(no subject)

[meunda]

“Well Sanji spoke to me most recently about it at a party on the 15th, I think he came there to see me about it actually. I’d always tried to be nice to you him you know, to guide him.” Nezumi lies through his mousy teeth. Sanji sits in his chair and glares, Nezumi did always talk to him a lot, and he was the least stuck up of those on the board, but that didn’t mean that they were friends or that Nezumi had been nice to him.

Sanji is sick of this, every witness that they trot out lies about things, sure Igaram is smacking them all back across the court like some demented tennis game but it’s still not getting him ahead. This is just becoming a legal stalemate and frankly after an entire morning and most of an afternoon of this he’s getting sick of having his name dragged through the mud.

“What was it that Sanji had come to discuss with you?” Lucci asks with a smile.

“About changing the way the institute was run. He was crazy, I think he was drunk in fact, he was slurring and uncoordinated. I guess he loaded up with drink at the bar before coming to me, it’s pretty disgraceful really. He kept talking about changing the way mates were treated and telling people about it, he said that things would be different if he ran the place and that they’d be different soon, one way or the other.” Nezumi says shaking his head.

“I see, and what did you say to this?” Lucci hums thoughtfully.

“At first I thought it was a drunken joke you know?” he says with a slight laugh.

“But then I realised he was serious. I kind of laughed it off, told him that it would never work and that he should forget it. But he went on about it for hours, going round and round about how he was going to be better than his father, about how he was going to change the company or destroy it- he said it had to be his way or it wouldn’t exist at all.” He adds.

“Do you think that he did forget his plan to usurp Spandam from the company?” The lawyer asks leadingly but Igaram doesn’t challenge it for some reason.

“No, he brought it up in the very next board meeting, trying to get people to side with him instead of his father- Lord Prince I mean. I get the feeling that I wasn’t the only person that he talked to about it.” Nezumi remarks. Lucci declares smugly that he has no further questions and then sits down. Igaram clears his throat and stands up.

“Nezumi, you are aware that you are under oath, with that in mind, would you mind clarifying just how long my client talked to you on the night of the 15th?” Igaram asks.

“Two hours at least, maybe more. He was drunk and raving about it.” The mousy man answers in a blatant lie.

“You’re sure?” Igaram asks again.

“I’m not stupid, yes I’m sure!” Nezumi argues back.

“Stop badgering my witness Igaram!” Lucci snarls.

“Do you have a point Igaram?” The judge asks with narrowed eyes.

“I do, allow me to submit into flight data from Sanji’s car, driven by his driver, which stated that he left just after eight, less than an hour after he arrived at the party. Also I’m submitting three statements from other drivers that were there that night, including your own Nezumi, who all collaborate this unusual leaving time.” Igaram says, dropping the evidence on the judge’s desk. Sanji smirks as the mousy man starts to sweat as the judge looks over at him.

“Would you like to revise your statement?” The judge growls.

“Well… I- maybe it wasn’t hours. But it felt like it, he was ranting so much and he was so drunk!” the man squeaks pleadingly.

“Drunk you say? Sure about that too?” Igaram smiles broadly, Nezumi shrinks back but as he looks from Igaram to the judge he clearly sees that he has no choice.

“Yes.”

“Well, please again allow me to submit evidence. I find it very strange that a bar that was not licensed to sell alcohol and indeed only distributed mood drinks somehow got my client drunk. Are you planning on telling us anything true today?” the curly haired lawyer asks.

“I object to you insulting the character of my witness!” Lucci roars ferociously.

“Your witness has just perjured himself twice in as many minutes, with that in mind his testimony is less than useless and I am striking it from the court record. Perhaps you should fact check your witnesses a little more carefully next time Lucci. With that in mind, I’m calling an end to today’s proceedings, court will resume again at 9am tomorrow morning.” The judge says and slams her gavel down. From the expression on Lucci’s face you’d think she’d slammed it on his nuts.

Sanji and Igaram leave the court and meet Franky who drives them back to the Baratie again. It’s started to become a home base of sort with everyone pitching in ideas about the case and what evidence to put it, the data from the car had actually been Franky’s idea and he had submitted the names of the other drivers for Igaram to question. Igaram tells the beaming driver this as they go.

