A/N: Thank you for the love last chapter~ Now, onward to this one!

25. Rice Crackers

The first thing Sanji did when Zoro woke up was slap him. Shit looked like it hurt, too.

The doctors had nearly kicked him out for that stunt. What the hell was this patient doing hurting another patient, one that had just woken up from anesthesia, no less? Law had to calm them down, ensuring everything would be fine, which was funny considering it should really be the other way around.

Zoro didn't seem to mind much, though. The long surgery left him a shell of his former self- now he was more compliant. Docile, tame. It shocked Law when he first entered the room, but Penguin told him that he'd probably go back to normal as he healed. No wonder the strike didn't faze him as much as it would've before.

He touched the stinging skin softly, gaze cast downward. The blonde glared at him, growling. "No one fucking asked you to protect me." There's tears in his voice.

The green haired doesn't meet Sanji's gaze. "But-"

"But nothing, you piece of shit." Sanji adds on a slew of curses in French. On Law's left, Luffy squeezes his arm tighter, as if scared of the insults he couldn't understand. The surgeon had to admit, he didn't want to be on the receiving end of that, either. "What were you thinking, pushing me out the way like that?"

Zoro blinks at him groggily. "You were gonna get hit," he states plainly, like that was all the explanation needed, and Sanji makes a noise that clearly expresses his dissatisfaction.

"I can cover my own ass if I need to," Sanji grits.

Zoro's eyes soften. "I know."

Anger hardens Sanji's form. "Then why the hell did you take the strike from that guy? I could've shoved a foot so far up his ass-"

"It's alright, Sanji." The green haired fixes his gaze on something above Sanji's shoulder. "It's just. My body moved before I even knew what was happening. I just saw the guy with the sword swing at you and I...I blanked."

The blonde doesn't have a response to that. Behind him, Shachi snorts.

"Who the hell carries around a sword in this day and age?" he mutters under his breath. When Law gives him a pointed look, his lips pucker shut.

Not long after the revelation with Corazon, Zoro was announced to have finally left surgery and was waking up. It was a distraction for Law and he took it. Of course, they had alerted the blonde on the update, and he had rushed to the room faster than any one of them. Well of course he did. The others were still drained from the passing of Corazon, and had all followed sluggishly. All the energy seemed to have seeped from the room they stood in- visitors were usually limited to two, but Law's clout allowed it- and it created this unspoken pall of sadness. Sanji, however, was in his own little world with Zoro, and they couldn't bear to interrupt with the dire news.

Some of the fight leaves Sanji's body, and he sighs from deep in his chest. "How do you feel?"

Zoro finally meets the blonde's eyes. "Like I got run over by a truck."

"Good thing you're still in this world," Shachi offers, and Penguin elbows him in the side.

"Lemme see," Sanji says, gesturing to his chest. "I wanna see what you saved me from."

Zoro fidgets for a moment, unsure, and Law comes up beside Sanji. "Let me take a look as well."

At the surgeon's words, Zoro finally crumples under the pressure. He fingers the neckline of his hospital gown, hesitant, but then Sanji's there, easing the fabric off his shoulders. The gown was backless and the ties weren't fastened, so it comes undone easily.

Law feels Sanji beside him tense, and he can fully understand why. It's not pretty, but the surgeons operating on him seem to have done a good job.

There's bandages wrapped generously over the entire course of his torso. The wound left traces of blood on the white, giving the onlookers a general idea of how big the injury was. The line of red was drawn in a ragged line from his left shoulder down to his lower right abdomen. There was no way it wouldn't scar, and no way to hide it from curious stares if he went shirtless. It was front, center, and prominent on Zoro's chest, forever a signature part of the man.

Sanji lets out a low breath and silently covers the bandages again. "You've gotta be shitting me..."

Law exhales slowly through his nose. "I think you should give him more credit. That can't be painless, you know."

"I know," Sanji chokes, "I know, I just..." He shakes his head. "This idiot just didn't have to fucking do it."

The surgeon quiets at the words, unsure of how to comfort him. Zoro flashes teeth with a curl of his lips. "But I did. And I would do it again in a heartbeat."

That earns him a punch in the gut from Sanji, and though he pulled his strength from the hit, it still made Zoro hiss from pain. Law's hands are on his shoulders, steering him away from the man's injury. "Calm down, Sanji! There's no reason to pummel the guy."

The blonde stills at Law's touch but the fire doesn't leave his eyes. "Promise me you won't do that shit again and I won't." It's directed at Zoro.

