#it helped me sort out my thoughts on different sanji ships

[trashland-llamas]

He Loves Me. He Loves Me Not

x trans male reader

Sanji who doesn’t realize that y/n is a man. Despite how much y/n tries to act like it doesn’t bother him, he can't help asking himself 'is he really that shit at passing?' Like, okay, sure, it had only been a few years and he was still in the midst of it all but it was nonetheless infuriating. How Sanji would bat those pretty eyelashes of his with hearts in his eyes and call him sugary sweet pet names. Longing to have the rivalry that he did with Zoro. Just anything different than how he treated other women.

Speaking of Zoro, the swordsman had noticed the forlorn attitude that clung to his gym buddy. ‘Alright, what’s the problem? Cause I’m not dealing with an unfocused spotter,’ his tone stern. Zoro couldn’t help but feel protective. Despite how much people thought of him a himbo, he had picked up on y/n’s affections towards the cook. ‘He treats me how he treats Nami and Robin.’ Putting down his weights, he ruffles y/n’s hair. ‘The whole mon cheri bullshit where he dotes on you hand and foot?’

‘Exactly! Which is great and all but he doesn’t behave like that with you or Usopp or Luffy. So what gives?’

‘Either he’s stupid or he might like you back. Never know, could just be he’s never been smitten with a man before.’ Zoro avoided saying aloud what y/n had assumed. Not wanting to give him any sort of confirmation to his catastrophizing thoughts. ‘You should confront him.’

‘I’m not gonna do that!’

‘Would you rather walk around on eggshells?’

Thinking back to his conversation with Zoro, y/n paces before the kitchen door, hyping himself up. 'Y'know, you can come in any time you like, hun. I don't bite.' y/n freezes when he hears Sanji's voice. The cook not bothering to look towards the entrance while he chops up some fruit. A snack for the crew. 'I know,' y/n refutes, unable to hide the tremor in his voice. 'Is something troubling you?' Sanji asked, aware of how antsy he was acting. 'Uh, actually that's what I came to talk to you about.'

'Well then, have a seat.' Sanji skipped over the theatrics, passing them a glass of water. 'Usually helps to have a drink, calms the nerves.' Nodding, y/n took a few seconds to figure out how he wanted to say it. 'It's you.' Cringing at Sanji's shocked expression, bowing his head as he gripped the counter top with his sleeves rolled up. 'Me?'

'It's that I happen to be into you and...the way you treat me, it's like I'm just another girl.' The word run together quicker than a oil spill. But it's towards the end when Sanji raises his head to look y/n in the eye. 'I must apologize, because you're not another girl to me. It seems I've caused a pure soul like you a lot of pain...I'm not used to liking the same gender as my own.'

'Then I have a few requests. Please swap out the nicknames to some that are a little more masculine. And treat me like you do the other guys on the ship. None of that waiting hand and foot, okay?' Y/n starts with an uncertain air, slowly gaining confidence as he went along.

'Okay. I won't lie, I might make a few more blunders here and there while figuring it out but I can abide by those requests.' Sanji softly spoke, reaching out to grab y/n's hand. 'There's only one thing I want to ask of you, if I may. Can I take you out on a date?' Smiling at how flustered that small question made him. 'Would love to.'

[anystalker707]

"Show me how to kiss?"

Pairing: Vinsmoke Sanji x [gender neutral] Reader Summary: Two imagines one in which you ask Sanji to show you what it is like to kiss and another one in which he's the one to ask. Tags: Gentleman Sanji !! / Also babygirl Sanji, ofc / Very sweet, y'kno / Sanji can't help himself / You can't either, but it's nice seeing him caving in / Very romantic Check out (Roronoa Zoro's version)

MASTERLIST

If you’re the one to ask him...

          All of that kind of got you frustrated. Robin had recommended you a book, a book that was too immersive for its own good. Since living as a pirate took most of your time, you’d never really thought about it until you started reading that; the book stuck in your mind a little too long, hence it wasn’t difficult hearing the others once in a while telling you to come back to earth.

It was difficult not thinking about the book the entire time. The way the couple kissed... What did it feel like? Having the lips of someone you like pressed against yours, their tongue running against your lip...

“I told you to pull the halyard, (y/n)! Are you listening?” Nami’s voice cut through your thoughts. Fuck, you spaced out again.

“Sorry, Nami-san!” You shout in return, finally doing as said. Damn it. That book really caught you, leaving you wondering whether you liked the story itself or if all those descriptions just caught your attention. A sigh escaped your lips as you finished pulling the sail and, along with Nami and Zoro, you finished preparing the ship for the night.

With dinner already being served, it didn’t take long until everyone was going back to their quarters—or just falling asleep wherever, in Luffy’s case. All the lights were off, only with a dim beam coming from the window on the door of the galley. Today’s night watch was Sanji’s. You sort of had been waiting for that.

Sanji had always been there for you, really—aside from all the flirting, he did take his time to check up on you and hang out, sometimes inviting you to help him finish decorating whatever dessert he was preparing for the crew just so you two could talk. It was something else, so you couldn’t really help looking at Sanji with a different tone after you started reading that damn book Robin recommended to you. His lips seemed extra attractive as he talked to you yesterday when you made him company while he prepared lunch, shaping nicely around every word he spoke. Sometimes you asked him to repeat himself; he probably thought you were dumb, damn.

Only the soft sound of the waves filled the ambient aside from the occasional creaking of wood under your feet as you started heading upstairs to reach the galley. You stood there for a long moment before you finally knocked on the door, sighing, and walked in.

“Sanji?” You closed the door behind yourself; Sanji was by the sink and looked back at you over his shoulder with a smile.

“(Y/n)-chan! What brings you here?” He grinned. “It’s already late, y’know? Why haven’t you gone to sleep already? Such a pretty warrior like you needs a good night of sleep, my dear.” And even if he just had his back to you at the moment, you could still picture how he would’ve winked otherwise. Why did Sanji have to be so charming? He kinda reminded you of the guy in the book you were reading, all romantic, with those kisses... But better, of course.

Okay, whatever, that’s not the point.

You clear your throat, shaking your head as you lean forward with your forearms on the cold surface of the counter. “Right. I want a favor.”

“A favor?” Sanji turned off the sink and turned to you, wiping his hands dry on his apron. He had no blazer or tie this time, with the top buttons of his shirt unbuttoned and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Your eyes quickly met his again and you nodded, taking a deep breath. “Yeah. Something simple, but... Like, you can refuse it.”

Sanji furrowed his eyebrows. “Right, but what’s it?”

Fuck. That was going to be harder than you thought. Your eyes averted away. “Yeah. You’re, like, the only person I trust and also the one who’s probably the best for this,” you mumbled, but immediately paused again—rambling wasn’t a good idea—, “like... Could you show me how to kiss? As I said, it’s fine if you don’t accept it, but it would be really nice if you—”

“...You’ve never kissed anyone before?” Sanji blinked a couple of times.

“Don’t tease me, Sanji,” you sighed, standing up properly and scratching the back of your neck. “I never really had the time, never really thought about it, y’know, but...”

“No, no,” Sanji sighed as he stepped closer. “That’s not what I mean, darling. The thing is, are you sure you’re going to give your first kiss to me? It’s something special, after all. You must think really well about it.”

Why did Sanji have to complicate things? It felt like you’d just explode at some point because of the whole tension, even more with how he acted. You just wanted to vanish or something, pretend that never happened.

“Sanji... You’re, like, special enough.” You shrugged, but then the way he started to blush made you rethink your words. Could that just get worse? “Ah, c’mon, I just...”

“Right, right.” Sanji quickly nodded—maybe he knew what you thought, since he was good at reading you and catching onto clues in general. “I’m honestly honored. You’re very sweet, my dear. I’m going to make it simple, okay?” He grinned wide as he usually did and walked around the counter to come closer, standing right in front of you after you turned around, leaning back against the counter and holding onto the edges.

You nodded, your eyes catching onto every little movement, from the way he adjusted his clothes out of instinct to the way there was a nervous trembling tugging onto the corner of his lips.

Sanji’s tongue poked out, running between his lips as he leaned in, a hand gripping onto the edge counter by each of your sides. His breath fanned over your face, and the smell of his cologne with a hint of tobacco filled your lungs. “Just try to go along with what I do, okay?” He whispered, waiting for you to nod before he finally closed the distance between you two.

Sanji’s lips pressed to yours softly, warm and gentle, as if he was afraid to do something wrong. His mouth broke the contact only for a second as, instead of having your bottom lip between his, he had your upper lip now; you tried to follow his gentle motions, your lips clumsily moving against his. Sanji still remained calm, keeping the same slow pace of the kiss until you could finally kiss back properly.

It was a hard task, actually. How could you keep yourself calm while you finally kissed someone? And, hold on, it wasn’t anyone. It was Sanji.

“Good?” Sanji whispered, his eyes looking into yours so intently you could feel your heart beating more while your face felt so hot; still, you nodded. He smiled in response. “Can I do it again, my dear?”

How were you even supposed to handle that? “Yes, yes,” you whispered, maybe a little more excited than you intended, but it didn’t matter.

Sanji soon pressed his lips against yours again, and things were smoother this time. The kiss felt different, even if it all was essentially the same thing as before. Your heart fluttered in your chest, your fingers tightening a little around the marble as you tried to focus more on how his lips felt against yours; from the way your lips slid together to how his breath fanned against the space between your upper lip and your nose— And oh, also how his mustache would tickle whenever it grazed your skin, the same way it would tickle when his goatee brushed your chin. It was fucking better than anything you could ever have imagined. Better than what the books could have described.

You sighed softly, about to move your hand to his shoulder when Sanji pulled away a little, but he quickly kissed you again, making you gasp when his tongue ran against your bottom lip. It made a shiver run down your spine, having something stirring in your chest as your lips parted slightly.

The kiss finally broke, and your lips still felt tingly even so. You caught your breath, blinking before you finally looked at Sanji, your heart still beating fast and face still warm.

“Sanji—”

“Was that good, my dear?” There was something different in his voice.

“Of course.” Admitting it out loud made you want to disappear again.

Sanji smiled, exhaling in relief. “That’s great.”

“What’s wrong?” You furrowed your eyebrows; your hand met Sanji’s so easily, just with a light shift as you just wanted to adjust your hand against the counter. You keep it there, though, on top of his.

Sanji’s eyes averted away, a sigh escaping his lips. “It was wrong of me.”

“...Hm?”

“Wrong to enjoy it while I was just doing you a favor. I’m so sorry, my dear,” he whispered.

“What do you mean?” You glanced away. “I... Sanji, that was so... Like, you made my heart skip beats, that...”

A red tone took over Sanji’s cheeks and his eyes widened before he looked at you. “Really?”

You nodded, chuckling. “Really.”

“Would you mind if I did it again?” He grinned again, wagging his eyebrows a little.

Your eyes averted away and you tried to bite back a smile. “...Of course not.”

.𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟.

If he asks you...

          Sanji didn’t fucking know what he was going to do. The crew had been staying on an island for a while, partying away and relaxing after they saved yet other people from someone who threatened their peace. Unexpectedly, it earned him a date with one of the girls in the city that he met in a local bar through his characteristic flirting. So far so good, right? Actually, no. That was the first person who actually got that far with him, so he didn’t even know how to kiss—the only experience he had was pecking lips with whoever he got closer with, never actually kissing.

Maybe someone would help him with it? Because Sanji sure as hell didn’t want to lose that opportunity. It really was the first time he had gotten that far. He could ask Nami, right? Only if he was ready to hear her teasing at him the whole time and still dare ask him an immeasurable amount of berries for the ‘favor’. Robin would be nice, but it still wasn’t a great choice—she would be a tease in her own, harsh way, and Sanji didn’t want to lose the bit of respect he had with her. The men—out of question. No.

Then... There was you.

It didn’t seem like you would refuse his request, and Sanji was—almost—sure you knew how to kiss. Not to mention that you had such pretty lips that he couldn’t help imagining how they would feel against his and— Okay, that’s not the focus. He just had to get ready for a date, that, shamefully, wasn’t with you.

Sanji stood there in the kitchen, polishing glasses as he observed you finish eating breakfast while the rest of the crew already started to leave the galley; Zoro had chased Usopp and Luffy out of the kitchen most of the others was already off to their duties, only leaving you talking with Robin about a book she had in hand. Robin would lift her book or open at specific pages to show you something while you sipped on your juice until she eventually stood up with a sigh and left, waving at you.

Now was his chance.

“(Y/n)-swan...” Sanji’s voice cut through the galley in its mellow tone, almost as if it were a plea already, making you raise an eyebrow at him from your place at the table. “I may need your help with something, my dear.” He was thankful he was behind the counter so you wouldn’t have a full look on how weak you made you.

“What’s it?” You sipped on your juice as you looked at him. It was normal seeing Sanji blushing and fawning over people, but it wasn’t exactly your case; he used to be shy around you, though not really as squirmy as he was at the moment.

Sanji took a deep breath in a fruitless attempt of easing the fluster. “You know how to kiss, right?” He remembered you would talk with some people whenever the crew would party on islands, which was enough to make him jealous and worsen his nervousness in a way his flirting just stopped working with everyone else. Until now, it seemed.

You furrowed your eyebrows. Why was that even important? “...Yeah, I do.” The way Sanji looked at you made you rethink the events of the last week to check if you’d done anything wrong. Had you? Maybe last night when you—

“I...” Sanji sighed. “Can you come here?”

With a quick look around—was it a prank?—, you downed your juice before standing up. “What’s it?” You stood across from him, on the other side of the counter, resting your forearms over the cold marble.

Sanji took a deep breath. “I would like you to show me how to kiss.”

You blinked. Show him how to kiss. Him being Sanji. Sanji and you with your lips pressed to each other. Kissing. “What?”

“I got a date, but I... I don’t know how to kiss. I would only trust such a sweet person like you with teaching me how to do such an important thing, you know? I really hope you can help me....” His rant faded away into the back of your mind as you could feel your cheeks start to heat up while you digested everything that he said.

A string of curses escaped your lips as you let your head hang, staring at the marble in an attempt to ground yourself to reality. Like, Sanji was cute, of course, with that characteristic grace that laced his movements whenever he cooked and the cute way he smiled at you while saying something reassuring. Still, he never really paid attention to you like he did to the others, but he was there asking you such a favor. It was just a simple favor. Nothing more. Nothing deeper. Nonetheless, the fact he had a date still made your heart sink a little.

You exhaled slowly, nodding as you brought your head up again. Sanji was still speaking. That stupid fuck.

“Sanji,” you cut him off, watching him gulp, his cheeks red. “I can help you. Chill. I’ll help you.” You cleaned your throat because. After all, it was just a little favor, right? Right?

Sanji looked at you with wide eyes, incredulous that you’d actually accepted. He was very convinced that you’d accept it, of course, but not really. Like, maybe you would, but also— Okay, okay, focus. Sanji took a deep breath again and nodded, pressing his lips together. He quickly put the glass and the cloth away. What if he took too long and you changed your mind? He couldn’t risk that.

With quick steps, Sanji walked around the counter and stood in front of you. “Right... What do I need to...?” Despite how serious he tried to seem, he still held onto his apron tightly and his cheeks had that red tone while he looked at you.

It made your heart flutter a little, even if that wouldn’t matter a lot to him. Breathe deeply, (y/n), don’t make it a big deal.

“Relax, okay?” You cut off your own thoughts, cupping Sanji’s face gently. He bit on his lip, and the general way he acted almost made your heart ache. “No, don’t bite your lip.” You chuckled, running your thumb across his cheek in an attempt to help him calm down, but the way he reacted, damn... “Okay, better. Can I?”

Sanji blinked and quickly nodded. “Yes.”

Spending a little while longer looking at Sanji was a strong temptation, but it wasn’t like you were kissing a partner or something like that; there was no need to admire him and take in each detail of how pretty he was before you kissed him. You swallowed dryly and nodded, closing the distance between the two of you. Sanji gasped once your lips met, but you still held the kiss for a little before pulling away, furrowing your eyebrows.

“Is there something wrong?”

Sanji blinked a couple of times. “I—I was a little out of it. Can you do it again?”

Out of it? Or maybe he disliked it? You slowly nodded and kissed Sanji again and, this time, he tried to kiss back, though it was a little messy since he tried to rush things—you pulled away with a chuckle.

“Easy! You need to follow the pace or at least slowly establish one. Also, don’t try to use tongue out of sudden— No, you didn’t do that, but that’s just a tip.” You explained, furrowing your eyebrows a little at how his face fell a little. “Just simple kisses, okay? I kiss your upper lip while you kiss my bottom one and vice versa. No rushing.”

Sanji’s gaze averted away and he sighed, pressing his lips together, but he still nodded. This time, there was no warning before you pressed your lips to his, and he seemed to hold onto what you said, moving his lips—or at least trying to—in the same rhythm as yours, which was quite slow. His lips were warm and smooth against yours, and there was the sweet taste of whatever fruit he had eaten for breakfast earlier along with tobacco, of course. It wasn’t the best mix ever, but there was something about it that had you needing more.

You pulled away, your breath picking up a little; Sanji’s breath fanned over your face, also somewhat uneven. “Was that okay?”

“...Yeah,” he whispered.

“I will try something else,” you added. Why were you still so close while talking like that? Why were you still cupping his face? “Try to copy.”

All Sanji did was to nod this time, already closing his eyes.

It was a little better this time, smoother, since Sanji already started to get used to it, but he still faltered when your tongue slid against his bottom lip. Sanji gasped softly but accepted it, letting you trace his lip with your tongue until you went back to kissing him like before. His hands suddenly wrapped around your shoulders, squeezing them a little with the firm grip he used while trying to run his tongue against your lip as naturally as you had done to him.

If you had opened your eyes, you would see Sanji furrowing his eyebrows gently, focused as he tried his best. He wondered if you could hear how loud his heart was beating because, fuck, that was finally happening. He was finally kissing you.

Sanji’s breath was shaky when the kiss ended again and he could feel his heart fluttering with how your thumb ran across his cheek gently before your hand dropped to cup the side of his neck. His eyes met yours and he gulped.

“Ag—”

“Want one more thing?” You suggested and he couldn’t help but nod, biting his lip, and he was the one to lean in this time.

Something was different about this one kiss, and Sanji couldn’t really find out what it was—he just hummed softly, trying to follow your pace and letting your tongue run against your lip until you managed to slip your tongue into his mouth. Fuck, his brain just went blank when your tongue pressed against his, gliding against it and deepening the kiss. He was still trying to process it when you pulled away, hence he couldn’t even take in whatever you said, just able to mumble “again.”

Who were you to deny the request? Your free hand rested on Sanji’s waist and his hands adjusted their grip around your shoulders as your lips met once more. More confidence laced Sanji’s actions this moment, his tongue running against your lip as he kissed you, but you couldn’t help yourself, just pulling him a little closer and nibbling gently on his bottom lip, enough to snatch a quiet sound from him.

Both of you breathed a little heavier, holding onto each other even after the kiss was over.

“Y’know?” Sanji said, making you hum in response. “I don’t think I want to go out with that girl anymore...”

.𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟.

[inspector-m3]

One Piece headcannons, reader with allergies.

I have a desire to write but the ideas are moving to fast in my head lol. My requests are open and I can write full stories/oneshots not just headcannons. I promise i dont bite :]

CHOPPER

(This one is intended as platonic because, well...bros a reindeer.)

