Title: The Wastelands
Summary: Travelling alone since his early teens with no one but Chopper, a mutated reindeer, for company Zoro is more than surprised when he comes across a slave in the middle of the Wasteland and it doesn't take long for him to realise something isn't right. Hunted down by Slave Catchers and Masters alike, Zoro and Chopper are plunged into a side of their world they never wanted to go down as the blonde slave's past is seemingly out to get them all.
Warnings: Angst, Yaoi, Language, Slavery, Violence and infrequent brief descriptions of Gore.
AN: I know it's late and I'm very sorry for making you wait but I have three valid reasons:
1- I was ill last week with the flu
2- Homework essays
3- The length of this chapter caused some real stressful Writer's Block.
And to be honest, I'm not even sure I like this chapter but I think that it's mainly because it's piecing together the plot for Sanji, Zoro and Chopper's first proper 'Arc/Adventure' with Ace, Luffy and Franky in tow. I know the last chapter didn't really add up so much but it will definitely contribute to the main plotline- especially the dead girl in Trafalgar's scene. I can't even STRESS how important she will be haha :L So, next chapter will be up soon hopefully on time so you won't have to wait like this again. However I do have a tumblr account I set up recently so feel free to follow me- it's somewhere you'll be able to get regular updates on how far I am with each chapter and of any delays etc that will cause chapters to be late. I also reblog a hella lot of ZoSan and SanZo as well :D
My tumblr name is 'mustangisinflames' if anyone gets the two references you get a cookie :3
Onward with the chapter! Please enjoy and leave a review if you wish! I love reading them so much!~
See you all again Saturday!
Zoro sat at the table, four pairs of eyes watching him closely; two brown, one grey and one brilliant blue. Luffy, the youngest of them, was sat across from him swinging his legs with a big smile and an expectant look on his childish face. Zoro saw the scar on his left cheek and briefly wondered how it had got there. At the opposite end, to his left was Ace, a man, Zoro thought, that looked uncannily like his younger brother Luffy but with freckles and longer, more bedraggled hair. He had a more reserved look on his face, calm and relaxed as did Franky, the giant of a man sat to his right.
Zoro heard Sanji shuffle in his seat, making a noise of discomfort in his throat quietly. The blonde was sat alongside Zoro and pressed against him as close as he could, their shoulders touching. He had a nervous, uneasy look in his eyes and seemed to grip the fabric of his tattered jeans a little too tightly at just above his knees with both hands. The bandages around his neck had come lose during the day where he had either scratched at them or got them caught on the collar of the old shirt Franky had given him. It was too big and acted more like a dress than a shirt but Sanji didn't seem to care; the fabric was clean and warm and felt so good yet so foreign against his skin that had almost forgotten the sensation of soft cotton rubbing against it.
"So what happened out there?" Ace was the first to talk which wasn't surprising, within the first few hours of his regaining consciousness Zoro had noticed how Luffy and Franky followed the man's every word, Luffy usually with a sense of devotion and awe in his eyes. But Ace came across to him as a fair and kind person and was obviously the unspoken leader of their little group. Regardless, Ace had been the one to arrive first in the room Zoro had woken up in and the one to show him where Chopper was. The reindeer was safe and sound in a building that substituted a stable and was in good spirits, the bite tended to on his leg and he had given Zoro the biggest lick up the side of his chest, face and neck upon seeing him. Sanji had stayed close the whole time, silent and pale like a ghost.
"Sanji didn't tell you?" Zoro asked, answering the question with another one. He was surprised. Apparently he'd been out for two days after Luffy had found them and the cook was up and walking after one day of unconsciousness. This should have left plenty of time for the blonde to explain their situation... so why hadn't he? Zoro looked across at the mute blonde who was staring distantly at the green haired man's tightly bandaged left arm, his eyelids were almost closed so that the brilliant orbs of blue were more like black slivers that snuck out from under them and his pale lips were pressed together firmly in a tight line. Zoro looked back at Ace whom looked sympathetically at him,
"I don't think he's able to talk. That... thing around his neck must've cut him a little deeper than we thought when we removed it. He must've damaged his vocal cords or somethin'..." Ace said, "Sorry about that."
