Sanji smiled as his whole being filled with relief looking down at an intact Sunny and even more at an intact crew. He thought that his feelings are reflected most both on Usopp's and Nami's face more than anyone, if he goes by the glistening eyes of the sharpshooter and the glowing smile of the navigator.
Patting Chopper's head while they jumped down from the enormous bird the doctor has somehow befriended, he listened to Brook's cry for Luffy; Mixed with Franky's immediate uplifting compliments, it made his smile wider to the point that he can't keep himself from grinning.
BOOM-BOOM!
The sound of cannon firing from a nearby Navy ship distracted everyone for a bit, Sanji took a grounding step towards the bannister of the deck, ready to defend the Sunny before another ship came into view, seemingly blocking the way for the marines to sail forward.
Usopp quickly fills the spot beside him, chucking a telescope in his hand and immediately uses another one for himself. Sanji shrugged and looked through the magnifier.
The ship was massive, about half the size of the Navy's battleship itself. And it was pulled by two… snakes? Sea snakes, he decided. The people on board consist of what he could see to be warriors, with a sense of strong femininity. Their sail pictured a skull with snake heads surrounding it.
"That's the emblem of Kuja, an all-female pirate crew, led by one of The Seven Warlords, The Pirate Empress." He heard Robin identify the ship immediately.
"Y-yo, a Warlord?!" Usopp concerned comment came in time after the revelation.
"Real females…?" He can't help but wonder out loud, knowing he well-earned the slight slap from the marksman next to him.
"Oh, that's Hancock!" What.
His mind is screeching in halt. That was Luffy's voice. Nami asked if the idiot captain knew the Warlord personally but Sanji's mind was already short circuited so he didn't hear the rest of the conversation, but he knew Luffy.
He turned around to see Luffy just nonchalantly smile at the ship. "That was lucky! Let's go! Let's set sail!"
Sanji just resigned to his fate. It was just so… Luffy to be able to befriend another insanely powerful person, making allies amidst the most unexpected situations. If what the paper goes with is true.
He saw Usopp running to the opposite railing of the deck, watching the mangrove's roots approach and noting that somehow the Marines are not yet able to follow them to the beach. Sanji would have responded that the navy feels a bit scattered but held himself back when he caught Luffy grinned even wider at Usopp's comment and the Captain asked Nami if they were ready to set sail. Her responses came in the form of Franky rising from the water not even a second later, telling her that he had released the buoyancy bag.
"WELL THEN!" Luffy started. "I have so many things to say to you guys, but, right now this is it: Thank you for going along with my selfish whim for the past two years!" and then he laughed.
"It's not like this is the first time we got dragged into your craziness," Sanji can't help but say. He heard Usopp agreeing with a laugh from beside him.
He looked up as the bubble from the ship's coating expanded, engulfing them in some sort of dome. The smell of freshly cut grass lawn and faint tangerines is what he misses most about Sunny—even more than the kitchen.
"FISHMAN ISLAAAAAND!" Luffy threw his hands up in the air. "HERE WE COOOOOOME!"
Will Sanji's mind survive another voyage with the idiot captain? He shook his head and smiled. Probably. Nothing will faze him anymore, knowing how bizarre his captain is.
If he only didn't jinx himself.
Because in the next moment, the stupid swordsman broke the silence that follows them when Sunny starts submerging down the sea surface.
"So," The green haired man nonchalantly starts. Everyone was admiring how beautiful the shallow part of the ocean, filled with fishes swimming between the mangrove roots. Sanji almost retorts back about how he ruined the moment, but Zoro's next sentence shocked everyone.
"No one will point out that we have a stowaway on the garden deck?"
"HUH?!" Everyone quickly turned their heads towards the swordsman except for Luffy.
"I thought you guys knew?"
Usopp, Nami and Chopper immediately pinched Luffy's cheeks and pulled it hard.
"WHY DIDNT YOU TELL US BEFOREEEE?" They groaned together. Chopper also turned to Zoro to climb and bit his ears. "You too Zoro!" The ship doctor chirps angrily. The swordsman himself looks unfazed.
"They're Non-threatening."
"What do you mean by 'Non-threatening' Zoro!" Cried Usopp.
"I didn't notice them until we're underwater. They're that Non-threatening."
Sanji took a drag off his cigarette, filling the gap of his mouth with the puff before releasing it, taking comfort while finally checking his surroundings with his Observation Haki. The stupid swordsman was right. The stowaway was small in the presence of Haki. He doesn't know if he should feel justified or offended and angry at himself because he didn't notice them sooner. He should be the one with exceptional Observation, goddamnit.
"Shishishi! Let's check it out!" Before anyone could react, Luffy already propelled himself to the garden deck above the kitchen with a boin! sound echoing behind him.
