Based on a prompt from Override7400 on dA.

http : / / override7400 . deviantart . com / journal / Here-we-go-again-266587376

In the City of Gold

"I can't believe you," Sanji growled. He was slumped against a chunk of stone, a half-empty bottle of sake clutched loosely in one hand, his clothes rumpled and hair dishevelled.

"I can't believe it either! Yohohoho! I can't believe my eyes, this place is so lovely- and I don't even have eyes!"

"Shut up about how beautiful this place is!" Sanji shouted, stumbling drunkenly to his feet. "Who gives a damn about how beautiful this place is?"

Brook didn't answer. His skeletal face seemed to contort into something like a frown.

The cook's face looked gaunt in the light of the moon. He was only twenty-six, but something about the way he frowned, the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, made him look older.

Sanji lashed out, kicking blindly at half-destroyed stone walls. The lost city of Shandora looked much the same as it had when the Straw Hats had first left Skypiea, so many years before.

Sanji hated that it hadn't changed, while everything else had.

"I can't believe you!" he shouted again, his unfocused gaze meeting Brook's blank eye sockets. "Acting like this is a vacation! Like we're having fun! Like… like…"

He took a deep drink of the sake, then let the bottle slip from his fingers and land at his feet. The last of the alcohol splashed onto the cook's shoes.

"You shouldn't waste that," Brook said, quietly, because he knew how much the cook hated to waste good food or drink.

Sanji didn't answer, though, didn't even seem to notice. He'd turned away from the skeleton, and was lighting a cigarette with unsteady hands.

"The marines still haven't said who turned him in," he said after a long moment of silence.

"Maybe he turned himself in," Brook suggested, coming up behind Sanji.

"Why would he do that?"

Brook placed one skeletal hand on the cook's shoulder.

"It's what the first Pirate King did…"

"That was Gold Roger! This is Luffy!" Sanji shouted, shrugging off Brook's hand. "Luffy doesn't give up! He doesn't do that! He… he…"

Tears streamed down the cook's face, and he didn't make any effort to wipe them away.

"They're going to kill him," Sanji said, his voice breaking. He looked out at the deserted city, gold glittering in the moonlight. "They're going to kill him and we just ran away to hide here!"

Suddenly, Brook's arms were wrapped around Sanji, with a grip far stronger than he had thought the skeleton was capable of.

"Don't say that," Brook ordered, and his voice held the sort of commanding tone he hadn't used since he'd been in charge of the Rumbar Pirates, so long ago. "We aren't running. We're collecting an army. We will rescue Luffy."

Brook's voice was serious, not quite angry but strict and authoritarian. Sanji wanted to pull away, wanted to shout and fight, but he was dizzy and the tears were still streaming down his face.

So he relaxed into Brook's embrace and tried to believe his words.

"We will rescue Luffy, I know it with all my heart. And I don't even have a heart! Yohohoho!"