The package is waiting for him when he walks through the Baratie’s kitchen door, it’s marked to him and the others are all looking at it.

“I was going to open it,” Nami says handing it to him, the package is soft and bendy like it’s got clothes or something inside. Sanji frowns, he has no idea what this could be, and he’s certainly not ordered any clothes.

“But it smells… like blood.” She says backing off.

Sanji’s eyes widen, he’d told everyone yesterday about Blackbeard giving him Zoro’s padlock which is currently weighing down his breast pocket, so they must all be thinking what he’s thinking. He raises the package up and sniffs, sure enough the coppery tang of blood hits him, it’s faint but it’s there.

His hands shake as he turns the package over, it’s one of those brown paper bags with bubble wrap built in. He rips the flap off and pulls the contents out. There’s a white shirt inside, without even looking too closely at it he knows that it’s the white shirt that Zoro wore to court the other day, the day that he was taken from him.

Sanji breathes in, the smell of blood is stronger now. He unfolds the shirt from the quarters that it was folded in inside the package, the shirt is completely drenched in sticky half wet-half dry blood from the left shoulder downwards. It’s one long stream of blood, of blood that should be pumping through Zoro’s veins, reddening his cheeks, filling him with life, not spent across his shirt as a taunt to Sanji. The shirt itself is all cut up, as if it had to be cut off of Zoro, indeed there are some small smears of blood along the cuts in the shirt as if Zoro had struggled when it was cut away. He holds the shirt up and hears a clinking sound as something falls to the floor.

Numbly he leans down and picks up the three golden earrings from the floor and holds them in his hand. They’re Zoro’s. Three mid length gold bars that he’s seen since the moment he laid eyes on Zoro on the day of their ceremony, when the strong golden eyed man with splashes of gold about him showed up in his life. He knows how they taste when he bites Zoro’s ear, he knows how they sparkle in the light when Zoro tilts his head just so and makes some smart-assed comment. They’ve been in his ear that whole time, until now. Now they’re not sparkling, or moving, or chiming, or anything, they’re sat in Sanji’s palm slick with blood and there’s still some of Zoro’s skin in the parts of the earrings. Clearly they were ripped right from his ear, hence all the blood down the shirt.

He lets out a breath that he’d been holding without realising and feels dizzy for it. He puts the shirt on the table top with the earrings in the centre. The others stare, all having worked out what he’s worked out. Nami lets out a pained noise and swoops in, taking the shirt and earrings from him. She whimpers as she looks from one to the other, her mind obviously coming up with horrible scenarios, maybe even hearing Zoro’s scream as metal rips through flesh - Sanji knows that it’s all that he can hear in his own mind.

He steps away until something else in the envelope catches his eye, a piece of paper. He pulls it out, it’s glossy and printed photo paper in about A4 size. It’s a photo of Zoro on his knees chained up in a black room. Blood is streaming down his neck from his bloodied ear, obviously this was taken just after Blackbeard had ripped the earrings out of him. His collar is turned the other way around and it looks as if the ring that used to have Sanji’s padlock on it now attached to a chain holding Zoro to the wall, his arms are cuffed behind his back, which explains why the shirt in the envelope is all cut up, it must have been the only way that Blackbeard could get it off without uncuffing Zoro. Zoro’s eyes show the sharp sting of pain but his posture, the set of his jaw and the fire in his eyes are all fight. That’s body language that says that if Zoro got free, even if just for a second, he would rip Blackbeard limb from limb and enjoy it too.

Sanji stares at the picture unblinking for minutes, looking over every detail of Zoro, wishing that he could just pull him out of the page. He connects with the other man’s golden eyes and sees the fight in them. The thought hits Sanji like a slap in the face, Zoro is fighting this, he’s still fighting now. And what the hell is he doing? Sitting in court like a good little boy and letting his not-father set the pace. What the hell is he thinking? Zoro needs him to pull it together and come up with a plan goddamnit!

He drops the photo onto Zoro’s shirt and walks away from it across the kitchen to the fridge. He opens it and begins pulling out ingredients, he needs to cook, he needs to think.

