Flotsam Bright

by Minglisabeth

Summary:

"Give him to me."

Sanji looked down to see wide, terrified golden eyes staring up at him through greasy locks of white hair. His little hands fisted in the fabric of Sanji’s chefs jacket.

Sanji looked back up at the man and made a decision he had no idea would affect the rest of his life.

“You know what?” He said, turning to shield the kid with his body. “I don’t think I will.

AKA: Sanji and Zoro accidentally acquire a child

Chapter 1

As much as Sanji occasionally missed the nonstop excitement that sailing with Luffy brought, he had to admit that routine was one of his favorite things about his life on the All Blue. 

He had his and he did not deviate very far from it.

He woke up early every morning to start prep. He got dressed in his black chef’s jacket and made sure to leave his sleeping partner with a gentle kiss before heading down the winding staircases of the Toubleu .

HIS restaurant.

Even after three years it didn’t feel completely real. Built by Franky with some help from the Water 7 guys, the Toubleu was an impressive sight to see floating on the All Blue. It was tiered, much like the Baratie , with separate levels for dining, storage, and living quarters. There was definitely a Sanji- esque flair to everything. The wood was lacquered a dark, luxurious blue and the ship featured a black swan figurehead rather than the hideous fish Zeff had slapped on his.

And of course, Zoro had insisted that if he was going to live on “ some damn floating eyesore” he would need his own space. “ His” enclosed crows nest sprung out from the topmost, private level where Sanji and Zoro lived. It had Restaurant Toubleu scrawled across its side in elegant script, drawing hungry patrons in from miles and miles of surrounding ocean.

Sanji smiled up at it as he bounded down the final, outdoor staircase that led to the main dining and kitchen level. The sun hadn’t quite risen yet and he was feeling great.

Just like he did every morning, he met with his sous chef to go over the menu for the day. He made sure one of his runners had his weekly supply order and sent him off to the nearest island. He did a walkaround, making sure the dining hall and outdoor area were clean and ready for guests. And then he settled into his personal corner of the kitchen and got started on dough for the various breads they would serve throughout the day.

Routine. 

His staff would trickle in over the next hour and start their own preparations. Patrons would start docking an hour after that. Zoro would show up well after breakfast to find Sanji had set aside a plate of something for him. He would eat it quietly on “ his” stool pulled up to the end of Sanji’s workstation before being chased away to “ bathe for fucks sake, Marimo.”

Zoro would kiss him on the cheek before he left and Sanji would wait until he had disappeared to let himself smile.

Unfortunately for him and fortunately for Zoro (who craved a bit of excitement now and again) the All Blue was still just as unpredictable as the rest of the Grand Line. They were also both still wanted pirates with insanely large bounties. Fairly often Sanji’s routine was thrown off by some brave bounty hunter deciding to take them on, a past adversary looking for revenge, a marine raid, or a new band of pirates deciding that the floating restaurant would make a great target.

Sanji assumed it was one of those events when people in his dining hall started shouting shortly before Zoro appeared in his kitchen halfway through his dinner service.

“We got incoming!” The swordsman shouted before disappearing just as quickly. 

“ Fuck.” Sanji ripped off his apron and tossed it aside. He dashed out the door, commanding his staff to “Keep cooking dammit!”

The dining hall was swiftly emptying, all of his diners running outside to see what was happening.

Sanji shoved his way through them until he was next to Zoro at the rail.

“Marines?” Sanji asked.

“No.” Zoro jerked his head toward the horizon where a column of black smoke was billowing up toward an otherwise spotless blue sky.

Sanji followed the smoke down to its origin on the water. A speck of a ship was just barely coming into view. Visible flames lapped up the main mast, creeping toward a black pirate flag; the “bones” in the traditional skull and crossbones were replaced with keys.

It was coming toward them, and fast.

“It hasn’t slowed down?” Sanji asked. 

“No.” Zoro’s face was hard, staring at the incoming ship. Neither of them possessed Nami’s skill in navigation and judging nautical distances… but they both knew that the ship was already too close to slow down safely.

It was going to hit the Toubleu .

Sanji whirled around, looking over the crowd of concerned diners to the restaurant’s docking area. The restaurant WAS a ship, swiftly gaining renown for its ability to bring the All Blue’s cuisine to all kinds of islands and the seafarers that traveled in between… But it couldn’t go anywhere with its massive docking deck unfolded and there were at least half a dozen ships tied to it.

“ Fuck. ” Sanji said again, shoving back through the crowd. “TAJIO!!!!”

“YES CHEF!?” His small, former marine sous chef appeared at the entrance of the dining hall. 

“Is the supply ship back!?”

“Yes chef!”

“Get me three men on it!” Sanji demanded. “Set everyone else to battle stations! If we can’t change its course, you blow that ship out of the damn water, understood!?”

“YES CHEF!”

Within sixty seconds Sanji, Zoro, and three of their crew were flying over the waves in the small supply cutter they kept for short journeys. It didn’t have weapons, but it didn’t need them with a focused Zoro and a panicked Sanji on board. 

“I’ll find the wheel. You kill anyone that tries to stop me.” Sanji said as they got closer.

“With pleasure.” Zoro shot him a grin before he slipped one of his blades between his teeth and leapt aboard the burning ship. 

Sanji commanded his crew to stay put and then followed his partner. He landed in a defensive stance, tensed and ready to fight. He relaxed a smidge when he noticed Zoro sheathing his third sword, keeping only two out.

“Don’t think anyone is going to try and stop you Swirly.” Zoro sounded disappointed. 

Sanji looked around to see what Zoro was talking about. There were pirates everywhere, but they were all dead. 

Dead and decidedly…. Crispy.

He didn’t linger on the cause of death very long. His restaurant was still at risk. A quick glance revealed a ship's wheel high on the quarterdeck. He dodged pillars of flame, spreading from the mast to other parts of the ship now, and used a swift kick to set the wheel spinning.

The rudder below let out a massive groan at the sudden and extreme shift in direction. For a split second Sanji feared it hadn’t worked and his throat tightened. But then the bow began to lilt to starboard, sending the ship in a lazy arc, safely away from the Toubleu.

Sanji let out a sigh of relief, short lived before it was cut off by the ear splitting sound of cracking wood. 

The mast.  

He jumped off the quarter deck and ran.

“This thing’s coming down! Move it, Marimo!” He reached out to grab Zoro’s arm as he passed, jolting to a stop when the swordsman didn’t move.

“ Did you inhale smoke moss-for-brains!? That mast is going to collapse!”

“Look at them.” Zoro ignored his warnings and insults, pointing with one of his blades toward the bodies.

“We don’t have time to play coroner shithead!”

“They’re all facing out. Like they were guarding… that barrel.”

“That’s fucking fantastic. We don’t have time, Marimo.” Sanji pulled on his partner’s arm again. 

“What if it’s gold?”

“When did you die and become Nami!?” Sanji bellowed. “We NEED to LEAVE!”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Stop fucking yanking me, asshole.” Zoro yanked his arm free and turned away from the bodies.

The pair turned and walked swiftly back to the railing of the ship. With the crisis averted, Sanji couldn’t help but feel a little thrill creeping up his spine, even as the flames licked closer. Saving the day, a dashing escape from a fiery inferno… Sanji would have to write Usopp about this one for the man’s next book. Maybe-

Sanji felt something prickle his haki just as he was lifting a leg over the railing. 

He snapped his head back toward the main deck of the ship, gaze sweeping over the bodies until he saw it.

“ Shit.” He breathed. “Fucking SHIT.”

“What!?” Zoro demanded.

“There’s something in the fucking barrel.”

Zoro whipped his head around too, looking first at the barrel and then the mast. Without saying anything, he darted back into the flames, leaping over blackened bodies. Sanji sighed and let out a silent fuck me before dashing after him.

The bodies were spread out in a cone around a single barrel, which Sanji would have admitted was interesting had the threat of joining them in burning to death not been so imminent. He wasn’t particularly worried about himself, he could withstand some pretty intense heat. But Zoro was far less fireproof than him.

And far stupider.

“YOU IDIOT!” Sanji screeched when Zoro had to stop, hunching over to cough. “COVER YOUR FACE!”

He brought his own sleeve up in a poor attempt to block some of the smoke as he passed Zoro and made it to the barrel. He raised his other fist and slammed it down, popping the circular head off the barrel. It was flung to the side as Sanji prepared to fight whatever, or whoever was hiding in this thing.

He froze when he saw them, both hands falling to his sides.

“Not gold?” Zoro asked, joining him, his bandana now tied around the lower half of his face.

“ Not gold.” Sanji croaked.

Zoro frowned and looked over his shoulder. Sanji felt him tense beside him when he saw the barrel’s single occupant as well.

“ What the fuck ?” Zoro breathed.

Inside the barrel, curled into a ball at the very bottom, was a child.

A glowing child.

“What the FUCK?” Zoro repeated himself. 

“I have no idea.” Sanji said, looking up when the mast cracked again. “And we don’t have time to figure it out.”

He swallowed, hard , and prayed whatever the fucking glow was wouldn’t hurt him as he reached in to scoop the kid up. 

They were small, no more than two or three years old, and they let out a pitiful yelp as they were lifted. The kid flailed weakly in his grasp and his glow flashed brightly for a split second. So bright that Sanji felt physical pain bloom behind his eyes as he was momentarily blinded.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” Zoro shouted a third time, spectacularly unhelpful. As always, Sanji thought.

“I DON’T FUCKING KNOW!” Sanji shouted, pulling the kid close to his chest so the light wasn’t in his direct line of sight. “But we need to get the fuck out of here!”

Without waiting for Zoro, Sanji took off in a sprint. He pressed the kids head against his shoulder, doing his best to stop it from breathing in smoke even as they thumped and kicked at him. He made it to the railing again when again something stopped him from jumping off and into his supply ship.

Only this time, it wasn’t his haki.

It was a laugh.

Sanji turned to see a man walk directly out of the fire. The flames didn’t seem to bother his bare feet as he stepped right through them. He was dressed in long, pure white robes that also didn’t seem to burn. Rather… they almost seemed to meld with the fire as the man passed.

The only adornment he wore was a thick gold chain around his neck, in the middle of which dangled a golden pendant in the shape of a weird star with an eyeball in the middle.

“You have something that does not belong to you.” The man laughed again, high and nasally. “Give him to me.”

At the sound of the man’s voice, the kid stopped fighting and tensed in Sanji’s arms.

Sanji looked down to see wide, terrified golden eyes staring up at him through greasy locks of white hair. His little hands fisted in the fabric of Sanji’s chef jacket.

“ No.” The kid whispered. “ Please no.”

Sanji looked back up at the man and made a decision he had no idea would affect the rest of his life.

“You know what?” He said, turning to shield the kid with his body. “I don’t think I will.”

Notes:

I am well aware that I write the same "child acquisition" trope over and over. The heart wants what it wants, I can't stop it XD XD XD
I am ALSO aware that I have like four in progress fics going and I can't help it. The ADHD goblins don't let me decide what I work on.

Anyway, new fandom. Big adventure full of angst and family fluff planned out. If you are interested and want me to continue this one, please let me know in the comments!

Toubleu is a play on the French tout bleu which literally means "All Blue". I am not creative XD.

Chapter 2

The man’s eyes began to glow, brighter and brighter until Sanji felt like he was under Marine spotlights. The fire around him seemed to flare up as well, licking up the man’s robes and making them look like they were made of flame itself. From those robes, the man pulled out a golden sword hilt, blade strangely absent.

“We have not lost a child of light in fifty years. I do not intend to do so now.” The white robed man sneered and lifted the hilt. A slow beam of light extended from it, materializing into a glowing scimitar.

“I don’t really give a rat's ass what you intend. I assume you’re responsible for almost sinking my restaurant.” Sanji narrowed his eyes and grinned. “I don’t take too kindly to that.”

“These men stood in the way of the Lightbringer. I had no choice. Give me the boy and you will avoid their fate.”

The man lunged forward and Sanji had every intention of kicking him, but when the man moved the kid whined and light burst from him again. It was like one of Usopp’s flashbangs that blinded him and sent Sanji’s head reeling. 

Sanji was disoriented enough that he couldn’t dodge the first fist that collided with his jaw. He tensed and dropped into a crouch to evade a second hit, but it never came. Instead he heard a swoosh a split second before something warm splashed across his face.

Even without looking, he knew what it was and groaned in disgust. He straightened back up and sure enough, as his eyes readjusted he saw the attackers now headless body laying on the deck. The blood that hadn’t been sprayed onto Sanji was now cascading out across the wood, sizzling as it reached the flames.

“Hey bush brains! You couldn’t have done that ANY MORE CLEANLY!?!?” Sanji hissed.

“You’re welcome.” Zoro sheathed his blades. “You good?”

Sanji scoffed but didn’t get a chance to retort before the mast finally decided to give way with a sickening shattering sound. 

He and Zoro shared a look and then wordlessly flung themselves over the rail and back to their little supply skiff below. A few seconds later, the mast came crashing down over the ship, taking out the rail where Sanji had just been standing.

Sanji shouted for his men to get the boat moving and then collapsed onto a bench. He stared up at the sky, chest heaving in deep breaths. His mind was going a mile a minute, fueled by adrenaline and the acute awareness that he was holding a child.  

“Sanji?” Zoro asked quietly, sitting next to him. “Are you ok?”

Sanji let his head loll over to look at his partner. Zoro looked uncharacteristically concerned, and more than a little uncomfortable as he stared at the kid in his arms. 

Sanji didn’t answer his partner’s question. Instead he sighed and sat up. He looked down at the kid who was still clutching his chef's jacket, shaking like a leaf. The boy, or at least Sanji assumed he was a boy since the man called him one, wasn’t glowing anymore but he looked… rough. Rough in a way that made Sanji’s heart feel weirdly tight. 

He was small, two or three years old if Sanji had to guess. He had white hair, nearly as pale skin. He was wearing a long sleeve… dress… tunic thing that was also disgusting, but underneath the grime it was once pure white like the dead man’s robes.  The thing that made Sanji feel ill though, was that the boy was thin.

Starvation thin.

“Hey.” He said, prying the kid back as gently as possible. “You’re ok now. You’re safe.”

The boy whimpered but was otherwise quiet. His eyes were a sort of greenish gold and reminded Sanji of olive oil. He stared at Sanji and the man smiled softly so the kid would only see a friendly face.

“Are you hurt?” Sanji asked.

No response.

“Did you know that asshole in the robes?”

Silence.

“Why were you in a barrel?”

The kid just stared at Sanji. Sanji did, however, notice that he had stopped shaking. He took that as a good sign.

“Do you at least want to tell me your name?”

Nothing.

“Right. Ok.” Sanji sighed and turned to look at Zoro. “I don't think we're getting anything out of this kid."

"Is it… stupid?" Zoro asked hesitantly.

"No more stupid than you, asshole and I cant get you to shut up ." Sanji kicked his partner. "He's obviously scared shitless." 

“What are we going to do with it?”

Sanji inhaled deeply, looking the kid over. He didn’t REALLY know what to do. This kid was messed up, traumatized and in need of help that neither he, nor Zoro were really equipped to provide. But in the middle of the ocean, beggars couldn’t be choosers.

So Sanji could at least do what he did best.

“Feed him… get him cleaned up. Figure out why that freak killed an entire ship of men to get to him.”

-----------------------------------------------

Thanks to Franky’s amazing plumbing system built into the Toubleu, their private shower room filled with steam quickly as Sanji filled the tin-lined, wooden tub. 

The boy was sitting on the ground, slumped up against the side of the tub. He hadn’t spoken a word other than the “ no” and “ please” he had whispered to Sanji on the burning ship. He had, however, whined and sobbed himself into a coughing fit when Sanji had attempted to pass him off to Zoro so he could wash the blood from his face and hair.

So Zoro had been sent off in search of clothes and the boy had come with Sanji. He sat next to the tub while Sanji quickly scrubbed himself off. Afterward he threw on a t shirt and a pair of loose pajama pants before refilling the tub.

The boy had kept those big, exhausted olive colored eyes on him the entire time.

“Ok Olive Eyes.” He said softly, kneeling in front of the kid. “Let’s get you cleaned up so you can eat.”

The boy didn’t respond, as was becoming his usual. He limply allowed Sanji to tug him to his feet and gently peel off his filthy clothes.

Sanji was extremely gentle in removing the soiled garments, carefully turning over his limbs to look for injuries since the kid wouldn’t tell them if he was hurt.

He almost puked when he finally pulled the white tunic off.

The boy's chest was covered in pinky-plum scar tissue. The raised lines formed the same weird eyeball/star symbol on the robed man’s golden pendant.

Sanji was all too familiar with this type of scar. This was not a cut, this child had been burned . This symbol had been branded into his skin and based on the stretching, Sanji was positive it had been done to him as a baby.

“ Fuck kid.” Sanji reached out to trail a finger along the lines. “What happened to you?”

The kid looked down to where Sanji was touching but said nothing. When he looked up, Sanji met his gaze. The boy looked exhausted, and not just in a sleepy way. He had the tired, almost hollow look of someone that had been through too much in too short a time. A look Sanji had seen in his own mirror more than once.

He sighed and finished stripping the kid, trying not to project his own trauma onto the boy. He scrubbed him down and wrapped him in a towel before carrying him down to his and Zoro’s room.

Zoro was waiting for him, doing pushups on the floor.

“Did you find clothes?” Sanji asked.

“No. But I didn’t actually look.” Zoro said, not stopping. “Tajio sent up some soup though.”

“I gave you one task Marimo.” Sanji rolled his eyes and sat the kid down on his bed. He kicked Zoro and made him glance at the kid’s scars before he went to their closet to dig out one of his older hoodies. It drowned the boy, going past his feet. Sanji had to roll the sleeves up to the elbows just so his hands could poke out enough to hold a spoon.

The boy was evidently too near the limit of his exhaustion to actually feed himself. The spoon fell out of his weak grasp before he could even scoop up any of Tajio’s scallop corn chowder. He whined pitifully and looked pleadingly at Sanji.

“Alright alright.” Sanji slid onto the bed and pulled him into his lap. “You’re worse off than I thought, eh? Don’t worry. I won’t let you starve.”

He helped the kid through an entire bowl and half of a second before he turned around in Sanji’s lap. He fisted a hand in Sanji’s shirt and snuggled up against his chest, asleep in less than a minute. Sanji… wasn’t in a hurry to move him. He set the chowder aside and for a long while just watched him.

It was peaceful.

Until Zoro ruined it.

“Do you think he’s toilet trained?” Zoro asked, finally stopping his little workout.

“What?” Sanji asked incredulously. “He’s not a baby.”

“I just don’t want him pissing all over the floors if he’s going to stay here for a while.” Zoro plunked down on the bed behind him, hooking his sweaty chin over Sanji’s shoulder.

“Wha- Who says he’s staying?” Sanji stammered, too stunned by Zoro’s assumption to even protest the disgustingly warm and moist body contact.

“You did.”

“I assure you I did not.”

“You did.” Zoro said matter of factly. “You just don’t know it.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean, Marimo?”

“I saw the way you were looking at him. He’s scared, hurt, and hungry. Not to mention he’s apparently being hunted by psychos who burned him. You and I both know there isn’t a chance in hell you are letting him off this restaurant until you’ve fixed at least two of those things.”

“And you’re… ok with that?”

“As long as he doesn’t piss everywhere.”

“Zoro.”

“I don’t know. I think this kid has somehow gotten himself into some serious shit.” Zoro huffed. “But I do know that this kid couldn’t have chosen a better person to help him.”

“He didn’t… choose me.”

“Yeah he did. I saw how he looked at you too.”

“And how is that?”

“Like he needs you.”

“You can’t possibly know that, Mossy.”

“I do.” Zoro turned his head to press a kiss just below Sanji’s ear. “I’m sort of an expert in needing you.”

Notes:

I know this isn't the most well written fic I've ever done, but it's really self indulgent and making me happy so I'm going to continue it.

Chapter 3

Sanji’s staff had taken to calling him the DeLuca kid, after the ship he had been found on.

While Sanji and Zoro had been on board the ship dealing with the creepy cult guy, the men had been smart enough to note the ship’s name, engraved on the stern in golden inlay letters.

It had quickly been shortened to just “DeLuca.”

It had seemed better than calling him just “kid” and since he still hadn’t spoken a word to them, let alone told them his actual name, Sanji and Zoro had started using it as well. 

And then he became just “Luca” and Sanji knew they were in for a lot more than they bargained for. Zoro had been right, he needed Sanji and as the days went by… Sanji was starting to find he didn’t really mind that.

Luca was quiet. Sanji knew he was capable of speech. He HAD whispered that little “ no” and “ please” to Sanji on the ship. But he hadn’t said anything since. The only time he even made noise was when he got scared and cried, or occasionally he would let out the softest little hum of happiness when Sanji fed him.

Sanji became obsessed with that little hum. He spent an ungodly amount of time that first week experimenting with different foods. He saw it as a challenge, trying to find what Luca liked and didn’t like based solely on his body language and small noises. 

He also just wanted to get food into the kid. Luca was weak, almost to a sickly level. He couldn’t walk very far without collapsing and he spent more time napping than Zoro did. Most of his day was spent asleep in bed or in a little nest they’d built him underneath Sanji’s prep table.

Sanji had called Chopper. After the rest of the crew finished being shocked that they’d taken in a kid ( TEMPORARILY, Sanji had reminded them) Chopper had walked him through a basic physical examination. He confirmed what Sanji had already suspected: Luca had some pretty chronic dehydration and was extremely malnourished. 

Still, in case there was anything else wrong and also since the rest of the crew was beyond curious, they were currently en route to the Toubleu for a visit. 

Sanji was grateful they were coming. Not only were they bringing supplies for the kid, Robin also had Sanji describe the symbol on Luca’s chest and was researching where it might come from in hopes of discovering where the boy was from and if it was safe to return him there. Nami was also going through her island logs to see if there were any nearby islands with orphanages that he could be sent to in the event that Robin’s research was unsuccessful.

“Yeah. Keep telling yourself that.” Zoro said, bringing Luca down for lunch after they’d both had a nap. It had taken a lot of reassurance from Sanji, but Luca had finally accepted that Zoro was safe and even seemed to like the man if the way his head was pillowed on Zoro’s shoulder was anything to go by.

“We’re not keeping him Moss.” Sanji reached to take Luca from him. He set the kid down at his desk in his private office attached to the kitchen and then plopped a plate of mushroom pierogies in front of him.

“I bet Zeff said the same thing about you.” Zoro said, accepting his own plate. He didn’t even flinch when Sanji smacked his arm, just dug into the food.

“I don’t know why you keep saying this shit.”

“I don’t know why YOU won’t just accept it and then we can all move on without pretending.”

“I don’t know if you’ve met either of us but we are not built for child rearing, dumbass. We’re pirates on a floating restaurant .” 

“You were raised by pirates on a floating restaurant and I like the way you turned out.” Zoro said matter of factly. 

“You… don’t say shit like that.” Sanji felt himself blush a little. Zoro’s blunt romance was still something that threw him off balance. Enough so that he didn't bother pushing the conversation more. It was pointless anyway. Zoro knew as well as he did that the kid couldn’t stay, not long term.

Still… When Zoro picked Luca back up after he’d eaten… something in Sanji’s heart felt tight at the way Zoro cradled him. He was so… soft despite being a stubborn jackass half the time. He let Luca nuzzle up against his neck, ran a big hand gently up the kid’s back and rubbed soothing circles at the base of his neck. 

As they walked away from Sanji, out into the loud kitchen, Luca peeked over Zoro’s shoulder. He lifted his head and looked at Sanji with those big golden eyes, giving him the smallest little smile before letting his head fall back against Zoro. 

“Ah shit.” Sanji sighed, sinking into the chair at his desk. “Shit shit shit.”

Zoro couldn’t be right. They couldn’t keep him. They couldn’t.

--------------------------------------

They were keeping him.

Luca sealed the deal himself.

The day before the Sunny was due to arrive, Sanji woke up in the middle of night, his haki prickling at something.  

He propped himself up on his elbows and did a quick glance around the room. Nothing seemed amiss in the moonlight. Zoro was snoring next to him, drooling into his pillow with an arm thrown over Sanji’s waist. Sanji carefully extracted himself and slipped out of bed. 

The air was cool but the wooden floors held on to the heat of the previous day and were warm against the soles of his bare feet. He grabbed his lighter from his bedside table and stepped out into the hall. He was fairly certain he knew what had woken based on the small size of aura he sensed in the hall.

He did not end up needing the lighter. Luca was doing the weird glowing thing he did when he was upset, what they assumed was a devil fruit power of some kind even though he was so young. His pulsating light was illuminating the hallway enough for Sanji to see that he was terrified. He was clinging to the doorway of the spare bedroom on their private level that had become his bedroom, swimming in one of Zoro’s white t shirts worn as a sort of night gown. And he was absolutely shaking with silent sobs.

He looked up when Sanji came out of his room and for the first time since they’d brought him aboard the restaurant, opened his mouth to speak.

“ San-ee” He croaked in the most broken sob, hands reaching out to the man.

Sanji felt the word hit him like a bullet piercing his heart. His lighter clattered to the ground as he scrambled over to the boy. He fell to his knees in front of Luca and gathered him up, pulling him close.

“Hey. Hey, hey hey.”  Sanji turned his head, whispering into Luca’s white hair. “Little Olive, it’s ok. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

Luca sobbed and clung tightly to Sanji’s shirt, squirming to try and get deeper in the embrace.

Sanji looked up and focused on Luca’s room, making sure he couldn’t sense any other threats. When he was satisfied that whatever Luca was upset about wasn’t an intruder, he gently pushed him back and cupped his cheek.

“Hey, can you tell me what’s wrong?”

Luca shook his head.

“Please? I know you can talk, kid.”

“ C-can’t talk.” Luca whispered, barely audible. “ The peests will h-hurt!”

“Peests?” Sanji frowned, then his eyes went wide when he remembered the man on the ship. “ Priests?”

Luca nodded with a sniff, bottom lip still trembling.

Sanji looked at him for a long few moments.

His mind went back to that day… listening to Zeff and the others talk to Luffy from behind a door. He remembered that swoop in his stomach, the one that felt a lot like destiny. He’d felt it a few times since then: when he stood in front of Kuma, ready to sacrifice himself for his friends. He’d felt it the first time Zoro kissed him. He felt it the moment he realized the Sunny had stumbled upon the All Blue. 

And he felt it now.

“No...” He said softly, then more firmly: “No. No. ”

Sanji pulled Luca close again, holding his tiny frame with a newfound sense of responsibility. 

“I’ll never let anyone hurt you ever again.”

---------------------------------------------

“What happened?” Zoro grumbled, lifting his head just far enough off the pillow to look as Sanji walked back in their room, Luca in his arms.

“Nightmare I think. Scoot over.” 

Zoro wordlessly scooted back in their bed, making room for Sanji to crawl in with the boy. Sanji scooted forward until he could tuck his head underneath Zoro’s chin, tangling their legs together with Luca sandwiched safely between them. 

“You’re shaking.” Zoro noted “What ELSE happened.”

“He um… he said my name.” Sanji said quietly. 

“Ah.”

They lay in silence for a time, listening to the waves outside and the creaking of the ship below them.  Long enough that Luca gradually started to go lax, drifting back to sleep. Sanji brought a hand up to gently smooth down some of the boy’s milk-white hair.

“Zoro?” Sanji whispered after a while.

“Mmmmmm?”

“Tell me we aren’t going to be the fucking worst parents ever.”

“Took you long enough.” Zoro chuckled and reached over to pull the blanket up over them before he draped his arm over both Sanji and Luca with a yawn. “Nah. Your dad kind of took that title. We’ll only be the second worst.”

Sanji let out a surprised breath of a laugh then smiled.

“I love you Marimo.”

“Love you too Shitty Cook.”

Notes:

Up next: The Strawhats meet Luca. Sanji and Zoro adapt to parenthood. And then Sanji's new little family finds themselves in mortal danger when Luca's past finally catches up to them.

Again, I know this is super cliché but this fic is purely self indulgent. I do appreciate that at least some of you are enjoying it right along with me!

Chapter 4

Zoro heard him before anyone actually saw the ship.

He had been doing pushups on one finger, alternating between all ten to make sure each was in peak shape. The windows in his crows nest were open to allow the sea breeze to flow in and cool his sweat-damp and heated skin. 

Five hundred eighteen. Five hundred nineteen. Five hundred twenty. Five hun-

“ ZORRRRRROOOOOOO!!!!! SANJIIIIIII!!!!! ”

Zoro’s internal count was cut off by the faintest shout, carried in on the breeze. He stood and grabbed a hand towel as he moved to the windows.

That shout, faint as it was, could only have come from one person.

On one ship.

Several ships were docked at the Toubleu down below him , ranging from pirate ships to merchant vessels. They were all silent, all their crews inside and feasting on Sanji’s various lunch specials. The midday sun was bright behind them and cast a blinding stripe of white reflection over the water; but just where the reflection met the horizon, Zoro could see the smallest speck of brown wood and white sails approaching.

He grinned. They were obviously already expecting the arrival of their crew, and Zoro would never admit it… but he was eager to see the rest of his Nakama . He missed them. And even if Sanji was irrationally nervous about introducing Luca to them, Zoro was excited.

He used the towel to wipe the sweat from his palms and then his face before turning around to observe the room’s other occupant. 

The lunch rush was too hectic for him to be downstairs with Sanji, so Luca was up here in Zoro’s crows nest/personal gym. He was sitting on Zoro’s weight bench, playing with some lumpy clay Tajio had made him out of flour and water. 

Zoro’s grin softened as he watched the boy roll out little worm shapes. 

He had known pretty early on that the kid was going to be staying with them on a… long term basis. He’d seen Sanji with kids plenty of times, but never like this. That first night, when he had been helping Luca eat, holding him in a protective grip… Sanji had looked at Luca like the kid was his.

Zoro had never seen Sanji look quite like that. Over the next few days he watched Sanji act in a way he hadn’t ever quite seen either. Zoro had seen Sanji around kids plenty of times, but this was definitely different. Sanji had connected with Luca in a way Zoro didn’t understand.

It was a way that seemed to make Sanji happy though, and Zoro was willing to do whatever it took to keep Sanji that way, even if he didn’t understand it.

If that meant… adopting a kid then so be it.

He figured it wasn’t that big a deal. Sanji could feed the kid. Zoro would keep it… him safe just like he did the rest of the people on the Toubleu. The kid was quiet, obedient, and was toilet trained. That was good enough for Zoro.

The fact that the kid was… growing on him was irrelevant.

“Alright.” he announced, pulling himself out of his reverie. “It’s time for you to meet the crew.”

Luca looked up at him, head cocked questioningly.

“You know all those weird people I told you about?” Zoro walked over and picked him up with one arm, tossing him over a shoulder for the journey down the ladder. “They’re here.”

Luca whined and tightened his grip in Zoro’s shirt. 

“Don’t worry.” Zoro reassured him as he descended the ladder. “They are loud and annoying as hell but they’re a pretty good group. They’re the closest thing me and Sanji got to a family and if you’re sticking around that means they’ll be the same for you. Hell, they’ll probably like you more than they like me.”

Luca didn’t respond, not that Zoro was expecting him to. He just whined again and pressed his face against Zoro’s shoulder. He did perk up when they neared the kitchens, the now-familiar smells meant that his favorite person was likely near. And sure enough, the minute Zoro entered the room Luca flailed and wiggled until Zoro put him down. The boy made a beeline for Sanji’s prep table. 

He stumbled only a few feet away, tripping on the hem of another borrowed hoodie he was wearing for lack of any other clothes. He didn’t hit the floor though, Zoro watched as his partner’s lightning fast reflexes kicked in. Sanji dropped the spoon he had been holding and caught Luca before he face planted.

Zoro watched from the door as Sanji squatted in front of the boy. Sanji gently bumped Luca’s chin up to look at him and said something that coaxed a smile from the boy. Sanji returned the smile and Zoro felt… a little disgusted at how mushy that made him feel. Disgusted, but… happy.

He sighed and walked over, ignoring the stupid fucking flutter in his stomach when Sanji turned that smile on him.

“I told you guys I’d feed you after my service.” Sanji said, smile not fading. “I’m busy.”

“Not hungry. And you better let Tajio take over. Crew’s here.”

----------------------------------------------

Sanji hesitated at the base of the gangplank. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d boarded this ship in the past, and yet he couldn’t recall a single time that he felt this nervous about it. 

Zoro was already up there, threatening the less civilized members of the crew with maiming and death if they shouted, crowded, or otherwise managed to scare Luca. Sanji wasn’t worried that the crew wouldn’t like Luca. On the contrary, he knew they’d adore him. He WAS worried that they’d talk him out of keeping Luca; that they’d give voice to Sanji’s fears that he and Zoro were absolutely not cut out for any semblance of parenthood.

He was worried that they’d tell him to send Luca to an orphanage… and then be disappointed when Sanji couldn’t. 

And he knew he couldn’t, knew he wouldn’t. 

Sanji didn’t know if he’d call it love … but he certainly did care for the kid. Luca reminded Sanji of himself when he was small, and he wanted to be for Luca the person he wished he’d had when he was that little… back before he met Zeff. 

“Alright,” Sanji sighed and hoisted Luca a little higher in his arms. “Let’s get this over with.”

Luca nuzzled into his neck and tightened his grip on his chef jacket as Sanji made his way up the gangplank and onto the Sunny’s deck. He was surprised to find it completely silent. The crew (minus Usopp who had moved back home to be with Kaya) were all standing in front of Zoro. Their looks ranged from annoyed to downright terrified. 

“What did he do?” Sanji asked accusingly as he walked up to the group.

“Threatened to disembowel them with his teeth if they scared the kid. Except for Luffy. Zoro threatened to never let you feed him ever again.” Nami explained with a roll of her eyes.

“Zoro was scary!” Chopper added quietly.

“Normally I would protest his brutish behavior but he’s right this time. I know my sweet ladies will act proper but I need the rest of you to fucking behave. He’s…” Sanji sighed and turned, angling his body so his friends could see as much of the kid's face as possible. “This is Luca. Luca, this is our crew.”

Luffy, who had been remarkably quiet, suddenly let out a gust of air as if he’d been holding his breath.

“ CanIsayhinow!?” He gushed.

“ QUIET idiot!” Zoro said (just as loudly) before thumping Luffy on the head.

“Ow!” Luffly complained. “I just want to say hi!”

“Do it quietly .” Zoro grabbed Luffy and shoved him forward. 

Luffy stumbled forward but righted himself with a smile. He tilted his hat up before ducking into Sanji’s personal space.

Sanji winced, expecting the loud and exuberant shouting that was stereotypical of their captain. He was pleasantly surprised when Luffy spoke in barely more than a whisper.

“Hi!” Luffy said softly. “I’m Monkey D. Luffy! Man, you’re real little! I got you a present, but it’s almost as big as you are!”

Sanji looked down and finally noticed the object Luffy had been holding behind his back. It was a stuffed monkey plush, only it was long. It’s head, arms, and legs were all normal sized, but it’s middle looked like it had been stretched, almost like the animals of Long Ring Long Land. It was over two feet tall and really was almost as tall as Luca.

