Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hardness.

“It’s strange how a liquid mass could possibly feel as HARD”, Sanji thought as hitting the surface, head first, and dipping into the sea.

Angry waves causing his body to tumble up and down like a rag doll, it took a long, desperate moment to try and decide which way to go when seeking up. UP, rising to the surface and to a most needed fresh breathe of AIR.

Nobody would tell, by the looks of it when he finally make it to the surface, that an uncoordinate, desperate gasping creature as he may appear could possibly be the best swimmer of the Strawhat’s gang –not that competence was so hard to beat anyway–. 

Gulping down a huge breath of mixed oxygen and sea water, he ignited a frenzied pedaling movement underwater while trying to spot the ship again. It took him some tortuous long minutes (or more like seconds, but he could swear they felt like a lot more) to see a thing on the blackened atmosphere; salty water clinging to his eyelashes as he fought to stay afloat, heavy rain drops pouring all over blurring his surroundings but, finally, he turned around for the umpteenth time and caught a glimpse of Thousand Sunny bravely riding the storm about a mile away. 

Even though he knew the crew was still there doing their best to control the situation, he couldn’t avoid a pang of panic seeing as the ship quickly floated away from him, the current so strong. He definitely needed to move fast, too, so casting a last quick general glance to his surroundings he took a deep breath before diving again.

As his vision grew accustomed to darkness he tried to focus on finding a flash of color guiding him to his fallen comrade. Sanji knew better than to randomly swim to nowhere, not sure of the right direction to go to, so he let himself slowly sink while searching for poor Chopper, coldness quickly biting to the bone.

They were approaching a winter island when the storm stroked, so water was more than a little cool and that troubled him the most since it may be even tougher to get his nakama back when numbness started to kick in. Fists clenching and unclenching as he instinctively tried to keep the blood moving to his peripheral limbs, he slowly stroked turning in a circular movement, knowing there hadn't been more than maybe a minute since the reindeer fell off the ship, so even sinking as a hammer he couldn’t possibly be out of sight already… could he?

Currents flew slower as he kept sinking lower, and as darkness gradually engulfed his surroundings, the only source of light being the eventual lightning up there he tried his best to sharpen his vision to its finest struggling to promptly locate Chopper. Storm sounds fading by the distance, the mass of water whispering its own private sounds to his ears. Both coldness and oxygen depriving already making his limbs numb and heavy, Sanji was about to start swimming up to catch his breath when a sudden flash of bright PINK caught his attention: Chopper’s hat floating about ten feet under him, gently swaying while drifting to the bottom of the sea. Pushing away the slight burning on his lungs Sanji wasted no time on stroking down to catch the item and the sudden flash of a lightning revealed Chopper’s inert form sprawled there on the muddy depths, partially buried by the bottom’s tossed soil. 

Thanking whatever God there was to thank for the sea ground being quite high on this area, Sanji dived even further and not so graciously grabbed Chopper by his antlers to pull him off his muddy prison before firmly bracing his limp body to his chest. He then took some leverage stepping on the bottom to take off on the surface general direction.

Rising turned into his personal hell as his lungs screamed for fresh air, surface always too far for comfort, so when he finally reached his so awaited goal the simple effort it took for him to break water’s superficial tension felt as if trying to pass through a granite block.

Sanji desperately gasped for air while trying to stay afloat by furiously kicking the water underneath, both water saltiness and the unexpected frozen breeze blowing up there causing his eyes to instantly water. The déjà vu sensation hit him hard as he frantically turned around trying to locate Thousand Sunny, but fortunately it didn’t took long for him to spot the ship a fair distance away, still facing the non-relenting storm, and he wasted no time either to start swimming towards it, firmly gripping Chopper’s frame against him.

He mutely thanked when seeing his favorite redhead lowering a ladder over the rail as he reached the ship, though couldn’t avoid to get startled as the girl almost fell by the gunwale when a particularly big wave crashed against the hull.

His numb fingers failed to close around the rope stairs at first, fear kicking in as his hands slipped and he suddenly sank, almost losing his grip on Chopper for a moment. It took all his will power to concentrate and fight the stiffness on his limbs to ever so slowly climb up the ladder, letting Nami and Usopp grab him by the jacket on the last flight and pull him up and over the rail.

"Ch-chopper..", is all he managed to say between heavy shivering and chattering teeth, handing over his limp nakama which the redhead quickly took into her arms before running to the inside of the ship, while the long nosed snipper stayed by his side and helped him get up.

"Sanji, can you stand?", Usopp yelled more than asked, mouth scarce inches away from Sanji's ear fighting to overpower the near deafening wind howling around them, and he managed a curt nod while clenching his jaw trying to stop his chattering teeth. 

"Yeah. Go now". Oh,  wasn't he pulling an amazing act,  there?

He saw the snipper hesitating before leaving his side,  but Usopp finally released his grip on him and ran off somewhere else.

The blonde took a minute to collect himself, railing in a vice-like grip on his left hand as he casted a quick glance around to recall the situation: no fruit user to be seen, they all provably locked into the ship after Chopper’s fall to avoid any more last-minute rescues. Which let it to just the marimo, Usopp, Franky, Nami and himself to fix Thousand Sunny out there… well no Nami, actually, since she hadn’t come back after taking Chopper in, which he preferred, thinking on the redhead's safety.

He spotted the blue haired handyman up above the foremast, working on reefing the foresail by hand but obviously having a hard time on getting it secured, and mostly the same for the swordsman who had the mainsail half reefed only. Seeing the longnose was already on its way up the foremast to help Franky he put himself to a good use and moved to climb the mast as quickly as his shivering limbs will allow him to. 

With the howling wind waving the Jacobs ladder like a flag it took a while for him to reach the top, where the green headed bastard greeted him by barking him to get the sail up already, and he’d gladly given him the finger and barked back to ‘go get bossy with yer ass’, but the heavy quivering up the mast prevented him to. The crossbar was swaying like a candle, having them both crawling more than walking through its length. 

