Okay here's another chapter everyone! I'm not sure how I feel about this one and Sanji may be a little OOC but I have a hard time writing him interact with the males on the ship. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you all too much and I'll see you the next time I post. (Which will probably be sometime this weekend if I get my way.)

Sanji was feeling uneasy for a reason unidentifiable to himself. The sky was clear, Nami was not fussing over any possibility of a sudden storm, the girls were safe, nobody was annoying him, and his cooking was coming along perfectly, like usual. So what was this feeling that told him that not all was well within the comfort of the ship?

It took all of ten seconds for Sanji to realize what it was and another twelve for him to stop cursing and rush out of his sacred kitchen toward the captain quarters.

"Oi, shitty captain! You in there?" he called as he pounded on the door. It had only been a few short weeks since Luffy had moved into the room, claiming that he didn't want to keep waking them all up with his murmured nightmares and soft tears.

There was no answer from behind the door and Sanji almost walked away to go search elsewhere, allowing a flame of hope to ignite in his chest- a flame that was quickly extinguished when an almost inaudible whimper reached his ears. Heart clenching and teeth grinding together, Sanji ripped back around to face the door and with one swift kick, had the door open.

He froze at the scene that befell him.

Luffy stood at the small sink in the corner of his room tearing at his hands, muttering under his breath and tears streaming down his face.

Sanji felt sick and horrified. He unconsciously clenched his own hands into fists, feeling as if he could feel the pain Luffy must be feeling.

"...monster...blood...dead…" Sanji heard Luffy mutter and his eyes opened wide. He rushed forward and wrenched his hands away from each other, harshly turning the boy to face him.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" he bit out and Luffy flinched before turning those sad, broken, empty eyes up and him and this time, Sanji flinched. He did not, however, loosen his hold on the boy's wrists.

"Killed him, Sanji. My fault," he whispered and he sounded so broken that Sanji felt tears prick his own eyes.

"It was not your fault, Luffy. You did everything you could," Sanji told him, looking down when he felt his hands grow steadily warmer. He blinked once when he saw his hands were coated with blood- Luffy's blood- and he briefly thought he understood what Luffy had been muttering about.

"Didn't move. Jumped in front of me," Luffy whispered back and Sanji felt his heart stutter and shatter. This was the most amount of information any of them had gotten about his death. Sure, they had heard other bits and pieces, but nothing about that.

"Listen to me, Luffy. Whatever happened was not your fault. You need to come back, Luffy. Come back to your nakama," Sanji whispered and Luffy blinked once, twice, three times at him before his eyes cleared and filled with confusion and no small amount of pain.

"Sanji? What- what's going on?" he murmured before his eyes trailed to his hands and the blood that flowed from them.

"Nothing. You're okay now, Luffy. I'm here," Sanji muttered back and he saw Luffy's eyes widen because they both knew that he wasn't talking about right now. Luffy's eyes filled with tears and he threw himself into Sanji, effectively stunning and startling Sanji.

"I'm sorry Sanji. It hurts so much though," he muttered and Sanji knew that he wasn't talking about what he had just done either. But for the sake of normality and comfort, Sanji pretended he was.

"Come on, idiot captain. Lets go get Chopper to bandage your hands and I'll fix you a snack."

Luffy only hummed in response against Sanji's chest and Sanji led Luffy out of the bloody room and into the bright sunlight where the rest of their nakama did their own things, unaware of the pain their captain had just inflicted upon himself and the small secret he had revealed in a moment of extreme weakness.

And it was the knowledge that secret brought that destroyed him.