Archive of Our Own

****

When Zoro opens his eye all he sees is wood. A wooden ceiling, wooden walls, humble wooden furniture. There are even a few wooden swords in a slightly tall basket next to where he’s lying on the wooden floor. The first thought that comes to him is that this is someone’s house. The second is that this is not the only time he has been here, but his mind is too foggy to remember exactly when he has seen this place before.

The floor creaks loudly, as he pushes himself up to stand, and that’s the only sound he can hear. Everything else is strangely quiet. And dark. Judging also by the moonlight that spreads through the window and into the small room, Zoro must have woken up in the middle of night. He looks down at himself and notices that he’s wearing the same clothes he usually wears on the Sunny. Nothing seems to be amiss, except for the fact that he has just been fighting against Kaido’s right-hand man and yet, there are no blood stains nor bandages on his body. He feels no pain like he normally would after such a big battle.

A faint thud from outside draws his attention before he can think too much about all this and he instinctively reaches for his swords, but his hand closes around empty air. A quick glance at the place makes him realise that the only swords in the room are the wooden ones in the basket.

Zoro narrows his eye, staring at the door in front of him. Unable to sense any particular presence and not liking it, he squares his shoulders and reaches for the handle.

As he walks out of the wooden house, he immediately notices a tall figure standing not too far from him, but it’s too dark to see who it is. Before he can open his mouth to ask, though, the mysterious person steps closer, right into a bright ray of moonlight.

“Hey.”

Her voice is soft, kind, familiar. She’s wearing simple, plain clothes, plus a brown cloak made of fur that hugs her shoulders, but it does nothing to hide her broad frame and muscles. Her green hair is so bright under the moon, while her dark grey eyes stare directly into his own soul, and Zoro doesn’t believe what he’s seeing. He can’t believe what he’s seeing. It’s impossible.

This can’t be real.

“Did you get lost again, my little green bean?”

His heart clenches at the mention of that silly nickname, one he thought he’d never hear again. His single eye is wide with shock, he’s gaping in a way that probably makes him look stupid, but there’s also something stuck in his throat, and even when he finally manages to speak, his voice comes out as a choking sound… “Ma’?”

She smiles at him as she opens her brawny arms, and before Zoro’s mind can catch up with his body, he’s already leaning against her, burying his face in her shoulder, and clinging to her with his hands holding onto the cloak. He suddenly feels like a little child in her strong and comforting embrace, which brings back sweet memories that he thought he had left behind a long time ago. But he remembers now, the small house, the creaking floor, the wooden swords he used for training…

They stay like that for a while, before his mother speaks again. “You really outdid yourself this time, huh?”

It takes a moment for him to understand what she’s referring to. The blood in his veins runs cold as blurred images of powerful flames and a black armour pass through his mind, “Am I…” he stops and leans back to look at her face, “Ma’, I can’t… I’m not dead, right?”

“No, little green bean. Or at least, not yet.” She says in a reassuring tone, and he lets out a breath of relief. Then, she leads him towards the porch of the house where they sit down together, like they used to do many years ago. “You passed out and fell in a very deep sleep. But I’m sure your cute reindeer doctor is doing everything he can to make sure you wake up soon.”

Zoro blinks. “You know Chopper?”

“Of course I do. I know all of them.” She replies, as if that’s the most obvious thing in the world. “What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time if not watching over my son?”

“How?”

“I don’t know exactly how it works. But there are several ways in which the world of Death is connected to the world of the living.” She explains patiently. “The world of dreams is one of them, and that’s where you are now.”

He frowns slightly. “So, I’m dreaming?”

She shakes her head and goes on. “Not quite. There is a fine line between the world of dreams and the world of Death. And you, my son, are right on the verge of that line.”

He lazily scratches his cheek, thinking that this is far from the first time he’s had a close call with Death, but this time in particular must have been closer than he believed if he ended up in such a surreal situation.

“But like I said, your crewmate is taking care of you. You trust him, right?”

“I do.” Zoro says without hesitation. “He’s the best doctor.”

His mother smirks and stands up. “Come on, then. We don’t know how much time we have before you wake up.”

She takes a few steps ahead before she turns around and abruptly pulls a huge battle axe out of thin air, pointing it at him.

“Let’s spar.”

That’s when Zoro notices that his swords have mysteriously appeared at his side. He grins and picks them up, ready to unsheathe them.

