Naupathia
(means seasickness)
A/N -
This idea is taken from the kid's show shown on Nickelodeon called H2O: Just Add Water. It's not gonna be exactly like it where when they just touch even one drop of water they turn into a mermaid. Let's be honest - that's bullshit.
So instead I'm going to have it where, if Sanji's legs get covered in water, he becomes a merman because you get a tail and you don't have legs and it therefore it makes sense for the legs getting wet to be the cause of it.
I'm also going to give him the power to waterbend but he'll rarely ever use it considering he's got his fine ass legs and a strong ass tail cause damn, if those legs are that powerful his fishtail has gotta be too.
OH! He's also a siren and does not speak much but he'll speak more throughout the whole thing, don't worry.
(AU where Fishman Island does not exist as mermaids/mermen aren't really supposed to exist for this story to work for me)
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He'd never said much. He'd always been the silent type and he had a very good reason for this. I mean, being a Siren meant he had an alluring voice that would always attract people to him. Not only did he have a beautiful voice but he was also a beautiful person, people surrounding him all the time. And although he was surrounded by people he was always alone. He knew they didn't like him for himself.
So when Sanji found himself stuck with Old Man Zeff he was glad. He felt wanted even if the bastard never complimented him on his cooking and even then he knew it was just to help him improve his cooking.
At first the old man had no idea that Sanji was a Siren and Sanji had no intention of telling him. He refrained from using his voice as much as he could and would normally use hand gestures, shrugs, head movements or simple body gestures to get his point across.
Zeff did find out eventually however, when Sanji was fifteen and awake late one night. He thought Zeff had gone to bed and so he chose to stay up late and go swimming outside of the Baratie for a stretch. He swam for a little bit and then sat on the edge of the Baratie's dock, his legs-now-turned-tail dangling in the water, splashing about ever so gently and singing.
Zeff, who was still awake, heard the singing. He looked out of his window to see Sanji sat on the edge of the Baratie's dock. It was late and so he went to go and retrieve Sanji to send him to bed, walking down to the front of the Baratie as quietly as possible to sneak up and scare the singing blonde.
But when Zeff got there he was shocked to see that Sanji had a fishtail. The teen had not noticed the man creep up behind him and continued singing and splashing his tail gently. Zeff observed and noticed that Sanji's tail was a mix of sky blue, arctic blue and lilac. He had a large fin that went down the back of his tail, two smaller fins on the front of his tail and fins on his ears of the same colours as his tail. The fin on the bottom of his tail was large and looked as if it were a cloud in the water. It was a pale blue colour and flowed around like a cut of silk fabric. On his arms were patterns that were made out of scales and were once again in the same colours as his tail. His hair had also become a little bit longer somehow and was pulled back revealing both of his eyes and his asymmetrical eyebrows.
"Eggplant..?" Zeff said, approaching with caution. Sanji however, almost had a heart attack as he spun around and fell into the sea when he noticed Zeff stood staring at him. It took Sanji a moment to notice he was underwater. After getting a grip on the situation he slowly surfaced from the water, hands on the edge of the Baratie docks, and stuck his head halfway out of the water.
"You have some explaining to do." Zeff grumbled, arms crossed as Sanji winced at the tone of the old man's voice. He asked Zeff to pull him out of the water and dry himself off as he changed back to 'himself' and sat down to explain to Zeff what had happened. Luckily Zeff was the accepting type or Sanji would be dead meat.
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When the Straw Hat crew came about he downright refused to join the crew and even after the fight with Don Krieg he still refused but when he heard Zeff tell Luffy to take him with him it hit Sanji hard. Even if it wasn't obvious he was saying it, he was telling Luffy to take Sanji to achieve his dream on the Grand Line - to find All Blue and cook with all the fish in the sea.
So Sanji agreed and joined the Straw Hats and for a year he spent time with his crew, kicking ass, cooking for everyone and hiding his secret. He still never spoke to anyone on the crew besides Luffy when he was arguing about why he could not join them and then when he agreed to join.
Sanji met all the crew at the time but he noticed that one stood out from the rest - a man with green hair and a grumpy attitude (99% of the time). He found him very attractive but apparently Sanji infuriated the man to no end so they were constantly fighting.
He complained that Sanji never spoke and it annoyed him and that, if Sanji had a problem speaking, then he should find a way to tell them but Sanji never did that, he just ignored the comments and wished that Zoro would notice the pleading look in his eyes to stop fighting. All he wanted was for no one to fall for his voice or songs again.
