It's been a week since Zoro nearly broke Sanji's wrist and the sleep deprivation might be starting to get to him. He's fine though, goddamnit. Even Chopper has started asking if he's okay but he's managed to fob the little doctor off. Chopper should be focusing on his real patient, Zoro. So, he might be down to about two hours sleep a night if he's lucky, but he's fine. Aside from the nightmares that won't stop plaguing him every time he dreams he's fine. He's managed to schedule it so that he can cat nap for about twenty minutes before he falls into dreaming and nightmares, if he just keeps doing that he can about stay sane. And fine, he is definitely fine.
The shaking is new however. It reminds him of once when they ran out of cigarettes and he was forced to go cold turkey. But he's fine. Honest. Okay, the creeping paranoia is starting to grate but other than that he's fine. He swears that he can feel the swordsman's penetrating eyes on him all the time, like Zoro is constantly surveying him, but whenever he looks around Zoro either isn't there or isn't looking at him. But he's fine. Really he is. F I N E, fine.
"Hey Sanji." Franky calls as he comes in the kitchen and shuts the door behind him. The shipwright saunters up to the bar and hops up on one of the barstools.
"Hi." He replies, a little surprised to see the shipwright in here at this time of day as it's after breakfast but quite some time before lunch.
"Can you pass me a cola?" Franky asks, combing a hand through his hair casually.
"Sure thing." Sanji answers, stifling a yawn behind one hand as he bends to grab one.
"You've not been sleeping well lately. When was the last time you slept bro?" Franky asks holding out his hand and taking the cola from him.
"About an hour ago." He replies with a shrug. He doesn't mention that he jerked awake before the nightmares threatened to take him again, he doesn't mention that he feels even less rested than before, and that wasn't great to start with.
"Uh huh. I- hey, could you get me a cold one of these? This one is warm." Franky asks, handing it back to him.
Sanji frowns at the drink in his hand, he swears that he took that from the fridge but… he can't quite remember doing it. He bends down and puts the drink back in the fridge.
"So Sanji, did you ever have a brother or sister when you were a kid?" Franky asks suddenly.
"No, Zeff raised me alone." Sanji answers, crouching down to get a cold cola out of the fridge for Franky.
"I have a brother." Franky says.
"I know, Iceberg. Why are we talking about this?" He asks, leaning to the side to see Franky around the fridge door.
"Well, sometimes older brothers recognise that you're doing something dumb and help you out. Big brothers have more experience at things you know? They like to look out for their little bros." the cyborg says cryptically.
"Okay." Sanji blinks sleepily at him.
"You're like a younger brother to me Sanji, and I'm worried about you." The blue haired man says dramatically.
"I assume there's a point here." Sanji replies flatly, looking over the fridge door at him, despite his sleep deprivation the part of his brain responsible for talking back and mouthing off is so well used that he'd probably have to be dead to forget how to use it. Even then he's not sure he wouldn't be a mean sarcastic ghost, in fact he almost certainly would be.
"The point is that you've been messed up ever since Zoro got injured. It affected all of us but it seems to have really got to you, and it's only been getting worse. We all hear the nightmares you have you know." Franky says in a pitying tone that makes Sanji's hackles rise.
"Well excuse me for giving a shit about my nakama." He snaps irritably.
"And you're one of mine." Franky retorts.
The other man's face softens after a moment and he lets out a weary sigh.
"Look, I'm betting that whatever it is about Zoro getting hurt that screwed with your head is behind whatever happened between you and Zoro to start this feud. We're worried about you, we all are, even Zoro." Franky says gently.
Now that gets Sanji's attention and pulls him to his feet. He shuts the fridge behind him and leans on it while that idea washes over him. Zoro is concerned about him? Does that mean that he's starting to come around? To see just how much his safety means to Sanji? Perhaps he's starting to see how much Sanji cares, maybe he'll even understand. Sanji habitually flexes his wrist, it doesn't hurt anymore but the memory of the injury is deep seated.
"There's no problem, Zoro will come around." He states confidently and pulls Franky out a cool cola.
"Sanji-" Franky frowns but Sanji ushers him out of the room urgently. Stifling another huge yawn he sets to work on lunch, they'll be arriving at the next island around lunch time so he's planning on having a light lunch ready for them and then a little packed lunch to take in their bags with them. Or in Luffy's case, a regular lunch and another regular lunch.
He's only just put the finishing touches on their lunches and laid the light lunch out on the table when Luffy's excited screech about land rings out across the ship.
"LAND HO!" Luffy hollers from on the deck.
