A/N - This is my fic which I have written for the One Piece Big Bang Project. I was paired with luffys-booty on tumblr, and the art work that they have made is the cover image for this fic.

Pairing/s: Main pairing - ZoSan / Sanzo. Other pairings - Lawsan with mentions of Nami x Vivi, Law x Kid, Acesan, and other Sanji pairings.

Warnings: Mention of character death (side character), bullying, and eating disorders. Violence, foul language, and sexual content.

Chapter 1 – Beginnings

Zoro and Sanji don't always get along. To be honest, they hardly ever do. However, they will occasionally have their rare moments which will always be special in some way, shape, or form. And it is in these moments that their feelings for one another have grown stronger, from rivals to friends, from friends to lovers. Every step along the way has made them who they are today, and though they have had their ups and downs, they wouldn't change a thing.

Their lives together started from the age of one. Their fathers', Koshiro and Zeff, are old friends and live next door to each other, so as Sanji and Zoro grew up together, they were often around each other's houses as much as their own.

Zeff and Koshiro's homes are terraced houses which are in the middle of the street in which they live. Their homes are quite small, yet the perfect size to raise their families in. Zeff's home has a nice open-plan feel to it with two floors. The staircase that leads upstairs is pressed up against the wall on the right from entering the house, in the hallway. To the left is the door to the living room / dining room, and straight ahead is the door to the kitchen, these rooms also connect to each other, as well as the hallway. The second floor has three small bedrooms and one bathroom, perfect for the two living there. Koshiro's house is set similarly, with the same amount of rooms, and it's directly to the right of Zeff's home, left if you are inside. Their homes are perfectly symmetrical to one another; it's as if a mirror is separating their homes instead of a wall.

Sanji is Zeff's only son. His mother unfortunately died during childbirth and so he was raised by his father alone. Koshiro always helped out whenever he could, even with having to look after his own two children, Kuina, and his adopted son Zoro, by himself. Zeff and Koshiro would help each other out often, and look after all three of the kids while one of them was away, whether it was when Zeff was needed at the restaurant, or when Koshiro needed to work overtime at his dojo.

The first time Zoro and Sanji met, they were only one years old at the time. Not long after Zoro was adopted, Koshiro had brought him, along with Kuina, who had just turned three a few days ago, over to meet Zeff and Sanji. Both fathers were hoping that their sons' would get along and become friends instantly. To say things didn't go exactly as planned is an understatement….

A loud knock on the door has two large, curious, blue eyes looking up from a wooden playpen. They watch intently as a large man rushes to open the door, letting another man, who is holding a three year old girl's hand and carrying a one year old baby that has vibrant green hair, inside. The baby, in the man's arms, opens his big brown eyes which lock straight onto the blue eyes watching them as he is carried further into the room.

"Koshiro," a gruff voice barks happily, "it's so great to see you. My you've grown kid," Zeff grins as he ruffles Kuina's hair.

The little girl pouts at the treatment as she looks up at him, "I'm not a kid."

"Of course you aren't," Zeff chuckles, his attention now turning to the baby in Koshiro's arms, "so this is the little one you've adopted, huh?"

"Yes, this is him. His name is Zoro."

Zoro just looks at the older blond with an obvious hint of confusion, and to be frank it's quite adorable. Koshiro smiles and gently puts his son in the playpen with Sanji for them to play while the adults talk. Kuina sits in front of the playpen and watches the babies stare at each other, "…dad, the babies broken!"

"Broken, what are you on about?" Koshiro asks as he looks over to them.

"They not do anything, just stare at each other."

Zeff and Koshiro share worried and confused glances before they walk closer to the playpen. Just as they get there, one of them finally move. Zoro reaches out and grips tightly onto Sanji's blond hair, making him cry.

"Zoro!" Koshiro shouts as he tries to pry the boy's hand off of Sanji's hair. The blond's cries turn into sniffles as Zeff gets ready to pick him up.

