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dethoratsTitle: Kiss
Rating: PG
Pairing: ZoSopp
Word Count: 1996
Nami didn’t know it but she’d caught their very first one. As much as Zoro was a complete idiot and Usopp could do SO much better for himself, she’d had to admit the swordsman couldn’t have chosen a more perfect evening. Only moving quietly around on deck herself because her throat was still a bit raw and scratchy and she’d desperately needed some tea, the quiet murmur of voices had made her look up at the crow’s nest.
New nakama or not, intoxicated or not, frostbitten or not, life always went forward on the Going Merry. Watch had to be kept, especially then with the approach to Alabasta and the threat of Baroque Works. Usopp had been unlucky enough to draw the short straw and had pulled the deep night shift. Nami didn’t even know if the sniper had gone to sleep after their night of partying but she had seen Zoro yawn his way up the mast as she’d gone below for the first time. The swordsman and sharpshooter had already swapped places and Zoro had his feet firmly on the rungs, the upper half of his torso still above the ship’s loftiest point.
As the navigator watched, silhouettes lit by cool moonlight moved closer, merged and blended into a single dark shadow against the silver backdrop in the sky. Nami had smiled to herself over her tea and crept quietly back to Vivi and her own warm bed. She’d been waiting for a while, wondering if she was reading the signs correctly. It was gratifying to know she had been right.
She had been right. Well, mostly right anyway. It wasn’t Zoro who’d taken them forward with Usopp meeting him in the middle. The sniper had more courage when it came to matters of the heart than his nakama ever gave him credit for.
****
Robin saw them next, women perhaps being far more aware of such things than men. Or it could have been that the archaeologist’s powers and penchant for discovery and research – let’s not call it spying because that would be rude – were the real reason she stumbled across their secret. Various sensory appendages had been sprouting and growing and blossoming all over Merry’s decks and walls. Luffy and Chopper saw the multitudes of hands and eyes and ears as a novel form of entertainment and Robin didn’t hesitate to use their fascination for her own purposes.
Sitting on the stairs leading to the aft deck, she wore a pair of the navigator’s pants and slight smile on her face as she raised a garden of limbs from the ship to tickle a wildly giggling reindeer. Nearby, Luffy sported his own pair of antlers, showing them off to a lovelorn chef and a rapidly-losing-patience Nami. But the cautious sniper and the suspicious swordsman were conspicuously absent from the serene cerulean gaze of the older woman and it made her wonder why.
Turning Usopp’s beloved Going Merry into little more than a giant floating potato, Robin’s eyes blinked into existence in every nook and cranny of the little ship. It took most of her concentration to see and a few of the hands now engaged in arm AND leg wrestling the captain disappeared until she’d weeded out the unnecessary orbs. She found them in the narrow hallway below deck and their actions made her real eyes widen ever so slightly.
Swordsman-san in a towel was a very pleasant sight and apparently Long Nose-kun agreed because he had made no protest when Zoro stepped out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam and pressed him up against one wall. Still, for all of the aggressive body posture, the movement of their mouths was soft, almost gentle. They were, to Robin’s older, far more worldly eyes, still finding their way and she knew she would look forward to watching them choose their path.
****
Innocent, naïve Chopper stumbled across them the afternoon before they reached Jaya. “What are you doing?” he’d asked, concerned and curious at the same time. Two reclining bodies had jerked apart and Usopp and Zoro had exchanged a look that any of their other nakama would have called ‘guilty.’ It was Usopp who spoke, launching into a truly inspired – because there was more than a touch of panic behind it – story about how he’d saved Zoro from being drowned by a kraken bigger than an island and how they’d then gone on this wild adventure with the fish people and the magic pearl and the blahblahblah and Zoro had needed CPR when they finally made it back to the ship. The swordsman had snorted but kept his peace when Chopper drank in every last word. And it never struck the doctor to wonder how they’d managed to dry off so completely.
****
The night after Monkey D. Luffy defeated a god was filled with firelight and dancing, celebration and fellowship, gold and booze and so much food it was almost enough to hold the pirate captain’s attention until he fell asleep. Almost, because Luffy was a pretty good captain when it came to things besides avoiding danger or having common sense. He’d lost track of a particular voice threading through the general din. Usopp always told the best versions of their adventures, and if there happened to be a lot of stuff that Luffy didn’t remember, well, his nakama weren’t always with him for him to keep an eye on what they were doing. Besides they were the best and he would never bat an eye at any of the sniper’s claims.
