Come watch dungeon meshi we have a (seemingly) typical white autistic man who doesn't understand social norms, an autistic man of colour who overcompensates for social deficits by being too good at social norms (while still struggling socially), and we even have the "grew up autistic but also Asian so I have a very good understanding of cultural and social norms but I still struggle socially" variety of autistic man.
Crocodile finds a strange stray cat an 11-year old Nico Robin
(AU where they met 13 years earlier. Robin's been on the run from the World Government for 3 years. Crocodile's 27 and has not set up base in Alabasta yet)
It seems like I have become possessed. By some sort of demon.
yeah yeah zoro and sanji are mirrors of each other yeah they have narrative parallels yeah they're the wings of the pirate king. zoro's got the higher bounty but sanji is the only one Luffy's directly said he can't become king of the pirates without. this is all good and well and I eat it up every single time but the truly compelling part of that relationship in a romantic sense is that it's objectively the funniest outcome possible. they'd be so mad if they knew. can you imagine having this coworker who you think kind of sucks even if he's a vital part of the team and millions of people are like. I'm going to write stories about you two having sex. what do you even do in that scenario. and the best part is that it becomes literally everyone else's problem too. clocking in bright and early at like 7:45 and you witness a physical alteration between your two idiot colleagues and then immediately after they somehow manage to dodge their third HR violation this week one of them comes up to you to make small talk and all they talk about is that other guy. "ugh can you believe people think we should get together... that's crazy... how would that even work anyway. what, like he'd take me out to dinner? get all dressed up? hah, as if..." and then they trail off all meaningfully and you're just like. I can tell you're wistfully imagining your future together. it's painfully obvious. I just wanted to refill my coffee. and every day you contemplate quitting but every so often something just goes right and it's like they're resonating on the same wavelength and maybe you catch them smiling all wide and unfettered at each other like they're the only people in the world. like just this once they forgot to hate each other. you left your mug in the microwave but you can't ruin the moment so you just have to suffer in silence. truly the ship dynamic of all time.