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that-green-haired-swordsman · 1 year

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I really don’t know why I had this specific headcanon. Maybe bc I was rereading the relationship between Sanji and his family. Plus on reddit I’ve seen an old post with someone saying „Apparently Oda said that if Sanji should die, Zoro would pick up his smoking habit to remember him“, dunno if this is true but now I’m imagining Zoro and Sanji sharing a cigarette. This story is canon-divergent and it’s also been quite some time since I read the WCI arc and my memory is shit, so bear with me. Also Zoro and Sanji are most likely slightly ooc lol. Anyway, this happened in my brain...

Sanji knows it was a bad idea to go after his so-called family on his own, but he’d rather die while trying to stop them than seeing his friends get in danger. He can’t stand the presence of the man who fathered him, his stench makes him sick to his stomach. Judge has told him all kinds of fairytales about his future power and influence in the world, once Sanji got married to that daughter of Big Mom, and Sanji wishes he could settle things with his family once and for all, but he knows the time isn’t the best, so all he can do for now is listen to his father’s ridiculous fantasies and hope that his friends would be alright.

Of course, Judge tried to ask Sanji about his connection to the Strawhat pirates, which Sanji tried to dodge and give the least possible information about, stating he was only the ship’s chef and nothing else, and his father eyed him suspiciously. „We’ll see about that“, he said and left it at that for the moment, but not without gifting his son with an icy smile that let chills run down over Sanji’s spine.

The door to the throne room opens and Sanji watches his older brothers Ichiji and Niji drag a figure along with them.

„Look at the rat we’ve got here“, Ichiji announces proudly, throwing the man on the floor like a shopping bag. Sanji gulps. Those clothes, short green hair, arms tied behind his back. Goddammit, how could that happen?

„He fell off a tiny ship or whatever that was when we attacked it. These idiots were dumb enough to think they could cross our territorial waters without our permission. Thought he’d look familiar.“

„Does he?“ Judge asks, and Niji grabs the man by the scalp and lifts his head up. A soft sound, metal jingling against metal, from his left ear that was covered in blood, so was his temple, and of course – Sanji already knew who he was when the men entered the room. A figure impossible to mistake for someone else, once you met him, eyeing his opponents with a dark glare like an angered tiger in a cage.

Niji approaches Sanji and Judge with a stack of papers in his hand, briefly says „this one“ and hands the paper on top to his dad. Sanji stares in disbelief at the face that stares at his father’s, full of hatred.

„Ah, Roronoa Zoro“, Judge loudly announces. „The Pirate Hunter. Quite a bounty. I guess you know this guy?“ Judge nugdes Sanji with a grin, but the only response he gets is a frown that’s reserved for Zoro. How could you let yourself get captured?

„What are you doing here?“ Sanji asks his comrade without any emotions in his voice, although there are many of them he feels. The timing of this couldn’t be any worse, Sanji thinks darkly. Shitty marimo is gonna ruin everything. An eerie thought crawls into Sanji’s mind, but he manages to pause it for the moment.

„Guess I could ask you the same thing“, Zoro gives back, husky voice, almost growling, with a suggestive undertone Sanji doesn’t like at all. Zoro is mad. But not solemnly at the Vinsmoke family - first and foremost at Sanji. „Quite a mess you put me in, you dumb cook.“

Sanji bites back the remark that lingers on his tongue, while Judge openly laughs.

„Seems like you boys have something to discuss. I’m afraid there won’t be time for that. But I have quite a few things to talk about with you.“ Judge slowly walks towards Zoro who’s still forced to kneel on the ground.

„Do you?“, Zoro replies, sly grin on his face. „Why would I waste my time talking to a bastard like you?“

„Guess we have to introduce ourselves, father“, Ichiji says, and swings his leg to kick Zoro in the face and the swordsman‘s head jerks to the side and he roars in pain. Sanji flinches and is about to lunge forward to attack Ichiji, but Niji holds him firmly in place. Zoro grunts, blood runs from his nose, and he stares at Ichiji, his brows sunken dangerously low.

