One Piece - Short Stories

Masterpiece

TW- Describing of bruises and minor description of cuts/scratches

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As the blond stood there with shaky hands, his form hunched over, it looked as though nothing was wrong on the surface. As long as you were looking at him from the right side. From any other angle, you could see the darkened and bruised flesh from cuts and hard force attacks that damaged his pale and smooth skin. The sunshine made his hair look golden as his eyebrows knitted together, ocean blue eyes giving his hands and their contents a frustrated glare as his lips pursed tighter around his unlit cigarette. After a series of frustrated noises and the faltering fire of a lighter, a small flame stayed steady behind Sanji’s cupped hand, lighting up his cigarette and causing the man’s shoulders to visibly relax, as if the smoke pushed off all of the tension in his body. A skilled hand pushed the closed lighter into a pocket of clean and pristine dress pants and swiftly moved to take hold of the now lit cigarette between two fingers and take a long, slow drag before pulling it away from his lips. His head turned up to the sky as he blew the smoke from his body, watching the sky above him as he leaned his elbows against the white railing of the Thousand Sunny. The tilt of his chin pulled at the long cut that had already scabbed over on his neck, a contrasting red to the purple and yellow bruises. He has many small cuts covering his body, of which the crew could only see those ones. All of the deep cuts that dug deep into Sanji’s skin were covered by bandages and hid from the world until they were to heal or scar over and leave bad memories. 

Glances were exchanged between the Straw Hats, a look at Sanji before their eyes met one another. The chef looked so at peace as the cool breeze gently blew back his unbuttoned blue dress shirt, revealing a series of bandages that hugged his torso and showed the small dip in his stomach. Though the peaceful image of the beautiful man slowly broke apart the longer you stare and studied his features. The way his golden blond hair was slightly disheveled as if he ran out of the energy to finish fixing it to the point of perfection, making his hidden eye more obscured from the messy strands rather than actually hiding the blue orb. Sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing the dark and almost sickening bruises that crawled up his arms and surrounded his wrists. The dark marks were like patterns that ran all across his torso and crept up his neck. Like a masterpiece that was vandalized, his porcelain skin seemed ruined, although, with a man as tough as Sanji, he would heal quickly, slowly his body would return to his former glory.

Pained coughing pulled the crew from their thoughts as Sanji clutched his chest, hunching over the railing while his cigarette dangled loosely between his two fingers. People stood quickly but the first at his side was no other than the little doctor himself, shifting into his human form to rest a hand on Sanji’s back and lead him to a nearby chair, assessing him as the rest of the crew watched helplessly. Sanji waved a shaky hand as if to try and reassure all of us, all while breathing shakily to try and fill his lungs with clean air.

“Sanji, do your ribs hurt?” Chopper's worried voice cut through the silence that was once backed by the cook’s ragged breathing.

“No, no I’m fine, I just took in a breath wrong.” He waved a dismissive hand and tried to take another drag of his cigarette once he caught his breath. A small argument broke out between the two about Sanji’s smoking habit while he was in his current state. Sanji, of course, defended the fact that smoking had never hindered his person before and it wasn’t going to suddenly start now.

Chopper tried to argue, but Sanji stood by his statement. “Then can you drink some water and stay sitting at least?” He looked at the blond with big pleading eyes, waiting for a response.

Sanji sighed and rested a hand upon Chopper’s hat, standing up. “I do that at least if it makes you feel better.” He nodded and walked down the steps with his normal grace still in his stride, looking around the deck at all of his crew mate’s staring eyes. He stopped with one foot on the deck and his other dragging on the stair behind him from the way he stopped. “Is everything alright?” His words seemed to snap them out of their traces as they looked around and quickly answered that ‘yes, everything is fine’. The cook shrugged it off and walked to the galley to get himself a glass of water to lounge with on the deck.

It was going to be a long recovery if the crew was this worried, and it wasn’t going to be long for just Sanji. The Straw Hats were worried sick about their cook with the state he was in, knowing he would fight if need be. Everyone on the Sunny took a deep breath to recompose themselves. They were the Straw Hats, after all, they could get through anything together.