Downhill

Zoro stopped in his vicious attack to listen. For a second there, it had sounded like someone was calling his name. It was hard to tell with all the noise he was making, and if there were some emergency he couldn't leave this unfinished. He needed to be done here, and quickly. With a final yank, the tenacious branch finally broke off from the trunk, a few of the ripe fruits on it tearing off and rolling underfoot as it whipped back in his hand. There. It would have been easier if he had been using his swords, but they were not made for such menial tasks, no matter what certain of his crewmates seemed to think. In the new silence, he cocked his head and waited.

A rustling of leaves was all he could hear at first. That was to be expected, since this island was heavily wooded, almost like a jungle. It wasn't a real jungle, because it didn't seem to have tigers or dinosaurs or giants or anything else particularly dangerous, and it wasn't warm. Of course, a visible lack of dangerous critters didn't mean that one of the others couldn't get into trouble.

And there it was again. Faint but unmistakable, Nami's voice calling -- not just his name; apparently anyone would do. He briefly contemplated keeping the branch with its fruit, since it came from one of the few trees he had seen that weren't already wilted with the coming of winter, but it wasn't a very practical thing to transport through a forest. Chucking the branch aside, he set off running through the trees.

As he ran, he listened for the navigator's voice over the racket his boots made tearing through the underbrush, kicking up fallen leaves. He wasn't sure, but he thought that the cry wasn't all that desperate. There was an annoyance to it that serious enemies rarely provoked. Of course that was good. No need to be disappointed that there really wasn't anything strong to fight on this island. Maybe whatever was causing her to yell at the top of her lungs needed a good beating anyway. Speaking of which -- hadn't the love cook gone with her?

Zoro crashed through a thicket of some kind of tall, thin trees growing close together, and paused on the other side. No sign of Nami, and now he couldn't hear her voice anymore either, but he was sure he had been close.

There was another sound too now, that of waves breaking over rocks, and on the crisp breeze he could smell the sea through the earthy scent of woodland autumn. The trees grew less densely here, scattered among cliffs and hollows. He could see pretty far on one side of the changing landscape, far enough that he should have been able to find Nami if she was standing up anywhere as close as she had sounded. On the other side the ground sloped up in a steep curve, effectively hiding his view. So either Nami wasn't standing, or she was somewhere over the slope.

For a moment Zoro hesitated; then he headed up the hill. There was no sign of any destruction the other way, and Nami would never have lost a fight quietly.

A shout told him he had made the right choice. He heard her calling their names again before he spotted her, standing by a tree still in summer garb, close to the top of the hill. The big basket the cook had brought to collect edible stuff lay discarded at her side, and she had her staff out, holding it with her arm outstretched. With its end she was vigorously attacking what seemed to be a huge purple flower bud of some sort. She had stopped shouting again, and instead was talking, though he wasn't quite sure what she could have to say to it, or why she would be beating up a flower that didn't seem to be the least bit edible -- or like it was fighting back, for that matter.

He called out to her "Hey, Nami."

"Zoro!" She turned around, a relieved look on her face, wiping her brow with the sleeve of her blouse. "Finally! Now you can help me get Sanji-kun out."

Whatever Zoro had been expecting, this wasn't it. "Eh. Out?"

Nami sighed, a short, annoyed sound. "He got eaten. Now get your swords over here."

Again, this demanded an explanation -- or at least a reassurance that he wasn't going deaf or insane. "He did what?"

"He got eaten by that flower over there." With her staff, Nami motioned at the strange bud sticking out of the ground. Except it wasn't ground right there. It was some kind of long, thick, yellowish green leaves with darker orange spots. Still, that wasn't really what was important right now.

"A flower ate him?"

"Yes. Now will you please stop gaping and get him out of there? Hurry!"

It was all a bit unexpected -- their cook had been eaten by a plant? Not their captain, who had a knack for such things, but the cook? Zoro shook his head, stopped gaping, and went over there, drawing his white katana as he did. He noticed now that there was a strange, sharp smell in the air here, bitter and putrid.

Before he got any closer, Nami motioned for him to stop. "Careful with those leaves. They can't cocoon anyone else now, I don't think, but they whip up pretty fast, and they're sticky."

Nami stepped aside to let him pass, and now he could see the flower -- or whatever the hell it was, since flowers didn't usually eat people -- more clearly. It grew out of a hollow in the shadow of the tree. Most of the oblong bud, large enough that he only barely could have wrapped his arms around it, nested there below ground level. Meaty leaves that almost blended into the grass overlapped each other and covered the ground around it. The bruise-colored, tightly wrapped petals in the center were bulging oddly, and twitched.

"That's the cook?" Zoro gestured at the purple blob with his sword.

"Yes. It didn't look like that when we got here, we didn't see it until he fell down -- he was going to get some of those fruits," she nodded at the tree, which did indeed have tasty-looking red and yellow fruits dangling from its green branches.

"And now you want me to cut him out?" Zoro made a face at the prospect of having his blade covered in sticky flower stuff. "You sure he's still alive?"

"Yes, of course he is, you idiot." Nami poked the bud with the end of her staff, and it twitched again. "See? He just can't move very much, and it won't break open. It needs to be cut open, fast." She paused. "Try not to slice Sanji-kun too much."

Zoro didn't bother to reply. He quickly sheathed Wadou Ichimonji, and drew Yukibashiri instead. Taking a deep breath, he focused his concentration until he could distinguish every bulge and dent in the chunky layers of purple-and-green petals visible above ground. The plant stirred, the form hidden inside it shifting slightly, and Zoro knew he had found the right place to strike.

Wasting no further time he took a couple of steps back, then launched at the flower, his lightest katana a shining arc as he leapt up and swept it down in a fierce stroke that sliced far down the bud's side. Not stopping when he cleared the flower, he kicked out against the tree's trunk to get enough momentum to hurdle across the plant once again, repeating his slice on the opposite side of the bud. Now he did land, spinning around to observe the effects of his attack.

The two cuts went just deep enough to split the flower in two, and the halves began to slide apart. His nose noticed the first change, as the weird smell he had noticed before turned into an acid stench. A sticky translucent substance oozed from the incisions, binding them together by thick dripping strings. One by one the gooey threads snapped, broken by the increasing weight of the halves. It was a bit like watching something covered in slime hatch from a very messy and soft-shelled egg.

Actually, something covered in slime was coming out. Zoro could see Sanji now, and he didn't look too good at all. His legs were still down that hole, and even with the plant half off of him he didn't seem to be doing much to get out of it. Zoro frowned.

"Sanji-kun!" Nami's call wasn't all happy either. She ran towards him, only to stop suddenly with a startled cry. Zoro just made out a shudder passing through the yellowish plant-parts on the ground, then one of the leaves had whipped up, plastering itself to Sanji's exposed side, again coating him with purple. He clawed at it -- a welcome reaction, since it proved he wasn't completely out of it. Another of the tentacle-like leaves wrapped around Nami's leg, as far up as it could reach with her standing on it. She snapped her staff down, grounding it through the meaty flesh with a crunch, and braced against it to throw herself out of the plant's reach. "Zoro!"

Wasting no time, Zoro sheathed his sticky blade, and leapt across the flower. Again, he kicked against the trunk, and this time grabbed the cook's arm on the way back. He came loose from the hole and remaining petals with surprising ease, overbalancing Zoro and causing the extraction to end a bit less gracefully than planned. They both collapsed on the grass and rolled, tumbling over each other.

After sliding to a halt, Sanji shoved away from him, coughing and spitting, clawing at his face. Getting to his feet as quickly as possible, Zoro swore and wiped ineffectually at flower slime that had rubbed off on him. He was uncomfortably surprised to find that the stuff didn't just give off an acrid stink and stick like glue -- it burned, too. He crouched down to wipe his hands off on the grass, then glanced over at Sanji.

Nami had rushed to his side, so of course the stupid love cook was doing his best to act cool. Well, as cool as someone who had just gotten eaten by a slimy stinky flower could be. At the moment, that seemed to include trying to sit up without help, and not spitting. All in all, he was doing a terrible job of "cool"; especially with the goo he was dripping everywhere.

Slightly less sticky, but with the occasional bits of grass clinging to him, Zoro joined the chef and the navigator. Sanji really did look a mess. His blond hair was matted with gunk and plastered against his skull, and his pale skin seemed oddly flushed. There was something strange about his clothes, too. Under the coat of sticky stuff the fabric looked torn, as if it had melted around the edges.

"Don't worry, Nami-san, I'm fine." Sanji's grin was weak, his voice raspy, and any possible cheering effect of the words was lost when he coughed and again buried his head in his hands.

"I don't think that stuff is good for him," Zoro spoke to Nami, whose expression at Sanji's insistence was saying volumes, none of it about how she believed him. "It burns," he elaborated.

"Not much. I can handle some shitty plant!" Sanji's voice held a note of challenge, but it seemed to be directed somewhere vaguely off to the right of Zoro, and when Nami cut in he held back a retort. "Of course you can, Sanji-kun," Nami soothed. "Let me look at that." She leaned in and gently nudged his hands away from his face. Whatever she saw there made her hiss between clenched teeth.

"You're sure you're fine?"

"Yes, Nami-san!"

Zoro snorted. Nami just sighed.

"Okay, then. First of all we'll get you clean." She was quiet while she worked, quickly and efficiently wiping the exposed skin off with handfuls of grass. Sanji endured it without moving or saying a word, neither to protest nor encourage her. That only seemed to worry her further. She rocked back on her heels, studying Sanji intently. Sanji in turn rummaged awkwardly under his jacket and withdrew a cigarette. It was a little crumpled, but he stuck it between his lips with obvious relief. He fumbled a bit when fishing out a match, but managed to get it lit despite the dollop of slime that slid from his hair and onto his fingers, threatening to quench the small flame.

Nami looked as if she was about to say something, but instead she stood. "Sanji-kun, you can get up now."

"Ah. Yes, Nami-san!" Sanji was obviously trying to put his usual energy into obeying their navigator's command, and worked his way to his feet without staggering too much. When she didn't speak again he stood still, turning his head slowly in a most unusual way. Nami put her hands to her hips, and Zoro was beginning to understand why she seemed so exasperated.

Her voice, however, was pure sugar when she asked, "Sanji-kun, would you please get my staff for me? I think I dropped it over there."

Zoro raised his eyebrows. He had seen her tuck it away before tending to Sanji. Sanji himself hesitated, and then took a step away from her. He didn't get further than that, because she resolutely got into his way. He stopped only a few inches short of walking into her. "Idiot," Zoro muttered under his breath upon witnessing the cook's spectacle.

"Sanji-kun." Nami's voice was stern.

"Yes?"

"When did you plan on telling us that you can't see?"

Sanji started, then looked chagrined. "I can see! Just… not right now. But I'm fine."

Nami didn't bother to ask anything else, and Zoro was pretty sure he knew why the cook was acting all stupid. After all, admitting defeat by a flower would have to sting more than that goo.

"We need to get him to Chopper," Nami said over Sanji's shoulder to Zoro, who nodded his agreement. She shoved Sanji in front of her in Zoro's direction, and then stopped. "Wait. Zoro, weren't you with Chopper? And Usopp? What happened to them?"

"Eh." Right. The three of them had gone out together. "They went ahead without me." At some point, though he couldn't say exactly when. Maybe he had gone ahead without them?

Nami took a deep breath. "So we don't know where Chopper is?"

"Well," Zoro thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Somewhere in the forest. That way."

Nami stared at him. "That's the sea."

"Oh."

