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The left eye held your eye color, and the right eye held your soulmate’s. When you first made eye contact with your soulmate, your right eye would change to its own color. That was what Kuina had told Zoro long ago. He never questioned it at the time, didn’t ask what that word “color” meant, but he did check his eyes in a mirror after that. They were identical as always.
Kuina died with heterochromia. Somewhere in the world, her soulmate would live on with two brown eyes, one lighter than the other.
“Sensei,” Zoro said one day after a frustrating training exercise. “What’s color?”
Koshiro was taken aback by the question, and struggled to answer, eventually standing, leaving, and then returning with two large leaves. “Do you see the difference between these?”
“Sure.” Zoro pointed to one. “This one’s darker.”
“Yes. This one is red, and this one is green. Red and green are two colors.”
Zoro was stumped. “Then, is everything just different shades of red and green?”
Koshiro let the leaves flutter away in the wind and placed his hands in his lap. “Zoro, you may be color blind.”
“What’s that?”
Zoro only sort-of understood after Koshiro did his best to explain it to him. Afterwards, he looked at his eyes in the mirror again. According to Koshiro, colors would almost always have different shades of lightness and darkness, even in his “monochrome” vision (Zoro struggled to pronounce the word, even in his head), but his eyes were both the same shade as always.
And that was fine. Zoro knew some people didn’t have soulmates, something else Kuina had whispered to him, and that was fine. He put down the mirror and folded his arms. No soulmate meant no one getting in the way of his dream.
When Zoro locked eyes with the dark-eyed boy wearing the straw hat, he narrowed his eyes. Those eyes, full of youth and optimism, had changed to a lighter shade, the same one Zoro always saw in the mirror.
“Hey,” he said while they were sailing away. “I’ve got a question.”
“Shoot,” the boy, Luffy, said.
“Your eyes, they changed color, didn’t they? But mine are …”
“Oh, that! Don’t worry about that.” Luffy grinned. “Someone told me it means I don’t have a romantic soulmate, but I have a bunch of platonic ones. My eyes change color all the time if I make eye contact, and they change back after a while.” He stretched, flopping around in the boat. “It doesn’t make anyone else’s eyes change. Yours didn’t.”
“Okay,” Zoro said, staring up at the sky.
They picked up two more, a navigator with an eye for money and a sniper with a mouth for lies. After bumping into some old friends, they reached a seafaring restaurant called the Baratie, and Zoro was itching for a fight. When a waiter with hair covering one side of his face started to serve them, he made eye contact with Zoro, and his eyes widened. Usopp and Nami looked between them, mouths open.
“What?” Zoro said, scratching his head.
“Oh, fuck this,” the waiter said, glowering at Zoro. He seized Luffy around the neck. “Come on, chore boy, back to the kitchen.”
As soon as they left, Nami and Usopp rounded on Zoro.
“What was that about?” Usopp demanded.
“What was what?”
“Why didn’t you say anything to him?”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you see … ?” Nami shook her head. “You’ll figure it out. You poor soul.”
“Figure what out?”
“You are a tragic, tragic man, Zoro,” Usopp cried.
“You looking for a fight?”
The cook Sanji ended up joining their crew, somehow, and he seemed to love picking on Zoro. Every time Zoro so much as tried to speak to him, Sanji would snap and badger until they were sparring, scowling, and seething. During one of their strange matches, Sanji’s hair flew up, and Zoro caught a brief glimpse of a matching set of eyes.
“Do you not have a soulmate?” he asked. Sanji stumbled, caught off guard, and Zoro pinned him to the ground with a sword next to his head.
“I wish I didn’t,” Sanji spat.
Zoro frowned. “So … you do. You met them, and you didn’t get along? Isn’t that strange?”
Sanji narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck are you talking about? Don’t you know?”
“I don’t know. I know I don’t have a soulmate.”
Sanji brought his legs up to his torso and kicked hard, sending Zoro flying. As Zoro sat up from the railing, rubbing his head, Sanji yanked his sword out from the deck and tossed it to him. “Yeah,” Sanji said, turning away as Zoro caught the sword. “I guess I don’t, either.”
It had been a perfectly reasonable thing to do. His legs had been stuck in wax. The wax was unbreakable. His legs were breakable. Therefore—
“You’re an idiot.”
Zoro winced as Sanji stuck the needle into his flesh again. “That’s my business,” he said through gritted teeth.
“It becomes my—our business when it affects the crew.” Sanji jabbed the needle in again, perhaps a bit harder than he needed to. “I hate you.”
Zoro folded his arms, staring at Sanji. Sanji looked up again, meeting his eyes, and looked back down.
“I hate you,” Sanji repeated.
