28th Dec - The End
French Affairs – Chapter 18 – The End
He hadn’t really ‘sort of confessed’ to a guy, had he?
What the hell? That was embarrassing, humiliating, disgraceful and simply not possible. He wanted to die. This was the worst night of his life. It was worse than being nearly killed by Mihawk, worse than having Mihawk as a father, worse than bloody everything!
“I won’t go; and I won’t let you run away this time.” Sanji’s voice interrupted his thoughts. Whatever was about to come would be no fun. He heard him walking over and took a deep breath to ready himself for Sanji’s outburst.
“I’m not…” Zoro started defending himself but got interrupted again when Sanji suddenly grabbed his shoulder and whirled him around while shoving his back against the wall next to the window just like Zoro had done before.
Zoro couldn’t fight back, he didn’t even want to. The sensation of being this close to Sanji again was filling his mind. The blonde felt warm and smooth as a silk against Zoro’s chest. Yet he had a very impressing tight grasp on Zoro’s shoulder that was for sure.
“No, you aren’t,” Sanji stated in a mellow voice, slowly shifting his hand from Zoro’s shoulder to his cheek and closing the distance between their lips.
The sensation of it was far beyond everything Zoro could have imagined. His entire body was tingling and his lower abdomen was prickling from the moment he had felt the warmth and smoothness of Sanji’s lips. Especially is lip lines felt incredibly soft under the slight and careful motions of Zoro’s lips. Yet, it was so… intense.
Zoro’s hands found their way to Sanji’s head, caressing his hair and cheeks.
“So you did reconcile in the end,” Ruffy’s cheery voice destroyed the atmosphere of the moment. “I knew it!”
“What a perfect timing,” Sanji groaned.
“Sanji! You must come down and cook for me! I mean us, but especially for me! I want meat. Lots of meat. Please!”
“I guess I’ve got to obey his will.” Sanji mumbled and turned to leave.
Zoro grabbed his arm suddenly panicking.
“What do you think you are doing, leaving me standing here like a fool? If you kissed me just to make fun of me, I swear I’ll make you regret it.”
Sanji just shook his head and smiled at him.
“I would never use your feelings to make fun with you. Love is the most precious feeling there is. It’s the pure essence of power. It can make kingdoms rise and fall. It is…”
“All right. I got it. Now shut up!” Zoro felt his cheeks flush. All this love talk was softening his brains. Well, maybe it was also making him happy. A little.
“Meat?” Ruffy was trying to direct the attention on more important topics than romance again and very successfully on top of that since he simply decided on grabbing Sanji and dragging him away. “I can’t wait any longer. I’m starving. You are a cook so save me!”
Sanji rolled his eyes but followed his friend downstairs.
“Zoro would you be so kind to assist me?” were the last words Zoro could hear before Sanji disappeared around the corner and out of his sight.
“Of course I will,” he mumbled to himself not really overjoyed. “I’m the great sage when it comes down to cooking. I’ve never done anything else in my life. I bet he’ll make me peel the vegetable and lets me slice it since I’m the great swordsman, blah blah. Oh, how I hate cooking.”
Of course he had been right but now that he was slicing vegetable it wasn’t bothering him anymore. Being with Sanji when he was cooking was fascinating and furthermore soothing. Zoro still felt a little awkward with the situation he and Sanji had ended up in. Being in love with a man was something he had not really foreseen in his life planning. Not that he had really considered being in love at all.
Thinking about it, what would his friends think of them as a couple? They would most likely die laughing and not believe it for a second. He couldn’t believe it himself.
“What’s bothering you?” Sanji suddenly asked and turned around to face him.
“Nothing,” was the first thing escaping Zoro’s mouth before he could do anything against it. He was used to keeping things to himself so it was still hard to even try and voice what was nagging him. “I mean, what I wanted to say was that this is weird.”
“What is weird? I don’t understand what you are talking about.”
“Us.”
Zoro felt sorry for being unable to put his thoughts into words. It hadn’t been his intention to upset Sanji. Still it looked like he had done exactly that judging by the way Sanji looked at him. The blonde man was dumbfounded and even forgot to light a new cigarette.
