The loud bangs, the cheerful yelling, the exuberant laughter, the chiming of music. It all rang in Zoro's ear as he leant against the bar, bottle of sake in one hand, the other perched on his swords and a small smile, a genuine one, graced his face. He still gave off the unapproachable vibe, but he seemed a lot more relaxed than normal.

A small chuckle echoed out of his mouth, followed by a quick swing of his drink, as he watched his nakama.

Truth be told, Luffy strange idea of a dance party in the middle of a pub they'd all trekked down to for the purpose of celebrating another victory of some sort - Zoro had lost count of what they were all for, something about multiple marines mixed with an overly adventurous Luffy - had originally made Zoro want to puke. He hated dance parties, he hated parties in general, but he hated dancing. To the extreme.

But watching Brook stringing tunes for the crowd on a table, Robin being spun around by Franky so much she was actually smiling while he chortled with laughter, Luffy, Usopp and Chopper doing some weird form of solo dance moves involving a mixture of squeals, rigid and flowing movement and bright pink tongues sticking out in concentration, and a grinning Sanji swinging a laughing Nami around the odd trio really made him… well happy. And that wasn't a common thing.

His eyes trailed across the crew, watching them all happily moving together, the dancing duos accidentally bumping to each other at one point which earned a chorus of laughter and at least one of the trio falling flat on their asses every two seconds. They'd asked him to join, they all had one by one, and yet the only thing he wanted to do was find a comfortable seat and sink into it with his bottle of sake. He'd sat by Brook at one point, much to Luffy's delight, but after almost having his ears 'Yohoho'ed off he'd quickly moved away.

Another swing of sake disappeared down his throat and he didn't resist the movement of his eyes as they trailed over to watch the blond cook as he swung around Nami. It wasn't that he himself couldn't dance, in fact it was really the opposite. When Kuina had told him that she'd always be a better swordsman than him because she could dance he'd instantly decided to learn. Of course, it really did help, his movements were less flawed and more relaxed leading to an easier flow in battles, but he'd clued in that she'd actually wanted him to learn so they'd have something else to do other than fight all the time. Truth be told, some of his best memories were from dancing with her in the afternoons in various places.

He'd heard from the others about their own various experiences. Brook could dance but he preferred to play, Franky had no clue despite the Franky Families attempts to get him to learn, Robin had laughed and dragged him away saying she'd learned off of Jaguar D. Saul when she was much younger… Zoro still couldn't get his head around a giant teaching her to dance but the way she and Franky were dancing clearly showed he hadn't been a bad teacher. Luffy had blurted out that Ace had taught him some moves, and everyone quickly agreed that the brother had clearly been taking the piss out of their captain when he demonstrated. Chopper had mentioned a few things that the Doctorine had taught him, Usopp had gone on about how he'd been the Amazing Dancing Extraordinaire in his village, which was clearly a lie. Nami had giggled about her own village teaching her, one person per dance they had, and finally Sanji. Zoro had to admit he was impressed. Who knew that a wooden pegged asshole like Zeff could teach a shithead like Sanji how to dance so beautifully?

If one were to ask, he'd venomously deny that he was watching the cook. But watching the swaying of the hips, the way those legs twisted and flowed, the graceful swagger and brilliant smile that made blue eyes twinkle, Zoro had to admit he was hooked on the cook's dancing. Of course, with the bastard being so flexible it looked as easy as can be, but Zoro was certain that most of those dance moves were actually fairly complicated.

He couldn't do complicated.

He was surprised Zeff could.

If the swordsman had been paying attention to more than just the pirouetting cook, he would've seen Robin glancing at him and the devilish smile appear on her face. After a brief exchange with Franky, who looked over with a frown before a grin took over, the duo made their way over to the others. They didn't block the view for the green haired man, but they were quickly breaking off again but having swapped partners. Nami was laughing even more as her and Franky tripped and stumbled their way around the dance floor while the already graceful dance with Sanji became one of utter elegance as Robin spun away with him.

Zoro had to hold back the flood of drool yearning to come out of his mouth as he watched the already beautiful cook become something more alluring than… well anything really.

He could hardly tear his eyes away really, the blond cook was that captivating, and on the inside his brain was having a meltdown at the fact that the swordsman was languishing over the bastard twirling around. He hated the guy, was supposed to anyway, but he did appreciate an attractive person when he saw them.

Sanji was much more than attractive though.

The call of the bottle in his hand made him raise it to his lips, momentarily blocking his view as he chugged back a few gulps, and he was surprised to see Robin gone by the time he'd put it back down. Instead Chopper was sliding up beside Sanji who instantly picked the small reindeer up and began to cavort around with him instead, much to a squealing Choppers delight.

"You're allowed to smile at the sight of them, it is cute."

