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“It’s called the what?” Sanji asked in disbelief.
“The Cave of Temptation,” the fisherman shrugged. “They say those who enter are tempted to the Beyond.”
“Huh?”
“You know,” he gestured, “To the Other Side.”
He gave him an incredulous look.
The fisherman sighed in exasperation, “They die.”
“Oh, well,” he took a drag from his cigarette, “Maybe it’s less the shitty cave tempts them and more it’s dangerous.”
“The cave is dangerous for sure, but that’s because it tempts people,” he nodded, “Old Man Jenkins, you know, up by the ranch? Well, he’s been in there and escaped. Managed to fight the temptations and return to the living.”
“How so?”
“Claims he was tempted back into the land of the living by his own personal siren,” he laughed, “or some bullshit like that. With Old Man Jenkins, who knows for sure.”
“Oh,” he said with a sigh, exhaling a stream of smoke. He knocked the excess ashes off the end of his cigarette and placed it back between his lips.
“Anyway, he was there. Your swordsman,” he nodded towards Sanji’s jacket, “The one’s whose picture you keep close to your heart.”
Sanji spluttered, choking on a lungful of smoke that forced him to discard the butt. He kept Zoro’s bounty poster in his breast pocket for convenience, because it was easier to show around a picture of the idiot then try and describe his stupid face to everyone. It certainly didn’t indicate and affection towards the moron, which he definitely didn’t have.
It’s not like Sanji spent hours daydreaming about what it would be like to kiss the stupid mosshead. And he never wondered what would happen if their fights turned into something else involving a lot more touching and a lot less clothing. And he certainly hasn’t laid awake at night thinking about Zoro’s arms wrapped around him in a secure but gentle embrace.
He definitely didn’t have a crush on the directionless idiot or anything like that, or whatever this guy was implying. Clearly.
And even if he did, which he didn’t, it wasn’t like Zoro saw him as anything other than a crewmate and an annoyance, so what was the point?
“Keijo, from over by the river, saw him enter the cave,” he was saying, completely ignoring the emotional turmoil he’d caused Sanji, “Or at least, Georgeanna, she runs the bakery, said that Melkor, from the outskirts, said that Keijo told Chloe from uptown that he saw him. And Georgeanna always knows what’s going on, so that’s probably where he is.”
“Great,” Sanji sighed, “So he entered the shitty cave that kills people?” What a lost idiot. Sanji wasn’t even surprised anymore.
“Yeah,” he nodded, “You’re not thinking of going in there after him, are you?”
“I gotta,” he shook his head, “I can’t just let the idiot die.”
“You do you,” he said with a shrug as he turned back to his fishing net, “I guess it’s as good a way to die as any.”
The cave was certainly creepy. He didn’t know how someone could accidentally wander into here, but if anyone could it would be their lost marimo.
Steeling himself, Sanji lit a cigarette and entered the cave.
It was a damp, creepy cave that was way too humid. A few feet from the entrance, the natural sunlight vanished, leaving only the weird luminescent moss growing on the cave walls as light. The path through it was winding, full of twists and turns that had Sanji turned around at a few points. If Zoro had wandered in here, there was no way he’d be able to find his own way out.
At one point, he came across crossroads with one side pitch black and the other lit by even more of the weird moss. Any normal person with an ounce of logic would take the well-lit path, but Zoro was a moron, so either seemed just as likely.
“Marimo!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing and bouncing off the cave walls, “Where are you? Give me a shitty sign or something.”
Once his echoes died down the cave was silent, save for the sound of wind coming down the darkened path. If he listened carefully, he could almost hear words.
“Come here,” they were saying, “Come to us. We have the prettiest girls for you here. We have the most satisfying delicacies. Just come to us.”
He took a step towards them, and the voices grew louder, more coherent, more insistent.
“Yes, come. Come to us. Leave that world behind. That world is full of pain and disappointment. Here there is none of that. Here there is only peace.”
