[Fic] Chasing the Spring Breeze
Pairing: ZoSan (sort of)
Words: 3685
Status: complete, one-shot
Warnings: AU (Japanese elementary school setting), little kids, tons of cuteness. >w>
Rating: K+
Dedicated to my kawaii waifu Gilje Honey (thegilje@tumblr). Love you lots~ <3
.oOoOo.
Sanji enjoyed going to school. True, he found it a shame that he couldn't loiter around in his uncle Zeff's kitchen instead to learn cooking, but all in all, the elementary school he would be finishing in three years had many things for him in store.
On an average day, aside from having to sit through his classes, he still had things he could look forward to. Most of his teachers liked him and he generally enjoyed the lessons, so he didn't have to worry about grades all that much. He had quite a few friends in his class he could hang out with, as well as a handful of little ladies he could practice his self-proclaimed charms on. Well, not always with huge success, but practice is key, right? And the karate club he attended after classes was awesome, to boot.
Also, there was a very special something making his days brighter: a little secret he had all to himself. It was waiting for him every few days, when he opened his shoe locker in the morning. Ever since the school year started, sometimes he would find a little envelope sitting on top of his indoor shoes. Each of them had his name written on it, with a little spiral next to the katakana in the corner, resembling the curly eyebrows he had. There was no one else in the school called Sanji, but that little curved line still made the address seem something special to the blond boy.
As he opened the envelope and the small letter inside, he would usually be greeted by the words “Dear Sanji-kun”. Though in more recent ones, he would read “Dear Mayuge-kun” instead. He at first frowned upon the change in addressing, but he got to like that name a lot more when he once found the following words underneath it: “I think your eyebrows are cute. I like them a lot.” The girl, Sanji thought, had nice handwriting, but she probably must have felt embarrassed, since she sometimes crossed out a symbol she accidentally failed at. The letter would say modest and sweet things like, “The onigiri at lunch was really delicious. I hope you got to try one yesterday,” or “There were a lot of nice pictures in art class, but I liked yours the best”, which made the aspiring little cook think that the “sender” must have been a shy young lady.
But he could only guess who she could have been, for the person who sneaked these small love letters into his locker had never left her name at the end, not even the first letter. There was sometimes a sticker or a stamp of cartoon figures in its stead, though. Maybe the girl thought it to be impolite to leave the good-bye space empty? That thought filled Sanji with delight, and he often squeezed the letter to his chest, happy that he had such a refined little lady sending him sweet messages.
Each lucky day he got his hands on a new little letter, he would be beaming all through the day with a big smile on his face. However, if his friends asked him what he was all smiles about, he wouldn't tell them his secret. “I saw something nice this morning,” he would only answer, and he didn't care about the others frowning at him for it.
Because he, Kuroashi Sanji, nine years old, had a secret admirer.
.oOoOo.
There was no one who could ruin Sanji's mood if he had found another message in the morning. Except for maybe one person. A person with spiky green hair, a loud mouth, a bad attitude and closely linked with said attitude, also at least one band aid on him somewhere. Roronoa Zoro was his name and kendo was his game. Thank goodness for that, since Sanji was sure he would have gone crazy if that guy would have been in the karate club with him, too, aside from being his newest classmate. Zoro had only been in this school for one year, since 3rd grade, but he had already earned Sanji's trust - trust that he would spoil the rest of the day with just one comment of his.
And there the idiot was, trying to steal his ball at P.E. But the damn grasshead was very wrong if he thought Sanji would let him...
“Oi, let go! That's my ball!”
“It's not yours! Your name isn't on it!” Zoro retorted, and tried to extend his hand with the ball so Sanji wouldn't reach it.
“But I always have this ball! I recognize it!” The blond, however, didn't falter, and with much fidgeting and chasing, he had gotten a good grip on the desired toy.
“No, you don't, that's stupid!” The green-hair stuck out his tongue and wouldn't let go of the ball, so the both of them commenced in trying to pull it towards themselves with all of the strength their little hands could muster.
“You're stupid! Give it back, mossface!”
“Dork!”
“Plant head!”
“Mayuge!”
Mayuge, he said? How dare he! That was the precious nickname that pretty young lady gave him in her letters! Nobody else was allowed to call him that, especially not that green monkey!
