-x-

a world no one else has ever seen
someone around who will

-x-

Sanji steps up onto the gunwale as he takes one final drag off his cigarette, holds the smoke in his lungs and slowly exhales before flicking it overboard into the reaching waves. The ember and smoke blaze a trail through the darkness and disappear from sight. It's kind of stormy-looking tonight, heavy clouds blocking out the moonlight, the wind pushing hard, the ship rocking even though she's anchored down.

It would feel precarious standing here like this - one sudden tilt away from slipping overboard - if Sanji hadn't been on a ship basically his entire life. The only part of his life that's ever mattered, anyway. Adjusting the grip he has on the bento box wrapped in a cloth, Sanji starts climbing toward the crow's nest. His face and hands are cold from the wind by the time he's pushing open the hatch - and he barely manages this before a long, familiar growl reaches his ears. Sanji sticks his head up into the warm room, grinning.

"Listen to that," he says, "I got perfect timing, don't I?"

Across the room, Luffy shoots up from where he's laying half in the window, his head resting on his folded arms. Even in the dark, his eyes probably land on the bento box first, because he leaps up and comes sprinting over, an eager whine of, "Sanji! Food!" tipping out of him as he reaches over, grabs Sanji by the forearms, and hoists him out of the opening. Sanji at least has the presence of mind to lock his elbows against his sides so Luffy doesn't yank his damn arms off.

His feet don't land on the floor right away, and Luffy's shorter, so Sanji stumbles, swearing. In the same movement that he sets Sanji down, and Sanji is trying to steady himself, Luffy is prying the bento out of his hands.

"Would you be this excited to see me if I hadn't brought a snack?" Sanji asks, only half annoyed.

Luffy laughs through that cheeky grin of his, "Yeah."

It's disarming, that sudden honest affection, so Sanji lights a cigarette to have something to do with his hands and looks away. He cracks open a window as Luffy throws himself back down on the bench circling the room and digs into his bento. By then the moment's passed, so Sanji sits beside him, kicks one leg up to rest on the nearest barbell. He switches the hand his cigarette is in when Luffy slides down the bench to sit right against his hip.

He's not a fan of the smoke, so Sanji turns his face away and exhales in a rush, lifting his foot off the barbell to plant it in Luffy's side and shove him back.

"Don't crowd me, dumbass, you see me smoking. I don't wanna hear any complaints if it gets in your face."

There's already hotdogs and rice crammed into Luffy's mouth, so Sanji doesn't catch whatever he tries to say. It's laughing and dismissive. Sanji takes another long pull off his cigarette, his hand covering his face. Dumbass….

"You can go on back to bed when you're done, if you want," he says, kicking his foot up again, sinking back into the bench, "I'll finish the watch."

He knows damn well Luffy's only been up here about an hour or two - it's nowhere near time to change shifts - but Luffy's never liked staying up alone at night, and Sanji can't imagine he likes it any better now. Luffy actually pauses with the fork halfway to his mouth, wide open, looking at him, and Sanji makes a point of staring away from him at the drifting smoke.

Luffy lowers the fork slightly.

"Could ya not sleep?"

"Nah. Got too much on my mind, I guess."

Luffy hums and stuffs his face again. Sanji relaxes slightly, without even realizing that he'd tensed up in the first place.

He's feeling off tonight, restless, irritated, so he'd gotten up to cook because that always eases his mind - the chore itself, the smell of food, the knowledge that he doesn't have to make himself eat it even if he isn't hungry because he knows there's someone around who will. He doesn't feel like he's wasting the food and the effort, and that really does lift a weight off his chest. Just sitting beside him, Luffy does that, too, without even trying. He hums appreciatively with every bite, rooting around in the rice for the hotdogs and laughing when he finally notices that they're cut up into little octopus shapes.

He lifts one out between his fingers and says, "I like these guys. You want some?"

Sanji's just as unlikely to say no to food as Luffy is. He holds out his hand and Luffy drops a couple of them, dotted with rice, into his palm.

When Luffy turns the box up over his open mouth and smacks the bottom of it to get the last of the sauce and rice out of it, Sanji takes it out of his hands. He appreciates the sentiment - not a single grain of rice is left behind - but he doesn't want the idiot licking it clean. Luffy covers his face with his hands and yawns, instead. He flops over sideways into Sanji's side and wiggles down to get comfortable, head tucked into the space where Sanji's shoulder meets the bench, lifting his feet out to put them up on the barbell.

His legs are too short. Luffy kicks impatiently at the air until Sanji hooks his foot underneath the barbell and drags it closer. He props one heel across the bar and folds his other leg, ankle resting on his own leg with his knee bent across Sanji's thighs.

Up til now, Sanji has been ashing his cigarettes out the open window. With Luffy pressed up against him, he can't reach it.

Sanji elbows him.

"Get the hell off me, Luffy," he says, "go to bed."

Luffy tips his head back, closing his eyes.

"Don't wanna."

And really, that's that. He's asleep within just a few minutes, arms crossed loosely over his stomach, hat resting more on Sanji's shoulder than his own head, snoring softly. Sanji mutters, "Whatever," and breathes out the rest of his smoke away from Luffy's face, crushing the ember out between his fingers.

-x-

(A/n) Haha WOW im a sap! (Also I'm really forgetful and have no concept of time lately, sorry about that!) Thank you guys so far for the wonderful reviews! T oT

-BobTAC