#sword and spice | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

preciouslandmermaid · 9 months ago

Text

of songbirds, swords, and spice (5)

pairing: Opla!Zoro x Opla!Sanji x Fem! Reader (no use of Y/N or L/N)

tw/cw: alcohol/drinking

🏴‍☠️ read on AO3 🏴‍☠️

(masterpost)

<- (previous chapter)

The Going Merry glittered beneath the night sky. A rich, flavorful aroma wafted across the cool breeze from the kitchen, but Sanji assured everyone that dinner wasn’t ready yet. Zoro downed his third—or was it his seventh?–cup of sake. Your skin buzzed. Your heart rate was erratic. You drank slower than everyone else and wondered idly if they’d start spilling all their secrets. Luffy seems too earnest for secrets, you thought with a measured glance at the captain of the Straw Hats. Nami on the other hand...Your eyes flickered to her while you refilled Usopp’s cup. Nami’s wary trust and frank pragmatism reminded you of yourself, which meant she couldn’t have had a childhood of kittens and roses. Sanji approached, carrying appetizers for you and her.

“Dinner is going to take a little longer than I expected,” he said smoothly, “but I couldn’t bear the thought of you starving on my account.”

Nami rolled her eyes as you reached for a flaky, triangular pastry. You had one more day of Sanji’s cooking and wouldn't waste it. If the winds stayed true, then the Straw Hats would leave Nightingale Island by tomorrow afternoon. They’d become a story you’d repeat to Clover, Aiden, and the other children at the orphanage. ‘Tell us again’, they’d cry, tell us about the Straw Hats!’. You bit into the pastry, and its crumbs caught your lower lip.

Luffy asked, “Where are my appetizers?!”

“Ah.” Sanji clicked his tongue. “They’re cooking. I wanted Nami and—” he looked at you, gaze dropping to your mouth momentarily, and a flush tinged his high cheekbones. “Well, let’s just say they’re better when they’re fresh.” He looked away and cleared his throat. You wiped your mouth with the back of your hand and flicked away the loose crumbs.

“Stop playing favorites, cook!” Zoro yelled from across the table.

“I’m not playing favorites.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Does anyone else feel like it’s unfair that the captain didn’t get to try them first?” said Luffy, holding one finger up. Before anyone could argue further, or make complaints, you grabbed one of the pastries and held it out to Luffy.

“He never said we couldn’t share,” you said.

“Oh.” Luffy smiled and plucked the pastry from your fingertips. “Thanks!”

You didn’t miss Sanji’s relieved, grateful smile. Nor did you miss the sudden, fluttery swoop of your stomach. You knocked your drink back, and let the harsh rice wine hit your throat with an uncomfortable, hot splash. You coughed, your eyes watering, and Zoro smirked at you. You sharpened your blurry gaze into a glare. The background conversation muddled and fell away. Zoro filled your vision, taking up too much space, his dark eyes awakening something slumbering inside your lower abdomen.

“What?” You weren’t going to let him mock you, the cocky bastard.

“Seems like someone can’t hold her liquor,” Zoro said. His index finger mindlessly trailed over the rim of his cup before drawing away and gripping the neck of the sake bottle. You swallowed your sore throat.

“I can hold my liquor just fine, thank you,” you replied and ignored the hoarse croak of your voice. You wiggled your fingers as you held out your hand for the bottle. Zoro’s dark eyes dropped from your face, and so did your stomach. His gaze lingered on your fingertips, the digits softly curled in supplication.

“Sure.” He scoffed. “We’ll see.” Despite his doubtful tone, he passed the sake bottle, and you were careful to ensure your fingers didn’t brush along his.

“I’m not rising to the bait, Zoro. I’d be an idiot to get drunk around strangers.”

He tilted his head and the orange-white bulbs hanging from the sailing rigging flashed his golden earring. “We’re strangers?”

You shrugged and didn’t drink. “Close enough, right?”

“We’ve fought together three times.” He refilled Luffy’s cup for him. “I fought alongside Luffy once before joining his crew.”

You couldn’t understand Zoro’s words. Was he seriously that drunk? Fighting together didn’t automatically equate to loyalty or friendship. Once, you saw Marines fighting alongside rebel fighters against a common enemy, but the Marines returned to arresting the rebels once the mutual thread was gone. You couldn’t imagine a world where Zoro of all people wanted you to join the Straw Hats. You blinked slowly.