“That sounded wrong again, damn. Oh, if you only were Chopper,” Zoro groaned and realised a second later that he had hit the bulls-eye once again. The idiot of the year was Einstein compared to him. He was almost literally biting the hand that fed him. Great.
“What are you trying to tell me? Am I suddenly not good enough for you anymore?”
“Hell no!” Zoro yelled annoyed. If it would have helped he would have slammed his head against the next wall. “I just know how to handle him for God’s sake! I don’t know how to talk about this emotional shit with you without making a complete fool of myself!”
“Just say what you mean! Every monkey could do that! It can’t be that hard, you know?”
Zoro took a deep breath and tried to collect himself.
“Fine,” he said and reached out for Sanji to pull him into a tight yet gentle embrace. “I’m sorry.” He felt Sanji return his embrace and relaxed a little. This was getting to him more than he had expected.
“Okay. Let’s try it again,” Sanji said and looked Zoro in the eyes. “What is bothering you?”
“I don’t know if I can accept being… in love.”
“This is stupid. Are you afraid of being considered gay?”
“Show me the one laughing about it and he’ll see what he’ll get. I’m just…”
There it was again. This knowing smile Sanji always showed when it came down to emotional business. It was irritating. Zoro had absolutely no idea of how to handle the situation while Sanji seemed to be pure self-confidence again.
“Could it be that you are worrying about being inadequate?” he purred.
Zoro could only shrug his shoulders. Maybe he really was worried about being not good enough. He had no idea of cooking, being romantic or being at least a bearable companion, let alone of being a lover. Furthermore he wasn’t really interested in anything but becoming the best swordsman in the world.
“Maybe I’m not the right one for you.”
“You definitely worry too much. I’ve spent an entire week with a brutish moron who was doing only as he pleased. I don’t say I wouldn’t wish for a little more consideration for me but I don’t expect you to change. I want you as you are. Do you understand that?”
Instead of answering Zoro decided on kissing Sanji as a reply. It was confirming what he had expected to happen: it was making his entire body tingling with joyful excitement again.
“Well, that sure was interesting but tell me when this is about to turn into a peep show so I can go, okay?”
When Zoro recognised the owner of the voice all his joy vanished and gave room to surprise and anger.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped at Mihawk, his arms still wrapped around Sanji’s waist.
“That is a question you better ask your boyfriend,” Mihawk replied coldly.
“What is he talking about?” Zoro asked doing what Mihawk had suggested.
“Well, first of all I’m glad you really came here Monsieur Dulacre,” Sanji welcomed his guest while freeing himself of Zoro’s embrace and offering a hand to Mihawk as welcome. Mihawk accepted and returned the handshake. “I didn’t really expect you to follow my invitation so I’m happy you did. Although it seems that it was a bad idea after all.”
“Of course it was. Who would want to have him here? Not me!” Zoro snapped.
“This is so cool!” Ruffy squealed and hopped on Mihawk’s back. “Zoro! Did you see him? It’s Mihawk! The kendo world champion is in my house! This is amazing!”
“Would you be so kind as to get off my back, damn brat?” Mihawk asked rather annoyed yet he was lifting no finger to get rid of Ruffy himself.
“This is really embarrassing,” Zoro mumbled and paced over to Mihawk to pluck his brother off his back.
“It’s interesting to know that you consider this kid embarrassing but not your own being ridiculously soppy.”
“Is that all you have to say? If it is then please leave,” Zoro snapped. He still had no idea why Mihawk had come here after all. This was beyond him.
Sanji cleared his throat to get Zoro’s attention. “Actually, I wanted you and Mihawk to talk your family-business over. I know I have no right to interfere but I thought it might be best for you.”
“What family-business?” Ruffy asked without getting a reaction.
“I don’t have anything like ‘family-business’ with him.”
“That’s not true, Zoro, and you know it,” Sanji insisted.
“Well, maybe I have a compromise to offer,” Mihawk suddenly stated and finally caught Zoro’s attention. He still didn’t want to have his so called father here but he had to admit that Sanji was right. It was necessary to know where he stood when he wanted to fight Mihawk again. Else it would always linger in the back of his mind and affect his equilibrium so he would never be able to surpass Mihawk.
