A/N: Okay, guys, here's the deal. I'm doing this because I'm afraid that when I go off to college in the fall I'll either lose interest in writing, or I won't have time for it anymore. Thus, I'm doing this to preserve my ideas until I can expand on them later and turn them into actual full length stories. I just didn't what to forget about them. So, this is basically just me being neurotic, I tend to do that.
Next, I cannot stand one shot collections. I just can't read them, it hurts my brain, I don't like reading anything under 10k words. I'll take plot over fluff any day. That said, it kills me a little bit inside that I'm doing this, but I'm doing it anyway. So, when I say these are short stories I probably mean at least 5k or more for each one. At least the ones that I've actually thought out, some might just be nonsense. So, yeah.
Finally, while I'm mostly doing this to unload some ideas I would also love to accept any prompts you might have. Although, I warn you, there is a possibility that I will twist your words into something fucking stupid XD but yeah, prompts are welcome and will be done as quickly as possible. So, I think that's it... Yeah :) ugh, this is the least prepared thing ever, so don't expect scheduled updates -_- was this a good choice? Fuck it, I don't care. *nervous twitch* ehehehehe... I'll shut up now.
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Summery: Really weird idea of what happens when you die.
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Sanji gasped, his lungs heaving for the air his body so desperately lacked. He couldn't think, he only kept sucking down air like a landed fish. He had the strangest feeling now, it was like waking up from a dream that had been far too real. Seconds before, his head was being held deep underwater by the force of a storm born current and now he was on land, completely dry. That wasn't right.
He took a moment to calm down, his diaphragm still working at double speed, even though he was no longer drowning. After a few minutes he forced his eyes open and saw a dull, gray sky above his head. The clouds above him turned lazily around each other, swirling like a sea of vapor. That was very strange, before it had been dark out. The night was clouded over menacingly, this sky felt heavy but not angry. It was building, this was like the start of a thunderstorm in the middle of the day. The air held a sort of low tension and an electric feel.
His breathing had slowed to an almost normal speed, but it caught in his throat when he realized that he was nowhere near where he thought he should be, it was defiantly no where near anywhere he even knew of in his area. Before he had been in the ocean, miles from land, being battered by a storm. The winds were high and the sea was angry. He was smart enough to know that he shouldn't be out in that sort of weather, but it wasn't his idea to go out there in the first place.
Now, he forced himself to look around. He appeared to be in the middle of a desert, a strangely cold desert. Under the ominous gray sky was a sea of tan sand. Even back on land, he lived in Massachusetts, not exactly a desert biom. Sanji sat up, suddenly alarmed. Where the fuck was he?
He shivered slightly as a cool breeze blew over the sand, kicking up particles into the air. It was a good thing he wasn't wet, at least. He didn't want to be sand crusted. He shriveled again, it wasn't freezing in this place, but it was cold enough to make Sanji want a coat, especially when the wind decided to pick up.
Straining his eyes, he couldn't see anything for miles, he had gone from a literal sea into a sea of sand with no memory of the transition. What was he supposed to think about that? Had he been drugged and kidnapped? He didn't feel like he had, then again he wasn't sure what that would feel like. Was he dreaming? He didn't feel like he was dreaming. Had he lost his mind? Possible, but he really hoped not. Maybe he was dead. That would in a way make a lot of sense. He remember taking in huge gulps of water while he was being crushed by the relentless waves, he thought he was going to drown. He had gone unconscious, maybe he really had died and now he was in this stupid desert by himself, to wander around for eternity. Maybe this was hell or limbo or some shit like that. His eternal punishment for being a shitty person. Well, fuck whatever being decided to put him there in the first place. He half heartedly flipped off the sky, hoping that whatever god or goddess was up there understood how much he didn't believe in him or her.