****

[15 years ago]

“Alright, now dodge this!”

Tera waited a few seconds for her child to understand her command before swinging her wooden club towards him. He swiftly jumped to the side and landed on his feet in perfect balance.

“Very good.” Tera’s mouth spread into a proud grin as she assessed her son’s moves. “If you keep on training like this, you might get even stronger than me and your dad one day.”

“Really?” Zoro was panting a little bit and his forehead was starting to sweat after all the practice, but his eyes still sparkled with excitement.

“Yeah. But I think that’s enough for today.”

“What? No!” Zoro protested immediately. “I want to go on.”

“And we will, tomorrow.” Tera promised him, like she always had to do when her son was being too stubborn. “Now it’s getting late, and I still have to go into the forest to hunt our dinner.”

She watched with an amused smile as her boy opened his mouth to argue once more but then closed it and pouted, apparently accepting his fate. Then again, he was probably hungry.

“Can I come with you?” He asked, instead, all of a sudden.

Tera thought about it for a moment. It wouldn’t take too long to catch something for her family, but she didn’t want to risk having Zoro getting lost because he tried to follow her without her knowing. There was another problem, though. If her overprotective husband knew that she was letting their child coming along during her hunts, she would never hear the end of it. Of course, she understood why he got so worried, given Zoro’s unexplainable issue with directions, but sometimes he was just exaggerating in her opinion. After all, her own father used to take her with him and his gang of bandits during their ambushes since she had been four years old. Zoro was already six now.

“Alright.” She decided in the end. She just had to make sure Arashi wouldn’t find out, so she leaned down to whisper to her son, while bringing a finger to his lips. “But don’t tell your dad, okay? It’ll be our little secret.”

Zoro furrowed his brow to show all his seriousness and nodded without making a sound.

Satisfied, Tera straightened her back and was about to walk into the house to get her axe, when she was hit by a stab of pain in her lungs that caused a violent coughing fit. The pain spread all the way through her throat and only after a few moments she managed to breathe normally again.

“Ma’?” Zoro grabbed the hem of her shirt to catch her attention. “Are you okay?”

“Of course, my little green bean.” She replied, forcing her tone to be as light and casual as possible despite how sore her throat and chest felt. Then, she brought a hand to her boy’s head and ruffled his hair playfully. “It’s nothing you have to worry about.”

****

The steel of his sword blocks the hard metal of the axe with a loud clang. The power that explodes from the attack forces Tera to back off, while her son remains perfectly steady.

As she lands carefully on the ground, Tera can’t help but grin at him. “You got strong.”

Zoro’s heart flutters when he hears the praise, like it did when he was child and his mother complimented him, making him feel already like the strongest man in the world.

But then, she murmurs something in such a quiet voice that he almost doesn’t catch what she says. “Your dad would be very proud. As am I.”

He frowns at her tone, as a bad feeling in his gut makes his body tense up. He didn’t know before if he should ask, but now he can’t help it. “Where is dad?”

His mother looks down at her own boots, suddenly unable to meet his gaze, and silence descends between them for a few moments.

“I don’t know.” She admits in the end. “I told you I’m not sure how this works. But I think it has something to do with the way you die.” She pauses briefly to let out a small sigh that probably hides much more pain than she allows herself to show. “I died of an illness. And your father died a violent death, during a fight. I haven’t seen him since.”

Zoro has never bothered to think much about how the logic of Death and afterlife might work – if there even is logic at all – and he certainly isn’t going to do that now. But he has heard people talking about it, and a lot of them seemed to believe that after you die you’d be able to meet all the people you have loved and who died before you. He has never really cared before, but now that he knows it might not happen like that… he’s not sure what to make of it. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry.” His mother says, finally looking up to give him a soft, genuine smile. “I’ve met other people here who died in the same way I did. We often share memories and watch over our living loved ones together. It’s nice.”

Something warms up in his chest and he feels himself smiling back at her. Maybe this is a version of afterlife he can believe in.

“So,” Tera begins, after they sit down on the porch again, “have I ever told you how your father and I started dating?”

****

[25 years ago]

“Oi, you bandit!”

The deep voice thundered from the top of the hill, and as soon as Tera turned to look in that direction, she saw an all too familiar figure marching towards her and the rest of the gang.

“Oh, god, not him again!” One of the gang members groaned loudly from where they were lying in the shade of a big tree.

