CHAPTER ONE

By Aoi Koneko Chan

"It's always like this you bloody selfish bastard!" The shout rattled around the room as the front door slammed. Sadly, it had been abused many a time throughout the last couple of weeks and it had honestly seen worse.

"Selfish? Me? Check in the mirror, curly!" He screamed as he brushed by the blond into their room and proceeded to slam that door shut only for it to be opened a second later by an angry blond.

"What the fuck does that mean?" The blond asked icily apparently deciding to ignore the door to the face.

"Oh, for heaven's sake! You bitch and moan at me about going to all your stupid social events, never mind that I fuckin hate the hell out of it all especially the ones in fucking French! Fuck. You drag me along and leave me there like a wallflower just to show that you're not alone."

"I fucking leave you alone because you complain like a sod every time I do talk with you at those parties. 'Leave me alone, cook. I don't need your babysitting.' It's always something like that." The blond spat as the green haired man seethed.

"Well I fucking don't!" Zoro spat back and wheeled to turn around on the blond. "And don't change the topic. This is about your selfish decisions here, don't go turning it around on me."

"Who the fuck was turning anything around!?" Sanji screamed throwing his hands in the air. "I'm defending myself from your stupid ass accusations! And it's not fucking selfish. I've been trying to talk to you for weeks about it!"

"Yeah and it's always whenever you want. I just got home again and it's the same questions!"

"Well fucking yeah, when your boyfriend ignores big ass shit that's happening in your life you want to talk about it with him! I've been trying to sit down and talk with you!"

Zoro dramatically dragged a hand down his face. The man narrowed his eyes glaring at the blond. "See. Exactly what I mean." He started spitefully. "Only Sanji has time that's worth it, everyone else can bow down to him!"

"That's not what I mean and you fucking know it!" Sanji defended stepping up to face Zoro chest to chest.

"Isn't it? We're always talking about you lately." Zoro scoffed coldly using his two and a half inches of height on his boyfriend to tower over him mockingly. Sanji seethed.

"Well how about you live in a fucking different country and have your boyfriend ignore your fucking problems and find out just how easy it is to find other people to talk about it to, hmmm?" The blond spat with all the malice he could.

"You're such a fucking drama queen!" Spat the swordsman, rolling his eyes. The green haired lummox turned and idly strode further into the room and seated himself on the bed. It was always fucking like this with Sanji.

"It's not dramatic!" The blond shouted following. His voice softened and he continued. "Zoro, I'm leaving in a week and we've discussed nothing. New shit's come up and it's crazy! It is a fucking big deal, ok, and we've barely talked about it! Why aren't we talking about it?!"

"What's so big about it?" Zoro stated blithely as he begun taking off his socks pointedly not looking at the distressed blond. "You'll be gone three months to study under some obnoxious chef I asked you not to apply for anyway." He heard Sanji's sharp inhale ready to defend that pastry chef but he continues on not allowing the blond the time to interrupt. "You're gonna miss my tournament, my birthday, Choppers birthday - who you promised to make a cake for by the way – and you're not in the least bit sorry about it because," Zoro changed his voice to imitate the blond with a high pitch whine 'he's a very important pâtissier, Zoro. He never takes apprentices but he said yes to my work. Zeff can only teach me so much about pastries and I wanna be the best.'"

Sanji stood fuming. His blond hair fell over his eye and his hands were clenched at his side.

"Is that how you fucking see things?" He asked in barely a whisper.

Zoro knew his words had stung and he was happy. This whole argument had been pricking barbs into his skin and he was happy to return one to the blond. His anger that built during their stupid fight blinded him and instead of seeing the depressed slump of his lover's shoulders he saw blond hair defiantly shielding blue irises.

And he smiled.

Sanji raised his head. Angry tears were in his eyes. "You're such an asshole." He whispered.

