BACK BABY.
Heeeeeeey, I'm back. *waves* And... before I post the next chapter here I just have to:
WTF. So Sanji's fight with Abs was absolutly pointless then?!!! I was super annoyed at him for nothing? He wins, and yay- oh wait... Abs is still alive... and then... he takes Nami again and... oh... I'm I having dayshavoo or something-- really? *headdesk*
Kala is sick of the "Let's save nami-athon" PLEASE STOP IT. If I have to listen to more Sanji 'I love Nami' speeches I'm not going to be a happy panda.
On the plus side of things... Super Yay for Zoro being pissed at Sanji for not being safe and trying to fight Oz by himself (?) or not paying attention because of Nami (?)! (or whatever) Reminds me of a certain train ride... Or, I'm just a hopeless fangirl trying to make any random moment special XD
Also... Strawhats (minus Nami and Luffy) VS Oz = AWESOME. Can't wait for that!
Well on to the main event then...
Title: Perchance to Dream Part 7/11
Rating: From PG to R: This Chapter: R
Words: 3,567
Pairings: Zoro/Sanji
Summery: “Because happy is what happens when all your dreams come true…well, isn't it?” -Wicked
Warnings: Everything from fluff to angst.
Spoilers: Takes place between Skypiea and Water 7, so…
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don’t own One Piece
Notes: Loosely based on and titled after an episode of Batman The Animated Series. If you’ve seen this episode…shhhhh…
Huge thank you: To bronzetigress for being my super-beta and putting up with my ellipses abuse and lack of commas. Thanks again my dear!!!!
Chapter 7
“I guess I’d say it all started about a year after Siracuse…there was a storm, one of the kind that the Grand Line just threw at us for no apparent reason. It came on so quickly and so suddenly that we all were caught off guard. All of us were out on deck bringing in the sails and tying objects down.
"I was at the main mast securing a portion of the sail that had shaken loose when the top of a nearby barrel was picked up by the wind. The barrel itself was anchored down but no one had thought about the cover,” Sanji chuckled softly. “Hell I didn’t think about it either until the thing slammed into my head with the full power of the wind behind it. I saw stars that had never been part of the sky, and that was the last thing I remember for a few moments. I don’t remember falling to the deck, or lying there drifting in and out of rational thought as the rain pounded down onto the slick deck and my body, and I didn’t hear the wind take our battered mast.
"The next thing that I could recall was the harsh sound of frantic panting for breath. When I opened my eyes to find out what the Hell was going on I found,” he cleared his throat, “ah, you leaning over me staring into my face with an expression that looked close to fear. It was at the least the most fear I had ever seen in you at the time, but you covered yourself quite quickly when you saw my eyes register you. Brought your emotion back into yourself and berated me for trying to, quote, ‘Get crushed by the mast’. At the time I didn’t understand why you were yelling or why I was on the floor so I looked at you and I guess my expression wasn’t what you wanted to see, or maybe it was because I didn’t yell at you back, but that look came again and you grabbed both sides of my face and asked me if I was okay over and over until I managed to sputter out a ‘yeah’. And the whole time this was going on things and small waves were hitting you as you shielded me from the winds and you didn’t even seem to notice.”
Sanji rambled, managing to look everywhere except at Zoro’s face. He pulled at his sleeve, played with a fork, and plucked grass blades one by one to name a few distractions as he relayed the rainy romance that Zoro longed to remember.
“Then,” a slow smile inched up the blond's face as he traced the edges of a flower, “you brushed some wet hair out of my face, called me an idiot and ran away. I think you would have maybe said more but Luffy had finally realized there had been a problem and he was running over. Chopper followed soon too.”
He sighed softly, “That was when I finally understood that you didn’t hate me as much as you wanted me to believe. And I’d like to think,” he glanced up into Zoro’s eyes for the briefest of moments, “that it was also the moment when you realized how much you would…that is…that you might, you know, miss me if anything should happen.”
It was quiet as Sanji played with his nails, lost in memories that were now only his. The swordsman watched the deceptively frail silhouette, trying to put himself into the described situation in his head. He had no doubts that he’d save Sanji from a falling mast; he would have done that for any of his nakama. As for the rest- in the heat of the moment and in a panic, men did many things that they normally didn’t do. Although, judging by the ring on his finger, it had been a good thing. He slid forward slowly towards Sanji’s lone figure. Coming to a stop right beside him, shoulder to shoulder, he nudged the other man with his elbow.
“So,” he swallowed nothing as he found his voice, “what happened next?”
“Hmm?” Sanji turned his head slightly, not quite looking at him, “Oh, so I haven’t scared you off yet?”
“Takes a lot more than that.”
