Snow Globe

11

Zoro gasped for air when he broke out through the surface. “Luffy!” he shouted as he tried to keep the body inside his left arm above the water.

“Zoro!” Luffy stretched his arm and gripped Zoro’s forearm. He hauled his two nakama overboard. Bracing himself from the impact, Zoro tightened his arms around Sanji. They rolled on the wooden floor and the swordsman groaned when his back hit the wall.

“Let’s get out here, Franky!” Luffy shouted as he ran toward the deck.

After a while, Zoro felt the whole ship flying, toward the clouds, toward the horizon, until the enemy’s ship was out of sight. He panted for air as his arms continued to circle around the cook tightly – protectively.

When the Sunny settled down on the water again, Zoro immediately pulled himself away from Sanji. “Cook?” His wet hair was plastered on his forehead and beside his face. His face and lips were pale – cold. Zoro leaned down and placed his ear on the blond’s chest.

Nothing.

“Shit.” He put his right hand over his left and pumped Sanji’s chest. Then he tilted his head up, pinched his nose and blew air into his mouth. When the blond didn’t respond, he pumped his chest again several times, but this time, panic was starting to set it in.

“Come on, Cook,” he growled and blew air into his mouth again.

“Sanji!” Chopper knelt beside him and put his hooves over the blond’s carotid pulse. “Continue what you’re doing, Zoro!”

“Sanji-kun!” Nami’s hands flew to her mouth because of shock. The other Strawhats were standing around them, eyebrows furrowed, hands clasped together, fists on their sides – praying, hoping.

“Come on, Cook! It can’t end like this!” Zoro continued to pump Sanji’s chest but he wasn’t moving. Not a flinch. And his heart was starting to break. “Fuck! No! You can’t–”

“Zoro.” Chopper put his hooves on Zoro’s hands above the blond’s chest. The swordsman stopped because of that touch and the little doctor’s eyes started to pool with tears. When he shook his head, the other Strawhats gasped in despair.

Zoro was still looking at Chopper, unable to comprehend what the fuck his nakama had just meant. His grey eye landed on the cook’s face. His eyebrows were both visible. The cook would throw a hissy fit if he saw that.

The swordsman brushed a few strands of wet blond hair down the right side of his face. Snow fell on his face and Zoro had to wipe them away. The cook would hate that. He’d be cold.

“Zoro-dono.”

Kin’emon and Momonosuke walked toward him. The little kid knelt beside Sanji and showed the swordsman that round glass inside his hands. Zoro saw the almost barren tree inside it, and as the last set of leaves fell from the top of the pine tree, the swirling snowflakes started to settle down. And after a while, the whole thing just stopped. There were no snowfall, no falling leaves. Just… stillness.

“Sanji saved this globe,” Momonosuke said as his lower lip quivered. “He knew that if this thing breaks…” His hands gripped tighter around the base. “You’ll die.”

That was the moment when everything dawned on him clearly. The cook saved him, his life. He remembered that time when Sanji stood between him and Kuma, saying to take his life instead of his.