Sanji growled, and he was positive he must have looked really scary, for Zoro had an expression of shock written over his features for a moment. And in that very moment, the blond boy shoved him, and almost made him stumble.
“Don't call me that, you stupid Marimo!”
“And you don't call me a...” Zoro started to yell and shove back, but then he stopped and frowned at Sanji. “What's a marimo?”
“You don't even know what a marimo is?” Sanji raised one of his curly eyebrows at him incredulously, but he didn't really feel like explaining anything to the other boy. He much rather wanted to get the darned ball already, so he tried to pull it out of Zoro's hands again. “You really are stupid! That moss on your head ate your brains! Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
For a while more, Sanji tried to nudge, to tear, to twist the rubber object out of Zoro's hands. But then, as he took a bigger momentum to grab and pull it towards himself, the green haired boy simply let go of it, making Sanji fall onto his butt on the ground.
“Ow! What did you do that for?! Stupid Marimo!” Sanji exclaimed and glared up at Zoro, who was showing him a strange kind of expression. The green-head still looked just as angry as he did a few seconds ago when they were fighting over the ball. Though somehow, Sanji found that the boy standing before him also seemed almost... hurt?
“You can have it,” Zoro mumbled, clenching his little fists, and in the next minute, he leaped to the basket with balls, and picked out a new one for himself. He was just about to run off to the other corner of the gym ground, but after two steps, he turned back to shoot the blond an angry look.
“Stupid Mayuge!” He stuck out his tongue and pulled at the skin under his eyes, and then he dashed off.
Sanji was left sitting there, dumbfounded by the way Zoro acted. Though as the teacher came his way, he stood up again, dusting off his aching bottom a little. He patted the ball in his hands which he victoriously claimed as his own again, and the started to bounce it on the floor, thinking a little about what a strange and stupid guy Zoro was.
.oOoOo.
The next day, Sanji's indoor shoes sat lonely in his locker. Just like the day after, and the day after that, and after that one, too. As more time passed and there was still no love letter waiting for him, Sanji became more and more disappointed. Why weren't there anymore letters from his secret admirer? Was she home sick? Or even worse: did he do something to make that little lady hate him? That thought was rather painful for him to think about, even more than he thought it was as the days came and went.
Those little envelopes he usually found used to be just another thing he could wait for on an average school day, but Sanji had to realize that by then, those short messages he received had grown to be more important to him than all the fun things in school. He didn't feel like playing with his friends too much, he became to anxious around his girl classmates and he dazed off during classes, too. He didn't even feel like picking a fight with that stupid Zoro, either, no matter what the mosshead said or did. And in each break, he could hardly wait to get out of the classroom, so he could run straight to his locker, somewhere inside hoping that there would be a sweet message waiting for him there. However, no matter how many times a day he opened that small door, there was no envelope there for him, just the emptiness of his outdoor shoes staring back at him.
Days went by in this manner for a little over a week, and the usually so lively blond didn't even smile anymore. Not until one Monday morning, when he went to fetch his shoes, there was one of those little envelopes inside, almost as if smiling at him with its flap. Sanji laughed out loud with joy as he saw it, and he hugged it to his little chest even before he read what was inside. And those lines in the short little letter made his young heart pound happily in his chest.
“Dear Sanji-kun,
Please don't look so sad. A smile fits you much better.”
His day had been made. He didn't care if they were writing a Maths test, or if there wasn't any more seafood pasta in the canteen that day. He only needed to read that letter again, and he was instantly smiling wide.
He could barely believe it; his mysterious admirer still liked him.
.oOoOo.
One or two days have gone by, and the little love-messages kept secretly wandering into Sanji's shoe locker. The little cook-to-be was pleased with reading them one after the other, just delving in happiness after that pause in letters. But very soon, he had grown more and more curious about who that nice little lady could have been. He basically didn't know anything about her, except for what her handwriting looked like, and what cartoons she seemed to enjoy.
However, that wasn't the whole truth. Sanji could also notice that his admirer must have been an early bird: when school was out and he switched for his outdoor shoes, there was never a letter in his locker yet, but on lucky mornings, there was one waiting for him there just when he arrived. And so, Sanji thought up a plan. He decided to wake up extra early, so he could arrive at school way before anyone else, hoping he could spy on his own locker for intruders. Especially for pretty ones.