“You always sound so sure of yourself, but I wonder whether you really mean it.”
Zoro snatched up one of the cook’s hands and held it firmly between his own.
“What happened next?”
“…what happened next is you acted funny for two weeks. Changed your nap stop, stopped coming in to try to steal booze, wouldn’t have a decent fight with me. Actually you tried your damnest to avoid me at all costs; even Luffy noticed the changes. You were pretty scared off then.” Zoro squeezed the captured hand and Sanji sighed.
“Well finally I decided that we should have a little talk about what happened and climbed into the crow's nest during your watch one night. ‘Yeah I saved your skinny ass, Love-cook, what about it?’ you said, completely ignoring what you very well knew I came to talk about. So I asked you if there was any other feeling that you had felt that night that maybe you didn’t want to tell me about but you just got that distant look in your eyes and turned your head.
"And I wondered then if I was just imagining things, if I was just coming to these earlier conclusions because it was what I wanted. ‘So it was nothing then?’ I asked you, ‘That look you had, the frantic way you called my name- nothing?’ but you didn’t turn your head, not even when I put my hand on your shoulder and demanded that you answer me. How I wanted to kick you down into the deck of the ship for fucking with my head like that. I couldn’t put up with it anymore so I made to leave, ‘I guess the joke's on me,’ I said, ‘Thinking that ‘we’ could ever be a possibility, thinking that you might actually care about someone like you care about your swords. And me of all people.’ I laughed a cold type of laugh that even I didn’t like. It crawled out of my throat before I could stop it- full of malice and frustration. ‘I guess you were right, shitty swordsman, I’m a dumbass after all. Well don’t worry about it,’ I continued even though I wanted to stop, ‘I won’t think of this subject ever again.’ And I threw my leg over the side of the crow's nest preparing for the climb down. ‘I’ll leave you to your swords.’
"I don’t think I’ve ever climbed down faster. I was away from you, the night sky, and your stony silence and into the galley in the blink of an eye wishing with all my might that I could turn back the clock. I was leaning over the sink, fresh cigarette hanging from my mouth cursing myself when you came in, slamming the door open so violently that the hinges shook. And you stomped over to me, grabbed my arm roughly with one hand, removed my cigarette with the other and kissed me hard on the mouth.
"It wasn’t by any means romantic. We didn’t even move our lips, just firm desperate pressure. Then you pulled away with a curse and damned me for making you feel this way, and damned me for making you weak, and damned me for wanting you back. ‘You want to know how I felt that night, cook?’ you asked me in exasperation, ‘Unsure, frantic, fucking pathetic! What a fucking dumb way to die! And I almost didn’t get to you in time! I would have lost it…I just would have lost it if I couldn’t save you too.’ You looked so lost staring at me in the galley, where the two of us had been so many times before, so I held out my hand and told you to take it and you stared at me in that dumb marimo way before slowly doing so. I told you…‘Feel that pulse? I’m alive, I’m well and I’m not planning on going anywhere soon dumbass’,”
He stopped and looked down at his hand that Zoro still held. “And then you kissed my palm a thousand times more gently than my lips and told me you intended to keep it that way. I had never been so happy to see that stupid shitty grin across your face. That is until you used my arm to yank me into your chest and raped my mouth.” He shrugged lazily, “Went on pretty strongly from there.”
“…Oh.”
Silence returned to the small hilltop like it had never been gone.
“That’s all you can say?” Sanji asked quietly though he was looking at the ground.
“You know I’m not a talker-”
“A truer thing was never spoken” Sanji mumbled under his breath.
“But I, um, I’m glad that ahhh, what I mean-”
Sanji sighed.
“Forget it Zoro, it doesn’t matter.” He tried to pull his hand free but it was caught in a vice like grip, “Come on, it’s going to rain soon…don’t you see the clouds?”
“Of course it matters!” Zoro’s way wasn’t talking, that was Sanji’s way. Zoro was more of the type to let his actions be his words. Where a push out of harm's way said ‘Hey, don’t die, I like having you around.’ Like how a grunt and an empty plate said ‘It was good.’ And a hand on the hilts of his swords said ‘It’s about time we fought.’ So he hoped Sanji understood that when he took hold of Sanji’s struggling hand by the wrist and kissed it how he didn’t remember he did in the past, he meant ‘Stop being an insecure moron.’ “It was a good story.” Zoro said, dropping the pale hand, “I like it.”
The blond pulled his arm back, opening and closing the palm slowly. “Don’t do that if you don’t mean it.” Sanji said
“What do you think?”
A few fat drops of water began to make their way down, sprinkling the ground around them with dark spots and wetting the blanket.
