#and she also hates herself for not having helped sanji sooner

[beanghostprincess]

Actually thinking more about Reiju's only sin being a woman and... Going into more depth, I know that logically/canonically she's smart and empathetic enough to not want to be in her brothers' place. She doesn't want to be an heir/ successor or follow the family's footsteps at all. She knows they're bad. She sees herself as such, too, unable to change/be different like Sanji was. She doesn't think she can bring her mother's kindness to this world the way Sanji does, so she sticks to what she knows, whether it is to protect Sanji too or to accept her fate.

BUT (and bear with me for a second here, I know I have been watching too much Succession lately) we also do know that during her childhood she didn't do anything to help Sanji from the abuse. She watched it happen because that was the way things went there and because she knew what would happen to her if she did. Of course, she ends up helping him escape and taking care of him but-- I'm just thinking, for a tiny little moment, about how she's actually the oldest.

She should be the heir. She should be the person everybody views Ichiji as. She should be considered the most responsible. The smartest. The strongest one. The one who should take the throne. And she doesn't even want it now, but what about back then? What about when she did have some little, tiny faith/hopes for her family and what they did? She sought approval and naively thought "my father is going to offer me the place I rightfully deserve, right?" blindly seeking acceptance like all of them did.

But no, because she might be the oldest but Ichiji is a man. She might be the strongest, the smartest, the most reliable... But she is not a man. And I believe there must have been a time when she expected her destiny to be something more, and once she realized she was just a woman in their eyes... Well, we know what happened.

I just keep finding similarities between The Vinsmokes (OP) and The Roys (Succession) and perhaps my headcanon of Reiju being similar to Shiv has gone a bit too far. But the scene where Shiv is like "This is real?" when Logan promises she'll be the CEO and he goes "This is real. Remember this. The slant of light" for it to be a lie later is something I fear could have happened with Reiju and Judge if Oda had given us more content,,,,

[itsthemoofacewriting]

The stars will guide you

I’d actually already had this written in my head when I submitted a prompt for ‘cold night’. When it wasn’t randomly selected but ‘starry night was’, my brain scrambled to salvage it and here we are.

Huge thank you to @zonamievents for, once again, creating such a fun event!

Summary: A cold night under the stars is only made better by warm company. Rating: T- some suggestiveness at the end

Can also be found on AO3 and FFN.

Enjoy.

Nami woke up cold.

Blearily she pried her eyes open to a dark room and she’s irritated because that means it’s either a horrendous day outside or it’s still night. Based on the silence coming from outside, it sounded like the second option and that would be great, it meant she could go back to sleep, except she’s still cold. She curled up tighter, pulling the duvet and blanket that she has layered on the top closer, but the chill still found her.

After all of that, she’s still not warm or back to sleep and now her brain has switched on. She turned to see if Robin might be up, the woman slept at all sorts of crazy hours, so it was possible, but found her bed empty. It didn’t take long for Nami to figure out where she may be. She’d seen the foldout bed in Franky’s workshop and whilst the older man said it was for when he worked late, Nami knew better than that.  

With a sigh, Nami slumped back in her bed. She was cold, awake and alone. But not for long if she had her way.

She laid there for a moment longer before forcing herself out of the bed, quickly sliding her feet into slippers and wrapping the blanket around her shoulders. It was even colder outside the bed, but she kept reminding herself that the end result would be well worth it.

If Nami thought it was cold in her room, it was nothing compared to outside and her slippers slapped furiously against the stairs as she sprinted down them. It was just as she made it to the bottom that she lost one of her slippers on the step above and she hesitated, wondering if she should leave it behind to save herself, but when she took another step barefooted it protested loudly against the cold wood. With a sigh she’s going back to retrieve it and continue on to the lawn deck, taking a sharp turn to face one of the entrances to the men’s room.

It was no secret Zoro was like a radiator. No matter the weather or situation, he would exude heat. In the summer it was a nightmare sharing a bed with him but in the winter, she clung to him and had she known it would be so cold tonight, he would have been bullied into her bed. Although, it never really came to that. Like he’d pass up the chance of a comfy bed that came with an alluring woman (she could almost hear him snorting in her head at that, but he never denied it) over a hammock with loud snoring men around him.

Except that hammock was currently empty.

