The room was still as Sanji stared at the splintery mess before him in horror; no matter how much he tried he couldn't get his panicked limbs to budge, like he was glued to the floor.
"Zorooooo?"The shrill high voice echoed into Sanji's apartment and ricocheted off the walls of his ear canal painfully. Sanji looked over to Zoro, whose face had fallen from on edge to downright irritated, his visible eye twitching slightly. "Zoooooooroooooooo?"
Zoro's face scrunched up awkwardly like he had taken a bite out of something sour and gritted his teeth.
"Roronoa, we know you are here." Called a deep, chilling voice that sounded like it came from the most sinister Disney villain ever. Zoro's eyes widened, his body still and intense. Suddenly, there was a loud crack of thunder and the apartment lights went dead, leaving them nearly in the dark. Sanji could make out the outline of Zoro's sharp jaw and the whites of his eyes, the slight tilt in his shoulders from his poor posture in the darkness.
"Come out come out!" The girl's voice shrieked, Zoro's eyes went cross in frustration, Sanji could feel the irritation coming off Zoro in waves.
"What are you doing here, Mihawk?" Zoro growled finally, slowly rising, gesturing for Sanji to follow.
"Why didn't you answer the door in the first place?" That cold voice sent shivers down Sanji's spine.
"I thought you were someone else." Zoro replied bluntly.
Sanji gradually stood to find two figures stood in his living room waiting, their figures silhouetted by the cold light spilling in from the battered door frame. Rain was beginning to tumble down from the dark clouds outside.
"What happened to your eye?! So not cute!" The girl exclaimed loudly. She shifted from side to side, restlessly hugging and pulling at the ugly beat up teddy bear in her arms. Zoro lifted his hand to gently tug at the cotton that currently covered the eye.
"Nothing. I'm fine." He shrugged off the question, which clearly agitated the fidgety girl more.
"And who are you?" Sanji realized the question was directed at him, now staring into the owlish eyes of the gothic girl.
"Who am I? I own this damn apartment, thank you very much!" He bristled. Sanji then found a pair of sharp yellow eyes pining him to the floor.
"Ah, so you're the one with the hit on his head." The dark man stated.
"What?" He heard Zoro growl, who took a cautious step forward, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head suspiciously.
"What do you mean; he has a hit on him?" Sanji didn't like that anxious tone of voice. The tall man just nodded, offering no clarification or explanation. The tension in the small room was bore down on Sanji, so thick it could be cut with a knife.
"Oh yeah, we saw it on the door before Mihawk cut it down." The girl piped in. "This guy has a hit on him, not sure by who though." Zoro's face fell, casting Sanji a nervous glance.
"Hit?! What the hell does that mean?" Sanji squeaked. His fingernails dug into his palm, he chewed on his abused lips anxiously.
"It's time to go back, Roronoa. And then you owe us an explanation of what happened." The dark man, Mihawk, said sinisterly, completely ignoring Sanji.
Zoro took another step towards the intruders, then looked back to where Sanji stood, a conflicted expression on his face. Sanji licked his chapped lips, suddenly wishing he had a cigarette between them.
"Roronoa, we do not have time for this, we need to depart before-" A screech of tires interrupted Mihawk, who whipped around to look through the beaten front door frame. Two large black SUVs pulled up in front of the apartment complex.
"Of course." Mihawk mumbled to himself. "Perona, go out the back and get the car. Really, Roronoa, this is why we should have left earlier."
Bullets rained into the house with a roar, plaster and wood exploded onto the floor, the shots shook the entire home. Sanji felt Zoro grab onto his wrist tightly, pulling him away from the door.
A force rammed into Sanji like a high speed car, ripping him away from Zoro and finding himself staring up at the ceiling as bullets continued to fly above him. Sanji swore he heard Zoro yell something that sounded like his name as a searing pain tore at Sanji's mid-section. The pain paralyzed him, his mouth hung open but the screams remained locked in his aching chest.
Zoro appeared above him, face to face with Sanji, his dark steel eyes searching him with a worried expression.
Sanji was only vaguely aware that the gunfire was dying down, his heartbeat drowning out most other sounds in his ears. The bitter taste of metal and smoke met his tongue and clung to his pallet. The pain in his abdomen was beginning to match the painful beating of his heart as the world was getting fuzzier by the second. The yelling and crashing outside his home seemed distant. He could feel swordsman's grip tightly clasped onto his hand, like a life line, Zoro was the only one keeping him anchored in this frantic reality.
"It's gonna be okay, shit cook. Shit cook? Oi Sanji!"
The whole world was shaking, vibrating against Sanji's ear like an earthquake. His head was spinning, opening his eyes felt impossible. Smooth leather brushed against his flat hand, his legs were scrunched up against a cold metal door, the coppery taste of adrenaline collected on his tongue along with the strange bubblegum-diesel concoction scent that coated the air.
