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Chapter 4
The Wind
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The sun raised as it always did, painting the sky with reds and oranges and violets that took over the blackness and the dark blues, stars still shining faintly and the moon being just a hint that it had been there. The ocean turned gold and reflected the light like a still and huge mirror always facing the sky.
A certain cook woke up to the scene filling his lungs with the first cigarette of the day, leaning against the rail of the still asleep Thousand Sunny. The smoke managed to dissipate upon him but the breeze was so faint it couldn't take it too far away. The calmness was so solid one could almost take a bite of it and chew it. It was too calm. Sanji's eyebrow twitched at the thought.
When he finished his first smoke, he headed to the kitchen and started planning the day's breakfast, which would be better than the day before but never better than the day after as he didn't accept anything else than to keep improving and getting better. Luffy would say it was delicious as always but Sanji could tell the difference and took his moments to feel proud of his little achievements.
But today it felt forced.
Today he had to make an effort to concentrate and find that little detail that would make it better. It had been happening ever since Nami got hurt back in the last island, back when he had let her get hurt because he was too weak to protect her. Funny enough, the strong conviction he proudly lived by, never hurting a woman, not even if he died, ended up letting a woman he cared about get hurt. It sucked and it haunted him in his sleep and during his times alone with his thoughts, a pattern that was beginning to wear him down.
Luckily enough, his dark thoughts were disturbed when he heard the familiar sound of combat boots stomping downstairs to the deck. Time for the crew's resident moss ball to do his crazy morning training. Sanji concentrated on the fried eggs he was currently working on, his attention back to improving his culinary talent and being distracted from his previous line of thought. Thankfully. There's only so much self-pitying and self-despising one can take before going nuts.
Breakfast took a while as Sanji made sure there was something new and special in every dish, as he bothered personalizing each of his nakama's servings because it kept on distracting him and gave him something to think about other than how worthless and shit he was.
A more rational part of him weakly tried to convince him that he was overreacting but 98% of his brain and chest and stomach constantly felt like shit when he thought about how he had let Nami get badly hurt. He blamed himself for all there was to blame while trying to find a way to amend things and not finding any. Nami had made it crystal clear that she didn't think it was his fault and that she didn't want him distressed over this, which had kind of helped him torture himself a little less, to find some kind of relief, but it never really made the guilt stored in his chest go away. It stayed there just like an anchor. And cooking was one of the things that made the weight lighter, even if it still didn't come out as natural as it normally would and he had to force himself to put the same amount of effort to make what he always did: fucking kill it because he was the coolest greatest chef, that is. Better approach, he congratulated himself. He could use some self-indulgence.
Giving a satisfied look at the servings, he headed out of the galley and took a deep breath to call everyone for breakfast. He stopped for a moment, though, when his gaze met the back of the crew's swordsman tensing and flexing as he counted his billionth push-up, tensed bronzed muscles glittery and shiny and humid because of the sweat. When the "what the actual fuck" alarm switched on, Sanji realized he had been taking the view for far too long and made his presence noticed by lighting a cigarette. The swordsman only paused for the tiniest millisecond and then kept going with his repetitions as if he hadn't noticed Sanji after the weak 'click' reached his ears, which he had.
"You better go wash yourself before coming in, you damn muscle-brain," Sanji announced in a flat tone, not expecting Zoro to stop with his training or to acknowledge his presence or words for that matter. Then he breathed in again and shouted for everyone to hear. "Breakfast is ready!"
Hell broke loose somewhere in the men's quarters as they heard various war noises and, above them all, Luffy yelling "breakfaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast!" and some other intelligible garbage that only meant Sanji had to get ready to barricade the galley in order to stop their captain from storming in before everyone else and gulping everyone's food, plates included. Sanji rolled his eyes in distress and took the few precious seconds he had left before world war started to lay his gaze on Zoro again. To his surprise, he had stopped doing his 'warming up' and was now sat cross-legged on the grass, looking at him with serious eyes. Sanji didn't need the marimo to voice his thoughts out loud; his look was one of concern and it was exactly the same Sanji was now giving him. They had both realized how weak the wind was. How everything was too calm. A spark of understanding crossed both men's eyes. Both of them nodded to signal that they were in the same page, and fell into a wary stance.