Nami went quiet for a minute, obviously thinking hard. Sanji, who had been turning his head back and forth to follow the conversation, took advantage of the silence to shrug out of his ruined jacket. He ran sticky fingers over the equally sticky fabric, wincing at what he found. There seemed to be no clean spot, or whatever he had been feeling for on the outside. It was with a resigned sigh that he turned the jacket inside out, and used it to clean off the remaining gunk and sticky grass.

"Well, one of us needs to lead him, we can't just leave him here." Nami nodded at Sanji, who froze in his mid-wipe to ecstatically exclaim. "Nami-san will lead me with her guiding love!"

"Zoro, you take him back to the ship."

"But, Nami-san," Sanji sounded quite crushed, and immediately launched himself at her -- or at least that was what he tried to do. What he did was wobble a step towards her, trip over a rock, and collapse in an ungainly sprawl.

"Zoro, you carry him back to the ship," Nami revised her order, hands firmly planted on her hips.

"What? No!" Zoro said incredulously at the same time as Sanji exclaimed his outrage.

"No way!"

Nami glared at Zoro, presumably since he was the only one who could actually see her. "Sanji-kun needs to get to Chopper quickly, and without falling into any more flowers."

"I didn't--" Sanji's protest was ignored by Nami, who continued, "I'll find Chopper, and you'll get Sanji to the ship."

"Fine. But I'm not carrying him." Zoro crossed his arms over his chest.

"I can walk!" Sanji sounded most indignant for someone who had been flat on his face just moments ago. Right now he was dusting himself off again, getting dirt and grass worked into the remaining sticky stains on his slacks and shirt. It was probably a good thing he couldn't see that.

Nami looked at them for a moment, then nodded. "Sure. Just don't get yourself killed. And maybe you should find some water to wash that stuff off. If it burns bad enough to blind…" She sounded worried.

"I'm not blind." Sanji's voice was firm. "It'll go away once Chopper gets me something to rinse it out with." The one eye visible under his messy hair opened to a thin slit, unfocused and bloodshot. "I can see shapes. Almost." He winced, shut it again. There were new stains on his cheek, which he hurried to blot off with a surreptitious wipe of his sleeve.

"Zoro, don't let him walk off a cliff. And remember, the beach where we anchored is down and…" She glanced up. Gray clouds scudded across the sky, spots of blue only occasionally visible between them. "In the direction of the wind." She didn't say anything more, but Zoro felt her gaze weigh heavily on him, as he obediently looked up, then nodded. He chose to magnanimously ignore the scruffy cook's mutter, some comment about his navigational abilities.

"Good. Make sure you get there before the storm breaks." With that last piece of encouragement, Nami gave them a short wave and turned towards the forest, running swift and sure-footed over the uneven terrain.

"Storm?" Sanji cocked his head inquiringly at Zoro. "What storm?"

Zoro shrugged. "I have no idea. Now let's get going."

Sanji nodded, but didn't move. He wanted to, but there was a chance he would end up tripping again, and falling at the stupid swordsman's feet was the last thing he needed right now. "Sure. I'd love to." No way he was going to ask for help, but it was a slightly unsettling position to be in. If Zoro walked off now…

But he didn't. "Oh, right." His voice sounded close, and Sanji had hardly picked up the sound of the swordsman's boots through the grass before Zoro was there. There was a faint jingle where his ear studs jarred against each other. "I'm not going to carry you."

"The hell--! Of course you're not! I told you, no carrying. I'm fine!"

"Except you can't see."

"That's… why do you keep bringing that up? Believe me, I know I can't see, I'm not likely to suddenly forget about the not-seeing, but that doesn't mean there's going to be any carrying!" Sanji felt like kicking something to emphasize his point. Preferably a green-haired, annoying something who would be easier to hit if he wasn't moving around. Zoro didn't just jingle, but clattered slightly too, his three swords' sheaths bumping together as he walked.

"Good." With that, a heavy hand settled on his shoulder, and Sanji found himself firmly propelled forward. He lifted his feet to walk just before the shove sent him sprawling again, and kept walking because it seemed like his best option. Being pushed around like this wasn't quite as embarrassing as getting carried, but neither was it a very dignified method of travel.

Zoro squeezed his shoulder a bit tighter, steering him to the right. "Up."

Sanji wanted to question this laconic direction, but before he could get out anything other than a first "Huh?", a rock collided with his shin. It was a very hard rock, and very pointy in exactly the wrong places. The questioning noise died in his throat, and even though he clamped his jaw shut hard enough to make his teeth grind, a low whine escaped. "Shit. Zoro, you bastard! There are dogs who can do this job better than you!"

The hand on his shoulder twitched, and Zoro's reply was delivered in a dangerously low voice. "I told you to step up."

"No. No, you didn't. You said 'up'." So this had in no way been Sanji's fault.

"Exactly."

"'Up' could mean anything!" The yell felt like a poor substitute for a kick, but it was much better than dwelling on the circumstances. The oppressive darkness, the increasing burning on his face and hands… his ruined suit, the jacket in his hand reduced to a sticky rag.

"Did that plant eat your brain before I got you out of there? How could 'up' mean anything else now?" Zoro growled, shaking his head so the gold in his ear jangled brightly. A puff of air tickled the small hairs on the back of Sanji's neck. "Next time, just do what I say, okay?"

"You'll tell me before I walk into another damn rock?" There were worse things he had wanted to say, but the pain flaring from the burns on his face and hands distracted him momentarily. At least he had been able to close his eyes inside that shitty plant-thing -- his exposed skin had been left completely unprotected as it started doing its best to digest him. And there was still that prickling acid taste in his mouth. He grimaced.

"I'll tell you if you shut up and let me do this." Zoro pushed on his shoulder again. "Remember to step over that rock."

"Yeah, I've got it covered." Sanji tapped the rock with his foot, feeling its weight budge slightly. Perfect. With a satisfied grin he released a kick fueled by a whole humiliating day's pent-up frustrations at the offending rock. He regretted not being able to see as it shot off, but was disappointed by how short its flight was. It didn't take long at all until he heard it crash to the ground and bounce a few times.

Not waiting for Zoro's nudge, he strode forward. Clearing the spot the rock had occupied a gust of salt-laced wind met him. The way it stung his exposed skin made him forget all about the bruise on his shin. His determined stride faltered, and Zoro's grasp tightened on his shoulder. It almost felt as if the swordsman planned on holding him upright just by that grip.

"Oi. You okay?"

"Yeah." Sanji answered through gritted teeth. He could ignore the pain, but it was getting tiresome. "I'm fine. But I think I need to find water." Washing the last vestiges of the sour juice out of his skin and letting cool water rinse away the stinging in his eyes -- yes, that was just what he needed.

"Did you see any on your way here?"

Sanji thought back. It had been such a lovely walk with Nami, looking for fruits or vegetables to stock their hold with before leaving this chain of islands. The first one they passed had already shifted to winter, and although they had gotten plenty of meat there it wouldn't do for a balanced diet, no matter what Luffy thought. The islands had grown slightly earlier in season and less covered in snow as they went on, but this was their last chance to get fresh greens on board. With fall already well on its way here, everyone had agreed to help out… They had been looking for something to eat, not drink. But he did remember a small brook that he had offered to help Nami across, only to have her step over it herself, right in front of him. His day really had been one disappointment after the other.

"So, did you?" Zoro's voice cut through his contemplations of how much better it would have been if that brook had been just a little wider -- or maybe even a river, so that he could have carried her across, or--

"Yeah. Not too far away, it's a stream in the woods. I'll…" He stopped, realizing he couldn't show Zoro, that was the whole problem. "It's in the woods," he finished lamely.

Zoro guided him in the right direction, and they managed to get inside the forest without any further incidents. Sanji was busy listening for the sound of running water, trying to calculate where it could be and fighting the repeated urges to scratch at his stinging eyes. He could hear a few birds calling, and some small animal rustling through fallen leaves, escaping from their presence. The air was rich with scents -- trees and bushes, their fruits and berries fallen, their leaves wilting. Mushrooms grew here in abundance, and there were some late flowers blooming not too far off. And there it was. A faint whiff of sweet water, there and then gone.

He stopped, hoping to catch it again. His sorry excuse for a seeing eye dog didn't. Zoro didn't bump into him that hard, but the shifting weight as he bore down on Sanji's shoulder must have surprised him, because he found his legs folding under him. He stumbled, jacket flying out of his grasp and his abraded palms raking against sharp twigs and dry prickly grass for an agonizing moment, before Zoro hauled him back on his feet.

"Idiot. What'd you do that for?" The other man's grumble gave him something to focus on other than the stickiness he could feel on his palms now, warm and slick and not at all like the flower's slime. He balled his hands into loose fists, stuck them in his pockets.

"There's water somewhere close. I could smell it."

"Smell it?" Zoro sniffed the air. "Huh. I don't smell anything except that disgusting stink on you." The hand left his shoulder, and he could feel Zoro passing him to do something that rustled like leaves and cloth.

"You're not a cook, and it's not like you to pick up subtle nuances of anything anyway." Sanji craned his neck, testing the air like a hound tracking its quarry. The flower's bitter stink was the most obvious smell in the vicinity, together with tobacco smoke. But he had been able to filter them out before -- and there it was again. Running water.

Zoro was back, standing right in front of him. "Here." He touched Sanji's arm lightly. "Your jacket." A sticky, dirty bundle with an assortment of sticks and leaves stuck to it was pressed against his chest. He accepted it with his hands still protectively curled into fists, and tucked it under his arm. Something on it poked his side uncomfortably. Only the fact that he still held on to some vague hope of being able to restore it to something wearable again kept him from just tossing it away, and he nodded his thanks.

"I can smell it now. It's coming from somewhere in that direction." Sanji motioned to the source of the scent with his head. "I think I can hear it, too." It was almost imperceptible, but there, the clucking of water winding down to the sea.

Zoro hesitated before answering. Maybe he was trying to find the scent for himself. His reply indicated that was the case. "If you say so."

"I do. It's there."

"Where?"

"Off to the left."

Zoro started them walking. Not exactly left, but close. "No, it's a bit more in this direction." Sanji pulled at the hand and its attached Zoro to get them on the right track. Following Sanji's instructions, his guide led them closer and closer to the stream. Now there was no doubt in Sanji's mind at all anymore; this was definitely the brook he had seen earlier. Small, but with clear water rushing over smooth stones. Zoro acknowledged that he could hear it, too, and they could quicken their pace once they didn't have to rely on Sanji's lead.

"You really can't smell it, not even this close?" Sanji asked with a smirk. It had never occurred to him that this could be such a useful ability even for a human, and that the swordsman could be so lousy at it.

Zoro growled, "No. But I can see it, so shut up and duck under that branch."

"Asshole." Sanji retorted without heat as he did what Zoro told him to, and felt a few dry leaves tickle his hair. That was a terribly unfair comeback.

The grip on Sanji's shoulder shifted, one hand now firmly on each shoulder. It wasn't quite like being lifted, but unless he decided to fight back, Zoro was the one deciding where they were going now. Down, obviously, navigating a tangle of bushes and jutting rocks. It wasn't at all long before the hands left his shoulder. "Well, we're here."

Sanji moved awkwardly, testing the ground around him with one foot and finding the stream with a splash. At least it was within easy reach. He hunched down, dropping his jacket beside him before he reached out for the water. He tensed, halfway expecting to have his hand to snag on some thorny vine or sharp root in the unseen space in front of him, but nothing happened. The water's surface was cold to his fingertips, sweaty and grimy as they were after their time in his pockets.

He carefully dipped his fingers lower, and the stream tugged at them with more force than he had expected. The cool water lapped against his hand, getting the cuff of his shirt damp. He plunged both hands to the bottom of the brook and braced against the smooth rocks, some of them slick with algae. Then he took a deep breath and quickly stuck his whole head under water.