He steps from the kitchen to see the crew gathered at the rail of the ship, looking out at the new island. In the middle is a large mountain, snow-capped and ringed with cloud at the top. The air here is a little cool but not too chilly, the island itself is a rust colour that, if Sanji squints, is caused by the changing leaves on millions of trees. It's the unmistakable look of Autumn on an Autumn island. Sanji glances over and sees a happy and serene smile on Zoro's face and it makes his heart clench.
"Lunch is ready." He says and is promptly nearly trampled to death by Luffy in his desperate bid to eat his food and everyone else's. Accustomed to the inevitability of Luffy's theft the rest of the crew quickly abandon the beautiful vista and head into the kitchen, all save for Zoro who lingers at the rail.
"Zoro…" He starts carefully, not reaching his hand out to touch the other man like he wants to just in case he's attacked again. The swordsman turns sharply then, his attention ripped from the island. He gives Sanji an uncomfortable stare before moving on past him and into the kitchen in a silence that Sanji knows full well is deliberate. Sanji sighs to himself and returns to his kitchen he sits down and eats whilst Nami plans what they're going to do.
"Zoro, you're coming with me when we land. I need to pick up a few things and I want to keep an ear to the ground for any local rumours. Besides, I could use some peace and quiet." Nami orders Zoro.
Zoro laughs and flips her off with a grin, apparently he can understand Nami now too. When did that happen? Sanji bites his tongue, normally he'd leap in and tell Zoro off for swearing at Nami but… Zoro hates him enough already. He pushes his food around his plate with his fork instead.
"I'll raise your debt if you keep that up." Nami threatens, making Zoro's jaw snap shut and a scowl cross his face. Oh yeah, Zoro can definitely understand her again.
"Anyway, this ought to be a nice quiet island, we'll get a chance to resupply and catch our breath." Nami continues, looking around the group.
"No! I want an adventure! I want excitement!" Luffy yells needlessly loudly.
"The day of Zoro's injury was pretty adventurous and exciting, wouldn't you say Luffy? Be careful what you wish for." Robin points out morbidly from across the table to Luffy. Sanji watches as their captain's face drops, he looks guilty and sad and upset.
"Robin." Franky chides her in a quiet voice, but Robin shoots him a challenging look and Franky drops his objection.
Zoro rolls his eyes before throwing his arm around their rubber captain's shoulders. He knocks Luffy's hat off his head and ruffles the boy's raven hair.
"'s okay." Zoro mumbles into Luffy's hair with a forgiving smile showing around his eyes. Sanji watches Zoro's finger tap on the table as he speaks the syllables, that music therapy that the others are doing with him seems to be working somehow.
"Hey, did Zoro just… that's the first I've heard him talk in front of everyone!" Usopp exclaims excitedly. And it's true, Sanji knows that Zoro's spoken to or possibly sang in front of more or less everyone in the crew now, but not always directly to them. But in front of everyone whatever anxious part of Zoro's mind seems to mute him, which makes Sanji sad because it's pretty much the only time he gets to hear Zoro's longed for voice anymore.
Luffy beams at Zoro and wraps his arms around him several times, pulling him into a bone crushing hug that has most of the crew grinning in Luffy's contagious happiness, Zoro included.
"Robin's got a point though, that island seemed peaceful right until we ran into those marines and Zoro cracked his head open. We can't be too careful." Nami muses, leaning back in her chair thoughtfully. Sanji hopes that she'll demand that Zoro stay confined to the ship, that's what Sanji wants, he needs to know that Zoro is safe. He can't let his nightmares of Zoro getting hurt each night become reality, not again.
His hope becomes horror though as Nami stands and leans on the table, steps up onto her chair and reaches up to the ceiling. Her fingers brush against the unsecured Adam wood boards in the galley's ceiling, the one that slides back to reveal a hollow space – a space that isn't exactly empty right now.
He leaps up onto the table and catches Nami's wrist before she can open it, he doesn't grab her tight enough to hurt her but Nami will not move whilst he has her, he won't let her open that compartment.
"You can't." He breathes, looking into her wide surprised eyes.
"Let me go Sanji." Nami orders him flatly. Ordinarily, he'd bow to her whim, he wouldn't even have put his hands on her like this without her permission, but this is serious.
"You can't do this Nami, you can't." He begs her.
He feels a hand wrap around his knee and he glances down to see Zoro's piercing dark eyes on him for just a second before Zoro yanks him down onto the table. Sanji lands on his ass on the table top, thankfully this meal had been more of a buffet type affair, with all of the food in the middle of the table with plates stacked at the end. It seemed that Zoro hadn't taken his yet because if he had Sanji's ass would be right on it, sat as he is facing Zoro with his legs on either size of Zoro's lap.