“It’s a Monkey! Just like me!” Luffy threw his head back and laughed. 

“He picked it out himself.” Robin informed them with a smile. “He’s quite proud.”

“Come on, take it!” Luffy pressed the monkey against Luca’s arm. 

Luca flinched when it touched him. Sanji was just about to kick Luffy back and remind him about the whole don’t scare the kid thing, but then Luca turned his head… slowly looking over at Luffy. Luffy smiled again and pushed the monkey toward him. 

Luca blinked at him for a long minute, eyes wide with hesitation. But then he twisted suddenly, looking up at Sanji. 

“Wuffy safe?” He asked in the tiniest of whispers. 

Sanji was stunned for a moment. Even Zoro had spun to look at the kid and Sanji realized it was the first time he must have heard Luca speak. It took Sanji a moment to regather himself, only responding when Luca let out a little whimper.

“Yes.” Sanji smiled and nodded. “Luffy is safe.”

Luca blinked at him a few times before turning back to Luffy. With hands that were obviously trembling, he reached out and carefully grabbed the monkey. He pulled it into a tight embrace and snuggled back against Sanji’s chest. But this time, he kept his face angled out, smiling softly at Luffy.

Luffy grinned, ear to ear and Sanji couldn’t help but do the same. He felt the nerves in his stomach melt away and as the rest of the crew gathered closer he realized he had been an idiot for thinking these guys would do anything other than support him. 

Support them .

Notes:

Sorry it's been so long. This semester is kicking my ass.

Hopefully people are still interested in this. It's still my fic I'm mostly writing for my own enjoyment so if it's silly or bad I apologize.

Chapter 5

“Is he ok?”

“I think so.” Chopper nodded and took off his stethoscope. “If he was as bad as you described on the transponder snail, then you and Zoro have done a great job at nursing him back to health!”

“What about the sleeping thing? Is that normal?” Sanji asked. He shifted to a more comfortable position, allowing Luca to settle in his lap now that the doctor didn’t need to examine him anymore. The boy was wearing a brand new pair of pajamas that actually fit him, blue with little seagulls printed on them, and he hadn’t let go of his monkey at all since Luffy gave it to him. 

Luca’s bedroom around them was filled with gifts. Nami and Robin had taken the opportunity to go on a shopping spree very seriously. Luca had more clothing than Sanji and Zoro combined now and Chopper had, for whatever reason, decided that Luca needed over a dozen different hats. 

There were a few gifts that were definitely more… thoughtful than the others; in a way that made Sanji feel warm inside. Franky had made Luca a little wooden model of the Thousand Sunny, complete with tiny peg-people versions of their crew. Usopp, who couldn’t be there, made sure that Luca was given a copy of his latest, best selling book: Captain Usopp’s Adventures in the Sky Islands. One of Chopper’s gifted hats had been a little chef's hat and Brook had gotten him a little music box that played Bink’s Sake. 

Their gifts had gone over well, even if their introductions had not. Luca had made it through Nami and Robin saying hello after Luffy, but then Brook stepped up and it all went to shit. Luca had recoiled so violently that Sanji had nearly dropped him and was only saved from doing so by the fact that Luca had latched onto him with a death grip that clawed all the way down to his pectorals. 

Then Luca flashed like a strobe light, sending everyone reeling back with assorted startled shouts that only served to scare Luca more. The next few minutes had been a blur of flashing lights and sobbing before Sanji managed to get Luca back to their rooms on the Toubleu to calm down.

It had taken most of the evening to get him to a point where Sanji felt comfortable having Chopper come upstairs.

Luca had warmed up to the doctor fairly quickly and Chopper had even managed to coax out a few giggles as he examined him. 

“I think he’s still iron deficient.” Chopper said, answering his earlier question. “It can cause fatigue. Make sure he gets plenty of iron-rich foods.”

Sanji nodded, already planning an entire menu for it. “And his age?”

“His rear molars have only recently come in. I’d say he’s three, but just barely.”

“And the scar?”

“It um… I would guess that he was branded in infancy.” Chopper said with a heartbroken frown. “Who would do something like that to a baby, Sanji?”

“I don’t know. But if I ever find out, I’ll make sure they regret it.” Sanji pulled Luca a little closer. “Speaking of, I’d like to find out what Robin knows about his past. I’m going to put him to bed and I’ll meet you downstairs?”

Chopper nodded and packed up his medical bag. He bid his goodnights to Luca and scampered off down to the dining room where the rest of the crew was, leaving Sanji with his sleepy charge.

“Alright, my olive.” Sanji ruffled his hair, “It’s bedtime.”

Luca perked up at that. He wiggled out of Sanji’s lap and ran to the little bookshelf in his room. It mostly held various cookbooks that Sanji hadn’t hadn’t ever bothered taking downstairs, but Luca went straight for a novel that was swiftly becoming the most-read item on that shelf. He handed it to Sanji and then got into bed. 

Sanji sat back against the headboard, smiling when Luca tucked himself right up against his side. 

“You know, this book isn’t even that good.” Sanji complained, looking down at the kid. 

Luca just whined and bumped his forehead against Sanji’s arm.

“Fine.” Sanj conceded easily. He thumbed open the book, Usopp’s first novel: Captain Usopp’s Adventures in Alabasta, and found the dog-eared page marking where they had left off. “Where were we…”

Luca pointed to a crudely drawn crab underneath the chapter title.

“Ah yes. That’s Hasami, the giant crab.” Sanji sighed and started to read. 

Captain Usopp was shocked to see Flopper riding astride a crab that was a million times larger than any normal crab-

------------------------------------------------------------

Zoro swirled the ale around his mouth with an appreciative hum. It wasn’t sake, but it was leagues better than the frou-frou wine and weird mead that Sanji kept in stock aboard the restaurant. 

Plus, NAMI was the one who had brought several barrels of it and Zoro didn’t want to look that particular gift horse in the mouth. 

She was sitting across from him, the exact same number of empty mugs as Zoro littering the table in front of her. The rest of the crew was spread around the otherwise empty dining hall; their normal patrons had been kicked out after dinner service. Luffy was still picking away at everyone’s dinner leftovers, Brook was plinking out a melody on the hall’s rarely used piano and Franky, Jimbei, and Robin were all drinking, but at a much more appropriate rate than Zoro and Nami.

They all looked up when Chopper came downstairs, though Zoro was the only one that looked behind the small reindeer, expecting someone else.

“Where’s the cook?” He grunted. 

“He’s still upstairs putting Luca to bed!” Chopper sat down and happily accepted a plate of food that Robin had been guarding for him. 

“Is the kid ok?” Zoro asked.

“MMmmhmmm!” Chopper nodded. “Sanji and Zoro have taken really good care of him!”

Zoro nodded his acknowledgment and took another long swallow from his mug. Across from him, Nami did the same before leveling him with a knowing smile.

“I think it’s sweet, ya know?” She said, lifting her mug. 

“Then you’re drunk.” Zoro raised a grumpy eyebrow. “This shit is bitter’n fuck.”

“Not the beer, you idiot. YOU. I think it’s sweet that you’re going along with this whole thing for Sanji’s sake.”

Zoro frowned and set his mug down with force.

“I’m not going along with anything.” He growled, glaring at her.

“So you’re telling me that YOU actually want to be taking care of a kid? Like you want the kid here?”

“I don’t do anything that I-” Zoro thumped his own chest. “-don’t want to do. That includes taking care of the shrimp. He needs us, so he’s here. Simple as that.”

“Does that mean you like the boy, Zoro-san?” Brook asked, having stopped playing to listen in on the conversation.

“I like him better than any of you. He’s quiet and doesn’t ask me stupid fucking questions.”

“Zoro!” Chopper complained.

“I like him just fine.” Zoro conceded.

“Even if he didn’t, I believe our swordsman would be able to withstand the company of a child on a temporary basis.” Robin said.

“It’s uh… not temporary.” A new voice said.

Zoro looked up to see his partner walk slowly into the dining room. Sanji all but collapsed into the chair next to him, digging a cigarette out of a pack pulled from his pocket. Zoro almost opened his mouth to ask if Luca had fallen asleep ok, but was immediately horrified by the thought of appearing that sentimental in front of everyone else. 

“What’s… not temporary?” Nami asked.

“Luca.” Sanji started. “He’s… He and we…”

“Kid is staying with us.” Zoro explained for him. “Permanently.”

“You can’t just keep a kid.”

“I know it seems rash, Nami dear, but the moss and I have talked about it. Unless Robin is about to tell us that she’s uncovered his perfect family, which I assume she isn’t, then Luca will be staying here.”

In lieu of responding to Sanji, everyone turned to Robin who cleared her throat and sat up straighter. 

“I’m afraid I don’t have anywhere near as good news.” She said, “I was unable to find anything regarding the symbol you described or anyone known as the Lightbringer. But I did find information on the ship you found him on.”

“And I’m guessing it’s not… happy news?”

“No.” Robin shook her head. “The DeLuca is… was a prominent slaver ship.”

Zoro felt Sanji stiffen beside him. His own grip tightened hard enough to audibly hear his wooden mug crack.

“Kid’s a slave?” He asked, voice laced with fury.

“The DeLuca was known to supply slaves deemed high value. Those with fame, mermaids, and devil fruit users. It would be logical to assume he was in one of those categories.”

“That’s why he was in the barrel.” Sanji groaned, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. “They weren’t protecting him . Those fuckers were guarding their merchandise!”

“That’s so sad!” Chopper cried.

“Does that mean his mark is a… slave brand?” Brook asked.

“If it is, it’s not one I’ve seen before.” Jimbei said.

“If it is, it means he’s been one since birth. Chopper said he’s had it since he was a baby.” Sanji’s hand was tightening in his hair, clenching and unclenching. The other hand held his cigarette that he’d already nearly sucked down to the filter. 

Zoro didn’t blame him. He was seconds away from putting his fist through the table. The thought of Luca suffering for god knows how long… 

Instead he reached over and roughly grabbed Sanji’s hand, tugging it out of the man’s hair. He squeezed hard until Sanji was forced to unclench his fist and then forced his finger’s through the cooks in the most violent approximation of holding hands. 

Sanji glared at him and tried to free his hand, but Zoro ignored him and held firm. 

“Well that fucking settles it then.” He growled.

“Settles what?” Nami asked.

“If those were slavers, that means they took the shrimp from that asshole in the weird robes. That means wherever Luca came from was just as fucking bad. I don’t know shit about kids, but I know me and the cook will at least be better than that. It’s not like we’d be any worse than the people that raised half of you.”

“You- You have a point.” Nami conceded.

“I think Sanji and Zoro will be great parents.” Luffy announced.

“You… do?” Sanji glanced over at their captain, his hand relaxing slightly in Zoro’s grip.

“Mmmhmm.” Luffy nodded. “And Luca will be a great lookout for the crew! And maybe you could train him how to shoot so he could be our sniper when Usopp can’t come!”

“No. My son will be a swordsman.” Zoro said gruffly. He didn’t notice the way Sanji’s eyes went wide at his use of the word ‘son’, nor the fond look of disbelief that spread over the cook’s face.

“Well.” Robin chuckled. “I don’t think we have anything to worry about. It seems our little piece of flotsam has washed up exactly where he was meant to.”

Notes:

Back at it again. This chapter was hard because I struggle writing the rest of the crew.

I have a pretty intense adventure/angst arc planned out. As well as plenty of found family fluff. I hope you like it enough to stick around!

Chapter 6

Despite being the one that he had been most afraid of the day before, Luca seemed to warm up to Brook the most out of any of their crewmates.

Zoro had brought him down the next morning for a late breakfast and he spent the entire meal peeking out the kitchen doors to where Brook had taken up residence at the piano that normally sat ignored in the corner of the Toubleu’s dining room.

After he’d eaten, Luca had grabbed Zoro’s hand and dragged him to the piano. At first the boy just hid behind Zoro’s leg, eyes peeking out from between the man’s sword scabbards, his new monkey plush still clutched in his little hands. But then the skeleton had offered to let Luca try and the boy had tentatively scampered up on the bench next to him where he remained for much of the afternoon.

He likely would have stayed longer, but he had started to nod off against Brook’s side and the man thought it prudent to carry him back to the kitchen where Sanji was working on lunch prep.

“Where’s the mosshead?” Sanji dusted his hands off, leaving streaks of flour on his black half-apron.

“I believe he said something about training. I told him I didn’t mind watching your young charge.” 

“I’m surprised he let you.” Sanji reached out to take the boy who was still awake, but obviously fighting to stay so.

“Music can unlock many doors, Sanji-san. Even ones that guard the heart.”

“Yeah?” Sanji turned to the boy in his arms. “Did you like playing the piano with Brook?”

“Wif Book.” Luca whispered, snuggling against Sanji’s chest.

Sanji couldn’t help but smile, ecstatic at yet another few words drawn out of the shy boy. He had hoped that the crew would do exactly this, bringing Luca out of his shell.

And they did. 

Over the course of the next few days, Luca blossomed. Words were still rare and only ever whispered, but giggles came frequently. More often than not, Zoro would come down for breakfast alone, Luca having already been kidnapped for the day by one member of the crew or another.

Brook was a common offender, Luca could often be found listening to the man play his violin or sitting next to him at the piano. Robin was another he seemed to gravitate toward, with her plentiful selection of books with pictures in them. He kept a wary eye on Franky and Jimbei. And to Sanji’s horror and Zoro’s amusement, seemed to hate Nami. 

But Luffy and Chopper were definitely his favorites. Out of everyone on the crew, including Sanji and Zoro, they were the two that actually played with Luca. It had taken Luffy no time at all to have Luca squealing with delight, chasing after him all over the decks of both the Toubleu and the Sunny. Sanji didn’t know what the world would think if they saw one of the most notorious pirates in all the world with a latex medical glove stretched over his head, playing “roosters” with Chopper and Luca, clucking and trying to eat popcorn off the deck.

Sanji couldn’t even be mad about the noise, even after customers complained. He’d tried once, but when he’d marched out to reprimand them, Luca had been laughing so hard that something in Sanji’s heart stuttered.

A couple of free desserts offered to appease annoyed customers was more than worth it.

He was smiling just thinking about it as he puttered around the Sunny’s galley, getting ready for a special dinner with just the Strawhat crew. He’d left Tajio in charge of the Toubleu’s dinner service. Brook and Jimbei’s birthdays had been just a few weeks before and Sanji wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate them since most of them were together.

“You’re in a good mood.” Zoro observed. He sauntered into the galley, shirtless with a damp towel slung over his shoulders. When Sanji didn’t even scold him for being unsanitary, he cocked an eyebrow. “You’re in a really good mood.”

“Mmmm.” Sanji didn’t bother arguing, just kept on smiling and working. “Where’s Luca?”

“Luffy and Chopper are teaching him how to fish. And before you say anything, Jimbei is there to keep all three of ‘em from drowning.”

“Is he having fun?”

“I don’t know.” Zoro shrugged. He moved towards the refrigerator but Sanji was already one step ahead of him, shoving a pitcher of iced tea into the swordsman’s hands. Zoro grumbled. He knew that since he didn’t live full time on the ship anymore, Nami tended to keep some of her harder liquor unguarded in the galley. But he didn’t argue, taking the pitcher to the table after grabbing a glass.

Sanji had already turned back to his cooking before the man spoke again.

“He was smiling.” Zoro said quietly. 

“What?”

“The shrimp.” Zoro explained. “He uh… was smiling a lot. It was nice.”

“They’ve been good for him.” Sanji said, then after a moment added: “You called him your son the other day.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did, dumbass. You told the others that ‘ your son would be a swordsman’.”

“Oh. Well…” Zoro looked confused for a moment. “Is that… not what you want him to be? I thought that’s what the whole fucking parenting thing implied.”

“It is. I just… didn’t expect you to call him that, especially so soon. I didn’t think you’d be comfortable with it. I-”

Sanji’s train of thought was cut off by the loud screeching of wood scraping against wood as Zoro abruptly shoved his chair back. He was startled when the man stomped up to him and grabbed his shoulders, whirling him around to face him.

“Don’t just grab me, asshole!” Sanji protested. He raised his hand to thump the idiot on the head, but froze when Zoro let go of his shoulder and slid his hand up to cup Sanji’s cheek. 

“Shut up for a damn second.” Zoro said, leveling a piercing look at Sanji with his good eye. “If we’re doing this, we’re not half-assing it. If he’s going to be my kid, then he’s going to be my kid- our kid. I want this, Cook. I want it with YOU and I want it with him. We’ll give him a home, I’ll give him my name, and we will give him one of the greatest legacies that these seas have ever seen.”

“ Marimo. ” Sanji gasped, stunned.

“Stop doubting that I want this.” Zoro stepped closer and let his forehead fall forward to rest against Sanji’s. 

Sanji still felt speechless, so he just nodded. He pressed his own forehead a little harder against the other man’s and allowed it when Zoro snaked his arms around his waist. 

“I hate it when you’re sentimental.” Sanji gave Zoro’s arm a half hearted swat. “What the fuck am I supposed to say to all that?”

“Say that you love me and that you’ll suck my-”

Sanji shoved the man back and then leveled a kick right in the center of his chest that sent the swordsman toppling back over the galley’s bar. Zoro landed flat on his back on the other side.

“You ruin everything ” Sanji hissed. 

-----------------------------------------------------

“No.”

“But Zoroooooo!”

“NO.”

“Why not!?”

“Because I like getting laid. And if I let you throw our kid in the fucking ocean, I doubt the Cook will let that happen ever again.” Zoro crossed his arms and glared at the captain.

“But we need to KNOW.” Luffy protested.

“Of course it’s a devil fruit. Why the hell else would he glow ?” 

“What if it’s not! Come on, Zoro! You can jump in and save him if he can’t swim!”

“It seems more likely that he would not know how to swim simply because of his age.” Robin added her opinion from where she lounged on the deck, reading as per usual. Luca sat cross legged next to her on the sunchair, sipping from a comically large glass of fruit juice that Sanji had made Zoro bring out to him.

Zoro had nearly spilled the damn thing when he walked out of the galley to find Luffy dangling Luca over the deck’s railing in an attempt to “scientifically” prove that Luca’s blinking powers were for sure devil fruit powers. He hadn’t needed to bark out a threat or even move; Luffy took one look at him and shrank back sheepishly, putting Luca down with a pat to his head.

“Were you just going to let him drown the kid?” Zoro turned his unimpressed look upon Robin.

“I had hoped that Luffy would recognize his plan was ill thought out. Besides,” Robin ignored Zoro’s mutter about misplaced hope and continued, “I was preoccupied.”

“With what?”

“This.”

She turned an older leather book toward him. The pages were yellowing, signaling its age. The words within were handwritten, not typed, and were accompanied by scrawled drawings of what were immediately recognizable as various devil fruits.

Zoro squinted at the page. “What am I looking at?”

“I believe I’ve identified the fruit that gave your young ward his powers.”

“REALLY!?” Luffy shoved Zoro out of the way and grabbed the book. He turned it this way and that, ogling the pages. “Is it awesome!? Can he shoot the light!?”

A hand blossomed from Luffy’s shoulder and took the book back, a row of hands passing it off back to Robin. 

“If I may,” Robin thumbed back to the correct page. “I’m reasonably certain that our little Luca has consumed the Flash Flash Fruit. It’s one of several dozens of lesser fruits considered to be lost.”

“How is it lost if Luca has it?” Luffy asked.

“It means that it’s been a very long time since anyone has been known to have these specific devil fruit powers. The last known user of the Flash Flash Fruit lived in the South Blue over three hundred years ago.”

“How does a toddler end up in the All Blue on the Grand Line with an old fruit from the South Blue?” 

“That I’m afraid I still can’t answer. It is possible that the South Blue is where the slavers acquired him, but it is also possible that the Flash Flash Fruit was simply passed on unknown to any records throughout history and made its way here. ” 

Zoro looked down at the kid, his kid now he guessed. Luca was still sipping happily at his juice. He was staring at the adults with his big, golden-green eyes but was none the wiser to what they were discussing. 

“You know, Blinky…” Zoro raised an eyebrow at him. “This would be a lot easier if you’d just tell us who you actually are.”

Luca didn’t respond, not that Zoro was expecting him to. He did stop sucking on his straw in favor of matching him with a grin. Zoro had to fight back his own smile in response. He wasn’t ashamed of being soft for the kid, but he also didn’t need Robin’s amused and knowing looks all night either.

She gave him one anyway as she gracefully extracted herself from the chair, standing with her book. “I’m going to freshen up before dinner, would you like me to pass on what I’ve learned to our Cook?”

“Do what you want.” Zoro shrugged.

Robin gave him yet another soft smile as she left. Luffy ruffled Luca’s hair and then dashed after her, shouting about getting an early appetizer. Sanji’s angry replies echoed shortly after, accompanied by the clatter of pots and pans.

Zoro let himself chuckle and then turned back to Luca.

Luca patted his tummy and then cocked his head questioningly.

“Almost.” Zoro answered, familiar with his little gestures. He then noticed the rim of red juice lining Luca’s lips. Sanji was weird about keeping the kid clean and definitely wouldn’t like that. He sighed and adjusted his sheaths so that he could kneel in front of Luca. He tipped up the boy’s head and used the end of his sash, luckily red, to wipe at his mouth.

“I meant it, you know.” He said quietly. “I wish you’d tell us where you came from. Or even your real damn name.”

Luca frowned at him and raised a little hand to his chest.

“Wuca.” He whispered.

“Yeah, I know. You’re Luca.” Zoro sighed again and then bumped Luca’s chin up. “Just don’t blame me when you’re older and hate being named after a slave ship, ok?”

“Binky Wuca Owive” Luca said quietly with a giggle.

“Is that your full name now?”

Luca nodded. 

“Well Blinky Luca Olive, how about we go get some dinner?”

-------------------------------------------------------

“ I lost track around ninety…

My life’s been so mighty, 

That the years have all been a blur.

Age is just an adventure,

To which I’ll never surrender,

While the fire in my heart still burns!

Even when these bones turn to dust,

There’s one fact that I trust:

And it’s that I’ll live on in a song.

Singing: Hiiii lieeee too-ra-la-lay

Hi lie a loooooo! A too-ra-la-lay!”

Sanji smiled as a fair amount of the others in the galley started to sing, joining Brook for the chorus of his song. A New World Original as Brook liked to call it, composed shortly after Luffy had become the Pirate King. It was one of the crew’s favorites and you could definitely tell. 

Luffy and Chopper were dancing on the table, stomping around platters of food and waving drumsticks and fish kebabs. Franky was doing a little drumming routine with a pair of spoons and Jimbei was stomping his feet so hard the table was shaking ever so slightly. The ladies were far more civilized in their jubilations, though even Robin was tapping her fingers in time with the music.

Sanji would have been singing along, but he was… distracted, too enamored by the sight in front of him to even pay attention to where Brook was at in the song.

Luca was sitting safely in Zoro’s lap, tucked against the swordsman’s chest and half wrapped in his coat. The little boy was doing his best to watch the others celebrate, but was once again fighting to stay awake. Chopper had assured them that even completely healthy children his age needed to nap often and go to bed early, so Sanji didn’t let it worry him too much. Besides, Luffy and Chopper had done an amazing job at tiring him out between dancing, playing, and teaching him their chopstick nose trick.

Instead, he let himself bask in the sight; in Luca’s little smile as he rested his head on Zoro’s bicep. In the breathy little giggle he’d let out and the way he’d nuzzle his cheek against Zoro’s arm. Sanji felt his insides melt just a little at the way Zoro would tighten his arm around the boy, the way his thumb would stroke absently up and down Luca’s shoulder. Sanji almost had a heart attack over the way Zoro would occasionally offer Luca another bite of the cake Sanji had baked for the occasion. Luca would accept and beam up at the man, and Zoro would give the boy the softest smile in return.

The air smelt of spices from dinner with the hint of frosting on top. It was warm, warm enough that Sanji had taken off his jacket. But a breeze was blowing in from an open porthole, swirling around with notes from Brook’s violin mixed in. 

For a moment, taking it all in… his friends, his family … There wasn’t a food or dish in the entire world that could ever make Sanji as full as he felt right now.

Notes:

So who is ready for the angst arc??? XD XD XD

There are a few of you sticking around for this self-indulgent fic of mine and I really appreciate it!

Chapter 7

The downside to running a floating, non-stationary restaurant is that there wasn’t always a guarantee that there would be customers in any given area they decided to weigh anchor at. Even with a rough schedule they tended to follow, there were still slow days.

Really slow days.

Sanji didn’t really mind, nor did his crew. After not a single customer had shown up for lunch, most of his crew was outside relaxing. Many of them were fishing, some were lounging in hammocks, and all were soaking in the fresh air and cool breeze.

Sanji had the kitchen to himself and was thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to experiment with some new recipes. He’d been working for weeks on a new spice mix for his overnight salmon cure and had been ecstatic at the results when he checked it that morning. After a few hours of smoking, he’d broken it down into flakes, ready to go into a quiche filling along with the most vibrant leeks and asparagus he’d picked up on their last supply run.

It was going to be good, he was confident of that. Confident enough that he paused occasionally to take notes, writing the recipe down. It was one for the cookbook for sure.

He was so engrossed in it, that he didn’t notice the galley door swing open and only his years of training kept him from jumping when a small hand tugged at his apron. He looked down to see Luca’s wide-eyed face and smiled.

“Me help?” Luca asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Sure. Wash your hands.” Sanji watched fondly as Luca darted off to do just that. After he was done, he ran to the corner of the kitchen where a row of aprons and white jackets hung on hooks. There was one hook significantly lower than the others with an apron decidedly more small. Luca grabbed it and ran back over, handing it to Sanji.

Sanji helped the boy step up onto an old wooden fruit crate and kept on smiling when Luca turned around and lifted his arms expectantly. Sanji tied the boy's apron on and dropped a quick kiss to his white hair before stepping up behind him and very carefully helped move Luca’s little hands to his knife, guiding him through the motions of cutting up the leeks. 

“Do you remember what this one is?” Sanji asked. 

“Weeks.” Luca said quietly, blep of a tongue sticking out in concentration.

“Good job.” Sanji said. It was ridiculous how proud he felt at something as simple as remembering what a vegetable was called, but then again… he had gotten used to how ridiculous a lot of his feelings for his son seemed to be.

His son.  

It still occasionally felt unbelievable that he had a son. A whole-ass, living, breathing kid that Sanji had fallen so in love with that the thought of living without Luca now made him physically ill. A kid that even called him dad thanks to Zoro’s insistence that they weren’t going to half-ass anything when it came to parenting.

Going from just his and Zoro’s… partnership to being a family of three went smoother than Sanji could have ever hoped for. It had been six months and they were some of the best six months of his life. Sanji was already predispositioned for caring, so the basic responsibilities of parenting like feeding Luca and even bathing him didn’t phase Sanji. It was the… little moments that stood out for him… made him feel warm and made him fall hard for the little shit.

Little moments like Luca racing after him, slipping his little fingers in between Sanji’s own for no other reason than just wanting to hold his hand. Like the little “Hi Daddy” and sleepy smile he got every morning whenever the kid showed up for breakfast. Sanji adored the “mmmms” and “yummies!” he got when introducing Luca to a new dish. He loved the little looks of concentration that would come over the boy’s face while Sanji taught him the names of fruits and vegetables at the market and the enthusiastic gasp whenever Sanji let him pick something out from the sweets stall.

He loved the way Luca would rub his nose against Sanji’s neck whenever he carried him somewhere. He loved every giggle and every rare word he managed to coax out of him. Hell, he even loved the 3AM intrusions into his bed when Luca couldn’t sleep, his warm weight snuggled between he and Zoro, the fingers fisted into Sanji’s shirt and whispered “wuv you.”

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses. There were definitely hard parts and plenty of bumps along the way. But even though Sanji was sure it would get harder as Luca got older… so far it wasn’t bad at all having their new little addition.

“Daddy?”

“Hmmm?” 

“We done?”

“Oh.” Sanji shook himself out of his thoughts. He hadn’t realized that they had stopped chopping. “Yes we are.”

He helped Luca fold the veggies they had cut into an egg mixture which went into his quiche along with the salmon. Luca gave him a wide berth while he put it in the oven and set a timer, but scrambled back to sit with him on the fruit crate as soon as the oven door was closed.

“So where’s your Moss at?” Sanji asked as they sat, watching the quiche’s progress through the small oven window.

“He nap.”

“And you didn’t want to nap with him?” Sanji asked, genuinely surprised. One of Luca’s favorite places seemed to be tucked up against Zoro’s side and the two were becoming notorious nap partners. 

“He too stinky.”

Sanji tossed his head back and laughed. Hard . The Marimo must have been out cold. Sanji could pester and pester the man to shower and he’d only do it if he was getting laid in return or if Sanji refused to feed him. All Luca had to do was wrinkle his nose and Zoro would head off to the washroom with a sigh and grumbled “ Sensitive ass nose”.

“Don’t worry. We’ll make him take a bath tonight.” Sanji let his laughter trail off, propping his chin on Luca’s head. He made a mental note to ask Zoro what the hell they had been doing because Luca didn’t smell all that great either. But that was a problem for later. For now, he was content to pull the boy a little closer, sitting quietly as the quiche baked.

They had only been waiting another five minutes when Sanji straightened, suddenly aware of a commotion outside. His arm tightened around Luca instinctually. A split second later, Tajio poked his head through the swinging kitchen doors.

“Trouble sir!” The shorter man squeaked before ducking back outside.

"Shit." Sanji breathed. He stood and set Luca on his feet. "Stay here until me or your Moss comes and gets you ok?”

Luca whined, eyes going wide with fear when his dad started to leave, but Sanji didn’t have much of a choice until he figured out what was going on. He tore himself away and sprinted out onto the deck. He joined the obvious crowd of his men at the railing, shoving himself up beside Tajio.

“What is it?” He asked his sous chef.

“Marines sir! There!” 

As Sanji followed Tajio’s pointing finger out to the horizon, a thump and the metallic sound of swords being unsheathed signaled the arrival of his partner beside him. 

“About time we got some action.” Zoro’s eagerness for a fight was evident, Sanji didn’t even have to look over at him to know the man was grinning.

“Keep it in your pants, Cactus.” Sanji said, then shouted “Who has the glass?”

“Menro, Chef!”

Sanji looked around until he spotted Menro and the telescoping spotting glass he held.

“Is there anything hanging off the bowsprit?” He asked.

“Uh…” The man held the telescope back up to his eye. “Yes Chef! There’s some kind of yellow flag.”

Zoro groaned, snapping his swords back into their sheaths with an exaggerated “ Dammit.”

“What?” Tajio asked, looking between the swordsman and Sanji. “What does that mean?”

“It means the Cactus doesn’t get to fight today.” Sanji smiled at him. “Everyone can stand down. These Marines are friends.”

---------------------------------------------------

Zoro kept a leery eye on the pair of Marines. 

He trusted Coby and Helmeppo to an extent. They were some of Luffy’s greatest allies within the Marines and responsible for a fair amount of change in the force but… no matter how much respect he had for the pair, something about having marines so close to his kid made him uncomfortable.

Luca had been wildly uncomfortable as well when they first came aboard, hiding behind Zoro’s leg. But then Coby had revealed that he’d brought him a present from his Uncle Franky. The man had held up a little toy peg-person version of Luca and the boy had gasped.

“That me!” He’d exclaimed, running up to Coby as if he hadn’t been afraid at all. 

“It is you!” Coby said, squatting in front of him. “Franky said it would match your others?”

Which led them to where they were now: sitting on Sanji and Zoro’s private balcony, waiting for dinner while Luca showed Coby every single part of the Thousand Sunny model Franky had made him.

“This Uncle Wuffy.” Luca handed the peg-person version of Luffy to Coby. “And Uncle Fanky. And Nami. And Bobin. And Choppa. And Woosop. And Book. And Papa. And Daddy. And Jibjib!”

“Oh wow!” Coby said, “Franky did a great job! These are so cool! I wonder if he’d make me a little Helmeppo for my desk.”

Behind him, Helmeppo made an undignified noise and Zoro couldn’t help but smirk.

“I’m sure that would look very becoming for an admiral.” Sanji appeared in the doorway, a massive serving platter laden with various plates and dishes, including the quiche from earlier.

“Hey, a man can love his husband.” Coby shrugged and straightened. His eyes went wide at the sight of the food as Sanji explained the dishes and he rubbed his hands together as he sat next to Helmeppo at the small balcony table. “Now I’ll admit, this wasn’t the main reason we came but I can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to eating your food.”

“Not that we mind visitors-”

“We do.” Zoro growled.

“NOT that we mind visitors,” Sanji repeated, ignoring Zoro’s interruption, “But why ARE you here? Marines don’t usually venture this far into the Free Seas.”

“We’re actually here because of him.” Coby nodded his head to where Luca had dragged his Sunny model into the corner to play.

“What about him?” Zoro narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He scooted his chair up to the table, subconsciously putting himself between the pair of marines and Luca.

“We ran into Luffy and the others a few weeks ago near the Candle Islands and he was more than happy to tell us all about his new nephew.” Coby explained through a mouthful of food. 

“More than happy.” Helmeppo repeated. “Talked about him for nearly an hour. I’m not even sure he paused to breathe.”

“And you wanted to come see what all the fuss was about?” Sanji asked before he moved to pick Luca up. He plunked the kid in a chair of his own and set a plate in front of him. “Eat. Then you can play.” He commanded quietly.

“Not exactly.” Coby shook his head. “They were telling us about him, and Robin mentioned his um…. The thing on his chest. It sounded familiar so I had her draw it and I realized that I recognized it. I’ve seen it before.”

“You have?”

Coby nodded and motioned at Helmeppo. Helmeppo reached into a pocket and then slid a photograph across the table to Sanji. Zoro watched as his partner frowned, glanced at Luca, then deepened his frown.

Zoro moved to look over the cook’s shoulder so he could see the photo and frowned instantly as well. The image showed a man, presumably in handcuffs being held on his knees between two marines. Zoro didn’t know who the man was, but he sure as shit recognized the scar burned across his chest. It was identical to Luca’s, as was the man’s white hair. 

“Who is he?” Sanji asked after a moment. 

“We don’t know. Not exactly.” 

“Cut the shit and just tell us what you do know.” Zoro demanded.

“This was taken quite a few years ago, so I have no idea if it’s current information. But this man was caught during an assassination attempt on Kizaru.”

“Assassination?”

“Mmmhmm.” Coby nodded. “During interrogation we found out that he’s a member of a cult called the Children of Light . We don’t know a lot about them, but we do know that they are led by a man called the Lightbringer and that, for whatever reason, they collect devil fruit that give powers related to light and fire. That’s why they wanted Kizaru and presumably…”

“Him.” Sanji looked over at Luca again. 

Zoro followed his gaze over to their son. Luca had both cheeks full of rice, whatever red sauce Sanji had added running down his chin. Zoro watched it drip onto Luca’s pale blue shirt, imagining the scar branded into skin below.

“Why the fuck is a cult hunting down my kid?” Zoro asked.

“You’re guess is as good as ours.” Coby shrugged, shooting him an apologetic smile before sliding a folder over to Sanji as well. “This is all the information we’ve been able to gather on them over the past ten years or so. I’ll warn you, it’s not much. A few sightings mostly. I wish I could give you more.”