The sensation as the stream washed against his scratches and the sensitized skin around them was not altogether pleasant. It eased the burning, but the cold and the pressure against his skin were numbingly painful. The rush of water in his ears made him temporarily deaf as well as blind, and he tried to force his eyes open to get his bearings. It didn't change much, except the stinging in them intensified, prickling worse than if he had rubbed them with fingers full of hot pepper. There might have been a little light at the edge of his vision, blurry and distorted, but he couldn't bear to keep them open long enough to focus on anything.

When he broke the surface, gasping for breath and dripping, a delicate chime of metal and a clattering of lacquered wood against rock told him Zoro was probably sitting down next to him. Sanji could feel the swordsman's eyes on him, and kept his hands underwater, rubbing them against each other to get the last of the sticky juice off. It felt like his warmth was flowing out through the cuts on his palms. He wished desperately he could have seen how they looked, to assure himself that it was just his imagination, that there was no blood staining the water around them.

"That doesn't look very good." Zoro's voice reminded him that there were other things he might have been wishing for while he was at it. That this Grand Line wouldn't have such freakish vegetation, for one, and that he would stop discovering these things in the worst ways possible was another. Giant avalanche-starting carnivorous rabbits, goldfish that swallowed ships whole, cook-eating flowers… why was it that they never happened across tropical islands full of beautiful, lonely women?

"I'm bleeding, aren't I? My hands?"

"Yeah."

Sanji nodded. The chill had numbed them enough that he couldn't tell if the ache was coming from the acid burns, or the scrapes, or just the cold. Either way, none of those things should be able to do any permanent damage. He swallowed. Obviously he needed something to drink. His throat was parched, and hadn't it been aching for a while now?

"Give them here." Zoro had shifted closer.

"You're not a doctor."

"And you're a terrible patient."

"Chopper will take care of them."

"Sure, but he's not here now. Come on."

Sanji gingerly raised his hands from the water, holding them out in the direction of Zoro's voice. A large hand circled his right wrist, pulling it closer and then holding it still. There was a tearing noise, and a piece of cloth was wound tightly around his palm and tied on the back of his hand.

"Uh, Zoro. What was that?"

"I'm putting a bandage on it. I don't want you to bleed all over this island. Chopper wouldn't be happy with me." Zoro released his hand, started on the next.

"I know it's a bandage, but we didn't bring any bandages." He suspiciously brought his hand to his face, immediately catching the familiar smell of smoke and spice, feeling the silky softness of his suit's lining as he touched it against his cheek. "This is from my jacket!"

"Oh, shut up. It was all ruined anyway."

"It was not! It just needed to be cleaned."

"It needed to be burned!"

"What? No!"

Zoro finished tying the impromptu bandage on the other hand with a yank. "Yes. It stinks worse than you do, idiot."

"You stink too," Sanji muttered, but quietly. That was dangerous ground, considering how Zoro had come to get goo on him in the first place. No need to remind him too much of that. A shudder passed through him. The cold was intensifying, even though he didn't have his hands in the water anymore. Strange.

After Sanji had a bit of water to drink, and not just to soak in, Zoro decided it was time to move on. He had even taken the time for a quick scrubbing himself. The air had a bite to it that he couldn't remember from before, and the light was growing dimmer. Neither of those things boded well, but as long as his unwilling charge wasn't complaining about it, he was not going to mention them.

"Okay, let's head back to the ship now." Zoro grabbed Sanji's wrist again, pulling him back on his feet as he stood up. The cook was still dripping, and his face was pale where it wasn't flaring angrily red, but at least he wasn't bleeding anymore. He also did smell a lot better after the wash. Zoro took one glance at the crumpled remains of what had once been a black suit jacket, and discreetly forgot about it. No need to bring more baggage than he had to, especially not such stinky stuff.

He led the wet blond back to the snarl of trees on the bank that had been so tricky to maneuver before. He must be getting the hang of this guiding, because it went much easier this time. Once clear of that, he could see where the ground started sloping gently downwards. It was good that they were getting closer to the ship, because no matter how good Zoro felt he was getting, this was slow and cumbersome going. Even with his warnings, Sanji bumped against a tree, and the ensuing bout of swearing back and forth distracted him from noticing the same tree's root sticking up right in front of the cook. Obviously nature had it in for him today, and he went down hard, leaving Zoro grasping at empty air.

The crash sent a flock of small birds flying in twittering fright. The wind sighed through the trees, rattling branches. Zoro waited for the outraged cursing to begin. When none was immediately forthcoming he felt a small pang of -- concern, maybe. It sure as hell wasn't guilt. It was the cook's own damn fault he was in this situation in the first place, but Zoro had accepted the task of bringing him back safely, and he had let himself get sidetracked by his charge's annoying bickering. He couldn't let that keep happening, or they would never get anywhere. Which they wouldn't anyway, if Sanji didn't get back on his feet.

The cook was sitting up now, brown ferns flattened around him, lighting a cigarette as if he didn't have a care in the world. Again, that small feeling nagged at Zoro. Something in the way he was doing it, in slow, deliberate motions, and without cursing first, felt off. "Are you coming, or do you want to stay there?" Zoro asked as the cook released the first puff of smoke. He moved to stand over Sanji, resisted the impulse to poke him with the tip of his boot.

"I'm thinking… staying here might be safer." Sanji grinned tightly around the cigarette. "But I don't want to keep a lady waiting. Nami-san's probably found Chopper by now."

"Yeah." He really should not have been dropping his blind person like that. There was not enough aggression by far in Sanji's voice, and the skin showing under his tangled bangs was a shade paler than before. Considering that he had been doing a fair impression of a ghost before, that was not good.

"Here, let's go." It was becoming habit now, to grab Sanji by the wrist and haul him to his feet. Before, though, Sanji hadn't needed quite so much help getting himself upright, and he hadn't been swaying, either. Zoro was still facing him, and caught him in a hold around the shoulders. "What's wrong?"

Sanji shrugged out of his grasp, turned away. "Nothin'. Told you, it's rude to keep a lady waiting." He backed up his words with a sluggish step away.

"Don't be more of an idiot than you already are." Zoro, who could see he was heading straight for a low branch, made a grab for him and swung him around by the shoulder.

"I'm not! I'm fine. Just… let's get back, okay?" Sanji batted at his hand, pulling away. At least he seemed steadier on his feet now.

"Stop that. You're heading into the tree again, stupid."

"Oh." There was a brief pause, then another puff of smoke. "So you noticed this time."

"Yeah, yeah. If you hadn't been so noisy before, I could've told you to lift your lazy feet. So shut up, stop distracting me, and just walk." Zoro urged Sanji in the right direction, slightly less remorseful now that the chef was mouthing back at him. But that nagging feeling didn't quite let go. It was obvious that Sanji wouldn't tell him if he had hurt himself worse in the fall, but the way he was favoring his right leg now gave him away. That, and every now and again a shiver ran through the lean shoulder under his hand. It could be this cold wind that had just picked up, but Zoro would feel better if Chopper was here to handle this. Collapsing crewmates was the doctor's area of expertise, not Zoro's. Zoro made things collapse, he didn't take care of them. Not that the cook had collapsed yet, but his steps were slowing, and his reactions were getting more sluggish.

The hill they were on was rapidly leading them downwards, and after a little while Zoro could hear the sound of waves on the wind. The glimpses he got of the choppy sea told him that they were still pretty high up. He couldn't see any hint of the Going Merry, or the beach where they had anchored, but it would probably just be a matter of getting down to lower ground. Through the sparse foliage of the branches overhead he could see dark clouds now completely hiding any sign of blue.

"Hang on." He waited for Sanji to halt, then looked up again. "Those weren't blowing in that direction before, were they?"

"Those what weren't doing what?" The cook turned his head blindly.

"The clouds. I think the wind might have changed."

Sanji was silent. The clouds moved overhead, apparently going somewhere completely different than the two pirates.

"Nami said to go down, and follow the wind. So the wind must have changed."

Sanji groaned.

"I guess we should just go down to the shore and see if the others are there yet."

Sanji's shoulders dropped. "If you've gotten us lost, I will kick your directionally challenged ass."

Zoro snorted. "Sure. And we're not lost -- I can see the sea, and that's where we're going."

Sanji turned around to snarl at him -- or at least at his hand. Zoro himself was not really within that snarling range. "We're on an island! There's sea on all sides, and you've brought us to the wrong side, you seaweed-headed moron."

"You can't know that. Winds change."

"Do you see the ship anywhere?" Sanji gestured vaguely behind him, in the direction of the distinctly ship-less ocean.

"Do you?" Sometimes it paid off to go with a low blow.

There was a short silence in which Sanji's jaw clenched, a vein at his temple throbbing. "No. I'm blinded."

"Exactly. You couldn't even see if we were still on the same island or not."

Sanji looked honestly appalled. "Please tell me we're on the same island."

"Of course we are! And we're at the right place, too. Probably."

The cook breathed a sigh of relief. "You're sure?"

"Absolutely." At least about the island. "How could we not be on the same island?"

Sanji shrugged. "With you, it could happen."

"Says the idiot who couldn't beat up a flower."

"I…!" Sanji flailed, obviously spoiling for a fight -- and instead doubled over, turning away with shoulders heaving. Convulsions wrenched his body as he braced his hands on his knees and retched. As the shudders dissipated, Sanji gasped and spat weakly. The dry yellow grass at his feet was stained with large splatters of fresh blood. Even Zoro knew that couldn't be a good sign.

Sanji's face was even more drawn when he straightened, wiping his mouth with a shaking hand. "Shit," he mumbled, his long legs unsteady as he took a step backwards. "Thought it wouldn't…" And then he fell.

Zoro caught him before he hit the ground, looping Sanji's limp arm behind his neck and putting his other arm around the chef's slim waist. The blond head lolled against his shoulder, then jerked up as another spasm gripped Sanji's body. The arm around Zoro's neck tensed, and he tried to pull his wrist out of Zoro's grip.

"Can stand m'self." Sanji coughed.

Zoro ignored him. "You said you thought it wouldn't what?"

"Nothing. It's nothing." At Zoro's silence, Sanji relented. "Just that I think I swallowed some of whatever the hell was in that shitty plant. And I thought it wouldn't matter, not if we got back to Chopper…" He trailed off as another shudder hit.

"You swallowed that crap?" Having felt its effect on his skin, Zoro would not be eager to have it in his guts. "Wonderful."

"It wasn't on purpose!"

"And now you're throwing up blood." Sanji didn't contest that. Chopper needed to see to this mess as soon as possible. Although the cook was standing up now, it wasn't clear if that was going to last for long. The way he was leaning against Zoro, now that he had stopped struggling, suggested he might not be up for much more walking. He had been getting steadily worse ever since they left Nami, no matter how much he tried to hide it, and now with the blood… But the sea was there, and the ship would be on the sea, so they had to be close. "Let's go."

The woods grew sparser, the trees clinging to the thin soil on the verge of the sea stunted by the wind. None of them had any of their leaves left, and Zoro could see where the island ended now, steep cliff plunging down to meet the crashing waves. Here was a place where he could finally get a good view, and locate that elusive beach.

Still supporting the cook, Zoro carefully brought them to the edge. The wind was stronger here, cold and laced with salt spray reaching even this high. He could feel Sanji shiver when it hit. The sea was dark and roiling, echoing the sky, white foam cresting the powerful waves that surged around the island.

"Hope for your sake the wind's changed," came a mumble from his side. "'Cause what I'm feeling now is hitting us head on."

"Yeah, yeah. I did just what Nami said."

