Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do acknowledge using Eiichiro Oda's characters without his permission. I ate all the Cadbury's eggs, too.
Warning: AU, Out of Character charas, profanity, slash, TWT
A/N: Do you pull guard? DO YOU?! Thanks for the reviews, guys! Enjoy these next couple of chapters!
: Are You Hurting The One You Love :
Chopper ate his cotton candy, enjoying the immense cloud of sugar. Next to him, Luffy worked on the arm full of mochi Sanji had bought him, and Ussop was playing with a potato launcher, both him and Franky modifying it to fit their current needs. Zoro glared at the picnic table, drumming his fingertips atop of the table while Law scowled at him from across it. The aspiring doctor looked green and nauseous, and Chopper had ripped up Zoro's flannel shirt to apply temporary bandages for the wounds he'd reopened.
Everyone around them were noisy and chattering amongst each other as they visited the rides and venders. The various smells of grilled food, combined with the gooey scents of nearby cheese, made Law intensely sick. He sat at the edge of the seat, hand on his stomach, struggling to maintain his stoic attitude. But something significant had happened and nobody was saying anything about it.
Sanji and Brooke had set off to get the group drinks and snacks.
Zoro looked over at Law with narrowed eyes. Law struggled to return it, but then his dinner bubbled back up to his throat and he turned aside, just in case.
"We should just give up on Sanji going with us," Luffy said, chewing awkwardly. "He doesn't want to go, anymore. He doesn't show the same passion for it, as us. I don't want to put him out."
"We shouldn't have to force him to do something he doesn't want to do," Chopper agreed with a hearty sigh.
"Do you think he'd be okay without us?" Ussop asked, and the three of them looked at each other with large, watery eyes. Even Franky mimicked the look.
Zoro snorted, straightening up from the table. He switched position, resting his elbows back on the table, legs crossed, turning to look out at the happy crowds moving around the multiple picnic tables within the dining area. "That moron would probably end up with some loser who convinced him to sea – he'd wind up finding us, anyway. There's no way he'd let you go, for long."
"You think so, Zoro? Maybe we can leave bread crumbs behind, so he can find us!"
"That's an excellent idea, 'Sop!" Luffy exclaimed. "We can leave behind clues and signs for him to follow, and eventually, one day, he'd catch up!"
"It'd be a treasure hunt, except we're the treasure!" Chopper cried joyfully.
"That's a great idea, guys! I have a plan – at every island we stop, we'll leave a message just for Sanji. He'll have to follow the map we'd leave with him, and - !
"Do you honestly think the Grand Line has islands that would cooperate with this plan?" Law asked, then paled, hand moving to his mouth before he caught himself.
Zoro grumbled, looking back over his shoulder. "I have to agree with this guy. I've seen it. For one year, we kept sailing to at least two of the same islands – they kept rotating!"
"For one year?" the kids cried.
"It wasn't my proudest moment."
"I have a feeling that you've had more than that," Law muttered with a disgusted shake of his head.
"What'd you say, asshole?"
Over the sounds of the two men growling, Franky pushed aside their extended middle fingers, saying to the kids, "I think that it's a fine idea! It'll make him feel like part of the group! Besides, I personally think he can't make it without you kids, either. You're the only ones that give him life! Er…aside from…from being with you, I'm his neighbor," Franky added with an embarrassed laugh to Law. Then to Zoro he said, "And that was a super awesome fight that you two just had. It cleared the air, bro!"
"What's that comment mean?" Zoro asked him, looking at Law with distrust.
"I know where everything is, how it works, and how it should feel when operated on," Law purred maliciously, making an obscene gesture with his hands. Ussop and Chopper gasped. Luffy's mouth fell open.
"Those comic books you gave us a long time ago were right, Chopper!" he hissed.
He then stood and separated them as the two men lunged across the table; with his interference, they only ended up slapping at each other, Franky holding the potato launcher high to avoid being broken. "Even if we left clues behind for Sanji to follow us, guys, it's not to say that he can't find them – but what if he gets distracted? We'd not only have to leave clues, we'd have to make enough memories for him to know that we'd been there, and we were waiting for him!"
"Like carving our names into rocks?" Ussop asked.
"Or into mountains!"
"Well, it's a good idea in theory," Zoro grumbled, sitting back down. "But you'd need a damn good navigator to negotiate those roads."
The kids tittered behind their hands, and he realized they were looking at him with mirth.
"What?"
"We have one!" Luffy squeaked. "We have a whole crew, Zoro! You think it's only going to be us the entire time? Haha! Silly guy, with your green hair. You're going to be so tickled!"
Puzzled, Zoro allowed Chopper to rewrap an armband, as it seemed to have reopened from the earlier conflict, blood oozing through the material. "I'm afraid to ask who. I had to help you out with your history classes, and those map nights were a serious pain. So I know it's neither of you guys."
"It's Nami!"
"That witch isn't going with us!"