Just then, Luffy stomped out of the men's quarters and Sanji lazily took some steps back to the galley door with precise timing to plant the sole of his dress shoe against Luffy's face as he unguardedly attacked the door full-force, never seeing the chef coming before his foot was already plastered against his nose.
Ah, routine, sweet routine.
"Good morning, captain, my captain," Sanji greeted with a murderous smile.
"Morning, Sanji..." Luffy whined in a defeated tone. Even he knew it was useless trying to fight Sanji when it came to protecting food. And there was only so much sneaking around he could do before getting kicked in the face for good measure. Which he had already.
"Gah, dammit Luffy, you're always the same!" Usopp complained while heading towards them still in his pyjamas and a sleepy look on his face. "You almost destroyed my hammock! Can't you contain your morning enthusiasm a little?"
"Sanji, I'm hungryyyyy!"
"Well, too bad, because you'll just wait 'til everyone gets here and you'll shut the fuck up, is that clear enough?!" Sanji growled at him while kicking him again, this time just as a warning. Which Luffy needed, really. Then he thought of the way he usually addressed their captain as rather inappropriate (not that he gave a fuck really) and fixed it with a curt (and rather mocking) "Captain, my captain."
Luffy scowled and looked at the blonde as if he was the meanest creature ever to step on Earth. When Sanji took none of his bullshit, he proceeded to pout and look like a starving puppy that hadn't been fed in months. Sanji didn't hesitate to illustrate exactly how many fucks he gave, which was somewhere below zero.
By when their daily repetitive exchange had finished, Robin was already there and Sanji graciously opened the door for her and then 'kindly' invited the rest of the bastards who had finally gathered in front of him to come in and fucking behave, see if they learnt some manners and today, for a change, they didn't eat like pigs. Not like he was going to be any lucky, though. At the very beginning he had had the hope that, as they were all brainless morons, there'd be a lot of empty space in their heads to kick in some manners, but then it turned out that not only they had no brain at all but their skull was thick as fuck as well, so none of the gentleman knowledge and manners Sanji tried to relocate in them seemed to find a way in. In the end, he had just given up on hope. He hadn't stopped trying, though; karma better return this to him.
Just before entering the jungle his kitchen had muted into, he turned to face Zoro.
"And you better not-"
"Don't worry, cook, I won't be skipping breakfast, so chill," Zoro snapped at him with a roll of his eyes as he started walking. "I'm just gonna wash. Bathroom. You asked for it."
"Whatever, just come when you're finished. Nobody goes without breakfast under my-"
"Yeah, yeah, now fuck off."
Sanji felt the tip of his lip twitch in amusement and Zoro felt it just the same without even looking at him as an annoyed twitch of his eyebrow matched the cook's amused one based on pure instinct.
"What now?" he growled, not even knowing why he was letting himself be dragged into the cook's shitty provocation, which he wasn't supposed to be sensing because he wasn't fucking looking, and yet he felt the stupid smile that promised that something equally stupid would come out of Sanji's mouth for the sole purpose of annoying him.
"The bathroom's that way," Sanji pointed out with his lips trembling in an attempt not to laugh straight at the swordsman's face. So much for trying.
Zoro's ears went red as he saw, felt and was stabbed with Sanji's fucking smug grin that could only be translated as a neon-light reading 'you're the king of idiots'.
Sanji couldn't restrain himself anymore and started laughing like mad as Zoro enthusiastically flipped him off with a look that promised pain, though half as intimidating, as embarrassment had taken over the leading role dressing Zoro's face in deep red and the scowliest scowl ever.
"How can you even... fucking get lost in-a fucking... ship you spend 24... hours in?!" Sanji managed between laughter, but Zoro was already stomping away and didn't give him the pleasure to answer to that.