"Are you claiming this is Nami-san's fault now?" The outrage in Sanji's voice was accompanied by a burst of energy, as he picked most of his weight up off Zoro. He didn't quite disentangle himself from Zoro's grasp, but he was managing to stand mostly on his own.

"Well, I did follow her directions."

"You… no you didn't, you numbskull! I should never have let you -- if you hadn't --" Sanji was spluttering, mostly incoherently, but at least he was articulating all the insults. Zoro let him keep at it while he surveyed the area at the cliff's base. There had been cliffs where they had left the ship, hadn't there? And a beach, of course. So if he could only spot that beach… Maybe a bit further down? Because the beach had been in a bay. And a bay would be hidden by the cliffs.

"Are you even listening to me, you great moldy dumpling head?"

"Moldy dumpling?" Zoro cocked his head. Where in the world was Sanji getting these insults? Had he really emptied his whole regular arsenal already? "No, I'm not."

Sanji growled, and only because he couldn't see it, Zoro grinned at him. "Let's keep going down." He didn't give Sanji much choice on the matter, since he still had his indignant crewmate in a secure hold. If the quivering he could feel through that tattered blue shirt wasn't just outrage, the extra support might soon be necessary again. Besides, he didn't want Sanji wandering off on his own right now. He had very precise instructions -- no letting the cook walk off cliffs.

Zoro stopped frequently to look over the edge, scanning the gray rock-face for any sign of a golden beach or a small sheep-headed ship. When neither was to be found, he scouted the land around them, hoping to catch sight of one of the others come to meet them. The light was failing, the winds were growing ever stronger, and the crew would need to be gathered to help the ship ride out the bad weather.

At his side, Sanji had fallen silent again. His flaxen hair was whipping around his face, and his mouth was clamped tightly shut around a cigarette that Zoro had no idea how he had gotten there. At least it wasn't lit. There were spots of red flaring around the scrapes on his skin, very bright against the bone whiteness of the rest of him.

"Just a little further now," Zoro said, and got an answering nod from the blond head, but still no sound. The wind would probably blow the cook over if he tried to stand on his own now. None of the others were in sight; the only things around them were gnarled trees with their branches groaning as they fought the wind, and the boulders that had become an increasingly common fixture in the landscape. Beyond them was the forest, but in there, under coverage of the foliage, it was already impenetrable night, a night created by the heavy clouds and approaching dusk.

But true to his word, Zoro spotted a glimpse of yellow sand in the gathering gloom just a little further down. There seemed to be some kind of cove down there, even if he couldn't see the ship. Maybe Nami had decided it would be safer to take the Merry to deeper waters -- the waves sounded loud and fierce as they echoed against the sea cliff's walls. But surely Chopper would still be waiting for them, and maybe Usopp too, with a signal flare. Then they could take Sanji and fix him, and Zoro could get some rum to warm himself up with, and then a nap. He couldn't see the way down at the moment, but he would probably find it as they got closer.

The rocky side of the island wasn't that steep over the bay, Zoro discovered once he was close enough to see the whole little beach. It was more like a slope than a cliff, with grass growing in tufts on outcroppings between boulders on it nearly all the way to the bottom, where gray cliffs on both sides parried the blows of great black waves.

"We might have to climb a bit over there," he said. It could be that this was the best way they had found to get up on the island when they anchored. "It's not so bad, though."

It seemed as if Sanji had something that he wanted to say about this. He raised his head and opened his mouth, but what came out was a cough that wracked his entire body, tearing the cigarette from his lips. It was as if he were choking, and when the cook wrenched free from his support, Zoro could only watch as his crewmate doubled over again, spitting blood and fighting for breath between the bouts of coughing. Sanji's arms were clutching his chest, and even after the agonizing coughing ended, his breathing still sounded shallow and labored.

Zoro had no idea why all of that should mean he missed everything else going on at the moment, but apparently it did, because he didn't notice the crazy mass of animals until they were almost upon them. They came from below, running at a frantic pace with their heads lowered and gray backs bumping together so close it was hard to tell if it was one animal or fifty.

"What is that noise?" Sanji croaked, his head tossing from side to side as he attempted to localize it.

"I think we've just found your flower's second favorite snack, after Idiot," Zoro snapped. He lacked the time to describe them, and even with time, he wouldn't have known how to even start explaining what he saw. Up close the beasts looked a bit like pigs, if pigs were clawed, covered in soft gray fur, and didn't have snouts. Whatever they were, they were not the least bit afraid of people, and very, very determined to get to wherever they were going. And apparently he and his confused charge were blocking their way there.

Though they were only about knee-high, Zoro couldn't tell how many of them there were, or if they might be poisonous or inflatable or whatever else that Grand Line critters could possibly think of being for maximum annoyance. He let Sanji go, pulling the unsteady cook into cover behind him as he drew one katana.

The strange animals rushed at them, not swerving an inch even at the last second, and Zoro brought his sword down to deal the first one within reach a deadly blow, stopping their charge. Well, that had been the plan, anyway. But his blow ended with a rebound that sent shockwaves up through his arm, the impact making the metal ring in an ugly way. The animal gave an outraged squeal, tufts of gray fur flying in the air behind it as it shoved past Zoro. It was definitely not dead in any way.

Zoro tried again, stabbing straight down at a pest that had just bumped its head hard against his. The tip of his sword caught for a second, then skipped straight off the animal's back and buried itself a couple of inches into the soft soil the beast had just vacated. So the little bastards had some kind of armor. That was just not right. Furry creatures should not have armor, and definitely not armor that resisted his swords. Some days he really hated the Grand Line.

There was a thump behind him, followed by a breathless curse and a slightly dazed critter flying through the air dangerously close to his head. "What the hell are these things? That felt like kicking a rock!" Sanji's voice was strained, and his next curse was cut short by another thump.

Zoro had sheathed his useless sword and was busy trying to get his legs free of the seething mass of creatures to kick at the furry armor-pigs that were determined to bound straight into him. Even that wasn't easy. He felt his footing slip, and unbalanced as he was they were getting dangerously close to the edge. The beach had not looked so far down when he considered climbing, but they were not there yet, and this was all different anyway.

Behind him, Sanji staggered, bandaged hand splaying on Zoro's back and grasping a handful of his shirt for balance. Over the ruckus they were making, Zoro could hear the cook breathing in shallow pants. How many of those little things could there be here -- they hadn't seemed to be so numerous when he first spotted them, so unless they were multiplying or… doubling back? Which would mean that they were using a strategy. That they were actually attacking, not just running madly. But there was no biting or clawing or anything, just the small hard heads ramming into their legs and - pushing them. In a flash, Zoro put the pieces together, but for a moment his brain refused to accept what he was thinking. It was just too absurd. They were attacking?

In that moment Sanji's hand vanished from his back, torn away. Out of the corner of his eye, Zoro caught a glimpse of blond and blue and black tumbling backwards over gray.

He turned, kicked his way through the enemy animals just in time to see Sanji fighting to regain his balance, unaware of where he was and what lay ahead. Zoro's shouted warning came too late. And although Sanji had survived worse and the cliffs weren't that high and Zoro had not yet showed these pesky furballs who was the strongest, he could not let Sanji fall. Not alone, not now, and it was getting too late to catch him.

As his crewmate toppled backwards, Zoro launched himself after him. Under him the gray backs were replaced by the black and white of foamy waves breaking on rocks -- he was over the cliff's edge, and so was Sanji. When he caught up with him there was nothing more Zoro could do than wrap his arms tightly around the cook, shielding his injured body with his own as they fell headfirst. His last thought before the fall knocked the wind out of him was the question of whether getting outmaneuvered by small furry animals was more embarrassing than getting eaten by a flower.

When he felt the solid ground disappear from under him, Sanji expected to land suddenly and painfully, as he had the previous times. But the only thing that met him as he braced for impact was air, all around him, and the sound of waves too close, too loud. Panic squeezed his heart, and then doubled as something barreled into him. Arms around him -- Zoro? Falling too, now, and Sanji's face was pressed into the swordsman's chest by a strong hand, all of him held tightly, plunging down where the air was heavy with spray, and then a solid impact which he felt through Zoro's body against his. They had not stopped falling yet; there was another short drop, slower than the first, and then a great fist of water smashed into them.

"Hold on!" Zoro's shout was almost lost in the turmoil of wind and water and sharp new pain. Salt water soaked through his bandages and clothes in an instant, got into his mouth and his eyes and battered every raw inch of his skin. He was on fire, cold fire burning him to the bone, and he couldn't breathe. He gasped and only got a mouthful of icy water, swallowed it, choking. Something tugged at his hair, a small pain hardly worth noticing, and then there was air.

The current tried pull him under again. He could feel it grab hungrily at his legs, and he kicked violently to avoid being tugged down. There were waves breaking against rock somewhere very close, but he had no idea which direction the sound was coming from. All he knew was that he needed to get away from it. He kicked his legs out, using them to propel him forward, and found himself pulled back by an arm looped around his torso. "Wrong way!"

Zoro could see, but the shock of the fall had injected Sanji with new energy, and moving in the direction of the swordsman's pull he now swam by his own power. Another wave struck, and Sanji grabbed at Zoro's arm to keep it from pulling them apart. He needed Zoro, or he would be swimming blind, and that would be terrifying. He wasn't sure that he could even tell up from down anymore, not with the sea battering him from all directions. It was awkward like this, and more than once the waves pulled them under, but Sanji kept propelling them forward with strong kicks, and Zoro's arm was a solid band around his chest and under his arms that not even the storm could break.

He could not tell how long it was before he felt something other than water against his kicks, only that his strength was flagging. Sanji clung to Zoro as his crewmate fought the waves, managing to stand firm against their monstrous blows. The sea snatched angrily at them as Zoro dragged them out of its grasp, making his determined way across what felt like sand.

The water Sanji had swallowed made the tight ache in his chest even worse, and no matter how tightly he clamped his jaw shut he couldn't fight the ravaging cough in his raw, stinging throat for long. At first it tore through him in a silent shudder; then he could feel liquid rising at the back of his throat, bitterer than even bile, and he heaved. The spasms shook him so badly that he thought he would fall, but there were hands on his shoulders holding him, keeping him standing as he tried to draw a breath without choking on blood and seawater. Spitting out the last of the terrible harsh and coppery taste from his mouth, he drew a shaky breath. He could feel his throat constricting around it, but at least some of the desperately needed oxygen found its way to his lungs.

"Why aren't they here?" Zoro said, an edge to his voice that Sanji couldn't quite place. "Here, sit." The hands on his shoulders pushed at him, but he refused.

"They're not here," he rasped, "'cause this is the wrong beach." Not enough air for an insult. Damn. Or volume, for that matter. He hoped Zoro could hear him over the freezing wind that was rapidly sucking all the warmth out of him through his soaked clothes. Another of the blasted coughs scratched at the back of his throat, but he gritted his teeth, fighting it down.

Zoro was strangely silent. It was only by the hands still resting on his back that Sanji could tell the swordsman was there at all. That, and a faint but rapid metallic chiming -- the storm playing with the golden ear cuffs.

"Come on." The swordsman's hands pushed on Sanji's shoulders, urging him forwards. Sanji had gotten so used to the routine by now that he was moving before he had even thought about what he was doing, and why. He was afraid to relax his clenched jaw -- the consequences had been less than pleasant last time - but he was even more desperate to know where they were going. He didn't have the faintest idea of where they were, except that it was somewhere sandy right on the sea, and near a cliff that took time to fall from, making it pretty tall.

When he spoke, it was with carefully measured breath. "Where… to?" Unfortunately careful measures to keep a cough at bay did not leave much room for articulation.

