InsaneJournal

At first, he thought he was imagining it. Maybe the portal business was finally hitting them all and not just the people taken. Maybe Zoro and Robin being ripped away from him, while they ate, was more than his mind could handle. And sure, he was on the rescue team and they'd all gotten through this before, but that didn't stop the fear. Zoro had been close to staying behind once before. What if this time, he just didn't come back?

So really, it wasn't any wonder that he started hearing voices. Or rather, one voice. A tough one with attitude. It took a few days for him to realize it was the sword strapped to his back. Wado Ichimonji. No, that's not true. It took a few days for him to convince himself that it was a sword giving him quiet sass and thoughtful direction as it complained about missing its swordsman and refused to be handled by anyone else.

Now that he was finally in the Mountain base and waiting for Zoro himself, Sanji couldn't help but reach out to the sword in his mind.

Will you be alright? If he's different? He might not even know you in his world.

The sword grumbled in his mind. Are you asking me or yourself?

Sanji blew a breath out through his nose. Wado was as frustrating as his swordsman. But he wasn't wrong. Sitting down on a foot locker, Sanji laid the sword respectfully over his lap and sat up tall to look around for the man whose absence had haunted him for days.

When word that people from another version of this world had come through the portal, Zoro hadn’t batted an eye at it. After what felt like a lifetime of magic and mayhem in the world of Treant Overlordship, it just felt like another day in his strange new life. It might have taken him by surprise four years ago when he had first shown up here, but now?Now it was all about surviving and making sure that the people he cared about here did too.

The only thing that had given him pause was the reveal that the Cook was here. A pause that had Robin looking at him worriedly, a pause that had him going quiet and falling into the background during group meetings. And when the Cook had finally made it to their mountain base, Zoro only had one goal in mind.

It was easy to track him down. New people didn’t show up too often and the space was limited, even with their meandering tunnels. There were only so many places for a newbie to go and it was in one of those hollowed out caverns that Zoro finally stumbled across him. It was empty, thankfully, save for that stupidly blond head of hair and an all too familiar sword he hadn’t seen in four years.

Closing his eye, he breathed in, trying to calm his suddenly full mind. Hello, old companion, came the greeting through the frantic turmoil in his mind.

Wado Ichimonji, he sent back, the words heavy with a weight he couldn’t describe. Loss, primarily, but relief as well. I’ll deal with you in a minute, he promised, before he swallowed down the sudden emotion in his throat. Clearing it, he turned his attention to the man with his back to him. “Cook,” he called out, the word low with a grief he hadn’t let himself feel for the last two years. Because that was the last time he had seen his husband, which was the last time he had truly felt happy.

Sanji jerked to his feet in surprise and whirled to face Zoro. He hadn't expected the sight of him to feel like this - like getting him back and losing him again all at once. The Zoro in front of him was different. Changed by this place just as surely as his own Zoro was changed by their Vallo. It was upsetting to see he'd lost an eye in both places. But he was alive and Sanji could be grateful for that much.

Wado Ichimonji felt impatient in his mind. Sanji couldn't blame it. He stepped too close, with the sword held protectively against his own chest. He'd been doing a lot of that the last few days without even realizing it.

"Took you long enough," he teased, his tone gentler than it had been only a handful of months ago whenever Zoro was concerned. "I was going to send out a search party." There was something about the look in Zoro's eye that made him feel bad for joking so he frowned and he helplessly reached out to cup a nervous hand to the side of Zoro's neck, then to his cheek, as if he was testing that he was really there. "I don't know if you know me very well or if this is uncomfortable but please, just bear with me, mosshead. I was more worried than I care to be."

Zoro had no way of knowing if their relationship was the same in whatever world this Sanji came from. Because as he looked at the blond, he knew without a doubt he was different from the one he had called his own for one semi-blissful year. His Sanji had bore the scars of surviving in a world like theirs. The hair had been maintained, but had been longer, and his facial hair had been scruffier. There had been a wisdom in his eyes that came from surviving in harsh conditions.

And most importantly, he had worn a ring, forged from one of his own earrings, one that matched the one on Zoro’s hand now.

But this too tender touch of his was the same. It spoke of the emotion that they had been terrible at naming in the beginning of their relationship and had just become comfortable with, when Sanji had been taken away. Closing his eye, he leaned into the warm palm on his cheek, wishing against the knowledge that everything was fleeting. “I’m sorry for worrying you,” he said, voice thick and holding back his grief. It was too much, it was too sudden, seeing Sanji again and being in Wado Ichimonji’s presence all at once. It felt like the part of him that had been dead for the last two years was experiencing a rebirth and he did not know how to handle that with any kind of grace. He was afraid if he opened his eye again, it would all disappear as quickly as it had come into being.

Oh. Sanji's heart twisted up painfully in his chest, watching Zoro's face. Hearing his voice. Sanji didn't know anything that Zoro had been through here, but the way he sagged into Sanji's hold was too achingly tender to bear with any sense of calm. He raised his other hand to cradle both sides of Zoro's face and leaned forward to press their foreheads together.

"An apology already? Now I know something's wrong." He stroked his thumbs over Zoro's face and then pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "I second guessed whether I should have brought Wado Ichimonji to you but it was too late to turn back and it's been very…insistent about finding you." It was entirely possible, and even likely, that this Zoro had his own. But the deed was done and he could even admit that he'd eventually been grateful for the sword's presence. "If you don't have one of your own--"

His words cut off as his fingers touched Zoro's earring and noticed it was down to one sword. Sanji frowned. "What happened here?"

Wado Ichimonji was unusually quiet now. With the special connection it had forged with Zoro (and now Sanji, rightfully), it knew what turmoil was going on within Zoro. There was no hiding anything from its all knowing presence.