Despite his highly uncooperative cold fingers they kind of achieved to reef the sail, but his hands wouldn’t let him properly secure it so after frankly trying he finally resumed to suck it up and shouted to the swordsman to get his ass there and get that shit tied. As a pretty much grumpy Zoro approached Sanji kept holding the bunched sail onto place, and maintained his stiff grip until seeing it properly secured.

"Lets get the fuck down already!", he shouted to Zoro and impelled him to move forward by shoving his shoulder, getting a grumpy come back in exchange.

They both reached the mast and carefully started getting down the ladder, body pressed flat to avoid being swept by the wind and pausing on each step down to blindly search the next one with their feet, reaching deck taking them a hell of a lot more time and effort than normal.

Welcoming the familiar tap of wooden planks under his feet, Sanji took a moment to breathe and slid down to a sitting position resting his back on the mast, finally allowing himself to relax: work was done, they’d be fine now.

"Hey, you taking a nap there?", Zoro’s voice have him sluggishly opening his eyes even when he hadn’t noticed closing them, but he couldn’t find the will on him to move anymore.

"M’cold…", he managed to mumble, letting eyelids slid closed again.

He could feel his body not so gently swaying as the green headed bastard tried to get him to respond, but he felt so drained he didn’t even bothered to react when being unceremoniously lifted off the floor.

Freetalk:

I started writing this THAT long ago it was originally meant to be a 'before time skip' thing.  That's why Chopper's hat is leveled pink when Sanji finds it underwater -although I decided not changing that because I thought on a dark underwater ambient the blue in Chopper's hat shall not be very visible, and the pink area on it would stand up more anymore-.

Basically: I started this years ago, and even posted it in some places but I was unable to keep forward with it because reasons. Mostly because I was unable to translate into my poor English the things I wanted to happen (?). Now that time has passed, I'm still not sure I'll do great doing so lol, but I really want to try.

This is a Sanji-centered story.  I want it to develop in a ZoSan eventually but I don't plan on the relationship being the main point of the plot. Let's see how it goes, tho!

If you like this story, please drop a comment below and let me know, it sure helps to keep the spirits high.

Also: I'm not an English-speaker. I'm an avid reader but I struggle with verb tenses, so please be compassionate with my writing. D:

Chapter Text

It was a regular day aboard Thousand Sunny.

Everyone was doing their usual chores (or lack of), more like letting the time lazily pass through while enjoying their personal favorite activities: Cook was prepping dinner already; Franky and Usopp excitedly working on some new SUPER crazy invention which could or could not end being more trouble than help but, whatever… girls where nowhere to be seen, provably quartered on their specific kingdoms: being the library for the brunette, who may be carefully studying some book, and her studio for the redhead, who’d busy herself on mapping the last island they visited. There could be heard the soft tune of a violin from quite a fair distance, coming from the inside of the ship then… maybe the aquarium and, since Chopper and Luffy where not at sight either it was to suppose they’d likely be keeping company to the musician, which could be why now and then the tune will suddenly change its pace as if asked for a more vivid one. 

They were already aware of how voluble weather could be on the Grand Line, so the faded sun shine should’ve rang a bell to make them put their asses to good use and properly arrange the ship for the incoming storm, but everyone seemed to agree on staying inwards that day, not eager to bask on the already chilling temperature of an uncoming winter island… Then,  the so called Marimo must agree maybe he was to blame for not noticing at all the fast forming mass of dark clouds in front of them, as instead of carefully surveilling the horizon as he was supposed to do during his watch he was more occupied on counting his pushups.

Truth to be told, surveillance aboard Thousand Sunny had always been kinda the opportunity to doze off on the crow’s nest without unwanted interruption but for the always welcomed midnight snack, and he could swear that premise was applicable for all of them minus, maybe, Usopp who kinda enjoyed the surveillance job.

Due to all those misfortunate circumstances, first sign they noticed of the weather turn was the sudden change of pace the ship was rocked by, swaying from the former lulling swing to a quite violent rocking. Landing face first on mid-pushup, Zoro quickly scrambled to his feet and reached the window to peep out, wondering which may be the cause for the quake. 

"For fuck’s sake…!", he breathed out finding themselves enclosed under a thick mass of dark clouds, wind blowing so strong Nami’s mikan trees wiggled wildly, about to be torn from their roots. 

Zoro quickly made it to the communication system Franky installed on the crow’s nest when working on Sunny. "We’re getting into a monster of a storm there! Get yer’ asses up the deck right now!", he shouted into the handset before rushing to the trap to get down.

As he reached deck some of his crewmates were also coming out and gathering around a troubled-looking navigator, who fumbled with the buttons of her bright yellow rain coat while eyeing the stormy clouds above them with a furrowed brow.

"How could it…? So fast!", mumbled the redhead before landing her gaze on him. "Haven’t you seen this coming? I mean, this can’t have just appeared from nowhere!", the girl complained gesturing up for more emphasis, to which Zoro almost sheepishly shrugged and tried to defend himself.

"Not like I’m the weather-expert here or something!", although a little inner voice actually told him that she was, indeed, right on her complaint. "Maybe the one most suited to survey this shit must’ve been more alert, ya’ know".

Nami was most likely about to talk him back but her personal half-assed lapdog hurried to chime in, "You implying something, moss-brained bastard? Sweet Nami-swan is not at fault for shit..!".

And so they were about to jump at each other’s throat, when suddenly the first droplets landed exactly between them, amall gazes instantly falling glued to the damp round spots conjuring an invisible barrier at their feet, around which a growing dotted pattern quickly bloomed.

"There’s no time for fuss now", Luffy’s voice easily cracked the silence they all had fallen into as the argument faded, tone serene but firm, all cheeriness gone as a clear sign that the situation was not to laugh of.