"The cliff's right up ahead. It's getting dark, but I think I can see a cave. Or at least some kind of ledge. There's room underneath, don't know how deep. It'll have to do." Zoro's terse explanation was still more detailed than what he had offered Sanji before. Now that he knew what he was listening for, he could pick up the strangely hollow sound of the waves' booming echoing off the rock face in front of them.

Sanji was more exhausted than he had imagined possible. It was not quite like anything he had felt before, his bones whole, but this heavy weight pressing on his chest, every muscle in his body quivering with tension and threatening to let him collapse like a wet rag. His head felt too heavy for his neck, and his eyelids were like lead over his closed eyes. The promise of shelter from the biting wind, somewhere to sit down and rest for a moment, was extremely tempting. But it was not the ship, not the Going Merry where Nami waited for his return. "No," he protested. "Get to the s-ship." Not even his tongue was obeying properly, so to emphasize his point he stopped walking. He didn't want to go to Zoro's cave -- with their luck, it was probably home to all kinds of nasty creatures already, and he was not some shitty walking snack. Really, he wasn't.

"There is no ship. There's nobody here, just us. It's the cave or nothing, okay?" Zoro said, in that frustrated voice he only used when someone was doing something unusually stupid. "Come on, don't make me carry you."

"Bastard." He really wanted to let the damn seaweed-head know that anybody who tried to pick him up would quickly find their head kicked around the wrong way, but that enervating cough with its impeccable timing struck again. The way it constricted his chest reminded him vividly of his last fight at the Baratie, of taking blows dealt by solid iron spheres. At least then there had been an enemy, someone he could fight. Now there was just the pain -- his own body betraying him, and nothing he could do except struggle for breath and ride it out.

When it was over, he was trembling like a leaf in the storm. There was blood in his mouth again, and his throat felt like someone had rammed a grater down it. The cold whipped at him from all directions save one. At his side was a solid presence that blocked the biting wind. An arm draped across his shoulders, a hand gripping his arm, holding him upright. And no matter how much he wanted to, no matter what his pride and prickly annoyance with the swordsman told him to do, his body refused to reject that support. To feel even a little warm, to stand without falling, those were the things that mattered right now. So he did not fight the support, only concentrated on breathing, slumping against Zoro's wet shoulder. Just a little while, he told himself, then he would be able to trust his legs again, and they could find the ship.

The hand tugged at him irritably. "Come on. You can't fall asleep here."

"'m not sleeping," Sanji muttered. "I'll sleep… on the ship."

"Shit, I told you already. It's not here, nobody's here - it's the wrong damn beach."

A very small part of Sanji crowed in triumph at that. Wasn't that what he had been saying all along? But his disappointment at not having that much-needed sleep within reach easily overwhelmed the satisfaction. He was getting as bad as that damned swordsman. All he wanted was a nap.

"'m not sleeping in a hole," he mumbled between short pants, shuddering. "No."

"I'm sorry." Before the words had quite managed to penetrate Sanji's haze of pain and exhaustion, Zoro had changed his hold and was half carrying, half dragging him over the sand. Sanji tried to find his feet, but the shuddering was growing worse instead of decreasing, his right foot refused to bear any of his weight, and he could only barely keep himself upright anyway.

Something was different about the wind now. He hadn't thought it possible, but it was even colder than before. Maybe because it was wet. That was it. It was beginning to rain, the drops hitting him almost horizontally. He had to strain to hear it, but underneath the dull booming of waves was the rustle of fat water drops on sand, rapidly turning into a muffled patter. The water was achingly cold, and smarted where it rapped against his skin, and what trickled down his face into his mouth was tainted with salt. This rain would not bring any relief from pain.

"Here. Careful now, we need to duck to get in." Trying to keep track of what was going on without being able to see anything was getting quite straining. The barrage of sensations against his skin had distracted Sanji from the changing melody of the sea's echo and the rain. Right in front of him was a blank silence, the echo distant, the rain gone. He raised his free hand, using it to feel ahead while he did what Zoro asked. It met empty air, but when he felt higher up, over his head as they moved, his fingers touched smooth rock, damp and cold. The sound of their movements was amplified by the hard surface under his feet. Sand gritted between the soles of his shoes and solid rock. It was cramped and cold, but at least it was dry, and the wind's howl no longer threatened to engulf him. As long as they didn't get eaten now, they had shelter from the storm here.

Zoro gently let him slide to the floor, and he collapsed with a wet squish. He leaned back against the rock wall, resting his burning head carefully against its cool, even surface. Next to him, Zoro arranged himself shoulder to shoulder with Sanji. He squished, too, and his katana sheaths clattered. They were both dripping.

Sanji could feel his pulse racing, too fast, just like his breaths. Too fast and too shallow. The blood rushed in his ears, louder than the sea, drowning his thoughts, and when he tried to relax his muscles refused, clenching up in a spasm that arched his entire body. There was one second of absolute clarity, when he knew what must come but was unable to stop it, then his head slammed against the rock behind him, hard. An explosion of fresh pain sent him spiraling over the edge of unconsciousness, and there he felt nothing.

He was rudely pulled back by someone shouting his name. Distant and hollow at first, it gradually grew closer and more persistent.

"Sanji!"

He blinked -- bad idea. All he could see was darkness, and needles of pain stabbed at his eyeballs. So no opening eyes. But - hadn't there been rock where he was sitting? His memories were foggy, but the rock stood out particularly. Now there was something warm and much softer than rock propping him up. Better to sleep on, except he couldn't doze off with that voice cursing him out.

"Sanji, wake up, you asshole. Come on."

"Shaddup." He hardly had enough breath to spare for that, but he really wanted Zoro to stop saying his name. Something about that was waking him up much more than he wanted to -- most of the pleasant fuzzy edges on everything were fading away now, leaving only sharp pain and nausea.

"Sanji! What the hell did you go and knock yourself out for, you stupid love cook?"

"Ah? D-didn't." Sanji tried to shift, only to find that he wasn't just leaning back -- something was holding him, too, strong arms wrapped around his shoulders. Which was good because it was warm, even if rather damp. The working parts of his brain disagreed with this, and told him it was bad because it was most likely not Nami or Robin suddenly showed up to cradle him lovingly. Which left only Zoro. That would explain the voice in his ear, and why he could feel no nice soft curves anywhere. It also made him intensify his efforts to sit up and get away.

"Stop that," Zoro said, annoyed. "Just be still and breathe."

Sanji frowned. "'m… breathing," he gasped.

"Oh, yeah? Could've fooled me."

Zoro was right. It didn't exactly feel like breathing should, what he was doing. But nothing else on him felt exactly right either, not the quivering or the heaving in his stomach or the whole not being able to see, so why should this be any different? He scowled. Now his head hurt, too.

"Ow." He tried to move his hands to feel the back of it, but his arms were stuck. "Leggo."

Zoro ignored his request, but seemed to get what he was trying to do. "Don't worry. You really do have a thick skull, you know."

"Dun feel fine," Sanji wheezed. Again, he tried to yank his hands free. It was the principle of the thing more than anything. Not that principle got him far. Zoro wasn't budging an inch. Annoying bastard.

"Well, your sorry excuse for a brain probably got a bit scrambled. Maybe you shouldn't try to crack rocks with your head, idiot."

"I wasn't!" It was the principle of the thing that made him want to fight back when the stupid green-hair was annoying him like that, but it sapped at his rather insignificant reserves. "Told ya… should've… stayed in the forest," he retorted.

Even with the tremors coursing through him, Sanji could feel Zoro tense at that. Oddly, no more insults followed.

In the silence that ensued, Sanji's body, being a bit slow on the uptake of late, decided to inform him in no uncertain terms that he was freezing. He had been aware of that in a general sense for a while now, but not like this. It was as if he were fully drained of any heat, ice water in his veins instead of blood, frost knifing his very bones. The air was raw and bitter cold, painful to gulp down, and he couldn't stop shivering violently. It felt like his skin was trying to shrink away from the clammy touch of his icy wet clothes, without much success. Everywhere except at his back, his shoulders -- there was warmth to be had there. Its source was unexpected and not enough, as it was Zoro, and Zoro had been drenched too, but it was all he had. He was forgetting all the reasons why it had been so important to resist it, relaxing to lean against it, soaking up all the warmth he could get.

A cough surprised him, rattling his chest once, and he tensed and swallowed in an effort to fight it back. It was the last thing he needed right now. Zoro's arms tightened around him. But it would not stop; no matter what he tried, he couldn't hold it back, it just got worse. It wasn't just his chest constricting -- his entire body shuddered, coughs wringing him out like he wrung dirty water from a dishrag. It was wasted energy when he no longer had any energy to spare, air going out instead of in.

Again it felt as if the world was disappearing around him, until all that was left was the cold and the ache in his chest and that comfortingly solid warmth, holding him steady. He was grateful for the scant heat, even though he wished it were a quieter place to fall asleep. Zoro of all people should understand the importance of naps, and not yell at him like that. He was no longer shaking, so he was just going to rest his head for a moment, just a little while, because his eyes were already closed and the noise was going away. He could finally sleep.

Zoro felt Sanji's body go limp in his arms, not even shivering anymore. The blond head sagged to one side, and there was just enough light that he could see where red blood from the cook's last coughing fit trickled from his mouth down the pale skin. There were hardly any other visible marks to explain his crewmate's state, but that only made it worse. Zoro knew what it was like to be sliced and stabbed and kicked, those were things he could understand, do something about. Cuts could be bandaged and sewn, broken bones set, and bruises faded. But when there was blood coming from inside like that, with no trace of any blows on the outside, and the body was still and cold as no living thing should be -- all he knew was that it could not be good. Chopper would know what to do, of course, but Chopper was not here.

Zoro would never have let anyone drag a wounded crewmate off, not while there was still breath in his own body, but there was no enemy to fight now -- Sanji was drifting away all on his own. It was pissing him off. If he wasn't going to give up, then neither was his nakama. They were stuck together like this, and Sanji was not going to make Zoro lose, not to anything, and especially not to this blasted island with its ridiculous plants and insidious and unnatural creatures.

He grabbed Sanji's shoulders, hard, and shook the floppy body. "You're not going to sleep, dammit! You hear me, you lazy-ass cook? Sanji!"

The blond didn't stir, and as it had the last time he had lost consciousness, his breathing started growing weaker. Zoro moved one hand so that it rested over the cook's heart. The skin wasn't just cold like his own -- it was like a gravestone on a rainy day. He had to wait for too many of his own heartbeats to race past before he felt anything. Sanji's heart was still beating.

"Listen to me! You have to wake up now, Sanji. Now! Come on, you can't do this!" Obviously Sanji thought he could get away with -- this -- whatever it was that he was trying to do, and Zoro was not going to stand for it.

"Oi, cook! Don't make me carry you," Zoro growled at his silent, lifeless crewmate. After all the fuss he had been making about it earlier -- well, if Sanji had been serious about that, it was time for him to wake up now and stop Zoro. He shook the cook for good measure, but there was no response even to that dire threat.

Zoro had promised to take care of Sanji, lead him back to the ship, and instead they had ended up here. He was willing to accept it was the wrong beach, but he had thought that it would be enough to get his charge to shelter; let him rest a for a bit out of the rain, and the cook would feel better. But it wasn't working. The cold was leeching Sanji's strength, and whatever he had gotten into his body from that flower was obviously… not good.

There had to be more he could do than just sit here and wait for the lousy cook's next heartbeat. It was a ridiculous pastime anyway, not the least bit constructive. To fix Sanji, Zoro needed to find Chopper, something he very unlikely to manage in this little cave. Even if it was storming outside, that was where the others would be -- and Chopper would be with the others. It was time to move. Sanji could hardly get any worse. "Right, cook?" he asked of the unresponsive blond. "You're not. You do that, and I… I'll kick your ass."