Zoro shoots a pointed look up at Nami and presses his hands into Sanji's thighs, effectively pinning him onto the table and keeping him from interfering with Nami's mission.
"Nami, don't! Please!" He calls up to her. But regardless the navigator slides the boards in the ceiling aside and reaches into the hollow space in there. Sanji takes his eyes from her and looks at Zoro, his nakama… he needs the man to live and arming him with his sword isn't going to help.
Zoro is holding him in place but Sanji isn't going to try escaping now, even if he does stop Nami he knows that Zoro will get into that space at the first opportunity. He won't fight Zoro, he can't, so Zoro will get past him even if he does try to stop him. There's nothing he can do.
"Zoro…" He pleads quietly as Nami hands Zoro his three swords, but the swordsman ignores him, getting to his feet and gratefully taking his swords off of Nami. Zoro unbuckles his belt and slides the swords into their place.
Zoro stands in between Sanji's open knees and glares at him before nodding to Nami and leaving. Sanji sits there feeling numb, Zoro is armed now, and before the end of the day he'll be on an island and no doubt without him there to protect him. He can't exactly see Zoro agreeing to be around him after all.
"Sanji, what's the big deal? Why are you trying so hard to keep Zoro from his swords?" Nami demands, her hands on her hips.
Sanji's fingers dig into the table, his nails making indents. He shakes as he tries to keep his words in. He doesn't want to upset a lady, to offend, or to hurt – so he needs to keep his mouth shut.
"Sanji answer me!" Nami demands, stamping her foot. Sanji bites hard on his lip and shakes his head. He can't, he's tried so hard and sacrificed so much and still his nightmares are going to come true.
"Sanji!" Nami snaps, catching his shoulder and spinning him to her. Sanji looks at her and within his chest the poisonous idea of 'it's her fault' wells up in his chest and poisons his tongue.
"Zoro's got his swords back now, and no one's going to be able to take them off him. When he fights someone, and he will now that you've armed him again, if that fight kills him then that'll be on your head." He says flatly.
He wants to regret the words, especially when Nami looks like he's slapped her. But he can't. If Zoro dies from this he'll blame himself, sure, but he'll blame her too now as well. Sanji stands up from the table and heads outside. He can see from the flash of swords that Zoro is up in his training room reacquainting himself with his weapons. Sanji sighs and looks at the island by their side with some trepidation. He just knows that something is going to go awfully wrong there, he can just tell it.
He wants to go somewhere where he can be on his own and lash out at something to make him feel better. Before all of this he would have gone to Zoro, he'd have said some stupid comment about something or other to make Zoro fight him and then got his frustration out of his system. Or if he couldn't do that he'd go to his kitchen and cook until he reached that place that Zoro had so rightly likened to meditation.
Except… he couldn't fight Zoro, and he'd just stormed out of his own kitchen to get away from everyone in it. He slinks down into the men's bunkroom and climbs into his hammock. He hauls the cover over his head and wishes the world was like it used to be.
Eventually someone comes into the room after him, he can tell from the soft footsteps that it's Luffy. When he's not charging around their captain is actually very light on his feet, his well-worn sandals certainly help. The younger man pulls up the edge of Sanji's blanket and pokes his head into the warm space underneath it, his nose almost touching Sanji's.
"We're going exploring now." Luffy says quietly to him.
"Good for you." Sanji replies, not opening his eyes.
"Zoro is going." Luffy adds.
"Alright then." Sanji grumbles, throwing off the covers and sitting up. He grits his teeth and follows Luffy out onto the deck. Zoro doesn't look at him and Nami throws him an exaggerated "hmph!" and struts off, Sanji is too tired and highly strung to go after her.
He follows the group through the island on autopilot, the only thing he's paying attention to is what's around them, he's not listening to his nakama's conversations at all. He's listening for enemies hiding around corners, keeping an eye for anyone who might run over and attempt to hurt his nakama.
It seems though that the only danger around is the fact that this island is baking. It doesn't make sense, it looked like an Autumn island from the shore but yet underfoot it's scorching, though the breeze feels cool. It's puzzling, but Sanji doesn't have a lot of time to problem solve an answer as they're starting up a cliff path to get to the village on the other side. It sounds like a bad joke.
They're all walking along the cliff edge and Sanji is watching Zoro like hawk, he's angry enough that they had to come this way in the first place, the last cliff edge that they were at didn't exactly end well for them did it? He remains more than close enough to grab Zoro if he has to and he's spending a large proportion of his energy watching every casual footstep that Zoro takes.
The cliff path winds its way further up the mountain and the higher they go the more anxious Sanji gets and the more he feels the need to keep watch on Zoro. He's not going to let anything harm Zoro, he's responsible for protecting him and he's not going to fail again, no way.
