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It’s not often that Sanji finds himself awake in the middle of the night. Regardless of the bizarre hours that the rest of the crew sleeps, he finds it easy to pass out at the same time each day. Body worn and tired from fighting or cooking, often both.
Staying asleep isn’t an issue for him either.
Years of noise led him here. Whether it was hearing war outside his window in early childhood or the bickering of Patty and Carne, Sanji was made into a perfect sleeper. Most nights, anyways.
The nights where he tends to have a little too much to drink, he finds himself unsettled. Dreams vivid. Almost real to the touch. A wisp of what could have been before reality paints back across his mind.
Often they leave him lying awake, tears collected in the corners of his eyes.
Normally he’ll lay silent, listening to the breathing of the crew and sometimes that’s enough to help him drift back to sleep. Other times nothing is enough short of getting up. Tonight, it seems, is one of those times.
Walking gently out onto the deck, Sanji sighs in relief after making it out without waking anyone. The last thing he needs is waking Luffy and stirring his appetite up on a night like this. He doesn’t need anyone right now but the sea.
Deep blue like a hidden gem in plain sight, he stares out into it. The waves pushing gently in a soft rhythm that would seem to lull anyone to sleep, but not Sanji. Not tonight.
Pulling the cigarette from his jacket, it’s lit in an instant and in his mouth almost as fast.
Dragging in a deep breath he feels the smoke fill his mouth; that charred dark taste as it rests on his tongue. It’ll kill him one day, maybe. If something else doesn’t get him first because of what Luffy has done. The breath exits into a cloud in front of him, floating out into the sky among the stars.
The waves slap against the side of the ship gently, his foot tapping along with it, and the beat reminds him of a song his mother used to sing. A thought that makes his heart tug a little harder. Her face still clear from his dream. Blonde, ethereal almost, with eyes like stars.
Her hands soft as she would stroke his hair. Threading through over and over as she hummed. Eyes shutting, he focuses on the feeling. He wants to hold onto it as long as he can.
Words slipping from his lips, Sanji starts to sing.
“Quand il me prend dans ses bras, Il me parle tout bas. Je vois la vie en rose.” Soft, the words blow out as if he were exhaling smoke. Language nearing foreign in his hears, he swallows.
Pieces of her that he struggles to keep as long as he can. A light clatter across the desk stops the words dead in his mouth. Turning, he sees Luffy, sheepish smile on his face as he places his sandal back onto his foot.
“Don’t stop. It was pretty.” Luffy says tilting his head. A smile mixed in with confusion, “I didn’t get it though.”
“It’s not a language you would know,” Sanji sighs and turns back to the sea, “but I can keep going. Captain’s wishes, after all.”
“Il me dit des mots d'amour, des mots de tous les jours et ça me fait quelque chose.”
Luffy walks up closer, far gentler than Sanji has ever seen him, and it makes the lyrics shake in his voice. He can’t pretend he hasn’t seen the way Luffy looks at him. How he acts with him.
The sideways glaces, the tugging on his arm, hell, the quick kisses he places on his cheek after he makes him a meal. All of it coloring Sanji’s face in the pale light.
“Tell me what they mean!” Luffy huffs, “I want to know why you’re so red! I want to sing too.”
Sanji bites back a laugh and instead pulls his cigarette back to his mouth. Luffy’s hand curls around his arm, squeezing it anxiously. He wants to know now. So, Sanji tells him. Gives the story of a woman in love with a man and how she turns his world pink.
“La vie…en rose.” Luffy says slowly, words tripping out of his mouth as the foreign language struggles on his tongue, “Life in pink sounds fun! Do you see it in pink Sanji?”
A drag of the cigarette catches in his throat. Sputtering his breath into a cough and Luffy laughs as he struggles for a moment. Sanji watches his captain, eyes squeezed shut in laughter. Jet black hair shining under the touch of the moon. Pink warm across his cheeks.
“Yeah,” Sanji smiles, wistful, almost forlorn, “I do.”