"But he was-" Zoro went to object, to say that that was a downright lie unless he had imagined the whole talk with the blonde earlier, but was cut off when Sanji's thin hand grabbed at his wrist, his bony fingers digging in surprisingly painfully. Blue eyes looked at him, imploring with him and he faltered. Fear flashed across Sanji's face and Zoro realised in that moment that the other man was afraid to speak. It wasn't because he was injured or traumatized, but because he was scared. Zoro bit his lip, the scab that had formed on the split rubbing roughly against his tongue, "It's okay, I understand," he said, referring back to Ace. Honestly he did understand, remembering how silent the blonde fell the moment Luffy burst into the bedroom and stopped the conversation about Sanji's past that had barely even started, "We were jumped by some bandit," Zoro continued, it wasn't the truth but it wasn't a blatant lie, "He tried to kill us and we defended ourselves, that's all really."
He left out the part about how Bellamy had been after Sanji for some intent or purpose that the blonde had yet to tell him, he didn't want Ace to get the wrong impression and think he was harbouring criminals. This was the most amount of people he'd been in direct contact with in years and, though it was perhaps a little selfish of him, he didn't want to let this opportunity slip or let these people leave him so soon without good reason.
However, Ace narrowed his eyes, "You killed a man out there and you expect me to believe it was out of defence? How do we know you aren't the bad guys here and you're just lookin' for an opportunity to kill us?"
Franky muttered a half hearted agreement, but Zoro could see in his face that the man was unsure of what to make of him and Sanji. Luffy just hummed happily, grin still plastered on his face, oblivious to the conversation. Sanji seemed to shrink on himself a little more.
"I'm sorry, but I have to say it," Ace continued, "You can't be too sure of the kind of people out there..."
Zoro nodded- boy, he knew that feeling, "But if this was all a plan to kill you, surely we would have done it by now? I mean, two days would be playing it out too long. And, well, you guys helped us so I guess you must've seen something in us?"
Ace thought this over a while, "I guess so. If this was a murder plan then it's far too elaborate and your wounds are real nasty, trust me, I've seen them. But I'm not sure... What do you think, Franky?"
The other man ran his hand through his blue hair, "I say they can stay here a while, recover a bit and we can keep an eye on them- make sure it's not a trap. But I agree with you, someone wouldn't badly hurt themselves in order to kill someone- especially Sanji's wounds. I don't think we should suspect you guys," Franky said, looking at the green haired man and the blonde, "But you can excuse us for being cautious, right?"
"I understand," Zoro said.
Suddenly Luffy piped up, "So what's happening then?"
"Were you even listening?!" Ace scolded and the younger laughed.
"No, it was too boring... So are they staying?"
"For a while, yes," Franky confirmed, "But we have to-"
"Yay! New Nakama!" Luffy screamed, jumping up from his seat and promptly cutting Franky off. He leapt onto the table top in a blur and shoved his grinning face right into Zoro's. Zoro felt Sanji peel himself away from him to sit on the farthest point of his chair. His eyes were more wary than ever, obviously not liking Luffy's lack of knowledge in personal space. Zoro instantly missed the feeling of the blonde's fingers on his wrist, "Neh, Zoro, you'll play with me right?" Luffy said, pining for attention and Zoro smiled slightly at the bright brown eyed boy; something about Luffy made him feel happier,
"Sure," He replied and the raven haired boy gasped and clapped his hands, "Yosh! Let's go!"
He got no further than snatching for Zoro's hand when Ace spoke, "Oi, Luffy, you can play with them all you want but they're not allowed outside unless I say, alright?"
"What? Why?" Luffy asked, successfully managing to capture Zoro's arm. Ace leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs at the ankles and folding his arms. He fixed Zoro with a look.
