He watched him.
It was innocent enough. Just a few casual glimpses, sizing him up, deciding whether it had been a good decision to make him his captain. At first.
And he watched him still. After Luffy had proven time and time again that, yes, he was the best captain Zoro could have asked for. So, Zoro told himself that the reason he watched him from the corner of his eye during his training was because he was looking for something. Like…a clue that Luffy wasn't all he seemed. I mean, no one could be that innocent right? Surely, if he watched him enough, Luffy would eventually slip up and reveal an evil face.
So he watched him. And after that reason dissolved when Zoro realized he whole-heartedly trusted his new captain, he found another reason. And another. A real slew of explanations of why, why, he just couldn't keep his eyes off that smiling, care-free face. Some of which included: Surely, the smile that swallowed his entire face merited staring. Really, was it all that odd that Zoro looked? He'd never met someone like that guy before, after all. How'd he get that scar? I must be looking at his hat….really, who wears straw hats anymore?
But Zoro couldn't delude himself long that he was looking at Luffy's hat. Puh-lease.
He found himself lying on the deck, watching him as he pretended to sleep. And he got rather angry at himself, to tell the truth. Wasting perfectly good snooze time to watch his captain, who he'd looked at enough already, surely? Certainly, he'd seen enough by now to memorize his face a hundred times over. So WHY couldn't he STOP?
Luffy'd even noticed it. "Oi, Zoro! What'd I do now? Ya keep givin' me death glares! Wanna fight?" And Zoro would make something up, knocking Luffy upside the head and pretending his captain had pissed him off somehow. Nobody thought anything of it. Except Zoro of course.
Following this rather drawn out period of ticked confusion, Zoro just gave up. Who cared if he looked? It would stop eventually. Now, it almost looked as if he was staring off into space as he watched him.
….
That didn't last long. Stupid Love Cook.
"Why don't you just jump him already Zoro?" was the whispered comment during dinner. The water Zoro'd been drinking rained down on them all. More like pummeled them. The food-fight that'd followed sufficiently distracted the crew from asking what Sanji'd said to prompt the spewage.
But Zoro was rarely distracted (Except by a certain someone obviously). He tossed and turned the entire night, and his 'observation skills' took on a new level. He felt almost like he had "hawk-eyes" himself, what with the way he now looked at Luffy. No detail went un-pondered, no comment went un-….listened to.
Really, Zoro mused, Luffy had some muscles when he wasn't acting like a rubber band. Operating a ship like the Going Merry required them after all, even though Luffy never seemed to train, in spite of all those freaks he managed to get tangled with. As for his body (for some reason, Zoro almost flushed when he thought "body." Was he really thinking about Luffy's body?!), he wasn't like Sanji, who was all angles, or Ussop who looked like he was made of putty. Or curvy like Nami (and later, Nico Robin) but that goes without saying. Luffy had his own slender, youthful lines that looked…well….bendy. Heh.
Zoro pondered…does all of Luffy stretch? Hastily shaking his head, he railed at his mind that this was a dangerous line of thought and to stop immediately you idiot!
Why's he looking at his hat like that? Was that a glint in his eye? Is he….smirking?
Zoro ran a hand through his hair, which was quite difficult, considering. He had to do something to stop this…watching. It was driving him bonkers, like that Buggy freak. Zoro imagined himself with a big red nose, popping into pieces while watching Luffy. He chuckled.
But Zoro was a man of action, right? No fore-thought or regrets, and all that. Would it really be so earth-shatteringly wrong if he just….to put it in the Love Cook's words… "jumped" Luffy?
Well, he had to do something. So, when the sun's descent started burning the sky black and everyone agreed it was time to sleep, Zoro stayed. Because Luffy did too (sitting on his little "perch").
Zoro walked to the fore of the deck towards his captain, and leaned against the railing. Luffy was gazing at the pearl-brilliant moon, so Zoro threw his glance up there too. "Gonna turn into a werewolf or somethin'?" Zoro said calmly, though he was desperate to start a conversation to delay the inevitable (what that would be, he hadn't a clue).
"Nah. Hey! A weremonkey would be cool though, huh?"
"Weremonkey?" Zoro said, with a roll of his eyes and trying to withhold a smirk.
"Ne…Is the moon really made a cheese? Ace told me that once, but…Moon cheese…." Luffy said, with that hungry look.
Now Zoro really did grin. "Are you an idiot? Although, I'd bet you'd go to moon just to check, huh?"
"Haha! Maybe I'll reach that far someday!"
A companionable silence followed.
"Have you ever, ya know, touched someone?" Zoro said abruptly.
Luffy looked somewhat confused, then stretched his arm and poked Zoro's upper arm again and again. "What, like this?"