"She graduated with Honors in her class, Zoro. She's well qualified," Franky said with a shrug. He then gave a satisfied exclamation, holding up the modified weapon. "Here we go!"
Zoro snorted, shaking his head. "Even if we did this…we let him stay…and then he comes after us…do you think he'd still be happy? Even then?"
"Well, eventually, I'm sure he would, Zoro," Luffy said, finishing off his mocha. "I'm positive!"
For a few moments, Zoro drummed his fingers on the table, and then said with a heavy sigh, "Maybe finding spiral-brow's happiness is akin to finding the One Piece – fuckin' impossible."
Law watched with as all three of the boys stopped what they were doing and looked at each other.
"Maybe it was stolen," Chopper whispered. "Maybe someone had taken – "
"It was Zoro!" Ussop hissed. "We all know that!"
"But we've seen Law take apart guys, before. We've seen, with these eyes, how something from the inside could be stolen, without anybody dying!" Luffy whispered, eyes wide. They looked at Law, who started to feel an incoming storm in the horizon. "Maybe someone ate the Fruit that Law had, and is capable of stealing emotions!"
"Ohmygod, I got goosebumps!" Frankie confessed, heaving to lean in to hear it.
"Roguetown is the place where everyone on the Grand Line gets on or off – what if someone attacked Sanji one night, and he doesn't even know his happiness was stolen from him? Maybe by a rejected suitor!"
Ussop, Chopper and Frankie gasped, looking horrified. Law was incredulous, but he couldn't even use his voice to interject, considering how the very theory was downright ridiculous.
"What if it's out there, somewhere, waiting to be found?" Zoro added, looking off in to the distance. "And Rolling Pin is too fucking embarrassed to admit that he'd lost it."
"He wouldn't say anything!" Ussop cried. "He's so modest!"
"Modest Sanji is the worst!" Chopper exclaimed.
"Sanji puts our needs before his all the time, and all this time, he didn't say anything because we suck at what we do!" Luffy sobbed, hitting the table. "We didn't give him any attention, Zoro!"
"We have to find it, guys! We have to find it before it's too late!" Franky shouted. "Let's do this!"
"But you better keep it a secret," Zoro interrupted, turning back around to face him. He looked at all in the eye – except for Law. He ignored him. "If Sanji realizes you're trying to do him a favor, he's going to get pissed. You know how that big girl reacts to our brilliant ideas."
"What would it look like, Zoro?" Ussop asked. "This happiness? Would we know it if we find it?"
"Nope. Even I'm not even sure of it, because I never saw it, before," he said with a shrug. With the breeze blowing through his green hair, he looked rather whimsical. "I'm sure it's just a fairy tale."
"This is ridiculous!" Law finally exclaimed. "You can't be serious! How could you let him talk you into this shitty theory? You know exactly why Sanji is the way he is! There is no such thing as physically removing emotions!"
"Why wouldn't we take Sanji's missing happiness seriously, Law?" Luffy asked him with a grave expression. "Are you against it? Because if you are…"
"We're going to have to fight!" Zoro announced, looking cheered as he reached to draw.
"That's fine with me!" Law snarled, hand upraised. "Ro - !"
"Here, shut up." Sanji helped Zoro close his mouth with a heel, but as soon as Zoro hit the ground, he and Brook were passing out the drinks they'd bought. As a couple of teenagers delivered more food to the table, the kids cheering, Law turned green once more. He turned away, uncertain whether or not he was going to be sick. Sanji patted his shoulder.
Zoro grumbled as he retook his seat, frowning at the cold bottle of grog in front of him. "What the hell," he muttered, opening it and taking a careful drink.
"What were you guys talking about, so intensely?" Brook asked curiously. "All of you were hunched over, whispering."
"NOTHING."
Sanji raised his visible eyebrow as four of them answered and one looked off in the other direction. So he looked at Law, but even he was looking away from them. He assumed it was nothing special if Law had nothing to say about it.
He shrugged, reaching for his drink, and sat next to Brook and Law, the latter of whom looked at him with concentrated indignation. Zoro grit his teeth, but he saw that Sanji wasn't exactly putting himself all over him. It made him feel weird to see this – almost as odd as it had seeing Gin with Sanji years back. The whirlwind of emotions made him want to throw things, or hit it, or cut it.
But he told himself he was a better man, now, and nothing could make him overreact the way he used to (even though he had half an hour ago). He inhaled deeply and exhaled, placing himself into a state of calm.
Later on, Sanji helped Chopper win a stuffed cat, the tiny deer cheering happily. Everyone else was concentrating on the games around them – even Luffy was challenging Law to a few games, and it was amusing to see how frustrated the man was when he struggled to keep up. Amidst all the cheers, laughter and people's conversations, Zoro was sleeping against a light pole nearby, everyone tossing their prizes either on him or in his direction.
