Chapter Text
No one saw it happen.
Luffy shouted in victory as the brutal invaders fled from the island nation. Lucitania was saved. For four months a bloody battle had been waged between the Lusitanian government and a would-be king, Yubote. He had several powerful generals under him, and the power of a gum gum fruit to back his invasion into foreign territory. The fool even had the gaul to call himself a pirate. He and his subordinates went from tiny island to tiny island, conquering it, stripping it of its resources, and abandoning it.
The Straw Hat pirates were disgusted and outraged and the poor old governor, stooped with age and the weight of countless lives, got down on his knees and pleaded with them for mercy. The man didn’t need to beg. Luffy already intended to take care of Yubote for sullying the symbol of the jolly roger.
Luffy bounced down from the top of a smashed tank and looked around the area for his Nakama. The wreckage was stacked high in every direction, all that remained of Yubote’s invasion forces. It looked more like a junkyard than a battlefield.
Nami stumbled over loose debris and griped about charging the ‘crazy old man’ for new shoes and Tetanus shots all around.
“Nami! We won!”
“Well duh, we always win. Couldn’t you have at least tried to leave their base standing? I wanted to check it for loot.”
Luffy laughed through his teeth and held the back of his head.
“The great Captain Usopp, having vanquished hundreds of foes, requests that we wait at least a year before taking on the problems of an entire government. Again. Seriously, Luffy, I am begging you.”
Usopp was scratched and bleeding in more than one place, but he was standing tall and nothing looked broken. Time and time again Usopp demonstrated an ability to take hits that would devastate ordinary men and recover with bizarre speed. Maybe his pirate dad had devil fruit powers or some other Grand Line magic and it got passed on to him?
Usopp and Nami shouted in sinque,
“Don’t just stand there, answer me!”
“I’m inclined to agree with our dear sniper, Captain. This encounter rattled me to my bones, Yohohoho.” Brook dusted himself off and discarded the sword he’d stolen off an enemy corpse.
“I don’t know what you’re all complaining about. They didn’t even have any decent sword fighters.” Zoro griped, though he was bleeding from several puncture wounds in his left arm.
Chopper dashed between Zoro and Usopp, fur matted and muddy as he exclaimed,
“How do you two always get so hurt, this is why we need a doctor! Wait, I’m the doctor! Both of you get back to the ship so I can help you!”
Franky reattached his right hand and sighed, hair flopped in front of his face.
“That fight was great, but I’m not feeling all that super. C’mon Sniper King, I’ll carry you to The Sunny and then get myself some Cola.”
“I can walk by myself this time, thank you very much!”
Franky shrugged and let Chopper sit up on his shoulder as he instructed Zoro and Usopp to keep pressure on their wounds. The four of them headed back to their ship, leaving Luffy, Nami, and Brook to find Robin, Sanji, and Jinbe.
“I’ll see if Robin’s over by the busted ships. I saw her fighting there earlier.” Nami said.
“Then I shall head to where I last remember our cook being. The barricade, I believe.” Brook said as he turned to walk down a winding path between warped metal and splintered wood.
Luffy pouted. He wanted to go with both of them. Why did they have to split up at all? He wasn’t nervous exactly. It was like this after every fight, energy thrumming under his skin, racing from his feet to his hat, building and building with nowhere to go. He wanted all his Nakama together.
It was almost instinctive, the way he wanted to gather and assess them. If Luffy had his way, and he almost always did, every member of his crew would be seated around the table in the Sunny’s galley, laughing and eating and within arm’s reach. Then, as the exhaustion of the day caught up with them, they’d all fall asleep in one big pile one room over, where Franky built the big couches. The last to fall asleep would be Luffy. He’d stay awake and watch over them until each crewmate drifted off. Then, he would join them. That was how the day was supposed to end.
Then he found Jinbe. The Fishman was uninjured but uncharacteristically frantic.
“Hey, Jinbe!” Luffy shouted, seemingly unaffected by the whale shark's panic.
“Captain, where are the others? Is everyone accounted for?”
“Nami went to find Robin and Brook is looking for Sanji. Everyone else went back to Sunny.”
Jinbe nodded and composed himself.
“It may not be an issue then. During the entanglement, I saw Yubote use his devil fruit power. I feared one of ours had been affected.”
The jumping under Luffy’s skin increased. He wanted to see his Nakama. He wanted to see all of them, all in one place, right now.
“Let’s go find them, then. So my helmsman doesn't have to worry.”
Robin found them as they circled back. She was limping, but otherwise unharmed.
“Robin!” Luffy cheered.
“Captain. You’ve done it again.” Saved an island, stopped a tyrant, leveled a military grade outpost, made me smile.
Luffy laughed and asked,
“Did you see Nami on your way here?”
“You are the first person I’ve seen since the fight ended. Is she alright?”
“She’s cranky.” Luffy warned, remembering how put out their navigator was by the lost looting opportunity.
“I am not!” Nami snapped, chucking a rock at Luffy as she gracefully slid down a tipped tank. “Glad to see you in one piece, Robin.”
Luffy whined about the rock, which did little more than bounce off his dusty skin, but he was ignored by both women present.
