Title: Saved
Characters: Sanji + Zoro
Word count: 629
Sanji wasn't sure how long he'd been in that room. It felt like months, but it could have been days. There were no windows, only one door—and meals were brought so sparingly that he had no way to grasp a sense of time.
His arms were tied up above his head, chained to the wall. His legs, locked into much heavier and stronger locks on the floor. It was uncomfortable, he was always in a sitting position. His joints had long since gone stuff, and pained to move in a slightly different position.
He had started to go delirious with blood loss, dehydration and malnutrition. That should have been a key give away that he'd been there for a while but he was having a hard time grasping things. Sanji hadn't started to hallucinate yet, but one more beating from his captors may end up changing that situation.
Head lolled against his arm, Sanji let out a whimper followed by a hysterical—scratchy—laugh. He was beginning to think that Luffy and the crew were never coming. That they'd left him here to stave and bleed to death.
A sob wrecked through him unexpectantly at that thought. That everyone had left him to die here, not coming to rescue him. Had he been more coherent, he would have realized that it was a stupid thought to have. That his nakama would never abandon him.
The lock on the door of his room opened and his head whipped up in fear. He thought they were coming back, coming back to beat him and break him down. To try and make him talk about a subject he couldn't even remember.
As the door opened, he tried in vain to move as far away from it as he could—to get closer to his wall. His legs shackles clanged noisily against the rock beneath him.
"No, no, no," he slurred out, shaking his chains as he heard the hurried footsteps run to him.
He felt calloused hands grab his wrists, and the locks around one of his hands be undone. There may have been words spoken, but he was too terrified to notice. His arm slipped down, making him let out a scream of pain, startling the one hurting him. Sanji's limbs had not been moved from that position in so long, they should have been slowly coaxed back down into a resting position.
The sobs and tears that flowed out of him were shameless. He made no effort to fight the man as he started to undo the other wrist, and simply waited for the pain he was still experiencing in his right arm to double into his left.
His left was slowly extracted from the shackles, and a soothing hand rubbed along his muscles as it was slowly brought down to his side. It hurt—it still hurt, but not nearly enough to make him scream again.
The gentleness caused him to glance up at the person in front of him, confused as to why they would even attempt to not hurt him. When he finally took in his facial features, he was startled.
His tears slowed down as he soaked in the straight nose, strong jaw, golden ear rings and green hair.
Zoro had come to save him.
Now that he focused, he could hear the voices of the rest of the crew in the hallway. His nakama were here—here to save him.
"Sanji," He heard Zoro speak. His voice was so full of relief that it floored him. The tears started a new, and he watched the worried look that he never thought he'd see on the swordmans face morph into concern.
He hoped this wasn't a hallucination that had set in early.
Because deep down he knew they'd come for him.