Chapter Text
Zoro
That night.
Zoro first saw him disembarking at the corner bus stop off the street from where Nami lives. He had just come from helping her move into her new apartment after a break-up, finally deciding to settle back here in Grand Line City where he and most of their friends ended back up after college.
“So, Bonney didn’t want to commit, so what? Should I spend more than a few days crying about it? She should be so lucky.” She quipped earlier with icy bravado, seemingly indifferent, but Zoro knew her well enough to see the slight tightening at the corners of her eyes. He grumbled at the prospect of being roped into watching 500 Days of Summer several times for the next few weeks. Thankfully, there’d be booze included in these sessions, knowing the witch. He left her to a tub of Ben and Jerry’s after promising to come back in the weekend to help build and install the rest of the new furniture she bought, walking to his car parked a little way down the street.
What about that night?
It was a cold night, well into winter, but at that moment, Zoro felt sudden warmth bloom in his chest. He saw a flash of long, endless legs, of hands in pockets, of shining, golden hair illuminated from the amber streetlight. His heart started thudding, and he bet if the sun suddenly shone and the birds started to sing at that hour, he wouldn’t even have noticed. Golden guy looked up, then, the upper half of his face initially covered by soft blonde bangs that fluttered a bit at the wind when the bus drove off, and then eyes of crushing blue bored into Zoro’s and he knew he was a goner. Zoro froze, feeling strangely lightheaded. He was staring now, and he probably looked like an idiot, but at least his legs only stuttered a bit before continuing his stride instead of just standing there, unmoving on the spot like even more of an idiot that he is. Golden guy nodded at him politely and continued, brushing past him for a moment, their shoulders only inches apart, making Zoro’s breath catch in his throat.
He didn’t know how he was able to keep walking, but he knew waiting to see where Golden guy was going is probably in stalker territory. Still, he looked back for a bit, not being able to resist. Golden guy was still walking ahead in that smooth, almost graceful way, shoulders hunched up against the chilly winter air, long legs eating up the sidewalk quickly, ending in a frankly should-be-illegal ass—Zoro snapped his head back around, face flushing tomato-red, suddenly fearing Golden guy would look back and catch him staring, and took a deep breath.
“What the hell was that?” he exhaled in a silent gust, shaking his head. He still had a little bit of that weird feeling in his chest and even deep lungfuls of air couldn’t shake it. He felt untethered, as if he could start floating away, his face tingling pleasantly and the warm feeling still there, burrowing deep. Stupidly, he dug his feet harder into the pavement, each step sending a light plume of dust with his forceful strides, as if he really was in danger of just spontaneously levitating off the ground. He reached his car then and started rummaging for the keys in his pockets and opening the door, wondering if he was going into shock for some unfathomable reason, or maybe the fatigue of the day from moving Nami’s obscene amount of clothing and furniture around was starting to get to him. Yeah, that’s probably it. No matter that Zoro didn’t actually feel fatigued or even remotely tired at all, the day’s activities not even close to the hard, grueling work he does at the gym and vineyard every day.
After the car’s heater filled the interior with warmth, he pretended that that was why his chest was still warm, and felt a bit better about that, so he should be okay to drive. Still, he wondered if he should ask for a consult from Chopper. That’s ridiculous, he thought, because he would have to admit that just seeing a random handsome guy affected him physically. That the guy made him feel warm in a cold winter night. That, without words, with just a look, a stranger made him feel like… like he was not alone anymore. Like he found something he didn’t think he had any right looking for. Like he was suddenly connected to something his soul recognized but his mind just couldn’t make sense of at the moment. Can he find him again? Zoro thought. “Get a grip. You don’t even know him.” He said out loud in the confines of his car, breathed deep and started the drive home.
***
Zoro woke up from dreams of floating above the sea, of blue, warm, winter eyes and flying to a sun that turned into wisps of golden thread – gasping awake to the sound of his phone ringing, he rubbed a hand on his face and answered it, seeing Luffy’s name on the screen.
“Zooorrrooo! Good morning! Are you ready for today??! I’m almost at the fields alreadyyyy and I’m hungryyyyy,” A pout in his voice.
Zoro sighed, “Sorry, Luff, I’ll be right there. I think I overslept; I wasn’t feeling very well last night.”
“Oh no, are you sick??!”
“No, Luffy, I was just tired from helping Nami yesterday, probably.”
“Oh, right, she’s back!! Can we go to her house??! Do you think she’ll feed us???”
“No, Luffy, she literally just moved in, and even if she’s willing, she’ll probably ask us to pay her a fee just for waking her up. I’ll bring you food.”
“Yaaaaay, thank you Zoro!! See you!” Luffy said, hanging up. Zoro wondered why he didn’t just burst through his front door to wake him up like he usually does but considered that his childhood friend must have been too excited to start the day in the fields.
