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Sanji pulled up to his old high school and stared at the doors. It had been fifteen years since he’d been back, fifteen years of him making a life for himself.
He gripped the steering wheel tight, nervous about seeing all his old classmates again.
He had no reason to be. He never left the town he grew up in, after all, and still saw most of them on a regular enough basis. This should just be another excuse for him and his friends to get together at one of their old haunts and reminisce about days past.
Except, well. This time he might show up.
He being Sanji’s former best friend, his old partner in crime, the guy who escaped this shitty town and moved on to bigger and better things, Zoro Roronoa.
He was something of a local legend at this point. Basically a math prodigy, he got into Princeton with a full scholarship, quickly became one of the leading experts in mechanical engineering, and had won numerous engineering and academic awards for his work over the years. He had written at least ten books (all of which were on Sanji’s shelf), was one of the youngest professors at Princeton (where he was tenured), and had one of the most viewed TEDtalks of all time (Sanji had only watched it about twenty times).
He was the town hero.
And Sanji had been in love with him since high school.
Not that he ever acted upon his feelings. Zoro had always been destined for great things, while all Sanji had ever wanted to do since he could stand was cook in his father’s restaurant. He didn’t want to hold Zoro back, didn’t want to take away any of his brightness when he knew from the start he was going to shine so so bright.
So Sanji had let Zoro move on with his life, go on and accomplish all those great things he was destined for without being tethered to someone like him.
They’d stayed in touch for the first few years, exchanging emails and texts and phone calls, seeing each other for a bit when Zoro came back during his breaks, but as Zoro’s world expanded and Sanji’s stayed pretty much the same, Sanji found that he no longer fit in Zoro’s new world. They grew farther and farther apart until they eventually lost touch.
Which was fine, okay, it happened. It wasn’t like he was still friends with everyone he went to high school with, just a handful of his closest ones.
It was just, Zoro used to be his closest friend, and even after all this time, Sanji could admit he was still harboring a stupid crush on him.
And there was a good chance he was going to see him tonight.
But maybe this would be good for him, he reasoned. The only reason he probably still had feelings for Zoro was because it was one of the biggest what ifs of his life. If he did see him again, and saw how much of a jackass he was now, maybe Sanji could finally get over him and move on.
There was a sharp rap on his car window, startling him from his thoughts. Nami, one of the friends he had kept in touch with from high school, was standing there with a knowing grin on her face.
Sanji scrambled out of his car to greet her, “Hello my dear, how are you on this fine evening?”
“Better than you look,” Nami shook her head as she took his arm, “You’re that worried about seeing Zoro again, huh?”
“What?” He scoffed as they walked to the doors, “Absolutely not. He’s just some shitty stuck up professor now anyway. Why would I be nervous?”
“Because you’ve been in love with him for like ten fucking years,” she sighed. “And you know, Luffy says he hasn’t changed all that much from the nerd we knew back then.”
Nerd had always been always a bit of a stretch as a descriptor for Zoro. While he certainly had always been one to go off about the wonders of physics and engineering and the beauty of numbers, he’d also always been very very fit, excelling at any number of sports in both high school and college. And from what Sanji could tell from the lectures of his he could find online, Zoro was still very very fit.
But it didn’t matter. “He might not even be here anyway.”
“Luffy said he would be,” she replied with that all too knowing grin.
“How does Luffy know so damn much anyway?”
“They still keep in touch, you know.”
Sanji sighed. If Luffy decided you were one of his friends, there wasn’t anything you could do to lose touch with him, even becoming a world renowned professor of engineering.
Sanji was never like that. He didn’t have Luffy’s spark or Zoro’s brightness. He had nothing to offer a potential partner, let alone one as accomplished as Zoro. Guys like him were better off alone anyway, rather than risk dragging anyone down with them.
They entered the gym, and Sanji let out a soft gasp as his eyes immediately landed on Zoro, here in the flesh in all his glory.
He was surrounded by a group of their former classmates who were talking animatedly to him, but his gaze wandered away from them as they entered, and landed directly on him.
His brown eye (just one now, the other lost in a lab accident years ago, or so Sanji heard) was still just as intense under his brow as it ever was, even behind his glasses, his green hair still looked soft and silky, his three golden earrings were practically glittering under the dim gym lights, his impressive muscles bulged under his dress shirt, and his smile was just as sharp and exciting as Sanji remembered.
He looked even better than the videos, and as his eye met his, Sanji felt like he was sixteen again.
It had been years since he’d last seen him in person, but his heart was still fluttering in his chest at the sight of him, his stomach turning into knots as his face got hot embarrassingly quick.
“You still have it so bad for him,” Nami whispered in his ear, “Good to know some things never change.”
Sanji hushed her as Zoro’s grin widened at the sight of them. He tried to break away from the group, but someone said something that must have drawn him back in, and instead he turned away.
Sanji felt relief that he wasn’t coming over, coupled with disappointment for the very same reason.
“You gonna go say hi?” Nami teased, nudging her elbow into his side.
“He’s busy right now,” he muttered as he led her away from Zoro to find a table.
“You should take this opportunity to tell him,” she insisted yet again, “Maybe finally do something about your pathetic pining.”
