yes to all these tags. yesyesyes.
like can you imagine? that incident with reiju becomes a fond memory as their journey continues ever onward, but it sits in the recesses of their minds, a warm reminder of their budding feelings.
then the one piece is found, and suddenly all their paths begin to diverge. when the strawhats begin to step towards dreams far from the deck of the thousand sunny, it is zoro that is first to leave.
“you will return,” sanji grits out, the pressure of his forehead against zoro’s grounding, stabilizing. promising.
zoro shifts impossibly closer, hand coming to clasp sanji’s. “i will,” he agrees.
the expression on the cook’s face wavers at the touch, eyes suddenly glassy yet nonetheless ablaze with near-desperate hope. “you better win, mosshead.”
he grins, an animalistic, primal thing. “you know i will. i’ve proven myself once already, let me do it again.”
“cocky asshole,” sanji laughs, eyes crinkling with mirth at the faded memory of his sister’s visit.
they share in that and fall silent again. it could’ve been seconds or months, but they bask in each other, wordless for once in the argument-filled time they’ve known each other, loved each other. the tension is palpable, and sanji fidgets slightly before whispering;
“i refuse to be married to anyone other than the greatest swordsman in the world.”
and zoro freezes, eye widening as his grip on sanji tightens. the cook won’t meet his eyes, but his face is flushed a brilliant shade of cherry red and there’s a tremble to his shoulders unbefitting of the prince of germa, but so beautifully sanji, the cook of the strawhats. one of the pirate king’s wings. zoro’s equal. zoro’s partner.
then he untangles their fingers, sanji’s hand twitching towards his as if chasing the warmth. his expression almost closes off and he nearly steps back, along with all his words, feelings, and promises. but zoro takes him by the wrist and flips his hand palm-up, rooting him in place.
sanji watches as zoro unclasps one of his three earrings, catching light as he presses the delicate thing into sanji’s palm.
it is gold, like first place, like dawn, like a wedding ring.
when zoro returns a year later battered, bruised, and bent, yet nonetheless grinning with the pride of a victor as he tracks mud and blood all over the pristine, tiled floor of a kitchen in the all blue, sanji swears he can hear bells.