Fall
by KuroKame
A scream of pain echoed shortly before it disappeared into the howling snowstorm, and he experienced a moment of weightlessness, with only the wind supporting his body before gravity made itself known. Through his barely conscious mind, he could feel the cold wind against his back and the snowflakes stinging as they collided with the bare skin in his neck and under his chin. However, that pain was nothing against the throbbing in his torso.
The ground, hard and impossible to miss, was coming closer and closer below him, rocks probably hidden beneath the snow that looked almost thick enough to break his fall.
His entire body felt as if someone had twisted him in two different directions, in some sick attempt to turn him into one of those stupid balloon animals one of the chefs back at the Baratie had made whenever it was a kid's birthday.
His back hurt, his arms and legs hurt, his head hurt… Hell, even his cigarette hurt, and he had lost that before the avalanche. But in the middle of all that pain, he still felt strangely calm and at ease. By doing what he had done, he knew that he had made sure that Nami wasn't hurt. If he had died, he wouldn't have had any regrets. Except for the fact that he never got to find All Blue, of course…
He had been more than just a little bit surprised when the thick, hard packed snow that surrounded him and was about to choke him to death broke, and he was pulled out from under the icy shell. There hadn't been enough strength in him to give Luffy any sign that he was alive, but the transparent puffs of cloud caused by his shallow breath in the cold must have been enough for his captain, because the last thing he remembered before passing out again was Luffy's arm wrapped a little too tight around his chest.
The next thing he remembered was that echoing cry of pain, and the feeling of his jacket fluttering in an icy cold wind that never seemed to stop blowing. And then the feeling of weightlessness, and the fall.
"SANJI!"
His ears registered the voice calling his name as it came closer, and all of a sudden, the sinking feeling in his stomach stopped. He could feel something pulling at his jacket, and then there was a rough jerk that nearly snapped his spine in half. The pain that seared out into his body was almost unbearable, but Sanji couldn't find the energy to scream. He heard loud, wheezing breaths somewhere above him, mixed with the sound of grinding teeth and the light twang of rubber stretching and relaxing as he bobbed up and down in midair.
It didn't take long before Luffy had pulled him back up to wherever he had fallen from. Before Sanji slipped back into the darkness of unconsciousness, he looked up and caught a glance of Luffy's face. The determination in the captain's eyes was all he needed to see to feel assured that they would be alright.
After all, his and Nami's lives were in the hands of the man who was going to be the king of the pirates. What could be more assuring than that?