„You’re gonna pay for this“, Zoro growls with a deep voice, „for that hit and also for taking away my swords earlier. You don’t seem to know who’s in front of you either….!“

Ichiji grins disdainfully. „You are scum. You’re not worth the ground I’m walking on. You made the mistake of challenging the Vinsmoke family. You might have earned yourself a reputation, but it’s not even close to ours. And you will learn about our power.“

Zoro scans Ichiji’s face, then knits his brows, then looks over to Judge and lastly to Sanji. He grins. And then, he laughs.

„You’re the stupidest looking idiots I’ve ever come across, I don’t know how to take you seriously“, Zoro chuckles, and Sanji shakes his head, both as to acknowledge Zoro’s idiocy and as a warning sign he hopes Zoro sees, in order to tell him to keep his damn big mouth shut.

„You’re not afraid of anything, aren’t you?“, Judge asks Zoro quietly as he crouches down in front of him, and Zoro recovers from his laughing fit and looks directly into Judge’s eyes.

„No.“

„That’s your first mistake“, Judge says, „but based on my work experience I can tell that the inability to detect danger usually is one result of a general lack of intelligence, and you really don’t appear to be smart. Just loud and boisterous.“ Judge watches Zoro from the corner of his eyes, and it’s a bait Zoro all too easily swallows.

„Oh yeah? You guys really think you’re a match for me? And you claim to be the smart one between the two of us.“ Zoro ends with another arrogant, lopsided grin, one of his many trademarks, and Sanji exhales audibly, shaking his head because he damn well knows where this is gonna lead to. He knows that crazy bastard in front of his father inside and out, but the same applies to his father, and he witnesses two men who won’t back down and bow down to anyone standing face-to-face, and that strange feeling he can’t quite grasp crawls back into his head, and Sanji feels the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He’s gonna ruin everything.

Judge eyes him with a cold stare. „You’re gonna tell me everything I want to know about your crew. Where they are, why you are here, everything.“

„What if I don’t?“

Judge looks into Zoro’s face for a moment longer before he stands up again, and he doesn’t move a single muscle in his face as he kicks Zoro in the stomach, enhancing the boot of his raid suit with electricity, and Zoro screams, and Sanji forces himself to watch his comrade go through the agony his own father put him in. Zoro doubles over, groans repeatedly, and Sanji’s whole body shakes and trembles. Niji eyes him suspiciously, and Sanji reminds himself that he has to keep his composure - he told Judge that he doesn’t care about the Straw Hats, none of them.

Zoro coughs as Judge watches him, addressing him one last time with a cold, vicious voice that freezes the blood in Sanji’s veins.

„I’ll put you through hell.“

Zoro remains silent for once, but his dark, if not murderous expression tells Sanji what’s on the swordman’s mind.

Judge crosses his arms behind his back. „Your decision. You can be a traitor and live, or you can be a moron and die.“ He turns around now and locks eyes with Sanji as he walks back to him and Niji. Sanji returns his gaze, and he doesn’t hide the hatred and abhorrence in his eyes.

Just as Zoro inhales and opens his mouth for a retort, Sanji beats him to it. „You’re right, father“, he says loudly, and Judge comes to a halt right in front of him. „He is a stupid idiot. He’s proven to be an idiot time and time again. Never uses his brain, always excited to get in a fight. The only things he cares about are his swords and booze. You can’t expect much from a guy like that.“ Judge eyes Sanji closely, but Sanji holds his gaze. „He’s as illiterate and crude as you expect him to be. We never got along with each other from the day we’ve met. And I don’t intend to change that. He’s the dumb musclehead he looks like. He doesn’t know jack shit. So whatever it is you expect him to know, you can be sure he doesn’t have a clue about it. He’s useless.“

Sanji’s putting much at stake, he knows it. But he’s not gonna let Zoro grant preference to destroy his father, if the odds turned out to be in Zoro’s favor, absolutely fucking not… however, and Sanji’s sure of it, Zoro would be no match to Judge. Not only because Zoro lacks some vital information about the Vinsmokes in general, but also…

The blonde cook feels his heart beating in his chest, and he hopes he actually didn’t manoeuvre himself into a corner like he suspects he did.

