( though the only thing she can think of off the top of her head is how to burn a body so no one knows there was ever a body to begin with, and she knows she can't say that out loud. )
But there are no lakes at Withywoods. Buck is the coastal town.
I have many eyes to spare. ( and, since it's sanji, and she knows he's too nice to agree to it otherwise — she fibs. a little. ) It would be a great relief to be rid of some of them. They are very uncomfortable, under my clothes, and they keep growing. I was going to ask if they might remove some anyway.
i'll teach you how to swim. you can't just not know.
[ yes, anyone with at least one eye has noticed that bee has an excess of eyes. that still doesn't mean that sanji wants a witch to take any of hers, not when he knows what that feels like. maybe these new assholes in town are experts on harvesting body parts, but he doesn't think it'll go any better than when maria had taken his. ]
we can make you new clothes if they're bothering your eyes. you don't have to get rid of them. aren't they useful to have?
Maybe. ( very cagey about it — monstrosity is not new to bee, but that doesn't mean she likes to lay it out in writing, for someone she hopes to be good friends with forever more. ) I do not want to talk about it. I want to give you an eye. It isn't charity, dear Sanji. I have a surplus, and you have a need. That is economics.
[ but she isn't wrong. sanji has somewhat adjusted to his new sense of vision, but with basic tasks. when it comes to setting sail again, he isn't worried about his job as the straw hats' cook. he's worried about protecting his captain and his crew, when his skills as a fighter have been significantly diminished. what will luffy say, when he sees how his value has gone down? ]
bee. when they took my eye, it hurt. a lot. you'll need blood to heal. all changelings do. but you know the cold has made it hard to find any animals. i don't have any reserves for you.
[ nami's bottles had been a horrible idea. and yet. ]
you'll drink my blood to get better. you'll be sick for a long time otherwise, like i was. that's it. that's the deal. agree or piss off.
( at least, he left scrolls out that bee read, when she rifled through his study without him knowing. same thing. )
Once, Dwalia beat me so badly my nose cracked like a twig under foot and I breathed out blood on every exhale. Once too, she dropped me so badly on my shoulder it popped itself from the adjoining bone and hung my arm like dead weight at my side. Pain is no stranger to me. Not to Bee, the Destroyer. At least there is purpose behind this pain. And at least I will have you, which is more than I have ever had before. You are the best friend I have ever had, including the cats.
Okay. ( she imagines sanji will probably make himself sick with trying to help her — and selfishly, childishly, she's more endeared to the attention than worried. ) Do you want to stay on the ship with me and Mister Shanks? Or should I stay with you and your friends?
( distantly bee, who is a Proper lady, finds it pretty scandalous that two men and a woman live together. but she also thinks it's cool, like sanji is some kind of rebel to pompous, stuffy society. )
just because you know what pain is doesn't mean i want you to feel it more.
[ a beat, as his pencil taps against the page. ]
the thing with the nose and the shoulder. both of those happened to me, too. who's dwalia?
you have to stay with me, because i have to stay with my friends. they're not doing so well. i'm taking care of them so they'll get better. i can take care of you, too.
She is the Servant who kidnapped me. ( she knows sanji has morals bee will never understand, belief in the good of people even when they spit in your face and make you bleed. bee does not believe in the good of humans. she's seen too much of the opposite — still, she isn't wholly without pity. she did not feel justified watching dwalia whipped, only sad she'd fallen from so high, and taken bee with her. ) She is heartless and evil. That is the truth.
Who takes care of Sanji?
( she knows the answer: bee, now. )
I have a secret to tell you. But I do not want to tell anyone else, only you.
it's not part of yours anymore. not a big part, anyway. cooking can be painful, but not like getting your nose broken.
[ so dwalia sounds bad. this isn't the time to remind bee that women are mysterious and unknowable, and that she probably had her reasons. she'll realize it with time, just like he can look back now and think of his brothers with more complex emotions than hatred. ]
i don't need anyone to take care of me. i'm a grown man.
what's your secret? i already know you're a princess, and a shitty one.