You got incredibly lucky finding this guy, no matter what time you joined the crew. Since chopper is a doctor he definitely feels like a blessing. As soon as he found out about your allergies he started his research (if he didn't already know about it). Finds a cure or a medicine to help with the symptoms and reactions for your allergies. This precious doctor even warns the other crew about what you can't have near you.

In return for his kindness you are now his designated hiding spot for when shit goes down.

LUFFY

He was definitely curious as to why you were constantly taking medicine or having to stay with chopper since you were unwell. Eventually he just outright asked what was wrong with you. He didn't get it at first but once he did he responded with...let's say an interest?

He loudly makes sure that whenever everyone's eating that the food (if you're allergic to a food) is nowhere near you, but let's be honest he probably eats it before it gets even a metre from you, saying something like "I was just keeping Y/ N safe!" when someone complains about their food being stolen. However, if you're allergic to a specific animal or item he makes sure it non-existent on his ship.

NAMI

Just like luffy she makes sure the allergen (the thing you're allergic to) is nowhere to be found. Since you mean so much to her she'd be willing to part with some money to pay for medicines or doctors if chopper couldn't help (luckily for nami thats a rare chance).

sorry this ones so short, I've never really written anything for nami before.

SANJI

If you have a food allergy this man is catering to your every need, making new recipes or even a completely different dish to the rest of the crew if needs be. Oh, you like spaghetti but you're allergic to pasta? Bam, special pasta you're not allergic to, just for you. He can and probably will fight luffy to keep him away from your special food.

If youre allergic to something that isn't food his dramatic ass would probably follow you around in new places to make sure it's not anywhere near you. (and if this gets annoying just give him a compliment, he'll pass out from blood loss and leave you in peace)

USSOP

When you're allergies are bad and it leaves you bed ridden, sniffling or coughing, he'll tell you stories just like he did with kaya. You'll be laying in bed, cursing your allergies while trying to not break your ribs from laughing at ussops silly tales. He always makes you feel much better.

ZORO

He probably didn't even know what an allergy was lmao. Maybe he thought it was some sort of pest (close enough)

If youre allergic to food we already know sanji will be making sure you're safe but zoro is definitely jealous that he can't do anything about it....unless.... if you guys are on a new island and you're not sure if your food has your allergen in it, zoro is the first to offer his help (well, it was luffy first but we all know what would happen).

If your allergen isn't food, just like sanji, he's following you around but he's definitely more of a silent protector compared to sanji. A plant you're allergic to in your path? not on his watch, it's cut down before you can even think of how to get around it.

Let me know if you have any tips or if there's any mistakes!

[beanghostprincess]

A very Sanuso Christmas #1

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"Shooting Mistletoe"

Sanji sees Franky and Robin kissing under the mistletoe and lets himself wonder how it would be to kiss Usopp like that. And he realizes that he has the chance to know, now, because Sunny's all decorated with Christmas stuff! So he constantly tries to meet with his boyfriend under mistletoes all the damn time, but it never works out. Usopp moves away before Sanji can mention the plant above them, most of the time he doesn't even get Usopp to stand beside him, once he ends up with Mosshead (don't- Please don't. Never ask Sanji about that experience)... And so, it never ends up happening. And he can't just ask because, even if they're dating, the fun of it all relies on it being a surprise! And Sanji tries and tries but it never goes well for him.

One day, though, Usopp realizes what's going on after seeing his boyfriend sigh defeatedly while he stares at Franky and Robin once again. Usopp finds this endearing and can't help but think how stupid his cook is. So once they're alone on deck (Sanji sitting on the grass and smoking while Usopp is working on his own inventions) the sniper calls out for his boyfriend to catch his attention: "Hey, Sanji!"

Sanji looks up from his cigarette, his eyes instantly lighting up due to his boyfriend's voice. "Yes, mon trésor?"

Usopp laughs to himself before getting his slingshot ready. "Can I try one of my new babies with you?" But he's scared of how that might have sounded, so he tries to fix it right away. "I promise it doesn't hurt!"

"Are you sure it's a good idea, dear? The last time it didn't end up well." Sanji frowns at the thought, but more than refusing he's just questioning it. Usopp knows he would do it right away if he asked him twice.

But the sniper at least tries to reassure him. "If it does, then I can promise you I will protect you from any harm!" Sanji smiles, but still looks a bit concerned for his own safety. "When have I let anything hurt you before?"

And, well, Sanji thinks that Usopp is not wrong on that one. So they make a silent agreement, and Usopp grins to himself at what's about to come.

Usopp throws some sort of ball Sanji cannot see properly from where he's at, and it ends up landing right in front of him and covering his vision with smoke completely, adding more to the one already produced by his cigarette. Everything happens rather quickly, and Sanji doesn't have time to think because he suddenly sees Usopp kneeling in front of him and cradling his face with one hand, the other taking the cigarette off his lips.

Sanji is hypnotized. His face is all red and if Usopp doesn't do something soon he knows his boyfriend will faint before anything he has planned happens. The cook can barely mutter a word, but he manages to clear his throat after a while. "Isn't this just- Just your normal smoke bombs, mon coeur?"

The sniper shakes his head with a mischievous smile decorating his face. "Nope! It's holiday-themed! Look up for me?"

When Sanji does as his boyfriend tells him, his eyes find mistletoe on top of them, growing from a branch beside their bodies. He's speechless when he lowers his gaze to Usopp again, a fond look and teary, excited eyes on his face.

Usopp grins proudly, and even if he tries to sound flirty, he only sounds happy and nervously full of joy. "Merry Christmas." He moves Sanji's face closer, pulling gently from his chin.

The cook can't help but roll his eyes. "It's barely December, dumbass."

"Oh, but you loved this." Their lips are almost touching now.

Sanji can just giggle at that, his hand moving to the back of Usopp's neck to pull him closer into a kiss. "I love you."

They're eventually banned from having mistletoe on the ship because they won't stop making out publicly and Nami is so fucking done with them-

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ This is basically just me posting different Sanuso headcanons every day during all of December because I thought it would be something sweet to make for them!!! If you have any cute Christmas (or just Winter related too! New Year! Whatever you think could fit) Sanuso headcanons just send them to me and I will make a post like this about them (tagging you ofc, unless you want to be anon!).

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

[nehswritesstuffs]

Baratie: Home to Chefs, Strays, and the Occasional Sword Goblin - Part 3

There are so many Good Nehs Dopamine Hits in this chapter that it’s almost unreal, ha.

First chapter on [tumblr] - [FFN] - [AO3] 

Prior chapter on [tumblr] - [FFN] - [AO3]

With Usopp about to arrive with reinforcements, Sanji wonders if really can handle taking care of his sister’s kid and all the things that would entail. [4503 words]

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The remainder of the day passed without much incident. Sanji kept Asido with him as he concentrated on the chunk of paperwork that, if he was honest, he had been pointedly ignoring up until late. There were some children’s books in the lost and found, so he was able to hand them over and allow his nephew to read to himself while he finally was able to tackle the geezer’s bizarro accounting system. Once that was cracked, he was able to move on to the rest of the work, which was decidedly going to be less frustrating and more boring and trite. It would likely take him the entire time he was waiting on Usopp to finish everything up, especially how his mind kept on wandering while he was working.

There was so much that he did not know the answer to, and that bothered him most of all, he supposed. This kid came out of nowhere, reportedly having been off the radar of a man who was completely and entirely all about how much control he exerted over his children and his subjects. It was even likely that Reiju had been followed to the Baratie, and that their father was exacting his revenge on her at that very moment before handing her over to a different sort of captor. He even burnt himself while lost in thought, cigarette sitting idly between his fingers as he watched his nephew bounce around on the back deck. Hissing at it, he threw the stub in the ocean, more pissed that he forgot about it for half the smoke than anything.

“You alright, Uncle Sanji?” He glanced up and saw Asido staring at him, brows furrowed curiously.

“Yeah—I need to cut back on those things anyhow,” he shrugged. “Say, you’re pretty good at playing by yourself. Who did you play with back home?”

“Mom and Miss Cosette, and they couldn’t always play,” Asido admitted. “I had my own secret room, and when I had to be in there, I played by myself a lot.”

That piqued his interest. “How often were you in this secret room?”

“Sometimes a lot, sometimes not—it depended on Mom and Miss Cosette’s works.” The boy did a cartwheel and almost landed in the ocean, which his uncle deftly stopped with grace only brought on by having minded the Pirate King. “It was okay though, because there was a magic door that Miss Cosette made food appear in, and there was a Den Den that Mom would check with me on, and windows like sunglasses so I could see out and no one could see in.”

“My sister knows how to keep her son safe, after all,” Sanji said. The smile on his face did not reach his eyes—just another thing he needed to ask about. “Say, your mom didn’t teach you anything about fighting, did she?”

“Fighting? Only that it’s bad.”

“Well, yeah, it’s bad, but what if someone bad tries to fight you, or steal you, and there’s no other choice?”

“Oh…” The boy went quiet and still, attempting to think clearly. “No… why?”

“This ship gets attacked by bad guys sometimes, and I was thinking that you need to make sure you know how to fight if you’re gonna stay here.”

“Fight like Sora?”

Somewhere inside Sanji, a knife twisted ever so slightly.

“No, but I was thinking that maybe I could help you. That cartwheel you did reminds me of stuff I can do, stuff I can do while fighting, even if it’s just for fun.”

“Why would fighting be fun?”

Sanji didn’t want to tell Asido just yet about the dangers of the seas, how there would be people willing to kill him, to kill for him, to love him, to drive him to ruin, and he needed to be prepared for them all. He thought about petty squabbles with a living scrap of moss, but also a lone, odd night where they made certain they were alive in a very different way. That was once though—a slip—and it wasn’t like it was brought up ever again.

“It can be, because it gets you moving, and your blood pumping, and sometimes in order to not fight-fight, you got to pretend-fight so that you don’t get cranky and grumpy.”

“Ah.” He watched the gears in the boy’s head crank slowly yet methodically. “What can you do, Uncle Sanji?”

Chuckling, Sanji used Skywalk to hop up to the very top of the ship, coming back down again to a very excited Asido. The boy had stars in his eyes as he stared at his uncle, as though he’d just met the hero from the comic pages.

“Wow! When can I learn how to do that?!”

“You gotta master a bunch of other stuff first,” Sanji laughed. Asido pouted, looking like he was going to cry. “Since you seem to be good with cartwheels, do you want to work on flips first? I think you’d do pretty well with those.”

...and so they worked on tumbling for the better part of the afternoon, Sanji guiding the boy’s body as he slowly went through motions his own limbs were well-practiced in. They eventually went inside when it was time to make dinner, with Asido quietly watching the kitchen work in tandem as he stayed in the corner, safe and out of the way. Carne kept staring at nephew and uncle, wondering what it was that he believed, though it also meant that he was being glared at by Sanji, the other man making himself loud and clear without uttering a word.

Anyone were to question the boy and they would see the flaming side of his heel. No exceptions.

Rain moved in while they were eating, and that ended up being the end of training for the day. Thunder rumbled lowly in the distance, though the waves did not become too terribly high; it was the benefit of being in shallow waters with light wind, the crew knew, and they went to bed knowing the ship was strong and the cupboards were sealed tight for a reason.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Asido wondered as he looked all around the bedroom. It was one of the spares that dominated Zeff’s floor of the crew’s quarters, the dresser of which Sanji was currently placing the majority of his nephew’s things.

“This room should get used anyhow; there could be ten visitors up here, me included, and the geezer would still have more than enough room to swing his peg around,” Sanji explained. He didn’t say that it was because Zeff anticipated more than a few comings and goings of his foster son’s crew, but that was a fact better left unsaid for the time being. “I think next time we go into port, we should get you some more clothes.”

“…but I like my clothes.”

“I’m sure you do, but you also didn’t come with very many, and I don’t want to be doing laundry constantly.” He ruffled the boy’s hair, mussing it so his eyebrows peeked out from under his bangs. “Besides, you look like you’re about to grow soon, so we should get you stuff in bigger sizes too.”

“How can you tell?!” Asido’s eyes were wide, making Sanji chuckle.

“It’s a power grownups have,” he only half-lied. “Now climb into bed so you can get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow.”

“We do…?”

“Yeah—there’s some special guests coming, one of whom I haven’t seen in a long time. He’s kind of an idiot, but very, very nice. I think you’ll like him.”

“Yeah…?”

“Yeah.”

Asido climbed into the bed and settled in under the covers. The entire thing seemed to engulf him, as it was a mattress meant for a full-grown adult more than a little kid. He stared at Sanji expectantly, unsure of what to say.

“What is it, azuki?”

“Do uncles give goodnight kisses?”

“Of course we do.” Sanji went into his memory of every time his mother kissed either him or Reiju, trying to remember what it was like. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the boy’s forehead, which elicited a content squeak. “Better…?”

“Yeah. Thank you, Uncle Sanji. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, azuki bean.”

Another check of the room and Sanji left for his own, deciding it had been a busy enough day for him to turn in a bit earlier than usual. Light was still peeking out from under Zeff’s door, and he left the old man alone. Instead he went and showered, letting the spray run so hot it burned his skin a deep pink.

He wondered if he was strong enough to do this.

Fucking hell, what did Reiju just do to him? He went through the motions slowly, not getting out of the shower until after his skin was starting to prune. Taking him for a week or a month would have been one thing, a fair warning would have been another, but… how did she know to send him there? Did she know he would look at the boy and see a happier version of himself? She had to—his elder sister knew what manipulation was and how to use it to her advantage. He was going to have to go through Zeff’s newspaper collection and see what sort of things Germa had been up to the past six years, as much as it pained him to think of it. Maybe it could give him some clues without writing Reiju some very direct questions… or Cosette for that matter… and that didn’t even get into the fact of he had so little to give the child now slumbering in the other room that he would even need to consider turning to public records for answers.

Towel-dried and in pajamas, Sanji laid down in bed, taking comfort in the act of being horizontal. It had been a long day and he needed to relax. He tried to unwind his brain by going into a list of all the things that Usopp enjoyed eating, since he was presumably staying for at least a dinner and a breakfast. It was just beginning to work when he heard his door creak open—it was Asido, the boy quietly closing the door behind him.

“Hey, why aren’t you in bed?” he asked. The boy’s eyes reached the floor in embarrassment.

“Uncle Sanji…? Can I stay with you…?”

He exhaled heavily and pulled back the blanket. “C’mon kiddo, get in here.” Asido immediately launched himself into the bed and snuggled up against Sanji’s chest, making his uncle frown. “Hey, hey, what’s this about? You alright…?”

“I had a bad dream,” the boy whimpered. Sanji tucked the kid in and laid his arm atop the blanket, hugging him protectively. After all, when it was said and done, he was still just a scared little boy without his mom for the first time.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“…no.” A pause. “Is that okay…?”

“Sometimes, you can’t talk about things like that for a long time,” Sanji mused. He thought about his own childhood nightmares, and how he hoped his nephew’s were nowhere near as bad. “I’ve had my fair share of bad dreams—I get it.”

A nod. “I miss Mom.”

“I miss her a lot too.” Sanji stroked the boy’s hair, reminded of the way Zeff used to calm him down. “You know… I think I remember a lullaby from when your mom and I were kids. Would you like to hear it?”

“Yes, please,” Asido whimpered.

Sanji reached back into the recesses of his memory and began to sing softly. He certainly was no Soul King, but the words passed over his lips as though he had last heard it a fortnight prior, not twenty years. Tears silently fell from his eyes as he blinked in the darkness, emotions he thought he had worked past bubbling to the surface.

By the time the song was done, the boy was fast asleep, if still trembling, and it was all his uncle could do to not give in himself. The pain had been dulled with time, he thought, except having Asido curled into him, desperate for his protection, made it all flare up as though the wound was still open and raw. To make it all worse, Sanji wasn’t even entirely certain who to be angry with—his father? His sister? His nephew’s father, whomever that was? The rich dipshit over in Notice who was likely attempting to canoodle with the wrong woman? He didn’t know, but then again… how could he?

Another low rumble of thunder punctuated the fall of the rain and Sanji felt himself drift off towards sleep as he thought about menu options, grounded to the child shivering in his grasp.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The storm broke overnight and, came with it, a gentle dawn with calm seas and a clear sky. Sanji let Asido sleep in his bed while he went and made breakfast, allowing him and Zeff to eat alone.

“Look at it this way: at least you know the likelihood they are the same nightmares you had as a kid is low,” Zeff shrugged. “I’d take that as a win if I were you.”

“A hollow victory, since I still don’t know what’s going on,” the younger man replied. “At least Usopp will get here today—I don’t like this waiting bullshit.”

“It could be worse—he could be bringing your captain over.” Sanji shuddered at that.

“The kid needs to adjust first before he meets Luffy. Fuck, it’s a risk just bringing Usopp into all this.”

“They’re your friends, eggplant.”

“Yeah, who I made with no thoughts of ever running into anyone from before the Baratie ever again.” He looked at the small photo in the society section of the paper and frowned. “She looks so miserable.”

“She’s smiling.”

“I know that smile—that’s not a good smile.”

The air sat heavy between them as Sanji continued to look at the paper. As much as he wished he could wholly sever himself from his childhood, the fact remained that he was still terribly attached no matter how hard he tried. One look at Reiju and he saw their mother, and with her, a life they could have had all this time. What sort of resistance there would have been were she still breathing, what could have changed if he weren’t the only one who left, what paths their lives could have taken…

“Son…” Zeff placed his hand on Sanji’s wrist, the act pulling the latter back into the room. He felt his face and realized it was wet with tears.

“She’s not coming back for him, is she?” Sanji asked quietly. “She left him here because neither of us fit in and never will, even if we try. He’s been abandoned.”

“Part of me completely agrees with that,” Zeff frowned, “but only part. Without her around to show the family resemblance, he looks enough like your kid to where snoops won’t ask the wrong questions, and I think abandoned is too strong a word to use if he got brought to the only other member of his family that knows what it’s like to be on the outside.”

“It’s not fair to any of us.”

“I didn’t say anything about fairness, eggplant.”

“…but what happens when Chopper clears you to take back the restaurant? What then?”

“Don’t think about that shit—we’ll get there when we get there.”

“…but I don’t know…!”

“Uncle Sanji…? Grandpa Zeff…?” The two men looked to see that Asido had finally woken up and had shuffled into the room. “Why didn’t you get me up?”

“Nightmares need a little extra sleeping time to go away,” Sanji said, passing the newspaper to Zeff for safekeeping. Asido went red and looked down at the carpet, though Zeff let out a laugh instead.

“He knows from experience, azuki,” he chortled. “I used to let him sleep in the morning after a nightmare too. Seems to me it’s like uncle like nephew.” He watched as Asido slowly raised his eyes and looked at him, squeaking in terror before going to sit at what was now his place at the table. “Come now—no reason to be scared here. That dream can’t hurt you when the sun is up and we’re around.”

“He’s right; it can’t,” Sanji agreed. He watched as Asido nibbled at his toast with jam. “Hey, what’s wrong, Asido? Still the dream?”

“What don’t you know?” the boy asked. Sanji glared at Zeff for a moment before turning back to his nephew.

“I don’t know when our visitor is coming later,” he only semi-lied. Fuck—at this rate, he was going to need to take pointers from Usopp while he was on the ship. “Do you remember me telling you last night? About our visitors?”

“Yeah… but I thought you did know when he was coming.”

