The Aquarium Bar on the Thousand Sunny had a plush sofa that curved around half the room, beneath the sofa-to-ceiling aquarium. Fish swam in the aquarium, backup food in case they ever ran out. The service elevator in the center of the room had seats bolted around it and sconce lights hanging from it. There was plenty of alcohol, and different games were tucked away in the storage compartments beneath the seat. 

Zoro sat with his arms stretched along the back of the sofa, Sanji’s head bobbing over his lap. Zoro wasn’t worried about being caught, as the rest of the crew was in town on the stopover island they’d docked at this morning. And even if they were caught, it wouldn’t matter. The crew knew what Zoro and Sanji got up to during the in-between times. 

Zoro watched Sanji’s through his lashes, pleasure coursing through him. Sanji knelt in front of him, dressed in his full suit and tie. He used his hand and mouth like an expert. Zoro watched his hard cock disappear repeatedly between Sanji’s lips. Sanji’s eyes were closed, and he looked like he was enjoying himself. Zoro was certainly enjoying it. He was glad he’d won the bet. Not that he didn’t like giving blow jobs, but he liked to win.

When they’d arrived on the island, Sanji had bet Zoro that he’d get lost. The prize was a blowjob. Zoro knew his sense of direction was based on its own logic and things liked to move on him - stairs, the harbor, entire towns. But Zoro couldn’t withstand not taking the bet because he jumped at any chance to show up Sanji. Plus, the prize was worth it. 

Zoro made it a point not to get lost. He succeeded by following Sanji around at a distance until all supplies were bought and Sanji returned to the ship. Zoro’d crowed about his winning while he helped Sanji put away the supplies, which caused a fight that only served to make Zoro horny, and now he was reaping his reward.

Sanji’s mouth was warm and firm around Zoro’s cock. He kissed his hand repeatedly, stroking up to meet his lips. His blond hair fanned around his face. He looked good on his knees like this. Zoro could feel orgasm building and he dropped a hand to the back of Sanji’s head. His hips began to move on their own accord, rising upward toward Sanji’s mouth. Sanji removed his hand, allowing Zoro to take control. Zoro pressed down as he thrust and he could feel his cockhead bumping against the back of Sanji’s throat. Sanji took it, because he could, and Zoro fucked Sanji’s face into body-wracking climax.

He held Sanji flush against his groin for a moment before letting go. His spent cock slid from between Sanji’s lips, and then he had a lap full of horny cook kissing him. “You taste like come,” Zoro said when they let up for air.

“And you look like you’re about to get fucked.”

Zoro didn’t object, and soon his trousers were pulled down just far enough to expose his ass, his booted ankles were on Sanji’s shoulders, and he was happily being well-fucked. Sex between them happened often, anywhere, and any which way. Blowjobs, handjobs, humping each other until they came in their trousers. Zoro liked it when Sanji rode him; Sanji liked to watch Zoro’s face while they fucked. Neither cared who took whom, because it was always good. They fucked like they fought, with single-minded determination to best the other guy. That usually meant who caused the better orgasm. 

They’d had sex everywhere on the Sunny - and the Merry before - whenever they had time to tussle. Between Sanji’s cooking and Zoro’s training, and the revolutions in between, it wasn’t as often as Zoro would like. Sometimes Zoro would jump Sanji in the galley, and Sanji would serve breakfast or lunch or dinner a little mussed. They’d get knowing looks from the crew, save from Chopper and Luffy. It made Sanji flustered and Zoro’d puff his chest with pride. Then they’d get into a fight later and maybe have sex again.

They’d been doing it practically since they’d met. Zoro had liked Sanji’s foul mouth and attitude immediately, and the fact that he challenged Zoro at every turn. Then he saw Sanji fight at Arlong Park, and it lit Zoro’s fuse. Zoro had approached Sanji on the Merry once they’d healed, asked if he wanted to fuck, and that was that. Sanji still fawned over women, Zoro sometimes had sex with other men, but they screwed each other whenever the mood struck.

They talked sometimes, too, on occasion. About sword polish, shoe polish, the best way to catch fish. They were nakama, even if they didn’t act like it. Zoro thought a majority of the stuff that came out of Sanji’s mouth was stupid, and he knew Sanji thought the same about him, which was why they verbally fought all the time. Those verbal fights led to physical ones, which were a lot more fun than talking anyway. Zoro wasn’t big on conversation.

Sanji finished off with a choked moan and scrunched features. Zoro felt him pulsing inside of him. Sanji’s cock was bigger than Zoro’s - they’d measured, of course, and Sanji’s preening at having won ended up getting him fucked over the edge of the bathtub. Zoro never said it, but he liked the fact that he could get plowed by someone Sanji’s size. He was secretly an inch tracker.

