He saw her, smiling at him, almost taunting him as she skirted back on the mats, looking like a fucking warrior goddess in his eyes, Wado held fiercely in front of her.
"What's the matter, Zoro?" she teased, flicking hair from her eyes, only slightly out of breath for all the exertion they'd been putting forth. "If you beat me, you can have all the booze you want~"
Like he didn't know that was incentive enough.
He smirked, twisting his body and swinging both of his swords in a wide arc, looking to catch Wado with one of them, wrench the sword from her hands.
The blades clashed. He felt her power straining against his, both of them with exhilarated grins on their faces.
It was a sweltering summer day, hot enough that condensation was dripping down from the ceiling in places onto the mats, but that didn't deter either of them. They moved swiftly together, almost in a practiced dance, only the subtle movement of their eyes, a flick of the wrist indicating their next move.
She was so beautiful, and he remembered every detail, the curve of her lips, the tiny dimple on her left cheek. He remembered how that one strand of hair would never quite lie flat in her short ponytail, how her breath felt against his lips, and the feel of her hips beneath his palms.
He remembered the sweat that shone on her forehead in a perfect sheen that day, how impatient he was to end this little argument so he could shove her up against the nearest wall and kiss her within an inch of her life.
He remembered his heart, thundering in his ears, coursing hot blood, only now it was on his hands, and the scene was changing, the world caving in on him, hovering over Kuina in a dark, endless space.
There was blood on her lips, soaking her shirt, seeping between his fingers that desperately pressed against her stomach, trying to stop the unstoppable.
He heard whispers, disembodied whispers all around him, saying terrible things, calling him a murderer, and he was screaming, protesting, willing everything to stop.
Kuina was too, a horrible black liquid beginning to seep from her mouth, her eyes, and ears, until it began to consume her entirely. The tar-like substance sucked her in like quicksand, and in his effort to save her, he fell forward into it himself, elbows deep and thoroughly trapped.
The cold seeped through his skin, seemed to chill his heart and breathing to a standstill, and he could feel her form slipping from his grasp.
Something yanked him from behind powerfully, and pulled him back fast, freeing him from that dangerous seeping pit and slamming him back into a hard surface, cracking his head painfully.
Kuina's name was still on his lips, but he couldn't voice it, his face feeling numb and his eyes playing tricks on him as he thought he saw her emerge from that bubbling liquid.
It wasn't a trick, though. Something was coming out, eerily spotlighted in the darkness, and what initially looked to be a human, coated in the black gunk, shot towards him suddenly. Or rather, the space, maybe even time itself, rushed far too quickly, blurred past him until he found himself face to face with the creature.
He couldn't see its face, only slight glimpses of pale skin as the goop crept slowly down, falling into its mouth when the creature opened it.
More whispers, and he couldn't escape, the sensation of something crawling up the back of his neck. This wasn't Kuina anymore; he didn't know what it was.
And that was when the creature let loose a shrill, high-pitched scream. It was a human scream, and yet not, something that spoke to no human emotion he knew and yet all of them at once.
As it screamed, the creature morphed, the blackness undulating over its form as it shrank, smaller and smaller, until lying there, stuck in the tar and desperately trying to escape, was a tiny bird. Its wings saturated with the thick liquid, stuck to the ground, the bird thrashed to no avail, and he saw its panicked black eyes meet his as if begging for help.
He didn't move, not even when he heard his daughter crying, the sound filling that endless void and clenching around his heart.
He couldn't find her. He couldn't move.
He hadn't wanted any of this to happen.
He couldn't move.
…
That sobbing echoed in Zoro's ears long after he realized he was awake. His eyes were closed, but he was awake, somehow, despite the way his brain seemed to pound at the inside of his head, a phantom fist squeezing his heart until he felt it would burst.
He didn't want to open his eyes. He didn't want to fall into that nightmare again, but he also didn't want to face the reality of the tears that stubbornly leaked from his eyes, nor face the reality of where he was.
Because little by little, details came back to him, including whose apartment he was in, again, a place he apparently hadn't left after last night.
What had even happened? The last thing Zoro remembered was the blond bastard yelling at him for the same shit he'd heard time and time again.
But there had been something about his words, about his tone, that had shook him, affected him more than anyone else's words ever had. Not since her.
He couldn't explain it, but he hated it, hated himself for thinking, even for a split second….that Sanji had sounded like Kuina….
It wasn't true. No one was like her. No one would ever be like her.
He'd wanted Sanji to sound like her because he needed her. Her words were the only ones that could get him out of this, that could save him, bring him back to sense.
To associate anyone else with her would be insulting to her memory, to how much he still desperately loved her and longed for her.
Zoro's eyes blinked open, his gaze stony, as it often was upon waking, to find an unfamiliar ceiling above him, a white ceiling fan with two small black spheres hanging from the pull-chain switches.
He was still on the couch, the one he'd found himself on last night, and he could feel his jaw practically pulsing with every beat of his heart.
The back of his head stung too, and fuck if he really didn't hate that asshole Sanji for this.
He was rusty as hell, clearly. His reaction time was off, having not seen combat for so long.
That was his excuse, at least, for not dodging the hit, as he slowly sat up, groaning a bit in pain and shutting his eyes against the morning light that now only served to hurt them.
However, no peace and quiet was afforded to him, as he smelled smoke and glanced to his right over the couch to see Sanji himself leaning against the counter in his kitchen, a mug of something hot steaming before him, his phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
"Oh, look who woke up," Sanji muttered, not even looking at Zoro, his gaze glued to his phone, taking a casual puff from his cigarette. "Thought you died in your sleep, mosshead."
"Shut up," Zoro hissed, scratching at an arm absently, realizing he was still wearing his jacket. That was weird.
He heard Sanji suck his teeth disapprovingly, though he still didn't look up.
"Get yourself together," he said. "We gotta go pick up Tana at Oliver's."
Something about hearing that phrase spoken aloud caused the ex-swordsman to visibly twitch a little in surprise.
It was a phrase he'd heard so many times in the past. It was so commonplace that it wasn't weird to him at first, until he thought about just who was saying it.
"How the fuck did you know she's at Oliver's….?" he asked tiredly, rubbing at his temples to try and clear his head.
"Because I dropped her off there yesterday, dumbass," Sanji shot back.
Oh. Right. Dammit.
"Also because I just texted her and double checked."
"What?!"
This time Zoro properly screeched, even though it made the room spin and a sickening feeling rise in his gut that took a few deep breaths to contain.
"Quit texting my kid! It's weird!"
"What the hell was I supposed to do?" Sanji asked, unconcerned with Zoro's protests as he sipped at his tea. "You were out cold. It's close to ten, and someone had to make sure your daughter wasn't starving to death somewhere, waiting for you to return."
Zoro scoffed, unfortunately having no comeback to that because, deep down, he knew Sanji was right, even if he didn't want to admit it.