“Maybe later today, maybe tomorrow if the wind is bad,” Sanji explained. “Now let’s hurry up so I can get a cigarette in before we pop in the office for the day.”

“That stuff makes you stinky,” Asido giggled, wrinkling his nose. Zeff his a laugh behind a cough, earning him a glare from his son.

“Maybe figuring out what I can do instead can be a project for the two of us, hmm?” Sanji posed. His nephew brightened, sending a shiver down his spine.

“You can teach me more of the flippy stuff!” Zeff raised an eyebrow curiously. “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you last night at dinner! Uncle Sanji’s teaching me how to make sure I can fight enough so I don’t get stoleded if bad guys come here!”

“Stolen,” Sanji corrected, tips of his ears turning pink. “So you don’t get stolen, Asido.” He didn’t need to see Zeff’s face to know the bastard was grinning nearly as wide as his mustache. “That might be something for you and Grandpa Zeff to do once he is allowed to move around a bit more. He was the one who taught me the basics.”

“Feeling better or not, I’m still an old man,” Zeff chuckled. “I can supervise and make sure that Uncle Eggplant is teaching the azuki properly, but my fighting days might just be a thing of the past, aside from putting the odd greenhorn or two in line.”

“Fucking troublesome,” Sanji growled. “Either you’re done or you’re not.”

“Gotta keep him on his toes,” Zeff told Asido, giving the boy a wink. The child giggled—mission accomplished.

“Alright, breakfast’s over; get to your room and pick out your clothes for the day. I’ll be in to help you wash soon.”

“Oh, I can do that, Uncle Sanji!” Asido claimed. “I did it myself all the time at home!”

“Then go show me how big of a boy you are and get ready—I’ll be in to check on you in fifteen minutes.”

At that, Asido hopped off his chair and ran from the room. Sanji gave Zeff an exasperated look and the older man chuckled.

“Yes, you should be tired just watching him,” Zeff chortled. “I went through the same shit with you.”

“I wasn’t that bad, was I?”

“I will neither confirm nor deny, brat.” The older man could not help but give the younger a shit-eating grin—fucking bastard was enjoying this. “Now get going, or the kid’ll beat you to the punch.”

“Sounds like you know from experience.”

Zeff glanced down at his newspaper and pretended to not hear Sanji. Rolling his eyes, the blond took the dishes with him to the kitchen and made sure all the shifts were covered and roles assigned before heading back to his charge. Sure enough, it was fifteen minutes nearly to the second, and Asido was struggling with getting his shirt on correctly. Sanji disengaged the boy from the garment and eased it on him, a bright smile as his thanks.

“What are we going to do today, Uncle Sanji?” Asido wondered.

“Well, we are mostly going to stay in the office until our visitors get here, and then we’re going to be with them until the end of the day.” Sanji left the room and started walking down the stairs to the deck, his nephew close behind. “You know, my friend is bringing someone to help out with you… to watch over you while I work, since the kitchen is too busy for you right now and the geezer can’t physically keep up for long.”

“Oh, like Mom and Miss Cosette taking turns watching me?” Asido asked. Once they were out on the deck he began to bounce around and try out some of the moves he was shown the day before with disturbing accuracy.

“Exactly… I…” Sanji watched the boy as he tumbled about, marveling at his ability to pick things up. His Lineage Factor might not have been altered directly by Judge’s hands, but the boy was still showing the effects of the fucker’s tampering with Reiju. “You know that I’ll still be easy to find, right?”

“Well, yeah—you’ll just be in the kitchen working.” Asido looked at him, head tilted, and seemed nearly Luffy-like in his ability to appear as though he knew everything that Sanji wanted to say. “It’s part of being an adult, right? Working?”

“I normally work a lot of hours, and there might be days where you don’t see me for anything other than meals, if that.” He choked down his emotions, making sure to seem strong and resilient for the lad. “I just don’t want you to think that I’m sick of you, or don’t want you around.”

“Mom said we were going to a fun place,” Asido claimed. “Why would she say this is a fun place, but then you want me to leave?”

Oh, the things he wanted to tell the boy, that he wanted to instill in him; it was neither the time, nor place, however, and he simply offered a wan smile instead.

“Just covering my bases,” Sanji claimed. “Now let me adjust your form—you’re really-super close to getting this right…”

About half of the morning passed with Sanji helping Asido tumble and flip on the deck before they went inside to the office. Once the shopping list for the dry goods run was complete, it was time to make lunch, and they returned to the tiny room after what was thankfully an uneventful meal. They worked quietly, with Sanji tackling payroll and Asido kept busy with books and crayons from the lost-and-found, until about an hour before the dinner rush, when a waiter poked his head in nervously.

“Uh… sir…? You have a visitor.” Sanji glanced at him, trying not to seem hopeful.

“Long nose, more hair than he seems to know what to do with, nervous knees?”

The waiter paused at that. “Braided until about here…?” He awkwardly chopped the base of his own skull with his hand. “Otherwise… well… yeah…”

“Thank fuck, it’s Usopp.” He put his pen down and looked at Asido. “C’mon—our visitor is here. Let’s go meet him.”

“Oh, cool!”

The boy eagerly abandoned his coloring project to grab onto his uncle’s hand and get led through the restaurant to the back deck, where all the varying small craft the staff used was moored up. As Sanji approached the small boat with a familiar jolly roger, he noticed three pint-sized terrors running up to him.

“Uncle Sanji!” the children gasped. Asido hid behind the blond while the other children slammed into the man’s legs, the combination nearly knocking him over. Give him a ship full off attacking pirates any day, but preschoolers? He was dead.

“...and how are you ladies doing?” he laughed. He looked at the girls and tried not to scream—this was not what he asked for, no matter how precious they were. “Did Mom come with you?”

“Nuh-uh!” the eldest said, shaking her blonde curls exaggeratedly. “She needs to stay home annacanta the baby making her feel gross!”

“Do you mean ‘on account of’?”

She thought about it. “Yes!” Her twin sisters giggled—oh, their father was in for it.

Speaking of, Sanji glanced up and saw Usopp ducking behind the supply boat, which caused him to frown. “Get out here, you coward, and meet my nephew.”

“Oh, I wasn’t hiding—what gave you that idea?” Usopp laughed nervously as he walked into view. He visibly cringed as Sanji gave him a look questioning the presence of the children, though didn’t offer a verbal reply. Instead, he let his daughters flock to him, the girls bringing him over to the chef. “So, where’s the lucky kid?”

“Right here,” Sanji said. He looked behind him at the child clutching the back of his trouser legs and pat his head. “Come on, Asido—meet Usopp and the girls. Merry’s just a little older than you. I think they’ll be great cousins.”

Cautiously, Asido poked his head around his uncle’s legs and stared at the newcomers. He balled the pants fabric in his fists, unsure about how to greet the strangers, specifically the ones more his size. The eldest girl approached him, a big smile on her face.

“Hi! I’m Merry!” she said brightly. “I’m almost five, and these are my sisters, Montie and Lea! They’re two and a half! Montie looks like Mom, and Lea looks like Dad, but I look like them both! You kinda look like Uncle Sanji, don’t you? Your eyebrows kind of give it away! Dad says you’re Uncle Sanji’s nephew-nephew, which is different from him being my uncle because him and Dad are friends, and…”

“Merry, give the boy a break,” Usopp sighed. He knelt down in front of Asido and gave him a gentle smile. “Hey, kiddo, you get Sanji taking care of you and you gain a whole ship full of extra bonus aunts and uncles. I’m the best one: Captain Usopp!”

“Uncle Sanji… I don’t feel so good…” Asido mumbled, reaching to be picked up. Sanji scooped the boy up in his arms and rested him against his hip, allowing him to cling to him and bury his face in his chest.

“He’s still a little shy—a lot of this is new to him,” he explained. Merry pouted sourly, while the twins looked confused. Usopp nodded in understanding, however, as he rose to his feet. “You didn’t tell me you were bringing the ladies… or that Kaya is stuffed… again…”

“Yeah, well, we thought some Mommy Alone Time would be nice, and it gives the girls a chance to meet the little guy. Plus, well, they wanted some more time with their babysitter.”

“…and who the flip might that be?”

Right on cue, a familiar yawn came from Usopp’s boat, making Sanji’s stomach drop. He looked towards the craft and saw Zoro stepping out, looking as though he was fresh from a nap.

Oh, fuck.

[sunnyul]

Hi can I ask some analysis on some of Sanji ships? ZoSan, LuSan, LawSan, SaNa, SanVio, SanPud?

ZoSan: They’re basically two sides of the same coin. Though they differ from each other in some aspects, both have core traits of being monstrously powerful, fiercely competitive, and suicidally self-sacrificial. I think their deepest bond comes from sharing the pivotal position of flanking Luffy, and watching out for the crew while their captain takes out the main enemies. They may bicker with each other due to their competitive nature, but it’s mostly friendly rivalry between peers that show how close they are (and they do show agreement on really important matters). Their mutual respect and trust is almost tangible, and I think Sanji in particular deeply admires Zoro’s strength and determination. From Zoro’s perspective, I think it’s rare for someone full of pride like him to actually acknowledge a person’s power and trustworthiness to the point of having absolute confidence. He’s lucky to have Sanji who he can secretly count on to always have his back, really. And of course, the best part of their dynamics is that all of this is mostly left unsaid between them.

LuSan: The ship that really needs to be reevaluated after the current arc. I don’t doubt that Luffy has equal love for all of his nakama, but Sanji’s the only one who got to hear “I can’t become Pirate King without you” from him. Also, you know just how much Luffy loves to eat, and he went as far as going on a hunger strike for the first time in his life just to get his cook back. It should also be noted that Luffy’s the person who understands Sanji best in terms of personal history. Out of the crew, only Luffy got the hear about Sanji’s experience of starvation and what Zeff and the Baratie meant to him. He was also the only person present when Sanji joined the crew, and up to now no one other than him has ever seen Sanji truly cry. In short, there are a lot of exclusive moments between them. To add on, I think Luffy could be particularly fond of Sanji in that he’s the main provider of what he loves the most: food. Sanji might call him out for bad table manners and such but I can easily imagine him always thanking Luffy for loving his cooking so much.  

LawSan: At first sight, what clearly ties them together is that they’re both North Blue boys. I haven’t sighted any common denominators in their past stories yet but who knows - what happened in their childhood could be connected in some way or another, given their hometowns’ relative geographic proximity. That being said, it’s interesting how traumatic incidents shaped their characters differently. Whereas Sanji still had enough resilience to maintain his childhood innocence and hope for the future to some extent despite all that he had gone through, Law was totally stripped of his humanity until Corazon went out of his way to mend him back. What resulted in this difference is debatable but it certainly is worth noting. I don’t think it’s likely that they have particular feelings for each other just because they’re both from North Blue, but it’s possible that Law regards Sanji as the most sensible and reliable Straw Hat in terms of strategic planning, since he’s the one who pointed out his flaw and reminded him the bigger picture in Dressrosa. For Sanji, Law’s probably one hell of a picky bastard who deserves to get his ass kicked for hating bread. and umeboshi XD 

SaNa: Be it in a platonic or romantic sense, I believe Nami holds a special place in Sanji’s heart. She’s probably the first woman he got to interact on a regular basis outside the framework of the Baratie, not to mention that the first mission he had to go through as a Straw Hat was none other than saving her from Arlong. Sanji swoons over just about any lady of course, but I think he genuinely likes Nami’s character, from her cunning nature and wildness to her bravery, kind heart and willingness to sacrifice herself for the sake of everyone else. Nami might constantly brush away Sanji’s swooning out of annoyance, but I think she was so worried about him in the current arc partly because she’s grateful for all the care he shows for her, either consciously or unconsciously. Also, it need not be said that Nami’s the person who had the best understanding of Sanji’s situation and how he must be feeling in this arc, since she had gone through same shit before and that’s when she got to know Sanji as nakama. I think she slapped him not just because he hurt Luffy, but also because she was disappointed that he thought his nakama would be stupid enough to believe his lies and actually throw him out. Anyway the development of their relationship in this arc is quite amazing and I’m definitely looking forward to more intimate moments between them.

SanVio: Just like Pudding, Viola was deeply touched by Sanji’s pure and kind heart (you could say it was his chivalry that won her heart, but I think at the root of his chivalry lies his gentle caring nature). She could’ve seen more than just Sanji’s skeleton, curly eyebrows and perversion (ahem) with her eyes, like what a heart of gold he has and maybe that’s one of the reasons she thinks so highly of him? Sanji did nosebleed massively after she hugged him and all, but I think this ship is more about how Viola feels for Sanji than vise versa. Their meeting was very brief and Sanji parted with her without getting to know her all that well, but he did manage to leave a lasting powerful impression on her - enough to make her blush and smile with fondness. I have a hunch that they’re going to meet again some way or another and when they actually do reunite, Viola’s going to help out Sanji big time.

SanPud: Ah, the groom and the bride in question. If Sanji and Pudding really get married, I can imagine their relationship working out pretty well somehow. Sanji has no qualms whatsoever about marrying a three-eyed girl (not only having no qualms but he actually thinks her eye is beautiful) and he’d rejoice when teaching Pudding how to make chocolate (provided that she really does love to make it and wasn’t acting). As for Pudding, well, I think she totally fell for Sanji after he complimented her third eye so Sanji just being Sanji would be enough for her, I assume. Since they both had the traumatic experience of being abused by their own family, I think they can deepen their relationship by talking about their childhood trauma and comforting each other. Sanji in particular can give Pudding a lot of advice and assistance and maybe that would heal her twisted personality to some extent. This is all based on the assumption that they’re getting married of course, but even if they don’t it’s likely that their encounter with each other would become a lasting memory to both of them. After all, they did make each other succumb to tears, albeit on different occasions.      

[hergan416]

So I'm rewatching One Piece with my friend. We are watching the fumimation dub because of accessibility reasons, which is a new experience for me because my initial watch through was the sub (is? Obviously it's ongoing)

Anyway we just finished Arlong Park and I'm having thoughts about many things, but especially Sanji and also zosan as a ship.

I forgot how much of an actual dipshit Sanji is verbally to Zeff and the cooks and everyone. It's sort of easy to gloss over in the subs, but the swearing in the dub is way more jarring. But Sanji undoubtedly cares about them still. Immensely.

I remember making an offhand comment when Sanji gets so distracted worried about Zoro's wounds from Mihawk that he takes a hard punch in his fight against the guy he's facing (I forget his name, forgive me): something like "remember when Sanji cared about Zoro?"

[To be fair, Sanji takes big risks for everyone but Usopp during that fight, so it's not just Zoro, and I don't think his actions are intended to be read shippy (Usopp is elsewhere, so he has no reason to help him.) I think this is meant to further establish Sanji's kindness and specific morality, which is narratively both his strength and his weakness, just like Zoro getting lost or Nami with money.]

But then later Sanji is biting at Zoro, and maybe it's the English helping me out, because I know calls Zoro a shitty swordsman in both, but it seems WAY more endearing, way more like how Sanji is with Zeff than being openly hostile as I had initially interpreted it?

I guess I just find it interesting, an aspect of the ship I hadn't thought about before? Like zosan always felt like one of those ships I like because of the fandom. There is a lot of good content for it, but a lot of it feels truly transformative, breathing a different life into the characters than I see on the screen. That's not bad! I honestly like fandom Sanji better than canon Sanji most days, and zosan is part of that.

I'm super curious about what the translation will be like when we get to Sanji's experience during the timeskip. Maybe it's me projecting or reading in too far or wishful thinking because I want Sanji to not be Like That.

Anyway makes me want to write and explore Sanji's character (again). But like, don't expect anything I'm busy af 😂

[softrozene]

I hope I'm doing this right ! It'smy first ask on Tumblr 😊 I love "HeNeeds a Pirate Queen" and my fav chap is 64 for jealous Luffy 😂. May I get some hcor scenarios about lufdy kid and law being jealous over their fem mc. Thanks for being an amazing writer !

Omg, thank you for the request! This was so sweet. I can’t believe how many people have been telling me they love the story as of late. It makes me so happy! I hope you enjoy lovely! (Since you brought up Chapter 64 though I would love to say that Luffy doesn’t get jealous until someone points out that he should be.)

Kid’s came out more like a headcanon scenario? Anyway Jealous Luffy would be so cute lol

Random thought: a poly relationship with robin? Sign me the fuck up

Warnings: Fluff (we are looking at the cinnamon roll Luffy), jealousy, since Law and Kid are in here there will be suggestive actions (I am looking at Kid. If you know, you know.) Probably grammar errors- I’m tired

Words: 1365

Eustass Kid-

If you are the type of partner to make him jealous on purpose, the relationship will not last at all. His jealousy gets ugly and rather fast. It can lead to a different situation that we do not want. Thankfully, I would hope anyone who wants to be his partner would not mean to make him jealous on purpose. If that is the case it would make handling him a lot easier.

Kid will never admit he is jealous. That just is not his style. No, instead he becomes aggressive, passive-aggressive, or usually both. Passive-aggressive towards you and aggressive towards others. It does not take a genius to know that he is just jealous but if confronted about it he will throw hands.

So, Kid likes to keep his eyes on you constantly. It is not as if he does not trust you. He does not trust other people. This is how it would usually go. A party out in a random town on an island. He will watch you with boredom as he drinks (if he were single you bet he’d be mingling). He will keep his eye on you and his crew members may tease him, but he will ignore it or glare at them to make them shut up.

It is when someone from the island decides to chat you up. His crew is not dumb enough to ever chat you up like that. He will watch for a bit see your reaction, feel proud when you ignore, or start to yell, but all bets are off when the person touches you. You are his so why the hell are they touching you?

It will most likely be immediate anger. He does not hesitate to cause harm or maim them. He did not receive his reputation for nothing. He would never harm you but anyone else that dares try to get him to stop protecting what is his? They are fair game for sure.

Killer is the only one who can stop his captain from going too far but if that fails you have to make it up to him tonight. Expect a lot of claiming marks by morning.

Monkey D. Luffy-

Luffy is too pure to know jealousy (Unless it comes to food), so he will need a pointer from a friend or have to really be into his emotions. It would probably go like this:

It is just a normal day out on the Thousand Sunny. He was having a blast just messing with Usopp and Chopper like always when he noticed you were laying on the deck with Robin and Nami by your side. He thought nothing of it but felt something odd in his chest when Sanji came out and offered to put sunscreen on the girls’ backs.

He is not really bothered by it but that weird feeling will not go away. He wants it to because it makes him uncomfortable, but he just ignores it. That is until some crew member (definitely Zoro) points out Sanji being too happy to help the girls.

“Should you be the one putting sunscreen on (Name)’s back?”

Luffy tilts his head and asks, “Why?”

Zoro scoffs as Brook lifts a finger to agree. “Ah! You would be right! When courting putting on sunscreen would be more of an intimate act, wouldn’t it?”

“You’re thinking too much into it. Sanji’s just… helping… putting… it on…” Usopp realizes that it is definitely something more if Sanji is doing it. He continues, “You need to go put it on her!”

“Why?” Luffy asks again not getting it as the feeling in his chest grows.

Franky thankfully interrupts after pausing in his tinkering of the toy the trio wanted to previously play with. “How do I explain this? Uh, you know how meat is like super cool to you?” He starts off.

Luffy nods his head with excitement and Franky continues, “It is sort of like that to Sanji? Oh, that came out super not cool. Let me try-“

“(NAME) IS LIKE MEAT TO SANJI?!”  Luffy’s eyes widen at the realization.

