Work Text:
There are a number of things Zoro has learned about Hiyori over the course of their acquaintance which would probably surprise most of Wano, and certainly her brother and the Akazaya.
They know she's brave and selfless and beautiful and all that. But Zoro's sure they don't really know her at all.
The first thing he realizes is just how filthy her sense of humor is.
It shouldn't be surprising, given she lived in a pleasure house for thirteen years. Despite Denjiro's best attempts to keep her from the more ribald side of business the other Oirans gossiped frequently and no one else knew she was their princess.
The talk around the house wasn't just rumors and gossip. Hiyori has a substantial repertoire of incredibly dirty jokes that she picked up from her former housemates, and she often chooses the most inopportune time to tell them.
The first time she tells an inappropriate joke it's in the house in the snow while Toko is innocently napping. It is so unexpected that Zoro barks out a laugh that ends in a groan when his movement pulls at his injury.
She apologizes profusely, but he can see her lips twitching. Since she is something of a show woman and has a much bolder nature than he initially realized when she sees that he's a receptive audience to her questionable humor she embraces the opportunity gleefully.
So she follows it up with other jokes, all filthy, and he begins to recognize the look she directs at him that proceed each episode.
It's fine when they're alone in Ringo and Hakumai. But once there are other people around? It's a bit like watching slow motion crash.
Before she says anything, she'll often meet Zoro's eye with a glint of mischief clear in her own gaze. He knows something is coming, he knows that it will definitely be inappropriate, and he knows he'll probably laugh, even if the situation is one where he shouldn't.
He's not even sure Kawamatsu understood the punchline of the last joke she tells before they part ways, the kappa seems to have taken the anecdote at face value, not realizing the double entendre. And instead Zoro is left trying to suppress his chortles. He finds he likes it, this secret report he has with her.
After the battle, when he and Luffy have awakened and the celebrations are in full swing she doubles down.
Kawamatsu may have been oblivious to the implications of her jokes, but Kin'emon is not.
Zoro can't help himself but laugh aloud at her anecdote about a weavers daughter, thankfully managing to swallow his mouthful of sake before doing so.
Meanwhile the samurai's face turns a particularly disturbing color of purple as he chokes on his meal.
Besides him Denjiro sanguinely strikes his back with an open palm to dislodge the noodles Kin'emon has accidentally inhaled.
Hiyori, the brat that she is, gives no indication to anyone else present that she understands the nature of the joke she's just told. Instead she's smiling in her bright, happy way and Kiku seems to be trying to explain to her why the story is inappropriate while avoiding saying exactly why.
But as Hiyori looks over towards him her smile widens almost imperceptibly and he knows the corners of his mouth are twitching upwards as well.
The second thing, one that even he is surprised by, is that she's significantly stronger that you would think. And he doesn't just mean metaphorically.
Because yeah, she survived for 20 years in a country that was being ruled by her enemies and she won't fucking bend or bow to those unworthy even at great personal cost and all that...
But he means actual, physical strength.
He hears later that she had slapped Orochi, knocking him to the floor, while still disguised as Komurasaki. But this is well after he's discovered her strength on his own.
Because he falls into the same trap that everyone else seems to and doesn't realize it at first. The truth is she's so damn beautiful and delicate that you think she's a gentle little thing.
His first hint should be that she carried him to the house in the snow on her own, while still carrying Toko. The second is when Toko confirms that Hiyori had carried her all the way from the Flower Capital.
But he really gets confirmation is during the victory celebrations, when she flat out decks some prick who grabs her wrist. The man goes airborne, and it's a thing of beauty.
Zoro has a fleeting impulse to draw a sword to finish the fucker off, which is odd. Not the sword drawing part, he doesn't really need an excuse for that, but the defending her honor part.
Clearly she just handled that on her own, but still, it's the principle of the matter. She was with him and someone dared to approach her in an unsavory manner.
Instead though he just grins proudly.
"Nice form." He compliments her, and has a sense of accomplishment when her cheeks flush.
He briefly considers dragging her to Sunny to see how much weight she can lift, but it's such a strange thought he brushes it aside.
She looks like a delicate, beautiful song bird, but she is Oden's daughter and clearly inherited some amount of strength from him.