Never again.
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A/N: We'll give a skip to when everyone has joined the crew because I can't be bothered to write all that out oops
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One evening Zoro was on watch and Sanji was in the kitchen. Everyone else on the ship was asleep.
Zoro was thinking about his relationship with Sanji. They always fought because Sanji's silence and constantly stoic face pissed him off but… then he thought about Sanji with a smile on his face and he felt his heart pound slightly in his chest. He wondered what his voice would be like and his heart beat a little bit faster. His thoughts about the cook rose from the smile, to a kiss, to being underneath him, Zoro fucking him right into the bed. As soon as it got to that point he erased the thoughts but realised that he was rather attracted to the cook. However Zoro would never admit that out loud. He didn't really think about sex or relationships but the cook was special. Again, he'd never admit it out loud. To erase the thoughts he decided to work out a bit.
Sanji had been cooking onigiri. He'd subconsciously made it whilst thinking about Zoro (probably because that was Zoro's favourite food). He decided to go out onto the deck for a bit and eat and maybe sing a bit, not aware that Zoro was awake instead of being asleep like usual.
As Sanji went out on deck he sat on the ship's railing, the onigiri in front of him untouched, and started to sing. He chose to sing a song that was calm, memorable and personal to him.
Wide awake and bound
I am searching till I'm found
Along the way rebuilding what I've thrown away
Listen to that sound
You can feel it shaking up this town
And I know
I'm not waiting anymore
Zoro, who had heard the singing from the Crow's Nest, put his weights down, grabbed his katana and descended from the Crow's Nest. Slowly, he reached the bottom and took a look at where the singing was coming from. He noticed Sanji looking down into the ocean and looking at all the fish in the sea that were visible due to the small light coming from the Sunny Go shining over the sea slightly. He noticed it was Sanji who was singing with a voice like an angel. Unconsciously Zoro stood there, watching Sanji sing with a small smile on his face as he stared at the water.
We are in for the long run
We're all just getting by
Without a sign
Looking for the nearest place to hide
We are in for the long run
You gotta open up your eyes
You're out of time
Don't waste it on something you can't define
Stop waiting all your life
Careless and loud
I will scream it from the clouds
Miles away
I won't rest until I've reached my grave
Always wanting more
See I've been up and down that road before
And I'm here to say you're not alone
We are in for the long run
We're all just getting by
Without a sign
Looking for the nearest place to hide
We are in for the long run
You gotta open up your eyes
You're out of time
Don't waste it on something you can't define
Stop waiting all your life
When you've got no place to go
I want you to know
It's your time
It's your world
And you must grab ahold and take control
When there's no place to call home
I want you to know
It's our time
It's our world
Lets say goodbye to those who doubt us all
Wide awake and bound
I am searching till I'm found
Along the way rebuilding what I've thrown away
We are in for the long run
We're all just getting by
Without a sign
Looking for the nearest place to hide
We are in for the long run
You gotta open up your eyes
You're out of time
Don't waste it on something you can't define
Stop waiting all your life
Stop waiting all your life
Stop waiting all your life
When Sanji stopped singing he sighed. He wished he could share his voice with the crew but he didn't want them to become hypnotised by his voice and singing. He vowed he'd never let anything bad happen because of that. He'd keep his mouth shut for those he cared about.
Whilst Sanji was lost in thought, still looking at the still ocean and the swimming fish, Zoro had slowly approached him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Oi, cook." Sanji, on instinct, kicked Zoro flying across the Sunny Go. He watched with shock and horror on his face as Zoro flew across the ship and noticed as his white katana (Wado Ichimonji, he believed) fly out into the open ocean as it came loose from Zoro's belt. Sanji was scared that Zoro had obviously heard him sing but was more concerned about the moss head getting up at this point. With a grunt Zoro stood up, rubbing the back of his head and grumbling things under his breath.
"What the fuck was that for? Look bastard, I don't know why you won't speak but that was a bit of a big reaction. You could have just shouted or shrieked or even gasped but you fucking kicked me!" Sanji gave him an apologetic look and pointed out to sea, trying to tell Zoro about his katana.
Zoro looked out to sea and saw nothing. He was so angry at the cook that he hadn't noticed that Wado was missing either and he still hadn't noticed.