The nasty feeling in his chest grew and the jealousy takes over as he does not hesitate to gomu gomu the fuck out of Sanji’s face. Sanji moves just in time and out of the way so the girls are not in danger, but it fuels Luffy more. Franky realizes the way he worded it definitely came out wrong for multiple reasons.

Chaos is ensuing everywhere. Usopp, Brook, and Zoro are laughing while Chopper is worried. The girls watch with bemusement. You hesitantly decide to call out.

“Luffy, do you want to put sunscreen on my back? I was next.”

That stops the fight immediately as Luffy’s jealousy goes away in a split second and his excitement as if he were eating food comes in full.

Yeah… Definitely expect whiplash for sure.

Trafalgar D. Water Law-

Homeboy ain’t worried about you with other people. He does not get jealous easily. It is an extremely hard feat for someone to do. However, that was before he realized that the Straw Hats are something totally out of this world. His crewmates flirt with you but of course, they never go too far knowing that their captain’s wrath is something not to deal with so they are surprised too when Sanji is open about his affection for you (as he is with any girl).

It is something Law passes off with ease until a few other Straw Hats decide to see if he has emotions. Robin, Zoro, Brook, and Franky decide to take on this feat.

Robin and Brook of course being the actors in all of this (and an absolute saint for letting you know what chaos is going to happen beforehand). It starts with Robin. She starts to get really chatty in the morning, asking about you, Law, and the crew. You respond with enthusiasm since you like her. Then she starts the plan at breakfast after everyone has engaged in a conversation or another. Her hand casually slides over to yours, and she keeps that smile on her face as her fingertips slowly slide in between your fingers. She stops and leaves them to be. You and her both can feel Law’s harsh gaze but do nothing else.

She slowly continues moving the conversation about you and lord the way her acting is? It’s actually terrifying you with how flustered you are becoming. You stay strong and try not to cave in but the warmth in your cheeks makes your head fuzzy. Robin is fully aware of the effect she has and continues with a chuckle.

“You’re so cute! I could just eat you up,” She murmurs the last sentence being more intimate than she planned.

A glass breaks and you look over to see Law looking at his now wet pants. Oops. The plan must continue. Brook is next as he takes your fingers into his bony ones and does not hesitate to say his famous line.

“Will you show me your panties, (Name)-chan?” Brook states.

It’s taking Zoro and Franky everything they have not to laugh while the others are just absolutely confused and slightly panicky on why Robin and Brook would pull the moves in Law’s girl. It is okay though. Their plan works. The outcome is delicious to them as Law gets up, makes his way to you, and without any hesitation forces you up so he can sit and have you flush against him on his lap.

He starts to eat from your plate like that all while glaring at Robin and Brook. You finally cave in and start laughing making Law scowl.

“The only reason why you two aren’t dead is because of our new alliance,” Law states.

Robin giggles and Brook starts to laugh too. You lace your fingers through his free hand and say, “Don’t worry Law. I’m the only one for you and you’re the only one for me.”

“Though we did scare you for a second, didn’t we?” Robin muses.

Law can’t wait to get off this ship. He pinches your thigh and you know you are getting his wrath later.

[chubbyreaderchan]

Hurtful | Sanji x Insecure!Chubby!Reader

A/N: I very rarely write angst so... yeah... here ya go

(Y/n)’s crush on Sanji was powerful. He was always to sweet towards (Y/n) and made her insecurities seem to vanish.

However, it was shaken in one single moment.  

It was Sanji, (Y/n) and Chopper had all decided to explore the town when they decided to stop for lunch at a little bar. Sanji was excited because there were supposed to be a very pretty waitress that worked there however, that excitement disappeared when they were sat down by a chubby young teen girl who wasn’t exactly the definition of pretty. It was clear she was still at an awkward stage and clearly not someone Sanji would categorize as his type. His demeanor changed and he instantly treated her differently than (Y/n) had ever seen him treat a girl. He was sort and almost rude with her. But what was worse she was flirting with him and he actually was visibly disgusted. 

(Y/n) eyes were wide with shock at each non-Sanji like action towards any girl. It was also clear he was hurting the feelings of the young waitress. She couldn’t stand it. (Y/n) wasn’t exactly thin either and she never thought of herself as pretty but Sanji would fawn over her just as much as Robin and Nami. What was the difference? Between her and the young girl actually interested in the love chef. 

It reminded her of how guys treated her. She couldn’t stand it anymore. Especially when the once cheerful girl was slowly getting sadder with every moment.

“Sanji.” She said firmly when the girl left to bring the table their drinks. “Why are you being so mean to her?” Sanji looked at the woman he had been in love with since he couldn’t remember when. She thought he was being mean? 

“(Y/n)-chwan?” He said confused as she stood up, unable to watch him hurt this girl anymore. She put down money, much more than what would have been charged. She walked over to the young girl. She placed her hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry my friend was being so rude to you... Keep the change, okay? I hope your day gets better.” The girl sniffled softly and nodded a thanks as she walked out of the bar. 

“(Y/n?!)” 

It was Sanji rushing out after her. He had never seen her so clearly upset before. He didn’t like it. He also didn’t like her being alone on a new island. 

Luckily he was quick enough after those two years of training. He gently grabbed her wrist and looked her in the eyes. “What’s wrong, (Y/n)?” He didn’t know what she was talking about earlier. 

“I never thought you of all people would be a such a jerk to that girl. To any girl.” 

Sanji frowned as they stood in the middle of the crowded street. 

“Is it because she’s not conventionally pretty? She doesn’t fit your beauty standards so you treat her like she’s not worth any effort of kindness?” 

“I--” 

“No, Sanji. I think you need to hear it from someone whose experienced that before.” 

Sanji closed his mouth instantly. 

“When someone is already struggling with their own thoughts about themselves and someone outside of that confirms it....” She couldn’t help it, despite her anger at the blonde tears began to stream down her face as she knew exactly how that girl was feeling right now. “It often ends with girls doing things they shouldn’t just to make themselves feel better or... it’s just forcing a standard that not everyone can have. It hurts not just women you don’t find attractive but every woman.” Sanji froze thinking about all the times he treated women badly just because they weren’t beautiful. He hated the idea of him hurting women in anyway no matter what they looked like.

“I’m not saying you need to be attracted to everyone.” She sniffled. “But don’t treat someone like that just because they aren’t what you like. I just hope you realize that everyone can be beautiful.. it’s not just about looks but--” 

“(Y/n)...” he finally spoke as he watched the sweetest woman he had ever met sob. “You are right.” She looked at him with surprise. “She didn’t deserve that... No woman deserves that. I don’t know her and...” 

“You crushed her heart, Sanji...” Sanji nodded. “You are right. Let’s go back, (Y/n)... I need to apologize to her.” He now held a cigarette in his hand lighting it. She had given the love cook a lot to think about as they walked back. 

“Did someone make you feel that way, (Y/n)?” Sanji asked breaking the silence.

She nodded. “It was always like that, before I met you and the crew...” (Y/n) sighed. “People always made me feel like that. But I thought you didn’t think like them but...”  She sniffled again trying to control her tears at the memory. Sanji reached into his pocket pulling out a handkerchief stopping in front of the bar again where Chopper stood waiting and confused. He gently wiped the tears off her face. 

“I never realized how hurtful my actions can be to any lady. Especially to one I love.” Sanji said slowly. “If I would have witnessed someone treating you the way I treated that girl in there I would have kicked their skull in. I’m going to be better for the sake of all women... not just the pretty ones, (Y/n)” His thumb brushed her cheek. He held the door to the bar open for his two friends. 

Sanji broke away from Chopper and (Y/n) walking over to the girl. 

“Excuse me. I want to apologize for my behavior.” He said to her. “I had no reason to be rude to you. You are a lovely young girl and I appreciate how nice you were to me despite my behavior.” 

(Y/n) smiled slightly as she watched the conversation. The girl smiled widely as Sanji began to complement her, allowing himself a moment to find the beauty in the young girl. She was giggling now. 

-- 

The lunch turned better in the end. 

“Sanji” (Y/n) asked softly as they stopped at a flower stall. “Do you really love me?” 

The blonde smiled purchasing her favorite flower and tucking it behind her ear. “I’ve loved you since the moment we’ve met.” 

Without a thought she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek before walking off back to the ship. Her crush on the blond was shaken but his willingness to change truly made it stronger. Especially now as he danced at the soft kiss she left on his cheek. 

[multifandomthoughts]

Picture Perfect

Requested by: @aspergerhero​

Word Count: 1,285 words

Triggers: None!

Synopsis: You’re the newest member of the Straw Hats, and it’s taken a little while for the rest of the crew to warm up to you. All except her... Nico Robin. But when the pursuit of your talent happens to cross paths with her own interests, that all changes... Now later down the line, you want to use your camera to spend a little quality time with Robin. If only the rest of the crew would stay out of the way...

Author’s Note: This is my first ever large fic (something over a thousand words) and I’m so happy with how it came out! It took a while to complete but I hope y’all like it!

The devil child: Nico Robin. One would think from that epitaph that she would be a monster; someone with large horns or something that would constitute “devil child.” But nope, she is the last of her kind, a caring, kindhearted and often morbid person. She is a tall, thin and intelligent being, traits fit for an archeologist.

You knew the first day you had seen her that something special was going to happen between the two of you. Your new captain, Luffy, had admired your resolve and had pretty much demanded (in his own special way) that you join the crew. You had always had a dream of taking pictures of all the islands you could, to document the world just in case something happened. The crew welcomed you with open arms of course, but it seemed like the mysterious woman with long black hair and sunglasses was avoiding you at first.

It was no wonder she was avoiding you. It was when you had learned her past that it all had made sense. After speaking with the others over time, you had learned the truth; the horrible truth. She was the last of her people; the island of Ohara had been destroyed, her friends and family gone, and she had been hunted down just for the fact that she was the lone survivor. And then the water 7 incident; where she sacrificed her life so the rest of the straw hats could escape just because she didn’t feel she was worthy of their friendship. You could remember the first time she had learned of your skill. You had gotten off of the ship to explore an island. You thought back about that day…

The trees were lush and green as you traversed a windy path that led to a hill, looking for that one landmark that would help you remember the island forever. Walking along the stone pathway, you noticed that the ground was littered with these tiny pieces of metal that you were unaware of the origin or purpose of. Intrigued, you kept up your pace as you walked, seeing more and more chunks of this metal. You decide to pocket one of the smaller pieces in hopes of maybe getting an idea of what it was from, possibly through Franky or Usopp. Just in case, you decided to document your journey up the hill. Maybe there would be something that you missed upon first glance.

As you kept walking, you noticed less and less of the metal objects, and more tall grass and trees. Maybe the metal had been from some kind of outer fortification and you were now coming to an inner garden or the like. That hypothesis was soon tested as you came upon rising stone structures. Incomplete walls and archways were scattered in a manner you couldn’t make any sense of. Architecture was more of Robin’s area of expertise. Thinking of her, you brought your camera up to the hill to start finding good framing for a few snapshots. A place like this needed to be documented, and you weren’t going to wait for someone else to come do it. After wandering around and getting a few angles of the major structural remnants, you started to head back to the Sunny. On the way back you bumped into her by accident.

“Oh! Robin I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you, I must not have been looking where I was going.” You apologized profusely as she turned around and gave you a wide smile. “It’s okay, I’m just glad it wasn’t a group of bandits looking for hostages.” You were slightly confused by her comment but shook it off. “Hey Robin, I heard that you’re into archeology…could you possibly tell me what these buildings are?” With a wide eyed look of glee, she put her hands around your camera and with a nod you let her take it. “From what it looks like, it seems like it’s an open garden…some of the sides of the walls have poneglyph writing on them…it must be very very old, predating my family.”

Fast forward to now, where the two of you have become much closer than you ever thought you would, and certainly much happier. You’ve expressed many times how photogenic you think she is, and how much you’d like to get the chance to have her pose for a shoot. She never hesitates to tease you on what you might do with those photos, or just what sort of photoshoot it will really be, but you know she’s also flattered that you like her appearance to that degree. Finally you both have some free time and you set up your camera and a few outfits for her to wear. It was a warm day so most of the outfits she’s wearing corresponds to the weather.

“Hey Robin, why don’t you lean up against the mast and we can get a couple shots of you looking badass, okay?” “Yeah, that sounds good!” She saunters over to the mast and did a variety of poses; a squat, a lean, one with her arms crossed and even one with her Devil fruit, her arms dotted across the top of the mast, aiming down. “You want to try another outfit and then we can we can do some of you over the side, maybe looking wistful?”

Nodding, she heads over to her room to get changed into a different outfit; she always has a good sense of fashion and that’s something you’ve admired about her. Unbeknownst to you, you and your subject have attracted quite the bit of attention. Sanji has been discreetly watching the two of you, and Chopper and Luffy have been a bit confused, albeit intrigued to what you were doing. It looked like Luffy had a plan to cause some mischief; you don’t know what kind but you were not going to let him ruin your day.

Robin returns swiftly, having changed into a white dress with purple polka dots and matching lace at the bottom. She really does look lovely in that, you think to yourself. “Alright, you ready to take some more pictures?” She gives an enthusiastic nod and heads over to the side of the boat, resting her hands on the rails and looking off in the distance.

As soon as you try to take the picture, Luffy and Chopper giggle loudly, attacking Robin with a hug. Sanji emerges from where he was watching and takes the chance to put his head in her chest. Even though this shot was totally not what you were expecting, you could live with it. It makes good memories of you and your crew. With a loud shout, you alert the rest of the crew to what you are doing; Franky and Usopp come tumbling out of their workshops like something is wrong. Nami vaults over the railing, running over to the picture as Zoro complains about all the noise. And finally, Brook comes out from inside the galley to see what all the fuss is about.

“Hey all” you start. “I was doing a photo shoot with Robin when Luffy and Chopper photobombed me and I have a great idea! Why don’t we do a few group pictures to create some good memories?” For the most part, the group agreed; minus Zoro who was still grumpy from being woken up. Upon agreement, you begin to put everyone in a place before everything falls apart, and you decide to just let them pose the way they want. The smile on Robin’s face as she’s surrounded by her dear friends is an image you want to treasure forever. Fortunately, you can.

[thewildomega]

Star in the Sand Ch.22

Waking up you groaned and moved your hand to rub your throbbing head. Pushing yourself to sit up on the cold floor you cracked your eyes open and looked around the room to see metal walls, metal floors and a heavy duty metal door. Trying to recall what you had been doing earlier you blinked. You remembered training with Zoro, it hadn't been easy to convince the swordsman to teach you some spearman ship but after explaining that you were determined to be able to protect your child he had agreed to help you. 

It had been about a week since the ship had left Fishman Island and while you were excited to see Crocodile again you decided to take this opportunity to better get to know the crew. Teaching Sanji recipes from your world which Luffy enjoyed taste testing. You told Chopper stories you knew as well as exchanging jokes with Brook. Drawing sketches of different machines and explaining them to Franky while Usopp took a chance to help show you different plants he had learned about. At night Nami would explain the different weather patterns and how to better understand the signs of a oncoming storm. Before bed you talked with Robin about your world.

During that time your belly had slowly started getting a bit larger as well, your bones no longer protruding to the point that you could rival Brook. Nami and Robin had even had some lotions and oils to help with your dry skin and hair. You still looked different than you had before going into Impale down but hopefully now you might not scare Crocodile away. Sleeping in an actual bed had also helped with the deep shadows around your eyes even if you were constantly plagued with nightmares. Now that you thought about it that was the last thing you remembered doing. After sparing with Zoro a bit you had drank the vitamin infused smoothie Sanji had made you and then followed Bon's advice to go lay down and rest. 

This however was not Nami and Robin's room. You weren't chained or tied so that was a good thing. However you were only dressed in a pair of jeans and a black tank top. You didn't even have any shoes on, the sandals that Nami had gotten from Pappag. Now that you were coming to some more you realized it was actually cold, not as cold as level five but still chilly. Then it hit you. Punk Hazzard. "Oh Fuck." How the hell had you slept through the arrival, you must have really been out of it. If you were in here then that meant that Luffy, Zoro, Robin and Usopp were already on the hot side and you and the others were here. Only thing was though that you looked to be locked away in a separate room. Why was that? No matter the reason you had to find a way out of here. Standing up  you looked around the room and saw it completely bare. Trying the door just for the hell of it you weren't surprised to find it locked up tightly. Go figure. There had to be a way out, think! The walls were metal as well as the floor, looking up you saw the ceiling made of the same metal but... there was also a vent. You could work with that. 

.............................

Looking around the frozen wasteland, his hair blowing in the harsh wind. They had been walking around for a while now, bypassing the group of marines. Splitting his crew in thirds to go search in a different locations while Daz, Hex and himself went towards the mountains he stopped when he heard explosions. Narrowing his eyes he sensed the presents of others and started that way. When they got close enough that they could see smoke he heard yelling and turned his head to someone he wasn't expecting. 

"GATOR! Hey Crocodile!"

"Straw-hat." he spoke around his cigar. Of course, that's how she got here. 

"Over here!"

Sighing he wasted no time in turning to sand and quickly flying towards the yelling idiot. 

"You're here, that means you got Y/n's letter, she's going to be so happy!" Luff spoke with a smile as Crocodile reformed.

"AHHH NOW CROCODIE IS HERE TOO?!" Both Usopp and Chopper yelled. 

"She's with you then? She's safe?" he asked, not being able to keep the emotion out of his voice. Quickly looking around the place that seemed to be in ruins he noted a few of the Straw-hat crew, Nico Robin included along with another face, Law. However he didn't see Y/n anywhere. 

"Well no not exactly..." tilting his head and rubbing the back of his head. 

Seeing Crocodile's brow twitch Robin stepped forward some. "What he means is that she is not with us right now."

"Then where is she?"

"I duno?" Luffy shrugged. 

Gritting his teeth down on his cigar he heard as Robin offered to explain their current situation. Sighing he moved over to speak with her, hearing the Straw-hat crew go back to they previous conversations. For the next few minutes Robin explained to him how Y/n had temporarily joined them along with Bon Clay. "Bentham?"

"Yes he apparently helped her escape Impale Down. I am guessing that since she knew about us from her world, she knew where to find us in Sabaody, knew that Luffy would have no problem helping her." 

Humming he puffed on his cigar as Robin told him about everything that had happened since they had gotten here. They had apparently separated but even once they were all reunited Y/n was not with them. "How is she? How has she been?" 

Taking a deep breath Robin blinked and looked to her old boss. It was strange seeing him care about someone's wellbeing but she wouldn't comment on it. "Well I did not know her before hand but as for her health... it has improved slightly since she first arrived. I am sure our Doctor, Chopper, can tell you more at a better time." 

"Hey how about changing us back now, I can't do anything in this body." Franky yelled.

Turning his attention back to the rest of the group he watched as Trafalger Law used his Devil fruit powers to change some of the Straw-hat members back to their original bodies. After that he stood back with his arms crossed over his chest as Law explained how this Caesar Clown who used to work with Vegapunk had taken over the island and how he was experimenting on children. His main goal to change them into giants so the military could use them in war. 

"...this woman you are looking for, the one known as Firelocks Y/n, she's in the main Lab. Caesar is keeping her locked up in a separate location from where the rest of you were taken." Law explained. 

