Three days later Sanji is walking onto the deck of the Sunny to make breakfast for his crew and finds Nami on deck with a cup of what he assumes is tea.

"Nami!" He calls out, a hand raised in greeting.

She turns around, a smile on her face, but Sanji's falters. He always forgets and the reminder is like a slap to the face.

Nami's right arm is gone.

Her smile quickly turns into a frown, and she glares. "I know that face. Don't you fucking dare. It wasn't your fault."

She had lost it during the fight with the five elders.

"But if I had just-"

"Zoro had just died-you were dealing with a lot." She argues, placing her cup down on the rail and touching the skin where her arm used to be. "Usopp and I knew what we were getting into, and we paid the price. Sanji how many times are we going to have this same fight?"

It was hard for him. During that fight he had two jobs. Clear a path for Luffy and protect the rest of the crew. He had barely accomplished the first and had failed miserably at the second. Franky had ended up losing both legs, Nami and Usopp both lost an arm, and Chopper had been hurt so bad he was forced into a medically induced coma for two weeks in order to save his life.

There was never going to be a time when he didn't feel guilt for what had happened, and they both knew it. "Where's your arm now?" Franky had created fully functioning prosthetic arms for her and Usopp.

Nami sighs at that and picks up her mug again. "I think I messed it up on the island yesterday when I challenged that man to an arm-wrestling match. Last night before bed I realized I lost movement in the fingers, so I asked Franky to have a look at it."

He remembers that. The guy was being a piece of shit and wouldn't leave her alone. Sanji had offered to take care of him, but Nami had another idea and humiliated him so bad he had run off in near tears. "Well, if anyone can fix it it's Franky."

"Yeah no kidding." She laughs. "He had both legs cut off and still managed to get most of us to safety that day." Her voice trails off and it was clear she was thinking about that fight.

"You want to help me with breakfast?" He offers, guilt eating away at him again, it should've been him getting them to safety and as grateful as he was to Franky and Brook that feeling would haunt him. He would do anything to get her mind out of the past.

She holds up her mug of tea. "I don't know how helpful I can be."

"I could offer you a hand." Robin's voice carries down from the helm. And as if to prove a point an arm suddenly appears from out of Nami's right side.

Nami can't seem to help the laugh that escapes her, as they watch Robin make her way down the stairs. "Thank you Robin, but you would still be the one in control of it."

"And you ladies know the only thing I ask for is your company." Sanji adds. "Why don't I brew us up a pot of coffee?"

Robin's arm disappears from Nami's body as she steps onto the deck and smiles. "That sounds lovely Sanji, thank you."

It takes about two seconds of Sanji putting food on the table in the dining room for Luffy to burst through the doors. The rest of the crew following behind him.

"Sis-"Franky comes in last and looks to Nami. "I don't know what the hell you did, but there's a bunch of screws messed up. It's going to take a couple of days to fix that arm of yours."

Nami groans, "but you can get it fixed?" After she lost it Nami had gone without use of an arm for a good month and then another few months to get used to the prosthetic. It wasn't that she couldn't function without it, but as a navigator trying to make a map of the world Sanji bet it wasn't easy.

Franky gives her an almost hurt look. "You know I can fix anything. It's just for a few days sis I promise."

She shrugs and takes a bite of her eggs. "Well dinner is going to be fun later." She didn't sound displeased at the thought.

They were leaving that night, but Sanji would be making all of them, including his staff and Zeff a kind of farewell dinner.

"Oh crap, they don't know do they?" Nami asks, a look of realization dawning on her face. "Your staff?"

"Only the bare minimum." Sanji admits. "They know that battle was absolute hell and something happened that-"he holds up his hand to show off the mark. "Caused this. So, I am sorry in advance Nami if they stare or ask."

She sighs. "It's alright, I can handle a few stares and questions." She holds up her hand showing the almost identical tattoo. "This is always the more fun one to explain."

"And I already told them all that I'm going to about that." Sanji clarifies, taking a long drink of his tea. "To them and the rest of the world we are the crew of death."

"Hey where's Zoro?" Luffy asks, surprising the crew by focusing on something other than the food in front of him.

The last time Sanji had seen Zoro he was asleep, naked, and sated due to a rather pleasurable wakeup call involving Sanji's mouth.

He's about to say that when Zoro walks in and points a meaningful glare at him.

Sanji only grins into his tea as Zoro sits down next to him. "You're all leaving today, right?" He grabs a plate of bacon and eggs before Luffy can get to them.

