4: Decisions

The next morning, he was quieter than usual, and Ussop kept looking at him with worry. There were less hunters in the tavern than there were the day before, and Rayleigh sat at the table nearest the hearth, thinking about something. Zoro didn't come in that day, and Sanji wondered why – if the man either feared Rayleigh, or respected him enough not to bother him.

"Is everything okay?" Ussop asked him as they stood at the sink, washing dishes.

"Yeah. Just…thinking," Sanji commented, drying them before setting them aside.

Ussop scrubbed for a few moments, then asked, "Sanji, tell me honestly – are you truly okay? We're friends, right? I know the situation with Zeff has you feeling someway about things, but I just feel that if you need to talk about it, you can say anything to me."

Sanji wiped a few more dishes clean before looking over at cook, who was busy frying chicken for that day. Then he lowered his voice, saying, "You remember that weird stuff that happened last night?"

"Yeah! Did you find out who it was?"

"Yes." Sanji hesitated for a bit, then said low, "I found out Zeff was visiting the castle."

Ussop drew back with a startled look, absolutely perplexed. "Wha…? No way! How…? What was he doing there?"

"What do you know of the man that lived there?"

"Oh, Doflamingo was a power hungry dude, real bad. He taxed everyone out of their earnings, intimidated shop owners, made this place his personal stomping grounds. People worked together to overthrow him, but they couldn't bring up the bravery to do so. So they paid this enchantress some money to curse him, and it worked, because nobody ever heard from them, again."

"This curse…it…only turned people into…things?"

"I thought it was ghosts! Because it's only voices you hear from the forest, and the hunters always describe such terrible things when they come back…"

"Doflamingo had children living there, right?"

"Yeah," Ussop said with a huff. "I remember them. They were rotten and mean, back then. Two boys and a girl, and no one liked them. They started fights, stole things, broke people's windows – they were little terrorists. They thought the world of Doflamingo, and Doflamingo thought they were just the most well behaved children!"

"Those three were pretty terrible," cook said, interrupting them. "One of them, Buffalo, used to bully my boys a lot. And the girl, Baby, she would start fights with girls, steal their grocery money, take their jewelry. Law would throw rocks at livestock to start stampedes, tell lies to get people in trouble with Doflamingo's officers, and convince small children they were dying. They were really the worst. Doflamingo really took care of them, though, considering that they were abandoned by circumstances. They weren't missed when the curse hit."

"No one had sympathy for those people, Sanji," Ussop said. "They really asked for it. To this day, all the town has regret for is being unable to blow that castle to the ground. If Doflamingo ever returned, I'm sure he'd punish the entire town for this. That's why the hunters try really hard to get to the Beast's head. Once it's on display, everyone will feel better."

"What if they were different? They felt bad for their crimes?" Sanji asked.

Both of them reacted with snorts.

"Doflamingo used to kill people on the streets for not paying their taxes," cook said. "His brother would set fires to people's houses for not complying to their rules. I remember Vergo killing groups of men for not handing over their farmlands, their stock when Doflamingo demanded it. These weren't good people."

"And those kids would've grown up to be the worst of them," Ussop added. "There's no redeeming them."

Sanji thought of the group of inanimate objects talking in unison last night. How they all reacted with horror and fright at Dellinger being threatened with a fiery death. How they insisted on Law having a birthday cake. How Zeff came up to the castle every year to make one of these. Having never experienced their crimes, of course Zeff would feel that small sense of compassion for them.

"That's a shame," he murmured. No wonder Law felt as he did, and why everyone reacted to the rose's bloom.

"Well, it's in the past," Ussop said. "Life is much happier without them. Look at us. We're prospering pretty well! And without all the crimes that they'd resorted to!"

"You're right."

"So, what were you going to tell me?" Ussop asked curiously. "Adding onto the other thing you were just talking about."

Sanji shrugged. "I suppose I received my answer. I just…I don't know that much of this place."

"Well, if you're marrying Rayleigh, I'm sure you won't stay here for very long," cook said. "This isn't his hometown. He'd only settled here because of Doflamingo. They were rivals."

"Really?"

"Yeah. A long time ago, Rayleigh's boss, Gol, he and Doflamingo fought a lot over territory and business rights over the river. He came by just to see if the rumors were true about Doflamingo. He's actually from the South, and more than likely, he'll want to move back once you two are bound."

Sanji froze at the thought. He had only been the North for most of his life, half of it with Zeff. To think that they'd uproot and move elsewhere terrified him. In a way, he wondered if Zeff had known this, and essentially abandoned him to Rayleigh because of it.