"But why? What would he want with her?" Nami asked. 

"Think about it. Caesar has been experimenting on kids for a while now and while he has had some results he hasn't gotten the ones he wants. Vegapunk himself determined the sooner a specimen started getting the drug the better the results."

"But that would mean?! NO! No he can't!" Chopper yelled. 

"What I'm not getting it." Luffy said in confusion. 

"Caesar is keeping y/n because he wants to experiment on her... because she is pregnant!"

His breath caught in his throat. Pregnant, she was still carrying their child? This whole time? Through Impale Down? Blinking and then gritting his teeth when he registered what he had just heard the cigar soon broke in half between his teeth. This Caesar was threatening his soulmate, his child. 

"This guy is a sick son of a bitch ain't e'?" Hex spoke in a growl. 

"Yes. I'm not leaving this island until Y/n and the children are all safe." Nami spoke. 

"If I leave here with Luffy are you going to stay here alone?" Law asked. 

"Wait I'm not going anywhere. If this is important to Nami and Chopper than I'll stay too. Plus Y/n is my friend and that Caesar guy has her, I'm not just going to leave her there. I mean I told her I'd help her get back with Gator. Then Sanji wants to put that Samurai back together. Look if you are going to work with us then get used to helping people." Luffy told Law as he turned towards him some.  

Seeing Law's look Usopp sighed. "Here's the thing. See most of the time when you're forming an alliance you get a couple of groups with a common goal and you negotiate the best way to get it done, does that sound right?"

"Obviously."

"So you'd think but in Luffy's world that logic get's thrown out the window completely."

"Just means I'm friends with you." Luffy butted in with a smile. "Like me and Crocodile, we're friends, right Gator?"

Blinking slowly he stayed silent, his arms crossed over his chest. 

"That's a yes." Luffy grinned. 

"You can forget about having any say in what we do. It's all up to him." 

"All up to me." Luffy beamed. 

"As soon as this guy makes up his mind about something that's it. You're along for the ride wither you like it or not. If selfness was a power he'd take out that emperor on the spot." 

"What Emperor?" Daz asked. 

"After this we're gonna go take down Kaido." Luffy grinned. 

"Fine but we have to hurry up, there's no time. Putting the Samurai back together can be your groups problem. I guess I can go investigate the drug that was given to the children. If they have already started giving it to the woman then maybe I can come up with an antidote. Now who's the ship's doctor again? You come with me, we'll do research behind Caesar's back. Crocodile, one of your men can come as well, maybe he can search around the lab for Firelocks but if they get caught it's on them."

Looking to Hex he tilted his head and saw him nod and start walking away with Law and the furball. 

"Daz perhaps you can stay here and help Nami and Usopp protect the children. Their withdrawals have been making them lash out and they coudl use the help." Robin suggested. 

Nodding once Daz looked to him he heard Straw-hat say that he was with them. 

"Now I'm gonna go kick this Caesar's ass." Luffy smiled. 

......................................

Crawling through the vent for sometime you grumbled to yourself as your knees started to ache. So far you hadn't been able to find a suitable room to drop down into and you were starting to wonder if you ever would. Continuing to crawl you stopped when you heard voices. Quietly moving over to look down into the vent you saw none other than Law and Monet. They seemed to be walking down what looked to be a hallway of sorts. You couldn't make out much but when you heard Law say something about leaving you knew what events were about to unfold. Shit. As they passed out of your view you heard another voice, a deep voice. As the three talk about 'Joker' you heard a pained gasp and wince, this had to be the part where Vergo shows up. That was one guy you really didn't want to be found by.

Staying as still and as quiet as a statue you watched as not too long later Monet and Vergo walked by, Vergo dragging a now unconscious Law behind him. With the poisonous gas soon to be flooding the place you didn't want to keep trying your luck with the vents. Glancing down to the floor you saw it not too terribly far down and sighed. Slowly opening the vent you peeked out to make sure the coast was clear. Easing out you hung from the vent as you tried to lower yourself down as best as you could. Taking a deep breath you let go and managed to land on your feet before falling back on your ass. Better than you stomach. Placing a hand over your baby bump you took a moment to get your barring's. Now you just had to make it to the center part of the lab so the gas wouldn't turn you to stone. Wrapping your arms around yourself you grit your teeth, cold why did it always have to be the cold? Hearing your stomach let out a growl you sighed. "I know." patting your belly gently you walked down another hall but stopped dead in your tracks when you saw two of Caeser's men standing there. 

"Hey! What are you doing out of your room?" 

"Get her!" 

Throwing your fist through the air and kicking at the other you grabbed his gun when he dropped it. Slamming the but of it into the man's gut you heard him groan. Swinging it around into the other's face you knocked him to the ground and didn't see him get up. As the other went to get up you quickly went around him, putting the barrel of the gun against his throat and pulling back. Whimpering out as he elbowed your ribs hard enough to make the breath leave you, pulling it as hard as you could you were thrashed around until he finally fell unconscious. Pulling the gun out you swung the strap over your arm and hurried on before more showed up. Passing by a door you saw words written on it out of the corner of your eye you glanced up and rose a brow. 

....................................

"It brings back memories to see you two in the same cell." Robin spoke. 

"Oh yea Smoky and I got caught by you and Gator in Alabasta. Kinda funny now that you both are in here with us isn't it?" Luffy laughed. 

"Forgive me if I fail to see the humor." He said with a slight roll of his eyes. 

"Shut up you damn fools!" Smoker growled. 

It shouldn't have surprised him that that feathered idiot was behind this whole operation. He wasn't even surprised to see he had managed to work a spy into the navy itself. When Caesar came into the room he grit his teeth. To think someone like him was able to defeat all of them, even when it seemed like Straw-hat had him. Hearing him tell the 'Vergo' man to start the video he saw him turn to them again and begin taunting Law. Seeing them have not only Law's heart but Smoker's as well made him raise his brow. Watching the screen he knit his brows at the giant piece of candy being laid out. Listening to Caesar go about explaining this 'smiley' creature he watched the screen as it showed the purple gas start infecting the island. When the footage showed others out on the snow running away from it he blinked when he realized it was some of his own crew along with the straw-hats and Bentham. 

"Hey that's Zoro, they're all running from the smoke." 

"Would you look at those fools, what are they doing out there and what the hell kind of run is that?" 

"Oh look the Samurai got his body back." Robin grinned.

"Yeah you're right, guess that means he isn't going to give me his legs." Luffy grumbled. "Hey wait that's not important right now Robin." Leaning up some he looked to the video "Run faster guys, that smoke will freeze ya dead! You gotta ru..ahn..ahh." Falling to the ground on his face he groaned. "Aw man I don't have the strength to yell. Damnit, dumb sea prism stone." 

"I take it those are your friends Straw-hat Luffy?" Caesar asked before laughing. 

"Yea they are my friends and they are going to be make it just like Y/n once I find out where you're keeping her. You better not have given her any of those drugged candies." Luffy growled. 

Hearing his soulmate's name get brought up he snapped his eyes over to the man, his body tensing slightly.

"Who?" 

"I believe he is talking about the woman Joker wants." Vergo spoke in his calm voice. 

"Oh her?! I wouldn't dream of drugging her, well not if I want to keep my life. Don't get me wrong I would have loved to test the effects of my drug on her and the unborn child but Joker made it perfectly clear she was not to be touched."

"Why what the hell would he want with her?" Law asked. 

"He doesn't want anything with her, he's simply the delivery man." 

"For who? Who want's y/n?"

"Big Mom maybe, Y/n told me, Robin and Nami that she wanted to kill her." Franky added. 

"Try the other side of her family line." 

"Yes one wouldn't be able to tell she comes from such a strong bloodline just by looking at her." Caesar grinned with a small chuckle. 

"Kaido. She is Kaido and Big Mom's granddaughter." Law spoke once it clicked in his head. 

"So Two of the emperors had a baby?!"

"What can I say, they're must have been some lonely nights on Rock's ship." Vergo huffed.

Shocked by the news he felt his heart hammer in his chest. She was in even more danger than he first thought. If that were true then that would mean...

"So what the hell does Kaido want with her?!" Luffy yelled. 

"Kaido wants a strong army, she's his blood..." Law told him. 

It wasn't difficult to put together what Law was saying and once he did he felt the vein in his forehead and neck stick out, his fist clenching at his side and his teeth gritting together. Over his dead fucking body. 

"I can see this troubles you Crocodile." Vergo spoke, addressing the ex-warlord for the first time. "Knowing that the two of you were affiliated before her time in Impale Down I am going to go out on a limb and say the child growing in her womb is possibly yours. If it's any consolation Kaido may allow her to keep the child once it is born... if she behaves. If not then it will join you in the afterlife." 

"Bastard." he growled so deep it almost sounded inhuman. 

Laughing at the whole situation Caesar gave a smile. "I'll give you this one last chance to see her." Waving his hand towards the workers he saw them pull up the footage of her room, "Now say goodbye to your ahhhh where did she go?!" 

Seeing the room empty he felt hope fill him. She had made her way out. 

"Shishishi, Y/n escaped Impale Down, did you really think you would be able to hold her in there?" Luffy giggled.

"I wouldn't underestimate her if I were you." Robin chuckled

"Grahh. No matter, she will be found soon enough but I'm sorry to say that by then you all will be dead." Nodding his head he watched as the crane picked up the cage and started moving it. "Time for me to show the world that my weapon is tougher than any high bounty pirate, Marine vice admiral or Warlord of the Sea." Caesar laughed.

Getting freed by Law he stood straight and brushed off his clothes. Getting into the lab he watched as the rest of the Straw-hats, marines and his own crew hurry into the lab. 

"Alright looks like everyone's here." Luffy smiles.

As soon as he heard Law tell them they needed to get to the door with R building 66 on it he looked down to his men. "Go help the Straw-hats with the kids then get to that door."

"Oh Mr. Zero there you are. Wait where is Y/n?" Bon asked, quickly looking around for his friend. 

"I'm going to find her." he replied gruffly. Turning around he waited for no reply, refusing to be separated from his soulmate any longer. 

...................................

Running through the lab you held on tightly to the sword you had gotten off the most recent group of Caesar's men. After hearing one of them yell 'There she is..." you were fairly certain they knew you were missing now, which meant Caesar did as well. Assholes had made you drop your jar of peanut butter you had swiped from the kitchen as well. You heard an explosion go off earlier so you guessed the others had made it inside by now. Knowing from the manga that the gas would be spreading quickly now you pushed on to make it to building R. Wincing when your leg ached you moved your hand down to hold it over the bleeding gunshot wound there. As another round of gunfire rang out around you, you heard one yell that you were not to be seriously injured. Running behind the corner and onto the stairway you tried to outrun them but were forced to stop when more yellow dressed men showed up in front of you. 

"Now come on lady, just come with us and we won't be forced to hurt you anymore." 

Gritting your teeth you looked back and forth, you were surrounded and while you may have been able to take on five or six of them there looked to be at least a dozen. Backing into the railing you snapped your eyes behind you to see the floor far below. There was no way you would survive the fall... but there was another option. Looking back to the group you saw them inching there way closer. It was now or never. Turning around quickly you climbed the railing and jumped. 

"NO!" 

Grabbing hold of the chain you gasped as it started falling, you were not expecting a pully. Seeing the ground coming up fast you grabbed hold of the other one and let out a muffled scream when it tore away the skin on the palm of your hand. Pushing through the pain you slowed yourself down enough to not die when you hit the ground but you didn't stick the landing and were left a little dazed when your head smacked against the hard floor.  Blinking slowly as the world seemed to spin you held your belly with one hand and turned your head to the side to see the yellow suited men running down the stairs. There muffled yelling rung in your ears and you whimpered as you pushed your body to sit up. Seeing the fallen sword on the ground not to far away you crawled over to grab it and pushed yourself to your unsteady feet. 

Raising your head as the heavy footsteps grew closer you just did swing your sword in time when one of them took the chance to grab you. The man was quickly replaced with another and all too soon you found yourself in another fight but this time it wasn't looking too good. Crying out when one of them sliced at your shoulder you backed away, the grip on the sword loosening to the point you almost dropped it. Bringing your knee up and then kicking you refused to give up but you were quickly growing exhausted. Tring to swing the now heavy sword again it was blocked and smacked from your hand. Feeling a hand yank on your hair you winced and hit against the man as he stood above you. Seeing him hold out a can of what you guessed was that sleeping gas you held your breath and tried yanking out of his hold. 

"This would have been much easier for you if you would have just did as we sa... ah!" 

"AHHH!"

Feeling the hand on your locks loosen you went to fall to the floor but something held you up. Seeing nothing but black you let your eyes slip close, a heavenly smell filling your nose. Then there was a voice, a deep voice, one you had only heard in your dreams for what seemed like a lifetime. Pulling back some you looked up and saw him. After so long you weren't sure he was real. "C..croc?"

Taking care of all the filth that dared hurt his darling he looked down when he heard her trembling voice. Seeing those sea blue eyes looking up at him and hearing her say his name he couldn't help but grin. As soon as he did he felt her arms wrap around his waist, her face burring into his abdomen. 

Shaking with sobs you held onto him so tightly you only knew his clothes would be wrinkled. It was him, it was really him. 

Prying her arms from him only long enough for him to lift her up he felt her arms wrap around his neck. Holding her with his left forearm and hook he wrapped his right arm around her to return her embrace. His eyes closed momentarily, relishing the knowledge that she was in his arms once again after six months apart. 

There were so many emotions overtaking your body but none more prominent than happiness. Tears poured from your eyes, soaking into his coat and shirt but he didn't seem to mind. "I'm ssssorrryyy." you sobbed. 

Hearing her heart wrenching apology he licked his lips, swallowing the lump growing in his throat. "Why on earth are you apologizing to me? You have no reason to be sorry..." Clenching his teeth he gently rubbed the back of her head and hair. "I on the other hand don't deserve your forgiveness, everything that happened to you, all of this, it's my fault." 

Shaking your head you nuzzled your nose into his neck. "No it's no..."

"It is." he said through gritted teeth. "I failed you again... I didn't..."

Leaning up you pushed your lips to his. Holding his face in your hands you refused to let him break away. After a few moments he sighed, his lips softening to kiss you back and you knew you had won. Tears continued dripping from your eyes and no doubt onto his face. Pulling away only to peck his cheeks and lay your forehead on his you closed your eyes. You didn't know wither it was from finally being reunited with your lost love again after so much or all the injuries but you felt very tired. 

Feeling her body slacken against his he opened his eyes slightly and looked down to her. Seeing the blood on her forehead he recalled where they were and what was happening. Moving her over to the steps he sat her down and kneeled in front of her while his eyes scanned over her body. He could see blood soaking her pants leg, a gash across her shoulder and blood coming from her head. There was so much more he wanted to observe but now wasn't the time. Removing his belt he put it around her upper thigh and pulled it tight to stop the bleeding until it coudl be treated. There wasn't much he could do about her other injuries unfortunately. As his eyes fell to the small bump under the thin tank top she was wearing he felt his heart beat harder in his chest. Reaching out he ever so gently placed his hand over the majority of her stomach. Blinking he stroked her belly with his thumb, "You truly are an amazing woman." 

Grinning bashfully you looked down to his hand and placed yours overtop for a moment. That quiet moment was soon interrupted as a loud explosion shook the lab. "We have to go, now." 

Nodding he stood and removed his coat wrapping it around her slightly trembling body he lifted her up into his arms again. He would get them out of this place and then he would never have her out of his sight again. 

[misc-headcanons]

Hello dear! I see you opened askbox so here I am :3 May I ask for a scenario (or headcanons) with Zoro and big breasted chubby fem s/o trying something sinful for the first time, but boob gravity gets a bit in a way and it not only it embarasses her, but also her issues with body image start to show up? Thank you! :3

Zoro/Chubby!F!Reader: Show Me

(Started writing this, got sucked into it, might be making a part 2 because I got too hyped :3 NS.FW BELOW!)

Zoro didn't have any problems with showing skin, but there was something about seeing his s/o clad in just a tank top and shorts that had left him speechless as he stared at her on the deck of the Sunny. He'd always found ____ pretty, but seeing her exposed shoulders and soft-looking hips and thighs was just...hot. While the next few days had gone by without incident, he couldn't get the image of her in that outfit out of his head, and he finally decided to do something about it. The two of them had been taking the physical aspect of their relationship slowly, only going as far as they were both comfortable with; at the moment, that meant nothing further than some under-their-clothes fondling while making out. But after seeing her like that, Zoro was itching to try and take things further.

Were he a man of romance like say, Sanji, he'd have gone about this path of seduction in a subtle way. But this is Zoro we're talking about, so it isn't too surprising that he simply walked up to ____ when they were alone and bluntly asked if she wanted to meet up at their "usual place" in the crow's nest later tonight. He added quietly (with a slight redness to his face) that he was wondering if she wanted to take things further with him, holding her from behind as he rested his chin against her shoulder and let his eyes wander downward to the curve of her breasts.

____ froze up for a split second before turning her head to look at him. "Are...You mean you want to…have sex?"

"Only if you want to," Zoro replied simply, resting his hands on her sides. "I don't wanna rush things if you aren't OK with it. I was just thinking about how...um. A few days ago, when you were wearing those shorts while we sailed past that summer island. And you looked really...good."

____ glanced down at herself. She looked good in shorts? She'd only worn them because she didn't have anything else to wear, and the heat outside wasn't worth trying to cover up her rolls and flabby thighs with something that'd leave her sweating like a pig anyway. But Zoro actually liked seeing her like that? Not only that, but he liked it so much that he wanted to sleep with her for the first time...If she didn't know what kind of man he was already, she'd have thought he was playing a cruel prank on her. 

She felt him rub up against her from behind, and bit her lip when she felt a slight bulge gently prodding at her backside. Truth be told, she'd also wanted Zoro for a while now--hell, how could she not when she was with a man that looked like him? The only thing stopping her was...well, her. Any time her thoughts would wander and she'd fantasize about being with him, she'd feel a creeping wave of anxiety and disgust wash over her. He'd never seen her in her underwear before, much less naked. He'd never seen her rolls, stretch marks, little dimples of cellulite along her lower stomach, thighs, and ass. Any feelings of arousal and excitement would turn into shame and revulsion towards her body; he may say that he wanted her now, but that's only because he hadn't seen what she really looked like underneath her clothing, careful posture, and slightly sucked-in stomach whenever they were together.

____ looked back at him again, and her negative thoughts fell to the back of her mind as she saw Zoro's face. For someone who could be so terrifying with his swords, he just looked so warm and loving and sweet. And the longer she stared, the more she wanted to find out if all of him tasted as good as he looked. She nodded and turned around to return his embrace, and the bulge in his pants was even more noticeable against her upper thighs. "Yeah," she replied softly with a smile. "I...I want to be with you too."

The two of them continued their day on the ship with a strange sort of excitement and anxiety in the air; when the two of them had dinner with the rest of the crew, every time their fingers brushed against one another they'd immediately move away with a flustered look on their faces. After eating, the two of them made their way to the crow's nest and spent their first few minutes alone together with a bit of their usual kissing and caresses.

Zoro pulled away from ____'s lips and looked down at her chest as she panted lightly. "And...You're still okay with this?" Zoro cupped her cheek and brushed her lower lip with his thumb. "With us doing more than before?"