Such a shame. It would have definitely been fun seeing Zoro trying to justify that.
When he sat down with the others, Robin sent him a meaningful look he grasped while dismissing one of Usopp's shitty lies and she casually commented:
"Today is quite a calm day."
Of course nobody else listened to the observation or, if they did, they gave it no much thought to none, but Sanji nodded with the same casual demeanor and they both confirmed that the other was aware of the weird and concerning weather issue. Good. They both needed to keep their attention sharp and ready.
Speaking of attention, Sanji's was caught when Luffy stretched his arm to get Zoro's serving, but the cook was quick as lightning at kicking it away with a snarl and the promise of physical pain in his glare, which made Luffy retreat for a bit.
"It's not your damn food, Luffy!"
Just in case, he put the plate away from the table, not that Luffy wouldn't be able to get it if he really bothered to and stretched as he knew he could, but the gesture made his point clear and it still was safer.
Sanji tried to ignore Robin's not so discrete chuckle.
Zoro put on some clean clothes and his ever present haramaki and emerged from the bathroom clean and refreshed, with his spiky green hair still wet. He still got a scowl imprinted in his face, embarrassment still making him try to come up with an excuse as for why he had gone the wrong direction to find the bathroom. Not that he would usually bother to justify himself anymore since, to be frank, he didn't really give a damn about other people's opinions on his sense of direction, but the cook, almost as always, was an exception. That damn blonde managed to get under his skin with barely a mocking smirk and his instincts automatically looked for ways to counterattack anything that came from him. So yeah, he had spent all of his quick shower time, which was meant to be relaxing, struggling with his brain cells to find a way to give the cook back all the embarrassment he had just gone through. Really productive. Specially really mature.
But thinking about possible answers and revenges also led him to realize he hadn't seen that defeated look on the cook that morning. Which was good, he guessed. He hated that look so much he could barely bring himself not to punch the blonde straight in the face. He tried to picture the expressions he'd seen that morning on Sanji, but the closest one to the oh so hated look had been the concerned stare they'd shared for a second, which had nothing to do with the cook's shitty mood but with the weather problem they were currently bound to have. Aside from that, everything had gone smooth as always, same old morning routine, same bickering and reactions, same badass cook being stupid and badass along with the stupidity of everyone else as background noise.
Zoro kind of felt relieved. Every time he caught a glimpse of that expression, something inside his stomach didn't set right. Every time he saw that, even if it had been just a few times since Sanji was probably the best goddamn actor he had ever encountered in his life, the cook looked like a loser. And Sanji was many things, but one that was definitely not in the list was 'loser'. Seeing him look like this was so out of place he didn't even know how to react to it. They hated each other's guts but, damn, every second Sanji let his guard down and his shoulders fell like that, Zoro missed his proud, over-confident, badass self so much it hurt and, most of all, pissed him off big time.
Today he hadn't seen any signs, so it seemed alright. He didn't quite buy it though, he had seen the cook erase his feelings from his face quicker than he blinked. Him not showing hurt or pain or guilt or whatever he was going through didn't mean it wasn't there.
Zoro sighed.
And since when the hell did he, Roronoa Fucking Zoro, sigh? He ran a hand trough his spiky hair in an annoyed and exasperated gesture and headed to the kitchen, not that he expected there to be any food left considering their captain's antics when it came to gulping everyone else's dishes down. He could always ask for Sanji to cook something for him, he thought. All in all it was his job, as much as Sanji disliked him.
But, contrary to what he expected, the cook wasn't in the empty galley when he walked in. Zoro frowned and made it to go look for him and demand food when he saw a plate set on the kitchen counter. He closed the distance between him and his discovery and found a little note by its side reading 'Marimo's serving. Luffy, if I find out you've eaten it, you're flying out of the fucking ship'. Very nice. Though it would have been useless since, if Luffy had walked by, he wouldn't have bothered to read the threat written in there before gulping the food down. Zoro found himself smirking at the note.
