his right hand in hers.
"Sanji, please don't say you don't deserve things when you absolutely do."
"It's hard to believe it when I already hurt him so much with all my problems…"
"Okay, listen here, you idiot, or I'll charge you a payment over all this bullshit you're saying!" And of course he shut his mouth tight — he would never interrupt a lady, specially Nami when she was angry. "You're the only one here who can't see the amazing person you're. You don't hurt people, Sanji, never. You love Zoro, and he loves you, and that's all that matters. Are we clear?!"
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
"Great", her tone had gone from outraged to a more calm, happy voice. She pulled the chef into a hug, which for sure leaving him ecstatic. "Now, finish those sandwiches and I'll get Robin because I really want our gossip session. How about that?"
Sanji really enjoyed that bond he had with the two girls, when he didn't need to keep fawning over them. They really enjoyed spending time with him, talking of things he never had once the chance to talk about with no one, or thought he just didn't could talk about.
After leaving part of the sandwiches with the crew, the three of them were sitting behind Nami's orange trees, eating their portion.
"One day, I want to go back to Vivi, and take her sailing with us to see all the beautiful places we've seen!" She sighed happily, thinking of her lover. "Do you have plans like this, Sanji-kun?"
He stared at the see, seeing the light waves that gently rocked the Sunny, and let a small smile take his lips.
"Hm… Yeah, I think I do."
"Cook?" Heavy steps were heard coming in their direction before Zoro appeared with a bottle in hands. "Ah, you're here."
"What– HEY! That's my cooking sake! It's not for drinking!" The blond got up quickly from where he was sitting, ready to snap that bottle from the swordsman grip.
"I'll buy you another one when we reach the next island", He received a glare from Nami, knowing damn well from where he would take money to buy it. "And I took for us two to drink it together, twirlybrow, be grateful."
"You–!"
Before he could protest against it, the greenhead was already sitting at the floor right next to where he was just a few seconds earlier. Robin, on the other hand, gently touches the other girl's shoulder, and both of them were excusing themselves with a smile on.
"Your stinky smell scared the ladies away, shitty swordsman", Despite sounding irritated, he found himself already by his boyfriend side at the floor while taking a cigarette from his pocket. "Ugh, my lighter is at the kitchen."
However, before he could even mention on getting up, Zoro took something from inside his haramaki and handed it to him. One of his lighters. Because Zoro always carry one with him for moments like this when the chef doesn't have his around.
Sanji is blushing at the action and still the swordsman acts like this isn't one os the most romantic things he does and drinks the alcohol directly from the bottle. He hands it to the blond man too after he had his cigarette lighted up.
"What were you three talking about?"
"Just plans and dreams for the future", He takes a sip, much smaller then Zoro's, then hands the bottle back to him. "Wanna know what I was thinking about?"
He didn't needed to respond, and just waited in silence for the cook, who moved even close so now their arms and legs were touching.
"I was thinking… We could move together at the All Blue one day. The two of us." He smile as he spoke, and his free hand that wasn't holding the cigarette between it's fingers found it's way to Zoro's, playing with his fingers. "You can have a dojo there, too. The strongest swordsman of the world's dojo. That's one of my dreams right now."
The two of them sat there in silence, watching the ocean waves and feeling the light breeze against their skin, passing the bottle to each other and nicotine clouds lefting Sanji's lips. This time, it was Zoro who moved his arm, wrapping it around Sanji's torso and bringing him closer, making him rest his body's weight against his own.
"Yeah, I think we could do it. We'd have to have a spare room for Luffy, though. He would crash around every month just to eat your food."
Sanji chuckled at the thought and snuggled into his lover's embrace. Looking up, he was met with this soft gaze Zoro rarely had on his face, and he couldn't help but smile even more.
"Pretty mossy. I love you."
"Shut up, sappy idiot," He turned his look away, making Sanji laugh on how easy is to unsettle him with words. "M' love you more."
"No, I love you more."
"You don't gotta turn everything into a competition, you know."
"You fucker, you started it!", He playfully hit the swordsman on the arm, who only snickered, before straightening up and stretching his back. "I need to prepare dinner now."
He stubbed out the cigarette on the ground, but before he could get up, a grip on his arm forced him to turn around, having his lips captured on a calm kiss that lasted long seconds. Once they pulled apart, Zoro asked,
"Stay with me at the watch tonight?"
Long before they started their relationship, he never once imagined Roronoa Zoro — "Demon of the East Blue", could sound so sweet while asking for something so intimate, with a sparkle in his eye. Yet, there he was, right in front of him. And Sanji himself, who always had the dream of marrying a beautiful woman, could nearly melt at the sight of that man.
"Sure. I'll bring wine and dessert then."
"Hmm, yeah, be my dessert–"
And as quick as lightning, a kick was delivered right to his head by the chef, who was now standing in front of him.
"Way to kill the romance, shitty mosshead!"
Later, in the dead of the night, Zoro was the only one awake in the ship, sitting by the window at the . The crow's nest had the lower lights still turned on, bright enough to see but not to disturb the cook asleep in his arms, snoring softly, wrapped around a soft blanket. Maybe he drank too much wine, and maybe he was a lightweight, but the important part is that he had a warm, strong body to use as a pillow.
Normally, Zoro would use this time during night watch to keep training, but obviously he wouldn't do it at the moment. The two rarely could actually rest like this together, either because the cook rarely rests at all, or because Zoro had the worst, most random sleep schedule that consists in naps during all long the day.
So, he simply gazes at the calm, dark sea, unable to see whatever might lives beneath the water at this hour. Keeping his haki on alert already does the job on sensing anyone who might be close to the Sunny. And so, he already knew one person was coming in by the floor opening of the room.
"I thought you were on watch", Usopp says as he sees a sleeping Sanji lying comfortable on the swordsman chest and the empty wine bottle, cups and plates at the floor from when they eat and drank earlier. "You two disgust me."
"I'm glad."
It must be already almost three in the morning, which means he should switch places with the next person on watch duty — the sniper, in that case. Usopp looks around the room for a moment, then sighed,
"Okay, I'll be on watch from the deck. You two lovebirds can sleep tonight. But don't get used to it!"
Zoro looked at his crewmate exiting the crow nest again and then at the man lying on his arms, shifting their position so that they could both lie down, with Sanji still comfortably on top of him. And so, with sleep already overcoming him, he could finally close his eye and rest feeling the body of his lover against his.