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Sanji stalked his prey silently through the streets, invisible even in the moonlight.
When they were far enough away from the sounds and lights of the main town, he yanked the pirate’s arm and tossed him into a nearby alley.
He moaned as he hit the ground, turning onto his back as his eyes darted around, looking for his attacker. Sanji smirked, knowing he wouldn’t find him, as he delivered a hard kick to his head.
He should just cuff him and drag him to the Marines, but this was fun. Hurting him, reminding him of his place below him, it was the closest he got to enjoying himself.
A swordsman appeared at the front of the alley, and Sanji stopped torturing his prey. The pirate slowly lifted his head, blood pouring down his face, and paled as the swordsman drew a sword. He stepped forward, slowly but deliberately, and the man scurried back.
“P-Pirate Hunter Zoro,” he stuttered, a genuine fear in his voice that had Sanji intrigued, “I didn’t-”
But they never found out what he didn’t, because in one swift motion Zoro sent a slash through the alley, slicing the pirate’s chest almost in two.
The blow would’ve hit Sanji too if he’d been a normal human, but he was quick enough to dodge it, jumping up to land on a nearby rooftop as he stared down at the scene.
Zoro resheathed his sword as he examined the bloody mess he’d made of the pirate. He was dead, of course, so he grabbed him by the collar and began dragging him away.
Sanji’s eye twitched behind his sunglasses. That was his prey, thank you very much, and his bounty to collect for Germa.
“Pirate Hunter Zoro,” he called out, and he stopped, glancing around to see who was talking, his eyes passing over Sanji a few times.
“Who’s asking?” He eventually barked. Clearly this bounty hunter had no manners.
Sanji crouched low on the rooftop as he made himself visible, ready to spring into action if this so-called pirate hunter started anything. The black from his hair and suit absorbed the darkness of the night around them, but the bits of red gave Zoro just enough to lock on to.
Zoro frowned, his hand landed on one of his three swords, “Who the hell are you?”
“I am Vinsmoke Sanji, third prince of Germa,” he answered, grinning behind his mask at the dumb expression on his face, no doubt awed by being in the presence of royalty, “You may call me Stealth Black.” He nodded towards the dead pirate, “That man was my prey, and his bounty is mine to claim.”
Zoro shrugged, “Didn’t see you kill him.”
“You didn’t see me at all,” Sanji growled, “That’s the point. But I found him first, so his bounty is mine.”
“He was alive when I got here,” he dug a finger into his ear in disinterest, and Sanji’s eye twitched again at the disrespect, “And it was my sword that killed him. His bounty is mine.”
“Insolent peasant,” he snarled as he jumped down, landing mere inches away from his face. Zoro didn’t move, didn’t blink, barely reacted save for flicking his sword out a few inches, as if daring Sanji to make the first move, “Do you have any idea who I am?”
“No, and I don’t really give a shit,” his eyes narrowed, sizing him up, “If you weren’t busy fucking around, maybe you could have killed him. But you didn’t, I did. So the bounty is mine.” He smirked, “If you’re going to play at bounty hunting, you should learn the rules, stupid prince.”
The impudence of this man. No one had ever spoken to him with such disrespect before, and it made his blood boil.
“I was here first,” he stated, considering the best way to attack the swordsman, “So the bounty is mine.”
“If you want it so damn bad,” Zoro replied with a feral smirk, “Then come get it.”
Sanji launched a kick at his side, too fast for a normal person to keep up with, but Zoro drew his sword and blocked it with no problem.
Zoro unsheathed a second sword and knocked him to the ground, pinning him there with a blade at his neck.
“Not bad,” he smirked down at him. Sanji dug his fingers into the dirt below him, feeling rage and indignation build inside him, “Maybe you got what it takes to hunt pirates after all.” He sneered as he leaned down, the blade sinking ever so slightly into his neck, “But this one’s mine.”
Before he could react, Zoro pulled away, sheathing both his swords as he grabbed the dead pirate, “Until next time, Prince.”
Sanji ground his teeth, pulling himself into a sitting position as he shouted, “Next time I see you, I’ll kill you.”
Zoro laughed, waving as he left the alley, “I’d like to see you try.”
Sanji growled, rubbing at his surprisingly sore neck, not sure what to do with the sudden surge of anger.
