A/N: I keep writing really bittersweet stuff and idk.
Anyway, the lyrics used below are from the song "Euterpe" by supercell, but translated into English so that translations don't clutter up the story. Totally recommend listening to the song. I also kept listening to "Love & Roll" by supercell while
I wrote this. I recommend that one too but it's not essential to the story.
[Present—Sanji, Age 21]
Nami and Robin lounged on the ship's lawn, Zoro napped, Franky tinkered with something on the ship, Brook played some soft music, and Luffy, Usopp and Chopper played a little game together.
And Sanji was in the kitchen.
Overall, a typical day on the Thousand Sunny.
Nami hummed aloud as a thought entered her head. She stood up from her chair and called for everyone on the deck to gather around.
"Have you guys ever noticed that Sanji always carries around this folded piece of paper with him?"
"Now that you mention it..." Muttered Franky.
"I think I've seen it!" Shouted Chopper.
"I have," said Robin, returning to reading her book. "He usually keeps it in the inner pocket of his jacket."
"I've seen him checking the pocket a lot," said Usopp. "As if he were making sure that something was still there."
"I've never seen anything," said Luffy.
"That's cause you don't pay attention to things!" Shouted Nami. "Okay. So who else is curious?"
Usopp, Franky and Brook raised their hands. Nami looked at everyone else.
"I think," said Robin, "that if Cook-san doesn't want to tell us then we should leave it alone."
"I agree with Robin," said Chopper. "If he doesn't wanna tell us..."
"I don't care about whatever that shitty cook is hiding," said Zoro. "I'm going back to sleep."
"This is boring," whined Luffy as he rolled around in the grass. Nami sighed at her crewmates.
"So here's the plan," said Nami as she huddled with Usopp, Franky and Brook. The other members of the crew had resumed their previous activities. "Sanji takes off his jacket when he cooks and he puts in aside on one of the chairs. So we're gonna have
to sneak in and take the paper from the jacket and leave before he catches us."
"How do you expect us to do that?" Questioned Usopp.
"I'll distract him!" She said. "I'm counting on you three to do the rest." And with that, the navigator walked off, not leaving the others with any chance to protest.
The plan almost failed—almost. But it didn't. Nami had been able to distract the cook well enough to make up for the slip-ups of her other three crewmates. They sighed with relief once they were all back on the deck with the paper in their hands. As the
four sat down, they saw the rest of the crew start to gather around them—even Zoro!
"I thought you guys weren't curious!" Snapped Nami.
"Well, if you already have it..." Said Chopper. Nami sighed and unfolded the paper as everyone hovered over her. When it was opened they were confused to see a wanted poster. There was a woman on it—she had black hair, a smirk, and a cigarette hanging
between her lips. Underneath the picture sat her name, "Lilith", and her bounty, 100,000,000 beri. Which, in comparison to them, wasn't very much.
"I've heard of her," said Robin. "She's been very troublesome for the marines. It seems that she interferes in fights that don't involve her and stops them."
"She...stops the fights?" Asked Franky.
"They call her 'Peacekeeper Lilith'."
"But why would Sanji carry this wanted poster around with him everywhere?" Asked Nami. "It doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe he thinks she's cool," suggested Luffy, but that idea was quickly shut down by Nami. They all freeze when they hear a door open.
"Dinner's ready!" They hear Sanji shout to them. "What are you guys all huddled there for?" He asked them as he walked over to them. Everyone, except Luffy who didn't realize the situation that they were in, started to sweat.
"You guys are looking at something?" He asked. "Let me see." But before he could catch a glimpse of what they were looking at it, it was hidden behind Nami.
"Oh, Sanji, great timing!" Said Nami nervously. "I'm starving. Let's go eat." Sanji narrowed his eyes. They were all acting rather odd.
"Ah, Nami-san, but why won't you let me see that paper?" He asked her.
