ZoSan - Music and Lyrics AU
Musician!Zoro and Compositor!Sanji
ok, hear me out: musician!Zoro and compositor!Sanji, BUT they don’t know each other.
See, Zoro is an outstanding musician, he plays any kind of instrument and even can play three at a time if the methods are favorable, but even tho he has an angelic voice, he can’t write lyrics to save his life. He sucks at lyrics so much that he takes Luffy’s advice (who doesn’t know shit about music but somehow still has an opinion on the matter) and goes complete sound experience artist. He has become even more popular than before now that he focuses on the chords and not on the lyrics.
His manager, Nami (because of course is Nami), tries to persuade him to partner up with someone else, but Zoro insists on going solo.
He receives an invitation to a collab with the Soul King and it’s kind of fun at first but their music just doesn’t match, and even tho they stay in contact for future collabs Zoro doesn’t think he can pair up with the lunatic again. He had just too many ideas in three seconds and comes up with the weirdest instrument combinations and even tho it always ends up sounding good, it sometimes is a mess and Zoro can’t focus on which instrument to start playing at which time or compass.
In a social gathering Zoro doesn’t want to be at and Nami forces him to go, he meets the super rock star Franky and his (creepy looking) manager Robin, and after a chat, Zoro refuses yet another collab with the perverted big guy. But Nami butts in and has a lively conversation with Robin in which she tells her that there is this new compositor who keeps asking for a job and is being said he’s a great poet. Nami takes the initiative to search for the guy even when Zoro is reluctant of having a partner.
Zoro didn’t expect the guy to accept the job in less than one phone call, because Nami demanded so many things at the same time, like: the lyrics have to be impartial so Zoro can sing it freely and not start rumors; Zoro has to have entire freedom in the music matter; the guy can’t write about something they didn’t accord beforehand; etc.
Zoro isn’t convinced yet and asks for a test, and to his surprise the next day a long-nose black guy appears on their doorstep with the lyrics at hand. His name was Usopp and he was the compositor’s agent (actually his delivery guy) and he hadn’t read the lyrics either. Zoro, Nami, and Usopp read it together and it’s just awesome. Usopp goes in a proud mood since he has known the guy for a long time and hadn’t had any doubts about his talent (he had), Nami is awestruck at the magnificent writing, and Zoro is speechless. He doesn’t want to admit that the lyric is great, but also can’t take down a great compositor. Zoro asks Nami to request a meeting for the contract but the mysterious compositor refuses and requests to do their jobs through Usopp. Somehow this ended up with a friendship between Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper (Zoro’s adoptive younger brother). They just hang out bothering him in the studio doing nothing specific.
Zoro stays in close contact with the compositor, asking for requests, giving advice in chords, and trying to connect with the guy, but he keeps avoiding each question directed to him instead of the songs. The lyrics he sends are still amazing and sentimental, and Zoro can do whatever he pleases with the music because it just sticks with everything.
When he finally finished the recording for his new album, he thought he would finally get the compositor’s name, but instead, is hit by a pseudonym: Mr. Prince. And he’s confused because he was so sure he had heard the nickname before, but couldn’t remember where exactly. A very very long time ago, he heard that name, when he wasn’t so invested in music, when his parents and sister hadn’t died yet.
Zoro doesn’t hear of him in a long time, since Nami gave him a little vacation before going with the next job. Zoro goes to interviews and music channels to talk about his new album. Sometimes they would mention the compositor but return quickly to Zoro instead of asking more about the guy.
Zoro is stressing himself out because he can’t take Mr. Prince off his head and everyone starts noticing. So Usopp invites him, Luffy, and Chopper to a boys’ outing to this new restaurant that just opened a few months ago but is said to have the best cuisine in the entire city. Zoro is somehow bored at the time, watching the others eat like starved men. He knows, he just tasted the food ok, so he knows. The rumors weren’t exaggerating, they could be even underestimating the restaurant’s food. At some point in the night, he hears the light sound of a piano. He remembered seeing a piano somewhere inside the gigantic restaurant. Without noticing he got up and followed the sound of the piano, recognizing little by little the piece being played.
