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Zoro thinks he’s a pretty loyal person.
He trusts and believes in Luffy. He’d follow Luffy to the end of the earth together with his nakama, brave and reckless and dumbass that Luffy is, because he's their dumbass. He did say he’d take Luffy down if he ever got in the way of Zoro’s dream, but even Zoro was beginning to reconsider that statement, one he’d made long before he’d known what kind of person Luffy was. All things considered, he’s a faithful crewmember and swordsman of the Strawhat Pirates.
Zoro looks up just in time to see Luffy launching himself at Sanji, wrapping his stretched limbs all over Sanji’s body. Sanji has just walked out of the galley carrying a plate full of fancy-looking drinks — for the girls, no doubt — and he’s extending his arm as far away as possible from Luffy’s grasp, and Luffy leans over his shoulder, their cheeks pressed against each other’s, their lips almost touching —
Zoro is seriously considering mutiny.
“Sanji…” Luffy whines, “food…”
“Lunch was just an hour ago,” Sanji points out, sighing. He rolls his shoulders, trying to get Luffy off of his back, but Luffy simply tightens his grip around his shoulders. His leg shoots up to frame Sanji around his hips, and he now looks more like a living, breathing, noisy backpack surgically attached to Sanji's back.
“Come on, Sanji…” Luffy presses his face into Sanji’s left shoulder, “I want meat…”
Watching them from the deck, Zoro is suddenly hit with the urge to throw someone overboard. Luffy, maybe, captain or not. Or Sanji. Or himself.
And it’s not like Zoro thinks Sanji is interested in Luffy that way. Luffy is their captain, and along the way he’s also become everyone’s adopted little brother who makes dumb but sometimes terrifyingly insightful decisions. They all love him like a family, so it’s not like Zoro can be, you know.
Jealous,
Tch. As if.
“All right, you shitty rubber,” Sanji finally acquiesces, like most would after prolonged interaction with Luffy. “Just get off my back so I can fix something up for you.”
Luffy throws his hands up in the air and laughs. “You’re the best, Sanji!”
Sanji shakes his head, and there’s a fond smile on his face, like he can’t help finding Luffy’s antics adorable, and it’s not like Zoro wants Sanji to think he’s adorable, no fucking way, so Zoro isn’t. You know.
Jealous.
As if.
They’re docked at an island and Zoro is not-so-surreptitiously looking for Sanji.
This… thing they have is still new. They haven’t had the time to tell the crew yet considering their chaotic escape from the Sky Islands, and Zoro is now unsure as to how. He doesn’t think they’re planning to hide their relationship, but Sanji has always been the more complicated, emotional one. Zoro is letting him call the shots; he doesn't care about anyone else's opinions on their relationship. If Sanji wants him — and the Cook did admit as much — it's enough for him.
He finds Sanji with Nami and Luffy, and before he could call out to him he hears Nami say, “don’t let Luffy out of your sights, okay?”
Sanji gives her a ridiculous salute along with a cheerful, “of course, Nami-swan!”
So, that’s a no for a private time with Sanji today, then. Whatever. Zoro isn’t a clingy lover, and doesn’t really want to go on troublesome stuff like dates — that’s more of Sanji’s thing. He can just find the Cook tomorrow to...hang out. And do stuff. It’s not like he’s been planning this not-date for days.
Sanji grabs Luffy by the hand. “You’re coming with me.”
Zoro’s gaze drops toward Sanji’s hand.
Zoro doesn’t think he cares about the lovey-dovey part of a romantic relationship, like cuddling or kissing in public. He once saw a couple sharing a scarf in a winter island, and he can’t imagine doing that with Sanji. Sanji would probably try to choke him with the scarf if he ever suggested that.
Luffy tries to wriggle his hand away, and Sanji squeezes harder.
Zoro doesn't care, but damn it, Zoro has never even held Sanji’s hand.
They kissed once, after the campfire on the Sky Island, but they haven't really had the opportunity to explore their relationship beyond that. Not that Zoro wants Sanji to suddenly change and become overly affectionate towards him, but he looks at Sanji’s hand wrapped around Luffy’s and something unfurls within his chest and he wants. God, he wants.