"Because it—it—it—was meant to be a surprise for you! Yea, so we didn't want you to see it yet!"
"Surprise for what?" Asked Sanji, still skeptical.
"For being such a great cook!" Said Usopp.
"Ah~ Nami-swan is so thoughtful~," Sanji said as he swooned. Nami let out a sigh of relief, unknowingly dropping her arm to her sides as she relaxed. Sanji took the opportunity to snatch the paper out of her hands because he knew how his wonderful Nami-san
normally acted, which was not how she was acting now, and he also knew a lie when he heard one.
He froze and his eyes widened when he caught sight of what was on the paper.
"Sanji...," hesitated Nami.
"Where did you get this?" He questioned, anger starting to rise in his voice, startling some of the crewmembers.
"We're sorry! We just got curious. Could you ever forgive me?" Nami asked with a pout. She made sure to bat her eyelashes at him—she always got him with that. But Sanji did not react the way she expected. He didn't twirl around and tell her that he would
always forgive her or that he loved how she apologized. She watched Sanji fold up the paper.
"Please don't go through my things without my permission," he said coldly and walked back to the kitchen without a second glance. The crew all shared looks of surprise.
"Okay," said Nami. "That was a first."
"Maybe we should have just left it alone," said Usopp.
"This just makes me all the more curious."
[5 Years Ago—Sanji, Age 16]
"I heard that we're going to be having entertainment tonight," said a man as he chopped up some carrots. The chefs of the Baratie were all busy preparing for the rush of customers that would appear at dinnertime—as usual. Sanji was no exception. Though
he was the youngest cook there, he still had to work just as hard as everyone else.
"Why?" Questioned Sanji. They had never had any form of entertainment for their customers before. So why now?
"Zeff said that it would help to bring in more customers."
"But we already have a lot of customers," said Sanji.
"I know," said the cook. Sanji furrowed his brow in confusion.
"Between us," spoke up another one of the cooks whose name was Patty, "I think Zeff just felt sorry for the poor girl. Though, I don't blame him. With that face she was making, I wouldn't have been able to turn her away either."
"Girl?" Asked Sanji.
"Yea. You haven't seen her?" Asked Patty. Sanji shook his head. "She appeared this morning and begged for us to give her work. And she just looked so downtrodden and alone. I suggested that we just have her wash dishes, but, instead, Zeff asked her what
she was good at. When she said that she could sing, he told her that she could be the entertainment for the night. I'm not sure how long he plans to keep her around, though. Or if she even plans on staying around for long."
Sanji nodded signaling to the man that he had been listening, but didn't say anything else. He hoped that he could catch at least a glance of her later that night—his curiosity had been piqued.
Sanji had been on his way back to the kitchen when he saw her. He watched her as she walked toward the center of the room, where there sat a grand piano. It had originally been upstairs in the cooks' sleeping quarters, but had been moved downstairs, with
a lot of work, in preparation for the girl.
As she walked, her feet seemed to barely touch the floor, which made it appear as if she was almost gliding. Her hair, which was black and fell in soft waves just below her shoulders, bounced with each step and the shimmering blue dress that she wore
swayed at the same pace. It was true that Patty had said 'girl' and not 'woman', but, still, he had expected someone older. This girl could not have been any older than him.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Zeff call his name. He rushed back to the kitchen, getting an insult ready for the older man.
Sanji was glad that he had been sent right back out with a few more orders. He would linger for longer than he normally would, he thought, so that he could hear her sing. Once he heard the first words leave her lips, he was glad that he had.
"Blooming wildflower, I beg you, please tell me," she sang. "Why do people fight and hurt each other?"
It was like hearing an angel's voice, he thought. It was light and soft and melodic. It felt like her voice was engulfing him like a warm blanket.
"Valiantly blooming flower, what can you see from your field? Why can't people forgive each other?"