"Roronoa, you can't be serious."
"I'm not ditching him."
"Zoroooo why do you care so much about this guy?" Sanji felt a pointed finger poke his cheek. "He's not even cute."
"None of your business you pink punk, keep your eyes on the road."
"Fine, whatever. Buuuuuut how are you even going to get him in? He's not a thief." Whatever Sanji's head was resting on shifted. His lungs were burning, each breath he took gurgled and threatened to choke him. Everything hurt, but slowly Sanji could feel an icy numbness starting to crawl through him.
"I know. You stay out of it witch, he's stolen something that'll get him in."
"Ohhh really? And what would that be?" Sanji felt a groan leave his lips as he blearily opened his eyes.
"Holy shit, cook! Hey, you with me? It's gonna be okay, I'm gonna get you a doctor and everything will be fine."
The world was spiraling out of control, his vision tunneled before giving way to nothing.
"Zoro! Where've you been, we've- You're covered in blood! What is going on?!" Sanji felt light, his body being jostled this way and that. "Who is that?!"
"Chopper I need your help, you've gotta fix him, we ran into some other thieves and he was shot it's really bad I couldn't stop the bleeding."
"Uh, lay him down over here! Have you been applying pressure to the wound?" From the back of his eyelids Sanji was blinded by white light, he would have groaned in pain but the noise was trapped in his throat.
"I did but it wasn't working, stuff just kept coming out, he's lost a lot of blood. What do I do, how can I help?" Something heavy pressed against the source of the pain, making Sanji feel the unnatural whole that was there in his gut.
"Pull out a bag of O negative blood from that fridge back there."
Sanji's slow heartbeat thudded lazily in his ears, he was so tired. He felt like he was hanging onto something. Why was he hanging on to something? He was too tired to hang on to anything. So he just let go.
It was the throbbing pain that woke him up, like it was pulling him out of a ditch, dragging him unwillingly into reality. There was pressure pushing against the pain, like it was trying to keep it from spilling out of him.
Wherever he was, it was quiet, still. It smelled like disinfectant and bleach. Sanji forced himself to open his heavy eyes to look up at a dirty white ceiling, it had that bumpy rough texture painted onto it. He wanted to drift back asleep, but the pain in his abdomen aggressively demanded he stay awake.
A door opened, followed by light footsteps. Sanji turned his head to see a young man, almost a kid, pace across the room to a metal desk, completely invested in a clip board in his hands. The boy was clearly a doctor of some sorts, maybe a premed student, from the way he was dressed. But what caught Sanji's attention was his nose: it was a bold blue, like the guy had a perpetual cartoonish cold.
Something caught in Sanji's lungs as he tried to sit up and he began to cough in raw and violent spasms, his whole gut screaming in protest.
"Oh my god you're awake!"
A soft small hand was suddenly at back, rubbing soothing circles, waiting for the coughing to subside. Sanji shuddered when a cold stethoscope pressed against his bare chest, his eyes lazily drifting up to look at the concerned face leaning over him.
"How do you feel? Slightly feverish? Head ache? Are you having trouble breathing?" His voice was small but confident, professional despite the sweet undertone.
"Ummm… Who are you exactly?" Sanji grit out, not liking his raspy tone.
The boy blinked twice before the question seemed to register.
"Oh my gosh where are my manners I'm Tony Drum, my friends call me Chopper!" He awkwardly carded a hand through his hair, his brown doe eyes looking anywhere but Sanji, like he was looking for a place to suddenly hide.
"So... Where the fuck am I?"
"Hmmm… You were unconscious most of the trip, weren't you?" Chopper pondered. "To put things simply, you're in my office. Can you remember what happened before you got here?"
Sanji's mind drew him back to his apartment, the smoke and gunfire.
"I-I was shot." Sanji muttered in disbelief, reaching down and just brushing the bandages on his belly. "Holy shit I was shot!"
"Indeed you were." Chopper nodded.
"I was shot." Sanji repeated. He thought back to the impact, being pulled away from Zoro and- Zoro! "That bastard! Where the hell is he!"
"Uh, who?"
"That shitty pick pocket, Zoro! He's the one that brought me here, wherever the fuck this is!"
"My office."
"Not helping!" Sanji snapped.
"I could go get him if you'd like?" Chopped offered.
"What?" He asked dumbly, the tenseness leaving his shoulders.
"I can bring him in here. He's out getting coffee or something so he should be nearby. But then again, it is Zoro, so he might be a little lost. Yeah no he's definitely lost, never mind he probably won't be back for a while, he has absolutely no sense of direction. One time, I just dropped him off at his house and the second he got out of my car-"
"You better not be talking about me."
"HOLY CRAP ZORO WHEN DID YOU GET HERE? I THOUGHT YOU WERE LOST FOR SURE!" Chopper squeaked.