If Vinsmoke Judge wasn’t such a large and impressive figure, Sanji would have been able to see Zoro steaming now, but Judge blocks his view on the swordsman. But he can very well hear Zoro yell „You son of a bitch!“, for which he earns a punch from Ichiji. Sanji tries to be calm and collected, and to emphasise his demeanor, he pulls out a cigarette and his lighter and starts to smoke. Niji lets go off him, and Sanji tries to calm down his shaking hands.

„Well, that brings me in some kind of inconvenience“, Judge muses. „I was hoping that my sons would bring me some big enough fish who could enlighten me, but you say otherwise. I guess I have to change my plans then.“ Judge turns around again, and Sanji exhales the breath he’s been holding.

His father walks over to Zoro again.

Fear. That’s what it is. Not uneasiness, not insecurity, not that anxious feeling you experience when you know something bad is likely going to happen. It’s fear. It’s a primal instinct, and Sanji grew to learn it, grew up with living with it, a long time ago.

Judge suddenly speaks up, and he startles Sanji.

„Pardon me, son, but I’m right to assume that, if you despise this man as much as you claim to, you don’t mind if we‘re going to torture him a little bit – just for the hell of it?“ Judge flashes Sanji a vicious grin, one of those that causes the chef’s blood to boil in his veins. „And it’s your decision if you tell me what I want to know instead, and then we’ll stop, or you just leave this roach to his demise and join us, we’re going to destroy the Strawhat pirates anyway. But be informed that, should you comply and sing, in order to stop the torturing, I’ll just count this as another sign of your weakness, as another proof that you’re a failure and an miserable excuse of a man. Because a real man doesn’t care about those who stand in his way, and a real man doesn’t back down. In some way-„ Judge grabs Zoro’s head now and forces him to look into the tyrants‘ face „-it’s a shame that we’re going to kill you piece by piece. A fierce brute like you would’ve fit in my army just fine. But, like I said, you’re not nearly smart enough for that.“

„You’re gonna regret the day we’ve met“, Zoro growls, before Judge gives him a hard push that shoves Zoro over the floor and Sanji watches Ichji and Niji taking a hold of Zoro again, dragging him out of the room while his crewmate throws insult after insult at them.

Sanji feels nauseous. Everything would have been under control, if Zoro wouldn’t have lost against his brothers. A knot forms in his stomach as he thinks about the rest of the crew, the ones who were travelling with Zoro and whose fate he doesn’t know about, as well as the others who stayed on Tottoland Island with Luffy. Sanji damn well knows how much his older brothers love to torture people who they think little of, and parts of his own childhood force their way back into his mind, and he smokes his cigarette quicker. His father’s laughter echoes in his head, a sound he hasn’t heard in such a long time, but which still feels horribly familiar.

Zoro‘s going to tell him a thing or two, once they’ve been able to escape the place, that’s for sure. Sanji feels that crippling fear again, that imminent sense of danger, as he thinks about the swordsman, the image of him after they’ve met Bartholomew Kuma on the Thriller Bark creeps back into his mind, how Zoro was standing there in his own blood only being alive by sheer willpower. Sanji wondered how Zoro was even standing on his own feet, and he wondered what it would take for him to collapse. He survived shit he should have died on for so many times. He is throws himself into life-threatening, suicidal situations without so much as batting an eye, reckless, careless, senseless, batshit crazy. The cook wipes a strand of his blonde hair out of his face, wondering if he’s gonna be present on the day when Zoro will finally meet his maker. But today’s not the day, and the place is not the place, and Vinsmoke Judge won’t be the last man in whose face Zoro would look and smile before he goes down.

„This is a waste of time“, Sanji murmurs, taking another drag from his cigarette. „I can’t believe y’all are dumb enough to fall for that moron‘s mockery. Guess you’re even dumber than him.“ Judge turns around to look at him. „It’s true“, Sanji shrugs. „That dumbass always wants to get in a fight. Whatever he gains from it, I don’t even wanna know. Shit probably turns him on or something.“ Judge chuckles while Sanji puts out the cigarette he’s been smoking down to its butt.

