Table For Two | Sanji

009

009 — TAIKA ༄

"Yeehaw!" Luffy's excited scream carries across the wind. "Finally! Woohoo!"

I raise my curious eyes to the front of the ship and find Luffy jumping on his feet. Nami and Usopp are there too, with the same expressions on their faces. Why is everyone so happy? Luffy loops his arm through Usopp's and they start going in circles, singing, "Land ahead! Land ahead! We see land ahead!"

I don't have to move from my spot to see the tiny land peeking on the horizon. Finally, I think with a smile on my face, but then sorrow curls up in my stomach and my smile disappears as fast as it grew.

Finally, I think again, I'll be leaving this ship forever.

I swallow the lump in my throat and look down. My little notebook is opened in front of me, and I realize I might soon need a bigger one, because I've written so much that there are a few blank pages left of it. I just finished writing about yesterday, about Usopp and the experiments with the blurbe, and casually threw in Zoro's attempt to punish us for tricking him—he did not succeed.

I also realize this might be the end of this journey, and I wonder if I should write about what I'm planning to do once we reach land and leave this notebook behind. Someone will find it, and they'll realize I was never meant to be in this crew.

It shouldn't make me sad, so why does it? This is what I wanted, right? Then why am I drowning in sorrow?

The boards groan and my head snaps up. Someone is coming up the stairs from the basement quarters. I feel myself calming down, but then the door opens and when I see that Sanji is the one to walk out, my body goes rigid.

Again, this shitty timing. Why do we always find ourselves in the same room? As if admitting I hate being in his presence wasn't enough to keep us apart.

Sanji stops mid-way to putting a cigarette into his mouth. As soon as he sees me, his face transforms into a scowl. He doesn't say anything, he simply resumes his movement like nothing, putting the cigarette in his mouth and lighting it up.

He starts to walk away in the opposite direction from where I am standing against the railing, and I exhale in relief as I realize he's going to avoid me yet again. My stomach tightens into a ball as I recall this morning, the moment he stormed off the kitchen when I entered and left me alone to make myself something to eat.

That's something that bugs me. Sanji has been doing exactly that all day, walking out of the room whenever I entered, almost like what I said to him the other night made him change his behavior toward me.

Only this time, something seems to make him stop. He is not leaving. Instead, he throws his head back and lets out a cloud of gray smoke into the sky. His blonde hair shines brighter under the sunlight than it does in the moonlight, and I realize then how soft it looks right now.

His shoulders expand as he takes in a deep breath and spins around to face me. "No, not this time."

I'm confused when I meet his eyes with a frown. "What?" Is he schizo? What does he even mean?

He takes a step toward me and I realize he's done with whatever he was doing before. We're back to how we were before, bugging each other until one of us explodes. "I'm making it easier for you, and you know it."

"What are you even saying? Quit trying to start another pointless argument," I say, looking down at my hands and the notebook in them. "Go smoke somewhere else."