Chapter Text
Epilogue
Three raps cut through the hotel room.
The door swings open.
“Hey, stranger,” Sanji says with a sly smile.
Zoro leans against the frame, gaze steady as he takes in the sight before him. His partner, freshly showered, wet strands still dangling in his face and cheeks pink from the too-hot temperature he always uses. Zoro’s own blond-haired, blue-eyed sex pot. The love of his life, looking sultry and mischievous. The man’s a walking fucking fantasy. All put together and waiting to be undone.
Sanji’s half-lidded eyes travel along Zoro’s enticingly dominant posture, stepping back as his lover slides past him. No longer a stranger in the slightest – more close to Sanji than anyone he’s ever known. And yet still just as blindingly handsome as he was the first time he’d laid eyes on the man in this very spot.
“Recognize the place?” he asks cheekily as Zoro shuts the door and backs him into the wall.
“Looks familiar,” Zoro says, his hands locking around slim hips like he’s done a thousand times before. His mouth finds soft skin, kissing and nibbling as he makes his way to a blemish of his own doing. His sweet taste of home. He smirks. “Am I s’posed to call you ‘Sam?’”
“You could if it gets you hot,” Sanji replies earnestly, grazing a crooked smile against his partner’s ear. “But I’d rather not roleplay who we were a year ago, hm?”
“M’good.” Zoro sinks his teeth into flesh, enjoying the shiver he feels beneath his hands. “Makes me hotter to have you like this.”
Sanji moans, clutching Zoro tighter to his body. “Turned me on all week thinking of you fucking me in this room properly. All mine.”
“Oh yeah?” Zoro reaches up, fingers trailing against the line of Sanji’s jaw as he connects his eyes with lust-filled blue. “Well, you’re fuckin’ mine,” he says with a wink before shoving his lover toward the bed. “Now get over there so I can prove it.”
Sanji dives in for a hungry set of kisses, then takes Zoro’s hand and leads him to the bed. As soon as he’s standing by the edge, gruff hands get to work, feverishly tearing the clothes from his body like unwrapping a gift. He’s pushed onto the bed before he can think to breathe – a zipper opens, and Zoro’s weight comes crashing flush on top of him.
“Fuck, you’re hard,” Sanji groans out, his hips grinding up to press closer to that devastating heat. His head drops back to the mattress in teeth-clenched euphoria. “I want you in me now. I’m ready.”
And ready he is.
Zoro fucks him like he means it. Steady. Brutal. Grounded deeper than the slick slide and the sharp sound of skin on skin. Sanji beneath him, legs spread, eyes glassy, moaning openly. All gold and spit-shined adoration as he holds on – hands in Zoro’s hair, fingertips pressing deep, back arching every time that sweet spot is hit.
The room blurs around them as their ecstasy climbs. The waves of the last year roll in, and as his teeth roam every sensitive place he’s mapped out, Zoro can’t help but think that this truly has been earned. This is the prize. This beautiful, fragile, resilient man beneath him who begs to be torn apart and then lets love piece him back together.
Zoro knows exactly what it took to earn this kind of surrender and he doesn’t take it lightly.
“Mine,” he growls through the heavy panting of his rhythm, the heat around him squeezing deliciously tight. “You’re fucking mine.”
“Oh my god,” Sanji whimpers through the relentless pace, reaching behind to grab fistfuls of Zoro’s ass and drive him in deeper. As the skin against him grows slicker and slicker and feral noises keep slipping out from above, his pleasure crests into something overwhelming, honest, inevitable. “Oh, fuck. Right there. That’s good. Don’t stop – don’t stop.”
“Goddamnit,” Zoro grunts as he feels himself tipping over that euphoric ledge. He feels his partner’s body tense beneath him, peak rising. Another roll of his hips and he’s bubbling over, his arms wrapping as tight as they can around Sanji as he marks him deep. “Fuck – Sanji.”
Sanji’s sigh of relief is carnal as he shivers through the aftershocks. He tenderly kisses Zoro’s shoulder before resting his chin there, holding their sweaty bodies close. “That was a good one.”
“Yeah?” Zoro grins as he nestles his head against Sanji’s cheek. “Wasn’t too bad.”
“Better than before,” Sanji says, stroking the back of his partner’s neck. He lets himself sink in the hold of Zoro’s comforting presence for some time. Then he shifts under him – and jerks up a bit. “Can you pass me the towel on the nightstand?”
Zoro rolls onto his side and tosses the towel over without a word. In the quiet that follows, they move in sync to clean the mess, slip away to the bathroom, and pull their clothes back on. Their own personal rhythm of ordinary intimacy.
As they drift back toward the bed, Zoro leans against the headboard, one arm folded behind his head. He casts Sanji a sidelong glance as he settles beside him. “Feelin’ nostalgic, huh?”
Sanji laughs, giving Zoro a playful pat on the arm. “Maybe a bit. Can’t believe it’s been a year since we met here.” He pauses, smirking. “Guess I wanted to set the record straight.”
“A whole damn year,” Zoro repeats, snapping his fingers and gesturing for Sanji to give him his hand. “Who’d have thought we’d end up here.”
