Author's Note: Don't even begin to ask me why, but I've decided to spoil you guys! Interesting fact: I have no school on Friday, or Monday, so you could potentially be getting more updates! Yay! However, because of a huge event that I've paid 40 bucks to go to, I will not be able to update at all during the days of the 12th till the 15th because I will be away, doing amazing things and consequently skipping two days of school! (but not quite long enough to totally miss a math test ... Fun.) Moving on! I don't know why I'm writing this like I'm in a YouTube video- oh yes, because I've been binging (Oh, I thought I had created that verb ... I know binge is a word, but I just mean, they don't call it "binging on food", they call it "binge eating" so I was hoping it wasn't a verb ... I'm too awkward for my own good ...) I do not own One Piece and what happened to reviews?! I had tons of reviews for the last chapter (12! 12 reviews for chapter 5!) and then this one just 5? Come on you guys, you're just hitting the minimum! Oh yeah, does anyone know how to write an interabang? I swear it's a thing, it's apparently that name for that punctuation mark that looks like a question mark mixed with an exclamation mark.


Speechless
By: Setkia


Full Summary

Sanji is a cook at the Baratie who, for a reason not fully understood by all the other cooks, has not spoken a word in three years. He goes through his life normally, communicating through paper and pen. He hasn't felt the urge to speak since he's decided he would never speak again. Things change though when one day, while taking out the trash, he accidentally runs into the "Demon the Streets".

Roronoa Zoro, the "Demon of the Streets" is a mystery but he's feared by everyone who hears his name. He's on the run from the police with a wanted poster and a big prize if he's found and captured. With an accidental wrong turn, he encounters a strange man with long legs and blond hair. Zoro learnt pretty early on that in his line of work, you don't get attached to people and yet somehow this cook is working his way through his barriers.


PART ONE: BATTLE SCARS

VII


The floor of his apartment was cold.

Sanji's back hurt as he slowly sat up. It took him a while to remember the day before, picking up the Marimo, bringing him back to his home, feeding him and giving him the guest bedroom. A short conversation about the stars on the ceiling and then they had parted ways and he had gone to his room. But wait, no.

No, no, no, that hadn't happened. Roronoa, he had — fuck.

"SHIT!"

Sanji bolted up and ran towards the sound of the noise. Following the sound he entered his own kitchen. Except, it didn't look like his kitchen.

All the cupboards were open, there was flour on the floor, a few dropped and fracked eggs, spilt milk, a bubbling lump of what Sanji could only assume was pancake batter and a Marimo holding a frying pan like it was a sword.

What. The. Fuck?

"It's not as bad as it looks," said Roronoa quickly. "The pan just slipped and then and then ... Gravity's a bitch!"

Sanji couldn't get over how much food had just been wasted. Flour, batter, sugar, eggs, all of it was on the floor. The kitchen was a mess but the waste, unsalvageable food was absolutely impossible to ignore. It stared at him, taunting him. He glared at the damn bastard who thought he could go through his pantry and waste so much food (so much waste) and get away with it.

Sanji bit his lip. He needed a cigarette. He could feel his eye twitching. He couldn't fight the swordsman for what he had done, at least not with his fists. What was his other option? Of course!

BANG!

Roronoa Zoro hit the floor harshly with enough force and sound to awaken the entire neighbourhood.

It was probably why at that moment the door to sanji'so apartment was being banged on.

"Oi, Sanji, are you okay in there?"

That was Ace.

"Knock three times if you can hear me!"

Sanji was about to knock in response, but the damn bastard grabbed his ankle and pulled him to the floor.

Sanji hit the ground with a softer— but no less harsh— bang. Instantly the world seemed to spin around him. He could see the memories flashing before his eyes and he panicked the moment he felt Roronoa tighten his grip on his ankle. He kicked furiously and twisted his body, trying to free himself from their grip, from that monster. He shut his eyes tightly and bit his lip, keeping in his screams of panic, no matter how much he wanted to cry.

Once he managed to contortion himself so that he was able to see the bastard, he bent more and sunk his teeth deeply into his wrist.

His attacker let out a yelp loudly and instantly let go.

Slowly his surroundings came back to him. He hated when this happened and sadly, it happened a lot. Always in the mornings, always when he was weary from sleep, always when it was the early hours in the morning and light couldn't shine in properly. He hated the dark. This was the first time there as someone there though.

Sanji took a moment to breathe, trying to collect himself. He picked himself up off the floor and came to the door. He had to make sure he didn't look so shaken, if he did then his friends would ask. He didn't want to answer their questions, they didn't know how his mind worked, they didn't know and couldn't understand the full extent of what had happened to him.

"Sanji? Hey, Sanji! Come on, you're starting to freak us out, open the door! What was that bang? Is there someone over there? Is it a burglar?"

Sanji realized in that moment that Roronoa Zoro was a wanted criminal for some reason. A reason that meant that if he was caught, he'd be immediately sent to jail. And Sanji hadn't even gotten a chance to try and help him. Instead, the Marimo had only been helping him.

Sanji made a shooing gesture at Marimo, indicating he wanted him to leave. The stupid ahou didn't get it. If the others found out he was there, he'd be brought to jail. Though every part of Sanji's body was against criminals in every way, Roronoa was different. He was a project, he was like Sanji. Sanji would not screw up twice, not when he knew how to stop it.

Of course Marimo just raised a confused eyebrow at him.

"Sanji, you're seriously making us worry, are you in there?"

Sanji softly tapped on the door, three times, that's what Ace had said, right?

And then the smoke alarm went off.

"We're busting down this door!"

"Stand back!"

CRASH!

Ace came in, wielding a fire extinguisher. He raced past Sanji into the kitchen where the frying pan that Roronoa had been holding was on fire. He quickly put it out while Nami, Luffy and Usopp busied themselves with Sanji.