Sanji made a non committal sound as they settled down.
He’d never told anyone, but the thing was he had told Zoro how he felt. During their last few days of school, the uncertainty about his own future mixed with the dread of saying goodbye to Zoro, and he’d poured his heart out in a letter to him. He’d confessed everything, his long standing feelings for him, his desire for a future together somehow, his insecurities about that ever happening, his own hopes and dreams and everything he hoped and dreamed for Zoro. Everything.
Zoro and him had a secret spot in the school for contraband (booze and blades for Zoro, cigarettes and adult magazines for Sanji) that they’d occasionally use to exchange notes, usually taunts and teases to get under the other’s skin, but sometimes messages of support when one of them was having a rough time. On their very last day of school, Sanji worked up the nerve to leave the letter there for Zoro to find, fully expecting him to confront him about it sometime during that final summer together.
But Zoro never did. He never said anything, never even mentioned it, just acted like he always did around him, as if he just wanted to ignore the whole thing. So Sanji took that for the polite rejection it was and tried his best to move on.
Except it was fifteen years later, and he was still pining after him.
He and Nami got some drinks and food (a subpar catering job overall, and Sanji couldn’t help but consider how he would have done it better) and mingled with their former classmates.
It was nice to see them all again, even the ones he saw almost daily. He got updates on all their lives, who was starting families, or landing their dream jobs, and he did his best to sell his mediocre life as graciously as possible.
He had almost forgotten about Zoro’s presence when the man himself approached them, sneaking up on Sanji with a quick, “Hey.”
Sanji flinched, almost spilling his wine, but righted himself at the last moment and managed to squeak out, “Zoro. Hey.”
“Zoro! Oh my god!” Nami said, pulling the larger man into a hug and giving Sanji a pointed look over his shoulder, “It’s been forever! How’ve you been?”
“Been good,” he grunted in response as he returned the hug, holding her tight against him for a moment before letting go, “Been busy.” His eye darted to Sanji for just a second before returning to Nami, “How’re you guys doing?”
“Doing great,” Nami flipped her hair behind her shoulder, “I’m now working at the local news station. Been the main meteorologist there for a few years, and finally worked my way up to being the on air talent a few months ago.”
“Officially the weather witch now, huh?” He chuckled, referencing the nickname Nami had in school for her uncanny weather predictions, and Sanji felt a swoop of delight in his chest that he’d remembered.
“That’s right,” she playfully smacked his arm, and smirked, “And you’re still gonna ignore me and get lost in the rain this weekend, I bet.”
“I’ll take that bet,” he laughed, “I’m heading back to Princeton tomorrow.”
“Really?” Sanji said before he could stop himself, the disappointment sinking like a stone in his stomach, “So soon?”
“Yeah,” he sighed, and perhaps it was wishful thinking, but Sanji picked up disappointment in his voice too, “There’s a conference I’m supposed to give a talk at next week that I gotta get ready for.”
“No rest for famous academics is there?” Nami said, blatantly staring at Sanji, “Guess we’ll have to make the most of the time we do have together.”
“Guess so,” Zoro shrugged.
An awkward silence fell over them, Sanji fidgeting as he tried to think of something to say to him after so long. Zoro looked just as uncomfortable, his eye refusing to meet him.
Nami ended up breaking it with, “Also got married, if you even care.”
“Oh,” Zoro grimaced, but he covered it up quickly with a forced smile, his eye flicking to Sanji briefly before landing back on her, his whole body going rigid, “Right. Congrats on that. I guess.”
“You can stand to look a little happier,” she laughed, placing her hand on his shoulder to show off her ring. She heaved a heavy sigh, “Of course, I can’t blame you. Such a wonderful, beautiful person and you missed your chance all those years ago.”
“I…guess so.”
Zoro’s gaze was glued to the floor, his face went pale, and Sanji could definitely see the regret in his expression, which was odd, because, “I didn’t think you liked Hiyori? At least, not like that.”
“Hiyori?” His brow furrowed in confusion, his gaze darting around the room until it landed on their former Homecoming Queen, Prom Queen, and class secretary.
Hiyori had easily the most beautiful and popular girl from their year, and she had aged wonderfully, a wedding band matching Nami’s sparkling obviously on her finger. She’d had a massive crush on Zoro back in high school, but he had never seemed interested – Sanji always thought it was because he just wasn’t interested in women – but maybe he had been interested, and was now having regrets after hearing she was married.
“Oh,” Zoro blinked, a huge, genuine smile spreading across his face, “You married Hiyori.”
“Of course I did,” she stuck her tongue out, “Who’d you think I’d married?”
“No one,” he shook his head, his whole face softening as he said, “Congratulations, I hope you’re happy together.”
“We are,” she returned his soft smile, “We’re very happy.”
Zoro turned his attention to Sanji, “So how-”
“Zoro!” A shout that could only be Luffy rang throughout the gym. Seconds later he was hanging off of Zoro’s arm with a grin, “You made it!”
“Yeah,” he smiled down at him, “I managed to fit it in.”