“I need to put the extra food away.”
Zoro resisted the urge to slap himself as Sanji moved away to gather up their things. Why was this so hard? Why didn’t Sanji just understand that he…that he cared? That he, um, cared a whole lot? Too much in fact! He had spent too much time thinking about this, about Sanji, before and after waking up in this situation. It was time to stop playing. Whether he liked how he got here or not, this was his life now and it wasn’t bad. It was time to take control again, make him the ruler of his life instead of letting life fuck with him, and the first thing he was after was that moron- whether the shitty cook made it easy or not.
Snatching up his plate from the cook’s reaching fingers, he cleared off the remaining contents in record time and politely dropped it into the basket.
“All done. Now…what do you think?”
“I think, Zoro, that it’s raining and I want to go home.”
It was starting to fall faster now, dancing and breaking the surface of the dirt around them, many droplets of water exploding from wet diamonds of every size into small puddles of liquid life on the ground, mingling and mixing together to feed the soil.
“You’re avoiding the question.”
“You need to let it go.” Sanji got to his feet meaning to reach down for the basket to leave, but Zoro grabbed his arm and pulled himself up with it to face off.
“Why?!” he demanded feeling the drops of rain tumble off his chin
“Because you’re going too fast!” Sanji yelled, “Two days? Two days? How do you expect me to believe you when you’ve only been with me for two days? What you think you're feeling isn’t true and I'd rather wait for the real thing! I won’t take pity love!”
“Two days? Two days plus life on the Going Merry! Every day watching you, every day wanting you, every day being driven crazy! Two days my ASS.”
“You may think you know how you feel-”
“I KNOW how I feel. I know I’m mad about those five years, but I also know I want to touch you, to hold you again, for you to…to…be mine.”
“Zoro.”
“It’s not sudden, not at all.”
The rain was running off their heads now, soaking their clothing through. Sanji’s hair was slicked down, sticking wetly to his face. And Zoro was drowning. Drowning in his emotions, drowning in the dam break of hidden dreams that flooded his mind, and fucking drowning in the tumultuous waves of blue in Sanji’s eyes.
“You don’t know, you don’t know how you really feel.”
“Stop telling me how I feel. You said yourself you didn’t know I cared about you that way until the night of the storm. Did I ever tell you when I wanted you?”
“I never thought to ask-”
“It was long before that, somewhere between the battle field at Arlong’s and the Alabasta sand.” He tugged the captured arm closer, “It was you who didn’t know what you wanted back then chasing after those girls…you who didn’t know how you felt. How can you expect me to hold back now when I know you want it too? I think I've waited long enough to kiss you.”
Sanji’s eyes studied him, large and disbelieving.
“You aren’t so bad with talk after all,” he murmured finally, so softly it was almost lost in the rain. He reached up, cupping the side of Zoro’s face with his free hand. “If you think you're due,” he said, “come collect.”
Didn’t need to tell Zoro twice.
He closed the gap between their mouths quickly and firmly. His brain almost shut down when his lips finally made contact with the ones he had pined after for so long. They were soft and supple, tasting of salty rain, nicotine, and the noontime’s noodles. Zoro drew the blond in closer to his chest like how they were when he held him in the dojo, only better, so much better. Releasing Sanji’s captured limb, he wrapped an arm around the skinny torso and the other hand went behind the blond’s neck. He massaged and worked Sanji’s lips, sucking on the bottom one until a small whimper escaped the cook’s throat.
Pulling back he took a few gasps of breath before looking at Sanji’s flushed and gasping face and was forced to reclaim those lips again- not minding the rain water as it ran down their joined mouths looking for any place to seep into and invade. His tongue probed against the other's lips begging for entrance and was rewarded as Sanji responded to the deepening kiss. Zoro's stomach was on fire as he drove into the heat and rich flavor of the cook’s mouth. He ran his tongue over everything it could reach and wasn’t surprised to find Sanji’s tongue wrapping around and challenging his own. With a faint murmur of satisfaction, he tugged Sanji even closer and could feel the arms around his neck tighten and they attempted to be as close as possible. He sucked on Sanji’s tongue with a fever, inhaling the scent and sight and taste of him the way a man racked with thirst responds to water. He needed more of this, more of Sanji. Pulling away from the kiss, Zoro immediately dropped his head to the collarbone so beautifully displayed by the neck of Sanji’s shirt. He kissed up and down it carefully sucking off all the rain droplets that came in his way.
“Ah-”
Sanji arched suddenly as Zoro was drifting closer to the blond’s neck.
“Hummm,” he murmured into the porcelain skin, “Is that where you like it?”