"I was going to offer you breakfast and shit out of the goodness of my heart, but you overslept, so I wrapped you up a breakfast sandwich," the blond said, hitching a thumb over his shoulder at a small brown paper bag sitting near the stove. "You can eat it on the way."
Zoro blinked at the man, wondering if he was still dreaming. The guy had kicked his face in, and yelled at him for being a terrible person just the night before. But now he was making him breakfast? Caring about his kid?
He had no idea what to make of any of this.
"Tana's gonna be confused as hell," was the only retort he could manage after a full minute of wading through his muddled mind for something to say. "I'm supposed to pick her up."
"I know," Sanji said, rolling his eyes. "But I told her you're with me. I told her I knocked you out and we're both coming to get her."
"No, you didn't," Zoro muttered, narrowing his eyes skeptically at the man who surely wouldn't have had the nerve to tell her the exact truth. "Even if you did, you think that would make her want to go with you? She'd be freaked out!"
This time, Sanji finally brought his gaze up to meet Zoro's, a deadpan look upon his face.
He pushed up from the counter, set his cigarette in an ashtray, and crossed over to Zoro, flicking through his phone, then shoving it in the man's face so he could see the current chat, particularly the last few messages.
'Your dad's with me,' Sanji's read. 'Sorry, but I gave him a concussion. I promise he's okay though. We'll explain when we pick you up.'
And Tana's reply of, 'oh. weird. ok. when will u get here?'
"You sure you know your kid?" Sanji asked, a hint of smugness to his tone upon seeing Zoro's jaw drop indignantly.
He pulled his phone away from Zoro's gaping face, sticking it in his back pocket.
But instead of walking away again, he hesitated, eyes falling to the left side of Zoro's face.
Zoro couldn't see the bruise himself, but it felt pretty bad, not that he would let it bother him too much in the end, nor would he let this idiot know it bothered him.
Before he could react, the man had brought fingers to the mark, stepping closer, the back of the couch between them, and turning Zoro's head gently so he could get a better look.
Zoro jerked, instinctively tried to yank his head away, but Sanji prevented him, meeting his gaze and imploring him to calm with a scolding, "Stop."
Zoro did, if warily, watching the man like a skittish animal as those fingers trailed over the hot skin with a delicacy he hadn't expected.
"Does it hurt?" Sanji asked after a minute, taking his hand from Zoro's cheek and moving it to his hair in order to check over the scrape back there with the same care.
"No," Zoro automatically replied, beginning to feel entirely uncomfortable with how close the blond was, how long he was taking to check his injuries.
"You sure about that?" Sanji asked, and gave a slightly less gentle poke to the very edge of his bruise, causing Zoro to hiss with pain and let out a string of curses.
Sanji chuckled, looking pleased with himself even as Zoro muttered, "You bastard," and glared at him spitefully.
"I really am sorry," Sanji said, finally pulling back and relieving some of the fluster that had begun to come over Zoro. "But don't jump me in the middle of the night, man! Unless you wanna live up to the whole thug image you seem so damn set on putting forth."
"I'm not a thug," Zoro grunted, brow drawn low in irritation, managing to do his best impression of one in the process.
"Oh, don't worry! I noticed!" Sanji replied with a shit-eating grin, and Zoro made a mental note to put the guy back in his place as soon as he was no longer concussed.
Of course, that would go against his previously expressed desire to have the man completely out of his life, but it seemed he wasn't thinking about that currently.
"Look, get your jumbled brain focused, and let's go pick her up. We might have to put a bag over your head though to hide your zombie bruise if you're so concerned about her being freaked out."
A teasing quirk of an eyebrow, then Sanji stepped away to return to the counter and his still burning cigarette.
This left Zoro a moment to wonder just why the hell the blond was in such a damn chipper mood, and at his expense. It was pretty irritating, whatever the reason.
And yet, however annoying, Sanji had managed to completely distract him from the remnants of that strange nightmare, and whether Zoro knew it or not, that was a small feat indeed.
Roughly ten minutes later, the pair of them had begun walking down the boardwalk in awkward silence, Zoro stalking beside Sanji with his shoulders slumped and his face half buried in the high collar of his jacket, looking like a sulky teenager on the way to school with that brown paper bag in his hand and his gym bag thrown over one shoulder.
Sanji stole glances at him every now and again, looking for signs that the guy was going to topple over, but he seemed to be walking in a relatively straight line, aside from drifting off track a few times.
He'd had some time to think, during Zoro's second bout of unconsciousness, and particularly after he'd messaged Tana. And his thoughts were telling him to listen to his instincts, to the instinct that was telling him to follow through with what he'd started.
He knew this guy's story now. Vaguely, but he had some inkling at least. And he was beginning to know his daughter too. And to say he wasn't invested would be a lie.
He wanted to help Tana, to make sure, now more than ever, especially after learning how little she knew, that she was okay, that Zoro wasn't going to fuck things up for her any further.
Did he think Zoro was a good guy?
Well, he couldn't exactly say, considering the extent of his encounters with the man had involved lots of yelling and all-around agitation.
But the man seemed truly lost, and honestly, he saw a bit of himself there.
Just a little. Not enough to completely sympathize with the idiot, but certainly enough to make him hesitate to abandon this cause altogether.
They'd both lost love, under different circumstances, but it had happened, and it was clear to Sanji who had dealt with it better. It actually made the cook feel better about himself in a way, to think that he'd been able to move on as he had, that the dreams had stopped coming over time, and his heart didn't ache quite as much.
It still hurt to think of what he'd had, even if it had been a farce. But if he didn't think about it, maybe he was actually okay, back to normal even.
Unless, ultimately, all "normal" consisted of was concealment of such feelings.
They'd made it to the garage before he'd realized it, thankfully losing himself in his thoughts so he didn't have to endure the mosshead's awkwardness.
Sanji pulled out his keys and unlocked the car, jerking his chin towards it when the guy just kind of stood there like he didn't know what to do.
"What, never seen a car before?" he said drily, heading for the driver's side. "Go on, get in."
He saw Zoro let out a huff of breath and shoot him a glare before shuffling to the other side and opening the door, tossing his bag in the back before climbing in.
By the time Sanji was settled in his seat with Zoro sitting next to him stiffly, the tension in the atmosphere seemed to have mounted, thanks to the small space and the quiet.
Sanji quickly buckled up and started the car to at least get a noise running in the background.
"Radio?" he decided to ask, balking somewhat when Zoro shook his head.
Great. More silence.
With nothing else left to do, Sanji set to backing the car slowly out of the garage onto the tiny side street that led to the pier's larger parking lot.
"Do you even know where you're going?" Zoro asked.
"Yes. I was just there yesterday. Says the guy who gets lost everywhere he goes," Sanji muttered, leaning forward in his seat to see around the corner of the buildings before turning carefully out into the parking lot where he could circle freely to the main road.