The injured man coughs a few times, holding his stomach gingerly. "I can promise, but I'm letting you know right now that there's no guarantee I won't break it."

"You conniving little shit."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Sanji."

"Little fucking- wait, what?"

Luffy comes up to the bed, holding out a hand between Sanji and Zoro. "Hey break it up, you two."

Sanji turns to him, cheeks slightly flushed. "Hold up, he just said my name when we weren't actually fighting-"

"Not fighting? Is that so?" Penguin speaks up from behind them. "Because I could've sworn Zoro's gut just got a fistful of Sanji."

Sanji groans, and his cheeks redden. "Please re-word that."

Shachi has to dig a bit to find a smile. "You...fisted Zoro?"

"Punched," the blonde insists. "Punched is what you're looking for."

Bepo is quiet at the exchange, unable to find it in him to add to the conversation.

Law moves to sit down on the chairs on Zoro's left as the other men engage in a conversation the surgeon didn't care to hear. Luffy joins him, and together they face the green haired. Zoro has turned to them, the sparkle of humor in his eyes now gone, replaced by exhaustion.

"What happened in the Going Merry, Zoro?" Law begins quietly. The surgeon feels along his right and slips his hand into Luffy's. "How did everything start?"

The man on the bed stares at him for a lingering moment before his gaze slides up to the ceiling. "God, I don't even know myself."

Law waits patiently for him to continue, and when he speaks, the other men have calmed themselves down to listen in as well.

"After I performed, me and Sanji, we were backstage, right behind the curtains." Zoro lowers his eyes at the memories. "Then we heard some kind of struggle from inside the dressing room. We went in and looked around but there was nothing. Then..."

"Corazon tumbled out of the manager's office," Sanji finishes for him. He moves to sit on the bed, backside casually brushing Zoro's right knee. The green haired's attention snaps to the touch but doesn't comment. "He was holding his side and someone was coming after him. We couldn't get a good look at him, but the guy kept rubbing his nose." The blonde makes a face. "It was kind of gross, actually."

"Trebol," Law breathes, and Sanji raises a questioning brow at him. The surgeon clears his throat and motions for Sanji to continue. No point in explaining how he knew now.

The blonde shrugs. "Anyway, so this guy- Trebol you said? Is chasing Corazon. Zoro and I help him take the man down. Guess he didn't plan for taking on three people at once, because he gets overpowered pretty easily. But he got Corazon pretty bad. His entire side was bleeding."

He brightens. "Where is Corazon, anyway? I haven't seen him since they took him away."

Law's breath leaves him for a moment and there's this painfully thick silence that fills the air. His heart, or the place where it used to be, explodes with pain all over again, so intense that it leaves him dizzy. Luffy squeezes his hand in support and turns up to Sanji, slowly shaking his head. The topic should be avoided. "What happened next?"

The blonde gives him a questioning look but continues on regardless. "Well after Trebol is down, Corazon wanted to give him a text, let him know what happened." He gives Law a nod.

Zoro chimes back in. "Can you believe that he still wanted Sanji to perform? Said he didn't want to worry the audience. How could we not worry after seeing that?"

"I said hell the fuck no, I'm not stepping on that stage until I knew what was going on," the blonde sighs. "But he couldn't even answer that, because then more of them came into the dressing room. They swarmed like fucking...oh god, what's the word?"

"Cockroaches?" Shachi suggests. Sanji turns to him, snapping. "That's it."

"They were all going for Corazon, so he went and ran, said he would draw them away to him. Zoro and I though, we were still shook from it all. And we wanted answers, so...we followed him." The blonde grew quieter and quieter by the word. Law could guess what happened next.

Zoro takes over. "Out of nowhere, they started attacking us. Keep in mind we're in, what, seven inch heels? Not much we could do in terms of offense. We tried our best, and we were able to take down a few of 'em, but there was a time where one of them got the upper hand on us." His hands go down the length of his scar, then motions to Sanji. "Then this happened."

The blonde watches on, pained, but defers to the floor. "When I saw Zoro go down...I don't know what came over me. I went a little crazy, I guess. One minute we were surrounded by those guys, and the next, I'm out of breath, and they were all on the ground."

The room quiets at the words. Law knew Zoro could get aggressive, but a furious Sanji was something he did not want to experience. Imagining the man becoming so enraged that he takes down fully grown men in heels was terrifying.

Sanji's next words come out hushed. "When they were all down, we took a breather to come to terms with everything going on. And also to try to stop his bleeding. I tried my best but I'd never seen so much blood in my life, I really thought..."