The first try wasn't successful. True, he managed to wake up as early as he had planned, and he found a good hiding spot in the corner between the wall and a locker-row. But all for nothing, since there was no one he could spot going near his shoe locker that morning. He didn't receive any letters that day, either, so at least he could rest assured that it wasn't him who missed something.
The next day, the blond boy was camping out in his little spying corner again, looking in the direction of his locker with tired eyes. He barely blinked them shut for a second (or at least he thought it was just a second) when he heard someone coming in for the first time that morning. He was shocked to see a green head of hair peeking in the front door, looking around, and then proceeding to dash in between the locker rows.
Sanji didn't know all that much about Zoro, but the boy's trouble with finding his way into classes was really hard to miss. And yet, there the Marimo was, among the earliest of early to be seen on the school grounds and to change his shoes. But wait, there was something wrong there, Sanji thought. That wasn't the grasshead's locker he was opening, it was...
“Hey, stop right there!” Sanji called through the empty hallway and jumped out of his hideout, startling Zoro so much that he all but fell against the shoe locker row behind his back.
“Wha... What are you...?” Zoro mumbled, still wide-eyed from that scare, but his face promptly formed a scowl, and he quickly hid his hands behind his back. “You scared me, damn you!”
“What the hell are you doing at my locker?” The blond demanded.
“N-nothing!” Zoro protested. “I thought it was mine.”
Well, that wasn't something Sanji found hard to believe, but he wouldn't let Zoro off the hook that easily. Especially since he could see the boy trying to smuggle something away behind his back. Something white and out of paper...
“And what's that in your hand?” He shot him another question, and stepped closer to try peek behind the other's back.
“There's nothing in my hand,” the green haired boy shook his head, though he awkwardly pushed his back against the locker row more.
“Show me,” Sanji persisted and followed the other around, stepping with him as the other tried to turn away.
Zoro, however, would have none of it. He first tricked the blond with a fake step to the left, and then he quickly turned the other way, running between the adjacent row of lockers. Sanji ground his teeth and dashed after him, chasing the Marimo in zigzag among the rows. After a while of running, the pursuer had enough, and decided to hide at the end of a row, to wait until Zoro started looking for him instead. Sure enough, he managed to confuse the directionally challenged boy, who stopped abruptly when he couldn't hear any more steps approaching behind him. Though the blond had to wait a good while until the plant head finally came his way. Really, how on earth did he find his way to P.E. lessons in the other building...?
Just as Sanji thought of that, he finally saw Zoro's shadow nearing the end of the row where he was waiting. Then, when the young kendo apprentice finally came close enough, he jumped out of his hiding.
“Gimme that thing!”
Zoro, though, noticed him before he even leaped in front of him, and quickly turned around to run. Though the poor thing didn't make quite a big enough turn, and ran straight against one of the rows. After the impact, he doubled back and then fell onto his butt on the floor, rubbing at his dizzy green head.
“Owowow...”
Sanji snorted at the hilarious display, and used Zoro's self-knockout to snatch that object from his fingers.
“Gotcha!”
“Hey, give that back!” Zoro yelled, and reached for it as he tried to stand up.
He wasn't fast enough, though; Sanji already recognized what he was holding in his hands. It was a letter, in one of those small, white envelopes, addressed to him, with that little spiral in the corner.
After Zoro got up, both of the boys stood still for a moment; Sanji staring at the letter, and Zoro just looking at the blond's face, not being able to move.
“Um...” The green haired one tried to break the silence, but he was quickly cut off.
“This is...” Sanji just gaped at the envelope at first. But then, his thin little fingers curled around the edges as he shook with anger. “You! You tried to steal it, didn't you?!” He glared at Zoro.
“What? No!” Zoro instinctively tired to yell louder than the blond, seemingly surprised and angry from the accusation.
“And you stole them from me a week ago, too, haven't you?” Sanji's face was red as he pointed his finger harshly at the other. “You stinking Marimo, give them back!!”
“I haven't stolen your damn letters!” Zoro shook his clenched fists by his sides, his face also gaining a reddish color, the band aid on his cheek almost glowing.
“Then why did you have this?” The blond shook the crumpled envelope in his hand.