"What! No, I don't!" Zoro yelped, and Sanji smirked.
"That's not what Tana said…"
"Urgh," Zoro growled, turning his head to stare at the blond angrily. "Since you two are so damn close, listen. If you fucking tell her anything you found out about me, I swear to fuck, I will-"
"Relax, shithead. As much as I want to, that's your job," Sanji muttered, flipping on his turn signal and rolling to a halt at the stop sign, then accelerating as he pulled out.
"Do you promise?" Zoro implored, causing Sanji to chuckle, especially when he glanced over to see the somewhat pleading way Zoro was looking at him.
"I pinky promise," he teased, and laughed out loud, seeing the horrifically embarrassed look that came over the other man's face.
"Yes, I promise," the cook clarified more seriously, once he'd gotten over his amusement. "But only if you promise to tell her the truth."
"I can't just-" Zoro immediately protested, to which Sanji rolled his eyes dramatically, tired of listening to the man's excuses, even if they were fueled by fear. "I've gotta work up to it…..find the right time."
"Then fine. Do that. But tell her. Preferably before she turns fifty. I'm not gonna sit here and argue it with you again," Sanji huffed, judging traffic down Jaya Street before deciding to take that route uptown.
Zoro fell quiet for a minute, most likely sulking again, eyes fixed on the ever-growing buildings, the closer they got to the city center.
"You don't have kids," Sanji eventually heard him mutter, the cook shaking his head in response.
"I don't," he said.
"Then why should I be taking your advice again?" Zoro gritted out pointedly.
Sanji felt annoyance rising within him again. This asshole sure liked to push buttons, crack open undesirable conversation topics.
"Because I was that kid," Sanji grumbled in reply, not really wanting to delve into this again, but if Zoro was too dense to see reason through any other lens, then he supposed he'd have to. "I know how Tana feels because I went through the same shit with my dad after my mother's death. But he never turned himself around. And we didn't speak from the time I was sixteen until he died."
Zoro shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and Sanji figured he'd effectively scared the man speechless, judging by the way he lifted a hand to drag over his mouth, a habit Sanji was beginning to recognize as a nervous one.
"I'm not saying that will happen to you," he decided to appease, his voice a little softer. "I don't want it to. That's why I'm trying to help you."
This time, Zoro looked back over at him, with a look on his face that couldn't quite disguise the hopefulness in his eyes.
Sanji resisted the urge to feel smug again, not when the man truly did seem emotionally compromised.
He thought he could feel Zoro working up to a question anyway, so he distracted himself in the silence by changing lanes.
"So you and your brothers….all the shady business….you're really not involved with that?" Zoro eventually asked, somewhat tentatively.
"No," Sanji asserted. "I'm not a thug."
Shooting Zoro's own words back at him, he looked over with a smirk, and was actually a little surprised when Zoro blinked at him…..then rolled his eyes and tried to conceal a smirk of his own.
The cook beamed triumphantly and brought eyes back to the road.
He took the small surge in confidence as an opportunity to reveal a bit more about himself while he was at it.
"I'm actually the one who turned my brothers in to the police," he said.
"What?" Zoro stuttered, brows raising. "Seriously?"
"Yup," Sanji said with a self-assured nod, twisting hands on the steering wheel absently.
Why did this suddenly feel so good to get off his chest? He almost felt free of judgment, telling it to someone with a tainted past of his own.
"They'd been selling illegal anabolic steroids to athletes on the black market," he continued. "Not without help from some other….I guess dubious characters. But when they tried to pull me into it, that was the last straw."
That last part, of course, wasn't the whole truth. It wasn't the whole reason he'd decided to turn them in. But that was where things got personal, and he wasn't sure he was ready to reveal those details to a near stranger.
Zoro didn't reply right away, but Sanji gauged it was more to give himself processing time, the mosshead's brow furrowed in thought.
Sanji took it upon himself to fill the moment with another question that had been niggling at the back of his mind since Zoro brought it up last night.
"Where do you work anyway?" he asked. "Don't tell me you're a cop."
He didn't think that was possible, given Zoro's history, though the irony would be rich.
"Not a cop, trust me," Zoro scoffed in reply, sounding entirely put off by the idea. He hesitated a second, let eyes flick to Sanji before eventually answering, "Rain Dinners. You know the big casino over in Rainbase? I'm the owner's bodyguard…."
"Crocodile?" Sanji spluttered, nearly slamming on the brakes in his surprise. "You work for Crocodile?"
"You know Crocodile?" Zoro replied, just as surprised.
"Well, not personally, but that was always a huge name that floated around my brothers," Sanji explained, shaking his head. Then it was his turn to shoot a somewhat wary glance over at Zoro. "Do you just work for him, or do you really….work for him….?"
"No. No, I'm not part of his shit," Zoro assured quickly. "I couldn't…..I mean, after the whole Impel Down thing, it was just the first opportunity…."
"Okay."
Sanji nodded, understanding, and hoping the man was telling the truth, though he had a feeling he was, especially when Zoro muttered, "Oliver - you know the kid Tana's friends with - his mom actually set me up with the job."
"His mom?" Sanji muttered, shaking his head slightly as he drove, now wondering just how many more weird connections would become apparent before the day was up.
"Yeah," Zoro replied. "Long story…"
And then the conversation trailed off, neither seeming to know what to say next.
Sanji didn't want the quiet because that meant he'd have to think, again, about how weird these circumstances were, how strange it was to be sitting here, relatively civilly, in his car with the guy he'd just ranted to Ace about not two days ago.
It would probably be another ten minutes, given traffic, until they reached the Water 7 neighborhood where Oliver lived.
Zoro seemed to be feeling the awkwardness too, squirming a bit in his seat and crinkling the paper bag still in his grasp to fill the silence, his gaze fixed firmly out the window.
Sanji looked over at him, once, then twice, before he let out a small sigh and stalled, "So…..you seem kinda young to have a kid in middle school." After all, they were the same age, right?
Zoro glanced at Sanji briefly, then ran a hand over his mouth and shifted, staring straight ahead instead of to the side.
"I guess…" he replied. He'd certainly felt it when Tana was in elementary school, and most of the other parents had a good ten plus years on him. "I was nineteen. Um….yeah…."
Zoro ended it there, and Sanji had to smirk a little at the man's embarrassment, as if they weren't both adults here.
"I'm not judging," Sanji assured, slowing the car to a stop when they came to a red light. "I just...can't imagine it for myself, is all."
"Yeah, well…." Zoro mumbled, and the cook began to sense him drifting again. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to mention as it most likely brought up memories of the guy's wife.
"Tana's a good kid, anyhow," Sanji decided to say, hoping a compliment might help matters. But he couldn't resist adding a cheeky, "Though I see where she gets her stubbornness from."