( it's only fair to ask — and maybe that's why bee is so forthcoming with information, beyond that of a child who likes to hear herself talk. it means fair is fair, and sanji owes her the same. )
I do not need anyone to take care of me, either. But I like it, sometimes. To feel cared for.
The eyes ( an awkward wait in her words ) well they can hypnotize people. Please do not tell anyone. I thought if I might try it on an animal, I might be able to help you hunt better. If we even saw one, I could lure it close. And well I am very strange as you know. I can talk to them too, sometimes. Animals. When they want to talk to me. Some are more friendly. I might be able to locate where more are. Please do not tell anyone. We might feed you and your friends. Make sure you don't tell anyone though.
[ he hasn't told nami or zoro or anyone on his crew. he hasn't even told zeff, though he has the sneaking suspicion that zeff probably figured out some semblance of truth after suffering his erratic behavior for years, and showed him the singular kindness of pretending not to know. ]
my family. my brothers. i have three of them.
that's because you're a little princess, and little princesses are meant to be taken care of.
[ he wouldn't tell anyone even if she hadn't asked. it would only take one asshole to see the value in her abilities in a time when half of them are starving since maria and her witches have closed the doors of the castle. ]
i won't tell anyone. i don't want anyone to think they can use you. if i get your eye, will you teach me how to do it? you don't have to if you don't want to. but if i can feed you and my friends, it'll be good. if i can feed everyone else, it'll be even better.
( bee recalls a dream she had, once, as a little girl just learning to leave her bed for the first time — three candles, three flames burn brighter than the sun / their blaze engulfs an evil done / their angry mourning purpose gives / they do not know their child still lives, and one candle broken in her tiny fist, held together only by the adjoining wick, child, light the fire. burn the future and the past. it’s what you were born to do.
she wonders if sanji is meant to be her tool, her broken candle clenched in her hand. the catalyst, they call it — it makes her sad, because she loves him, and wishes for nothing but his own lasting happiness. )
Do they know you yet live?
You are as precious to me as a prince or princess, and perhaps even more so. I will take care of you.
( it strikes her, the reason why adults so insist on you telling the truth, always — inevitably it comes out, and it only makes you look dumb, and who would want a dumb kid? but she can't tell sanji the outlining facts of her deformity — that she can hypnotize, but the eyes then explode in their sockets, waiting to be refilled — or else he won't agree to her offer. she sees the unfolding events as plainly as a storybook lesson. she'll just have to think of another lie, or at least a way to avoid the truth. )
I will teach you, since you will teach me to swim. It is not difficult.
[ do they know? furthermore, would they even care? not beyond having a laugh or fantasizing about how they might hurt him. he's gotten strong now, thanks to zeff's teachings, but the thought of facing his brothers again sends fear cold as bitter ice running through his veins. his father wouldn't help him. he'd want to watch, to gauge where his abilities lie now after all these years. ]
i think they assume things. they can't know for sure. the world's big. they can't find me.
you really don't understand the proper way of things, do you?
[ but it makes him smile, to think of little bee taking care of him. she is, in a way, with the offer of an eye. the offer to teach him something new. then he can take care of her, and protect her secret, and be her eyes when he needs to be. ]
you know, i've been talking to animals since i was a kid. my first friend was a mouse. he was my first customer too. so if you think you're strange for that, then you'd have to call me strange too.
( she's not sure what would happen if they did. it would just be bad — world endingly bad, even. )
I have six half brothers. Chivalry, Nimble, Swift, Steady, Just, and Hearth. And my foster brother, Hap. And my full sister, Lady Nettle. None of them would ever hurt me. Family should not do that to each other. Your family failed you, I think in unforgivable ways. At the same time, I think everything must have purpose inside itself. Maybe if your family was not so cruel to you, we never would have met, and I would not love you so much. It does not justify what they did, but maybe without their mistreatment of you, your whole life would be completely different.
( for the better? bee can't say that for him. she isn't sure the exchange of an awkward, difficult little girl is equal to that of an entire family — but she will endeavor to make it better. for sanji, who deserves if nothing else, a world class fish gutter. )
Proper way? You sound like my Da.