He knew better than to jump, having expected Robin to be somewhere nearby considering she was nowhere near the moronic imbeciles lining the dance floor. Slowly he turned to look at her, making sure he could still see Sanji out of his peripherals. Despite his dancing now being more childish like, he still unbelievably held some finesse.

"Hm."

"Why don't you go ask Sanji to dance?"

Zoro let out a bark of laughter, grinning in her direction. "Me? Dance with him?"

"Why not? I know you can dance."

"Can I now?"

"I've seen you fight multiple times Zoro. You're too graceful for an average fighter so you must've taken a dance lesson or two to be that graceful. I'm assuming some time during your training."

He felt as if someone had just clubbed him over the back of his head, and to avoid Robin seeing the blush hitting his cheeks he took another swing of his sake, thankful for the burning feeling as it slid down his throat.

"We're both men."

"So are Usopp and Luffy. But they don't seem to care."

It was true, captain and sniper were swinging each other around madly, their laughter being drowned away by the noise of the crowd. Zoro felt a small smile appear on his face as he watched the two lunatics go at it. It was awfully and moronically adorable.

"Yeah, but those two are idiots."

"So are you two. That's not an excuse, Zoro," Robin laughed, smiling happily at him. "There is no real excuse. You're just afraid."

"Am not!"

"Prove it."

The green haired swordsman glared at her, feeling a swelling feeling of hate towards her but it was wiped away as soon as she gave him one of those smiles, the one she gave when she really was trying to help. He reached over for another large swing of drink, making sure to get a good look at Sanji as he and Chopper began to finish their dance as the song dwindled off. With a reluctant sigh, he nodded.

"I'll do it."

"Great! The songs finished so go get him!"

"You set this up, didn't you?"

Robin just winked at him before turning to walk off. "If I had Zoro, there would be a sweet slow song playing," she chuckled before wandering back to Franky who'd been ditched by Nami for Chopper.

With a loud groan, he tossed back the last of his drink, saluted the bartender, then ambled over to Sanji, realizing the cook hadn't noticed him, too busy watching Chopper go.

Then the music changed.

So Robin really had set it up.

He managed to slide in front of Sanji before dancing couples latched onto each other, already cooing sweet and reasonably disgusting things in each others ears. He refused to do that with the cook, no way.

"Oi," he started, earning the others attention quickly. Large blue eyes turned to look at him, followed by one of those curly brows rising. "Wanna dance?"

"Excuse me?"

"Want. To. Dance?"

Sanji just stared at him stupidly.

"We're both guys."

"So are Usopp and Luffy."

"But they're-"

"Idiots? I know. Not an excuse though."

The blond stood there, mouth hanging open as confusion flickered over his face. "You know who we are right?"

Zoro groaned, knowing just what the blond was about to say. Instead of reply straight away he swooped forward and wrapped his arms around Sanji's waist, dragging him into a tight embrace as he began to move.

"I'm sure we can get a long for at least a song."

Sanji snorted, a small laugh on his lips as he slid his arms around Zoro's neck and being to sway with him. "I don't fancy our chances though," he chirped, falling gracefully into time with the swordsman as they picked up the tempo.

And Sanji was right in a way, Zoro realised after the sixth song being glued to his side. It was a lot more darker in the room now, a lot more room too as people began to leave the dance floor to sit. Zoro glanced towards the bar at one point and saw everyone but Brook, who wasn't there, and Chopper watching them, raising glasses in a salute. Hearing Sanji's laugh made him look down at the slightly shorter blond, his heart pumping erratically at the brilliant smile on the blonds face.

"What?" he called out over the racket. He didn't even understand how the hell Brook could be so loud, but looking up he saw many other musicians had joined in and Brook was basically conducting them to create loud, beating music that made chills crawl across his arms.

"Typical of them! As soon as we start to get along they all start ogling like its a miracle!" Sanji yelled back, laughing as Zoro twirled him under his arm before letting go and watching as Sanji flicked his head side to side, blond hair flying madly before he was twirling around again.

"They're all nosey! Of course they'll be ogling!" Zoro replied, grinning as Sanji took his hand and danced around him, twisting Zoro's arm so it was in an awkward position but quickly righted it. They fell back into an easy dance, twisting, twirling, and on the occasion gyrating. The swordsman had never believed dancing with the cook would be so much fun, having felt slightly awkward for the first two songs that turned out to be slow ones, but as soon as the tempo changed and a wild light popped up in Sanji's eyes, he'd instantly been swept away into wild and uncontrollable dances.

By the twelfth song, Zoro could feel himself getting slowly exhausted, mostly from lack of a drink. The rest of the crew had filtered on and off the dance floor, most on at the moment, and Zoro felt smug as he flicked Robin a wink, proud he'd actually done it. Of course she'd manipulated him into doing so, but it was the idea he'd actually manned up that made him grin. Looking down at Sanji who was gripping Zoro's hands tightly as he spun around with him, laughing as he would dance close to Zoro's chest before pulling away, keeping their hands connected. Zoro continuously felt sparks of success fly through him every time Sanji moved, glad that no matter how many people moved around them Sanji never left his side.