Zoro just rolled his eyes and scoffed quietly.
"I know she is," he replied, apparently choosing to ignore the second part. "She's too good to be stuck with me…"
"Well, then here's a novel idea," Sanji proposed, growing sick of the man's melodramatics. "Maybe you should do something about that, hmm?"
Again, Zoro didn't respond, simply looked unsure. And it was annoying to Sanji's core to see someone who could and should change his situation look so damn insecure about it. For all the tough fronts Zoro put forth, the guy underneath sure was ineffectual.
"Oh, yeah, that's a great idea, Sanji!" the cook eventually muttered to himself in a gruff imitation of Zoro's voice. "I don't know you, but seeing as you've done so much for me already, I think I'll definitely listen to you-"
"Shut up!" Zoro growled, realizing what Sanji was doing, and the cook found himself glad to see a spark of life return to the man's eyes.
"I say shut up because I don't want to admit to myself and others that he's right, but boy, is he ever!" Sanji continued, rather enjoying this now. "And I bet if I ate this food that he took time to make this morning, his powers of greatness would transfer to me and-"
"I'll fucking throw you out of this car, you bastard!" Zoro screeched, but it only served to make Sanji laugh.
"Oh~ I think I heard a car outside~" Robin mused with a smile, looking up from her book and glancing up at her husband and the kids, who were currently locked in an intense Just Dance battle across the room, led most enthusiastically by Franky.
"Hang on, it's almost the end of the song!" Oliver whined, desperately flailing arms to try and keep up with his dad, the forever holder of every high score in the game.
But it was too late, because they'd already lost their two back-up dancers, Thomas and Tana, who hadn't been doing much save for the occasional jump to the side or half-hearted wave of arms to the left anyway.
Tana had scurried to her phone, which she'd left on the couch, picking it up to check for any texts, and Thomas had shuffled to the window, trying to peer out.
"Mom, I don't see a-"
But the boy was interrupted by the soft chime of the doorbell a mere second later.
"I'll get it~" Robin announced, amidst the triumphant cries of her husband, and she got to her feet gracefully, exiting the room and making her way to the front door.
Of course, with the scale of the side windows, she already caught a glimpse of the callers, a grumpy-looking Zoro, and a blond man….
She reached the door, preferring to open it the old-fashioned way, instead of pressing the automatic button her husband had installed beside it. Best not to alarm their guest.
"Good morning, Zoro~" she greeted as soon as she opened the door, only to give a small gasp upon seeing the large bruise decorating his jaw.
"It's my fault!" the blond stranger quickly jumped in. "It's kind of a-"
"Oh, it's quite alright," she assured, chuckling lightly, and she reached out to touch the mark gently.
"It's not alright!" Zoro yelped in reply, but Robin just smiled.
"Introduce me to your new friend~" the woman said, to which Zoro immediately protested, "He's not my-!"
"Sanji Vinsmoke," the blond, dressed rather smartly in a pair of nice slacks and a dress shirt, layered beneath a maroon sweater, interrupted, stepping forward to offer a hand out to her. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm-"
"I heard the story," she replied, swiftly taking his hand and giving it a firm shake, a very perceptive glint in her eye. "Robin Nico. Thank you for picking up my son yesterday~"
"It was no problem," he said with a brilliant smile, in stark contrast to the sullen look his companion wore beside him.
"Please, come in~" Robin invited, stepping aside and gesturing to the interior of the house. "Zoro, you too. Would you like a drink? Perhaps some ice for that painful-looking bruise~"
Sanji took the offer gladly, slipping hands in his pockets and striding into the house ahead of Zoro, not without giving a cheerful wiggle of eyebrows over his shoulder at the man, much to Zoro's apparent annoyance, though he reluctantly followed after.
As the blond stepped into the foyer, he glanced up at the towering ceilings, that mysterious stone tablet that stood out, even more impressively, up close.
"This is a beautiful house," he complimented, still rather fascinated as he took in his surroundings.
"Thank you~" Robin replied, closing the door behind them. "My husband built it."
"That's what your son said…" he murmured offhandedly, studying the strange inscriptions on the giant stone. "What is this?"
Robin gave an enigmatic little smile, coming up beside him to admire the piece that rose above them, nearly to the ceiling.
"It's called a Road Poneglyph," she explained. "There are four of them in the world, ancient tablets excavated in Brazil, close to Rio de Janeiro, that detail the location of a legendary island. They are currently owned by different collectors around the world, but my goal is to, one day, obtain them all~"
"No kidding," Sanji breathed in awe. "Must've cost a fortune…."
"Yes," Robin chuckled. "But seeing as I work for the National History Museum, I was able to pull a few strings~ Now, come. Tana's already had breakfast with us, Zoro, no need to worry~"
Robin urged the men onward, around the corner and down the hallway that wrapped around the house, lined by the tall glass panels on the side. This hallway opened, at the back of the house, into a large living room, the huge TV against the wall still looping the intro screen to the game they'd just been playing. Franky and the kids worked to drag the center coffee table back to its original place, having moved it to provide more space for gameplay.
Franky looked up to see his wife entering and grinned, straightening and giving a wave of greeting when he noticed a stranger accompanying her.
"This is Sanji Vinsmoke," Robin introduced, then indicated those already in the room. "Sanji, this is my husband, Franky, our son, Thomas. You've met Oliver. And Tana, of course~"
Sanji nodded his head and smiled too, quirking a brow at the mischievous grin Oliver shot him. He remembered how damn cheeky that kid was.
But his introduction was interrupted as soon as Franky noticed Zoro's face.
"Whoa! Zoro-bro!" His eyes flicked to Sanji. "You really hit him that hard?"
And for a second, it seemed the large man was appalled…...until he burst out laughing, which only served to make Zoro's cheeks go beet red, his fists clenching at his side.
Sanji decided that he definitely liked these people already.
"Tana, are you ready?" Zoro grumbled to his daughter, clearly not enjoying being fucking laughed at.
"He's only teasing," Robin assured her friend with a hand to his chest.
She turned her head to Tana, who'd already begun to gather her things, a hand rubbing at her mouth as she tried not to laugh as well.
"There's no need to rush~" she said to the girl.
Sanji, meanwhile, had taken to looking around the spacious room, at the modern art on the walls, the comfortable C-shaped couch, and the curious steel box turned table in the center. Not to mention…
"Something smells good," he commented. "Pancakes and waffles?"
"Hell yeah!" Franky affirmed, crossing the room so he could properly greet the adults, wincing a little when Robin gave him a scolding look for his coarse language in front of the children. "Made 'em this morning."
"And is that….mizu meat bacon?"
"Yup! We love it!"
"Stop by the Baratie sometime," Sanji said with a grin. "It's our choice import~"
"Wait, so you really work at the Baratie?" Zoro cut in, prompting everyone to turn and stare at him.