There were snoring men but no Zoro (Franky’s hammock was also empty, Nami noted). She’s doing another quick look before huffing in irritation. He’d probably fallen asleep in the crow’s nest again and the thought of climbing up there whilst her hands froze, and her blanket threatened to fall to the deck below was not appealing in the slightest.

Maybe she should just go back to bed. Except the thought of being there alone is worse than the climb up to the crow’s nest and she’s steeling herself to just get on with it. And quickly because somehow Sanji’s figured out she’s in there, even though he’s definitely still asleep, as he started mumbling something about her under his breath.

She’s grumbling to herself as she walked out of the men’s room but before she could look up at the crow’s nest, her eyes lock onto the intended target.

Zoro.

Asleep on the lawn deck, leaning against the opposite wall.

Legs and arms crossed with only a thin top and trousers.

What a moron.

Probably a warm moron, Nami thought bitterly to herself as she marched over to him.

“Zoro, Zoro, wake up!” Nami loudly whispered, nudging his leg in an attempt to wake him, which honestly was very kind of her considering.

His face screwed up, but his head just lolled to the other side as he breathed out deeply. She never could understand how he did that, just roll over like nothing happened.

“Zoro!” Nami snapped, kicking his side now, her patience thinning the colder she got and right now, it felt like she was going to freeze.

“What,” he snapped back, his one eye cracking open to glare at her.

“You’re asleep outside. Come on, it’s cold.”

“So what? I was fine before you got here.”

“You’ll get sick,” Nami argued, she wasn’t about to tell him the real reason.

“Haven’t in all this time of doing it.” He shrugged, his eye closing again.

She had nothing to say to that and yeah, she may have kicked him again out of childish frustration, but it made her feel better and it wasn’t like she did it that hard.

“Stop making a fuss and sit down,” Zoro told her and his previously folded arms opened to welcome her in.

She made a point not to focus too much about how quickly she accepted that invitation but it’s hard when Zoro stared down at her knowingly. She settled into the gap in his crossed legs, her head finding its place on his shoulder and her arms tucked into her body but hands on his chest. He’s radiating so much warmth it’s sickening but oh so good. Her fingers are already starting to tingle pleasantly from the sudden change in temperature.

His arms don’t automatically encase her, instead they pry the blanket away from her shoulders but before she can complain it’s being draped over them both and then his arms are tightening around her.

This is it. She never wants to move. For someone made mostly of muscle he’s so comfortable. And did she mention warm?

“Woke up cold, huh?” He smirked down at her, looking far too smug for his own good.

And just for that, she’s kicking off one of her slippers and bringing her foot up to press against the exposed skin at his side where his top’s ridden up. It’s an awkward angle but it’s well worth it when he visibly jumped.

“Shit! What the hell is wrong with your feet?!” Zoro barked, pulling her foot away but instead of pushing it away, he’s resting it on his thigh. “Feet get cold, but you refuse to wear socks to bed, what stupid logic.”

“I don’t want to hear anything about logic from you! And you know I can’t get comfortable if I wear socks to bed!”

“Picky woman,” Zoro grumbled but it sounded fonder that anything else.

“That’s what I have you for, my foot warmer,” she cheeked back, wiggling her toes on his thigh to make her point.

He doesn’t have a response for that, but he does teasingly lift the blanket near her feet and as the cold air rushed in, she shrieked and kicked her feet out to reclaim the blanket. She lightly smacked his chest in retribution when he let it fall back around her feet, but it doesn’t take away his laughter.

When they calm down again, Zoro’s closing his eye and leaning his head back in its original position from when she found him. She’s about to scold him because that’s not what she wanted when she came out here, but she stopped before she could even start as something caught her eye.

A star winking at her.

But it’s not just one, it’s multiple. All of them, smattered across a black canvas like glitter. They gleamed and glittered so much that they reminded her of jewels and her fingers twitched with the urge to steal and hoard them for herself. It’s stupid, because she obviously can’t but it doesn’t stop her from staring and wishing she could.

She can’t peel her eyes away from the view and they’re so breath taking that she’s not quite sure how she missed that on her trip to the men’s room. She wanted to kick herself for not seeing them sooner. But then again, she wasn’t as warm and as comfortable as she is right now, so maybe this is the best time to finally take notice.