He set upon Sanji’s pulse like a madman, sucking and licking, and dragging his teeth across the redness he was creating, making sure he left his mark. Sure Sanji might be mad, but at the moment he really didn’t care. He could feel the blond’s slight frame trying not to writhe against him and it was driving him mad with sensation; the rain was doing nothing to calm the hot blood racing inside him. He managed to back Sanji up against the tree whilst still working the growing mark on his neck. His hand slid from golden hair to the front of the soaked shirt, which was so wet he could feel the hardening nipples underneath the cloth and brushed the pad of his thumb against one roughly. Sanji’s body jerked again, and he could feel the whole lanky length of it move against his own. He groaned; he was so fucking hard right now. His hands left Sanji’s body for just a second as they repositioned themselves on the blond’s waist. Holding the thin body still he thrust his hips forward, grinding their groins together with wet heated friction. Sanji cried out loudly, but whether that was from their suddenly close lower-regions or the finishing love bite Zoro had delivered to his neck the swordsman wasn’t sure.
“Neh- Z-Zoro.”
“Hmm?” he mumbled into Sanji’s neck as he dragged his lips down it.
“We -AH!”
Zoro ran his hands up Sanji's sides slowly before finding hold on the cook’s abused nipples, twisting them and rubbing them through the wet fabric.
“What was that?”
“Bastard,” the blond managed through hazy eyes, “We can’t do this…we can’t-AH! DAMN IT ZORO! Stop biting me!”
Zoro glared up at him from the blond's chest, teeth still loosely closed around a nipple. “You're as hard as I am,” he ghosted a hand over the bulge in Sanji’s khakis, “and you're saying no?”
“If you’d let me finish, dumb-ass,” Sanji's hips jerked forward trying to reach the swordsman’s teasing hand, “I was going to say we can’t do this here. I’d much prefer my bed and some lube thanks.” He rolled his eyes and banged his head lightly against the trunk.
“We’ve got a blanket right there…” Zoro rubbed his hand over Sanji’s crotch, the other one still attached to the blond’s chest, “And I’m sure we could figure out something in that basket for-OW! WHAT THE FUCK!”
Sanji quickly lowered his leg and glared good and hard at the man wincing in pain in front of him.
“Food is never to be disrespected like that! Even if your cock is about to explode with tension or, or, there’s nothing else around for miles. That’s a one way ticket to masturbation city.”
“Fine! Geez you’re a weird shit” Zoro backed up, letting Sanji move away from their tree.
“Come on, grab the basket and let’s go.”
“Don’t get too used to me doing what you say,” Zoro responded as he bent over to retrieve the wicker, somewhat uncomfortably. “Next time- neh!” He straightened at once, free hand flying to his molested ass. Sanji let out a burst of short laughter at the swordsman’s face.
“Sorry, it was just…the bending with wet pants and…and…Zoro?”
“C’mere.” Zoro took a swipe at him with his basket free hand. The blond took a jump back evading capture and started to run down the hill. A predatory grin crossed the swordsman’s face as he took off after him. When he reached the bottom of the hill he could see Sanji not too far ahead. The cook must have heard Zoro break through the brush because he turned around, running backwards at a slower pace, and smiled at him.
“Oi what’s wrong Marimo? Get lost? It was a well-trodden path. ”
Zoro’s eyes narrowed at the jibe and put forth a burst of speed. Sanji tried to turn himself around in time and regain his usual momentum, but it was too late. Zoro snaked his arm around the blond’s waist lifting him off his feet.
“Caught yah, what’s my prize?”
“You already know what you get.”
Wiggling out of the larger man’s grasp, Sanji dropped to his feet lightly before turning towards Zoro and entwining their hands together.
“Hmmm, what’s that?”
“Oh, just a night of awe-inspiring, hot, fantastic sex.”
Zoro chuckled. He couldn’t argue with that. “What if you had won?”
“Same thing.”
He couldn’t help the burst of roaring laughter that came out of that one. “I’m up for the challenge.” He turned their joined hands and brought them up to his mouth to kiss Sanji’s hand lightly.
“Good,” Sanji responded coyly as he slipped through the front door, “'cause I’m just dying to get out of these wet clothes.”
“What a coincidence; getting you out of your clothes is my goal too.”
The door clicked shut quietly behind him.
“Oh Ha Ha that was witty.”
“C’mere,” Zoro called again.
Sanji leaned forward, balancing himself by grabbing, and therefore immobilizing, Zoro’s hands, and briefly showering his lips with quick little kisses. He pushed the swordsman back a step or two when he moved back.
“You do remember where the bedroom is right?” he said with a smirk, walking backwards, “If not…you can follow me.”
“Heh.”