Sanji won the cat, handing it over with barely any expression, other than to return the brief hug. After their fight, he'd regained that bored expression and barely spoke when prompted. He struggled to maintain an amicable mood, though, ambling from place to place without too much complaint. The kids kept him busy. But he was horrified by how he'd reacted so fiercely, and he couldn't believe how much power Zoro still had over him even after he'd been numb for so long.
It worried him that he was right. He did not want to admit that Zoro was right. But he refused to get anymore into it. He told himself he was going to make himself enjoy the rest of the night as best as he could – he didn't want to give Zoro anymore power than he already had. He'd think about the rest of it later on, when he was alone. He looked over in Law's direction, watching him cheat in his effort to win some goldfish. When Luffy called him out on it, the resulting argument drew attention from the others.
Chopper ran to them to join in on the fun, and Sanji looked for something else to do. When nothing more caught his eye, he looked over at Zoro. The man was snoring soundly, causing concerned people to glance his way. With the pile of stuffed animals and prizes growing around him, some of the kids passing through were stealing off with their choices and running off. Sanji wanted to kick him. Hard.
But he refused to give in, and 'humph-ed', strolling off to join the others.
: :
Later that night, he served an exhausted Law some coffee and set down some snacks.
Law was heavily involved with thoughts of his own, his arms crossed tightly as he worked the situation out in his mind. Sanji sat across from him, sipping at his own tea.
"Sanji…." Law then trailed off, finding it difficult to speak at that moment. But then he said, "Did something happen tonight?"
Sanji wasn't sure how to answer that. He scowled at his tea. "Something did. But I've no desire to say anything about it."
Law considered his expression, then looked down at the snacks set in front of him. He still felt nauseous. But there was something more that lingered at the edges of all his thoughts.
"That man is impossible to take seriously – what's worse is how those kids react to his every word," he muttered.
"They look up to him, yes, and he has a bunch of bad points. But the kids are happier when they're with him. He's everything to them that I can't be."
"And this pleases you?"
Sanji shrugged, setting his cup down. "I'm not sure how I feel about it."
"But he still hurt you!"
"I don't see how that's of anybody's concern! Much less yours, considering what a temporary fix you are to my loneliness!"
Law felt himself wince, then scowled at the table. "I deserve that. I knew that I'd only be here temporarily, depending on the situation back home. I hadn't meant to find you as I did, Sanji. But Luffy…and his damned older brother…they had other ideas."
Sanji shrugged again. "I'm glad you did," he confessed quietly. "I hadn't realized how alone I…I felt. I just don't understand why you stayed as you did. All I can offer is…"
Law reddened, then rubbed the back of his neck with embarrassment. His coffee spilled as he then grabbed it, and struggled to stave off the goofy smile that threatened to spread over his face. After a few moments, he composed himself. He cleared his throat.
"In any event, after my mid-term, I will be setting sail back to the Grand Line, and beyond. The New World is far beyond your reach right now, and I don't expect to see you soon…I don't expect this to happen anymore than it has. I want to say my final goodbyes."
"No," Sanji said, shaking his head. "There are no final goodbyes."
"Silly, optimistic fool. I hope the seas harden you once you're out there," Law commented, finishing his coffee.
"I'm not going. Not with them. I…I can't."
"Nonsense. You will. I saw enough of it tonight. As stupid as that green haired ass is, he was right. You cannot be separated from them for very long. Even if they leave and you stay, you won't be alone, for long."
Sanji closed his eyes with frustration. Law was right.
Law studied him for a few moments, then sighed low. He looked around the quaint setting of Sanji's apartment. He immediately spotted Ussop's slingshot sitting on the couch – beyond that, one of Luffy's rock tees. And Chopper had left one of his medical dictionaries open on the coffee table. And beyond that, sitting on the far bookshelf filled with cookbooks, was a single volume of Bushido theories. He scowled.
"Even if I had more time with you, I wouldn't fit in," he said. "I have my own crew – er, family, who are more…and they miss me, I suppose. Well, of course they do if I'm receiving telegrams regarding my impending doom."
"It's fine. You're not abandoning me, or anything. I don't think of it, that way."
"But would you have if he hadn't returned?"
Sanji frowned at him, but Law didn't make eye contact. He stared down at his coffee with a scowl. He then looked at the living room, noting the same things Law had earlier. He was startled – when had those things been left?
His brow furrowed.
'How ridiculous is it that you're still treating them like they're kids!'
He thinned his lips, hearing Zoro's shout reverberating in his thoughts. His fists curled on top of his thighs.
"The end of the week, huh?" he asked.
Uncertain of the question, Law looked at him, then nodded. "Yes. After my mid-term. A few more days."
Swallowing hard, Sanji glared down at his lap. He watched veins pop up along his forearms with the weight of his clench.
"Wait for me, then," he said.
Law gave him a startled expression. "…Sanji?"
"I have to think about it. But…I want you to wait for me."
Completely taken back by the request, Law wasn't sure how to respond. But he nodded just to appease the other man across from him. It looked as if he were in some intense battle with himself. He rose from the chair. "Come. Let's go to bed."