Satiated, Sanji fixed his clothing and combed his hands through his mussed hair. “I need to start dinner, in case anyone comes back.”

Zoro pulled up his trousers and stood. He snagged Sanji around the waist before he could leave and planted a solid kiss on his lips. “If you don’t see me for dinner, I got lost,” he said with a grin. He danced out of the way of Sanji’s kick and went to clean up in the bathroom.

Time passed, as it always does, but things stayed the same. Sanji got weird for a bit after their adventure on Thriller Bark, which Zoro couldn’t figure out. There was a lot more random touching that didn’t lead anywhere. Eventually, Sanji stopped, and he never said anything about it, so Zoro shrugged it off. 

They hit several islands and overthrew local governments on their way to the new world. Then they arrived at Sabaody Archipelago, got split up, and the crew didn’t see each other for two years. Zoro worked hard to better himself, lost an eye in the process, and finally reunited with his nakama. Everyone had changed over the two years apart, growing bigger and stronger. 

Sanji had grown a thin mustache and goatee, and switched the part in his hair. He was broader in the chest, filling out his suits better. He looked hot. Zoro hadn’t thought about Sanji for two years, instead concentrating on his training. He hadn’t realized he’d kinda missed the cook until he saw Sanji again. 

Sanji must’ve thought the same, because he dragged Zoro off to the nearest hotel and fucked his brains out. “I can’t believe you lost an eye, shit swordsman,” was the extent of their conversation until they returned to the shopping district. Then they started fighting like usual and their lives got back on track.

Sabaody led to Fishman Island led to Punk Hazard led to Dressrosa, with Zoro and Sanji fighting and fucking along the way. It was casual and comfortable, and Zoro enjoyed it. In Dressrosa, they ducked into the men’s restroom at a restaurant, wearing ridiculous beards and mustaches, and Sanji sucked him off in one of the stalls. It was the last time Zoro saw Sanji for a while.

At first, Zoro didn’t think anything of it. Sanji went to deal with some family issues, but he said he’d be back. Luffy went after him while Zoro continued on to Wano Country. A couple weeks later, Sanji did come back, as promised, though Zoro didn’t have time to bother with him when they first met up again. It wasn’t until Amigasa Village, where the alliance met to talk before the final raid on Onigashima, that Zoro realized something was wrong.

Sanji was distant and closed off. He didn’t rise to Zoro’s bait. They had a couple days before the Fire Festival and it was a perfect time for them to screw around. But Sanji wouldn’t even verbally fight with Zoro. He’d just say, “Whatever, marimo,” and then go off to do something. It was strange. Zoro didn’t know what was going on, and it felt wrong to ask. Their thing didn’t work like that.

Then Zoro got a call on a den den mushi in the middle of the raid, and Sanji asked Zoro to promise to kill him. Zoro didn’t know what the fuck that was about, but of course he promised because Sanji had asked. Zoro did everything Sanji asked, even if he bitched about it. He didn’t like whatever this request was, though, at all. It had a fatality to it that was not Sanji. But Zoro was in the midst of his own hard fight with King and didn’t have time to deal with it.

Zoro won, of course, but the injuries he sustained from the fight and from Enma knocked him out for a week. When he finally came to, he ate and drank for a solid day before he felt enough of himself again to move around. The people of Wano Country were still celebrating the defeat of Kaidou and their freedom. Luffy said they weren’t leaving right away, and so Zoro took the opportunity to seek out Sanji.

Sanji proved difficult to find at first, but eventually he’d joined the crew at an onsen. He nearly bled out when Yamato jumped in the water with them. Yamato was a guy with girl parts, and since Sanji liked both sexes, Zoro presumed he couldn’t take it. Chopper had hustled Sanji off for an infusion and Zoro found him hooked up to a blood bag in the suite they’d been given at the Flower Capital.

Zoro slid the shoji door shut behind him. The suite had wood floors, shoji walls, and plenty of space for nine crew members plus guests. The main room of the suite had low wicker furniture, tables, and floor cushions, along with a wall of windows and a fireplace. The kitchen and bathroom were on one side of the main room and the bedrooms on the other.

The bedroom had four beds divided by small tables with fluted lamps on each. Sanji sat on one of the beds, back propped against a pillow, bare chested with a sheet over his lap. The blood bag ran from a drip hook to his arm. A cigarette dangled from his lips. An ashtray sat on the table beside him, and a book was open in his lap.

Sanji scowled at Zoro when he came in. “What do you want?”

“I want to know what the fuck that call was about,” Zoro stated bluntly. 

Sanji looked down at his book dismissively. “It was nothing. Forget about it.”

“Like hell it was nothing! You called me in the middle of a damned fight and asked me to kill you. I think that warrants an explanation.” 

“Since when do you care?”