"They know why."
Although Ace had asked him no question, Zoro nodded his head. Franky smiled reassuringly at him, "Don't worry, I'll take super good care of your reindeer."
Luffy huffed, "I already told you it's not a reindeer. It's a mystery horse!"
Franky rolled his eyes but laughed anyway, he then stood up, "Well I gotta check on the air filter again," He turned back to Ace, "We're due another Rain tonight apparently... Can't be too safe."
Ace nodded and got to his feet also, "I'll help you out then- make sure the animals are locked up safe," The two excused themselves and left via the back door that led to the world outside. Zoro and Luffy watched them go and it wasn't until he was sure the door was fully shut that the young boy pounced. He dropped Zoro's hand, gambolled off the table and with a cry of 'Let me show you round the house!' he bounded off down the hallway, almost crashing into the walls before skidding into a room out of sight. The sound of his laughter bubbled up the hall to the kitchen.
Zoro sighed fondly at the hyperactive boy's behaviour and got up to follow after him, he reached behind him to press his palms to the small of his back and pushed, stretching out the cramped muscles. He groaned slightly at the pain that rumbled in his bruised stomach and danced up his broken ribs. Suddenly, Sanji grabbed his arm. Zoro looked up, startled to see the blonde standing to. When did that happen? He hadn't heard him move.
"I'm sorry," Sanji said, confirming that he could in fact talk and that Zoro hadn't hallucinated the entire conversation between them earlier. But what he was apologising for, Zoro had no idea. He must've been frowning because Sanji then gestured to the bandages that encased his arm and snaked their way around his torso, "You were nearly killed because of me."
"You're my friend, Sanji. Friends have each other's backs," He said, voice firm, sure and unwavering. The blonde had also tried to apologise to him earlier and his response had been the same then. Really, did Sanji think so little of him?
"We only met a few days ago and we know nothing about each other besides names and how old we are. How can you call us friends when we're still strangers?" The blonde mused.
"Sanji-" Zoro started but was cut off by Luffy peering around the door frame further down the hall.
"Neh, come on guys! I wanna show you everything!" He pouted before disappearing once more.
Zoro turned his gaze back on Sanji but the blonde was looking down at the ground beneath his one bare and one bandaged feet. His jaw was firmly clenched shut and his drawn face from that angle showed clearly his sharp cheekbones that jutted out from malnutrition. Underneath the bandages around his neck protruded a few blossoming dots of red that were slowly getting larger in size and richer in colour. Zoro's lips parted.
"I think we should go see what Luffy wants," The green haired man said.
Sanji gave no response other than the soft but slightly ragged sound of his breathing. Zoro turned and left down the hall, following Luffy's route and expecting the blonde to come along as well. When he heard no footsteps behind him he looked back to see Sanji had sat back down with his head in his hands and his white fingers clutching tightly at long blonde strands of hair. Zoro thought he saw his shoulders shaking but before he could change his mind and go back Luffy was dragging him into the room, leaving the blonde to relieve his troubles through quiet drips that splashed on the table.
Sanji didn't join them for dinner. The table was in much the same seating plan as it had been that morning just minus the blonde who should be sitting next to him. The meal was good- some of the best food Zoro had eaten in ages- despite it being some sort of stew of which the contents remained unnamed. Zoro was kind of grateful that Ace hadn't indulged into the ingredient list. He was sure that despite the pleasant taste, the actual food was probably disgusting: he was better off not knowing.
Dinner was a brief experience. Zoro was shocked at how fast the three men could eat, each scarfing their serving down like there was no tomorrow. There was a lot of talk about the 'Rain' that was apparently forecasted and though the men themselves didn't seem to pleased about it, all their conversation had managed to work Zoro up into a sense of excitement. He hadn't seen rain in years. It wasn't something he'd greatly missed- his loss of Kuina, Koshiro, and the homesickness that came from longing for them back were far bigger factors in his life now- but the discussion of it had him remembering times long gone. They were vague fragments of memory in some places, flashes of water falling from the sky and running down the window, whilst others were stronger and more prominent; memories of him and Kuina playing outside, the cold feeling of droplets drenching their clothes and soaking his skin; the giggles of barely contained excitement as they both huddled under some form of shelter, waiting for the worst of it to pass.