"Well good morning to you too-eager for us to leave?" Nami teases.

"Of course not, just wanted to make sure I had the right day." He scoffs grabbing a fork and digging into his eggs. "You mess your arm up or something?"

She sighs and holds her shoulder. "Yeah, that fucker from the market probably pulled something."

Zoro laughs at that. "Aren't you the one who challenged him to an arm-wrestling match?" Zoro hadn't been there, but Sanji had been rather pissed about the whole interaction and ended up telling him.

"He shouldn't have been bothering me in the first place."

Zoro concedes that with a nod. "I assume you have everything you need?"

"He really is trying to get rid of us." Robin laughs.

"I'm really not." Zoro argues. "I just don't want you to leave and the cook here trying to get you to come back by claiming you need something else. It's him you should be worried about."

Sanji nearly spits out his tea. "Why are you involving me in this shitty swordsman?"

"So you're not going to miss them?"

"Of course I am, but you can't sit there and pretend you won't."

Zoro doesn't say anything and Sanji takes that as a yes. Brook seems to as well and places a hand on his shoulder. "Shall I sing a ballad for this depressing day."

Zoro shoves his hand away. "I'm not depressed that you're leaving!" He groans and leans back in his chair, not caring that Luffy just stole the rest of the food on his plate. He shares a look with Sanji, who shrugs and says, "I should've said this days ago, but you have no idea how happy and how scared I was that you were coming here. I definitely deserved what I got when you first came and though I'm sure it'll be a while before we see one another again I wish you luck and safe travels."

Luffy grins widely at the same time Zoro hits him for taking his food.

"With the way we left Kaya and Usopp I'm sure we'll be seeing one another again really soon." Robin laughs.

"And if not, we plan to pass through here again after wandering around the North blue." Nami adds. "Don't worry you haven't seen the last of us."

Zoro holds his mug up in salute. "Looking forward to it."

Hours later Sanji is walking out of Chopper's office, after a checkup their doctor insisted on doing before they leave, and finds the rest of the crew out on deck. He's about to call out to Zoro, who was sitting against the main mast asleep, when he senses it.

Luffy, who was playing with Jinbei, stops and turns to look out at the sea. "Zoro! Sanji!"

Zoro immediately opens his eye and sighs. "Yeah, port side. We should be able to see them in a minute." He stands, as if reluctant to do so, and moves to stand next to Sanji. "Who do you think it is?"

Sanji hoped it was just a ship with people who didn't know the Baratie was closed, but he doubted it based on the ill intent radiating from the ship.

A few moments later a navy ship comes into view, and he scowls.

"You want me to sink it?" Franky asks, aiming his cannon towards it. "I have the shot."

Luffy holds up his hand to stop him, his face serious for once. Sanji realizes why a second later and sucks in a breath.

Former Marine Fleet Admiral Akainu steps out onto the deck.

"What the hell is this?" Franky snaps. "How many times have we defeated you?"

It's surprising that Franky is the one to lash out, but he isn't wrong. Akainu just grins, ignoring Franky and looking at Luffy. "I told you long ago son of Dragon that I would be the one to take you down."

"And after all this time you still think you can?" Luffy grins, in a very not Luffy manner. No. This is the face of the Pirate King.

More marines start to come out on the deck. Where the hell did all of them come from? Dragon has been in control of navy headquarters for nearly a year. Of course there were probably some factions that rebelled against the takeover, but Akainu had been there when everything went to hell so how had he-?

"How long have you been following us?" Nami asks, drawing her weapon. One arm or no she would fight.

"Turns out a lot of people on the nearby island don't like that you're here."

That was fair. A lot of people could've turned them in. Zoro and Sanji themselves get into a brawl nearly every time they're there and that situation with Nami yesterday-

"So are we really supposed to have a repeat of the last time I beat you?" Luffy asks, crossing his arms. "What are you getting out of this? Let's say you do defeat me-oh!" The realization comes to Sanji as well. "Capture me and you have a bargaining chip for Dragon to get Navy Headquarters back."

"Whoever controls Navy Headquarters controls most of the world." Robin notes. "And if he did manage to bring in Luffy and Dragon agreed to give up control Luffy is the Pirate King. By controlling Navy Headquarters and having Luffy, who more or less keeps the oceans at peace, Akainu would have total control of the world."