It was harder to hear, but behind them, Sanji could almost hear the ocean, the waves breaking on the shore, gulls cawing as they flew by.
He paused. He couldn’t go yet, not here, not like this. He had All Blue to find. He had his friends he needed to cook for. He had a lost moron stuck in this cave somewhere that he needed to find.
He turned right back around and went down the lighted path. Stupid shitty cave. If it wanted him to die so bad, it would have to do better than that.
The amount of moss on the walls grew, until at one point it was almost blinding. Sanji stepped beyond it into an open cavern, the walls and ceiling stretching beyond the moss’s soft glow. There was a shallow pool of water on the floor. It flooded his shoes and soaked the cuffs of his pants as he splashed through it, making him wince. A thick fog rose up from the water, covering the area and making it even harder to see where he was going.
“Marimo?” He shouted into the fog. His voice seemed softer somehow, and he realized it wasn’t echoing, “Are you here?”
Two figures appeared in the mist. As he got closer, he saw Zoro kneeling down in the water, and his heart clenched. Part of him was worried that he’d never find Zoro in this shitty cave, but here he was.
He was kneeling in front of a young girl who couldn’t have been older than twelve. Her dark hair was cropped short, her clothes baggy and functional, clearly more for comfort and functionality than fashion. In her hands she gripped the same white sword strapped to Zoro’s waist.
“Please, Zoro,” she was saying as Sanji got closer, “Come with me.”
Zoro shook his head, eye wide, “I can’t. Not yet. I have things I need to do.”
“That’s the beauty of crossing over. You realize none of that matters,” she reached out and touched his face, her fingers trailing on his earrings, “All of the worries you have in that world vanish. You can finally be at peace.”
“Kuina,” he said as he leaned into her touch, his eye growing more distant.
“You can fight Mihawk, once he gets here,” she continued, “You can fight me too. We can find out who truly is the best.”
Sanji rushed forward as fast as he could, but the water seemed thicker and became harder to move in the closer he got to Zoro.
“We can be together again,” she said softly, offering him her hand, “Please, come with me.”
Slowly, he reached out to her hand.
“Hey, Marimo,” Sanji shouted once he got close enough, stopping him in his tracks. “Let’s go. The others are waiting.”
He tried to get closer, to reach out and touch him, but something was preventing him. He’d have to bring Zoro back with words.
“You can see them again,” Kuina was saying, “Your friends. You’ll all be together again over here.” She thrust out her hand more insistently, “Just come with me, and get a head start.”
“We need you, Marimo,” Sanji said as Zoro reached towards her again, “I need you. Please.”
Zoro’s hand faltered halfway.
“He’ll never love you,” Kuina said, causing Sanji’s heart to stop in his chest. “Not the way you love him. He’ll never want you the way you want him. Why stay here and continue to suffer?”
Zoro reached for her again, fingers hovering over her hand.
“Zoro, don’t. Please don’t go. We need you. I need you.” He hated how desperate his voice sounded, but this was important. He swallowed, steeling himself to reveal the secret feelings he kept burred down deep in his heart and refused to acknowledge. The ones he could never ever voice, because saying them aloud would surely end him, “I love you.”
Zoro stopped and turned to face him, his eye locking on him as if he just realized he was here, “Sanji...”
“He’s lying,” a scowl cut across Kuina’s small face, “He’s just saying that to make you go, to make you suffer more. If you truly want peace, come with me.”
“I wouldn’t say that to you if it wasn’t true.” Sanji got down on his knees too, the chilly water soaking right through his pants, but he ignored it as he extended his hand, “Zoro, please, come back with me.”
Almost too slowly, Zoro reached out and grabbed his hand, clutching it tight in his own like a lifeline. As Sanji stood and pulled him up to his feet, he saw Kuina close her eyes and vanish into mist.
“Sanji,” Zoro repeated his name like a prayer. He was cold and shaking as his head fell to Sanji’s shoulder.