He forced himself to stand, his limbs shanking with the effort. He felt almost too sore to move, but he did anyway. Standing didn't offer him any insight to where the fuck he was. When he tried to start walking, he stumbled and got a face full of cold sand. Cursing, he got to his feet again and began to climb one of the large sand drifts to his side. At the top he could see a massive expanse of nothingness. Great, that wasn't helpful at all.
He relaxed his weak limbs for a moment to stare blankly at the horizon. What the hell did he do now? He didn't know where he was or what he should be doing, where he should go from here. He felt that horrible mixture of panic and defeat, the sort that came with something important being lost forever. Although, this time he expected that it was his life he had lost, along with everything else he ever owned ever, excluding the clothes he was wearing. His nicely pressed dress shirt was the color of the sky when it wasn't covered by clouds, his dress pants were impeccable, and his dress shoes gleamed even under the sunless sky. He hadn't been wearing this outfit when he was drowning, oddly enough, but right now that wasn't the main concern.
He wasn't sure how long he laid there, but it felt like a very long time. Suddenly, the wind picked up again, blowing a whole layer of sand up into the air. Sanji shielded his eyes from the tiny particles when they hit his skin like needles. When he opened his eyes there was a man standing in the trough between his sand dune and the next one. He was facing away, but Sanji could see that he was wearing traditionally Japanese clothing. His haori and hakama shifted in the breeze, damn this new guy for looking so cool and mysterious.
The man seemed to throw a mini fit, kicking angrily at the sand before he started looking around, which was when he spotted Sanji. He was of Asian descent, but his hair was strangely green. His left ear was pierced in three places and his forehead was wide. His face was not unattractive, but he had an unfriendly scowl plastered over top of it.
"Where the hell did you come from?" the man asked, shouting over the wind. He had an accent in between being light and heavy.
Before relying, Sanji rolled over the top if the dune and slid down the other side to where the man was standing, it made him feel like an awesome spy. "Just over that dune," he said, "Where is this?"
The man looked surprised, giving him a strange look. "You're new, no one's ever spawned here before."
Sanji a brow furrowed, "What are you taking about?"
"It's a video game thing Franky told me about. You spawn there when you die," the man said, "I don't get it, but apparently it makes sense when you've played games."
"What?" Sanji was lost.
The man groaned, "Okay, bare with me here, you are dead," he said, pointing to the center of Sanji's chest with a scowl, annoyed that he was going to have to be the one to explain this shit.
Sanji sighed, "Fuck, I knew it. God dammit, I had so much more to live for," he said angrily. He still had at least seventy years left, if he didn't get lung cancer or something. Fuck everyone who said smoking would kill him, water did him in when the end came. Somehow that wasn't as satisfying as he had hoped it would be.
The man raised an eyebrow, "Most people try to deny it at first."
"Yeah, well, that's kind of stupid because you're only confirming what I already thought," Sanji huffed, "So, what exactly is this place then?"
He shrugged, "Hell if I know, people just come here when they die."
"Come here and what?" Sanji scoffed, "Just wander around in the desert? That sounds like a pretty shitty existence. If that's the deal I'm just going to dig myself a sand hole and become a mole for the rest of existence.
The man shrugged, "I won't stop you. Sometime people just wander around, but most people actually try to make it through the tunnel."
"What the fuck is the tunnel?" He was imagining a giant hamster tube sticking up into the sky. That probably not what this guy was talking about.
"It's a big tunnel as far south as you can go, people who go in there don't come out," he said it like it was a huge mental weight to have to explain this to someone as stupid as this blond idiot.
"Weird. I would ask what happens to them, but you obviously don't know," Sanji trailed off, then remembered that he'd actually forgotten his manners, "Oh, yeah, I'm Sanji, what's your name?"
"Zoro," Zoro replied, scrutinizing the blond, "What year are you from, there's no day night cycle here, so I can't judge the days and I forget the years."
"I'm from Massachusetts, May 9, 2015. When are you from?" This was very strange.
"September 1, 1923, Yokohama, Japan. I died in the great Kanto earthquake, I was crushed by a fallen building," he recited robotically.
