Chapter Text
Katakuri slowly opened his eyes, trying to ignore the neon lights of the sickbay. Brulee must’ve brought him here somehow, he thought, and then immediately turned his head towards Smoothie, who had just moved her lips to begin a question. “Yes, I’m fine.”, he cut her off before sound even left her mouth.
Well, his body at least was. In his mind, he could feel a storm brewing, brought upon by a ridiculously crazy gum-boy who seemed to be capable of hugging the entire world at once.
Apparently slightly irritated, Smoothie rubbed her nose and stated “Well, you should probably wear your scarf again.” She dropped it on him and left the room with a mixture of elegance and forceful swiftness, as if she was in a hurry.
He couldn’t find the words to cut her off beforehand, not as he saw the future where she pursed her lips as if in disgust, those eyes without any real feelings except duty, how fast she left.
He knew she was probably just pissed at more tasks and everything his defeat implied, and that was also why she was in a hurry, but he couldn’t stop the tiny voice in his mind telling him it was all the fault of his mouth. Stop it, he told himself. You were always the same as her, caring about duty and nothing else.
But he also couldn’t stop thinking about him. How his eyes had sparkled upon seeing the way too big mouth, the cheerful “so cool” still ringing in his ears.
God, this would lead to nothing. He should rather check carefully how much he could move and help with whatever Mamas idea of revenge included. It took like forever, but after half an hour he was at least capable of walking, although the bandages still hindered him a little, and sitting down was absolutely not in question with that wound in his abdomen.
Not according to his plans, Brulee had walked in on him shortly before he could leave and told him to just rest, Mama was already heading towards Wano with a selection of children to punish Strawhat.
Katakuri just groaned and accepted his fate, at least he had time to think like this.
In the next few days, nothing much did happen, except his mind replaying a wide grin over and over again. If he was completely honest with himself, he couldn’t await Strawhats return for a new fight in between them.
Although it did scare him, because he had learned to never trust people, but if Monkey D. Luffy said he’d come back, he would. It was the first time his mind hadn’t even tried to doubt, to question, to analyze, to foresee what a persons deepest motives and true character was.
But today, another visitor had come to him, and he definitely hadn’t expected it to be Pudding, because they rarely ever talked. You just couldn’t be around every single one of your siblings or close to them if you had that many. Interestingly, the first thing she did was revealing a third eye to him with a smile, then she asked: “You miss them too, don’t you?”
Half because he was stunned, half because she was being considerate, Katakuri chose not to interrupt her out of politeness. Then he took off his scarf and smiled, smiled for a first time after what felt like an eternity.
Okay, it was an eternity, after all he was almost 50 by now and the last time he smiled he was still a small child. He couldn’t remember anymore, he only remembered how he had stopped doing anything with his mouth, but the rain of poisonous comments still continued.
Pudding chuckled. “I take that as a yes.” He didn’t know why, but he felt ashamed of himself somehow. All the time, he was being there for his siblings, was their role model, he wanted to do everything for them, achieve happiness.
But now Pudding, one of his siblings, had effortlessly revealed his innermost thoughts, and they clashed with reality like total opposites. So he just lowered his head a little to hide the red tinting his face, looking at the gray linoleum floor. Someone had insisted you couldn’t build a sickbay out of food, he remotely remembered.
Puddings eyes shone, together with the laugh she released now. Surprised, Katakuri turned to her; she had made him emotionally excited enough that his haki didn’t work properly anymore.
“You know, big brother, next time they’re here, just go with them. You have done more than enough for us, and a little brat making fun of the way you look is what happens in return? Your own dreams are important too.”
With that sentence she left him, the sound of the door closing ringing in his ears for what felt like forever.