Work Text:
Although Luffy loved adventuring most, being in close proximity with the members of his crew— eating, fishing, playing cards, singing out of tune, sticking chopsticks up their noses— on the Thousand Sunny was a neverending happiness.
He was also starting to develop an appreciation for the quiet moments in his life, more so now that he and Sanji had become an item. Cuddling. Bathing. Kissing. Whispering in pretend secret. Laughing. Pointing out shapes in clouds and stars. He could only describe it all as sacred— a meaning he learned from these things, could only understand in these terms, something untouchable, undisturbable, its own world.
He couldn't imagine being any happier.
As reward for helping clean up after dinner (clean water, no smudges, no breaking anything), he got to lay his head in Sanji's lap and have his head massaged by cool, slender fingers. Sanji would use his free hand to write out recipes on the dining table or read a book borrowed from Robin. Sometimes, Sanji would read out loud to him. It wasn't boring when Sanji acted out the voice lines (and made snide or doting remarks about each and every character). His favorite was hearing about great legends. Instead of Gold Roger and Oden, it was Lucard the Fruit-Hunter, Stray-Eye Sirje, and the unnamed man who spoke with Sea Beasts. When he got very, very lucky and pouted in just that way that made Sanji soften and relent, they would read the Sora, Warrior of the Sea comics from the newspaper.
In the beginning, at those times Luffy caught Sanji bursting out into laughter at a corny punchline, the latter would admit the comics were tolerable, something to laugh at. As time went on, and Sanji could no longer hide his excitement for the next installment of the story, he gave the excuse that he only looked forward to seeing Germa 66 lose again and again. But it wasn't long after that that he voluntarily revealed he was a huge fan of the main character, Sora, the righteous idealist who always gave his all in the face of hardship after hardship, who shared names with his mother (noted with a tender smile on his face). Luffy liked him too; he was a hero after all. But his favorite was definitely Stealth Black, the quiet yet cunning, villainous thirdborn who operated on his own, working behind the scenes to make his father's evil schemes a reality and rescue his brothers from trouble. He really did resemble Sanji. When he mentioned all this, Sanji blushed, grumbling about cheering on murderers who burned down towns for a living, then sighed, saying “Sometimes the most dangerous thing about you is you don't know how to exaggerate. Or flatter. Your brunt honesty is going to be the early death of me. I both love and envy it.” He got an extra helping of cutlets for his supper that night.
It was good. Really good. But it couldn't go on forever. Nothing ever did.
In the past couple weeks, Sanji hadn't read to him at all. No comics. No cloud-watching. Hurried cheek pecks. The only cuddling was after Sanji was dead asleep, exhausted from his daytime errands. He cooked, he prepped meals, he butchered, salted, and dried fish, he pickled vegetables, he rotated inventory, he sharpened knives and oiled cutting boards, he pruned and fertilized Nami's mikan trees and weeded and watered Robin's flower bed, he stocked the bar and cleaned and maintained the aquarium to ensure the quality of the aquatic life, and here and there he went. Luffy tried to be patient. He knew the meaning of patience; he was used to waiting. He had to wait a few years after Ace left to become a pirate and again when he was separated from his crew after all. But those times he was content because he knew he wasn't yet ready to pursue an adventure and it would come eventually. This time, it felt like a large chunk of him was slowly being peeled off. He didn't know what would come next. Luffy wasn't sure he liked the feeling. Sanji was his own person.
Then again, he was a pirate. And pirates greedily went after what they wanted.
If it was to force Sanji's attention, he could be creative. Maybe replace Sanji's spatulas and ladles with a drawing of them? Pretend to be sick? Last resort was go on a hunger strike.
It had to be a strategy that wouldn't result in a boot to the face. In the end, there was one thing he could think of where he didn't have to lie in wait to get what he wanted.
Waiting for Sanji to return from his two-day shopping trip to the next couple towns over gave him enough time to plan. He enacted it as soon as Sanji started directing the boys on loading the cargo on Sunny's deck.
Luffy set down five barrels, pretending to be knocked back by the rebound of his stetched arms. He twirled as if out of control, stumbling backwards and overboard, on the deep side of the ship.
In his complete trust and surety that Sanji would save him, he miscalculated something.
Jinbe saved him instead.
This was the first time he found himself irritated at the amicable fishman. He must have made some kind of face because his nakama recoiled a bit, asking if he felt okay.
“No,” he answered honestly, “Jinbe, I order you to stay put. Captain's orders.” As soon as he recovered the energy, he jumped right back into the ocean, not bothering with an act this time, as Jinbe openly gawked at him.
Jinbe must have obeyed, for no one came after him right away. But in time, there was a splash... and a second one.
Then nothing. He felt more and more like his limbs were about to drift away from his body. Luffy squinted through the blue.
A reindeer. A skeleton. Suspended deadweights the same as him. It was a funny sight. The fish in the area had already scurried away.