“I can’t wait to hear it,” Zoro snarled.
Mihawk glared at him but finally a mischievous smile spread on his lips.
“It’s rather easy. Find me. Find the place where I live and make it there without getting yourself killed. If you can do that I might consider you worthy of my time.”
“Doesn’t sound that interesting yet,” Zoro replied. “Why would I want to spend time with you?”
“Right,” Mihawk said. “Why would you want to spend time with your only hindrance in being the best swordfighter of the world? What could you gain from it? Maybe you should think about it while searching for me. My offer remains valid until January 31st. Don’t make me wait for too long.” Mihawk turned to leave without waiting for a reply.
“No! Don’t leave!” Ruffy shrieked. “You must stay for dinner. Sanji’s food is the best you’ll ever get to taste!”
“Let him leave Ruffy. You’ll get his share,” Zoro remarked and it worked. Ruffy led Mihawk to the door, assuring he was sorry that Mihawk had to leave so suddenly but he would take care of his share of food for him.
“What the hell was that?” Zoro asked a little confused. Mihawk couldn’t have come here just to play games with him, could he? Still it seemed like Mihawk somehow wanted to get in touch with him even though it wasn’t in a fatherly way. Zoro was fine with that. He had lived long enough without having a father and it wasn’t that important to him now that he had realised that his family still was the same no matter what their blood relation might be. He had brothers, a grandfather, a sister-in-law, all of them were his dear friends and now he even had a lover. He did neither need nor want a father.
“I guess he figured out the best way to deal with you,” Sanji stated and cracked a smile.
“What way? Are you saying he’s trying to play me like a puppet?”
“No. I just wanted to say that your ambition spurs you and he spurred your ambition. You want to surpass him, don’t you?”
“Of course I want to and I will.”
“See? He’s well aware of that and offered you a helping hand.”
Zoro was confused again. Why would Mihawk offer him anything? And why would he be interested in improving his opponent’s skills? That was weird. No one in his right mind would do something like that.
When Zoro finished his train of thought he realised that Sanji was standing right in front of him. He looked slightly worried.
“Will you go?” he asked.
Zoro smiled and caressed his cheek in a sudden rush of affection. He really had fallen for Sanji.
“No, I won’t at least not now.” It was strange for him but Zoro meant it. There was no need to hurry and run after Mihawk. One day he would surpass him. Be it with or without his help.
Sanji smiled a faint smile. “But isn’t that what you want?”
“No, it is not. After years of being without my family and now that I’ve got you why would I want to leave again? Don’t be silly.” He closed the gap between their faces and tenderly kissed Sanji. The silky touch of his lips still was an overwhelming sensation for Zoro. Sanji tenderly moved his lips slightly brushing over Zoro’s to finally gently nip on his lower lip he nearly forgot to breathe. Unconsciously he mirrored every movement of Sanji and when the tip of Sanji’s tongue touched his lips it struck him like lightning. Heavens this wasn’t his first kiss in life yet he had never experienced something like this before. Being in love sure was different.
“For now I only want to be with you. Mihawk can wait a little longer.”
“But what about the deadline he gave you to find him?”
“Why would I care? Either he wants me to find him and accepts my pace or he does not. I won’t bow to him. Furthermore I’m not ready to face him in a fight again even if it was just or practice. In my current state I’ll never be able to beat him.”
“In your current state?”
“I’m in love I guess. How am I supposed to focus on training when my mind is full of you?”
“Come on, guys. This cheesy talk is more than I can take,” Nami interrupted them. “Furthermore Mihawk left a message for you. He said: ‘Tell him to pay attention to the year I mentioned.’”
Zoro tried to make sense of the message but couldn’t. After all Mihawk hadn’t mentioned a year, had he? Or had Zoro simply missed it? What a nuisance. But Sanji seemed to have understood and smiled a genuine smile.
“I guess he’ll have to wait for quite a while then. I’m not planning to let you think of anything but me anytime soon.”
---END---
I hope you enjoyed the story. :)