“Are you trying to ask me to join you?”

“No,” Zoro said while crossing his arms.

“Then what are you saying?”

“I’m saying we’re not strangers.”

“Because we fought together?”

He nodded. His eyes were cast toward the heavens and you frowned. If this was how Zoro made friends then it was no wonder he traveled with this motley crew. There was no friendship between you. Estella hired them. You were the babysitter for this job because she trusted you more than she trusted a handful of inexperienced pirates. Friendship and loyalty? No. No way.

“I could betray you,” you reminded him, “take the box and tell my grandmother that everyone died while we were collecting it.”

“You won’t.”

You cringed, and hot, prickly heat pooled within your cheeks and along your throat. How dare he presume to know you? Okay, he was right, you had no intention or desire to harm any of the Straw Hats. Still, he shouldn’t know. He shouldn’t. You drank and didn’t cough. Zoro’s mouth twitched. Your silence was proof for him. Proof of your loyalty, your compassion, and the tentative bond forged between you. You needed to clear this up.

“How do you know?” you snapped, “you were the one who threatened to chop me into little pieces if I betrayed you!”

Zoro’s lips thinned. Hah! I win! You thought, your shoulders lifted. You had overreacted – Zoro didn’t know you. He was spouting bullshit to try to get under your skin because he was drunk.

You reached for the last pastry, but Zoro snatched it before your fingers touched the thin, airy crust.

“The cave,” he said lowly with his eyes locked onto yours, “you wouldn’t have survived the drop.”

The heat returned and simmered. Your words had been impulsive, half-formed by your worries for the lack of treasure, and reeling from the adrenaline spent from the fight on the beach. Would you have let go of Luffy’s hand? You bit your lower lip. You didn’t want to die, but you also didn’t want any of them to die for Estella’s treasure hunt. If anyone had to be sacrificed for Estella’s sake, it had to be you, and no one else.

“So what?”

“Doesn’t sound like the action of someone willing to betray her allies.”

“You’re reading into it.” You shook your head. “I didn’t want Luffy to fall into the cavern with me, that’s it. I didn’t think he could keep holding onto me.” The Straw Hat captain was surprisingly strong.

“Whatever you say.”

Annoyed by Zoro’s nonchalant perception of your character, you stood, and grabbed the sake bottle, smirking.

“Hey!”

“Get your own,” you quipped before ascending the steps to join Nami at the upper deck. She knelt beneath the tangerine trees with a large map sprawled before her. Her head lifted at your quiet approach and your hand tightened around your small cup and you offered Nami a tight, awkward smile.

“Zoro,” you said, waving your hand vaguely by manner of explanation. “I don’t know how you put up with him.”

Nami smiled. “He’s not so bad.”

You huffed and sat cross-legged beside her. You weren’t inclined to agree with her. Zoro was strong, and a capable fighter, but his social skills needed work. Hell, even when fighting, he managed to annoy you. He bumped into you, pushing you out of the way of an attack without asking, and he made reckless attacks by jumping at vicious, deadly spider-women. You set the sake bottle between you and Nami.

“What’s that?”

“It’s the map to the Grand Line.”

“Sounds dangerous.”

“Isn’t it always?” She shrugged one shoulder. “You know, I heard what you said on the beach about your dream.” Her eyes turned to Luffy, standing on top of a barrel and laughing, and her smile softened. “I know what it feels like to have an impossible dream, but traveling with Luffy has taught me that some dreams...you can’t accomplish them on your own.”

Your heart pounded into your ribs. You knew Luffy’s dream—he never shut up about it and announced it to everyone, it was a point of pride for him. Sanji shared his dream with you, his thread of connection with his savior and mentor, Zeff. But, everyone else on the ship was a mystery. It’s my last night with them, you thought, I might as well learn all I can. It’ll be good for the stories.

You asked, “What’s your dream?”

The tangerine trees rustled overhead, the sharp citrus scent mingled with the mouth-watering scents coming from the kitchen below. Nami rubbed her hand over the tattoo on her shoulder.