The picnic basket fell heavily to the wooden floor beside him as he followed like a moth to the flame.
WTF. So Sanji's fight with Abs was absolutly pointless then?!!! I was super annoyed at him for nothing? He wins, and yay- oh wait... Abs is still alive... and then... he takes Nami again and... oh... I'm I having dayshavoo or something-- really? *headdesk*
Kala is sick of the "Let's save nami-athon" PLEASE STOP IT. If I have to listen to more Sanji 'I love Nami' speeches I'm not going to be a happy panda.
On the plus side of things... Super Yay for Zoro being pissed at Sanji for not being safe and trying to fight Oz by himself (?) or not paying attention because of Nami (?)! (or whatever) Reminds me of a certain train ride... Or, I'm just a hopeless fangirl trying to make any random moment special XD
Also... Strawhats (minus Nami and Luffy) VS Oz = AWESOME. Can't wait for that!
Well on to the main event then...
Title: Perchance to Dream Part 7/11
Rating: From PG to R: This Chapter: R
Words: 3,567
Pairings: Zoro/Sanji
Summery: “Because happy is what happens when all your dreams come true…well, isn't it?” -Wicked
Warnings: Everything from fluff to angst.
Spoilers: Takes place between Skypiea and Water 7, so…
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don’t own One Piece
Notes: Loosely based on and titled after an episode of Batman The Animated Series. If you’ve seen this episode…shhhhh…
Huge thank you: To bronzetigress for being my super-beta and putting up with my ellipses abuse and lack of commas. Thanks again my dear!!!!
Chapter 7
“I guess I’d say it all started about a year after Siracuse…there was a storm, one of the kind that the Grand Line just threw at us for no apparent reason. It came on so quickly and so suddenly that we all were caught off guard. All of us were out on deck bringing in the sails and tying objects down.
"I was at the main mast securing a portion of the sail that had shaken loose when the top of a nearby barrel was picked up by the wind. The barrel itself was anchored down but no one had thought about the cover,” Sanji chuckled softly. “Hell I didn’t think about it either until the thing slammed into my head with the full power of the wind behind it. I saw stars that had never been part of the sky, and that was the last thing I remember for a few moments. I don’t remember falling to the deck, or lying there drifting in and out of rational thought as the rain pounded down onto the slick deck and my body, and I didn’t hear the wind take our battered mast.
"The next thing that I could recall was the harsh sound of frantic panting for breath. When I opened my eyes to find out what the Hell was going on I found,” he cleared his throat, “ah, you leaning over me staring into my face with an expression that looked close to fear. It was at the least the most fear I had ever seen in you at the time, but you covered yourself quite quickly when you saw my eyes register you. Brought your emotion back into yourself and berated me for trying to, quote, ‘Get crushed by the mast’. At the time I didn’t understand why you were yelling or why I was on the floor so I looked at you and I guess my expression wasn’t what you wanted to see, or maybe it was because I didn’t yell at you back, but that look came again and you grabbed both sides of my face and asked me if I was okay over and over until I managed to sputter out a ‘yeah’. And the whole time this was going on things and small waves were hitting you as you shielded me from the winds and you didn’t even seem to notice.”
Sanji rambled, managing to look everywhere except at Zoro’s face. He pulled at his sleeve, played with a fork, and plucked grass blades one by one to name a few distractions as he relayed the rainy romance that Zoro longed to remember.
“Then,” a slow smile inched up the blond's face as he traced the edges of a flower, “you brushed some wet hair out of my face, called me an idiot and ran away. I think you would have maybe said more but Luffy had finally realized there had been a problem and he was running over. Chopper followed soon too.”
He sighed softly, “That was when I finally understood that you didn’t hate me as much as you wanted me to believe. And I’d like to think,” he glanced up into Zoro’s eyes for the briefest of moments, “that it was also the moment when you realized how much you would…that is…that you might, you know, miss me if anything should happen.”
It was quiet as Sanji played with his nails, lost in memories that were now only his. The swordsman watched the deceptively frail silhouette, trying to put himself into the described situation in his head. He had no doubts that he’d save Sanji from a falling mast; he would have done that for any of his nakama. As for the rest- in the heat of the moment and in a panic, men did many things that they normally didn’t do. Although, judging by the ring on his finger, it had been a good thing. He slid forward slowly towards Sanji’s lone figure. Coming to a stop right beside him, shoulder to shoulder, he nudged the other man with his elbow.
“So,” he swallowed nothing as he found his voice, “what happened next?”
“Hmm?” Sanji turned his head slightly, not quite looking at him, “Oh, so I haven’t scared you off yet?”
“Takes a lot more than that.”
“You always sound so sure of yourself, but I wonder whether you really mean it.”
