A/N: OMG why do I write such horrible things?!

Sanji heard him, like he always did. The sniffling and whimpering noises of fear and despair. The cook stared at the ceiling for a moment before rolling to wrap his right arm around the sleeping sniper. The soft crying tore at him like very little else could manage to do. "It's alright, Usopp. Everything's going to be alright," he murmured to the younger man. If things were different, Sanji wouldn't bother comforting Usopp. He would be of the mind to just kick the guy out of bed to shut him up, but he knew the dreams that were plaguing his friend and he just couldn't do that. It was like his little brother was crying and, though he was helpless to take away the source of the immeasurable grief, he had to do something to try and relieve it slightly.

It took several minutes and some more whispered assurances but slowly Usopp's tears stopped falling onto his pillow. Sanji waited another ten minutes to be sure they really had before slowly detangling himself from the bed. It was a rickety thing that creaked when the occupant even breathed but it kept them off the floor. With Sanji's forever broken prosthetic and Usopp's injured spine that was the important thing. With Coby taking up their only other bed, the sniper and cook had been forced to share but they were beyond complaining about such trivial things. The blonde used his right hand against the wall to keep himself balanced until the phantom limb he always seemed to wake up with went away. Wasn't that sensation supposed to go away after a while? The blonde shook his head and put the thought on a shelf for later.

Once his balance had fixed itself, Sanji reached down to the covers on the bed and pulled them back in place, locking the warmth against the bowed mattress and his friend. Living underground like some goddamned rat was pretty safe all things considered but it was also a touch cold and damp and they couldn't exactly light fires down here. They would suffocate themselves most likely.

Sanji rubbed his face as he walked to the leaky bathroom. The blonde washed his face and completed his usual morning routine mechanically. He couldn't help but be glad that they'd never gotten around to finding a mirror for this place. It made it more difficult to keep his goatee trimmed but it allowed him to avoid seeing the general run down state he knew he was in. He lifted his hand and combed his fingers through his bangs. Though he'd once decided to move them to the right they'd ended up back to the left to cover the multitude of scars from when that one crazy asshole had tried really hard to gouge out his eye. Sanji had gotten away with his eye but it had been close.

The last remaining member of the Monster Trio sighed and finished up in the bathroom before changing from his nightclothes to what he wore out. Though he still loved the way a suit looked on his figure they weren't much protection against swords and bullets and what not so he'd ended up in much different clothes than he would normally have chosen. Leather, though far from his first choice, had ended up being the best protection he could afford though he did at least attempt to disguise it with a long trench coat or the cloak he sometimes wore. If anyone were to see him walking down the street with leather on and a prosthetic they would rightly assume he had a bounty and probably have reported his existence, which he could not afford.

Dressed and resolved, Sanji went to check on Coby one last time. He almost cursed aloud at the blood that had seeped through the bandages. The damn wounds never fucking stopped! The bandages would have to be changed but Sanji didn't want to leave Usopp to do them all if he didn't have to. "Sanji-san…"

The blonde looked up instantly. He hadn't realized Coby was awake. "What is it?" he asked softly to not wake Usopp who was probably still exhausted and hung over from last night's drinking session. Sanji had deliberately held back so that he wouldn't oversleep but Usopp had not been as forethoughtful.

"Can… can I go… outside?" Coby asked even softer.

Sanji didn't answer immediately. Coby shouldn't be moved, it would make his situation worse and probably kill him to be entirely honest. He was weak enough as it was. "Coby… you shouldn't be moving," Sanji pointed out.

"Please, Sanji-san?"

Again the blond hesitated. Coby had his eyes barely open and most of his skin was covered in bandages that were mostly red and damp from blood and sweat and other sickness. The former marine was only really easily recognizable from the tufts of pink hair that had escaped his bandages. He certainly couldn't be moved safely or comfortably. But… on the painful other hand… he'd been trapped here underground for two months just suffering and though Sanji and Usopp had been doing their best to ease it for him they'd run out of painkillers and had to resort to alcohol a little while ago. Hardly the proper medicine.