As Koshiro tries to stop Zoro, Sanji reaches over and pulls hard on Zoro's hair. It is then him who starts crying and he retaliates by grabbing Sanji's hair tighter, while Koshiro and Zeff try to pry the babies away from each other, Kuina covers her ears and tries to block out the noise of the crying babies. Once Sanji and Zoro are finally apart, their fathers do their best to calm them down.

A few minutes later they both let out a sigh of relief.

"What do we do now? Do we try again?" Zeff asks Koshiro as he pops Sanji's pacifier into his son's mouth.

"I don't know…"

As the fathers try to figure out what would be the best course of action, both boys glare at each other for a while before Sanji takes his pacifier out of his mouth and throws it at Zoro's face, causing him to start crying again before throwing it back and pegging Sanji in the nose with the rubber object, starting them both off once more.

"Oi, oi, knock it off already, eggplant. Be nicer to Zoro…" Zeff sighs as both fathers manage to stop the crying.

Koshiro gently rocks his son in his arms and sighs. "Zoro, this behaviour towards Sanji is unacceptable."

"I'm bored~ I want to watch cartoons~," Kuina whines as she tugs on Koshiro's pants leg.

Zoro's father places him back into the playpen then turns on the T.V. for his sister, and Kuina grins as she sits down on the floor in front of the T.V. and starts watching cartoons.

As Koshiro turns around, Zeff is placing Sanji back into the playpen, "are you sure that's such a good idea?"

"Well they need to learn to get along sometime," the blond says as he shrugs and grabs the building blocks, putting them in front of Sanji, "are you hungry?"

"I'm hungry~!" Kuina beams from her seat on the floor.

Zeff chuckles as he heads for the kitchen, "I'll make you something then. Come on Koshiro, I'll make some tea."

As both fathers go into the kitchen, Kuina turns back to the cartoons on the T.V. while Zoro and Sanji play in the playpen. Sanji is reaching for a red building block beside him when Zoro snatches it before he can pick it up. The blond glares at the other boy then giggles and points to Zoro's hair, "gweeeen~"

Zoro frowns and crawls closer so he can grab the other blocks by Sanji, then grins when he gets a better look at Sanji's eyebrows and pokes one, "wirly~!"

The blond frowns and then attempts to throw a block at Zoro. The green haired baby tries to throw one back, and they both end up trying to hit each other with the blocks. As the objects, now turned weapons, are thrown around, one manages to fly out of the playpen and hit Kuina.

"Ow!" Kuina frowns and rubs her head, then picks up the stray block and glares as she brings it back to the babies, "who throwed it?!"

Zoro and Sanji look up at her innocently since they don't understand what she's saying, and Kuina sighs as she points to the block in her hand, "don't throws stuff!"

The blond smiles cutely up at her and his eyes widen when Zoro pulls on his diaper. Zoro lets his grip go, and it snaps back against Sanji's bare skin. The blond's eyes well up with tears, but instead of crying he picks up a building block and throws it at the other baby. This time it doesn't miss, and it hits Zoro across his face, causing him to cry hysterically as blood runs from his nose. Zeff and Koshiro rush over to the babies, gasping at the sight and Koshiro quickly picks up Zoro, instantly trying to stop the bleeding.

He glares at Kuina when he sees the block in the little girl's hand, "Kuina! You shouldn't throw things, especially not at Zoro!"

"I didn't do it! Sanji did!"

Koshiro only believes her when Sanji keeps attempting to try and throw more blocks at the other baby, even though he is too far away for him to reach.

Kuina huffs and folds her arms, "See!"

Zeff frowns as he picks up Sanji, prying a green building block out of the blond's hand, "Koshiro, I'm so sorry. I don't know what's gotten into him...he's never acted like this around anyone before."

"Right, well I'm going to take them home now. If you still need me to watch Sanji for you tomorrow just bring him over when you're ready."

Zeff nods, and carries Sanji as he follows Koshiro, saying goodbye and closing the door behind him and his children. He sighs then glances down to his son in his arms.