Zoro snatched up one of the cook’s hands and held it firmly between his own.
“What happened next?”
“…what happened next is you acted funny for two weeks. Changed your nap stop, stopped coming in to try to steal booze, wouldn’t have a decent fight with me. Actually you tried your damnest to avoid me at all costs; even Luffy noticed the changes. You were pretty scared off then.” Zoro squeezed the captured hand and Sanji sighed.
“Well finally I decided that we should have a little talk about what happened and climbed into the crow's nest during your watch one night. ‘Yeah I saved your skinny ass, Love-cook, what about it?’ you said, completely ignoring what you very well knew I came to talk about. So I asked you if there was any other feeling that you had felt that night that maybe you didn’t want to tell me about but you just got that distant look in your eyes and turned your head.
"And I wondered then if I was just imagining things, if I was just coming to these earlier conclusions because it was what I wanted. ‘So it was nothing then?’ I asked you, ‘That look you had, the frantic way you called my name- nothing?’ but you didn’t turn your head, not even when I put my hand on your shoulder and demanded that you answer me. How I wanted to kick you down into the deck of the ship for fucking with my head like that. I couldn’t put up with it anymore so I made to leave, ‘I guess the joke's on me,’ I said, ‘Thinking that ‘we’ could ever be a possibility, thinking that you might actually care about someone like you care about your swords. And me of all people.’ I laughed a cold type of laugh that even I didn’t like. It crawled out of my throat before I could stop it- full of malice and frustration. ‘I guess you were right, shitty swordsman, I’m a dumbass after all. Well don’t worry about it,’ I continued even though I wanted to stop, ‘I won’t think of this subject ever again.’ And I threw my leg over the side of the crow's nest preparing for the climb down. ‘I’ll leave you to your swords.’
"I don’t think I’ve ever climbed down faster. I was away from you, the night sky, and your stony silence and into the galley in the blink of an eye wishing with all my might that I could turn back the clock. I was leaning over the sink, fresh cigarette hanging from my mouth cursing myself when you came in, slamming the door open so violently that the hinges shook. And you stomped over to me, grabbed my arm roughly with one hand, removed my cigarette with the other and kissed me hard on the mouth.
"It wasn’t by any means romantic. We didn’t even move our lips, just firm desperate pressure. Then you pulled away with a curse and damned me for making you feel this way, and damned me for making you weak, and damned me for wanting you back. ‘You want to know how I felt that night, cook?’ you asked me in exasperation, ‘Unsure, frantic, fucking pathetic! What a fucking dumb way to die! And I almost didn’t get to you in time! I would have lost it…I just would have lost it if I couldn’t save you too.’ You looked so lost staring at me in the galley, where the two of us had been so many times before, so I held out my hand and told you to take it and you stared at me in that dumb marimo way before slowly doing so. I told you…‘Feel that pulse? I’m alive, I’m well and I’m not planning on going anywhere soon dumbass’,”
He stopped and looked down at his hand that Zoro still held. “And then you kissed my palm a thousand times more gently than my lips and told me you intended to keep it that way. I had never been so happy to see that stupid shitty grin across your face. That is until you used my arm to yank me into your chest and raped my mouth.” He shrugged lazily, “Went on pretty strongly from there.”
“…Oh.”
Silence returned to the small hilltop like it had never been gone.
“That’s all you can say?” Sanji asked quietly though he was looking at the ground.
“You know I’m not a talker-”
“A truer thing was never spoken” Sanji mumbled under his breath.
“But I, um, I’m glad that ahhh, what I mean-”
Sanji sighed.
“Forget it Zoro, it doesn’t matter.” He tried to pull his hand free but it was caught in a vice like grip, “Come on, it’s going to rain soon…don’t you see the clouds?”
“Of course it matters!” Zoro’s way wasn’t talking, that was Sanji’s way. Zoro was more of the type to let his actions be his words. Where a push out of harm's way said ‘Hey, don’t die, I like having you around.’ Like how a grunt and an empty plate said ‘It was good.’ And a hand on the hilts of his swords said ‘It’s about time we fought.’ So he hoped Sanji understood that when he took hold of Sanji’s struggling hand by the wrist and kissed it how he didn’t remember he did in the past, he meant ‘Stop being an insecure moron.’ “It was a good story.” Zoro said, dropping the pale hand, “I like it.”
The blond pulled his arm back, opening and closing the palm slowly. “Don’t do that if you don’t mean it.” Sanji said
“What do you think?”
A few fat drops of water began to make their way down, sprinkling the ground around them with dark spots and wetting the blanket.
“I need to put the extra food away.”