"And that's the main goal?" Luffy asks. "To have control over the world and put in place your sick sense of justice? Your government was taken down." He deadpans. "What are you hoping to achieve here?"

"You pirates are the scum of the earth, and your father is the worst kind of criminal."

"You allow slavery to the worst kind of people, hide truths from and ignore the rights of the people of the world, take over countries who don't agree with you and force them to work as slaves, kill innocents just to satisfy your warped sense of absolute justice, and force countries to pay you for protection when they should be using that money to feed themselves!" Luffy snaps.

It's almost hard to believe that Luffy was paying attention to all the awful things that the world government had done, but in all their travels, it would be hard to miss.

"Your sense of absolute justice is just another word for absolute control." Luffy continues. "But it doesn't matter, even if you did manage to get control again there will always be people willing to stand up to you.

"Maybe so, but just as all of you will stand in my way, there will always be people like me to stand in yours." Akainu snaps.

"Like a damn never-ending circle." Zoro mutters, voicing Sanji's thoughts.

He watches as Akainu slowly melts into magma and is glad his staff is being smart enough to stay inside. He feels Zeff in his room, but the old man is probably watching the show. Something was still off. Akainu is one thing, but with such limited space there wasn't a way for either of them to go full out. Hell, Akainu aside Chopper, Nami, and Brook could easily defeat the other soldiers so why go to the trouble of showing up with them at all? Unless- he didn't plan on fighting Luffy one on one and planned on breaking his spirit by defeating the rest of them?

"Tell me something." Luffy says suddenly, in a tone that demands an answer. "Were you the one who told Blackbeard that Shanks had the key to Laughtale?"

Sanji's blood turns to ice, that memory still fresh in his mind. He had been woken up that morning to a cannonball hitting the ship and Blackbeard's voice thundering throughout the island. Hell, Sanji himself had faced Kuzan, before he changed sides, and Laffitte, but at the end of the day Blackbeard's prism stone claws piercing through Shank's chest is an image he would never be able to get out of his head. Zoro catches his eyes- a warning in his look. Luffy hadn't faced Akainu since that island where he and Zoro had gotten married. This time Luffy might kill the Admiral.

Akainu grins and didn't need to say anything more. It may as well have been a confession. "Here's what's going to happen." Luffy says, his voice cold as ice. "I'm going to kick your ass-again, and when I do, I'll drop you off with Dragon and he can decide what to do."

"Cook-"Zoro murmurs.

He feels the presence of two more ships on the other side of the Baratie. They are being trapped in. He watches as Luffy angles his head to the side, as if stretching. Sanji almost laughs. Their crew knew the signals and sure enough when Sanji turns the rest of the crew is gone. They would deal with the other ships while they handled Akainu.

Well, Luffy would handle Akainu their job was just to keep the other soldiers out of his way. He hated the bastard, but the revenge would always be his captains to take. He shares a look with Zoro and lights his leg on fire. His first victim would be the soldier with the massive crossbow aimed at his captain.

The fight takes about an hour.

Both Luffy and Akainu had gotten thrown into the water at least once. Zoro is still wringing out his coat from getting their captain.

"Sanji!" Luffy calls from where he's standing over the defeated admiral.

Sanji lets out an annoyed breath and lights a cigarette. He knows what his captain is looking for and is sure they have a pair of handcuffs somewhere. He just isn't sure where exactly. Hell, Franky probably has some on the Sunny.

He's about to run to the ship when he hears Zeff's voice, "oi Eggplant!" He turns just in time to catch whatever Zeff throws at him from his room on the third floor.

It's a pair of Sea Prism cuffs. He holds them up in surprise. "Why the hell do you even have these?"

"You never know when you might need a pair."

That's a fair argument so Sanji only shrugs and passes the pair to Luffy, who forces the admiral to his knees in order to cuff his hands behind him.

"Luffy!" Chopper's voice calls from behind them. Sanji turns around to find the rest of their crew waving and heading their way. The other ships must be handled then.

"Luffy!" Nami calls, an odd look on her face.

Sanji looks back to Luffy who had his head bent and was talking to Akainu. A moment later he watches as their captain punches the admiral, effectively knocking him out.

"Luffy-"Chopper's voice is timid as they all watch the blood drip from Luffy's hand. The reindeer doesn't say anything else, even if it seems he wants too. They all knew what Akainu had cost Luffy, he could beat the admiral to death and the rest of their crew would let him.

To their surprise Luffy turns to face them and has on his usual grin. "Did you guys deal with the other ships?"

