Our lives are not like other peoples [complete]

[notadartboard]

WHO: Sanji and Zoro
WHERE: Sanji's kitchen
WHEN: the night Usopp and Zoro arrived, late late late
WARNINGS: assholery, violence
SUMMARY: after Usopp's gone to sleep, the other two feel the need to chat. WHICH BECOMES A FIGHT
FORMAT: I'd say something else but we all know it's para. SHORTPARA

Comments

[mrbleedsalot]

Zoro said nothing, just continued to frown into his cup of sake, as if would turn into a portal and bring them back to the rest of the crew.

"I don't like it." He swallowed the remaining sake from the cup and set it down on the table, one hand resting upon his swords. He didn't say anything else though, just frowned at the table, as if deep in thought.

[notadartboard]

"Yeah, it's shit," Sanji agreed. "I've been here a whole year, except for one little blink of time. Three days, that was it."

His gaze traveled to the scar, but he decided not to ask about it. Someday, maybe it would come up in conversation, but not now. "At least now I know. It's been hell just existing here and not knowing what happened to all of you. I could have taken it if you'd all been killed, as long as I just knew and wasn't left wondering."

[mrbleedsalot]

Again, Zoro said nothing. He poured himself another cup of sake and swallowed it almost immediately. His eye never leaving Sanji's. He could make a joke, tease Sanji about the sentimentality, but now wasn't the right time and Zoro wasn't in the mood.

He set his cup down, dragging the sake over once more. This time he didn't fill his cup, instead drinking straight from the... whatever sake comes in. "Idiot chef." He took a long drink, wiping his mouth when he was done. "The crew's tougher than that."

[notadartboard]

Sanji just scowled at him. "I didn't say I actually thought you were all dead!" he snapped. "I meant...! Never mind. It doesn't matter. And don't drink all of that, it'll be a few days before I can get more."

[mrbleedsalot]

Reluctantly, Zoro put the sake down, reaching out for the rum instead. "What exactly is this place?"

[notadartboard]

"Another world. Don't ask me how, just take it as given." Sanji set down his tea and lit another cigarette - he was keeping a steady chain going throughout this discussion. "About a month ago I stole a ship and took a sail to see what the oceans were like. It really isn't our world, not even close. More land than you or I have ever seen, big wide oceans and not a lot of islands."

[mrbleedsalot]

Zoro's frown deepened. It wasn't really that he loved his old world, but being in a place that was so completely new put him at a disadvantage. "Where's the ship now?"

[notadartboard]

"The police have it." Sanji sniffed a bit. "Whoever I stole it from was a criminal in the first place, there was all kinds of shit on board. They took it and let me off for turning it over."

Things might have turned out much differently if he hadn't been alone, but it was too late to go back now.

[mrbleedsalot]

Zoro stared at Sanji, wondering whether he should ask him why he had given it back in the first place. But then again... their captain wasn't here. Or the rest of their crew.

Zoro drank his rum. "Any Marines here?"

[notadartboard]

Sanji scratched self-consciously at his scruffy chin (goddammit Usopp). "Not like we know them. There's a Coast Guard, but they really don't know shit." He scowled. "It's kind of stupid, they'd never put bounties on our heads or anything. It almost makes causing trouble not worth it."

[mrbleedsalot]

So basically there was nothing to do here. Great. Zoro took another swig of the rum. "Any good fighters?"

[notadartboard]

The changing expression on Sanji's face might have answered the question before he even said a word. "More than enough to go around," he replied with a sly grin slowly filling his face. "I bet there's a few who could kick even your ass. Just use the comm thingy and ask around. Lots of people do."

[mrbleedsalot]

He raised a brow at Sanji. Funny. He remembered Sanji from two years ago to be smarter than that. As if he'd actually ask around for a fight. He bit his tongue though, sipping at his rum.

"Mm. We'll see."

[notadartboard]

Sanji was only teasing him, maybe trying to get a rise out of him since this perfectly civil conversation was so unusual. The grin faded quickly, though. "Things tend to happen around here," he warned. "Sometimes it's just weird or funny, but sometimes..." His lips twisted around the cigarette. "Perfectly decent people get kidnapped, tortured, even assassinated. There's a couple of guys who are far worse than any of the shichibukai...worse than we would ever be. You don't have to go looking for trouble, it'll show up when you least expect it."

[mrbleedsalot]

A predatory grin slowly settled onto Zoro's face. The hand that had been resting on his katana twitched in anticipation. Holding the mug of rum up to his lips, he let out a dark chuckle.

"Sounds like fun."

[notadartboard]

That grin only served to remind Sanji that he had been, essentially, at a standstill for a whole year. He was often too busy being a respectable civilian to run out and fight, he had missed far too many. He couldn't remember the last time he fought all-out...was it that horned bastard who killed Liadrin? Or maybe Shiro, a fight he technically lost. No, there was that asshole who crashed the club and stabbed him in the hands a couple months ago. All those memories only made him angrier at himself. Naturally, the best solution was to take it out on Zoro.

"Just because you've gotten yourself cut up a few dozen more times doesn't mean you're strong enough to handle this place," he snarled. "Go ahead and get yourself killed if you want, you'll probably just come back to life a few days later and never learn."