“It’s too early for this shit.” Another complained.

“Hey, Tera, what’s up your boyfriend’s ass this morning?”

“Shut up, idiot! Don’t let him hear you, or he’ll seriously try to cut my head off this time.”

“Why do I think you’d be into that?”

“You don’t want to know what I’m into.” Tera smirked in reply to the last man who spoke.

“That’s it. I’m outta here.”

One after the other, the bandits got up and began walking away, muttering to each other while Tera stayed where she was.

“She should ask him out already, maybe he’ll stop bothering us.”

“Oi, Arashi, it’s been a while.” Tera shouted, as he approached, knowing full well that they had seen each other just the other day. “Did you miss me?”

Apparently, it was possible for the scowl on the samurai’s face to deepen even more than it already had. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know why I’m here.”

Tera raised an eyebrow at him, trying to look as innocent as she could just for the sake of teasing him a little. “Do I?”

“I heard that a merchant was attacked this morning.” Arashi explained slowly, while his hand clenched around the hilt of the sword he always carried by his side. “All his goods were stolen.”

“And?”

“It happened near the village, in the territory where you and your band of outlaws usually commit your crimes.”

Tera let out a long sigh. Again with the same old story about morals and stuff like that. She should have expected this. “Did you also hear that the merchant is an old swindler who tricks farmers into selling their products to him for less than a half of what they’re worth?”

Arashi blinked, scowl gone from his face as he paused for a moment. “But you admit it was you.”

“Yes. It was me and the others.”

“And have you also returned the products to those people who had been tricked?”

“No.”

Just like it had disappeared, the scowl came back even angrier than before. “Then how does that make you any different from that old merchant?”

Tera brought both her hands to her head and massaged her temples in the vague hope that she could avoid having a headache. Same old story. She was getting sick of it. “Fucking hell. Why do you even ca– no, you know what? I’m not having this conversation with you again.”

She turned around to leave, but of course Arashi wouldn’t just let her be. “You’re always running away, like those cowards.”

Tera had just picked up her huge axe from where it had been resting against a tree, when she stopped moving. The bastard always knew how to get her all riled up. She turned once again to face the infuriating samurai, ready to show him exactly how much of a coward she was. “You asked for this.”

That was all the warning Arashi got before the thick blade of Tera’s axe was in front of his eyes. It would have split his head in two, had he not been a very well-trained warrior who could unsheathe his sword faster than the speed of light. They battled for dominance until they both decided to step back and attack again from a different angle at the same time. Another powerful move brought their faces close to each other.

“You can’t go on like this.” Arashi hissed through gritted teeth, and both of them knew he wasn’t talking about the fight. “You must know that what you and those bandits do is wrong.”

Tera scoffed but refused to pull back. “Oh, I’m sorry, does my lifestyle offend the ever so honourable samurai?”

“Rules exist to be followed.” Arashi argued, as he kept pushing. “If even one single person doesn’t do that, the whole society is doomed to descend into chaos.”

“And your daddy taught you that you should do everything in your power to prevent that from happening, like it’s your job to make sure that we all live in peace and harmony and blah blah blah.”

“I’m just trying to do my part here. I’m nothing but a–”

“A humble swordsman with a stupid moral code to stick to. I know.” She said mockingly before she raised her weapon to strike once more but was blocked again by the samurai’s sword. “Why can’t you just accept that we see things differently?”

“Because… because you’re objectively a strong, powerful warrior and I–I…” Arashi faltered for a second, struggling against the axe to push her away. “I don’t understand why you choose to spend your time with those weak criminals.”

Although a small part of her wanted to tease him for the compliment he had just given her, Tera had had enough of joking and playing around. “What I do is none of your business. Get it through your thick skull.”

She summoned all her strength and forced Arashi to jump backwards to avoid being crushed by the weight of her axe. By this point, they were both panting, and their foreheads were covered in sweat.

When Arashi didn’t make another move to attack, Tera felt her blood boil in her veins, along with her racing heart. That man always had this effect on her. He was irritatingly stubborn, strong, brave, and loyal to the core. He was a real challenge, but not only on the battlefield. He confused her. He seemed interested in spending time with her – which was something the other bandits often joked about – but he also always had an excuse to fight her. It had been fun at first, but now it was just annoying. “You just can’t leave me alone, huh? Do you like me that much?”

