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The clock is just about to turn to 4:00 am on a random Wednesday in February when two boyfriends meet in the kitchen of their shared apartment.
More accurately, Law stumbles across the sight in the kitchen, just having woken up to a cold bed and an empty stomach.
Forever will Law’s favorite sight in the morning be this one. He leans against the doorframe that leads into the kitchen, letting a rare small smile slip onto his face.
Sanji continues to scramble eggs, swaying his hips to the soothing voice of Nat King Cole. He would occasionally bring the end of the spatula up to his mouth, pretending to be singing into a microphone, and mouth the words to L-O-V-E as he continues to sway around the kitchen, flipping pancakes and frying bacon. He hasn’t noticed Law yet - too focused on his work to emerge from his world in the kitchen - and Law takes this time to look at his boyfriend uninterrupted.
Law wasn’t sure about Sanji at first. They had met four years ago in a subway - Sanji’s friend Luffy had gotten lost, saw the now-surgeon eating a shitty Subway sandwich directly off of a shift of residency, and proceeded to beg the tired man for it. If Law had been in any other mindset, he would have left, but he had worked a double with a group of new interns who knew literal jack shit and had him pulling five times his weight.
So, tired Law started arguing with the random presumedly homeless man about where to go for free food, and how he needs to pick people who aren’t ‘going to fucking kill you for asking’. Luffy started getting whiny about not having his sandwich, then about being lost, and got defensive about being called homeless. One thing led to another and Sanji was able to find Luffy - three cars away from their group - arguing with a poor man about which one of them was homeless. Sanji had intervened, of course, and a tired Law had seen this angelic man who was saving him from a larger headache, and he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
“You know that angels are supposed to be dead, right?” Law had spat accusingly, and Sanji had stopped berating Luffy in surprise.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, go away and leave us mortals to live in agony or whatever.” Law had then proceeded to shove the last of his sub sandwich into his mouth, making a show to chew and swallow while looking directly at Luffy and exaggerating his enjoyment of the soggy sandwich. Luffy had let out a strangled cry of protest, clearly upset by the man finishing off the sub. Sanji’s grip on Luffy had tightened as Luffy lunged to try and free himself.
“I-“ The blonde had stuttered out, clearly not expecting the interaction to take any sort of turn. “I’m not exactly sure how to respond to that.”
“Then don’t, I couldn’t care less.” Law had grumbled out, looking up at the blonde with tired eyes and an annoyed expression. “You're probably a hallucination anyway, I don’t care what you do.”
The blonde had just stood there, looking bewildered at the niorette. Then, he sighed, and spoke.
“Do you want something to eat?”
And that had been the beginning. After six months of steady buildup to friendship and another six of friendship-bordering-on-relationship, they had gotten together, and now they are approaching their three year anniversary.
Yes, recalling how they met still mortifies Law - especially around Cora and the family, they still tease him remorselessly - but he would meet Sanji the same way, embarrass himself all over again, if it means he gets to have a blonde dancing around their kitchen at four in the morning, making them breakfast this early because they were used to the early wake-up, even if it was their day off.
Law finally moves from his place in the doorway, quietly making his way behind the blonde and putting his hands around the younger male's hips, pressing a kiss to his neck.
“Good morning, mi amor.” Law says against Sanji’s neck, moving with the swaying man.
Sanji turns his head and places a kiss on Law’s forehead, smiling.
“Morning, love.” He giggles. “I thought you were going to sleep in.”
“The bed was cold.” Law says, pressing himself more against the blonde, wrapping his arms further around the smaller man’s waist as he continues. “We can nap later.”
The blonde hums his agreement, taking the bacon off of the pan and setting the pieces onto a plate, right atop a paper towel. He then flips the pancake on another pan, turning to move the eggs once more. Law settles his head atop Sanji’s, watching the smaller man finish cooking. He looks over at the roses in a vase on the kitchen counter - part of Sanji’s Valentine's Day gift. They had a nice dinner scheduled afterwards, with a walk in the park and a ring to finish off the evening, which was currently in the left pocket of his pajama pants, only sitting there because of Law’s nervous thoughts of Sanji finding it if it was off his body. He’d been carrying it on him since he bought it.
Law knows Sanji is the man he is going to spend the rest of his life with. Or, at least, he wants to. Sanji is it for him.
Law came to this conclusion after their two year anniversary, when Rosi and Doflamingo decided to start making marriage jokes around the pair. Law always would huff, annoyed at the teasing, but what had gotten to him the most was Sanji’s reaction. When Doflamingo would ask “When’s the wedding?” Sanji would reply with “Why don’t you ask Law?” And when Rosinante would ask about wedding details, such as flowers and things that Sanji would want, Sanji would reply ernest. At a picture of a ring, he’d pull up a picture of one he liked and at the question of if Sanji wanted to get married he’d just smile.
Sanji never snapped. He answers honestly to these questions, and Law loves him for it.
Love. Honest-to-God, actual love, the kind Law used to sneer at when he’d see a couple embrace each other in public, or kiss the other's forehead while out shopping, or just look longingly at each other in the movies. Something he’d never thought he’d feel, only gifted to him by the brilliant blonde he’s holding now.
