AN: If I've gone overboard with this sad number, let me know. I feel horrible.
AN2: Also there's a very potty mouth words because...well, it's Sanji.
Chapter Two: Silence
-o-
It was nighttime, and the ship of the Mugiwara crew was a graveyard.
Only the metallic clicking of a lighter opening and closing broke the stillness, as fog drifted in waves over the grass and the curves of their beautiful Thousand Sunny. Occasionally, the ship would let out a wooden creak, as if calling out to her shipmates, wondering why they were being so silent.
Because, Sunny. Because silence was their punishment.
Sanji felt the cool fog engulf him, purposely not thinking about the Florian Triangle. Or Zombies. Or salt. None of his recent dishes had contained milk, because his hands wouldn't stop shaking uncontrollably every time he picked up the bottle. Eventually, he had to throw away the fish bones he'd been saving as a potential garnish. His stockpile of tea went into the back of the pantry.
And Luffy...
Pain shot through his hand as Sanji squeezed his lighter tightly. His knuckles blanched. What began as a tremble in his arm traveled into his body, tensing every muscle with overwhelming grief.
It had been very dark and Usopp was on watch duty when the Marines sprang their ambush.
The sniper said with blubbering tears, long after the night had ended, that it was his fault for not noticing the ships sooner. There was no reason to accept this, however, because of the thick fog that concealed their enemy. These phantoms with massive sails rolled in, predators in the cold ocean spray with patience and tenacity in spades.
"Marines! Guys, wake up! Marine ships are everywhere! Wake up!"
Usopp's screams brought everyone on deck. By this time, five enormous ships had encircled the Thousand Sunny, their steel hulls gleaming in the light reflected by the white fog. They were phantoms on the dangerous high sea, and each a predator in their own, eerie light.
The battle that followed had been a slap in the face of every Straw Hat crew member. This was a special ops fleet, designed to take down strong pirates. They weren't only armed to the teeth, they knew exactly how to fight Devil Fruit users and turn the odds against them.
Sanji flipped the light open and closed again. The 'snap' of metal rang in his ears, reminding him with a shiver of the sound of the chains rattling on the harpoons as they skewered Sunny's hull. Five of them.
"Oi!" Franky's voice pierced the sound of gunfire and exploding cannons. "They're stuck in way too deep! Now way I'm getting these out without ripping apart the ship!"
"Zoro, what are you doing?" Usopp's cry was joined by his startled gasp as he took cover from a hail of bullets. "Cut the chains already!"
"I can't do that!" roared the swordsman, as he sliced through another cannonball.
Somehow the chaos, where blood was flying in small spatters, each nakama becoming sliced and bruised by the onslaught, the situation became clear. The harpoons were rigged with explosives, designed to blow ships apart from the inside.
If they hadn't tasted hell that night, Sanji would have applauded the craftiness of these marines. Each of the special harpoon cannons was designed to spear the ship, and set off an electrical charge along the chains to ignite the explosive clay. Luffy tried to board one of their ships and almost launched himself into the water—the marines plated these ships with seastone.
They couldn't cut out the harpoons. They couldn't cut the harpoons themselves, they couldn't get near the enemy ships, and they couldn't escape. One harpoon had gone off, leaving behind a hole that destroyed a chunk of Sunny's figurehead. In minutes, the other cannons were going to discharge and put and end to it.
The special ops marines thought of everything.
Except for skeletons.
A wild belting of 'Yohohoho!' wedged its way between the explosions, cracks of gunfire and shouting men. Sanji was so tired at this point, he thought he was having a breakdown, because it sounded as though...
Brook was running across the water, dodging cannonballs effortlessly as the confused marines tried to hit this new target. They couldn't; they would have had an easier time hitting a fly buzzing across the surface of a still pond. Nami was the first one to figure out what he was doing.
So she and Usopp cheered him on.
The blonde cook allowed the smoke to settle in his lungs for a few seconds longer, then exhaled slowly. Again, the damaged ship creaked around him in a sorrowful inquiry. Sanji leaned his head back against the wall of the cabin, ignoring the cool, wet grass that brushed up against his torn and disheveled black suit.
That fucking skeleton knew.
He knew.
"Shishishi! Yosh! Show these guys how cool you are, Brook!" Luffy yelled out across the battlefield, arms outstretched. The marines' commanding officer was shouting something similar to the men on board their flagship. Half of the tide of the battle was now turned on the single, lightweight stick figure dancing across the waves in a flash of white bone and quick steel.
One ship after another, Brook leaped into the air and seemed to phase right through the chains with his cane drawn out. With a hiss of cold that imitated a miniature thunderclap, the chains turned brittle and snapped off in icy chunks. The links still attached to the massive harpoon cannons dangled uselessly at the sides of the marine battleships.
"Yohoho!"
"Yoho!"
"Too slow!"
"You missed me!"
Sanji felt the ghost of burning pride in his chest, an echo of what he felt back then as he watched Brook single-handedly thwart those marine assholes one cut after another. He remembered wanting to rub it in the marimo's face as soon as he got the chance. He remembered deciding in the heat of the moment, that their musician was overdue for a little ego boost, and double the pleasure if it kicked Zoro in the face at the same time.
A feeling that lasted until the very last cannon.
It was as if the battle had been in slow motion for those handfuls of minutes. A group of marines surrounding the last weapon were swarming it like ants, and that was the moment Sanji realized that they had somehow supercharged their cannon and were about to fire.