“No this is… good.” Sanji said, thumbing through the folder. “It’s good to know something at least. Thank you.”

It was quiet for a moment with a heavy silence before Sanji sighed, then smiled. 

“Well eat.” He commanded. “And tell us what you’ve been up to.”

Coby and Helmeppo obeyed happily, but Zoro kept his attention on Luca. The red sauce bloomed over his shirt and something in Zoro’s stomach clenched, imagining something else red spreading across the fabric. Luca was vulnerable, Zoro knew that. But the thought of someone coming after him, the thought of losing him…

Zoro wouldn’t allow that.

----------------------------------------------

“You need to widen your stance.” Zoro carefully nudged Luca’s legs further apart. “Your opponent will just tip you over if your feet are that close together.”

“Ok.”

“And don’t swing with your wrists. Think of the sword as an extension of you, swing with your whole arm.”

“Ok.”

“Ok. Now go again, single strike.”

Zoro watched with disappointment, yet amusement nonetheless as Luca charged forward and smacked their makeshift target with absolutely zero of the skills he’d been attempting to teach the boy. Nor did Luca deliver a single strike as instructed. Instead he yelled as he whacked the flour sack over, and over, and-

“What the hell is this!?” appeared on their large deck that attached to their private living level.

“Dada!” Luca looked up at Sanji’s arrival “Look! I sword!”

“Is that… my mop!?” Sanji threw a glare at Zoro.

“It used to be.” Zoro shrugged. “Thought you’d protest me letting him use an actual blade.”

“I WOULD protest that! I DO protest that!” Sanji reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “What… what the hell are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing, Swirly.” Zoro rolled his eyes. “We’re training.”

“Marimo, he’s three.”

“What’s your point?”

“Don’t you think that’s a little young to start training him?”

“No I don’t. Do you?” 

“I… I don’t know! He can’t even use a spoon properly and you want him to use a sword!?”

“No.” Zoro stepped over and squeezed his shoulder. “I don’t want him to use a sword yet. I want him to use a mop handle. At least until I can get him a proper shinai.”

“A proper-” Sanji cut himself off and sighed.

“What’s got your panties in a bunch? It’s literally harmless.”

Sanji shook Zoro’s grip off his shoulder and walked over to squat in front of Luca

“Are you having fun, my Olive?”

“Uh huh!” Luca held up his mop handle. “I sword!”

“Yeah? Is your Moss teaching you?”

“Uh huh! Papa Moss show me!” Luca started waving the stick around

“Woah woah!” Sanji laughed, dodging. “Careful! How about you go show me what he taught you on your target over there?”

“Ok!” Luca dashed over to the flour sack Zoro had tied to the railing. Zoro felt a rush of pride and barely managed to conceal his smirk when Luca looked down at his feet and then adjusted them into a wider stance before starting to smack the bag of flour.

Sanji watched Luca for a moment before standing back up and walking over to his partner, leveling him with a glare.

“I don’t understand why you’re mad. To him it’s just a game. We’re not doing anything all that serious.” Zoro held his gaze, unphased by the glare.

“I’m not mad that you’re training him. I’m mad you didn’t discuss it with me.”

“Why… would I discuss it with you?”

“Because, fucking hells Marimo… I know… I know the restaurant in my thing. I know your fights and training are your thing. But he-” Sanji jerked his head toward Luca, “He’s our thing Mosshead. You can’t just be making decisions without consulting me.”

“Consulting you? You mean asking your permission?”

“No. I mean CONSULTING ME.”

“Just like you did when you started teaching him to cook huh!?”

“COOKING is not a BATTLE TACTIC!”

“SO HE GETS TO DO THE THINGS YOU LIKE, BUT NOT STUFF I LIKE!?”

“NOT WHEN IT COULD GET HIM KILLED.” Sanji yelled, taking a step up to the other man. 

“OH, SO NOW YOU DON’T TRUST ME WITH THE KID!?” Their faces were almost touching now, both red with anger. Zoro hadn’t even realized they had started shouting until he caught sight of something in the corner of his eye that brought reality crashing down on him.

Abruptly he took a step back.

“I DIDN’T-”

“Sanji stop.” Zoro said, hushed.

Something in his tone, or his face, or his use of Sanji’s actual name made Sanji obey. He frowned in confusion at Zoro before he followed his gaze and immediately paled.

Luca had dropped his mop handle and was crouched down, shaking with his hands covering his ears. Zoro could tell he was hyperventilating by the speed of his dim flashes he was letting out involuntarily. 

Zoro turned to Sanji, expecting to be told what to do or even just to be pushed out of the way. But Sanji was frozen, staring at Luca with a horrified look.

“ Fuck” Zoro breathed. He turned and walked over to their son, reaching town to put a tentative hand on his back. “Luca-”

The moment Zoro made physical contact, Luca wrenched himself away and took off running with a gut-wrenching sob. A few seconds later they heard his bedroom door slam.

Zoro slowly met Sanji’s gaze and they simply stared at each other before Sanji finally raised a hand to his mouth.

“He looked scared.” Sanji said. “We scared him.”

“Fuck. I… We fight all the time!”

“I don’t think we’ve yelled like that… at least not in front of him. Fuck!.” Sanji reached over and shoved Zoro. “This is your fucking fault.”

“You started it!”

“Only because- no.” Sanji sighed. “Marimo we can’t do this. Not right now.”

“Yeah yeah.” Zoro sighed and walked past, giving Sanji the slightest shove since he was still plenty mad. Underneath the anger, however, there was a knot of shame gripping his stomach. Zoro didn’t want to be someone Luca feared . And he didn’t want the kid thinking that he did anything less than love the Cook, even if they fought.

He came to Luca’s door and sighed before knocking. 

“Blinky?” He asked through the wood. “Blinky listen, me and the Cook didn’t mean to scare you. Could we come in?”

When he received no response, he opened the door and tentatively stepped in. The room was empty, the only movement coming from the soft sway of the curtains as a warm breeze floated in through the open window. He stepped toward the bed, but stoppen when Sanji tapped his arm and nodded toward the wardrobe. 

Zoro knelt down in front of it and slowly opened the door. Sure enough, wedged against the back, curled up into a ball beside a pile of neatly folded pants was Luca. The boy had one hand clamped over an ear, the other crushing his “Wuffy” stuffed monkey. He was pulsating with the faintest little flashes of light and trembling. 

“Oh, my Olive.” Sanji breathed behind Zoro, the pain in his voice evident.

Zoro could relate, that knot of shame grew tenfold once he saw the kid. But he squashed it down and reached into the wardrobe. Luca still flinched when he touched him, but this time Zoro didn’t jerk his hand back. Instead he gathered the boy up and pulled him out of the wardrobe and tight against his chest.

Zoro didn’t say anything. He didn’t know WHAT to say. He just held on tight and waited.

“Luca?” Sanji spoke up after a moment. He reached over and pulled Luca’s hand off his ear and squeezed it.  “Can you talk to us?”

Luca whined and turned his head against Zoro’s chest.

“Did we scare you?” Sanji asked.

Luca nodded.

“We didn’t mean to. And we’re very sorry.”

“ Loud.” Luca whispered before letting out the shakiest little sob. 

“We are loud all the time. How come this time scared you?” Zoro asked, then flinched when Sanji smacked the back of his head. “I’m just asking!”

“Loud scary .” Luca sobbed.

“I… I’m sorry Blinks. I’m sorry.” Zoro held on to Luca while Sanji rubbed the kid’s back for a long while. He felt awful and he knew that he probably didn’t even feel half as bad as Sanji did. There was a part of him that wanted to tell Luca to… suck it up or toughen up or something . Their world tended to be cruel to the soft and Zoro didn’t want that for his son. The bigger part of him, however, just wanted Luca to feel safe, so he just kept on holding him. Eventually the sobs subsided and Luca’s arms dropped, sagging against Zoro.

“M’Story.” Luca mumbled.

“You want a story?”

Luca nodded.

“Ok. We can do that.” Sanji looked up and nodded at Zoro.

Zoro stood and carried Luca over to his bed. Luca protested with pitiful little whines when he tried to put the kid down so he surrendered himself to endure storytime and sat down, Luca still tucked up on his chest.

Sanji grabbed the book they had been reading at bedtime and sat next to them. Luca’s bed wasn’t massive, and they had to squish to fit, but Zoro found that he didn’t mind. Not until Sanji started to read and Luca started protesting again.

“Nooooo.” Luca whined quietly. “Papa Moss read.”

“Not a cha-”

“Your Papa Moss will absolutely read, my Olive.” Sanji elbowed him.

“Fucking fine.” Zoro grabbed the book and let Luca arrange himself until he was snuggled comfortably between them. The book was Usopp’s second, Captain Usopp’s Adventures in the Sky Islands , which they’d already read probably a dozen times. Zoro wasn’t the one that usually read out loud, but he’d been present for enough bedtimes that he practically had the book memorized. Nonetheless, he dutifully flipped open to the dog eared page that marked where they had left off and started to read. 

Zoro knew he wouldn’t be reading long. With every page turn, Luca seemed to sag a little heavier against him. He got to Usopp’s exaggerated retelling of Flopper bravely defending the Going Merry when Sanji reached up and tapped the book.

“You can stop. He’s out.” Sanji said quietly. 

Zoro looked down. Sure enough, Luca’s head was lolled off to the side, his grip loose around his monkey plush as he drooled ever so slightly onto Zoro’s shirt.

Sanji let his own head drop against Zoro’s shoulder and then reached to brush Luca’s hair off the kid’s forehead. “You should have talked to me.”

“You shouldn’t have started yelling . But I guess you were a little right.” Zoro conceded with a sigh and tossed the book aside. He adjusted himself and put an arm around Sanji, pulling him close. “We are a team. I should have told you I wanted to start his training. It’s different than teaching him to cook and I know that. I just… want him to be able to defend himself.”

“Marimo, he really is years away from being able to do that.”

“I know. But the sooner we start, the better chance he’ll have if someone does come after him.”

“I’m not worried.”

“You worry about everything.”

“I’m not worried about this. He’s ours and I’ll murder anyone that tries to take him away from us. And I know you’ll do the same.”

“No shit I will. I just…” Zoro sighed again. “I love him, Cook. And if something happens to him… the guilt… I don’t think I could live with that.”

“I know, Marimo. I know.” Sanji reached across Luca to thread his fingers between Zoros. “Train him. I’m ok with that, I want that. Just… no actual swords till he’s at least six. Deal?”

“Deal.”

------------------------------------------------

Sunlight refracted through the crystalline table, casting rainbows all over the white walls of their meeting room. It was a beautiful display, though common throughout the Lightbringer’s grand palace. Common enough that the figure, clad in white robes, didn’t even bat an eye as he slid two wanted posters across the table to a woman who sat across from him.

“Roronoa Zoro and Vinsmoke Sanji.” 

“The wings of the king of pirates. You’ve got to be joking.” The woman huffed a laugh. “If they have him, it will be impossible.”

“Difficult,” The man nodded. “But not impossible. You don’t need to fight them, child. You need to distract them.”

“And if I succeed, I will be allowed to rejoin the chosen?” 

“Bring me the boy, and I will open the doors to Kingdom of Light for you myself.”

Notes:

Still very much working on this. Sorry for the long wait. I have most of the story written in my head, it's just finding time to actually write it down has been almost impossible! I will do my best to be more frequent

Again, this is my silly self-indulgent fic done mostly for my own enjoyment so it may not be the best, but it's what I think about... an unhealthy amount. I'd still love to hear your thoughts if you're willing to share!

Chapter 8

Geezer,

Your Matelote à la normande recipe was shit. I don’t know where in your deranged mind you thought using turkey eels was a good idea. They’re too oily, it kills the dish. You need something like slip eels or elbow eels with more body. Your stock needs to be reduced longer, you need to axe the parsnips, and you need to use a harder cider. I’m attaching my notes so you can learn from someone with actual tastebuds.

Not that it’s any of your damn business, but the restaurant is doing well. Dining room full for almost every service. Those damn crabcakes Luffy loves are so popular I could probably pay everyone’s wages selling them alone.

The Marimo and Luca are the same as ever. The Marimo has been teaching him to call you Grandpa Zeff so I guess be prepared for that if we ever get him out there to meet you. You’ll like him. He might not like you, but you’ll definitely like him. The kid is the best taste tester you could ask for, he’ll try anything. He’s still pretty quiet and the nightmares seem to be here to stay. That’s actually mostly why I’m writing. I don’t know if you remember, but when I was a kid I know I had nightmares and I remember you making me some kind of tea. Don’t let this go to your head, but I remember it did help. So if you have the recipe I would appreciate it. Unless it involves booze, Marimo already tried that.

 I don’t know how else to help him and it’s weird how much that bothers me.

Anyway. We do want to bring him back to the East Blue sometime. Marimo is obsessed with taking Luca to meet his old sensei and getting him his first sword out there. I suppose while we are out there we might as well bring him to meet you as well. There’s a festival here on one of the islands we frequent in a few weeks, after that we’ll get Luffy to bring us that way.

Try not to die of old age before we get there

Sanji

Sanji waved a hand over the piece of paper, drying the last few wet spots of ink before he stuffed it into an envelope. A transponder call would be leagues faster, but Sanji was still testing out the waters on how Zeff even felt about Luca and he mostly just wanted to give the old man a head’s up about their potential visit. The tea recipe would be nice, but Chopper had given them a powder on their last visit that seemed to help in the meantime.

Luca had at least slept through a whole night in his own room. 

Sanji snuffed out the candle he had been using to write and stood. The sun wasn’t quite up yet, but it was close. The room was cast in a blue light, just barely starting to warm with the tones of dawn. It was early, even by Sanji’s standards, but he was planning a trip to the nearest island and he wanted to have the very first choices of produce at the market when they opened.

Sanji glanced across the room and had to admit, the urge to get back into bed was very tempting. Zoro was fast asleep and had his arm thrown over the empty space next to him. The blanket had slipped down to his waist, revealing all that tan, muscled, and warm skin. They’d spent half the night wrapped up in one another, making up for two or so weeks of no sex save for one extremely desperate handjob in the Toubleu’s storage room.

That hadn’t gone that long without getting laid in years and hadn’t done it on purpose. It just seemed like every moment they started to get intimate, Luca would start sobbing in his room, or his timid little knocks would come at the door. They had to teach him to knock in the first place after the first three or so times he walked in on them. 

It was a part of parenting Sanji hadn’t quite been prepared for. He didn’t know how to fight something he couldn’t see. He didn’t know how to protect Luca from his own mind. For now, Chopper’s medicine helped. Someday they’d be able to teach their son that the nightmares weren’t real, and how to cope with them. For now, Sanji and surprisingly Zoro both were ok with taking a hit to their sex life if it meant giving Luca the cuddles he needed to feel safe.

Still… the selection at this market had better be damned good to make not waking Zoro up for a little morning love worth it, Sanji thought to himself as he slipped on his shoes and grabbed his jacket. He shut the door to their room quietly, even though, after the night they had, he knew it would take a small army to wake Zoro up.

Sanji did stop to peek in Luca’s room to check on him and smiled at what he saw. Luca was sprawled out on his back like a starfish, chest rising and falling slowly with calm breaths. He had a loose grip on his Wuffy with one arm and the other clutched a carrot plushie that Sanji had given him. It was a breath of fresh air to see him sleeping peacefully. Which is why as much as Sanji wouldn’t have minded taking him to the market, he decided to let him get as much sleep as possible.

The two of his men that he requested wake up early met him on deck. He made a quick detour to grab the berries he’d need and then the three headed off. 

The 20 minute or so journey was peaceful. The chill of nighttime faded as the sun finally came out, reflecting along the horizon in a great orange line contrasted against the blue of the ocean. The bulk of the Toubleu was silhouetted in the dawn’s light, a few sparse sails from other ships approaching, early dockers for the breakfast service. 

It was a gorgeous sight, the restaurant on his ocean of dreams, the people he loved most inside. Sanji couldn’t help but smile. He pulled a cigarette out of his jacket pocket and slotted it between his lips. He’d been cutting back, Luca didn’t like the smell, but now felt like a good time to treat himself. 

He’d smoked it down to the filter and flicked it into the water as his men pulled their small cutter into dock. He gave instructions to his men to get the basic dry goods ingredients they needed and then he set off toward the markets. 

The island was called Mullinia and seemed to be in a perpetual autumn. The cobblestone streets were filled with the wafting scent of baked goods and apples, signs of the town bakers getting early starts. Up ahead, Sanji could already hear the bustle of Mullinia’s harvest market and-

Screaming. Sanji heard screaming. A woman screaming.

He lunged forward, breaking into a sprint. He burst into the first row of market stalls just in time to see a man rip a necklace off of one of the most gorgeous ladies Sanji had seen in a while. The man took off running at an almost impossible speed and the woman stumbled.

“Are you alright, my lady?” Sanji reached her and helped her stabilize herself.

“My- my necklace! It was my mamas. It’s all I have left!” The woman looked around, panicked, hands pushing her white hair from her face. “Please, you must help me.”

“Fear not, fair lady!” Sanji’s heart swelled at the opportunity to be chivalrous , and for such a beauty. “I will retrieve your heirloom!”

He bowed with a flourish and then turned to run after the man, the path taking him further into the island’s interior…

…and further from the docks.

------------------------------------------------

Zoro woke suddenly, but kept his eye closed and his body still. Discipline and instinct was the only thing that kept him from jumping up and attacking as he sensed the intruder in his room. He listened as the door creaked open and then clicked shut. He listened as the floor boards groaned ever so subtly under the shifting weight of someone walking toward him.

Then Zoro smiled as his tiny trespasser climbed onto the bed and wiggled up against him. They burrowed up under the blanket and under his arm until their mess of hair was shoved directly up into Zoro’s nose.

Zoro sputtered and finally cracked his good eye open.

“Hi.” Luca whispered, face plastered with a sleepy smile, inches away from Zoro’s face.

“Hey.” Zoro grunted back.

“Where Daddy?”

“Fucked if I know.” Zoro yawned and shifted to pull Luca closer. He buried his face against Luca’s neck, grinning at the giggles Luca out as his hint of stubble tickled his skin. The sun was still pink and so low that Zoro knew it still had to be early. Too early . Earlier than either he or Luca was used to waking up.

“Why are you awake?” He muttered, already feeling the pull to return to sleep. “Bad dream?”

“Nuh-uh.” Luca shimmied down to tuck his head under Zoro’s chin. “Cold.”

“That’s why we put extra blankets in your room.”

“Papa Moss better.”

“Well,” Zoro fished blindly for the edge of the blanket and pulled it up around them. “Can’t argue with that.”

He settled back into his pillows, letting Luca get comfortable however the kid wanted. Zoro didn’t mind tactile contact, and he figured Luca would eventually grow out of this… wanting to sleep in their bed thing. In the meantime it… felt good to be needed like this, and he planned on savoring it while it lasted. 

Within minutes, Luca’s breathing evened out to a steady rhythm, the faintest snort of a snore on the tail end of each breath. It would have been a perfect moment if the damn cook didn’t insist on waking up early and was there with them. But he wasn’t. Zoro eyed the empty space across the bed for one longing moment, then shut his eye and allowed himself to drift back off to sleep.

After what felt like only moments, Zoro’s eye flew back open when someone else started pounding on his bedroom door.

“Roronoa Sir!” Tajio’s worried voice called out. “Sir there’s a situation downstairs!”

This time Zoro did sit up, carefully extracting himself from Luca who whined in protest. He padded across the room and flung the door open, glaring at his partner’s small sous chef. “You can’t handle it?”

“No sir!” Tajio squeaked, shrinking back “There’s a lot of men, one of them says he’s here t-to challenge you sir! His men aren’t letting any diners on board until you agree to fight him!”

At this information, Zoro grinned. It had been a few months since the last time someone dared challenge him for his title. And as fun as sparring with Sanji was, and even training Luca had been… The thought of a real fight had Zoro’s blood singing.

He stomped back to grab his sword belt that was hanging off one of his bed posts. Luca had sat up, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

“Go back to sleep, Blinks. I’ll be back in a couple minutes.” Zoro said confidently. HE threw on his coat and then turned to Tajio. “Stay in here with him. Don’t think he’s ready to watch me kill someone.”

“Yes sir” Tajio nodded and stepped aside to let Zoro pass.

Zoro forced himself to saunter downstairs, despite an almost shameful giddiness at getting to fight someone for real. He walked through the empty dining hall to the large fore deck where he found all of the Toubleu’s crew in a standoff with a group of pirates, all dressed in blue and black robes with their hoods pulled up.

“Alright.” Zoro pushed past his crew and eyed the pirates, hand on his sword hilts. “Which one of you has the balls to challenge me?”

A man stepped forward. He was wearing the same blue and black robes as the rest, but instead of a hood he had a weird, pointy black hat and a long scabbard at his side.

“I am Etienne, champion of the red blade.”

“And I…. don’t give a fuck.” Zoro rolled his eyes and drew Enma. 

“I was told you fought with three swords.” Etienne nodded toward his sword belt.

“I do. But I can already tell this isn’t going to be much of a fight. I’ll only need one to beat your ass.”

“If you are as good with your sword as you are at running your mouth, then this may yet be interesting.” Etienne drew his own sword. It was a broad, curved blade and true to what Etienne had said before, the blade was indeed red. 

The men, Etienne and Zoro’s both, backed up against the Toubleu’s railings, forming a wide oval around the two swordsmen. 

Zoro waited for the man to make his move.

And waited.

Annnnd waited.

“You come to fight or waste my time?” Zoro growled.

“I never make the first move.” Etienne smirked.

“Have it your way.” Zoro dropped into a combat stance, then propelled himself forward to strike. To his surprise, Etienne seemed to blur out of existence, appearing a few feet away. When Zoro raised Enma to strike again, the man did the same thing. The shave technique Zoro realized. It would be easy enough to counter. Zoro could easily predict the man’s movements and end him there with a blade through the neck. But he was hoping for a bit more fun than that.

Etienne kept shave stepping, avoiding Zoro’s strikes and only very rarely throwing up a pitifully amateur offense. Zoro parried his blows easily and frowned. He’d been annoyed at first, but now he has his suspicions. This man wasn’t a skilled swordsman, his strikes were sloppy with absolutely no technique. He didn’t have even a snowflake's chance in hell at hitting Zoro, let alone beating him. So why risk…

“Cut the shit.” Zoro straightened, lowering his blade. “What’s going on?”

“Well.” Etienne sheathed his sword and grinned. “You had it right a moment ago. I DID come to waste your time.”

“The fuck does that mean?”

“We have studied you, Roronoa Zoro. You do possess a grand reputation for being one of the most fearsome fighters these seas have ever seen. But it is also known that you are… less intelligently inclined that some of your compatriots.”

“The FUCK does that mean?” Zoro repeated himself.

“It means we knew you would waste your time with me down here, allowing my colleagues to carry out their own mission up there.” Etienne nodded toward the tower portion of the restaurant… toward their living quarters… toward Luca .

Zoro’s blood turned to ice. 

He did not hesitate. He spun, lashing out with Enma and neatly separating Etienne’s head from his body in the blink of an eye. “KILL THEM!” Zoro shouted as he used the momentum from his spin to spring toward the stairs, leaving the Toubleu’s men to take care of the others.

Zoro could not recall the last time he felt raw fear like this. He was an idiot , letting his fucking ego blind him while fuck knows what was happening to his kid.  

He took the stairs four at a time, drawing Kitetsu as he ran. At the top, he didn’t even bother to open the door to their living level, Zoro just plowed through the wooden door. Splinters flew in every direction as he burst through.

He froze immediately, that fear gripping his heart like a vice at what he saw.

There were three men standing at the end of the hallway in front of what looked like a glowing white door. Two of them turned when Zoro broke down the door, weapons raised, but Zoro wasn’t looking at them. The third man closest to the door was holding Luca in one arm, the other held a knife to the obviously petrified boy’s throat.

“ Papa!” Luca gasped, struggling weakly in the man’s grasp. Too weakly. Something was wrong with him

“If you hurt him,” Zoro said through gritted teeth, his anger rising. “I will make you pray for death.”

“Drop your swords and I promise I won’t.” The man in back said.

“Not a chance.”

“You are skilled, but can you be absolutely sure you can kill both of them before I draw this blade across his neck? It would simply take a single flinch.” To prove his point, the man moved the blade ever so lightly and Zoro watched in horror as a single bead of blood trickled down Luca’s neck.

Luca whimpered pitifully and raised his now clouded gaze to look at him.

He let out a pulse of his conqueror’s haki and all three of them flinched, but seemed otherwise unaffected.

“Your spiritual abilities are strong, but we are guided and protected by the light. They will not work on us.” The man tightened the knife again, another drip of red ran down Luca’s neck. “Drop. Your. Swords.”

Blood surged through Zoro’s ears, the pounding nearly drowning out the man’s command. He felt a deep anger, but also ice cold fear. Luca’s eyes were glazed over and almost completely closed. The two little beads of blood had run down to stain his cloud printed pajamas. In an instant Zoro knew what his only choice was. He’d grown to love this little boy, a piece of his soul made manifest. There wasn’t a price Zoro wouldn’t pay to keep him safe… even this.

Enma and Kitetsu hit the ground, a moment later his sword belt and the sheathed Wado followed.

The second he dropped his weapons, the two men in front raised theirs: small straw-like tubes. They brought them to their mouths and blew a barrage of tiny projectiles toward Zoro while the third dove through the glowing white door/portal. Zoro raised his arms to block the projectiles and a few embedded themselves in his skin. 

Darts.

Darts coated in god knows what if the dizziness Zoro immediately felt was anything to go by.

After ensuring they hit him, the other two men dove through the door.

Zoro stumbled forward, launching himself through the portal. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a sea of pure white, the three men peeling off their black robes to reveal white ones, and Luca’s limp body

---------------------------------------------

Sanji sprinted past fields and fields of different orchards, tree limbs heavy with ripened fruit. He was gaining on the man, but slowly. The dust in the distance was getting closer as each minute passed.

Fucker’s fast. Sanji thought to himself. He was actually having to push himself just to gain ground. But he was not letting anyone who dared steal from a lady, and a beautiful one at that, get away without punishment. 

He pounded down the dirt path that led through the orchards, then into the grassland interior of Mullinia island. Although calling it a grassland was a bit of an understatement. Grass forest would be more accurate. The grass was nearly as tall as Sanji was and only the straight path cut though allowed him to maintain his speed.

He ran for nearly ten minutes before he could finally see the man inside the dust cloud. After another five he was close enough to see the man’s black robed billowing around him. As soon as he was able, Sanji launched himself into the air, spun, and aimed a kick right in the middle of the man’s back.

The thief went sprawling forward into the dirt and Sanji was quick to put his foot against his back, pinning the man to the ground. 

“Alright. Here is how this is going to go.” Sanji shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “You’re going to give me back that necklace and then I’m going to kick you in the dick so hard that you’ll be pissing blood for months.”

It was an effective threat, even more so if the person he was threatening knew who Sanji was. But to Sanji’s surprise, the man started laughing.

“You want the necklace? Take it.” The thief cackled and reached out to the side, a pendant on a gold chain dangling from his hand.

Sanji reached down and took it with suspicion. The chain was well crafted, but not fairly average in design. The pendant-

Sanji’s breath hitched as he turned the pendant over in his hand, a cold chill running down his spine. The pendant bore a familiar symbol, one he stared at nightly during bath time. The symbol burned into his son’s skin.

“What the fuck is this?” Sanji breathed.

“Our Lady knew you would drop everything to help a woman, even if it meant chasing me all the way out here, so very far from your boat. Just as she knew your brutish partner wouldn’t be able to refuse a duel. We knew we could not fight you, but we did not need to. We only needed to distract you.” 

“Distract me from what?” Sanji felt a cold knot of dread tighten in his stomach, fearing that he already knew the answer.

“I wonder Blackleg.” The man turned his head up to look at him. “Will you get there in time to save them? Or are you already too late?”

Notes:

Buckle up boys and all aboard the pain train.

Also not to bribe you or anything, but I would LOVE it if you dropped a comment, let me know your thoughts. Comments motivate me to continue and let me know you want it!

Chapter 9

The spindle of smoke grew thicker the closer Sanji got back to the town. He’d never ran like this before, not even when he was chasing the guy that he left as a puddle of red goo miles back. Fear drove his every pounding step, matched only in speed by his pounding heart.

If the man had just said that the restaurant was under attack, Sanji wouldn’t have been nearly as scared. Zoro was one of the greatest fighters in the world . He could handle and protect himself. What terrified Sanji was the man’s statement that they ‘knew Zoro couldn’t refuse a duel.’ That turned his blood to ice because it was true. And god knows the tunnel vision the Marimo would get at a chance to swing his sword, blind to whatever the fuck they planned on doing to Luca.

Sanji was no better. They’d tricked him just as bad, knowing he’d never turn down an opportunity to help a lady in need. He’d been so stupid . The woman’s white hair had been identical to Luca’s… he should have been suspicious from the start. 

They’d been played like fiddles.

So he sprinted. 

His men had thankfully already sprung into action. Their cargo lay only half-loaded at the edges of the docks and yet the little skiff was already pushed off, ready to go.

“CHEF!” One of his men shouted as he neared. “Somethings wrong-”

“I CAN SEE THAT.”  Sanji shouted back. He vaulted the short distance from the dock, landing with a thud. “GO!”

His men didn’t have to be told twice. Within seconds the small sail was pulled taut and they were on their way. The sea, however, didn’t care about Sanji’s rising panic. It had only taken them twenty minutes to get to the island in the morning, but they were sailing against the wind now and even with two of them rowing the journey would be closer to half an hour. 

That didn’t stop Sanji from rowing like a madman; pulling and pushing the wooden oar almost violently even when he could feel blisters starting to form. For the first time ever, he wished he was Brook and had the ability to just run across the water, anything to get there faster. Instead he could do nothing but row and watch as the column of smoke got thicker and thicker. 

As they got closer, the reality of what was hbegan to get clearer and Sanji’s fear grew exponentially. The Toubleu was nearly engulfed in flames; licking up the dark lacquered wood in tendrils of bright orange. The air thickened with smoke and the sounds of cracking wood and men shouting. The restaurant's one life boat was in the water, as was a small fishing boat that must have belonged to someone on the island. Both vessels were loaded with his men, some covered in soot, others in blood.

Sanji scanned them quickly for a head of green or white… and came up empty. He did, however, spot the red hair and oversized glasses of his sous chef hunched over on the lifeboat.

As soon as they were close enough, Sanji lept aboard. He opened his mouth to shout at the man, to ask him what the fuck happened, but he froze when he saw the objects laying across the man’s lap.

Three sheathed swords.

Sanji wobbled forward and collapsed to his knees in front of his sous chef.

 

“Tajio.” He said shakily. “Where is Zoro? Where is my kid?”

Tajio looked up at him, eyes glazed over as though he was drugged.

“Took ‘em, chef. Took ‘em through some kind of portal.” Tajio slurred.

“WHO took them?”

“People in robes, Chef. I-I don’t know what happened downstairs but… They drugged me with something… they did Zoro too. T-They took Luca through a big white circle and Zoro got into it before it disappeared.”

“They had men on the deck.” Another one of Sanji’s chefs added. “They took off almost as soon as Zoro-san went upstairs. We gutted as many of them as we could but then they started throwing molotovs. I tracked their heading as long as I could but…”

“We lost them, Sanji.” Tajio’s voice was hoarse as he handed Sanji an object he hadn’t noticed his sous chef was also holding.

Sanji took the soot-covered monkey doll with shaky hands. 

The restaurant, his dream was on fire behind him… too far gone to do anything about. His men were wounded, staring numbly at the flames. The two people that made up the other parts of his soul were gone and Sanji had no way to chase them down, even if he knew where they were going.

Bile rose in the back of his throat, hot and acidic. The only thing keeping him from reaching up to fist his hair was the death grip he had on Luca’s Wuffy. His breathing was inconsistent and ragged as he struggled to wrap his mind around what was happening, to make any kind of plan.

This wasn’t like him, he didn’t panic… not like this. If it had just been Zoro, even without his swords, Sanji wouldn’t be like this. But Luca… Luca was tiny and defenseless. On top of that, Sanji knew Zoro would do anything to protect the boy they’d both fallen in love with. 

Anything.

And that terrified Sanji down to his core.

------------------------------------------------------

Zoro woke slowly, and groggily.

Somewhere in the back of his mind that registered as a red flag, but the forefront of his mind was too thick of a slurry to process much beyond the fact that whatever he had been drinking was strong as fuck and most definitely still in his system.

He groaned and went to rub his head, annoyed when his arm didn’t budge.

“Swirls.” He grunted. “Get off… arm…”

When Sanji didn’t respond, he went to smack the cook with his other arm. When THAT didn’t move, the red flag gained enough momentum to pierce through the fogginess of his brain.

He cracked his eye open, taking in his surroundings with as much awareness as he could muster, though it was like he was looking through the warped bottom of a glass jar. The room he was in was small and dimly lit by a single, swinging lantern. The walls and floors were wood, but the cage he was in was definitely metallic. He was sitting, but his arms were pinned, spread out, to the side of the cell with heavy irons at his wrists and shoulders.

He tested the bonds, troubled by how weak his arms were, how his whole body seemed to be. The explanation for that seemed to be attached to his wrist. Zoro followed the tubing that led from a mass of bandages that he assumed covered a needle, up and outside the cell to where a medical bag hung, dripping a clear liquid into his system.

Drugged… captured…

Zoro’s memory of the attack rolled slowly back to his mind in blurred flashes of images except one. One was clear as day that no drug could blur: a knife against Luca’s throat, his son’s terrified eyes.

“Luca…” Zoro groaned, testing the bonds again. It was no use. He couldn’t even flex hard enough to pop the needle out of his vein. Whatever they were pumping into him was potent.

That didn’t stop him from trying. He strained and flexed, fighting the brain fog for over an hour until he physically wasn’t able to even keep his head up. It sagged against his chest, eye fluttering shut…

…

…

…

He came to off and on again several more times over the next few… hours… days… Zoro had no way of knowing other than he’d most definitely pissed himself if the smell was anything to go by. Each time he woke, he did everything in his power to break loose from his irons. To the point where thin, dried lines of blood ran down his arms from where the shackles had cut into him during his struggles.

He wasn’t successful. 

Zoro had never been this weak before, never had this level of loss of control for this long . He was pissed the fuck off and more panicked than he’d care to admit. Both feelings were numbed under the perpetual fog of the sedatives, but he felt them in his soul.  

They’d taken Luca. His Blinky . 

Zoro would make sure… He’d kill every single fucking one…

…

…

…

…

…

The next time he awoke, it was to new sounds. Slamming doors and wailing. The distraught and terrified crying of someone all too familiar. Crying that reaffirmed that Zoro was going to cut out the tongues of half the people on this ship, force the other half to eat them, and then cut the tongues out of their fucking stomachs. 

The flame of rage the sound ignited in him was hot enough to burn through the fog, enough that he could clearly comprehend the man that burst suddenly into the room, dragging his son by his arm. Luca’s toes were just barely skimming the ground and he was hysterically trying to free his arm from the man’s grasp.

The man shoved a massive key into the cell’s door and wrenched it open before flinging Luca inside. 