Zoro stalked over to the bed and snatched the book away. He closed it and tossed it on another bed. “What the hell kind of question is that? Of course I care.”

Sanji snorted. “Afraid you’ll lose your fuck buddy?”

Zoro stared at Sanji in bewilderment. “That’s not what I was thinking.”

“Oh, come on, shit swordsman. That’s all we are to each other. Crewmates who fuck.” Sanji stabbed out his cigarette in the ashtray. “Get lost. I don’t want to talk to you.”

Zoro opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Sanji was wrong, wasn’t he? Sure, their thing was casual, but that didn’t mean Zoro didn’t care about Sanji. He was nakama. “You know that’s not just what we are.”

“Do I?” Sanji glared at him. “You only come sniffing around when you’re itching for a fight or sex. I get more out of talking to a cactus than I do with you.”

“We talk. Sometimes.” Zoro folded his arms defensively. “You’re the one who’s been gone for weeks and then avoiding me.”

“Have you stopped to think that maybe I have shit on my mind and didn’t want to fight with you?” Sanji said. “Wait, never mind, you don’t think because you have moss for brains.”

Zoro glowered. “We don’t always fight.”

“Yes, we do! We fight and we fuck, and occasionally we’ll say five words to each other about something else. You’ve never shown an interest in anything else with me. Why start now?”

“Because you asked me to fucking kill you, asshole!” Zoro shouted, dropping his folded arms, his hands clenched into fists. “I think that gives me the fucking right to know what the hell is going on with you!”

“You haven’t even said that you were glad that I was back!” Sanji yelled at Zoro. “It’s like you didn’t give a fuck that I had left.”

“You left a note! You said you’d be back, so I knew you’d be back. And you came back!”

“I almost didn’t!”

The words sucked the air right out of the room.

They stared at each other, faces flushed from anger. Zoro’s heart had stopped. “What?” he managed to whisper past the sudden knot in his throat.

Sanji jerked his eyes away and dragged hand through his hair. Zoro saw the mismatched eyebrows before half his face was hidden again. “I was trapped. If Luffy hadn’t been there, I would have died.”

Zoro felt like he’d been punched in the solar plexus by someone using armament haki. He couldn’t breathe. He sat down hard on the edge of Sanji’s bed. “But… you’re you.”

Sanji got this look on his face that was half-exasperation, half-astonishment. “I’m not invincible.”

Zoro’s mind started picturing Sanji dead in dozens of different ways, like a flipbook of horror, and it made him more and more sick to his stomach. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what, marimo?”

“Die.”

Sanji chuckled with self-deprecation. “Wasn’t planning on it, if I can help it.”

“No, I mean it.” Zoro snatched Sanji’s hand and gripped it tight. “Promise me.”

Sanji searched Zoro's face for a moment, his own expression inscrutable. He finally gripped Zoro’s hand in return. “Promise.”

The knot holding Zoro’s throat hostage was released. He felt as if he’d gone another round with King. “Tell me what happened,” he said, still holding Sanji’s hand. He didn’t want to let go.

Sanji did, quietly at first, then with anger, self-loathing, and a final heaping of fear over what happened during his fight with Queen. Zoro, himself, grew angrier and angrier until all he could feel was a black rage. 

“I am going to kill them,” Zoro vowed, “and present their heads to you on the ends of my katanas.”

Sanji barked a laugh. “You don’t do halfway, do you?”

Zoro scowled. “What? Those bastards hurt you and threatened the lives of the people you love. They don’t deserve to walk this planet.”

“It’s over. Don’t worry about them. I’m not going to.”

Still seething, Zoro looked down at Sanji’s hand, clasped with his own. Pale skin, long fingers, tiny scars. Zoro turned Sanji’s hand over and traced his finger along the underside. He could feel the hard calluses and soft skin in between. Sanji’s hands were precious to him, and those assholes were going to blow them up. 

“I’m okay, Zoro,” Sanji said quietly.

“You’re not okay. I’m not okay.” Zoro dropped Sanji’s hand and scrubbed his own over his face. There was a tightness behind his eyes, even though he only had one now. “Damn it. How could they hurt you like that?” 

“Some people are assholes. Forget about it.” 

Zoro could see past Sanji’s cavalier attitude to the pain lingering underneath. He had the strong desire to gather Sanji up in his arms and shield him from the world. So he did.

“Ow, what are you doing, shithead?” Sanji rubbed at the needle that was embedded in his skin that Zoro had jostled. Zoro had forced his way bodily behind Sanji. 

“Holding you.” Zoro pulled Sanji against his chest, arms wrapped around his middle. He buried his face in Sanji’s hair. His throat felt tight again. Damn those fuckers.

Sanji squirmed in his arms. “Since when do you hold me? You don’t even like me.”

“No. I love you.” 