"Oi, oi, wait, Luffy!" Usopp nimbly jumped to the stairs with only one hand supporting him from the rails. It took a second for Sanji to get used to how fit the sharpshooter has become. Their doctor, too, followed Luffy and Usopp, maybe way more concerned for the stowaway than his crewmates. And not long after, Brook seemed to give in to his own curiosity.
The rest of them waited, the stupid swordsman already took a spot near the tree to obviously nap, Franky and Robin standing side by side idly talking about what they've been up to, mostly Franky offering to build the Archeologist stuff. Nami already busied herself by checking Sunny's surroundings and Sanji decided he should start prepping the kitchen when a loud yell came from the garden deck.
Sanji didn't hesitate to jump up and land on the garden deck, just behind where Brook is standing. He could feel the rest from the main deck following his move. "Guys, what's wrong?"
"Ah, it's Sanji-san!" Brook said.
The picture of the situation in front of him could be described as weird, with Chopper laying down near Nami's tangerine trees and Usopp crouched next to him. Luffy stood up from where he was bowed before. "Sanji! You should see this!"
Sanji frowned upon the words mouthed by the captain, wondering why him out of everyone on board was singled out to be interested in the stowaway. Is it a woman in need of help? He almost got excited until he came face to face with… himself.
Suddenly his ears deafened with the beating of his heart. The faint smell of overgrown mold and rusted dungeon, overwhelming metallic taste in his mouth, the weight of a helmet around his head.
He could faintly hear Luffy muttering something about his cigarette, but he could not shake his eyes away from the image in front of him.
The figure that clings to Nami's tangerine tree sniffled. His free hand rubbed his runny button nose and puffy cheeks. The swirl of his eyebrows almost covered by the mop of blond hair. The most striking part of this figure is the teary big blue eyes that remind Sanji of… his late mother.
It's a toddler who disturbingly looked like him. Is this him, as in Sanji from the past? His brain started to go on a mile per mili second. He would not put it past the weirdness of Grand Line to be able to conjure—
"Sora?!" Everyone turned to Nami who looked like she had seen a ghost. But what everyone didn't expect was the toddler's reply.
"Mama!"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHH?!" Nearly everyone cried. Not even Zoro expected it, as the swordsman's eyes went wide with his teeth immediately gritted. "MAMAAAAA?!" The rest continued, Robin even looked like she's taken aback and loss for words for the first time.
Half an hour ago, on a sky island porting right above Sabaody archipelago called Wheatheria…
Sora has been avoiding fellow scientists after his outburst following their explanation on Nami's departure.
Haredas can only sighed in defeat, the boy might not have his mother's colorings, but he does inherit her stubbornness. The boy might only be seventeen months old but he has been showing advanced development. Maybe not extremely, because his body growth matches his age, but the way he understands most of what an adult is saying to him is a testament of how smart the toddler is.
He did expect some sort of tantrum from the boy, but what he didn't expect was for the boy to run out of the house to a nearby port. The scientist tries his hardest to catch up to the boy but somehow Sora is faster than he ever was before.
Haredas then watches as the almost two years old falls from the edge of the island, feeling as if his lifespan shortened in half (and he's already an oldman!) and his consciousness is gone from the physical world.
"Sora-KUN!"
Her heart almost stopped when she saw her son on the ship. Clutching to her tangerine tree like a lifeline. "H-how?" but her son didn't answer of course, only cried harder, and toddled his way to her trembling legs.
"MA-MAMA?" Usopp exclaimed, breaking the silence that stretched across the ship, "Nami, are you going to mention him to us at some point?!"
Will she? Maybe, at the end of their voyage, or just before her death. She doesn't have the guts to look at her crewmates. Especially him. Not him. She chose to ignore Usopp and turned to Luffy instead, "Luffy," She looked her captain in the eye. "I need to go back. Sora can't be here."
"Really, Nami?" Usopp tried again, his voice laced with a hint of hurt and disappointment.
Ignoring him once again, this time she turns to Franky, knowing that Luffy won't mind her overstepping his orders right now, right? "Franky, can you use one Coup de Burst to get us back?"
"I'm afraid, Nami-sis, we cannot do that," Franky sounds apologetic for once "Rayleigh-san said as soon as we hit the surface, the pressure between the water and the air will immediately pop the coating off."
"And that means we have to wait for another three days to recoat it," She finishes. Damn. She bit her lower lip in frustration.
Franky looked up. "Not to mention there will be dozens of Navy battle ships waiting for us up there,"
Suddenly it dawns on Nami, she pulls out the note that Rayleigh has given to her. "They are hoping we didn't survive the journey to the bottom of the ocean."
