Zoro Roronoa is a retired black-ops agent suffering from PTSD; after moving to a small town and getting married in hopes of leaving that life behind him, a chance meeting with a smarmy, blond paramedic changes all of that. Thus ensues a summer of te...
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Everything continued on as normal despite the fact that, to Zoro, the entire world had shifted. It was difficult for the first week as the sight of Sanji had him extraordinarily flustered for reasons he couldn't quite fathom. Knees feeling weak even while being seated, and the happiness curling in his chest had twisted into a longing ache that ebbed depending on his proximity to the man.
By the second week he had started to handle it better,so that Sanji would not find anything suspicious. Although, when they went shooting one afternoon, Zoro had found himself distracted by the dorky blond's teasing and he had missed the target entirely; much to Sanji's bewilderment.
After a month, things were beginning to resemble normalcy. He was able to hold a conversation with Sanji once more without begin drawn in by his eyes and missing a statement. And he was able to be alone with him without breaking into a cold sweat at the notion that he wanted the man physically, while also having zero idea of what that even entailed.
A constant war waged within him as he tried to keep these newly discovered emotions in check; finding it very hard to keep his heart from skipping a beat at the mention of Sanji's name, and scowling to himself every time he found his breath catching when Sanji's gaze landed on him. He knew that the right thing to do was to forget any and all feelings he was harbouring for the man. However, it was far more difficult to dismiss such pervasive emotions than he had initially thought it would be.
But he was used to slow progress.
Early summer light filtered through the shuttered window to fall across Zoro's face, his gaze pinned to the ceiling as he waited for the alarm He had returned to his fitful sleep pattern thanks to the new stress that was hounding his every waking moment.
On cue the alarm beeped to announce the start of a new day, Zoro reaching out to smack the top to cut it short as Kalifa stirred next to him. She rolled towards him with a gorgeous smile on her sleepy face, a hand placing itself on his chest as she curled up to his side; her intentions quite obvious as Zoro turned away in culpable disinterest.
The relationship he had begun to mend with his wife had fallen once more into disrepair when he realized, with disgust, that he had only been using her for some selfish unrequited desire that he had no right to have. Even if she didn't know, it wasn't right to continue anything with her when his thoughts lingered elsewhere.
Looking back her way and pressing an apologetic kiss to her forehead, he climbed out of bed and got dressed for his morning workout, sensing her confused stare following him as he began to leave the room. He paused for a moment at the doorway before realizing there was nothing he could possibly say to explain his behaviour, and silently made his way out.
Scowling his way through most of his workout, he tried to release some of his sexual frustration out with heavy iron and stiff kevlar, making marginal progress as he heard Kalifa leave for the day, and he followed soon after. Heading out on his morning run – the blond absent – Zoro took off down the street with the usual cadence. Same old path, same old steps he had tracked, only, this time with a far more intimate and unexplored emotion shadowing his every thought.