Zoro shut the door behind him as he walked in. He was dressed differently since Sanji had last seen him: the sweatshirt was replaced with a smart and faded leather jacket over a white tee shirt, and he wore black pants tucked into battered combat boots. The bandages over his eye were looking better too, clearly he had the wound looked at from the way the coverings were so perfectly and precisely wrapped.
"Shut it, blue nose! My sense of direction is fine." His voice was aggressive but lacked any bite. He turned to face Sanji. "Good to see you're finally awake dart brow."
"What do you mean 'finally', bush brains?" Sanji sneered skeptically.
"You've been out for at least a solid, what, four days now?" Zoro shrugged, casually taking a seat in an empty chair.
"Four days?!" Sanji parroted indignantly, sitting up further in shock, only to be rewarded with a jolt of pain.
"Don't say that like it's a bad thing!" Chopper remarked, laying a hand on Sanji's chest to push him back against his pillow. "You've been in a fairly stable condition, but you're lucky you didn't die on the operating table!"
Sanji felt the air leave his lungs, leaving him stunned. He had been that close to death? Sanji wasn't one to dwell on his own mortality that often, but that's not to say he wasn't afraid of death. The idea that he nearly died as young as he is made him feel small, like his chest was shrinking: he wasn't sure if he was terrified or relieved.
"I'm sorry, that was unprofessional and insensitive." Chopper said in a small voice. Sanji offered a small shrug in response, excusing the doctor with a small wave of his hand, then went to give a pointed look to Zoro.
"Oi, moss head! What the hell?!" He angrily pawed at his pants, yanking out a pack of cigarettes that were buried in his pocket, to his dismay his lighter was missing. "Yo, doc, you got a light?"
The young doctor plucked away the cigarette Sanji had just placed in his mouth, wagging a free finger in Sanji's face.
"No way! You are not puffing that toxic shit into your body while you're in here!" For added measure, the frantic doctor tossed the cigarette into a nearby trash bin. Chopper paused after he did and turned, his thick eyebrows drawn up in sudden worry. "I- uh, sorry, I just…"
Sanji offered up his hands in a no offense taken gesture. "I get it, I get it. Doctor's orders or whatever." Chopper gave a relieved nod. "Anyways, as I was saying, what the fuck marimo?!"
"What did I do?" Zoro yelled backed, slouching into his chair with his arms crossed defensively over his chest. Out of Sanji's peripheral vision he saw Chopper slink out of the room quietly, the door clicking shut behind him.
"Don't give me that bullshit right now! Where the fuck am I? Why didn't you just take me to a hospital?" Sanji shouted, each word making his wound ache.
"I couldn't take you to a hospital, you'd get picked up there." He responded slowly, the bandages over his eye slightly obscured Zoro's expression, his narrow brows drawn together. Sanji took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"What the hell happened back there? One second we're talking in my living room and the next my door is busted open and two strangers show up! Then there were guns and they were shooting at us, who the hell was that? Sanji rambled as one question led to another. He tapped his hand against the bed agitatedly, rolling his tongue in his mouth and missing the feeling of a cigarette between his lips. "And what the hell did you say was wrong with me? I have, like a, a hit on me?"
Zoro sighed and rubbed at the nape of his neck.
"You talk too much, blondie." Sanji swore he felt a vein burst somewhere along his temple, he grit his teeth as he resisted the urge to lash out at the snarky bastard. The pick pocket ran a hand through his hair, shaking the cropped green strands out before letting the hand fall roughly back into his lap.
"God, where do I start. I'm not the best with speaking and shit, so just bare with me..." He trailed off, his visible eye locked onto the floor. "The two people that came to your apartment are… Partners of mine, we work together sometimes. The tall guy, Mihawk, he's the one that broke your door. Sorry about that by the way."
"Alright, well if you work with those two, what was up with all the guns and shooting?" Sanji questioned as calmly as he could.
"They're definitely not with me. Mihawk and Perona came for me, not you. The other guys that showed up were some other thieves coming for you, since you have a hit on you."
"Yeah, you keep saying that. What the fuck does that mean? Like, Mafia shit?" Sanji gnawed at his lower lip, his eyes burrowing into Zoro's forehead trying to will the man to make eye contact with him.
"Not quite…." Zoro started, he looked up at the ceiling with concern, trying to find the right words. "So, as you know, I'm a thief."
"No shit. What the hell does that have to do with anything? Quit dodging the subject." Sanji pushed himself up, grimacing as he pulled his legs towards himself and slung them over the edge of the bed.
"I'll get to that." Zoro promised. "I'm a little more than a thief though."
"Tch, thinking highly of ourselves are we?" Sanji sniggered.