“Sanji! What are you doing? Don’t you even care about Zoro? You just dropped that like he was nothing!” Nami shouts at him, he glances over his shoulder to see her eyes filled with tears as she clutches Zoro’s bloodied shirt in her hands and Zoro’s picture before her. He ignores her and grabs a bowl from the shelf above him and pulls out tools from the draw at his hip.

“Don’t mind him Nami, he gets like this when he needs to think.” Usopp says gently behind him. Sanji tunes them all out, he needs to focus.

250 grams of flour, lightly sifted into a large mixing bowl. He needed to help Zoro.

1 tablespoon of baking powder. It wasn’t as if he could just charge into Blackbeard’s and run off with Zoro though, no matter how much he wanted to. He’d be arrested and Zoro would be taken from him again, likely ruining any chance he had to get the other man back at all.

2.5 tablespoons of caster sugar. No, he couldn’t just rescue him like that, he had to be smart.

Half a tablespoon of salt. Stopping Spandam in court could take forever, assuming that he won. Zoro doesn’t necessarily have that time, and if anything Blackbeard is making it clear that Zoro is suffering. Zoro might be fighting now but who knows how long he could keep that up?

In a measuring jug pour 450ml of whole milk. His father- no, Spandam was in control here, that needed to change. But how to stop him?

Stir the dry ingredients in the bowl until well mixed. If Spandam had no money then Sanji would be the last of his problems, he’d bomb out of court, no doubt Lucci wouldn’t work for free and the people paid to grease the wheels of the system in Spandam’s favour would stop doing so.

Melt butter in a pan until you have 100ml, stir well. It couldn’t be as simple as fucking with his investments though, if it was Nami and Robin would have done that already. He knew enough from the accountants that Spandam was pretty bulletproof that way, it was how he’d tried to take down Spandam for Franky before.

Separate two eggs, keeping the whites in one bowl and adding the yolks to the dry mix. How could he get his hands on most of the man’s money, or simply get it out of Spandam’s hands?

Add butter and milk to dry ingredient mix and blend together. His biggest source of income and his biggest liability was the institute, which was why he’d made him so angry. He’d been putting that in danger with his behaviour, this whole endeavour had started out as a way for Spandam to make him more like him he’d- shit. That was what this had all been about. Spandam had brought Zoro in to tempt him, knowing that someone like Zoro was unlikely to ever have sex with Sanji willingly, that must have been the criteria that Zoro was selected by, after all the man had been waiting in the institute unpicked for so long with a big damn note in his file saying that he hated everyone and would almost certainly never give it up!

Continue stirring. The drinks at that party, Zoro hadn’t come across any other colours because people had been trying to ensure that Zoro got as desperate for it as possible, to weaken his resolve. If he had taken advantage of Zoro or forced him into anything then Zoro would have understandably have never trusted him again and he would have been as guilty as the rest of his family, unable to expose them lest he expose himself. It was all to soothe Spandam’s ego and to secure the future of the company, to ensure that when Spandam left it Sanji would be as bound to the status quo as Spandam was.

Whisk egg whites until semi-stiff and just forming gentle peaks. But he hadn’t done that, he’d developed a real relationship with Zoro, the antithesis of everything the institute really stood for. He was a threat. Spandam had tried to force his hand over and over again, even going so far as to frame him but it hadn’t worked. He was, by his existence and behaviour, shining a bad light on the institute. And that threatened Spandam so much that he had to stop him.

Switch on large waffle iron. The institute is how he would get him then. But how? The institute had so many powerful people invested in it, either by choice or through their own guilt, they would protect it as well. Sanji needed them as allies though if he wanted to take down Spandam.

Fold egg whites into mixture, gently so as not to deflate them. The truth was that Zoro had the chance to leave but didn’t. He couldn’t say the same for every other mate though could he? Except Vivi… she seemed happy. Why was she so happy? Didn’t Zoro say that she’d joined at an odd time too? When she was old enough to know better and she never said why? He needed to follow that up.

Pour mix into waffle iron and close. Zoro should have just left him and never looked back, if only he had made him. Why didn’t he? He should have just pressed that small keypad to his neck and unlocked him, thrown him in the car and screamed at him to drive. But he didn’t because he was selfish and he loved Zoro, still does. He wanted Zoro with him because of that, so he let him stay.

Zoro held out his hand, the small black device in his palm.