Even Luffy, who knew less than nothing about shipbuilding, knew what would have happened if the massive barb exploded.
All that was left of that harpoon was a half-patched hole, now. They'd sunk the explosives. And the chain. It was at the bottom of the sea with the corpses of at least two battleships.
After that, Sanji witnessed the next few moments in a series of flashes. A well-rounded feeling of helplessness sucked every ounce of his strength from his limbs.
The fleet captain barking out spittle-ladened orders.
Sixty-eight cannons firing in rapid succession.
The water exploding around Brook like a fountain from hell.
And their eight-foot-eight skeleton charging straight through it all, ignoring his own safety, since safety would have cost too much time.
Nami-san's face growing still and wide-eyed.
Usopp choking out a sound and almost falling overboard.
Zoro shouting Brook's name in warning. Pointlessly, because Brook had seen the danger and chosen to ignore it.
Luffy's uncomprehending, blank stare.
It had been one of those moments where a single one of their nakama borrowed the strength of the others, feeding on Zoro's loyalty, Chopper's determination, Robin-swan's fearlessness, their idiot captain's blind devotion and love.
He was the All Blue of nakama.
"Fire! FIRE!" screamed the marine commanding officer.
A blade coated with an icy sheathe, trailing vapor through the dense, foggy air. The cannon crystallized before the upwards sailing form of a grinning skeleton. The barrel exploded as Brook's subtle cut shattered its integrity, and the chain crashed into the ocean.
And the marine captain, who had not been yelling at the harpooners to fire at all, but at the twelve men standing next to him with their rifles and shoulder cannons.
Who fired.
It was a sight burned into his head, like the scorch mark from a snuffed out cigarette. Irreparable.
Concentrated bullets and fist-sized iron balls slammed into the fragile body of the musician. Who didn't have a body, because he was just a skeleton.
Who didn't gasp out in pain and relief, because he had no lungs.
Who didn't see his success at protecting his beloved nakama in the joyful instant before his ribs shattered, because he simply had no eyes.
Who probably didn't feel the icy water swallow him whole, because he did not have any skin.
And he certainly didn't hear his captain's choked howl of rage after that, because he was fading into the pitch black darkness of the sea.
-o-
Sanji spat cold saltwater from his mouth, forcing his depleted, exhausted body onto the floating debris of the marine ship—the ship that had been intact minutes ago, when he dove in. Shivering uncontrollably, he pulled what remained of his nakama onto the flotsam next to him, and only then did he realize that Brook only had one arm left.
The brightly coloured overcoat was shredded. Where his ribs weren't broken off, they were flattened. The skeleton's vertebrae were fractured. And there was an eerie, green glow stirring inside his sockets.
The groan he suddenly made almost crushed Sanji's heart—so pain-filled and wheezy. His bony fingers crawled to Sanji's hand and clutched it weakly.
"Yorki—" Brook made a choking sound, and the glow brightened inside of his skull, as if rising to a surface. "No, Sanji-san...thank you very much. I didn't wish to die in such a cold, lonely place...ah, though, I am already..."
"Shut up, you lying perverted skeleton," the cook growled. His breath shook with more than just the frigid air. "Don't you dare make shitty jokes right now! I fucking swear I'll toss you back in."
"Oh, how harsh..." The skeleton's high-pitched voice trailed off dimly. Oblivious to the sounds of battle and screaming marines, Brook's gaze seemed to fix on the sky.
Sanji glanced up, and saw that the fog had all but dispersed, and a gap in the clouds showed a hundred gleaming lights.
"Ah, the stars," observed Brook with a faint, but happy voice. "Laboon...these nakama are so wonderful...you will definitely love them as I have. The happiness I've felt is as endless as the stars..."
"Dammit, Brook! If you really believe that, tell it to Laboon when you see him! You're not gonna fucking die again," snapped Sanji, but the effort to appear aloof and annoyed was slipping away. It was just too difficult to stay sane. He knew the horror was coming, and didn't want to face it like a man.
"Sanji-san," laughed Brook softly, and the cold, spindly hand slipped off of his own. "He knows this already! You see, I just asked him to wait a little longer for you, his nakama...yohoho...!"
It was over, as brief as a candle flicker. Brook inhaled sharply. The light within the skull shuddered like a fire and blinked out, taking with it the last traces of an echoing, cheerful laugh.
For a very long time, Sanji sat with a broken skeleton in his lap, trying to control his heaving breaths and the flood of mind-ripping emotion. But then the dam burst open under a rush of gut-wrenching pain, because at that moment Luffy had somehow sensed the abrupt void in the network of his nakama, and began to scream Brook's name out of nauseating grief.
Silence.
Sanji wanted to scream too, to laugh, sing, shout, or just make a fucking racket loud enough to break window panes. He wanted Bink's Sake when he strapped on his apron, smiling faintly over the sound of chopping onions. He wanted to walk outside one morning, and have the skeleton pop up out of nowhere and take credit for the worst skull joke ever imagined.
He wanted to see Luffy smile again.
Out of all of those things, only the latter was going to happen. Pain healed over time, even the type that turned you into a self-destructive shipwreck. And even though the fog kept drifting in every night...
Sanji raised a curly eyebrow as he turned his head skywards, and chuckled as the event he had been waiting for unfolded. No matter how far they went, or how thick the clouds were, he loved those never-ending stars. He wouldn't ever take for granted how lucky a man was to have a full belly of food, two beautiful women close by...and a clear, gem-filled sky that reminded him of violin music and tea.