The words were out of Zoro’s mouth without having passed through his brain first. Sanji went still. Zoro didn’t move, didn’t even breathe. What the hell was that? It couldn’t be true. Their thing was casual. They fought, and had sex, and sometimes talked. Sure, he’d liked Sanji from the moment they’d met, but there was a big difference between liking someone and loving them. He respected Sanji, as a fighter and nakama. He liked the cook’s cooking. He had fun when they fought and fucked. But didn’t there need to be more to fall in love with someone?

In response, Zoro’s mind supplied him with a picture of Sanji dead and a jagged tear ripped through his heart. Well, that answered that.

Sanji relaxed against Zoro slowly. He didn’t say anything. Zoro kept his arms around Sanji, forehead resting on the back of Sanji’s head. A clock ticked somewhere in the suite. 

Chopper came in eventually, and though he looked shocked, he didn’t say anything. He removed the drip from Sanji’s hand, stuck on a bandaid, and wheeled it out of the room. Zoro took it as his cue to leave. He managed to extract himself from behind Sanji without too much awkwardness. He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing at Sanji. Sanji was studying his hands with great intensity. 

“Uh, later,” Zoro said, and hurriedly left the room.

They left Wano with little fanfare, not wanting to make their departure a thing. They waved goodbye to Kin’emon, Yamato, and Momonosuke and set sail for their next destination. Zoro and Sanji hadn’t spoken alone again after Zoro’s confession in the suite. He thought maybe he’d messed everything up, but when he made a joke about fulfilling his promise to kill Sanji, Sanji immediately launched into a physical fight with him and things seemed to be alright.

New wanted posters came, which enabled more taunting. Then Sanji went off to make food, Zoro headed up to the crows nest to train, and he pretended not to think about it. He’d marginally succeeded until Sanji came through the hatch bearing snacks.

The crow’s nest primarily served as Zoro’s training room and place to hold watch at night. It was circular, with wood bench seating around the perimeter, windows that opened, a telescope, binoculars, and a loudspeaker. Zoro’s barbells, dumbbells, and weight rack took up the rest of the room. 

He was at the end of a repetition with the dumbbells when Sanji appeared. He finished up before setting the weights in their proper spot. He wiped his face with a towel. Sanji set the snacks on the bench, then faced Zoro with crossed arms. “Marimo.”

“Cook.” Zoro wanted to grab one of the snacks but thought staying on the other side of the crow’s nest might be wise. At least until Sanji said whatever he’d come to say.

Sanji’s expression was resolved. “I expect you to at least try to talk to me more than once a month.”

“Uh, okay.” Zoro’s brow furrowed with confusion.

“And not about sex. Or fighting. Or how much weight you can lift.”

“Okay…”

“And you’d better not get yourself killed, either, or I’m going to be pissed that I put my heart out here only to have it crushed.”

It dawned on Zoro what Sanji meant. “You mean–”

“Yes. No. I don’t know what I mean,” Sanji interrupted, now looking flustered. “I started this once and it didn’t go anywhere. I’m not sure I want to do it again.”

“Wait, huh? You started this once?”

“Yes, dumbass. Back when Kumo almost killed you.” 

Zoro was astonished. That long ago? “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Because we don’t talk to each other, stupid. You think I was going to walk up to you and say, ‘Hey, you almost died and I realized that I love you’?”

“That’s what I did,” Zoro said. “Only we were on a bed.”

Sanji’s face pinked and he waved his hand. “That’s not the point!”

“Sounds like it is.” Zoro felt a little smug. 

Sanji pinched the bridge of his nose. “The point is, if you mean it, if you want something real, I’m willing to try it.”

A smile spread across Zoro’s lips and what felt a lot like joy filled his chest. “Okay.”

“And I meant it about the talking. You’re not just going to fuck your way into my heart.”

“But we are gonna still fuck, right?”

“Of course we’re going to fuck.” Sanji released an exasperated sigh. “Your ass is the only thing I know I love.”

Zoro didn’t mind that. He grinned some more. “Wanna do it now?”

Sanji looked on the verge of saying no, but then he yanked at his tie. “Yes, you damned, moronic, one-tracked ape.”

Zoro swiftly crossed the room to Sanji and yanked close. “But I’m your damned, moronic, one-tracked ape.”

“Shut up and kiss me.” 

Zoro laughed and complied. He had a feeling the not-so-casual sex was going to be great. 

Approximately three days earlier.

“..They were in bed together!” Chopper exclaimed to Luffy, out on the hill overlooking the city. “Zoro was holding Sanji like it was normal. I didn’t know they were in a relationship like that.”

Luffy folded his arms behind his head, looking up at the sky. His hat rested on his chest and a smile for his nakama was on his face. “Ne, they’ve always loved each other. It just took them a while to figure it out.”

End