This, of course, forced him to realize that he was indeed the last person in the room to recognize this. Again, his cheeks flooded red.
"Yeah, what'd you think, that I just happened to live in a private apartment there?" Sanji replied, barely restraining himself from using some choice words in the face of such an imbecile.
"I don't know…" Zoro mumbled foolishly, averting eyes and looking like he either wanted to kill the blond or disappear entirely.
Sanji rolled his eyes subtly, then turned back to his hosts.
"Anyway, speaking of which, I really would love to stay and chat, but I'm afraid I do have a shift to get back for later. Maybe another time?" he asked apologetically, lifting a half-smile to Robin especially.
"Ah," she replied. "That's a shame. We'd love to get to know you better. And to learn how Zoro earned himself such a remarkable bruise~ Perhaps we will indeed come to the Baratie~"
Saying this, she shot a sly little look Zoro's way, even though the man was still sulking and thus not paying attention.
"Please do," Sanji said with a grin, then jerked his head to Tana, the girl standing a few paces away, muttering something to Oliver. "You ready, kid?" He stuck out a hand for her bag automatically when she stepped forward. "Here." And he tossed it over his own shoulder.
This won him a furrow of brows from Zoro, who seemed ready to say something before he snapped his jaw shut and decided otherwise. Though he still glared at Sanji with a small amount of, perhaps, jealousy.
"We'll show you to the door," Robin said, skirting past the men and sharing a knowing glance with her husband.
"See ya, guys," Tana mumbled to Thomas and Oliver, who stayed behind as she and the adults began to make their way from the room.
"See ya," they both replied, Oliver bringing hands up to make a texting gesture, raising eyebrows pointedly at his friend and mouthing, 'Later,' until she got the point, nodding with a smirk.
The group made their way back through the house to the front door, Robin and Franky lingering in the door frame.
"Thank you," Tana said to her friends' parents respectfully as she exited the house onto the front walkway, receiving a hair ruffle from Franky and a kind nod from Robin.
"Always a pleasure~" Robin replied, her gaze turning to Sanji then, who she noticed touched a hand gently to Tana's shoulder as the girl passed him, almost unconsciously.
"It was great to meet both of you," the cook said. "I mean it. I'll for sure snag you a reservation at the restaurant any time you wanna come~"
"To that, I say welcome to the crew!" Franky cheered, giving a thumbs up, Sanji smiling in return.
"Zoro, do you work again tonight?" Robin asked, chuckling at her husband's antics, to which Zoro nodded, hesitating a bit when he saw Tana look back at him out of the corner of his eye.
"Yeah. But Tana's goin' to her grandpa's."
"I am? Since when?" Tana shot back, eyes narrowing.
"Perhaps a night off would do you well, especially after being injured," Robin suggested, skillfully cutting in before tensions could mount.
Tana was watching him expectantly, and so was Sanji now, enough to make Zoro clearly uncomfortable.
He didn't answer right away, just stammered a bit until he finally replied with a quiet, "Maybe…"
It seemed to be enough to appease the strain of the moment, even though it was far from a definite answer.
"Well, if ya need anything, bro, we'll be around," Franky assured, clapping a supportive hand onto Zoro's shoulder.
"Okay," Zoro mumbled in reply. Then, with a hesitant glance at Sanji and Tana, swiveled on his heel in a not so subtle hint that he wanted to go already.
Sanji's lips had pulled into a somewhat forced smile, but he fished his keys from his pocket and jerked his head in the direction of his car.
"Thanks again," he said to Robin and Franky before heading after the mosshead, walking beside Tana.
"Why don't you run and take shotgun," he muttered to the girl as they went. "We'll stuff your dad in the trunk-"
"I heard that!" Zoro shrieked, glaring back at the blond, who merely cackled, Tana cracking a smile too.
Robin and Franky watched the three go, Robin with a curious tilt to her head as she observed their parting interactions.
Eventually, with some arguing, Tana did indeed manage to take the front seat, Zoro forced to stuff himself into the back, slamming the door irritably.
"Vinsmoke, eh?" Franky murmured with some apprehension as he and Robin waved from the doorway. "You think he's alright?"
Robin nodded, watching the car come to life and head off down the street.
"To handle Zoro? Absolutely~" she replied, and Franky had to chuckle at his wife's certainty.
He squeezed her shoulder and leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
"'Bout time," he said.
As soon as they'd begun driving away, Tana spun in her seat to face Sanji eagerly.
"Alright, what the hell happened!" she asked, shooting a glance behind to try and look at her dad's face again, though he now seemed intent on keeping the bruise out of sight.
Sanji had to laugh, admittedly a little relieved Tana didn't seem too put out by it all. Not yet, at least.
"You're not upset?" he asked with a sheepish grin.
"Not really. Dad's tough! He can take a hit. But what happened?"
Eyes shot between both of them now, looking for some explanation.
Part of her was fearful for the answer, but for the non-obvious reasons.
She should have been upset with Sanji, especially considering he was apparently the one who'd inflicted the damage. But something inside her worried for why he had. What had her dad done….? And furthermore, how had they ended up in the same spot….?
"Well, mosshead, you wanna tell her or should I?" Sanji asked, looking in the rearview mirror at Zoro, the man yet to say a word.
He sat quietly, breaths coming a little heavily, his gaze downcast, and for a second, Sanji wondered if he was about to pass out with the way he rubbed at his temple. But no, he just looked to be warring with something in his mind, and it was affecting him outwardly.
Sanji wanted to give him this chance, a sort of practice round at telling his daughter the truth.
And for a second, the cook was hopeful he would.
"I…." Zoro started, then shook his head with a frustrated growl and actually looked up at Sanji, silently pleading with him to explain.
The cook resisted showing his disappointment. This was going to take a bit more work than he'd previously thought.
"Well," Sanji started slowly, fixing eyes on the road ahead. "I can only tell my side. But your dad showed up at the Baratie last night to talk to me. We got to talking and things got a little heated and….well, I lost my temper. And I kicked him in the face. I didn't mean to hurt him, but I did, and I'm sorry."
There was a beat of silence, during which Tana processed the information, missing the intentional weight of Sanji's words, the way he glanced back at Zoro ever so briefly.
Of the scenarios she'd crafted in her head, it was pretty close to what she'd assumed. And something about Sanji's tone told her he was seriously remorseful. Not to mention, for the second time in this car, she was struck with a sense of familiarity.
How many times had her mom kicked her dad's ass and left him to sulk…?
She couldn't keep thinking that way though, making comparisons, noticing things. Eventually, it would prove to be too painful.
"What were you talking about….?" she asked slowly.
Sanji sighed, and Zoro remained quiet. So he answered again.
"We both had some concerns about each other's behavior when we first met," he said carefully. "I mean, you remember how tense it was. We were probably due to set things right. A little too violently, but….well, what happened, happened."
