onepieceyaoi100

Title: youko to youko
Topic: crossover
Word Count: 300
Rating: G
Pairing: Zoro(vs)Sanji
Disclaimer: Characters and setting? Not mine. Ditto plot device(s) and obviously the background legends some of these things are based on.
Summary: He'd never say so, but...

Excuse: This is a first snippet of an idea that I wanted to play with in more detail at some point, but since ~~I'm already overloaded with fics to write (not to mention everything else)~~ this is about all I have of it for now, and it seemed rather appropriate for the topic, here we are. Notes below, title explained in the text itself.

~~~

He'd known from the beginning, of course. It had been impossible not to recognize the veritable storm of youki rolling off the slim, glowingly blond form. Well, impossible for him; apparently the rest of the restaurant patrons had only felt the waves of anger the black-clad male had been putting off like the ion-charged winds that presaged a distant, encroaching thunderstorm.

Of course, he hadn't known what kind of demon the blond was, until Sanji had dropped into full flirt mode in front of Nami. "Kitsune!" his mind had hissed at him, and all the fur on the back of his neck had bristled. Natural enemies, his kind and... those.

But... Stupid monkey had chosen to make Sanji nakama.

It had been a shock, how easy it was to work with the man Sanji pretended (so very, very well) to be. Sanji was strong, not just as a fighter, but also in will, to keep his tail and ears hidden from everyone. There were times when Zoro was certain it was illusion and clever posing rather than proper transformation, and he suspected their cook sometimes took advantage of his time alone in the kitchen to release the mental strictures. But despite himself, Zoro couldn't help but be impressed by the fox's sheer willpower.

Without his pendants, Zoro would have been quickly revealed as truly a demon, himself.

Well. If Zoro could work with an oni like their navigator, he supposed crew loyalty could be made to override millennia of distrust between youko-kind and the youko.

An unfortunate pun, since that "-ko" could mean either "tora" or "kitsune". It made them the same, and that was...

At first, that fact had been actively unbearable. But now, oddly enough, it was almost comforting, and that was the part that was truly awful.

~~~
Notes:
1) Crossovers: with the bit of Chinese folklore that tells of the Ghost Tiger which is the mortal enemy of the kitsune; with Kazuya Minekura's Saiyuki (because her version of Cho Hakkai, like a certain santouryuu, has three earrings. Hakkai's ear cuffs serve the very specific function of keeping him human (rather than demon), which got me thinking); with various versions of things that play on the humanoid-kitsune legend; and, of course, with the One Piece game (whichever one it is, help pls?) that portrays the crew as anthropomorphic critters, and all the ensuing DJ's to that effect. Is that too many?

2) Youki -- in this case, "demonic energy", in the style of InuYasha's usage thereof. For some odd reason, I can't find youko in my dictionary (although I know it is used; see: Yuu Yuu Hakusho), but byakko comes up as both "white (spirit) fox" and "white (spirit) tiger", so I 'spect I'm justified in my usage. If not, please disabuse me of my delusions gently, nah?