“It started with Arlong,” she said. She shared her story, about Arlong’s deal, and how he betrayed her after she had collected enough berry. You listened, your heart twisting and tugging into strange shapes inside your chest. Usopp said the Straw Hats defeated Arlong, but he hadn’t told Nami’s side of the story, and you found yourself emphasizing with her. You knew what it was like to work for someone you despised, to be trapped, and you knew what it was like to be removed from your home. You angled your gaze downward, toward the map of the Grand Line, and blinked away the burning, sharp prickle behind your eyes.

“I’m sorry,” you said after her story was finished. “I’m glad you were able to escape from him.”

“Me too.” Her fingers smoothed across the map. “What’s your dream?” she asked quietly, “is it really so impossible?”

Nami’s bright orange hair brushed along her pale cheeks in the wind, her expression was thoughtful and kind, and you didn’t think she’d pressure you to say anything if you didn’t want to. Your eyes followed the swooping design of her tattoo. A symbol of her freedom, of reclaiming her destiny, and navigating her life without abuse and control. You closed your eyes. You saw the endless blue waters, stretching forever, and the shadows that loomed over the islands and pulling the invisible strings. But then you thought of Nami. Brave, determined Nami, a child willing to chain herself to Arlong to work for her home’s freedom. A hundred million berries – an impossible dream. Yet, she had collected the berry, and with the help of Luffy and the others, they removed Arlong’s influence from Cocoyasi village. And now Nami was free to chase her true dream of creating a map of the world.

You had always believed your dream was unattainable. However, this conversation with Nami set you off-kilter, and a tangerine-shaped seed of doubt took root in your stomach.

You said, “I don’t know.”

“Maybe,” Nami said carefully, “you just need friends to help you.”

For the second time, one of the Straw Hats implied friendship with you, and your heart skipped at the idea. How can we be friends, you thought bitterly, when you’re going to leave in a few hours? You'd never see them again once the Straw Hats passed into the Grand Line.

“Are we friends?” you asked.

“Don’t know.” She held up her glass to you. “I’d like to be.”

You lifted your cup and knocked the side against Nami’s. “Me too.”

After dinner, you returned to the upper deck to sit among the tangerine trees and clear your head. You laid on your back, arms crossed and pillowing your head, and watched the stars float aimlessly by as the Going Merry drifted through the calm, dark-gray waters. Your heart had fluctuated between heavy and light. You liked the Straw Hats, but you couldn’t stay with them. Estella needed you. How would the Golden Cupid survive without you? It couldn’t! Your devil-fruit powers allowed Estella’s business to rake in more berry than they ever could through regular performances. You trailed your fingers across your throat, ghosting along your collarbones, feeling the slight pebble of goosebumps beneath your fingertips. Your voice was your greatest weapon and your greatest asset. I can’t stay on a boat, either. The ocean sapped your strength. Estella needed you, the children needed you, and you couldn’t leave them to chase your dream.

Nami’s story, so similar to your own, was an outlier. Most people don’t get to achieve their dreams. You lifted Pandora's ivory box from your pocket and held it aloft in front of your nose, except Estella. Her dream is complete once we deliver this. The ivory surface absorbed the moonlight, turning the angles and divots along the carved surface into luminescent cracks. Estella never wanted to solve the puzzle boxes. She said there was no point. ‘Pandora wouldn’t hide berry in them,’ she said once, ‘they’re too small.’ You figured her desire to have the boxes wasn’t about berry but about the prestige of having something that once belonged to a famous, female pirate.

The wooden floorboards creaked. “There you are,” Sanji said, “care for company?”

You sat up. “Sure.” It’s our last night together.

“I have a personal question,” Sanji said, sitting next to you, though you noticed he was careful and gave you space. “If you don’t mind humoring me…”

Down below, Luffy shouted, “Guys! We have a cat!” He held Mimi from under her front paws, her lower body swaying as he twirled around, and you were surprised that she tolerated it. She never let you pick her up. Oh, Luffy. You chuckled under your breath and shook your head. I wonder if Mimi will stay with them.

“What’s your favorite dish?” Sanji asked, lifting one leg and resting his wrist on his knee. His lighter sparked and illuminated his profile in a brief, flickering glow, his pale eyelashes casting shadows across his cheeks, and his lips pinching to hold the cigarette between them.

“Why do you ask?”

“I’m a chef,” he said, exhaling smoke. “And I want to make you something special for tomorrow to celebrate.”

