Sanji lifted his head, but only slightly. Only enough to see who had said his name. It was Zoro but Sanji was too distraught to acknowledge his presence and lowered his head once again. His tightened his grip around his legs as he heard Zoro's heavy boots shuffle across the floor towards him. The swordsman crouched down beside the crying cook.
"Sanji?" Zoro tried to make his voice as soft as possible.
Sanji lay there dying in his own devastation. Why had they allowed Ace to call him? his mind screamed. When Ace had been admitted to Impel down the court of Marineford had banned him from making phone calls to Sanji. He thought that without any contact to the man he could forget he even existed and more importantly what he'd done.
"Sanji?!" Zoro repeated more urgently this time.
The only time Sanji had acted like this is after he'd broken up with Ace.
"Sanji!? Please stop this!? You're scaring me!" the swordsman pleaded.
Slowly, Sanji stood up shakily. The pain was too great and he dropped to the floor again.
"Sanji!" Zoro screamed as the cook fell under the weight to his own pain.
He rushed over to Sanji and helped him to his feet again. Sanji's eyes were bloodshot and tears were still streaming from them. Once he had steadied himself he pulled his arms away from Zoro. He stared at the ground; he couldn't bear to see the look of utter confusion and pain after he said what was next. Sanji choking back the tears began to speak:
"Zoro," he choked. "I can't do this."
"What do you mean this?" Zoro asked, he could feel tears pricking his own eyes.
"You and me, gomen ne," Sanji ran from the boys' dormitory and didn't stop till he reached the ladder leading to the roof.
"I wonder who that phone call was from," Franky whispered to Brook as they sat in art.
The thin man shrugged.
"Miss Goldenweek, what is the point of this class anyway?" Franky shouted towards the front of the class.
The teacher huffed, she wasn't surprised though. Franky had asked this question every one of their classes and every time she'd given him a different answer. Sometime those answers were philosophical or inspirational and sometimes they were plain sarcastic.
"This class is to enable you to unlock your creative element, because we all have one," she began. "Gladino's is wax, Brook's is music and yours Franky is creation itself. You satisfied?"
Franky nodded his head and continued on with his sketch of a simple coffee table for the common room.
The ladder was cold beneath Sanji's tight grip. His vision was blurry from the nonstop cascade of tears. Sanji's grip got tighter at every rung he passed. He hauled himself onto the roof and felt himself sway and stumble with each step until finally he was at the edge.