The captain’s dark gaze fell on the redhead, "Nami, can you let us outta here?". He waited for the the girl to nod,  her chestnut eyes deeply worried but no sign of hesitation on them, and then the raven haired boy's sight travelled among all his crew members as to make sure they all were properly listening. "Let’s get our asses into action before it worsens", he finished the circle on the cook, "I don’t want dinner to get late". 

And with that final statement, they all sprang into action.

The redheaded navigator posted herself on the prow together with Luffy who took on the helm, and under Nami’s steady commands, the Strawhats quickly started functioning as a well-oiled machine.

First off, it was necessary to retrieve all moving items from deck, such as barrels, deckchairs, and any other stuff the storm may send overboard, for which Chopper, Franky and Usopp teamed up. On the other hand, Robin and Brook headed inwards to go secure things up inside the ship. That let Zoro and Sanji to handle the sails but, before they could even start climbing up the ladder a big wave swept the deck forcing them all to hurry and grab onto whatever they could.

As the huge mass of water drained between the rail bars they heard Nami call for them, "Everyone OK?!". 

Almost engulfed by the howling wind Usopp's winy voice came from the stern, exactly the opposite location he was in when the wave crashed on them, "I swear I’ve swallowed half a Blue just now, but still onboard!", and similar complaints sounded as Franky tried his best to break free from Nami’s mikan trees without causing further damage. Luffy made himself audible over the wind, too, and after untangling himself from the ladder he’d been left hanging upside-down as the wave passed by, Zoro shouted a curt "M'fine!". It took some long seconds for the crew to hear an assuring "Still here!", coming from the cook, as he had almost been washed away from the deck and stayed aboard just thanks to being thrown against the hut, where he gripped for dear life.

"Chopper?!", the captain shouted more than asked after some tense seconds, all other crewmates already rushing to peek over the rail as there was no response from the reindeer.

"Had he fell off?", asked the snipper’s flickering voice. 

"Someone go fish him before currents make him lost!", ordered the navigator, a pang of fear on her voice. 

"Marimo!" Zoro stopped himself about to jump off the ship to shot a questioning yet offended glare to the cook’s direction; that meaning the general area where the voice had come from, as the curtain of water was starting to make it difficult to see a thing beyond 5 feet distance. "Not the best moment for you to go and make your directionally challenged mossy ass lost down there, too", and Zoro got no chance to talk him back, as a bony hand emerged from the curtain of water to push him off the rail and he could catch a glimpse of the blonde’s dark silhouette gracefully jumping overboard.

From that instant on, hell broke loose over them.

Any crew member on deck spent half a second to peep over the cottage, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of their fallen friends and unsure of what to do next. That half a second, however, was what took for Nami to get the gears in her head to start functioning again, and she wasted no more time in taking the reins again so the situation won’t get any worse.

"Franky!", the blue haired guy jumped on his spot at being called, secondarily unfazed. "Drop the anchor, we need to wait for Sanji and Chopper to came back!". 

The bulky cyborg nodded running to fulfill her command, while the rest of the crew rushed to resume their former tasks, doing their best to get the Sunny ready to ride the storm.

"Luffy!", the redhead turned then to their captain, who kept struggling with the helm and twisted his rubbery neck in the most awkward way to look at her, "Leave that for now and go tell Robin and Brook to prep for when those two idiots came back! They’ll need a warm change of clothes, and I want everything settled in case we got any complication!".

Luffy seemed about to oppose, but something on the navigator’s determined gaze made him change his mind and rushed to follow her command.

Once the raven-haired boy was gone, Nami blocked the helm by herself and waited for the shipwright to finish his task before setting up the next commands.

"Franky and Zoro! You two go reef the sails!", she shouted while pointing to the masts general direction to emphasize, "...and Usopp! You stay with me and help me fish those two when they show up!", which she internally prayed won't take  long, since situation was already bad enough as it was.

Each one diligently focused on their designed task at hand, so while the stronger men started to carefully climb up the masts defying the howling wind, Nami and Usopp braced themselves on the railings at both sides of Sunny and scanned the enraged dark water below for any sign of their nakama.

The snipper, equipped with his long-sight goggles, was the first to catch a glimpse of familiar golden hair as Sanji broke the surface. "Sanji! Here he is, and… yeah, he has Chopper with him!", he excitedly shouted, welcoming Nami at his side vigorously shaking her shoulder after the girl hurriedly stumbled her way across the deck to reach him and see by herself; a soothing, shaky breath easing its way out of her before she rushed to throw a rope ladder overboard for the approaching blond to use.

It took some agonizing long minutes for Sanji to finally reach the ladder and start climbing it, and as soon as he got under arm-reach both Nami and Usopp grabbed him by his most likely ruined blazer and pulled them both up, slumping on a shivering pile of damp limbs. Wasting no time, the redhead took an unconscious Chopper inside the ship while the snipper stayed to make sure Sanji was alright, which he apparently was aside from the evident coldness and exertion, so he rushed to go help Franky as soon as the blond cook told him to.

Zoro was also having serious problems to reef the mainsail all by himself, with such a strong wind pulling the fabric in any direction. Even using all the strength packed on his thick arms all he‘d got were a half mast sail and abrasion burns on both hands from the rope pulling. That’s why when he saw the blond coming to him he quickly batted the surprise away and took the offered help.  Not like he'd thank him or anything, tho. 

With the extra pair of hands holding the fucker down, it got considerably easier to reef and secure the sail, despite the prissy cook needing him to go and tie the line for him. Which yet again, should’ve rang a bell for him, being Sanji as prideful of a bastard as he was, but he just couldn’t focus on anything more than to finish things up there and go put some roof over his head. And that kept on being the only thought wandering through his mind all the way down to the deck, and also when his boots finally squeaked on the sodden wooden planks and he rushed to head inwards, so it took a long moment for him to notice there was no one coming after him.

"Cook?", he spun round to find the blonde most definitely slumped against the mast.

"Hey, you taking a nap there?", a clutching feeling tightening his guts.

