Little Luffy gets introduced to Shanks' boyfriend Buggy.

Luffy: What's a boyfriend? Shanks: Um, like a best friend but more special.

Next time little Luffy is on a playground he's picked on by older kids but a little green haired boy comes to his rescue (he mostly just wanted to swing a stick like a sword and hit peope with it). Little Luffy is in awe and decides that this boy is now his boyfriend. He's shortly after that called away with a 'Zoro!!!' by an older pink haired girl. Aparently that green haired boy 'Zoro' had been wandering off.

From then on anytime Luffy sees Zoro around he tries to interact with him telling how cool he is and that they are boyfriends now. Zoro is mostly just confused by this slightly younger boy. We are what now? Who are you? You are still saying those things? This goes on for years.

When Luffy's, like, 14 yo he once again spotted Zoro hanging around with a bunch of older boys and Luffy most literally crashes into them. Zoro tells him to go away because as it turns out the older boys were now picking on Zoro trying to beat him up. But Luffy wouldn't leave his boyfriend alone in such a situation!

One of the Dudes mockingly asks if Zoro's boyfriend has come to his rescue, to which Luffy just said yes and starts beating them up. Together Luffy and Zoro can make the bullies run away.

Zoro: Wow, you got stronger! Luffy: Yep! Sabo said boyfriends have to be equals in a relationship so I got as strong as I could to be as cool as Zoro is! :D Zoro: Cool. Zoro: Um, by the way: What's your name? Luffy: D: Luffy: I never told you??? I am Monkey D. Luffy!

Ever since Luffy always made a big introduction so everyone knows who he is.

When Luffy starts High School he's super excited because it's the School Zoro goes to, he's just a year above him. One the first day he's searching the school for Zoro only to find him on the back side where a girl is about to confess her love for Zoro. Luffy again crashes into them.

Girl: Who are you?? Luffy: I am Monkey D. Luffy! Girl: What do you want?? We're kinda busy over here! Zoro: Actually, that's my boyfriend. Girl: Your what?! Luffy: No, not anymore. Zoro: HM? What now?! Luffy: I've decided we're now husbands! Zoro: Ah. Zoro: Okay. Girl: What?? How? Why!!! Luffy: I've asked Ace what's greater than boyfriends and he said: Husbands. Also, Shanks confirmed it 'cause he just married Buggy.

Anway now they spend all the breaks together and after school and Weekends and school breaks and half a year later everyone around them calls them a married couple.

This is,, A tooth-rooting level of fluff. I love this so much. In every damn universe, Luffy appears and just decides that Zoro is his little meow meow and Zoro just accepts it because why not.

They don't even know what boyfriends are supposed to be like. They genuinely take the "best friends but more special" extremely seriously because they have no idea what to do. I mean. They do know, once they grow up, what couples are supposed to do. But they don't really?? Care much about it?? One day they're together in Luffy's room and when Ace finds out he won't stop teasing Luffy about it and talking about sex and shit. And Luffy is like:

Luffy: ?? We don't kiss Ace: What do you mean you don't kiss? Sabo: They don't kiss, Ace. You find out now? Ace: Why don't you kiss??? Aren't you two dating??? Luffy: Yes. But I dunno. Hasn't happened. Is it important? Ace: YES???? Sabo: No, it is not. Not if you don't want to. Luffy: No, now I want to. Sabo: See? You make him want to try new things. Ace: Excuse me, is that something bad??? Sabo: Nah- Luffy: He only likes seeing you angry Sabo: Correct. Yeah. It's fucking hilarious. But also, Luf, don't do it only because Ace said so. Luffy: I do it because I want to!! Ace: As if we could get him to do something he didn't want to Sabo: The dishes would be done by now if we could

So the next day, Luffy is extremely straightforward with it and tells Zoro they should kiss. And they do. And literally, they stay the same. Because they've been married for years and they genuinely don't give a fuck about these things. They're still extremely clingy though and Luffy gets wayyy better at making Zoro blush. But that's it.