But the long-nosed boy’s voice had vanished a little while ago, probably when he’d been trying to see how much meat he could stuff in his mouth at once (currently his record was approximately 314 pounds of pure animal protein), and he was curious to know where his sniper had wandered. He found, to his complete surprise, Usopp fast asleep in the arms of his swordsman. Luffy had quite literally stumbled across them, tripping over the sniper’s abandoned bag when he’d lurched forward in surprise. Zoro, his grumpy swordsman, had been settling Usopp more comfortably against his shoulder and had pressed his mouth against the bloodied bandanna still holding back the sniper’s hair. The captain’s own mouth had made a wide ‘O’ of surprise but he’d only nodded his head, his face slipping back into its usual happy grin, when Zoro had held a finger to his lips.
Luffy knew how to keep secrets. He had more than a few of his own. And if Zoro wanted him to be quiet and Usopp hadn’t yet slip the news, then the least the captain could do would be to respect their wishes. Besides, now that he knew where Usopp was, there were more important things to do…like seeing if he could get that whole roast sky shark into his mouth and shatter his old record.
****
Sometimes Sanji felt like he was always last. Last of the East Blue members to join, last in his beloved ladies’ hearts, last to know what had apparently been obvious to everyone else for a while. Twirling out of the galley with some hot tea for Robin-chan (she was still recovering from that bastard marine’s icy attack) and a fruity concoction for his wonderful Nami-swan, he nearly dropped the tray. He hadn’t dropped a tray in, well, in ever. But catching the idiot marimo lean over and silence Usopp, who’d been muttering for days about Merry’s state and wandered around with nails tucked behind his ears instead of pencils or paintbrush, with a brief but obviously affectionate peck was enough to almost break his perfect record.
Hurrying away, he gave his precious female nakama their drinks with less than his usual grace and flourish. His visible blue eye was wide and he sputtered for a moment after the usual round of fawning after the ladies gave their thanks had died down. “Did…did you know?”
“Did we know what, Sanji-kun?” Nami had inquired sweetly, not bothering to look up from the book she was reading.
“Usopp and the seaweed head. They were…they were…right where it could have upset you.” Righteous indignation, especially in the name of chivalry, was a much more comfortable feeling than being flabbergasted and Sanji wore the emotion like armor. “I’ll go kick that bastard right where it counts and we’ll see just how much of that sort of thing goes on when he’s got a fat lip.”
“I don’t think, cook-san,” and now Robin graced him with her mellifluous voice, “that they are aware that we know. They’ve been trying so hard to keep it a secret and I don’t think it would be fair to us to reveal our awareness until they are ready to come forward themselves.”
Sanji pouted just for a moment. Kicking Zoro in the head was his second favorite pastime right after lavishing attention on the ladies. But Robin was wise and really, even if the swordsman was a stubborn, ugly, directionally challenged asshole, Usopp wasn’t so bad. He would restrain himself on Robin’s request and because Usopp was a decent guy underneath all his talk.
“As you wish, Robin-chan.”
The older woman smiled at him, or maybe that was just her usual expression now directed at him but Sanji would take what he could get, and he went heart-eyed and practically waltzed back to the galley without sparing another glance towards his male nakama. He never heard Nami murmur to Robin that “besides, they were really kind of cute and they weren’t hiding very well anymore, were they?”
****
It was still on, that plaster and painted shield Usopp was hiding behind. It had vanished briefly and he’d hoped it was for good but the sniper had put it back on to face even the burial of his beloved ship. Zoro had respected his wishes, asked carefully after his feeling, and ignored the way his heart felt a little more battered and bruised with every hour Soge King kept Usopp away.
Everyone knew, had to know by now, just who was behind the mask. Too many similarities and the stacked tables should have been a give away if some of the scars revealed by his bathing suit weren’t. He’d slipped up too, when he’d been so so careful. Some of Usopp’s exploits from back before the Grand Line had gotten past his censors and he didn’t know whether his subconscious had done it on purpose or not. Zoro kept staring at him and the feeling of waiting had gotten so heavy…
Every time he thought he had a moment to get Soge King alone, he had been wrong. Not one moment of privacy with the sniper had he been able to capture. Always with the giants or spreading tales of his sniping heroics among the residents of Water 7, he would have suspected Usopp of avoiding him if he hadn’t known with nearly one hundred percent certainty that the sniper was still putting off talking to Luffy like they both needed. As the party slowed down and most of the crowd dispersed, something inside Zoro snapped. Paper lips were no substitute for the real thing.
Green hair bobbed and weaved through the ebbing group, moving upstream against the departing current towards his table mountaintop. It was Zoro, and he knew if he ran away now the swordsman would let him go. What he didn’t know was if Zoro would ever chase him again. So, knees knocking and voice wavering, he held his ground and skillfully brought his current tale to its conclusion. He didn’t know if there had been applause for his story or if people had cried for more because his ears were full of roaring white noise and his eyes were captured by meltingly determined green. Usopp didn’t flinch when sword-rough fingers touched the edge of his disguise in front of five pairs of waiting, expectant eyes and lifted it away.