So now Zoro found himself wanting to have those experiences again and he could hardly stop himself from smiling at times as he took another mouthful of food.
Ace stood up and gathered the dishes including Zoro's now empty one and deposited them in the sink with a muttered promise to wash them later. He then addressed Luffy who, Zoro had sussed out, was Ace's younger brother, "Oi, do something useful and help me feed the animals, yeah?" He said and, ignoring Luffy's whines of protest, was eventually resorted to having to haul the younger out of his chair and out of the door.
The remaining two men sat in an awkward silence until a thud from upstairs made the floorboards above rattle on their fixed places on the beams. Zoro's head instantly snapped up knowing full well only one person was currently up there; what was that blonde up to? Franky looked up as well, a flash of confusion on his face, "Hell was that?" He asked.
Zoro hurriedly got out of his chair, the previous excitement about the possibility of rain forgotten and replaced by concern. He stepped into the hallway and looked up the stairs that ran up to the next floor. Nothing but the dim outline of room doors met him. He heard Franky move in the kitchen, "Go see what that was, would you? I gotta go fix the door Luffy broke..."
"Sure," The green haired man replied, a quick warm feeling at being trusted by the other arising before being smothered again by worry.
"Call me if you need anything, I'll be down here," Came the response, followed shortly by the clanking of metal objects being put on the table.
Zoro didn't need telling twice and made his way up, his uninjured arm stretched to grab the banister and the boards of each step groaning under the weight. The tour he'd received from Luffy earlier had been very thorough but had required intense concentration so as to make sense of Luffy's fastly spoken and word crammed sentences. It had taken effort and an insane amount of picking out words but now Zoro knew roughly where everything in the house was including all the switches. He flicked one of them down at that moment, marvelling over the way the lights flashed once before turning on and casting the floor in brightness.
He looked to his left where a small window granted him the view of the reddish sky, the faintest wisps of inky black alerting him to the fast approaching night time- he noticed a few clouds as well. Wondering if this was the warning for the aforementioned Rain, he almost jumped when he saw movement behind him and his eyes followed it to see Sanji stood at the other end of the hall, reflected perfectly in the glass. The blonde had one arm wrapped around his chest and his other hand pressed firmly over his mouth in, from what his wide eyes suggested, shock. His face was pale again and he stood with a sort of defeated slump in his back. Zoro noticed he was wearing nothing but underwear and the bandages wrapped around his neck. They were stained with patches of blood.
Sanji swallowed and slowly removed his hand and Zoro turned round to face the blonde, "Sanji-"
"I need to tell you everything," The blonde cut him off, the look of horror in his eyes was replaced with determination, "Now."
With that Sanji shot back into the room he had appeared from leaving the other to take a moment processing what he just said. It didn't take long for Zoro to follow after him.
When Zoro walked into the room the first thing he noticed was the cracked mirror in the corner, shards of it exploded outwards on the floor and a small metal box laying amongst the debris. That explained the noise earlier. Sanji was sat on the bed, legs over the edge and feet touching the wooden boards, his toes curled painfully tight. Zoro stalled upon seeing the blonde. Sanji was still wearing just the pair of boxer briefs and was fisting at dirty strands of his hair and now Zoro could truly appreciate just how thin he was. His ribs jutted out, skin pulled taught over them and they only stuck out worse when he breathed in. His stomach, eye sockets and cheeks were sunken and dipped in in dramatic little ditches. Zoro could see nearly all of his bones; the joints of his wrists and ankles, collarbones and kneecaps, and, when he leaned a little to the side, the rigid rise and fall of his vertebrae and sharp angles of his shoulderblades that looked like they could cut a man. Add that to his pale complexion, the two glittering numbers branded on his torso, the bandages that swathed his neck and the blonde, bedraggled hair, Zoro was certain he had never seen a more broken person in his life. Something in his chest became painfully tight.
