when you're close, i feel like coming undone
It was then that Sanji knew. The moment just before Zoro laughed, when his dark eyes gleamed in enjoyment of their conversation. The way Zoro’s laughter rattled the room and echoed through his bones. The way his sharp smile warmed Sanji’s chest.
It was then that Sanji knew he was fucked. Somehow, the brash, reckless, decidedly manly swordsman had settled himself in Sanji’s heart, building a home there too solid to ever move. Sanji could feel his face heat up, all the way to the tips of his ears.
“Lose you there curly brow?” Zoro’s voice snapped Sanji back down to earth, away from the suddenness of his realization. Sanji met his gaze again, surprised to see the genuine concern that rippled beneath the surface.
Sanji scoffed half-heartedly, reaching into his pocket to find something, anything to do that wasn’t staring at Zoro any longer. “Just need a smoke, idiot,” he explained, hoping that would be satisfactory enough for the swordsman’s look of longing concern to fade.
Out of the corner of his covered eye, Sanji could see Zoro return back to his freshly opened bottle. Good, he thought, This is normal. He didn’t notice a thing. This is normal.
And yet was normal even what the cook wanted anymore? To bicker and fight alongside each other and yet still have quiet moments of understanding as they sat beside each other? For the entirety of their time up until now the answer was a clear resounding ‘yes’. Sanji enjoyed the status quo, no matter how many times Zoro insulted his cooking while devouring it all in one bite.
But now, now, the air hung heavier and Sanji felt in his gut a weight of truth. He wanted to be with Zoro, not as a friend, but as a partner. While the norm would scratch the itch, it wouldn’t satisfy Sanji anymore.
Sooner than should be humanly possible, Zoro had polished off the last bottle and stood, “C’mon we should head back, shitty cook.” He nodded over towards the door, barely giving Sanji a moment to snub out his cigarette before leaving.
With an exasperated sigh, Sanji handed some berries across the bar to the bartender, flashing her a wink and a smile, “I hope my companion didn’t make your afternoon too unpleasant, my sweet.”
She laughed, “No worries at all. You two were cute to watch, though I’d confess to him sooner rather than later if I were you.” With that, she moved down the bar to take some other orders, leaving Sanji red and sputtering.
Had he been so obvious? He had thought not. Though if the darling angel behind the bar noticed, then perhaps Sanji was not as subtle as he thought. But what of Zoro then? Truth be told, Sanji was too consumed in his own thoughts about his feelings to even notice exactly how Zoro may have felt. And yet the waitress’s suggestion implied that she had seen something in the swordsman as well.
Immediately, Sanji thought that she must have seen apathy in the swordsman’s eyes. While they got along fine enough as a pair, there was no world in which the romantic undercurrent could be reciprocated. There couldn’t.
The cook finally stood, taking another long drag from his cigarette. Thankfully the green-haired idiot had yet to lose his way. Instead, he was leaned up against the front of the bar, waiting with arms crossed.
Sanji raised his eyebrow as he glanced over at the stoic figure beside him, “Finally get it through that algae head that you’d get lost without me?”
"Yeah,” Sanji watched as Zoro admitted with a soft look. The same kind of look that Sanji had been so desperate to hide only a few minutes before.
This was it.
i wanna feel you by my side, standing next to me