Zoro resisted the urge to slap himself as Sanji moved away to gather up their things. Why was this so hard? Why didn’t Sanji just understand that he…that he cared? That he, um, cared a whole lot? Too much in fact! He had spent too much time thinking about this, about Sanji, before and after waking up in this situation. It was time to stop playing. Whether he liked how he got here or not, this was his life now and it wasn’t bad. It was time to take control again, make him the ruler of his life instead of letting life fuck with him, and the first thing he was after was that moron- whether the shitty cook made it easy or not.
Snatching up his plate from the cook’s reaching fingers, he cleared off the remaining contents in record time and politely dropped it into the basket.
“All done. Now…what do you think?”
“I think, Zoro, that it’s raining and I want to go home.”
It was starting to fall faster now, dancing and breaking the surface of the dirt around them, many droplets of water exploding from wet diamonds of every size into small puddles of liquid life on the ground, mingling and mixing together to feed the soil.
“You’re avoiding the question.”
“You need to let it go.” Sanji got to his feet meaning to reach down for the basket to leave, but Zoro grabbed his arm and pulled himself up with it to face off.
“Why?!” he demanded feeling the drops of rain tumble off his chin
“Because you’re going too fast!” Sanji yelled, “Two days? Two days? How do you expect me to believe you when you’ve only been with me for two days? What you think you're feeling isn’t true and I'd rather wait for the real thing! I won’t take pity love!”
“Two days? Two days plus life on the Going Merry! Every day watching you, every day wanting you, every day being driven crazy! Two days my ASS.”
“You may think you know how you feel-”
“I KNOW how I feel. I know I’m mad about those five years, but I also know I want to touch you, to hold you again, for you to…to…be mine.”
“Zoro.”
“It’s not sudden, not at all.”
The rain was running off their heads now, soaking their clothing through. Sanji’s hair was slicked down, sticking wetly to his face. And Zoro was drowning. Drowning in his emotions, drowning in the dam break of hidden dreams that flooded his mind, and fucking drowning in the tumultuous waves of blue in Sanji’s eyes.
“You don’t know, you don’t know how you really feel.”
“Stop telling me how I feel. You said yourself you didn’t know I cared about you that way until the night of the storm. Did I ever tell you when I wanted you?”
“I never thought to ask-”
“It was long before that, somewhere between the battle field at Arlong’s and the Alabasta sand.” He tugged the captured arm closer, “It was you who didn’t know what you wanted back then chasing after those girls…you who didn’t know how you felt. How can you expect me to hold back now when I know you want it too? I think I've waited long enough to kiss you.”
Sanji’s eyes studied him, large and disbelieving.
“You aren’t so bad with talk after all,” he murmured finally, so softly it was almost lost in the rain. He reached up, cupping the side of Zoro’s face with his free hand. “If you think you're due,” he said, “come collect.”
Didn’t need to tell Zoro twice.
He closed the gap between their mouths quickly and firmly. His brain almost shut down when his lips finally made contact with the ones he had pined after for so long. They were soft and supple, tasting of salty rain, nicotine, and the noontime’s noodles. Zoro drew the blond in closer to his chest like how they were when he held him in the dojo, only better, so much better. Releasing Sanji’s captured limb, he wrapped an arm around the skinny torso and the other hand went behind the blond’s neck. He massaged and worked Sanji’s lips, sucking on the bottom one until a small whimper escaped the cook’s throat.
Pulling back he took a few gasps of breath before looking at Sanji’s flushed and gasping face and was forced to reclaim those lips again- not minding the rain water as it ran down their joined mouths looking for any place to seep into and invade. His tongue probed against the other's lips begging for entrance and was rewarded as Sanji responded to the deepening kiss. Zoro's stomach was on fire as he drove into the heat and rich flavor of the cook’s mouth. He ran his tongue over everything it could reach and wasn’t surprised to find Sanji’s tongue wrapping around and challenging his own. With a faint murmur of satisfaction, he tugged Sanji even closer and could feel the arms around his neck tighten and they attempted to be as close as possible. He sucked on Sanji’s tongue with a fever, inhaling the scent and sight and taste of him the way a man racked with thirst responds to water. He needed more of this, more of Sanji. Pulling away from the kiss, Zoro immediately dropped his head to the collarbone so beautifully displayed by the neck of Sanji’s shirt. He kissed up and down it carefully sucking off all the rain droplets that came in his way.
“Ah-”
Sanji arched suddenly as Zoro was drifting closer to the blond’s neck.
“Hummm,” he murmured into the porcelain skin, “Is that where you like it?”