"You know, I'm certain that this is a volcano and not a mountain. It explains the heat, it's coming from inside." Nami remarks casually as they walk along the path. Sanji's frayed nerves twang anxiously. A volcano? That kind of shit was dangerous!
"Oh, do you think it might be active Nami? It could surely kill us all if it was." Robin smiles.
"Robin, stop being so creepy." Franky mutters from behind him. Normally Sanji would shout at the bastard for being mean about Robin but right now he can't manage the mental effort, too much of his brain is already being used up by panic.
"Hm, I don't think so. I think that this is an inactive volcano, did you see how this island was part of a chain? It looked to me like these are volcanic islands where the magma moves along a line slowly creating a new island in turn and leaving a dead volcano in the middle of each one. I could see that the ocean was shallower off of the coast, I guess a new island is forming there, but there's still going to be some heat to this volcano. That's my guess at least." Nami says with a shrug from her position near the front of the group.
"I think a volcano explosion would be cool! I could punch lava!" Luffy whoops excitedly from his place leading the front of the group.
"Doesn't rubber melt at high temperatures though?" Robin points out with a sneaky little smile.
"Aw, I hadn't thought of that…" Luffy pouts unhappily. In front of Sanji Zoro laughs quietly, low and deep, Sanji finds that the first thing to break through the fog of anxiety about Zoro is… lust for Zoro, that laugh sends shivers up his spine. Great, now he's worried and miserable all at once.
"Mm!" Zoro makes a noise in his throat to get Nami's attention and reaches forward, tugging on a strand of her hair. The swordsman takes a couple of quick steps so he's walking almost beside her. Zoro gestures, first holding his hands apart and pulling them further away and then pointing down to the ground and then around in a circle with a questioning expression on his face.
Sanji understands what Zoro is asking clear as day. "How big is this island?"
But Nami doesn't seem to get it, her expression is puzzled. Sanji is about to lean forward and translate as an attempt at fence-mending with Zoro but at that moment he sees Zoro's path veer far too close to the edge for Sanji's liking. His booted feet are stepping right near the edge of the cliff path, so much so that a few rocks actually scatter down the mountain side.
"Zoro!" He yelps, grabbing the back of Zoro's haramaki and slamming him into the cliff wall.
Zoro looks dazed for a split second before Zoro snarls and grabs the front of Sanji's shirt, slamming his back into the wall behind them. His teeth are sharp and bared angrily at him.
"Don't give me that! You were going to fall! This cliff is unstable damnit!" Sanji shouts back at him.
"Just… drop it Zoro. Keep walking, I'll talk to him." Franky says, disentangling the two of them.
Zoro growls at Franky but the shipwright gives him a straight no nonsense look and after a second or two of intense eye contact the swordsman huffs and stomps on, shooting Sanji a dirty look as he does so.
Sanji glowers up at Franky who's still holding Sanji by his shirt collar. Franky steps closer to the mountain wall to let the others pass so that they're in the back, when they are Franky leans in to talk to him.
"See, Sanji? This is what we mean, we're worried about you. Chopper thinks that there might be something wrong with your head, a stress disorder or something. I know Zoro getting hurt shocked all of us but you took it badly, you seemed to get okay when he started getting better but then it all tanked, what happened?" Franky asks, letting Sanji go and walking alongside him along the cliff edge.
"I don't want to talk about it." Sanji mutters, trying to walk ahead. A big hand on the back of his neck however informs him that Franky wasn't really asking so much as he is ordering.
"I just can't lose him again. He's not the same Zoro he was before, that Zoro could handle himself, this one is fragile but he doesn't know it. I need to keep an eye on him and everyone's acting like he's the same!" Sanji snaps, pulling away from Franky as much as he can and craning his neck to see Zoro's figure up ahead.
"But… Sanji, that doesn't make sense, there's more than just that going on. There has to be." Franky says, stopping him and turning him around. Sanji reluctantly stops again and looks up at the other man.
"I mean… think about it little bro. Think about whoever on the crew you think is the weakest, whoever you would be most concerned about if they got cornered. You don't have to tell me who but just… imagine them." Franky says seriously.
Sanji frowns and thinks. He's always incredibly worried about Nami and Robin, but in truth both of them survived around strong pirates on their own for years before they joined the crew, Robin managed to hold her own against a whole league of assassins and Crocodile. Sure, they both needed protecting but they could handle themselves more or less. He finds his mind settling on Usopp. It isn't that the sharpshooter isn't capable or cunning, he's both of those things in spades, but unlike Nami and Robin he's pretty weak in close combat. If Usopp is a respectable distance from their enemies then Sanji hardly gives him a second thought in a fight, but if he sees Usopp get cornered he or Zoro will always dart in to get the sharpshooter some distance so he can be deadly again. He supposes that Usopp, in that respect at least, is the weakest of them.