Did your mouse friend have a name? I was always scared of the mice. Well, rats. I never thought to speak with them. You are truly thoughtful, Chef Sanji.
( since she doodled a seal for koby, she does one for sanji as well — a tiny rat, bangs cast down to its nose to cover one missing eye drawn with an x. it wields a fork in its hand. she takes care in the calligraphy she uses to label it sanji the wise. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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you can't just pop out an eye for me. it'll hurt.
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( though the only thing she can think of off the top of her head is how to burn a body so no one knows there was ever a body to begin with, and she knows she can't say that out loud. )
But there are no lakes at Withywoods. Buck is the coastal town.
I have many eyes to spare. ( and, since it's sanji, and she knows he's too nice to agree to it otherwise — she fibs. a little. ) It would be a great relief to be rid of some of them. They are very uncomfortable, under my clothes, and they keep growing. I was going to ask if they might remove some anyway.
no subject
[ yes, anyone with at least one eye has noticed that bee has an excess of eyes. that still doesn't mean that sanji wants a witch to take any of hers, not when he knows what that feels like. maybe these new assholes in town are experts on harvesting body parts, but he doesn't think it'll go any better than when maria had taken his. ]
we can make you new clothes if they're bothering your eyes. you don't have to get rid of them.
aren't they useful to have?
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Maybe. ( very cagey about it — monstrosity is not new to bee, but that doesn't mean she likes to lay it out in writing, for someone she hopes to be good friends with forever more. ) I do not want to talk about it. I want to give you an eye. It isn't charity, dear Sanji. I have a surplus, and you have a need. That is economics.
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[ but she isn't wrong. sanji has somewhat adjusted to his new sense of vision, but with basic tasks. when it comes to setting sail again, he isn't worried about his job as the straw hats' cook. he's worried about protecting his captain and his crew, when his skills as a fighter have been significantly diminished. what will luffy say, when he sees how his value has gone down? ]
bee. when they took my eye, it hurt. a lot.
you'll need blood to heal. all changelings do.
but you know the cold has made it hard to find any animals. i don't have any reserves for you.
[ nami's bottles had been a horrible idea. and yet. ]
you'll drink my blood to get better.
you'll be sick for a long time otherwise, like i was.
that's it. that's the deal. agree or piss off.
no subject
( at least, he left scrolls out that bee read, when she rifled through his study without him knowing. same thing. )
Once, Dwalia beat me so badly my nose cracked like a twig under foot and I breathed out blood on every exhale. Once too, she dropped me so badly on my shoulder it popped itself from the adjoining bone and hung my arm like dead weight at my side.
Pain is no stranger to me. Not to Bee, the Destroyer. At least there is purpose behind this pain. And at least I will have you, which is more than I have ever had before. You are the best friend I have ever had, including the cats.
Okay. ( she imagines sanji will probably make himself sick with trying to help her — and selfishly, childishly, she's more endeared to the attention than worried. ) Do you want to stay on the ship with me and Mister Shanks? Or should I stay with you and your friends?
( distantly bee, who is a Proper lady, finds it pretty scandalous that two men and a woman live together. but she also thinks it's cool, like sanji is some kind of rebel to pompous, stuffy society. )
no subject
[ a beat, as his pencil taps against the page. ]
the thing with the nose and the shoulder. both of those happened to me, too. who's dwalia?
you have to stay with me, because i have to stay with my friends.
they're not doing so well. i'm taking care of them so they'll get better.
i can take care of you, too.
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She is the Servant who kidnapped me. ( she knows sanji has morals bee will never understand, belief in the good of people even when they spit in your face and make you bleed. bee does not believe in the good of humans. she's seen too much of the opposite — still, she isn't wholly without pity. she did not feel justified watching dwalia whipped, only sad she'd fallen from so high, and taken bee with her. ) She is heartless and evil. That is the truth.
Who takes care of Sanji?
( she knows the answer: bee, now. )
I have a secret to tell you. But I do not want to tell anyone else, only you.
no subject
not a big part, anyway.
cooking can be painful, but not like getting your nose broken.