"It's going to hurt to move you," Sanji warned.

Coby smiled a little, digging blades into Sanji's throat and chest as the bandages were pulled. "It's alright…" The blonde couldn't come up with any other arguments so he mutely nodded and reached over for Usopp's wheelchair. His friend wouldn't mind it being borrowed and it would probably be easier on both Sanji and Coby to use it.

It took effort, a few curses, and probably far more pain than Sanji wanted to imagine to get Coby into the wheelchair but it was managed. Coby was panting some and had tears on his face but Sanji forced himself to ignore them. Instead, he leaned against the back of the chair and pushed his friend out as carefully and silently as possible. The tunnel was not easy to maneuver with a wheelchair but it was possible. Usopp did it himself fairly regularly when he went to get supplies and Sanji wasn't around to do it.

The end of the tunnel came out inside of a shed so that it could remain hidden and not have any stairs down. The shed was rickety but managed to hold together despite the breeze that tugged at the planks it was made of. Wedging his foot under the wheels so that the chair wouldn't roll backwards, Sanji leaned past Coby and pushed the door to the shed open.

At first, the light from the sun was blinding. The breeze brought the smell of salt water and grasses to chase away the unmistakable smell of moist dirt of underground. Sanji took a moment to close his eyes and savor it before moving forward. He closed the door behind him and then took Coby further out. The town they lived in had long ago been practically destroyed and all of the bounty hunters that lived there wiped out. It had been one of Whiskey Peak's sister towns in its prime. Now it was full of shanties and collapsed buildings. Most of the gardens were overgrown and the packed dirt of the streets were becoming torn up as nature tried hard to sweep back through. There were only a handful of refugees here but more than a few had huge scars from where tattoos had been cut or burnt off. Pirate and Marine alike had been forced to cut ties and that included removing any Jolly Rogers or Marine insignias.

Sanji noticed several people outside of their shacks with bottles in their hands already looking drunk out of their minds. They probably had never gone to bed the night before. Sanji ignored them and they returned the favor. It was a short walk to the cliffs that oversaw the ocean. The sun was about halfway through rising and was still warped into the ocean horizon. Sanji stopped and leaned more heavily on the back of the wheelchair. "This better?"

"… yes… thank you, Sanji-san…" Coby murmured.

"Sure thing," the blonde replied as he watched the waves hit the shore below and the sun bounce around off the ocean's surface as if nothing at all had changed. After several minutes of silence he tore his eyes away from the water to look at Coby. The injured man's pink hair was being tossed around by the wind and the bloody bandages were as gruesome as ever but there was less tension in his posture. "What do you see, Coby?"

There was such a long pause Sanji wasn't sure he'd get an answer. "Luffy-san," Coby murmured finally. "… he wants… to go on an adventure…"

Damn. Sanji really wished he had a cigarette. That would help with the rock he'd somehow swallowed. His eyes burned and watered but he breathed through it as best he could. "That damned idiot… always wants an adventure," Sanji replied, trying to keep his voice as light as possible with that painful strangling feeling he was dealing with.

"I shouldn't…"

"Why not?" Sanji asked. The blonde blinked away the distortions in his vision and steadfastly ignored the moisture that overflowed. "Bet Luffy would love it."

"He's… a pirate…" Coby managed to point out.

Sanji snorted and his lips quirked at that but it didn't really relieve the pain. "Yeah. That he is. But… I don't think anyone would care, Coby. You're allowed to have fun with your Nakama even if you are a stupid ass marine. Go on your adventure, Coby. Tell that Captain of mine I'll be behind you in a while. I'll make him something to eat…"

There was a long silence after that filled only with the sound of the sea breeze and drops of saltwater hitting the back of the wheelchair. After the sun had finished rising off the horizon, Sanji gently shifted his hand. Without looking away from the waves, he pressed two fingers to Coby's neck. A minute later, Sanji closed his eyes and let out a long breath. It was probably better this way.