The breeze that they came upon as they neared the island was nice; it almost seemed to be trying to blow away the chill of winter that clung to them from the last island they'd docked on, and Sanji was glad of the slightly warmer weather. Though having gotten used to the strange seasonal changes of the islands in the Grand Line, he still liked it when the weather was warmer – his beautiful ladies wore much less when the sun shone brightly!

Inhaling the last of his cigarette and very firmly pushing back the tiny, nagging voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Chopper chiding him for smoking, the cook snubbed out the cigarette on the ash bowl sitting in the centre of the table. Though he had yet to get started on breakfast – which he knew Luffy would be impatient to ask for as soon as he'd woken – Sanji was waiting for something to happen.

It was a Wednesday, after all.

Though his fingers itched to grab another cigarette to stave off the slight nerves that bubbled in his chest, Sanji instead forced himself to turn his attention to listening for the news carrier's wings as it landed, bringing him a letter from Ace.

The sunrise was just starting to fade the sky into a beautiful, cloudless blue when Sanji heard wings, and he eagerly jumped from the table, uncaring of his obvious excitement and the quiet clatter of the chair legs as he almost tipped it over. He had to compose himself before going through the back door of the kitchen, lest he scare the bird away, but he couldn't help feeling his heart pound in his chest.

The bird was preening its feathers as Sanji came outside, hands jammed in his pockets to keep from merely grabbing the letter from the bird and running away with it, and he quickly procured the coin for Nami's news and his letter, trying shove both into the little pouch the bird had on its leg.

It took the first coin, but not the second.

Sanji's brow furrowed in confusion as the newspaper hit the deck in front of him. Then, anger replaced it, and he glared at the bird. "Oy, you said same place, same time!" Sanji accused, while the bird almost seemed irritated by Sanji's words. "Where the hell is my letter?"

He couldn't expect the bird to understand, but as Sanji lunged for the creature, attempting to grab the thing's letter pouch and find Ace's letter, it skittered to the side, ruffling its feathers and then flapping it's wings, taking off from the ship. "HEY!" Sanji shouted, practically leaning over the rails and almost falling overboard in an attempts to catch the bird, "Come back!"

Not listening to the desperate blond, the bird quickly disappeared into the clouds without looking back.

Sanji had to force himself to swallow, something heavy lodging in his throat. Why hadn't Ace given him a letter this Wednesday? Had he gotten himself lost and been unable to land and write him one?

Their letters ran like clockwork, though and Ace'd never skipped a day. He seemed almost delighted by being able to write to someone every week, telling Sanji all about the new animals and plants he'd seen, and if Sanji didn't know any better he'd say Ace was on a holiday, not chasing a traitor. Though at first he'd been bitter over having to force himself to write Luffy's brother a letter ever week, over time he'd gotten used to it, and it became routine; to have that routine broken was making him feel almost terrified.

Although-

Maybe Ace's lack of a letter meant that he'd found Blackbeard, and had been sailing as fast as he could aboard Striker to get there in time, and been unable to send him one. Maybe Ace had found him, but gotten injured and was unable to write a reply to Sanji's letter.

Maybe he'd been fatally wounded, came the treacherous part of Sanji's mind, maybe he's been found and overpowered by the marines. Maybe he's fallen asleep while piloting Striker and sunken to the bottom of the ocean.

The blond pushed his fingertips against his temple, short but well kept nails digging into the skin there as though to drive away those thoughts, but he still couldn't help the sick twist of apprehension and fear that curled in his gut.

All Sanji knew he could do now, however, was wait till next Wednesday, and hope that Ace'd be alright.

AN: Did a thing with Nezkovsou where we had the same dialogue prompt ("Same place, same time,") and wrote our own things to see the differences in what we came up with.