“Because I--!” Zoro started to retort, but he hastily cut off his sentence. He clasped his hands onto his mouth, and if possible, his face became an even darker crimson.
“Because you what?” Sanji raised a curly eyebrow, finding Zoro's behavior strange.
He put his hands onto his hips as he cocked his head to the side, staring at Zoro who still didn't speak. And then, a tiny grin appeared on the mini cook's face.
“Don't tell me... you wrote these?” He said as his grin grew even more mocking, and he laughed out loud at his own joke. “Haha, as if!” He clutched at his belly from laughter.
Zoro, though, instead of snapping at Sanji, looked like he even stopped breathing. He turned away, pressed his arms to his sides and gripped at the fabric of his uniform pants, as if he had been caught stealing from the cookie jar. Only much more red in the face.
Sanji's laughter died down at the sight, and he made a questioning face as he lowered his hands.
“Hey, Marimo... That's just a joke, right? Why would you write me love letters, right?” Sanji tried to get himself to laugh, in hopes that Zoro would laugh too, and that it was really just a bad pun. “I mean... Only girls write love letters...”
“T-that's stupid!” Zoro shot back. “It doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl as long as...! As long as...!” When he realized what he was saying, he turned away again, pursed his lips shut, and tried to keep them from quivering.
“So then...” Sanji gulped. “You're my secret admirer...?”
“Just...” Zoro's voice was small, shaking, as if he was about to cry. Sanji had never seen him like that before; that vulnerable, and almost shy side he was showing him. For a moment, the blond thought him to be kind of cute that way, but he quickly chased that thought away with a small frown. “Just open it,” the green-head finally said, his words just one big sigh.
Sanji glanced onto the envelope in his hand again, and with a shrug, he ripped it open, and pulled out the small letter from within. Upon unfolding the small paper, he was greeted with familiar letters, and a short message, as usual. Though, as he read the lines, he found that the letter was a slight bit different from the rest he had gotten.
“Dear Sanji-kun,” Sanji read out loud, and Zoro made an 'eek'-like sound in shock, but the blond ignored him. “You were very good at the karate club last time. I wonder if we could... What? Spar together...?”
The blond lifted his eyes up from the paper with a curious expression. He still couldn't look Zoro in the face, though, since now the mosshead was gazing down at his feet intently. But the now revealed little admirer was quick to whip his head back up when Sanji started to chuckle. If it was another mocking laughter, he wouldn't have dared to look up again. However, the little laugh he heard sounded almost gentle, and when he dared to lay eyes on the blond soon-to-be chef, he was smiling. And there Zoro went, blushing again...
“Hey, Marimo,” the blond spoke.
“What....?” Zoro muttered.
“Had breakfast yet?” Came the unexpected question, to which the boy with the band aid could only blink at first.
“No,” he answered in the end, shaking his head a tad unsurely. “Not yet.”
“Then, let's have some together,” Sanji offered.
“Huh? What? Why?” Zoro stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Say,” the blond crossed his arms over his chest and frowned a little. “Did you mean the stuff you wrote me all this time?”
Zoro was, yet again, unprepared for a change of topic like that, so he stiffened a little. Though at that point, there was no use denying anything anymore, and he was thoroughly riled up and confused, anyway, so he looked at Sanji sheepishly, and gave a small nod.
“Yeah...”
“Well, I barely know anything about you,” Sanji said to that, still looking a little strict, which made Zoro turn his eyes away again. “So let's have breakfast together and get to know each other,” the tiny cook continued, audibly smiling, and the green-haired boy felt his heart skip a beat.
“Um...” He at first just blinked at Sanji, but then he took a deep breath, and nodded his head again, much more livelier this time. “Un!” He smiled brightly, which he had no idea why, but made Sanji chuckle again.
“Good! Let's get changed, then, I'm hungry,” the blond said, and then smirked at Zoro. “Should I show you your locker this time?”
“Shut up, I can find it on my own!” Zoro retorted, but not in his usual grumpy way. He was laughing, and grinning back.
After a few moments, and their shoes having switched places with the ones sleeping in the lockers, the two 9-year-olds were running again, laughing as they raced to the canteen, past the janitor who called after them to slow down.
“Ha-ha! Too slow, stupid Mayuge!”
“What was that?! I'm gonna get you, shitty Marimo!”
END