He set upon Sanji’s pulse like a madman, sucking and licking, and dragging his teeth across the redness he was creating, making sure he left his mark. Sure Sanji might be mad, but at the moment he really didn’t care. He could feel the blond’s slight frame trying not to writhe against him and it was driving him mad with sensation; the rain was doing nothing to calm the hot blood racing inside him. He managed to back Sanji up against the tree whilst still working the growing mark on his neck. His hand slid from golden hair to the front of the soaked shirt, which was so wet he could feel the hardening nipples underneath the cloth and brushed the pad of his thumb against one roughly. Sanji’s body jerked again, and he could feel the whole lanky length of it move against his own. He groaned; he was so fucking hard right now. His hands left Sanji’s body for just a second as they repositioned themselves on the blond’s waist. Holding the thin body still he thrust his hips forward, grinding their groins together with wet heated friction. Sanji cried out loudly, but whether that was from their suddenly close lower-regions or the finishing love bite Zoro had delivered to his neck the swordsman wasn’t sure.
“Neh- Z-Zoro.”
“Hmm?” he mumbled into Sanji’s neck as he dragged his lips down it.
“We -AH!”
Zoro ran his hands up Sanji's sides slowly before finding hold on the cook’s abused nipples, twisting them and rubbing them through the wet fabric.
“What was that?”
“Bastard,” the blond managed through hazy eyes, “We can’t do this…we can’t-AH! DAMN IT ZORO! Stop biting me!”
Zoro glared up at him from the blond's chest, teeth still loosely closed around a nipple. “You're as hard as I am,” he ghosted a hand over the bulge in Sanji’s khakis, “and you're saying no?”
“If you’d let me finish, dumb-ass,” Sanji's hips jerked forward trying to reach the swordsman’s teasing hand, “I was going to say we can’t do this here. I’d much prefer my bed and some lube thanks.” He rolled his eyes and banged his head lightly against the trunk.
“We’ve got a blanket right there…” Zoro rubbed his hand over Sanji’s crotch, the other one still attached to the blond’s chest, “And I’m sure we could figure out something in that basket for-OW! WHAT THE FUCK!”
Sanji quickly lowered his leg and glared good and hard at the man wincing in pain in front of him.
“Food is never to be disrespected like that! Even if your cock is about to explode with tension or, or, there’s nothing else around for miles. That’s a one way ticket to masturbation city.”
“Fine! Geez you’re a weird shit” Zoro backed up, letting Sanji move away from their tree.
“Come on, grab the basket and let’s go.”
“Don’t get too used to me doing what you say,” Zoro responded as he bent over to retrieve the wicker, somewhat uncomfortably. “Next time- neh!” He straightened at once, free hand flying to his molested ass. Sanji let out a burst of short laughter at the swordsman’s face.
“Sorry, it was just…the bending with wet pants and…and…Zoro?”
“C’mere.” Zoro took a swipe at him with his basket free hand. The blond took a jump back evading capture and started to run down the hill. A predatory grin crossed the swordsman’s face as he took off after him. When he reached the bottom of the hill he could see Sanji not too far ahead. The cook must have heard Zoro break through the brush because he turned around, running backwards at a slower pace, and smiled at him.
“Oi what’s wrong Marimo? Get lost? It was a well-trodden path. ”
Zoro’s eyes narrowed at the jibe and put forth a burst of speed. Sanji tried to turn himself around in time and regain his usual momentum, but it was too late. Zoro snaked his arm around the blond’s waist lifting him off his feet.
“Caught yah, what’s my prize?”
“You already know what you get.”
Wiggling out of the larger man’s grasp, Sanji dropped to his feet lightly before turning towards Zoro and entwining their hands together.
“Hmmm, what’s that?”
“Oh, just a night of awe-inspiring, hot, fantastic sex.”
Zoro chuckled. He couldn’t argue with that. “What if you had won?”
“Same thing.”
He couldn’t help the burst of roaring laughter that came out of that one. “I’m up for the challenge.” He turned their joined hands and brought them up to his mouth to kiss Sanji’s hand lightly.
“Good,” Sanji responded coyly as he slipped through the front door, “'cause I’m just dying to get out of these wet clothes.”
“What a coincidence; getting you out of your clothes is my goal too.”
The door clicked shut quietly behind him.
“Oh Ha Ha that was witty.”
“C’mere,” Zoro called again.
Sanji leaned forward, balancing himself by grabbing, and therefore immobilizing, Zoro’s hands, and briefly showering his lips with quick little kisses. He pushed the swordsman back a step or two when he moved back.
“You do remember where the bedroom is right?” he said with a smirk, walking backwards, “If not…you can follow me.”
“Heh.”
The picnic basket fell heavily to the wooden floor beside him as he followed like a moth to the flame.