Blue eyes met his own mismatched ones and Sanji licked his dried lips once nervously, "Joker," he said.
There it was again: that word, that name. Slowly, Zoro shut the wooden door behind him. From the far side of the room the pipes that connected Franky's water system gurgled like somebody drowning and the sound of hammering, softened by the closed door, drifted up from downstairs. Sanji sighed and lowered his hands from their death grips in his hair to trace the outline of his knees, "Have you heard of him?" He asked.
Zoro shook his head, "No."
The blonde frowned and looked down at his knees, watching how his fingertips graced along the ridges of bone, "Sit down," he whispered.
Zoro complied, settling down next to the blonde when he realised there were no chairs in the room. Sanji cleared his throat, "Joker..." He trailed off, voice almost cracking at the end, "Joker... Have you heard of a company called 'SMILE'?"
"No," Zoro said again and Sanji laughed, a note of bitterness in it.
"I've got a lot to tell you then, so you better listen good..."
Zoro nodded, eyes never leaving the blue eyed man as he began to tell his story.
"You were about eight when the bombs went off, right? About twelve years ago now? Yeah, you were eight. Anyway, before they happened there was some sort of uproar about SMILE. They weren't exactly a big company but the technology they were supplying people wasn't exactly the good kind..."
Zoro frowned and Sanji briefly locked eyes with him before looking away again.
"Nuclear weapons unlike anything anyone on this planet had ever made before. These weapons were so powerful whole countries could be disintegrated in just one explosion. One bomb was all it would take. So, naturally North Blue wanted it for themselves. Who wouldn't have wanted them? Anyone who held those weapons would control everything, there'd never be a war again for fear one of those things would be let off. So All Blue, the capital of North Blue, bought them and stockpiled them without a second thought of how scared their civilians were and SMILE moved their company into the outskirts of the city. All Blue was my hometown, I remember walking past it everyday on my way to school. It wasn't a nice place to walk by and now I think of it... I don't think anyone who went there to work never came back out..." Sanji rubbed his knees, still focused intensely on them as his mind was forced to speak of the things he'd tried to keep hidden, "Everything was fine to begin with, All Blue never used the weapons and kept them only as a symbol of warning to any threatening countries. But, as you can imagine, everything went wrong..." The blonde looked up with a sarcastic smile on his face that made Zoro feel uncomfortable, "SMILE started dealing under the table. Before we knew it, it was discovered East, West, South, everyone had the weapons, each from it's own secretly based SMILE... and we were all on the edge of war."
Zoro nodded, he remembered that part. The tension in his home town, fear of which country would strike first. Sanji huffed in some sort of twisted fondness, "And then someone in the North Blue government was assassinated, we all turned against each other and, well, you know the rest... Thing is it wasn't any of the other countries who were responsible."
Zoro frowned, "It wasn't?" He recalled how his home town, the people he grew up with, were so adamant that everyone else was to blame for what had happened up to the point where Zoro had almost started to believe them himself. Sanji shook his head,
"Of course it wasn't. It was SMILE. Well, to be more specific, the Head of SMILE- a man called Donquixote Doflamingo."
"Donquixote...?"
"Or Joker, if you'd prefer..."
Zoro looked Sanji up and down, "You keep on throwing this Joker name around so much, just who is he?"
Sanji scowled and Zoro watched as the blonde dug his rigid and bitten down nails into the little flesh he had on his thighs, hard enough and deep enough to leave small crescent shaped marks, "Joker-san... Is... He gave- he-" The blonde broke off and gave a short but frustrated growl in the back of his throat. He then turned his upper body with a suddeness that made Zoro shift away a little, nervous he was about to be attacked. Sanji did raise his hand but it fell on the two scars jutting out of his collarbone, "He did this," he said, pressing his fingers firmly on the two ridges to emphasize the word 'this'.