“Wha-what?” Arashi stuttered. “I don’t– I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Maybe you’re the one who should stop acting like a coward.” She stepped forwards once again, until she was close enough to grab the collar of the swordsman’s clothes. “Tell me the truth, Arashi. Why do you keep doing this?”

“B-Because… I…” as he tried to reply, his usually focused eyes shifted from side to side, avoiding Tera’s own gaze. A long moment passed, in which the samurai’s face seemed to be about to explode from how red it was becoming, but then he shook his head and finally managed to look at the woman in front of him again. This time, though, his gaze shone with newfound determination.

“Tera…”

The use of her name caught her off guard. She couldn’t even remember the first time the samurai said it – if he ever did. But it was the sentence that followed that she had never imagined she would hear from him.

“… I love you.”

Tera’s eyes widened and she froze, too stunned to speak, or move. Her body suddenly felt so light she could have flown in the wind, but the samurai’s resolute stare held her on the ground.

“Fucking finally.” When the meaning of those words sank in, she surged forward without a hint of hesitation, and Arashi met her halfway. They pressed their lips together, sealing a promise full of love and devotion that was the start of their new life, even though they didn’t know it yet.

****

Zoro blinks a few times, while his mind slowly processes everything his mother has just told him. “You and dad… started dating while fighting each other?”

“I wouldn’t call it fighting. In hindsight, I think it was more like quarrelling just to have an excuse to be close to each other and spend time together without having to face our feelings.” His mother leans closer until she can bump her shoulder against his and then smirks. “Sounds familiar?”

Zoro feels his face heat up as images of a certain annoying curly-eyebrowed cook flash before his eyes without his permission. “How… what do you know exactly?”

“Even if I’m dead, I’m still your mother. I know basically everything about you.” Tera replies easily. “It also helps that I can see everything that happens in the world of the living, and I’d be truly blind if I didn’t notice the way you pine for the blond guy in your crew.”

Not even trying to deny his mother’s statement, Zoro buries his face in his hands and lets out a pained noise.

In return, Tera exhales a tired sigh. “Yeah, and I’m afraid to say that you obviously take after your father where flirting is concerned. It’s quite frustrating to watch.”

“Ma’!”

“Well, I’m sorry, but someone had to tell you.”

“As if I didn’t know.” Zoro mumbles, and then adds quietly, “What am I supposed to do?”

“You’ll figure it out. After all, even your father and I got married in the end.”

“Yeah, but you already liked dad before he confessed his feelings, didn’t you?”

“I did.” She admits, as her lips curve slightly to form a soft smile. “And I’m pretty sure that Sanji likes you in the same way.”

Zoro almost wants to tell her that it’s impossible, that the cook will never return his feelings, but something in the way his mother says it makes him pause. “You think I should tell him?”

Tera brings a hand on his shoulder and squeezes gently. “I think you should follow your instinct, as you have always done.”

“I will.” He promises.

Tera nods, pleased with her son’s reply. Her gaze then turns upwards, and she breathes in the air around them before declaring, “Our time is up.”

Zoro frowns and takes her hand in his own, not ready to let her go yet. Their eyes meet again, and he wishes this moment could last a little longer. Just a little longer.

But suddenly, something shifts as the ground starts shaking under his boots and the sky splits open. His mother’s smiling face is the last thing he sees before a blinding flash of white light makes everything else disappear from his vision and pulls him back into the darkness.

****

When his eye snaps open the first thing he notices is how dry his throat feels, which immediately prompts him to demand, “Booze!”

Which is followed by an unmistakable, familiar scream, “Meat!”

Both requests are quickly satisfied, as Zoro finds himself gulping down the contents of a huge bottle of sake while he shares a table with his captain, who is equally busy fitting as much meat as he can into his mouth. He has no idea how long it’s been since the battle against Kaido and his pirates, but people around him – some of his crewmates included – are all in a joyful mood, celebrating their victory and freedom, and that’s what counts in the end.

He also finds out that Momonosuke has apparently turned into an adult, and that Yamato has been praying for days for their recovery, refusing to eat and bathe. That must be why Nami suggests that they all take a bath in the castle.

Yamato’s comment causes Zoro to look down at himself, and he raises a brow as he finds his own body perfectly clean, “I’m surprised we’re not dirty ourselves.”

Someone says something next to him – he thinks it’s Hiyori – but he’s not really paying attention until he hears another familiar voice.