Zoro loses the sound about three times, and he’s praying that the music doesn’t stop. When he finally reached the piano, he finds a slick blond man playing it, with such concentration. The lounge is empty, and Zoro figures it was an event hall. The echo makes the melody even more mesmerizing, and Zoro can’t think straight anymore. The sensation of floating in midair ends abruptly when the blond notices him and stops playing.
“Hello,” says the blond with a surprised look, “if your last name isn’t Don Quixote and it isn’t ten-thirty, I don’t think I was expecting anyone.”
Zoro stumbled in his words when he tried to apologize, and the blond laughed a little. Zoro caught himself blushing for unknown reasons and changed the subject as fast as he could. The blond introduced himself as Sanji Black, without any further explanation. If he wasn’t one of the Don Quixote family himself, what was he doing in here, then?
“That was one of KingOfHell’s,” Zoro didn’t want him to know who he was, at least for now, “y’know, the one that you just played.”
“Ah! Yes! I’m a big fan of his! Do you know of him?” Sanji’s eyes just started to shine the moment they changed the subject to music.
“Have you heard the new album? They say is amazing.” Zoro never was so egotistical, but for just this fan, he would like to see how fans see him.
“Well, I haven’t. I don’t have enough money to buy it, and it’s eating me alive to not have it.”
Sanji continued to blab about how fantastic the KingOfHell was and how extraordinaire of a person he was, and how excited Sanji was about the new album release because he would start to sing again, and whoa he really knew about Zoro’s career so much, it almost creeped him out. But it was average for a fan to be so invested in his favorite artist’s life nowadays, he really couldn’t find anything creepy about the guy, anyways. The clock turned ten-fifteen and Sanji pushed Zoro out of the event hall. He accompanied Zoro to his table and offered everyone a dessert from the house, and that’s how Zoro realizes he’s a waiter if not a chef of the place, and he immediately has a crush on the dude. Like, damn, who’s this gorgeous man who claims to be my biggest fan, knows how to cook splendidly, it’s the fucking sous-chef of the place and knows how to play the piano so goddamn good. And because Zoro has big money he starts going almost daily to the restaurant and sometimes asks Sanji to play a piece in the piano. He’s just lovestruck by now and Luffy and Nami can’t hold the laughter at his dumbness. They became very close friends but Zoro is still reluctant about telling him he’s the KingOfHell so Sanji is still very far away from getting intimate with him because he just knows Zoro’s hiding something.
Zoro gets very conflicted with his two different lives, so he resorts to his sessions-like with his composer. The so-called Mr.Prince is a very understanding dude and listens to the whole story. He doesn’t answer right away, Zoro even though he didn’t know how to respond to his situation, then claimed he indeed was in a similar situation, but instead with a crush, it was with his family. For the first time, Zoro was the one listening and not talking, and it gave him a feeling of dizziness. Mr. Prince opened up to him, and that was a good sign they were getting closer. That would look good for future jobs, too.
Not too long after talking things with Mr.Prince, he sends the lyric of the song they were working on, and it is just astounding, like always. But there is something along the lines that keeps Zoro on his nerves. Mr.Prince told him that it would sound so cool with a fast rhythm, to make people dance and jump and shout the song, but Zoro didn’t find it proper to give a party song such an angsty lyric. Maybe Mr. Prince was avoiding the subject, because he would know what his own song was talking about. He would know that a lyric with a double (could he say triple?)-meaning would be forgotten the moment the rhythm strikes.
So Zoro denied the request and made his own music. The lyric of the song wasn’t just what Mr.Prince was feeling, about always being behind a screen, never having a chance to show the world what a great person he was, not having support from anyone, and being treated differently from everyone else because he couldn’t do anything more than use his hands in obnoxious hobbies. No, it was what Zoro felt, too. About his double life, about his crush on a normal almost poor guy (tho didn’t know why, he was the sous-chef after all), about his losses, about his career, and about the person he wanted to become. So no, Zoro wasn’t going to give it a poor, party dancer sound, but a nostalgic and unforgettable sound, that could move every single person alive. He didn’t care about the rumors anymore, as Nami warned him. He didn’t even care if the next album wasn’t related to it. He would just release a single, then.