„You’re too soft“, Judge remarks with a voice that reminds Sanji of a meat grinder. „You don’t stand behind what you’re saying. You’re weak and pathetic and you obviously think I’m dumb. You didn’t really think I’d let go of that jerk because of your little act, did you?“ Judge bends down to get closer to his son’s face, and the latter presses his lips together in anger. „I know he won’t say anything“, Judge continues. „And you know that I just love to see him suffer. I want to see if you suffer then as well. Let’s say, seven days.“

„What?“

„Seven days. I’ll keep him tied up and torture him for seven days without food and water. If he survives and you don’t do anything to free him and really remain unimpressed by his treatment, I shall set him free. Not you, of course. You will have to stay here and marry Charlotte Pudding.“ Judge cups his hands behind his back and saunters in a circle around Sanji. „You get to see him once a day. And you will tell him to sing. You will tell him that if he gives us information, his suffering will end. If he refuses, he’ll have to wait until those seven days are over to be executed. Not that he’s going to make it that far.“

„But you said that you want me to-„

„Boy, boy, boy.“ Judge shakes his head slowly. „I can torture this guy all day long if I want. But you? You have to stay all pretty of course for the wedding! I’m curious, I have to say, what he thinks of you. He’s going to think you’re a traitor, and that you will talk, right? If he doesn’t think you’re rat already, for crawling back to your father on your knees.“

Sanji’s body shakes on its own account again, he’s fueled with rage. He wishes he could end his father’s life right here and now, and he seriously contemplates doing it. If that shitty marimo wouldn’t be held captive in the catacombs, he wouldn’t hesitate. But as things are now, it’s too risky. He needs more time. He needs a plan. As if he already hadn’t enough shit on his hands.

„I don’t think it’ll work, but I try“, Sanji says then. „But do I have your word that you’ll set him free when he talks?“

„Of course“, Judge grins, and he doesn’t even try to hide that he’s lying.

~~~

Sanji waits until Ichiji and Niji return from the catacombs. He grinds his teeth upon seeing their gloves and boots bloodied, upon them laughing and shouting, bragging about what they did.

„Did he say anything?“ Judge wants to know.

„Nah“, Niji replies. „Aside from a few insults and threats here and there. Took my right hook like a champ, though.“ He laughs. Sanji wants to rip his stupid laugh right off his fucking face.

„Give us two more days, three at most. He’ll beg uns on his knees to spare his life. If he’ll have remaining knee caps to kneel down on then, that is.“ Sanji hears the men roar with laughter, and he grinds his teeth harder to remind himself to stay in place, play along, and not to run downstairs immediately. He knows he’s still alive, and they want to have something to do for the remaining days. However, it gets harder to ignore the growing knot in his stomach and the dryness in his throat and the boiling blood in his veins. He waits for the brothers to calm down and find something else they can keep themselves occupied with, and then, with a growing sense of dread, he descends the stairs.

~~~

The hallway is dark and cold and humid. A few torches here and there prevent Sanji from wandering around in complete darkness. He walks until he sees a silhouette in one of the cells, sitting at the bars.

��Mosshead“, he greets the figure. „How stupid of you to let yourself get captured.“

Sanji sits down at the bars as well.

„You traveled into that bastard's territory alone and you have the audacity to call me stupid?“, the silhouette rasps, followed by a wheezy, weak laugh.

Sanji exhales. He’s not able to see Zoro properly due to how dark it is. „They roughed you up quite a bit, haven‘t they?“, he asks the swordsman.

A bit of silence, then: „Shut up. It’s nothing.“

Sanji reaches into the pocket of his vest to get his cigarettes. He uses the lighter and in the glim of light, he sees Zoro’s face: the swelling above his remaining eye, the bruises, the dried blood under his nose, how he sits there cross-legged in front of him, arms on his knees, back hunched. Sanji knows he’s worse than he claims to be. Yet, he says nothing, swallows the sudden feeling of anger, closes his eyes and lights the cigarette. When he closes the lid of his lighter, Zoro disappears into the shadows again.

Sanji takes a drag and inhales deeply. He needs a clear mind, for the both of them.

„Care to share with me?“

Zoro’s question startles Sanji a bit. He opens his eyes and tries to perceive Zoro’s face. After his eyesight adjusts to the darkness, he recognises Zoro staring at him.

