Zoro Learns Some Manners

…so I’m just borrowing them for the sake of Yaoi. Once I’m done then I promise to wipe them off and give them back ;) Any resemblance to real people is coincidental - these characters are pure fantasy!

Warning: contains a lot of very strong language and steamy Yaoi / boysecks (Zoro x Sanji)

I stole the bit about the Zoro of tomorrow from Naruto, so credit to Masashi Kishimoto - I always thought Zoro showed a bit of Lee-like enthusiasm. He just does it so much hotter ;)

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Zoro slowed his breathing and let his body take control. He could hear the marines stumbling around in the dark; cursing and tripping over dislodged stones and unconscious comrades. They had stopped shooting now that they didn’t know friend from foe. The swordsman’s reflexes carried him effortlessly through the chaos. He weaved and turned, flipping over debris, and leaving a trail of broken bodies behind him. He might not be able to see Aston, but the Vice Admiral couldn’t see him now either.


Touché.


He liked to fight in the dark. It meant he had to rely on the skills he had spent years honing to perfection. He wasn’t just a swordsman, he was a warrior. Every part of him knew its role and his lovingly sculpted body was just one piece of his armoury. His hearing, his sense of smell, his cat-like balance, and his lightning reflexes… they were his only reliable allies until he had met Luffy. They were what he could trust. When he closed his eyes and let his body take over, all his fears melted away. He simply was. And right now he was force.


Every time one of the marines struggled to light one of the lamps - the last thing they saw was dark demon eyes as a powerful wave of wind knocked the lamp from their hands, and then nothing but the deeper black of unconsciousness. Zoro was proud. Even though it was messy and involved a lot of wasted energy - something the swordsman hated - he hadn’t killed a single marine. Maybe it wasn’t so bad that he’d left his katanas behind; this was great training. Sanji might even be impressed… The leather straps cut into Zoro’s chest as it swelled. He’d show that pansy ass what he could really do…


The swordsman closed his eyes and focussed all of his attention on the air around him. He could feel something powerful moving slowly to his right. That meant Aston was further down the corridor. He moved forward, concentrating on his footing. He was trying to be quiet now, but he constantly had to knock away various body parts that were in his way. A broken nose, one knee, three wrists, and a dislocated shoulder later he finally realised why his kicks were off. He had been so caught up in the moment he had forgotten that he only had one boot on. He tore off the remaining boot and circled around the debris. Come on mist man…


Come out and play.


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Sanji flipped over the main gate. He cleared a very surprised guard room, and sprinted off into the base before they even knew what had hit them. He hurtled through the main doors, sending marines slamming into the lush wallpaper at every turn. He could hear the fight, he just couldn’t quite figure out where it was. Trust Zoro to find the most out of the way spot in the whole damn base! Sanji turned down yet another long dark corridor. They all looked the same. He stood there, perplexed, for a minute and tried to figure out where all the bashing and crashing noises were coming from. If he followed the noise, he was sure to find his nakama.


Three marines covered in blood cleared the corner at the end of the corridor and hurtled towards Sanji. The cook put his hands in his pockets and his foot against the wall, making sure that his long leg prevented anyone from getting past him. The marine in front was a short stocky man with dark brown hair and glasses. He stared up at Sanji and started to shout at him,


“Get out of the way! Roronoa Zoro is in the base! He’s going wild!” his eyes were wide and he looked like he’d been crying. The cook almost felt sorry for him. He didn’t move though.


“Get out of the way!” the other marines took up the chorus as more hurtled round the corner. Looked like Zoro was causing a bit of a stir. And they all knew his damn name! Typical. He’d gone to all the effort to get together a disguise and coach moss head until even he couldn’t cock it up and then Luffy rushes in and blows his cover. What was the Captain thinking?! Probably not much. That was the problem. It was just impossible for the idiot to contain himself. Next time they made a careful plan, he was going to lash him to the mast…


Sanji turned in a vicious cartwheel down the corridor. His feet beat a tattoo as he sent countless faces slamming into the walls. They were really going to need to repaint after this. He sniggered a little at the carnage. When the Straw Hat Pirates come to visit, they always leave their mark.