"Either… either we both go right now, or we both stay." Zoro had said as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Chop one medium banana into slices. Where was that black device? If only he could go back and pop Zoro’s collar open now. If only every mate could.

Retrieve powdered sugar, a plate and a small sieve. Surely that device worked on any collar, it wasn’t unique to Zoro’s. He had got it from that nurse at the hospital hadn’t he? So it must work on any collar, even if the code was unique or random.

Open waffle iron, gently remove waffle and place on plate. How pissed would every master be if their mate ran away? And those mates would be untraceable without their collars.

Decorate waffle with a light dusting of powdered sugar. Those masters would be tearing down Spandam’s door in a rage. He remembers the compensation clause in the contract, it would bankrupt Spandam.

Add sliced banana and a handful of blueberries, just as Zoro likes it. Zoro had the device last… in his pocket. He probably put it in his room.

Switch off waffle iron, leave building, break into your old home under cover of darkness and enact plan to save the love of your life.

Serves six.

Illuminated only by the moon Sanji sprints across his lawn, regretting ever making it so large. However he did run a lot so he knew it well. The night is cold and clear and as he leaps up and climbs the wall he feels like he’s properly awake in the first time in days, weeks even. He’d been so busy trying to catch up or to recover from one shock to the system after another he’d just been stuck in survival mode, only reacting, never acting.

Well fuck that. So the love of his life had been taken from him, what was he going to do about it? Just sit around and cry like some spineless loser? HELL NO! He was going to kick ass and make Spandam rue the day that he ever decided to trouble them. He is going to make Spandam wish that he’d just ignored Sanji in the Baratie! He has taken Zoro from him and as revenge he will destroy him. But first he had to get Zoro back, and to do that he needed a plan. And for this plan he needed that little electronic device.

He lands on Zoro’s balcony with soundless grace and nervously peers through the window. He knows that there are guards patrolling the building, probably on the very real possibility that he’d do something like this, but they’ve not seen him yet and there aren’t any in Zoro’s room. For once dressing almost completely in black is an asset outside of mere fashion concerns.

He slides the door open, hoping that no one had the sense to rewire the alarm in Zoro’s room after Ace smashed his way through the balcony door. It doesn’t go off so Sanji suspects that he’s successful. Either way dallying won’t do him any favours.

Zoro’s desk is empty as are the drawers, his bedside has a half read copy of nineteen eighty four on it, which from Sanji’s memory was a fucking depressing book. He pulls drawers out but no electronic device turns up. He flicks through the copy of nineteen eighty four but it’s not being used as a bookmark either.

With a quiet growl of frustration he throws himself onto Zoro’s bed and scrubs at his face. Okay, he had to calm down and think like Zoro. What was Zoro like, how would he think? Well… he’d lived a life of owning relatively few things, his swords, his earrings… but the device wasn’t with either of them and depressingly neither was Zoro. So… perhaps he might be a bit clingy with things that he really wanted to keep, perhaps a little clever where he hid them? Yes… the institute would be rather strict on what mates could and couldn’t hold on to, so if you wanted to keep something you’d probably have to hide it. But… Zoro would want to keep something that important close, just in case. So it was probably in this room after all Zoro had stashed his report in this room before he gave it back to him to read as a sign of trust.

The bed?

He runs his hand down the edge of the mattress at the place where it touches the wall but feels nothing. He slides underneath the bed and runs his hand between the bed and the bed slats but again there’s nothing, it’d probably be too fragile to keep there. He looks underneath all of the furniture, behind everything in the medicine cabinet in Zoro’s bathroom and at the back of his wardrobe.

He returns to the bed again and throws himself on it once more, it must be here, he needs it to be. His eyes suddenly flick to the large ornate posters of the bed, they were flat on top where they nearly reached the ceiling. Carefully he stands up on the mattress and reaches for the top of the bedpost, it takes a little stretching but he reaches it, the first comes up with nothing but at the top of the bottom left hand one his hand touches smooth plastic. He pulls it back down and examines it, inside his hand is the small black keypad device that could free Zoro, if only he could reach him to put the code in.

Still, it was a start. He stuffs it in his pocket, smoothes the bed sheets over and leaves the room exactly as it was before leaping from the balcony and off into the night like a shadow.