“Shut him up or I shall throw him overboard, purification ceremony be damned.” The man hissed before slamming the cell door shut. He left just as violently, heavy steps pounding up stairs and disappearing into the ship.

“Blinks…” Zoro rasped, barely coming out a whisper, then louder: “ Luca.”

Luca’s head snapped up from where he had landed. When he caught sight of his father his sobs briefly hiccupped, then rose in pitch drastically. He scrambled across the floor and all but collapsed into Zoro’s lap. 

“Hey, Blinky. Shhh.” Zoro was desperately trying to comfort him despite the sedation. He wanted nothing more than to scoop him up, to hold him tightly and never let go. Fuck, he wanted to check the kid for injuries. Luca was only holding on to him with one hand, the other cradled between them and Zoro could see bruises . 

He pulled up his knees, drawing Luca as close as he could. 

“Fuck, Blinky. I need…” Zoro groaned as his vision blurred out momentarily. The pull to go back to sleep was almost unbearable. 

Almost.

Zoro bit down on his own cheek, hard , sparking a flash of pain, but more importantly, a flare of adrenaline. 

“Luca. I need you to look at me.” Zoro said as firmly as he could, jostling the kid with his knee.

Luca did so, slowly, and Zoro’s rage ignited all over again. Luca had dark circles under his eyes. Zoro had definitely been out longer than a day. And the bruises weren’t just on Luca’s arms; they spread up his neck and cheeks, and darkened his lower lip that was split and caked with dried blood.

“ Fuck. ” Zoro leaned down and pressed their foreheads together. “Luca, I’m sorry but I need you to be strong right now. I need you to pull that shit out of my arm.”

“ Papa.” Luca croaked.

“I know Blinky. But I need you right now. Get the shit out of my arm so I can get us out of here ok?”

Luca was still sobbing, but the prospect of his Papa Moss getting them out of there was apparently enticing enough to get him to obey. He stood, still shaking uncontrollably and moved to Zoro’s arm, shooting his Papa a questioning look.

“Just grab it and pull.” Zoro did his best to smile at him.

Luca reached out with his good arm and did so, his cries escalating again when a trickle of blood ran out of Zoro’s arm where the IV had been attached.

“S’ok Blinky. Just come here… come here…” Zoro slurred, vision darkening. He had no idea how long it would take to get the sedative out of his system. He found himself fucking praying it was fast. Before these idiots realized their massive mistake putting someone in this cell with him with unbound hands. 

He hung his head and closed his eye, focusing on fighting the encroaching darkness. He felt Luca crawl back into his lap and he pulled up his legs again, the closest he could get to holding the boy. 

And he waited. 

Zoro did fade in and out of sleep a few more times despite his best efforts, but was confident it hadn’t been that long. Luca was still awake, still shaking even though he had stopped crying. Zoro was pretty sure the kid would have fallen asleep if he’d been out for longer than a few minutes. 

When he was awake, he resumed his struggle against his bonds, if not just to work the sedative out through the little physical activity he could manage. 

And then the metal groaned.

And Zoro grinned.

Notes:

Sorry this took so long and sorry it's a smidge short. I just moved across the country from Utah to Arkansas and BOY was life crazy for a hot minute.

As always, your comments motivate me to write! Thank you for them and please keep commenting. Let me know what you think, let me know what you think is going to happen.

Chapter 10

Notes:

WARNING

This chapter gets a little more intense than the rest and Luca gets hurt.

But because I don't want to scare people away, I do want to remind yall that might be new to my writing that I ONLY DO HAPPY ENDINGS

The metal bars of the cage groaned immensely as Zoro pulled, every muscle fiber in his arms activated and tight. The metal was strong but even half-drugged, Zoro was still one of the physically strongest people in the world. The restraints on his wrists took considerable effort, but once he had busted through those, the ones at his shoulders came apart from the wall as though they were made of paper.

The second his bonds were loose, he pulled Luca into his arms, cradling his head against his chest.

It was a comforting moment that lasted all of two seconds before Luca let out a pained gasp and winced.

Zoro pulled back immediately and started taking stock. Luca’s dark eyebags and bruises were enough to send him into a rage, but his newly found parental instincts were focused on Luca’s left arm, clutched tightly to his little body. 

He gingerly, or at least as much so as he was capable of, held Luca’s wrist and followed his arm up… to an obviously dislocated shoulder.

Everything in Zoro’s head faded away to white noise. The rage inside him crescendoed, white hot until it hit…  a calmness. He took a deep breath and… felt nothing but peace with what was about to happen.

“Luca. Stay here.” He set the boy on his feet and stood. 

“N-no. No no no Papa. ” Luca pleaded desperately, grabbing onto Zoro’s pants.

“Luca.” Zoro reached down and tilted his son’s face up to look at him. “I will be back.”

“I scared.” Luca whispered. He was shaking again, eyes welling up with fat tears that clung to his white lashes.

“I know. That’s why I need to go. Stay here, stay quiet. I’ll be right back.” Zoro pushed Luca back toward the wall. A distant part of his mind registered that he pushed a little too hard, and that what Luca really needed was a hug that lasted more than five seconds and a relocated shoulder. But to do that, he needed Luca to be safe.

And to do that, there were a lot of motherfuckers he needed to kill.

Zoro grabbed one of the bars of the cage and snapped it off the side of the cage like it was a twig. He then rammed his shoulder against the remained bars, throwing his whole body mass behind the move. They parted easily underneath his bulk, blowing outward in warped shapes. 

It did make a hell of a noise, and Zoro wasn’t surprised when a white-robed guard opened the door and looked inside. 

The guard's hand instinctively went to the hilt on his belt. But Zoro was too quick. Before the guy could blink, Zoro thrusted the bar he ripped off the cage directly through the man’s ocular socket. Behind him, Luca let out a horrified sob, but Zoro didn’t stop. His vision tunneled to the hilt the man had been reaching for.

He remembered the day, nearly a year ago now, when they first found Luca. The robed man who had been hunting Luca back then had an identical hilt, one that grew into a blade. Zoro didn’t know what kind of blade, but he’d take what he could get at this point. There was a small catch on the side that ignited the scimitar blade with a whooshing noise.

Zoro thumbed it on and grinned. It didn’t have the balance or grace of a katana, but it was a sword. 

And that meant that everyone on this ship was fucked.

With the iron cell bar in his left hand, wielded like a bo staff, and the glowing scimitar in his right, Zoro stepped out of the room into a long wooden hallway. The daylight spilling down the far end was soon blocked by the sheer number of robed individuals rushing down it, likely drawn in by the noise of the cage breaking apart. Some of them had the golden scimitar swords, others had the blow dart tubes they’d used against him on the Toubleu.

Zoro cut through half of them, and bludgeoned the other half before most of them could blink. He left them all in a deepening puddle of red as he burst onto the ship’s main deck.

The sun momentarily blinded him, eyes too used to the dim light of the cell, and he relied purely on his haki to sense and then behead the first man that charged at him. The second man took the metal bar across his kneecaps and by then Zoro could see enough to drive the scimitar up through the fleshy underside of the dude’s chin. 

A part of him wished he’d been able to see a moment sooner. The man he had just stabbed was the fucker who had been holding Luca back on the Toubleu; the one that had been holding a knife to his throat. Had he known, Zoro would have knocked the guy out and saved him for later so he could take his time, kill the asshole slowly… make him feel the same fear he’d inflicted on Luca.

Instead, he shoved the body off his blade with a grunt and spun to fling the iron bar like a javelin. The bar soared through the air until it hit another priest, pinning him to the main mast and impaling him through the chest with a sick gurgling sound. 

Zoro cut down two others with the scimitar before he scooped up another hilt from one of the bodies. Once he had two blades, well… The scimitars were clunky and weighted too far forward for his tastes. They didn’t lend themselves well to his normal two-sword style moves. But Zoro was filled with a rage unlike any he’d ever felt before. 

Parental rage fueled him as he maneuvered around the deck. Throats were cut, and abdominal cavities were split open. His boots sloshed through blood, kicking up red as he sliced his way through the rest of the crew until only one remained: a woman with long white hair, drawn back in a braid. She stood elevated above Zoro on the quarter deck, shiny silver throwing daggers tucked between all her fingers.

“Stop!” She shouted. “You need me!”

“Like FUCK I do.” Zoro growled. He lowered his stance and dodged when she launched a barrage of daggers that easily sailed passed him. 

“You need a doctor! I have medical training.”

“Don’t need a doctor. You missed, bitch!” Zoro was about to jump up to the upper level and cleave her motherfucking head off her motherfucking shoulders, but then she smiled. And something about that smile made Zoro pause.

“I wasn’t aiming for you.”

At that exact moment, Zoro heard the tiniest whimper from behind him. He spun around… and felt like someone had reached into his chest and yanked out his lungs. The pain he immediately felt was indescribable. He would have rather taken Luffy’s pain again on Thriller Bark a hundred times over. 

Behind him, standing at the entrance to the lower holds where Zoro had originally come out, was Luca. 

And Luca was clutching his little stomach, red blossoming over the already soiled fabric of his pajama shirt.

“P-papa?” Luca’s voice was quiet, hesitant, and obviously in shock.

“ No.” Zoro breathed, then a roar: “NO!”

---------------------------------------------

Sanji didn’t bother stubbing his cigarette out, he just flicked it onto the burnt-out husk that was once his dream. It wasn’t like it could cause MORE damage.

The only thing left of the Toubleu was the fore section of the main deck, including its black swan figurehead, overturned and floating upside down. It had split off from the rest of the ship when Zoro’s crow's nest had come crashing down, cratering into the center of the restaurant and effectively splitting it into two.

The rest of the Toubleu had burned slowly and slipped below the waves as Sanji and his staff watched.

That had been almost a week ago.

Sanji had spent every day since alternating between panic and a bitter numbness. He didn’t have a ship capable of hunting or tracking down whoever took Luca and Zoro. That meant that he had no choice but to sit and do nothing while he waited for the Thousand Sunny to hightail it to the All Blue. 

Doing nothing was killing him. And yet, at the same time, doing anything else in the meantime was impossible. His men had managed to salvage a few pots, pans, and fishing gear before the ship was completely engulfed. They put together a sort of pop-up restaurant and the locals were all too happy to eat there in exchange for letting them use an old storehouse as their temporary home.

Sanji hadn’t been there at all. 

He let out an exhausted sigh and pulled another cigarette from his breast pocket. He’d lost track of how many he’d had that day… more than ten he was certain. He’d been down to maybe one a week… committed to quitting for Luca’s sake, but the nicotine buzz was the only thing keeping him from either violently vomiting every ten minutes or taking the skiff out on his own anyway in what would most definitely end up as a suicide run.

Instead, he sat on the exposed keel of the Toubleu and chain-smoked all day. At night he’d try to get at least a few hours of sleep on the skiff… but most of it was spent staring up at the stars, Zoro’s swords propped near his head and Luca’s wuffy clutched in a death grip in his hands. In the morning, he’d be right back to his vigil on the wreckage.

Sanji took a long drag from the cigarette and held his breath, letting his eyes close. He held the smoke in as long as he could, relishing in the burn as it swirled around his lungs. This was a pain he could control, and fuck knows he needed to be in control of something right now. After a few moments, he opened his eyes and let the smoke out slowly, watching apathetically as it mingled with the clouds-

That wasn’t a cloud

The rest of the smoke he’d been holding in came out in one long exhale of relief. His cigarette fell to the wreckage, unnoticed in Sanji’s haste to stand. Thank fuck, he thought to himself as he watched the familiar sails get closer. They were sailing with the wind, but even then the Sunny was going fast. Sanji knew that Franky must be doing everything he could to make the ship go as fast as possible, and he was eternally grateful for that. 

Luffy was the first he caught sight of, standing on top of the Sunny’s figurehead. Luffy didn’t call out to him, there was no excited shout of “SANJIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!”. Instead, his captain remained silent, gaze moving between Sanji and the Toubleu’s wreckage, with a look of absolute despair. 

Sanji wasn’t faring much better, throat suddenly tight. He was relieved that his crew was there, but also ashamed that they were seeing this… this failure of his. 

He couldn’t even look Luffy in the eyes as his captain hopped down onto the wreckage and slowly approached him. 

Luffy didn’t say anything. He just walked up to Sanji and wrapped his arms around him. He held Sanji tightly , head pushed into Sanji’s shoulder. Sanji kept his arms firmly at his side for a long few moments, desperate to maintain any semblance of composure. He knew the few men he had on the skiff were watching. He knew Robin and Nami were probably watching. Yet he felt his resistance ebb further and further away the tighter Luffy held on until he finally gave in.

Sanji pressed the side of his head against Luffy’s and brought his hands up to clench at Luffy’s back. “They took them, Luffy.” He croaked. “I wasn’t here and they took them. ”

“We’ll get them back.” Luffy said. 

His voice was strong… confident in the same way that had made hundreds, if not thousands, of people believe when he said he’d be king of the pirates.

Sanji wanted to believe him, and a part of him did. Sanji knew that his crew would stop at nothing to get Zoro and Luca back. But there was another part of him… There was a part of him that was terrified it would be too late.

--------------------------------------------

The woman was screaming as Zoro dragged her across the deck by her hair. She kept trying to get to her feet, but the wood was slick with blood. 

Zoro didn’t give a FUCK. 

He could barely see. His vision was pulsating with the throb of his anger. But it was mostly terror that drove him forward.

He flung the woman into the small medical room he’d found. Luca was already in there, writhing on top of a cot. His small sobs and whimpers of pain were almost unbearable to listen to. But it was also reassuring to hear him make any type of noise. Noise meant Luca was alive. Keeping him alive was Zoro’s only goal, only thought. 

“If he dies, I won’t just kill you, bitch.” Zoro growled. “I will make you hurt every fucking moment of every fucking day for the rest of your life.”

“Fix him now.” He accentuated his threat by pressing the blade of the glowing scimitar against the base of her skull. The woman, who had at least stopped screaming, glared at Zoro but nodded. 

She moved to start gathering supplies, and Zoro sat next to Luca’s head. He kept one hand on the scimitar, always pointed at the woman. But he cupped Luca’s head with the other. Luca probably couldn’t see through the amount of tears in his eyes, but Zoro turned his lead to look at him anyway.

“Hey Blinks, it’s ok. It’s going to be ok.” He shushed Luca over and over and over . He mumbled and stroked his hair, all the while keeping an eye on the woman. He’d been patched up enough times that he knew he’d recognize if she tried any funny business. But his threats appeared to have been effective and Zoro might have even been impressed at how steady her hands were despite the situation if he didn’t hate her more than anyone he’d ever hated before.

She set Luca’s shoulder first, and Luca let out a scream that Zoro knew would haunt his dreams. But after that was done, Luca seemed to sag against him. Too tired to do anything else.

Zoro watched as the woman then gave Luca a local anesthetic and cleaned the dagger wound. Her claims of medical training must have been true because her stitches were neat as she closed the split in Luca’s skin. 

The moment she covered the stitches with a bandage, Zoro shot out a hand to grab her by the throat.

“Will he be ok?” Zoro said, barely loosening her grip enough for her to nod. He was tempted to keep squeezing. It wouldn’t have taken much more pressure to crush her windpipe and watch her suffocate on the ground. 

But the actual medical part Zoro might need her for was far from over. Stitches he could have done, he’d done them before on himself. But if there were any complications at all , Zoro wouldn’t know what to do. He needed her in case there was some kind of infection…. Poison… hell Zoro didn’t even know what losing that much blood would do to someone so tiny .

So he’d keep her alive.

He yanked her up and dragged her back out of the room.

“You still need me. You need me.” She pleaded, assuming he was leading her to her death. “You don’t know where we are, I do. I-I can steer the ship. I can-”

“Shut the FUCK up.” Zoro commanded. He approached the main mast where he’d impaled the guy before and yanked the cell bar out. The body fell to the side and Zoro was swift to replace it with the woman, slamming her against the wood. He tied her to the mast, making sure that a length of rope would serve as a gag as it wound around her. He didn’t need to hear any more of her bullshit, didn’t need Luca to hear it.

“That’s my kid that you hurt. You’re going to fucking pay for that.” Zoro punched her once in the stomach and left her wheezing before returning to the medical room.

He was gross… covered in blood and piss and god knows what else. They were also now drifting on the ocean with no one steering the fucking boat. But all of that needed to wait. For now, he needed to be here.

He laid down on the cot next to Luca and pulled him close, slinging a protective arm around him, careful of his injuries. Luca went willingly, snuggling in as much as he could.

“Scary stuff over?” Luca whispered.

“Yeah. The scary stuff is over. All we gotta do now is wait for Dad and Luffy now.”

“And nap?”

Zoro couldn’t help but let out a breath of a laugh, lowering his head to press a kiss to Luca’s forehead. “Yeah Blinks. And nap.”

Notes:

NGL. This chapter took so long because I'm still not happy with it. I think I rewrote it like a dozen times. Originally I had planned on separating Zoro and Luca for quite a while longer. But I think I like this better.

Hopefully it's not shit. Hopefully there are still some of you around.

If you like it, let me know! Comments are my main motivation for writing XD

Chapter 11

“Ok here’s what we know.” Nami plopped an enormous map down on the table. Sanji recognized it as her map of the All Blue. He had… He’d had a copy of it framed on his office wall aboard the Toubleu. It, as well as everything else Sanji owned, had either gone up in flames or was now 5,000 feet below him on the ocean floor.

“Since they didn’t have a submarine, we can assume they didn’t leave via the underwater tunnels that lead to the other seas.” Nami continued to explain. “There are only two other ways to get a ship out of the All Blue basin. Based on what your men said, they were headed north to the sea ladder.”

Nami traced a finger from Mullinia Island out toward the north entrance to the All Blue. “So it’s logical to assume they ended up in this half of the free seas.” She then spread out another map, one with where the All Blue was just a coin-sized blob near one of the edges.

Sanji looked over the map and couldn’t help but think of how massive an area that still was, and then how that was just a fraction of the Grand Line. He didn’t say anything out loud though. Partially because he trusted that Nami would explain further… partially because the relief of having his crew here was mixing violently with his anxiety and he was worried he’d vomit if he opened his mouth.

“Now Coby was able to get us details on all past sightings of the children of light and Robin was able to track down a few historical references as well. There are a few outliers, but most occur within this radius.” Nami took a compass and drew a red circle around a six-inch or so section of the map.

“How… many islands is that?” Sanji forced himself to speak.

“Eleven.”

Sanji nodded. That was a fuck ton of islands. Even if they were small, it would take weeks, if not months , to search them. They’d have to call in every favor to every crew they’d ever met just to get more eyes in the search and who knows how many of them would be able to get there before those cultist freaks murdered his family.

“Sanji.”

And that was even if they weren’t ALREADY dead. It had already been long enough that Sanji strongly doubted Zoro would have been able to stop himself from eventually doing or saying something stupid enough to get himself killed. And if Zoro was dead that meant Luca was defenseless and god knows what those sick freaks-

“SANJI.” Nami slapped him across the face. “BREATHE.”

Sanji hadn’t even realized he had been holding his breath. He inhaled raggedly, hand coming up to touch his cheek. “I’m sorry.” he breathed. “I just… I haven’t slept and I’m spiraling and that’s just… so much area to cover.”

“Have some faith. You know we wouldn’t just stop there.” Nami patted him on the cheek, then stepped aside and motioned Chopper forward.

The little doctor shoved a vial into his hands. A few drops of yellowish liquid rolled around the bottom. 

“What… am I looking at?” Sanji asked, sloshing the droplets back and forth.

“Pale-spotted pufferfish toxin. Or at least, partly. I extracted it from some of the darts Tajio had in his clothes!” Chopper explained.

“And this will help us find Zoro and Luca because….?”

“Because the pale-spotted pufferfish is only found in extremely mineral-rich waters.” Robin took over explaining. “They specifically require large amounts of sulfur. Levels that can only be found in the waters surrounding active volcanoes.”

“How many active volcanoes are in that search area?” Sanji asked, hope rising in his gut.

“Just one.” Nami grinned and drew an x over a single island.

----------------------------------------------------------

“Yucky.”

.

.

“YUCKY”

.

.

“Papa YUCKY!

“Blinky, I KNOW!” Zoro dropped the body he’d been dragging and squeezed his eye shut. Despite not being biologically related, Zoro knew for DAMN sure that this was Sanji’s kid because he had the IDENTICAL ability to fill Zoro with overwhelming, bone-deep love at the exact same time as blood pressure-spiking levels of annoyance.

Unlike the Cook, however, Zoro knew if he yelled then Luca would get scared, start crying, and maybe hate Zoro for the rest of his life. Since Zoro DID love the little bastard, he knew he’d regret that so he forced himself to take a few steadying breaths.

Luca had obviously been traumatized by this whole fucking experience and did NOT want Zoro to leave his side. Unfortunately, Zoro had shit to do, which meant letting Luca follow him around. The kid was currently tiptoeing around puddles of blood and various entrails left over from Zoro’s massacre of the crew while Zoro searched and dumped the bodies overboard. The white undershirt Zoro had found for him went past his knees, and the kid was holding up the hem trying to watch where he stepped.

He was also whining every five seconds, making Zoro’s eye twitch. He was alive though, and for a brief, horrifying moment when he had a knife sticking out of him… Zoro had thought he lost him. If the cost of keeping him alive and breathing was dealing with a little annoying-

* SQUELCH*

Zoro’s eye flew open at the sudden noise. He spun to face Luca just as the boy looked down to see what he’d stepped in. A chunk of what Zoro reconized as brain, complete with a bit of brain stem, squished and oozed between Luca’s bare toes.

Luca made a few stuttery intakes of breath and Zoro barely had time to think ‘Ah fuck’ before he started screaming, frozen in place and shaking.

“Ok, fuck. Ok!” Zoro stepped over the dead body and hauled Luca up. He stomped along the deck, not caring about stepping in any of the gore himself, focused on getting Luca to the washroom. Once there he plopped Luca on the side of the tub and grabbed a bucket of water from the barrels in the room and dumped it over Luca’s feet.

“Alright!” Zoro said. “It’s all gone, Blinks.” 

Luca seemed to ignore him. His screams dissolved into hysterical sobs and he lurched forward, trying to grab a wash rag that was draped over the tub. His little body started getting brighter and brighter, his devil fruit powers activating. Zoro conceded and gabbed the rag. He knelt down next to the tub and scrubbed Luca’s foot, between the toes and everything.

“Blinky. It’s clean.” Zoro said firmly when Luca kept sobbing, kept grabbing at the rag. “It’s just brains ok? It’s not a big deal. You’ve got a brain in your head too.”

This was, apparently, the worst thing Zoro could have possibly said. Luca did stop crying for one entire second where he stared at Zoro in horror before he looked up, as if to look at his own head, and started screaming again. His hands flew to his hair and he started yanking as he began flashing with bright bursts of light.

“Fucking HELL” Zoro screwed his eye shut at the same time he tried to pry the kid’s hands out of his hair. “LUCA. Luca STOP.”

Luca did not stop. He kept on sobbing; deep sobs that had his chest heaving with panic. 

“ Luca. ” Zoro easily held both of Luca’s palms in one hand. He used his other hand to pull their foreheads together, ignoring the burn to his retina from Luca’s flashes even though his eye was closed. “Luca. You’re going to pop a stitch, kid. I need you to calm down.”

His son’s breathing was so fast and Zoro knew the kid was getting dangerously close to either passing out or giving himself some kind of brain bleed. Zoro didn’t want to deal with the first, and he couldn’t deal with the second so he needed this to stop. 

“Blinky. Do you feel this?” Zoro forced one of Luca’s palms to flatten against his chest. “I need you to breathe like me. In…. and out….” He then put one of his own hands on Luca’s stomach. “Breathe from here. In…. and out….”

“You are Roronoa Luca,” Zoro continued, keeping his voice strong and steady. “And you are strong despite your fear. Can you say that with me?”

Luca didn’t, or couldn’t speak so Zoro just kept on repeating his affirmation mixed with the occasional instruction to follow his breathing. He stroked his thumb up and down his son’s neck, just behind his ear and kept their foreheads pressed together. It was annoying and Zoro had other things he needed to deal with if they were going to increase their chances of being rescued. But he also knew that it didn’t matter if this went on for hours. Zoro would be here because this is where he was needed.

Luckily he didn’t have to wait hours. After about ten minutes Luca let out the softest “ I Rororoa Wuca”. 

Zoro blinked his eye open. He hadn’t realized that he’d fallen into a meditative state of his own, hadn’t realized the flashing and crying had stopped. He pulled back to look at his son, taking in his puffy eyes and face covered in tears, snot, and all kinds of slobber. 

“You are Roronoa Luca and…?” Zoro prompted, a little grin beginning to form.

“And… strong aspite fear.”

“Good. Say it again, say it from here.” Zoro pushed gently on Luca’s stomach again.

“I Rororoa Wuca and strong aspite fear.”

“Again.”

“I Rororoa Wuca… strong aspite m’fear.”

“Yes you are, Blinks.” Zoro let himself fully grin then, pride overtaking all of his other emotions. “And you don’t have anything to be afraid of anymore. I’m here to protect you now.”

“But yucky.” Luca looked up at him, lower lip wobbling.

“Do you want to be on Luffy’s crew?”

Luca nodded.

“Then you’re going to have to deal with yucky shit sometimes.” Zoro shrugged and use the hem of Luca’s tunic to wipe the kid’s face off. “You’ll get used to it and I’ll teach you how to control your fear.”

Luca whined and Zoro chuckled before he gathered him up in his arms and stood. “I think it’s time for some more pain meds and a nap for now, though.”

“No nap.” Luca pressed his head into the crook of Zoro’s neck, tucking his hands between their bodies.

“Yeah well you’re being whiny so that means you need one.” Zoro carried him out of the washroom, heading for the captain’s quarters that he’d deemed their temporary bedroom.

“I want Daddy.”

Zoro did not respond to that, not right away. It was a problem he couldn’t solve and probably the thing Luca needed the most. And yet Zoro couldn’t do much about it, no matter how much he wanted to.

Zoro was careful as he set Luca down on the captain’s bed, plush and covered in clean white sheets. On top of his stab wound and still tender shoulder, the kid was covered in bruises that made Zoro’s chest ache now that the undercurrent of rage when he saw them had subsided. The cook would know how to take care of those. Hell, he probably had some kind of fucking bruise biscuit in his recipe book that would heal them right up. He would probably know how to take care of a lot of this shit, far better than Zoro at least.

“I want the Cook too.” Zoro finally said as he tucked Luca into the sheets and sat next to him. “But do you know what I know?”

“What?”

“I know that he cares about you and me more than anything else in the world, so the minute your dad got back to the boat and found out we were gone, he freaked out and called Luffy. Which means that he’s out there right now looking for us with the best fucking people in the whole Grand Line. We just need to wait it out, the Cook will find us.”

“How u know?” Luca asked, his voice quiet and unsure. Zoro reached over and gently pushed the hair back from Luca’s forehead.

“Because Blinky, your Dad always finds me when I’m lost.”

“Pomise?”

“Yeah.” Zoro chuckled softly, ruffling Luca’s hair before he pulled his hand away. “That I can promise.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sanji didn’t feel… real as he looked out over the ocean. He was so… stressed that a large portion of his brain was just shutting down.

He hadn’t been sleeping. He COULDN’T sleep. On top of the undercurrent of anxiety constantly running through his blood, he also hadn’t had to sleep without Zoro for longer than a night or two since before they’d found the One Piece and he’d unfortunately grown a little reliant on his gorilla’s rumbling snores and warmth to get a good night’s rest. Even back in the familiar environment of the Sunny’s men’s bunk room Sanji spent most of the night staring up at the ceiling, clutching Luca’s wuffy.

He knew the lack of sleep was making everything worse. He was on edge, his temper short. To avoid snapping at any of his nakama he’d all but locked himself in the Sunny’s galley, cooking anything and everything he could. He’d reappear at random intervals, delivering food to whomever would take it. And bless all their hearts, his nakama would just accept with knowing and sympathetic smiles.

Eventually, however, even Luffy refused to eat any more and Sanji begrudgingly stopped. He switched instead to deep cleaning the entire Sunny. His crewmates weren’t slobs, but things definitely weren’t AS clean as they were when he lived aboard the Sunny full time. He swept, mopped, scraped, and scrubbed till his hands were raw.

And when every single speck of the ship was spotless? Then he just stood at the rails, numbly staring at the waves, wishing to several different gods that he had a -

“Cigarette?” 

He turned to see Nami holding up a blue and white pack emblazoned with a golden “A”. He could have cried as he took the pack, cracked it open, and pulled out the most beautiful cigarette he’d ever seen. The paper wrapping was black and the filter was gold, a tiny “a” pressed there too.

“Where did you get these? WHY do you have these?” He asked, knowing she didn’t smoke.

“Alabasta.” Nami smiled. “They had their first successful tobacco crop last year. I actually picked up a few packs for you. Was going to be a birthday present but then you quit so I never gave them to you.”

“Cutting back. Not quitting.” He corrected. He pulled out his lighter and lit up quickly. The first drag burned in the best way, and he was surprised by the richness and depth of the tobacco. This was an expensive cigarette, although Sanji would have appreciated a leaf of tobacco wrapped in a used gum wrapper at that point. He inhaled deeply, held it for a long moment, then blew out the smoke with a breathy “Thank you, dearest.”

“Seemed like you needed it.”

Sanji just nodded, taking another drag. They were quiet for a while while he smoked. He knew that she wasn’t leaving because she wanted him to talk, but it still took him an entire second cigarette before he was ready.

“I want to take Luca to Alabasta.” He quietly turned the filter over in his hand before letting it fall down into the water lapping against the side of the ship. “You know he probably has Usopp’s Adventures in Alabasta book memorized? He’d probably go nuts getting to see everything in person… I want to take him everywhere, Nami. I want him to see Gold Roger’s island and all the One Piece. I want him to fucking meet Iva and all the ladies. I want-” Sanji had to swallow down a lump in his throat over the next thought. “I want him to meet Zeff. I need him to meet Zeff.”

“He will, Sanji. Of course he will.” Nami reached over and put her hand on his forearm. “Zoro will protect him and you know that.”

“Tajio said he got hit with a lot of those tranquilizer darts. If they are as strong as Chopper- HEY” Sanji’s worried musing was cut off by a sharp smack to the back of his head. “What was that for?”

“If you go down those kinds of paths, you’ll just get lost. I won’t let you do it, Sanji.” Nami smacked him again, though more gently. “This crew runs on faith and what Zoro needs from you right now is to believe in him.”

“I believe in him,” Sanji said quietly.

“Good. Let that belief be stronger than your fears.” Nami sighed and leaned on the railing again. Another long few moments passed in silence before she turned to him with a soft smile. “You really love that kid, don’t you?”

“In a way that I didn’t even know I was capable of.”

“He was pretty lucky, you know. The whole ocean and he just happens to run into you two.”

“I… don’t think he’s the lucky one. We didn’t know we needed him and now…” Sanji snapped his head to look up at the sky as tears suddenly sprang up to his eyes. “Nami I don’t even have pictures of him. I don’t…. I don’t-”

“Oh Sanji.” Nami wrapped him in a hug, willingly which would have had him crying anyway. 

He cried, exhausted sobs, into her shoulder. Sobs that only intensified when he suddenly felt the cold steel of Franky’s arms encircle him from behind. Then, moments later, warm fur against a leg… MANY hands cupping his cheek, fingers running through his hair… A bony elbow under his armpit.

A whispered ‘ gum gum cuddle’...

Notes:

Sorry for the wait! Speed picks back up next chapter.

PLEASE comment if you like it. They fuel me. Any predictions?

Chapter 12

Zoro’s search yielded precious little in the way of anything that was actually useful for getting them out of the situation.

He’d been hoping for a transponder snail. If he’d been able to call the Sunny most of his problems would have been taken care of. Nami and Robin would tell him what to do or how to triangulate his position for them. Chopper would tell him how to properly treat and medicate Luca. And Sanji… 

Well Zoro would give just about anything to talk to the Cook right now.

He had found a log pose tucked away in the robes of one of the bodies. It was an eternal one and OLD by the looks of it. The word Helios was barely legible along its edge, worn almost smooth with time.

On one hand, finding it was a good thing. Zoro couldn’t navigate worth shit, but he COULD keep the boat going in a straight line. And getting to any island increased their chances for long-term survival if his crew wasn’t able to find them. But on the other hand, this was obviously where the ship had been going in the first place which meant Zoro had no choice but to sail them directly to the people who were hunting Luca. With swords now in hand, flaming or not, he was confident he could just fight whomever or whatever was waiting for them. However, he was acutely aware that letting his ego take control was what left Luca alone and defenseless back on the Toubleu to begin with and Zoro would NOT risk that again.

So they would sail into enemy territory and then find somewhere to hunker down until the crew found them.

It was a shit plan, but unless something else presented itself, Zoro viewed it as his only option and he pursued it with the same dedication he always had when chasing a goal. 

Days melted together, Zoro hadn’t been keeping track. He barely slept, needing to check the sails and helm so frequently to make sure they stayed on course. What meager naps he managed were often interrupted by his son demanding food, entertainment, or informing him of something the kid found on the ship. 

He’d moved the stabby bitch to a locked cell below deck. Reluctantly, he also had been feeding her knowing that the Cook probably wouldn’t forgive him if he didn’t. Although he privately thought that what she did to their son might be the thing that finally made him cave on the not hurting women thing. But in case he didn’t, Zoro brought her a small plate once a day, twice if he was feeling generous (or was thinking about Sanji too much). 

Still, it wasn’t until the third day after he’d first woken up aboard the ship that he realized she had the potential to give him some intel on what they were sailing into. However, when he went to ask he found himself blurting out an unplanned question instead.

“Do you… know his real name?” He asked.

“What?” She looked up at him, clearly startled at having been spoken to for the first time in days. 

“My kid. You’re from where he’s from right? What’s his fucking name?”

“He… He is a vessel. Vessels are not given names.”

“What the fuck is a vessel?” Zoro asked, narrowing his eyes at her through the bars. 

“He is a body, raised solely to store the powers of the fruit within until a warrior is ready to be bestowed their gifts.” She explained.

“Why wouldn’t you just keep the fruit in a fucking box?”

“The lifeforce within the fruit must be cultivated in the light of a pure one.”

“Right. And how exactly do you get the powers out of him and into a warrior?”

“The vessel will undergo his final purification.”

“And that is….?” Zoro waved an impatient hand.

“The Lightbringer uses concentrated light to burn a hole through useless flesh until the vessel’s heart is lit aflame and purified. Then a nearby fruit allows the transference of power to the war-”

“Are you fucking SHITTING me!? YOU KILL KIDS!?”

“They are not children .” The woman argued. “They are vessels. ”

“That’s fucking insane. So you were what, just going to kill my fucking kid so some asshole could blink.”

“No. The chosen warrior is not yet ready. But your kid has been tainted by both speech and darkness. A new vessel has already been selected. I was to return the tainted one for his purification and then regain my place among the chosen.”