And yet—he could also hear a deep sadness in it. It broke his heart. It made him want to find a way to take that pain away from her. Such a lovely girl shouldn't sound so sorrowful, he thought.
A sudden crash caused her to press the wrong piano key, breaking the smooth rhythm. She stilled her hands and fell silent, bowing her head to let her hair shade her face from view. Everyone else's attention shifted to the source of the noise where two
men faced each other. On their right lay a table on it's side, the dishes broken beside it, with food littering the floor. On their left sat a woman, on the only chair that hadn't fallen over in the commotion, with a look of fear on her face.
"What did you say?" Growled one of the men.
"You heard me the first time," replied the other. "That woman of yours isn't as innocent as you think. Why, just last night—."
Sanji had been more than ready to run over and stop the scuffle. How dare they damage the restaurant and waste food—strike one. How dare they disrespect a lady and make her feel afraid—strike two. And how dare they interrupt the lovely girl's angelic
singing—strike three.
But before Sanji could reach the fight to stop it, someone else already had. He watched as the girl with the angelic voice jumped in between the two me. He watched as she punched the first one in the gut, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious,
and then as she turned around to do the same to the other one. All Sanji could think was how she still managed to look graceful as she knocked two grown men unconscious and that she was stronger than she looked.
He watched the girl extend her arm toward the woman with, what he assumed was, the intention to help her—to get the woman out of the mess and away from the two men that had seemed so ready to fight each other. But the woman didn't move. She looked at
the girl the same way she looked at the man—fearfully. So after a few moments, the girl dropped her arm, turned around and walked away, not bothering to go back to continue her song. Sanji watched as she left and wondered what she was feeling, but
her hair covered her face, which prevented her from seeing any emotion that may have been conveyed on her face. Once she was out of sight, he turned his attention back to the mess and, with a scowl, went to clean it up.
Once Sanji had finished his work, he had searched around for the girl, hoping that she had not gone to bed yet. He was relieved to find her sitting on the railing on the outside deck of the restaurant. He walked up to her, making sure to make enough noise
to let her know that he was there. When she didn't bother to look back, he stood by the railing next to her, leaning down to place his elbows on it.
"My name's Sanji," he told her, after remaining silent for a few moments. "What's yours?"
"Lilith," she said. Her voice still sounded airy, just as it did when she sang, and it made Sanji feel a bit breathless. He turned his head to face her, wanting to get a proper look at the girl. He was surprised to see a cigarette hanging between her
lips. But she didn't seem to be smoking it. She was just letting it sit there and burn away.
"That's a beautiful name," he said, turning to look back at the moonlit ocean in front of them. Lilith simply hummed in agreement.
"It was good what you did earlier," said Sanji. "I was going to step in, but you were so much faster than me. Really, it was sur—." Sanji stopped when he noticed her grip on the railing had tightened significantly.
"Lilith-chan?" He asked warily as he placed one of his hands on her own, in a comforting gesture. He felt her grip loosen at the contact. She pulled her hand out from under his and used it to remove the cigarette from her mouth since it had burned out.
With the cigarette still in her hand, she placed it back onto the railing, before sighing and turning her head up to look at the night sky.
"Violence shouldn't be celebrated," she said gently.
"Well, not when it's like between those two guys earlier, but when used to stop other—."
"No," she said, not letting Sanji finish. "There is no instance in which violence should be praised because whether with good intentions or not, violence is still violence and someone always gets hurt in the end." Sanji remained silent for a bit, pondering
her words.
"But if the person who gets hurt is a bad person...," he suggested.
"It's never that simple, though," she said as she closed her eyes, head still tilted up. "I'm alone now," she said. "Would you like to know why?"
Sanji's eyes ran over her. He observed how her hair fell down as her head was tilted up and how it swayed in the wind. He observed how her skin gleamed in the moonlight. He observed how her lips moved as she spoke. And then he wondered what color her
eyes were. He hadn't gotten to look at them properly, yet.