He took the piano, an instrument he hadn’t touched in decades but the memories were still so vivid, and composed at his heart's content.
Even tho he wanted the melody to be amazing, to be melancholic, to be draining, to be heart-breaking, to be just perfect, he couldn’t find the right thing for the bridge. Like, everything else was literal fire, but the bridge? He didn’t know what to do with it. He wanted it to be the breaking point, where everyone started to cry his eyes out, but he couldn’t find the right fucking tone. So he goes to the All Blue, to visit his beloved friend and take a rest for a minute. If he was this exhausted, he couldn’t even start to imagine how tiring most have been to write such a poem.
Sanji’s father, Zeff, tells Zoro that the blond is taking his break and is probably playing the piano again. Zoro goes to Sanji and finds him just as Zeff said. Zoro knows by now that he can’t interrupt the cook’s concentration. The melody he’s playing isn’t a melody Zoro has heard before, so he pays close attention to the blond’s hands. The melody is full of melancholy and sadness, and Zoro can’t help but run again against Mr.Prince’s song. And then Sanji slows down and the world slows down too, and it hits Zoro hard. Sanji tells him that is one of his diseased mother’s favorite songs, and she would play it to him every night. They talk a little about Zoro’s frustration with the song (being able to not give away the secret he was a musician of course) and how that was draining him a lot. Sanji tells him to have a break and invites Zoro on a date, and Zoro wouldn’t let down such an offer. Sanji led him around the city at night, guiding him into sweatshops and bakeries, talking about how good it would be to own a tiny restaurant, in a tiny town, making sweats and pastries for the ladies in town, help out some old hag, live in the nature, away from all worries and burdens of the world, just… stay in a corner of the world with his own rules. Such a poetic future, Zoro thought. Sanji looked so beautiful he wanted to kiss him. And when it hits midnight, some crazy random decides it is a great day to fly fireworks even tho it wasn’t an important date (Luffy, Sabo, and Ace), and Sanji’s eyes just shine in the night. That stargazing blue eyes, looking amused and happy, and just so full of love, and… a very nostalgic view. Zoro indeed though it was nostalgic. The nostalgic type that could bring him thirteen years back to the town he lived before with his sister. The nostalgic type that recreated an exact moment but at different times. The nostalgic type that made him realize something so precious to him he was shaking with happiness. All made sense now.
He couldn’t say it to Sanji, yet. But he would, eventually. Zoro returns to his studio where Luffy is being sold by Nami for eating again in the control cabin, and finishes the partiture. He calls Usopp over, because he wants to pass on a message to Mr.Prince, and tells Nami he wants the radio on call. He tells the broadcasters that he is going to have a concert in three weeks (Nami convinced him because he wanted to do it the next Friday and that was impossible to assemble) and the money paid for the entrance will be donated to social care, but besides that, the entrance is free (in the sense it’s paid the same day when you get in).
Everyone is shocked but of course, no one denies it to him. Nami thinks is character development and Luffy thinks is funny to see Zoro so weak for someone. Usopp is just confused at this point.
In the concert he plays a lot of songs, some of his old songs, some of his new songs, and the crowd is just SO hyped and happy, and even Zoro feels good to see so many fans around him that love him and maybe it isn’t so bad to be a musician after all. Maybe I can interact with my fans more often like Nami said. In the middle of the concert, he reveals his true identity because he just got so bored of having different lives in different places and trying to get a balance but that balance was never going to happen. He feels free and starts having fun for the first time in a very long time. Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp are hyped and Nami is biting her nails. Turns out Zoro invited the Soul King and SuperFranky over, too, and now the three of them are having fun and oh wow social care gotta be rich by now. At the end of the night, almost midnight, the lights go slowly down, and there is just Zoro and a piano on the scenery. Nami doesn’t give a shit by now, expectant of what the bastard is doing. And so he goes, the first chords for his newest song. He talks on the mic while his hands follow an invisible music sheet.
