This occurred to me, so I wrote it. I can never think of anything to say until after I've posted a fic, so I won't try now.

...

...I'd like to thank the Academy...

Unafraid

Sanji has learned to be unafraid.

First: Storms. A baby on a ship learns to take less gentle rocking in its stride. When he was a couple of months old, neither lightning nor thunder nor screaming winds could disturb him.

As a small child, he learned not to be scared of eating anything; he fears neither mold nor slime nor blood. These things can be expertly removed, the food sterilized. If not…well, it's still food. He could have died, but he didn't. He thought he had lost his fear of death then,

When he was a little bit older, he discovered how not to fear pain. (Not the aching stabs of hunger, but the other sort—broken bones and bruises and blood). The constant threat of being bashed over the head with the old man's wooden leg took it out of him. He lost three baby teeth that way, and once his shoulder was dislocated.

As a teenager, his education was taken further. He learned to disregard hot pans, spitting grease, blue flambé fire, and carving knives. He learned not to fear culinary experimentation, and to let the bitter sting of criticism fade quickly (when it came from the ladies, at least).

Sanji learned not to fear death from a boy in a straw hat and his crew. He would have risked his life for the restaurant and its cooks (though he'd never have admitted it), or for a beautiful woman. But somewhere along the line he'd given up the idea of a dream to paying off his debt to the old man, and it was disturbing to see pirates go to such lengths. Just for a dream. A concept.

Then Sanji learned how to be afraid. He learned that sometimes, you must fear the death of someone else.

And he did.

I think the writing here is kinda clumsy in places, but I'm going to be lazy and not worry about it, because it's just a drabble. I really want to parallel with the rest of the crew, because I have an obsession with such fics (see: "Little Things"), but that would get old fast, because these are long. Zoro, perhaps... But no pairing subtext.

Finally, I have the drive with Subtlety on it back! Hopefully, I can get a new chapter posted once my AP exam is over with...