"If you'd be willing to share," replied Sanji. She was quiet after that so Sanji thought that maybe she had decided that she didn't want to tell him, after all. But then when she spoke, he realized that she must have been figuring out how to say it.
"In my hometown, not too long ago, a pirate crew arrived. And then the navy followed. The navy had come to arrest the pirates, but, as expected, the pirates wouldn't go willingly. So they fought. Everyone else tried to stay out of their way. We did our
best, but a stray bullet hit my mother and killed her. The pirates were caught and the marines celebrated. When a few of them found out about my mother, they gave me their condolences, but condolences can't bring her back to life."
She opened her eyes and tilted her head back toward it's normal position. Then she turned it to face Sanji.
'Brown,' thought Sanji. 'Her eyes are brown. No—hazel.'
"Violence with good intentions is still violence; it's never worth the cost." Sanji let her words sink in. He saw her point. He truly did, but, to think that way, he thought, was not reasonable. There are situations where violence is necessary and situations
where it is, in fact, the best course of action. But, still, he couldn't help but find something admiring in her words.
It had become a ritual for the pair—every night after Sanji finished his duties he would find Lilith outside and they would talk. It could range from things as simple as what they did that day to their hopes for the future.
"Do you have a dream?" Sanji had asked her one night.
"A dream?" She questioned as she blew out smoke from her mouth. The two sat on the railing on the outside deck on the Baratie. Sanji leaned back slightly with his hands on the railing while Lilith leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and a cigarette
in between her fingers.
"Yea. Like something you want to achieve in the future," he explained. He turned his head to look over at Lilith only to see her looking back at him.
"My dream is to find the All Blue," he said. "A place where fishes from all four seas live."
"I see," she said. She turned back to face the ocean and took another drag of the cigarette. "I guess my dream would be to live in a peaceful world, but I don't think that's an attainable dream." Sanji didn't protest. He knew that she was right. The conversation
fell dead after that, but the two teenagers were happy to sit in silence and enjoy the sound of the ocean in each others' presence.
On her last night at the Baratie, though neither of them knew then that it would be her last, he had asked her why she smoked. She laughed at him, which flustered Sanji because he didn't see what was funny about his question. But he was also happy to
hear the sound. Every time that he was able to make her smile felt like an accomplishment to him since she didn't smile very often. So to make her laugh felt like he had achieved the impossible and to hear her laugh felt like a blessing.
It also made his breath get caught in his throat. And when he saw her eyes brighten up because of him, it made his face warm. And when he saw her look at him, the way that she did, with an emotion that he couldn't identify, it made his heart race. And
all of that confused Sanji because he had never, in his brief 16 years of life, felt that way before.
"It's a stress-reliever," she finally answered. She was seated on the railing as usual while Sanji stood beside her, both of them facing the ocean. Her response made him look at her skeptically. He didn't understand how inhaling from that thing and then
exhaling smoke would relieve stress.
"Let me try it!" He exclaimed as he made a grab for her cigarette, but she moved it out of his grasp before he could reach it. He pouted at her, which made her laugh again.
"It's not a habit that I should encourage you to pick up," she said.
"But I wanna try! If you don't let me then I'll just do it on my own," said Sanji. Lillith sighed in resignation. She turned around on the railing so that she could face him and then passed him her cigarette. He wrinkled his nose as he looked at it for
a moment and then he placed it between his lips and inhaled.
He immediately started coughing, so much that his eyes started to water. Lilith smiled softly at him as she took the cigarette out of his hands and inhaled from it.
"How," he said between coughs, "do you do that?"
"Sometimes it takes some practice," she said as his coughing died down. "It's normal to cough the first time."
Once he stopped coughing, Sanji stuck his tongue out in disgust.
"It leaves a bad taste in your mouth," he said. Lilith giggled.
"So does life," she said.
"What a grim thought," he said with a frown, which caused Lillith's smile to widen.