„You mean… this?“ Sanji holds the cigarette higher and when he doesn’t get an answer, hesitatingly brings his hand closer to Zoro between two of the prison cell bars. He feels Zoro’s fingertips brush against his own as the sturdily built man takes the cigarette from Sanji’s lean fingers. Sanji watches in curiosity how Zoro brings the butt of the cigarette to his lips and takes a drag, and he fails to suppress the cough that fights its way up his throat. Sanji snickers.

„Damn it. That was embarrassing. I’m not used to this anymore“, Zoro croaks, his deep voice sounding even more husky than usual.

„You used to smoke?“ Sanji asks incredulously.

„Back then when I was growing up. Thought I’d be cool, but I actually hated it.“

Sanji was surprised to hear himself laughing softly with a hint of affection. Zoro hands the cigarette back to him.

„Turns out my old sensei hated it too, when he caught us one day.“

„Bushido is all about discipline, isn’t it? Did he kick you out?“

„Me? Nah.“

Sanji takes another drag and shakes his head slightly at how offended Zoro just sounded. That arrogant sack of shit. There’s no chance he’ll ever meet a man more full of himself than Roronoa Zoro, he thought.

„Typical Scorpio right there, aren’t we?“ Sanji mumbles.

„You believe in that bullshit?“

„So far much of it has proven to be true.“

Zoro snorts. „Whatever, curly brows.“

Sanji fumbles with the cigarette a bit before he reaches it back to Zoro. „Quite a welcome my family provided to you“, Sanji says while doing so. „They’re pretty shitty hosts. They should’ve lived on the Baratie. Zeff would’ve taught them some manners.“

Sanji looks down on the floor, ashamed, angry. He sees the cigarette glimmer from the corner of his eyes and hears Zoro exhale a moment later, a wave of smoke washing over his face.

„So what’s your plan, cook? You’re gonna let me rot here and marry your dumb little princess?“, Zoro asks with a crooked grin.

Sanji puffs. „Oh no no, that shit’s not working on me. You can stop being a provocative asshole. I’m gonna tell you everything you want to know.“

„I don’t give two shits about your family or that girl“, Zoro rumbles. „If you think you can earn my sympathy with a sob story of your upbringing, you should know me better.“

„I don’t want your sympathy“, Sanji snarls. „I just want this to be over with and help you escape, if not for you, then for the sake of the others.“

„And what is it you‘re going to do? With them?“

„They laid hands on one of my nakama, they gonna pay for this.“

Zoro sneers. „We’ll see about that. I don’t think you’d stand a chance. Those armours they wear seem to give them great power. They were holding back.“ Zoro takes another drag and Sanji tries to scan Zoro’s body for any more damage.

„What did they do to you?“ he asks then as he fails to see anything.

„Doesn’t matter“, Zoro simply replies as he gives back the cigarette.

„To me, it does. These absolute shitheads are my brothers. They‘ll reap what they sowed.“

„Revenge is a fool’s game“, Zoro calmly states. „If you get invested in revenge, you’re gonna lose your focus.“

„Yeah, I’m sorry I’m not a cold, unemotional bastard like you.“

Zoro watches Sanji taking another drag, but remains silent, and his blank expression makes Sanji indescribably angry.

„What the hell is going on with you?!“, he shouts. „You just sit there and don’t talk back to me. You just sit there and practically wait for them to come back and beat the living shit outta you! How‘s that supposed to help anyone?! You wanna die a hero? Go ahead then, just do it! I don’t even give a fuck! I can just go back upstairs then and tell them to rip you apart, if that’s what you want! You’re begging for it! I came here to see if you’re alright and to make plans how to get you outta here, but if that’s not what you’re interested in, I might as well not give a fuck about you then either!“ Sanji angrily takes another drag and waits impatiently until the nicotine kicks in.

„You’re so fucking stupid“, Zoro blares, and Sanji feels the sudden urge to punch him and under other circumstances, he would. With his fist, and that means something.

„I don’t think so“, Sanji growls through gritted teeth.