Sanji held him tight, trying to comfort him with just his presence.
Eventually Zoro pulled back and reached out a shaky hand to touch his face. “Is this, real?”
“Yeah,” he answered, lacing their fingers together and giving his hand a confirming squeeze, “Yeah, it’s real.”
He glanced down at their hands, and when Zoro squeezed back, something tight in his chest loosened.
“This fucking cave is so weird,” Zoro grumbled.
Sanji couldn’t help but laugh, “Let’s get out of here then.”
They walked back the way he came. Or at least, he was pretty sure it was the way he came, but after a few minutes everything was still mist and water.
“You sure you know where you’re going?” Zoro asked.
He scowled, “I don’t want to hear that from...”
A figure appeared in the fog, and he trailed off as he stopped to look at them.
“C’mon,” Zoro tugged urgently at his hand, “Let’s go.”
But it was a woman, he realized as she got closer, a woman he knew.
“Mom?” he asked, letting go of Zoro’s hand as he took a step towards her.
“Sanji,” his mother said, a kind smile wide on her face as she reached out and touched his cheek.
The mist behind her seemed to clear, and he could see a grassy plain as far as the eye could see.
“Come with me, Sanji,” she was saying, soft and gentle.
“I, I can’t.” He had dinner to make, didn’t he? And he had to get Zoro out of here.
But, the others could handle dinner for one night, and surely Zoro could make it out on his own. He could stay here with his mom for a bit, couldn’t he? It’d been so long...
“Sanji,” a sharp voice said somewhere behind him, but the more he focused on his mother, the more it faded into the background, “Let’s go.”
“You’ve grown so much,” his mother said, “We can catch up.” She held out a hand to him, “We can be together forever. Come with me, and all your worries will be gone.”
It was a tempting offer, he had so many worries, but, “My friends...”
“You’ll see them again,” she said. His hand moved towards hers on its own volition, “I promise. They’ll all be there eventually, even that swordsman.”
Zoro? That’s right, hadn’t he just...?
“Sanji, please!” He heard Zoro shout desperately, almost begging. Why was Zoro begging? “I just got you, I can’t lose you like this!”
He started to turn towards him, but his mom’s eyes grew wide and sad. He couldn’t leave her, could he?
“Sanji,” she whispered.
“I love you,” Zoro shouted like his life depended on it, “Please come back.”
Sanji turned to Zoro and grabbed his outstretched hand.
The mist around him grew dark and cold. When he looked, his mother and the grassy plain she was tempting him towards were gone.
“Zoro?”
Zoro grabbed his face and leaned their foreheads together, “Don’t leave me again.”
“Right,” he squeezed his hand and let his presence ground him back in reality, “Shall we go?”
“Just,” his hand slid up and carded through Sanji’s hair as he closed his eyes, “Give me a minute.”
Sanji did so. The cold water was making his shoes damp and uncomfortable, but Zoro’s warmth was enough to soothe him.
“Okay,” he said eventually, kissing Sanji’s forehead gently as he pulled away, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Yeah,” he agreed as he guided Zoro to the moss covered tunnels and out of this shitty cave.
“Would you ever have told me how you felt?” Sanji asked him once they were back at sea, “If it weren’t life or death?”
“Probably not.” Zoro’s head was in his lap and his eyes were closed, dozing peacefully until Sanji started talking, “I didn’t think you were interested, so why bother?”
Sanji flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette, “So what, you were going to take your undying love for me to your grave or some bushido bullshit?”
“Pretty much,” he peeked his eye open, “Wasn’t that what you were going to do?”
“Well, yeah,” he admitted with a sigh, “But when I do it it’s tragic and romantic.”
Zoro snorted and closed his eye.
Sanji hadn’t asked Zoro about the girl, Kuina, or the white sword. Zoro hadn’t asked him about his mother. When the time came, he was sure he’d tell Zoro everything he wanted to know, but not now.
Now they sat in the sunlight and enjoyed the peace.