I think the world is in desperate need of your analysis on ZoLu (and perhaps write a lil fantastic fic while you're at it teehee)

FIRST of all, having seen nearly mackenyu's entire filmography (he doesn't have a ton of stuff and some of it is unwatchable but god i tried), i can confirm that he's always typecast as some kind of angry/sardonic brother figure. that's the key: he is always a brother whose conflict has to do with brotherhood. in one of the very few things where he plays a romantic part, it is with that character's sister figure (but who is actually a cousin).

so here i was, innocently expecting more of the same. but instead i get

i have no frame of reference for the canon material, but i do have a frame of reference for mackenyu's Range, and i can assure you this expression hasn't shown up anywhere.

their dynamic is my kryptonite. goofy boyishness meets unwavering loyalty and reverence. i'm doomed.

unfortunately, i ship them in a very fucked up way no one will enjoy, and i'll probably end up walking into some kind of decades-long fandom discourse i wasn't aware existed.

i started writing a modern AU where baratie is a pseudo-fancy franchise steakhouse. the first part is sanji/nami. the second part is zoro/luffy (zoro is a bartender, luffy is a dishwasher; they're also roommates). i don't know if i'll finish or post it but here are some highlights from the zolu fic, which branches off at the halfway point of the sanji/nami fic. so we see this same scene from sanji's pov earlier.

note this is a very early draft, and it's only in reference to the live action. tw for alcoholism.

It’s Employee Appreciation Day at Baratie. Having been offered an open bar which he does not have to tend, Zoro feels amply appreciated. Luffy is on one side of him, crawling over him to talk to Usopp. Across the table, Sanji has just joined them. Nami, shit-faced, leans against him, and if Sanji doesn’t do something about this tension soon, Zoro is going to kick his ass. Fucking coward, he thinks, but the thought is cut short by Luffy crawling back to his seat, pointy knees and elbows digging into Zoro in the process, like a giant puppy that has no idea how heavy it’s gotten. Luffy’s leg remains crossed over Zoro’s thigh. They’ve been living together so long that Luffy no longer smells like anything. They share the same detergent, soap, shampoo. Zoro’s pretty sure Luffy even uses his deodorant. They have separate toothbrushes though. At least there’s that.

Zoro is less a roommate and more just a piece of playground equipment for Luffy to climb on. At some point these past three years, Luffy’s perspective of where his body ends and Zoro’s begins became skewed. What’s frightening is that Zoro doesn’t care. In fact he enjoys being Luffy’s plaything. He doesn’t have to bear the brunt of existence when Luffy is carelessly snuggling him like a beloved stuffed toy. 

[took a few paragraphs out]

The truth is that he can’t be alone. Doesn’t want to be alone. Those years of his life after Kuina died, wandering through life just trying to make enough money to get blitzed every night, he’d managed to convince himself he was a loner. He doesn’t remember much about that time. It might’ve been the next day or the next year that he downloaded a hookup app. He’d never liked sex—men, women, didn’t matter—but if he could find some sweet shy girl to fuck or a pretty twink, he’d do his duty and then he’d earn his place beside them in bed, hold them, fall asleep with them, maybe even wake up with them. Some of them liked him, wanted to see him again, but he never fucked the same person twice. He needed to be surrounded by people but he couldn’t be close to them. 

Luffy was kind of perfect in that regard. He was physically affectionate to the point of being literally clingy, but emotionally he stayed lightyears away. He was capable of meaningful conversations but he never made himself vulnerable. It was an admirable act. He could look you in the eye and convince you to follow your wildest dreams, could listen thoughtfully as you gutted yourself open in front of him, spilled your darkest secrets and greatest fears. But he’d never reciprocate. In fact, you'd think he didn’t have any at all. That he was living one step to the left of reality, and you could be there too, fearless, if only you followed him.