Mixed Up (ZoSan)

Rosemary

Nami's truck had to have been the smallest little Ford pick-up Sanji had ever seen.

It was older than he was and coated in an ancient, peeling, white matte paint that revealed various rusted spots throughout the truck's body. The bed hardly looked capable enough to transport whatever it was she used it for, as the scarce space it supplied was being threatened by a toolbox Nami had somehow managed to fit in it.

It looked like a piece of junk, but he dare not tell her so.

It was ugly to behold, but sitting in the cab with her made it tolerable.

To a degree.

Inside the two-door cab was a small bench seat that looked like it could barely hold the two people it was designed for. Sanji's legs barely fit in the space between the seat and the dashboard, and the only thing keeping them separated from Nami's was the stick shift transmission that tried to exist between them.

Sitting in the truck was hard, but it was not the cause of the grief he'd suddenly been overcome with when she'd begun to question him.

He stared forlornly at the glove compartment, feeling the heat struggling to come through the air vent and, rather melancholically, wondered if this was the lord of Saturdays' doing.

Just when he'd thought his curse had been lifted, it struck down harder than it ever had before.

Beside him, Nami appeared apologetic, but didn't know what to say to try and make him feel better. She'd invited him to sit in her car with her so they could at least make an attempt to talk about his feelings for Zoro - whatever they may be- a little bit when he'd appeared on the verge of a breakdown after she'd brought it up.

Looking at him now, she felt guilty, and wondered if she should have waited to say anything about it, though, she doubted that a better time would have ever presented itself.

Still. Sanji looked absolutely miserable.

"So..." she began slowly, trying to spur him out of his thoughts so that he might try and explain them to her.

"I'm not gay," he blurted out, frowning. "I've never in my life even thought about being attracted to another man."

"Sexualities aren't set in stone," she said. "They can change."

This seemed to only distress him further.

"So what does that make me now then?" He turned to look at her with a panicked look in his eye. "What happened to make me like this?"

Nami's lips twitched into a frown. She couldn't say she was a fan of his phrasing, but let it slide. Rather than comment on it, she sighed and turned away.

"The only one who knows the answer to that is you, Sanji. Maybe you were always this way, and just hadn't met a guy who peeked your interest 'in that way' until now."

"I don't even know him," Sanji moaned, attempting to slouch in his seat. The dashboard prevented him from slouching, though, and ultimately made him look like a cramped fool. "I've only known the asshole for a week!"

"It only took Romeo and Juliet a day," Nami added in what she hoped was a supportive manner.

"That may be, but that's a fictional love story; that whole love-at-first-sight plot was only meant to expedite the narrative, not, y'know, mimic how this stuff actually works." Exasperated, he tried to find a way to lower the seat so that he could lean back a little bit, but ultimately couldn't find one. "This is reality; that sort of stuff isn't supposed to happen here."

That was true, Nami acquiesced; usually those sorts of things took a bit more time, especially in this day and age.

"I had you pegged as a real life Romeo, you know?" She spoke lightheartedly, attempting to break through his current emotional state with a joke. "You're surprising me right now."