Zoro shifts his leg against Sanji, showing him that he was still very much alive and right there beside him. "We spent a few minutes patching me up with this one's mediocre doctoral skills."

"I'll open your wound again. Don't tempt me."

The green haired chuckles weakly, but doesn't encourage the threat. "When we finally made it to the main space of the club, there were people in black everywhere. It looked like a scene straight out of a movie. Blocking the doors, the exits, anywhere that could lead to somewhere. Poor guests were scared to death. We were lucky we weren't spotted the second we opened the door to the VIP area. Closed that shit so fast."

"Were they security?" Law asks, curious. After a hum of thought, Zoro nods.

"Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure they were."

The surgeon frowns deeply. That further confirmed Corazon's suspicions that they were working with Doflamingo. The fact that Trebol was attacking Corazon and was the head of security sealed the deal. But that only raised even more questions.

What exactly were those guys planning, trapping everyone in?

A sudden thought came to Law, and he feels his stomach drop. He pulls out his phone and scrolls up through the texts Corazon sent. There, sent at 12:11 AM.

"'I took a lot of them down but they've blocked the exits so I can't leave,'" Law reads aloud. He turns off the device. "What if they trapped everyone in because Trebol wasn't able to finish what he started?"

Luffy grimaces at the heartless wording, but Penguin pounders the thought. "Most likely."

"After we saw the situation, we knew we couldn't just sit still," Sanji says, brows furrowed. "We went back to the dressing room. First, we changed. No way we were gonna be able to take down guys with our whole asses out. Then I tried to brainstorm a plan, but it's more useful talking to a brick wall than talking strategy to this idiot."

When Zoro tiredly smiles at the comment, Sanji sputters. "I mean, I literally told him we should wait it out a bit, see how the situation pans, but you know what this fucker does? Goes to the stage- mind you, he's still practically cut in half- marches through the curtains, and fucking yells at them."

"Told the guys milling about to go fuck themselves," Zoro's smile widens. "They didn't like that very much."

Shachi snickers in the corner. "That sounds like you."

"Right?" Zoro grins at him. "Sanji ended up joining me despite everything he said. Then we were fighting for a while. After a bit we saw Corazon try to break through the front doors with the crowd. He almost made it through, but he was thrown back. And not too long after that is when the first wall exploded. Fire started spreading and we lost track of Corazon, so me and Sanji started helping guests escape-"

"Wait a minute," Bepo butts in. "The walls really did just explode?"

At Zoro and Sanji's slow nods, Bepo's countenance crumples in confusion. "I thought the clubbers last night were pulling my leg. So no one instigated it?"

"As far as we could tell, no," Zoro says quietly.

Bepo turns to Law. "Why would there be fucking bombs in the Going Merry? This got anything to do with why you wanted us there?"

Law barely hears him. He's deep in thought murmuring. "Maybe he put them there for Corazon...but if he really wanted to hurt Corazon, an explosion wouldn't really do shit…"

Hold on.

If Doflamingo wanted Corazon dead, then why the hell was the job left to explosions and Trebol? Could he not come and do it himself? Why did the entire club have to burn to the ground? And why the fuck did Crocodile and Monet have to die in the midst of it? The whole thing was just too messy, it made no sense. It's almost as if-

"I don't think it was Doflamingo behind the explosion," Luffy voices quietly, and all eyes in the room turn to him. The teen curls into himself slightly from the sudden attention, but at Law's ghost of a kiss on his knuckles, he finds the strength to elaborate. "He's always talking about how much money the club makes him. I would know. The man takes a generous chunk of my earnings as fees."

Luffy sits up a bit straighter. "It makes no sense for him to randomly burn down the Going Merry. There's gotta be easier ways to go about hurting people." He turns wide eyes to Law. "Not that I wanted this to happen...that just came out really bad."

The surgeon waves off the comment, no worries. "You have a point, Luffy," he murmurs.

"If it's not Doflamingo who burned down the Going Merry, then who? And why?" Penguin asks, and they're the questions of the day.

Law tries to turn the gears in his head but they struggle to move. They grate against each other roughly as he tries and fails to piece together the information. Who else could have been a part of this scheme?

A sudden realization makes them run smoothly. "Corazon texted me not to trust the police," he marvels slowly.

Zoro and Sanji exchange glances, and the latter speaks. "It did sound like Corazon and Trebol were talking in his office before things escalated. Maybe that's how he knew they were untrustworthy?"

"But why the hell would the police be in on this, too?" goes Shachi.

Sanji turns to him. "I dunno, but this is getting out of hand."