"Cut it out you dumbass! That's not what I meant!" yelled Zoro, with the sharp teeth/big eyes look the Going Merry crew often got when trying to talk rationally with their captain. It really took patience, ya know!
At this point, Zoro could have easily brushed off his earlier question. Luffy, after all, didn't really care about things he didn't understand. But, dammit! Zoro would NOT be beaten by mere words! "What I meant was, have you ever….has anyone….private…love... fucking birds and the bees and all that?!"
"Are you stupid, Zoro? Of course I have!"
….
Well, you can imagine how this affected our struggling friend. Luffy! More experienced than himself! Zoro, understandably, was so fixed on being the World's Strongest Swordsman etc etc that….well…..he'd never spared much of a thought for sex. When Kuina's dad had sat him down for "the talk," Zoro hadn't really been interested. He only had one goal. And being a pirate hunter hadn't exactly been 'exciting' in that way, after all. Of course, Zoro wasn't against the occasional release of sexual tension, on his own time, but sharing that private time with someone went against his way of thinking.
But now Luffy was one up on him! This couldn't be allowed—
"Of course I've eaten birds and bees!" Luffy declared triumphantly.
Dooooooooooooooooooong. Zoro choked in exasperation. "Godammit Luffy! Have you ever had sex?!!"
"What? Sex? Oh, that. Nah. Looks painful," Luffy stated disgustedly.
"Looks? You mean, you've seen someone have sex?" asked Zoro, with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah. Before Ace left to become a pirate, I saw him and this chick doing it," and at this, Luffy sort of giggled like a child talking of something forbidden.
Suddenly, Zoro realized he was talking to a person that just wouldn't get it if he was asked, "Hey, wanna fuck?" It was just over his head. Well, this would take some real thinking. Best to sleep on it.
So Zoro slept on it. Days passed. He just couldn't think of what to do! He was so distracted on the problem of "How can I get it through that thick skull of his that I want him?" that he forgot to look at Luffy all the time. He stopped eating (well, heartily anyway). He began to run into things in his distraction, like the mast, and Chopper. Although, everyone did agree that it was funny when Zoro fell over the side of the ship into the water, and Sanji had to drag him back on board. Sanji was rather furious, which made it funnier.
After a particularly humiliating experience including a mop, one of Ussop's hot sauce bullets, and a tangerine tree, Sanji forced Zoro into the kitchen and said, point blank, "Get yourself together, stupid swordsman! You're acting like a lovesick puppy!"
Hypocrite.
Zoro crossed his arms and said coolly, "Why do you care?"
Sanji took out a cigarette, slowly lit it, and took a long, drawn out drag. Exhaling smoke, he said finally, "You're right. I don't."
This silence wasn't quite so companionable as the last.
A notion started forming in Zoro's mind, but he squashed it. It would be a cold day in Alabaster before Zoro asked anything of the Love Cook. Look at him! Standing there as if he knew all the secrets of love in the world! Disgusting.
"Let me give you some advice." It took Zoro a lot of control to not bury his fist in Sanji's curly-eyebrowed face, but hey. Maybe he wouldn't have to ask now. Zoro grunted.
Sanji continued. "Any hints you drop won't work. He's too thick. The only way you can let him know is with action."
"Why should I take advice from a guy who doesn't get any action himself?" Zoro asked contemptuously.
"How do you know what action I get?" Sanji said, smirking.
Could it be? Is it possible that all the schmoozing, sickeningly-sweet acting paid off?
"Anyway, just don't be forceful. He'd kick your ass," Sanji taunted.
Zoro fumed. "No way! Wanna fight?!!"
After which, predictably, they had to be hit by Nami to get back to their senses.
Little did anyone realize, but something was going on with Luffy. In that simple, yet admirable brain of his, he noticed that Zoro no longer looked at him. He'd never thought anything of it, but he always knew that Zoro watched him more than the others. But Luffy wondered why he'd stopped…
And so Luffy watched started watching him. Was Zoro really mad at him? Was it something he said? Say…weren't they talking about stuff the other night? Sex or something…
Luffy had his puzzled expression on a bit more than usual for a couple weeks.
As for our pal Zoro…
Following Sanji's "advice"(stupid Cook), Zoro finally decided that there was no time like the present. It was time for him to actually make the move.
So, the next time Zoro was alone with Luffy behind the cabin room, he pressed his bendy captain against the wall, looked into his wide eyes, and…
…kissed him. Of course, Zoro, being the manly man that he is, liked to think of it as "ravaging his mouth." And Luffy, being the intelligent, sophisticated man that he is not, preferred to think of it as "WHAT THE HELL???!!!"
And Zoro walked suavely away, leaving a gaping captain behind.