A third splash. Luffy's heart quickened. Even before he saw who it was, he knew the familiar honed arm would reach for him, wrapping tight around him, a flash of gold. He was brought closer to the others. Then, Rokushiki-styled kicks pushed them through water and air back onto the deck.
This wouldn't do at all. Sanji wasn't focusing his attention on him, he was focusing it on all of them.
Luffy gave Brook and Chopper the stink eye. Ehhhh, Chopper noised in confusion.
His stare was cut short by Sanji's deft footwork. Not even Jinbe was spared. In the end, he had failed AND was kicked anyway! They were made to kneel in a row in penitence as Sanji lectured them: “When will you anchors learn not to goof off near the ship's edge and especially not to dive in after each other?! Think of the extra work you're giving to the rest of us! I don't mind fetching you out, but I would rather do without the surprise salt-bath. And, you, Jinbe! You were standing right there! You should have went after Luffy first! He's your captain!”
“I'm sorry,” they answered in unison, contrite.
“Wait a minute, Sanji-kun,” Nami intervened, looking over from the top deck, near her trees, “It's not Jinbe's fault. Look, he's wet, right? He did dive after Luffy, but for whatever random reason, our genius captain purposely jumped right back in. Seriously, sometimes I wonder if he's this way because his rubber fruit power slows the electrical activity in his brain.”
At that, Sanji directed him with a curious look. Luffy looked away, putting on his best nonchalant whistling face. “I didn't do any such thing,” he insisted, acting offended.
There was a long pause, no doubt because everyone was buying his lie.
“I see. So it was an accident.”
“He's lying, Chopper.”
“Eh?!” Luffy echoed the reindeer, not expecting to be called out.
Sanji raised his voice again, growing seriously angry this time. “I wasn't joking when I said I don't have time for your shenanigans, Luffy.”
“Then when will you have time,” Luffy snapped back, just as mad, “We're on the same ship, but it doesn't feel that way. We barely do anything together anymore. I miss your reading.”
Sanji seemed thrown off by his outburst, but he recovered: “So, what, you endangered yourself to get my attention? Why can't you talk about your complaints like a normal person?”
“They're not complaints,” Luffy insisted, “They're not. I know how busy you are. I get it. But I'm not satisfied! And... And I don't think you are either.”
Chopper, Brook, and Jinbe looked back and forth between them as they argued, hanging off every word.
Sanji sighed. “It's not like I don't want the same thing or that I'm purposely trying to avoid you, I'm...” A thoughtful beat. He sighed again, a little less tired. “Maybe I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate a relationship. I'm getting back into my old habits and routines, and I forgot that it's 'we' instead of 'me' now.”
“Sorry, Luffy, Sanji-kun,” Nami spoke up, hands together before her, “I'm partly to blame for asking Sanji-kun to help with the mikan trees. I can do it myself from now on. I tended an entire orchard at home; maintaining a couple of trees is a breeze in comparison. And you know, this is Bellmere's treasure, and I handle all the treasure on this ship.”
Sanji quickly swung in her direction. “You've done nothing wrong, Nami-swan~! It was me who accepted the task out of my love to serve you~”
“Even so, I want you and Luffy to be happy.”
“Happy, huh...” Sanji murmured, becoming solemn. He reached for his pocket but seemed to recall it was soaking wet and stopped. “I'm really fricking this up, aren't I?” He faced back around, meeting Luffy's eye. “Alright, maybe we can take this one step at a time. I know you like to explore, but would you have preferred it if I took you with me on my shopping trip?”
“Both are good,” said Luffy, no need to think deeply, “But Sanji's better.”
“Alright, I got it already.” Sanji scratched the back of his head in his usual way of masking his embarrassment. His mumbling suspiciously seemed to sound like 'as I said, the death of me'. The hand dropped. “I got it.”
At that moment, he seemed to realize they still had an audience. “Oh, don't mind us,” Brook assured when blue eyes turned on him, “We are the flowers on the wallpaper. Although I am far past the bloom of my youth. Yohohohohohoh!”
“Get your vacant, weird-as-heck peepers somewhere else, you shitty skeleton!” Sanji chased them away, Brook continuing to laugh all the while.
Content, Luffy waited for him to return to his side.
And he did. “You know what you are? You're like a neglected puppy acting out.”
“Shishishi, maybe. You'd treat a puppy better though!”
“Not true! Who do you think I made that trek all the way to the specialty shop in the middle of nowhere for, you—" Sanji caught himself, clearly saying more than he intended and blushing again.
“Me! What did you get me, Sanji?!” Luffy could already feel his mouth watering.
Sanji smirked. “Just the best a cook's nose can find for his captain.”
“Now? Now? Can I have it now?”
“Hold your horses. Help me finish putting everything away, and I'll reveal what it is. And...” Sanji smiled genuinely at him, meaning everything in his expression. “After supper, I'll read you another comic as apology.”
Luffy cheered, scurrying off towards the wagon Sanji had rented, headed by a strange falcon-ox beast.
“Whoa, whoa, be gentle with that! Break anything, and I throw you overboard myself...”