ZoSan: The Flower

Chapter 21 - Zoro

A/N: Thank you for 100 reads!! This chapter is dedicated to @OsitoArandano in appreciation of all the votes!

He'd meant to talk to Sanji before breakfast. He really had. But between nearly five days of minimal food and sleep, his first hard workout in weeks, a late-evening checkup, three hours cleaning the kitchen, and a little bit of time to enjoy the bottle of sake the cook had left out, his body was apparently too tired to wake up when he'd wanted it to. So he'd barely been on time for breakfast, and then after, he had been dismissed in favor of Robin, albeit with an assurance that they would talk 'later.'

But the longer Zoro was made to wait, the more nervous he was. He was glad the cook had chosen the crow's nest for the 'later' — maybe he could work out his nervousness. After removing the top of his outfit to free his arms a bit more, he picked up the weights and worked through some of his exercises. He enjoyed the way his muscles stretched and slowly began to burn. If he could keep his focus on every movement, every count, he didn't need to think about other things.

Usually, anyways. Today it wasn't enough to get his mind off the blond. Specifically, how else to apologize to him. Sanji had smiled and mouthed the word 'forgiven' over breakfast, if Zoro had read it right. But even so, Zoro knew the depths to which he'd fucked up, and wasn't yet ready to be done atoning. This thing between them might be too new to survive a fuck-up like that, and Zoro had promised to do whatever it took to win Sanji over.

But he really had no clue what that entailed. Sanji was, embarrassingly enough, his first actual romantic attachment. He knew some of the gestures that other guys, Sanji included, used on women, but would Sanji appreciate similar gestures or feel emasculated by them?

Zoro'd already taken a chance with the small tangerine blossom in the vase, and Sanji hadn't seemed to mind, judging from the way he'd been smiling as they'd come in for breakfast. Would more flowers be appropriate? Jewelry and chocolate didn't seem like good options, and Zoro wasn't exactly one for poetry or love songs.

For now, it would have to be words. Maybe he could submit to the mortifying ordeal of asking Sanji what form of apology he would like. Maybe...

Of course his musings were interrupted by a knock on the door. He lowered the weight set, realizing he'd lost his count, anyways, and called for the knocker to enter.

He'd, of course, been expecting Sanji, but it wasn't the cook. "Luffy. What brings you up here?"

He held up three swords. "Bringing these to you. And wanted to check on you. How are you doing, really?" The captain was uncharacteristically somber as he tossed the swords at Zoro, who caught them easily.

Zoro tilted his head. "Didn't Chopper tell you the result of the checkup from yesterday?" Luffy had insisted, ordered even, that Chopper not keep any more secrets about the health of the crew from him after he'd found out that Zoro'd been suffering for months. Zoro had been so busy cleaning after his talk with the doctor, he'd just assumed that Chopper would've done his report.

Luffy nodded. "He told me. But I need to hear it from you. That I'm not going to have to choose a different First Mate. That you're going to take back your swords and stay." There were tears in those brown eyes again.

Zoro sat down on the couch, wiping his sweat with a towel before patting the seat beside him. Luffy sat next to him. "I'll take my swords back up, and resume my promise, Captain. I won't lose. I'll become the world's greatest swordsman — and proudly hold that title along with that of First Mate to the future King of the Pirates." He let his hand fall lightly on Luffy's hat, as if adding his promises to the others the hat represented.

Luffy leaned into the touch just a little. "Why wouldn't you tell me it was Sanji?"

"Until he appeared next to me on that boat, I didn't think there was a snowball's chance in hell that it could happen. I honestly wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't be glad to get rid of me."

"You're nakama. And he never really hated you."

Damn the kid and the way he could read people. In some ways, it was a more useful power than Luffy's devil fruit abilities. It, along with Luffy's optimistic, gonna-fix-it attitude, had earned the captain (and the Straw Hats by extension) the loyalty of not only his crew but so many allies."Yeah, so he told me. He actually said I'd become his best friend, if you can believe it." Zoro smiled softly.

"Are you happy?"

Zoro thought about the kiss, the talks that hadn't devolved into arguments, the smile Sanji had been wearing as he cooked that morning. "Yeah. I am." And scared and nervous and hopeful and a million other things, but definitely happy.

Luffy jumped back up and grinned. "Then don't let this... whatever of yours fail, okay? You're my friend, so be happy."

"I'll do my best, Captain," Zoro said with a mock salute.

Luffy practically bounced out of the room and swung down to the main deck. Zoro watched from the window as Luffy ran to "his" spot on Sunny's head, glad to have the captain's approval and forgiveness. But the captain had left the door open, and waiting in it was another person he needed to have a talk with.

"Cook," Zoro said by way of greeting.

Sanji came in, a glass in each hand and a light blush on his face. "Thought you might want a limeade. Chopper told me you were dehydrated, so I figured some electrolytes during your workout would be good. I was careful not to make it too sweet." He sat on the couch a little further from Zoro than the swordsman would've liked and handed him one of the glasses.

Zoro took a sip. "It's good. Strong and just the right amount of sweet. Thanks."

Silence fell between them, so thick that Zoro wished he could just slice through it and be done with it.

"I'm sorry about –"

"We need to talk about –"

They'd both started at the same time, and shockingly, it was what they needed, because they both laughed at it. It was an awkward, nervous moment of laughter, but it was still shared laughter, and enough to ease the tension some.

"You first," Sanji offered, ever the gentleman.

Zoro should probably argue, but today he wasn't going to. "I'm, I'm sorry about dinner last night. I wasn't thinking. Or I was thinking, but only ... very selfishly. I should've realized that flirting like that, especially in front of our friends, would've made you uncomfortable."

"It did make me a little uncomfortable, but mostly because it was just so different," Sanji sighed, settling into the couch a little more. "I'm not... used to the changes in our dynamic."

"Neither am I," Zoro admitted. "My brain... got ahead of itself. It just kind of went 'hey, maybe I can do that now' and rolled with it. I didn't even realize how much of an asshole move it was until Chopper called me on it. 'Cause, you know, if Chopper's calling you out on something, you really missed the mark," Zoro tried a laugh at that, something to break the tension, but it came out forced and awkward. "...How... I mean, um..." Why was this so hard?! "What can I do to make it up to you?"