"Be careful, 70% of ships sailing for fishman island sunk before they ever get there"
The note said. Nami lowered her trembling hands.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?!" She heard Chopper wails. "DOES THIS MEAN WE'RE GONNA DIE?!"
And still, Usopp stepped forward, not caring about their current situation. "Come on, Nami?" The sharpshooter presses.
"Usopp-san…" Both Brook and Robin weakly uttered his name, but he ignored them.
Usually, when the crews have an argument, it's either Nami, Usopp or Chopper who would break them apart. But this time, it's something that's unprecedented. There's unknown tension between the two of them and Nami tries to understand why.
Their beloved sharpshooter has been living on his own since his childhood when his mother died of illness and not knowing anything about his own dad when the man left him for the seas. Even when he's proud of his own lineage, sometimes Usopp was bitter that he does not know much about his own dad as he had confided to her in the past. Was he immediately assuming that she's abandoning her son?
"The Wheatherians scientist promises me they're gonna bring him to Nojiko!"
"SO! You would never tell us about him!"
Not even Chopper is able to say anything to calm Usopp right now. Usopp seemed to suddenly have unconstrained anger towards her. The rest of the crew actually seemed to be speechless—even him.
"Is it because he's the spitting image of Sanji?"
Oh. Oh. Nami now understood. "Thats…"
"Oi Usopp." Luffy walked away from where he was standing next to Usopp towards where she stands. Nami could feel Sora turn his head around to peek at the incoming man walking towards him. "Nami didn't owe us any explanation," Luffy then kneeled right in front of Sora.
"Hi there! My name is Luffy!" Sora stepped away from Nami's leg, but his hands were still sticking to her jeans. Luffy just crouched in that absentminded way of his. "You know, I would be King of The Pirates one day!" He exclaimed to the child who looked a bit startled at him.
"King…?" Sora murmured unsurely.
"Yeah!" Luffy then grinned. "Right now you can call me your Uncle! Uncle Luffy! Shishishi! Right, Nami?" her captain looked up and Nami could only stare at him.
"Un…cle?" Sora quietly repeated again and Luffy turned his gaze back to the toddler. "That's right!" The captain ruffled the toddler's hair, making Sora let go of Nami's jeans to hold his own head.
"What's your name?" Luffy patiently waited as the toddler only looked at him, before quietly chirping out his response.
"Sora…"
"Yosh, Sora…!" Luffy suddenly scooped the boy in his arms. "From now on, YOU'RE PART OF OUR CREW!"
Luffy's declaration brought him back from his stupor.
"Wait, Luffy, Sora is not even two yet!" The toddler's name isSORA and phantom hummings bouncing along high stone walls echoed in Sanji's mind; And he's not even two.
"Of course, there's only one of him right?"
Sanji's eyes bulged. There could be more? Twins? Quartet? Does his horrible lineage factor somehow could be passed down to his offspring? It's possible right? Judge was a hell of a man, he could make mutation so strong it would be able to—
THUNK! Zoro clocked Luffy on the head with his fist, somehow missing Sora in his trajectory. "It's his age, you stupid captain!"
"It's okay! Uta was around this guy's big when Shanks found her in his ship and she travelled with him until she's like, eight!" Luffy said as he massaged his head bump. "And Shanks himself and Buggy had been on Oro Jackson since they were babies!"
"Huh, didn't know that," Franky quipped at the mention of the legendary ship.
"Yeah! Rayleigh told me himself!" Usopp looked to be somewhat pacified at the captain's claim, the sharpshooter let out a sigh as he crossed his arms. "You're okay?" Luffy asked him.
"Y-yeah," Usopp then turned to the woman that Sanji has not been able to look at since this whole debacle started. "Sorry, Nami." but Nami didn't get a chance to reply because Luffy addresses them once again.
"YOSH! Sora is now a part of us!" The captain looked at their eyes one by one, Sanji could feel that Luffy's eyes lingered at him before moving on. "THERE ARE NO PLACE SAFER FOR HIM THAN HERE, WITH US!"
"Is that okay with you, Nami?"
"NOW YOU ASKED HER?!" Franky, Zoro, Usopp and Chopper angrily yelled at Luffy for his selfishness again. Nami finally looked up, tears in her eyes but a smile bloomed on her face.
"MMmm!" She nodded, shedding a few tears away with her fingers.
There's a small high-pitch chuckle that came so suddenly, and everyone turned to their captain, who only looked down to the little guy in his arms. Sora pointed towards Luffy's face.
"Uncle Luffy! Funny!" Luffy's eye bulged as he picked up Sora by his armpits, and hanged the toddler away as the captain suddenly looked like he's about to throw up.
