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Salrynn's Shrine	By : acidprince Category: +M to R > One Piece Views: 3069 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of its weird and wonderful characters. I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

Chapter List
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The weekend passed without the swordsman or the cook even looking each other in the face. Sanji cooked, Zoro trained, Chopper flipped out in his private time because it was somehow his fault. They stayed out of each other’s way. Monday, however, was decidedly much better (in terms of weather at least), and the crew of the Thousand Sunny awoke to a fairly dry deck, except in the shadowy corners of the ship. When the crew filtered into galley, they were pleasantly surprised (and damn near a seizure in Luffy’s case) to find a table covered in what looked like a good-morning feast.

“Uwaaah!” Meshiiii~~!!” The captain bellowed, followed by a string of nonsensical noises as he started inhaling the food that was in front of him. Nami clocked him around the head, telling him to stop being so noisy because she had a headache already goddammit, and sat down to begin eating. Soon, everyone was sat around the kitchen table, except for their swordsman.

The cook, on the other hand, was in the kitchen behind the crew, furiously kneading bread dough and sucking on an unlit cigarette. He was staring blindly at the flour that peppered the worktop, refusing to look at the rest of the crew.

“Oi, Sanji!” Usopp called around a mouthful of food, “Aren’t you going to come eat?”

The blond didn’t reply for a moment, but he paused in his almost frantic kneading. “I’m not hungry,” he finally replied, scowling down at the worktop. Usopp was slightly taken aback and cast a worried glance towards Robin, who simply smiled reassuringly from beside him and continued to eat anyway, before it all disappeared into his captain’s rapidly inflating stomach.

Sanji finished kneading the bread and slid it into the oven, before he finally lit his cigarette and walked outside onto the deck. He leaned over the railing and ran his fingers through his blond hair. He took a long drag on his cigarette, groaning as the nicotine engulfed his senses. He should really give up if he was- what he was. He knitted his brow and stared down at the calm waves that rocked the ship like a cradle. What the hell was he going to do? He couldn’t have a kid. It just didn’t fit into the grand scheme of things. He couldn’t be a pirate and raise a child. And there was no woman. It just wasn’t fair on the kid.

Then again…

The old geezer was a pirate, as were all the other men on the Baratie. And they raised him. And he’d turned out okay.

He heard the telltale clank of metal from the gym overhead. Zoro. The stupid bastard hadn’t eaten breakfast. A part of his mind decided to remind him that he hadn’t eaten breakfast either, but he ignored it. He’d eat when he felt like it, whenever that would be.

“Oi! Fuckface!” He yelled. No answer. He mumbled a string of curses under his breath, before grabbing onto the railing roughly and climbing swiftly to the top. He swung open the latch of the little room, stepping up quickly and staring at the swordsman’s bare, tanned back, trying to ignore how the firm muscles moved under tanned flesh. “Zoro,” he repeated sharply.

Nothing. Not even a turn of his green, brainless head. The weights just kept moving, up, down, up, down. Sanji felt as if he were having a conversation with the constant clinking noises instead of his asshole of a lover. “Zoro, look at me,” he said, eyes narrowing.

They finally stopped. Zoro slowly lowered the weights to the ground, where they landed with a gentle thud. He wiped the sweat off of his brow and finally turned to look at Sanji with an expectant expression, panting slightly. “What do you want me to say?” He asked, staring the other man in the eye.

Sanji lowered his gaze to the floor, suddenly feeling very stupid and inadequate. “Anything,” he answered, “I hate being avoided… say whatever’s on your mind, I’ve just had enough of dealing with this alone.” He finished. It didn’t come out quite as pointed or matter-of-fact as he’d hoped, and the weakness in his tone annoyed him, but he needed to speak to Zoro. As helpless as he felt at that moment, he wanted nothing more than for the other man to say something to him.

“What’s on my mind? Okay, well, there’s something inside you that’s going to grow into a kid pretty soon.” Zoro said, reaching for his towel and wiping more sweat from the back of his neck.

The blond looked at his feet. “I know that,” he mumbled, “what do you want to do about it?”

“You mean, how do I feel about it?” Zoro asked, looking back at the cook. “Whatever happens, happens. If I’m meant to be having a kid now, then that’s what’s meant to happen. We’ll just have to go from there.”

“What about what I want?” Sanji asked.

“What do you want?” Zoro answered, looking at him seriously.

Sanji was silent. He wasn’t adverse to the idea of having children, in fact, he wanted them at some point in his life. He just didn’t think it would happen now, under these circumstances, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted it to. “I-” he started, but he knew that no amount of arguing or talking was going to make that decision for him.