“This is my newest single, so for obvious reasons, you haven’t heard of it yet. As you may know, I suck at writing lyrics, so I have a composer you always seem to forget about. He’s called Mr.Prince if anyone has heard of him before. He’s a very kind and comforting person. Has helped me in many ways I didn’t think I could be helped. And he brought me joy in my job. He composed this song, too, and it would be my pleasure to show it to you since is his best work so far.”
He plays the song, with Mr.Prince’s lyrics and his music. Everyone’s in awe. Backstage, Chopper, Usopp, Franky, Brook, and Luffy are sharing a cry. When Zoro gets to the bridge he only thinks of Sanji. His smile, his voice, his laugh, his food, his kind heart… and in Mr.Prince, who sold his heart to Zoro in every piece of writing. The song finishes and the crowd explodes in cheers. Zoro takes the mic again, filled with what he hopes is the courage to what he’s about to say.
“I have not enough words to thank all of you for being here. You don’t know how much it means to me seeing you here all gather up to see some sweaty bastard playing a lot of instruments at the same time or listen to great, yet weird music from two awesome, yet stupid rock stars. Or even just for the social care money, I don’t care what’s your reason to be here, I just wanna thank you. This isn’t just me, all the songs I sang tonight were written by my partner Mr.Prince, and I want everyone to know that. Even if he doesn’t, even when he tells me he doesn’t like fame and that he’s already busy with other things, I want you people to acknowledge his work. Because I do, and I don’t know where I would be without him.” He looks at the crowd, expectant, hopeful, nervous. “I know you’re here, Prince!” he finally shouts. “And I hope my words get to you, just as yours got to me. If there was ever a chance for us to meet, please, say something! I can’t write you a poem, I can’t compose you a song… just… let me give you a melody you can follow.”
The crowd is silent, expectant of what will happen next. Zoro was waiting for Mr.Prince to appear, to give him some sign, to give him something. Apparently, the crowd was waiting for it, too. Zoro was losing hope when he heard someone cry the name of Mr.Prince. Little by little, the shout got louder and louder as people joined the call. Even with all the crowd calling his name, the composer never showed up. The concert was over with Zoro’s last thanks. He got down and was met with his teary friends. Chopper and Luffy jumped to hug him, and he could see Robin passing tissues to Franky. Nami was smiling behind her hands with blushed cheeks and red eyes. Everyone was happy for him and the amazing show he just gave, and proud at how much he had changed over a year. But Zoro was nowhere near the feeling of satisfaction. He couldn’t see his composer. He got silent and didn’t express any emotion towards his friends. When they asked and he told them, gripping his hands with so much force they almost bleed, Usopp smiled.
“Well…I wouldn’t lose hope, yet.”
Then, Sanji appeared out of nowhere, trying to catch his breath with his messy hair and his messy clothes. He was a total mess.
“You can’t just say those cringy lines in front of the entire world, Marimo!” He looked exhausted from all he had to run. “Do you even know how embarrassing was to look at you on the stage? Damn, I was dying inside, and I wasn’t even close to it! I’m pretty sure you left your fans hanging on a cliff tonight. Let me tell you, it was a shock when I found out you were the KingOfHell, Usopp never told me anything related before. Now that I know it’s you I feel embarrassed of all the times I blab about, well, you. And,” he laughed, “where do those cheesy ass lines come from? I never took you off the romantic type-” Zoro didn’t let him finish, as he rushed to him and hugged him. He stayed there, embracing the blond, waiting for him to say something else, or to push him away, or just do something. Sanji returned the hug and asked in a whisper only Zoro could hear.
“How did you know? I tried hard so you couldn’t recognize me.”
“Making me fall for you not only twice but three times in a row makes me wonder” he chuckled.
“I bet that without me you had already gotten lost in who knows where.”