"And exactly how painful was that?"
"Very, I was alive for five hours after it happened and died after they got me out."
"Fuck, that sucks," was all that Sanji could manage. How did you provide consolation for something like that? He fucking died after all and a long time ago at that. "Holy fuck, you're like," he paused to do the math, "Like one hundred and eighteen years old!"
"One hundred and nineteen," Zoro corrected him.
"It's nice to know that I won't be aging anytime soon." His vanity liked that very much
"Nope, I will be forever twenty seven and you'll never grow up to be a man," he smirked.
"What was that, moss head?"
"I think I just called you a prepubescent little boy, curly brow."
"I'll make you eat those words," Sanji promised before realizing something. "Does this mean I'll never be able to grow a majestic beard?" he asked, worried for his facial hair. What if beards didn't grow in this place?
"I'm going to say yes just so I can save this dimension from that horrifying image," Zoro said, "Anyway, this has been fun but I have places to be," he turned on his heels, his zori weren't quite so ill equip for this sand as Sanji's nice dress shoes.
"Hang on," Sanji exclaimed, following after him, "I still want to know things, don't just leave!"
Zoro's scowl deepened, "Yeah, well I don't have time to stay here and chat with you, the city is two days of walking away and I have to get back to my friends."
"Then I'll walk with you," Sanji proposed, coming up next to Zoro to walk with him.
"No," Zoro shoved him lightly, "I'm not going to be followed around by some new guy, I'm an old man, dammit, I don't have time for your bullshit."
"Too fucking bad, I'm going with you so deal with it," Sanji said, stomping after him.
"No, leave me the fuck alone," Zoro groaned.
"So, what's the deal then?" Sanji ignored his obvious irritation, "Why are we wearing clothes when we're dead? I mean, it's not like our clothes died with us. It doesn't make sense"
"No, from what I know, you just kind of show up in the form you think of yourself in," he forced the words out like he was going through some horribly tedious labor.
"Does that mean people with body dysmorphic disorder show up all fucked up?" Sanji asked.
"No, it's just-" Zoro faltered, "I don't know, that's just what happens, okay? I don't make the rules, okay?"
"Well, you've been here for like ninety two years, I would have thought you'd have figured it out by now," Sanji said, turning up his nose.
"Shut up."
"So, do I have to eat and drink still?" Sanji wondered, half hoping that he could still stomach food. It would be pretty inconvenient seeing as they were in the middle of the desert, but he didn't think he could survive without being able to eat food. It was part of who he was as a chef.
Zoro snorted, "Oh, yeah, if you don't eat you'll starve and if you don't drink you'll die of thirst. It's a real bitch."
"Fantastic, what is there to eat in the middle of a desert?" It didn't look like there would be much, he could only see a few scrawny bushes and he didn't imagine there were very many animals out here.
"Roots mostly, there isn't much out here," he shrugged, "We have a difficult death spot because it's so far from the nearest city and there isn't a stream along the way, but there are plant roots to eat. You don't have to worry about anything making you sick unless it's actually poisonous because there aren't any pathogens here."
"That's handy," Sanji nodded. "And if I die I'll just show up over there again?" he pointed toward the dune they were walking away from.
"Yep," Zoro nodded.
"Why do I feel like that's going to happen a lot?"
"Because people are assholes."
"And you just died in order to get here," Sanji said, running his eyes over the Japanese man like he was examining him for injury.
Zoro scowled, "Yes." Apparently, dying must have insulted him somehow.
"How did that happen?"
"Some fucking coward shot me in the throat with an arrow." He lifted a hand to his throat as he spoke.
"Why?"
"Probably just because I was there."
"Does that happen often?"
"Lots of shit happens, everyone who dies ends up here. Everyone, the good and the bad, and people do some crazy shit when they can't really die. That goes double for people who spawn inside or close to the cities. The city is a fucking horrible place. You should see how bad famous historic people get it though. Well, usually it either goes really really bad or really really good for them, it's a bit of a gamble."
