Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

Rating: K+

Summary: He was heading east and not looking back. His destination? A hidden place across the sea.

Warnings: Some language and Sanuso

Another little story for yet another Sanuso Saturday! But, it's… not that interesting lol.

It was a nice spring day on Hourglass Beach, the sun at noon point in the sky and burning warmly. Shimmering sapphire blue waves rolled up along the sand, stealing its golden color and dragging it into the watery depths, leaving nothing but a dark brown behind. Pale feet trekked over the mud, sinking almost to the ankle and leaving tracks, only to have them swept away by the next flowing surge of salt and sea.

The visitor to the beach didn't seem to mind his history being erased; simply continued on along the edge of the water, holding a wrapped package and two sandals in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other that he would puff at now and again. Had his tracks still existed, however, it would have shown a very clear path from The Baratie, a famed seaside restaurant in the little town of Lune that was nestled at the furthest end of the shore, to where he was now almost at the top of the bend. And when he finally reached it, he paused as many people (though usually children) often did at this cross in the road, simply admiring the coast's namesake.

Hourglass Beach was a very unique kind of beach. It was a connection of two islands which had symmetrical C-shaped beaches and at the peak of curves, there was a sandbar connecting the two. And across the way, the near identical island held a town much like Lune's except so very different.

The first difference was the name. Unlike Lune, which had been titled after the crescent-moon bow the island made, the other town was called Kouxian. It was actually the name of an instrument that was often made of metal and was had a similar appearance to a paper fan. The visitor on the beach knew the inhabitants had named their town after such a thing because of the high abundance of Fantail goldfish that frequented their shared waters.

He started across the sandbar. The tide was high, the water now almost to his knees and soaking the edges of his rolled up pants.

Another difference between the other isle, while holding an identical coastline, was otherwise not shaped the same. Instead, theirs was shaped nearly perfectly round, like a sun. It was half the reason why they called them the Sun and Moon islands.

He got to the other side, something crunching underfoot as he made it passed the grip of the sea, turning and continuing to head east, going further and further away from the restaurant.

Yet another difference was the vegetation on this beach. Unlike his, Sun Island's beach was overrun by Marram Grass. The flora was tough, almost constantly dried out and cracking underfoot like desert weeds at the end of the season. It was uncomfortable to walk on, but the visitor didn't put on his shoes.

He didn't have far to go, because barely three minutes into his walk he paused and headed away from the water and the grass, towards a quarry that miners had abandoned decades ago. Most people strayed from entering the area for fear that the slowly eroding rocks would finally give way to gravity and collapse. But he didn't pause, sticking his cigarette between his teeth and scaling up one boulder to the next, until he came to a small ledge that acted like a balcony to the semi-hidden hole in the rock face. It was adequately high so most people could not see it from the ground, but low enough that during high tide the sea often flooded the stone floor a good inch or two.

The visitor lent against the rock, ducking his head into the hole and calling, "Usopp?"

"If you come in here with that thing, I'm going to kick you Sanji!" Was the immediate response, a high voice resounding to him.

Sanji, nothing more than a teenager with blonde hair and blue eyes, chuckled softly. He rolled his cigarette in the side of the cave before flicking it over the edge (pointedly ignoring the grumble of 'litterer'). He set his shoes beside another, larger pair of sandals before stepping inside, having to duck low.

Usopp was settled in the back of the grotto, a sketchpad propped on his crossed legs and a carefully set aside lit candle lighting his features. He was a teenager too, only a year younger than the other, with curly dark hair and dark brown eyes, a set of nice, thick lips and an unusually long nose. But, probably Sanji's favorite thing about the other was his skin. Where Sanji's was pale white as if his skin had sucked in the color of moonshine, Usopp's was dark like the sun had gently burned him all over leaving behind a honey tone.

He settled down beside him, holding up the box he had carried all this way, "Lunch?"

Usopp grinned as he set aside his notebook, "What crazy concoction are you feeding me today?"

"Oi, they're perfectly normal dishes and besides, you've liked almost all of them." Sanji argued as he pulled off the lid, handing the box over. "It's squid pasta. Bigoli noodles, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, onion, and every kind of bell pepper, with a spicy sauce and a hint of salt."

The younger nodded as he found the fork, twisting around the noodles and taking the first bite, not minding the way the cook stared. He gave a pleased hum after a moment, swallowing the food down. "This one is wonderful."

"Are you sure?" Sanji asked, biting at his thumbnail. "Not too much garlic in the sauce? Maybe less bell pepper? More salt?"

"Sanji." Usopp reached out with his foot, nudging his leg with his toes. "It's good. I swear." He eyed the other as he continued to fret a little, stressing, "If you don't start picking some of these recipes, you'll never be made an apprentice."