Zoro swallowed, "What? Why would he-?"
"You wanted to know if I ran away from my Master," Sanji said softly and when he locked eyes with Zoro there was nothing but deep fear in them, "I did. I ran away. Joker is my Master, Zoro and he won't stop until he gets me back. He's a dangerous man. After we're done here Zoro we have to go seperate ways. He'll go through anyone, he'll kill you. People like Bellamy won't stop coming after me and they just get stronger and stronger. You haven't seen his men, Zoro. If Bellamy could nearly kill you then there'll be nothing left of you when the next one comes-"
"What does Joker want with you?" Zoro asked, unable to wrap his head around the fact Sanji's Master would go so far just to get him back. There must be some specific reason why someone would go to all that trouble for just one slave. Weren't slaves supposed to be replaceable? If so then why was Joker being so damn persistent?
Sanji paused in his ranting only to open his mouth and close it again and again, "I- he... Ugh, it's too damn hard to explain I-"
"ZORO! SAANJIII! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?!" Luffy's foghorn of a voice blasted up from outside the room somewhere, making both men jump. Two seconds later the door swung open, the handle banging off the wall, and Luffy peered in, smiling at them both, "Ace wants you! It's starting to rain and it's really cool! You gotta come see!" He crowed before bounding back outside where the floorboards creaked as he jumped up and down, "Come on, come on, come on!"
Zoro looked at the blonde to see that cold, closed look on his face again from earlier at the table that morning. He sighed and stood up, cursing Luffy's poor choice in timing, "Are you coming?" He asked.
Sanji closed his eyes and shook his head, "No... Tell them I don't feel well or something," He whispered.
Zoro frowned, "Why won't you talk to them? There nice people."
Sanji lay down on his side and curled in on himself, "I just can't right now... I..." The blonde left the sentence hanging, not bothering to finish it.
Zoro nodded, unsure of whether or not he should leave the blonde on his own right now before cracked mirror caught his attention, "Did you break it?" He asked, looking at it pointedly. Sanji didn't meet his gaze,
"So what if I did?"
"You can't just break their stuff, Sanji, they'll get pissed. Why did you break it?" Zoro said, worried if Ace would be angry at the damage done to his property. Sanji turned over so that his back was facing the green haired man, Zoro internally grimaced at the perfect outlines of bone.
"I saw something I didn't want to," The blonde answered cryptically and Zoro frowned,
"What?"
Sanji said nothing in response.
Silently, Zoro left the room to bump into Luffy whom was jigging up and down on the spot; a never ending ball of energy, "Come on, come on, you're gonna miss- huh? Where's Sanji?"
"He's too tired," Zoro lied passively and watched as Luffy's face dropped for a moment.
"Oh."
"It's alright, he said maybe next time," Zoro reassured him and the young boy's face immediately split back into a grin.
"Okay then! Yosh! Let's go, Zoro! You're gonna miss it if you don't hurry up!"
Zoro followed the boy as he shot off at lightning speed down the stairs with a heavy mind. He reflected back on everything Sanji had told him; SMILE, the weapons, Joker and the war. But what bothered him most was that Sanji was certain his Master would stop at nothing to find him. What did Sanji have that Joker would so desperately want?
'It's too damn hard to explain...'
It was too damn hard to understand, more like.
Zoro thought back to the blonde lying on his bed, the mirror cracked from where he'd broken it.
'I saw something I didn't want to.'
Those words caused the uncomfortable feeling in his gut to tighten to the point where he felt sick. He realised that Sanji's wounds didn't just stop at the scars on his neck and collar bone, they went much more deeper than that, and the further down the stairs he got the less excited Zoro was to see the rain from his childhood once more.