"Good, you're thinking of someone then." Franky nods, apparently noting his expression.
"Now… whoever that is… you're not treating them like you're treating Zoro right now. So there's got to be more to this than you worrying about him. So what is it?" the blue haired man asks urgently.
Sanji shakes his head and pulls away, digging his heels into the ground and ripping the seam of his shirt a little to do it. He doesn't want to think about this, he doesn't want to consider it, he's just not having this conversation.
Franky seems to let him go and Sanji catches up to the rest of the crew, falling into step behind Brook as he does so. He's contemplating rushing past him to get up to Zoro's level again but the swordsman might just kill him if he does so. Either way, the path they're on is leading them back down off of the (possibly) inactive volcano and instead down into the town below. It's a pretty little town, with a port at its main entrance. Sanji's glad that they haven't docked there as he can see two marine ships docked there at first glance, as well as a marine base.
Sanji bites his tongue, no one would appreciate him suggesting that Zoro go back to the ship and frankly he's sure that the number of people who would consider hurting him for saying so is starting to grow beyond just Zoro.
"Look, we'll go to the bar, get a drink and cool down. It's only after lunch so it should be quiet, then we'll quickly get what we need and get out of here. Sound good? Everyone had better behave." She warns, giving them all a threatening look. They all follow her in there.
It's a big bar, a long building which stretches for some way from the large bar itself to a big stage at the other end and plenty of seating in between. Oh, and there are marines in there, hundreds of them in fact. Sanji pulls on the back of Luffy's shirt, trying to urge him to go when-
"I can't believe they have that "no body, no bounty" rule! I killed Roronoa Zoro! I deserve that money!" One guy across the bar complains loudly. Sanji lets his hand drop, there's no way he could stop Luffy now even if he wanted to. And he's not sure that he does want to.
"I mean, I shoved him off that cliff! I saw him go splat but his stupid friends carried him off! A pricy body like that, probably rotting at the bottom of the ocean now when it could be making me money! Feh." The guy grumbles, folding his arms and leaning back on his chair sulkily.
Zoro slowly and deliberately unsheathes his swords as he walks towards the guy, he takes long enough for them to make that deliberately distinctive unsheathing sound. Several marines by the door see them and quickly try to take their leave, but the hiss of air and the smell of ozone behind Sanji tell him without looking that Nami's clima-tact is armed and dangerously so. This fight is inevitable.
Zoro's boots thunk loudly on the wooden bar floor as he approaches the marine. His friends fall silent, half looking as if they've seen a ghost and half reaching for their weapons. He's quicker though and as the marine turns, and it is that marine - Sanji will never forget that face. Zoro's sword flashes through the air and the bastard marine's head falls to the floor with a thump that makes the whole room fall silent. The guy's headless body sits slack in the chair in the completely silent room, a few confused heartbeats worth of blood spill down what remains of his neck and onto his shirt.
For a moment his friends sit stunned until one of them pulls a gun and fires. Sanji's jaw drops as the bullet seems to meet Zoro's sword in a flash of sparks and vanish, embedding itself in the wall to the side of him. Sanji doesn't know if that was a lucky shot or if Zoro has finally managed to learn Mihawk's trick of altering the path of a bullet with his blade. Either way he's not about to leave Zoro alone to find out.
Luffy yells and barrels across the room, avenging the slight against his nakama and conveniently ignoring the fact that Zoro sort of started it by decapitating a man. His fists are flying and he's fighting anyone he can, probably people who would have stayed out of the fight if they had been given the choice. A bolt of lightning rips through the room along with a barrage of shots from Usopp and Nami.
Sanji sighs and looks around. Robin, Nami and Usopp are clustered together and will probably be okay, Brook and Franky are dealing with the flanks of the room and could step in anyway. His priority then is Zoro.
He darts forward and kicks a table over, providing some cover for Zoro from gunfire. He sticks near Zoro's back, an age old pattern for them, usually they would either cover each other's blind spots or compete for victories, but now Sanji is just trying to protect him.
Normally he'd stray a little from Zoro's back, his most powerful attacks require a little room after all, but he'd rather cut off his own hands than risk pulling any kind of spinning kick that could accidentally connect with Zoro's head. No, he'd rather stick close to Zoro's back and protect that shining plate in the back of his head that's keeping Zoro alive.
He all but glues himself to Zoro's shoulder blades as he delivers kicks to the gut and skulls of the guys attacking them. His range isn't what it could be though and the marines are getting closer than he would like. Zoro growls at him and switches places with him seamlessly, his longer reach with his swords arcing out and cutting a swathe through their attackers.