He swivels around to everyone in the room except Zoro. "What...the fuck even is 'this'? I was just taking things in stride as we went along but like, what the fuck is actually going on here?"

"To be honest, I have no idea either." Luffy rubs the back of his neck and looks at Law shyly. "I've been in so many messed up situations at this point, I've just been mindlessly going along with it all."

Penguin, Shachi, and Bepo all agree in their own ways. Soon there are eyes on Law, waiting for him to explain. This was supposed to be both his and Corazon's job, but now he's here, alone.

Law takes a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

"To make an incredibly long story short," he begins, "there's a drug being slipped into drinks at the club. Me and Corazon were investigating it."

Luffy stills beside him. "Wait, so those people passing out were drugged?"

Law hums the affirmative, and Zoro curses under his breath. "Damn it, should've fucking known. People don't faint like that after a drink or two."

"You didn't even tell us about it?" Shachi mutters, hurt plain on his features. The surgeon purses his lips, "I'll get to that. Give me a minute."

The red head quiets to give Law the floor. "After that woman passed out and I texted Corazon the details, and he called me the next morning. Wanted me to work with him to figure out what was happening in the Going Merry." Law shifts so his elbows rest on his knees. "All we knew at the time was that Doflamingo was involved in something sketchy. But later we found out it's some drug being slipped into customers' drinks, and that the staff was working with him to do it."

"Shit," Sanji grunts, disgust on his features. "I knew he was creepy and shady but...like this? I can't believe it."

Penguin scoffs behind him. "I can. That guy really doesn't change, huh?"

"Penguin," Law chides, and the man gets the hint to shut up. He addresses the others, letting them have a little snippet of truth. His reasoning for withholding this information wouldn't make sense without it. "Shachi, Penguin, Bepo, and I. We all have a more...personal history with Doflamingo. From way back. We're not on speaking terms, so I didn't even know he ran a club with Corazon until early last month."

Shachi coughs pointedly into an elbow, Bepo casts his eyes downward, and Penguin watches him intensely.

Law turns to his friends. "If I were to tell you guys, you would immediately try to help and get on the case."

"If I told you guys," Law motions to the strippers in the room, "would you really sit still and pretend nothing was happening? It's noble to want to help, but unfortunately, nobility gets people hurt. What do you think he'd do if people around him who were supposedly oblivious to his schemes suddenly started acting weird?"

At the silence, Law's jaw hardens. "Corazon said that he needed everyone to continue acting as normal as possible around Doflamingo so we don't make him suspicious. If he started changing how he acts because he's being more careful, we could've lost important leads."

"I..I get that," Luffy says, "but I would've still wanted to know. I don't really like being kept in the dark."

"Same," agrees Sanji. "I hate being protected when I can fend for myself." At the last sentence, he turns and gives Zoro a closed lipped smile.

"I get it, geez," the green haired mumbles.

"Me too," Shachi adds, and the blonde beside him nods.

"There's no need to keep this on your shoulders alone, Law," Penguin assures. "We can help you now. No more keeping shit to yourself."

The surgeon lets a small smile grace his lips. "Thanks, guys."

Sanji lets out a long breath, and raises his fingers in tune to his words. "Okay, so drugs. Doflamingo's the ringleader who's working with the staff, and Corazon wants to stop him." He brings all his fingers in to form a fist.

"So why in the world were people trying to kill him?"

Law lowers his head, because he knew that this was coming, but it doesn't make it any less painful. Anger rips through him again, but Luffy moves to place a hand on his knee comfortingly. The surgeon isn't sure if the gesture was supposed to help him, but he ultimately feels the ebbs of red flee from his vision. A little bit, at least.

The surgeon barks out a despondent laugh. "Weird. I was thinking the same fucking thing just earlier, when I saw his dead body."

Sanji freezes and turns to Law slowly. "...What?"

It's Penguin who speaks up softly, clearing his throat. "It's no longer 'trying' to kill. He's, um. Already..."

Zoro shoots up in bed, ignoring the searing pain that clutched at his gash. "Corazon fucking died?"

Penguin nods slowly, and Zoro's face grows grave. "Why was that not the first fucking thing out your mouths when you came in here?"

"That's why you..." Sanji drifts off, turning to Luffy. The teen shoots him a pained look. No wonder the man didn't want him to talk about Corazon. Jesus.

"What happened to him?" he asks, voice barely above a whisper.

Law's struggling, as he's being forced to hear this conversation again, but Luffy's moves closer to him, heating his cold body with his warmth, and it's helping. It does little, but it does some.

