Work Text:
Zoro had a problem.
Well it wasn’t really a problem, more of an internal dilemma. It had started a few weeks ago when he went to the showers for his weekly wash.
He yawned as he sauntered to the bathroom after another intense workout in the crow’s nest. It was later than usual, having gone up immediately after dinner to finish his daily sets and unintentionally take watch. He was reprieved by Usopp who had told him it was almost three in the morning.
He wiped the sweat from his face with his hand and wiped it on his pants to dry. Not bothered by his sweaty state he wiped some more sweat off and dried the same way again.
Zoro reached the shower and discarded his pants before entering, not bothering to check if it was occupied since it was so late.
Which was a mistake
Once inside Zoro distinctly recognized the sound of running shower water and turned to see who else was in there. All he recognized at first was long hair, easily long enough to cover the person’s back, which was currently facing the door.
“Shit!” Zoro shrieked before slapping his hand over his remaining eye and quickly slamming the door shut. He didn’t mean to catch one of the girls showering. Why were they in here so late?
“Mosshead?”
What?
Zoro carefully opened the door again and peeked back around it. To his surprise it was actually Sanji who was currently showering, not any of the girls.
Zoro took in Sanji’s figure, still mostly with his back to the door but he had obviously turned toward Zoro after calling out to him. Sanji’s hair was so long, maybe even longer than the girls.
Sanji must have gotten tired of Zoro’s silent stare, since he just scoffed and turned back to the shower to rinse off. Zoro took that as an okay to enter and he slinked back in, closing the door firmly behind him.
“Give me a sec Mosshead and I’ll let you have the shower. I’ll soak in the tub,” Sanji said, running what looked to be a comb through his hair gently as he finished rinsing. Zoro was inraptured with the movement of Sanji’s fingers through his hair, the movements smooth and gentle.
After one more pull of the comb, Sanji turned off the shower and gently started wringing his long hair out while walking towards the edge of the already filled tub. Zoro was left staring almost in a trance as he watched the long blond locks be twisted to remove excess water.
He watched Sanji sit down on the side of the tub, Sanji looked up and raised his exposed eyebrow at Zoro, “Well?” He said obviously starting to get agitated.
The tone caused Zoro to move, putting on his usual scowl he reserved for the blond. He stood under the shower and started his cleaning routine, casually throwing glances at Sanji.
Now he was braiding his hair, his fingers weaving the strands together into a braid starting thick near the top of his head, but thinning out as he got to the ends. Zoro glanced away when he saw Sanji look towards him, acting like he wasn’t watching.
Soon after, Zoro heard a slight splash and when he looked again, Sanji had his body in the tub, but his hair was over the side, keeping it from getting any wetter than it was.
Zoro finished his washing quickly and headed to the tub as well, much to the obvious disdain of the other judging by the grimace on his face when he heard the water splash again. Sanji cracked his eye open and just sighed through his nose before closing it again.
“Your hair’s long,” Zoro said dumbly.
Sanji scoffed out something close to a laugh, “Oh yeah? Hadn’t realized.” He grunted back.
Zoro sat still in the water, still transfixed on Sanji’s hair, “How do you wear it up so much? Doesn’t that hurt?”
Sanji sighed through his nose and opened his eyes again to look at Zoro, not amused.
“When it’s dry I can wear it up fine, you've seen my hair styles.”
“Well yeah, but I didn’t know you were actually rapunzel. I thought you were one of the girls at first.”
“If you got any better insults, better use them now, I’m leaving.”
“I’m not saying it as an insult. I think your hair looks… pretty.”
“… Pretty?” Sanji questioned while his face was turned away. Zoro was unable to gauge his reaction.
“Yeah, I think your hair looks really pretty,” He stated again. Sanji didn’t move a muscle. Until suddenly he was rising out of the tub and to a seat near the shower where multiple hairstyling tools were.
Sanji meekly sent a look towards Zoro, “Would you like to help me dry it, then?”