He follows Zoro back towards a wall as Zoro pursues a gaggle of marines shooting at them, he kicks a chair or two their way to dissuade them from firing quite so much. Fire suddenly arcs through the room as one of Usopp's shots go wide, Sanji glances and sees that Brook barrelled into him, knocking his aim off. Unfortunately that means that one of Usopp's rather more tame fire stars flies into the bottles behind the bar, turning the relatively safe fire attack into a giant fireball that explodes through the room and sets the ceiling alight. Great.
Burning booze fills the room almost instantly with acrid smoke, making Sanji cough. He reaches out and grabs Zoro by the shoulder, pulling him close so that he can shout over the racket of the room.
"Zoro, we need to get out of here. I can't keep track of you and everyone else at the same time with all this smoke!" He coughs. Zoro snarls at him and shakes his hand off, understanding him all too well. It's their job as the two strongest fighters after Luffy to keep an eye on the rest of the crew and step in to protect them if need be, Zoro clearly isn't pleased at being re-categorized from a protector to someone needing protection.
The swordsman darts off in the smoke after someone else, or perhaps just away from Sanji. Three guys take the opportunity to try to get the jump on him now that Zoro is away from his back, apparently they think Zoro was protecting him. Sanji relishes the chance to really stretch his legs in a good, albeit quick, fight. And since the building is on fire he can even let loose with a little diablo jambe. He doesn't have time to dally with these fools though and as soon as they're down he rushes off in the direction that Zoro left in.
Bizarrely Zoro isn't where he should be from the way he stormed off and Sanji somehow finds him on the other end of the building near the stage. He really shouldn't be surprised at Zoro's talents at getting lost in one room, though he swears that physics is going to catch up with Zoro one day when it works out what he's doing.
Zoro is fighting a group of swordsmen who are all trying to circle around him and outnumber him, he's backing dangerously close to the stairs of the stage though and Sanji has visions of him suddenly stumbling backwards and cracking his head open once more. He sprints desperately towards the swordsman, coughing on smoke as he does so. He dashes up the stairs and his hand barely even brushes the back of Zoro's shirt before the swordsman's arm snaps back, slamming against him and pinning him to a wooden beam behind Sanji.
The sword sticking out of his chest is a surprise.
It seems to be pretty surprising to Zoro too if the shocked and horrified look on the other man's face is anything to go by. He didn't even feel the blade go in, and yet it's sticking out of his chest and out through his back and he estimates that it's a good distance into the beam behind him too. He tries to breathe in but his throat just makes some awful gasping creak when he tries to, causing a white hot lance of pain to run through his chest.
Zoro's mouth is hanging open in a completely wordless terror, his hand is hovering just above his sword handle, seemingly not knowing whether to remove the sword or not. His eyes meet Sanji's and the agony and guilt radiating from them burn Sanji to his core.
"Maybe we should wait and they'll kill each other instead of-" One of the swordsman on the stage starts nastily. He's cut off though as his throat explodes outwards, he finds it quite hard to talk seeing as Zoro has cut his throat open in a movement so fast that Sanji didn't even see it. His friends aren't faring much better either as Zoro's rage filled blades remove several lives and many more limbs, either way none of them are going to be getting anywhere near to where Sanji is currently pinned.
Zoro turns his attention back to Sanji, though it was barely gone more than a second or two. His mouth mutely opens and closes with words he can't say. Sanji supposes that high stress situations like these aren't good for his word recall.
The blade itself, Sandai Kitetsu to be precise, is sticking out of his chest near his lower ribs. The black blade is wedged horizontally between two sets of ribs and surprisingly there isn't any blood coming out of the wound. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any air coming into his lungs either.
He gasps fruitlessly, unable to draw air into his body and each attempt hurting more than the last. Zoro's panicked and trembling hands find Sanji's face as the swordsman forces him to look him in the eyes. He thumps at his chest and tries to coax in a breath as he shakes his head.
Zoro gasps out an "oh" and holds his hand up as if to tell Sanji to stay. Zoro leans against him, pressing him into the beam whilst his dominant left hand reaches behind him and gently wraps around the sword hilt. His other hand touches Sanji's jaw with the gentlest of touches, it's almost a sweet gesture.
He only realises that Zoro has removed the blade when he sees the swordsman's elbow jerk straight back and air suddenly rushes into his starved greedy lungs. He chokes and coughs into Zoro's shoulder, dragging in breath after smoky breath as his lungs work once more. Sanji slumps forward into Zoro's chest, he coughs, his breathing doesn't feel quite right.