Bepo watches Law worriedly, and takes it upon himself to relay the news. The blonde moves closer to the two men to relay the events leading up to and surrounding Corazon's death. After a minute of hushed talking, the two dancers are ashen, pale, and to be honest, a little green.

"Oh my god..." Sanji moans, bringing his hands up to his face. "Oh my god."

Zoro below him struggles with his emotions, expression darkening by the second. "...This is beyond fucked up."

Law hears Sanji's tears before he sees him, and they shake his lithe frame. Several moments pass, and the room is filled with nothing but the blonde's broken sobs. "Doflamingo killed him," he whispers, as if finally realizing the gravity of the situation. Law swallows his grief but it doesn't go down. It fills up his throat and robs him of his ability to speak. Sanji takes up the air with his words instead.

"How the hell do we go about this if we can't even go to the damn police?"

Sanji's question hit Law so hard it knocked the wind out of him. He didn't have the answer. Judging from the look of the men before him, they had no idea as well. For the first time in a long time, Law felt a twinge of helplessness. This feeling of not knowing what to do, it kind of scared him. While internally he was writhing mad from it all, with Luffy here, the figure of flames had quieted down to a dull hum. Now, he was just grieving.

"Ace died...Corazon died...the Going Merry's gone...and Kidd is still missing," Luffy murmurs, shaking his head. "God, what have our lives become?"

"That fucker's missing?" Law whirls on him with wide eyes. "Since when?"

"Did you call him?" Zoro questions, tensing.

"I tried multiple times. No one picked up." He turns to Law to explain. "He told me he was going to get info on that Kaido guy who might've been behind Ace's incident. Said it was dangerous and that if he didn't respond, he might've gotten caught up in trouble."

Law's voice is ice. "...And he didn't get back to you."

At Luffy's reluctant shake of the head, Law tsks. "Shit," he frowns deeply. What the hell was this. What the hell was all of this? Everything was falling apart around them, and with each passing minute, there seemed to be more problems brought up. They couldn't even go to authorities for help. They couldn't be trusted.

Sanji is right. How could they even begin tackling their issues?

"What do we do?" It's the first time the blonde has spoken since his previous outburst. He sounds weak, fragile.

"I don't know," Penguin admits. "Aside from keeping an eye out? We should all probably get some rest. It's been a long night."

"No kidding," Bepo huffs, running stressed hands through his hair. "I feel like I could sleep for about ten years right now and still wake up tired."

Sanji still trembled as he wept quietly. Zoro reaches out a reassuring hand to his shoulder, then he turns to Law and Luffy. "I'll take care of Sanji. You guys go home to rest. It wasn't the girls' night tonight, so I'll...call them and let them know they're out of a place to work."

"That's probably a good idea," Law says quietly. "But are you sure you want us to leave? You're still recovering."

Zoro nods as Sanji leans more into his touch, awkwardly draped across his side. "Doc says this one will be out later today, but I doubt he'll actually leave the hospital until I do. I don't know when I'll be out, so in the meantime, he'll need you guys. I can't...I can't help him when I'm like this."

It's the most genuine the green haired has been to Law. It erased any lingering negativity he might have harbored about the man, and he finds himself making a sound of acknowledgement. "We'll look after him."

Luffy stands, and Law follows suit. "Could you...drop me off at my dorm?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Law says, taking his hand. "What about your stuff at my place?"

The teen sighs tiredly. "I only have a few pieces of clothing there. I mainly wore yours. You can bring it over whenever. I just...to sort through shit in my head. On my own."

Law pulls Luffy into a bear hug, craving the younger's heat. Everything was freezing around him, and if he wanted to reel in the fury in his mind, Luffy was essential.

The lock was back in place, but the fire had already done it's damage.

"You and me both," he sighs into Luffy's hair. The younger buries his head in Law's chest, but he's not warm anymore.

"How...are we going to get home?" Law suddenly questions, separating from the younger. On his left, Shachi gives him a small, lopsided grin, and the surgeon narrows his eyes at the man.

"Penguin drove us here," the red head starts, "So he can drive us back to the Going Merry to get your car."

The surgeon pats his front and back pockets, then makes a sound of frustration when he realizes he doesn't have pockets. He's in a hospital gown.

"I have your wallet," Luffy says in an effort to console him. "It's in my bag back in your room. Some doctor gave it to me, but that was the only personal belonging they found on you."