“You happened,” he explained, a steady gaze on Sanji to take in the man's reaction. “We had to get creative with our rings and it seemed fitting at the time.” What he meant was made clear shortly after, as he raised his hand and showed off his ring finger. On it, one of the earrings had been forged into a wedding band.

His Sanji had the remaining one.

Sanji froze for a moment, eyes wide and round. Of all the things he imagined Zoro might say, that was nowhere on the list. His eyes locked on the ring and he shifted his grip from Zoro's face to gently holding Zoro's hand up to his view. Swallowing hurt for some reason. The sound of Zoro's voice when he'd first arrived was burned into his mind, so it wasn't a surprise that dread pooled in his gut.

"It suits you," he whispered, stroking his fingers over Zoro's skin. "Am I…is he...here somewhere?" He wasn't entirely sure how all of this worked, but he didn't think that had ever been the case when the others had come through. He hated asking but it was like ripping off a bandage.

“This place didn't see fit to keep him around,” was all that Zoro said at first, his lips tugging down into a frown. It was clear that he didn't want to talk about it, but he owed the man an explanation. “I probably should be grateful that he doesn't have to keep trying to survive here.” But it was clear that he wasn't. At least, he wasn't happy to be separated from the other man.

He gently pulled his hand away from Sanji's grip. It felt almost painful to be this close to him, a reminder of all things he no longer had. “Can I?” He asked, gesturing to Wado Ichimonji.

"Oh. I--" Sanji startled and took a step back to give Zoro some space. He'd gotten too spoiled already, with his ability to pull the swordsman close whenever he felt like it. Even when they were bickering, it felt too easy. Too good. He frowned at the thought of his Zoro being sent home, but they'd known that was a risk from the start. It was almost why they'd thrown themselves at each other in the first place.

"No, I, yes, of course," he stammered stupidly, unhooking the strap that kept the sword strapped across his chest for easy carrying. He hadn't wanted to wear it on his hips like it was his own sword. He'd been afraid he would kick at some point and break the most important thing Zoro owned. He held Wado out now, respectfully on the flat of his palms.

"I'll admit, I didn't think about the fact that you might already have it here," Sanji said. "And that I would have to bring it back home again."

“You'll have to take him back anyway,” Zoro pointed out absentmindedly, as he took the sword from Sanji's hands with a sureness that came from years of handling this sword. Hello old friend, he thought as he shifted it from hand to hand. Then he stepped back further before using the blade to cut through the air between them, the motion heartbreakingly familiar.

Whatever greeting he got back from it, he kept to himself as he smirked. “I'm happy to hold onto him until you do bring him back to your Zoro.” He had a very good idea of the life the other him led, with the memories he had in his head after the merging, and knew this Wado Ichimonji was as important to that other, younger Zoro as it was to him. “My own never came through to this world with me, so it will be nice for the time I get now.”

Sanji watched with open interest, curious to see what differences there were between the man in front of him and the one who, against all odds, had stolen his heart. The differences were minimal at best. The ring on Zoro's finger kept catching Sanji's eye and leaving him winded.

"It felt wrong to come looking for you and not bring it to you. You never told me it talked though." He looked at the sword now, wondering if the connection would stay now that Wado Ichimonji was with its swordsman. "If I'd known I'd have a bossy sword helping me stay lost in a forest for days, well, I'd still have brought it, but I'd have been more prepared!" Anxiety didn't show itself frequently in Sanji's body language, but there was the slightest hint as he shuffled in front of Zoro and wiped his damp hands on his trousers. "He's not telling you anything terrible about me, I hope."

At first he had assumed that Sanji had misspoke and had assigned emotions to the sword like some people do with objects that were inanimate. But the longer he conversed with Wado Ichimonji and the way Sanjo continued to talk about the sword had him smiling. A genuine smile that had him reaching out for one of Sanji's fidgeting hands with his empty one.

“The fact that he's bothering to speak to you at all means he likes you. At the very least, he trusts you. Because you would not have been able to handle him unless he let you,” Zoro explained, wishing he had his own Wado Ichimonji with him when he had come through. It had been lonely in his head, all of these years, lonelier more when Sanji had been sent away. He wish he had been able to witness his husband with his most prized possession, but he saw the ghosts of it now with the man in front of him.

Lifting one of the Cook's too soft hands to his mouth, he kissed it and then tugged him in the direction of the caves he called home. “Come on. Let's get you cleaned up. Then I want to hear about your life.”

"Oh." Sanji smiled unconsciously, pleased despite everything else about this situation. "I thought it was just because you weren't there and I was." He still wasn't entirely convinced that wasn't at least half of it, but if Zoro said the sword trusted him, Sanji believed it. And it surprised him how much that thought made him proud. "Who would have thought I'd ever care what a sword thinks of me?" he mused. "You really turn a man's life inside out, mosshead."

He softened the nickname by squeezing Zoro's hand and blushing at the kiss to his knuckles. "I hope you plan to feed me before this interrogation." He shudders dramatically. "I've been MREs for days."

“I'll feed you something alright,” Zoro promised, voice low and full of meaning as he squeezed his hand back. Two years of missing his Sanji and if it was greedy to take a little comfort in the one in front of him, he was going to be greedy. Only if the man was open for it.

Sanji threw back his head and laughed. His heart still ached about their fate in this world, but he was starting to ride the high of knowing that Zoro, in at least once world, wanted to spend his life with him. That was enough of a buzz to keep Sanji going through the rest of this madness, he thought.

"I suppose even you taste better than MREs," he teased. "Come on then, Chef. Lead the way to your kitchen."