Sanji finally finishes up their food, moving away from the body swaying against him to plate it. Law grabs Sanji’s hand gently, moving him into a spin when he strays too far and pulling Sanji back into him, their fronts now flush together. Law sets the hand not grabbing Sanji’s to the blonde’s hip, and pulls him closer.
Sanji settles his free hand onto Law’s shoulder, laughing slightly as they begin to sway in a dance.
“Dancing? This is rather new of you, chéri.” Sanji snorts, an amused look on his face as Law slowly moves them into a circle.
Law smiles. “It’s Valentine’s Day, cariño. I have to do something spontaneous for your hopeless romantic self.”
Sanji snorts at that, falling silent as they continue to sway to the music, Law stepping back to spin Sanji once more. As they spin, Law can’t help but think about Sanji’s comment about spontaneity. He made a spontaneous decision when he purchased the ring he now has.
He did it while he was at a mall, looking for a Sora: Warrior of the Sea comic that was just released the same day - yes, he’s grown, but he’s a fucking nerd so cut him some slack. It was a limited edition, but he was going to have to help Doflamingo help Baby move. Sanji, bless him, volunteered to help those complete assholes in place of Law so Law could go get a comic. Law had waited two hours in line, got his copy, and on the way to his car texted both Doffy - ‘please tell me you didn’t terrorize my boyfriend’ - and Sanji - ‘do i have an uncle to kill cuz ill do it voluntarily no questions just give me a reason’. He got the response from the pink bastard back first - ‘i like this one more than you lol if you guys break up im keeping him’ - which had made him snort and shoot back a middle finger emoji, and then he got Sanji’s, which made him stop walking in the middle of a crowded mall, staring blank faced at his phone.
‘It was shit. Your uncle is an ass and your cousin is very demanding. Would do it again in a heartbeat.’
Yes, his family is full of sadistic shits - minus his father, of course. Law knows this, and that’s the reason he hadn’t wanted Sanji to take his place with helping his cousin move. But for Sanji to put up with their bull while Law went out and did something at his leisure, only to lightly complain and say he’d do it again, that was a whole new pill to swallow.
Because Sanji doesn’t think the asses that he is begrudgingly related to were terrible.
Because he’d do it for Law.
Law had turned around, heading back into the depths of the mall, and emerged later with a ring basically identical to the one he saw Sanji showing Corazon a couple days earlier.
And now, he’s thinking of the spontaneity of proposing now. Sanji deserved the moonlight walk in a rose garden proposal that Law had planned for today. He deserved a special day, a night to remember as their first day as - hopefully - fiancés.
But seeing Sanji laugh as Law dipped him to a song about the trust put into love and he couldn’t help himself.
“Sanji, mi vida.”
Sanji hummed his acknowledgement.
“Marry me?”
Sanji stopped moving abruptly, eyes wide and jaw dropped.
“What?!”
“Will you marry me?” Law asks, slowly stepping back from the blonde and lowering himself onto one knee, keeping the hand he had been holding in his grip and placing a kiss on it.
“You're my life. I don’t want to spend a second without you, and I want everyone to know that you're mine - legally, physically, emotionally, just mine. So, will you marry me?” Law places another kiss on his hand.
“People spew all this ‘make me the happiest man on earth’ bullshit. This is the happiest I’ve ever been, being with you, and there probably isn’t any more happy that I could be.”
Law kisses the inside of Sanji’s wrist, then pulls the ring out of his pocket and holds it between two fingers.
“Prove me wrong?”
Sanji’s free hand moves to his mouth. His eyes are watering and his face is red and he’s clearly struggling to figure out what the fuck is happening and-
“You look beautiful.”
And Sanji is hoisting Law up, after snapping out of his trance at Law’s words.
“I- I do! I do, I do, I do! Dammit, you romantic bastard, I'll marry the shit out of you!”
And Sanji’s pulling him into a bruising kiss, tears streaming down his face, and Law can’t help but melt into the distressed man. He wraps his arms tight around Sanji’s waist, Sanji doing the same with his arms around Law’s neck.
And they stand there, in the kitchen, kissing to the sweet sounds of commitment and affection.
When they finally separate for air, Sanji rests his forehead against Law’s, standing on his tippy toes to reach. He’s smiling giddily, tears still streaming down his face.
“Well wasn’t that a fun surprise, fiancé? ”
Sanji says the word like it’s a gift. Law smiles, wiping away at the tears still falling, kissing at them until Sanji’s eyes dry. Then, Law grabs Sanji’s left hand and moves it further up between them.
“Only the best for you, fiancé. ” Law mumbles, kissing the blonde’s ring finger before sliding the ring onto it.
“So is this your ploy for Valentine’s Day? Get me all emotional and then sleep the day away?”
Law chuckles.
“No, not all. We just needed to start the morning off right.”
Sanji smiles, and they meet in a soft kiss. Law steps back.
“I’ll set the table.”
“Food will be served in a minute.”
And so, at 4:00 am on a not-so-random Wednesday in February, two fiancés prepare for breakfast as Nat King Cole finishes his song.
Love was made for me and you.