Suffering in Silence
By Dixxy Mouri
Fire

Since most of their time was spent out on the sea, it was nice when they had time on an island, even if it was a weird floating island in the sky. But there was something nice about getting to sit around a campfire with his friends (which now included Chopper, who was nothing less than pure sugar, and Robin-chan, a fine cumin) and look at the night sky.

At least, it was nice until the topic of Norland the Liar came up again.

It had all started with a slip of the tongue. They'd come across a copy of the picture book, and Sanji began to reminisce about it. That in and of itself didn't seem like it was out of the ordinary to him, but Nami-san expressed her confusion when she said the book had been published in the North Blue, and Sanji felt his spine tense up in fright.

SHIT.

Backed into a corner, Sanji had no choice but to show a little of his hand. He "casually" admitted to the other Straw Hats that he was from the North Blue. As expected, this garnered some surprise from his companions, who'd assumed he was from the East Blue (which was exactly what he'd wanted them to think, although to be fair that was the ocean where he spent most of his formative years so he might as well have been from there). He chuckled, quipping that he thought he'd told them before (he hadn't) and then brushed it off as if wasn't a big deal (it absolutely was). He then rattled off what he knew about the book, trying to divert their attention to the stupid kid's book and not the revelation he'd just made about him. That seemed to sufficiently keep their interest, and he took a drag on his cigarette to hide his sigh of relief.

That had been a close call.

Although he should have been satisfied when that particular fire had been put out, he chose to keep his distance from his crew while Montblanc Cricket, one of Montblanc Norland's descendants, told his side of the story about how his ancestor wasn't a liar and that he was going to prove it and blah, blah, blah, Sanji didn't care. Even though he'd gotten their attention was from that information for now, it was still out there. They knew he was from North Blue now. How long was it before someone pieced together who he really was? Robin-chan in particular seemed pretty well-versed in world culture . . . how long before she realized he looked just like one of them?

He had focused a bit much on those cigarettes, hadn't he?

And now that they were up on a Sky Island (. . . which was new even for him . . .), they were talking about that story again while they camped out. For once, his nerves were getting the better of him, and he could feel sweat dripping down his neck. He told himself it was just the heat of the fire he was currently cooking over, but he couldn't avoid the story again. There were too many other important things to talk about, like how to deal with this "god" of Skypiea who wanted to kill them so badly, and since it seemed like that fucking kid's book was suddenly integral to what they were doing, he had no choice but to involve himself in the conversation.

It was like being raked over the coals.

Thankfully none of them brought up his sea of birth again, which allowed him a little time to relax. Instead he focused on helping Zoro build their bonfire for the evening, and when they were later joined by a pack of friendly wolves (. . . all right . . .) he allowed himself to get caught up in the antics with . . . whatever the hell that was about.

But once it was all said and done and he was in his sleeping bag for the night, his stomach felt ill. No one had mentioned his sea of birth in a while, so maybe they'd all forgotten by now. Maybe this wouldn't be a complete disaster after all.

Sanji fell into a fitful slumber, dreaming of everything and everyone he loved in flames.

Author's Notes

Yes I realize this is . . . super late, and at this point I don't think I'll have it all out by August 1 (unless I hit THE ZONE or something) but I do think this is going to be easy enough to finish, just not necessarily by the end of 32 days of Sanji.

Also, like, new chapters of One Piece may effect how this is all going to end, especially as people point out stuff on Tumblr and I make inhuman noises while looking at my computer because OH MY GOD GUYS 833 WHAT THE HELL ODA *cries forever*.

Dixxy