"Shut it curly." Zoro rubbed the palms of his hands together awkwardly, still searching for the right words. "You're going to think this is so fucking crazy, so it'll be easier to just show you. Can you walk?"
"Yeah." Sanji slowly forced himself up, his center of gravity feeling off as pain pooled in his gut, he took a trembling step forward. Zoro stood and offered a shoulder that Sanji took grudgingly as he was led towards a large curtain concealed window. Each uncertain step created unpleasant little shots of pain, but he kept moving forward across the room.
"Right now, we're in the outskirts of downtown, beneath a large factory."
"Why the fuck would you take me here?!" Sanji balked, trying to push off of Zoro, who in return tightened his grip on Sanji. Keeping Sanji in place, Zoro tugged open the bland curtains and light illuminated their faces, Sanji felt his jaw drop.
"We're not the only ones down here."
They were looking down into a canyon, filled with layers upon layers on the sides with shops and homes. Large magnificent bridges spanned the across the gaps, reaching connecting gardens and there was the people; they were everywhere, walking across the bridges, trading at markets. Some appeared mostly normal, others were far from it. Bright and bold lanterns hung everywhere, looking light sunshine itself despite the fact that a dark ceiling completely covered the entire area. This place was thriving, it was alive and breathtaking.
"Where the hell are we?" Whispered Sanji.
"The City of Thieves." Sanji took a slight step back from the window, unable to take it all in.
"Just… What the fuck?" Zoro gently guided back to the bed, making him sit down in his stupor. "How is this even possible?"
"I don't know the history of the place or how it was made, but I do know that it's nearly impossible to discover without someone bringing you." Zoro sat back down in his own chair. "This is a city made of organized crime, there are other places like this in the country, hell even around the world. This is my home."
"And you took me here why?"
"It's honestly the safest place for you right now." Zoro scratched at the back of his head. "Oh, and I probably should have mentioned this earlier, uh, you're technically a registered thief now…"
"I'M A WHAT?"
"Keep it down will you! It was the only way I could get you in, only thieves are allowed in the city. Each time you come back to the city, you have to bring something stolen with you, kind of like a membership payment." Zoro explained quickly. "When I first met you, I was trying to get back here after a botched robbery, I was going to use your wallet to get in. But that kinda didn't go as planned…"
Sanji snorted. "You got that right."
"Perona and Mihawk were my partners in the robbery, but something went wrong, I think someone tipped off the cops or something like that. I disappeared for a week after that, Mihawk was pretty pissed that I didn't contact them at all. Those two tracked me down to see if I managed to make off with anything. I kind of expected it but wasn't looking forward to it. What I wasn't expecting was for you to have a hit on you."
"Are you going to tell me what that shit means or are you just going to leave me hanging forever."
"I'm getting to that! Just gimme a sec, okay? I'm bad with words." Zoro huffed. "There are different kinds of thieves, as you can imagine. Some just steal for their own account, while others are paid to do so for someone else; the second kind goes after hits. Anything can have a hit on it, from money to cars… Even people." A light switched on in Sanji's head.
"Are you telling me, those guys were hired to kidnap me?" He screeched. "Why?!"
Zoro shrugged. "Human trafficking kind of frowned upon around here, but it still happens. I can't say why someone is after you specifically, but you're definitely worth a price to someone."
Sanji leaned back in the bed, conflicted feelings rising in his chest. The room was suddenly stifling, too hot and decreasing in size. He took a shaking hand and settled it against his racing heart trying to slow the thunderous beating.
"I… I don't even know what to say."
"It can be a lot to take in. I remember the first time I came here…" Zoro nodded solemnly.
"Why did you take me here?" Sanji asked in a small voice.
"I already answered that, because they could have-" Sanji shook his head.
"Yeah yeah, I know that. I mean, why'd you bother? Why do you care so much to go through all this trouble?"
"Repaying a debt I suppose." The green haired man finally answered after a pause.
"Okay… Then how did you get me in? I thought you said only thieves get in, but I haven't stolen anything." Zoro picked up the chair he'd been sitting in and placed it closer to the bed.
"That's not important right now." He said hastily. "What does matter, is what to do next. You know you can't go home, right?"
Sanji swallowed thickly and nodded. He licked his dry lips, thinking back to Zeff and the restaurant. It would probably be a bad idea to contact them; Sanji didn't really understand this world, but he could use his own logic to come to the conclusion that he wasn't going back to his old life anytime soon. The thought alone threatened to drag tears to his eyes and his throat tightened slightly.
"So, do you have some grand master plan, moss head?" Sanji finally asked, mentally gathering himself. Zoro gave a familiar toothy grin.
"No… But I know someone who can help us make one."
A/N
Woooow! Haven't updated this in forever huh?
Thanks for all the support and kind words from everyone. I just want to say that you guys are what motivate me, you people really make my day! Thanks for reading!