Rating: PG
Pairing: ZoSopp
Word Count: 1996
Nami didn’t know it but she’d caught their very first one. As much as Zoro was a complete idiot and Usopp could do SO much better for himself, she’d had to admit the swordsman couldn’t have chosen a more perfect evening. Only moving quietly around on deck herself because her throat was still a bit raw and scratchy and she’d desperately needed some tea, the quiet murmur of voices had made her look up at the crow’s nest.
New nakama or not, intoxicated or not, frostbitten or not, life always went forward on the Going Merry. Watch had to be kept, especially then with the approach to Alabasta and the threat of Baroque Works. Usopp had been unlucky enough to draw the short straw and had pulled the deep night shift. Nami didn’t even know if the sniper had gone to sleep after their night of partying but she had seen Zoro yawn his way up the mast as she’d gone below for the first time. The swordsman and sharpshooter had already swapped places and Zoro had his feet firmly on the rungs, the upper half of his torso still above the ship’s loftiest point.
As the navigator watched, silhouettes lit by cool moonlight moved closer, merged and blended into a single dark shadow against the silver backdrop in the sky. Nami had smiled to herself over her tea and crept quietly back to Vivi and her own warm bed. She’d been waiting for a while, wondering if she was reading the signs correctly. It was gratifying to know she had been right.
She had been right. Well, mostly right anyway. It wasn’t Zoro who’d taken them forward with Usopp meeting him in the middle. The sniper had more courage when it came to matters of the heart than his nakama ever gave him credit for.
****
Robin saw them next, women perhaps being far more aware of such things than men. Or it could have been that the archaeologist’s powers and penchant for discovery and research – let’s not call it spying because that would be rude – were the real reason she stumbled across their secret. Various sensory appendages had been sprouting and growing and blossoming all over Merry’s decks and walls. Luffy and Chopper saw the multitudes of hands and eyes and ears as a novel form of entertainment and Robin didn’t hesitate to use their fascination for her own purposes.
Sitting on the stairs leading to the aft deck, she wore a pair of the navigator’s pants and slight smile on her face as she raised a garden of limbs from the ship to tickle a wildly giggling reindeer. Nearby, Luffy sported his own pair of antlers, showing them off to a lovelorn chef and a rapidly-losing-patience Nami. But the cautious sniper and the suspicious swordsman were conspicuously absent from the serene cerulean gaze of the older woman and it made her wonder why.
Turning Usopp’s beloved Going Merry into little more than a giant floating potato, Robin’s eyes blinked into existence in every nook and cranny of the little ship. It took most of her concentration to see and a few of the hands now engaged in arm AND leg wrestling the captain disappeared until she’d weeded out the unnecessary orbs. She found them in the narrow hallway below deck and their actions made her real eyes widen ever so slightly.
Swordsman-san in a towel was a very pleasant sight and apparently Long Nose-kun agreed because he had made no protest when Zoro stepped out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam and pressed him up against one wall. Still, for all of the aggressive body posture, the movement of their mouths was soft, almost gentle. They were, to Robin’s older, far more worldly eyes, still finding their way and she knew she would look forward to watching them choose their path.
****
Innocent, naïve Chopper stumbled across them the afternoon before they reached Jaya. “What are you doing?” he’d asked, concerned and curious at the same time. Two reclining bodies had jerked apart and Usopp and Zoro had exchanged a look that any of their other nakama would have called ‘guilty.’ It was Usopp who spoke, launching into a truly inspired – because there was more than a touch of panic behind it – story about how he’d saved Zoro from being drowned by a kraken bigger than an island and how they’d then gone on this wild adventure with the fish people and the magic pearl and the blahblahblah and Zoro had needed CPR when they finally made it back to the ship. The swordsman had snorted but kept his peace when Chopper drank in every last word. And it never struck the doctor to wonder how they’d managed to dry off so completely.
****
The night after Monkey D. Luffy defeated a god was filled with firelight and dancing, celebration and fellowship, gold and booze and so much food it was almost enough to hold the pirate captain’s attention until he fell asleep. Almost, because Luffy was a pretty good captain when it came to things besides avoiding danger or having common sense. He’d lost track of a particular voice threading through the general din. Usopp always told the best versions of their adventures, and if there happened to be a lot of stuff that Luffy didn’t remember, well, his nakama weren’t always with him for him to keep an eye on what they were doing. Besides they were the best and he would never bat an eye at any of the sniper’s claims.