____ responded by sticking out her tongue to flick the tip against his calloused finger and smiled. "M-hmm," she replied softly. Zoro leaned in to kiss her again, and she linked her around his neck. He moved his lips lower to nip at her soft skin, and then grabbed the hem of her shirt to help her pull it off. The moment he started to lift up her shirt, ____ felt a rush of panic. Shit. Shit. He was finally going to see her bare stomach. This was a bad idea, this was a bad idea, he's going to be so disgusted--

Her downward spiral was cut short when she felt Zoro's lips against an ever-so-sensitive spot of skin near her collarbone, and her hands flew to his so she could help tear off her shirt. It was so warm and humid all of a sudden, and if losing her shirt meant Zoro could easily reach that spot again, then she was happy to get rid of the damn thing. When he pulled away again, ____ let out a small whine. She saw him pull down his pants and kick them aside--leaving him in a pair of boxers and nothing else--and she quickly followed suit; they had barely moved things forward and she was already so hot underneath her clothes. Zoro could feel his cock straining against his underwear the moment he saw ____ in only her bra and panties, and he pounced on her to feel every inch of her newly-exposed skin while kissing and biting at the sensitive spot near her neck. ____ felt his calloused fingers creep up behind her back and curl around her bra, trying (and failing) to unclasp it. She quickly undid the ends for him, and it was only when the cloth fell to the floor and she felt the cold night air against her nipples that she realized what she'd just done.

While her eyes were closed as Zoro continued to kiss her, she imagined the look on his face when he saw just how droopy and saggy her breasts were without a bra to support them and fool him into thinking she had a nice chest. The more she felt his skin rub up against hers, and the more she felt her stomach and breasts jiggle with his movements, the more ugly and disgusted she felt. Why was he doing this with her? Why did he want to do this with her? Why did he want her, when she looked like this?

When Zoro pulled away again to get a proper look at her bare breasts, he immediately heard her sniffle and saw that she was on the verge of tears. A wave of guilt immediately washed over him; he pushed her too far when she wasn't ready, and now he'd made her cry. Shit. Shit. He reached down to take her hand. "Oi, oi," he said quickly, squeezing her hand to try and comfort her. "It's okay, we can stop if you want." He leaned down to try and hug her, but was surprised when she simply shook her head and tears spilled down her cheeks.

"No, it's not that," she said shakily, sniffling. "Just…" Every breath she took made her stomach jiggle a bit, and she curled into a fetal position and hid her face as she began to cry. "I'm so disgusting and ugly and...and…"

Zoro stared at her, completely shocked. "What the hell are you talking about?" He tried to rest a hand on her shoulder, but she flinched. "Who told you that?" He wasn't as chivalrous as that Ero Cook crewmate of his, but he was not going to let someone insult his woman like that and get away with it. 

"Nobody had to," ____ muttered weakly, turning to look up at Zoro with an uncomfortably hot face stained with tears. "Zoro, why do you even want to be with me? I've got all this...all these stretch marks, and rolls, and fat," she said bitterly, grabbing a handful of her stomach fat and pinching it harshly. 

Zoro watched her with an even greater look of confusion on his face. "Okay," he replied slowly, "...and? Why's that bad?" 

____ looked at him incredulously. "Because,' she insisted, "I'm fat."

"So? You're still pretty," Zoro replied simply, slightly irritated by her line of thinking. "Who gives a damn if you're bigger or you have some marks on your skin? I've got scars all over, but you're not calling me ugly or disgusting or any of that crap."

____ sighed. "That's different," she sighed. "You have scars but you're still--"

"Attractive," Zoro finished. "Because it doesn't matter, right?" He moved one hand and rested his palm on one of her hips, letting out a small sigh through his nose as she stared up at him in stunned silence. "You know what one of my favorite things about you is?"

____ shook her head slightly, and Zoro ran the calloused pads of his fingers over her smooth velvety skin. "You're soft," he replied quietly. "I've got calluses and scars and all that. But when I touch you, all I can feel is how warm and gentle and soft you are." He moved his hand to her stomach and then dragged his fingers down to her right thigh. "It's why I like taking naps with my head on your stomach. It just feels good, falling asleep with you and feeling how warm and soft you are." His hands wandered to her lower thighs and he gently squeezed them, making ____ gasp quietly. "And when I saw you in those shorts," he murmured, lowering his head until he was inches away from her plush skin. "All I wanted was to grab you like this, to see if all of you was that soft and warm." 

He trailed a series of kisses around her inner thigh while reaching up with one hand to fondle her breast. The two of them moaned at the same time, and Zoro started to gently rock his hips as he made his way to her clothed--and noticeably damp--underwear. "And I wanna…" He hesitated a bit, his cheeks flushed as he tried to actually talk dirty to her for the first time. "I wanna feel what it's like to have these soft thighs around my head while I make you cum." He felt her clench her thighs around him a bit and let out a small shaky groan as a bit of precum left a wet spot on his boxers. "Fuck, I've wanted to do this with you for so long…"

____ looked down at him and felt a rush of warmth pool between her legs when she saw his expression. His eyes were clouded with lust as he stared at her lower body, and he bit his lower lip for a moment before he nuzzled her clothed entrance with his nose and slightly parted lips. God, he really did want her, didn't he? She smiled and wiped a stray tear from her face before reaching down to run her fingers through his hair. "Show me, Zoro," she murmured. "Show me just how much you've wanted me, baby…"

[friendlyfrat-boy]

To Learn, To Grow, To Love

pairings: Usopp x Sanji (whatever that is called)

summary:

On Sabaody Archipelago, the nine were separated, sent to nine different locations to train, to grow stronger for the New World.

Usopp was sent to the Boyn islands, but he didn't know that. When he came there, he didn't know anything, and he was alone. No teacher, no friendly face, no one to save him and accompany him. No one to keep him from sinking into hollow isolation. He spent two years there, on an island where everything tried to kill him and all he could do was hide and try to survive. When all is said and done, he's hardly the apex predator there. No, unlike Luffy, raw strength did not save him here. But he did survive. And he does escape.

A mistake in his flying gear, aka a very large ant, left him stranded in the middle of the Grand Line. Luckily, he is found by Sanji on the revolutionary ship, and he is rescued. But he isn't alright, and Sanji notices this. Usopp needs to learn to heal, and perhaps, if things go just right, to love.

Chapter One

Two Years Apart,

One Moment Together

"What the fuck is that," Sanji muttered to himself, hand raised up to shield his eyes from the harsh rays of the sun as he peered out to sea.

He'd finally found refuge from the dozens of drag queens out for his dignity atop the mast of the ship. Why the hell had they insisted on coming along for his final journey to Sabaody Archipelago? Couldn't they give him some time to breathe out after these two horrible years?

Worst of all, they just wouldn't let him be in one place, not even on this damned ship. Sure, it was a rather large ship, fit for a whole gaggle of revolutionaries, but there just wasn't enough space to run away from all these drag queens for extended periods of time. The only place he could remotely consider safe was his private quarters, but that was only at night.

Regardless, he'd found some sort of solitude, perched up high on the main mast. Down below, he could see the dots that were his tormentors searching high and low for him. Some held dresses in their hands, others make-up. The pokers of the devils, he thought.

But he wasn't looking down there right now. No, for a while now, his attention had been focused on a little dot on the horizon. It was almost white and orange, but he could only barely tell that from the immense distance. For a while, he'd just thought it was the ship of some other crew or something. The sea was wide, and meeting other ships, as uncommon as it was, wasn't entirely rare. But something about that shape made Sanji reconsider that idea.

As time went on, soon enough, the dot became more visible, more defined in shape and colour. It seemed mostly white, with blots of orange and grey. But that's not the interesting part. No, the dot was, if Sanji still had his eyes still attached, an ant. Not in size, no, not in general shape, either. Just a straight up ant. If Sanji had been three years younger, still working at the Baratie in the mild East Blue, he would have doubted his eyes and/or sanity. Now… he really wouldn't be too surprised to see a giant ant out at sea.

Taking a drag of his cigarette (they'd thankfully let him restock every now and then) he continued observing the ant, as it was. Observation number one: it was big. Damn big. Big enough for a dozen people to ride on. Observation number two: it was dead. Dead as dust. Not one of the limbs was moving (one even seemed to be missing), the head was bobbing up and down lifelessly, and a pair of wings floated aimlessly at its sides. But the third observation, the one that made Sanji consider doing more than just observing the damn thing, was that something about it seemed to be alive.

It was still quite far away, so he could barely see it, but from his younger days, when spotting a ship was essential to life, he could make out a striking detail. Somebody was riding the ant. Well, less so riding, and more so just paddling along, using it more as a piece of driftwood than anything alive. The reason the person riding it stood out to Sanji was not how they continued paddling furiously despite barely getting anywhere, but more so their clothing.

Actually, the damn guy was barely dressed, his upper body mostly exposed, but what he was dressed in was all green. Hat? Green. Big, poofy pants? Green. The giant bag behind him, large enough to fit enough meat to satiate Luffy for five minutes? Very green. Damn green. All and all, the guy was a clear contrast to the dead ant itself.

But the final detail, the one that made Sanji willingly jump off the mast to greet the dozens of tormentors below, was his nose. Long and rounded at the tip. Not Kaku's, not anybody else's on the four damn seas…Usopp's.

The chances should have been next to impossible, the probability close to zero, but… There was no mistaking that nose. Ant aside, he wasn't about to let Usopp drift them on by. Promise to meet at Sabaody Archipelago be damned, Usopp clearly needed his help.

"Shitty Ivan!" Sanji called out, making his entrance on deck by planting his foot in the face of a surprised okama. With the skill and grace of someone who was clearly used to dealing with desperate unkillable machines of feminine beauty, he kicked the tormentor away before he had the time to try and make a grab for his ankles. A dozen other tormentors on deck turned to him with hungry eyes, sparing no sympathy for their "fallen" comrade. Sanji bit down on his cigarette and prepared himself for a long chase. He'd learnt long ago that there was no use trying to defeat all of them. One would always be replaced by two. His best bet had always been to run.

"What is it, Sanji-Kun?" Ivan asked, popping his slender, beautiful face out from the nook of some door Sanji hadn't noticed. Damn, he hated it when that shitty revolutionary used his powers to give him a female body. It was the only way Sanji had been able to see the female form for these past two years (outside of the imagination), but that didn't mean he liked it. If anything, it was more infuriating than his normal (albeit still terrifying) form. Kicking a pursuing tormentor in the face, Sanji turned to answer the admittedly sexy man. No words he'd ever want to hear himself utter, but it was true in this case.

"Turn the ship starboard, there's someone we need to rescue," Sanji said flatly, jerking a thumb at the still distant form of the ant. Ivankov trailed along his finger to gaze out at sea, where the ant was quite clearly visible. Humming, the man-in-the-body-of-a-hot-sexy-woman squinted at it, unknowingly copying Sanji by shading his eyes with his hand.

"Oh my! Inazuma, dear," the man mentioned emerged from behind Ivankov, thankfully as a man and not as a woman, "will you turn the ship starboard? Sanji-Kun, our newest member, would like to make a new friend." Inazuma nodded blankly and walked across the deck to do just that. Sanji followed his back with his gaze for a moment, before apprehensively jumping into the air to avoid being body-slammed by six okama at once.

As Sanji courageously jumped through the air, dodging missile-like drag queens left and right, the ship swerved harsly, the wood groaning just slightly as it was forced in a whole new direction. A few minutes passed, and soon enough, the ant was close enough to make out some actual details. Firstly, the man sitting on it was definitely Usopp. Tan skin, eager locks of hair going wherever they wanted to, circular eyes, and finally, long nose… Sanji was glad his assessment had been so spot-on.

However, what Usopp was doing made Sanji do a second take. He was paddling alright, but he was doing it with an oddly huge paddle. The paddle was black in tint, but where Usopp held it and where the end of it connected to the water, it was green, probably wrapped in leaves. But even more unnerving, Usopp simply hadn't noticed them. And they were close, too. In fact, they were just about to dangle down a ladder for him to hop onto.

But… he just didn't see them at all. Heavy, black bags hung from his eerily overfocused eye. Sanji could only see one visible eye, but it seemed dry, too intent on whatever he was looking for to even notice them. That wasn't all, either. No, his whole body had a strange tremble to it. His muscles, lean and toned under tanned plant-stained skin, were clearly exhausted. Sanji was no doctor, but as a proficient fighter, he knew what an overused muscle looked like. Bulging unnaturally and twitching with every movement - that was how Usopp's muscles looked like.

Furthermore, the actual movements that the muscles were executing almost seemed painful in how robotic they were. Paddle up, paddle to the front, paddle down, paddle back. Repeat on the other side. He… he'd been doing this for a while, hadn't he? Too long, if his muscles were anything to go by. Fixation. That's what it was. Usopp, as he was now, was the very image of unhealthy, self-destructive fixation.

"Oi, Usopp!" Sanji called out from the deck, where the okamas had thankfully let him do this without being interrupted. Usopp didn't even twitch at being called out to. Not a movement, only yet another paddle back. "Usopp! Listen to me, you shitty long-nose!"

Nothing.

That was enough. Sanji had been awaiting his meeting with Nami-swan and Robin-chwan for two years! And also everybody else. Meeting one of them early was a good thing! Seeing someone not in a dress, a man being a man... it made his heart flutter in a very strange way, and being met with exactly jack-diddly-squat in return did nothing to quell his frustrations. If anything, it only intensified them.

"RISE AND SHINE, SHITTY LONG-NOSE," Sanji roared, lunging from his place on deck to plant a sole in his friend's face. Even two years back, an attack by Sanji upon Usopp would send the latter man flying, but Sanji would at least have had the common sense to hold back. Now, however, he hadn't had a need to hold back for two years. Kicking an okama rarely sent them flying, and if it did, they usually came back with a vengeance and passion that reminded him of a starved Luffy. Or a sober Zoro. Both thoughts were equally terrifying.

This lack of restraint caused his empty-eyed friend to go flying at speeds nearing that of a subsonic missile. If Sanji had seen his friend's face as he flew, he would have noticed the sole-shaped burn-mark seared into the side of his face.

Sanji came to a stop on the ant itself, which was surprisingly buoyant. Usopp, thankfully, didn't fly too far, skidding to a stop only a couple dozen metres away. Silently, the man rose to the surface, his single, wide, terrified eye having regained some form of life as they scanned the horizon for whatever hurt him. And, in that scan, he caught a glance of Sanji, who was looking right back at him.

At seeing the smoking imprint on Usopp's face, Sanji couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. He hadn't meant to kick that hard, but… Nevertheless, seeing as how Usopp was looking right at him, he had to do something.

"Heyyy! Usopp, it's me! Sorry for hitting you!" he called out, smiling wryly as he waved to his blank-faced friend. The man in question did not respond. He didn't even smile. Just bobbed up and down, hazy eyes going from focused to glossed over, arms growing weak…

"Oh no you fucking don't," Sanji muttered to himself. Flexing his legs, he threw himself into the water, arms raised above him to form an arrow. He'd seen enough people drown to know what it looked like. He'd just never expected it to be Usopp. With his training, Sanji had become a very able runner/kicker/swimmer. If Usopp had been an airborne missile before, Sanji was now a torpedo, shooting through the water with little resistance.

There he was. Sanji's hunch had been correct to a tee - Usopp had bobbed right on under the surface and was currently just sort of sinking, not an uncommon sight for a devil fruit user, but odd to see in Usopp. If Sanji had been able to curse underwater, he would have. For now, he settled for an annoyed twitch of his characteristic eyebrow.

Another second passed, and Sanji was close enough to grab Usopp, which he did. One arm under his legs, the other on his back, he raised his friend to the surface in a carry he would usually reserve for the daintiest of ladies. Once his own head raised above the surface, carefully manoeuvring his friend so his head was above as well, he took a deep breath. He noticed quicker than he'd liked that his cigarette was soggy as all hell. Usopp seemed pretty out of it though, so at least he'd have no problem getting him aboard the ship.

Swimming back to the ship with Usopp in tow was easier than he'd originally thought. The only thing he hadn't braced himself for was Usopp himself. His muscles felt like coiled iron springs, permanently locked up in tension. The only thing accentuating this feeling was how every three seconds or so, a muscle would twitch harshly, in turn making another muscle twitch which would do the same thing to another, leading to a full-body shiver that almost made Sanji drop him the first time it happened.

"Stupid shitty long-nose falling off the ant…" Sanji grumbled to himself as he successfully climbed back on top of the ant, heaving up Usopp as well. He might as well grab Usopp's things while he was here. The only thing Usopp didn't have on his person seemed to be the obnoxiously large green bag, which seemed to be made of leaves or something. He kicked it aboard the ship, but gently, unlike how hed kicked Usopp. And that was it-, no, hold on, there was one more thing.

A strange, shiny black thing that almost seemed to have the shape of a hammer, right next to a hole in the ant that it had probably caused. The hammer, as it probably was, was sharp on one end and blunt on the other, the handle seemingly covered with blunt barbs on one end. Sanji picked it up in one hand, balancing Usopp in the other. It was heavy and clearly hard. It almost seemed to be from the chitin of some large insect, but that would be…

A glance at the elephant-sized ant he was standing on made Sanji feel like an idiot. Anyhow, the hole in the ant which the hammer had caused exposed flesh and some sort of yellowish goop. A quick step to the left prevented some of the goop from staining his spotless black shoes. Was he just imagining things, or was some of the flesh beneath the carapace scooped out…?

Let's ignore that. With the hammer in hand, Sanji jumped onto deck, successfully sticking the landing. The okama stared at him.

"If you dare attack me or Usopp, I will personally kick you overboard," Sanji growled, which kept them at bay. Happy with his newfound privacy, Sanji carefully let Usopp down to lie on the deck. He would have grabbed him a chair or something, but that could wait. Sanji hunched down next to his friend and did what usually worked after an event like this: pressed down on his stomach.

"Cough, splt, guhh-," Usopp spluttered, water escaping his air canals and wherever else it had been and splashing onto the deck. Propping himself up with one arm, Usopp heaved his upper body to the side to cough up more water. It felt strange that this was the first thing Sanji had heard from him. He hadn't said hello, he hadn't screamed when he was kicked, he hadn't begged to be saved… it felt wrong.

With the water expelled from his body, Usopp finally took the time to take notice of his surroundings. His exhausted, dim eye scanned the okama who had formed a ring quite a ways away, his attention eventually falling on the form of Sanji, who stood right in front of him. Sanji, bereft of smoking, decided to chew on his wet cigarette, mostly to hide his own anxiety over how… unlike himself Usopp was being. That big round eye of his stared at him, haze slowly, gradually replaced by dawning recognition.

But nothing more. This would be where Sanji would expect Usopp to say something like "ohmygodSanjiIwassoscaredthanksforsavingme" or just "Sanji! I missed you!" or even just a "the great Usopp-Sama did not need your help!" not… not this. His face was as blank as cardboard. The only part of his body that expressed anything, anything at all, was his eye. Bright and moist and disbelieving.

And then, he rose up. Slowly, stumbling, trembling and weak. No wonder, with how tense and overused his muscles were. Sanji followed his movements, rising as he did, until the two finally stood face-to-face. Usopp weak and taut, Sanji strong and stoic. Usopp as blank-faced and non-saying as Sanji had ever seen him, Sanji wearing his emotions and anxiety on his sleeve.