"Sorry, I should know better than to sneak up on you." He mumbles, reaching for the place on his chest where the sword went in.
Zoro shakes his head vigorously and leans him back against the wooden pillar, the movement makes Sanji's insides ache unpleasantly. He lifts his hand up to his face from his chest, it's completely drenched in blood. He glances down woozily to see the dark blood washing down the front of his shirt. He liked that shirt.
Zoro looks agonised and panicked, his mouth opening and shutting silently as he tries to get hold of words that the swordsman is clearly just too stressed to be able to find. His hands touch Sanji's chest and Sanji can feel them shaking slightly. Zoro doesn't seem to quite dare to touch the cut. He's never seen Zoro quite like this, he's very ambivalent about his own injuries whenever he's hurt, and he's usually not much more concerned about Sanji's. If he ever gets hurt in a fight Zoro would usually give him an assessing look, grunt out a question or an insult enquiring about his health or whether he could handle it and then they'd continue.
But now… now this is completely different. Perhaps it's because this is an injury that Zoro's inflicted on him and entirely by accident too. Oh, they've hurt each other in fights before but he's never broken anything of Zoro's and Zoro's never done more than ruin his clothes and give him shallow cuts. They both fight to a level that they know the other can handle. Typically, impaling him with a sword wouldn't fall into that category.
Zoro bites his lip and makes an anxious noise in his throat, he flicks Sanji an apologetic look and before Sanji can enquire what's wrong Zoro jams his hand against the hole in his chest. He hisses sharply in pain, as a white hot lance of agony shoots along the path that Zoro's sword took, it hurts far more than Zoro's blade ever did. He supposes that Zoro is so skilled and his swords are kept so sharp that he could kill you without you ever even feeling it, unless he wanted you to of course. He can't help but wonder if the miserable son of a bitch that shoved Zoro off that cliff felt it when Zoro cut his head off, probably not but he hopes so.
Zoro presses harder on the wound drawing a yelp from Sanji this time. He understands though, Zoro has to put pressure on it to stop him bleeding to death. Which is, you know, nice of him.
"Don't worry about it Zoro, I'll be fine. I just needed to protect you." He coughs, sounding unconvincingly fine as he draws in another shaking breath. Why aren't his goddamn lungs working right?!
"AGH!" Zoro yells right in his face in frustration. With his free hand he gestures to himself with a look of angry disbelief. Sanji gets his meaning well enough, Zoro's pointing out that right now it's hardly him that needs protecting. Still, current circumstances aside he's wrong.
The swordsman grumbles as Sanji doesn't take anything he's said back and instead peels him off of the now very blood stained wall and holds him close, keeping pressure on Sanji's back this time. Zoro carries him towards the stairs with Sanji half stumbling along with him.
"Careful." He mutters, having visions of Zoro tripping or something. Zoro's grip on his back becomes a little gentler.
"I meant you, idiot." Sanji coughs. Zoro shoots him an evil look and Sanji isn't sure but he thinks that Zoro jolts the hole in his chest deliberately as they quickly descend the stairs.
The fire is really starting to spread now, the whole roof is ablaze and beams from the ceiling are falling down. He can hear his nakama shouting to leave. As they reach the bottom of the stairs a worrying creak comes from the roof above them. Zoro pauses at the edge of the stairs as they both look up, with Sanji held tight against his chest with one hand and his free hand on his swords in case any other marines try to attack them. It's hard to make anything out of the fire licking its way along the wooden beams, that is, until one of those beams cracks and drops down right above where there are. Zoro leaps backwards, slamming himself against the wall and taking Sanji with him. Sanji hears the loud smack as Zoro hits the wall and the slight ring of metal from Zoro's head on the wall behind them.
"Zoro your head!" He gasps in a panic, reaching up and cradling the back of Zoro's head in his palm. The two of them clutch each other a little tighter as more beams fall down around them, trapping them where they are. The swordsman shakes his head out of Sanji's grasp and scowls at him for acting so concerned. And then, because he evidently doesn't care if Sanji has a heart attack, smashes his head into the wall behind him.
To Sanji's mixed surprise and horror the wall behind Zoro's head actually begins to split and shatter when he hits it with his stupid metal plated head.
"No! Stop it! You'll kill yourself you idiot!" He shouts, trying to stop Zoro. But it's clear that the brain damaged moss headed MORON isn't going to quit trying to break down the wall with his head. Sanji hauls him out of the way and kicks clean through the wall, making the brick crumble and explode outwards, leaving enough room for both of them to escape. He leaps through the gap, dragging Zoro with him and fully aware that the unstable building won't hold long.
