[One Piece: Zoro/Sanji] Prompt: Forever
Until he reached across the table and his sleeve rode up, revealing a black bandana wrapped around his arm.
Zeff watched as the ladies playfully ran their fingers over it, laughing at its dirty, raggedy appearance, and Sanji allowed them, chuckling amiably. It was a disgusting thing, that bandana. Torn. Unwashed. Stained with blood and sweat and dirt. Several times since Sanji had returned, Zeff had asked him, “How long are you going to keep wearing that ratty old thing?”
“None of your business, shitty old man,” Sanji had always replied without a second thought, and Zeff would leave it at that, but he’d always wondered, still wondered.
Zeff’s ears perked up when he heard one of the women giggling, “Why do you wear the silly thing?” He listened, knowing if Sanji told anyone it would be a pretty girl. And Sanji didn’t disappoint him.
“I promised a friend I would hold onto it for a while,” he said, putting a stopper in the wine bottle. “I know it’s silly, but I’ll wear it forever, if it takes him that long to claim it.”
As the girls cooed about how noble and kind that was, Zeff remembered a man. A man standing with arms outstretched, a black bandana tied around his head as he awaited the slice of a sword. He smiled faintly, knowingly. So that was it. Well, maybe Sanji had changed, after all.
Zeff watched as the ladies playfully ran their fingers over it, laughing at its dirty, raggedy appearance, and Sanji allowed them, chuckling amiably. It was a disgusting thing, that bandana. Torn. Unwashed. Stained with blood and sweat and dirt. Several times since Sanji had returned, Zeff had asked him, “How long are you going to keep wearing that ratty old thing?”
“None of your business, shitty old man,” Sanji had always replied without a second thought, and Zeff would leave it at that, but he’d always wondered, still wondered.
Zeff’s ears perked up when he heard one of the women giggling, “Why do you wear the silly thing?” He listened, knowing if Sanji told anyone it would be a pretty girl. And Sanji didn’t disappoint him.
“I promised a friend I would hold onto it for a while,” he said, putting a stopper in the wine bottle. “I know it’s silly, but I’ll wear it forever, if it takes him that long to claim it.”
As the girls cooed about how noble and kind that was, Zeff remembered a man. A man standing with arms outstretched, a black bandana tied around his head as he awaited the slice of a sword. He smiled faintly, knowingly. So that was it. Well, maybe Sanji had changed, after all.