"You get used to the taste." His eyes met hers and he could tell that she was being honest. And then his eyes trailed down to her lips; he couldn't help but wonder if she tasted like the cigarette did. If that was the case, he thought, then he coulddefinitely
get used to it. He blushed at the thought, though, and brought his eyes back up to see that her gaze was still on him. He saw that emotion in her eyes again—the one he often saw but couldn't wanted to ask her about was
going to, but she spoke first.
"Have you ever kissed someone before?" She asked him. Sanji's eyes widened at the question. It had caught him off guard. He wasn't sure how he should answer—what she wanted him to say—so he decided to just be honest.
"No," he said. A contented smile settled onto her face as she scooted sideways on the railing so that she sat directly in front of him. The lit cigarette was still in her hand.
"Would you like to?" She asked softly. Sanji was left at a loss for words. His eyes traveled back down to her lips and he realized how close they were now. She was, because she sat on the railing, at eye level with him. All he had to, he thought, was
move forward and their lips would meet. But he seemed to be frozen in place.
Lilith's eyes softened at the sight of the blushing boy. It was truly endearing. Everything about him was, really. So she did what he couldn't. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, stealing his first kiss. His lips were soft and they tasted
of spices, but she could also taste the hint of the cigarette's aftertaste, not that she minded. Her lips were gentle and tasted like the cigarettes that she so often smoked, but they also tasted like coconut and...vanilla? Sanji wasn't too sure and
he didn't want to spend time trying to figure it out. No, he'd rather spend that time enjoying the moment.
When the kiss ended, Lilith looked up at the sky with a gentle smile on her lips. When it ended, Sanji looked at Lilith with eyes that held adoration and longing.
'I think I understand now,' thought Sanji. 'I think I understand what I'm feeling.'
"One day," said Lilith as she tilted her head back down to look at Sanji. "You will become a great man that will make a very lovely woman very happy." She placed her hands on either of his cheeks and pressed her forehead against his. The tips of their
noses touched as she looked into his eyes with love—so much love. She watched as he opened his mouth to speak, but stopped him with a short kiss.
"That woman can't be me," she told him, knowing what he was about to say.
"Why not?" Asked Sanji. Lilith shook her head, their foreheads still pressed against each other.
"This isn't the time for questions," she said and kissed him again. But that kiss was different—it was more heated, more passionate, filled with more yearning. And it was that kiss that led them to Sanji's bedroom. It was that kiss that led them to take
their clothes off. It was that kiss that led to a night filled with passion and sweat and pleasure. It was a kiss that neither of them regretted.
When Sanji awoke the next morning, he was ecstatic until he found himself alone in bed. There was no way that was a dream, thought Sanji. It was too vivid in his memory to have been. And then he saw a sheet of paper, folded like a letter, by his bed.
"I'm sorry that I have to do it this way," it read. "And I know that you'll probably hate me for it, but I really hate saying goodbyes face to face.
"Please don't think that this was your fault. It wasn't. I had been planning to leave from the very beginning. And last night made me realize that if I stayed any longer then I wouldn't be able to leave at all. There was no way I would be able to just
leave you behind. It was now or never.
"I'm sorry, honestly and truly. I let myself grow too attached and now I've gone and hurt you. That was never my intention. I love you. I truly do. That's something else that I realized last night. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you that in person.
"I hope you find someone who'll love you just as much, if not more.
"Don't give up on finding the All Blue. I believe in it and I believe in you.
"Sincerely, Lilith."
Sanji crumpled up the paper into a ball and threw it at the wall as tears started to fall. Love had felt so wonderful before. It had felt heavenly last night. But right now, he thought. Right now it's just painful. When he stopped crying he walked over
to the crumpled piece of paper and picked it up. He uncrumbled it and smoothed it out before placing it against his chest and taking a deep breath.
'God,' he thought, 'I need a fucking cigarette.'