Sanji places his hand in Zoro’s, letting that warmth pool and settle within. So easy and serene – his permanent home. “You ever wonder what’s next for us?” he asks curiously.
“What – after tonight or further along?”
“Further along. You told me a while ago that you might consider moving out of the city. Still think about it?”
Zoro mulls over the thought for a beat, his thumb trailing the back of Sanji’s hand. “I want to. Guess it all really depends.”
“On what?”
“On you.”
Sanji brightens at that. He chuckles. “You sap. What about Luffy and Nami?”
“What about ‘em?” Zoro shifts slightly, using his grip on Sanji’s hand to tug him closer. “They’re always gonna be important but my future’s with you. I plan on goin’ where you go.”
Sanji’s hand rests over Zoro’s chest. He inquires further, “The Belfry?”
“Just a means to an end.” Zoro tilts his head, glancing down at the man at his side. “Sometimes I think I’m meant to work outside. I don’t like bein’ cramped up there in the dark.”
Smiling at that, Sanji’s fingers press further against Zoro’s skin. “Sometimes? You think? You took down a tree like it was nothing.”
“Landscaping, farm work. It’s in my blood.” Zoro reaches over, tapping that crown of blond hair. “What about you, huh? What’re your plans?”
Sanji hums, staring at the ceiling in thought. “I’d like to switch careers. Move closer to dad. Go to the countryside. I make good money, but it’s the same as you said – a means to an end. I like helping people, but hospital work is rough.” He taps a forefinger on the sheets, deliberating. “I think I might like to start a catering business with my dad. We’ve talked about it before. I – yeah. I think I’d like to do that.”
“Then do it,” Zoro says resolutely, nudging his partner with his shoulder. “Movin’ out there wouldn’t be hard. I got a pretty penny saved up.”
Sanji nudges Zoro’s side in return. “From all that time freeloading on zero rent?”
“Pretty ballsy considerin’ how many months you sucked my wallet dry.”
“Ha. Well, apparently I could’ve gotten more out of you, huh?”
“Nah,” Zoro deadpans. “Only kept you around ‘cause you were cheap.”
Sanji rolls his eyes. “I only kept my prices down because you – nevermind. I’m not fuelling that massive ego.”
“Sure. Think you might like my massive ‘ego.’”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Sanji says jestfully, entwining his leg with Zoro’s, giving his calf a teasing stroke with his toe. “You’re more than just your cock, you know.”
Zoro releases a short laugh through his nose. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m my biceps too.”
Sanji has a quip ready, but remains silent as he scans the room. The low ceiling, the walls, the way the city lights struggle through the crack of blackout curtains. Pensive, he poses, “Do you think we’d be together if we didn’t meet how we did? If we’d just met normally through Luffy?”
The air settles thick around them as Zoro turns Sanji’s question over in his mind. He’s thought about it before, back when everything cracked open at the bowling alley and their worlds collided.
Normal.
He’s never been convinced that word applies to them. Nothing about their path has followed a script. They didn’t fall into place – they fought for it. Learned each other inch by inch, carving out a language made of growth and hard-won trust. What they have is weathered. Real in the way scar tissue is real. Not pretty, but permanent. Proof they bled and proof they stayed.
“No,” he finally answers. “I don’t.”
“I don’t either,” Sanji responds, neck twisting on the pillow to give Zoro a sidelong glance. “Why not, do you think?”
“Because if we’d met any other way, those doors would’ve stayed locked. We’d still be carryin’ all that shit alone, thinking no one else could take it.”
Sanji sits on that answer for a short moment. He’d been thinking about this question for the past week, mulling and pondering over it. He smiles ever so slightly, pleased that the two of them came to the same conclusion. They’d needed the transactional relationship to settle into something real, organic, natural – and right for them.
“We’re lucky,” Sanji says with a small laugh, “in the end. We were fucked up and we couldn’t have done it any other way.”
A wellspring of joy breaks open in Zoro’s chest, filling him with undeniable warmth and certainty. It settles low within him, a weight that he’s, for once, glad to carry. He smiles, unguarded, eyes catching the clock before turning back to Sanji tucked against him.
“Glad I got to meet you last year, buttercup,” he says. “And glad I get to love you in this one.”
Sanji readjusts, draping his body halfway over Zoro’s. He cups his face, staring candidly into his lover’s earnest expression. Smiles when he smiles. Droops into a tender kiss when those eyes expectantly lower. His mind clears, and his heart fills – able to contain it all without any cracks or fissures. No chance of any of it slipping past him ever again. Natural and enduring.
“Happy New Year, big guy. Let’s make it a good one.”
One Week Earlier
“Lincoln Park Hyatt. How may I help you?”
“Hello miss, how are you?”
“I’m doing great, sir. Thank you. How are you?”
“I’m well, thank you. I’m looking to book a room for New Year’s Eve.”
“I can certainly help with that. May I have your name?”
“Sanji Savage. If possible, I’d like to book a specific room. Can you check if it’s available for me? Room 214.”
“Let’s see. That’s a standard, king-sized room. I should be able to accommodate without any issue.”
“That’d be wonderful. Thank you so much, miss.”
“I’m just submitting the reservation now. If I may – why that room in particular?”
Sanji smiles sentimentally.
“I like the way the sunlight comes through in the morning.”