Later he is further surprised by his own black rage when he realizes the fucker tore her sleeve. How hard had the man grabbed her? No wonder she had lashed out.
She might not have bruised, but that doesn't make it ok.
He has to stamp down the urge to hunt the prick down and beat the shit out of him.
Hiyori looks up at him with those big blue eyes of hers and his face must be betraying his violent thoughts because she tentatively asks, "Is everything alright Zorojuro-san?"
And damn it, he doesn't want to frighten her.
So he reassures her that all is well and diverts her attention with his own attempt at a joke, inappropriate and dirty of course, and she lets out a laugh that is far louder than is probably polite for a princess.
Zoro realizes he's smiling like an idiot but can't bring himself to care. He hopes it's a new joke for her to add to her collection.
Probably the biggest surprise is how little Hiyori likes being called beautiful.
This is shocking to him because she is easily the most beautiful woman he's ever seen.
She's so beautiful that he actually noticed. Which is a huge thing, since Zoro has never before cared how anyone looked.
But in their time together, he finds that if his eyes are not otherwise occupied they will inevitably drift to her. Not like the lecherous cook, leering at every fucking woman he passes by, but in general admiration.
But for Hiyori nothing puts her off a conversation faster than being praised for her looks.
In Ringo she had confessed to him that men often wrote her poetry and songs, that they commissioned art of her, and they proclaimed their love for her. All the while none knew the slightest thing about her.
Not her interests, not her sacrifices, not her passion for her country and people. She was nothing more than a beautiful face and a shaminsen.
(She hated playing for them she confides, music was her escape and she hated them thinking she played for them and not her.)
And her expression, so resigned and tired, stays in his mind.
He sees it clearly, despite her forced smile, when an older nobleman tells her how very lovely his son thinks she is and what a wonderful asset a beauty like hers would be to her future husbands household.
Unfortunately for Zoro his huff of annoyance is too loud and the old man turns to him to call out his rudeness.
But the green haired swordsman cuts him off and loudly proclaims something even he doesn't expect.
"Shut the fuck up about how she looks already. It's all anyone ever talks about. She's not that fucking pretty."
To say everyone present is aghast would be an understatement. Zoro is shocked at his own statement and can feel his cheeks flushing at the sudden attention on him.
(There's a decent chance he will get called out for 'insulting her honor' or some such nonsense, which might actually be a fun way to spend the afternoon.)
But Hiyori is looking at him with eyes that are shining like the sun on the sea and her full lips are pulling up into a smile that is more radiant then the dawn.
Because, yeah, he's pretty sure, the most beautiful woman he's ever seen...
...but she's not a beautiful as she is brave and strong, not as lovely as she is kind and funny. And her looks are great, but they aren't what makes her Hiyori.
He's not really sure how to say that without sounding like a first class fool, he's not sure he even wants to say it at all, so he just storms off.
As he goes he can hear the stupid cook raging at his incompetence and boorish nature, while reassuring Hiyori of her radiance.
Zoro continues on his way, his hands itch to draw a sword and he just wants to go cut something damn it.
When she finds him on a veranda later he grunts a greeting, but continues to stare broodingly out over the capital.
"Does Zorojuro-san really not think I'm pretty?" She asks, there's no sorrow in her voice, or anger like there would be if someone had said the same thing to Nami, only curiosity.
And as he turns to look at her he's struck by her quiet smile and warm eyes. He studiously avoids answering her question, he's not a liar and the truth isn't something he feels like announcing.
"Anyone can be beautiful, it doesn't mean anything about a person. It's stupid that that's all they talk about."
And if her eyes were warm before? They are shining now, like they were when he proclaimed her not pretty.
He realizes in that moment that for as much as he seems to know more about her than others, he hasn't even come close to learning all there is about her.
And he thinks with no small amount of dread, he wishes he had more time in Wano to learn more about her.
"Have you heard the story about the cabbage merchant with the ugly wife?" She says suddenly with a wide, mischievous grin. She then lifts her arm up to show she has not come empty handed, but has a large bottle of sake in her hand.
And Zoro is pulled from his thoughts with a laugh, "Not yet, but why don't you pour some of that sake and you can tell it to me."