Luffy laughed, and Sanij couldn’t help but feel slighted. Luffy still talked to Zoro all the time, and yet here he was monopolizing Sanji’s limited time with him. He knew he didn’t mean anything by it – Luffy always commanded the attention of whatever room he was in – but he still found himself wanting him to just disappear for once.
Nami, being beautiful and brilliant, picked up on the direction of his thoughts and said, “You know, Luffy, I think they brought out the meat spread if you want to-”
“Meat?” And with that, Luffy was off like a shot towards the food table.
“I guess I’ll go keep an eye on him,” she sighed heavily and followed after him, shooting Sanji a quick wink over her shoulder, “You boys can catch up.”
And with that, Sanji found himself alone with Zoro for the first time in over ten years.
Back in high school, conversations with Zoro had been so effortless. They talked about anything and everything, exchanging insults and barbs as easy as breathing. Now though Sanji found his tongue hopelessly tied and his words all dried up.
“So,” he started, taking a sip of his wine to hide his hesitation, “Things are good?”
“Things are good,” Zoro sipped his own drink, his eye darting away.
Sanji tried to think of something to say to him. I’ve seen all your talks and lectures online sounded incredibly stalkerish, I own all your books even more so. I’ve missed you was…too much.
“I heard you made sous chef at the Baratie,” Zoro eventually said, startling Sanji out of his thoughts.
“Oh, yes,” Sanji smiled, and Zoro’s smile softened a little, “About time the geezer made it official. I’d been running that shitty kitchen since high school.”
“Yeah,” he laughed, “You’ve always been good at bossing people around.”
“Excuse you!” Sanji kicked his shin sharply, “I’m not bossy if I’m right!”
“Just because you curse the loudest doesn’t mean you’re right.”
Sanji snarled. He’d almost forgotten how fucking infuriating this man was, “I’m right because I’m right, just because your mossy brain is too full of numbers to understand-”
“I have two doctorates, Curly,” he cut him off with a low growl, “and I still can’t can’t follow your train of thought. Maybe it’s a you problem.”
Sanji growled back, getting right up in his face to shout, “Funny, I didn’t know they handed out doctorates for getting lost on straight roads and never bathing.”
Zoro, just like all those years ago, didn’t back down, “You wanna go, curls?”
“Let’s go,” Sanji smirked, “Let’s see how much sitting behind a desk and teaching has softened you, Professor.”
“As much as our classmates would love to witness a classic Zoro vs. Sanji brawl,” they were unceremoniously interrupted by Usopp, “As the former class president I can’t really let you fight to the death in the middle of the reunion.”
They both turned to glare at him, causing him to flinch and cower, just like old times.
“I mean, uh, if you would be so kind as to take it outside?” He tried instead.
“Whatever,” Zoro downed the rest of his drink and headed for the door.
The breath left Sanji, sure he had fucked up his last chance to talk with Zoro, when he glanced back at him over his shoulder, “You coming, Curly? Or are you already admitting defeat?”
“Of course I’m coming,” he downed the rest of his drink, the wine and adrenaline making him feel just a little floaty as he followed him out, “The usual spot?”
“Of course.”
Their usual fight spot had always been the old soccer fields. All but abandoned now, they were far enough away from the school that the teachers wouldn’t have seen them, but close enough so they wouldn’t have been late for class when they were done.
The fields hadn’t changed much over the years. There was less grass these days and the bleachers had more rust, but the ground was still soft and the space was wide enough for them to go all out.
“You remember the rules, right?” Sanji asked as he tossed his suit jacket onto the bleachers and loosened his tie.
“Of course,” Zoro took his glasses off – giving Sanji a slight shock, as he looked so much like his high school self – and placed them on top of Sanji’s jacket, then tugged off his tie and tossed that aside too, “Although, being grown ass adults now, I think we can forgo the ‘don’t tell Zeff or Mihawk’ one.”
“So, you want me to tell your dad that you went to your high school reunion and ended up in a brawl?” Sanji said, a smirk sliding across his face, “You’re right, I’m sure he’ll appreciate the update.”
Zoro’s eye narrowed as he undid the top few buttons of his shirt and got into his fighting position.
Sanji’s smile was feral as he stood across from him and waited.
Zoro’s first punch came quickly – he’d always been impatient – and Sanji blocked it deftly with his shin, a feral grin spreading across his face from the contact.
Zoro jumped back as he returned the grin.
They exchanged a few more blows, still sizing each other up after all these years, and Sanji was thrilled to discover that they hadn’t lost a step. Academia hadn’t softened Zoro at all, if anything he’d gotten even stronger over the years, and Sanji was able to go all out in a way he hadn’t since, well, the last time they’d fought.
Zoro seemed to be just as excited about the fight as Sanji, meeting each of his kicks with a block, countering with a series of punches. The manic look on his face was echoed on Sanji’s own, as the two of them reached a level of understanding that easily banished the awkwardness from earlier.
They weren’t near strangers anymore, they were what they’d always been. They were Zoro and Sanji.
The fight continued until they both ran out of energy, and ended as most of their fights ended: with no real winner decided, the two of them bloodied and bruised and gasping for breath, but fully relaxed and smiling like idiots.