Tana seemed to mull over his answer, almost judging if she trusted it or not, but while she knew how mouthy her dad could be if angered, at least he hadn't hurt Sanji, and it seemed the cook could hold his own surprisingly.
So she decided to let it go for now, in the interest of keeping things civil. Maybe she'd question her dad about it later….if he elected to stay home, that is. She couldn't see him doing that, but if she went to her grandpa's, well, maybe she'd have a chance of talking him into taking her to the tournament, despite their phone conversation the other day.
"Whatever," she muttered. "You guys are weird."
Sanji just shrugged and smirked a little, glad she wasn't going to pry right now.
"Is anyone going to tell me where I'm driving to? I'm taking you home, right?" he asked, looking back in the mirror at Zoro, who seemed a little more relaxed than before, though not much.
Tana sighed and quirked a brow Sanji's way.
"Don't ask him," she said. "Turn right up here."
And she actually had to hide a smile when she heard her dad screech an offended, "Hey!" from the backseat.
Just like he used to.
The rest of the ride passed calmly, by comparison, Sanji asking Tana innocent questions about what she'd gotten up to and every so often directing one back at Zoro, mostly trying to get the idiot involved in the conversation.
Zoro didn't say much, but he still entered with various indignant huffs or occasional protests whenever something was said that he didn't approve of.
Sanji supposed it was better than nothing, and Tana sure seemed to be a lot more content than the last time he'd seen them together, sometimes even giggling at her dad's reactions.
It almost hurt to see. As angry as Tana had been at her father the night he'd met her, it was obvious that what she wanted was his attention, and when she got it, even in the form of a scoff or a grumble, the smile that tugged at her lips was undeniable.
As such, by the time Sanji pulled the car into the parking lot of their apartment building, the ride had passed rather pleasantly, certainly far more smoothly than their last interaction.
He pulled into an empty parking space and turned to the two with a final huff of breath.
"Well. There ya go," he said, shifting in his seat so he could see both of them. "That'll be twenty bucks."
"Shut up," he heard Zoro mutter as the man fumbled to grab his things, opening his door already.
Tana took a little more time, unbuckling her seatbelt but lingering a bit longer.
"Thank you," she made a point of saying before she too opened her door and bent down to gather her bag that had been resting at her feet.
And then, because her dad was currently preoccupied with his stuff, she leaned back into the car and whispered, "And thanks for kicking my dad's ass too~"
Sanji nearly let out a bark of laughter, but he stopped himself, slapping a palm over his mouth.
"Hang on, one more thing," he finally managed, reaching out a hand to brush fingertips on her arm before she could leave.
Eyes flicked to Zoro briefly, and he lowered his voice.
"Be patient with him, okay?" he murmured, and her eyebrows rose slightly in surprise. "He's trying."
She froze, mouth seeming to work for words for a second before she bit her lip and eventually nodded.
"Okay," she breathed and he gave her arm a reassuring pat before releasing her just as Zoro stalked up behind and muttered, "Come on," to his daughter.
"You're welcome, grasshead!" Sanji called out to him as Tana backed out of the car, eyes still on him.
Zoro just rolled his eyes and huffed, "Yeah, yeah," and gave a listless wave.
Tana shut the door and followed him, leaving Sanji smirking to himself as he muttered, "Ungrateful asshole," in return as he watched the two leave the sidewalk and head into the interior of the building.
Before he pulled out though, he reached into his pocket and took out his phone. And then, because he needed one, he rummaged for a box of cigarettes in the storage compartment between the front seats.
Unfortunately, doing so had him fumble and drop his phone, the thin device sliding smoothly between the seats and into the abyss below.
"Dammit," he cursed, and abandoned the cigarette search for a minute to try and dig for his phone...
As soon as they were inside, in the bare stairwell that led to their apartment, Zoro reached out a hand to stop his daughter ascending just yet.
"Wait," he said, something that had her look back at him in mild surprise.
He'd blurted it out before he could stop himself, his voice clearly two steps ahead of his mind.
"I gotta…." he stuttered, almost looking like he was going to be sick, and for that Tana subtly backed up a step, narrowing her eyes in confusion.
"What…?" she asked, but he shook his head resolutely.
"I gotta be honest with you," he breathed, and the admission was so strange that she pulled another suspicious face.
"What do you mean…?"
Zoro took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a minute and letting it out shakily. His fists trembled slightly at his sides before he opened his eyes once more to face her.
The whole car ride with Sanji, he'd been thinking about this, fucking knowing the irritating cook was right and knowing he had to be honest. It was an awful feeling, and he hated how fucking scared he was of it now. He never used to be. He'd always prided himself on telling things as they were, and in fact, people had appreciated him for it.
But he hadn't felt like himself in over a year, not since Kuina had gone, and part of him wondered how much of his own identity was attached to her... Without her, was he anyone?
"I went to the cook's place last night…." he said eventually, his voice quiet and fairly terrified to spill the reason, but he willed himself to finish. "...to tell him to stay away from you."
Her face fell a little, mouth opening and stammering for a second before she again breathed, "What?"
Another deep breath, his insides feeling as if they were about to twist themselves in a knot. He had to explain. If she would listen to him long enough to let him explain himself, maybe this could still turn out okay.
"Yes. I….I found out some things….about him, and….I really didn't think - I - I thought he wasn't a good guy, and that he shouldn't be helping you or - or texting you or-"
"But why?" she blurted, letting out a heavy exhale and furrowing her brows. "He didn't do anything!"
"He didn't, but-" Zoro stuttered, finding himself floundering for words and searching for the right way to clarify his reasoning in the face of her growing upset.
"I thought - he just - first, he picked you up from school out of the fuckin' blue, and then after I heard he - he-"
"You heard he what?!"
"I heard his family was into some shady business, okay?" Zoro growled back, more harshly than intended, and he instantly regretted it, seeing, first, how startled his daughter's expression turned.
But then a look of ferocity came over her face that so much mirrored her mother it nearly took Zoro's breath away.
"What, did you spy on him?!" she yelled, dropping her bag onto the steps in her anger. "Dad, he didn't do anything!"
"Tana, I didn't want him to hurt you! I didn't know him; I didn't like that he was in contact with you when I didn't know about it!" Zoro hissed, knowing this attempt was going off the rails, and quickly. "But dammit, listen to me here, I'm not finished-!"
"Why do you do this, Dad?!" Tana interrupted again, beyond reason, stomping a sneaker against the ground and glaring up at him with raw pain and frustration in her eyes. "You always do this now! You try and take away anything I like - anything that's going good! First it was kendo, and now when Sanji's been so cool to me, you want him gone too!"
No. No, this wasn't what he'd intended, and Zoro felt pure panic rise within him as tears of misery began to well in Tana's eyes, despite her best attempts to wipe them away with the back of a hand.