Zoro padded barefoot to his kitchen and started the brew, the aroma of strong coffee permeating the air… blue sea-eyes and golden wisps permeating his thoughts. Zoro pushed the damned colors out of his mind and went to reheat the sandwiches he made yesterday. He maintained the house is too big for him alone (Honestly, it was a stupid castle) but wasn't able to deny his father when he turned over the vineyard’s title and papers, including the chateau, to him as soon as he got back home from spending two years in Spain, immersing himself in the business and craft of managing their vineyards after he graduated business school. Perona got an even bigger castle after she graduated from business and then marketing school a few years before him, which she filled with pink monstrosities, and was mostly the one running the full scale of their vineyards and other businesses in the country, so he really can’t complain.
Apparently, Mihawk thought Zoro did swimmingly in Spain and is competent enough to manage the Grand Line branch of their vineyard, saying he intends to focus more on their Vineyard’s international counterparts so his kids can manage the local ones. Zoro, to his credit, truly loved their fields and the craft that came from growing the plants from buds into fruition and nurturing them to world-class wines frequenting Michelin star restaurants. Frankly, he was mostly afraid Perona and Mihawk will force him to manage an even bigger vineyard if he said anything, so Zoro was just happy being silent in his corner of the world, content he found something he was passionate about.
At this point into his musings after dressing hastily in appropriate field clothes, after snatching the paper bag containing their sandwiches, Zoro walked along the long front pathway of the chateau towards the section of the vineyards where they were to start checking how the plant's groundwork is doing in their winter dormancy, following the telltale signs of Luffy’s unmistakable cackle.
“Zoorrooooo!! You’re heeeere!! Gimme the food!!” Luffy exclaimed, suddenly materializing from nowhere and jumping onto Zoro from the front, landing on top of his shoulders somehow with his legs around Zoro’s neck and his arms enveloping Zoro’s head tightly. Zoro huffed indignantly, his face smothered by the smaller man’s stomach and tried to squirm away, “Can’t–breathe–Luff!!” Zoro sighed and brought up the whole bag to Luffy's head. Zoro’d just eat later, knowing his friends' appetite. Luffy let out another giggle and dropped down as easily as he’d jumped up while simultaneously snatching the paper bag from his hands. He swears, sometimes he thinks Luffy’s made of rubber. Taking a deep breath of the chilly morning air tinged with the aroma of the vineyard, of leaves and damp earth and the chilly winter air, he followed his still cackling friend through the brush, managing to shove thoughts of blue and gold out to the back of his mind for the morning.
***
"I'm still going through some choice applicants, but there's a new prospective person who's working in one of the restaurants we procure our wares for. He had just moved back here and he's currently working at the Baratie full-time, but I was told he was looking for other avenues of income and I was thinking of asking him to demonstrate for or you." Robin said while shuffling the papers they've been looking at together on the other side of the table from where they're sitting in his office.
He grunted his assent, "That sounds great, Robin. Although you don't need to have him do anything for me, you know I trust your judgement and it's not like he's going to be my personal chef."
Robin gave him that small secret smile and said, "Actually, Perona thought it was prudent to also have him be your personal chef on top of being the vineyards'. Since it’s not going to be every day that we'd have events, he can prepare meals for you in the interim."
He looked up at her, pushing his reading glasses further up the bridge of his nose and huffed, "What in the pink demon was she thinking? I can take care of myself and certainly don't need someone to feed me probably small, pretentious appetizers or some prissy kind of soup without anything in it every hour."
"I believe the verbatim was, 'Don't let him weasel out of it, Robin. My idiot brother would solely subsist on sandwiches, onigiri and booze if no one intervened. Tell that musclehead to shove his complaints up his…' well I'd rather not say that last part, but I surmise you get the idea." Robin said, eyes dancing.
He sighed and thought to better not make Robin's job harder than it has to be, it was enough she was dealing with one difficult Mihawk progeny, he didn't need to add to that. "Fine," He acquiesced, "But he still doesn't need to demonstrate or anything, you can decide for me. I'm sure you'll choose the best."
"Very well, Zoro." Robin inclined her head still with that soft smile and exited the room, leaving the faint smell of flower petals behind.
Alone with his thoughts, Zoro's mind drifted to last night's Golden guy and wondered, not for the first time, where he was going that night and what Zoro could do about finding him. It's not as if he could go around asking for a golden-haired prince with sea-blue eyes around Nami's neighboring houses. Or can he? Maybe he can have this new chef bake some type of sugary dessert to give out to Nami's neighbors as a thanks-for-having-me-in-the-neighborhood gesture. Would the witch see into that? Probably, she has the nose of a bloodhound when it comes to Zoro, especially if there are ulterior motives. But there’s nothing else Zoro can think of to find the man with the piercing blue eyes and legs that stretched on forever.
All his thoughts then ended up being moot point because when he went back to Nami's at the end of that week, he was greeted at the door with swirly brows and shimmering golden hair.