It was innocent enough. Just a few casual glimpses, sizing him up, deciding whether it had been a good decision to make him his captain. At first.
And he watched him still. After Luffy had proven time and time again that, yes, he was the best captain Zoro could have asked for. So, Zoro told himself that the reason he watched him from the corner of his eye during his training was because he was looking for something. Like…a clue that Luffy wasn't all he seemed. I mean, no one could be that innocent right? Surely, if he watched him enough, Luffy would eventually slip up and reveal an evil face.
So he watched him. And after that reason dissolved when Zoro realized he whole-heartedly trusted his new captain, he found another reason. And another. A real slew of explanations of why, why, he just couldn't keep his eyes off that smiling, care-free face. Some of which included: Surely, the smile that swallowed his entire face merited staring. Really, was it all that odd that Zoro looked? He'd never met someone like that guy before, after all. How'd he get that scar? I must be looking at his hat….really, who wears straw hats anymore?
But Zoro couldn't delude himself long that he was looking at Luffy's hat. Puh-lease.
He found himself lying on the deck, watching him as he pretended to sleep. And he got rather angry at himself, to tell the truth. Wasting perfectly good snooze time to watch his captain, who he'd looked at enough already, surely? Certainly, he'd seen enough by now to memorize his face a hundred times over. So WHY couldn't he STOP?
Luffy'd even noticed it. "Oi, Zoro! What'd I do now? Ya keep givin' me death glares! Wanna fight?" And Zoro would make something up, knocking Luffy upside the head and pretending his captain had pissed him off somehow. Nobody thought anything of it. Except Zoro of course.
Following this rather drawn out period of ticked confusion, Zoro just gave up. Who cared if he looked? It would stop eventually. Now, it almost looked as if he was staring off into space as he watched him.
….
That didn't last long. Stupid Love Cook.
"Why don't you just jump him already Zoro?" was the whispered comment during dinner. The water Zoro'd been drinking rained down on them all. More like pummeled them. The food-fight that'd followed sufficiently distracted the crew from asking what Sanji'd said to prompt the spewage.
But Zoro was rarely distracted (Except by a certain someone obviously). He tossed and turned the entire night, and his 'observation skills' took on a new level. He felt almost like he had "hawk-eyes" himself, what with the way he now looked at Luffy. No detail went un-pondered, no comment went un-….listened to.
Really, Zoro mused, Luffy had some muscles when he wasn't acting like a rubber band. Operating a ship like the Going Merry required them after all, even though Luffy never seemed to train, in spite of all those freaks he managed to get tangled with. As for his body (for some reason, Zoro almost flushed when he thought "body." Was he really thinking about Luffy's body?!), he wasn't like Sanji, who was all angles, or Ussop who looked like he was made of putty. Or curvy like Nami (and later, Nico Robin) but that goes without saying. Luffy had his own slender, youthful lines that looked…well….bendy. Heh.
Zoro pondered…does all of Luffy stretch? Hastily shaking his head, he railed at his mind that this was a dangerous line of thought and to stop immediately you idiot!
Why's he looking at his hat like that? Was that a glint in his eye? Is he….smirking?
Zoro ran a hand through his hair, which was quite difficult, considering. He had to do something to stop this…watching. It was driving him bonkers, like that Buggy freak. Zoro imagined himself with a big red nose, popping into pieces while watching Luffy. He chuckled.
But Zoro was a man of action, right? No fore-thought or regrets, and all that. Would it really be so earth-shatteringly wrong if he just….to put it in the Love Cook's words… "jumped" Luffy?
Well, he had to do something. So, when the sun's descent started burning the sky black and everyone agreed it was time to sleep, Zoro stayed. Because Luffy did too (sitting on his little "perch").
Zoro walked to the fore of the deck towards his captain, and leaned against the railing. Luffy was gazing at the pearl-brilliant moon, so Zoro threw his glance up there too. "Gonna turn into a werewolf or somethin'?" Zoro said calmly, though he was desperate to start a conversation to delay the inevitable (what that would be, he hadn't a clue).
"Nah. Hey! A weremonkey would be cool though, huh?"
"Weremonkey?" Zoro said, with a roll of his eyes and trying to withhold a smirk.
"Ne…Is the moon really made a cheese? Ace told me that once, but…Moon cheese…." Luffy said, with that hungry look.
Now Zoro really did grin. "Are you an idiot? Although, I'd bet you'd go to moon just to check, huh?"
"Haha! Maybe I'll reach that far someday!"
A companionable silence followed.
"Have you ever, ya know, touched someone?" Zoro said abruptly.
Luffy looked somewhat confused, then stretched his arm and poked Zoro's upper arm again and again. "What, like this?"
