Time to dance

[bronzetigress.livejournal.com]

Title: Three Dances
Rating: PG15
Media: drabble
Word Count: 200
Pairing/Characters: Sanji, Zoro, swords
Prompt: dance

Disclaimer: Characters and setting? Not mine. Probably just as well. Here, have them back...

Notes: Nrgh. Still not right, but as right as it's going to get.

~~~

He dances. It's not that he realizes that's what he's doing, of course. But he dances.

And for a swordsman -- phallic sluts that they are, always sticking their swords into people, being impaled in return -- he's remarkably faithful.

He only dances with three partners, after all, for all that it may seem otherwise to the undiscerning eye.

In the mornings, he dances his kata with Tradition, with the ghost of the girl who made him what he is, and this is the dance of the white sword.

In the afternoons, when Marines attack and rival pirate crews swarm and angry natives circle, he dances with Death, and it is the dance of the blood-red sword, the cursed blade that hungers.

And in between, he dances the dance of the black blade. Not solitary practice, nor lethal struggle for life itself. This is the dance he dances with...

Well, what does it matter what names the stupid marimo calls out, when he says those magic words and strikes that opening pose, shakes out his blades and licks his lips in that provocative way, flashes that shit-eating grin and cocks his head just so? It's time to dance, and Sanji can't refuse.