"We-yes." Nami manages to get out.

Sanji is surprised too, but he shares a glance with Zoro, who only shrugs and throws his coat back on. He takes a long drag and almost laughs to himself. Honestly, there will never be a time where Luffy didn't surprise him.

"The only question now is what do you want to do with all of them?" Nami continues glancing at the ship Akainu came off. "There has to be at least a thousand soldiers. We could probably get them all on one ship but-"

"We're taking them to Dragon." Luffy states with barely a thought. "My old man can deal with them." A wicked kind of grin appears on his face. "Though, I'm sure Sabo would love to see him again."

Sanji feels a tremor of fear pass through him. Luffy deserved the revenge against Akainu, but Ace had been Sabo's brother too. The two of them had come face to face just outside the gates of Mary Geoise and though Sanji hadn't seen the full fight they all know Sabo had won. Akainu had fled into the night-or so Sabo had said.

Luffy turns to Nami, "we can do it right?"

She rubs the back of her head and sighs. "Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem. We can get to headquarters in a few days thanks to being able to pass through the Calm Belt, but it's still a lot of people and towing another ship is slow going."

"Sunny can handle it." Franky offers encouragingly.

She waves her hands. "Oh-I'm not worried about that, of course she can handle it. No. It's the food situation I'm worried about."

"Let me and my staff handle that." Zeff's voice comes up behind him. How the hell he got down so quickly Sanji didn't know. "We can whip up enough meals to last you a couple weeks. Well-"He cocks his head towards Luffy. "Enough meals for your prisoners."

Nami laughs and then seems to catch herself. "I don't want to impose"

"It's not imposing." Patty sounds almost pleading as he appears with Carne. Sanji catches the two of them staring at Nami's arm-or lack there of, and he continues quickly. "It'll give us something to do. Since you got here, we closed the restaurant, and the brat hasn't let us help him cook. Hell, even the brat's husband only let the chef help him the other night."

Zoro saunters over next to him and murmurs. "I was afraid they'd take over and I wanted to do it myself."

"But you let Zeff help?"

"He's the one who taught me how to make it in the first place and it was his kitchen."

Sanji concedes that with a nod as Carne adds, "the brat won't let us help with dinner tonight at least let us help you with something."

Nami looks over at him and he shrugs. "Between the kitchen on the Baratie, Sunny, and mine and Zoro's there should be enough room for everything."

Nami nods and faces Zeff again. "Well, I can't argue with that. We are glad for the help and apologize for this mess."

"You're the Pirate King's crew." Zeff shakes his head. "Trouble was bound to show up sooner or later."

"Still-"Luffy slides his hat onto his head and glares down at Akainu again before looking at him. "Still, this shouldn't have happened. Jinbei! Franky!"

"Captain!" They both answer at once.

Sanji blinks, realizing that Luffy had already designated who he would call as backup since him and Zoro were no longer an option.

"Franky, I need you to secure the prisoners and make sure the fire bastard is separated from the rest of them. I don't want him putting any more ideas into their heads. Jinbei, I want you to call Dragon and let him know what happened and that we'll be seeing him soon. After that I want you to help Franky if he needs it."

They both give a sort of salute and Franky moves to pick up Akainu, who is still passed out. "I have the perfect place in mind for this bastard."

"The aquarium?" Robin asks with a familiar wicked grin.

It was a terrifying thought, but Sanji admits it is perfect. He still had no idea why the thing was built in the first place, but maybe Robin liked the thrill of a little danger. A few years ago Franky created a type of room inside the aquarium. It was a large circular tube with an elevator that only Franky knows how to work, a small working bathroom, and a bed. The room itself is lit by only a single lamp and the tube is tinted so no one can see inside. However, Sanji had been inside a couple of times and knew that there was a way for the tint in the glass to fade away, leaving the person inside with a view of the aquarium from in the water. It really was a perfect torture chamber for a devil fruit user. He can't imagine waking up and being surrounded by water. He puts out his cigarette and remembers Luffy's words from long ago.

"I can only kill him once, but I can make him wish for death a thousand times."

He almost felt bad for the former fleet admiral-almost.

Sanji takes Zoro's hand and grips it tightly. If he was ever going to confess this, it would have to be now. With all the recent battles still fresh in their minds. Zoro catches his eye and a flash of panic flickers through it. Of course the bastard knew what he was about to say.