He runs up into the Baratie and finds the kitchen empty of Zeff, Robin, Nami, Igaram, Vivi and the D brothers, though filled with the usual staff cooking. He skirts past them and dashes upstairs to the lounge of his and Zeff’s place upstairs, Nami is curled up on the sofa with Zoro’s picture in her hands and a desperately lonesome expression on her face. No one else is around though, it’s just him and Nami.

“Franky and Usopp have gone home, and Igaram and Vivi are off interviewing people. I don’t know where Robin is and I think your old man has gone to bed.” Nami explains without him even asking.

“Okay.” Sanji nods.

Nami puts down the picture and sighs, running a tense hand through her hair.

“I hate this, I feel so powerless. There’s nothing I can do to save Zoro, if he was here and I was there he’d know what to do.” Nami says quietly, her fingers tracing the outline of Zoro’s face in the picture again.

“I never really needed anyone to look out for me at the institute you know? I could have survived on my own, but… having Zoro always looking out for me was nice. It was good to know that someone always had my back, but now that he needs help I don’t have anything to offer.” She says as she wraps her arms around herself.

“What I wanted to say was, I’m sorry. I’ve done nothing but attack you since I got here and you’re actually doing something to get Zoro back, unlike me. I’m just not used to being so useless, it puts me on edge.” Nami explains quietly, her eyes sad.

“You don’t need to apologise to me.” Sanji says shaking his head as he sits down next to her on the sofa.

“I can see why he likes you, you know. He’s always had this way of telling good people from bad, or at least as long as I’ve known him. I guess it’s a pretty useful sense, and he seems drawn to damaged weirdos like me, Luffy, Ace… and you. He’s so goddamn noble and idealistic that he makes you want to be better just by being near him.” Nami laughs slightly, her smile wry and a little sad.

“He certainly does that, I don’t know why I waited so long to fight the institute outright but as soon as Zoro came along…” Sanji trails off with a shrug.

“Yeah, he has that affect on people. I’m glad that he found you, even if this happened, he’ll say that it was worth it no doubt.” She sighs frustratedly as she gestures to the picture.

“Well, I’m not planning on him being there for long. I need to destroy Spandam before this gets dragged on too long and Blackbeard breaks Zoro’s mind. I got this, I was hoping that between you, Usopp and Franky you might be able to do something with this.” He says, reaching into his trouser pocket and pulling out the little black device.

Nami’s eyes widen dramatically as soon as he holds it out to her and she all but rips it from his hands.

“This is- this is- where did you GET this?!” Nami gasps, staring at it in awe.

“Cindry the nurse gave it to Zoro, she tried to get him to escape. But… well, he wouldn’t leave without me, stupid bastard. So he kept it, Cindry told him that the code she got only lasted for an hour but… well, I was thinking, the collars can receive commands remotely, like the shocks, and they can pick up phone calls remotely, surely they could pick up that signal from a distance?” Sanji explains thoughtfully.

Nami’s eyes widen as she stares at the device in her hand.

“If… if that was possible, and I’m not saying it is, we’d need to get someone really tecchie to look at it. But… but if it was that’d be… revolutionary.” Nami murmurs.

“Franky and Usopp ought to be able to help. But if we could pop every mate’s collar open… well… Spandam would be far too busy dealing with that shit storm to worry about me and Zoro.” He grins deviously.

“He’d be bankrupt overnight, the institute is contractually obliged to offer compensation to any master who’s mate escapes. They’re so invested in the idea that it’s impossible that they faked my death, I didn’t even do that, it was them. They’d rather people think that I died in a tragic accident with Arlong than that I escaped and murdered him. This is huge. I can’t believe Cindry just gave it away, as far as I knew only a few select people outside of the institute had these.” She says in wonder.

“Let’s bring them down.” Sanji smirks at her.

He and Nami run their plan by Franky and Usopp that night at Franky’s brother Iceburg’s house. Sanji’s home being taken away from him made Franky and Usopp both homeless, another thing that Sanji has to feel guilty about.

“Do you think it can be done?” Sanji asks worriedly.