But the long-nosed boy’s voice had vanished a little while ago, probably when he’d been trying to see how much meat he could stuff in his mouth at once (currently his record was approximately 314 pounds of pure animal protein), and he was curious to know where his sniper had wandered. He found, to his complete surprise, Usopp fast asleep in the arms of his swordsman. Luffy had quite literally stumbled across them, tripping over the sniper’s abandoned bag when he’d lurched forward in surprise. Zoro, his grumpy swordsman, had been settling Usopp more comfortably against his shoulder and had pressed his mouth against the bloodied bandanna still holding back the sniper’s hair. The captain’s own mouth had made a wide ‘O’ of surprise but he’d only nodded his head, his face slipping back into its usual happy grin, when Zoro had held a finger to his lips.
Luffy knew how to keep secrets. He had more than a few of his own. And if Zoro wanted him to be quiet and Usopp hadn’t yet slip the news, then the least the captain could do would be to respect their wishes. Besides, now that he knew where Usopp was, there were more important things to do…like seeing if he could get that whole roast sky shark into his mouth and shatter his old record.
****
Sometimes Sanji felt like he was always last. Last of the East Blue members to join, last in his beloved ladies’ hearts, last to know what had apparently been obvious to everyone else for a while. Twirling out of the galley with some hot tea for Robin-chan (she was still recovering from that bastard marine’s icy attack) and a fruity concoction for his wonderful Nami-swan, he nearly dropped the tray. He hadn’t dropped a tray in, well, in ever. But catching the idiot marimo lean over and silence Usopp, who’d been muttering for days about Merry’s state and wandered around with nails tucked behind his ears instead of pencils or paintbrush, with a brief but obviously affectionate peck was enough to almost break his perfect record.
Hurrying away, he gave his precious female nakama their drinks with less than his usual grace and flourish. His visible blue eye was wide and he sputtered for a moment after the usual round of fawning after the ladies gave their thanks had died down. “Did…did you know?”
“Did we know what, Sanji-kun?” Nami had inquired sweetly, not bothering to look up from the book she was reading.
“Usopp and the seaweed head. They were…they were…right where it could have upset you.” Righteous indignation, especially in the name of chivalry, was a much more comfortable feeling than being flabbergasted and Sanji wore the emotion like armor. “I’ll go kick that bastard right where it counts and we’ll see just how much of that sort of thing goes on when he’s got a fat lip.”
“I don’t think, cook-san,” and now Robin graced him with her mellifluous voice, “that they are aware that we know. They’ve been trying so hard to keep it a secret and I don’t think it would be fair to us to reveal our awareness until they are ready to come forward themselves.”
Sanji pouted just for a moment. Kicking Zoro in the head was his second favorite pastime right after lavishing attention on the ladies. But Robin was wise and really, even if the swordsman was a stubborn, ugly, directionally challenged asshole, Usopp wasn’t so bad. He would restrain himself on Robin’s request and because Usopp was a decent guy underneath all his talk.
“As you wish, Robin-chan.”
The older woman smiled at him, or maybe that was just her usual expression now directed at him but Sanji would take what he could get, and he went heart-eyed and practically waltzed back to the galley without sparing another glance towards his male nakama. He never heard Nami murmur to Robin that “besides, they were really kind of cute and they weren’t hiding very well anymore, were they?”
****
It was still on, that plaster and painted shield Usopp was hiding behind. It had vanished briefly and he’d hoped it was for good but the sniper had put it back on to face even the burial of his beloved ship. Zoro had respected his wishes, asked carefully after his feeling, and ignored the way his heart felt a little more battered and bruised with every hour Soge King kept Usopp away.
Everyone knew, had to know by now, just who was behind the mask. Too many similarities and the stacked tables should have been a give away if some of the scars revealed by his bathing suit weren’t. He’d slipped up too, when he’d been so so careful. Some of Usopp’s exploits from back before the Grand Line had gotten past his censors and he didn’t know whether his subconscious had done it on purpose or not. Zoro kept staring at him and the feeling of waiting had gotten so heavy…
Every time he thought he had a moment to get Soge King alone, he had been wrong. Not one moment of privacy with the sniper had he been able to capture. Always with the giants or spreading tales of his sniping heroics among the residents of Water 7, he would have suspected Usopp of avoiding him if he hadn’t known with nearly one hundred percent certainty that the sniper was still putting off talking to Luffy like they both needed. As the party slowed down and most of the crowd dispersed, something inside Zoro snapped. Paper lips were no substitute for the real thing.
Green hair bobbed and weaved through the ebbing group, moving upstream against the departing current towards his table mountaintop. It was Zoro, and he knew if he ran away now the swordsman would let him go. What he didn’t know was if Zoro would ever chase him again. So, knees knocking and voice wavering, he held his ground and skillfully brought his current tale to its conclusion. He didn’t know if there had been applause for his story or if people had cried for more because his ears were full of roaring white noise and his eyes were captured by meltingly determined green. Usopp didn’t flinch when sword-rough fingers touched the edge of his disguise in front of five pairs of waiting, expectant eyes and lifted it away.