Zoro was barely containing his rage, gripping the wooden plate he’d been carrying so tightly that it fractured under his fingers. It was all he could do to stand there and not throw himself into the cell and not crush her neck between his palms as she further explained that Luca had been kept “ pure” by being imprisoned in some kind of weird crystalline room that was never dark. Luca hadn’t been allowed to speak. He’d only been given one type of meal. He hadn’t been cared for beyond his essentials, played with, or loved for almost three fucking years. 

And then whatever or whoever the fuck his “ keeper ” was had apparently given him to the slavers.

“I will never be accepted again.” The woman said quietly, as if to herself. “I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

That… was too much for Zoro. The plate split in half in his grip and before he had even formed half a thought, one of the halves was embedded through her ocular socket. She twitched for a moment before crumpling to the ground.

“Fuck.” 

There went his fucking bargaining chip if he needed one. Not that he was very upset about it. He hadn’t planned on killing her (at least any time soon). But it was nice that he wouldn’t have to feed the bitch anymore.

Blood seeped from her eye, spreading on the floor.

He just might not mention it to Luca. 

Anger still ran through him as he bolted the door and stomped back above deck. He hated these fucking cultist freaks. Not only were they going to kill his kid, but needlessly so. They were going to burn his fucking heart out for no reason beyond fanatical belief.

It made Zoro sick. Sick enough that he moved to the railing, genuinely fearful that he might vomit.

It was just… the parallels between Luca and Sanji and how he knew Sanji would react if…. WHEN he found out. Zoro wouldn’t keep this from him.

Sanji locked in darkness as a child, Luca in light. It was-

“Papa!”

Zoro took a deep breath before he turned to look down at his son.

“Look! A sword!”

Zoro let out a surprised bark of laughter. Luca was holding up a thin piece of bamboo cane that looked like it had once served as a fishing pole. It was comically long, almost twice Luca’s height, and would have made for a terrible weapon.

“It’s a pretty awful sword,” Zoro observed.

Luca nodded, but the grin stayed plastered on his face and Zoro felt his rage falter. He slowly dropped to one knee and ran a hand up from Luca’s shoulder to cup his face.

He took a moment to appreciate the changes the kid had been through since they’d first pulled him off the burning ship… shit, six? Seven? Maybe even eight months ago. Zoro wasn’t even sure. It felt like both barely any time had passed and like Luca had been with them forever. 

Luca was chubbier. His arms, legs, belly, and face all healthily rounded compared to the skeleton he’d once been. His cheeks were dusted with a smattering of dark freckles because he and Sanji were both not great at remembering that the kid was so pale he easily fell victim to the sun. Zoro thought he was a little bit taller, but he couldn’t be sure. The kid smiled and laughed, and talked.

Zoro loved him. 

It was because of that love that the abuses committed against Luca felt personal. It wasn’t just some general injustice. Even if he hadn’t known him yet, that was his son that the fucking freaks had branded and locked up and all but tortured. 

He was not going to let anyone leave that island alive. He might have to wait until he had his crew as backup. But he was going to kill every last motherfucker there.

“We train?” Luca asked, pulling him out of his dark contemplation.

“Yeah Blinks.” Zoro roughly ruffled his hair. “We can train.”

-------------------------------------------------

A few more days passed. Zoro was still exhausted, but no less dedicated. He kept the ship in a straight line and thanked whatever god was looking out for them that they hadn’t encountered any storms or particularly rough seas. Luca’s wound was healing nicely, although there would definitely be a scar that Zoro was not looking forward to explaining to the Cook.

After about a week since he’d woken up, and god knows how long he’d been drugged and unconscious, Zoro had emerged from below deck and immediately noticed the thin blanket of fog clinging to the water around the ship. He rushed up the rigging to the small box that served as the small ship’s crow's nest. 

The fog stretched out for as far as he could see. But directly ahead of them, at the edge of the horizon, the fog was broken up by a solitary mountain that seemed to be glowing with a weird prismatic light that reminded Zoro of when the sun would shine through the chandeliers in the Toubleu’s main dining room.

This was Helios , he’d be willing to bet; the island of the children of light cultist lunatics. 

He got to work immediately. 

He jumped down to the main deck and kicked the lever that deployed the anchor. The coiled chain clanked together as it unraveled and the entire ship lurched to its port side as the anchor sank and embedded itself in whatever reef or muck was down there.

Zoro heard Luca’s startled yelp from where he’d been playing with some rope on the quarterdeck, but he didn’t hear a splash or any further pained cries so he assumed the kid was ok and kept going. He sprinted into the ship’s galley and started shoving shit into a big canvas sack he’d found: a massive sack of uncooked rice, several packages of hardtack biscuits, a wrapped thing of salted pork.

“Papa!?” Luca appeared in the doorway, eyes wide with concern.

“It’s ok, Blinks. That was me.” Zoro didn’t pause as he explained, shoving more food into the sack.

“What u doing?”

“We made it to the island. But we don’t want the fuckers on the island to KNOW we’re on the island so we gotta sink this ship fast. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to hunt so we gotta bring food.” Zoro pushed past him to run grab a couple of blankets and a first aid kit from the infirmary. 

When he came back he added them to the bag, slung it over a shoulder, then grabbed Luca’s arm and rushed him out to the middeck. 

There was a rowboat-style lifeboat secured along one side of the deck. Zoro tossed the bag up into it, then more gently lifted Luca.

“Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Luca squawked his disapproval of being left alone, but Zoro didn’t give him a chance to argue. He’d cleaved bigger boats in half before, sinking them with ease. But without HIS swords, he wasn’t sure how to best do this. Especially since he didn’t want to draw attention by setting the boat on fire with the flaming swords. In the end, he settled on cleaving four massive holes into the bottom of the hold.

Water came in swiftly. It rose to above his boots before he even made it back up out of the hold. The temperature of the water gave him a split second of pause; it was warm, almost hot . But he didn’t really have time to give a shit about that. He dashed back up to the main deck, shoved the life boat into the water, and started rowing toward fuck knows what awaited them on the island.

----------------------------------------------

The fog was actually steam.

The mountain was actually a volcano.

It got pretty damn warm as they approached the island. The humidity plastered the cotton of his borrowed tunic to his skin and sent rivers of sweat down his neck, spine, and ass crack. Luca wasn’t faring much better. The kid sat between his feet, pushing up his sweat-soaked hair every few minutes. 

They were both quiet as they floated through the steam. Luca probably out of fear, Zoro out of focus. He kept his eyes trained on the rapidly approaching land. 

It was eerie in a… bright way. 

MASSIVE crystal clusters burst out of the treeline. And Zoro meant massive. Some were easily as large as the Thousand Sunny. Hundreds filled the island as far as they could see, towering above the trees and jutting out from the volcano. The light from the sun was magnified through every crystal, refracting it into an almost overwhelming shine and filling the steam with thousands upon thousands of intersecting rainbows.

Below the treeline, however, was dark. The thick, waxy leaves of the tropical trees were dense and blocked out the cacophony of light from above. It was this darkness that Zoro steered their little rowboat toward.

He jumped out when they were close enough and dragged the boat with ease up onto the almost pure white sand.

“Ok.” He said quietly, helping Luca out. “Stay by me and stay quiet.”

Luca said nothing. But he dutifully followed as Zoro dragged the boat up the beach and into the trees. He hadn’t seen anyone yet, but he didn’t know if these beaches were patrolled and he didn’t want their rowboat to be discovered either. The canvas sack got flung over his shoulder and then he covered the boat in a pile of massive palm fronds.

Zoro knew his strengths and weaknesses. He knew if he left this beach, he almost assuredly wouldn’t be locating it again. As much as he wanted to plant himself on this beach and not leave until he saw the Sunny’s sails, it was too open, too easy for someone to spot them. Especially if he needed to light a fire to cook or stay warm or ward off whatever fuckery of predators this island was home to.

They needed somewhere he could defend… and somewhere safe enough where he could take a nap so he was even capable of defending.

He shifted the canvas bag to his other shoulder so he could reach down for Luca’s hand. 

“It could be worse, Blinks. Could be fucking cold.” He gently tugged Luca further into the treeline.

They walked slowly , their pace delayed by constantly needing to help Luca over fallen trees, brush his hands off when he touched anything , or pick him up completely to haul him across the shadowed pools that seemed to be every few yards. 

The setting sun was quickly catching up with them, and although the light above the canopy was still orange and warm, below the trees it was getting hard to see. And when Luca tripped, fell, and started hyperventilating because he had dirt on his knees…. Zoro knew they were done for the night.

There was a spot just ahead where two of the massive crystals jutted out almost perpendicular to each other, forming a little “V” of shelter beneath them.

Still more exposed than he’d like but hell… Beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Zoro dragged Luca underneath the crystals, plopped the canvas bag down, and then pushed Luca to sit on top of it.

“Hey. Look at me.” Zoro squatted down, keeping his voice level and low. “You control this. You are its master. The mud will not hurt you.”

“ Papa.”

“ Say it, Blinky. ” 

“Mud no hurt me.”

Zoro made him repeat it a few more times until he was reasonably sure the kid wouldn’t have a meltdown. He did keep a firm hand on the center of Luca’s chest, holding him back when Luca tried to hug him.

“Me and you gotta get through this shit ok? When we’re back on the restaurant with your dad, you can cry as much as you want. But until we get out of this, you are going to get dirty ok?”

“NO dirty!” Luca protested, still trying to hug him.

“Blinky.” Zoro said firmly. “We are in the middle of nowhere. You are going to get dirty. You will accept the inevitable and deal with it ok?”

“...what?”

“Fuck. Nevermind.” Zoro finally drew his hand back and pulled Luca close. “Just try to be strong ok?”

“I wanna go home .” Luca whined against his chest.

“Almost kid. I think the worst is behind us.”

--------------------------------------------------

The worst was not behind them. Zoro should not have fucking cursed them by saying that. 

He hadn’t wanted to light a fire to give away their position at night. So they’d had a cold dinner of cured meat and biscuits before Zoro got Luca to fall asleep on the folded-up blankets he’d grabbed. 

Zoro had stayed awake, watching the dark forest for a long while before the sound of frogs and wind lulled him into a doze. And he allowed it. He hadn’t slept more than one or two hours at a time since he’d woken up on the kidnapper’s ship. Now that he didn’t need to check the sails, he was going to sleep unless something trigged his senses.

Which happened.

He became aware of a presence and it immediately snapped him out of his sleep. He was on his feet, flaming sword at the throat of the intruder before he’d even opened his eyes.

And when he DID open his eyes…. He had to blink…

And blink.

In the predawn light, colors still muted to gray, stood the oldest motherfucking person Zoro had EVER seen. And quite possibly the ugliest.

It… Zoro hesitated to call it anything other than a it, IT was maybe three feet tall, pale skin wrinkled so deep it looked like a stack of walking towels. Maybe three whole white hairs sprouted out of its liver-spotted head. Completely fucking naked with eyes so far apart and sticking out SO FAR that it looked like some sort of fucking nude nightmare chameleon. And it was carrying a massive cooking pot, a satchel, and a tiny little knife.

“Hello!” It said cheerfully. Its voice was feminine, but it was more the foot-long pair of wrinkly tits revealed when it shifted the pot that clued Zoro in to its possible gender.

“What the fuck are you?” Zoro said, voice gravelly with sleep.

“I am the keeper. His keeper.” The old titty chameleon nodded to where Luca was still deep in sleep.

Zoro felt a flash of anger flare up in his gut. Stabby bitch had mentioned that Luca’s keeper was who had given him to the slavers.

“Touch him and you die.” He growled.

“I seek not to touch.”

“Then tell me why I shouldn’t kill you.”

“You may kill me.” Chameleon titties sounded way too cheerful still. “After I deliver my charge.”

“The fuck does that mean?”

“My people have lost their way. They have lost what it means to stand in the light. For years I said nothing, kept my place. But then he came, and he was different than the others. I taught him to speak and they wanted to kill him for it. I hid him in a shipment of ore. It was better than death. And then they said they found him, found you. And I knew you would come. I waited.”

“You were waiting for…. Me?” Zoro’s flaming scimitar faltered ever so slightly from where he still held it out to her. She had taught Luca to speak? Had she smuggled him off the island?

“Yes. I knew. They said you had taken care of him, called him your own. So I know you will take care of her too. His replacement. And then you will do what I cannot. You will end the kingdom of light before evil takes them all.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You will.” She sat the pot down on the ground and placed the satchel next to it. “I know it.”

Zoro was about to repeat his question when all of a sudden she took her little knife and dragged it across her own throat. She was so ancient and crispy that a bare trickle of blood ran out, but nonetheless, she crumpled to the ground. Dead.

At that exact moment, Luca decided to wake up. He saw the dead naked old woman and started to cry. 

And then the pot started to cry. 

“What the fuck!?” Zoro deactivated the blade and bent over to yank the lid off the pot. And then his eye went fucking WIDE. 

In the pot, nestled within a bundle of blankets was a whole-ass, pale, white-haired, wailing baby . 

“What the FUCK!?”

Notes:

This chapter is dedicated to BleuSarcelle who left me the nicest comment on the last chapter that motivated me to write.

Dun dun DUN. The plot thickens. What do you think they'll do?

(Also a reminder this is a self indulgent project written mostly in between classes. It's not perfect, nor do I am for perfection. Its just for shits and giggles).

Chapter 13

To say Zoro was overwhelmed would be a fairly large understatement.

He’d been in some pretty damn stressful situations in life and this MIGHT be the worst of them.

Luca had stopped crying and calmed down after Zoro had flung the old woman’s body as far as he could (which was pretty fucking far). The baby had stopped crying after Zoro had fished her out of the pot and bounced her a bit. He hadn’t dealt with… babies since Water 7 and his dojo before that. But he at least had a little experience and wasn’t completely clueless.

Experienced did not mean comfortable and in the context of their situation, he was losing his fucking mind.

The only bright side was that he now had a pot to boil water in, which he admittedly hadn’t thought of before. 

“This is fucking insane.” He muttered to himself as he set the pot over the coals of the small fire he’d lit using the flaming sword. “Fuck fuck fucking insane.”

The baby and her nest of blankets had been moved to the bottom of Luca’s blanket. The owner of which was sitting over her, watching her with wide, curious eyes.

“This is people? Not a toy?” Luca asked quietly.

“That is people. Not a toy.” Zoro confirmed, not taking his eyes off his task. With the fire lit and some spring water boiling, he’d set about rifling through the satchel the woman had left. Inside of it he found a clay jar filled with what he prayed was baby formula since he had literally nothing else to feed the infant. The psycho old woman had also had the foresight to leave him with an empty glass bottle with a rubber tip, two whole extra cloth diapers, an ancient looking pacifier with light rubber on one end and a brass handle, and a set of three books strapped together with a note tucked under the strap that read:

Tell them someday of the true light, the light that comes from within, and how their people failed so they may never make the same mistakes.

Blessed are the children that walk in radiance.

Fucking nuts, Zoro thought to himself and added the books to his fire. Robin and fuck, probably the Cook too, would want to know more about these freaks but Zoro had learned enough. And from what he learned, he didn’t want any of their teachings anywhere near his son.

“It’s got like me.” Luca said.

“What?”

“Wittle people. Got like me.” Luca repeated. 

Zoro turned to see what the hell he was talking about and saw the kid poking the baby’s chest. He walked over and squatted down, pushing the thin blanket aside. Sure enough, the baby had a brand scorched into its delicate skin. It was identical to Luca’s, except it was still a deep red. Healed, but pretty recent.

Fucking sick FREAKS. He thought to himself before clearing his throat. “Yeah. She matches you.”

“What mean?”

“No idea.” Zoro shrugged and went back to his pot. It had started to boil so Zoro scooped up some into the bottle and some into the canteen he’d grabbed to cool and then added rice to the rest to start cooking.

“What it name?”

“No idea,” Zoro repeated. “You can name it.”

“Oh! I call it Je-wee fish.”

“Jellyfish?” Zoro glanced over at him.

“It squishy.”

“Makes sense. Jellyfish it is.” Zoro really couldn’t care less what they called her. He wished she wasn’t even here for them to call her anything.

She complicated things. For one, they now had a time limit on how long they could make it out here. When that jar of baby formula ran out, Zoro would be forced to do something drastic. Drastic like breaking into whatever base or compound this cult ran out of with two kids in tow. For another thing, this was no longer a stealth mission. Luca might be able to keep quiet when prompted, but this baby was sure as fuck going to give away their position. For a THIRD thing, and in Zoro’s opinion the worst of the three, this thing wasn’t toilet trained. 

There were body parts Zoro would strongly consider parting with over scrubbing shit off of ANYONE, let alone a baby.

A small, VERY small, demon on his shoulder told him it might be safer for Luca if Zoro… left the baby. But the overwhelmingly larger part of him knew that doing so would go against not only his own code of honor but against everything the Strawhat Pirates stood for as well.

So he begrudgingly made up a bottle and fed Jellyfish while Luca ate plain rice.

“I want Daddy food.” 

“Trust me kid, so do I. We’ll try and find some meat or some shit to go in it for later.”

“I have that?” Luca pointed to the bottle. 

“No, this is baby food. You aren’t a baby.”

“What a baby?”

“A little person, like her.”

“Jellyfish a girl?”

“Yes. Jellyfish is a girl.” Zoro hadn’t actually… verified that yet but the old woman had called it a she. 

She was… cute in the way that even Zoro had to admit all babies were. But she also resembled Luca so much that he was sure a part of that cuteness was just subconscious bias. She had the same white hair, all wispy and soft on the top of her head. The same pale skin, the same round nose. The same upper lip slightly upturned. Her eyes were different though. They didn’t have the same green tint that made Luca’s the color of olive oil. Hers were more of a rich brown. 

Zoro sighed, resigning himself to the inevitable. She was adorable on her own, but she looked like Luca, needed help, and was a girl. Sanji was going to fall in love with her instantly.

He also, horrifically, had the sudden thought of a name that would fit her AND make the Cook happy.

“FUCK.” He breathed.

“What?” Luca asked, startled.

Zoro ignored him and looked up toward the heavens.

“No more than two ok!?” 

--------------------------------------------------

In all his time hauling groceries and supplies for the Cook, Zoro had never felt more like a pack mule than he did now.

He was also sure he looked like an idiot.

Given his… directional issues, he knew that he couldn’t leave the kids at a camp and venture out. He knew he wouldn't be able to find them again. So wherever he went, they had to come too.

At first, he’d tried having Luca just follow him. But the terrain under the canopy was swampy and filled with shallow water pools and mud. Luca had tried for about an hour to be brave about being dirty before he’d lost his total shit and had simply sat on a log and screamed until Zoro had picked him up.

Now he had the canvas bag strapped across his back with Luca sitting on it like a saddle, arms around his neck. He’d used Chameleon titties’ little knife to cut a strip of blanket off long enough to tie the baby to his front. With a flaming sword in each hand, he looked like the world’s most dangerous… babysitter.

Which is exactly what he felt like.

They had to stop frequently for Luca to pee or eat or to look at something the kid thought he could “cook like daddy”. And then almost just as often to feed the baby, change its diaper, and then wash out her diapers in whatever body of water was closest.

It was not sanitary. All three of them were disgusting. He’d never been one to care about hygiene but he would kill for a fucking bath right now. Especially after the fourth or fifth time Jelly had spit up on him, which had disgusted Luca, who had then thrown up all over Zoro’s back.

So when he’d stumbled across a clear, obviously spring-fed pool that was wider and deeper than all the previous ones, it had been a no-brainer that this was where they’d camp for the night.

The water, like all of the water he’d encountered so far, was warm. Warm enough that Luca could be convinced it was like a bath. Zoro stripped the kid naked and scrubbed him down as best he could with another small strip of cut blanket. Then he let Luca play at the water’s edge with some floating leaves while he scrubbed the baby and then all of their clothes.

Once that was done, he made sure the baby was safe (bundled up in the pot again for lack of a better crib) before he climbed into the deepest part of the pool, content to let the hot water appease his tight muscles.

Soaking in the water felt fucking good. But he had to admit, what soothed his soul more was listening to Luca play. The fact that the kid was able to smile and giggle quietly despite their situation gave Zoro hope that maybe the kid hadn’t been completely and permanently fucked up. 

He was still tense, senses heightened, haki keyed into every movement of the forest around them. And he was still fucking tired. Tired in a while he only ever recalled being during his healing process after Thriller Bark. His blood thrummed with an undercurrent of anger and annoyance. But something in him settled as he listened to Luca reenact Chopper’s brave defense of the Going Merry in leaf form. 

Luca was getting to the climax of his little story when he suddenly gasped.

“Papa a cab” He whispered.

“What?” Zoro waded back over to the kid to see what he was looking at.

“CABS” Luca said again, nearly shaking with excitement. 

Oh. Crabs. Except they were not crabs. They were crayfish, bright white ones at that. Pretty decent size too, some the size of Zoro’s hand crawling along the rocks at the bottom of the pool.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Zoro grinned and looked up.

Luca met his gaze, those olive oil eyes that Sanji (and Zoro) loved so much crinkling up with mirth. 

“Tasty!”

--------------------------------------------

(AUTHORS NOTE: IF you want to listen to the song I was listening to for this part it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcyQGb2q8Hg)

The song Brook was playing was… beautiful. 

Most of everything the skeleton played WAS beautiful in some way, but Sanji thought this particular tune stood out. 

It was slow, each note long and purposefully drawn out with only the occasional lilt between them. Vibrato enriched the end of each measure, like the finishing touch on any of Sanji’s dishes. There was something… peaceful about the music, something that settled into Sanji’s soul and filled a few of the cracks that had splintered across his heart.

If he closed his eyes, Sanji could imagine himself walking through a field of long grass at dawn; the morning dew still sticking to his pants and his hands as he brushed by. He could imagine Zoro and Luca waiting for him; not running to him, but looking up with smiles as he drew near. He’d pick Luca up and there would be soundless giggles when he pressed his cold nose to the kids neck. Zoro would wrap an arm around his waist and he’d feel so fucking warm and-

Sanji was pulled from his little imaginary world when Brook suddenly stopped and let out a sigh. 

“Everything ok?” Sanji said, wincing when Brook jumped.

“Sanji-san! I did not know you were out here! My sincerest apologies.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. That song was beautiful. Got a name for it?”

“Oh, well…” Brook looked suddenly bashful. “It’s a song for Luca, but I'm afraid it isn’t finished.”

“For Luca?” Sanji’s eyebrows rose

“Yes. For what he’s given me.”

“What do you mean?’

Brook was quiet for a long while, looking out over the Sunny. Sanji wanted to… pester him. He wanted an answer to his question, especially since Luca had been what he immediately thought of while listening. 

“Do you know what my greatest fear is, Sanji-san?” Brook finally asked.

“Uh… no?”

“Someday, hopefully a long time from now, but inevitably someday you will all die. The Strawhat Pirates will one by one diminish until I am alone. I’ve been through that type of loneliness before, and it isn’t something I want to ever do again.”

“That… is super depressing, Brook. But what does it have to do with my kid?”

“You asked what Luca has given me. And my answer is that he’s given me hope.”

“Hope?” Sanji cocked a confused eyebrow. It wasn’t like he wasn’t going to take the skeleton’s word for it, but he still didn’t understand how his son related to Brook’s fear.

“Hope that I’ll still have something to live for when you are all gone. A new generation of Stawhats that may be in need of some accompaniment.” Brook turned to him and smiled. “That is why my song is for Luca. He gives me hope and makes my fear seem a little less dreadful.”

“Ah. Well.” Sanji cleared his throat which was suddenly tight. “It did sound hopeful. And I did think of Luca before you even told me it was for him.”

“You did?” Brook asked.

Sanji nodded, drifting back to that little meadow in his mind. “I did.”

“How did it make you feel? The song.”

“Peaceful.” Sanji said without hesitation, then after a moment: “Whole.”

“Hmmm. Good. Good…” Brook mumbled and brought his violin back up to his chin. He didn’t resume the song, instead trading his bow to play pizzicato, humming to himself occasionally as he plucked at the strings.

“For what it’s worth,” Sanji added after a few minutes, “I’m glad you’ll be there for him when me and the Moss are gone.”

“For him and any of your grandchildren that follow.”

For the first time in almost a month, Sanji found himself barking out a laugh. “ Grandchildren. God, could you imagine? I don’t want to think about that for at least twenty… THIRTY years.”

“What’s happening in thirty years?” Chopper appeared next to them. The small doctor didn’t wait for an answer to his question, however. His blue nose scrunched up suddenly and he gave the air a few exaggerated sniffs. “Do you smell that?”

For a fleeting moment, Sanji was horrified that the smell might be him. He hadn’t worked up the motivation to shower that day… or the day before… or… well it had been a hot minute.

But then Chopper added: “It smells like sulfur.”

“Sulfur?” Sanji asked.

“An indicator of possible nearby geothermal activity.” Robin called out from the top deck. 

Geothermal activity… Sanji thought to himself. Like a…

He gasped out loud and darted to the rigging, hauling himself up it faster than he was sure he ever had before.

A little over halfway up, he stopped, legs going to jello when he saw it.

There, just a speck on the horizon, was the tiniest triangle of a volcano.

-----------------------------------------------

When this was all over, Zoro was going to drink every ounce of alcohol on whatever ship came to rescue them (hopefully the Sunny since he knew the Witch kept it well stocked now), and then he was going to sleep for an entire week and let the Cook take care of these damn kids.

There was not a doubt in his mind that at least some innate part of Baby Jellyfish was an asshole. There was no reason for her to cry for literal hours other than to make Zoro suffer. He supposed Luca was a bit more excusable since he was also suffering, but hours of listening to the kid whine and stopping misguided attempts to smother the baby made Zoro a little less sympathetic to the kid.

The night had started so well, with bellies full of warm and pretty damn good crayfish. The protein in his system had even made Zoro feel a little more human. 

And then Jellyfish had started to cry.

And didn’t stop.

Zoro had done literally everything he could think of doing. He made sure she was changed. He tried feeding her multiple times. He rocked her in the pot (cleaned and cooled after supper). He’d walked around their little campsite, bouncing her up and down, until he’d worn a small groove around the perimeter. He rubbed her tiny feet, massaged her back and tummy, given her the ancient-looking pacifier. He’d even tried fucking singing though he’d rather die than ever admit it. 

But Jelly didn’t seem to care for his off-pitch rendition of some Uta song he vaguely recalled the lyrics for. She didn’t seem to care for anything. She remained flushed with effort and wailing despite everything he tried. 

That… that was bad enough. Adding Luca’s pleading and whining for the crying to stop like Zoro wasn’t doing everything he physically could do…

Zoro all but shut down. He clocked out from his brain. Lights on but no one was home. He retreated his consciousness to the fucking base of his skull and used every meditative tactic he’d ever learned to build himself a little fort there where he was at least safe from leaving defenseless children in the woods.

After hours of this, Baby Jelly had finally calmed down for seemingly no reason at all. The angry redness of her skin paled back to a content pink as she allowed sleep to take her. It was only then that Zoro dared venture out of his mind fortress to exchange what kid he was holding. 

He settled Jellyfish into her pot and then sat down, grabbed Luca and pulled him against his chest.

The kid was not used to being exhausted and handled it… poorly. He had started crying with no other known way to express whatever he was feeling and Zoro felt awful. 

He tilted them both to lay down on the folded-up blanket, letting Luca use his bicep as a pillow while he used his other hand to rub Luca’s back.

“Hey.” Zoro soothed. “You’re ok. You just need some sleep.”

“NO. Baby loud.” Luca whined and pressed his entire snot-covered face against Zoro’s neck. 

“I know. But she’s asleep now.”

“No!” Luca’s hands tightened in his tunic. “Need story.”

“ Story.” Zoro let out a little amused breath of disbelief. “Blinks, we don’t have books out here.”

“Papa pwease. ” 

Fuck. He just wanted to take a nap. And he absolutely did not want to freelance a fucking bedtime story without one of Usopp’s books. But this little motherfucker had Zoro wrapped around his finger probably even worse than the Cook did.

“ Pwease ?” Luca repeated in the tiniest whisper.

Zoro was fucking whipped.

“Fine. But don’t complain when it sucks ok?” Zoro conceded.

“Kay.” 

Zoro took a deep breath, sleep-deprived mind trying to think of a story that was his to tell. After a moment, he began slowly: “Ok uh… So there-”

“No.” Luca interrupted him.

“What do you mean no?”

“Upon time.” 

“Oh.” Zoro rolled his eyes, but started again. “ Once upon a time there was… a ghost girl that lived in a castle.”

“A ghost?”

“Yeah. But she was a… nice ghost. And she loved stuffed animals even more than you do…”

----------------------------------

The moment he could tell Luca had fallen asleep, Zoro stopped talking. His story hadn’t been any good, he was certain. But he was also pretty sure he could have recited Mihawk’s wine list (which he did unfortunately have memorized) and Luca still would have passed out.

Passing out was exactly what Zoro wanted to do too. If his luck held, he might be able to get an hour or two before Jellyfish woke up and needed to eat.

He lifted his head to make sure she was still safe in her pot and within arms reach. When he went to lay his head back down, he stiffened suddenly. 

For a moment, just a split second he swore he saw a face in the massive crystal they were camped by. When he blinked it was gone, but he was wide awake once more.

He listened to the forest around them, but heard nothing other than the low croaking of frogs. And he didn’t sense anything with his haki. He was positive they were alone. 

And yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. 

Zoro reached for one of the flaming scimitar hilts and pulled Luca a little tighter against him.

Notes:

Getting to the meat of it now 0.o

Can anyone guess the name Zoro thought of?

As always, comments motivate me to write this bitch XD

ALSO there are almost 800 of you motherfuckers subscribed to this and I am genuinely baffled by that. Like this is my silly feel good self indulgent project. Why are all you people here XD

Chapter 14

They were definitely being watched. 

Zoro just couldn’t figure out how or by who.

There was no one physically near them unless they’d somehow figured out how to hide only their body from his observation haki. But he could feel their killing intent everywhere. It was somehow following them as he walked, sometimes jumping ahead of them, sometimes behind. Zoro didn’t understand it. He suspected that the crystals were somehow at play. The malicious aura seemed to be stronger whenever they were near one of the big ones, but it wasn’t like they could avoid them since they were fucking everywhere.

He was tense as they continued their trudge through the swampy, crystalline forest. He hadn’t wanted to scare Luca so he didn’t say anything, but the kid was perceptive and likely knew something was off. He clung a little tighter to Zoro’s back and kept his head tucked between his shoulder blades instead of curiously looking around. 

Jellyfish wouldn’t stop squirming and her little nails were fucking sharp . Zoro’s collarbones and neck look like he’d been attacked by a cat. But she had, at least, been quiet as she wiggled in the makeshift sling tied to his front.

It was almost as if the whole forest could sense something was wrong, that something malevolent was building. The damn persistent frogs had ceased their croaking and the only birds that dared make noise were the seagulls somewhere way above the trees. Even the breeze had stopped, making the oppressive heat almost unbearable.

“Papa. Hot.” Luca complained in a whisper.

Zoro was very aware that the kid was hot. Their shared sweat pooling all over his back had been so wet the last hour that he briefly feared Luca had pissed on him. The heat was probably why his son was all lethargic as well. Which worried Zoro, but there wasn’t much he could do. He needed to find a cave or a cliff or something that wasn’t as open that he could defend when whatever was building exploded into a full blown crisis. 

“I know. I’m sorry. Drink.” He handed the kid their canteen over his shoulder. He also tried to prod the tip of the baby bottle into Jelly’s mouth but she had zero interest in taking it. Whether it was because it was cold or just because she wasn’t hungry, Zoro didn’t know. But as much as he wanted to keep them hydrated, he didn’t feel comfortable stopping to warm anything up. 

He was considering using one of the flaming swords to heat up the bottle while moving when out of the corner of his eye, he saw the fucking face again.

It was in the crystal to his right, like a reflection without anybody standing in front of it. A man, with hair as white as Luca’s and a shit eating grin plastered on his face. 

Then suddenly the face winked out of existence, appearing instead on the crystal a little ahead of them. 

“Luca. Hold on to me. Tight.” Zoro commanded, voice low, eye locked on the still-grinning face. 

“Why?”

“Because we need to run.” 

That was all the warning he gave his kid before Zoro took off, launching himself to his left in a dead sprint. Luca yelped but did as he was told. His skinny little arms wrapped around Zoro’s neck and held him like a vice. 

Zoro needed to get to somewhere at least with fewer crystals and fast. With all pretense of stealth thrown out the window, he carved a path through the forest with the burning swords. Trees were cloven in two and set ablaze. Steam erupted from below whenever one of the scimitars grazed a water pool. Luca was screaming, Jellyfish was wailing. 

Zoro just ran.

---------------------------------------

Sanji’s eyes were glued to the island, watching the brightly lit volcano loom ever closer. He’d asked Robin why everything was so… illuminated but even she hadn’t known.

Sanji supposed he didn’t actually give a shit. He knew Zoro was here. The concept of soulmates was ridiculous, but Sanji couldn’t help but believe it, at least a little. He had to believe when it felt like his entire soul was reaching out to the island and feeling Zoro in return. 

So when he saw a swath of woods suddenly erupt into a cloud of smoke and steam and fuck knows what else, he knew. 

And he didn’t hesitate. 

He leapt off the deck of the Sunny and channeled every ounce of energy he had into his Haki and his skywalk, taking off for the island before his crew could even make a peep of protest.

---------------------------------------------

Zoro tuned the kids out, as loath as he was to ignore their fear. He was keyed into a new sound that percolated through the noises of his destructive path. It was like a… tinkling sound. It reminded Zoro of the massive chandelier the Cook had insisted be the centerpiece above his dining room; the way the strands of beaded crystal would knock against each other during harsher weather. However, the chandelier would never be able to replicate the anxiety this sound caused Zoro.

He was nervous. He could fight whatever was pursuing him, he was confident of that. But he didn’t want to do so with a vulnerable target strapped to his back AND his front.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get much of a choice. 

All of a sudden the trees gave way to a wide street . It was paved in cobblestone crystals and the buildings were pure white domes with crystalline windows. The rainbow refraction was back, magnified to the point where Zoro had to fight closing his eye against the radiance. 

It was also chock full of people. Men and women in white clothing ranging from the familiar robes that filled Zoro with rage, to what barely qualified as loincloths. They all had white hair and that was all that Zoro could observe about them before most started screaming and abruptly fled into the various buildings. The few that didn’t reached for sword hilts and Zoro sprang back into action.

He hoped to fuck that Luca’s eyes were closed because red soon painted the outside of at least eight different domed buildings and ran like crimson grout between the crystalline cobbles. Anybody who had been standing was now littered over the floor in piles of charred body parts. The nauseating smell of burnt flesh permeated the air quickly, powerful enough to cover even the metallic smell of blood. 

They hadn’t even been hard to kill, though, which gave Zoro hope. Enough that he let his guard down for a moment to better assess their situation.

One fucking moment.

And he didn’t quite doge the shard of crystal that suddenly burst out of the ground.

He managed to lurch far enough that it missed Luca, instead scraping up Zoro’s left side like a jagged knife. Almost immediately, another shard shot out of a nearby window. This one was more easily avoided, but it came with the sick realization that the tinkling sound from earlier had been this, the violent and sudden growth of crystals.

