This was why he liked his submarine.

Law was cursing loudly – not that anyone could hear him over the thunder and roar of the waves – as the storm raged around them. He had just finished lashing a line that Nami had yelled out about securing, and as the ship had pitched forward violently, he had tightened his grip on the railing of the ship, his feet sliding a little on the soaked deck. He thought, crazily, would his boots have a better or worse grip if he were standing further down on the deck where Franky had put actual green grass?

He was glad now, that he'd left Kikoku in the galley. He didn't often like being away from his cursed sword, it's familiar presence a balm to him. But with the tossing that the Sunny was currently doing, and the grip that he was needing to keep on the railing, he was sure he'd have fallen overboard or lost the nodachi by now had she come with him.

"Torao!"

Law turned to the voice, and saw Zoro standing near Nami at the wheel.

"There's nothing else to do until we get out of this. Get inside!"

Law looked around again as Zoro moved quickly to the lower deck. Law stared for a moment, wondering what on earth he could be doing if it was all taken care of.

And then he saw Luffy. The absolute idiot was laughing and laying in the middle of the grassy area of the deck, sliding every which direction as the ship bucked and swayed on the waves. Law couldn't believe how reckless he was being. He knew that Luffy probably thought it was a lot of fun, some sort of joyride. But as a devil fruit user, what he was doing was incredibly dangerous.

At least some of the Straw Hats had some sense, Law thought, as he watched Zoro stumble his way toward his captain. He could see that the green haired man was yelling something at Luffy, and then the ship pitched again. Luffy had started to get up, and the ship lurching had thrown him into Zoro. The two of them slid toward the side of the ship, and Law felt his heart skip a beat as he realized they were about to go over the edge.

More on instinct than anything else, Law quickly pulled up his hand, calling a room. With how many raindrops there were, it wasn't hard to quickly switch the two men and set them near the lounge doorway, just below Nami on the other side of the lawn.

And then the ship compensated for the first tilt, jerking harshly the other direction.

And Law, holding on with only one hand, lurched backwards and over the railing.

Panic filled him, and he reached out desperately for the railing that he'd just slipped from, but the tilt of the ship changed again and it lurched away faster than should have been possible. He tried to call another room, to shambles himself back onto the deck. But he was too disoriented with the sudden change in position, and the moment the blue flickered to life, his back hit the water and it completely faded.

The cold water sucked him in immediately. Being so close to the ship, he was immediately pulled in and under by the suction. If he'd been able to make a coherent thought, he would realize just how bad that was. But the sea water was quickly sapping his strength, and his thoughts felt incredibly cloudy and hard to grasp.

Law's final semi coherent thought before the hull of the ship crashed into the back of his head, was that he really missed his submarine.

Sanji had been working in the galley on supper when Nami had called out to Luffy that there were storm clouds approaching, and quickly.

"Can we just coup de burst out of here?" Zoro had asked, while he stared at the offending clouds standing beside the captain. Sanji had walked to the door, and was watching the group try to decide what to do.

"No can do," Franky yelled from somewhere below. Sanji saw his blue hair pop up from the lower decks for an instant and then disappear again. "We used too much cola up when we were trying to get away from that whirlpool yesterday. Since there hasn't been an island yet since Punk Hazard, we haven't had a chance to stock up the supply again."

Sanji huffed as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it quickly. He looked up, not caring too much for the storm clouds that had started to make things much darker now than they had been only a few minutes before. The waves were getting choppier too.

"Nami-swan, do you need me out here?"

Nami turned from where she was standing at the helm, giving him a quick once over. Sanji was still wearing his gentle cook apron after working on meal prep for so long.

"Stay inside, Sanji-kun. I'm sure there are things you'll want to put on hold if the water gets any choppier. If we need help, we'll holler."

Sanji nodded as he puffed a ring of smoke. He turned back to the kitchen, at his meal prep. The ship was already rocking more than he would have liked, and the knife he had left on the counter was sliding closer to the edge. He moved forward, quickly busying himself. He cursed quietly as he put ingredients from the supper prep into containers and into a more secured location. He had promised a special meal to Luffy tonight, as he'd been particularly good and not come into the kitchen at all outside of meal times. It was a rare feat, but one that he could accomplish under the right leverage. With this incoming storm though, there was no safe way to cook what he wanted to without half the ingredients flying across the kitchen.

Sanji was so engrossed in his work, that he startled when he heard the whining of their resident hostage.

Having a hostage is still so strange, he thought.

Caesar Clown was still tied up in the sea stone chains. They didn't have a proper brig on board, and even though they had talked about throwing him into the laundry room at one point, everyone was still a little unsure of the poison man and no one really wanted him out of their sight. He and Law had become almost permanent fixtures on the lower deck in the last two days since they'd sailed away from Punk Hazard.

Speaking of their other dubious passenger, Law was currently behind Caesar, and the current reason that he was cursing up a storm.

"I can get inside just fine thank you very much!"

Law was, wisely, not touching the sea stone chains they had the man wrapped up in. But he was forcing him forward with the hilt of his sword, and none too gently.

"Move faster, Casear-ya. I don't want there to be any reason that you go over the edge during this storm."

Sanji raised an eyebrow. He pulled his apron off, the food prep and cleanup finished. "And what do I owe the honor of having him in here of all places during this storm?"

Law barely glanced at him. "He was very unwelcome down below with the others. Tony-ya and Sniper-ya were very adamant about him not joining them in the lounge," he said. Turning to the door, he hesitated a minute and the leaned his long sword in the corner. "I am not moving him again, and want to make sure Nami-ya doesn't need anything. Make sure he behaves." And before Sanji could sputter out any type of protest, Law was walking out the door again.

Sanji glared at Caesar. The purple man wilted a little under his gaze.