[ so dwalia sounds bad. this isn't the time to remind bee that women are mysterious and unknowable, and that she probably had her reasons. she'll realize it with time, just like he can look back now and think of his brothers with more complex emotions than hatred. ]
i don't need anyone to take care of me. i'm a grown man.
what's your secret? i already know you're a princess, and a shitty one.
no subject
( it's only fair to ask — and maybe that's why bee is so forthcoming with information, beyond that of a child who likes to hear herself talk. it means fair is fair, and sanji owes her the same. )
I do not need anyone to take care of me, either. But I like it, sometimes. To feel cared for.
The eyes ( an awkward wait in her words ) well they can hypnotize people. Please do not tell anyone.
I thought if I might try it on an animal, I might be able to help you hunt better. If we even saw one, I could lure it close.
And well I am very strange as you know. I can talk to them too, sometimes. Animals. When they want to talk to me. Some are more friendly.
I might be able to locate where more are. Please do not tell anyone. We might feed you and your friends.
Make sure you don't tell anyone though.
no subject
my family. my brothers.
i have three of them.
that's because you're a little princess, and little princesses are meant to be taken care of.
[ he wouldn't tell anyone even if she hadn't asked. it would only take one asshole to see the value in her abilities in a time when half of them are starving since maria and her witches have closed the doors of the castle. ]
i won't tell anyone. i don't want anyone to think they can use you.
if i get your eye, will you teach me how to do it? you don't have to if you don't want to.
but if i can feed you and my friends, it'll be good. if i can feed everyone else, it'll be even better.
no subject
she wonders if sanji is meant to be her tool, her broken candle clenched in her hand. the catalyst, they call it — it makes her sad, because she loves him, and wishes for nothing but his own lasting happiness. )
Do they know you yet live?
You are as precious to me as a prince or princess, and perhaps even more so. I will take care of you.
( it strikes her, the reason why adults so insist on you telling the truth, always — inevitably it comes out, and it only makes you look dumb, and who would want a dumb kid? but she can't tell sanji the outlining facts of her deformity — that she can hypnotize, but the eyes then explode in their sockets, waiting to be refilled — or else he won't agree to her offer. she sees the unfolding events as plainly as a storybook lesson. she'll just have to think of another lie, or at least a way to avoid the truth. )
I will teach you, since you will teach me to swim. It is not difficult.
no subject
i think they assume things.
they can't know for sure. the world's big. they can't find me.
you really don't understand the proper way of things, do you?
[ but it makes him smile, to think of little bee taking care of him. she is, in a way, with the offer of an eye. the offer to teach him something new. then he can take care of her, and protect her secret, and be her eyes when he needs to be. ]
you know, i've been talking to animals since i was a kid.
my first friend was a mouse. he was my first customer too.
so if you think you're strange for that, then you'd have to call me strange too.
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( she's not sure what would happen if they did. it would just be bad — world endingly bad, even. )
I have six half brothers. Chivalry, Nimble, Swift, Steady, Just, and Hearth. And my foster brother, Hap. And my full sister, Lady Nettle.
None of them would ever hurt me. Family should not do that to each other. Your family failed you, I think in unforgivable ways. At the same time, I think everything must have purpose inside itself. Maybe if your family was not so cruel to you, we never would have met, and I would not love you so much. It does not justify what they did, but maybe without their mistreatment of you, your whole life would be completely different.
( for the better? bee can't say that for him. she isn't sure the exchange of an awkward, difficult little girl is equal to that of an entire family — but she will endeavor to make it better. for sanji, who deserves if nothing else, a world class fish gutter. )
Proper way? You sound like my Da.
Did your mouse friend have a name? I was always scared of the mice. Well, rats.
I never thought to speak with them. You are truly thoughtful, Chef Sanji.
( since she doodled a seal for koby, she does one for sanji as well — a tiny rat, bangs cast down to its nose to cover one missing eye drawn with an x. it wields a fork in its hand. she takes care in the calligraphy she uses to label it sanji the wise. )