I've been thinking about Thriller Bark AGAIN so much lately and about how I've never really written anything for them post-thriller bark. So I wrote this little thing, which doesn't feel like enough for my AO3 so I'm just putting it here. Rated M. Tags for uhhh... nonchalant discussion of death?
If I were to post this and give it a title, it would be World's Most Sword-Swinging Shithead
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“Hey, what the hell are you doing here, shouldn’t you be lying down still?” Sanji’s spoke in a slow drawl and lazily waved the spatula at him.
“I’ve been lying down for days,” Zoro dragged his feet walking in.
“Yeah, and you were even more almost-dead than you were at Baratie, so bad dog, go lay down,” he pointed the spatula into the corner for some reason.
“Not tired,” Zoro mumbled, still moving toward him.
“I didn’t say sleep, I said lay down, at least until Chopper clears you to move around,” now he was waving it toward the sky, and with his other elbow raised with his hand on the skillet handle, it gave Zoro the perfect opening to hug him around his middle from behind.
“Wh-wha?” Sanji flailed and struggled for just a second before Zoro let him go.
“Why’d you do that?” Sanji was now holding the spatula with both hands and pointing it in his direction like it was a longsword.
“Because I was almost dead,” Zoro said. and he made a point not to step that far away. In fact, he was close enough that Sanji was able to hold the spatula just under the jut of his chin.
“You’re saying you suffered brain damage, then?” Sanji asked, and his face turned comically sympathetic, “you poor, poor thing…” he caressed Zoro’s cheek with the spatula in a degrading manner.
“Cook,” Zoro growled, grabbing the spatula and shoving it away, “let’s not fuck around right now,” he didn’t intend for his words to come out the way they did. He heard himself, low, hoarse, maybe a little needy, and he saw the expression on the cook’s face change like he’d heard all of that too.
“I want to be with you,” Zoro had no choice but to carry it home, “even just once.”
Sanji’s expression had gone from silly to surprised and now to serious with his brow furrowed, eyes darting around Zoro’s face like he was trying to read some secret hidden within it. It was like he was worried that if he said anything in line with what Zoro was getting at it would be some kind of “gotcha!” He was still reading this like some kind of competition, like some game he was at risk of losing. Zoro wasn’t in the mood for it.
“I almost died,” Zoro’s voice cracked.
“I know that better than anyone, jackass,” Sanji responded through clenched teeth, apparently out of jokes.
“So?” Zoro said, moving closer so their foreheads bumped. “Don’t you want…?” he trailed off, closing his eyes and feeling Sanji ever so slightly press back against him. It was there in a thousand secret looks and just-a-little-longer-than-necessary touches. Something was happening between them, since Skypeia at least, and Zoro was sure it wasn’t one-sided. He was also sure that the damn cook’s mind was a conundrum he might never be able to solve, so he didn’t have a clue if this approach would work.
Sanji still hadn’t responded, but when Zoro opened his eyes his were shut, like he too was just quietly feeling it, their closeness. Zoro wondered how long it would take him to actually verbalize his position, but decided that perhaps he didn’t need to. If he didn’t want to say it, then Zoro could help him around that.
His lips were already only inches away, all Zoro had to do was tilt the orientation of his own head so their mouths touched instead of their foreheads. He started to move, slowly, until he was close enough to feel Sanji take a deep breath inward. When their lips met, it was the slightest ghost of a touch, but Zoro felt an urge to lift his hand and place it flat against the left side of the cook's chest.
His heart was pounding, so fast and loud and Zoro didn’t realize until he could feel it, that he could also hear it.
“Cook,” Zoro voice was weak against his lips.
The response he got was arms around his neck and a searing kiss as the cook surged into the kiss and tugged Zoro close to him. Their hips bumped and Zoro felt the hardness against his thigh for just a moment but he chased that feeling, crowding the cook back against the counter and pinning his narrow waist under the press of his abs and rolling his hips up so Sanji could feel that he was in a similar, or possibly more severe state.
The kiss broke then, Sanji broke it, but didn’t otherwise move, he just looked into Zoro’s eyes with surprise on his face. His expression looked foggy, but like there may have been something akin to reservation far beneath a cloud of desire in his glossed over-eyes and kiss-swollen lips that hung open to accommodate little puffs of breath.
Then a new emotion swept over that face, one Zoro was intimately familiar with: rage.
“Do you remember what you did, you son of a bitch?” Sanji hissed, arms unwinding from around Zoro’s neck, fingers instead viciously curling into and pulling the collar of his shirt instead.