“Marimo, you bastard,”

That makes Zoro turn his gaze towards the cook, who is sitting not far from him. As soon as their eyes meet, the memory of the last time they spoke instantly resurfaces in his mind.

After the dust settles… if I’m no longer myself...

“Oh, yeah…” Zoro says, loud enough for the other man to hear, “I must have returned from hell to fulfil my promise to kill you.”

“I don’t need your help with that anymore!” Sanji snaps, as they both stand up and raise their respective weapons, blades of steel meeting the soles of tailored shoes in an almost automatic flow of moves.

A warm feeling of relief settles in Zoro’s chest, because the cook is indeed still himself. He’s still the same fierce, prissy, hot-headed, foul-mouthed, beautiful man Zoro fell in love with a long time ago. That’s right. He has already wasted too much time and he came so close to lose Sanji once too many in the last few days that he can’t keep ignoring it anymore. That deep, terrifying feeling – buried under more than two years of unresolved emotions – has now started to shake him, forcing him to see what he couldn’t or didn’t want to. Now, he thinks of his mother’s words – and it doesn’t matter if it was just a dream or not.

…you should follow your instinct, as you have always done.

Zoro grabs the cook’s ankle before his foot can smash his head, but he doesn’t move to continue their small fight. He ends up holding Sanji’s leg up while the other man glares at him.

“Oi. Let go, shitty swordsman.”

“We need to talk.”

Sanji raises his visible eyebrow in surprise but doesn’t argue, nor does he try to hit him again after Zoro loosens his grip on his ankle. Instead, the cook simply lowers his leg and observes him quietly for a moment.

“Not here.” He says, finally, before grabbing Zoro by the elbow and walking away from the banquet their friends are still enjoying. Zoro is silently glad that they are going to be somewhere more private for this. The cook stops just as the voices of their crewmates begin to fade in the distance. He lets Zoro’s arm go and lights himself a cigarette, while avoiding the other’s gaze.

Zoro keeps looking at him anyway as he tries to find the right words. He hasn’t exactly planned this very well. He just knows that he needs to say something, but of course the cook beats him to it.

“Listen, if this is about the call… just… just forget about it.”

Zoro blinks at him. “What?”

Sanji takes a long drag and then blows out the smoke. “I… I thought something bad was going to happen, but it didn’t. I’m fine now. I’ve already told you I don’t need your help anymore.”

“I know. I can see you’re still you.”

“What do you want then, Marimo?”

“I want to talk about, uh, something else.”

Sanji furrows his brow and squints, as if he was trying to look for clues and anticipate what Zoro is going to say. And although Zoro can both see and feel the cook’s blue gaze travelling on his face, studying him carefully, he doesn’t turn away. Instead, since words usually fail him, he wants to show the cook exactly what he’s searching right now. He wants him to know, to understand, to see everything. So, Zoro looks right back into Sanji’s visible eye and then drops his own gaze only to stare openly at Sanji’s lips.

“Oh.” Sanji whispers, after a moment. “You want to talk about us.”

That’s not exactly the response Zoro was expecting. The cook does seem to be a bit surprised, but he doesn’t look shocked or ready to kick him if he so much as hint at something in the wrong way. “So, you know?”

“I do.” He admits.

“But… you’ve never said anything.”

“Neither have you.”

“I wasn’t sure…” and Zoro still isn’t sure. He’s not even sure of the implications of the conversation they are having. But that’s why he has decided to do this. To take his chance and end all doubts. “I was never sure about what you felt. But I need to say this now.”

“Zoro–”

“I have fallen in love with you, Sanji.”

Sanji’s cigarette slips from between his fingers and falls on the ground. He lets out a shaky breath, instead of smoke. Looking at Zoro with wide eyes, he opens and closes his mouth a couple of times, but no words come out.

Something tightens in Zoro’s chest, as if someone grabbed his heart and was squeezing it in a painful grip. No matter how liberating it is to escape your own cage of hidden feelings, he knew this could hurt.

But then Sanji takes a tentative step towards him and nearly reaches out before stopping himself. When he finally manages to speak, his voice is small and quiet as he asks, “Do you really think that we could make it work?”