They lanced at him, like spike traps, from all directions. Smashing them was relatively easy, but the speed with which they came at Zoro was making him work harder than he’d like. He took another few cuts to his shins and forearms and he still couldn’t figure out where they were coming from or how they were growing like this. He COULD tell that the crystal was somehow suffused with what he assumed was someone else's haki, someone strong.

He dodged, leaping from the street, jumping from buildings, and back down again. He cut down fourteen… fifteen… SIXTEEN massive spikes of crystals, skidding on the fragments when Luca suddenly screamed out and tightened his grip so tight on Zoro’s neck that he briefly saw spots in his field of vision. It wasn’t a scream of fear, Luca had been doing that for some time now. This pitch was pained and Zoro had a brief flashback to the knife sticking out of his son’s stomach. 

One of the scimitars was dropped in favor of grabbing the kid, yanking him around to his front. Relief spread through his gut when he saw that it was just a scratch on the boy’s arm. The relief was very short-lived. Pain overwhelmed it when his right shoulder was suddenly pierced from behind, a shard of bright crystal sticking all the way out to his front, mere centimeters from both Luca and Jellyfish’s head.

It also made him drop the remaining scimitar. 

Another column sprang up, the ragged edges spearing into his left calf.

Zoro crumpled to one leg in the middle of the street, his knee immediately chewed up by the veritable mountain of broken crystal material he’d splintered off the columns during his brief fight. He registered the pain in the back of his mind, but he buried it

He was scared.  

He cradled Luca to him with his left arm, careful not to squish Jellyfish too much. His right arm dangled rather uselessly at his side. The crystal had severed something in his shoulder, he was sure of it.

This wasn’t a fight he could win. Not if he didn’t have a sword, not if he needed to focus on dodging to keep the kids safe. Not when he could tell his moves were sluggish from weeks without sleeping properly. Not when he couldn’t tell what the fuck he was supposed to be fighting.

He could run though. Probably. He’d make himself run. He’d run until he found the beach, run until he found their rowboat. There weren’t crystals in the water so they’d have better chances there. A chance. He just needed to give the kids a chance. It didn’t matter what happened to him.

“Papa?” Luca whispered, voice hoarse from screaming.

“Papa.” A new voice mocked.

Zoro snapped his gaze up and over his shoulder. 

Another crystal grew from the ground, slowly spreading up until it formed a vaguely humanoid shape. Then suddenly in a burst of light, it transformed into a man. The same man Zoro had seen in his glimpses of the face within the crystals. White hair, wicked grin .

He was wearing a white robe, though unlike the priests, this motherfucker had his open, revealing a chiseled physique. His manhood was barely covered by the thin silky fabric of one of the loincloth things. He had the same symbol on his chest that Luca and Jelly had, but unlike the children, this guy’s was either painted or tattooed on in gold. 

“ Papa .” The man mocked again. “I don’t appreciate you playing house with my property, swordsman.”

“Fuck you.” Zoro spat.

“Such disrespect for the Lord of all Light. Do you know from whom you steal?”

“ Fuck you.”

“I am he who rises at dawn. I am the champion of sun, moon, and stars. I am flame. I am heat. I am he that shines.” The man waved his hand and all the crystal splinters from the street began to float, flowing around him like a shield of sharp glitter. “I am the Lightbringer.“

Lightbringer. Zoro had heard that name more than a few times. This was the asshole hunting his kid. This was the asshole who had burned him, kept him locked up. The one responsible for most, if not all of the pain and terror Luca had ever gone through. 

There were few people Zoro had ever had this much hate for. 

“ Fuck. You. ” Zoro growled, sending as much of his conqueror's spirit as he could out of him. He wasn’t surprised, but still disappointed when it didn’t seem to phase the fucker. 

“I think not.” The man’s eyes narrowed and he lifted a finger up. 

He swirled it slowly in the air and every crystal shard floating around him seemed to copy the movement until they all pointed at Zoro — dozens and dozens of them.

“ Shit. ” Zoro barely had a chance to breathe before, with a flick of lightfucker’s wrist, all the shards flew toward them. He spun around and curled his body over the kids without hesitation or any thought other than to protect them. 

A grunt was all he let out as the shards dug into the meat of his back, each impact pushing the one from before deeper. He felt the straps of the canvas bag give way and its weight disappeared as it fell.

“ I AM THE RADIANT PRISM FROM WHICH ALL LIGHT SHINES. ” Lightfucker was shouting as he walked closer. 

Zoro could hear his footsteps. He could feel his own body start to shake, start to fail.

“I AM THE SUNLIGHT IN THE STORM. I AM THE MOON UPON THE WATER.”

This was it. The greatest swordsman in the world and he was laid low by exhaustion and a motherfucker in his underwear . Pathetic. 

“Luca.” Zoro croaked. “I’m sorry.”

Zoro pulled the boy as close as he could, cupping the back of his head. Luca and Jellyfish were both wailing. He could feel their fear. 

He tried to get up, managed to move a scant foot, then stumbled to his knees again. He could tie Jellyfish to Luca, make the boy run. But if that man decided to shoot any more crystals they’d be shredded. 

“ I’m sorry.” He repeated the completely alien feeling of utter despair welled up from his gut. All he could give them now was his body, used as a shield. A few more fleeting moments of life and hopefully the last, lingering warmth of someone who loved them.

The man was getting closer, still screaming religious bullshit. Zoro could sense as he stepped up behind him, ready to deal whatever the death blow would be.

Only it didn’t come.

Instead, a sudden heat barreled over him, from in front of him.

“ DON’T TOUCH HIM!! DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HIM!”

The new voice shouting was filled with fear and rage and Zoro had literally never heard anything so beautiful in his entire life. 

-----------------------------------------------------

Sanji couldn’t tell you anything about the island’s scenery. He remembered nothing from the moment he stepped off the ship until the moment he skidded to a halt at the end of a long, glittering street and saw Zoro.

Zoro on his knees. Motionless, covered in red.

Then someone stepped up behind Zoro, raised his arm-

And Sanji’s vision went black.

He might have shouted, He didn’t know. 

He DID know that his foot made contact with something or someone and he didn’t stop kicking after that. 

Leg ablaze, he landed kick after kick on flesh and… something hard? And then flesh again. A month's worth of panic and anger released through viscous movement. He spun and kicked until he felt something shatter beneath his heel, and then something squish.

Still he kept on kicking, distantly aware that his throat hurt from yelling or screaming. 

“Sanji.”

Sanji froze, pulled from his blind rage by his name grunted with a voice that so rarely used his given name.

He blinked and looked around. The buildings around him were decimated; crumbling white plaster intermixed with spines of crystal. The man he’d been pummeling was little more than a pile of broken bones and bruised, swollen flesh in front of him but he was still breathing. Something Sanji was going to rectify when Zoro spoke his name again.

“ Sanji.” Zoro’s voice was quiet, but firm, demanding his partner’s attention. “It needs to be me.”

Sanji glanced backward, chest still heaving with barely controlled anger. But he understood. With a single shared glance, Sanji understood.

He ran to Zoro, leaving the barely conscious enemy, and dropped to his knees. A single glance of white hair poking out from Zoro’s arm was all it took for him to deflate.

“ I-is he ok? ” Sanji’s voice splintered as he reached out with shaking hands.

Zoro said nothing. He just pushed Luca into his arms and then anything else Sanji was going to say died in his throat when Zoro pushed a whole fucking baby into his lap as well. Free of the children, Zoro stood and scooped up a bladeless hilt of a sword.

Sanji pulled Luca against him, shifted the baby to his arm, and watched as Zoro walked to the barely conscious man on the ground. His partner’s feet dragged over the ground, every step sending a pulsating spurt of blood cascading from his absolutely mangled back. His right arm dangled worryingly at his side.

But he didn’t stop.

Zoro moved his hand and a long tongue of fire grew from the hilt in the shape of a curved blade.

“Y-you can’t kill me.” The man flopped onto his stomach and attempted to crawl away. “I am a GOD.”

Zoro used a boot to shove the guy back onto his back, then dropped to straddle him. He leaned in, and Sanji could feel the hatred coming in waves from his partner. 

“ You hurt our son.” Zoro hissed through gritted teeth, “ And we’ve killed gods before.”

With those chilling words, Sanji watched as Zoro poked the tip of the flaming scimitar into the man's chest. He drove it forward with uncharacteristic slowness, appearing to savor every scream the man let out as inch by inch of searing heat sank into his chest, burning through skin, bone, and then heart . The screams rose in pitch, higher and higher, until they fizzled out completely.

Zoro was still for a long moment before his body tilted suddenly to the side and he collapsed to the ground.

“Zoro. ” Sanji scrambled to his feet and darted over, panicked again briefly before he realized that Zoro was still breathing, and watching him as he sank to his knees again.

“Took your sweet fucking time, Curls.” Zoro let out a sigh of relief. He reached with his good arm to squeeze one of Sanji’s wrists, and then sagged with the weight of consciousness, going limp.

“No no no no, Moss.” Sanji used his knee to poke at his partner and considered putting the baby down so he could shake the man. “Marimo, don’t you do this to me. I’m here. I’m-”

“D-Daddy!?” Luca pulled his head away from Sanji’s chest and his big, beautiful, and terrified olive oil-colored eyes went wide when he realized who was holding him.

Sanji let out a broken sob, “ Hi baby, I’m here. I’m here. I’ve got you .” He pushed a relieved kiss to the kid’s forehead. “I’ve got you, baby.”

It was hard to rip his attention away from his son who had resumed crying with renewed vigor, but the kid was breathing and conscious, so Sanji put his focus back on Zoro. The swordsman was still breathing, but the rise and fall of his chest was… labored. Sanji shifted Luca so that he could use that arm to reach out, fingers running along the line of Zoro’s neck until they found his pulse point.

Strong. Steady.

Sanji let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, only for it to lodge in his throat when the ground started shaking .

He snapped his gaze up just as half the fucking volcano seemed to explode up into a pillar of black smoke and debris.

“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me. ”

Notes:

Yo at least they're together now right?

Admittedly, I think canon Zoro would still have been able to fuck that guy up no matter how tired he was. The problem with characters that are stronger than everyone else is that they are hard to make suffer accurately XD so I apologize if Zoro's a little weakened here for the sake of plot.

In the first draft of this story, Zoro was captured and put in a cage. The lightbringer guy was going to "purify" him in the volcano and the old lady was going to save him. But then I realized it was way too close to the plot of that one Indiana Jones movie (I still kept the burning heart bit). Plus I decided I wanted Luca and Zoro to stay together.

Anyway. Thank you for reading my trash. As always, your comments are what drive me to write!

Chapter 15

The mixture of post-battle adrenaline, bone-deep relief, and now immediate fear had Sanji shaking as he tried to figure out how to carry a toddler, a baby, and the love of his life off an island that was minutes away from being engulfed in fucking lava. 

Already the black, roiling mass of pyroclastic flow was barreling down the side of the volcano. With it would come a wall of superheated gas and rock, with the glow of lava not that far behind. 

Almost as terrifying was that the island residents had come out the moment the volcano exploded and Sanji thought he was going to have to fight again, to defend his little troop. But what he’d originally thought were screams were actually cheers. The crazy motherfuckers ignored him completely and were running toward the mountain, fucking singing and shouting weird religious praise. 

“What are they doing!?” Nami yelled suddenly and Sanji spun to see the rest of his crew sprinting toward them. 

“I don’t know. I don’t care. Someone help me.” Sanji knew he sounded as desperate as he felt. 

“Oh Zoro!” Chopper cried, “Oh no! What happened!?”

“We don’t have time. We need to get the fuck out of here. ” Sanji looked up, pleadingly. 

“I got him, Cook-bro!” Franky rushed past them all and moved to pick up Zoro.

Sanji gave him quick instructions to be careful of the man’s back, then stood on shaky legs and prepared to run, children secure in his arms.

“Is that… Is that a baby !?”

“Sanji has a baby!?”

“NO. TIME.” Sanji barked the words like they were an order and started to run in the direction his crew had come from, trusting they’d follow. In the back of his mind, he noted how all the crystals jutting up from the island were suddenly gone, having disappeared the moment Zoro had killed that man. There was likely a connection there with the volcano’s spectacularly timed eruption as well, but Sanji was too focused on getting off the island to care.

The Sunny wasn’t hard to spot. There had apparently been a pier that Sanji hadn’t seen and the Sunny had rammed it. It was half underwater and splintered, but usable as he dashed across it and onto the ship.

Jimbei was hot on his heels and dashed immediately for the helm, roaring for Franky’s assistance. With all the delicacy he could muster, Frank passed Zoro’s unconscious form over to Chopper who whisked him off to the infirmary with the aid of Robin.

The rest of the crew stumbled aboard, Nami dragging their captain.

“Those people are going to die!” Luffy protested, indignant. 

“They were running to the volcano, Luffy. There was nothing we could do!”

“But-”

“HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!!!” Franky commanded before he shouted: “COUPPPPPP DEEEEEEE BURST!!!!!!!!”

The entire ship lurched as Franky’s emergency acceleration coup de burst ignited, sending the Sunny flying away from the island. With no free hands, Sanji very might have well fallen over, but was spared that fate by Brook; the skeleton appeared next to him and put a steadying arm around his waist.

The ship skidded across the ocean like a skipping stone for nearly a kilometer, thumping them all up and down each time before finally sliding to a stop and all was still.

Still, but not silent.

Both kids were crying, Luca nearly hysterically so. His sobs were terrified, deep screams that were punctuated with the effort of his entire lung capacity. Sanji had heard less violent howling from people with their limbs torn off and it scared him. Fear only intensified by the fact that he also had no idea what Zoro’s condition was.

He shrugged off Brook’s grip and raced to the infirmary in time to see Robin’s many hands taking off what remained of Zoro’s clothing while Chopper started an IV.

“Are they hurt!?” Chopper asked, not even looking up.

“N-no.” Sanji said, not even sure if he was audible over the kids’ screaming. “I don’t think so.”

“Then you can’t be in here, Sanji. I need to focus.”

“ Chopper.” Sanji pleaded. “Is he- Is he going to be ok?”

“He’s Zoro. ” Chopper said firmly. The little reindeer doctor then grabbed a thin syringe from a tray, walked over, and poked it into Luca’s thigh with no preamble. “Small Sedative. He’s going to hurt himself. Take care of them, Sanji. I will take care of Zoro.”

Chopper and Robin both left no room for argument. Chopper with his words, Robin with a dozen hands that tugged him out of the room and shut the door in his face. 

He stood there for a long moment. He was staring at the door but all he saw in his mind was the bloody expanse of Zoro’s back, knowing what that kind of wound would mean for the man. Even with Chopper’s reminder that this WAS Zoro and knowing that he’d healed from worse multiple times…. Sanji was still nervous. He wanted to be in there. He wanted to hold Zoro’s hand and feel his pulse under his fingertips, proof that his Moss was ok.

He couldn’t think of anything else and didn’t even notice that Luca’s sobs were quieting down until his son spoke.

“ Bath.” Luca whined between hiccuped cries.

“W-What?”

“BATH.” 

“You… want a bath?” Sanji finally peeled his eyes off the door to look down.

“Pwease, Daddy. Pwease.” Luca’s sobs ramped up again and he smashed his face into Sanji’s shoulder. “ Wuca yucky. Wuca yucky. Wuca-”

“ Ok! Shhhh. Shh.” Sanji nudged the side of Luca’s head with his forehead. “We can take a bath. Of course we can take a bath, my Olive.”

--------------------------------------------------

Sanji couldn’t stop his hands from shaking as he cupped Luca's face, trying to be strong and calm like he knew his son needed right now.

But he was teetering on the edge of being completely overwhelmed and it was hard .

Getting to the Sunny’s bathing room had been a feat in and of itself, dodging Luffy’s dozens of SHOUTED questions that only made the kids cry harder. Franky eventually had to hold their captain back bodily to give Sanji some space. He had hoped someone would take the baby so he could focus on Luca but Chopper and Zoro, ironically, were the only two on board who knew anything about babies, and everyone else refused (Aside from Luffy whom Sanji would NOT trust with a baby) so he was stuck carrying both kids up the ladder which was only possible with a quick vertical skywalk.

It was a nightmare of overstimulation for everyone.

Luckily the baby had settled when Sanji nestled it in a towel basket, freeing a hand for Sanji. He ran a warm, shallow bath and then all but collapsed to his knees, pulling Luca up in front of him.

“I missed you.” Sanji whispered as he thumbed away the last of Luca’s tears. “God, my Olive I missed you.”

Luca whined a little in response, pressing his head into Sanji’s palm.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” Sanji did a quick inspection of what he could see. There was a scratch on Luca’s arm, but it was shallow and had already started to scab…. A healing scab on his lip.

“ Bath.”

“Ok, ok.” Sanji supposed he could understand why his son wanted a bath so badly. He was pretty dirty, and his hair was a tangled mess. Sanji carefully peeled the dirty tunic up and over his son’s head, and then gasped at what he saw. There were bruises along one side of Luca’s neck and across a shoulder. They were shades of brown and yellow, obviously in the later stages of healing, but Sanji felt sick just imagining how bad they would have been fresh. And then… then there was a jagged red line that ran up Luca’s tummy, stitches embedded at regular intervals along it.

Bile rose in Sanji’s throat.

“ What happened to you? ” 

Luca didn’t answer Sanji’s whispered, anguished question. The sedative was definitely starting to kick in and he just stood there, head lolled slightly to one side with heavily lidded eyes. Sanji gathered him up once again into a hug and then straightened to stand. He plucked Luca up and deposited him in the bath. 

It was shallow water, only a couple of inches. Luca’s baths had to be since he was a devil fruit user and even shallow water made him tired. Combined with the sedative, Luca was completely boneless as Sanji carefully lathered him up and gently worked the dirt from his skin and hair. Sanji was thorough, he didn’t want a speck of that island to remain on his kid. He made sure every dip and ridge of Luca’s ears were clean, under his fingernails, between his toes. 

He thought maybe Luca had fallen asleep since his eyes had closed at some point, but they fluttered open when Sanji pulled the plug.

“Wuca yucky?” Luca whispered.

“No. You’re squeaky clean.” Sanji answered softly, lifting him from the tub. This seemed to ease whatever lingering anxiety the kid had and this time he DID fall asleep. He fell over right into Sanji’s arms, out cold. Sanji wrapped him in one of Nami’s special fluffy bath towels, knowing she’d excuse the use of her property, and then scooped him up, cradling him to his chest.

For a long time, he just held him. He swayed back and forth and pressed his nose to Luca’s damp hair. The steady puffs of warm air against his neck from Luca’s exhales felt better than any medicine Chopper had given him in a long time. 

He almost… he almost lost this. If the Sunny had been even a moment later, He would have lost the most precious parts of his life in one fell swoop. He would never have been able to hold Luca again, never again sleep next to Zoro. It made him ill to think about. It was also… humbling to think that not even a full year ago, he thought his life had been complete getting to spend every day with Zoro on his restaurant. He’d had no idea that he had still been missing the most important thing in his life and now that he HAD Luca… if he’d lost him permanently…

Sanji couldn’t bear thinking about it and was luckily spared from doing so when Nami stuck her head in.

“I raided Chopper’s closet; found some stuff that will probably fit him. Nothing small enough for… that …” Nami rolled her head toward the baby. “But Franky cut up some dish towels and whipped up these.”

She walked in and set a stack of borrowed clothes on one of the bamboo stools in the bathing room, then held what looked like a tiny version of Franky’s speedo made out white dish cloth. They were a terrible approximation of a diaper, but it wasn’t like Sanji had any better ideas.

“Thank you.” He whispered.

Nami nodded, then asked: “Are they ok?”

“I think so.”

“That’s good. Well… If you need anything…”

“I promise I will ask. Thank you, Nami dearest.” Sanji knew his smile looked as tired and forced as it felt, but she seemed to accept the sentiment behind it nonetheless. She nodded at him again and stepped out of the bathing room.

Sanji reluctantly finished drying Luca off and got him dressed. The pair of baby blue borrowed pajamas Nami pilfered from Chopper’s locker did fit and watching Luca snuggle into them subconsciously as Sanji laid him down on another spread out, fluffy towel settled Sanji’s still-rapid heartbeat. 

Luca was here with him. Safe. That was enough for now.

Sanji sighed and turned his attention to the other small person that needed him. It… HE or SHE was just as grubby as Luca had been, if not more so. Sanji could tell that Franky’s speedo diapers were NEEDED.

He ran another shallow bath and ever so gently picked the baby up and peeled its… well HER (now that he could confirm) dirty swaddle thing and diaper off. She was luckily uninjured, apart from the brand on her chest that sent a flare of anger coursing through his veins. But it was at least healed.

“Ok Little Miss,” Sanji said quietly as he carefully held her in the water. “We can do this, alright?”

It was more of an attempt at reassuring himself . He was nervous as he wiped away the dirt and god knows what else from her delicate skin. She was tiny. He had never held a baby this small and found himself quite scared of… hurting her. He kept his touches feather-light, his washcloth swipes as gentle as possible.

“Where’d you come from, huh? How’d you end up with my Marimo?” Sanji asked, running soapy fingers over her white hair. She made a little grunting noise and curled an itsy-bitsy fist around his ring finger. Sanji’s heart… stuttered. 

“Well…” he breathed, “Don’t worry mon petit bébé. My Marimo got you to me, and I’ll take care of you now.”

----------------------------------------

Sanji was startled awake by the insistent tap of a foot against his leg. He looked up from where he was slumped on the floor to see Robin smiling down at him.

“You know we have beds on the ship, don’t you?” Robin asked.

“I… didn’t mean to fall asleep.” Sanji looked around, blinking. It was still plenty sunny out so he knew he hadn’t dozed long, but he was still surprised he’d fallen asleep at all. The baby was still asleep next to him in the towel basket he’d carried her in for lack of a better… containment vessel. Luca was curled up on his lap… as was half of Luffy, using Sanji’s thigh as a pillow. Sanji could not remember when their captain had joined him and was genuinely surprised his snoring hadn’t woken him up either. 

“You have been under inordinate stress lately. I am not surprised you crashed. Especially now that your precious people are safe.”

“Is he ok?” Sanji asked, peering around her legs to the infirmary. 

“He’s Zoro.” Robin echoed Chopper’s earlier words. “But you can go in now. I’ll take our Captain somewhere more appropriate for a nap.”

Sanji breathed his thanks as a dozen arms sprouted up and lifted Luffy off of him. He gathered Luca up and stood, got three feet and remembered the baby, grabbed her basket, then darted into the infirmary room.

Chopper was at his desk, but Sanji only spared him a moment’s glance because Zoro…

Zoro was lying on one of the infirmary beds (Chopper had added a second bed long ago), head turned to the side on a thin pillow. His exposed torso was wrapped in bandages and a thicker pack of gauze was strapped to one shoulder, his arm bound to him in a sling. An IV line ran to his elbow. He was paler than he should be, and thinner. Sanji had seen him in worse conditions, but it didn’t make the sudden lump in his throat any easier to handle.

“He’s ok, Sanji” Chopper said, saving Sanji from actually having to ask the question. “He lost a lot of blood but I still keep plenty of his type on board. He heals fast, but his shoulder will still require rehabilitation. But um…”

Sanji watched the reindeer doctor glance hesitantly at Zoro’s bed and the lump in his throat got six times bigger.

“What is it Chopper?” 

“Sanji, I did everything I could-”

“ Chopper. ”

“It’s his back. I… I think… it’s going to scar, Sanji.”

Sanji’s eyes flicked up and down his partner as the weight of that statement sunk in. A swordsman’s shame. He… he couldn’t imagine what this was going to do to Zoro. The guy had been willing to die the day they fucking met to avoid scars on the back. This was devastating and the lump in his throat settled like a rock to the pit of his stomach.

“ Oh .” Sanji struggled to clear his throat. “When will he wake up?”

“I don’t know. I used some strong anesthesia but even without it, I don’t think he’s slept in a while. Or… eaten properly. I’d like to examine Luca and the baby now that he’s stable to see if they’re in a similar condition.”

Sanji nodded and moved to the second bed, keeping his eyes on Zoro while Chopper examined the kids. Zoro’s back still rose and fell steadily… Sanji tried to focus on that rather than the dread of what kind of self-atoning bullshit the man would pull at bearing a whole back full of shame. Because he knew what HE would do if had been his hands. And that thought scared him almost as much as nearly losing him had.

His attention was pulled away when Chopper found the healed-ish wound on Luca’s stomach.

“These stitches should have come out days ago.” The little doctor tutted and moved to grab his instruments. 

“What do you think it’s from?” Sanji shifted Luca in his arms so that Chopper would have better access as he tugged out the old stitches. Luca didn’t even flinch, let alone stir from his slumber.

“Something narrow… but deep. Whatever it was healed ok, but the stitches aren’t very neat. It wil… probably scar too.”

“Just what he needs.” Sanji sighed, heart aching. “More scars.”

“They both look good, otherwise. Luca’s other injuries seem to be very superficial. And I don’t see any signs of malnutrition. Zoro must have taken good care of them.” Chopper said hopefully, scooting back when he finished with Luca.

“At the expense of taking care of himself probably.”

“You would have done the same, Sanji.”

“Yes. I would have.” Sanji agreed without hesitation, then frowned. “Chopper… I don’t know how or what to feed a baby and she’s… going to need to eat.”

“Hmmm… I think I have a book in the library that can help! I’ll go find it.” Chopper started to leave the infirmary, then turned back. “You can stay here, but Zoro needs to rest. Keep quiet ok?”

“Of course, Doctor. You really are the best you know.”

“Shut up. That doesn’t make me happy at all!” Chopper did a little steppy dance and was grinning as he left. 

Sanji waited until he was gone before he tucked Luca into the second hospital bed and stood. He dragged Chopper’s chair over to Zoro’s bed and collapsed into it, finally free to spend at least a few moments focusing on his swordsman.

He pulled the chair up close and reached out to run his hand through Zoro’s hair. It was longer than Zoro ever let it get, maybe the longest Sanji had ever seen it. And it was… pretty disgusting, caked in sweat and blood and grease. Nevertheless, Sanji finger-combed through it for a while before sliding his hand down along Zoro’s jaw.

There was stubble here that Zoro also never allowed to grow, even if it was just the meager amount he could grow in a month. It and the bags under his eyes made him look older… tired.

“Fucking asshole. You scared me.” Sanji whispered and leaned forward to press his forehead against his partners. “I thought I lost you, Mossy.”

He pressed a kiss to Zoro’s temple, then buried his face against the man’s neck and took a deep breath. He smelled awful, like antiseptic and sweat on a level that was bad, even for Zoro. But it was still his Marimo. And fuck, Robin was right. He’d been so emotionally strung out that he was crashing now that he had his family back.

He had them BACK.

A single tear slipped from his cheek to run down the length of Zoro’s neck as Sanji once again dozed off.

------------------------------------

Sunsets on the Grand Line were almost always spectacular, and even more special aboard the Sunny. The main sail almost shone with a reddish-pink light that sent a warm glow cascading over white rails and the lawn. Flickers of radiance peeked through mikan trees and it just felt like home.

And for the first time in almost a month, Sanji actually let himself enjoy it.

Of course, if given the choice, he’d still rather be waiting by Zoro’s side. But the baby had woken up crying and Sanji didn’t want to risk waking Zoro or Luca so he’d quickly gotten her out of the room.

True to his word, Chopper had found a recipe for emergency temporary baby formula using evaporated milk that they luckily had a few cans of on board. It wasn’t the most nutritious, Chopper had said, but it would at least keep her alive until they got somewhere they could buy actual formula. With guidance from the doctor, Franky had whipped up a makeshift baby bottle using the squishy part of a medicine dropper and a sterilized cola bottle. 

Chopper had even offered to feed her. But as uncomfortable as he still was with the baby, feeding people was his job and Sanji would be damned if he couldn’t do at least that.

So here he was, swaying slightly as he walked around the mikan trees, baby in one arm and bottle in the other. Robin had donated a blue shawl to wrap her up in that was much better than the towel. She still flailed around under her arms were out of it, but once she had a grip on Sanji’s fingers, she settled and sucked down the bottle like a champ.

“Healthy appetite, huh?” Sanji smiled, “That’s good. You come visit me when you’re older and I’ll show you what real food tastes like.”

Seemingly in response, she pushed the bottle tip out of her mouth with her tongue and lolled her head to the side, already back to sleep. 

Sanji set the bottle down at the edge of the grove and kept on walking, watching the sunset light play over her pale skin. He had to admit, he was bit… enamoured with her. She was adorable when she wasn’t crying, like a teeny tiny version of Luca complete with the same pearly hair (and scars but Sanji tried not to think about that).

He shifted her to the other arm and was about to run his fingers over her little tufts of hair when she suddenly let out a blurb of frothy white all over his dress shirt.

“Oh god.” He breathed, IMMEDIATELY panicked. “CHOPPER! CHOPPER!”

He vaulted over the railing to the main deck and nearly bowled the little doctor over in his haste to find him.

“Sanji!? What is it!? What’s wrong!?” Chopper cried, eyes darting all over him and the baby to check for injuries.

“I-I don’t know!” Sanji dropped to his knees in front of the reindeer and held the baby out. “I fed her and then she fucking puked . Did I- What if I mixed the recipe wrong!? Chopper did I poison-”

To Sanji’s surprise, Chopper started laughing .

“What the hell is so funny?” Sanji sputtered incredulously.

“Sanji she didn’t puke ,” Chopped said, holding his own stomach as he giggled. “That’s just spit up!”

“... Spit… up?” 

“All babies do it! Frequently! It just means she probably ate too much or swallowed some air. Franky’s bottle isn’t the best so I bet it’s the latter. You’ll just have to make sure you burp her after each feeding.” Chopper explained.

“Burp?”

“Sanji you really don’t know anything about babies, do you?”

“No.” Sanji cast a wary glance down at his now-messy shirt and the infant, wondering what other hellish surprises awaited him in however long he’d need to care for her for. “No Chopper, I do not.”

Notes:

I like to imagine that the crew is giving Sanji space because they know he needs to be with his little family unit for now. My man's is still like two steps away from a mental breakdown.

As always, comments are my most favorite thing in the world. I enjoy reading your predictions and if I like them better than my ideas I often write them into the story haha.

Chapter 16

Zoro woke up slowly… and comfortably.  

That alone was pretty much all he needed to know that whatever had happened after he’d passed out had turned out ok. The lull of Sanji’s voice somewhere to his right and Luca’s accompanying giggles sure didn’t harm that assertion.

He kept his eye closed, but couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from twitching up into a grin as something warm settled in his chest. He kept himself still, however, just… basking in it.

“Ok.” Sanji said quietly. “I know I said the last one was ugly, but this one is even uglier.”

“Big nose!” Luca giggled. 

“Very big.” Sanji confirmed, amusement evident in his voice as well.

“What it say?”

“ The yellow-snouted pugfish uses it’s long, trunk-like appendage to sense the vibrations of its prey beneath the silt on the sea floor. Its trunk hides a pair of large forward teeth that it uses to crack the shells of crustaceans.” Sanji sounded like he was reading from something.

“Was a rus-say-in?” Luca asked.

“Like crabs and shrimp.”

“Oh. I eat cabs!”

“Luckily you’re a little cuter than a pugfish.” 

Luca giggled and Zoro heard the turning of a book page. When Sanji started to read again, Zoro risked cracking open his eye and tilted his head to look at them. And the amount of fucking fondness that shot through his entire nervous system felt like he was being dipped in warm honey. 

Sanji was sitting on the second infirmary bed with Luca in his lap and looked completely and uncharacteristically soft. His hair was all mussed and most of it was falling out of the tiny nub of a ponytail the blonde had at the base of his neck. He was wearing sweats and a white shirt that was way too big to be one of the ones he usually wore under his dress shirts which meant that it was Zoros. He was even barefoot, which unless he was showering, swimming, or sleeping, NEVER happened.

Fuck and he was smiling as he read quietly, nuzzling his cheek against Luca’s head and Zoro had to close his eye again before he did something embarrassing like cry.

The nightmare was fucking over and his family was safe. AND he was still alive which was a pretty nice bonus. He tilted his head back up toward the ceiling and took a quick mental inventory. He was on painkillers, he could tell. The hit he took to his shoulder alone should have hurt like a motherfucker but all he felt was a dull ache. He could wiggle all his fingers and toes, made a mental note to check his dick later… but he felt good. Exhausted, but good.

The smile stayed plastered on his face as Sanji read through several more pages of what Zoro had ascertained was some kind of fish encyclopedia. It must have had pictures because Luca frequently interrupted to comment on various fish appearances. But Zoro could feel the moment Sanji realized he was awake and his jig was up because the blonde suddenly stopped responding to the kid and the air felt… charged.

“Daddy?” Luca questioned.

“Read by yourself for a minute, Baby Olive.” Sanji said.

Zoro heard some rustling, the light padding of the few steps between the beds, then felt a rush of air. He was fully expecting to be smacked on the head or thumped somewhere . He was NOT expecting the sudden and desperate press of lips against his own or the shaky hands that cupped his jaw.

“ Fuck. ” He rasped as Sanji pulled away, cracking his eye open again. “That bad?”

“Scared. Shitless.” Sanji admitted. He grabbed a glass from a small side table and helped Zoro drink.

“How long’ve I been out?”

“Two days.”

“Kids ok?” 

“Yeah. They’re both ok.” Sanji’s hands returned to his face, pushing his hair back, thumbs running along his jaw. Up close, Zoro could see the toll the last few weeks had taken on his partner. He was still beautiful, there really wasn’t any condition he could be in where Zoro WOULDN’T think that. But he did, objectively, look terrible. 

“You look like shit.” 

“Are you- I haven’t seen you in a fucking month you GRASS-FED APE and THAT’S what you have to say to me!?” Sanji sat up straight and DID thump him this time, albeit lightly and on his uninjured shoulder. 

“What the hell even is this?” Zoro reached up with his good arm and ran his fingers at the full-on beard his partner had going on in addition to his usual goatee. “You glue this shit on?”

“Didn’t exactly pack my shaving kit, asshole. And you’re one to talk, look at this fungus growth.” Sanji flicked his chin and smiled softly. “You look like a sprouting potato.”

“Yeah? How about the fucking raccoon eyes you got going on? When’s the last time you slept, Curls?”

"Probably the last time you did by the looks of it.”

“Mmmmm.” Zoro agreed, pushing himself to a sitting position. He ignored Sanji’s squawk of protest and used his good hand to pull the blonde into another kiss. He hadn’t seen his lover in almost a month and he was drinking up his fill now, savoring the little whimper Sanji let out before the blonde started returning the kiss. 

Sanji ran a palm up his torso and even through the bandages it felt good . Then his hand snaked around Zoro’s shoulders and deft fingers dug into his back-

Zoro HISSED and recoiled.

“Oh shit.” Sanji breathed. “I’m sorry.”

“Nah, Chopper’s got me on the good shit. Didn’t even remember I got hit there.” Zoro reached for Sanji again and frowned when the Blonde pulled back.

“ Hit ?” Sanji sputtered. “Moss, you didn’t just get hit. You got torn up.”

“Oh well. Semen-ticks.”

“The word you are looking for is semantics and it’s not. Chopper said…” Sanji took a deep breath and looked up. “Chopper said it’s going to scar, Zoro.”