A swarm of butterflies hatched inside your stomach. You quelled your desire to smile, at his thoughtfulness, and the sight of his longer fingers tucking his lighter into his pocket. You toyed with the puzzle box, passing it back and forth between your hands, and watched the dark, green tangerine leaves rather than continue to stare at Sanji.

“What if you’ve never heard of it?”

“Describe it to me in detail.”

You squinted at him. “And you’ll just – what? – figure it out?”

“More or less,” he said, then smiled.

You asked him to give you a few minutes to think. Your favorite dish? You had plenty of foods you liked, plenty of dishes you’ve tried from years of traveling and being on the run with Estella, from street food that dripped over your fingers to expensive cuisine that you could barely pronounce. Your thumb flicked over the puzzle box’s corner.

“Before I…” You stopped yourself, unable to complete the sentence with honesty, and licked your lips. “Before I worked for someone, we had this cake every year during the Festival of Limitless Water,” you said, “we had all these rivers that ran through the mountains.” You made a swooping gesture, following the memory of hills and streams, and your heart hardened to lead.

“Anyway.” You cleared your throat and were well aware of Sanji’s focused, blue eyes on you. “They’d make them in the shape of fish, and fill them with red bean paste, or custard, or…” You trailed off and realized you couldn’t remember what they tasted like.

The act of remembering your home, your past, felt like razors clawing up your throat. You were barely seven when you left the Yama Archipelago. You remembered it in pieces. The clouds that swelled and wrapped around the mountains like heavy blankets, the fish-shaped cake warm inside your hands, the yellow paint on your childhood door, your parents–

“Keep going,” Sanji said, breaking your trail of thought before you spiraled. “Was it flaky and layered? Or flat?”

“It wasn’t flaky. Sometimes, when it was warmer, we’d eat ice cream from inside of them.”

Sanji nodded. “If it could hold its’ shape, then they must’ve used molds.”

“Probably?” You shrugged. “But, if that’s the case, then I don’t know where you’d find the mold before everyone leaves tomorrow.”

“I’ll improvise.”

You sighed, twisting the puzzle box in your hands. Sanji wouldn’t be able to make the dessert before everyone left. You knew it. He knew it. But for now, beneath the starlight and swaying lights, you would pretend that he’d fulfill his promise—and that you’d see one another again. The smoke trailed out of Sanji’s lips, faint and blue-tinged.

“What’s yours?” You asked, watching the smoke curl into faint wisps before they dissolved.

“Spicy seafood pasta.”

“I should’ve made my paella spicier then,” you said. Who’s cooking for Estella if I’m not there? You hoped she wasn’t worried about you, or Mimi. You hoped she was looking after herself.

“It was perfect as is.”

The nape of your neck tingled, and a flush of hot and cold danced through your veins.

“Thanks.”

“But I’m always available for private lessons,” he said, “if you ever want to advance your culinary prowess.”

“Right.” You laughed. “I’ll just come find the Going Merry in the middle of the East Blue and take you up on the offer.”

“Or you could stay,” Sanji offered gently, his voice a whisper on the smoky, tangerine-scented wind.

“I can’t.” Your reply was quick and pointed. “Estella needs me.”

Sanji of all people should understand your predicament. You wouldn’t abandon her.

“I thought the same about Zeff, but then he reminded me that spending my life at the Baratie was foolish. I was meant to find the All Blue for the both of us.”

You held up the puzzle box, admiring the fine craftsmanship, and said, “What happens after you accomplish your dream?”

Will Estella be content to place this puzzle box among the others? Your dream wasn’t attainable, but hers, Luffy's, Nami's, and Sanji’s dreams were. Where did the passion go once the dream was fulfilled? Sanji held his long, dexterous fingers out to you in a silent request and you wordlessly passed the puzzle box to him. You watched as he attempted to open it, but nothing worked. A little furrow worked its way into Sanji’s brow before he gave up and held it back out to you.

“You find a new one,” he said quietly.

#fic: songbirds swords and spice #one piece fanfiction #reader insert #zoro x reader #zoro roronoa x reader #sanji x reader #vinsmoke sanji x reader #zoro x sanji #poly fic #zoro x sanji x reader #opla fanfic #one piece live action fanfic #zoro x you #sanji x you

74 notes · View notes