"Oh," he said, a little breathlessly.

Ussop looked up at him with concern. "Are you okay?"

"I just…it caught me off guard."

"Maybe it's not something he's planning on doing," Ussop said. "He seems pretty happy here. And it'll be an adventure, Sanji. Just think of it like that. Why don't you ask him?"

"No. Because if that's what he wants, then…I have no choice. I'll have to go with him. I just…wasn't prepared for that, I'm sorry."

Ussop lowered his eyes back to the dishes, doing a few more while Sanji stared at the sink with worry on his expression. Then he wiped it away, exhaling heavily. "No use thinking about it. What'll be, will be."

He then dried his hands and went to the plates, scooping them up. Along with some utensils, he went out onto the main floor to start serving those waiting for their meals, and Ussop and cook exchanged a look.

"I feel bad for the guy," cook mumbled. "I feel like he was forced into the marriage."

"I do, too. But really gets me is how he just goes along with it," Ussop grumbled, finishing the dishes. "He has the strength to say 'no', so why isn't he doing it?"

"Rayleigh has that effect on everyone," cook mumbled. "No one can say 'no' to him. That's just how it's always been."

: :

Towards the afternoon, when there was a lull between customers, Rayleigh exhaled shortly. Sanji had come to his table with some food and tea, but Rayleigh wasn't interested in his plate. The older man looked slightly melancholy, his silver mane pulled back from his face, white robes dirt free – his animal fur jacket with hood was folded neatly next to him, and he kept tapping on the table with the pad of his finger, eyeing each and every one of the hunters that came in.

Sanji noticed that he made all of them uncomfortable, leaving small tips and nearly full plates. He made a plate with the remaining amounts from three other plates, stacking them neatly aside him before eating. Rayleigh watched him, looking at him fondly. Then he pulled in a shallow breath before shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

"Listen, Sanji, I…I don't think Zeff will return to town. I received a note last night about his whereabouts. He's already moved on. He asked that I continue watching over you. I felt offended on your behalf, when he suggested that in return, I leave my horse with full supplies on its back at the edge of town. That was where I was, last night. I'd hoped he'd take the horse while I was watching, but he didn't show up. This morning, the horse was gone."

"I was traded for a horse with supplies, hmm? Somehow, I don't feel surprised," Sanji muttered, looking at the tabletop. He felt hurt at Zeff's indifference towards him, now convinced that his feelings of being 'owned' by the man had been right all along. It made his jaw clench, and his eyes burn. He must've expected Zeff to feel differently about him to feel this hurt. He continued eating to focus on something else.

Rayleigh looked him over, then reached out and touched the top of his head. Sanji hated the way the man touched him, patting him like he was a child. But Rayleigh seemed to enjoy it, running his gnarled fingers through his hair before forcing him to look at him rather than the plate. Like always, Sanji felt he had no choice in the matter. He was sure his emotions were tucked away, so Rayleigh wouldn't get the wrong impression. He didn't want to disappoint the man anymore than he had with Zeff.

"Saturday, then. You can invite your friends," Rayleigh said, smiling lightly. "We'll cover over this with something joyous, and happy. I might be old, but I've got decades left in me. You won't be alone."

"Ussop said he'd be there," Sanji mumbled, feeling sick at the thought of doing this. He looked at the man he'd only seen as Zeff's friend, an 'uncle'. Now this man would be sharing his bed, treating him as if he were now his property, and he couldn't do a thing about it.

He thought of Law's words the night before, suggesting that he just 'run away' instead. If he could, he would have – but he felt pulled towards the older man, unable to make a choice of his own. All he could do was accept it.

"Just Ussop?"

"I have no one else, sir," Sanji said.

"Then it's settled. I'll buy you some wedding clothes. Would you like that?"

Sanji shrugged, not seeing the difference, and Rayleigh said, "Then tell cook you'll be leaving for the afternoon. We can go get you fitted right now, and maybe you'd like to pick the spot where we can exchange our vows."

"I don't mind where it happens, sir. Words are words."

"Look, Sanji, marriage is acceptable between men, here. There's nothing to be ashamed of. Is that why you have this attitude?"

Sanji swallowed hard, and shook his head. "I just…find it difficult that Zeff will not be there."

Rayleigh nodded with understanding. "Then come. This will take your mind off things."

Reluctantly, Sanji left his chair as Rayleigh left his, and when both of them retreated to the kitchen, most of those sitting in the tavern shivered, or cringed.