“You knocked me out, threw me aside, left me there without a word while you went off to die,” he spat, literally spat, Zoro could feel the wet drops hitting his face, “and then when I woke up I had to be the one to try and find you because no one else knew why you weren’t there. I went looking and the whole time, every corner I turned I thought I’d see your bloody, mutilated, crumpled corpse somewhere dead—,”
Zoro placed a hand gently on the side of his face and it stopped his ranting.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Zoro said, earning a hardened glare, “but I’m still alive, somehow. And I do have a choice about what to do next, that’s why I’m here.”
“So, what, you realized you forgot to cross fucking me off your bucket list so—,”
“Cook,” Zoro interrupted, calm, because he didn’t want to be like this. Not right now, just this once, he needed it to be different.
“I know,” Sanji croaked, “but I don’t want to have to rush this, okay? Whatever it is, I don’t want to force it, I want to feel like we have all the time in the world. I want—,” he stopped, and looked Zoro in the eye, expression serious but no longer with anger, “—I need more time,” he said.
Zoro’s heart twisted in his chest.
“So just don’t fucking die, okay? Don’t you have to become the world’s most sword-swinging shithead?” He snapped again, “…fucking idiot…” he grumbled, and then Zoro watched him start to unravel, remained still as he collapsed enough for his head to fall and rest against Zoro’s shoulder.
“Thank you,” Sanji whispered against him.
“For what?”
“Saving Luffy, and all of us, and…” he muffled the next word by pressing his mouth against Zoro’s skin but Zoro heard it, “…and me.”
Zoro kissed his hair, then released a heavy sigh into it so the strands on top of his head fluttered around.
“So, about my bucket list…” Zoro mumbled.
“No,” Sanji drew back, and looked him in the eye again, “not right now for a million reasons, starting with because I’m literally in the middle of breakfast,” he gestured toward the simmering happening on the stove, “because I can’t look at you right now without being pissed that you tried to leave, and because I’m going to need to be more than a line on a bucket list, jackass, but if that’s what I am then I’ll stay uncrossed just to keep you alive.”
“More?” Zoro latched onto just one word and pressed for explanation, and Sanji’s eyes widened.
“Ah, well…” he wiggled free of any of Zoro’s extremities and turned around to face the stove again, removing the lid and starting to stir.
Zoro released the breath he’d been holding and a relaxed smile crept over his face as he slowly wrapped his arms around the cook from behind again.
“That’s all I needed to hear,” he said, and squeezed.
“Yeah, yeah,” Sanji muttered, “now go back to bed.”
fin
More of my bullshit at https://archiveofourown.org/users/Patchratt
asking someone to promise to kill you if you lose yourself, coming back from the dead to fulfill that promise, claiming that you’re all good now so as not to cause worry, getting real close to instigate a fight moments after waking up, like the homoeroticism is off the charts with these two
In a really amazing fic and it got me thinking (after I laughed my ass off because its accurate as hell)
I thought about Sanji complaining that Zoro should shower more often or literally kicking him into the bathroom because he smells. And Zoro doesn't budge of course because he's as stubborn. And when he still doesn't shower, Sanji threatens to help Zoro wash because obviously he's too stupid to do it himself. And because Zoro can be as much of a little shit as Sanji he goes like "okay, if you insist" because he's sure Sanji will just kick him into the bathroom like he did before and not do anything more.
But well Sanji is committed now and it's for the sake of everyone and he doesn't back down once he managed to wrangle Zoro into the bathroom. Zoro of course defends himself as good as he can (wich is kinda hard on slippery bathroom tiles).
So they just bicker and fight as always just with a lot more water and less clothes. I just have a very vivid image of Sanji very aggressively scrubbing a pinned down Zoro, who retaliates by pushing Sanji under the shower.
And if there are wandering eyes and hands that's just for the sake of getting clean. And if each others lingering touches feel kinda good, no they don't. It's not gay to help your idiot crewmate take a shower.
Zoro knew what his relationship with Sanji looked like to outsiders. He also knew Sanji was his soulmate, the love of his life. And while the man lying to him, to the crew and running off to get married hurt him, he knew the other had his reasons. Even if the cook never talked about them.
The cook had a new routine now. He stayed to himself, spending less time with the crew, flitting between them like a ghost. He still cooked the meals, made extravagant snacks and drinks for everyone but avoided their eyes and touch as he delivered everything to them. He only allowed Zoro to be in the galley with him, but even then, it was silent.