And for some reason, that stung more than any other thing the blond had said that night and it made Zoro feel. He was not the kind of guy to dwell on things, he usually was very true to himself and didn't lie often but this argument that seemed to keep springing up the past couple of weeks made him feel… made him feel things he wasn't ready to address just yet. However, in that moment, there was no such clarity in his mind, only a burning uncomfortableness that made him feel…vulnerable…

And Zoro was far from vulnerable so he lashed out. Like a tiger cornered he bared his teeth and held his ground not letting his opponent know just how rattled he'd become.

You're such an asshole.

The sound lingered in the air despite the silent aftermath and for some reason Zoro found himself saying the words he would regret each day for the next four years.

"Well then." He started with a huff of haughtiness as he stood from the bed to glare at his lover. "Why the fuck are you still around then?"

There was silence for a good moment and Zoro actually found himself proud in his bluff. Sanji was obviously too attached to give a reason to leave. For fucks sake, the man had many chances to go back to France over their two-year relationship and said no to all of them. He would calm down and realise this was all a huge fucking mistake and that Zoro had been right all along. Sanji would see that he did need to be by Zoro's side instead of traipsing the globe. Sanji would realise that, like Zoro had been thinking for weeks, Sanji was selfishly separating them for three months when there was no need. Sanji would come to see that it wasn't fair to have gone about this all behind Zoro's back and that three months was too long a time to be apart. But as the silence grew on, a sliver of doubt wedged its way through and when the silence was broken, it was not at all how Zoro imagined it to go.

"You know," the blond said, tears in his eyes yet his face held up, strong and in control. "I'm starting to wonder the exact fucking thing myself lately."

The next second he had left the room.

The next minute Zoro heard the front door close.

The next hour he went to bed, fuming silently about stupid blonds and their dramatics.

The next day he pointedly ignored several phone calls determined to show the bastard just who needed who in their life.

The next week he regretted not picking up one of those calls as Luffy knocked him upside the head and told him Sanji was never coming back and he had a message to pass on.

It was over.

The skyline shone with the burning embers of the sunset. Japan's glorified blazing red sun just beginning to drip below the horizon to set the town to slumber. Sanji let out the breath he held with a long stream of smoke. He felt calm. It was certainly not how he expected to feel when he returned, not that he had ever really planned to.

"Papa, grand-père is here!" A cute little blond bounded over to him babbling in rushed French. Sanji quickly exhaled the last of his cigarette and crushed the filter into the provided ash trays before bending down to face his son.

"So, shall we go?" He smiled as he fixed his little blue coat. For spring, it was rather chilly still.

"Yes! Grand-père promised he'd make sushi tonight!" The little boy sang as his clutched to Sanji's shoulders. Sanji smiled. His son's beaming face was always a treat. The heavy honk of a horn blared and Sanji rolled his eyes. Only one man in Japan would cause such a racket leaning on the horn like that. That man's name was Zeff.

"Come on," Sanji sighed as he smiled down at his boy, gathering their luggage. "Let's go before he dies of impatience."

His son's childish giggles lifted what little doubt was still in his heart.

He hoped they would be happy here.

Uploaded 1st Feb 2018

So here is the start of a new story of mine. I've had several ZoSan ideas floating around in my mind and when I started writing this one, it just exploded into more than I expected it would be. I'm not sure why, but I got really inspired to write this, so here it is. This is the sort of preface to what the fic will be about but I really hate naming chapters 'preface' on fanfiction because it ruins the whole number system in the chapter upload ;) yup that's pretty much it.

The italicized lines will be French and possibly later on Spanish as well. They're written out in italics because I still want the reader to understand the dialogue. Is it jarring or useful? Personally, I think it's useful, but I'm always interested in what others think of it. Let me know!

I hope to try and post every two(ish) weeks so I hope things work out on that front. I have some written up of what comes next but I'm just re-reading and editing so please let me know what you liked, didn't like or any suggestions for my writing :) I hope you like it thus far!