It was the most he’d ever felt.
If Sanji expected to never see the infuriating pirate hunter again, he was sorely mistaken.
Whenever he was chasing a bounty, Zoro was there, ready with a snarky quip to try and take Sanji’s prey.
Sometimes Sanji got the bounty. More often than he liked to admit, Zoro got it. If they were keeping score, he’d say they were about even. (He was. They were dead even.)
He wasn’t sure when, but eventually he’d stopped dreading when Zoro would inevitably appear and started looking forward to it.
It was the competition, he decided, having someone there to push him, to make him better. He didn’t have any friends, and he was bound to get used to seeing a familiar face.
And eventually the rage that filled him every time he saw Zoro turned into something else entirely. What it was, he couldn’t say.
So he ignored it.
Until he found Zoro washed up on shore, clinging to a piece of driftwood, broken and bleeding.
He stared down at the man he almost considered his equal and sneered, “Pathetic.”
Zoro shifted and moaned, cracking open his one good eye, gaze hazy as it found him.
“Still alive then?” He smirked and kneeled down, “Shame. With you out of the way my job’s a lot easier.”
Despite the blood running down his face from his left eye and his chest that looked almost cleaved in two, Zoro smirked that infuriating smirk and said, “Stupid prince.”
Sanji growled, “I’ll just leave you here to your fate. I don’t care if you live or die.”
The smirk stayed on his face, but his eye rolled into the back of his head as he fell unconscious.
“H-Hey,” Sanji lunged forward, hands patting Zoro down as he tried to find a pulse. His blood stained his raid suit, but that was the farthest thing from his mind as he found the steady thrum under his fingertips.
He ran a hand down his face, smearing Zoro’s blood on his mask, “Shit.”
Before he could think it through, he lifted Zoro up as gently as he could and carried him somewhere safe.
“About time you woke up, lazy bastard,” Sanji said when Zoro awoke, his wide eye gazing at him, making him feel self-conscious, “...What? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Nothing, just,” he sat up, wincing a bit, and Sanji was instantly by his side to help, “This is the first time I’ve seen your face.”
Sanji pulled away and touched his face. He only wore the raid suit in combat, and he just realized he’d never seen Zoro out of combat.
He turned away, suddenly embarrassed, and got Zoro something to drink.
“Who’s Kuina?” He asked when he brought it to him.
Zoro glared, “How do you know about her?”
“You were muttering in your sleep,” he sat down at his bedside, “Kept apologizing to her.”
Zoro leaned back against the pillows and rubbed his eye, “Kuina was the best swordsman around, and my friend. Growing up, I could never beat her, not even once.” He opened his eye and stared at the ceiling, “We promised that one of us would become the greatest.”
His eye landed on his white sword, “Then she died, so now I have to for both of us.”
“Wait,” he sat up straighter, “Did Mihawk do this to you?”
Zoro’s head rolled to the side to stare at him, “Yeah.”
“You challenged Mihawk?” He squawked, indignant, “For his title? Are you insane?”
“Maybe,” he shrugged, gaze distant, “I guess I’m not quite there yet, but I had to try.”
“Or you could have not,” Sanji sneered, “And lived.”
“I’m alive.”
“Only because of me.”
“Yeah,” he looked back at him, “Thanks.”
“I,” Sanji glanced away, his face hot, “Whatever. Consider yourself lucky, I won’t do it again.”
Sanji’s eyes landed back on Zoro, who smiled at him, making his stomach feel squirmy. To distract himself, he asked, “Why did you do it? Just to keep your promise to a dead girl?”
“Yeah,” Zoro frowned, scrutinizing him, “Haven’t you ever had a dream? Something you wanted so bad you’d do anything to get it?”
Sanji realized suddenly that he didn’t. His entire life he’d been living for Germa’s goals, for his father’s dream.
Except for, well.
“When I was little,” he rubbed his eyes, thinking of how best to explain this to a stranger, “My mother would talk about this ocean. The grandest ocean where every fish in the world lives, All Blue. I’ve always wanted to see it.” He glanced over at Zoro, waiting for him to laugh, but he didn’t. He just kept looking at him patiently, “But, she died when I was little. And the ocean is just a myth anyway, it’s not real.”