"Luffy-" he calls out before he lost his nerve. Their captain looks at them, a question in his gaze. He must have heard the panic in his voice. "I…there's something I need to tell you about that fight with Blackbeard."

At that they have the full attention of everyone on deck. Zoro tightens his grip around Sanji's hand. He's grateful for the support, even if he knows Zoro thinks this is a bad idea. "I want it to be clear that I didn't know about future sight haki until after this happened." He pauses, letting out a long breath. "I-the night before Blackbeard showed up, I woke up in the middle of the night in tears because I had watched Blackbeard pierce through Shank's chest with those damn claws of his." Zoro knew, of course, and he had told the story to Zeff on one of his more drunken nights, but it was still hard to hear the gasps from everyone.

Everyone-except for Luffy.

Shit. Was he pissed?

Sanji had already decided to accept any punishment Luffy had for him, but his captain's silence isn't one he thinks he can handle. He was quickly starting to panic-his body shaking. "If I had known that I was seeing a vision I swear to you I would've tried to prevent it, or at the very least let you know but-"he's rambling and he know it. "Luffy I- "

"Why didn't you say anything after it happened?" Nami asks furiously, her tone making him flinch. He never liked having her mad at him. "If you had seen the event play out in a dream, why didn't you confess to this sooner?"

"He didn't even realize any of this until a few months ago." Zoro cuts in angrily, loosening his grip on Sanji's hand, but not letting go.

"When I first had the dream, I woke up crying and told it all to Zoro, after I went back to sleep we all woke up to cannonballs hitting the deck of the ship and it slipped my mind." Sanji admits. "I didn't even remember the dream until Zoro pointed out a few months ago that it was probably one of the first times I used future sight haki without realizing it." It was quiet for so long Sanji felt tears forming in the corner of his eyes. He was staring at Luffy, who is as still as he's ever seen him. "Captain I-"

"I saw the same vision." Luffy finally speaks.

It's quiet for a long moment and Jinbei finally says, "it's odd how well the two of you are on the same wavelength." Sanji manages a laugh at Jinbei's attempt to break the tension. Jinbei has a point, but everyone is still waiting for their captain to explain.

Luffy finally looks at Sanji and he's startled by the tears in them. "When did you have that dream? Time? Do you know?" Luffy suddenly asks, and the panic in his voice has Sanji taking a step back. He's still too startled seeing his captain in tears. What's worse is he honestly didn't know. Hell, he barely remembers the dream at all.

"I had just been nodding off when the cook woke up." Zoro supplies. "I want to say it was around 2 maybe 3 in the morning."

Luffy just stares at him a moment before suddenly stretching his arms out and wrapping them around Sanji. Knowing what's about to happen Sanji lets go of Zoro's hand just as Luffy flies towards him. The impact of his captain colliding into him knocks Sanji onto the deck.

This isn't what he had expected at all. "Luffy-?" He asks carefully. His captain is now sitting in his lap, tears still flowing freely down his face.

"It's not my fault." He manages to get out. He's shaking so bad it's almost hard for Sanji to keep his grip around him.

The rest of the crew slowly gather around the two of them. Zoro going so far as to sit down next to them, placing a hand on Luffy's shoulder, and saying gently. "What isn't your fault?"

Luffy wipes his eyes and buries his face in Sanji's chest. This isn't like him. Sanji has only seen his captain cry like this a handful of times, the last time being just after Zoro had died.

"The night before the fight, just after dinner, I had the same vision. The problem with having visions like that are you never know when they're going to happen." Luffy's grip on him tightens. "I immediately went and told Shanks. I promised to watch his back and I thought it would be fine. We all planned to travel together for a while anyways. Hell, I even warned Mihawk thinking it would help, but both of us were just too late. We had no idea the attack would happen the next day." He goes quiet for a long time and manages to wipe his face. "Up until this moment I blamed myself for his death."

He's afraid to ask, thinking Luffy is about to blame him, but- "and what changed your mind?"

"You." Luffy lets out a relieved laugh. "You had the same vision hours after I did, even after I warned Shanks and Mihawk."

He wasn't following.

"Our captain made the decision to try and change the original outcome he saw." Robin explains. "But because Sanji saw the same thing, even after the captain's decision, Shanks was always fated to die."

It wasn't what any of them wanted to hear, but Luffy grips Sanji's shirt tightly. His captain's whole body sags from relief, as if a heavy burden had just been lifted. "It isn't my fault for trying to change the outcome." He had been carrying this guilt for these years since it happened. Sanji can't help but wrap his arms around his captain and hold him closer. "Thank you Sanji!"

