What's Not To Love

Chapter 29

Nami inched closer to Sanji with a bewildered look. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she pointed towards the gallery door and spoke.

"You got him pictures? What's pictures going to do," she said. She glanced over to the Raven haired girl who was just as surprised.

"Is that where you disappeared to last night?" Robin asked with a hint of confusion in her voice.

Sanji peaked at the girls through his fingers and saw how shocked they looked. He remembered when Zoro first told him about it and dropped his hands, his eyes trailing towards the twins who seemed a bit drowsy after their drinks. He remained quiet as the bitter taste that had formed in his mouth made him crave a smoke. He ignored it of course, reaching out to catch Kai's head before she fell on the soft grass. He laid her down, letting her fall asleep in the soft grass. He did the same to Dai a moment later and just watched them both doze off peacefully, sippy cup and toys forgotten.

Robin and Nami kept their gazes on Sanji, watching him as he assisted the twins the entire time. He looked content and the girls sported smiles in response.

"Sanji," Robin called out lightly.

Sanji didn't turn towards the girls but he could feel them staring at him. As he kept his eyes on the twins, he started to understand why Zoro wanted pictures.

"Memories" his voice came out in a whisper but the girls heard him clearly. He turned towards them and said, "Pictures can capture memories. He wants that for the twins."

Both girls looked a little surprised at the response. Nami sat back, letting the sun beam on her as she stared at it.

"Who would've thought that he was so sentimental," she said, letting her eyes close.

Robin hummed in response before looking at Franky. Their eyes met and she smiled soft at him. She let her eyes trail to each member of the ship before staring at their flag. She remembered when they saved her and how happy she was. Nodding mostly to herself, she whispered "I get it,"

As the three members sat together, they let their own minds wander through their memories that the ship brought them. The gallery door opened above and Zoro watched them in silence before descending the stairs towards them. He held the book tightly by his side and kept his eyes on the blonde haired man who seemed the most lost in thought.

A rubber hand grabbed onto his shoulder, slightly startling Zoro before the body appeared next with a curious look at the book. "Whatcha got there, Zoro?"

Zoro followed his gaze before holding the book up at their eye level. Instead of answering, he opened the book to the second page, making sure Luffy didn't see any of the little letters that Sanji left throughout the book.

"Woah," Luffy said with a huge smile. He started pointing to different pictures in the book. "That was when we were at that island. The one with the metal man,"

Zoro laughed in response to his statements but Luffy didn't seem to mind. The other crew members stared down at the two, confused as to what was going on. Chopper and Usopp made their way over to join the two. As they got closer, they both kept thinking the same thing. Luffy is interested in a book. Luffy is looking at a book.

"What book is that?" Chopper asked innocently as he and Usopp stopped in front of them.

Luffy quickly waved them to stand behind Zoro. "Look, Look,". The two members quickly got behind Zoro, with Chopper climbing up to Zoro's shoulder. "Remember this..and this," Luffy said as he pointed at each picture. The two boys gasped and started telling each other about the images, as if they weren't there themselves.

Zoro watched with a smile as the boys kept telling stories. He knew the crew was watching fondly but a pair of eyes in particular burned his skin. He glanced over and saw Sanji staring at him. He turned his gaze to him, ignoring the younger teens by his side and smiled at Sanji.

Only the girls saw this and their gaze flew to Sanji immediately. The blonde man seemed to be stuck between acting calm, being excited or smiling happily as he kept gawking at the green haired man. The girls smiled in turn, happy that things were getting better gradually.

As Zoro turned back to the teens and sat with them in a circle so he could monitor them with the book, Sanji's mind was racing. Zoro had just smiled at him. He really smiled at him. And it was a real smile, not one of those fake ones he shows in consideration. Sanji continued to stare at Zoro. He was getting somewhere. He wasn't stuck anymore.

Sanji quickly turned towards Nami. "How many more days?"

Nami stared at Sanji confused again before everything registered. She jumped up quickly, surprising both Robin and Sanji.

"Ah right," she said. A mixture of emotions flashed in her eyes as she looked towards Zoro. She looked back at Sanji and frowned. "We have a small problem,"

Sanji turned his full attention to Nami. "What do you mean?"

"Remember how I said there was 12 days at most left," Nami watched as Sanji nodded his head slowly. "Well," she paused and glanced from the ocean back to Sanji. "The thing is...it seems like we have less than 12 days now."

Nami bit her lip as she watched Sanji's eyebrows furrow. He glanced at the ground and then back at Zoro. 12 days already wasn't ideal and now there's less than that.

Nami watched him for a moment before sighing. Clapping her hands together, she yelled out to the crew members.

"Okay," She started. "Sorry to break up the good mood but we have a change of plans," she waved her hands to them, signaling them to gather nearby, which they all started to do slowly.

Sanji rubbed his forehead for a second before taking a deep breath. Relax, he told himself. We can make this work.