Not an hour after they'd left, as Ussop was cleaning the tables, Zoro burst in through the doors, looking around with a sweaty expression. His bearskin cloak was dirtied with dried mud, brambles, and what looked like half of a bird's nest. The other hunters just looked at him with judgment.

"He's off for the day," Ussop told him flatly, frowning at him. "What do you want?"

"Okay, look, I was making my way up the hill, and…somehow, the hill moved," Zoro said, reaching back to pull out a branch from his hood, tossing it aside. Meanwhile, his boots left mud clumps over the floor, causing Ussop to cry out with dismay. "I didn't make it up Flower Hill."

"Man, you suck at directions!"

"I just…look, guy…it's important that I talk to him. please. It has to be him," Zoro said stiffly, looking troubled. Ussop recognized that this wasn't one of his desperate measures to get Sanji's attention, and he set aside the dishes he'd been gathering.

"I can help. I'm his friend. He trusts me," he said, Zoro frowning at him, but he nodded.

"Fine. Get some warm clothes on. I need you to do something for me. I marked the place so I'm sure to find it, again."

"I better pack for a week," Ussop muttered, hurrying back to the kitchen. He told the cook what was happening, and quickly left before cook could protest. Once out on the street, Ussop removed his headwrap and then indicated for Zoro to follow him.

"Where's he at, anyway?" Zoro asked, looking around them. Everywhere, people were busy; either enjoying the market area, or chasing small animal herds through the narrow streets, or just visiting with each other. They made sure to keep an eye out for those spilling waste into the gutters, where rain water helped flush it down to the drains underneath the board walks.

"With Rayleigh. The guy's taking him shopping. They'll be married on Saturday," Ussop said darkly. "Apparently, Zeff left Rayleigh with the instruction to take care of him, so – "

"Which is why this is super important," Zoro said, looking at him from the side of his eye. "If we get there in time, Sanji's not going to marry that bastard."

Ussop looked at him with a start, then dread, seeing that expression on his face. "Why? Why, Zoro?"

"I don't want to say right now. I just need you to come look. Maybe it is better that it's you. I'm new in town, so I don't know too many people, but this…this is important."

Ussop nodded, feeling sick to his stomach. Once they reached his house, he quickly found his water proof clothes, his hiking boots, and packed enough supplies for a week, resulting into too big of a pack, earning Zoro's disgust. But when he was ready, they headed out to the edge of town.

Two hours later, they came back and went the other direction, Ussop incredulous at Zoro's bad sense of direction.

: :

That night, when they were settled in bed, Sanji thought about the castle's occupants. The inanimate objects were right to bear the curse Tsuru had put on the castle, and he wondered why they felt in need of redemption. At the same time, he felt sympathy for them because maybe now they'd learned their lesson, and would be better people. Maybe instead of working for the people, they could learn to work with them. It sounded like Doflamingo had managed the small town into a profitable state.

Maybe he could visit with them, to see if their mindsets had changed to allow this. Then he thought about Law's problem – after all that attitude that night, there was no way that Beast could find anybody to love him enough for that Kiss. It was absurd. He was too childish, too angry, too bratty. The way he hollered out insults, having Doflamingo insult him back, and looking so – fierce.

But then he wondered about those times after Tsuru's curse, where Law had to accept that he was suffering in Doflamingo's place and he felt the utmost sympathy for him. For a child to take on an adult's punishment seemed so pitiful. Unfair. He should've been one of those inanimate objects, along with Baby, Buffalo and Dellinger, not a beastly creature with no hope of getting that True Love's Kiss.

He felt Rayleigh shift next to him, his bigger body warm and hard underneath a light shirt and cotton capris. He tensed, going rigid as he thought about how comfortable it had been laying next to Zeff all these years – at least the man had only provided his body for warmth, not for this. He remembered, as a child, cuddling up to the man's broad back and falling asleep peacefully. He remembered feeling secure and safe with him snoring on the other side of him, and –

He just didn't understand why Zeff would just trade him for a horse. For all those years of loyalty, of devotion. He never talked back, and he didn't refuse an order, so shouldn't that have been something? But Sanji had always known that he was only property, and he told himself not to feel so hurt about it. This was how it was done.

He felt the older man shift again, his head too close to his in the dark, and stiffened up. He felt Rayleigh's hands snake up his nightgown, pushing the material up around his waist, the older man already moving over him. This man had met them when they first arrived in town, and he was cheerful and friendly towards them, giving Sanji candy and new clothes with a gentle smile and soft words, Zeff tutting about 'spoiling' him. How did it go so fast from that to this, where Rayleigh's mouth moved over his hips and up his stomach, and his hands went to his face, encouraging him to take in his fingers? He didn't want to do this, but he couldn't tell Rayleigh 'no'. But he took them in, wetting them as much as he could, feeling like gagging.

