I.
Clutching her handbag in a vice grip, Nami ran up the stairs to Sanji's apartment and rang the doorbell. No time to wait for the elevator. Sanji had not received any of her calls yesterday; it had been more than twenty fours hours since she (or any of their gang) had heard from him, and more than ten days since he'd gone into the kidnapper's den to fetch Zeff. What had happened inside that building, Sanji hadn't told anyone. All he'd done was break down in the hospital and tell them everything about himself and his past, as Zeff lay in the ICU, battling for his life. She tapped her foot impatiently, worriedly mumbling under her breath, when at long last, the door clicked and gently creaked open.
Name winced. She knew it'd be bad, but this bad? Cigarette smoke swirled out of the hallway, and Sanji looked like he'd aged twenty years in the span of a few days- eyes puffy, swollen eyebags hanging underneath, jaw unshaved, hair tousled, clothes crumpled and stained, cheeks hollowed.
"Oh, Nami," he croaked out a greeting, shuffling his feet to make way for her.
Nami stepped in and engulfed him in a hug. His already lean frame felt even thinner, his arms barely held any strength as he weakly hugged her back.
"It's gonna be ok," she whispered through her tears, and all Sanji could do was whisper back a small "yeah" as his eyes glistened over.
They stood in silence for a while, then Nami drew back and led him to the living room.
"Do you want anything?" Sanji asked, signalling towards the kitchen.
"I want to talk." Nami replied, making him plonk down on the sofa and pulling a bamboo chair for herself. Grasping both of his hands in hers, she asked, "What did you have for dinner yesterday?"
Sanji blinked, then averted his eyes. "I- I don't remember."
Nami was persistent. "And for breakfast today?"
"I warmed some soup."
"Sure you did. This won't do. Do you think Zeff wants you to join him in the ICU?"
Nami's words stung, but the truth in them didn't escape him. He dropped his head into his hands, shoulders sagging.
"At this rate I will have killed him, Nami," a wave of nausea washed over him, his throat clenching up. "It's as if I'm numb, none of this feels real and at the same time, it feels too real, it's eating up my insides and my arms and legs, but there's nothing in here, it's just me. Zeff is fighting for his life and it feels like time is standing still, and I'm terrified to even breathe. If I breathe too loudly then they'll hear me breathing, and they will hurt Zeff again, he will pay the price of my still being alive and breathing." His palms were wet. "I- They told me they had broken his limbs this time, next time they'd snap his neck."
Nami tightened her grip on his wrists, refusing to let go. Sanji didn't seem to mind, or notice. He went on, and Nami let him. God knew he needed to get it all off his chest.
"So I told them, I'd surrender. I'd voluntarily give myself up as Zeff 's son, and let them do whatever they wanted to do with me, provided they never touch Zeff ever again. Those bastards, they smirked at me and you know what they said? They said they wouldn't need to touch anyone if I handed myself over to them. If only I'd not been so weak I'd have wiped the smirk right off their bloody faces-" his body went rigid for a second, then slumped down again. Nami could feel him trembling. She pulled him into a half-hug, patting his back.
When the tremors faded, he chuckled softly and said," The entire gang has been camping down here, refusing to leave me alone. I finally drove them out yesterday." After a pause, he asked softly, "Family isn't always blood, is it?"
"Family is never always blood." Nami answered resolutely, assuring him. "You never were a Vinsmoke, and you never will be."
Her own words snapped her out of her current line of thought, like a gong hitting her brain. She needed to talk to Sanji about something that had been bugging her for a long time now.
She braced the topic directly. "Has Zoro...?"
Sanji nodded. "He calls thrice a day, messages more often. Had come over, too, but I told him I need some space. He said he'd wait."
Nami chewed her lower lip. Oh boy. The look on Sanji's face when he was talking about Zoro was bad news. It was going to make her task much more arduous than it already was.
She steeled her nerves.
"Sanji, I want you to do me a favour."
"Anything for you." Sanji smiled softly.
"I want you to think back about the time you first met Zoro."
A little colour came back into his cheeks, and his brows furrowed slightly, the look of confusion written plain on his face.
"Hmm, so let's see. I had spent the day in the hospital looking after Zeff, and I was sitting in the park bench the whole night, and it was almost daybreak, so instead of going back home to sleep, I went to La Martiniere, and I saw Zoro sitting on one of the outdoor tables. That's when I saw him for the first time."
"Think, Sanji." Nami egged him on. "There are only two ways to reach the cafe's backyard, right? One from the front, and one from the park pathway. But you were there in the park the whole night. Did you see anyone enter or leave?"
Sanji shook his head. "No, positively." And then the gears in his mind turned slowly, and he looked at her, dazed.
"But Zoro was there."
"Exactly. He was, wasn't he?" Her eyes softened, looking at Sanji. This is why she didn't believe in a god. No god would constantly break the good people of the world like this. Heck, even the devil wouldn't!
"And the cafe was closed." Sanji went on. "I opened the doors to let him in."
"So how did he reach the backyard, Sanji?"
"By crossing over the hedge, maybe?"
"And why would he do that?"
Sanji looked at her like a child who needed every word spelled out for him.
"Because he didn't want to be seen." He answered.
II.
The silence was deafening. Then Nami softly took Sanji's hands into her own once again.
