WINTER HEAT | ZoSan ❄

6

Interrupted by the discussion he had with Zoro, Sanji found himself wandering deeper into the forest, to the point of no return.

His body told him to seek help, but his state of mind was too disrupted to pay attention to the warning signs the wind was giving him.

The night was dark, but the snow acted as the only form of light that was guiding Sanji around the island.

"Heh, Sanji you imbecile." He muttered, beneath his breath, chuckling lightly.

And though he was smiling, there was no joy in the laughter he let out.

No happiness at all, just a hallow emptiness that was slowly expanding in his heart, leaving a hole inside of it.

He tried to deny this feeling by placing his hand against his chest, as if that were enough to fill in the void that Zoro left inside of him.

Their breakup finally began to settle into the Cook's mind when he was left alone with his thoughts.

The man's blonde strands of hair blocked most of his vision when his fringe swayed to the side with the wind.

His lips were severely cracked as a result of the cold weather, and he could barely feel the tip of his nose any longer.

And though there was a high chance that one of his crewmates, or even his very own Captain might be roaming nearby, Sanji didn't feel the need to search for anyone at the moment.

One of the reasons why he was so resistant to finding anyone else, was because he knew that once he returned to the Sunny, the Swordsman would most likely be there as well.

And even if he wasn't, even if he never returned at all, the memories would still be there to haunt Sanji later on.

"Doesn't matter..."

Giving himself the benefit of the doubt to where he was going, the man ceased to acknowledge how cold his legs were getting when his blood started to sizzling, signalling a potential blockage in his circulation.

His arms were also growing heavy, yet all that he could focus on was escaping further into the forest, as if he were still running away from the Swordsman... Or secretly hoping that he was following behind him.

But the Swordsman was long gone.

He wasn't behind him, no one was behind him.

Even the pathway to find his way back to where he last saw Zoro, had vanished into the distance.

It almost felt to Sanji that the Island was trying to help him forget about Zoro by vanishing all traces that could lead the Cook to where he was.

Shoving his hand into his pocket again, the man located a cigarette and put it in between his lips, leaving it there to continue moving forward.

"These are pretty useless when they aren't lit. Really wish I had my lighter right n- Ah, crap! Hey!!"

Sanji hunched over, hoping to reach Zoro's earring when it fell out of his pocket after he was reaching into it to pull out the cigarette he had taken out before.

Unfortunately, the earring drifted off with the wind.

Taking off behind it, the determined Culinarian climbed a hill similar to the one he had tumbled down before, only this time, the mountain was significantly smaller than the first one he scaled.

"Haa... Dammit, just a tiny bit more! Get over here..."

Boosting himself towards the highest point of the mountain, the man miscalculated how close his arm was to the edge of the hill.

"There you are, you little bastard!"

Spotting the earring from nearby, the Cook snatched it up and stored it away inside of his jacket, keeping it from escaping him a second time.

Unbeknownst to him, he hoisted himself so far up while going after the infamous piece of jewelry that he didn't notice the edge of the hill.

"Wait- Aaahhh...!!"

His voice echoed loudly as his body began to slither helplessly down the slippery slope, with no hope of stopping any time soon.

The sound of the rock hard clumps of snow reverberated near the man when they descended with him as a consequence of him sliding down the hill.

"NOT THIS AGAIN!!! WAAAGHGPFT-"

He started coughing when the cigarette slid to the back of his throat, temporarily choking him until he managed to spit it out.

Landing into the deepest depths of a seemingly uninhabited cave, Sanji's body finally came to an immediate stop.

Seconds after he was lying still on a humid ground, the man's eyes turned into a set of spirals, as big as the ones on his eyebrows.

"So... Dizzy... But thankfully, alive."

He told himself with a great big sigh of relief, shutting his eyes for a while so that his vertigo could end.

But before he could celebrate the fact that he had survived such a long and endless fall, the Cook ran his hands all throughout his upper body, in desperate search of one thing...

"Oh God... Please be there..." He continuously told himself, feeling anxious.

"Thank goodness. You little shit, look at where I ended up because of you! Where... Where am I?"

The man slowly perched his head up, staring back at a large cave that was damp and humid, and slightly warmer than the forest he left behind, unintentionally.

Readjusting his disheveled clothing, the quick-witted Cook reacted to the sound of heavy footsteps from nearby, within the cave.

"Huh? Who in their right mind would be in a place like this?"

He thought to himself, turning over to where the sound was coming from.

His eyes widened when he saw something sharp, shining from deep within the darkest depths of the cave.

"You!?"

~~~