"Keep away from the food. Sit on the couch, and stay there."

The ship gave a rather deep lurch, and he heard some shouting from outside. Discarding his now used cigarette, Sanji moved to the door. He spared a moment to move Law's sword, realizing that if the ship continued to buck like it was, that it wouldn't stay in that spot. He took it quickly and tucked it into a cupboard where it would be more secure. Later, he would have to remember to tell Law about it.

There was another shout, and Sanji turned back to the door. The moment he stepped outside, he was drenched with rain.

Oh. It had gotten bad fast.

The only people he could see on the deck currently was his beautiful Nami-swan, who was hanging onto the helm as if her life depended on it, Zoro, and Law. Sanji was only slightly comforted that Zoro was standing behind Nami, one hand on the railing in front of the helm, the other another steadying hand on the wheel itself. Law was working to the right, braced against the wind and rain, tying a rope that appeared to have gone loose over on the side. Sanji took a step forward, holding onto the door still. He was still very aware of the purple monstrosity behind him, thank you very much. But he was looking for – ah. There he was.

"Luffy!" he yelled. The stupid captain was playing.

Zoro turned and looked back at him, and then forward to Luffy who was sliding all around the grass on the deck as the ship tossed and turned. They could just barely make out the sound of his laughter over the pouring rain and the thunder that was rumbling around him. Sanji took a step forward, but was saved as he saw Nami lean forward to say something to Zoro. The mosshead turned back to Sanji, waving him away. He then turned toward Law, yelling to get into the galley. At least, that was what Sanji thought he said.

Sanji stepped back, and Zoro was then making his way down to the deck to get their captain and hopefully save him from a watery grave if they went overboard. Nami seemed to be doing alright, and it was then that the blond saw she was actually tied with a lifeline to the helm.

Ahhh, what a smart navigator Nami-swan is.

Then everything happened at once.

Zoro had reached Luffy, and was yelling something at him. Luffy started to stand up, and the ship had lurched hard to the left. Luffy lost his balance, and hit Zoro head on. The Swordsman in turn lost his footing, and the two of them were quickly making their way toward the railing, and that certain watery grave –

And then Sanji saw blue. He hadn't seen Law's rooms very often so far, but he'd seen the man humoring Chopper after breakfast, showing him the intricacies of what he could do with it in a small space. This room this was much bigger. And in a moment, before Sanji had even realized that he had started to move toward Luffy and Zoro, the two of them were suddenly gone. Not overboard gone, but moved out of harms-way gone.

Then the ship violently shifted back to the right, and Sanji was immediately turning to look at Law. He was still standing where he'd been before, but only holding on with one hand, the other still outstretched from where he'd created his room.

And he slipped.

"Torao!" Nami was yelling, even as the lanky man flipped over the edge of the ship, the water quickly swallowing him as the ship tilted dangerously to the side. Then she gasped, and shouted a louder, "Sanji!"

Sanji hadn't let himself think. The moment he'd seen Law's hand slipping, he'd been sprinting. When Law hit the water, he was already diving in after the other man.

The water was cold. Bone chillingly so.

And they were in a very dangerous spot. The rocking ship above them was tilting back, and the force of the water was quickly sucking them under. It was almost pitch black in the water, but Sanji spread his observation haki out and could feel Law immediately.

And ouch, he was pretty sure he just hit the Sunny, and hard. Sanji just barely avoided the same fate, giving a powerful kick downward. His hands went out, and he managed to snag the fabric of Law's hoodie. Even as he pulled the limp surgeon towards him, he was kicking downward again. He needed to get out from underneath the Sunny. If he didn't, the were going to be bashed against it again, and most likely drown.

His lungs screaming, Sanji finally decided they were far enough down, and he started to swim out. Once he was sure he'd cleared the ship enough, he surfaced.

It was hard to breath, when the waves were so choppy and very intent on drowning them again. There were a few times that they almost succeeded too. It was an exhausting dance of him popping up and then getting swallowed up again, and Sanji didn't know how long it lasted. But the time there seemed to be enough of a break in the wildness of the waves, Sanji realized he had made a grave mistake.

They had drifted too far from the Sunny, and they were moving even further away. Sanji kept trying to get his sky walk to start, but it was hard to start in the water. He had been working on that, but it was easier to get it to work in air. He had hoped that Nami would have alerted someone else to them going overboard and at the least, have a lifeline thrown out to them. But if there was anyone looking for them, Sanji couldn't see. The Sunny was already so far away, and it was getting even further every second.

Shit. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

It was an exhausting endeavor. How long they bobbed on the water, Sanji hoping that Law was still breathing, he didn't know. But at some point, minutes or hours in, searching and searching for anything, he found some driftwood. He didn't know where it came from, but he was so thankful that he would have kissed a transvestite at this point.

Okay, maybe not that thankful.

The challenge was getting Law onto it. The piece of driftwood was large enough to lay on, but just barely. The water was still very choppy, and the taller man very awkward to move. But somehow, the cook got him maneuvered up. And then he tried to slip right back into the water.

The waves weren't as bad as they had been, but they were far from calm. And Sanji was so very tired at this point, and absolutely freezing. He finally managed one, two, three kicks. And was up and out of the water. But he didn't want to try anymore. Not now. If he tried to skywalk now, he'd end up face planting right back into the water.

If he fell very unceremoniously onto the unconscious former warlord, and then proceeded to wrap himself around said man and the driftwood together in a strange semblance of a hug, well, he'd never tell anyone else. And hopefully, Law would never be conscious to see it.

As it was, Sanji was so tired. But if he fell asleep, if he let go, they would both fall back into the sea.

And so he hung on, and wished that he had just stayed in the kitchen and minded his own business.

Cross Posted on A03. Updates will be irregular for right now. Leave a review and let me know what you think!