"This will help with our wedding night," he'd told Sanji the other day, knuckle deep inside of him, where it hurt so much that Sanji only concentrated on not letting pained tears show. "You're so small and tight. Perfect. Just right for me."

When Rayleigh removed his fingers from Sanji's mouth, he replaced them with his own mouth, and Sanji wondered if Law knew what he was in for, because kissing somebody was one of the most unpleasant things anyone could ever endure.

: :

Law woke from his fitful slumber at the sound of muttering coming from the stairway. Ever since he'd changed from child to beast, his sensory perception was outrageous. Sounds that were normal were now too loud, smells were too much, and his vision – the loss of color took longer to get used to. He'd forgotten what colors the sunsets were, and the green of the valley, and the skies…everything was a picture of black and white and night was different, his vision adjusting sharper, seeing moving shapes as distinctively as starkly painted pictures without detail. He had to get used to his bigger form, for the fact that having fur in the summer was mighty uncomfortable, that he was prone to picking up ticks and stickers when he ventured out – it was a good thing that Jora could manipulate her bristles enough to force the insects out, but he mourned the loss of his human form every day.

He wondered what he'd look like – he hoped he was tall, strong, much like his form, now. That way, when he took revenge on the townspeople, they'd feel his wrath for sure. All of the Donquixote family fantasized about what they would do to them once the spell was broken, and that was one of their main driving points to break the curse.

They'd burn the entire town down, and make all of them suffer for what they did.

With his bedroom located in the top tower on the far east of the castle, he sat up, yawning noisily. Looking out the window, he looked over the valley, watching the fog sweep through with majestic fanfare. The chill in the air was definite, and while it didn't affect him or the others very much, he was reminded of a time when it had. They only lit the fires in the main family room, and not the entire wings whenever possible. He sat up and looked out the window, watching the vines on the walls tighten, flowers blooming amongst the thorns. Tsuru had recognized that he was very vulnerable as a child, and had done what she could to protect the estate before leaving.

But the vines had slackened recently, and it was only because the black rose had opened up to a full bloom. He looked over at it, the flower floating in mid-air, black petals opened wide to reveal velvet recesses. He glared at it, teeth bared. Because of that woman and her incompetence, it was now up to him in this year to find True Love.

It was bullshit. How was he supposed to do that when he looked like this? When he lacked proper human skills – how was he supposed to convince anybody to love him when he couldn't even love himself? He was a boy when this had happened, where he thought girls were gross but fun to make cry, and he couldn't even picture himself falling for one. Or a man. What was he supposed to do with a man? Such bullshit.

But at the same time…he was tired of living this way. He wanted his human body back. He wanted to leave the castle grounds, and he wanted to walk in town just like everyone else. He wanted his vision back, and he wanted his revenge. Snuffling, he rose up from the bed, brushing himself off. He yawned again and made his way out of the room – it was destroyed from one of his fits of rage, resembling nothing as it had been when he was a child. The curtains were destroyed, still pooled on the floor from bent curtain rods – toys were scattered on the floor, covered in dust and spiderwebs. Books were shredded and pulled from spines, and all his clothes, all his prized possessions were now mounds of trash that smelled and made warm homes for vermin.

He heard voices coming from outside, and paused by a stairway window to look out. There were hunters at the east side of the wall, conversing with each other. One of them had spent their time gathering flowers in a basket, intending on taking them back to town to sell.

'These are special flowers,' he remembered Tsuru saying, showing off one of them during her rare visits. 'These will bloom and call to those meant for you."

'What the fuck does that even mean?' he snapped at her. 'They'll talk?'

'They'll carry your scent, which is good, for it's only one of the rules for attraction,' she had said merrily. 'Smell is very important to a lover.'

'HOW STUPID!'

'But, they'll only bloom to the ones that have promise,' she said. 'They won't bloom for everybody. So if you see one of these open for someone, that's when you should shoot in for the kill. I designed it to resemble one of my lovers. Her lovely petals would open for me like - '

'Tsuru!' Cora had cried with horror.

'No, no, continue, it was getting interesting,' Pink said, his lower drawer slowly opening.