He faced the howling wind now pushing against him and retraced his steps to crouch near the blonde’s fallen form, bringing a hand forward to lightly slap his face as he saw clear blue eyes sluggishly opening and then slipping closed again. The skin against his hand was slick of water, turgid and void of any heat, in a way that made his insides churn with something similar to disgust. 

He spun his nakama’s limp body up and rushed to the ship’s belly; the cook’s form flaccidly draped over his shoulder,  damp ice-cold clothes clinging to him like a second skin and the boy's arms loosely dangling behind his back, their dead-like bumping on him troubling at most.

"Cook’s fucked up!", Zoro stormed onto the ship shouting for someone to come over, hopefully a fully recovered  Chopper or, at least, one of the girls.

He settled with the second option as Nami showed up and hurried towards him, all the while listing instructions to Luffy, who spared a quick worried glance to his fallen comrade before nodding in agreement with whatever the redhead was talking him about and left them.

"What’s happening?", asked the girl without peeling her gaze from the blonde, concentrated on repeating the same ritual Zoro performed few minutes ago: slapping, hey -eing, then shaking the un-responding cook.

"He’s not responding", stated the swordsman matter-of-factly, to which the redhead wasted a brief second to consecrate an eye-roll to him before resuming her exam.

"Let’s go. Carry him!", she instructed before kicking into motion. "We’ve managed to get Chopper back, but that frozen sea has drained him out bad, we can’t count on him at all yet. Robin’s still trying to warm him up".

On their way to the sick bay, Nami briefly explained how they had to use CPR to revive Chopper and almost lost him a while ago, and when the girl finally pushed the heavy wooden door open they were greeted by an anxious-looking Nico Robin holding a heavily shivering, quilt-wrapped Chopper, pacing up and down the room as if trying to lull a restless baby to sleep, Brook apparently gone to warm some water.

Carefully following Nami’s instructions, Zoro maneuvered the unconscious cook while she made a fast work of undressing him, the damp clothes unceremoniously tossed on a growing heap on the floor, to which the swordsman could virtually recall the soon-to-be picture of Franky fuming about the wooden planks swelling by being soaked in seawater, but obviously kept silent. Once finished, a mildly uncomfortable Zoro was impelled to scoop the naked blonde up and lay him on the mattress, stepping apart after to let the redhead arrange the covers and hoping for his job there to be done, but obviously pulling some sheets up won’t take as long as to buy him time enough to sneak away.

"Zoro, you stay", any hope he may've had of fleeing the tiny infirmary room burned to ashes with Nami’s statement.

"There’s enough people outta here to take on the ship, and…", a violent quake accompanied by a detonation sound made 'em all stumble. Zoro managed to stay upright, despite his bum colluding against Chopper's desk when he maneuvered to catch Robin by the shoulder before both her and her reindeer-bundle crashed to the floor, and Nami dropped to her knees near the bed with her frame draped over the unconscious blonde. Franky must've activated the Coup de Burst to get off the storm's eye, which provably were the instructions Nami was telling Luffy before. "...and, I was trying to say, there's not much more to do outta there anymore, so you better undress, too".

The thought sounded so casual It took a moment for him to realize what the girl had just so calmly commanded him to do, "WHAT?", and he knew by the look on Nami's face that his current expression must be worth some prank right now, but apparently there was no joke at all as the brunette chimed in to explain.

"Cook-san is too cold to produce heat on his own right now, so you should to lay next to him to let his body take some of yours. That’s also what I’m doing with Doctor-san here", and damn her for being so smart, because Zoro didn't even got a chance to slip a puny '¿and why ain’t you naked? ' before she carried on with her not-less-damned-for-being-reasonable explanation "…but since he is a reindeer his heat maintenance system works better than a human’s, so he’s recovering quite nicely with just little help".

Being the good bitchy witch she was, Nami also wasted no time to push it, "C’mon Zoro, it’s not that big of a deal! You’re bigger than us so you’ll warm him up better", she negotiated, quite surprisingly not bringing out yet the debt-issue but anyway confident enough as to step forward and reach out for his jacket.

He would’ve loved to reprimand her for the fresh-baked strip obsession she was, in his humble opinion, recently sporting but he knew better than to protest so he just resumed to grumpily comply, all the while grumbling as a half-assed passive resistance. That shit-cook'll owe him real BIG for this…

His also wet clothes piled up on the floor with the cook’s and he awkwardly laid on the mattress near him, the Witch compelling him to hug him closely to which WHAT THE FUCK but he reluctantly complied, angry-blush crawling up his face both in shame and irritation and thanks to whatever God is responsible for the girls not commenting on that because it would’ve been the straw breaking the camel’s back. He blanked his mind and did his best not to register the soft tickling of the cook’s hairy legs against his own, how tobacco’s scent still clang to his golden strands even after soaking in seawater, or the way his breath felt so HOT against his chest when he pulled him closer, frozen-salty-sticky skin instantly making him chilly too.

Brook showed up then, with an armful of hot water bottles which he remembered 'em stocking on the last winter island they visited, and Nami hurried to help him stuff them into the bed, unceremoniously moving the covers away to do so, then pulling them up again as if nothing had happened.

"Keep those here with you to help him get warmer", she instructed all the while lifting the covers at the bed’s end to slip one more warm bottle right between the tangle their feet were in.

Robin got closer to the bed and crouched to ask him, "Do you mind taking care of Chopper too? This way we could go prep some warm clothes for when the others come back in", to which Zoro just shrugged, too occupied trying not to kick some bottle outta the bed when lifting the covers the strictly necessary to welcome the little reindeer to the improvised non-pajamas party. "We’ll bring warm soup for you all in a while. Please call us if something happens…", promised the brunette, handling the blankets and tucking them in a cocoon-like manner, looking so much like a mother Zoro had the momentarily impression he’d shrunk back to five.

"Aye, aye", he finally cut, and so both girls left the room.

The tall skeleton offered to help, but "… although I’m not warm at all, since I’m just bones", he half-heartedly skull-joked, a pang of guilt on his usually cheerful voice, and finally decided to go, too.