But it was Usopp who acted first. Sanji barely registered that first step, how Usopp practically jumped at him, arms flinging themselves around him, locked themselves around his body, his face buried into Sanji's still wet shoulder. His grip was iron, that much was for sure. Iron, and desperate. Sanji, in his surprise, could barely register how his shoulder got just a little wetter. How Usopp's trembling and uncertain fingers dug just a little bit more into his back.

Sanji could do nothing but return it. Absently, he noticed how Usopp had to stand on his tiptoes, just to reach to press his face into the nape of his neck. Two arms on his back, he held Usopp only barely. He didn't need to clutch him close, Usopp was doing all that by himself. He smelled of freshly cut grass and copper.

The second Sanji had that thought, all of Usopp's strength left him, and he fainted where he stood, falling back only to be caught in Sanji's arms once more. Sighing, Sanji manoeuvred Usopp into a princess-carry for the second time that day and headed for where he knew the infirmary was. He'd been chased around this ship dozens of times, and in this situation, he was happy, since it meant he could find his way easier.

The okama parted before him, creating a path to where they knew he was headed. Some of them shot Sanji unsavoury, knowing glances he didn't much like. He could even see a few of them eyeing up Usopp like he was a mannequin, but a sharp glare from Sanji shut them up. Some had the gall to squeal "Sanji-chan is so scary~", but Sanji didn't have the time or care to put the fear of God in them. Instead, he focused on the task of hand.

The man really was out like a light.

Soon enough, Sanji had found himself in the infirmary, where a slightly less buff man than the others was dressed as a nurse, with fishnet stockings and everything else that Sanji would never see in the same way. He decided to ignore the doctor, gingerly placing Usopp down on one of the many beds in the infirmary.

He hadn't noticed it much before, but Usopp was dressed very oddly.

His skin was as tan as it had always been, but it seemed less clear, more ashen than before. His upper body was mostly bare, and what Sanji could see was somewhat worrying. Green blotches from crushed plants and dried patches of what must have been blood aside, his chest and arms were covered in innumerable scars, most of them not having healed well at all. He could almost tell that one of the larger ones, crossing his right shoulder, had at some point been crudely stitched together. This did not mean that the wound had healed well. If anything, it almost seemed like the injury had just gotten infected by this. How Usopp had survived this at all could only be a mystery.

This aside, it seemed Usopp had switched his usual overalls for a pair of green, poofy trousers, kept in place by a pair of black leather straps spanning over his shoulders and down his back. Either these straps were made by Usopp himself, which wouldn't be too surprising, or he'd repurposed his old overalls to create them. Either way, the leather straps connected to something beneath the frilly poof of leaves that were at the top of the pants. This wasn't the only piece of clothing on Usopp that utilized these black straps.

Equally prominent was the large, spiked shoulder brace, also made by the chitin of some enlarged bug. It was connected to Usopp at three parts, one around the neck, one around the arm, and one running straight over his chest. This black chitin material could also be found as armour on Usopp's dark green pants, where they were haphazardly placed just about anywhere they could be fitted. He also seemed to have a large, more spiked piece of chitin adorning his left arm, probably to be used for defence or something, perhaps close-quarter combat?

Apart from this, he was pretty well-covered by leaves.

There was a big one on his head, a smaller one covering his left eye for some reason (Sanji really hoped their shitty sharpshooter hadn't lost an eye since that'd fuck up his vision for sure), a pair of leaves covered his ears for some damn reason, a bunch of long, bandage-like leaves covered his right arm (as well as the oar-thing he was still clutching onto), and leaves also seemed to be what made up the sheath of a machete that Sanji had only just now noticed on Usopp's hip.

Other interesting features would be the gloves and boots he wore, and what Sanji could only assume was his knapsack. The knapsack in question was almost the oddest feature of all. Calling it a sack was a bit presumptuous, and Sanji could only assume it was one because of its placement on Usopp's body. In short, it was a skull. A massive, sharp-toothed upside-down skull. Two pieces of chitin covered its eyes, and if Sanji peeked inside the hole under the teeth, he found it filled with things he had no idea what to make of.

Usopp himself was also quite different. His muscles seemed to have started relaxing now that he was passed out, but even when relaxed, it was clear his muscle-to-fat ratio was almost 1:0. It was a wiry, well-toned build, very similar to Sanji's own, clearly strong enough to do some damage in any situation. Sanji could feel a blush rising to his cheeks, but he didn't know why. Maybe it was seeing a normal, non-dress wearing man in so long. Still…

His hair was much longer. If it hadn't been tied down with an odd, orange-looking rope, it would surely have created an afro with a diameter of at least a metre. As it was, it reached down to his hips. Sanji really wanted to touch it, but touching people's hair while they slept was very rude, as tempting as it was. Somehow, he'd also grown a petite goatee, but in his face, it was hardly noticeable. No, what Sanji noticed instead, was exactly how sunken in Usopp's eyes were. Had they been open, they would have looked like a pair of eyes staring out from two black holes.

All and all, Sanji could only assume Usopp had been in a jungle for two years. A jungle with giant ants. Considering the chitin armour, giant insects, in general, wouldn't be too far-fetched. Sanji whipped out a new cigarette from the pack inside of his jacket, only to realize after snapping at it with a lighter for a few times that it was too soaked to use. He huffed angrily and crushed it in his hand, anger tugging at his eyebrow, making it twist up like a knotted muscle.

Why… why was he so angry? Usopp had survived, right? And if his own experiences were anything to go by, if Usopp's body was anything he could trust… he should be stronger now, right? So why did that gaze haunt him? Why did Usopp seem so broken? And why did that make Sanji so angry?

Kuma had done it for a reason. Ivan had said so, said they had to get stronger to survive, and Sanji had agreed. Like a fool, he'd told himself his Nakama would do well.

But Usopp wasn't well.

Usopp was scarred.

Could Sanji honestly say the scars on his body were any worse than those on Usopp's?

He almost fished out another cigarette, just on reflex. He glanced down at Usopp's unconscious body, and back at the okama doctor.

"If he wakes up, you tell me. And if he so much has a pink bow on him when I return, I'm flambéing you to hell," Sanji ordered, not waiting for a response to leave the infirmary. He couldn't stand to look at him if all it did was make him angry. Nonetheless, he did have something he had to do. Usopp's stuff. God only knew what was in that giant green bag, but whatever it was, he was sure Usopp wouldn't want it stolen by a bunch of curious drag queens.

Well on deck, he found the bag left alone, only a few okama still lingering around. One actually attempted to lunge at him, but a well-placed kick sent them flying into the Crow's nest, where they could think over what they'd just tried to do. With that done, he grabbed the bag. It was damn heavy.

If he didn't fear for its safety, he might have placed it in the infirmary with its owner, but the okama had no sense of privacy, so he hid it in his own quarters instead.

Sure, the okama usually didn't mind breaking into his house (a few unfortunate mornings where he woke up in a dress ensured that Sanji always slept with one eye open), but Ivan had told him that this trip would be different only in that aspect, and Sanji had for once actually felt grateful to that shitty queen of drag queens. His quarters really wasn't anything special, just a bed, nightstand, cupboard, and that was pretty much it. If he wanted to train making food, he'd have to use the common kitchen. At some point during the journey, all the okama had agreed that letting Sanji make food was better for everybody since he usually shared the food with them, and God was it good.

So, with Usopp's stuff secured in his room, drenched suit changed for a new, clean one, soaked pack of cigarettes switched for a fresh pair, Sanji went upstairs to the kitchen to get working on a soup or something for Usopp.

Something told him Usopp could use some good food.

[pingo1387]

Monochrome

Written for @rudimentaryflair for @opvalentines 2020!  Canonverse, Soulmate AU  ZoSan, side Frobin, mention of aroace Luffy 

The left eye held your eye color, and the right eye held your soulmate’s. When you first made eye contact with your soulmate, your right eye would change to its own color. That was what Kuina had told Zoro long ago. He never questioned it at the time, didn’t ask what that word “color” meant, but he did check his eyes in a mirror after that. They were identical as always. 

Kuina died with heterochromia. Somewhere in the world, her soulmate would live on with two brown eyes, one lighter than the other. 

“Sensei,” Zoro said one day after a frustrating training exercise. “What’s color?” 

Koshiro was taken aback by the question, and struggled to answer, eventually standing, leaving, and then returning with two large leaves. “Do you see the difference between these?” 

“Sure.” Zoro pointed to one. “This one’s darker.” 

“Yes. This one is red, and this one is green. Red and green are two colors.” 

Zoro was stumped. “Then, is everything just different shades of red and green?” 

Koshiro let the leaves flutter away in the wind and placed his hands in his lap. “Zoro, you may be color blind.” 

“What’s that?” 

Zoro only sort-of understood after Koshiro did his best to explain it to him. Afterwards, he looked at his eyes in the mirror again. According to Koshiro, colors would almost always have different shades of lightness and darkness, even in his “monochrome” vision (Zoro struggled to pronounce the word, even in his head), but his eyes were both the same shade as always. 

And that was fine. Zoro knew some people didn’t have soulmates, something else Kuina had whispered to him, and that was fine. He put down the mirror and folded his arms. No soulmate meant no one getting in the way of his dream. 

~ 

When Zoro locked eyes with the dark-eyed boy wearing the straw hat, he narrowed his eyes. Those eyes, full of youth and optimism, had changed to a lighter shade, the same one Zoro always saw in the mirror. 

“Hey,” he said while they were sailing away. “I’ve got a question.” 

“Shoot,” the boy, Luffy, said. 

“Your eyes, they changed color, didn’t they? But mine are . . .” 

“Oh, that! Don’t worry about that.” Luffy grinned. “Someone told me it means I don’t have a romantic soulmate, but I have a bunch of platonic ones. My eyes change color all the time if I make eye contact, and they change back after a while.” He stretched, flopping around in the boat. “It doesn’t make anyone else’s eyes change. Yours didn’t.” 

“Okay,” Zoro said, staring up at the sky. 

~ 

They picked up two more, a navigator with an eye for money and a sniper with a mouth for lies. After bumping into some old friends, they reached a seafaring restaurant called the Baratie, and Zoro was itching for a fight. When a waiter with hair covering one side of his face started to serve them, he made eye contact with Zoro, and his eyes widened. Usopp and Nami looked between them, mouths open. 

“What?” Zoro said, scratching his head. 

“Oh, fuck this,” the waiter said, glowering at Zoro. He seized Luffy around the neck. “Come on, chore boy, back to the kitchen.” 

As soon as they left, Nami and Usopp rounded on Zoro. 

“What was that about?” Usopp demanded. 

“What was what?” 

“Why didn’t you say anything to him?” 

“Huh?” 

“Didn’t you see . . . ?” Nami shook her head. “You’ll figure it out. You poor soul.” 

“Figure what out?” 

“You are a tragic, tragic man, Zoro,” Usopp cried. 

“You looking for a fight?” 

~ 

The cook Sanji ended up joining their crew, somehow, and he seemed to love picking on Zoro. Every time Zoro so much as tried to speak to him, Sanji would snap and badger until they were sparring, scowling, and seething. During one of their strange matches, Sanji’s hair flew up, and Zoro caught a brief glimpse of a matching set of eyes. 

“Do you not have a soulmate?” he asked. Sanji stumbled, caught off guard, and Zoro pinned him to the ground with a sword next to his head. 

“I wish I didn’t,” Sanji spat. 

Zoro frowned. “So . . . you do. You met them, and you didn’t get along? Isn’t that strange?” 

Sanji narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck are you talking about? Don’t you know?” 

“I don’t know. I know I don’t have a soulmate.” 

Sanji brought his legs up to his torso and kicked hard, sending Zoro flying. As Zoro sat up from the railing, rubbing his head, Sanji yanked his sword out from the deck and tossed it to him. “Yeah,” Sanji said, turning away as Zoro caught the sword. “I guess I don’t, either.” 

~ 

It had been a perfectly reasonable thing to do. His legs had been stuck in wax. The wax was unbreakable. His legs were breakable. Therefore--- 

“You’re an idiot.” 

Zoro winced as Sanji stuck the needle into his flesh again. “That’s my business,” he said through gritted teeth. 

“It becomes my---our business when it affects the crew.” Sanji jabbed the needle in again, perhaps a bit harder than he needed to. “I hate you.” 

Zoro folded his arms, staring at Sanji. Sanji looked up again, meeting his eyes, and looked back down. 

“I hate you,” Sanji repeated. 

“Yeah.” Zoro wiggled his toes, regaining feeling in his feet. “I know. I don’t know why you do, but I know.” 

Sanji flinched and snapped off the string, standing. “Rest, and don’t fucking try anything stupid,” he said. “Scratch that. Don’t stand up for at least an hour. I’ll bring you soup.” 

Zoro stared after him, and for once, he listened. 

~ 

“What’d you do to get hurt this bad?” Zoro said, tapping Sanji’s back and making him wince in pain. 

“None of your goddamn business,” Sanji said through gritted teeth. “The mountain climb was tougher than it looked.” 

Elsewhere on the deck, Luffy and Usopp were throwing their new crewmate, Chopper, into the air. Zoro and Sanji watched them in silence. 

“Hey,” Sanji said. “Did you . . . growing up, did you want to meet your soulmate?” 

“I told you, I don’t have one,” Zoro grumbled. “But I never wanted one, either.” 

“You don’t make any sense, moss-hair,” Sanji said, folding his arms. 

“Moss . . . ?” Zoro rubbed the top of his head, his hair smooth and silky and not at all like the rough moss he’d felt on trees. “What are you talking about?” 

“Boy, you really are dumb. What were you saying?” 

Zoro glowered at him. “I never wanted a soulmate. I didn’t want destiny getting in the way of my dream.” 

“That’s---” 

“Falling in love is a different story, though. That’s my choice. And I won’t let the person I choose to love, if anyone, get in the way of my dream.” 

“Hm.” Sanji shifted, wincing again. Nami and Vivi chatted with Chopper, pulling him away from Luffy’s hyperactivity. 

“What about you?” 

Sanji sighed “I wanted to meet my soulmate more than anything,” he said, scowling. “I wanted to meet that beautiful lady who I was destined to be with. But then everything went wrong.” 

“Wrong how?” 

“You’re just winning the prize for biggest moron today, aren’t you?” Sanji snapped, standing. He fell down and tried to cover up his pain when Chopper looked over in concern. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” 

“I don’t.” 

Sanji scowled, but his face softened as he met Zoro’s eyes again. “I hate you,” he said, yet again. 

Zoro’s chest hurt. “I know.” 

Sanji was silent. He soon stood again, using the ship railing for support this time. “Want something to eat?” 

“Booze.” 

~ 

Zoro didn’t hate Sanji, but he hated the way Sanji spun hearts around women, and acted so stupid with them. He hated how Sanji spoke to him, and refused to make eye contact, and did his best to put contempt behind every word. Even now, Sanji was crooning over Robin, the suspicious woman who was their newest crewmate. 

“Oh, Cook-san,” she said as he melted before her. “Have you met your soulmate?” 

For an instant, Zoro thought he saw Sanji look at him. 

“Yes, unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out,” Sanji said sweetly. “And you haven’t, Robin-chan, my dear?” 

“Correct. But that’s my business.” 

“Of course, of course, forgive me,” Sanji crooned. He turned, Robin watching him go with one dark eye and one light, and he bumped into Zoro. 

“The fuck do you want?” he muttered, avoiding looking directly at him, as always. 

“Nothing,” Zoro said, rolling his eyes. Sanji pushed past him and went into the kitchen, slamming the door shut. Zoro spotted Robin staring at him and raised an eyebrow. “What?” 

“Nothing,” she said, looking away. 

Zoro didn’t hate Sanji, but he hated that Sanji didn’t love hated him. 

~ 

There Zoro was, waking up from Enel’s lightning blast, and there Sanji was close to him, still unconscious. He stared at him for what must have been too long, because suddenly Usopp was saying, “He got hit twice. He saved me and Nami.” 

“Oh,” Zoro said. He scooted towards Sanji and pressed his ear to his chest, sighing when he heard the arrhythmic heartbeat. Looking up, he saw Usopp staring at him, and said, “What?” 

Usopp rolled his eyes and looked away. Zoro looked back at Sanji’s face, and brushed some ash out of his hair, his fingers lingering on his cheek. 

~ 

Something happened during the Davy Back Fight. Something happened to Sanji. The way he looked at Zoro when he asked for his help during the Groggy Ring battle, with that stupid ball strapped to his head. The way he slapped Zoro’s shoulders and back during the following celebration party. The way he gave Zoro tentative smiles, as if testing the waters, and the silly way he grinned when Zoro smiled back. 

“I hate you,” Sanji said that evening, joining Zoro in the crow’s nest that evening with a bottle of wine. 

“Yeah,” Zoro said, looking away. He and Sanji were still covered in bruises from their battle, dark and light patches across their limbs and torsos. 

“But I also don’t hate you.” 

“Oh?” Zoro’s heart lifted as he looked at Sanji, his chest hurting again but in a completely different way. 

“Yeah. Do you hate me?” 

“No.” Zoro took the offered bottle, taking a drink straight from the mouth. “I never did.” 

“Huh.” Sanji looked down, blinking hard, and brought a hand up to his suddenly bright eyes. “Huh. Is that so?” 

“What’s up with you?” 

Sanji looked up, swallowing back tears. “You’re just a grade-A moron, aren’t you?” 

“I’m not psychic. What are you talking about?” 

“Keep the bottle.” Sanji stood. “I’ll come to relieve you in time. See you.” 

He vanished down the ropes, and Zoro lifted his head, staring up at the dark, dark sky covered in pale, pale dots. 

~ 

With their journey through Enies Lobby and Water 7 complete, the Strawhats had lost three treasured crewmates, one for good, and gained three, one brand-new. It wasn’t long before Franky and Robin were performing public displays of affection, nothing more daring than pecks on the cheek and yet things that once would have surely driven Sanji to tears with jealousy. As it was, though, he merely gave them thoughtful glances at most. 

“Aren’t you soulmates?” Usopp asked them one day as Zoro lingered nearby and Sanji served them cold drinks, setting Robin’s down lovingly upon a coaster and slamming Franky’s into his hand. 

“We’re not sure,” Robin admitted. Her eyes hadn’t changed from the moment she had threatened them in the glow of the remains of Igaram’s ship: One was light, and one was dark. 

“I had to rebuild my eyes while modifying my body,” Franky explained. “It’s a shame, but I don’t remember the exact colors they were. In any case, since they’re super-artificial and the same color, they wouldn’t change with eye contact.” 

“So, we’re not sure,” Robin repeated. “But we love each other, and if he’s not my soulmate and I meet them one day, they’ll have to put up with him as well.” 

“What do you mean, put up with?” Franky demanded. 

Zoro stared at Sanji from across the deck, looking away as soon as he noticed. 

~ 

Thriller Bark brought them a zany new member of the family, a talking skeleton who was older than dirt and far too cheery. Thriller Bark brought them a dangerous new enemy, a Warlord with the ability to repel just about anything. Thriller Bark brought them a Zoro who claimed to have lost his memory of his fight with Kuma, but who remembered the sleeping face of his captain, the cold eyes of his enemy, and the desperate, pained face of his . . . 

Zoro thought he had finally escaped. Between Chopper trying to mummify him in bandages and the others badgering him to take it easy, he thought he had found refuge in the library, where no one would think to look for him. He lay on his back, pedalling his feet in the air to stretch his legs, as he’d been unable to sneak his weights into the room without drawing attention to himself. 

“There you are.” 