Zoro paused and sighed, looking out through the small window at the greyish horizon. “Right,” he started a few moments later, “go out today. Go… look at food or fuck women or whatever it is you do on these islands. Have a long, hard, think. Then come and speak to me and we’ll talk about this like civilised people.”

Sanji felt mildly insulted that a swordsman just said he was uncivilised, but he let it go. “Fine,” he mumbled, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. He left without a word, opening the hatch and climbing down the ladder to the deck.

Yeah, today was going to be much better.

*****

Sanji’s face melted into a strange arrangement of facial organs as a pair of thin young women walked past in rather provocative clothing. Park benches were wonderful inventions. As he sat down and stared at the various women who passed him, he kept getting this strange rumbling pain in his belly that used to give him nightmares, and he realised that he should really eat something.

But just as he was about to stand and go back to the ship to make something, a slim woman sat down on the bench next to him. She arranged the pram in front of her so her child was facing her. With a few affectionate baby noises, she pulled the tiny thing from its bed and held it in her arms to began rocking it slowly. The child was dressed in pink, so Sanji assumed it must be a girl.

“Good afternoon,” he said politely, smiling at her.

She turned to him and smiled back widely. “Good afternoon,” she replied.

“How old is she?” Sanji asked, nodding at the woman’s child.

“Two months,” she answered, smiling proudly down at the infant.

“She’s very cute,” the blond replied. “What’s her name?”

“Epona,” the woman said, “after the Goddess of the island.”

Sanji noted, fleetingly, that the appearance of Goddesses along this particular chain of islands was a growing trend. He’d ask Robin about it later. “That’s a pretty name.” He said.

“Do you have any children?” She asked, trying to make conversation, it seemed.

Sanji paused. “Sort of,” he replied.

“Sort of?” The woman asked, turning to look at him with a confused expression. A look of realisation dawned on her face. “Is your wife pregnant?” She said excitedly.

Sanji blinked. “Uhm, yeah, my wife,” he said, looking down at his hands.

“Oh, congratulations,” she said, smiling widely.

“Thanks,” Sanji mumbled.

“How far along is she?” The woman asked, rummaging around a bag on her pram for a moment before she produced a bottle and held it to her fussing child’s mouth.

“Oh, uhm… only a few weeks,” he said, “we only just found out.”

“I see,” she said, feeding the baby in her arms. “Are you happy about it?”

Sanji paused. “I- we’re not really sure,” he admitted. “We don’t really know if it’s the right time, or if we’re the right kind of people to be having children,” he explained slowly.

“Well - forgive me for sticking my nose in - but you want to know what I think?”

Sanji nodded.

“I think that babies only come when they’re meant to come. If they weren’t meant to be, then they’d never have even been conceived.” She paused to wipe her daughter’s chin. “And about you not being the right people? I think that children are meant to happen when they happen, to the people they’re meant to happen to. Even if it seems like the worst possible time.”

Sanji nodded absently, looking down at his hands. In some aspects, what the woman said was true. How likely was it that they would just happen to stumble across an island that made men pregnant? The Grand Line was a weird ass place, but that just took the cake. “But how am I supposed to deal with a child? I have no experience with them at all.”

“Well, I never had any experience with children at all before my husband and I had Epona,” she answered, “but ever since I’ve had her, I’ve just been getting better and better.” She giggled in a heart-meltingly cute way, and Sanji sighed.

“Well, thanks for the talk,” he said, standing. “But I should be getting back now. Goodbye, miss.”

The woman waved after him. “Good luck!” She called.

“Thanks,” Sanji said back.

*****

Sanji came back home in time for an early dinner, so he immediately began preparing ingredients while remaining in deep thought. What the lady in the park had said was very true; he probably would just learn to deal with the kid over time. Money was hardly a problem, because they stole a lot of stuff anyway and he was sure Nami-swan wouldn’t mind lending some of her money (he hoped, rather). It was really just a matter of getting the essentials and having another mouth to feed.

What about quality of life? Being born and raised on a pirate ship full of lunatics and having a brash, booze-drinking, body-building, foul-mouthed sword fanatic as a father and a kickboxing, foul mouthed, perverted cook as a… mother? No, no, father, definitely. Well, one thing was for certain - this child had no chance of sanity.

But he guessed that any child of his was going to be at least a bit crazy, so it was kind of a stupid thing to be worrying about. At least it would be loved.

With this in mind, he finished preparing the ingredients and got to work making dinner. He’d speak to Zoro later on that evening.

*****

Dinner was, as usual, rather loud. But it was much more enjoyable for Sanji that evening because he’d sorted out what he wanted to say to Zoro, who was rather surprised at his sudden change in attitude. But Sanji ignored his confused glances to enjoy himself, since it had been so long since he’d had so much fun.