Finally alone, Zoro let himself relax too, as much as possible at least when being sandwiched on the narrow bed with his two unconscious nakama, whose bodies were still too cold for comfort.

As seconds sluggishly ticked by, he dropped his gaze both in boredom and mild interest to check on them. Chopper seemed to be in a deep sleep, having curled in a tight furry ball against his broad chest as soon as he hit the mattress, and only moved every now and then in a spasm-like, gently rustle of hooves, apparently pursuing –or maybe pushing away- something on is dream. His fur still felt slightly damp and chilly, but raking between the strands with his fingers he could feel the heated skin underneath and his heart’s steady beat.

Sanji, on the other hand, laid completely still, his body stiff and breathing superficial, and Zoro propped himself on his elbow to tower over him and properly study his features: his naturally pale skin looked almost translucent now, blood drained from it to the point where blue tinged his dry lips, and over that bleached canvas two angry red circles stood out on his cheeks, which he mildly remembered Chopper telling them at some point in the past that had something to do with coldness, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint the rest. He kept staring for a long moment, not used to see the cook’s face as quiet, nor as close. Someone –provably one of the girls- had lit a lantern to keep the room illuminated, and its orange dim light casted dancing shadows on Sanji’s face, giving the illusion his eyelashes fluttered, and it surprised him to realize they were a shade darker than his light hair, and quite long like a girl's. 

Resting his head on the pillow again, he hugged the lax bodies more closely to him and let his gaze linger on the cook’s face for a moment longer, amazed by his absolute stillness and not totally troubled by the closeness, slowly adjusting to the rhythmic, quiet breathing and letting his eyes slip closed too.

On the next few hours, all the crew members eventually paid a visit at the convalescent’s room, each giving their best wishes for them to recover quickly, and offering to bring yet another sheet, to go warm the water bottles or whatever.

Robin’s presence waked Zoro up around midnight, although he couldn’t remember having fallen asleep after the last visit Usopp paid a while ago to tell him the storm was over and Sunny had got over it without big damage.

"Sworsman-san, I’ve made some porridge for everyone, would you want some?", the brunette gently offered, placing a tray with three steaming bowls on the bed’s edge.

He welcomed the warm treat, suddenly noticing how hungry he actually was, and indolently sat up and started to eat, observing how the girl checked on their still asleep nakama.

"You trying to wake them up?", he asked, pausing with the spoon perched on his mouth, and quietly observed as she propped Chopper’s head up a little and gently shook his small frame, earning a soft whine from the soundly asleep reindeer, who after a while finally cracked his sleep-puffed eyes open. Zoro, who had already finished his meal, set the bowl on the tray again and helped him sit straight as he lovely rubbed the sleep away.

"What happened…?", the reindeer started to ask, apparently a little confused as he checked his surroundings, but he abruptly stopped mid-track when founding the cook’s still form near him. "What’re we all doing here?, What’s happened to Sanji?, How…?!, ¡Someone call a doctor…!", he suddenly freaked out launching himself on the unconscious blonde to check his state, the sudden peak of tension making himself feel dizzy again.

"Doctor-san. Please don’t strain yourself, you must still feel weak…", Robin chimed in, gentle but firmly peeling Chopper off from the cook and placing the steaming bowl on his lap. "Cook-san jumped off the ship to rescue you when you fell. You came back unconscious and almost frozen, we had a hard time getting you back", the brunette gently scooped a spoonfull of food and despite some feeble initial struggle Chopper easily let her feed him, this drained he was.

Zoro couldn't but awe at the woman's diligent yet soothing way of maneuvering their resident usually moody doctor, and he absentmindedly observed their interaction while vaguely filling in the gaps of the story adding how the cook had helped him reef the mainsail once back on the ship and all seemed perfectly fine… and just as he spoke realization hit him square: the prideful blonde had actually asked him for help to secure the knots, a task any of them could do even blindfolded, because he wasn't fine at all. Robin and Chopper didn't seem to notice his awkwardness, nor the way his steel gaze fell upon the blonde's unmoving form with a frown, tho. 

Chopper insisted on checking Sanji’s temperature and auscultate him, which with his finely-tuned hearing he could do just by placing his ear on the patient’s chest, and determined his heart-beating was a little too slow and temperature still quite chill, but neither as severe as to worry about. He would’ve liked to run a full battery of tests over the blonde, but he himself wasn’t feeling very good yet, so unlike him he didn’t put much of a resistance to just finish his porridge and go back to sleep.

Since the little doctor was still feeling uneasy, the brunette offered to take him to the girls’ quarters for the night while Zoro stayed with Sanji, who they were unable to wake up, and so they resumed to call it a night.

With Robin and Chopper gone, he bonelessly dozing on her arms, Zoro finally put out the lantern and plopped himself on the mattress again pulling the covers up to his chin.

He couldn't stop revolving over the idea of the blonde climbing the mast to reef the sails, fucked enough to not be able to tie 'em at all… What if he had fainted up there, instead of once he was back on deck? The man was strong as hell, but he would've no doubt cracked his damn head. Zoro looked to the sleeping face of his nakama, still unnoving and dead to the world, and grimaced when a thought of how real that 'dead' could've actually get to be.

"You airheaded ero-cook, making people worry about you…", he mumbled while hugging Sanji’s body closer, his chin easily resting on the crown of his nead, fingers slowly lacing 'emselves between long golden locks as he distractedly relished on the strong seawater and tobacco scent. Zoro slowly let himself drift into sleep, too, gently lulled by the rhythmic rocking of the ship and the raspy, chainsmoker trademark breath near him. 

NOTE: I’m not sure it is easily understandable(?), but when Usopp says he has “swallowed half a Blue”, he’s referring to one of the 4 seas the Blue Ocean is divided in.

Freetalk:

Second chapter's up!

