Chapter Text
“I didn’t know where else to go.”
The words were out of his mouth before he could even register them, but they were out and he couldn’t (wouldn’t) take them back.
So he stared back into the dark, curious eyes of Straw Hat Luffy and tried to look like he wasn’t desperate to save his sister from whatever fate Blackbeard had in store for her.
“Please, Straw Hat,” he kept his stare even and determined, even though he was pleading for her help. “Help me get my sister back from that bastard.”
She blinked but that beautiful wide grin of hers, all teeth and amazingly sincere and lighthearted no matter what erupted from her like sunshine.
“Of course, Mochi Guy! Pudding-chan is important to Sanji too anyway,” she stretched out her arm and held out a hand and he hesitated before taking it. She shook it hard.
“The name’s not Mochi Guy…it’s Katakuri,” he said, taking a moment before he shook her hand back. “And…thank you.”
“Shishishishi!” she laughed brightly. “No problem, Mister Mochi,” she was full of smiles and laughs but it made his heart thump loudly in his chest.
“Now come on! Let’s work together and get your sister back!”
If before he had considered that he had to go to the Straw Hats and be forced to work together with them to save Pudding, right now that path didn’t seem so bad after all.
Started 10/23/24 — Completed 10/27/24