He'd wanted to be honest, perhaps heeding the cook's words after all, even if it was just about this incident first. He'd wanted to take a tiny step in the right direction, start training himself for the reveal he knew he'd have to make, but even this was going wrong.
"Tana!" he huffed out, his voice coming gruffly again. His distress was the cause of it, not anger, especially not that, as his daughter stood there sniffling and scowling just as Kuina had whenever she'd been truly upset. "Listen to me! I'm trying to tell you that-"
"This is such bullshit," Tana muttered stubbornly, shaking her head, not wanting to hear another word out of her father when she'd already convinced herself he was ruining things again.
And before he could stop her, she pushed past him and ran out through the building's doors, onto the sidewalk.
"Tana!" Zoro yelled, scrambling after her, grabbing the door and rushing out as well. Though as soon as he did, his injured head swirled painfully, and he had to catch himself from toppling right over into the nearest gutter. "Tana…"
Through blurred vision, he could just make out his daughter, already sprinting out of the parking lot and across the street...
It took Sanji far longer than he'd anticipated to dig his phone out from the dark recesses of the cave beneath his seat. He'd shoved a hand between the crack through which it had slipped, but only managed to get his hand stuck, having to forcibly yank it out after a minute and massage his fingers back into working order.
He bent over forwards, tried to peer beneath to see where it had landed, then, with a groan, realized he'd have to get out and open the door.
So, muttering obscenities to himself, he'd done just that, hopping out of his car and moving the seat back…..then forward….until finally he located the device wedged within the intersecting metal bars beneath the seat. It took another minute during which he found himself shoulder deep beneath the seat and nearly kneeling on the rough asphalt before he finally got hold of the stupid thing.
"Fuck," he breathed to himself, running a hand through his hair and quickly pocketing his phone where it couldn't escape again.
Then he climbed into the car and prepared to, at last, get going.
But that was the exact moment when the doors to the building burst open and out rushed Tana, peeling down the sidewalk in the opposite direction towards the street.
He was midway through closing his car door again, but he quickly stood, eyes widening with alarm when Zoro followed after a second later, calling her name….and then nearly collapsing dizzily on the spot.
"Oi!" he shouted, slamming his door shut and running up to the idiot. "What the hell happened?!"
Zoro leaned heavily on the swinging door, panting and squeezing his eyes shut in pain, breathing out his daughter's name again. He just managed to glance up when the cook hurried to his side.
If he was surprised to see Sanji was still here, he didn't show it outwardly, just pinched at the bridge of his nose to try and steady his vision.
Then he muttered, "Go after her. Please."
He didn't have to tell Sanji twice, the blond already darting after the girl as fast as he could.
Tana was faster than him, and luck hadn't been on his side as a million cars sped past, forcing him to skid to a halt on the sidewalk until an opportunity to cross the street came. But when it did, he was off again, knowing the girl had run into the gated park across the way.
His feet pounded hard on the concrete and his heart just as hard against his ribs. These were not running shoes in the slightest, but he kept going until concrete changed to grass, until trees sprung up and he found himself in a large open field crisscrossed with walking paths, a circular pond with a fountain in the middle.
He slowed to a jog, but only to get a better look around.
There weren't many people that he could see, just a man on his phone walking a German shepherd not far away, and a young, college-age couple cutting through the park on a run.
That led the cook to zero in on the small playground on the other side of the fountain.
For some reason, he started walking towards it instinctively.
Maybe it was because it looked familiar, reminded him of the playground he used to escape to when he was young, on days he couldn't handle being at home thanks to his brothers' teasing or his father's yelling. Days he just wanted to be alone and talk to his mom in peace...
The playground had a swing set, a merry-go-round, and a jungle gym, as well as a castle-themed playset and a twisty yellow tube slide curling down from the top.
It was shaping up to be a sunny day, the light blocking out the silhouette of a lumpy form within the slide, a form that moved slightly. And he was pretty sure tube slides didn't sniffle, when he got close enough to hear.
She'd managed to crawl halfway up the slide, a space small and claustrophobic enough that Sanji had no hope of entering.
So he settled down at the end, taking a seat on the bottom lip of the slide, crossing one leg over the other. He was craving a cigarette, but he supposed it would have to wait.
He heard the sniffling within pause, seemingly when its source noticed his presence, but he didn't move, just rested his chin in his palm and stared out at the lonely swings, swaying gently in the breeze.
His mother used to take him to places like this too, before she got sick. Him and Reiju. His brothers hadn't wanted to come along the older they got, and it was for the best. He remembered the day his mom had found out from other parents that they'd bullied a few kids on the playground. She'd been so sad….
"I thought you left…." came a small voice from behind him in the slide.
He sighed.
"Well, I was about to, but my phone fell in between the seat of my car and….then you came running out like a maniac."
There was the sound of movement, and for a moment, Sanji wondered if Tana would come out, but she only seemed to be shifting positions.
"Where's my dad….?" was her next question.
"Looking like he was about to puke from running after you," Sanji snorted, wondering if the idiot wasn't passed out in a bush somewhere after all.
She made a soft noise in response, but said nothing more.
Sanji tapped fingers against his chin, then decided to swivel, pulling a leg up under him and turning more towards the mouth of the slide so he could speak to her more easily.
"Was there a fire or something? Is that why you ran like hell out of there? It was literally two minutes after you left my car, y'know," Sanji said, quirking a brow towards the slide, as if conversing with the yellow macaroni shape itself.
Tana was silent for another minute until she eventually mumbled, "You didn't tell me why my dad really went to your place last night…."
The cook let out a breath, now realizing just what might have occurred. He was rather surprised the mosshead managed to fuck shit up in that short amount of time.
"Well, I was trying to coax him into telling you," Sanji admitted. "He's your dad, and he should be honest with you-"
"But if that's the kind of shit he's gonna tell me, then I don't want him to be honest!" Tana asserted suddenly.
This had Sanji close his eyes slowly.
He could understand this desire. When his father had been honest with him, victimized him for being different than his brothers, which was all true, he'd hated it. He'd hated hearing the harsh truth, that he'd never be as good as them at anything, that his personality, his kindness even, wasn't wanted or valued….
But he'd also learned that his father lied.
He'd lied about why the cops came to their house so many times, why Sanji had to stay in his room for sometimes the whole weekend….
He'd lied that Sanji wasn't good enough.
"Tana," he said quietly. "I know it's hard. But if you two can't be honest with each other, then you'll never have a healthy relationship."
The slide was silent, though he heard her sneakers squeak slightly against the plastic.
"Why aren't you mad….?" she asked eventually. "He said he didn't...didn't want you near me…."
It was a valid question. By all accounts, he should still be mad, but….well, oddly enough, it had been Zoro himself who'd changed his mind.
