Hey! Feels like it's been a while since I've written a multi-chapter story… so I hope this one turns out good. I'll try to update as often as possible but with exams at school I don't know how often I can. But luckily, summer is in just a few weeks so I can do more updates then.
This story is based sometime between Fishman Island and Punk Hazard.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of its characters.
Warning: cursing and violence
Sanji woke up slowly, a pounding headache spreading through his head. He frowned at the darkness of the room and blinked a few times in hopes of seeing better, but it didn't work. As more awareness came back to him, he realized his hands were shackled to the wall behind him.
"What the hell?" he muttered, giving the shackles a light tug. They rattled quietly and the sounds echoed off the walls. He wasn't quite sure how he got to this strange place or where this was, all he remembers was arriving on a small island... He and Zoro were walking through the town for supplies… and then he woke up here. Speaking of which.
"Hey marimo, are you here?" he called out into the darkness.
"Shut up shit-cook, I'm trying to sleep," he grumbled from somewhere to Sanji's left.
"Now isn't really the time for that dumbass," Sanji rattled the shackles a little for emphasis.
"Huh?" Zoro grunted, probably noticing the handcuffs for the first time. Idiot.
"Where are we?" Sanji could hear the marimo tugging on his own set of restraints.
"How would I know?" Sanji rolled his eyes. A silence settled over them as Sanji tried to work out how they did end up wherever this was. He went over what he could remember several times in hope of recalling something, anything new, but nothing happened. He growled under his breath in frustration. All Sanji wanted was a smoke to calm his nerves, but he couldn't even have that with his hands shackled behind his back as they were.
At that moment, the door gave a creak and pushed open, allowing a beam of light to shine into the room around the person standing in the doorway, a large and burly man.
"Heh, you two sure are unlucky," the one in front snickered, walking into the room.
"Who the hell are you?" Zoro growled, glaring up at the man.
"The warden. Now that you two are up, I'll explain how things work around here. First-"
"Where is here?" Sanji interrupted. The man's eyes narrowed for a moment.
"The prison of this island. It's not very well known, hell, the admirals didn't even bother to name it… But trust me, it's a good prison. You'll both really enjoy yourselves here," he sneered. Sanji scoffed at the man
"I'm sure we will," Zoro smirked. The man glared down at them.
"Anyway… I'll send some wardens to bring you two to your permanent cell later. This will be your cell until then. It is completely inescapable, so don't get any ideas." He looked proudly around the dark room. Now that the room was lit, Sanji could see the room was actually quite dingy. The walls and floors were covered in a thick layer of grime and a few cobwebs occupied the corners. Sanji scrunched his nose at the disgusting place.
"Yea, who would even want to escape a place this great?" Sanji said, sarcasm dripping from every word. The man clenched his fists, and looked for a moment like he might punch Sanji, but relaxed and fixed the blonde with an ugly sneer.
"And about things work around here, well, you'll figure it out soon enough," then he left the room, the closed door plunging it back into darkness.
"I need to find my swords," Zoro said.
"We need to escape first," Sanji scoffed.
"Well it can't be that hard, we've been in worse situations," Zoro said. Of course they have, but that didn't mean it would be easy. Possible, definitely, but easy? Probably not.
"It's kind of hard with our hands in these cuffs," Sanji frowned. He could hear Zoro tugging at the chains probably attempting to break him. Sanji sighed in annoyance. The marimo may be strong, but there was no way he could break through metal with his bare hands.
"Cut it out marimo, it won't work."
"Shut up. You don't know that," Zoro growled. But before he had time to prove himself right or wrong, a large group of wardens came in to bring them to their permanent cell. It took at least five of them to control Zoro even though they'd left their handcuffs on. Sanji smirked. Only two were escorting him.
Sanji easily yanked himself free from the two wardens' grasps and kicked them both in the head, slamming them into the walls on either side. Some of the others who had been walking along with them. He managed to knock down three more of the men before they could grab him. He growled in annoyance. He couldn't escape with the handcuffs restraining his movements, but he was sure there would be more chances.
A few minutes later, they arrived at a much larger cell. This one only had bars walling it off from the hallway and barred off windows on the opposite wall allowing in some light. There were a few other prisoners sitting around in this cell and a few looked up disinterestedly when they were brought in. Once inside the cell, the guards removed their handcuffs but left before they had time to try to escape.
"Damn it," Sanji cursed, glaring at the guards as they walked off. He'd almost escaped…
"Pansy, you couldn't even get away from that?" Zoro snickered.
"Shut up marimo! It's harder to kick with my hands behind my back," Sanji snapped.
"Why? You don't need your hands to kick."
"I do to balance dumbass!"
"Stupid cook!"
"Marimo!" they lunged at each other, Zoro attacking with his fists and Sanji with his feet, all the while slinging insults at each other.
Once they got tired of fighting, they stood panting and glaring at each other before sitting down on opposite ends of the room. Sanji huffed in annoyance, looking disdainfully across at Zoro.
"Hey." Sanji looked over in the direction of the voice. It was an old looking man with long graying hair and a beard to match. He was hunched over on scrawny limbs and Sanji felt anger bubble inside of him as he noticed signs of starvation.
"You shouldn't waste your energy like that," the man chuckled in a raspy voice.
"Why?" Sanji frowned at the man.
"The guards here are pretty cruel, you'll need all the energy you can get to handle them," the man explained.
"Ok, I'll keep that in mind," Sanji nodded. He knew that he and Zoro would also need to conserve their energy in order to escape. Pointless fighting wouldn't do them any good. Sanji looked across the room at the swordsman. But he pisses me off so much…
"And another thing," Sanji turned his head back to the man as he started to speak.
"Just do what the wardens say. Everything will be better for you if you just listen," he said, with wide fearful eyes. Sanji nodded, though he really had no intention of following that particular piece of advice. He never accomplished anything by just staying quiet and doing what others said, and that certainly wouldn't help him escape this place.
He just had to wait for the right chance. Though he knew that after what happened earlier, the wardens would be more careful around him. But one of them would make a mistake eventually, and then he could take advantage of that.
Thanks for reading, and please review if you can! :)