"Oh my God, what happened?" asked Nami with a concerned frown.

"How did you burn something?" asked Luffy, obviously confused on how a cook, someone who used the stove on a daily basis, managed to set fire to his pan.

"You're not burnt anywhere, are you?" asked Usopp, his brow furrowing in worry.

Sanji shook his head and gave them a small smile, trying to reassure them without words. This was always a hard thing for him to do.

There was the sound of scrambling, a loud "who the fuck are you?" and then Ace was dragging Roronoa Zoro by the front of his shirt, walking in front of him so the swordsman's body followed after his head in a weird way as he was trying to resist him.

"Is he yours?" Ace asked, raising an eyebrow at the green-haired man.

"Cool, did you buy a clone online? You were lonely you could've just spoken to us," said Luffy. "We'd be great roommates!"

"A clone Luffy?" Nami rolled her eyes. "He doesn't look a thing like Sanji!"

"Never know, could be a fraternal clone," Luffy said with a shrug. He approached Roronoa with a grin and poked him in the shoulder. Marimo growled and shoved his hand off forcefully.

"Don't touch me," he snapped harshly.

"This clone's moody, you should get a nicer one," Luffy declared.

Sanji rolled his eyes.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Ace asked, looking at Roronoa carefully. His dark eyes went up to the Marimo's hair. "Is that natural?" He reached out, as though to check it for himself, but Roronoa slapped his hand away. "Okay dude, personal space issues, I get it."

Sanji held up one finger and ran into the kitchen, grabbing a paper and pen. He quickly wrote, his handwriting coming out swirlier and even messier than ever before.

He's a friend of mine. He ran away from home though and he doesn't want to be found, so could you keep quiet about it?

The wonders of writing: no weird pauses, nor was there a guilty tone of voice, only what he wanted them to know. Never before had Sanji had ever used his way of communication to spread a lie. He wanted to let Roronoa know so that he didn't say the wrong thing, but then he realized that he wouldn't be able to read it. Fuck, okay now what?

He grabbed Marimo's hand and tried to quickly write each letter, but not before one of the quartet spoke.

"What's your name?"

"Zo— Choro," "Choro" corrected himself quickly. "My name's Choro." He winced, as though he realized how stupid of a name that was. Well, he couldn't change it now, could he? Sanji would've snickered had he thought it wouldn't cause the end of the world.

"Choro?" Ace repeated disbelievingly.

"Yup, that's my name," said Choro, rocking on the heels of his feet. He clasped his hands together and hummed awkwardly. "So um, Sanji was about to make breakfast so if you cold leave—"

"Breakfast?" repeated Usopp. Roronoa gave the long-nosed man a strange look. "And you didn't invite us?"

Sanji wrote hurriedly.

I want to catch up with him, so we'll be having breakfast together. Alone.

Sanji felt his shoulders visibly relax when Usopp pouted. He believed him at least. Ace and Nami still looked suspicious though and he wasn't sure what he could do to rid them of all their suspicions. He obviously couldn't tell them about Marimo's record, that would be utterly stupid of him.

Ace gave Roronoa a strange look but nodded reluctantly. "Whatever you say Sanji."

Sanji would've let out a breath of relief had he thought it wouldn't cause trouble, but of course, he stayed silent.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, the band of friends left and Marimo turned to Sanji.

"You're going to regret protecting me," he said with a frown.

Marimo, Sanji mouthed.

The green-haired man's brow furrowed. "What the fuck is a Marimo?"

Sanji knew he wouldn't regret it. Regardless of whatever heinous crime Roronoa Zoro had committed, nothing should be punishable by losing oneself and becoming empty.

Those grey eyes of his wouldn't lose their dim, flickering spark. Sanji wouldn't let them.


Author's Note #2: The thank yous!

sanzaya: And I thought i was the only one who overanalyzed things like that ... Not that I meant to insult you. And have I ever told you how much I LOVE long reviews? I get a notification every time someone reviews and it writes the review (also, the time stamp when it's sent, I wonder why some people are up at 3 in the morning reading my story? Unless, you know, time zone stuff ...) and I get this immense satisfaction when it says: "This message has been truncated due to length. To view in full, please visit site." I don't know, it makes me think my readers have a lot to say about what I write and I enjoy it immensely.

Random Person (x2): You'll never know! Until you know, you read more.

lilcutieprincess: I think I have a thing for kidnapping people ... There are tons of parallels to Beautiful Disaster, like how Zoro had all the friends and now Sanji has all the friends and how yeah, in chapter 8 of Beautiful Disaster, Sanji met Zoro's friends ... I swear, I'm not rewriting Beautiful Disaster, I wrote it in a way that there's no way to rewrite it because they alternate for point of view! I think Sanji makes noise when he's asleep, which is what alerted Zoro, because consciously, Sanji will try to keep all sounds to a minimum.

tenshuni: Any reason in particular why 3s replaced es? You can't donate to me,(that would be interesting, it'd let me buy the new Mac I kinda want though ... And the new camera I want since mine broke the DAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN (WHY MUST YOU HATE ME WORLD?!) but as I've said, you can reach me at that e-mail address that I shall repeat: setkia dot writer at gmail dot com.

OKAY QUESTION TIME! So? What'd you think of Sanji's friends? Ace has a bigger role this time, yay! I also thought about it and realized if this story is told by Zoro and Sanji, yes we can have Ace and Smoker, but they can't have any chapters with their perspective so I MIGHT (and this is a huge MIGHT) write a story called Flame Proof, solely as a parallel or a sequel or as a way to see this story, but focus on Ace and Smoker as your main couple. Maybe. Possible. YOU DECIDE! (that wasn't meant to be menacing in any way ...)