Chapter Text
Chopper hadn’t let Sanji or Robin out of the infirmary for a single second, not wanting them to leave his sight. So, the rest of the crew had gathered inside the small room or close to the doorway, curious about their time with the marines.
Nami sat at the edge of Robin’s bed, carefully fixing up Luffy’s straw hat with the captain watching from over her shoulder.
“Did they want information?” Usopp asked, and Robin shook her head ‘no’.
“Please, Sanji, you gotta give me something! I wanna know what they wanted from you!” Usopp whined, and Chopper and Nami nodded, leaning in closer as Sanji opened his mouth to speak.
“He was just a crazy guy. I don’t even know what to say.” Sanji shrugged helplessly.
“Then explain the marine uniform.” Zoro cut in, and the Straw Hats collectively honed in on the damning outfit that Sanji hadn’t gotten the chance to get out of.
“He wanted me to become a marine, for whatever reason. Something about knowing my true nature? Whatever that means.” Sanji divulged. The image of their shared embrace back on The Orbit flickered in his mind, but he pushed it down immediately .
“Are Maria and her children okay?” Sanji asked, and Brook responded, “Yes, Maria is safe and sound with her wife. They’ve gone back to their kids.”
“Her wife? ” Sanji bit the inside collar of his shirt, sobbing into it dramatically. “It should have been me!”
Luffy snickered when Zoro rolled his eyes at the display.
“Are you jealous of Maria or Rosa ?” Nami asked halfheartedly, for which Sanji adamantly answered with, “BOTH!”
“Maybe if you weren’t busy daydreaming about women, you wouldn’t have gotten captured in the first place!” Zoro leaned towards Sanji aggressively, ignoring Chopper’s distressed request to stay away from his patients.
“Hah? In case your seaweed brain doesn’t remember, I was alone on the ship when I was captured!” Sanji shouted back with equal vigor.
Zoro fell back into their normal rhythm, “HAH? Say that again?!” He reached for his swords with a playful sneer on his face.
“Order above all. Loyalty to-” Sanji slapped his hand over his mouth, his eyes snapping to meet Zoro’s with shock. The two hovered for a second as silence passed through the galley.
Zoro squinted. “Loyalty to who , curlybrow?”
Sanji stayed frozen, his hand still clamped over his mouth like he wanted to physically shove the words back in.
Robin raised an eyebrow and Nami leaned in, while Usopp was practically vibrating with anticipation. Even Brook looked mildly alarmed.
Sanji slowly lowered his hand, looking like he’d just accidentally confessed to a war crime. “... Slip of the tongue,” he muttered.
Zoro narrowed his eyes. “Sounded like brainwashing to me.”
Sanji snapped back to life. “Hah?! Maybe if someone had bothered to get captured instead of napping through Robin’s kidnapping, we’d all have been traumatized together !”
“Sorry, I don’t lose to marine scrubs,” Zoro said with a smug smirk, already halfway unsheathing Wadou .
Chopper flailed between them again. “Sanji’s in bandages! Stop trying to fight!”
“I will smoke him even in crutches if I need to!” Sanji threatened.
“Come at me, Cook!” Zoro yelled, fully enjoying himself.
Nami cracked her knuckles threateningly. “ Try it , and I swear neither of you will be eating solid food for a week.”
That shut them both up.
“Anyway,” Usopp coughed lightly, “I still think Sanji’s secretly a marine now. Look at the uniform and the dead eyes. It’s all very suspicious.”
Sanji rolled his eyes. “If I ever start reciting creeds again, just punch me.”
“You got it!” Luffy grinned.
“Wait- not literally- ”
Sanji’s floundering was cut off when Luffy pounced on him, play-wrestling Sanji back into bed as Chopper panicked, and Robin tried not to spill her tea all over the commotion.
Outside the infirmary, the sun settled on the horizon. The Sunny rocked gently beneath the crews' feet, setting course towards their next disaster.