Sanji collapsed in the dirt, grin wide on his face. It had been ages since he’d had a good brawl. No one around here could match him like Zoro could, could challenge him and meet him blow for blow. Luffy could fight and fight well, of course, but it was just a game to him. Zoro always took their fights seriously and gave them his all.
“Man,” Zoro chuckled as he sat next to Sanji, “It’s been a while since I’ve had a good fight.”
Sanji laughed and poked his side, “What, no one at your fancy school knows how to throw a punch.”
“They can punch,” he looked at him, his face incredibly soft, “but they can’t fight, not like you can.”
Sanji blushed and looked away, “Probably too scared they’d hit their heads or something. What’s an academic with brain damage?” He glanced back at him and smirked, “Although you seem to be doing fine.”
“Haha, you haven’t told me that one before,” his tone was sarcastic, but the smile on his face said otherwise. He grabbed Sanji’s hand and lifted it up to examine it, “I see you’re still kicking to protect these.”
“A chef’s hands are important, Mosshead,” he said, doing his best to keep his voice steady as the heat from Zoro’s touch zipped through him, “I can’t risk hurting them just to hurt you, unless you want to go hungry.”
“Hm, I don’t know,” his grin turned teasing as his thumb rubbed circles into his knuckles, “It’s been a while since I’ve had your food. Maybe it’s not worth it anymore.”
“Fuck you,” Sanji growled at him without any real heat to it, too distracted by Zoro’s hand still cradling his, “My food’s better than ever. Stop by the Baratie and I’ll show you what cuisine you’ve been missing out on.”
He then remembered that Zoro was leaving tomorrow, and might want to do other things with his limited time here than indulge Sanji, “I mean, if you have time. If you’re too busy then-”
“I’ll make time,” he said, tone far more serious than the situation called for, “I’ve missed your food. It’d be a shame to leave again before I’ve had some.”
I’ve missed you, Sanji thought once more, but again didn’t say.
“How are things at the Baratie?” Zoro asked. He was still holding his hand, but Sanji made no move to take it back, too caught up in whatever was going on right now to ruin the moment, “How’s being the sous chef? It’s what you always wanted, right?”
“Yeah, well,” he shrugged and looked away, “It’s fine. It’s good. It’s what I always wanted, yeah, but now that I have it it’s not quite…” He trailed off with a sigh.
“Not what you expected?” Zoro offered, and Sanji nodded, because yes, but it was more than that, it was more like, “You want more, don’t you?”
Sanji stared at him, eyes wide. He’d barely let himself think that, but Zoro had somehow picked up on it after talking to him for less than an hour, “Y-yeah. How did you-?”
“Your dreams were always bigger than Zeff’s kitchen,” he explained, squeezing his hand, “You haven’t changed so much that you’d be satisfied with just sous chef, even at a Michelin Star restaurant.”
“You heard about that?” Sanji blinked, surprised yet again, “Luffy told you?”
Zoro shook his head, “Must’ve slipped his mind. But luckily there were a bunch of write ups about it, in local papers and travel guides. I have some of the clippings saved.”
Sanji was well aware of that, but Zoro reading about the Baratie and saving the articles definitely had him feeling all warm and fuzzy.
Zoro blushed suddenly, and let go of Sanji’s hand, burying his hands in the grass instead, “Luffy, uh, did tell me about your marriage.”
Sanji was shocked yet again, but for a completely different reason, his heart clenching as his stomach sank like a stone, “He what.”
“Congratulations, by the way,” he smiled at him, but it looked forced, like when he first congratulated Nami, “I meant to call you when he told me, but, I just…” he shrugged, his eye darting away, “I got busy.”
Sanji laughed, “Did he also tell you I got divorced?”
Zoro turned back to him so fast Sanji was surprised his neck didn’t snap, “Uh, no, failed to mention that.”
Sanji shook his head, “Typical Luffy, leaving out the most important part.”
“So, uh,” Zoro looked nervous all of a sudden, like he had had back at the reunion, but when his eye finally met Sanji’s there was a glint to it that Sanji couldn’t quite parse, “What happened?”
He sighed heavily and flopped backwards onto the ground, throwing an arm dramatically over his eyes, “You know how it is.”
“Considering I’ve never been married or divorced? Not really.” He nudged his leg with his foot, “C’mon, tell me.”
“It was five years ago,” he whined, “The marriage only lasted like five months. I’m not even sure why Luffy brought it up. It doesn’t matter. ”
“Is that why you didn’t invite me?”
He peeked out from under his arm, “Did that bother you?”
“No,” a pink dusting coated Zoro’s cheeks as he sighed, “Maybe. When Luffy told me it hit me that I was missing all these big important moments in your life.” His brown eye was stormy, a kind of sad longing swirled within its depths as he gazed down at Sanji, “And yeah, that bothered me.”
He shook his head, and ran a hand through his hair as he continued, “I get why Nami wouldn’t invite me to her wedding after all this time, but you? We used to be so close, we knew everything about each other, and you didn’t even think to invite me to your wedding, like our entire friendship meant nothing to you. I knew we’d grown apart, but I guess I didn’t realize how apart until that.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, genuine for once, and sat back up. The distance between him and Zoro had certainly been bothering him, but in all his pining and regret, he hadn’t even considered it affecting Zoro, “I’ll invite you to the next one.”