"Luffy what's—" Sanji moved closer so fast without thinking and suddenly Luffy looked up towards him, eyes sparkling. "SANJI! WERE YOU THIS CUTE WHEN YOU WERE SMALL?!"
Sanji clamped up and grinded his teeth together. He turned away "I'll make us a meal."
Somehow his feet walked him on autopilot towards the kitchen, because he didn't remember the journey. Once he got inside the safety of the kitchen, where he has control over, he lit up another stick of cigarette.
WHAT was that…?
With a soft click, he brought trembling hands closer to his face, light from the fire dancing in front of his eyes as it touched the tip of his cigarette, then it burns.
Just like the memories of how exactly things happened have been imprinted to his mind.
Two years and a month ago, near Florian Triangle, Paradise side of Grand Line…
It was into their second night after the whole Two Warlords and Stolen Shadow fiasco, all the food had been distributed to the ongoing party inside the broken mansion. Sanji found himself on an isolated balcony, a little bit far away yet, the notes from the piano a few stories below can still be heard.
Nami was beside him, the one who asked to be whisked away from the crowds. "What is it, Nami-san?" she just hugged him. And Sanji decided to wrap his hands around her, trying to keep her away from the cold windy night. It's not unusual for the crew to share hugs, sleeping in the same room, sharing spaces together; They're quite literally a family. Luffy made them so.
But tonight there was something to it that felt different. He wasn't under any alcohol influence since it's a strict order from Chopper to not take any. For Nami, he knew she could hold her liquor best between all nine of them. It's something that annoys the still resting stupid swordsman to no end.
There is also that part of him that rejects the notion that someone could ever want him… without even expecting anything in return. So Sanji would never assume something more from anyone, let alone Nami. The woman that plagued his mind, in a good way.
So what happened next may have been pure carnal instinct; Something that could ground them to the reality after the nightmare; That they are alive. Maybe that's why they never talked about it afterwards, they never really instigate any other moment like that. Because that was it.
For Sanji, it was something he would cherish for the rest of his life.
For Nami, it was nice while it lasted, yet it changes how she lives her life in their separation.
It was a nice sunny day—without any scientists' intervention on the weather—when Nami found out she was with child. She didn't think much about what to do at all; She was just reminded of her own mother, Bellemere and she decided to keep the child and raise them before setting sail to reach her dream again.
It was stupid on her part for not considering how easy her heart gave in to the bond that she had with the child.
Months passed, she had tried to ignore all the fluttery feelings she got during pregnancy. Her mother might not be biological, but Nami kept wondering if Bellemere ever feels an unreasonable immense pride like how she felt when she first felt the movement inside her belly?
She ignored the sadness that creeps in. Darkness that stays way longer than she welcomes them, sometimes night after night. But she holds on to the feeling of loneliness, knowing that there's an end to it. She holds on to her dreams and the hopes that she had for the future.
It was stormy—all natural, Haredas claimed—when she gave birth to a smaller-than-average blond boy. She almost laughed with hysteria when she realised the date. He got everything from his father, down to his eyebrows. When he first opened his eyes, it was light grey; But she could see the blue ocean reflected on them.
So she named him after the colour of the sea and the sky above them—because dreams brought them together. Her crew, the family that sailed the vast ocean.
She held Sora close to her heart, realising that she would not be able to live—if something ever happened to him. Pure selfishness would be the reason why she wanted him to stay with Nojiko—so he could not be reached by the evilness of the world—the one that put bounty over both of his parents' heads—shrouded by calm waves in the weakest of all blues.
So when Luffy declared his willingness to protect Sora—Nami could not help the tears that came with the flood of relief, filling her entire being. She believes in her captain.
But then Luffy had to just—
With a beat, he left for the kitchen, leaving the garden deck in an unexplained silence after his steps. Nami stared at the railings of the stairs, looking through a ghost of a movement when his blond locks finally disappeared from her sight.
For the first time in a while, Sanji is lost on what to do. His hands twitched and nudged towards cooking—but he found himself just staring at the clean kitchen top, watching his own distorted reflection on it.
He's not unfamiliar with running away but this time—it feels wrong.
He doesn't know how he's supposed to feel. About the child. About Nami. About the fact that the child was coincidentally named after his own mother. And how all of that reminded him of his life before East Blue.
Without any warning he slapped himself on both cheeks trying to replace helplessness with the sense of duty (in the back of his mind, however, he knew compartmentalising this for later could end up with disaster) he has recipes to follow and a crew to feed.
Funnily enough, he started thinking of appropriate food for Sora—Sanji winced—and fell to the conclusion that the toddler could probably eat proper food since he's almost two, and Sanji caught a glimpse of developed teeth. Smaller cuts for everything then.