"Then why are we going to the city if it's so awful?" Sanji asked.
"I'm going there because when one of us dies we meet up there, so we can go hide out in our spot and fuck around," Zoro grumbled.
"Does it hurt a lot dying?" the blond asked.
"You died once, you tell me."
"I guess it was terrifying and painful, I wouldn't want to do it again," the chef grimaced.
"Then keep your guard up, or I might reach over and snap your stupid pencil neck, you fucking ostrich."
Sanji ignored that last comment, he would take the chance that Zoro had enough honor not to snap his neck while his back was turned, although he had no way of knowing for sure. "Aren't you going to ask how I died?"
"No, I don't care." He had heard far too many stories to give much of a shit anymore.
"Rude," Sanji pouted, but he kept talking anyway, "I was kidnapped and tied up in a little dingy and abandoned in the middle of the fucking ocean until a storm came and I drowned."
Zoro only seemed half interested, he had been expecting a car crash. Tons of people died in car crashes. "Why did they kidnap you?"
"Because a bunch of thugs were trying to take my fucking restaurant away from me and I wasn't about to let that happen. Aw fuck, now they're going to fucking take All Blue. God dammit!" He kicked the sand angrily.
"Why would they want your shitty restaurant?"
"Because it's a prime piece of real estate, also because I beat up their boss and he got fucking pissed." It wasn't much of a fight.
"Murder victims always think they're so cool," Zoro scowled, "Don't dwell on life, forget about your restaurant, you're going to need to focus all your attention on death if you don't want something horrible to happen to you."
"What sort of horrible?" Sanji's eyes narrowed.
"Any sort, there are murderers, serial killers, rapists, and all sorts of horrible people who would love to get their hands on you. You better learn to defend yourself fast or else."
"Are you saying I would be raped? You are aren't you? Is it because of my face? Damn my beautiful face."
"I also said you could be murdered by a serial killer, I don't know why you fixated on being raped."
"Because I'm face makes me insecure about my masculinity," Sanji said under his breath.
"What?"
"What?"
Zoro gave him a very strange look. "As I was saying, you have to look out for everything."
"I can already defend myself," Sanji huffed indignantly.
"Oh, yeah, a skinny thing like you, I'd like to see you try," Zoro scoffed.
"Bring it, bastard," Sanji challenged, immediately he lifted a leg and kicked at Zoro's head, missing as the moss hear dodged out of the way.
For the first time he actually seemed fully interested in the blond. He blocked with his arm as the second kick came. Blow after blow, Zoro managed to block three fourths of the attacks and landed several of his own, even punching Sanji once in the stomach.
The fighting was not ideal on the sand but it was enjoyable none the less, good for getting out some of the frustration of being dead. After a while they called a truce in order to not waste anymore energy than necessary.
"You're actually not total shit," Zoro said with a smirk.
Sanji smirked back, "You aren't either, but I feel like it's unfair because you've had ninety two years to train."
Zoro rolled his eyes, "I was going easy and all the progress you build in increasing muscle mass disappears once you die and come back."
"That fucking sucks."
"Yeah, it's the worst, that's why I try not to die. But there are worse things about being dead."
"Like what?"
"I'm a swordsman and when I died I left my swords behind," he spoke with an underlying tone of anger.
Sanji was nonplussed, "So, clothes come with you, but not swords?"
"Unfortunately not. I have swords here but it took me about fifty years to manage to get enough to buy three and their condition is nowhere near as good."
Sanji was more concerned with the fact that he had said three. "What the fuck do you need three swords for?"
"That's how many I use," Zoro shrugged.
"What do you do the third one?"
"Put it in my mouth," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Where else would I put it?"
"I don't know, for all I know you could have a super power to wield a third sword in this weird place."
"What? That's just stupid."