Zoro didn't even get a groan out of the cook as he shifted, scooping the limp body into his arms and standing up as well as he could in the cramped space. "Shit. I thought you said no carrying?" He propped Sanji up against his chest so that the cook's head was leaning against his shoulder, let the long legs dangle from the crook of his elbow. Then Zoro headed out into the storm, protectively hunched over the insensate body of his crewmate.

Just how well the thick stone walls of their shelter had served them Zoro only discovered after he left them behind. The wind howled like an enraged animal, battering and tearing at his clothes. The rain came down in sheets, pummeling at them. Although he hadn't dried much in the cave, Zoro could feel the little spots of not-quite-so-wet that he had left soak through in an instant. He blinked, raindrops clinging to his lashes, and looked around.

The cliff loomed in front of him in the darkness, much taller and steeper up close than it had seemed when Zoro had surveyed it from above. However, it was the only way to go now, with the sea at his back and cliffs on all sides. He remembered thinking that it would be easy to climb down -- surely getting up could not be that much more difficult. He felt a twinge in his back, which clearly had not forgotten how "down" had felt last time. The unfortunate run-in between his body and a piece of rock jutting from the cliff's face before plunging into the sea had probably left him a bit bruised. He shrugged it off, and went to find a good place to start the climb. Right here was no good.

Small streams of dirty water had formed here and there on the way down from the cliff's top, rushing out in the sand and probably making the way even more treacherous. The one he was looking at now was spitting mud and pebbles at his feet, its small noises drowned in the roar of the sea and the storm. Right beside it was a low ledge that would allow him to get a better idea of where to go next. He just needed to get up there without dropping Sanji. Zoro had contemplated simply slinging the limp cook over his shoulder, but that would leave him upside down. Zoro might not be much of a doctor, but he had seen Sanji struggle for breath enough to figure it would probably not be good. It was making the ascent a bit trickier.

Sanji's chest was still stirring, but the movement was shallow, and getting irregular. Definitely time to find Chopper, and not stand around here in the rain and wind and entertain thoughts of what he wanted to do to the idiot cook for doing this to him. When Sanji woke up, an ass kicking was just the beginning of what he deserved. Zoro took a few steps back, clutched Sanji's body tightly to his, and jumped.

Zoro touched down on the ledge just as a gust of wind hit, and he braced against it to keep his balance on the muddy ground. Sanji's slight weight hardly bothered him at all -- the uncertain footing was a much greater problem, and he already felt steadier. The ledge was only about shoulder height off the ground, but it was that much closer to the top. He couldn't see very much more, but he didn't need to see much farther, just where to go next. Fortunately, another outcropping was within leaping distance just a bit higher up and off to his right.

Gathering himself for the jump, Zoro missed the first rumbled warnings. The waves behind him were crashing down over rocks and rushing over sand, and with the wind buffeting him from all sides he filtered it out as a part of the storm's symphony until it was almost on them.

When he realized the low rumble and sharp cracks were not thunder and stared up into the darkness, the mud under his feet had already begun to slide, and a shower of pebbles was peppering him. In that frozen instant of absolute focus he saw what was about to happen with total clarity, could tell exactly where each individual boulder was going to strike. There was a split second in which he had to make his choice. He spun around and braced himself, and then there was no time at all left to prepare -- as he knew they must, the rocks hit.

The landslide did not last long, but when it was over Zoro was as out of breath and aching as if he had just fought an excruciating battle. His head was ringing, and everything around him was tight and suffocating. With a great heave of his shoulders he broke free, standing up in a small landslide of his own creation. Rocks tumbled from his back, mud dripped from everywhere, and when he shook his head to clear it from the ringing, dirt and stones flew into the rain. He was still buried up to his knees where debris had flooded back after he straightened, and his swords were caught under a particularly large boulder, but he had more pressing concerns than that right now.

Zoro carefully shifted Sanji in his arms, feeling at his neck for a pulse. Since so much else on him was throbbing, it took far too long before he was certain he felt it. Zoro had tried to shield his crewmate's body from the blows inflicted by the rocks, but he didn't think that he had been able to stop all of them. As the crushing weight of it bore down on him, he had been forced to double over. But it had not, as he had momentarily feared, caused the little breath the cook had left to be knocked from him. Neither had it made Zoro lose ground. The path up would be safer now, he reasoned, with all the loose rocks washed down to the foot of the cliff.

Now, where had he been about to go? Up. There. Outcropping. He just had to get his legs free, and without overbalancing or dropping the stupidly long, floppy body in his arms. It took a bit of doing. He had to kick free and get his swords safely back from the rock that had rolled on top of them, but once that was done he charged on upwards. He ignored the various twinges and stabs of pain he could feel in his back, didn't bother to check if he was bleeding anywhere -- he probably was, but it didn't matter.

What mattered now was finding Chopper, quickly, before the next time came when Zoro had to make sure Sanji's heart was still beating, or the time after that, when -- he didn't finish the thought, only redoubled his efforts to get them to safety. His own breath was coming in short hard puffs now, his heart racing as he fought the wind and the rain and the flaring lights.

The top was coming closer, he knew, with every step he took without slipping back. They would be there soon. No time to plan, to look further ahead than the next safe foothold. Only move, hurry forward, hold onto Sanji. The slope was less steep now, almost there -- he could see the top. The wind intensified its efforts to tear them down again, hurl them down to the hungry waiting waves, but the incline was level enough that he could run now, scrambling over outcroppings and tufts of grass until he cleared the edge and launched himself some distance away, where the ground was flat and solid.

Light flared again, and he blinked. For an instant it had seemed as if the land in front of him was lit up in a flash, that this was more than the pulsing of light behind his eyelids. He had a bit of trouble focusing his vision. The world wavered a little, in rhythm with the pounding in his head. But if it had been a flash of lightning he could hear no thunder, only the wailing wind and the angry sea.

Still, he was sure of it. There had been light. Zoro turned around, narrowing his eyes to stare through the storm and the darkness, and this time there was no mistaking it. Somewhere out there was a shining light, breaking through the storm and reaching all the way here.

There was not even a hint of doubt in Zoro's mind after that. He knew what that light must be. Relief flooded through his body, warming as if he had just downed a tankard of rum. The others had come looking, from the sea. He had no idea how they had managed to find light to pierce through the storm, not when all they had on board were lanterns with soft, warm glows that would get washed out by such overwhelming darkness; neither did he know what had prompted them to lift anchor and set sail in the storm, but it was them. Of course -- his crewmates were out there, and he and Sanji were up here. However, if the light had found them, then so would those on the Going Merry.

Zoro hefted Sanji higher up on his shoulder, so that he could raise one arm and wave at the ship. Yelling felt like it would be a waste of breath, but he did it anyway, bellowing a challenge to the storm. "Oi! We're here!"

Impossibly, something answered him. His name, not just carried on the wind, but-- shit. As he had before the rockslide, he turned away and braced, just in time to avoid getting toppled over by the impact as something crashed into him. His captain's landings were rarely graceful, and this was no exception.

Luffy laughed loudly as he stood up, batting mud from his clothes, obviously thrilled to have just rocketed himself over storm-tossed seas. "There you are! Finally!"

Zoro could feel laughter bubbling up in his own chest -- irrational, and nothing to give in to. "Luffy, you idiot!" he snapped. "Don't use me to land on!"

"Yeah, okay," Luffy agreed brightly. Then his smile faded slightly. "Hey, what did you do to Sanji?"

His soaking captain stepped up to inspect the limp bundle in his arms, and Zoro answered, "Wasn't me. That dumbass managed most of this on his own." The annoyance in his voice didn't hold when he went on, "He needs Chopper."

Luffy had fallen silent, his eyes fixed on the Sanji's pale face, the trace of blood still lingering around the mouth. "He's cold," he said, after resting one hand on the cook's barely stirring chest. "Hang on."

Zoro knew through painful experience what that meant. "No! If you crash with him---"

His captain met his agitated protest with a level look. "I know. I remember." Then he grinned with excitement. "But you'll see, this is great! Come on!"

The "come on" was not in any way optional. Zoro did his best to hold on to Sanji as Luffy's arms shot out on both sides of him, pressing him into the captain's rubbery embrace like Usopp loaded a stone into his slingshot. Seconds later a happy cry announced their take-off, and they went flying through the air.

The speed was dizzying, but between the sheets of rain hitting them and the waves rushing past below, Zoro caught glimpses of that light coming closer and closer, so at least the trajectory was straight. Straight towards the hard planks of a heaving ship, and if they missed -- but they didn't.

As Luffy had promised, this landing was different from the usual bruising affair. Instead of plummeting to wherever the stretchy arms shot them, Zoro was deftly caught by half a dozen hands stretching from the riggings, plucking him from the air and gently depositing him and his burden on deck. Nico Robin smiled slightly at him from under her hat where she sat on the railing of the upper deck. Luffy flopped down next to them, Usopp came swinging down from the crow's nest, and Nami and Chopper exploded from the galley, leaving them surrounded by their anxious crew within moments.

They were all talking, asking questions or exclaiming in shock over the state of their returned companions, but Zoro had no time to answer them. He waited for Chopper, propping Sanji up so that the doctor could examine him, but the little reindeer flew back when the blond head only lolled to the side when he poked it cautiously with a hoof.

"Aaaaaah! He needs a doctor!"

"Chopper," Zoro said with practiced calm.

"Yes? Is he dead?" The reindeer's lower lip trembled.

"No, he's not dead." He had better not be. "And you are the doctor."

"Right! Of course! We can't just stand here, we have to hurry!" Chopper rapidly took charge, asking him to pick Sanji up -- carefully -- and move him into the kitchen. Luffy was sent to get one of the mattresses, and Robin heaved up blankets and comforters from the girls' quarters with a long chain of hands while keeping the door as tightly closed as possible. Usopp helped Nami with the tiller, trying to keep the ship sailing smoothly through the storm, which left Zoro holding Sanji. He knelt down so that Chopper could reach. The doctor's small hoofs carefully prodded the limp body, using a stethoscope and thermometer and checking Sanji's eyes seemingly all at once, so fast did he work.

"Zoro," the reindeer asked, sounding both determined and apprehensive, "what happened to him?"

While Zoro gave the doctor the short version, which took a while, Chopper directed the work in the kitchen. The stove was, water heated, the mattress arranged with blankets and put as close to the fire as possible, between the stove and the table.

With the bustle around him, Zoro finally started relaxing. He felt exhausted, far more than this day warranted. Sure, the island had been a pain, but nobody had tried to kill him -- he was not going to count the furry armored pigs. He refused to. But he could still feel that fatigue in every muscle that only came after he pushed himself to his limits.

After he finished explaining what he hoped were the full extent of Sanji's injuries -- he might have missed something -- Chopper boggled at him.

"What?" he asked the doctor.

"Wow. Sanji is really strong to survive all that!"

Zoro wanted to object that, no, Sanji was really dumb to get into all that, and really lucky to survive, but looking down at the cook's pale face and the doctor's wide, shining eyes, something stopped him.

"Yeah," he only said. "He is."

"Of course he is!" A dripping Luffy plopped down next to them, studying Sanji's still form. "Chopper, how do we fix him?"

The others were uncharacteristically quiet, going about their assigned tasks, their focus obviously intent on the little group in the center of the room.

"Oh! Yes - I know what to do, it's good, I'll make medicine for him. But first… he's very cold." Chopper's voice wavered a little. "His heart is really slow, and… it could stop. If he doesn't get warm, but not too fast, just… carefully." Zoro remembered Chopper's island, how cold it had been, and imagined that this was not just something the reindeer knew from his textbooks.