"What was all that about, little eggplant?"

Sanji grins up at him and points to the door, "gween~."

He chuckles when he realises Sanji is referring to Zoro's hair and he carries his son into the living room, "yes, that's right, Zoro's hair is green."

Even though they can't remember it, Zoro and Sanji obviously didn't get along well when they first met. They instantly disliked each other and made fun of each other, though they were too young to understand those feelings, or what feelings even were. Yet Zoro found himself drawn to Sanji's curly eyebrows, and Sanji similarly to Zoro's green hair. And though they found interesting things about each other that caught their attention, the fighting didn't stop there.

The following day, after the first attempt to encourage Zoro and Sanji to become friends, Koshiro is looking after all three of the kids as Zeff had to go into work. Zeff had heard rumours that today a food critic is going to be making a surprise visit to his restaurant, the Baratie, and he wanted to be there to ensure that the restaurant ran smoothly.

And so, Koshiro is rushing around to make sure that Kuina, Zoro, and Sanji are all happy, and are not getting into any trouble.

At lunch time, he places Zoro in his high chair at the dining table, and gets the high chair he's borrowed from Zeff, for Sanji. As he's getting them ready for lunch, Kuina is sitting happily at the table, lightly swinging her legs, while eating her sandwich as her father picks up Sanji and places him in the other high chair. Koshiro grins as he notices Zoro imitate Kuina, lightly swinging his legs as he watches her, while he gets two small bowls of soft fruit, which he'd cut up for them. He then proceeds to place the bowls of fruit in front of the babies and starts feeding them both small pieces of banana.

The lunch starts off well, the children eating quietly, however that's only until Zoro decides to throw his piece of banana, that he'd mushed up in his hands, at Sanji.

"Oi, Zoro, what did I say about throwing things?" Koshiro scolds as he gets up to get a wet cloth.

As he walks back over to them, Sanji throws some food back at Zoro, and he sighs as he cleans the blond up first. As Koshiro wipes Sanji's face clean, his son tries to throw more fruit at Sanji, but it hits his cheek instead. Trying not to lose his temper, he frowns and proceeds to quickly clean up the mess before making sure that the two babies eat more of their lunch than flinging it at each other. Afterwards, he sets them down on the floor in the living room so that they can play with Zoro's toys while he goes upstairs and changes the sheets in Zoro's crib, ready for the two to have a nap.

While Koshiro is preoccupied upstairs, Sanji crawls across the floor and picks up his teddy bear that Zeff let him bring over, and he grins as he squeezes it tightly. This brown bear, with blue paw pads and a blue nose, is his favourite, and it is almost the same size as the blond himself. Sanji frowns when Zoro tugs on the bear and tries to snatch it from him,

"I want it!"

"No! It's mine!"

The two babies fight over the teddy bear, each trying to pull it closer to them and snatch it from the other. After a minute or two of trying to get the bear, Zoro pulls on it harshly, yanking it from Sanji's grip, causing the blond to topple over and cry loudly, just as his father comes back downstairs.

Koshiro sighs and picks them up, Zoro still keeping his grip on the bear, and Sanji wailing as he carries them upstairs. He's too tired from running around after them all day, to deal with them fighting over a stupid stuffed bear. He just wants them to go to sleep so he can have a bit of peace and quiet for at least five minutes, hopefully more.

Thankfully, Zoro's crib is just about big enough for both him and Sanji, so Koshiro places them both into the crib and tucks them in. Zoro lies there quietly, hugging the teddy bear close to him while Sanji kicks his legs out and cries even louder, kicking the white blanket off of them in the process. The crying from Sanji is really starting to give Koshiro a headache, so he quickly grabs Zoro's dark green comfort blanket, swapping it with the white one, and tucks them in, sighing in relief when Sanji finally stops crying and grips the blanket tightly in his small hands. He then gently places the white blanket over the top of the other one, and hums to them quietly as they close their eyes and Koshiro smiles as they fall asleep in the crib.