“Ok…” 

Sanji looked down and to Zoro’s horror, looked like HE was about to cry.

“Hey. Curls,” He said gently. “What’s going on?”

“Your… It’s… scar s, Marimo. O-on your back.”

“I have… a lot of scars, Cook.”

“ Scars on the back are… are you know…” Sanji waved his hand in the air and pointedly looked away again when a tear slipped free.

“A swordsman’s shame.”

Sanji made a small dying noise and Zoro finally understood.

“Hey.” Zoro reached over and poked the blonde until he turned. “These are not the same. I did not get these scars as a swordsman. I got them as a father .”

“Moss-”

“Look at him,” Zoro gestured over to where Luca sat, a book half as big as he was propped up on the bed in front of him. Happy, safe, alive. “That fucking crystal freak would have killed him, was going to kill him. Using my body to protect him and keep him from getting hurt is not something I will ever regret. If my back scars, then they will be scars I bear with pride.”

“You… won’t go on some honor crusade to atone for your shame?”

“The fuck? I just got you back, Cook. I’m not leaving.”

“Oh.” Sanji sagged in relief and collapsed against him again. This time he kept his hands to Zoro’s front, pressed against his chest as he buried his face in Zoro’s neck. “Thank you. For protecting him.”

“Always. With everything I have.” Zoro let himself sag against the Cook as well. “Thanks for finding me.”

“Always.” he felt Sanji smile against his neck. 

They sat slumped together for a long few moments, breathing the same air… coexisting in a soft manner that had been becoming more frequent in their relationship, but still felt so rare. Zoro cherished it and wanted it to last.

Unfortunately, a certain bundle of joy that Zoro hadn’t even realized was in the room had other plans and started fussing.

“You know, I have a lot of questions that you WILL answer, Marimo.” Sanji stood and went to fish the baby out of a basket that sat at the head of the other bed. His body had obscured it earlier. “But can we start with who the hell this is?”

“That Jellyfish!” Luca said, not even looking up from his book.

“You keep saying that, Olive, and I don’t know what it means.” Sanji sat back at Zoro’s hip and bounced the baby ever so slightly in his arms. 

“It’s what he named her.” Zoro looked at the baby in Sanji’s arms and internally cursed. She looked as exactly right there as he had suspected. He took a deep breath. “I uh… I thought Sora might be better.”

Sanji snapped his eyes up to Zoro, then to the baby, then to Zoro again. His damn swirly eyebrows furrowed.

“Zoro we can’t.”

“I’ll tell you the whole fucking story eventually, but believe me when I say that when you find out where she came from and what they were going to do to her, AND Luca by the way, you aren’t going to be able to let her go either.” Zoro shrugged and laid back against the pillows. “I’m not having another useless conversation dragged out over weeks when we’re just going to end up at the same decision.”

“Besides,” Zoro continued. “If you dont want to keep her, I’ll just keep her myself anyway.”

“You… You can’t just- A baby, Moss. She’s a baby.” 

“Observant.”

“We don’t know anything about babies, asshole.”

“Kept her alive this long. In a fucking swamp.”

“She’s… she’s a girl.”

“Yeah. Think of all the frou-frou dresses you’ll get to buy her”

Sanji glanced back down at the baby and Zoro couldn’t help but smile as he watched the Cook’s resolve crumble away.

“ Fuck” Sanji breathed. He ran his thumb along the baby’s cheek, “Sora, huh?”

“Sora Steelheart.”

“Oh absolutely not.” Sanji tried to shoot him an unimpressed look, but Zoro could tell how amused he was. “If we’re doing this, I am not naming our daughter Sora Steelheart.”

“But Sora’s ok?”

“Yeah.” Sanji smiled. “Sora is nice.”

Notes:

A short chapter because I felt like everyone needed some fluff and FAST

Also I know literally everyone that does a zosan kid fic names the kid Sora but fuck it's just too GOOD. MANY of you predicted this.

Anyway. Comments are appreciated. This is NOT the last chapter, but I will say now that depending on how much love this fic gets I might have a sequel idea or at least a couple one shots if there is interest.

Chapter 17

“YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!”

“Will you keep it down!?”

“I’VE GOT TWO NEPHEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“No, you do not. She would be your niece.”

“I’VE GOT TWO NIECES!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Luffy.” Sanji ran an exasperated hand down his face. “Luca is your nephew. Sora is your niece. And if you keep yelling you’ll have neither because I’ll kill you.”

“Sorry!” Luffy cackled, rocking back and forth from his perch on the dining table, definitely not sorry. “Can I hold her NOW?”

“No.”

“Why not!?”

“Because I watched you shove your finger up your nose literally three minutes ago. I’m not letting you give her diseases.”

“If I wash my hands I can hold her?”

“You’re volunteering to wash your hands?” Sanji narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Fine. If you wash your hands, I will let you hold-”

Sanji didn’t even get to finish his sentence before their captain launched himself from the galley, presumably heading toward the Sunny’s washroom. He smiled despite himself, happy that his declaration to the crew that they’d be keeping Sora as well was met with enthusiasm. Although he suspected that at least Nami and Robin had known before he even did.

He kept smiling as he moved around the galley. After weeks of only stress cooking, it felt good to finally be making a meal for the sheer satisfaction of feeding his crew and his family. His family of four. His partner and his TWO children. 

It was overwhelming, but in a… good way. At least he thought so. Zoro had indeed told him more of how he got Sora and the purification process that the cultists wanted to do to both her and his Luca. He’d been enraged at the revelation and wished he could go back in time to help make the leader guy's death even slower, even more painful. Zoro had also been right that once he’d heard that, he knew that he’d never be able to hand her off to anyone else. She needed to be where he could keep her safe.

Forever.

He turned his stew down to simmer. It was fairly basic. The Sunny hadn’t exactly had time to stop and stock up before they started their mad dash across the ocean to find Zoro and Luca so Sanji was working with the bare minimum. But it was protein-packed and carb heavy if he added rice. Warm and heartening and what Zoro needed to regain the muscle mass he’d lost. He had a whole menu in mind for getting everyone back in top condition.

Stew for now… probably no dessert. He needed to be conservative with his ingredients. But maybe pudding wouldn’t use up too much of the milk … As he thought, his hands instinctually went to his pocket, to another one of the packs of Alabastan cigarettes Nami had given him. He had one between his lips before his gaze flickered over to the basket on a chair next to his countertop.

“Well.” He sighed and lowered the unlit cigarette. “No more of these I suppose.”

He tucked the pack back in his pocket and went to pick Sora up. Now that he was more comfortable holding her, he found himself wanting to do so all the time and he absolutely would not subject her little lungs to smoke. “Not in front of my Little Lady, huh?”

She was still post-bottle drowsy, but not quite fully asleep and she looked up at him with heavily lidded eyes, dark and warm like coffee, framed with white lashes like sprinkles of cream.

“Those are going to be dangerous. ” He whispered. “You’re going to be unstoppable.”

His daughter. His daughter. That seemed to carry a… different weight than having a son. Not necessarily a heavier weight, but different in a way that scared Sanji. Sanji had been a little boy and felt fairly certain he could raise one. A little girl… 

“I think you might be karma.” He huffed a little laugh. “As much as I love women, I sure don’t know much about raising one. I might royally fuck you up, sweetheart.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “But I promise you that I’ll try not to. We just might need to learn this shit together, ok? I-”

“WASHED!” Luffy burst into the room, his hands outstretched. 

“Fine.” Sanji grinned. “Sit down.”

For once in his life, Luffy obeyed orders and plopped onto the green couch along one wall of the galley and held out his arms.

“Luffy I trust you and you know that. But she’s fragile, ok? Chopper said there are even parts of her skull that like… have holes and shit still.”

“I’ll be careful!”

Sanji… had his doubts. But he also had the utmost faith in his captain and so he carefully set Sora in Luffy’s arms, helped him adjust his hold and support her head, then stepped back. He was… slightly relieved that the normal rambunctious energy that permeated from his captain was blissfully absent. Luffy was calm and still.

“Hi.” Luffy said quietly, a soft smile playing across his face. “Welcome to the crew, Baby Sora. I don’t know what your dream is yet, but I can’t wait to help you chase it.”

“Fuck. Luffy.” Sanji had to immediately look up, staring at the ceiling as he tried to blink back sudden tears. “Give me a heart attack.”

“I’m just telling her the truth!” Luffy cackled. “I hope it’s something AWESOME. Like what if she wants to find a diamond the size of a COW!? Or build a castle in the clouds!? Or kill a thousand sea kings!? OR EAT A THOUSAND SEA KINGS!? Or-”

Sanji smiled and tuned him out as Luffy went on and on about possible dreams Sora could have. He felt confident enough now that Luffy would behave, so he returned to the fridge and started getting out ingredients. Maybe dessert was called for tonight… It felt like a night to celebrate.

----------------------------------------

It was probably ridiculous how good it felt to be holding his swords again. Robin had dropped them off after the Cook left to make dinner and feed Sora. She’d given him some cryptic bullshit about Sanji saving his most treasured possessions but the moment he’d had Wado in his hand again, he admittedly stopped paying attention to her.

He hadn’t even noticed her leaving the room. 

Chopper had refused to take the damn sling off his right arm and for once Zoro hadn’t argued. He remembered how it dangled back on the island, how useless it had been. He would… allow it to heal properly so that he could defend his family in the future. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t run a few katas with his good arm.

“Blinks. Let's go outside.” He pushed himself up off the infirmary bed. 

“I reading.”

“You don’t know how to read.”

Luca made a face at him and Zoro grinned. The kid had picked up so many mannerisms from the Cook and Zoro was grateful that a month apart hadn’t made them go away.

“Come on.” Zoro prodded him with Wado’s sheath “You can read outside.”

Luca grumbled but grabbed his book and scooted off the bed. Zoro followed him out to the deck and watched him plop down on the lawn, resuming his perusal of the encyclopedia as if the last month hadn’t happened to him at all. Zoro was happy to see the resilience he seemed to be showing, though he wasn’t naive enough to believe that there wouldn’t be… side effects. His son already struggled with nightmares, so Zoro assumed those would get worse. And the… fear of being dirty seemed to be here to stay.

Fuck knows what else would emerge later, but for now, at the very least he was still just a kid with his book. 

Fucking nerd. Zoro thought to himself, fondly and with a smile, before he started his katas. 

His body… protested them. He felt the still mostly open wounds on his back scrape against his bandages. The stitches on his leg pulled tight with each flex. Every muscle felt withered and weak, not even remotely close to his prime and preferred state of being. He was going to have to work hard, injured be damned. He wouldn’t risk anything LESS than his prime.

Reluctantly, he sheathed Wado and propped his swords up by Luca. Form could wait until he had both arms. For now, he needed to focus on strength. He knelt down on the grass, got into position, and started some one-arm pushups.

They hurt like a motherfucker, but he still got to nearly 200 before Chopper showed up screaming. 

“ZORO! YOU NEED TO BE IN BED!” 

“Been in bed two days, Chop.”

You need to REST! Stop! You’ll pull all the stitches!”

“Nah. You’re stitches are too good for that.”

“Bastard, that- DONT TRY AND DISTRACT ME!” Chopper rushed over and prodded Zoro’s uninjured parts, “What happened to your IV!?”

“Took it out.” Zoro did not stop his pushups.

“You CANT just take it out. Zoro, you are going to collapse your veins!” Chopper was irate, and exasperated . “You need rest! And nutrients!”

“I’ll rest when I’m back on the Toubleu and I prefer my nutrients come from the Cook, thanks.”

To Zoro’s surprise, the little doctor didn’t protest and even took a step back from him. Concerned, Zoro glanced back and raised an eyebrow.

“Sanji… didn’t tell you?” Chopper asked.

“Tell me what?” Zoro’s eyebrow remained firmly elevated as he rolled to sit. “Tell me what , Chopper?”

“There… there isn't a Toubleu anymore, Zoro. The bad guys lit it on fire after they took you and Luca and then it sank. He-he really didn’t tell you?”

Zoro just stared at him, waiting for the just kidding! Hoping this was a weird joke that Brooke or… maybe the cook himself put the doctor up to. But Chopper’s sadness was genuine and Zoro felt horror was over him.

He stood. “You’re in charge of Luca. If he falls overboard, I barbeque you, understood?”

Chopper squeaked his understanding and Zoro made a beeline to the galley, dread welling up in his gut.

The Cook was standing at the stove, ladling stew into bowls. Luffy was on the couch, babbling at Sora and playing with her feet.

Zoro ignored the latter two and moved to drop to his knees in front of the Cook.

“Uh, Mossy? The Cook looked startled. “Are you- you should still be in bed.”

“Is it true?” Zoro reached forward and grabbed desperate handfuls of the Cook’s sweatpants. 

“Is… what true? What the fuck are you doing?” Sanji looked down at him, half-panicked with his hands raised. 

“The restaurant is gone?” Zoro asked, voice wavering.

“Oh.” Sanji stared at him, swallowed heavily, then looked over at Luffy. “Put her in the basket and get out.”

“But-” Luffy protested.

“ Now.”

Luffy whined but complied, placing Sora in her basket before leaving with an exaggerated “ Hmph” as he closed the door to the galley.

Sanji watched him leave, then turned to his partner. “Yeah…” he said slowly. “It’s gone.”

Zoro felt like he’d been… he’d just been hit by a cannonball and left with a gaping hole in his abdomen with the way it ached . He sucked in a ragged breath, devastation evident with his shaky inhale. “Why… why didn’t you tell me?”

“I… I guess I didn’t think it mattered.” Sanji sounded more confused than anything.

“Doesn’t matter!? It’s- It’s your dream , Sanji.” 

“Oh, Moss.” Sanji smiled down at him, sad but fond. He cupped Zoro’s face and tugged until Zoro was forced to stand lest the blonde pulled his head off. He kept his hands on Zoro’s jaw, thumb stroking over his stubble. “It WAS my dream. But I found the All Blue. You are my new dream. You and Luca, and Sora now. The Toubleu sank but we can build a hundred more restaurants, Mossy. I almost lost you. Getting you back is all I cared about. So no, I didn’t think it mattered.”

“It’s my fault.” Zoro admitted, hands coming up to clench in the Cook’s t-shirt this time. “If I had stayed upstairs with Blinks or, fuck… brought him down with me-”

“They played us like fiddles. BOTH of us. We learn, but we have to move on, Marimo. I need us to move on. You are here, Luca is here, and that is why it doesn’t matter if we lost the restaurant ok?” When Zoro didn’t answer, Sanji shook him by the shoulders… rather aggressively. “OK!?”

“ Fucking hell. Ok!” Zoro let go of the man and stepped back. “It’s not like I don’t agree. I just… I thought you’d be mad at me.”

“I’m always mad at you, but not for this. You brought him back to me, Zoro. How could I possibly be mad?”

Zoro shrugged. 

“Besides,” Sanji continued with a smug grin. “I know you feel the exact same.”

“How’s that?” Zoro asked.

“You didn’t ask about your swords at all when you woke up. I bet you didn’t even think about them until Robin brought them in.”

“Fine. I get your point.” Zoro grumbled. He did. He really hadn’t thought about his swords. His first and… pretty much only thoughts when he woke up were for the Cook and the kids. And he probably WOULDN’T have thought about them for hours more if Robin hadn’t given them to him. He glanced over at the basket. “Your new dream, huh?”

“ Our new dream.” Sanji said, smile softening into something shy. “Our family.”

“Our dream.” Zoro agreed. “Our family.”

“ That’s a good dream!” A voice called out, muffled through the door. 

“LUFFY!” Zoro and Sanji yelled in unison… and smiled in unison.

---------------------------------------------

“As much as I appreciate the sentiment, Franky, for the last time she does NOT need a… turbo baby propulsion carriage. When we get to Water 7 we’ll get her a pram. A normal pram without exhaust pipes-”

“First of all, bro,” Franky cut Sanji off. “That was just a prototype. The final version would obviously have more safety features.”

“It exploded, Franky.”

“ANYWAY. This surprise isn’t a pram.” Franky continued. “Now will you both please come with me?”

“Both? The fuck I have to come?” Zoro looked up from where he was sitting, Sora asleep and drooling on his good arm.

“It’s for you, too. ALL of you. Bring the squirts.”

“I’m a little busy.” Sanji shot the cyborg a look and motioned to his flour-dusted hands and the pastry dough he was rolling out. Well… trying to roll out. Luca had his rolling pin at the moment, smacking a pile of his own dough next to him.

“Ah come on. Luca-baby-bro, don’t YOU want a surprise?”

“I want a spize!” Luca gasped and scrambled off the chair he’d been using as a step stool. He dashed a few steps to his speedo-clad uncle, but froze when he realized he also had flour on his hands. He ran back to Sanji and held his hands up, whining.

“Fine. FINE.” Sanji glared at Franky even as he moved to help his son wash his hands. “That was a dirty move.”

“I promise you’ll like it. It’s SUPE-”

“Super. I get it. Fine.” Sanji rinsed his own hands off then dried them and Luca’s both. Luca took off to follow Franky immediately, but Sanji waited in the doorway until Zoro got up with an eye roll and followed as well. Sanji liked keeping a close eye on his swordsman, especially since he was blatantly ignoring Chopper’s orders to remain in bed. But after so long apart, Sanji also wasn’t going to complain that all Zoro seemed to want to do was be near him in the galley.

Making them LEAVE the galley was… irksome. But Sanji followed Franky nonetheless down the hall to… Usopp’s workshop.

“Whatever fucking invention you have in there, we’re not putting our fucking kids in it.” Zoro glared at Franky as the man opened the door and revealed…

“Not an invention, my dudes.” Franky stepped aside and motioned them in.

Not… the workshop either. Sanji frowned as he stepped into wholly unfamiliar territory. And since he’d spent a fair amount of his adult life on this ship, having any part of it be unrecognizable was… weird. Especially since he’d been in this room plenty of times. But none of Usopp’s shit was in here now; no workbench, no crates of parts. There were no diagrams pinned to the walls, no barrels of tools or cabinets of god knows what, no drafting table.

Instead… The room had a fairly big bed along one wall, framed by a pair of simple end tables. A smaller bed with Luca’s Wuffy on it sat tucked into one of the far corners and a crib in the other. A plush red armchair was sitting under the room’s one porthole window. There wasn’t a wardrobe or even a locker, but there was a long length of pipe bolted into the wall and the meager amount of clothing Sanji and Zoro kept on the Sunny was hanging off it, pants folded neatly on a shelf above.

“What… is this?” Sanji asked.

“What’s it look like? It’s your new digs!” Franky explained, excitedly. “Would have given you mine and Robin’s room, but my lady has got a lot of stuff. A LOT of stuff. Plus, it’s not like Usopp uses this anymore.”

“We were fine in the bunkroom.” Zoro grumbled, but moved to sit on the big bed anyway.

“With all due respect, Zoro-bro, Brooke and Jimbei pretty much begged me to build you guys something.” Franky tossed back his head and laughed. “Apparently your little dudes are pretty loud at night.”

Sanji felt himself flush with embarrassment. The kids were loud at night but he thought he’d been managing it without bothering the others too much. If Sora woke up fussing, he’d whisk her off for a nighttime stroll around the ship, bouncing and soothing her or taking care of whatever she needed. If Luca woke up crying from a nightmare, either he or Zoro would crawl into his bunk (which had also once belonged to Usopp) and snuggle him until he fell back asleep. Sanji didn’t realize how… disruptive they’d been apparently and he was mortified.

“I figured you guys needed your own space anyway. Since you’re stuck with us for a while.” Franky shrugged and put his hands on his hips. “So watcha think!?”

“It’s… This is really nice, Franky. Thank you.” Sanji said quietly.

“It’s pretty barebones now. I only had enough materials on board to make the beds. But we’ll spruce it up when we dock somewhere.”

“Franky this is- this is really fine. It’s perfect. Where did this chair come from?” Sanji asked.

“It’s from Nami. She insisted you guys have it. She said uh… something about little princesses needing thrones?”

Sanji flushed again. Nami-swan was so thoughtful. He’d stock up on her favorites whenever they reached a port. And Franky’s favorites. And shit… he guess he owed Brooke and Jimbei too. And Chopper for saving Zoro… Well he’d just stock up on everyone’s favorites, he supposed.

He profusely thanked Franky again before the cyborg left, smiling and pleased with himself. 

“What my spize?” Luca looked confused as his uncle Franky left without having given him anything.

“This new room. Look, he made you your own Luca-sized bed.” Sanji nudged him over to the smaller bed. Luca seemed to accept this and pulled himself on top of it, grabbing his Wuffy.

“I seep here?”

“Not now, but later, yeah.” Sanji nodded.

“And Papa and Daddy seep there?” Luca pointed at the big bed where Zoro already appeared to be asleep, baby slipping into his armpit.

“Apparently.” Sanji chuckled and went to gently free Sora from Zoro’s arm. He gave the crib a good once-over, ensuring the cyborg hadn’t added any mechanical improvements to it. But it was just a crib, smooth and sanded and waxed so that no little baby fingers would get splinters. He smiled and laid Sora down in it.

“Jellyfish seep there?” Luca asked.

“Your sister’s name is Sora.”

“No. Her Jellyfish!” Luca protested. “Only daddy name Sora. Wike me Olive.”

“I-.... Whatever.” Sanji conceded the argument with an amused shake of his head. He walked over and laid back on the big bed as well, stretching out next to his partner, looking up at the ceiling.

“Think the door locks?” Zoro mumbled.

“What?” 

“I said,” Zoro rolled so he was propped over Sanji, looking pointedly down at him. “Do you think the door locks?”

“The kids are here. And awake.”

“Bet Robin will watch ‘em.”

“I’m not making Robin babysit just because you’re horny, Marimo.”

“And you’re not?” Zoro dropped low, pressing more of his weight onto Sanji’s torso. He nosed into Sanji’s temple, the fucking stubble on his jaw tickling Sanji’s ear as he whispered. “Been a month, Curls.”

“You’re injured. You’re in a fucking sling.” Sanji groaned despite himself, doing absolutely nothing to stop the green haired man as he mouthed down his neck.

“I don’t need arms.”

“Your back-”

“Only a problem if you can’t keep your hands to yourself. I’ll tie you up, you like that.”

“Moss…”

“Fuck, Sanji.” Zoro moved to press their foreheads together. “I missed you. You have no fucking idea.”

“I absolutely have a fucking idea, idiot. What, you think I sat here the whole time twiddling my thumbs? I was a fucking wreck. At least you knew I was safe. I had no idea if you or Luca were even alive. I-”

“I know. I just… I love you.”

Sanji blinked, then sighed. “I love you, too.”

“Wanna show you.” Zoro whined . “Want you.”

“I know. Fuck, I know.” Sanji slid his hands up the sides of his partner’s neck, fingers sliding through newly washed, but still rather long green hair. “Me too.”

“We’re never getting laid again, are we?” Zoro collapsed his weight fully onto him.

“Mmmmm.” Sanji chuckled, still carding his fingers through Zoro’s hair. “You’re the one that brought home a baby.”

“Regretting it.”

“No you’re not.”

“No.” Zoro sighed. “No I’m not.”

“We’ll find time,” Sanji promised. “I may not be as desperate as you, but I’m not going to make it much longer without sex either.”

“What sex?” A little voice interjected.

Sanji and Zoro both craned their necks to look at their son who was staring at them expectantly, then looked back at each other.

“I’m not ready for this part.” Sanji pushed Zoro off of him and stood. “Don’t tell him anything . I’m going to go finish dinner and the pies. Are you good with them?”

Zoro waved his hand in the air in response and Sanji left. 

“What sex???” Luca asked again. He scrabbled over to the big bed and stared down at his Papa.

“None of your business.”

Notes:

I think this will have one, possibly two more chapters. But I'd like to keep writing in this little universe. I have a couple ideas, what would interest you more to see first:

1. Fic where the kids are older, Zoro and Sanji get hit with an amnesia thing and TEMPORARILY forget they have kids or even that they're romantically together. But the more they learn about this life they apparently have, the more they want to remember it

2. Fantasy AU of this au XD. Kids would be biologically Sanji's in this but raised in their mother's kingdom for reasons. When their mother dies, the kids get sent to germa and sanji's dad, the king, wants to start using the same dark magic on them that he has on sanji and his siblings. To protect them, Sanji flees with the help of a trusty knight and swordsman. They fall in love along the way.

3. Further timeskip to like... 14 year Luca, 11 Sora. Sora runs away during a trip to alabasta. Will focus a lot on Sanji's views on gender and the potential fallout of forcing his daughter to be "feminine". As well as Sora not feeling worthy of Zoro because she can't do 3 sword style.

Or shit, tell me your own ideas for what I can put this family through XD. Either here or @minglisabeth on twitter

Chapter 18

In Zoro’s dreams, he’d been running, the slow, unnatural gate of a dreamless run, when he suddenly heard Luca’s screams and sobs. He couldn’t tell where they were coming from, echoing as he sprinted down a maze of hallways with endless turns, all identical, desperately searching for his son. 

It felt like hours , but in reality, it was only a handful of seconds before his subconscious recognized that the crying wasn’t in his dream and he woke up with a start. He felt the body half on top of him stiffen, the Cook obviously waking at the same time. They both flung themselves to their feet, Zoro rolling to grab Wado from beside the bed as he did, chest heaving with adrenaline-fueled breaths. 

Despite it being dark, it was almost immediately discernable that there was no danger, no intruder. But that didn’t ease the panic because Luca WAS still screaming and thrashing around in his bed like he was actively being burned or something.

Zoro snapped Wado back into its sheath, watching as Sanji sank onto their son’s bed.

“Olive, baby?” Sanji’s voice was rough with sleep, but his eyes were awake and wide with concern. He shook Luca slightly. “Wake up.”

Luca did not. His eyes remained closed as he tossed, back arching up off the bed, tears and snot streaming down his cheeks. 

“Hey, come on, my Olive. It’s just a bad dream.” 

More screaming.

“Luca.” Sanji said a bit more firmly. He also tapped his hand a few times against Luca’s cheek. “Luca. Wake up.”

Sobbing. Screaming. Thrashing.

“ Luca. ” Sanji hauled the kid up into his arms, smacking his cheeking a bit more insistently. 

Zoro felt a little horrified as he watched Luca’s head flop back, an agonized wail bubbling from his lips. “Should I get Chopper?” He croaked. “Why isn’t he waking up?”

“I don’t know. No. It’s like he’s stuck in it. Fuck, I think he wet the bed too.” Sanji’s voice was clearer now, but he sounded just about as panicked as Zoro felt. “Luca please-”

More crying interrupted the Cook, but this time it wasn’t just from Luca. Sora, who had honestly slept through an impressive amount of the situation, woke up and filled her half of the room with startled, mewling cries.

Zoro moved to pick her up, but paused when he saw the glass of water Sanji must have left out on the makeshift changing table they’d rigged up next to her crib. The idea barely made it to his frontal lobe before desperation made him act. He grabbed the glass and splashed its contents directly onto Luca’s face, soaking the front of Sanji’s nightshirt in the process.

“What the fuck was that!?” Sanji hissed. “Are you fucking stupid-”

Sanji cut himself off when he realized Luca had fallen silent. The kid’s eyes had snapped open, and he stared at his dad, panicked, for a long moment before his whole face scrunched up and he started to sob again. This time, the crying was accompanied by harsh flashes of his devil fruit power so bright that it hurt . Zoro wrenched his eye closed and fished around for the blanket off of his and Sanji’s bed. He tossed it in the Cook’s direction, grateful that his partner seemed to be on the same page and quickly wrapped it around Luca, dimming the flashes to a mere glow beneath the fabric.

Luca was no longer screaming, but his awake sobs were still scary as fuck. They were… thready; and wavering. It sounded like he was shivering from the way his desperate cries shook. Zoro had never heard this type of sound from him, not even when he had his panic attack after stepping in the brain. 

Zoro did not like it.

Neither apparently, did Sanji.

“ Take him.” The blonde whispered, barely audible over Luca and Sora’s combined cries.

“What?” Zoro frowned. 

“I said, take him.” Sanji stood and pushed the sobbing and- ah fuck , DEFINITELY piss-soaked bundle of his kid into Zoro’s arms. “You’re warmer.”

“ What?” Zoro repeated.

“Your fucking excessive body heat is finally useful.” Sanji ran a stressed hand up into his hair, “Fuck, I don’t know . It’s like he’s in shock.”

“Are you sure I shouldn’t get Chopper?”

“Yeah. Just… yeah.” Sanji waved a dismissive hand at him and went to fish Sora out of her crib, bouncing her gently. “He just needs to feel safe and warm. You’re better at that than me.”

“How the fuck am I better at that?” Zoro asked, incredulously. 

“He went a month without me, Moss. But he had you protecting him the whole time. He’s going to associate that with you more than me.”

“Or he’s going to associate that whole fucking nightmare with me and feel worse.” Zoro argued. “Twirls, he-”

“Do not argue with me right now.” Sanji cut him off. But it was more his tone that made Zoro snap his jaw shut; like the Cook was seconds from an emotional breakdown. Zoro knew from experience that it was best to shut up and obey when he sounded like that. 

“Just… go get him cleaned up. I’ll handle her and the bed.”

Zoro nodded and shifted Luca to one arm to catch the clean clothes Sanji pulled off the shelf and tossed at him. He didn’t exactly want to leave. Sanji looked so… heartbroken as he brought Sora up and started to mumble soothing words against her temple. But that was a conversation Zoro wanted to have when he was not covered in pee and his son was not in a state of traumatized terror.

So he reluctantly stepped out into the night.

Luca was still shaking like a fucking leaf and doing his weird, trembling sobs as Zoro hauled him up to the washroom. He used a similar technique to the one he’d used when Luca had his brain panic attack, mumbling a mantra over and over as he carried him up to the washroom. He told Luca he was safe, that he was on the Sunny with everyone that would protect him, that Zoro would fucking murder anyone that ever scared him ever again.

By the time Zoro had him cleaned up and changed into clean clothes, he’d at least stopped crying and flashing, but the shaking subsisted as he carried him down toward the main deck.

“Back with me, Blinky?” Zoro asked, stepping out onto the lawn. 

Luca didn’t respond verbally, but he did press his face a little firmer to Zoro’s bare chest. 

“I know that fucking sucked. But it’s over, and you’re safe, and you can just sleep with me and-”

“NO SEEP” Luca cried out and dug his fingers into Zoro’s pectorals.

“ Fuck.” Zoro grimaced, “Ok! Ok. No sleep.”

Luca relaxed marginally in his arms. Zoro sighed.

“The fuck do you think you’re going to do then?” Zoro asked gently. “It’s the middle of the fucking night.”

“Book.” Luca answered.

“You want to read ?”

“No!” Luca thumped Zoro’s chest. “ Book.”

“Book… Brook!? Are you shitting me? You want the fucking skeleton?”

“Book song.”

“The whole point of us having our own room was to not bother the crew, Blinky.”

“Book.” Luca craned his head to finally look up at him. “Pwease?”

He’d admitted it before, and he would admit it again… Zoro was a weak, weak man when it came to people he loved. He rolled his eyes and turned on his heel, heading for the bunkroom grumbling the whole way about puppydog eyes.

-------------------------------------------------

Sanji woke with a start as the silence of the night was pierced by… 

Violin music?

He frowned and looked around. He’d only meant to sit down with Sora for a minute. It had taken a bottle to get her calmed down and he… they both must have fallen asleep while he was burping her.

He straightened from the armchair he’d slumped into, carefully shifting Sora from his chest to his arms. Zoro wasn’t back yet with Luca, so it couldn’t have been long. But he also knew Brook wasn’t on watch so he had no idea why he’d be playing… in the middle of the night…

Sora thankfully didn’t wake as he put her back in her crib and then sleepily padded out to the deck.

Sure enough, Brook was standing on the lawn, swaying as he played a familiar tune, clad only in a pair of white and red heart-print boxer shorts. Zoro was also out here, spread eagle on the lawn and snoring while Luca sat by his hip, watching his uncle play.

“What… is happening?” Sanji asked quietly.

“It seems my services were required.” Brook said, not stopping.

“What does that mean?”

“Zoro woke me. Young Luca had apparently requested a song.” Brook explained.

“Oh. I’m sorry.” Sanji could practically feel his ears turn red with embarrassment. Brook had been one of the ones who had complained most about the kids waking him in the night and that had been accidental. Now they were doing it on fucking purpose? “You can go back to bed, I’ll-”

“I don’t mind this sort of interruption, Sanji.” Brook did pause his playing this time, if only to smile over at him. “When there’s something I can actually do. What kind of musician would I be if I couldn’t aid my crew in their times of need?”

“A well-rested one, probably.” Sanji shrugged, but didn’t argue. Luca DID look half-asleep, and calm again. “This song… Uta?”

“Mmmm.” Brook nodded. “The World’s Continuation. He seems to favor it.”

Sanji filed this information away for future use and walked over to pick Luca up as Brook resumed the song. He kicked Zoro in the side, annoyed that the oaf was letting their crew take care of their problems when he should have been doing so. They glared at each other but then Zoro’s gaze flickered to their son with such concern that Sanji couldn’t help but immediately forgive the man.

“He asleep?” Zoro grunted.

Sanji shook his head. 

He was close though, head sinking and then jolting up every few minutes as Luca caught himself. Sanji just needed to help him descend those last few steps back into slumber He paced back and forth as Zoro pulled himself into a sitting position behind him. He knew from experience that circled rubbed into the kid’s back, a gentle massage at the base of his neck, and a warm embrace would ease the kid back to sleep. Combined with Brook’s playing, Luca was out in minutes. 

Sanji did, admittedly, indulge himself by letting Brook play another song even after the boy had dropped off. To have his son’s weight back in his arms was not something he’d take for granted again, even if the dark part of his mind kept telling him that Zoro’s arms would have been a better place for Luca to be. 

He sighed, then turned to his crewmate before he could start another tune. “Brook. You can stop.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yeah. Go get some sleep. I’m sorry again.”

“I truly don’t mind. But I will take my leave. If you should need me, please don’t hesitate to ask.” 

Sanji nodded and watched Brook leave, knowing he would NOT be asking the guy for more favors if he needed them during the night. Once was bad enough. Instead, he walked back to their room, trusting Zoro would follow.

Only he didn’t.

Sanji sighed. He’d have to go looking for the idiot, which was no doubt what the man wanted. He tucked Luca into their bed since he hadn’t had time to clean up the kid’s bed past stripping off all the bedding. He looked so small there, hands curled up between their pillows… puffy eyes the only thing betraying what he’d gone through.

What he’d likely continue to go through, night after night, because there wasn’t anything Sanji could do other than to hope and pray that he was young enough that the passing of time would ease the burden of these memories.

Sanji just didn’t know what the fuck to do in the meantime.

He grabbed his lighter from his jacket, hanging on the pipe, and tapped out two cigarettes from one of the packs Nami gave him. One got tucked behind his ear, for later, the other he rolled between his lips as he went back outside, keeping the door cracked open so he could hear if either kid woke.

Zoro was, predictably, still sitting on the deck where Sanji had left him, slumped forward but too tense to be asleep. Sanji walked past him to the rails and flicked the lighter wheel with his thumb until it sparked up. 