That’s how it started. And now, it was a weekly occurrence. Apparently, Sanji only needed to wash his hair once a week?
“But you bathe every day?” Zoro had asked when he realized Sanji did not wash his hair daily. “Why not wash it every day?”
“How do you think my hair got this long, Mosshead? It doesn't have to be washed every day. My body however, does.” Sanji answered with the ever present sneer on his face that specifically was for Zoro.
Ever since that first night, Sanji had allowed Zoro to help dry and style his hair for bed during their bathing. He wasn’t sure what it was between them, neither one of them brought it up outside of the bath. After the first night, Zoro was entranced when running his fingers through Sanji’s hair.
After a few weeks of just helping with drying and styling, Sanji had then promoted Zoro to helping with the actual washing portion of his hair. He had taught him proper washing, conditioning, and drying techniques.
How he shouldn’t condition the roots, only midway to ends. How he should start at the roots with the blow dryer and gently bring the air down the rest of the way. Never having the dryer on too hot in order to protect the hair.
These nights they would both sneak off (sneak being a fake word, the crew knew what they were doing) so they could bathe together, they were never bothered.
That’s how their routine went for the past few weeks, and ever since that first time Zoro, couldn’t find mental peace. He was sitting in the crow’s nest currently, trying to meditate. There was a blond headed block in his mind that wouldn’t allow his thoughts to pass as they normally did.
Maybe it was because tonight was their bath night. There was a spark through his chest when he thought about that. He didn’t know what the feeling was, but he felt it every time this night came around.
Later in the bath, Sanji was sitting on a stool in front of Zoro, his hair currently being combed gently while Zoro was spreading more of the flowery scented conditioner through it. Sanji was talking listlessly about something Zoro had stopped actively listening to a while ago.
He was very focused on his task, making sure the product was coating the strands thoroughly and evenly. If Zoro was a perfectionist at anything it would be this. And swordfighting.
“Mosshead, are you listening?” Sanji asked, looking at him through the reflection of the mirror. Shit.
“Yes.” Zoro answered quickly while finishing up the application of the product. Now it would sit for a few minutes before being rinsed with cool water.
“What did I just say then?” Sanji turned this time to look Zoro in the eye.
Zoro paused. “Okay, I wasn’t listening,” he admitted without care and Sanji sighed in annoyance.
“Whatever, didn’t matter much anyway. What’s got you so distracted tonight?” He asked before turning back around.
You . Zoro wanted to say but kept that comment to himself. He rubbed a few strands of Sanji’s hair between his fingers and stayed silent.
“Why’d you grow your hair out?” Zoro quietly asked after a few minutes of it being quiet.
Sanji slightly fidgeted in his seat. With no answer immediately, Zoro accepted the unspoken answer. Sanji spoke up, albeit quietly. “My mom had long hair, the same color as mine,” Sanji grabbed a strand that had fallen to his side and held it up between his fingers, “I like to think a part of her is with me.”
“Hm.” Zoro answered as a sign of his understanding. “She still around?”
A solemn head shake was enough of an answer.
“My mom died before I knew her,” Zoro returned the favor. “Dad went soon after.”
Sanji turned his head to the side to try and look at Zoro, but the grip of his hair in Zoro’s hands hindered him. So he just resettled himself on the stool and kept his gaze forward, “Okay Mosshead, time to rinse.”
This routine continued, Zoro would have his weekly wash and Sanji would join for his daily wash and weekly hair wash. The time was almost a sacred ritual for them.
Well, it was for Zoro at least.
The washes in the beginning were a mutual agreement between them, pausing their ever present disdain and ire for each other, but after a while, those feelings lessened. To the point where Zoro was snapping at Sanji for show more than anything. He could tell Sanji was doing the same as well.
He wasn’t sure when it started, but eventually when the days for their bathing came, Zoro got excited. That was the feeling he kept getting in his chest while he meditated.
Getting to take care of Sanji’s hair and to hold it in his hands gave him this sense of an overwhelming need to protect it. Zoro had noticed what care Sanji kept with his hair, and he wanted to do the same.