It’s been a while since the sky has been so clear and she’s been able to stay up this late that she can just sit and watch. She’s a navigator and it’s the oldest trick in the book to use them for navigation, but despite her familiarity with them she never grew bored with them. They always kept her entertained, searching for star clusters and constellations.

She’s not sure why she does it, Zoro looked like he might have gone back to sleep, but she can’t resist.

“The stars can be used for navigation, you know. The North Star is the most useful to explorers and sailors alike. It’s a star that never moves and will always show you where North is.”

Silence was the only thing that responded when she’d finished but she was too busy searching for the North Star to take too much offense to it. But when she did find it, Zoro’s time was up.

“It’s rude to sleep whilst I’m talking.”

“I’m listening,” and his voice supported that, he sounded awake despite his closed eye. “You said there’s a star that never moved and shows you the direction you need to go in.”

It might not be an entirely accurate retelling but it’s close enough and she’s learned what to reasonably accept from him. “Any chance you’re going to remember any of this? Maybe you should take notes.”

“Why bother? That’s why I have you.”

She has multiple reactions to that. She hated that she’s actually touched by that, because he’s probably making fun by mimicking her earlier words, but regardless it still did funny things to her stomach. Zoro had a knack for being oddly sweet in situations that didn’t call for them with his blunt honesty. But at the same time, she wanted to scold him, because yes, she was here for these sorts of things, but they weren’t always together and even though they were together, she didn’t always have the time to babysit him. She spent most of her time searching for him.

An idiot he may be, but that was smooth, and he probably hadn’t even intended for it to be.

“Why do you have a weird look on your face?” His eye was open again, looking at her face.

Okay, that certainly helped her pick a reaction.

“I do not have a weird look on my face, don’t be rude!” Nami huffed, elbowing him. What a jerk.

He laughed back in response but said nothing, so Nami went back to her little lecture.

“If you look there, you’ll see the Plough-” she paused, leaning in closer to him so that he could follow her finger easier as she pointed up to the sky. She’s not sure why she does it, she doesn’t even bother to see if his eye’s open- “as soon as you find that you can find the North Star from there.”

She looked back at him now, taking her eyes off the sky for a moment, and his eye is cracked open and head tilted down to look at her. She didn’t actually doubt he was listening to her before but now it’s obvious. But it’s the look on his face that brought the rosiness to her cheeks. Gone are the harsh lines and frown that normally adorned his face, he looked relaxed and content and it’s something to rare to see on full display and it’s all aimed at her. He looked like he was actually enjoying it.

“Looks like a saucepan,” he supplied after a moment.

Nami wanted to tease him, it’s such a childish observation, but her enthusiasm won in the end.

“Yes! It’s also called that for the uneducated.” Okay fine, she still wanted to tease. “And the big dipper too, the North Star will always be under, above or to the side of the top of the saucepan, because that moves but the North Star never does.”

She’s looking away from him to point back up at the sky and she can feel him shift closer, so that he can actually follow where her fingers pointing. It made her feel giddy.

Zoro hummed and she took that as affirmation to continue. “But sometimes that’s blocked or out of view, so instead you can find the constellation Cassiopeia and it’ll always be on the opposite side to the Plough.”

Then her finger’s moving across the star riddled sky to locate the constellation.

“The zig zag one?”

“That’s it!” Nami laughed happily, that he’s actively listening and taking part- even if he will most definitely forget it straight after. It doesn’t annoy her as much as she thought it would, because it meant they could do this again.

“It’s interesting, right?”

“More interesting to see you get excited about it.” He tried to deliver it casually but there’s no missing the light dusting of pink across his cheeks. After all of this time together and he still gets embarrassed. It’s progress though, before he would have just grunted.

He’s interested because she is?

Nami’s grin is almost as blinding as the stars above them and she can barely contain her happiness, much less put it into words, so she snaked her arms around his torso and squeezed as her face buried itself in his neck instead.

She heard him chuckle, but he doesn’t let her stay like that for long, his shoulder jumped and she’s looking up at him in question at the disruption. She gets her answer when he closed the distanced between their faces and his lips are touching hers. It’s a slow kiss but he moved with purpose, there’s no hesitancy as his lips moved against hers and goddamn it, his lips are warm too.

Everything about him is warm.

“Your nose is cold,” he complained but pressed another kiss to her lips despite his words.

“You’re doing a good job of warming it up.”