“Yeah.” Zoro wiggled his toes, regaining feeling in his feet. “I know. I don’t know why you do, but I know.”
Sanji flinched and snapped off the string, standing. “Rest, and don’t fucking try anything stupid,” he said. “Scratch that. Don’t stand up for at least an hour. I’ll bring you soup.”
Zoro stared after him, and for once, he listened.
“What’d you do to get hurt this bad?” Zoro said, tapping Sanji’s back and making him wince in pain.
“None of your goddamn business,” Sanji said through gritted teeth. “The mountain climb was tougher than it looked.”
Elsewhere on the deck, Luffy and Usopp were throwing their new crewmate, Chopper, into the air. Zoro and Sanji watched them in silence.
“Hey,” Sanji said. “Did you … growing up, did you want to meet your soulmate?”
“I told you, I don’t have one,” Zoro grumbled. “But I never wanted one, either.”
“You don’t make any sense, moss-hair,” Sanji said, folding his arms.
“Moss … ?” Zoro rubbed the top of his head, his hair smooth and silky and not at all like the rough moss he’d felt on trees. “What are you talking about?”
“Boy, you really are dumb. What were you saying?”
Zoro glowered at him. “I never wanted a soulmate. I didn’t want destiny getting in the way of my dream.”
“That’s—”
“Falling in love is a different story, though. That’s my choice. And I won’t let the person I choose to love, if anyone, get in the way of my dream.”
“Hm.” Sanji shifted, wincing again. Nami and Vivi chatted with Chopper, pulling him away from Luffy’s hyperactivity.
“What about you?”
Sanji sighed “I wanted to meet my soulmate more than anything,” he said, scowling. “I wanted to meet that beautiful lady who I was destined to be with. But then everything went wrong.”
“Wrong how?”
“You’re just winning the prize for biggest moron today, aren’t you?” Sanji snapped, standing. He fell down and tried to cover up his pain when Chopper looked over in concern. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“I don’t.”
Sanji scowled, but his face softened as he met Zoro’s eyes again. “I hate you,” he said, yet again.
Zoro’s chest hurt. “I know.”
Sanji was silent. He soon stood again, using the ship railing for support this time. “Want something to eat?”
“Booze.”
Zoro didn’t hate Sanji, but he hated the way Sanji spun hearts around women, and acted so stupid with them. He hated how Sanji spoke to him, and refused to make eye contact, and did his best to put contempt behind every word. Even now, Sanji was crooning over Robin, the suspicious woman who was their newest crewmate.
“Oh, Cook-san,” she said as he melted before her. “Have you met your soulmate?”
For an instant, Zoro thought he saw Sanji look at him.
“Yes, unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out,” Sanji said sweetly. “And you haven’t, Robin-chan, my dear?”
“Correct. But that’s my business.”
“Of course, of course, forgive me,” Sanji crooned. He turned, Robin watching him go with one dark eye and one light, and he bumped into Zoro.
“The fuck do you want?” he muttered, avoiding looking directly at him, as always.
“Nothing,” Zoro said, rolling his eyes. Sanji pushed past him and went into the kitchen, slamming the door shut. Zoro spotted Robin staring at him and raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Nothing,” she said, looking away.
Zoro didn’t hate Sanji, but he hated that Sanji didn’t love hated him.
There Zoro was, waking up from Enel’s lightning blast, and there Sanji was close to him, still unconscious. He stared at him for what must have been too long, because suddenly Usopp was saying, “He got hit twice. He saved me and Nami.”
“Oh,” Zoro said. He scooted towards Sanji and pressed his ear to his chest, sighing when he heard the arrhythmic heartbeat. Looking up, he saw Usopp staring at him, and said, “What?”
Usopp rolled his eyes and looked away. Zoro looked back at Sanji’s face, and brushed some ash out of his hair, his fingers lingering on his cheek.
Something happened during the Davy Back Fight. Something happened to Sanji. The way he looked at Zoro when he asked for his help during the Groggy Ring battle, with that stupid ball strapped to his head. The way he slapped Zoro’s shoulders and back during the following celebration party. The way he gave Zoro tentative smiles, as if testing the waters, and the silly way he grinned when Zoro smiled back.
“I hate you,” Sanji said that evening, joining Zoro in the crow’s nest with a bottle of wine.
“Yeah,” Zoro said, looking away. He and Sanji were still covered in bruises from their battle, dark and light patches across their limbs and torsos.
“But I also don’t hate you.”
“Oh?” Zoro’s heart lifted as he looked at Sanji, his chest hurting again but in a completely different way.
“Yeah. Do you hate me?”
“No.” Zoro took the offered bottle, taking a drink straight from the mouth. “I never did.”
“Huh.” Sanji looked down, blinking hard, and brought a hand up to his suddenly bright eyes. “Huh. Is that so?”
