Walking back towards the Captain with a first aid kit in his hand, Chopper requested to take a look at him, shortly after Sanji mentioned the food poisoning that Luffy had gotten.
"Alright, let's give Chopper some space while he's working with our Captain."
Sanji conveyed to the others who were still nearby.
Once they had all gone their separate ways, Including Sanji himself, Chopper was able to initiate the examination.
The first thing that he did was ask Luffy a series of important questions: 'Have you thrown up?', 'Are you running a fever?', 'Does your stomach hurt?' To which Luffy answered with 'No', almost every time.
However, at one point, he wanted to sound sincere to not make it obvious that he wasn't sick at all.
Therefore, he decided to agree to one of the young Doctor's inquiries.
"Oh, come to think of it.. I've had a stomachache since I got here." He admitted.
Which was partially true, considering that he had undergone an emergency surgery to fix the internal bleeding that he developed, hours after his first surgical procedure.
"That's because of the food poisoning, but don't worry! I have medicine that'll ease the nausea."
The younger informed his Captain, taking out a bottle with a colorful liquid inside of it from his bag.
When he reached into the bag once again, Luffy watched with less discretion than before, to ease his interest in knowing what Chopper was going to take out, next.
In the end, the Captain leaned back to relax when he saw Chopper holding a small, plastic dosing cup to measure the amount of medicine he was going to give him.
Having handed him the small cup in his hand after pouring the correct amount inside of it, Chopper waited for Luffy to drink the light lavender gray liquid substance.
Pressing the plastic cup up to his lips, Luffy soon came to realize that the taste of the medicine was worse than food poisoning itself.
His throat tightened as the substance travelled down to his stomach.
"Blehh.. Eh.."
The flavor was so diabolical that the Captain's tongue decided to hang outside of his mouth, just to not be trapped by the revolting aftertaste that would linger on his palate.
From the roof of his mouth, to the sides of his cheeks, the taste was strong enough to cause Luffy to gag.
"Sorry about that. I know it isn't the best taste... But here, try drinking some water."
But even drinking water wasn't enough to prevent him from gagging. The boy continued to feel nauseated.
"If you keep on like this, you might throw up. Oi, Sanji! Can you get Luffy some crackers?"
The Doctor shouted, oppose to walking over to where Sanji was.
He didn't want to risk Luffy's condition getting worse if he left, even for just a second.
Luckily, the Cook heard his voice from far away and was currently on his way back to the living room area.
His footsteps could be felt from nearby as the wooden planks creaked beneath his shoes, the closer he was to reaching his destination.
"Will three be enough?"
"Of course. Even one will do; this is just to help him stave off the taste of the medicine he took. Thank you, Sanji!"
Chopper smiled at the Cook, thanking him for lending him a helping hand while he continued to take care of Luffy.
When Sanji placed the tray in Chopper's hands, he was able to capture something unusual on the Cook as he stretched his arms out.
The man's long sleeves hiding his arms had rolled up, exposing dark reddish marks embedded into his wrists.
Being a Doctor and his friend, Chopper naturally worried about this harrowing discovery, but when he was about to interrogate Sanji about it, he saw something even far more unbelievable that left him speechless.
"W-w-what... What... Is this!?"
The deer was thrown off balance as a result of a sudden turn of events unraveling right before his very eyes.
"Sanji just.."
Droplets of sweat started to prick from the top of his head and stream down it as Chopper's feet weakened.
"J-just.."
The sterilized items from within his first aid kit scattered all throughout the floor when the clumsy Doctor tripped over it, doubling over himself, along the way.
What he saw, was a sight above and beyond, even the wildest depths of his pure imagination.
He sat on the floor, rendered feeble by Sanji's action towards his Captain, and the Captain's lack of resistance against what his Cook had done.
"Sanji... Kissed Luffy!?? What's going on with these two!?"
Having witnessed it first-hand, Chopper was flabbergasted and remained at a loss for words.
The only question lingering on his mystified mind right now was: "What just happened?"
And if this type of thing was a rare occurrence, or if it had already happened, prior to this day.
But not all was the way it seemed, through the eyes of the young and bemused Doctor, for something else was happening in between the Captain and his Cook, in that instance.
Sanji had his hands balanced on the soft arm chair connected to the couch, and was leaning incredibly close to Luffy's face, leaving only a thin line in between them, just enough to discuss something in private with the younger man.
"Look... I feel the same way you do. And I know for a fact that this isn't the best thing for you because of 'this',"
He spoke, rubbing his hand around his own throat, earning a nod from Luffy.
"But he's gonna be waiting. Think you can handle eating these? I'll bring you more water so that they can go down more smoothly."
The Cook asked, patiently waiting for Luffy to respond.
Something fell into place for the younger man in that moment while he nodded in agreement to Sanji's suggestion.
"Alright, I'll get you some more water then. Just a moment."
Sanji spoke, waving behind Luffy while walking back to the kitchen to get him another glass of water.
"Oi Chopper, get up. That Swordsman was standing right where you are... And you don't wanna know where his boots have been."
Chopper sprinted up from the ground, frantically wiping his lab coat off while cleaning up the mess that he made after tripping over his first aid kit.
And while his crewmates continued to assume their daily lives, Luffy's mind was stuck on a new feeling.
An incomprehensible emotion that lingered inside of him after his conversation with Sanji that left him in a pensive state.
"When Sanji told me that he felt the same as me, it made me happy. It sounds wrong, because it is. I wouldn't wish for any of the others to feel the way we do, right now.
But it's the first time I've ever been able to tell someone what I feel, without having to say anything..."
~~~
