The Gift of Faith

Sanji stood at the bow of the Going Merry, gazing out over the blue sea, and trying not to think. He took his cigarette out of his mouth, tapped it once, and watched the ash scatter into the breeze. Like my dreams, he thought.

He hadn't felt like this last night. When the Straw-Hat Pirates had docked at Tanjoubi Village the day before, it had seemed just like a normal day. The first locals they'd met had told them it would only take overnight to set the Log Pose, so Nami had immediately dragged Usopp off to get supplies, while Luffy went exploring, and Zoro, predictably, went looking for a pub. Sanji, not really feeling like staying behind in the ship with Robin-chan and Chopper, had decided that maybe the shitty swordsman had had a good idea for once, and, although it really wasn't Zoro he wanted to get drunk with, he didn't want to do it by himself either, so he ended up following the marimo to the nearest pub.

That was where they'd run into Old Arnie - the old man who had wandered in just as Sanji was getting nicely soused, and started telling stories. Arnie must have been the regular storyteller in this tavern, since he'd quickly gathered an eager audience of young shopkeeper-types who'd obviously, from the way they were hanging off the old man's every word, never spent a day at sea in their lives. And Old Arnie claimed to have sailed to every sea and island in the Grand Line...

Sanji had been barely listening until then, slumped over his wine, but at that claim he jerked his head up, staring at the old sailor, and from the sudden stillness beside him, he guessed Zoro had paused in his insane rate of sake-consumption to listen too.

"You were on the Oro Jackson?" the swordsman asked. "With Gold Roger?"

Arnie seemed startled at the interruption (and now that Sanji thought about it, he couldn't remember hearing anyone interrupt the old storyteller during the whole time he'd been speaking), but he recovered quickly.

"Aye, miladdio," (and Zoro must love being called that Sanji thought with a smirk), "that I was. And the boldest man I ever knew, he was. Why, there was one time -"

Another night Sanji might have been patient with the old geezer. Another night he might have waited for Arnie to finish his new story before asking his question. But tonight he was drunk and he missed Zeff and he'd spent what was usually his favourite night of the year drinking in some backwater pub with a man he could barely stand the sight of, even drunk, and he really didn't care about Gol D. Roger, or anything else except...

"All Blue," he said, breaking the old pirate's flow again. "You've been there, ne? You know where to find it."

That was when the shitty old man had burst out laughing, denied there was any such place, and cast all sorts of aspersions on the parentage and intelligence of anyone who believed in it, and then - well, Sanji's memories became pretty vague after that, but he was fairly sure that he'd kicked the bastard in the face at least once, and that eventually Zoro had had to carry him out half-conscious.

So he was standing at the prow just waiting for one of his nakama to come up to him and say something idiotic about how sorry they were that he had to lose his dreams like that, but that everything was still OK because of some stupid reason that he couldn't be bothered trying to come up with himself, so he'd just let them do it instead. And then he'd kick whoever it was in the head and send them flying out to sea as far as the horizon. Unless it was Nami-san. And he hoped it wouldn't be Nami-san...

As it turned out, it was the swordsman's tall form that eventually settled beside him at the rail.

"Go away, Seaweed Head," he mumbled, not moving in the vain hope that the marimo would pick up on his complete not-wanting-to-talk-ness and leave. Of course, Zoro was as oblivious as ever, and picked up on no such thing.

"I'm sorry about last night," he said instead, and Sanji looked up at him in surprise. He wasn't sure what he'd expected from Zoro - mockery, if anything, perhaps, but not pity. But then, that was just as bad. He didn't want pity from anyone, but especially not from Roronoa Zoro.

"Sorry?" he said, glaring at the swordsman, but otherwise still not moving. "I just had my dreams crushed on the one day when - and you're sorry? How about I cripple both your arms so you can't hold a sword anymore, and then you tell me how sorry you are!"

"Why don't you -?" Zoro began to snarl, but then seemed to catch himself. "Look, I didn't mean..." he stopped, apparently struggling for words. Not that that was surprising, sometimes Sanji was more surprised that Zoro could even use words. "I meant that I'm sorry that old bastard - wait, you mean you believed him?"

Believed him? What was that supposed to mean? The old fart had sailed with Gol D. Roger, he'd been right through the Grand Line! He must know what he was talking about, and Sanji told Zoro so.

"That old baka doesn't know anything about All Blue," Zoro retorted. "He's never met Gold Roger, and he's never been off that island even once."

"But he said -"

"I heard what he said. But after I brought you back to the ship, I went back and listened some more. That old man doesn't have a clue what any place in the Grand Line is like. He's just making these stories up out of his own head, and if he can't think of anything to say about a place, he just claims it doesn't exist. And hardly any sailors ever stay there long enough to contradict him, so the villagers just believe everything he says."

"But how can you be sure? We haven't seen that much of the Grand Line ourselves yet..."

The swordsman smirked. "Oh, I was pretty sure once he started talking about giant Alabastan swamp-rats."

"Oh," Sanji looked away, trying to cover his embarrassment. "I guess I made an idiot of myself back there."

"Made?"

The swordsman had to have seen the kick coming, but still he did nothing to avoid it, and landed flat on his back on the deck with a satisfying thud.

Sanji smirked as Zoro got to his feet, glaring at him, but then he was serious again.

"Zoro... you didn't have to go back. You didn't have to check up on that old liar. Why did you?"

Zoro scowled. "Why do you think? I couldn't leave you thinking those stupid stories were true!"

"But... you don't care about All Blue, it's not your dream... you don't even believe in it!"

"What?" The swordsman stared at him in surprise. "Of course I believe in All Blue!"

"But why...? It doesn't mean anything to you, why would you believe in it?"

"Because you do," Zoro said simply, and then he scowled again. "And I've had enough heart-to-hearts for one day, so I'm gonna go train." He turned to go, and then paused. "Oh, and don't think Nami doesn't keep track of the dates out here, or that I don't know why you were so set on getting drunk last night... Happy birthday, Love Cook." Then he walked away, leaving Sanji to stare after him, openmouthed.

Zoro... believed in his dream? Believed in him? Sanji smiled, and turned his gaze back toward the wide blue sea below him. If his nakama believed in him, then who cared what some old liar in a tavern said? It was out there, somewhere, he knew, somewhere just over the horizon. All Blue.