This is where the story died last time, but big yay because I have at least two more chapters already cooked, so things are good for now :)

This chapter was really long, I hope it wasn't too much for comfort idk. But since 1st chapter started in the middle of the fuss already the picture felt too incomplete to just keep forward. Also, while this is a Sanji-centric story I also want to make everyone else play their part

You may have already noticed but I usually pay more attention to describing the situations, actions, emotions, ambience (?), than to stablishing an actual conversation between the characters. That's difficult because both I'm whatever but talkative myself, and also I think precisely OP characters do rely a LOT on non-verbal communication, even in the anime, if that makes sense. I think that clicks quite well actually, so there will be more dialogue as the story goes by, but the description of ambience will keep being more prevalent, sorry not sorry. 

Thanks to keep reading so far, hope you liked it and please remember I'm really happy to read your opinion, too! :)

Chapter Text

Coldness was the strongest sensation he felt, together with an uncomfortable weight on him which he couldn’t find the strength to move away. He had that nagging sensation of being held down, and his limbs felt oh so HEAVY, as if they were all enclosed on concrete blocks or something, which made no sense at all but still felt like a suitable option to his fog stuffed brain.

His skin felt itchy everywhere and it took a titanic-like effort for him to unglue his eyelids, to no avail as on the complete darkness the room was engulfed by he still couldn’t see a thing, to the point it took a painfully long minute for him to convince himself there probably wasn’t any problem with his eyes.

All the while still stiffly facing upwards, he very slowly started to recall the most recent events: the storm, Chopper falling off the ship, he mocking the Marimo and jumping off instead of him… but his memory seemed to falter after that. He had flashes of himself trying and failing to climb a rope ladder, and the fear this caused on him back there kicked in again for a brief second, until another stray image pictured him atop the main mast, desperately fighting to rile the sail there. The effort to arrange the flood of fragmented memories ignited a light headache, presumably growing behind his very eye-balls, but it also bought him time enough as for his sight to grew slightly accustomed to the darkness, shadows around him starting to melt into recognizable shapes: a low table there, the gentle curve of a swivel chair –Chopper’s swivel chair- there, which helped him locate himself on the sick bay.

He had a constant ringing on his ears, but over it he could hear the gentle shush of the waves lapping the ship’s side and a soft snoring sound coming from someone near him. His slowpoke functioning brain couldn’t quite understand why someone was sharing a bed with him on the sick bay, but realizing how his bed-mate body felt so HOT against his own sensitive skin it was almost painful made him yet so slowly squirm to relieve the contact within, a soft gasp escaping his lips when he registered how oddly scratchy the blanket felt against his skin.

The subtle stir dragging Zoro outta his naturally light sleep, he shifted on his half-asleep state to see what had just ruined his so needed rest, mindlessly throwing an arm over his current bed mate’s small frame and surprisingly finding him awake.

"Hey, you alive sleeping-beauty?", the swordsman crooked a smirk on the cook’s general direction, his eye slowly growing accustomed to the darkened room, "Huh. And that beauty is not as for… real, you know. Whatever".

As the blonde just tsk-ed and shrugged his arm away, his mumbling unintelligible, Zoro resumed to rest the rejected hand onto his own bed hair instead and scratch there for something suitable to add next, a frown already tightening his features thanks to the ungrateful bastard. "So, you good or what? I mean, I could totally spend some alone sleep time".

The cook’s come-back came as another feeble push, to his chest this time, and a raspy mumble in the lines of “Get the fuck off", which he couldn’t really find the will to appreciate so instead of taking the somehow offered leave he propelled himself on his elbow, now towering over the cook’s shadowy form.

"C’mon Cook, don’t give me that homo-shy crap now when I’ve spent the last six or so hours forcefully sharing a bed with you, naked, in case you still haven’t noticed". No actual reason to insist on that matter either, but once said he internally hoped for the revelation to cause some harm to the skirt-chaser bastard’s ego… apparently to no avail, if his silence was something to go by, all his efforts seemingly kept on weakly pushing him off. That weakly founding a switch on the back of his mind to lit the 'remember the fucker was out cold a minute ago' neon fucking sign.

"Fuckin'… move", came Sanji’s labored breath, trembling cold hands pressing against his bare chest and igniting a nagging, tight sensation which neared worry, his own hands flying to get a hold of the squirming blonde.

"You feeling alright?", and quickly letting go when the skin he expected to find cool actually burning hot. "What the…? You’re about to burst!", he exclaimed firmly pressing a palm against the blonde’s damp forehead, earning a pained groan and one of those why’retheycold hands trying to bat him away.

"...move… t-fuckin’ hurts…", he could perfectly hear Sanji’s raspy voice near his ear in the position they were now in, sounding so many shades of exhausted and pained and maybe scared, and something pretty similar to regret made itself at ease on the pit of his stomach as he finally realized the cook was pushing him away not in shame but ‘cause his fried skin was hurting to the touch.

"CHOPPER!", the call came outta his mouth without him even registering how close of the sick cook’s ear he had just decided to shout his lungs off, which he learned from the pained groan leaving the guy’s lips. "I’m gonna get Chopper, Cook. Stay put, for fuck’s sake", unconsciously brushing the blond strands off the sweaty face, he took a moment to register Sanji’s soft whimper of an answer, before untangling himself from the clingy sheets and jumping off the bed already racing towards the boys’ dorm, just barely aware of the chilly temperature gracing his exposed skin while running wildly around the ship.

"CHOPPER! Get your furry ass up NOW!", he announced himself once reaching the boys-dorm, taking a brief second to catch his breath before scanning the darkened area around in search of an awakening doctor… in vain, as he realized seeing the shocked, sleep-deprived faces of his other male nakama and noticing that the little reindeer was not among them. "Fuckfuckfuck", he found himself droning in a too much dumb-cook-like style while recalling Robin offering to take care of Chopper for the night, everyone in the room left agape as he resumed his frantic run facing now to the girls’ dorm, Usopp’s whine of '¿What was that ‘bout?' landing on deaf ears.