He moved away from her lips and he’s kissing a heated path across her face towards her ear.

“I can think of another way to keep you warm,” his voice rough as he murmured into her ear and his breath was hot against her skin. It sent a different kind of heat sparking through her body to settle in the pit of her stomach.

“Is that so?” Nami responded coyly and her hands unwind themselves from his torso to find his hand and direct it from her waist to under the waistband of her pyjama bottoms. He doesn’t need any more encouragement than that when his fingers are met with lace and they move with more purpose now, smoothing over her skin to play with the fabric.

“You had this in mind?” He quirked an eyebrow at her, but he still looked impressed.

“It doesn’t hurt to be prepared.” She winked back at him. “It’s your favourite too.”

Their conversation is over then because Zoro’s scooping her up into his arms and hastily making his way to her room, the stars left forgotten behind them.

It was always easy to rile him up with red lace.

---------------

Merry Christmas, folks!

As always, please forgive any errors (Even more so for this, read the dates wrong- thought I had another day!)

Thanks for reading.

[monkeydluffy19920]

Thoughts about chapter 852

So, the newest chapter is out and as expected, there was no escape from the feels. This time it’s not about the bad things but because there is finally some hope for Sanji. This review is mainly focused on Sanji and Reiju but let’s start with Luffy and others.

So, Jinbe sets the place on fire letting Luffy and Nami escape from their cell. They are so happy to be free and readers are happy that Luffy still has his hands with him even though the tooth is still gone but I guess it’ll never grow back. After a small adrenaline rush Luffy falls down on the ground due the hunger. For understandable reasons he is hungry but but still not willing to stop from looking out for Sanji. He wants to rush and warn him and there he goes even when the castle is filled with enemies. Nami and Jinbe were left behind and it’s interesting to see will they follow Luffy or not. I hope Luffy gets help sooner or later because now he is facing enemies all alone and  he needs energy... 

This piece of action was too much for Nami’s dress which is now ripped off (nuu , my favorite outfit :<<) and she changes it with a randomness dude. This leaves to the question what was popping out in OJ forum while talking with fellow SaNami fans but we know now that Pudding has 2 dresses for the wedding (she first chose 1 by herself but her mom didn’t like it so she had to take another one, chosen by BM). Now that she has only the clothes stolen from beaten guy I wonder if she’d go look out for clothes and found Pudding’s dress or borrows her clothes in general? At least now she has similiar saggy pants Pudding wore back in her cafe. 

By the way, like said already in previous chapter Sanji has clearly now made his desicion and chose his friends over Pudding.  Instead of leaving it in front of her door he took that basket full of food with him and it’s now just matter of time when he is able to hand to Luffy. I wonder how their meeting will be though. I mean Luffy will be so happy but Sanji might be really ashamed of what he has done and even might try to avoid the eye contact.

Moving to the hearbreaking part of this chapter, the discussion between Sanji and Reiju who are not at the infirmary. Reiju has just woken up and Sanji explains her what is going on and what Pudding did. I am so glad to see that his sister is having faith on him and no speculating anything. She even stated that Pudding was too good to be true which means she had her own doubts as well. Their relationship has been quite unclear to me because on the other hand Reiju cares a lot but then she also accpted all the abuse and stuff. However now we know that she really didn’t want to but since she is genetically modified so that she can’t disobey Judge she can’t help some things.

Sanji breaks down realizing how his plans of “following Mama’s lead” has not paid off at all. I really admire how strong Sanji can be. He has never being hesistant about putting his friends before him but and always thought about then when making plans and there has never been the situation where he’d abandon anyone who is in need of help. This is probably the first time his plans have failed and now he has to face realities, Mama is not worth to trust on and his sacrifice would not be handy at all.

People are still commenting that Sanji is a really weak character which is nowhere near the truth. I mean how would you feel yourself  being in a excact situation with excact characeristic traits? (overly kind, self sacrificial etc). In addition you had a tough background like his being unappreciated and almost needed to fight for the existence? Then after years when you thought everything would be ok after leaving the hell you had to face your family you’ve tried to avoided in a unexected situation like this where you are heavily blackmailed and can’t practically do a thing. Then seeing unexpectly your friends and being forced to banish them out in order to keep them safe, wouldn’t that hurt you too? And then you hit the rock bottom being hopeless romantic who thought that “the chosen one” would be in love is deceiving you and on top of that, plannng to murder your family. It’s not as easy as it seems, really. 

