Because Their Love is So POINTY!

[dorknessrising.livejournal.com]

Title: Compensation Issues
Author: rachelthedemon
E-Mail: rachelthedemon@yahoo.com
Fandom: One Piece
Pairing: Juraquille Mihawk/Roronoa Zoro
Spoilers: Episodes 19 and 24

Ah, Rival!Slash. I'm not normally into it, I'll say that up front. I guess because a lot of the rivalry I see on-screen tends to be on the shallow end. But every so often, I get an absolute gem. Something about these two guys, with their gritting teeth and wielding of overly large phallic symbols, jumped off the screen, smacked me across the face, and demanded that I worship the glory of totally screwed motives.

Mihawk. Zoro. There can be only one!

See, Zoro's aim in life, the reason he is still breathing, is that he wants to become the Greatest Swordsman Alive and keep the promise he made to his late childhood friend, Kuina. Unfortunately for him, this involves defeating one Juraquille Mihawk, the current owner of that title. That doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon, since their first battle was a bit like "Bambi Meets Godzilla": short and messy.

Now, you have two guys who have just finished trying to hack the living crap out of each other. What's going to make them suddenly turn around and shag until they can't remember their own names because they're too busy screaming each other's?

Obsession.

This pairing is all about it. And not in the perfumey way. If it isn't perfectly obvious by the end of Episode 24, Zoro is hellbent on this goal. When it was clear that he was absolutely no match for Mihawk, he offered the man his life, as he gladly chose death over defeat. Instead, he got a badass-looking scar going diagonally down his chest, and a large tube of Humility Ointment for the road. Needless to say, he's obsessed with defeating the man who wiped the deck with him.

On the other side, the reason Mihawk didn't kill him is because of Zoro's resolve, because he'd never seen a guy who wanted to win so badly and with that much honor, foolishness, and sheer guts. At the end of the episode, he tells Zoro to come back and defeat him one day. Arrogant bastard that he may be, Mihawk is apparently that damned impressed with Zoro's sword-swinging. He wants the guy to beat him, as he considers Zoro an honor to lose to.

In fact, it's not much of a stretch to say he might even be sick of his title.

Of course, none of this means "let's go screw like rabbits" outright. But it sets the stage for someone to throw the element of attraction into an already delicious power struggle. Sex can be as much a dominating tool as anything else. And if there's anything these two guys want, it's to dominate the hell out of each other. With or without leather cuffs.

It's twisted stuff like this that actually gets me interested in 'ships, whether they be slash, het, or femmeslash. Because there are more motives besides "you're hot, let's fuck." To these two, the bedroom would just as much of a battlefield; Zoro wants to prove himself, and Mihawk wants to see how much chutzpah the little whippersnapper's got while still "putting him in his place." The more, the merrier.

There's absolutely no way you can lose. Even if you don't write the very long, very hot sex that this pair is quite capable of, you still have a psychological landscape that's just as satisfying. And when you combine the two?

...

Hey Sanji! Spare a girl a smoke?