Later that night, Koshiro opens the door to a very tired looking Zeff. After letting the other man in, he closes the front door and starts heading to the kitchen to pour them a glass of wine – which has become routine for them since he first started looking after Sanji. They would sit and drink a glass or two of wine in the kitchen, while Zeff ranted to Koshiro about his day in work, and how his staff always messed things up and caused more trouble for him. Zeff would then take Sanji home afterwards -, however, this time Koshiro is stopped before he can get to the kitchen by Zeff placing his hand on his shoulder, "not tonight, I'm too tired. I just want to take my little eggplant home and go to sleep."

Koshiro nods and heads upstairs, Zeff following behind him, and they grin as they reach the crib and see their sons fast asleep. Zeff gently picks up Sanji, and he and Koshiro are both too tired to notice that Zeff has wrapped Sanji up in Zoro's blanket, though even if they tried to leave it, Sanji was not letting go, not even in his sleep. They even failed to notice that Zoro still has Sanji's teddy bear.

Koshiro and Zeff then quietly head downstairs, luckily not waking up either of the babies, or Kuina, and say their goodbyes at the front door. They had no idea how much they would come to regret their mistake with the teddy bear and the blanket.

Two days later, Zeff had heard the good news that the food critic, who had paid a visit to his restaurant, had given him an amazing review with 5 stars. However, he has no time to be pleased or to celebrate that as Sanji was really doing his head in with the crying he had been doing over the past two days, and nights. Zeff had hardly gotten any sleep at all, all over a stuffed bear. He couldn't find Sanji's teddy bear anywhere, and his son wouldn't sleep without it. Zeff had tried everything to try and get Sanji to stop crying and go to sleep, from singing lullabies to him and reading him stories, to giving him other toys to sleep with and rocking him in his arms. None of them would work.

However, thankfully, last night when he found a dark green blanket - that he has no recollection of ever buying - Sanji had finally stopped crying, looking up at him when he brought it to the crib, and so Zeff had tucked Sanji in with the green blanket instead of Sanji's blue one, and sighed with relief when his son finally went to sleep. Unfortunately, as soon as Sanji had woken up, he started crying again and asking for his teddy bear.

And so, once more, Zeff is searching the house, looking everywhere for Sanji's teddy bear. He only stops when there is a loud knock on the door. Zeff opens the door to see Koshiro with Kuina, and Zoro - who is crying in Koshiro's arms.

"I think you may have something of Zoro's. We've looked all over the house and we can't find it," Koshiro explains as Zeff lets them inside and shuts the door behind them.

"Yeah, and he's crying alll~ the time, unless we give him this teddy bear~," Kuina grins as she holds up a teddy bear she was holding behind her back, "it's Sanji's right?"

Zeff grins when he sees the bear in Kuina's hands, "yes that's his. He wouldn't sleep without it, only when he had that blanket."

"Blanket? Does it happen to be a dark green colour?"

"Hm? Yeah it is…. let me guess, its Zoro's right? I'll go get it."

Koshiro waits at the bottom of the stairs as Zeff goes up to retrieve Zoro's blanket, and Kuina smiles as she walks over to the playpen where Sanji is looking up and over to them from the floor. The blond grins widely and reaches up to Kuina when he sees his teddy bear then hugs it tightly once it's handed to him.

Zoro finally stops crying and Kuina turns around to see her brother gripping tightly onto his blanket which is now in his small hands. Koshiro sighs with relief and says his thanks to Zeff before leaving with Kuina and Zoro.

Zeff heads over to the playpen and grins when he sees Sanji tightly hugging his teddy bear. For now he's content that things are peaceful and quiet.

After that incident, whenever Zoro was around Sanji's house, he would always leave with Sanji's teddy bear - it was the same with Sanji taking Zoro's blanket -, and Koshiro and Zeff had to apologize and give the items back on a regular basis. It wasn't long until neither Zoro nor Sanji minded whether they had the blanket or the teddy bear, though it didn't stop them from fighting over them just for the sake of it.