"Gimme Chopper!", he shouted while pushing the girls’ door open, Nami jolting awake with a strangled shriek and falling off the mattress with very little elegance.

The brunette’s reaction proved way more effective against intruders as Zoro’s feet got easily restrained by a surprisingly strong pair of hands, inertia playing the rest of the trick and taking him to the ground face first while a second set of hands wasted no time to lock behind his neck and tightly squishing his face against the wooden planks underneath.

"Who’s there?", ventured the uneasy voice of the redhead, peeping over his now messy bed while blindly searching for the lantern.

"Swordsman-san? What are you doing here?", inquired Robin, her pretty features composing a confused look as the newly lit lantern revealed the familiar form of his nakama unceremoniously sprawled on the floor. "We thought we were under assault for a moment...!", the limbs imprisoning him evaporated with a swirl of petals, letting the man finally unglue his nose from the floor and catch his breath with an undignified wheeze.

However, the moment he raised his head and locked eyes with the reindeer doctor, who his surprise-visit had impelled to ineffectively hide behind the older woman, Chopper jumped into his also trademark hysteric help-pleading whine, "Zoro, you’re bleeding! Someone call a doctor!!".

Robin gently stopped Chopper’s rant to remind him he was actually the doctor aboard, while Nami made a fast work of getting him a tissue, her cheeks tinged red and glance glued to his face as if it’ll burn her eyes to let them drop an inch below his collarbones. An interesting show of decency coming from the same witch who just few hours ago seemed so eager to rip his clothes off him.

However, Zoro didn’t even register the redhead’s scold or the brunette’s request for an explanation, as his train of thought finally got on the rails again and he "CHOPPER!", startled them all up again, standing up in a swift jump and taking the said reindeer up on his broad hands to meet him eye-level.

"Chopper! We need you on the sick bay, Cook’s getting worse!".

As they came into the sick bay they were greeted by a pretty much heated up cook, who in his restless state had just managed to get himself tangled on the mess of sheets the bed had turned into.

"Sanji! How are you feeling?!", Chopper overtook and quickly jumped on the bed to assist him, thermometer in hoof while gently slapping the blonde awake from his fever induced drowsiness.

Bloodshot blue eyes arduously cracked open to welcome the newcomer, but immediately scrunched shut when the lamp’s light hit them, a curt grunt leaving his dry lips in protest.

"Good. Open your mouth", the doctor instructed, a mere formalism since he didn't wait for him at all to comply and forced it open by himself instead, shoving the thermometer inside in a way that got Sanji producing a strangled sound at the rough handling.

"Damn. How have you…? Zoro, help me get him off this mess, I can’t do shit like this", the reindeer complained, insistently pulling at the sheets hugging Sanji’s frame, to which the swordsman hurried to his side and silently complied, his own steel eye locking for a stray instant with clouded blue ones, a slight tremor betraying the steadiness in his hands while they worked to free the cook from his improvised cocoon.

"You’re gonna freeze, you moron", Nami’s voice interrupted his musings, a snarky comeback dying in his lips when the girl draped a heavy coat over his naked shoulders in a more caring manner than she may have pretended, provably. He saw then how a dozen arms just emerged from the mattress and effortlessly started unwrapping the frail body slumped on the bed, Robin calmly standing near him, arms crossed on her trademark pose and her critical gaze focused on Chopper’s ministrations.

Letting them do their thing, Zoro took the moment to slip his arms on the actually welcomed warm sleeves and button up the coat, not really caring but anyway taking note the garment was long enough to cover his bare ass, just then registering how chilly the room was.

Chopper had just retrieved the thermometer and was concentrated on reading it, so he didn’t notice when the sheets finally came off the blonde but the combined surprised gasps of his crewmates kind of warned him of more unpleasant surprises to come.

"What’s that?", the redhead asked, taking a step forward to peep over Chopper’s shoulder as he whispered a curse, his scrutinizing gaze locked on his patient and hooves hovering over him while the gears in his brain worked, seeking already for the right course to fix him.

"Chopper! What’s up with his hands?", the redhead tried again, a tinge of fear painting her voice, and the acknowledgement of the emotion lingering on her question waking Sanji up from his stupor, his sweaty brow furrowing in pain from the effort to try propelling on his elbows to check on the girl.

"Wh- Fuck. What’s up?", the blond articulated, the strain evident on his usually suave voice.

Chopper hurried to push him down, cooing him to lay still, but that couldn’t stop him from looking down to his hands. Whatever little color still remaining on his face quickly drained, his mouth opening and closing like a fish’s, unable to voice his thoughts aloud.

"Navigator-san, calm down please. Let’s give them a little more space", Robin shushed her by wrapping a soothing arm around her shoulders and gently took a couple steps back, her indigo eyes locking for a second on Zoro’s dark one with a knowing glint.

The voices coming from the corridor seemed to kick Chopper back into motion, his brow furrowing in concentration.

"Everybody’s coming. Robin please take Nami with you and keep them all outta here, I need the room calm for a while. Zoro, go too and get me a pail of hot water, and one with cold one. NOW!", the urgency on his voice fueling them all to accomplish their designed tasks, Chopper returned his attention to the laying blonde, his other nakama’s voices dying into a muffled whisper at the other side of the door as the girls briefly informed them.

He brushed Sanji’s fringe off, gingerly feeling his forehead and peeling him from his shocked state; his startled, feverish gaze wandering in a frenzy-like pace between his itchy hands and the reindeer’s feeble attempt of a reassuring smile, which couldn’t quite reach his deep brown eyes.

"Calm down, Sanji. We’re taking one step at a time, ‘kay?", his words meaning to calm them both, Chopper put a hoof on Sanji’s shoulder trying to comfort him, remembering Hiruluk’s advice to keep physical contact with a scared person to ease his spirit, before setting into work with his hands: the skin looked angry red and swelled, discoloring near the fingertips and blisters protruded on the juncture between phalanxes and around the nails. "Oh, man…" the doctor couldn’t help but ever so softly whine while taking Sanji’s right hand on his hooves, the painful groan escaping the cook’s lips embedding on his ears as if they were stabbed with a knife.