He chuckled, but his smile didn’t quite reach his eye, “Thanks.”
“And if it makes you feel better, I didn’t invite anyone to the wedding,” he explained, “It was kind of a spur of the moment courthouse wedding.”
That got a frown out of Zoro, “Luffy said he was there?”
“He was the witness, and the only one.”
“Okay, yeah,” Zoro bumped their shoulders together, “Now you definitely have to tell me what happened.”
“I don’t even know,” he groaned, burying his face in his hands, “I was just…in a rut, I guess. I’d plateaued at the Baratie, couldn’t go any higher until the former sous chef quit or retired or died, I’d gone through a couple pretty bad break ups, and around me everyone else was out there landing these high paying jobs and starting families and going on these grand adventures and just having way more fulfilling lives than I was.”
“So you, what, married the first person you saw?”
“Kinda?” He sheepishly admitted, “If it helps, she asked me first.”
“That doesn’t really make it better.”
“I know,” he groaned and leaned forward, his forehead falling on Zoro’s shoulder, “I was just desperate for something and latched onto the first thing in front of me, convinced it would somehow fix everything.”
A hand came up and rested against his head, gently stroking his hair, “What was her name?”
“Baby.”
“Her name, idiot, not her fucking pet name.”
“No, her actual legal name is Baby.”
“No shit?”
“She had kind of a fucked up home life, so yeah, her real name is Baby Five,” he chuckled and turned his face enough to glance up at Zoro, “Although I guess Baby Black wasn’t much better.”
“Not really,” he snickered, still stroking his hair, “How long were you seeing her before she asked you to marry her?”
“About thirty minutes.”
Zoro’s hand froze, “Sanji, what the hell.”
“I know,” he groaned again and pulled away, “Not my best moment.”
“That’s an understatement,” Zoro gaped at him, incredulous, “Why did no one stop you?”
“No one knew until afterwards,” he crossed his arms and slouched, “Why do you think I brought Luffy to be the witness?”
He shook his head, “I mean, I can see why the marriage didn’t last but also, what happened?”
“Eventually I realized that having a wife, being a husband…it wasn’t really solving any of my issues. It was only making them worse, making me realize just how unhappy and unsatisfied I was.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “She had her own issues, one of which was a need to be needed. The more I realized it wasn’t working, the more she tried to change either herself or me to make it work.” He shook his head, “And eventually the whole thing just collapsed like a house of cards.”
“I am sorry it didn’t work out,” Zoro said, his voice too soft and too caring considering it was Zoro.
“Yeah, well,” he shrugged as nonchalantly as he could, “It was years ago, but I haven’t tried again. Some people are better off alone.”
“Maybe, but not you,” Zoro insisted, “You deserve someone who’ll love you completely, for who you are. Someone who will make you happy.”
Sanji couldn’t help but laugh, clenching his arms tight around himself as he looked away.
If only Zoro knew the real truth.
What he’d told him wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t quite the truth. It was part of it, a big part of it, but only the surface level stuff. The deep truth, the one he would never tell Zoro, was that he had also realized he was still in love with him.
He had tried to get over Zoro once he left for college. He dated anyone and everyone who would have him, had everything from one night stands to long term relationships, anything he could use to tell himself See look at that, Zoro’s gone and I’m over it.
But being married to Baby made it all a bit too real. He was committed to someone who wasn’t Zoro, and all those regrets he’d had and the feelings for him that he’d been able to push aside and ignore had suddenly come flooding to the surface again, more intense for their absence.
Eventually he’d accepted that he would never have the person he really loved, but that didn’t mean he had to drag anyone else into his well of misery.
“I really don’t,” he admitted softly.
His chin was grabbed suddenly, and Zoro forced his head around to look him in the eye.
“You still don’t see it, do you?” he said in that same soft tone from before, “Even after all these years?”
“See what?”
“That you’re smart, and driven, and kind. That you light up the room with your smile. That despite everything you see the best in everyone and always try to help. You don’t see how much you do for everyone around you, and how beloved you are for it.”
His thumb ran across his cheek, “You still don’t see how amazing you are.”
Sanji had never blushed so much and so quickly in his life. His heart started racing in his chest, his every instinct telling him to flee, but Zoro’s intense gaze kept him pinned to the spot.
Eventually Zoro sighed and let him go, standing up to gather his tie and glasses.
Sanji was still warm all over from his touch, but managed to get himself together enough to stand up and gather his own things, “But enough about my love life. What about yours? Never married or divorced, but you must have been up to something, right?”
“My love life?” Zoro shook his head and let out a wry chuckle as he put his glasses back on, “Nonexistent.”
“What? Really?” Sanji nudged his side, “That I find hard to believe. There must be some hot guys in academia.”
“There are plenty,” he sighed as he tucked his tie into his pocket rather than deal with it, “I’ve had hookups and the occasional boyfriend, but it never lasts. The problem with most academics is that they think their work is the most important thing in the world, and they don’t make a lot of time for much else.”
