twenty-eight
Title: End Game
Theme: # 26 Garden
Claim: Luffy x Sanji
Words: 1, 514
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: AU, violence, disturbing imagery, implied character death.
Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Oda-san. I make no profit.
Last of the supernatural!verse.
He’d been dreaming about this place for the last three weeks, up until he took that silver bullet to the heart. He didn’t know what happened afterwards, but it was safe to say that he was as dead as dead could get.
He only wished he had told Luffy how he felt that morning, when they were gearing up to go after that asshole Crocodile.
Sanji frowned as he walked through the gates towards the end of the corridor - a more than familiar route now - and looked around the small garden it enclosed. There were flowers everywhere; some up to his knees and others as tall as him. It was different every time he came here, but it was always the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen.
“I’ve been waiting to meet you, lad. I imagined you’d be taller.” Someone said from behind him, a hint of amusement in the tone of their voice. Sanji spun on his heel and back up a few steps, startled. In all of the dreams he’d had of this garden, this man had never been in any of them.
“Wh-who are you?” The blonde stuttered, his cheeks heating in embarrassment because he sounded like a damn kid. Hell, he felt like one, too.
“You can call me Shanks.” The red haired man grinned, offering a hand for the other to shake. Sanji did so with a little trepidation and noticed the man only had one arm. “I’m sure Luffy hasn’t said anything about me, but that’s to be expected. It’s not every day that you meet your angel boyfriend’s angel godfather.” Shanks chuckled.
Sanji took another step back in shock and his mind immediately went over all of the instances that might’ve been a clue as to Luffy’s heritage. It all made sense now: the immunity to the werewolf’s scratch, the blinding white light, and the fast-healing wounds.
“He’s an angel?” Sanji breathed out, swaying slightly on his feet. Shanks gripped his forearm and guided him over to a bench, where he set the blonde down.
“I think it’s better to say that he was an angel. He left us ten years ago and met Zoro. After that, his Grace just sorta…dissipated.” Shanks shrugged like it was no big deal, but Sanji could see the underlying hurt and worry in his eyes. “He was flying under the radar, so to speak, up until the night he encountered Usopp.” The man shook his head and ran a hand down his face.
“Usopp?” Sanji asked.
“Yeah, he was in the little group that Luffy and Zoro came up with. A band of hunters. The creatures you fought with him were also part of that group. They were basically family.” Shanks took a seat next to Sanji on the bench and stretched his legs out in front of him.
He didn’t look anything like an angel, in Sanji’s opinion. He looked more like a pirate or something, with the missing arm and the scars on his face. Battle wounds, probably.
“The night you were attacked was the night Luffy found out what became of them. They hadn’t spoken for two years before that.” Shanks sighed as he folded his hands on his lap. “I know this is a lot to take in, Sanji.” He added. “I promise you that everything will be all right.”
The blonde nodded and looked away, his eyes burning with unshed tears. He thought he had it bad, being infected with a werewolf virus, but Luffy had to kill his family. Now that Sanji was dead - his promise broken - Luffy was truly alone.
“Do you know why Luffy kept you alive?” Shanks asked after a long moment of silence, his eyes on the small fountain in the middle of the garden. Sanji looked at him for a long moment before shaking his head.
“He didn’t want to be alone, right?”
“Well, yes, but there’s more to it than that.” Shanks nodded, finally turning to him with a strange twinkle in his eyes. The blonde swallowed nervously and shrank back a few inches.
“What else is there to tell?” he whispered.
Shanks grinned widely at him, so much like Luffy that it hurt, and leaned up to whisper into his ear, “You should ask him yourself.”
Sanji opened his mouth to ask the man what the hell that was supposed to mean - he was dead! - but Shanks pressed two fingers to his forehead and then everything went dark.
*~*
Sunlight was filtering in through the blinds, lighting up the room that he had become increasingly familiar with. It took him a few moments to realize that he was alive; that his heart was beating underneath the hand on his chest.
Sanji shot up on the bed and immediately regretted when pain erupted in every spot on his body and some he didn’t know he had. It was the most unpleasant thing he’d ever felt, aside from the initial gunshot that had killed him in the first place.
Wait, why the fuck was he even alive?
There was a crash from next to him, and Sanji looked over to see Chopper cowering in the corner, his hand over his chest. The teen was so easy to scare.
“How did I get here?” Sanji whispered out, because his throat felt like someone had rubbed sand paper along the insides. He brought a hand to his throat and felt the skin there, startled to find it scarred and uneven. “The fuck?” he gasped, reaching up for the metal pan that held all of Chopper’s surgical tools and bringing it closer.
There were stitches around his Adam’s apple - more than he could count - closing the skin of his throat. It looked weeks old already. He didn’t remember anything happening to him besides the bullet in his heart.
“You should be d-dead. You were shot by a silver bullet!” Chopper squeaked, crawling away back towards the door. Sanji dropped the metal pan on the floor and got up, but his legs felt like fucking jelly. “Are you a zombie?! Do we have to kill you again?!” The poor doctor sobbed, thick tears rolling down his cheeks.
“Where’s Luffy?” Sanji asked instead, forcing himself to stand and realizing that he was completely naked and his chest was stitched up with a Y. He felt bile rise in his throat, but he swallowed it down and walked a few steps forward.
“Don’t eat meeee!” Chopper sobbed.
“Where’s Luffy?!” Sanji yelled back, his throat protesting every word. The blonde hissed and brought his hand to his throat, fingers scratchy against the stitches. They were uncomfortable.
Sanji and Chopper were startled when Luffy walked into the room, and the cups he’d been carrying fell to the ground with a shatter. The next second there was a pistol pressed up against his temple and Luffy was crying.
“How?” The raven demanded, pulling the hammer back on the gun. Sanji winced and held his hands up in surrender, breathing harshly. “I saw Crocodile shoot you with a silver bullet, Sanji. How are you -“ Luffy trailed off with a sob, his gun dropping to the ground as he wrapped his arms around the blonde’s shoulders.
Sanji held him tight, ignoring the way his body protested even the smallest movements.
“Why didn’t you kill me before?” He asked quietly, running his fingers through Luffy’s hair and kissing his head. There was a moment of quiet before the other man sniffled and laughed into his shoulder.
“Because you’re family, just like Zoro and the others were.” Luffy said simply, pulling away to grin at him, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“What do you mean family?” Sanji asked, his heart starting to beat faster.
“You were attacked two years ago, after all of us split up.” Chopper spoke up from the doorway, his eyes still teary. “I was living in this city when you popped up at the hospital I worked at. You had amnesia and I was too scared to talk to you, so I got a hold of Luffy.”
“I couldn’t reach anybody else.” Luffy mumbled and dropped his head, the pain of losing the rest of his family obvious in his voice. Sanji was shaking as he brought his hands up to the man’s head and fisted his hair.
“Shanks brought me back.” Sanji finally answered Luffy’s question, although the man probably would have guessed that already.
Luffy shook his head quickly and looked up at him, tears spilling over in his eyes.
“We’ll talk about all of that later. Right now I just want to get those stitches out of you.” He muttered, motioning for Chopper to come closer and help him out. Luffy sat him back on the bed and the little doctor retrieved a few tools from the cabinets.
“I’ll be able to keep my promise now.” Sanji told him, flinching slightly when a cold needle was pressed into his arm. Luffy took his hand and held on tight, promising to be there when he woke up.
And then they could talk.