"What is it? I'm not gonna know if you don't fucking tell me!" Sanji swallowed hard. He wanted to speak, he really did, but he couldn't. His voice would create a disaster again; he knew it would.
Hesitantly, Sanji pointed to Zoro's belt where his two other katana were. Zoro looked down and flipped shit.
"Fuck! Wado!" He looked out to sea but could not see his precious Wado Ichimonji.
"I can't fucking see her! Where is she? Fuck it, I'm going out!" Zoro started taking off his clothes in a hurry. Sanji felt so fucking angry and disappointed in himself. He'd lost one of his nakama's precious items that meant so much to them. He didn't know what to do but then thought about it.
Zoro would probably get lost in the water and never be able to make his way back.
Quickly, Sanji grabbed Zoro's arm, picked up his clothes and gave them back to Zoro.
"What are you doing, you shitty cook!? I'm going to get Wado." Sanji sighed and shook his head. He pointed at himself and then to the water but Zoro (being Zoro) didn't get it so he once again told Sanji to just 'fucking speak'. Letting out another long sigh, Sanji took a deep breath and spoke, his voice rather shaky at the thought of speaking to someone after so many years.
"Just wait." And with that Sanji jumped into the water fully clothed. Zoro, who thought that was such a stupid idea, looked over the railings and saw bubbles appear on the surface of the water and then there was Sanji, covered in scales and fins with a fishtail on the bottom half of his body.
"What the fuck!?" Zoro shouted but not so loud it would wake the crew. His eyes were wide and he could not believe what he was seeing. Sanji was a fucking merman? Bullshit. They didn't exist.
"What the fuck are you? Explain. Now!" Sanji winced at Zoro's tone but decided to explain. It was easier than running away, being bombarded with questions and then Zoro telling the crew he was some weird creature.
"I'm a Siren. The reason I don't speak is because my voice is enticing and has caused disaster in the past. Now get that through your shitty moss brain and let me go and retrieve your shitty sword." Leaving a wide-eyed, jaw-dropped marimo behind, Sanji swam off as fast as he could to retrieve the swordsman's katana.
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Sanji had forgotten how nice it was to swim in the ocean and feeling the salt water on his skin and scales as he glided through the water. A huge grin was plastered on his face as he swam around, moving faster than should be possible due to his immensely strong tail.
He slowly moved down to the bottom of the ocean once he noticed a slight glint of light on the seabed. As he got closer he noticed that it was Zoro's katana and sped up to grab it. Once he had it in his hands however, he noticed that there was no scabbard and started to panic. He couldn't return without that, it was an important piece of the sword.
Looking around he saw a giant swordfish with the scabbard caught on the end of its nose, swimming about in a frenzy as it tried to get it off. With a sigh Sanji started chasing after it, speeding up to catch it but every time he got close the swordfish turned its head in a different direction, worried it was going to be caught by Sanji and used for food or something. He'd love to do that but right now he had to get the sword out of the water before it started rusting and was irreparable.
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Back on the Sunny Go Zoro was looking out into the water and waiting for Sanji to emerge so he can retrieve Wado from him and demand answers from the cook. He was worried that Wado would rust and he would not be able to repair her but he was trying to trust the cook to bring her back for him. He was getting impatient however, and just as Zoro was about to jump into the water himself he saw Sanji come up out of the water following after a swordfish with what seemed to be the scabbard of Wado on its nose.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU BAST-... - I'LL SLICE YOU UP AND MAKE-... - STOP FUCKING SWIMMING FROM ME, YOU…" He was constantly jumping out of the water, swearing at the fish to just bring the scabbard back to him. Zoro was mesmerised by how graceful Sanji looked as he appeared out the top of the water, Wado Ichimonji in hand. He looked as if he'd held a sword before but that must just be because of his cooking skills, Zoro thought.
"FINALLY! FUCKI-... GOT 'YA NO-..." Zoro could see Sanji wrestling with the fish, grabbing at the scabbard until he finally pulled it off, shouting in victory as the fish swam away. Sanji placed Wado back in it's scabbard and swam back towards Zoro, chucking the katana back onto the ship for Zoro to catch.
"O-oi, Marimo… Go down to the docking system. I can speak to you easier there…" Sanji mumbled loud enough for Zoro to hear as he swam away round to the docking system 'door'. Zoro didn't want to have to walk all the way down to there but he needed answers from the cook so he complied and made his way down there too.