I love how adulthood has made Reiju so mature and even though she is supposed to be cold she doesn’t make fun out of Sanji when she is seeing him being fragile from times. Reiju was the only one from Sanji’s siblings who actually felt uneasy when Sanji went against Luffy. Unlike his brothers who were enjoying every moment and when he bursted into tears in that wagon after beating Luffy half dead the kept on having fun.

Reiju is now offering a chance for Sanji to escape with his crew mates and leaving Germa dying in BM’s hands telling that they all deserve to die. Sanji in understandable a bit schocked and worried about Baratie which is held as hostage but Reiju tells that Sanji should not worry about her, they are supposed to be born as unfeeling machines after all like she said. She tells Sanji a memory from chilhood she has never forgotten, something that reveals a lot about their mother. We see a flashback where Judge and his wife, are having an major argument. Sora/Sola is not ok at all with the idea that their children are modified as cold hearted killing machines. She finds this idea extremely wrong and unethical and she is looking excactly like Reiju without swirl in that panel. Then we find out that she was forced to that surgery but she decided to end Judges insanity by taking some sort of drug that would prevent the gene modification. Sanji was the only one from the brothers who was not affected by Judge’s works that badly, he showed some emotions what annoyed Judge but made Sora/Sola so happy.

Before moving on with the storyline let me comment few things.  First of all I can’t be the only one who is even more despised by Judge’s appearence. I mean it’s really horrible to think about the fact that he put his crazy ambition over his children and wife and dares even to fight about it. Secondly, Sora Vinsmoke is so lovable and brave. Imagine, she stood against his husband’s will and sacrificed herself trying to provide their children some kindness. Also she did never abandon Sanji and always valued his humanity. There is no doubt where Sanji has inherited his big heart of gold :’) but what breaks my heart is that Judge put Sanji in jail which means he wasn’t able to to visit his mother that often in her last days. I wonder did Reiju or Judge ever told that he was imprisioned?

After re-reading the chapter I also wonder what in the world has their mother seen on Judge. Yes maybe he has been much nicer before kids and simply became too obsessed with his dreams but somehow also a political marriage wouldn’t be counted out from the choices. He did love his wife indeed because he grieved her loss and put the blame on poor Sanji who has done nothing wrong.

Thirdly, this panel made my day, along with Reijus upcoming comments.  just look at this toddler with the sweetest smile that ever existed on earth ! (he did not only inherit her beautiful smile but also her beautiful nature !)

Sanji is now in such a shock hearing the backstory blaming himself like usual but Reiju is comforting him. Telling that their mother didn’t think it that way, she was so glad to see that not all their children became senseless soon-to-be-warriors and there is definitely no doubt how much she loved Sanji, unlike Judge. 

Then Reiju says something important to Sanji, something that he should’ve heard since he was a child. Something that he definitely deserves to hear:

There are by the way now at least two things that Oda keeps postponing. First, the whisper of Vito. This is something he hides a lot which means there will be more secrets revealed ! Unless it’s something we’ve already seen but haven’t paid much attention on. Secondly, the reconciliation of Sanji and Nami. When Luffy rushed to go to see Sanji he told Jinbei to take care of Nami assuming that he wants to meet him first (no wonder, he is hungry and wants to see if he is alright) and he didn’t take Nami with him. That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t follow him with Jinbei but still.  This is again some biased point of view but I think the only reason their reunion keeps moving forward is that Oda has prepared something big for them. Again, not necessarily romantic even though that would be a fangirl dream come true but maybe there will be a deep moment between Sanji and Nami when they talk things over.

Anyways, Reiju is kind of right about that at least half of this planet thinks that Vinsmokes deserve to die, at least Judge and Sanji’s brothers but that’s again just writer’s opinion and some conclusion after seeing the dashboard.She also feels guilty about things and tells that she deserves to die along the others but Sanji is strongly disagreeing telling that he doesn’t want to let them die, no matter how much he hates his father and brothers. Also he finds it hard to let go of Reiju, she has been his savior all this time after all.

It’s now all up to Sanji how this plot will keep on going ! My guess is that no matter how much he’d love to he refuses to leave and fights for Reiju’s sake but this is just a guess and seems like we have to wait a while until we get answers.