[Present—Sanji, Age 21]
Sanji leaned against the railing of the side of the Thousand Sunny, a cigarette in his hand. She had been right, he thought. It did help to relieve his stress. And he did get used to the taste. If anything, he'd grown to love it. It reminded him so much
of her. He exhaled smoke as he heard someone approach him, but he didn't bother to look back. He saw Nami stand next to him with her hands behind her back.
"Nice night, huh?" She asked. Sanji took another drag of his cigarette.
"Are you really that curious?" He asked her.
"What? No! That's not why I'm here," she said quickly, but she realized that it was too late to lie. She had already been caught. She sighed. "You flirt with every woman you see, but you don't carry pictures of them with you everywhere. So, yea, I'm curious."
"Alright, Nami-san," he said. He flicked the ashes off of the end of his cigarette. "If you really want to know. Lilith was someone I met five years ago. She was my first love, my first kiss, the first woman that I—," Sanji stopped himself. It wasn't
appropriate for him to say that in front of Nami. He let a small smile fall onto his lips as he looked down at the cigarette in his hands. "She was the one who gave me my first taste of a cigarette. Can you believe I hated it?" He laughed.
Nami couldn't take her eyes off of Sanji. This was—different. Different was definitely the right word, she thought. This was a side to Sanji that she had never seen before. Sanji was often, especially around her, being an idiot. When he wasn't, those
moments where he was serious, it was only when he was fighting, protecting a woman, or if it involved food. She had never seen him serious when he was talking about a woman like this. It was definitely different.
"Have you ever heard that saying from the East Blue?" he asked Nami. "You can never forget your first love."
"Yea," said Nami.
"Do you think that's really true?"
"I don't know. I've never really been in love," she told him. The two stood in silence for a moment.
"It's stupid," said Sanji. "The only reason I keep the poster with me is because I have this ridiculous hope that I'll see her again one day."
"It's possible. You're both wanted people."
"The world is a big place, Nami-san."
"Yea. But we're gonna explore a lot of it," she said. Sanji couldn't help but smile at the reassuring words. There was hope for him yet, he thought.
[Several months later]
Nami had told only Robin about her conversation with Sanji from that night. She could tell that what Sanji had shared with her was very private so she didn't want to go and tell everyone on the crew, but she needed someone to talk to it about. And Robin
was the person most likely to be able to keep a secret on the ship. The rest of the crew had quickly forgotten about the paper safely tucked inside Sanji's coat, their focus switching to new adventures, and so normalcy returned to the straw hat crew.
After that normalcy had returned, and after several adventures in the New World, the crew docked at an island so that they could resupply before continuing their journey. They had upon arrival, like usual, separated to do what each of them needed. And
they had also set up a designated meeting location that was not the ship—a popular restaurant at the center of the island. That had made Luffy excited.
Nami was the first to arrive at the location. Followed by Robin, Sanji, and, surprisingly, Zoro. Nami had, upon the arrival of Zoro, given up hope on the others arriving anytime soon—Zoro was usually one of the last people to show up, after all. So she
made the decision, for all of them, that they would start dining without them.
They were waiting for their food, Nami and Robin conversed while Zoro and Sanji argued over something, when she had walked out on stage. Robin was the first to notice. When she had, she had drawn Nami's attention toward the stage, whose eyes widened at
who she saw there. She looked over at Sanji and saw that he was too engrossed in his argument with Zoro to notice the woman on stage.
The woman in question sat down at the bench in front of the piano, letting her fingers brush against the keys lightly for a moment, before pressing down on them. She took a deep breath before she began to sing.
"Blooming wildflower, I beg you, please tell me," she sang. "Why do people fight and hurt each other?"
Sanji stopped mid-sentence, which caused Zoro to give him a questioning look, when he heard the singing.
"Valiantly blooming flower, what can you see from your field? Why can't people forgive each other?" Sang the melodic voice.