“Sounds real enough,” Zoro said, surprising him, “The world is a big place. I’m sure All Blue is out there. You should look for it.”
“Y-yeah, well,” his heart beat erratically, he’d have to get that checked when he got back, “I can’t just set out to sea whenever I want.”
“Being a dumb prince take up too much of your time?” He smirked.
“Yes, actually,” he huffed and leaned in to adjust Zoro’s bandages, “I have a busy schedule, and I’ve already wasted three days of it on you.”
“Ah, that explains it.”
Sanji leaned back, his brow furrowing, “Explains what?”
“Your roots are showing.”
“Of course,” he smirked, “I’m royalty. I don’t have to hide my origins.”
“No, your hair,” he nodded towards Sanji, who instinctively pat the top of his head, “Didn’t realize you’re really blond.”
Sanji snatched a nearby mirror, and sure enough, Zoro was right. The hair towards his scalp was distinctly lighter, almost yellow even.
“I like blondes,” Zoro shrugged, as if Sanji’s world wasn’t falling apart, “Dunno why you dye it.”
Except Sanji didn’t. His parents were both blond, but his genes had been modified to make him exceptional, hair color included. If that was becoming undone, what else was?
Panic filled his chest, and he realized that he was feeling. He’d been feeling things for a while now.
He wasn’t supposed to feel.
He swallowed thickly and shot to his feet, “I gotta go.”
He spared Zoro one last look before racing out the door like the coward he apparently was.
He was lagging behind his brothers in every conceivable measure. His father was…disappointed. He had no need for useless things.
Sanji couldn’t even begin to say what went wrong, other than despite not being designed to, he’d fallen in love with Zoro, and the more he fell in love, the more his modifications, what made him perfect, failed.
He was furious. How could some two-bit bounty hunter ruin everything about him?
How could he be so weak to fall for him?
He started passing up bounties he knew Zoro would be after too.
His father was very disappointed.
But he couldn’t think of a better solution. The modifications were wearing off more and more with each passing day, his blond hair becoming more obvious even as he tried to dye it back to black, but it would be fine as long as he never saw Zoro again.
His heart ached at the thought, but he ignored it. He had to.
Jake the Snake was worth 120,000,000 berries, and Sanji had a strict policy of never going after a head worth more than 100,000,000.
But there were rumors that he’d captured the famed Pirate Hunter, and that he was planning on executing him as revenge for all the bounties he’d collected.
Which was not Sanji’s problem. If Zoro was gone, these feelings he had for him would vanish, and he could go back to being his perfect self.
But in the end, Sanji had tracked down Jake and killed him first, saving Zoro’s life once again.
These cursed emotions. Even when he knew the correct course of action, they made him do the opposite.
“Idiot Prince,” Zoro grinned as Sanji became visible over Jake’s body, as if he’d missed him, “Been a while. Blond’s a good look on you.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Sanji snarled, snatching him by his shirt and slamming him into the nearest wall, “You did this to me! You made me weak.”
Zoro’s eye widened in surprise, “What?”
“I said shut up!” He slammed him again, “You manipulated me! You made me fall in love with you and now,” he let him go and stepped back, staring down at his trembling fingers, “I’m losing everything.”
A growl was all the warning Sanji got before he was grabbed and slammed into the wall, his sunglasses slipping from his face.
“You took out a 120,000,000 berri bounty for me,” Zoro shouted in his face, “How is that weak?”
Sanji could only stare at him, his eyes going wide as his mouth fell open.
“Keeping up with you has made me stronger than ever,” Zoro pulled down his mask and cradled his cheek, “How is that weak?”
Sanji’s face went red as he processed the words.
Zoro leaned in, his lips a breath away from Sanji’s, “Love is not a weakness, you stupid prince!”
Sanji had been so worried about losing his power and place in Germa that he hadn’t even considered what would happen if he gave in, if he let himself love Zoro and if Zoro loved him back.
How wonderful that would feel.
So he caved, closing the distance between them with a passionate kiss, and it felt fantastic.
“Do you have to go back?” Zoro asked when they pulled apart, “Can you stay with me?”
“I can stay,” Sanji nodded, reveling in the delight that spread across Zoro’s face.
Sanji didn’t know what would happen next, if he could handle these new emotions, but he knew Zoro would be there with him to figure it out.
And that felt pretty damn good.