After dinner, most of the crew lingered to play cards in boredom, as the rain had since picked up and the crew couldn’t find it in themselves to find their own respective areas to do whatever ungodly things they did when alone. Sanji made sure that he very slowly cleaned his workspace because he knew that the rain would stop soon and he’d have to speak to Zoro. But the rain didn’t stop. It carried on and on and on for what seemed like hours, and eventually Sanji couldn’t stick it anymore. He quickly finished up wiping the work surface down and went toward the hatch that lead to the aquarium bar, motioning briefly for Zoro to follow. Robin seemed to notice this and gave a small, enigmatic smile as they left.

Sanji lit a cigarette and leant against the table languorously, taking a long drag on the cigarette. It would be his last one for a while, he decided; if he was going to have a child he would make sure that he or she would be as strong as they could be.

Zoro looked over at him from near the aquarium, where he was stood. He was eying Sanji with interest; there was definitely something different in the cook’s demeanour here. But what was it? He opened his mouth to speak, but Sanji beat him to it.

“You know how you said to think about it?” He asked. His voice sounded rather quiet.

“Uh-huh,” Zoro replied, folding his arms and leaning against the thick glass of the tank.

“Well, I did.”

“And?”

“I think that what you said was true, to some extent,” he answered, flicking his ash in the nearby ashtray. He didn’t even really feel like smoking, now that he knew he couldn’t.

“Oh yeah?” Zoro said, fighting down the small spike of hope that jolted in his gut at the words.

“I think that I- we should do this,” he explained, finally looking over at the other man. “Not just because I feel obligated but because I think that this is meant to happen. Even though this kid has absolutely no chance of ever being normal, and he or she will be living with a load of wanted criminals… even though we’re probably the worst candidates for being parents… it feels like it’s just meant to be. I know it sounds corny, but that’s just the way I feel about it.”

Zoro stared at the floor.

“And, as an orphan myself, I don’t think I could ever forgive myself if I got rid of this child. By… aborting it or putting it up for adoption on some random island. It’s just something I couldn’t do. You can call me weak or whatever you want, but I-”

“Sanji.” He said, and the blond was mildly surprised to see that the swordsman had stepped in front of him. He rested his hands on the table either side of Sanji’s hips, where the cook was half-perched on the table’s edge. The swordsman looked him right in the eye. “Are you absolutely sure about this?”

Sanji stared right back and nodded. “100% sure,” he replied.

“This isn’t something that will just go away if you change your mind.”

“I’m not going to.”

Zoro stared at him for a few moments longer, before he pulled back with a much less intense expression on his face. “Well good. I’m looking forward to teaching it the art of Santoryuu.” He said as he walked away, sticking his little finger in his ear and cleaning it out with a loud yawn.

Sanji glared briefly before he ran to catch up with him. “Not before it learns how to cook,” he said, “and kick box…” he added, his voice trailing off as they headed to the men’s quarters.

*****

Zoro woke in the middle of the night, but with a lot less intensity than he had been waking with for the past few days. He’d been in such a dark mood recently that even Luffy and picked up on there being something wrong and had begun avoiding him. At least he’d gotten some good training in.

Nonetheless he looked down at the slumbering blond idiot who was wrapped all around him in his bunk. Sanji was a silly creature. All caught up with thoughts about feelings and life and philosophy and other subjects that gave Zoro a headache. But even he had to admit that this one took him by surprise. It was still fucking weird to think about, having a kid and all, but he was happy with the way it worked out. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to live with himself either if they’d taken Option B.

Yes, this was definitely the best option. He tried to ignore how Sanji would be flipping out over the coming weeks about the girls knowing about their relationship (even though they both already knew), getting fat (which was normal) and other things like what the kid would need which Zoro wasn’t sure Sanji was all that informed on either.

Instead he focussed on what he was going to teach him or her in a few years time. Santoryuu basics, meditation, kendo sticks… it was actually quite exciting to think about. With all of these ideas in mind, being a dad didn’t really seem that hard. Maybe it was because he was looking at it in the context of swordplay (which he was good at). Yeah, that was probably it. Nevertheless he reasoned that he wasn’t the worst candidate in the world for fatherhood (which Sanji would probably argue with, but he argued with him about everything). Zoro could think of a few people who would be worse than him. Namely, Luffy.

With these thoughts in his head, Zoro drifted off into a much more peaceful sleep.

*****

Ah~ Oh my God, I finally finished. I’m really sorry for the long wait; as I mentioned up the top there my life has been insane and I recently started a new project (go me >__>). Sorry again, and thanks for reading~!
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Salrynn's Shrine