Listening to the man talk, hearing his concerns, that he did love his daughter and wanted what was best for her….knowing what he had lost. He wasn't happy with Zoro, but he wasn't angry, not for what he'd said to him at least.
He remembered how it felt, after all, to go, in the blink of an eye, from feeling so contented and fulfilled to feeling empty….and lost. Alone. Two people had gone from his life, left him to experience this…
The cook settled himself a little more comfortably, sinking down into the curve of the slide and throwing a leg over the edge.
He didn't know why a tube slide would suddenly cause him to open up like this, but if he pretended he was talking to his younger self, then it became a bit easier.
"After my mom died," he murmured, staring out at a large tree near the walking path, a few squirrels scampering up it and squabbling over an acorn. "I tried to be closer with my dad. I tried to be good, to give him everything I had because I was lonely. And sad. I needed that comfort. But it was no use. He didn't want to protect me. He didn't want to keep me safe. He didn't shut me out because he was in pain; he shut me out because he wasn't capable of showing me love.
"Eventually," he continued after a pause. "I stopped wanting to try because there was nothing to even salvage. There never had been…"
The squirrels had reached a branch, calming and sitting quietly, sniffing the air.
Tana didn't reply, and he didn't exactly expect her to. He just wanted her to know that she wasn't alone. His childhood still hurt, despite being long gone, and imagining this kid grown up and still thinking about how things could have gone differently….? He didn't want that for her. Because it sucked, especially when there was nothing that he could do now about his own past.
"Now, I don't know your dad," he said quietly, in lieu of her response. "But you do, so you tell me. Do you still want to try?"
A minute passed, his words sinking into the tranquility of the park, the wind blowing gently, taking a few leaves with it from the trees.
Sanji remembered, somewhat fuzzily after so many years, his mom's face.
How she'd stand facing him and kiss his forehead every time he flew towards her on the swings. How she'd grab hold of the chains and twist them up for him, then release them so he spun around, a giggling cyclone.
The slide shook slightly, and he heard Tana's sneakers again on the plastic, slowly sliding down until she stopped just within the mouth of the slide.
Sanji didn't move. When he looked over, her eyes were red and puffy, and she tucked her short hair behind her ears somewhat self-consciously, trying to get herself back into order.
She finally met his gaze after a few moments, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging them tightly.
"Your mom died….?" she asked quietly.
It wasn't an answer to his question, but he wouldn't deny an answer to hers, not when the girl seemed almost hopeful to have someone to commiserate with.
"Yeah," he replied, turning up his lips ever so slightly, the smile not reaching his eyes. "When I was eight."
Her brown eyes watched him, then looked down, arms squeezing her legs tighter, pressing her cheek against her knees.
"Mine did too," she stated simply. "Last year…"
He tried not to show emotion either way, to give away that he already knew this fact, or to feign too much surprise. So he kept his features passive, closing his eyes instead and sighing heavily.
"I'm sorry," he murmured, and he truly was. He got the feeling that things had been very, very different in Tana's life before that tragedy. And he also felt guilty for knowing far more about it than he had any right to, knowing even more than Tana herself.
Eyes opened and he lifted a hand, stretching it over to her back, rubbing soothingly as the girl wiped at her leaky nose and eyes, still folded up in a protective ball.
But then, slowly, she reached out a hand toward him too, just reaching. So he took it, held on with both hands and gave a squeeze.
There was nothing more to say, even though there was much to say. He'd said what he'd needed to in that moment, and his quiet empathy would stand with her longer than anything verbal.
After all, in his mind, he wasn't the one she needed.
There was the crunch of footsteps behind him, crossing the rubber mulch of the playground until they stopped a few paces away.
Sanji didn't look right away, but he knew it was Zoro. He could hear the man's heavy breathing, practically feel his intense aura piercing him through the back.
Tana seemed aware of him too, despite remaining hidden in the slide, as she tensed slightly and looked up. She didn't let go of Sanji's hand just yet.
The cook met her eye, conveyed his silent support for a second before he turned himself to get a look at Tana's dad.
Zoro was standing there, shoulders hunched, fists at his sides. He didn't look too good, his face flushed and brows drawn in, but when he rose his head to look at Sanji, his eyes were focused, even determined.
He said nothing, just flicked his eyes to the slide, to the small hand poking out that still held onto the blond's.
His gaze found Sanji's again and he managed a small nod.
He said nothing, but Sanji got the message.
The cook let out a breath through his nose and turned back to Tana, squeezing her hand one more time.
"Is it okay?" he murmured, and though it took her a few seconds, she managed to nod as well, a remarkably similar look of determination coming over her own features, much like her father.
Satisfied with this, Sanji nodded too, patted the back of her hand, then released it so he could get himself off the slide and stand, brushing at his pants to rid them of any dirt.
Tana didn't come out of the slide, didn't try to bolt again.
So the cook crossed over to Zoro, back towards the entrance to the park and the apartment complex beyond where his car still waited.
As he passed the other man, he paused, making eye contact with him again and raising eyebrows a little expectantly.
Zoro looked at him, parted lips….but then simply sighed and nodded again, raising a hand to rub at the back of his neck anxiously.
He wasn't going to get anything else out of Zoro, not even a show of gratitude. But this probably wasn't the time for it anyway. He wanted those two to talk, and anything he said might shatter the man's resolve.
Was Zoro going to spill the whole truth now?
He'd honestly be surprised if he did, Sanji thought, as he averted eyes and started walking off, leaving Zoro and his daughter alone. Judging by how damn stubborn these two were turning out to be, he couldn't imagine the man bending on something that huge so easily.
But Zoro had told Tana why he'd shown up to bitch Sanji out the previous night, and the cook supposed that was a step in the right direction. He couldn't deny that it had been a little satisfying to know Tana was more upset with this fact than she'd been about Sanji kicking her dad.
Perhaps some good could yet come out of this.
He hoped so at least, for Tana's sake if nothing else, and by the time he'd made it back to his car, he'd decided to remain optimistic, even if he was dealing with a cowardly brute. Zoro was still a cowardly brute who'd loved and lost, and Sanji had to hope there was reform for that.
Because if there wasn't, there wasn't much hope for himself either.
Sanji slipped into his still-unlocked car and started it up, grabbing his phone out of his pocket.
He buckled his seatbelt, but just before he drove off, he looked at his phone more closely, quirking a brow when he noticed he had an unread text.
And for all his calm introspection, when he saw the sender, he nearly dropped his phone all over again…
For on his screen flashed a name he still hadn't deleted from his contacts. A name he should have deleted long ago, but hadn't mustered up the nerve to.
He cursed his heart for fluttering as it did, for being so poisonously hypocritical as he read the message.
'Hello, Sanji. Are you free to meet today? I'd really like to see you…'
Stupidly, Sanji's answer to Pudding was already a 'yes'.