As the weekend rolled over and Monday came along, Sanji could barely contain his bubbling anxiety as he bolted out of the bus doors and into the school, completely unaware of his friends shouting after him in question. Upon entering he scanned the room for a head full of green, but was met with the view of his empty seat.

The bell rang and Sanji reluctantly sat down, feeling a bit defeated. Dread ate away at the pit of his stomach and he knew that his stressing over Zoro wasn't him just over thinking. There was something wrong, Sanji didn't know exactly what it was, but he knew that Zoro wouldn't miss class unless it was for something important. Albeit, he did skip class for sleeping, but Zoro would even come to school being dog-shit sick and looking like hell just because he didn't want to miss more school than he had too. While he had scorned Zoro for this, angrily shouting about the possibility of getting the girls sick, Sanji would rather have Zoro puking on the floor right now, even puking on his dress shoes, then to see his seat empty again.

Zoro's prolonged absence was abnormal, so much so that even Luffy asked everyone during lunch if they had seen or heard of Zoro since last Thursday. A resounding no was said from the group and there was a sudden and immediate tension at the table. Sanji could feel Usopp still beside him and looked across to Nami, who looked lost for words.

Sanji felt as if his heart had crawled up his throat and was choking him as he looked back to Luffy and saw his usual bright grin was replaced with a more severe expression. Sanji knew his intuition was right if Luffy was serious about the swordsman's absence. Luffy was somehow the unspoken leader to their friend group, the glue that kept them all together when everything was falling apart. Time and time again Luffy was able to help each of his friends, no matter what the situation, but Sanji wondered if Luffy knew how to deal with this one.

"Zoro's capable of handling himself," Luffy reminded them with a smile and the building pressure of stress slowly seeped away. However, Sanji's nerves still buzzed within the back of his head, granting him no reassurance. "If anything comes up, then come to me first." Luffy stood, looking over everyone before leaving the table and his untouched food.


It wasn't until Thursday that week before they received anything on why Zoro was missing. Luffy woke up that morning, and in his usual meat deprived state, didn't realize that there was a letter addressed to him sitting in the middle of the kitchen table until Ace pointed it out. In a frenzy, Luffy grabbed the letter and ran to school as fast as he could, texting everyone to meet him at the school now, now, NOW!

"I'm doing fine, don't worry about me," Luffy read after opening the paper and Sanji was seething. He was pissed at the audacity Zoro had to write this note and expected them to not worry over him while giving them as little information as possible to explain where he had been, what he had been up to—and still not show his face. Sanji wasn't just enraged by Zoro's prolonged absence, but for the fact that Zoro was suffering, yet refused to allow his friends to support him in his time of need.

Sanji felt the urge to rip the note apart and burn the remains, as if damaging the note would somehow irritate Zoro enough to come and yell at him—to just do anything to him. Zoro could kick him, punch him; Sanji would be okay if Zoro wanted to cut off his head at this point, as long as he was able to see the damn mosshead and make sure that Zoro was alright. To see Zoro again would be such a relief off of his shoulders….

Luffy put a careful hand on Sanji's shoulder and looked up at him with reassuring eyes, to let him know that he understood, that he wanted to run off and find Zoro just as much as he did. Sanji's heart beat slowed, almost as if time was stopping as some of the worry fell off of his shoulders. He turned to each person and saw the same agonized looks in each of their faces. His heart was crushed in cruel irony; while he didn't think about anyone else's pain other than Zoro's, Zoro burdened his pain by himself and refused to accept help.
Friday came along and Sanji didn't expect to see Zoro in his seat anymore. Whatever he was doing, it was taking up a lot of time and Sanji began to accept this. It would have been some sort of miracle for him to show up to their first class on time anyways.

Zoro didn't believe in that type of mythology though: miracles, God, religion, faith. Zoro let his life be guided by "fate," as he had said so many times before. 'Whatever,' Sanji thought, 'Zoro's always reckless.'

He found himself praying to whatever God that was out there, to anyone who might have been listening to his silent wish, for just one miracle. It's a good thing he never believed in divine beings anyways, otherwise he'd have been let down.


Monday rolled around again and Sanji's stomach dropped. Zoro's absence was starting to get ridiculous and it made Sanji want to grip at his hair and start ripping it out. He wanted to grab chairs from the classroom and throw them around, not caring who it might hit. Sanji was raging, and wanted nothing more than to scream at the top of his lungs.

Without thinking, he marched over to Zoro's seat and sat down, choosing to cross his arms over his chest and glaring at the front of the room than to make himself look like he was going insane. No one said anything as he did, only looking over at him with pitiful looks.

As the week kept moving, people started acting as if Zoro hadn't ever been a part of the school to begin with. The rumors about why he'd gone missing died down as everyone started forgetting about him. Zoro had vanished without a trace—other than the note he had written last Thursday. Even Sanji found himself wondering at times if Zoro was going to come back or if he was going to stay gone forever. He was losing hope that one day he might walk into first hour and see Zoro there.