„You are. And also, you talk too much.“ Zoro reaches through the bars to snatch the cigarette from Sanji’s fingers. Sanji lets him do it, Zoro looks away and Sanji feels another emotion washing over him suddenly. He gulps, feeling the after-effects of what he just yelled into Zoro’s face, and maybe for the first time ever, asks himself if they still have to be this way, after every thing. He realises that Ichiji, Niji and Yonji aren’t the ones he should call his brothers.

Maybe, one day….

Sanji fumbles with the buttons of his sleeves. He needs to stop that spiral of violence before it’s too late, no matter for whom.

„I’m going to beg him to stop. I can’t just sit here and watch you getting hurt“, Sanji then says. „I’ll tell him what he wants to know.“

Zoro’s head snaps around to look at Sanji. „If you’re gonna do that, I’ll kick your ass the minute i get the chance to do it. You won’t say a single thing. We’re not going to put the others in danger.“

„They’re going to seriously hurt you. You don’t know my bro… these guys.“

Zoro doesn‘t miss the pained expression that slips through Sanji’s masquerade for a short moment.

He shrugs. „I don’t care. I can take it.“ He ponders for a moment to tell Sanji about what happened at Thriller Bark, but decides against it. „The longer I’m here, the longer I’ll drag the attention off the others who are still on the boat. These idiots won’t go after them as long as they got me to play with. If it helps to grant them enough time to reach Wano - fine by me. You worry about your own business. I can take care of myself just fine.“

Zoro takes a long pull before he returns the cigarette that’s almost finished. „Here. You can have the rest.“

Sanji shakes his head, thinking about Zoro willingly act as a distraction. „That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.“, he then says, accepting the cigarette. He watches it, rather than looking at his nakama, who always had a unique way of showing that he cares.

And so, Zoro smiles, almost genuinely this time. „Hey, if the both of us would be going to beat their asses, that would be unfair.“

That took Sanji by surprise, but he recovers quickly and agrees. „We’d stomp them into the ground, big time“, he laughs, until he notices that he let his guard down and he stares at Zoro to check if he noticed as well. Sanji can’t tell. He’s caught off guard by the intense gaze of his crewmate that comes along with a mismatching neutral expression which most likely actually carries more emotions than Zoro lets on. It’s his gaze, the way he looks at Sanji, for a moment. They usually don’t get the time to talk to each other like that, and if they do, they rather spend it on physical fights, bickering and hurling insults at each other. But there it is again, that inner voice inside of Sanji telling him that maybe it’s time to move on from their immature act. Maybe not ultimately, but on occasion. At this moment, he doesn’t feel like bickering. He feels the need to avenge his comrade, not because he was hurt, he apparently doesn’t even care – but because his so-called brothers and father laid their hands on him. Sanji suppresses the range of emotions, the absurd moments of his past, the multiple flashbacks that threaten their way back into his mind, memories he thought he’d forgotten about years ago, but he knows he’s been lying to himself all the time. There is no way he could ever forget what they have done to him, he can only continue to live in the best way possible. Their abusive behaviour damaged him permanently and he thought he knew how to avoid the triggers. Then, he watches Zoro, the prime example of an alpha male, and he wonders.

„You know, I really hated you, when he first met. And for quite a while after that“, Sanji confesses. „And now, I finally know why. Thing is, some people change and some don’t.“

„I have absolutely no idea what the fuck you’re talking about“, a confused Zoro gives back.

Sanji smiles to himself, kills the cigarette and stands up, wiping the dust off his pants.

„Do me a favor and refrain from dying, I can imagine they’d force me to clean up the mess and I really don’t wanna get rid of your stinking corpse.“ Sanji shoves his hands into his pockets, turns around and starts leaving.

„Oi, cook.“

Sanji stops, but doesn’t turn around.

„These guys. They hurt you back then, didn’t they.“

A ruthless, cold bastard, but not as cold and unemotional as he told him he was.

And the only thing Zoro hears from Sanji is the sound of his shoes on the ground, getting quieter with each step, and the swordsman lays down, with his hands behind his head, wondering if he could take the time for a little bit of revenge after all.

#Repost bc this bitch just won't appear in the tags #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji #One piece #Not ZoSan sorry #But as close as they could get #I love their dynamic so much

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