Scarlet Humanity (Vinsmoke Ichiji x Reader)

Sanguine Fear

(Y/n)'s POV

It has been a whole five weeks since Sanji had gone missing. You remember checking your calendar and it lined up perfectly with the Winter Masquerade. According to Shachi, Sanji had come to the masquerade late and wanted to talk to you. You'd shown up a little after he'd left for a smoke break, gathering his nerves and bracing himself to talk to you again, only he'd never returned. Sanji never came back to the party and he hadn't been seen since then.

Your stomach churned. Ichiji had been at the party with Yonji. You'd never seen Niji the entire time you were there, so you could only assume he'd been out on a job. Yonji never left the party the entire time, he'd been busy either eating or scrolling on his phone before getting into the alcohol at the strike of midnight, all his attention redirected to that and ogling the women. Ichiji had disappeared from your sight at one point though. It was shortly after midnight, he'd vanished from within the ballroom and you didn't see him again until closer to two in the morning. You hadn't thought anything of it at the time, Ichiji wasn't obligated to stay within your sight at every moment and you were having fun with your new friends, but now that you thought back on it, that was a perfect amount of time for Sanji to be found and whisked away.

It was that same logic pathing that caused you to explode on Ichiji a few days ago when you got a text from Shachi. The orca capped redhead said they still hadn't found Sanji even a week after you were first told about it from Zoro, but they did manage to find his car and his cell. Both were tucked away on an abandoned compound, at an old factory that used to be part of Doflamingo's territory. The car had no damage other than it being broken into, but his cell was covered in dried blood and the knowledge of that had made your panic spike.

"You kidnapped Sanji, didn't you?! Where is he, Ichiji?! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM?!"

"What in the world are you talking about?" Ichiji looked at you like you had just cursed at him in Latin.

"I know Sanji is your brother! I know he hates you and you probably hate him! What did you do to him?!"

Ichiji's curled brows knit together. "(Y/n), I haven't the vaguest idea what you're talking about. It's true I hate that pathetic failure, but I haven't seen him in twenty years. I have no idea where he is."

You slapped his hands away that had been wrapped around your waist and bristled at him. "You're a fucking liar! He went missing at the Masquerade, the same one you went missing from for two hours! If you hurt him-"

"(Y/n), I'm not lying to you. I haven't seen or touched him, I swear."

"I don't believe you!" You hissed at him. You pointed aggressively at your apartment door. "Get out! I don't want to see you right now!"

You sighed deeply and rubbed your forehead. That was at least three days ago and Ichiji had hardly texted you since. Everything felt so strange, you expected Ichiji to lie, but you didn't expect him to be so willing to back off. He was giving you copious amounts of space despite your feral attitude. Even worse, it was the day after Christmas and you wanted company. You'd wanted company on Christmas day; wanted Ichiji to come see you on Christmas Eve and spend the night so you could give him his gift in the morning, but you were too stubborn and pissed off. Once you got to this level of anger, it was hard for you to come back down, especially since you were so terrified Sanji was being tormented somewhere...or worse.

The image of his maimed, twisted corpse lying somewhere instantly brought tears to your eyes and you had to blink them back quickly. No. No, Sanji was fine. Wherever he was, he was okay and safe and having the time of his life. You kept telling yourself that over and over since he'd disappeared and today was no different, thoughts interrupted as your phone pinged next to you. You hoped it was news about Sanji, though a tiny speck of you wanted it to be Ichiji. You were starting to miss him a lot.