As much as Sanji fought with Zoro, he'd rather bite off his own tongue than to keep looking at his empty seat. The swordsman's absence was worse than his presence, and it was driving Sanji into madness. Hell, he didn't even care at this point if Zoro did or didn't give an explanation for being gone for so long, just as long as he could see him again….

Friday came along once again to save everyone from the an agonisingly slow week, yet also set them in a funk as it also marked the second week of Zoro's disappearance. Luffy forced everyone into a much needed relaxing time where they all would hang out and have fun; not that anyone would have disagreed anyways after the stress they'd been going through. The plan was that they'd all meet up at the movie theater and afterwards, would walk back to Luffy's place to order pizza and have a sleep over.

Once there, everyone had bought their tickets, all except Luffy, who was late and nowhere to be seen. The group was instantly set into a panic, wondering if he was going to disappear like Zoro as well. Was Luffy in danger? They all knew that Luffy was more than capable of holding his own in a fight, but after Zoro being missing for so long, his tardiness didn't set in right with any of them.

"Hey guys, come here and look at this." Usopp gestured towards where he stood, gazing out of the window. As they neared, trying to see what Usopp was talking about, they saw Luffy running towards them and shouting something, but he was too far away to hear.

Nami brushed it off, saying that it was probably some joke that Luffy was trying to pull in an excuse as to why he was late. Although, as Luffy sprinted closer to them, Sanji noticed the red that covered his hands, the panicked look on his face, the way his whole body was just too tense. Sanji burst through the door, heaving his way to reach his distressed friend.

Luffy was hysterical; a crying, blubbering mess of tears, snot and blood. Everyone may have been worried before, but now they were horrified by their friends state of being. Luffy never cried, yet he stood in front of them, tears freely streaking down his cheeks. He tried to rub them away, but that only caused the blood on his hands to smear over his face and Sanji inwardly cringed at the sight.

They crowded around him in a shocked silence while Robin stood in front, trying to calm Luffy down, and all Sanji could manage was to gape at his friend and listen to Robin's quiet words of reassurance. She asked him what had happened, who's blood was on him since he didn't have any sightable wounds, but Luffy wasn't able to form any words, let alone a sentence.

Sanji was crushed with a petrified fear that clung to him like hooks sinking into his skin. His chest heaved in unstable breaths and his lungs felt as if they were being constricted by his rib cage, enclosing his windpipes like iron bars of a prison.

"Where?" Sanji gasped and Luffy lifted a trembling hand and pointed. That's all it took before Sanji left, rushing past his friends and charging down the street. He ran faster than what he thought was possible, ran even faster when his mind supplied him with images that he didn't want to believe, but when he rounded the corner and looked down the alley, his mind shut down all images and replaced it with static. He wasn't in control anymore, almost as if he was put on autopilot as he neared the body that laid on the ground. Even before Sanji was able to see his face, he knew who was lying there.

His swords laid around him, like he had dropped them and forgotten about them. 'Like Zoro didn't even care,' Sanji's mind supplied for him. There was blood on his swords, there was blood all over his chest, there was blood on his face, there was blood pooled around him-there was too much red around Zoro, and not enough green.

Sanji felt as if his heart had shriveled up inside his chest and he felt like he was dying. He didn't hear Nami scream, didn't hear Usopp throw up, didn't hear Chopper yelling at Franky to call an ambulance. All he noticed was Zoro's ragged, shallow breathing and the wound that went across his chest. Sanji saw movement in his peripheral vision, and watched as Zoro's fingers flexed, almost as if he were trying to reach—

"Sanji." He heard him breathe out, so quietly that he almost didn't hear it. Falling to his knees, Sanji knelt next to Zoro and grabbed his hand. Zoro's grip was loose and Sanji was terrified of the idea of possibly losing—
No. He wouldn't think that—couldn't think that. Zoro was strong. No matter what he got himself into he fought tooth and nail to come out on top. He never lost, pride always getting his way no matter how much it hurt, and seeing Zoro this hurt—

"Why are y-…. You. Crying?" Zoro said between shallower breaths. Fingers brushed over his own tears and Sanji wondered when he started crying, not noticing until Zoro had pointed it out.

"Because some idiot decided to fight a bear, apparently." Sanji sarcastically remarked, surprised that he could even utter out a word. Zoro tried to smirk, but a fit of coughs wracked through his body and he started spitting out blood.

"Hey, Zoro—Zoro." Sanji said, panic settled in like ice in his veins. Zoro's body spasmed as more blood spilled onto the ground, soaking into Sanji's clothes. Sanji held Zoro in his lap, clinging to his hand as it if were his lifeline, the only thing keeping him grounded.

When the ambulance arrived Franky had to pry Sanji away from Zoro as they put him on a spinal board. Je failed, screaming and sobbing as they loaded Zoro into the ambulance and shut the doors. Sanji didn't want to let go in fear that if he did then that might be the last time he'd ever get to see Zoro or his ridiculous green hair. Never get to hear him yell back at him for calling him an idiot. Never get to see him become the world's greatest swordsman that he sworn he'd become since he was little. His heart ached to see the swordsmen, and hoped that watching them close those doors wasn't going to be the irony of the situation's outcome.