The cook had bothered to fight for his ration... again. That kind of surprised him; he knew for a fact that Sanji wasn't exactly a fan of him and yet he had bothered... again.
And then he realized something was off. He looked around to see what it was and found that none of the dishes had been washed. Weird. Not something Sanji would let happen in his kitchen. Zoro frowned and forgot about his breakfast as he got an idea of where the cook could be. Before he knew what he was doing, his feet dragged him to the infirmary, where he found his prize indeed.
Just that it wasn't what he had wanted to find, really.
Sanji didn't even sense his presence, he was totally absorbed in his thoughts. He was sat on a chair by Nami's sleeping form, probably drugged by the painkillers. Her expression revealed she was in pain and her breathing was shallow and weird. Sweat patched her red hair to her pale wet face. The plate full of breakfast Sanji had adoringly prepared for her was forgotten on a table nearby as she was in no condition to eat right now.
But Zoro's attention wasn't on her anymore. He knew she'd struggle and that it must be quite painful, but he also knew the woman was strong, they all were damn it, they had gone through so much; all of them deserved a bit of credit for that, they were the fucking Strawhats! He knew she'd totally make it and he totally believed in Chopper, who had announced she was in no risk of dying whatsoever. He told them she'd struggle for a few days until pain calmed down and, if he had heard it right, she would be able to walk again and join normal life in a week or so. So, even if he didn't like to see her in pain and even if he had indeed frozen in panic when he had seen her be pierced, not knowing if she'd die or not back at that island (not that he'd admit it out loud, mind you), now he was sure she wouldn't, and he wouldn't worry more than needed.
What really got him was Sanji's stance. There it was again. Fallen weak shoulders, an unlitt cigarette hanging from his unexpressive lips, an empty and defeated stare looking at Nami with so much guilt one could almost breathe it in, hands clenched together and slightly trembling. The figure of a defeated man who had gone and come from war and lost it all.
What the fuck.
Zoro's rage filled his lungs in an explosion of white and red and he had to clench his teeth and fists not to go and do something stupid such as rearranging the cook's face, though it sounded pretty appealing right now. He couldn't take it, he really couldn't. That wasn't the cook he knew. That wasn't Sanji at all. That was a poor excuse of the man's shadow. Dammit, even the bastard's shadow on a cloudy day stood prouder than that! The urge to bring him back hit him so hard that he had to restrain himself from going and violently shaking him out of it and shouting straight into his face to fucking come back to Earth.
Instead, he did something he knew would set the cook's own rage on fire, which was about a billion times better than what he was witnessing right now.
"So, how's the sea witch doing?"
Sanji jumped about a feet in surprise, his shoulders back where they should be, his hands disentangled and suddenly steady. And then it all turned to pure rage that sent his whole body trembling, but for a completely different reason, when he slowly turned to face the swordsman, clearly containing himself and with a pissed as hell look in his face. Good. That was so much better. At least that was Sanji.
"What did you just say?" he asked in a dangerous tone that promised some good kicking if Zoro didn't apologize for that.
Well, Zoro would rather have him kicking shit than sulking, so...
"You deaf? I asked if the sea witch is doing okay," he resolved, coolly.
Totally knowing what was coming.
"I'm fucking gonna kick your ass so bad you're gonna end up throwing up your apologies, you dumbfuck idiot marimo!"
Sanji stood up and fisted his haramaki to drag Zoro outside and the greenhead didn't fight back until they were on deck, where he ducked a deadly kick aimed at his face.
Zoro was pissed off as well. Sanji's defeated stance really did make him wanna break things, but a feral grin still escaped his lips as he unshielded his swords, seeing no more of that pathetic look, happy that he had brought the blonde to their meant-to-be territory, which was being badass motherfuckers stupidly fighting like idiots for nothing other than pride and the mere feeling of enjoying every bit of the fight.
Sanji was Sanji again, which was all that mattered right now.
