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The candles on their table had burned low. Sanji and Zoro lingered, the last member of the tired wait staff dismissed for the evening nearly an hour ago.
The dining room of the Baratie was deserted. A wide, slumping banner across the entryway read:
"Welcome Home: New Owner Sanji!"
Everything was mostly tidy and clean. A few tables still sat with soiled linens, and the tablecloth from the Strawhat table would likely need burning rather than laundering, but Sanji was beyond caring.
"I guess he's finally gone." Sanji mused into the comfortable silence.
Zoro sipped straight from a bottle of wine that Sanji knew cost more than Zoro had ever seen in his life. But Zoro seemed content, and he couldn't bring himself to care.
"I know the funeral was nearly a year ago," Sanji went on, "but this place was always his. Even when I was here, it was home. But it was his home."
Zoro placed the bottle down on the tabletop.
"Yeah." He said. "and now it's yours."
"Ours." Sanji corrected him, pulling out a tightly folded piece of paper.
"Hm?" Zoro cocked an eyebrow.
Sanji slowly unfolded the paper, smoothing it out with his hands and turning it toward Zoro.
"Half the Baratie." Sanji said, clicking a pen, "half the profits, half the work."
Zoro stared, blinking.
"But this was your home." He protested softly.
Zoro's hands trembled, barely perceptible.
What right do I have? He thought to himself, staring at Sanji.
"Well? Are you going to sign it?" Sanji bristled.
"Do you want me to?" Zoro replied dumbly.
Sanji took a long inhale, hissing through his nose. He exhaled, centering himself.
"Why else would I ask you?"
"That's not a yes."
Sanji stood up, knocking his chair back.
"Do you think I haven't thought this through?" Sanji growled, seizing the front of Zoro's kimono.
Nami had done well, taking him shopping. The material was think, but soft. The fine weave was finished with gold brocade, in tight and intricate whorls of sea waves. It felt a crime to yank the man from his chair by a fistful of such a garment, but Sanji had been drinking since he'd woken up, and was emotionally running on empty.
"Do you think I had this paper in my ass? That I didn't spend hours, days, agonizing over whether or not you wanted to stay?"
Zoro's eyes widened as he let himself be manhandled.
"Do you think I'd ask you on a whim? I know it's a hard sell. I know I am. Do you want to spend the rest of your life with me? Do you want to spend the rest of your miserable life sweating in a kitchen, dealing with shitty customers, haggling over fish day in and day out and-"
The shaking had intensified, and Zoro let himself sway and jerk in Sanji's grip. The kimono began to spill open, Sanji's fistful of lapel dragging the sash looser. Somerthing slipped free from Zoro's robe and clattered to the floor.
Sanji, distracted, let go of Zoro. He stooped, ducking his head around the edge of the table to see what had fallen. In the fading sunset trickling in through the Baratie's windows, he found it.
A small box, green velvet, tied shut with a black silk ribbon. His tongue went dry. His heart skipped a beat. A small gold placard above the clasp read: "Curly-Brows"
Hands shaking, he stood up, fumbling with the ribbon. It slid through his fingers like a stream of night. He pawed at the clasp, his impatience warring with his fear. It gave a soft click. Inside, there was a small gold hoop with an oblong golden teardrop dangling from it.
An earring? Sanji thought dumbly. No. HIS earring?
Sanji's eyes snapped back to Zoro. His jaw dropped.
Zoro was down on one knee, the signed paper in one hand, the other outstretched toward him. Sanji's gaze flicked to his ear, where he was only two of the swordsman's three earrings. He looked back at the box.
"Too late to say no, idiot cook." Zoro said, giving the contract a soft shake, his wide, clumsy signature sprawling across the bottom in emerald ink, "I already signed your stupid cont-"
"YES!" Sanji bellowed, unable to control himself.
He threw himself at Zoro, tumbling the two of them head over heels, knocking over chairs and a table. He thought his heart would explode. Their mouths met, hot and eager and home.
Zoro tasted of ludicrously expensive wine and grilled meat. He felt hands on his face and his spine turned to water as Zoro's calloused fingers pulled him in tighter.
At last, they parted, tongues flicking out to luxuriate in a final taste.
"Yes?" Zoro asked, his smile as wide as Sanji could ever recall it, "yes, yes?"
"Yes!" Sanji repeated. His eyes were watering, "yes, of course you stupid moss-brain."
-POP-
Both of them whirled around at the sound of a cork bursting free.
Patty and Carne loomed in the doorway to the kitchen. Each wore a mile-wide grin, and Patty held a bottle of champagne in his hands, fizzing over, the cork ricocheting around the rafters.
"COME ON, YOU USELESS MORONS!" Patty bellowed, "THEY FINALLY DID IT!"
Chaos ensued, as the Strawhats, led by Nami and Brook, tumbled back into the dining hall, falling over one another as the doors they had been listening at burst open.
"Zoro-san! Sanji-san!" Brook appeared first, offering a low bow like a visiting monarch, "please allow me to play for you! Oh, I feel I am about to die of happiness, except-"
"You're already dead." Sanji and Zoro provided the punchline, grinning ever-so-slightly.
"YOHOHOHOHOO!!"
"Oi! Zoro! Sanji!" Luffy bellowed, dangling on stretchy arms from the chandelier, "does this mean Sanji is gonna be a mom now?"
"I always knew you two would figure it out!" Nami swallowed them in a wide hug.
She rounded on Usopp.
"Zoro proposed, pay up!" she said with a familiar, avaricious glint in her eyes.
"Woah, hang on a sec," Usopp protested, pointing at the ownership contract, "technically, Sanji- super happy for your guys, congrats - proposed first!"
Chopper came forward, eyes as watery as the sea. His mouth worked, but no noise came out except a small -keh- Chopper moved his arms, trying to convey emotions too big to feel.
"Thanks, buddy." Zoro said, patting him on the head.
Sanji felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned. Zoro, turning in the same instant, bumped into him, lips first. Sanji caught a glimpse of Robin's arms extending from each of their shoulders and they obliged, laughing into a kiss.
At the end of the processing, Franky trailed, blubbering.
"Guys, weddings are SUUUPER my thing! Please let me host your big day at Iceberg's in Water 7!"
The quiet, sleepy atmosphere of the dining room was erased as the guests, apparently lying in wait, stormed back in, lining up to offer congratulations.
"Patty, Carne," Sanji barked, "we're gonna need more champagne!"