'I know that song,' he thought. 'I know that voice.' He turned his head toward the stage and his eyes widened and jaw slacked as he saw a familiar figure seated in front of the piano.
"The rain passed and the summer took on blue hues. All alone now, you trembled before me without saying a word."
The wavy black hair, those hazel eyes that shone even in the restaurant's dim lighting and that voice—it was definitely her. After all these years, it was Lilith. His Lilith.
"When your friends wilt around you, what do you think? With your leaves unable to speak, how do you convey love?"
He could see that she had changed over the years, just as he had. Her hair was longer, reaching almost to the end of her back now. Her face was thinner and her chest more filled out. And the smile that he had always tried his best to put on her face,
was there, effortlessly—as if she smiled more often than she frowned now. And maybe she did, thought Sanji.
"I shall sing proof that you lived for the sake of those who have no names," she finished. He took out a cigarette as he watched her stand from her seat. He placed it between his lips as he watched her curtsey, her hands lifting the sides of
her lilac dress. He lit it as he watched her walk off the stage. And then, after excusing himself from the table, he went after her. His pace was faster than hers so he was able to reach her fairly quickly. Her back was to him so he reached out for
her arm. She quickly spun around, confusion visible on her face for a split second before recognition appeared.
And then she laughed.
She grabbed the cigarette out from between his lips.
"I thought it left a bad taste in your mouth," she told him. Sanji grinned at the woman.
"It just takes some getting used to," he said and then the two broke out in laughter. She handed him back the cigarette.
"I didn't expect to see you," she said, "at least not here. I figured, after I found out about you joining that pirate crew, that we'd meet eventually, though. I've been following all of your adventures as much as I can through the newspapers." Her smile
grew into a grin as she spoke. "I've missed you. I really have. And I really am sorry about how abruptly I left. There wasn't a day that I didn't regret it. But it's just that—."
"Don't worry about it," he said before taking a drag from his cigarette. "You don't have to explain yourself to me." Lilith gave him a soft smile, her eyes softening as she looked at him.
"You really did become a great man, after all, then," she said, her eyes turning to look down at the floor. "I had been wondering that for a while now."
"Lilith," said Sanji, causing her to look up at him and meet his eyes again, but she looked away as soon as she saw the emotions portrayed in them.
"No, Sanji," she said, answering his unspoken question. "I really must be going." Sanji let his right arm fall to his side, the cigarette still between his fingers.
"I don't want you to leave again," he told her. Lilith felt her heart lurch painfully at his words. She didn't want to cause him anymore pain and yet—
Lilith lost her train of thought when she felt his lips press against hers. He tasted just like she remembered, he thought, like spices and tobacco; the only difference was that the latter taste was stronger than before.
"Please don't go," he breathed out after pulling away. Lilith turned her head to the side, guilt consuming her features.
"Sanji," she said softly. "Even if I don't go, you will. You have your nakama and you still have to find the All Blue."
"But—," Sanji began to protest, but Lilith didn't allow him.
"Remember how I told you that you would make a very lovely woman very happy one day?" She asked him. Sanji nodded.
"And you said that it can't be you," he added. Lilith hummed softly and let a smile fall back onto her lips.
"I've changed my mind," she said. "Things are so different for me now." Her smile of contentment seemed to fall a bit, becoming a sorrowful smile. As if she were recalling something bittersweet. "Once you find the All Blue," she said.
"Once I find the All Blue?" Questioned Sanji, unsure of what she meant. She nodded at him and her smile brightened again.
"Once you find the All Blue, we will find each other again. You have to achieve your dream first. I refuse to get in the way of that."
"Is that a promise?" He asked her.
"If you'd like it to be," she said, "then yes it is. I promise to come to you once you've found the All Blue." Sanji couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. He leaned down and pressed another kiss against her lips. He kept his forehead pressed
against hers when he pulled away.
"And I promise to do the same," he said.