One Piece OS collection (Zosan)

Once in a Blue Moon

It was Zoro's heart that had put him here. It was what had turned him from a ruthless pirate hunter to a freedom seeking pirate himself. Luffy chose his mates based on their feelings, their empathy, their convictions, their loyalties. And Zoro, Zoro had been chosen for his heart.

It had taken him a while to accept this fact, to be proud of it even. Luffy was a man Zoro would lay his life down for. This did not – initially – count for the other members of the crew as well. Although it did grow to be a problem after a while.

It was still ironic that Zoro had lost his heart at sea, for a man he not only would have rather murdered than fallen for, but a man who wasn't half as compassionate about his dreams as Zoro himself was, not half as convicted to the cause, not half as loyal as he would later have to learn. At least not by Zoro's own definition of loyalty. For a long while, anyway, until he learned that self sacrifice looked different for the cook than it did for him.

To Zoro it would probably never make sense. But it was a fact. Just like it was a fact that his feelings would never be returned.

-

Zoro couldn't quite tell when he'd fallen for the blasted idiot, nevertheless why. In fact, he still doubted himself sometimes, whenever the blond cook basically fell to his knees to beg - any woman really - that he could be their personal slave.

Zoro had always been attracted to men. Couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been, so not only was it ridiculous, it was unrelatable as well. Zoro had been into the strong types, the muscly types who refused to keep their shirts on. Zoro liked the types with sunkissed skin and a belly deep laugh and black hair on their chest. The kind you met at bars that smelled more like whiskey than man. The type that was calm and would make you follow them upstairs, hushing that whatever happened in that room would stay in that room.

Men who knew what they wanted, who kept quiet, but who would catch your eye despite it all.

When he'd first met Sanji, his gangly floundering ways had irritated him. The blond hair, the easy to provoke nature, the princely attitude, the elegance. Sanji had always had something beautiful on him. But his manliness mostly felt like it had been drilled into him, his smoking habit an addiction to the farce itself. In fact, Zoro had pitied him. His lack of convictions, his struggle with identity that other men rooted themselves in so much more easily. Zoro looked down on his obedience and his depression.

Zoro hadn't liked him at all. Hadn't liked his pale skin or his stupid curly brows.

He didn't know when it had changed. Or why. When had irritation given way to attraction, his attraction to something more complicated, to that warm fluttering in his chest that he could only drown in wine, wine, wine?

He'd gotten used to him, perhaps. To their bickering and the banter. Had learned to understand him, the shouting, the whining and the silence. What had seemed like an open book slowly mystified, became an enigma for Zoro to crack. A book only he could learn to read.

And then, one day, Zoro had simply opened his eyes from a nap and watched the cook smoking a cigarette by the reeling. The blue of the sea contrasting his outlines, slowly dusting over in pinks, oranges and gold as the sun set like a crown against his hair. He'd been beautiful, had always been beautiful. But in that moment, he'd looked ethereal, like a siren. A siren who had never been allowed to sing.

That day, something in Zoro had suddenly shifted and just like that, he had known.

...

In many ways, Curly was easy to read, Zoro thought as he watched Sanji through one open eye. Zoro was taking a nap, slowly getting used to the old habit and routine once more. Two years had passed in a blink, they had all been separated and they had all changed in their own ways. Some more than others. All of them had gotten smarter, stronger. Franky had rebuilt himself quite literally; Brook had learned how to control souls; Robin had learned much more about the current world than Zoro could imagine; Nami became a weather goddess, while Chopper turned from a doctor into an expert in nearly all medical fields, including surgery. Luffy was ... well, still Luffy.