He groaned and dropped his legs as Sanji entered. “Can’t I have peace for one minute?” he said, sitting up. He frowned, seeing Sanji’s face. “What is it?” 

“I don’t hate you,” Sanji said. 

“Oh,” Zoro said, his chest hurting in that good way just hearing the words. “Right. And?” 

“I tried to hate you, Zoro. I really did.” Sanji sat next to him, staring at the floor. “I didn’t want to feel this way about you. I wanted to feel this way about a pretty girl. But I can’t help it. Zoro, I love you. You’re a fucking callous moron, and I don’t know if you love me, too, but---fuck, you have every right not to after the way I’ve treated---” 

“I do love you.” 

Sanji looked up at him, lips parted and breath shallow. “But you---” 

“I love you,” Zoro repeated. “You’ve always been a bitch, but that was the only thing---I can’t help it.” He looked down, wiggling his toes on the floor and staring at the scars on his shins. “I think I’ve loved you for a while. Maybe since I realized the only thing I really hated about you was that you didn’t love me.” 

“But I do love you. I really tried not to,” Sanji repeated, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “I can’t help it, either. Especially with you spouting off those nasty words about not having a soulmate---” 

“I don’t have a soulmate.” 

“Fine. Whatever you say. But you love me, right?” 

Zoro nodded. 

“Then that works for me.” Sanji touched Zoro’s shoulder. “When you were . . . just lying there, unconscious . . . I realized I had to tell you as soon as you woke up. We live dangerous lives. I had to tell you as soon as possible.” 

Zoro smiled, placing his hand over Sanji’s on his shoulder, his heart soaring through the sky. “No regrets, right?” 

Sanji held Zoro’s cheek in one hand, looking him in the eyes. “No regrets.” 

~ 

Sabaody brought them turmoil, and a crew torn apart. The war brought them pain, and news of a bloodline with an early demise. 

The next two years brought them patience, and forced it upon them, day by day. 

~ 

Zoro spotted a familiar head of pale hair in the distance, and grinned, jumping off of the broken ship to stride towards him. 

“I liked you better without the goatee,” he said, stopping in front of Sanji. 

Sanji looked him up and down. “I liked you better with both your eyes.” 

They seized each other and hugged, hoping to never let go. 

~ 

It happened on what should have been an ordinary morning during their trip to Dressrosa. Kin’emon and Mononosuke were having what they called a “Private Father-Son Meeting” in the aquarium room, so everyone else was banned from it for the time being. Zoro and Sanji were sparring on the deck, testing their skills and banter honed after two years, and Luffy was hanging out next to Law on a railing. Nami was drawing maps in her room, Usopp was in his workshop, and Robin and Franky were at the bow, keeping an eye on the ship’s course. Chopper and Brook were cheering on Zoro and Sanji, alternating the names every so often, to their annoyance. 

Luffy leaned over to Law and whispered something, holding up something in his hand. Law took it, nodded, and raised his hand. In an instant, Zoro and Sanji fell over, caught off-balance. 

“What did you do?” Chopper exclaimed as they sat up, shaking their heads. 

“Oh me, oh my, we’re stuck in this situation again,” Brook remarked. “Why did you do that, Law-san?” 

“I got paid,” Law said, flashing the coin at him. 

Two yells echoed across the deck. Used to this, no one was drawn out from inside the ship, and Robin and Franky stayed at the bow with barely a glance behind them. 

“Why is it so bright?!” Zoro in Sanji’s body yelled, covering his eyes. “Do you guys see this all the time?!” 

“Law, swap us back right now,” Sanji in Zoro’s body snapped. “I think I gave this idiot a concussion. I can’t see any color.” 

“Of course you can’t, I’m color blind,” Zoro said. He rubbed his eyes, staring at Sanji in his body. “Is that what I look like?” 

“Wait, what?” Luffy said, coming over with Chopper and Brook. Law hung back, folding his arms and leaning against the railing

“Is that what I look like?” Zoro repeated. “What color is my hair?” 

“Green,” Sanji said. 

“Wait, that’s besides the point!” Chopper exclaimed. “You’re color blind?!” 

“Yeah,” Zoro said. “Did it never come up?” 

“No!” Sanji exclaimed. “No, it didn’t!” 

“What’s the big deal? I’ve never needed to see color to get by.” Zoro stared at his hands and stood, looking around and taking in the colors of his crewmates. “Someone get me a mirror. I wanna see the cook.” 

Brook dug around in his pockets while Luffy laughed. “No wonder you never got why Sanji calls you moss-hair!” 

“Why?” Zoro said. 

“Your hair’s the same color as moss!” 

Zoro gave Sanji a look as Brook passed him a small handheld mirror. As he studied himself (or rather, Sanji) in the mirror, Sanji stood and stared at him, blinking. 

“Zoro,” he said. “Pass me that mirror when you’re done.” 

“Sure. What color are your eyes?” 

“I’m going to talk to you about this later,” Chopper threatened. Luffy wandered away again to bother Law, Zoro too absorbed in the new spectrum available to him to pay much attention. 

“They’re blue,” Sanji said. “Light blue. And my hair’s yellow. Blonde.” 

“Huh.” Zoro twisted the mirror this way and that. “It’s pretty.” 

“Give it!” 

Zoro handed him the mirror, and Sanji stood next to him, staring at his (Zoro’s) one eye and his (Sanji’s) one visible one. 

“Oh,” he said. “Oh, Zoro.” 

He passed the mirror back to Brook and pulled Zoro by the hand up to the stern to have more privacy. As soon as they were alone, he looked at Zoro, opened his mouth, and started laughing. 

“What?” Zoro said, annoyed. 

“Zoro,” Sanji said, his eye starting to tear up. “I thought this whole time you were just obtuse, or plain rude. But you literally didn’t see it.” 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Your eyes---rather, eye, is silver. Grey,” Sanji said, pointing. 

“Huh,” Zoro said, staring his body in the eye. “Looks the same as before.” 

“Exactly.” Sanji wiped at the tears threatening to spill down his cheek. “Zoro, I used to have one blue eye and one silver eye. Before we met, you had one silver eye, and one blue eye.” 

“Before we met?” 

“Zoro.” Sanji took his hands, grinning. “We’re soulmates. You didn’t notice because my eye color looks the same as yours in monochrome.” 

“I . . . what?” 

“I was so angry. Not just because I wanted my soulmate to be a girl---I thought you were pretending to not notice, or you were really that stupid. But you just didn’t see.” 

“Oh.” Reeling, Zoro stared at Sanji, staring at that one grey eye. “Oh. That. Does that matter?” 

“You had no idea we were soulmates. You didn’t see it, and also, you’re an idiot.” Sanji leaned into Zoro’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around him. “I knew, and I tried to hate you, but I couldn’t. I think I would’ve fallen for you even if I was color blind, or just blind. It doesn’t matter.” 

“Right.” Zoro hugged Sanji back, and they stood in silence for a minute. Then--- 

“Let’s get that dick to change us back,” Sanji said, pulling away. He grinned, the wide smile odd on Zoro’s face. “It’s weird hugging myself. Are you going to miss colors?”

“Nah. It’s too bright.” Zoro held his hand. “And I’ve never needed color anyway.” 

[ghostlycreatoruniverse]

Dabi and the awkward black ballon: a narrative comparison between Touya Todoroki and Vinsmoke Sanji

Hello everyone!

I’m really thrilled about this whole situation , I can’t stop coming up with ideas!

This is about Dabi, Hawks and the black balloon. I’m making this post because I’m totally convinced that Dabi hadn’t tell Hawks he was Touya Todoroki. He might have said something that implied it, but I think that this is not all he told to Hawks. I’ll try to cover others possibility in another post, but to consolidate my position I wants to draw another comparison.

This time is between Dabi and Black Leg Sanji from Eiichiro Oda’s great masterpiece: One Piece.

One Piece is a worldwide famous and one of the most important and best sellers manga of this generation. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not: at some point if your life if you like mangas you’re bound to hear One Piece sooner or later.

For those who never read/ disliked it, Black Leg Sanji is one of the main crew character and soon after his introduction he haunted fans with one question: who he really is?

In years hints became gradually more important; however One Piece is full of adventure and emotional moments so you’re bound to forget about it from time to time... just to be reminded that he’s hiding something.

I don’t know what Horikoshi thinks about One Piece, but I think he should know one or two things about it at least . Oda is considered one hell of a mangaka, being able to tie plot lines among the years, so if I were Horikoshi I’d give a look at One Piece to take inspiration. You have to consider this is a good way to avoid having a copycat event in two mangas published on the same magazine.

I’ll explain briefly who Sanji is.

Sanji is the cook of the Straw Hat pirates and he was (almost forcibly) recruited by Luffy before they entering in the Grand Line making him one of the first nakama.

He was introduced with the nickname “Black Leg”, inherited by his boss who raised him like father ( “Red Leg Zeff”). Zeff tried to assault the cruise ship Sanji was working on as a kid, but they both shipwrecked. When they were saved Zeff took Sanji they met Luffy.

In One Piece names are extremely important, but back then readers really hasn’t that feeling and before Sanji, both Nami and Usopp didn’t have a family name. So no one was impressed.

The first foreshadowing something was off happens around Skypeia arc. In fact all the first straw hat pirates (Zoro, Nami and Usopp) were said to be from East blue, thus everyone thought Sanji was too. However after finding a book Nami never heard of, Sanji gave a brief recap adding casually he was from North Blue instead .

A recurring fun gag about him is that when he finally gained his wanted poster an awful drawing of him was placed instead of his photo. Later on another character was introduced: Duval, who is the spit image of the bleak drawing. As funny as it can be, Duval was persecuted for many time, guaranteeing Sanji wasn’t found.

The biggest red herring Sanji gave was around chapters 480+. In front an honourable yet powerful enemy, Sanji was ready to sacrifice his life for his captain’s sake , underlining that he is someone important due to his background.

After that many theories were edited. And this went on for YEARS.

Until, chapter 800+. Around thst arc we finally get to know his full name and backstory. Vinsmoke Sanji was the third male son of a fallen aristocratic family. He had 3 brothers and one sister, an abusive father and a mother who was locked away in a medical facilities. In fact when she was pregnant, her husband forced on her some scientific experiment to turn their kids in the “perfect soldiers” stripping out every sign of humanity from them. She, trying to save her children for this bleak fate, took a medicine to inverse the process. In the end only Sanji was spared and had a kind heart, while she had a chronic illness that few years later killed her. Sanji then was considered a failure by his own father , enough to fake his own death and putting him in a jail. He then escaped to East Blue thanks to his sister who helped him.

Now, Enji seems to be a loving father when compared to Vinsmoke Judge.

Despite Sanji and Dabi’s story being quite similar , what I want to point out it’s the timing.

Oda foreshadowed this for years and gradually. And when the time was about to come, he added even more details to build Sanji’s great revelation. Once it was declared he was a Vinsmoke there was no turning back and all of his past was known in the following chapters. Of course it took some time to develop it all, but Vinsmokes were brand new characters, while Todoroki are very well known, so I expected Touya’s past to be introduced soon after his revelation, like it happened.

My main concern is... why.

Horikoshi chose an approach similar to Oda.

He show us Todoroki siblings one after another. He hinted Touya had a powerful fire type quirk, yet his body couldn’t stand it. He hinted about his death even before Natsuo spoke about it openly, having Fuyumi praying in one panel. In My Villain Academia he inserted baby Fuyumi’s panel. When Dabi was first introduced he spoke like Shoto does and he made clear he wanted to keep his name a secret. We then were reminded that nobody knew who Dabi was, but instead he was thinking about family and hold a personally grudge against Todorokis.

And that’s was fine! It was exactly like Sanji’s and to be expected.

in chapter 267 at the peak of drama the big black balloon happened. I was both intrigued and excited about it because it was something different and new when compared with the iconic One Piece. And so I guessed that we would have to wait a lot of time before knowing the truth. Then chapter 290 happened.

Now, if you compared Sanji’s reveal with Touya’s reveal your noticed that Sanji took years since his first introduction. The most significant and last foreshadowing can be considered his wanted poster, which after Dressrosa arc finally had his picture and full name on it, with the status of “wanted only alive”.

The huge unnerving block balloon was like Sanji’s poster: the moment everyone saw it they thought Dabi said “I’m Touya” as much as everyone said “Sanji’s theory about being some sort of prince/ son of an important family it’s true”.

And it works! Because the moment we knew Touya was Dabi we would have wanted to know how Touya turned into Dabi, as much as what happened to Sanji.

What it doesn’t sound right it why hiding that dialogue with a black ballon in chapter 267 to give us the truth only 6 months later when One Piece took his own sweet time with Sanji.

To me this makes absolutely no sense at all.

But Horikoshi decided differently than One Piece. And illogically.

The only way this would actually makes any sense is if Dabi said something else to Hawks. Or rather: what if he said he was Touya but with another meaning? With last chapters we were overloading with new informations about Dabi/ Touya. So the black balloon isn’t that interesting to us anymore. And conveniently Hawks is out of the games for the moment, so we don’t expect him to say something about it. It might be argued that we don’t need to, not anymore.

However after that sentence which took and entire panel Hawks should have something to say, and he can’t bothered the reader with something we already know.

This comparison ties perfectly with Anakin
Skywalker’s: in fact after years it was Sanji’s turned to be talked about. His identity moved One Piece’s story one arc forward.

Instead about Anakin... audience didn’t really need his backstory. It was something you wanted to know, but the story could have worked just fine: you just needed to know Vader was Luke’s father to understand why he saved the Jedi at the cost of his own life.

I thus expect we’ll dig up more into Dabi’s past in the following arcs; no, I’m not delusion: Dabi being Touya won’t move the plot much forward aside from the hero society being totally ruined. And neither will end the Todorokis drama.

The situation is dire, of course, and heroes will have it hard. But still, society needs heroes so they can’t just give up on them. Things will change and won’t change at the same time cause even in the worst case scenario, in which Endeavor and Hawks will stop working and all heroes are fired someone needs to take a stand against Shigaraki.

Touya’s death instead might give another push forward, giving the Todoroki arc a deserved ending.

Bear in mind that this doesn’t mean Dabi can’t die. He totally can. But if into Touya’s death a secret lies this can be useful for upcoming future arcs, even if I doubt Dabi will die here and now.

[plume8now]

SanUso 39. “I can’t do this on my own” 😭👌🏻

Thank you for your ask! Hope you like it, it can be seen as brotp or ship~ Thank you @petite-neko for correcting this prompt!

Warning: this is post-Whole Cake Island. 

“Putain de bordel de merde!”

Half of the crew froze on the deck when this scream of pure frustration came out of the kitchen.

Zoro’s nap did not seem to be disturbed the least, and Robin did not look like she was willing to look away from her book – as if it was just ‘another’ trouble among many others on the Thousand Sunny she just could afford to ignore. On the other side of the boat, Brook, Franky and Jinbei were obviously too busy having a debate on the different degrees and stages of humour, especially since Big Mom’s former crewmate clearly kept trying to prove his point through ‘jokes’ no one ever understood.

Luffy and Chopper stopped fighting over the fish they just caught for a second, and the Straw Hat doctor would probably have checked on Sanji if Luffy did not try to swallow what Chopper qualified as an ‘extremely poisonous’ fish. Not that the Future Pirate King could be affected by that, but if that could avoid having a Captain complaining about his stomach for the next twenty-four hours. Plus, it was not as if ingesting poison, even when one was immune to it, was a particularly good idea.

Nami was busy taking care of her orange trees, and Usopp was having his usual daily talk with his ‘baby plants’ when the cook… exploded. Truth was, it wasn’t the first, and probably not the last time this week.

“You should go,” Nami told the snipper.

“Me?” Usopp asked, disconcerted. “Didn’t you just hear-”

“Well yeah, I did,” she didn’t even bother looking up. “That’s why I said you should go.”

“Why not you? I’m sure you’d do a better job-“

“I don’t know how to fix things like you. And Franky’s already busy, so…”

“Fix things?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what it is about. I’ve seen Luffy playing with the mixer, two days ago… I’m actually surprised it lasted that long.”

Usopp glanced at Luffy. Their eyes met, and his idiot Captain grinned and waved at him, with this innocent look on his face, as if he had never done anything wrong in his entire life.

“Alright, but if that’s not it-“

“That’s it.”

Usopp sighed.

XxX

When Usopp arrived at the kitchen, he expected the cook to be as angry as his scream implied merely a few seconds ago. Instead, the young man only found the kitchen apparently empty. With a few more steps, however, his eyes fell to his nakama sitting on the floor, as if life had lost all its meaning. On his face was the expression of a man who had given up all hope as he sat there on the floor.

“Hm-“ Usopp muttered. “You need anything?”

If he didn’t know his friend any better, Usopp would have thought he’d scared Sanji, somehow. The cook’s body contracted, and, upon seeing his nakama, seemed to relax a bit.

“Nah,” he said, then paused. “I don’t know, maybe. That damn machine’s broken. It’s- it’s useless. I… can’t do this on my own.”

He pointed at the mixer – of course Nami was right. He looked like he wanted to add something, but prevented himself from doing so at the very last second. 

After taking a look at it, and spending half of the afternoon swearing and cursing Luffy – who knew what he did with that thing – probably tried to make some fish with it or something, like the damn idiot that he is – Usopp finally was able to fix it. In the meantime, Sanji spent his time behind him, trying to help and see what he could do, in vain. Whenever he asked “Can’t I do something?” Usopp replied “No thanks, just be patient.” To his “Are you sure this is fine?” the snipper started to lose patience, but never gave in.

Yet, something felt wrong.

Sanji wouldn’t react like that. It wasn’t like him to just, act like… like Luffy would. There was a nuance, though- Luffy would have been immensely annoying because he was bored, probably. Sanji’s voice was stained with worry.

“All done now,” Usopp declared.

Sanji smiled and thanked him. He then went for a cigarette, and unsuccessfully tried to light it. His hands were shaking. Without giving it any thought, Usopp put his hand on his, and in a slow, soft movement, put his matches and cigarette away.

“Luffy played with it,” he said, after a while. “That’s why it wasn’t working.”

He couldn’t see Sanji’s eyes, and he knew it was probably for the best for the cook. It wasn’t unusual that one of them would get a sudden anxiety attack or something of the sort. He did not really know much about it – but he’d seen them before. Hell, he was the King of anxiety. He knew how stress and PTSD worked.

And Sanji had been back only recently. Everything that happened on the Whole Cake Island – was so violently marked and present in his mind. The snipper was actually impressed by his nakama’s strength.

He remembered how they all hugged when he came back.

He remembered how tight his embrace had been. How warm – how needy it was. There was a strong thirst for affection and support, and they all provided it to him the best they could.

“It was broken,” he continued. “But now it’s okay. Everything’s fine. Nothing’s completely broken, anyway, as long as it’s here, there’s still a use.”

Sanji tensed, and Usopp just went for it. After a few seconds, he felt Sanji’s arm sliding on his back, and the man finally returned the hug he offered.

 “We’re all happy that you can use that mixer again, Sanji,” he muttered. “Can you imagine how it would have been, if Luffy had kept trying to make fish dishes with it?”

There was a soft chuckle coming out of the cook, and a reassuring warmth spread through the snipper’s body.

“This kitchen would be a catastrophe without me,” Sanji’s soft, broken voice answered.

 “Yeah,” Usopp happily replied, his eyes slightly wet.