"You wanna get a drink?" he bellowed over the even louder ruckus, earning Sanji's attention though. The blond frowned as if processing the words before grinning and nodding, dropping one of Zoro's hands before dragging him out of the crowd towards the bar.

Within seconds Zoro was being forced to sit on one of the stools before a sake was shoved in front of him. He raised an eyebrow over the tip of the bottle he was about to drink from at the sight of Sanji just watching him.

"None for you?"

Sanji just smirked before reaching out and taking the bottle of sake. Zoro had to admit, he'd never actually seen Sanji drink anything but wine in the way of alcohol, and the way he tipped both his head and bottle back, the way his adam's apple moved slowly as he drunk, the way he licked his lips afterward made Zoro swallow an uncomfortably large lump in his throat.

The blond cook just threw him a wink afterwards before turning to look out over the dance floor, fingers drumming to the beat of the music. Zoro found his eyes drawn to them, watching as the long digits rapped against the wood over and over again.

Damn. He had it bad.

Steeling himself for what he was about to do next, he tossed back a good half of the sake before reaching out and taking those fingers, entwining his own with them before tugging Sanji out of the bar, heading outside. He didn't pause to think about the fact the blond didn't protest, but merely squeezed his hand and flashed Nami a wave, who replied with a thumbs up… but in who's direction?

Oh, those girls were too good.

Zoro chuckled as he finally understood just what Robin had been trying to do. Well more than the obvious of course. And with a cheerful grin he tugged Sanji back towards the Merry only a street away.

"Zoro?"

"What?"

"Why are we going to the Merry?"

Zoro just smiled at him, genuinely smiled, and sped up their walking. Sanji huffed in response, bottom lip popping out into an adorable pout and Zoro felt the overwhelming urge to reach out and brush a thumb lightly over it, feel the soft skin under his own, maybe even lean down and kiss it. He shook the thought away though, choosing instead on focusing on where he was going.

Like that helped.

"There's not supposed to be a forest between here and the ship right?"

Sanji burst out laughing, holding his sides as Zoro's question floated over to him and the green haired man flushed bright red. Typical. The blond would just laugh instead of help when they were lost, or Zoro was, Sanji probably knew the way back.

"I… I was wondering if… if we were going back to the ship or not," Sanji choked out, having to pause twice to get all words out. He straightened up and smiled brightly at the fuming Zoro, cocking his head to the side in question. "Why were we going back there anyway? I liked the party."

"To kiss."

Sanji choked on his own tongue.

"What!"

Zoro shrugged and turned away, wandering over to a tree to lean against. It wasn't too bad out here, the full moon was out and the sounds of cheering and laughter was echoing over the tree tops so they obviously weren't that far away from the town.

"You're a romantic. I thought you'd appreciate our first kiss being on the ship, the place we first properly meet and all. I mean, I'm not one for corny or romantic gestures but-"

He was silenced by a pair of warm lips settling on his, followed by two arms throwing themselves around his neck and dragging him down slightly. He flailed for a minute, completely stunned and his first instinct was to punch whatever was attacking him, and he was thankful he didn't when Sanji pulled back with bright eyes, sparkling with happiness. And if Zoro wasn't so convinced he was a manly man, he probably would've swooned.

Never admitting that to anyone.

"If it wasn't so early, and if it was true, I would say I love you. Because this is the first time that someone has tried to be so thoughtful towards me," Sanji mumbled, his face red and Zoro thought he looked oddly adorable. Which was odd because not ten minutes ago he was practically ready to throw the cook on the bar and have his way with him for being too damn sexy.

Fucking romance.

He didn't reply, and he knew Sanji would understand, but instead he just leant in and kissed Sanji again. His lips brushing lightly at first before crushing down and dragging Sanji flat against his body, forcing the others mouth open and ravishing it.

If the squeak and giggle followed by hands tugging on his hair were anything to go by, Sanji was definitely enjoying it.

By the time they pulled apart, both out of breath and panting heavily, Zoro was convinced that maybe, just maybe, saying the four letter word that seemed so taboo most the time right now wouldn't actually be too early.

And he was in the process of making his lips form the right words when suddenly a wave of air followed by the dinging of chimes rang in his ear.

"Always wanted to do that."

And then he was off, a blond and black blur sprinting away from the scandalized swordsman. Zoro chuckled quietly to himself, wondering if Sanji knew what he was going to say before he took off after the cook.

And as they crashed back into the pub, both wrestling in a form of dance, Zoro didn't think he'd ever smiled as much

Oh Sanji and Zoro! You are Dancing Kings!