He could hear the cacophony getting louder. On his right a stone staircase plummeted off into darkness. The noise was loud now, and he could almost smell the fear. He plunged down into the dark abyss. Marines were still pouring out of the room, and reinforcements were pouring in. It took Sanji about ten full minutes to get down the stairs, and when he did, he had a pile of bodies to get over at the bottom. It wasn’t easy to climb through them in the dark. What the hell was going on here? He could hear the sounds of bones breaking, and the satisfied grunts of a man who was really enjoying his work.


Zoro.


Sanji shook the last of the marines off his legs and set off towards the swordsman. He could feel a cold damp breeze winding around him. It made his skin crawl and goose bumps form on the back of his neck. It almost felt like he was back out in the forest. Weird.


The cook wasn’t so sure about turning flips when he couldn’t see where he was going, so instead he just axe kicked his way from one end of the room towards the sexy sounds of Zoro fighting. Step, kick, step, kick… He had a couple of marines jump on him but they weren’t very hard to get rid of. He felt the breeze blowing on his neck again and stopped to try to figure to where it was coming from. A kick cleaved the air in front of him and he dodged out of the way just in time. He had only just felt the air move; his face would have been turned into paste. Lucky he was light on his feet. He could feel the body just in front of him pivot in the air and then a leg drove into his ribs. He flipped backwards onto his hands and slammed into another body, someone was trying to stand up behind him. He collected whoever it was and they both rolled into a pile of rubble.


A familiar deep voice cut through the damp darkness.


“What are you doing, ero-cook? I could’ve hurt you”


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The blonde was not happy. Even in the pitch black Zoro swore he could see his curly eyebrow twitch.


“What am I doing? What the hell are YOU doing?! If you knew it was me, why’d you hit me you asshole?”


“Guess it’s just your bad luck.”


Zoro leaned left and was buffeted by the wind coming off the foot which missed his head by an inch. Sanji was not happy at all. That’s what he gets for running head first into someone else’s fight though. He’d recognised the cook as soon as he flipped back; no-one did it quite like Sanji. The guy practically bent in half.


Zoro grinned into the dark and swung a heavy punch over Sanji’s shoulder. He knocked out the marine still trying to get to his feet behind the cook, and then rested his arm on Sanji’s shoulder and leaned in close. As close as he could get before being thrown head first onto the pile of marines on the other side of the room. He landed in what had to be a collection of elbows and then jumped to his feet and marched back across the room.


“You want a fight cook!?”


“Damn well I do!” The cook’s voice rang out in the dark angry and loud; Zoro could feel his presence. He oozed power. That was why Zoro had though that he was Aston at first. He could also feel the waves of red rage pouring off him.


Zoro thumped his way right up close. Sanji was whirling around hitting anything that came within rage of his deadly, sexy legs. Zoro felt the breeze coming off him as he increased his speed with every turn. Pretty soon he’d be going so fast that even Zoro couldn’t keep up. The swordsman waited for him to go low with a sweeping kick; that meant next time he’d cross over and then he’d have his leg up above his head. He let his body feel for the right moment, and then he struck.


He closed his arms around Sanji and crushed the cook’s leg to his chest. The momentum the cook had gotten up meant it was all he could do not to go spinning off into the darkness. He dug his bare feet into the rubble and clung on like a limpet.


“Get off me!!!” Sanji screamed, as he hopped, and somehow got his other foot into Zoro’s knee. Zoro twisted sideways and bought his shoulder down into the cook’s chest, trying to wind him as they broke contact. A foot slammed into his chest and he deflected three more blows before he’d even regained his stance. Then it was really on.


A whirling mass of dust, limbs, and screamed abuse rolled from one end of the room to the other. Zoro was trying to tell Sanji that he might want to keep it down. Sanji was trying to ask Zoro if he had seen Luffy. Somehow, all that was coming out was insults and violence. Finally, Zoro managed to pin Sanji to the floor. He had the advantage in the dark it seemed, even without his beloved katanas. He was just leaning in to the spitting, hissing blonde to tell him to shut up when a low level voice blew cold mist right into his ear.