Sanji's heart sank for Zoro. He may be resigned to lonely pining singledom, but Zoro deserved someone to love who loved him, wholly and completely. Someone who made him happy.
“I’m sorry about that,” was what he said to him.
“It’s fine,” he waved him off, “I’m not much better in that regard.”
“We should probably head back,” Sanji said after a moment, “Let them know we didn’t kill each other out here.”
“Yeah,” Zoro’s smile softened as they made their way back to the school.
“You still have no idea where the gym is, do you?”
“Shut up, Curly,” Zoro grumbled as he took them down yet another wrong turn, “It’s been fifteen years. They must have changed the layout.”
“This shithole can barely afford computers, you think they have the budget to completely change the layout of the entire fucking building on a whim?”
“Yes,” Zoro answered in that self assured way that meant he wouldn’t accept another answer.
Sanji rolled his eyes as they turned down a hallway that he was intimately familiar with.
“Oh, this place I know,” Zoro grinned, his eye darting around, “Isn’t this where our secret spot was?”
“Yeah,” Sanji’s smile slowly spread across his face at the memory, “Wonder if it’s still there.”
They looked at each other, then bolted down the hall, making a sharp left into the nook that held the vending machine. Sanji slapped his hand on the side of it, followed by Zoro just a tenth of a second later.
“I win!” Sanij crowed, excited to be playing their old game again.
“Like hell,” Zoro growled back, but the smile on his face revealed how much he was enjoying himself too, “I was miles ahead of you.”
“In your dreams, maybe,” Sanji snickered as he pushed off of the vending machine.
He circled it until he spotted the mural of the school’s beloved bear mascot, slightly faded with time, but not much else about it had changed. Just underneath it was a series of tiles.
They had renovated this wing during their freshman year. Come sophomore year they’d discovered that a few of the tiles were still loose, could be carefully pried off to reveal a hollowed space behind them, and easily reattached without anyone noticing.
Needless to say, they took full advantage.
Zoro followed Sanji around and rubbed his fingers over the tiles, “How did we used to-?”
Sanji dug through his pockets and produced his keys, silently handing them over to Zoro.
“Right,” he smiled as he took them, then shimmied the tip of the key in between the tiles. When they shook, he let out a satisfied hum, “Looks like they haven’t fixed it yet.”
“Huh,” he glanced around, eyes landing on the vending machine. It was a different model than the one from fifteen years ago, and it offered more juice and other healthier snack options versus the soda and candy from his youth, proof that at least some things were different, “Guess some things never change.”
“Yeah,” he laughed as he popped the first tile out, “I think I still had half a bottle of whisky in here. I wonder if it’s still there.”
Sanji's gaze sharpened as he turned back to Zoro, “Why’d you leave shit in there?”
“I never got a chance to clean it out on the last day of school,” he shrugged as he got to work on the second tile, “Every fucking teacher in this place insisted on congratulating me about Princeton. So damn annoying, and I couldn’t get away long enough to come here.”
The blood in Sanji’s veins turned to ice. If Zoro never came back to their secret spot on his last day, then maybe he never saw Sanji’s letter.
Maybe he hadn’t rejected Sanji, maybe he just never read the fucking letter!
Hope fluttered briefly in his chest at the thought, but he quickly shoved it down. Even if Zoro had returned Sanji feelings back then – and that was a pretty big if already – it had been fifteen years. There was no way he’d still feel that way after all this time, and him reading it now would only lead to the destruction of whatever relationship they still had.
But, if Zoro had never gotten the letter, that would mean the letter was still there.
But, no. It’d been fifteen years. Surely some other students discovered their secret spot and chucked the letter ages ago. Or maybe it had just decayed into nothing by now. There was no reason to assume the letter was still there and Zoro was about to finally stumble across it.
Was there?
Zoro let out a triumphant sound as the second tile popped loose. He laughed as he tossed the keys back to Sanji, and reached inside and pulled out a half full bottle of whisky, “It’s still good, I think. Pretty sure whisky gets better with age.”
Sanji froze, heart pounding in his chest. If the whisky was still there, that meant…
Zoro’s brow furrowed as his eye landed on something else, “Huh, what’s…?”
Sanji could hear his heartbeat in his ears as he lunged forward in an attempt to grab the letter, but Zoro held him back by pressing the whisky bottle to his chest.
“It’s nothing!” He said instead, his voice going almost impossibly high as he reached for the letter again, “It’s mine I left it. Give it here!”
“Yours huh?” Zoro’s smirk was devious as he flipped the envelope towards him, “Then why does it have my name on it?”
The ink had faded over time, the envelope dusty and slightly water stained from its long imprisonment behind the wall, but the bold ZORO written in his own hand was still perfectly legible.
“It’s not your name,” Sanji said through gritted teeth, “it’s just scribbles that happen to look like your name.”
“What a weird ass coincidence,” he said, the sarcasm thick in his voice, “So, since this is fifteen years old and has nothing to do with me, it should be okay for me to read it.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” he snapped and made another futile grab for it, “It’s personal.”
“So, if I’m getting this right, you don’t want me to read this?”