The rest of the crew gather around close, hugging the two of them. In a rare show of weakness Luffy begins crying again without restraint. Sanji only holds him tighter and allows his own tears to finally shed.

It was hours later, after dinner had been served, the prisoner's meals had been prepped for the journey, and everyone was relaxing out on the deck of the Sunny until Nami decided they were ready to go. He sees Franky and Robin swinging together on the swing. Franky whispering who knows what to make Robin laugh. Brook is playing Binks Sake on his violin in a soft tone. Sanji glances over and finds their navigator who, for all the world, looks drunk and is in the middle of a card game with a couple members of his staff.

They were about to be sorry they ever offered to let her play.

Luffy was sitting on the rail, eating his fifth slice of cake and laughing with Chopper, who was also on yet another slice. Luffy looked happier than he had in a long while, though if you weren't a crew member it would be hard to tell the difference.

When they had finally broken apart from the circle Sanji found that his staff had disappeared. He wondered when Zeff had led them away but was grateful for it. Luffy had hugged and thanked him again, before Sanji needed to slip away to make dinner. It had been a huge relief for all of them and Sanji was happy for it.

"Where'd Zoro run off to?" Sanji asks, downing a cup of wine, and too lazy to use observation haki to figure it out.

"He slipped away a while ago, you didn't notice?" Jinbei laughs. "The last I saw him he was complaining about needing to find something-or someone I missed it."

"He better not have run off to take a nap somewhere." He growls, not wanting the task of trying to wake him up. "You guys are leaving here in a bit right?" He places the wine glass on a table and pulls out a cigarette.

"That's the plan, unless our navigator drinks herself to sleep." He gestures at the card game, where they watch Nami down another mug of ale.

Sanji laughs, lighting it and taking a long drag. "You don't have to worry about that. If she wanted too Nami can out drink even Zoro."

Jinbei looks surprised at this. "Really?"

He had forgotten how much Nami detests letting herself get wasted enough to not have a care in the world. It was only on a couple of occasions and only with the rest of the crew. "I've only seen her do it a couple of times, but yes."

"Odd how I've never seen it."

"You always were the responsible one." Sanji shakes his head. "You were probably already asleep if anything. Plus, it never lasts long and she's good at pretending nothing is wrong."

"A lot of you are good at doing that." He observes. "Thank you-for earlier. "I never realized how much Red-hair's death affected him, and I was there for his brother's."

Sanji shivers at that. He can only imagine how bad that was and shrugs, "Yeah well-I expected Luffy to be pissed at me. At the time I was pissed Zoro figured it out and told me, but I needed to know the truth and I suppose-because of it, Luffy and I got the closure we needed."

"It's good to see that you and Zoro are okay-truly." Jinbei smiles warmly at him. "For a while there we were all worried."

Sanji remembers what he was like after Zoro had left and isn't surprised. "We're fine. I mean we're both idiots, but we've been together too long to let something small get between us." He takes another long drag and sighs. "Even if the Mosshead running away wasn't just a small thing." As if on cue Sanji feels Zoro's presence heading towards them, but something isn't right. Luffy catches his eyes, probably thinking the same thing. He puts out his cigarette and excuses himself from Jinbei to hurry over to the gangway just as Zoro steps onto the deck. He sucks in a surprised breath.

Zoro was hurt.

A black eye is forming on the side with the scar. Almost like whoever hit him didn't want to leave him completely blind. Zoro is clutching his side as if it was bruised or a couple ribs are broken, and he's favoring his right side rather heavily. "Who did this?" He growls, not recognizing the venom in his own voice.

"You let one of the prisoners have a free shot or something?" Franky asks. It was a joke, but the glare Zoro sends him has Franky holding his hands up in defense.

"I went to talk to your old man." Zoro admits, not meeting his eyes.

"Did you challenge him to a fight or something?" Zoro doesn't reply and a sense of dread coils down his spine. No. The only way Zeff would've been able to land a hit would be if Zoro had let him. Which means- "what did you tell him?" He hates the panic in his voice. Relief flashes across Zoro's face and he scowls. Did he really think he would hurt his old man just for landing a decent hit on Zoro?

"I told him the truth."

Sanji's blood turns to ice. There's only one truth that warrants Zeff attacking his husband, and that's the tattoo inked on both their hands.