Shachi's gaze shifts to the side, avoiding Law's. The surgeon arches an eyebrow in his direction as the man scratches his cheek absentmindedly. "Back when I wrecked your car, I also...might have sort of kinda made another copy of your car key."

"...What?"

Shachi comes and gives him a key with a black rubber head attached to a lanyard. It looked identical to his own. "This way, Penguin can drop you off at your car and you can drive Luffy back yourself. You can keep this one by the way, I have plenty."

Law looks up at him, puzzled. "Shachi, what the hell-"

"He has a copy of mine too, remember," Penguin shakes his head. "Back when we wrecked your bumper."

"Hey Zoro," the red head addresses the man. The man in question cranes his neck up at his name. "I have a copy of your Jeep key as well. When Penguin drops me off at my place, I'll swing by here with it. And I'll bring some food and extra clothing."

Zoro grunts in approval, relaxing back on the bed. "Thanks man, I appreciate it."

"You're...not even going to ask?"

"Law, I honestly don't give a shit. Nothing surprises me anymore."

The surgeon lets out a stream of air begrudgingly. "Okay. Let's just go. Am I cleared?"

"Have been for a while," Penguin answers, moving towards the door. Bepo holds it open for the group to walk through. "Your injuries were mainly just bruises and stuff. But they said you got grazed by a bullet?"

Law chuckles humorlessly as he files out the door. "Oh. Forgot to tell you guys the story. Remember when I said I was taken away by security, and they tried to kill me? They also gave me a spiked drink I never ordered. Now I think about it, while I was pretending to be passed out, I heard them talking about wanting me out the way to help the 'Head'. Fuck, that's probably Trebol. And then-"

From behind him Luffy gasps aloud. "Wait, hold up, someone tried to what?"

"...I'll tell you the rest in the car."

"This just gets crazier by the minute." Shachi pulls up the rear, closing the door gently behind him.

Once the room is filled with silence, Zoro ghosts a hand on Sanji's. "They're gone," he says softly.

The blonde had folded his arms on a part of the bed that the green haired didn't occupy and rested his head in the hollow space it created. Sanji doesn't respond for several minutes, and Zoro lets the man have this time to himself. It was a lot to take in. He wasn't too sure how he himself was so okay with it all. Except he wasn't. He just hid it extremely well.

When Sanji looks up, Zoro's heart lodges in his throat. "Oh Sanji..." His eyes were red from puffiness, and salt had dried pale lines of salt on his face.

"What the hell are we going to do?" he whispers, voice cracking. "I'm sorry. Everything is just happening so fast, and I thought this was just the Going Merry burning down but it's not and I'm...honestly a little scared. There's so many more things that factor into this. I mean, Corazon died for fuck's sake. I don't know what to expect. And what if..." He takes a breath.

"What if this is just the beginning?"

Sanji was a strong motherfucker. Nothing could truly rattle him. He was the only person brave enough to get on Zoro's ass for just about anything the man did, and was always the first to lend his support to his friends in their times of need. He was as selfless as selfless could be, and Zoro had always admired that about him.

But even the most badass guys in the world had their low points.

And this was Sanji's.

This weaker, more vulnerable side of himself, he ironically only showed to Zoro. Despite their constant fighting and bickering, Sanji trusted him, and Zoro did his damn best to live up to that trust.

So when Sanji of all people was crying and worried for the future, then hell must've really broken loose.

Zoro sits up carefully in the bed, wincing from the pain, and reaches tentatively to brush hair out of Sanji's eyes. "Don't say sorry. Things are a world of shit right now, but we'll find a way out of this."

The blonde shudders at the simple display of affection, then exhales softly. "What if there's not a way?"

Zoro's jaw hardens. "Then we'll have to make one."

Bartolomeo was not the best person to go to when you wanted to be sad with someone.

He was all smiles and playful sarcasm and lively teasing. He was never one for super depressing moments or feeling so low that you felt lost in the world. It just didn't gel well with him. He was grateful enough to grow up pretty normally, and in the instances where something bad would happen to him, he bounced back faster than a slinky. He was just that pliable.

Except for when his ex broke up with him. But that's a story for another time.

So when Luffy stumbled through the door to their dorm for the first time in over a week, his eyebrows had shot to the ceiling when he took in his roommate's haggard appearance. Luffy wordlessly crawled up into his bed and would've fell straight asleep if not for Barty's sounds of protest.

He shot up from his chair and walked over to the lofted bed, where Luffy laid face down into his pillow, body all stiff angles. When Luffy makes no signs of speaking, Barty sighs softly.

"...Are you alright?"

There's a muffled chuckle. "Not even in the slightest."