“Yes.”
“And, judging by your reaction, you’ll do anything to stop me from reading it, right?”
Sanji clenched his teeth hard, still trying to reach around Zoro’s arm and grab for the letter just out of reach, “Yes.”
“Huh,” his smirk grew to bastard levels as he hummed and shoved Sanji back a step, “Let’s see then.”
He tapped his chin, pretending to think it over as Sanji stewed in his frustration. He eventually came up with, “Admit I won the race just now.”
It went against every fiber of Sanji’s being, but he eventually grit out, “You won the race just now.”
“And the fight.”
“And the fight.”
“And every fight we’ve ever had.”
Sanji was shaking in rage, but more than just his pride was at stake here, “Yes, okay, fine, you won every fight. You’ve won everything. I have never bested you once in the entire time we’ve known each other because you are an unbeatable god. I cannot even begin to come close to your level because you are that much better than me!” He threw his arms up in the air, “Are you fucking satisfied?”
“It’s a start.”
Sanji scowled and held out his hand, “Can I just have my letter? Please?”
“Okay, okay,” Zoro sighed. His eye darted back to the letter for a bit, and his brow furrowed as if contemplating something.
Just as Sanji was starting to get suspicious, Zoro tossed the whisky bottle at him haphazardly. Sanji lunged to catch it, bobbling it a few times before getting a good enough grip on it to hold it steady. Meanwhile Zoro used his distraction to dart out of the nook and race down the hallway.
“You shitty bastard!” Sanji snarled as he chased after him.
It took him far longer than it should have to find Zoro again. By the time he found him holed up in an open classroom, sitting at the teacher’s desk like he belonged there, he already had the letter open and was on the last page.
Sanji froze, halfway between Zoro and the door. He hadn’t noticed him entering yet, so he still had time to leave, to run away and never speak about this ever again.
The idea was appealing, but Sanji was no coward. He would face this, get a proper rejection from Zoro, and finally be able to move on.
Even if it cost him Zoro.
Zoro finished the letter and looked up at him. His face was an unreadable mask, his voice a mix of too many emotions to pin one down as he said, “Was this real? Did you really feel this way, or did you leave it for me as a joke?”
He thought about taking the out Zoro handed him for about half a second. He told himself he was going to face this head on, so that was what he was going to do, “It was real.”
Zoro’s hand shook where it lay on the desk. He reached up to rub the bridge of his nose, his hand bumping against his glasses.
“You never said anything,” he muttered, barely above a whisper, “Not a single goddamn thing, the whole time…”
“I explained that in the letter too,” he said, his finger picking at a letter someone had carved into a nearby desk as he set the whisky down, “I didn’t want to hold you back, tie you down, keep you stuck here. I never would have forgiven myself if I’d prevented you from achieving your dreams.”
“You’ve never held me back,” Zoro said, his voice almost too soft to hear, “Not once in the entire time I’ve known you have you ever made me worse. You’ve only ever made me my best self.”
Sanji swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry.
“All this time,” Zoro ran a hand down his face, “All this time I’ve been…”
He looked up at Sanji suddenly. Sanji couldn’t honestly say he’d ever seen Zoro scared, but right now his face was pale with fear.
Sanji’s heart sank in his chest. This is why he’d never told him in high school. He’d just gotten Zoro back, and he was about to lose him all over again.
Zoro quickly stood up and rounded the desk to stand in front of him.
“Sanji,” he said, practically pleading, “do you…you don’t still love me, do you?”
Sanji squeezed his eyes shut, his fists clenching at his sides as he trembled under Zoro’s intense gaze.
He didn’t want to say it. He’d already been rejected by Zoro once — and it turned out that wasn’t even a real rejection. How the hell was he supposed to survive actually being rejected by the man?
But this wasn’t about acceptance. This was about closure, and Sanji was determined to get it, even if it hurt, even if it killed whatever he had with Zoro.
“I do,” he admitted softly. He opened his eyes and looked at him, “I’ve never stopped loving you.”
Something in Zoro’s expression broke, and Sanji looked away, “It’s fine, I wasn’t expecting you to love me back then, and I’m not expecting it now. You can go back to Princeton and forget about all this if you want. You don’t have to-”
Sanji was cut off by a growl, then Zoro grabbed his tie and yanked him around to look at him.
He had half a moment to notice the desperate look on Zoro’s face before he dragged him forward, their lips crashing together in a forceful kiss.
Sanji felt like he was soaring as his eyes slid closed and he returned the kiss. His arms came up to wrap around his shoulders as Zoro’s hand moved from his shirt to threading his hair, changing the angle as he deepened the kiss. His glasses pressed against Sanji’s skin, and he could still hardly believe it. After all his angst, all his pining, he was finally kissing Zoro.
Eventually pulled apart, breaths mingling as their lips hovered next to each other. Zoro laughed, his smile wide as he nudged their foreheads together.
“Sanji, you beautiful idiot,” he laughed breathlessly as he pulled away. His glasses were smudged and askew, his face bright red and his hair tousled, and he’d never looked better, “I’ve been in love with you forever.”