“What’s up with you?”
Sanji looked up, swallowing back tears. “You’re just a grade-A moron, aren’t you?”
“I’m not psychic. What are you talking about?”
“Keep the bottle.” Sanji stood. “I’ll come to relieve you in time. See you.”
He vanished down the ropes, and Zoro lifted his head, staring up at the dark, dark sky covered in pale, pale dots.
With their journey through Enies Lobby and Water 7 complete, the Strawhats had lost three treasured crewmates, one for good, and gained three, one brand-new. It wasn’t long before Franky and Robin were performing public displays of affection, nothing more daring than pecks on the cheek and yet things that once would have surely driven Sanji to tears with jealousy. As it was, though, he merely gave them thoughtful glances at most.
“Aren’t you soulmates?” Usopp asked them one day as Zoro lingered nearby and Sanji served them cold drinks, setting Robin’s down lovingly upon a coaster and slamming Franky’s into his hand.
“We’re not sure,” Robin admitted. Her eyes hadn’t changed from the moment she had threatened them in the glow of the remains of Igaram’s ship: One was light, and one was dark.
“I had to rebuild my eyes while modifying my body,” Franky explained. “It’s a shame, but I don’t remember the exact colors they were. In any case, since they’re super-artificial and the same color, they wouldn’t change with eye contact.”
“So, we’re not sure,” Robin repeated. “But we love each other, and if he’s not my soulmate and I meet them one day, they’ll have to put up with him as well.”
“What do you mean, put up with?” Franky demanded.
Zoro stared at Sanji from across the deck, looking away as soon as he noticed.
Thriller Bark brought them a zany new member of the family, a talking skeleton who was older than dirt and far too cheery. Thriller Bark brought them a dangerous new enemy, a Warlord with the ability to repel just about anything. Thriller Bark brought them a Zoro who claimed to have lost his memory of his fight with Kuma, but who remembered the sleeping face of his captain, the cold eyes of his enemy, and the desperate, pained face of his …
Zoro thought he had finally escaped. Between Chopper trying to mummify him in bandages and the others badgering him to take it easy, he thought he had found refuge in the library, where no one would think to look for him. He lay on his back, pedalling his feet in the air to stretch his legs, as he’d been unable to sneak his weights into the room without drawing attention to himself.
“There you are.”
He groaned and dropped his legs as Sanji entered. “Can’t I have peace for one minute?” he said, sitting up. He frowned, seeing Sanji’s face. “What is it?”
“I don’t hate you,” Sanji said.
“Oh,” Zoro said, his chest hurting in that good way just hearing the words. “Right. And?”
“I tried to hate you, Zoro. I really did.” Sanji sat next to him, staring at the floor. “I didn’t want to feel this way about you. I wanted to feel this way about a pretty girl. But I can’t help it. Zoro, I love you. You’re a fucking callous moron, and I don’t know if you love me, too, but—fuck, you have every right not to after the way I’ve treated—”
“I do love you.”
Sanji looked up at him, lips parted and breath shallow. “But you—”
“I love you,” Zoro repeated. “You’ve always been a bitch, but that was the only thing—I can’t help it.” He looked down, wiggling his toes on the floor and staring at the scars on his shins. “I think I’ve loved you for a while. Maybe since I realized the only thing I really hated about you was that you didn’t love me.”
“But I do love you. I really tried not to,” Sanji repeated, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “I can’t help it, either. Especially with you spouting off those nasty words about not having a soulmate—”
“I don’t have a soulmate.”
“Fine. Whatever you say. But you love me, right?”
Zoro nodded.
“Then that works for me.” Sanji touched Zoro’s shoulder. “When you were … just lying there, unconscious … I realized I had to tell you as soon as you woke up. We live dangerous lives. I had to tell you as soon as possible.”
Zoro smiled, placing his hand over Sanji’s on his shoulder, his heart soaring through the sky. “No regrets, right?”
Sanji held Zoro’s cheek in one hand, looking him in the eyes. “No regrets.”
Sabaody brought them turmoil, and a crew torn apart. The war brought them pain, and news of a bloodline with an early demise.
The next two years brought them patience, and forced it upon them, day by day.
Zoro spotted a familiar head of pale hair in the distance, and grinned, jumping off of the broken ship to stride towards him.
“I liked you better without the goatee,” he said, stopping in front of Sanji.
Sanji looked him up and down. “I liked you better with both your eyes.”
They seized each other and hugged, hoping to never let go.