Barty's brows draw together in worry. "I'm...sorry about what happened to Ace."

At that Luffy sputters, and finally turns to face him. "God. As fucked up as this will sound, I've been through so much in the last twenty-four hours, he damned near slipped my mind."

Although he hasn't physically changed, his eyes seem to have aged a few decades. There's this haunted look to them that makes the green haired grow increasingly concerned by the minute. He reaches out to touch Luffy's shoulder, and he recoils from the touch. The green haired pulls back, lines of worry between his brows. What the hell had happened over the last eight days?

Barty watches him curiously. "Do...you wanna talk about it?"

The teen before him seemed to be struggling against whether or not to say something, but he decides on a mix of the two. Defeat lines his body as he melts against the bed with a sigh. "I don't know."

Luffy looked even more dejected than when he was healing from Kidd, and Barty didn't think that was even possible. "Well, I'm here if you ever want to talk about it. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know, I'm just..." Luffy trails off. He curses under his breath and presses a palm to his forehead. "A lot has happened. I'm sorry I haven't been keeping you in the loop."

Barty waves the comment off. "No worries. I figured you were going through a lot, and didn't need any distractions."

"God Barty, you're hardly a distraction. Don't say that."

The green haired smiles. "Okay, then tell me. What's the thing bothering you the most at the moment?"

Luffy lowers his eyes. "...You remember the place I work at? The Going Merry?"

"Yeah, the strip club?" the roommate recalls, and the teen hums.

"It burned down yesterday."

Barty's jaw drops, brows furrowed in horrified shock. "Holy shit. Is everyone okay?"

Grief flows from Luffy in waves. "...Yes and No. But mostly no."

"Fuck, I can't even imagine what that's like," Barty breathes, gaze lowering. "I'm sorry, Luffy."

"But that's not even the worst part."

The green haired snaps up to the younger. How could it get worse? Surely, Luffy has enough things to deal with, did he really need more?

"There's been a lot of shady shit happening at the club," Luffy says tiredly, eyes fluttering close. "And apparently my boss, Doflamingo, was the mastermind behind everything. Well, I guess he isn't the one behind the fire? We have no idea, we're still figuring that out, but...uh. Barty?"

Shock rooted Bartolomeo to the ground. He feels his throat go dry, and he opens his mouth to speak but sound doesn't come, so he closes it. The words had died on his tongue. He swears he feels a little light headed, and he grips the edge of Luffy's bed lest his knees give out right then. Oh my god, oh my fucking god.

Maybe he heard Luffy wrong.

"Who...was your boss again?" he asks weakly, and Luffy arches a brow at him.

"Uh, Doflamingo?"

Barty felt like the biggest fucking idiot on the face of the Earth.

"He was your fucking boss." Barty couldn't believe it. All this time.

Luffy's watching him with a strange expression. "Have I not told you that before?"

"No!" Barty whirls on him loudly, but shrinks at Luffy's saucer-like eyes. "Sorry," he murmurs, but for once, he didn't really mean it. Okay, he totally meant it. But this was a fucking breakthrough! Finally, a lead! Didn't he deserve to celebrate, even a little?

"It's not like people go around telling people the name of their bosses, anyway," the green haired forces a laugh, and now Luffy's staring at him outright. Barty leans forward towards Luffy, practically bouncing on his toes with excitement. "Can you tell me more about him?"

The teen makes a face. "Are you really that interested? I don't really know all that much about him…"

At the green haired's energetic nod, Luffy sighs, relenting. "Fine, but only for a few minutes. Thinking about him makes my head hurt and I'm sleepy anyway."

Barty listens carefully to Luffy as he rattles off facts about the man, and many are new to him. The man had been in the area for over a year now. A year! He has...he had a brother, Corazon, and together they ran the Going Merry. As Luffy provided him with a few more details, briefly explaining the incident that ended with the building being swallowed by flame, Bartolomeo could feel embarrassment ripple through his frame.

He remembers that club. He remembers going in and investigating it with his partner, his ex, all that time ago. It had passed with flying colors. Apparently, they didn't do a thorough enough job despite being two of the best in the field. Because now, shit had- for lack of a better term- hit the fucking fan.

How the hell had Bartolomeo missed this?

"...are you alright, Barty?"

The green haired's attention is forced back to the present via a drowsy Luffy. He was watching him through lidded eyes and yawns, clearly needing sleep despite it being first thing in the morning. He did have a long night, from what Barty could gather.

