I refuse to believe that Luffy didn't have a clue about what happened with Zoro and Kuma. This is set after the Thriller Park arc, the night of the party Luffy invites Brook into the crew. Everynody is asleep(or drunk and unconscious) except for two somebodys. Luffy may seem OOC but I think a mature Luffy would better fit this situation.
The consistent low murmuring is annoying like a buzzing mosquito and Sanji treats it like one; he pull the covers up to his ears and hides. Amazingly, it works.
For sixty seconds.
"Damnit!" Sanji kicks the covers off and stands to find the source of his annoyance with an intent to maul but just his luck, the source is the one person he isn't allowed to beat into pulp.
"Luffy," Sanji rubs his forehead as he asks his Captain who is curled beside his injured crew mate on the other side of the room.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Telling Zoro about my dream."
"He's awake!" Sanji scrambles forward and even in his haste, he takes extra care to tread on those who he personally feels had stared at Nami San and Robin chan a second too long. Though the blond cook will probably never admit it, he is crestfallen to find the swordsman exactly how Chopper left him; bandaged and sleeping. Sanji's gaze shifts to his Captain.
"Luffy you'll have more space if you switch places with his katanas," Sanji frowns at how the younger teen is curled against the wall on Zoro's left. Luffy doesnt dare touch his First mate in fear of undoing the treatmeant the reindeer had done.
"I can't. "
"…Why not?"
Sanji is not entirely surprised seeing this calm, collected and strangely vulnerable Luffy. However he is not comfortable dealing with this kind of Luffy had always been well... Zoro's responsibilty.
On the nights after fights and Luffy was healing from deep wounds and high fevers, the raven haired boy sometimes suffered nightmares. He would wake up with a start, look furiously for the nakama he had supposedly lost In his dream, and wouldn't rest until that member answered his call at least three times. Once satisfied he would turn to his First Mate(who always seemed to just know when this happened) and bearing the same serious expression he had right now, explain about his dream. The swordsman would listen patiently and then very simply, tell his captain to shut up and sleep.
Luffy never remembered in the morning.
"I can't touch Kitesu."
Sanji snaps out of his thoughts.
"Who?"
"Kitetsu," Luffy points to one of the three katanas lying on Zoro's other side. it is the one that has a blood- red sheath, the one Zoro often scolds during battles, the cursed katana. "It doesn't want me to."
As crazy as it sounds, Sanji actually agrees with Luffy. No doubt Luffy has better instincts but even Sanji can feel a strange coldness radiating from the katana.
Is it angry for the price it's master had to pay? Sanji muses but doesn't push the subject further.
"Nightmare?" He asks instead though he is not sure if he wants to know. It is strangely uncomfortable to think of the happy go lucky captain suffering in his sleep. To the blond head's relief his captain shakes his head.
"Not a nightmare. Just a dream. I felt like I was floating. It was peaceful."
"But?"
"But then," Luffy touches his head as he remembers the familiar warmth that had assured him that all was fine. The lull of security had dulled Luffy's senses encouraging him to fall back into the peaceful and painless lumber. "Someone said goodbye."
The voice had been calm and almost impossibly gentle but what had alarmed Luffy was the faintest hint of pain, that slightest plea for forgiveness.
Sayonara.
Luffy's words hit Sanji like he has been struck in the stomach. It is so easy to imagine the idiot bending over to his captain and displaying that rare affection he often extends for the younger teen that Sanji doesn't doubt it for a second; Luffy's dream is a memory. However if it is a memory... Sanji grits his teeth as he realizes his mistake.
As much as Sanji had tried to stop Zoro, a part of Sanji trusted that Zoro had a plan. Zoro was Zoro. As reckless as he was, he wasn't an idiot and he knew his limits. So Sanji had worried, but there was an unmovable faith, a shred of hope that Zoro knew what he was doing. Sanji believed that Zoro had stood up to Kuma because he was ready to do whatever it took to save them, and then come back.
However, Zoro had bid farewell to his captain. Zoro himself, the most determined man Sanji knew, had not expected himself to survive.
He had left their side to die.
There has never been a trick up the swordsman's sleeve. Of course there wasn't, Sanji realizes. The damn Marimo is too heroic, too honorable, too fucking idiotic to mean anything else but what he says.
I'll give you a head but mine instead.
"Fucking self sacrificing asshole," Sanji hisses softly unable to ignore the sickening coldness from realizing how close they had been to losing their friend. How bloody close they had been from having to live with the fact that their weakness had cost their nakama's life. Sanji sucks a breath and mutters furiously. "Damn idiot whose head is a fucking ornament."
"Sanji?"
The cook looks at his Captain, unable to hide his anger. He wants nothing more than to tell the rubber boy what happened, about how damn reckless Zoro was and how the idiot deserves a tear down. However…
"…You said so yourself Luffy," Sanji finally answers. He will regret this, but he keeps his silence. He understands what Zoro did, because he would do the same. "It's just a dream."
"Right," Luffy repeats reluctantly trusting his nakama's assurance. All the same he doesn't budge from where he is curled, his eyes never leaving the sleeping face. "It's just a dream."
It would just be perfect, Sanji thinks, if it were actually true.
There's a line I quoted from the comic book but i've translated it myself. Sorry if it's different from the English translation. And I don't normally wouldn't use another language when writing in English but 'Sayonara' has a finality in it that 'good bye' doesn't have and I wanted to express how Zoro meant goodbye as in goodbye for good. Enough blabbering. Hope you enjoyed it.