It happened on what should have been an ordinary morning during their trip to Dressrosa. Kin’emon and Momonosuke were having what they called a “Private Father-Son Meeting” in the aquarium room, so everyone else was banned from it for the time being. Zoro and Sanji were sparring on the deck, testing their skills and banter honed after two years, and Luffy was hanging out next to Law on a railing. Nami was drawing maps in her room, Usopp was in his workshop, and Robin and Franky were at the bow, keeping an eye on the ship’s course. Chopper and Brook were cheering on Zoro and Sanji, alternating the names every so often, to their annoyance.
Luffy leaned over to Law and whispered something, holding up something in his hand. Law took it, nodded, and raised his hand. In an instant, Zoro and Sanji fell over, caught off-balance.
“What did you do?” Chopper exclaimed as they sat up, shaking their heads.
“Oh me, oh my, we’re stuck in this situation again,” Brook remarked. “Why did you do that, Law-san?”
“I got paid,” Law said, flashing the coin at him.
Two yells echoed across the deck. Used to this, no one was drawn out from inside the ship, and Robin and Franky stayed at the bow with barely a glance behind them.
“Why is it so bright?!” Zoro in Sanji’s body yelled, covering his eyes. “Do you guys see this all the time?!”
“Law, swap us back right now,” Sanji in Zoro’s body snapped. “I think I gave this idiot a concussion. I can’t see any color.”
“Of course you can’t, I’m color blind,” Zoro said. He rubbed his eyes, staring at Sanji in his body. “Is that what I look like?”
“Wait, what?” Luffy said, coming over with Chopper and Brook. Law hung back, folding his arms and leaning against the railing
“Is that what I look like?” Zoro repeated. “What color is my hair?”
“Green,” Sanji said.
“Wait, that’s besides the point!” Chopper exclaimed. “You’re color blind?!”
“Yeah,” Zoro said. “Did it never come up?”
“No!” Sanji exclaimed. “No, it didn’t!”
“What’s the big deal? I’ve never needed to see color to get by.” Zoro stared at his hands and stood, looking around and taking in the colors of his crewmates. “Someone get me a mirror. I wanna see the cook.”
Brook dug around in his pockets while Luffy laughed. “No wonder you never got why Sanji calls you moss-hair!”
“Why?” Zoro said.
“Your hair’s the same color as moss!”
Zoro gave Sanji a look as Brook passed him a small handheld mirror. As he studied himself (or rather, Sanji) in the mirror, Sanji stood and stared at him, blinking.
“Zoro,” he said. “Pass me that mirror when you’re done.”
“Sure. What color are your eyes?”
“I’m going to talk to you about this later,” Chopper threatened. Luffy wandered away again to bother Law, Zoro too absorbed in the new spectrum available to him to pay much attention.
“They’re blue,” Sanji said. “Light blue. And my hair’s yellow. Blonde.”
“Huh.” Zoro twisted the mirror this way and that. “It’s pretty.”
“Give it!”
Zoro handed him the mirror, and Sanji stood next to him, staring at his (Zoro’s) one eye and his (Sanji’s) one visible one.
“Oh,” he said. “Oh, Zoro.”
He passed the mirror back to Brook and pulled Zoro by the hand up to the stern to have more privacy. As soon as they were alone, he looked at Zoro, opened his mouth, and started laughing.
“What?” Zoro said, annoyed.
“Zoro,” Sanji said, his eye starting to tear up. “I thought this whole time you were just obtuse, or plain rude. But you literally didn’t see it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your eyes—rather, eye, is silver. Grey,” Sanji said, pointing.
“Huh,” Zoro said, staring his body in the eye. “Looks the same as before.”
“Exactly.” Sanji wiped at the tears threatening to spill down his cheek. “Zoro, I used to have one blue eye and one silver eye. Before we met, you had one silver eye, and one blue eye.”
“Before we met?”
“Zoro.” Sanji took his hands, grinning. “We’re soulmates. You didn’t notice because my eye color looks the same as yours in monochrome.”
“I … what?”
“I was so angry. Not just because I wanted my soulmate to be a girl—I thought you were pretending to not notice, or you were really that stupid. But you just didn’t see.”
“Oh.” Reeling, Zoro stared at Sanji, staring at that one grey eye. “Oh. That. Does that matter?”
“You had no idea we were soulmates. You didn’t see it, and also, you’re an idiot.” Sanji leaned into Zoro’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around him. “I knew, and I tried to hate you, but I couldn’t. I think I would’ve fallen for you even if I was color blind, or just blind. It doesn’t matter.”
“Right.” Zoro hugged Sanji back, and they stood in silence for a minute. Then—
“Let’s get that dick to change us back,” Sanji said, pulling away. He grinned, the wide smile odd on Zoro’s face. “It’s weird hugging myself. Are you going to miss colors?”
“Nah. It’s too bright.” Zoro held his hand. “And I’ve never needed color anyway.”