"Shut up," Sanji tried to imagine Zoro fighting with a sword in his mouth. He pictured the swords in his mouth hilt first. "What it someone hits the end too hard and it goes down your throat?"
Zoro looked confused "I don't think the sword would go into my mouth like that." Not unless he had a magical and invincible snake throat. Now that would be a super power.
"Yeah, it would," Sanji objected, "It would go right down your throat."
"Wait," Zoro stopped him, "How are you thinking about this? Describe it to me."
"Hilt like this," Sanji said, holding his hand like he had a sword hilt and putting his lips to the hole, inadvertently making a suggestive move that he didn't realize until it was too late. Zoro didn't seem to notice thought, he was too busy laughing.
"You fucking idiot, that is not how you hold a sword with your mouth. You bite the grip and hold it sideway."
"So, not like an elephant then?"
"Not like an elephant at all. More like a monkey swinging on a vine with its mouth."
Sanji shook his head in disbelief, "I'm going to have to see this, it sounds absolutely ridiculous."
"It's amazing," Zoro assured him.
"Whatever, I gag when I hold a toothbrush between my teeth for too long."
"Does that make it difficult when you're sucking dick?" Zoro asked, "Do you have to take a break to gag?"
Sanji started, "Wow, that was a huge jump in conversation. We've just met and already you're thinking about me in a sexual light. I can't say I'm surprised, I am gorgeous after all, but still. And aren't you from a homophobic time period?"
"That wasn't me hitting on you, I'm not that big of an asshole. I was just being an asshole, regular sized."
"Could have fooled me."
"Shut up, it was me making a generalization about your sexuality based on your girly face."
"My face is not girly! Girls don't have facial hair."
"Ugly ones do."
"That's fucking terrible, a lady can still be beautiful even with facial hair," Sanji said, he would treat a bearded lady with the utmost respect.
"I guess that's true, you're one of the ugly ones though."
"Shut the fuck up, I'm gorgeous."
"If you say so."
"Ugh, I'm feeling pretty upset right now. I've just been called ugly and accused of sucking dick."
"Let's settle this right now then. Have you ever had a penis in your mouth? Answer me that." Zoro stopped walking, a serious expression on his face as he looked Sanji in the eyes. Sanji stared right back.
"I can firmly say," Sanji started, raising his finger to illustrate his point, "That I can neither confirm, nor deny that accusation."
Zoro snickered, "You know that's basically a confession, right?"
"No, I could be bluffing for all you know. All you really need to understand is that I'm not about to suck your dick anytime soon and that's all I have to say about that."
"That's what you think."
"What was that?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it."
"Don't be so fucking creepy."
They walked along for a while in silence before Sanji spoke up again, "So, what are you friends like?"
"Are you just going to follow me all the way back to them?"
"What else am I going to do?"
Zoro sighed, "I live with six people. Robin used to be a Russian spy, but the CIA executed her in the 70s. Nami was killed in Sweden in a car crash in the 90s. Franky was killed in a metal shop accident in the early 2000s in America. Usopp's plane went down on his way to Australia in the 80s. Chopper was mauled in Canada by a deer in the 60s. Luffy drowned in a flood in Brazil in the 30s. And Brook won't tell us where he's from or how he died but he's been here longer than all of us."
"Did you have to list them by cause of death? I wanted to know what they were like personality wise." Something about that was a little morbid.
"Oh, there're awesome," Zoro's said, "Otherwise I wouldn't hang around them. They can be really fucking stupid sometimes though."
"So, what do you do all day? Sit around playing with your swords?"
Zoro ignored that last comment, "We stock up so that one day we can get through the tunnel."
"Is it that hard to get through?"
"Yeah, a bunch of fucking assholes along the way try to murder you and send you back to your start. There are still people from the BC times trying to get through the tunnel."
"Fuck, so I'm stuck here no matter what happens?"
"Pretty much."
"Welp, this is going to be an adventure and a half, but I'm sure we'll be fine."