“Temper, temper….” He felt the cook freeze beneath him as the blow landed on his stomach and he was lifted up into the air. He hit the ground on his side and stayed down. Might be a good idea to keep quiet until he knew where the bastard was. Plus he had probably cracked a rib. Damnit.


He could still feel Sanji’s dual anger and confusion. It was like a beacon. Zoro couldn’t figure out how he’d missed the guy before with all the red hot rage bubbling away inside him. Maybe he wasn’t pissed until he’d found me… Zoro frowned and filed that thought away for future consideration. Right now he had to find Aston.


He could feel someone powerful closing in on him, but it was hard to pin point. It felt as if it was all around him, and the mist which clung to his skin and made his stupid frilly shirt damp seemed to confirm that it was. He just had to wait, keep quiet, and hope that he could find Aston before Aston found him. He finally pulled his gloves off and tore the three cornered hat from his head. Now he was down to shirt, pants and those annoying buckled straps. Zoro felt the cold stone tremble slightly under him; something big was on the move. He could feel the mist swirling around him, and slowly the feeling of power came together directly above him.


He rolled towards the far wall just as the ceiling collapsed. A shower of dust and rubble hit the ground next to his head, and a slab of stone as big as a piano dropped out of the sky above him. He pushed off the ground and dove as far as he could. It was close, but he was lucky. Light streamed in from the windows in the room above. The full extent of the chaos was finally revealed. Layer upon layer of stone, bloody limbs, and torn marine uniforms covered the floor. No Aston. No Sanji.


Just one big idiot with a massive grin, sitting cross-legged on a slab of rock.


“Hey Zoro! That outfit does look good on you! Wow! I’m glad I came to check it out.” Luffy ogled the swordsman and then leapt to his feet, dusting himself off.


Zoro’s calm fighting exterior crumbled.


“Next time, tell us first!!!” he screamed, in unison with another voice that was equally pissed off. Sanji was standing behind him, his leg raised to take off the swordsman’s head. Apparently the shock of realising he’d nearly been killed by his Captain - yet again - had redirected the blonde’s anger. He’d have to thank Luffy later. Once he got over the fact that he had almost been killed as well…


Damn idiot. Where the hell had he even come from?!


Luffy stared at him in awe, grinning like a monkey. Fool.


Zoro grinned. It was so hard to stay angry at the kid.


Sanji looked from Zoro’s grin to Luffy’s and then back again. His face went from red to purple, and his eyebrow practically came right off his head.


“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOUR OUTFIT!?” he screamed, as his suspended foot finally came down and dealt the swordsman yet another blow to the head. There wasn’t much force behind it but the bloodthirsty look in the cook’s eyes said there was a hell of a lot more where that came from.


“Oh…. You’re in trouble!” Luffy laughed and sat back down to watch his nakama fight. They were so much fun!


“Sanji! Stop it damn it!” Zoro ducked and tried to get some distance between him and the cook. He could still feel Aston close, and now the bastard could see him clear as day. As if on cue, a pair of condescending brown eyes appeared behind Luffy, and a cloud of mist gathered behind his head.


“Hey! Luffy…” Zoro dodged another kick to the head. “There’s a…”


Too late.


Luffy’s head snapped sideways on his rubbery neck and he went flying into the rusty bars with so much force that he actually bounced off them again, hit the ceiling, and then finally smashed into the rubble.


Sanji blinked at the messy collection of rubber limbs and turned back to Zoro, his eyebrow raised in an unspoken question.


“I tried to tell you” the swordsman said.


Sanji’s eyes narrowed and he took a long deep breath through his nose, but he didn’t kick Zoro in the head again. At least he was listening now.


“There’s a guy in here with a devil’s fruit ability…”


“Indeed there is. Straw Hat Luffy, I’m Vice Admiral Aston of the Vesper Island Marine Defensive Division. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” A smile formed over Luffy’s head and then the Captain’s grin was slammed into the rocks between his knees. He bounced back up and then looked around in confusion.


“Luffy, he’s a mist man! He’s invisible,” Zoro shouted to Luffy as he closed the gap between them. “Leave him to me!” Luffy turned his now-dark eyes on his first mate.


“You want to fight him?”


“Yes.”