Zoro was dozing on the deck one day, offhandedly listening to the crew existing around him. Sanji was making the most noise, considering he was serving drinks to the girls. Zoro peeked at him and noticed the sun was glinting off the strands brighter than normal. Even with Sanji’s hair done up into a bun that was encircled with a braid.
Sanji started ignoring him less as well.
On another one of their bath nights, Zoro was sitting and waiting for dinner. The sounds of the crew around him being merry satisfied him enough, but he wouldn’t be fully happy until Sanji was sitting with them after serving.
Sanji looped the table while doing so, and finally sat Zoro’s plate down in front of him. Zoro looked up to give thanks, but before he could, Sanji left with a small flick to Zoro’s earrings.
It wasn’t like his normal annoying flick though, this one was softer. Like he was trailing his fingers through the jewelry. That dinner was the best he had had so far on their journey.
Later on in the bath, Zoro had remained pretty much silent the whole time they were in there. Sanji had tried conversing with him, but after the third grunt in response from Zoro, he just gave up and also remained silent.
They had finished up Sanji’s hair and dried it thoroughly, styling it into the braid he liked to sleep in before moving to the tub, sitting in a companionable silence.
“Why did you offer for me to help you with your hair?” Zoro finally spoke. Lost in his thoughts throughout the night, thinking about what caused his ever growing lack of focus and change of his view of Sanji. It had all started that first night that Sanji offered for Zoro to help.
The heat of the bath was getting to the cook, he could tell. His face was reddening with the heat.
Sanji managed to grunt out an answer himself, “You were here and it’s hard to wash my hair alone, usually my dearest, sweetest, Nami helps me, but she was busy that day so I had to wash my hair myself.” Sanji crossed his arms, acting as defiantly as one could while naked in a tub.
“So then… every other time after?” Zoro continued.
“Well…” Sanji trailed off and didn’t seem to have a response. Zoro watched as he sunk further down into the water almost enough to cover his mouth. “Are you asking because you want to stop?” Sanji finally mumbled out, seemingly unable to make eye contact.
That question stunned Zoro, well, as stunned as he could get. Zoro absorbed the question for a moment before gently shaking his head no.
“I like it,” he said, seeming just as shocked as Sanji when the words came out.
Just like that, everything clicked.
The meditation interruptions, the new way the sun shined on the cook, the way the food had started to taste better than it ever had before.
“I like you. ” Zoro corrected. Zoro sat with that realization in the air, purposefully not looking at Sanji’s face. After a few beats of silence, he attempted a glance in Sanji’s direction but was instead shocked when Sanji sat up and moved suddenly towards him in the bath.
Through his movement, his hair dipped back into the water. Zoro reacted quickly and shot a hand out to pull it out of the bath.
“You’re getting your hair wet again! Curls—!”
“Shut up ,” Sanji mumbled with an air of gruffness before grabbing Zoro’s head and forcing his mouth up into a kiss.
Zoro was surprised, but quickly returned the kiss. In a sudden realization though, Zoro made sure the braid in his hand was lifted far above the water, keeping it from getting any more soggy than it already had.
Sanji broke the kiss and looked back at his trail of hair, now in Zoro’s hand above the water. His face had a very soft, pleased looking grin as he looked back at Zoro.
“Thank you, Mosshead.”
“You literally tell me all the time how you don’t want your hair wet again after getting in the tub.” Zoro argued and for some reason Sanji started to laugh. “You’re laughing, but I’m right.”
“Yeah yeah, you’re right,” Sanji stood back up straight and rose up to leave the tub. “Care to help me some more, then?”
Zoro stood immediately when beckoned and followed Sanji to the seats in front of the vanity. Sanji sat on the first one and Zoro followed. He reached for the bottom tie in his hair, but before taking Sanji’s hair out of the braid, he gripped it gently near the base of Sanji’s head and turned him around for another quick kiss.
It seemed even the bathroom was still too hot; Sanji’s face was still red.