Sanji could only gaped at the admission, “Why…why didn’t you say anything?”
“What chance did I have?” He shook his head, “I didn’t think you were interested, and our friendship meant too much to me to ruin with my damn feelings.”
“If our friendship meant so damn much to you,” he said, a sudden anger over taking him, “why the hell haven’t we spoken in so damn long?”
He looked away, almost sheepish, “I got busy and distracted in college. One day I realized I hadn’t spoken to you in months, and you hadn’t reached out to me in all that time either.” He shrugged, but Sanji could see the sadness in his eye, hear the regret in his voice that he was intimately familiar with, “I figured that was that, you’d moved on, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
“My mossy idiot,” Sanji smiled as he ran hand through Zoro’s hair, “you’re never a bother.”
Zoro chuckled, leaning into his touch when Sanji moved to cup his face, “Fifteen years we could have had together, if we weren’t so goddamn stupid about it.”
“I don’t know if our teenage selves could have handled the long distance,” he said as he leaned in and kissed his cheek, “I think it would have fallen apart too quickly back then. We both needed to mature a bit.”
“I don’t want to do long distance now,” he groaned as he buried his face in Sanji’s neck, “I want to make up for lost time.”
“Well,” Sanji sighed as he stroked his hair, “Unless you’re planning on leaving your cushy tenured position and moving back home, I'm afraid there’s no choice.”
“In the letter,” he mumbled against his skin, “You talked about your restaurant.”
“The Baratie?” He paused, frowning a little. It had been a long time since he’d written the letter, and he didn’t quite remember all the details.
“Not the Baratie,” Zoro pulled away and cradled his face, “ Your restaurant, the one you’d been dreaming about since we were kids. The one that would feed anyone and everyone. Your All Blue.”
The words sent Sanji down memory lane. He had had extensive plans for his own restaurant growing up, but he’d set those aside long ago after seeing just how hard Zeff worked to keep a roof over their heads, and how incredibly easy it was to fail.
He was safe at the Baratie. He had a good job and he made good money. Why risk it all on an endeavor that could easily leave him penniless and on the street?
But even as he thought that, he felt that restless itch under his skin again, the same itch that had him marrying Baby on a whim. He had done all he could do at the Baratie, and short of Zeff dying or retiring — and the old man had assured him that neither of those were ever going to happen — there was nothing more he could do there.
Maybe it was time to try something new.
“You know,” Sanji practically purred as his arms slid over Zoro’s shoulders, “Maybe it is time I went out on my own. Do you know of any place that needs a good restaurant?”
“The food in Princeton sucks,” Zoro replied, turning his face into Sanji’s neck so he could feel his smirk as his hands fell to his waist, “That town is just begging for a new restaurant with fresh ideas.”
“I see,” he hummed as he leaned in, his lips just short of touching Zoro, “I guess I could consider it…but where would I stay?”
“With me, always with me,” Zoro said as he closed the minuscule difference.
When they pulled apart, he added, “I mean, you don’t have to, if that’s too much too fast, but if you do-”
Sanji cut him off with another kiss, “Zoro, I’ve been waiting for you for fifteen years. I don’t want to wait any more.”
“Good,” Zoro sighed as he whispered in his ear, “I’ve been waiting for you for longer.”
“It’s not a competition,” Sanji growled.
“Of course not,” Zoro pulled away, and Sanji was torn between kicking the smirk off his face or kissing it away, “Because you said so yourself, I always win.”
Sanji’s jaw dropped open, “You absolute shitty mossy bastard-”
“A-hem.”
They both turned to find the Usopp in the doorway, looking harried and put-out, but not surprised.
“As glad as I am that you two finally got your heads out of your asses and actually did something,” he shook his head, “You sure picked a hell of a time!”
Sanji glanced awkwardly at Zoro, saw the same look of confusion, “What do you mean finally got our heads out of our asses?”
Usopp gave them a deadpan look, “The entire class has been waiting for you two to finally get together, you know. We spent four years watching the great ‘When will Zoro and Sanji finally get together’ drama play out, only for it to never happen. We were distraught!”
“How did they even know?” Zoro growled.
“What, you guys thought you were subtle?” He snorted, “You two were voted cutest couple!”
“That was a stupid joke!” Sanji hissed, warmth spreading across his face, as he glanced back to Zoro, “Wasn’t it?”
He shrugged, “I thought it was.”
“It wasn’t. It was a desperate plea from your desperate classmates,” Usopp clapped his hands together and gestured out of the room, “Anyway, Luffy somehow started a fire in the gym and we need to leave before the cops show up and start asking questions.”
Zoro laughed as he pulled away, one of his hands falling to grab Sanji’s in a secure hold as the other grabbed the whisky, “Your fault for leaving him alone for more than a minute. You should know what he’s like.”
“I did everything I could to prevent this,” he said as they walked down the hallway, “You two abandoned your Luffy sitting duties to make out on a desk like horny teenagers!”
He continued prattling on, but Sanji easily tuned him out, more focused on Zoro’s hand in his, and the warmth and the promise it brought.
They had their whole lives ahead of them, after all, and they were going to spend it together.
And that may just be the biggest adventure of all.