“Ok. Come on Sanji, let’s go and get the treasure.” Luffy stood and dusted his hat off before placing it back on his head.


“Thanks” Zoro said. He meant it. But Luffy always knew what he meant. He would never stand in his way. He always pushed him to be the best, and he never tried to stop him pursuing his dream. Zoro knew that he was the only man that he could ever follow, only because he never tried to lead. He just strode out, and fate took care of anyone who tried to challenge him. Zoro believed in luck, and luck was Luffy.


The swordsman closed his eyes again and tried to focus…


“Hey Robin, you come too!” Luffy’s voice cut through his concentration.


“You won’t be leaving so easily, Straw Hat.” Aston appeared in full this time and raised up a fist, striking a ridiculous pose while he gathered momentum to hit Luffy again. The Captain grinned at Zoro and sent one arm flying up into the room above him. His other circled Sanji and Robin - who had appeared at the bottom of the stairs - and in a second, they all rocketed up into the room above.


Good. All out of the way. Now he really didn’t have to worry. The swordsman took a step and launched himself into the air, spinning to make himself a hard target.


“Bushido-san!” Robin’s voice floated down from above. Zoro tried to look and was knocked sideways out of the air by Aston. He hit the ground on his cracked rib. Damn woman!


“WHAT?!”


“You may want these” Robin smiled her inscrutable smile and dropped down something green. It was his haramaki; and it was lovingly wrapped around the rest of Zoro’s body - those three steel limbs that he felt naked without. Zoro grinned wide as he snatched them from the air and fastened them back where they belonged. He may not trust that woman, but she was sure as hell useful from time to time.


“Thankyou Robin-chan!” he called up, as he turned back towards the fray. Robin’s expression remained fixed, but one solitary eyebrow moved a centimetre from its usual post. To anyone who knew the woman well, that tiny sign conveyed a whole world of emotion.


“I guess I’ll deal with you first then, Roronoa.” Aston’s voice hovered somewhere off to Zoro’s right. The swordsman turned his back to the wall and drew his katanas out one by one. Yubashiri in his left hand and the bloody Sandai Kitetsu in his right… He could feel the mist closing in, then suddenly his swords were in the air and he could taste the copper of blood in his mouth. He took the full force of the hit and rolled with it. He watched his precious katanas arc through the air and threw his body out to catch them. A low, level voice laughed in his ear, and a chill breeze rolled over him.


His head spun, and the light from the windows above went white and then black and back again. He couldn’t pass out now. Not yet.


He crawled forward and finally reached his katanas. He picked them up, and got back on his feet.


“You can have them,” Aston’s voice came from all around him as the mist swirled, “they won’t help you now.”


Yubashiri in his left, the cursed sword in his right… and finally Wadou Ichimonyi: the sword that held all his hopes and dreams. He put his treasure in his mouth and crossed the three blades in front of him. His sensei had said that cutting nothing was the true sign of a swordsman’s skill. He could cut steel, but could he cut mist?


A challenge like this was just what he needed. Better. Faster. Stronger than ever before. The Zoro of yesterday couldn’t cut mist, but who knew what the Zoro of tomorrow was capable of? The swordsman smiled around the woven hilt of Wadou,


“I’d be saving all my breath to cry mercy if I were you”


Zoro closed his eyes and felt the mist whirl around him. He could feel it swirl and twist. He could feel Aston’s limbs in it, his heart beat, his breath… Life within life, movement within movement, breath within mist. He could see Aston’s face in his mind’s eye. His hands moved. He felt Yubashiri and the cursed sword return to their sheaths. He opened his mouth and felt Wadou drop to rest in his left hand. It moved with the mist, and the breath drew it in. He could feel the cold damp on his neck and the heavy feeling of power all around him.


The katana swept it all away.


A single point. A piercing light in the dark. An echo, like a dream, that one blade could follow. It cut a single level arc, and he fell to his knees. A carved wave of bloody mist shimmered in the air and then fell around him like a monsoon downpour.


The breath was gone.


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Sanji stood at the bottom of the stairs and gawked.


His jaw hadn’t shut for at least ten minutes. He had told Luffy he was looking for the treasure. Instead, he had come to watch Zoro. The swordsman was covered in blood and sweat. A red mist surrounded him and rolled away from his body, slowly sinking to stain the ground. His dark eyes were still closed as he re-sheathed his katana and slowly stood up.


