scone | — SALTBURNT INBOX.

[ quiet, for a long while. then — ]

that’s not what i’m doing. and i don’t need any other help in the kitchen. if you think my dishes are lacking then tell me. can’t be worse than anything the old shitbag used to say about my cooking. you don’t need to feel like i’m leaving you, nami. i would never. i would die before that.

i don't think your dishes are lacking

then why does it sound like you think i'm leaving you? we don't exist on an island, nami. although it would be my dream to live on an island with you. but having allies can't be a bad thing here. not when our numbers seem like they keep dwindling. and jinx is there.

( a thought comes, unbidden: maybe sanji and jinx just want alone time, without her. left out. distanced? )

why do you think i decided to make a restaurant? you're the one who knows about kitchens, which you've reminded me about a million times. it was for your dream. zoro would've been happy anywhere that, and so we could keep being a crew without a ship but you're right. usopp's gone. luffy's gone. now zoro's gone. all of them left so it's just us if you want to make allies then you should do that

( nami, perpetual loner, is still not good at making nice. his allies, not hers. )

and if you say that means nothing has changed, then i'll believe it but i have to see it first

we'll always be a crew. with or without a ship. all of us — usopp, luffy, and zoro, too. but you can't hurt yourself for my dream. i did that with zeff. with the baratie. i never would've left if not for luffy, because i needed to make sure the old shitbag's dream was protected at all times. my dream was never to be his sous chef, or even anyone's head chef. i cook because i love it. i want to be your cook, because i love feeding people, and i always will. i love cooking for you. but my dream is to find the all blue. and when i do, you're going to put it on that map you make of the whole world. nothing changes between us. it's been you from the moment i laid eyes on you. it'll always be you.

i mean. i also wanted to wear cute hostess outfits. it's not hurting me. we're just stuck here and have to make the most of it. the all blue has literally never been further away. obviously we're going to get there eventually, just like i'm going to get my map eventually. but right now we're here. this is what we have

( each other. this restaurant. nami isn't like him — she needs some glue holding them together, some reason, some ship. if not, she'll scurry at the first sign of trouble, like a fish at the break of water.

sometimes, sanji's earnestness is a little unsettling to nami — in that way that feelings, raw and unfiltered, and love, unapologetic and unconditional, make her uncomfortable. not because she doesn't have feelings, but because she's used to biting them back, the way that sanji is used to wordvomitting them out. so it's weird, for a second, that she isn't uncomfortable — for no particular reason that nami can name, it feels different now. at least insomuch as the words it'll always be you manage to coddle some marrow deep insecurity she's always accidentally feeding, feeling like an outsider or dangling thread on her own life. it's not the first time she's realized she loves him, but it is the first time she's wanted to tell him.

she'll have to sit and think on that. probably for a long time — definitely after he proves the truth of what he's saying. if sanji ever wanted something easy, he probably should've it'll always be you'd to someone else. )

fine. okay. nothing changes.

— SALTBURNT INBOX.

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