“Well, it would depend on the structure of the programming in the collar. It depends on the kind of language and structures used, if the code is time limited then it seems that they’d have to be generated from the institute’s side and then verified by the collar when an approved device puts them in. If that’s the case then they already communicate wirelessly with the institute to verify it. If we can trick the collar into thinking that it’s got a device pressed against it when the code goes in then in theory… maybe?” Usopp frowns thoughtfully.

“I don’t know enough about the hardware of the collars and I hold my hands up to your expertise with the programming side here Usopp but… surely if you have to have that device it must give off some kind of signal to the collar… magnetic perhaps, or electronic, to tell it that it’s there?” Franky frowns, turning the device over in his hands.

“Yeah, but that’ll still communicate with the computer inside the collar, we can program something that will tell it that value it reads from that being switched on is there, as far as the computer is concerned it’ll be there.” The apparently brilliant sharpshooter asserts with a shake of his head.

“But can you do it? Can you open the collars?” Nami demands, her hands on her hips impatiently.

Usopp and Franky look at each other for a moment before smiling.

“Yeah, I think we can. It’ll take time and resources but… yeah.” Franky grins, his face lighting up in happiness.

Sanji’s hand is at Zoro’s jaw, holding his face close to his. It was supposed to be a kiss but they’re too busy grinding against each other to co-ordinate such a complex action. Instead they’re simply holding each other close and panting, whining and gasping in each other’s air.

He kisses Zoro’s jaw and strokes a hand through his soft green hair, from his position on top of Zoro he feels rather than hears Zoro’s gentle chuckle. He feels the flutter of Zoro’s short eyelashes against his skin as the other man lets out a pleased sigh.

“I love you.” Zoro breathes, sliding a hand up Sanji’s bare ribcage, making him shudder in happiness. Everything just feels so perfect.

“Oh god Zoro, I love you too.” Sanji answers back, sliding his other hand against Zoro’s jaw and pulling him close for a kiss. Zoro lets out a pained hiss and suddenly Sanji’s hand is wet. He kneels up and looks down at his hands, they’re covered in blood and Zoro’s ear and neck is dripping with the stuff.

The blanket that was beneath them is suddenly now not a blanket but some kind of glassy dark surface, with a strangled yell Zoro is pulled into it and despite Sanji’s quickest reflexes he can’t grab Zoro back. He tries to stand but slips, there’s blood everywhere and he recognises the laughter that’s in the air as being Blackbeard’s.

“Shut up! Stop it!” He screams into the darkness that’s rapidly surrounding him. He twists and turns, trying to find Blackbeard or Zoro but can find neither. There’s a loud slam, followed by two others and Sanji has just enough time to look up and see three tree sized gold earrings falling towards him before they crush him alive.

He starts awake, gasping, his heart thudding in panic and his hands flailing to protect himself. He sits up in bed, rubbing his tired eyes and tries to work out from the dim lights on the clock on the wall how many hours he has left until he needs to be in court tomorrow morning. Or rather… this morning.

His heart is still racing but he’s starting to calm down. He can’t help but wonder though just what Zoro is doing right now. Is the other man sleeping? Would Zoro be in a bed and if so would he be alone? He really hopes that Blackbeard hasn’t touched Zoro like that. He doesn’t know how Zoro would cope, from the wild eyed look of fear that Zoro had given him several times when they first met he knows it’s something that Zoro fears a lot. Cabaji was onto something when he recommended it as a way of breaking Zoro’s spirit. He feels sick just thinking about it but he can’t seem to turn his mind away from the idea, especially as that idea could well be Zoro’s reality right now.

Will Zoro hate him by the time he gets him back? He doesn’t know how long it will take. Ace said that Zoro is incredibly forgiving but surely even he has his limits? And even if Zoro does forgive him then it doesn’t mean that he’ll still love him, or that he’ll still want to be with him. Sanji frowns and rolls onto his front. It doesn’t matter what Zoro is like when he gets him back, if he’s broken, if he hates him, if he can’t be near him anymore or even if he’s (and Sanji’s not sure he can bring himself to hope for this) just the same as before - he’ll give Zoro whatever he needs to fix things. If Zoro needs medical attention then he’ll provide it, therapy won’t be a question if Zoro needs that. If he needs space or company he need only say the word, he’ll be whatever Zoro needs him to be.

Most importantly he’ll love Zoro without limit, from the bottom of his heart. He has no choice about that.