Chopper could tell Sanji was holding on the pain, for how stiff his shoulders had become and the way his jaw clenched, the teeth grinding literally audible for his sensitive ears. He could also feel guilt menacingly bubbling on the pit of his stomach, swelling inch by agonizingly slow inch, threatening to drown him, but he resolutely squared himself and sucked it up: Sanji couldn’t afford him being weak now. So, he shook his head clear and jumped off the bed, his hooves steady when they started opening the drawers and picking between a horde of funny-colored glass flasks, vials and jars.

Chopper was focused on injecting the blonde when Robin came in, shortly followed by Zoro, carrying each a pail full of water to the brim, which they placed on the desk after crossing the room as if stepping on eggshells, silence almost tangible around them.

"How is Cook-san feeling?", Robin quietly asked, standing at a fair distance of the bed apparently afraid to disturb Chopper’s working area by getting closer.

The swordsman stood rooted near the desk, one hand lingering on the wooden surface as an unconscious sign of hesitance, the table working for him as some kind of lifeline.

Chopper took a moment to secure the IV line on Sanji’s left arm with some gauge, and set to carefully check the drip.

"This doesn’t look nice at all", Chopper's voice carried a heavy stiffness on it when he spoke. The doctor turned to drop the hypodermic on a tray set near the bed before facing them with a concerned expression twisting his usually carefree features, and Zoro couldn’t avoid worrying a quick glance to the Cook’s general direction, fearing Chopper’s kinda harsh choose of words.

The gesture didn't escape the reindeer's eye, "I’ve put him to sleep now, and also administered some medication to try to lower the fever. His hands seem to be frostbitten, though I can’t tell how much damage they’ve sustained until he gets stable…", he probably noticed the way Robin staggered and gripped to the bed’s feet rail for support as the information sank in, because he carried on with a softer tone. "You did great warming him up, don’t misunderstand me, it’s just normal you didn’t know how to handle it all. But I’m afraid his hands hadn’t received enough heat to recover properly".

He jumped off the bed and motioned for Zoro to handle him the warm water pail. "I’m gonna treat them now all the same, but there’s just that much we can do to help him. His body needs to rest and hopefully the warm water’ll help restore the blood flow. C’me help me, Zoro".

They moved the cook to an almost seated position, pillow folded behind his back to hold him upright, and placed his hands on the hot water, while dipping a rag on the cold one to place it on his burning forehead. Sanji quietly gasped on his sleep at the temperature contrast.

"What if...?", ventured Zoro, crinkles forming at the bridge of his nose as he casted a glance at Sanji’s battered limbs, his guts knotting when recalling the cook’s pride on his immaculate hands. Robin’s gentle touch on his shoulder prevented him from finishing his question, silence stretching over them with the lingering possibilities.

The high-pitched groan of the coffee maker cut on the thick silence they all had fallen into after Chopper’s diagnosis.

The whole crew, except for Sanji who remained deeply sedated on the sick bay, were now seated around the dinner table, the situation serious enough as for risking leaving the crow's nest empty for a while. Shy glances occasionally peeled themselves form their own nervous, table-tapping, nail-cleaning, wriggling fingers displayed over the wooden surface to peep at their nakama’s worried faces, each a mirror for the others.

The whistle went on and on, until Robin finally stood up and put out the flame, her movements graced with an uncharacteristic stiffness, her gaze dull as she got back to the table and reached to fill the cups.

Franky’s eyes shoot up to check on her when he noticed her trembling hands causing the coffee stream to wobble, some droplets actually landing on the table cloth. "Here, let me do it", the blue-haired cyborg offered, not quite waiting for her answer but taking the pot off her hands and leading her to sit down before picking up on the coffee serving. No one spoke a word of the brunette’s watering indigo eyes worrying over the stains, but Sanji’s rattling about how difficult it was to clean those replayed on everyone’s heads.

"So", Luffy’s dead-serious tone drawing their attention, all his nonchalant façade gone as a clear sign of we’re-not-playing-now. The trickling of coffee filled the silence during the moment it took for the raven-haired boy to choose his next words. "What’re we doing now? I mean, I’m not that clever…", not being that the situation, someone would undoubtedly shout a laughter at that, but they all remained silent, expecting.

"No, I’m not, and I know it. It’s just one of my many flaws but they’re all ok, because there are you: clever nakama to help my silliness, strong nakama to have my back, funny nakama to cheer me up. I’m not that clever, but I can see things are not looking any easy for Sanji… and I know we all are gonna stay by his side and do as much as we can for him but. What exactly is it we can do for him?". His gaze wandered from one to another, maybe seeking for an answer or maybe just for some sort of reassurance, and while they all recalled each and every time Luffy had given 'em some kinda motivational speech and looked through 'em in that same way, it all seemed unreal as those same sincere dark eyes appeared now filled with such deep uncertainty it threatened to drown them all in. 

The question had actually been flying over them for a while, but Luffy finally voicing it both make their ears perk in interest and their hearts race up like mad out of fear.

Freetalk:

I just noticed I haven't actually posted this chapter, though I had it stored since AGES ago. Good thing is I have chapter 4th ready, too, and 5th on the oven if there still is anyone hooked on this story lol

Then: Yeah, I know this may not be as medically exact as it should, but please excuse it (?). I mean, I had pristine-clear from the very beginning that frostbite was a must here for poor Sanji, and I have also made my homework and run a somehow deep research about it, so I know when the frostbite leads to infection it may cause pretty high fevers and so, but: process mustn't be as fast as I've pictured it, even with the catalyst that the cold dip provided, but I took the liberty of being (more than) a little more flexible there. This is the Grand Line: shit happens!

That said: I DO plan on keep being a little nasty to our favourite love-cook for a while, but I also promise him happiness at some point. Welcome to my personal Sanji-rollercoaster and please enjoy the ride.

Thanks for reading! :)