"Cut it out you dumbass! That's not what I meant!" yelled Zoro, with the sharp teeth/big eyes look the Going Merry crew often got when trying to talk rationally with their captain. It really took patience, ya know!
At this point, Zoro could have easily brushed off his earlier question. Luffy, after all, didn't really care about things he didn't understand. But, dammit! Zoro would NOT be beaten by mere words! "What I meant was, have you ever….has anyone….private…love... fucking birds and the bees and all that?!"
"Are you stupid, Zoro? Of course I have!"
….
Well, you can imagine how this affected our struggling friend. Luffy! More experienced than himself! Zoro, understandably, was so fixed on being the World's Strongest Swordsman etc etc that….well…..he'd never spared much of a thought for sex. When Kuina's dad had sat him down for "the talk," Zoro hadn't really been interested. He only had one goal. And being a pirate hunter hadn't exactly been 'exciting' in that way, after all. Of course, Zoro wasn't against the occasional release of sexual tension, on his own time, but sharing that private time with someone went against his way of thinking.
But now Luffy was one up on him! This couldn't be allowed—
"Of course I've eaten birds and bees!" Luffy declared triumphantly.
Dooooooooooooooooooong. Zoro choked in exasperation. "Godammit Luffy! Have you ever had sex?!!"
"What? Sex? Oh, that. Nah. Looks painful," Luffy stated disgustedly.
"Looks? You mean, you've seen someone have sex?" asked Zoro, with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah. Before Ace left to become a pirate, I saw him and this chick doing it," and at this, Luffy sort of giggled like a child talking of something forbidden.
Suddenly, Zoro realized he was talking to a person that just wouldn't get it if he was asked, "Hey, wanna fuck?" It was just over his head. Well, this would take some real thinking. Best to sleep on it.
So Zoro slept on it. Days passed. He just couldn't think of what to do! He was so distracted on the problem of "How can I get it through that thick skull of his that I want him?" that he forgot to look at Luffy all the time. He stopped eating (well, heartily anyway). He began to run into things in his distraction, like the mast, and Chopper. Although, everyone did agree that it was funny when Zoro fell over the side of the ship into the water, and Sanji had to drag him back on board. Sanji was rather furious, which made it funnier.
After a particularly humiliating experience including a mop, one of Ussop's hot sauce bullets, and a tangerine tree, Sanji forced Zoro into the kitchen and said, point blank, "Get yourself together, stupid swordsman! You're acting like a lovesick puppy!"
Hypocrite.
Zoro crossed his arms and said coolly, "Why do you care?"
Sanji took out a cigarette, slowly lit it, and took a long, drawn out drag. Exhaling smoke, he said finally, "You're right. I don't."
This silence wasn't quite so companionable as the last.
A notion started forming in Zoro's mind, but he squashed it. It would be a cold day in Alabaster before Zoro asked anything of the Love Cook. Look at him! Standing there as if he knew all the secrets of love in the world! Disgusting.
"Let me give you some advice." It took Zoro a lot of control to not bury his fist in Sanji's curly-eyebrowed face, but hey. Maybe he wouldn't have to ask now. Zoro grunted.
Sanji continued. "Any hints you drop won't work. He's too thick. The only way you can let him know is with action."
"Why should I take advice from a guy who doesn't get any action himself?" Zoro asked contemptuously.
"How do you know what action I get?" Sanji said, smirking.
Could it be? Is it possible that all the schmoozing, sickeningly-sweet acting paid off?
"Anyway, just don't be forceful. He'd kick your ass," Sanji taunted.
Zoro fumed. "No way! Wanna fight?!!"
After which, predictably, they had to be hit by Nami to get back to their senses.
Little did anyone realize, but something was going on with Luffy. In that simple, yet admirable brain of his, he noticed that Zoro no longer looked at him. He'd never thought anything of it, but he always knew that Zoro watched him more than the others. But Luffy wondered why he'd stopped…
And so Luffy watched started watching him. Was Zoro really mad at him? Was it something he said? Say…weren't they talking about stuff the other night? Sex or something…
Luffy had his puzzled expression on a bit more than usual for a couple weeks.
As for our pal Zoro…
Following Sanji's "advice"(stupid Cook), Zoro finally decided that there was no time like the present. It was time for him to actually make the move.
So, the next time Zoro was alone with Luffy behind the cabin room, he pressed his bendy captain against the wall, looked into his wide eyes, and…
…kissed him. Of course, Zoro, being the manly man that he is, liked to think of it as "ravaging his mouth." And Luffy, being the intelligent, sophisticated man that he is not, preferred to think of it as "WHAT THE HELL???!!!"
And Zoro walked suavely away, leaving a gaping captain behind.