Luffy tilted his head, obviously waiting for more. Chopper drew himself up to his full height -- or as full as it got in his regular form -- and very firmly went on.

"Right. First he needs dry clothes. Robin, maybe you could find them for him?" She nodded, and moved silently from her place at the table to head to the men's quarters. "Then we need to put him there, where it's warm." Chopper pointed to the mattress. Luffy quickly picked Sanji up from Zoro's arms, carrying him over to the indicated spot as if he didn't weigh anything at all. "He's been cold so long, we can't make him too hot all at once."

The doctor then turned to Zoro. "And you!"

"Me?"

"Yes! Zoro, you're bleeding!"

"Oh, that." Zoro looked down at himself, finally somewhere where he had enough time and light to fully assess the damage done by the diving and swimming and landslide. There was no doubt about it. He was definitely bleeding, and his shirt was ruined. But it was just scrapes and bruises, nothing to worry about.

"It's not 'oh that'! You're hurt! Take off your shirt."

"But…"

"Now!"

Luffy snickered. Nami mumbled something about men and idiots.

"Fine." Zoro pulled his soaked shirt off, accepting the towel Robin had just returned with.

While he dried himself off, rapidly getting the towel covered in blood and mud, Chopper got Sanji as dry as he could with Luffy's help. Robin showed even more ways her powers could come in handy when they had to get the unconscious cook into the dry clothes.

Zoro looked over to where Nami and Usopp were struggling with the helm. Nami was staring intently ahead, relaying short commands to Usopp. Together they did their best to control the heaving ship. A thought struck him, and he asked. "How'd you find us anyway?" He had seen the light, and hadn't it been coming from the crow's nest? Which was where Usopp climbed down from right after they landed. So the sniper probably had something to do with that.

His hunch proved correct. Usopp struck a pose as best as he could while still handling the ship. "With my Usopp Emergency Beacon that I made!" Then he must have felt the glare that Nami was aiming at him, because he hastened to add, "And Nami, she said it would be fastest to search like that." He started on a tale about meeting a giant with a lighthouse, but then the ship tilted, and both he and Nami were forced to grab the tiller and fight the waves again. Zoro was just about to offer to help them when Chopper got his attention again.

"Come here," Chopper ordered, all doctoral efficiency. Sanji was arranged under the blankets now, looking at least as pale the sheets he lay on in the flickering light from the stove's fire. Zoro noticed the worst of the cook's scrapes and burns had already been treated with some kind of aromatic salve, and a bandage was wrapped around his head.

Zoro obediently sat down where the reindeer could reach him. With the same impressive speed he had shown when diagnosing Sanji, the doctor bandaged his torso. "Just so you don't bleed everywhere," Chopper clarified when he was done with the simple procedure. "I'll clean them out later, but you'll be fine for now. Right now you have to help."

"Help?"

"Luffy, you'll help too?"

"Of course!"

"Sanji needs more heat," Chopper explained. "He's getting more stable, because he's strong, but I want him to wake up so… so he can get medicine."

"And supper! I bet he's hungry."

Luffy's enthusiasm was infectious. "Yeah! Supper!" Chopper chorused, then caught himself. "No! Not now -- you have to warm him up first." Luffy pouted a bit, but didn't argue the point, strangely distracted by his cook's unresponsive state. "If you stay with him under the blankets, that's good. One on each side, it will be warm enough, and not too fast, and I can go make something for when he wakes up."

Luffy readily agreed, and was about to slip under the covers when Chopper started. "Oh, no! You're wet!"

"Here, Doctor." Robin offered him a pile of dry clothes. She had brought more than just Sanji's outfit back from the men's quarters. "I thought you might want those."

Meanwhile, Zoro was trying to convince himself that this was not the dumbest thing he had ever heard. Acting as a human hot water bottle? That was what Chopper wanted his help with, when there was a storm outside and Sanji was clearly breathing and everything? Because he was, wasn't he?

Zoro distractedly accepted the dry change of clothes as he leaned over to check. He couldn't be sure until he was practically leaning on the supine body. Maybe keeping an eye on the cook wouldn't be so bad. Not after all the trouble he had gone through to get his charge this far in one piece. Besides, it would be dry, and warm, and neither of those things sounded too bad. Maybe he could even nap for a bit. That was probably exactly what he needed.

Zoro and Luffy were both mostly dry when they took the places Chopper had directed them to. The rolling motions of the waves made it hard to lie still, Zoro discovered. Luffy clung to Sanji's body with a yelp. "Cold!"

Well, that was definitely true. It was also only to be expected, and easy to disregard as he turned, slinging one arm over the frozen cook. He could feel the faint but regular heartbeats reverberating through the slender chest. Thus anchored, he let himself relax further. It wasn't bad, warm and cozy except for the big chunk of ice cold Sanji under the blankets with him.

As soon as he closed his eyes, he started drifting off. The familiar noises of creaking wood and voices all around him, the steady rhythm of the heartbeat so close to him, the dull ache in strained muscles -- it all made him so comfortably sleepy. There was nothing more he could do now. His nakama were here, he had found Chopper. Everything would be all right. With that last thought, he let go of wakefulness, and slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When Zoro awoke some indeterminable amount of time later, the ship was much more stiller and quieter. All around him the atmosphere was what he had come to expect after a storm -- deep exhaustion laced with triumph at having once again conquered the waves. He shared that feeling in some vague way, even though he had apparently slept through the worst. Hushed voices somewhere close told him that the rest of the crew were not asleep yet, but were probably gathered around the table right by the mattress.

That didn't explain what had woken him up. The poke at his head did, though. "Oi Zoro. Wake up, Zoro." Zoro looked up to find the little doctor at his head, his hoof ready for another poke.

"Eh? What do you want?"

"Good! You're awake."

Zoro grunted his assent to that. On the other side of the mattress, Luffy was stretching and rubbing his eyes. Sanji was still asleep, but his body felt warmer. If he turned his head, he could just see three pairs of feet under the table. Chopper turned his back on the mattress, getting something from the closest bench.

"I just finished this. It's medicine." The doctor held a cup, but from his position that was all Zoro could make out of it, other than that it had a faint bittersweet smell. "We have to wake Sanji up, and make him drink it, as much as possible."

Luffy's hands snatched the cup from the reindeer, and the captain sniffed the contents with a curious look. "What is it?"

"Don't drink it!" Chopper snapped, and right in time. The cup was already halfway to Luffy's lips.

"Aww, I just want to taste it!"

"No! It's bad for you!"

"You want to give Sanji something bad?" The dark head cocked quizzically.

"No!" Chopper's arms were flailing, and Zoro reached over to claim the cup from his hungry captain while the two of them sorted this out. The china was slightly warm to the touch. His nose wrinkled as he took a deeper whiff of its contents. Not something he would have wanted to taste, but then again he didn't have Luffy's appetite.

"It's just bad for you, you're not sick!" Chopper could probably see Luffy was not exactly following his reasoning, for he ended the discussion firmly. "I'm the doctor."

"Yup," Luffy agreed amiably. "The best doctor."

"Good! So do as I say, moron!" Chopper was trying not to split his face grinning as he basked in the warm glow of Luffy's compliment.

"Okay. Sanji's gotta drink that stuff, and we don't. I got it!"

"You and Zoro can take care of that, right? I have to go make something for his eyes too."

A voice from the table interjected a question at that. "Hey, Chopper? How… how is he doing with that? His eyes?" Nami was subdued, clearly worried. Zoro could understand why. When she had left them, Sanji had still been perfectly fine except for a few minor burns, and that problem with his eyes. He was a bit worse now, but no word on whether or not the blindness had passed. Zoro had told Chopper he thought it hadn't, but with all the other things going on at the time it had been a bit hard to tell.

Chopper hesitated before answering. "I… I don't know. I can't tell before he wakes up." The reindeer scowled at the floor from under the rim of his pink hat. "But I'll make something great for him, and… and he should recover."

"Hey, Chopper." Luffy's voice was quiet, but filled the room in a way that commanded immediate attention. "We'll take care of him here. You make him medicine, and I know he'll be fine. He's strong, that guy."

The little doctor listened raptly, and nodded with newfound determination. "Yes! He's strong, I know. He'll be fine."

Luffy smiled, as if the doctor's response had been an affirmation of already established good news. "Great!"

Zoro just sat up, the cup of medicine in one hand, and set about making sure Luffy's conviction and his doctor's words would become reality.

When Sanji awoke, it was with the feeling that he was missing several large and rather important chunks of his memory. Why was he sleeping in the galley? He recognized the smells from his kitchen in an instant, even dazed with sleep and with his eyes closed. There was a terrible taste in his mouth, and the more he came to, the more his body complained. Why was he aching everywhere like this?

Some of what was going on with his body -- especially his stomach - reminded him unpleasantly of the first time he had gotten into the liquor store at the Baratie. That had been some stupid attempt to impress Zeff with something, he couldn't remember what, and it had failed spectacularly. The aftereffects were something he had happily avoided thinking about for a long time now. Had there been something with drinking? Sanji vaguely recalled Zoro and Luffy urging him to finish something… but surely that wasn't it? A party would not explain why his eyes still refused to open.

Neither would a party explain why he recognized something else. On each side of him, one of his crewmates. But not Robin and Nami -- no, for some reason he was cuddling with what could only be his drooling captain and a snoring swordsman. It made him slightly more anxious to remember the events of the night before.

The night before… the day before. With the island, and the flower.

The memories didn't come nicely lined up one by one, but all in a jumble, intense and confusing. All the impressions, the bone-aching cold, the darkness. Falling. The storm, the woods, the stream, and the cave. It wasn't all making sense -- how had he gone from being in the forest to falling into the sea? But it did explain why he was hurting, and more or less what the others were doing there. The darkness… His throat constricted, and he could feel his heart accelerate in his chest. If he was on the ship, if they had found Chopper, why could he still not open his eyes?

So far Sanji had kept from trying anything more strenuous than opening his eyes, but when he did he found that he could move his hand without any greater difficulty. He had to tug it free of somebody's arm, and blankets that weighed far more than blankets should be allowed to, but at least it obeyed him better than his eyes, and didn't hurt much at all. Very good. The hand was finally level with his face. There he hesitated for a moment, but only a moment. With his bare fingertips, he traced his cheek up to the edge of -- bandages. Covering his eyes. His let his hand fall down on the blankets, and released a breath he had not even been aware that he was holding. He needed a cigarette. Badly.

The motion had attracted some attention. At his side, Zoro stirred. Sanji didn't know why he was so sure it was the swordsmaster -- he had known it ever since he woke up. Maybe he did remember a little bit of last night, now that he thought about it. Zoro had been so warm, and Sanji so cold, and… He flushed, and wondered dismally if there was any way he could exchange that particular memory for something that would allow him keep some of his dignity intact.

"So you're awake now," Zoro remarked in a low voice.

"Yeah." Sanji's throat felt raw when he answered, his voice hardly more than a rasp. Desperate for a distraction from the returning memories -- any distraction -- he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind after that.

"What happened to my legs?" Sanji was pretty certain that none of his memories included information on why they felt as if he had been using them to stop cannon balls.

"Ah, that? That was probably the landslide," Zoro said casually.

"Landslide?" Sanji's rasp was louder this time.

"Yeah."

"What landslide? I don't remember any landslide." And Sanji would have had more questions about that too, if he had not been distracted by the sleepily cheerful voice from his other side.

"Oh, Sanji! You're warm!" Luffy emphasized his approval of that by snuggling closer under the blankets.

Sanji had to agree that it was a good thing, being warm. From what he could puzzle out, the lack of being warm had played a pretty large part in last night's events. It even made him inclined to accept a little snuggling.