The first drag was always the best; the way it burned, throat not yet used to it, and settled in his lungs. He always closed his eyes before the first exhale, letting it swirl… letting it blur the edges of the tension that had been building within him from the moment he woke up. When he breathes it out, it feels like he’s pushing the anxiety out with it. Like for a moment , he wasn’t a bad dad… like his kid wasn’t back there probably permanently fucked up because Sanji had been distracted by a pretty face and exploitable sense of honor. Maybe it’s because savoring the burn forces him to take slow breaths, mind quieting as the weight of his thoughts is lifted up on smoke…

It’s shitty and yet he knew he’d never give it up. Nothing else cut through the storm in his mind like it. 

Being wrapped up in Zoro’s arms sure came close, though, and Sanji can’t help but feel disappointment slice through his little bubble of calm when Zoro steps up next to him and that didn’t happen. Instead, the swordsman just leans against the rails, close but not quite touching him, looking out over the dark water.

“You uh… you got weird earlier.” His Moss says after a moment, still not looking at him.

“Fuck you. No I didn’t.” Sanji argued, petulantly, and took another drag. He did, and he knows Zoro isn’t going to let this go.

“It was just a nightmare.”

“That was NOT just a nightmare.”

“Cut the shit, curls. The fuck is wrong?”

Sanji deflated, too tired to continue arguing for the sake of arguing. It was both a blessing and annoying as all hell that Zoro knew him so well.  

“I didn’t do anything,” he admitted quietly. 

“It wasn’t like there was much you could do. Never seen that shit before.”

“Not just the nightmare. I didn’t do anything. ” Sanji’s voice took on a desperate tone. “I wasn’t there to protect him because all it takes is a pretty pair of tits and I’m fucking useless .”

“Hey-”

“And I did nothing. I COULDN’T do anything to get you both back. Nami and Robin and the crew… they did everything . You were out there putting up with fuck knows what and he was-” Sanji yanked the cigarette out and covered his mouth with the back of his hand, suddenly on the edge of puking. “He was being beaten and stabbed and hurt and I didn’t do anything .”

“Cook-”

“He is going to keep having nightmares and not only will I CONTINUE to not be able to fix them, I’ll have to admit to him every time that while he was being traumatized, I did NOTHING.”

“Sanji-”

Sanji’s anxiety was on a roll now. He didn’t notice the stunned, almost angry look Zoro was getting. He just kept barreling on, letting his insecure thoughts overflow like raw fucking sewage.

“I think it might have been a mistake, keeping him. He needs someone better, he deserves- OOF”

This time it was Sanji who was cut off as Zoro shoved him, hard.

“ Don’t. ” Zoro growled and shoved him again. “Don’t ever fucking say that again.” 

Zoro kept shoving him, and had Sanji not been so tired… or maybe if he didn’t think he deserved it, he might have fought back. But he didn’t. He accepted it as Zoro shoved and shoved until his back hit the mast with a heavy thud. 

Zoro planted one hand on the mast next to his head, the other fisted a handful of his sleep shirt. 

“Don’t you dare call him a mistake.”

“I- That’s not- I didn’t-”

“Do you regret keeping him?”

“Of course not.”

“Then why the FUCK would you say that?”

“I just meant… I just meant he’d be better off with someone else. A good father.”

“Are you shitting me!?” Zoro grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt this time and pulled him out just far enough that he could slam the blonde against the mast again. Sanji’s head cracked against the wood hard enough that a bubble of rage overtook any other feelings and he DID kick Zoro back in the abdomen, sending him flying back a few feet. 

Zoro was on him again though within the blink of an eye, whisper yelling so close Sanji could feel his hot, angry breath against his cheeks.

“You are so fucking stupid sometimes you dartboard-ass fuck.”

“Excuse-”

“NO. Shut up and fucking listen for once in your damn life, Cook.” Zoro grabbed his face between his palms and the desperate look on the man’s face made Sanji obey.

“He would be dead, Sanji.” Zoro sounded like the words physically hurt him. “If we had given him to ANYONE else, he would be dead. WE barely saved him. You think anyone else could? They would have found him, and they would have killed him.”

“I-”

“You ain't worried about being a good dad. You’re all fucking hung up on being a perfect one. He doesn’t need you to be perfect though, idiot. He just needs you, more than anyone else, to just fucking love him.”

“Me more than anyone?” Sanji put his palms flat on Zoro’s chest and pushed him back a scant few inches, enough that he wasn’t spitting all over his face.

“You realize you might be the only other person that has any fucking idea what he’s been through? You’re the ONLY one that’s going to be able to love him with the power fueled by that knowledge. Not even me, and I love the shit a fucking LOT. ”

Sanji jerked his head up, looking skyward as tears sprang up in his eyes. “You don’t get it.” He croaked. “He’s going to blame me . He’s going to blame me and hate me just like I hate- You know who I hate.”

Zoro narrowed his eye.

“What if I’m just like him, Zoro?” Sanji continued in a whisper, ashamed of how fucking small he sounded. Ashamed of the way the swordsman could fucking flay him open like this so all his secrets just oozed out. “Another shitty dad... carrying on the Vinsmoke family legacy.”

To Sanji’s surprise, this wasn’t immediately rebutted. Zoro was arguably second in line for the title of who hated the Vinsmokes the most, so Sanji expected to be punched or called an idiot or something . He was NOT expecting the shaky breath Zoro let out before the hands holding his face turned gentle, one running down his neck and the other grabbing the cigarette still tucked behind his ear.

“Smoke this.” Zoro said softly, pushing the cigarette into his mouth. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where the fuck-”

“Trust me.”

Sanji’s jaw fell open, the cigarette he’d just placed there falling down on the deck somewhere as Zoro tilted his head and pressed a soft kiss just below his eye and then left , disappearing into the ship. 

It wasn’t like Zoro hadn’t kissed him gently before, that was actually frustratingly common. What Zoro did NOT do was kiss him gently during an argument. Their arguments were sharp and angry. Even if they kissed and made up afterward, it still tended to be… violent for a time. These soft touches were out of place .

Or Sanji was more pathetic than he thought, pathetic enough to drive his partner to sympathy . 

The thought was horrifying. He ran an exasperated hand up through his hair and squatted to grab the cigarette. He was NOT smoking it because the asshole told him to, but because if he didn’t he was going to lose his fucking mind from the whiplash of emotions he was experiencing.

The first drag didn’t feel as cathartic this time, but it at least took the edge off. He knew Zoro was right, he knew he was being crazy and letting anxiety get the best of him. Luca was the best thing that had ever happened to him and Sanji didn’t regret it. But he also couldn’t shake the gut-wrenching feeling that now that the kid was safe… somewhere else, someone else might be better for him. Fuck, for them both. 

What was going to happen when they were older and understood what had happened to them? Sanji couldn’t comprehend a scenario where they DIDN’T blame him. And what was going to happen when they could… argue with him and shit. What if lost his temper? What if he hurt them ? What if he snapped and turned and beat them like his family had beaten him? Zoro insisted that they were the best option to protect the kids but how was Sanji supposed to protect them from himself?

And perhaps the shittiest part was knowing that despite ALL of that… Sanji was selfish. He was so fucking selfish because he’d never get them up; because he needed the kids even if they didn’t need him.

Some fucking father, He thought to himself as he took another drag. He was going to need a third cigarette… maybe a glass of wine… and more than two hours sleep at a time. Although that last one didn’t seem likely anytime soon. 

The wine though…

He’d just decided to go get it when Zoro reappeared with- With Luffy and Nami in tow!? AND BOTH KIDS IN HIS ARMS!?

“Jackass!” He whisper-hissed, mortification heating up his face again. “Why the hell are you waking people up!? We JUST got them down! Are you INSANE!? Nami, I am SO sorry-”

“Shut up and hold him.” Zoro pushed Luca, who was still blessedly asleep despite being disturbed again, into his arms. Then he reached up and flicked his cigarette away.

“Zoro said there was an emergency,” Nami said, rubbing sleep from her eyes and tugging her sleep robe closed. Next to her Luffy yawned and looked around blearily, scratching his stomach. 

“I don’t know what the hell this idiot is doing but I assure you there is nothing to be worried-”

“What the hell I am doing,” Zoro interrupted, moving to stand next to Sanji with Sora tucked into an arm, “Is fixing something I should have fixed years ago.”

“And we need to be here because?” Nami shot him an unimpressed look.

“Because Luffy’s a captain and can do marriages and I need you to be a witness.” Zoro shrugged.

Shrugged. Shrugged as if what he had just said wasn’t one of the most shocking and life-altering things Sanji had ever heard come out of the guy’s mouth. Sanji couldn’t even respond to it, it was so… so insane . It was all he could do to not drop Luca in shock and he just stood there with wide eyes.

“You… want Luffy to marry you right now?” Nami sounded incredulous, but there was an amused smile tugging at the edges of her lips.

“I’m not marrying Zoro!” Luffy protested. “Him and Sanji are together!”

“He means officiate, you idiot.” Nami thumped him on the head.

“Ohhhhhh.” Luffy nodded his understanding, but then: “What’s that mean?”

“I just need you to declare me and the cook married.” Zoro turned to look at Sanji, probably noticing how stunned he looked. 

“Listen,” Zoro continued. “If you really don’t want to do this, I need you to say no. I’m not forcing anything on you, you’ve been through that enough. But I love you. And if you’re going to obsess about carrying on a family legacy then it’s gonna be this fucking one. We agreed they’re gonna be Roronoas and I want you to be one too. I want every trace of that fucking family and the bullshit anxieties they stuck you with fucking GONE. I’d just start calling you it but I know you’re fucking weird about being official. You can have whatever big party you want later, but will you officially marry me right now?”

Nami and Luffy BOTH had their jaws dropped and Sanji couldn’t blame them. Not only was it pretty shocking to hear Zoro say so many words but the sentiment was… It was overwhelming. It was ridiculous. It was fucking INSANE. 

And yet when Sanji opened his mouth to tell the idiot those things, all that came out was a shaky:

“ Ok.”

Zoro grinned and leaned forward to smack a quick peck to his mouth before turning to the others.

“You heard the man. Luffy, get on with it.”

“Shouldn’t we wake everyone else up? If you’re really doing this?” Nami asked before Luffy could open his mouth.

“No.” Zoro shook his head. “This isn’t for anyone else, not even them. This is for me and the Cook and the brats. You two are the bare minimum.”

“Sanji?” Nami turned to ask him. “You’re ok with this?”

Sanji nodded slowly… and found himself smiling. It was crazy, and he had more than half a mind to beat the ever-loving shit out of the Marimo for springing a wedding on him five minutes after an emotional breakdown. But it was also romantic in a way that Sanji’s whole body yearned for. He couldn’t help but think of Whole Cake, of being forced into a loveless marriage just because of his shitty last name. And now Zoro was here… and he loved Sanji enough to get rid of the name by offering up his own . The fact that Zoro wanted nothing else, only Sanji… that Sanji was good enough by just being Sanji…

Fuck, Zoro had been right earlier. Sanji knew what Luca had been through, and he knew what Luca needed above anything else because it was the same thing Sanji needed. To be loved.

“I’m an idiot.” he whispered, quietly into the top of Luca’s head.

“Yeah.” Zoro nodded, still grinning.

Sanji gave him a smile in return, probably way too fucking fond after everything they’d been through. “Do it, Luffy.” He said. 

“ALL RIGHT!”

“Do it quietly.” Sanji amended, covering Luca’s ears.

“Oops. Sorry.” Luffy cackled. The captain then took a deep breath, lowered his voice an octave, and said: “I. DECLARE. YOU. MARRIED!”

“You have to ask them if they want to marry each other first.” Nami smacked Luffy again. 

“Oh yeah. Uh… ZORO! Do you want to marry Sanji?”

“Yeah.” Zoro said, without hesitation 

“Sanji, do you want to marry Zoro?”

“ Yes. ” Sanji breathed, fucking tears springing to his eyes for the second time that night, although for a very different reason this time. A better reason.

“Then I. DECLARE. YOU. MARRIED!”

Nami had to physically hold Luffy back from launching himself at the couple, giving Zoro just enough time to duck into Sanji’s space again and kiss him softly. 

A kiss that didn’t last all that long because neither one of them could stop grinning. That didn’t stop Zoro from pressing that smile against his own, and Sanji was in no hurry to pull away.

“You’re crazy,” Sanji said, breathless with sheer fucking joy, lips moving directly against his… his husband's.

“And you, are mine. ” Zoro pushed another soft, smile-stretched kiss against his mouth before leaning back just far enough to rest their foreheads together. “Everything I am is yours. And they’re ours. Got it?”

Sanji could only nod.

“Whatever happens, however much we fuck up, that’s all that matters. Ok?”

Sanji nodded again.

Zoro pulled him close and wrapped his big stupid arms around their whole little family and Sanji felt so ridiculous for doubting that this was exactly where he was supposed to be, where the kids were supposed to be. 

He didn’t think he’d honestly ever been happier than he was in that moment. He was so happy that he couldn’t even bring himself to be angry or annoyed when Nami lost her battle trying to contain Luffy and their captain picked them ALL up and started swinging them around, giggling so loud that Luca and Sora both woke up.

Loudly.  

Notes:

Happy new year yall.

Sanji might be a little ooc in this but I was also think that his dad trauma would really impact how he views himself as a father. And also wedding trauma XD.

AS always, please comment and let me know if you like it... what you liked... etc XD

Chapter 19

Luca woke struggling to breathe, although for once it WASN’T because of a bad dream. Instead, it was because his Papa had rolled over in his sleep, burying Luca under the weight of one of his massive arms.

He wiggled until he was free, then sat up and glared at the offender.

“ Papa heavy.” He whined again, shoving at Zoro’s arm.

Zoro grunted and lifted a hand. He patted, not fully conscious, at Luca’s face before letting his arm fall slack, right back into the spot Luca had been sleeping.

His Daddy was no help. He was spread out into the spot that Luca had been sleeping in too. And he was snoring. Which Luca knew meant he was really REALLY asleep which was probably Luca’s fault. He’d had a scary dream again and even though he promised his Dad and Papa that he’d try not to, he still thinks he wet his bed if they let him sleep on theirs.

He didn’t feel bad about it, though. He liked sleeping with them. They were warm and gave him snuggles and sometimes him and Daddy would give Papa tickles until he woke up.

But he did not like being squished.

Luca sighed and shimmied down the bed until he could slide off. He prodded Zoro’s side until his Papa groaned and rolled his head in his direction.

“I go pee.” Luca said quietly.

His papa grunted and didn’t open his eyes, so Luca assumed it was ok and quietly left the room.

The sun was coming up, but just barely. Everyone else on the ship was still asleep or staying in town. Everyone but his Uncle Jibay who must have been on watch and was standing near the helm. 

“Good morning, young Luca.” Jimbei called out as he approached.

“Hi Jibay! Can u help me potty?”

“Help…. You?”

“Papa say Luca no ladder alone.” Luca explained.

“Oh. Of course.” Jimbei nodded and followed him to the washroom ladder. He dutifully watched as Luca ascended and descended after using the facilities, ready to catch him if his little legs slipped on the rungs.

When he was done, he followed Jimbei back out to the deck. He had every intention of going back to bed, he’d sleep on TOP of his Papa if he had to, but he froze when he got to the lawn and saw a big man standing there. A big man with a tall hat and a big yellow mustache, carrying a few big shopping bags.

And then the big man saw him .

Luca gasped and dove down and under Jimbei’s robes, eliciting an exasperated noise of surprise from the fishman.

“Luca. This man is not an enemy.” Jimbei said gently, but firmly as he dug his nephew out of his clothing and set him on his feet. He kept a comforting hand on Luca’s back, knowing that Luca had better cause than most to distrust strangers. “This is Chef Zeff. He is a friend.”

Luca looked up at the stranger and wrinkled his face up in suspicion. He did not like new people. But he had been forced to accept since arriving at Water 7 that his parents had a LOT of friends. And they all seemed to want to talk to him and touch him and pinch his cheeks. This guy looked especially pinchy.

“Kid looks like he just bit into a sour pickle.” The tall guy laughed. 

“The boy is just cautious,” Jimbei explained. “It is my pleasure to greet you. Would you like me to wake Sanji up?”

“Wake him up? Don’t tell me parenthood has turned him lazy. I haven’t known him to sleep past sunrise on a weekday.” 

“Sanji is far from lazy, Master Zeff. The children wake them frequently in the night. We have encouraged Sanji to take as much sleep as he can get. A delayed breakfast is a small price to pay for the betterment of his wellbeing.”

“Hmmmm… let him sleep then.” Zeff walked over and crouched down in front of Luca. “You know how to cook?”

“Um… yes.” Luca nodded, taking an uncomfortable step backward, fisting a hand in Jimbei’s robe. “I cook with Daddy.”

“Good. Then you can show me the kitchen.”

“Um…” Luca looked up at Jimbei and whispered: “He safe?”

“Yes. He is safe.” Jimbei assured him. 

Luca looked at the man, still rife with suspicion. But he did… he did like cooking. And the man’s tall hat looked like the hats some of the other cooks wore back at home and they were all nice. And he WAS a little hungry.

“Ok.” He decided, “I show you kitchen.”

----------------------------------------

A strip of sunlight, too hot against his cheek, is what pulled Sanji from his slumber.

For a moment, he panicked. Being woken by sunlight at all generally meant that he’d overslept and Luffy would likely be gnawing at the sides of his refrigerator trying to get breakfast. But he quickly remembered that he’d all but been ordered to sleep in nowdays. At first, he’d tried to fight the order, but sheer fucking exhaustion swiftly shut down any prideful arguments he had.

It was crazy how just one extra hour of sleep every day made him feel more human. And indulging in lazy mornings with his family had been… healing. For them all, he thought.

Without opening his eyes, he wiggled forward and buried his face against a wall of warm flesh.

“Where’s Luca?” He mumbled, trying to force down the little bit of panic that the question also sparked in his gut. Even docked at Water 7, he knew someone was on watch at all times on the Sunny. The crew wouldn’t let anything happen to Luca. But still, Luca knew he was supposed to tell one of his actual parents if he went somewhere.

“Piss.” Zoro grunted and Sanji felt the panic melt away. Luca had obeyed and was just in the bathroom.

So he indulged himself a little further, nuzzling against Zoro’s bicep, running a hand over his husband’s warm back. Thanks to Chopper’s ever-amazing skills, most of the marks had faded to nothing over the past few weeks. Only the deepest gashes were still raised with the last traces of scabs. Those would scar, and the thought continued to make Sanji sad. But he also felt pride as he traced them with lazy, loving fingers.

They hadn’t had a honeymoon, or even the big party/reception Sanji had always thought he wanted. He’d started planning it… sketched out a cake. Had a color scheme, had a tentative list of people he wanted to invite. But the more he planned, the more it reminded him of Whole Cake and the more he realized he didn’t want it. The impromptu ceremony, insane as it was, ended up being all Sanji needed and everything he didn’t even know he wanted.

He sighed, content and happy, and kissed Zoro’s shoulder before he rolled out of bed. He dressed quickly and tied his hair back. He kept his bangs/fringe long enough to cover an eye purely out of comfort, but the rest of his hair had gotten long enough that he preferred to gather it back in a short little nub. Usually with more care than he did today but someone was suddenly very interested in being picked up now that she’d seen one of her parents up and about.

She hadn’t quite mastered pulling herself up to a standing position, but she was stubbornly trying, yanking herself back and forth with a death grip on the crib bars trying to wiggle higher up, squawking like a bird the entire time.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.” Sanji chuckled, lifting her into his arms. “Did you sleep well, my Princess?”

Sora responded by trying to grab a fistful of his goatee. He winced, but had luckily trimmed his overgrown mess back to his high grooming standards so she only caught a couple of hairs. He gently pulled her hands back, pressing a kiss to her tiny palms.

He changed her diaper quickly and then frowned at the entire wardrobe they’d had to bring in. She took a lot more time to dress than he had, mostly because Sanji found it ridiculously hard to choose an outfit from the… three or so dozen dresses he’d bought for her. Most of which she’d probably grow out of before she could even wear if she kept getting bigger like she was. But Sanji had set one foot in the dress store filled with its frills and laces and hadn’t been able to restrain himself. 

He settled on a yellow dress with a cream lace ruffle around the hem, and a pair of matching bloomers to cover her diaper. He also laid out a yellow and white striped shirt for whenever he tracked Luca down. Coordinating the kids' outfits was one of the more fun aspects of parenthood and Sanji’s found it immensely satisfying.

A big yellow bow on a soft lace headband was carefully put into place over Sora’s fine white hair before Sanji deemed her ready and carried her out of their room.

“OLIVE!” He called out once he was on deck, looking toward the stairs that led to the library, assuming that his son would have gone there after his bathroom break. He was a bit surprised, and a bit concerned, when Luca bounded out of the galley instead.

“Hi Daddy!” Luca said cheerfully as he bounded up to Sanji and hugged his leg.

“You know you’re not supposed to be in there without a grownup.” Sanji scolded VERY gently.

“I DO grownup. I Jeff Jeff!.” Luca protested, stepping back and glaring up at him.

“Jeff… Jeff?”

“ Jeff Jeff.” Luca corrected him, although Sanji had no idea what the hell he was correcting him TO and he IMMEDIATELY got suspicious.

He didn’t know any fucking Jeff Jeffs which meant a stranger was in his kitchen and had been doing fuck knows what with his kid.

Luca squawked as Sanji moved him suddenly to the side, stomping past him toward the galley, ready to straight up murder whoever-

“Zeff!?” Sanji sputtered incredulously as he burst into the room.

Zeff, who was standing over his stove, raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Jeff Jeff! This my Daddy!” Luca ran over to the man, excitedly pointing at Sanji.

“We’ve met.” Zeff said.

“What the fuck are you doing here? What is Jeff Jeff?” Sanji was still staring at him, confused.

“Making breakfast and Chef Zeff. Keep up, Eggplant.” With that meager explanation, Zeff returned to his pots and pans.

“You can’t just… You can’t just come into MY kitchen and start cooking. Why are you even here? You didn’t even send word!” Sanji protested.

“You didn’t send word when your restaurant sank and your houseplant and my grandkid got kidnapped. Had to hear about it from your blabbermouth, long-nose friend. So I guess we’re even.”

Sanji opened his mouth to argue but found that he really didn’t have an argument for that. He hadn’t contacted Zeff. He hadn’t thought it was any of the old man’s business but Zeff obviously thought differently and was obviously upset with him. Upset enough to sail to the Grand Line apparently. It was easier to do so lately after Luffy had claimed the title of King of the Pirates, but it was still an impressive task.

“Who’s watching the Baratie?” Sanji settled on asking.

“The guys will take care of her.”

“How did you even get here?”

“I walked.” Zeff looked at him, unamused. “You going to keep interrogating me or are you going to get your skinny ass over here and help?”

“Don’t give me orders in my own damn kitchen.” Sanji huffed. “Let me make her bottle.”

Zeff didn’t respond, but Sanji was very aware of his mentor’s eyes on him as he moved around his kitchen. When he finished prepping the bottle, he moved to go sit at the table when Zeff reached out and caught his arm.

“Give her here, You might as well do something useful and finish the real food.” Zeff grumbled and reached for the baby. 

Sanji felt a prickle of protective parental instinct telling him to flinch away, but… this was Zeff. Sanji trusted few other people as much as he did the old man. So he allowed Sora to be transferred over and stared as Zeff settled with her at the table and prodded the bottle between her lips with more gentleness and experience than Sanji thought he was capable of.

“That my baby Jellyfish.” Luca announced, stepping up to where Zeff was.

“YOUR baby Jellyfish, eh?”

“Yes.” Luca nodded. “I no like her. She stinky and loud.”

“ Luca.” Sanji warned from across the room as Zeff shook with laughter. 

“Careful, Little Pickle.” Zeff chuckled. “Your dad doesn’t take too kindly to disrespecting ladies, even little ones.”

“Little Pickle? You can’t come up with something better than that?” Sanji frowned as he looked over Zeff’s pots and pans. He quickly caught on to what the man must have been making and reached for his apron to continue the work.

“Should have seen his face when we first met. Kid is not trusting.”

“He has reason not to be.”

“Mmmmm.” Zeff hummed. “I suppose he does.”

Things were quiet for a while, aside from Luca’s occasional comment to Zeff and the clinking of Sanji’s spoons against the pots. There was a tension in the room that had Sanji on edge. Something Zeff was leaving unspoken. Something that warranted a trip halfway across the world rather than a transponder snail call. 

But he wouldn’t press the issue. Not in front of the kids at least.

So he waited until breakfast was almost finished before he sent Luca to gather Zoro and anyone else on the ship who wanted to eat. 

“And get dressed, please,” Sanji added as Luca dashed toward the door. “Outfit is on my bed.”

“Outift?” Zeff huffed. “You forcing the kid into stuffy little suits? Or does he get frilly shit like this too?”

Sanji looked over to see him holding Sora up, obviously talking about her dress. Her very pretty and very expensive dress. He was going to retort, but noticed the way Zeff was holding her and softened.

“You don’t need to support her head like that.” He sighed and moved to start getting out plates. “She’s old enough and does good holding it up on her own.”

“How old you figure?” Zeff asked.

“Chopper thinks about six months. I’m going to start her on some solids soon.”

“Your bland cooking would make good baby food.” Zeff huffed a laugh and shifted Sora around to burp her.

“You… have obviously done that before,” Sanji said, ignoring the barb to his cooking.

“Didn’t spend my whole life on that boat, kid.” Zeff shrugged. “How old does that make the Little Pickle?”

“Almost four.”

“Hmmm. Seems he’s pretty sharp for his age. Your letters weren’t wrong, kid’s good in the kitchen.”

“Yes, he is.” Sanji felt himself puff up with pride. “Im surprised you got him to warm up to you. He’s not good with loud assholes.”

“Wasn’t loud. Could tell the kid wouldn’t handle it. He’s soft.”

“Hey fuck-”

“Didn’t say it was a bad thing, Eggplant.” Zeff cut him off and the corners of his mouth twitched up ever so slightly. “Means he’s safe enough to be soft.”

“Oh uh… Oh.” Sanji didn’t know what to say to that. “Whatever. Are you going to tell me why you’re here now? Grand opening isn’t even for another month at least and it was a nightmare even getting you to the first one.”

He stared expectantly at Zeff who did not answer right away. The older man cradled Sora back in the crook of an arm and she immediately grabbed hold of one of his mustache braids. Zeff just chuckled and pried her hand off, letting her grab his fingers instead. 

“You know, when you first wrote me and told me you were taking on a kid I thought it was the stupidest idea in the world. The idea of your highstrung ass and your half-wit swordsman being parents… Thought you were making the biggest mistake of your life.”

“Gee thanks.”

“Let me finish, brat.” Zeff took a deep breath. He didn’t look at Sanji as he spoke, he just stared at Sora and smiled as she continued to try and gnaw on his fingers. “I thought it was a mistake. And I was going to tell you as much, talk you out of it. But then I thought…  And I don’t mean to get fucking sappy on you, but I thought what if someone had told me that when I took you in? I would have missed out on… a lot. And THAT would have been the mistake.”

Sanji remained quiet as Zeff spoke, humbled and a little embarrassed, but in a good way, by the man’s vulnerability. This kind of thing was FAR from their usual, and both of them were obviously uncomfortable. Zeff’s gaze remained firmly locked on Sora and Sanji found himself unable even to look at the other man, keeping his own eyes on the plates he was dishing up.

“Then I thought,” Zeff continued. “If I got grandkids now, what else am I going to miss out on? And what kinda mistake that would be.”

“You’re… not going back to the Baratie.” Sanji said in disbelief. It wasn’t a question, he could tell immediately that Zeff had zero intentions of going back.

“No.” Zeff confirmed anyway. “I figured after your opening I’d find me a good island on the All Blue, get myself a little fishing boat, and… with your permission- I aint trying to step on anyone's toes… see these gremlins every once and a while.”

Sanji finally looked up again at the man who raised him, looked at the way he was holding Sora with as much care as he put into a precious pastry. He thought of the hardass that Zeff could be, his gruff attitude and harsh words. But if his time as a Strawhat had taught him anything, it was that love could come in so many different ways and he knew Zeff loved him. And he knew the man would love his kids and Sanji would be damned if he didn’t surround his kids with as much love as possible.

Of course he’d never say any of that out loud. 

“That restaurant is going to fail without you.” He said instead, trying to swallow down the lump of emotion wedged in his esophagus. 

“Maybe.” Zeff shrugged and smiled, knowing that approval had been given whether Sanji said it aloud or not. 

“And none of this Jeff Jeff, shit. If you want to be grandpa, then you need to be grandpa, got it?”

“I’m sure whatever these kids want to call me will be fine with me.” 

“This is really what you want? The Baratie is your legacy.”

“No kid,” Zeff shook his head, his sigh heavy with nostalgia. He turned to look straight at Sanji. “You are. And I’m damn proud of it. And I want to be here to see you leave yours.”

“O- oh.” Sanji croaked and immediately cleared his throat. “Can you not drop shit like that on me?” 

“You’re right.” Zeff laughed and stood. He passed Sora back to Sanji and then hugged him. It was fast, barely long enough to clap him on the back, but a hug nonetheless and Sanji felt his whole face burn. 

“Now get out of my way.” Zeff continued, shoving him to the side. “Who the fuck taught you to plate eggs? Because it sure as shit wasn’t me.”

------------------------------------------------

“Who is Wuffy’s Papa?” 

“His name’s Dragon.”

“Who is Book’s Papa?”

“No idea.”

“Who is Chopper Papa?”

“No idea.”

“Who is Woosopp Papa?”

“No id- Ok actually I do know that one. His name is Yasopp.”

“Who is-”

“Blinks.” Zoro cut his son off. “I don’t know anyone else's Papas ok? I’m yours and that’s all that matters.”

Zoro looked up at his son riding on his shoulders and smiled despite the annoying line of questioning. He didn’t quite grasp the concept of having a grandpa, but since learning that Zeff was, for all intents and purposes, Sanji’s father, Luca had been fixated on the idea that other people had dads. 

Zoro couldn’t blame him. Zeff’s presence was definitely…. Interesting. 

On one hand, Zoro hated it. Out of everyone in all the Blues and the Grand Line combined, Zeff might be the person who scared him the most because he was who Sanji respected the most. Disappointing him… would not be great for Zoro. But on the other hand, Sanji also trusted Zeff to watch the kids overnight. Which meant that the old man had stayed with the kids on the ship while he and Sanji got an inn room and FINALLY had some very EXTREMELY needed alone time.

For that alone, Zoro would be willing to put up with the old fucker… but Zeff had admittedly been… good for Sanji. Zoro was not, by any means, bad at reassuring his husband (Calling him that still made a possessive part of his soul literally vibrate). But Zeff had a way of talking the Cook out of his anxiety, especially about restaurant and parent shit, that Zoro just didn’t have. 

The Cook was calmer around Zeff. Sure they did their whole petty bitching and fighting song and dance, but it was with relaxed shoulders and a soft smile that Zoro knew Sanji needed. Especially since he’d committed to completely cutting out the cigarettes.

Sanji was happy. The kids were happy (aside from the persistent violent night terrors and bedwetting but they were getting better at handling that). Zoro was happy.

His smile continued as he walked through the busy market streets of Water 7, Luca swaying on his shoulders and Sora fighting desperately to free herself from where she was strapped to his chest. They’d bought a pram, one without Franky’s… additions. But Zoro felt more comfortable with her attached to him. He’d even been training like that, learning how to fight while staying mobile with both kids. What happened on that cult island would never happen again-

“Uh… Papa?” Luca tapped his forehead. “You went the wong way. Is that way.”

“How would you know?” Zoro grumbled but turned the direction his son was pointing. Luca was barely older than what Zoro would consider a baby but he also… had been to the shipyards more than a couple dozen times over the last few weeks. Luckily, Luca saw guiding his Papa as a game and Zoro happily played along and followed along until they arrived at Iceburg’s shipyard and the big wooden ramps that led up to a mostly finished blue, black, and white ship. Zoro was surprised to see Sanji and Zeff standing at the base of one of the ramps and not onboard where most of the construction had been recently.

“DADDY! GRANDPA JEFF JEFF!” Luca called out excitedly and Zoro plopped him down on the ground so he could run up to the pair.

Sanji turned and the smile and the fucking laugh he let out, genuine and delighted, as he caught Luca and spun him around made Zoro’s stomach flip around like a schoolgirl with a crush. 

“You guys are just in time.” Sanji said, voice still mirthful.

“In time for what?” Zoro was unaware of any time constraints their nap had been under, now worried he’d forgotten something.

“Look.” Sanji jerked his head in the direction of the ship.

Zoro squinted his eye up against the afternoon sun and saw a few workers on a crane scaffold high above working on the side of his new (and improved) crow’s nest. He could guess what they were doing, but it wasn’t confirmed until the crane lowered them away, revealing big bold script rimmed in blue neon.

Nouveau Rêve

“What it say?” Luca asked.

“Nouveau Rêve.” Sanji said with a soft smile. “It means New Dream.”

“A bit sentimental for a business if you ask me. But I guess it’s better than what you wanted.” Zeff shot a pointed look in Zoro’s direction.

Zoro glared at him. Restaurant Roronoa was a fucking fine name. But this was good too. Better than good.

“Is it done then?” He asked, stepping up to his husband.

“Not quite.” Sanji shook his head. “Franky thinks another week. Waiting on a lot of the custom furniture.”

Zoro bit back a teasing jab about needing to have custom furniture in the first place. Whatever Sanji wanted, he would get. After the shit they’d been through, he deserved that much. For his part, Zoro was content with some new weights and an extended deck perfect for training his next generation of little swordsmen. Zoro could practically picture Luca in his stance, tongue blepped out in concentration as he held an actual training sword. He could picture lazy afternoon naps all piled together in a hammock in the sunshine, Sanji’s precious All Blue rocking them gently. He could picture wobbly first steps and giggles and something beyond what Zoro thought happiness could be like.

“What are you thinking about? You’re smiling.” Sanji asked, interrupting his thought train.

“New-vy Rave.” Zoro said, attempting to be sentimental. Though he couldn’t be all that offended when Sanji tosses back his head and laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling in a way that made Zoro’s heart swell.

“New-vy Rave!” Luca copied, beaming just as bright as his father.

“It’s pronounced Nouveau Rêve , my Marimo and my Olive.”

“Yeah, whatever.” But Zoro smiled and jerked his head toward the ramps. “Come on, show me.”

“Show you what?”

“Our future.”

And they walked up the ramp to their new home, Luca swinging between them with his hands held tight by his Papa and his Daddy, Sora safe and gnawing on Zoro’s pectoral muscle, and a peace that neither Pirate had expected to find.

Notes:

AIGHT. There's all the shit. I hope you all loved this little family as much as I did.

PLEASE let me know how you like it in the comments. Comments and validation are literally the only reason I write XD

Now, this fic was a personal project and my first one-piece fic. While it's the trope I obviously am known for writing, it is still outside my wheelhouse and I never intended it to be more than a couple of chapters. HOWEVER I do have some sequel ideas so I will make you a deal. I've added it to the series, if enough people are interested and subscribe to the series, Ill start posting the sequel

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Sanji and Zoro's New Dream