Zoro's eyes narrowed, "I don't remember inviting you."
"You have a bad memory, don't worry that just comes along with being an old man," Sanji grinned but the look quickly fell, "Oh god, I just had a thought, what happens to babies when they die?"
Zoro grimaced, "Well, I've never seen a fetus on the ground, so I'm guessing they don't count as people yet, but every now and then you find a baby. It's hard to take care of them because there aren't any animals to milk and there aren't any pregnant women. Mostly they get stuck in a loop of dying."
Sanji looked horrified, "That is fucking horrible, possibly one of the worst things I've ever heard."
Zero shrugged, "That's the way things are. Just imagine having a spawn point near a baby, it would be terrible. It would be even more terrible if it was a whole field of babies. Sometimes people the same age spawn in the same place."
"Like you and me?"
"Are you twenty seven?"
"Yeah."
"Then yes, like you and me."
Sanji was still stuck on the baby thing, "God, I'd rather not think about this baby stuff."
"Well, if it gets to be too much for you you can always kill yourself," Zoro gave him a condescending pat on the shoulder.
"But won't I just show up back there?" Sanji pointed to the path they'd come from.
"Yeah, but you won't be bothering me anymore."
"Ha ha, you're very funny," he laughed sarcastically.
Despite Zoro's decidedly limited protest, Sanji continued for follow the swordsman along his path home. The journey was very strange, it was either very quiet or filled with arguing. Zoro was telling the truth when he said there was no day and night cycle, but they still needed sleep to function. So, whenever they got tired they slept. Sanji was always slightly concerned that Zoro would ditch him while he slept, so he tried to be on alert but the swordsman never did leave.
Eating was also a problem, all they ever had to eat were the bits of desert roots they dug up and those were not especially filling. At least the weather was nice enough. It was cold but not too cold. Zoro said that there were actual weather patterns, but the sky was always either gray and cloudy or violently stormy. There were no blue skies in this place.
By the end of the trip Sanji was exhausted and wished desperately that he had a different pair of shoes. From what he could see, he city itself was not really much of a city, it was more of a huge sprawling shanty town surrounding a large rock formation with buildings at the top. The reason the city was set up there was probably due to its proximity to a spindly looking forest and a river. A forest next to a river in the middle of a sand waste was a diamond in the rough.
"There are always assholes fighting to live up there," Zoro pointed to the formation, "Sometimes there will be someone who comes along and is ruthless enough to gather up a little army and take the place or order people around, but they never last long.
"I think this is probably the biggest slum in the universe," Sanji said, it almost would have been impressive of it wasn't so horrible.
The closer they had walked to the city the more people they had seen either just walking or actually appearing. While he could have gone off with any of them, Sanji stuck with Zoro. He had already bothered to remember his name and some random inform about him, so why bother to get to know a new person?
"Nah, there are bigger cities than this down south," Zoro said.
"And exactly where are we in relation to everything in this world?"
"Nami says that we're in the middle, but more toward the south."
"Nami sounds smart and beautiful."
"She's mean and greedy too."
Sanji kicked him in the knee, "Don't insult a lady, now where are we going?"
"Over there," he pointed to shack with a white line painted across it down its middle horizontally.
"Why there?"
"Because that's where they pick me up."
"Why do they need to pick you up, you already came this far."
Zoro's grimaced, "I have what they call a 'bad sense of direction'."
"You got us here fine," Sanji pointed out.
"But it's easy to find cities, other stuff is impossible."
"Right, whatever you say, seaweed brains."
When they approached the shack they saw a person standing there, looking bored.
"Oi, Usopp, over here," Zoro called to him. The other man turned their direction his expression going from relieved to confused.
"Who's this?" he asked, giving Sanji a sideways look.
"I picked up a prostitute on the way here, I saved his life so now he's agreed to be my slave for so long as he lives."
"Wait, does that mean until I die again or until I'm dead forever?" Sanji asked.