Around them, small sounds indicated that they were not the only ones in the kitchen, or the only ones waking up. Usopp mumbled a sleepy "good morning", and Sanji could hear Nami yawn, and imagined her stretching. The distraction that mental image caused led to a brief moment of total oblivion to anything else going on, which was only interrupted as realization struck -- it was morning already, and he hadn't cooked a meal since yesterday's lunch. The ladies would have had to make do with whatever was available, and with him out of the way, who knew how much Luffy had left them?

"Oi, get off!" Sanji shoved at Luffy. "I've got to make breakfast, move."

As expected, the mention of food had an immediate effect on his captain. Luffy bounced away as fast as if he had rocketed himself. "I want meat!"

"I'll see if we have any left," Sanji sighed. It was only when he tried to stand up that he realized there was another obstacle still left to overcome. Zoro's hand pressed down on his chest, effectively pinning him to the mattress.

"Idiot." The word came from right above Sanji's face, and he could feel the swordsmaster's solid weight dent the mattress as Zoro leaned over him.

"What? Get away from me, asshole!" Sanji's legs might be bruised, but that didn't mean he couldn't use them to kick the stupid swordsman's head. He arched back, brought his knees almost to his chin and then kicked up, all in one quick moment. Zoro kept his hand firmly in place as he avoided the blow with a curse, but when he jerked back he banged into the table.

The impact prompted a startled cry from Chopper. "Ah! I'm awake, I'm awake! What?" He sounded much more asleep than awake, until he discovered what his patient was up to. That definitely woke him up. "Zoro! Sanji! What are you doing?" the doctor yelled, horrified. There was a rapid patter of hooves against planks, and then he was at their side, interrupting their scuffle.

From under the significant weight of a lot of Zoro, Sanji wheezed, "Breakfast."

"What you said," the swordsman explained simultaneously. "Keeping him from doing anything stupid until you can check on him." Even without being able to see it, Sanji knew he had the full force of one of Zoro's glares directed at him now.

"Breakfast isn't stupid," Luffy remarked. This went largely ignored, but Sanji could hear Nami get up - probably preparing to bodily keep their captain from interfering further if she had to.

With Chopper about to admonish him, Sanji stopped squirming under Zoro's hold, changing his tactics.

"Okay. Do what you have to do now, and then you'll see I'm fine. I can make breakfast, no problem."

"So you can see now?" Zoro said, inexplicably exasperated. A hush fell over the room, and Sanji himself felt suddenly cold. He raised a hand to the bandages covering his eyes.

"I…"

"Yes," Chopper said firmly. "You should be able to, now, after the medicine." The pressure from Zoro's hand disappeared, and the mattress stopped listing as the swordsman stood up.

"You were lucky," the doctor continued. "It wasn't so bad, what I treated last night, and I could wash it out and make a good compress for it -- don't you remember?"

Sanji shook his head. Maybe that would come back to him later, but right now that was one of the pieces of his memory that remained missing.

"You said you were fine," Chopper said accusingly.

"Well… I am now?" Sanji felt vaguely guilty with the little reindeer rebuking him like this. "So, uh, can you take this off now?" He indicated the bandage wrapped around his head.

Chopper thought about it for a minute, and Luffy took advantage of the silence to request a breakfast of meat, since he had not gotten any meat for supper.

"Okay," the doctor finally agreed. "Maybe it needs more time, but… you're strong!" The unabashed admiration in the middle of what Sanji had expected to be a medical explanation made him smile.

The unmistakable sound of Chopper's footsteps came closer, and Sanji sat up, wincing a bit at the stiffness in his muscles. He bent his head so that the reindeer would be able to reach.

A change of pressure around his head followed as the doctor deftly undid the fastening and started unwinding the bandage. It was done in almost no time at all, and then Chopper wiped off what felt like some kind of cool paste that had been covering his eyelids with a soft cloth.

"It's good, it looks good." Chopper's words were followed by an encouraging pat on Sanji's arm. "Try opening your eyes now. Carefully!"

His stomach tight with apprehension, Sanji did what he was told. He still would have done it slowly, even if the doctor had not urged him to, because it was the only way he could right now. His eyelashes were glued together, from Chopper's paste or something else Sanji didn't know -- he didn't want to know. Forcing the eyelids open caused his eyes to sting, but not worse than what too-early mornings when the light was too bright and his head still heavy with wine did.

The first impression when his eyes cracked open came like a kick in the guts -- it was dark. Compact darkness, and for a moment he feared that Chopper had failed. But it changed, shifted. Like swimming up from deep dark waters, there was wavering light in his vision now. And as when the surface grew nearer, there was more and more light, and shapes began to appear. Distorted at first, impossible to focus on through the shifting layers of blurriness, he could finally distinguish color, then form. There was pink, fuzzy pink, and brown, all soft around the edges, and a shimmering, wobbly dot of blue.

Sanji tried to take it in all at once, drinking his fill of color and shapes and movement. After spending so long in the unending dark, he was as greedy for them as a thirsty man in a desert is for water. It quickly got to be too much. His eyes watered and the world melted into an indistinct jumble of colors, but not before he managed to catch a glimpse of anxiously staring eyes.

"Heh. Chopper, you did great." Sanji smiled without reserve even as he blinked away tears. "Thank you."

"I don't need your thanks, dumbass! Don't think it will make me happy!" The only thing that might possibly match his own soaring relief was the little doctor's enormous pride -- and his frenetic attempts to hide it. They failed, of course -- Sanji didn't need eyes to tell how happy Chopper was right now.

The doctor made an effort to pretend like his outburst had not happened. "Sanji, you can see?"

"Yeah." Sanji was still smiling, and around him he could hear his nakama reacting with various levels of enthusiasm and relief at the news. He was anxious to see them, even though he knew they were right there. He forced his watering eyes open again. This time the world around him was much sharper and brighter. It was as if he was right under the surface, water only glass-thin above him, the others fading in and out of his vision. "A bit blurry, but that's passing."

"Ah! Yes, that should get better in a while. Your eyes were hurt, so they need rest, just like you. But they'll be fine!"

"So, does that mean I get to make breakfast?"

"You should probably rest…" Sanji got the feeling that a hard battle between professionalism and hunger was being fought right in front of him.

"I'll make those cookies with the yellow frosting for you?" The temptation of one of Chopper's favorite treats was enough to tip the scales in favor of hunger.

"Okay!"

"And meat!" Luffy cheered from the background.

"But be careful!"

"Sure." Sanji patted his shirt, then his pants, feeling for his cigarettes. They were not there. Before he had a chance to ask about them, Chopper interrupted.

"You can't smoke now."

Sanji knew which battles he could win, and which he should leave for later. If he neglected to say anything now, there was a chance the doctor would forget to tell him how long this "now" was to last for.

"Right," he agreed obediently. Chopper looked surprised, but Sanji only shrugged, and as he had been hoping, the doctor was not suspicious enough to elaborate.

Sanji's eyes were managing to stay open longer and longer before they watered shut, and he was rediscovering how to blink. When he raised his head, he could see Nami, Usopp and Luffy following the proceedings from right behind Chopper. Zoro and Robin were sitting opposite each other at the end of the table, but their attention also seemed fixed on him and the doctor.

"Ahh, Nami-san, Robin-chan! You won't have to go hungry anymore, I will take care of you now!" With newfound strength, Sanji did his best to bounce to his feet. It worked pretty well, all things considered. Luffy laughed, but didn't say anything. He looked pleased, though.

Usopp had been hovering at the corner of Sanji's vision for a little while now. Before Sanji could move to grab an apron and start cooking, the sharpshooter was there. Usopp burst out into an explanation of lights and mirrors and glass, and there was something about giants and lighthouses there too, but what got Sanji's attention was the mention of certain kitchenware of his. "Wait. Back up. You did what with my large glass bowl?"

"Uh. I put it in the Emergency Beacon?" Which did not explain much, except when Sanji quickly looked for it, said bowl was not in its usual place.

"Yeah. And where is it now?"

Usopp laughed, nervously it seemed to Sanji. "Well, you see, the amazing light that I put together and used to find you, it kind of… cracked it. A bit."

"You cracked the bowl?"

"It was to find you! You're lucky it lasted as long as it did, because without it you would have been left in that storm. Ah, if only it hadn't cracked, then I could have set it up on the mast, and the Going Merry would have been the ship able to light up the night on the whole Grand Line!"

Sanji had been distracted with blinking, but he managed to focus on Usopp now. All in all, a bowl was a small price to pay for the seeing and warmth and working lungs and friends all around him. He surprised Usopp with his smile, he could tell. "I'm sorry I missed that."

And that surprised Usopp even further, to the point where the sharpshooter stuttered a bit before managing to get his reply out. "Yeah. It was really cool." The words were subdued, for Usopp, but full of wistful pride.

The comfortable silence between them was interrupted by a sweet and lovely voice. Nami had apparently become interested in their conversation.

"Usopp?" she asked, smiling at sharpshooter, who had for some reason decided to start backing away from the navigator.

"Um. Yes?"

"The little mirror you borrowed from me, the one you said I would have right back… where is it?"

There was some further backing on Usopp's part, which led him straight out through the kitchen door -- too far away for Sanji to focus properly on. "I think a giant albatross, the one that that swept down on us last night got enraged and… pecked it with its mighty beak? But I can fix it, don't worry!" With that he turned tail and fled. Nami didn't run, but followed him. There were not that many places to hide on the ship.

This gave Sanji a bit more of peace and quiet in the kitchen, not to mention space to work in. When he turned, he found that Zoro was no longer in the room, and Robin was lost to the world in some book at the end of the table. Chopper had taken a seat close to him, and was following Sanji's every move with a critical eye. Which only left Luffy in his way. Well, if there were any ingredients left to work with, not even his captain could get in the way of making this a breakfast to remember. Sanji felt like celebrating.

Outside, the sun had risen in a clear sky only occasionally dotted with little white tufts of cloud. The temperature was nice and warm -- obviously they had left the islands with colder seasons behind during the night. The deck was almost dry already, and Zoro had made himself comfortable on a nice spot right by the kitchen door. He had just finished vigorously cleaning his katanas, especially the one he had been forced to get all sticky. After the wet parts of last night's adventure, there had not been as much gunk left to get rid of as he had feared, and he had quickly polished all three to a shine. Now it was finally time for a well-deserved nap.

The nap didn't last for very many seconds before it was interrupted by loud voices from within the galley. The first was Luffy's, brimming with excitement over something.

"Hey, Sanji -- did you bring any of the meat flower with you?"

Ah, so that was it. Food. Of course. Sanji would have fun with this one.

"It's not a -- I didn't -- What?"

"To cook! I wanna eat it!"

As if there had ever been any doubt of that -- was there anything Luffy didn't want to eat?

"You can't eat it! Besides, it's a plant, why'd you want to eat that?"

Well, true. Vegetables were very low on Luffy's list of things that he liked to eat.

"'Cause it eats meat! So it's a super-meat plant! It'd be like eating all the meat it's ever eaten at once!"

With a grin, Zoro leaned back against the cool planks of the outer wall, the sun warming the last of the night's chill out of him.

"…no. No, It wouldn't."

He didn't envy the cook right now.

"Yes!"

Luffy could be very persistent. Unfortunately, Sanji's explanation was delivered in tones too low to make out from where Zoro was sitting. His captain's answer, however, was clear.

"Ah, it's a mysterious super-meat plant."

About half a second later, the door slammed open right next to Zoro's head, and Luffy came flying out, followed by a colorful curse. That had been a pretty good kick. If Sanji was well enough to beat up Luffy, he really would be fine. Zoro smiled, and went back to sleep.