"I'm fine," he lies with a smile. The green haired backs away from Luffy, and hopes the teen doesn't see his hands shaking. "Do you want me to put on Bink's Sake?"

"Please, if you don't mind."

Bartolomeo complies wordlessly, and within moments, the song is playing ethereally through the space. He reaches over his desk to the window and flips the blinds downward to limit the amount of sunlight coming in. When he pulls back, Luffy is already fast asleep. Barty sometimes wishes he could sleep as quickly as the younger did to the sound of a song, but then he realizes that it might not even be the song at all. Maybe it was just that Luffy was always sleep-deprived. Well, whatever worked for the kid.

The green haired grabs his phone and makes a dash for the door. He needed to make a phone call right the fuck now.

Outside his dorm, he looks left, right, left again, then settles for the right. All the way down, at the end of the hall, was a small study room, likely the same one he heard Luffy and Kidd arguing in all those centuries back. He slips in and locks the door hastily behind him. Then brings his phone to life and presses the number on speed dial.

It rings exactly three times before it picks up. "Rice crackers!"

"Rice-cracker pellets. It's me."

There's a jolly laugh on the other line. "Oh man, Barty! It's been a long while, how've you been holding up?"

The green haired rubs his temples and moves to sit on the couch. "I've been fine. My friends though...they're having a hard time."

"I see...I hope they're alright." There's silence for a beat before the man speaks up again. "Was there any other reason you called? You kind of sound strained. There's something else, isn't there?"

Barty smiles softly. He never beat around the bush. "Yeah. Something big."

"Lay it on me."

He takes a deep breath. "Doflamingo...worked in the Going Merry. And that same Going Merry burned down last night."

There's no sound from the other end of a receiver for so long that Barty thinks the line must've been cut. But he chanced a glance at his phone, and the timer was still very well ticking upwards. He returns it to his ears to the sound of a shaky intake of air.

"...Fuck."

"I know."

There's rapid movement on the other side. "How did we miss it?"

"No," Barty grits, "how did I miss it?"

"Barty-"

"This is all my fault." Barty shakes his head although no one was there to see. "If me and that idiot had just been more thorough, more careful, we could've easily avoided this."

The man on the other end sighs. "Doflamingo is an extremely vigilant and elusive man. He knows how to stay under the radar, and he likes to keep it that way. There's no way that this is all your fault- we've been trying to catch the guy for forever."

"I know…" The green haired runs a hand through his hair. "I know, but I can't help but feel some sort of way. I mean, I was right there."

"It's perfectly understandable you feel that way, but like I said. It's not your fault."

Determination filters into Barty's voice. "I feel as though I need to make up for it."

"...What do you mean?"

"What I mean, is that I'll do some digging on my own, and then get back to you with details."

The movements stop. "Barty, fuck, don't do that shit. This isn't the time for any heroic stunts that'll only get you into trouble. You could get hurt, man!"

The green haired scoffs. "I don't care. I need to make up for my fuck-up...for me and the idiot's fuck-up."

There's a frustrated sound on the other end. "God, even when it was just you two going in to check out that place, we were scared shitless! Do you not remember how many times I begged you to take more men? Just in case the unthinkable happened? But noooo, you lovebirds were adamant on going by yourselves!"

At the memory, Barty heats a little. "We thought we could do it back then!"

"It's not that we didn't have confidence that you guys could, it was Doflamingo we were worried about! The man is a wild card- we never know what he'll do next. Sending two people was a big risk in and of itself, imagine going in solo!"

Barty bites his bottom lip in thought. True, it was rough when it was just him and his ex investigating by themselves, but they got out without much attention being drawn to them.

But they obviously didn't leave with the most crucial piece of evidence. The green haired was determined to change that this time around, no matter what. Even if it meant going against his own better judgement.

"I get that you're mad about it all Barty, but please don't-"

"I'm sorry, but I'm going. I'll get back to you as soon as I can, okay?"

"No, I said don't-"

"I won't be long, and I'll be careful."

"I swear to hell, if you-"

Barty's happy that the blonde was worried for him, but this was something he needed to do. For his pride, for his blunder, for his friend who was suffering.

"I promise you, I'll be okay," he assures softly.

"Barty-!"

Click.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Until the next~

P.S. Zoro = Midoriya? 'My body moved before I could think.' Guys...we got him.

P.P.S. The 'hey break it up you two' line that Luffy says is from this ep of Adventure Time. Idk how but I remembered it randomly. I LOVED that show. Marshall Lee's voice still makes me swoon to this day. And Cake's voice is PERFECT. Anyway. Link in AO3.