As soon as they make it out of the other side Sanji's legs give up and dump him on the floor bent over on his knees with the top of his head pressed into the ground. He watches a worrying stream of blood gush from the hole in his chest onto the grass below. He's not sure if it's from the blood loss or from the smoke but he's really starting to feel quite weak and lightheaded.
Zoro rolls him onto his side and lifts up his drenched shirt to examine the cut that goes right through him. He groans and shuts his eyes, hoping that the world will stop spinning soon. His skin feels dull and dimmed, like he's feeling everything through a thick blanket. He's probably going into shock or something, oh man, Chopper will probably kill him for this if he doesn't die and if he does die Chopper will find some way to bring him back to life so he can kill him for it.
Zoro's finger skirts along the edge of the cut, making Sanji jerk in a sudden gasp which sets him off coughing again.
"I can't breathe right and… everything's kinda numb." He croaks, looking blearily up at Zoro. The swordsman's face contorts in guilt. Zoro picks him up gingerly and carries him on his back, he runs around the burning building desperately trying to find their nakama. Unfortunately they run into marines first and Zoro has to try and run backwards away from them as unsurprisingly they're none too keen to see the two of them.
Zoro squeaks and ducks around the corner with Sanji on his back, he breaks into a sprint that's exceedingly uncomfortable. Every fast footstep he takes sends a jolt of pain through Sanji's chest and the whole breathing problem is only getting worse. Zoro keeps running into marines every which way he goes, but somehow he seems to manage to keep turning left and ending up in different places, Sanji swears that he sees Zoro go left around a building four times and end up in a completely different part of town. After a few minutes the swordsman manages to lose them in the woods, but with no sign of their nakama in sight the only choice Zoro has is to run for the ship. Not that Sanji can help with that, Zoro's gotten so twisted and turned around that even Sanji has no idea where they are. He is fairly sure though that several clearly wrong turnings in the woods away from the ocean should not lead them to the Sunny in five minutes, especially when the trip into town took half an hour and they had to go up a mountain to do it.
"How the fuck? Did the mountain move or something? How did you even-?" He groans in bewilderment. Zoro apparently isn't feeling quite so guilty about stabbing him that he doesn't have time to give him an "I told you so" look.
"OI!" Zoro shouts, running onto the ship with Sanji limply sprawled over his back and shoulders. Sanji closes his eyes, he's so goddamn dizzy and Zoro shouting and running about isn't helping. The swordsman eventually dumps him on a bed, Sanji would guess in the infirmary, he can't really tell as he's too tired to open his eyes.
He can hear the sound of Zoro whining and snarling to himself as he crashes around the infirmary, apparently he's not calm enough to remember how to speak again yet, though he bets that if Zoro could he'd be swearing up a storm.
Zoro shakes him sharply and when that doesn't make Sanji open his eyes Zoro smacks him in the cheek, which startles him enough to open his eyes. Suddenly two dark shapes are thrust in front of his face, Sanji squints and blinks, trying to focus his eyes enough to see what they are. He frowns, they're… a really dark red, almost black, with labels on. Oh. Blood. Chopper keeps blood of all of the crew's types just for situations like these, Sanji's never fond of donating as he's not a huge fan of needles. He squints, the two bags Zoro has in his hands have Robin and Nami's names on respectively and neither of them are the same blood type as him. No one on the crew is the same as him.
He shakes his head feebly and Zoro snarls, dropping to the floor out of Sanji's line of sight. With exhaustion creeping into his bones Sanji lets his head drop to the side and sees Zoro crouched on the floor, surrounded by similar bags and desperately holding them up to his face. This is a really shitty time to be stuck with someone who can't read. Though what's Zoro going to do if he even does find one of Sanji's bags of blood? Does the swordsman even know what to do with it? Sanji sure as shit wouldn't know, he's fairly sure it's more complicated than just stabbing someone in the arm with one end and holding the other up. The swordsman looks like he could cry with frustration and Sanji's simply never seen him look like that before, helpless is never a word he's ever associated with Zoro. Hopeless sure but never helpless. But sat on the floor desperately searching through blood, knowing that he can't read and probably can't help anyway, but knowing that blood is precisely what he needs right now… well, helpless sums it up pretty well.
"Zoro, s… 's okay. 'S not your fault." He whispers, his speech slurring and his mouth horribly dry. Zoro hisses at him and continues ripping the bags out of the fridge. The back of his shirt is stained completely with Sanji's blood, he must have bled out loads on the way here.
Shit. What a shitty way to die. He knows what happened last time Zoro blamed himself for someone's death. He hopes the others manage to convince Zoro that this isn't his fault. He wonders vaguely if the swordsman will keep something of his, like that little girl's sword.