Daily Trifles
A/N: This is my prompt exchange challenge fic once again for Unattainable Dreams.
My prompt was: "There is no coming to consciousness without pain."—Carl Jung
As to this piece itself I had been thinking about One Piece a lot and this tasty morsel of a prompt fell in my lap who am I to deny fate? Please don't kill me for being out of character! And R & R for my first splash into One Piece fanfiction! Small edits 11.12.16
Everything hurts. Those are always my first thoughts when I wake up. I don't think that stupid love cook realizes that though as he's always trying to shove piping hot soup down my throat as soon as my eyes are open. I can feel Chopper doing something to my arm as I come around. My left arm doesn't quite feel connected to the rest of my body yet. I knew that fight had been a tough one and carrying Nami with my shoulder cut up as bad as it was hadn't really been a good idea. But I couldn't expect that stupid love cook to do it with his ass being knocked out. Necessity calls for absurdly manly shows of strength.
"How is everyone?" I hated the way my voice sounded I could tell just from the sound of it I had been out for at least a day. Hopefully Luffy hadn't needed my help in that time. We hadn't expected to run into pirates so low that they would hook up with bounty hunters in an ambush. Let alone find out both were working with the local Navy, who were obviously corrupt. It had been one very messey little island. Luckily we had already restocked before the ambush and from the subtle rocking beneath my body we were back on The Sunny.
"Everyone else is fine but you shouldn't move much. You're lucky you still have your arm." Chopper told me gently pushing me back down with a hoof. Sanji had long ago given up on the soup and was trying to push water at me. "They weren't as banged up as you were. What happened back there?" It was an innocent question but somehow even coming from someone as innocent as Chopper it felt loaded.
I sighed mentally ignoring the way that stupid love cook looked at me. I could see dread in his eyes. It disgusted me I wasn't sure why he thought keeping the fact we were sleeping together secret was best, but he did. It was what almost got us killed as Nami would have caught us if not for the damned ambush and that was more of a concern to him. "I wasn't quite as on guard as I should have been." It wasn't a lie as my hand had been down a certain cook's pants and my tongue trying to find his tonsils when we had been attacked and Nami had come running just as I drew my swords.
"I can understand that. That island was something else." Chopper shook his tiny head and I could almost hear the disappointment in his voice. It had been a very poor place to be with so much inbreeding that deformities were abundant. Deformities that proper medical attention would have helped and probably prevented. After a short pause allowing Sanji to force liquids down my gullet he went on. "You're restricted to bed rest for a few days but your arm will take much longer to heal. I might have to have Frankie think up a few joint replacement parts for you." He joked before nodding to the love cook and excusing himself a little more briskly than usual. Probably to give the cook a minute alone with me. They'd been trading looks since I first opened my eyes.
"Look I'm sorry." I said before the blonde could open his mouth again doing my best to get comfortable without moving my left arm. It wasn't as painful as I knew it would have been if it weren't for Chopper. Pain and I were good friends but I couldn't stand seeing the pain in his eyes as he looked at me now. Pain from what I wasn't sure.
"You have nothing to apologize for." Sanji smiled softly running a finger through my hair, something he only did when he was feeling slightly affectionate. We were sleeping together not lovers after all, something I had to remind myself of constantly. Another reason he wanted to keep this secret. I was the only one with any real feelings involved. "You saved my life and Nami's too." He paused his lips held tight as he looked over at his still steaming soup probably thinking of how to make me eat it. It isn't that his cooking is bad but pain and food are not friends like pain and I are friends. Instead of picking the soup up like I thought he would he leaned over placing a chaste kiss to my forehead whispering softly. "I told them everything, I'm not going to risk putting your life in danger again to hide the fact I happen to be fucking madly in love with you."
I blinked, thought for a moment, blinked again and then I turned my flabbergasted expression towards the stupid love cook. This must be a hallucination from pain, or the pain medication Chopper had no doubt given me. "You what?" Was the only semi intelligent thing that would come out of my mouth. Unlike the questions I really wanted to ask like told who what? Even though I knew the answer. And a question that I wasn't sure I was ready to face.
"Don't be a dolt Marimo" Even though I couldn't see it I knew he was rolling his beautiful blue eyes at me behind his hair he'd conveniently moved to cover them as he continued to speak. "I don't want to continue like this we've been sleeping together for the better part of a year now. At first I thought this might endanger the crew since you're a hot head and I'm emotional. But it hasn't and I don't want to hide anymore." As he finished he looked down at me with sincerity and a veiled look in his eyes, one that I had seen more than a handful of times before he slipped from my hammock. After a few short minutes I could hear his foot tapping lightly, a bad habit he had picked up in the sick bay from not being able to smoke in there. Finally after another minute he exploded. "Well say something! Don't you feel anything at all about this?"
I smiled at him taking his hand in my good one bringing it to my lips to kiss it softly. "How did they take it?" It was the only thing I could think to say. I had never wanted to hide the fact I had somehow fallen in love with the stupid cook. And I wasn't going to regret about it coming out either.
"Just like you always told me they would. Luffy smiled and asked me why I hadn't told him so sooner so we could have had a feast to celebrate. The ladies giggled like it had been the most obvious thing in the world to them. Our resident liar refused to comment while Chopper asked him what it all meant. Brook and Frankie attempted to pull me aside and give me tips. Which I declined." Sanji took a seat on the bed next to me adamantly ignoring the growing din from above that was likely Luffy's dinner rampage.
"Sounds like we were the only ones who thought it was secret." I smiled crookedly I had a feeling that would be the case but I didn't want to jeopardize what we had based on that. Just as I had thought when he was ready Sanji had told them himself. "So you love me?" I added smiling a bit less crookedly and more boyishly I didn't think it would make me this happy to hear him say it.
"I guess so." Sanji answered with a another well placed kiss and we passed the time in silence still ignoring the din upstairs. I figured if Sanji was willing to ignore it I could to and it was getting harder to stay awake as pale fingers began to brush through my hair lightly. Before I knew it the blonde was beside me in the bed carefully tucked close to me. Several minutes passed before we spoke again. Words just weren't that important between us. "You should eat." He said at length his fingers continuing their soothing actions.
"I'll eat later." I promised him closing my eyes slowly being lulled to sleep. There were still plenty of things to talk about but they could wait. I knew that the next time I woke up everything would still hurt, but only physically and somehow that made it that much easier to drift away.