“Likewise, Nami. Are you entirely uninjured?”
“Bumps and bruises, nothing to get Chopper foaming at the mouth. You? That ankle looks pretty swollen.”
“It’s only sprained. I know what a broken ankle feels like and this isn’t it. Is everyone else alright?”
“We were just out looking for you, Jinbe, and Sanji. Everyone else is accounted for. Zoro and Usopp are a bit worse for wear, but considering how these things usually go, I’d say we were pretty lucky.” Nami grinned.
Robin still looked uneasy. It was Jinbe who prompted,
“Are you truly well?”
Robin nodded but said,
“I’ve had a feeling, that’s all. Since the cannons stopped firing and Luffy started to bring down their fortress, I’ve had the unshakable feeling that something was wrong.”
Jinbe agreed.
“I’ve felt the same. I was certain something, devastating had happened. Or would.”
Nami shuddered and grimaced.
“Yeah. Same here.” She held herself with crossed arms, shoulders raised. “Let’s get Brook and Sanji and go back to the Sunny. That way, whatever happens, if anything happens, we’ll be ready.”
It wasn’t just a captain thing then. Luffy thought. He’d broken the stupid not-pirate’s house because all of a sudden he’d got a feeling in his gut, in his heart, like seeing Buggy rip into his straw hat. Like Ace... Like something precious had just been irrevocably damaged or lost. So he’d finished things quickly.
They climbed over a taller mound of busted up Wavers and shrapnel. Nami saw him first.
“Uh oh. Looks like Chopper will have his hooves full after all.” Sanji was at the base of a pile, about a ship’s length away from them. If Sanji was unconscious, that meant he had a concussion. None of the Straw Hat’s were stellar patients, herself excluded, but Sanji, Zoro, and Luffy were by far the worst. The tension in her chest eased a little. Maybe this was all it was. Maybe she was just getting panicky because of the maze of scrap metal that had separated her from her Nakama.
“Hey, Sanji! I want meat!” Luffy shouted.
“No! He has a concussion. Remember the last time you asked him for food while he was hurt and the moron wound up passing out?”
Robin’s face had a small smile as she reminisced.
“He did manage to prepare a three course dinner feast first, along with a remarkable dessert.”
It had been a bit too sweet for Nami’s taste, but that night’s menu had been made with Robin in mind. She’d been having several rough nights, waking up in a cold sweat with a scream dying on her lips as moonlight chased away the heat of fire. So Nami didn’t overly care that the trifle was layers of chocolate and chocolate sweet cream and chocolate sheet cake with no relief from the richness in sight. Nami could add pomegranate seeds to her own, which the chef had placed on the table for them.
“Sanji can be pretty remarkable when he wants to be. Still though, Luffy, no requests until he can stand for more than an hour at a time, deal?” They were closer now. Close enough that Luffy stopped in his tracks.
“Sanji?” He launched himself forward and bent over the chef, shaking his shoulders. “Hey! Sanji!”
“What are you doing? You can’t do that to someone with a head wound!” Nami scolded. But then she saw what Luffy saw.
Sanji was grey. His lips were nearly purple. Brook, who was forever making some kind of noise, had been there all along, on his knees, silent. An unbroken stream of tears running down his cheek bones as his hands ley limp at his side.
Sanji’s shirt was open, his chest was bruised.
Robin took up the position that Brook had abandoned when denial turned to devastation. She placed her hands over Sanji’s chest and began compressions. She counted aloud under her breath with every push, extra hands positioning his head and checking his pulse.
“Sanji, you need to make me dinner!” Luffy ordered, heat and fear in his voice.
Nami had staggered back, caught by Jinbe. She shook her head and cried behind her cupped hands, wide eyes never leaving Sanji’s still form.
“-mi. We need Chopper. I would go get him myself but someone needs to be here to carry Sanji back. I’m sorry it’s fallen to you, but please, Chopper needs to be ready.” Jinbei’s deep voice rumbled. He sounded calm. He wasn’t.
Nami bent over herself like she would be sick but nodded behind her hand. She nodded, and she ran.
Shrapnel cut her legs but she didn’t stop.
Nami-Swan! I made this sorbet just for you!
The smokey air burned her lungs but she didn’t stop.
It’s awfully hot out today, take care to drink lots of juice and water. Take breaks too. If anyone gives you a hard time about it I’ll rearrange their face.
She could hardly see through her tears but she didn’t stop.
Because I could tell. I hadn’t known you long, but I could see it in your smile. You were pretending to be okay while the world fell apart. That’s why I knew you didn’t kill Usopp and didn’t betray Luffy. That’s a smile I know.
Nami crashed onto the deck of the Sunny and she didn’t stop. She ran past Franky and threw open the door to the medical room. She shoved her way past Zoro and ignored Usopp. She fell to her knees in front of Chopper and grabbed his little shoulders as she cried.
“Nami!”
“How-how do you restart somebody’s heart?” The room fell silent. “There’s a way, isn’t there?” She begged. “You can fix it, can’t you?”
Chopper was a doctor who could cure anything and Sanji was a cook who would always be by their side.
Wouldn’t he?