"Until you're dead forever."
"Ugh, fuck that. Either way," he tried to kick Zoro, but things just spiraled into a fight, both of them forgetting about Usopp. When said was knocked backwards into the sand he caught sight of Usopp again and rolled out of Zoro's reach. "I'm Sanji and I'm not a prostitute, I'm a chef," he said, holding out a hand.
"Nice to meet you," Usopp said hesitantly.
"We should get going," Zoro cut in, "I have things to do."
"Right," Usopp said, turning and starting off to the north west. "So, Sanji, how did you run into Zoro?" Usopp asked.
"Well, I died and showed up in the middle of the desert with no idea where to go and then he showed up to be my guardian angel," Sanji said, flipping his hair.
"No, I died and this loser followed me all the way here," Zoro's grumbled.
"And you let him?" Usopp asked incredulously.
"Yep, I'm just that amazing," Sanji chirped.
Zoro glowered at him, "He was just so pathetic I couldn't bring myself to crush him."
"Psh, I'd like to see you try. I'd kick your ass clear over the moon, if this place even has a moon."
"No one knows," Usopp supplied
"Then I guess you'll be the first to find out," Sanji's lips curled up in a smirk. He wished, not for the first time, that he had a cigarette to put in his mouth. It wasn't the addiction that drove the need, his body wasn't feeling that anymore after he had died, it was just the familiarity of the action.
"Are you guys going to be like this the whole time," Usopp wilted like a dead flower.
"Probably," Zoro shrugged.
And they were, they kept up their arguing for an admirable amount of time. They argued more about nothing of consequence than most people could about something important. Usopp just led them on quietly, too afraid to break them up or even make his voice heard.
The trip with Usopp took about half a day, or what Sanji imagined was half a day because it was literally impossible to tell. Their destination was a small, unimpressive patch of trees near a tiny stream. It really didn't look like much.
"That's where we're going?" Sanji asked, giving the place a dubious look.
"Just wait," Zoro said, "You have no idea, Franky decked the place out to the max."
It wasn't until they were right at the tree line that Sanji noticed the den in the sand. It was less a den, than a cave entrance strangely located in the ground. They had to slide down into the pit to do through a door that was shockingly normal height.
They walked on through a little hallway. Sanji could hear voices and could see the bodies attached to those voices as they turned the corner into what appeared to be the main room, lit by weirdly glowing rocks.
"Zoro!" A boy with straw hat exclaimed excitedly, jumping up to greet his friend but stopped when he saw Sanji. "Who are you?"
"Sanji," Sanji answered nervously, all eyes were on him, "I followed this idiot here," he jerked a finger toward Zoro."
"Aw, Zoro, you brought home a friend," teased a woman with orange hair.
"Shut up, he's not my friend, he's fucking annoying," Zoro bit back at her.
Without skipping a beat Sanji kicked him in the leg, "Don't speak that way to a lady, you Neanderthal."
And with that they were off in their own little world again, cursing at each other. They only stopped when the straw hat boy started laughing.
"What are you laughing at, idiot?" Zoro asked.
The boy ignored him and addressed Sanji, "I like you," he said, "And Zoro likes you, you have to stay with us."
"I do not like him!" Zoro shouted his objection rather loudly.
"Join us," the boy told the blond.
Sanji blinked, "Well, I guess I don't have any other plans."
"Yes! Welcome to the crew! I'm Luffy," Luffy exclaimed, "And this is Chopper, Robin, Nami, Franky, and Brook," he pointed to each in turn. Sanji nodded to each one called.
"It's nice to meet you all," Sanji grinned, "I can see you are all better people than the moss head, so I'm honored to be here." If he was going to be here for the rest of eternity at least he would have better company than just Zoro.
XxxX
A/N: I don't know where this idea came from but it's serious and silly at the same time so I thought it would be a good one to start with.
Tumblr: opens-up-4-nobody
Thanks.