"'Ch," Law muttered now, watching the hunter walk down a pathway, the others waving him off. In the midst of some of the vines, he saw rigid bodies hanging from thorns, slowly rotting in the sun. He hoped someone from town would come up and get rid of them. This might be an enchanted castle, but it wasn't a goddamn graveyard, just yet.

He then thought about Sanji's deal – only he did not know what the guy's name was.

"I think it was Sanji," Machvise said. "That's what Diamante said. Zeff called him 'Sanji'."

"Sanji Silvers? How stupid. He should kill himself."

"Law," Cora admonished, "don't be that way. He was very upset talking about it. I'm sure he really does not want to be married to such an old man."

"Look, he offered to help us with this problem, but in return, we need to look for Zeff," Law said, waving Corazon's scolding away as he walked out from the main room and down a narrow corridor towards the west end of the castle. "So, send out everybody to start scouring the pathways for that old man."

"Oh! That's so nice of him! Machvise?"

"Yeah, I'll tell 'em."

"How is he going to help us, Law?" Corazon asked as they emerged into a brightly lit room, which was originally their playroom.

Everything was decorated with bright paints, the ceiling painted with a half night and half daytime view. Along the walls were playground equipment, toys, and targets for weapon practice – bows and arrows, axes and the like. There were fighting dummies that were fully destroyed, laying in shambles, hay spread everywhere. Baby would sit in here, looking over the collection of dolls she used to play with, and Buffalo would hit at the building blocks with the back part of his head, and all of them would feel angry and lost over what had been some of their greatest joys, lost to them because of Tsuru. The loss of their childhood felt like a horrible punishment for kids only being kids.

Doflamingo had picked up Baby from a trafficking ring outside of the valley, where men intended on selling her in town. She was unable to tell anyone where she'd come from. She had been traumatized so severely that she never spoke about her past. But she was relieved that a man would treat her like a child and not a toy. When she was little, she'd always declare that she'd be Doflamingo's wife. Law and Buffalo teased her about that period in her life, causing her to try and kill them both from severe embarrassment.

The man had found Buffalo being forced to work manual labor with other slaves, used only because he was big for his age – he'd been abused with physical force, hit so hard in the head that he now thought slow, never to catch up with their age mentality. He followed Doflamingo like a grateful puppy. Law had found his way to town in the back of a cattle wagon, separated from his family in a massive fire that consumed everyone – when slave drivers tried to sell him in town, Doflamingo had taken him home after killing those trying to profit off him, so Law looked up to him as a sort of savior.

Being provided a loving home with caring adults that only wanted the best for them caused the three of them to grow as they did, responding to positive encouragement by those the townspeople considered as villains. If they weren't told differently, then how were they supposed to know that they were crooks? Doflamingo spoiled them rotten only because of the way that they were treated, intending on giving them a loving family, so of course the kids would look up to them. But to include them in the curse? It felt unfair.

So, of course Law was angry all the time.

It took him a few moments to answer Corazon's question. "I don't know. Seems stupid to rely on him. But how else am I supposed to find this person?"

Corazon sighed. "I know…"

"I truly feel that Tsuru set us up to fail," Law mumbled, sitting near the corner of the room he'd enjoyed the most as a child. It was full of shelves with books on them, with cutting tools he used to dissect small animals with, following the medical books Doflamingo had mailed in from other regions. All the pans that he'd used were clean, now, but one of them held the skeleton of a cat, still spread in formation. Here were his favorite rocks – some with sparkles, some with crystals, bones – and there were small treasures he'd taken from town. There was a full skeleton of a rat he'd put together from an owl's pellet, and a blanket he liked wrapping up in when the toy room was freezing.

He reached out and looked over the books that he'd left spread over a small desk, along with his drawings. His pencils were gone, crushed into small black piles on the floor, and charcoal had been stripped over the walls.

"What do I even do, Cora? How do I make someone even like me?" he asked sullenly, unable to wrap his head around it.

"We'll do our best," Corazon assured him, settling himself atop of the desk, his reflective surface catching the nearby sunlight coming in from shredded curtains. "I'm sure Sanji has some ideas. We're desperate, Law. We have a year to do this, we've got to do everything we can

Law sighed heavily, nervous at the thought. But he wanted to be human again, to get his revenge. It was all he thought about, really. Once he regained his human form, he'd make those townspeople regret everything. All he had to do was find love to do so. He narrowed his eyes, curling his claws into tight fists. He put all his determination and patience into accomplishing this goal.

"Well, let's do this. Someone go get him. I'm ready to fall in love."

Corazon wished he wouldn't say that while wearing such a vengeful expression. It almost ruined the point.