“What do you want?” Zoro’s voice was calm and clear.


Sanji swallowed. Between the mask, the torn shirt, the sweat, the blood, and the raw beauty of watching him fight… The cook had a painfully throbbing hard on and nowhere to hide.


“Ummm…” The blonde closed his mouth and opened it again, desperately willing something intelligent to come out. Inside, he was turning to jelly.


“Hey Sanji!!!” The Captain’s childish voice rang out behind the cook. He sighed. Saved!


Luffy bounced down the stairs and bowled into the room, knocking a large portion of the pile of marines at Sanji’s feet into the far wall.


“Hey Zoro! You finished?”


The swordsman slowly opened his eyes and turned them on his Captain.


“Yes” he said simply.


“Good! Let’s get going! Nami said we had to be back by dinner time and I’m really hungry!”


Luffy’s grin widened as he took in the carnage.


“Wow Zoro, you really destroyed the place!”


“That was you, idiot.” Zoro walked over and cuffed Luffy affectionately on the head. Luffy wound his arm up, twisting it out far behind him,


“Gomu gomu no …” Zoro cuffed him again, with a lot less affection. His rubber head bounced merrily into the rubble.


“Baka! You’ll bring the whole building down on us!”


Luffy sat up and rubbed his head as if nothing had happened.


“Oh yeah!”


Sanji was slowly recovering from his trace. He only knew one thing. He HAD to get Zoro out into the forest. NOW. His body was screaming out for the swordsman. He needed to feel the hard body against him. He needed to breathe in that sweet smell of fresh sweat and pure power. He had to get out of there and into Zoro’s arms and he would do anything to make it happen.


“Zoro can cut through the wall here” the blonde said, trying to keep the desperate lust out his voice.


“Oh yeah!” Luffy said again and beamed up at Zoro.


The swordsman drew Yubashiri and levelled it against the wall behind him. He arched his brow at Sanji, who nodded.


“Are you sure it goes outside?” Zoro asked. The cook would normally have abused him - HE had no right to ask questions like that - instead, he nodded again. He didn’t trust his voice at the moment, those dark demon eyes were making him dizzy.


In a single slice, Zoro carved a door into the metres thick stone. He re-sheathed his katana and kicked the lump of rock out into the courtyard.


Luffy ran out into the sun shine.


“Dinnnerrrrr!!!!!”


Sanji followed Luffy out into the courtyard and turned so he couldn’t see the chiselled warrior even out of the corner of his eye. Once his breath had come back, he focussed all his attention on the Captain.


“Where’s Robin?”


“She took the treasure back to the ship. You should see all of the stuff that we found, it was so cool! There was this thing that had a big handle like a giant ladle, and there was a thing like a rock that had...”


Sanji let Luffy’s prattle wash over him. Come on, think!


“Luffy, I need to get supplies for dinner.”


“What? But Nami said we have to go straight back!”


“Do you want to eat or don’t you?”


“Awww Sanji, but Nami will shout at me!”


“I’ll make roast for you.”


“Yosh!” Luffy grinned wide, “Come on Zoro, let’s go back to the ship!”


“I need Zoro to come with me. We’re going to need a lot of meat after a fight like that.” Sanji tried not to grin.


“Ok,” Luffy shrugged “Robin said that the marines have more ships coming so if you take too long then all the fighting will be over!” He directed this at Zoro, who looked at Sanji like a puppy who just lost his favourite bone.


“You’re coming with me, marimo.”


Zoro snorted and made to walk past him. Sanji directed a kick at the biggest bloodstain on his previously snow white shirt. It really had been a beautiful shirt.


“Ow. Shit, ok!” Zoro grumbled and glared at the cook. His dark eyes simmered under the leather mask. His muscles rippled under the tight buckled straps as he turned and marched off into the forest - in the opposite direction to the ship.


Sanji watched his dimpled ass as it disappeared into the mist. Then he wiped up the puddle of drool collecting on his tie and ran after that magnificent ass into the forest, as fast as his long lusty legs would carry him.


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