"You don't understand." He argued with a shake of his head. "Zeff'll be able to pick out even the tiniest imperfection like that. That shithead is impossible to please. How am I supposed to impress him with ten recipes if they're not perfect?"

Still eating, the darker-skinned teen said around a mouthful, "But zat's ze whole point of being an appren'ice. He's going ta teach you all zat." He swallowed and said with a grin, "You're already an amazing cook Sanji and you'll only be even more incredible with training. Zeff won't turn you away." He scooped up another bite, then giggled unexpectedly, "You know this is kind of fun."

Sanji arched a curly brow at the abrupt change of topics, "What is?"

"Me encouraging you for once!" He said giddily. "I think the stars we were born under have shifted."

The chef shot him an irritated glance, then started to reach for the forgotten sketchpad, "Oh, then I guess your art is-"

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Usopp squealed and, without any hands (or really much room to move), he struck his leg out, kicking the pad hard enough to send it skittering across the cave floor until it was partway out the entrance, half in shadow and half in sunlight.

They both stared at it for a long moment, and then slowly turned their heads towards each other, a challenge sparking between them.

"Saaaanjiiiii…" Usopp said.

The cook started smirking.

"Don't you daaaare…"

Blue eyes darted back towards the drawings.

"Don't you- SANJI!"

There was a clatter as a dish was hastily dropped, the two teenagers suddenly vaulting across the limited space to the entrance. Despite Sanji's head start, Usopp managed to grab the other end and they started to wrestle for it.

"Come on longnose! Let me see!"

"No! Sanji! They're horrible!"

"I'm feeding you! Fair's fair!"

"WHATS FAIR ABOUT THAT?!"

"Don't make me-" And for one moment, Sanji had Usopp nearly pinned under him, ready to tickle him until he gave up the sketches while the other tried to squirm away like some type of slug; the next they were hearing laughter on the beach and freezing everything, ducking back fully into the darkness of the cave.

They watched the shoreline quietly and soon enough two people came around the bend. It was easy to tell even from their standpoint that it was a man and a woman. They were holding hands, their speech mostly inaudible except for the mirth that would float up to them occasionally. Just as they passed the hidden cavern, the man broke away suddenly, trotting a few feet forward before turning around and bending over, splashing some water up towards the other. They heard her squeal and shout, kicking her leg up, creating an arc of water back towards him. He jumped back, seeming to taunt her before taking off running, with her following after. Both of them laughing the entire time.

Even after the echoes of their voices faded away, the two in the cave stayed silent. The playfulness that had been there before had fizzled out like drop of water on a hot stove. Finally, Usopp slumped against the wall with a sigh, whispering, "I wish we could be like that…"

Sanji looked over at the other then back towards the coast thinking of the couple.

The couple that had dark skin, just like Usopp.

And the couple that had dark skin, not like himself.

The sandbar that linked their islands together that was like a connection to him and Usopp was nothing but a sunken bridge to their people.

Never meant to be crossed.

"Sanji…" Usopp spoke up, voice strangely thick as he gripped onto his sketchpad, bending the corners, "Are we just fooling ourselves? What are we doing, really? We should stop this, before we get caught. Before they…" He swallowed hard, unable to finish.

Pale hands covered the artist's, gently prying the sketchpad free before Sanji tossed it aside. It came down with a clatter and a flutter of pages a few feet away but neither of them paid it mind. "No." He said simply.

"No? Sanji that's not an answer! You… If Zeff found out you'd never… hell he'd turn you in himself and then-"

"No." He repeated sharply and then reached out, gripping Usopp by his chin and forcing him to look up. Softened, when he noticed the tears in his eyes, "No. Because not seeing you would be like not seeing the sun. I'd never survive without you."

Brown eyes widened, "Sa-San-" The artist never finished before lips came down and gently covered his own. He made a soft noise of surprise but soon relaxed, pulling him closer.

And in that kiss, just for a moment, Sanji could almost envision the hourglass-shape their islands were made of was slowly tipping, one tiny grain of sand falling into the arms of another in a place where they had long ago forgotten what was different about one another and only embraced being together.

A/N: This feels like a precursor to something much bigger, huh? Unfortunately it's not LOL. Or at least, at this time I have no plans to make it into any sort of multi-chapter (I'm not even sure what I would do if I did).

I was inspired by the prompt Black & White over at the One Piece 300-word drabble livejournal community and on top of the drabble I wrote over there, decided to write this for Sanuso Saturday. I don't know why and in the end I just turned it into visionary practice anyways, trying to pack in a lot of metaphorical images. Sorry, if it's really lame.