Sanji spinned around, wiping the air with his long legs and making Zoro retreat only to contort his body when finding an opening and launching through it. The opening no longer existed though, as Sanji had already read his movement in anticipation and was now jumping up in the air with the damn moon walk thing that put Zoro at disadvantage. Not one to complain when a challenge was presented, though, Zoro redirected his blow and a cut scratched the mast just where the blonde had been suspended.
Speaking of blonde, a curtain of gold hair invaded his vision when the cook managed to get close to him at surprising speed and threw a kick by his temple, which Zoro avoided by bending his body slightly backwards and cutting the air with his sword, aiming at Sanji's side. His attack didn't go as planned though, as the other foot of the blonde kicked his ankle and made him stumble and lose balance as he was still dodging the first attack. How the hell did Sanji do that? It shouldn't be possible for his foot to reach his feet when the other leg was still up in the air forcing Zoro to get away of his aim, not without losing his own balance at least. But then again, it was Sanji he was talking about. What he managed to do with his legs was something even science or anatomy experts wouldn't be able to explain, that he was sure of. So he fell and missed his blow and Sanji pinned him against the grass, lazily siting on his stomach with a pissed off look as he lighted the cigarette he'd ben munching on for too long.
"So, what you are going to do right now, you damn marimo head, and you better listen-"
A gasp escaped his lips and cut him mid sentence when the swordsman let go of one of his swords and used his upper body to force them to switch positions, and without as much as blinking he was siting on Sanji, having immobilized his legs so that he lost his most powerful weapon, pinning both his arms over the blonde's head with a single hand and pointing the edge of the sword at his throat with the other one.
"Said what?"
Sanji went all shades of red and Zoro swore that if glares could kill he'd already be buried somewhere far away without a proper funeral. That only caused his grin to grow wider, triumphant and cocky.
"Go on, I was willing to listen, don't be shy."
"You goddamn fucking shitty marimo! I'm fucking gonna kick your mossy head off your body and send it flying to the moon and back and I'm gonna fucking filet the rest of you until your fucking over-worked body isn't recognisable anymore and I fucking swear to God if you don't fucking get off me about fucking right now I'm fucking gonna-mph!"
Sanji's rant was interrupted when Zoro's hand brusquely covered it, suddenly serious. He had been chuckling at the beginning at how colourful Sanji's language could become, but something had caught his attention and he was now wearing a concentrated and concerned look. Sanji tried to ask "what now?" but the sound was muffled by Zoro's rough palm on his lips so he tried a different approach and questioned him with his visible eye, starting to get worried. The pressure on his legs had evaporated as right now all the swordsman's efforts were set elsewhere. He was simply sitting on him, no force applied whatsoever. Sanji didn't shove him off though, instead, he waited for an answer. But Zoro's gaze was fixed on the sky.
A drop of sweat fell from Zoro's jaw to Sanji's cheekbone near his eye and he blinked at the contact. Zoro's hand was still on Sanji's wrists but it no longer had the purpose of holding him down, it just rested there, hot and sweaty. The other laid on Sanji's mouth, testing the blonde's patience. He thought of sticking his tongue out of his lips so that he could lick Zoro's palm and force the bastard to back away but just as the thought crossed his mind (and, seriously now, what the fuck was he even thinking) Zoro looked down at him with a frown and worry in his open eye, searching something in his blue one and effectively freezing Sanji in place.
Sanji looked back at him, straight into his eye, trying to guess what that was all about. Another sweat drop lazily slid down Zoro's nose to his tip and then fell on Sanji's forehead. And something finally clicked.
Zoro found what he had been looking for when Sanji's eye widened in understanding.
Somewhere in the same deck, not far away, Franky was cursing them and complaining about how they had scratched the fucking mast and the Thousand Sunny wasn't to blame that they were idiots, Usopp backing him up and Luffy laughing like mad somewhere else.
Sanji's eye never left Zoro's.
The greenhead removed his hand from Sanji's mouth, slightly brushing his lips, and Sanji barely opened them to voice the thought that was crossing both their minds out loud.
"The wind..."
The wind had completely stopped.
TBC
