( 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. )
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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.
no subject
( 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. )