And everyone looked to Zoro for answers, but he couldn’t give them. Sanji wasn’t even talking to him. Not about anything important anyway. Sure, he complimented his marimo on his workouts and cooked his favourite foods, but he was so distant, so sad. And all Zoro could do was wait for him to break.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took less time than Zoro expected. It had been a normal day on the Sunny. They docked at a small island, Sanji going off by himself to restock whilst the others explored. They returned to a feast, Sanji nowhere to be found. Making a quick decision, Zoro ignored the food, heading instead for their space, the crows nest. Franky had made some additions, making it more private, more suitable for a couple.
And there he was. Curled up below the windows, face buried in Zoro’s pillow and favourite blanket from the bed. So determined to punish himself that he ignored the benches, bed and couch in the room.
Zoro really didn't know what to do. He still didn't have the full story about that wedding, but whatever happened, it was still hurting Sanji. Sighing, he moved to sit beside the other, reaching out to stroke a hand through the soft, blonde hair. Sanji scooted closer, ending with his head resting on Zoro's lap. the swordsman waited, knowing pushing would do nothing.
"All I ever wanted was for them to love me. To appreciate me, I wanted to be their family. But I was never good enough. Too weak, too emotional, too much of a crybaby. They hated me. And as a child I never understood why, I just knew it hurt. It thought it stopped hurting as I got older, but I was wrong."
The last part was whispered, like a shameful secret. Like Sanji should be embarrassed that he wanted his family to want him. Not for the first time, Zoro wished he'd been there at Sanji's side. To comfort him yes, but also to beat those assholes black and blue.
"They don't care about you. They never did. But you have two families who love you, Sanji. Zeff took you in, taught you everything you knew, and that man is your father. And you have us, the crew. You're nakama, you're one of our own. And we'll do whatever it takes to prove that to you, no matter how long it takes or what we have to do.
Zoro paused here, smiling when he looked down into those blue eyes he loved so much. "You're not a Vinsmoke, you're Blackleg Sanji. You're a Straw Hat." His thought of 'hopefully one day Roronoa Sanji' went unspoken. Zoro pulled Sanji into a tight hug as the other started crying, finally letting all his unspoken emotions and feelings out. Screw those Germa 66 assholes. If they couldn't see what an amazing person they were missing, that was their loss. Sanji had the family he deserved, and they would treat his exactly like he deserved.
I feel bad for the non-One Piece fans on tumblr but at the same time seeing Buggy get the same reception on tumblr as he does in One Piece has me DYING
The plastered Usopp talking to Mihawk situation in opla is already funny as fuck on its own but like. Mihawk and Shanks have been rivals/friends/drinking buddies/divorcees for decades. Mihawk very definitely knows Yasopp. Did Mihawk realize Usopp vaguely reminded him of someone and spent their whole encounter trying to figure out who. Did Yasopp get drunk at Shanks' party for Luffy and start talking about his son while Mihawk kind of sat there slowly putting pieces together
Something that really fucks me up is this scene where Robin says she wants to die and how Luffy makes this face
And upon reading this for the first time, I felt a huge wave of emotion over his expression because it just felt to me like when he heard that, he was seeing something else. Almost like a memory that we weren't being shown.
And then later when Ace and Luffy's backstory plays out, this is revealed;
That Ace was suicidal. Feeling like it was wrong for him to have even been born and to live. Feeling hurt, angry, alone and unwanted.
And that the only reason he felt like he had the strength to keep living was because Luffy told him that he didn't want him to die.
Ace never directly told Luffy that he wanted to kill himself. But with the way he carried himself and the obvious disregard he had for his life, it was easy to see for someone as empathetic and intuitive as Luffy. And so Luffy stayed close to Ace desperately until he felt strong enough to stand on his own.
Luffy has had so many suicidal people in his life since such a young age and he always saves them in such a seemingly effortless way just by saying
"I'll be there with you. I'll stay."
But what alot of people don't understand is that in spite of Luffy's endless empathy, compassion and love that's deeper than the ocean, when somebody he loves wants to die it always hurts him so bad and it shows so much on his face at even a hint of it.
He bounces back with a smile so often and kicks so much ass that it's so easy to forget sometimes that he's just this 17-19 year old kid...
Who, at his core, is still always crying and begging the people he loves not to leave him because he doesn't want to be alone anymore, either.
So I’m obsessed with the Zolu in the live action One Piece and all the fics and edits I’m finding but can we all please appreciate the beauty of SanLu in the Live Action because I swear Luffy said one nice thing to Sanji and that man was instantly gone for him
Also I love that Sanji tells Zoro to stop messing around because Luffy needs them and Zoro is instantly like “US????”
Like calm down bud no one’s going to take him from you
turnnoffyourmind
dededos
janainaart
ellievsbear