Sanji practically drags Luffy out of Merry by the hand, and Zoro is suddenly aware that his own hands are very, very cold.
“Zoro is being dumb,” Luffy says by way of greeting, hanging upside down from Nami’s mikan tree, one hand on his hat to keep it from falling. They’re on ship watch duty today, which means it’s supposed to be Zoro’s naptime. Supposed to be.
Zoro blinks awake, and narrows his eyes at him from below. “I’m not taking that from you.”
“But Zoro is being really dumb,” Luffy insists, swaying slightly. Zoro has half the mind to kick him down. “Dumber than usual.”
Zoro closes his eyes at that, trying to get back to sleep, but nobody can stop Luffy when he has set his mind on something. So when he hears Luffy land on the ground in front of him, he sighs and asks, “What are you talking about?”
The question comes out harsher than he intended, and he feels a tinge of guilt at his own irritation, because it’s not like Luffy is trying to take Sanji away from Zoro. It’s not like Sanji belongs to anyone for Luffy to take. Luffy is just Luffy, and Sanji’s Sanji, and Zoro’s the one who’s being weird.
Luffy doesn’t take offense, thankfully, and simply cocks his head to the side. “You’re mad,” he points out.
“I’m not mad,” he denies quickly, but Luffy simply looks at him, and Zoro shrugs. “Okay, maybe, kind of. But not at you,” he quickly adds.
“You’re mad at yourself,” Luffy guesses.
That sounds about right, if Zoro really thinks about it. Mad at himself for getting mad at Luffy, for not doing anything, for overthinking this whole thing. For being — fuck, jealous. “Yeah,” he agrees.
“What are you, Zoro?” Luffy suddenly asks out of the blue.
Zoro frowns, confused. Conversations usually flow easily between him and Luffy, but sometimes Luffy has these moments, and Zoro can’t read him at all. “What?”
“Are you a hero?” Luffy asks. “Because heroes get nice things like meat and sake and gold, but they have to share the nice things with other people and get mad at themselves for being nice.”
The sentence is very Luffy, in all its straightforward simplicity, and Zoro scoffs at that. He really was being dumb. “No, captain,” he answers, a grin slowly making its way to his expression. “I’m a pirate.”
“And you know what pirates do, Zoro?” Luffy grins back. “They fight to get what they want. And you’re being really dumb if you forget that.”
Zoro straightens his back and stands up at that, eyes already fixed on the galley. He hits Luffy playfully on the head as he walks past him and says, “I won’t let you call me dumb again, you hear me?”
Luffy just laughs, and Zoro makes his way to Sanji.
Sanji is in the middle of taking off his apron when Zoro walks into the room, and he doesn’t bother waiting for Sanji to finish as he wraps his hands around Sanji from the back and buries his face between his shoulder blades.
Sanji stiffens at the touch, but quickly relaxes when he realizes who it is. He lets the apron fall to the floor, spooling near his feet as he runs his hand through Zoro’s hair. “What is this, Marimo? Someone’s hungry?”
Zoro lets Sanji’s voice wash over him, and there’s warmth settling at his gut. “I get to do this,” he says, more of a statement than a question.
Sanji seems to take a moment to figure out what Zoro’s thinking, but they’ve always been good at understanding each other without having to say a word, because it doesn’t take long for Sanji to answer, “yeah.” He leans back, resting his head on Zoro’s shoulder. “Yeah, you get to do this.”
Zoro thinks over the last few days, the visceral burn at the back of his throat when he sees Sanji a little too close to someone else. He decides to say, “Only I get to do this.”
This time it’s more of a question — because Sanji is his equal, and has much of a say to this as Zoro does, and they'll meet each other halfway. They always do.
That earns him a laugh from Sanji, the kind that’s light and carefree and rare, and Zoro thinks his heart is going to burst from his chest. “Yeah,” Sanji says, and then adds, because of course Sanji can read him like a book and knows where he was going with this. “I’ll make sure to prepare food for Luffy before he gets clingy.”
“Good,” he says, and smiles, and leans in for an open-mouthed kiss, because he gets to do, that, too.