Zoro almost can’t believe his ears, but he recognises the fear both in the cook’s tone and on his face. It’s the same as his own – the fear of rejection, the fear of uncertainty, the fear of screwing things up. “I don’t know. But, at this point, I think nothing is impossible if we work together.” It’s most honest yet hopeful answer he can think of, and maybe – just maybe – it will be enough for now. “I guess the question is… do you want to?”

The cook’s expression softens. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t want to.”

Zoro frowns, wondering if perhaps he has missed something. “Do what?”

As a reply, Sanji raises both his hands, one after the other, to cup Zoro’s face and gently strokes his cheeks. Then, he closes the already short distance between them.

As soon as their lips touch, Zoro’s arms wrap around the cook’s waist, as if it’s the most natural thing to do. It is like coming home. Their mouths tremble ever so slightly as they move tenderly against each other, slowly savouring the taste and quickly becoming addicted to it. They don’t stop until they need to get more air in their lungs.

Their faces remain close even as they pull away, so much that Zoro can feel the cook’s hot breath on his skin. A deep blue eye is staring at him, and Zoro barely resists the urge to push the blond hair out of the way so he can look at both those beautiful eyes.

Again, Sanji seems to read something on his scarred face, because suddenly his expression changes and he takes Zoro’s hand in his own, holding it tightly.

“Come with me.” Sanji demands, with his voice a bit hoarse.

And Zoro does, of course, follow him. He distantly thinks that he recognises the place where they are walking as part of Oden’s castle – where everything is pretty much the same to him – but he also notices that they are getting even farther away from the party. Not that he actually cares where they are going, though, as long as he is with his cook.

A few moments later, they stop in front of a thin door and Sanji slides it open to reveal a small, dark room with only one bed in it.

Zoro’s eye widens at the sight, his arousal growing hot inside of himself, and before he can think better of it, he uses the grip he still has on the cook’s hand to tug and make him turn around.

“Wha–”

He can’t help the smug grin that crosses his face when Sanji almost loses his balance and stumbles against his chest.

“What the fuck, you idiot?”

He cuts off any other weak insult or complaint Sanji might deliver by pulling him in an open-mouthed kiss to which, after a moment of surprise, the cook responds with eager passion by pressing his whole body against the other until there’s no more space between them. A moan of pleasure escapes from their mouths before Sanji grips the collar of Zoro’s kimono impatiently and walks backwards into the room while taking the swordsman with him.

****

A pleasant breeze caresses the woman’s blond hair as she listens to the gentle waves that meet the shore just a few inches away from her bare feet. She’s sitting on the warm sand, looking at the line of the horizon, where the sea touches the sky, painted with yellow and orange nuances created by the permanent sunset that leaves enough bright light to appreciate the beauty of the view without the risk of sunburn. It is the perfect place to rest in peace.

She is smiling, even as she turns away from the sight when she hears boots stomping on the sand and approaching her.

“I was wondering when you’d be back.” she tells the other woman in a soft tone. “How did it go?”

“It was… strange. But good. Very good.” The other woman replies, as she sits down with a sigh. “I can’t believe that this is what it took for my stupid son to finally admit his feelings, though.”

“You saw it too, didn’t you?” The blond woman chuckles. “I always say a mother’s love can make anything happen.”

“Yeah, but I wish he didn’t have to almost die to get his head out of his ass.”

“To be fair, Sanji hasn’t made things easy for your son, Tera.”

“Let’s not have this argument again, Sora. We already know our sons are both idiots when it comes to this.” Tera says, not bothering to pretend otherwise. “I’m just happy to see that they have finally figured things out.”

“You’re right.” Sora agrees as she remembers the tender smile on Sanji’s face just before he kissed the man he loves and who loves him in return. “But perhaps now we should look at something else, shall we? After all, there are things that even mothers shouldn’t see.”

Tera glances at the clear water in front of them, where the waves have formed a magically perfect circle that shows the image of the door behind which their sons have disappeared. “Yeah, alright.” Then, she gets an idea and smirks. “How about we have a look at what your boyfriend is up to?”

“Tera!” Sora’s cheeks turn a dark shade of pink, and she helplessly hides her face in her hands. “Please, stop calling him that.”

“You mean to tell me that you haven’t been smitten with that old chef from the moment he saved your son’s life?”

“I’d rather not have this conversation with you again.”

As Tera laughs out loud, the water ripples in the sea and the image gradually changes to show a man with long moustache serving a mouth-watering dish to a very thin old man just outside a weird-looking, ocean-going restaurant.

****